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tobiasw

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TimestampSince previousGametobiasw's comment
Apr 20 13:47:06 Save the Spacemen ♥ 2 Hey! Unfortunately I can't properly test your game because the jump randomly is either high or very low. Because of that, about 5 of 6 times I die when trying to jump from the 2nd to the 3rd platform.
Apr 20 14:03:50 16m 44s Zero ♥ 3 Man, I wish this game had sound effects. But even without them, it feels pretty round and surprisingly atmospheric. I especially love your art style and your choice of colors! Apart from the missing sfx (and maybe music!), it wasn't really clear to me when the people "see" me and start attacking me. I would've loved to sneak up on them or even try to do a pacifist run, fitting a lot with the protagonist being a scout. (And don't worry about the routing problem. It's not unfair for other jammers as long as you give as much ratings and feedback as you receive! You just had an early start here, no problem with that.) PS: I recommend you opt out of the "audio" rating because the game has no audio - and maybe also out of the "humor" rating.)
Apr 20 14:25:03 21m 13s ADRENA-LINE ♥ 2 Damn, what a game. Again. I still remember you from your games 5+ years ago when I participated last, and every one of them is such a pleasure to play. The art is simple, but very pleasing and easy to look at. Love the screen shake and the general level of polish. But my favourite part is easily the gameplay. It's been a while since I saw a realtime puzzle game, and it works pretty well! In the beginning I actually planned a bit how to get to the goal, and very quickly that was replaced by trying to get to the goal more by frantic intuition than by planning. It makes for an interesting experience. And on top of all that, procedural generation. Wow. Great job! (Ah, and I really like that the start screen is also the first level and the tutorial. Gives it a very rounded feel.)
Apr 20 14:42:05 17m 02s Memories ♥ 0 Congratulations on both your first jam and your first finished game! I always have a lot of respect for narrative games, especially because I seem to not be able to make any myself. The experience is a bit short and I am a little confused by what happens at the end with the footsteps (?) that vanish when I touch them (?), but I assume that's because you had to cut the game short. I liked the art and the music! And it's cool that you even put in a cutscene at the beginning. I'm looking forward to see more LD games from you in the future!
Apr 20 15:23:53 41m 48s In A Game Wherein ♥ 5 Clever writing? Check. Meta? Check. Mini games that actually fit into the narrative? Check! And a few of the sentences really resonate with me. "[...] drawing something for the sake of having the tool touch the medium" was especially nice. But my favourite are still the last three sentences from your description: "A name catches your attention. It doesn’t sound like a game. It sounds like a trick." It is a bit tricky to rate. The game was delightful and interesting, which is a bit hard to reflect in categories that don't fit exactly like "fun", "innvoation" and "humor". I'm very curious to see what the results will be for it. Either way, I enjoyed playing this. Thanks for making it! Oh, and reading some of the other comments... in my opinion it doesn't need to be a "game". It is fine without any branching narrative. It is a quirky and interesting experience, just as it is. PS: I really hope this isn't your actual experience reviewing games, haha. I for one really enjoy that! PPS: I feel called out a bit, considering my game is similar to your minigames. It's a bit more intricate though!
Apr 20 16:24:05 1h 00m F E E D ♥ 1 I came for the dancing elder gods, but then I stayed for... actually, I didn't. I got ς๏ภรย๓є๔ ๒ץ Շђє ๔คภςเภﻮ єɭ๔єг ﻮ๏๔ร. A few things took me a while to understand. Notably: - There is another screen that I should get the cultist too. Initially I thought the two trees were two "zones" mentioned. - The "quests" are the actual goal (?) of the game? Maybe they could've been on permanent display instead of always being hidden until I press a key? - Feeding the god is just a means of survival, and I should delay it as long as possible, lest it grows. There is nothing to be gained by having it grow. What I still don't know is whether the game winnable by fulfilling all of the quests. I think there is a bug in the quest system. In all of my playthroughs, one quest didn't get marked as done, despite me clearly having fulfilled the conditions. (E.g. I got the 28 and the 13 notoriety, but somehow never got the 18 notoriety quest? Yeah, I got three notoriety quests there.) Anyway, I enjoyed the dynamics in the game! Especially interesting was that once the cult got bigger, it got harder mainly because the damn cultists kept doing their own thing and getting in my way, haha. The 1bit graphics and the sound design also works well. Great job!
Apr 20 16:53:53 29m 48s Bug Smashers! (HTML5) ♥ 1 Man, Chad should really get stop getting his self-replicating bugs everywhere. At this point I'm pretty sure he's doing it on purpose! It took me a moment to get that the FPS getting lower is part of the game, haha. Really cute idea! Oh, and the quit button took me so much by surprise that I actually laughed out loud for the first time while playing this batch of LD games.
Apr 20 17:38:36 44m 43s A Night In The Dark ♥ 3 Oh, this was very nice! In the beginning it felt like it would be mostly resource management, but then it turned out to be more about incrementally unfolding exploration - I like surprises like that. It took me a bit to figure out that the enemy can't be beat and is just there to avoid and to add tension. It did that quite well, giving me an additional thing to worry about. I like the throwing, but I'm not sure it is strictly necessary. I sometimes threw things when I wanted to drop them, and throwing them too far was also a bit frustrating. Still, other times, throwing e.g. the torch was quite useful. I'm a bit torn on this. (Maybe I just need to get better at throwing, haha.) Pity that there is no sound! The visuals and mechanics are already so atmospheric, sfx and music would've pushed that over the top. Still, what *is* there is very enjoyable and quite impressive for a compo entry. Definitely of my favourite games so far!
Apr 21 10:52:33 17h 13m Nekotchi ♥ 2 Aw, this is very cute! And the graphics and sounds work very well too. Really, the only thing I could ask for would be some more idle actions to make it more engaging to keep the app open for a long time! But even without that the little guy keeps me busy for a good while. PS: Post photos of the real Dee, please! Because... uh, because we need to be able to judge how realistic this is! It's very important!! PPS: "Keeping him healthy and happy will earn you LOVE points." - oh no, LOVE spelled in uppercase letters gives me Undertale flashbacks... :s
Apr 21 11:44:31 51m 58s Tower Defence of the Heart ♥ 1 Well, that was fun! And so far the game I spent most time with on here. It took me multiple tries and certainly wasn't easy, but it never seemed out of reach, so I kept trying! I especially like the decision that towers can be sold for full value. Makes experimenting much easier and less punishing, and while it takes away bigger the commitment decisions you have to make in other TDs, it adds lots and lots of smaller decision on what to sell and maybe build elsewhere. Nice. Not sure about the upgrades - it seems that just placing more stuff is better value for most of it, especially in the first half? I only started upgrading on the critical beam paths, and then at the end when I was in the thick of it. Great achievement to get a balanced TD game out in such a short time! And after it was over, I sold everything and just sat there a bit. Peace returned to the heart. Also, money. PS: Love the choice of music.
Apr 21 12:19:25 34m 54s Catnip Panic ♥ 4 Dear Diary, Today I experienced the hardships that catgirls face each day. While trying to keep my quickly deteriorating catnip plant alive I learnt that: - Ducks are scary - Farmers are scary - Fences are the worst - ...and so are trees. And nests. - Plants sure are thirsty - Oh god the ducks - I should not have put my plant so far from the water. And from the cows. And in the middle of duck heaven. - "Easy" is pretty hard Even now the ducks are searching for me. I can hear their angry quacking all around me. They are out for catgirl blood. I know they will find me. This was a mistake. I might not write again.
Apr 21 12:55:00 35m 35s Tiny Fragments ♥ 2 Very nice - I haven't seen a game like this since Where Is My Heart, so top points in Innovation! And such a high level of polish in a compo game is always great to see. Apart from being a bit shortish it doesn't feel like a game made in 48 hours at all. My only two gripes are that the music gets repetitive rather quickly, and that I would've appreciated some time to think before each level starts. But that doesn't take away much from the enjoyable experience. Well done!
Apr 21 13:35:12 40m 12s My Mother is a Caravan? ♥ 3 "Welps, here I go killing again", lol. Love the anime feeling, what's with the title, subject matter and kawaii caravan pictures, haha. Art and sound design are solid too, and the writing was funny! I'm not too much in love with the combat to be honest. Something between the hitboxes, the general feel to it and the sameness of the enemies, I suppose - it's a bit hard to describe. I appreciate the variety of items, although I'm not quite sure what all of them what they do. I wish traders in the real world would trade me 1:1 disregarding item quality :P And it seems nothing even attacked my caravan/mother? Despite those gripes though, this is a pretty solid and fun game with a surprising scope and number of systems (kudos to your programmer(s)!) for a LD jam. Well done!
Apr 21 15:57:09 2h 21m Hacking is Probably Not Like This ♥ 1 An account to a remote machine filled with hacking tools? Instant Uplink vibes :D Okay, let's get the bad out of the way first: - Trying out all 12 different games before starting my first hack was definitely necessary considering the time given per hack - and it felt a bit overwhelming, like a super long tutorial. - Am I misunderstanding this, or can I do ladder and clear really fast by just spamming Z? - On the other hand, art was something a little bit too hard because it's so sparse and has no clear starting clues. (But maybe it's just that I'm too used in games like that to be able to mostly solve it with logic instead of having to guess all the way through.) - God, I hate the slide puzzle. - No music is fine - I can just play the Hacknet OST in the background - but a little sfx would've gone a long way with comparably little effort. Just keypresses, success, failure and maybe "popup opens" would've been fantastic in making the game feel even better. - 30 days seems way too much. The content and games get a bit samey. I felt like the game should probably scale up faster and end sooner, maybe at day 20 instead? - I never got an upgrade for my shinies :'( Phew. And now, with that out of the way, on to the good. And there's a TON of good: - 7 different components that all* have a relevant effects - And on top of that you programmed 12 mini games? - And on top of THAT you added an insane amount of visual polish?? - And the game has a ton of UI and console animations??? I seriously don't know where you got all the time for all of from. - The writing is fun! - ...as is the whole game! - You definitely got the hacking game feel right. While the mechanics aren't much "hacking game"ish, the aesthetics are super on point. So far, this is one of my favourite games of this LD, and with well over an hour definitely the one that I played the longest. Excellent stuff. Thanks! PS: Followed you on Twitter! PPS: If I ever get to be part of the real-world law system, I will always sign of my letters with "Let the hammer of justice smite those why defy it". \*) yes, *especially* the shinies
Apr 21 16:41:00 43m 51s Second Layer: a Ludum Dare 46 audiovisual experience ♥ 1 What are my hands for, if they can't hold the kittens? Why even have hands? I am sad now.
Apr 21 17:22:45 41m 45s Pass it On ♥ 2 I'm a bit sad when I make especially nice sentences, but get "message invalid" :'( chrome_2020-04-21_19-15-24.png
Apr 21 17:46:27 23m 42s Untitled Websocket MMO ♥ 0 Pity that this didn't get finished (yet). Would've loved to play a fellow MMOish LD game!
Apr 22 00:03:45 6h 17m Morphology ♥ 1 Wow, this is incredibly polished. The art, the UI, the sounds, the music - everything works really well together, and with the writing it creates a lot of atmosphere! And it doesn't just have different evolutions, but I've also seen at least two different failstates - very nice. I have gotten to all 10 states, but to be honest, I still don't know how exactly - sometimes it was intuition, sometimes it was pure luck and trial and error. Is it what I give to it? Is it how I reacts and what I give it afterwards? What do the little speech bubbles mean? And why are they also next to the evolutions in the database? I know what items influence what stats, but what does that have to do with anything? Are the end stats important for how it evolves? I have no idea, and I'd actually love to get a bit more insight into it, if a dev would like to answer here! It would've been really nice if the game got less confusing during my playtime, as the scientist (?) discovers more and more about what the creature wants. But even if I often wasn't sure what to do, I enjoyed the experience and the mood that was created. I think this might've been the game with the most interesting atmosphere I played so far. Well done, folks!
Apr 22 11:49:54 11h 46m Oops, He's Dead! ♥ 2 Alright, this was cute. The art and music also work together really well and create a relaxed atmosphere. (Which might be a bit at odds with the goal of keeping our firey kitten alive, haha.) And I love the handdrawn texts! I'd like to echo @thedashdude's idea of changing tools in a different way. I also think the camera should be a little lower. In multiple parts of the early level I couldn't see what was coming up next - was it a long hole, or was the ground just below the camera? And I think the first fire I meet doesn't hurt me at all, the cat just climbs it and continues merrily on it's way. All in all though, pretty nice. Good job! PS: Is the cat jumping in the winning screen? So it *can* jump, and is just too lazy to jump over holes and wants me to put a cushion there?? You get extra points for realism, very catlike behaviour!
Apr 22 12:04:06 14m 12s Dad Day ♥ 1 Damn, children sure are *fragile*. I had no idea. I like the concept, but I think the game is a bit hard as is. I had a child drowning in the toilet twice when it made a dash for it, while I was *right next to it* and had no way to react in time. I think juggling other responsibilities and making the children slower would've helped - then they would die more because you got distracted and not because they are determined to die quickly. Great job getting something out after throwing away your first idea! That requires a lot of courage. When I give up on an idea I had committed to in a game jam, I usually give up on the jam too.
Apr 22 12:16:21 12m 15s Order of The Phoenix ♥ 0 Damn, this is a BIG game download. But I mean, I can see from the screenshots that it looks nice, so I guess I can understand at least a bit where the size is coming from? Alright, after downloading: My computer isn't fast enough to run this game properly. Pity.
Apr 22 12:51:25 35m 04s Rewilding: The Story of Wolfhead Valley ♥ 1 Never went above 172 points, sadly - but damn, this is interesting. I didn't even know that there *are* rewilding specialists, so it's pretty unique to play as one. The game also seems pretty balanced, as I assume ecosystems should be. Apart from one deer-forest-monoculture I didn't have much luck getting clever with it. The graphics are simple, but pleasing to look at and work well. Good job!
Apr 22 13:51:23 59m 58s Cactus Care ♥ 2 Got a cactus because I heard that they are easy to care for. Cactus exploded after not getting water for 2 seconds when my watering can glitched through the wall into my bedroom. 0/5, needles still stuck everywhere, can't recommend. (This was surprisingly funny. The earthquake and the cactus staring it me were completely unexpected, haha. I recommend going for a lower difficulty next time though - it was a bit frustrating, especially in the beginning.)
Apr 22 15:31:14 1h 39m Buddy Rope ♥ 1 I like it when games try unusual mechanics - nice! If you continue to work on the game, I'd suggest to rebalance the amount of time food gives you. I failed the first level multiple times while going for food, and only managed to beat it when I completely ignored it and headed straight for the exit. The first level seemed much harder to me time-wise than the couple levels after that too! The graphics work well, and so does the sound. All in all, a solid entry. Well done!
Apr 22 20:13:27 4h 42m Solais ♥ 1 Wow. I don't... wow. How do you make something like this in 48 hours all on your own? How? I don't even *like* hard platformers, and I finished it because it was so compelling. The design, the colors, the sounds, the music, the levels, the checkpoints, the controls... everything is completely on point. My complaints are marginal at best. It's a bit hard to see the spikes. It's hard to play the game and also process the text. That's it. That's all. I don't even see why there'd need to be a post-compo version, because this already feels so polished as if you spent all the time in the world on it, and then deemed it complete and released it. Bravo.
Apr 23 20:22:04 24h 08m Spirit cave ♥ 1 Good job in making a procedural game in such a short amount of time! The art, music and sfx are quite pleasing - I'm a sucker for bloom. Mechanics-wise I had exactly the same experience as @lukas. Drop down spirit, mash mouse button for auto-aimed shots, pick up spirit - and kill the boss from afar. That was a bit of a letdown for an otherwise atmospheric game. But apart from that I had a good experience playing this. Well done!
Apr 23 20:46:06 24m 02s Gaia ♥ 2 I like the art, music and sound effects, and the gameplay kept me engaged for quite a while. It's cool that the objectives effectively function as a tutorial. There are two things that I tripped me up: - When entering the second phase, I briefly had no idea what makes the earth more or less healthy. I'm still not *exactly* sure, but I assume getting rid of lots of humans helps. (I wonder if there is a lesson there :P) - I had no idea that there was a timer until it ran out. The controls work pretty well in general. The earth rotates a bit too fast, yes, but I got used to it after a few seconds. What I didn't like so much was that I always had to click twice to place something. I'd have preferred to have a UI where I can select what I want to build, and then every time I click on the planet afterwards I can build it. Even better if pressing e.g. 1-5 would've selected the next thing I do. But that's stuff you only learn after players test the game, and it worked as is too. All in all, good job!
Apr 26 12:40:49 63h 54m 🐱 Cat Fun Factory ♥ 3 Aw yeah. Cats and automating things, what more do you need. Let's get the bad parts out of the way first: - Roads. Arrgh, roads. The tutorial just says that I can connect via dragging. Tried that, I can't, nothing happens. Turns out I have to select the "road block" first. Its button doesn't exactly look like a road, and... you know that a "roadblock"/"road block" is something that *blocks* roads, right? Clicking that button and then dragging took me a fair bit to figure out. I had multiple things researched before I built my first road. - And they only merge in front of machines? So much for properly parallizing my cat desire classification. - And often they don't really align well with the machines, especially the upper part of splitters. - As @uberardy mentions, Machine Learning seems a bit of a stretch here. And digital marketing too. - The theme connection is pretty weak. - Unless I'm misunderstanding something, there doesn't seem to be much strategy apart from the obvious. Once you figure out how stuff works, not much thinking is required. Not ideal for this type of game. And now, with *that* done, let's get to the good parts: - It's cute! - It's refreshing - I haven't seen any games like that yet in this Ludum Dare, and barely any in other LDs I attended. - It looks good! - The music is well made and fits. Games like that are usually played for a stretch of time, and the music blended well into the background. - You don't just have a starting cutscene with a great style, but also an ending cutscene. Wow! - You actually have a tutorial. And not just one in the beginning, but one that shows multiple windows. (Although I am not sure it is strictly *needed* - I figured it out just as well myself, because, I built my first road later I didn't even see it, and when it started it mostly showed me things I already knew - but it's nice that it's there for the players who it helps.) - It can't have been easy to develop all the mechanics in such a short time. All in all, this is a really great jam game, and one of the most complete feeling I've seen in this LD so far. Great job, folks! PS: I have a question about the first GIF in the description. Why do so many cats walk past the scratchers and sleeping pads even though they aren't full? In my factories, they always seem to go away angrily once they encounter the first machine they don't like, even if it's to the side of the road. Maybe I misunderstood something?
Apr 27 11:58:46 23h 17m Yandere Emulator ♥ 2 Aaargh, I don't even like horror games like this. Why did I play this. ...probably because the screenshots looked oddly compelling, and once I started I couldn't stop. And I died several times, but then I finally managed to escape! There are two things I'm not happy with: - First, the diary. We don't even *know* that we can swap out things at that point. I feel like this is pretty much unsolvable on the first try and on the second try it's less a matter of figuring out what to do (after all, our protagonist straight out tells us before he dies) and only a matter of figuring out how the UI will let us do the thing. - ...and secondly, if we die in the second phase we have to replay the first phase all over. Ugh. I get that it ups the stakes, but man, I was so close to quitting after the incident with the diary. Props on your game for actually holding me there strong enough to try again. (LIKE A BEAR TRAP, I suppose. Sorry, sorry, I'll show myself out.) But apart from that, everything works really well together and creates one of the strongest moods I've seen in this LD. I also really enjoyed the unexpected mode switch where you have to investigate the room and pick up/use stuff there. Great job! PS: Could we get a video with the endings? I'd love to see them all, but not enough to play the game a dozen more times from the very beginning to be honest.
Apr 27 13:25:53 1h 27m to Leave ♥ 1 Alright, so that was extremely interesting. Hard to sort out my feedback between excitement and confusion, haha. I *really* want to leave good feedback here, because this was both one of the most interesting and confusing experiences I had this LD, and I hope it helps your next LD game to be equally interesting while being a bit less confusing! Okay, so lets start with some questions. Does needing water have *anything* to do with the platforms we have to activate? Initially I activated all water platforms, but that didn't do much. I then proceeded to try other things, like "all the cactus platforms" because they contain water, with similarly unfruitful results. To be honest, I would've given up if I hadn't read the comments and found "Try to start with the ‘monks voice’ loop". (Maybe the 'monks voice' should played at the beginning, or you shouldn't even be able to stop it?) And following, are there any hints on the platforms for the following days? I assumed e.g. the "wood" would use all the platforms with trees. I was wrong, but it took a bit for my non-existing musical sense to figure that out. It seems like the monks voice was needed in every song. Was there a hint for that? Is it because it's our "base" platform? Initially I didn't even try it again because I assumed every song uses completely unique samples. I am really curious in general about how you thought the player would figure things out. I'm not sure if posting it here would be best (to avoid heavy spoilers for casual readers), but maybe you could say a few words about it off-site and link to it or something? (E.g. pastebin.com) Having another sentence after "You need water...", like "Right click on a platform to start" would've been really nice, btw. And maybe "Try right clicking again on this platform and see what happens." Or something similar. We were told that we can interact with things in the beginning, but interacting with *platforms* is not what I thought of. I think it would've also been nice if the game somehow makes clear that you need 5 platforms. Maybe it shouldn't even allow to have more than 5. Maybe there should be UI that says something like "3/5 platforms activated". Maybe there should be ongoing hints if things go together. But I can see how that could change the game for the worse and push it away from its core concept of "finding what music loops go well together by listening". To be honest, I have no idea what hints would work well here, so I can hardly blame you for not figuring that out. But still, despite all those complaints and through my missing musical sensibilities, I persevered. Because it was interesting, novel and very, very curious. The music is fantastic. The art is cool. And I really like how you combined everything. This could just be a set of buttons - there was no *need* for a person on an island. And after combining you could've just said "well done, you got the water/wood/food". You didn't have to let the player actually collect stuff, or play a nice swimming sequence. You *did* put in all that extra work though, and the game is all the better for it. I wish this was a bit more accessible so it could reach more players. Because it should be played. It's one of my favourites so far, problems and all. I'm following you now, and I hope I'll see lots of other cool games in future LDs from you! PS: If possible, move away from the low Unity version that I saw mentioned elsewhere, and make web builds too! accessibility and all!
Apr 28 11:44:16 22h 18m The Last Flower ♥ 1 Alright, finished all levels! Let's get the critisicms out of the way first: - The Jump seems way to floaty for me. The character also doesn't jump as high as I'm used to from other many games. I recommend trying higher gravity and higher jumping impulse force. - Why do the portals auto-destroy themselves? The best strategy sometimes seemed to just camp and kill enemies until all portals destroyed themelves. - In the third level, maybe the ghosts would've been better behind you? It seems impossible not to get killed unless you already press the running button when the level loads. It's not very good style to have a place where you will 100% of the time get killed when you first encounter it. But I guess the fast restart fixes that a bit. - Some of the collisions (especially for the sword) seem off. I sometimes have trouble shooting down ghosts that I am *sure* I hit, but they don't die. Some details that I really liked: - How the first level teaches you that, despite your small jumps, you can climb up multiple platforms by jumping through them by pressing Space multiple times. - I liked how you shook it up a bit with the third level, where it's better to run than to stay and fight! - ...and then in the fourth level, when it was more about hazards and jumping than beating enemies. Nice variety. - I love that it's not about saving a princess or a kingdom, but a flower of all things. It's pretty cute. - The black enemies huddling on each other in some areas. The graphics and the audio are well chosen, and the levels are interesting. And you are really 11? My games *sucked* when I was your age. I'm looking forward to see what you'll do in the future. I'm sure it'll be great!
Apr 28 12:47:09 1h 02m War of the Elements ♥ 4 Some random thoughts while playing the game: - This is a *lot* of text to read before starting the game, but hey, props on having a tutorial! - I think this might've been better with mouse targeting. Enemies from the cardinal directions are easy to hit, and enemies that come diagonally almost impossible. - Earth elementals sure are selfless. And burn remarkably well. - I wish you could drop wood *next* to the fire too, so you could collect some while you don't need it. - I wonder if slower enemies would've worked better. I barely venture out into the world - it's sometimes even hard to hit enemies when you're close to the fire, but with my slow move speed it becomes absolutely impossible if I try to pick up wood that's a bit further away. - I can't believe you added a multiphase bullet-hell endboss to the game. (And I *knew* catuwu was really a cat!) My slow movespeed makes that it a bit hard though. And why can I suddenly shoot as often as I want to without losing health? The mechanics seems solid and could probably be improved with a little iteration/polish. The art and music work well. All in all, pretty nice!
Apr 28 13:09:04 21m 55s A Wizard Worth Fighting For ♥ 2 "If it be true though kicketh the bucket, I kicketh the bucket as well" is pure poetry. The charge attack - does it have a cooldown? I only managed to do it once. It's weird that pressing up/down attacks left/right too. It took me a while to be sure that I didn't do something wrong there. It was a really interesting choice that (most) enemies don't attack and just push/hinder you and are basically just walking health potions, while both attacking and time drain your health. It makes you value your attacks more and rewards herding slimes quickly before finishing them all off at the same time. It's a pity that there is no last-ditch effort when you're low on energy though. Often games become more intense when you're low on health because you struggle to survive, but here, if you're super low on health, you don't have much hope of coming back, because attacking speeds up your demise. I guess finding the well means I win? The game just ended. The art/sfx are simple, but work well. The lighting together with the music creates a pretty nice mood! All in all, good job!
Apr 28 14:08:11 59m 07s Advise the King ♥ 1 Observations while playing the game: - Your itch.io page looks super professional, especially for a jam game. Wow. - I don't know why you're offering me 3 copies of Pitchfork when I can only take one after all. - Wow, this game feels good to play. The polish is on a whole other level. How did you have enough time to do all of that? - The contrast between the pieces and the ground seems a bit low, but apart from that, I'm really digging the art. - Sfx and music are super on point. Especially the "You are in danger!" cue. - Although... not sure if the "You are in danger!" cue at the *beginning* of my turn is needed, because unlike in Chess, I am sure to move my King every turn anyway. Being in danger at the beginning of my turn doesn't mean much to me here and won't change my gameplay in the slightest; I just have to be careful not to *end* in a dangerous position. - It does feel a bit samey after a bit, to be honest. And I never really felt like the game was particularly challenging. - The game sometimes hid the mouse cursor until the next level? Super weird. I mean, after almost three decades of using computers, I can still mostly use my mouse without a cursor and the occasional highlight is enough, but... :D - I won. Yay! - ...wait, you did ALL of this by yourself? Inside of 72 hours? Woah. This is a really nice concept and I'm sure you could do even more with it!
Apr 28 14:53:12 45m 01s Birdie Burglars ♥ 1 I knew I'd love the game once I saw the GIF and read the name DDRKirbyISQ. And it didn't let me down. I love everything about this game. Let me recount the ways I love it: - I love its theme. - I almost have to stop playing every time I throw a cat at a burglar because the animation is so heart-wrenchingly cute and fierce at the same time. - The sfx/voices. Tiptoe, tiptoe ~ - The mechanics are superb. Moving, hiding, looking up - it's both engaging and sort of predictable. - I know that having the cats return is just a fancy cooldown, but it makes *sense* and is much more immersive than a UI element could be. - I love the little chick. Especially in the "you win" screen, for obvious reasons ;) - I love that you made four different seasons, and how much that adds to the mood. Needless to say, this feels like a finished product and not like a jam game. And it's pure sugar. Fantastic job, you two!
Apr 28 19:11:54 4h 18m Growing defense ♥ 2 Pretty cute, impressive graphics, and the music/sfx is great too! Like @kaeveris I also finished the game at 1 haert, although for me the progression was a bit weird - I had to restart the beginning a few times, but after I got that down, I had absolutely no problems until wave 10. In wave 10, almost everyone went through, bringing me from 19 to 1. Luckily I killed the "boss"! The caring mechanics are interesting. I don't think I ever saw that in *any* other tower defense game. Maybe because most of the time, towers aren't living things, and having to constantly repair stuff feels worse than caring for plants? Either way, in this game more than in other TD games, clustering seems very important, so you can water/dig/fertilize whole groups at the same time. I'm not sure how much *fun* the waterin/digging/fertiziling was in the end, to be honest. I mean, I enjoyed playing the game, but did I particularely enjoy constantly clicking between the tools and the plants? I don't really know. But despite these doubts, I think there definitely is something interesting to be found. I have three questions as well: What does the second tower do, as opposed to the first one? And when do plants grow? And I assume it makes them stronger/faster/better? All in all, I enjoyed playing this game and I like the original mechanics in a rather stale genre. Thanks for making it!
Apr 28 21:05:59 1h 54m The Last Guardian ♥ 2 First time my Tree of Life died, second time it was me, but third time was the charm! It's really a nice amount of mechanics you packed into this. Several kinds of enemies, clouds that water the tree, puddles and call down lightning (although I never used that on purpose since they move so slowly), puddles that grow cacti, cacti that fight for you, acorns to collect and apples to restore health for when you fight yourself - that's quite a lot of systems. And while the fighting itself is a bit weak it in my opinion, everything works well together and that makes more than up for it. Add to that the pleasent art style and the nice theme of the game. Great job, you two!
Apr 29 14:33:13 17h 27m Spatious Inc. ♥ 1 Alright, got a planet converted fully according to client specifications! Let's start with some suggestions for improvement: - The interface is very clean being divided into resources, general parameters and goals. But that means the goals are really far away from their values. Ideally, I'd see them side by side. - I'd also like to see what goals I already fulfill, and which I still need. - I think the modules work fine as is, but it would be nice to have a clear overview of what their secondary effects are, e.g. in a table. And you could display up/down arrows with numbers (or even with results!) in a nice goal/current resources/results view! - Is there *any* correlation between the fifteen states on the board and what they each produce? It seems to me that apart from solid/liquid/gaseous each counting down the main element by 1, their secondary elements and how much of each of these are completely random. This seems needlessly complicated. Apart from being overly complicated though, this is pretty great. You especially nailed the FTL/Into The Breach look, feel and music! It also stands out as being pretty original among all the other LD games I have played this time. Good job! PS: Still waiting for my 1M energy credits. PPS: Play/rate/comment a few more games, please! It would be a shame if you don't reach the 20 ratings when being so close.
Apr 29 16:04:29 1h 31m Embers ♥ 2 I'd also like to echo @dummydojo and @aurel300's points. I enjoyed the experience, but found the mechanics a bit contradictory: - Keys, diminishing resources and finding new resources pushes you outwards to explore, - having to regularely return to the fire to replenish it and yourself keeps you from exploring far, and - only being able to carry one thing at a time makes all of that a chore, more so the further away it is. Don't get me wrong though, the current experience is still enjoyable and *extremely* impressive for one person in a 48h jam. The art is impeccable, the music is great (half an hour? Get out of here...), the sfx work super well, and the atmosphere created by all these combined is one of the best I've seen in this LD. And on top of that, well-working procedural map generation, different enemies and crafting? Fantastic job!
May 1 12:25:05 44h 20m [M]achine [L]earning ♥ 0 **[SPOILER WARNING]** Aw, that was nice. I got the Alchemist end - cute reference with the cart, haha. As my girl tended to get less and less stress from her daily activities, I filled her whole months with one activity. I wish there was a button for it, or a way to repeat the previous month at least! I liked the writing. I would've liked more events, as they were (perhaps unsurprisingly) my favourite part, but I understand development time is limited and and there is quite a lot content as is! [M]ACHINE [L]EARNING TEAM, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME ENJOYMENT. YOUR GAME WILL BE RATED. EXPECT RESULTS IN 11D 07H 35M. (I read the other endings on Github, and the True End, while heartwarming, seems to not be in line with *any* of the other endings? Especially e.g. the Pirate/Salaryman endings make quite clear that the Outer Federation exists.)
May 1 13:06:01 40m 56s Keeping Your Fire Alive ♥ 1 Well, that was interesting. I wish I could click text to continue. Especially in the last dialogue, the duration between texts got REALLY, REALLY long. Like, half a minute between texts. And then sometimes 5 lines drop so fast that it's impossible to read them properly. And I wonder if there is more to do in further iterations of the loop? I: - Let the fire die down and went up an iteration. - Went exploring. - Refused to go exploring once, got chided for it and went exploring. - Refused to go exploring twice, died, got an ending and went up an iteration. It seems a bit inconsequential to not be able to change the outcome if this is a simulation to prepare me for something. Atmosphere-wise, I really like how everything works together with rather simple graphics and sfx to create a scary, desolated mood. I especially like the eyes! Although I am a bit sad that they don't seem to play any other role and they don't change anymore, and seem to have nothing to do with the simulation aspect. Still, very interesting, if a bit unfinished. Good job, especially after pivoting from another idea!
May 1 13:39:11 33m 10s Danbiao ♥ 1 I just played the submitted version, which I assume from the description is rather unfinished. Nevertheless, here's feedback on what I can see: - I like the idea of upgrading a tamagotchi. I mean, a tamagotchi is a simulation already, and there were a few games like this in this LD, so why not make this. - The egg minigame in the beginning seems to have nothing to do with the tamagochi though? I'm not completely sure why it is there (and not, e.g., inside the tamagotchi window) - My first danbiao died of hunger. The second one... I have no idea. I got some foreign language voice output and a message regretting that I don't have a translator. I didn't bother to get one because I didn't see anything that could be translated. The third run I got one, but nothing seems to happen. - Sometimes it won't eat. I guess I have to keep the second value low and third value high to keep it happy? - Apart from food, I don't have any idea what the icons mean, and many of them don't seem to do anything. - ...and more feedback and animations in general would be nice. But you probably know that already and just didn't have enough time to do it. - I think the battery thing is cute, but also a bit annoying? I don't have enough disposable incoming though to buy larger batteries. - Why would I get the Cursor Stabilizer if I could just go right for the touchscreen? - Ah, and now that I got the touchscreen, it makes sound for the first time! Still nothing that could be translated though. - Aw. Now I *did* get the ending while having the translator, and I'm glad I did, haha. That was a surprise! Well, confusing and unfinished as it was, I like the concept! Good job, you two!
May 1 14:04:14 25m 03s Iguanathon ♥ 1 I rewatched the documentary to prepare while this game downloaded. It didn't help. I'm not a very good iguanodon. I really like the concept, and the art is nice! The mechanics are a bit lacking though. And I'm not really sure how to win the game to be honest. Is it just finding a path without any snakes near? I can't seem to escape from them like in an action game, they don't seem to move along paths (or at all) like in stealth games. PS: Love the game name, haha.
May 1 16:52:05 2h 47m VampySitter ♥ 1 Nice style and a unique premise and mechanics! The art works really well too. And you absolutely nailed the cartoony animations.
May 1 18:07:16 1h 15m Seed - Give the seed a drink ♥ 2 Alright, so... I'm not perfectly sure what is happening, to be honest. I collected water and watered the tree with the A button (as I found out I can do here in the comments). Then I collected lots more water, until the water meter was full, and then I collected other kinds of water or seeds? Then the water I collected kept vanishing suddenly, until that stopped. There are spiders, but they seem harmless and just scavenging for water like me. I seem forever trapped on day 0. Please send help. The controls are a bit awkward, with having to use A to water the tree, arrow keys to walk and mouse to loock around. I think I would've preferred having WASD walk and Q water, for example, so I don't have to lift my hands off the arrow keys. Confusion aside, this is pretty nice considering how late you joined the jam!
May 1 18:30:49 23m 33s Somebody's Hero ♥ 0 Nice atmosphere, but it didn't seem like there was much to do. It also lagged pretty badly on my computer (although *it* is pretty old, so...). I made it to the park, only for the attackers (and me) to find out that I can't die.
May 5 01:34:51 79h 04m Bullets & Babies ♥ 2 Baby rescue success! I had to retry this until I got it. I pretty much only have three nitpicks: - The machine gun often doesn't do much right when I pick it up. I wish I could use it later. But I guess that would add another button. - It's a bit slow in the beginning. I wish I could speed it up. - Props for adding a boss, but... it was super easy. It was a bit weird in the beginning that I could get fired at out of seemingly nowhere because the scrolling hit an enemy who miraculously couldn't see me a second earlier despite me standing right in front of him. I wonder if a delay might help here, but... I'm not sure if it is completely necessary, as it just meant that I will stay back a bit, and it added a ton of tension. Apart from that: Simple but servicable graphics, music/sfx work well, and cutscene in the beginning and end - cool. I had loads of fun. Really good job, folks!
May 5 01:54:09 19m 18s Uptime? Nope. ♥ 2 Would've loved to see this game with more events like you planned. Like the others, I also felt like it didn't provide much challenge at the moment. It was easy to understand though, and the basic controls worked well too. A few suggestions for improvement: - The buying process seems unnecessarily complicated. Why do I have to open it with X instead of A? Why can't I just buy things by pressing A on their option, instead of having to select them and then navigate to "buy"? - Ordering hard disks 1pc each was pretty annoying, and I wish I could've ordered more than one at a time. Especially because I needed so many to keep up. Also... I'm not sure why I'd sell anything? The graphics were simple, but really easy to recognize and worked well.
May 5 02:02:19 8m 10s Zombie Horde ♥ 0 Simple but fun gameplay. I died a few times, but after a bit I found a working strategy. I agree that adding both a visual and sfx for enemy spawn was a good idea!
May 5 02:22:17 19m 58s Running Old Game On Windows 10 Simulator 2020 ♥ 0 Well, that get's 5/5 mood from me. Pretty cool idea! And so far the most interesting interpretation of the theme I've found. The steps that took the longest for me were the first and the CD key. Apart from that everything was solved rather quickly. Thanks for making my LD experience a little bit more meta!
May 10 01:22:08 118h 59m Baby: Don't Hurt Me ♥ 0 Nice graphics and music! And while I like the concept, it seems that you quickly abandoned both the "puzzle" part of the platformer and any interaction with the baby? The controls were a bit too floaty and slidey and I think the collision for staying on platforms could be improved, especially considering how many precise jumps on small platforms need to be made. Props on the level variety though. Good job!
May 10 01:40:38 18m 30s Outta Juize ♥ 0 Some feedback/suggestions for improvement: - It's interesting how much the opinions on controls are split in the comments, haha. I have to admit that I'm definitely not a fan - I found them mostly confusing and frustrating, which is a pity, considering how important they are for playing a game like this. - The arena could be a bit more interesting. Just (maybe temporary and/or destroyable?) covers to hide behind would improve it, and if the player has more control over the movement, maybe even hazards? - I have to admit that I'm not too sure if getting in/out of turret did much for me. Maybe if you could've chosen between multiple turrets? Or entered enemies? Graphics and sounds are nice. And I think playing as a *battery* of all things is a pretty cute idea!
May 10 01:54:43 14m 05s Are We There Yet ♥ 0 Interesting idea! Some suggestions for improvement: - The money doesn't really look like money - it looks like an obstacle. I think round coins might've helped! - The controls feel pretty floaty. - Sound effects! Especially for "kid gets bored". Not because I necessarily want to be annoyed by the kid all the time (although I think that would fit well into the game ;) ), but because I want a signal before I go game over. And I wonder if you could've somehow removed the somewhat artificial "game just ends when kid is super bored" lose condition entirely and instead made it harder to drive properly the more bored the kid is. Maybe it kicks the back of the seat, causing screen shake? Or maybe it hits your arms, making the car swerve? Or it throws things at the windshield that you have to clear or that cracks/defaces it permanently? You get the idea.
May 10 02:01:42 6m 59s Snail Crossing: Lucky Lefty Lives?! ♥ 1 Cute idea and graphics! The gameplay gets a bit samey after the first few actions though.
May 10 02:09:26 7m 44s Manage the ongoing situation ♥ 0 I won and saved 48 people! I was a bit surprised how hard this was, honestly - I thought after two and a half decades of using a mouse I would be better with one. And damn, pandemics sure are scary and it seems they can easily spiral out of control. If only people would cooperate!
May 10 02:54:44 45m 18s HEAL ME PLZ ♥ 1 Like others here I haven't been able to finish the game, but I had a lot of fun dying multiple times! Here's a list of unordered feedback: - I adore the graphics. The animations, the colors, the glowy effects - everything is super well done. - Same for the music! It's very fun to listen to and fits the game perfectly! - The concept, the mechanics and the resulting gameplay are really cool. And fun! - Big props to your programmers. Having a fully featured player character with movement and main and secondary skills that works well, pickups and multiple different monsters is already an accomplishment, but adding to that multiple autonomic characters with their own skills and behaviour is super impressive! - The game feels super polished, what's with the multi-stage entry cutscene, short tutorial and having animations for everything. - I really like the throwing mechanic, both for triggering the skill and also for repositioning! - What I don't like about the throwing is that it always triggers automatically when I'm close to a hero. Sometimes I just want to, you know, walk near or by them. Or heal them. - I wish there would've been health bars (or maybe some other indicator?) beyond "I'm dying" next to the characters. - I love the unhelpful messages from the characters - funny and very on point. I wish the "heals plz" would only come when they actually would need a heal though! Ungratefulness aside, it seems unrealistic that someone takes the time to write "heals plz" when they're on 95% health? (At least I hope so. Poor healers :( ) - I wonder if a different movement mechanic would've been good. WASD? Or running in the direction as long as the mouse is pressed, but then stopping once I release? (I'm at least glad that I *can* continuously press the mouse.) - I don't know what this extra character is that sometimes pops up? I don't mean the one that explodes, but the one that barely does anything? It's probably clear from that list already, but I love the game. It's fantastic, and it's hard to believe that you made this in 72 hours. You are incredibly talented, and this is the first game this LD that I'm giving 5/5 all across the board. PS: I continued playing and defeated the dark lord after all! :D
May 10 14:18:24 11h 23m tiriplici ♥ 1 I played the windows version, but I had similar problems as @kjscott - the controls felt sluggish to react but too fast once they do, and the game was lagging pretty badly. I think less velocity/acceleration and more direct controls for the toaster would've been a good idea. (And for us single-players - maybe the fridge could just walk towards the toaster automatically?) Nevertheless, I like the concept and the handdrawn graphics, and the music is pretty fun too!
May 10 14:47:06 28m 42s Whalestrom ♥ 1 Unfortunately I can't rate the gameplay because the game is running too slow on my computer, but I can definitely rate the fantastic art and music! It's especially impressive considering how short the jam is - not many make 3D games after all. And I really liked the crayon tutorial in the beginning.
May 10 15:16:11 29m 05s Prophet ♥ 1 Some unordered feedback: - I really like the concept of playing support for the bigger robot who's doing the main work! - The upgrades were a little bit unsatisfying gameplay-wise - e.g. I don't have the feeling that the crusher or the flamethrower ever did that much, probably mainly because I can't control either. They were super satisfying visually though! - And on that matter, I really like the art! - The music fits super well. - I wonder if the robot could be a bit more interactive. Maybe I could (or have to) mark enemies by shooting them with a tagging weapon? Maybe I have some other kind of supporter weapon? Right now it doesn't feel like there is a lot of strategy to the game. - ...and maybe that could also enable different kinds of enemies. E.g. some that you just want to stop for a bit so they are shot later (e.g. because they can take more hits), or some that you definitely want to shoot first (because they are fast or do a lot of damage). - Actually, what happens when an enemy reaches the robot? I have no idea, although I guess I did play (and win) on the lowest difficulty level only. - The upgrades should really have some info about them ingame. Pausing and checking the itch.io page feels cumbersome. Despite the slightly non-interactive gameplay, I enjoyed the experience and I really like the general feeling of the game. Great job!
May 10 17:10:57 1h 54m Birb Island ♥ 1 Some unordered feedback: - The graphics are a bit too patterned, making it really clear how repetetive they are. - ...but they work well in communicating what everything is. - I have no idea what the campfire does? - Is the stone axe what is enabling me to get infinite branches just by clicking on them? - I wish I wouldn't have to always close each message before being able to move again. Ugh. - Why does it show me the "Eat" option even though I can't effectively eat most of these things? I wonder if it would've been better to have an "Eat" menu item that only shows me edible stuff afterwards, especially considering I can't seem to do other things with the items (expect feeding them to the bird, which could've been a menu option too.) - Having proc gen in a jam game is always impressive. - It wasn't really clear that there was another island than the tiny one I started on. I had to walk in water for a fair time to reach the bird, and maybe wouldn't even have done that if I didn't know that there was one. 10/10 would recommend getting killed by a demon bird again. PS: "but once I made the baby bird I realized I didn’t want to anime it dying" ...awww.
May 10 17:19:18 8m 21s Fly Zone ♥ 0 Never thought I'd give a game with Flappy Bird-like controls high points in innovation, haha. I don't think I've seen any other games where you have bidirectional flappy-like controls, and it does work well! The art is a bit on the dry side and the missing sound is a bummer, especially considering that you could've easily taken free sound effects for a jam game. My only complaint for the gameplay is that it's a little bit too hard for me - I would've loved to have more checkpoints. Still, I love the concept and I enjoyed playing this, even if I didn't come far. Great job! PS: Reading the other comments - I really don't agree with @almighty-games's "There’s not a lot to talk about with a clone game" and @gentoogames "not an original idea". This is taking the original game and adding a whole different dimension to it, namely a level to navigate in and the ability to actually move in all directions with a very limited control schema. If someone told me to expand on the idea of Flappy Bird, I very much doubt I could've come up with something as elegant as this.
May 10 17:40:12 20m 54s Majestic X ♥ 1 Really nice graphics/animations, and I love the camera! Unfortunately I couldn't properly figure out when to do what. And I'm really missing the sound effects (although I guess that would've been a lot more work in this genre than in others).
May 11 15:47:20 22h 07m Keep the Keep ♥ 1 Some feedback: - It's super nice that the game explains itself both with the short tutorial and with good level progression. - I think the bow range indicator looks more like an arrow than a stopped line. Took me a few tries to understand how that worked. It also should probably stop in the middle of the last tile it affects, not the end of it, to make crystal clear that it's not *hitting* the next tile before stopping. - Level 10 and 11 were extremely easy. E.g. the latter, 1 reactor, 2 bows and 1 cannon next to my castle, done. - I wish there was some kind of thing to tell me how well I did. Did I manage minimal turns? Minimal buildings? Maybe even minimal damage to my buildings? - Adding undo and level skip buttons was \*chef kiss\*. Excellent decisions! The undo doesn't just allow you to correct mistakes, but also leaves room to experiment and experience the game through observation instead of reading. - I think I should be able to cancel by right-clicking. And maybe I could select with shortcuts, e.g. the number keys? - I think if you are in the process of positioning something, "undo" should cancel that, instead of actually undoing the last thing you built. - In the web version, there is a bug that produces additional knights out of barracks when undoing. To reproduce: Build a barrack. Let it produce a knight. Continue until the space in front of the barrack is empty while the knight is still alive. Press Undo. Finish turn. Marvel at the second knight produced by the barrack. That's it. That's all I have to complain about. The game is fun, looks amazing, is extremely polished and absolutely fantastic in general, and I really enjoyed puzzling my way through. Excellent work!
May 11 18:21:10 2h 33m Displacement ♥ 0 I have a soft spot for LD puzzle games, especially because there are so few good ones - and yours definitely fits. I don't think I've seen this mechanic anywhere else yet. I liked the design of the levels, even though some felt a bit fillery and more "try to *push* your way through" instead of "try to *think* your way through". And it looks good as well. Great job!
May 11 18:54:31 33m 21s Survivalgo ♥ 1 As someone who as also made an [educational programming game](https://dragonlab.de/portfolio/project-starcoder) before, stuff like that is right up my alley! Here's a bit of feedback: - I like how you introduce stuff through levels rather than through long explanations! - The second loop level, although good on its own, was a bit too much of a jump in my opinion. I think a longer left-down-left-down-left-down loop could've been in between. - The graphics are a bit on the simple side, but communicate the intent well. - I think the loop might've been clear to me only because I know that loops exist. Maybe an example level that shows a loop in action would be nicer to onboard players without that knowledge? - It took me a bit to figure out that the "exit" symbol was a loop delimiter. I think a design where you put blocks *inside* the loop like [e.g. in Scratch](https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/scratchblocksct.png) might be clearer. Unfortunately I couldn't get past the level where the enemy appears. After trying around a bit and restarting a few times, my character refused to move at all (it only played the walking animation), and after a while, the enemy also stopped moving.
May 11 19:18:38 24m 07s Keep The Bouncy Thing Alive ♥ 1 Ah, great to see other networked games in an LD! And props for making it work as as a single player too - that's what I always try with my networked LD games too, because who knows how many people will be online. I have to admit though that I'm not sure how well your mechanics lend itself to multiplayer gameplay. I can see how multiple people could play cooperatively (or try to kill each other), but I don't think it would be particularely *interesting*. (I hope you understand what I mean. It's a bit hard to put into words. And... I hope it's not too harsh.) However, I think the *concept* of cooperatively adding things to a world is a great base on which you could build something really nice!
May 11 19:36:22 17m 44s Signal Fire On Mystery Island ♥ 1 I expected a survival game and got an adventure. Nice! I have to admit that it was a bit too easy for my taste (both the fire burn speed and the puzzles - the clue for the five switches was a bit *too* much on the nose). And the wheelbarrow didn't seem to move at all - maybe I just don't know how to use it? Nevertheless, I can appreciate the work that went into making the levels and programming all the systems that work together there. Great job!
May 11 19:55:58 19m 36s Primed ♥ 1 Absolutely love it, from the description to the "tutorial" screen to the almost involuntary decision-making to its ending. Apart from being really funny and on point: This is my favourite interpretation of the theme so far, and the only game that I gave 5/5 in that category, because it's not something stereotypical of the genre like in so many other games here. It's not about keeping the player, or a companion, or a fire, or anything else alive like in literally all other games of that genre. Well done. I usually like to give helpful feedback. I can't. This is perfect already.
May 11 20:46:23 50m 25s Keep Him Alive ♥ 1 Some random feedback: - I guess it says "the old man died" even when you died? I assume the old man died as a consequence of that, but it's a little deceptive. - The enemies are... weird. They kill you pretty fast. They move super fast. Their behaviour is extremely simple, making them rather boring. And they stop at the door and wait to be killed, which, considering their speed and damage output, might be the only proper way of killing them, but it's not very exciting. - Why is there a really heavy screenshake after killing an enemy? Does it explode? It feels completey unneeded to me. - Why does the loot very, very slowly fade out after I have picked it up? Why am I collecting loot at all? - The levels are a bit samey. There doesn't seem to be a big difference between, say, level 2 and 4. I assume that's mainly because the only really meaningful thing to interact with are the enemies, and you only have one kind. - The controls are pretty snappy. - The graphics are simple, but communicate well what they are. I read in a comment above that you were looking for a method to improve the father's pathfinding a bit. I assume you used A\* with tiles? With big rooms like this, that's rather unneeded. Instead, you could define waypoints (in a way that anywhere you are, you can see at least one waypoint) and only connect those into a graph. Then see if the father can "see" the player directly without any obstacle. If he can, walk directly to the player. If he can't, find the closest waypoint that the father can "see" and the closest waypoint that the player can "see", and A\* your way through that. Should be really snappy, considering your level size. Another way to improve on the pathfinding is to not completely recalcuate the whole path each frame. You could for example do it like this each frame: - Can the father see the player? - Yes: Throw away any saved path. Go directly towards the player. - No, and there is a saved path from last frame: - Is the player still visible from the endpoint of the saved path? - Yes: Follow the saved path. - No: Calculate a new path. Follow that. - No, and there is no saved path: Calculate a new path. Follow that.
May 11 22:27:43 1h 41m Don't taste the lava ♥ 1 That's a fun idea with a cute presentation - and a nice twist on the tetris mechanics. What annoys me a bit is that I can only see the next piece. Considering this is a fixed puzzle with (I assume, most of the time?) only one solution, I pretty much have to drop all pieces once, remember them and die (unless I'm super lucky). That seems pretty unnecessary to me. If you want players to memorize, at least show them all pieces once in the beginning. If memorization is not part, show all pieces that will be dropped instead of just the next.
May 11 23:13:52 46m 09s A Cold Walk Home ♥ 0 This was great, thanks! I'm especially impressed by the sheer amount of work that must've gone into making all of this inside the 48 hours - simple but very pleasing pixel graphics, sound effects and music, all the writing, multiple stages, and on top of that all the game systems you had to program. I like your decision to let me just respawn without many consequences when the creature didn't have any food anymore. It would've been great if that also made more sense in-world, but I'm mainly glad that I didn't have to e.g. restart the game multiple times. And it's not like I stopped feeding the creature afterwards. (Although that might actually be the most *effective* route, I guess? It didn't even occur to me while playing. I wanted to feed it.) I think there should've been a sound effect and/or another indicator for new messages. Even just looking at the GIF, I realize that I missed two from there. I wonder how many others I missed. Telling the story while the game was going on, in flashbacks with context, was nice. Fantastic work!
May 11 23:23:57 10m 05s Stoker ♥ 1 Nice idea! Unfortunately I was quite terrible at the game as well. I wonder if multiple levels, or maybe the train stopping at stations and getting longer there, would've been a good idea for newbies like me? It felt really long right now, especially considering the player's movement speed. And sometimes the bombs just seem impossible to get. Great art and music! PS: Nice avatar ;)
May 11 23:41:47 17m 50s Dozy Dungeon ♥ 1 Aw, what a cute idea! I love that I'm petting the monsters to sleep instead of... well, what I'm doing in other games, I guess. Feels a bit weird that I'm "losing" when I fall asleep, considering that from the description it sounds like I'm doing this because they woke me up in the first place? Ah, and I like the look of it.
May 12 03:08:15 3h 26m My Friend Phil ♥ 0 I really wanted to like this game more. And I will play it again, if it ever gets a bit less frustrating. My main pain points are: - The levels (without checkpoints!) are far too long for enemies-kill-you-on-touch. - The ultra slow restart. And after I wait, I have to get to my mouse and click. In a game where you die often :( - Sometimes the wall jumping doesn't seem to work as I want it to. - Maybe... the game could could start with a little easier levels? The above combined make it so hard and frustrating for me that I can't even finish the first level. And that's a shame, because it looks (and sounds!) beautiful. The fish-throwing is hilarious, and so is enemies dying from touching Phil. I like the backstory and the concept. I like the idea of having short timed sections with a perfect ingame explanation. This game is extremely impressive, and I you got a new follower - I just hope that the next time you dial down the difficulty a bit! (In game jams, my mantra for that is: If the difficulty is just right for me as the developer, it's probably too hard.)
May 12 04:04:33 56m 18s Fix the engine ♥ 0 I like the concept, especially with figuring out what each element does and what you have to do. But... it's *much* to hard. Like others, I felt the bar balancing dials to be almost completely impossible (I managed it once! The mental overhead of 3 dials with 2 directions each is a bit too much...) and I while I could spin the battery wheel a bit to flip the button back, I never really filled it - the motion is just too difficult and awkward to do with a mouse.
May 12 14:23:29 10h 18m Shadow of the Elm ♥ 1 Well, that was short and sweet. I especially liked the atmosphere! And thanks for including a super short-ranged respawn. The only change I'd suggest there is that you might want to take away any gem the player collected in the meantime. I feel like leaving the room with the gem should be part of the challenge too. You could also consider making the jump height dependent on how long the jump key is pressed, enabling smaller and bigger jumps. Always helpful in a precision platformer!
May 12 14:38:00 14m 31s Lord of the Packets ♥ 1 Unsurprisingly, most of the things I have as feedback were already mentioned. But hey, here we go again: - Autocomplete (and shorter commands). You know, you know ;) - I'm not sure why the slots need to be named *input*0..3. Wouldn't 0 to 3 have done the job as well? - The gameplay is extremely repetitive, and many of the steps seem unnecessary as is. I'm looking at you, resolve-repack-send sequence. I think this could've been mitigated a bit by requiring different things to be done to different packages? - A visual state of what each package is currently in would've been nice. - Right now, having multiple input slots feels unneeded, since I can only actively process one anyway. Maybe some commands don't complete immediately and will be run in the background until they come back? (That could also enable a "limited memory" mechanic if you ever feel like adding more mechanics.) As is, this seems like a game with potential, but it's really repetitive and not much fun *yet*. I'm sure you could get it there though!
May 12 15:26:23 48m 23s Sachka, Heal-sitter ♥ 1 I love the narrative part of the game, but... I'm not really a fan of the MMORPG part, to be honest. While I like the *concept* of it, it the different kinds of heal seem redudant (and hard to grasp), I think I could've done with other supporter spells, and at least for me it's really hard. Maybe part of that is because of the missing feedback though - a few sfx for "healing", "can't cast, on cooldown" and the like would've done wonders. But well, I'm mostly sad because I can't get through the healing phases and because of that I can't experience more of the narrative. Petition for a super-easy mode so other noobs like me can experience the story?
May 12 15:58:19 31m 56s Blood and Snow ♥ 1 The minimal graphics together with the soundscape create a great atmosphere - very evocative of a snow-covered landscape. And while the gameplay is minimal too, it is nice and doesn't overstay its welcome. I especially enjoyed the hunting - "blood and snow" indeed. And several times I got tense situations where I wasn't sure whether I will make it to the cabin in time and got in last second. On trying a second time (to actually zoom in - I only remembered that this is a feature because I read a few comments here), I discovered that the trees are taking revenge on me and don't want me to enter my house:chrome_2020-05-12_17-45-12.png
May 12 16:31:35 33m 16s The Totally Convenient Feeding Machine ♥ 1 Love it. Apart from the really novel (and fun!) gameplay, my favourite part is how much room you gave yourself to explore what you can do with that one mechanic, and the interesting levels that came out of it. I think you could add other contraptions (e.g. a catapult, or having things that change the state of the food). I also wonder how it would feel like if you had to click the contraptions instead of using keyboard buttons. In summary, a novel mechanic well explored. Great job!
May 12 17:11:20 39m 45s Finding Sam ♥ 1 I played FindingSam_windows_newest, but unfortunately I ran into two bugs, the later of which ended my playthrough prematurely: - The first one was easy to solve for me: When ending a conversation and using the mouse button, I started talking to sleepy guy. At least I could avoid that by pressing space. - The second one was not so benign. When talking to rabbit person another time, suddenly I lost all on-screen buttons, then the cat/music flashback started playing again (even though I saw that already a few minutes ago), and then when the flashback/dialog ended, I just came back to the main conversation character selection without anything open and without being able to click anybody. A bit frustrating - I would've loved to finish this. I felt myself drawn into the story and I'm really interested in how it continues. It was kinda cute how much the protagonist remembers liking Sam, despite not being sure about any details, not even how they looked like or their gender, haha. The art works well with the writing to set the scene.
May 12 17:23:25 12m 05s Guns are Gas are Life are Score ♥ 0 I like the concept, the art style and the audio! Unfortunately I absolutely suck at playing the game. I already have trouble picking up weapon crates and wouldn't dare to dream of actually competently killing enemies.
May 12 18:30:59 1h 07m Keep It Aflame ♥ 0 I did it! The timed towers were an interesting twist on the Tower Defense genre. The boats were a bit weird in their pathing - I assumed they would want to go directly to the fire, but they didn't? The graphics are simple but communicate well what everything is.
May 12 19:39:29 1h 08m Chronocipher ♥ 4 First off, I like the art in general and the interface in particular - looks great! The music, sounds and especially the voice over were fantastic. My main criticism would be that the decryption process is extremely repetitive and doesn't require much thought after you figured out that you just press random buttons (in the right category, once you learn to identify that) until you hit the right one. And I mean, half of the game is doing that over and over. I am not sure how I'd improve that, to be honest. We probably all agree that just giving all clues directly to the player wouldn't be good either, but lots of repetitive busywork (even if it looks and sound beautiful) doesn't exactly make me look forward to play the game again. Which is a shame, because having it procedurally generated is really cool and creates a lot of replayability! That being said, I did enjoy playing the game. Great job!
May 12 19:42:46 3m 17s Lively ♥ 1 Pro: It has a cat. Contra: There is not much to do, and I have no idea where you wanted to take it ;) But I'm glad you enjoyed the jam nevertheless! Good luck with the next jam!
May 12 19:56:48 14m 02s Space Station Alpha ♥ 1 Maybe it's because it's late here, and I've been playing LD games for hours now and my concentration is a bit lower, but... this was really hard to get into. I think if your game needs a long description to be read, complete with iconography and an item combination chart to be learnt, it might be a bit too complicated or unclear on its own? (Also... do you mean "head north"?) I don't think I could really enjoy getting into the gameplay. Which is a shame, because it seems like it should be right up my alley. The art and sound is great, in all its minimalistic glory. And I really liked the exploration aspect when you don't yet know where things are.