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James Dunlap

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TimestampSince previousGameJames Dunlap's comment
Apr 25 04:02:41 uP-8: Microprocessor ♥ 4 Nicely done. I enjoy the Zachtronics games, and yours is very much like that. I like the visual style as well. I wonder, though, how quickly the difficulty ramps up. I have done the first 5-6 puzzles and have been able to do everything with just loops and loc commands. Do the other commands become relevant? Edit: Just had a look at the source, and with only seven levels, they do not require anything other than the loops and loc, but great work in the 72 hours! That's a great start toward needing those other commands! I even may go back and try to write the programs to use other commands anyway.
May 1 04:43:28 144h 40m eiland ♥ 6 I couldn't figure much of it out. Are the log, rock, and coconuts/kiwi/(?) supposed to do anything? I also could not get the key for the chest from the bird, but that's probably my lack of skill. Overall, the mood was very good, and I enjoyed your detailed work on the audio. Great work on the graphics as well. I love the effect of the tide rising and falling.
May 1 04:52:06 8m 38s Dwarf World ♥ 0 Nicely done! As some have mentioned, it is quite similar to some existing games (like Sokoban), but I do like how you took a side view rather than a top down view, which added gravity as an element. Overall, your game meshes very well with itself and has a very consistent art style which is also quite enjoyable. Some of the sounds seemed out of balance with the others (walking, digging, and exit opening). These seemed much louder and since they are quite common (especially walking) it can force a player to reduce the volume and maybe cause a player to have more difficulty hearing the other sounds. I do like the level designs, and they quickly start making you think your way through as in some, one mistake will cost you being able to complete the level.
May 1 04:56:56 4m 50s Tribal Tension (Twitch) ♥ 5 I like that this game stands out from the rest by being one that is played on Twitch through chat. I will be the first to admit that I do not spend much time on Twitch as I would rather play games myself than watch others. About the only time I get on Twitch is during a Ludum Dare, so I did not even think about this as being possible. It would be nice to see it possible expanded with additional building types and additional commands, but for LD, this is a very good start, and I did enjoy giving it a try.
May 1 05:07:44 10m 48s No Minor Task: Party of a Lifetime ♥ 1 The intro was a bit slow as others have said. I know that you can speed it up, but then it is way too fast to read. Also, it is difficult at time to tell the adults from the kids until you realize that all of the kids look the same. At first, I was running into some of the adults because I thought they were kids. Enjoyable soundtrack, though!
May 1 05:20:22 12m 38s There shall be light ♥ 5 I did not rate in graphics and audio as you said graphics are not yours and audio is not there, so I am assuming that you will opt out of those categories. Interesting concept, but without the win/lose conditions or at least knowing what they are, the game is a little lackluster as I'm not sure exactly what it is I am supposed to be doing. If I am supposed to keep all of the "body-less creatures" from getting to the portal, then it is way too easy as none of them ever made it there. I did like the use of light as a weapon, though, and assume that you modified an idea for one of the other possible themes. This was a good recovery if that was the case, or maybe you just came up with ideas that fit multiple themes to begin with. Finally, it was not clear that I could move the camera with the mouse on the edge of the screen. This was not necessary as the entire world fit on the screen at one time and actually led to me not being to see part of the world since I did not realize this at first.
May 1 15:31:06 10h 10m Solar Smash ♥ 2 Nice, enjoyable game. On the WebGL version, at times the line coming from the asteroid seemed a little non-responsive, but overall a very great game. Could maybe have used some music in the background while playing. Nice concept, and it took me a few times to win. The game was fun and made me want to keep playing until I won. I liked the subtle, but effective, cloud effect in the background.
May 1 16:21:20 50m 14s Apophis ♥ 2 What an amazing game! The visuals are stunning and the use of music to build tension is well done. The music was great. I haven't yet managed to stop it on the medium level, but did on easy on the first try. I am curious, though, if this idea came from the Stargate SG-1 episode, Fail Safe (S5E17) where Anubis sent an asteroid to impact Earth or if it is based off the actual asteroid, Apophis (which just happened to be another Goa'uld from SG-1), which had been predicted to collide with Earth on April 13, 2029. Either way, great game! I agree with @khorm, though, that there is little replay value, although I think that until you have beat it on hard, there is some. Perhaps planets with differing gravities that affect the asteroid in unique ways?
May 1 16:34:14 12m 54s Den ♥ 2 I love the art style. It is also an interesting and unique concept. I did notice one spot going up from just before the second base where I wasn't able to go any further and there was no air current indicator there, although there should have been on as you can see when approaching from the opposite direction.
May 1 16:52:20 18m 06s This is Cutopia ♥ 2 Interesting game. I loved the visuals. I think what made the game hard (possible too hard) was a combination of two factors. First, when I wanted to slow down, the car turned around. Second, the carrot gun had a fixed angle. Therefore, if I was headed toward a chicken and about to overshoot, I had to turn around and wait until I was past it to shoot. If I hadn't hit it once on the way by, then I also had to go back the other way to finish it off. I think that removing one of these two limitations would greatly increase the fun of the game. Great game for your first jam. Love to see what you do next!
May 1 17:58:28 1h 06m Realmpusher ♥ 0 This game was well done and interesting. I can only make two suggestions. First, the intro was a bit long. Make it skippable or a button to speed up the text. Second, there were several time that I accidentally pushed two blocks which required me to start the puzzle over. Sometimes, this happened as I was moving my last block into place. Overall, great game. Could very easily be expanded to a large game post jam.
May 1 18:05:54 7m 26s Chill Bill ♥ 1 Not my type of game, but I will look past that. The graphics and sound effects were very well done. There were enough obstacles in the game to keep the player actively engaged with various aspects (energy/stress/etc.) I was never able to buy a Sprite because I either never had enough money or stress got too high first, but that is probably just my lack of skill. I did notice that on several occasions, the enemies walked through the planters next to the Sprite machine while I was not able to. Good entry.
May 1 18:09:32 3m 38s A small world ♥ 2 It was confusing that at the end, I just got a blank screen. I was waiting for more, but nothing ever came... I enjoyed the music, though.
May 1 18:15:25 5m 53s Blackhole Escape INC ♥ 0 Sorry. I downloaded it, and it wouldn't run at all. Not sure why.
May 1 19:03:18 47m 53s For Eternity ♥ 1 I have tried the WebGL, single, and multi-threaded versions. Ironically, the WebGL worked best for me. Both the single and multi-threaded locked up toward the beginning of the game. I had a few farms, some houses, and was building roads when they each locked up. The WebGL version never locked up on me, but I also did not have an extremely large empire like in your screenshots. Also, a little curious why you have a WebGL, Linux, and Windows builds, but not a Mac build. I would have tried it on my MacBook if you had a version for it, which Unity will create for you. I like the graphics style and the sound effects. Appropriate music would be nice. I also noticed that the camels do not animate, but just slide unlike the people. I am sure that you probably used Fuse to create and animate the people, but it doesn't do camels! 😉 This game was quite extensive and well done given the 72 hour limitation that you had. I would like to see a further developed version as this is the type of game that I really like.
May 1 19:19:29 16m 11s Mind's Eye ♥ 1 Interesting take on the theme. I liked the approach and got it right away. It is also an interesting move and combat system that, as others and you have said, could be expanded in the future. I liked (and got) the health system, but I do see how it could be confusing. For some reason, I did not get the sound when I played it in Chrome even though the tab had the speaker on it. I did hear it, though, when I opened it in Firefox. Most likely not your fault.
May 1 20:14:24 54m 55s Mallows World Adventure ♥ 2 Cute and interesting game. I love the detail of the marshmallow, especially when he jumps. It was a very fitting game for the theme. I think that what is leading to the confusion for many is an easy fix. In order to use an item from the inventory, it seems to have to be the item on the right, so I found myself dropping and picking up items in order to rotate them. Perhaps allowing the use of any item or adding a selector for which item is being used would be greatly beneficial. Very well done, though, for 48 hours.
May 1 20:29:37 15m 13s Marco Polo ♥ 3 An interesting game. The use of Marco Polo was an interesting game mechanic, but seemed to not work well. When I was near the escape pod, I got a response. When I was in the hills next to the forest, I got a response. When I was in the forest, well... Also, both Marco and Polo came from only one speaker. It could have been an interesting addition to use positional sound to help indicate the direction the child was in. Also, is the escape pod even fixable? I am also a little confused on your opt outs. Are you opting out of audio or are we just ignoring the music when judging?
May 1 23:58:08 3h 28m Ant Clicker - Ready for your reviews!!! ♥ 1 Interesting concept with a great art style and good ambience. I didn't keep playing all the way through after I got the largest anthill, but what is the challenge? It doesn't seem that there is any way to lose (and maybe not even to win), so what exactly is the challenge. It is interesting at first to do the upgrades, but where do they get me? It just turns in to work after a while.
May 2 00:10:00 11m 52s Little Eco Planet ♥ 1 Good start. I would probably break up the tutorial to show the animals before they are first introduced in a level. This will make it not seem to long but still get the point across as to what needs to be done. Sound would have been nice. Also, I could not seem to find any arrangement that would work for level 3. I am probably missing something somewhere. I could get the monkey and leopard happy, but not the vulture.
May 2 00:19:10 9m 10s rocket ship ♥ 1 The physics are a little touchy on this one as it is difficult to do anything except fly away or crash. There were also very few fuel canisters which were already hard enough to collect. The graphics style was very nice, but it would have been nice to see the planet rotate.
May 2 00:28:48 9m 38s Binary Glitch ♥ 1 Wow! That is one difficult game. I like the concept, but it took me a bit to figure out that I have to keep moving or I will die. I started several times and almost immediately died, so I thought the game was broke. Perhaps ramp up that part of the difficulty or place a disclaimer somewhere. Enjoyed the music even if the game was too hard for me. I can't even get close to the scores that others are mentioning.
May 2 00:37:58 9m 10s Planetary Infestation ♥ 0 First of all, please please please provide a zip of the files. Sharing a dropbox folder with the executable and data files either forces people to copy it to their Dropbox and sync to their computer or download each individual file. Otherwise, interesting game, but challenging. I wish the mouse was used for more than the buttons as space simulation games these days usually use it for much more. I liked the music.
May 2 00:46:58 9m 00s Tetripolis ♥ 2 That is a very interesting take on a city building game. I would have never thought of mixing it with Tetris like you did. Music would have been nice and would have helped to add to the Tetris feel. Graphic style was good and the game was likable and fun. Could be interesting as a mobile game.
May 2 01:17:04 30m 06s Pod2000 ♥ 6 Nice game. The graphics and audio definitely helped to set the mood and were all very relevant to the task at hand. It is an interesting puzzle trying to determine what needed to be built where. Like @samusoidal, I tried to press up for command history, so that would have been a nice feature to add, but that is just being picky. This was very nice work for a weekend!
May 3 05:20:23 28h 03m Higher Ground ♥ 2 I really liked this game. I finished in 47 turns without losing anyone. The game did seem a little easy, but this could easily be a starting level with difficulty ramping up from there. A couple points of feedback: * It would be nice to have a larger window (I played on the Web, so maybe the desktop version is bigger?) * There did not seem much point in adding settlers, so I never did. Perhaps this could also be part of the difficulty ramp-up? * I never did anything but harvest trees and cows, build ladders, and move. What is the point in the other items and actions? I really like the graphics and the audio ambience. Every piece of sound fit well within your theme and added to the mood greatly. Well done!
May 3 05:36:01 15m 38s HexCity ♥ 1 Great start on this game. It is extremely difficult to be able to place a rocket, but I am sure that is the point. It would be interesting to see it developed with multiple maps that have certain score goals and bonuses for objects next to water or other types of tiles as well. I was not able to get a very high score, but might be able to if I gave it more time. Unfortunately, right now, I am just trying to give good feedback to a lot of people. I may come back to it after rating is over, though, to play some more!
May 3 05:59:24 23m 23s Cosmic Cleaner ♥ 3 I love the faces on the planets. This was a very well designed and well thought out game with the planet faces being the icing on the cake. It took me several (read many) tries to get past level 7, but the difficulty seems to scale well. The game contains perhaps some of the best humor that I've seen in the LD38 games yet. (At least in my opinion.) The one thing I might change would be that the movement of the asteroid forward or back to change the up or down seems to ramp up quite quickly. A small change makes a very big difference. Very well done.
May 5 02:06:20 44h 06m It's a Small World, So Let's Crash It into Things ♥ 1 Cool game. Reminds me very much of Solar and Solar 2 but without the gravity effects. It was a bit weird to see planets turning at right angles, so more of a gravity effect might be something to add post jam, but I understand not including it during the jam.
May 5 03:31:42 1h 25m Abaddon ♥ 0 Very well done. I really like the shader effect that you used. The game also ramps well in difficulty as, at first, I am only facing one enemy at a time, but then start getting overwhelmed. This, visually, is likely the most innovative game that I have seen in this LD yet.
May 5 03:40:20 8m 38s The Life Amoebic ♥ 0 I enjoyed this game. The ambience created by the music was perfect and very well done. The one thing I saw was that the amoeba seem to be able to stretch in very weird ways (like back on itself) that just did not seem like they should have been possible. The game was so well done, though, that this is easy to overlook and ignore.
May 5 03:44:54 4m 34s Terraform ♥ 1 Interesting game. The difficulty is way too low, though. I was never in any danger of losing after several days. Also, I'm not sure what the purpose of building the buildings is. They don't protect, allow me to hide, or seem to unlock things, so why am I bothering to gather the resources and build them in the first place. Perhaps this was all planned and there was just no time? I do see the start to something very good here if you continue to build on it.
May 5 03:52:06 7m 12s MF100 - HACK THE JAM (old console emulator) ♥ 2 Pretty cool. Love the music!
May 5 04:03:59 11m 53s Chuck and Bull ♥ 1 Very good start that could develop into something quite strong. Loved the music, it set the mood well. As others have also said, though, I'm not a fan of the "Hot Wife" stuff or her comments. I did like the bull sound when you interacted with him, though.
May 7 05:05:43 49h 01m Starstruck Ducky ♥ 2 Interesting and different game. Not sure why I could not win, though. Had a "splendid" relationship with one of the next to the top ducks and could not get a meeting with the top one. The other one, with which my relationship was "good" wouldn't get me a meeting either. They both said they didn't have anything coming up.