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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Turncoda's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1 08:31:36 | Trials of the Vapor Lattice | ♥ 2 | The a e s t h e t i c of the game is very cool. I love the color/texture/model-minimalism (I suppose it does remind me of PS1 games @thomz12). I do wish the interactivity of the game was more... nuanced. I found myself mashing the shoot button mindlessly. I felt the need to dodge, and I felt like I was mostly successful, but I had no idea if my technique was effective. The fact that I could only sustain 1 hit was a little frustrating, it felt random whether or not I survived an encounter. | |
| Aug 2 03:29:13 | 18h 57m | Ted Crashed! | ♥ 1 | Thank you for making a game! I loved the music, it's a very nice change of pace to hear something acoustic for a jam game. From reading your directions, I could see you put a lot of thought into the rules of the game, but I was pretty confused trying to understand what I was supposed to do, and I never really felt like I was playing deliberately. For example, I pretty much ignored the numbers and resource types and ended up just walking around pressing E on everything. The game doesn't communicate to me what I can and cannot interact with, so I just try pressing E on everything. I would have appreciated if the game itself made it clear what I was looking for, why I need it, and how I can get it. |
| Aug 2 04:11:16 | 42m 03s | Power Planet | ♥ 1 | Awesome game, great job! The music was very cute. I picked up the controls instantly without reading any instructions, which I value very highly in jam games. Slight advantage because I play FPS games frequently, nonetheless, good job on making it intuitive! I generally agree with the consensus that the platforming was hard, but IMO it was pretty fair and consistent. The level design was good, taught me what I needed to know, but it could have been a bit more gentle on the difficult curve 😏 Then again, I learned very quickly that those blob dudes *will* kill you in horrible mob fashion, and I learned to keep my distance. It took me a while 🐛, but I finally figured out I could fly! 🦋 I didn't pick it up from the level design, so I would say you hid this mechanic pretty well! It turns out if you grapple to a grapple point and switch to the blaster-gun while attached, you can hold spacebar and you'll keep going up forever. Note that switching back to the grapple gun removes the flying ability, but you can regain the ability by doing the setup again. The results were fantastic, the moment I realized I could fly was such a fantastic feeling. It felt just like when I played Journey for the first time -- flying (actually, extended jumping) felt so amazing after trudging through the sand for so long. Seriously though, thank you for introducing this bug! 🐞 Please leave it in! It genuinely made my day. I suspect people don't read comments before they play the game 😅 flying.png |
| Aug 3 07:13:00 | 27h 01m | Delivery To The Underpass | ♥ 2 | Loved it! Can't stress enough how much I love a solid ending, even though it was a sad one 😔 Interactive set pieces like that one are hard to get right in games, and I think you executed it elegantly. I got lost and ran into dead ends quite often, which made my experience somewhat frustrating, but I managed to persevere and try different routes to move forward. I think what happened was that the camera and the size of the level made it so that I was sort of running around blind, and so I had to put my trust in the level. Unfortunately the level design broke my trust fairly often by leading me to dead ends with no reward, which felt somewhat unfair and frankly was a waste of time. The quick restart button helps a little bit, and I can see why you put it in, but it made me feel like I was cheating by using it. I really appreciate the level of detail in the music 🎵, it was the element of the game that really nailed the mood for me. You set out to achieve a goal and I think you hit your mark! Great work! |
| Aug 3 07:36:48 | 23m 48s | Stargust | ♥ 2 | Really cool idea for mechanics. I loved the depth introduced by the dual-purposes of rain and wind. It kinda reminds me of playing Starcraft, just because everything needs my attention all the time and I can't keep up. It's a good feeling, but usually I can overcome it with enough practice. Didn't really have the patience for that in this game, unfortunately. A big limiting factor is that moving around is so slow, and it's the only way to get anything done. This is just personal preference, but I wish I could perform actions as fast as I can think of them, but the nature of the gameplay forces me to do one thing at a time. Love the cloud, looks so floofy ☁️ |
| Aug 3 08:02:12 | 25m 24s | Rocket Rescue | ♥ 1 | The jetpack is really hard to control. The level design was good, it made sure I had to truly master the mechanics before I could beat the level. Given the high difficulty spike and the janky jetpack movement, I eventually just got frustrated and gave up. The music is cute though, has personality. |
| Aug 4 06:34:05 | 22h 31m | ZapDune | ♥ 2 | Wow, this game's attention to detail is incredible! I love the jumping animation, I can tell that someone put a lot of work into that! I wish fixing the turrets had some kind of audio cue or more obvious visual feedback, because I do it so often. I especially look for when the turret is completely healed up, because that's when I have to stop clicking and start going to the next destination. Speaking of which, minor nit, but I feel like I was spam clicking quite a bit (or spam-pressing in the case of spacebar), and the fact that my click location didn't matter threw me off. I personally would have enjoyed it much more if repairing was automatic when I got near a turret. Don't make me spam click! 😤 Great job on making it feel really good to move around! Aside from my muscle memory telling me to use spacebar to jump, moving around was a joy. The level was well-designed such that I had many places to grapple onto. I do wish there were more areas where it actually makes more sense to just jump without using the grappling hook. I like jumping! I want to do it more! But grappling really is the superior movement tactic by far, even though it's less interesting to me than jumping. The music was good, but maybe a little too intense for me 😅 Great job overall, keep at it everyone! 👏 |
| Aug 4 08:37:25 | 2h 03m | Gastric Hell | ♥ 1 | The atmosphere in this game is spot-on. The player character is very charming, I love it! The first time I ran into a monster, I was genuinely scared by the sound effect 😰 When I tried playing again, I was fully engaged, flicking my light around as I slowly inched my way around. The monster AI is simple but effective. I love that I can walk somewhere, reach a dead end, turn around, and there stands a monster, frozen in place, that I was about to walk into. This may be underappreciated, but the fact that the game is actually very beatable is refreshing for me, having played many LD games that just become ridiculously hard to the point where it feels unfair. Once I figured out my strategy, I felt like I was in control, but I still had to play carefully. Loved the music by the way, my favorite is the end-screen guitar loop 🎵 Reminds me of the Dwarf Fortress tune, which I really liked. When I finally found the marble, I heard the sound effect again, but this time it was in a positive context, so it felt kind of like I had conquered my fears 😤 Super solid game, awesome work. |
| Aug 5 17:06:09 | 32h 28m | Lamplight | ♥ 1 | It's an all-around solid entry, from the music to the art to the well-tuned gameplay, and I know that's hard to achieve in the compo, so great job! 👏 Amazing work on the enemy AI, it felt fair and, once I got the hang of it, I felt like I could outsmart and outmaneuver them, which feels really good. I get the feeling that you iterated on the enemy behavior before settling on the final version. Or maybe you're just really experienced and you nailed the AI first try 😉 My favorite thing to do in this game is to guess where the ghost might be based on the trail. It feels really good when I guess right. Sometimes, I won't be able to line up the shot because of the hex grid, and on the plus side that means I have to move *then* shoot, adding some uncertainty to the equation. But it feels like the hex grid limits the player's options arbitrarily because of the "blind spots" and I wonder if there are alternative ways to retain the same mechanics but in a less limiting movement system 🤔 For example, you could look at the turn-based combat in Transistor, where movement is on a continuous plane and you can use your abilities on enemies as long as they're in range. It would be interesting to see this system applied in game like yours where the information is limited and you have to take a literal shot in the dark. Again, I'm really impressed with how playable this game is. Good to see you at it again @wheffle, hope to see you again next time! |
| Aug 6 19:34:29 | 26h 28m | air mail | ♥ 0 | I loved that flying feels so great. Walking is slow, driving on the ground has bad turning, but flying in the air feels fantastic! I see that as a very deliberate, calculated choice and I really appreciate that, I wouldn't change a thing about it. The flying mechanic is very elegantly designed. Staying in the air requires watching my height (in my mind, equivalent to my shadow distance) and making sure my engine sound is loud enough (wow, 👂 feedback!), while also looking at the edges of the screen to see if the person I'm looking for is on the horizon (I quickly learned that it's very easy to overshoot your destination, so looking very far ahead was my way of making sure I landed as close as possible). I love that pulling-up is a method of braking as well as a way to gain height, which makes total sense and also happens to be a beautiful dual-purpose mechanic here 😄 Took me a replay to notice this, but I like that the soundscape changes when you're in the air, it's a very, very nice touch that serves to accentuate the difference flying makes, at a level most people don't consciously notice (I certainly didn't, until I tried the game again with a more critical ear). All of these things make me come to appreciate flying, both as a player and a game designer. I've played a fair share of Ludum Dare games this time around, and I saw a lot of designs that tried to use the fuel+refuel paradigm as a central mechanic. In some of the games I played, it was a little annoying and perhaps a little shoehorned. I think you've done it elegantly here in a way that is not annoying and actually serves the purpose of accentuating flying. Props to a thoughtful theme incorporation! 👏 I learned a lot while delivering mail too. First I tried driving on the ground only, but that's when I realized that flying makes it much easier to turn. But flying requires high speed! So I had to learn how to take off (gently 😉), and once I got the hang of it, I felt like a real air mail pilot, like I always wanted to be. I also noticed (maybe a little too late) that the mail was color-coded. What a nice little detail! I guess that's a reminder to me that some things that might seem obvious aren't always immediately apparent from the player's perspective. The aesthetic says to me that the creator is experienced and has deliberately presented a cohesive experience, something I cannot often say for Ludum Dare games. That is essentially what drew me to this game, and I was pleasantly surprised to find substance behind it. I loved the game so much that I actually delivered all the mail and got my paycheck! I decided to fly around with it to celebrate, but I realized afterwards I could have given it to my favorite person, but I didn't manage to have time to do that before the game ended 😞 |
| Aug 6 21:19:56 | 1h 45m | The Last Miner | ♥ 1 | Lots of random thoughts: Great use of dual-purpose mechanics! Clicking moves you around, clears a path, increases light temporarily, and drains fuel. Put together with the bounciness of the ship, it certainly makes for some interesting decisionmaking. Trying to go fast by going ham on the thrusters actually ends up making you slower due to the cramped nature of the level and the bouncy-ness of the ship. Did you consider making the glow-things visible when the area is not illuminated by the player? I wonder what that would be like 🤔 After a couple of attempts I developed a technique of pinning myself against a wall in a narrow space and blasting away a big chunk of terrain. Being able to develop higher-level strats is a cool feeling! Cool menu theme, I sat there for a good minute listening to what you had put together. Very nice title screen art! Solid entry. Gonna get back to improving my high score now 🕹 |
| Aug 8 02:24:53 | 29h 04m | The Fading Spirit | ♥ 2 | Things I liked: - Great feedback on taking damage and landing a shot - Feels great to move around - Hitboxes are just right! - Level of challenge is perfect for me. Difficult, but with a reasonable amount of practice I managed to beat the game, and game felt fair enough to keep trying. - Enemy AI are predictable in different ways (good thing!) - Lovely animation, music and overall art direction I never used the dash. Maybe that's my playstyle, but I don't see much benefit in dashing just because normal movement is so fast already, and the dash seems harder to handle. Perhaps if there were enemies that could be stunned by dashing, or if dashing gave you some kind of combat advantage/buff (see Hyper Light Drifter or McCree from Overwatch). There were many times that I defeated all of the enemies in the room and got ready to collect my reward, only to accidentally exit the room because I was standing near a door when I killed the last enemy, despawning all my hard-earned ectoplasm(?) A minor annoyance, as I developed the habit of staying away from the doors when I got down to the last enemy, which actually made combat more interesting! Well done on sticking to the theme. The green-flame bar is integrated very well into the game, and made me consider my shots carefully. It's easy to make a game annoying to play because of that kind of pressure, but here it's very well-balanced, and the fast restart-time probably helps a lot. Overall a solid game, I had fun playing! |
