H.A.R.V.E.S.T. Harvest And Recon by kr4ft3r

made by kr4ft3r for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

@kr4ft3r - programming, 3d models, game design

@orb - concept art, textures, game design

Our time got slaughtered by Christmas lunch (7th January), hope you'll still manage to enjoy what we managed to add to the game.

H.A.R.V.E.S.T.

(Harvest And Reconnaissance Vehicle Employing Sadistic Techniques)

To put it simply, we need human heads!

Your goal is to glide the vehicle above the ground, aiming the HARVEST blades to appropriate height in order to severe heads, which will be collected in suction openings on sides of the vehicle.

CONTROLS

A.D = left,right

W = thrust upwards, also adds speed, you will only want to hold this now and then

LMB = fire lasers, used for getting the crowds out of flashing buildings

RMB = zoom and more accurate aim sensitivity

SCORING

Heads = 10 points

Torsos cut in half = 1 point, due to additional costs of processing to get the head

People without legs = 0 points, meant to be the fuel but wasn't implemented

TIPS

You must hit them with blades in order to reap the material. Hitting them with any other part of the ship will produce splatter sound and will yield zero points. Remember to shoot the flashing buildings in order to get them to come out! The key is in keeping the height at the neck level, it may take some practice. Good luck!

PS: H.A.R.V.E.S.T. is a cutting-edge technology but is not meant to be driven by idiots, if you run your nose into a building you will die!

CREDITS

Sounds:

Listed below are freesound.org website users who authored the sounds used:

Erdie

Belthazarus

JohnsonBrandEditing

klangkobold

deleteduser7146007

waveplaysfx

duncanlewismackinnon

Minian89

Link	https://krafter.itch.io/harvest
Link	https://krafter.itch.io/harvest
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/h-a-r-v-e-s-t-harvest-and-recon

Ratings

Overall	721^th	2.931⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Fun	673^th	2.845⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	491^th	3.167⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Theme	395^th	3.733⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	676^th	2.75⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Humor	283^th	3.217⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Mood	707^th	2.862⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Given		23🗳️	40🗨️

Feedback

GoldRanger

10. Jan 2023 · 14:08 UTC

I think the score is not displaying, I played it in 16:9 monitor.
by the Christmas lunch I think you guys don't have enough time to polish the game, sorry about that.
At least the core head cutting mechanism is finished, it does require some skill and I have some fun.
However TBH the lack of animation, feedback and interaction etc, this feels not quite complete.
but anyway always good to have a submission!

Wouter52

10. Jan 2023 · 14:44 UTC

Ooooh some much potential! I can see that you guys had more ideas in store :-)
Some feedback I have for your game:

- First of all: a simple counter on how many points/heads you have collected could make this game so much more fun! Now it is very hard to determine when you cut a head, torso or legs.
- I don't know what the little 3D model at the lower left corner is for. Was there an idea behind that?
- The constant screaming is a very well done addition ^^ Especially when lots of buildings are set on fire. In your description is listed that burning buildings generate more crowds, that is not implemented? Or did I not pay attention?
- Maybe the humans could have been more diverse. Some small ones, some big ones, diffrent clothes, etc :-) That makes the game even more challenging I think, as the humans have diffrent hights then

I like your game, as usual something diffrent and experimental! Did you have fun creating this?

fallcresthero

10. Jan 2023 · 14:57 UTC

Could be very satisfying game but it feels raw and incomplete.

There is still some satisfying moments like when you see growing crowds on the streets after you shot some buildings.

But the most frustrating part is how you should get slower to kill someone and how your lasers only burn buildings but can't kill anyone.

The potential is still huge. I would like to see how this game evolve in the future which I hope it will do.

🎤 kr4ft3r

10. Jan 2023 · 15:02 UTC

@eggshelldog thanks for playing, the score is shown when you reach the end of the street, if it's not shown then we're in trouble.

@wouter52 hey there! Ye, real time feedback in UI is one essential thing I didn't had time for. Otherwise you can tell which body part is cut by the sound it makes, or visually if your eye's framerate is high enough. The 3d model in the corner is only showing where the tail is looking, of course it is a part of unfinished UI. It's only the buildings that have flashing colors that produce more crowd when shot, sadly I had no time to put in a better indicator. And ye I had fun but now comes the hard part of getting feedback for a heavily unpolished thing :D

GoldRanger

10. Jan 2023 · 15:06 UTC

@kr4ft3r I apologize for not reaching the end. I thought it is an endless game but still, having a score real time is type of feedback to player and add satisfaction. sad you didn't add it.

edit: damn so you do have rigged your model and have some anim on the tail, but player can only see it from the shadow/UI...

🎤 kr4ft3r

10. Jan 2023 · 15:11 UTC

@eggshelldog no worries, that is a good feedback, thanks. While I'm painfully aware of the need for a proper UI feedback, it never occurred to me that someone will assume the game is endless, I'll add that tip to itch page.

Horda

10. Jan 2023 · 16:16 UTC

Nice chop chop ! Scored 1200 1/1 ratio^^
We need more visual feedback on what part of the body we cut if its part of the game.
Also you might want to add a Quit button so we can close your game after playing!
Controls are great but I would have like something a bit more dynamic, don't know if its relevant for this game though.
Nice game anyway!

Wouter52

10. Jan 2023 · 19:54 UTC

Just played it again (accidentally, I meant to click another EXE) and tried shooting the flashing buildings now. There are people running out panicking, that is very satisfying :grin: ~~I'm not sadistic at all...~~

She Wrote

11. Jan 2023 · 15:21 UTC

Harvesting heads is a great theme interpretation! But the camera angle makes it really hard to tell if we are at the right decapitation height. I am kind disturbed by how satisfying the game is to play. The mood is so disturbing and well-made; Great game!

StephanSchue

11. Jan 2023 · 22:08 UTC

Good idea, like the visuals and the mood.
But why can't you kill the people by shooting at them?

🎤 kr4ft3r

11. Jan 2023 · 22:20 UTC

@stephanschue thanks for playing! You can't shoot them because I ran out of time and the purpose is to reap their heads, so shooting them is a vanity feature that I'd love to have added but wasn't essential. So in this version shooting is just a thing that has a function, to make crowds come out of buildings so you can reap more heads (buildings that are flashing colors).

someone

11. Jan 2023 · 23:55 UTC

Interesting idea. Took a while to get the hang of it.
I found the zoomed in view to be unhelpful and the laser didn't seem to do anything.
The sounds were fairly visceral but it lacks the gratuitous blood everywhere.
An ongoing counter would have been nice rather than just a final score at the end.
You have a link tagged as linux but I'm not seeing any linux binaries anywhere.

🎤 kr4ft3r

12. Jan 2023 · 00:42 UTC

@someone Thanks for playing and letting me know about Linux mistake. Ye I ran out of time to implement ongoing counter. Lasers are just a tactical thing that makes crowds run out of buildings that are marked with flashing colors. But I can't blame you for not noticing as there is no in-game tutorial, this functionality was only hinted on LD page, itch page, comments section, README.txt file, animated gif, and a picture that shows ship parts.

LDJam user 279867

12. Jan 2023 · 04:42 UTC

This was certainly an interesting take on the theme. The controls are definitely a challenge, not having any way to go down left me feeling like I was just hanging for too long.

The ship looks pretty cool though! Interesting idea to put the camera on the tail.

givit-game-studios

12. Jan 2023 · 07:21 UTC

Neat little game.
BUT the mouse control felt a bit odd. Like my first instict was die fly the plane with the mouse and only use the keyboard keys for thrust. I also would have added a bit of pitch control to the plane to go down and up. But great effort and I really like the vibe of it. One last thing is there away to maybe tell the player that he is nearing the end of street?

Iak

12. Jan 2023 · 10:29 UTC

Good job finishing something despite being short on time!

Nice vibe with all the screaming while we're piloting this alien-looking vehicle to harvest human heads.. I had a dream similar to this game years ago :thinking: but that was less alien and more a halloweeny looking massive combine harvester modified for human harvesting...

HayriCakir

13. Jan 2023 · 19:21 UTC

Have potential, can be better in time. Keep up the good work guys!

LDJam user 251967

14. Jan 2023 · 18:48 UTC

Great game!

Bloodfin

15. Jan 2023 · 03:28 UTC

I kept from rating you in a number of categories as I ran into a bug I could not seam to remedy. As soon as I start the game it constantly veers to the left and up making it so I could never get down to chop some heads. I tried redownloading and had no luck. The idea seams really fun and hilarious and I hope to give it a try later and hopefully it will work! Great job on getting a game in the jam!

🎤 kr4ft3r

15. Jan 2023 · 10:13 UTC

@bloodfin Thanks for playing - I can't think of anything that could fix this on my side, perhaps you have some controller plugged into the PC lying around with input stuck in certain position.

Hoichael

20. Jan 2023 · 09:57 UTC

This is really cool. Certainly one of the more unusual / unexpected games this jam has produced :D

A little rough around the edges, but that's to be expected from a jam entry. Overall, fun game. Congrats!

Hawkin

22. Jan 2023 · 01:10 UTC

It's a good start! The people running animation was pretty funny. The HARVEST model was really neat! I'd love to see more like that.

I didn't find the accelerate control very satisfying. I was in between stopping and hopping by pressing W every so often, and I would have rather been able to control my speed more smoothly.

I think I also noticed that the laser was tied to the cursor, rather than the front of the ship. So when I looked to the side and fired, it just didn't make sense :D

Thanks for sharing this!

digivorix

27. Jan 2023 · 07:36 UTC

I see come potential in this game. I do like the challenge of having to maneuver your craft just right so that you can collect points. The controls felt a bit clunky though, especially with having the only key that propels me forward also be the one that pushes me upwards. There may also be a bug with the people in the game since once you blast a building the people running out just form a straight line, making them easing targets for points. I also cannot see the score in-game. Finally, I think the graphics could do with a little more detail. I can see where the street ends and turns into a red void and the buildings are just PNGs.

There are a lot of areas for improvement, but it's a good start.

🎤 kr4ft3r

28. Jan 2023 · 12:27 UTC

@hawkin thanks for playing. The tail is the camera and it's exactly where the laser shots are coming from :D Stopping and hopping was the only way to add challenge, as there was no time for 360 degrees freedom I had to make it into a flappy bird kind of thing.