Search Keywords: HTC Vive, Oculus, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, Flash, HTML5, Java, Unity
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 :)
You must sign in to comment.
Mini Submission FAQ
TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.
CAN I ENTER BOTH EVENTS?: You should pick 1 event, whichever you think it’ll do better in. If the idea is strong, and everything plays well enough, you can go Compo. If you’re a perfectionist, and would prefer people to play a more polished game, do the Jam. Historically, more games are entered in the Compo, but with more people and more time, Jam games have the potential to be better (that doesn’t mean they are). Many solo participants do enter the Jam.
If you made 2 games, unfortunately, the website doesn’t support multiple submissions per user. To submit your 2nd game, you will have to make a 2nd account. Only do this if you made 2 games. Alternatively, if one game is better than the other, then consider just entering the better game.
CAN I KEEP WORKING UNTIL THE DEADLINE?: Yes! Immediately after the 48 or 72 hours, we do something called Submission Hour. As the name suggests, it’s an extra hour for you to package, upload, and submit your games. If there were catastrophic issues trying submitting your game, or you misunderstood how submissions work, that’s okay. It happens. We’re flexible. If you need advice, check with the folks on IRC. If you need an admin, get in touch.
CAN I KEEP WORKING ON MY GAME?: Oh definitely! You should! But for the sake of judging, keep the Compo or Jam version around. You can include a link to the Post-Compo/Post-Jam version of your game on your games page, but sure your main links are the original version.
PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate at least 20 games to improve your visibility (Coolness).
MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crashes, win condition, or tiny bugs after the deadline. In a sense, this is like “porting” to support more players. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just fixing mistakes you should have caught had you been better rested.
MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up. Alternatively, if you just posted it, wait a minute. The cache may not have refreshed yet.
NOT LOGGED IN?: If you get a message about not being logged in, even though you are, it’s because your web browser cached the non-logged in page. You can fix this by either refreshing your cache or clearing your cache. CTRL+F5 in many browsers. Chrome is a bit more work. Press F12 to enable Developer Mode, then you can right click on the refresh button and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”. This option is unavailable if you are not in Developer Mode.
The sword attacks don't seem to happen half the time, which is a shame since the opening makes this seem badass.