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ArmchairArmada

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		ArmchairArmada's comment
Dec 9 02:21:36		Bee Holder	♥ 1	The concept is interesting, I really like the use of the number of honey collected determines who the bees aggro to. That said, the controls for collecting honey (e.g. standing next to the hive) is not obvious. Some sort of visual feedback letting you know that your character is collecting honey would have been nice. Would have been nice to see some juice to make the collection process more gratifying.
Dec 9 03:15:42	54m 06s	Busy Room	♥ 1	I really appreciate the amount of polish that went into this game. The magnetic diamonds, generous hitboxes, and useful-but-not-over-powered slow-down are all fantastic. There's substantial amount of visual feedback that helps me make informed decisions in a short amount of time. I guess I was expecting a more frenetic, faster-paced action game; I felt after a few playthroughs I was good. Despite the polish, I didn't quite feel it was a compelling experience that encouraged me to replay the game again. I'm not really sure how to fix that, and it might just boil down to taste.
Dec 9 03:42:03	26m 21s	The Carrier	♥ 2	I really want to like this game: the graphics are fantastic, and there's a lot of exploration potential. The touchy thrusters (yes, including the reverse thrusters) and gravity, however, was infuriating. I would have appreciated limiting the rotation of the ship so that I don't accidentally overshoot right or left. Also, just me, but I would have appreciated making all the pretty visuals obvious dead-ends, rather than me finding out they don't lead anywhere.
Dec 12 01:48:02	70h 05m	Muldulamulom	♥ 0	Just like Somsnosa, I'm in love with the graphics again. For the most part, the game wasn't too bad, but it would have been nice if there was some sort of indication when getting a power-up what it does, and what button to press to activate it. I wasn't a fan of the B button being the bomb button: for a rather common action, it's placed far apart from the jump and attack. Carpet controls still letting the character walk off the carpet was a little weird, and I'm not too sure I was a fan of it. And the inability to switch from ball rolling to normal standing stance to be able to jump again was annoying. I enjoyed it, though, for what it was. It's a calming experience.
Dec 12 01:52:38	4m 36s	Rogue	♥ 0	Pretty darn awesome for a first entry in Ludum Dare! I liked the stealth being associated with the health of the character, though at times, it was too small for me to continue. I would have appreciated a minimum meter size, while still allowing the health to lower below that threshold. Controls are pretty good for the most part, though when the character flips on unusual platform angles, things get very awkward.
Dec 15 02:08:04	72h 15m	Fox Flares	♥ 1	This certainly was a challenging platforming game. The small temporary platforms and the difficult-to-judge booster platforms were the most frustrating, though nice touch on making things feel barely passable. It really puts me on the edge. I would have liked a tighter control scheme, so the platforming didn't feel so unfair, as well as some sort of marker indicating the trajectory of the character flying on those flinging platforms.
Dec 15 02:18:43	10m 39s	Tic-Tac-Matrix	♥ 1	What a ridiculously polished piece of work! I'm really impressed. I think the escalation of difficulty is pretty unfair, though; it would have been nicer if one could choose the difficulty level, as well as adding a local multiplayer setting in the game. Still, I enjoyed the experiment.
Dec 23 17:53:06	207h 34m	Sofra	♥ 1	Wow, what a predictable ending. Just kidding. Although the moment I saw the conveyor belt I knew this was going to end just like Can Your Pet? I highly appreciate the ghost jumping in this game. Makes the platforming parts a lot easier to deal with. I did struggle with the drop/pick-up controls. While I highly appreciate the drop-all button, I feel like having a different pick-up and drop button would have worked better. Additionally, I was quite confused when pick-up would sometimes pick-up a bulk of rabbits than just one. I think, though, this only triggered if you used the drop-all button. While it was a nice touch to give an indication on the upper left-hand corner of carrying rabbits, it would have been nice if a similar visual indicator was provided on the player character itself. That's where the eye is focused on, after all, and I think it would have been easy enough to add a number near the character to indicate how many rabbits they're carrying to better convey why their jumps or speed are being affected. Minor nitpicks, though. Overall, solid entry.
Dec 23 18:05:23	12m 17s	Hungry Dino	♥ 1	As mentioned during the stream, the stellar level designs are a stand-out here: I like a lot of the levels that does a nice job demonstrating a specific mechanic. I did think the puzzles were a bit too easy for me, but then again, I make a ton of puzzle games. I also appreciate that it doesn't overstay its welcome, ending just about the right time. I do think it would have been nice to add more complexity to the mechanic. For example, it could have been cool if eating a specific animal gave you super powers, but only for the duration that you haven't eaten another animal. Or perhaps some animals have specific AI that makes them harder to catch. Also, it would have been nice if the dino had feathers. ... ... ... ...OK, that last part isn't really important.
Dec 25 16:38:45	46h 33m	SpaceBallz	♥ 1	The game concept though simple, is pretty solid. The art is nice, too. I love the title screen and the mouse-hover constellation effect. I would have liked to see some guidelines (e.g. lasers) indicating where I'm aiming. I cannot count the number of times I was frustrated with the first level because I had difficulty figuring out how to aim at a distant planet. Personally, I also thought it was unfair that the sun moved faster over time. I'd rather that the difficulty be tied to the levels; so for example, the sun spins faster each progressive level instead of the current implementation.
Dec 25 16:56:31	17m 46s	Delta Vee	♥ 0	This isn't too bad! The controls are a bit frustrating due to the lack of friction and sensitivity (at least on this super-high-res Mac screen), but the core concept is enjoyable. I also thought the collider circle on the ship could be smaller for more close-call events. Despite my complaints about the controls, I do think the challenge is cool. Would have been nice if said controls wasn't for something intentionally action-packed.
Dec 25 17:41:32	45m 01s	After Drive	♥ 0	Got the score, 77906. I couldn't tell if the vehicle became faster as time goes along or not, but I really couldn't tell how the game became more difficult. Adding more people didn't seem to significantly affect my controls. The spikes on the cops were annoying, but other than that, this game often felt like long stretches of nothing (OK, there were cars, but I only had to weave in-between 2 cards driving the same direction as the player vehicle). That said, the game was running, like, 20 FPS on my computer, so that's probably the reason the game was so easy for me.
Dec 25 17:53:29	11m 57s	Snowmans Dilemma	♥ 0	Not certain why, but I cannot play this game on browser nor Windows. For browser, I'm using the latest Chrome with uBlock Origin plugin, while for Windows, the ZIP contains a single file with no file extension. Changing this to *.exe does not make the game run.
Dec 25 18:14:20	20m 51s	Super Mailman	♥ 1	I think I like this game more than I should. I made it to level 5, but then was left with a green screen on the web version. Is that intentional? Did I clear the game? Anyway, I did like that the smallest actions would cause a medal to appear on the screen. That certainly encourages the players to solve the puzzle with the least number of actions possible to make it to the goal. That said, I would have liked the medals to reset after failing a level, or even on the next level. It was impossible to read the instructions at some point. As much as I was a fan of the player controls, especially the fall faster button which was actually put to good use for this game, I didn't find the physics of the boxes to be as fun. Given the instructions posted on the website, it seems you already know how tough it is to move these blocks in a predictable fashion when they're airborn. It would have been nice to see finer controls on how to move these blocks, such as removing rotations entirely.
Dec 25 18:50:51	36m 31s	Mana4Life	♥ 1	I think the graphics are beautiful and well-composed. Even if it's using pre-made assets, the space coordination is easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The special effects works well, with different-colored sparks giving a nice sense of danger. I applaud the re-examination of what it means to have a health bar, and even celebrate the experiment you've created here. But I confess that, while I found the central mechanic to be interesting in theory, in practice, I found it a complete disaster. There isn't much fun to be had where a core part of the game is to stand around and taking hits on purpose just to keep oneself alive. My natural inclination, after realizing I could die from attacking too much, was to simply draw a crowd in, take a bunch of hits, then play the dance button, then repeat the cycle. The experience was, naturally, repetitive and uninteresting. I did also find it difficult to tell who and how enemies were attacking me, so I eventually ended up not bothering to look up at the screen, instead focusing on the bar at the bottom. With all the beautiful artworks, that seems like an unintentional experience. Still, don't stop innovating!
Dec 25 19:31:44	40m 53s	Sunken	♥ 1	The graphics and the audio is pretty good, and I like the general mood where it's clear you could die at any minute. Once once figures what are threats and what are good items, going through each level becomes a sort of a thrill ride, with very little predictability on what's coming next. I do, however, think some aspects of the game, such as the flooding acting as a timer to indicate how long the player has to survive, was rather cheap and uninteresting way of turning this game into an arcade, high-score experience. I tried to make out what were the negative consequences for collecting treasure, since I noticed nearly all of my stats changed, but it was hard to tell. This is a shame, because it's honestly one aspect in the game I though was most interesting. To make the game better-telegraphed, it would have been nice to have animations indicating how your stats changed, especially right above your player character. Additionally, it would have been cool to have treasures indicate what boosts they'll give before the player obtains the treasure, without mentioning the negatives. That would give a nice risk-vs-reward incentive where one might focus on increasing attacks stat at all times, as a consequence of sacrificing everything else. I wasn't a fan of using double-tap as the method to move either, though I realize the intent was to commit to one's action. I also had a hard time figuring out which sprite was the player at the beginning. They blend in with the meat and enemies pretty easily.
Dec 25 21:32:37	2h 00m	Dungeon Raid	♥ 0	Aw, that last treasure was quite a tease, but I guess you can never out-run the boulder. It's pretty cute, and I appreciate the loose collision detection keeping my character from dying too quickly. Not exactly a fan that the central game conceit is just dodging enemies while handling with the negatives of lifting all the items. I dunno, I guess that experience is just not for me. The experience just feels like a one-off narrative and that's it.
Dec 25 21:47:21	14m 44s	The more hair you have...	♥ 1	I kind of wished I didn't read the first few words below the spoilers (by accident, I swear!) before playing this game. The startup felt a bit slow, since it's just a whole lot of waiting until the tweezers appear, and the lose condition takes forever, but the message was really nice. I definitely would appreciate nicer people surrounding my area. A small and short experience, but I think it delivers on its promise. Keep it up!
Dec 25 22:06:28	19m 07s	Gold Digger	♥ 1	I really like the music for the game. Would have been nice to see more variety in the sound effect department. Maybe it's just me, but does the rate of fireballs actually increase collecting more coins? I didn't notice; I often just dumped them into the trunk in discrete chunks, so I only notice the rate increasing over each progressive level. Nice touch on adding a time limit to putting the coins into the truck, though. It does resolve the problem of constantly dodging the fireball. Not sure I'm as huge of a fan about the context of the game (depicting a character who literally digs gold doesn't remove the negative connotation of the phrase). I also admit it's too simple for me to be engaging, but the focus on a single experience is much appreciated.
Dec 25 22:17:11	10m 43s	Endgame	♥ 0	Unfortunately, the game seems to crash far too often for me to give any proper ratings for this game, but I do want to say I'm impressed with what you have. I also love the premise of glitching your way past the end-game of this epic JRPG.
Dec 25 22:50:29	33m 18s	Santa's Factory	♥ 2	Per Ludum Dare rules, I'll be rating the Ludum Dare submission. Oof. It's very rough. The good qualities are the graphics and general presentation. It's polished, most of the UI elements are clear, and it's easy to figure out how to play the game, what the success condition is, and what is the failure condition. But that said, controls needs....lots of work (post-jam build does fix this significantly, by the way). The difficulty to select a box was very frustrating. It's hard to figure out where the center of the screen is, and even the box highlight flickers madly, making it hard to figure out when is a good time to hit the E key to pick something up. For a concept so simple, this flaw adds up very quickly. I also found the box dropping sound effect super-annoying. A lowered volume, as well as randomizing a couple of sound effects would really help. Alternatively, changing the pitch each time the sound is played would help, too.
Dec 27 00:55:31	26h 05m	The Dark Castle	♥ 1	I like the premise of starting the player with an objective. How fitting, then, that this first choice establishes certain choices gives items, changes story, updates stats, etc. I also like the clear indication of what choices are limited due to your character's shortcomings. And the writing is pretty decent.