Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Feedback comment stats → Ava Skoog
Feedback comments for LD38
Ava Skoog's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Ava Skoog's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 3 14:06:02 | Rise of the Termites | ♥ 2 | Hey! Finally found some time to play a bit more and get around to rating and so on! c: Nice game! Balanced difficulty and neat theming with the termites. Social insects are cool! Like I said before, while management games are generally not my cup of tea, this turned out to be just about the right level for me. Was a bit confused at first, but soon got the hang of it, and started feeling good about myself for figuring out how to reach the objectives in each level! I see that the fact that you can't remove rooms if you realise you've made the wrong decision has been mentioned before. My initial thought was that would've been nice too, but on the other hand that does give the levels a lose condition, so maybe it's for the better! c: Couldn't find an explanation for why you opted out of the sound categories (music not original, maybe?) but music was good and so were the sound effects. The only real issue I had was a bit of trouble clicking stuff sometimes, with what seemed to be clicks being picked up by all buttons in the same position on the same frame, but it was easy to work around and didn't break the game. c: The differences between the various levels and their objectives were nice too, so that there wasn't an overhaul of mechanics from the start. Nice job! | |
| May 3 14:13:47 | 7m 45s | Beacons of Light | ♥ 1 | Yo! Finally found the time play! c: That was intense! And difficult. I'm not sure if there's a win state, but if there is, I wasn't good enough to reach it, haha. So many of them started cropping up after a while. The music really helps sell the tension too. Of course all the blood made me feel like a really horrible person for what I was doing! ;__; The limited sight again amps up the tension, and the fact that its also tied to your "life" and how you can literally see "the lights go out" as you start to lose the upper hand evokes quite the emotional response! It might just be my mouse that's wonky, but I'm not sure I noticed a difference between the dash and the regular movement. Good job! Hope you enjoyed LD! :D |
| May 3 14:37:21 | 23m 34s | Her name | ♥ 1 | Hey, was watching as this game came up on Togis's stream the other day, but decided not to watch since I wanted to experience the game myself. Now I have! Very nice game. It's always nice to see someone tackle something a bit more emotional, especially with so little time. It can be difficult. There was one or two parts of the monologues that felt a little bit out of place to me humourwise, but hey. Especially at the end of the game, where it really mattered, the tone was as serious as it should be. Some fitting music could probably have helped the atmosphere even more, but this is one of those games that work rather well without it, as opposed to, say, an action game. c: I realised soon enough that this was something that was probably meant to be played more than once, but it seems I got all the right artefacts on the first playthrough, heh. I guess it would've been interesting if picking different objects would've yielded a different, but still not "failed" ending, but definitely not necessary. Finding the correct items and seeing their connection was rewarding. Of course the ending is sad no matter which way it goes, but that's the reality of it, and again, it was good to see you take that subject on and going through with it. Really good job! |
| May 3 15:00:41 | 23m 20s | Space Diver | ♥ 1 | Geeee, it's so cute but I'm so bad at it, haha. <3 It's difficult, but in a way that makes me feel that I can master it once I get used to it. Spent a lot of time on each level before I decided that my score was "good enough" so that I could move on. No frustration at all, just really encouraging! The graphics are simple but top notch. Very cutesy, and the animations on the planet's face are a great touch. Music and sounds really fitting as well. My only real complaint is that the pause menu, as far as I could tell, didn't have a button to restart the level, so I had to finish a level even when I knew that my score was horrible, heh. Dunno what else to say! Sometimes there's a lot to talk about, but this is just great and that's basically it, haha. Fine-tuned movement that makes the player feel a bit more in control, maybe? Beyond that, just a matter of more levels and mechanics/concepts, should you choose to make a post-jam version. c: Introducing the trees in the later level was nice! |
| May 3 15:14:43 | 14m 02s | o, the game | ♥ 1 | Hey, Mac user here! It seems you haven't properly packaged the Mac build in the archive, haha. There's only the "Contents" folder in the zip, which is supposed to be inside an .app. I had no issue creating an o.app folder and putting it there—the game started just fine—but you should fix this. :D Anyway, got it up and running by doing so, so I got to play it. It's very nice. Really clean æsthetic, both graphics and sound. Simple but fun mechanics. I guess the main use of the jump button is if you shot too many bullets and need to avoid them, and not to actually jump over the obstacles? :p After you stop somewhere, depending on where you are, the direction the arrow keys take you can feel a bit arbitrary, but I can't say I know of a better solution… Maybe let a key keep taking you the direction it started to so long as you hold it down, but let it start taking you in a different direction depending on where you are on the circle when you start pressing the button? I got a little confused when the circle started shrinking but obstacles to shoot in order to expand the ring again weren't showing up fast enough to prevent it from eventually collapsing altogether in the end. Is that how it's meant to be? Great game! Definitely material to work on post-jam (and I see that you have, but of course I can't rate based on the post-jam version :d)! |
| May 3 15:30:24 | 15m 41s | Three of you. | ♥ 1 | Saw the lovely character design and had to play this. <3 Adorable. And the animations are so much fun. Too bad there wasn't time for music, because I feel like something hippety-hoppety could've added to the mood even more! Unfortunately never managed to finish, because I kept losing to hunger before even finding half the crystals each time. :'c A lot of my games get the complaint that the characters move too slowly, but this felt slow even to me, heh. Made it difficult to find new crystals, and food, on time. Many ways to modulate this, like having food satiate more hunger than now, or to make the world even smaller, but I think speeding up the characters is the best solution to everything. It's definitely impressive that this isn't only your own engine, but a JS one. Was a bit heavy on my computer, but not unplayable. Hope you keep working on it and improve even more on it! Nice job! c: |
| May 3 16:07:52 | 37m 28s | King of Tiny Mountain | ♥ 1 | I am the queen of the mountain! Somehow. Wow, that was difficult at first. Got the hang of it near the end, but wasn't very good at it anyway, haha. I somehow managed to tackle the boss's bullet hell with only one life (seemed like I got hit without getting hurt a few times, but maybe I wasn't keeping attention, and the boss bullets actually decreased the gems I'd collected and not my lives?) even tho I'd died countless times on the regular enemies! o-o Very funky music! And a lot of pew-pew. Graphics are really nice, tho the isometric perspective was a little confusing at times when it came to certain jumps, but at least you learn where things really are soon enough. c: Not sure if it's a bug, but in the right-hand section there seemed to be a gem behind I wall but I couldn't figure out any way to get it. I got ten gems in total. Nice entry! Good job! |
| May 3 16:19:34 | 11m 42s | The world is (a) flat | ♥ 4 | Nice game! Unless I too missed something, I'm guessing it was a bit shorter than your last one? The ending confused me a little bit, so I had to play again to make sure I hadn't lost or something, but it did seem I reached the goal! :d Representing the world as an apartment was a creative take on the theme, and actually having a little map really helped me understand it, and made it feel a lot more immersive. Good job on representation without mockery and stereotypes. c; Lots of neat music, tho I see it was borrowed. But it fit in nicely, and that's an art in itself as well. Sound design can be a lot of fun even when the assets aren't one's own. The interface was slightly confuzzling to me as well, but not to the point that it was a problem; just required a little getting used to. But I guess that's something to bear in mind since you're using this engine for a bigger game as well. Nice job! |
| May 3 18:26:16 | 2h 06m | Stable Orbit | ♥ 0 | Aaaaa. <3 First I didn't get it at all, and then I did! Then I made it, and it said stable orbit and I thought I'd made it, but then bumped into the thing and it said I failed anyway, so I thought I was supposed to have kept steering. Finally made it again and that didn't happen this time, so that convinced me it was actually the win state, haha. Once I got it, it was a really neat, but difficult game! But just the level of difficulty that's needed for such a small game, so that it's incredibly rewarding once you finally get it. Not the frustrating kind of difficult! Art direction is great. Super clean and stylish. Same goes for audio which fits really well together with the rest. I can't say much more! It's a really polished entry and I love it. <3 Good job! |
| May 3 18:45:04 | 18m 48s | Naughty Gnomes | ♥ 1 | Cute game! Great humour. Love the victory fanfare! It was nice that the collision wasn't pixel perfect because they moved around so much so that would probably have been unfair. Having no access into the rooms where the people were but having to aim at them from openings on the outside made it a lot of fun and strategic. And having the horn to get them moving was a really nice touch! I can agree with previous people that the wind-up was a bit slow. My biggest problem (which nobody else seems to have reported, so I wonder if it's Mac-specific) was that I kept getting stuck in walls and couldn't move for a while. Was especially frustrating on the last level where I'd fought hard for a couple of minutes to get the last person to the spot where I could aim at them and they finally went there but I got stuck on the way there for like 20 seconds and I missed the opportunity. :'c Good job! c: |
| May 3 18:52:29 | 7m 25s | Fog and Glass | ♥ 2 | It's difficult to know how to rate something that's not really supposed to be a game. I've made a similar, almost linear, LD entry in the past, where the main goal was to convey a message and there wasn't very much gameplay either, tho a bit more than this. The atmosphere and the mood is definitely there. I think I get what it's about, and even recognise it a bit, but it's not blatantly obvious and I cannot know for sure whether I've interpreted it correctly, and I assume that's a bit of the point: a way for you to get something out, possibly attracting those who are able to catch the drift, and not necessarily anybody else. Combination of great presentation and mood but lack of much of a game. An interesting entry. Well done! |
| May 3 20:15:43 | 1h 23m | Cartography | ♥ 2 | There's a mood here! Really too bad that you didn't have time for some fitting audio. Would've been really nice, I think. The game gave off a mysterious feeling, and some eerie music could've amplified that for sure. It's self-explanatory enough, so the lack of text works just fine, and again, I think this adds to the mysteriousness in a good way. The ending fit in really well too, but it could've been a bit more clear (again, probably something that sound could've helped with), because it took me a few moments to realise I was actually floating up into the air and before I saw the flying saucer. I did notice the symbols, and see now that they were added for people with colour vision deficiencies. Nice! Tho of course I didn't know that when I started playing, and began pondering what they could mean, haha. Nice job! |
| May 3 20:35:29 | 19m 46s | Planet Desumaton | ♥ 1 | So cute! So cute it breaks my heart to catch the terrified little asteroids and hurl them away! ;--; Absolutely love the art direction. Real pity there's no sound. I can almost hear it in my head! c: My only criticism would be that the game says game over also when I win, which is confusing. The acceleration and speed is a bit of a double-edged sword: on the one hand it's great for getting away in the last moment when the big planet approaches, but on the other hand it can be difficult not to hit stuff. Not sure! I didn't actually notice it at first, so I was a bit confused, but when I realised that the player planet's life was shown by the facial expressions, I found it really neat! Doesn't tell you exactly how many more hits you can take, but tells you when to start playing it safe, and makes the screen a little cleaner with less HUD. Very nice. c: Really good job! Note: there's a bug when the game is over and you play again, as the boss's life meter doesn't fill up again. |
| May 8 06:35:36 | 106h 00m | World en abyme | ♥ 0 | Can't get the Mac version to start. /: Get this message: ``` Player data archive not found at `mac.app/Contents/Resources/Data/data.unity3d`, using local filesystem ``` Since this seems to be a Unity game tho, you should do a web build if you can anyway. c: |
| May 13 09:18:35 | 122h 42m | Earth, 3568 | ♥ 0 | Neat! I mentioned it on Togis's stream chat a while ago, but I still find it hilarious how the goal is to escape the engulfing sun, yet they are sending ships off to planets closer to the sun than earth. :'p The gravity stuff is cool, and fun to try and come to terms with. Felt pretty good to manage to hit little Mercury without losing the ship to the sun. The simplicity works, and the colour coding does it's job. As an accessibility patch, for a post-jam entry it'd be neat to also have symbols or something for the colourblind. It's a nice touch how the population keeps decreasing while the intro texts are rolling! Good job! |
| May 13 09:26:36 | 8m 01s | Floppy McFloppyface | ♥ 1 | Love it! The dialogues in combination with the ~floppy~ graphics made me chuckle a bunch. Not to mention the ending of the game. Music, sounds, animations, a little story, and something to do—it's all there! While the game is short, everything isn't handed to you, and you'll have to poke around to figure things out, but thanks to the small world, it doesn't get frustrating the way it does in, say, Zelda I. Nice job! |
| May 13 09:33:16 | 6m 40s | WHAT A SMALL WORLD! | ♥ 3 | Funny! Was a little weird that I could interact with a bunch of things but not the other person in the house tho, heh! I guess that's what happens to those that deep down in the gamer bog... Interesting little reversion of the theme. And interesting how the music appeared once the character got outside. Was that intentional, or did you just not have time for indoors music as well? Had a bit of a funky effect anyhow! Small but neat. Good job! |
| May 13 09:57:12 | 23m 56s | Daydreaming Island | ♥ 1 | dat pathfinding tho I liked this entry. Not sure what sort of message it was trying to convey in the end, but overall there was definitely a mood here. Was a bit confusing at first, but I think that may have been the point. Music fits nicely and sound effects work great. Moving around was a little stiff at times, but not a big issue given the small space to explore. Especially liked the telescope. Somehow the different art style worked out quite well there, and it added to the mood once again. Neatly tied together and well presented. Really nice job! Note: I think there might be a bug after it says the end, because I right clicked again and got another message box saying something about a weird box, and then I couldn't get that to disappear. |
| May 13 10:16:47 | 19m 35s | Super Collapse Guy | ♥ 2 | "Congration"! <3 The box art is an absolutely endearing touch to an already great game. It's not just really interesting technically, but a great entry to play too. Not to easy, not too difficult. Good balance. Only wish there were more levels, but I know the jam jam! A favourite so far. A post-jam version with more stuff would be amazing. Immensely neat job! |
| May 13 10:47:07 | 30m 20s | Quantum Frustum | ♥ 0 | Really, really cool! Game is very pretty and I love the outline shader. While well produced, at first I felt the stressy tempo of music was a bit unfitting as the graphics suggested something more along the lines of exploration and puzzle solving to me, but once I realised all the difficult jumps I had to make, it started to grow on me! Of course the main mechanic, with things changing as you look away, is great, and it really felt fitting for the labyrinth. I also happened to do that section last. But it actually ended up being the shortest/easiest one, haha. You did a great job on making the objectives clear by having the first collectable at the start, and then removing the need for a minimap while also not confusing the player, by making the rest of them clearly visible from afar when climbing up somewhere to get a better look. Polished and fun. Great work! |
| May 13 11:10:12 | 23m 05s | The Little World | ♥ 2 | Dang it, as a language nerd I keep seeing The Little Prince around as it's a big collector's item in these communities, since it's been translated to so many languages, but I still haven't read it myself, so any references have been hopefully lost on me, hehe. I guess the text on the game over screens were taken from the book? Anyway, I'm on Mac, so couldn't play your Windows build, but thanks to the source you provided, I could open it up in Unity anyway. I made a Mac build for you in case you want to put it up! http://ava.levelism.com/tmp/TheLittleWorld_Mac.zip Don't want to keep it there indefinitely, especially since this is web space I'm borrowing for free, so please tell me once you've downloaded it and hosted it yourself, and I'll make my link invalid again. c: Game was a bit confusing at first until I played a few times and got it—again probably something that's clearer to anybody who's read the book. At first I thought I was turning the rose into a baobab by watering it and then the volcano by digging, not realising these were three different things that the first "level" was teaching me about and what tool to use on them, but I got it after I had played the actual game a bit! No idea where/if it said how many days had passed, so not sure how well I did, but I definitely didn't reach your 45 day goal, that's for sure, haha. At first glance, I thought it would be kinda similar to our game Blomst, but then I realised it was really fast-paced! Quite difficult! Too bad you didn't find the time to put any music in there, but that happens. c: Great job overall! Wish I'd read the book first so that I could tune a bit more into the references! |