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A jam submission

Low Rez ArenaView game page

Turn-based dice-rollin' arena shooter
Submitted by Extar (@extarscube) — 8 hours, 29 minutes before the deadline
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Low Rez Arena's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Graphics#204.4404.440
Overall#434.1204.120
Audio#483.9203.920
Authenticity (use of resolution)#774.6404.640
Gameplay#1083.4803.480

Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Did you work in a team?
Working in 64x64 resolution again was a lot of fun. Drawing tiny cute versions of the Quake 3 weapons and characters was a blast. Testing and tweaking the level design and combat mechanics was a lot of fun too.
This was a solo project.

Was the resolution a challenge?
There wasn't a lot of room for a HUD so I had to think carefully about what the player needed to be able to see.

What did you learn?
I wanted to make the music respond to what was happening in the game so I made use of the new functions stat(54) and stat(55) to make a simple system for seamlessly transitioning between different tracks. I also played around some more with odd time signatures and sfx instruments to create something similar to the industrial metal soundtrack of the Quake 3.

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Comments

Submitted

I thought the art and the visual polish was great and I liked the death song, I wished there was music throughout. Personally, the combat was a bit confusing and a bit staggered, wasn't quite sure what the numbers on the players or on the sides of the screen were and I did play through the tutorial. I feel the game has some depth but might need more explaining on the combat side of things.

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

I got spawn-camped in the first playthrough (RIP), but on my second try I got:


This is one of the most enjoyable and well-designed game in the jam! I really like the fact that your weapons are part of your HP. This way when an entity's HP is weakened so is their power. The step counter also made it so that the player has to plan their moves very carefully. Also a great feature is that it nicely prevents a power snowball because even when I felt super powerful all it took was a few enemies to wear me down.

A few suggestions I thought of:

  • The blue gun with the 20 on it was probably the most broken item in the game. I always felt like I had a chance when I had that. Since all the items stayed in the same places I wonder if this would lead to a strategy where you just stay close to the OP weapons by repeated abusing the teleporters back and forth instead of having to spend previous move points. Maybe items could be randomized?
  • I think this game would really benefit from melee weapons. The thing is the player is already forced to move very tactically throughout the game, so why not reward them by having a weapon that hits harder up close? This way it leads to "two-birds-with-one-stone" moves where the player gets closer to both an item and an enemy.
  • Adding to my last point, I think it would also be interesting to add some evasion elements. Because if there's anything imperfect about the game so far, I would say that it lacks a good recovery/comeback mechanic. I already mentioned one time when I got spawn-camped, so if there was an evasion mechanic, it would help the player avoid strong enemies when they're still weak (you can make it so that evasion moves cost more move points so that it doesn't get abused).
  • This is more of an UI thing and it probably wouldn't even be an issue without the 64x64 restriction, but when I really piled up on weapons/armor, it blocked out the step counter so I couldn't see how much game I had left :)
Submitted(+1)

My score \o/

Very creative mechanic, if it does feel rigged sometimes =_= bad rolls are my super power ^^ I beat the other doom guy in bottom right corner which I think was the hardest enemy? And you put unlockable characters! really good game :)

Developer(+1)

Nice score!

Xaero has the strongest weapons by default but by the time you've made it over to where Doom is he's usually picked up more weapons. So yeah, most of the time he ends up the toughest opponent. The dice rolls are just pure random numbers, but yeah, definitely feels bad when your railgun rolls a one against an opponent with machine gun. 😅

Submitted(+1)

Love the graphics and music/sfx! Took a moment to figure out what was going on with the combat, but figured it out. :) Great job overall!

Submitted(+1)

Looks good and feels nice. There are some very nicely accomplished aspects to the game like particle effects, animations, screenshake.  I agree with some of the comments that it's a little difficult to figure out exactly what's going on. 

Submitted

the assets are very nice, but its very hard to understand whats going on. after reading the patch notes i was even more confused. playing is more fun, then trying to understanding how its works

Submitted(+1)

Cool game. I like the variety of weapons and characters. The music and sound effects are also nice. The combat was hard to understand at first but I think got a vague understanding of it after a while. Getting the quad damage power-up and obliterating everyone with massive numbers was a highlight.  Unfortunately, it crashed at some point:

Submitted

A well-rounded package for sure (hard to argue with the quality of the graphics, juice, sound), although the main combat mechanic was (and is, to be honest) really confusing. Good fun for 10–20 minutes! Well done!

Submitted

Wow you managed to squeeze in a ton of UI elements! There is a lot of going on, and it took me a while to get the hang of it, but I really enjoyed it! The metallic base tileset is probably my favorite, but I love the variety too.

Submitted(+1)

This is such a cool game! I love how you captured the essence of Quake, and the music went along incredibly well.

Submitted

This is such a cool game! I love how you captured the essence of Quake, and the music went along incredibly well.

Submitted(+1)

Very funny gameplay, nice game!

Submitted(+1)

This is an awesome accomplishment, there's clearly a lot of work and love that went into this, great job! I only wish there was a bit more to the gameplay loop, it starts to feel repetitive after the first 500 ticks.

I played this game on stream, the vod is up at http://bit.ly/bean-stream

Submitted(+1)

One of the best games I have played so far in this jam!

I was struggling at the beginning considering the combat mechanics, but It was so fun to play after I got the hang of it. I'm amazed that you've created this in so little time. I have also checked your blog post and saw how you designed the game. That is a strange little combat system that worked well for this jam!

Solid entry, good job!

Submitted

Interesting take on the idea of a deathmatch, it's interesting how guns somewhat double as health (although the relationship between guns, damage, armor, and health isn't completely explained anywhere, not that it necessarily needs to be). Impressive amount of characters too, unlocking them by killing them is a nice way to go about it. I'm unsure if there is any good way to run away from enemies when there is no nearby cover.

Submitted

Nice game you put up there. Somewhat complex to grasp the combat mechanics out of the box but once you get it there’s some strategical complexities in weapon picking. I need to get a look into those stat 54/55 ;) there’s always just that extra thing pico has to offer you’re not so familiar with. Nice entry and glad you’re out of the bugs nest!

Submitted(+1)

So much crammed into a PICO-8 cart, really great execution.  As others have said, I wish I understood the combat better, but I do see that you posted a link below with more detailed explanation, so I'll check that out.  Just a really tactile experience over all, super cool!

Developer(+1)

Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice music and visuals. Combat was a bit hard to understand at first tho. Pretty good game once you have a grasp of the combat system. and PICO-8 is the absolute perfect tool for this jam :]

Developer

Yeah Pico-8 rules for jams like this, it's so easy setting up a quick, dirty game in it. I've gone into more depth about the combat rules in a blog post if you're interested :) https://extar.itch.io/low-rez-arena/devlog/416661/v101

Submitted(+1)

Graphically, this game is quite charming. I will say, I made it to the end with 13 frags and 8 deaths. Though, I'm still not sure I understand how the combat is actually working. The tutorial covers some of the basics, but the rules as to how equipment is lost and when you die seem like trial and error. A couple sentences on the game page would help people like me.

That said, the game looks great, and having so many items and a big world in this restricted format feels pretty good.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! The game started out life as just a bunch of 8x8 Quake 3 sprites so that's why there's so much stuff crammed in :)

Yeah there was no way I was going to fully explain the combat system in a handful of 8-word sentences XD.. I've posted a more detailed list of combat rules in a blog post: https://extar.itch.io/low-rez-arena/devlog/416661/v101