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Feedback comments for LD44
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Vinay Rao's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 29 06:22:41 | Life Cycle | ♥ 3 | I played one much like it in LD43 wherein you'd use your character bodies as footholds to progress. Though I think I enjoyed this one more. The saw blade obstacles, buttons, and conveyor belts add some spice to the formula. The currency twist in this one for unlocking levels is a good take on the theme, and adds something to the replay value of the game. The level design here is really solid. Could do with a level reset button to cut losses and start over when playing a stage. I managed to leave enough bodies in one stage to make it difficult to clear on the first attempt, which snowballed against me. Solid game, well done! | |
| Apr 29 06:48:54 | 26m 13s | โOffering for FSM | ♥ 1 | The aesthetic is lovely. The theme is well represented. The game is easy to pick up. I found that I was either grossly behind or far ahead of the amount needed to complete a level. Dialing in on game balance is difficult for a procedural game in 48 hours, but the foundation is solid to build upon. Good job on this one! Looks delicious. If it was edible, I'd eat it. |
| Apr 29 14:27:42 | 7h 38m | UFO Fishing | ♥ 1 | The game looks very clean. The visual appeal is crisp. The added bit of polish with the fish emerging from underwater to jump at the UFO is nice. Phew, this is a tough game! -10 sushi per hit taken is a bit harsh, as it seems difficult to avoid being hit. That said, after a few attempts I managed to beat it by constantly moving to the right and rapidly alternating my fire direction from left to right. During a few of the progression steps I'm not entirely sure I noticed a difference in the firing arc of the UFO's weapon. I suppose it is likely that it had some effect I didn't notice while whipping my mouse back and forth. Pretty good foundation for a game though. Just needs a bit of balance adjustment. If you were to go forward with it I'd suggest adding some defensive options as a more engaging alternative to the "fly in one direction and fire in two" strategy. Perhaps all that is needed is a little more telegraph time between fish appearing from off screen and slamming into the player. Given how pretty the game is, I could see myself coming back to it with a few tweaks. Good job! |
| Apr 29 14:49:38 | 21m 56s | DISREGARD LIFE, ACQUIRE CURRENCY | ♥ 1 | It's been said before, the visual appeal of this game is fantastic. This game has a relaxing feel to it. Took me a moment to get a hold of the game mechanics. Using the sky as a world map is pretty clever, though I found it a bit difficult to notice the blue pixel that represented me at first. As I started to figure it out, I ran into a glitch where every sailor I touched seemed to transport me on contact without hitting an interact key. I think it was always triggering the currency -> life interaction with sailors on contact. All that notwithstanding, this is one of the most appealing games I've played so far in this Compo. Excellent game! |
| Apr 29 16:10:16 | 1h 20m | Undercave | ♥ 2 | You've certainly killed it on setting a strong ambiance. The low light environment and music go a long way toward setting the mood. Level design is alright, though I found that some of the passages can be a bit narrow which had me crouch jumping quite a bit. Not too big a deal, honestly. The game is solid. Congratulations on completing your first LD! I'd say you did pretty good! |
| Apr 29 16:45:35 | 35m 19s | Bounty Hunted | ♥ 1 | A simple and very effective way to have fun. Easy to understand: Check Satisfying game mechanic: Check Easy on the eyes: Check Establishes a mood: Check Developer's voice in game: Check Can shoot off peoples' hats: Check Tumbleweed quota reached in a Western themed game: Check I can't think of anything to nitpick about this one. Even if there isn't terribly much going on the bottom line is that it's fun. Well done! |
| Apr 29 17:53:27 | 1h 07m | GERYDAS TOWER | ♥ 1 | This piques my nostalgia for the top down action adventure games of old. While the player character's sprite is very minimalist, they are very effective in representing motion. I thought that was pretty cool. The game flow is pretty good. Fast character speed, short attack range and enemy speed make it a little difficult to avoid taking damage at times. However, that does open the game up to a good cadence of baiting out attacks and counterattacking with the slime enemies. The flying enemies could probably do with one less hit to defeat. I encountered only one oddity while playing. I noticed you can interact with the detrimental dialogue gates more than once after making a selection. Not too big a deal, as you can just ignore them and move on after making a choice. Good job on this one! It had a solid atmosphere around it which reminded me of older dungeon based adventure crawlers of this style. I had fun with it! |
| Apr 29 18:53:34 | 1h 00m | Mercs | ♥ 1 | The mercenary and enemy characters are well animated. The sound effects for all the laser guns are good. Shooting mechanics are spot on and feel satisfying. Really all this game needs is more content and balance tweaks. I never really felt like my crew was in danger. But that's nothing a little more time in development couldn't fix. Maybe the companion characters aim a little too well. It is a bit easy in that sense. Perhaps there just aren't hard enough missions or destabilizing elements to get the adrenaline pumping. Once you get a few crew members stacked on top of each other, you can clear the hardest mission without firing a shot. A few bullet sponges, tunneling enemies, or enemies that require positioning changes would be awesome in a game like this. For 48 hours, this is a pretty darn solid game. There isn't much to add that you haven't already mentioned in your own development section on this page. Fantastic foundation for a top down shooter with campaign elements. Kudos! |
| Apr 29 19:53:21 | 59m 47s | Sweet Squish | ♥ 1 | The story was a little too real about predatory mobile games, haha! I'm not much of a match-3 or match-4 player. That whole genre escapes me, but this seems as good an implementation of it than any. Colorful, both visually and in narrative. Good job! Had fun with it! |
| Apr 29 21:00:40 | 1h 07m | Coin Puzzles | ♥ 0 | Pretty neat. I'd like to echo the feedback that the buttons are a bit too strict in their weight requirement. I wish there were more stages with additional mechanics. The extra stage introduced those % obstacles, which was interesting. Unfortunately the game ended immediately after that stage. More things like that would help make the game meatier. Probably just needed a few more hours for additional stages and content. However, it's not a bad foundation upon which to continue the project. Good job! |
| Apr 29 21:34:17 | 33m 37s | Life Path | ♥ 1 | Pretty cool online quiz style game. The unexpected nature of the results of your decisions keeps you guessing, and leaves you with a complete little story. Even if the results often feel very random, the player's agency in making decisions makes it a lot more fun. My little simulacrum may have died broke and unpopular, but at least he was happy! Good job! |
| Apr 30 00:23:17 | 2h 49m | Goblette | ♥ 2 | Pretty darn good platform game. If it was just waltzing through a cave fighting giant monster rats, that would have been plenty be sufficient. This did a bit more, in my eyes. The mood is well set with the music and visuals. Enemy placement, though in a few cases a bit harsh did well to keep me on my toes. That you have secret areas in your level design is pretty awesome. I felt pretty good about finding one such area. The unexpected "boss" battle at the end was rather neat too, though I'll admit I beat him by using the little ledge left of him to block his movement. I was pretty low on coins by that point to take him head on. Felt like a pretty complete experience overall. Well executed! |
| Apr 30 01:16:42 | 53m 25s | Grim Depths | ♥ 1 | The visual appeal of the game is very strong. I found that the basic sword that you start with is a bit too powerful when upgraded a good amount. However, when I played with other weapons the game felt a lot more balanced. I ran into only one real issue, which was that the slime guys can push the player through closed doors, locking them out of progressing any further. Not really a big deal though. That's what I get for cowering near doorways. This game was fun, the audio was good, the mood was properly atmospheric for a dark hellscape, and the theme was well represented. I'd count that as quite a successful game! Good job! |
| Apr 30 14:49:09 | 13h 32m | BOB | ♥ 3 | I'm a sucker for "what would you do" style games. This one has some impressive visuals. Good job on that Rodrigo! I did 3 rounds of it. On the third I came to notice that it seemed like the events that I was encountering weren't built off of previous events. Choosing not to turn on the contact radio or explore the planet still resulted in a refugee alien event, which seemed a bit odd. Seeing some player agency to influence subsequent events helps sell the narrative experience. That said, the ending screen payoffs were pretty awesome! I got the planet BoB ending, the stranded in space ending, and the riot ending. That you managed to get 10 different endings in the game is impressive, especially if they're all drawn and written as well as the ones I've seen. Good stuff! I've only run into one other game in this genre in LD44, and I wish there were more of them! |
| Apr 30 15:26:47 | 37m 38s | Choice of Life | ♥ 1 | Quite a cool game. Though I didn't see it myself, it's pretty awesome that you managed to sneak a second ending into the game. I love when a game manages to fit polished elements like that in. I think the game could use a little more feedback when taking or dealing damage. It was just a little difficult to notice when damage was being dealt. Had fun with this one, good job! |
| Apr 30 15:42:32 | 15m 45s | Delta Fighter | ♥ 1 | This game has a classic arcade game feel to it. The game mechanics are fun and well implemented. The flowing backdrops do a good job of selling the forward motion of the ship, which gives it a real sense of speed. This game really made me want to play Space Harrier or Afterburner. That's not a bad thing! Good job! |
| Apr 30 15:56:37 | 14m 05s | Information Age | ♥ 1 | This experience oozes with the theme of this Ludum Dare and sets a strong mood. That music was perfect. You'd mentioned you were playing with 2D lighting in this one, and I'd say it turned out pretty well. Good job! I await the spam E-mail, haha! |
| Apr 30 16:27:12 | 30m 35s | Weasel Catcher | ♥ 1 | The weasel models and animations are cute! I could not bring myself to shoot any of them. The shop upgrades didn't feel meaningless, which is good. I also rather liked the gem hunt. I spent a few minutes trying to make the first set of pillar jumps without the boot upgrade, so when I did get it, it gave me a sense of satisfaction. That there was something at all to get in the previously inaccessible areas was good design. Like some of the others, I didn't see much use for the gun. I imagine much of the time went into creating the environment, but this game would feel even better with audio. Nothing quite like a developer doing their best weasel noise. What do they even sound like? I haven't spent much time around weasels. It's a shortcoming in my life that this game has helped fill. Quite a lot of ground to explore for a Compo game, well done! |
| Apr 30 17:07:49 | 40m 37s | MOC-X | ♥ 1 | Seemed to work just fine for me on the HTML version. I found it difficult to notice when I was being attacked though while using the tractor beam. If there was more time I figure a little audio signal would've been perfect for that. Repairing the ship is a bit prohibitive when the cost scaled with the amount of damage taken. It might help the game flow a bit to have a 1 cost repair and a full repair option. The visuals and user interface in this game a quite good. The dock for the shop screen is a nice touch. Also, the people looked like delicious freezer pops, and I approve of that. It's fun, good job! |
| Apr 30 17:50:41 | 42m 52s | Microtransaction Mages | ♥ 1 | That was a very polished experience. The pixel art was incredible, the soundtrack was catchy, the work/play dichotomy was really good for the mood and theme. Bit of a sad ending. I even wrote a letter to Sarah at work to apologize for not being the man she deserved, and that I would try to spend more time with her and the kids. She still left me. :( Well my digital marriage may be ruined, but this game sure isn't. Good job! |
| Apr 30 18:28:46 | 38m 05s | ShellShark! | ♥ 2 | This makes for a pretty cool card game. I'd say it's a very solid foundation for more content to be added. There isn't much to criticize about this one, it plays well. I think we both likely ran into the same time trap regarding visual feedback for actions taken. In Contract Cleric, I didn't get particle effects done in time to signal a successful heal. In ShellShark, the floating text for when units are hit is nice, but doesn't draw much attention to the sources and recipients of damage. If you're paying attention to what the creature cards do, this isn't too big a deal. Though it'd be nice to see the crab hit a target on his left or right diagonal, or have a visual representation of the narwhal's piercing effect. I certainly fell into that trap harder than you did, haha. In such a short development cycle that's probably outside the scope of what there was time to implement. If you continue with this project, which I hope you do, maybe calculating the damage values and showing some preview arrows before ending the turn would be a worthy addition. Given the underwater motif, I could see this being a pretty neat campaign driven card game. The card art was great. The Bob art was even better! I'm glad I looked up at him to see that shirt and tie. It gave me a laugh. Good job! |
| Apr 30 19:58:38 | 1h 29m | PANDEMONIUM: A Card Game | ♥ 1 | One of the best looking games I've seen in this LD. Music and mood are awesome. The game balance seems to be quite good. I played it about 10 times and all of them ended in close matches. I figure there wasn't time for it, but it would've been cool if the cards themselves had individual sound effects when used. Had a lot of fun with this one! |
| Apr 30 22:56:22 | 2h 57m | Temple of Sacrifice | ♥ 1 | Quite a fun card game. I rather like the upgrade and health regeneration mechanics. I missed out on the upgrade mechanic the first time I played, but the second time I played, it felt pretty good. The trumpet fanfare, while nice, is a bit much after 72 rounds, haha. I think both our games ran into a repetitive audio trap, but at least your game wasn't quite as ear piercing as mine. I think a display for ones' current health and regeneration would be handy if you continue development on it. It's difficult to tell how much health I will lose from playing a card or taking a hit. I think this game has a lot of room for expansion, which is pretty cool. Overall it's a pretty original game, and fun to boot I like that. Good job! |
| May 1 15:49:04 | 16h 52m | The Devil's Coins | ♥ 1 | This makes for a pretty good puzzle platform game. The art is good, and the storyboard intro and ending is cool. I find the aim and shoot mechanic is fine, though I probably would rebind the keys to my own taste. Shift + X felt a bit clunky to me. The moving platforms were also a bit tricky to jump off of when they were going down, but that's not too much of an issue given that the main mechanic is to use gold bars to gain extra height. I loved that you managed to work a boss battle in at the end. I spent a good amount of time on the left side of the room shooting it before I realized I could walk through him. It went a long way to making this feel like a complete experience. It's nice when LD games manage to work in a beginning, middle and end to their games. Good stuff! Good job! |
| May 1 16:27:01 | 37m 57s | Rashness | ♥ 2 | Your pixel art sprites are stellar. The music is good. The user interface is clean. The presentation is great. I did manage to beat the boss on my first try by going all in on damage and resistance, which felt a bit too easy. Using other setups gave some better variant game balance, ranging from a nail biting close battle to a crippling and swift defeat. I also think it would be better if the shots fired tracked the mouse cursor position rather than firing at an offset, but that's a minor thing to adjust. With the minor nitpicks aside, this is a very fun game! Who doesn't love a good boss battle? They're often the climax of a play experience, so building a whole game around one isn't too shabby an idea. With the varied attack patterns, this one feels pretty good. Great job! I had fun with this one! |
| May 1 22:11:45 | 5h 44m | Kessler | ♥ 0 | This game has a really old school vibe to it, which is cool. Exactly the type of game folks would play in the dead of the night with all the lights off, at least until they looked at the clock and realized how much time had passed. I like the mechanic of moving the incoming debris rather than simply destroying it. I didn't feel like I ran into too many situations where using the shield mechanic was worth it. More often than not the trade seemed to be "take one damage to avoid one damage". Could be that I just didn't use it properly. Pretty fun though. There is a box of old games somewhere in my house that is full of games where this would fit right in. |
| May 2 21:21:16 | 23h 09m | The dangerous life of an indie dev | ♥ 1 | Pretty neat game. The graphics and atmosphere are good for a "what would you do" style game, though a little mood music or audio would've been nice. Even if it was just lonely keystroke audio. It'd have been nice to have a little feedback on what each decision would do from a cost perspective. Since the end result seems to be contingent upon keeping your resources above zero, partial information about at least the financial and welfare resource would have been good. Keeping the total results of an action hidden is still probably a good idea. I managed to tweet my way to a game over screen once because I assumed it would have no real cost. The decisions asked of the player are good, and I'd say the game captures how dangerous indie developer life is. Was pretty funny too, for what is ultimately a tough way of life for some. If the project was to continue, it'd be cool to see some end screens about the game's reception and the developer's well-being. Cool game, good job! |
| May 2 21:50:05 | 28m 49s | Soul Toll | ♥ 1 | Good to see that Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde haven't so cornered the market on Pac-Man game appearances as to not allow newcomers to hit the field. The intro sequence oozes with old arcade nostalgia. Turns out a role reversed Pac-Man game is actually pretty fun. I'd have liked to see a few extra lives to play with, but otherwise the game play is solid. |
| May 2 22:21:19 | 31m 14s | utsvulten | ♥ 0 | I've always liked games that produce moments of discovery. Here, I have discovered something I did not expect, and cannot likely forget. I suppose being unforgettable is not a bad thing when trying to craft an experience. The graphics and movement animation are spot on. The audio is good too. The mood is... good. It's good? Yes, I suppose It's good. Well done. I'm going to do something else for a bit while I try to parse what I have just experienced. Good job. Carry on! |
| May 3 06:40:34 | 8h 19m | SimuCorp | ♥ 1 | It's killing me that I don't remember the name of the game, but this game reminds me of another game where you manage a company building and employees. I haven't seen the game mentioned in the comments yet. That's going to bother me for a while. In any event, this is a pretty fun game. Looks good, sounds good, and plays well. I found there were a few times where I had nothing to manage. Typically after all my floor slots were filled, I didn't have anything to do but collect money and wait for new hires, unless the floor was already being worked to near capacity. The game I mentioned earlier solved this issue by causing stations to breakdown over time, requiring attention from an IT department that could be micromanaged. Still though, in 48 hours this game managed to recover a memory of a game I loved. I may not be able to remember what that game was called, but this game scratched that itch of mine. Good job! Pretty awesome to see an office/company management simulator game after such a long time. |
| May 3 17:01:26 | 10h 20m | The Trafficker | ♥ 0 | The addition of collection combos in this game made it a lot more fun than it otherwise would have been. Good innovation there. The game looks good. Though if there was time for it an infinite background would have been a nice addition. I found myself creeping closer to the left when the police started to ramp up, which got me to a point where I'd see the characters running into the no-background abyss. The audio is solid. The developer voice-over helped sell the mood and added some humor to the game's otherwise rather dark theme. The music is upbeat to match the game play as well. The theme is well represented. The game is fun. What more is there to say? Good job on this one! |
| May 3 17:27:38 | 26m 12s | Life Of Erdanon | ♥ 1 | This game is pretty fun. One thing I've always found important with puzzle games that have failure states is that it's good to have a fast means of getting back to the game play. Very good call on adding a reset button. The first potion does a good job of helping predict the impact location of the other potions. Short of having a projectile arc tracer on screen while holding the button, this is a pretty elegant way to cut down the frustration of missed shots. This is a very solid foundation for a puzzle platform game. A good bit of humor mixed in there as well. Perhaps Erdanon should've focused on stopping the bleeding and using conventional means of travel rather than bleeding his way through his quest. What a tragic story. Don't mess with the dark arts! I would love to see more stages and potions. Good job, and I hope you're feeling better after being ill! |
| May 3 19:17:00 | 1h 49m | Powerup Puncher | ♥ 0 | Making a fighting game is a daunting task in its own right. Doing so in an unfamiliar language is doubly difficult. Stack onto that that it's a 48 hour compo entry, and it's actually rather impressive how much you got in there. A number of modern fighting games have taken to making use of mutators on the game rules to add some spice to the game play. The power up system here is a nice take on that mechanic. The opponents in this game actually remind me a bit of bonus stages in fighting games. Those intermittent bits in fighting games where you break barrels, wood planks, deflect flying knives, etc. As it stands its pretty fun. The spike guy wrecked me in a corner. With a more time, this game could be pretty awesome. Good job! |
| May 3 19:40:24 | 23m 24s | BloodBath | ♥ 0 | Graphics and audio on this one are good. The game play is really quite fun. The skills are all interesting, though I found I was using pretty much only the transfusion and explode skills after things got hectic. The sword and bow could do with some sort of additional effect to keep them relevant in the long game. Off the top of my head, maybe the sword triggers a temporary defense boost upon hitting a target? Perhaps the arrow spreads a movement speed reduction to enemies near the target hit? Rather than cycling through skills to use them, I think the control scheme would be better served by binding individual abilities to different keys. All nitpicking aside, this is a pretty awesome game! The corpse explode mechanic is proven fun, and this is a good implementation of it. It worked in Diablo, and it works here. Good job! Would love to see this project continued. |
| May 3 23:13:18 | 3h 32m | Zombieton | ♥ 2 | This game is fun, but I think the game balance is a bit off. After playing it for a little bit, I started to notice the element of danger quickly vanished. I think I've figured out why that may be the case. The katana is overwhelmingly powerful for its cost, I never felt like I had to switch from this weapon. After entering the battle screen, it's possible to win without doing anything but left clicking, without regard to character facing with the katana. The BP loss from taking a hit is a too low after the first battle. Without attempting to dodge at all, you are assuredly going to come out with more BP than you entered with using this strategy. The zombies are rarely alive (or rather... undead) long enough to do any significant damage after the first battle using only the club. After the first outing, coming back to the fight screen with the katana is a bit game breaking. The pistol, though more cost effective than the shotgun, is far more destructive since enemies tend to approach in lines. Though if you accept hits from the zombies to let them bunch up, the shotgun starts to outperform the pistol. Different weapons for different situations, I suppose. But because the zombies only come from one or the other side, the shotgun sees limited applications. I think with a difficulty hike and maybe a few less predictable vectors for the zombies to attack from, this game would be pretty awesome. The art is good. The music is excellent. I definitely got the Doom vibe from the music. Props for making perfect zombie killing music! Pretty good overall, I'd say. Probably just needs a couple of tweaks to up the panic factor. |
| May 4 16:04:22 | 16h 51m | Zoltanya, Outdated Robot Fortune Teller | ♥ 0 | I gave the web version a shot, but had to swap to the Windows build as well for the same reason as Melmo. The inputs for the hacking mini-game don't appear on the web version. The graphics and mood tie in well together. I remember seeing one of these machines in just about every arcade I visited, though I don't think I ever saw one used. This game is has a very unique premise, which is pretty cool. I think it's a good take on the theme. The distortion vignette on the camera did make it slightly difficult to read the text on the board behind Zoltanya and on the customers. It wasn't impossible to read, but disabling or fading out that distortion to better see the text and symbols would be nice. This game was pretty interesting. Hope you can find time to fix the web version's display bug. I think some folks might miss out if they play a broken version of the game. |
| May 4 16:29:41 | 25m 19s | Zap Signal | ♥ 1 | Beautiful looking game. I knew going into it that it'd be an uphill battle, as my voice never works with voice recognition properly. So I improvised. I played this game using a harmonica! That made it much more fun! I won't say the audio detection was perfect, but it was good enough. Quite a brave decision going for this form of control scheme. Very innovative. Certainly one of the most memorable submissions I've encountered. Good job! |
| May 4 16:59:37 | 29m 56s | Potion Wolf | ♥ 1 | It's got to be said, this is one good looking game. You managed to make quite a lot of 3D assets and do a good amount of scene dressing in this game. Wow. If you're familiar with the game 'Overcooked', this game gives me a bit of a vibe for that game in terms of potential. Running around collecting ingredients and then serving them up to order makes for a fun game mechanic. I think the potion making process could have used a few additional steps to increase the complexity of the game. The hard time limit of 1 minute is a bit restrictive too in terms of going for a hi-score, as Evan M pointed out. It felt like it was over before I got started. That said, I think this game has a lot of potential. Potions that can be used to streamline the potion making process would be interesting. Maybe in addition to potions to be completed and sold, some potions are consumed for bonuses! How about a potion that you can splash to make a portal between two locations for a duration? Speed boost brews? Slow down time (increase game length) with a brew? I could see this game easily being expanded upon! The wizard hat wearing roller-skate wolf was enough of a hook for me. 10/10 character design. I wonder, I suppose there wasn't much time to animate the wolf, is that why he's on skates? If so, that's a happy accident for the time constraints, haha. I think the skates are rather endearing. Seems like a solid foundation for a "made to order" style game. Good job! |
| May 4 17:34:04 | 34m 27s | Against The Ninja | ♥ 2 | The controls feel tight and responsive. The character movement speed is just right. The action is just the right amount of stressful when there are many enemies on the screen. The sprite work is fine. Given the level of zoom, I think the sprites work well for this game. I think if anything this game just needs some hit feedback. Maybe a little particle splatter or something for when enemies are defeated. The music is on another level. The escalation of the soundtrack tied to the damage multiplier was an excellent touch. Very cool. The game's pace is pretty good, though I did notice that if you manage to clear the entire field of enemies, that the first enemy that appears is one of those swarm pod things that spawn the 3 homing projectiles. If you get the game into this state, it's not too hard to endlessly kill that one enemy type without much hassle. However, if you intentionally let the last enemy live, the pace of the game is much better. As the damage multiplier increases, it becomes easier to fall into that easier game state. This game is begging for expansion. A few hypnotic background elements, stage transitions, new enemy types, maybe a boss or two, etc, etc. Oh yeah, I could see that being a thing. Great job folks! |
| May 4 17:45:12 | 11m 08s | Life-Time | ♥ 1 | Very fun game. Quite a lot of movement and enemy variety keep the game interesting. Easy to pick up, hard to put down. Good job! |
| May 4 18:05:16 | 20m 04s | Life of the Party | ♥ 0 | Nice take on a resource management game. I came in expecting a clicker game. After a few goes I managed to score an 8. The graphics are fantastic. Wouldn't mind sprite work like that in my own submission! The audio is good. The music and sound effects are appropriate without being overbearing. Many games I see that are similar to this one focus entirely on securing permanent upgrades for characters as they march to the right. Though there are only two affected attributes, health and attack speed, I think it works to this game's advantage. Being able to redistribute the resource from a character made this game a lot more interactive than many of the other games that I've played like this one. Using the same resource to act as player scoring was also a good way to improve replay value. I find this pretty innovative and fun. Great job on this one! I enjoyed it quite a bit! |
| May 5 08:14:32 | 14h 09m | Demon Apprentice | ♥ 0 | Not too shabby. I'd echo a few of the sentiments in the comments here. A background texture to give a point of reference for player movement and a "wave clear" message would help a ton. I also feel like hard boundary collisions would work better than resetting the player position on contact with a wall. Hard boundaries would probably feel better overall, and be a bit less exploitable as an escape tactic. It would certainly increase the fear factor of being cornered by the giant soldier. With the upgrade stations positioned so close to the wall, being returned to the center before buying upgrades is a possibility. A second keybinding for accessing the upgrade menu for WASD control scheme players would be cool too. Right control is a bit out of the way. Maybe [E] or [Q]? It took me a moment to realize that the giant soldier's shield reversed the orientation of the scythe on contact. At first I thought this was a bug. Entirely possible I didn't notice it, but a hit spark or audio cue would be handy for when that happens. The character and scythe sprites are good, but the enemies look a bit out of place in comparison. Then again, a 48 hour time limit'll do that to ya. The music is solid. Not much to say here, it's good. The game play features swinging a scythe around by swinging the mouse wildly... You can't go wrong with this formula. Spin to win, prominently captured in game form. Be right back. I finished the game spinning clockwise, I need to do it again anti-clockwise to unwind. Good job on this one. |
| May 5 08:38:12 | 23m 40s | ShrekUnknown's BattleSwamps | ♥ 0 | The audio and visual presentation is good. The game play is enjoyable. There isn't a whole lot to say, it's just a pretty good game. I started out disliking the high knock back on the base weapon, I felt it pushed creatures too far back. Then I got the knock back upgrade. While it did lead to a couple frustrating moments of having enemies sent overly far away from me, I came to love the fact that it sent them to the moon while doing it. Wouldn't change a thing! Good job on this one folks! |
| May 5 20:04:30 | 11h 26m | Ballhogs | ♥ 1 | I love premise of this game. The court size is just about perfect to keep the player constantly engaged. While I'm certain there was no time for it but some player character models, even very simple ones formed out of primitive shapes, would have been nice. I don't think anyone can fault those not being in though. The geometry and textures of the court, hoops, and confetti crowd were plenty in the graphics department. The user interface looks quite slick as well. That logo is awesome. At most, I might have toned down the accuracy on shots from long range. It's a bit too easy to land full court shots. Speaking of shots, I love the exaggerated jump height and high arcing shots. It reminds me of "NBA Jam", a basketball game I used to love. I don't know if you plan to continue with this project, but I'd say this game has 4 player party game written all over it. If it was ever to go so far as to have online multiplayer, I think this is a fantastic candidate for it. Throw in quarter breaks and apply bonuses for the team which is ahead, and also bonuses for the player on a team which is behind and you've got a formula for a sweet online party game. Who doesn't want to steal credit from a friend for an otherwise perfectly accurate shot with an unnecessary alley-oop? Just a thought that popped in my head while playing. I'm just spit-balling ideas here. Great job! Super cool idea. Would love to see this one explored further. It's already fun as it stands. |
| May 5 20:54:46 | 50m 16s | Kill The Money | ♥ 1 | Wow, you crammed quite a lot into this one! Audio/Visual presentation was fantastic. Among the best audio, if not the best, I've seen in this LD Compo. The core game play mechanics are good, though I might've added a jump key bind to spacebar as well. By convention, I found myself hitting that button quite a bit to jump. Many spikes were run over as a result. If development is continuing on this one, more enemy variety, environmental obstacles, and varied focus on weapon selection will go a long way. This first level is looking very good already. As others have mentioned mouse aim, I could see it going either way. I too think I'd prefer mouse aim, as I think it offers more design space for enemies and obstacles, but that's not to say that a rigid left-right framework for aiming doesn't have its design merits either. With the current enemies, many of which float just above ground level, a means to shoot them that doesn't involve repeated timing on jump shots would be nice. At the same time, those enemies would then also need a means to remain threatening to a player which is not likely to meet them at their elevation. This game might be a good candidate for limited directional aiming. Straight, 45 degrees up, and 45 degrees down and straight up could work too with some modifier key binds. It's something to consider as you expand the content of this game. I think even if you continue with the current aiming system, as long as the level design supports it, there isn't really a problem here. Phew, that's one polished looking game for 48 hours. Color me impressed. |
| May 5 23:03:44 | 2h 08m | Project Slorgan: The Escape | ♥ 2 | Took me a bit to get into the swing of it, but I got used to the control scheme in this one. It's quite fun once you start to get the hang of it. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I rather like that you can issue another jump while in midair after colliding with a surface. The graphics in this game are pretty awesome. It really sets a good mood with the lighting. The character blob looks properly bouncy and slimy, right down to the impact particles. The wall of doom and game mover screen are both really well done as well. The spikes can be hard to see under some conditions. Perhaps they need to be brightened. The music floats well with the pace of the game. It doesn't get annoying after many rounds of play, and adds a little tension. The sound effects are quite good as well. I especially like that you put in audio and visual queues for when the heartbeat and oxygen gauge get low. I can't really think of a whole lot of things to criticize about this game. Maybe a few of the high and middle road passages are a bit too tight a squeeze for good character movement, but in general avoiding places like that when racing forward is probably healthy for the game flow. It's a tough game, but the good kind of tough. This game makes you want to try for a better result right after you die. After many slime monster men died in order for me to get the hang of it, I scored a 541. Good job on this one folks! |
| May 10 00:45:52 | 97h 42m | Life in the Fast Vein | ♥ 1 | Slick looking game! I feel like the turning radius threw me into the borders rather often, but that's likely just a result of trying to go too fast into curves. I thought I was going pretty fast to get a time of 3m10s but it seems some folks have it down to around 2m30s, yowza! Anyway, the graphical elements of this game are really slick looking. Given more time, I think a few of them would be better served as 3D models integrated into the track rather than floating 2D sprites above it. Given there was a hard limit on time though, I'd say the use of 2D objects was just fine. They're all well drawn. Audio is good! I do love me some developer voice-overs. Would like to have had more lines recorded. I dig the amount of 3D animation you got in there as well. Hopping into the car at the start was a pretty cool touch. I also liked that you folks got the blood gauge animated when braking. Just a couple polished subtleties that I thought were pretty awesome. Good job folks! |
| May 10 04:31:52 | 3h 46m | Might of the Druids | ♥ 0 | A pretty solid card game foundation I'd say. I'm glad that you're continuing development on it a bit. The post-Compo version has some nice improvements over the original! I think the one change I'd like to see more than anything is a means to burn cards out of the deck permanently. Though I suppose if the player has access to burning cards too often that could be a bad thing. That's the thing with card games I suppose. Takes a while to dial in the right game balancing measures. The art is pretty cool, and the audio is solid. As others have mentioned, a little mood music would go a long way. For a Compo entry, I never seem to find the time myself to even attempt music. Maybe that's a goal for LD45. I'm going to have to revisit this one later to see if I can't top my previous score. I know I can do better! Good job on this submission! |
| May 10 05:03:42 | 31m 50s | Lunch Lord | ♥ 0 | I rather like the day/night cycle thing you've got going in this game. The audio was quite good as well. I did have some trouble with getting stuck though. I couldn't quite figure out why, but the player character would sometimes stick to surfaces. The stun time on being hit is also a bit much. A good number of times where I took a hit during the mining phase turned into chain hit deaths, even with relatively few enemies involved. Otherwise I think this game is pretty interesting. Will have to give it a revisit soon. |
| May 10 06:22:01 | 1h 18m | The Circle of Life-Defense | ♥ 1 | The minimalist sprites work well for this game. It's cute. The mechanics are easy to pick up on, and the game play is pretty fun. I eventually settled into a dominant strategy. I blocked myself in with a highly upgraded tower and was more or less 100% safe. I stopped around wave 58 because I noticed the game was slowing down from all the zombies. So I took the strategy a bit farther. Since a single tower was so powerful, it seemed like more towers would net more benefit than investing heavily into a single tower. I didn't take it as far, but I could notice that the zombies would have to spawn at a rather insane rate to deal with 12 enclosed towers upgraded 3 times each. I think the game pace could do with some adjustment. Once you manage to achieve a stable setup, there is little incentive to ever leave safety. CoL-D.png My towers cannot be damaged insofar as I know. My character cannot be damaged. The kill rate is high enough that the game won't start to choke for quite some time. Perhaps the game pace needs to have room for a build or repair phase between waves coupled with structure degradation. If towers and walls naturally break down the player has reason to take risks to try to achieve a stable position. In the screenshot above, I couldn't escape my own fort even if I wanted to. I watched this setup run to wave 50, and the zombies could not even reach the wall. I don't think more big zombies would change that. I think the foundation here is very solid. Just a few tweaks here and there would go a long way to playing to this game's strengths, which seem to be mostly in the uncertain beginnings. It feels good early on to be collecting the life shards and spending them on towers to try to find stability. Being chased while collecting bricks from afar is also a good and tense moment the game offers. Wouldn't hurt to crank up the destabilization factor a bit. Hope you continue with this one silvervalegames. It's on the brink of going from good to amazing. Good job! |
| May 10 08:25:33 | 2h 03m | Lousy Life Lessons - [LLL] | ♥ 2 | I've had high praise for games in the Ludum Dare that deliver "complete" experiences. Any game that has a beginning, middle and end to it's structure built in a quick game jam is something special. However, the integrated narrative throughout the whole experience makes this game stand out even among those "complete" experiences. Had the game just been a series of runner/platform segments, that would've been plenty. Threading the story into the game play itself, and rewarding the player for completing these segments with more story beautifully drawn interludes made it a whole lot more satisfying. The driving desire to know what happens next was present here. That story hook was well utilized to grab and hold my attention throughout the whole game. The heavy use of voice-over was pretty cool to see as well. The visual style, voice-overs, and music (which was also amazing) really help set the mood. This game oozes style. I have to dig pretty deep to find criticism for this game, but for the sake of it I'll try to offer up some kind of feedback in that regard. The level designs were all quite good. They were just varied enough that the game didn't feel stale at any point. There were a number of times though when I felt I was making "leap of faith" jumps. The game teaches the player that there are deadly pits they want to avoid, but also has them intentionally jump or fall into areas not currently visible to the player. During the bull chase scene I also think it'd be cool to try to fit more of the bull in frame as well to keep the tension up. When you manage to keep it mostly off camera it isn't quite as exciting as when you can see it's still coming for you. Both of these issues can be solved with a bit of play using camera zoom during each affected moment. That's pretty much all I can come up with regarding criticism, and even that felt a bit forced. This submission is rock solid. Loved pretty much everything about it! Great job Loki, you have outdone yourself! ๐ ๐ The rest of you did pretty darn well too, so don't sell yourselves short. ๐๐ฝ |
| May 11 20:20:50 | 35h 55m | Phil, The Leprechaun Of Gold. | ♥ 1 | This has a really classic arcade game feel to it. Though the formula is simple, in that you just collect stuff, reach a goal and don't get caught. This formula is proven fun. The implementation here is good too. The sprites are well drawn, the audio is on point and the game mechanics are fair and functional. I'll agree that the game is a bit too hard, but probably only because of my own impatience. If you take the time to lure the children away before making a dive for the hardest to get coins it's not overly difficult. I'll say this, having read your profile: Had I seen this game available in a plastic bag on a hook in my local computer store when I was a kid and bought it, I would not have been unhappy with the purchase. Good job! |
| May 14 19:40:10 | 71h 19m | Till Breath Do Us Part | ♥ 1 | Pretty cool top-down shooter. Graphics and audio are both good. I too found the player movement just a bit slow. It's a bit difficult to gain extra oxygen to spend when the player movement is so slow. Perhaps crediting the last oxygen tank to the player when the final enemy is defeated will help with this? I had to play the game multiple times to afford and experiment with the different weapons, as I tended to break even on oxygen otherwise. With just a couple tweaks up up the game pace I think this one is in a pretty good spot. Good job! |
| May 14 19:50:29 | 10m 19s | Life is Money, Captain! | ♥ 0 | Classic shmup style, I like it. I do think that the base ship is a sluggish, but after a few upgrades it starts to feel better. That aside, the graphics and audio are nicely done. Good job! |
| May 14 20:06:07 | 15m 38s | Cat Your Life on It | ♥ 2 | The graphics, music, and audio are all really well done. The trigger was a bit hard to understand at first. I think a simplified shoot button would have done the game more justice. For the purposes of the LD, having an AI opponent option would have been nice too. When I played, I didn't happen to have anyone with me I could share the experience with. Still though, this is a fantastic little game to settle and argument with. I'll probably give it a revisit the next time I have an irreconcilable difference with someone. Pretty neat! Good job! |
| May 16 18:29:35 | 46h 23m | Space Escape | ♥ 1 | It's a good looking game, but could use some balance tweaks. I fell into the same type of play that JoshAnthony1990 mentioned. It seems like the best way to survive is to focus entirely on dodging and avoid shooting. With a few adjustments to the fuel economy I think the game flow will come together nicely. The user interface elements and game models are pretty slick. The game is pretty visually appealing. I figure with a parallax background it will look even better. I'd say you've got a pretty solid foundation for a side scrolling space shooter here. It just needs a bit more experimentation regarding game balance and stage design to really take off. Good job! |
| May 16 19:10:53 | 41m 18s | A Moment To Reflect | ♥ 1 | Once again, cute characters making difficult decisions. You've really got this self-reflective micro-narrative thing down to a science. The graphical and audio elements do well to set the mood. A bit more buildup to the flower decision might have been good. Life is full of people who will try to sell you on the "right" way to live, it may have been a good opportunity to add more characters and dialogue to the game. I don't know that the experience needs to be any longer, but adding a bit more biased dialogue might help provoke more thought and add weight to the player's decision. As it is, I'd say it works just fine in achieving that state of mind. It's more that I've been playing primarily action games for the jam in rapid succession, so this experience came as a bit of a sudden change of mood. I suppose that's not a bad thing. Short, but with great impact. Good job! |
| May 17 21:24:27 | 26h 13m | Legend Of the Red Demon | ♥ 1 | Satisfies that old school text-based role-playing game itch. I've spent more time than I'd like to admit playing games like this. Sounds like you were a bit low on time to add features to this entry, but I'd say it's a pretty solid foundation for a larger text RPG grinder. The arms dealer should probably say something when there are no further upgrades to purchase. I also think I'd have liked to actually fight a big boss at the end. But I suppose that would have also required a bit more time to dial in the game balance. In general, the experience seemed a bit low risk. Just about the only time one feels a sense of danger is after purchasing an upgrade. Even then, I don't think the player's life points are likely to drop below 20. I could see this going places though. A little compass based navigation. Quests to find new arms dealers. A trip or two to some dangerous dungeons (bunny dungeons... bungeons?). Some puzzle elements perhaps. Oh yeah, this could go places. Bottom line though, it's pretty fun. Good sense of humor to it. Would love to see it expanded upon. |
