xelphyre 2017-04-25 02:46
Awesome music, best death mechanic ever!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → In space, no one can hear you SQUAWK!
By venny
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3.40 | 7 | ||
| Fun | 4.00 | 7 | ||
| Innovation | 4.20 | 7 | ||
| Theme | 3.40 | 7 | ||
| Graphics | 4.00 | 7 | ||
| Audio | 1 | |||
| Humor | 3.00 | 7 | ||
| Mood | 3.40 | 7 |
Awesome music, best death mechanic ever!
The death mechanic is pretty cool **if only** I didn't die so many times. By the 5th death in a row it started to feel like the main game is about flying frantically in space.
The feel of the game is well done and I found it quite enjoyable.
I would love to have a level with difficulty somewhere between 2nd level and 3rd (the last level) for better learning curve. I didn't have any trouble with the first 2 levels (they aren't really die-able are they?), but blew up all of my lives at the 3rd.
@avavt Thanks for the feedback! The levels will be fairer, I was pretty hard pressed on time to finish up enough levels for a demo, only had 2 hours free at the end to do the 3 in the demo. I've spent some time after the jam doing more. The death mechanic has been a concern and many have pointed it out being possibly repetitive. I'm considering making it shorter (right now it takes about 25 seconds, so maybe make it 5 to 10 seconds instead). It is the namesake of the game though, so I don't want it removed. It's also possible to have it implemented some other way though, maybe as bonus stages (ala sonic bonus stages for the chaos emeralds).
Though to be fair the levels are more well thought out now that I have time to refine them.
@Venny Yes the first time I see the death mechanic it was extremely cool! It only take too much time, if it was shorter it would be awesome indeed.
@avavt I will look into making it shorter, as well as not making you lose all your collected chips, it seems like too harsh of a punishment
This game are a really good art-style and a compelling game play. The gravity is really cool mechanic and fun to play with.
Unfortunaly, even once I succeeded the falling challenge, a game bug forbid me to continue playing level 3. I ear from the developer this bug is fixed though and I understand the time pressure of the ludum dare sometimes do not allow for this kind of issue to be fixed.
I coudn't play the music as it is copyrighted and would strongly advice @Venny to have look at royalty free music for the next game jam. You can have a lot of good music free of right and free to use for your games.
Overeall, a very good game I enjoyed playing. Thanks :)
(You can see me playing this game for the first time on the vod https://youtu.be/lXUmif8KKxM?t=1h28m42s )
To be honest, I didn't expect much when I saw that it was a platformer. Played a few that start just that way, and thought it'd be more of a "just jumping and collecting" test. Then I stepped over the first black rock and started to get confused at why I was no longer able to jump. When I finally understood, I realized I was going to have a good time. Serves me right for judging by a first impression.
The game's presentation has a lot of charisma. The character's design is unique enough to outstand, and the implementation of gravity, while a bit unintuitive, does leave a lasting impression. The first time I popped out of the planet (?) I thought "Right. I'll just lose a life and start from the beginning", only to see that the character got popped out into what seemed to be a vaccuum and into a short mini game to go back to the level. *That* was genius.
It starts at a good pace, and then it develops into a short puzzle platformer, which, given enough time, could be developed into a full fledged and enjoyable experience. You built a great base here.
Since I'm my team's art guy, I find fun in analizing what others do with their art direction. I like the character's design a lot. I probably just like birds. The overall aesthetics look great, and the gravity indicator was something I didn't notice until I was mostly done, but it was a welcome addition. You did a good job on this area.
Now, here's some feedback. The camera is too zoomed in. As in, the character is too big and everything feels crammed. In the final level, I got stuck for a while in a "pop in, pop out" loop because I couldn't see where I could step and where I would be flung off the planet. I believe you're already checking on that though. So here's the thing: You can either try to keep those kind of surprises in an environment that doesn't result in unfair misdirection for the player, or you can zoom out the camera as to give the player actual reaction time.
If you were to continue working on this project in the future, sure, you can add more levels. But I'd also tell you that, since you've got the base well structured, you can continue to develop it as a puzzle platformer like VVVVVV. Gravity based puzzles, maybe even switches and power-ups. Since I liked your character's design a lot as well, I'd like to see you expanding on that as well. Further enhance the narrative of the universe. Say, play on the "stranded" theme rather than force enemies. Maybe add more characters with different skills or something? I dunno, it should be your decision. I'm mostly saying that you've got the means to snowball a lot of possibilities.
As a final statement, it was a short, mildly fun experience. Rough on the edges, but brimming with potential. If you've got a Twitter account, our game's team would like to follow you around, hoping to hear more from your projects in the future! :whale:
Loved the gravity switches - it was fun to play. Love the bird character and the art style, even the music! Would scale up very well. Nice work :-)
@bunnery sorry but the music wasn't my doing! Everything else is though, glad you liked the character!
I loved the character and your art a lot. The game was pretty fun and I would have liked to see more levels and more puzzle elements like would be in a more complete version. I also really liked the death sequences, that was a clever way to let the player redeem themselves.
I felt like I had no control over where I was going when I moving through the level most of the time, and didn't know whether jumping up would land me on the ceiling above or the floor below. The black rocks showed me where gravity was high, which was good, but having something where I could look ahead and plan what to do would have helped.
Really neat graphics! 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=sGAiipylkqo