loowees 2018-04-25 08:16
I think the art style is fantastic, reminds me a bit of Hollow Knight. Also really impressive amount of content indeed!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Blob Dungeon
By gil4, mikeliosus, Tay Elenberg, eugene-myach and ibandurist
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 42 | 4.17 | 51 | |
| Fun | 179 | 3.82 | 51 | |
| Innovation | 628 | 3.30 | 51 | |
| Theme | 658 | 3.50 | 51 | |
| Graphics | 41 | 4.51 | 51 | |
| Audio | 51 | 4.11 | 49 | |
| Mood | 30 | 4.28 | 50 |
I think the art style is fantastic, reminds me a bit of Hollow Knight. Also really impressive amount of content indeed!
Very well executed game. Idea, gameplay mechanics, art, sound and of course level design. It's fascinating to see how big amount of not-random-content you were able to add into this game just in 3 days. The Game by itself feels very calm and relaxing (those ambient music made my day), but at the same time there is a lot of challenges in there. Actually I've lost a sense of time while playing it :) And finished it by the way. GJ! 2018-04-25 (13).png
Level design really makes it so enjoyable to play. Music is fantastic as well. You were right when said that this game is mostly a metroidvania than a bubble shooter)
Still it has some things to be done. At several places monsters stand really close to passages between screens so you almost inevitably got damage. And I would like to see some visual indication when hitting an enemy. And I gathered all stars but couldn't see any difference in final screens :(
Anyways the game can grab all your attention until you finish it. And then until you go back and find every secret to collect all stars. Thanks for experience!
P.S. I found a bug: when you place your platform really close to character so it makes him stuck, he starts to flow between tiles and goes up even to other screens.
@n-feofentov **Thank you very much for attention to our game!**
**It makes us so happy that you liked it and even explored the whole content! :3**
And thank you for your feedback!
Actually we did hitting animation right after the end of the jam, and going to make and an additional screen for those who collected every star right ahead in postLD build. Will publish it really soon. :3
Planned to do this right after the jam, but we was really burried with our work.
Really useful remark about the monsters standing close to the passages!
We have found only one case and will fix it in postLD build as well:
trouble.png
**If you have noticed any other troubles of that kind, we will be grateful for your info!**
Yeah, bug with platform placing is really hard to be fixed in scope of a jam game, so I will not make any promises on that.
Will definetely check your game soon! :3
Metroidvania style is really nice and makes the game a lot more interesting. Graphics are quite lovely too!
*Note: I only played the post LD build. I ain't leaving a score anyway*
I didn't even participate this time and yet I'm here to write a review-lite for the LD game I probably spent the most time with. Likely even more than my own ones. I don't like that it's Unity, but I got my Linux build, so I can't complain.
Right off the bat, I would buy a full version fullprice if you pulled off an "artistic" map. Obviously it'd be dumb to create a non-tiled metroidvania for a jam, but that's what you should strive for should you want to continue working on this one. The overall feel is already hooking; the art style, toned dreamy background and calm ambient music are gorgeous and complementing each other, and to some extent hitting my taste. Semi-abstract background with geometrical touches is something I've wanted to make for a long time and never really succeeded, but right here it looks fantastic.
For some reason it felt a bit like ScarKrow prototype, due to its cute simplicity and LD-ness, and Hollow Knight because of more peaceful ambient, obvious Unity-ness and bugs. The good kind of bugs. Entity/mob design is a 9/10. LittleBigPlanet-like "brain" idea is subpar. I might have a strange affection to bug eyes, but the main character is charming for absolutely no describable reason. Level design is outstanding for an LD game, and delegating it to two people payed off as it took me a healthy quarter of an hour to merely reach the credits, and aside from some bullshit moments the game was satisfying and rewarding with so many bonus areas.
What I didn't like was a lot of quirks with the gameplay itself. Aiming seems to be handled by plain arc tangent or something, and it usually feels like it doesn't shoot where I point it at. Moving backwards is also awkward, but I guess that's a side effect of incorporating an "incompatible genre" and dualstickness. But it sure can be reworked well, but with a controller in mind. Also, jumping with no air control is absolutely horrid; this is so basic and caused several needlessly frustrating moments. Furthermore, I didn't love the lack of map; now, this might be a design decision or a side effect of Ludum Dare, but some sort of navigation, even the most basic one, is necessary in a metroidvania. But a total cluelessness contributed to sorta phasing out my sense of time. Mobs respawn with each room transition, but farming them seemed pointless and unrewarding without any sort of gold/scoring/whatever (another sign of LD syndrome); sometimes walking through them and tanking damage made more sense, especially with deaths not doing much harm. Finally, icicles are a brilliant idea but need some more work to feel smoother (like a constant stream maybe?).
I'm blah blahing about things you couldn't really control and pull off within three days. I may be biased because I mostly rate compo games, but this is truly one of the better LD games and I had a blast playing it. Please keep on going.
Love the sounds, art and mechanics. They go together really well. The world and level design is really, really good! The metroidvania, platformer, puzzle, shooter is really nice all together.
I think I may have found a bug? Got stuck when trying to move between levels. Jk! Just found that it's difficult to move up. Maybe adding an initial burst when moving up? JK Again! It took me a little bit to realize you have small indents where you can jump onto. PlatformBug.PNG
Also! Really curious. How did you customize your Itch.io game page to take up the entire page with a banner, but no background? It looks nice.
@flameo326, thanks for your feedback!
That's just our camera being imperfect; we made our dev's life hell by first making a standard room size and then making several rooms of unusual sizes, so you can sometimes find yourself in a situation like that - transitions between the rooms, especially the vertical ones, are a tad wonky.
As for the itch.io page settings, our game's page owner will answer you later, middle of the night here.
I really like this game. I just wish that it would be a little clearer what to do at the beginning of the game. I had to go back to this page to figure out you needed to click the mouse to shoot. Otherwise great game.
I literally can't criticise this game... Awesome job!
Very well done, very complete in all aspects graphics, design (includes content), sounds and mechanics, quite impressive for the time you got to do it, well done : )
Awesome game, really liked it, it's really amazing how much you guys achieved in just 3 days
Very awesome game, the fact that this was made in 3 days is quite astonishing, most of the games that are in Ludum Dare are usually one level, or infinite, or a generated one, but the levels was hand-crafted, very commendable, a very great job guys!
Absolutely gorgeous art. Gameplay just works. Very nice!
@flameo326, thanks for playing our game and it is great to hear your feedback! :3
Talking about the itch.io page, here are our settings for it:
https://monosnap.com/file/z7Lfx9o2qzyrFf0q8rCqmObzE9xzVp
Hope it will be useful. :3
Great game! :) And Awesome mechanics !
What an awesome art! :D It reminds me Hollow Knight - my favorite game so far. Do you know it? :D Just add some death animations etc. I would also develop the bubble game concept. Here is such potential. You should make it more challenging and puzzle-styled imo. For example rooms with whole bubble game scene when you can't get to some bubbles without destroying another and where bubble of another color just remains on map if you shoot it in the wrong place :D Nice entry!
Gameplay is solid, art and sound is pretty splendid and the game packs a punch too with it's amount of content. It's a very stellar performance overall. Very well done!
As you said though, it's much more Metroidvania than it is a Bubble Shooter, and even then those two don't really have much problems mixing together, so following the theme is not it's strong suit.
That aside, it's certainly a very good game. Good job!
Great Game! What a stunning amount of content.
Great job with the game, I had a lot of fun with it and you work you put in was very evident. I like the bubble match idea for upgrades and I would love to see that expanded with more effects like the ice one had. Probably the main issue the game suffered from was some awkward screen transition, most notably when you were jumping up to the next screen.
Art and music 11/10. I always enjoy platformers like these. The only thing I can think of is to have a small map in the corner that tells you where you are and where to go. Almost perfect!!
Is this Papa Johns? Because this game is a MASTA-PEECE! The game oozes with character from the ice beam launching the PC upwards to the hidden paths, to the audio, to the graphics.
I am anxiously awaiting a full retail release.
Edit: "Ice is nice." ~Knack 2, 2017
Before I begin, gonna say that this review is based off the LD submission, and not the updated ones, so certain things may or may not still be applicable!
For the most part, the game is pretty enjoyable, though... a little uninspired, perhaps? Not really your fault; puzzle metroidvanias are done to death. I expected a bit more... bubble-puzzles, instead of a gun that just destroys similar colored objects. But that's just me.
Art's pretty nice, for sure, and the music is rather calming~ Odd when it plays during that one boss fight out of nowhere, but eh, that wasn't a dealbreaker or anything.
My strong suit is in design (at least, compared to everything else), so I'll start prodding the level design a bit... Puzzles weren't all that puzzly, but that's not really a bad thing, I guess? And once I figured out how secret walls looked like, finding all the stars was relatively easy (which I did). A little sad that only the blue color had a secondary use, unless there was something I missed about the other two colors... Level design was alright, I suppose. Really big, with things to do in them, which is very impressive for a LD entry!
Only 1 puzzle annoyed me a little, which was the 'guess the hole' puzzle. Those aren't really fun, it's just... trial and error. Oh, and I softlocked myself by toying around with the blue shots! If you manage to shoot a blue shot against the wall while standing really close to it, the crystal pushes you INTO it, making you clip into the wall. You've probably fixed this by now, but just in case....
Either way, it's certainly a very ambitious project. Interested to see where it goes, and how you guys are gonna play with what you're given. Good job, guys, and good luck!
I liked it! The idea of changing the colors with the mouse wheel was very good. Good job everyone.
Not the first Metroidvania I've played in Ludum Dares, but definitely one of the best ones. Pixel art seems to be the go-to art style for the genre, so it was refreshing to seems something more 'hi def'. Jumping was a bit too slidey, but otherwise the gameplay was really good and I enjoyed the level design. A lot of content for a Ludum Dare game too!
Really one of the best games from this LD, Great Work Guys!
really like the overall design, art, music, vfx working great together for a cute magical mood
Really nice cool game here :) I really like your interpretation of the theme :)
Great game for a ludum dare entry, Felt incredibly completed and well executed. Well done!
Great game! Nice art and sound and genre mix :)
Ouha, I'm super impressed to have tested this game, the graphics are great, it reminds me of Hollow Knight I think the inspiration comes from this game? In any case, it's a great game and really very well done again congratulations to the team.
It's a great game, I really enjoyed my time in this game. the gameplay is good, with a lovely arts and the music.. oh.. I love it :heart: . anyway, Good work and thanks for the game :thumbsup:
@ZodiacGaming02 did a video about our LD41 entry! :3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtjEDNzuod8
Hey, nice game! Rooms are a bit the same, mb you can make less of them but more interesting each. Also you can use more modern camera style. Camera flickering on the edge is a bit annoying. Other then that good work! Гарна робота ;)
We are from Ukraine too, check out our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ultimate-game-simulator
What a wonderful visual game, with fitting ambiance. I was able to guess the two genres without reading the description which is a good thing - however there is question marks over their "incompatibility", as it ended up seeming like they actually complimented eachother - as the restriction of colour matches is very similar to the gating that you get in a metroidvania style game. Really polished effort, enjoyable to play <3 great effort guys.
Satanos reviewed our game during his LD41 compilation. :3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLF7ZEp8C_M