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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Solifuge's comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 29 03:28:00 | A Bank Heist on Christmas | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Thank you for your entry! This was actually a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the dadaist humor (and your essay on blank-screen game design, LOL). It's probably better-classified as a work of interactive fiction, though. Still, thanks! The tunes were well-chosen and I often paused just to listen. It was great to play ->_<- | |
| Apr 29 03:36:00 | 8m 00s | Totems & Gods | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This concept seemed like it could be pretty great! It was spooky and I like the painterly graphics. However, with the player's jump being so limited, and the sprite getting caught so often on the edge of ledges, it was a bit too hard. I easily got the 2nd log twice (and one of the endings), but it was really frustrating to try to jump those gaps over and over again (and I never got far enough to understand what the stat increases and decreases did). <br/> <br/>I'd really love to play again if some of the level design were spruced up, though. It's a neat concept! |
| Apr 29 03:41:00 | 5m 00s | Tainted Pineapples | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>49 pineapples! I had some trouble starting the game at first--no many how many times I clicked, it wouldn't load. This one was neat in its interpretation of the theme for sure with a nice mood and relaxing audio, though I wish there had been some more strategy or variation in the gameplay. |
| Apr 29 03:57:00 | 16m 00s | Meddle | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>SPOILERS: <br/> <br/>I solved that particular first bit by inspecting, running, and jumping away from the walk cycle... then continuing to meddle. <br/> <br/>This was such a cool idea! I couldn't get past the second bit with the pole, though. You have to meddle with the spikes, then go down into the pit, but it's impossible to jump out of there... I have to say that the controls were also really unintuitive, which made the little bits of the game I could play take longer than they should have. I would really like to see an expanded version of this game! |
| Apr 29 03:58:00 | 1m 00s | Magic Age | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I was looking forward to this since RPGs are my favorite genre, but it crashed on opening... |
| Apr 29 04:20:00 | 22m 00s | Down | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow, this was a really cool concept! The mood was great, and the system you use where you can't quite tell who's speaking is a really interesting narrative choice, especially in the final room. That warbly, ghost-like clarinet solo and chants in the background gave a certain pizzaz! However, I didn't feel like there was much game in your game, if you know what I mean. There was a lot of concept, but I would have enjoyed more of a challenge. |
| Apr 29 04:29:00 | 9m 00s | Sky Shepherd | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>(My rating's based on the windows version--it loaded, but the controls were completely wonkus and the guide to gameplay only made it more apparent how unsuited it was to Windows) <br/> <br/>This is neat in concept and the art is pretty, but the audio gets dull really quickly and it doesn't seem to suit the theme at all. |
| Apr 29 04:48:00 | 19m 00s | Xen'Juru Adventure | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really, really liked this entry. There's something very... turtle ballet about it. Just navigating on the planet surface gives you enough time to get used to the controls, being more humorous than boring... and the floaty jumping gave a really good sense of a low-gravity region this time. Short, sweet, and fun. Thanks for the experience : D |
| Apr 29 04:55:00 | 7m 00s | Beneath the Humans | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a cool idea, and your graphics are really neat! Their animations are quite freaky, LOL, which fits with the theme. Still, I unfortunately couldn't find any way to differentiate humans from demons, so it becomes a completely deterministic exercise. I may have "won," but I didn't feel like I actually did anything! <br/> <br/>PS: Love that splash image, it's quite intriguing |
| Apr 29 05:11:00 | 16m 00s | Deep South Motel | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Hi! This is cool. I dig the graphics, the interpretation of the theme, and all that... I've got to say, though, that there not only doesn't seem to be any win/loss state, but I'm clicking on things frenetically and the only change in difficulty is based on a. how fast I click and b. how much stuff I have. There's no difficulty curve... there's a difficulty slump. |
| Apr 29 05:21:00 | 10m 00s | Digging up Daisy | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is really beautiful. The aesthetic, the colors, all of that. I didn't get far enough for the music to wear on me. The one thing I'd say is that it didn't seem to incorporate much skill... I really felt like what I was doing was a crapshoot. This may just be an issue of conveyance and game balance rather than the general concept, though! |
| Apr 29 05:33:00 | 12m 00s | Series Of Choices | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really love the graphics on this! They're crisp and clean with beautiful animations, and that fade-in gives an awesome feel. The character design is also the best I've seen so far this jam, so great job! Unfortunately, crossing Mario with Braid when Braid was already based on Mario to begin with doesn't make much sense. I also had a lot of trouble with jumping over some platforms due to placement, and I initially thought that "series of choices" meant I was supposed to run left instead of right, or something like that (instead of a rewind mechanic). Still, good job on the mood and audio. If you brush up on your mechanical design a bit, I think you could make some really adorable old-school platformers >w< |
| Apr 29 05:48:00 | 15m 00s | NanoDog | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>The second game I've finished until the end! The graphic direction was a bit uncohesive, but the general idea was really funny. I only got damaged once, though, so maybe you want to rebalance the room difficulty (please note: I am not very good at Binding of Isaac). |
| Apr 29 06:00:00 | 12m 00s | Behind Mirror | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is really beautiful! I wasn't able to get to the end, possibly because my platforming skills are rubbish, but I love the concept... it's not just underwater, but also on the reverse side of a mirror! That's too cool. <br/> <br/>I'm not sure what critique I can offer from the audio direction, since I'm not sure if adding music and more sound effects would add or detract from the mood. Either way, this was a really nice entry. Good luck on the jam! |
| Apr 29 06:28:00 | 28m 00s | Under Pressure | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is really neat! I dig the art style. It's a weird balance between chiaroscuro and blocky pixels, which has its own sort of flair. The sincerely great voice acting and sound direction are what really sells it for me... I was genuinely relieved to see my character get out of that place. <br/> <br/>Obviously the level design and length needs work, but you already know that. I'm looking forward to seeing more from you folks! |
| Apr 29 06:49:00 | 21m 00s | Lurker | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a really cute idea, but I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing or where I was supposed to be going, or even really where I was in the level. There's a reason why Snake has a Soliton Radar system! <br/> <br/>Thanks for the entry, though! I had a really good laugh. |
| Apr 29 06:53:00 | 4m 00s | Five little Submarines | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Congratulations on your first entry! I didn't get very far because I found it hard to navigate with such a limited field of view, but the concept is cute. Great job! |
| Apr 29 06:56:00 | 3m 00s | Mushroom Jazz | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Your atmospherics are great! I love the peppy atmosphere, the bouncing trees, the... well, the whole psychodelic mushroom samba schtick. It'd be fun to play a completed game with these visuals for sure! |
| Apr 29 07:16:00 | 20m 00s | Frack You | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Same thing as TyrusPeace for me--it's a really cool idea, making a game about fracking and getting the word out--but going from the top-down and merely placing the not-straight-up-and-down pipes without connecting them to anything at all (so I could cheese the randomizer and grab straight pipes only) meant contamination pretty much didn't happen, and so I didn't wind up doing much of anything even though I got up to the 40-barrel version to see if any new missions would appear. I didn't even see the clean water part of it! <br/> <br/>P.S.: Cute name :] |
| Apr 29 07:19:00 | 3m 00s | Ben Eath the Surf Ace | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Aw man! I really, really wanted to play this since it's the cleverest implementation of the theme I've seen so far and the graphics look amazing, but without a smartphone I'm going to have to pass : / |
| Apr 29 07:31:00 | 12m 00s | Drowning in Problems | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Note: SPOILERS AHOY <br/> <br/>I was really impressed with this entry. Since the theme of clicker games is "click more to get more stuff and accomplish goals," with the goal to minimize one's time investment on the way, your game furnishes an excellent deconstruction. Though at first memories and experiences provide a functional value (when the goal is growing), they soon stop providing a means to an end and are merely extraneous (when the goal is to decay). <br/> <br/>I can actually remember, quite clearly, the moment when I chose to stop gathering memories and experiences, since I had learned that they were pointless and I was tired of clicking on things. I'd become disheartened in my attempts to enjoy formative experiences and gave up. I didn't really want to buy things or advance in my career anymore--I wanted to find out if more stuff would happen if I kept trying to fall in love, make projects, and play--but before too long I decided to just progress and get it over with. It's a game that makes you choose to kill yourself, because you'd rather do that than keep playing it. <br/> <br/>But in theory, you could spend the rest of your life in the real world "solving" these "problems." It's just that the goal is to limit time investment. Right? <br/> <br/>I found the experience of waiting to be forgotten exhausting. It seemingly took forever for the timer to run out, and I tabbed away because I didn't want to watch anymore--didn't want to assist at my own funeral. <br/> <br/>And then, because I really had lost my hope somewhere along the lines that I could keep playing and something would be different, I closed the browser window and didn't try again. <br/> <br/>Thanks for this experience. It's really... top notch ;] |
| Apr 29 07:35:00 | 4m 00s | 50 Shades of Ray | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I managed to complete the first stage after a lot of tries, but I couldn't quite figure out how to advance to the next level--was there one? <br/> <br/>Overall, it's a cute name with nice graphics and pretty smooth play. However, needing to restart so many times was frustrating, and I found that I tended to avoid the powerups for maneuverability, since the game was uncompleteable otherwise. It'd be nice to see some longer levels. |
| Apr 29 07:44:00 | 9m 00s | The Creature Below | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is neat, though due to the nature of the graphics I had a pretty hard time figuring out what to do and how well I was doing it. I really like the design of the player character, though I think that the game could generally feel more "featured" with either smaller rooms or a quicker walking pace. I wasn't actually able to get much of anywhere. <br/> <br/>However, I really liked the way the different textures of ground made me move in different ways, and the combination of running from monsters aboveground and below was pretty new! Thanks for the entry, and good luck~ |
| Apr 30 03:33:00 | 19h 49m | Onca | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really appreciated getting to play this entry! It's a different interpretation of the theme, and it's nice to have a different setting, too. Also--pretty graphics, for sure! <br/> <br/>Some things to keep in mind for next time are that the camera height can make it kind of hard to even see the pigs, they're so far away, and that also it'd be easier to control if you didn't have to click over again (if you could just hold your mouse down and Onca would move in that direction, that would have been easier for me, I think). However, in the context of a jam, there's always things you can do better, right? Great job! |
| Apr 30 03:44:00 | 11m 00s | Geofront | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Shmups are my second-favorite genre, so I was really glad to get to play this! For a first game, this is wonderful >< I really like your ship designs and the music is pretty good! I was also pretty impressed with how you did the shot patterns/wave formations of the enemy fighters--looked good! <br/> <br/>One concrete game design thing I can say would be that in general, especially with the buggy collision mechanics and small size of the initial enemies, it kind of makes sense for them to have only one HP, right? It's really satisfying to have your first experience be KABOOM, especially since you have multiple enemy types and the stronger ones would show up soon! <br/> <br/>Keep it up! I hope I see you next compo :] |
| Apr 30 04:14:00 | 30m 00s | The Moon Has Monsters! | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I think everyone's pretty well covered the gameplay situation (in particular the tiling and difficulty level), so I'll say first--sweet audio, which actually meshed pretty well with the chill feeling of the game, and I really like your monster designs, too! The main character could be similarly made a bit more individualistic, however. <br/> <br/>As for the narrative, I think you could improve it some by cutting text. It's a game, not a novel... though it's seriously awesome that you could include this much story in your entry, the job of the writer in these games is to set the scene and let everything else speak for itself, sort of. And, in this case, I think there was a bit too much text. Not too many ideas... just that you could cut some verbiage and have a shorter, sweeter story. |
| Apr 30 04:48:00 | 34m 00s | LLOYD | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This was interestingly surreal with great art (love that walk cycle on the main character), but next time please give an epilepsy warning. <br/> <br/>Also, I don't know if there were multiple endings? The one I got really didn't seem to make much sense. |
| Apr 30 04:54:00 | 6m 00s | Wunderheilung | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really like this game! There's not much gameplay here, but the graphics and just... general... weirdness is really nice. I especially enjoy the understated responses to situations that are clearly grievous, which reminds me a lot of how a lot of people respond to psychological injury. So, I think the writing is definitely something keep and focus on. <br/> <br/>I don't know if you've seen this game, but it might make a good study for gameplay mechanics in the future? <br/> <br/>http://jayisgames.com/archives/2004/07/the_asylum.php |
| Apr 30 05:06:00 | 12m 00s | tell my story | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I unfortunately didn't get very far--I had similar issues with the level panning for no apparent reason and the sluggish movement of the character. My second time I tried going outside the path, just to find out whether I could or not, and wound up walking through the rock wall (a unidirectional process). <br/> <br/>The other thing I'd say is that if your questions are randomized, it's difficult for them to provide a narrative. I don't learn much from looking at binary questions of whether "wealth or fame" are more important, when the game tells me to gather wealth but the only gold dust I saw was deemed "worthless." It seems like a contradiction in terms. |
| Apr 30 05:31:00 | 25m 00s | The Money Beneath Our Ground | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Note--I'm only reviewing based on the first level, since I got kind of bored. I think this is a really neat idea, somewhat hurt by the lack of animations to show incompleted actions where you currently have a countdown (but that's to be expected in a jam!). Also, explaining based on colors, rather than going to each piece of information where it is on the screen and explaining how it works, made it hard to take things in. <br/> <br/>If you do a good job conveying your concept early on, you can add some pressure in the first level so that it will be a challenge, and more fun for everyone. Still, the concept is really nice and I wish more games would do a growing theme. |
| Apr 30 05:59:00 | 28m 00s | The Enemy Within | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I like this concept--and wow, doing an FPS for LD is impressive! I think the star-shaped alien designs are pretty cool, too. <br/> <br/>Probably the main thing I'd say is that it's not really clear you have to be within a certain range of an enemy to scan them, so I wound up wasting a lot of time. Good tuning on the shots, though. I actually died a couple of times. <br/> <br/>If you can, something to do might be having undetected aliens come grab you if you've turned your back on them. It would add another dimension to play, rather than just letting you charge your view indefinitely as long as you sit there. |
| Apr 30 06:23:00 | 24m 00s | FalloutRun | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really like the look of this game! The crowd scenes look great, and honestly watching people being knocked about like bowling pins by the cars is a treat. You've got a couple of bugs, though: <br/> <br/>1. I was hit by a car a few times and went offscreen, or was able to keep running while prone (this was hilarious, by the way) <br/> <br/>2. In my second run, the bomb went off early. <br/> <br/>3. The WASD controls seem not to work. The guy moves his legs, but he stays in place. I'm not sure if they're not supported or not--but since Unity told me I should use them as my primary movement method, I thought I'd let you know. <br/> <br/>In any case, great job and good luck with your next competition! |
| Apr 30 06:31:00 | 8m 00s | Diver | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Unlike the others, I somehow had no trouble with getting stuck on the walls. I like this concept--seems like I could get addicted to it pretty easily as a flash game, for example--but I found the level design a bit too samey, and the difficulty didn't really seem to increase too much. Sure, there were more bubbles on later levels, but the number and placement of kelp remained about the same, and I didn't have to go out of my way to get the pearls--it was really a "dodge the bubbles as you try to get to the end of the level" game, more than a collection game. I got to level 4 without losing any lives or even really worrying about it. <br/> <br/>However, I think that the basic concept, applied to some more careful (perhaps non-procedural) level design, could really be a lot of fun. |
| Apr 30 06:52:00 | 21m 00s | Just Your Typical Dating Game | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Oh, sweet! I'm excited that someone did a dating sim for this. My character (Lucario) did not successfully romance the narrator voice in the sky, nor any of the other ladies. Bad endings one and two. <br/> <br/>To be honest, the dialogue was kind of all over the place, with "random" humor that occasionally verged on the misogynistic. Characterization was also pulled straight from anime, to the point of using set phrases and scenes. I played a couple of times but I didn't get the sense that most of my choices were meaningful, or even that I could in any way predict the outcome of my actions. Getting the bad endings, which told me to work harder to see what's beneath the surface, kind of shocked me because I felt like the outcomes in the game were not really something I could accurately anticipate (the first time the twist happened, I actually startled out of my seat, the noise was such a surprise). <br/> <br/>I really liked your art and character design, though. It looked good, I do commend you for submitting a dating sim, and I look forward to seeing other entries from you in the future. |
| Apr 30 07:02:00 | 10m 00s | Ice Hop | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really like the character you presented--the graphics are wonderful (dig that elephant! or mammoth, I was kind of busy running away), and that screen at the end is very cute--but I have to say that I felt that the initial promise of the game (a resolved mystery) somewhat fell through. Great music. Probably the best thing you could do to improve the game, in my opinion, is put some kind of screen in-between levels to give the player something to look at (so that they won't think that the game has somehow frozen and is having terrible trouble). |
| Apr 30 07:09:00 | 7m 00s | Heavy Drizzle | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really liked this entry. The movement was smooth, no bugs, sound was to great effect, and I did my best my first runthrough and still really couldn't get out in time. This was fortunate, since I got to see the chilling ending line. Clean screens, good controls, good animations. Honestly, this was really great. Thanks for the experience! <br/> <br/>(Also, thanks for the review >< Much appreciated) |
| Apr 30 07:16:00 | 7m 00s | Shanghai | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This game was nice! I also experienced the city-not-loading bug, which made my experience pretty tense with the inability to figure out whether I was winning or losing. It'd also help to let us know what makes the flags in the Bund move in the first place, since I was trying to maximize my gains and didn't even know the direction I should be taking (rather than the flag problem, which would tell me how well I was doing it). <br/> <br/>Still, I had a fraught couple of minutes of fun out of this, which is impressive for a game with one of its most important assets missing. Great job! |
| Apr 30 07:42:00 | 26m 00s | Maniac PengMaku!! | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Man, I love a cute danmaku game. The idea is great, it's adorable, I like the pace. Touhou controls are fine, though the penguin rotates in a way that's difficult to maneuver. Music and SFX are a bit unbalanced, too, while the backing track didn't quite seem to suit your mood. <br/> <br/>Thing is, though, I can't really understand why I was collecting fish--I got to 46/25 and nothing in particular happened (I'm looking at the comments below--it seems that you're supposed to feed the penguin on the surface, but there's no indicator that you'd be able to do that). <br/> <br/>Pre-post edit: <br/> <br/>Okay, I went back and played a bit longer, getting to the baby penguin level, which I probably played about 5 times. Most of the jellyfish are clustered on the edge of the screen, hence most of the fish and powerups they spit out, and a hell of a lot of bullets. However, you have an ocean current there. Getting blown into danmaku over and over again was really frustrating, so I'd say the number one thing is, for this adorable game--do something else about the edges, perhaps? Otherwise, I love the theme, the general setup, the concept. I got pretty involved in playing! So, thank you for the experience. |
| Apr 30 08:08:00 | 26m 00s | Breaking The Waves | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Oh man, if I could copy Muramasa's entire review right here I would. The mugshot art was great, though it clashes pretty badly with the in-battle art. Having gold and EXP pop-ups when they're meaningless, and most of the battles finished by using the special attack (while the one in the cloud place told me that my target was dead--then they killed me)... and the long dialogues... all of it taken together was pretty messy. <br/> <br/>Also, please consider not passing domestic violence off as humor, or at least put up a warning for it? It'd be helpful. Thanks... <br/> <br/>Good luck, and thanks for the game. |
| Apr 30 08:16:00 | 8m 00s | Regrowth | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a cute idea! The controls and general goals reminded me of a really neat cannon game I used to play, so good job there. However, there was a pretty bad bug--I started on an underground level, and even after clearing all of the blocks, the tree didn't gain enough air for it to take off. It just kind of slid sideways and intersected the unbreakable portion of the ceiling, and stayed there. |
| Apr 30 08:29:00 | 13m 00s | The Mask of Us | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This was a pretty well put-together experience all around! I can see that you've already gotten lots of reviews, so I'll keep it short and simple: your interpretation of the theme was the best part of this game. I laughed at the end and enjoyed a lot of the dialogue... the graphics were cute, too. <br/> <br/>I guess what I'd ask is, given the number of mask-switching games following a generally similar mechanical idea, do you think you could challenge yourself to turn this concept into an interactive game with win and loss conditions? Clearly the rest of your approach is pretty good, so it seems like a strong next step. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the experience! I enjoyed myself. |
| Apr 30 08:43:00 | 14m 00s | Go! Go! Purgatory! | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow, I really admire your graphics and scene-setting for this one! You have some great characters, too, and the music works well to create a good ambiance. However, the narrative's a bit random, and it only superficially seems to match the theme. I hope you submit more visual novels next time! I get more and more excited with every one I find to review. |
| Apr 30 08:57:00 | 14m 00s | Moby-riDickulous | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I had a lot of fun, though I actually wasn't able to hear anything. The reloading harpoons mechanic is really nice! One thing you might work on is putting the game in a window rather than fullscreen (it'll help the low-res graphics look better) and adapting the level design a bit to give the players more time to learn the game before throwing quite so many sea creatures at you. <br/> <br/>Otherwise, it was a tense, fun experience for me. Thanks! |
| Apr 30 09:05:00 | 8m 00s | Turn-A Totally BS!: Turn Up a Dig Site | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is cute! I really liked the little animation stings you put in as the game progressed, and the characters were cute. Same thing for the general idea--it was a nice story, well-executed, with a good feeling. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately... the gameplay. It didn't even behave as I expected, since it said something about digging up three spots? I could just click on each square in turn, so it was kind of just a "click up to x times" game. Since you're participating in a jam, you might want to consider pairing up with a dedicated designer... as-is, I felt like what I was receiving was a really nice flash comic with a great interactive portion, more than a game. |
| Apr 30 09:19:00 | 14m 00s | Love Letter Typer | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! I dug the graphics, the monsters, the whole strange surrealism of it. I think you could make the love letters a bit more intense--I don't mean "graphic," just that you could work on developing them so as to add a bit more of an arc to the story. Character design is excellent and I enjoyed the bizarre French existentialist bend (and metamorphosis of lover into a chain-smoking beetle...). <br/> <br/>I did find a kind of weird bug, though--sometimes you'll teleport through solid walls when you stand close to them and hit z. I would often find myself trapped in a box on a level, think I was about to lose, and then warp out of it. <br/> <br/>Another thing is that due to the very simple visual design, which is lovely and striking most of the time, I had a lot of trouble finding my character at the beginning of the level sometimes, and there was a fear that I would end up getting killed because the starting position was unsafe. So, that might be something else to consider. <br/> <br/>All-in-all, a solid entry. Thank you! |
| Apr 30 09:31:00 | 12m 00s | The Longest Way Down | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Great graphics... I was surprised and impressed by how much the ending, well, surprised me. In a single moment I suddenly understood the entirety of the alien scene on the hill, which had previously seemed merely unusual. Though I read all of the texts and thought I had gotten a hold of the situation, it soon became clear that I truly hadn't understood them. <br/> <br/>That said, in a post-compo version it would be wonderful to see a more polished game with failure states and the like. I'm not sure I'm in agreement with the other users that full sound is necessary, but maybe some sound effects would do it? I remember that the lack of music in Myst really enhanced the isolating effect. <br/> <br/>Anyway, great game, and thanks for the polished experience. |
| Apr 30 09:38:00 | 7m 00s | Hell Manager | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a neat idea, and the graphics are great! I guess the main thing I'd ask is why you'd have the bar need to be filled up by repeatedly using different machines, instead of putting a person in a machine and having the bar fill automatically. <br/> <br/>Maybe consider leaving out the racism and other such things (you know what I'm talking about) next time. You can make a great game without them. |
| Apr 30 09:43:00 | 5m 00s | Dolphin Dash | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, I had too much trouble understanding how the controls were supposed to work to get much out of this, though I probably tried five times or so. I think it would have been easier to figure out with a larger play area, since the one provided in the web version is a bit too small to even see what I'm doing most of the time (the dolphin goes off-screen). Still, the graphics are really great and the general gameplay concept--when I could figure out how to get it to work--is neat. Good job! |
| Apr 30 17:21:00 | 7h 38m | Harvest Doom | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is really cute! I'm always a sucker for growing-stuff themed games. It's slick, the interface is easy to use, and I really like the art. Only a couple of criticisms, though: <br/> <br/>1. I think the timing may be a little bit off. The early waves seem to take a bit too much time spent sitting around and doing nothing; I also won my first game planting plants on grassy patches only (i.e. I had 3 tomatoes and 1 corn plant, since I thought you could only plant on grass). <br/> <br/>2. You kind of undercut your initial absurd humor by going "aw, whatever" at the end of the story! You made a strong choice, and you'll have better results by sticking to it. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! I enjoyed playing to the end, and look forward to seeing your polished final product. |
| Apr 30 17:28:00 | 7m 00s | Dolphins And Pie | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Oh wow, you're only eleven?! It's great that you're already entering game jams! I'm impressed! <br/> <br/>I could clear the first two levels, but the third one got a little bit too hard too fast. The first level was good--it was pretty easy, so I didn't have to work too hard and could figure out the game. The next level I thought, "Hm, I can do this okay!" But on the third one, I ended up thinking: "Could anyone alive click that fast?!" <br/> <br/>I hope you come and submit a game in August, too :] See you then! |
| Apr 30 17:44:00 | 16m 00s | Two Sided | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I don't know what went on, but I actually didn't run into any traps or invisible walls the whole time I was in the maze. I also didn't realize that the warps would keep sending me back and forth between the worlds, so I wound up in the maze quite a few times, hehe. <br/> <br/>The free-runner on top of the roof would have been a lot more fun with longer ramps and smaller jumps--as-is it was a bit more like a tilted "pixel-perfect" first-person platformer, which is a rough combination. <br/> <br/>Excellent mood. To fix your audio problem, usually folks make some kind of loop. Might be difficult if you're using open-source music, but it'd also help your entry a lot. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the experience! Those beast roars in the background freaked me out, haha. |
| Apr 30 17:51:00 | 7m 00s | Drill Fish | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a neat idea! I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to control, though--my fish kept on getting stuck in the sand and not moving, and there's no explanation at any point for the numbers at the top of the screen (which, I suspect, would help me figure out how to keep from dying all the time). <br/> <br/>The background audio also quickly became actively irritating, and was probably, more than the sticky controls, the push that made me quit. <br/> <br/>However, I really like the way you interpreted the theme, and your main character had a good feeling to it. Thanks! |
| Apr 30 17:56:00 | 5m 00s | Electric Sieve | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow, this is a really excellent entry. At the end of the day you're just sorting triangles, but the audio style you used, the color schemes, the vaguely surreal image of the game fading into static all work together beautifully. <br/> <br/>The only thing I'd say is that I was constantly confused by how the poles at the bottom would move if I pressed left or right. I'm not sure how to fix that, either, or if it's something other people would have trouble with--just thought I'd let you know. Great game! <br/> <br/>(End score: 69) |
| Apr 30 18:05:00 | 9m 00s | Descent | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow... these are legitimately the best graphics I've seen so far this jam. The mood is fantastic. Had to give up after a couple of times, though--the sudden mass spider spawning when you get to the first mage got me both times. <br/> <br/>I'd like to see a full version of this game... I'm interested in what you could do with more time. Thanks for the experience! |
| Apr 30 18:24:00 | 19m 00s | Thought Police | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow, this is a REALLY good short VN. I think I managed to get all the endings. Great atmosphere, great characters and art, and it's the best interpretation of "beneath the surface" as subtext that I've seen thus far. <br/> <br/>If there's one thing I'd change, it's the humorous take on the scene where the officer nearly gets killed... there's places for humor in your game, but I really think that destroys a lot of the tension you've been building up. The other thing is--as you probably know--the image of the random policeman really doesn't fit the style of the rest of your characters. <br/> <br/>Great job. Thanks for the experience! I'd love to see a full-length VN from you guys. |
| Apr 30 18:32:00 | 8m 00s | The Marvellous Sushimaker | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>The art for this is great, and I like the way it controls--it's really smooth and feels like a boat. I played a couple times, though, so it would be nice if the game-over screen gave you your score and let you start a new game (rather than just giving a splash image). Also--I know it says you have techno music, but I couldn't hear anything despite having the volume cranked up really loud. That's a technical issue you might want to look into. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| Apr 30 18:44:00 | 12m 00s | The Thing Beneath the Surface | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This was a neat concept, and I liked the background art a lot, the general concept, and so on. At this point, I think there's a few things you might want to make clearer: <br/> <br/>1. How much food you need to gather <br/> <br/>2. That the world doesn't wrap <br/> <br/>Since the plants seem to regenerate, I ended up going really, really far out of my way, picking up 100 food, and then getting too bored to actually return home. <br/> <br/>The other thing is that your excellent graphical talent should probably also be extended to the user interface. As others have noted, the "you have died" screen at the end while you're still able to run around is pretty anti-climactic. However, the unfeatured bars in the upper-left corner also cut down on the established mood a bit, while they could be used to great effect to help set it. <br/> <br/>Still, this is a nice concept. I like the idea of a sneaking game that doesn't present any enemies whatsoever until the moment of being caught. |
| Apr 30 19:18:00 | 34m 00s | Bistro Cafard | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is fun, with a nice twist in your night missions! Because of the font you used, I didn't actually notice the numbers showing my available stockpile going down in the fridge until the fourth day or so, so at first I was left wondering: "Why am I shooting these animals? I understand it from a narrative perspective, but not from a gameplay one." <br/> <br/>Honestly, this is a brilliant execution of the theme, and a pretty good cooking game to boot. However, there's some stuff I think you could tune to make it a bit better: <br/> <br/>1. Why not just have the ingredients gathered on the chopping block become a prepared meal, rather than needing to stack the items together? If there's a worry about incorrectly mixing the meal, well, <br/> <br/>2. Most restaurant games have a convention where you can give plates to the wrong customer and waste your work--that might be an appropriate thing to consider. <br/> <br/>3. I played for four days or so, with 100% approval rating after the first game, but the difficulty curve never really got tough, and there wasn't a need to cook the beef stroganoff at any point. My expectation was that I'd need to start preparing dishes and ingredients ahead of time in order to be able to serve customer needs, thus possibly making me waste ingredients in an attempt to plan--but the difficulty curve didn't do the thing, and I ended up getting bored in the end since it really wasn't getting any harder. <br/> <br/>4. I expected that when my "meat" stores ran out I'd be unable to prepare a dish--instead I just bought cockroaches, apparently. Since I wasn't in any danger of running out of money at any point, this kind of undermined the hunting portion of the game. <br/> <br/>Make a full version? I'd love the opportunity to steal vegetables from my neighbors' gardens. Choosing between that and hunting could keep the pacing fresh. |
| Apr 30 19:36:00 | 18m 00s | Super Nail Gun Warrior | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Like the other reviewers, I also didn't get any farther than the dark room... I expected that I'd use my gun to blow a hole in the wall and progress (like last time, where the way out was denoted with white), but that didn't seem to work... <br/> <br/>Still, nice character design. Thanks for the game! |
| Apr 30 19:45:00 | 9m 00s | Cognitive Dissonance | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Wow, what a neat idea! A typing game with a story... I've never seen anything quite like it! <br/> <br/>One thing you might want to check--I had a success in every dialogue, and yet my character says he "gave in" to his evil side. Otherwise, I think you could cut down on repetitive text or make the characterization a little bit more complex, and it'd make the game somewhat less tedious and more emotionally complicated... you've got a neat story, so you might as well run with it as far as you can. <br/> <br/>Great music, neat visuals, excellent concept. Good job! |
| Apr 30 19:58:00 | 13m 00s | Aeronautical | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is really cool! The enemy design is good, the level progression is nice, and the sound effects give a really satisfying feedback when you're playing. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say... just that maybe a backing audio track that crossfades when you're in the air vs. underwater would be cool? It'd also be nice if the two regions were somewhat differentiated mechanically, though obviously of course this is just a 72-hour game jam. <br/> <br/>Anyway, nice shooter, nice UI! Thanks for the experience. |
| Apr 30 20:07:00 | 9m 00s | Souvenirs | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is interesting, but I feel like we're often not left with any meaningful choices--and though that can be done to make a point, there was a definite goal here, not an inevitable outcome. Furthermore, each of the vignettes was simple enough that I really didn't have to think about them. <br/> <br/>Rather than a happiness meter, you might consider shifts in atmospheric effects to cue the change in mood. <br/> <br/>And, on a writing note: the protagonist doesn't know or understand why he holds the hand and kisses the forehead of his own dying, suffering mother? Is he a sociopath? Is he disconnected from his own emotions? The choice you made is valid, but without any other context it's hard to see it as anything other than a contradictory callousness on the part of the protagonist. |
| Apr 30 20:17:00 | 10m 00s | Wolfy Blast | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Really nice graphics and UI give a good feeling to this game. I think the hordes of enemies constantly spawning fore and aft was kind of unfair, though, and it also seemed pretty cheap that they could camp around on top of spike pits while I had to platform over them and try not to get jumped into. What little I played was fun, though, and I appreciated the target-shooting puzzle bit--that was new for me! |
| Apr 30 20:26:00 | 9m 00s | Lurks | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is interesting. I like the lighting, which sort of implies that the protagonist is glowing--what's up with that? I'd like to see a version of this game where punching 30 zombies at a time is a more fully-developed mechanic. <br/> <br/>PS: Think I found another bug! The inventory doesn't open with E, and it has to be closed with the escape key. |
| Apr 30 20:39:00 | 13m 00s | Sea of Sorrows | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really like the jumpy/bouncing movement of the fish, and in this case the dark screen made for a really oppressive atmosphere. However, I ended up dying for reasons I didn't understand, and gaining points for reasons I didn't understand, either. The game might have been easier to process if the entire playing field were available onscreen at a time, rather than panning with the movement of the fish. |
| Apr 30 20:48:00 | 9m 00s | Beneath Mr. Perfect | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is interesting, but it seems kind of naive in its approach. What makes this character Mr. Perfect? That's something we never see, or understand. You've successfully depicted a depressed, extrinsically motivated character but I wasn't able to empathize with him very well. He's surprised that the world is dangerous and yet he spends a lot of time on Facebook getting likes... there's a cohesion in narrative that's missing here, that would help your admittedly interesting idea get some traction. |
| Apr 30 20:51:00 | 3m 00s | Under the Paper | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This was really adorable, with a novel interpretation of the theme! I felt like the level design needed to be worked on, though. The central puzzle of "pull out the tacks to progress" didn't seem to be really designed around, and the level progression didn't make sense--a level that caused some difficulty could be flanked on either side with lots of easier ones, with no explanation for it thematically. <br/> <br/>Still, it was cute and I enjoyed myself playing. Good job! |
| Apr 30 20:58:00 | 7m 00s | Mask | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Man, I really dug this art style, and of the "mask" games I've played so far this jam, this one is definitely my favorite. It's cute and memorable. It gets the "attract and repel through showing different faces" thing down, while adding a fresh twist. So, great job there. <br/> <br/>One thing you might do for a post-compo version would to be a little bit clearer about how lives are lost--I found myself confused the first couple times I played as to why that had happened, since I was so busy keeping track of the screen I couldn't associate my actions with the lost health. |
| Apr 30 21:01:00 | 3m 00s | Some Guy and the Blind Date Adventure | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a pretty cool idea--a rhythm game with story attached! I felt it was a bit easy though, and the zaniness of the story made it difficult for the mood to come together. |
| Apr 30 21:14:00 | 13m 00s | NSAClicker | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This was an interesting game! I really like what you did with the graphics, and the animation for the "steal byte" effect was really nice. <br/> <br/>The thing is, though, that the fundamental loss state for a clicker game is "inefficiency in reaching my goal," i.e. spending a longer time playing than one wants to. When you don't have any apparent goal (I got all the way down to purchasing the code injection feat), this subverts the entire aim of the genre. Additionally, new items are usually unveiled in order to create a feeling of excitement, rather than letting the player see the entire echelon of powerups straight off the bat. <br/> <br/>However, your balance is pretty good, and though I personally don't like clicker games that much (as you have probably guessed by now ._.), this one was a lot less tedious than most of the others I've played previously. |
| Apr 30 21:18:00 | 4m 00s | HAPPY FRIEND | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/> <br/>I love the psychedelic graphics! Like the other people here, though, I really couldn't figure out what to do. What is the probe for? Why am I clicking? How do I make the poor manspider smile? <br/> <br/>Cool model, though. It was fun to play with! |
| Apr 30 21:35:00 | 17m 00s | Undermined | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This game was interesting... and also surprisingly difficult! I was kind of frustrated that I lost the ability to open up to miners as they died, but I guess it kind of makes sense... in order to keep the player character's sanity stable, you have to maintain the health of the crew. <br/> <br/>I'd say that maybe it should be rebalanced a bit, but I think that keeping it hard and moody is the right way to go. Something you could do is perhaps adjust the graphics a little bit--this is great given the time you had to put it together, but the plain user interface along with the miners perched at the top of the screen seemed a bit bare-bones. <br/> <br/>Really, really nice interpretation of the theme, and fun to play. Good work! |
| Apr 30 21:40:00 | 5m 00s | Die Backpfeife aus dem Nichts | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Oh heavens, what a creepy game ._. Great graphics, really stylish, and the backing audio doesn't hurt either. It's interesting trying to balance the mutual, incompatible desires of slapping the devil out of your friend and keeping him alive--though I do end up asking myself if there's a mathematical ceiling on possible scores. Is there a zone where I can slap him without doing any damage, but still protect him from the transformation? I just don't know! <br/> <br/>Anyway, this was great. Thanks for the game! <br/> <br/>(High score: 2280) |
| Apr 30 21:54:00 | 14m 00s | Under a Martial Artist's Skin | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is a neat idea, and the gameplay is pretty good! Something kind of odd happened on the second stage, though, where my health bar was half way through, the enemy was half-way down, and I was informed I'd failed. <br/> <br/>Honestly, I think that if you really focused on this, you could have an amazing post-compo version that was really amazing. It's a great concept... hope you embellish it. |
| Apr 30 22:05:00 | 11m 00s | Sopora | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Quick note--it says that the flashlight bug is fixed, but I'm still having trouble with it in the web version. <br/> <br/>This was interesting! I managed to escape up until the flimsy wooden box, when I ended up getting a bit too excited about playing with all my toys, stabbed myself in the neck with a pen, and died. <br/> <br/>I think it was a bit too easy to figure out what to do most of the time--after a bit there was kind of a rhythm to finding the right object. However, the first couple of playthroughs were very moody and tense, thanks in particular to the excellently chosen backing audio. <br/> <br/>I kind of liked that attempting to calm down had no effect. I was hoping it would do something to calm *my* nerves, but instead--nothing, LOL. |
| Apr 30 22:08:00 | 3m 00s | Fortune and Glory | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>This is cute! As you said--not amazing gameplay, so I won't cover that, but I liked the audio and it was overall a sort of positive, emotionally enriching experience. Really well-done mood, nice job melding audio, graphics, gameplay experience, and story. It was a nice break from some of the darker titles featured in the jam. |
| Apr 30 22:19:00 | 11m 00s | Chick&Tricks | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I really wanted to play this game, but I could not for the life of me figure out the controls. Do you think you could post them? The sound is great, the interpretation of the theme is great, it looks absolutely adorable... but without controls posted, it's really hard to rate you... <br/> <br/>Anyway, thanks for the entry! |
| Apr 30 22:33:00 | 14m 00s | The Spyware Who Loved Me | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>I love this concept! You've done a great job with graphics, mood, and the soundtrack is really great, too. Unfortunately I got stuck at the zone with the green code--I tried the jump maybe twenty times but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. <br/> <br/>I wish I could critique and play the rest of the game, since it looks amazing--but as-is, all I can say is that there's a weird pause right after the data decrypts that slows the game down and is a bit frustrating. Needing to wait twice is a bit weird, and I kept wondering if there was a key I needed to press or whatnot. <br/> <br/>Good luck with the compo! It's a great entry. |
| Apr 30 22:38:00 | 5m 00s | SWAN QWOP | Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account) <br/> <br/>Ohhhhh man, I thought I had a good thing going and then I ended up making exactly the same pose as in the photo ._. <br/> <br/>For what it is, this a really nice execution. The frog added a nice touch. |
| Apr 30 23:23:00 | 45m 00s | Flipper | This game has a nice, contemplative mood! I was able to finish mid-flip, framed perfectly over the sun, hehe. Really polished and light to play, and the undersea bubbles helped figure out acceleration. <br/> <br/>This is great for a 48-hour entry, but if you decide to expand on it, I think that some gentle sea movement would probably be the most helpful thing to set the mood. As-is, the utterly and persistently placid sky and sea had a static behavior that broke my association with the game a little. <br/> <br/>Thanks for this! I enjoyed relaxing with it. |
| Apr 30 23:32:00 | 9m 00s | Dr. Pepsi Marriage Consultant | This is hilarious. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, I can't offer any critique that you don't know about already, but I enjoyed it a lot and appreciate how much you went with your theme and subject. |
| May 1 00:07:00 | 35m 00s | Esc | Interesting topic. <br/> <br/>Your level design is excellent with nice graphics and a good gameplay mechanic, but the writing was ham-handed and it's irresponsible to ask the audience to empathize with the abuser. Domestic violence does not generally consist of "A person is abusive [the woman talking to her husband like a dog; she is not being *annoying*, she is being *demeaning*], and then the abused party escalates [the husband drops her into a pit], and then the new abused party escalates further [the wife turns the tables on the husband and locks him in the cave]." If you had indeed chosen the husband to be the abused party, having the player arrive at a sequence in which she "needed" to drop him down a pit in order to progress, at which point perspective switches--then you might have had something. As-is, please continue to refine your narrative style and read more accounts written by survivors. <br/> <br/>Your audio choices also somewhat detracted from the feeling of the game, being kind of sappy. |
| May 1 00:26:00 | 19m 00s | Necronomicon | Beautiful art! It's got a style a bit like the games from the Homestuck comment. Love that armless jostle. That said, I played a couple of times and both times, even with coming back to the altar pretty frequently and spamming my speed potions (and having most of the items equipped), there was an issue with the altar being too mucked up while I was gone, with no way to protect or restore it. I never lost a life or much HP, but it was just about impossible to keep that altar protected. So, perhaps a little bit more balance is in order. <br/> <br/>Thanks! The game was cute and fun to play. |
| May 1 00:37:00 | 11m 00s | Strawberry in the Underworld | This is beautiful! The mood's great and it's truly adorable. That said, the platforming controls were so slidy and floaty that I pretty much couldn't get anywhere with it... and, if you'd had any more time, I would have really appreciated an animation of the pooch going up the vines in the underworld. As-is, the transitions were really harsh and kind of disorienting. |
| May 1 01:07:00 | 30m 00s | Emerita | Absolutely top-notch puzzle design. Uses the underground region as a puzzle mechanic, good SFX, great everything. I was ecstatic when I beat it -><- <br/> <br/>I'm surprised not to have any suggestions! This is the best game mechanically that I've played so far this jam. |
| May 1 01:22:00 | 15m 00s | I'm not who I am | "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman <br/> <br/>The surface being different from the interior doesn't make the surface somehow false. |
| May 1 01:33:00 | 11m 00s | The Captain's Holiday | This has nice graphics and visuals put together, and I liked the diversity of the endings. The captain's voice was also nice--not narratively obtrusive, but still well-defined. <br/> <br/>However, I didn't really feel emotionally invested in any of the outcomes, and I could occasionally tell that there was no possible answer that would answer the challenge before me well, which was frustrating and eroded my sense of agency. |
| May 1 01:51:00 | 18m 00s | And the Moment Is Gone | Ignoring other people's boundaries: the simulator <br/> <br/>Or perhaps: <br/> <br/>Street harassment: the simulator <br/> <br/>I disliked how random the woman's responses were. Playing the game, I'd make the same choice multiple times and we'd have completely different conversations, often where one moment she was fine (or furious) and the next moment she would completely change mood. <br/> <br/>For such a sensitive subject, this only serves to vindicate people who play off women's responses to harassment as irrational, hysterical, etc. Social anxiety is a pain in the bum. Social anxiety does not force you to repeatedly escalate your pickup lines to someone who has shown they're not interested in your attentions, lest you be overcome by doubts. |
| May 1 02:01:00 | 10m 00s | I Hope Drill Sempai Notices Me | Combining drilling with a dating game... not something I would have ever expected! It was fun, though I think probably my main objection was the simplicity of the routes. It got to be pretty clear which answers were the good ones and which ones were bad--which was in no way dependent on the presented planets' personalities (or so it seemed)--and so I lost immersion pretty quickly. <br/> <br/>Still, this is really original and I laughed for quite a bit. Well done! |
| May 1 02:29:00 | 28m 00s | Shells | This had a nice feeling, and I enjoyed the simple puzzles... needing to switch mid-way, and the like. <br/> <br/>Did you mean to have it end at the "fall into hopelessness" part? To the best of my knowledge you can't get any farther than that (since what I expected, that I'd be able to swap between hard and soft shells and figure out how to float between the spikes, did not work)... but it looked like there was more levels. <br/> <br/>Still, I appreciated the message before it became so nihilistic, and the movement and ambiance were good. Also, it was a nice interpretation of the theme... each shell is in a way "beneath" the other, rather than having the usual representation with a single surface. A solid entry. |
| May 1 03:28:00 | 59m 00s | Tenkosei ROBO | This is a really fantastic entry. The art is crisp and functional, and you've hit upon a unique way to turn exposition into a game. Also, the last boss... wow. Not something I'd been expecting, and I kept on wondering what was "beneath the surface" until the very end. It's a nice smooth difficulty curve, too. <br/> <br/>Very fitting audio and SFX. The only thing that I'd look to changing is the beam animation--watching it going past the enemy as they complain about how much it hurts damages the immersion a little bit. <br/> <br/>Anyway, I'm looking forward to the continuation! |
| May 1 03:43:00 | 15m 00s | Something Beneath the Surface (Sea's will) | The black and white graphics--those that are completed--are really lovely, and I adore the animation of the sailing boat. At the moment your text is cut off on the screen in both French and English versions, and it would be helpful to have a button to advance rather than merely waiting (as there are no visuals attached, so nothing is lost by this approach). I also could embark in the diving bell in only one position--and when I got to the bottom, the game ended. There wasn't very much here game-play-wise, though there were certainly some very beautiful assets and a well-crafted mood. I look forward to seeing what you do with this idea in the future. |
| May 1 03:45:00 | 2m 00s | The Mad Engineer | Missing some MSVCR dlls... |
| May 1 03:52:00 | 7m 00s | The Devil's Magnificent Return | You did a really good job setting the mood in this piece, and I like the use of breath weapons--that's pretty innovative, and new for me! It was *cool*. <br/> <br/>The gameplay is pretty rudimentary and the platforming is pretty much functional at best, with a short length, but for me the main thing that bothered me about this game was the lack of audiovisual feedback for attacks. It was difficult to figure out that I was being damaged, or damaging anything, except when enemies disappeared or my pentacle points dropped. In such a short game that was pretty inconsequential, but with any greater challenge it would have posed a real problem. |
| May 1 04:03:00 | 11m 00s | Beneath The Mirrors' Surface | Same situation with me and everyone else. I like the core idea and wow, the controls are generally really sharp and smooth--with enough feedback to really figure out what you're doing, but I feel like the level design didn't quite address how the controls actually work (rather than how one would like them to theoretically work). Having a more difficult wall jump to do along with the first mirrored mechanics makes that third level just a bit too hard. <br/> <br/>I dig the monochromatics though, and the controls are frankly great for having been pounded out in 48 hours. |
| May 1 04:17:00 | 14m 00s | Demonic Reflection | Finished! Great, functional execution of the concept. Your musical loop is a little bit off, and it's repetitive but that's all right for such a short game. A longer version that maintains this one's simplicity while adding more style and visual feedback would be great--in particular, the hitboxes on the spikes make some portions unnecessarily punishing. I'd like to see level design that focused more on planning than difficulty with execution, too. <br/> <br/>Still, this is really original for a 48-hour effort. Thanks for the experience! |
| May 1 04:41:00 | 24m 00s | Soul Ninja | This platformer has a really excellent sense of physics to it--a real heaviness that most slip-slidey platformers don't have, let alone those made in 72 hours. It was fun and felt good just to run around as the character. That said, that's where I found most of my enjoyment. The world was drab and fairly featureless, and since the zoom didn't cover the entire stage, I often found myself disoriented and struggling to figure out where to go next. <br/> <br/>I've seen the world switching mechanic a lot of places--Guacamelee, Eversion, Giana Sisters, countless others--but this is the first time I've seen it with a time limit, which effectively controls the amount of time the player has to complete a particular platforming segment. This was a clever touch, and one which I think, if it were carefully designed to, could produce a very interesting and crafted experience. |
| May 1 04:45:00 | 4m 00s | Under the Vinegar | Even though it's incomplete and you can't do much yet, this proof of concept made me smile. Raising your pet pickle to compete in some kind of competition--should the game move in the direction that the stat bars seem to suggest--crosses the tamagotchi and "state fair" genres of game admirably and shows the interesting conflict between pet and display object off well. You know, like a brine-soaked sort of Monster Rancher. <br/> <br/>Your visuals are very nice, with a certain old-timey charm, and this was a very unique take on the theme. Good luck with your post-compo update! |
| May 1 05:00:00 | 15m 00s | Underground Passage fight | I agree that the difficulty level was really strange--for this kind of game, it's much easier to use the Binding of Isaac approach and steer with the keyboard, aim with the mouse. There were two levels with two enemies apiece, after which I was immediately plunged into two much more difficult levels... before then I'd been able to literally just sit in front of the enemies and hit them without dodging, chumping the damage. <br/> <br/>A powerup system would have helped out a lot, I think, to break up the monotony a little. Or some kind of audio, or a slightly less removed camera angle. |
| May 1 05:22:00 | 22m 00s | Syndrome | ... That was a nice twist, and helps explain my extreme incompetence in this game ._. I think you're fine in terms of typos, but there was a bit too much information to comb through, and none of it seemed to give me anything really meaningful--it was all surface questions and the things I would have liked to have probed deeper into could only be superficially addressed. <br/> <br/>The audio was all right--a bit stale and wearing, and didn't quite seem to fit the subject. However, the graphics were very suitable and I enjoyed the characters' different personalities--I thought it was especially cute to have the characters represented by accessories. <br/> <br/>There's another game in this vein which I think you might get something out of reviewing: http://jayisgames.com/archives/2004/07/the_asylum.php <br/> <br/>It's a different approach, but has some similarities. |
| May 1 05:57:00 | 35m 00s | Heaving of the Depths | The graphics for this are gorgeous! You've got some fantastic visual direction here. I especially like the combat animation of the squids--they have a real flair to them. Unfortunately I was disappointed by my EXP surpassing the limits of the level-up bar and ended up quitting after picking up the sailing upgrade. <br/> <br/>Text was a bit dense, though--you might consider breaking it up into multiple windows, and perhaps having more brightly-colored portraits. As it is right now it looks a bit like a wanted poster aesthetic, which is cool but at this point pretty difficult to read. <br/> <br/>There's a lot of original mechanics here, as well. It somehow feels different from your typical combat RPG. I'm not quite sure how you'll be able to balance picking up gold from both combats and the world map, but it's interesting and new. I'd love to see a full game with these characters, mechanics, and visuals--they're awesome. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the experience! Good luck with your post-compo upgrades :] |
| May 1 06:15:00 | 18m 00s | Cyber Viking Bar Brawl | The controls are smooth, and the character design is interesting. I imagine you already know that this is pretty tasteless. |
| May 1 07:37:00 | 1h 22m | The Roots Of Evil | This is a lovely, minimalistic game. I've played a few times but been unable to beat it at any point... there's something great about how you can see the roots coming, but you can't necessarily keep track of them. It feels inevitable, and your weapon is larger than you, but the enemy is so much larger than it... you've done a really excellent job of making a simple game with a complex emotion attached. Great work! |
| May 1 07:54:00 | 17m 00s | The Day After | You know, I got four out of five endings (True, Normal, Bloody, Bed) and I have to say that none of them explained how Jack's dream is supposed to make sense. I had a hard time understanding how the narrative structure fit together... there were too many pieces that didn't fit with the main plot, and I had little sense of agency or involvement with proceedings. What does the shooting range guy have to do with anything? And so on, and so forth. <br/> <br/>I appreciated that you diverged from the standard VN plots--that's great. The concept is solid. Still, I think that some more focus on how you're going to tell your story would help you out. |
| May 1 08:08:00 | 14m 00s | Inside Skin | The components of this game are all pretty good, but the way that they fit together doesn't work too well for me. The assets, although individually effective (I love that centurion), don't look like they all came from the same game. The triumphant part of the background music suits the general feeling and I had a few pretty exciting moments listening to it, but the xylophone portion cheapened the experience and made things feel a bit too cutesy. <br/> <br/>Then, your game has two stages, corresponding with filling one bar at the top of the screen, and then depleting the other. The actual gameplay, although requiring basically no strategy but figuring out how to do things efficiently, was fun and exciting (It reminded me of Dust: An Elysian Tail) until it became tedious. There didn't really seem to be any way to lose. Simultaneously, since you had bars for both states up at the same time, I kept wondering how I was supposed to be taking care of the HIV when nothing but immunity was being influenced. <br/> <br/>Finally, having an exhaustion mechanic without any sort of indicator for that--other than not being able to do what you want--doesn't give the player enough feedback for them to know if it's that they're playing the game incorrectly, or that something is going on within the system itself. <br/> <br/>It's a great interpretation of the theme, though, and there were some really enjoyable moments. |
| May 1 08:24:00 | 16m 00s | The World Beneath the Surface | Despite being a big fan of Tetris Attack, there were some bits and pieces here and there that detracted from your presentation. Being unable to move the cursor through the blocks was necessary for one puzzle, but for all the rest it just made things more tedious. More time after a failed puzzle to look at what was done incorrectly, and a shorter pause in the audio loop, would have helped as well. <br/> <br/>However, serious props for writing all of the scene changes in rhyme, and for adding a narrative to the game. It helped tie it all together. Meter next? :D |
| May 1 08:38:00 | 14m 00s | Diamond quest | ... Are the characters in some kind of blackface? I don't know if that's your intention or not, but, um... it kind of looks that way. |
| May 1 08:49:00 | 11m 00s | Damned Scouts! | This is beautiful! As a concept it's great, but in practice it's more like an interactive story (building anticipation as you wonder how you're going to kill the next scout) than a game. There wasn't a failure mode other than "inefficient play," and wandering back and forth over the distance was pretty tedious. <br/> <br/>All of the assets here are wonderful. The story is cute, the slowly quieting scouts are adorable, the deaths fun to watch... but rather than expanding this particular gameplay concept, it might be better to invent a new one that invites more exploration and innovation on the part of the player. |
| May 1 18:32:00 | 9h 43m | Persona | This was a neat entry! The color palette and audio work well together, and the concept is interesting. Towards the end of the game, though, I didn't really feel like I had learned anything. Maybe this is because I got all the right answers the first time through; in any case, a second ending for a post-compo version might help the story make a bit more sense. <br/> <br/>I also wish I understood why the protagonist is talking to this mysterious voice, giving him masks! Who are they?! It's an interesting mystery >< <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game~ This is really nicely done for a compo game. |
| May 1 18:42:00 | 10m 00s | Masks | What a cute kid's story! I unfortunately can't comment very much on the writing or art, because I don't know much about the standards for that demographic--but they seemed pretty good to me, and I liked the bear-stag (?) that appeared at the end of the story. <br/> <br/>My main gripe is that the user interface is kind of difficult to use--you have text-only option points, and images of varying sizes. Snapping between these things means that I have to keep on looking away from the region I focus as the center of the story--the pictures. And, it seems like to keep kids' attention, you'd want to have the images remain central, so there's not A Picture Part And A Word Part. <br/> <br/>I hear that this is hard to do in Twine (I'm not really familiar with it), so you might be interested in this other compo entry, that apparently figured out a workaround: <br/> <br/>http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=6609 |
| May 1 18:55:00 | 13m 00s | Whale Princess Rescue Expedition | This is interesting! SFX are appropriate and satisfying, and digging up prehistoric animals was fun. Graphics look good, too! <br/> <br/>If you do a post-compo version, you might want to look at game balance/diversification. It was a good move to be able to uncover things that did you damage, since I had an almost unusably large store of clicks; however, if they actually become dangerous to the player, you'll probably want to give the player some sort of direction so that their fate isn't effectively random. <br/> <br/>That said, you've done some great work with some really clean graphics and a nice user interface! Thanks for the game. |
| May 1 19:27:00 | 32m 00s | Seven Souls | Wow. Just wow. I couldn't get too far--only managed to get four people to drown themselves--but everything that was there was great. The characters are adorable, and you've done a wonderful job ensuring that every one has their own unique voice (especially the sea monster, who's a great combination of creepy, abusive, and cute). Backgrounds are great and clear, and the facial expressions in particular of the shadow people. In terms of feel, it reminds me a little bit of The Curse of Monkey Island. <br/> <br/>As for critiques, there's a few things. Obviously, the first one is "Finish the game and let me play it!" But after that, there is a problem with text getting cut off--or the zoom going out far enough that it's hard to read. You should probably add a note mentioning that you can move your critter around, since I thought it was a point-and-click game and didn't go underwater until I saw your screenshot up there indicating that you could. And, finally, the swimming itself seems like it's pitched slightly too slow. You've got a great scrunchy swimming movement, but it doesn't seem to completely match the pace that the character is moving through the water. <br/> <br/>Obviously, great game. I'm so glad you're doing a post-compo version! |
| May 1 19:37:00 | 10m 00s | Crystal Advance | This is a nice entry, with good polish and level design! It's well-tuned, and I had some very exciting moments when I was trying to kill the creatures on successively smaller platforms. That said, the character and gameplay right now, other than the crystals mechanic, feel a bit too much like Cave Story and other such platformers--visually and mechanically--for me to get really enthusiastic about it. You've got great level design skills, so I hope you keep running with these concepts and bring in a newer visual direction. <br/> <br/>(Also, add some music in a post-compo version? I think this is one of those games that it would really help out!) |
| May 1 19:56:00 | 19m 00s | Her Touch | Got to the end! This was great. It's probably the most innovative game mechanics I've seen so far this jam. You did a great job tying story and gameplay together, too! I appreciate your exhortations not to give up as well, haha. Some parts were pretty frustrating, but eventually I figured them out. You also did a good job choosing a "game over" sound that was evocative and yet not irritating, which I can tell you because I heard it a lot, LOL. <br/> <br/>There were a few lasting things you might want to work on for a post-compo version. <br/> <br/>1. A health bar/health pips would really help. <br/> <br/>2. I never actually saw any of my lovers destroy anything--I pretty much just exploded every last enemy. So, for that reason, though I liked having them along for atmospheric purposes their in-game functionality seemed kind of lacking. <br/> <br/>Great job with the mechanics, though. I've never played anything even vaguely like this, and it was definitely a good experience. |
| May 1 20:06:00 | 10m 00s | Holy Diver | 2,000 points! The swimming controls were really good, but the ones on land were a bit too slidy in the horizontal axis (seems like the same controls with a vertical vs. horizontal sprite orientation?). In general, I didn't keep trying all the way to the 5,000 since I realized the grails respawned in the upper area (with fewer sharks), which lowered the challenge pretty significantly. The deep underwater effect was good--the first time I died was down there, and I was pretty startled by the, uh, amount of aquatic wildlife covering the screen. <br/> <br/>Your sound samples were also quite nice, but the death SFX seemed both inappropriately loud and a strange choice of instrumentation. <br/> <br/>Nice graphics and the unusually clean underwater movement makes this a solid entry overall. |
| May 1 20:28:00 | 22m 00s | Juno's Garden | A cute, enjoyable game. Remeniscent of The Little Prince, which was nice. I liked the idea of turning an asteroid into a self-sustaining garden or ecosystem; asteroid grows flowers, flowers provide energy, energy makes goats, goats eat flowers and build up more asteroid, etc. <br/> <br/>The asteroids always come too fast and heavily for me, and I wish I had more direct control over protecting my asteroid... perhaps the ability to move it out of the way, or rotate it to make sure they impact away from my flowers. I feel terrible when my goats get blown up! It might also be nice to have more time to grow your home and flowers (and time to get used to the controls) before the asteroids come. Actually, I think the game would really benefit from a slower pace in general. Gardening is a slow, thoughtful exercise, so it would fit the feel well. <br/> <br/>Thanks for putting this together, and sharing it! <br/> <br/>Good job. |
| May 1 22:42:00 | 2h 14m | Shadows of the past | I enjoyed playing this entry a lot! The mechanics were nice, and the SFX did a good job of creating a feeling of "heaviness." I also enjoyed the difficulty of platforming through my own past shadows, and in the final level really felt they created a cute image (with all five trailing close behind). Good puzzles, excellent conveyance, and fun to boot. Thanks for the game! |
| May 1 22:57:00 | 15m 00s | Ghost Story | The shooting and movement in this game feel really good, as does the music and visuals. However, the non-standard controls are pretty difficult to use, and more than that, your charge-up bar for mana is too short for the regions that you're exploring. Given how the game works, it effectively serves as a timer for how long you get to play before you have to stop and sit still for a while--since ideally, the player wants to have it on all the time. But this seems contrary to the well-established tone of the rest of the game, where you're running around using your powers to blast everything. It also makes the last boss frustratingly difficult. |
| May 1 23:04:00 | 7m 00s | Under the Maple | Found a few bugs--the tire swing can smack you into a position where you seem to be intersecting with the wall, since you can't move afterwards, and running into the top of the screen also halts your forward progress. <br/> <br/>Jumping was a bit too springy relative to the size of your enemies, removing a lot of the threat from them, and I bounced into the ceiling a lot. You might want to change the size of the player character and jump height relative to the enemies, or add some more headspace on the screen. <br/> <br/>However, I liked the way that the background assets had a different function than in traditional platformers. You could go between stands of trees, be shot far by a cannon, or struck about by a tire swing--all static, unkillable objects that you had to learn to navigate anyway, and were outside the usual platformer fare. |
| May 1 23:27:00 | 23m 00s | Losing it | This was an interesting entry. It's nice to have a stealth game that's not all about Spying Stealthy Action, and the art was really clean and easy to interpret. I was a little bit sad that my loot wasn't represented in the kitchen underworld, since it would have added to my satisfaction as I squirreled it all off. <br/> <br/>That said, it was kind of prohibitively difficult, even though I played probably ten times. Once the cook literally spotted me stealing an apple through the back of her head. It's hard to figure out just where she can see, and even harder to steal items within a short time frame before the cook can use them when I need to be sure I'm hanging out on the tallest cupboard until the right moment (you might want to expand those time frames just a little bit). Some sort of ability to peer through the holes, or more feedback on how far away she is, would be really helpful in terms of navigation. If you want to make it be more ratlike, you could do increasing and decreasing sounds of footsteps to help determine distance. <br/> <br/>I also think that theming it in terms of psychological depth is a little bit misguided. It's a fun game about a rat stealing stuff, as far as I'm able to tell thus far (does she freak out that her ingredients are disappearing at random? I never got to a part of the game where I could see that). <br/> <br/>Anyway, good job. The idea's fresh and I had a pretty good time! |
| May 1 23:31:00 | 4m 00s | Lost, beneath the surface. | The graphics--the look of the background and the art assets in general--were great (those sparkling blocks! the parchment-colored white background against the stark black!). The pulsing light circle and slippery controls were not so great, because I ended up getting nauseated and had to quit very quickly. |
| May 1 23:42:00 | 11m 00s | Chogan: The Crow's Ritual | This is a difficult entry to score. Since it was incomplete, I played both characters myself on a single keyboard, just to see what the game looked like. The character design isn't really common for jam games, so good job there, and the idea for a co-op game that plays differently for each player--rather than having one player "toggle between the worlds," as the idea is typically executed--was nicely fresh. <br/> <br/>However, there's a lot of difficulty with the design. The two characters can push each other around a bit too easily, and the jump mechanic seemed floaty and loose. I couldn't tell if you were going for realism or just made another unusual design choice, but it's something you'll probably want to work on for the post-compo version. <br/> <br/>Still, thanks for the game! |
| May 2 00:52:00 | 1h 10m | Nesty Fall | I really liked the changing powerups mechanic, which was very new and really changed the way in which I accessed the levels. Also, when I got my new legs and needed to wait for a platform, I enjoyed standing there moving incrementally from side to side--because the animation looked like the creature was dancing. The cackling devils are hilarious! <br/> <br/>However, the platforming and collision detection on the spikes are pretty bad, and the immediate snap back to the save point with no frames in-between--and the unusually loud SFX along with it--was quite stressful. I'm pretty sure I tried a certain section--the one pit right after picking up the shooty tentacle--twenty, thirty times without being able to get anywhere, and though I'm not the greatest at platformers, I'm certainly not *that* bad. <br/> <br/>As someone else here said, keep evolving! This is a cool idea with a cute execution. |
| May 2 02:11:00 | 1h 19m | Mermaid Scientist Massacre | The premise is nicely introduced and I'm impressed with the variety and quality of levels and assets! The look and feel are well-established, and the quick pace is really nice. <br/> <br/>However, without any checkpoints, there's something of an issue--in a section dense with net-throwers, I need to rocket through or I'll get caught. But then I can't see where the scientists are, I end up literally directly adjacent to them--so close that I can be immediately captured while unable to move and the net animation doesn't even play, which felt a little bit unfair. Still, I liked the game well enough that I played to that point quite a few times, so thank you! |
| May 2 02:21:00 | 10m 00s | Square Rooted | A really nice, relaxing entry! The art is crisp, the contemplative music furthers the mood, and I felt motivated to finish the garden. Some more guidance on the goal right off the bat as to the goal would have been helpful, as well a (togglable?) indicator as to the fewest number of moves in which a puzzle could be solved--just getting through was a bit easy after a while, after realizing where the cart could and couldn't be retrieved from. More levels with increased mechanical depth would be great :D <br/> <br/>I don't know if you've seen this other entry, but they have somewhat similar mechanics--might be interesting to take a look: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=26919 |
| May 2 02:34:00 | 13m 00s | Deep Beneath | Haha, 2/13 fish ._. <br/> <br/>Group control is neat, since each individual fish is like its own hitpoint. At the same time as one wants to keep as many fish as possible, in this game the more fish you lose the easier it is to play... <br/> <br/>The apparently charcoal graphics worked well, as did the music. If I had any recommendation to make, it would be to try to work on game balance so that there are fewer stationary enemies, i.e. make it slightly more active. As-is it was a certain kind of exciting to squeak past a shark and wonder if I had managed to move the group in time, or if they were going to be eaten. The time gap made it feel like their safety was both in, and out, of my hands. <br/> <br/>Great entry for your first jam! Hope to see you next time. |
| May 2 02:48:00 | 14m 00s | Sub Human | Solid entry! I didn't personally have any trouble with glitches, but I did stand on top of the sideways-facing button in order to keep it pressed down (the level was too difficult for me otherwise ._.). With the name, I had expected it to be a game about psychology, but instead... it was a mirror platformer! I like your game design. I hadn't seen any of these types of games using buttons, and it made for some interesting puzzling before long. |
| May 2 03:03:00 | 15m 00s | Truth | First of all, congratulations on going outside of your comfort zone. Seriously, props to you. <br/> <br/>The dungeon elements, though repetitive, worked well with the claustrophobic atmosphere you created. However, possibly due to this being the first story game you've done, I feel like there was too much text telling me how I was supposed to feel. In this case I didn't think I was controlling some sort of in-game personality, like you do when you're playing as a character in a Final Fantasy or Tales series game, for example. I felt, essentially, that I was supposed to be playing as myself, since the game was first-person and there weren't much in the way of markers for the narrative voice. <br/> <br/>But then, I was told how I should feel upon finally coming across the yellow cube--and each crest of the terrain--rather than simply getting to feel it. <br/> <br/>And the thing is, without the narrative cues telling me how I'm supposed to feel and react, there's not much game here. Yes, I'd feel all the things you wrote out: "Okay, can't get through this door, got to go down. Great. It's a cube." But, I guess the question is... if you're just telling the player how they already likely feel about the mechanics of the game they're playing, what are you as a game creator adding to the experience? |
| May 2 03:17:00 | 14m 00s | John | First, a couple of bugs/technical issues: <br/> <br/>The voiceover at the beginning seemed like some sort of processing needed to be done to it, or the microphone was low-quality--though the VA was speaking very distinctly and gave a good performance, the sounds themselves blurred together a little and sounded "fuzzy" even though my speakers were cranked pretty high. <br/> <br/>I was playing the web version, as well, and despite building my computer recently and having a decent connection, it froze up quite a few times when I was by the edge of the screen and catching a memory. That threw me a bit on mood, but as I would have given you 6 stars (that voice acting! those graphics!) you're doing well anyway. <br/> <br/>Otherwise, great game. I especially enjoyed the beginning voiceover, which added a lot to the game--it was short, to the point, emotive, and a nuanced performance... and there were some moments, when I would pick up a lot of positive and negative memories at the same time, which were very emotionally striking. A quick succession of images, flickering one after another, and then one would stay longer, like a burning imprint. <br/> <br/>I liked that there was no way to attack--just to defend. Great job. |
| May 2 03:47:00 | 30m 00s | Beneath the Surface | The mood, the graphics, the audio--all of these work together well. I like the small character under the oppressively enormous sky, as it gives a sense of their weakness, fragility, and the meaninglessness of the mission; and similarly, the remnant of a stone statue seen in a single, enormous foot. <br/> <br/>I'm fine with no-checkpoint, one-hit-kill combat, but I think that for it to work you'll need to balance the combat some in order to add depth and give the player agency. As-is, I felt it was entirely random as to whether I killed a skeleton or not. I couldn't tell if I had one hitpoint or more, since I could seemingly randomly cancel out of the death animation sometimes, and the skeleton's attack had so little preface that I couldn't dodge effectively. <br/> <br/>The enemies jumping out of dark places seemed fair enough--level design seemed fair enough--but I'd like to see the combat tuned a bit. You might like to look into Nidhogg, which has somewhat similar fencing mechanics: http://www.nidhogggame.com/ |
| May 2 04:25:00 | 38m 00s | Beneath the well | I am pretty sure I played this one game alone for about an hour. It was helpful how you created locks in some areas, to cut down on the amount of shuffling around players could do when they were trying to finish a given puzzle. Trying to navigate through the dark was annoying, but as soon as I realized it was an exercise in memory, rather than in, well, navigation, it got a lot easier. I also didn't mind all the backtracking so much, since it was over a small area. <br/> <br/>My only complaint is that the SFX and music seems a bit out of balance, and the noise when you don't have a light gem to place is actively grating. Otherwise, a great little game that was enjoyable and feels complete. |
| May 2 04:56:00 | 31m 00s | Infernal Machine | I always wondered if a tetris attack game that allowed you to flip both vertically and horizontally was possible, but in this case it takes away all the challenge and leaves things feeling a bit dull. The interpretation of the theme was novel and I like your image of the city, whose simplicity. I would have felt better if the goal was to light the buildings within a certain amount of time or something like that, creating an interactivity with image and gameplay--rather than simply trying to minimize the number of moves relative to the points earned, which is a tall order for a game with no loss or completion condition. |
| May 2 05:23:00 | 27m 00s | Ore Genesis | Final score: 11935! <br/> <br/>This is a great game, especially the beautiful crispness of the sound and visual design. The bright "Ping!" of pieces disappearing is satisfying, along with the movement of the columns towards the center as you clear them. I found it meditative, easily accessible, and a good rendition in general of the mechanic (though it had been previously familiar to me). However, in this case having the difficulty increase based on your own skill level was quite welcome. |
| May 2 05:38:00 | 15m 00s | Switcher | This is fun! I love your character design and concept. It seems like the most important change to make is to either have the transformation not be random--which cuts down a little bit on the "uncontrollable transformation" feeling, which I generally think is cool and explains why the mob is chasing the girl--or, alternatively, to make the game more about managing whatever state you currently happen to be in. Rolling with the transformations, as it were. <br/> <br/>That said, I probably played about 20 or more times before I got too frustrated, so good job. It's an addictive little piece. |
| May 2 06:09:00 | 31m 00s | Insane Grandpa | Man... this was GREAT. I literally wondered for a minute if it was from a member of the La-Mulana team, though, LOL. Great, unique characters with good color balance, nice death effects, a really exciting and challenging boss... man, I was so impressed with the quality of every single animation, from the doors swinging, to the jump effect, to the cane strike, to the jumping on the guy in room 666. Having only one HP made it that much more satisfying to finally win, and the challenges were fair, but incrementally more challenging, in every room. Not just that, but I love how Grandpa can jump to slightly break the "panel" of the environment--reminds me of some similar design I've seen in manga, and adds just a bit more excitement. <br/> <br/>This is far and away one of my favorite games I've played this jam. Thank you. |
| May 2 06:19:00 | 10m 00s | Mine Explorer | Nice art and effects, particularly the look of the fire pillars. I also appreciated the small room sizes--you didn't make big bloated rooms when you didn't have enough content to fill them, they were just the right size. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately there's not much else to say about it. It wasn't long enough to be boring, nor deep enough to be interesting. Though I followed your updates quite eagerly throughout the jam, I'd hoped that there'd be a bit more here. <br/> <br/>Another note is that use of the z key is awkward. I'd hope that there'd be a better way to deliver messages--and perhaps that you cut down on messages as much as possible, to focus on the core experience. As-is they were pretty distracting. |
| May 2 06:33:00 | 14m 00s | Dark | You have some great models and animations here--I'm thinking in particular of the grinning black stumpy dudes (henceforth "Gengars") and the way the ones that look like Haunter swipe at you. Good on you as well on adding enough player feedback that we could have a good idea of when we were being attacked, and how much damage we had taken. The system was effective, but unlike a lot of the "bloody the edges of the screen" effects we see in games to indicate HP, you did a good job of keeping the middle of the screen clear so that it's still possible to navigate. <br/> <br/>However, it's very hard to figure out what to do here. I didn't feel I had any control over whether I won or lost, or any real ability to strategize. Was I supposed to shine my flashlight on the ghosts? I guess the enemy AI problem was that the Haunters kept on going after me even though I lit them up? <br/> <br/>The voice acting got repetitive very quickly and didn't sound like the same VA, while the pentacles didn't really seem to make sense and there was a mismatch between the environment, the story, and the creatures occupying them. <br/> <br/>But the moment when I first saw the black stumpy ones scurrying around, just vaguely outside of my vision, was fantastic. More of this, please. |
| May 2 06:47:00 | 14m 00s | Scratch | I... really liked this. I thought the main character was just transgendered and severely depressed at first, and then... that twist *_* I actually don't have much of anything to add as far as concrit--the game looks great, with good color design and well-chosen images. It may be tiny, but I think it was just the right size for the scope, the twist, and the ideas at hand. A nice game, and I appreciated that you put in multiple endings for such a small project. <br/> <br/>Now I want to go take a look at your work for the other competitions! Thank you. This was a nice breather in-between everything else. |
| May 2 07:22:00 | 35m 00s | FuMeKuRi (page-turner) | Oh.... this is fun! I loved the hidden mechanics, the art, the use of the audio, the unusually realistic hand/face... everything! It was actually difficult enough that I had trouble at first to figure out what to do, and felt very proud of myself after I'd thought it through and could complete the levels. <br/> <br/>With that in mind, the only improvement I can mention on this short and sweet game is some kind of change in the "1 2 3 4" passageway so that you can see you've finished the level! I think it improve satisfaction a little bit. <br/> <br/>Thank you for the experience. This was really cute. |
| May 2 07:50:00 | 28m 00s | Search Beneath the Surface | This was a great game! I loved how heavy the character felt--really gave a sense of an alien planet with a different sort of gravity--and the difference between traveling on the surface, and underwater. Everything was very nicely polished, and I felt some real tension trying to get back after my missions. It felt good, though, since I thought I was going to have to lose some hitpoints--and in the end I didn't take any damage whatsoever. <br/> <br/>Also, that is one nicely-drawn damaged spaceship. <br/> <br/>The only thing I'd change would be to add a little bit of background audio--something ambient. The lack of it was noticeable. <br/> <br/>All in all, a great game, well-polished, and a joy to play. Thank you! |
| May 2 21:03:00 | 13h 13m | AbstractShooter | Congratulations on achieving all of your stated goals! Building a reasonable scope and implementing it all is really tough for an LD, so great job. <br/> <br/>Your graphics look good. I always like a nice parallax effect in a shooter, and the color choices against the gray-black background have a certain luminosity to them--I particularly appreciated the marbled coloring on the player ship. <br/> <br/>I played a few times and what I winded up feeling was that although it generally has a decent look and feel, the really sudden crash from screwing up in the game to the game-over screen was jarring and made it hard for me to learn how far I actually needed to be from the enemy bullets. The collision detection was a bit poor, but what made it difficult for me to learn to play around it was the zero-tick timing of that transition. <br/> <br/>I had a good few minutes with it, though! Thanks for the game. |
| May 2 21:22:00 | 19m 00s | Sword and Shovelry | It took a couple of tries, but I was eventually able to get to the end. The new mechanic was intriguing, adding both an avoidance and sword-fighting mechanism within the same game and level, though on a conceptual level I was a bit confused as to why collecting seashells--in a forest--would help my sword function. Am I a shellmancer? Is my swing so aggressive that it would damage the fragile archaelogical treasures beneath the surface if I attacked too soon? <br/> <br/>The level progression was smooth and the stage sizes perfect for the mechanic. I appreciated the surprise of the new opponent coming at the end! From a conveyance perspective, I felt like a little bit more feedback when I hit the enemies would have been helpful--not just the knockback--or perhaps having them flash before disappearing. I had a little bit of trouble keeping track of how many folks I'd managed to defeat on that one level with 4 bad guys. The sword movement was also a bit odd. It seemed strangely smooth in comparison to the rest of the game, and a little bit artificial. <br/> <br/>All-in-all, it was a neat new concept backed up with old-school graphics that, themselves, taught me some of what to expect in terms of gameplay. Great job, and thanks for the game! |
| May 2 21:47:00 | 25m 00s | Tell Me About Your Childhood As A Nervous Goldfish | "Let me tell you about my mother." <br/> <br/>First off, I really like the graphics and collision detection for this. The graphics style is new and fresh, and the concept is a great interpretation of the theme--combining psychology and the sea, but from the sea's perspective rather than a human one? Really smart! <br/> <br/>Like some other reviewers, the wavy/swimming text didn't work so well for me... maybe a smaller amplitude of oscillation would have given the desired effect without being quite so difficult to read. The water plants going by so fast in the background gave a feeling of frenetic high speed, which I wasn't sure I liked at first--but then I realized it was probably a pretty good representation of anxiety. I liked the four score counts at the top of the screen, too--based presumably on how the goldfish's self-esteem is feeling X3 (though my pseudo-fish [?] points leaped up past the fixed high amount pretty quickly). <br/> <br/>As you continue to develop the concept, there's a game in a similar vein, which you might want to look at if you haven't already: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=25325 <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 2 23:02:00 | 1h 15m | Let's go to the Mole ! | Neato game, with nice graphics (especially the backs of those cards! Hot damn) and a novel interpretation of the theme. I like the feeling of the world you've developed--sort of Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh-ish, where complex problems can be resolved by a card game. And man, the ending was kind of scary! I was worried I was going to be wiped out by something horrible. <br/> <br/>There's a couple of things that you might like to change in the future. First of all, having me choose 3/5 cards and keeping no duplicates at random got really frustrating quickly, because it seemed like I was playing a role that the computer should have been taking care of. Mathematically, what I was doing was pretty much equivalent to drawing three cards and then discarding the next two in the deck--it makes much better sense to draw three cards and then discard down to a unique hand. <br/> <br/>Then, being unable to see the opponents' cards meant that the portion of the game when I was choosing which card would be played first was yet another randomization exercise. I didn't really have much in the way of agency as a player, especially because I never understood what the blue cards really did. I got some kind of bonus reflected on the RHS of the screen, but I couldn't see what impact that had, or lacked, on the game at all. <br/> <br/>Finally, I really liked your gauge on the LHS of the screen to show how close my opponent and I had gotten to the top, but it seemed like there needed to be some way to distinguish the two bars--I couldn't tell which indicator was mine for quite a while, and hence how well I was doing. <br/> <br/>It's an ambitious idea, and the only TCG I've played so far this Dare. You've done a pretty good job in general with the user interface, and it plays smoothly--with an opening vignette that got me fired up to see the game through to the end. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 2 23:18:00 | 16m 00s | Giant Pumpkin | This game is difficult for me to score well, since there's a lot of different aspects to it to consider. Simply as a game, the difficulty of recovering from certain feedback loops--like if none of your leaves function and you have no store of sunlight to grow more--is frustrating, particularly because the player can tell that they've finished playing, with no ability to "retire" the game at that point. At the same time, as an educational tool, this is really neat. The graphics are glossy and clean, and all of the SFX are textbook. <br/> <br/>The other thing is that, looking at the point of view, the player is simultaneously portraying farmer and pumpkin. I think I would have preferred a pumpkin trying to get large for different reasons--to become the pumpking?--and purchasing various evolutionary effects to aid its own advancement would be more interesting. For example, plants evolved caffeine content as a natural insecticide, so you could do something like that. This would also differentiate your game a little bit thematically--I don't mean relative to the LD theme, just in general. <br/> <br/>A couple of bugs, too, with the weed killer not functioning, and I've never been able to buy resources like water or nitrogen and have them actually show up in my stores. <br/> <br/>Finally, the past few times I've played, I didn't actually notice the buttons in the top right corner allowed you to scroll up and down. I just saw your twitter key and my eyes glazed over, thinking it was yet another one of those "share on social media!!" button panels. Doing something to set these keys apart visually would help a lot with that. <br/> <br/>Still, this is a very polished, well-constructed game! Thank you. |
| May 3 18:57:00 | 19h 39m | There's Something Beneath the Surface at Coral Cave | This game was neat! I like that in the first levels, the only enemy you face is your own poor time management skills (they got me a few times, LOL). Overall, an interesting, fun mechanic that was well-tuned, so great job. I wound up playing quite a few times before giving up! The graphics and audio combine to make a fun and relaxing experience, no matter how harrowing the gameplay is. <br/> <br/>A couple of things, though--in the shop, you've got a blend of prices put on the products, and above the products. It's difficult to tell what's really going on because of this, and I feel it would probably make more sense to have them arranged by price or type rather than at random, as it seems to be now. <br/> <br/>The other thing is that there seems to be a couple of strange bugs--I've managed to warp through a cave wall before, and one time after I bought the harpoons and indebted myself to death, the game immediately told me I'd lost upon starting the level. It seems like debt/research funding from the last game carries over to some degree if you don't close the window? <br/> <br/>Anyway, this is awesome and I truly enjoyed myself. Thanks for the game! |
| May 3 19:09:00 | 12m 00s | Beast Emerging | That end-of-game screen *_* Oh man. So emotional~ Great monster design, and an awesome interpretation of the theme! <br/> <br/>I really liked this game. It was hard, but I eventually was able to get the hang of the rhythm of it; I particularly liked how you added a couple of confusing inputs, so I didn't just run around eating absolutely everything without thinking about it (I tried licking the bombs, the helicopters, the dragons, the bombs walking around on the ground...) <br/> <br/>Pretty much the only thing missing is a soundtrack, though at this point I feel like that might be something of a genre convention... ? I feel like there's a lot of these games involving monsters and killing things (albeit generally not from the perspective of the monster) that are SFX only. So, iffy on it. <br/> <br/>Anyway, thanks for the game! |
| May 3 19:27:00 | 18m 00s | Roverboard | I fell off the edge of the world D: <br/> <br/>This is a good tech demo! The colors are well-chosen (nice sky!), controls are smooth, and I was intrigued by the pagoda-like structures in the background. Good work on your story/framing narrative, too. When the game started up I was worried it was going to be sort of cheesy, but there was something really nice about that dichotomy--being on the surface of the planet, and beneath the surface of the acid clouds. <br/> <br/>I was a little bit distracted by all of the particle effects, though. Their being so synchronized and rhythmic was kind of irritating. I'm having an unusually difficult time explaining why, though. If it's necessary for the game, maybe you could change up the rhythm a little bit? The overall contrast between the very blocky terrain, and the very smooth and rounded, almost bubbly particle effects, clashed. <br/> <br/>Thank you for the game! |
| May 3 19:43:00 | 16m 00s | Lunch: A Space Odyssey | Goes to show that even in space, even as an astronaut, they still tell you to get them a sandwich ._. <br/> <br/>I, too, would like to see this game expanded some to have more risk, reward, and variety. I enjoyed the surrealism of it--the experience, for example, of cracking the planet's surface and finding a moose. Controls were good and I got a lot of pleasure out of walking in little circles over the planet. Physics were nice and I appreciated the graphical overlay showing where the center of gravity for a given planet began. <br/> <br/>The placement and content of the text bubbles seemed that it could have used a bit of work, though. It seemed inappropriate to tell me to drill every time, and the UI design was just generally awkward. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the awesome concept! I hope that you expand on this further. |
| May 3 20:13:00 | 30m 00s | The Pond | Excellent work with the art style, the music, and the atmosphere! I don't usually like auto-runners very much, but I felt motivated to finish this one. <br/> <br/>I agree with your other critiques that the tentacles should not get closer to you if you are doing well; similarly, I did have trouble with a lot of the hitboxes, not being sure where to jump, and the like. There were other times when I would pass multiple obstacles and only THEN get caught, so that there really seemed to be no relationship between how I played and whether or not I was trapped. The tentacles moving up weren't just a visual effect; they also meant that I could have already lost the game without knowing it, which is inappropriate for this genre. <br/> <br/>Finally, I have some qualms about the end of the game. It's unfair to the player to have such a sudden, substantive change in the controls (much higher jump and much longer slide) without any warning, or apparent reason for it. I agree that it's nice to change things up a little and that having different-sized stuff to jump over was fun, but it seemed really unfair, and I felt like I had to relearn the game. Then, when I got to finding my little sister, the "the end" screen made her disappear... this also seemed unfair ._. If you're going to have reaching a quest object be the end of the game, then it makes sense to see that object on the ending screen, right? <br/> <br/>And, it seemed strange that the tentacles would suddenly stop at the final obstacle. Why couldn't all the other obstacles stop the tentacles? From a narrative perspective, it just doesn't make sense. <br/> <br/>I really enjoyed this game, though. It was harrowing to play, and all of the animations on the main character were cute and helped with characterization. I liked his tangly legs! <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game, and good luck with the post-compo version! |
| May 3 20:24:00 | 11m 00s | Oshan: Exploring The Endless Deep Ocean Humans Left Behind | Is the endless deep ocean perhaps made of LCL ._. I saw that empty uniform! <br/> <br/>Not bad at all for 24 hours. Like the other posters, I'd like to see this fleshed out and polished a little bit more, with more sound and gameplay added. <br/> <br/>Something you might want to pay attention to: when you just press the right or left key, you don't go in a circle. Instead, it's an oval... It looks like you might want to go under the hood of your physics engine a little bit more. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 3 20:55:00 | 31m 00s | Klein Bottle Asteroids | This was GREAT. I played the decaf version and managed to get through to the end. I actually don't think it changed the core gameplay very much, unless one normally plays asteroids with an unusually cerebral approach. I just waited in the middle and shot <br/> <br/>a. Oncoming traffic, if it existed <br/>b. Traffic on the verge of grazing me, if it existed <br/>c. The largest thing on-screen <br/> <br/>This algorithm pretty much did the job, as I wasn't worrying very much about the edges of the screen, or about what was coming out where. It was fine with one bullet and being slow, since I have more ability to aim than I do twitch reflexes. <br/> <br/>I found moving around much too difficult as there was no way to stop, and then suddenly everything on the surface would be moving about and it was a more difficult physics problem than I really wanted to solve or think about. <br/> <br/>You might want to consider having the shapes, rather than disappearing shortly when they reach the edge, displayed partially as they move over the edge (so that the whole shape never goes out of view, but is seen in two places at once); this would be more interesting if some shapes were not regular, because then we would have a better sense of when they are "flipped over" on the mobius strip. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! I enjoyed it quite a bit. |
| May 3 21:33:00 | 38m 00s | Escape the Segfault | I'm in agreement with Mental Atrophy. <br/> <br/>Good job for a first attempt! An innovative concept. Cubes falling so infrequently and there being gaps I couldn't traverse without a megajump meant that I spent a whole lot of time sitting around waiting, rather than playing. You might also want to tweak the controls, since having regular movement and megajump on one hand, with the regular jump on the other hand, doesn't make much sense. It would be easier to play if you swapped the two kinds of jump. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 3 21:48:00 | 15m 00s | Search for hope | I really like your character's walk cycle. It's smooth and kind of fussy, which helps with characterization. <br/> <br/>Dashing and jumping sent me through the roof, and I couldn't get down. There were also a few times when I ended up in a loop based on whether I platformed up or not--seemed a bit cheap. You could put a wall there and get the same result. <br/> <br/>And then... I thought that dashing through enemies would kill them, but instead it just drained my health, and there seemed to be no reason for the dash other than being able to move quickly (which wasn't necessary since the game was so short and the character moved fast enough). Since it wasn't one-hit-kill, though, it would have really helped to have had a health bar. <br/> <br/>I got to the end, though. It was interesting that the player character moves from one anonymous city to another, and I actually walked up to monsters a few times, wondering if they were the friends I was supposed to find ._. This was a nice effect, and a nice driving premise! Good job. |
| May 3 22:07:00 | 19m 00s | Transfiguration of the Eternal Monster of Crypts | Wow, this was nice! The graphics with their white outlines have a distinctive look, the lighting is great, and the level design is really nice, too! I had trouble a few times and had to think it through and plan things out, which is always a good sign. <br/> <br/>Two minor tuneups I'd recommend: the SFX were a little aggravating, especially the "weapon-swinging" sound in combination with the enemy death noises--you can especially hear this on the last level, when you're constantly swinging your weapon and stuff is constantly dying. Also, the jumping's a little bit fluffy. It's workable, don't get me wrong--pretty good, but the ratio of time up to time down didn't quite do it for me, and would have helped the mood/feel of the game a little. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! I enjoyed beating it--a good experience overall. |
| May 6 02:47:00 | 52h 40m | I Remember Alice | This game nicely executes the common narrative of "a nice young man chases a more lively counterpart and, inspired by her, builds a more energetic life for himself." I've played a number of interactive fiction pieces in this vein, and this is one of the best-executed that I've seen--great job. <br/> <br/>I feel, however, that given the well-trodden path of the narrative, you might have taken a few more chances. The writing for this piece is polished, but I would have liked to have seen more variation and subtlety from standard tropes--why is it always foreign travel? And ironically, yes, the main character DOES need money to do that (I ended up just walking off of the screen in the end, BTW--I don't know if that's a bug; I just wanted to know if something would happen if I bypassed the tickets). <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, I cannot say too much more. The audio, the visuals, the execution, all of these things are very nice. It was well-tuned. However, a game about agency that ends in a lack of player agency, and a subversion of its own money plot, seems like it could use some tweaking in order to resonate better for itself. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game, and good luck in the compo! |
| May 6 03:03:00 | 16m 00s | Ramen Master | A lovely starting page and nice graphics; however, there's some issues with use of screen real estate. You have all that nice space between bowl and ingredients which doesn't seem to be used for anything, but the ingredients are placed just at the bottom border of the screen--where clicking and dragging is at a maximum likelihood to just deselect the window. I also couldn't understand why I lost the game when I did, so some information on the loss condition would be helpful. |
| May 6 03:54:00 | 51m 00s | Last Dive | Thank you for the game! I played through to the very end. Graphical work and atmospherics were good, the concept of a "slow platformer" was fun and appropriate, and the audio was superb. However, I was not able to get into the story at all--the combination of Edgar Allen Poe and "Lost," along with what seemed to be homages to Metal Gear (maybe not? the voice on the walkie-talkie, along with the first names of the protagonists, the suit, etc. made me think of it), with other such dramatics, did not seem to mix very well. High melodrama requires, I think, a little bit more poetry to it--not merely borrowed, but invented, and the soul of poetry is restraint. There is an awful lot of game for not so much story to go with it, and in context of the identity of the voice on the radio, its dialogue seems unusually exasperated and uncaring. You can create a similar disconnect between the speaker and the context by forming a bond that seems too personal, for example, rather than too distant. <br/> <br/>And furthermore--why did the pink jellyfish appear just then? Surely Lenore had some sort of purpose for being there, or was responding to some call--but I do not remember any particular emotional context for it. <br/> <br/>Story aside, the game featured some nice jumping puzzles and the overall mechanics were extremely innovative. Good work. |
| May 6 04:20:00 | 26m 00s | They Beep | An interesting game, but there didn't seem to be any loss condition--so it falls more under the purview of interactive storytelling. I think a smaller number of interactions could have made it clear that the player character is the robot (... if I read that correctly?). As-is, if it's a game, then it probably needs to be more forgiving--as there's no apparent way to learn a character other than restarting the game; and if it's simply a narrative, it should likely be a little bit less repetitive. <br/> <br/>All-in-all I enjoyed the humor and was reminded far too much of my own experience in office environments, so thank you for the flashbacks ._. |
| May 6 04:30:00 | 10m 00s | Tycho | Extremely short and without win conditions--what's here is very good, but unfortunately there simply isn't enough to really rate it on. Beautiful art direction and an interesting-looking character. I think you might get more out of controlling with the keyboard than the mouse? |
| May 6 04:55:00 | 25m 00s | Beneath Me | You know, I was actually pretty unimpressed with the game until the last level, which spoke to me. I think it seemed a bit... cheap, in the bad ending, though. The mood seemed to contradict itself between very simple gameplay, a very simple message, and this kill 'em all statement that kind of alienated me from the protagonist (who I'd been identifying with just a moment before). <br/> <br/>On the other hand, this contrast between melodrama and understatement may have been the point... I'm not sure. In any case, I really felt that such a violent reaction should have been... beneath him (hoho). |
| May 6 05:04:00 | 9m 00s | Sub Rosa | A funny sort of take on the theme! I unfortunately didn't enjoy myself too much; what's pleasurable in gothic literature is the mood, right? And though you did an absolutely amazing job getting that down for the title screen, I had a hard time connecting that with my goofy, gray-clad character in-game. In-game music would have helped rather a lot, too, and I agree with the comments on the controls. <br/> <br/>The idea, though, and the general character design were quite good; I liked that it was procedurally generated so that I could play a few times after beating it, and the strategy changed some as well. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 6 05:10:00 | 6m 00s | Grow | 54 pts. I'd also like to see this expanded upon! The graphics were clean and your rocks actually looked quite good and diverse--but I agree that there's a frequent sense of inevitability (a longer field of vision might help?). On the bright side, your collision detection is excellent! I tried some pretty risky maneuvers to test it out. Well done. |
| May 6 05:16:00 | 6m 00s | (sub)surface | Gorgeous graphics and really crisp movement, especially well-done given your further time constraints. I think there may be a minor bug in the collision detection for the above-ice attack--I've had a lot of creatures seem to be close enough that I'd be able to kill them, i.e. be within the strike range, and then take me out a moment later--and sometimes the slash attack seems a little bit underreactive. I enjoyed my time with this piece, though. The general mechanics are quite solid--might just need a little tune-up. |
| May 6 05:26:00 | 10m 00s | The Statement of Randolph Carter | Tense and gorgeous, with beautiful visual and audio design! I especially appreciated your decision to have the flashlight obscure the character--so that it's really unclear as to what's happening to him. <br/> <br/>As someone largely unfamiliar with Lovecraft's works, I had a really hard time following the story at all, let alone figuring out who was who, and what was happening. It seemed like it was pretty grim and dark (and at the end, it turned out that someone on the phone was dead?), but otherwise I could not figure out the gist of what the actual *action* was. I am not sure how to fix this--again, being unfamiliar with the source material--but it might be something to keep in mind. <br/> <br/>I'd also, of course, like to see more interactivity--it's a game, after all ;] It's especially important for a property that's already based on something entirely linear and choice-free! |
| May 6 05:38:00 | 12m 00s | Orlok's Ordeal | that voice acting OwO <br/> <br/>The stills, the cutscenes, and all of the graphics... wow, this is a great little game. Short and sweet. The in-level sound design could have used a little work, I think--maybe some music or ambience? I kept thinking I heard someone saying something, or some sort of higher-pitched sound, but relative to the narrating volume it was too quiet to hear. Other than that, though, a real gem. <br/> <br/>Thanks for the game! |
| May 6 05:45:00 | 7m 00s | Patient 283 | Strobe warning, please ._. <br/> <br/>This is polished and well-put together, but something about it really turned me off. It was a bit too fast, a bit too bright, a bit too unclear about what was being asked of me or why I would want to do it. Serial killers are fascinating, sure, but that means that the genre is fairly glutted. I didn't really feel like I'd "gained access to a deranged mind" or whatnot. It's an infinite runner with a couple of tweaks, right? Focusing on that core gameplay might make a bit more sense, since the narrative is actively coloring the gameplay in ways that it probably shouldn't. |