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A jam submission

Freak AfootView game page

Half-Life except you are in a wheelchair!
Submitted by Bitpro — 1 hour, 32 minutes before the deadline
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Play Experience

Freak Afoot's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall Bad#163.6793.800
Graphics#203.6153.733
Overall#303.1843.289
Gameplay#323.0343.133
Overall Good#362.8402.933
Modifier#372.9053.000
Sound#423.0343.133

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

If you have implemented the modifier, how have you done so?
Just a dump of crappy free to use sounds + robots throwing insults

Any additional information for voters?
The web version works for the most part, but I recommend you download the game for the best experience if you are on windows. Theres also a linux version but for me it was laggy af but that might be just the fact that i dont have a ssd in my old pc...

If you think the game is too hard, I implemented a baby mode just for you to make the game easier:) (If you cant beat the game even with it on then im sorry:D)

Ik that the game is way too hard even with baby mode, you can check out the ending and stuff here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsdplV-6sV8&t=1s

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Comments

Submitted(+2)

I was really excited to play this one after seeing the footage of it in development on discord. And while I really liked the final product it does have some flaws I feel I should point out. And it should be noted I only mention these because they're the same flaws my games have had (or have tbh), and I've submitted now 4 FPS games to SBIG. I don't expect all of these to have been addressed, but just suggestions for future FPS games if you do any.

  • The players main weapon is projectile based and has bullet spread, but the enemy projectiles for the most part have zero spread. This is especially noticeable with the flying enemies and turrets, but it's annoying because it feels like even if leading your shots it's hard to get a hit on enemies at a medium distance. And with the turrets there's a hard limit on how close you can get to them since they're on the ceiling. I've come to vastly prefer the Halo method of the player having hitscan weapons that may or may not have bullet spread, and enemies have slower moving projectile weapons that the player can dodge if they're moving. And it felt to me like I was dodging 1 out of 10 shots even at full speed.
  • Enemy explosive projectiles are very hard to see, in fact I rarely ever see them before I hear/feel the explosion.
  • The rocket launcher having bullet drop, but also splash damage is a bit much. It felt like the rocket launcher did more damage to me at times than enemies. I suspect this is the reason why the launcher doesn't do more damage to enemies. Or at least, splash damage affecting the player is why the rocket launcher in my game doesn't do more damage lol.
  • The reloading of the weapons, specifically the SMG are a bit too slow. And also something I discovered is the shooting flows much better if you have the weapons automatically reload if the player tries to fire while the gun is empty.
  • There should probably be more health pickups in the combat areas, I had to finish the game on baby mode because I died so quickly. This is something I discovered to be an issue in my game as well.
  • The damage feedback on enemies could be improved, while I can tell if I'm hitting them with the machine gun from the impact noises, it's hard to tell how damaged they are. Maybe some smoke coming off them at half health could do the trick. This wouldn't be an issue if they went down in a few shots, but their high health combined with poor accuracy of the weapons, at times I found myself dumping two clips into some enemies.
  • Turning is really awkward and slow, a great addition (to the frankly already pretty extensive movement logic) would be a power brake of some sort. Like holding spacebar brings the palyer to a screeching halt and allows for faster turns or something like that.
  • The unalive command specifically (though frankly all the controls) should be placed in-game somehow, even if just in the pause menu. Because I didn't know I could get past the Roller enemy that blocked me into a shipping container.


But back to the positives because there's also a lot to like!

The enemy variety is pretty nice, you have stationary turrets, flying enemies, tanks with  multiple weapon types, and an even tankier roller enemy that just barrels towards the player. You have two distinct weapon types, in-game lore, and in one case even a non-violent solution to an enemy (which I discovered before even seeing the enemy)! Also that ending cutscene had some really nice "So Bad It's Good" energy!

I also liked all the little details like the newspaper in the beginning, the actually rolling wheels on the wheelchair, the in-world radios playing music, all of that was awesome!

There's some great stuff here, just a bit warped by awkward controls and difficulty.

Great work overall though!

Developer(+2)

First of all thanks for the giant great review:) About your notes in order:

  • The enemies apart from turrets actually have a lot more bulletspread than the player. Ig all of the enemies only shoot so close to the player that their spread is unnoticeable. They also just snap onto the player, and the bullets are so fast that it's hard to dodge anything. I wanted to make the giant turret have basically 0 inaccuracy because otherwise the player could just "run" past, but ig that change got carried to all of the other turrets as well... I didnt really spend any time thinking about the bulletspread, but ig if the player can clearly see that they are missing just because of rng, they will just get annoyed:D
  • The explosive enemies were basically the last thing i made (i made this game from end to start), so i didnt really polish them that much and they just ended up as one more enemy that snaps onto you.
  • The rockets start with an initial velocity and get some forward acceleration on the way, i struggled with finding a good balance of those values where the rocket isnt too fast but also doesnt fall into the ground instantly... I should have just made it accelerate upwards a bit so that it can fly slowly and still not fall instantly.
  • The reload speeds just comes from how i animated them, thats just the speed the animations ended up with, i didnt think about it at all:D When writing the gun script i thought that i need to implement an autoreload toggle for the ai, of course i thought that if the ai auto reloads, then the player has to naturally reload themselves...
  • The way you can pick up health whilst moving at fullspeed in the first roller fight was pretty cool, i should have had more of that. When making baby mode i had a small hope that the game was too difficult, just so everyone had to listen to a baby crying. I guess my wish was fulfilled:D
  • Some smoke/sparks for the enemies would have been cool, i did make the rollers start smoking but i didnt expand that idea to all of the enemies
  • I should have put all of the controls into the pause menu or smthing. That screenshot is golden, thats what i assumed would happen but never did when i playtested:D

Thanks again for playing through the entire game, i should really start figuring out a way to make games that arent way too difficult... The awkward controls are probably the biggest reason why my games are so hard. I have no clue how i keep coming up with this garbage lol, i think if i ever join a game jam again i need to make a game where the controls are actually normal...

(also sorry for the word salad, i tried to clean it up a bit but its still ass:D)

Submitted(+1)

I appreciate the full response!

I kinda assumed some of them were just left the way they were due to time, and some just kinda slip the mind. I've had both happen to me too.

Balancing is a hard thing in a jam, I mean I've had people say my games are either too easy or way too difficult.

In any case I'm excited to see what you come up with next time!

Submitted(+1)

For the rockets, you should just make them fall slower since they have fins, which give them an upward force and make them fly straighter due to Bernoulli's principle or something. (Don't quote on me, though. I am no expert of aerodynamics.

Host

This game is so cool! I love the enemies, map design, and voice acting of the robots. The aesthetic is there and  it does really play one of those classic shooters

Unfortunately I suck at games and couldn't get past the mega-turret, even with baby difficulty on 🙈 I might have another attempt after the jam as I  really want to get to the end of this!

Though with that said I loved the lore scattered about,  and the whole wheelchair movement was a fun idea (if not a bit slow, especially when items were often in containers where you had to turn back around!

Thanks for submitting!

Developer(+1)

You can beat the mega turret by just going into the other room and shutting of the power, im glad to hear that the design of this game has failed in another way:D Originally the player was just going to be walking around as normal, but somehow i decided to put the player in a wheelchair halfway through the jam. I would have probably made the chair turn faster if you are going slow, but i totally forgot

Ty for the detailed review:)

Submitted

This certainly was an experience. Main gripe was with the difficulty - I was (eventually) able to get past the first road roller fight on the default difficulty, but the lack of any checkpoints after that (and the immediate Even Stronger Road Roller fight) eventually lead to me giving up on that. I have no idea how you expected anyone to get through the game on the default difficulty.

The easier difficulty mode (which I eventually resorted to after about half an hour of no progress) actually made it possible, but, again, adding a couple more checkpoints to the second half wouldn’t have gone amiss. After all, there’s enough difficulty in the unintuitive control scheme anyway without the artificial difficulty of the bullet sponge enemies.

But ultimately, the difficulty sucked the fun out of the experience. I was too preoccupied with trying to avoid dying to actually, y’know, appreciate the absurdity of the situation and actually enjoy it. And I honestly felt nothing but relief when it was finally over.

Developer(+1)

First of all, its really cool that you actually played this so thoroughly, ty very much:D 

Secondly about the difficulty, im starting to think that i should really get some people to playtest the shit i make, because i personally assumed that this game would be pretty easy... I really have no idea how all of the games that i make feel so easy to play for me, but i guess its basically just the fact that since i coded it, i know the exact behaviour of literally everything, whilst others have to figure all of that out themselves. Especially the rollers are pretty easy to deal with if you know exactly how they work, you can basically just spin in circles and they wont do anything since they "charge" right before they hit the player. I was going to make them charge a lot lot sooner, but i of course thought that would make it too easy:D And of course the player is supposed to know that i didnt bother to code the rocket explosions to work correctly, so they hit every hitbox that is in range around them (so it basically hits the rollers and tanks 2 times since they hit both normal hitbox and the weakspots). 

I did actually take actions to make it easier, originally there werent any health pickups after the checkpoint and i of course implemented baby mode (which i thought dying with accidentally would be pretty much impossible). Ig i should have deleted all of the enemies that come after the "super turret", i just put them there because i thought it would be awkward if the player would have to just roll through 3 empty rooms...

But ty once again for the long review, really appreciate it:)

Submitted(+1)

I was able to work out the strategy for the rollers somewhat quickly (looping them around the pillar), however, their status as bullet sponges does mean there’s plenty of opportunities for things to go badly in the process (so, y’know, having to redo that fight in order to have an attempt at the content after it was a pain in the backside).

Re the ending and ‘three empty rooms’ - well, there is the question of whether or not the three rooms prior to the ending area actually served any purpose. Perhaps placing a checkpoint there, and building up some anticipation for A Big Fight may have been a better purpose for it (rather than fodder enemies), and probably would have worked suitably well given, y’know, SBIGJam and all that.

And honestly, I get where you’re coming from, about playtesting being a pain.

Submitted(+1)

That's a huge content for a single dev. Congrats Bitpro. 

Submitted(+1)

The general style feels like "weird 2000s FPS from a company you've never heard of" and I'm all for it. I like the concept of being in a motorized wheelchair in a shooter- it's like that one level of Wolfenstein II, but turned up to 11. I'm impressed by all the fully functional FPS mechanics, although I do wish weapons reloaded automatically.

I didn't get very far. Movement is slow and clunky, which makes it annoying just to get from point A to point B, and you can't really dodge attacks. Your weapons are weak and inaccurate, and enemies are complete bullets sponges. I think this could be a delightfully chaotic mess with a bit of tweaking, but the game feels slow and very unbalanced in its current state, and it kind of sucks the fun out of it.

I couldn't figure out how to close the first "lore" I picked up. Not sure if this is a bug or not.

Developer (1 edit)

I can see how the gameplay might be a bit bad. You can close the "lores" by pressing tab or space bar, i would have made it esc but that would not work with webgl:( I should have just had an ui button that closes it, i only made the cursor become visible for 1 stupid joke:D Also some enemies have weakpoints (for the tanks its the body and rollers its the radiator) but i of course didnt display that anywhere...

Submitted(+1)

Man I'm so bad at this game 🫤

With horrible deviation and the lack of aiming crosshair, weapons in this game really resemble how people would realistically wield a gun if they have never done before.

The control is also very hard to get used to, especially to me who has never driven a car. (I did have driven a kart, though. However, my experience was exactly the same as how I played this game - I just kept bumping into walls.)

Furthermore, while the enemies are literally tanks made of metal plates, the player is just a tank made of squishy meats.

Maybe I need to actually get a driver license before I can actually enjoy this game...

Developer(+1)

It wouldnt be a game made by me if it didnt have atleast 1 absurd control mechanic that makes the game unplayable for 50% of people:D And of course the player can eat a hundred bullets before dying

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed this! The robots were quite silly, too