NOTE: Because of the Theme tie, we allowed everyone to pick either Theme. Using both was optional. To keep things simple, there will still only be one Theme category. Every category in Ludum Dare voting is an opinion, so you’re welcome to rate them as you see fit. But we encourage you to be fair in your scores to people that chose only one Theme, and not both.
ALSO: Itch.io has an experimental game downloader over here. You may find it useful.
UPDATE: Post Jam version (See link + Web Version) added. Only changes are the new Calibration option, which lets you adjust input lag and mouse sensitivity, and new keyboard controls (Z+X now also attack/absorb). This *might* help if you're having trouble hitting the ball)
NOTE: OSX version soon! (maybe)
NOTE:Web version might have some trouble capturing the mouse cursor - Just allow it if it asks, otherwise you'll lose focus.
Set in the far future and based upon a legendary battle between a mythical Hero and an evil Tyrant, Dead Man's Volley is a rhythmic battle game in which you must deflect a magical projectile back and forth to damage your opponent, controlled entirely by the Mouse.
Take part in this glorious sport, dodge the enemy's attacks and perform the legendary Dead Man's Volley to defeat your foes!
Note: Apologies to anyone suffering from colourblindness
Move character - Mouse left/right
Deflect Ball - Left Mouse Button, X((Post Jam version)
Absorb Fake Ball - Right Mouse Button, Z(Post Jam version)
Quit to menu - Escape
Toggle Bloom - B
PS. Good luck against the Conductrix!
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Audio | 4.39 |
| #25 | Graphics | 4.43 |
| #45 | Mood | 3.94 |
| #52 | Overall | 3.98 |
| #113 | Fun | 3.72 |
| #170 | Innovation | 3.70 |
| #735 | Theme | 3.37 |
| #1766 | Coolness | 39% |
Comments
Upload a fix that should make it exit to menu upon beating a boss
Love the game play, really fun mechanics and fitting art direction!
Congrats!
Holy shit dude, this game looks amazing! How did you make all the cool glowing effects?
Those graphics are something. And the music as well. This is a really fun game, even if I suck at it.
Awesome game over all. I really loved the look and sound of everything! I couldn't get the timing down for the life of me however. Not sure if it was the perspective or what but could only get a few volleys in. Great project!
Very nice idea and gameplay but I find even the easy boss a bit too hard. Runs flawlessy in Wine on Linux btw.
As always, immaculate presentation :D Strong game here, will play it a lot more later. Superb work with the audio AGAIN! I always come back to see what you make since Slam Jam Bakery. Good work.
Fucking Brilliant! I will buy a full version of this game :).
One minor thing, to help the player learn the game better, add a helper text or image over the orbs that you can absorb or reflect. So if the player somehow failing to perform well in the game, the game should work with the player and make them better in order to keep them engaged.
Way too hard, I couldn't even beat the first boss. I believe that this is because
1. the movement is sluggish
2. it's hard to tell whether my deflect/absorb will work. A lot of the time deflected but it didn't work for some reasons
other than that, the art direction is amazing
Great game! The art style and the sounds are great. It's a very hard game. Kinda frustrating to get timings just right, but fair enough to make me want to keep trying/playing.
super awesome, really fun.
love the music especially the third one
Beautiful and very fun. Although I wish it had keyboard controls because it was too hard for me using the mouse.
Also the second button/theme seems more like an afterthought.
Pretty neat, even if the game is pretty harsh :/ Music and graph are top notch!
It felt really good to finally beat one of the opponents. Great game all around!
Simple but engagin. Well done.
Sometimes it does seem to be a bit untied to the music though, maybe in a final version making so that the bullets and stuff pulsate to music might help.
Love the art style of the game. Also, the deflect/absorb mechanic is pretty damn interesting.
Amazing game, especially for a compo entry! I couldn't play it too well on my laptop, but I imagine it'd be loads of fun with a mouse. Getting into a rhythm is very enjoyable, and I love the graphics and the music.
This is awesome! Really cool atmosphere and concept. Looks amazing. There seem to be some hit detection issues with respect to hitting that orb around but otherwise super good :)
Good entry and and awesome idea but the collision detection is a bit too squiffy. It makes the game far too difficult to be enjoyable. I had too much trouble hitting the things back.
Wow, this is one of the best entries I've seen so far (and it's a compo entry, that scores double on my book!). Everything from the visuals to audio to (of course) game mechanics looks incredibly polished.
Congratulations, I'm impressed! :D
And now back to defeat that stupid Shadowdancer! >_<
This game is incredible! Really amazing art and music. The mood is very good too. Great job!
Pretty damn awesome, if I'd have to say so.
The blend between the pixelated artstyle and 3D combined with the audio gave a really unique feel and touch to this experience.
I found myself also really hooked by the blend between beat-game and volleyball mechanics and I feel like I kinda lost track inbetween each playsession.
Only thing I'd nitpick a bit was that I had some slight responsiveness-issues. A few times when I was pressing down the key and aligned to the ball it didn't register. Not sure if this was a small bug or if it was just me. The latter seems also a bit likely ^_^.
Anywho, really nice game! Congrats! :)
Amazing art!The gameplay was also nice. It oddly reminded me of deflecting spells in Ocarina of Time.
It was a little hard, but I managed to beat the Shadowdancer. The Conductrix is impossible :)
Definitely the best game I've played so far in terms of polish and a great idea. Nicely done! I found it to be waaaaaay too difficult (didn't defeat ANYONE) but the mechanic is really cool and the art/audio is tremendous.
Really cool game, but I was having a problem with the sensitivity not being high enough; I couldn't get to balls shot at the edges quickly enough even when moving my mouse all the way across the mousepad. Still, graphics, audio, and concept were very good! Great job! :)
This game really felt fantastic, and I refused to stop playing until I had beaten the first stage (and then the second for good measure). The difficulty is high, but I thought it was fair.
One complaint, the noise that plays when either you or the boss dies is very jarring and sounds much louder than it needs to be. I lost a lot of times, and I grew to dread hearing that noise again.
Lovely looking, fun to play. I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/sMG1ENTyKkU
Absolutely incredible game. Pretty much ideal for a solo LD in all categories. I didn't manage to beat conductrix, since my timing is all kinds of terrible, but it was lots of fun to play regardless. The only issue I found was that a couple of times there were issues with the ball triggering a hit when it was along the middle of the field, but it wasn't something I could reliably reproduce. Either way, this is a pretty strong contender for overall winner, in my books!
I found the input a little too smoothed even in the windows version, would have preferred 1-1. Great mechanics though, deflecting is fun and watching the Shadowdancer bobbing along to the music is delightful :D
Great work, looking forward to your next entry!
When I watched the shadow dancer and dodged red bullets I felt interested. If you continue to develop this, when I saw a green bullet and pressed a mouse key and got a -1, I felt confused. I didn't distinguish between the two green types for left or right mouse button.
It's fantastic,
Exception for the main menu screen, everything is really rich in details!
I have defeated Shadowdancer and Master Malefica, conductrix is really hilarious...
Awesome game, can't wait to get it for my steam account!
Great game! The music's great, and everything synced up to the rhythm feels really cool.
Oh and hilarious difficulty is 100% more hilarious with a laptop touchpad.
The two buttons didn't really make a lot of difference; the second one didn't really do a lot, except fulfil the theme slightly. Beautiful graphics and music though.
I'm having a really hard time figuring out how the collision works. I'm guessing the collider is on the character, not the arc they create when you click the mouse buttons, but either the timing is really precise or my sense of perspective is awful. Couldn't make it past the first boss, i just keep missing.
It looks and sounds amazing, though.
Great game! Good art and super awesome music! I could only die one time after the other but I enjoyed it.
It looks and sounds just lovely! I had a hard time getting into the swing of things, even though I was clicking the right buttons, the orb just kept going through me sometimes. Other than that, it was actually really fun! Great stuff!
Hey all! (Happy new year!) Cheers for playing! Yeah I think I made this one a bit too tricky - the idea is you hit when the ball is really close to you in time with the music, not where the sword swipe is, which I think's confused a lot of people into swiping too early - Entirely my bad there :p Might drastically extend the threshold when I upload it to m'itch.io when I've a second.
Thanks to everyone who played, and hope to see ya next LD! :D
Great game.
the bullet hell bits are a lot easier than the sometimes super fast pong balls.
Is some of the content inspired by homestuck?
The music and the player character have quite the similarities
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Awesome graphics and really fun gameplay
just a little weird the time to reflect/absorve things