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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Brandon JS Lea's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12 23:38:37 | defrag/delete | ♥ 1 | I agree with @lakso that it was quite confusing. A smoother introduction to the mechanics would have gone a long way over the wall of text. I almost quit after my first round of not really knowing what I was doing, but I gave it another go and now seeing the timer, running through knowing mostly what I was doing was more fun in a frantic sort of way. Though sometimes it did feel a little under-pressured relative to how behind I was, perhaps if the timer drained quicker but gets refilled at the end of each round (to a degree at least) this would help boost that frantic feel; or so I thought. I went back to check and noticed this is a thing so good job, perhaps making it pop a little better would help. I think there's also a problem with deleting "unnecessary" files. What is and isn't necessary is rather opinion based. I'm guessing I was meant to delete tmp files online but I'm still not sure post playing. The game did have a nice feel to it and I think that's largely due to the sound effects, though given that they're the windows sound effects I'm not sure how much credit I can give for that; they're used well at least. | |
| Aug 13 00:24:58 | 46m 21s | Shrinkage | ♥ 4 | The problem with imitation is that the thing you're imitating is probably pretty good, so trying to do what it already does well is that the comparison between it and the imitation will probably be quite unfavorable. Especially with tetris where the game has been tweaked and iterated upon. I bring this up because compared to tetris, the controls feel quite slippery here. I'd often be wary about moving side to side because often my pieces would go too far. All that said, this game is surprisingly good. I'd find myself going to causally clear a line because it was easiest at the time when suddenly I'd realise what I was about to do. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm familiar with normal tetris or if this is an actual smart innovation upon the formula, but as of right now this feels like a genuine mechanical improvement rather than just a gimmick. I see people say that the genius of tetris is that the difficulty adapts to your playstyle, which is all right but having that extra pressure there makes this a lot more interesting. I do have a couple of issues however. Firstly, I think you should start with more lines to get back or some intensive to over achieve from the get go. As far as I can tell, there's little pressure/use of the new addition if I'm already at full screen so the mechanic feels a little under utilized. Then again, you do lose a line if you only break one line so perhaps this is a non issue. Secondly, is the hold. There doesn't seem to be one which is a slight shame. Finally is the rather big bug that my piece disappeared. Literally, it's gone and the games softlocked because of it. I think I glitched it through the wall or something. All in all, whilst very unpolished it has a clean look and the mechanical addition is very interesting and actually effective. |
| Aug 13 15:55:58 | 15h 31m | A blob with a destination - LD42 | ♥ 1 | Where this game shines is in two places, the innovation and the amount of levels. The way items are short term modifiers to your movement is quite an interesting idea and not one I've really seen before. I particularly liked the phase mechanic. I think where the game falls flat is it's lack of polish. For starters, I found the audio to be quite grating. Even after I muted the music there was still what I think is the spinning blades sound effect which is quite unpleasant. Secondly, and most notably, is the control. Launching yourself feels more like a guessing game than a skill game, particularly when in air using the double jump. For some reason my launches seemed to be less accurate and less powerful in double jump mode as well. When the bouncing blocks are introduced then it really feels like luck, and if I mess up I just have to watch myself bouncing around hoping to accomplish something. I know the restart is an option but when failure is uncertain, it feels mean forcing the player to impose failure on themselves. I'm not sure how the blue blocks could be improved to help this though, perhaps if they gave you a double jump? On the other hand, I can think of a few ideas for how the launching mechanic could be aided, fixing the inaccuracy with the double jump being most obvious. Perhaps if the player could slow down time by holding the mouse and then releasing to launch, this could also be tied with a shown trajectory, though I could see how you may feel this goes against the core game; personally I think it could work better. Lastly, is just the small things that add up. Having to push space when most of the game can be played with one hand feels off. Usually I would go to click to get rid of text only to find my player launch off randomly after I press space. Also I think there should be some way to ease the player in rather than suddenly starting, like the lava only rises once the player launches for the first time or waits until after a 3 second timer. Overall, the game is quite unpolished and this dampened my enjoyment quite a bit. However, I'm glad I played the game because it has some really interesting ideas which the levels seem to use quite well from what I played. Personally, I probably would have enjoyed the game more if less time was spent on levels and more on testing and polishing. |
| Aug 13 17:04:21 | 1h 08m | Blockie | ♥ 0 | First off, it would have been nice to have arrow keys as an alternative. Onto the actual meat of it. The idea of falling blocks filling a room is one I'm sure many people had, myself included. However, having the blocks rise up and removing the jump is a smart way of getting around a lot of the issues present with that idea. In terms of polish I have mixed opinions. Having it suddenly start feels really awkward, a quick countdown might have helped. On the other hand, I like the visual effects for the blocks coming in and the background. I do have a couple of issues with how information is presented to the player. Firstly, the blocks seem to come up randomly but with an inclination towards the player. I understand why this is important, to keep up flow and to make sure the game isn't completely unfair at times. However in practice it can be quite confusing and annoying, because it's a mechanic determined by the players actions which they don't completely understand. It raises questions such as "Are blocks spawning in a radius of me or right below me? Is it me or some other bias that's making towers form?" ect. Then there's the "move + survive = top score" which I missed at first because it's presented so subtly. This raises more questions, "Does moving back and forth rapidly increase my score? Do I need to move long distances for it to count?" All this is made stronger by the fact that the image up top shows a high score of ~8500 whilst I could only manage ~2500. I have a couple of suggestions for how this could be helped. The most general point being that the rules need to be understandable by the player and more clearly explained; I think there needs to be a better balance of understandable generation and randomness. Assuming the gen algorithms are in a form that's understandable for a player, you could just explain this in text, though it's a very annoying and unclear method when overused so I wouldn't recommend walls of text. Another way to do this could be to have mechanics that clearly reward the player with score boosts. So for example, if moving back and forth does help the score go up, this could be presented to the player in a way that's easier to understand and see the effects from. Additionally, perhaps the area where the blocks spawn relative to the player (if that is a thing) could be represented visually. So whilst some mechanics could be better presented, the game has a strong core along with some fairly strong visual polish. |
| Aug 14 20:56:08 | 27h 51m | Deadly Delivery | ♥ 2 | First things first, I'd highly recommend adding arrow key controls. When analyzing this game it brings back that zero puntuation quote "There were so many bullets I'm not sure if I died from blood loss or suffocation". The idea of making a bullet hell turn based is quite innovative and a great way of working with the theme. I do have a few issues however. The first is only minor but I think that on the menu the player should be able to use the horizontal directional buttons (A,D or arrow keys) to scroll through the selection. It makes so much more sense and makes navigation of the options easier. I almost didn't realise there were other options and assumed they weren't added or I needed a higher score to view them. Another nitpick is with the boxes that spawn as obstacles. Having the obstacles be the same sprite as the collectibles is very confusing at first and bad visual design IMO. Even a slight palette swap would have helped. The gameplay is quite clever in getting you to consider each move but whilst fun at first I personally found it got a bit tedious quite quickly. One reason for this could be lack of pressure. There's no tense music or timer to really push you and the games quite light on any juice so I never got a feeling of success or pressure. Perhaps if you're score was better enthasised and/or the milestones were presented on screen this may help somewhat. You could have a progress bar followed by some kind of rewarding announcement that you unlocked a new skin/area and even though this wouldn't change gameplay, it would make each situation more tense because what you'd lose is clearly presented, and each victory more satisfying. I think another reason that I quickly lost interest was that there's not much strategy in this strategy game. The gameplay never evolves beyond "dodge these bullets". Whilst I'm not saying that should stop being the case, some variation in the obstacles you face would have made each more more complex and thought provoking as opposed to the same thing over again. Having different places for the boxes to appear might have also helped. One other idea could be to add a real time turn timer as this would add pressure, though I could see how you may feels this goes against the core gameplay. Whilst the game is solid and competently made, I feel it doesn't have enough variety to hold interest long enough for it to become at all challenging. The core gameplay is innovative and it would be cool to see it developed further. |
| Aug 16 23:23:45 | 50h 27m | Arrows | ♥ 1 | The idea of having ideas stack up over time is quite innovative as it leads to a natural ramp up in difficulty simply as a result of the gameplay. Additional, it has variety in the kind of arrows you face. My first critique is the music. Music is not everyone strength so I understand it not being great but here it didn't fit at all and sounded quite grating so perhaps no music would have been better, instead replaced with more sound effects (though I do think good music would boost a game like this a lot). My second issue is that I very quickly had no interest in continuing. Not that the game is bad, it most certainly isn't from a mechanic stand point. I think this issue may result in part due to the lack of music but there are other stronger elements too. Most notably, the game lacks any feel, and this type of game really suffers without it. Take super hexagon for example, everything flashes, changes colour, rotates, pulsates. With this, the only juice I noticed was the trail behind the arrows. (A video that helps define and showcase "juice" if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg) Finally, the game feels very slow. Whilst I would get caught off guard, fail to react and die (proving there is challenge) it still feels easy and I think that's because of how slow it is. A lot of the game is a waiting game which brings the pacing to a complete halt. Perhaps difficulty modes would help, but in this type of "quickly die, retry" game, I think a certain level of difficulty is important from the get go. It's gameplay is suited to being fast paced and frantic which goes well with a strong challenge IMO. Overall, it's an innovate mechanically designed game that could be great with more juice and polish. |
| Aug 19 12:04:01 | 60h 40m | Polygon Bash | ♥ 1 | The idea of shooting to propel yourself helps to intertwine mechanics which is nice but I'm personally not sure it's done to the greatest degree here. Whilst it's more fun and compelling to shoot yourself around at high speeds, I'd do best if I just sit in a corner and occasionally shoot of the enemies without moving much at all which seems very opposed to the fast paced gameplay you seem to be going for, judging by the fact you can shoot yourself around at high speeds and the neon look and music gives it an energetic feel. The game feels as though it should be fast and frantic but the mechanics encourage you to be resourceful with your shots which is feasible given the enemies slowly bumble towards you. Whenever I did tried to be more energetic I'd almost immediately die. Everything else is done great; the visuals and music all go a long way to creating a strong feel, I just feel as though that feel is contradictory to the games core. The game seems to punish speed and instead reward slow and smart gameplay which whilst working for a strategy game, doesn't so much for an arcade shooter. |
| Aug 19 12:26:32 | 22m 31s | Slay The Slime - Too Much Loot | ♥ 1 | Having to throw your inventory out at the enemy is a very cool idea and is built upon by the need to loo your inventory. I think the issue that held the game back for me was the lack of any conveyance. Nothing really has any impact. I don't think there's any sort of sound effect for hitting the enemy or any sound of getting hit or any numbers flying off enemies to make it clear how much damage I'm doing. Because it lacks this feedback I don't feel as though I'm winning or losing, just that stuffs happening. Furthermore, not much is explained. I had/have no idea if the damage I'm doing is determined by a way I throw or just completely random, though it feels random. Can I use potions? If so, how? I tried dragging then onto my hp bar and that didn't work. Then when the looting popped up I wasn't sure if I was meant to drag the items down to my inventory because there was no sign to, and dragging a potion to my hp bar didn't work so why would this. Then when my inventory was full, I didn't know if that were the case or if I just missed with my dropping or something because there is no sign that it's full. In terms of it's idea the game is interesting, the music is good, and visually it's quite stunning. However, mechanically, as much potential as it has for fast paced strategy everything just feels so random which I think is the result of so much confusion. |
| Aug 20 00:51:57 | 12h 25m | Camp Snuggle | ♥ 1 | I think the circles in the middle of the men could have been a little better explained (I wasn't sure if it acted as HP or something similar) bu aside from that minor issue this game's good all across the board! I like that it isn't just a funny concept w/o any humor in the game (a mistake I see a lot), instead the visuals, sound effects and physics gameplay go a long way to build something funny and enjoyable beyond the simple concept. |
| Aug 21 00:39:00 | 23h 47m | Destination: Earth | ♥ 2 | First off, I don't think escape should take you back to the title screen. I pressed it in an attempt to pause after enter didn't work and it was annoying to immediately lose everything. Early on I felt a little out of the game. I didn't realise I was playing in 3d and instead thought I just had really jump space shooter controls but I quickly got used to the grid system. My first issue is that the warnings felt more distracting than helpful; even though that's obviously not the case, having them pop up so early turns it more into a memorization game than a dodging one, it can get quite confusing to have another warning before the object incoming has even struck. This was exaggerated when multiple warnings flashed on top of each other. When restarting I also noticed there was quite a lot of very slow fading between screens which I think could have been lessened a little, else it makes any input feel slightly unresponsive. All issues aside, I actually got quite into the game on the second play-through. The atmosphere combined with the tension of permadeath and simplistic and therefor clear method of progress all combined to create an experience that was quite absorbing, I think the space theme suits it well. I zoned out and died at around 90% mind which was quite unexpected, I think having the hp bar be a straight bar rather than segmented bar can be a little misleading and unnecessary given there's only 1 type of damage. Couple of ideas for improving. Having a few more sound effects would have taken the immersion even further, I felt the game was crying out for some form of "woosh" sound effect when the meteoroids go by. Secondly, I liked the feeling of progression and the occasional dialogue helped that; and I think taking it a step further would help the game a lot. One example would be the earth getting bigger (unless it did and I didn't notice it in which case perhaps make it scale more). More so I felt a little more could have been done with the dialogue; because of it and the atmosphere I felt a strong intrigue to keep going. This was lessened quite a bit when the lines of "humor" came out. Humor is very subjective, true, but like with games, even if subjective there are factors that can make it critically better or worse. Admittedly I'm not expert on humor by any means but it felt quite "lol random" here which was very out of place IMO. It would have been nice if these lines built on the core themes present some more instead. Whilst I have nitpicks, I quite liked what was here for it's strong atmosphere emphasized by it's progress mechanics; it'd be cool to see it worked on some more. |
| Aug 21 22:09:49 | 21h 30m | Block Caver | ♥ 1 | The idea of pushing around blocks to make room for yourself is quite innovative and on theme. However, the physics got in the way a bit too much for me. Pushing around the blocks feels very awkward and so I very rarely felt in control. Perhaps having the blocks also be tile based (as in when you push them they sort of jump to the next tile) rather than this mish-mash of tilebased meets non tilebased would make deaths feel less random and not my fault. Also, the wall slide doesn't feel natural, like I'm not even sure if it's a bug because the animations seem to change as I'm sticking to a wall. I think part of the reason for this is that in a game where the floor is rising up beneath you, clinging to a wall never really serves you, especially since I couldn't find a way to jump off of them. Complaints aside, there's a nice idea here mixed with some pretty good art. |
| Aug 21 23:07:42 | 57m 53s | Line 42: Space Subway | ♥ 3 | I'm going to get my complaints out of the way first. Firstly, and what got in the way most for me, was the lack of explanation. I still have no idea after playing for 20 minutes what order things happen in, IE how mind control spreads or which side will be chosen as a snack for the eating one. For mind control, I assumed it was the order you place them down which makes most sense IMO but instead I'm now thinking it's left to right which really screwed me over and seems a lot more arbitrary than the order they're placed. To make matters more confusing, the hungry one triggers when the ride starts whilst the mind controlly starts immediately which makes finding any kind of consistent rule even harder. Secondly is the lack of any goal. It would have been nice if there were levels or score milestones that unlock stuff. As is I never felt as though I was progressing. When I reached a point that I knew I was about to game over I lost all motivation because A. I wouldn't reach my destination/reach a mile stone if I just kept going B. There was no method of recovering passenger madness. If milestones are added I think a progress bar would be good just to help visualize that milestone and give the player more intensive to push on. Thirdly is the lack of an undo button. I personally feel an undo button would help a lot, especially when some of the earlier mentioned mechanics can be a bit confusing. I know this holds the threat of making it too easy but I don't think it would, you'd still need to be smart about how you sort the aliens and it's not like you would be able to undo the previous stations. I think it would help remove the annoying side of the difficulty (the confusion) and help focus the strategic parts. A good example of this in practice would be Into the Breach. Final complaint is the "music". I found the constant hum incredibly annoying, perhaps an option to turn it off or lower the volume or just some simplistic music would help. I get how the lack of music can help enhance the atmosphere but I think music can help a lot more of done right whilst also adding a lot of feel. Now that I've complained about the game for 4 paragraphs straight, let more clarify that I actually really really like this game. The annoyances stand out because I can see just how close this game is to being absolutely amazing. Sound effects (bar the rumble) are great and alien, visuals manage to be alein and cute at the same time, and gameplay-wise this probably has the most potential out of any other game I've played at Ludum Dare. Were the issues fixed I would call this a certain winner and would love to see it built up into a full game. The game quite strongly reminds me of plants VS zombies in an odd sense, I think if it were to be level based, introducing a new alien each level, it could work really well. One idea being a childish alien that runs between available spaces. Alternatively, this could work quite well as a rouge-like, it'd be harder to keep it fresh but it would certainly incentivize the player to keep going, introducing aliens randomly would also feel less predictable than the PVZ model. I think some attempts at dialogue or narration would be nice, the aliens have a lot of seasonality but I think this could be taken a step further. It would be cool to see these beings that feel like living entities come and go, would also be a nice way to get a glimpse into the worlds they come from which would strongly help immersion. My overly exited hopes aside, as is this is a very cool game. Whilst it's problems and lack of any motivation to continue/anything to work towards is a big issue, were these to be fixed I think this could very easily be a fantastic game. Are there any plans to work on it any more and if so, do you have somewhere I can follow development? |