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Feedback comments for LD47
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | JoeShanahan's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 15:53:03 | Roll, Turn, Repeat | ♥ 1 | Really like this game! Super pretty even with the simple art style, and clever puzzle mechanic too! I find it an interesting variation on traditional arrow based puzzles where the character moves when they land ON TOP OF the arrow, here they move when they touch the side of it. As such, each tile has three potential rows/columns it can send you across instead of one, and it makes it more difficult to simply trace back from the goal. More to think about for the player! I found it really satisfying to set up a bunch of arrows before finally releasing the character from the loop, and watching it succeed. I also liked how you had a steady progression with clear onboarding, so that you never really had to explicitly explain the mechanics, you just allowed the player to find out for themselves how it worked, without needing to be handholdy. The only improvements I can think of is that I'd like to be able to slow down or pause the game. At times it would be a bit overwhelming visually, and just being able to take a moment to think without anything moving would've been nice. Oh, and it could be improved by having EVEN MORE of course π Fantastic job! | |
| Oct 6 16:15:29 | 22m 26s | Loopsky | ♥ 2 | Got to the end! I really love this mechanic, and I think I would've liked it even more if I'd played it on my phone, but I used a mouse and it still worked pretty well. I enjoyed the game a lot, but I also got frustrated with a few usability issues that (hopefully) would be quite easy to fix! The first issue was that I didn't properly understand the mechanic on the second level. I felt like I needed to draw two loops, and I didn't understand that I could only have one at a time. The tutorial level explained I had to join them up with a loop, but I feel like I really needed another tutorial explaining about the one at a time thing. Once I *did* understand though, it was this light switch moment of "Ahhhh! This is really interesting!" Other than that, I found it difficult to see the stars. I turned my brightness up as high as it would go but struggled to differentiate them from the background. And the black holes were even more difficult to see, basically impossible on some levels. I found myself just drawing right through the middle of them because I had no idea they were there. I really like how you have a bit of tolerance in terms of putting the path through the star, but it'd be nice to get some kind of visual indication that the path is close enough. Perhaps if the art was modified slightly to make the stars stand out a bit more, then they could change once they're "captured" by the path, so you know your path is good. Really unique idea, with a few changes to the UX this could make a fantastic mobile game. |
| Oct 6 16:33:04 | 17m 35s | Neverquest 6: a minimalistic singleplayer mmorpg - it's a game | ♥ 0 | I tried to ALT+TAB so I could check the description, but all it did was level me up? I guess I forgot that ALT+TAB doesn't work on Mac. I didn't realise until I double checked all the screenshots that there was a dungeon section, I thought it was just the hub world - maybe that could be made more clear? π I did get a few laughs out of this with the dialogue! |
| Oct 6 18:01:36 | 1h 28m | X-periment | ♥ 2 | I love this kind of game! We almost went with a very similar idea, but it was too close to something we'd done before. I really liked the aesthetic you went for too! I'm not sure what the solution for the last level was *supposed* to be, but I ended up doing it by accident? One of my ghosts jumped up from underneath me and propelled me to the other side. Was very satisfying! I tried to recreate it, but the physics seemed to be a bit inconsistent? Sometimes I could stand on top of one of my ghosts and move with it, and sometimes I'd slide off. I think if this was a bit more reliable, it'd be possible to come up with some really interesting scenarios! Great job, especially with a new engine! |
| Oct 6 18:11:20 | 9m 44s | ShredyCat | ♥ 2 | Funny take on SchrΓΆdingerβs cat, that it's trying to kill itself just to stop being stuck in a superposition π It wasn't clear that I was progressing at all? I guess the progress resets when you die (live?) but the levels mostly look the same so it's hard to tell (even after winning twice in a row) that anything is changing. I did eventually manage to win though! The monkey shooting health is a funny idea, but functionally it works the exact same as if it was doing damage to you, the health bar is just a damage bar instead. I wonder if there is a way to make healing be negative without running into this issue...? π€ |
| Oct 6 21:16:04 | 3h 04m | Rythm Wheels | ♥ 0 | I really liked this! I don't know if I completed it or not, but I got to a point on level 3 where there were no more green bars, and the hamster just kept going round and round. The premise of spokes on a wheel being used for a rhythm game are really interesting, I haven't seen it before but I think it works really well! I was quite enjoying as it got a bit more difficult, needing to press twice per rotation, but it never got any more complex than that. Personally, I would've liked harder levels to have wheels with more than four spokes. Perhaps 8, 12, or 16? And then you might need to tap Z four times in a row for certain sections. I was tapping my foot along the whole time to the music, but the irony was that my foot was moving much more than my hands π Perhaps an extension of this game could have multiple colors? Where you have to press different keys for different colors? And those colors could be associated with certain instruments, so Z could be one type of drum, and X could be a different drum, so tapping along would be like playing the instruments. Hahah, I guess I'm getting carried away with ideas now, hope you found them interesting. Great job with the game! π |
| Oct 6 21:34:02 | 17m 58s | Crocodial | ♥ 1 | Very funny premise, I love this world you've come up with π The game felt generally pretty fun to play, although I couldn't focus on avoiding obstacles and the spell wheel at the same time, so I'd just collect everything without checking what it was. At some point the difficulty spikes HARD and suddenly the screen is full of enemies. I don't think the enemies attacking are what makes it difficult, more that I just become completely visually overwhelmed, I can't tell what's going on, and I crash into obstacles. It felt like no amount of collecting power ups could prepare me for those enemies, because just them being on screen broke my ability to see what I'm doing, and I'd die. I think I got to about 11 left as my best score. Really creative idea! |
| Oct 6 22:11:10 | 37m 08s | Bizzare Adventures of an Ordinary Dude | ♥ 2 | Having a world on a disc is a really cool idea! I kinda expected the world to change while I wasn't looking, since you can't turn the camera around, but it seems like it stayed the same each time I went round. I think there is real potential with the idea you've come up with, just need to go a bit further with it! Great job with the jam! π |
| Oct 7 11:11:40 | 13h 00m | Stuck in a Soup Loop | ♥ 3 | I loved this! The art style and general mood of the game reminded me of the Rhythm Heaven games, or perhaps WarioWare. Super adorable art, the music was great, and the game was pretty funny too! I ended up screwing up quite a bit by the time I had to remember the recipes of restaurant 3, my memory just isn't good enough π |
| Oct 7 11:35:33 | 23m 53s | Infinity - 1 | ♥ 1 | I really liked this puzzle mechanic! Another player commented that the game logic would be the same even if the levels didn't repeat, and you warped instead. This is true, however an important difference is how it appears to a human player. As much as I tried to isolate all the other repeated puzzles in my mind, I couldn't, and so it actually became an interesting challenge, trying to work out how many boxes there even *were* in the level. How much was a single level, and how much was just repeating? I found myself focusing on a specific part of the screen, usually the middle, and following one character. There's a moment that happens where suddenly I realise I have a *different* character in the exact right position, and that moment where I realise I have the solution is a great feeling. Great job with this, some really nice puzzles! π |
| Oct 7 12:23:47 | 48m 14s | Choo Choo Loop | ♥ 3 | I got into this game the second the music started playing, really sets the mood, I love it! π I did struggle a bit with what to do though. At first I connected the two boxes, which caused me to lose. Next I tried forming a loop back to the starting box, which caused me to lose. I guess the goal is to just survive as long as possible by doing spirals? Or snaking back and forwards? |
| Oct 7 17:40:56 | 5h 17m | Loopin' Looie | ♥ 0 | I was impressed with the fact that you got moving platforms in, so that when you jump, you inherit the velocity from the platform you were standing on - I thought that was very clever, until I came across a bug! If I jumped just before the moving platform changed direction, the player would change direction mid air too - to follow the platform! It must be that you parent the player to the platform when they land, but you didn't unparent them while they're in the air. As a result, I missed the jump, and then it tried to warp me back to the start, but glitched and I just got stuck warping into the void... Oh and another small thing, if I double tapped jump, it would open the settings menu. I assume the navigation on the top right button is set to "Automatic", and just needs to be swapped to "None" Other than that, I love the artwork (I'm a big fan of that low poly style) and the music was pleasant too (if a little repetitive after a while). Nice job! π |
| Oct 7 17:49:42 | 8m 46s | GET OFF MAH TRACK! The Game | ♥ 2 | It was all going so well and then suddenly I got overwhelmed π Screenshot 2020-10-07 at 18.48.12.png |
| Oct 7 18:04:15 | 14m 33s | Looponaut | ♥ 3 | Wow, this is the first game I've played so far where it gets five stars for mood. It's a slightly unsettling mood, that put me on edge, but I love it! Within the first few seconds of moving and swinging my weapon (nail?) I could see the Hollow Knight inspiration, but it's managed to do something different and create its own identity. Moving about generally felt pretty smooth, and by playing over and over I really felt like I was starting to master it. I cannot tell you the stress I felt seeing the end blocked on the final level π I think it's interesting that you carry over your lives across runs, but it could be improved further by communicating this properly to the player. If I'd known that losing health on run 1 would carry over, I probably would've done run 1 again, but there's no option to do that (unless you restart the game). Perhaps a door at the end that makes your health loss permanent, or a door that gives you a new ability (like the door does already). Very solid entry, great job here! π |
| Oct 7 18:45:45 | 41m 30s | Oops Loops | ♥ 1 | The first thing I did when I started playing was interact with the oven glove, and oh my god I laughed so hard I choked π Major props for going stop motion for a gamejam! The art style is cool, especially extending it with sticky notes for the UI. I did get to the end! |
| Oct 8 18:37:02 | 23h 51m | Crypt Loop | ♥ 1 | Found this game very relaxing to play, and I love the aesthetic too! It reminds me of this concept I once heard of "hill climbing" in relation to puzzles. Players tend to want to try and get closer to the solution, so having the puzzle 90% of the way done feels like they're almost there. However, with some puzzles like a Rubiks cube, you have to get FURTHER from the solution in order to actually solve. Maybe you've got a full side completed, and you need to scramble it to get further. Step down the hill, so to speak. I've always found those kind of puzzles frustrating, I'd much rather be able to see that I'm making progress. This game doesn't fall into that frustrating category for me, every step I take I feel like I'm getting closer to the solution, and even though some moves undo a completed ring, I know I'm constantly getting closer to the top of that hill. And then when it finally all slots into place? Man, so satisfying! I think you did a great job with this, I enjoyed my time with it. |
| Oct 8 20:11:44 | 1h 34m | ShroomRoom | ♥ 1 | It took me a few mins into the first playthrough to understand the rules, but once I did, I was hooked! I really loved this game mechanic, super unique - almost reminds me of board games rather than video games, but it's the kind of game that would be so tedious to play on a board, constantly counting up points π I'd personally prefer a tutorial popup or two, where perhaps you're shown how to defeat the black mold, rather than being told with the rules at the start. Interactive rules, rather than static text pages. I read them several times but it didn't make sense to me, yet playing was the ultimate was to learn. It took me maybe five minutes to realise that you had to build ON TOP OF the enemy to defeat them, and then it reduced their defence points. Once I realised that, that's when it all clicked and I saw how genius this game was. Fantastic job, I enjoyed my time with this game a lot! |
| Oct 8 21:12:21 | 1h 00m | Crazy River | ♥ 1 | Wow! Such a high level of polish! And the interactions with the people are just hilarious, genuinely funny. It can be a risk to *try* to be funny, but I think every character you wrote was brilliant. And the artwork is super charming, the animations slick, and the music adds to every encounter too. The dice section is the weaker part of this game in my opinion. Since it's random, it might as well not require any input from me at all, and just take me randomly from one encounter to the next. Also I kept ending up on blank squares instead. Perhaps if there was some way to control the dice? Like you get to reroll? Or pick which of the two dice you'd like to go for? Or have it replaced with a different mechanic entirely. The conversation part of the game was so strong for me, I think it could do well even if the loop mechanic was completely different. I was hooked, needed to find out who I was going to bump into next, and if I'd get out! Managed to get the Tim Bo ending! π |
| Oct 9 11:16:13 | 14h 03m | A Boy and his Ghosts | ♥ 1 | Loved this game! The animations and sound effects are super charming, and the level design is great too. The tutorials manage to introduce you to features without seeming too handholdy, and it was funny to watch some of my ghosts be screwed over by my new behaviour π I've done a gamejam like this before, and the way I did it was to save inputs for each frame, and then replay them back. I noticed sometimes a ghost wouldn't pick up a crate that it did before (I had that bug too) so I'm guessing you used the same approach? Really fun game, the best of the "play with copies of yourself" game I've played this jam. |
| Oct 10 09:32:53 | 22h 16m | The Power Loop | ♥ 1 | This game is amazing. The base mechanic is clever, and then adding generators in suddenly means breaking the loop can be bad. And then you can move the generators and people? And then you need to get inside the loop, without trapping yourself? And then there's the final level which introduces yet ANOTHER interesting mechanic? I cannot give you enough credit for how well designed this puzzle game is, with such simple mechanics that interact in interesting ways to create new problems. Fantastic job! |
| Oct 10 09:47:27 | 14m 34s | Runaway Railcar | ♥ 6 | Wow, super polished jam game, and fun to play too! I found one level particularly difficult, because the arrows were so close together and even though I'd press the right keys in the right order, it was too unforgiving about the timing. The game was at it's best when it felt like it was my fault for slipping up, not that the game wasn't registering my input. So I went back to try and find that level to screenshot it, and I couldn't find it! So my guess is that the levels must be randomly generated? π If that's the case, kudos on making this game in such a way that randomly generated levels felt like they were made by a person! Very solid entry here! |
| Oct 10 14:54:40 | 5h 07m | Stucker | ♥ 3 | I did it! rocket.png Wow, this game had me hooked. I don't know how long I played for, but I could've gone on for hours with a little more to go. Something I've never been able to get right in these kind of games is that balance of progression, giving the player just enough to do, and just enough to see over the horizon. And to always give them something to work towards. You totally nailed it. I've seen a few released games where you program robots to automate tasks, but it always seems like it's aimed at people who enjoy programming. This simplifies the automation process into doing the exact same actions you were doing before, only while controlling the robot. It's brilliant. I honestly have so much love for this game, and can only think of a couple of small things to be improved. One is that it wasn't clear that the shop menu was now the robot upgrade menu while modifying a robot (since the other shop items were also available). The other is that when I'd go to reprogram a robot, it wouldn't stop moving, so the first few moves would be done for me. I feel like the robot should stop entirely while accepting input. Fantastic job here, it makes me want to go find games like this to play, I've got the itch now! π |
| Oct 14 18:12:41 | 99h 18m | HomePick, A Pet Text Adventure | ♥ 2 | Oh my god, I felt so many feelings - you managed to achieve so much with the right mix of music, writing, and aesthetic. Truly masterful! Thank you fur making this! π |
| Oct 16 17:40:13 | 47h 27m | Quit the Cycle | ♥ 3 | Interesting take on the theme, although it wasn't really clear what effect my input had? I managed to get to the end twice, but I have no idea what I did to trigger the ending, whether it was something I did, or if I waitied long enough, or totally random? I think giving the player some agency, allowing *them* to be the one that breaks out of the loop, that'd make breaking out more satisfying. I have to think many players quit thinking this was a game that never changed. |
| Oct 16 19:47:50 | 2h 07m | Hangin' Around | ♥ 1 | You really nailed that Warioware feel! I loved that you managed to put your own spin on it by connecting the minigames to a bigger goal, with each minigame representing one of those tasks. And then spending the time to implement the challenge mode afterwards too, where every minigame still works sped up! Had a lot of fun with this one, great job! π |
| Oct 16 20:12:52 | 25m 02s | Loop Factory | ♥ 2 | Oh my gosh I love this game so much! Having you change the directions *while* the character is moving? It's such a clever spin on a mechanic like this that I haven't seen before, and the way it's implemented is so intuitive too. Plus, you've got levels that *look* easy that actually turn out to be very difficult. I think it's easy to make puzzles that are difficult because they're too convoluted, but making elegant puzzles like you have is the mark of a really strong puzzle game (in my mind) Also it seemed like the mechanics you created have far more mileage than the levels you had time for in this jam, I think the idea could scale to a much bigger game which is *another* mark of a well designed puzzle game. All around great jam, with fantastic artwork too! I enjoyed every minute of it, and played until I'd beaten it all. Thanks for making this π |
| Oct 16 20:39:34 | 26m 42s | Fish Balls | ♥ 1 | I started off playing this, and thought it was a bit too slow to be enjoyable, and wanted to stop. But then I saw the upgrade shop, and thought "okay just one more level" and... well I ended up spending a lot longer than I intended π I think this mixes the best parts of real life arcade machines with the mechanics from Idle games. The central mechanic is *very* satisfying to take part in. Also, you constantly invest to improve your ability to earn, and that loop is addictive! I think it might need a little bit of tweaking though, as at the start it takes forever to earn upgrades, which makes it a bit more tedious. Also, the FAILED text kinda clashes with the relaxing nature of the rest of the game. Not passing a level isn't *really* a failure, it's just your opportunity to use the shop. I think if it were reframed as - every three grabs you get to visit the shop - could keep the game exactly the same, but not make the player feel like they messed up. Every fish caught is progress, and I think encouraging that feeling would make the game even more satisfying to play. |
| Oct 17 09:11:52 | 12h 32m | Think Twice Inc. | ♥ 1 | At first I thought that the point of the game was to do the first level over and over (stuck in a loop) and then I realised I needed to do more than just go through the door to move on π Then on the second level, I didn't want to take any chances so I lit up every single floor tile just in case I needed to do that too. For the third puzzle, I had no idea what the right answer was, I just kept trying random things until it worked. I really like the mood of this game, the music and artwork is great too! |
| Oct 18 11:25:30 | 26h 13m | Cascade | ♥ 1 | Once I finally worked out how to split pieces by dragging them when they were half-off the screen, I realised how clever this puzzle mechanic was. As some other people have mentioned, it's very difficult to drag/place while the screen is moving, so perhaps things pausing while you're dragging could help? |
