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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | HacksawUnit's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 02:29:03 | Loaded Dice | ♥ 1 | This is a great, snappy little deckbuilding game! Very well polished- the sound effects are good, and interactions feel smooth, satisfying, and mostly effortless. (Although I had to unlearn my "left-click to unselect card" muscle memory!) In terms of gameplay and strategy, the amount of variety here is great- lots of cards, unique enemies, and all of it bug free in my playthough. The tutorial was greatly appreciated, too. I am very impressed with the amount going on here, especially the shop implementation.The push and pull of sacrificing cards for HP VS saving them to get more back later felt good. And, the little "bonus round" for getting money was a nice "cool down" for the fight and incentivizes thinking ahead and not just spamming right click. It took me several tries, but I did finally beat the boss. I really liked the boss theme, and it's that there's a victory theme as well. It made the game feel really complete! As for the art, I really like the regal color pallet- adds a lot to the sort of "enhanced sword and sorcery" vibe going on. The enemy designs are fun as well, and make a lot of sense with the mechanics of the enemies. (The siren is very funny game design.) Great work all around! Misc: I liked how big combos had the sound go up, up, up! I also noticed I needed to zoom in and out my browser a bit at first to make sure everything fit on screen. Eventually it worked without issue, but may be worth checking out. | |
| Oct 6 02:30:07 | 1m 04s | 1 of 8,031,810,176 | ♥ 1 | A little gnome-like creature stumbles upon a hole in the wall. Inside, they find a trophy, and a corridor an eternity wide. They set up some kind of shop to make use of what they found, acquire tools to make it easier, and then... I wonder what it was all for? I really liked how the game explores the idea of a really, really, really long index. (I have a fondness for media that deals with sorting information and how you navigate them!) You also gave me just enough of a chore for you to get your point across without me close the game- the hint at more forms of transportation through the gui elements was good, too. The emergent "push your luck" element with not crashing into the wall was also a fun surprise. Very strange wonderful little entry. Misc: This game reminded me of the book "All the Names", which deals with a different kind of extremely long index. |
| Oct 22 22:43:45 | 404h 13m | Squish ! | ♥ 2 | This entry seems really cool, but I couldn't figure out how to progress the game. :( I can tell there's other mechanics going on (snowflake on the pink slime?) but I just don't know how to activate or interact with them! I tried throwing the builder slime into the pink slime, throwing the builder slime at the nest, and explored areas to west and east, but nothing really did anything. I *did* have some fun exploring and figuring out how to traverse with both slimes, though... I guess this entry ended up being a bit of an introspective "hike-'em-up" for me! squish_Running.gif |
| Oct 23 18:01:12 | 19h 17m | Treasure Thrower | ♥ 1 | Very fun take on the "do stuff at a big horde of enemies" genre! Controlling/accumulating a huge pile of stuff while keeping away from the enemies was fun. I didn't notice too much of a difference between the different items, but I imagine if I played for longer I could probably try to do some sort of diabolical cannon ball build where I'm wiping out the "boss" (?) creatures in one hit by flinging my stuff halfway across the map... hehehe. Having more things going on to break up the flow would have been nice, but only so much time in a compo. What is here is quite nice- there's a good amount of content here and lots of lovely pixel art, too. Oh, and there was a fun "emergent gameplay" quirk that happened with the sink item- I think it draws in enemies, so there was this giant wad of stuck items and enemies following me until I was able to crack it open. That was really cool! |
| Oct 23 19:19:46 | 1h 18m | The Collector's Horde | ♥ 0 | Really cool and inventive entry! I would actually LOVE to play a full game like this. Collecting powerups and dealing with the enemies and then going through the door when ready is a lot of fun! The powerups were cool, and I liked needing to be careful around the sides of the area when really fast/good-at-jumping to aviod the game over border. The art is simple but very charming and has a great feel to it- great animation! Audio would have helped a lot, but things still felt pretty responsive regardless. Very ambitious entry and a lot of fun. :) Screenshot: collector.png |
| Oct 23 19:38:08 | 18m 22s | Little Solar Panel's Trial | ♥ 0 | Such a cute entry! The crayon art is wonderful and implemented well, and the gameplay is great. It reminds me of Game & Watch gallery style games. The difficulty ramp-up also being a bunch of funny events makes getting through the game fun, although I wasn't able to get past level 5- brutal! I wish there was an indicator of how much energy I was collecting, but doing it based off of the "vibes" is sort of cool too. On that note, the implementation of the sunlight effect and background gradient is excellent. |
| Oct 23 20:16:02 | 37m 54s | Hamster Seed Rush! | ♥ 1 | A cute unassuming game with a real mean difficulty! It feels like there's two difficulty layers- the simple seeming back-and-forth wheel-based gameplay progression (which I think is cool and charming in its own way) and figuring out the physics-based platforming quirks. Jumping becomes a puzzle unto itself, as does seed management and working around the slightly mysterious damage system of the traps. Routing out the path to victory takes a lot of trial and error, and leads to a lot of fun discoveries. For instance, you can't jump while on top of seeds, and trying to walk on them ends up putting you on a little seed conveyor belt challenge. And, if you lose all your seeds and can't break the glass jars, you're "soft locked" out of progressing unless you have double jump. Plus, you better be good with your timing at the end, or you'll end up in the infinite falling zone where hearts won't be able to save you. Reminds me a lot of "Kaizo"-style games! These oddities and "strange difficulties" are some of my favorite quirks of LudumDare games, so I hope my observations don't come off as insulting. These quirks wouldn't be very fun at all if they randomly broke the game (as opposed to predictably!) so I must give appreciation to how nicely the seeds bounce around. They are just random and bouncy enough to be satifying to spit, but they never clipped through the floor or anything in my many attempts. (They *do* go through walls, but I consider that a feature!) Gameplay aside, the art and animation is very cute and cohesive. I'm not always a fan of non-aligned pixels ("mixels") but you pull it off very artfully here. Great colors, too. Unfortunately, despite my appreciation for the game and many attempts, I was never able to pull off grabbing the final seed. Since the seed falls into the "infinite falling zone", it won't reappear, and jumping after it doesn't do you any good, either. So, you have only one chance to pull it off, and if you fail, you have to start allll over. A slightly sour ending, but not enough to take away from the unexpected excitement I got out of it. Thank you for your entry! Give the hampster lots of seeds for me. Screenshot: hamDemo.png |
| Oct 23 21:31:24 | 1h 15m | Cut to Pieces | ♥ 3 | An amazing entry! The art is gorgeous, and the gameplay is extremely well-implemented and seemingly bug-free for my playthrough. I loved the humor and mood of the entry, and the timing and tension with Sr. Hector's appraisal is great. The music sets the mood perfectly and sounds great, too. I imagine getting all these mechanics to work and making them feel good to use was no small feat! There's a little bit of "meta-challenge" in trying to figure out what the game will accept and wants me to do, VS what I would want to do if I could trust the computer to act like a human, but for a jam game the "solution restrictions" are well within the bounds of what's reasonable. Having the "❌" and "✅" hints went a LONG way in reducing frustration, but I did end up peeking at 100thCoin's playthrough for hints so I didn't get hit with a game over in case my alignment was off. 😅 The game overall reminded me a lot of Scribblenauts and Professor Layton- something about this game just screams "high-budget third-party Nintendo DS release". I would love to play a "full" version of this, or some other take on the concept! There's just so much potential and ways you could mess with the mechanics- spelling words, requiring more "mashing up" of different objects, having more discerning clients, needing to match colors, etc. But! Even just what's here is extremely well done and well polished. Great work! |
| Oct 23 21:49:23 | 17m 59s | Hop, Skip, Jump | ♥ 1 | Awesome little entry- wait, 5 hours!? Wild!!! You did an excellent job, ESPECIALLY with the time constraint. The presentation is nice, and it feels responsive. I like that the game makes it very clear when you can't move, does a little "nope!" sound and effect when you click anwyay, makes the line turn yellow when you can collect something. There's even a little animation on the level transitions! It's again impressive that it's all in there with only 5 hours. The puzzles were fun and well designed, and I didn't feel like I had to brute force them or anything. I was enjoying the game, but was a little annoyed that there wasn't an undo button, until I realized there *IS* an undo button and I just skimmed over it. It's a nice feeling to wish for a feature and realize it's already in the game and staring me in the face, haha. I don't think a game has ever made me think so explicitly about "wiggle room" like this game does... a few degrees to the left or right with your first line can make or break the puzzle! |
| Oct 23 22:27:55 | 38m 32s | Bibli-otter-phy | ♥ 1 | A chill, laid-back game that still manages to feel like it has stakes! I loved swimming around as a little otter and seeing all the cool sea creatures. The feeling of progression was nice without feeling like I was totally underpowered in the beginning, and the collectable library decorations are really the secret sauce here, I think. I think it is crucial to the game design and really spices the whole thing up to make the place you return to feel like it has its own identity which you can shape. This game reminds me a ton of the UFO 50 game Porgy, except much more balanced- and going for a different kind of vibe, of course. The quality of life features like running out of air draining HP instead of an instant game over, and being able to retrieve your "ghost" (?) to get back dropped items, are EXTREMELY appreciated. This game could have VERY easily felt like a slog (*cough*, Porgy, *cough*) but you did a great job in making sure things feel snappy and fair. On that note, making the "final" collectable relatively easy to collect with a small-ish number of upgrades was very kind for those wanting to kind of 'get in and get out' while still giving incentive for those with the time to go for a fully decked out library. The stat upgrade tablets were also fun, although I wish there was a way to tell what the tablet gave you before you grabbed it... although, maybe that's removing too much of the mystery. Being able to drop items to swim back faster could have been nice, too, but might have been weird to implement. Oh, and implementation wise, everything felt great, the various transitions and text pop outs worked well, and the library especially is just wonderful to play around with. All in all, great work!! PS: I forgot to mention the art! Great sprite work, especially with all the unique decorations and options for customization. And, seeing all the tablets show in the library really sells the theme. :) |
| Oct 23 22:54:28 | 26m 33s | Dream Together | ♥ 0 | A very mysterious entry that rewards creative thinking and exploring the mechanics! It was a bit of a puzzle to even figure out what was going on, but once I did I really liked using the mechanics in this bite-sized little level. The final flying cube, toilet, room thing (?) was a little weird, but once I stacked both players by the toilet, I seemed to win? I thought I grabbed all the cat cubes, but it says I only got one... weird! As much as I like the graphics, I think there's some pre-existing asset use going on, so I will not be rating based in Graphics. But! The overall vibe, feel, and design of the game is pretty great. I love the stacked TV's as the checkpoints, and the "warped mirror" barriers are really cool looking, too. Controls feel pretty great once you get used to them, and I didn't notice any obvious glitches or errors. Thank you for including a single player option! |
| Oct 23 23:09:53 | 15m 25s | Fume: The PC Gaming Simulator | ♥ 1 | Cool little entry and some fun parodies going on. I didn't actually notice the flucutations in the sale prices much, and I wasn't sure why I was starting with no money? But, at least I was able to get some modern classic indie games with the power of time travel. ;) I think this game would have been way weaker if you didn't nail the Steam aesthetic. The borderless window with custom controls, the tab-based navigation, button scheme... really good job. It's crisp, and... uh, filling. Crisp and filling, like a delicious apple with all-natural unsalted peanut butter. |
| Oct 23 23:29:10 | 19m 17s | Gems of Kaine | ♥ 1 | What a diabolical logic game, with such a great atmosphere! You did a great job making this game feel intense despite being a genre more commonly associated with chill, laid-back vibes. It took me awhile to figure out the rules, and it would have taken me MUCH longer without the hints, so thank you for providing those. Having to restart completely on making a mistake is very brutal, but it fits the game's mood perfectly. I liked that the music resumed at a different point every restart, it kept things fresh and made long runs feel more impactful. The graphics are nice, and I like the spooky red highlights that appear when you make a mistake, with the spooky laughing. I could never get past level 7, but I appreciate the difficulty and what you're going for. PS: Thanks for having an undo button, too! Would have been much more painful/frustrating without it. |
| Oct 24 15:55:03 | 16h 25m | Hatterdashery | ♥ 3 | Cool entry! It was fun to collect the hats and make a giant stack, and I liked how wearing them gives you an extra hitpoint like in Sonic the Hedgehog. The 3D graphics are charming and I'm impressed by the amount of different projectiles and hats. I think having some smaller, easier enemies scattered around could have been cool, as well as enemies that require more hitpoints. (Although maybe there are some hidden deeper in the map I missed!) stackofHat.png |
