Category: Ludum Dare

Decimating Demons is a Delight in SACRIFIGHTS

In seven days, The Ancient One is going to mess you up. Bad. The only way to stop him? Fight the lesser minions of hell and eat their entrails to gain their power. Duh!

SACRIFIGHTS is FrankieSmileShow’s entry for Ludum Dare 44. And while I don’t think it nails the theming (Your life is currency) as successfully as safecrack, it’s a pretty fun time regardless.

You offer some blood, or guts, or uh, batteries and staplers that the bosses drop to the sacfiricial altar and fight whatever monstrosity is summoned. Clowns, spiders, demons and secretaries take shape and are quite angry with you. Thankfully, a magic seal keeps them in place for you to get some potshots in before they wreak havoc. Your first run through the game will almost inevitably go like this: Summon a bunch of monsters, maybe kill one or two by the skin of your teeth for some sweet loot, and then die to the final boss when he shows up and you’re absolutely unprepared. The second run is where things… kind of fall apart a bit.

Once you’re familiar with how the game works, you’ll try to min/max your process through the monsters. Eat what’s edible, summon what’s not, and grow incredibly powerful as events progress. You’ll eventually learn that most monsters can be decimated before the seal is broken, and they never even have a chance to move before they’re sent back to whence they came. The game is still fun to play because the monster designs are neat to see and each of them have unique quips, but once you see the seams there’s no challenge whatsoever.

And that’s cool, I guess! I had a pretty great 20 minutes or so between both of my playthroughs. I just wish I had been able to have a fair fight with more of them. There’s definitely more that can be done here, and if SACRIFIGHTS 2 came out tomorrow I’d be down immediately. Just maybe give the hellspawn a headstart when you try to take them on yourself.

If you’re up for meeting the minions of the abyss, check out the game on its Ludum Dare page.

May 16, 2019
Safecrack Is Fast and Frantic Frugality

Made for Ludum Dare 44’s “Your life is currency” theme, Torcado’s entry is well among the best of ’em. Though it’ll take you just 10 or 15ish minutes to blow through, safecrack is one of the most inventive incremental games I’ve played in quite a while.

If you’re not familiar with incremental games… you’re probably a better and healthier person than me. It’s one of those things like Cookie Clicker or Forager that sucks hours and hours away, promising you that by doing one thing over and over again, you’ll become better at, well, doing that one thing even better. They’re typically near-endlessly looping Skinner Boxes that trap you inside them for as long as your addictive personality allows. Thankfully, safecrack is one of the more ethical ones.

Happy with simply providing a dozen or so minutes of fun, safecrack has you upgrading ways to hurt yourself. See, you’re a safe, and you’ve gotta get all that money out of you somehow. As you take “damage,” money for upgrades flies out of you. Spend that money on more enemies to fill the screen with, or to make yourself more vulnerable to attacks, and you make more cash for new upgrades to die even faster.

I was surprised at how satisfying the upgrade tree was for such a small project. As you experiment with new combinations of enemies to harm you, you’ll occasionally think “oh, this is definitely the best way to take damage the fastest,” and then almost certainly stumble into an even more efficient way to kill yourself.

If you’re ready to hop into a quick bout of chaotic currency collecting, head on over to the game’s itch.io page.

May 16, 2019
The Entire Screen of One Game Will Destroy You

Made for Ludum Dare 31’s “Entire Game on One Screen” theme, Tom7’s The Entire Screen of One Game is a joke. It’s a joke that goes, and goes, and goes until your head hurts and you can’t take it anymore.

You control a tiny colored block that can jump around while the screen is constantly zooming out. Once it zooms out enough, the screen is filled with a different color, your original block is zoomed out to a tiny dot, and the new screen becomes the focus of your control. It keeps zooming out, and you realize you’re in control of several screens, with the game playing out inside each of them. Uhhh…got it?

The whole thing makes about as much sense as the last couple of sentences, but you really have to see it for yourself.

If you want to be left utterly bewildered and a little impressed, check out The Entire Screen of One Game for free. It’s a fascinating concept, and the closest thing I can compare it to is BRICKbricksmashSMASH, which is similarly mind-bending. Keep it up you monsters of design, keep it up.

December 14, 2014
Birdsong is Screen-Sprawling Metroidvania

Ludum Dare always produces some of the year’s most interesting games, and Ludum Dare 31 is already shaping up with some excellent entries. December’s theme, “Entire Game on One Screen,” has already given us Birdsong, a visually striking Metroid inspired adventure. Developer Managore won 1st place Overall in Ludum Dare 29, and this one’s already shaping up to be a top contender.

Birdsong starts off as seemingly a traditional platformer for the first couple of seconds. As you begin to move across the screen, your view is zoomed out and warped, until you can see the entire world map stretching around you to the edges of the screen. It’s a brilliant effect, made better by the shock of the fake-out introduction.

It helps that it’s a well-done Metroidvania as well. You control a little bird, and have it hop through levels, dodging spikes and other obstacles. As you explore, you’ll find items that increase your jump height to expand your traversal skills, and others that allow you to build checkpoints in difficult locations.

The game’s biggest strength is in it’s totally unique visual effect. Every part of the level can be seen from anywhere, and walking simply wraps the screen around in front of where you’re moving. The furthest parts of the level taunt you from the opening moments, and finally making your way there feels like an accomplishment as you look back on where you’ve been.

When the Ludum Dare awards start coming around, I guarantee you’ll be hearing more about this one. Check out Birdsong on its Ludum Dare page, and check out the rest of the several hundred entries based around LD31’s theme. Designing around constraints always brings out creativity, so enjoy the new ideas while they’re fresh!

December 14, 2014
Best of Ludum Dare 26 – Guru

With so many Ludum Dare games all released at once, it can be tough to sift through and find the best of the pack. Guru is one of the games definitely worth your time.

Guru is a point and click puzzle game with three levels. In each, you’re given a situation with no explanation of your goal. You can click anywhere on the screen, and an appropriate action will result. In the first I chose of the three, there was a dog trapped in a car while someone, presumably his owner, sat outside listening to music. The solution will surprised you, it isn’t what you think.

It’s a quick game that’s over in about 10 minutes, and has enough memorable content to warrant a playthrough from anyone wanting a chuckle or two from a solid puzzler. The eye-catching, line drawn art style is worth your time to look at anyway.

Guru was made in a weekend during Ludum Dare 26 by BrothersT, and can be played for free here.

May 15, 2013
Gods Will Be Watching

First off, congratulations on the fantastic title. Gods Will Be Watching is a single screen point and click adventure game based around surviving a harsh winter. You’re stranded in the cold with a group of travelers, each with unique professions, a dog, and a small amount of supplies. The goal is to survive 40 days, with each day consisting of a limited number of actions. Want someone to attempt to fix the broken radio? That’s one of your five actions. Want your dog to hunt for food? Another action. You’ve got three more today. Used them all but forgot to light the fire? Sorry, everyone died of hypothermia. (more…)

May 2, 2013