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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Shaolin Dave's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 4 16:37:58 | Unstable Spaceball | ♥ 3 | First game I played this jam. Writing as I play: 1- I clicked the "how to play" button and immediately notice that the screen has a lot of unused space and the text is very small in the center. I'm thinking a UI-scaling issue? 2- I happen to be playing this on a laptop with a clickable trackpad. I notice the instructions mention both left-and-right click. Controlling could be difficult, I'd suggests alternative control (ie if I could use use r-click or spacebar) 3- Listening to the tones in the background, they sound good, very relaxing. I might play this while I sleep tonight. 4- Completed level one with no issue. Premise is simple, controls are intuitive (so far). I like it! 5- Started the next level and the music abruptly restarted. Is this a Unity game? I'd suggest having the music okay from a DontDestroyOnLoad singleton, so it'll be persistent between scenes. 6- Level 3, I just realized the meter in the center of the screen is UI and not some sort of platform. Now I see it's purpose 7- I'm realizing the UI at the end of each level has the same issue as the "how to play" screen, could use screen real estate better. 8- Also, clicking anywhere to go to next level would be more intuitive than having to click the specific button. 9- Music turned off while I was writing comments, maybe the track should be looped? 10- Noticed the screen blur as stability decreases. Nice touch! 11- Accidentally found that you can relaunch the ball while it's already moving. Good mechanic that could come into use later, maybe a level that teaches players to do this (assuming there is one but I just haven't seen it yet) 12- It seems the stability fields repel the player while the instability fields pull them in. Another nice touch! 13- I'm failing the same level over and over, and I can't remember what level I'm on. On-screen level counter would be nice 14- Trial-and-error seems to be the way here. Maybe hints after a certain number of failures? 15- Wondering if there could be audio indications of instability in addition to the visual blur? 16 - Stuck on another level, and I think it's because I forgot the r-click stop mechanic until now. In-game instructions and reminders would be good. 17- Just noticed that the instability field rings are moving inward. Since they repel the player, I'd suggest reversing that animation. 18 - Still stuck on the same level as from 16. Now thinking I need to relaunch in midair to get over a wall, but it's very hard with trackpad. I'll probably give up here and try again later when I have a mouse. 19 - Notcing that even when you fail it shows how much stability lost. We already know it's 100+ so probably don't need that there 20 - Thought of another mechanic. Instead of losing the moment your stability runs out, what if there was a delayed reaction? Like, you couldn't launch anymore, but the ball would shake and glow and explode a couple seconds later? If your inertia from you last launch gets you to the finish line, stability returns. That way players could go all out on a last-ditch effort, rather than already knowing they'll lose. Good job! | |
| Oct 4 16:59:05 | 21m 07s | Another Brick on a Brick | ♥ 1 | I love it. Could use some sound though, even sfxr would be helpful. Audio cues for when your block is about to drop would increase the play experience a lot. Also, lack of rotation does add a bit to the challenge but I do feel the game would benefit from it. Another thing I just noticed, It'd be good to have one small platform underneath the ground area. Like, one block length on each side of the platform. This would allow players to overhang one piece safely and give them and added strategy, but one they have to balance risk of. |
| Oct 4 17:38:39 | 39m 34s | SEXY BOOBY 95 | ♥ 3 | I had a feeling that's what the end result would be. I am curious what would happen if I went to the URL on my computer though. A bit of sound would have been nice, even if it were just in the minigame. I like the interpretation of the theme. EDIT: sound issue was on my end, bluetooth headphones got muted. |
| Oct 4 17:50:23 | 11m 44s | Nukular | ♥ 2 | Writing notes as I'm Playing: 1- Tutorial text is very small, lots of waste screen space. Some graphics would help. 2- Started the game. I think an in-game tutorial would have been more intuitive. 3- For the most part, bad sound is better than no sound. Even using sfxr to generate some beeps is worthwhile. 4- Challenge is brutal and mistakes are unforgiving, game over screen is abrupt and has same issues as tutorial. 5- I have almost no idea what the collectables are doing. I started off grabbing everything, but I think I was suppose to grab blues and avoid reds? Some instruction or audio/video feedback would be helpful 6- I got pretty far using only up/down. I only needed to tilt after my ball got pushed back a bit, and only had to move left/right to correct for that. A more subtle tilt and auto-return to flat would make controls a bit more intuitive. 7- I got a bit better at correcting my mistakes but the difficulty curve still seems a bit high, especially for a jam game. My ball rolled off the edge of the screen and there was nothing I could do. Was this for Jam or Compo? If Jam, you still have four or so hours, I'd make some minor control tweaks and add a few sound effects. EDIT: Sound issue was on my end with bluetooth, I tried again. Music is good, I think you still could use sound with the item pickups. |
| Oct 5 05:41:47 | 11h 51m | Unhitched Isles | ♥ 1 | Writing this as I play: First note, the html file is huge (dimension-wise) and I had to scroll over to find the game window. It does fit on my laptop screen, but I suggest using an auto-resizing html template (I think I sent a couple to you already) The instructions are kind of small, the font choice is hard to read, and it's especially hard to read on the background. It's important to not sacrifice functionality for style The layout is also making things difficult, with some visual elements overlapping each other After playing about ten times, I think I've got the hang of it? It's not very clear what the lose/win conditions are, but I got more of each type of building on the island than the task wanted. I was sort of expecting the game to progress further, but it only gives me the option to quit to the menu. I like the concept, but it's a bit hard to figure out with trial and error. Mostly I think the game could benefit from some UI and feedback enhancements. When selecting pieices, the name could show up by the cursor with the number of how many have been built, and how many are needed. Maybe video/audio cues when the goal for each building type is reached, and when the goal overall has been reached. As time is running out, maybe a visual/audio cue that it's coming up, and a different (more urgent) cue for when it's coming out and you haven't complete the tasks? Good interpretation of the theme though. |
| Oct 6 04:59:37 | 23h 17m | Pest Control | ♥ 1 | Looks very interesting. Any chance for a web build so us non-Windows people can check it out? |
| Oct 6 05:17:03 | 17m 26s | Instability | ♥ 2 | Writing as I'm playing 1- pausing on lost focus, a good quality-of-life improvemtn that often gets overlooks. 2- music sounds great 3- upon starting the tutorial i not that A and D allow you to move but arrow keys do nothing. I think this would've been nice, especially during the roping sections. 4- When the anamoly showed up in the tutorial, I ran into it to see what would happen and got stuck, had to restart the page. maybe a pause menu with restart option would be good. 5- gameplay is entirely keyboard input, so it'd be good to have menu input with keyboard also. Pressing any key to retry rather than having to use mouse, etc. 6- gameplay is very nice. i like it. I could see myself coming back to this game every now and then, and few jam games really grab my attention like that 7- difficulty curve is very high. the procedurally generated levels could use some tweaking, like to breaking playforms for a given amount of time at the beginning, then even further for the breaking ropes. Allow new players to get some distance before they're beaten down. 8- Being a precision platformer, I think the game could benefit from jump buffering any coyote time. Maybe tweaking gravity with a slower decent and more hangtime. 9- Many ropes are hanging and you have to swing first. Getting three of those in a row pretty much makes it impossible to progress. 10- Was just thinking that in addition to adding arrow keys for movement, adding mouse click to jump would be good too. This also means their hands will already be on the mouse to click restart. Final thoughts: Definitely a fun game, looks and sounds great (simplistic in a good way). But with unforgiving controls and randomly difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, setups, it gets a bit frustrating. |
| Oct 6 05:30:25 | 13m 22s | Split | ♥ 1 | Typing as I'm playing: 1- just general feedback on this page, not the actual game, but I think you have maybe a little bit too much here. I think most just want to click and play asap, and here we really need to search for the link. 2- and the itch.io asthetics, the gameplay window is too big. It barely fits on my laptop screen, and would be cut off with a lower resolution. I suggest finding a custom auto-resizing html template so it'll auto-correct of different resolutions. 3- "kill" and "huge"? I guess that was meant to be "hug"? 4- clicked "huge" and saw a stopwatch, I have no idea what happened. 5- went in the second door, moved a couple times, got stuck, saw the stopwatch. Still no idea what happened. 6- Went in the third room. Clicked two pink objects (the lower one didn't change the cursor so I wasn't even sure it was clickable. Could not click the third pink object in the drawer 7- As I was typing the last note, I heard the stopwatch again. I still have no idea what that means or what causes it to happen. Now I'm seeing a character in a straight jacket. I see no way out of this, so I just closed the tab. Final notes: Some of the art is exceptionally well done, especially for a jam game, but I don't think much else had as much love. I can't make sense of the narrative, the gameplay, or the mechanics. |
| Oct 6 05:42:48 | 12m 23s | YuraYura! - Tidying up the tilting tower! | ♥ 3 | Typing as I'm playing: 1- Okay, presentation is EXCELLENT. I like the cuteness and layout. The title screen "press start" works good if you happen to be using a gamepad, but using a keyboard it'd be nice to say "press start/enter" 2- I like that the GUI can be controlled with keyboard, so many games force you to click with mouse. 3- Tutorial level is nice, but controls are hidden away in the corner. I'd like to see an addition of the controls showing up, one at a time, front and center, until the player learns them. 4- Good addition of a pause screen, another thing usually lacking in these games. 5- whoa! The difficulty spiked immediately. Level 2 seems like it should be level 3 to 5. I'm introduced to jumping enemies AND level hazards at the same time. Maybe slow down a bit. 6- A couple times it seems like the tilt comes and goes past a threshold to quick. It's frustating being stuck at a point of no return so soon. 7- Level 3 seemed easier than level 2. growing weights are an interesting mechanic, but still one that was really thrown in there without warning or leadup, 8- UFO level was cool but again the difficulty spike was huge, having to deal with a relentless attacking enemy for the first time on the same level where you're dealing with platforming on an odd-shaped level for the first time... it's a bit much. I'd suggest one level with the UFO, then one with the +shaped level, then a level with the two of them together. I'm calling it quits for now but maybe I'll revisit and retry this. |
| Oct 7 04:08:10 | 22h 25m | Deathrail | ♥ 5 | Kinda jumping back and forth between playing and typing. here are my notes: 1- controls are a bit odd, controlling the entire game with one hand is okay but feels weird. moving with WASD and balancing with arrows might've felt more intuitive. 2- love the music, but it starting over on every reload gets annoying. I'd suggest putting the music on a DontDestroyOnLoad object so the music is continuous even after a game over. 3- rather than automatically restarting, maybe wait for player input? 4- graphics are nice, but the flames chasing the player bug me. They're a certain distance behind the player even after a rail switch. so theres flames coming from where the player never was? I think this would be an excellent opportunity to use a particle system. 5- Pause functionality would be nice. 6- First time getting to the bridge, the game restarted, so I thought I failed to jump on it. Second time I'm seeing a Journal entry (#3, in case there's multiples). The shift in art style made be think I accidently closed the tab and this was a completely different game. Did I win? Did I lose? 7- In the instructions I noticed it said to push ESC to return to the main menu but that doesn't appear to be the case, ESC does nothing in game. It DOES bring the game out of fullscreen mode, so if you did have any functionality I'd suggest using another key anyway (If my game is in browser, I usually like to use "~" to pause/unpause/quit. Final thoughts: Overall I like it, thought it could use some polish and new mechanics. |
| Oct 7 04:10:52 | 2m 42s | ROBOKILL | ♥ 0 | Not a Windows user, I'll have to check back if you make a web or Mac build. Just wanted to say that I do like the concept and the art style. Reading through the controls it seems like it'd be difficult for me to play anyway, on a laptop with a trackpad. I personally try to make games that CAN use things like right-click, but have alternatives for laptop players. |
| Oct 7 04:29:25 | 18m 33s | Clammy and the Seven Seas | ♥ 0 | Gonna type this up as I play: 1- off the bat I just wanted to say that having arrows move and only one interact button is good. A big mistake I see is games getting way too complicated, especially for a jam. My only thoughts are you should have alternative controls, like WASD as well. 2- Jesus, that volcano scared me. 3- Music is charming. A little relaxing considering a volcano is going to explode, but I still like it. 4- It seems there's some problems with detecting when the duck is on/off land? 5- Took me a while to figure out I had to go down, there wasn't really any indication that it was an option, and the down arrow after that is sort of misleading. 6- The volcano going off every time gets a bit tedious, a skip cutscene option would be nice. 7- The text is too small and pixelated to read. It's also a bit tedious to have to wait for NPC dialogue on replays, or if you accidentally talk to them twice. 8- Okay, beat the game. Not sure how jumping in the volcano stopped it. Was I a sacrifice to Pele? Anyway, cute game. It took a bit of trial and error and guesswork, but it does it's job. An unstable volcano is an interpretation of the theme I hadn't thought of, and haven't seen anyone else do either. |
| Oct 7 04:33:10 | 3m 45s | Lapis Vitae (Point&Click Adventure) | ♥ 2 | Can't play because I don't have Windows but I'll have to check it out sometime. I did attempt a point-and-click adventure once, and maybe I'll try again someday, but mine was nowhere near as good as this one looks. Based on the YouTube video, you got the mechanics down good. The graphics I'm guessing are premade assets? |
| Oct 10 23:41:26 | 91h 08m | WOLFGUN | ♥ 1 | Looks neat, any chance of a Mac or Web version? |