• Controls:
  • A / D - move left / right
  • W - drain (steals HP from enemies, costs SP)
  • Space - jump
  • Left click / Right click  - cast spell 1 / 2
  • Q / E - put a spell into slot 1 / 2
  • Esc - pause
  • - restart the game


After a few unethical experiments on his flock, the magician-shepherd found himself trapped inside a castle, and the flock, now sentient and armed, came after him. To escape the castle and its curse, shepherd must sacrifice his poor experiments (Purple Bar) and stay alive (Red Bar) at the same time. The problem is, most harmful spells the shepherd knows also require him to sacrifice his own health, to the point where they can kill him. What an idiot.  He can only hold two spells at a time, so he has to sacrifice an active spell to use a new one. Also, the owner of the castle is not a good person, or whatever it is, so the sacrifice points drain over time. Successfull sacrifices replenish a little bit of health.


  • Spells:
  • Drain (W) - after a short charge-up, continuously steals health from living objects around the user, slowing down fall and movement speed. Disappoints the castle owner, slowly draining SacrificePoints. Killed animals don't count as a sacrifice.
  • Jump (Space) - to increase the height of the jump, shepherd pushes himself upwards, sacrificing 1 HealthPoint. If used together with Drain, jump height increases further, costing 3 HP. Cancels other actions.
  • Blood knife - sends out a fast moving knife that kills the first target or targets, if they're close enough together, it hits. Costs 8 HP.
  • Fireball (orange sphere) - sends out a small fireball that explodes on impact and creates a bigger lingering fireball for a short period. Costs 10 HP.
  • Blood spear  - fast moving spear, that pierces and kills everything in its path. Costs 18 HP.
  • Force (white and black symbol) - pushes everyone in a small radius away from the user. Costs 3 HP.
  • Homing missile (green spherre) - flies towards the closest enemy at moderate speed. Costs 9 HP.
  • Dash (blue lightning) - pushes user forward at high speed, killing everything in his path. Push doesn't work if the enemy is too close, but kills everything nonetheless.  Costs 12 HP.

In infinite mode spells cost half as much HP, and completing the sacrifice doesn't end the game. 

Red screen is a warning that HP is too low, purple is a warning that SP is getting critical. If the screen stays that way after healing up, that's a bug. Music might stop playing after a while because I forgot about that.

Downloadable rebalanced version is based on users' feedback; spells cost less HP, Drain gives more HP,  the sacrifice bar fills a bit slower, and Jump and Dash let you move through enemies.  If you vote for LudumDare43, base your votes on the browser version, and not this one.

Download

Download
ToTheSlaughter.zip (Windows) 15 MB
Download
LD43.zip (Source) 80 MB
Download
ToTheSlaughterRebalanced.zip 15 MB

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