Goat Heard

The air is filled with the bleating of goats and ringing of bells as a lone goatherd tries to lead their herd down a hillside plagued with monstrous aberrations.

A reverse tower defence isometric platformer about herding goats, written in Rust using the Bevy game engine, made for Acerola Jam 0.

Known Issues

It is highly recommended to play the downloadable version for your platform (though be aware that only the Windows version has been testing, but please let me know if you run into any issues!)

The game is intended to be played fullscreen on a 1920x1080 monitor so other resolutions may experience some visual distortion.

There can also be some audio/visual glitches in the WASM build as assets load in so please be patient.

On the downloadable version you can only quit to menu once so use it wisely! Otherwise, you can just restart the game, though you will lose any campaign progress you have if you close the game.

Controls

WASD - Movement and Menu Navigation

Space - Jump and Menu Confirmation

Q and E or K - Cycle equipped bell

J - Ring equipped bell

Hold P - Quit to menu

I and C - Switch between isometric and Cartesian controls

Source Code

The entire source code for the game can be found on my GitHub!

Note that the current code in the GitHub is for the WASM build, and that the downloadable versions are from the tagged commit and can be downloaded from the release "goat_heard".

Gameplay Hints

Certain aberrations are only repelled by specific bells, and some cannot be repelled at all.

The Beckon and Warn bells have relatively low cooldowns but also have short range so high mobility is required to make the best use of them.

The Gather bell has a long cooldown but massive range and so can be useful to save for when you are getting overwhelmed.

The Energize bell can give your goats a great boost, though try to make sure they are facing the right direction when you use it!

The Dance bell is very useful for navigating certain obstacles, but you must be careful where you are standing when you use it.

Dev Rambles

This was my first time attempting an isometric game but I think it was worth the added complexity. I would have liked to have added multiple map variations, as well as more goat and aberration types, but the jam deadline didn't allow for it. I also had plans for there to be more of a progression system where you unlock different bells as you advance through the levels, and could swap out what bells you bring depending on what aberrations/layout each level had. Also the game would benefit from more varied soundtrack and sound effects.

I think the main aspect the game is lacking in is visual presentation, since art is definitely not my strong suit, which I feel is pretty clear throughout the game. A lot of the sprites which made it into the final game initially started as placeholder programmer art that I never got around to replacing, and a lot of the UI elements just use semi-transparent rectangles instead of actual sprites.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with what I managed to achieve solo during the jam period, but it has also emphasised a lot of the skills I still need to improve on. It's definitely a different experience than working as part of a team with a diverse range of skills, but it has been a valuable experience nonetheless.

"If your idea is chromatic aberration, you probably aren't going to win unless you're insanely goated."
- Acerola 2024

So of course I had to make a game about goats and chromatic aberration!