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Remco

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TimestampSince previousGameRemco's comment
Oct 4 09:08:38 ....To the Ends of the World and Back ♥ 1 Combining visual novels with other types of gameplay has lots of untapped potential. On the other hand, the gameplay part, the way it is here looks more like a tech-demo ... which is not too surprising given that this is a compo game (as opposed to jam). As for the story, I'm intrigued, but it cut off for me when Grace said something along the lines of 'wait, is that?' (it was just getting good), and the screen faded to a complete (opaque) white. After that, the game seemed to continue, but as I couldn't see the access pad it faded to a complete black after a minute or so. Either I'm missing something (very possible) or it doesn't run properly for me. (There's also the lack of mouse-pointer, and sometimes the yellow outlines are missing for me.) I may try later on a different OS/browser combination. Oh, and I enjoyed the 'you are about to watch some high-brow cinema'-type intro with the white text on black background.
Oct 4 09:36:56 28m 18s Portal Problems! ♥ 1 Ah, it's a sort of crossword in the form of an adventure-game! What made it enjoyable for me was that the descriptions, while a little bit easy, weren't _completely_ obvious, giving it a nice word-play kind of spin. (Also there are some objects left-over at the end --as red herrings I presume-- just a little bit of cleverness that I think should be noticed.) That said, I'd hoped for a bit more, even for a compo game. (Also I'm surprised that anyone that can denoise their audio that well didn't put a _big_ reverb/pitch effect on a demon's voice ... but that's just me probably 🙂 By which I mean to say, I think the voice acting adds a lot, and if this where my game I'd definitely put the Audio category back on.) P.S. Disclaimer: Due to browser being browsers, I could either play this with sound, but the spacebar would scroll the itch.io page instead, _or_ download it, but then it wouldn't play the intro narration (though it would play both the bad and the good endings). P.P.S. Seems the single row of games shown on top of the main LDJam page are not ranked by # of ratings right now? Huh.
Oct 4 10:22:16 45m 20s Anti-Bomb ♥ 1 If this was the only game I needed to play today, I think I'd definitely try and become a bit better at the central mechanic, so I could pass more than the initial 3 jumps that you actually need an antibomb for. As it is, I think I gave it a fair shot, but whether it's me or the game I could not really get past that point. I think largely ignoring the players current velocity when an explosion goes off (just mostly take the direction the explosion is going in) would have already helped me a lot though, as when I jump in the opposite direction what happens now is you just basically stop. Or just make the physics a bit slower? This has dome good potential though I think! (You show of at least a lock/key mechanism in the trailer.) The controls also feel nicely polished for a compo game. Lastly, it would be nice to have some way to properly exit the game, as it is in full screen. P.S. Seems the single row of games shown on top of the main LDJam page are not ranked by # of ratings right now? Huh.
Oct 4 10:45:50 23m 34s The Walls Are Tumbling Down! ♥ 1 Nice idea! For me, it would probably work a bit better if you lifted even more from pac-man (being exactly as wide as one tile, always move forward and use arrow keys to only turn, etc.). Now it's just _mostly_ a top-down shooter. Being able to shoot the walls (well, sometimes, I didn't figure out why some walls where easier to shoot than others) is a nice trick that opens up some neat tactical thinking. Also perhaps make the first level(s) smaller? It'd give more of us a chance to see the whole game-loop. Clearing the entire field will take a while. Lastly, I wonder why the reload mechanic is even there? It didn't really seem to add anything, in my opinion. Still, it's a well polished compo game. P.S. Seems the single row of games shown on top of the main LDJam page are not ranked by # of ratings right now? Huh.
Oct 4 18:05:45 7h 19m The Vortex ♥ 1 Lots of comments already, if I want to say something _completely_ new, that leaves me with ... Well you _do_ have a nice color scheme, I think. While I largely agree with the above (voiced SFX is nice, controls/'feel' could stand to be improved, etc.), I actually do have more to say as well. First, I want to add a small detail to the control-discussion: I'm not sure if it's the key-rollover on the cheap keyboard I use, or the game (or maybe I just miss the coyote time described above) but the avi wouldn't always jump and I think it mostly happened when I was already pressing a direction. Then, yes, the level design is nice but ... Playing these jam games I'm always interested in what they add to the table design/'innovation' ways. I'm not seeing a lot of that here. Probably you knew that though. (I also wonder why you introduce the 'seal the vortex' mechanic so 'late' in the game?) Lastly, though, let's not end on a low note: About the difficulty level ... if _I_ can finish a game on a Monday after doing the compo (although TBF, I almost gave up on level 4), then I think you might be able to say that it's not _too_ difficult 🙂
Oct 4 18:48:23 42m 38s Connection Unstable ♥ 2 Heavy stuff! The background changes where a nice touch as well. And, as the others have said, the mood is great, also due to the whole 'setting the stage' bit at the beginning. (Flicking with a mouse is ... weird. Took me a while to realize how to scroll is what I'm saying. Not really an issue if it's mostly intended for phones though.) The only thing I was a bit annoyed at is that the text almost never hints at what the 'right' answer is to proceed. That does give it a very dream-like feeling though, so maybe that's what you where going for?
Oct 4 18:59:50 11m 27s Unstable Mines ♥ 1 Almost all has been said already by others. I'll add my voice to the chorus when it comes to the concept ... lots of potential for this single player physics bomber-man! And the audio is subtle, but very nicely done. About the only new thing I have to say (unless I accidentally skipped over it when reading other comments) is that perhaps it would be a good idea to have some sort of indication as to where the new boxes will land?
Oct 5 14:15:38 19h 15m The Unstable Zone ♥ 3 Very atmospheric again. I'm used to this from you by now though :-) You really are pushing your shader wizardry to the next level, and it shows. The Joror humor (t/m) in the Joror description boxes (patent pending) is present as well, and that's not a bad thing. Is that an XKCD ref I see? It took me an _embarrasingly_ long time to find out that the green dots contain unstable matter. And an even _longer_ time to find out that the more aggresive ones contain more, so I shouldn't just shoot it. That was _after_ I failed to notice for the longest time, that, to collect stuff, I should position my ship so that the little blue field that is coming out of the same part of the ship as the blue beam is coming from, is the only intake. At this point I had already shot the majority of the green stuff in the level, so I started again. I got further along, so I thought I might actually see the end of this game, it took me a while, but now I have collected almost half of the unstable matter ... which was about one or two minutes after I noticed that the more cargo I hold, the more inertia and less top speed the ship has. Then I accidentally got sucked back into the far part of the level by the stream. At that point I had been playing for what felt like a really long time, so I stopped. (At some point I might attempt a third playthrough, going back and forth to the AI, like in my first attempt.) I'm not sure how much of this is on me, and how much of this is on the game. (On the one hand, the scanner indicates that the pirates have unstable matter --though in my defence the info screen doesn't always show up and the capital U is in dark geen on darkish grey--, but I don't think it specifies anywhere how the tractor beam works.) Some other remarks: - Dialogue system should have a back button: I wasn't able to get back from the rest of the conversation without closing it and opening again. (Closing the dialogue isn't obvious either.) Also the QBits wheren't shown on every screen that I might want them on I think. - Not sure if on purpose: The very large crate can't be illuminated (but does show up breifly when disintegrating). - Control scheme is really nice, feels very intuitive. - Idea for the tractor beam: Make it the entire side of the ship, not just a small part. - Why can I turn the light-tool off? What purpose does that serrve? - When tractoring, sometimes objects disintegrate, other times not. And as I rewrite this from my notes, I think that that may be because the also receive damage from bumping against my ship? - Another thing that isn't mentioned, is that the nanites need raw materials (and not, for example tech-part ones -- or even it being free). - At some point I got some debug info to show when I pressed a key I think? Little white boxes with numbers on 'em. I thought I might check it out later ... but then I forgot they key and/or actions that lead me to that :-p - A very small detail, but I noticed the tech counter is stuck when sucking in parts with the tractor beam. It still counts them properly, and dissapears, but the number (unlike the raw mat) doesn't go down in the info box. Maybe that's only when combined with raw mat though?
Oct 5 15:57:13 1h 41m Dutch Dyke Defenders ♥ 1 As I watched the stream, I can't really give my first impressions any more, so I'll leave that to others. Instead, have a slightly unsorted list of remarks! One thing before we get started, I see that I mostly wrote is a bug list ... so I wanted to say that I _did_ enjoy playing it! There can hardly be anough pixel art simulations with a cute look :-) (Also, note that this list is at least partly based on that you may want to continue with developing it, so are interested in stuff you obvs. couldn't get done during the jam itself.) - First, I really wonder how well I would have understood everything if I wouldn't have watched the stream. Given the help and hovers I think I would've gotten it, but without any other comments there's no way to tell (yet). - Sometimes a flinter-thin layer of water will prevent you from building ... fair enough, but it's really hard to see sometimes! - Overflowing flood barriers are really only known by guesstimating if it's over yet and seeing the effects. Would be nice if it was more clear. - I get that it's a worker placement game, but people who don't play a lot of board-games may have some questions about where your workers go when you destroy stuff. Since everything costs money as well, it may be a good idea to return the worker, for some extra strategic depth? - Not everyone may realize flood-barriers can be built in water (making pumps _a lot_ more useful). - Maybe it's an idea to _always_ make the first effect a storm of some kind? The other effects are a little underwhelming in comparison. Well visually anyway, to the point where you may miss that they're happening. The tulip booms and crashes in particular, since they also happen when you don't have any planted. - Visible time until the next 'step' would be apreciated (like, when do I get my $200 do not pass start and workers?) - Everything is quite slow, and the speed up doesn't seem to help much (it may be quicker, but as the screen-update lags when sped-up it doesn't _feel_ quicker). Maybe I'm just in jame mode though? The upside is that it can be played as a sort of idle game. Let's see how my micro-Dutch terrarium is doing! - Pipe _repair_ costs a full worker. Given that a pipe is (10 riks^ and) 1 worker to begin with, and once you have at least one tulip fields workers become the problem... I think that's a bit much. [^] I'm old enough that I remember the slang/abbreviation for Rijksdaalders :-p - I'd like to be able to set priority for building stuff. Though doing that without clutering the simple interface is another problem... - Lots of sky may be a Dutch thing, but there's also a lot of ground. There's lots of screen real estate locked up in that! Not sure what to do about that without making it not Dutch any more though (no high buildings because we don't like 'em and not a lot of stuff underground because that muck is not workable in that way). - Pipes have only bends and straights I think, no crossings (T or otherwise). - I'm not sure a town always does something on upgrade? Maybe show a little message what has happened, so people don't have to hunt for that. - Maybe it's an idea to distribute water (more) immediately if the difference is higher than 1 (instead of just one at a time). You get into weird situations if you remove a flood-barrier and the sea was high one one end and low on the other. - The little plus for the forced town upgrade _almost_ entirely blocks one tile. - I wanted to see the game over, but instead found what I _think_ may be a dominant strategy: Build nothing but a few tulip fields, and then occasionaly grow your town. Just let it drown. The people can swim, and, more importantly, repair water-damaged buildings! _EDIT_: Oh almost forgot! I managed to get my tulips safely buried in a mountain by raising land! tulips_in_land.png
Oct 5 17:06:20 1h 09m Gunsundheit! ♥ 2 Ha, the sun going like _'WTH?!'_ is a nice touch :-D For the 'holding right' problem: Might I suggest that you let the meter fill up (a lot) faster if right is pressed? Then you can also counter-balance the 'always left' with some sort of time limit. After all, your date and/or the movies won't wait forever! While I'm not colorblind myself, I think it's neat even people in jam-games start paying attention to accessability. There should be an 'Accessability Jam' maybe? I noticed that sometimes, shooting and turning left happens so closely together in time, that (almost?) the only way you can tell is by another ominous siren on top. But that's a status indicator, and doesn't really tell _when_ you made the mistake. Also it doesn't really seem to matter how many bullets you have really, right? It fills up quickly enough, and fires quickly enough, that it doesn't really matter if there's 1 or 6 in the magazine. Anyway, sometimes I keep noticing these little issues in otherwise fine games. I guess what I'm trying to say is: The idea of an armless, gun-nosed man running around trying to _not_ shoot things is very creative, carries it through the simplicity, and it otherwise plays fine ... though I don't feel much like replaying it now that I've gotten to one destination already.
Oct 5 17:45:47 39m 27s The Nuclear Nightmare ♥ 1 Ah, score-attack games are always a little bit addicitve, and this one makes it easy to love that. At the risk of making the comments section sound like a broken record _this is really fun to play_. Maybe you could make it more visceral when something, like not landing on your rear, makes your red bar go up? One other thing I noticed is that the reported number on the highscore screen and the 'new high' don't always match up. (See screenshot.) unmatched_score.png
Oct 5 17:57:19 11m 32s Don't Kick The Oxygen (more of a physics sandbox really) ♥ 2 I guess the divers' chance of survival is _shrimping_ by the minute :-p
Oct 5 19:37:00 1h 39m Contact Nesigur ♥ 1 Love the concept ... looking at some of the less used features in an engine and asking yourself _'what can I do with this'_? Artwork absolutely fits the rest of the experience ... and the theme. One thing I ran into (or rather _didn't_ run into) at the start was that the 'press R to reload' was just outside of my screen. So I thought I had to restart it every time (well until I cleared the first bug that it ... oooh I get it now _bug_ ha!) As for the rest. Hm. Can I guess that you haven't worked a lot with freeform input from users yet? (What if I set things to -1? What if I delete a part but leave the json well-formed? What if I garble the json? etc.) Unless the crashes are on purpose of course, then you succeeded brilliantly! If that was an accidental thing then well, it's extremely hard to get it right for all circumstances. . . . **spoiler** @jk5000 You have to change stuff _inside_ of the file. **spoiler**
Oct 5 20:09:09 32m 09s Critical Mass ♥ 1 Excellent use of dithering and particle effects! :-) I also really dig the title screen. It's a fun idea as well. However, it seems to me that, the higher the level is, the more dashers there will be to disrupt you. So unless I misunderstand the game (which is possible) it will form a certain point onwards always be beneficial to focus on _gaining_ mass, which loses the balance concept in the noise. Speaking of noises ... (Please ignore if you already know this and there was just _literally_ no time or something like that) Basic SFX is one of the easiest things to make during a game jam: After all [generators like these](https://sfxr.me/) are legal even for Compo entries.
Oct 10 11:34:08 111h 24m Curse of Apep ♥ 0 Neat full featured menu screen, nice graphics and a cool game-over animation! I also feel that the move vertical vs. move horizontal blocks puzzle gimmick was inspired, and matches the theme. (Though it can get a bit glitchy when the enemies bump you into level-geometry... while that does _also_ feel unstable, I don't think that that's what was intended.) However, this falls into the pitfalls of a lot of pre-2000s puzzle games, in that not only are there enemies (fair enough) and often have zero to do with the puzzle at hand (ok, that can happen), but are seemingly placed to frustrate the player (the crawling ones most notably). I think that's what the other commenters where getting at too, as yes, it is hard, but that didn't necessarily _have_ to be a bad thing. This type of hardness is just made out of frustration though. (Also true of the lightning effects ... if the monster-placement had been different, this would've indeed helped make the game more tense and atmospheric. It still does partly, but now it's become part of the frustration as well). Overall _definitely_ not bad for a compo, I just don't really feel the pull to play any further, which is a shame.
Oct 10 12:06:29 32m 21s Political misdirection ♥ 1 I like the neon-minimalist style! It fits well with the abstract gameplay. The progression was a bit too quick for me, but all that means is that it's probably just right for the more twitch-game oriented players that this is meant for. I do have a few other remarks: - Why the three-way 'vote' that doesn't change anything? - I once was forced to choose between 3 identical options, which then ended my game. If you expand on this, it's a situation you want to prevent before the player gets to see it. - I had a game-over (I think the same one maybe even) where there still was a little bit of the smallest party left. (See screenshot.) - Some sound-effects would really have helped here. red_left_over.png
Oct 10 12:17:51 11m 22s A 6h rush to produce anything ♥ 1 Well played with the name. I have enough trouble doing things in 48h, 6 must be a nightmare :-) I generally like the switching sides mechanic (especially that a tile can be made to switch back as well) and ... I have not much more to say than that, unless we talk negatives. I won't bother with mentioning most of those, given the context. One thing that I did notice was that I could consistently get a (soft?)lock if one of the tiles flipped back to me. It wouldn't let me pick a side to attack with, but it also wouldn't let me pick up a new tile (I played the web version on Firefox under Manjaro Linux).
Oct 10 12:41:22 23m 31s Beep Boop Boba ♥ 0 I liked the music (though it felt a bit in your face rather than a background track sometimes), the fact that you can get silver & gold besides just finishing the level. Plays nice as well. Every machine has its own character, but that comes with a downside... some of them just work when you interact, for others there's a button. Like I said, that mostly works in the games benefit, but you might want to teach that to the player a bit more clearly. A related example, at first I thought 'why pick up a cup as a separate action'? But then it turned out that you could run the machines in parallel, which opens up the game a while lot. Other things that could be (visually) improved (to teach players) is the difference between an empty and a cup full of coffee (mid-grey versus black), a little ice versus a lot (even though the level title already hints at it), and the little bit of yellow on top (perhaps because it's seen from the side?) (The theme felt a bit tacked-on, as well.) Lastly, I'm just glad that this was easy enough for me, so I could see the later levels. And fun enough that I wanted to!
Oct 10 13:02:35 21m 13s Tanks 'n robots ♥ 1 That's an impressive intro & outro you have there! For the game as a whole: While I'm a bit less inclined to be impressed by something that is 'just' 3D these days, you've put in the artwork and time to make it work in a compo-timeframe, which is also impressive. I'm sad to say that (after the initial seconds when I rolled off a hill and I managed to right the tank up again) I found the game(play) itself to be a bit tedious? Because there are about 2 things that can happen: - You take aim from far away (if you're lucky, you don't even have to wriggle your mouse cursor for the green target but can just shoot), then take them down one by one as sitting ducks. - At some point the ones left over are too far away and you need to advance, and you occasionally meet an AI that is heading for you. Then (due to the slowness of your tank) it will mostly turn into an 'I shoot then they shoot' then repeat ad-infinitum until the opponent is dead (it won't be you since health is plentiful). Unless there's trees, but that just gives you even more advantage. Which also, I suppose, means that the controls are intuitive! Also it can't have been _that_ tedious, since I was never outright bored or anything. Just a note: While it _is_ allowed to fix ('certain') bugs after the end. You're at the _very_ least also supposed to make a list of the things you changed after, per [the rules](/events/ludum-dare/rules) > Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. **You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log).** Some smaller remarks: I'd have liked a bit of music. Couple of typo's: Luckely -> Luckily, Stabelize -> Stabilize.
Oct 10 13:39:48 37m 13s Red Flag (Le Temps des Tempêtes) ♥ 2 I really like the music, which fits both the general atmosphere, which in turn fits the theme! The waves felt good to sail over! Having played both the 'bugfix' version of the original Linux build and now (to check this) also the web-version ... I don't think the version I played on Linux actually contained (all?) of the bugfixes: I wasn't able to move backwards (zoom out) or forwards (zoom in) there, seemingly at all. You can get pretty far by just rushing ahead and having a good spread with quick volleys, instead of carefully aiming :-) P.S. With regards to the part of the discussion about post-jam uploads: For what it's worth, I'm one of the people that always does download the jam-version if available, and I appreciate both being around. As long as people provide a list of changes and (unless those changes are game-breaking bugs) there is a separate jam and 'continued development' version, I'm a happy camper. After all, sure, part of the responsibility is in the developers hands, but we have some responsibility as raters as well to pay due diligence if the developers have _clearly_ indicated what's what.
Oct 10 14:01:06 21m 18s Polygonal Animal Stacking ♥ 1 Maybe I should make my next game hand-drawn too, judging from my own reaction and then seeing it reflected in the comments :-) Also the game will not (with the exception of spawning a new animal or ... keyboard?) progress unless you're ready. This, together with the music* gives it a relaxing vibe! I'm sorry to say that I couldn't really get the hang of the rest of the game though. Since the floor is an ellipse or sphere, and the animals are really slidey, there's only one spot where you can realistically drop them. It's not like this gets better when your tower gets higher, since that's very likely, through no fault of your own to collapse as well before you get into any position that you have an actual choice as where to place the next. Some smaller remarks: - For the 'animal appearing at the mouse cursor': It's not so bad once you know about it. I'd still have preferred for it not to be 'active' already. (Though I suppose the explosions can be fun when viewed from that angle.) - The big elephants feel very light for some reason? - Little bug?: I'm pretty sure I got something like 'final score 15, max score 16' at my first attempt. (*: A few LD's back a gave procedural music a go as well for a couple of times --Wolfram Tones in my case-- it never felt really satisfying to have made though -- more like curation that creation. Also this party ('Aiva.AI') keeps the copyright if you're not paying them the highest tier? Yikes!)
Oct 10 14:47:04 45m 58s Okay & Alright ♥ 2 There are so many subtle things going on here that I almost lack for words. It's not just the chains taking away control, some action mimicking the words that will appear is happening for nearly every phrase! As for the art, the music*, and how it all fits so, so well together: It reminds me of that story about a client coming back to complain to the artist, that, yes, it was very pretty, but did they really have to pay so much for 2 pen-strokes, and wait for years for that? Then the artist takes the client on a tour through their house and countless of sketches and studies done in preparation for those two lines lie on all surfaces and pour out of every cupboard and chest that is opened. (It may have lost something in the retelling, but I think about it often.) (*: It's interesting how music you suspect wouldn't be that (for lack of a better word) 'good' on it's own can nonetheless perfectly fit a certain mood or other piece of media, isn't it?) One last thing: When I put it in full screen immediately after the haxe-flixel logo, it took a very long time to load (or maybe I already clicked a few times when it was still loading something and then needed to click again to start). So much so that I almost went to close it and write a comment about how it wouldn't start for me. I've been trying to reproduce it, but no luck, it now starts fine.