Neat idea! I included it in my GMTK Game Jam compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :)
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Forced Directions's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #303 | 3.730 | 3.730 |
| Overall | #537 | 3.604 | 3.604 |
| Presentation | #1004 | 3.568 | 3.568 |
| Originality | #1880 | 3.153 | 3.153 |
Ranked from 111 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The player has no control over the direction where he will shoot and the frequency of the shooting. A lot other stuff are all randomized (like enemy speed / points you get for an enemy etc) - so it's also a bit out of my control. Also added a (last minute) idea where enemies have a chance of dropping powerups. And when the player picks that up, something is randomized (enemy speed, enemy points, player shooting rate etc). And it's all visible in the PAUSE screen (on purpose - so no debugging)
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
No
We used pre-existing audio
Comments
Perfect music for this surprisingly intense survival shooter. Love the little timer over his head letting you know when the change is coming and the slow ramp up in enemy spawn rates. Really well designed and implemented for such a simple concept. Well done.
Submitted
CottonwoodVery fun game and great choice in music. The only criticism I have is the random points. It made the score feel pointless. The number of enemies killed or the time survived felt like more of an achievement. But still you made a great game so well done.
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Delve Delve LimitationThanks for your honest feedback.
And I agree. The points are now kinda meaningless. At first I had just the points being calculated based on the (random-ish) enemy movement speed, so faster enemies will earn you more points. That still feels like a fair balance. But in the end I decided the game needed more 'out of control' elements and I introduced more randomness, for instance sometimes (when picking up a pickup item / yellow dot) some random enemy's points will be randomized. It felt fun in theory... but didn't had time to test it out ... and in hindsight I should have left it out ^^
Very nice game. I liked sound effects. Unfurtunnaly it was really laggy for me...
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The Monstera very nice game! i had lot of fun & it's really pretty. great work!
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Real Estate RescueThis game is really fun, the music really compliments the gameplay specially when there's a lot of enemies in the arena. The main criticisms I have for this game are the art and variety. It would have been cool to see enemy variety either functionally or visually, and it also would have been cool to have a more detailed arena/level. Out of that, the game is fun and it embraces the theme creatively.
Submitted
(don't) PANIC!Thanks for your feedback.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the game and music.
Different enemies and/or weapons where on the roadmap, but didn't had enough time to implement. But I'm planning to continue to work on this in the future, so will add more enemies and weapon variety for sure.
About level design, I dabbled with the idea to have some (random-ish) level parts ... so the player could hide behind it or anything ... but same issue occured: had not enough time to implement / create / work it out. Is also something I will explore in the future.
Honestly I came here from random and didn't think random direction would work, but the game was very good! Felt really nice to play and the random direction was actually a very interesting game mechanic. I had a lot of fun with it, nice job! Music slaps, where is that from?
Submitted
Super SpacebarIt's nice to see the game surprised you. Appreciate your honest opinion.
Glad to hear you had fun playing, that's the most important part of a game imho.
The music is a song called DTB created by my cousin, RQ. You can find more of his work here: https://soundcloud.com/arqueue
The song was not written specific for this game ... but we will collaborate in the future. He's probably gonna compose some similar songs especially for the game.
It's OK. I really like the music but I would have preferred more enemy variety.
Submitted
Cat and Mouse Horror GameSimple and fun game. Fits the theme. Would be great with more enemy types unless they came later in the game. Overall a good entry!
If you want, please check out my submission.
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Out Of ControlsSimple yet very well executed idea. Love the overall game feel :)
PS: I trying the jam games and tweet about them. I will tweet about this one as well! Check it out: https://twitter.com/TheAntonSem/status/1283837283339309058
Submitted
CodermanQuite addictive with how easy it is to restart :P The music and sfx worked really well together too. Sometimes it even seemed like the bullets were being shot in time with the music! Was that intentional? :o
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Catching StarsThanks for your feedback. I tried to make it as addictive as possible, especially with the easy restart. Even considered to restart automatically after a few restarts, with a small countdown... just to keep up the pace. Might do that in the future.
Yeah, I also noticed the shots sometimes perfectly synced with the beats of the music. It was a happy accident, but something I want to explore more in the future for sure. Loved how that made me feel.
Got a highscore of 18384, ingenious way of interpreting the theme and n addictive concept that kept me playing for way too long given my not great score. Would have loved to see more enemies or environmental objects and I look forward to seeing whether you develop the game further.
Submitted
Trolley Folly26k, 56 enemies, couldn't do any better :'( I love the flat design, the sound, the general gamefeel, it feels and plays really smooth. I had some frustrating moments where direction would stick to somewhere I didn't want it to for a looong time, and then to a better direction for like 5 seconds x)
Submitted
DubgeonThat's a nice achievement!
Not sure what my highest kill-count or score is tbh. Never really wrote it down while developing.
And yes, the totally random direction can be frustrating if the direction will stay the same for several 'rounds'. Wasn't sure if I wanted to enforce it being different on every 'round' - but decided to make it fully random, just to stay more into the 'out of control' theme. But should make it more forgiving or more clear what changed (or did not).
Glad you enjoyed my game!
Thanks for the kind words!
The actual score is indeed influenced by the random points of the enemies... but not sure if I will keep that in, in a next iteration. It was fun for the jam - but not really enough for the core gameplay.
And yes, I also would love to include a highscore-list ... at least local, but would be awesome to just have it globally ... who got the most enemies killed, stayed alive the longest (timewise) or who just made the most points.
So yeah, in a future iteration I will (hopefully) add this ^^
This game is simpler yet brilliant. Had way too much fun playing it! It reminds me somehow of the Zombie mode in CallOfDuty. You just run in circles and once enough enemies are in one spot and the random shooting fits you take them down all at once.
I really hope you develop this little game a bit further after the jam rating phase. Would love to play it a bit more!
Submitted
Panic At The DiscoGlad you had fun playing my game. I can totally see what you refer to with COD Zombies - I had the same experience ... and yes, also here in my own game ... just running away until at some point the stars would align and the enemies would be all perfectly align with the shooting direction... and "splatter!"
And thanks for your encouragement. Based on all the comments I will feel the drive to continue working on this game after the jam has ended. Have enough ideas and lots of parts to improve on
Woah this is super nice!! Amazing job, feels super polished and it's incredibly fun. It's really adictive, Great job!
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CheatMaster 3000The level of polish is just great. And the concept is nice and well executed. Lots of fun to play :-)
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Escort Mission 2020Thank you for appreciating the polish ... I wanted the game to feel 'done' enough, couldn't live with something halfway-finished.
And yes, it's still a jam game - so there are still a lot of balancing issues or stuff that doesn't work well enough ^^
And glad to hear you had fun playing. That's the most important thing.
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