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Feedback comments for LD38
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | ArmchairArmada's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 04:43:52 | Diminishing Lands | ♥ 1 | Not bad as a 2D platformer. The shrinking platforms are a compelling concept. I liked the "collect coins to go to the next level" objective. I'm concerned about the fact that it's difficult to predict where the platforms will appear next. Sure, the faded out platforms is supposed to inform that, but the platforms we're on top of isn't colored differently, so I have no idea if a platform will disappear below my character's feet or not. The wall jumping controls were a bit fickle as well, not always jumping vertically upwards as much as expected. Also, the platforms appearing on top of coins are a bit rude. | |
| May 2 22:44:46 | 42h 00m | Angry Worlds | ♥ 1 | Yikes, nearly impossible enemies and easy soft-locks makes it hard to appreciate this game. I could not figure out how to fight against the star enemies, and if I end up right under them (which is often), they end up locking my character's position and the character never dies. A shame because the controls are great, and the initial level design is solid. It provides the controls clearly, and allows the player to practice and learn each new game element in a safe manner. If I didn't have the aforementioned issues and be able to progress beyond the 2nd level, I think I would have enjoyed the game a lot more. |
| May 2 23:01:32 | 16m 46s | A Perfectly Lovely Expedition | ♥ 3 | A bit of a simple trading quest game, I see. I enjoyed resolving the cryptic clues about which item to use on which object. That cross was a bit of a red-herring. Anyway, while the Day/Night cycle is really cool, I'm not sure it added much to the game. If anything, it felt like I had to wait for certain area to unlock for seemingly no reason. I wasn't a fan either of your character disappearing to create a new item. |
| May 3 00:11:00 | 1h 09m | littleBLASTplanet | ♥ 1 | I like the general theme of the game, and the controls feel fine. It's hard to tell, however, how the enemies affect the planet, and more importantly, how much health the planet has left. This is made especially infuriating with the bouncing screws that moves far too quickly to aim at properly, and an aiming control system that doesn't allow for precision. I did discover that holding down the shoot button makes the game much more easier. At the same time, though, it sort of falls into the other extreme: too easy. It looked like I would kill airborne enemies before they're even spawned. I'm not really sure that was intended, and the fact that there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between these two difficulty dampers the experience. |
| May 3 00:26:14 | 15m 14s | Your Planet: Too Big | ♥ 1 | Not bad. There's something satisfying about the camera zooming in as the planet shrinks. I also found the physics to be pretty cool, especially levels that require timing the bombs so the panels touch each other properly. I do think the game gets a bit too difficult at the end. This isn't helped by the fact that the tile movements are not always predictable, making is easy to miscalculate a move. |
| May 3 00:50:50 | 24m 36s | Land of the Sun | ♥ 1 | Huh, had a lot more fun than I expected. I really liked the variety of boss pattern that integrated with the environment layout. The aiming mechanic, on the other hand, I wasn't a fan of, and the floaty jump really took some time to get used to. The last boss didn't appear fair: it would have helped if the pits were visually indicative of being safe spots on one of its attacks. |
| May 3 07:45:45 | 6h 54m | Tooth decay | ♥ 3 | To be honest, I have a hard time comprehending how to progress further into the game. Based on Mr. Driller premise, my original assumption was to hit the largest connection of blocks, but that didn't help me get further significantly. Aiming for candy did, especially when drilling right or left, but there simply wasn't enough to reach very far into the game. Could use help being a little more easier, at least in the beginning. |
| May 4 19:53:16 | 36h 07m | Mind's Eye | ♥ 1 | The turn-based aspect of the game reminds me a lot of the airship battles from Skies of Arcadia...and that's a good thing! I really like the step-by-step assigning of instructions that really makes you think through what you're supposed to do next. I thought the direction the character is facing was redundant, given that the direction they're walking towards imply the player wants to face that direction, and you can't walk past enemies anyways. I also didn't see the point of don't-attack command. |
| May 5 02:15:03 | 6h 21m | Skylands | ♥ 5 | Got through all the levels, most of it with no problem. Had lots of fun! Puzzle games are my jam, after all. Saw a lot of polish from the user-experience perspective. While I was able to comprehend most things, the things I struggled to discover were destroying tiles, and the sunflower tile ability (at least initially). For the former, some sort of right-click prompt on a specific tile, as well as the left-click to indicate how to create a tile, would have been nice. For the latter, it would have been nice to see that tile contrast with the normal tiles to make the distinction of what it does more clearly. Also, the lack of zoom-out to plan your course of action really dampers the experience, and it would have been nice to have a history of undos so you don't have to restart the level all the time. I personally didn't like the mouse controls only allowing the player to move to tiles directly adjacent to the character. Path-finding to the proper location would have been a lot nicer. Arrow keys would work pretty well as well. Didn't have any problems, otherwise. |
| May 6 00:53:43 | 22h 38m | Booster's Day Out | ♥ 1 | While the gravity physics are great, I would have liked more finer control on rotating the ship. Rather than letting the rotation of the ship left to the physics engine, it would have been nice if the player had full control over rotation, e.g. letting go of A and D will keep the rocket the same angle as it was left before. |
| May 6 01:34:02 | 40m 19s | Super Collapse Guy | ♥ 1 | Given how buggy *Fez* was, I really appreciate the lack of bugs in this game. Although, the fact that there was only one shape for platforms makes me suspect some shortcuts were being taken. That said, I did find one: when the world is flattened, walk under a solid platform so the character is unable to jump. Bring perspective back to the game, and the player will still not be able to jump, even if there's only air above the character's head. I also appreciate the open-ended nature of the game mechanic and the level design. It's really difficult to add unintended shortcuts in the game, which this game does nicely (managed to skip a third of level 3 with clever crushing angles). Great job! P.S. Also reminded me a lot of *Crush*! |
| May 7 19:01:00 | 41h 26m | Asymmetry | ♥ 2 | An interesting concept, basing timescale and player size on the coordinate they're on. I did find myself moving around to my advantage often. Liked the pacing of the game, but when enemy size is also affected by coordinates, it makes it hard to tell the difference between bullets and enemies. |
| May 8 02:34:31 | 7h 33m | Nucleu | ♥ 1 | Got to the end reveal where... **!!!Spoilers!!!** It turns out the whole thing took place in a candle. I *really* like what you've put together here! Oddly enough, I think I had more fun with the game not knowing what to do than with: it took me a while to figure out the mouse was the way to control the character, and the mouse button did anything. Nonetheless, the building music was a fantastic way to indicate the user progress was being made. The simplicity of the graphics really helped emphasize the clues on what you're supposed to do as well. Great job! P.S. Hmm...maybe comments should have spoiler features. |
| May 8 08:20:33 | 5h 46m | A Growing Adventure | ♥ 1 | I found the ability to choose when to fight an enemy, and when to stop the progress, recoup the loss, and continue the fight later to be the most compelling advantage to this game's formula. Not to mention the excitement of finding new land, and the mystery behind each of them. I admit that I'm astonished by the amount of content added into the game. The lack of an ending and background music is a minor disappointment. Also got stuck in the end-game where there was no possible way for me to defeat one of the soldiers: I ran out of gold to collect. So balancing seems to be an issue. It is a bit slow-paced, and I'm not really sure adding a timer for a tile to reveal was all that useful, especially the normal world tiles. Would have appreciated shorter time set on those. Overall, great job! |
| May 8 08:33:19 | 12m 46s | LD38 - Big Dreams | ♥ 2 | I did like the toy-aesthetic of the game, as well as the music. In regards to the actual gameplay, though, I felt the enemy AI was too erratic to find fun in. As mentioned above, a lot of the actions the player takes doesn't feel like they have weight to them, likely due to the lack of juice. It would be more satisfying if the enemies had some sort of effect when they die besides just a single sound effect playing, and same story for getting hit. As probably an early game for a few team members, I do think it's a great start. I think more can be done, though, to create a more satisfying experience. |
| May 8 08:46:33 | 13m 14s | Feed The Anthill | ♥ 3 | That wasn't too bad for a game about simulating ants. Had a pretty cool Pikmin vibe to it. I do think the tank controls are a hindrance, and the objects blocking your path seemed rather unfair. The sound effects are adorable, though. |
| May 10 23:45:05 | 62h 58m | Smalltrek | ♥ 1 | For a simple sliding puzzle game, I had a lot more fun than I expected. I really thought the ship as part of the puzzle was a smart decision. And the rules on each alien compliments the gameplay really well. The writing is pretty adorable, too. It would have been nice if the description of the Diversity-loving alien was clarified a little more. It didn't strike to me until later that in reality, they need at least 3 sides of them surrounded by some sort of creature. Overall, great work! |
| May 11 00:54:13 | 1h 09m | A Smaller World | ♥ 0 | Noooo! It ended with a cliff-hanger! 😜 The lack of choice is an interesting decision. Definitely made me feel less in control, and made the dark ending feel inevitable. |
| May 11 01:06:47 | 12m 34s | Timeless | ♥ 1 | Had a bit of fun with this dimension-hopping game. Some of those levels were nasty hard, but I've managed to make it to the end. I do like the fade-ins in the situation the character is unable to swap to the different time. That really helped figure out the timing and where to go in regards to the next location. At the same time, since your character barely hops, any platformer-like sections ended up being more difficult than necessary. Some level designs also felt downright unfair. That said, I did manage to get all the apples, so I obviously enjoyed it to some extent. |
| May 15 17:54:15 | 112h 47m | Run, U Fool! | ♥ 1 | I personally found the color-door concept to be the most intriguing part of the experience. The parts where you provide a fork in the path, blocked by 3 doors is something I really liked, especially compared to the monotonous "you're being chased" corridor sections. Personally, I think 3 colors may have been too much, and it would have helped reduce it to just 2. It would have been really cool to see split-second button puzzles that would involve changing the colored doors, too. A couple of other annoyances I encountered were the relative slowness of how the character traveled. It didn't feel very fast. Furthermore, I would have liked it if the collider on the floor dropped out towards the tail-end of the crumbling animation, rather than the beginning. Some levels would have appeared more fair with this slight change in coding. Don't forget to add sound effects, either! |
| May 16 03:25:25 | 9h 31m | Calor | ♥ 1 | What a ridiculously complex game...that I had some of the most fun with! To me, the hex battle by fair was some of the most entertaining turn-based battles I went through. The 3-lane attack/defense portion, combined with a simple line puzzle was really fun to plan and execute. The planet turning aspect of things wasn't nearly as fun. I found trying to manage the supply stuff to stay on the sunny side a bit cumbersome, and the seeming randomness of the solar flares didn't help. I get the reasoning behind those 2 mechanics: you need to get the player to encourage them to move the planet around somehow, and have some sort of sacrifice to come with it. Ultimately, though, I felt like the level of randomness made an already-complex system that much more frustrating. That said, I did get a hang of both things, and even managed to farm a good chunk of supplies before besting the final boss, so I clearly had fun to play it all the way to the end. |
| May 16 03:57:05 | 31m 40s | Dwelling | ♥ 1 | Welp, after trying the take method, I gave up life and just tried to make really easy platforms for myself. Ended up sacrificing 9 lives. It's an interesting trend to see yet another self-sacrifice game from you. I think compared to the "You are the monster" game, this stood out more visually and the decision making was more clear. That said, the added simplicity also makes it easy to make lazy decisions like I did. In that sense, I question whether that diminishes the impact of the game. I just felt like lives were so cheap in this game to not have the sense of sacrifice. |
| May 16 04:12:48 | 15m 43s | Samhain: Fly Away Home | ♥ 3 | The art is really nice, but holy cow is flutter utterly broken. I think I was able to blow past the entire game by holding the up arrow key and fluttering past everything 4 or 5 times to get to the end. I mean, it's an awesome feeling to blow past what looks like an otherwise difficult game (the controls felt slippery to me, otherwise), but...I'm not sure it was all that intentional. It made it too easy to skip the cave entirely and make the game background sky-only. |
| May 20 03:18:17 | 95h 05m | Transistor Soup | ♥ 0 | I found drawing transistors to be very difficult. Placing a inverter on top of a wire does not invert the wire, even though it looks visually the same as a properly connected inverter. These small UI missteps really destroys my enjoyment of the game. |