VINDICTAE by Pickens Inc.

[raw]
made by Pickens Inc. for LD33 (JAM)
HI THERE! I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF, AFTER PLAYING, YOU COULD LEAVE ME SOME FEEDBACK SO I CAN IMPROVE THE GAME ACCORDING TO WHAT PEOPLE THINK :) THANKS! /caps lock rant

As the soul of a murdered bystander with an unknown background, your twisted wraith desires to take as many souls with you from the army of the General that killed you as possible.

Unfortunately sound was a luxury for which I did not have time for, and I draw like a colour blind moose with a crayon drunkenly taped to its antlers.

NOTE that RMB enters 'possess mode' where you turn grey and have a few seconds to ram into someone to possess them, and that there is a few second cooldown until you can enter possess mode again.

I really hope you have fun!

Taha

Ratings

Coolness 89% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.32 431
Fun(Jam) 3.33 330
Graphics(Jam) 2.57 879
Innovation(Jam) 3.33 281
Mood(Jam) 2.71 823
Theme(Jam) 3.39 578

Feedback

Literal Games
25. Aug 2015 路 15:31 UTC
This is the hardest game I have ever played. It was strangely addicting
sprawl
25. Aug 2015 路 15:33 UTC
Fun game. The health bar doesn't seem very usefull since most enemies seemed to kill me in one hit.

It would be nice to know if you're dealing damage to enemies. I tried hitting the turrets and the big guy down from where you start but they're either invincible or super tanky.

Anyhow, good job, it's addicting.
AlgorithmicsAnonymous
25. Aug 2015 路 15:35 UTC
"colour blind moose with a crayon drunkenly taped to its antlers" should be the next LD theme :)
Dejvo
25. Aug 2015 路 15:42 UTC
nice game. nice graphics. but the controls are a little finicky
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
25. Aug 2015 路 16:39 UTC
@Literal Games That's a compliment to me, haha, though I think the game needs to be a bit more forgiving.

@Sprawl Thanks, they are just stupidly tanky, but I'm taking your advice to heart with balancing.

@AlgorithmicsAnonymous If there's one thing I can actually do, it's make stupidly nonsensical similies :)

@Devjo, I'm surprised you complimented the graphics, thanks. The problem may lie more with conveyance than with controls, but it's definitely an issue requiring addressing.

Thanks all for playing!
Reallysketchy
25. Aug 2015 路 17:22 UTC
Extremely hard, but really addicting. Great job!
DinnerInTheDark
25. Aug 2015 路 17:30 UTC
Cool concept, quite a hard game (although that might not be a bad thing...) As opposed to Dejvo's opinion, i found the controls-scheme and -feeling quite good. I was a little bit confused at the first level (i didn't immediately realized that i was the black thingy), but that's only a minor issue. Good job!
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
25. Aug 2015 路 18:03 UTC
@reallysketchy Thanks for the praise, I'm actually planning on making it a tad easier, maybe by gaining health from possession.

@DinnerInTheDark thanks for the praise, and I agree, I've the biggest problem with the conveyance.

Thanks :)
rotpar
26. Aug 2015 路 08:28 UTC
Challenging but still fun!
SeaMonster131
26. Aug 2015 路 15:21 UTC
Very difficult game, but I like it!
RiverAndRun
26. Aug 2015 路 15:23 UTC
Great game! Love the general mechanic, and it's hard but addicting.
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
26. Aug 2015 路 15:27 UTC
@rotpar @SeaMonster131 Thank you both very much!

@RiverAndRun Thank you for the praise! I wonder if I should make it easier.
jofra
26. Aug 2015 路 15:35 UTC
this is a hard game! a bit confusing but well done
Gj
TakeNapEveryday
26. Aug 2015 路 15:59 UTC
Nice idea, like a top-down version of Messiah, but very hard! Sometimes with all the smoke particles I can't tell if I'm possessing something or not.
Team Klappermann
26. Aug 2015 路 17:16 UTC
Funny description you have there xD
Your game is actually really hard! Had to try a few times until I was able to reap even a few souls.
But if you get the hang of it the action really looks cool!

Sorry that you got stuck in my game (right before the end actually)
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
26. Aug 2015 路 19:16 UTC
@Jofra thanks! Conveyance isn't my strong point.

@TakeNapEveryday thanks! Hard seems to be the consensus, apparently.

@Team Klapperman How did you know I got stuck :)? And also thanks a lot for the praise! I'm considering making it easier, because sometimes as a developer you forget hwo good you are at your own game!
RougeRogue
27. Aug 2015 路 18:40 UTC
Pretty fun and challenging. Like the possessing concept. Similar to mine.
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
28. Aug 2015 路 08:48 UTC
Thanks, and yeah actually it is. I figured somebody would have a similar one, though I guess it's sort of reversed!
Sypanite
28. Aug 2015 路 21:16 UTC
Cool concept, rather difficult though - I feel the enemies react way too quickly.

Possession is a nice idea... *hint* *hint*
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
28. Aug 2015 路 21:30 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, haha. Will take your subtle hints into consideration!
PIXEL^3
28. Aug 2015 路 21:36 UTC
Very nice game, I really enjoyed the idea of possessing the enemies and using their weapons.
One of the things I think would be interesting in a game like this would be to implement a 'field of view' for enemies, so that they only see the player when the player is in sight.
One complaint I had was that when I beat a level, I was immediately thrust into the next level without really much warning and I was killed nearly instantly several times just because I was still holding down the movement keys when the level changed(Don't worry, I'm guilty of this too).
I feel like this would make for a really good postmortem game with some more content and variety added to it.
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
28. Aug 2015 路 22:13 UTC
Thank you very much for the feedback! I was concerned your complaint would be an issue, if I had more time I wouldn't have just made it 'kill everyone', but more objective.

Thanks very much for the feedback again, I'll definitely revamp this!
wg_phancock
29. Aug 2015 路 11:28 UTC
Really like the concept, this is VERY similar to one of the ideas I had for this jam. We ended up going a different way, though.
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
29. Aug 2015 路 12:00 UTC
Thanks a lot. Seems a few people had the possession idea.
RockhopperGames
29. Aug 2015 路 14:24 UTC
Interesting idea, though there were some parts which seemed a little iffy. I agree with pixel^3's suggestion of implementing some stealth features, or at least a delay on how quickly enemies can notice you. I also couldn't manage to get past the stage with the murderer enemy, and having to start from the beginning again each time made it a pain to try him again.

One bug I did notice too: the player's score is reset each level, leaving a lot of game overs showing 0 souls collected...
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
29. Aug 2015 路 14:49 UTC
@RockhopperGames thanks for your feedback! I will definitely try to implement a cone of vision feature for a post-compo version, and unftorunately I was aware of that particular bug.

If it's any consolation, the murderer is in the final level, as the game was initially just going to be only the 'survival' mode.

Thanks for playing!
Druid
03. Sep 2015 路 22:41 UTC
Little hard but addicting! That means you made well balanced game sir! :D

I really liked that soul harvesting idea. Graphics was little bad, but still solid entry!
OadT
05. Sep 2015 路 10:36 UTC
Its quite confusing at first, maybe add an bar indicating the cooldown of the possess mode and the weapons. I like your leveldesign, but please add checkpoints! (yeah, I know there isn't much time :( ) TBH I didn't get past the murderer level. I ditn't know what to do. Also you should spawn the enemies in the murderer level more quickly, the first time I died because I didn't know there are other enemys which I can possess. I reached this level multiple times (I played your game quite long :D) but still don't know what to do, maybe you can enlighten me and I will try again. I don't know I the murder gets any damage
Even if this all sounds a bit negative I actually like your game and had fun after I get into the mechanic, you just need to give more feedback to the player (and add checkpoints) so its not that frustrating.
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
05. Sep 2015 路 12:09 UTC
@Druid Thank you very much for your praise. I know my visuals are worse than a burlap sack of turds.

~OadT Thank you for your honest and thoughtful feedback! I realize, ironically, that feedback is one of my weak points - the murderer is actually the boss, and it is just plain bad design due to time restraint that it takes so long for enemies to turn up. He was intended for survival mode initially, but I thought I'd end the few levels included there.

I will definitely add checkpoints and polish this game soon, taking in your feedback. Thank you!
OadT
06. Sep 2015 路 10:48 UTC
Glad I could help :)
HotBoxGames
07. Sep 2015 路 15:44 UTC
Very neat concept, was quite a challenge but that just makes it so much more satisfying when you beat a level :D Would love to see how far you can take this with a post comp version! :) Nice one!
馃帳 Pickens Inc.
07. Sep 2015 路 16:17 UTC
@HotBoxGames Thank you very much for the praise. :D

Would love to make a post-comp version, some time soon!
cameronpenner
12. Sep 2015 路 18:32 UTC
Would be interesting to have more ways to interact with the bad guys, Some artificial stupidity could have been really cool (make the bad guys make mistakes: delay, miss shots, etc).
NightShadow0
14. Sep 2015 路 13:54 UTC
I like the mechanic, reminds me of The 3rd Birthday.
Sound effects would have gone a long way though, it's very hard to tell if you're dealing/taking damage, especially when you're close to the walls.
Having to start from the beginning is pretty frustrating too since the game is not easy at all; i couldn't make it past level 2. Would make it more fair if the enemies actually had to turn around before firing at you, so you'd have a little time to ambush them.
Overall it's a nice concept with potential, though. Nice work!
radmars
14. Sep 2015 路 23:57 UTC
Cool idea! I like the concept, though you die so fast when not possessing anybody that it makes it pretty rough at the start. SFX would help a lot with the gamefeel too.