{"id":1996,"edition":11,"categories":1,"features":0,"size":11150,"name":"When Your Neighbors Are Mongols","authors":[{"name":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130}],"description":"

As the brave samurai looked out across the field of battle at the endless horde of mongol warriors advancing from the west, he knew his time was near. Nonetheless, he gripped his BFG tightly and vowed to take as many of the foreign invaders with him as he could.

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Gameplay

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When you neighbors are mongols is a random as game I made for js13k 2023, where you must do your best to hold back the mongol horde as long as you can.

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The samurai will fire his BFG automatically, leaving you to the important tasks of avoiding swords and spears thrown by mongols, as well as collecting powerup cubes to empower him and lay waste to many mongols at once.

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Powerups

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There are several powerups that will aid the samurai in his bloodlust…

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Controls

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Move the samurai up with “UPARROW” or “Q” keys, and down with “DOWNARROW” or “A” keys. These controls can be changed in the options menu.

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Collect powerup cubes by clicking on them with the primary mouse button. This control is NOT configurable.

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Notes

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When your neighbors are Mongols has been tested working in FireFox and Chrome on Windows 10, and is best played in full-screen mode.

\n","source":"Antix-Development/when_mongols_are_your_neighbors","stars":0,"post":"https://github.com/Antix-Development/when_mongols_are_your_neighbors/blob/master/POST-MORTEM.md","comments":[{"at":347353662,"author":"Oliver Smith","login":"olvr","gh":2752443,"url":"https://thort.net","text":"

I like the art style and characters but found it a little difficult to follow the mouse cursor with much action on the screen to get the powerups. Great production value and entertaining to play though.

\n","games":["Exit the Castle"]},{"at":347394748,"author":"Christopher Lis","login":"christopher4lis","gh":7675752,"url":"https://christopherlis.com","twitter":"christopher4lis","text":"

Really nice job being able to fit all that art within 13kb (along with all the power up functionality too). Game looked and played great, awesome job.

\n","games":["Young Magi, Awaken"]},{"at":347407924,"author":"Thiago Romão Barcala","login":"thiagorb","gh":821208,"text":"

Audio, graphics and effects are very cool!

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I couldn’t multi-task enough to control my samurai while picking up the power ups, so I was usually focusing on one of the two. When there were a lot of enemies on the screen I looked at the samurai to see where it was, and where it should be, then I couldn’t find my cursor anymore. Maybe it would be a cool improvement to have a custom cursor for the game.

\n","games":["Duelo"]},{"at":347423605,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"

The graphic style is wonderful, and I especially like all the effects.

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For me, the gameplay just didn’t quite work. I couldn’t look at where my guy was on screen while also focusing enough on powerups to place my mouse cursor over them. Maybe if your samurai just followed the mouse cursor vertically instead of Q/A? That way i could move the mouse where I wanted to aim, and also click powerups along the way? I also would have appreciated icons on the powerups instead of just letters, as in the chaos of it I really had no idea what each thing was, and it was too busy to think about what letter meant what thing.

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Still I think it’s great artistically, and a polished presentation. Some\nsmall gameplay tweaks could make it a really nice little game.

\n","games":["Upyri"]},{"at":347501158,"author":"Federico Jacobi","login":"federicojacobi","gh":3521974,"url":"https://federicojacobi.com","text":"

This game is awesome! I think the fire rate, collision boxes, and initial speed needs to be balanced a bit. It is super hard in the beginning, and the waves get difficult very fast.

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I really enjoyed it tho, even though I couldn’t get past the first wave

\n","games":["Angry Temujin"]},{"at":348696424,"re":347501158,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Thanks. There is actually only one wave. I’d agree at a certain point the difficulty ramps up a lot but that’s kind of how I wanted it, for the player to suddenly feel overwhelmed.

\n"},{"at":347524557,"author":"Alexey Kalmakov","login":"rndD","gh":850302,"text":"

Very nice graphics. You made outstanding visuals with very low budget.

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The difficulty curve is a little steep. So the game ended for me too early.

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PS My high score is: 53700

\n","games":["Mini Merchant"]},{"at":347526887,"author":"Tiago Correia","login":"dosaki","gh":1957450,"url":"https://dosaki.net/","text":"

This game is hard!

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I loved the weird multitasking of clicking and moving the canon. It feels super chaotic xD

\n","games":["Swords & Quills"]},{"at":348683585,"author":"John Edvard","login":"johnedvard","gh":656024,"url":"https://reitgames.com","twitter":"ReitGames","text":"

The animations, sound effects and graphics are really well made. I also love the splatter and juice this game has. I wish the music had some more variation, but it’s impressive to fit this much into 13kb.

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Instead of having the power ups on the board, and clicking them like crazy, I think the game would benefit from having the power ups available on key “1,2,3,4”, and use a cooldown system after you use a power up. Maybe it can help you think more tactical with your decisions.

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Good job.

\n","games":["Samurai Sam"]},{"at":348696089,"re":348683585,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Thankyou. Having the powerups on a cooldown is a pretty cool idea :)

\n"},{"at":348691724,"author":"Roman Miniv","login":"RomanMiniv","gh":50551993,"text":"

Nice presentation - congratulations!

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Maybe it is possible to use bonuses not only by clicking the mouse, but also by using the keys - it would add to the gameplay.

\n","games":["Crusaders and their Journeys"]},{"at":348695612,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"

The graphics and sounds are top notch. I did found a winning weapon combo at some point and started to clear the enemies easily, but I kept loosing my mouse position in the chaos. It was really fun! Score: 175400.

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The game thumbnail is wrong though - in 13th century the Mongols followed Tengrism and Buddhism and for the Cyrillic script - it’s a quite recent adoption.

\n","games":["Moai Alley"]},{"at":348696332,"re":348695612,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Thanks for that correction, I didn’t actually do any research for the thumbnail. I just translated from English to Mongol. In future I’ll try to be more scientific ;)

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I get the mouse thing, a few people have commented on that. I think if I ever do anything else with this game I’ll use a cool-down hotkey combo system as suggested by John Edvard.

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":348833107,"author":"Victor Debone","login":"debone","gh":763457,"url":"https://javascri.pl/","twitter":"javascripl","text":"

Hello! Thanks for your submission to js13k!\nI’m sure you’ve worked hard on your game, but I’m not aware of how much time you spent on it, so excuse me if things I mention were in your mind, but got left out in the rush of the month or just because you hit the 13kb limit :)

\n\n"},{"at":348849009,"re":348833107,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Many thanks for your feedback on my wee game Victor, it’s much appreciated.

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I have a few ideas (mostly from other comments) on how to improved this game and I will hopefully have time in the next couple of weeks whilst I recover from an upcoming leg operation :)

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":348917034,"author":"Richard Davey","login":"photonstorm","gh":164476,"url":"www.photonstorm.com","twitter":"photonstorm","text":"

Oh, the poor samurai! Move him up and down (he shoots automatically) and try to waste as many oncoming mongol warriors as possible. You’ll see lots of squares with letters on. Click them to unleash whatever power-up they contain. It plays out like an ultra-violent version of the arcade classic Tapper.

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Graphically, this game is superb! The animation, the design, the font - it all just works and looks great. My only issue here is that I struggled to remember which powerup did what, although I appreciate that having icons instead of letters would have just added to the already crammed file size.

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The gameplay is fun, in a ‘patting your head while rubbing your tummy’ kind of way. It’s very easy to lose your mouse cursor in the mongol chaos that ensues, all while trying to remember to move up and down as well. It starts off calmly enough, but the ramp from ‘I can manage this’ to ‘there’s no room left on my screen for any more mongols!’ can happen in the blink of an eye.

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That aside, this is one quality entry and well worth playing.

\n"},{"at":348956710,"re":348917034,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"

Thanks for your feedback Richard. I did a quick search for Tapper and maybe it’s the one where you serve beer? It does look terribly hectic like my game.

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I think that I probably could have squeezed more graphics into my game, but I got lazy with the power-ups I think and used text, because it was easier ;)

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I get the “mouse cursor got lost” a bit in multiple peoples feedback so that’s an issue I’ll resolve when I get round to it :)

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