Death Cult by TentacleMax

made by TentacleMax for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Strategy game about a cultists diving deeper and deeper into deepest depth of seven hells to beat Soton, Lord of All Bad Things...

HOW TO PLAY

TAB - show/hide tips
Click on your stronghold to build a structures.
Click on a structure to hire units or upgrade them.
The numbers above your units represents count of this type of unit in the army.
After you are satisfy with your setup click on Portal to send army to Hell.
Battles is fully automated (you can flee from battle any time by click on portal again)
If you lose, a fire symbol lights near the portal. Three of them and you lose.
Each time you win next battle goes one level deeper, but you can decrease hell level before battle (to farm more resources if needed)
Win 10 level of Hell to beat the game.

CULTISTS

SWORDSMAN

Melee warrior

GUNNER

Range. Shooter. The man with the gun.

WIZARD

Caster with deadly AoE spell

not so holy.gif

CLERIC

Caster with useful AoE heal

DEMONS

IMP

Nasty brown demon

CAT DEMON

Quick demon with knife

HOOKBOT

Very fast but really weak robo-demon with sharp hook

ROBOT

Demon! (Pretty tough)

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!

You are god damn awesome!

DISCLAIMER

We haven't much time to show different locations and better represent theme (Deeper and deeper), and there is bugs also. But it's jam, right?

Btw, it's the first jam (and even the very first game) for our programmer Brutor

Anyway, thank you for playing! Feel free to leave a comments, suggestions, bug reports, flowers, money or your soul.

!IMPORTANT!

Alas, our composer catch a cold, so he couldn't compose unique music, but we used his previous tracks. You can find his damn good chiptunes on your favorite music service. Just search for "Nuclear Mushroom Boom"

UPDATE

Bug fixed: when aspect ratio other than 19:6 game were not playable (or at least we think that it fixed)

Link	https://tentaclemax.itch.io/death-cult-ld-48
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/death-cult

Ratings

Overall	560^th	3.736⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Fun	372^th	3.736⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	565^th	3.519⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1397^th	3.24⭐	54🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	790^th	3.782⭐	57🧑‍⚖️
Humor	835^th	2.75⭐	52🧑‍⚖️
Mood	977^th	3.453⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Given		150🗳️	80🗨️

Feedback

rhewid

26. Apr 2021 · 22:38 UTC

Inmteresting auto-battler. Hard at the beginning but get easier when you recruit lots of gunners. Cool concept :D

![deathcult.png](///raw/0b3/21/z/3e973.png)

Firebelley

27. Apr 2021 · 00:02 UTC

Really nice concept. I think it could have an easier difficulty curve. It would have been nice to have an easy first few levels to get the hang of the game.

Otherwise nice work!

Dante2001

27. Apr 2021 · 00:04 UTC

Hey! Seems there's a problem with 21:9 resolutions. I can't see a thing! Would be great if you limited resolution to 16:9

diabolical-sloth

27. Apr 2021 · 00:09 UTC

cool game a really nice pixel art, gameplay loop is fun

would've been cool to see it integrate the theme better

🎤 TentacleMax

27. Apr 2021 · 00:42 UTC

@dante2001 thank you for a feedback, we'll try to fix it for different resolutions

🎤 TentacleMax

27. Apr 2021 · 00:43 UTC

@diabolical-sloth we had plans to integrate theme much deeper into gameplay and visuals, but time was against us =)

tengusheath

27. Apr 2021 · 05:28 UTC

Great job with animating all those characters.

bereg

27. Apr 2021 · 09:19 UTC

Great game. Although the core loop is simple, it carried me away. It needs some polishing, mostly in the battle phase. It would be great to have some kind of feedback, as now it's a little bit chaotic and hard to follow during the battle. But overall it's a nice game with a huge potential. Great work!

Herbyvor

27. Apr 2021 · 09:19 UTC

This game is awsome ! You did a really good job with thoses AI ! Maybe consider adding a way to force your units to focus one precise enemi unit ? That would be really cool ! the graphics are nice too, a little bit confusing at first but you get used to it really quickly. Good job !

MatijaT

27. Apr 2021 · 09:30 UTC

very fun and addictive game good job :D

Kevin Meissner

27. Apr 2021 · 09:51 UTC

This is exactly the type of game I really enjoy, really awesome. I was just really sad that you let it end WHY?? :-( I want to keep continue :-(. If you deside to continue it please let me know!

Advay

27. Apr 2021 · 12:12 UTC

Cool game man! Love the pixel art.

duckman

27. Apr 2021 · 13:30 UTC

cool pixel design and animations, interesting concept with the combat being automated. the combat was cluttered at times so i was left guessing how many of my units were still alive

Patomkin

27. Apr 2021 · 13:36 UTC

Built only upgraded gunmen and watched demons spawn into Volleys Of Death and immediately melt. That's why you don't bring a hookbot to a gunfight 😎

Eugenik

27. Apr 2021 · 17:28 UTC

fun and adorable game!.

rgb-games

27. Apr 2021 · 19:26 UTC

cool concept. I can only recommend you to add an online version. More people can play that way.

RexGame

27. Apr 2021 · 19:29 UTC

nice concept

snonk

27. Apr 2021 · 19:39 UTC

this game was so addicting!! really good music and graphics too, one of my favorites so far. great job :)

🎤 TentacleMax

27. Apr 2021 · 19:44 UTC

@snonk thank you 😊

Drunk Wizard

27. Apr 2021 · 19:46 UTC

Really liked the music, altought I read it is something older it is still catchy, wish I could someday compose something like that :)

The character art is absolutely amazing and the animations are also really good.

I think the game bugged when I bought my first wizard, as it gave me 2 wizards instead of 1.

The gunners shooting split projectiles agains so many enemies is a good idea in theory, but in the end, for me they mostly missed the enemies but when they did hit, they did solid damage. I feel like they should shoot a single projectile with a higher rate of fire, so It wouldn't be so frustrating watching them miss with 4 out of 6 bullets :D

For the wizard AoE, I felt like it did damage when the fire animation ended, instead of during the animation or at the start of it, I might be wrong about that tho.

I found this idea for a game catchy and I had my fun with it. Overall I felt it was a solid game, I think that working further on this project may not be a bad idea :)

Tom Stephenson

27. Apr 2021 · 20:08 UTC

This is a really cool concept with a surprisingly addictive core game loop! Absolutely love the spritework in this! Can't get much deeper than hell, so I'd say you hit the theme pretty well! :) Congrats on a fun entry!

jabsatz

27. Apr 2021 · 20:11 UTC

Great concept! A little hard to understand at first but it's quite engaging, I specially liked the animations and music it's really catchy

Osterzone

27. Apr 2021 · 20:16 UTC

I played it in Wine but could you please make a Linux build, since it's so easy in Unity? I loved the art and the music. Contrary to all the comments about gunners, I thought gunners were useless and went for an all swordsman & wizard build. It would have been nice to have your own heath bars stand out better from enemy heath bars so you can keep track better

LDJam user 236935

27. Apr 2021 · 20:37 UTC

That feeling when your swordsmen run off an let everyone else get bodied by the hordes. Le sigh. Pretty cool game though, pixel art is fun and it's satisfying to watch your dudes wreck waves of demons. Nice job.

Selenephy

27. Apr 2021 · 22:22 UTC

Really nice theme! ;)

The game is actually really good, I enjoyed it a lot. The graphics are cool and the music was really catchy, it's sad that your composer couldn't do music for this game, I bet it would have been even better.

Just a few things I would change:

- Adding a way to set the starting position of your units ("Painting" them or something?)
- Improving a bit the gunner's aim
- Try to make the priests and wizzards not cast their spells all at the same place (Like, sometimes you have multiple wizzards but you only see one fire wheel)

Overall a really good job!

![image_2021-04-28_002448.png](///raw/736/d3/z/40fbb.png)

Foursay

28. Apr 2021 · 12:58 UTC

Very complex sysmte for a jam game! I relaly enjoy the music and the gameplay lol. Nice Job!

Jajo

28. Apr 2021 · 13:04 UTC

Yep this was way, way, way too fun. Genuinely good game. One recommendation if you improve on it in future would be to have some algorithm to prevent entities pathfinding on top of each other, since that can make it tricky to see what's going on. But other than that this game was really good and I spent slightly longer than I should have playing it!

Yuri Yakovlev

28. Apr 2021 · 13:09 UTC

Ultra cool game. I've passed it twice.
I was wondering if you can do this game endless?
Great job.

Dark Blue Dragon Games

28. Apr 2021 · 13:10 UTC

Not much to say about this one it was just really fun. Maybe make it easier to tell who is your unit and who isn't. With some polish, this could be a really fun little game. Nice work!

Fearawl

29. Apr 2021 · 15:19 UTC

Cool thing, one of the few long games that you want to stick to longer. Passed to the end!

Классная вещь, одна из немногих долгих игр, в которые хочется залипнуть подольше. Прошел до конца!

silkworm_sweatshop

29. Apr 2021 · 15:50 UTC

Cool! Really hard and feels like it relies a bit too much on luck in the beginning on how your minions will behave and what they'll focus on. That is, until you realize you can just click the portal to escape whenever you're in trouble with no setback. Still, I'm pretty happy you can cheese it for now so I had a chance to get further in the game and build up my army. Definitely needs some balancing but it was still pretty fun and I ended up playing it for longer than most entries. Really nice pixel art as well, wish there was some sound effects to go with it.

🎤 TentacleMax

29. Apr 2021 · 16:32 UTC

@fearawl можно и залипнуть. Я сам, например, экспериментировал с прохождением только на одном типе юнитив. Правда смог пройти только на войнах и только на стрелках, если играть чисто на магах, то 1 маг не проходит первый уровень, и ресурсы не фармятся =(

You could stick in actually. For example I've tried to beat the game using one unit type only. It worked fine for sworsmans and gunners but didn't work for wizards because 1 wizard can't pass level one and farm enough resources to buy another one =(

🎤 TentacleMax

29. Apr 2021 · 16:35 UTC

@silkworm-sweatshop yeah, I miss the sounds too. But as I said earlier our composer couldn't join us and I didn't want to take sound assets (and haven't enough time for this actually)

Dyp54

29. Apr 2021 · 21:28 UTC

nice concept, i love the sprits ^^

xpoho

30. Apr 2021 · 12:02 UTC

Мир, полный ужаса и страданий, в котором людишек наказывают всё глубже и глубже... АХАХАХА!

Ребята, классная игра. Я люблю стратегии с непрямым контролем, и вот такую игру в расширенной версии я бы даже купил на стиме. Спасибо! ^_^

BigTVZ

30. Apr 2021 · 13:17 UTC

Well done. this is the first one of the games i tested that i actually finished. graphics are cool but the base can use some work. almost plays like an idle game. i was sad when i won coz i just wanted to keep growing my army. i would do some kind of procedural spawning difficulty increase so the fun never stops. maybe give some more info in battle like how many of every unit is left on both sides. loved it though. gonna come back to this one. :)

xpoho

30. Apr 2021 · 13:20 UTC

А, забыл сказать - отдельный респект композитору, музыка прямо огонь!

Scrawach

01. May 2021 · 09:58 UTC

Wow, very additive. Perfect implementation of "automatic chess" and "game that plays itself". I reached the end and was even somehow upset when the victory screen appeared to me. I wanted to play longer. Very cool!
But it is not completely clear why the cultists attack hell, but these are not important: D

Mololo

01. May 2021 · 15:20 UTC

I love the auto-battler style, the game was so much fun. Also great characters graphics and animations.

Great game, good job.

🎤 TentacleMax

01. May 2021 · 16:55 UTC

@xpoho там же написано, на яндекс.музыке, в спотифае или ВК просто найти Nuclear Mushroom Boom. Это он =)
Приятного прослушивания

🎤 TentacleMax

01. May 2021 · 16:58 UTC

@scrawach Cultists want more torture and terror to humanity than Soton does... It is not really clear, but let us say it's a cult's secret ;)

🎤 TentacleMax

01. May 2021 · 16:58 UTC

@dyp54 @mololo thanks for your kind words!

🎤 TentacleMax

01. May 2021 · 17:01 UTC

@dante2001 resolution bug is fixed (should be)
So you can try it now, and it would be great if you told us is it really fixed. we couldn't test it properly =|

Zef1r

03. May 2021 · 09:37 UTC

Very good strategy) The only thing that did not like it, so it is not optimized for large-format monics. But in general, everything is cool)

rhoff95

03. May 2021 · 23:01 UTC

Cool game. I would love to see more done here!

Jarnero

04. May 2021 · 15:33 UTC

@tentaclemax
Я сломал игру. Когда больше 300 юнитов на карте- игра вылетает.
Играл в версию с итча.

![баг.png](///raw/d84/92/z/42259.png)
+ Бесит, что юниты дальнего боя стоят на месте, а мечники сваливают. По идее им нужно держать оборону вокруг портала, нет?
+ Ужасно бесит, когда мечники убегают за экран и где-то там умирают. Очень не хватает возможности двигать камерой.
+ Поставьте спавнеры врагов поотдаль вокруг портала и будет понятно - где именно враги появляются. Можно будет следить за мечниками. РАЗЛОЧЬТЕ КАМЕРУ, вашу то мышь!

+ В целом годный контент, но ещё разочаровало, что маги имбалансны, ресурсов очень много и иногда лвл заканчивается раньше, чем ты успеваешь добить всех врагов.
![Screenshot_4.png](///raw/d84/92/z/4225a.png)
+ Остается ощущение незаслуженности награды.

Игра слишком легкая. Можно фармить предыдущие уровни до опупения. Нет подсказки, что уровни можно переключать. До меня не сразу дошло.

Музыка огонь. Миша - молодец. Пусть выздоравливает! Спасибо за игру - вы, Максимы, молодцы!

Nevernox

04. May 2021 · 15:46 UTC

Очень понравилась игра - графика, юмор, музыка :) Действительно было бы круто немного докрутить бы баланс, чтобы добавить челленж, но думаю, для игры для людума сложность в самый раз)

Спасибо за игру! Желаю вам успехов в будущих проектах, а Мише отдельно желаю поправляться :)

🎤 TentacleMax

04. May 2021 · 16:36 UTC

@jarnero - "Когда больше 300 юнитов на карте- игра вылетает." видимо, зависит от тачки. Я доводил до ~500, потом просто лень становилось.
- "Играл в версию с итча." - в какую из них? если с индикаторского, то там куча проблем, ага, тут они полечены. Если уже в версию для этого лудума - ну да, проблемы тоже есть =)

- "Бесит, что юниты дальнего боя стоят на месте, а мечники сваливают. По идее им нужно держать оборону вокруг портала, нет?"
Вообще да, но... нет =/

- "Ужасно бесит, когда мечники убегают за экран и где-то там умирают. Очень не хватает возможности двигать камерой."
а вот это странно, такого не должно быть (хотя опять же, полечено только в весии для общего лудума. мы там в последние 3 часа багов 10 пофиксили как минимум)

- "РАЗЛОЧЬТЕ КАМЕРУ, вашу то мышь!"
Нет!

- "но ещё разочаровало, что маги имбалансны" - полечено

- "ресурсов очень много" - очень сильно полечено

- "и иногда лвл заканчивается раньше, чем ты успеваешь добить всех врагов." - по идее тоже полечено

- "Остается ощущение незаслуженности награды." полечено с остальным балансом

Jarnero

04. May 2021 · 17:02 UTC

Окей, тогда @tentaclemax У меня нет причин не поставить высшую оценку. Загляни к нам тоже, если будет время:3
![dsmGaKWMeHXe9QuJtq_ys30PNfTGnMsRuHuo_MUzGCg.png](///raw/d84/92/z/4226a.png)
Я так и понял, что играл в неактуальную версию, но всё равно может что-то из этого осталось в этой. Пс. Зачем заводить несколько страниц на итче? Это путает...

🎤 TentacleMax

04. May 2021 · 19:38 UTC

@jarnero "Зачем заводить несколько страниц на итче? Это путает…"

А зачем делать как бы два джема? Это путает =)

NoNumbersGames

14. May 2021 · 18:29 UTC

What a fun game, enjoyed it a lot! Might have been slight overkill to go with 100 lvl 10 wizards, so the last level felt a bit anticlimactic. The wizard spell looked great though, especially when cast by so many. Wish there was endless mode after final level where you go to last portal and have to fend off waves until last man standing. Would have been interesting to see how many waves my army would have lasted.

🎤 TentacleMax

14. May 2021 · 19:30 UTC

@nonumbersgames thank you for your feedback.
Probably we'll finish this game to steam release. At least we'll try.
So your suggestion about "last man stand" mode have a chance to be implemented =)

Adnonymous5

18. May 2021 · 03:08 UTC

A little difficult to understand initially, but very cool. I love the unique character designs. I LOVE the animation on the portal to hell and the enemy attacks. The automated combat can feel a little disengaging, but overall supper cool game! Clearly a lot of effort was put into this!

someone

18. May 2021 · 18:02 UTC

Very cool game, though I won just as things were starting to get exciting. I would have liked to continue.
The tutorial disappeared before I finished reading it. Would be better to press something to dismiss it.
Some more tactical options would have been nice other than just buy many units as possible.
It would also be useful to see unit counts when fighting as it gets hard to see if your cultists are dying.

🎤 TentacleMax

18. May 2021 · 21:03 UTC

@someone tutorial disappeared by pressing TAB or click somewhere, so probably it was an accident click.
Or there is a possibility of bug =)
Btw, tutorial could be turned on/off by pressing TAB ;)

We'll look forward to deliver more meaningful choices to the player.

@adnonymous5 And we'll expand the main story and make it more varied and more challengeable. And add an endless mode too.

Thank you for your feedback!