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Feedback comments for LD55
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Hawkin's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 18 01:57:38 | Sumo & Ning | ♥ 1 | I had a feeling I'd be seeing some "Sumo Ning" jokes! The art was so cute for this! I'm sorry I couldn't do more, Ning :_: sumo-score.png I think I would have preferred a little more deceleration on the normal movement, as it was almost too snappy. But the rolling movement was really fun, and once I got the hang of the control, I was zipping around the lab! One suggestion: allow the player to use either shift key, not just left. | |
| Apr 18 03:21:08 | 1h 23m | FRIED AWAY | ♥ 5 | Chicken!! Chicken chicken. Chicken chicken chicken! I don't know where this came from, or why. But I am thankful. The art was just lovely, as was the sound design. That running animation gets me every time. I enjoyed figuring out the drawing mechanic and how to best use it. As you said, the collisions sometimes don't work as expected. It seemed to happen most with a piece of fried chicken or when I was landing on the edge of a bucket -- basically at the transition between platforms. Randomly generated levels is ambitious!! It does add a lot of replayability ("What sort of level will I get this time??"). At the same time, a single generation (like a single seed) that you deploy would help me practice and optimize and try to get further and further every time. Something to think about! chicken-score.png In summary: chicken. |
| Apr 19 14:05:44 | 34h 44m | Canoe Summoner: I Rose To The Top Despite Having a Garbage Skill | ♥ 1 | This was definitely unexpected! I appreciated the voice over in the tutorial. Very nice. Some minor suggestions to enhance the feedback loop: some sound indication with the player gets hit (rather than just getting knocked back). Have the goblins make noise, so you know they are creeping up behind you! Also, an idea for an additional mechanic: I couldn't tell, but it didn't seem like holding the summoning button longer had any effect. Maybe that makes a stronger canoe? That way there is a risk/reward for summoning longer in one spot. By the way, did you make all the assets yourself? |
| Apr 22 02:02:57 | 59h 57m | Summon Me | ♥ 2 | I see what you mean about the balance! Aside from that, my main suggestion would be to focus more on feedback: how do I understand what effect my decision had? Obviously there are some mechanics going on behind the screen, but there isn't much to tell me if my decisions were right or wrong! It didn't seem like anything I did made a stable system, so I couldn't really learn from there. When the game starts and money is already ticking down, it's a little stressful. If you slow down the system and allow the player time to learn, that itself can be a good tutorial. Maybe slowly introduce the other types of allocations (recruitment and AOW) once I understand how to make a stable system. And if you can somehow communicate what impact each piece of the puzzle is having on money, magic, and loyalty (explain the calculations), that could go a ways toward demystifying the mechanics you worked so hard on! The art and the music were fun, though! I liked the instrument voices for the cultists :) |
| Apr 23 03:03:21 | 25h 00m | Summonster | ♥ 1 | Solid concept! I liked the variety of summons and their uses in a platformer. I liked that it was not a typical "use summons to bash other monsters". The art was very clear and communicative, too. I would love to see more levels and some sound and music! Good start! |
| Apr 23 03:19:45 | 16m 24s | Sorcerer's Army of Summons | ♥ 2 | This was definitely addictive! The grid movement felt snappy and satisfying. It only felt restrictive later when the board got full, but that's part of the challenge! I liked that the enemies upgraded as I did. I feel like I could really get better strategy to keep lines of escape open. Eventually I got cornered and then there was no way out. skeleton_score.png Great work on the models! The level of detail was right for the perspective. I would like a better way to visually distinguish my troops from the enemies, like glows or tokens. That is probably my only real critique. The coloration of the models was often too similar, and it got hard to pick my way through my troops. Also, you could experiment with attracting gems from one space away--see what that does to the balance. As is, it feels like the right amount of challenge! |
| Apr 25 02:56:14 | 47h 36m | Grid Land | ♥ 1 | I love all the different creatures that you drew! They are so cute and add a lot of personality to the game. On the surface, the mechanic was pretty simple. But below this, it is almost like a recipe game. Next time, I would experiment with more UI like drag and drop to move and sacrifice. Those controls would probably be a bit more intuitive. Very cool idea overall! I think the "summon" theme was a stretch here, but I don't mind that at all. The only thing that would help pass the time waiting and optimizing is some music and sounds! |
| Apr 30 02:33:47 | 119h 37m | The Summoner's Trial | ♥ 2 | This feels so polished! All of the transitions, between the title and restart, make restarting from death almost enjoyable :P The combination of pattern drawer overlaid with a bullet hell is pretty effective. I find it challenging, in a good way (that challenges many parts of my brain and hands at once). The only thing that felt unfair (and seemed to block me from getting beyond Lvl 2 or 3) was the grey guys that moved faster than I did. Once they started spawning, it was pretty much game over unless I had really optimized my start. You could experiment with other difficulty curves that allow the player to build up more upgrades before turning on the "big guns". Really fun game though! |
| May 2 20:25:24 | 65h 51m | Demonic Panic | ♥ 4 | You definitely have your workflow streamlined as a team to be able to put out this kind of polish in a jam! Well done! All of the visuals were very smooth and satisfying. The audio was engaging, although I felt something was missing. I felt a little disassociated, and I think that was because the player character had no audio. It felt like everything was happening around me, but not to me. Does that make sense? Otherwise, this was a really satisfying gameplay! I would experiment with faster player move speed (or powerups), which might increase the pace of the game even more. |
| May 2 20:31:32 | 6m 08s | How to Summon a Cat For Dummies | ♥ 4 | Very cute artwork! The premise was straightforward, and I liked that. It was smart that different items had different weights, which added a bit of challenge. Sometimes the cat's decision making wasn't very clear (isn't that just like a cat? XD), which made it hard to complete the challenge. I got the cat to here, but it wouldn't move forward anymore (and it wasn't clear why). If there was a reason, then think of ways to teach the player what they did wrong ("player feedback"). If it's a bug, oh well! :D Untitled.png |
| May 3 13:39:46 | 17h 08m | No Heroes Belong Here | ♥ 0 | I really like this idea!! It has a lot of potential. There was a bit of emergent strategy at times, either because there was really only one path the 'hero' could take or because there were too many. Sometimes there were a few options for the 'hero' and I had to plan ahead a bit. I did like that the monsters had some behaviors, such as moving to new rooms. That made the dungeon start to feel dynamic. I would lean into that more! If you keep working on this, I would recommend to look for ways to increase the strategy even more. Maybe in addition to monsters, you could add "trap" cards that either slow the hero down or block his way, so that you can force a path. -- If the 'hero' jumping to another room once they blocked themselves in (due to the "no backtracking" rule) was not a deliberate choice to avoid soft-locking, then it was a fortunate oversight :D |
| May 3 18:35:37 | 4h 55m | Amareica | ♥ 1 | This was some kind of fever dream!! I loved the unique experience. The art design was very unique and compelling. You definitely nailed the mood you were going for. In the races, I would recommend some indication of which horse(s) I bet on, because I think the feeling of "cheering them on" would be fun. I think the text design could overall be improved. The organization of information wasn't the clearest (you can use frames to separate blocks of related info), and the justification and kerning of characters made it hard to read. Also, the betting interface could be iterated on. I don't think I found a way to remove bets once placed (for example, if I accidently clicked one too many times. Or four too many times. Don't judge me!!) |
| May 3 18:51:00 | 15m 23s | Summoned to Serve | ♥ 2 | This has a lot of potential! I really liked the distant perspective on a big city. The art style, even though it was simple, was very effective, and the bowing animations were so cute! The objective and mechanics had a bit of a learning curve, but I was able to figure it out through trial and error. My main critique is that the UI popups (showing tasks) sometimes blocked the arrows, making it hard to select the final destination. I think if the UI showed my current number of fails and the limit, with some obvious indicator when I failed something (color and sound), then losing would be less surprising! |
| May 4 00:44:48 | 5h 53m | The Checkout | ♥ 0 | This was very unexpected!! But you nailed the mood. It started off as very innocent, and quickly became "...what?" I appreciated that the loop was short. It felt like the perfect length for a jam entry, and it encouraged me to cycle through several times to experiment with different answers. I liked how after the first exploration into the "dark" paths, the music changed. Subtle, but effective. One thing I would recommend is serializing the player's progress so that they can start with my current achievements whenever I reload the app! |
| May 4 00:53:16 | 8m 28s | Triumvirosis | ♥ 0 | First off, I really like the style you were going for! The grayscale sprites and old adventure style maps was nostalgic, and the music fit the mood nicely. I do think the "cell select" sound was a little out of place. Also, it wasn't clear what effect selecting a cell on the ground had. My biggest critique: the AI needs improvement. The randomness (e.g., moving backwards, or side to side) makes for a verrry slow action phase. Not very action-y. |
| May 4 01:01:04 | 7m 48s | DESUMMONER | ♥ 0 | That was a tight sequence! It felt well designed, in that there was enough searching to make it interesting without being frustrating. I liked that the mirror became something different every time I approached it. The art was clear and simple! The biggest critique is the lack of sound. Even some sound effects for clicking (the player input) would add a lot of good feedback. Hm, I never did figure out how to get to the door at the top of the stairs ... Also, sad that you didn't rate any games! |
