Hi @nandbolt
I really dont get this game, but I want to at-least try to understand. I just seem to keep dying instantly which isn't very encouraging. This is what I think is happening:
- I start the game as either the blue or black creature. Neither seem very different but have different weapons
- I need to kill other creatures - I think that the list on the left shows how many are in the arena. What if all the creatures die? Do they respawn
- The landscape seems to have no effect on my creature. Walls or water do nothing
- When I dash or shoot I have to wait for it to recharge
- The HUD is large and doesn't realy help in figuring out what is going on
But its just so difficult. At best I've killed 2 creatures but as one hit kills I have to start again. My strategy has been to hang around near the right side of the arena. When a creature appears and starts chasing me wait for it to stop then point in its general direction and spam the fire button. This usually works.
I'd appreciate some more information or pointers to at least give this cart a good go as it does seem interesting.
You start as either the blue or black ghost 👻 and can only see and fight other ghosts.
Once you dematerialize 3 ghosts you go to a tombstone to become a skelle 💀 or zombie 🧟♂️ and eat humans, turning them into undead. The other undead won't hurt you, but they compete with you for humans.
Once you eat 3 humans you go to a bed to become human 🤷♂️ and hunt the undead for as long as you can.
For the first "cycle": I find charging into other ghosts is easier then spamming fire bc it's easier to land a hit and sometimes you can catch them off guard.
Hi @phil
Firstly, thank you so much for playing my game and giving me well thought out feedback! You aren't the only one that finds it hard as most of the people I've seen play it in person can't get past the ghost tier (which is probably a sign it's too hard, hehe).
If you played the version here then I think you played v0.9, which is a little rougher on the edges than the current v0.9.3 on itch.io. I updated the one on here to that version if you want to try it out, here's a couple noteable changes that are in it that weren't in v0.9 that may help:
- target indicator: when no monsters are in view a target line will appear and point to the closest monster, appearing larger the farther they are. This should generally help with figuring out what to do I hope.
- more sfxs: enemies make sounds now if they're in view.
- help menu: a help menu appears in between the main menu and level that sort of explains the 'story', the controls, and shows a random tip that could be useful. Tips are also shown on death.
- less ui: removed the list that shows how many monsters are in the arena. It cluttered the ui and isn't all that useful for the player. It's also reorganized a little.
- way better music: new music made by @JamailMusic.
Now I'll try to explain the game a little. Also note that I was writing this before I saw the post by @Verb which already explains the game pretty well! You're generally right with what you think is happening. You spawn in the arena as 1 of 2 spirits: a blue ghost or a black wraith. The differences between the two are pretty subtle. The ghost has a faster base move speed and a larger ability meter which means it can dash longer and shoot more projectiles before it has to recharge. However, the wraith has a faster dash than the ghost and its projectile is bigger, follows the user and survives longer. A big thing to note is that all spirits are invincible while dashing, which means that ghosts generally have more survivability than wraiths. Also, as a spirit you can freely move through walls and water since you're on an ethereal plane, but once you become undead or a human, walls will have collisions and water will slow you down.
As a monster, you have to fill up your xp bar by getting kills. Get 3 kills as a ghost and you start to emit a yellow aura which means you're ready to ascend to the undead monster tier by finding and touching a tombstone. As a ghost its sort of a free-for-all, but when you become a zombie, skeleton or human it becomes more like a team-deathmatch with zombies and skeletons fighting humans and vice-versa. Monsters respawn up to a max number, on top of that monsters descend to the previous monster tier on death (for spirits its more than death). A cool side note is that even as a spirit, the undead monsters and humans are still on the map and fighting it out but you just can't see them yet until you turn into one of them and vice-versa.
But yeah, 100% I think the game is too hard for new players. Instant death is pretty punishing and getting kills as a spirit is kinda hard. With some of the other tiers I think you can generally cheese a couple to get past them (e.g. zombies can breath their poison breath through walls), but the spirit tier is generally the hardest but most balanced and tested one.
I have a couple ideas to make it less difficult but the problem is I'm running out of PICO-8 tokens and sprite slots so I'm unsure if I'll have enough to implement them, but I'm definitely gonna try! One is I think giving everything 3 hp would help make it less frustrating as you can play more risky at high hp and safer at low, and perhaps you'll be able to find hearts that heal around the map that spawn randomly. This will lead to needing to work harder to get a kill tho and I'm unsure how it'll affect the rest of the game and its feel. Another idea is being able to collect things around the map that'll generally make it easier to survive/get kills, such as an instakill or shield powerup. But again unfortunately, I'm unsure if I have the tokens to do all of these things.
So to wrap things up, I'll write some tips that I think could be helpful in getting past the spirit tier down below that could hopefully aid you in beating the game (since it is possible to beat it!). Thanks again for playing, and here are the tips:
- when a spirit decides they're gonna fight you, it's basically a 50/50 on what they're gonna do: they're either gonna start dashing or shoot a projectile. I generally recommend dashing vs. shooting just like @Verb because of this since you're invincible on dash, meaning if they dash you won't die and you can run off and try again later but if they shoot a projectile or do nothing you can just go through the projectile and get the kill.
- try circle kiting (moving in a circle) or using the initial burst in your dash when they dash at you. By doing this you can save your dash until their dash runs out where you can then go in for the kill. Be aware that they can still shoot a projectile while dashing, however.
- every second the AI decides what to do. So, like @Verb mentioned, you can catch them off guard before they realize you're with targeting distance. They also decide to flee once they're ability meter runs out so that is a good time to pursue.
- know your prey. If you're going up against a wraith, their ability meter runs out faster than ghosts. They can also only shoot two projectiles before they have to recharge so if you see them shoot twice in a row you should be safe for a while.
- 3rd party! If you see a fight happening between two spirits, wait on the sidelines and come in at the end for the cleanup.
- As a ghost you can also try to play safe and try sniping targets since their projectile has more range, just be prepared to dash if you get to close and your target starts chasing you.
I like the addition of the HP bar. It gives players some room for error, and it gives you a chance to escape if you happen to die & descend next to an enemy. The radar was also helpful, especially for zombies with their more limited mobility. Also I found the fog of war for the terrain was nice for spotting enemy ghosts more easily as they come into view.
If you could, can enemies be 1-hit kill again? At least for ghosts. I think landing 3 x 3 hits for each ascension is a bit much for my (admittedly small) attention span, and I'd rather spend more time on the latter stages then on the first. It might not be fair to the AI but they need to become my XP >:)
Anyways, I think it's a great game and thanks for sharing it.
Hey @Verb
I'm glad you like the game! And I can see what you mean, it took a bit for me to adjust to not insta killing things.
You also just gave me a great idea! I'll try to add a 'hard' mode to the game that, at the bare minimum, will make everything instakillable again (yourself included), but you'll have to beat the game once to unlock it (you won't have to beat the game again if you've already done so). You'd be able to play either mode after you unlock and there'd be a separate score for it. Would this be sufficient? I should be able to get it done in a couple days if you don't mind waiting a bit.
I just tried the game again after having tried it out a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say I found the second play through much more enjoyable!
I don't know if it is because I have gone through all the comments to better understand the rules, or the changes that were made to the game, but this time I was able to progress all the way to the human stage, whereas the first time I never made it past the ghost stage.
I think the game premise is very cool. On paper the game loop makes a lot of sens to me and I can se myself spending a couple hours trying out the various monsters!
However I do think the ghost stage might still be too difficult. I found that most of my time was spend on that stage, then once I made it to the human stage I made a couple of dumb mistakes and immediately went down to ghost level; but at that point I didn't feel like grinding that stage to enjoy the later stages again.
On a separate note, the effects are on point!
The first time I played I found the dithering a little confusing, but this time, I was really impressed by the effects on display and embraced the art-style.
All in all good job! I think you have a fun game on your hands, and I'll be interested in checking it out more in the future if there are updates to come!
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