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Feedback comments for LD57
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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | python-b5's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 8 01:56:55 | Game and Physics: Water Cat | ♥ 2 | Interesting use of the theme, and a solid mechanic for a puzzle-platformer! The puzzles in this are nicely designed, though it is frustrating that you are sometimes able to softlock yourself, as some of the later levels are decently long. As an aside, I played the web embed version and the music worked fine. Did you possibly fix the issue but forget to update your description text to reflect that? | |
| Apr 8 02:09:53 | 12m 58s | Brittle Heart | ♥ 2 | I'm not sure I fully understand how to play this game, though I gave it quite a few tries. Since ladders are quite expensive, there aren't many bones to go around, and you don't jump high enough to gain any height without ladders, I kept softlocking myself and having to reload the page to try again. I couldn't see any advantage in setting my spawn point, since it would've meant I would have no bones left to build ladders. Is there maybe a mechanic I'm failing to discover? |
| Apr 8 02:31:40 | 21m 47s | Cricetus Crevice | ♥ 3 | I really like this mechanic! I do think the difficulty maybe ramps up a bit fast - try as I might, I was unable to make it past the large cavern in the laser section - but this is a clever concept and is quite well-put-together. Well done! |
| Apr 8 06:49:26 | 4h 17m | Depth Delver | ♥ 2 | Had a good time with this overall. I like the various platforming mechanics involving the whip and how they're explored. Unfortunately my experience was hurt somewhat by quite significant performance issues - the game frequently stuttered to the point I started to get a headache and had to stop playing. Disregarding performance, my critical feedback for this game is regarding the controls. They're not terrible by any means, but they could stand to improve quite a bit: - It was frustrating to not be able to switch direction in midair. - The whip takes maybe an awkwardly amount of time to trigger, which makes midair timings difficult. - Hitting things with the whip seems to briefly freeze the game, particularly when hitting breakable blocks. It's possible this is just another artifact of the performance issues I was having, though. - The hitboxes for the hooks you can launch off with the whip are frustratingly small. - The last room I made it to before I had to stop was one with two moving blocks I was supposed to hold onto. I was unable to grab the second one - I would simply clip right through it and fall back down (often on top of an arrow, to my chagrin). I'm sure I could have eventually got it to work if I'd kept at it for long enough, but it's something to look into. Nice work on this. I think with some polish/touch-ups this could be quite a fun little Metroidvania. |
| Apr 8 07:07:09 | 17m 43s | Hyperspacedive | ♥ 2 | Whoa, this is mesmerizing. I might recommend adding an epilepsy warning to the page, but these are some insanely cool effects. I might have to look at the code to see how you managed that at some point. As for the gameplay, it's alright. I wasn't able to quite complete the game - my best was level 9, which I got to a few times. I'm not sure if the difficulty is supposed to increase as the game continues; while some levels were definitely much easier than others, that difficulty change did not seem to correspond to the level number. Some of the later levels were some of the easiest, while some of the earlier levels were some of the hardest. Generally, if I got hit, it was because the game had me pinned in with no choice _but_ to get hit. I can tell if I'm going to get hit multiple seconds before I do, and there's almost never anything I can do about it. I'm pretty sure the correct strategy is to weave in and out between the bubbles such as to pass them before they grow too large to dodge, but some levels spawn bubbles quickly enough to make that strategy impossible (or at least, close to it). I do like how the player controls, though. The way perspective is used is neat and adds to the unique feel of the game. Maybe it would be nicer if there was a slightly larger range you were allowed to move in, since that would make more tight situations escapable. |
| Apr 8 07:28:21 | 21m 12s | Dataminers | ♥ 1 | This was wonderfully done! I like the risk/reward factor of how deep you choose to dive. The falling blocks are also a nice touch to add some extra challenge. However, while the upgrades after successful rounds are nice, the gameplay does get a bit stale after a while. Perhaps a post-jam version of this game could add more mechanics the deeper down you dive. The aesthetics on display in this game, by the way, are fantastic. I particularly like the parallax background as you dive. |
| Apr 8 20:12:16 | 12h 43m | Flatline | ♥ 1 | I love how the levels start to become little puzzles! Unfortunately, the tightness of the timings combined with the moving hazards later on started to make the game really frustrating. I did end up finishing, but I think if there were any more levels I would have not chosen to play them. One small adjustment I think would help would be not letting the player bounce off the corners of platforms; doing so was never required and I kept accidentally sending myself flying in a random direction and inevitably dying. Dying became even more frustrating due to the long respawn timer (and, sometimes the voice acting wouldn't play? It seemed about 50:50 whether it did or not to me). Also, sometimes, on the third-last level, I would phase through the blue platforms instead of bouncing off them? I ended up using that rare occurrence to beat the level. Not sure if that was intended. |
| Apr 8 20:20:51 | 8m 35s | Trench Diver | ♥ 2 | I like the silhouette aesthetic, and the introduction of new enemies as you continue descending! The diving controls feel nice and smooth, though because of how slow you turn they made shooting enemies very difficult. It's also not the nicest to have to try to aim bullets with WASD (especially because that also makes you move!). There was also no indicator of when I would level up - something like that should probably be added to the HUD. Solid work overall, though. |
| Apr 8 21:50:37 | 1h 29m | Shrimply Fishing | ♥ 1 | Love the progression as you go deeper! I wasn't very good at actually making it back after catching something, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. The art has a nice style to it, though the pixelated default sans-serif font felt a bit out of place. Nice work on this. |
| Apr 8 22:19:10 | 28m 33s | Call from the depths | ♥ 2 | The graphics are nice, especially the parallax background. The "use your body as a platform" mechanic is fun, though I've seen it many times before - however, the focus seemed to shift from it almost immediately. Once the map opened up I found the game became somewhat aimless. I didn't quite end up finishing, I think; I got the pickaxe, and I assume I'm supposed to use it on the pickaxe-marked stones higher up, but dragging myself all the way back up there seemed like it would take longer than coming down, so I stopped playing there. |
| Apr 8 23:11:11 | 52m 01s | Forest Depths | ♥ 2 | Great atmosphere on this! It can get quite tense when you're on a tight area. I like the static sound the purple smoke makes when you get close to it. I would maybe make the FOV a bit higher (or make it configurable), since it's quite hard to navigate when the game feels so zoomed in as it does now. |
| Apr 8 23:14:28 | 3m 17s | Cave Escape | ♥ 3 | I like the visual style - the glow is a neat effect. As for the gameplay... well, it's Doodle Jump, it's fine enough. It's well-put-together, at the very least. Good work overall :) |
| Apr 8 23:20:55 | 6m 27s | The Signal | ♥ 1 | Wonderful atmosphere! I definitely jumped when the first enemy showed up. Gameplay-wise it's nothing especially engaging - just slowly walking around and clicking if an enemy shows up - but the ambience made up for it, I think. A fun little experience overall. |
| Apr 9 00:32:06 | 1h 11m | The OPERATOR | ♥ 6 | This was lovely! The pace is maybe a bit slow, but I enjoyed the conversations among the crew. Luckily, it only took me a few tries - I correctly guessed I would have to go to the far right first before really starting to head down, since otherwise the game would be over rather quickly. I also got a bit lucky. Nice twist for the ending, too, though I figured out what was going on a while before the game explicitly revealed it. |
| Apr 9 01:40:39 | 1h 08m | What Lurks Below | ♥ 2 | Loved the aesthetic of this! The small amount of story added as the game progressed was also a great addition. As for the gameplay - the progression at the start of the game was a little awkwardly slow. The main bottleneck was definitely collecting the substance. I was _extracting_ a lot of it, but it was far more than I could collect. While the numbers suddenly exploded in size toward the end of the game, my desire to unlock all upgrades kept the pace slow. By the time I finally got to completing the final section, I had so much substance I could buy everything nearly instantly. I think the pace of this game would be massively improved by offering some more ways to increase collection speed. Even at the _very end_ of the game, manually holding my mouse down still offered a significant increase in yield, which is uncommon in idle games. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this! The ambience is on point, and the transition from quiet and slow to loud and fast-paced was done well. Nice work. |
| Apr 9 06:16:58 | 4h 36m | Somnium | ♥ 3 | There were some fun camera tricks in this one! I liked the details in the environment to look at, particularly in the one large room with the slide. I did manage to somehow get myself stuck in that room while heading up to get the key, which forced me to restart; I seemed to be stuck in the stairs and was unable to move. I really like the music in this, but the transitions were a bit abrupt. The ending of the game was also pretty abrupt - I still felt like I was in the middle of exploring, then I stepped through a door and it just cut to the credits screen. I enjoyed myself overall, though! |
| Apr 9 06:26:26 | 9m 28s | Awakening | ♥ 1 | Very pretty, and a creative use of the theme! I kept being surprised when the map was revealed to be _even bigger_ than I had previously thought. The game was over quicker than I anticipated, though. I don't even think I collected the red square in the box at the start? I'd expected that to be the last thing I did, but I'm pretty sure the game ended before I had the chance to backtrack. I do like the scale of the map, and it creates a neat visual effect, but I will say that it made it incredibly difficult to navigate. I pretty much just had to pick random teleporters to go through, and luckily, that was enough to carry me to the end of the game. |
| Apr 9 06:31:40 | 5m 14s | A Well to Wonderland | ♥ 4 | Love the hand-drawn art. The method of control is maybe a little unusual - it's not a bad idea in theory, but it doesn't feel especially intuitive when playing. Making it through the blinking gates without being hit was quite difficult, since you don't see them for long enough to get a feel for the length of the cycle. I wasn't able to make it too deep because of that, unfortunately. The quicktime events are alright, though some kind of feedback might help make them feel less empty. Feedback would also be nice when you _die_; suddenly cutting to the title screen (along with stopping the audio) is quite jarring. Good work overall, could just use a little polish. |
| Apr 9 06:52:48 | 21m 08s | Rapid Eye Microgames | ♥ 1 | This was great! Neat to see another minigame-focused game, though yours are a bit more in-depth than those in my game. I loved the hand-drawn intro. Some of the microgames I liked, and others I found a bit frustrating (the boss fight is quite long, especially since it can show up more than once, and shaking hands was unintuitive for me at first). The art style of the minigames is a bit inconsistent, but I suppose it makes the game as a whole feel more eclectic. Overall I quite enjoyed this - somewhat addicting! By the way, the music for the boss fight cut out almost immediately, leaving me to play the boss in silence. Not sure if that's just an issue with the web version, or my machine, or something else. |
| Apr 9 20:22:06 | 13h 29m | SIRTET | ♥ 1 | Interesting twist on an already well-explored game. It took me some time to get used to the new rules, since while the game looks and feels the same as playing regular Tetris, the way you actually have to play is so different it almost plays like a completely different game entirely. I wasn't able to do very well in the short time I played, but part of that is probably just me having trouble shifting my brain away from the way I'm used to Tetris working. Good work overall. |
| Apr 9 20:32:50 | 10m 44s | Deep in the Folders | ♥ 1 | Fun little experience! The zombie minigame had me stuck for a minute, but I got through it and managed to finish the game on my first try. One small thing that caused me a bit of frustration was having to click back through all the folders I'd already completed after going back to view a hint - maybe it would be nice if the progression wasn't just through one long chain of folders. Overall though, I enjoyed myself with this. |
| Apr 9 20:52:13 | 19m 23s | Dig in, Gus! | ♥ 2 | This was a lot of fun! Kind of relaxing, really - yes, there are enemies, but I only saw two of them the whole time, so they weren't a huge part of the experience. The graphics are excellent, and the whole thing has a very nice and calming atmosphere. Great work. |
| Apr 9 20:58:52 | 6m 39s | Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooord!! | ♥ 1 | Pretty simple, but fun! Cute premise. I'm not sure if I was any good at it, though; at a certain point it seemed that no matter what I did, the sword would just start wobbling violently, and I couldn't figure out a way to stop it. |
| Apr 9 21:06:26 | 7m 34s | Descend | ♥ 2 | Interesting experience! I like that it only does what it needs to; it doesn't drag it out. The minimalist visual style is great, and the music adds to the tranquil atmosphere. The few problems I had were more implementation-based, and are perfectly acceptable for a jam game: - I didn't realize NPCs could have multiple dialogue lines at first, as the only way I could tell to advance text was walking away then moving close to them again, which is very unintuitive. I'd recommend some kind of proper dialogue box, maybe. - It felt weird how many objects did not have collision. - The pushable balls felt a bit off to me, and the fact that they can be seen through the level after being knocked off is a little visually confusing. - The ending screen did not fill my display vertically on my 16:10 laptop. |
| Apr 9 21:14:15 | 7m 49s | Grip of the Abyss | ♥ 1 | Loved the building tension in this. It started out almost mindlessly easy, but eventually became close to impossible. I ended up with a score of 251 - I'm sure I could have done a little better, but I'm not confident it would have been possible to continue on much further. Things were going wrong a lot faster than my walk speed would allow me to fix them. In that way, I don't think this game works very well as a high-score chaser... but as a standalone experience, I quite enjoyed it. Good work. |
| Apr 9 21:40:18 | 26m 03s | Little Caveman | ♥ 2 | Love to see a 3D platformer in a game jam! I don't see them very often, as they're tricky to make. You did a pretty good job here - the graphics are on point, except for the death particles, whose cartoonish/outlined style clashed heavily with the rest of the game. I enjoyed the relaxing music to accompany the graphics. The gameplay was alright, especially for a game jam project, but the lacking air control made the later parts of the game quite frustrating to play. The slightly unintuitive behavior of the yellow spheres (spheres are an irritating surface to bounce accurately off of) and wind (it seemed you get much more momentum when entering the wind higher up, which didn't make too much sense to me) didn't help. The camera angle is also pretty unusual for this kind of game, and made depth perception even harder than usual. I did at least manage to make it to the end, I think? I found a second copy of the player, but nothing special happened to signify that the game was over. I couldn't find anywhere else to go, though, so I guess I did it! |
| Apr 10 01:13:52 | 3h 33m | DESCEND with CAUTION | ♥ 1 | This was great! The CRT effect compliments the aesthetic nicely. I like the momentum-focused gameplay - while this game is significantly different in gameplay, the "death upon high-momentum collision" mechanic reminded me of N++. The level design was overall pretty good, though the low-acceleration sections near the end did become a bit frustrating, as that mechanic reduced my ability to microadjust my position. Overall, very good work. As an aside, the music is very good. Don't feel like you have to add an option to turn it off! |
| Apr 10 01:21:31 | 7m 39s | Hoard | ♥ 1 | This is really solid! Even without audio or polished graphics, I had a lot of fun with this. I'm not very _good_ at it, but it didn't feel unfair to me. Some more feedback might be nice, as well as more clarification on how the scoring works. At a certain point (once the timer got very low), I started being quite generous with what I considered a "match", and almost everything seemed to at least give me a small amount of time. More of an in-game tutorial might be a nice thing to add post-jam. Good work on this, though! |
| Apr 10 01:46:02 | 24m 31s | Ruinous Depths | ♥ 1 | Love the dungeon crawler aesthetic! I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on the gameplay, though - there was no real meaningful choice, and there's no way to _lose_ the game, so I was basically just watching the game beat itself. There was never a wrong choice of upgrade. I will admit though, it was fun seeing the numbers explode at the end (to the point they overflowed and showed as negative) after buying Deck of Many Things. I didn't expect that upgrade to be quite so... dramatic. |
| Apr 10 06:20:23 | 4h 34m | Explorem Ipsum: Catacombs of Time | ♥ 1 | This was really fun! I love the open map, where each individual room could contain multiple puzzles (or parts of puzzles). Bringing everything together at the end for the box collection puzzle was challenging, but satisfying. I suspect some of the puzzles may have multiple possible solutions, but that's all part of the fun. The puzzles are well-designed and use the mechanics in interesting ways. The aesthetic of the game is also great - it's simple, but that style has a real charm to it, I think. One criticism: the game really, _really_ could have used with an undo button. There's a reason that's a standard feature in Sokoban-style puzzle games. Having to restart after a single mistake is frustrating on the easier puzzles, but on something longer like the box collection puzzle, it starts to get a bit ridiculous. Still enjoyed the game overall, though - I can forgive that flaw for a jam game. Nice work on this. |
| Apr 10 16:13:54 | 9h 53m | Delta Breach | ♥ 1 | The atmosphere in this is excellent, but try as I might I simply could not figure out what I was supposed to do. None of the sound-related devices seemed to do anything (is there supposed to be some way to glean a number to dial from that...?), and while I could eject the CO2 filter, I couldn't figure out a way to put it back _in_, so I would just eventually die every time. I'll probably come back to this later and try again, since I really want to figure it out, but as it stands it feels like I'm just pressing random buttons while I slowly die. I see that the confusing nature of the game is intentional, but even just a small pointer would be nice as I'm really not sure how to play this at all. |
| Apr 10 19:19:49 | 3h 05m | Coin Grind | ♥ 3 | Neat little game. I think the level designs could maybe have been a little more involved. The difficulty also just wasn't very high - enemies die quickly and you get to choose when you're ready to approach them. Overall, though, an enjoyable experience. |
| Apr 10 19:32:08 | 12m 19s | Spider Cave Offensive | ♥ 1 | This was great! Managed to beat it on my second try. It's very frantic, but never became overwhelming. I liked having to find an open space before being able to shoot the spider. Sometimes the enemies would kind of force me into taking damage (you can't turn without moving, and if you're not already facing the right direction...), but for the most part that wasn't a big issue. I like the strategy the game creates of having to pick a good path that doesn't bring you too close to enemies or through difficult-to-break blocks. The one major pain point is not being able to move continuously. Yes, you can hold to move after a short delay, but the default keyboard repeat is not sufficient for a fast-paced game like this. It's objectively more advantageous to just tap the arrow keys as fast as possible, which is not especially ergonomic. Consider, instead of using the default keyboard repeat, implementing a proper hold to move feature that moves the player at a consistent, quick rate. There should be no advantage gained by strategies that could potentially cause harm to some people (that kind of quick tapping is not good for you; RSI is a thing). |
| Apr 10 19:51:49 | 19m 41s | Keep Hopping | ♥ 3 | I'm not sure how much of a _game_ there is here, to be honest. In concept the idea sounds fine but in reality you can just press 7 repeatedly (8 doesn't work) and get as high a score as you want. There's no way to be "good" or "bad" at the game. I only eventually died because a platform spawned at the top of the screen, rendering the game impossible. After that the slime just wouldn't move at all. Perhaps only the last tile of each platform could be collideable? That would, at the very least, give the player reason to press literally any other button except 7, and would add some element of skill to the game. Not a terrible start, but as it stands there isn't a whole lot to discuss. You've experienced the sum total the game has to offer quite literally three seconds into the game. |
| Apr 10 20:55:38 | 1h 03m | Perspector | ♥ 2 | Interesting mechanic! Reminds me of Super Paper Mario. The perspective switching in this is a bit awkward, though, and doesn't work like I'd expect. Most of the time, it _isn't_ safe to simply switch without jumping first - but sometimes that's what you have to do to progress, and there's no way to tell which situation you're in without trying, and possibly falling. The complete lack of checkpoints doesn't help. As a side note, I managed to fall off the map by accident at one point, which softlocked the game. I also once got jammed in between some geometry (by the lamp at the bottom of the map), which also forced me to reload. |
| Apr 11 04:36:17 | 7h 40m | Sokobound | ♥ 1 | Had a fun time with this, though I don't think I'm quite smart enough to complete it. The puzzles are well-designed but very difficult, and there isn't much of a grace period before that. I was only able to complete the first six or so levels before I had to admit I was stumped. I like the clean/minimalist aesthetic and the game in general feels well-put-together. Nice work :) |
| Apr 11 15:35:20 | 10h 59m | Explodicaves | ♥ 4 | Fun little action platformer! Charming artstyle. Using your own bombs to gain height is a fun mechanic. I will admit I wasn't always entirely sure of the utility of the alternate bomb types, though (you can't seem to switch between them with numbers as you're supposed to, also...?). The controls for shooting a bomb were also a little awkward to me. |
| Apr 11 20:34:13 | 4h 58m | Cavedude | ♥ 3 | Loved this! Had some of the most fun playing this out of all the games I've played so far this jam, but some of that may be genre bias. You know what's funny? I like precision platformers, but I _hate_ I Wanna Be The Guy. Half of that game is just remembering when the unpredictable hazards will pop out and kill you. I don't find that fun; it feels like the game cares more about _being hard_, in the abstract, than actually being challenging in an interesting way. There's nothing interesting about something randomly flying from the sky and killing you. It's just a guaranteed death your first time through (or a careless death later on if you forget, which is still extremely frustrating). A good precision platformer, in my opinion, should never force you into taking a death. It should be entirely based on your technical skill at the game, not on your ability to memorize asinine hazards. Luckily, this game is the former, despite apparently being inspired by IWBTG. I suppose it just happened not to take inspiration from the elements I dislike. The controls feel good overall, and the levels are well-designed and explore the mechanics nicely. My final time was 23:49.48, with 179 deaths, which I don't think is too bad. I attempted to complete bonus 1, but while I was able to get past the first half of the level after probably over 100 deaths, I gave up after that. With longer levels like that, it becomes very difficult to practice later parts of the level due to how much must be completed before reaching them, making those parts nearly impossible to become consistent at. I knew there was no way I would ever possibly finish that level if I could only try the second half one out of every 20 or 30 attempts, and since my wrists were starting to hurt I was forced to stop playing for my own health. I'd maybe recommend some kind of practice mode, to allow later parts of levels to be played without the prerequisite parts before them. I don't think it would be at all possible for me to complete any of these bonus levels without such a feature, as much as I enjoyed the game overall. Another issue I had with the game, though this is more than acceptable for a game jam project, is that the controls have very little lenience. This manifested in two major problems, from what I could tell: - There is no coyote time. This isn't relevant for all levels, but I particularly found it frustrating on the "Watch your head" ones. This can cause you to jump off the end of a platform, then realize the game has already taken your double jump. The timing difference between jumping _right_ at the end of a platform and just off the edge is so small as to be nearly impossible to become consistent at (unless this game is intended for people with millisecond-level timing accuracy, which I'm afraid to say is almost nobody). - This may be an intended mechanic, but I found it quite frustrating: jumping off a wall while keeping your double jump is, to me, not very fun. The game essentially just forces you to add a _very_ slight delay to your horizontal input, since to keep your double jump you must be actively pressing into the wall when you jump off. Again, that timing interval is just too small for me to possibly become consistent at succeeding at. This is the main reason bonus 1 was so difficult for me. I may have been a little harsh there at the end, but I did really enjoy this game. It's very solid, especially for a game jam. Other than the issues with lenience, the controls felt better than a lot of other platformers I've played. Usually, deaths felt like they were my fault. Keep working on this and I bet it can become even better! |
| Apr 11 21:18:49 | 44m 36s | SINKING | ♥ 2 | Interesting experience, though I'm not confident it offered much in the way of puzzles. I was stuck on the section with the campfire for a while, but that was only because I didn't realize I could walk around to another area. I'm not sure what the purposes of the campfire, the pickaxe, or the second ladder (and respective planks) were, because none of them seemed to be useful in any way. Not at all a bad start, but I think it could use a little more substance. |
| Apr 12 18:00:11 | 20h 41m | St. Harold the Devout | ♥ 1 | Not confident I entirely understood how you're supposed to play this, to be honest. I managed to make it to the mushroom by just kind of spamming the mouse while moving it in the direction I wanted the limbs to go, but I never really felt like I was in _control_ of the character. Most of the time it would just stay still and kind of jitter around. The limb used when clicking seemed to be... random?... unless I misunderstood something I was supposed to. I could disconnect the limbs by clicking them, but I couldn't figure out why I'd want to do that, since when I did I usually just ended up falling. Hitting the mushroom (having assumed it was a background object) and being sent back to the start, while not having seen it for long enough to figure out how I was intended to approach the obstacle, was enough to make me stop playing. Getting past the bump of terrain in _front_ of the mushroom was hard enough for me. I unfortunately don't have the patience to struggle through something I find so unintuitive. If I've misunderstood something obvious/essential, please let me know and I'll give this another try. I really wanted to like it. Side note: it's interesting to see a GMS1 game. I didn't know there were still people actively using that engine. I got into using GameMaker around the time GMS1 was officially sunset, so writing GML without proper functions and structs feels somewhat like pulling teeth for me, but I know some people are used to that older workflow. |
| Apr 13 04:07:42 | 10h 07m | Pogo Dwarf | ♥ 1 | Fun, but frustrating. I was unfortunately not able to finish - I got stuck at a section involving a decently sized slope that would drop you into lava. Not sure how far the game that was. I was at least several checkpoints in. Climbing up stairs was extremely difficult from the start, and even once I figured out a repeatable strategy, it still felt very awkward and not very "intentionally designed", if that makes sense. Crawling to the edge of a platform before doing a very precise jump that only had about a 50% chance of working on steeper staircases did not feel good to me. I was happy to see checkpoints, which aren't often present in these Getting Over It-reminiscent games, but I found this game difficult enough that even the checkpoints weren't enough to get me through it. The controls are decently responsive, but the difference between a successful jump and failure was often extremely small, and being on a laptop, left click was probably the worst possible input the main mechanic of the game could have been bound to (please consider adding another option for keyboard-only play...). Good work overall. |
| Apr 13 04:13:40 | 5m 58s | Drilly's Journey | ♥ 1 | Had a fun time with this! Not especially difficult - I think the game could really have done with some more challenging puzzles toward the end, though it did at least try with the more vertical pink section - but quite enjoyable. The low difficulty also makes sense for a jam game, to allow more people to fully experience it in a shorter amount of time. Good development of the mechanics as the game progressed. I enjoyed the more involved puzzle rooms toward the end of the game. The ending itself was well-executed, though I'll admit I was worried for a second when passing through the first checkpoint flag on my way to the final room. _Really_ could have done with some music, though I understand being a compo game would have made that more difficult to accomplish. Some critiques: - Not a huge fan of being able to slope off of corners. I know some people do this on purpose to add lenience to the controls, but personally I find it works _against_ me more often than not, and just makes the game more frustrating. Where tiles are involved, I just want a plain rectangle collider. - Being able to drill into the side of a wall feels awkward to me. It's never necessary in the actual levels and as such serves no purpose. - The upper pink section had some extraneous metal blocks that misled me as to what I was supposed to do to progress. Falling down to the grassy section previously had meant failure, so it felt counterintuitive to suddenly _have_ to do that. - Speaking of falling down to the grassy section... I didn't love that being the main method of failure in that part of the game. It's possible you could forget to reset and accidentally hit a flag, and then you'd have to play a whole chunk of the game over again, which would not be fun. This game reminded me of Leap Year by Daniel Linssen in some ways. If you haven't played that game probably don't read the following section, and go play it because it's really good! Considering you made this game, and Leap Year has some similar design sensibilities, I think you'd enjoy it. !> The main mechanic of this game is very similar to the drilling in Leap Year. That game gives you horizontal control while drilling and does not let you drill upward, but the basics are the same, and the puzzle design is also extremely. The simple, slightly wobbly hand-drawn art style is also very reminiscent. Not sure if there was any inspiration there, but I had fun either way, and this game develops the drill mechanic further to create some interesting puzzles. Beyond the drill mechanic, both games have a similar style of progressing through a screen-based map and revisiting rooms as you go, which is a format I quite enjoy. |
| Apr 13 17:51:37 | 13h 37m | Down climber (Pico-8) | ♥ 1 | Really enjoyed this! Shame it didn't last much longer than the tutorial. The controls certainly could've done with some polish, but they worked well enough for me to get the idea. I think an expanded version of this could be really fun, if you were so inclined. Some criticisms: - The way you activate the rope didn't feel the most natural to me. Maybe Z could do that as well? It felt a bit awkward to just completely let go and trust the rope would kick in to save me. - Some areas required me to sneak over an edge and catch a 1-tile wall to avoid falling. I wasn't a huge fan of those sections, especially since I wasn't entirely clear on what the hitboxes were. At least during the tutorial section, I think I would stay away from finicky movements like that. - Twice the game seemed to force me to simply fall/glide down to a platform from a decent height, and there didn't seem to be a good way to avoid it. Both times, I simply respawned at the spawn point on the platform I was trying to land on. Maybe I just happened to touch the spawn point when landing...? But, I'm not sure I did. Is this some kind of failsafe? Do the spawn points just work differently than I thought? - This is acceptable for a game jam project, but there was a lack of feedback. Dying just instantly cut to me standing next to my last spawn point, with no fanfare. Spawn points themselves also had no feedback; I'm only assuming they're spawn points because I don't know what else they could be, and I seemed to respawn next to them after dying. There was no explanation in-game. I'd recommend maybe just having some text that says "Checkpoint!" or something. Good work overall. Might check this out again in the future if you decide to add more content in a post-jam update. I think there's some room for interesting level designs using this mechanic that this prototype didn't have the time to explore. |
| Apr 13 19:26:53 | 1h 35m | Back From Abyss | ♥ 1 | Not a bad start! I ended up with 18 deaths. I like the torches clearing the way, though I'll admit I didn't immediately read the green dots as "danger" - maybe red or orange would be a more indicative color, though perhaps you didn't think those would look as nice. The controls were alright, but a little fast. The last long jump in the final level required me to jump after I was already off the edge, which didn't feel great. Lastly, while this isn't a huge issue, the binds when playing with arrow keys are not good. Space just doesn't really make sense in that context, and hitting Z while jumping with Space was pretty awkward. Z and X are the most commonly used action keys when using the arrow keys, so I'd recommend you use those and scrap Space entirely. The WASD controls seemed fine, as J and K serve a similar role as Z and X would. |
| Apr 14 04:20:41 | 8h 53m | Depthshifter | ♥ 1 | Love the concept of this, and the levels overall felt well-designed (I wasn't able to complete the one with the tree due to how much progress I lost each time I fell, so I'm not sure if there was anything else past that). Unfortunately, the game was really let down by the controls. The player is extremely slippery, moves too quickly, and can slide off the corners of platforms (along with having an unclear hitbox in general), which made the sometimes decently tight platforming in the levels quite frustrating to play. The 3D camera being locked to one axis, at a very uncomfortable angle for platforming, didn't help, to the point where having to do any jumps in 3D felt unintended. Tab is also a pretty inconvenient choice for depth shifting, since it's not easy to hit while navigating with WASD. My hand started to cramp near the end from constantly stretching out to hit that key. You've got a strong mechanic here, but I would take another look at the handling if you choose to continue work on this. |
| Apr 14 21:11:57 | 16h 51m | Forgotten Files | ♥ 1 | Neat experience. I was not able to figure out how to get the last two achievements for the life of me (I swear I picked every possible option in the boss fight, and there was nothing cluing me into any kind of "secret puzzle"...), but what I played was enjoyable. There was a bit of a strange inconsistency in that restarting the game after finishing the boss battle would keep the computer unlocked and all potential PINs stored, but restarting after selecting a file would reset _everything_, forcing me to mindlessly click through all the box contents again. Honestly, that stuff should probably just never reset at all. |
| Apr 16 07:07:39 | 33h 55m | Abyss Vaulter | ♥ 1 | This was fantastic. Extremely polished to a level you very rarely see in a jam game - like, to the point it almost feels ready for a proper release as-is. Not a single bug to be found (aside from a couple typos here and there). Not especially difficult at the moment, though the movement-altering crystals in the third area did occasionally mess me up quite a bit. I didn't manage to get all the upgrades; I waited too long to buy the gem doubling one, and by the time I did, it was the last level, so I would have better spent my gems on something more useful. As for the boss, I do think it was maybe a bit anticlimactic, to be honest. It wasn't much of a challenge, and I found it a bit disappointing, after being given so many differing weapons throughout the game, to be forced to use the boring default one for the final boss (though, the homing weapon was pretty bad... I tended to dread picking it up, since it often would target gems instead of something more _imminent_). In a post-jam version, perhaps a more elaborate boss sequence like what Downwell has could add to the experience. Still, amazing work on this. I had a great time playing it. The environments were all beautiful, and the controls were sufficiently tight. This deserves _way_ more ratings than it has. I'm assuming you just haven't had time yet, but if you want this game to get to the minimum of 20 ratings (and I really hope it does!), I'd highly recommend you get to playing some games soon. This won't surface very often in people's feeds otherwise, unfortunately, and that would be a shame because it's a wonderful game. I found it through the Fresh Games feed on itch.io, not through this site at all. |
| Apr 25 15:43:13 | 224h 35m | Dive to Survive | ♥ 0 | Had a fun time with this! I love the anxiety-inducing music when you're about to drown (though, having that music only start when the oxygen meter visually reaches 0 made that a bit confusing - personally, I would've just made the meter move a bit slower and start playing the music when it gets _close_ to 0). The extremely slow acceleration was occasionally a bit annoying, but that's part of what makes the game stand out among other platformers. The crabs were particularly difficult to avoid, though; most of the time I ended up just taking the hits, and the lenience of the oxygen meter let me break the next chest without much issue. As for the hammer... it really shouldn't have been a state that can turn on and off. Multiple times, my character got stuck repeatedly hammering while slowly floating backward, which at one point forced me to hit spikes and take damage. No keys I pressed seemed to exit that state - I just had to wait for the game to decide it was finished. The hammer really should've just been a single action when you press C. Overall, though, solid work on this. The pixel art was fantastic. The music sounded great too, though I think (aside from the low oxygen music) it didn't really fit the game all too much. I'd expect something a bit more... underwater-like, if that makes any sense. The current music, while good, didn't communicate much beyond "this is an action game" to me... and, I'm not sure this is all that much of a high-octane action game anyway! It felt a lot more methodical to me. Perhaps that could be reflected in the music, instead. |
| Apr 25 16:07:18 | 24m 05s | Absolve | ♥ 1 | Loved the atmosphere on this. Very tense and foreboding. The graphics and writing were wonderful. I like some of the moral choices the game presents you with as you progress. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it very far at all. My best was 186 meters. I see you've offered some tips above, but... I'm not sure they'd be all too useful. The rat can be given cheese? Well... the game never _gave_ me cheese, so I couldn't do that. The knight couldn't help me because I never made it to 200 meters. I guess the turtle thing could have been useful, but I only saw the turtle once, and I assumed the only way to get something out of the encounter would be to catch it, which I failed to do. The simple fact is that the game did not give me enough food to make it very far at all. I was never able to reach 200 meters, even with spreading my food out as much as I could and enduring 0 hunger for long periods of time. I tried three times, and was not able to improve. I would only get a few pieces of food each run. I only made it as far as I did on my last try because the game took mercy on me and happened to present me with less enemies and more chests (though, two of those chests only had scissors, which I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with...). Inventory space wasn't an issue because I simply wasn't given enough items to _make_ it an issue. Please let me know if I'm approaching this all wrong, somehow. I really want to enjoy this game to its fullest potential, and I feel like I may be missing something. As-is, I don't think I'll be giving it any more attempts, because each run played roughly the same, and took a lot of time. (By the way, as a small graphical criticism - I think the font is being rendered wrong. It's clearly a pixel font, but is being rendered with some kind of antialiasing. Perhaps it is simply being used at the wrong size, but if antialiasing was off, as it should be, that wouldn't cause blurring. It's possible this is on Scribble, but that extension is quite configurable so I can't see a reason this problem shouldn't be resolvable with some configuration.) |