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VDZ

Feedback comments for LD27

Timestamp	Since previous	Game	VDZ's comment
Aug 26 22:52:00		The Potion Girl	The rules of the game are extremely unclear, and I'm not sure if the 'rules' matter at all. Regardless of what I put in the potion, it just gives 10 XP. It doesn't look like there's any purpose to not using the potion at all. In fact, there's not even any clear point to leveling up - what, if anything, changes when you do? The shop upgrades are also completely lacking in description; even if they do something, I have no idea what, and I didn't notice any change. <br/> <br/>But most of all, the game feels pointless. You throw random stuff in the cauldron, the arbitrary numbers behind XP and MNY go up, then you press spacebar and do it again. There's no challenge, no sense of discovery, no real progression, nothing besides just repeating the same motions over and over. <br/> <br/>If I am somehow grossly misunderstanding this game, please explain how the game works, and I'll re-rate it.
Aug 26 23:14:00	22m 00s	Boxer's Seconds	From a technical viewpoint, this game is quite good. It's well thought out, everything works, and so on. <br/> <br/>But for some reason, it just doesn't feel fun to me. Maybe it just isn't my kind of game, but the auto-generated walls of text aren't that interesting to read, and solving the puzzle doesn't really feel rewarding to me.
Aug 26 23:19:00	5m 00s	Blazin' Fingers	Simple, but it works. Entertaining for a short while. <br/> <br/>High scores by the same person are listed multiple times. You generally want to re-submit your score when you get a higher score.
Aug 26 23:25:00	6m 00s	Stuck in a Clock	Enemies get stuck. Enemies walk through the clock hand without dying. You die even when you're not touching anything. There's no score or timer or any real measure of how well you did. <br/> <br/>The game has some potential, but it just doesn't realize that potential.
Aug 26 23:39:00	14m 00s	Hankerin Rocket Jocks	Nice little game. Dooleus has already said everything I have to say about this game.
Aug 27 00:18:00	39m 00s	10 Seconds at the Carnival!	Wow. When I opened this page, I got a very bad impression from the, to be honest, ugly graphics. So I definitely did not expect there to be a great game underneath that I'd keep playing over and over again! <br/> <br/>It's a very simple game, with mechanics that have been done to death. But it all just works so well it's a lot of fun despite that. This game really has the 'one more try!' factor. <br/> <br/>Besides the graphics, I only have two minor criticisms about the game. Though I really like the rest of the audio, the announcer's voice at the start of every try gets very repetitive after a couple of plays. Secondly, and that's only a problem because I really like the game, the randomness is unbalanced and makes scoring unfair. For example, in the ring toss game, any run with a lot of white rings and a front row full of white bottles will have a higher score than other runs. It's even possible to get rings/balls/darts of colors that don't exist on the board! It adds a bit too much luck to a skill game, in my opinion. <br/> <br/>Also, something I noticed, not sure if it's a bug or intentional: The high score is registered immediately, not at end of round. If your score decreases at some point (for example, a ring that was barely on falls off), the higher mid-round score counts towards your high score instead of your end-of-round score. This is very noticeable in the ring toss game when you get above 50 points. <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>Anyways, a game like this calls for score sharing. To all other commenters: What are your high scores? Mine are 80/50/71.
Aug 27 18:39:00	18h 21m	10 Squared	Awesome game. Beat it with 250 deaths (score -158). The '+ LVL' was a real nightmare. The timer countdown was far too loud, though; I had to turn down the great music to prevent that sound from being too loud.
Aug 27 18:51:00	12m 00s	Pitch your game	It's slightly humorous, but there's not much to it beyond that. You click the right words a couple times, and then you either win or lose. As a game, it's not very exciting. Even adding some kind of score system (such as a numerical rating of how much the boss likes it) would improve the game as it gives you some target to aim for beyond just winning (which is hardly a challenge at all).
Aug 27 19:07:00	16m 00s	Lean Mikey's Mega Muscles with Lean Mikey	Great game, reminds me of classic C64 games. Impressed 6 ladies on my first try, 9 ladies on my second try.
Aug 27 19:28:00	21m 00s	Cave Astronaut - First LD!	I'll give my honest thoughts: The game is a buggy mess with no challenge, ugly graphics, and barely any content (there's only one level and it's really short), and it has nothing to do with the theme. <br/> <br/>But everybody starts out making shitty games. Keep making games and you'll improve over time.
Aug 28 22:35:00	27h 07m	Explosion Time	I had a lot of fun with excessive upgrades, being able to freely navigate in all directions using recoil and such. http://i.xomf.com/snjhs.png
Sep 1 00:51:00	74h 16m	I'll Give You A Head Start	This game has a lot of potential, but unfortunately it really gets bogged down by its flaws. <br/> <br/>The most problematic aspect is that, at some point, the game just starts to feel tedious. I know being able to die is a necessary element for the excitement, but having to recollect every item again simply doesn't feel fun. That's partially because the item collecting itself is too slow and aimless - eventually you're just walking through the school three or four times to find out what room you forgot to check this time, to get that last item you need. Then when you finally learn the ritual and place the correct items, and wait for Emily (who is now rather fast) to arrive, you suddenly get a wonderful surprise: nobody told you, but you actually have to keep up the ritual for 4 seconds. Hope you placed your items right. Needless to say, after I got inevitably killed during the ritual, I just no longer felt like doing all of it AGAIN. This problem might be lessened by NOT randomly changing the item locations whenever you play. <br/> <br/>While some parts of the school have a unique, recognizable look, a lot of parts look too similar. This makes it take longer to get familiar with the school layout (essential to complete the game) and even once you're familiar, you'll still find yourself occasionally wondering where you are because everything looks the same. <br/> <br/>The game makes a very good attempt at a creepy atmosphere, but it's missing one vital element: MUSIC (or ambient sound). Music can make the difference between a boring walk through some school and a scary exploration of a creepy dark building. At some point, I decided to play some music from another game (Corpse Party) in the background, and sure enough, the game felt a lot more exciting. <br/> <br/>I want to say I love this game, but I can't really say that when I don't even feel like starting the game one more time to complete it. A few changes and I could love this game.
Sep 7 17:12:00	160h 21m	The Grassfires of Veldstar	I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like the graphics and audio. I understand you were going for a 'so bad it's good' style, but it just didn't do much for me. Perhaps it's the fact that there's too little variation in the graphics and everything looks pretty much the same, or perhaps I'm just weird (I didn't like Space Funeral either). <br/> <br/>As some others have said, the gameplay gets rather repetitive. You'll just be moving towards the exit without having to think much about it, dying due to being slightly too slow, then going through the exact same motions again except changing your route by a couple of tiles. It's not so much that you have to try hard to do it right as that you have to be careful not to do it wrong; the second time you'll almost always get past your obstacle without any trouble, so it doesn't really feel like you've accomplished much. <br/> <br/>Most of the levels feel like they're pretty much the same as the previous level (only rarely do you get an interesting new element to think/strategize about), so it feels like you're just going through the same motions over and over again. Though it must be noted that there are a couple of instances of new elements/patterns in the game, such as the part where you walk through the spiral with rapid-fire enemies shooting at you from all sides. Contrary to the usual 'walk past it fast enough not to get hit' gameplay, you actually had to walk in a small area with enemy fire all around you, which felt significantly different. Parts like that make levels interesting and memorable. <br/> <br/>From a gameplay perspective, the execution of the theme felt rather bland. 'Beat a level in 10 seconds and occasionally recharge your time'. Better than not using the theme at all as some people do, but it's not exactly the most original use of the theme. <br/> <br/>Lastly, a comment that doesn't affect my judging of the game, but bit of a disappointment for a Porpentine game: You wrote down some interesting lore, but the game feels like it has nothing to do with it. The environmental description is reflected in the art of the game, but other than that there's only the arbitrary time extension item in the game, which feels like it's hardly related to the lore (I can't imagine them surviving disasters with only a handful of single-use crystals granting only 10 seconds valid for only a single person). The ending of the game also amounts to nothing more than a simple 'yay a handful of us have survived'. Feels like it makes the lore a bit redundant, in my opinion.
Sep 7 18:25:00	1h 13m	SecondsXsecondS	This game is far too hardcore for me to finish in a single sitting. Could you make a post-LD version with a level select/save/password system so people don't have to repeat all of the previous levels if they want to play a specific level? <br/> <br/>As for the game itself, well, other people have said it all already. This marks the second time I've ever rated an LD game 5/5 in all applicable categories (first time being your LD26 entry)...I really need to check out your other games sometime.