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Pirate Software - Game Jam 17

Hosted by Pirate Software · #PirateJam
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A jam submission

Humanity’s Last ShotView game page

Launch volunteers from a cursed catapult, stack wild effects, and save humanity—one doomed body at a time.
Submitted by ASarevok, Obstruct The Tide — 7 hours, 5 minutes before the deadline
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Humanity’s Last Shot's itch.io page

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Ok so once you've figured it out, it's not that difficult... *yeets volunteer across all known realms* ... anyway, as I was saying... xD This game is fun! It's simple, basically Angry Birds with some extras, I really enjoyed playing. I was gonna say that you don't explain a lot, but clicking "Help" does give additional info; I think it would still be a bit more player friendly to include some tips straight away. I was also not expecting a wall of text when I clicked on "Lore" but I think it's pretty cool that you included it! The sound is a good fit to play along without being annoying, if you have to try a level over and over again. The correct angle is not always easy to find and it can get a little frustrating if it takes forever to find the angle and strength needed to hit the targets. One gets kind of used to it after a while but I'd suggest you check the settings for this to take a but frustration out of it. I like the pixel art style, the colours and all set a nice theme that goes well with the sound. Now, technically you implemented the theme although it's not the strongest implementation I've seen. But the GDD, which gives a lot of insight into your developing process, showed that you did put quite some thoughts into this, so this is still well done :) Overall I really enjoyed playing the game, I think it having a NG+ makes it even better and a casual game you can sink some time into! Thank you for participating in the game jam, I hope you had fun developing your game, as I had a lot of fun playing it!

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VjDXrh8MkNfIDXvh-6-JY-XyFAVaYqeIi0jwhO-BLO4/edit?usp=sharing

Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
yes

Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
yes

Summarize your game!
Summary:
Humanity’s Last Shot is a darkly humorous, physics-based roguelite where you launch brave (but expendable) volunteers from a cursed catapult. Stack elemental effects over four strategic shots to build devastating "cocktail" combos that obliterate monsters, structures, and cursed terrain.

Story:
In a medieval world on the brink, humanity clings to the belief that just one heroic launch can save them. But as bodies pile up and the town recruiter remains blissfully optimistic, you realize the only way forward is to combine the twisted talents of magical Brewmasters and sacrifice more than one… maybe hundreds.

Mechanics:

- Choose 4 effects (Fire, Poison, Void, etc.) and assign them to your launch team
- Each launch adds its effect to a growing “cocktail” of powers
- Final shot unleashes the full combo
- Effects level up with use, unlocking stronger variations
- Optional treasures revives fallen citizens

Final score = how few volunteers died to clear all levels

Controls:

Mouse / Touch: Aim and set power
Click / Release: Launch volunteer
Simple controls, deep strategy through effect stacking and order planning

If you want to restart with a new build you can go to options and click restart.

Please explain how your game fits the theme.
1) We limited ourselves to using just one button: the left mouse click. This made the game easy to play in browsers and fully compatible with mobile devices (in-browser).
2) Instead of giving players a full loadout right away, each shot is assigned a single special effect—keeping gameplay focused and strategic.

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Comments

LemmySubmitted1 year ago

Angry Birds but they're people and there's blood! I enjoyed the idea of this one, but I wasn't a huge fan of the tossing mechanic. It took me a few rounds just to figure out that I needed to drag TOWARD where I wanted to go instead of AWAY. lol

I would LOVE to see a more refined version of this one. Keep working on it~

Submitted
Raven Morose and the MacGuffin Gauntlet
Reply
Varii @ PepperTangoGamesSubmitted1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

This is a really good looking game with compelling upgrade and progression systems that unfortunately falls very short in the gamefeel department, which is a shame because had you gotten it right, this would be a smash hit

I think my biggest question is why the map scrolls *so* far? I dont know if you ever do this, i didnt get far enough, but i imagine enemies placed at the complete edge of the map would be just awful to fight - it would take a lot of scrolling to see where your shot landed. I assume that you push the gameplay in that direction because of just how far the catapult can shoot: it is *very* powerful, and fine adjustments are very, very difficult due to how powerful it is. Fighting anything at mid range felt like straddling a very, very thin line between launching 0.1m and the entire map; there didnt feel like much room for precision here, which is a shame. 

Level 2 was particularly frustrating - it seems *very* precise. placing demands of precision on the player with imprecise controls (why is it so easy to undershoot???) is a recipe for disaster honestly - if your game was any worse presented i wouldve quit there and then, but you'd built up just enough goodwill for me to push through that major moment of friction.

The main issue that made me want to stop playing was just a lot of clunk that i'll list below

  • Sometimes i'd lose and have to restart the level, and i *never* figured out why. I assume there's some kind of counter? but i dont know where
  •  The tutorial doesnt play automatically - you have to click the "help" button in order to see it. it should really have played by itself
  • The tutorial only seems to cover the *very* basics of "click to shoot the catapult". idk 
  • the "ammo" was quite obviously from an asset pack to me, and not integrated amazingly. Why is there a woman swaying her hips stood in a catapult? Sure, we can launch people as ammo, but why are they happy about it?
  • The lore tab was,,,, presented in a way where i doubt anyone read it. It'd be better split up and trickled throughout the game
  • Effects felt very inconsistent - they often just wouldnt work? Poison seemed consistent, but the chain lighting one only sometimes activated and I never saw the effects of magic arrow
  • On my second playthrough, level 2 bugged out. The clear only registered on my 5th success.
  • and for the second time - the catapult controls were so, so finnickly. They need significant changes to feel good IMO.

I do see some of these concerns addressed on the jam page; Inconsistent effects mightve been partially due to your system where you get +1 effect per shot (which i dont love, but dont have much to say about), though that doesnt explain why i never saw the magic arrow do anything. This isnt nescessarily a bug with the upgrade itself - it might be a deficiency in VFX. 
 

The ammo counter, too, seems to be based on the number of total effects you have, but again that system was never conveyed to me through gameplay. I intentionally never read the jam/itch page because i want to judge games on how they tutorialise, and i dont think your game did a the best job in that department (though you tried - which is way more than most aha)

This sounds very negative, but the core of the game is very compelling! Your systems are very interesting, and i genuinely wish they were packaged alongside a better-controlling catapult so i could experience them more 


Reply
ASarevokDeveloper1 year ago (5 edits)

Thanks for the thorough feedback — I agree with practically all of it. Most of the issues can be traced back to a total lack of external playtesting:

  1. The overturned catapult — As the developer, I knew the exact pixel-perfect shot angle, but that’s obviously not the case for players. It's an issue I have with most of my games, it's hard to look past your own knowledge having played it so much...

  2. Bugged skills — These were unfortunately expected, given the limited development time. It’s frustrating that we didn’t have enough bandwidth to properly clean them up.

  3. Lack of tutorial/information — This was underprioritized, and it shows. A more structured introduction would’ve helped players get up to speed faster.

As for the lady swinging her hips, in my head she is trying to get free out of the catapult.

Reply
khaltoreSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Very well done. I played for a pretty long time because it was so much fun (a bit into 3x NG+). 
The pixel art is great, the music sets a good tone, the upgrades felt impactful. 
I did have some freezes along the way (they also got through after a while), I used a poison build with chaining and guided arrows, so I guess when it was figuring everything out it took some time.
Good game!

Submitted
Roll with it
Reply
ASarevokDeveloper1 year ago (1 edit)

ng+3 is so far, very nice, glad people are enjoying it (I always find it hard to tell on release if people will enjoy it or not)

I added ng+ an hour before submission, it could very well be that it's not be freeing the nodes from the previous run, based on the feedback it seems it needs debugging -.-'

Reply
Nifty Red PandaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Awesome game! Kept me playing way longer than I should have.

Submitted
Lonely Arrow
Reply
ASarevokDeveloper1 year ago

nice, thanks for that feedback, glad to hear people engage it longer than 2 mins :D

Reply
PixelyPlayzySubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Had to play this one, awesome thumbnail btw. Pretty fun experience throughout, even though it froze a few times.  

Submitted
One Dollar
Reply
ASarevokDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

ow it froze? That's a first hearing that feedback, could you give any details on your playsession so I could attempt to reproduce that bug? What build did you go, when did it freeze, etc...?

Reply
PixelyPlayzySubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I chose the shot that made it so that enemies exploded on death and put all level up upgrades into explosion area and damage so that I could clear the earlier levels with one hit. Sometimes at the end of the later levels (like 7+) when multiple enemies were exploding at the same time, the game would freeze for a second and the sound effects would crunch a bit. Later on I chose guided arrows and lightning as my other shots, which might have added to it a bit. It didn't really hinder my experience all that much. 

Reply
ASarevokDeveloper1 year ago (1 edit)

thanks for the response, I'll try it out but explosions is on the refactor list for sure, feels underwhelming compared to shock poison combo

Reply
ValengoSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

A fun roguelike game! I think a partial indicator of your shooting line would greatly improve UX. Even if it fades to not entirely spoil the trajectory, I tended to whiff extremely because I just had no idea if I was pulling far back enough. That said, restarting the level is fast, so it was never that frustrating!

Nice work!

Submitted
Artificer's Crystal
Reply
satojamSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

The audio and visuals are great! I think that the catapult controls disobeyed me a ton … but other than that it’s superb

Submitted
BACKSTACK
Reply
abyssusjSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Had a lot of fun flinging peasants across the screen. Great composition and execution on the style.

Submitted
Only One
Reply
Newton DuarteSubmitted1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

Just played your game! Really cool concept! Loved the elemental effects. Reached round 13 and 98 dead volunteers, haha.

Submitted
The Last Bullet
Reply
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