Play game jam submission
To Hell and Back's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mechanics | #93 | 3.727 | 3.727 |
| Theme | #141 | 3.727 | 3.727 |
| Story | #224 | 2.818 | 2.818 |
| Sound | #243 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Fun | #272 | 3.273 | 3.273 |
| Music | #349 | 2.909 | 2.909 |
| Aesthetics | #394 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
No
Link to your source?
https://atgeorge.itch.io/to-hell-and-back
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Comments
Nice take on the theme, and I like how the name accurately represents it.
I liked seeing the shadows chasing you, so you know you're only one step away from death. However, to improve that, as others have suggested, it would be good to see some debris on the road, if you stumble you're almost certainly going to get captured by the horde .
While I liked the music, I'm not sure it fit the type of game, but others may feel different.
I think it would also be good if you could pick up random weapons from the road as you're running, like a baseball bat, and take a swing at zombies running in your direction.
Thank you!
I agree with your thoughts on the music. Audio has always been my weakness in games so in a jam like this, I didn't take much time to find the right action/horror music track. Just went with the first horror music track that worked from the free selection I could find.
As well, I originally had thoughts on putting guns and debris in the scope of this game, but you know how fast scope can shrink as the deadline approaches! I think power-ups/weapons would be fun to implement in the future.
Fun game, did not expect the twist.
This is really cool. I really liked how it flipped when you died. Is the number of humans you can chase down the same as the number of zombies you evaded?
If you did want to expand on it, would be great to see some debris in the road, or even a third sequence where you start in a car and can run down zombies until the car breaks down and you continue on foot, but i'm just thinking aloud.
Great idea and great work!
Thanks!
The number of zombies you can evade and humans you can eat are actually based on spawn rate, which is based on how long you've gone - so the further you get, the more zombies spawn over time. This timer then counts backwards when you start as a zombie so the opposite occurs - less humans spawn as you go until the timer reaches zero again, then it's over. This approach worked really well in terms of the amount of time it took to implement, but it could be improved.
So to answer your question, I think you can potentially catch "about" the same number of humans as zombies evaded, but I don't think it's always the same, which I would want to change.
And yes I agree: some powerups, debris, and another sequence would be awesome! Maybe even a debris jumping/looting mechanic?
Great game!
Loved the mechanic for turning into a zombie when dying. Text wrapping, as GIGATANK 3000 said, have issues, maybe if you use text auto-size, change size of text objects.
But overall, game is great, you can add some other features to it, and make it look like a great mobile game to kill your time! Controls are intuitive, and even can be easily adapted for phones, graphics are simple, but i did like them, makes nice atmosphere, but maybe with some fog or effect like that, it will look like real apocalypse! Sounds are not bothering, they are nice for a game like that, but music is really good, enjoyed it, really fits to the theme.
Also, think i got the bug, does it hides the road when you are zombie?
Would look for your other games, or maybe some evolution of this project! Good job!
Thanks!
Yes I think this game needs some tweaking with screen size and text resizing. As well, I did see that road disappearing bug a few times, but could never nail down what caused it. I know it has to do with the road pieces spawning and how the pieces need to switch positions when the road changes direction. The current approach to the road is not very elegant I think so it would certainly need to be changed moving forward.
Excellent, I was not expecting to turn into a zombie when I died. I really enjoyed this. One suggestion maybe make the game speed up over a certain amount of time, or maybe it does and I died to soon haha!
Thank you!
Yea I played around with this a bit - mainly I wanted to ensure a player couldn't realistically run forever without getting caught. I came to an approach of spawning more zombies over time, based on the amount of time you've survived. Then, that time counts backwards when you turn to a zombie and the opposite occurs with humans - less spawn as you go. I described this in another comment, but while it works well enough for this jam, I feel this system could be improved.
Great twist! There's some issues with the text for the score wrapping and alignment but solid entry!
I was shocked when I turned into zombie and came back.
Funnnnnn!!!
Didn't expect the "!Side" change :D (both graphical and story)! Congrats!
Love that you could see the shadows chasing behind in the first level
Simple, but I loved the death plot twist :D Also I would love to see some power ups!
Thank you! Due to time constraints, it was all I could do to get it submitted before the deadline! But I agree, building on this with some power-ups, guns, etc. would really make something like this pop.