FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD34 → Thunder On

Thunder On

By lia-sae

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness357
Innovation3633.34
Theme6263.56
Mood6793.00
Graphics8632.68
Overall9932.70
Fun10612.16

Comments

deusroffe 2015-12-15 21:37

It was quite hard to understand if the white things were clouds or just background. Very simple game but still nice :)

move127 2015-12-15 23:08

It was kind of hard to tell what was going on. I didn't realize that I was moving down each time I pressed an arrow. Otherwise, it is an interesting little game, with good visuals and audio.

globemaster 2015-12-15 23:11

Cool concept. It was hard to understand what I was doing even after reading the instructions but it was cool seeing the lightning bolt I made at the end! Nice job!

zenmumbler 2015-12-15 23:12

This is almost more an art installation than a game, but it's intriguing and with the sounds feels good too. Original idea, I like the multiple branches etc. Well done.

hyperscope 2015-12-15 23:18

It wasn't until my 4th play through that I had any idea about what was going on only due to Roffe's comment. Other than that nice simple jam esque idea!

zzapp 2015-12-15 23:22

Creative use of the theme.
Overall it was quite simple, but making it to the ground and watching the lighting strike is satisfying.

bubuiic 2015-12-15 23:44

Very creative game! At first you are a bit confused, and finally, you get you reward. Is there a way to not reach the ground?

lia-sae 2015-12-16 02:17

Thanks all for the feedback! Yep, massive usability problems in here. I overlooked that it wouldn't be obvious that the camera is looking down and that you are moving. Traditional dev myopia! Maybe a trail would help? And I couldn't come up with a UI-free way to indicate altitude.
@BubuIIC: Yes, there is, but due to poor tweaking and randomness it seems pretty rare. Try to run into every pink cloud on the way down! :)

lullaby 2015-12-16 23:10

Hard to understand but at the end very nice, maybe needs a bit more feedbacks but interesting!

powerspark 2015-12-16 23:11

I had no clue I was descending, try to make that more obvious. A trail would be great!

leaghorn 2015-12-17 00:10

oh man, it took me a while to realize what am I doing. The instructions should be more precise.

matthias_zarzecki 2015-12-17 10:17

Love this idea! Very artsy :)

would love to see more games like this which are more about "play" than "achievement"

rialgar 2015-12-17 21:33

Very nice, also I recorded myself playing it, editing and uploading now, will keep you posted once it's online.

I really liked the satisfying flash and thunder at the end, but I did not realize the camera was pointing down until I read the comments. Maybe show little lights like from a city near the ground. No need for actual lanterns, just the lightbulbs, small and hard to see at first, getting larger and more bright the lower you get. Maybe organized in lines as if along a road or two. These could also serve to tell the player how high they still are.

rialgar 2015-12-17 22:01

Video online now: https://youtu.be/iozLjxneJqM

lia-sae 2015-12-18 12:36

City lights were what I was thinking, yep (to keep the night feeling). Plus maybe some atmospheric layering.
I hadn't thought of going back up part of the way, that is a very very interesting idea.
The left/right controls are very limited, yes: my old-ish initial idea for this concept was more freeform. Restraining it to the two buttons is what gave me the idea for the binary tree-based implementation and made prototyping possible! We'll see what I do with it later on.
Indicating the path as you're tracing it wasn't possible with the dead-down camera angle I picked (it'd look glitchy with the near plane). But now that I think about it, maybe a slightly tilted angle would contribute to a better feel and allow for that trail behind you.
All in all excellent feedback once again, lots of good ideas, lots of things I could do :)

teamdromedare 2015-12-18 15:07

I like the idea, but I agree, it was hard to understand if the white was clouds or just background. It's too easy, and the animation tween between choosing and moving needs to be longer because it takes too much time; it gets annoying pretty fast.

I do like the idea though. Nice and simple, but no real challenge really.

adsilcott 2015-12-18 17:46

What a cool concept! The first time I played I won, so the next time I tried to lose on purpose so I could try to make a branching pattern, which was actually cooler.