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VDZ

Feedback comments for LD32

Timestamp	Since previous	Game	VDZ's comment
Apr 20 12:56:00		Cooper 32 vs. Doctor Dynamo	Excellent, solid platformer. The controls are tight, the level is designed well and the checkpoints are properly placed. The return trip felt awesome and provided an interesting contrast to the more careful gameplay of the first half, helped by the background music and the sirens you'll inevitably trigger. I also felt the commentary added a lot to the experience, motivating you to move forward to see new commentary (and providing excellent game-over messages). <br/> <br/>The only gameplay issue I ran into is the camera; often you can't see what's behind you unless you wait for several seconds, which can be deadly in a game like this. I also wasn't able to see below me beyond the default camera setting, which is something that really would've helped out (is there ground below here or lava?). <br/> <br/>The first half music wasn't very interesting, but aside from that the audio was solid. Graphics were likewise solid and clear. <br/> <br/>I felt the relation to the theme was rather weak, and the game isn't really doing anything that hasn't been done plenty of times before, but otherwise it's an excellent game.
Apr 20 19:26:00	6h 30m	Crystal Ball Chaos	Like others, I felt that it remains easy for too long, and without the difficulty the game gets repetitive and boring, leading to poor replay value that could probably be fixed by changing the difficulty scaling. Once it gets going it's pretty interesting, though, but not interesting enough to sit through the boring early game again. <br/> <br/>Highest score: 321
Apr 20 19:51:00	25m 00s	FINAL BREAKFAST: Your World is Toast	Fun and challenging gameplay. I loved how the three different shot types all had their own strategic purpose and you constantly have to consider which shot is best to use at any given moment. <br/> <br/>However, I do feel that a single playthrough takes far too long, discouraging me from replaying it (because it doesn't really get challenging until quite some time in). I feel that faster difficulty ramping, higher initial difficulty or making early mistakes more significant (for example, losing a toast permanently instead of temporarily) could help replay value. <br/> <br/>Graphics and audio were excellent. I felt the link to the theme was rather weak (existing only in the graphics; the toasters might as well have been turrets as is the default for these kinds of games).
Apr 22 01:02:00	29h 11m	Loquacious Lepus	This game has SEVERE issues. <br/> <br/>First of all, there really need to be how to play instructions and the player needs to get more feedback to understand what's going on. At first I didn't even know how to get out of the blacksmith's house, then I didn't know how to get letters, it was not obvious that you just had to string random letters together (the game tells you to make words), but most of all, there is no instruction or feedback whatsoever about the fact that some letters are more powerful than others. There's really tons of missing feedback to cause this confusion - damage dealt is unclear, enemy HP is unclear, which enemies drop which letters is unclear, and even at the blacksmith you can't see how powerful each letter is. All of this combined make it really hard to discover that letters vary in power, which is an essential part of the gameplay. <br/> <br/>The gameplay is interesting in concept, but it's very poorly executed. You constantly have to make return trips to the blacksmith (or kill yourself) to upgrade your word, and if you die you lose your word, generally causing a huge setback in game progress. Furthermore, the game doesn't work right. The most pressing issue is that the greek letters and nuclear symbol do not have any power; this makes fighting snakes near impossible and the dragon completely impossible. This issue is made worse by the horrible spawning mechanics; the game keeps spawning enemies with no regard to the amount of enemies on the screen or the player's position (you can be fighting an entire swarm of snakes and have one suddenly spawn on top of you). With the late-game letters not functioning properly, the enemies spawn faster than you can kill them. <br/> <br/>The controls feel inconvenient. This is an action game where my input is directly converted to actions, not a strategy game in which I can queue commands - why do I need to click the destination position to move, and why can't I hold a button to keep moving or something like that? The unrestricted 'one shot per click' makes hammering the mouse the optimal way to play the game, but button mashing rarely makes a game more fun. <br/> <br/>The interpretation of the theme is obvious and overdone, and in this game it isn't executed very well. With how you're just stringing letters together, it could thematically have used just about anything else than letters and 'words'. <br/> <br/>However, I did really like the graphics and I loved the music.
Apr 22 01:25:00	23m 00s	Rude Bear Raid	Is it just me, or does Sheep's Anti-Bacon Beacon spam completely kill the game? It doesn't look like Team Bear can get destroy the beacons or get past it in any way, so there's not really much to do on Team Bear.
Apr 22 02:08:00	43m 00s	Barrage Restaurant ~ Bountiful Food	This game is way too hardcore for Ludum Dare audiences. If you want proper feedback you might want to post in some Touhou/danmaku community. Myself, I could only capture 'Under the Muffin Tree' and had to use continues to clear the stage. <br/> <br/>Excellent (if highly derivative) danmaku game. Outside of the unfinished state of this game, I can't really tell the difference between this and a Touhou game - it has everything a danmaku game needs and it's all done right (as far as I can tell - I'm no danmaku expert). The difficulty is absolutely brutal, though (significantly harder than Touhou in Lunatic Mode, assuming this represents the early game). I don't think I've used the Pizza Sauce Mode even once, considering I was way too busy not dying repeatedly to check if I can use it yet. <br/> <br/>The bullets look nice, but the placeholder enemies and solid gray background make the game look pretty awful. The lack of audio takes away a lot from the experience, and even harms the gameplay on some occasions - not hearing the bullets being generated makes the patterns harder to predict, and the lack of sound when you die makes it far, far harder to bomb in time. <br/> <br/>I didn't really see any significant link to the theme.
Apr 22 16:43:00	14h 35m	Photon Wars	This game is seriously lacking in challenge. The concept of shining light on things to kill or distract them while navigating a maze is nice, and combat does feel fun, but it feels entirely pointless when the enemies pose no threat to you whatsoever - you can just run past them easily and they don't stand a chance of catching you. This is made worse by the level design; the coin is always in the same place, and with the openness of the level you can just either head straight towards it diagonally or safely move along the edges, whichever you prefer. You spend so little time in a level that even if you do mess up, your health and energy bars are irrelevant (you won't get them to 0 before reaching the end unless you're messing up on purpose). Distracting the cats with weapon #2 is never necessary, nor is protecting yourself or doing AoE damage using weapon #3. This game has potential to be fun, but it needs some serious work. <br/> <br/>The graphics are pretty bad. Most stuff is placeholder graphics and/or untextured. I had to run into a cone to even figure out it was a ghost. The single-color floor and walls that are all the same make the level boring to look at, and the random-seeming placement of the walls doesn't make for a visually interesting level design either. The minimap does look nice, though. <br/> <br/>I liked the music. The sounds were unremarkable but functional. The implementation of the theme was...not really bad, but light is hardly an unconventional weapon against ghosts.
Apr 22 21:28:00	4h 45m	MEDIUM	Amazing game as always. <br/> <br/>Only the music wasn't as good as I usually expect from one of your games. Link to the theme also seemed nonexistent. <br/> <br/>Minor nitpicks: <br/>- The hitbox of the alien's spotlight (or whatever the blue thing is) is larger than it looks, causing frustrating unexpected deaths. <br/>- Killing other enemies while controlling an enemy is too easy and therefore somewhat boring. It might be more interesting if enemies start attacking the traitor once you start attacking enemies.
Apr 22 21:58:00	30m 00s	Canker Blossom	Cool idea, and ye olde English is really amusing, but gameplay-wise it's not executed nearly as well as it could've been. Using drag & drop rather than clicking or pressing buttons make your mouse movements the deciding factor in winning or losing rather than any mental challenge. But more disappointingly, there doesn't seem to be any progress whatsoever in the game. You don't get a score and the game doesn't get any more difficult - you're just doing the same thing over and over again without there being any point to it, and when you're capable of doing it right almost every time it gets rather boring. <br/> <br/>I loved the audio, though, and the graphics were nice. Interpretation of the theme was too obvious in my opinion.
Apr 23 01:38:00	3h 40m	It's The Room	Interesting and unusual game. I didn't truly get a feel for the controls until the final level where you have no choice but learn how to play the game properly. It's not the physics that are wonky, it's the player's interpretation of what he's doing. Definitely an interesting experience to slowly shift to a different perspective of what you're actually doing like that. The game is very short, however. <br/> <br/>I like the minimalistic graphics. The music was nice, but it got repetitive after some time. Other audio was obviously lacking (especially a death sound would be welcome, as would a congratulatory sound for finishing a level). <br/> <br/>As for the theme...I understand you tried to use the room as the weapon, but while you're definitely using the room, you're not using it as a weapon (or even remotely like one). So yeah, it doesn't really work out with the theme.
Apr 24 01:41:00	24h 03m	Pooper the Pig!	Cleared on second play with no hits taken. (20 wolves pooped, 20 apples eaten, 19 poops, 0 times attacked) <br/> <br/>Not my kind of humor, at all. <br/> <br/>The game is surprisingly strategic and challenging with the wolves actively avoiding poop and eating and pooping taking time and requiring you to stand still - providing a contrast with the running away you're inclined to do while being chased by enemies. <br/> <br/>However, I do feel the game is lacking in feedback on critical elements. You cannot see your pooping progress, eating progress or poop cooldown, which adds to the difficulty in only a frustrating (rather than challenging way) - it's annoying to see a 'not ready yet' message while having no way whatsoever to tell when I AM ready to poop. You also can't see how much HP you have left, which makes the game over come unexpectedly (and might cause frustration/discourage the player from trying again). <br/> <br/>The graphics are unremarkable. The map looks the same everywhere and sprites lack animation when you'd expect them to have some kind of animation. At least the gameplay elements (pig, wolf, apple, poop) are recognizable. <br/> <br/>Music felt boring and went out of sync. Sounds gave proper feedback, but were too subtle with the exception of the eating sound which felt grating (the contrast in noticeablity with the other sounds may have made this feel worse). <br/> <br/>The theme was properly implemented, but not in any (in my opinion) interesting way; 'poop' as a weapon is just random and its use to scare off (kill? Not sure what it does exactly) wolves is nonsensical.
Apr 24 20:45:00	19h 04m	Weapon Regulator	Overall a great game, but some minor flaws harm its replayability. <br/> <br/>The gameplay of running into a battle is fun, and seeing what weapons come next (and which set of restrictions comes next) is an interesting motivator. It's all very well executed, too. <br/> <br/>However, the scoring system and lack of early-game difficulty discouraged me from playing more than four games. Due to the way scoring scales, doing anything early-game is a waste of time and effort; the points you get are negligible compared to later on, and there's no danger to make it even slightly interesting. This means you're pretty much stuck waiting for the guns to arrive, at which point scoring starts to become useful (though still not all that relevant compared to later on) and you actually have to do something to not die. Still, at that point your primary goal is to survive so you can rack up the real points later on. Having to play the futile early-game every time discourages me from playing to improve my score (as less than 50% of my playtime is actually spent improving my score). <br/> <br/>The game mechanics also discourage taking risks; there is no penalty for not doing your job, and simply surviving is enough to increase the amount of points gained per seized weapon. I'd have loved to see some kind of reward for jumping into the battle, like a combo system (increasing points for successive weapons seized if you don't take too long between weapons). Other rewards (recovering health? Score multiplier?) could also make early-game weapon seizing more useful. <br/> <br/>Still, I enjoyed the couple games I played. The graphics look nice and, more importantly, are very clear (everything was recognizable without a problem), and the audio wasn't very interesting but fulfilled its purpose (though having a BGM beyond the first seconds would've added a lot). Though the interpretation of the theme was one of the more obvious choices, it was executed well. <br/> <br/>High score: 841 (226 seconds) <br/> <br/>P.S.: Is there any other set of restrictions beyond 'ban plasma rifles, allow bazookas'?
Apr 27 05:21:00	56h 36m	TeleMage	Amazing game. Contains surprising amounts of depth once you start playing it; though easy to start playing, this will definitely take a long time to master - even in my fourth playthrough I was discovering new things and making countless mistakes. <br/> <br/>The level design of the first level is brilliant. (Only got to the second level once and died shortly after, so I can't say much about that one yet.) The flamethrowers are both useful as a weapon against enemies and at the same time lock you in the corners at unfortunate moments. The corners themselves play very well with the teleportation mechanic; you can use them to fight an enemy without others bothering you, you can use them to isolate enemies, and the way enemies get stuck there is extremely helpful for position management. Enemy designs likewise play well with the teleportation mechanic; their attacks are both dangerous and abusable. <br/> <br/>Graphics were nice and clear but not spectacular. Sound was functional and gave good feedback, but sfxr beeps never sound nice. Music would've been a great addition. <br/> <br/>Minor things that bothered me: After you die, you don't get to see your score. It really would be great if after every game I could see whether I beat my previous score or not. Also, death is very sudden; there's no death animation or sound, it just cuts to a black screen all of a sudden. Slowly showing your death would cause it to have more impact and leaves the player a moment to go 'nooooooooooo', while also letting you figure out what exactly killed you. <br/> <br/>But those are minor nitpicks. This game is amazing and I'll definitely have to play it some more. <br/> <br/>Will you be making an updated version of this?
Apr 27 06:38:00	1h 17m	Teed Off	Fun little game. <br/> <br/>Hole 7 felt like bullshit because you can only win by abusing the fact that the hitbox is bigger than the sprite (you can't actually hit the sprite itself), so it took me a lot of tries to figure out how to clear it. <br/> <br/>The game's replayability suffers from the lack of variation between playthroughs; once you memorize how much power each shot takes it becomes kind of boring. <br/> <br/>(Best score: -22. Did really well until I got a Triple Bogey on hole 9.)
Apr 30 03:34:00	68h 56m	Wizard's Bellow	I felt this was a rather uninspired defense game with little strategic depth. The only thing you do is reverse/stop enemies to get them close to each other and use the area damage spell to kill them, while taking care of any solo enemies using the default kill spell. This makes the game very repetitive, and the low difficulty ensures you'll be playing for a while unless you quit out of boredom. Most of your time is also spent waiting for spells to recharge, which isn't very interesting. <br/> <br/>I gave a 1 for Audio - would give a 0 if possible - as it blatantly violates compo rules. You cannot use Freesound samples in a compo, not even modified; submit to jam if you must use third-party assets.
May 7 09:32:00	173h 58m	AN UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPON	Personally, I'm not as enthusiastic about this game as most other people seem to be. It was frankly rather boring to play, with a message that's been done to death, obvious from pretty much the start and not conveyed in an especially impactful way. <br/> <br/>For the gameplay/interactive experience, the method of progression didn't make much sense to me. You absolutely had to talk to specific people to clear each level, but you had no indication of who you should talk to (even worse when you also have to go back to talk to people again) nor any choice in the matter (making it feel less like you're doing it naturally; rather than being the victim for natural behavior, you specifically have to seek it out. You have to make the conscious choice to get hurt (despite having no incentive to other than because the day magically doesn't end otherwise) and people never approach you to hurt you (which AFAIK is a defining aspect of bullying). I feel this both undermines the game's message and makes the game feel boring. <br/> <br/>I can't agree with ProjectX593 and careless that this is a remotely accurate portrayal of bullying; all that happens in this game is that people are mean to you a couple of times (when you're the one initiating contact, no less). Having been bullied for years myself, you get used to the words themselves pretty quickly; it's the whole social exclusion thing (and being punished for just about any social behavior, them actively coming to you) that makes it so depressing. It goes far, far beyond people just saying a couple mean things. <br/> <br/>The atmosphere was great, though. Interestingly enough, I don't find the graphics or audio very interesting when taken alone, but they do make for an excellent atmosphere. The interpretation of the theme was a very obvious one - tons of entries are using 'words are powerful weapons' - and it's used in a rather straightforward manner, but it was well-implemented as central element of the game.
May 7 10:10:00	38m 00s	Crayon Poke	Completely amazing. If this game doesn't reach #1 I question the community's tastes. I have no criticism to offer here because everything was just perfect. <br/> <br/>Is the music available for download anywhere?