What is it?

This is my short platformer game for the Samurai Game Jam 2024. You should help samurai fight evil bees.

I was looking for a game idea for this jam and suddenly it all started to come together. I hope you will like it. I borrowed some mechanics from an old NES game called "Doki! Doki! Yūenchi: Crazy Land Daisakusen".  The fewer lives a player has, the stronger his projectiles become, so it's somewhat beneficial to be on a verge of death =)

Important

You can play the game in browser, but I highly recommend to download and play Windows version for better experience. Generally browser version is OK, but it has some minor issues with music and gamepad controls (for example, you can't navigate in menu or crouch with Left Stick for some reason).

Controls

Keyboard Controls:

Move - Left Arrow, Right Arrow

Jump - Z  (hold button to jump higher)

Crouch - Down Arrow

Throw  shuriken - X 

Dash - C

Pause - ESC (Backspace for browser version)

Gamepad Controls (Xbox):

Move -  D-pad Left/Right or Left Stick Left/Right

Jump - A  (hold button to jump higher)

Crouch - D-pad Down or Left Stick Down

Throw  shuriken - X 

Dash - B

Pause - Start

Game Jam results

The game was ranked 17th out of 76 submissions. I'm happy with such result and I'm grateful to everyone who took his time to play, vote and leave a comment.

2.0 update

After the jam ended I decided to make an update with the bunch of improvements:

• improved visuals (added lighting and some post-processing) 
• series of changes to enhance cinematic feeling
• UI improvements
• gamepad support (control tips in UI have only Xbox icons, but other gamepads should work fine as well. I tested only Xbox gamepad though)
• tracking of achievements
• added possibility to choose easier difficulty (with checkpoints)
• BEEngo mode is locked until finishing the game
• dash ability (locked until finishing the game) - can be very useful in BEEngo mode
• added tutorial popups for some moments in game
• bug fixes and other minor tweaks  

Used assets:

This is my first game jam game. I thought it would be an interesting experience and opportunity to improve my skills in programming (I started learning how to code and work with Unity a year ago). I am very bad at art, so I had to use many assets made by more skilled artists and I very appreciate their work. 

"Ronin - Pixel Art Character" by JapaSsou

"Background Parallax (Japan)" by pixel_Salvaje

"BEE!" by KingKelpo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution_NoDerivatives v4.0 International
"Platformer Fantasy Set 1" by Szadi art.
"Pixel Rainforest Asset Pack" by Manu_Art is licensed under Creative_Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

"Legacy Adventure Pack" by Anokolisa

"Pixel Shuriken 32x32" by BDragon1727

"Bugs and Critters | Pixel Asset Pack"by Pop Shop Packs
"Pixel Hearts - Bring even more life into your game" by Snoblin

"Nb Pixel Font Bundle 2" by Nimble Beasts Collective is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

"Pixel Art GUI Elements" by Mounir Tohami is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

"FREE - Character Footsteps (Dirt & Grass) (80 sounds effects)" by Nebula Audio

"RPG Essentials SFX - FREE!" by Leohpaz

"Free Smoke Fx Pixel 2" by BDragon1727

"Sound Pack Volume 2: Wire Combat" by kingbedhead

"Shapeforms Audio Free Sound Effects" by Shapeforms

"Windy Leaves particle fx - Free" by EdgeLoopRepeat

"Pixel Holy Spell Effect 32x32 Pack 3" by BDragon1727

"Textures for particles 1" by jellyfish0

Background page image by starline on Freepik

"Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja ( 8-Bit Cover)" by unknown author (I tried but didn't find him)