burgerdare 2014-04-29 00:01
It's really ambiguous how this all works. I feel like there's a fun game down there somewhere, but it's hidden behind a layer of confusion. :(
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD29 → Under a Martial Artist's Skin
By jujule
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 1 | 100 | ||
| Humor | 297 | 2.76 | ||
| Audio | 463 | 2.85 | ||
| Innovation | 476 | 2.76 | ||
| Graphics | 559 | 2.87 | ||
| Fun | 642 | 2.36 | ||
| Mood | 649 | 2.45 | ||
| Overall | 653 | 2.64 | ||
| Theme | 727 | 1.96 |
It's really ambiguous how this all works. I feel like there's a fun game down there somewhere, but it's hidden behind a layer of confusion. :(
I agree with burgerdare.. It's really hard for me to grasp what I am supposed to do in this game. I did like the audio though, it was kinda soothing. However, do you feel it should be in a martial arts game? Maybe :p
Well, I guess you're both right, customer is king and this rule is never truer than with video games.
Yet I don't get what's so difficult about it:
1) play the rhythm game to accumulate focus ( power, if you will )
2) press left-ctrl when you have enough focus ( 3, 6 or 9 points )
3) choose a body part to target and attack
4) repeat until all 4 body parts are destroyed
I'm sorry if I sound bitter but I hardly see this as a complex game scheme.
I figured it out alright, with a little work it could be a fun little rhythm game :) Plus for weird humor even though I didn't see where the theme fitted in.
I really didn't know what to do. Nothing I did really had any response.
A lil bit more work and clarity would help this along, It feels entertaining but I honestly can't figure out what to do with a lot of this... Sorry mate :(
Took me several goes (and I had to actually read the instructions!) to figure out how to play this but once I did I enjoyed it. Love rhythm games, and I though the graphics were pretty impressive.
I find the ASCII art look of the game quite interesting. It's an alright concept, though I think it could use more feedback when you gain focus. It's also not obvious what direction on the controls matches which action, making the rhythm things into directional arrows might have been good.
So other people are saying this game is confusing and I agree. The *concept* is pretty easy to get, but the controls don't really make sense. It's possible that I just really suck at rhythm games, but I couldn't do anything except dodge.
At first I didn't knew I was doing it correctly until I re-read the instructions on how to attack. The white "shape" is a bit misleading as the game doesn't really go with the soundtrack.
However, I enjoyed playing it and felt like playing this Guitar-Hero-ish game, so good job! Nice soundtrack, btw!
It's not that hard to figure out, but both me and my keyboard suck at QTE. Weirdly nice concept and visuals, pity I just can't get through the first fight.
I tried, but it is just not working for me.
Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account)
This is a neat idea, and the gameplay is pretty good! Something kind of odd happened on the second stage, though, where my health bar was half way through, the enemy was half-way down, and I was informed I'd failed.
Honestly, I think that if you really focused on this, you could have an amazing post-compo version that was really amazing. It's a great concept... hope you embellish it.
At first I was confused, because the white "left" on the yellow background is unreadable on my screen, so I just furiously pressed buttons and seemingly killed myself? But once I read the instructions it was actually pretty enjoyable.
I tried but I am no good at this game. I haven't been able to get past the first enemy. I guess my biggest problem is that with a rhythm game that doesn't match the music makes it difficult to time the hits. As the patterns that came down got more complex I ended up hitting the buttons too early and took a hit. The aesthetics are pretty trippy though with the pseudo ascii art.
Way too confusing, even after the instructions. Nice graphics though.
The Concentration Zoom and Slow Down Feeling was very strong once I finally figured out how to focus my power. I damaged an organ! Because I am a king. For a long time, I thought the game was berating me for being Bad At Rhythm, saying "FOCUS", as in, "YOU NEED TO FOCUS BECAUSE YOU ARE BAD".
Thanks for the kind words from this who did get it in the end. And for those that didn't like but gave constructive criticism.
@klianc09: that's a problem I didn't have on my screen here. But thanks for pointing it out; I'll try to contrast the yellow and white some more.
@moonmagic: thanks. That makes a lot of sens the way you say it!!! That's definitely a potential source for confusion. And congrats again for your great entry.
it is so hard...
Shame that the hits didn't match the music, but the concept was nice! :)
It's kind of irritating that you can't attack fast enough to get in between some of the rhythm combos. If I tried to go any faster, it wouldn't switch modes and I'd end up damaging myself. Also, white on yellow is impossible to read, I only figured that one out through trial and error.
Hahahaha, the text to this is great. Especially the winning text. Hilarious. The dithering can made the screen appear wavy to me (loved it, some may find it irritating).
I was absolutely confused how to play at first, but then I figured it out, probably by reading the controls better. The second level doesn't off much in terms of forgiveness and I died on it a number of times. The final boss had much better pacing and was fairly easy. I found the music a bit silly for the theme.
Loved the jiggle physics, the narrative and the graphics were cool. Thanks for making this
Needs SFX and arrows for the moves I'm supposed to block.
That was fun :) I would have liked if the gameplay was synced with the music. Too bad also that you didn't implement your vital points mechanic in time !
Nice job!
I would rather be a true gentleman.
nice game! its high five!
p.s.(try to use chrome for playing)
It's an interesting concept but the gameplay would probably benefit more if it handled the combat closer to Punch Out rather than a dancing rythm game. Still, the concept is good but needs to be tweaked a bit =)
Nice ansi graphics and interesting gameplay :) Though the white-on-yellow left punch text was really hard to read for me...
Puh,...that was tough! But with the help of your instructions it kindof worked out better. Btw,thx for providing executables for linux(that is far from being natural for unity-devs) good job
I figured it out and had fun. In a POST-APOCALYPTIC world, my FAVORITE part is the NARRATION.
Overall this is pretty polished and fun! The sound was nice, and the visual style was interesting. I wasn't sure why you couldn't see your enemy's head, which seems especially strange since that is one of your targets. I also would have liked it to be a bit more fast-paced, although perhaps it gets faster later on - I didn't get all the way through.
I can understand why some people are finding it confusing, but I think the problem is not that the game is complicated, but rather that it doesn't do a good job of giving positive feedback when you do something right. When you miss a step, you hear bad sounds. When you get it right, all you get is that flashing "focus" effect, which for one thing is ambiguous (My friend looking over my shoulder thought it was telling you to focus, i.e. try harder) and for another thing is hard to link to a specific event - you don't process it fast enough to link it to getting a step right. A green flash around the circles, or greying them out, or some such visual effect when you get them right (plus maybe a good sound) would make this a lot more clear, and also more satisfying.
I looked at your game because you left a nice comment on mine :) (Enlightened) I wanted to let you know also that we actually already have a newer version of our game with AI and up to 4 players, and also some minor interface improvements. The link to it is posted in the comments on the game's page, but I'll leave it here too, if you're interested:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279010/Enlightened_web.html
As far as criticism goes, I agree with Marjie62 about the feedback and seeing the head, and with klianc09 about the yellow/white color combination. I liked the game in general, especially the narration. Hitting the targets was not too hard. The attacking mechanic could have been a little more interesting than just hitting two buttons at any moment (in practice you always accumulate 9 focus before attacking)