Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Feedback comment stats → Deprecat

Deprecat

Feedback comments for LD51

← LD49   LD52 →

Deprecat's games and stats for all events →

TimestampSince previousGameDeprecat's comment
Oct 4 02:14:32 Impending Doom of a Thousand Kitties ♥ 3 I very much wanted to not disappoint the kitties but I was not very good at this one haha. Super cute game! I like how it feels like I'm a very overworked cat-cafe attendant. I'd love to see the addition of some more treats, some cute munching sounds to add feedback to feeding time, and bigger particles to show the eating state a little better. This could make for a really cute idle game title!
Oct 4 02:17:11 2m 39s Cold Coffee in 10… ♥ 1 I love how you make the game unfold overtime and slowly reveal new mechanics! A really clever way to use a short amount of time to onboard the player. The little revelations made this such a treat and forced me to change my methods as I played. I really really like this
Oct 4 02:23:51 6m 40s Ten Seconds A Demon ♥ 1 I love the theme of having a demon attacking science-folk, it adds a fun twist to the standard possession plot. I think some possible improvements would be to either add unlockable abilities/pickups to increase your demonic powers as you wander through the facility. Also - with the camera as it is, it's hard to tell where the others are in the room. Maybe adding a detection pointer either around the player or somewhere else that points to the nearest 3 people or so could help provide more spacial awareness without revealing the entire room to the player. Nice work!
Oct 4 02:28:26 4m 35s Bumble Breeze ♥ 3 Such a wild theme that works surprisingly well! The art is very cohesive and really fits the vibe overall. It did take me a while to click that I was trying to collect flying pollen when there were other particles in the air at about the same depth of field. But I can't say I've seen an entry like this before!
Oct 4 02:34:10 5m 44s Chrono Harvest ♥ 1 A super cohesive little experience that I am not very good at lol. I really like the vision here overall! I was very confused about what the clock hand was supposed to be doing until I read the description below the game. I feel like visually it could be helped with some graphical juice like a small pulse when it activates an object, and also making it a gray tone so it's more obvious when it's passing above/below an object. The music choice works super well with the theme you have too
Oct 4 02:38:24 4m 14s Channel Flipper ♥ 1 This is hilarious and I would really love to see this polished into a short, unfolding style game. Just keep ramping up the absurdity as it goes. Good stuff
Oct 4 02:46:06 7m 42s Renew my Subscription ♥ 1 I definitely need to come back to this game after the post-jam fog has left me. This is a super smart puzzler that I really dig the vibe of. The time paradox idea and watching previous iterations of myself collide after I make it away safely makes me think I'm probably sacrificing other iterations of myself to make deliveries which having worked at an Amazon warehouse is accurate. I really really like this
Oct 4 02:52:23 6m 17s It's all in a day ♥ 3 Dude this is so cuuuute - albeit makes me a little sad cause I'm not very good at keeping myself alive and healthy. A great little life sim with so many nice details and personal touches. If you expand on this, I think the selections could do with a little more juice to help emphasize your choices. It took me a second to even notice the meters up top because my eyes are pulled to the bottom buttons. A nice flash and maybe a particle effect on the bars as they raise could help draw the eye upwards some. This is so dang cute <3
Oct 4 02:57:44 5m 21s Type Traveler ♥ 1 I'll need to try this on mobile later but it definitely works great with my clicky-clacky keyboard adding even more juice to an already very polished experience! This scratches my brain in a very satisfying way. I also like that you went a very different way with the 10 second prompt, since most of us (myself included) went for a spawn-based direction. I like the creativity here
Oct 4 03:03:21 5m 37s Le Petit Jardin ♥ 3 The humming! 😍 What a sweet little experience. Honestly no notes I can think of at the moment, just gonna hold onto this link for some cuteness again later.
Oct 6 22:27:20 67h 23m Space Hourglass ♥ 1 Man I love the color choices and bits of animation you fit into this. The animation especially does a great job expressing exactly what is happening with the hourglass and how it's impacting the world. Really good stuff. The job functions did take me a moment to understand, simply because it wasn't as responsive. It feels more like telling your sims to eat food and hoping they actually do it. I don't find anything wrong with that mechanic but a future build of this would hopefully invest some time in explaining that piece further to players. I never really had to change the jobs until the first enemy showed up so by the time the threat had arrived I wasn't sure what to do right away. I could have sped stuff up of course but that just makes me feel ill prepared haha. Really solid work here! Would love to see this expanded.
Oct 6 22:38:00 10m 40s Phase Snake ♥ 1 A very polished experience! The controls took me some time to get used to and I wouldn't say I'm great at them yet but I like this concept and the presentation a lot. I like that there's a constant switch with periods of calm and panic. The calm moments allow you to prepare and relax a bit but also elevates the tension of the survival section. Feels like a lo-fi horror experience with that kind of tension-release cycle
Oct 8 23:01:03 48h 23m Sweet Nightmare ♥ 1 Cute art and a nice concept for switching control types on the fly! It keeps the action going and switches the player from feeling either empowered or vulnerable. I was pleasantly surprised at just how many gameplay styles you fit into this one entry and the multiple music tracks were also a nice touch! Some thoughts if you expand this out: You've done a lot here to make the sprite changes and environment color help show that the controls have switched and give a general idea of what's changed - I feel like you can go even bolder here with more extreme shifts. Potentially changing entire backdrops, tones, color palettes, etc. We all definitely learned from this jam that 10 seconds is not enough time for much of anything, so making those changes even more bombastic can help instruct your player on not just that the change has happened but exactly what they need to do next. Examples could be: the entire arena looks like a golf-style minigame when the golf club comes up, switching to a DOOM style environment with metal music when the player gets a gun, to a space theme when the player gets the jetpack. I think going all-in on the spectacle of the genre switches will help sell the changing action. It could also be interesting for players to get a tetris-like prompt on the next powerup and the ability to skip that ability for another random one. This can give players a moment to get themselves in a good spot for the mode switch and strategize, or get a free skip to another gameplay style that may work better in the position their in.
Oct 8 23:30:24 29m 21s Memento Mori ♥ 1 A really nice concept - I'm a big fan of detective genre games so the story was very appealing to me. And the play on Memento Mori is super clever! If you're looking to take this beyond a jam build I have a couple suggestions: The movement mechanics felt very weird to me up front as there's no visual indicator on what direction I'm facing. This could either be solved by a visual change (i.e. the sprite rotates in 4 directions to face the position, or arrows display pointing where you are going) or just omitting the jump button entirely and just have players jump when they click the direction they want to go. The latter feels more natural and I'm not sure if there's a specific reason to just change the direction of the player without moving unless you played it into a mechanic of tricking the reaper into spawning at a specific location. The movement of the reapers I feel could be telegraphed a bit more as well. Maybe even going the chess route of reapers can only move in specific patterns, and showing the pattern visually as well as the flashing spot where the reaper will land. Then you could mix up levels by having reapers with unique patterns that can trap the player if they aren't careful. Overall though, a simple and sweet story!
Oct 8 23:34:20 3m 56s Chicken farm ♥ 0 Super cute idle clicker! Makes me want chickens even more lol. Like others have mentioned picking up the eggs got really difficult over time as my farm grew. I do like that I can hold left click and just scribble all around, but some cool upgrades like clicking and selecting a section of the map to collect what's there could really add a nice progression once the eggs get to ridiculous levels. But overall a really nice base for an idle game already!
Oct 9 00:02:25 28m 05s Exorcist Patrol ♥ 2 I am such a sucker for RPGs with unique fighting mechanics and this is no exception. A really cool idea and the art is just adorable! I hope you decide to take this into a full build because I would love to play it. Some thoughts on how to potentially elevate some concepts you have here: - At the moment there's no punishment for getting things wrong and just gives you a simple reset. I like the low-stress of this but it does take away from the danger of the situation. Feels like I'm just beating the poor things up. Having the enemies fight back seems like a natural next step. - I like the idea of time being able to pause and rewind rather than just play on a loop. The constant playing of the game doesn't really give me any additional information and if anything just kind of distracts from the task of putting items on the timeline. Being able to place my cards and press play to see what happens can also have a nice surprise element to it - I've just played a new card and I don't get to see it in action until I've put everything down and just get to find out. Overall I really dig this concept and the art is adorable. I love the UI design and it feels super natural to someone like me that works in timeline-based video and animation software all the time, though I would suggest testing the game with people who have no experience in those kinds of tools to see how well that translates for them. Great work to you both!
Oct 11 01:11:03 49h 08m The decasecond ♥ 1 Feels like you make a game just for us to decompress after the jam - very sweet :P I agree with some of the UX suggestions, just making mouse-based buttons or keyboard only (or both but either can be used in isolation) would work best. It would be nice to have additional voting options for prompts too - sometimes a prompt is not a good idea but it makes me laugh regardless so it would be nice to reward those players for making me giggle with a reaction you can give out
Oct 11 03:09:49 1h 58m Big Block Mode ♥ 2 Even reading the description I wasn't prepared for that first switch, but it's a pleasant surprise! A cool twist on familiar mechanics. I noticed you mentioned that you've added animations to the timer which I do find nice but I would recommend experimenting with the placement of that timer. I found that it was too high up and my eyes are focused on the bottom of the screen trying to find the best placement, so I didn't even see the timer until my second playthrough. You have lots of space under the high score menu (which I'd argue is less pressing information than your time left) and it may be better suited there. But that's something you can playtest to confirm if players find it better. Otherwise you have a really solid spin on traditional Tetris that I think people would really enjoy! Great work
Oct 11 03:29:00 19m 11s Silvi ♥ 2 I really enjoy how the 10 second limit allows you to fit all the fun of plant ownership/bonsai into a nice bite of a game! The limitations really help make plants seem way more fun than they seem (but I love plants, they are fun, just very very slow) My only issue was just how tiny points were to click and it requires a lot of precision that I'd imagine anyone with any shake to their hands wouldn't be able to manage, but I think you could solve for that by allowing people to zoom in to the plant and get really granular with their decisions, and would make it feel even more like you're a bonsai artist carefully studying your plant. The game feels like it could be very meditative but if that's the goal then I wonder if the timer is even needed anymore. It could be interesting to play with allowing players to make their changes then allow them to progress time when they're ready to see the results of their work. That way the anxiety of time pressure isn't undoing all your cozy work you've created in your theming and design. Really sweet entry! I love that others have made "cozy" games with a theme this frantic
Oct 11 17:39:51 14h 10m WHERE IS THAT KITTY GOING??? ♥ 2 The cat theming and difficulty reminds me a lot of Cat Mario and it's brutal tricks, but this feels more interesting than cruel and I was very curious to see what was coming next. I agree @beetlebox that the jumping off of items felt odd and I wasn't 100% whether it would work or kill me. I feel like having an auto-bounce when landing on pick ups can solve for this while also creating unique puzzle challenges (ie. sometimes you don't want to bounce so landing on an item could lead to your death). I'm not sure whether your goal is to make a rage game or a relaxing auto-runner but I think this could develop into either! Nice entry
Oct 11 18:05:46 25m 55s Pandora’s Box [WebGL/Win/Touch] ♥ 0 time.png Not too bad on time! Though I definitely didn't go for butterflies. A sweet little entry that I think could do well if you expand it out. Here's a few thoughts I have for if you look to build this out further: * The art is super cute but I feel like some visuals could be pushed further. My first time encountering ice I didn't even notice it was there and just assumed the controls were slippery. Exaggerating some of your special pieces like ice or spikes can help telegraph the danger to your player better. They only have 10 seconds so being as bold and obvious as possible will make things feel more fair. * The platforming was a bit fiddly for me, mostly due to some platform placement. In later levels I didn't feel like I was conquering the stage, I was just trying to squeeze myself into impossible crevices that could have been structured in a more unique way that feels better to get through. Missing a jump is one thing, but banging my head as I try to fit into a small space is very frustrating * I really didn't care about the butterflies personally - which isn't really a bad thing. I just wanted to get through the level as fast as I could, through damage boosting through enemies and even just killing myself if I messed up and not wanting to wait out the timer. I feel the butterflies are asking the player to test themselves by going out of their way but I feel like there needs to be more of a reward for them that's telegraphed to the player early. Similar to Celeste's Strawberries. But since the player is fighting a time limit - my anxiety wins out over collectables. You guys did a great job! I hope to see if you decide to build this out further
Oct 13 01:19:27 31h 13m Sleepcheckers ♥ 2 Was genuinely not expecting a typing game but I do enjoy them! I have some thoughts if you plan on expanding this out further: * I don't know if it's necessary for the player to move with the mouse. It mostly just led to frustration with them blocking the prompt and didn't feel like it added much to the gameplay aside from a distraction * The timing of the bed initially messed me up so bad I had to stop playing and come back. I'd rather be able to decide when to get out of the bed than have it eject me and possibly get me killed because I jumped in a little too soon. * Sometimes the prompts let me do them when I was away from the interactable (in bed) and some didn't. I think it makes sense that you can't keep doing them when you're hiding but if I'm able I'm gonna cheese it lol * I really like the concept overall but the limitation of the jam having a 10 second theme made this game almost impossible without your walkthrough. I didn't feel encouraged to explore the nice space you created because I was stressed as all hell trying to just do the next thing. If you plan on expanding this idea out further, then easing up on the timer or giving the player other ways to hide (e.g. a mask or disguise that can work a handful of times before the enemy catches on) could make things more interesting while still letting the player see all the cool stuff you made Overall though a really cool entry!
Oct 13 01:43:27 24m 00s Galaxy Pucks ♥ 1 Admittedly spent more time playing than I expected so now I'm writing this before I go make dinner lol. Really nice entry! I'm not sure how I feel about the level switching after flailing too long. On one hand - it does give me a change in scenery but on the other it makes me feel really crummy for the game to be like "You suck, let me just take this work your doing and throw it in the bin so you can try on another level idiot". Just feels a bit too punishing for inexperienced players and that may turn them away before they really get to do much. The level with the goal in the center was where I almost quit (which I'm glad it does flip to a new one then). The pucks will eventually find their way to the wall and they are hard to knock off of into the center. Feels so counter to all table hockey/pool games. Maybe it could be improved with bumpers that knock the puck off the wall somewhat so you can get behind them better. Really nice entry! Could see myself spending way too much time with this on mobile
Oct 13 15:25:52 13h 42m Cat Blaster ♥ 0 I'm happy to see all the different types of levels you've fit in here! Definitely helps elevate the mechanic to cause you to constantly switch between play styles. Some thoughts if you expand this out into a full release: * This is one of the few games where 10 seconds feels insufferably long instead of way too short. That's partly a good thing as I'm doing my best to survive in that time but also very disempowering and can be very frustrating at times. Giving more time drops or other things players can do to add to the risk/reward gameplay while allowing them to speed things up a bit can be a good way of rewarding skilled players and letting them pick up the pace a bit. Parts like the vertical platforming level felt this the hardest where I just start the level waiting to charge up and I'm not immediately getting into the action. * Those eyes made me very mad lol. That's just a personal note it was always cathartic to kill them but maybe they're a bit too smart? Idk might be my own bias. Overall the music and sounds are nicely done and you have a lot of ideas here to make for a full game already that can just be expanded on! Nice work
Oct 13 22:59:39 7h 33m HAZCAT - Toxic Feline ♥ 1 Really solid work! So impressed you got all this done for your compo entry especially. I played both the compo entry and post-jam entry, my ratings were based on the compo entry but my comments here are on your post entry. I love a lot of your animations, the spin as you jump off the wall was a welcome addition after playing the first version and not having any feedback on the wall jump or how many are available. The destruction of the level is great and adds a ton of tension that works really well for the verticality of the level. I do think the screen shake is still a bit too aggressive (it was scary in the original lol) and too disorienting to be fair. The camera also gets pulled away from me and forced further down which is both distracting and probably a bit unnecessary if the intent is to show the player "Hey there's acid". That could be handled with an opening cutscene, but also the pouring acid in the background handles that as well. But overall a very nice base for a tense platformer. I wish I had a controller atm as it would probably feel way better that way but I'm on my laptop just doing my best, so I don't want to comment too much on the feelings of the controls. There was a marked improvement on the updated version however and I enjoyed my time with the game!
Oct 21 20:12:40 189h 13m Home Office Hero ♥ 2 Very realistic, especially with my ADHD just picking up whatever is closest to me lol. I wasn't able to beat it because I just couldn't find the last two clothes for the life of me but I got close! If you wanted to pick this up into a full game, I say add even more chaos. It could be fun to have an absolute catastrophe around you as you're trying to keep in touch with your boss.