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Feedback comments for LD43
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | JUSTCAMH's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 3 09:29:08 | Sacrifice to Survive | ♥ 0 | A solid start to a game with potential. It is obvious that you have put in a lot of effort into the graphics, as the character models look very fleshed out. A nice effort was also put into the UI and menus, with the options menu and various bars, but the option menu was glitchy (at least in the web version) and could have used some extra work. I would also recommend considering the connection between the game and the theme, as even though the main mechanic hinges on sacrifice, I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything. The followers are annoying obstacles that I feel happy to eliminate; if they did something positive, it might add to the game's depth with some dilemma and strategy (to kill them or not?!?!). I did however, quite like the feel of the weapons, with the particles and massive bullet size. It made it feel juicy. Overall, there is certainly more work that could be done, and the game has a huge amount of potential. | |
| Dec 3 09:42:19 | 13m 11s | Overpopulation | ♥ 1 | A very interesting game! I love the 3D animation of the characters, it seems VERY fluid. I also loved the details in the environment, including the flicker particles on the light overhead; they helped to create an interesting mood. The menu and text cards at the start felt a bit dry, and contrasted the polish of the 3D elements. Some of the character traits were also a bit strange, as the second person I got had "never committed a crime" and "Attempted murder" and "Burnt down a house", but I can understand the difficulty in getting those complex webs of conditions ordered. I loved the papers please inspiration (that is a personal favorite of mine), but the execution of the gameplay felt a bit misdirected. The instructional card indicated to sacrifice all criminals, but all of the people seemed to have some form of criminal history. There also didn't appear to be any win/lose conditions. Also, your credits implied that there was sound, but I didn't hear any (I was on WebGL version). Overall, the graphics were very polished, but the core gameplay could have done with some work. |
| Dec 3 09:58:55 | 16m 36s | Your Life? The World? | ♥ 1 | A very impressive show of graphics and mood! The opening cut-scene did an outstanding job of setting up an atmosphere, and on my first playthrough, I was pumped for a deep, moody experience. Then I died. I was excited to get back in, but I found that I had to go through the entire cut scene again. Long story short, please make the cut scene optional, I want to get back in without delay! When I did get back in though, I found the game falling for classical horror tropes / cliches, particularly pitch blackness. The light spell provided almost no aid, and seemed to only detriment the player, as the light failed to really illuminate anything. I also think that the gameplay music is a bit off the horror mark, and would have been best substituted for the main menu music. Speaking of the menu, I loved the UI in this game. The 3D, rotated typewriter text in the moody environment really set the scene for an awesome game. The fact that you could make all of this in two days is really impressive, but ultimately the lack of visibility hindered gameplay, to the point that it felt almost unplayable. With some minor tweaks, I believe that this game could achieve huge potential. Keep up the great content! |
| Dec 3 10:08:41 | 9m 46s | Bombshell News | ♥ 0 | The audio is incredible and worthy of a gold star by itself. But as a whole, this game unfortunately has its weaknesses. I'm not going to lie, I had no idea as to what to do. I didn't see any explanations, and unfortunately there isn't any details on your entry page. I would recommend informing us of simple controls and game mechanics to give players a sense of direction. I'm not sure why there was an online multiplayer element, but regardless, the graphics and audio were pristine. |
| Dec 3 10:26:51 | 18m 10s | Meat Spike | ♥ 1 | My main, biggest recommendation: Make a WebGL version. Please. It makes it so much easier for us to view your work, and I almost clicked away just because there wasn't one. That said though, the game really is quite amazing. I feel that this concept has been executed in the past, but this one felt quite developed, especially with the powerups such as double jump. Dying (for the final time) felt very demotivating, as I had to restart from scratch. This idea may have been better implemented as a series of levels rather than a single huge level, as dying in this makes it very hard to get back. I lost so much progress that I ultimately gave up. I did however sink a considerable amount of time into this; the core mechanics were actually quite fun! I also liked the level design; it felt neat the way you went back and forth in a huge, mostly interconnected maze. Overall, a very good production! |
| Dec 3 10:47:31 | 20m 40s | Stepwise Massacre | ♥ 2 | Certainly an interesting game! I have a few recommendations though, and the first, biggest and most important; **please have a WebGL version**. It makes our lives so much easier. About the game, I love the atmosphere, but I think you went overkill on the post-processing. The chromatic aberation effect is a bit too much in my opinion. Also, the movment animations felt very jittery, making the character feel slow and sometimes even unresponsive. The 'enemies' run away a bit too much, maybe there could be a 'blend in' mechanic to aid capture. At the moment, I'm chasing a single unit to the edge of the map, then having no energy to return and kill the other units. I really like the lighting effects in this. And the 2D cut-out animation further improves the visual appeal of the game. I also really like the compass effect on the player's feet, it makes the game feel polished and provides some useful information in a clean way. In general, it is very good to break free from classical 2D UI components! I absolutely love the visual style, it feels like a psychopath is plotting their next victims and the likes! Most of the graphical elements feel thorough, however the gameplay itself is rather bare. Overall though, it creates a very atmospheric experience, sure to score well in mood! |
| Dec 3 12:11:02 | 1h 23m | Metal Goat Sacrifice | ♥ 2 | @adrisj7 Welp, you asked for it: (Takes deep breath) - The Opening text is too small and the kerning is a bit off, like in the case of 'T' next to 'for' vs. 'for' and 'a' (kerning, google it.) - Main menu is bland. Too bland. Give me some spice, get me hyped for what I'm about to play! A nice image, some animation, even some buttons to press if I don't want to use T and space. This may not seem important, but ultimately, it is. - When fullscreened, the main menu text is off-centred and it hurts the OCD. - The sound effects seem a bit clunky, goats on the edge of the screen make just as much sound as you do. Try fading sounds by distance or using 3D soundspace to create more interesting sounds. - The pick-up multiple goats system is a bit glitchy, often drops the held goat instead of picking up another. - The aiming system feels too unresponsive. The moment I change facing direction, this should update, but currently it takes a bit of movement before it faces the direction I want. - The player's light lights up the top of trees, which doesn't logically make sense. From the player's point of view, they would be closer to the stump of the tree rather than the top, and the base should be more lit than the top. - Holding down space over a knocked out goat will spam pick it up then drop it. - Getting caught sometimes causes the music to glitch around. Also the AI got into a position where it was not catching me, despite being on top of me. - The guard's fields of view are very deceptive. In a standard game, the lit area is the field of view. It's okay to go against the norm, but your tutorial doesn't explore this element, and instead leaves me dead in a real game scenario. - You have similar kerning issues in the shrine text, wherein the 'w' of 'power' is merged with the 'e', whilst the 'f' and 'o' of for are very separated. - The trees seem to prevent you from going out of bounds, but you can slip through with relative ease. - Need an opportunity to play around with the guards in the tutorial, so as to learn the knock out mechanic. - The guards notice you from way too far away (in my opinion) at any angle (even if not looking at you). - Goats sometimes spasm left to right. - The guard AI can't move past bricks and other items, to them it is unpassable. - You are powerless against the guards. The bricks knock them down for such a short time and due to the (sloppy 😜) level design, 3 out of 8 goats REQUIRE that you pass by a guard. - Is something supposed to happen at the end when all goats are delivered? Because it seem to set up for something big with all the whirring, lights and camera shake. It felt like I was summoning cthulhu, but really nothing was happening. You (on this very page) set up for a legendary ending that you must play to the end, but the payoff is unexciting. There could have been so much potential, but ultimately this ending fails to reward the players that have played it for the longest. - Could use some form of UI upon completing the game, rather than the soft lock of whirring on a pedestal. Some simple buttons such as retry and main menu would do. - The hay is a bit O.P. and undermines the difficulty of the game. 5 out of the eight goats can easily be snagged without any challenge using hay, which is freely obtained from one of the houses, unguarded. Ultimately this boils down to severe level design flaws, as one part is way too easy and the other is quite challenging. This denies the player of any mid-ground, which can be an important learning experience in progressing to higher difficulties. - The progression is a bit too linear, despite appearing to be an 'open world' based idea. Even though you can start on any one goat, there is only ONE way to get that goat. A more flexible approach would be to create many different methods of achieving the same goal. For example, with the bottom three goats, there could be multiple paths with differing risks and opportunities. I'm now running out of available characters, so I'll see you in the next post. |
| Dec 3 12:32:02 | 21m 00s | Can't Save Them All... | ♥ 1 | Interesting concept, certainly with potential! Here are some recommendations. Make you project more presentable, with screenshots and maybe a WebGL link. This makes it easier for others to play. Also, the actual game files were a bit hidden within the download folder, maybe have multiple downloads or provide instructions for running the game. The graphics were actually very good, with clear effort put into the environment, characters and animations. The actual gameplay however felt a bit bare. The was also a lot of render order conflicts, wherein the logical order is not followed (for example the grass renderers in front of the player). Small details like this can make a big difference to the overall quality of a project. Also consider the game's integration with the theme. Even though you do 'sacrifice' humans, a sacrifice usually imposes negative effects. As far as I can tell, there is no logical reason to save the humans other than ethics. Overall though, the game has certain potential, and extra investment into mechanics such as the combat system would improve the quality of your game. Further props to you for creating all of those sprites within the 48 hour window. You also did well with the simple voice-overs, they did a good job informing and setting mood. |
| Dec 3 12:35:14 | 3m 12s | Woodifice | ♥ 0 | I'm getting a 404 error on your link to the web version. Unable to play the game. |
| Dec 3 12:55:50 | 20m 36s | Coinman | ♥ 0 | This game was honestly so much fun! The main menu music was quite painful to listen to, but the actual game music was incredible, and fitted the mood perfectly! The coin shooting mechanic doesn't feel very useful however, and consequently, I didn't find myself sacrificing many coins. Consequently, in my mind, this strayed away from the theme, but the actual gameplay is great! I initially didn't understand that I had to beat all enemies THEN left click chests to open them, and assumed that they were broken. Could perhaps have some sort of feeback (a flashing glow, text or a sound) to indicate this. Also, after just a few rooms it became obvious that rooms were repeating; there could have been some more variation in the rooms to mix it up. Overall though, this is a great game, severely under-appreciated! If you want to boost the number of viewers, you could try adding a WebGL version (if possible), as this makes your game far more accessible. |
| Dec 3 13:20:53 | 25m 03s | Alms Crown | ♥ 3 | **This was an absolutely incredbile experience.** The puzzling potential of those mechanics is simply mind boggling. At level one I was lost as to where the puzzle could go. By level three my mind had been blown. And then there was level 6. That was simply marvellous. Honestly one of the best puzzle games that I have **ever** played. I'm just struggling to fault it as a game. The one annoyance is that returning to the menu (with the esc key) loses all progress. A simple data storage solution and this game is a masterpiece. I'm actually quite disappointed; having been a fair way in and losing progress with the click of a button is frustrating. My critical mind also forces me to bring up the (relatively) weak link with sacrifice. Whilst the levels do end with you burning your valuables, the final end trigger could have been anything (for example transporting a kitten to grandma) and the game would still have been the same thing. This fluidity makes me think that the theme was an afterthought, or maybe the idea was conceived before the event, but regardless, the puzzles are outstanding. I highly recommend this game, it gets the brain goin! It's severely underappreciated. 5/5 for fun! |
| Dec 4 02:49:19 | 13h 28m | Alien Sacrificial Predicament | ♥ 0 | Your download link doesn't work. Once on itch.io, the download button doesn't send the file. |
| Dec 4 03:00:58 | 11m 39s | Ethereal | ♥ 2 | The mechanics all seem to be in place, and the game looks really good! I was sad that there was so few levels, but I did enjoy them! There probably could have been a bit more difficulty, but that would likely come with more levels. You say that you 'lost' an evening to make music but I don't see it as a loss; it was a gain! The music is great and really sets the mood for a puzzler. Overall, the mood was very good, and the graphics were well considered. Could definetly have done with some sort of UI; maybe a main menu, level selection or a number to indicate the current level. As you mention, the theme is a bit lacking, but nevertheless, you have made a great little game! |
| Dec 4 03:19:41 | 18m 43s | Damn Grinches | ♥ 1 | Nice graphics, the character animation seems very fleshed out. Most of the music is of equal quality but many of the sound effects were repetitive or obnoxious but overall, the audio was outstanding, and really suited the mood. Some of the hitboxes seemed a bit strange, especially the ones in the environment, as projectiles would often hit the wrong things. There was also the possibility for projectiles to explode the moment they were shot, which feels strange, but ultimately the defensive mechanics fit well and are quite fun! Overall a great game; keep developing! |
| Dec 4 03:41:29 | 21m 48s | Nightlight | ♥ 1 | Nice game idea, executed rather well! I wasn't a huge fan of the music, it sounded a bit all over the place. The actual menu was well made, and the menu buttons looked quite nice! Some of the obstacles felt a bit strange, particularly the skeleton hand, which I assumed would hurt me, but didn't seem to. I was also a bit confused by the existense of gravity. This may seem silly, but I thought the player could float or that the game was a top down, because of the ghost like character disconnected from the floor. This, coupled with a lack of orientation and lighting initially confused me, but ultimately I figured it out. You could maybe, in the earlier levels have some lit objects to help the player orient themselves with what to expect from the game world. Overall the game was quite fun, and I often found myself trying to memorise the levels to avoid 'sacrificing' my life. Nice creation! 👍 |
| Dec 4 03:51:36 | 10m 07s | There Will Come Soft Rains | ♥ 1 | I'm not sure what the impacts of the different stats at the bottom were. I didn't know if they needed to be averaged, or if some were favorable. Perhaps more direction? I also don't know what the country choice had to do with the game, as I didn't notice anything specific to my chosen country. Overall, the choices I made felt futile, leading to a linear path. Whilst this is understandable when constrained to a time limit, there could be some diverging paths that make the player feel in control. Overall fun and rather informing! |
| Dec 4 04:57:28 | 1h 05m | The Last Sheepdog | ♥ 0 | Couldn't bark, but the game looks great! Everything looks so alive! Try adding instructions to the game or on this page. |
| Dec 4 05:17:25 | 19m 57s | Bloodfall Sacrifice | ♥ 1 | Ohhhh... 😞 There's no download link on itch... Honestly, the cover art looks incredible. Even if the game isn't finished, with cover art that good, it surely couldn't be terrible! |
| Dec 4 05:30:31 | 13m 06s | Altar of Abaddon | ♥ 4 | This was an awesome little game! I initially assumed the small size was a glitch, but when the screen opened up, it felt quite rewarding! I also loved the ending! Could have definitely used some sound and / or music, but it was still a fun experience! The heroes did get a bit annoying towards the end, but initially it was a nice way to break up the repetitive gameplay. In the last section, heroes were almost non-stop and I felt pressured to defend rather than upgrade, and ultimately the heroes spawned too much. Other than that, an awesome game! |
| Dec 4 05:45:08 | 14m 37s | Hard Decision | ♥ 2 | Quite an interesting concept! The unique collision boxes are a fresh twist on the platformer genre. Only problem is, I have no clue how to beat the first level. I was stuck because I couldn't break the boxes protecting the purple orb and couldn't fit into the orange orb. Maybe give the player some instructions on what each individual 'powerup' does to help them out. The graphics look surprisingly good and the collisions are sound despite the proportions of the rock. Nice submission! |
| Dec 4 06:09:01 | 23m 53s | For The Greater Good | ♥ 1 | I loved the game and I completed it without too many problems. The second last level however, was a nightmare. I knew what to do, but it was frustrating. You can't jump whilst your feet are on an edge and this made for some serious problems in that level. By contrast, the one after it with four characters was ridiculously simple. Maybe next time consider the difficulty curve, as I believe the last level would have been a better way of introducing multiple characters. This last level was simple and everything was obvious, whilst in the second last level, the green character was hidden out of sight, making it easy to get stuck. I liked that when swapped, the other characters were frozen, it made for some interesting puzzles. Overall awesome graphics and soundtrack, wish the game could have been longer. |
| Dec 4 06:25:35 | 16m 34s | Pick Your Poison | ♥ 1 | This game is friggin' incredible! The music and sound effects create an awesome mood, and the sacrifices actually feel like I'm losing something. There are some minor balancing issues, including the seeming uselessness of speed, resulting in it being my go-to sacrifice. Also, the bullets had very weird hitboxes, and some shots that clearly should have missed, hit. I also didn't like that the menu required key presses, I generally prefer clickable menus. But otherwise, this was a really enjoyable game! Great pixel art and gameplay! |
| Dec 4 06:38:01 | 12m 26s | sacrificescape | ♥ 1 | I actually really like the strategy of the game! It makes you think! The graphics and lack of audio could certainly be addressed, put ultimately the game is a fun little puzzle adventure! Sometimes some of the movement is a bit off, as they don't all walk perfectly in sequence but tend to space themselves out by a few blocks. Nice concept that really ties in with the theme of sacrifice! |
| Dec 4 06:56:19 | 18m 18s | Threadpoint | ♥ 3 | **Holy Hell. That was incredible.** One of the most intense endless runners I have ever played. The speed is beautiful. It does seem to get to a point where there is almost no reaction time, but the graphics are so crisp and the audio is pristine. The theme seems loosly integrated, as the 'sacrifice' of humans is really just a rewording of obstacles. The humans could have been solid walls, lasers or even dinosaurs and it would probably be the same game. I also had some difficulty identifying powerups vs. obstacles as they were the exact colour, and at high speeds the colour was really the only thing that was registering. I did however, quite enjoy the humour scattered throughout the game, it really improved the quality of the tutorial and gameplay. 5/5 for fun. EDIT: Just got 250,700. By the time I had passed 100,000 the game was literally unplayable. There was **NO** reaction time what-so-ever. The only reason I made it an additional 150,000 is because the shield powerup is pretty O.P. and in the time it takes for that to recharge, I had enough modules to cop the damage. But seriously, there needs to be a max speed. At 250,000 I would have sent the player an epilepsy warning, because things were just flashes of colour across the screen. I didn't even see the thing that killed me. |
| Dec 4 07:25:21 | 29m 02s | Colobopsis Explodens | ♥ 1 | Hmmm.... I'm gonna have to agree with @tosunami on this one. It would be nice if you could administer a pause command to be able to control your ants. I also don't like that the commands have a delay before triggering. It makes it unnecessarily hard to perform commands. There is definitely potential, but this needs to be fixed before it is truly playable. The atmosphere also seems a bit empty, with no music and the occassional sound effect. Some more sounds and music could have further improved the quality of the game! The graphics are actually quite nice, and I like the cartoony art style. |
| Dec 4 07:41:44 | 16m 23s | Journey To The Promise Land | ♥ 1 | Well, it's working now! And it's actually a really original idea! I think given more possible events and outcomes, this game could have huge potential! The art style is nice, but as it stands, the game play is a bit slow. It's also rather repetitive and the problems given are very one dimensional, often with both yes and no carrying almost equal elements of risk. I can understand though the difficulty of making a game under the time pressure; it can be rather limiting. The idea works brilliantly with the theme of sacrifice! |
| Dec 4 08:06:51 | 25m 07s | Friends OR Food | ♥ 2 | An interesting game! The combat is really juicy! All of the explosions, particles and text effects really paid off in improving the mood of the game. The art style was also very nice, with the cute characters, tiles and enemies. But there is also things that could be improved for it to reach maximal potential. The audio was generally good, but the sound effect for failing to pick up health was obnoxious. I also disliked the movement of the allies. The approach that most other games take is that allies follow in your footsteps, but here, they are always directly behind you. Consequently, I'll turn around and have my allies killed, which feels less like a feature and more like unfair controls. When going into new rooms there was also the chance to spawn in a swarm of bees, killing off large amounts of the party. There also could have been more variety in the enemies to freshen the game play. Finally, I didn't feel a very close connection with the theme of sacrifice. Whilst your party could definitely die, there was no value in 'sacrificing' them, especially since this caused you to lose. Furthermore, most of the party members had good abilities, and why would you want to sacrifice that? Overall, the game is fun for a few minutes, but many minor problems stack together to make it enjoyable only for a short time. More variety could fix this, but it is understandable that this is hard in a jam. Nice game, keep developing! |
| Dec 4 08:11:00 | 4m 09s | Altar Dodge (best experienced in VR) | ♥ 1 | The download link isn't working. In your itch project, you need to make it public, by default it is a draft. Furthermore, I am sad that this is only VR. It sounds good, but I (and likely many others) won't be able to play. You could open your game up by making a PC port of it. |
| Dec 4 08:37:41 | 26m 41s | Snapic | ♥ 0 | First a note for others playing this game: I had to enable 'alternate download mode' in itch to install this one, the download wasn't working without it. In the downloads, just click 'downloads not starting' if this comes up. The game was actually really humorous and some of the posts towards the end were quite funny! And I loved how increasing followers sacrificed real friends; it felt fitting. I quite liked the pixel art in the second options of photos, but the left options were clearly just photos with a pixel filter applied. It would have been nice to see the nice pixel art continue throughout the game, but sadly, no. I quite liked the degree of choice that you had. The more of a rich asshole you became, the less friends you had, and you could choose what to say and post. The actual UI could do with some work, as many of the buttons didn't highlight when you hovered over them. The message buttons don't highlight, so I initially assumed that they didn't work. Some of the animations were a bit long, particularly the change of day animation and the notification animation, which blocked the power button, temporarily preventing you from progressing. You could maybe have these move faster or react to input (flick up a notification to dismiss). Overall, the game was quite funny, and whilst the theme of sacrifice isn't instantly obvious, it is once you play to the end. Well done, and keep developing! |
| Dec 4 09:24:34 | 46m 53s | Spacebrawl | ♥ 1 | Quite a unique gameplay experience that has you pulling apart anything you can find! The character controller is a bit jittery and moving around doesn't feel smooth. It is also strange that half of the game operates on normal vertical movement, and the aiming is inverted. It makes it feel very uncomfortable to use! The soundtrack and art were all on fleek and set up a nice mood. My main issue with the game is that I don't feel any sense of direction. What should I be doing? Whilst a goal is set (surviving), I don't fully know the best way to go about this, and in a large, modular world, there is plenty of things I could do. Should I be manning the turrets? Dismantling? Repairing? Or is there some sort of important device that I missed? To help with this, there could have been ramped difficulty, levels or waves. Maybe a quick tutorial teaching the player how to man the different elements of the ship. In such a complex environment, I don't think that simply stating the controls is enough info! Otherwise though, this is a great game, and after multiple attempts, I got somewhere, but ultimately had the hull damaged without realising. Great game, keep developing! |
| Dec 4 10:29:41 | 1h 05m | Battling Madness | ♥ 2 | This is certainly an ambitious game, with numerous enemy types that react reasonably varied. There is room for critique however, and here it is. The default screen size is a bit too big, and for us laptop users, we can't see the full thing, even when fullscreened. Instead, Unity gives us these horrible scrollbars, which looks and feels yuck. I experienced some odd feedback from the controls, and not because of the swapped controls penalty. When pressing multiple keys at once, it seems the game sometimes misses the release of a button, and you keep moving in the direction anyway. I also found the stats a bit repetitive, which was disappointing considering the plethora of unique enemies. In particular, I found myself naturally drawn to the 'swapped controls' penalty, because getting it twice in a row cancels out the effect. I also found the lack of music a bit dry, and whilst there is an ambient whisper sound, this doesn't fill the game's need for a good musical number. I also see little connection with the theme of sacrifice. The opening cutscene seems to force the theme in with some random backstory, but ultimately, this would be the exact same game even without the 'sacrifice' elements. I didn't actively view the stat changes as sacrifices, but rather as progression. I think that where it differs is in the player's control. To make a sacrifice, I believe that the player must actively decide to lose something that they value, and the stats didn't feel that way. Another problem I had early in the gameplay was that I was spam clicking left-click, so when the stat menu came up, I instantly selected one without even realising that stats had changed. This further fuelled my confusion when I got a swap controls penalty, and I assumed that the controls were broken. Overall, you have a very unique visual style that I love about your works! I am a bit disappointed by the lack of innovation, but never-the-less, it is a fun experience for a bit. Your opening cut scene teases numerous awesome looking abilities, including flight and magic, but I don't feel that the gameplay actually provides this in any way. A few minor fixes and this game could be improved, but I feel that the game is ultimately limited by a lack of innovation into any new mechanics. |
| Dec 4 10:58:14 | 28m 33s | Please Player | ♥ 1 | I tore your other LD game apart and now it's this one's turn!!! The ending sound effect is miserable. This effect runs on loop at the end, but ultimately hurts my ears. Its a strange note to end the game on, and one that isn't particularly favourable. I also think that there was many opportunities for smart events in there that you missed out on. The button could have been stolen or hidden by the monsters, or maybe different sounds played depending on the proximity to the button, with increased desperation as you near it to end their lives. Also, this doesn't quite work with the theme of sacrifice; i'd sooner call it massacre than sacrifice. It lacks purpose, reward and penalty, all of which are important features of a sacrifice. The characters are set up as noble beings in the conclusion, but their actions in the game suggest that they would rather be somewhere else, so this fits the definition of torture better than sacrifice. Interestingly enough, this one doesn't seem as ambitious as your other LD43 game, and I think that plays in this one's favour. The simplicity of the idea coupled with the characteristic art style makes this a delightful playthrough, and I almost forgot that this is really just a bunch of cut-scenes, barely able to be called a game. This puts more focus on what you do best; the art and dark humour. I think this clearly establishes the importance of playing to your own strengths, especially under jam conditions. Overall, the humour is funny, but there is certainly things to be improved and learnt, like most things in life! |
| Dec 4 11:39:13 | 40m 59s | SouLLess | ♥ 2 | Overall a quite fun game! I did however, find it falling into almost all of the platforming game tropes, and ultimatly, this one lacked originality. Whilst the story was a refreshing change, the actual platforming and enemy killing feels rather standard. Originality can be tough, but even small innovations (a new super power or item) can severely improve the final quality of the game. Whilst the game idea sounds like it has a lot of sacrifice in it, the theme isn't truly evident in the gameplay, as we ultimately don't see what the brother's fate is (but I would have certainly loved to). An important part of any sacrifice is the consequences that it imposes, and unfortunately this element was barely explored, likely due to time constraints (completely understandable, but I shall critique never-the-less). I quite enjoyed the soundtrack and occasional sound effect, but I would recommend adding additional sounds for important events such as shooting (both enemies and player), taking damage and environmental sounds. These can really help with the mood of the game, creating atmosphere that makes it feel alive. I honestly really enjoyed the story elements and I think it provided a deeper connection with the characters that many other games fail or don't attempt to achieve. In many ways, it personalised the experience, and put the player in touch with the character. This can be hard to pull off, so pat on the back to you! I also really liked the art style, and I'm impressed with all the work that you creators put into it, with two different scenes requiring detailing and the sort. Overall great game, with some certain room for expansion. |
| Dec 6 10:41:25 | 47h 02m | Hostia Cultio | ♥ 0 | Looks like an interesting game, but I have no idea what to do! I found the initial set of seeds and planted them, but I had no direction of how to duplicate seeds, and what the ultimate goal was. I tried to feed the chicken, but I dunno how to do that. The art-style looks nice, and reminds me of Minecraft. The walking sound is ok, but the game kind of needs some form of music. I would like some form of direction; maybe a tutorial, or just some instructions here on this page. |
| Dec 6 11:23:08 | 41m 43s | Body Language | ♥ 0 | **Holy cow! This was amazing! **The mechanics of their body language where so rich! There was so much story and heaps to ask! It was really interesting looking for both the story and detecting lies. I loved the UI, particularly the options screen. That was done to a level of detail that I haven't seen in a Ludum Dare game ever. Unfortunately, the link to the theme of sacrifice was a bit weak, and whilst the pilot 'sacrificed' the drunk guy to save everyone else, it doesn't feel like a major element of the game. The story could have been a bit more focussed on the theme, but the actual gameplay was outstanding. The number of choices, coupled with emotes and eye positions really made the game. My only criticism was that the final part of the game to 'figure out' who did it was WAY too obvious. Literally, the pilot confesses, then the game asks you who did it. It would have been far better if they didn't admit, and rather, you had to work it out based on the body language. This would actually make the player think for the final choice of the game. Overall a really good murder mystery game, with rich story and mechanics! |
| Dec 6 11:51:19 | 28m 11s | Bean There, Done That | ♥ 0 | Tag me when you fix it, I wanna see! |
| Dec 6 11:54:46 | 3m 27s | Fall and Fall | ♥ 0 | The file doesn't seem to work. The .exe installed correctly, but running it doesn't do anything. I'm on windows 10. |
| Dec 6 12:07:37 | 12m 51s | Dark Bronze | ♥ 4 | The graphics in this game are really nice, with some very thought out animations! The level design could have used some work however, as it was often difficult to tell which areas were going to kill you or not (troll?) There was also a few pits that you can fall in, survive and not be able to get out, which feels poorly made, but ultimately the gameplay is fun. The fast attack feels a bit OP, as you can spam left click and prevent the enemies from even attacking you. Would have also been improved by some sound effects, however as it stands, this is quite an enjoyable platformer! |
| Dec 8 10:58:10 | 46h 50m | superstar | ♥ 1 | Good old Pico-8. You used it great! The game plays very well and the controls feel responsive. I was a bit lost on the whole 'snake' thing where you would go over your tail. Was this good, or bad? After re-reading this page, it is evident that this is bad, but maybe some more in-game feedback could be used to portray this? Overall fun game, loosly using the theme. Destroying the energy felt less like a sacrifice and more like a mess up on my behalf. I didn't WANT to lose the energy, so it technically isn't sacrifice, but otherwise, a very good submission! |
| Dec 8 12:05:57 | 1h 07m | Pyres | ♥ 2 | Some awesome mood in this game! The gameplay is a bit slow and repetitive and I don't feel like there is a heap of strategy however. I also experienced some bugs, wherein the a/d meter was going way beyond the expected value and I was unable to attack cities after some glitch that allowed me to infinitely place flags (marking where you are going) without the flags disappearing or the command being executed. The game looks lovely, however I think the gameplay mechanics could use some work. I would recommend some more statistics as to what each attack type does and how they differ. Maybe make it so that in some circumstances, it is better to use a different type of attack or some way to regain soldiers / level-up soldiers / learn new attacks / customise battle formations etc. Nice prototype with great atmosphere, however maybe next time spend more dev time on the gameplay features. |
| Dec 8 12:20:19 | 14m 22s | Sacrifices Must Not Be Made (LD 43) | ♥ 0 | Nice graphics and mood, reminds me of pokemon. The game, as it stands feels too RNG dependent. Sometimes you can go numerous times in a row getting only skills before seeing an enemy. I also don't understand how the energy system works, as I didn't see any clear indicator of how much energy I had. I also didn't like that you couldn't scroll on your skills, and as the list expanded, old skills became inaccessible. I also found a bug wherein the restart button doesn't work when you die. I would also like to know more about the normal attack; how much damage does it do? I quite enjoyed this game! Great creation! Animations and sound are super crisp. |
| Dec 8 12:22:07 | 1m 48s | Save the Wabbit (VR) | ♥ 1 | 😞 I don't have VR... ='( |
| Dec 8 12:30:57 | 8m 50s | Ethical Smoothies Co. | ♥ 1 | Lovely atmosphere! The game feels a bit slow, and somewhat unsustainable. I think this company would have gone out of business long ago! |
| Dec 8 12:42:35 | 11m 38s | The Temple of Cipactli | ♥ 0 | Awesome mood! The music fitted right in. The only extra thing I could ask for from this game is for death effects. As it stands, the deaths felt pretty boring. There could also be more variety in the enemies, currently the simple enemy is a bit plain. |
| Dec 9 10:43:01 | 22h 00m | Disorder | ♥ 1 | The tutorial felt a bit lacking, and consequently, I was a bit lost initially. The tutorial doesn't show the control scheme shown in the second image of this game and it also didn't tell me about the obstacles. I had no clue how to switch to the dark world and I didn't realise that hitting into rubbish cans and what have you makes you lose ideas. I would recommend adding an in-game control scheme display and adding feedback for when you hit an obstacle (maybe flash the screen red or highlight the fact that I have lost ideas). Other than that, the graphics are good with some minor gameplay problems. The controls sometimes felt weird, particularly that down arrow did the same as up arrow (maybe instead drop through platform?). I didn't feel that the menu reflected the game, and the menu didn't feel like it belonged. There could have maybe been a reflection of the dark vs light which seems to be pretty important. Ultimately the writing thing felt forced, and didn't seem to fit the gameplay too well. Great creation however, with some outstanding 3D graphics. |
| Dec 9 11:03:14 | 20m 13s | The last outpost | ♥ 2 | This was a nice game! Like commented above, it is weird that income is made from 'sacrifices' rather than wave progression. It feels less like a sacrifice and more like progression, particularly when some of the sell money will be used to replace the unit which was just sacrificed. Also, I got to wave ten, and it felt practically impossible, as my army of mages were easily taken down by easily thirty enemies. Still though, a very fun game with very good graphics and mood. |
| Dec 9 11:23:42 | 20m 28s | SACRIFICE | ♥ 0 | I need more feedback. I'm frequently dying without any apprent reason. Give me some sort of indication as to what killed me so I know for next time. Was I in the range of a groundpound? What is its range? I think my problem was with snowballs lying around. It seems you take damage from them even if they are stationary, which is tedious. Speaking of tedious, the death sequence with mana orbs is very annoying and interupts the gameplay. Also, like many have said, lacks clear connection with the theme. Could have also done with some music and more sound effects, as the occasional sound effects that do appear feel out of place. Overall a nice concept, and the game looks like it should have taken more than three days (not questioning your integrity, just impressed by the amount of work completed!) Nice game, and with some minor tweaks it could be even better! EDIT: Why can't I rate this game on graphics?! That was the best part! |
| Dec 9 11:30:56 | 7m 14s | Sacrifice to the Flames | ♥ 2 | I like the fast pace. Ultimately, I am unsure of what the goal is. What is benefited from saving upstanding citizens? Whilst the answer is probably 'morality', I don't develop much connection, particularly when I have five seconds to save them. Maybe there could be some sort of 'fight to escape hell' thing where the stats and characteristics of the people you save can help you? I would also like a way to see the traits of my current crew and compare them with the people in the room. Overall, neat concept, and the fast decisions are interesting. 👍 |
| Dec 9 11:43:41 | 12m 45s | The King's Battle | ♥ 1 | Nice entry! I did however, find myself rarely using the sacrifice mechanic, since it wasn't necessary and didn't seem to help. The only level that I used this ability was in the first level with two health. This one was impossible without it, but in the other ones, sacrifice didn't even seem useful. I didn't understand what the cross things were, but it was annoying that they repetitively pushed you back. Otherwise a nice game with a clean, minimalistic art style! |
| Dec 9 12:14:49 | 31m 08s | Wizard Malikens spell failed | ♥ 0 | Interesting prototype, but there doesn't seem to be much direction. Maybe an in game hint or direction system to direct you? In many other games, direction will be achieved through the level design, wherein there is a linear path of action that may split into multiple paths and reconverge later. Another level design feature is making many things clearly locked off, with certain progress clearly unlocking future options. Your level design however, had me a bit lost. I tried using meat on the bear, and a new message was played, which is good design (implies progress), but it didn't seem to do anything (No progress?). I tried combining it with things and it fit into the underwear?! Then what? That still didn't help the bear, and rather I was given negative feedback as the message sent whilst using the underwear and meat gave the same message as normal, implying no progress. And the carrot said something different when used on the rabbit, but nothing seemed to actually happen. Throughout the game I found myself unfortunately lost, and the rather open area felt a bit daunting to thoroughly explore. P.S. You've probably already had enough with all the file size B.S. but even at 1.3Gb it still feels strangely large. Still took a good part of 15 minutes to install, which is still a bit unreasonable. I can imagine compression to be a pain, but it will invite extra reviews 😉 |
| Dec 9 12:39:00 | 24m 11s | Sky Fortress | ♥ 2 | An interesting proof of concept, but I think it could certainly use some work before being considered finished. First and most important thing that I would want from a shooter like this is a control of sensitivity. By default the sensitivity was waaaaay higher than I was used to and I couldn't aim for the life of me. I think it was a good idea to stick with AIs instead of real players, particularly because you can't guarantee a constant flow of players in a jam. If there wasn't anyone else playing at any time, then the game would be rather boring! The different colors of enemies was a tiny bit confusing, as it made me think that there was some sort of teaming system. Maybe the colours could have been used to symbolise which weapon the AI was using? I also had a surprisingly low fps. The game could have used some extra UI elements, particularly some form of death counter. There also appeared to be a timer, but whilst playing this was neither shown nor obvious. Speaking of UI, I loved the menus, particularly the transition for text to appear on the pause menu. One thing that wasn't obvious was how to close a text pop-up. The game could have also used a more clear tie in with the theme of sacrifice. Overall, the game benefits from its simplistic graphics, which I don't think need to be crazy in a fps. The gameplay could use some improvement, mostly changeable sensitivity because as it is set, I can't shoot anyone 😉 EDIT: Ohhhh... There is nice UI elements. These had glitched away for me. When you open the menu, the UI elements such as death counters and timers disappear, and don't reappear when you resume. |
| Dec 9 13:22:59 | 43m 59s | Happy Fun Death Cult | ♥ 1 | Nice prototype. I won't repeat what everyone else has said (thus far) but rather add some stuff. The menu feels a bit plain and could use some work, even if it was something as simple as adding a cover graphic. Also, in the options menu, the volume is poorly set up. As it stands, the lower 50% of the slider is all the same; practically inadible. Simply remap the values so that the lowest value is inaudible, with constant increments throughout. Also, the ingame pause options menu doesn't work. It is important to pay attention to UI, as this is an important control system for the game. The menu also sets expectations for the game ahead. Be careful with the camera movement system. I would recommend clamping these values, particularly pitch. It is possible to roll the camera upside down, and this doesn't make the game happy. You can also stare at the sky, which is equally unhelpful, and you really shouldn't be able to do that. Some horizontal rotations also yield unusual results. Point is that in a time-constrained environment, it might have been better to force a single 'optimal' camera angle and focus development on the gameplay. I like the ability to move with wasd and zoom with scroll, but the two rotation functions feel redundant. Using this camera system, I also managed to completely lose the scene, so I would recommend clamping the camera positions and rotations between certain values, to maintain focus on the scene. If you want to make a game more strategic, you can try making the game more coherent. By that, I mean; what does that do? What am I gaining from having the workers in the throne room? How much is the upgrades improving it? How much do upgrades cost? What am I losing by having unhappy workers? Another common strategy element is investments. Maybe having a lot of power will increase the speed with which new workers come? Perhaps workers doing nothing in the welcome room do something? Maybe by upgrading them, you are sacrificing some other stats, forcing workers to specialise? Point is that you should consider the depth of your mechanics, and find simple ways to increase the strategic potential of the game. I would also recommend considering your level design. Whilst a tutorial is nice and all, many players don't like reading instruction manuals. You could instead use your level design to make the gameplay obvious. Maybe something as simple as text hovering above rooms indicating a room name. Also the decorations can be used, and for the most part you have done a good job with this. I particularly liked the decor of the sacrifice room and break room, as their functionalities were instantly clear, even without tutorials. The other two were not obvious, and could have maybe used some better indication of what they do. This could also be achieved through animations on the workers, such as praising on their knees in the throne room and maybe reading whilst in the upgrading room. These animations would make their functions obvious. Overall a neat little game; I particularly liked the music, only shame is I don't know if it is original. I would recommend informing us of what is yours and what was 'borrowed' from the internet to help with rating. I also loved the simple texture-less models, with the heavy focus on lighting. This lighting did a good job on directing our focus on the important rooms. Could have maybe used more colours like in the sacrifice room. Overall, the mood is very good and sets me in the mood for some resource-management! Nice job 👍 |
| Dec 10 02:09:22 | 12h 46m | Soul Harvest | ♥ 1 | Awesome game! Feels surprisingly balanced! It does lack innovation however, and is a fairly generic top-down shooter. Feels incredibly similar to a youtuber's game; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/battling-madness. Although I personally think you did a WAAAY better job executing this idea (This is quite the feat!). The stats in this feel really good to play around with and the gameplay is truly awesome! I often felt like I was actually sacrificing something to gain another. There were times that I felt that the sacrificing was really just a pointless shuffle, as I would downgrade abilities that I didn't use to upgrade something else. I would also reconsider the control scheme, as I really only used the left click and right click attacks in battle due to their ease of use. I found it quite hard to move around and press E or Q at the same time. Maybe you could have a 'hotbar' system, where only a few weapons are active at any time? Also the game lacked animations, which wasn't a huge problme, but it could have certainly gained from even some simple animations. I also found trees quite OP, as they would destroy incoming bullets, whilst my melee attack could go through them. This made myself near invinsible whilst I could easily kill all of the annoying archers and mages. Otherwise however, this is an awesome game, of quite incredible quality! I loved it 👍 |
| Dec 10 06:27:55 | 4h 18m | Sacrificium | ♥ 0 | Your HTML download is incredibly ineffective, and I can't view it. I (like many) don't have a mac so the mac version is useless. And the point of HTML files is to be uploaded directly to the site. As it stands, Unity can not run under the HTML format as a file and MUST be uploaded to a website for the unity player to work. I recommend using itch.io or some other hosting service, as this makes uploading the game easy. As it stands, I cannot play your game. |
| Dec 10 06:37:30 | 9m 35s | Feed Your Demon! | ♥ 0 | The game was working for me, and I was quite impressed by the graphics. The music was a bit meh however, and the timed key presses didn't seem to align with the music at all. This is an important part of a rhythm game, as the key-presses need to work with the music. As it stood, the game lacked oomph. The graphics and clear gameplay mechanics are very good, and I liked that it was clear to press qwerty when instructed. The game could feel a bit more rhythmic, but otherwise, a great little creation! |
| Dec 10 06:39:34 | 2m 04s | Boom II; A game about nothing. | ♥ 0 | @pineapplebox we need a link! |
| Dec 10 10:43:14 | 4h 03m | James and The Dungeon Conundrum | ♥ 1 | This game is obviously just a prototype, and I'm sure you are aware of heaps of things that still need to be implemented, but I can only imagine weren't due to time. One thing that felt strange was that the guns didn't aim at your cursor (at least not the graphic) and it felt weird that the inventory items had no bearing on the weapons you could use. I could use all the guns and sword without having anything in my inventory. I also didn't find any win OR lose conditions. Probably the best feedback I could give is to look into managing time better; try different techniques to allocate time slots and plan out your jam. This can help immensely! The graphics look great, but the game needs music to liven the mood. Good luck with future jams! 👍 |
| Dec 10 11:31:21 | 48m 07s | SacrificeSimulator2018 | ♥ 1 | Awesome game! The spellcating does get crazy complex in the hard difficulty, but it becomes a case of knowing the keys to press. I found that the games went for way too long due to the heal spell. There didn't seem to be a fast ramp of difficulty (if any) so any health lost could easily be repaired, keeping the game going a bit too long for my liking. I also fail to see how this slots in with the theme, but nonetheless, this is a great game! Graphics and audio are both great! |
| Dec 10 11:39:50 | 8m 29s | Hypnotized Jumpers | ♥ 1 | It has potential, but feels awful to control. The music sounded a bit... strange, and I didn't really like it. The level was very short, and ultimately a lot of things felt like they could use work, particularly the level design. Maybe some checkpoints and longer levels? I like how some areas had 'optimal' ways to beat them, and I found quite a few ways to beat the level with optimisations. Graphics were reasonable, but could have used some polishing. All in all, a nice game; keep developing! |
| Dec 10 11:55:45 | 15m 55s | Memento Morty | ♥ 1 | Interesting puzzles, however the whole 'paradox' mechanic got old very quickly. Later levels were more frustrating than puzzling. |
| Dec 10 12:13:01 | 17m 16s | Ethic in the machine | ♥ 0 | I'm not sure that there is a 'correct' answer, for the birth-control problem, I have done both and both outcomes result in death. This makes me feel like I have no control, which admittantly may be the intended theme of the game, but feels to be limiting the potential of the game. Fun problems nevertheless! Keep developing 👍 |
| Dec 10 12:56:33 | 43m 32s | The I in Team | ♥ 1 | Great game! I was initially a bit lost with the functionality of the thief, as I didn't notice the faint changes to traps when he went near. This could have perhaps been fixed by a simple ui element similar to the controls. Otherwise, the game-play was clear, in particular due to the displayed controls. The puzzles were fun, but admitantly not too puzzling. Could have had some extra difficulty, maybe from a larger party? Also the theme seemed to be loosly slipped in, with the need to 'sacrifice' one character for the others freedom, but it feels meh. Would have liked more levels and complexity, but the graphics and sound was very nice. Particularly the sound. The different music and sound elements worked perfectly; for an example look no further than the 'game over' sound, which acts as a seamless addition to the music to indicate death. I loved it, and only wish that it was longer! 👍 |
| Dec 10 13:08:39 | 12m 06s | NoooooMan | ♥ 3 | This was an expertly crafted game! There was actually a surprising amount of depth that made for some interesting levels, particularly the final one. The sounds were mostly flawless, however I disliked that he repeated 'nooooo' when turning around. The animations were incredible and really made for a funny and enjoyable experience! Well done! 👍 |
| Dec 10 13:35:43 | 27m 04s | The Cold Remains of Warmer Days | ♥ 0 | I quite liked the surrealist, dithered art-style; it really hooked me onto the game. The content went a bit over my head, but after reading other comments, it has been well clarified. From what others are saying about the story, it seems very in depth and personal; quite the feat to be portrayed in a game. 👍 |
| Dec 10 13:50:56 | 15m 13s | dungeon and death | ♥ 1 | Some of the 2d/3d merge didn't feel right, particularly the purple 'smoke' and projectiles. These felt a bit strange, and not to the same quality as all of the other things. I also didn't feel like a lot of the food was worth it. The first time that I found food, it was on some optional path, but by the time that I had gone to get it and returned, I had lost more hunger than I gained. Ultimately, I didn't even break even! I would have increased move speed or improve the amount of energy given by food (I mean it is a full chicken, how much could these people eat!?😉). Otherwise graphics are very good. Could have used some sound effects, but the game still worked without sound. Awesome creation! 👍 |
| Dec 11 11:15:43 | 21h 24m | Mechamorphosis | ♥ 1 | Awesome little game! A few things to be aware of though. For some reason you take damage over time, and I have no idea what is causing this or how to fix it. I'm guessing it is one of the items, but I have no clue which one. This brings me to point two; I would like a description of each of the items. What does this one do? Good bad or indifferent? Furthermore, I was a bit lost on the 'use items' control; 'EQR'. Does that apply to the things occupying the three slots? Because I didn't see those controls doing anything, even with things in the slots. Overall, these problems could be fixed by a bit of feedback. Inform your players a bit more of what is going on, and why. Some simple item descriptions could do wonders. I would also recommend 'selling' your game; get some screenshots, and put them on this page and the game's cover art. This should attract more players to play and rate. Otherwise, a very well constructed game, heaps of fun with some serious difficulty curves. |
| Dec 11 11:34:18 | 18m 35s | Savior | ♥ 2 | Nice little creation! The time rewind feels really cool, but there are a few glitches with it that can be exploited to guarantee victory. Whenever you are damaged by a projectile, the projectile despawns, and when you rewind, the projectile reappears but doesn't rewind. I also didn't like that projectiles collided with each other, as often enemy bullets would clump together into a cloud when ships travelling in opposite directions fired. I would have also asked for more diversity in enemies, as the one got a bit monotonous. The graphics weren't the best, but there was clearly effort put into it. Could have used some music and sound effects, but the game was ok without them. Nice submission, keep it up! 👍 |
| Dec 11 11:45:56 | 11m 38s | Effigies | ♥ 1 | These levels were quite tough, and did my brain in! I found myself almost randomly moving things around, hoping to get it right. Worked on the middle stages, but those last ones were very tough. The boxes severely increased difficulty! As many are saying, the controls feel unresponsive since you need to wait a second or so between movements. Could have been sped up, but none-the-less, made for a fun game! 👍 |
| Dec 11 12:13:58 | 28m 02s | Let's Join a Kitty Cult! | ♥ 1 | Nice idea, quite fun. The opening dialogue felt a bit boring, and consequently, I skipped it. Cat gods don't need instructions. But in fact, they do, and I had no clue how to play initially. I figured it out, but the opening text was slow and not exactly interesting. Could have had a tutorial system, rather than an instruction manual, but otherwise a very fun game! Could have also had more in depth boss battles in the litter boxes, but of course, time is a problem. 👍 |
| Dec 11 12:23:04 | 9m 06s | Its Just Space | ♥ 1 | Could be some more variety in the gameplay, but otherwise quite a fun game. Controls are easy to pick up, but the extreme power system was surprising and messed up the first few games. Recharge was maybe a bit slow, but it certainly did increase the intensity. The description of your game says to sacrifice time for energy, but I have no idea how to do this. Could have used more explaining. Otherwise, a very fun game 👍 |
| Dec 11 12:57:13 | 34m 09s | OpFern Class | ♥ 2 | Wow. This makes me feel incredibly inadequate. Your game is amazing! I also made a shooter, and whilst yours is better, my excuse is that mine is compo. 😉 I would probably tweak the restarting thing tho, as restarting from scratch upon death was very demotivating. Maybe make the player restart the level instead of the whole game? I also wasn't sure about the score (???) thing at the top left. It seemed to have no relation to the game, and even went into the negatives? I thought that maybe it was a distance to boss, but didn't seem to be. Otherwise, an outstanding game, the music creates a groovy atmosphere! 👍 |
| Dec 12 07:43:52 | 18h 46m | Fruitful Reward | ♥ 1 | I like the music, but I know your secret! *The main menu music is only 5 seconds long and repeated!*😉 It's not too bad tho, and I'm impressed that you made thorough music for each of the difficulties. Well done! Like many are saying, the rewards don't feel very fruitful, and seems to go against the games name... There also seems to be an unnatural leap of difficulty between easy and medium; the star enemies kill me very quickly. I would have added the downwards shooting triangles instead of stars to medium. I also initially missed the tutorial and got quite stuck. Maybe have that go when playing for the first time? Games such as these are also often more fun with high mobility, and maybe some glides or long jumps. These could fix the difficulty problem of the stars and make the player feel more in control, making the experience feel more awesome. No huge problems found, great game! 👍 |
| Dec 12 09:28:56 | 1h 45m | Sacrificial Movements | ♥ 1 | Interesting attempt, but here is some recommendations for future stuff. Is it even possible to win without movement? I don't think so. Also feels strange that in the tutorial, this is the first thing you teach. Generally, when a tutorial suggests a control, the player will press that. Consequently, I got stuck on the tutorial level, which felt strange. Also, your 'home' button on the pause menu didn't work, so I had to restart the game instead. The sacrifice of movement and jumping also didn't seem to provide any benefits. Others are complaining about music but I don't hear any. Was it removed? If so, it now feels weird with only the 'wah' sound effect, but if you removed the sound, I'd imagine it was pretty painful... The menu could have used some extra love, and felt a bit empty. Maybe just a simple graphic, screenshot or piece of cover-art. Otherwise, the game was pretty neat, and certainly a solid feat! 👍 |
| Dec 12 10:14:49 | 45m 53s | Cat-Astrophe | ♥ 2 | OMFG! Awesome! A considerable amount of fun, lasted 30 minutes. Some feedback: If you restarted whilst respawning, the camera would mess up, and this got me on quite a few tries. I would also like some sort of checkpoint system, because that last level was a bastard to beat. By the end, it took almost a minute for each of the instances of myself to get to the end. Maybe the ability to fast-forward the other versions of yourself? I also felt like the gems were pickup-able, as these sorts of things are normally a collectable. Not a huge deal, but the choice of set decor was a bit confusing, and I assumed there was a control that I didn't know. I didn't really like how the ladder climbing worked, as it didn't feel responsive. Momentum would keep you going for a while, which didn't really make sense when going up ladders. Otherwise, the game was really fun and incredibly polished. Good job team! 👍 |
| Dec 12 10:20:51 | 6m 02s | Sacrificial Dungeon | ♥ 3 | **Don't be fooled by the downloads on this page. **The link for the macOS download also has downloads for windows and linux. Non-mac users rejoice! |
| Dec 12 11:01:14 | 40m 23s | Goats in the Grotto | ♥ 0 | This looks awesome! Unfortunately though, I can't get past the menu... The play button doesn't seem to work. I'm on the windows version if that makes any difference. The tutorial and book works and looks great! Please tag me once it's fixed, I would love to play. |
| Dec 12 11:05:20 | 4m 06s | 333 | ♥ 0 | Looks good, but you don't currently have anything playable. Look up how to export with whatever software you are using, because atm, it doesn't work. Tag me once this is fixed, would love to play. |
| Dec 12 11:25:59 | 20m 39s | ChosenProtector | ♥ 1 | Perfectly balanced. I honestly don't know how you achieved that in a game jam environment. Nice one! 👍 |
| Dec 12 12:42:25 | 1h 16m | The Sacrificial Trail | ♥ 1 | Coffee and unicorns. Of course @philstrahl. That's the life blood of Pixel Prophecy. The game is interesting, and for a period it is fun. There was also a few minor typos, but understandable when made in 48 hours. Some of the large dialogue parts feel very drawn out, and honestly, I skipped some. I understand that it is a text adventure, and there needs to be story, but personally, I don't see the need for huge chunks of intro text. Many good books that I have read throw you straight into the action and inform you along the way, and I think that this technique is something that you could have used in your game. Maybe as well as the shops, you could provide short snippets of story that randomly pop up along the way, and trash the intro? I liked the large final conclusion though, because it is interesting to see the results of all of my choices. I would also love to see more options. Maybe there could be flash events that occur along the way, like hitch-hikers, downed trees and obstacles etc. It also doesn't feel like much of a resource management game when there are only three resources (fuel, fatigue and money). Could have maybe been a 'passengers' stat and food? This is a rather ambitious genre, and consequently, I don't see many text adventures. In many ways it is refreshing, but these text-based games seem to generally lack innovation. I suppose literature is like that? Anyway, the 'escape the apocalypse' thing is kind of overdone, and could certainly use some innovation. Otherwise a very interesting text adventure. 👍 |
| Dec 12 12:59:41 | 17m 16s | Running Low | ♥ 1 | The screen resolution is very strange. Just as a note, square moniters are not (commercially) available. As the game was distributed, I couldn't see half of the screen, as the width was right, but the top was trimmed. Oddly enough, the bottom was aligned to my screen, and I had no clue that I was a character or that I could move, because all of this was happening offscreen. I would recommend using more common resolutions, or maybe making this important setting available on the main menu. It also feels weird that there is a custom mouse cursor (indicating mouse usage) but the menu doesn't interact with the mouse. My default assumption was that the menu was broken. I would recommend a dual control scheme, with mouse or wasd to control the menus. The animations are nice, but the game is lacking variety. There could also be more complexity to the game mechanics; maybe there could be a way to revitalise your energy? Otherwise the game is quite nice, and is quite a feat for 72 hours. 👍 |
| Dec 12 13:32:43 | 33m 02s | Elwik Mage Academy | ♥ 0 | Awesome little visual novel. Although little is definitely not the right way of putting it. There is some considerable depth in here, and I feel like my decisions have meaning. In part, that is due to the multiple endings, but also the detail in the responses. Details as simple as the lie you tell to Atya, that Chiyem picks up on. Brilliant. There are also really deep personalities in here, such as the main teacher 'Cookie'. Loved it. 👍 |
| Dec 13 02:28:20 | 12h 55m | After Hours: A Reverse Metroidvania | ♥ 1 | The item pickup jingle was a bit annoying, like others are saying. Could have probably had some sort of instruction 'space to continue'? It also felt weird that this tutorial took place in front of a bright sign 'take pride in your work'. The brightness of this made it difficult to read the information that the tutorial was providing. It was even harder to read the pink/purple text. I also found it weird that that despite the non-linear design of the game, you were ultimately forced to take a single path. I would have appreciated a restart button / control, since there was a degree of puzzle-solving in the game, and once I realised I was wrong, would have liked to restart. Restart functions are nice whenever there is the opportunity to go wrong. I quite liked the music, but it did get a wee bit repetitive. I liked the reverse Metroidvania idea; it works very well. The graphics are quite nice, but in my opinion, you slightly overdid the post-processing stack. Nice game, with a good deal of polish. |
| Dec 13 03:08:15 | 39m 55s | Cheela | ♥ 1 | Nice game, although I'm not entirely sure how to play. I've read over the instructions, and I think your problem boils down to a lack of player feedback. Things I want to know, but don't, mainly because the game doesn't make it obvious. Which units am I currently selecting (highlight them). What are they currently doing (maybe give a status or mark the target location). How much longer to respawn? How much health do each of the units have and how much is remaining? Attack power is a thing, so surely health is too, but I don't know how much is remaining. Should I back off or is the enemy low on health and vulnerable? Are the pits actually doing anything? I can't tell, because the enemies (seemingly) can't enter the pit, so is it maybe dealing damage to them whilst touching the pit? If so, maybe make it more obvious. Perhaps I just don't know how to get the enemies into the pit, in which case you should inform the player! What do I do? It seems that without doing anything, my number is higher than theirs, so what gives? Is this a balancing problem, or is it expected. There are also some polish problems, particularly the frustrating fact that the restart button doesn't work. Also, the sprites of the units look a bit strange, but remind me somewhat of Conway's Game of Life (intentional?). I would also recommend spending more time considering fonts. You have chosen to use a pixelated font, but I see no reason for that in the game, particularly with the absense of pixel art. The game feels a bit spacey, so maybe a clean, sans font? The font colours also make the text hard to read, particularly the numbers on the enemies (white on light gray). You have done some nice polish however, particularly the subtle change of background colour, which is quite nice and adds some graphical interest. I would definitely recommend investing more time learning art techniques though, as some of the art in the game is ... meh. You're coding is certainly more advanced than your art, so perhaps you could team up with someone and work on programming? Honestly, the game needs some work before it is really playable. The game's been running in the background whilst writing this review and the gameplay still isn't over, leading me to suspect that either there is no lose condition, or losing is tough to achieve. Either way, as an evolution simulator / puzzle / strategy there should be some challenge, and as it stands, there doesn't seem to be a way to lose. I'm not so sure about winning, as I don't really know how to play, so no comments there. My main recommendation is to keep developing as this is the best way to gain experience. Don't give up! 👍 Hope this isn't too honest, and most importantly, I hope this helps. 😉 EDIT: Oh hey. I'm dead. Well then, maybe some form of increase in difficulty or balance the game a bit. If the game can be completed with inaction, then the game becomes quite boring to 'play'. I would definitely recommend forcing the player to do something. The player's action should improve their situation, whilst inaction does the opposite. |
| Dec 13 04:44:33 | 1h 36m | RAT LABS | ♥ 2 | ### **Honestly, HOW DARE YOU?!?!** **You made an awesome game, and left it littered with problems that *FORCED* me to stop playing?** 😢 I have always loved these automation games, and this one reminds me of a few Minecraft mod packs. But what are these deadly problems that I warn of? Well here goes: - Biggest one first - You can't destroy machines. Part of this whole game is a learning experience, and I like that. Part of learning though is messing around with machines to learn what they do. As my playthrough increased, I became increasingly attached to the puzzling mechanics, but as I did, unused machines were scattered around the place that just blocked the way. After a while, I came to the chilling realisation; I had locked off half the room with a wall of irremovable machines! Try as I might, no simple, clean and easy solutions were available, so I quit. - Next problem; the UI is very hard to grasp initially, as little information is provided. I eventually read this page, but maybe simple instructions on the UI to 'T - Quests' and 'B - Building Mode', as well as controls to navigate the ui. - A game like this makes me want to build as compactly as possible, but the game didn't seem to like that. Particularly, items wouldn't go into machines if there was only one conveyor belt leading up to the entry point. By that, I mean that items needed to travel along at least two conveyor belts before they could be fed into the machines. This is my interpretation of the problem, but maybe I was doing something wrong. That problem was only tested with the pressure mixer. - Problems were very hard to debug. In a lot of cases, the system looks correct, but the machines won't accept items. Could have displayed some error messages such as 'Need an output conveyor belt' or 'machine full'. Part of my system was a constant funneling of rats into the research centre, but eventually, the centre stopped accepting all items, leading mee to believe it was full. Was that the case or was it broken? If it is full, give me some feedback. - I think the game lacked resources. Whilst this can be annoying in some games, requiring resources to build or do some things forces you to optimise your systems, which is the beauty of automation; you can almost always improve. Otherwise, this game was rather fun, and kept me playing for longer than the average game, so good job! The game could have also used some music. I quite enjoy automation games, and the challenge of optimising and compressing is always a fun one. 👍 |
| Dec 13 05:13:55 | 29m 22s | Sacrafices_LD43 | ♥ 1 | A considerable achievement, but seriously with the name? You couldn't have come up with anything? It is quite offputting as a player to see that the game doesn't even have a name. And of course there is, as you say no win or lose screens. I would at least like to know if I won or lost, but I can fill in the blanks. Nice game. 👍 |
| Dec 13 05:31:45 | 17m 50s | Slimy abilities | ♥ 0 | Some of the abilities were a bit quirky and tough to control, such as the wall ability, but the rest were fairly well executed. The control scheme wasn't optimal, and I found it quite annoying to have to press D and F and Space to get across the first gap. I also got stuck after sacrificing certain combinations of skills, and as mentioned, quitting to the menu doesn't reset your abilities. Otherwise, the game was quite fun, and had surprising variety in the things that you could sacrifice. Nice! 👍 |
| Dec 13 10:27:26 | 4h 55m | The Life of a Corporate Drone | ♥ 0 | I loved it! I found it funny that you could not sleep, eat or do chores for a while, and then after, never have to do those things again! SCORE! 👍 |
| Dec 13 10:43:10 | 15m 44s | Lastcrifices | ♥ 0 | Nice atmosphere. I disliked the complete restart thing that happened when you ran out of characters, but nevertheless, I made it to the end. Strange that the end screen says 'Game Over', and whilst you technically suicided, that was the goal so technically, victory? I also think that the static starry background could have been improved with maybe even just the smallest amount of motion, just to show that you are moving, like the other structures. Awesome game 👍 |
| Dec 13 11:14:22 | 31m 12s | Cultist's Quest | ♥ 0 | It felt strange that the potions of the same colour would have different effects. I found three of the same colour potion in one room (which is strange in itself) and found that each of the identical potions did different things. There was no way to tell what effect I was getting, or even if it is good or bad. I would have made it so that a specific colour always has the same effect, but don't tell the player what that effect is. Force them to learn. Rooms feel incredibly bland, probably because they're huge. Could have scaled the whole thing down. Some of the text was also hard to read due to colouring, particularly some purple text against the gray background. Also felt strange having dead ends. Otherwise, the game was interesting for a while, but quickly became repetitive. Good luck with future projects 👍 |
| Dec 13 11:54:30 | 40m 08s | Praise The Snek | ♥ 2 | Interesting game! Unfortunately I don't have a friend (😢) so I'll just use my imagination to figure out how that would have gone. Competitive multiplayer games should (in my opinion) generally be fair for both players. I found it strange that both players got different recipes, and one player spawned with fruit, whilst the other didn't. This particularly becomes a problem when one player requires two gold, as the slow respawn rate can put them at a serious loss, at no fault of their own. I would have generated a list of recipes, and given both players the same recipes at each stage of sacrifice. Also, one of the players has two baby huts, whilst the other only has one, making me think that p1 may have an advantage. Even if this advantage isn't huge, it limits the competitive prospects I also found myself very lost at something seemingly simple; "Where do I place the sacrifices?" I tried placing it on the bowls and in the mouths of statues (all places that I expected sacrifices to go) and the items eventually disappeared, So I assumed that they were right. I understood that the 2D sprites represented the items required, but initially had no clue how to do the sacrifices. After a while, I eventually placed it on the order, which felt like a strange place to put sacrifices... Maybe could have had a huge 'Snek' shrine to place the sacrifices? I liked the music intially, but it didn't really fit the multiplayer environment. The spooky vibes made it feel like more of a team game, where the players had to work together to beat some big, unseen evil. The music could have instead been a bit brighter and faster to indicate a competitve mood, which would be more suitable for a local vs game. I would recommend listening to some of the music in 'mario party', as this represents the sort of music that I believe suits multiplayer games, even with the morbid theme of sacrifice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCuKqhnct4M I could also imagine the game becoming rather boring, even with a second player. Part of the fun of games such as 'mario party' is interacting with your friends to drive the gameplay. Whilst the gold could provide some 'lol get rekt' moments, it doesn't really invite too many exchanges between friends, as the game seems to separate the two players. It could be more interesting if the players shared a single, smaller space, each fulfilling their own agendas. This would give the opportunity to sabotage the other player as well as doing your own thing. Whilst you could sabotage in the current state, the players are so far apart, that the journey to the other side doesn't feel worthwhile. Multiplayer games should feed from this multiplayer chaos, wherein both players are performing complex interactions with each other to provide additional depth and strategy. As it stands, the players feel isolated, and so the game limits itself. The game however, certainly has a lot of potential, and I particularly liked your graphics and UI. The UI felt very clean, and the tutorial gave me most of the things I needed to play the game. The graphics were also very nice, and the items required were expressed in a clear way. It is certainly a very ambitious project, and you did reasonably, but I believe it needs some work before it can achieve its fullest potential. Good luck with future game dev, and I hope this feedback helps! 👍 |
| Dec 13 12:29:52 | 35m 22s | Charming's Sacrifices | ♥ 1 | The artistic elements of the game are simply breathtaking! I loved the toony environments and enemies, and to an almost equal extent loved the music. I found the gameplay elements to be a bit lacking, and here's my opinions. Firstly, I'm a laptop user. The resolution that you have selected for the game window is way larger than my laptop's resolution, so a lot of the game, including UI is mostly blocked off for me. I believe you can set itch to scale the view according to the player's resolution, so maybe use that? It felt like there was many instances where I had mana to attack, but the game wouldn't let me. Even the cheapest attack would fail, and I would be condemned to lose a life. Not sure what triggered the glitch, but seemed to repair on death. I also didn't get the mana system initially, as it was a bit discreet (and half cut off by the resolution). Also, an empty mana bar looks a bit too similar to a full one, so maybe increase the contrast a bit to make it more obvious? What was the point of items from the chests? Does it improve some stat, because by the point I had found any items, the UI had vanished (which is apparently a feature?) Maybe tell us what the item does, or at least what the item is. There also seems to be the possibility for long streaks of chests without enemies, my record whilst testing was three in a row without any enemies, which feels a bit broken. Also, when UI randomly disappears, it isn't really a sacrifice. Whilst this may be a bit nit-picky, a sacrifice should be something that a player actively chooses to do. If it is involuntary, it is closer to progression than sacrifice. There could be more depth to this vanishing UI thing if the player had control over when and what disappears, and maybe it gave them some sort of buff. This could add some more strategic elements to a game which is otherwise, very simple in its approach to gameplay. The player doesn't really have much to do, and there isn't really a choice. A better application of sacrifice could fill this void. Could have been some extra polish added. Little details like the text bubbles are nice, but the text is rather repetitive, with some events even having the same message each time. You could have maybe randomised the message each time? Also the text bubbles don't really fit in with the rest of the game. They seem to use pixel art, and look quite bland in comparison to other artistic elements. Also the pause menu was quite glitchy, and I found a considerable number of exploits using it. The game would continue playing if you paused during a death animation, and upon resume, all the enemies would disappear. Also looks strange how stationary objects such as a chest don't sit still on the floor, and move relative to the ground. There also wasn't a lot of important feedback events. One such missing event was when you tried to open a chest without a key. Nothing would happen, and no feedback was given as to why. Could have maybe made the player say something to indicate no keys? I also get the feeling that the font was actually custom made (if so, well done, fonts usually come straight from google fonts), and whilst this is nice, the text doesn't scale well, as seen in the "Encounter's left" text. This text is blurry and slightly pixellated. Otherwise, the game is quite nice, and the art and music are simply wonderful. My only concern is that this came at the expense of gameplay, and consequently, the game isn't particularly engaging. There isn't a whole heap to do. The music and art alone keep me there for some period of time, but that only lasts so long. This is a very nice, and rather ambitious game, one to certainly be proud of! Keep on developing, and I hope this feedback was useful! 👍 |
| Dec 13 12:52:39 | 22m 47s | Roustabout | ♥ 1 | I've seen this mechanic executed multiple times in past LDs, but it is still a fun idea. Some things felt a bit off though. There is very little linking the game to sacrifice. You'd pobably say the whole rat thing, but that is less of a 'sacrifice' and more forced. I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything when throwing one of the items overboard. Some of the collisions felt a bit too sensitive, and the game often seemed to stray from grid patterns. I had a nice grid going, with a one sized hole that I slipped an item into. But the item was slightly sticking out, despite being pushed in as far as possible, and this lost me the game. The shadow of the dropped item didn't even look like it was overlapping the item. I think that the game could have benefited from a forced grid, wherein socoban style, boxes can only be moved whole grid spaces. This would have made the placements a bit more intuitive. I liked the details in the game world; the person on the wharf, the buoy, seagulls and mast as an obstacle. This felt rather polished, so well done! Could have maybe had a lineup of items along the dock, to both act as an opportunity to plan and polish off the fact that items currently appear at the end of the crane. Otherwise, the animations are very smooth, and it is nice that you can speed up the crane movements. Very well made game, I hope this feedback helps. 👍 |
| Dec 13 13:09:07 | 16m 28s | Maze | ♥ 0 | Certainly some issues, I'll try to get straight to the point. The collisions of the player felt a bit weird. You would expect to take damage when standing on the lava, meaning that your feet should be on top of the lava. Even if your head is over the lava from the camera's POV, the feet are on ground, so no need to take damage. Consider moving the hitbox to encapsulate just the feet. It was also weird that the lava rendered OVER the play and UI. This render pass should have been done between the ground render and the player render, since the player is standing on the lava (not the lava hovering overhead). The game window was also very small, making it hard to read the health. These were the major issues that I noticed. If you are looking to further hone your game dev skills, why not try joining more jams, there is at least one every day on itch.io: https://itch.io/jams. Best thing to do when learning is to use every opportunity you get to hone your skills! The music was rather nice however, and the player sprite was well made. Not sure if that was an asset, but at a beginner level, don't be afraid to use assets to improve your game (just credit it of course). Keep developing, and hope this feedback helps. 👍 |
| Dec 13 20:41:08 | 7h 32m | aberth: simple text based choose your own adventure | ♥ 0 | **Nice! **Some of the scenarios were ... odd. Capture.PNG But it was interesting. There was quite a few teases towards considerable deviations to the plot, but these were all sadly snuffed out with a game over screen. These provided some humour, but ultimately made the path feel incredibly linear. I can understand time restrictions but maybe I just want to believe that it is paint? There also felt like opportunities where you had choice, but really, there was none. One such is here, where only the bottom option leads to a non-game-over state. Capture2.PNG I also got lost with the story many times. Bodies on the floor? Stabbing the therapist? In a relationship with said therapist? Stabbing at the church? CIA operatives? Holy cheese sandwiches? Like what the hell. There was generally very little text (and I liked it like that), but the story you were trying to tell seems to be just a little bit too complex. Whilst all of that thriller action espionage can be interesting, you probably could have dialled down the randomness to provide a more coherent plot. The one you had was quite ambitious, and with limited time, it failed to have much of an impact on me. Nice choice of game engine though, quite unique. I'm not sure how to rate the game on graphics though, should maybe opt out on that one? I believe google docs are auto formatted right? Maybe you changed some colours, but I'm not sure what score that warrants... Overall, an interesting attempt, but I would recommend toning down the plot. It was too ambitious and wasn't delivered effectively with the limited development environment of a jam. With some of the blanks filled in, I could imagine a very interesting little CYOA. Keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 13 21:38:33 | 57m 25s | Do It for Their Sake | ♥ 0 | Dammit, all my thoughts on the game have already been said. Ghost bullets suck. Diagonal movement is weird. The first comment suggests that the learning curve was low, but the diagonal movement and standing on top of victims were both things I didn't originally get. Once I did however, I found the game quite easy (no flex). The late game could have used some extra complexity, like your fast sniper bullets. Otherwise, fun puzzler! 👍 |
| Dec 14 06:35:39 | 8h 57m | Machine Godz | ♥ 1 | Absolutely amazing game, not much to say that hasn't already been said. I would appreciate a checkpoint though. Maybe the turrets could have also been destructable? Otherwise, very neat game. 👍 |
| Dec 14 06:57:22 | 21m 43s | The union | ♥ 0 | My first impression of the game was that it was annoying to install. Google drives took a while to put all of the files together into one zip before downloading it. Google drives also didn't make it obvious as to how to download your game files. I would recommend hosting the game on itch.io, as it makes the download process at least four times easier. Then, once it did install, the .exe didn't work. There was a fatal error, as the game was unable to read mono. Honestly, just host it on itch and reexport the game, it will make it much easier for others to play. Unfortunately, because of the mono problem, I was unable to play. |
| Dec 14 07:51:51 | 54m 29s | OVERCHARGE | ♥ 2 | My god I loved this game. The last two levels were the best, and had me thinking for ages. In the end, I had to strategise for each of the phases of the last level, with the floor eventually being removed. That was such a blast, the audio-visual experience was simply perfect. Beautifully balanced and executed. Would probably like to know how much time is left til the tower is destroyed, but not completely necessary. This game is simply incredible, and I don't know how better to explain it. |
| Dec 14 12:23:33 | 4h 31m | Save The Ginions | ♥ 0 | Wow! That cgMusic thing is the real deal! Oh, your game is also pretty nice I suppose. *(jk, it's awesome!)* It feels weird to even bother with upgrades, since the game is so short. You can complete it with only a handfull of sacriifices if you don't do any upgrades. The upgrades could be useful if the game was longer, but as it stands, is a pointless murder machine. There was also a few things that weren't instantly obvious, but should have been. One such thing was the heater, which had red filament, indicating it being on, whilst really it was off. Took me a while to realise that the heater had to be powered and healed the ginions. Otherwise, the game was fairly straight forward, and whilst it didn't provide any challenge, was rather fun. Nice creation! 👍 |
| Dec 14 13:05:34 | 42m 01s | Bokeh | ♥ 0 | Lovely little game, but I have feedback! The menus weren't very obvious as to how to control them. The bokeh used for the background of the button is identical to the rest of the bokehs in the environment, providing no ability to distinguish a button. It also wasn't obvious how to control said button. There was only ever one button on any menu, could have maybe had a 'click any button to continue' type of thing? The multiplayer element seemed a bit limited. I don't actually have a buddy 😢 , I'm just simulating one in my mind. Here's my guess to where the game's multiplayer flopped a bit. I read over the game mechanics and was wondering, 'what'? The gameplay mechanics feel a bit complex, and when I'm playing around with my mates, I don't really want to be learning complex weapon and health systems. Lives, hp, damage multipliers, rhythms, combinations, stances, distance from centre, stance properties and HP of projectile drops off. This seems a bit too complex, and isn't really fun in the ways that multiplayer games should be. An effective multiplayer game is rather simple or easy to understand, and complexity arises from the chaos of players using simple mechanics in advanced ways. Phew, hope that makes sense. Certainly a nice attempt, but I can't imagine myself enjoying the multiplayer aspects. Art and music is nice, could maybe focus more on that? Nice game, 👍 |
| Dec 16 05:22:55 | 40h 17m | Death Wish | ♥ 1 | Great job making this! Some of it looked a bit silly, particularly that the enemies continued attacking whilst you were down or dead. The AI also seemed to lack complexity, with all of them bunching together into a manageable group. Try adding simple conditions to the AI to make it more interesting. Maybe each of the AI could have a target offset from the player. Rather than walking directly to the player, they aim to walk to the left, right above or below the player. They could also take slightly randomised paths? These things aren't too hard to program, particularly in unity, but can add extra depth to the AI. I felt a bit locked in place whilst attacking. Could have maybe given the player the ability to cancel an attack or dodge an incoming attack? As it was, there wasn't really any way to avoid attacks, which made the gameplay feel a bit limited. Could have maybe had some extra enemy attacks, like maybe the knife dude could throw it, then become an ordinary melee enemy. This would further require a dodge control to avoid these projectiles, maybe like a quick-time event? The arena felt unnecessarily big, and made the background feel very repetitive. If the game zoomed in a bit more, I probably wouldn't notice the repetitive background, because then the focus would have been on the fight rather than the large, monotonous set. The audio was very nice, and the narration was gold. Animations were so crisp, and the style was brilliant. Theme felt forced in there and really, the 'sacrifice' element in the story could have been removed without changing the game. The game should rely on the theme as a core gameplay element. Hope this feedback helps with future projects. Keep developing 👍 |
| Dec 16 05:45:57 | 23m 02s | Berrytales - Fracture Flight | ♥ 2 | Nice graphics, but they were rather inconsistent. The main game assets were generally great, but the end screens were very rushed. I would appreciate extra mobility in this game, as going up and down are both very slow. Up generally had more maneuverability and I constantly found myself at the highest point, unable to quickly descend. With the huge amount of enemies, I needed control to weave through, but I didn't have it. I often found that even once I had seen the enemy, I didn't have time to dodge, particularly if I was on the wrong station. In general, more control makes a game feel more awesome, as the player is more capable of overcoming tasks and challenges. The effects provided by characters felt so minimal that I barely felt like I was sacrificing anything, and besides, with more people on, you supposedly lose speed. With that in mind, the 'sacrifice' feels less like a sarifice, and almost like an all-round gain. Otherwise, the game felt fun for a while, but didn't really last. Nice creation with incredible art and style. Keep developing 👍 |
| Dec 16 06:09:46 | 23m 49s | Crystal Sacrifice | ♥ 1 | I'm not sure that the bullets are working. It took me a while to figure out how to even shoot (move + hold z), but it didn't even seem like the bullets did anything. H.P. felt a bit strange, since you had 25, but all enemy attacks did 13. After the final hit, I had -1 health (should probably display it as zero) but ultimately, you only had two health. Larger health points makes more sense in games with multiple different types of enemies, wherein each can do dlightly different amounts of damage to change the threat levels of each. With only one enemy type, I would recommend using a lives system, as this is a bit more intuitive, and clearly shows how many hits are left until death. It often isn't obvious what is and isn't a platform, as they vary quite a bit. Some of them blend in with the background, and look more like set decor than a platform. There was also many cases where you couldn't see the next platform, making it a leap of faith to find it. The level was also a bit short, and could have probably have been longer or maybe more levels?! I loved the animations of the player model, but it felt strange that the walking animation continued even when still. The movement also felt a bit jerky. Overall though, the graphical style used was very good! Your presentation of the game on this page however, feels very bland, and I almost clicked away. The Itch.io page looks far nicer, and actually shows me what is in store. Furthermore, the cover image of the game is incredibly bland, and doesn't show off your nice art style. Rather, it's just some bland wall, which barely made me want to click on it in the first place. Overall, the game was rather nice, and it is great that you were able to make a full game in the limited time frame of LD. I would recommend dedicating some time to polish, as many of the things that I have listed here could have been fixed with a short polish session. Keep developing, and most importantly, keep learning! 👍 |
| Dec 16 06:33:31 | 23m 45s | Can't Get No Sacrifaction | ♥ 1 | I quite liked the level-down feature, however the way the sacrifice menu was devised suggested that I was gaining something, instead of losing. Things like "Increase your health by 2x" makes me feel like I'm gaining it, but of course, I'm losing it. Could have made that more clear in the design of the menu. I was also surprised that some sacrifices had multiple levels, could have maybe shown how many levels were remaining in that 'skill tree'? The graphics were quite nice, however there was some oddities. Dead enemies sometimes flipped onto their feet, and it was hard to tell that they were dead. Could have maybe had a dead enemy sprite to fix this, or just prevent them from landing on their feet. The cutscene went a bit fast, particularly since there was two sources of text. I always read the middle text first, then the bottom one, but since the cutscene moved on its own, I missed some of the text. It is common for dialogue systems to use input to move to next textbox. There was also a few gameplay issues, particularly the problem that bullets were blocked by you moving forwards (since you go faster than the bullets). I know that this was said in the downgrade menu, but this feels silly, and my first move was to almost always sacrifice this, since that sacrifice actually helps. I also didn't like the sacrifaction meter, as this felt rather limiting. I believe this exists because otherwise you could stick to the wall and do nothing, but there is a simple fix. Don't let the player stick to the wall. Otherwise, you are on the floor, and will die eventually. It then could be a strat to jump around, but you gain score from killing, so delaying the inevitable isn't really useful. With the sacrifaction meter gone, the player would be able to survive as long as they can before sacrificing. I also disliked some of the sacrifices as they felt way too destructive. Particularly the health. When killed, the enemies remain, so after sacrificing health, you often take damage and instantly die again. This could be fixed by killing all enemies upon the player's death. Otherwise, this game was pretty fun, and the graphics actually weren't that bad. You did a great job creating a game in such a limited time! Hope this helps, and good luck with future development. 👍 |
| Dec 17 03:01:37 | 20h 28m | Just delete them | ♥ 0 | I don't know what I think of the assets directory, it was rather hard to find. On my tiny PC, the bottom text was hidden from view initially (hidden under the taskbar because the window was too big), so I didn't even see it. There wasn't any info on here so I felt a bit lost. Even your video didn't really help me on that. Eventually I found a directory from the text (found by playing around with the window size), and it would have been nice to be able to copy/paste it in easier. The files could have been local, in with the actual assets of the game, but nope. Due to all of my confusion, I had deleted every single file in the local unity files that I could delete whilst running the game, hoping that something would happen. I later found that this screwed up the game, and I had no way of continuing. This was the unfortunate spiral I experienced before honestly giving up on it. The graphics looked pretty good from what I had seen, but I didn't get beyond the first set of walls. I would recommend working on the way that you present the mechanics to the player, as I was truly lost. Nice attempt, keep developing 👍 |
| Dec 17 05:29:06 | 2h 27m | Point & Sin - Ludum Dare 43 edition | ♥ 1 | The variety in the terrain is simply incredible for an LD game. There seemed to be a solid mana system in place, but it seemed to lack a diverse variety of spells. Because of this, there wasn't really any need for the lust stat, as mana regen wasn't a problem (fireball costs barely anything) and the spell cooldown reduction was abosultely miniscule. I also never found myself using melee, so the melee critical hit wasn't that great either. I also found some of the point and click thing a bit glitchy or annoying. When clicking on menu buttons, the character would try to walk to whereever you clicked. When I'm interacting with the menu, the player shouldn't move. When the player wanted to go off the map, they also had a bit of a spasm. The enemies also liked walking across gaps. The gameplay could have used some variation, but the graphics and mood were very good. Great creation! 👍 |
| Dec 17 12:08:14 | 6h 39m | God's Thirst | ♥ 0 | The game was quite fun, but lacked methods to build upon high scores. By this, I mean you more or less have to take damage against each enemy. It would have been nice if sacrificing healed me or there were powerups to boost the gameplay. There could have also been ranged attacks or multiple enemies? Otherwise the game was very fun and easy to understand. The animations were all very good, but I would have appreciated extra variety in the gameplay. Maybe something a bit more strategic than occasionally blocking? I also had the occasional problem where I accidently fell into the pit. Otherwise, the game was amazing and very polished. The simple diagonal red fill was very smart at communicating the need to sacrifice, and smoothly implemented into the game. Great job! Keep developing 👍 |
| Dec 17 12:33:28 | 25m 14s | Protect the caravan | ♥ 0 | A really fun little game! I liked that RNG wasn't really a thing outside of the spawning, as it left me thinking about the best next move. I also loved the wide variety of responses that each character had, with their own unique personalities that responded to different scenarios. As others are saying, the game is a little slow, and could have used a text speed up or skip button. I was also surprised to see a boss, as this wasn't labelled on the 'enemies remaining' counter. There was also the option for unnatural combos sequences of enemies, with one point having three robots in a row, which made victory easy. In the end, I managed to survive with four heroes remaining. Quite an interesting little strategy game, that makes you get to know the characters! 👍 |
| Dec 17 23:34:09 | 11h 00m | Protect Him | ♥ 1 | Only thing I could wish for is more levels. What you had was quite fun, and a very interesting concept! A bug that kept on *bugging* me was that the collisions for the player were not the same collisions as the blue capsules. Once you switched out of the player, the blue capsule would often fall off of where they were, which was quite annoying. I found that this happened if they were on the ground, but air was directly below them, and the player was standing on the edge. Otherwise, a very fun little creation, that I would love to see expanded upon! Keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 17 23:58:28 | 24m 19s | One for Another - A tactical combat game | ♥ 2 | Quite an impressive game, and the length was certainly impressive. I can only imagine that a lot of work went into this! I'm not completely sure about the balance of the game though, as I found some tricks that are an almost instant win. I found myself coming back to the rogue's celerity, which allowed you to almost infinitely extend your turn and wipe the field clean. There also wasn't much opportunity for the enemies to fight back either, so this made it pretty easy. The shrines also didn't feel that powerful, as the buffs that they gave were just weak versions of abilities they already had. Whilst these buffs were permanent, by the time I had gotten to the shrine, most of the enemies were dead, nullifying any investments made at the shrine. Otherwise, the game was quite a bit of fun, and proved to be an interesting strategy game! I am incredibly impressed that your team could create all of that in 72 hours! Due to the ambitious nature of the project though, it seemed to lack some polish, as many of the UI components looked bland and not polished. Still though, an amazing submission, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 18 02:09:55 | 2h 11m | The Omicron Fleet | ♥ 1 | What an awesome game! The voice-overs really improved the quality of the game, and the gameplay was very intuitive. It was annoying that you had to click a specific ship to move the whole formation, and sometimes the ship was under the main ship. I quite liked how you could see exactly which ships would be destroyed for direct, vertical projectiles, but the sideways ones didn't inform you where they would hit. Consequently, things I thought would block would sometimes just miss and hit my flagship instead. Otherwise, the game was very fun, and I played all the way through! Great little creation, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 18 02:53:06 | 43m 11s | Archibald's Snobbish Journey | ♥ 1 | A nice idea, that works very well! The music suited the game perfectly, and overall, the mood was great! I think you missed out on a prime opportunity though; you should have been able to throw out achibald! Very nice game, with a decent amount of polish and a very unique art style. The game didn't last very long, because it seemed to always be the same items. Maybe if there was a variety of items that could spawn, the game experience could last a bit longer? Otherwise and awesome creation, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 18 03:05:28 | 12m 22s | Not so Magic! | ♥ 0 | A very fun card game! It felt a bit random, and the outcome was more decided by luck than by skill, but that's a downfall of most card games. Perhaps some more ways to turn the tide when in a bad situation could help balance? Otherwise, a very fun game, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 00:30:39 | 21h 25m | Until there were none | ♥ 0 | A very nice, quite polished game! Some of the upgrades felt pretty pointless though, and some options were poorly balanced. I particularyl found this with the 'S' ability. One option was to have them trapped indefinitely or kill them, but killing them takes extra green bar energy so why would you? Trap them indefinitely then kill them once the wave is over. Then the next upgrade was to have them trapped for 10 seconds or projectile travel indefinitely, but why would you do the 10 seconds if you already did the trapped indefinitely? Point is to consider the balance of the options, and have reasons for both of them. As it stands, I didn't really feel like I was making a sacrifice when choosing a power, but rather, making the obvious choice. There was one where I could increase range of lclick or pierce through an enemy. Why would you pick the range? Maybe the option could have been more range vs more projectile speed, then pierce vs explode? As it stood, the pierce didn't seem to combine with the explode anyway. There was also some UI problems that made parts of the game slightly tedious. The custom cursor was very hard to see, and I often lost track of it. Could have maybe made it larger or given it more contrast? Also, I frequently forgot about the 'TAB' to continue thing, and the message to use tab was not very obvious. Could have maybe had that text flash or occupy a more obvious position. Being below the weapon hotbar and on the very edge of the screen made it hard to see. With the tab thing, I would recommend doing one of two things; replenish all cooldowns or remove it entirely. Due to the cooldowns, I felt a need to wait long times between rounds to cooldown and prepare for the next wave. This isn't particularly fun, so maybe just reset all these cooldowns? Or perhaps, you want me to start the next round with things still cooling down, in which case I would recommend removing the tab control altogether. Overall, the main gameplay was very well balanced, and I found myself down to the last tower, which is good design! Sometimes the level was annoying to traverse, with steps that look like a single jump actually requiring a double jump. I would have also liked some warning for overloading my energy, since this often killed me without warning. I was focussed on the enemies, not that fairly minor bar. Maybe make it become more red or start flashing when on too much energy? The graphics were very nice, and the music was well suited. Quite a nice game, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 00:46:22 | 15m 43s | Alain's Sacrifice | ♥ 1 | The intro moved way too fast, and I couldn't really read it. I would have appreciated the option to move to the next text option at my own will. There was also quite a few polish problems, things as simple as the sound effect for destroying projectiles sounding similar to your own damage sound. This was a bit confusing, as I often wasn't sure whether I had been damaged or the projectile had been destroyed. I also initially thought that something was going on with the shield dudes, since the projectiles directly hit the shield, so I assumed that they were invulnerable from the front. My guess was that I would need to go behind them to kill them. I think that 'they have more health' would have been better demonstrated by armour, because the projectile directly hitting the shield indicates to me that the attack was completely ineffective. The graphics were a bit basic, but as a compo game, it is acceptable. The gameplay was a bit too easy, and didn't really provide much challenge. I think the game would have been more fun if you did need to attack the shield dude from behind, since this would add the challenge of needing to navigate over them and attack from behind. The general strategies required to complete the game weren't very complex, and were rather just spamming shoot. Otherwise though, this is a good game. Keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 01:11:51 | 25m 29s | We Fight "Together"! | ♥ 1 | An interesting idea, but I think it was ruined by a few minor problems that could have been fixed with some simple polish. Most painful was the tiny player 'step height'. The player's step height was so small, that some of the stairs required a jump. I would have increased the step height so that the player could easily traverse the stairs, particularly since this is such an important game mechanic. The picked up soldiers considerably obstructed the view that you had, particularly when walking down the stairs. When getting the two on top of the tower, I had almost no vision when going down the stairs since their bodies occupied the space that I wanted to see past. Maybe make the held soldier see-through or only occupy one quarter of the screen, so that you could use one of the bottom quarters to see where you are going. I quite liked the few sounds that the soldiers made, but I think that more funny sounds could have been beneficial. Maybe some grunts and moans when you pick them up, or maybe some humorous comment for when you stand in a way that their body clips through the wall. Little details like this could have seriously boosted the humour of the game, particularly since the best humour is achieved through the audio. The low-poly graphics were quite nice, but I would have liked more to do. The game feels like a chore at the moment and needs more variety to be interesting. One thing that could have been done is to speed up the player's walk speed, as at the moment it takes too long to get out to the castle courtyard and back. Could have maybe had the battle be on two fronts, with enemy tower shooting AND the enemies attacking on foot? Maybe these foot soldiers are defeated by using your soldiers as a sword? As it stood, the game got progressively more boring, as each time you had to travel further and further to get to a soldier. Otherwise, the game was moderately enjoyable, but the menial nature of the tasks got to me. The final win/lose messages were funny, but they didn't really make up for the lack of gameplay. Hopefully this feedback is useful for future projects, but in the meantime, keep developing! 👍 EDIT: Oh... Lshift to run... That would have been nice to know whilst playing the game... You probably could have made that more obvious on the UI of the game, as without that control, the game was downright tedious. |
| Dec 19 02:45:36 | 1h 33m | Brownie Cove Cancelled | ♥ 1 | Interesting visual effects, however it had me awefully confused. I get the feeling that that was the point. Nice symbols, and some weird imagery. No idea what was going on with the floating fish monsters and the nightmare room. I get the feeling that the whole game is an allegorical representation of an airport as a nightmare. Overall, an interesting game, but I'm lost as to what to do. Is there a win condition? If so, I never found it. I would have liked extra speed, but once again, I feel like this was intentionally limited. Nevertheless I would have liked more speed. There was also some great humour; "All unattended baggage will be eaten". Great work, keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 08:43:46 | 5h 58m | V. Girl | ♥ 1 | I'm not so sure about some of the options. I would have liked some variety, as all of them seemed a bit ... crude. The backgrounds were nice, and I liked the use of different fonts. The fonts did a good job matching personalities, and was a great way of distinguishing between characters. Nice design that unlike many other text adventures you opted to avoid repeating character names at the start of each message; your use of fonts is a very smart way to avoid this! I would have liked some opportunity to speed up text, as sometimes it was slow. All of the ... and stuff really slowed down the experience, and if I was to replay this, I could imagine that being frustrating. Otherwise, an interesting idea, but the options could have used more variety. Keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 11:12:00 | 2h 28m | The Grassland Kings | ♥ 1 | Unfortunately, I didn't really know what I was doing in this game. It was instantly clear that the boss monster was the primary enemy, but I wasn't even sure that my attacks were hurting it. No health bars were displayed on the enemy or for myself, so I didn't really have any feedback as to what was going on. The boss seemed to always flash, so I thought that maybe it was invulnerable? Maybe this was a hit effect gone wrong, but nevertheless, this flashing animation only confused me further. I managed to beat the first boss out of (literally) blind luck. By the end, almost nothing was visible, and I couldn't even see if my sword was actually attacking, since the darkness prevented me from seeing my own hands. From previous comments, there seems to be a way to increase visibility, but this isn't made major, and could be removed with little difference. I believe that a prime way to improve the difficulty could be simply building upon the vision restoration, as this would allow the player to see what is happening and act accordingly. With the lowest visibility you can't see any projectiles, so death is inevitable. Maybe just boost the 20% chance of restoration to a full 100% chance, but with only minor vision improvements. Or maybe, you could have the player *sacrifice* some other stats to restore the vision to better tie in with the theme? It also felt weird how you couldn't move whilst attacking. It made it impossible to dodge most attacks, particularly since you need to get close enough to melee. For a melee combat system, more maneuverability is needed to be able to avoid incoming attacks. Overall, the game is quite nice, but I feel too restricted, and don't really have an environment to learn, since the vision drops off so quickly. Improve the difficulty curve, and you have yourself a very solid game! Keep developing! 👍 |
| Dec 19 11:36:32 | 24m 32s | YOU ARE FIRED! | ♥ 2 | Global warming is real!!! Just look at dem swells. A very interesting game mechanic, that I found myself quite enjoying. Some of the text was a bit small, particularly the Zzzz over their heads when tired. I was also quite annoyed that the telephone box was often on the opposite side of the building from the stairs. This felt like unnecessary distance that had to be travelled. Whilst the control scheme was very easy to grasp, I often accidently instantly fired people. I got into a habit of space to interact, so whenever I went to place someone, I would press space and instantly fire them. It feels weird that placing the employees is done instantly and without input, whilst the telephone requires a space press. If I'm at the telephone, there shouldn't need to be a button to press, but it makes sense for there to be a button to place the employee. I also found some annoyance in a minor problem, where firing someone whilst holding another employee wouldn't place the new employee immediately. I instead had to leave the area and come back for the new employee to be placed. There also wasn't a huge tie in with the theme, since firing useless employees isn't really a sacrifice, but rather cutting loose ends. A sacrifice should have me losing something. An example of a sacrifice could be losing a productive employee to somehow lower the swell. This would also create more complex gameplay. (to make the tradeoff or not?) Overall, a very fun game, with great audio, mood and humour. The gameplay also feels fun, with a need to constantly check over the staff. I felt a bit limited by the player's speed, but nevertheless, a great production! Keep developing! 👍 |
