Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Small World
By jimmybg
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 171 | 3.74 | 49 | |
| Fun | 328 | 3.26 | 47 | |
| Innovation | 34 | 4.00 | 48 | |
| Theme | 371 | 3.45 | 48 | |
| Graphics | 102 | 4.32 | 48 | |
| Humor | 613 | 1.93 | 34 | |
| Mood | 143 | 3.75 | 47 |
Lovely looking game, really like the idea of it too. DEAR LORD the controls are absolute bonkers though, it took all my concentration not to fall off the side at every step. You maybe should've done a few more puzzles without the grappling hook too, or at least made the grapple easier!
Feel like I've been too negative here, it really was a lovely game concept and execution.
Really nice game. I love the atmosphere. The controls are a bit difficult to get used to, but I really enjoyed this one!
The isometric view took some getting used to for me, but was really nice to look at and gives the game a nice feel. I liked the mechanics (hooking the blocks around for puzzle solving was a neat move) though there were some bugs where the player could get stuck inside a block (or blocks inside each other), but those are to be expected in a Jam entry.
Having no Controller available I did find the keyboard layout a bit unintuitive, maybe next time include keyboard options in your .ini file if you have the time so people can set their own preference. Not a very high priority as it can be played fine without, but just a thing to consider.
Very innovative. I love the isometric platformer. I have a few tips to make this game more fun and less frustrating: - Rather than forcing a diagonal movement (player must press two keys), shift the movement direction 45 degrees (so Up Arrow = Up-Right Movement, Right Arrow = Down-Right, etc.). - Lock the player on a grid (where direction is chosen and then "Spacebar" executes the movement or jump to next) OR lock tiles to a grid, make gravity a little more forgiving, and only allow movement at exact 90 degree angles on a grid (so a player can't deviate from the "middle path" of a given cube). - It wasn't very apparent which tiles fell away and which ones were just brown.
Or don't take my advice and try something else :upside_down:
Love the art-style and atmosphere, good job!
I encounter some minor bugs, but I liked the gameplay a lot. With some more work, It could make a nice mobile game.
Very awseome. I look to see the source code if possible.
Had me hooked up for a while, VERY nice mood, mainly thanks to the good music and art. Very challenging when it starts randomizing the map - actually couldn't get past any procedural map, and believe me I tried hundreds of times! Maybe it's my spatial perception but I was deceived many times by the perspective. I think it needs to give information on the tile height, maybe by incorporating some mist at the bottom which makes the lower ones foggy, for example. Overall really nice work!
Nice game. Maybe too peaceful
Really nice art style, if you polish the platforming and add content you can make a full game with this.
Wow, The game looks awesome, and the mechanics are SO GOOD! I loved it. 5/5
This is definitely the most unique experience I've had in the jam so far. It's a gorgeous looking game, but the controls on keyboard are atrocious. I quickly switched over to a controller where it was far easier to handle. I had issues with the camera, and it quickly became hard to gauge where a block was in relation to you and whether or not you could make the jump. I feel like the game could be a little less punishing in that aspect. As another commented I think the game lacks perspective which would help determine your position in relation to the other blocks. I hope you choose to pursue and expand this title cause it would make for a fun little game.
Just a heads up, after opening I get this error and can't play the game: ___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation ShaderName: shdr_depth
D3DXCompile failed - result
at gml_Script_xl_depth ############################################################################################ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- stack frame is gml_Script_xl_depth (line 0) gml_Object_obj_camera_Draw_0
Not sure if anyone else has had this happen, but I thought I'd leave you a comment and let you know!
@caterin there are instructions on how to solve this on the itch.io page, I've now added them here as well
really nice puzzler! But I stuck in textures =)
Gorgeous, and an interesting set of mechanics too! But the isometric view made the platforming really uncomfortable. I think this would be a lot more manageable if the camera rotated, even if the blocks remained orthographic. Really cool all around though, nice work!
Amazing graphic and sick game mechanics, at first I was kinda lost in all the controls but after a while, I get used to it, really fun and polished game. good job!
good job !
Lovely art style, really pretty and an amazing amount of content for the time. Plus cool mechanics too!
The game is great, however I wasn't able to change the keyboard layout so that x, c and z buttons are next to each other (I'm using QUERTZ layout). So it was rather difficult to get used to keys...
Other than that, I found no issues and the gameplay itself is very pleasant. Ambient music makes the mood very dreamy :) Levels progress very naturally, which I really liked.
I haven't played many entries this LD, but this one is the best for now. Well done!
Nice art and game mechanics, the controls are a bit bad thinking with the plarforming (iso and jump...) But nice game ;)
I really like the idea and the graphics and mood are great, but the controls are ruining it for me a lot to be honest. It doesn't feel smooth, it's hard to grapple (didn't get it at first that you can only grab by the horizontal surface, not the side), it's hard to see where the next block is exactly and it's really hard to not be confused around 45 degrees rotated controls. Would probably be my favorite game this event after some polish, but for now controls are too uncomfortable for me to enjoy it fully.
I only reached Level 6. The mechanics that I was introduced to (till level 6) are very good but the controls are hellishly tight, you really to be on the edge of a cube in order to reach one that is 1 cube away from you. On top of that it is pretty hard to guess the perspective when the cubes are not directly overlapping each other. I'm also not sure what the purpose of collecting the red gems was.
Other than that the graphics are really neat and coupled with the music, make a great ambience for the game.
Very beautiful and terrific atmosphere. I didn't like the jump speeds at all, but everything else was simply amazing. Congrats!
The graphics are gorgeous, and the concept has great potential, but I have to agree with other comments that the controls are just too unforgiving. A small mistake at the end of a level and all the work you did is useless. Also, I got stuck when pulling a block on a higher level towards me, and `R` apparently restarts the entire game rather than just the current level..
Looks pretty nice! I like how charming the colors are and the hook/push mechanic :D Not a fan of the controls though :o
I was really impressed with what you did in game maker. I wasn't sure that it's possible to craft something nice and pretty in its 3D Engine. The leveldesign was nice and intuitive. The character animation is great! However, I got quite frustrated at level 6, because the random levelgeneration just generated unsolveable maps. :/ The isometric view looks really nice, but also has its flaws, i often thought i could land right there but fell into nothing. ^^ But besides that, really nice entry there!
Really nice entry. Somehow I got stuck in a block by grappling one that was 1 over the one I was standing on and pulling.
I really love the art, very nice animations for a jam. The mechanics were nice but I have the same problems as the others, the controls are very frustrating.
Very pretty indeed, and congratulations on getting soft shadow mapping working smoothly! Controls are problematic, but that's nothing new at this point ;)
A neat little game! The powers are a bit confusing at first (I thought the shovel pushes *your* block instead of the other way around), and the control are a bit too stiff, but hey, it's the jam, after all! Would totally love to see this expanded more :D
Wow! The controls were a bit weird, but everybody else has said that so far. Definitely one of my favourites so far, would make for a cool puzzle game if worked more on.
Very good game and concept with great puzzles! Enjoyed it! The game looks beautiful and the atmosphere is also on point! Just a minor thing: I don't like the camera movement for the jumping part. Its to attached to the player and feels a bit odd.
You created a pleasant and relaxing game with well-designed graphics a moody soundtrack and some cool game mechanics.
I got the feeling that you optimized the game for controllers, as I found the keyboard layout to be a bit fiddly. This could be due to the fact that German keyboards Z and Y are switched, so I had to hold my hand in an awkward position and often fell to my death because I hit the wrong key.
Control-wise I would say the jumping mechanics are the weakest part, as I found the jump arc to be too steep and the jumps a bit too short to feel comfortable. On the other hand, I loved the way you visualized the shovel action. The way that you move the platforms by wedging the shovel in the crack and leveraging the landmass to the next location worked really well vusally.
I think the game may have worked better with discrete movement patterns where you have to decide to which side you want to jump and you jump exactly one square without having to time the jumps. That would change the character of the game from a more skill-based to a more puzzle based game, but I think it may have worked better.
I stopped playing the game in the randomized level, as I found it hard to re-focus on the new configuration all the time instead of repeatedly trying to figure out the solution to a constant level. On the other hand, I generally enjoyed bits of randomness, like the placement of the crystals and the trees.
Overall I think you made a very atmospheric experience that for me was marred a bit by fiddly controls. Nevertheless a very good, graphically impressive game.
Well, first things first, the game LOOKS great! However, the controls are quite buggy and I got stuck on the level where the grappling hook is introduced. The mechanics are interesting but need refinement and possibly some more variety though I don't know how much the mechanics were developed later on in the game. Overall though it has potential. Hope your able to do more with it!
Lovely graphics, interesting game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjIIPVrvYI