Scythefall by Carei

[raw]
made by Carei for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

Explore the system of caves in order to harvest the bones of its inhabitants - cobbler bones are sure to fetch a handsome price on the black market!

Try to hunt down the weakest enemies first, or otherwise they will evolve to more advanced forms.

CONTROLS - WASD or Arrow Keys to move - Left Click to Attack - Right Click to cast your skill - Space to pick up items

Ratings

Overall 611th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 341th 3.474⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 670th 2.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 664th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 657th 2.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

maartene
21. Jan 2023 · 14:35 UTC
Original twist on familiar themes: a twin stick melee fighter. Requires quite a bit of skill as timing of the scythe is important.
My biggest suggestion would be: what if pickups were automatic?
RaggedyJam
25. Jan 2023 · 12:42 UTC
Felt real fun with some simple mechanics. The minimap was a good idea and I liked how the scythe indicated when the skill was ready. It got quite hectic at times. Explored for a while but never found anything new which would have been nice I was hoping that at some point I could use the bones to buy something. The dynamics with the enemies evolving and more being spawned was a good idea and felt fun/exciting although maybe some variety in enemies would have been nice as well. Great work I had plenty of fun playing it.
Amolker
26. Jan 2023 · 09:35 UTC
Fight system is nice, enemies have some difficult behaviour, it's just two enemies that looks the same. Minimap is necessary here and it's good that it exists, but it shows not much more than on the screen. Game feels repetative after little time. I think you had a great ideas but there is a lack of time on LD, so it's okay. Great job!
adhesion
27. Jan 2023 · 03:13 UTC
Like the vibe here. Combat felt pretty fun in terms of gamefeel (nice screenshake and sfx) though the actual strategy was not that deep and felt a little too "jousty", like your attack range was about the same as the enemy's attack range so it felt a bit random sometimes as to who would take damage. Might be better with some more indication of when the enemy would attack. Had some situations where the enemies would just multiply out of control on a couple playthroughs so the balance feels a little bit random as well. Also the projectile cooldown was super long and I didn't notice the indicator until I read the comments here. My high score was 57, at that point I got lost and couldn't find any more enemies to fight. Still a pretty fun experience, nice work!
digivorix
27. Jan 2023 · 07:26 UTC
I like the fighting system and movement. While the fights themselves are a bit hard, surviving them is rewarding. The only bug I noticed was that you can still hear your scythe swinging after you are dead if you continue to click your mouse. Other than that though, good job.
Mark Winter
27. Jan 2023 · 18:00 UTC
Fun! I enjoyed the curve in skill -- I felt really accomplished when I figured out how the enemies moved/how best to fight them and started not dying all the time xD
I liked the map in the corner as well!
Wasn't certain what the tophat pickup was for?
pixelstuff
27. Jan 2023 · 19:30 UTC
Hello !
Nice entry !
I just found the "space" spam for get all the item at the end, maybe the player can pickup the item when go on it ?
Nice job
🎤 Carei
27. Jan 2023 · 20:10 UTC
Thank you all for the ratings! It's our second game jam, and your feedback is more than enough motivation to participate again next edition.

@raggedyjam You're right, it would help a lot to have a bit of diversity, especially since we already implemented the map system. If we have time to develop on the idea after the jam we'll work on it!

@amolker I think a bigger minimap would be a great idea. I ended up spending a lot of time on the maze generator, so I'm aware that a bit of extra effort on the enemy behaviour would have been welcome.

@adhesion In future jams, I think it would be wise to implement a better tutorials. But other than that, 57 is a pretty good high score. Watching my friends play the game, I never thought anybody else would manage to kill so many enemies, but I'm glad to have been proved wrong :)

@mark-winter I'm glad you noticed the hat. To clarify, it was just a sort of easter egg, it had no in-game benefits beyond the graphics.
profan
27. Jan 2023 · 20:30 UTC
I really liked the vibe of this game, the music, the sound and the kiting you end up doing when playing the game is quite enjoyable, but it was pretty painful that your attack range was basically almost exactly the size of your hitbox/the same as the enemy's range as @adhesion already said.

Loved having the minimap though, there are many other games this jam where I wish I'd had it and here it was! :D

Nice work!