Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Feedback comment stats → Empty Set
Feedback comments for LD46
Empty Set's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Empty Set's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 24 00:22:42 | Advise the King | ♥ 1 | Really great submission! I'm incredibly impressed with the amount of polish in the visuals, music/sound design, and the game in general given the time constraints. The concept is really interesting, but I think (entirely understandably due to being made in 3 days) it wasn't really expanded upon enough to really "click". One of the things that makes deckbuilders shine is finding interesting interactions and synergies between cards, which leads to being able to build different deck archetypes each time. That feels kinda absent here - card effects were pretty much independent of each other, and the only consideration I made as to how to build my deck was making sure I didn't have an unhealthy proportion of 2-energy cards. This also meant that decision-making was on a per-turn basis - I mostly only ever had to think about what to do with a particular hand, rather than thinking about future turns and the status of my entire deck. I think a few simple card- or energy-management cards would get you a lot of bang for your buck in order to help with this. Cards that modify (or have conditional effects based on) your next action would be cool too and have a lot of potential - for instance, something like "If your next move captures a piece, draw 2 cards" would be nice. I noticed you requested card ideas, and I think this is a really fascinating game concept, so there's a good chance I'll brainstorm some and drop 'em in there. | |
| Apr 24 01:37:23 | 1h 14m | Yobuds | ♥ 1 | Nice game! It's simple, but very cleanly executed, charming, and fun. I do think it could've benefited from a bit more variation, though, like one or two more types of hazards in addition the carrot missiles or something. All in all solid entry though. |
| Apr 25 23:58:19 | 46h 20m | Toilet Paper Gardener | ♥ 1 | I like the look of the game and the concept could be interesting. However, unless there was something I was missing, the progression through the game was waaay too slow, and it very quickly got so dull that I had no motivation to continue. I got past the first two delivery requirements, but then got to the third one where you needed to get the bamboo. As far as I could tell, the max I could grow at a time was weed toilet paper in 2 toilets, which I had, but the profit margins on this was absolutely tiny. After keeping at this for about 20 minutes, I only had around $50, and in order to even begin growing bamboo toilet paper for the next goal, I'd need $250 dollars for both a bathtub and the first bamboo seed bag. I figured this would take me well over an hour, which was not remotely worth it especially given the fact that the gameplay largely consisted of watching plants grow excruciatingly slowly. It was also frustrating to have to repeatedly click on the computer, close the order window (which for some reason opens automatically) and navigate to a menu just to sell for measly profits. I think this game could've been interesting if the pace was much faster and/or automated, and if there were interesting economic/strategic decisions to make, but as is it seems like it's just grinding. It makes me wonder how this was playtested, unless there is some feature I completely missed. |
| Apr 26 00:33:56 | 35m 37s | Garden Mayhem | ♥ 2 | I think the controls were a questionable choice. I don't think WASD + mouse controls is a sensible control scheme in a top-down game, since they interfere with each other. Sticking to either moving with point and click or just moving with WASD would be better in the future. I think plants die a little bit too quickly, especially since there are five slots for plants but it's difficult to use more than two at once, and if your first plant dies while you're still trying to figure out what to do, you have to restart the whole game. |
| Apr 26 01:14:48 | 40m 52s | Bump N' Jump | ♥ 1 | The timing was very difficult because of the main character's floatiness and the high acceleration of the platforms. It would be a lot easier to time if the platforms moved at a constant speed. It was also sometimes hard to tell which side the platforms would come from - maybe some sort of visual indicator of this would be nice on the side of the screen. |
| Apr 28 21:27:45 | 68h 12m | DEATH | ♥ 2 | Interesting and unique concept. Though, once I got the rhythm down and had a pretty good run (~95 years) I didn't have any inclination to go back for another go. I definitely think it could've used some better and more intuitive feedback as to how you should modify your rhythm - just "go slower" or "go faster" is often too vague to be useful. Often, it would tell me to speed up, so I'd speed up, and then the person would die before another message appeared. Did I not speed up enough, or did I speed up too much? Rather than the in-game messages, I moreso just learned the rhythm through trial and error. I think some sort of meter, or visual effect with varying intensity, or something along those lines which conveys not only whether your rhythm is too fast or too slow, but by how much it's too fast or slow, could be really cool. I must say that viewed as a pure "game" it's definitely on the shallow side. Viewed as a piece of interactive art, on the other hand, I think it fares much better - but the fact that you seemingly didn't make the art assets yourself hurts a bit when considering the game in such a category. At the end of the day, though, as critical as I've been, I do hope you continue to make pieces like this one. |
| Apr 28 21:28:09 | 24s | IN THE ANCIENT RUINS WITH AN IDIOT | ♥ 2 | You have a good idea going here with some neat mechanics - but as is, the game is just not fun to play. The pace of the game is too fast - the player feels a little too fast, and the "idiot friend" is too fast for the moving platforms (and too fast in general), and he starts moving the instant the level starts, so you don't have any time to get your bearings. Even just a two second pause before he starts walking would help a lot. It's confusing and frustrating that both your position and his position reset when he dies, but only your position resets when you die - most of the time, it means when you die, you just have to wait for him to die too because it's already too late to save him. The hitboxes for the pits and arrows are a little too big - I often died just by brushing up against a pit or just by being near an arrow. All of these things combine together in such a way that the game requires an unreasonable amount of precision. It's particularly frustrating because it feels like this could become a truly solid entry with less than an hour's worth of tweaks - the mechanics, the graphics, and the level designs are all there and really solid (good work on all that), but it just doesn't feel fair and fun to experience those nice things because the balance is just not there. This makes it difficult to decide how to rate since it feels so close but yet so far from being a great game. If you decided to work on this post-jam, I think it could be really cool. Iron out the balance and speed issues and add 30+ levels and it would be awesome. |
| Apr 29 01:24:50 | 3h 56m | Root Quest | ♥ 1 | I really like the aesthetic of the root's trail following behind him, especially on the overworld. Although it looked cool, the overworld being devoid of any threats or clues as to where to go means you kinda sorta just have to wander, but it's not too hard to find dungeons pretty quickly and it's fun to make shapes with your root-trail. The platforming and especially the attacking was a little rough around the edges. It was frustrating not being able to attack in the air, and it felt like there was a sizable window after landing from a jump where you still can't attack, which was annoying because there are many jumps where you need to land on a small platform with a worm and then immediately attack it. I like the creepy-cute design of the main character a lot, though he's small and kinda tough to see in-game. Nice entry, keep it up. |
| Apr 29 01:36:53 | 12m 03s | Something is fleshy | ♥ 3 | Nice concept and really neat visual style. A bit tough to figure what's going on at first, but with some experimentation and common sense about what organs do it doesn't take too long to put all the pieces together. The physics and platforming were a little frustrating at times - the rounded edges on platforms and low ceilings made getting around stressful sometimes. I think this would be sick as a multiplayer game (though not going that route for the jam was probably the right call) - I got big Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime vibes from the concept and style. Overall, very solid entry. Nice work. |
| Apr 29 02:17:18 | 40m 25s | The Fading Fire | ♥ 0 | Fun little game. I like that you can get different jump heights based on how long you hold the button. Platforming felt pretty good too - not too floaty like I often see. Getting more jump height at the cost of being faster and harder to control when you touch water and shrink was a cool trade-off. The only problem with the physics I had was I sometimes got stuck halfway on a platform - like, the fire dude's chin would land on the platform and he'd get caught. Sometimes I could get up from this but sometimes I fell and died. I'd suggest trying to find a way to make your character collide with solid objects like the ground based on something other than his sprite. I thought it was a little weird that you used the mouse button to shoot but you couldn't aim - for a while I kept trying to shoot in the other direction than I was facing by clicking on that side. Not really a problem once I got used to it though. I think the enemies took a few too many shots to kill, and it wasn't clear to me at first if I was actually dealing damage. It would help if there was something like a particle effect when they got hit - or maybe they could shrink like you do when you get hurt by water! I also think it would be nice if you didn't die to them in one hit. Overall, nice entry and impressive work for someone your age. Keep at it! |
| Apr 29 04:10:07 | 1h 52m | Orbital Stations | ♥ 1 | Interesting piece of art - the minimalism in the gameplay (just holding right) shifts the emphasis to the aesthetics, mood, and world. But I had trouble feeling immersed in the game. Julia would occasionally say things that didn't correspond to what was on screen - i.e. mentioning a large number of passengers despite no visible passengers in the game, or commenting on the sunset when there was no sunset. In general, the theme of a long journey visiting many destinations was undermined by every location looking very similar and no time appearing to pass. Julia's unchanging smiling face was often at odds with the sort of things she was saying, and her use of slang and emoji felt out of place. The lack of an ending, with the game just looping at the last station and Julia repeating her final, ominous line about endings was off-putting and dissatisfying - in a game ostensibly about sticking with something until the end, the lack of an end didn't feel right. While the immersion was weak, the music fit perfectly and the art was pleasant - the train was particularly strong. I like the way light appears to reflect off of it in much the way it would on a real moving train - that must have been a difficult effect to nail down. Though, I would've liked to see a few different looking locations in order to see more of your pixel art skills. |
| Apr 29 04:55:48 | 45m 41s | water it | ♥ 1 | I didn't have someone to play co-op with, so I can only comment on the single-player. Everything works smoothly, but it does get dull quite quickly once you figure out the way the elements are balanced. There's no reason not to hold the plant at all times, and there's little incentive to kill enemies - killing them wastes precious water, they respawn almost immediately, there are never more than two of them, and you can outrun them. While you DO get more points by killing them, since the game is easy and unchanging enough to be played indefinitely with little risk, there's no incentive to rack up a high score. The text boxes and effects like the enemy trails looked snazzy, the music is good, and the minimalist objects didn't look bad, though almost everything being a square was a little bit boring considering the underlying game was on the simple side too. Other than not being particularly exciting there aren't any glaring flaws, though, so nice work especially considering you said you only did this in one day. |
| Apr 30 21:20:05 | 40h 24m | Cat Shelter Simulator | ♥ 1 | Nice game. The cats are cute and their eyes even seem to glow in the dark like real cats! I think it stretched on a bit too long, though - at about 10 days left I felt like I'd mostly seen it all and only continued to the end of the month because it seemed like the best stopping point. The music got pretty old by the end too. There were a few minor glitches, like cats clipping through the edge of a wall, and cat names not displaying correctly if you click between cats without deselecting them first. Overall a very comfy game - naming the cats and taking pictures of them were nice touches. |
| Apr 30 22:05:41 | 45m 36s | Keep it Fire | ♥ 1 | Neat game with a nice concept and aesthetic. The graphics were pretty good, though it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine that the pixel art foreground and the background were at different resolutions and that objects would sometimes be at sub-pixel positions relative to each other. While the jumping felt fine in terms of gravity and speed and whatnot, I had some gripes with the movement and physics in other areas. Some of the collision seemed glitchy and inconsistent - sometimes I'd get stuck partway on the edge of a platform; sometimes if I pressed against a wall when falling, but other times I'd slide off. The dash/sprint move was confusing to me at first. I initially thought it was a sort of air-dash move, but then I realized it was more of a sprint/speed boost with a cost the longer you hold it for. I think I was probably confused because of how fast it is and how it's mostly useful when used mid-air, which is kinda contrary to the idea of a "sprint". Nice game overall, keep it up. |
| May 4 20:25:37 | 94h 19m | What A Dig Move | ♥ 3 | I did it! Good jor.good jor.jpg |
| May 5 06:19:28 | 9h 53m | KungFu Grandpa | ♥ 1 | The balancing gameplay is fun and simple but takes a while to properly get the hang of, which is rewarding and keeps it from getting stale too quickly. It was fun to try to survive for as long as possible in training - but there weren't really any tangible rewards for doing so. It would be nice if you gained exp faster the longer you survived in a single training session so there was more of a punishment for losing and more of a feeling of progression to mastering the controls. I think the pace of the game was a bit out of whack - it quickly becomes very time consuming to gain levels, and the enemy fights ramp up in difficulty very quickly. I ended up quitting after I beat the second fighting round because it didn't seem worth it to go for the third. I think there should be a bunch more rounds of fighting with a much shallower ramp up in difficulty - I could easily see the current 3rd round being the 10th round. The pixel art graphics are nice - I like Grandpa and his poses a lot. My only gripe is that some stuff like the text isn't in pixel style. |
| May 5 06:24:21 | 4m 53s | Soda Pop Vampire | ♥ 1 | I like the low-poly aesthetic and the unique color design. The characters are a little weak but the world looks great. I don't understand why the camera moves with the mouse - it doesn't feel natural for a top-down game and it's very disorienting. I think a static camera would be just fine. It was fun to try to weave around the enemies, but the game was a bit punishing since the instant you're spotted at all you die and the time limit means you don't have the luxury of being patient and waiting for the right moment - I'm not sure if the strict time limit and the stealth-ish gameplay worked together. |
| May 5 06:37:41 | 13m 20s | Tamago | ♥ 0 | I like the concepts here. I think the pace is a bit too slow - the board/map is quite large and empty, and the fact that the enemies only move 1 tile per turn is awkward, since you end up putting your units where you want them and then repeatedly pressing "end turn" until they finally get close. It would be nice if there was an indication of whether each unit had acted yet, plus maybe make it so your turn ends automatically when they've all moved - I was often unsure whether there was more I could do this turn or not. |
| May 5 06:48:15 | 10m 34s | Super Simp Boy | ♥ 0 | The physics were much too floaty in my opinion - especially since your horizontal speed/acceleration is so high. You can cross the *entire width of a screen* in just one jump. This means you spend an uncomfortable amount of time waiting to slowly float down. The walljumps are a bit strange - they feel more like a wall climb rather than a jump, though wall climbing can work fine depending on the level design. In a game where platforming is essentially the only gameplay (no combat of any kind, minimal story, no other significant features beyond collectibles), it's hard not to be particularly harsh on the physics - those really have to feel right if they're gonna be the meat and potatoes of the game. |
| May 5 07:09:30 | 21m 15s | Never Gear Up | ♥ 1 | Nice game! I like the aesthetic a lot, though I'm not sure how I feel about the robots having a pixel art look and the UI being more realistic. The battles look (and sound) really great. The randomly-generated enemy names were charming too. The balance is kinda weak, though that's understandable given the short amount of time. Speed felt like an overpowered stat - I invested in good legs early and was able to beat most enemies before they got the chance to even get a hit in. It didn't feel like enemies scaled much if at all over time, so before too long you get to the point where you're unstoppable and can just pick the highest bounty enemies in order to grind for even better gear. There were some parts I was confused about - the starting equipment looks the same as the highest tier equipment, and you say in the description you start with "overpowered gear," but it definitely seems like even the lowest tier of buyable gear is a significant upgrade over the starting stuff. Also, I got the impression your robot was supposed to be nameable, but I couldn't find a way to do it. Despite iffy balance it was still fun to play. I think this has a lot of potential. Good work. |
| May 5 07:10:08 | 38s | Untitled Tree Game | ♥ 1 | I'm not sure I get why there are so many controls, since just mouse rotation and zooming is usually enough. I don't like that the camera is spinning by default - it's disorienting and doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Luckily I figured out how to turn that off with +/-. The atmosphere of the game is nice and calming, though actually playing it is surprisingly stressful. The random growth of branches makes it feel like your success is a bit random at first - sometimes I'd get my first two branches too close to each other and it felt like there was no choice but to just cut both of them. Everything grows rather quickly, too, and sub-branches are often obscured by leaves, so rather than making a careful analysis of the tree and being very careful with my decisions, I often felt like I was scrambling to try and cut branches on instinct, especially due to the fact that once the tree starts to noticeably fall, its likely much too late to do anything about it. Some sort of indicator of the tree's current balance, like an arrow on top, would help a lot. |
