Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → Feedback comment stats → Ashtrail
Feedback comments for LD44
Ashtrail's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Ashtrail's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 11:35:19 | The Iron Syndicate | ♥ 1 | Interesting game, it was an enjoyable experience ! The animations are very nice. Overall the game is pretty well polished but feedback is about pointing out points that could be even better. Music would have been nice as shoveling in silence can get a little lonely (since this is a jam game you could have used a royalty free track). The sound effect however were very good (I especially liked the striker's chant). An end screen could be a nice addition too, as I was a bit confused at the end (since I couldn't get out of the level and what happened in the story I assumed the game was finished). Lastly I don't know what engine you use but if you can, please try to make web builds during Jams, it's really helpful for people who don't have windows (and even for those who do, the least downloading/unzipping required the best) Good work ! | |
| May 1 12:16:43 | 41m 24s | TREASURE ROOM | ♥ 1 | Good job finishing your first jam ! I liked the pixel art it's nice. The music is pretty good too (it does get repetitive though, but I'll get to that later). The game is pretty well presented and feels consistent. However feedback is about pointing out points that could be even better and there's quite a bit of them : - I think the first point is feedback, a hurt animation (like a red blink) + sound effect for the enemies and player would be really helpful. For the moment it's not clear when you actually hit or got hit by an enemy. Speaking of sound effects, they could be improved to feel more rewarding (maybe a bit less digital, even voice effect could have worked I think). - Gameplay wise the game doesn't feel very skill based, I found the two best strategies were : hitting enemies while moving backwards, waiting for them to bug into a collision and kite them. Maybe putting more cooldown on a swing and less health for enemies would make the game feel a bit more rewarding. More mecanics might help too (other than just the sword swing that is). - Overall I think the game is a bit to long/slow, you should either need less money to finish or get more money after each round. This causes the money and gameplay to get repetitive. However it's not like the game is devoid of juice though, the particle effect on enemy death is a good addition (don't hesitate to put even more particles to the effect though >:D ). If you haven't seen them already I recommand these two videos on game juice - juice it or lose it : https://youtu.be/Fy0aCDmgnxg - the art of screenshake : https://youtu.be/AJdEqssNZ-U (it seems the ldjam website automatically expands youtube video, I tried a few ways to only show the link but it didn't work, sorry) Thanks for including a playable web build, it's appreciated ! Although I spent most of my post pointing out improvements, the game is still nice and you can be proud of yourself ! |
| May 1 12:30:37 | 13m 54s | Basil Price: Mint Investigator | ♥ 1 | Really enjoyable game ! The music is awesome, the 4th wall breaking is done very well and the game was really funny. I guess it could do with a bit more polish (like most jam games and normal with the time restriction). There wasn't really any "painful" points during the game so I don't have much more feedback to give. Nice job, you guys can be proud of yourselves ! edit: (I forgot to thank you for making a web build, you have my gratitude as a mac user) |
| May 1 13:09:48 | 39m 11s | No more Chicken | ♥ 1 | The game is really fun. That chicken is glorious ! It would have been nice if all the game was made with the same graphical style, it would have felt more consistent. The sound effects are very nice however the music doesn't really fit in my opinion. The mecanics/physics are surprisingly good for a jam game. Most actions feel very good (I guess the jump could perhaps be slightly improved). I loved the air slide/dash. The hit effect looks very good too ! The level design could maybe be improved a little too, I tried quite a few times but could never defeat the ambush during the second level where there's a bazillion dudes. However I did try at least 5/6 times because the game was fun and I wanted to succeed. Great job, you can be proud of yourself ! |
| May 1 18:58:15 | 5h 48m | Arm & A Leg | ♥ 1 | Pretty cool game ! I'm impressed by the body parts that really influence the gameplay and the amount of features the game has. I finished the game three times in order to figure out what each body part / power up did. The art is nice (a bit more detail on the platforms could be a neat addition). The sound effects are okay but could be better. Unfortunately the concept of the game works a bit against itself since you have to sacrifice mechanics that contribute to its fun, at least until you figure out which parts are expendable and which power ups are worth it. Speaking of which the game isn't very balanced : the best setup is to sell both arms and legs and buy the gun + scatter. Arms and legs which are the most lucrative parts are the most useless, actually they even give you a bigger hitbox. In comparison the language chip or eyes are major game changers but only sell for one credit. Overall the game could feel a bit more rewarding, I'd recommend watching the following video for a few tips on how to juice up a game. https://youtu.be/AJdEqssNZ-U In this case I think the main points of improvement would be : - enemies should have less health, 5 shots to kill is really too much (for instance regular bullets could be a 2 hit kill, and instead of scatter you could have super bullets that OHKO) - to maintain a bit of difficulty there could be more enemies instead (however right now the game isn't that difficult once you know what to sell/buy and where the enemies are located) - the bullets should be bigger All of that said I still think this is a solid game, I point out these possible improvement in the hope of being helpful. Good job ! |
| May 1 19:33:24 | 35m 09s | Space Struggle | ♥ 1 | Impressive amount of work for a compo, good job ! The mechanics are pretty well explained (which isn't always the case with entries) and that's cool. The pixel art is nice. Going the management road for the theme was a good idea. Other games that took the "sacrifice gameplay to progress" take on the theme removed controls which isn't very fun, here it just lowers stats. The sound design isn't the best, the music gets quickly repetitive (albeit you can disable it), and the movement sound effect doesn't feel quite right. The balancing could be improved, depending on the random layout you can win easily by just zapping from shop to shop. On a side note : I was playing fullscreen and sometimes clicking on the map would minimize the game window for some reason. Overall it's a nice game that feels pretty polished. Well done for finishing this game and managing to put so much content inside by yourself ! |
| May 2 19:30:32 | 23h 57m | BraveBelly (Thiccboy hurdle jump sim) no download required | ♥ 0 | I was a bit confused by the keymap, why put restart on space when this is a game about jumping ? (from my experience R is standard for restart) And why does the down key make you jump ? Once you figure it out it's fine though. The game could really use sound effects (the visual effect when you land was very nice, but some sfx would have been even better). The music is pretty short and since the game is pretty long it gets repetitive fast. I think the game suffers a bit because of its length/pace. The mechanics that are implemented work well but since there is really only one interaction, ie jumping, there isn't much of a challenge. A duck option could have been a nice addition, but I understand the time constraints. However, even without adding any features, I think scrolling the screen faster would be an improvement. I know this sounds a bit negative but I was just trying to give a few ideas to improve the game, or to keep in mind in the future. Moreover the game is overall pretty smooth and very well polished graphically. Good job ! (ps: thanks for the web build) |
| May 2 19:44:23 | 13m 51s | Plunderlings | ♥ 4 | The art and the music are excellent. The sfx is maybe not the most fitting but it's funny. The concept is smart and funny, and it's also a good take on the theme. The only drawback is the slightly buggy mechanics (including the Captain suddenly becoming the Flash when climbing stairs) and the level design that could be a bit improved. A death animation for the Captain could be nice too. Overall a very solid entry, well done ! |
| May 2 20:01:57 | 17m 34s | Enemy Of The State | ♥ 1 | The sound effects were very good (I especially liked the russian screams), the music a bit less. The blood pools were well done too, I think round particles would work better though because square seems a bit weird for liquid. I like Hotline Miami a lot, one of it's core mechanics though is that the enemies and you die in one hit. Maybe you were trying to go for more of a swarm gameplay but I still think one hp for enemies would be more satisfying, and if the protagonist has an hp bar it would be nice to be able to see it. A reloading mechanic might be interesting too. Overall the game feels good and it's pretty polished, the particle effects and screen shake are nice. Well done ! |
| May 2 20:12:08 | 10m 11s | GTApp - Great Tube App | ♥ 1 | Excellent entry ! The twist on the theme is one of the best I've seen so far. The music switching is really great (and it's cool you had the time to fit it in). The mechanics are smooth and the game is pretty fun. Great job ! |
| May 2 20:31:51 | 19m 43s | Seaway | ♥ 1 | This entry is very impressive (although I guess you guys are kinda cheating since you're an actual game studio :P ). The artistic direction is absolutely gorgeous. The animations are great. The music and sound effect are very good too. The sum of all of this sets a consistent and great mood to the game. I guess the fun factor is the weak point, although the combat is good and works well. Anyway the game seems more like it's aiming for relaxing than action packed. This is one of, if not the best entry I've played so far, congratulations ! |
| May 4 14:16:21 | 41h 44m | ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ | ♥ 1 | Really cool game ! It has a nice feeling to it and I believe the music has got something to do with that. Unlike a lot of other entries, despite the game being pretty long and letting your mind wander on the music it doesn't get tediously repetitive, on the contrary. Maybe a tad bit of sound effects could have been a nice (nothing too flashy but like a soft click when you get a combination, a little feedback when you drag a word, and perhaps a faint typing sound of the text ?). Narrative games seem pretty rare for jams but they're one of the type I usually enjoy most, and indeed the story kept me invested. I got to the end but there's still a lot of mystery going on (although I didn't read the whole json to see if I could glean a few more information). I'm not sure I understand how the theme ties into it though, was hoping the whole invertebrae thing to be linked to it (selling information on some type of lifeform ?) but maybe I just didn't explore the story enough. I found the main mechanic (picking up words and keeping them to make actions) interesting and I think you did a really good job fitting the different word in context (at least most of the time :P ). The ability to go back is also really cool ! Technology wise I think it's cool you made this game in React (instead of a specific game engine) and open sourced it. It was also interesting to see how you formatted the story as a json (actually it's surprisingly similar to how we did it for our game, which we originally open sourced but went back on because of shame about some of the things we did to make the game work ^^"). You managed to fit in a lot of content for a Compo and I think the result is really cool :) . Great job ! |
| May 4 14:49:50 | 33m 29s | Soul Builder | ♥ 1 | Very cool game ! I'm not sure is the "known issues" for the music and audio means it's a bug or not, from what I understand it's not (a bug that is). If that's the case, since you applied for a Jam you were allowed to get royalty free sfx and music. Next time it's worth considering, as it doesn't take that much time but really adds a lot to a game. The pixel art is very nice and cute. The UI is clean and understandable. There's always something to do and it's nice and relaxing to see the number grow. It was an enjoyable play through ! By the ways just by curiosity, when you say Javascript and HTML, do you mean a js framework like React or just plain vanilla js (perhaps JQuery) ? (if it's the latter you are brave :P ) I have a small question though, who's the Temple of Souls for, if everyone is dead ? (I thought I could save a few dudes at first, but the Golem army was too tempting) Anyways it's a really nice game, well done ! |
| May 4 15:47:54 | 58m 04s | Last Stand | ♥ 2 | The game is clear (kudos for the detailed tutorial) and the mechanics are solid ! The sound effects are pretty good and since this is a jam game you could have added some royalty free music, music is always a great addition to a game. The graphics are simple and functional, however maybe something a little less clean but more personal could have given a bit more character to the game. While playing I felt like something was missing but I still can't figure exactly what. Maybe a bit more personality or craziness (more bombastic effects perhaps ?). Well that's just my personal appreciation though, I like when I can sense the creator(s) behind a game. Anyway the game works well, it's pretty polished and you had time to fit in quite a lot (such as the helpful tutorial and UI), good job ! |