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ArmchairArmada

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		ArmchairArmada's comment
Dec 5 02:20:36		Please God	♥ 0	I'm not sure why this keeps happening, but as I rapidly tap the right button to scroll through the denizens, the game will sometimes meow, a new entry will appear on the diary, then I can't interact anything anymore. Initially, I thought it was due to the volcano meter turning zero, but I was able to have one session where the meter reaches zero just fine, and...would still let me play.
Dec 5 02:48:22	27m 46s	Wild Heat Showdown	♥ 2	I found the level generation to be the most interesting part. It creates an impressively expansive maze that's interesting and cohesive to go through (though some sprites were missing...and graphics sometimes appear where there are no walls). Enemy and item placements were mostly reasonable. Gameplay-wise, though, shooting was incredibly difficult given the mouse pointer being completely invisible the entire time. I also swear it didn't fire properly a couple of times. The game never mentioned the ability to double-jump, or holding shift to run, so navigation was initially difficult. Plus, enemies could fire you off the ladder, with no possible way to dodge the fire. I think at one point, one spawned behind the background, only making them visible by looking through the windows (they still hurt the player). I don't think the restart level button works, either. It always felt like there was never enough time to navigate the maze. Eventually, I ended up just completely skipping the shooting aspect entirely in favor of just finding the goal, as that alone was a difficult task. I wasn't a huge fan of the text either. The "accent" was jarring enough to reduce the mood and atmosphere from me.
Dec 5 03:13:54	25m 32s	Well-Hidden Genie	♥ 1	I had a lot of difficulties trying pick-up anything with a touchpad. I'm not sure if the game is any better with a mouse, but it's a really frustrating experience when you know what to pick up, and having immense difficulty over it. I appreciate the aesthetics overall, but I confess I'm really biased against fetch quests. They're not my taste.
Dec 8 01:53:11	70h 39m	Cowboy Hell	♥ 1	I kinda like the aesthetic of the game. There's a consistency and charm to it. Plus the way you can exploit the health points to be distributed to all the other stats was really funny. Personally, I'm not exactly a huge fan of heavily stat-allocation game. While I think it's really fascinating that one can adjust their stats before every battle, I think the process is tedious, and hampers the fun. Still, I admit some bias against the game, so probably not the best to rate this game. I also echo that the unskippable final boss music really reduced the replay value of the game.
Dec 8 02:37:26	44m 15s	Super Sellout	♥ 4	Solid aesthetics, thought the controls were a bit strange. For a game genre like this, I would have expected either the E key (for WASD) or X key (for Arrow Keys) to make the action, while the Space (for WASD) or Z to do the jump (for Arrow Keys). Thought that was a curious decision. I thought the later parts of the game kind of scrolls a little too fast. It didn't seem to matter how many sponsors I didn't choose; I couldn't touch the right side of the screen. That limits mobility alone, so it felt kind of awkward. I did like the sponsors affecting dogs and metals, but I thought the puddles were visually not obvious as obstacles to avoid. Jump felt a little weird as well. I think some extra visual flairs should have been added to tapping F without anyone to save, as that would have informed the player that they are wasting their time doing so. The feature itself is fine, it's just not obvious.
Dec 8 03:33:10	55m 44s	The Treachery	♥ 2	I liked the harmony of the visuals and the music. There's a consistency in the aesthetic that, while barebones, tells enough to get the story. It's also very unusual depiction of hell. I do confess the controls felt like they needed a little work. For WebGL build, it didn't seem like holding done the mouse button auto-fired. Holding down jump shouldn't cause you to jump again when landing on a platform. I also thought that there was not enough visual and auditory feedback on successfully hitting a boss correctly. I highly recommend checking out [Make it Juicy](https://omiyagames.itch.io/make-it-juicy), Juice it or Lose it (search on Youtube), and other presentations on how to add these sort of polish.
Dec 8 04:13:51	40m 41s	Pillar of Peril	♥ 0	I thought the graphics were really good, and the escalation of difficulty was fine until the last level and the final boss. I appreciate the time given to experience all the abilities early on, as it does make the decision of what to sacrifice difficult. I would have appreciated it if the game paused while I was debating what to sacrifice, though. Go Hand-ability! I thought it was difficult to aim given only 4 directions were supported. I also thought the audio, both music and sound effects, were very repetitive. The latter in particular could use variety via playing a random selection of a category of sound effects, and/or randomizing the pitch/play-speed each time the sound effect is played. I thought the final boss was too difficult for my taste; combined with being reset from the start made me want to quit early. Since there's nothing else left to sacrifice at this point, I think it would have been a better idea to just reset the player from the beginning of the battle with full health.
Dec 13 02:03:57	117h 50m	Ursa	♥ 4	Boy, this game is hard. I would have appreciated a level run through (e.g. the camera cinematic providing the visuals on what the level looks like) at the beginning so I can figure out which ability to sacrifice. Otherwise, it felt like I was doing a lot of blind guessing. Would have also been nice to not have to always select which abilities to sacrifice, as entering the menu would take time away from replaying the game. For difficult games, the turnover from death to replaying should short. Perhaps the game could store the initial set of sacrifices, and only after tapping restart button, does the sacrifice menu pop-up again. I also had difficulties following the narrative, since it appeared while platforming. Since my attention remains on the platforming, this makes it difficult for me to follow along with the story. In the end, I ended up not caring.
Dec 13 02:28:33	24m 36s	Beyond	♥ 1	Appreciated the game playing around with the medium much like the Poo's Training section in Earthbound. While the excellent audio design and the compelling narrative does a great job in selling the mood, I thought the point-and-click part was clunky and unintuitive. For example, how was I supposed to figure out that turning up the heat of the basement required clicking on the laptop, then the text on said laptop? Normally in a point-and-click adventure environment, I'd assume just clicking on the fireplace, or going through the task of finding a lighter and wood before approaching it, would be the right thing to do. I also thought it was strange and silly that the window needed to be opened for the cig, when ya know, it's already established that the room has a chimney, given the fireplace. Air control clearly isn't the reason.
Dec 13 02:43:35	15m 02s	King's Guard	♥ 0	I thought it was interesting that this game felt less like a tower defense, where taking advantage of the economy was the main focus, than a lane-based infinite runner. From that perspective, I thought a lot of stats (besides HP) wasn't all that important. Being able to place each figure anywhere on the map was an interesting choice: I sort of expected the characters to be forced in a lane, but no, you can place them between the lane and defeat more enemies that way. The pacing at the beginning, I think, could have used a little more work, as it's a lot of waiting for the enemies to roll in. On the other hand, I definitely got sweaty towards the end, where the screen filled up rapidly, and priority went into figuring out where to place the tank.
Dec 13 03:28:11	44m 36s	Dare to Risk	♥ 1	I had a lot of fun playing this. I mean, it's basically Risk. I thought the upgrade mechanic was brilliant addition to the RISK formula, as it creates an interesting risk-vs-reward decision making. The game seems biased towards the player with the most land mass, especially since each mass can only hold so many units. Maybe when programming this for multiplayer, consider adding mechanics that empowers those with less land mass than the other. The UI could really use some improvements, though. Ideas include having actual arrows on the board depicting where the troops will go; clicking said arrow can bring a pop-up asking how many troops to send to that area.
Dec 13 03:39:40	11m 29s	Can't save them all!	♥ 0	The easy-to-outmaneuver AI, along with its predictability, is simultaneously charming and problematic. For example, in my second playthrough, I was able to save 96 individuals. I thought the game concept was fine, and honestly one of the better implementation of the theme. As a game trying to create some challenge from the player, though, I believe the AI is a big deal-breaker.
Dec 13 04:27:11	47m 31s	Labrats	♥ 2	A pretty solid puzzle with no obvious flaws in the puzzle design themselves. Given how restricted and easy it is to softlock oneself in a level (if they didn't have a restart button), I think more levels could have been added to encourage the player to think through and understand the resource management of the game. In particular, I had the most difficulties keeping track of how many mice I needed with X-and/or-Y ability. More practice in that realm would have significantly helped me ease through solving the later puzzles that were super difficult. Not to mention the red herrings in the game. I dunno about you, but I like puzzle games better when the focus is on using what you have, than dealing with what one discovers isn't important.
Dec 13 04:37:42	10m 31s	The Last Light	♥ 0	Wasn't a huge fan of the bugs. Wait, that was a confusing pun, I don't think that made a whole lot of sense. Lemme try that again... I think the art style is well stylized and provides a lot of character. I appreciate each character's dialogue corresponding their presence, and as such, needs. Some of them border on creepy, too. I did think, however, it was too easy to accidentally skip the dialog. I also wasn't sure the game was working properly when I gave light out of order. When I collided into a moth, the game just sort of froze, which I'm not sure was intentional. Hopefully, you'll both have more time to work on this.
Dec 15 02:20:21	45h 42m	Bloody Madness	♥ 0	Not bad! I really liked how loose the level design were, making the platforming fairly easy to do. It allows one to focus on the puzzle itself. That said, I thought the main mechanic itself was too simple, and not easily expanded to more complicated puzzles. Still, I did make it to the end with ease and enjoyed myself throughout.
Dec 15 02:28:04	7m 43s	Long Live The King!	♥ 0	I can't move the windows well, either, on a 1280x720 screen resolution.
Dec 15 02:55:03	26m 59s	What We Hold In Our Hearts	♥ 1	This was an interesting experiment. While not exactly "fun," I liked the attempt made to give meaning to the items the character is collecting. Unfortunately, since I was frantically tapping the right arrow key, it was very difficult for me to pay attention to the narrative. I think I would have had a significant connection to the game if I didn't need to remain so focused on the button tapping, thus allowing me to read the narrative a little more closely.
Dec 15 03:27:54	32m 51s	I Am Free	♥ 0	We started the stream by playing the executable, and since no instructions popped up, we were utterly confused as to how to play the game. I did notice the WebGL fixes this by adding a help button, but boy is this game incredibly cryptic on its rules.
Dec 15 03:56:31	28m 37s	STAR JUNK	♥ 0	I really, really like the trade-off mechanic. It really forces you to think about the aiming of the game, and deciding what to take out. Presentation was nice as usual. I kind of chose to cheese the enemies by flying far away, then slowly approaching them until they're in view and shoot. I do think the controls were a little awkward, in particular the aiming, as it was easy to overshoot the angle. Still, the small world size and a neat radar really helped make the game feel strategic and fair.
Dec 15 04:15:12	18m 41s	Platformer.txt	♥ 2	The file manipulation is a bit difficult to deal with, especially with the puzzle requiring to drop collision. I ended up using cut-paste, then undo to swiftly take care of the problem, but I don't think most people would have realized that was possible on their OS. The premise is clever, though the puzzles didn't require too much from the player, and could use a bit of work. Would be nice to see more levels.
Dec 16 21:14:01	40h 58m	Whatever It Takes	♥ 1	The game takes way, waaay too long to play. Problems I see immediately are the very low probability of increasing the population (which isn't good when the starting population is small from the first place), and the need to devote at least half on to making food, which further worsens one's ability to increase the population. I can already see myself wasting 20 full minutes (40 cycles) just trying to build a larger population alone. As prior comments have made, a skip button would have drastically reduced my frustration. I don't especially think the number of buildings one needs to manage is too difficult to understand, but then again, I've been largely focused on population control only; the mining and wood-cutting buildings were extraneous coming from that play style. Personally, I would have increased the probability of a new meeple spawning, and also increase the number of food units made per meeple. I do otherwise think the sacrificing part adds an interesting twist to the regular formula, but it is quite frustrating at the beginning.
Dec 16 21:18:32	4m 31s	Cheela	♥ 1	The controls were really bizarre, in the sense that dragging-and-dropping a box would have been the most intuitive control scheme for selecting units, but instead the game required 2 left clicks, and even then, I wasn't too sure. Right click as a "go here" was a bizarre decision in my opinion. I think a good old context menu on single clicks would have been a better idea for "go here." I also had a very difficult time knowing what units I've selected, and initially, didn't even know which units were under my control (white or black?). Ultimately, my winning strategy was literally running away from the opposing AI (and an occasional cheesing where I dropped a unit to the bottom right of the opponent number grid, making a lot of newly spawned AI units fall into the square). That's....kind of an interesting statement about a population.
Dec 16 21:46:33	28m 01s	Blight Tower	♥ 1	I think the game is far too difficult. Having all the bots turn to you, along with the outposts generating more evil bots was frankly overkill, especially on a game where the big bad is a bullet sponge. I would have appreciated either all the spawned bots turning evil, and the outpost becoming disabled, or the spawned bots remained untouched, but the outpost starts spawning evil bots. While I understand the inclusion of this rule, I don't think it was a good idea to have an extra rule stating that losing all bots would make the player lose the game. I feel like the bots generation could have just been infinite, with limits on how many can be spawned at any one time, and make the objective more satisfying that way. The controls were mostly fine. I miss the jump, but then again, I suspect that would have broke the path-finding. The fire rate is too long to make the experience satisfying, and the boss has way too much health to feel like I'm making any progress at all. There are also no obvious tells when an explosion has a splash effect on you.
Dec 16 22:08:45	22m 12s	Sacrifice Knight	♥ 1	That was pretty short and sweet platformer. I definitely thought it was cute and the controls were nice and responsive. Graphics were very good; music could use a little work. The part I appreciated the most was the upgrade system and the maze-like level design. The soul-meter in particular helped encourage exploration in finding hapless villagers and trying to map out an optimal direction in taking on the final boss. I feel the combat could have used a little work. In particular, I recommend adding knockback on enemies to make it much easier to combo-attack them. As it is, when you initially play, the sword is too weak to defeat the enemies before they walk into you. I know time was short in adding a boss battle, but then again, I thought it was charming that it was so easy. Same with the Gainix ending of "rock falls, everyone dies" end screen.
Dec 16 22:35:08	26m 23s	God's Wrath	♥ 0	I appreciate that it's not game over if the God's Favor meter drops to 0. It makes it much easier to survey the entire level and confirm where things are before actually attempting to drop things into the volcano. The extra visual filters, while effective at conveying the danger level of the situation, often made it difficult to find things, let alone detecting the anvil shadows that could potentially kill you (the forest saved me, though). Mostly, I thought the game was really goofy, especially the poor Unity FPS script that allowed the player to scale mountains walls like they're nothing. Given the relaxed rules, it made it easy to appreciate the details put into the game.
Dec 16 23:18:27	43m 19s	Tiodrem Reserve	♥ 0	I really like the music of the game, and the graphics aren't too bad, either. The controls were mostly fine, with the grapple hook being the most fickle. It took me a while to realize the grenade doesn't actually hurt anything, so I feel like that could have used some better observation on wording. I feel like the game expected me to know which ability to sacrifice in the exact and proper order through the cryptic level design. To be frank, that made me feel like I was supposed read the level designer's mind, which isn't a fun experience. All the enemies are super-vicious with insane speed and large hitboxes that makes them difficult to avoid. Given your poor single-jump height, the down-attack felt especially ineffective, and what I ended up sacrificing first. The kill screen appeared very often during my playthrough, with the time wasted between each on progressively making me more and more annoyed as I played.
Dec 21 06:33:42	103h 15m	Floofs	♥ 1	Not bad for a first-time Ludum Dare game, especially in Compo. To echo what everyone has said, the inaccurate aiming is a pretty darn huge dealbreaker. It sounds like the momentum of the platform isn't transferred to the bullets, so that could have used some fixing. I confess the arcade-y feel is simple to learn, but also repetitive, and quick for one to get bored with. I get the sense the most amount of time was spent in graphics, which are quite polished for a compo.
Dec 21 07:36:33	1h 02m	Hunger Sings	♥ 0	Fantastic as always. As you've probably seen in our stream, I do agree with a feedback that the shoot button was a bit extraneous given the game auto-aimed anyway. Some of the bullet patterns were a bit tough, and I would have appreciated a slight increase in health, but I did eventually defeat all 4 bosses. I felt like more could have been done with sacrificing time; sure, it's a joke in this game, but imagine testing the player by genuinely adding that requirement mid-boss fight (or after you die).
Dec 21 08:13:03	36m 30s	Slime Girls	♥ 1	Those were some really beautiful graphics! I thought it was strange that given the silky smooth animations, it was strange the player character moved their legs faster than the actual speed they were walking, if you know what I mean. I think the stand-out feature in this game was actually the Metroidvania-like level design. I really appreciate the many shortcuts added to shorten the path from start to end. It would have been much more frustrating if those unlockable shortcuts weren't added in. Given dying is the main mechanic of the game, I wished the death and spawn animations were much shorter, so I would be able to jump back into the game sooner. Given the game has deliberate troll traps (mainly to justify the lighting created by death sports), having a quicker respawn would have really helped reduce the frustration of these elements without penalizing the game's pretty challenging difficulty at certain points. Overall, solid package.
Dec 26 00:52:17	112h 39m	The Missing Piece	♥ 1	Very cute. You've managed to strike into my nostalgic heart with a Shel Silverstein aesthetic. I had a lot of fun. The platformer controls were tight, and the level design was lenient enough to feel fair, while the puzzle design made it appear difficult. Game mechanics were introduced naturally and the overall experience was very pleasant. Only encountered a few annoyances: one, it's hard to tell which switch moves which platform, and more importantly, how the platform moved. Some levels may have benefited from a checkpoint; the one with a big wall in the middle, and requires the player to fall in particular comes to mind, since the platform moves very slowly, and I got annoyed waiting for it to come down each time I messed up. The music got repetitive after a while as well. Finally, I thought it was weird that on my screen, the game forced itself to windows mode, even though it still supported widescreen (which still revealed the seams in the background). To be clear, these are all minor in a very-well packaged game. I'd like to see more, such as new special pieces formed after colliding into a pencil.
Dec 26 02:38:14	1h 45m	Ai System	♥ 0	Yikes, this is very difficult puzzle platformer. There are a lot of red-herrings in the game, and it really required a lot of careful planning and numerous practice to get to the end. I gave up around level 6 or 7, since it required getting the jump controls perfect, and I just became exhausted with it. To be honest, I actually like the game, especially in it requiring the perfect number of hearts at the very end. That said, I don't have quite the tolerance to deal with its difficulty. Would have appreciated a lenient level-select screen to skip over levels I couldn't beat.
Dec 29 00:26:50	69h 48m	Blood Money	♥ 0	Barring a long instructions screen and a bit of a learning curve, I thought it was pretty fun. I get that this is more or less a procedurally generated set of levels, but I did get a sense some level formations were a bit unfair. I also found the default hand gun was perfectly sufficient for the majority of my gameplay, so I had no reason to switch to a different weapon, let alone buying them. There are just in general a ton of power-ups to memorize that it gets a bit overwhelming; I just ended up picking up a few that clearly opened a new path and that's about it. Strafing without a question was the most important skill to play this game. Overall, I think some balancing revision is necessary, but the core is very enjoyable.
Dec 29 00:37:42	10m 52s	The Grassland Kings	♥ 0	To be honest, I didn't enjoy this game much. It gets very hard, very fast, and combined with rapid reduction in vision, the information available to the player is further reduced, making it easy to make more mistakes. From an experimentation perspective, it's interesting and worth further exploration. From a playability perspective, I found it too frustrating to play.