Boss Battle Royale by Gold5Games

[raw]
made by Gold5Games for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

BBR<em>Screen</em>001.png

BBR<em>Screen</em>002.png

BBR<em>Screen</em>004.png

For my first Ludum Dare (and game jam) I didn't quite finish in time for the compo, but I am happy with the result. The theme "Start with Nothing" inspired me to combine a roguelite dungeon crawler with the battle royale genre. No this isn't yet another multiplayer only, battle royale. BUT!..

Play as a dwarf that wakes up in a dungeon with absolutely nothing, and race to gather loot as flames fast approach...and then battle it out with a giant boss at the end. Check the notes on Itch or included in the ZIP file for controls, and known issues.

Note: The loot that drops is randomized, so you might not see all items drop the first time you playthrough.

Ratings

Overall 422th 3.58⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 295th 3.6⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 450th 3.344⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Theme 361th 3.6⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 182th 4.141⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Audio 585th 2.821⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 693th 2.425⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 749th 3.102⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Given 41🗳️ 47🗨️

Feedback

Jasper Hansen
07. Oct 2019 · 03:48 UTC
Very nice little game. It looked great, but it didn't have a great feel, partly because of the audio, which sounds awfully rushed. It also would have been neat if there were more to do, but I can't really complain about that in a jam game.
zenpj
07. Oct 2019 · 04:23 UTC
Seems like a really cool game! It's a bit broken on ultrawide displays with the UI being off center. A windowed mode would be great!
🎤 Gold5Games
07. Oct 2019 · 04:33 UTC
@zenpj What's your resolution? I don't have an ultra wide monitor, and wasn't able to get a dynamic UI into the game in time, but it's definitely something I will look to fix in the future. Was it still playable otherwise?
zenpj
07. Oct 2019 · 04:36 UTC
@gold5games It's 3440 x 1440, and yeah everything else seemed to be working ok!
🎤 Gold5Games
07. Oct 2019 · 04:43 UTC
@zenpj Thanks. It would qualify as more than a bug fix to change it now, but this will help me update it in the future.
Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 06:05 UTC
It's really nice work, I understand why you said you had hard time finishing it for the compo !

Though if I can make some feedback, the fire progression is way too fast, think about the fact that the player needs to understand how to play, try the items, or whatever. For my first run I lost precious seconds in the beginning and I was trapped after opening my first chest :D Even though it doesn't kill me instantly, I lost hp too easily.

The boss animations are awesome, I really liked the fights :)

Good job overall !
🎤 Gold5Games
07. Oct 2019 · 06:12 UTC
@kanonix Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. In the original concept there were supposed to be additional enemies and traps, but without them, I needed an extra sense of urgency to motivate the player. Without any gameplay tutorial though it can definitely be very unforgiving, and it is something I would want to work on a lot in the future.
Lamossus
07. Oct 2019 · 06:31 UTC
I really like the idea! The graphics are very good for a game made in 48 hours. The core gameplay loop seems fun. Items lacked variety and the game could really benefit from having multiple dungeon layouts and bosses but considering the short time limit you did a great job! Also wish different weapons dropped more often, I had to restart the game like 10 times to see all 4 of them. Overall a very nice entry! Are you planning on making post LD version?
🎤 Gold5Games
07. Oct 2019 · 06:56 UTC
@lamossus Thanks so much! Yeah, items were basically "what are some basic staples I can get in the game in time?" I have a wishlist of ideas and improvements I would love to add post LD. The ultimate goal, if I pursued a full version would be to make sure items, bosses, and dungeons had a large amount of variety and certain builds/item combinations/perks/abilities were better suited for different situations.
starvingindie
07. Oct 2019 · 16:47 UTC
This is a neat idea. I liked the time pressure of having to keep moving and then grabbing what you can to go and take on the dragon. A bit more sound and music would add to the atmosphere and bring it up a level in quality. The art and animation is fantastic. Great work!
idk_what_im_doing
07. Oct 2019 · 17:30 UTC
great game! all mechanics are solid and innovative enough. had good time playing it.
good job
RetroBarbare
07. Oct 2019 · 19:07 UTC
I loved this game , very great battle royale , if you continue your game you could create a boss rush based roguelike like cuphead but the order of the boss are randomised and each room is like your game , continue in this path
🎤 Gold5Games
07. Oct 2019 · 19:10 UTC
@retrobarbare Thanks so much, and that's exactly the plan! The idea would be to let players decided if they want to take on one boss or face multiple bosses in multiple unique (but semi-randomized) dungeon areas. The order you face them in would determine their difficulty.
🎤 Gold5Games
08. Oct 2019 · 03:37 UTC
@starvingindie @idk-what-im-doing Thanks so much!
radgegames
08. Oct 2019 · 05:57 UTC
Hey, great job, loved the art and animation!
clemonades
08. Oct 2019 · 13:50 UTC
I'm impressed with how much you were able to accomplish in one weekend. The graphics are amazing, overall this is a wonderful entry. Nice job!
mrerdalural
08. Oct 2019 · 16:10 UTC
I loved the artwork especially the dragon animations!

I had fun playing the game! Thank you for making it!
Lone_Wolf
08. Oct 2019 · 18:40 UTC
Nice game. I enjoyed every second!
Phobos001
08. Oct 2019 · 21:48 UTC
I wish I could play this, but I'm on linux and I only get a black screen on Wine (Audio works fine). Wish you could upload the source code so I could compile it for my system. If you cant or if its super-tied to windows libraries then it's no biggie :thumbsup: Hope your game does well!
🎤 Gold5Games
09. Oct 2019 · 00:05 UTC
@phobos001 Unfortunately if emulation doesn't work then it's stuck on Windows due to the engine I am using. There's no way to compile for linux. There may be a different issue at play though if the audio is working. Resolution scaling is handled in a very unintuitive way to manage pixel perfect scaling on any screen size. It's not actually running in true full screen. If you have a dual monitor setup or some other odd interaction, it might be that.
Redimension Games
10. Oct 2019 · 07:41 UTC
The boss battle itself is interesting and the general gameplay is fun. However there were a couple of issues for me. My cursor and the aim marker were not pointed at the same place(i'm playing in fullscreen) and the dodge movement/animation needs to be smoothed out. Also i wish i got more invulnerablility time after i got hit by the boss. Those issues aside its a fun game and i did enjoy playing it :smile:
🎤 Gold5Games
10. Oct 2019 · 17:27 UTC
@redimension-games Thanks for the feedback! Do you mean they're never pointed in the same direction or just not always? The shooting is only 32 direction currently, so they shouldn't always be aligned. But I definitely agree about the dodge and invulnerability timers.
CyberStarLight
11. Oct 2019 · 06:11 UTC
The art looks amazing! love it. good work on that.
Also you start butt naked lol

fighting the boss was pretty hard, I can't manage to evade his fire attack even with the fastest boots.
maybe the fireballs need to move slower? or at least the fans need to open wider so you can slip between them, like in bullet hell. especially because the ground fire doesn't let you back away far enough to let the fire fan out so you can slip between.

I agree with others here, the sounds are a bit grating. and some background music would be a big improvement preferably something fast and urgent.

I like the general idea of running around looking for loot in a hurry to fight a boss, and the boss is cool too!
the items are interesting and helpful, and there are some different weapons to find, on a gamejam time budget that's really nice you managed to get that all in.

Overall I like it very much, great job!
Redimension Games
11. Oct 2019 · 06:30 UTC
@gold5games I meant the aim crosshair and the cursor both shown at the same time is kind of confusing.
🎤 Gold5Games
11. Oct 2019 · 06:34 UTC
@redimension-games Oh, ok. Yeah, it was just a time saving measure since you need the regular cursor to loot and the crosshair is a fixed distance. Outside of a game jam, I'd definitely make all of that stuff more intuitive.
Kaizo
11. Oct 2019 · 06:54 UTC
Had a lot of fun! Nice graphics, boss is well crafted.
I think a backgorund music would be nice!
Lychee
11. Oct 2019 · 07:39 UTC
The graphics were very nice, and the dragon animations were cool! Well designed AI/attacks too, I had a hard time cheesing the fight. I think with some more variety in weapons/items it could be a really cool game, and for the time constraints it's great!
shieldgenerator7
11. Oct 2019 · 07:44 UTC
cool game

(1) haha nice. he has a beard to cover up his naked parts

(2) it took me a couple runs before i figured out how to pick stuff up. i didnt realize i had to mouse over an item to be able to use E. I thought I could just stand next to it like in RPGs

(3) cover to hide behind in an shoot 'em up boss battle! thats new!

(4) pretty clever the boss has an attack to get me to come out from behind cover

(5) i found dodging to be really difficult

(6) im kinda disappointed there's not more items, but I get it, theres only so much you can do in a weekend

(7) IDK what you're talking about man, the dragon attack sound effects were spot on

(8) its evil that you can get trapped in a room and forced to take damage from the fire to get out

overall pretty cool. i rage quit so im not playing it again. but if you polish it up a bit I think itd be a pretty cool game
mindtricks
11. Oct 2019 · 09:38 UTC
Pretty nice entry, it's a bit confusing having two cursors and having to point the loot with the mouse, being close should be enough, but I enjoyed it a lot
GraphicEdit
11. Oct 2019 · 11:12 UTC
Really cool game!
CatilianGames
11. Oct 2019 · 15:40 UTC
The graphics are very nice, especially the dragon boss. The boss fight is pretty intense, it was great fun. Good job!
🎤 Gold5Games
11. Oct 2019 · 21:58 UTC
@shieldgenerator7 I definitely agree with the mouse over loot system. It was simply faster to code and scope in 48 hours-ish. Dodging is definitely a system that would be completely rewritten given proper time. Thanks for all the great feedback!
🎤 Gold5Games
11. Oct 2019 · 22:01 UTC
@lychee Thank you! I'd love more items and a larger variety of weapons and abilities too!

@mindtricks I agree, it was just faster to make scoping the correct loot container with a cursor within the time constraints (otherwise some issues were coming up). A full version of the game would definitely see huge improvements in looting and controls. Thanks for the feedback.

@graphicedit Thanks :smile:

@catiliangames Thanks so much, I appreciate it. I probably spent too much time on the dragon, and not enough on other elements, but glad you appreciated it.
asfdfdfd
13. Oct 2019 · 20:08 UTC
Nice approach to the classic battle royale looting mechanics!
LadyVardoula
25. Oct 2019 · 17:34 UTC
Exactly as advertised. I like it. I got it with the fifth try.
paulhocker
26. Oct 2019 · 02:45 UTC
really good game but i would have done the loot pickup differently -- was difficult to open for some reason -- thanks for making it