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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Avant-Marde's comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21 09:30:00 | Shape Assault | Nice simplistic graphics with an extra touch of lighting and CRT effect that really did a lot for it! <br/> <br/>Music was neat IMO but the other half of Avant-Marde asked me to turn it off, so I'm not sure where we stand there in effect. ;p It's possible all the shooting sounds were the problem, tho. I guess I agree on that. <br/> <br/>Personally horribly tired of basically every game ever being about killing, but since the style was so abstract I felt like I wouldn't have really thought of it that way unless you actually used that wording in the game, so that was a bit disappointing IMO, but I know I hold a minority view here... <br/> <br/>I'm just bad at this sort of stuff in general. When there were only one thing shooting at me at a time I tried to stand in some corner where I could hit them but they couldn't hit me, being all strategic about it, but at the end of the level I basically just had to try and run through it while shooting wildly around me. It... didn't work. I'm just not good enough at this! :p <br/> <br/>A little bit unsure about the use of the theme. While you do of course shift shapes, I don't really feel it's a mechanic that does much for me in this game, because it shifts every time I eliminate another target so I can't control the mechanic and use it to my advantage. Unless that comes up in later levels, of course, but I just couldn't make it through the first one. :c | |
| Apr 21 10:03:00 | 33m 00s | Altruism | Switching between characters with different abilities, just like in our game. Neat. c: <br/> <br/>I'll try and offer some constructive criticism along with my praise, so I hope you will find this helpful rather than destructive! But I'm well aware that LD time is restricted and that mistakes are easily made — that goes for our entry too. c; <br/> <br/>The main mechanics were a good use of the theme and fun to play with. It was a little bit confusing that the transformation previews would show in the right area no matter which character you were playing as tho. <br/> <br/>The stereotyping was a bit annoying, I do have to say that. The female character's JUMP is higher pitched? And pink and blue? And the colours of their respective icons? Come on, it's not 1993. The "man of success" quote also felt like you were assuming a male player, something which seems quite common among dudes making games still. <br/> <br/>That's the major nitpick, tho. The game itself was nice, so it was just a pity there was stuff like that in there to take away a bit from the overall experience. <br/> <br/>I assume you mostly playtested on gamepad so I guess it was easily overlooked, but the keyboard controllers were probably a little dangerous at times (both space and W/up commonly being associated with jumping making me accidentally press the wrong one and dying sometimes, and shapeshift key being perhaps too close to the jump key). I do have a 360 controller, but I never tried playing using that. <br/> <br/>Required a bit of old school patience and problem solving, like figuring out that not both characters can pick up the artifacts, or why the shapeshifting didn't work the first time I saw the message (I hadn't gotten the artifact yet). This was actually a bit refreshing in a way, allowing the player to feel a bit clever, but you probably shouldn't have shown the shapeshifting message before it was actually possible to do it. :p <br/> <br/>Unfortunately I stumbled into a bug after finally getting across the second bridge and climbing on the L-shaped character after having died many times. I jumped, hit the ceiling, and then I started flying uncontrollably upwards, straight into something which killed me. :c <br/> <br/>Can't say much about the audio. The music was nice. I do think jumping sounds, at least if they're this prominent, can get annoying in games with this much jumping, tho. ;p <br/> <br/>TL;DR: good mechanics, neat game, a bit unclear at times, and please drop the stereotyping next time, but mostly I liked it for the gameplay itself! C: |
| Apr 21 10:28:00 | 25m 00s | Chrysalide | Wow! Definite favourite entry so far. Might not mean much since it's also like the third game I rate, but knowing me I'm fairly sure it will stay in the top. <br/> <br/>Gorgeous graphics. Simple but stylised in a very clean way. The noise did a lot for it. The changing sky colour towards the end of each level was a lovely touch as well. <br/> <br/>The music and sound effects fit in too, and were well done. Perhaps there should've been a flying sound and even some rain, but that's just nitpicking. <br/> <br/>The increasing difficulty was nicely balanced for such a short game, which made it take a while to complete anyway. This was sort of the intention behind our entry this year as well, but due to not feeling well we never really had the time to polish it or even finish all our puzzles. <br/> <br/>Reminded me a lot of the game Flem — yes, one of its devs was on our LD team, but I'm not personally part of the team that made that game, so I'm allowed to say so. c; <br/> <br/>it was difficult towards the end, but in a good way. It made me stubbornly want to finish it. And I did! <br/> <br/>And of course the fact that you only had to restart the current level and not the entire game upon failure might be worthy of a little extra praise when it comes to LD games. ;p <br/> <br/>Loved it! <3 |
| Apr 21 11:21:00 | 53m 00s | Ghost Bird | Nice game! Second favourite so far, I think. <br/> <br/>Horribly difficult! I commented on the last game I rated, Chrysalide (play it!), that it felt a bit like Flem (a game one of our team participants worked on, but which I didn't have anything to do with, so I'm OK with mentioning it!). Required some terrifying precision sometimes, and not least a lot of patience after failing so many times. <br/> <br/>I was thinking I had to get to the shapeshifting before feeling entitled to rate the game, since I couldn't give it a fair theme voting otherwise. So I kept marching on, failing countless times, in search of the upgrade that would finally let me shapeshift. But I suddenly reached the end of the game. <br/> <br/>Didn't realise until I read the comment that your take on the theme was having the world, rather than the character, shapeshift! I can't believe it! How did I not think consciously about that even tho I was well aware of it, since it was what allowed me to progress? Really shows how biased I've gotten so far, expecting it to always be the character shapeshifting. <br/> <br/>So that was just a cognitive mistake on my behalf, and of course you followed the theme well. Good thing I saw this before rating. c': <br/> <br/>While the fog of war / filter effect on the game is technically interesting and a great feat to have pulled off, I cannot honestly say that I actually enjoyed it artistically nor mechanically. It was kind of annoying. Minor nitpick. <br/> <br/>Was there supposed to be any audio? I didn't hear a thing. I see you recommended FF, so maybe that was it, tho the pixels appeared crisp in Chrome for me. However, since I see now that you have disabled the audio category, I guess you really did have no sound. Too bad, but I can see how it allowed you to focus more on the rest. It amazes me how much content you managed to cram in there in so little time. <br/> <br/>Great game! Made you feel happy about yourself once you finally cleared that hellishly difficult section. I just hope it didn't make too many players give up too early. <br/> <br/>I'm also personally not physically very good at button mashing fast, which is why I always lose in some minigames in Pokémon Stadium (N64) and can't win the races in Banjo-Tooie, so the flappy birding was a bit difficult for me at first, but obviously I finished the game, so yay! |
| Apr 21 15:37:00 | 4h 16m | Shifty's Shape Escape | Unfortunately my keyboard/OS/browser/whatever couldn't register more than two keys at once, so I couldn't play it properly, but I get the idea! <br/> <br/>I like it, tho I dunno how much this concept could evolve difficulty-wise and so on. Does the game speed up after a while? Again, I couldn't determine, since I was unable to play the game properly. :c <br/> <br/>Anyway, nice graphics! Very polished. And good input selection screen tho it's a bit confusing to know what to do with before you actually know how the game works, but you've got the tutorial as well, so it's fine, I guess. <br/> <br/>No music, but sound effects at least. I see you unchecked audio ratings, tho, so no point in me dwelling on that. c: <br/> <br/>Good concept in general. Nicely scoped and packaged. |
| Apr 21 16:19:00 | 42m 00s | Oh What a Night | What a great game! <3 One of the best entries I've played so far. I even had to have another one of us come play it all over again when I was done with it. We both enjoyed it thoroughly! <br/> <br/>The graphics were very nice, of course but I really have to slap myself not to be too biased towards the positive feeling of recognition, since the style obviously is not really your own. c; It was a nice touch to be able to look at the TV like in Pokémon, so you definitely stayed true to this style, tho. <br/> <br/>You're getting my highest humour score so far. You gave me several good chuckles throughout the game. It was also a welcome surprise to see what happened after approaching the mouse, since obviously I didn't want to eat it. And more chuckles. <br/> <br/>It's hard to say much about the mood. Music and audio would've helped a lot. Thanks to the graphics I still sort of heard Pokémon in my head tho. <br/> <br/>Very solid entry. Short but polished (besides audio, of course) and engaging. The mystery-solving was good fun. I don't play enough games like that any more. <br/> <br/>This really spoke to me. Fantastic job! |
| Apr 21 16:50:00 | 31m 00s | Reform | Really good game! Quick question: after the "ending" where I'm told not to do that any more, am I supposed to be able to progress or does it end there for now? <br/> <br/>Change of music is nice there too. And the music in general is good. How come you've turned off audio ratings? I'd've given you a good one! <br/> <br/>Very nice to look at. Interesting style. Looks a bit like a painting. I kind of think the characters could've fit more into that style, I guess, but contrast can be good too. Very nice overall. <br/> <br/>Primary thing to comment on is the mechanics and gameplay, of course. While the game was short, it wasn't a breeze to get through. Good difficulty and nice amount of thinking to do as well as dependency on reflexes. Good puzzles! <br/> <br/>I guess mechanically this game would've worked even without dressing it up as shapeshifting. All of the mechanics would've worked inside of one character as well. Nonetheless, good use of the theme. <br/> <br/>So many good entries so far. Yours is another! c: |
| Apr 21 17:08:00 | 18m 00s | The Mystery of the Colorful Glasses | I like the idea! There were a few problems with the execution tho, so I actually got stuck, I'm afraid. :c I'd love to keep playing if I could have some clues, tho. <br/> <br/>I got stuck after getting the fourth colour (which I assumed to be brown, since that one was mentioned on a note, but maybe that was orange?). There was a room asking for three colours and a note saying "green, blue, brown", but I tried those and nothing happened, so I couldn't figure it out after that. <br/> <br/>Like many before me have said, there needs to be a better indication of which colours are active. Green and blue are easy to see in game, but yellow does almost nothing and brown/orange(?) not much either. It would be good if they were also marked with a white border or something in the inventory to indicate on or off. <br/> <br/>The mood is neat in general. I like the lighting, and of course the colour effects add up too. Too bad there was no audio. There's a feeling of mystery that makes me want to keep investigating to figure out where I am. <br/> <br/>Basically a good game but unfortunately a bit difficult to play! c: |
| Apr 21 17:30:00 | 22m 00s | The Great Biohazard Escape | Good game overall, tho the setup is weird. You're not making me want to actually help the character, considering their plan or personality or previous deeds, so I basically just played the game for the game mechanics themselves. I think that's probably worth considering. <br/> <br/>Disregarding the character, however, the game was good! c: The pacing was interesting when I played, tho it might've been different for someone else; basically it took me a while to get anything done at all at first but when I finally got somewhere things almost started solving themselves. <br/> <br/>Audio was just enough, really. Can't say much more. The music fit the creepy atmosphere. Good! <br/> <br/>My biggest criticism is moving between the two sides of the room. I did it by mistake the first time and I had no idea how I did it. Then it took a while before I managed to get back and fully realised that it worked by clicking at the bottom of the screen. You should probably have had an icon for that. <br/> <br/>All in all, a good game about a horrible person. :p |
| Apr 21 17:35:00 | 5m 00s | Just Roll With It | Wow! I drew a device like the Omni in my teens and now apparently it's real? I had no idea. Thanks for that! <br/> <br/>I don't just lack that or VR goggles — I don't even run Windows — so I can't play this in any shape or form at all, but I felt I needed to drop a comment anyway. Cool! |
| Apr 21 17:44:00 | 9m 00s | Brutally Shifty Dance Crew | Cool idea! <br/> <br/>I've seen your animations before, and this was a cool use of them. <br/> <br/>The voices are scary! <br/> <br/>You did say you ran out of time, and yeah, it feels a bit short on difficulty, but it was a nice experiment and definitely something that could be developed further. <br/> <br/>Like many others, my biggest gripe is with the controls. I really think you should've assigned the shapes to keys and made it more like StepMania for example. Mouse worked for now since the game was so easy, but for higher difficulties it just wouldn't have worked (touch screen controls might have worked, tho). <br/> <br/>Would've been fun to dance to a long and speedy song using the keys. c: <br/> <br/>I don't reeeeally see how it fits the theme tho TBH. There's a vague implication since you're clicking different shapes, but the shifting part isn't really there IMO. <br/> <br/>Anyhow, I like the concept! |
| Apr 21 18:02:00 | 18m 00s | The Pollos | The basic idea is good but it was a bit hard to play. :c <br/> <br/>I can't imagine the graphics weren't deliberately chosen to offer this psychedelic experience, so I hope it's safe to complain a bit about that. <br/> <br/>The main problem, I think, was that the sky was both not moving with the level while also being animated on its own. I actually got a pretty intense headache after a while and felt a bit nauseous, and I've never actually experienced that with a game before. <br/> <br/>So sorry, but I had to stop playing, because it made me feel physically unwell. I think that's a pity, because it would've been so easy to avoid (considering I've never had this with any game before) by deciding against this trippy art style. <br/> <br/>So I would *not* recommend full screen to other players, actually (the cursor actually kept getting out of sync anyway). :p <br/> <br/>Nonetheless, you did get your first jam done and I hope you will come back next time. Take everything I've said as constructive criticism. I'll be happy to play your next game if you take it easier on the graphics next time. c; |
| Apr 21 18:14:00 | 12m 00s | Imperfection | This was hilarious! <br/> <br/>Didn't read the description before jumping in, so at first I just put in the shapes and then I thought that was it... AND SUDDENLY! And then it became difficult as heck, especially since I decided to start on medium. <br/> <br/>Had to roll back to easy after that and finally won after way too much ticking of the clock. <br/> <br/>Basically everything was great, so I don't even really need to go into the details. Even telling me I didn't need to hold the mouse button. You thought of everything, didn't you?! <br/> <br/>Amazing entry. |
| Apr 23 20:55:00 | 50h 41m | Aftertile | Very nice! Played a few times since the description mentioned multiple endings. <br/> <br/>I don't know if there was some bug, because I was a bit confused as to when and why the resting icon would appear, because the first time I played I obviously didn't know where the resting places were or what they would look like at all, so I tried randomly pressing it sometimes. <br/> <br/>Apparently it worked inside a wall, and the quote that appeared had something to do with death, so I actually wondered if it were some sort of game over. <br/> <br/>The second time the icon appeared once inside a wall and I moved a little and it disappeared and I was never able to get it to appear again. Then I finally found, for the first time, what I suppose to have been the only intended resting place: graphics that actually looked like a door and where the icon would consistently appear. <br/> <br/>Did I stumble across bugs the first time, or did I misunderstand something? <br/> <br/>Anyway: moving on! <br/> <br/>The graphics were very nice, as were the animations. Nice touch with the camera zoom near the green orbs, too. Music and sounds were neat too, so how come you've turned off ratings for the audio category? <br/> <br/>I guess a ghost might be considered a weird choice, since I would've expected those to be able to move through walls anyway without transforming, and also it's a bit strange to be able to die again by taking damage considering ghosts are generally dead already, but that's a minor nitpick. :p <br/> <br/>The level of floatiness to the controls might've been considered bad in a different game, but I think it worked here, especially since the game was pretty simple and it would've been too easy to avoid the spikes and die otherwise. The level of risk it added made it feel really good once I finally reached an orb, because I'd usually taken some damage before getting there. <br/> <br/>Simple but compact and polished. Liked it! c: |