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Feedback comments for LD42
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Erasmus Crowley's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12 23:24:26 | Engulfed | ♥ 1 | This is a well executed attempt at a classic idea. Maybe a little too simple to really be engaging in it's current form, but I could see this becoming very fun with some additions. It would be nice if there was a rare enemy that would knock the portal back down a little to buy some more time. Also, powerups that modify your weapons, or add additional weapons would add some very addictive (almost rogue-like) elements. I loved the subtle pulsing animation on the portal, and the darkness below it. Great visual effect. | |
| Aug 12 23:41:06 | 16m 40s | Gunventory | ♥ 0 | When I tried this game I was pretty surprised at just how innovate and enjoyable the concept was. It seems well executed too. The screenshots definitely undersell the gameplay. Audio (especially gun sounds) would have been nice, and could have helped to add to my engagement. Something to work towards would have been nice as well. Maybe a progress bar at the bottom that fills as you cover distance and gives you a "good job!" screen. Well done. |
| Aug 12 23:55:18 | 14m 12s | BioRampage | ♥ 1 | I think there is a very fun game idea in here, but this didn't quite get there. The art style and the sound effects are pretty solid. It quickly became difficult to manage the swarm of trucks, and more often then not they would ignore the box right next to them to drive to the other side of the map, so they felt like they became less effective as the map became more choked with trees. Maybe having them prefer to go to areas near them over areas further away would help with that? It wasn't well explained that the palm trees give passive income, I assumed that I had to plant them and then harvest them at first. Also, I still have no idea how the truck upgrade mechanic works, how to use it, or what it does. |
| Aug 13 00:08:54 | 13m 36s | Grey Goo | ♥ 1 | An interesting idea for the theme. I didn't really have fun with it though, I think because I didn't feel any sense of being in control. If I had a map, or sign posts, or a compass that pointed to the exit, or some way to judge if I was making progress, then I think this would feel more like "navigating a labyrinth" and less like "20 seconds until game over". Turning with the keys felt slippery and hard to control. Either using mouse look, or having the camera snap to 90 degree turns when using the keys would have been better choices in my opinion. |
| Aug 13 00:26:53 | 17m 59s | Setting Soul | ♥ 3 | I think I see what you were going for with a dramatic, kind of scary, maze navigation game. The darkness, fog, and bloom-ish effects made it extremely difficult to tell where I was going, or where I was supposed to be trying to get to. The text effects and the audio design were great, and they really got me in the mood for something creepy, but the gameplay just felt frustrating. |
| Aug 13 00:38:30 | 11m 37s | Bullet Farmer | ♥ 2 | I really liked this. It's an interesting mix of quick action and thoughtful decisions. The audio and visuals are charming. The controls felt responsive, though the mode-switching mechanic on the gun felt uncomfortable to use and it would take some time to get used to it without it being frustrating. I found myself repeatedly in a situation where I was out of bullets, the plants weren't grown yet, and I had nothing to do but stand there and watch until the plants matured. It would be nice if there was something I could do during that downtime. |
| Aug 13 00:49:23 | 10m 53s | Herding Humans | ♥ 2 | I'm not sure if I just suck at tank controls, or if this was incredibly difficult to control... Several times I was carrying a human, and I tried to go through a doorway only for Mr Roboto to suddenly steer to the side and stop himself on the wall inside the doorway. After that, I tried to reverse out, but instead of backing up out of the doorway he just turned to face the wall, so that there was a wall both directly in front of me, and directly behind me. Leaving me with no option but to try and execute a 3 point turn to try and straighten myself out so that I can escape the sticky clutches of the doorways of doom. I see that there is probably a very fun (and funny!) game here, but I was too distracted by wrestling the controls and trying not to get stuck that I couldn't find the fun in it. |
| Aug 13 01:26:50 | 37m 27s | Clear The Sky | ♥ 2 | Programming the satellites is pretty unintuitive, but once you understand the user interface there is a surprisingly fun and deep puzzle game underneath it. The things that confused me the most were: A) It took me a long time to realize that I needed to click the "save program" button to make rockets use the commands I was putting in. B) Clicking on a landing pad shows Rocket and Program instead of the type of rocket and the selected program. You then have to click on Rocket to see "CHECKMARK Bomber" and click on the program to see "CHECKMARK F". It would be a lot more intuitive if you could just see Bomber and F when you clicked on the pad. C) I think restart should clear the pads and selections of programs and rocket types, but leave the programs intact so that you can iterate on a possible solution. As it was, I had to memorize or write down my programs and punching them in everytime I restart became annoying real fast. Despite the constructive criticism, the puzzles ARE really good, and I did enjoy playing it. |
| Aug 13 01:42:10 | 15m 20s | Life itself | ♥ 0 | I'm not sure what this game is trying to be. The instructions were so vague that I had to decompile the game to figure out what the mouse did (because there is no source code, which is breaking the rules of the compo). Even after that I had no idea what I was supposed to accomplish. I can't find any way to trigger a win or loss state. There is no score or progress. I'm not sure what to make of this. The build even asked for donations when I tried to download it... I wish I had something positive to say... The physics on the gravity wells seemed to work, I guess? |
| Aug 13 06:42:19 | 5h 00m | Space Debris | ♥ 2 | Shooting in the direction you're facing felt a little awkward. The game might benefit from a mechanic where you shoot towards the mouse cursor, allowing you to fly and shoot independently. Also, I had some difficulty with understanding when I was going to run out of bullets. Otherwise, it was a pretty fun time. |
| Aug 13 07:12:33 | 30m 14s | Falling Ecosystem | ♥ 1 | This game has a very addictive quality to it. I wanted to just keep clicking stuff... I found the resources to be very confusing. I figured out most of the basic ones, but I never figured out how to get the resource that was required for building quarries, which in turn means I never managed to build towers/castles, so I'm not sure what effect they have on the game. The mouseover tooltip that was on one resource was nice, I wish there was one for each of the resources. |
| Aug 13 17:15:04 | 10h 02m | PLUNDER | ♥ 1 | I read above that there are secret ways to influence the drops to become more rare items. That really needs to be made obvious to the player, because I had no idea that mechanic existed. Without some kind of tutorial or at least a hint, it seems like the items are being randomly generated when an object is destroyed and that the game feel very shallow. That one piece of knowledge changes the game from "run around and burn stuff" into "investigate the combinations of actions to create certain items", and that makes the game feel 10x deeper than it does at first glance. It really should be presented to the player right away. Maybe if you could see the chain of actions that lead to the objects unlocking when you looked at them in the collection, that might be enough to tell the player that it is possible to influence the item drops. I would also like to see the action chain and the unlocked item for that chain on the game over screen if you unlock a new item on that run. |
| Aug 13 17:40:22 | 25m 18s | Power Plant | ♥ 1 | I really like this idea. It would have been nice if I could have switched flower types with a hotkey, like 1,2, and 3. The scroll wheel felt kind of awkward. I didn't see any indicator that told me if the delay between planting flowers had run out or not, so I often resorted to clicking multiple times with no effect before it let me plant again, which made the game feel unresponsive. I'd suggest implementing either a visible cooldown indicator, or maybe even remove that delay entirely and replace it with a currency that you spend on flowers. Then you could add a fourth flower type to increase generation of that currency and add another layer of depth to the game. The rounds seem just long enough to fill the board and push against your borders just a bit. It would be fun if I could choose to extend the round timer and try to wipe out the other colors, or make a big underdog effort to make a comeback, instead of just doing the land grab phase. The sound effects were sufficient, but I think with some more time they could be more enjoyable and engaging. Great entry though. |
| Aug 13 18:27:35 | 47m 13s | Interstellar Stupidity | ♥ 2 | Man, in spite of choosing to handicap your art style, you really nailed the look and feel that what you going for. It's really impressive. The gameplay was very ambitious too. If you art style had been one that took longer to produce, it might have been TOO ambitious to have enough time to pull all these ideas together, but you managed to make it happen. On top of that, the game was actually pretty fun and I spent a fair amount of time with it. If I had to criticize something, maybe the lack of an end goal? An argument could be made that the ties to the theme where kind of weak. I see what you were doing with the mode where the tiles drop out and your play area gets restricted, but the tiles dropping out wasn't nearly as big a threat as the waves of incoming enemies, so that's what held my focus most. The tile destruction seemed almost inconsequential. Wonderful submission though. I enjoyed it a lot. |