Katie Kills Zombies by Iamsodarncool
As the Goddess of Lightning, defend your Special Cave against hordes of the undead. Experience the thrill of using an entire 3 - yes, 3 - different colours of lightning bolt!
Move with A and D or the arrow keys. Fire bolts with keys 1, 2, and 3. Collect Souls with the spacebar. See how many souls you can collect!
Programming and Design: Jimmy Cushnie (me)
Art: Brooke Morgan (@Brooke)
Writing: Sierra Spoar (@Arreis)
CHANGELOG
Note: it's been pointed out that some of these changes are questionable in terms of what I'm allowed to change/fix after the deadline. Therefore, I have made every version back to the very first version post-deadline available to download here. You should probably play v1.0.3 if you are judging the game as it is the last version that is strictly and inarguably bugfixes.
v1.0.5 | 2017-08-02 (but even later) - reduced the size of the lingering bolt's hitbox to prevent an exploit where players could block off the whole cave with one lingering bolt - fixed flickering text at the beginning of cutscenes
v1.0.4 | 2017-08-02 (but later) - souls no longer run away from you as much - cutscenes now progress only when you hit the "Progress" button instead of any button. By default, the "Progress" button is left click. - lingering bolts now cost 100 energy, and sweeping bolts now cost 70 energy. This sould make the "constant walls of lingering bolts" strategy nonviable, and encourage more frequent use of sweeping bolts (which are awesome). - reordered UI buttons and control scheme accordingly - added some text to the gameplay UI that displays the current level - added instructions right at the beginning of the game - the next level will no longer start if you are in the middle of summoning a soul - fixed tiny annoying green border around cutscene, game over, and credits screens - made another attempt at fixing the "lightning is summoned when sould summoning ray is summoned" bug. Hopefully it worked this time. - fixed souls being reset to 0 when a level is restarted, they now properly reset to whatever they were at the beginning of the level - the soul summoner button now changes graphics correctly - fixed typos in one of the ending cutscenes - fixed Basic Bolt graphic sometimes incorrectly displaying as pressed - fixed bug where you would pass the level if you lost in the last 10 seconds of it - fixed Katie's animation flickering if a soul summoner is summoned just after a bolt
v1.0.3 | 2017-08-02 - fixed a bug where enemies would spawn twice as frequently for every time you died and restarted the game - the game now forces its only supported aspect ratio (16:9) - the Product Name is now "Katie Kills Zombies" instead of our old placeholder title - the launcher now has a graphic of a zombie in it - the game icon is now a graphic of a zombie - the MWU splash screen is now darker
v1.0.2 | 2017-08-01 (but slightly later) - fixed broken code that prevented the game from being split up into multiple levels; previously, all the levels were mashed together into one ginormous and nigh-impossible-to-beat-all-at-once mega level. - all the levels and cutscenes are now integrated properly - added some text on the game over and game ending screens to say how many souls you collected
v1.0.1 | 2017-08-01 - souls now delete themselves if they roll of the screen to prevent them piling up and lagging - souls are now destroyed when the level is restarted - (probably) fixed bug where bolts would be summoned when summoning the soul summoner ray - fixed summoning bolt hitbox to match the graphic
v1.0 | 2017-07-31 - initial release
Ratings
| Overall | 459th | 3.304⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 367th | 3.217⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 175th | 3.522⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 665th | 3.087⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 391th | 3.609⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 108th | 3.478⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 427th | 3.217⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 9🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
- The 'verbal' banter between the gods
- Varried abilites
- intresting graphics
Things for improvement
- Sounds & Voice acting for the cutscenes
- Sudden increase of difficulty with the 'jumpers'
- needed to be more clear how to 'reap' the souls
Thanks for playing and for the useful feedback.
> Things I liked
> The ‘verbal’ banter between the gods
Agreed, glad we got our friend to do some writing for the game. Makes it more lighthearted and fun IMO.
> Varried abilites
Thank you, it was important to me that there would be different ways to approach the game and room for innovative strategies.
> intresting graphics
Agreed, I love the art style Brooke came up with for the game.
> Things for improvement
> Sounds & Voice acting for the cutscenes
That the game doesn't have sound & voice acting pains me greatly, but we ran out of time.
> Sudden increase of difficulty with the ‘jumpers’
The sudden increase in difficulty is intentional, we wanted the players to feel overwhelmed and shocked by both the difficulty and the fact that they were killing babies (we originally planned for them to make laughing baby noises as they jumped and screaming baby noises as they got killed).
> needed to be more clear how to ‘reap’ the souls
What do you think could be done to make it clearer?
Points of critique that may be useful (sorry if I say things others have already said before me):
- Obviously, sound would've helped sell the game a lot more.
- I kept wanting to click mouse1 to make the dialogue between the gods become instantly visible rather than immediately skip to the next line.
- While the art style is cute, the scaling of some of the elements makes it a little inconsistent. The goddess sprite at the top of the screen, for example, looks scaled down to where lines disappeared. The same goes for the monster sprites, their outlines are only half there. You also have very bold lines in the background around the trees and mountain.
All in all, nice job. :)
Definitely could have benefited from sound.
I feel like the post-jam changelog is a little bit too long and warrants a new build though, and your original build should still be provided. You really should only make changes to the jam version of your game that prevents players from finishing your game.
> The best thing about this game is its art style.
100% agreed, Brooke did a fantastic job and the game is a joy to look at.
> The gameplay is simple yet satisfying.
Thank you! It's the only the second game I've ever made and I was really stressed out that I wouldn't be able to create something fun.
> One of the only gripes I have with it is the controls. It feels a bit awkward using the number keys to attack.
You can also attack by clicking the buttons on the screen, and the numpad keys work as well. I tried to include enough options that everyone could find something comfortable with the default configuration (sidenote: I'm really pleased that the full game can be played one-handed). You can also download the stanalone executable and adjust the controls in the launcher to whatever you please.
> good job on this one!
Cheers. Thank you for playing the game and for the useful feedback.
> The different lightning bolts were able to all find a use, which is great.
Thank you. I really wanted all the abilities in the game to be useful *and* unique.
> The art style was really well done and has a nice style.
100% agreed. I was very lucky to work with such a talented artist.
> the cut scenes were cool.
I literally spent 6 hours getting the cutscenes to work right (only ever coded once before in my life). Could be considered a waste of precious time, but I really do think they add a lot of personality and charm to the game. Shoutout to Sierra for doing such a good job writing them <3
> Audio would add a lot to the game, a good visceral lightning bolt sound is always welcome!
Ran out of time to add audio and its lack of presence is my biggest gripe with the game. It's first on the priority list when we revisit the game after Ludum Dare is over.
> I did find the summoning souls a bit clunky (being able to move while using the ability would be a huge benefit)
Collecting souls is purposefully a challenge (/pain). I agree that it could be slicker though, I'll see what I can do post-LD.
> they had a tendency to just roll off the mountain making most impossible to get.
Try summoning them the instant you kill an enemy.
> That all said I really enjoyed playing!
It makes me so happy to hear you say that. Thanks for all the great feedback.
> This was fun to play. The basic mechanic is simple, in fact when I look at it objectively I feel it’s too simple. However: the art is cute, the different attacks offer tactical decision-making, the dialogue between levels was entertaining. These things combined took what could have been too simple and turned it into a fun experience.
This is the best analysis of our game that I've seen. Thanks for breaking it down so well.
> Obviously, sound would’ve helped sell the game a lot more.
God, I know. If only I hadn't spent 20 hours coding an upgrades system that I had to cut because it needed another 10, I could've added sound... it's my biggest regret with the game.
> I kept wanting to click mouse1 to make the dialogue between the gods become instantly visible rather than immediately skip to the next line.
This is a good idea. My cutscene system is really shitty and not flexible at all so I don't think that's possible without rewriting a lot of code, but I can easily make the text appear faster and I'll do that if there's another update.
> While the art style is cute, the scaling of some of the elements makes it a little inconsistent.
The result of two very amateur gamemakers making a game :) of all the lessons we learned during LD, this was one of them.
> All in all, nice job. :)
Cheers. Thanks for playing my dude :)
> Really fun core mechanic
Thank you! I challenged myself to create something fun and I'm extremely pleased to have done so.
> could use some more features added to it
Time constraints :) lots more coming for this game post-LD though.
> I love the design of the player character.
Me too. Despite having only two frames, I think the bolt striking animation is incredibly satisfying.
> Definitely could have benefited from sound.
For sure. My biggest regret for this game is that I didn't prioritize sound.
> I feel like the post-jam changelog is a little bit too long and warrants a new build though [...] You really should only make changes to the jam version of your game that prevents players from finishing your game.
Yeah it does feel like I'm stretching it a little. But allow me to quote the [ludum dare rules](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/rules/):
> Certain **Bug Fixes** are allowed. You **can’t** add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline.
And here are all the things from the changelog that aren't bug fixes:
> all the levels and cutscenes are now integrated properly
This counts as something that "broke or didn't work correctly as [we] were finishing up". It was only in the last ten minutes of the jam I realized with horror that only level one worked, so I condensed all the levels into one level.
> lingering bolts now cost 100 energy, and sweeping bolts now cost 70 energy. This sould make the “constant walls of lingering bolts” strategy nonviable, and encourage more frequent use of sweeping bolts (which are awesome).
This is what I feel the worst about. It's only changing two numbers, but it dramatically improves the gameplay. Perhaps I should revert it.
> added some text on the game over and game ending screens to say how many souls you collected
the game now forces its only supported aspect ratio (16:9)
the Product Name is now “Katie Kills Zombies” instead of our old placeholder title
the launcher now has a graphic of a zombie in it
the game icon is now a graphic of a zombie
the MWU splash screen is now darker
souls no longer run away from you as much
cutscenes now progress only when you hit the “Progress” button instead of any button. By default, the “Progress” button is left click.
added some text to the gameplay UI that displays the current level
added instructions right at the beginning of the game
reduced the size of the lingering bolt’s hitbox to prevent an exploit where players could block off the whole cave with one lingering bolt
I wouldn't qualify any of these as new features (although it's definitely arguable that they are). They're more like... really minor general improvements.
Anyway, if I get any official notice from LD that I should revert changes I will happily do so.
> your original build should still be provided.
I thought that gamejolt allows you to download older versions but apparently not. I will shortly throw all the old versions on to google drive and put the link in the gamejolt description.
Anyway, if I get any official notice from LD that I should revert changes I will happily do so.
Thanks for playing the game and for the feedback.
I was a little sad that there didn't seem to be any audio. I did see a comment above that there wasn't enough audio, so I'm wondering if the build I played was broken (I played on the web). Additionally, it took a lot of getting used to the position of where the lightning bolt would come from since when you turned around wasn't in the same position. Moving the place where the lightning came from closer to center would help prevent this confusion.
Additionally, for most of the game, spamming the sweeping lightning bolt would complete the level with ease. Level 8 and 9 required a different strategy and were a lot more interesting. I'm not sure the best way to prevent people from sticking with this strategy (possibly enemies immune to that type of lightning) but it's worth considering who to encourage experimentation on different strategies instead of going for a boring but effective one.
Also as a note to your previous comments on getting an official notice, this is a community judged and reviewed competition; there won't be any official notice other than your peers. While you are free and encouraged to continue developing your game after the competition and link the post-competition version here, you need to keep the original version playable as that is what you are being judged on. The only changes that you can do that would replace the original version and still be good from the competition are fixing game breaking bugs or minor fixes like spelling errors that have no bearing on the mechanics or aesthetics of the game.
> First off the graphics look great in this
They absolutely do, Brooke did amazingly and I was so lucky to work with her.
> I unfortunately couldn’t read through all the text as sometimes it would flyby too fast (it would advance multiple times on a single click if I wasn’t very fast)
Cannot reproduce, and the code uses GetButtonDown, not GetButton. It's possible you have an issue with your mouse. If possible, could you let me know which specific lines of dialogue you had the issue in?
> I also liked now the enemies advanced like they were puppets. It was a funny gesture that helped the aesthetic of humor.
Thank you! I spent pretty much the entire second day tweaking the enemy movement to be just right.
> I did see a comment above that there wasn’t enough audio, so I’m wondering if the build I played was broken (I played on the web).
No, the game doesn't have any audio. There's code to play audio that doesn't function at all and for the life of me I can't figure out why, but there are no actual audio files in the game.
> it took a lot of getting used to the position of where the lightning bolt would come from since when you turned around wasn’t in the same position. Moving the place where the lightning came from closer to center would help prevent this confusion.
This is good feedback and we'll work on it for the post-LD version.
> Additionally, for most of the game, spamming the sweeping lightning bolt would complete the level with ease. Level 8 and 9 required a different strategy and were a lot more interesting. I’m not sure the best way to prevent people from sticking with this strategy (possibly enemies immune to that type of lightning) but it’s worth considering who to encourage experimentation on different strategies instead of going for a boring but effective one.
Agreed that balance is far from perfect. The sweeping bolt's disadvantage is that it destroys all the souls in its path, but since souls had to be re-purposed from a currency to a scoring system it's not as big a deal anymore.
> Also as a note to your previous comments on getting an official notice, this is a community judged and reviewed competition; there won’t be any official notice other than your peers. While you are free and encouraged to continue developing your game after the competition and link the post-competition version here, you need to keep the original version playable as that is what you are being judged on. The only changes that you can do that would replace the original version and still be good from the competition are fixing game breaking bugs or minor fixes like spelling errors that have no bearing on the mechanics or aesthetics of the game.
Thanks for clarifying. I've added a link to all the previous versions of the game with a notice that those judging should play the version before the balance changes. Hopefully that's sufficient.
Thank you for playing the game and for leaving such detailed and helpful feedback.
Thank you for complimenting on my music from Party island, I really appreciate it :))) Since you said you would like to listen to it; I have put the 2 tracks on Bandcamp, if you wanna listen to them feel free :) I’ve also added my paypal; if you wanna support me as an artist, just pay what you feel appropriate to pay :) I also make classical piano music, film-music and Pop/Rock music. We can stay in touch if you like and when I am done producing my songs I can send you stuff, or you just tell me what you are interested in :) This is the link : http://gerdo.bandcamp.com/album/party-island-ost and this is my email : gdrexler@edu.aau.at You game is really cool, I like plots like this :D I like the little , well , “negotiations” :D in between and the options you have. And its cool painted, but I may add that I am no programmer but a musician :) I instantaneously had ideas about how to make music for your game, you know , like epic, god - like music :D Is there any , i didnt hear anything… or my computer could not do it …anyway…just go on like this, I like these ideas :D All the best, Gerd :)
So glad you enjoyed the game. No, you didn't hear incorrectly, the game has no audio in its current state. I shot you an email about music for the game... man, it would be so cool to have an original score!
> nice job on engaging with your comments in such depth.
Thanks. I figure it's the least I can do for people who have so generously played our game :)
> Looking forward to your next LD entry (assuming there will be one next time) to see how this one affects your future work.
There will definitely be more LDs from me. All of us who worked on this game want to do it again and I expect I'll be doing every single one henceforth. The biggest lesson I learned with KKZ is to scope small, hopefully the next 72-hour project is a tighter and more polished experience.
> The game idea is original and fun. Having sound would have improved a lot the atmosphere of the game.
I'm so happy you enjoyed it. And thanks for pointing out that the idea was original- one of my goals for the project was to have gameplay that was unique.
I agree that the lack of sound leaves an unpleasant void, it will be the first priority when we revisit this game for a more polished release.