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Feedback comments for LD34
Christina Nordlander's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Christina Nordlander's comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 14 21:58:00 | Garden Grow | Very professionally made. The clouds are a bit too square for my taste, and the styles of some sprites don't really seem to match, but apart from that, the graphics are very good. So is the sound, even if it starts to grate after a while. Most importantly, gameplay is simple, fun and pretty addictive. The powerups add a nice bit of variety. <br/> <br/>I like what happens when you die. <br/> <br/>First game I played this LD. Hope they're all this good! | |
| Dec 14 22:26:00 | 28m 00s | From the Deep | Original concept, and great graphics and music. I liked the background details, like the flock of birds. Raising increasingly more of the island from the depths felt great. The "tap to jump" controls felt like an artificially imposed difficulty, though. (Admittedly, without it the game might have been way too easy.) Another nitpick is that the death sound effect is a bit too loud. <br/> <br/>I like how you put in respawn points, though towards the end (the jumping section with two monsters at the end) I would have liked a few more. <br/> <br/>Those nitpicks aside, it's a very attractive game with a pretty innovative idea. |
| Dec 15 20:56:00 | 22h 30m | Bloon | Cool that you made it in Scratch (first time I remember seeing an LD game made with that site). The title screen looks great, and the assets are pretty good-looking. Innovative theme. Sound is good, but the "inflate" sound effect is a bit too loud. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, I found the gameplay a bit boring. It didn't really hold my interest for long. Still, nice use of the theme and a pretty innovative game. |
| Dec 15 21:19:00 | 23m 00s | Rape, Pillage, Makane! | As soon as I heard about this game, I knew I had to play it, because I actually had a similar idea for my entry (though I ended up not going with it). I haven't played "Rape, Pillage, Galore" or the Makane games (though I know about them). <br/> <br/>So I love the concept, and the intentionally sucky mediaeval-style writing is pretty good. The sex and violence is too far removed from reality to feel offensive. The story is entertaining in its awfulness, and the endings are great. <br/> <br/>No real flaws, but it did seem to be missing... something? I would have liked if your actions affected the plot a bit more, or if there were a little bit more complexity to it. (I did notice that SPOILER in the scene with the king and queen, the text changed depending on whether you slew or laid the princess. END SPOILER) That said, maybe complexity is exactly the wrong thing to ask from a game about slaying and laying things. Anyway, when my biggest problem is "I wanted more", that's not a huge criticism. <br/> <br/>I like the title screen, too. |
| Dec 15 21:31:00 | 12m 00s | Face Off: Retrieve Your Face | Pretty good for your first game! Pretty good graphics (I particularly like the PC and the background), entertaining tune. Gameplay is pretty much your average platformer with some puzzle elements, but the controls work (could do with less float when jumping) and the ending was pretty funny. |
| Dec 15 22:11:00 | 40m 00s | Mowed | Started out very slow, but became a lot more challenging and fast-paced later. Fits the theme, but the gameplay itself was kind of dull. <br/> <br/>A bug: it's possible for grass to sprout so far off that your cutter-discs can't reach it. |
| Dec 16 22:58:00 | 24h 47m | Billy the Winter Pinocchio Elephant | (review of post-jam update) I love that you did the graphics by hand, though I'm not too fond of the style. Great humour (I love how all the lies I saw were really nice and innocent), and the physics work is good. However, the controls were just too frustratingly hard for me. |
| Dec 16 23:50:00 | 52m 00s | Witchgarden Leafiosa | This is just all around lovely! Fun title and nice set-up. I always like potion-crafting in games, and the graphics are great, though the more cartoony sprites stand out a bit against the style of the backgrounds. However, neither style is bad. I love the fact that it's set on a floating island, and the protagonist is cute. And the audio is one of the best I've heard in an LD game. <br/> <br/>The one thing that brings it down a bit for me is that some of the jumps are way too hard. Most of them only needed practice, but having to do diagonal jumps on the lily-pads almost made me ragequit. Other than that, the game world is very well-designed. <br/> <br/>So great premise, great mood, great graphics/music, lots of ingredients. What's not to like? <br/> <br/>Fun thing I noticed (spoiler-spaced for your convenience): <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>The final jumping sequence had me stumped, until I found out that you could place bounce-mushrooms on top of one another. |
| Dec 17 21:59:00 | 22h 09m | a choice of weapon | Nice controls and a nice challenge. I like the graphics, minimalist as they are. The music is outstanding, simply a joy to listen to. <br/> <br/>Would have been fun if there were a little more to the game (for example, some way to die other than running out of bullets). <br/> <br/>Very impressive for such a short time period. |
| Dec 17 22:14:00 | 15m 00s | Dragonic | Graphics: wow, this is what the five-star rating was made for! The dragon sprite looks wonderful. Great music and sound. <br/> <br/>Pretty original premise (starting as an egg and growing as you get hurt), but once my dragon was hatched, it kind of turned into a "Flappy Bird" clone. Still, it controls well. <br/> <br/>tl;dr: I'm not too fond of the gameplay, but everything else is great, and the concept is fairly original. |
| Dec 17 22:38:00 | 24m 00s | The Cube of Zanigriv | Fairly original concept, and I like the graphics (especially the sprites, and the very satisfying blast effect when you kill them). However, the actual gameplay didn't really grab me. It felt a bit too static. The sound is very nice, though the sound effects are a bit too loud compared to the music. <br/> <br/>A weird bug: when I try opening the "web" link in a new window, the game shows up far too big to fit in one screen. (Playing the hotlinked version works fine, though it's very small.) |
| Dec 17 23:00:00 | 22m 00s | Comfort Owl | Isn't an owl friend what we all need? Kind of simply written, but it's a great concept and a good story. Nice fit with both themes without feeling forced. Plus cute art and a suitable colour scheme. <br/> <br/>SPOILER <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>I like how both endings were very happy. I mean, there's much to be said for tragedy, but let's face it, sometimes we just need an undiluted sweet story to keep going. |
| Dec 18 17:40:00 | 18h 40m | BaseExt | A nice little game. I like the simplistic graphic style (creating bullet-hell for the aliens is visually satisfying) and colour scheme, and I like how you did the background. <br/> <br/>My main problem is that once you're past the hurdle of the beginning, surviving becomes very easy: you can easily pump out money and ammo at a greater rate than you're consuming them. It did feel like the difficulty started perking up again once my base got very large, so perhaps the game gets very challenging once you approach the edges of the map. <br/> <br/>But I nitpick; this is very impressive for a game made in 5 hours. |
| Dec 18 21:49:00 | 4h 09m | Best game LD 34 2015 version 5 *possible sequal to slug simulator* | I like how you set it up so that any key on either side of the keyboard could be used to turn, and the growth effect was well implemented. Pretty funny description, too. The game itself was fun for a while, but ultimately there just wasn't a lot there. |
| Dec 18 22:07:00 | 18m 00s | Growing (a Lump) | I love horror, and this is really well written. The only minor nitpick I have to make is that there's a bit too much space devoted to talking about Ella; on the one hand, we get a good sense of her character, but on the other hand, it feels a bit disproportionate in such a short story. But like I said, that's minor. <br/> <br/>Also, in some places, it feels like the links don't make it very clear what action the protagonist will take. That made it a bit hard to go for a different route when replaying. <br/> <br/>But those very small problems aside, this is a good, understated body-horror story with a very nice amount of branching. I enjoyed playing! |
| Dec 18 23:06:00 | 59m 00s | Cultivate | The two-button set-up is great and pretty original. You got a lot of different uses out of it (the tennis game is great). <br/> <br/>On the downside, the story is pretty slow to get going, making replaying a bit of a chore. The graphics need some work, though I like the shot of the protagonist in the mirror, and the white-on-black scheme in general. <br/> <br/>The writing is consistently very good, and I ended up feeling for the characters, even if most of them didn't get a huge amount of development. Like I said before, the plot is fairly slow, but not bad. Not much audio, but what there is is nice and enhances the game. <br/> <br/>Found three endings. I might come back to this one again. |
| Dec 19 18:06:00 | 19h 00m | GURU | Lovely game! I'll probably need to come back and play this again just for fun, since I couldn't give it a massive amount of time right now. The graphics are professional, the mechanics are very easy to learn, and the advice spouted by the gurus is absolutely hilarious. Just plain fun. <br/> <br/>My only nitpick is that your success or failure depended a lot on the random appearance of the cards, but then, that's kind of hard to avoid in a game like this. <br/> <br/>One of the funniest and sleekest LD entries I've played. Hope you score high. |
| Dec 19 20:12:00 | 2h 06m | Save The Princess | Nicely imaginative, and I like your use of the theme, but the writing is a bit sparse (not bad, just plain), and there isn't a lot to the gameplay, other than remembering where you've already been. On the other hand, I respect you for not putting in a bunch of decisions that result in instant death. <br/> <br/>Short and simple, but I enjoyed it. |
| Dec 19 20:27:00 | 15m 00s | Society, Man. | Love the title and the title screen. Fun concept for a game. The graphics and gameplay are kind of bland, though the "throw money at problems" mechanic is pretty innovative. Might have been nice if the big payment obstacles had a more unique design. The music is okay, kind of grating, but I love the "ka-ching" sound effect. |
| Dec 19 20:42:00 | 15m 00s | Karoline Neves | A pretty simple story, like a children's fairytale, but pretty emotionally powerful nevertheless. The Twine implementation is good. I played twice until I got a winning ending. <br/> <br/>A problem is that there are quite a lot of grammar mistakes. I don't really like to complain about that, since I realise you wrote this in Spanish originally, but it's still an issue. (If you want, I can go through it and tell you what needs fixing.) Another problem is that it's difficult to figure out what the various decisions will lead to, which isn't a good thing in a choice-based game; it means that success will depend on dumb luck rather than informed decisions. For example (slight spoilers ahead): the first time I played, I was brought back to the village by the forester, the second time I was able to escape from him, but I don't actually know what I did differently the second time. <br/> <br/>Anyway, like I said, it's a pretty good story, and you're good at Twine. Keep writing and making games; you've got potential. |
| Dec 20 17:10:00 | 20h 28m | A prison for the mage | Great storyline, and the graphics are mostly good (if a bit uneven; for example, I love the protagonist sprite and the sun and moon, but the tree in the first level looks pretty clumsy). Good animation on the mage sprite. The music is very good. <br/> <br/>It all felt a bit unpolished, though. Might benefit from a post-comp version. In particular, I think that having limitless jump in a game about climbing upwards defeats the purpose. <br/> <br/>The writing is nice and evocative, but there are a couple of grammar mistakes (for example, "What can I made of this frozen sapling?" should be "make"). <br/> <br/>I'm probably sounding more negative than I intend to. Just remove limitless jump and polish up some of the graphics and this will be a very good game. |
| Dec 20 17:47:00 | 37m 00s | My Space Empire and Me | Oh man, I'm laughing now. This is one of the funniest entries I've played this LD, and I'd be surprised if I find many that are funnier. Once or twice it seemed to be trying a bit too hard to be funny, but the remaining 99% of the time it worked. You have a very self-assured and enjoyable narrative voice here. <br/> <br/>Gameplay-wise, it's a pretty standard Choose Your Own Adventure Story (though I like the system of always having two options, going with the theme). All the branches I played were pretty short, but they had enough detail and didn't feel rushed. I just love the storylines, plain and simple: they put me in the centre of a tongue-in-cheek pulp SF story full of dangers and wonders. <br/> <br/>I found three endings, and will definitely come back for more after the compo. My favourite was the Dimension of Unknowable Terror ending. <br/> <br/>To sum up: gameplay is nothing special, but the writing and humour are top-notch, and the storylines are a lot of fun. You should probably make an entry for it on the Interactive Fiction Database; it deserves saving for posterity. |
| Dec 20 18:06:00 | 19m 00s | The Parable of the Knight, the Clown and the Lawyer | Heh! Not much to say about this without spoiling it for everyone else. I feel foolish, but in a nice way. The writing is good (though I caught a typo: "roon" should be "room"). <br/> <br/>Not much to it in terms of gameplay, but it's an entertaining story, and wouldn't work nearly as well in a non-interactive format. |
| Dec 20 21:32:00 | 3h 26m | Walden: Thoreau It All Away | The title is easily the best I've seen this LD. <br/> <br/>The graphics are pretty nice. I like the fact that you can customise your character. Sounds are good as well. Not much in terms of gameplay, but as a simulator, it worked really well. Some of the simulation features may have been a bit simplified (for example, it might have been nice if staying up very late resulted in you waking up later the next morning), but that's kind of a necessity in this type of game. <br/> <br/>So yeah, I enjoyed this a lot. It gave me a break from life and maybe made me think about new things. <br/> <br/>Spoilers below: <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>I felt a real thrill once I realised that I could go right from my house; very immersive. And once I was nearing the end on my masterpiece, I stayed up way past "bedtime" to finish it. Again, felt very much like something I'd do in real life. |
| Dec 20 22:03:00 | 31m 00s | Jack's unremarkable, absolutely normal day | I enjoyed this a lot. The story seemed a bit generic at first, but once I got to use the device, it became a lot more interesting. For the record, both time loops and telepathy/mind-control are plot devices I find really interesting. The characters felt a bit flat (the annoying boss, the hot love interest...), but they work well in such a relatively short story, and we learn they're not as straightforward as they appear. The writing is consistently good; I particularly liked Robert's monologue, and "miss the open-door window of opportunity". <br/> <br/>From a technical perspective, I'm really impressed by the [SPOILER]time loops[END SPOILER]. I don't know how to do that myself. The visuals are good. I could have done without the characters having different font colours, but it didn't go as far as to annoy me, either. <br/> <br/>Found a typo: "cafetaria". <br/> <br/>I played to a few different endings, might come back to see if I get another one. They were all short, but pretty interesting. <br/> <br/>Recommended for everyone who likes interactive fiction. <br/> <br/>Spoilers below: <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>I tried using the "love me!" function on Lydia to see what would happen, even though it made me feel creepy. I like that the game acknowledged that mind-controlling someone into loving you isn't really a happy ending. |
| Dec 21 22:45:00 | 24h 42m | Accretion Disc | This is a nice twist on sidescrolling space-shooters, and I'm not even normally a fan of that genre. The graphics are great, the SFX are appealing, and the growth mechanic adds a bit of a difficulty increase. I also felt that you put in a bit of leeway in whether or not your little star-to-be hits something, not the usual "touch something and you die". <br/> <br/>Would be nice if you could restart by pressing a button instead of clicking the option. Also, a small problem that might need fixing: it's possible to get knocked back until you're almost off the edge of the screen. Those minor problems aside, this is a very neat and professional game. |
| Dec 21 23:14:00 | 29m 00s | The Quest Of The Two Buttons | Good RPG, though it gets a bit samey. The graphics are good (especially the enemies' death animations), there is some good music, and the combat is simple but tense and fulfilling. I'm impressed that this was done in 48 hours. <br/> <br/>A possible bug: if I bought the key and then went back into a town to stock up on health, the gate no longer showed up. <br/> <br/>Still haven't beaten the boss (the big mage with the fireball). I might come back and try again later. |
| Dec 22 21:29:00 | 22h 15m | UpUntilTheNight | Now this is just superlative. Games where you control two characters to solve puzzles have been done before, but this is excellent in terms of graphics, audio and mood. I particularly like the way you've done the women's dresses: simple, but it looks like real cloth. And the starry night visibly rising up from the bottom of the screen looks beautiful. Good use of both themes. <br/> <br/>Challenging, but I toughed it out until I made it home. <br/> <br/>Couple of bugs: at one point, moving the levels up and down caused some gaps between the levels. Also, there was an occasional bug where a character could stand in front of a door without entering it, which confused me a bit (for a while I thought that only one of the women could enter a specific door). <br/> <br/>A longer post-comp version with more puzzles would be great! This is excellent as it stands, however. <br/> <br/>One of the best entries I've played so far. Thank you for making this. |
| Dec 22 21:48:00 | 19m 00s | Grow Ray!! | Good level design and cool mechanic. Some of the graphics might need touching up, but the backgrounds look very good, and I liked the fact that the aliens grow when they're hit by your ray. Nice font in the messages, too. The music is pretty great; I got a kind of 80s NES vibe from it. I like that you implemented a reset button, since you're going to lock yourself out of victory a lot. <br/> <br/>Something to improve: would be good if the levels reset themselves when you died. <br/> <br/>Very nice entry. |
| Dec 23 22:37:00 | 24h 49m | Frobber | Nice gameplay and good level design. I like that the flies gravitate towards you, making it a bit less fiddly. The frog sprite looks good, but other than that, the graphics are a bit sparse. Good background music. |
| Dec 23 23:02:00 | 25m 00s | M.A.R.E.M - Mind Annihilation Retro Explosion Massacre | Good graphics and mood, excellent retro-style music. I like how you implemented the two buttons theme, and there's some good humour. On the downside, having the game jump from side-scroller to set-piece fights feels a bit disjointed. <br/> <br/>The text has some grammar and spelling errors. Might need beta-reading. <br/> <br/>It's pretty hard, but not unfairly so. I might come back to see if I can beat it later. |
| Dec 24 17:39:00 | 18h 37m | Balanced Diet | This is just too hard for words. I almost got the hang on it, but even so I can't get very far. <br/> <br/>Still, funny graphics, good audio, and good use of the theme. Could this be the next generation's QWOP? |
| Dec 24 22:21:00 | 4h 42m | Escape | The "trapped in a mysterious research facility" genre is pretty old by now, and this game doesn't really add much new to it. (I realise the irony of me saying this, since my own entry is about being trapped in a research facility.) That said, the level design seems good, and the graphics are good-looking, if very sparse. The writing is good, though I caught a couple of grammar mistakes (for example "your" when it should say "you're"). <br/> <br/>The main problem is that it's just too punishingly hard. I would have liked some sort of checkpoint feature every time you entered a new room. <br/> <br/>Nice ending. |
| Dec 25 00:04:00 | 1h 43m | Father's Christmas Gift | Okay, the grammar... needs work. If you're not a native English speaker, I can understand, but if so, you should probably get a native beta reader in the future. <br/> <br/>Other than that, there isn't much here. I've played and enjoyed interactive stories this LD, but the story here is so simple, I'm essentially only clicking to get to the next part. However, the story is pretty cute and has some funny moments. There are places where I can tell that the writing would be good if the grammar got fixed. The cover art is nice, too. <br/> <br/>The scrolling text is neat, but got boring after a while. I feel I would have had more patience if the story were just presented in non-animated blocks. <br/> <br/>I don't want to sound too critical. Like I said, the idea is sweet, and there is some good comedy. You definitely have potential. Just, for the future, have a look at the grammar (or get a beta reader), and focus on making something with more player input. |
| Dec 25 22:16:00 | 22h 12m | Let Me Explain | Great graphics (especially for the time limit) and audio, and the gameplay is pretty original (like a visual novel with quicktime events). Loads of mood. Unfortunately, it loses a bit on the fun factor because so many choices lead to insta-death, and the right option isn't always that easy to figure out. Still, that's realistic for the story. I played to three different endings and had a good time. <br/> <br/>Best of luck with the post-compo version; you're off to a great start. I suggest adding a save feature. |
| Dec 25 22:40:00 | 24m 00s | Soulless Dungeon | Pretty nice retro graphics (brought back good memories of playing "Gauntlet" as a kid), and the music is excellent. I can tell a lot of work and polish went into this, from the procedurally generated levels to the scorecard at the end of each level. Combat is simple, but works. <br/> <br/>The connection to the themes didn't feel strong. <br/> <br/>My main problem is that it was too hard: I lost a lot of health killing one slime, and there doesn't seem to be any way to regain health other than levelling up. Could just be that I was bad at fighting. |
| Dec 26 15:27:00 | 16h 47m | Alien Number Attack | That was fun and educational! Never thought I'd say that. Well implemented and with a generous learning curve. The music is excellent, and the graphics are good, even though there's not a lot of them. One of the more original uses of the theme. Definitely a game I'd recommend to anyone wishing to learn/brush up on binary. <br/> <br/>Not something you'll play for ages, but a good, well-polished time waster. |
| Dec 26 22:24:00 | 6h 57m | Omega Arena | I like a good Japanese-style RPG. This one isn't incredibly innovative, but it's fun and polished, with a nice variety of spells and craftable objects. The controls are mostly easy to get the hang of. <br/> <br/>My only big problem is that it gets very hard a bit in, since items and healing are extremely expensive relative to your gains after each fight, meaning that you have to grind the easier fights to even stand a chance. <br/> <br/>Not to sound too nitpicky. I enjoyed this game, and might come back to it later to see if I can beat it. |
| Dec 27 16:30:00 | 18h 06m | Semi-Industrial Witchcraft | Simple game, yet surprisingly addictive; I can see this being popular with kids, actually. The backstory is funny and original. I like that it speeds up with time. The music is excellent, though the sound effects are a bit too loud. <br/> <br/>The graphics need work. They're not without charm, but they're lacking clarity: for example, I wasn't expecting the potion to come out of that end of the pipe, and it cost me a few vials figuring it out. <br/> <br/>A bug: the score didn't reset itself after I died. Also, some ingredients are spaced so closely that you can't avoid grabbing both at the same time. I also found a bug where the hand would get stuck and glitch at the top of the screen. <br/> <br/>Those problems aside, I played this a lot of times, so the gameplay is addictive enough. <br/> <br/>If you make a post-compo version, ingredients with different effects would be cool (for example, a rare one that counteracts toxicity). |
| Dec 27 17:31:00 | 1h 01m | Unexpected Growth | Very silly, but I understand that it's due to the circumstances. <br/> <br/>Well... I like Jedi, and the ending is pretty effective. Not very memorable, for better or for worse. |
| Dec 28 22:06:00 | 28h 35m | MarelleWestern | Good music, and the game is pretty innovative. Good learning curve. Not really my type of game, though. |
| Dec 28 22:33:00 | 27m 00s | Rude Bear Recreation | Excellent and innovative control system. It got pretty hard (you could have called this "I Wanna Be the Bear"), but you were generous enough with checkpoints that it didn't feel frustrating. Funny storyline, and good music, even if it ended up a bit grating. <br/> <br/>The graphics in the intro are kind of annoying, but I realise this is a stylistic choice. <br/> <br/>In short, an excellently innovative platformer/frustration game. Hope you score high. (High... geddit...) |
| Dec 29 22:33:00 | 24h 00m | Coralina | Excellent music, and the graphics are appealing, if a bit simple. The growth mechanic is well designed, and the whole thing is nice and polished. I'm not all that fond of this type of game/toy, though. <br/> <br/>I like that you can grow new corals on top of the ones that die. |
| Dec 29 22:49:00 | 16m 00s | Deceit | I've seen this plot done before, but it's still pretty good in terms of horror, and you've created a nice sense of mood with the darkness and limited vision. A problem with the graphics: sometimes I would see a lit area at the back edge of the screen (i.e. the direction my character wasn't facing). Other than that, the game looks pretty good. <br/> <br/>Good music, though the intro tune felt a bit too upbeat for a horror game. I'm a bit unsure about the voices, though: the distortion was a bit over the top. <br/> <br/>The jumping felt a bit stiff. Other than that, a pretty good game. |
| Dec 31 18:01:00 | 43h 12m | The Temple of Horyuji | This is one of those ludicrously polished and beautiful entries that make us other participants jealous. The gameplay itself is a pretty typical tower defence game, but there's just so much content to build. The monochrome graphics are great and quite ambient (the spirits are pretty scary when you can only see their silhouettes), and the construction animations are beautiful. Building things felt quite satisfactory in an "Age of Empires" way. <br/> <br/>Some music to go with the mood would be awesome. <br/> <br/>Definitely one of the more professional entries I've played this time. Please keep making games. |
| Dec 31 18:18:00 | 17m 00s | Swordsman's Life | I laughed a lot. Great concept, great retro graphics. The title is neat, and the writing is very funny. I'd love to see a post-comp version with all the extra content you mentioned. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, while I enjoyed this a lot, it loses some points for having only very slight game content, and I'm not sure what LD's policy is on using copyrighted music. <br/> <br/>In short, as a game: very slight. As a Flash video/tribute to nostalgic awesomeness? Great! |
| Dec 31 21:09:00 | 2h 51m | Jedi Defence | Ultra-simple gameplay, but still pretty addictive. The graphics are pretty good, though the "start" and "retry" buttons looked out of place and could have been given a look that fitted the gameplay better. I like the Death Star in the title screen. <br/> <br/>Very small game, but a decent way to kill some time. And droids. |
| Dec 31 23:33:00 | 2h 24m | Temple of Doom and Friendship | Extremely polished entry given the time limit. The gameplay is pretty typical puzzle-platformer fare, though the oxygen mechanic adds a nice bit of tension. It got quite hard, and the controls didn't help, but you kept the difficulty balanced. <br/> <br/>The graphics are good, though the protagonist's design seemed a bit odd. I actually assumed they were an alien, until I saw the ending. <br/> <br/>The writing is pretty good, though some of the narration at the start was missing punctuation. Also, the font seemed a bit... unsuited to the visuals? A bit too thin? That's a tiny nitpick. <br/> <br/>Highly recommended for everyone! <br/> <br/>Spoilers below <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/>The ending scene is what made this game stand head and shoulders above all other "escape the ancient ruins" platformers. Beautifully drawn, a nice horrific twist to the story, and also really, really funny. I love this game now. |
| Jan 1 17:26:00 | 17h 53m | Hypernova | Quite a nice shooter, if not that original. Pretty good graphics. The music is good, if maybe a bit generic? (As in, it's good, but it doesn't really give off a science fiction or action vibe.) <br/> <br/>Oh, and the big photorealistic fish got a laugh from me. |
| Jan 1 18:00:00 | 34m 00s | The Child Spirit | A nice little runner, with good graphics (the animals in the herd are a bit too cartoonish and colourful, in my opinion, but Moo and the background graphics are great) and excellent audio. The plot is kind of cheesy, but the gameplay is very good. I think this game could be a hit with kids. <br/> <br/>I'd like it if the rabbits ran after you rather than hovering (the birds hovering makes sense, after all). Also, a bug: some of the animals appear to be invisible. <br/> <br/>I can't really figure out how to win (if I try to ran fast, I don't collect enough animals, while if I backtrack, I lose Moo). Still, one of the most enjoyable games this LD in terms of gameplay. |
| Jan 1 21:51:00 | 3h 51m | Cave Adventure | Nice game: very good graphics, great audio, polished gameplay. Enough complexity to make it challenging, but it's very well balanced: I never felt that you were throwing difficulty at the player just for the sake of it. <br/> <br/>Unfortunately, my keyboard configuration meant that using the controls was a pain, making the game a lot more difficult than it would have been otherwise. But I'm not going to hold it against you, since you didn't code with it in mind. <br/> <br/>In short, a pretty simple but good game. The ending was short, but still gave a nice sense of closure. |
| Jan 2 16:48:00 | 18h 57m | Frank & Stein | I'll be very surprised if this doesn't get in at least the top ten of one category. Excellent music, original concept, really funny writing (several of Frank's lines made me laugh out loud). The graphics are amazing, and the puzzles are innovative and fresh. It got quite hard, but the levels are short enough that replaying isn't much of a hassle. <br/> <br/>If the game has any weaknesses, it's that the theme isn't that strongly connected to the gameplay (it's definitely there, but it's not central). Also, the ending is a bit weak compared to the game itself, but that's minor. <br/> <br/>Strongly recommended to everyone who isn't squicked out by the plot. |
| Jan 2 17:04:00 | 16m 00s | P.G.E | Great music and pretty nice visuals, but the central point/joke, funny as it is, didn't feel like it merited all the build-up. And other people have made the joke before. <br/> <br/>Agree with the person who said that there should be a way to skip the intro. |
| Jan 3 16:55:00 | 23h 51m | Deal With It | Unfortunately, I'm no good at this type of game. The graphics are pretty nice, and the background music is good. The writing isn't bad, but has some grammar mistakes. The gameplay idea isn't incredibly original, but still pretty interesting. I like that you took the time to implement a tutorial. <br/> <br/>I just didn't get far enough into the game to say much about it. |
| Jan 3 17:26:00 | 31m 00s | 2 button metroidvania | You've made a demo that's better than any of my full games. The graphics are lovely, though the main character sprite might need some work, and the shake effect gets a bit too much. I love the background music; reminds me of "La-Mulana"'s soundtrack. However, the sound effects are a bit too loud. <br/> <br/>The world design is pretty great. Unfortunately, the controls made it too hard for me. Still, very good-looking game with a cool concept. |
| Jan 4 22:51:00 | 29h 25m | The Great Adventure of Wania Romanow | (score refers to the original version) <br/> <br/>The graphics are good and the music is absolutely brilliant. The character reminds me of Omsk Bird. Gameplay is standard fighting game fare, and took a while for me to get into, but seems to work. Unfortunately, I got a "target scene missing" screen, and had to close the window and start again to be able to play. <br/> <br/>The backstory is kind of entertaining, but doesn't seem to have a lot to do with the actual game. <br/> <br/>I tried the updated link as well. The various upgrades are cool, but I can't figure out how to proceed from there. <br/> <br/>You've got the start of a good and cool-looking game here, it just needs a lot more stuff. |
| Jan 4 23:17:00 | 26m 00s | Tree of Life | Pretty original concept, and I like how you fitted the poems into the storyline. It felt a bit dull at times, though, and especially at the start it felt like trial and error. The graphics are good, though the leafage of the tree looks a bit cluttered. Beautiful ending. <br/> <br/>Note: the graphics didn't work when I played it in Firefox. Worked fine in Chrome, though. |
| Jan 4 23:31:00 | 14m 00s | The Super Bros (that are not Brothers!) | The two character sprites are excellent, and I love the title of the game. Unfortunately, navigating both characters was too difficult for me. Cool concept, though. |