Eleventh Hour by Jeremy Ryan

:joystick: Download the game (Windows) :joystick:
Credits
Made by me for the 48-hour Compo!
Art: Paint.NET
Music: MuseScore 3, Audacity (soundcloud)
Code: Python/PyGame
Audio: SFXR, Audacity
Fonts: Alef, Voyager
Special Thanks
Games are made "from scratch," but they're not made in a vacuum. Special thanks to these games I drew inspiration from as I conceived of Eleventh Hour:
Clockwork Cat: Former LD winner that also involved rewinding time by small amounts. The cat protagonist is just a coincidence.
The Rock, the Paper, and the Scissors: Another former LD winner with a beautiful scrolling background. Also inspired the train-top fight setting.
Unknown Samurai Game: There was a Ludum Dare game a few events back - a turn-based samurai dueling game in front of the setting sun. If you remember this game and can find the link, please let me know!
Kamigawa Neon Dynasty: I've been playing a lot of this in the last few weeks, so my mind naturally jumped to futuristic city-dwelling ninjas.
Seven Pillars: My first LD game also featured a ninja cat, and a number in the title. Maybe it's the same cat?
| Link | https://github.com/jeremycryan/LD50 |
| Link | https://plasmastarfish.itch.io/eleventh-hour |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/eleventh-hour |
Ratings
| Overall | 2th | 4.412⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 2th | 4.382⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 119th | 3.75⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 118th | 4.015⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 6th | 4.603⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 17th | 4.227⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 7th | 4.485⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 13🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
The sound didn't work for me, possibly because I'm using linux+wine.
Got to about 10 miles left, and couldn't handle that many enemies.
My only two complaints are that I don't like W as jump (would much prefer spacebar), and the enemy warning indicators disappear too soon before the enemy actually spawns. Sometimes the indicator would disappear, and an enemy would then appear, but the warning was actually for another enemy that comes a half second later and wrecks me.
The gameplay itself was also great, the movement felt just right for the area that it is played in (although I would have rather had space be the jump key, I found myself hitting it several times). I liked the use of limited ammo that had to be retrieved, it forced me to the edges and kept me engaged with the enemies spawning there (probably my #1 cause of taking damage). Throwing the kunais felt great to me, and I liked the way that the enemy deaths could launch them a good ways depending where they hit; thanks to those launches I was able to end up with a triple kill off one throw.
I would have liked to see an exit option somewhere, having to force-quit a game in full screen always feels weird to me, and I did have the issue that others here mentioned where my mouse was able to go out of the window and minimize the game, resulting in a couple of hits. Beyond those issues this was a fantastic, well polished game that I really enjoyed playing. Well done!
The kunais felt chunky, and powerful. They were super fun to use, especially tactically. I loved when they would bounce off the walls and then stick to any enemy, and then the enemy would send it flying back at me when it exploded! Made it super fun.
The character felt great to use, the animation looked beautiful, and it was super responsive. I really would've liked for the character to be used more, as opposed to just running back and forth for kunai. Some platforms, or occasional obstacles to dodge, would've really spiced up the movement.
This game has a TON of potential and I would love to see it developed further!!
Great entry all around
Overall, I quite enjoyed the concept and the gameplay. It really felt like it would fit excellently as the penultimate level in a longer game, which would be really cool to see.
I liked the mechanics of the kunai. Having their hitboxes remain active until they embedded in the ground was a nice feature, as it led to some cool moments were the falling kunai from an enemy death could chain into another, which was nice for effect and also a good feeling if it saved you. Being able to bounce them off of the walls to hit the laser enemies was really convenient as well when things got hectic.
I both liked and disliked having to go pick them up. I liked it for the way it limited the ammo and required you to be careful when retrieving them if you were out of ammo. However, with the punishing damage mechanic of losing all progress on your timestepper from a single hit, there were some points where it felt impossible to grab the kunai and not get damaged, which usually meant it was impossible to finish the charge in time (though that does tie in quite nicely with the theme of inevitability, so I don't mind as much as I might in another game).
The aesthetics were were really on point, with the monochromatic color scheme slowly shifting from that lovely lavender color to a deep red as you run out of time. Having the sun right in the center as a very obvious indication of the timer and impending doom, as well as the underlying tic-toc on the music was really nice (especially with the tic-toc becoming frantic when you are just about out of time). Great design on that stuff.
I did have a few issues while playing. First off, full screen not actually being full screen but rather just a larger window did lead to some troubles with clicking outside the window when things got frantic, causing loss of focus and almost a guaranteed game loss. Second, the kunai hit detection was a bit dodgy sometimes, where I'd throw a kunai at an enemy and it would just fly straight through them, which usually led to hit on myself and a lost attempt. Third, and this is less a general problem and more just a suggestion from my experience, but I frequently lost track of my standard mouse cursor on the screen when moving it around in the frenzy, so maybe it would be of benefit to have a custom cursor for the mouse that both fit the aesthetic and made it easier to keep track of?
I had a great time with the game. Great job with it!
Edit: Immediately after submitting this review, I went to close the window down (I had left it up while writing up the review) and it had the white victory screen XD Must be some sort of bug with the timer running in the background or something while on the main menu (I don't have time at the moment to try and replicate it), but I thought you might get a kick out of it.
Stunning art and animation, cool fx, nice music and sound effect.
I especially like the incorporation of the theme within the story, it's still a strightforward "timer" but at least it's not just a UI element, it's a beautiful sunset :)
Edit: Oh, and the cursor as well! You could also make a custom cursor to make it clearer to be seen!

Beautiful game, nice smooth gameplay. Some neat stuff with the kunai being active even when falling after a miss or exploding off enemies.
Everything worked together really well. The soundtrack was thematic (with the tick-tock effect) and all the graphical assets blended together to create an interesting, neon-silhouette kind of aesthetic that totally fit the scenario.
Only complaint is that I'm not sure having a single hit reset your entire progress is quite fair. It seems that taking only one or two hits is enough to doom you completely, depending on how when and how far apart you take the hits, at which point I'd say maybe just call it a game over without having to keep playing just to lose.
Overall, great work--really enjoyed this one! :smile:
The music was good and it also signaled me when it the night was coming and after playing for a while I already knew in which part of the song it was too late to screw up.
Great art and representation and very solid gameplay. If I failed it was because I sucked and not because of a bug or bad mechanics.
Overall very nice and polished game. I spent most time with this game of all that I've reviewed so far. Thank you and kudos to you!
At first I didn't understand why I kept dying or why I should rewind time, but after a while I got it.
This is a ridiculously well-polished compo game. Such a great amount of juice, and a solid, easy-to-understand mechanic. Well done!
The game was pleasantly challenging. I will say that on a wide monitor, I found myself turning my head quite often, but that should be a rare case for most players.
Thanks for including my game, and for covering other jams the last few years (I was also on your list for Game Off 2020)!
https://www.epayitonline.bid/