Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Feedback comment stats → Remco
Feedback comments for LD42
Remco's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Remco's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 13 13:21:38 | The Crappy Shipper | ♥ 1 | Pretty fun. Nice combinations of mouse/keyboard play and different kinds of physics (2D for the boxes, 1D for the ship). I mostly like easy games, especially when rating LD :-) Not everyone does, so I think it can stand to be a bit more challenging. Luckily, you can crash your boat (like I did the first time), giving it just the slight added difficulty it needs to be fun. The ship behaves diferently when going backwards and forwards (load/unload vs not). I can't really figure out wether I like this or not. On the one hand, it adds a little extra wrinkle to the game, which it may need. On the other hand, it just seems a bit arbitrary and potentially slightly confusing. Would the game really be less fun without it? The music is well done for a Compo-game, but can get a bit repetitive. The graphics are stricly functional, and do not get in the way, but I wonder what this game'd have been like with a little more attention in that area. Some minor issues: - It doesn't say anywhere how many packages you can loose. By experimentation, this seems to be about 25. - No way to quit the game. Lastly, something to be aware of for next time: Your splash-page said: _"sound effects from soundbible.com"_. Great that you specify that! Though technically, since this is a Compo game (as opposed to Jam), you have to make _everything_ apart from fonts and basecode! Generating them by something like [BFXR](https://www.bfxr.net/) already counts. You made the (excelent) music though, and since that (seems to me to be) harder than a few easy to generate (and barely hearable) SFX, I'll still fully rate the audio. | |
| Aug 13 13:33:56 | 12m 18s | Hoarder Disorder | ♥ 8 | I like that you can select multiple levels, with different difficulties. But, like the rest of the game, you seem to have put a lot of work into things that don't immediately pay off. For a 2-day game jam, if the idea of different levels is important, why make 4 when you can get away with 2? Then you could spend the time left over polishing. The graphics could use some work for example. Another example of this is the music. The dissonance may fit the 'disorder' thematic you're going with, and I did end up getting used to it, but that's about the nicest things I can say about it. Related: Mute music doesn't work on my PC. I like that you've thought of it as an option, though! (It's the thought that counts? :-P) The special items can be either used or handed in for score, which offers a nice strategic choice. Well, sort off: I ended up not using the special objects a lot (since they're a bit too expensive for what they do). I only ended up using health-kits (when I really needed them), which is a shame, as it negates the strategic choice. It took me a while to realise that the mouse is not just 'direction thrown', but the object will land on the mouse-pointer. This makes the game way easier, as I didn't have to run back to the area each time. (Also I stopped throwing objects into the lake when playing the first level.) I'm not sure opponents spawn often enough on my end? I can survive 10 seconds in the house easily, and I'm not exactly known for my quick reflexes or twitch-game abilities. Though maybe it's just better to avoid the opponents altogether, since I mostly don't bother with the special objects. P.S. You know, I'm sure there must be games out there where 'well, my mom could beat it' is the hardest difficulty, because the devs' mom is just that good ;-) |
| Aug 13 13:42:01 | 8m 05s | TINY TOWNS | ♥ 3 | As the dev of a somewhat similar game (which is the reason my eye fell on this one) ... you've got a lot of things in there that I had to scrap because of time-constraints. The context-sensitive help is an _especially_ nice touch, but the properly connecting roads make me the most jealous (as I found an easy way to implement this years ago and would've taken me, art included, just another hour(s?) or so). The music is good enough that I don't care how repetitive it is, and fits well with the excellent deceptively 'simple' art-style. I just noticed that the placement of the buildings is _animated_ as well. Nice! Difficulty ramp in the beginning is excellent. ... just how many levels _are_ there anyway? They seem to be too 'on purpose' to be generated, but I have to wonder... if so, that would be quite impressive, especially in Compo. The design is so tight, you (almost) can't take anything away, but it still offers a rich experience. You could've left out the 'base-happiness' maybe, since you can go negative anyway? It might screw up the balance of the current levels though, but is the design-space with the base included really that much more interesting? There's no sound when you select a type of building with the buttons below (as opposed to when you place something). Is there a way to completely restart a level? Bulldozing one-by-one can get a little tedious, even on such small levels. A minor issue: When extracting, it's a so-called 'zip-bomb' (meaning the files land all over the place, instead of being in a folder). A question: I see you use LÖVE, which is AFAIK 2D only ... so is this 'real' 3D or are you using stacks of offset layers? All complaints are very minor and all praise is well earned. Best I've played so far! This may not mean a lot at the moment, but I suspect it'll stay that way for some time to come :-) |
| Aug 13 16:30:53 | 2h 48m | Running Out Of Space - A Warehouse 'Sim'! | ♥ 1 | Slide-in menu, a small but nice touch, likewise the control-scheme hint as part of the environment. Fireworks, nice, more workplaces should have them :-P (Particle-effect or animation?) I thought I had a strategy (touch forwards/backwards a few times until the forward speed is right, then steer left/right only), but then I got stuck in the wall. So I had to restart. (I even got stuck on another box in the loading area briefly.) Once I compensated for that, the game got easy. (Then I found out there is no real backwards, it's 'just' a break, and the backwards motion is because someone apearantly decided to wax the factory-floor, so when you break hard enough...) It does feel fun to control though, despite --or perhaps even because of-- the slipperyness. I sort-of like that you can't drop boxes if they're not in the right place, but given how easy the rest of the game is, it feels like this fork-lift has training wheels! In fact, this could be a fun game to show to young kids. It doesn't leave much space for making _choices_ though, it doesn't really matter if I pick up the brown or the red box, since I'll make it anyway, and I have to do the other once even so. It's very short, but as I'm rating, I should thank you :-) At the very least it doesn't overstay its welcome! (Which might be a problem with my own game...) Ah, one last thing, the zip doesn't have a top folder, so when you unpack it, the files go everywhere (also called a 'zip-bomb'). |
| Aug 13 16:33:55 | 3m 02s | Volka | ♥ 1 | Stylish! It took me so long to realize that you wheren't supposed to shoot the dark circle indicator top-mid. Some explanation would've been helpful! But it all slowly began to make sense when I realized that you could click _while_ the shot was still in the light-green. (Nitpick: 'Avoid the green'... well, the background is green too!) 'Kill the green' stays on screen even after you miss, and are thus vulnerable again. Hard as heck, but time to retry is 0 and the base gameplay is fun, so it's one of those 'challenge yourself' things. There's a certain rythm to it, so it's easier when you play a few rounds in quick succession, rather than wait between them. Very tight game-design; it's a neat little package which packs a punch. ETA: Since a few people have put there top scores: after a bunch of tries mine was 60. |
| Aug 13 16:37:46 | 3m 51s | Book Crook! | ♥ 1 | The overall presentation is nice (I have a soft spot for the music here), but without that timer or 'next' button, there really can't be _any_ strategy, or much of anything at all. There's just not a lot I can say about this one. The titles are funny? ('A Guiding Write', 'Heroes of Flight an Panic' indeed.) Props for including options to toggle music and SFX (separately even), though! |
| Aug 13 16:39:19 | 1m 33s | Big Box Mania | ♥ 1 | Polished presentation. Could've used some music, but is fine without it, as it is conductive to a claustrophobic mood. I like that you can push/pull multiple boxes, it really opens op a lot of the game once the drop speed starts increasing. Fun, but the game-play doesn't vary (other than increased speed and franticness), and, though the overall look is smooth and even stylish, I'm still in essence looking a bunch of light-grey cubes. (But, same as with the silence music-wise, that _does_ help a bit with that feel.) |
| Aug 14 20:02:45 | 27h 23m | BIO-EX-DEUS | ♥ 1 | Hi Joror! First this: *I hear no audio of any kind* ... is this deliberate? This one reminds me a lot of the one you submitted for LD#38 ('Angelic Design'), except I think I like this one better. A lot of things, from the game-design, to the balance, to the clarity of the UI (it's immediately clear what's happening), feel _streamlined_ and balanced. The theme feels more fitting to this concept as well. I thought at first that the best move was just to build up the terrain first, then place the pops, and then just 'manually fast forward', but fortunately the more interesting strategy to plan ahead a bit and mix up the 'left side' and 'right side' commands a bit seems to be better. (I could not get more than 4 stars with the first strategy, but got 5 stars (610 points) otherwise.) A thing I noticed, is that the intro-text gives you the impression that it's a tutorial, but the full game has already started. Not that bad, since experimentation is the heart of this game, but you might want to reword that slightly. So, in conclusion; while it may lack (audio? and) elaborate graphics, once you get trying to find a way to get those 5 stars, it opens up into a really neat little tightly designed experience. That takes a few games, and is enough to amuse anyone. I'm not sure the re playability is there once you get those 5 stars... I did, and I might play it some more, but the challenge is gone now that I've got a decent strat going for me. However, if you make this into a campaign, with some special challenges and a bit of a story (like with your last game), it could make a _really_ nice (board?)game. _I know you sometimes do; so please don't forget to rate some games! :-D_ |
| Aug 19 13:45:35 | 113h 42m | Quicksort | ♥ 1 | It may be open-game-art, but it still looks coherent, despite being from different artists. That's a skill as well! Like the other players, I found the input a bit awkward. Maybe you could have the robot hang overneath, on rails, so that only one action would have to be possible on each square, but then you loose the 'move around stacks of boxes that are in the way' part of the game. (What doesn't help is that you have to find out by experimentation that the max. stack height is 3 boxes.) But for me, too, if you got the hang of it, it becomes doable. Also, possible bug; it seems that each out-box beneath (south?) of the one you deliver a parcel to also gets a new request. Meaning, if I put one in the top-left corner, all out-boxes will get updated, but if I put one in the bottom-left corner, only that one will update. Since my short term memory is pretty garbage, I couldn't reach anything resembling a 'second wave'. But maybe I was close? I have no idea! I'd have liked to have some sort of progress-bar, timer, or even just a score. For sound-effects, there is [a very useful site](https://www.bfxr.net/) (you need Flash... yeah I know) that can generate SFX on the fly. When I was in a hurry a few LD's ago, I generated some and put them in my game within half an hour or so. Takes very little effort, and spices up your game immensely. For something more positive, I think the introduction-text is funny and well-written. |
| Aug 19 13:48:09 | 2m 34s | Shredder-Boy | ♥ 1 | First of all, I really like how you've presented any information in this game. Despite accidentally starting the game without reading the accompanying text, it was all so clear that I grasped everything nearly instantly. The pictures underneath are an especially big help in this regard, but this dedication also shows in some of the details, like 'x more packages in y seconds'. Graphics are decent, sound-effects are good (the shredder itself in particular is very satisfying). No music though... I know you probably ran out of time, but I always think music is an underestimated aspect of the whole feel of a game. While I did occasionally notice that I couldn't put a box down (or pick one up) while there was seemingly enough space (probably because it's hard to judge 3D space as presented through early 80's style 2D pixel-art), it did feel 'solid'. Just like the walking is just a bit frustrating because its slow, but it still feels decent because it doesn't feel 'slidey'. On the other hand, the slowness does feel oddly relaxing after a few minutes (usually just fifteen seconds before I lose :-) ), although I don't think that was the intention. Maybe the lack of music plays into this? So, the execution is pretty smooth, and the theme (in a very straightforward manner) fits just fine. I'm just not sure how fun executing a simulated menial task is? But I think speeding it up and adding lots of 'juice' (screenshake, bumps, particle-effects, more SFX, etc.) might help that just fine! |
| Aug 21 22:01:42 | 56h 13m | SANDSTORM | ♥ 2 | The visuals and soundscape are stunning! (Landscape and soundscape?) It reminds me a bit of Journey in the colour scheme at least (also the sand of course). The overarching 'select next destination' screen gives it just enough of a twist that it isn't just one of those 'avoid the blocks' type things. Bit of a StarFox vibe there :-) Besides the technical issues (which I won't bore you with, but the whole process took quite a while), it was some time before I realised that the seconds displayed aren't how long you're supposed to survive, but how long your next leg of the journey can maximally be. So at first I always selected the lower numbers! I was confused as to why I died almost every time, despite boosting all the time and surviving those few seconds. Once I realised what was really going on, it became quite a lot more fun and I got to the end after just a few tries (b.t.w: 'congratulations' is a word that's always pluralised in English). All in all, it (and it's different parts) feel(s) quite cohesive, and really pulls you in. A neat accomplishment. There are a few (other) minor issues I noticed: - You can click through too quickly at game over, making the process even more confusing (see above). When I noticed this in my own game a few LDs back, I made it so that a key doesn't count if it wasn't pressed in the current 'Room'. - You can't exit the game from _within_ the game. I know we all like to have people play our games, but this is a bit much :-) - My controller wasn't supported, even though it mentioned 'LT'/'RT' buttons :-( P.S. So, Vulkan: How's that working out for you? Is the engine open source? |
| Aug 27 12:41:03 | 134h 39m | Unbelievable Space Runner | ♥ 1 | The music really makes this one, it fits so well to the game :-) In fact, I think the whole package is pretty polished for a compo-game, when you consider the pixel-animations that where needed. The parallax is also a cool effect. I noticed however that part of the stars/space dust moved at the same speed as the planets, making it feel like they where glued together. Maybe consider making _all_ of the stars separate parrallax layers? The game flows nicely, enough challenge to keep you from dozing off, but otherwise quite easy. While the phasing does add something to the game (and I like the visual effect for it), I didn't end up using it a whole lot, since it's often easier just to avoid the planetoids altogether. Unfortunately, this (to me) made it very close to a standard 'avoid the things' sidescroller, with only the (also not quite unique) speed-up mechanic to set it apart. Some minor remarks: - The music is louder than the menu-SFX, which is better than the other way around ouf course, but still. On the other hand, I quite liked that all sounds stopped if you clicked out of the game, which is useful for writing reviews :-) - The effect on speedup is quite appropriate, but it lasts very long and takes over the entire screen. I didn't run into anything because of it in practice, but I have to wonder... - Is 'Dr. Kumari' in reference to anything, or just a nice bit of inclusivity? - Some typo's in the help: 'his dream _to_ reach the void', 'slowly _absorbs_', 'he must run in space', 'makes _him_ run faster' |
| Aug 27 12:44:05 | 3m 02s | Armageddon | ♥ 1 | Triangle-based art in 2D ... nice style choice! Also, the level of polish is amazing for a compo-entry! (It 'even' has an exit button -- why do so many other Unity entries seem to forget this?) The hazy fire shader is a subtle but nice effect as well. I only have trouble getting the controller back when I switch out of the game writing a bit of review, but that gave me the chance to try the keyboard layout as well. ... I can see why you recommend the controller, but fortunately it's still very playable. Occasionally there is a piece of fire I can't seem to extinguish... it _seems_ to me this sometimes happens when you try to do it with a tile of fire that has just landed. Gameplay is challenging (in a nice way), but I suspect it'll probably become repetitive if I would only manage to stay alive longer. Maybe make the extinguisher and the water-balloon take up a different slot? It would hurt the simplicity a little bit, but may be worth it for the increased strategy and would help you stay alive juts a little bit longer. Or maybe just make it so you can pick up multiple items (with a low limit of course). Small typo: 'to protect youR land'. |
| Aug 27 12:50:18 | 6m 13s | Eject Tape | ♥ 0 | Polish, music and SFX, graphics, all very nice, and I like the way you do tutorialization (throughout the game, rather than just the beginning; the little arrows after you solved the mazes). On the whole, though, it felt just a little bit too anaemic for me (despite the size of the last maze), probably because given the style of gameplay, I expected a little more story. While it's good that the interpretation of the theme is less literal (I can see why some others like it!) the way it is now feels a bit bolted on to me. It _is_ very relaxing, and plays smoothly, which is always a nice bonus in between all the hectic pace of the other games :-) Which is to say, the mood is great! |
| Aug 27 12:53:47 | 3m 29s | They Came while I was jogging | ♥ 1 | (Tried both on Windows and Linux, both run fine.) Quite an experiece! I really love how the 'menu' at the beginning is integrated into the game. Also how you think it's simple at first, but it just keeps on changing on you :-) (The last one was quite tricky for me, as I thpught the crosses where some sort of structural support beam.) The controls feel decent as long as you don't collide with anything, then they can feel a bit clunky, in that it's sometimes feels harder to get away from a wall than it maybe should be. It's also not quite clear at first that, while you can't walk over the burning rubble, you _can_ walk over the non-burning craters. While this mechanic is a neat bit of game-design in it's own right, I think it can be signposted better. Maybe make the fire more clear? The humour through environmental story-telling is very well done, especially in how the slightly dissonant music makes it all feel like the comedy of errors which it is. You could maybe add some SFX to the screenshake? I had a great time trying to out-jog the enemies (that reminds me, I should start my own run soon in real life...) |
| Aug 27 20:23:35 | 7h 29m | Into Asteroid Belt | ♥ 1 | I sort of like that the asteroids have some physics, and can bump into one another, I did see two getting stuck on each other at the edge of the screen for some period of time. While it's fun, and the controls are smooth, it sometimes felt to me like the hitbox is too large (which probably means it's actually fair, but a lot of games fudge these things in favour of the player in-order to make it _feel_ fair as well). The retro-graphics and tiny window make this one stand out a bit (an a good way!), but ultimately, there's not a lot I haven't seen before. Try adding some sound-effects/music/screenshake, see how it livens up the game! :-) For quick SFX generation (allow during compo as well), you could for example use [this site](https://www.bfxr.net/). I did almost miss the clever take on the theme (I'm a bit slow today), but luckily I saw a comment pointing it out! |
| Aug 27 20:27:14 | 3m 39s | FORK THIS!!! | ♥ 0 | Lots of options! You tried to put a quite large feature set into such a small ammount of time. Particle effects, options to pick a different vehicle, a space level, physics, et.c etc. Always nice to see, but... Ooof, it's buggy... I've seen all kinds of physics mess-ups, forklifts floating in the air, forklifts capsizing and pusing boxes sideways. One time I even multiplied my forklift every time I started a game, which was hilarious, but probably not intended. All sorts of other small issues as well, like my current score at the beginning of a new run is my old highscore. Not to mention going right through not only the walls, but nearly everything else as well... The 'drop box' command occasionally not working (or it feels like it anyway...) Maybe a good idea next time to focus on making sure that what _is_ there _works_, instead of cramming in lots of features. You just don't have that time during a 2 or 3 day jam! Even if you do, you probably don't want to take that risk, and just add new stuff later. The menu music and diegetic sounds-effects work well for me :-) The bugs somehow make it _more_ fun, not less? Despite all the problems (and perhaps because of them), this somehow manages to _work_ quite decently as a game, which means there must have been something there to begin with :-) Sorry to sound so negative (sort of?)... it's not quite as bad as it sounds how I describe it here, but I can't think of a better what right now to get my point across? Some fiddly little unimportant points: - You try to offer both `.rar` and `.zip`, but the latter one is actually `.7z`, which not everyone may have either... - Something I noticed with a few games here but've yet to comment on: The menu's are mouse only, but in-game it's keyboard only. - 'Unlock tank' hi-score in the select screen is not the same as the 'Creator hi-score' in the main menu? |
| Aug 27 20:28:48 | 1m 34s | Edge Of Space | ♥ 1 | What a rush! Seemed quite hard at first, but once you get into the swing of things (and in my case, avoid getting the laser upgrade, minigun worked best for me) it becomes doable to get a quite a while in. Has a bit of a Luftrauser vibe to it -- here though, the concept is even simpler, but I find that I don't mind, since for this game, everything is in the execution. Everything just flows and handles so well that it almost doesn't even register. Big fan of the music, 'hopeful' in a way that only some retro-chiptunes seem to manage, seems to have as much filtering over it as the (also great, or at least very 'alive' and in a style I like) graphics/animation (to achieve the 'old arcade-hall speaker' effect to it no doubt). I like that the screen shakes just a little bit even if you do nothing at all, just to give it the feeling that you're going so fast the ship is about to blow up all on it's own, never mind the big white void. The only criticism I have right now is that your eventual success (or lack thereof) seems to be a bit too dependant on the initial ships/upgrades you get thrown against you. (Though the randomization keeps it more replayable I think.) But maybe that's the reason the upgrades don't stack? Because that would have been neat, at the cost of making it even more arbitrary. |
| Aug 30 19:15:25 | 70h 46m | Shipping Error | ♥ 1 | _Note: Not everyone has unrar installed!_ Different sound effects preceding the debris/offices are clever! I like how the rocks just destroy each other as well, giving you a chance to keep the playing field open. But you can't 'get rid' of the offices at all, so even the most skilled player will stop the game after a relatively short while. I think, if you'd really want people to get into it, there must be a (difficult?) way to keep playing (maybe the playing-field slowly drifts rightwards or something). Why do offices/debris they come in batches? Would it spice up the game if it where randomized as well, or is it worth it to keep it this way because of strategizing. I can't really think of many situations where it's that helpful to just know the type of block when the shape varies wildly, and it could be solved by having a 'next block' preview as well. You probably already know this, but some music would really help! :-) This reminds me of a very old game, Blockout, but this has a different focus. Anyway, solid entry when concerning the basic gameplay, and it's nice that there are already some effects like the rotating debris and the boosters under the buildings. It could use even more of that juice; particularly screenshake would be a good one to add to this game :-) |
| Aug 30 19:16:52 | 1m 27s | (Running) Flying out of space | ♥ 0 | The recoil is an interesting effect, but I think it's a bit too strong. It took me a few retries to get the shift key to work, maybe that has todo with my Windows settings. Another small issue is that (the menu on) the Game Over screen didn't seem to work for me; in order to retry, I had to quit the game and restart. You're off to a decent start, but this game will need some reworks before it can truly shine! _ETA: Don’t forget to rate others! It’d be a shame if your game ended up w.o. a rating!_ |
| Aug 30 19:18:46 | 1m 54s | U Kill U Fall | ♥ 0 | Great animations! I think the idea is pretty good, tying the shrinking platform to the number of killed enemies... but is there a story-reason for it? Connecting a bit of reason to it might help make sense of the setting, and also helps with the immersion The jump is very high... the game ran a bit slowly on my Windows-lappy, but it took about half a minute to reach the ground again! What also doesn't really help is that the view is really zoomed in. I think I defeated one of the big monsters by standing above their spawning-point, and thus bopping their heads. The A, D and P points remain a bit obscure, even after re-reading the instructions. You could've left them out and just focussed on other things. The different weapon upgrades are fun to discover, though. Adding audio to your game would help a lot with the mood/flow! An easy way to generate audio (legal for compo) is [this site](https://www.bfxr.net/). It remained quite fun, even with some of those issues (in case of the jumping, partly _because_ it seems not quite right). _ETA: Don't forget to rate others! It'd be a shame if your game ended up w.o. a rating!_ |
| Aug 30 19:22:15 | 3m 29s | Box-Bot | ♥ 0 | _(Note: The `.zip` does not have a top folder, so extract-in-place just unpacks all into the current folder.)_ Very nice idea! :-) Not sure how well the theme fits (I get that there's a conveyor taking you to the lava, but I think the connection is tenous), but the theme doesn't really matter that much anyway. On a more serious note, I think that the controls are hard enough that getting stuck behind a tall box is not quite recoverable for a player new to your game. Breaking boxes is hard enough to pull off that I feel it doesn't really compensate enough. Maybe next time, consider to focus less on an upgrade system that some players won't really have much chance to get to use, and more on a gradual difficulty curve. On the other hand, the physics run pretty smoothly, which is great relief after a couple of games that ran way too slowly and/or where buggy. It's polished as well: The graphics and sounds fit well together and create a nice mood. _Don't forget to rate some more games yourself! You're only at about 12 ratings received, and it'd be a shame if this one ended up without a ranking!_ |
| Sep 1 20:39:19 | 49h 17m | Lancaster Electronics Ltd. | ♥ 1 | _ Sorry, this is a way too long comment that overanalyzes parts of your game in various daft ways, but I saw a Zachlike with a rainbow-ish logo recommended on the itch.io picks and I just couldn't stay away. It's a bit unwieldy and my attempts at editing somehow only made it worse, so ... enjoy! :-) _ Trying to build what amounts to a full and fully featured Zachlike experience when you've already worked on and abandoned your first idea can't have been easy. That even got it in some sort of working order, with graphics and audio as good and coherent as these is even more impressive! There are so many little bits that are good, like the little light on top of the 'Lancaster', or the subtle effect of the 'typed' screen, the totally in-mood SFX, the way it asks you which thing you want to edit when there's multiple you could've meant (even though the only time it's needed is if you want to rewire your solution)... oh, and the notes that where stuck on with tape :-) Unfortunately, it seems that these great ideas/ambitions/efforts end up being paid with in usability and tutorialization (and music, but I found the lack not very serious, given the genre), and in my opinion at least, some of the game mechanics (as opposed to the overall idea). For some reason I've got the hardest time wrapping my head around the IO flags module. Some part of my brain just finds it really unintuitive... 'spooky action at a distance!' :-p (As in, you're at this supposedly basic level, where you have to do nearly everything manually, and yet this IO chip just cycles the inputs/outputs without connecting to those?) I think it's mostly my mistake though... I ended up skimming the intro, instead of going over it properly, then doing the fist level in a way that solved it, but completely misunderstood how the IO worked, getting through the second level with a similar flawed technique, then hitting a snag with the third level, reading the comments and seeing there was a problem with it, then trying to solve level 4, still with my flawed understanding. But then there's also that you get the first read/write without the IO-flags mod. Some smaller issues, some of which may also be me being somewhat daft: - Condition check: Is there a way to select which input is the flag and which the condition? I haven't found it... - Took a while to find the 'delete' key (I don't think it's mentioned anywhere). - Backspace is back to menu is also not mentioned anywhere. (Props for making the help/level-intro {re/dis}appear on command though!) - The 'arrow forward' key to mark checkboxes in the IO-flags (while enter _does_ work in the Math Module) is a little unintiutive as well (and also not really mentioned?) - Probably also on me, but it took me _ages_ to find that you could _scroll_ through the menu's (I think you _did_ mention this somewhere...) Well, _nearly_ all menu's... some still have keyboard only commands, like the ones in the combinator/logic modules. - The different 'modes' felt a bit clunky, since _almost_ all actions could be done without the modes. |
| Sep 1 20:41:13 | 1m 54s | Hoard | ♥ 0 | I was this on Phil's video already, but I don't think that I would've had any difficulties picking up the basics of the gameplay. Though maybe it should be made slightly more clear that gifting stuff to your rabbit-friend is most likely to make them unhappy. If you approach it completely as a puzzle-game, it seems reasonable to assume this, but I remember when I watched the vid that I thought it would have involved more social interaction, until about the second or third item. I must say that this game is a lot more fun to actually play than to watch, though :-) I'm not usually someone that likes 'menial task' games, but this one kept me playing all the way through the end. The most important criticism I have is _please move the reset function key out of the way of the rotating keys_. I accidentally restarted the shoe level at least _twice_, causing some creative language here... :-) Eventually I just mostly rotated everything the other way around. The wheelbarrow was quite funny, I'd have liked to play that 'fresh'... now I knew what was coming. (It's also a nice way to ensure the end-screen can stay mostly the same if you do win.) _I almost didn't notice there was music!_ For some reason it shows up as a 'play' button (and the time + mute button) underneath the webpage. It didn't autoplay, so I had to click it! I'm at a bit of a loss to come up with anything more that hasn't already mentioned in the vid or here. Phil was pretty thorough! ETA: Oh, I've seen your comment above: only had to get rid of the wheelbarrow and the carrot as well (probably could've fitted that one as well, but I wanted to feed our friend something good). I think I even made screenies of some levels? |
| Sep 1 22:04:05 | 1h 22m | Breathing Space | ♥ 0 | Well, you got me to play it multiple times, which is a good sign :-) So far, I got; the 'surprisingly dark' (at least twice), 'oddly meh', 'fluff', 'dead in the water', and 'this is fine' (three times now) endings. (Yes, I tried to save the dogs as well, see below.) You can take some wounds if you have enough med-kits, but I think I've seen only the 'relax a minute' card which takes away problems of a more psychological nature. To my taste, the writing is indeed very good ('a madrigal of mouths' in particular is something that will likely linger in my subconscious for quite some time, and I'm equal parts concerned an intrigued by the crewmember snacking on spatulas), but as you try to find the different endings, the cards start repeating. I know you've written a lot of cards in a small amount of time, but eventually it stops to be about the writing at all and is just a means to the different endings. As you learn the different outcomes, and know which sort of ending you'd like to try this time (on my last few runs I tried to save the dogs, for example, but got waylaid by my fragile psyche) it just (seems to me at least, but maybe I missed something?) to become a matter of luck (which events you get this time, and to a lesser extent, in which order). The visual effects of turning the cards, and the little icons flying about are nice. Some smaller issues: - On my smaller laptop display, if I go fullscreen, the 'Start Running' button overlaps some of the text. I think this is present on at least one of the endings-screens as well. - The 21th century _confectionery_ vending machine somehow spit out a very mundane ('no fantasy') set of bare minimum rations. - (I think) Taking along a single crewmember (and too few foodstuffs) can cause the ending where you're chewed on by dogs, but that same ending implies you took multiple crew along with you. |
| Sep 3 09:38:43 | 35h 34m | Lien Acres | ♥ 1 | The map is pleasantly SimCity Classic inspired, and the music is similar too, but both are good in their own right as well. Playing from the perspective of the farms (often, but not always) left out of the SimCity series is a nice twist. Playing it feels smooth and polished, plus your possible actions are clear from the beginning (excepting that in what way I lose money each season will always be a bit opaque to me... the tax rate isn't really shown anywhere I think?) The land-grab option seems quite balanced despite being random. During my first playthrough, it even seemed to get higher chance of effectiveness towards the end of the game. (Perhaps tied to how much the city has already taken over?) But my second made it clear that I just got lucky last time. It's a small detail, but I also like how the end-text changes depending on which of the two outcomes you get. Another small detail is the tower, of which the city doesn't seem to build more, but is there to give the impression that the city has some sort of centre and outskirts. If I have a big criticism, it is this: During each stage of play, there seems to be only one 'correct' (dominant) style of play: - In the hectic, somewhat difficult beginning: Spam wheat throughout the entire map until you can reliably afford corn. - Then there is a short stage that is mostly about mixing in more and more corn until you can afford the greenhouse. - Keep planting corn (and _maybe_ still a bit of wheat) while you mix in more and more tomato-fields (which seems to be limited to 2 at first, but almost as soon as I build them, this restriction was lifted). - Keep planting tomatoes until you can afford 'delay land-grab', and later on 'friends in low places', and keep spamming those while planting tomatoes only. Thus, there is really no reason to keep wheat or corn around when you can afford tomatoes, and the greenhouse upgrade is a one-time only thing, leaving only three options to play around with. Even there it just seems 'spam each of these as often as you can'. It becomes less a game of strategy, and more of luck. Another, related issue is the strange difficulty curve: Hectic in the beginning, as you struggle to get enough wheat out, then more and more sedate and drawn out. This even becomes worse in the end, as your money dries up, so you can't pick the options as often, and the fields don't need replacing that often because you just don't have that much any more. In a way, this is of course very much in line with the 'fighting a losing battle' motive, and it helps with the mood in that regard. Impressive if intentional! Still, the gameplay suffers just a little. P.S. I normally try not to promote my own game in feedback, but this time our respective games just match up almost perfectly: So, if you'd like to play from the perspective of the encroaching city, maybe give my game a try :-) It doesn't match 100% (as you don't fight a farm, or anything, per se) but the inspirations are drawn from the same place. |
| Sep 3 10:28:05 | 49m 22s | Hexboard | ♥ 0 | You create a very nice mood with only minimal graphics and no sound-effects (which could've been generated with a tool like [this](https://www.bfxr.net/) in a few minutes, something to keep in mind for next time?). The actual strategy part is pleasant as well, though, since there are very little instructions, some things become a little unclear. Like life only seems to matter for the archers, otherwise it's just chess rules? Or the way the opponent moves whenever I just select a piece. (I know chess works the same in real life: Touch a piece and you move it, but putting it in your own game in this way seems a little extreme, if it's on purpose. I'm not sure if it happens all the time, but more often than nor it seems.) I wish there would've been some way to see the places an opponent can get to. It may be clear once you know the rules, but it would also help with teaching players those rules during play. I also seem to have the hardest time beating level 3 :-) |
| Sep 3 18:14:47 | 7h 46m | Pyyrolysis | ♥ 1 | The atmosphere was super-tense... definitely a great mood there! I think the space-station is just way too large. You could've gotten the same feelings/message/etc. across with far fewer of those cleaners, I think. If you as the dev already say it's very hard, it will be almost impossible for players. (Unless you've based the 'very hard' on a few willing play-testers during development?) I do think that you're right and it would be doable if I could be convinced to spend a long time on studying the layout of the station... But while the moody lighting and the grey walls work for the atmosphere, they tend to be a bit too samey for fun exploration. I've worked with a lot of different 3D viewers and data at my different workplaces (and even written one or two), so the way of movement felt really super-intuitive to me :-) ... but I can see that other people might have problems. These two issues make me thing: Maybe you could've made one or two pratice-levels? Introducing the idea and giving the player an early sense of accomplishment, without losing the thriller like feelings to repetition. (Potentially there's also the getting dizzy and feeling nauseas issue, but I've not encountered that ... yet.) This is the first game I can think of (in an LD-Jam) where I'm not sure music would improve the experience :-) _(I get some script-console errors too by the way, but for me it's `Error: WebGL warning: texParameteri: pname 0x2803: Invalid param 0x2900.` .)_ The zero-G makes this stand out quite a bit, and with some polish and rethinking this could be a very good game. |
| Sep 3 18:45:48 | 31m 01s | The Circuit Designer | ♥ 1 | I quite like the tutorialization here! But maybe what is a very gentle introduction to a programmer, might confuse someone else? I'm not sure how well the 'status'/requirements would come of to someone new, for example. Also something I like: the SFX is really nice with the wire and other placement effects. Anyway, it's very nice to see more Zachtronics-type games during this iteration (I found at least one other during rating). Yours is a nicely minimalist interpretation :-) What I like a bit less is that its just bog-standard gate-logic. Now that's fine, but I can get that everywhere else as well. A story is also missing, and while the 'blueprint' thematics fit the minimalist interpretation very well, it also feels a bit uninspired? Every Zachlike (even the majority of homages) usually include some fantastical element to make the logic required _just_ a little bit unfamilliar. Thankfully, the placement/erasure/rotate controls are well thought out. Even the wire can be stretched over longer spans. Well... except around the corners, but you can't get evrything in a Compo entry :-) Minor stuff: 'The and gate 2' level can be solved with only a NOT-gate on the middle input. |
| Sep 3 19:30:11 | 44m 23s | Bityville | ♥ 1 | It may be easy, but I haven't found a dominant strategy yet to get there quick (current record is 177 days), so that's good :-) The player needs to mix it up a bit, as only building apartments nets you no money, but if you only build offices at first, your population will take too long to build up. I'm experimenting a bit with parks and taxes, but I'm not sure how parks or taxes influences the rate of people moving into your city (it seems it does a bit?) It doesn't seem to be explained anywhere. Also, when you upgrade a building fully, the park behind it becomes hard to see. It's (probably?) upgraded when you click on the parks general vicinity (because I can hear the sound), but you don't see the green color of 'upgradable' anymore. Nice aestethic choice as well. It does make it very hard to see which building is an office, and which an appartment though. Music is nice enough, and I've got no complaints about the controls :-) ETA: Oh, almost forgot one criticism: The only adjacency thing you have going on right now is w.r.t. the roads. As in; it doesn't matter _where_ you build a park, as long as it's build. (But this is a very small issue...) _( I only refer to my own game in feedback when I find a game that has some connection to mine, but a city-puzzler with isometric perspective and a pun in the title relating to urbanization hits very close to home :-) )_ |
| Sep 4 20:05:00 | 24h 34m | Slightly 2 Overbuilt | ♥ 0 | Great interpretation of the theme (literal, but fitting very well with the actual gameplay). Fun as a puzzle as well. For me, only the main menu has music/sound... is this intentional? I think you could've extended this music over the main gameplay easily as well without any harm. Please do include some more explanation, or at least make the little icons stand out some more, even (especially?) when they're greyed out... or instead, just make the 'tier 1' buildings that you can build in the beginning without requiring any of the others light up. (Maybe that was the intention? They didn't for me, which made it very puzzling when I couldn't build the others ... until I discovered they had little grey icons on then, and the others didn't). I also wonder about the replayability... I was in a rush to get this rated before time and haven't checked thoroughly, but I think the building-blocks stay the same shape each time? Not sure how to overcome this, but if you do; well, you've got a solid 'basis' (this result) for building your 'rocket' (any hypothetical post-jam version) on! Also: nice relaxing pastel colours! :-) |