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VDZ

Feedback comments for LD26

Timestamp	Since previous	Game	VDZ's comment
Apr 29 17:53:00		Broke Down	I'm a tad disappointed after The Cards Never Lie. <br/> <br/>While the expanding text gimmick sounds interesting, in practice it's only a bother to read the same text repeatedly with some alterations - most of which are just filler text which don't really add anything to the experience, in my opinion. Perhaps it would be more interesting if all hidden text actually added something and could not be displayed when you first read the text - for example, requiring you to have read certain other parts to 'unlock' the hidden text. As it is now, I eventually ended up just expanding everything to max size every time after a certain point, so I wouldn't have to reread the same thing thrice every time. <br/> <br/>The plot feels very disjointed, chaotic and random. While to some extent this is justified by the subject matter, it feels like the story is distorted beyond what the protagonist's perspective would provide - like if the world was a dream and simply had no logic. Even with the protagonist's mental state it would make sense for it to feel like one continuous story, but rather it seems like a collection of separate snippets, as if you are skipping three pages for every page you read in a book.
Apr 29 18:10:00	17m 00s	CIRCLE SQUARE TRIANGLE	High score! <br/> <br/>Fun game. Only complaint I have is that at the start of the new level, objects keep spawning while you are vulnerable - not bumping into a magenta object is as much a matter of luck as it is of skill at the start of a level.
Apr 29 18:40:00	30m 00s	soundscape	Very interesting game. However, the difficulty is very high and the learning curve is very steep - it took me ages to figure out how everything worked, and even after I understood how it worked it was still extremely difficult.
Apr 29 23:45:00	5h 05m	REVOLVENGARDE	Absolutely amazing game. Amazing gameplay, amazing minimalism, amazing music, amazing everything. This game deserves to win LD 26. <br/> <br/>My high scores are 73/65/43. Anyone managed to get higher scores?
May 3 22:17:00	94h 32m	Spacus	A single session of the game takes too long. It takes a LOT of hits for you to die, and the amount of damage you take does not increase noticeably as you get to higher levels. Because of this, it gets boring rather fast. <br/> <br/>On a technical note, in C#, if you create multiple new Randoms in a very short span of time, they will be IDENTICAL, and give exactly the same numbers. (Really, try executing <br/>for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++) { Console.WriteLine(new Random().Next(1, 7)); } <br/>and you'll see what I mean.) In your game, this causes most or all mystery boxes in a level to contain the exact same effect. Pass an existing Random to the constructor or use a static Random to fix this bug. <br/> <br/>As for the crashes, they are clearly NAudio's fault (I couldn't get music running here either). I used NAudio for audio output once and I ran into the same game-breaking bugs; I've never used it since.
May 7 13:19:00	87h 02m	Minimizing Quest	Not much of a game. Minimalistic, sure, but there's nothing to see or do.
May 7 14:08:00	49m 00s	mini-city	Very nice game. I felt the fame limit to be too easy to reach, though; if you just keep building plenty of parks (without bothering with the higher-level buildings) you can reach it very quickly. This also caps your city growth; I played the sandbox expecting to be able to make an uber-town, only to win (and be unable to continue) because I had too much fame. Kind of defeats the purpose of a sandbox.
May 13 16:23:00	146h 15m	BOBBA LOVARS	No effort put in, horrible writing, comedy no more than 'LULZ SO RANDOM', terrible graphics and very grating music. <br/> <br/>I understand you're "being ironic" but unless you manage to do so in an amusing and not-completely-obvious way, I will rate it for what it is.
May 19 17:19:00	144h 56m	climbing 208 feet up the ruin wall	Very immersive, though around the 100 feet mark it starts to lose its dramatic atmosphere somewhat. Around 50 feet I was thinking, 'oh man, I'll never make it', but after 100 there wasn't really much tension anymore; some 'oh shit I'm not going to make it' lines between the distractions would've really helped there. It isn't until you get near the top that it gets dramatic again. <br/> <br/>There is one thing that bothers me, though. WHAT THE HELL IS AT THE TOP OF THE WALL?! I climbed 208 feet up the wall, completely destroyed my hands in the process, lost all of my loot, caught malaria and pissed myself, and I don't even get to see the reason I put in all of that effort! What is it that's up there that made it worth the effort to climb 208 freaking feet riskily using vines that are barely strong enough to hold me with a heavy backpack?! I'm fine with anticlimactic endings (such as not making it, not finding what you expected, etc), but cutting it off at that point was just mean.
May 19 17:33:00	14m 00s	First, You Take A Potato	Short, simple and impactful. Great graphics and audio, too.
May 19 18:10:00	37m 00s	Stalker	Great atmosphere and graphics, but it feels very unfinished and barely related to the theme. Gameplay is the usual adventure stuff, but point and click adventures aren't really a place to look for gameplay innovation. <br/> <br/>Interesting, but only as a prototype, not as a game.
May 19 18:37:00	27m 00s	Beyond Minimalism	Absolutely amazing. I think this is the first time I've rated an LD game 5/5 in every applicable category. Perfectly executed in every way, it's a shame so many people don't get it. <br/> <br/>--SPOILER WARNING-- <br/>To the people who don't get it: Each door has a minimalistic symbol above it that indicates where it leads to. Using these symbols and hints you find on the walls (notably the ones to search for the red cube and that 'nature is below your feet') you are supposed to find your way to nature. (The eventual solution is to find the room with the red cube (! symbol) and jump off the path leading to it; nature is below that room.)