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muku

Feedback comments for LD14

Timestamp	Since previous	Game	muku's comment
		Mind Wall	Awesome! You managed to infuse a simple yet elegant puzzle mechanic with clean, stylish graphics, just the right amount of time pressure to make it challenging, and heaps of atmosphere. That's exactly how this kind of games should be made. I enjoyed the otherworldly mood set in no small part by the music and finished the game in one sitting. The gameplay even seemed to induce some zen-like state of the mind at times. My only nitpick is that the edges of the cubes flickered every now and then in an ugly way, but apart from that there's little to criticize, a unique and compelling entry.
		tombed	Lovely indeed. Charming graphics, and simple yet fun gameplay. I thought it was maybe just a tad too long, but the level design did save it from getting repetitive. <br/> <br/>I have little to add, a fine and well-polished entry.
		Sky Upon Us	Rather unique concept! Have to agree that it gets repetitive fast, though. Still lots of fun for a while. Pretty graphics, and feels reasonably polished overall. Good job.
		Bunny Press	Very polished game with charming graphics. Especially enjoyed how the wall left black/red traces in the ground, nice touch. Levels were mostly on the easy side until I reached that "Back and forth" level where I found it extremely frustrating to herd a bunny out in time, and the lack of a restart button (as far as I know) made waiting for the slooooow wall to finally crush me very aggravating, so I quit there. But, very fine entry.
		Sir Henry Placeholder and the Badly Timed Parade	Fun little game there. Took me a while to figure out what to do on the first boss, but then it was pretty easy. Quite competent graphics, I have to say. <br/> <br/>The bugginess is annoying though... I had the "stuck in the background" bug once and had to restart, and once I could move but there was no more collision detection.
		We Control the Purple Creature	This game has strikingly unique visuals (even more so considering that it's a Flash game). I haven't quite figured out whether the whole green/red tinting of tiles has some bearing on gameplay or it's just for effect. I'm wondering why you eliminated the blurring and smearing from the post-compo versions, as I thought that's what gave the game its distinctive style? <br/> <br/>Gameplay is quite compelling too, once one figures out how to play (which takes a while). Mostly it was quite easy, and I'm not sure how much depth it really has, but it certainly was enjoyable. An intriguing entry in any case. <br/> <br/>Wait, one thing... I couldn't find any wall of doom in this...?
		Doom Runner	Nice game. It was a bit odd that I couldn't see the wall of doom except on the HUD, so it was a bit surprising when I suddenly died out of nowhere. Even a rumbling that slowly grows louder would have helped with that. <br/> <br/>I found the horizontal pole sections extremely frustrating, like HybridMind, because the perspective doesn't really lend itself well to judging where they are. Shadows would probably have helped immensely, as many others have suggested. I always died at that part. <br/> <br/>It also would have been nice to have a menu to choose from already unlocked levels since I tend to find replaying levels an unnecessary chore. <br/> <br/>Technically the game is implemented very solidly, I would say, and I have no issues with the graphics.
		Happy Blob is Unhappy!	Very polished and fun game. I did find the part with the moving sawblades unfair and quit there, too. But it was fun up to that. <br/> <br/>Graphics are very nice, little to criticize in that department. Controls feel fluid and fun. <br/> <br/>That tune... I still can't decide whether it's just a bit too weird, but I'm giving you the benefit of doubt :) <br/> <br/>I'm not too keen on how you incorporated the theme, but otherwise a very fine entry.
		The Great Wave off Kanagawa	Ah, this is one of those games where the movement model itself is the main challenge. (Have you played QWOP by any chance?) It's really frustrating when you don't get over a wave crest and roll back down, on the other hand it's exhilarating when you finally catch a good wave and glide forward at great speed. Either way, it's compelling, though I don't have it really figured out yet (quit in level 3). Some explanations on how to play would have helped, I think. Landing on the dock I found hit and miss. <br/> <br/>I like the wave effect and the graphics overall. Music grates after a while, though it fits.
		Standard Waiver	This is excellent, and also technically quite impressive considering the short timeframe you made it in. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the breathing noises add to it a lot. <br/> <br/>I only figured out that you could right-click stuff to examine it a while in, so it would have been nice to be told that. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately I also got stuck in the dark area after the airlock; my laptop screen is usually way too bright, but even with it I couldn't make out much more than a few lit walls amongst a sea of darkness. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to see the rest, but after wandering around aimlessly for a couple of minutes and getting the feeling that I was moving in circles I got annoyed and quit. <br/> <br/>But still, one of my favorites of the entries I've played so far! Maybe I'll retry it later.
		Extinguish	Excellent concept! Shame it was so short and easy, some extra levels/enemies would have worked wonders I think. I agree about limiting the maximum range of the player's bullets, that might force them to get out of the darkness every now and then. The darkness effect looked cool.
		StarFerret	So adorable! You really had me in stitches when I first saw the plushies talking to each other. You get full score in Humor for sure. <br/> <br/>Gameplay was also nicely done; it felt ever so slightly choppy here, but that may have been my machine. I'd say the game was probably a bit too short, and the level design too simplistic; some more varied rescuing/shooting challenges would have made it even better, I think. <br/> <br/>Graphically also good; one glitch that stood out to me was how you disappear "below" the buildings when you fly into them. Apart from that, little to criticize.
		Escape from LHC	Haha, quite amusing. Some of the HL references made me chuckle (level names, in particular). Obviously, nicer graphics and actual animation would have made the game prettier, but then if you were going for a comedic B-game effect, I guess it's just as well as is.
		AWD Cake Factory	It's way too dark, I can't see anything :( <br/> <br/>The sound effect was cool though.
		Finalized the wall	One of the most interesting concepts I've played so far; I enjoyed this a lot! Excellent work. <br/> <br/>I really like the clean, stylized graphics (though why you require a shader model 2.0 card to render a few quads is beyond me, to be honest). <br/> <br/>Some remarks wrt polish/usability: <br/>Having to move the left hand over to the return key ever so often to skip/defend is annoying and breaks the player's flow; either make everything mouse controlled or put all required keys within one area of the keyboard. <br/>There was no visual feedback as to which enemies the ranged units could attack; at first I thought I had to move them closer, until I realized that I could attack all enemies. Their grid squares should be lit to show that. <br/>There was also too little feedback about which units got hurt. A little sound effect, the unit flashing red momentarily, anything to give combat a bit more "oomph". <br/>The ranged units felt very overpowered; it seemed you could beat any of the later levels just by massproducing them. A bit more tactical depth would have been nice. <br/>More levels and more variety (perhaps obstacles in the playing field...) would have made the game even better. <br/>The pre-game phase with "press space to start" seemed unnecessary, since there were no units to place, nor any time pressure. <br/>A way to make the window larger/fullscreen would have helped. <br/> <br/>But that's just nitpicking; overall, as I said, a great entry!
		Title Unknown	As others have said: technically impressive for 48 hours, but it felt a bit too much like a straight clone. Don't have much to add beyond that, just that it was fun to play for a while.
		Cat Protector!	Lovely concept! I think that entire devil sprite seems a bit too mspaint-ish, though I do like the charm of the cat sprites. Reached 11-something seconds I think.
		DoomDrive	Oh wow, that was quite nice. Liked the flat-shaded visuals and the feeling of inevitability. Movement also felt very fun. A bit "more" would have been nice (collectable powerups to re-fuel your booster, scores, an actual goal to reach perhaps), and I felt it lacked in polish a bit (no main menu, sometimes I would go through the floor etc). Still, highly enjoyable entry, good job dude. <br/> <br/>Oh, and, uh, that's one hell of an intimidating main loop ;)
		The Haunting	Charming in an oldschool way (especially those render graphics, I enjoyed those). Player movement felt nice and smooth. <br/> <br/>It feels a bit buggy; sometimes the blocks would go right through me, once the game crashed when a block touched me. Gameplay itself wasn't my cup of tea; involved a lot of waiting for some block to move away so I could go fetch a key, etc. It just failed to grab me for very long, sorry. Maybe it would feel more dynamic if the blocks didn't pause for so long before moving.
		Stormwall	Wow, hard! Just made it to 49 seconds. Lots of fun. With games that use both the mouse and the keyboard, I usually prefer WASD to the arrow keys; it feels very cramped now. Apart from that, I liked the controls. Putting the charge-up meter directly on the cursor would spare me some glances down at the HUD. <br/> <br/>Graphics are attractive, especially the wall itself. My only gripe with the wall is that it covers quite a lot of the screen, so once you are in the lower third of the screen, it's very hard to avoid the mines because you can't see anything. Some more transparency on the wall might have helped, I think. <br/> <br/>Some sound would have improved it quite a bit, I think. Apart from that, very solid entry!
		Fleedom Flies	It's a nice idea to take the shooting part out of a shmup, instead making it an avoid'em'up. I did get to above 90% on my first play and then got killed by a stray beam of energy; then I didn't really feel compelled to try again, though. Not much of a score hunter here. I like the idea with expanding boosting your score, thus letting the player grade the difficulty themselves. <br/> <br/>I enjoyed the look of the alien ships and the energy weapons. I think even a basic star field as a background would have added a lot to it visually, and it would only have taken you 5 minutes or so. <br/> <br/>EDIT: Replayed it now and died at the exact same spot at 91% or so! Arrrghh!
		advancing wall of math	This has charm. I love how this could pass for one of those shareware games around when I was a kid, both graphically and gameplay-wise... The sound was cute too. <br/> <br/>The math questions didn't do much for me as an adult, but I can really see a child being motivated by this to practice these simple calculations. An edutainment title! Good job.
		Manually Operated	The entire concept is an absolute riot. The poor supervillain who has to push his own wall of doom, the cops who push from the other side, the hero who is little more than a bumbling idiot... it's hilarious. <br/>My main gripe with it is that it's way too long. The game just takes up way too much of my time for what little variation it has, and that really hurts it in the fun department. Just making the wall a bit faster to push would have helped already, or perhaps that suggestion by mrfun. <br/>Otherwise, cool entry!
		A thing!	This is pretty hard, but in the good, challenging kind of way. Couldn't hope to finish this anytime soon, but it sure was fun trying. Slightly sluggish, but that's Flash for ya I guess... <br/> <br/>The sense of mounting threat that being engulfed in those things brings is conveyed pretty well. This must be one of the most "doomy" walls in the compo. <br/> <br/>Liked the graphics as well as the creative setting, too.
		If You Don’t Run Away From the Fire Then You Will Die So Thats Why You Should Run From the Fire	Hah, that was good simple fun for a while. Nice. Don't really have much to add, except that the "flapping wings" noise seemed very out of place. I guess the music would have become annoying real quick, but it was kind of fun for the couple of minutes I played it.
		YOU GOT A DEMONWALL!	I love the visuals, music and general quirkiness of this game. LOVE them. Extra points for using procedurally generated music. <br/> <br/>There didn't really seem to be much challenge to this since you can't die, so getting a high score seems to be the only goal, which I usually find a little lacking. The entire experience of playing this made up for it though. Definitely a WTF moment in the best sense of the word. <br/> <br/>BTW, exactly 49,999 points on my first attempt. Coincidence? I think not :D
		Grey Goo	Nice and tense, good theme. In the end I found it frustrating because I spent most time just waiting for money to roll in, but I'm probably just bad at it. Is it possible to win? Best score 5052 on second attempt.
		arcticum	That ice tesselation thing was pretty fancy from a technical point of view, actually, though it's slightly buggy and lags a bit when firing many bullets. Nice to look at, in any case. <br/> <br/>The collecting component of the gameplay wasn't completely compelling, trying to nudge the objects towards my island with the fireballs often felt a bit finicky and not really fun. Melting ice was a blast though. <br/> <br/>Overall, creative and fun entry.
		Put the Ball in the Basket	Hm, that was odd. The visual presentation is extremely polished, the game is really nice to look at. The puzzles were... strange. Most often it seemed to be enough to just place one of those right/up ramps directly below the ball and watch it fly into the bucket. I also found it weird that I could still place pieces after I had cut the rope, that felt a bit like a glitch. The physics acted a bit wonky at times. Also, where's your wall of doom? ;) <br/> <br/>Still, kudos for giving me a nice flashback to The Incredible Machine!
		Solar Lift	It seems to be an interesting take on Tempest, but I couldn't really figure out what to do. Sometimes I would get one of those white beams which seemed to cut the wall back, but beyond that it wasn't clear what my goal was. I have to say that some of the sounds were a bit grating.
		Mines of DOOM	This reminds me of dock's entry-that-was-not-to-be, just with simpler visuals. I like the graphics (except for the player "sprite"), and polish feels above average. Was there a level progression or anything of the kind? After beating two or three levels, I just quit as they all felt the same. It was a bit weird that the lava or whatever it was didn't spread into the dead ends, like it knew where it had to go. Overall: simple, straightforward fun; nice.
		Laser of Doom	I can see this being amusing with some more varied levels, but like Endurion, I just get the same room over and over, which means that holding right until you eventually die is the optimal strategy... (I made 28.04 seconds.) I guess you ran out of time for making levels?
		Wall of Locust	Nice idea and good game, but I have to say that the control scheme hurts it a lot. I've spent way too much time trying to get my cursor to move to the correct grid cell. A visible mouse cursor would indeed help. <br/>I didn't get very far because I didn't understand one thing: once the fire is out but there are still locusts, is there anything I can do or do I just have to wait it out? <br/>Graphics are nice; technically well done too.
		Heart	Very moody, like most people I loved the style, effective music. I feel I would have been even more impressed with it if I hadn't already played Defect, but since you credited that influence there's no problem with that. Also, the rotation was a nice twist. The text cards did stay up for too long (and might in fact have worked better as pop-ups, thus not interrupting the flow of the game). <br/>On my first (and so far only) playthrough I felt that I didn't grasp the "story" fully, but that's probably my fault.
		The Growth	Liked it, quite novel. Took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to do, but then the game was actually too easy, I think. <br/> <br/>As others have said, the wall building controls are too finicky. <br/> <br/>Enjoyed the narrative, took the game beyond its mere mechanics. Also liked how the supposed victory screen is actually another level, very clever.
		ethergrind	Hm, I have a hard time enjoying myself while playing this, everything seems designed to frustrate: the player ship which is almost glued to the right screen border, the just so slightly too sensitive collision detection, the obscure powerup system which requires me to press enter to activate a powerup (a fact that I didn't find documented either in the readme or the game itself, so I had to actually go dig in the source to find it out)... <br/> <br/>If it helps, the game is quite solidly done otherwise; graphics are just fine, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the movement controls, sound does what it's supposed to. Didn't enjoy the music, but I guess that's a matter of taste. It's just that the game seems to constantly tell me to go f$$$ right off; which might have been intentional, what do I know.
		AWOD	Neat concept, though there didn't seem to be too much strategy involved; circling the wall and placing sentries all the time seemed to work fine. Forcing the player to restart at the first level every time was a questionable choice, since replaying all those levels I already know how to beat is just a boring time sink. That didn't really motivate me to finish it. Actual gameplay was implemented solidly though.
		empire the wall	I think this is better than you give it credit for. The atmosphere that I'm used to from your recent works is definitely there, if perhaps not quite as strong. As always, your music is effective in setting the mood. <br/> <br/>The gameplay is actually quite tactical once you figure out how it works. There's always this tradeoff between extending your area and defending what you have; greed is punished swiftly, and that's a nice aspect. <br/> <br/>Definitely an enjoyable entry, especially considering how little time you could spend on it in the end.
		doomdoom	Ah yes, I haven't rated this yet. The movement in this again is great fun (you seem to have a knack for that). The only thing worth considering might have been some way to control jumping strength, but it works fine as it is. <br/> <br/>It's also pretty unforgiving; usually one mistake means you're dead. What I found most frustrating in the end is how much your success depends on what levels the Random Number God hands you, they are all over the place. <br/> <br/>I like the clean graphics (even more so in the updated version...). I guess with the requisite polish, this could be an evergreen like Icy Towers.
		Crush	Really enjoyed graphics, sound and overall polish in this one. Gameplay rules seemed a bit too random to be really meaningful, but I probably missed something. After playing twice (winning the first game by more or less blind fumbling, drawing the second one), I failed to see any deep strategy. Then again, two games is probably not enough for a board game like this. Liked it overall.
		Hackworth’s Last Kick	Ah yes, hackysack and death, truly the grand themes in life. <br/> <br/>This was oddly enjoyable and poignant.
		[Wall Girl]	I'm a... flying girl? What? :D <br/>The wall-switching was an interesting concept, but didn't really work out for me in the end. I was too busy dodging stuff to make effective use of it. <br/>The pixelated background looks lovely. I feel that the high-res, cartoony sprites are at odds with it though (and I like them less than the background, actually). All in all, the game is quite pleasant to look at though. <br/>Player movement felt a bit stiff, I think adding acceleration would help. <br/>Difficulty seemed okay; I'm not much of a shmup player, but I still got some playtime out of it on my first real run. <br/>All in all a very nice effort! But please do include a readme in the zip file, especially when you use non-obvious mechanics.
		The Wall of (mildly irritating) Sunburn	Very cool! Like a micro-management version of The Settlers. Extremely impressive for your first finished game. <br/>That said, I did find the micro-management a bit much after a while and just got bored of nudging the little guys into their huts. Didn't manage to beat it so far.
		Wallcraft	Nice game, feels reasonably polished and has a clean, attractive visual style (2x scale would have been nice, though). At some point constantly having to run right became a bit of a strain. I'm wondering if making the player run right automatically at all times wouldn't have made the game more hectic in a fun way. That may also have given the magic component some more purpose, which right now seems somewhat useless to me (though I may be missing something).
		Short Fuse 2: The Escape	That's quite a nice and smooth platforming engine you got going there. The game itself is rather hard, and those bats frustrate me to no end. Haven't finished it so far. It's an entertaining game though for sure.
		The extravagantly excellent game about a ball shooting walls extreme hd turbo remix plus alpha EX 2000: the legacy: the movie: the game	Fun and very hard! Was a bit bothered by the particles which often made it hard to see where the hell I was. Sound would have improved it quite a bit, I think. <br/> <br/>Wasn't offended by the insult, thought it quite amusing.
		sekhar	Very interesting, both in concept and in execution. There's a strange beauty to the patterns the cubes form. I did find it hard to collect the data spheres as they moved so much faster than I did, and I think three is the most I managed to catch. Also, towards the end there was a massive framerate drop. Anyway, kudos for trying something different.
		Spacewalls	Fun game. Liked the graphics and how the sounds would often seem to form a rhythm of their own. Got to level 10 or so on my first attempt. Ship movement could do with feeling a bit smoother, but otherwise very nice.
		Advance 2 – Aftermath	That was haunting. Quite creepy imagery (awesome artwork by the way, straight 5 here) and brooding atmosphere. The cheerful intro music made for a very jarring contrast. <br/> <br/>I couldn't quite fathom the concept... is this some play on the concept of Pavlov's dogs? Also, gameplay left me somewhat dissatisfied: is there anything more to it than filling up the meter and the dog then getting up on two legs for a while? The whole thing seems to sit squarely between the seats of "art game" and more traditional "gamey game", neither this nor that. I may very well have missed something, though... <br/> <br/>Still, one of the most atmospheric entries I've played so far. Good job.
		Tsunami Warrior	Kudos for trying something in 3D, but... it felt extremely easy to just collect all the things? No challenge at all? Strange. Should be much faster, with longer tracks. The bonus multiplier was a definite WTF moment.
		Hello	Very charming. I like the quirky writing a lot. It's very short of course, but as it stands it's basically one puzzle (which only made sense to me after I had solved it accidentally :) ) which is fine too. <br/> <br/>Liked the ending somehow, especially the feedback from typing "exit" then :D
		Hungry Derivatives Advancing Collapse	Ah, the Z Game Editor, very nice. Really liked the visuals, unfortunately the framerate dropped to just a few FPS pretty soon, don't know what's up with that. I guess this a pure highscore game? The mechanics would probably have felt very fun with a smooth framerate, but this way it was a bit cumbersome to play, so I quit pretty soon. Still, seems like a quite polished entry for those who can run it well.
		Soverign Wars	I really like the concept of influence maps that you got going. It does definitely lack polish, though: the controls are annoying (multi-select would be nice) and there are some bugs (seems I can't control guys which go too far north?) The endgame dragged quite a bit, even though it was already obvious that I was winning. I also thought that the economy aspect was imbalanced; I always seemed to earn much more money than I could spend. As for AI, I understand that that must be quite hard to code in such a short time frame. <br/> <br/>That said, it was fun while it lasted, and a quick little strategy game is always appreciated!
		PET THAT KITTEN!	Nice. (Disclaimer: No 360 controller.) I agree that being able to move diagonally would be helpful. The collision box for the wall also seems a bit large. <br/>So the interaction objects are really just obstacles? At first I thought I was supposed to "interact" with them and wondered why my score didn't rise. Might want to make that clearer. More variation might also be fun; it would be cool to make them into actual minigames that go beyond button mashing.
		Haircutter	What did I just play :D <br/>Fun idea. The controls were odd, but not necessarily bad; I just found it extremely frustrating once things sped up and I practically had to hit every one of those bumpers. The graphics are strangely attractive, I have to say.
		Wall Of Corpses	Fun for what it is. I have yet to try the extended version. <br/>There isn't much tactics involved beyond killing the guys furthest up though, is there? The concept that they climb quicker on other corpses is interesting, but it doesn't seem to be fully exploited yet.
		Unnamed Entry	I get the exact same crash that Covenant does :(
		Ludum Dare #14	It's a beautiful concept, but it doesn't really materialize in what you have so far. If the water wasn't only imaginary, and you could actually see it flowing from left to right in the channels you create for it, and there was a lose and perhaps a win condition, this could be a very soothing game.
		Drag the Wall	I have to say it's pretty frustrating, in particular the somewhat odd controls. Didn't manage to kill more than a couple of the boxes before giving up; there's just too much of those defenses after a short while. Enjoyed visuals and audio though.
		Escape From Hell	I really like the graphics in this one, the single-hue theme sets a great mood. The player sprite is a bit odd, though, but it's not too bad. <br/> <br/>Gameplay was fun for a while, though nothing groundbreaking. It became very hard once all the platforms started falling so fast. <br/> <br/>Some kind of score would have helped motivating me for a replay, perhaps, as would more variation. Overall, good job on your first LD effort!
		Falling Wall of Doom	Works on Firefox/Win (but not Linux; may have to do with the multicore though?). Nice game, fun little timewaster for a while there. Graphics are a bit too simple to really appeal, and the "game over" text color is horrendous. Enjoyed the fuel mechanic, it's not so common to see something like that.
		Diodontidae necandi	There didn't seem to be much challenge, so after killing a couple of the bad dudes I just quit. Is there a way to die/win? The overwater physics are weird, to say the least. Also, enemies just popping out of existence isn't too satisfying. <br/> <br/>On the plus side, pretty graphics, good ambient sound and quite entertaining mechanic (lobbing bombs at the ships) for a while.
		rollbak_LD14_BlackHoleComing.zip	Ah, so it's a Katamari kind of deal? Nice for a couple of minutes, but not really compelling enough to play longer than that, I'm afraid. The control scheme is definitely odd and not completely satisfying... maybe with more inertia, it would feel more fun?