The Keep is Alive by OwlyCode

[raw]
made by OwlyCode for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

You're one of the last Sentient Castles. Just a young Keep, you have no choice but to flee the incoming horde of barbarians. Seek and find friendly villages, navigate through obstacles, acquire new abilities for your keep, and grow enough to scare off your enemies.

Gather all 5 Castle piece to win.

Controls: WASD, arrows or gamepad to move the Keep

Made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 46

Ratings

Overall 1278th 3.481⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1087th 3.385⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 446th 3.704⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 140th 4.232⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1002th 3.776⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 654th 3.54⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 492th 3.519⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1214th 3.4⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

PonyPen
21. Apr 2020 · 21:27 UTC
This is such a fun cute little game! I love the idea behind it. I think my favourite part besides the wonderful graphics is the sound effects, it made me not mind dying so much as the noise my little keep made was just adorable! <3 x
Great game :D x
TravisA
21. Apr 2020 · 21:28 UTC
I enjoyed the idea of the game, but i felt like the barbarians where a little to fast and it was hard to tell what i could and could run across. However the game idea was very clever when i read the intro to the game i thought it was going to be more of a click and drop but after getting into it i realized had some movement. The audio was good but a little more SFX would have been great.
Grumpy Wren Games
21. Apr 2020 · 21:28 UTC
Very cute art style, however I wasn't 100% what I was meant to do - I went through villages but the horde always caught up and killed me :(
Caladrius
21. Apr 2020 · 21:32 UTC
Inventive game, didn't quite know where to go or what to do, but it was quite peaceful going through a world with such wonderful artwork and music, even if chased by barbarians. Would love to see this expanded upon
SynysterCola
21. Apr 2020 · 21:36 UTC
What a cute game! My only issue is sometimes I couldn't tell what I was running into that allowed the barbarians to catch up.
png
21. Apr 2020 · 21:41 UTC
Such an adoarable keep :D the soundeffects are very nice and i had a lot of fun. i was hoping the observation tower could be a save spot but the enemies went through the water and caught me. D: is there a way to actually win the game?
ZerohBeat
21. Apr 2020 · 21:46 UTC
Wow the style and music and sound effects were really amazing. Really funny when I saw a cliff and jumped down, I though I was going to escape forever :) Thanks for the experience.
Ulcius
21. Apr 2020 · 21:53 UTC
The visuals are really great. Cool perspective and camera work. Character is super cute. I really liked the mechanic, it was certainly something different.
It was very easy to get stuck on stones and trees on the beginning, but the more I played the more i grasped the idea. It seems that unless i visited city across bridge i wasn't able to swim, that actually nice thing, that different cities make you better in different ways, but it may be good idea to hint visually what they will help you with.
OndraSej
21. Apr 2020 · 22:07 UTC
This is really cute. It took me some time to figure out what I'm supposed to do and then actually do it, but I had fun doing it and it's a very fresh take on the theme.

The most annoying thing were all the collisions and getting stuck behind a tree. A real keep would not even slow down for a tree :(
Forging Foxes
21. Apr 2020 · 22:09 UTC
Love the character design but I think you need to make clear what the goal is
ExeVirus
21. Apr 2020 · 22:20 UTC
So I enjoyed the game, even though it runs very slowly on my old laptop. Not quite playable in the tight spaces as the response time is about 0.8 seconds of delay.

Theming was on point. 5.0

graphics were cute :)

Audio was good, created a good mood.

I thought the tower morphing and gaining abilities was really cool and innovative :)

Great take on the theme, looking forward to more by you in the future!
JanaChumi
21. Apr 2020 · 22:42 UTC
Cute gameart
Pushkan
22. Apr 2020 · 12:45 UTC
So interresting visual. Funny sounds. Good mood!
Khyrgrim
22. Apr 2020 · 15:37 UTC
Make me think of the "owlowing castle" Miyazaki movie. So cute ^^. Good job !
noirdrive
22. Apr 2020 · 20:04 UTC
Cool and humorous way to construct the core design with a theme pun :) Audio fits well with the atmosphere and cutie visuals. I couldn't figure out what to do and barbarians seem a bit overpowered, as in the other comments. Good job!
Naca
22. Apr 2020 · 22:37 UTC
Nice concept and funny gameplay!
Jupiter_Hadley
23. Apr 2020 · 12:26 UTC
Neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/POu9WBNgI08
Thooom
23. Apr 2020 · 12:44 UTC
I liked this game, the art style is adorable. Gameplay works nice once you get the hang of it. Was not sure if getting the different upgrades did anything to my keep tho. Would be good with some sort of explanation on what getting a windmill does etc.
Adinimys
23. Apr 2020 · 13:43 UTC
I was happy to see your entry because the "Keep" theme was something we considered during our brainstorming phase ^^ (but in the end we didn't went with it)
Your graphics are really beautiful and the taking paths that block the barbarian horde is fun.
I felt like the hitboxes where a little bit janky and unpredictable. Actually I feel like the game could have been better as a full-on 2D game instead of 2.5D

It would have been nice if the gameplay evolved a bit while picking up piece instead of the binary situation fleeing/winning. For example with different part allowing differents paths or other types of power-ups to fend of the barbarians. But I guess that it would have been too much for the scope of a jam.

All in all, extremely well done, good job !

Edit : actually reading the comments I saw that the different parts DO give power ups. Then... it was not really clear for me, there should be something telling you this more clearly I feel
Ordures
25. Apr 2020 · 20:09 UTC
Lovely cutely tense.
A little bit more explanations, would have made the game even more lovely.