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tjm

Feedback comments for LD49

Timestamp	Since previous	Game		tjm's comment
Oct 4 10:35:11		Unstable Towers	♥ 0	Simple, but works well! Do you use any kind of algorithm to select next pieces, or is it a simple random order? I felt like some deals were just impossible, especially when you get the X pentomino. My failures usually felt like they were because of the last two specific pieces, but I think what you want is for the sense of instability to grow inexorably as the tower gets higher. Slightly more planned piece orders might make that more likely?
Oct 4 10:58:08	22m 57s	Reactor	♥ 1	Solidly made! A way to select levels would have been nice since they can take a while (also a quick way to reset them after you've made a mess), but it's understandable given the limited timeframe of compo. Mechanically the forces seemed a little counterintuitive at first, but once I got my head around them I could make things work fairly consistently. Good job!
Oct 4 11:13:43	15m 35s	Spherry	♥ 1	Cute! The division into stages initially didn't make sense to me, but now In understand it's a "push your luck" system to decide whether to bank your score or not. That said, the difficulty of the movement didn't seem to change as the game went on, as far as I could tell? I think that (e.g. stronger waves in later stages) would make the challenge more interesting; as it stands the game feels like it gets easier as you go along, as some kitties are necessary casualties to attrition so you have fewer to manage. Overall, though, it looks and feels fun, so nice work!
Oct 7 22:31:40	83h 17m	Autoscript	♥ 2	Others have commented on the learning curve, so I'll just say I appreciated having free access to all levels, especially on a web game I may come back to after losing save data. Visually it has a strong coherent style, though it's a little tough to tell what's interactive and what isn't? Naturally I could figure out from context that thinks like "Pass turn" were buttons, but it would be nice if the interactable elements were more distinct? (FWIW I've done 1-4 so far; I feel like I would need a lot of experimentation before I can get anywhere in the next few, though.)
Oct 7 22:52:19	20m 39s	Floor Falls	♥ 1	Solid design; the 3D structure is neat and different to think about. It was a little difficult to realise how the levels are stacked at first; obviously puzzlescript is very limiting in that respect. Perhaps the higher floors could be slightly higher on the screen (maybe by a tile or so) to convey a sense of height? It might also be helpful to put the cover image (with the isometric projection) on the game's page? It's very helpful, but if someone comes to the game by a path that doesn't show the cover image then they won't see it. The visuals are nice and generally clear; my one slight criticism is that the inner walls don't read to me as walls - they seem a little more like pits with a different background. That might be because the slight isometry from the platform edges makes me expect it everywhere, so walls that don't extend "upwards" don't read as walls?
Oct 9 13:28:44	38h 36m	Emily vs the Unstable Creatures	♥ 1	I can't get the game to run, I'm afraid; I've tried the latest versions of both Chrome and Firefox (on PC); both get to the "The game will start soon" screen and stay there forever (well, for at least 15m).
Oct 9 13:51:58	23m 14s	Dream Dog Dilemma	♥ 1	Excellent work; reminds me of Eversion! My one minor complaint is that it was a little easy to forget which machines did what? Usually what I wanted to know when looking at a machine was "will this take me up or down?", and I couldn't tell that without memorizing which colour machine was for which layer pair. Otherwise, game was strong across the board and pretty fun to puzzle out.
Oct 9 14:30:08	38m 10s	The Yellow Wallpaper	♥ 1	The illustration is very nice, but I feel the presentation is held back by the text presentation? The text is very plain, it doesn't really stand out against the background, and it doesn't really match the visual style of the art. If it fit in better I think it would elevate the overall look by a lot! The level design was fun, and the movement felt okay (except for not being able to jump right after landing), but it would be nice if the level design could give me a little more hint where I was going; blind jumps downwards feel a little uncomfortable when falling in other places resets the level! Thanks for making this!
Oct 9 15:12:50	42m 42s	Nucleus	♥ 1	Very nice visuals, and I like the advanced gameplay of using deflected electrons to deflect other electrons! My one criticism would be the main menu/instructions screen; it's a lot of information at once, and the thin text makes everything feel a little hard to read and bland. It might be worth splitting the instructions over a few screens, presented in sequence, ideally with their own diagrams to make it a little clearer? But otherwise it's good fun, glad I found it!
Oct 9 15:33:21	20m 31s	Crunda	♥ 0	Very nice! I didn't quite get what the water did, but otherwise the mechanics were very clear and the graphics and audio sold them very well. I think this could easily be the basis of a commercial title, along the lines of games like Ynglet. Keep up the good work!
Oct 9 16:10:28	37m 07s	YuraYura! - Tidying up the tilting tower!	♥ 2	Great work! Very clear game mechanics, though it can become very difficult to read the game state when the platform is heavily tilted. Music and graphics are very polished, very impressive for such a short period of time.
Oct 9 16:30:27	19m 59s	Viole(n)t Cooking	♥ 0	Looks and sounds great, but like some previous commenters it just doesn't seem to work for me? I can't click on or drag anything except the floating book, and all the things that look like ingredients are greyed out and noninteractible. Refreshing the page doesn't help. Playing on Chrome, on PC.
Oct 9 16:46:54	16m 27s	Snek Left	♥ 2	Very pretty, obviously! I found the controls for retrying a bit frustrating, though; so a game this fast-to-fail you really want retries to be as quick and seamless as possible, but here I seem to have to switch from keyboard to mouse every time I fail (which is often, obviously), and the animation on death is pretty long. With faster retries I'm sure I would play this game a lot more! Honestly, double the number of levels and you could probably sell this on mobile or steam just fine.
Oct 9 17:03:05	16m 11s	An oddly SATISFYING game	♥ 1	Short but sweet; very pleasant to interact with, with a great visual flair. I'm afraid I don't really see the connection to the theme, though....