Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Feedback comment stats → Jeremy Ryan
Feedback comments for LD51
Jeremy Ryan's games and stats for all events →
| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Jeremy Ryan's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 3 16:21:38 | Thunderstorm | ♥ 2 | First, the black-and-white art style is great for the game concept. The game immediately starts with an "oh shit" moment that establishes the atmosphere really well. The sprite and animation work were quite good. I especially loved the character design for the creatures, as well as the lamp posts. The variety of monsters was great and made you learn different strategies as you went. I will say that the ten second timer for the lightning felt a bit slow (not much you can do about that with this theme, of course). It was often not possible to wait until the next flash to see the next area, since the chaser would get you before the lightning flashed. It also might have been nice to have enemy movement and the lightning timer reset to a particular moment on respawn --- there were a couple times with the spiders I spawned at the worst possible time in their movement cycle and don't think it was possible to win from that position. Audio was really well done for a jam game. The music is frantic and spooky. I particularly liked the bells/chimes in the soundtrack and upon reaching a checkpoint. I've added the "crawler" from your game to a fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) Nice work! | |
| Oct 3 16:29:23 | 7m 45s | Among 'em | ♥ 1 | I had a lot of fun with this! The map was large and interesting and felt "alive" with all the other drones in it. Once you learned the personalities of the different enforcers it made for really dynamic gameplay as you tried to sprint away from the yellow one and sneak past the blue one. Obviously there's not much in the way of an objective/endgame/win condition at the moment, but I could see a really interesting full game here if there were objects throughout the map you had to collect/interact with. The graphics were simple but clean. The line-of-sight projections worked really well, especially since you could see the enemy's field of view before you saw the enemy themselves. It's pretty subtle but I like how the lighting on the walls is brighter/deeper based on how close you are to the wall and how directly you're looking at it. Basic SFX including an alarm, etc. when you get noticed would go a long way for making it more immersive. Nice work for 48 hours! I've added the "inspector" from your game to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) |
| Oct 4 02:19:20 | 9h 49m | Dragon Slayer Ultra | ♥ 1 | Awesome entry! You can tell that so much love went into the details on this one. The pixel art is clean and full of character. I particularly liked the fact that the wings change direction when you've used your double-jump and the fact the dragon breathes! The gimmick of the game crashing is fun and flavorful. The little "save icon" was a great way to work it in, and you really went all-in with the presentation ("don't turn the console off" for a web game). A couple very small spots that felt less-than-perfect: - As others have said, it would be nice if you could reset before the ten seconds. A few times I messed up and just had to wait it out. - The platforming felt a little bit slow at times, despite you being forced to move really quick to get to the next checkpoint. In particular it felt like the character took a while to fall, which slowed things down when climbing "ladders" of stacked platforms. - It was a little odd that the game crashed when you hit enemies as well. At first I didn't realize what was causing it and thought the timing was changing. Music was well-done and awesome to have different tracks for the title and several different areas. I can't get over how funny it is to just shoot a dragon with a gun. Great entry. I added the main character to the fan art compilation on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/). |
| Oct 4 03:20:53 | 1h 01m | Sneak Guy | ♥ 1 | Nice little stealth game! I appreciate that you took the time to make a tutorial for each of the items in your kit. It made sure you knew all your tools before dumping you into the action. I will say that the smokescreen and club were vastly more useful than the coin. I almost never was forced to use the coin. I really like the guard AI, and how expressive they are when they become suspicious or surprised. The torch lighting is also really neat visually. The lights turning on and off didn't really affect how I played that much. I'm not sure exactly what they did mechanically, although I did sometimes get caught even while hiding when the lights were on (but inconsistently). The storyline was also fun. I like the good-natured nude protagonist who only wants to beat the crap out of armed guards and tuck the princess into bed. Well done for 48 hours! I drew a picture of one of the guards and added it to the fan art compilation on my [profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan) |
| Oct 5 01:57:11 | 22h 36m | The Sandwicher | ♥ 3 | Excellent as always! The graphics and polish are great, and the characters are bouncy and expressive. I liked how different all the upgrades felt; I played a number of runs with different strategies and they all felt quite a bit different. I will say that the homing movement wasn't very intuitive. I had no idea how the movement worked until I came to the comments and saw your responses. It's a little rough because the main failure case is going through more enemies than you intended, and the homing exacerbates that a bit. The moving vs. standing still mechanic was an interesting tradeoff. You probably can't stack your multiplier infinitely because at some point you'll have stood around enough to advance to the next wave. Tying the healing to staying still was also really clever. Music and sound effects were excellent as well! I drew Breadalt and added him to the fanart collage on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) breadalt.png Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 5 03:07:50 | 1h 10m | Raidar | ♥ 2 | Wow! You guys did so much right with this. The cockpit-view and ominous space sound effects made for amazing immersion, especially with the alarm lights, moving joystick, and all the little details. It would have been great if you had managed to incorporate the other HUD elements like the radar scanner into the cockpit design, but that definitely would have been a lot more work. The gameplay was really interesting. Navigating around obstacles you could only see every ten seconds was quite a challenge, but the coordinates and tether helped a bit. It did feel like you were incentivized to just move really slowly; some other kind of time pressure, like an oxygen meter, or threat of aliens/meteors/radiation, could help push the player to take more risks and feel a little more pressure. @paul-merkamp Cool to see you've assembled a team for this one (including an additional Merkamp!). I drew a picture of what I think the ship could look like and added it to the fan art collage on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) ship.png Congrats on this entry and good luck during the rest of play and rate! |
| Oct 6 12:39:20 | 33h 31m | Ten Seconds to Midnight | ♥ 2 | Nice entry! I really liked the general vibe and environment, especially the map that transitions from the groomed ski slope to the more difficult forested area with obstacles and less predictable slopes. It gave me PS1 vibes. The main character and narrative are fun and add to the experience. I will say that I had a lot of trouble controlling the character. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the main gameplay is managing your momentum and controlling your movement, but there might be a little more you can do to "cheat" for the player to make it feel a little better. Something like magnet-ing to the ground if you're going at low enough speed, since the skidding behavior is very difficult to predict. I also *really* appreciate how visible you made the objectives and that you were a little forgiving with their hit boxes. That's one potential failure of games like this, especially when moving into areas with obstructions like the trees. The visibility made it so you almost always knew where the closest torch was, even if there was a bunch of stuff between you and it. Low-hanging fruit for improvement --- add a "distance traveled" number on the end screen! I don't know if there were other "biomes" (I wasn't able to get through the forest) but having a number would help motivate you to keep trying if you're not seeing any obvious indicators of distance in-game. And it lets you see your improvement over time. I'm planning on drawing fan art of every game I play this event and compiling them on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/), but I'm out of time right now so I'll have to follow up on yours this evening. Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 8 05:39:04 | 40h 59m | Beardadette and the Eternal Hiccup | ♥ 2 | Fantastic entry! The art style and character design are excellent. Beardadette is a beautiful and graceful protagonist, and all of the miscellaneous creatures have tons of character. I loved the little angry rocks and the sick lizards (reminded me a little of [Grubbs](https://oddworld.fandom.com/wiki/Grubb)). The art style of 2.5D worked great with the gameplay and mood, but you still put lots of extra graphics flair in like the section where you walk through walls, the 3D liquids, and the points where you move closer/farther from the camera. The gameplay itself is solid. I liked the visual indicator for the upcoming hiccup, but I think it could have been even more precise (like an animation or meter refilling) to take out some of the guesswork. I will say that the fun part of the game was the puzzles and the hiccup mechanic, but sometimes I felt like I was fighting with the physics of the game a little bit. Things like trying to throw a rock onto a ledge and having it roll back off. The windmills were also a little bit finnicky --- at one point one knocked out my rock, stranding me on the wrong side. It might be an improvement to make some of the objects less slippery and more likely to stay put, but this is a pretty minor thing. But for the purposes of a game jam it's still way above standard haha. The music and audio were great, especially the hiccup noises. Would have been nice to have sound effects for some of the extra things like the knife-wielding bees! I drew Beardadette and added her to the fan art collage on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) lizard.png Great job and look forward to continuing to play your team's games in future events. 😄 |
| Oct 8 22:20:12 | 16h 41m | Bear's Home Repairs | ♥ 6 | Had a lot of fun with this one! Definitely had the vibes of COD zombies with the boarded windows and various weapons. I loved the goofy theme, variety of equipment, and juice when you blast a teddy bear with your shotgun. The map was well-designed, and had a lot of different areas to it. I will say that boarding up the windows rarely felt worth it; there were so many entry points for the enemies that applying the board didn't really stop the flow very much. I think the most powerful equipment in the game was by far the razor wire --- it's permanent and lets you stop up the enemy movement at choke points. I had a lot of luck staying in the bedroom and just reinforcing the one area with wire and mines in case they broke through. bearsc.png The graphics were really nice, especially the dying animations. The cartoon-y aesthetic did a lot of work, since you were able to add lots of detail to the house like a fireplace and kitchen without having to do detailed modeling and textures, and it looks great. The audio was pretty simple but worked well. My only quibble is that some of the levels didn't seem even (the shotgun was way quieter than the automatic rifle, for instance, and the turret was very quiet). There were probably a few actions that would have been nice to have sounds for, like placing a turret or when your loadout switches. Moreover, I'm really impressed that the game is so cohesive with such a big team! It seemed like everyone was really on the same page and had the same vision for the final game. It would have been nice to have an in-game tutorial, but I also recognize they're one of the most time consuming things to make and often some of the lowest priorities. I drew Mr. Bear and added him to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) mrbear.png Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 9 01:05:48 | 2h 45m | Between the Gap | ♥ 2 | I had a lot of fun with this one! I love the illustrations, especially the little village with the buildings to upgrade. I think the player character blends in a little bit with the background, but the enemies are the most important things to see and they're very visible. Some animations for getting hit and dying, even basic particle effects, could go a long way in making your shots feel impactful (highly recommend watching "The Art of Screenshake" talk on YouTube if you have never seen it!). The upgrades were fun and varied. The buildings even looked different as you upgraded them! I also like the way the camera shifted from the battlefield to the village between rounds. From a gameplay perspective, I have two bits of feedback: - In my experience, it's almost never a good idea to limit player impact behind how fast you can mash a button. This is something that varies wildly between players and can hurt physically to do, especially if you don't get any breaks. There might be other ways to do upgrading, like limiting the rate of upgrades based on time, or having some minigame to upgrade (like something that requires timing). - I've also found that having bullet speed as an upgrade often isn't super fun. It usually doesn't make *that* much difference in gameplay, but it feels a lot better to have fast bullets, so slowing them down for the "unupgraded" state often makes the gameplay less responsive. I generally prefer to keep bullet speed pretty fast and have upgrades like fire rate, bullet damage, number of enemies they can pass through, shrapnel/explosions, etc. But this is also just a personal opinion, so your mileage may vary! You did a lot right with the gameplay; I liked that the enemies had fast-and-weak ones and slow-and-strong ones. The fact that you had to craft bullets was interesting, and I really like the fact you gave the player infinite weak bullets once those ran out --- it's inoptimal, but doesn't just strand the player if they don't prepare enough. My best run was round 18. I'm not *entirely* sure what your protagonist is supposed to be, but I tried to draw them! I've added them to the fan art collage on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) gap.png Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 9 17:44:55 | 16h 39m | 10 Seconds or Less | ♥ 3 | Nice entry! I liked the voxel art and the amount of time that clearly went into the levels and environments. The three different "zones" all felt different, with different hazards and tricks to move around. The theme is amusing (time-traveling pizza boy) and fits the atmosphere of the game. I have a couple small comments on the gameplay: - As others have said, the movement is a bit sluggish (particularly turning). Obviously this kind of game is about controlling your movement and momentum effectively, but I think it may have helped to make the turning a little bit more responsive since you have to dodge things with such precision. - I liked the isometric view, but it sometimes made it hard to line things up, particularly when jumping (and particularly with the girders in the construction level). The cyclist's shadow helped here, and I'm not sure what else you could have done, but it was a little bit of a pain point. Other than that, the core gameplay was really solid. Dodging things correctly felt good, and you let the player restart early if it was clear you wouldn't make it in time (although I wish the "R" button worked on the game over screen as well). I particularly liked the bonus "PIZZA" letters hidden around the map. Were these originally going to unlock the night modes? Music was pleasant, if a little short. It would have been nice to have other audio like car horns, pedestrian noises, and impacts when you jump and land, but obviously you can't do everything with 72 hours and a one-person team. I drew the pizza guy and added them to the fan art compilation on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/). bike.png Thanks for making this, and good luck during the rest of play and rate! |
| Oct 9 18:49:12 | 1h 04m | Farming Fatigue | ♥ 1 | Wow! I'll start with the obvious. The graphics and music are excellent. Every single animation on the plants and on the character were done very well and looked incredibly clean and full of character. I particularly liked the use of sub-pixel animation; everything looked very fluid despite being such low resolution. The music was catchy and fit the rest of the game perfectly. The sound effects were clean as well, although there were a couple actions I felt should have a sound effect (specifically when planting a flower, you get a little pop when you procure the item, but then it's silent when you slam it into the ground). Gameplay-wise, I'm super impressed with the scope. You had tons of different plant types, cards, and upgrades. My first run lasted 20 minutes and I was still finding fresh content. The idea of a farming game where the plants attack you isn't completely new (see LD41 winner [Dark Soil](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dark-soil)) but this was definitely a fresh take on it and the game played very smoothly. I particularly liked that the arena grew as you played. I also liked the use of cards; you have to keep using them or risk getting slowed down, but you still have choice over what spawns and where (and can weed whack the most troublesome ones). My one quibble with the card system is that I often didn't have time to scroll through and see what I was using in the thick of the bullet dodging, particularly with the scroll wheel which often isn't very precise. It might be nice if there was a button alternative to the scroll wheel for selecting cards. As-is when things got crazy I usually just blindly clicked around to play the cards. I also wish the crystal-vacuuming was a bit quicker (as in, the crystals move physically quicker). During the peak of the chaos it's hard to focus on just the bullets with the crystals moving after you. I drew one of the flowers and added it to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) flower.png Excellent jam entry, and good luck in the rest of play and rate! |
| Oct 11 00:19:21 | 29h 30m | Karl Ã…ke | ♥ 8 | Nice entry! For starters, the premise is enjoyable, and the art and sounds are charming. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun with the cow sounds ("MOOOOOOOOO") and the sheep sounds (I think the voice actor started laughing at the end of one of the sounds). There were a couple things that were hard to figure out: - The eggs care about key **up**, not keydown (probably nicer to have it do keydown, since that's how people are used to typing) - The cow gets milked by dragging its teat into the bucket (which is hilarious, but could be expressed better with the instructions) - The plants need to be pulled up (at first, I wasn't sure what the objective was, so I was just petting them and hoping they'd sprout. Some instructions would clear this up too.) All the parts of the overworld were really well designed and intuitive, since they all had the controls over the objects that you could interact with. I will say you aren't super incentivized to do different activities. The ten-second day isn't a very long cycle, so you can just sit at one station and wait for it to reset. That said, the theme this time around was pretty restrictive in that way, so you didn't really have an option to extend the day cycle if you wanted to. I'm really impressed that you managed to make a cohesive game with this many people! It obviously has a bunch of parts, but everything "feels" like part of the same game, which is often hard to do with large groups. It seems like you had effective direction/project management. I drew your farmer (and a little friend) and added him to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) karl.png Thanks for making this, it was a fun little jam entry. |
| Oct 11 01:46:20 | 1h 26m | Terra Nova | ♥ 2 | Nice entry! The graphics were really solid for a solo game. All the characters were animated, and the UI and health bars were clear and unintrusive. I really liked that all the attacks showed an area of effect when they hit so you knew what to avoid. You injected a lot of small pieces of humor throughout, to great effect. The snage lasers in particular were hilarious and unexpected. I do think the basic attack was a bit slow to start. It didn't matter too much, since you continued to get upgrades throughout the run, but in the early phases in particular the basic attack was almost useless compared to the axe tornado and a lot harder to time and position such that you wouldn't immediately be hit back. The anime punch was super cool looking, but also a bit slow for the animation, especially since you need to do it several times to take down the boss. The music and sound effects were simple but effective, and worked together well. There were a couple things that would have been nice to have sound effects for (such as the slime's attack) but you definitely got all the important ones. Overall really solid for a solo jam entry, plays well and has a lot of character. I drew a picture of the snage and added it to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) snage.png Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 21 00:47:16 | 239h 00m | Windy Mountain | ♥ 1 | I enjoyed this a lot! A lot of the mechanics are treading familiar ground with precision platformers, like the double-jump beads, levers, and springs. When I reached the button, I assumed I was at the end, but you still had another level! The second level introduces the title mechanic, wind, and adds a lot to the gameplay. Now you're not only trying to do the platforming, but you also have to race to get the puzzles done in time to catch the next updraft to your destination. You definitely develop a bit, and leave the player wanting more --- which is honestly probably a good thing for a jam game! Two great levels are better than ten stale ones. The music is very pleasant and bouncy. Even on loop it doesn't grow old. I listened to it for ~20 minutes after finishing the game while drawing and still didn't get sick of it, which is a great compliment for game jam music. The graphics are simple but get the job done. Despite the low pixel count, the player's walk cycle and jump are full of energy and character; I particularly liked the detail of the player looking up while jumping up and down while falling. I personally lean away from extremely low-resolution pixel graphics, and while you executed them quite well, I think it could look even better with a little more definition (maybe 16-pixel tiles). And it at least seems like you would have the art chops to pull it off well! One common criticism I have for precision platformers is death animations that take too long, and you definitely avoided this trap. The frequent checkpoints and quick respawn made me want to keep trying even after messing up a tricky section. I drew your climber character and added them to the fan art compilation on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/). windy.png Nice entry, and look forward to seeing how you do in the results! |
| Oct 21 01:19:37 | 32m 21s | Watch the cat | ♥ 1 | Nice little entry! Loved the take on the theme and the gameplay. Getting rid of the clock after the first level was a nice touch and also made me realize how bad I am at internally keeping track of time. The graphics and audio were neat and charming. Was that real cat purring? Obviously this was a very simple entry since you made it in 6 hours, but it has loads of personality and I would have loved to see what it could look like if you spent the whole weekend on it. I drew the cat (complete with mischievous appendage) and added it to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) cat.png Thanks for making this! |
| Oct 21 01:50:55 | 31m 18s | Floppy Fish | ♥ 4 | Had a lot of fun with this! Definitely the best part was the goofy aesthetic and the fun controls. The split between water and land movement was really fun and flavorful with the fish protagonist. The land movement was just frustrating enough to be hilarious, but the game was forgiving enough it didn't feel bad (I think with a more difficult game, it might feel worse to have such unpredictable movement). This kind of wacky, innovative game loop is *exactly* what game jams are for, and your team nailed it. The art was enjoyable and goofy. I do think there are a couple areas for improvement for readability: - *Trash* - it would be nice if the collectibles stood out a bit from the rest of the trash heaps. - *Water/Land* - A clearer border between the water and air would have been nice. The splash noise when you returned to water helped a bit, but it would have been even nicer if you had another sound when leaving as well. Some particles or a different animation would make it even better, but obviously you have limited resources in 72 hours, so you can't get to everything. - *Drowning* - I think there could have been a better animation for the fish drowning --- dimming the entire screen looks a little too much like what my laptop does when it gets unplugged! If you're going to do a tint, it might be nice if it was a color rather than solid black, or a pattern like a vignette. Or you could do something fancy like a bubble that slowly empties, like the swimming UI in Windwaker. The art for the fish and octopus was full of character and goofy. I loved the little sound effects when you picked stuff up and handed it off to the octopus. The music was also well done, especially the "bass drop" where the other voices come in. There is a bit in the middle that gets a bit repetitive, especially after the first few loops, but definitely very solid work for a weekend jam! I drew Floppy and added him to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) floppy.png Nice work for 72 hours! |
