parahunter 2015-08-24 02:12
Qute concept (yes I went for cuteness!) I think the game is missing some challenge though and it appeared that it does not really matter which strategy you ultimately choose.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD33 → Help! It's a hero!
By cvaneseltine
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 2355 |
Qute concept (yes I went for cuteness!) I think the game is missing some challenge though and it appeared that it does not really matter which strategy you ultimately choose.
My favourite thing about this game: the way everything was "a little bit" and "a noticeable amount", from the monster's stats to the time until the hero's arrival. I found that really lent a great amount of personality to the game when it would have been very easy for you to just go with boring old numbers like 90% of games would.
The text in general was great. The idea I also liked. The game mechanics didn't do much for me though. Fundamentally, you decide on a strategy: "I'm going to be cute/scary/stealthy" and then you focus on that, using what contributes to that goal and discarding what does not. I figured that out on my first playthrough, and so that and subsequent playthroughs were a case of just going with the one very obvious winning strategy. Furthermore, in all cases I got a "yup" with plenty of time to spare, which really took the air out of the sails of any tension that was supposed to build on the hero's arrival.
Another thing: scary/stealthy/cute were pretty much just cosmetic modifiers. There was no gameplay reason in any context to pick one over another, just as long as you decided on one. Your text, once again, came to the rescue somewhat as a differentiating factor, but again it kinda left me cold.
Vague thoughts that on improvement:
1. Have a gameplay difference for cute/stealthy/strong. I'm not sure what exactly... maybe being strong lets you wear more disguise elements or something.
2. Find a way of preserving the tension on the hero's arrival. Maybe it would be a good idea to find some reasonable way of leaving the player in suspense about whether their disguise is good enough -- although it might be tricky to balance that with giving the player proper feedback to keep the game playable and fair.
3. Show the hero coming into the dungeon. I'm sure it was just as a result of the time limit, but I really felt that that was sorely missing from the game.
Great concept and a fun experience. The random items in the crates gave a bit of trouble if I got the same ones over and over, but thems the breaks. The writing and player interaction had a lot of personality to it you don't often see. Excellent work!
Really nice idea