wati888 2017-05-02 05:16
Really wanted to play it, but I didn't know what room someone would be in. Just for everyone else that wants to play, go to room "Bob" I'm gonna try later on and fairly rate the game.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → ChronoCombat
By omarshehata and smolbeanboi
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 479 | 3.20 | 27 | |
| Fun | 602 | 2.73 | 28 | |
| Innovation | 2 | 4.55 | 27 | |
| Theme | 757 | 2.08 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 580 | 2.88 | 27 | |
| Humor | 564 | 2.10 | 22 | |
| Mood | 658 | 2.60 | 25 |
Really wanted to play it, but I didn't know what room someone would be in. Just for everyone else that wants to play, go to room "Bob" I'm gonna try later on and fairly rate the game.
Thanks for giving it a shot @wati888! We designed it with the intention of players finding a friend to join them and try it out. With that said, you can still open two windows and try it out just to see how it experience and experience it (which is possible because the game is more or less turn based).
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I played this with a friend several times. This idea has a lot of potential, though it is a bit rough around the edges right now. I especially liked the mindgames of trying to predict where my opponent would go.
A few suggestions: - It's kind of weird how when you shoot, the bullet just flies off immediately. I think it would make more sense if the bullets moved as you were moving (sort of like in Superhot, if you've seen that game before). - Similar to the above, I didn't know which directions the bullets were moving in because they stay completely still, which made it harder to plan. Having the bullets move while you move would also fix this. - The replay is kind of weird, because you can only view it once and it goes by very quickly; when the game ended, I often couldn't see how I won/lost since the camera was in the wrong position in the replay. I would have liked the ability to slow down the replays, or the ability to play them multiple times. - Right now the map is really big, so you can continually run away from your opponent if you wanted (the fact that the replays are difficult to parse also contributes to this, since it's harder to tell where the other player is). I'd suggest having a really small playing field or a field that shrinks over time so that players are always in the action. - One small nitpick I have is that you can walk through trees and rocks, which was weird.
Anyways, I don't want to be too negative, those were just a few thoughts I had. Overall, I had quite a bit of fun, and I could see myself playing this a lot if it were more polished/balanced (also, this gets 5 stars for innovation; the idea is really cool). Nice job!
Thank you so much for the detailed review @qzqxq ! I appreciate all your nitpicks. The replay being too fast/confusing was definitely something I felt but wasn't sure how to fix it. Being able to slow it down and replay it multiple times seems like it would help a lot!
I did actually intentionally want to avoid having the bullets move as you move like in Superhot. I wanted to somehow communicate the idea that the world was independent of you. But now that I think of it, to be consistent, I think the bullets should move **only while the frames are counting down**. So they *would* move when you move, but also if you're holding down space. That I think would make more sense.
And yeah, I had trouble with the collisions in the last minute and just decided to cut them because they were way too jittery.
First of all, this is a very, very cool concept. I could see this with a dozen people playing and the experienced ones know that standing still is a strangely viable defense.
I see the collisions have already been mentioned, so I'll skip that. Ludum Dare is a harsh mistress!
I am not sure if an FPS camera is the best fit for this game. Top-down would give a much better overview of the engagement as well as making players easier to hit (because it is rather difficult right now). It would save a bunch of fighting with the replay camera as well.
On a similar note, I'd definitely move to a 1-shot kill system. Maybe even a AOE on shots. Think Quake Rocket Arena but with this odd simultaneous turn structure. I'd also ditch the real time bullet movement and replace it with... oh, I don't know, a dashed line or something to show how far it will move in the the turn (But ONLY for the first turn so players can run into their own bomb :) ).
It is a neat prototype. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, and it might be worth posting that tip about playing solo in two browser windows on the game page. There may be other folks as dim as I am ;)
Thanks for giving it a chance @ryte2byte !
I think you're right that top-down would be a much better view for this. This was something we couldn't decide on when we started this game. I thought the FPS camera would make it more interesting since you couldn't see everyone around you at once, but now I see it just makes things more confusing, and for a concept like this I think you'd want to distill it down so the core mechanic really shines.
I like your idea of a dashed line and getting hit by your own bullet! I definitely want to try that now :D
Thanks for giving it a chance @ryte2byte !
I think you're right that top-down would be a much better view for this. This was something we couldn't decide on when we started this game. I thought the FPS camera would make it more interesting since you couldn't see everyone around you at once, but now I see it just makes things more confusing, and for a concept like this I think you'd want to distill it down so the core mechanic really shines.
I like your idea of a dashed line and getting hit by your own bullet! I definitely want to try that now :D
This is a phenomenal concept. The biggest thing that would make it more accessible would be a list of games, or even just one big one - it'd be great with a large number of players!
I agree with what others have said that a top-down view might be better. The FPS camera has its advantages, but was also a little disorienting - especially since looking around is "free."
Super neat idea! Played a few times with a friend and found it compelling. I'd be interested in a fully fleshed out version!
Something like Superhot, but with its own idea, nice!
Very interesting concept that I think it's worth looking into! However, maybe it will be easier to predict the other player's movement if it was put in a grid, or if it had key-places that they knew that the other player would go (like powerups or some kind of goal). But this was a really well implemented idea that has a lot of potential for a great multiplayer game. The ideas the other people suggested here are really interesting, I would love to see them implemented in a full version of the game. Great job!
Thanks for all the great feedback and encouragement everyone!
@harry-alissavakis I **love** the idea of a power up. I can't believe it never occurred to me before. Putting incentives for players to be at specific places at specific times could be super interesting. Then it becomes a thing where, does everyone just avoid the powerup because everyone is shooting at it all the time? But then everyone stops shooting at it because no one's going there. Or can you make it something so valuable that it's worth the risk of running for it? That could be an awesome dynamic!
First of all, I have tried the game by playing against myself, so the experience obviously has not been the same as competing with a friend.
The concept is great and has great potential, I had problems with some collisions and I didn't understand correctly when I was impacting with something. On the other hand, very nice low poly art.
I would like to see a future version of this. Great job!
Is an interesting mechanics, so bad I only play against myself, 5/5 on Innovation! Great Entry!
Its a great prototype of an ambitious concept. I had to test versus myself but had trouble killing myself (moving around blind and randomly). I think a 15 frame version where there were very few places to go or hide so even guesses were somewhat likely to be correct. The initially traveling projectile caused me some confusion as well.
Great work, thanks for sharing!
You did two things: 1 You choice a innovative concept and 2 you made a multiplayer game.
I salute you! Respect.
Sadly i did not really manage to kill myself. You are mising some key elements in this game which would make it very captive to play. Maybe - A way to replay the scene you can see what happened. It plays back SOOO fast i dont even know whats happening. - A world with some more recognizable landmarks. You make something where the camera changes alot so you need recognizable points in the world. - Maybe a movement trail to see where the player was or get some clues
I eagerly await your next LD entry :)
Thanks for the kind words @mhgameswork!
And those are some really good ideas. I could tell it's frustrating to play, but couldn't quite articulate all the pain-points. I really appreciate your feedback!
Played with a friend and had a lot of fun.
We did not read the explanation so we thought the netcode was horrible at first because of all the waiting for other players and the rewinding but then we understood what was going on and it became insanely fun. The game could of course need some more polish and maybe some audio to make it a more complete game but the core mechanic is really fun and that is the most important thing.
Great work!
Interesting concept, tried it out with a friend but we couldn't figure out where we were so we never killed eachother. maybe add some kind of hint as to where the other players are or some recognizable landmarks so we could know better where things were. Amazing idea but I dont think 48 hours was enough to execute something like this properly.
Great game, reminds me of Screencheat but with turns. With other attacks or power ups the gameplay could be improved, but making a net-multiplayer game for the LD has its merit!
Great idea ! I had to play with two instances of the game myself, but i understood very well what to do and how to do it. This is actually pretty well executed i would say ! Some polish, and other layers of gameplay onto this, and it could become a totally edible game ! For example making possible for the player to playback what he already did this turn, in exchange of a certain amount of frames, or simply traps to diversify the experience ! It, of course, lacked of audio and all, but i think it has great potential !
Well done !
I really like the idea here, like a kind of superhot but multiplayer. However the execution is a bit off - the idea hasn't translated well as it's really difficult to actually manage what you're doing. I think that what could help it is if your movement was more restricted, and you were placing bombs rather than shooting - like first person bopmberman but turn based. This would greatly improve the intuitiveness of the gameplay, as timing a shot as well as considering the enemy's movement in 2d space is simply too difficult and random to pull off without coordinating with each other. Additionally, this would make the playback of the turns more readable which would help the player learn how to play much faster.
It's an interesting concept. The closest I can think of to this would be Superhot (not that I've played Superhot). I'm just not sure how you can win without luck. The gameplay needs some form of restrictions or signals that could give the opposing play some boundaries in which to predict where the player might move next. If you can figure out how to get the main mechanic to be more based on strategy than luck then you could be onto a quite innovative game mechanic here.