Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Nanashi
By jsd
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1052 | 2.91 | 30 | |
| Fun | 1032 | 2.73 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 789 | 3.11 | 28 | |
| Theme | 795 | 3.30 | 30 | |
| Graphics | 427 | 3.73 | 30 | |
| Audio | 452 | 3.21 | 28 | |
| Humor | 959 | 2.05 | 21 | |
| Mood | 831 | 2.97 | 26 |
Noticed some stuff not working properly in the build after playing it again, such as enemies not going the right way and the music not looping. Anyway, got that fixed, not really an important change but the perfectionist in me made me recompile it. Also just added a linux build. Cheers!
Nice graphical style!
One of my biggest problems with the game was the controls. The 45 degree rotated inputs are only necessary when the game is both *restricted to a grid* and currently using keyboard controls, otherwise they just add confusion and false difficulty. In this case, W on the keyboard should move the ship up on the screen. Compounding this, the ship felt extremely slidey and hard to control, making the purple gem much harder than it needed to be (until I found a slightly cheating strategy). The boss fight was really fun, and the other stages were enjoyable once I got past the weird controls.
@mao thanks for playing the game!
Glad you like the graphical style and thanks for the comments. There's still surely room for improvement and I still got ways too go regarding level designing and game flow. The slidey controls were made conciously so the player doesn't go crazy and actually pays more attention to the bullets and everything else on the stage. Will keep it in mind though, probably not the best choice so once the jam is over I might take that out and make it more standard. Also glad you liked the boss fight! It kind of just pop up into my mind after finishing the breakout stage and thought I would add some "tetris" bit in there to keep the whole multiple gameplays going. There's a physics bug with it though but that just makes it more random and I actually I liked the way it turned out so decided to consider it a feature xD
Again, thanks for playing the game, will check out you game once I get back home from work. Cheers!
it looks great i ll download it and try it out right away
I must say that the graphics is awesome. I really liked the style and the atmosphere of your game with the ambient music, but for me it was near impossible to control the rocket. The 45 degree offset for the inputs is hard to get used to, especially with high friction and you have to pay attention to both movement and rotation. Imo this control feature spoils the experience.
@MaximBegunov I think I get what you mean. For me they seem intuitive since I did them myself so I had no problems like that. I guess I could add:
a) a small picture to the post to actually explain how the controls go
or
b) (and I'm not sure about this since it might go against the rules since it's not exactly a port or a bug fix so if somebody knows for sure I'll do it) I could simply reset the camera which is the one with the actual rotation and change the whole world layout so the game looks the same but controls might prove more intuitive. Also I could take the friction away but that was mostly something I decided to add to the game, not an actual side effect of things.
I could also do b) and post it in gamejolt as a different version to leave it out of the jam, something that I'll eventually do to add all the sound effects I couldn't.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely keep it in mind since you don't seem to be the only one telling me about it.
Thanks for playing!!!
Btw, finally got back from work so it's time to finally give a try to all of these games :)
@jsd the option with alternate world layout version on gamejolt is good. You could put a link to it in addition to your current version for the people who struggle to get over controls, I think thats fine. I mean, I really wanted to play through your game, it seems very chill and cool but the controls have just frustrated me. I'd like to look at the game at another angle (literally, lol), so if you decide to upload alternate build, I'll be sure to check that one out.
@jsd actually I just pushed a minor patch fixing some controller issues and UI screen resizing so I went ahead and also compiled the alternative controls version and uploaded to gamejolt ;) Give it a second try and tell me how you feel about it. Personally I'm so used to the rotated controls that I'm too bad at it xD
Tried to play with keys, does'nt seem to be happening, love the aesthetic though.
@Gonz0 yeah, I kind of added them because why not but certainly this is a genre to be played with a gamepad after all. If you manage to get a hold of one give it a try and tell me about it :v:
The controls are very off for some reason. The lack of audio kinda makes things feel really light. Graphics are good and consistent though.
@Iaaac thanks for playing :)
I'm getting told that a lot so I went ahead and tweaked them a bit in the "alternate" version though, mostly to take out the 45° rotation
I just played your game, it is beautiful and the music fits the ambience really well (but it sadly does not loop on the build I tested).
Your mini games are interesting, but I think I found what the problem is with your controls (as it seems to be the recurrent subject in the comments ^^).
You ask people to do precise things with a ship that has an inertia way too strong (example : the room where you have to survive). I only succeeded in the "break-out" mini game, because movement is not so important in this one, even if I fell off the map a few times.
I can propose two solutions : * Keep the inertia, but make it impossible to fall off the map, by adding physical or invisible walls, and make the things you should avoid slower * Get rid of inertia, or tune it down (a lot), and keep the game the same
You have the ideas, you have the nice graphics, now you need the controls that suits them 🙂
I hope I don't sound harsh, that stays my opinion and not a general truth, what I said is the kind of things you can really understand when you watch some other people play your game, it gives you the opportunity to take a completely different look of what you've done so far (which is nearly impossible during a jam sadly), if you want to develop the game further I recommend doing it 🙂
@Reality Blind thanks for playing it! I thought I had already fixed the looping music but whatever, I can fix that later, shouldn't take me more than a couple minutes. Don't worry about sounding harsh cause it's not, I participated in the jam mostly as a way to improve and have fun so knowing what people think I should improve and what not is a huge help! In the alternative non-jam build I have up at gamejolt I tried to fixed a bit of the inertia which I must recon it might have been too much and should have spent more time testing. Give that a try if you wish and tell me if I should tone it down even more.
I certainly wanna expand the game after I finish what I was working on till now so luckily that'll be soon enough and I might be able to add more challenges to play.
Thanks for testing it!
The game looks very nice! I like the idea and I encourage you to persist with this. The controls are better with a gamepad but still a bit floaty. The variety the game offers is excellent.
When it comes to control, I suggest using the mouse for rotation (and right stick on controller). That feels more intuitive. As a fellow unity user, I know its easier said than done.
Great work nevertheless!
@MZA thanks for trying out my game!
I was actually planning to add mouse control but run out of time though, but definetely is gonna be something I start working on next week or so. Right now I'm checking out some level ideas and plan to try the 2018.2 beta to test the new Input system with the runtime remapping options. Add a couple of menus here and there and planning out a better presentation.
The game is already looking really polished, but I agree with everyone regarding the control, I had a hard time with it. Other than that, great job!
I liked the art style and the atmospheric music, but, the control scheme does not make much sense (keyboard). While the camera controls were fine ('I' you look up 'K' you look down and so on) the movement controls were not, I found it almost unplayble because of it. It does not make sense for me you 'left' pressing 'W' and so on, and i am really sorry for that because otherwise it would be a near perfect score entry! =/
I love the graphic and the music, it is a solid game. The only thing is it's too hard to control, I fell off too many times and can't avoid enemies.
The good: Like that ambient audio track in the background adds to the mood but no sounds for shooting, really like the graphics especially the ship design. The theme, I like it combining shooter with break out, some maze game.
The Bad: As everyone said controls, the most frustrating controls I have ever encountered on ludum dare. When you are building a game above all else make sure it controls well. Anyway I know you fixed some stuff in new build but I can only vote on the one submitted during the jam.
@Chikoness @Eudes Franco @paddywhq @digitaldude555 Thank you guys for playing it and you comments. I've already taken note of the problems with controls and certainly they needed more testing and somebody else to try them out too so I'll keep that in mind for the next jam as well. I've already tried to address this issue in an alternative build and I play to go into more deepness as I try the new Unity 2018.2b with the new control layout so I can create an option menu with a control mapper and the likes.
@digitaldude555 "As everyone said controls, the most frustrating controls I have ever encountered on ludum dare" I think I'm feeling kind of honored or something xDDDD And yes I totally understand your vote and it's the main reason why I uploaded an alternative version instead of cheating and replacing the jam submitted version so I'm totally ok with that. I just want everyone's honest opinion so I can improve myself and so that I can improve the game itself.
Cheers everyone!
Cool game, i takes some time to get used to the controls but the concept is cool
This game looks great! Like others have said, I had a little trouble with the controls at first, but once I got used to them the game was pretty fun! And I love the art style, nice job!
Heads up, it's not great form uploading a ludum dare game on a platform that forces people to watch ads :) Usually if you wanted to do that, you should upload it on an ad-free place as well as whatever site you want to put it on
@Jezzamon I'll certainly take that into account. Gamejolt seemed like a nice place and I like the interface and such but I'm seeing most people use itch.io and the custom site that let's you set up. So I'll definetely be uploading there next time :)
@jsd no prob!
So I got ahead to playing this. It's a nice concept, I think I agree with people that the controls made it really way too hard for me :( the 45 degree offset and super slidey-ness made it hard. I was using a keyboard too, maybe it would be less slidey with a controller depending on how you programmed that.
Graphics are cool, music was nice and set the tone of the game well
A guess a good way to catch things like this is to have someone play test the game during the competition -- family members can be helpful, or alternatively people you find on IRC/discord.
Nice job! Like others have mentioned, I found the 45 degree offset pretty jarring, especially on a keyboard. Overall, well done!
Very nice graphics (congratulations). Your soundtrack too. :)
A bit difficult to control sometimes. Sometimes my ship stays at the fringe (image)...
Ahh.png
Very challenging game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 41 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrZuBymYcB4
Great game! Playing the improved version with easy mode seems like the right way to go, at least for me: it feels more balanced and lets you adapt to the controls. My congratulations on the graphics and the music, they set the mood quite properly. I just miss some sounds for bullets and maybe explosions or similar, when enemies and yourself receive a hit.
Nevertheless I was captivated for how similar it is to the pirating stages of Nier Automata, while utterly surprised with the "Arkanoid" mixup in two of the stages. Nice work!
@Jezzamon @caterein @gustavo.christino @Jupiter_Hadley @maesk thank you guys for playing my game! :)
@gustavo.christino yeah, that's a known issue, it's basically due to collider and the spaceship actually not touching the ground. Will give that a second thought though.
@Jupiter_Hadley thanks! Watched the video and saw you struggling with the controls. Couldn't add mouse+keyboard controls so it was pretty messed up
@maesk it certainly does seem that way for the controls and balancing. Thanks! (And glad you understood the reference xD )
As soon as I get the time I'll play everybody's games first thing. Thank you!
Good job! Cool game!
I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.
I hope you continue with the project.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape