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Feedback comments for LD40
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Flaterectomy's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 5 10:37:45 | Hiyek's Ludum Dare 40 Submission - Swami Shooter PT | ♥ 1 | The take on the theme is pretty interesting, but I felt that it didn't have much effect in-game. I could avoid enemies pretty well and circle back around to the purple square whether I had absorbed positive or negative vibes. Definitely a take that could do with a narrative, it has potential in that regard. I do wonder what the enemies would actually *be* in order for them to get zapped by the swami's mind-bullets. I read your notes, you seem to have a good grasp on what was lacking due to the time constraints. Obviously having coloured squares as enemies/NPC gives the game a very prototype-feel. My own pet peeve I often run into in jam games is the scaling inconsistencies of art assets. You have very a zoomed-in background, but a *relatively* high-definition main character. Is it me or has that one been scaled x1.5 or close to it? It looks a little deformed. The enemies spawning at the top just clustered up on that ledge and remainder there. I didn't need to worry about them at all. I also didn't get hear sounds, but the page allows me to vote for audio so I am not sure whether the sounds simply didn't play. Overall, you've finished a playable game for your first jam, so congrats! I hope my comments were helpful. Good luck on its future development. 😄 | |
| Dec 5 10:54:57 | 17m 12s | Cats are assholes | ♥ 0 | Hah, as before you've delivered a complete and polished game. The art is top-notch. As we speak, my grandson is watching TV while my cats are mauling my dead body in the next room. You seem to know how to get *game feel* just right. The music is solid, and the sound effects are cute. The one frustrating thing was something taking my money and I couldn't figure out what it was, resulting in a number of trips with cash in hand to the phone, but then not enough to buy new items by the time I'd arrived. All in all, excellent work! |
| Dec 5 16:37:58 | 5h 43m | The lost strawberry | ♥ 1 | Good job, this is a great low-fi little platformer. A very smart angle to take on the jam, because this way you can create a complete package that's enjoyable. I personally suck at these types of platformers, so I couldn't get very far. 😂 The only thing I would have liked was a slower ramp-up in difficulty, specifically because I am not very good at these games, but overall I think I caught on fairly quickly still. Nice one! |
| Dec 5 18:45:53 | 2h 07m | Space Overflow | ♥ 2 | A basic but clear concept that could profit from some more varied actions for the player to take. The balance between purchase options and cookie-clicking the crystals made things feel a little stale after a while. When the player actions aren't enticing, you can still keep attention with a strong achievements/progression system. The music is pretty atmospheric, but I wish you had some nice juicy sound effects to guide the player. The graphics are all scaled differently, which is a pet peeve of mine. I don't mean to sound overly critical, I just think there's potential here to make this pretty interesting, but for that it needs a little more work. Good effort! |
| Dec 5 18:59:01 | 13m 08s | Space Matters | ♥ 0 | A fairly clear concept, though I had to accidentally fly over the asteroid debris to figure out picking them up made me money. :D I am not sure whether I like the awkward movement or not. The game became a *lot* easier when I found out the best strategy is to fly into the center of an asteroid and blow it up from here so you automatically pick up a lot of debris. I stopped when I got a score of around 34k because there was not much of a challenge remaining after I figure that tactic out. Sound effects for firing, explosions and pickups would have made the process a lot more visceral. The art is basic, but works. Unfortunately there's differently scaled sprites (the same asteroid scaled up and down), which is a pet peeve of mine. If you look at the games I've rated, you'd notice I keep having to say that. :D A solid foundation for a game, I just wish there was a little more of it to play. Nice one! |
| Dec 5 19:11:51 | 12m 50s | Unicorn Fart Jam | ♥ 0 | Well it's quirky! :D Unfortunately I can only play it by myself, but I like the idea. The controls felt a little awkward, and I wish there was an in-game way that explains the controls, but I got used to them as I maneuvered around the area. The art is cute, the intro sets the tone, and the sound effects help sell the concept well. Nice one! I ran into one bug using the web verison: The body of the cow in blue was offset. https://i.imgur.com/dLmNvH2.jpg |
| Dec 5 19:27:01 | 15m 10s | Sam Snow | ♥ 1 | The art style is quite cute! The main character is very nicely drawn. I feel the walking animation could do with some more up-and-down motion as he steps forward. Since you're wanting to continue work on the game, I'd suggest a start-jump animation and a landing animation as well, to make movement fun and feel right. I think the current jumps feel a little too floaty. I was playing the web version so I also got the weird cyan shape glitch. Like @avavt I had to read the instruction on the webpage to learn how to play, which is a shame. Right now the fireball combat feels a little stale. Also, how can he control fireballs? He's just a young boy. I crave lore! :D Nice work! |
| Dec 5 20:22:05 | 55m 04s | Feathers | ♥ 2 | This is odd, I'm finding it considerably more difficult to critique a story than most other kinds of games. The story had a solid arc, building tension and eventually resolving. I do kind of wish there was more agency to the choices given along the way, I played through them in different ways and they didn't impact the story significantly. Good job writing from the Harpy's point of view though, it felt a little alien (in a good way) and I felt emotions for them! |
| Dec 5 20:51:13 | 29m 08s | The Precarious Balance | ♥ 1 | Listen, I don't want to go back to school. There are reasons why I prefer adult life to school life. Why are you making me relive this?! 😝 It's a fun concept and trying to balance activities kept me going back a few times until I managed to make it 24 days. A game like this could hold my attention for longer if it had juicy feedback effects. Clear up-and-downs of scores, different sound effects, etc. I was confused when certain deadlines would pass - is it just the next day? The art is minimal, but good use of mouseover information made everything pretty clear. (Except the procrastination bit, that could've used a mention in-game.) The sound started getting on my nerves a little after a while - repeated sharp clanky noises that they are. A softer tone would have helped there. All in all, nice one! 😁 |
| Dec 5 21:18:37 | 27m 24s | LD40 Compo: The Greed Run | ♥ 3 | This was a cute little platformer. Nice use of varying movement options with the different items you can buy. Hell is pretty capitalist. 😆 It took me a while, but after some time I found the end. The sticky floor thing was a little annoying, but I jumped my way out of it. What we learned at LD39 where we also made a platformer named Artax is that we should have added a small grace period after you leave the edge of the platform where you can still jump. It's a commonly used technique in platformers, and it avoids a lot of frustration. 😉 The art is very basic. My first suggestion would be to not use that much grey in your palette. The music started getting on my nerves pretty quickly. All in all, it looks like a first platformer, and plays better than one! |
| Dec 7 10:21:42 | 37h 03m | Work Master | ♥ 0 | I am a little at a loss, as I had a hard time figuring out what to do. After a minute of reading the instructions on the webpage in here in the comments, but I couldn't figure out what to do with the computer on the right. A (brief) tutorial and overview of controls would have helped a lot. Right now I am fighting a progress bar and that's not exciting to me as a player. Once the game ends, clicking [OK] doesn't restart the game. If a player gets frustrated and is wondering whether they want to try it again, having an easy reset will greatly increase the chance they' will. The art looks pretty cute, a nicely classic style. I Would have opted to do the progress bar area in the same style/palette though. The music fits the visuals and while repetitive it doesn't get on my nerves. 😄 Also, I am not sure what I do wrong sometimes, but I click the correct key to match the pointing hand, yet it still gives the error sound and resets. I am using the web client on Firefox. |
| Dec 7 10:42:36 | 20m 54s | Catdventure | ♥ 0 | A cute kitten game! The mechanics pretty easy to understand within several seconds. The bouncing made the game a little more complicated, but in a good way. I kind of wish there were several levels with different setups though. The kittens rolling around helplessly was funny. I wish you didn't use the E key for grabbing the cats, though. Spacebar would've felt a lot more comfortable to me. And sometimes pressing E when the indicator comes up doesn't result in a successful grab. It's a smart move recolouring the kittens when they are grabbed. I am starting to sound like a broken record in my comments on games in general this Ludum Dare, but I am not a fan of scaling sprites differently in a game. There is a clear difference between the player cat, the kittens, and even the Mona Lisa in the background. If the scaling was consistent, the game's visual style immediately becomes a lot more uniform. The colour scheme also has room for improvement, as red, yellow, brown and peach are all on the same small side of the colour wheel. Another inconsistency is the anti-aliasing around the black opening of the nest, while the other outlines in the game have no anti-aliasing at all. Using the webclient on Firefox I also lost the top of the screen: https://i.imgur.com/6tp4Dj4.jpg The music is cute and doesn't get too repetitive. I wish there were sound effects for dropping off a kitten in the nest, picking them up, them escaping your grasp and for jumping. That would've added a lot of character to the game. All in all a fun little game that would've only needed a few more superficial tweaks to really feel crisp. I hope my comments are of use to you. 😄 |
| Dec 7 10:58:50 | 16m 14s | Heavy Hearts | ♥ 1 | A simple and cute concept! The only thing for me is that it lacked a challenge, as it was pretty simple to avoid enemies and pop their balloons. A difficulty ramp-up would also have helped as the choice to take just a few or more hearts didn't really matter much. The art is cute, maybe the colours are a little too saturated across the board. The home sprite at the top clearly needed some more love. 😉 The music eventually got on my nerves a bit, and the voice sound effects gave me a chuckle. Obviously, a fart noise was needed for flying. 😛 All in all, a nice cute entry! |
| Dec 7 11:13:52 | 15m 02s | Speed Journey | ♥ 1 | A clear concept, but damn this was unforgiving. 😄 I think my biggest gripe, however, isn't the difficulty but the fact that I had to lift my hands off the keyboard to do a mouseclick on [try again] to restart each time. In order to progress (since you cannot clearly see the path ahead sometimes) you *need* to die sometimes so you learn how to jump that gap, and having to change controller each time felt a little frustrating. The hitbox on the rainbow seems a little harsh as well. I'd suggest a hitbox that's actually a little smaller than the rainbow itself, so I as a player am more likely to think "wow, I only *just* made that jump" rather than "oh come on, I didn't even touch it!" 😉 The art is sickly sweet in palette here and there, but that seems suitable for a rainbow world. The music felt a little creepy in contrast though. I'd have expected something more cheerful. Good job on delivering your first LD game! |
| Dec 7 11:49:20 | 35m 28s | Attack of the Elvis | ♥ 2 | A pretty clear and simple tower defense game. Like others, it took some clicking to activate camera rotation. It also looks like the guns default to aiming at (maybe) the world original when they aren't firing, which appears to be below ground? The main turret also seemed to fire into the sky for some reason, rather than at the Elvis swarm. I thought I was being clever by placing my turrets on top of the walls so they wouldn't get damaged by the Army of Elvis. But then they disappeared anyway. Much of the enjoyment for me in these games is building a clever defensive base, so having it just time out felt like a shame. I really would have liked a couple more sound effects. The main turret getting damaged could have used a sound, small turrets timing out could have used one. All the things you don't necessarily see from your position, basically. (And for character, the Elvis should of course make a typical uh-huh-huh sound. 😛) Also, in the main menu I checked my controls, and the way back to the main menu was called [quit], which was confusing. 😉 Overall a good job for first-time programming! I hope my comments are helpful. |
| Dec 7 19:14:41 | 7h 25m | Re:Tileation | ♥ 3 | This is a good solid platformer. At first I expected the bullets to bounce reliably rather than actually get fired directly back at the player, which was frustrating for a minute or two, but once I put my expectations aside I simply avoided shooting whenever possible. In this regard you have the same mechanic we have in our game: shooting more makes it harder for you. 😄 The art is very good, the controls feel crisp, and I especially enjoyed the music. It sounds like a proper retro theme, and it's still earworming around my head now that I stopped playing. Kudos! Very good entry, I'm glad I played it! |
| Dec 8 19:04:01 | 23h 49m | Shadow and Planet | ♥ 0 | I Just tried to run the game, but for me the .exe still doesn't seem to work. |
| Dec 8 19:22:52 | 18m 51s | Boat&Friends | ♥ 0 | A fun little physics game, but it seems to lack a little bit of incentive to try and do well. Simply arriving with a higher number of supplies didn't excite me, so I started playing with the physics instead pretty quickly. The people before me all seem to have covered the rest of my feedback already. More variation in cargo sizes and weights, bigger waves/weather type, etc. I'm glad to read you're going to continue with it. The art is pretty solid. It's a simple but elegant way of simulating water. The crates appear to be scaled differently than the rest though, which is a pet peeve I always point out when I see it. 😉 Nice one! |
| Dec 8 19:51:30 | 28m 38s | Rich in Space | ♥ 0 | Hah, this is pretty fun. 😄 I made a total of 272591.60 money and then I hadn't noticed the pirates had access to some vital early-placed connectors, and most of my base collapsed as two of those were destroyed. Like @deathray said, a zooming ability would've been nice. I do wish the intro explanation was a separate menu option so I don't have to sit through it again. The graphics are good, but feel a little *fullbright* so if you were to continue developing it, that's where I look for polish. The music felt a little random and didn't really suited the theme of the game, but I am glad there was something there in order to avoid a constant repetition of sound effects - which were pretty good bye the way. Overall a pretty fun entry! |
| Dec 9 11:12:19 | 15h 20m | Grooblins! | ♥ 1 | Hah, that took a turn. 😄 It's a very nice Tamagochi turns Lovecraftian kinda blend. I would've loved it if the story branched off in different ways. Visually, I have to point out my dislike for differently scaled artwork. Especially when something is scaled up, let's say, 1.5x you get these 2 pixel/1 pixel size inconsistencies. It's a pet peeve of mine that I can't help but point out each time I see it. (I've seen it a *lot* this jam too.) The contrast between the pastel colour scheme of the interface/background and the black-and-white Grooblins is a little harsh. The pastels are a nice scheme though. The audio sounds a little like someone twisted the *gain* knob to 11; there's quite a bit of distortion on the sounds. I wondered if it was intentional, given the subject matter. It would work if it starts off clean but slowly becomes more distorted as you play, but preferably without the shrill distress on the higher frequencies, cause I had to turn down the volume on my headset considerably. All in all, a clever and creative take on the theme and a fun entry! |
| Dec 9 11:29:06 | 16m 47s | Keep It Simple Stupid Bang Bang | ♥ 0 | Nice to see the different approach to the bullet-bouncing idea that we also had--as you said in our game's comments. I quite enjoyed your take. It makes sense as the player can move off-screen in the same way to emerge on the other side, so it blends well with the core of the game. The 2D art is very good, I love the octopus-boss. Though I am usually not a big fan of scaling, it works well enough if you don't scale up but only down, as you did here. One point of concern for me is that, while the other ship assets all look like they could be top-down views, the octopus is clearly a rotating side-view. I can't fault you too much, because the sprite itself is badass. 😄 I would've loved some visual damage feedback (bright white or red flashing of the sprite being the standard method). The sound effects are a little shrill. There's room for improvement with some equalizing and balancing. The sounds themselves are pretty suitable, though. Nice one! |
| Dec 9 11:38:39 | 9m 33s | Cats Them All! | ♥ 1 | A simple but effective idea, with great art to boot! The horrid mess the cats leave on the ground is a nice contrast to the otherwise cute look. 😄 A nice set of upgrades to keep things interesting as well. Sounds are solid as well. Sometimes it looked like I would catch the falling cat on my elbow, and then it simply passed through and got smushed on the ground. That was sad. Additionally, keyboard controls would've made character control feel less floaty for me. A solid entry, nice work! |
| Dec 9 11:50:40 | 12m 01s | Diet Time | ♥ 1 | Hah, a well executed, fun concept here. I quite like the art. The grey bar at the bottom with the black-and-white for and knife icon contrast a bit with the otherwise colourful scheme, which is a shame. I scored a 93. 😄 Like others (including you yourself) said before me, chewing and other sound effects would have been great. But the music is a good audio backdrop. Also, sometimes I had quite a bit of trouble picking up food and getting it to actually drop in the right spot. A very charming game, good work! |
| Dec 9 12:50:18 | 59m 38s | Muldulamulom | ♥ 1 | Well you certainly nailed a cool-looking art style here. The yellow and purple are an excellent use of complementary contrast, and the designs are very solid. Creepy and trippy! I would often get a little stuck on small bits of geometry though, or would slide off the edge of a platform when I was too close to it, which was frustrating at times. I only managed to get the boots and the sword, then I was lost, even with your instruction on the page. I think I was meant to go west at a certain point, but couldn't manage to jump over a spike. The sound effects, while minimalistic, are pretty good. And yay for save points. 😄 Nice job! |
| Dec 9 13:19:43 | 29m 25s | Starbage Man | ♥ 0 | I like the concept, though flying was a little hard. To me, the spaceflight mechanics were what I wanted to be fleshed out more. Flying around, getting caught in a planet's orbit and jettisoning the garbage without shooting it off into space is where much of the meat of the concept *should* be, I think. Especially for a jam game, you generally need to distill the game to its purest form, and the walking around in the spaceship didn't add much gameplay. I didn't enjoy having to move between the pilot seat and navigation computer. If this game was pilot view only, with on screen indicators for navigation and the voice over coming through a communications monitor on the side, I think you would have had a lot more time to polish the space flight and graphics. I really enjoyed the narrative take, though. Automatically being assimilated by the corporation and rising through its ranks by not dying were a nice touch that added a lot of character. Fun writing! Overall I see a lot of potential here, but right now I feel there focus isn't on the *right* parts. That said, maybe I am just more excited about space flight games than I am about walking around a space ship. 😄 |
| Dec 9 14:32:39 | 1h 12m | The Harsh Life of Terry the Homeless Dude | ♥ 1 | I had a highscore of 23k points, mostly by avoiding things. In the end my life ran out as I accidentally hit a black blob. There are various mechanics you have here with life, hunger, speed, jump-height and the police following you, but I found it hard to keep track of these things in-game. Rather than balancing all those plates, I just tried to jump on the rooftops as much as possible (and sometimes shooting up in the sky really far somehow). I quite like the character art, it has a lot of character. I would have liked to have seen some more contrast on screen though, visually it feels kinda flat. (And the text explaining things in the background was harder to read because of it.) Drainpipes being obstacles was weird, those would've made more sense as a climb to the roof rather than blocking you off. The music was solid and suits the game well. Excellent for a first-time LD! 😄 |
| Dec 10 13:32:03 | 22h 59m | Trail Of Gold: Incredibly Heavy Load of The Cursed Bloody Metal | ♥ 1 | Well, I certainly am not very good at this game. 😄 Unfortunately I couldn't get very far at all before I got robbed blind. The controls are pretty clear and work well, and I love the art - it's a great style, nice palette. The only inconsistency is the black outline around the cannon. It provides more contrast, but I would've preferred to see a colour from the palette there. And this game just screams for a banjo-driven soundtrack. Overall a pretty and fun entry! Even if I suck. 😄 |
| Dec 10 14:42:03 | 1h 10m | Factory Panic | ♥ 1 | While this type of game is not really for me, I have to admit that this is a pretty clever and complete entry. I felt that the little dude moved a little too slow for my liking, though, and the speed penalty when things got messy made that worse. When I accidentally grabbed the wrong ore for an upgrade, the walk back to the alloy machine felt like a year. That's a time penalty and a score penalty in one because those ores also didn't score many points. I guess I get easily overwhelmed. 😄 The art has a *lot* of grey. It works well to separate the coloured ore from the background, but it always makes me sad to see so much of it. The upgrade machine sound effects meant I could not play this on my headset in fear of permanent damage. Ouch. 😉 |
| Dec 10 16:06:31 | 1h 24m | Dungeon Of Steel | ♥ 1 | This is a pretty fun entry, hacking and slashing my way through your steel dungeon. I noticed sometimes picking up potions didn't actually add them to my inventory. The How-To-Play screen had a lot more text on it than necessary which meant I just started playing without learning more. Visually it's pretty basic, which isn't a bad thing, but the floors and walls look a little too similar. A little less grey and more colour would also be my preference. 😄 I am glad you added unlimited lives - without it I don't think I could've lasted until the end. Good job! |
| Dec 10 16:27:56 | 21m 25s | Mobs | ♥ 2 | A simple but amusing and cute entry! The creature art is very good, and the explanation at the start was effective. I would perhaps have liked some additional actions available to deal with rot/unhappiness, right now there's not many decisions for the player to take. Just to kind of try and balance all the plates until everything comes crashing down. 😄 All in all, a charming game! |
| Dec 10 16:57:20 | 29m 24s | Booyah Bass | ♥ 2 | It's like Keystone Cops, but with cats! 😄 Clever use of the theme, though I kinda assumed the circle in which cats can see you represented the smell of fish, and that after dropping the fish off, it would shrink again. I had flashbacks to the old top-down GTA, and wanted a way to lose my stars. 😉 The cat sprites are pretty cool but like mentioned above (I agree with @shito on all his points), the perspective is a little weird. The game art seems to not really have a colour scheme, which is where you could clean the art up a little. Lots of grey on the streets too, which I am personally not a fan of. I love the music, very oldschool. 😄 Overall, a fun game to play! |
| Dec 10 17:13:16 | 15m 56s | Excessive | ♥ 1 | Having read @lawzy93's comment, I simply put the .BAS file in Notepad++ and read the story there. Is it a game? There wasn't much for me to *do* except read. The story is relatable, I think most people have had similar experiences. I wasn't a fan of the line "long observant glance" as a glance is by definition not long. The theme applies well enough though. |
| Dec 12 14:55:21 | 45h 42m | Tax Dodgers | ♥ 1 | Simple little game that required no explanation on how-to-play and immediately made sense. I found it hard to stay engaged after a couple of tries, some type of basic upgrade system would have helped in that regard. The art is pretty solid, and I didn't need to read that the protagonist is named Ronald Pump to see who he was meant to look like. 😄 There's some room for improvement in the protagonist's walking animation, it felt a little floaty. Nice job! |
| Dec 12 15:02:33 | 7m 12s | INTOXICATION | ♥ 0 | I quite like the character art, but beyond looking at that I couldn't do much. I wish you luck with your next game! |
| Dec 12 15:43:57 | 41m 24s | Sanguinite | ♥ 1 | This game is pretty cool! I enjoyed the exploration of it, flying around felt fun and still challenging trying to avoid damage by hitting the surface. I couldn't deal with the difficulty ramp up on, I think, the fourth planet anymore. The art is basic, but still charming and oldschool. I am not sure the yellow blast effects really gave me a good sense of functioning as hitmarkers though. And I couldn't visually tell that I was hitting my enemies well either. I see in the video that @togis linked that there are sound effects, but I only get music in the web client and no sound effects at all. Overall a solid and fun entry! |
| Dec 16 13:18:05 | 93h 34m | Dark Space 8 | ♥ 1 | A very well executed and complete entry. I assume with some luck, I managed to finish in my first go with three survivors in total. Well executed basics usually beat half-finished innovation in a jam game, in my book. With these basics, you can always innovate post-compo. 😉 The art is classic and works, with room for improvement in the animation department *walking instead of sliding from room to room, for instance). More sound, as mentioned by others above, would also have added a lot to the game. I played through three times and still ran into new things in my third play-through. I love feeling like there's more to it than I have experienced so far, so kudos there. 😄 Overall a very solid entry. |
| Dec 17 14:41:20 | 25h 23m | Gas or Pass | ♥ 0 | In my second play-through I reached wave 62 and then decided to halt there because I didn't really know what I was trying to achieve. 😄 Afterward I read your text here on the page and realized I Was being followed by an incompetent driver of sorts. At first I didn't realize the yellow cylinders were fuel, and only went for the stars. Think I made it to wave 3 then. The fuel/speed balance is a good idea, but the opponent doesn't really seem to pose a threat no matter how conservative you play. The art is very basic, and like I said, the cylinder being fuel didn't register to me at first, so there'd be room to improve there (a basic jerrycan for instance). I wish you'd have implemented sound effects rather than music, that would've helped put some meat on the movement I think. The horizontal movement felt awkward to me, but with the right audio cues I think it could work. |
| Dec 17 16:45:26 | 2h 04m | Treasure Balloon | ♥ 0 | A pretty cute little game, centered around the base mechanic so it's pretty obvious how it works from the get-go. As others have said, the controls feel a little iffy. With just moving around and dropping loot again, I am afraid I got a little bored after a while, though. The art is basic, but works well and is clearly in the pico-8 style. I wish there was sound. 😄 All in all, pretty cute, maybe a little too bare-bones for me. |