Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Feedback comment stats → oter

oter

Feedback comments for LD54

Timestamp	Since previous	Game		oter's comment
Oct 2 15:02:17		Find us if you can	♥ 1	I was confused when there wasn't any "you've finished" kind of text, just the counter going to zero, but I like the art for it. Well done on your first game.
Oct 2 15:05:52	3m 35s	Running out of space	♥ 1	Now that's a clever mechanic. And I like the sfx, very punchy.
Oct 2 15:36:43	30m 51s	Infinitum Labyrinth - Space Un-LIMITed	♥ 1	I liked it (I'm a fan of maze games) but I thing there was too much going on. Between the fruit/enemies/signs in the field, the letters at the portals, and then the hints/riddles, it just made for too confusing of a game. It would really help to be able to see again the tutorial text that appears when the game first loads, and the riddles and hints. As it was, I just kept being frustrated by the enemies teleporting me (though this was sometimes helpful and might make for an interesting twist on the game) and stealing my fruit. I didn't realize I could repel them, as I tried once and either it didn't work or I didn't time it right. Free roam mode is a neat touch though, I feel like that alone could be the basis of a game (play around, customize, then share your level here).
Oct 2 17:25:01	1h 48m	Commuter	♥ 1	Reminds me a bit of my game from last jam (my first). One hit to restart and restarting fully from the beginning of the game, rather than the level, makes it very punishing. But I like the silly vibes and music.
Oct 2 18:45:55	1h 20m	The incredible adventure of Bonaventure the Hero	♥ 1	Very cute concept, great mood/atmosphere. Your comment about feeling rushed in the final few hours felt very relatable, but I thought your game came out pretty well polished, even without a debugging session.
Oct 2 23:55:05	5h 09m	The Crater Village Game	♥ 1	This reminded me very strongly of The Quiet Year, thank you for mentioning your inspiration, I was trying to tell the person I was playing with about it but couldn't remember the name. We liked the game a lot, very open ended with just enough structure to keep you going. You did a great job writing the secondary "O" questions so as to open the story to more creativity and storytelling, rather than close it off by looping back to the original event prompt too strongly (if that makes sense - regardless, well done!). Also, we found it very useful to take notes as we played, so it was a good idea to suggest that. The only issue we had with the game was the length. We played over dinner and hadn't completed half the deck by the time we were done, so decided to end the game ourselves rather than wait for the End Card, which had landed near the bottom of the deck. We thought of a couple other ways to help the length issue: 1. Divide the deck by suits, so you can choose how long you want the game to take by how many suits you are playing with. 2. Allow more cards to be the End card, like any ace or aces and kings. The second point goes into another system I thought might help pace the game, like a "Major Event" card. For example, draw any ace and the first major event happens. Then depending on how long you want the game to be, the next ace could be another Major Event, or it could be the End Card. This adds a little more sense of progression, but at the expense of some of the current open-endedness. But that might put the pacing and style too similar to The Quiet Year's seasons, so 🤷 But to reiterate, great game!
Oct 4 20:54:21	44h 59m	Gnome In The Abyss	♥ 1	As others have said, with some tweaks this will be a really fun arcade-style game. You nailed a pretty smooth flow to the overall game (though as someone said, an even faster restart would be appreciated), so that I wanted to keep going and see how high a score I could get (good touch to show it on the title screen) or how long I could survive. I played maybe a dozen rounds (or slightly more, they go quick), and in that time there were two rounds where an enemy immediately spawned right above me so I had an instant restart. So a temporary exclusion zone for the enemy spawner (or just having them spawn higher so I have time to react), might be another helpful tweak for the game.
Oct 5 18:12:24	21h 18m	fell the tower!!!	♥ 1	Interesting concept, I found the visuals too hard to read to time my jumps and avoid obstacles, and the timing windows were extremely tight, but the quick restarts and short levels kept me playing until the second level after the spring (revisiting the rolling line obstacles) before I got frustrated and gave up. But I should note, this isn't usually my style of game, and if I were more into something like precision platformers I'd have stuck it out longer.
Oct 5 18:42:58	30m 34s	Fit	♥ 1	Since you were talking in an earlier comment about tweaking the pins, I think it might be cool to assign them to different buttons (hold down j for pin 1, k for 2 and l for 3 or something) just to feel more interactive and like I have more control over the pins as the rings move. But as it was, the game had a nice flow once I got used to the camera directions.
Oct 5 19:13:03	30m 05s	Bag Bail!	♥ 2	Impressive! I think I'm most in awe that I didn't notice any collision bugs as objects fell, piled, and were jumped on, and the jumping also felt very well tuned to me. I played through twice but couldn't get past the spiky bomb level. The second time, I was 1 m away before a bomb came and blew everything up and right after there were a couple waves of mostly bombs, little furniture, so might need some tweaking around that point, but still a fun and good feeling game.
Oct 6 01:34:47	6h 21m	Dimensional Grove: The Rotational Odyssey	♥ 1	I like your concept here, not something I ever would have thought to do for the theme and which I think fits it in a neat mechanical way. As others have said, reloading not being explained more clearly held me back at first, and then felt clunky after I did get the hang of it, to switch dimensions to grab the pink ball, only for it to be on the other side of the barrier there. I also have a random note, that the mouse cursor was hidden but not locked while in fullscreen on the web version so, for example, I once moused to my second monitor by mistake. I know it's a small thing, but I just thought I'd mention it because it should be an easy fix and good for QoL. But nitpicks aside, I was really, really impressed by all you managed to do during the 48 hours for the Compo. Well done!
Oct 6 15:00:34	13h 25m	Ability Management	♥ 2	It's an interesting concept, but I found it frustrating at times to have so little control (levels with only one ability). In these, it felt like I was just waiting around for platforms to align, and with a small mistiming I'd have to restart and wait again. Giving a little more control to the height and direction of the jump, possibly even a line to show the jump arc, would make the game feel way better to me (though the last part would probably make it too easy of a platformer). This reminds me of the themes along the lines of "limited controls" or "one button controls" that often come up in the lead up to the jam, and don't make it through to the end because it's difficult to make a game that doesn't frustrate the player when a core mechanic is taking away their control over the game. But, to be clear, that's not to say this is bad idea or a bad game, I just wanted to mention how important it is to make the player feel like they have as much control as possible. With some tweaks though, I think you could do it.
Oct 7 21:11:38	30h 11m	The Sound of Light	♥ 2	I really enjoyed your game, although I'm biased as I'd been working on something a bit similar as a pet project for the better part of this year (though it's been untouched for a couple of months... we'll see if I ever get motivated to finish it). I wrote down some feedback as I played, but your commenters have been pretty thorough so far, so I'll just add that it would be helpful if the map room was lit up or made of unlit materials so that we didn't have to waste our first charge of the level checking the map before we went into the maze proper. As I said, I like these sorts of games so if you decide to develop it more, @ me and I'd be happy to give it a play test or other feedback on specific things. Well done on the compo!
Oct 7 21:35:18	23m 40s	Gavin's Small Backpack	♥ 2	Nice concept. Like some others have said, I would have liked to see a bit more challenge in the gameplay, though I definitely understand and appreciate your choice to focus on an easier and smoother experience rather than a more challenging one that might have bugs or less polish. Puzzle games are difficult to make in a game jam, especially as your first time, so props to you for attempting and submitting it.
Oct 7 22:13:32	38m 14s	Don't squash the unicorn	♥ 0	Jeez, I said I'd leave you a lot of feedback, but it looks like other people beat me to it. I'll quickly echo what kanity said in their comprehensive review by saying that some of the main bugs or rough points that I found were with the sprites of the other animals intersecting or getting stuck on the unicorn so that I couldn't kill them, or the unicorn deciding to wander into the spikes even though the window was plenty big (and each time it happened, it seemed to be on the top edge of the window). Some quick ideas that might help with these two issues are: 1) Make an interior collision box that the unicorn wants to stay in just as much as it wants the other animals out of its personal space. 2) Allow the unicorn to kick other animals out of its personal space every once and a while to help mitigate the other sprites sticking to the unicorn and being unkillable. Maybe you already thought of these things and just didn't have time, but I figured I'd mention them anyway in case it helps. And as others have said, this is the kind of game that seems ripe for either a score or a time counter (actually, come to think of it, a time counter would be a great fit for the mood you were going for: "You managed to keep this job for 42 seconds!" :P) As a final note, I have pretty weak eyes, and while the jitteriness of the sprites wasn't too hard to look at by itself (after all, I spent most of my time only half looking as I was focused on grabbing the window to resize it), I did find it difficult to read the unicorn's text while it moved around. Just a small thing, as it didn't really impact my game experience too much, but it would be nice if the text was anchored in a box somewhere in addition or instead. All in all, it was a neat new mechanic and cool take on the theme 😄
Oct 8 00:28:09	2h 14m	Single Circle	♥ 1	Very cute, I liked the music (though as others have said, needs a bit more of a lead out silence before looping, just a minor thing though) and the graphics, they both really gave the game a cozy vibe. I hope you don't mind me saying, but I thought the game felt more like the adventures of a young child's imagination of what it's like to be in a submersible rather than like I was actually in one, but regardless of interpretation it fits the theme very strongly and has a wonderful mood. I think my only gripe with your story was noticing that my starting choice put me on an ending track, when I made it without having more context about the rest of the game. While I picked the sloth the first time and enjoyed the image of holding onto it looking out the porthole as the hints of the invisible sanity system loomed around me (and I ended up with Ending 3). The second time, playing with a friend to show them the game, we picked snacks as our first option and then ended up with Ending 6. Calling it Normal felt a bit deflating, and it felt like an inferior ending despite the cute scene exchanging food with the tinies. While both playthroughs were enjoyable and different in what other choices we made along the way, it still felt as though the biggest choice I made was in the beginning. Maybe it's just the emphasis of your game on having and displaying different endings, though, and how that's a double edged sword of both inviting replayability and showing players the extent to which different choices do or don't matter in the end. If I didn't know there were 6 (and a half) endings, but just that it was a "choices matter" game, I might not have seen or minded the importance of starting item so much. As it was though, I got a sense of how most or all the endings would play out after just two, which may have defeated the point of having six. That's really my only issue with the game though, sorry for a long paragraph about it, I think I was still trying to figure it out in my head as I wrote it 😅 . As I say, it was very cute and enjoyable to play. (And I've never specifically asked someone to play my game before, but as a fellow Twine developer, I'd be honored if you'd give my game a play 🙏 . It's nowhere near as polished in terms of graphics and sound, but has a slightly longer story with more small choice branches, though still some big ones too. And if not, I understand, it feels weird to ask, but I'd really appreciate hearing the thoughts of another Twine dev.)
Oct 11 13:03:13	84h 35m	The Confines	♥ 1	Neat story game! I was most impressed by the amount of polish you managed to add: the default typewriter speed felt good to me, I didn't notice any typos and only a few awkwardly built sentences, and the overall graphics were simple yet effective. It was very interesting to have the conversation -> dialogue options -> internal thoughts. The interplay of these last two really made the story work for me, especially in the end (I got the main 'bad' ending, if you want to call it that). I'll admit, the writing at times felt a bit flat to me, maybe because there was hardly any reference in the story that both characters were opening up a lot in a short time, so there were times where Anton as a character felt more like a backstory container than a person, even if his personality was supposed to be bold and up front. I totally understand the difficulty of writing during the jam, so this is more a point of feedback if you continue the game or make another game like it. Perhaps if you develop this game out to last a couple of hours (as someone suggested above) you'd have space to slow down and move through the story's arc more gradually. My only other issue was that I didn't see how to play in full screen, if I could at all. I played on my laptop, and that made the text box on the side very small indeed! Maybe I missed it, but if there was a way, maybe you could indicate it on the title screen?
Oct 11 14:19:35	1h 16m	Six Seats Left	♥ 1	Man this was great. I was unsure going into it, the premise sounded more stressful than fun, but I'm glad I played it. Very well written, you have a knack for providing just enough on all aspects - premise, characters, reflections - and not letting the game get bogged down at any point. The concluding scenes were deeper than I would have expected from a compo game, and I was surprised at how cathartic the end was. It left a good feeling. Also, I'm left wondering how much order matters: if different players take different paths through the crowd, would they be more likely to pick different people? How much would placing people randomly at the start of the game impact the experience for each fresh player? Developing it further with more characters to shuffle in for different playthroughs and giving each character a few different sprites so they aren't instantly recognizable would make this a good game to replay. This is the sort of game that makes me very curious to see stats on player choices. Very neat, a lot to think about both philosophically and in terms of game development!
Oct 12 21:38:14	31h 18m	I Do	♥ 3	Sound didn't work for me (no idea why, probably something on my end if no one else has had issues), so I just hummed some wedding music to myself 😆 A fun idea for a game, though I did get bogged down in min maxing with all those details you provide for each guest.
Oct 12 23:12:55	1h 34m	The Ones You Keep	♥ 1	Well written, and I'll echo what the person above me wrote and say I really liked the graphics too. I thought it was a bit strange that you got letters or texts from people, yet it was voice acted and I couldn't see letters on screen. While the voice acting was great and really helped bring the characters to life, I would have liked to read along from the letter, rather than get subtitle popups. But I get that you may have run out of time to add extra graphics like that. Very unique entry, well done!
Oct 15 14:52:44	63h 39m	Ominos	♥ 1	I just played after seeing your post about random level generation as you keep working on the game. It's a nice little satisfying game so I'm glad you're continuing development on it. My only bit of feedback while playing was that I couldn't tell some colors apart: pink and orange were impossible and green and cyan were difficult but doable (I'm not color blind but use a lot of blue light reduction filters on my monitor). I know you said you might change the rules so colors don't matter, but while playing I thought of a "color blind mode" option where the background is divided and labeled, and pieces of each color spawn only in their area rather than in fully randomized spawn locations. I don't know how hard this would be for you to implement, but it was my biggest wish while playing and would be helpful if did end up keeping the rules about colored ominos. Otherwise it's a great game, I really like the art and sfx!