alexiseshford 2015-12-15 03:25
I really like this smooth controls and art style. Good job.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD34 → Hope
By lkfumagalli
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 3 | 65 | ||
| Mood | 320 | 3.46 | ||
| Innovation | 346 | 3.37 | ||
| Theme | 480 | 3.71 | ||
| Overall | 500 | 3.34 | ||
| Fun | 532 | 3.14 | ||
| Graphics | 586 | 3.31 |
I really like this smooth controls and art style. Good job.
@Eshford: Thank you! I'm incredibly happy that the first comment on my game was a positive one. Oh, I remember you. I was looking forward to playing your game. I'll be checking it out in a moment! :D
Hey, nice start! I like how the player sprite has a small delay to following your mouse. Makes it feel organic in a way. I like that the art is fuzzy, but think it would be cool if the art got fuzzier or darker the more despair you have and clearer and brighter the more hope you have.
Also, this game references the topic of depression in an interesting way. Never give up hope. Good work!
I like how you translated the two button theme into a light vs dark motif.
@Andrew Deem: Thanks! I'm glad you like the delay, I discovered that organic feel as a happy accident while messing with different control possibilities.
As for things getting fuzzier or darker as despair grew, I really wanted to do that! Sadly, I was running short on time and there were game-breaking issues I had to deal with first. I will definitely add that feature as I continue to work on this game though.
I'm especially pleased you took note of the message behind the game. Thanks again for the comment! :D
@Weeping Rupee: Thanks!
I liked the fuzzy effect and the movement controls. I found the game play a bit challenging but good, seems to die more than anything. Nice effects and smooth game play. Good job.
@Modoc73: Happy to see the art style and controls are being so well received by everyone. I'm glad it was good despite the challenge. It was difficult hard to balance between keeping it challenging yet entertaining. Thanks for the feedback!
I really like the concept of the game and the metaphor behind it. It is a really hard game which surprised me (in a good way)
It helps if you don't name your executable ld34 though, the name of the game would be easier to find in the middle of all other downloaded l34 games.
@nopogo: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the concept and metaphor, it has a lot of personal value to me. I'm also happy you found the difficulty enjoyable.
As for your suggestion, I've changed it accordingly, as well as made a several tweaks and bug fixes. Thanks!
Loved the art style.
@ThreeLivesGames: Thank you!
Very smooth and slick, like the controls and the stylistic choices with the art definitely carry this game further. Simple but really good for LD, thanks for putting this up!
@Neonlare: You're most welcome! I'm thrilled with your feedback, it's comments like these that make it all worthwhile. Thank you!
Excellent! Very interesting mechanics. I always find it interesting when games make you defend something else rather than yourself being in harm's way. Balancing shooting the enemies with saving the falling dots was tricky. Music was also excellent. Amazing work!
Fun, nice theme, and I love the animations of the despair creatures! Gameplay wise I found I could pretty much just hold right button and mash on the left button to fire constantly. I played for a while without this as it felt like an exploit, but then did finally complete the game using that strategy. I'm not sure I successfully rescued any captive souls - perhaps I did and didn't notice, or perhaps I just didn't understand the description of how to do that. Either way, I enjoyed the experience. =)
@SuperPokeunicorn: I find that it's more satisfying to successfully defend others than to just protect yourself or kill everything. I'm glad the balance was tricky, I struggled for a long while to make the game a challenge. Thank you for the wonderful feedback!
@Justin Mullin: I'm pleased to hear you loved the animations! I initially drew them as a single image in photoshop and was just playing around with variations, making a quick and easy animation from it. I discovered by accident that with just 3 frames of animation I could make it look good if I took advantage of the fact it seemed messed up (because you'd expect something so evil to look like that). It took a lot of tweaking to actually make it work, so I'm happy it paid off.
As for the gameplay, I originally intended it to be more complicated but I just ran out of time. Still, shooting constantly can potentially hurt you if you get caught by the waves of freed souls (black souls spit out by the enemy). If you were shooting that much, I'm sure you freed a bunch, rescuing them involves getting the black souls up to the light so they become white souls and add to your Hope score. I'll try to make that more clear in the instructions when I update the game.
I'm so glad you enjoyed the experience. Thank you for the awesome comment! :D
Nice take on the theme. This is a really challenging game, but the gameplay feels really good.
@rjhelms: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the gameplay along with the challenge!
I enjoyed the simple nature of the game, you did a good job of setting the scope, coming up with a core mechanic and focusing on that. I also liked the visual presentation, it had a really charming quality to it. The gameplay was a nice boss fight kind of thing, it was challenging but fair. I think it could be improved a bit if you couldn't shoot while repelling, as otherwise there isn't really a choice, it is always better to be repelling than not to. As well as that, I think there could be a bit more clarity as to what things do. It was a bit unclear what I was supposed to be shooting, if it was doing anything and whether saving the black balls was damaging me or the enemy. I think some audiovisual feedback could go a long way to improve the playability of the game. Overall, a nice entry, well done!
@Bumlepie: I'm happy you enjoyed it, though I honestly don't think I handled the scope well, haha XD. I had too large of a scope starting out and had to salvage things mid-way through. I did focus heavily on the core mechanic after that though.
Boss fight was definitely what I was going for, so I'm pleased you drew the connection. As for the shooting mechanic... yes I know. I originally did have it so you couldn't shoot while repelling, but there were... issues with making that work. I couldn't fix them in time so I just had to do without it, but I'll definitely try again as I continue developing Hope.
I see that clarity is a recurring issue. I think I get it now, I've been correcting the entry's information but not the game's instructions. I'll need to work on that soon. As for audiovisual feedback, I'll definitely put that in as I continue development.
Thank you for the detailed and constructive feedback, I really appreciate it!
@Bumblepie: Ah! Typo! I'm sorry I messed up your name! ^^;
Nice, simplistic game. It's challanging but also very rewarding, you really must find a balance between saving souls and repelling depression.
@Zeriver: Thanks! Yes, the balance is important :)
Cool game! The controls are a bit different from the usual super-responsive ones, but it works very well.The art is simple, but combined with the music helps to set up the tone. The concept is also unique to me and well realized.
It made me feel very negative and unfair, so 4/5 for mood. However it did cost some points on the fun rating because of that. Nice concept, very nice music, but could use some balancing, it feels like a losing battle from the start, nothing to keep you motivated.
@dark_hunter: I'm glad the controls work well and that the music fits. Thank you for the nice comment!
@Chubb1337: Hm, I'm sorry to hear that it made you feel unmotivated. The losing battle feeling was intended as you are supposed to be the source of Hope for everyone else. I think in this case it's just a matter of different taste. Nonetheless, thank you for rating and commenting. I'm glad the mood was good at least. Thanks for streaming and rating my game.
Really good entry. I liked it. :)
I really like the atmosphere. Nice work with the mood.
This was a cool entry, I like the way the theme is extended into balancing two "tasks". Good job with the choice of art style and music, it succeeds at being minimal and sort of impressionistic at the same time. Overall I had a great time with this!
Woah, the mouse pull is crazy. Makes this pretty intense, like you actually gotta put your body into survival. Especially when the bottom part is pretty much instadeath. I kept thinking this could be nudged slightly towards a more ambient, artsy kind of game.
Perhaps surprisingly, I haven't seen other games interpret the two-button theme as a "light vs. dark" motif. So it's got that personality going for it.
@NoWandStudios: Thanks!
@kmakai: Thank you! I'm happy you appreciated my take on the theme and had a great time with my game!
@Jwatt: I'm so glad you find the mouse pull intense. Yes! The feeling of needing to put your whole body into survival is exactly what I was going for! Someone gets it! Thank you!
Jace239: yeah, that breaking the fourth wall aspect is a very "gamey" way to deliver a message about struggling against the bad stuff in life. So it's neat to see you using the medium to your advantage.
Pretty nice and relaxing entry plus I like the concept a lot. My only gripe is that it seems a bit too easy if you can repel and shoot at the same time so it might be a bit more balanced if only one of these skills can be actively used at a time (i.e. you can't repel when you're holding the shoot button and vice versa).
nice game
intresting game to say the least, but a bit unfair and my hand went numb after playing it. but well executed
@Jwatt: Thanks again!
@Xanjos: I've actually fixed this in the latest version of the game so you can only do one or the other. As soon as itch.io is back online I will upload the new version. Thanks for the feedback! :)
@alliel_a: Thanks!
@Devjo: Haha, I'm sorry your hand went numb! I'll work on tweaking the balance more in the future and possibly including different difficulties. Thanks for playing!
Realla nice game !
Kind of funny controlls. I died at the first attempt cuz I got with my mouse into the black mass :D.
It also got really fast when I was on the brink of winning.
Bevore I got the 100 points for white, the black side had -7 points (Don´t know if you wanted it like that but if not maybe you should look into that ^^).
I loved the black dragons (lets call it that :D) especially when I was on the brink of loosing.
Greetings Team Wir
ps.: We would love if you could play our game, I´d say its better to see someone actually play then reading only their comments (comments are pretty nice too, though).
@Wir: Thanks for the awesome feedback! :D
I'll look into the -7 points thing, that shouldn't happen. I'm not sure what would cause that. Glad you like the "black dragons", haha. I call them tendrils or tentacles, but dragons works.
As for playing your game, I will definitely do that. Everyone that comments on my game gets added to my to-do list and takes priority. I look forward to playing it :)
Simple but effective visualization, and innovative balancing act! Felt the cursor sprite was a bit too slow to really keep up with catching all souls.
And that touching the blackness with you own 'soul' meant a loss felt a bit too harsh. (it was challenging enough ;))
Some diversity in your own power over time would also be cool. (for example a 'bounce all souls' effect when returning a dark soul?)
@Joror: Thank you! Hm, I might make a slider or something to adjust the responsiveness of the cursor sprite. As for the harshness, I suppose I can understand that. The game still doesn't function how I'd like it to, but it'll take a total a big overhaul of the core mechanics to change that. Finally, regarding diversifying powers, I was originally going to do that but ran out of time. Something else to save for the remake I suppose!
This is really good! Nice graphics and quite challenging wich is good! Well done!
@qkerguelen: Thank you!
Very nice! ..except, I am confused, because I thought I was doing very well, keeping up the white, bringing a few up from the black, and stopping beasts from raising, but Despair won. :/
@Guard13007: Thank you! I'm sorry you were confused by that. When the tendril of despair shows up, it ramps up the Despair, bringing you dangerously close to the edge. It's meant to be a climactic boss-appearance moment, but I may have overdone it. When I remake the game I will make sure to balance the difficulty better.
Neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/jZIKMICuSkI