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zeh

Feedback comments for LD24

Timestamp	Since previous	Game	zeh's comment
Aug 27 14:13:00		The evolution of Blocky	It is one my core beliefs that every human carries within their soul a trumpet. Think of this as a symbol of someone's maximal capabilities, if you will. <br/> <br/>The unique challenge every human face is playing that trumpet. But the sad and inescapable truth is that manipulating this trumpet and carrying a tune to high heavens takes effort, and willpower, and resolution; for it is a very heavy trumpet, and manipulating it takes a great deal of mental and physical strength. <br/> <br/>In out daily lives, it is very often that we dismiss our charge to play this trumpet that has been given us. We mislead ourselves into believing that the struggle is not worth it, and the melody it sings is not one the world needs. Alas, there are so many people already playing their trumpets, right? <br/> <br/>The inexorable truth is that the hymn your trumpet creates is yours and yours alone. You must, defiantly, play that fucking trumpet. <br/> <br/>I'm glad Digitalduck comprehend this plight so very well. Despite the lack of trumpets in the piece, Blocky's circumstances are indistinguishable from the challenges we, as human beings, go through from dawn to dark. Should we play? Should we clean up? Or should we learn, and raise the amplitude of our trumpet's song to 11? <br/> <br/>(Spoilers below) <br/> <br/>The stroke of genius, of course, comes at the end of the game, as Blocky's ultimate prize is the same we have to meet as our human flesh is not an immortal one. But even as he leaves the stage of life, he knows his trumpet has become part of the world score - and that's the best we, too, can expect of this mortal coil. <br/> <br/>Great concept, if somewhat repetitive.
Aug 27 15:05:00	52m 00s	Caveman Evolution Story	Ah, the human body. The final frontier. How to we change ourselves? How do we make ourselves better? How do we evolve? <br/> <br/>Since the dawn of time we have wrestled with these questions. We have found no answer, for the question itself is not a valid one. <br/> <br/>The harsh reality is that we do not evolve. Or, at least, our physical body doesn't; our flesh starts its decay the moment we break free of the womb. The absoluteness of life is that we are all going to die, eventually. <br/> <br/>But we still should not fret. What liberates us is our sapience. If there is one thing we can evolve, it is our mind; if there is one thing that is always increasing, it is our wisdom; if there is one that is endless, it is our knowledge. <br/> <br/>Hence why our protagonist's quest is a fool's errand. Rather than try to regain youth - and as such, devolve his body - he probably should instead he keeps his mind sharp, and not go falling into holes in the goddamn lawn. <br/> <br/>Very linear, very challenging sometimes, controls were a bit hard. Overexplanation of what's going on feels like a cop-out and breaks the mood a bit. Beautiful washed out pixel art at times. Not sure I reached the end; tunnel was blocked by rocks. Performs better in Firefox than Chrome.
Aug 27 15:22:00	17m 00s	Battle Arena Evolution!	The Borgs - contemporary philosophers of the latest 20th century - coined a saying that goes roughly like this (translated from Borgin): "You will be assimilated". This is certainly the doctrine this piece subscribes to, as assimilation of other species is at the very core of the mechanics at play here. <br/> <br/>The twist in the anecdote is most apt, though, for assimilation in the fable depicted here is achieved through submission and genocide. It is a sad tale that should teach us well, as the desire for mindless extermination of lesser species is an inflexible property of the less evolved parts of our brains. <br/> <br/>Interesting concept. The queue wasn't that obvious at first. Sound effects work well. Would love to see a postmortem with your impressions of NME.
Aug 27 18:35:00	3h 13m	EvoBit	Great! Beautiful graphics, very well done! Great challenge too. With better performance and some polish, would make a great arcade game.
Aug 27 19:35:00	1h 00m	Badass	Ah, hierarchy in the animal kingdom, my favorite topic of Discovery Channel documentaries. <br/> <br/>Of all the mammals appearing in documentaries, the humans have to be one of the most curious when it comes down to that topic. The dominance hierarchies are subtle and somewhat contrived, often inconsistent between different groups, and subject to numerous influencing parameters. <br/> <br/>Also interestingly, each tribe or clan wants to exert its own dominance over other groups, in a sort of meta-hierarchy. It is not surprising that recently recognized groups, like the American Hipster, has a low ranking position in that scale. Whether bound to us by biology or by cultural factors, we always want to find a group to pick on. <br/> <br/>Through the use of interactive mythology, this piece exemplifies the complexity of the issue pretty well. The storytelling acumen is fragrant here, and by putting the player in the seat of the aggressor - the alpha male, in its eternal quest for control - it raises the question of whether perpetuating the hatred is a worthy quest, as it is one without an end. <br/> <br/>Great audio; very uplifting. Voiceovers are top notch. Beautiful graphics. Controls somewhat confusing. Missing hipsters with fixies. My best rated game on LD #24 so far.
Aug 27 20:07:00	32m 00s	Death Cell	When I was about 11 years old, my dad bought one of those books with listings of BASIC programs. In the absence of reliable, cross-platform recording media, a book was the safest, nay, the ONLY way to store a program; if you were willing to spend a day re-typing a program, and if if you typed it correctly, you could enjoy about 15 minutes playing it! Of course, it was a recipe bound for disaster, as none of the games met the expectations created by the airbrushed art that often accompanied the source listings. <br/> <br/>So my dad brought home one of those books and lo and behold, it announced right there in the cover, it had the source code for THE GAME OF LIFE! Having enjoyed many a hour playing the tabletop version of Game of Life with my sisters and cousin, but not owning the game box myself as it was considerably expensive for a 11 year old out-of-work boy to purchase, I was sure excited with the promise of playing the game right there, in my Brazilian ZX-81 clone, the almight TK-85 with 48kb of memory. <br/> <br/>I painstakingly typed the code in one afternoon, ran the game, and it was with utter disappointment and a sadness only 11 year old boys can muster that I watched squares popping in and out of the screen. In and out, on and off, in seemingly random fashion. Is that the game of life I was promised? Black-and-white blocks are showing up and disappearing. It is not fun. I am not even interacting with it - how is this a game? I was crushed. <br/> <br/>Then it dawned on me. <br/> <br/>Conway's genius was not of creating an expensive tabletop game with beautiful plastic cars for the house dog's to eat or pins representing your beautiful wife that could be easily lost under the run. It was a genius of showing you that life goes on, whether you want it or not, and there's nothing you can do about it. That it is not necessarily fun, unless you learn to recognize the patterns that are taking shape in front of you. This was the game of life, in many more ways than I could count. <br/> <br/>In that moment, I unsubscribed to the plastic tabletop game doctrine. Now I write code. <br/> <br/>Great game, brilliant idea. Could use some scoring system and some powerups, maybe. Regardless, this is what Ludum Dare games should strive to be: an amazing idea with quick but flawless execution. Bravo!
Aug 28 02:38:00	6h 31m	Planet Evo	Good gameplay. Took a first run to understand what I was supposed to do. Makes you think and plan your next move. If a bit more challenging it could be a great puzzle-ish game. <br/> <br/>Uberi: it uses Flash 11.4, which was just released officially. Google Chrome may take a few days to update, or you may need to make sure you're running the latest version by going to the "About" screen, or even doing "about:plugins", opening the "details" view, and disabling the old version if you have two versions installed (which happens sometimes).
Aug 28 03:03:00	25m 00s	Death Death Evolution	Rubbish. Crap. Shit. Those are not words I would use to describe this entry, because right at first glance it's clear that what's at play here is love for the videogame genre, with a bit of perfection sprinkled on top. <br/> <br/>It was once said that insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results. This piece manages to subvert common wisdom by presenting us with different parameters, and as such a different outlook in life, every time we try. <br/> <br/>This turns out to be a valuable lesson. In modern culture we are only now coming to accept those truths, but what this allegory in the form of JavaScript code teaches us is that we not only have to accept failure, but we have to learn for it. For learning from our missteps is becoming better versions of ourselves. Like the phoenix that starts life anew, our unnamed little rodent protagonist lives to see another day - successfully, this time. <br/> <br/>Why does he go on? We don't know. We don't know. But the message is simple: you can too. You have to go on. We all do. Thanks, little blue rodent. <br/> <br/>Great graphics, great gameplay. Art and music are surprisingly good. Performance is great, much better than all other HTML entries I've seen (especially in Chrome). Looks like a perfectly finished game to me, great work for a compo. Go team redmars, can't wait to see what you guys come up with next!