August 23rd-26th 2013 :: Theme: 10 Seconds
Ludum Dare 27 — August 23rd-26th, 2013
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NEW 2013-08-29 - Added Android version.
A mash-up of Zelda and Super Crate Box, Tiny Arena pits the player against endless streams of monsters with an arsenal of 6 different weapons, which are selected randomly every 10 seconds. There are also powerups which increase movement speed and grant invincibility for 10 seconds at a time.
Art assets made with ASEPRITE.
Music made with REASON 4.0 and the TGSF21X soundfont library.
Sound effects made with BFXR.
Coded in GAME MAKER STUDIO.
Source .gmz is included in the .zip
HOW TO PLAY:
Extract .zip and run the .exe file, or play the HTML5 version via the link.
Use WSAD or the ARROW KEYS to move.
Press SPACE to attack.
Press ESC to quit.
Press M to toggle the music.
--Bugs
In the web version, the wizard's magic sound stacks with each instance of the magic ball onscreen. This is not supposed to be the case, and doesn't happen in the Windows .exe
Sometimes when the shuriken is first activated, you have to move before it will throw in the right direction. I forgot to copy some revised code from the other ranged weapons to this one... my bad. :(
Another bug I just found is that if you grab the boots powerup twice before the first one has worn off, your movement speed is permanently doubled. Also, the shield and boots timer on the UI are overlapping... I'll find a way to remedy this in a future version.
Based on the feedback I've gotten, I will probably release this on Kongregate and Gamejolt with slightly increased movement speed and some new level layouts (randomly placed pits perhaps?)
Thanks to everyone who plays and leaves feedback! I really appreciate it! This is my first time participating in a game dev compo, and I'm having a great time checking out all the stuff that everyone's put up.
-Rob
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 66% |
| #114 | Audio | 3.42 |
| #115 | Fun | 3.55 |
| #195 | Overall | 3.47 |
| #207 | Mood | 3.27 |
| #389 | Humor | 2.57 |
| #416 | Graphics | 3.12 |
| #566 | Theme | 3.17 |
| #804 | Innovation | 2.64 |
Comments
I gave this my best ratings yet! So much fun... I'm glad you made this haha. My only complaint is that bombs are too difficult to use. Otherwise, this is fantastic! :)
I found the movement a little slow but I had fun beating up zombies and skeletons with those weapons.
Great job, this was fun to play. Moving felt a little awkward, but I think it was mostly because of not being able to move while attacking. But overall nice game!
Kevin:
The movement being limited by your attacking is what helps to balance the weapons, so that the more powerful/useful weapons (like magic and the bow) are a little bit riskier to use.
BlueRage:
The bombs are definitely tricky, but pretty powerful if placed correctly, as they can potentially deal three damage to a nearby enemy. I may rebalance things slightly by making the enemy's invulnerability period shorter, making the bomb do more hits, while increasing the magic speed to prevent it from doing multiple hits (it goes through enemies which already seems powerful enough to me)
Scored 5020! This is nice. I agree with some of the other comments that it feels too slow, and a little too crowded, though. Mainly, I think it would help if the pits weren't in the corners (so that I can kite the baddies), and if some of the enemies didn't take so many hits (or if the weapons were all more powerful). Right now, two zombies and a wizard is really tough because the amount of safe space is reduced to almost nothing. It would also be nice if the weapons weren't repeats of what you just had.
I really enjoyed it. I liked that the weapon randomization gave it more of a 'try to stay alive' feel (like an arena) more than a 'headshot 360 no-scope' feel.
It really is amazing to have put something like this together in 48 hours. There's a ton here! And it's fun!
Web version did not run in Firefox for me. Chrome worked. I really like the retro sounds and music. Movement was a little bit clunky. Nice variety of weapons and items. Great job!
Mclogenog:
I thought about making multiple arenas a la Super Crate Box, some of which may have helped with the cramped feeling, but ultimately didn't get around to it. Perhaps in a future version.
OldPeculier:
It definitely helps having done a top-down Zelda-like game in Game Maker before! I've also made several arena-style survival maps for HL2 in the past, from which this draws some influence.
Here's a breakdown of my weekend from start to finish:
I came up with the concept at like 12AM Friday night and got out of bed to work on the basic framework for a couple hours, but a crash took out my first hour or so of work. Frustrated, I restarted and got back up to where I was, then put together all of the art before I went to bed at like 2:45. The next morning (after waking up at 9AM because my GF was going to work) I knocked out most of the sound effects in a short time (I really love working with BFXR), added in some extra mechanics like the pits, and touched up the UI.
Last night, my '80s cover band had a gig, so I had to leave for setup and soundcheck at 1:30 and didn't get home til about 5:30, at which point I had about another hour to work on the game - I threw together the battle music and the title screen music during that time. I got home after the gig at around 2 and I was completely wiped out so nothing else was worked on then.
Today, I fixed up the UI some more, refined some of the sprite depth code and tweaked the weapon balance a little bit to make running out of ammo pretty difficult to do. I also put together a death music theme which I'm pretty happy with. I added in the powerups in the last couple hours or so of the compo before I submitted and went out to gorge myself at a Chinese buffet. :)
Thanks to everyone for playing and leaving me feedback! It's definitely a pleasure to hear that people enjoy my work.
Enjoyable. I was rubbish with the sword and I'm no match for a wizard enemy. Oh and bomb dropping got me killed a bunch. Still, good fun.
proc:
At one point I made the sword able to kill the wizard's attacks, but that made the sword feel super OP to me. I'll probably reduce the cooldown from the bombs, too, as they seem a little skewed on the risk/reward ratio. Thanks for your feedback!
dekart:
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! You can check out some more of my music at http://www.soundcloud.com/rob-dooley if you'd like.
Fun game! I liked how all the weapons were balanced differently. Some thoughts:
- agree with kevin that not being able to move while attacking was painful. i can see how it's useful for balancing/differentiating but it doesn't feel good. didn't really enjoy using the bombs or magic, everything else felt more fun.
- large player hitbox + large enemy magic bullets + high rate of fire for enemy bullets + small arena = often impossible to avoid
- nice death animations!
Really fun game with a nice amount of variety to it, feels a lot more finished than most of the entries I've played. Great stuff!
3300. Nice music, very Doomy, I felt some John Carmack hanging over me. I loved the shurikens and the bows, great feel to them. Hated the bombs! Bombs hurt. Bad bombs. Really hated the bombs when angry otto comes out and bounces at me. Overall a good, complete game!
Web version is not working for me, I am stuck to the start screen, space is not working.
Ahah I loved it. So much fun! The music was great and I also liked the different weapons. The graphics / animations looked great.
One of the most fun games I have played so far, the music is great! Love the sprites animation ESPECIALLY when they die!
lcass:
Don't give me credit for that, I used Game Maker Studio, so all I had to do was click HTML5 from a drop-down menu :)
Everyone else:
Thanks! I'm super happy so many people are enjoying it! I'm sorry the bombs are so crappy. :) I'm brainstorming ideas to make them suck less.
Actually a lot of fun! The movement was slower than I liked, but that seemed to add to the challenge!
Delightfully retro with pretty fun weapons. A selection of various arenas would have been nice.
I liked the rhythm when there are several monsters in the screen! only thing that bothered me was that you always 'lock' to attack, in the sense that you stop moving and for a reasonable amount of time. But that is personal taste I guess, I expected it to be a little faster! Nice touch though
I liked it, particularly the Legend of Zelda references. It could use more consistent enemy spawning behavior, though, especially in the early game.
Loved the game. We had initially thought of trying something like this, but went for something else entirely in the end.
Glad to see it being done, and so well at that. My favorite weapon would be the bow. :D
Great job on this! Really enjoyed it!
Like them music and graphics--seems like you can hang the game by mashing keys a bit. (Well at least get the character stuck)
Nice work, reminded me of Smash TV. I agree with what other people have said about the difficulty (especially the guy with the green orbs). But great job for 48 hours.
Good job. Loved the music and the quick and varying gameplay. What this game had was fun. I was never bored. New weapons and bad guys all the time. Would work on it more and improve the art/animations.
Nice work! Fun although I felt the movement was a bit slow. The animation and music were good. I also liked how you could pick up your arrows and shurikens, it was a lifesaver sometimes!
Nice theme implementation!
The game was fun and the music was really good.
no luck running it in firefox, but chrome was fine. Its certainly well made, very complete in design and bug free. but it did'nt grab me like some of the more innovative entries did.
Nice concept. I'd balance the weapons out a bit more. For example the bomb was inferior to the other weapons in almost every regard, it would be nice if they each have their strength.
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Very tense, I like how quickly the gameplay changes. It gets a little claustrophobic at times, though, especially with how slowly you move.