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Ludum Dare - 35 - Shapeshift
Jeffrey with a Sword
by: ShuddaHaddaLottaFun
Alex Schuster - Game Design, Title Art/Graphics, Music, SFX
Brian Greenwood - Game Design, Programming
Mikhail Delinois - Art/Animation
Jeffrey's life is flashing before his eyes. Collect the anti-aging pills before he grows too old. Good thing he's brought along his family sword to help him out.
Controls:
Left/Right Arrows - Move
Up Arrow - Jump
X - Attack
Let's start by saying we know the controls and animations are really janky. A combination of learning new things and nice weather left us with pushing out a game we aren't super satisfied with, but totally glad we made and got something completed. Our concept for Shapeshift was that as the player got older, their body would transform, changing how fast they move, jump, and how they attacked. Too old and it's harder to move, and then you eventually die of old age. The idea was to carefully collect the anti-aging powerups to float your age in the middle, where you would be the most skilled, and can last the longest to get a higher score (score combo of kills and time). This is not super evident in execution however. I myself (Alex) spent waaaaaaay too much time working on how the title looked... which in retrospect... #NoRegrets, because it's rad looking. But, might have taking time away from the game a bit.
Also, pretty happy with the music. Sound effects, not so much. they should be seperate categories, just sayin.
yadda yadda keywords yadda yadda HTML5 yadda yadda Unity yadda yadda
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 87% |
#459 | Audio(Jam) | 3.00 |
#632 | Humor(Jam) | 2.26 |
#787 | Graphics(Jam) | 2.92 |
#941 | Mood(Jam) | 2.46 |
#1019 | Theme(Jam) | 2.48 |
#1073 | Innovation(Jam) | 2.17 |
#1143 | Overall(Jam) | 2.43 |
#1145 | Fun(Jam) | 1.96 |
Comments
The sword animation doesn't end until you move. I had to just let the sword sit where they fall to collect kills or risk dying from the attack not working.
Nice intro hahaha, pretty difficult to control, but good job finish it!
Yeah, very cool art I see here! But the game is very unbalanced. The animation attach seems to be triggered with delay. It makes exteremly hard task to kill someone with so overweight sword :)
Very nice approach on theme!
Not a lot of criticism I could level you don't cover in your own comments. Its playable and a great effort. Congrats!
Great effort! I jumped right in and was trying to figure it out- the sword was slow- then i realized i could jump and kill mario-style, then i almost got old- then I read your write-up! P.S. - Those titles are rad!
I also experienced the attack bug.
I found that the sword has a permanently activated hit box, so if you simply let the enemies run into your resting sword, you win, haha.
It seems a little confusing, I didn't understand what's going on in the game. I believe that the attack have a bug. The sound and art are really cool, a beautiful pixel art.
Is Jeff's surname Strifer? Just saying.
I thoroughly enjoyed the music. A few retro sound effects would have made the game more awesome.
The attack controls were a little too slow. I had to move after each attack to perform the next.
I liked the game. You could improve the jumping system(I could jump beneath the floors for ever :P).REally nice entry though
I really like the idea of this game, but the controls are sooooooooo bad. A for effort! Of, and the title screen and music are amazing.
The concept in the description sounds quite cool, too bad the execution isn't that great. You should definitely continue working on it to polish it more :)
It would be better if the sword behavior linked to age was more obvious (and if it's not, so there is a big bug XD).
I found this to be too difficult because of the delay on the sword swing and not being able to swing multiple times
Having issues attacking, the sword doesn't seem to work half the time. Also, getting hit once by an enemy and dying seems to be a bit harsh.
Graphics and sound are cool! I like the idea too. However, controls are buggy, so it is a bit hard to play.
problems with the attack i think or there is something i dont understand
Creative concept, but kinda killed by poor mechanics. Just for the record, I've found the most efficient strategy to stand around and do nothing, with a sword lagging behind; enemies would then walk onto the sword themselves and I'd be virtually invincible, if not for the aging.
Graphics are alright, but not stunning. Music works fine, though I haven't heard sound effects.
Next time, you might want to focus on the mechanics rather than title (or at least in-game art player will see 99% of time, rather than a title that player will see only for a bit). ^^'
Haha you're right, the title screen IS awesome. I do really like the idea of aging as a shapeshift mechanic. Control difficulties aside, the biggest issue I had was that the sword dealt damage without moving so by positioning yourself right you don't even NEED to use controls, just let the bad guys fall onto your sword from both directions!
Also had this attack bug that made the game a bit unresponsive :(
Nice graphics and nice sounds design though :)
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The sword attacks don't seem to happen half the time, which is a shame since the opening makes this seem badass.