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TheMonsterFromTheDeep

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		TheMonsterFromTheDeep's comment
Dec 27 00:41:28		Rocket Bucket	♥ 0	A pretty simple, but effective, concept. I couldn't figure out how to use the refueling buckets, which poses a significant problem unless the game can be won without them. (As it were, I failed to win, which leads me to believe that refueling is a necessary part of winning). Minor nitpick: I also didn't notice a way to quit, which is a slight inconvenience.
Dec 27 00:57:51	16m 23s	Pet Overload	♥ 0	In contrast to others, I found that the graphics are not bad. They have a consistent, cartoon style that isn't often seen in Ludum Dare. Although, I wonder if vector graphics might suit the style better... In any case, the idea is solid, although I find that there are a few problems with the game as it currently stands. - Collisions with trees feel a bit strange, simply because they are perhaps too "realistic" -- i.e. trees don't form quite a solid straight-edged wall, but that's how one would expect them to be in a game. - The spiky walls have no discernible differences from the trees, except for that collisions with them do not suffer from the same problem. I'm guessing that there were plans to use them that were simply scrapped? - There is no graphical hint on the first level with a door that the door can only be opened from one side. - The second level with a door is completed simply by walking underneath the entire map -- is this intentional? - Until I started writing this review, I was not entirely sure that the last level is a win screen. In order to make sure, I looked back, and sure enough, it does spell out "You won." Perhaps it should use a more contrasting tile type, because as it currently stands, it mostly just looks like a forest.
Dec 27 02:50:51	1h 53m	boost	♥ 1	This is a pretty good game -- solid concept and execution. As it currently stands, there are two main problems: - The hitbox issue that I previously discussed with you. I'm pretty certain that it exists, and it's killed me quite a few times. - The spike and boost graphic both look pretty bad on my computer. I'm guessing that they are pre-drawn image assets? If so, they are not nearly high enough resolution, because they look like pixel art (that's been blurred, because apparently they're being scaled with AA). If possible, it would also be good to use a vector-graphics type approach -- if LOVE supports, for example, something like a fill circle method, that would be a good way to draw the boosts. Aside from that, the main improvement would be adding sound of some fashion.
Dec 27 04:58:40	2h 07m	I Just Hate My Fans!	♥ 2	I like a lot of the art, especially the main character. Some of the pixel art in the background doesn't quite match, which is perhaps something to fix. The voice lines are entertaining and make for good atmosphere. The thing I find a bit strange is how difficult this game is. I died on the first jump a dozen times. Sometimes it seems like I would clear the jump by a considerable distance, while other times, even jumping from the edge, I would completely fail to get across. Is there a delay on your return to normal speed after fans are removed? Otherwise I really can't explain it.
Dec 27 05:13:51	15m 11s	LD40 - SirPumpy	♥ 1	This game looks absolutely incredible. Most of my criticisms have been covered previously and fixed in the jam version. I would like to point out one problem with respect to graphics (that is fixed in the jam version) that I haven't seen anybody else mention, which is that the smoke particles are difficult to distinguish from the enemy projectiles, given the fast pace of the game. I'm guessing you already knew this, which is why it is fixed in the jam version. And, in an effort to be informative -- my problems with enemy feedback extend beyond most others' -- I had absolutely no idea that it was even possible to kill enemies (until I re-read the description), because I never managed to do so. This is of course exacerbated by the fact that there are a lot of enemies that spawn in, so it's relatively difficult (especially if you're not very skilled, like myself) to shoot at one enemy long enough to kill it.
Dec 27 05:31:04	17m 13s	Santa's Factory	♥ 2	The game concept is solid, but is really brought down by the controls. I found it near impossible to pick up gifts most of the time, and I can't really think of a good reason why. When you're not holding a gift and there's one in your view and pick-up range, it should simply by automatically made pick-upable (i.e. highlighted with the white glowing effect), no questions asked. Instead, however, I often have to move my cursor to just the right spot as a gift jitters between selected and unselected. Actually, whatever changes you made in the post-compo version made the whole thing a lot more manageable, and my suggested changes are likely not needed.
Dec 27 05:39:23	8m 19s	BIGHEAD	♥ 1	The music and graphics are good and the gameplay works, for the most part. I'd say there are two problems: - When you hit a platform and are forced through it, you sometimes unavoidably take more damage (i.e. when you go through a platform at the bottom of the screen and then into a gap). This seems a bit unfair. - I'm pretty sure the game will sometimes generate terrain that unavoidably will take off a heart -- namely, when the section with a wider top platform and thinner low platform is followed by one with a particular slide at the beginning. If you jump, you hit the next platform, and if you don't jump, you also hit the next platform.
Dec 27 05:51:22	11m 59s	Super Huber	♥ 1	This is a pretty good concept and is pretty well done. The graphics could potentially use a little touching up in some places, but are overall fine. The only place I might be a little cautionary is that I'm not entirely sure if the situation gets worse at quite the right pace -- that is, once you make one error, I'm not sure if it's easy enough to recover. It should be relatively easy to recover from just one error, and should only get particularly difficult after two or three errors. Of course, I don't have quite an accurate idea of exactly how much difficulty each error causes as it currently stands, so perhaps take this advice with a grain of salt.
Dec 27 05:58:25	7m 03s	Cloak and Dagger	♥ 0	This game perhaps begins at a too difficult level. Keeping track of five quickly-changing stats as well as a whole slew of somewhat entangled actions is pretty difficult.
Dec 27 06:08:15	9m 50s	Adventure of temple	♥ 1	The graphics in this game look pretty cool, and are of a style that I really haven't seen in Ludum Dare. Perhaps its largest issue as it currently stands is the really unclear interface as to how to input the window size. I'm not even entirely sure why this is necessary - it appears that resizing the game window works fine, and because it has a minimum size anyways, you might as well just pretend that the user had chosen the minimum size. (There's also other things you could do that would be better, such as reading the user's screen size and choosing window size based on that). There are two other things that would be improvements: - Audio - Simply more varied gameplay and larger arenas, although this is likely quite a bit of work
Dec 27 06:31:09	22m 54s	Hesperidian Trees	♥ 1	I like a lot of this game. The core concept is strong and everything works well together. Currently, it is simply too easy! I ran into two potential problems: First of all, at one point, when I was planting trees, my computer started making error noises -- and I'm guessing this means that I was planting seeds where I couldn't. Later, while planting seeds, the game simply froze. Perhaps I had too many trees. Also, if there was audio aside from the aforementioned error noises (you left the voting category open), I didn't hear it.
Dec 27 06:38:58	7m 49s	Heavy Heist	♥ 0	Awesome looking game, plays well. Main problem is that I don't really see any way to actually escape the security guards? Like, you're basically guaranteed to have to run into them in order to escape.
Dec 27 06:52:01	13m 03s	Virus and Boom	♥ 1	Interesting game. My main problem was that, on my first playthrough, I spawned in right on top of the antivirus on the third level, which was pretty inconvenient.
Dec 27 07:49:33	57m 32s	Jade	♥ 0	The atmosphere is really awesome, as previously mentioned. My main gripe is that I really don't get what I'm supposed to do. And that, despite this fact, I managed to win, because the game basically told me (?) what to do with each of the symbols. If it was more clear what influence the player actually has versus what the game simply does by nature, I think that would help.
Dec 27 07:56:21	6m 48s	Bloc	♥ 1	Interesting idea. Seems like the game could be more aggressive (such as by specifically targeting projectiles in order to hit blocks) -- I basically just left the blocks alone for the whole game, and then died because switching is a bit clumsy. As it currently stands, it doesn't seem to really have an arcade feel except for in graphics and perhaps sound.
Dec 27 08:06:49	10m 28s	Pooch Parade	♥ 1	Cute art. Would do with an explanation of what exactly this is, because I couldn't figure out really what was going on until reading some of the comments. Part of the problem is that it really isn't necessary to built a huge line of dogs, so it's pretty simple to just collect a few treats, catch the dog, and then repeat, and build up the score without much danger.
Dec 27 08:11:22	4m 33s	Connection - LD40	♥ 0	A cool take on the tetris genre. The main problem is that it's really unintuitive to place tiles. The main thing that would help is to always show the tile being placed, perhaps as an outline, or perhaps showing its intersections with current tiles in a different color.
Dec 27 08:36:22	25m 00s	Grey Goo	♥ 0	The thing that's really awesome about this game is that the clicker, as a mechanic, contributes hugely to the story. The most significant way it does this is - (spoilers, which, yes, I think is a necessary warning, simply because this story is really cool) - by unlocking a whole bunch of progressively more awful things in rapid succession once things really start to go south. In a similar fashion, the news bar, and how it updates, and some of the titles, are really good mechanics and keep the story going.
Dec 27 08:55:36	19m 14s	Lava Lamp Factory	♥ 0	I would say that the game's biggest flaw is that bots really are quite unpredictable. I can't really see any way to make sure that all my factories are being utilized, and in fact all but two of them ever got any use. I also feel like there's something wrong with how the economics in the game are presented, but I can't quite put my finger on it, so I'll just say that perhaps they should be given a little more consideration.
Dec 27 09:02:57	7m 21s	LD40 - Snake	♥ 0	A nice little snake game. The art is good, although I do believe that the biting sound effect could perhaps be more effective -- it just doesn't quite seem to be the "right" sound effect for the snake model in the game. My main problem gameplay-wise is that the bounce angle is not particularly intuitive, and I think that this is because it sort of relies on what the player is doing at the time of collision (i.e. where they are trying to steer).
Dec 27 17:39:08	8h 36m	The Hoarder's Curse	♥ 1	There's some interesting mechanics in this as a tower defense game -- namely, your tower-building resource is the same as the resource you're trying to protect, which, while perhaps not an entirely new idea, is certainly an effective one. The main problem as it currently stands is that there is very literally no strategy -- all the player has to do is keep building towers and they will win. Given the game's story, I think one interesting way to go might be to make it so that your towers are run by characters that need payment, and the player can try to undercut their pay at the risk of having them defect. Overall, this is a solid foundation for future work.
Dec 27 17:48:16	9m 08s	GREED	♥ 1	The graphics in this game look awesome. The music is good, but audio would be much improved with sound effects. I would say that the main problem with gameplay is that there is apparently no way to heal, and because you are practically guaranteed to take damage at some point no matter what fighting style you use, this is a bit of a problem. The reason I say this is because I never managed to survive long enough to purchase any of the items.
Dec 27 18:00:15	11m 59s	Refuse to Lose	♥ 0	A fun little game. The gameplay is solid and straightforward, and the game plays pretty well. One thing that might be fun is the ability to choose what kind of gun to use, although that's not particularly necessary.
Dec 27 18:18:09	17m 54s	Wired Network	♥ 1	The biggest problem, which is immediately apparent, is that mouse sensitivity is waaaaaay too high. I turned mouse sensitivity to its lowest setting on my computer (Windows) and the game's mouse sensitivity was still a bit higher than where I might have liked it. The difficulty curve of story mode is really high. The first two levels are super easy, (at least once I figured out the mouse thing), but the third one is so hard that I could not even get to the purple hammer. I always was either killed by the enemies or by the orange wall. One thing that's a bit strange about the game's graphics is that there is still occlusion culling, which is somewhat counter to how one would expect wireframe graphics to appear. However, I suppose this might be for the best, because seeing everything on screen at once would probably be too difficult. But maybe the terrain shouldn't have occlusion culling? I don't know. I guess I would just suggest perhaps looking into twiddling with the graphics, because I think it might be possible to get a pretty unique and cool look, which I guess this game already has. My other note on graphics is that the arms on the character look a bit out of place or otherwise strange. I do think that this game looks pretty good as it currently is. And I don't just mean graphics -- I mean that all of the stuff that already exists (environment hazards, etc) seems to work, and I think that this could be made into a pretty good platforming game.
Dec 27 19:05:11	47m 02s	Dunk Slimes	♥ 0	This looks like a pretty cool game -- the graphics look good and the sound, even if not custom, is chosen well. I'm afraid, however, that it's basically unplayable on my computer -- it lag spikes like clockwork, basically freezing for a short period every second or so. These lag spikes seem somewhat to correspond with a repeating error message in the console: "ERROR: Sprite::set_frame: Index p_frame out of size (vframes * hframes). At: scene\2d\sprite.cpp:206"
Dec 27 19:35:41	30m 30s	Ninja Guyden	♥ 1	This game certainly looks interesting, but I'm afraid that I have absolutely no idea how any of it works or really what's going on. I managed to get to the room in the top that I believe other users are commenting about, and I couldn't really seem to accomplish anything? I'm also not entirely sure what effect the dialog has. And when the boss switched from the circular guy with the volcano, the camera got really zoomed in or something, and it was basically impossible to see what was going on at that point. I do really like the music. But I'm afraid I simply am baffled by the rest of the game. Also, a note on pragmatism: simply due to the demographics of the Ludum Dare community, I would recommend perhaps supporting changing controls. I know it's a pain (I have never implementing control settings in my Ludum Dare games) but most of the Ludum Dare community probably uses keyboards that do not mesh particularly well with the default controls. Although, thanks for making the spacebar do jump. That was really helpful.
Dec 27 19:52:26	16m 45s	42 Lightyears	♥ 0	This is an interesting game. There's not a whole lot to do, although a little explanation would be helpful, but I did eventually figure it all out. I also expected that something would happen at 42 lightyears. The problem is that the game as it currently stands doesn't offer much after you get in the right routine -- simply stay around 10 energy at all times, and you're basically good to go. I suppose that that is perhaps part of the experience -- being out in outer space, with no real end in sight, but I'm afraid that most players will end the game at one time or another, simply out of boredom. That does not invalidate the game as it is -- just something to think about if you do in fact want to make something that people will want to keep playing. Although, I suppose I could see myself coming back to this at somepoint, simply because there is something in the experience of playing it. In any case, good job.
Dec 27 20:30:06	37m 40s	Please Let Me Die	♥ 1	I like the concept of the game and would love to see where it is going, but given that it takes me several minutes to get up the first few platforms over the lava, I was unable to finish it. As mentioned by others, the platforming is way too difficult, and the player should have much less inertia. In fact, platforming generally is a genre where the player is given pretty fine control (i.e. being able to control path of jumps), so it's pretty unintuitive to have one that is so difficult to control.
Dec 27 20:44:53	14m 47s	Kitten Keeper	♥ 0	I can't really seem to control this game properly -- that is, I can never sate the cat's desires, and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Sometimes it seems like maybe I have to drop the item right on top of them -- but then the game prevents me from doing that, and when I place it next to them, they just don't move. Perhaps I'm not using the right items, but it's kind of unclear, because the bubbles that the cats have do not correspond exactly with the items' appearances. Some of them, like the pill, are obvious, but I can't really tell with the other ones.
Dec 27 23:09:21	2h 24m	Inversiosynthesis	♥ 2	This is a cool little puzzle game. My main problem, which may be more of a YMMV thing, is that trying to wrap my head around everything is a little overwhelming. Perhaps there should be an easy-mode, where one of the two sides is rotated 180 degrees, so its easier to reason about.
Dec 27 23:19:06	9m 45s	Attack of the Killer Zombie Veggies from Outer Space	♥ 2	It's certainly an ...interesting game. ;) I was a bit confused as to what exactly the different guns were supposed to represent. Best I could tell, I was simply picking up new guns when my old ones ran out of ammo? It would be more interesting if there were guns with different kinds of firing patterns, etc, and if they had to be acquired through means other than just spawning in. The other thing is that this game is really easy. Best I can tell, difficulty never really increases, or if it does, it increases so slowly that I didn't stick around long enough to find out. Which, of course, made having three whole lives a bit excessive.
Dec 27 23:46:43	27m 37s	SCRAMBLED	♥ 2	My goodness. This is an incredible achievement for Ludum Dare, even for a relatively large team. I kept thinking that there was no way there could be much more to the map, and then a whole cave would show up and I would be shocked once again. And I didn't even get to see probably a third of the map, as I only managed to collect 6 eggs (although I saw two more -- one which I didn't bother trying to get because I guessed that it likely needed the jump boots, which I hadn't acquired yet, and the other I saw shortly before I died on my second playthrough). It would be nice if there was a way to not die so easily. The birds are really annoying and somewhat difficult to kill, especially as the male character. And, as the male character, there's no easy way to heal unless you head back to the forest. The knights are also super scary, especially given how fast they move. My first playthrough, with the female character, ended abruptly once one saw me. I was actually pretty tense while wandering around them. The only actual problem I could point to thus far, that isn't just a result of game-jam-syndrome, is that the male character's projectiles do not go anywhere near your cursor once they travel more than a few feet past your character. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but it really makes the weapon more of a long-ranged melee weapon than a ranged weapon. The other thing, which I hate to criticize, but just to point out -- is that although the textures look pretty good and impressive for a game jam, they certainly are a bit too simplistic / repeating / basic for a more official game. I don't know what your plans are with this game, but if you do want to flesh it out into a much bigger game, I would suggest doing some touchup on the graphics, simply to make them slightly more modern (although, obviously an indie team can't match actually modern graphics). The main area I would focus on is on the edges of things. For example, the tunnels are just a brick texture on a polygon which shares an edge with another polygon that has a rock texture. That would look a lot better with a modeled entrance to serve as a transition. Of course, I might just be patronizing at this point. I'm guessing ya'll know how to make good graphics, because this looks good, especially for a game jam. The fact that there is such a large map with, like, realistic looking rocks / cliffs / caves is really cool. And, just to mention it, the audio is also really awesome. Although the music doesn't quite fit when you are in the dungeons, it works great when you're in the forest. And the sound effects on both characters are already there, which is really cool. It's honestly a little surprising to see a game jam game that not only has character "voice" sounds, but that has those sounds for two characters!
Dec 27 23:58:23	11m 40s	Candisorter	♥ 0	My main suggestion is to do something to make it easier when switching which candy is the best. I found that I often missed the first one in a new "round" because I was working to interpret which candy was the new best. Just giving the player an extra second or two would be enough. Of course, the game, as it currently stands, is pretty easy. It's pretty easy with a touchscreen, but I actually scored higher, I think, when just using the keyboard, because it's actually faster to do than with a touchscreen. I don't know what could be done specifically to make it harder. I did miss a few candies, although that was mostly either that I simply didn't choose one (when the best one switched), or, once, while using the keyboard, my selections were lagging behind my brain, and I was selecting the number that I should have pushed for the previous set of bins. But it was overall pretty easy, so looking into difficulty might be a good idea.
Dec 28 00:10:34	12m 11s	Capture the Essence	♥ 1	Not bad. My biggest complaint would be that jumping is a little awkward and unnatural. It's cool to see somebody using Unreal Engine, given that it can do some really interesting stuff. However, if I'm not mistaken, you are using the default Unreal Engine character model thing? If so, I would definitely recommend replacing it with a custom character model -- although making a character model during Ludum Dare is not exactly a simple feat.
Dec 28 00:27:25	16m 51s	ħ/2	♥ 1	It was originally unclear to me exactly what the bar at the top was supposed to represent, among other things. I had to spam click the gun and see what happened in order to figure it out. I don't know. In general I just don't think I really understood what I was supposed to be doing. I shot the bad guys and everything, and I guess that it makes sense. However, it is sort of unclear when you take damage, so perhaps that was my problem. The one piece of perhaps useful information I can give you is that I personally find the graphical style to be less than optimal for one reason: it mixes resolutions of pixel art. I find this sort of thing to be distasteful, and although I am less than skilled as a pixel artist, I think that one of the generally agreed upon conventions is that it does not mix resolution levels. But that's mostly just my opinion.
Dec 28 00:42:07	14m 42s	Get Drunk!	♥ 0	The audio cues are pretty great. Switching around the arrow keys is a cheap move. ;) I would say that perhaps the controls could be improved, somehow. I took most of my damage while entirely sober, simply because controlling a character by turning with the arrow keys is generally a real pain. I would guess that there would be a way to have better controls (such as mouse-based controls) without sacrificing the drunk mechanic. Perhaps have the character move towards the mouse pointer when the left button is held down, and simply apply small errors to that? And then, of course, reversing the direction would make the game quite a bit more interesting, because the player would have to position the mouse cursor opposite the direction they wished to go. I don't know. Just something to think about. Oh, also: It would possibly be a good idea to use some sort of vector graphics, or at the very least really high resolution bitmap images (something like at least 256x256). The curved / diagonal corners look a little weird, because they're being scaled with anti-aliasing and blurred slightly. They don't actually look too bad in this game, but they could be improved.
Dec 28 07:52:09	7h 10m	Ingredients of Insanity	♥ 1	I'm afraid that I don't have a second player around to play with, but I believe I got the gist of the game from testing it out alone. The core concept is a good take on the theme, and makes a lot of sense as a multiplayer game. Interestingly, there aren't a whole lot of games that involve competition for negative items, despite that it's a pretty effective mechanic. The music works well, although I could see it becoming repetitive at some point. The graphical effects are all very effective. However, they legitimately made my head hurt a little -- and if that is a common symptom, perhaps the effects should be toned down a bit. I also wonder if perhaps the game would be benefited by a mechanic that let you drop your curses? Or maybe one that let you shoot them at the other player? Just ideas, as, again, I didn't have a second player to play with. Really, though, the only thing that I think would be particularly beneficial would be some sort of single-player mode or online mode, as those are both more convenient than local two-player splitscreen. Of course, they are also both significantly harder to implement. Overall, good job.