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F1Krazy

Feedback comments for LD48

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		F1Krazy's comment
May 8 12:57:23		Archeo	♥ 1	The pace is frantic, as you go back and forth between the shop, dig site, and cleaning table, but I don't feel it's frantic enough. Once you've bought enough workers, you quickly accrue artifacts much, much faster than you can clean them. Before long you can afford to ignore the digging portion of the game entirely, and just sit there dusting off artifacts and purchasing time until you've burned through your backlog and can start digging again. Once you have enough points in the bank, you're never in danger of running out of time, because every time you hear the beeps you can just quickly splash out to set the timer back again. I got to 15,000 points before I got bored and stopped playing, and I honestly think that if I had the time and patience, I could keep playing indefinitely and never run out of time. Apart from that, this is a nice, straightforward interpretation of the theme, and I can see what kind of game you were going for. With some balancing work and a bit of polish (no pun intended), you could have a very fun and addictive game on your hands here.
May 8 16:53:39	3h 56m	Trposhi	♥ 2	A neat little idle/management game. There's a gentle, natural progression of difficulty as you dig deeper and deeper, and a bit of strategy starts to come into it, too; do you just send your dwarves to sleep and waste digging time, or do you send them all the way up to the tavern and risk them not making it? Do you leave it to the last second to restore their energy, or play it safe and (again) waste a bit of time? The fact each dwarf has their own unique strength really plays into the strategy as well. The graphics are sound are very well done, too. A couple of people have noted the way the ambient sound changes depending on how deep you are, but I also noticed the terrain subtly changes as well: at Level 10 there are grey flecks added in, and at Level 20 there are golden flecks instead. It provides a real sense of progression, and a sense that yes, there really is more gold the deeper you dig. I managed my dwarves well enough that I never got to see the funeral scene, I might have to go back and deliberately kill a dwarf just to see it 😂 One thing I wish this had is a save system, so you can stop playing and come back to it later. It's really an essential feature for any idle-esque game. I got to Level 23 before deciding I should probably quit and write this review, or else I might end up playing it all day, but I would have loved to have been able to come back to that run instead of starting all over from scratch. I really hope you do make a post-jam version of this, with a save function and some of the other improvements that have been mentioned, because I'd honestly pay money on Steam for one. It's already that addictive.
May 8 17:41:39	48m 00s	Demden	♥ 0	I like how distinctive this is. It's a very unusual game, in terms of both gameplay and how it interprets the theme. As has been noted, though, nothing is explained very well: it's not clear how you know which teeth you need to dig out, I didn't even notice the lantern timer until it ran out (I still managed to get out okay, though), and when I purchased an upgrade during Level 2, I'm not sure what it actually did (I'm not even sure that I did purchase it). I do have to applaud you for something something different and unique, it's just not quite there yet.
May 9 16:26:36	22h 44m	Capsule Fall	♥ 1	Nice and simple. No fancy bells or whistles, just a solid gameplay concept, well-executed. I like it. I also have to commend you for squeezing an entire game into a 16KB console app. A lot of LD entries are 50MB downloads for ten minutes of playtime, so something this compact is a breath of fresh air. Good job!
May 9 16:51:51	25m 15s	BLAST MINER	♥ 1	Very fun, but also very challenging. I got to about Level 5 before I just had to give up, as the endlessly-respawning enemies made it too difficult to move around. If they respawned less frequently, and there was more of a "tell" before the Jetpack Moles charge at you, I think the difficulty would be a lot more manageable. Blowing up the terrain (and those pesky moles) was very satisfying, but there's also a nice strategic element in that you can't just blow up everything in sight - you have to make sure you can get back out of whatever hole you've just dug, and back to the portal. I'd like to see a full (and easier) version of this, it's very fun and has a lot of potential.
May 9 17:16:57	25m 06s	Katavasi	♥ 0	I don't know whether you intended this, but all the different gameplay aspects combine to create an extremely difficult, yet rewarding experience. The fact that shooting drains your energy means you can't just spam bullets. The fact that enemies carry over from one level to the next means you can't just flee as soon as the wormhole appears. The optimal strategy seems to be to take your time and pick the enemies off slowly, but even that's easier said than done: the enemies quickly flood the level with hundreds of bullets, your ship is *so* difficult to control, and if you get too close to the wormhole it just sucks you in and takes you to the next level. I'm really impressed at how you managed to fit everything together to create such a challenging entry. Good job!
May 9 17:42:10	25m 13s	EARTHWYRM	♥ 1	Tricky little puzzle game. I know a few people got stuck on Level 8 but I managed to figure it out... and then got stuck on Level 9. I'm sure I can figure it out if I keep trying, though. I like the graphics, as well as the general idea of guiding an earthworm's movements. It's a little difficult to predict where the earthworm is going to go, but you can always just run the level without doing anything, see what the worm's default behaviour is, then plan around it. By proceeding in that sort of trial-and-error fashion, you can usually tease out the solution to each level, even if it takes a few goes. I love the pixel art graphics as well, nice job with those!
May 9 18:11:34	29m 24s	Cosmonoid	♥ 1	This is a really fun game, with some beautiful graphics. The controls are surprisingly easy to get the hang of, especially once you turn off the Y-axis inversion. The platforming is really tricky at times, due to the danger of just flinging yourself off into space, and by Level 5 I was struggling to get my head round it and had to give up. I think I'm just too reluctant to try bouncing off the lava, even with all the health orbs. This is a really fun and immersive experience, though, and I'd love to see more of it!
May 9 18:26:04	14m 30s	Conspiracy Dive	♥ 3	A very fun take on the theme, with some interesting (and tricky) puzzles. It's short, yes, but most Ludum Dare games are, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. For me, the most irritating part of this game is the character's footsteps. They get very, very repetitive, especially with the slow movement speed. Luckily you don't have to wait for him to actually walk to an object before you can interact with it. The graphics also aren't the greatest, but that's understandable considering the short length of the jam period - if you're a coder and not an artist, you're gonna struggle in this area. There are some improvements that could be made to the puzzle interactions as well - I have no idea what the solution to the final puzzle was, and it wasn't immediately clear what the final step of the third puzzle was. But there's a solid base here, I think, for you to build upon in the future.
May 9 18:36:04	10m 00s	Mine of Mine (web)	♥ 1	I'm not sure this quite fits the "chill" vibe you were going for. The music and sound effects don't seem quite relaxing enough for it, and without any sort of goal or challenge, there's no real incentive to dig. You're just doing it because you can. It gets boring really quickly. I have a couple of other nit-picks, as well. The controls are the wrong way round (it's Z to dig and X to jump, but the game says otherwise), and the lift seems redundant when I can just wall-jump out of the mine. I think you should consider reworking this into a more goal-oriented game, where you can (for example) leave the mine and spend money on upgrades.
May 9 19:22:49	46m 45s	Dip Deeper	♥ 1	I'm not sure quite how well this fits the theme, but it's a quirky and unique interpretation, regardless. The difficulty does plateau quite quickly, but the short time limit still keeps you on your toes. It might be more interesting to have the difficulty ramp up slowly but endlessly, so the sequences just keep getting longer instead of capping at six.
May 9 19:33:56	11m 07s	Caverns	♥ 1	This is beautiful to look at, and the music is really relaxing. The platforming is mostly a case of frantically running and jumping around and hoping you land on something that takes you closer to the goal. It's never really clear where you can and can't move to - while you get the gist of it, it's still not always intuitive when you suddenly hit a wall or fall off a ledge. What @lisyarus said about the Linux version is also true of the Windows version: I must have clicked the Start button at least a dozen times before it actually registered. Not sure what the problem would be there but it's worth looking at.
May 9 19:45:38	11m 42s	Research and Rescue	♥ 0	I love the music, as well as the minimalist aesthetic of the graphics. I think my main gripe has already been mentioned before: enemies have a lot of HP and tend to swarm you, so you're stuck frantically backpedalling through the level while constantly taking damage, firing as much as your energy reserves will allow, and hoping you don't run into even more enemies. I got as far as the Artillery Department level and then I was immediately overwhelmed by far more enemies than I could ever reasonably be expected to fight. With some balancing tweaks, this could be an excellent game. Keep up the good work!
May 11 14:47:01	43h 01m	Edge of Space	♥ 1	I love the graphics and the audio, this looks and feels very polished. However, it needs a bit of balancing. The levels are so short that the fuel mechanic never comes into play, and you really should become invulnerable the moment you enter a wormhole. Almost all of my deaths were from an enemy shooting me mid-wormhole, and I couldn't move or shoot or do anything about it. It just feels really cheap. I also noticed that, in the time between your ship being destroyed and the "Game Over" message appearing, you can still fly around as though nothing happened, which is a bit silly. Ideally, your controls should lock up and the trail you're leaving behind you should disappear.
May 11 15:03:05	16m 04s	Taaanks!	♥ 1	Okay, this doesn't really fit the theme, but it's fantastic fun! It's like Worms, except it plays out in real-time, so you have to really pay attention otherwise you'll get blown up before you've finished aiming. The graphics and sound effects are all spot-on. The controls took some getting used to, but you did the best you could within PICO-8's limitations (for the benefit of anything not familiar with PICO-8, Arrows/Z/X are the only control inputs allowed, so @duo-afgebeld's suggestion to make this twin-stick is simply not doable). For a first-ever entry - and especially for just 10 hours of work - this is amazing. I'd love to see what you can do in this engine with more time available to you.
May 12 12:39:18	21h 36m	Welcome to the Factory	♥ 1	I love the unique, hand-drawn art style, as well as the way the music subtly evolves as you progress through the level. The controls are quite finicky and take some getting used to, and even once you have, the game remains difficult due to the sheer precision required to get round some of the obstacles, especially the fans. It took me dozens of tries to get past one of the levels (either 3 or 4), but I persevered. The sound effects on the obstacles are quite grating, even without the popping issue on WebGL (which I know you're aware of), but in a way, it just adds to the sense of dread every time you get near them. The fans in particular have this really sinister drone to them. You're running out of time to get to 20 ratings given/received, so I'd hurry up and get started with that if I were you! It'd be a shame if this missed out on receiving a rank.
May 12 15:42:20	3h 03m	depthscraper	♥ 2	A simple idea, beautifully executed. What more could one ask for in a jam game? I do hope you do something with this, because it has a lot of potential.
May 12 15:54:45	12m 25s	Minigun Miner	♥ 2	A fun, inventive take on the mining games that so many people have submitted. It's tricky to control your character, but seeing them shred through the landscape beneath them is very satisfying. It'd be nice if you could scroll up as well as down, so you don't get stuck against an invisible ceiling. You should probably go give out a few more ratings, it'd be a shame if this didn't get ranked!
May 12 16:15:38	20m 53s	Falling For Treasure	♥ 1	I love the literal hand-drawn graphics, that's a really nice touch. As others have noted, the controls are quite slippery: I found that most of my deaths were from sliding off the left or right edge of the screen, not from hitting the turtles. You can also find yourself in situations where there are two or three platforms directly underneath one another, and you physically can't move from one to the next, so you have to just kind of fall off and hope you hit something solid. The platform generation might need adjusting, so that this doesn't happen. This is a fun game, it just needs a few adjustments to really make it shine.
May 13 11:06:15	18h 50m	volcano falls	♥ 1	Not bad for a first attempt. The hand-drawn graphics have a certain charm to them, especially the "BANG" that appears when you touch a bomb. It might be a good idea to have some sort of "kill zone" at the bottom of every level, in case you fall off: currently there's at least one level where you can fall off the platforms and just keep falling forever, with no way to restart the level. I also think the character's jump speed is too slow. Keep working and keep developing! The more games you make, the better you'll get!
May 13 11:21:23	15m 08s	Vacuum Kingdom	♥ 2	I have no idea what it is you're actually supposed to do in this game. Beyond the controls, nothing is explained. I don't know when you're supposed to attack enemies or when you're supposed to use the vacuum on them, I don't know what the "souls" I'm supposed to collect are or how you collect them, I don't know what the different styles do or when I'm supposed to use them, I don't know what XP is for or why I'm gaining it just from running around... nothing in this game feels intuitive to me at all. I'm sure this is a deep and engaging experience once everything clicks, but right now nothing is clicking, and instead it's just confusing and unsatisfying. This is crying out for a tutorial level to ease you into the mechanics and help you get a feel for how the game is meant to be played, rather than just dumping you into the middle of a forest and leaving you to it.
May 13 13:16:30	1h 55m	Escape The Employees	♥ 1	I love the graphics, music, and general gameplay. The office setting is well integrated, with the use of vending machines for upgrades and trash cans as treasure chests. The combat is nice and simple and you get the hang of it very quickly. I think my main gripe is that the game quickly gets... same-y. The rooms are basically all identical - the items inside them may vary but it's not enough to stop it running into the [10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal problem](https://galaxykate0.tumblr.com/post/139774965871/so-you-want-to-build-a-generator). It doesn't help that there are only two types of enemy, and the same boss gets re-used for every level without any difference in behaviour. By the time you reach the third level it just feels a bit stale. Another thing worth noting is that punching doesn't seem to work very well (right-clicking did nothing about 90% of the time), and feels redundant anyway. Why would I fight enemies up close and risk getting hit when I can just spam projectiles and kill them safely from across the room? You need a way to make the punching mechanic actually useful - perhaps a shielded enemy that blocks your projectiles, and you have to punch the shield away before you can hurt them? I think all this really needs is a bit more variety, and a bit more content. A post-jam version where the environments and enemies are more varied, and you have a wider range of power-ups to choose from, would be fantastic fun to play.