FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD26 → S.A.M

S.A.M

By lafolie

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness351
Graphics1613.66
Overall1883.34
Fun1963.09
Mood2313.08
Humor2652.16
Audio2752.90
Innovation3682.66
Theme5242.31

Comments

SuperlevelSebastian 2013-04-30 15:58

Sadly it just freezes, when I try to start it. :( (Win XP, 32bit)

lafolie 2013-04-30 17:49

I think the windows build may be 64bit, I'll see what I can do. Thanks!

tribeard 2013-04-30 18:36

I see what you were aiming for, but I think you've just got too many mechanics going on at once here. I think the time would've been better spent making one or two of them feel a bit nicer. Still fun though :)

fadobo 2013-04-30 18:43

Very cool game, and a great achievement for the short time jam. Feels awesomely retro. Totally would've bought that 3,5" back in the day :)

thebenjaneer 2013-04-30 22:16

Interesting Game. I love the S.A.M. Sprite.

ragzouken 2013-04-30 22:27

Really like the graphics :) Taunted by that floating box that I have to laser with my jetpack :p

jceipek 2013-04-30 22:32

This entry has a lot of potential; its intent seems to be to reverse the typical platformer trope of gathering new abilities as you advance. I could imagine a long level progression where you start with many abilities that make overcoming obstacles easy as you learn about what you can do and then future levels that encourage you to overcome the same challenges with more ingenuity as your repertoire diminishes. However, as @TriBeard mentioned, the game has too many mechanics to explore any of them well. I get the sense that you could have done much better with more time, but as it is, the premise isn't properly fulfilled because of the limited content you were able to produce. Given the scope of Ludum Dare, I would have liked to see fewer mechanics more honed to perfection.

leafo 2013-05-01 01:25

Interesting idea concept. It would be cool to see this expanded.

lafolie 2013-05-01 15:25

Indeed, we had time issues since I (reluctantly) had to work my day job during LD, so we had a deficit of around 24 man hours. We all agree about the mechanics, the first level was originally intended to be a tutorial that introduced the abilities.

Thanks for the criticisms and praises thus far. I do have sketches for 2 more levels and a breakdown of how S.A.M gradually diminishes, and we're considering finishing the game proper.

Oh, the trick to 'floaty boxes' is to use others to stand on before firin' the lazor, though there are a few that are unbreakable 'dummies'.

bartbes 2013-05-01 15:47

I, being the evil bastard I am, also placed one of the batteries in a (practically) unreachable place.

In any case, I do think you're right about there being too many mechanics, however, I don't think it was an option for any of us to "dumb it down" at any point during development, we just liked the idea too much, and it's sad we couldn't manage to finish it.

fysx 2013-05-01 18:15

Reminded me of Commander Keen 1-3 and somehow System Shock 2 (really far fetched!). Had fun exploring the level. Looking forward to the finished game!

prelucid 2013-05-02 22:40

Nice game. Good graphics. I had trouble laser'ing this one crate against the roof.

leginar 2013-05-02 23:07

Very good game, I can't believe how much you got done so fast. Like others said I would be cool to see this expanded upon

beldarak 2013-05-03 00:48

Great game, love the ambiance (I freaking love space^^). I didn't finish it because at some point the music froze in a 1 second loop and it finally drived me crazy but I really liked this game.

manax 2013-05-05 16:07

Enjoyed the game. Agreed with others, there were some nice, but underutilized features. I liked the hacking minigame, good, simple, effective mechanic.

minionstudios 2013-05-05 18:00

Nice work! Brings me back to the old console days. This one's more like SNES than Genesis.

martijn 2013-05-05 18:31

Quite unintuitive controls scheme. Also the music is quite repetitive.

wrongcoder 2013-05-06 03:53

Sadly, I get a big white window when I try to run this in Win8 64-bit on VirtualBox. Looked great in the compilation video part 2 though!

bartbes 2013-05-06 13:58

@wrongcoder This game needs OpenGL, maybe that's the problem?

zkenshin 2013-05-11 23:34

Enjoyed the art. Only one small bug to report, I was firing my laser when I went through the first teleporter, and the sound got stuck playing. Fun game. :)

ahm99 2013-05-14 02:30

I really enjoyed this one. Good graphics, fun, Good job :)