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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Samuel Hollywood-Summers's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 8 18:42:56 | Cheese is the Reason | ♥ 1 | I enjoyed this. As mentioned in many comments, the overall mood of the game is a strong point. The visuals and audio are enjoyable and do a lot with a little. The fixed camera positions work really nicely. I would have liked more coverage from the audio, with more of the environments being given an ambient bed, for example, and the sound of the lift moving would add to the effect of the shaking that you did include. Overall, cohesive, compelling and cheeky. Good stuff. | |
| Apr 8 18:52:02 | 9m 06s | Esca - Ludum Dare 57 | ♥ 1 | I love that the character is controlled indirectly, that's a nice touch, and makes a simple idea more interesting. You have already addressed the biggest problem in your description: the high score system being broken takes away the ability to know how well I'm doing: while playing, I want to focus on catching fish. Congratulations on your first solo jam game! |
| Apr 10 18:25:48 | 47h 33m | DUCKDEPF | ♥ 1 | I enjoyed playing this game, but there were a few frustrations, all centred around mis-judging my duck's position relative to the obstacles, causing me to collide with obstacles unexpectedly. I think a light causing shadows to be cast by the duck onto the scenery would help with this a lot. The bats being so much bigger than the duck model was a little counter-intuitive, too. I loved the music slow-down effect on failure, and enjoyed the blocky art style. It would be nice to have more coverage with the sounds though: moving obstacles making sound would be an improvement, as would having a whoosh or similar on the dodge. Overall, a great jam submission! Well done! |
| Apr 10 18:49:37 | 23m 49s | Letting Go | ♥ 0 | A lovely little story with emotional impact. I love the positive spin on a dark series of events. Good stuff. The first jump forward in time, though, was a bit of a sudden jump in mood. The implied outcome of the camping scene clashed with the upbeat music choice on waking up. Something more emotionally ambiguous might suit that particular transition better, so that the reader has time to absorb what was hinted at. |
| Apr 10 19:39:22 | 49m 45s | Depthshifter | ♥ 1 | There is so much potential for me to love this game. The concept is great, the puzzle design is great, the levels are sequenced in a way that tutorialises the mechanics really well. But... The controls are awkward (especially in 3D), the movable box physics is awkward (especially in 3D) and the game not always placing you on or above a solid surface when moving from 2D to 3D mid-jump, when it could (and when the player expects it to) made for an incredibly frustrating time as the puzzles got more difficult. I thought switching to control pad might make things easier for me, but the right stick did not move the camera. If you can improve the quality of life details mentioned above, this would be a fantastic game, and I would love for you to let me know if you smooth these edges so I can play a more forgiving version of the game. As it is, I had to give up on the tree level after reaching the second of the brown floating cubes. I just wasn't willing to push past the friction in implementing my solutions. In a puzzle game, if I know what I need to do, it shouldn't be this hard to do it. Really great jam game though, well done! |
| Apr 10 19:54:26 | 15m 04s | Unfortunate Mishaps of Subsurface Uranium Mining | ♥ 1 | Very fun. There was lots to do but I was able to pick up what I was meant to do very quickly. Audio and visual cues to the player were communicated well and so did their job well. I might suggest that the difficulty ramp up a little slower from a calmer, more manageable beginning. Great job, fun game! |
| Apr 11 16:23:44 | 20h 29m | Cloud Sea Catalog | ♥ 1 | Super chill experience, with a number of impressive features. I enjoyed how I was able to take some really quite beautiful images, and there were interesting and surprising discoveries to make. I did feel as though the audio let the experience down somewhat. I know you've opted out of the category, but a more thorough pass of sound design and music could really elevate the experience. I really enjoyed my sail on the cloud sea, thanks for sharing! |
| Apr 11 17:00:29 | 36m 45s | Depths of the Mind | ♥ 2 | A great puzzle game. Hard to make sense of at times, but I'm glad I stuck with it until the end. Solving (what I assume is) the last puzzle was satisfying. The mechanics could probably be tutorialised a little better, and I would like some SFX for specific actions/interactions, but I really enjoyed the puzzle design and overall experience of playing the game. Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 11 17:24:22 | 23m 53s | The Way We Left, by Elien Pathcarver | ♥ 3 | An engrossing story, and captivating mood from the sound and visuals. It would improve some of the music tracks if they were edited to loop seamlessly, and there were some silent moments at the end of the story despite having plenty of music tracks throughout the story that could have been used here, too, but overall, everything is very well done. Thanks for sharing this with us. |
| Apr 11 19:32:16 | 2h 07m | How the Moon Got Its Colors | ♥ 0 | I had fun collecting up tears and eventually catching the moon. I like the ambition with the adaptive music, and it works well, but more of the time spent on audio could have been used to get more actions and interactions covered with SFX. Thinking about how to telegraph the tears' attacks before they happen might make for a player experience that feels more fair, and allows the player to anticipate what will happen better. Well done on submitting a fun game! |
| Apr 11 19:43:04 | 10m 48s | Depth of your Thoughts | ♥ 1 | Massive congratulations for your first jam game after a month of game dev experience. This is original, expressive and bold. In future jams, I would consider trying to have a little more interactivity and a goal for the player, but you should be proud of your first jam game. Well done. |
| Apr 11 19:57:36 | 14m 32s | Buried Under Profits | ♥ 1 | A fun little shooter with a twist. Good stuff. More attention could be payed to telegraphing threat: a lot of the sounds were confusing (was I being shot at by swordfish?) and the lack of visual communication of enemy attacks (I think this is what most of the confusing sounds were?) made it hard to know for sure what was happening and how I should respond. Always try to communicate important information to the player through as many channels as possible (good job on the icons pointing to these threats though, nice touch). Thanks for sharing. Now to spend my gems... |
| Apr 12 09:10:49 | 13h 13m | Deepsweeper | ♥ 1 | I love this. Minesweeper in 3D is a lot harder than 2D, but you have put in some measures to help visualise the adjacent cells, which I found really useful. It took me a while to notice that though. The q harpoon might also help me get past the hard cube. I've only managed to solve medium up to now. The choice of ambient audio really fits the type of game, and contributes to an overall relaxing underwater aesthetic and mood. Well done. I'll be playing more of this, I'm sure. |
| Apr 14 18:54:43 | 57h 43m | Ad Light | ♥ 1 | Congratulations on your first jam game. This is a solid submission. My biggest piece of advice would be to make jam games easier than you think they should be. I really struggled with the first level. By the next two, I had gotten used to the controls more, but the first level is very hard for the first thing a player needs to do. Also, the vertical movement from just a small tap was really quite far, and that caught me out a few times, with an evasive manoeuvre taking me right into the jaws of a predator. Thanks for sharing your game! |
| Apr 15 06:45:17 | 11h 50m | Oakhaven | ♥ 2 | I like the concept here. It took me a while to understand what the symbols on the sliding puzzles were communicating, but once I figured that out, everything became clear. I did have to revisit the game page for a bit of explanation and was not able to figure everything out through discovery. If you were to pursue this idea beyond the jam, I think it would be worth exploring ways of teaching the mechanics more organically through discovery. Things like low, rumbling, geological SFX after exiting the puzzle screen, to communicate that the world itself has shifted, etc. Thanks for sharing this game with us! |
| Apr 15 06:54:38 | 9m 21s | Profundo | ♥ 1 | A fun little game. Probably the cutest killer submarine I've ever come across. Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 16 06:19:20 | 23h 24m | Marianas Miner | ♥ 1 | I enjoyed playing this. The simplicity of the gameplay seems to have allowed you to balance the game well. The amount of harpoons and lives offered an appropriate level of challenge. The changes in the tile-set communicated effectively that I should be travelling up, not down (I had assumed down at first, but thought again when reaching the boundary). I also thought you covered most of the main sounds required to communicate important information to the player. Enemies just off-screen, especially vertically, could be announced through sfx, as I was often surprised by them travelling down as I was travelling up, without time to react to their appearance. Music would have helped set the mood better, too. Overall, a good jam submission. Thanks for sharing this with us! |
| Apr 21 17:01:02 | 130h 41m | BeastBound | ♥ 2 | I had fun playing this, but it felt like it was harder than it was meant to be. It is always a good idea to lean on the easier side for jam games, so that your players experience all or most of what you have made. Limiting the number of enemies in active pursuit would be a good idea. Also, highlighting which resources you still need when attempting to craft items would be helpful. I managed to get to the point where I needed leather to make an improved slingshot. It seemed like I wasn't going to find any in the starting area, so I went further afield. I didn't find any leather, but did find a jaguar I was unequipped to battle and died very quickly. Giving some sort of indication where to go to find the next required resource would be helpful, as I'm guessing I went in the wrong direction? Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 21 17:19:16 | 18m 14s | Depth Connections: Mail from the Deep Realms | ♥ 2 | I love the visuals. This is an ambitious game to make over a weekend, which is probably why there are some bugs and unfinished content. Not knowing what should and shouldn't work meant that I couldn't be as immersed in the game as I would have liked, but you do have the start of something really good here. Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 21 17:37:05 | 17m 49s | The 7 Questions | ♥ 1 | I love this take on the theme. I played the original submission version. The mood is perfect. Solemn reflection and (this is my favourite part) a reverence for all three responses to each question. The optimism and acceptance matches the overall meditative, calming and reflective tone well. The visuals and audio could do more to further enhance the aesthetic presentation of that mood, and a greater number of questions and responses would allow a 'player' to enjoy the 'game' for longer. Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 21 20:15:16 | 2h 38m | DESENTIA | ♥ 0 | I really enjoyed this submission. The audio was spot on for the mood of the game, being relaxing and calm, with rewarding SFX on combos. Once I got to grips with the mechanics and scoring, I realised just how powerful the broken sunglasses were, allowing me to complete all the floors and finish the game. The game could probably be balanced a little better in that regard, but it did feel good to watch all the combos going off. The game did start to stall and slow during the late game mega-combos though. Overall, a really fun submission. It is always a good sign when people finish your jam game. Well done! |
| Apr 21 20:28:24 | 13m 08s | Asteronaut | ♥ 1 | Bonkers and fun. It would be nice if the post-ejection launch was more powerful, as I felt like I had very little influence over what happened after the initial launch. In pinball, the ball can be away from the flippers for a long time, but you can hit the ball away with significant force when it comes back to the flippers. Something equivalent to that near your black hole would be a good idea. More of a VFX/SFX on the wormholes would help them read better: it took a while for me to work out that it wasn't just a random glitch that I changed position. Visuals and audio are both the highlights of your game. Well done. Thanks for sharing. |
| Apr 24 06:55:22 | 58h 26m | Brainwash | ♥ 3 | I enjoyed this experience, but I agree with the other comments that having more to do, or a smaller brain to wash, would help to avoid the feeling of sameness setting in. Having one simple, repetitive task without surprises and challenges is meditative, so if that is what you want to achieve, well done, but there are many opportunities to push this idea further. The humour of the initial idea would be one thing to explore further, and ways of making the player's progress feel more rewarding through visuals, audio and additional gameplay events is another area you could explore. Thanks for sharing this satisfying experience with us, and for making me worry about microplastics more than I was already... |
| Apr 25 18:31:54 | 35h 36m | Yet Another Game About Digging A Hole | ♥ 2 | Really intriguing. I like that a game exploring themes of game discovery and hidden gems took a recommendation to discover: I didn't find this one by myself. The jam entry page and the itch page both make very little effort to invite players in, nor to let them know what to do. This does seem intentional, and an exploration of the game's themes. I needed the comments to teach me what to press, and to give me a clue that there is more to discover beyond the first chest. I enjoyed finding my own secrets in the game, including beyond what I initially thought was the intended end, though if there was much more that I missed, I don't know. Thanks for making this, and thanks to the person who posted about the game and led me to play it. |
| Apr 25 19:00:21 | 28m 27s | Hooking Back | ♥ 1 | I found this really enjoyable. Relaxing and un-challenging gameplay is what you want from a fishing game (even if there are no fish). The interactive music was ambitious and alternating to the guitar-forward variation of the music on catching a bite is a nice touch. I particularly liked the change when finding the violin, though I would prefer for that to stick around longer (or permanently?). The big problem with the music, though, is that it fails on the basics: it does not loop seamlessly! With a loop this short, it really does become annoying, and diminishes the impact of the otherwise really great music that captures the mood of the game so well. I intended to collect all of the items, but got a bug where my hook disappeared off-screen and got stuck when reeling in one of the deeper items. Good job pulling this together in an unfamiliar engine, and thanks for sharing! |