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dalbinblue

Feedback comments for LD31

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game	dalbinblue's comment
Dec 8 22:46:00		Moonlit Crawlers	Very nice simple game. Completed it o my second time (didn't realize until too late that you needed to ration the water and soil to survive the last two days). The graphics and controls are very nice as well. Controls are very easy to mess up, so it was good to see the first game I rate get this done right. <br/> <br/>The only real critical items I have to say are <br/>1. As you stated, no sound, and <br/>2. It was difficult to tell if my attack hit the enemies that take more than one hit or if I was being effective. The first time I played I thought I was attacking a large bug, but it was actually outside the attack box even though I thought it was hitting. A flash, or a little "-1" poppoing up over the head of the enemy (or an audio) queue would have made this a bit more obvious.
Dec 8 22:58:00	12m 00s	Wild Wipers	It is an innovative concept, but quite confusing; the sound is also good. A couple of issues I had: <br/>1. The game is lags a lot. I have a very good computer, but it really struggled (it was actually difficult to scroll down to do this review. <br/>2. I wasn't sure what to do with the yellow balls, it seemed like they were hurting if I let them go down. <br/>3. The red balls stay on the screen too long. I had difficulty right from the start when I had multiple red balls appear quickly or a red and a green ball spawn next to each other.
Dec 8 23:10:00	12m 00s	The Snowman and the Cannons	Very nice graphics and a nice simple solid game (High score after 5 plays was 98). The only issue I have is that the file size is huge for what the game is, 150 MB uncompressed. My guess is that there is a lot of default items placed in the application (I noticed a tutorial folder and an issue tracker among other things). It you continue to use UE4 for future entries, take a look at publishing settings and see if you can turn all these extra items off as it would help a lot.
Dec 8 23:30:00	20m 00s	The Vindicite Snowman	Could not figure out how to complete the introduction. After knocking on the door and hearing you sing (nice by the way), I couldn't figure out how to continue. Good thing you put in the skip intro button. <br/> <br/>As for the game proper, the biggest positive was the sound. Music is hard to do but you got it. The first few times defeating the boss were pretty easy; wait for the snowman to start casting as spell and then spam the hand weapon. Having a non-interrupting weapon was actually easy as you could get a bunch of hits out. I had some difficulty figuring out how to aim the weapon, but then just decided to attack from the direction it would show. <br/> <br/>After a while it got harder to just use that same strategy, though it mostly worked. I believe I defeated the boss 5 times before dying.
Dec 9 02:47:00	3h 17m	Hampered	Final score was a poor 295. I got suck in the wall half way though, but still managed to win. <br/> <br/>The music is definitively the strong point here. Not only was it a good song, it also matched will with both the theme of the game (the bells for holiday) and the strong base line for the tempo of the game. <br/> <br/>The thing I didn't like was the controls. It looks like your implementation was relying on key down to move the player, so if you held down the keyboard button there was a delay until the auto key repeat kicked in. Next time I would suggest seeing if you can poll the keyboard to see if a key is down and not just pressed as it will make movement smoother. <br/> <br/>Additionally, I see to making a note that you weren't able to stomp the bug that gets the player stuck in the wall before the deadline. You are allowed to correct game breaking bugs after the competition ends, and I would encourage you to do so.
Dec 9 03:21:00	34m 00s	Channel Surfing	Completed the game getting 9 out of 10 stars. I'm guessing the last was on one of the two blank screens but I couldn't find it. <br/> <br/>The game was fun, and the audio choice worked well with the game. It was pretty cool with the multiple, misplaced and rotated screen. I'm guessing there are many games like this, but you were the first I saw so you get the innovation vote. <br/> <br/>The controls were a bit slippery though. It was very easy to miss a platform even when its not rotated or misplaced, and levels 5 and 8 were definitely the most frustrating because of this. Also the wall hanging mechanic was a bit wonky, and often when I tried to jump from a hanging position it would immediately get me stuck in the same location. It's probably possible to fix this by triggering the wall hang logic only when the player is falling, but that's making quite a few assumptions on your code.
Dec 9 03:33:00	12m 00s	Tower Game	It's really cool to see someone put together a SimTower like game in 72 Hours. The controls were a bit clunky (only a handful of my clicks would actually take effect and right clicking seemed to be more effective but still not reliable). Also, some explanation of how the game works in the description would be helpful. <br/> <br/>One other note, your judging categories look like they are reversed (it's showing the categories you didn't implement rather than the ones you probably wanted to keep). I didn't rate the game as a result. If you fix it later, I will come back and vote properly.
Dec 9 03:51:00	18m 00s	Forsaken	Simply stunning artwork especially for the time limit. I only ran through the game once but I'm guessing the ending note changes based on what you pick (kind of like a perverse personality test). If I get time I may run through again. <br/> <br/>The only think I had issue with is the controls. At least on my machine, the game would auto-scroll based on where the mouse was, rather than scroll as you moved the mouse. As a result you couldn't stop the scene, and the game actually started to make me feel motion sick as a result (which is surprising for what is a static image).
Dec 9 04:03:00	12m 00s	aspire	Fun game with a cool exploration mechanic and good audio as well. You stated that there were four bosses; however, after defeating the first, the game would not let me progress much further. I would also like to state that the game is very generous with power-ups, so I ended up with 8 helpers by the end which did make most enemies very easy.
Dec 9 23:17:00	19h 14m	Captain Wupcroix	Very beautiful looking game! I'm going to admit the first time I read the description I thought it said "Play as a newborn kitten..." and was trying to figure out what that had to do with sailing. I unfortunately didn't find the chest. <br/> <br/>My only real gripe (other than there isn't much gameplay as you stated) is the controls on the spyglass. It was really difficult to move about. It seemed like there was a way to look up or down, but I couldn't find a consistent way. <br/> <br/>A positive note is that you do have good pathfinding. Most games I've played in Ludum Dare where you click on a destination will just hit an obstacle and stop. Your game will move around the coast, which is really nice.
Dec 9 23:27:00	10m 00s	One Screen Universe	A good start to a game. It was a little confusing with the tumbleweed like object. I'm not sure what they did, and I'm guessing they were a feature you started to write but ran out of time to do. My other suggestion would be to add some sort of scoring system. I didn't see anywhere an indicator of how many pieces of ore I shot down or how long I survived. For games that are "play until you die," either of these would be a good indicator of how well you played and would spur additional plays.
Dec 10 02:01:00	2h 34m	Kill Them All	The game's graphics and music are really great. The main theme sounds a lot like the Sirius Cybernetics customer support anthem (from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio drama, and whoa is that an obscure reference). The have one major issue with the game. The enemies spawn very slowly. I would kill a monster and then wait for ten to fifteen seconds sometimes doing nothing what-so-ever. Some increased difficulty would be great. <br/> <br/>Also for as nice and happy as the game is, that description above is a little disturbing.
Dec 10 02:19:00	18m 00s	A Fine White Line	Pretty cool idea, and the music/sound is really good. I'm under the impression you intended on having more steps, since it ended pretty quickly (I'm guessing you ran out of development time), and you had a lot beautiful rooms designed out that you didn't get to use. <br/> <br/>I also hit the bug where items duplicated as I used them on areas of the screen (I think the issue is that if you drag an item it still thinks there is a copy in inventory), but I was able to complete the game so no harm.
Dec 10 02:45:00	26m 00s	Project Candyfloss	Awesome to see a young developer trying their hand at Ludum Dare, and also one who has the sense to think of a reasonable level of scope to get the game done in time. <br/> <br/>The game is solid, but as others have stated, pretty easy (though I did take to hits before I completed the game). One thing that I also saw was that sometimes the tower would shoot pretty far away to hit the enemy was it was walking away, but didn't start shooting until they were fairly close, so I wasn't sure of the actual effective range.
Dec 10 03:03:00	18m 00s	☃ Jingle Calls ☃	Pretty funny experience. The game seemed a bit buggy though. I would get a lot of calls that looked like they were mid-conversation (none of the options looked like a greeting so I just had to select something at random). Also, transfers didn't seem to always work because the light would still be on for the line I was on. Regardless I did enjoy the calls and discovering the silly story from bits and pieces of the conversations.
Dec 10 03:17:00	14m 00s	You Gotta Feed the Wizards	The game is a great idea, but it's very difficult to play right from the start for a few reasons: <br/>- It's very difficult to get food to the middle guests since all the items move as far as they can go. There needs to be something built into the level to bounce off of to get them in order. <br/>- Often there food the customer wants to eat is not on the board <br/>- It's too easy to push a few items together permanently making them immovable. This greatly reduces mobility on the game board. <br/> <br/>Despite this, you have one of the more innovative ideas so far, and I encourage you to explore and improve the game to iron out the issues and make this a really good game from a later release.
Dec 10 03:56:00	39m 00s	Unity Ascension	Nice work making a solid multi-player game, and great use of theme. I have the pleasure of getting a four player game going when I tried it out, so that was a great chance to play it properly. My only complaint was that with one hand on the mouse and the other on the WASD keys, it was hard to jump because the space was so far from the other keys. Making "W" jump would have solved this. As it stands, most players when I played just went to the bottom of the screen or stood in place and shot as much as possible from where they spawned.
Dec 10 04:07:00	11m 00s	gnoPortal	I liked the idea of the game. Super hard to beat the AI in the game (lost many times), but pretty cool to use the portals. <br/> <br/>I did find a bug in that at least on Windows the game crashes when you try to start another level after ending a previous one. Starting the game back up works to play the next level, so it isn't that big of a deal though.
Dec 10 04:15:00	8m 00s	If I Can Just Mine 5000 Crystals From This Weird Snowman Planet They'll Let My Daughter Go Free	Neat idea, a little clunky though. Couldn't figure out how to replenish energy (though burning crystals would work, but that just did heat for me), so the game ended quickly unfortunately. Good use of theme, and I like that you had the courage to do voice overs (not a lot of people would do it).
Dec 10 05:07:00	52m 00s	Beneath Crystal Mountain	These are really nice graphics and nice big area to play in. My biggest issues was that it was pretty easy to get overwhelmed by enemies, and I couldn't find a good strategy to attack them in a way that didn't hurt me too, so it was a lot of grinding and drinking potions to get through the slog.
Dec 13 15:25:00	82h 18m	NORnS	This was surprisingly run, and quite hard. The best I did after 5 or so tries was three circles. The best strategy I found was to look for the object that left an unbroken streak when rotating the pieces as the circles had no border. My only issue is that in nearly each search you would have a few items bunched up near the same quarter of the view. Almost all of the shapes bunched tight together in a small section of the screen a few larger one off to one side, and then a large empty section. If the circle was in the tight bunch of shapes, it was nearly impossible to see.
Dec 13 15:36:00	11m 00s	TDZSG	I nice solid foundation. Even when there are a ton of objects on the screen the game runs smooth and the enemies don't overlay, which means you are doing some good efficient collision detection which is pretty hard to implement. <br/> <br/>My biggest difficulty was the shop. There is a lot of information on the guns making it difficult to read and compare when you can't pause and have zombies chasing you. You would probably have been better showing three upgrades to the current gun like "+2 magazine size" or ".3 second faster reload", something that would fit on the button. A player could look quick and see his options in a split second, and even if he selected the wrong power up from what he wanted, he knew it would still be better.
Dec 13 19:41:00	4h 05m	Slope Challenge³	I really liked the concept, and reminds me a bit of the classic the incredible machine for some reason. The only issue I have with the game is the way you switch blocks. Trying to hit the tiny check boxes, especially with a track pad is really frustrating. I spent most of the game pausing the level so I could switch the block direction then unpausing to place them. One two things could be done: <br/>- make changing blocks keys on the keyboard so it can be done fast <br/>- place the blocks before you start the level and then watch the level and adjust as needed
Dec 13 20:07:00	26m 00s	It Has Already Begun	This is quite fun. Something nice and simple, controls are good, and while simple, it focused well on game play which overlooked to often. Also I like the subtle facial expressions and little details in the game. It's got a lot of personality and commend you for that.
Dec 13 20:16:00	9m 00s	Beat Bop Delicious	This game is rigged! In the three times I played, I lost at 1:17. <br/> <br/>In all seriousness, this is a great game. The pacing is good, the controls are each wonderfully unique, and the gameplay fits in well the theming of the game (music mastering).
Dec 13 20:25:00	9m 00s	Dodge Pong	My high score is 16890. Very fun, reminded me a little of the bonus levels from shatter. If got nothing critical other than maybe adding some intense music to make it that more frantic. Nicely done.
Dec 13 20:38:00	13m 00s	Lycklig's Stone Toss	The graphics and sound are fantastic (if you wrote that music in the time frame and recorded it, amazing!). The game is very simple though. My best score was 11 (lowest score is best right?). I really love the cutout doodle style and if you had more time to develop the game play it would be fantastic.
Dec 13 21:10:00	32m 00s	Maze Race	Wow, some harsh criticism. This game is hard, very hard, but that's not a usually a problem. It's that when you fail, the game is completely throws you back to the beginning with no sense of progression. You get 90% through and die, all progress is stripped away. So there's a few ways to fix this up: <br/>- The obvious answer, one that has been mentioned before is checkpoints. I'm going to guess you don't want that one. <br/>- Make the levels smaller and ramp up by making each a distinct race. Looking at the level, you've got probably 7 or 8 distinct levels in the game design, but because of the theme they are mashed together. Make each one a separate accomplishment so the player gets that punch of endorphins for completing a section and getting one more star over their competitions. <br/>- Make this game much more deviously competitive. I noticed that you can push people into walls to destroy them. Build on that instead. Make the game about sabotaging each other and the level it's a little easier. <br/>- Add some pacing. I noticed you can't stop in the game, but actual racing has a surprising amount stopping and slow time. Let your players stop for a moment to think about the challenge they are facing. This will let the other players catch up and keep the game hectic on the players terms, not the games. <br/> <br/> <br/>You should watch this "Extra Credits - Difficult Games vs Punishing Games" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6UuRTjkKs, it's give you some other ideas on how to make a game hard (which I really like) but not punishing.
Dec 13 21:36:00	26m 00s	Mystic MAZE	Nice start to a game, it's solid and the atmospheric music works well. A few asthetic recommendations to help you improve: <br/>- First off the game is very monotone in the graphics, making it visually difficult to see the patterns for the maze. You are also using very similar pattern for the floor obstacles and outer walls. Humans are very good at seeing different patterns but when everything is the same it takes a much longer time to process. Older 2D games often use cooler less saturated colors for background items such as the floors or outer walls, and warmer, brighter colors for active elements to make it easier to see the actual threats and obstacles easier to recognize. <br/>- The chose to have a player bounce was rather odd. It might make sense for a none human character to do so (say it the player was a ball) but under this setting it was a little disconcerting. <br/>- There is a lack of feedback in the game as to whether or not you are going in the right direction. It definitely feels like if you keep randomly choosing a portal you will eventually win. Perhaps having more maze rooms that are slightly different in color (progressing from dark to light or something similar) so that you can see progress, while taking the wrong portal might take you back. It would help players feel like they are getting closer or father away from the end, while giving them clues as to whether or not they are actually choosing the right portals with just having them do an exhaustive search of all portals.
Dec 13 22:13:00	37m 00s	Deicide	After six or so tries my best is the god of nightmares (the last boss?) A really solid game. All the bosses are challenging, but none are unfair. It is possible to defeat each of them without a single hit. My only complaint is that some of the hit boxes are way too large (it is very difficult to dodge the starfish when it moves toward you). <br/> <br/>You packed a lot of fun in for a game made in 48 hours. If I get time I'll have to come back and finish the last boss.