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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | PeachTreeOath's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 5 02:32:59 | Hammer Keep | ♥ 1 | What I really like about this game is that you have to pay attention to your meter at ALL times. Not just during engagement with the enemy, but also between engagements, because you're quickly assessing how you might approach the fight. I love that you added hp to the mix. It adds 1 more strategy to the mix which is to heal all your health and then wail on whatever's in front of you. The game is really intense at all times because you're usually only a couple attacks away from death. Though I did find that the game gets much easier the 2nd time around, because you're not quite as afraid of the AI after learning their patterns. It mostly gets tough when there are multiple enemy types thrown into the mix. I thought this was a really cool entry. I had only played your FPS games so it's need to see you branch out and show off your other design chops :) | |
| Oct 5 05:26:33 | 2h 53m | Larry the Vengeful Balloon | ♥ 1 | 56 is my best here. I like how it's a bit different from say VVVVVV where you can sorta hover on a line by mashing space. It adds an interesting execution part to some of the gameplay, though it can definitely backfire if you miscount how many times you hit space and reverse yourself right into spikes. Nice job applying various visual effects to help with the simpler graphics. It winds up with a relatively unique look to it. Also, your game desc is pretty funny, I would've expected this to be called Larry the Unstable Balloon! |
| Oct 5 06:59:58 | 1h 33m | Helico Pter | ♥ 1 | 7:40 myself. For your record run, how many deaths did you have? I thought the oil rig/ship level was particularly nasty, since you usually had to run through that section fairly fast. Very fun game though. You can feel yourself mastering the game very quickly and it doesn't take long before you pull off a sick move or 2. I realllly like the addition of moving stages to the formula. It really added a ton to the usual Lunar Lander formula. Not only that, but you have a pretty good sense of level design. Not just in the layout of the levels, but also the theming which added even more to the flavor. What was the lava stage supposed to be though? It was kinda a monster but looked more like rocks? |
| Oct 5 17:54:55 | 10h 54m | The Unstable Graveyard | ♥ 0 | 5 stars for theme for uploading an unstable build. Very meta! JK, will give it another go if you get a bugfix out. I actually thought I might be able to just never aggro a red and beat it but that's not the case. |
| Oct 5 18:19:43 | 24m 48s | Nuclear Bulwark | ♥ 1 | Such a clean game in so many ways, I'm very impressed. You guys did an incredible job with the UX, making everything understandable with all kinds of context clues. Like highlighting where you can place things, changing the cursor icons, and locking the areas you can target (like with the ground attacks). Everything was super intuitive and I barely had to read anything to understand how it works. That is fantastic for a strategy game! The pacing and progression felt good and left me wanting more. This is one of the more visual clicker games out there, so seeing my base unfold for a bit felt awesome. I loved how the simple coloring on the enemies ended up working well together. It was enough shading to show off the structure of the enemies. The ground units in particular were animated very well. Very cool game overall. I've played every clicker game out there and I think your mashup of idle + strategy is pretty unique. Great job! Unrelated, but I did end up looking up @fishmasterino and saw that they're a fighting game head. Try out https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/bust-a-loop if you haven't before, you might like it :) |
| Oct 5 18:31:47 | 12m 04s | Sticky Wheel | ♥ 1 | I'll have to echo what some of the people said here, I was VERY surprised with this game. My initial impression was "ok, this is Monkey Ball but with a wheel, I've seen this." Then it was "Ah it's got Katamari stuff, this is a bit more interesting." But by the end, you showed off some REALLY clever ideas I haven't seen. So the concept of a rolling game + strategically building up your ball to take on obstacles ended up being far more than I expected. Perhaps it was the unassuming graphics and music that led up to that (though that victory theme was amazing). Very cool entry with a ton of potential for more if you can keep up that level design pace. |
| Oct 5 20:03:42 | 1h 31m | Giruffled | ♥ 5 | I pretty much held my breath the entire time I played this game. I love how there are lots of different strategies you can use. At first you might think you should just extend the neck and play it safe with balancing. But as you get more comfortable with the mechanics, you can sorta swing and jump over your head constantly like a jump rope. Even then, this is still not easy at ALL, as the head weight is extremely sensitive. I really liked that about the game because it gives this a high skill ceiling, as is usually the case with your games. Getting to the goal is incredibly satisfying because the level will instantly end, usually as you're about to hit your head on something. Basically every stage ended with me making a mad dash to the goal to free myself from the pain. Very fun game! |
| Oct 5 20:18:50 | 15m 08s | The Escape | ♥ 2 | On my first play, I definitely laughed out loud when I died in 1 second. The concept is really good and the hecticness reminds me of Pako Car Chase Simulator. Unfortunately the balance is a bit too hard. I'm not convinced anyone here actually beat the game without using the diagonal trick. Aside from that, everything works well together. The constant explosion sounds, the floors giving way, the intimidating lava everywhere. The scariest feeling is when you miss your shot at the Safe House, and while you're trying to go to the other entrance, the floor keeps giving out and eventually you're totally blocked. Cool game and it sounds like you have some really neat tech in there to get it all to work. g3.PNG |
| Oct 5 20:30:17 | 11m 27s | 鬼心伝 - A Story of Heartful Oni | ♥ 1 | I like bullet hell games so this one definitely kept me busy. I tried several times but could beat that second boss though, the extra fast kunais were really hard to deal with compared to the first boss. I never ended up using the target lock-on mechanic because I was so scared of losing any life. That's fine though, I don't mind just straight shooting and dodging. This is a very polished presentation in general and the music is incredible. A shame this never got finished for the PS1, though there were so many shmups back then it probably would've gotten lost in the mix. |
| Oct 5 21:07:47 | 37m 30s | Perhaps a Friend? | ♥ 1 | This game just makes an awesome first impression. I had a boat with all sorts of contraptions on it and it just flailed wildly lol. I went back to the drawing board almost immediately. What a bold decision to not have even numbers on the good components. Honestly I'd love to see if someone can figure out a way to make use of the wheel, having only 1 available. I tried a few combos but the fastest (and safest) one I could use was 2 boosters and 2 paddles. Edit: just found your tips and tried it out. A wheel in the back is indeed very fast, as long as you can control whatever other parts you have equipped. The potential to flip over suddenly grows with that. Overall, a VERY unique game. I haven't played a qwoplike where you can actually design your own builds. Even though I knew some combos would be a nightmare, I would experiment with it anyways just to see how crazy it would get. Easily the definition of "unstable". |
| Oct 6 01:05:29 | 3h 57m | Bitrot | ♥ 4 | Something I liked about this game was that it gave a feeling of unease, like those utopian society stories where things aren't as they seem. The happy music clashed with the visuals of looking in on a game (rather than playing a game), which accentuated this feeling even further. Honestly I half-expected it to go zany DDLC style. In some ways I'm glad you left it to interpretation. What are the other 2 games? Is Babbit really a game character or is he trapped? The atmosphere really makes you wonder. Very cool! |
| Oct 6 03:07:42 | 2h 02m | Domi-No-Mercy | ♥ 2 | Surprisingly fun and unique game! There are a few highlights worth mentioning: 1. Long range sniping shots feel amazing because it's so much less guaranteed than a game with a normal sniper function. Watching them fly away because of a snipe is incredibly satisfying. 2. The first time you hit several people and get a domino effect, you really appreciate what the game is, a physics based tactics games. One I haven't really seen before. Yea it's a bit easy but you showed off what the concept can do. I'm sure the people who have a partner to play with could really mess with the game and really figure out some cool strategies. The last and coolest thing to note, the main menu is like Megaman X's, which is a built in demonstration of what the game will be like. After seeing that and seeing the map, I already knew exactly what I was supposed to do. Great "tutorial" without being heavy handed on the concept! |
| Oct 6 04:05:05 | 57m 23s | Unstable Empire | ♥ 1 | INCREDIBLY fun game so far, but do you have any tips for winning? Once you clear the 3 gray tasks, it seems like it's an inevitable fall to doom because the crown quests take forever to come (unless there's some trigger I don't know of), and your stamina keeps dropping and can't keep up with the quests. Edit: nm, I think I might have something here... |
| Oct 6 05:41:12 | 1h 36m | Pop Shove-It | ♥ 3 | Awesome presentation and another game that makes you go WTF. At first I started out trying several runs where I collected everything, but that was taking **incredibly** long so I figured I would just finish the stage for. Even that took a while, though I eventually finished with 3:33. Honestly some of the parts make you feel absolutely awesome like playing a Sonic level. Moments like when you flip over a ramp, grind at a 45 deg angle, then nail the landing. I'm sure someone out there's gonna get good enough to pull that all off consistently. Seriously the presentation is great and fits the control scheme well. I was indeed looking for a restart button, and lo and behold it was there etched into the desk. I always restarted til I got the faster of the ska songs. Really fun game, and if I were 20 years younger with unlimited free time again, this is something I would keep playing to try to master. [Tip for other players] If you get stuck on your back, grab the screen and make big circles. Seems to be the quickest way to right yourself back up. |
| Oct 6 06:25:37 | 44m 25s | BLOOPS! | ♥ 3 | 945 here, had I not seen @korfi 's comment I wouldn't have thought it was possible lol. It definitely made me put a lot harder. The gameplay is pretty unique and turned out to be very fun. I initially thought it might play like Tricky Towers, but this tests a whole different set of skills. One thing this game has that I hardly ever see in other games is extremeeeely careful mouse movement. It's not often that you have to move something that carefully across your screen, and in the end it feels like balancing an egg in a spoon. Very cool consequence of the gameplay. I think I can get over 1000 if I park myself in a corner and pray that the blocks are summoned right above me, but every time I tried I was not so lucky. Would love to hear what kind of scores you can get yourself! |
| Oct 6 06:35:47 | 10m 10s | Hardwork Simulator | ♥ 1 | Sometimes I can be pretty skeptical about awesome looking LD gifs - that the gameplay might end up not being fun and it's all show. That's not the case here. Even though the concept didn't sound great when I started the game, I go to see what it really was over time. This gameplay was super novel, it was a variation of Space Invaders but done in such a way that it tests many other skills, like timing and resource management. Often I would miss a cursor, and then quickly calculate if I can either make it to the next line, or burn all my letters trying to hunt it down. And uh, of course it tests your mashing skills as well :) Just a really great idea overall. The art isn't just slapped onto the game as theming. You did an incredible job marrying the gameplay with the theme and presentation. This game is impressive! |
| Oct 6 06:58:46 | 22m 59s | Perfectly Balanced | ♥ 2 | I haven't seen any puzzley games like this that also has upgrades. That plus the leaderboard honestly made me play way longer than I normally would, so great job on those choices. The game is 100% intuitive and I just hopped right in without needing the tutorial. My strategy was to pack the center with the largest objects, and as asymmetrical as possible. Upon looking at your video did I see you can put the large cube around the edge to keep things inside a pen. Genius! The visuals are perfect. Clean and fits the music perfectly. In fact, the entire presentation reminds me of Viridi now that I think about it. A tad less relaxing than a game about succulents though... |
| Oct 6 07:31:26 | 32m 40s | Cloudlands | ♥ 3 | Strange. Interesting. Tantalizing. With an intro as enticing and accurate as mobile game ads even. I agree with comments above, hammer IS versatile. Zuckerberg might know a thing or two about using them. |
| Oct 6 08:16:44 | 45m 18s | Piles - Pile it up | ♥ 2 | Got it! physics2.png Absolutely amazing game. It's immediately and obviously fun right off the bat! There were so many things you did correct with the core gameplay that other games don't necessarily pay attention to. The weight of each object is not only tuned well, but the friction all feels great in a game like this that needs so much precision. Secondly, I loved how you grab the object at the mouse cursor and it hangs that way, allowing you to intuitively adjust angles or pick up a single side of a couch. How did you do that? Did you attach a hinge joint where to clicked? Lastly, I love how many extra random objects you threw into the mix that weren't particularly necessary. This serves to give people additional challenge in clearing the play area, while also giving certain players the chance to go the extra mile and show off their skills. Most importantly, it just plain adds to the chaos which makes success feel that much better. I thought the hardest level was the second to last level. While the final stage is a good test of everything you've learned thus far, this stage has the pits of doom, which makes everything that much more tense. I loved this game, one of my faves for sure. One thing I would've liked is the main menu button to be a bit further from the restart button, and maybe a different icon. I actually clicked that 3 times, once when I was halfway done with the game too. Another thing would've been a button you could hold that would highlight which objects are connected to the grass. It took me a while to figure out the final stage. I was very close to winning but had to really carefully scan what piece was out of place and experiment a lot. |
| Oct 6 08:46:02 | 29m 18s | SNOOZLE! | ♥ 3 | Whoa what a ride! I initially thought it might be a sort of aim trainer with different kinds of mode switching, but you took this mechanic all the way to the end and explored so many aspects I wouldn't even have thought of. You actually introduced the puzzley elements at the perfect time, because the clicking aspect was just about to start getting stale. I really loved that you didn't make the lose results affect you that badly. Just a few seconds lost really. I actually like that you didn't put a speedrun timer up which is very popular in LD. I normally don't have anything against that mechanic, but after playing your game I realized how damaging that kind of mechanic could be. It would really ruin the chill atmosphere, and I wouldn't have been able to appreciate all the small details you put in. The art is super cool and I've never seen a nice, textured mouse cursor like that. I'd actually love to know how you created that gel/clay like texture on everything. I'm not very good at 3d so everything looks like default unity stuff when I try it. I thought this game was truly excellent and you just kept impressing me around every corner. Usually with LD puzzle games with lots of stages, I quickly go "ok I get it, show me something new". That didn't happen with this game, which deserves a lot of praise! |
| Oct 7 03:59:48 | 19h 13m | Bullet Balance | ♥ 1 | Whew that was intense :O One thing I like about this game that the other balance games don't convey is the whole glass + square peg feel. That plus the general weights and physics made this feel like an actual glass table that was wobbling around. I thought that felt both fantastic, and also something familiar, unlike say a disk on top of a pyramid. That wobbliness definitely led to some very intense moments, especially with the spread shot that makes you go fairly far away to escape. On the topic of a different sort of balance, whenever there were 2 shooters and one of them was a split shot, I knew I was done lol. I maybe got past wave 10? I tried to keep count manually but it wasn't easy keeping track of that while playing. I really liked the concept. It was a very close quarters dodging game with balancing to boot. A totally intense game experience even for bullet hell vets like myself. |
| Oct 7 04:09:47 | 9m 59s | Boat History | ♥ 2 | The use of water for this indirect-control game made perfect sense, and it gives the player some immediate context on what they need to do. It definitely feels good to fill up a small pool around buzzsaws to use as cushioning, and then have your boat ride around it. I'm really glad at the use of checkpoints. Some of those levels got so hard that it would've taken super careful play just to clear it. Although by the time I got to the end I was feeling pretty confident about the boat movement. Overall I thought it was challenging and conveyed unstable without being TOO frustrating. Maybe it was the soothing music that helped with that... |
| Oct 7 04:21:23 | 11m 36s | Atomic Decay | ♥ 1 | Simple and fun. I really like the speed of the game you picked. The speed plus amount of things that can get on the floor makes choosing a route relatively interesting. I liked that there is some aspect of queueing up vials if you keep putting things into the mixer. That was one reason I was able to get my score. It did backfire though. I believe I probably could've played forever but it bugged out and didn't give me the correct color result when I had several vials queued. Great idea and I think some additional obstacles that might change your routing would serve to push this even further. Maybe something where you need to apply a specific color to it to do something. Capture.PNG |
| Oct 7 04:39:41 | 18m 18s | Raccoon from the Moon | ♥ 2 | Were you guys inspired by the Raccoon Whisperer? lol 23316971_web1_201119-ACC-Editors-desk-RaccoonWhisperer_1.jpg Really, really solid work on the level design. The game legitimately made me curious to see what else you guys put in there because you didn't really have anything particularly repetitive. I guess that's the beauty of a jam game, you get to just throw the whole kitchen sink in there right away. I was particularly impressed by how some things were tuned, like how the halfpipe was JUST high enough for you to grab the hotdogs, rather than have to jump to get them, breaking the flow of the experience. The only level design adjustment you might need (if you wanted to guide players more) was to make going down at start a more obvious first choice. The first time I played I went right for the button and then head right, but after starting over, it seemed like the text was designed to have you go downwards instead. The overall game is very pleasant to look at and just run around in. The bowling alley as a room was just a delightful surprise and a nice way to cap it all off. Very cool game, and not one I would've initially brainstormed for "unstable" haha. |
| Oct 7 04:55:19 | 15m 38s | Chickie Catchers | ♥ 2 | @peace-of-cake-games Kirby's Dream Land 3 is my favorite Kirby and I had the exact same thought playing this :) Really fun with 2 players! There is enough chaos on both sides that can cause misses to be had. I liked that both players had something completely unique for them to do, which I think is necessary for making interesting coop games. All the little animations and particles just worked so well. The juxtaposition of the top cat getting into a pounce stance and then just hanging their from a parachute is just hilarious and gets you into the world. As always, not only do you have the polish, but you always slap in novel game experiences while you're at it. Bravo! |
| Oct 7 05:35:13 | 39m 54s | ....To the Ends of the World and Back | ♥ 2 | Very bold concept! I like seeing your LD progression over time because you're branching out into more complex games over time. I wonder what you'll be making years from now. I think marrying convos within non-VNs could be done in clever ways. This is my favorite implementation of it https://youtu.be/o1g02WH7dEE?list=PLaMjvL2xXxO5jf_-UokTrRXyoJ7HQ2KGW&t=151 The Wangan series peppers dialogue throughout the story mode stages, usually on a straightaway so the player has time to read it, similar to how you did it in between unstable sequences. I think it's a good way to weave in the lore without being a cutscene that's not interactable. So needless to say, I like how you did it here as well. Your gameplay was simple enough to grasp, though I did have some dread that there was going to be a lot more tasks to do. In some ways it was good that there weren't too many so I could focus on the story. Great job and keep pushing those limits :) |
| Oct 7 05:57:39 | 22m 26s | AFTER SUN | ♥ 2 | How is this game so unbelievably cool? I'll try to point out stuff people aren't already praising to the best of my ability. 1. You can exit the ship in space. There is literally no reason to do this. That's why it's so impressive you put it in. 2. The fact that you have to hold left and right for boosters just feels so **good**. Though a lot part of that was the intense juice you put in when you go at full speed. 3. Putting the queue line for the capsule. Yet again, no true gameplay reason to do this but it added so much to the experience. It made it feel like a living world that was still going on in the BG even after you flew off the moon. The vast majority of devs would've just given you points as soon as they touched that base. I think overall you did an amazing job of anticipating what players would want to do and experiment with. Just wanna run down people with your ship's exhaust? Got it. Have great surprising moments like getting hit with a capsule? Check. One of the most surprising entries I've seen in a while, I was impressed around every corner. Truly amazing. |
| Oct 7 06:28:31 | 30m 52s | Unstable Stable | ♥ 2 | Always good to keep pushing your jam limits. I know you guys have a very high bar set so it feels bad if you don't feel like you met it, but we're all in that boat here. I spent a ton of time with multiplayer and photoshop tutorials myself. My playthrough of this game was in phases: 1. Learn to move backwards and kick like crazy. While the least effective phase, it was certainly the most fun. 2. At some point I realized I could just hold down space and put my horse in a permanent planche position (lol). This was a bit more effective as I didn't have to worry about timing and the knockback force seemed to be more controllable. 3. Finally, I accidentally pushed in a sheep driving forward, and it dawned on me I could just push all the sheep into the goal much easier... I ended up doing that and won pretty easily. I'm curious what the planned version was going to be like. I'm sure that pendulum axe was a sign of things to come. Overall it was a fun concept that immediately interested me as soon as I got in. Hitting the sheep the way you want was challenging, but hey, all the games this jam are. Great work for using so many new tools :) |
| Oct 7 06:51:28 | 22m 57s | Plains In The Sky | ♥ 1 | Brilliant idea. By stage 2 I immediately realized how much potential the concept had, and you just kept delivering on it! One thing I really like about this game is that there are several ways to beat stages due to it being physics based. On top of that, doing tricky shots makes you feel so cool, like lining up a complex pool ball shot. I hope someone out there makes a video of something like that. Unfortunately I think I got stuck due to a bug in the post-jam version. Hitting the sheep or the snake at the bottom seems to do nothing: bug.png Regardless, I thought this game was super fun and tested a skill that I don't often practice. Some kind of physics chain-reaction skill where I have to figure out how the ramps are going to shift based on what weight I'm removing. Very enjoyable experience and great level design :) |
| Oct 7 18:40:40 | 11h 49m | WOLFGUN | ♥ 1 | Super addicting game, enough to get me to round 10. The way the game evolves has you firing like 10x a second. At that point it feels more like an incremental game than anything, which isn't a bad thing. The firing rate upgrade + more enemies spawning + 1-hit kills creates and epic-feeling game! I don't think this balance was intentional, but it actually seems like the upgrades naturally put you at a dead end. For example, with 1-hit kill you can probably just sit in a safe corner and shoot all day. However, the rampage mechanic forces you to run out of the corner. Normally this isn't too bad and you could run back, but eventually you'll pile on so may upgrades that shorten your duration that you're just rampaging every few seconds. At that point you might as well just play normally. However, that was what got me killed eventually. So if that was an intentional balance design it is a clever one. If not.......it's still a clever one. |
| Oct 7 19:01:21 | 20m 41s | Help, I cast the wrong spell! | ♥ 2 | Loved this game. The funniest moment was absolutely when you reach the book for the first time. At that point I was like "hah that's funny, that was a cool game." I totally didn't expect there to be ANOTHER section of the game. Very SOTN-like haha. I thought the surfing moments were extremely fun. They aren't particularly difficult be because it's tuned to have you just hold forward and you'll automatically surf on them. The hardest stage for me was the one where you needed to drop dynamite on the lock midair to the right, after running up the ramp. Once I got that timing down though, the rest fell in line. This game was extremely well-made and paced. The concept was immediately understandable and engaging which help draw me into the game. And the cherry on top was the humor, especially how the 2nd chapter starts. Great job! |
| Oct 7 19:32:18 | 30m 57s | Unstable Load | ♥ 2 | Very impressive first LD entry, it's certainly clear that you've had some dev experience :) My playthrough went something like this: 1. Initially I tried to play in the lower regions since I hadn't picked up on the movement patterns yet. I also invested a lot into the 25g upgrade with auto shoot because I thought it would eventually just let me sit there and AFK, which is always fine to see in upgrade heavy games. The combination of this led me to lose many times. 2. Eventually I realize I can stay on one of the upper left platforms and be able to hit many rows at once. I also invested a bit more into gun upgrades. This allowed me to get far, but then the platforms would drop out underneath me, and I kept dying soon after. I actually initially thought this was a bug, but your voiceover gave me a hint that it was intentional. 3. I realized (I think?) that you get more gold if you stay alive longer, so I would shoot enough to keep just 1 enemy alive, then go to the top and finish them at the last second. Around now is when I strictly bought gun upgrades. 4. Lastly, I connected the dots and realized I should just stay at the very top-middle platform and snipe. This would prevent me from falling to my doom when the platforms went away. After farming a few rounds like that, I slipped and fell, but I was strong enough at that point that I could sit on the lower-left ledge and kill everything. 5. At this point I could live forever as I only had to time my reload correctly when I opened up a big enough window to do so. I even purchased the Next Wave button a few times and had no problem. Really the only issue was finger fatigue lol, so I quit eventually. I thought the concept was great and I love games with multiple build routes. As long as the game is hard enough (which yours is) it instantly adds a problem-solving component to the game as you try to pick apart what the best build is. Although I would've liked to see some more visually-impactful upgrades, you can only do so much in LD and the ones available were good enough. Great job and I hope that breakdown gives you some insight! |
| Oct 7 19:56:16 | 23m 58s | Midnight Maintenance | ♥ 1 | Whenever I see a game like this, the first thing I do is check the comments to see if it's actually scary and/or has jump scares. Luckily the signs give it away that this will be a gentler experience so that is a nice effect of that design choice. Direction-wise, I like how at first you hold the player's hand, but eventually the world opens up and the signs are a bit less easy to find. And sometimes you might even backtrack a little. But similar to Journey where eventually you can see the mountain goal, the red factory eventually gets noticeable enough to guide you and it ends up having a similar effect. This was probably an accident, but I love how when you restart, you can still see remnant of the explosion that killed you. In the really open areas, this helped guide me to my previous location :) So yea, I guess I wanted to point out and praise how even though this was a dark game that messed with your situational awareness, you used a lot of clues to allow the player to figure out where to go next. That's great design. |
| Oct 7 20:13:32 | 17m 16s | The Amazing Clownzie | ♥ 1 | Finished it with my hands being super clammy now :) Like others, I blitzed the 4th spotlight not thinking there would be a 5th one so it all fell apart. Though if you can get to the 4th spotlight, it doesn't take TOO long to get back to where you were. I played a few other balancing games like this so far. There's a couple key differences yours has: 1. Yours is the first mouse-control one I've played. This allowed you to have a much higher height platform than the others because you have way more control than the keyboard. By the end of it, I honestly feel like I learned balancing lessons that I didn't pick up from the other games on how to control your speed, namely because the boxes get so stacked high here that their momentum is *extremely* important to understand. 2. You have strict boundaries on the sides. Because of this, I couldn't just wing it until I got the right amount of speed for the side-spotlights. It's a bit similar to the Gran Turismo training levels where you have to break at the exactly correct time to make sure you slide into a target zone in time. This combination made this my favorite balancing game so far. I felt like I was genuinely learning some skills here because of those constraints, and it really felt amazing to be able to control 4 boxes like that. When I saw the theme, I figured it would be right up your alley. You got your priorities straight though with spending time with the fam, there'll always be other jams! |
| Oct 7 20:32:37 | 19m 05s | Hotel | ♥ 2 | The gameplay was actually pretty unique. I really liked that you only gave hints as to what each room needed, rather than always explicitly saying "RAT" or something like most games. This led to some hecticness as you were trying to be as fast as possible, *while* remembering where items are, *while* figuring out what item to even grab. Grabbing the wrong item was usually costly, because that meant you wouldn't have that item for the future since resources were limited. I thought that was a neat aspect and added to instability piling up. The 104 distraction was actually really interesting. It was a way to slow down the players and making more phone calls pile up. Though in the end it was up to the player if they wanted to just speed through all the dialogue or not. There's more clever gameplay here than meets the eye. Great job! |
| Oct 7 21:00:12 | 27m 35s | King on the Mountain | ♥ 2 | Incredibly engaging game that makes you balance the desire to make a huge, flourishing economy with the perils of toppling over. I thought the way you set up the economy was different and very interesting. I did not think there would be resource generators, so when they came in, I would opt for those to save space. In this way, it's a bit like an idle game but you don't get into that idle portion until much later than normal. Because of this, the generators were extremely valuable and it felt great once I had some in place since I wouldn't have to worry about that resource any more. The tech buildings that unlocked more things were great subgoals to work towards. Without them, I'd have to spend extra time figuring out what building did what and the best way to approach it. These barriers let me focus on sets of rooms at a time. I'm really glad you didn't make this game super hard. It would've been frustrating to see all these lovely room options but keep failing trying to get to them. I ended up finishing and it was a such a unique experience. Great job, this game makes for amazing gifs. Btw, this game didn't play well on ultra-widescreen monitor. I couldn't actually see my resources, though I didn't actually need to. I didn't realize it was even a thing until I looked at the screenshots afterwards. |
| Oct 7 21:27:35 | 27m 23s | Router Runner | ♥ 2 | Cycle 8 here. It took me a little bit to figure out things but once I did, the game definitely puts you in the zone trying to figure out optimal routing patterns. I initially thought you couldn't cross wires. I thought "umm, this game is impossible." But after coming back and checking the screenshots I realized my mistake. From there, it's almost like managing the wires in your computer and making sure they're nice and neat, trying to keep any 90 deg angles limited to the center of the playspace so that you don't get blocked on the sides. Of course, there's still an RNG aspect to it, but the game was fun enough to try a few times. This was a fairly polished game so I'm pretty impressed. There are a lot of small graphical doodads and effects that really sell the game, and absolutely conveys the LD theme by the end of it. |
| Oct 7 21:37:56 | 10m 21s | Unstable "AI" | ♥ 1 | Nice concept, not one I've really seen done before where you're trying to quickly ride whatever wave is in front of you. I ended up making it easier for myself by shrinking the window very small, so that the buttons were closer and I could see the 4 main components easier. I made it to day 12 and it seemed like I could just keep going, especially after I noticed there was a pattern of switching back and forth in the later days. I'm curious what else you had in mind for the game. I clicked on debug and saw all kinds of stats. Are those actually implemented in the game or are they holdovers for future development? |
| Oct 7 21:59:36 | 21m 40s | ENTROPY | ♥ 4 | Wow that was actually an incredible experience. I totally didn't expect that given the screenshots, and thought it might just be a pretty game. The game gave me an intense feeling of being left behind. That everyone is leaving for rapture and you're trying desperately to cling on and be one of them. It was a lonely feeling. You even feel a bit angry at these darn cubes for moving so fast without you. I believe this feeling happens because you start out in control, with the cubes helping you as allies, but they get increasingly faster and distant and you lose control. Gameplaywise, you are required to use a bunch of tricks you don't normally do. I actually really liked the FPS lock. What it forces you to do is manage you angle as a resource. So you might pull in one direction for a while, and then quickly do a 180 to help return back to the group. The limited hold was an obvious design decision so that you can't just hold onto a cube forever, but it also creates some interesting risk reward scenarios. As you run out of time you have to very quickly assess which cube to hold onto next. Is that cube stale? Is it going to fly away by the time I do a 180 and aim at it? Those sorts of decisions. This was a fantastic game and I'm extremely impressed. Not many games evoke emotion for me, and certainly not one without a story. Throughout my 15-some LDs I don't think I've ever given out 5 stars across the board, so this might be the first one. |
| Oct 7 22:17:52 | 18m 16s | Unstable Alchemy | ♥ 2 | Pretty interesting concept. I couldn't actually make an elixir though. From what I can tell, the ingredients you need to experiment with are the soil types and the seal types. MAYBE the material you use to burn too but I sorta assumed you need to use wood. I tried every combination of that but got an explosion each time so I'm not sure where I went wrong. Either way, this is a pretty unique game and I loved the vibe of being an ancient Chinese alchemist. I could see this having even more things to make in the future which would be pretty cool. |
| Oct 8 07:14:48 | 8h 56m | Buggy Bot | ♥ 2 | Scanning the comments, am I really the first person to click the "Do Not Click" button? Now I feel silly >_> I didn't expect that many levels from a jam game, certainly not with the amount of graphic polish you put in and small team size. I felt like I was challenged in several different ways and there was plenty of variety. I like that one of the levels was the opening section to Ninja Warrior as well, since I recently got to try one of those courses. The most fun parts of the game were the disappearing blocks and the rainbow road ramps, in that order for me. You really got a sense of speed throughout those sections which feels great since you're on such thin platforms. This is a minor criticism but I felt like the levels were strung together with too much variety. When there was a new mechanic introduced, it didn't necessarily show up in the next level if my memory serves correct. While this led to keeping players on their toes, it sorta messes with the rhythm of going through the levels, like a song building up but in a bit of a chaotic way. I still thought the game was quite fun though. I used to play Monkey Ball a ton so the mechanics and levels reminded me a bit of that. I was very impressed that you could convey this computer world so well graphically. The soothing music caught me off guard but it's nice to have that kind of music in a game where you're gonna die a lot. Very complete game, nice work :) |
| Oct 13 23:18:44 | 136h 03m | Karawan | ♥ 3 | There are so many games that strive to capture the feeling of Oregon Trail, but fail to do so unless they straight up mimic the formula. You managed to create something brand new here that pushes it in a whole nother direction, while still keeping the same great feeling of exploration. Some kind of combination of OT, FTL, and HOMM almost. Did you even pull inspiration from other games or you just pull this one outta thin air? I really enjoyed trying to figure out the puzzles you set up. The magic system was a great twist to the formula, immediately adding several layers of options on how to optimize the stages. I beat the first stage fairly quickly, but the other 2 I couldn't quite get. Out of all the LD games I've seen in a while, this one has the most potential for a full version and I'd absolutely love to see it. Amazing gameplay, and all the additional stuff like great graphics and excellent polish are just the cherry on top :) |
