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Birdwards

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		Birdwards's comment
Dec 3 05:03:45		BlobSacrificator	♥ 1	Congrats on finishing your first Ludum Dare! Here's a few things I noticed: - The instructions don't mention that the spacebar is the jump button- or the fact that you can double jump. I wouldn't have figured out either of those things if it weren't for the fact that the first image shows the player character standing on a raised platform. Since the instructions mention using WASD to move, I expected W to be jump. - Whenever the character changes direction, the camera quickly jumps to the right or left. This can be very disorienting. - It would be nice if there was an element of risk to the game, such as taking damage when you run into the blobs.
Dec 3 05:50:48	47m 03s	Slithering Dark	♥ 2	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - You definitely nailed that "claustrophobic tension" you mention in your description. - I love the little details, like the faint pitter-patter of the walking sound effect, and the animation on the "c'mere" command. - I wish the Game Over screen contained the same results (such as number of people eaten/abandoned/etc.) that you see when you successfully complete the game. - On that note, I love the way you do the ending (open the door and - phew! - the whole room is empty), but the point at which it ends feels rather arbitrary, considering that all the levels are randomly generated. I'm not sure how to solve that problem without making the game infinite, though. - I was going to talk about how difficult I found the game to be, but I realize after looking back at your second screenshot that I probably wasn't playing the game exactly as you intended. It never occurred to me to split up the characters on purpose to minimize risk. I figured the whole mechanic of moving one character at a time and calling the others to you was just a way to simulate the difficulty of moving in a group. So, I basically just kept everybody together as much as possible, spamming the spacebar whenever I was running away from the monsters and exiting with whoever survived their attack (which was usually not many). My strategy was probably a bad one. Nonetheless, maybe it'd make sense to include some mechanic that forces the characters to split up at some points, which may help along the realization for folks like me. - When the main controls are WASD and spacebar, the Tab key is in a pretty inconvenient spot when you need to use it quickly. I'd recommend moving the ~~"c'mere"~~ switch-character command (edit: whoops) from Tab to Shift, so the pinky rests on the key naturally.
Dec 3 06:19:21	28m 33s	God of Indecisiveness	♥ 1	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - It's kinda funny how, in later levels, it basically turns into a very morbid rhythm game. - Half the time I messed up, it's because I forgot which of the two buttons killed and which one freed. Maybe that's just an inherent part of the challenge of this game; I dunno. - That said, I do think the freeing mechanic was a good idea, and adds some much-needed variety into the gameplay. - I like the difficulty of the last level, but I think the difficulty of the other levels ramps up too slowly. The last level seems to go at about twice the speed of the second-to-last level, so I think you have some wiggle room to make the other later levels go faster.
Dec 4 05:47:05	23h 27m	Bow-wow Before God	♥ 1	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - The graphics and relentless dog puns are really charming. - I love the contrast of a cutesy dog character demanding human sacrifice. ([All hail Mr. Poofers.](http://homestarrunner.com/ween18.html)) - I was pretty confused by the shop screen. It was unclear what to click on to purchase a boost, or that "MAX" and "+25" represented two different boosts for sale, as opposed to being two pieces of information about the same item. I was also thrown off by the icons for the type of Sacrifice Points being redeemed. For example, the max boost for Pats requires 1105 Sacrifice Points, but there's a Human icon to the left of the number 1105, and an Animal icon to the right of the number. Since the Animal icon is in the same cell as 1105 and the Human icon is not, I thought it required Animal points, but it actually requires Human points. It was only after I noticed the icons outside the table to the left that I realized that the icon to the left, not the right, represents the type of sacrifice required. I'd recommend shifting the icons and numbers in rows 2 and 4 to the right, so that the appropriate icons are in the same cells as their respective numbers. - That said, once I figured out how to play, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I think you have a solid set of core mechanics here. You may want to tweak the balance, though; I was able to hold out for the max boost in each category without having to use any Special Sacrifice points. - I know you want to do a proper tutorial for the post-jam version, but in the meantime, perhaps you should mention the disaster/blessing mechanic in the description. I wasn't sure what the alarms represented at first. (Speaking of which, are disasters caused by anything specific, or are they random?)
Dec 4 06:20:02	32m 57s	Explodin' Slimes Maze	♥ 1	I knew as soon as I saw the title that I had to play this... I also submitted a game about exploding slimes! (Don't worry; it's very different from yours.) Nice work! Here's my thoughts: - The level design is excellent. It gradually introduces the mechanics to the player (as it should), the puzzles make some nice use of red herrings, and the later levels have genuinely clever solutions. I'd love to play a version of this with more levels if you two were planning on expanding on this. - The use of innocent bystanders that need to be left unharmed was a nice touch- though, given the theme of this jam, I was wondering if at some point I'd be forced to kill one of them. - It's a shame there's no audio, but as someone who also struggles to make time for audio in game jams, I feel your pain. - Since you can exit the first level without a key, I feel like when the key is introduced, there should be a separate block right in front of the exit with a keyhole that you unlock. Otherwise, it feels kinda inconsistent (at first, I thought the key might unlock a hidden room or something rather than the exit). If you don't want to alter the existing levels, maybe you could have the exit be gray when the level begins, but then turn red when the player grabs the key to signify that it can now be entered. - The instructions should mention that clicking also chooses which square to explode (for green slimes, anyway). I tried repeatedly tapping space at first, expecting it to explode in all directions like the pink slimes eventually did. Then, of course, i was surprised when the first pink slime did explode in all directions, but I guess that's partially my fault for not paying attention to the fact that all the red squares highlighted on mouseover rather than just one.
Dec 8 01:32:43	91h 12m	Dare to Risk	♥ 1	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - I'd like to affirm pretty much everything @erasmus-crowley said. I like the choice the player needs to make between upgrading a tile and moving its units, I noticed all of the same problems on my playthrough. The only difference was my experience with the AI. Not once did it successfully take over one of my tiles; even when it had more units than one of my adjacent tiles on its turn, it only sent a handful of those units over, so my number of units went down, but ownership did not change. Maybe it knew that taking over a given tile at a given moment would stretch it too thin and put it in a disadvantageous position. Maybe my strategy for this game was particularly powerful (I left all tiles with only one unit except the ones on the front line, placing as many units in each of them as possible, similarly to how I've played other Risk-likes). Maybe it never had a chance because of a possible exploit I found- see the next comment. - I know that, when you perform a single action with a tile, you cannot perform another action with that tile until your next turn. So, I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature, but I noticed that you can move the same units multiple tiles in a single turn... if you move them in the right order. For example, say there are 3 tiles in a row named A, B, and C. A contains 3 of your units, B contains 5 of your units, and C is an empty tile. So, you can move 4 units from B to C, 2 units from A to B, and then you're done with your turn, right? Well, if you move the 2 units from A to B first, tile B is updated to have 7 units before you've finished your turn. So now, when you go to give orders to tile B, 6 units are available to move from B to C. In other words, those two units from tile A can be moved twice in a single turn. I assume this is unintentional. Since these movements can be chained together, they can be easily abused. Nearly every turn after I found this exploit, I carefully plotted paths that allowed me to move units up to 6 or 7 tiles away from their starting position within the span of a single turn. - I'd like to know what the properties of each different building type are. I think I figured out that hospitals generate units faster, but that's all I could figure out on my own. - Once you select Attack or Upgrade, you are not allowed to change your mind. An undo button would be nice. - I'd like to see a local two-player mode as well, so you don't have to play against the AI. - The sound was very low; I didn't notice there were sound effects until I faintly heard the win fanfare. Despite all these criticisms, I did enjoy playing the game.
Dec 9 23:26:17	45h 53m	The Tearable Three	♥ 2	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - This is a great concept. The difficulty of the three sacrifices is pretty well-balanced. I still can't decide which to favor, and that's a good thing. - I really like the filter you use after removing the eyes. It looks like you're squinting through several layers of fabric, and as a cosplayer who uses masks a lot, the feeling hits pretty close to home. - I also like how there are multiple ways to approach each level, especially given the double jump (though the instructions should really mention that you can double jump). Even though this game is a purely physical challenge on the surface, making decisions about your sacrifice and the route you take through the level help give it more of a cerebral feel. - It's a shame you couldn't get the collision bug fixed before the deadline, but thank you for putting up a fixed version so quickly. It's definitely a lot more playable, and allowed me to see much more for your content than I would have otherwise. That said, I did notice a few more minor issues, even with the post-jam version: - While the collision no longer clips you through the level or anything like that, collision with ceilings in particular could still stand to be improved. For example, if you're jumping to the left and hit a ceiling, it pushes you back to the right. In the post-jam version, you are allowed to move to the left again after falling for about half a tile, but even the small amount of pushback that still happens can make it difficult to progress in some areas (such as the little nook containing the key in the first level of the post-jam version), especially since you can't control your jump height if you sacrifice your legs. It would feel more natural if hitting a ceiling preserved your X velocity and only changed your Y velocity. - I got no audio at all on my first playthrough of each version. I would have chalked it up to a weird sandboxing thing that my antivirus (Avast) does when running certain unfamiliar programs for the first time, but I checked the HTML5 build, and it happened there too, with no (visible) intervention from Avast. The audio is now working for me on both builds of both versions. I have no idea what could cause a bug like that... maybe it's still something specific to my computer. In any case, I'm glad it's working now- the audio is great! - On the sacrifice select screen, if you click a sacrifice but press the left or right arrow keys during the fade to black, you can change the sacrifice before the level begins. I discovered this accidentally, and I imagine that this is unintentional.
Dec 10 00:07:10	40m 53s	sacrifice must be done	♥ 0	Congrats on finishing your first Ludum Dare! A lot of other folks have already talked about stuff I would have mentioned, but I did notice something that might be a bug. When I try to jump onto the platform directly above the first boulder, something kills the character, but I don't see any hazards there.
Dec 10 01:11:38	1h 04m	Tezcacoatl's Dance Dance Paradise	♥ 1	Nice work! I hope my comments can be helpful as both a rhythm gamer and a drummer. Here are my thoughts: - The graphics and audio are delightful. I love how the game conveys its humor entirely through those, instead of explicitly writing jokes. - You chose your scope well, and it shows. The amount of polish put into each detail is impressive. - I love the subtle rumbling of the volcano telling you how close you are to losing. - Like everyone else, I struggled with diagonals, especially hitting them in rapid sequence. When diagonals are introduced, it seems like each arrow is equally likely to be diagonal or orthogonal. I think you should tweak the probability so that diagonals are far less likely than orthogonals when they are first introduced (maybe a 25/75 split), but get more probable as the game progresses, up to a 50/50 split. Otherwise, the ramp-up in difficulty feels very sudden. - I had the same input problem as @ild-games-llc. My guess is that you're using Input.GetButton or Input.GetKey to detect key presses when you should be using Input.GetButtonDown or Input.GetKeyDown. - It can be difficult to replicate a rhythm that contains a long rest. Likewise, when there's a long gap between the end of the drum sequence and the beginning of the dance sequence, it can be difficult to time the first arrow. I think there should be a backing track to compare the drum rhythm against- maybe a shaker softly playing 8th notes with an emphasis on beats 2 and 4. - The gap between the beginning of the drum sequence and the beginning of the dance sequence appears to be about one measure of 4/4 time. This can pose a problem when the drum sequences become longer than one measure. Dancing one measure behind the drums while the drums are still playing can be very disorienting/distracting. I'd recommend a gap of two measures, so you can generate longer patterns without disrupting the call-and response flow of the game.
Dec 13 05:50:57	76h 39m	Foothold	♥ 1	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - This is a great take on the theme. - I had fun with this one. With some polish, I could easily see myself coming back to this. I'll be looking forward to 2.0. - I love that you can expand the map by walking off the edge. That was a pleasant surprise. - I know you've already addressed these in the comments, but I'd like to echo the thoughts of others about enemies spawning too close and tiles crumbling right underneath the player. You mentioned fixing the latter by giving the player some time to walk off the tile before they fall. While that could work, I think a better solution for consistency's sake would be immediately repairing the tile after it crumbles. After all, that's what happens when the player walks onto a crumbling tile from a non-crumbling tile. I admit that players could abuse this system by constantly shooting underneath themselves for the points without actually giving up any footholds, but that problem could be fixed by making it so the point counter for a tile doesn't start until the tile has completely crumbled away. - I thought I saw Munchars repairing tiles a couple of times. I assume that's a bug. - My high score is 30987 (screenshot below)! I figured out a strategy: Move around the edges of the map in a circle, while quickly shooting as many blobs behind you as you can. This allows you to destroy footholds faster than you repair them, so your reserves are always kept up, even if you run into a Munchar here and there. That said, if it weren't for the instant-fall thing, I'm not sure what could've stopped me from going on forever with that strategy. Perhaps a restriction on fire rate is in order. I feel like that would make it more about the kind of strategic decisions you mention in the description. footfall high score.png
Dec 13 06:27:01	36m 04s	Baby Grenade	♥ 0	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - Who can resist a game with a [throw baby](http://i.imgur.com/Jsrwa.gif) command? - Your "how to win" description is gold. - The music is the most polished I've heard in an entry yet! - I agree with @pkenney that third-person would probably be better so you can see all around you. I do like how the spawn points are visible objects, though. That at least gives you some sense of where they'll be coming from.
Dec 18 06:49:06	120h 22m	MindMaze	♥ 0	Nice work! Here are my thoughts: * This is a really unique concept. I don't think I've played a game about fighting negative thoughts before. * The character's animations look very natural. * I was confused by the instructions, but I understood the game pretty quickly once I started playing. * I agree with some other players that winning feels more about luck than skill. There is some strategy in deciding which routes to take to try to get which resources, but because of the limited field of view, it can be hard to find the resource you need. * I found a couple bugs: * I reached the "YOU WIN" screen right after I clicked "Unlock" for the last red triangle, before the wheel even finished spinning. I wasn't guaranteed to win that spin; I was all out of Hope, so if it landed on Hope, I assume I would have lost. * When facing a red triangle, if you click "Unlock", then click "Leave" before the wheel stops spinning, then wait a few seconds, the triangle still disappears and you still lose some of one stat, as if the wheel still finished spinning.
Dec 20 07:32:50	48h 43m	TILL WE UNITE AS ONE: CHAPTER ONE	♥ 0	@hamsters-actually The Google Drive link worked for me; did you try that one? Neat idea! The first level was hard because of how fast the bullets move, but the second level was really interesting. I was confused at first about how the second level works, but once I figured it out, it was a nice little challenge. The sound effect at the end surprised me, but I think it's a good choice for the narrative.
Dec 20 08:33:14	1h 00m	Don't Take my Stuff!	♥ 1	Nice idea! I know you've already observed issues with lag and aren't sure how to fix it, but I'd like to share my experience: The moment I enter the house, the game slows to a crawl. It's about 1 frame per second - or even less - by the time I get far enough into the house to reach one of the first two doorways. At that point, the controls often freeze so I cannot move at all, no matter how long I hold down an arrow key or mouse button. I know the game itself hasn't frozen because the clock is still counting down, though it is usually counting in increments of 2 or 3 seconds by that point. If I do make it back out of the house, the game speeds back up again, so I think you're correct about it being related to the number of objects onscreen. That said, it's not like I'm playing on a super-old machine - my computer has a GTX 970 - so it should be more than capable of handling a game like this. I have a couple guesses that may be of help: - Maybe there's an issue with the PNG files that's making it take longer for libpng to render them. I'm guessing this because the console window that pops up with the game displays many copies of the following warning: "libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile". [This StackOverflow thread](http://stackoverflow.com/a/29337595/5401826) has some solutions to that problem. I don't know enough about sRGB profiles to know if that may cause performance issues, but it's something to look into. - Maybe something that's only supposed to be called once per object per frame is being called multiple times per object per frame. Try checking your main game loop to see if pygame is giving you repeat events or something (I have experience with Python, but less so with pygame, so I don't know how likely this is). Despite the performance issues, this seems like a neat (and relatable) concept. If you figure out the solution to this problem, I think you'll have a solid game here.
Dec 24 07:13:47	94h 40m	The Affliction	♥ 2	This is a very ambitious game for a jam- congrats on getting it finished! Like others here, I was a bit frustrated when I would be attacked while trying to exit an area, or immediately upon entering a new area before I had the chance to react. I also noticed a few bugs- for instance, I sometimes took damage or was even set on fire when running into an obstacle that was not an enemy, while no enemies were onscreen. However, this is a good take on the "sacrifice" theme, and I am impressed that you managed to make a game with this much detail in so little time. Good work!
Dec 24 07:55:57	42m 10s	Necroprancer	♥ 1	This was fun! I have one nitpick, though: if you're planning on doing a post-compo version, I'd recommend changing the graphic you use to represent checkpoints. On my first playthrough, I thought they were sharp pins, and jumped over every single one of them assuming they would kill me. I only figured out that they were checkpoints while closely examining the gifs on this page, right before I was about to write my feedback. Of course, I immediately went back and played it the proper way for a much less frustrating experience (since I didn't have to go all the way back to the start every time I died!). My mistake also allowed me to discover a game-breaking bug: If you don't hit any checkpoints, it is impossible to progress past the spike wall circled in the image below. When you hit this wall and go back to the beginning, you respawn stuck halfway into the ground, unable to run or jump. The only way out is to reset the bodies... but that still doesn't help you progress past the spike wall (unless you actually hit the checkpoints this time). necroprancer bug.png There were a few other times during my no-checkpoint run when I respawned completely underneath the ground, but my character just fell below the screen and respawned in his proper place without losing a life, so no harm done there (I give you bonus points for gracefully handling an error that isn't supposed to happen during normal gameplay!). Once I actually played with checkpoints, I was able to progress much farther. I still didn't finish, but not because of a bug. 😛 I had enough fun that I may come back to it and try again sometime. Good work!
Dec 24 08:12:53	16m 56s	Off the Rails 2	♥ 1	Good work! It was fun to just explore all the nooks and crannies of the map- I wish there was an easier way to tell if I'd seen it all. For that reason, I think it was a good decision to not require all of the coins to win.
Dec 24 08:41:58	29m 05s	Superstar	♥ 1	This is really cool! The graphics are gorgeous, and this is one of the most innovative entries I've seen. However, the fact that you can freely swim in all directions kinda undermines the rest of the gameplay. There's no incentive to grab onto any of the handholds (armholds?) if I can easily get points by just swimming to every regeneration orb that I see. This would be more interesting to play if the rules somehow forced the player to swing from the handholds (for example, if the starfish could only move left or right, or if the regeneration orbs didn't give you any points).