Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Feedback comment stats → Random-storykeeper

Random-storykeeper

Feedback comments for LD42

Random-storykeeper's games and stats for all events →

Timestamp	Since previous	Game		Random-storykeeper's comment
Aug 15 08:39:21		WearOut	♥ 2	I took a couple of attempts with this (after a considerably long wait after hitting play 🤔 ) and couldn't get past my high score of 24. 😛 WearOut-highscore24.png I really enjoyed the setup of this game. You obviously tried to go for a more humourous approach, and I thought it was funny the way the story of the game was arranged. It worked well for this sort of concept, too. I like the idea of a survival defense game where you are trying to conserve space because it can only accommodate you. The graphics, while simplistic, worked well with the sort of dark humour this game has. Nothing was super distracting or hard to tell apart from the others. A decent enough job was done here. Regarding the music, I'm assuming you didn't make it, considering you opted out of audio. Despite this, I still think it's worth thinking about how you could select music tracks that are more coherent with each other and perhaps more fitting to the type of game this is in general. The collection of tracks, even if they are not your own, can have a big impact on your game's mood regardless. My biggest gripe with the game, unfortunately, is the gameplay itself. The controls for attacking were not desirable and would have been more suited to keys on the keyboard. There's also not really a whole lot of response within the game itself that shows clearly when your attacks affect the opponents and I didn't catch any significant differences between kicking and punching. As a result, I mostly just spam kicked until I died. It felt really inconsistent, since once you are actually within attacking distance (ie. close enough that when your character punches/kicks it could actually touch the opponent), you're more likely to lose health as you defeat them. Overall, I didn't have a great experience, which is a shame because almost everything else surrounding this game - the story, the minimalistic graphics - does have the potential to be a good basis for a fun game. Congrats on your first game jam, and welcome to Ludum Dare. :) You managed to complete and submit a game for the first time in a game jam, so that's a pretty impressive feat. 👍
Aug 15 10:22:35	1h 43m	Ant Factory	♥ 5	I went into this game completely confused, but after staring back and forth at the ingredients list and actually understanding how to play, I sank about an hour or so into this game. Only three levels, I told myself. That last one gets quite tricky, though, since you're forced to have the six ants making the stone items constantly. I really loved the puzzle element overall, and the easy-to-access list and quick pause button made it a lot of fun to ponder over how to set up the buildings and where to relegate extra supplies that are building up. The game very cleverly works in the theme because not only do you have to make sure you're not running out of space in the main sort of storage area, but also you have to make sure that you don't run out of space on the grid itself. And having to also create a path the ants can walk on doesn't make it easier either. 😂 But I really like how this is all interconnected: don't run out of main storage space, don't run out of space to host your factories, don't run out of money...etc. Not to mention some of the items that will create an excess of stuff you don't really need so you have to make other items just to clear up space but also earn money back. 😛 The three levels you present do increase pretty drastically in difficulty, especially between the second and third level, but they overall do provide progressively harder challenges. And I just really like the concept overall. It works with ants. While the gameplay itself is solid, some touchups to the aesthetics (such as the plain blue background) and adding some appropriate audio would elevate the gameplay experience even further. I guess one thing I found myself wondering was...what was the point of being able to move the map around when the size of the map is the same size as the screen you work with? I actually didn't use those keys at all during my playthrough, but going back to check, it looks like the map definitely has an edge that is the exact length of the screen you play it in. I dunno, arrow keys and WASD (or its European keyboard equivalent) would have been nice to move the map around if it had been bigger than the game screen. I suppose that's the case when trying to play windowed, but moving the map around gets pretty buggy in such a resolution (it gets stuck in a certain direction and I can't move it back). But yeah aside from that, I had a great experience with the gameplay as a whole. Although it kind of has a steep learning curve, it gets pretty addicting to try and beat it, not to mention the great integration of the theme. 👏
Aug 15 23:21:06	12h 58m	Spaceabon	♥ 1	UGGGHHH so close to 40000 😩 Spaceabon-YIKES almost 40000 resized.png This was quite the puzzler, and gets quite fun as it does get challenging. I spent most of my time in puzzle mode, but the Arcade mode also presents a nice, difficult task of having to think fast as blocks spawn rapidly on the screen. Puzzle mode gets CRAZY once you start handling like 8 different blocks in the tiny space, and I found myself running out of storage pretty quickly. It didn't really help that the way the character interacts with the blocks is kind of finicky. I get that the area is designed around this "once you touch a block and move, the character automatically takes the block with them", but I found myself getting more frustrated when I accidentally forgot this and went to get move a block but ended up moving another because it was on the other side of me. Ah well, it's all part of the challenge. 😂 I've noticed that there seems to be a bit of a glitch in the music? Like just before it loops (I think), it makes this loud, jarring white noise. There also seems to be a big discrepancy in the dynamics of your track from the beginning and the end (the beginning of the loop is much softer than the end of the loop), which makes me wonder if this is what's causing the loud noise. But I also notice it is inconsistent; sometimes that blast of noise is a mere click upon looping. I was playing the Windows version, too. That's a shame, because the game music is quite nice. It's got this aimless, 12/8 feel, like I'm floating around in space. I love the saxophone lead and the dry bell plinks. That being said, I think the sound effects are too quiet and subtle. I would have loved to hear some more satisfying sounds, or at least have those current sound effects be louder. Maybe some BFXR blips to help contrast it from the music more. The harp sounds made me think of Monument Valley, which I don't really think meshes with the graphics. I like the various block designs and the little person at the top controlling the vehicle whenever you move around. The game, overall, is a fine puzzler, albeit tedious in the Puzzle Mode. 😝 But I enjoyed and got frustrated with it, as a puzzler should do. 🤣
Aug 16 00:03:07	42m 01s	Bath Time	♥ 2	I also got stumped at level 8, even in the post compo version. 😂 It's a fun concept that feels like it was designed with mobile in mind. That's good, but it wasn't exactly a joy to play with on the mouse. I would have liked it if you were able to click and hold in between transitioning from the bath to taking the cats off the drying rack. I guess like "it isn't a huge deal" since it's one button you re-press and all, but...in such a frenzy, smaller details like this would at least help make later levels a bit more forgiving, I think. 😂 I also feel like the "swipe controls" for taking the cats off the drying rack isn't consistent with its response at all. I tried this in earlier levels of the post compo version, and it seems like even if I wait for all the cats on a full rack to dry and swipe to the right, making sure my cursor is on all the cats, all but like two or three get picked up most of the time. And this, in later levels, makes things extremely irritating because you'll have to swipe twice or three times when the cats have all fully dried because the game doesn't recognize that I swiped across the screen to try and pick up all the cats for some reason? The indication that the bathtub was about to explode also felt somewhat strange because it seems like there's a delay once the kittens pile on, rather than the bathtub exploding the moment a kitten is added. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that I was cleaning cats and none were coming down and then all of a sudden, the tub just combusts. The art style is pretty cute, and I love the calming colour palette. I also enjoyed the sound effects - you always make such nice chiptune-ish cat noises that make those animals 10x more adorable, I swear. I like what was done with the music, too, what with the chiptune arps kicking in whenever you swirl to the music getting faster and more intense when your bathtub starts to run out of space. If anything, I guess the music was a bit repetitious, but I'm guessing this was done because it's affected by what you do or what happens in the game. This kind of composition wasn't really what I would expect from a game like this either. But it's fine for what it is. Given the screen size, I can only imagine that this will become a phone game, and I'd certainly be interested in seeing how that would play out. This really seems like it would play a lot better with a touchscreen.
Aug 16 00:38:01	34m 54s	Rainbow Rave	♥ 1	So this game is about a unicorn...getting drunk...but it's set in candy land...but it's not snowing...and there's rave music playing???? It's quite a funny concept. 😆 Maybe not exactly my kind of humour, but I did get some enjoyment out of the unicorn DJing in the background. That's my favourite character in this game. 🤣 I like the idea of the goal being to collect drinks, but the more you collect, the more drunk you get. I take it this means that you have to time your shots so that you're not drinking too much at once. One thing that really confused me was that there appeared to be no way to die or complete the game. I noticed that there is only multiplayer, but I wasn't able to put in a second player, at least in the web version. But I could still play the game as a single player and get revived every time I fell off the map or collapsed. There is a huge delay in the music when it loops, and I'm not sure if that's intentional (maybe to imply the DJ switching songs? 😛 ). As for the music, I suppose it's fitting enough for a rave. But the graphics and the music weren't really coming together for me. I did like the sound effects - they were quite funny, however, when you get more unicorns in the playing arena and they're all making the same sound effects as you, it starts to become extremely grating when all those sound effects stack up against each other. Overall, I just...don't think this game was for me. Although I do appreciate seeing multiplayer games pop up in Ludum Dare. 👍
Aug 16 01:03:18	25m 17s	Weltraum	♥ 2	Well that was a pretty creative use of the theme. Taking it literally, a little too literally... 😏 I enjoyed the interactivity you do get, besides proceeding through the story. I think the voice acting is the most effective part of the game. There's good changes in dynamics and tone with the voice depending on the situation the character is in. The only thing that bothered me was that there was sometimes noticeable background noise or static when the voice played. But the overall voice acting was well done. I do agree that it would have been great if 75 also had at least a different sound effect from the overseers (since it is addressed that 75 cannot speak, if I recall). And voices for the higher-ups would have been awesome. I guess the only thing missing for me was more background noise or ambiance. I loved the mood set by the pixel art colours, and the piano at the end was fitting enough, but there could have been way more sounds or ambiance during other parts, especially the ship chase scenes. The story itself was pretty engaging, and I did laugh when I finally got how this connected to the theme. Nice work. :)
Aug 16 05:51:04	4h 47m	Low Disk Space	♥ 0	What an odd game. Some of these files are so strange (downloading tweets in a video form?) and the overall story surrounding this "deleting files" simulator is peculiar. But, aside from that...I think I did get some enjoyment out of this game. It's a very simple concept, but getting the high score is the challenge since you have to keep track of so many files and try not to delete a lot while also making sure you don't run out of disk space. 🤣 I think the overall game works fine. The only thing I wish is for the ability to drag files and rearrange them. It might have added to the frenzy, but also helps keep the desktop a little more organized for the player if they so desire. 😛 Other than that, the game looks fine and works fine. Honestly the gameplay itself is enjoyable. I believe it's just the story behind it that is odd to me. Odd but topical. 🤔
Aug 16 06:27:13	36m 09s	GarbageForm	♥ 1	The concept is a great basis for a game. Unfortunately, the execution of this game is too finicky and unbalanced that it really hinders how fun it is. The controls are super slippery (a single press of the key sometimes causes you to move several squares forward) and it doesn't help that you have to be pretty precise where you throw your box to rebuild the platforms. Even so, when the boxes push you forward, you usually only have a bit of time to move them out of the way so you don't get pushed over. To have that one block thrown away rebuilding one part of the path while like, three rows get pushed towards you each time does seem quite unfair, especially for a casual, first time player. By the way, when your path finally clears out and there's only one row of blocks left, nothing else spawns and you're just left standing there. I guess it's pretty easy to just fall off the path, but I dunno, might have made it more consistent if that last row up and left rather than forcing the player to kill off their character. GarbageForm-Stuck on a single platform.png I think the basis of this game is good and for what you managed to do in four hours, it's decently playable at the very least. It certainly needs tighter controls and more leeway in regards to the throwing distance of the blocks and when the trash collector catches them. That would at least make it more generous with the current balancing as the player would be able to toss the blocks more easily. While the graphics were quite simplistic and the player sprite didn't really mesh with them, I did like how the protagonist crouches and puts their hands over their head when they fall off the platform. The player character doesn't even fall all the way down despite there being empty space. How interesting. 🤔
Aug 16 06:57:23	30m 10s	It's Raining Humans!	♥ 0	LOL that's a lot of humans piled up on this one planet. They're all definitely dead by now. Is there a lose condition to this game? I feel like I should have gotten it at this point. Perhaps the game wants me to fill up to the brim with humans all the way across? Its raining humans - is this supposed to happen.png I didn't really like how the fan is like a one-time use item once you press the space bar and then have to wait several seconds before recharging. I think it would have been more ideal to have it so that the giga fan only activates when you are pressing and holding the spacebar, so that the player has more control over how much of the fan's power they use instead of the fan just simply going until you run out of power, even when you don't have humans falling into the planet yet. There also could have been more indication as to where the humans are going to fall. At the moment, it does feel random, since they seem to rotate around the planet before falling in a completely different area from where you see them, and it changes all the time. You could consider having the humans fall slowly towards the planet to begin with, then speeding up as they get closer to the planet's surface. Sort of like a gravitational pull, eh? The human physics were pretty goofy and I like how humans managed to catapult themselves into space then land on this one planet that apparently is not too far off from Earth. 😛 Like I said, I'm almost certain that none of those humans that fall to that planet are actually alive by the time they hit the planet's surface. No wonder they look like soulless silhouettes. 😂 Oh yeah, I was wondering...was the music composed specifically for the game, within the scope of the jam? Just curious, seeing as there is someone credited for the audio in your game's description. If that was the case, you could have opted into the audio judging category. I did think the music was quite nice, and suitable for the game. (But if it was free music by that composer/composed outside of the jam, etc. then you'd opt out of Audio).
Aug 18 09:09:16	50h 11m	Calorie Killers	♥ 0	As many others have stated, I think the core idea of this game is very fun, but the biggest issue lies in just how unbalanced it is. Right from the get-go, burgers start spawning at an insane rate that, even if you are precise with your gun, you inevitably end up being overwhelmed by them no matter where you go because they all take a crazy amount of health to kill. Either burgers need to spawn less frequently or take less hits to kill (with the rate they spawn in the initial game, it would probably, well, more reasonable if they all went out in one hit). But yeah, I like the idea of enemies making you larger if they hit you. It makes them easier to hit, but at the same time, you run the risk of killing yourself with the spiked borders. I also noticed that you fire less responsively as you get bigger and I'm not sure if this is intentional, since it seems like you can fire at the same rate once you click and hold again. The burgers also seem to be killable by just touching them with the end of the ketchup bottle if you click and hold and swing the bottle back and forth in front of them. Because of that, I have to wonder if maybe invisible, short-range bullets are being fired? The graphics were pretty goofy and made sense for the humourous concept, along with the sound effects. The chiptune music was suitable and good. Overall, the game is pretty amusing.