REDBOW by PixzleOne
Kill all enemies to open the path deeper into the dungeon. Get as deep as possible. Can you reach level 10?
:bowandarrow: How to play:
Controls:
- WASD - Move
- Arrow keys - Shoot your bow
- Spacebar - Roll, Select in menus.
- Toggle sounds: M
Rolling:
- You don't take damage while rolling.
- By holding spacebar you can roll longer.
Shooting:
By pressing one horizontal and one vertical key at the same time you can shoot diagonally.
Progressing:
Kill all the enemies on the current level to unlock the path to the next level. Just touch the exit when it's unlocked to go to the next level.
:spider: Links
Source code can be downloaded in form of the .LOVE file, which can be extracted like any .zip
:seedling: About
This was made solo in 48 hours. This is the first time I finish making a game with procedural generated levels. The levels are made with cellular automata. The method used can be found here, though mine is a bit modified.
You have gotten very small, and you have to fight to survive. The plants and spiders are bigger than you, but I wish I would've had time to communicate this better.
:coffin: Known problems:
- Spiders are stupid
- Sometimes the wrong object is drawn on top
- Sometimes the hitboxes are weird, which may cause arrows to be instantly removed if you're touching a wall
- Levels get pretty huge after a while
:hole: Future plans:
I'm working on a post-jam version of the game.
The goals for it are:
- Update graphics
- Refactor some of the code
- Add more enemies
- Add health pickups
- Some kind of upgrade after every 5 levels or so
- Add "areas"
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/redbow |
Ratings
| Overall | 252th | 3.364⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 125th | 3.591⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 491th | 2.318⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 515th | 2.364⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 244th | 3.364⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 303th | 2.75⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 42🗨️ |
Personally, I'd add an option to shoot diagonally, but that's just a personal preference - h/v shooting desn't break anything and is actually more challenging.
I'm still amazed with the work you all did in compo. Maybe next time... or next year I'll also join, who knows :)
Thanks for the feedback!
It should be possible to shoot diagonally by for example, pressing the right and up arrow at the same time. I'm sorry if I didn't make this clear.
Good luck in your future lds, hope to see you around!
My only real problem with the game is maybe there should be an arrow pointing to the trapdoor upon clearing a level. From level 8 onward when the map got bigger I started having serious trouble looking for the door.
Also, I would love to have a brief moment of invincibility when I take damage, so when I mess up I don't have to take serious damage at the same time T_T
Overall it's a great game, simple but charming.
The movement system is sluggish. The shooting has no weight or feeling to it. The enemies suffer from similar anemia. A dash of particles and improved animations combined with faster movement speed would have helped.
The main problem is this: it is way too easy! I got to level 10 without taking any damage and didn't bother playing anymore. All it takes is more slow moving projectiles per square pixel. Bullet hell or high water! Alternatively more active and intelligent combatants, but that would be a tough task in a procedurally generated level.
Eh, you already know this stuff. Good luck with the post-jam project. :fingers_crossed:
controls felt tight and shooting is solid, movement felt good, especially rolling.
Spiders got stuck constantly (thankfully) which as far as AI isn't brilliant but it made clearing rooms fairly tactical especially on the later levels when there are so many bullets flying around. I enjoyed rolling and dealing with plants in a cross pattern, I hoped there would be a boss at floor 10 but I know doing all this is already a lot, and to your credit I didn't notice it was being procedurally generated until level 5/6.
For the current level of difficulty the no health pickup was a good fit, tough I lost 60 health points in the first 3 levels being careless, so I could do with a refill every 5 levels or so. More enemy variety would certainly help.
Ultimately I feel this is really solid, I got to level 15 with 20 health, and decided to quit since clearing rooms while being careful takes a lot of time. if you do end up doing a post-jam version be sure to let me know!
[Edit: Oh also on the later levels, an arrow pointing to an enemy, because if you dont sweep methodically it can become a nightmare to find that last plant, same with trapdoor]
The art style was very well done with a nice clean retro feel.
The AI was pretty simple but work perfectly well, no obvious bugs that I could see anywhere except maybe the spiders getting a bit stuck on walls due to their hugeness ;)
I agree with what you said on my page with an offscreen enemy icon would of been helpful but certainly not required.
I would of prefered a nice boss fight at the end of wave 10 or something but thats my preference (I would of liked to of put one in my game also but ran out of time)
All round a good solid game, very well made.
I made it to level 16 where I finally died 
My biggest issue with the game is an overall lack of content (I understand its difficult within the time constraints). I'm not sure if you did procedural level generation or if you made them by hand, but perhaps a few less levels in favor of some more enemy types would have been good -- the game starts to get a bit old after a few levels.
Also, I have found that a basic background music, even if its very limited, can make a big difference.
Thanks for the game :)
You said it, brother! The bastards cornered me and got me killed! Other than that liggle quirk, the game is really fun and cool. I like the animation on our protagonist and the idea of mixing a twinstick shooter with graphics worthy of a classic RPG is pretty cool.
For your next game I recommend adding a few particle effects as feedback for hitting/killing enemies. Also, I don't think having a screenshake for every arrow hitting a wall is a good idea, and without any sound a screenshake is strange.
Some power-ups would be cool, too, to make the gameplay a bit more diverse. :)
Things I like:
- Good art
- Good sounds
- Being able to hold a key down to continuously shoot.
- Being able to shoot diagonally and have enemies also shoot diagonally.
The things I was hoping to see worked on a bit further seem to be issues you're already aware of. The variety, for example, where difficulty only seems to increase by length and just more of the same two enemies, for example, didn't make the game super easy, but it did get to the point where I found myself wishing this had more variety. There were also a couple of tiles I was able to pass behind, and I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, since it was only a few select tiles, but they looked the same as the solid ones. Bigger levels did make it confusing to find the exit, so it would be great to have either a map or a beacon of some sort to lead to that exit.
However, for 48 hours, you did a superb job. btw if you do make a postjam version, do include some music. :)