FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → Heart Work

Heart Work

By nettleflap

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2783.7317
Fun614.0017
Innovation264.1317
Theme2343.8617
Graphics3.665
Audio3.335
Humor3.004
Mood1

Comments

benburgh 2017-12-04 22:41

Cool idea! The weakest teammates should be sacrificed for the greater good, to protect the heart.

nettleflap 2017-12-05 01:18

@benburgh Thanks! I'm not sure if that would be a good idea, they are already dying to piranhas if they are weak :D

jadw1 2017-12-06 15:47

Nice game, the idea is really cool. Check also my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/drunken-soviet

Też jestem z Polski, by the way :D

riker-greenslade 2017-12-07 05:24

Hey, this is braingamer (from the stream). I played your game with my sister, and here are my thoughts:

This was a fun game. I like the teamwork aspect, where both players are critical to success. As more players are added they seem less relevant, as the inner two players really control the heart's movements. The outer ones only really protect from piranhas. If the pull strength of the cable was a little stronger in moving other players, I could see this being a great party game where everybody feels important.

The idea was really clever. Many team games are easier with more people, so the challenges are scaled up to match. In this one, more people bogs you down and makes it harder to coordinate - a neat application of the theme. As I mentioned earlier, I don't know that this really was borne out in the current version of the game. We tried a 6-player round (with each controlling 3) and it seemed considerably easier with more bodies to eat piranha hits. I concede that if those other characters were controlled by players with their own ideas then the game would be a little more challenging, but because the outer characters don't greatly affect the heart movement I doubt it would be significant.

The ravens are an interesting mechanic that I only really appreciated after trying with more characters. Good job keeping up the difficulty with more players that way.

Graphics look good. I like the shadow from the ravens passing overhead before they appear, and the splash effects from movement. Your gifs don't show the heart damage effects, so I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Music was fine, matched the feel of the game. A little short on the loop, but it's a game jam. Sound effects were generally good, though the cheer when you get a pearl was a little loud and started to grate after a while.

Overall, this game was a solid production. Neat mechanics and pretty fun to play. Looks like one I'll have to try with a group of friends.

nettleflap 2017-12-07 09:27

@jadw1 I'm having difficulty finding time to try games around this LD but will try yours the first if I can start playing finally :) Dzięki wielkie!

@riker-greenslade Thanks for the effort writing a long comment, hope you enjoyed the game despite its downsides :) I'll definitely increase the pull force of outer players to include them better in the game. Also getting bitten could be punished even more harshly, not so sure.

wowa 2017-12-07 10:22

Hahaha this game is fun! Great work!

potti 2017-12-07 21:21

Looks and feels polished, the art style and music are nice. A very good game.

brainoid 2017-12-08 10:21

I was alone but still tried to play it. It's playable when alone but I'm sure it gets harder when playing with others, so I think that's a good approach to the theme. The game has nice mechanics and it was really fun overall. It's just really difficult to test it more than 2 people so I'm not sure if it will get the ratings it deserves <3

niklas988 2017-12-09 01:07

Good stuff! Didn't have anyone to play it with :(, but I love coop games with one keyboard!

saintheiser 2017-12-10 10:32

Crazy game, yeah! At start looking too easy just "okay i'll control with two central nodes", but then game going into hell with big cooldowns and trails of enemies. My best is 467 =)

ayame9joe 2017-12-25 13:28

It's really a good idea. I found it very interesting. I'm a big fan of co-op.

gama-croma 2017-12-25 14:00

Really nice idea, maybe a bit basic party game to call all your friends to the keyboard to :). Would work great as as part of a party compilation.