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Jeremy Ryan

Feedback comments for LD53

Jeremy Ryan's games and stats for all events →

Timestamp	Since previous	Game		Jeremy Ryan's comment
May 2 03:55:12		Neighborhood Postal Service	♥ 2	Nice entry! thanks.png It's really satisfying to upgrade and grow your empire, and the game is well paced with the rewards and the three "acts". I didn't realize you could upgrade the nodes during the second phase, so sat for a while without upgrades without realizing it, but once I figured it out it went smoothly from there. The art and sound are simple but clear, and you managed to get a lot of variety in building types, etc. so it doesn't look too stale (and were the maps procedural?). Music would have been nice, especially if it built up as you expanded, but it's obviously hard to squeeze everything into 48 hours. I drew your delivery guy and added him to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) fanart53.png Overall, great work! Reminds me a lot of [Boba](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/boba?ref=superjumpmagazine.com), last event's Compo winner.
May 2 14:59:31	11h 04m	Chateau Grenouilles	♥ 3	Solid entry! Loved all the characters and details, and the fact the music built up as you go up the elevators. It was fun to see little callbacks to your past games, and was a very fun surprise to see this! thxjr.png A couple quality-of-life improvements: - You can't switch lanes while holding left or right, which leads to some weird gameplay patterns where you want to build up speed, then swap lanes while you're coasting. - The "frame-based" horizontal scrolling sometimes means you get smacked by the wait staff or another robot that you had no chance to see coming. It would probably be a little nicer if the horizontal scrolling was also smooth, like the vertical scrolling. Seeing the "esteemed customer" was a nice treat! I was not able to find any of the secrets, so either I'm incompetent or they were hidden pretty well. I'm doing the fan art thing again, so I added your little waiter robot to the pixel fan art compilation on my profile! fanart53.png As always, great work and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 15:41:58	42m 27s	Postal Pocalypse	♥ 1	Nice entry! I loved the music, sound effects, overall mood, and the sheer scale of the city. There are sections that are inhabited by different enemies and the different genre lead to different combat interactions. The bouncy animations and silly dialog also added a lot to the experience. As others have said, the game is very difficult. The best score I got was 3 packages, and I think I got lucky with the placement. It could be nice if there were areas you could stop (and maybe look at a map) to rest and get your bearings, since a lot of time I was too busy not dying to find the next address. Another quality-of-life improvement would be to make the gun automatic rather than tied to how fast you can click the button. I added your delivery person to the pixel fan art collage on my profile! fanart53.png Nice work and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 16:33:49	51m 51s	Elevander of the Emu Express	♥ 4	I'm sorry, Mr. Salamander. If you wanted your mail delivered on time, you shouldn't live somewhere so remote and full of cactus. As always, you guys knocked it out of the park. @spacey3d's character designs are consistently adorable and full of personality (particularly loved Elevander, the lizard, the mouse, and the giraffe). The environment is very well illustrated and has a great balance of detail and stylization. Music and sound effects were also very well-done. Gameplay-wise, the movement is very novel and it feels very much like a "Getting Over It" sort of experience --- your task is relatively simple, but the unusual character movement makes it a challenge. The tutorial was very well designed to get the player accustomed to the controls. Once you start the full game, you're immediately thrown into the action and it comes with all the stress of your first day on the job. I think there are a couple sections of the map that may be a little bit too punishing, particularly where there are low ceilings with a lot of cactuses. I had a hard time avoiding the cactus and kept bonking my head on the ceiling and falling into it, spewing my mail everywhere. However, a lot of areas you could avoid since the map often had multiple ways of getting between sections. I drew Elevander and added him to the pixel fan art compilation on my profile. fanart53.png Thanks for making this, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 18:10:53	1h 37m	Juggle Mail	♥ 2	Nice entry! My best score was a hair under 60,000. I really like the "push your luck" sort of mechanic, where you get more points the more envelopes you're juggling, but there's also a bigger chance of crashing. The controls were smooth and the gameplay was really intuitive. I also like the 2D/3D blend, especially with the exaggerated curve of the earth with the houses and mailboxes slowly emerging from the horizon. The graphics are pretty simple but you did a good job making the menus, UI, and gameplay visuals all cohesive. I added your delivery person to the pixel art fan art collage on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) (complete with cat ears). fanart53.png Thanks again for playing my game on stream, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 18:47:43	36m 50s	The Pigeon Post Principle	♥ 10	Nice work! It seems like every event you manage to make a puzzle game that is completely new, yet somehow instantly recognizable as yours. The wind mechanic is really interesting; it feels similar to the traditional slipper ice puzzles (a la Pokemon), but the way the air streams interact and the fact you have to fly into them from an angle make for some fresh puzzles. The art and music were very nice and polished. I particularly liked the animation for gliding and then flapping right before landing --- feels very lifelike! I imagine you looked at some reference to nail that down. It was also great you managed to get a live instrument into your soundtrack (I might have to try to do that in a future jam...). The soundtrack, relaxed gameplay, and clean art all complement each other. I drew Anne-Marie and added her to the pixel fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) fanart53.png Great job and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 20:48:29	2h 00m	Aerial Odyssey	♥ 5	Neat entry! First of all, the title art and visual direction were very good. I was reminded a little bit of [Townseek](https://whalesandgames.itch.io/townseek) by Whales and Games. The info dump at the beginning was a little overwhelming but once you jump into the game it's not actually all that complicated and was easy to pick up. The routing mechanic was really interesting and led to some fun puzzles and tradeoffs for picking the optimal route. I liked that you could only make one "turn" rather than more complicated paths, and that you had the option to build fans if you got stuck. As time went on, there were more obstacles and higher costs so it naturally grew more difficult. I drew a pixel art version of the airship and added it to the fan art compilation on [my profile](https://whalesandgames.itch.io/townseek). It was a little tricky to figure out how to add cat ears to this one. 🐱 fanart53.png Well done for 72 hours, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 2 21:23:40	35m 11s	Snail Mail	♥ 2	Cute little entry! The "don't backtrack" mechanic is pretty common for puzzle games, but the neat twist on the formula was managing the different colors of snails which could affect the possible paths of the other. The game is full of personality with the various mail recipients and the title song with actual live singing. This is subjective, but I think this kind of game often works better without a timer. The hard part of puzzle games usually comes from evaluating your choices and making the correct decision, rather than clicking buttons quickly. It also can be hard to get your bearings at the start of a level if there's immediately a timer counting down. I drew the snailman and added him to the pixel fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) snail.png Nice work for 72 hours!
May 14 03:23:45	270h 00m	Lucky Lefty Loves Letters	♥ 1	Nice entry! My best time was 86 seconds and change. LuckyLeftyScore.png Strong points: - The overall vibe was really pleasant. The characters and background were fun and it was amusing to see a snail with a grappling hook spinning around and flying all over the place. - The level was well designed and the mail boxes require you to use the movement in new ways to get to them. If you came in at the right speed, you could often get a short swing from the lip of the box and fly right into it, which was really satisfying. - Adding a speedrun timer was a good move, since it encourages you to try again to improve. Potential improvements: - Dropping your mail on damage was an interesting punishment (and suits the game much better in my opinion than, say, a certain number of lives). That said, the mail fell as fast as Lucky does, which sometimes meant your run was entirely over because you dropped your mail down half the level. It might be a tad less punishing if the mail fell slower, while still costing time to collect it. - The movement was a little finicky for me. I liked that you could build up speed over time and it rewarded clean play and cool maneuvers, but it encouraged a few intuitive play patterns, like repeatedly shooting and retracting the hook because you got a boost every time you shot it. It also felt like the hook could pull a little stronger, especially when you're trying to fight with wind to get out of a corner. - Music would have been nice if you had the time! Overall, had fun with this one and always appreciate a good grappling snail. I drew Lucky and added them to the pixel fan art compilation on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) (complete with cat ears). lucky_lefty.png Good luck for the rest of play and rate!
May 14 04:32:44	1h 08m	Grav Garb	♥ 3	Turns out I'm quite the moonrat! Graphics: The character art was well done, and the UI was very clean! Some of the in-game visuals got a bit confusing; I was never quite sure which pieces of space junk were very dangerous and which could just be pushed out of the way. It might be nice if there was a consistent shape or color language for which things are most hazardous (e.g. everything that immediately damages you is red). Audio: Music was great! Especially liked the menu music, although it only had a short loop. Gameplay: The main gameplay consists of pushing or maneuvering around space junk while trailing delicate cargo behind your ship. I liked the utility areas that could spawn (the one that gives you extra vision is clever) and the variety of hazards. I never ended up figuring out exactly what the gravity ball does. The long levels can be a little tedious, but there are usually zones to stop and recharge and it's nice that you get something for completing the level even without cargo. I liked that there were different kinds of cargo that could withstand more or less of a beating and it affected how you approached the game. Overall, solid entry! Particularly impressive that the game is so cohesive with such a large team since they are often difficult to coordinate. I drew Zoey (or Zara?) and added her to the cat-ear pixel fan art compilation on [my profile page](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/). garb.png Good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 15 00:15:51	19h 43m	Toad Pizza Express	♥ 2	One of the most fun entries I've played so far! enjoypizza.png The basic premise and gameplay were really fun. The character's movement and mobility were really goofy but also rewarding to get right. The tongue mechanic felt really good when navigating across obstacles, especially where it required tight timing. The game was a little short --- only two levels --- but for a game jam game that's usually not a bad thing. It's way better to make two great levels than ten rushed levels where the player gets bored after level five. First thoughts on potential improvement on the gameplay side: - The movement felt a little slippery, which usually doesn't feel great for a precision platformer. I liked the fact that you were slow to build up momentum, but the character could stand to stop faster when trying to turn around or stop. - The wall jumping was a little finnicky, particularly the very last section where you had to swap back and forth rapidly. I kept bouncing off the walls slightly. - I really liked how the second level had a task you had to complete after picking up the pizza. If you had time for a third level, it would have been interesting to pick up the pizza very early but have to navigate multiple obstacles afterward without access to your tongue. The graphics and audio were also very enjoyable. The graphics style was pretty simple, but the goofy character art and special animations for squishing against walls, etc. made it feel great to play. If you had time, it would have been great to add a little bit of squash and stretch when jumping and landing on the ground for the extra little spice. I drew your delivery toad and added him to the cat-ear pixel-art fan art compilation on [my profile page.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) frogue.png Thanks for making this, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 15 01:01:48	45m 57s	Long Tail	♥ 2	Nice entry! snek.png The "don't pass through a tile twice" puzzle is familiar (see Pokemon ice puzzles, etc.) but you definitely brought some freshness to it, especially with the ability to cross your own path and intersect corners! The other mechanics like pushing eggs and barriers you had to open also spiced things up. I think my biggest quibble with the overall game direction is the way it handled navigation and backtracking. Usually with puzzle games, each room is self-contained and represents a unique problem the player has to solve. However, some of the levels in this game are impossible at first; then you have to come back the other direction to solve them. This is potentially frustrating for players since it makes the problem space much larger and adds some ambiguity over whether the puzzle is actually possible or not. (Side note: backtracking is pretty common in Metroidvanias and some RPGs --- but it's usually very obvious that an extra path or secret is not available the first time, whereas with a puzzle like this you might just be missing the solution). The graphics are very clear and cohesive. I liked that all the switches and barriers had matching symbols and that the egg barriers showed how many eggs you were missing to get through. Some animations (like bubbling lava) would have brought thins to the next level - but also Compo games are very tight for time so it's understandable to scope this out. I added your long snake to the pixel fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) snek2.png Thanks for making this, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 16 02:06:35	25h 04m	Badger Break Out	♥ 2	badge.png Nice entry! First of all, fun to see a game made in Multimedia Fusion 2 --- I recognize that MFA file extension and thunderbolt icon from anywhere. I really loved the character design and overall presentation (it's a badger wielding a chameleon as a projectile weapon, what's not to love). The portraits for the beginning and end screens were particularly nice. Many of the animations are very smooth and impressive --- particularly the player character and the boss. It did sometimes feel like there was a disconnect between the player/enemies and the environment. The enemies that move in paths don't really care about where the obstacles are, for instance, and the player can use their attack through walls (although I accept some of this is difficult to do in MF2 in three days). Some other low hanging fruit might be adding smoke particles and a sound effect when your character lands on the ground (or when collecting a honeycomb), or adding a damage animation to the boss --- even if it's just a single white frame. I will say the boss fight was my favorite part. The dramatic opening and telegraphed moves made it very satisfying. For the first two levels, it was a little easy to get lost, and some of the sections didn't feel intentional about how they were testing the player. I liked the very first part of the second level because it forced you to do something new with the mobility you probably hadn't done up to that point (chain a lick and a double-jump together to get maximum height). I drew Benjamin and Golden Eye and added them to the pixel-art cat-ear fan art compilation on [my profile page.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) badge2.png Thanks for making this and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 19 01:13:59	71h 07m	Sick Day Delivery	♥ 1	Finally got around to playing yours! win.png Best parts: - The soundtrack is catchy and hilarious! I especially love the "bass drop" that happens a couple minutes in. - The game felt like a good length and difficulty for a jam game. I was able to finish on my first try, but still felt the pressure from the meter on the side. - Once you got used to the player movement, it was fun to speed down the hallways, ramming into bacteria as you went. - The graphics, gameplay, and sound all work together to make a quirky overall mood. You had a team of six people but the game is really cohesive and there aren't obvious "seams" where different people worked on different parts, which is impressive for such a big team in 72 hours! Areas for improvement: - The character controller is really slippery. Sometimes you zoom past a spawner at mach 10 and have to take a long time to stop and turn around. There might be a way to tweak it to still incentivize building momentum while not making it quite so hard to stop. Edit: I noticed there are actually brakes. Maybe I should read the controls before playing the game. - The world was very big with a lot of dead ends. This can be frustrating when you don't have a map and your only sense of direction is the blue arrow. I think it might play better if either a) you had a mini-map or breadcrumb trail with the location of the next spawner, rather than just the arrow, or b) the map was designed in a more interconnected way, with fewer dead ends and more alternate routes (less tree branch, more spiderweb). Other random notes: - The medicine burst had no cooldown or cost, so it was almost always correct to just spam it as fast as possible while zooming around. - I never had a need to follow the green arrow during my run. - It's not really clear when starting what the end goal/victory condition is. I was starting to think it was infinite when I hit the win screen. Overall, a fun little package with a good aesthetic and satisfying gameplay. Not bad for 72 hours! I drew Lololol® and added him to the pixel fan art compilation on my profile (everyone gets cat ears this event because reasons). lololol.png Nice work on this, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 19 01:59:32	45m 33s	Superbloom	♥ 2	Nice relaxing entry! beegame.png I really enjoy this genre of game jam game, where there's no real objective and you're just trying to relax and enjoy the experience. The visuals are beautiful, and the bee character is very cute. I liked the variety of flower types and the stylized landscape, and the visuals were complimented well by the music, which was very well done if a little short of a loop. The menu and UI were also really well made. I will say that the game does suffer from the slightly funky camera controls. I think the camera took a bit too much time to speed up and slow down, while also having too high of a max speed. This meant I often overshot and had to frantically move it back and forth to get going in the right direction. The transition when landing on a flower was also a little jarring since it moves so tight over the player. Maybe something like the following could feel a little smoother: bee_camera.png After tweaking the camera movement, I think this would really be close to the perfect game for relaxing, since that really was the singular piece-of-gravel-in-your-shoe for an otherwise beautiful and heartwarming walk along the beach (that metaphor got away from me a bit). Overall, great work and especially impressive you made something so cohesive with such a large team! You must have had some pretty effective direction/project management. I drew your spherical bee and put him in the pixel fan art compilation on [my profile](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/) (complete with tiny cat ears). beeart.png Awesome work for 72 hours, and good luck during the rest of play and rate!
May 21 11:12:05	57h 12m	Inbox Fool	♥ 1	I unfortunately didn't get the chance to play your game during regular play and rate, but circled back to it afterward! boss_fight_boss_fight_music.png As always, you have a distinct character style, a high degree of polish, and a good amount of humor injected throughout. Professor-Doctor Smarticus was hilarious (in your words, the dialogue was extremely dumb --- meant as the highest possible praise). The boss fight music was also amazing, especially since you worked it into the narrative and used the same tune for the title! Second favorite song in the soundtrack was definitely the music played from the extremely small speaker, though. (Other humor highlights for me include "I've been studying your jump height, Terry"). Gameplay-wise, the main mechanic was super interesting and led to some neat puzzles, especially the ones where you had to be in mid-air during the camera shift. Unfortunately I think the problem space is pretty limited with just the one mechanic, and many of the later levels felt similar to earlier ones. It might have benefited from one or two secondary mechanics to make you think about it in new ways (e.g. adding lasers that you can throw bombs through but not walk through, or other objects/enemies that you have to position in addition to yourself). Of course, timelines are very tight for the Compo and you already packed a lot of content into this as-is. The boss fight was a nice twist on the mechanic! I think I got a bug once where it centered the camera not directly below the boss? Which confused me for a bit, but I never got it again, so I wonder if I just got confused or something. Tiny audio suggestion; my first thought would be to run the voice lines played over the TVs through a high-pass filter to make it sound more like it's playing out of speakers (I do that for the hold music in my game when the player doesn't have the phone picked up: [Normal](https://github.com/jeremycryan/LD53/blob/main/assets/sound/please_hold_full.ogg) \| [High Pass](https://github.com/jeremycryan/LD53/blob/main/assets/sound/please_hold.ogg) ). Of course, there are plenty of reasons you would not want to do this, especially if you think it would affect the delivery (hehe) of the voice lines. Congrats on your excellent ratings, and as always, look forward to playing your game next event! I don't know how you managed to get 2nd in Humor with such a hilarious game; whoever scored higher is clearly a cheat and a charlatan. END TRANSMISSION!