Ludum Dare 52: What Must Be Done

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The title screen for the game showing a mad doctor with a scalpel chasing a cat.


tl;dr: I participated with a team in the Ludum Dare 52 game jam, and we made a 2D bullet-hell-style game. I only made the music and sounds for this one!




The game

You are Dr. Frankenstein-esque surgeon on a mission to do what must be done.

The premise of the game is that work your way through a dungeon, killing monsters, collecting monster parts, and then using those parts to upgrade your character and unlock the end of the game.

The jam

We participated in the "jam" form of Ludum Dare, in which we had 72 hours to create our game according to the jam's theme. We created all code, art, music, and sounds over the course of the weekend.

The theme this time was "Harvest".

The team

Music



Screenshots

An animated GIF showing the player running around dodging enemy projectiles and attacking with their own.
Classic bullet-hell-style gameplay--dodge, dodge, dodge!

An animated GIF showing the player running around dodging enemy projectiles and attacking with their own.
Things get more interesting when you upgrade your attacks!

The temporary reward screen showing two randomized options for the player to upgrade.
Each run through the dungeon consists of a series of rooms.
Between each room, you get to choose from two random upgrades that will last the rest of the run.

The temporary reward screen showing two randomized options for the player to upgrade.
A couple other random upgrade options.

The research screen showing various abilities to upgrade, weapons to unlock, and a button for ending the game. Each option requires paying a number of resources.
After you end a run through the dungeon, you can spend your collected monster parts to either upgrade your character or trigger the end of the game ("Do what must be done").

The ending screen for the game showing the doctor hugging a Frankenstein-esque dog.
The ending screen.

An animated GIF of the player walk animation.

Retrospective

I didn't have much time to spend working on this game jam, so I only made the music this time (well, and the sound effects, but those hardly take any time at all). I made a total of four songs for this, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

I'm also really impressed with how great a game my teammates made!

  • I think this is probably the most well-polished and fun-to-play game I've contributed to during a game jam.
  • There is an impressive amount of content and mechanics packed in here!
    • Lots of different enemies.
    • Lots of different player and enemy weapons.
    • Lots of different upgrades and dynamically changeable stats for the weapons.
    • Lots of complex UI.
  • The art and animations are all really great!
  • I like the premise of Frankenstein-style putting-back-together your loving dog.


🎉 Cheers!


This is a simple icon representing my sabbatical.

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