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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Pennycook's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 26 22:32:50 | Snake in a Cave | ♥ 1 | Great job! The difficulty ramps up nicely, which I've previously found to be tricky to get right with such little time. Making the apples optional is definitely a big part of that, and it's a brilliant idea -- I've made a note of it for next time. 😄 | |
| Apr 26 22:40:41 | 7m 51s | More than Deep | ♥ 1 | I really like the aesthetic here, and it's a great take on the theme. I can only think of two things that might make it better. Things feel a little empty, and I couldn't work out why some sprites would appear from the ship occasionally. (Are they bubbles?). Adding a few collectibles to pick up along the way would give the player something else to do besides dodging the rocks; this would have kept me playing for longer. Adding a simple looping track -- something dark and ominous -- would be a good way to improve the mood. |
| Apr 26 22:53:38 | 12m 57s | Wandering | ♥ 3 | That this is so complete and has so much variety in its level design is really impressive. The animations, pixel art and music are all fantastic. Overall -- great job. I got stuck in the third level, and only really have nit-picky feedback. Some of the step platforms seem to be *very* close to the player's jump height, which makes the parts of the game that should be easy more frustrating, and sometimes the game plays the jumping animation twice when getting stuck on one of these corners. The parts of the game where real platforming is required (e.g. bouncing off mushrooms) works much more smoothly. In the third level, the behavior of the gate sprites was the opposite of what I expected. The gates face towards the screen when they're locked, and towards the player's character when they're unlocked. |
| Apr 26 23:07:56 | 14m 18s | Submerged | ♥ 2 | I made it to about 500m before I let myself die just to see what would happen. 🙂 I'm not 100% sure whether the layering of music is tied to the light or not, but it feels very natural -- and whether it was your intent or not, it really increased the tension and had me racing to the next recharging station. I really appreciated that there were little things to stumble across while exploring, too. I chased a little fish, found an arch, saw some giant sponge-looking thing... Top-notch. 👍 |
| Apr 27 02:49:36 | 3h 41m | Drilbert | ♥ 1 | I really enjoyed this, but I'd be lying if I said I'd truly figured out how the puzzles worked until after I read the "hints" section. I managed to finish 6 levels or so without understanding that the bubbles were oxygen, or that it was blocking the entrance that caused you to lose oxygen. The 7th level then suddenly felt much harder, and I couldn't work out why. This may just be me, but the hint that says "BLOCK [LADDER] = LOSE [BALL]" could be clearer. The entrance and exit ladder are visually very similar, which led me to think that as long as *one* of the ladders was unblocked I'd be okay -- using different colors or sprites that are more obviously different might help. "[LADDER] BLOCKED = LOSE [BALL]" might also be a more accurate hint, since it's not the act of blocking the entrance that loses balls, but subsequent turns. Sorry if this sounds critical. The game is great, I've rated it very highly, and I'll be back to play more! 😄 |
| May 1 03:57:45 | 97h 08m | Dive & Dig | ♥ 2 | Switching between the two screens is a neat mechanic, and I liked that both modes controlled slightly differently. The dialogue (and tutorial in general) was well done, especially the parts where the player gets kicked back to the title screen. I think I would have preferred if the gameplay hadn't paused while dialogue was showing, though -- I appreciate that timing things such that the player can read all the text *and* the gameplay can continue is non-trivial, but I think it would make the tutorial feel a lot smoother. Great job! |
| May 1 04:08:26 | 10m 41s | River, Carry Me Away | ♥ 3 | Completely blown away by how the audio and parallax work together here to set the mood and convey the story. This is easily the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a Ludum Dare game, and the most effective use of music. |
| May 3 01:56:18 | 45h 47m | Vertigo | ♥ 2 | Great game! The animations are really smooth, and the music loop is very effective. I don't have a lot to add over what others have said, other than that I think the background should scroll at the same speed as the platform. That would give the impression that the platforms were attached to the tunnel, and that the camera is what's scrolling -- as it is now, my mind kept telling me that the platforms were also falling, but at a different speed to the camera. |
| May 3 02:04:34 | 8m 16s | Eye of Skozrack | ♥ 1 | The movement mechanic is really satisfying. Perhaps this would make things too easy, but I found myself wishing for some indication of where the game thought I had dragged my mouse. Rendering a line between the center of the eye and the player's mouse would still require them to think through the strength of the shot and visualize projection of the line forwards, but would give more feedback and help avoid accidental mistakes. |
| May 4 02:31:28 | 24h 26m | Tiny Drop | ♥ 1 | Congratulations on your first game jam! 🎉 The repeating background felt a little buggy to me; once or twice I could have sworn that it reset, and the shifting brown pixels either side of the pipe were a little distracting. That said, bonus points for bravery -- I don't think I've seen anybody else attempt a diagonal scroller! |
| May 4 02:37:15 | 5m 47s | Deeper and Deeper into Outer Space | ♥ 1 | A good entry! The sprites (particularly the asteroids) are well done, and the core game loop is strong. I think things would feel a lot more satisfying if they felt faster. The ship moves very quickly left to right, but the speed of the scrolling background makes it feel like the ship is moving forwards at a crawl. The slow recharge rate of the rocket contributes to that, too. |
| May 5 02:15:48 | 23h 38m | Deep Down | ♥ 3 | Very surreal! The animation of turning into a pig piece-by-piece was very well done. I got a few of the "test_items" that a few other folks have mentioned, and I'm not really sure how. They just popped into my inventory. 😅 |
| May 5 02:25:52 | 10m 04s | HELL deep is your love? | ♥ 5 | Wow, what a great entry! The music and pixel art are top-notch. I really like the death animation; it adds a surprising amount over a regular "GAME OVER" screen. I found the font selection in the jam version to be a little jarring, and I think swapping it out for a different font in the post-jam version was a good idea. It wasn't obvious to me in the jam version that the screen border would kill, and the first few times I died by climbing too far down the ladder (which I found very surprising). The post-jam version does address this, but I think if anything you've gone too far the other way -- there's now *too much* text! If you continue to develop this, I'd recommend spreading these first few moments over a few different tutorial rooms. Coming up with some in-universe way to explain why certain mechanics behave the way they do might be a nice touch too (e.g. "If I move enough I can break free!" vs "Spam these buttons to unfreeze"). |
| May 7 02:17:52 | 47h 52m | The Little Boring Drill | ♥ 1 | I tried the jam version and post-jam version, but couldn't get very far. Are you supposed to demolish the default drill and replace it with a copper drill to upgrade, or build copper drills on the side? I tried both, but it wasn't obvious to me that either option made much of a difference to how fast I was drilling. A simple tutorial for the first upgrade (even just a text box the first time you hit 10 copper or something) would really help new players here. I think a backing track and some drilling/upgrade sounds would have made a lot of difference here, too. I highly recommend the work of Eric Matyas (www.soundimage.org); he's got some great looping tracks available for free, and I find them really useful (often as last-minute additions) for my jam games. |
| May 8 01:54:30 | 23h 36m | Rabbit Rappel | ♥ 2 | The main mechanic is really innovative -- great job! Like others have already said, the lack of sound effects is a little jarring (and I think it's made more obvious by the fact that the music is so good 😄). The other thing that stood out to me is that death is very sudden, and gameplay continues immediately. Some sort of game over mechanic would help that feel more smooth. Watching the rope retract to the previous location might be a neat way to do that, sort of a "Look how far you've come, also you have to do it again!" |