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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Remco's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2 17:07:34 | Alcheminer | ♥ 1 | Overall I do enjoy this. It's a bit hard to judge as a jam game, since it takes way longer than a few minutes for a play-through. In a way it's impressive that you've made a game that can be played for longer in such a short amount of time. I think that there are dry spells however (pun not originally intended, but welcome :-P ). I've tried a few times to keep it short, and I've yet to uncover the 2000 'E' 'Deeper and Deeper' layer. I may try again after the burden of also reviewing it at the same time is off my mind. Especially since the summoning box has space for exactly one more item ... so I must be missing stuff. The game doesn't have a main menu. It's not really _necessary_ since no time-based events start at that point, but it can be a little overwhelming in the very first few moments, especially since all menu's and dialogue boxes are already on screen. The main one you need to pay attention to (at the moment you start) is in the center bottom, but the only clue for that is the 'next' button. Other than that, I think the process of tutorialization went really well! Sure, you only get a hint of what motors do (or that pipes work slower the more there are), instead of the full picture, but it's enough to get you to the point you need. (And the only way you can really loose mone... err mana, is with the cleanup process). I think you're getting better at creating a welcoming atmosphere for new players, while not simplifying the core concept of your games (too much). It looks like it should be a very strategic game, and maybe it is, but to me it felt similar to playing solitaire... looking for the next card or looking for the next cave. This isn't a bad thing, but I wonder if it is what you where going for. Fortunately there are less ways to get stuck (again, also thanks to the generous buy-back mechanics). Other things I like are the little sprite, the subtle lighting, and the implication that your nephew is either 'Kevin Sparklefuzz', or his dad, named 'Sparklefuzz', named him 'Kevin' (I guess I'm trying to say that I enjoy the idiosyncratic way you always treat the story bits in your games). And I shouldn't skip over the fact that (when it's working properly), it's very satisfying to see the pipes work and suck up the 'vital alchemical spirits' in the caves. Also smaller things like the logo on the itch-page that has the little sprite in the C. That said, there are some things that I think where a bit off... mostly just bug-like things and packaging nitpicks (well, besides that it seems to take a little long ... but I think I wouldn't necessarily say that if this wasn't a jam-game): - No waste is generated if no job is accepted ... that is, if all current jobs are at 0/0/0 then you can just send up whatever up top. (Or at least I saw that happen one time). - In the windows version at least, the numbers on the assignments dissapear when you go over the main entrance cave with them. Curiously, other caves don't seem to have this effect. - Web-version is slow. Starts out very playable, but more pipes and _especially_ the deeper reaches can make it lag. - When I have an old network of pipes, it won't reconnect to the new one, no matter what direction I draw the connecting pipe in. The new network in question (when I tried) always had a pump in it, so _maybe_ it has something to do with that. - I _mostly_ ignored timed rewards, as they don't seem to pay extra. - I _mostly_ ignored anything other than red/blue/green, as there seemed to be _very_ little of the other stuff. - One time (when I did go for the white 'Hym'), I had blocked it, but (perhaps since there was a pipe full of 'Gren' between the incoming Hym and the toggle) the node right before the toggle 'ate' it. Mail me if you want screenshots or gifs, you have my address and I'm sure I can find something. (I think this happened when I played the web version as well, except I don't remember the scenario as well). Nice one, wonder how it will do? | |
| May 12 12:43:44 | 235h 36m | No Way Up | ♥ 1 | So I finally found some time to not just play, but also comment... I found that most of the things I had to say on this one where in advice form, so please ignore if the following comes off as too patronizing. First: I _did_ enjoy playing around with this, to see how far it could go. It has a sort of 'old DOS game' feel to me (but maybe that just shows my age). The way the main menu is handled is innovative (though not everyone likes unlabeled choices as a design choice -- I think it's a bit of a debate UX wise). The intro sequence above-ground on starting the game is also very nicely done! That said, I do have some criticisms: One the one hand, (and it could just be that I'm missing something here!) it felt like there weren't much actual decisions to make (deepest I got was level 12, and to me that seemed mostly luck based -- most of the runs take me to levels 7 ~ 9), since every card has a somewhat obvious application on the other, while luck or idle games can be valid, it does need your attention basically all the time. If you want to expand this game, I think it would be advantageous to decide which of these you'd like to be, so you can focus on delivering that experience. A lot of effort has gone into doing a little animation for nearly everything, and having all kinds of different backgrounds, which means that the quality of the art seems to be all over the place (now I don't think technique is everything, but: the spider has outlines, most other things don't, lighting seems to come from a different direction for lots of elements, the way texture is handled is different for nearly every single object ... I guess what I'm trying to say is that it lacks consistency?) For jam games, it's probably best to focus on a few standouts, rather than try to do everything with the same quality. I have been 'guilty' of lack of SFX myself on multiple occasions, but consider this: Sound-effects can be generated within 15 minutes (just search online for 'sound effect generator'), and most of the time, it makes the feel of the game so much better -- lately I've started actually recording SFX instead of generating them, and even then it can still be a done deal within the hour. If you don't leave it as literally the last thing, it will never really eat that much into your time (music is a _little_ different, in my experience). P.S. I played both online and on Linux. Both run fine! I appreciate the scaling and full-screen (toggle!) options you have. Always nice to have more than the bare minimum of functionality! |
| May 13 14:30:55 | 25h 47m | Plague | ♥ 0 | The best thing about this game is the foreboding soundscape! That is to say: I'm impressed by the audio. The difficulty ramps up _fast_. The first three(?) or so levels are all almost trivial, you only get to see what the mutations look like when the virus keeps replicating in the 'you win/next stage' screen. Then after that the final level before 'thank you for playing', there is so much virus that it replicates so fast that you loose _before_ you see any mutations. Unless you use the kill-pill, in which case you just won the game. It's a shame because the core idea seems solid (apart from not really connecting to the theme*), but I didn't really get to engage with it, or even experience it. To the point where I'm wondering if what I'm looking at is just a lack of time taken for balancing, or if I'm running into bugs. (Speaking of bugs: On the win screen I could see a lose screen blurry-ly underneath it... I found that the screenshot I took of it didn't come through. On the same screen, I had no mouse-pointer and could not actually press the quit button.) Graphics are decent (I wonder if the slightly more 'photorealistic'/textured viruses is on purpose, to make them more scary/more stand out on the backdrop of the more stylized/abstract tissue behind it, or if that's just a thing that 'happened'). Also it responds snappily to mouse input (plays fluently), which I appreciate. *) I feel that you could easily have said 'deeper and deeper into the body' and had some different backgrounds for the levels. That would have worked! But hindsight is 20/20, and never is that more true than for the peculiarities of jam games. |
| May 13 14:54:28 | 23m 33s | Downer Diver | ♥ 1 | Simple, yet ~~somewhat effective~~ neat. Some remarks: - The screen is stretched in a horizontal direction rather than vertical. Since the gameplay is vertical, to me it would have made more sense to have the aspect ratio the other way. Was this intentional? (Perhaps to shore up the difficulty?) - I really like how, on the one hand, the minimalist look of the art is both very effective and ~~somewhat~~ cute, but I can also see how it could've been produced very quickly by someone (more) experienced (than I am). - Music is nice. - Are the sharks _meant_ to mostly not move? - Just 'Game Over' when I found the treasure chest was a little disappointment. (But at least there was a chest and it didn't just stop at the bottom.) _EDIT_: Made the language a little less negative (see strike-throughs), accentuate the positive! |