izara 2018-08-13 20:09
cool game ;)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Sthog
By Merliin, Tibseydon, ItsaMii, Fammy, jammin, Lucieinthesky and Meinewn
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1040 | 2.95 | 43 | |
| Fun | 1074 | 2.70 | 42 | |
| Innovation | 791 | 2.98 | 41 | |
| Theme | 1048 | 2.81 | 42 | |
| Graphics | 875 | 3.00 | 42 | |
| Audio | 497 | 3.06 | 40 | |
| Humor | 451 | 2.84 | 38 | |
| Mood | 869 | 2.77 | 38 |
cool game ;)
Thank you for the opportunity to play online!
It's a great idea!but if I know how long I'm going to live, it's probably better? It's a good job anyway.XD
@dimlight You're right! I'll think about it for a new version of the game. You must survive 5 minutes. Thanks for playing!
The music is very cool! Graphics are good, with a lot of assets... but the huge amount of ornaments made it harder to understand the game.
Some huge issues that make the game difficult to play:
-Absolutely no visual or sound feedback (this a super important! like, really)
-The important elements of the scene should be the most visible ones (so the player knows intuitively what he should interact with)
-Collision with the ground when climbing the ladder (I don't know if you see what I mean, but anyway it's just a minor issue compared to the other 2).
A small tutorial or explanation (like the one on your Ludum Dare page) would have been appriciated in the game.
Sorry for the lots of negative comments, I hope it helps :D
@cydouzo Thank you for comment. Me I just make the music. But I'm happy to have a detailed opinion. The problem is that we had not a lot of time because the team had different obligations. For our next game we don't forget all your advices!
Alright! I played this game, and I was a bit confused. In fact, I was very confused and unable to figure out how to play the game or why "were all gonna die". It dawned on me that it probably has something to do with making tea, as the description said, this conclusion being aided by the massive teapot. I figured out how to get the teabags from the thing on the wall and I button-mashed to get the pot thing or whatever it is. I couldn't figure out what to do next, however, and suddenly I died, again.
I feel like this is a typical dev game. It makes perfect sense and is very playable to the developers who designed and programmed all of the mechanics. To an outsider, however, it just does not make much sense, I'm sorry to say. I can see the potential here, but the current product is not really enjoyable.
The art assets are great, and the music was good. I wasn't certain how to accomplish the goal, and using "E" on intractable items never seemed to work. Good effort though!
I'll start with unusual advice: 7 people is 3 too many!
An optimal jam team, in my opinion, is composed of one programmer, one graphics artist, one audio/music developer (make from scratch of find stuff online!) and an optional 'support' person (designer/jack of all trades/real life problem solver). Adding in more programmers or graphics artists (especially if inexperienced) tends to reduce work efficiency, rather than increase it, due to conflicts in vision and team work. Killer deadlines tend to kill big teams too!
A usual issue with multiple graphics artists is a loss of visual cohesion, which is what happened here I think. The main character and the pots are pixelated, most of the backgrounds are not pixelated; the engine is textured, the floors are not textured; the kitchen is unshaded, the bridge is shaded; nearly every ladder looks different; and the list goes on!
The main activity, cultivating tea, is lacking in two ways. 1. Most of the pots, other than the one to the right, are too far away from the engine to be useful. I won simply by using the closest one. 2. There is no challenge to it. Plant, wait, pick up, go to the reactor, rinse and repeat...
The seed for an actually compelling challenge is here. The spaceship turning into *random* things overtime due to the engine malfunction could be used to block off parts of the ship in order to force the player on another route and use multiple pots. When the engine is repaired some areas turn back to their original state.
The cultivation process needs to be slower so that moving from one pot to another becomes useful. Some movement related abilities to speed up traversal in certain areas (turbo lift, low-gravity section, teleporters) would add an aspect of route decision making.
Small bugs: 1. The ladders are glitchy. 2. It is possible to spend more seeds on a pot which is already cultivating. 3. The progress bar at the top *lies*. The ship is destroyed before it reaches 0!
The music is enjoyable, but it does not loop! Sound effects would have improved the feel of actions and the overall mood by leaps and bounds. The visuals drag the mood down too.
The effort is there and you did finish a jam entry which is commendable. The outcome is rife with problems, but you live and learn.
*(The scores won't be pretty. Those faint of heart better avert their eyes!)*
Overall: *Bad (2.0)* Fun: *Repetitive action disorder (1.0)* Innovation: *Bad (2.0)* Theme: *Bad (2.0)* Graphics: *Terrible (1.5)* Audio: *Above average (3.5)* Humor: *Filched from Hitchhiker's! (1.5)* Mood: *Terrible (1.5)*
cool entry - i liked the concept of trying to sustain yourselves on the ship for a period of time. the track was cool, audio feedback would be cool too! i couldnt tell if the game was prompting me to press E but i did like the simplicity of auto picking things up by standing near them (when the meter completes).
@huvaakoodia We are not professionals. Our goal is to have fun with friends and not to make a perfect game. We do not want to optimize our team, we want to be together because we are friends and we do not want to separate to have a better product. thank you for your advice anyway.
funny concept, but it's hard to understand what to do ;)
Nice entry! Cool audio and fun graphics & theme. Well done!
I'm a fan of the art and the layout of the spaceship is cool - it was neat just to walk around the ship a bit. I'm not sure in the end I really understood the gameplay, though I did grow some tea and brew it in the pot? I enjoyed playing around for a little bit to figure out the mechanics!
@justinmullin you must survive 5 minutes for win. Thanks for playing!
Fun entry ! I had trouble getting what to do with this tea at the start, but in the end I enjoyed my playthrough while it lasted.
Pros : - Pretty graphics, there was a lot of surprising things to see, especially when the improbabilities kick in - Great audio, that makes for some kind of urgency mood - The mechanic is clever, and could result in something great if polished - Intuitive controls
Cons : - The lack of some in-game tutorial makes the end goal difficult to grasp - The important elements are not that visible, and in a weird order (it would be more intuitive to stumble on the generator first, then the pot, then the big pot - Collision problems on ladders
All in all, nice work ! I'm eager to see what you'll do next with such a team.
I would echo most of the comments already here. Don't be discouraged since the hardest thing is actually just finishing. I would focus on the strengths. Exploring the ship is neat and the little astronaut is pretty cool. Make sure the styles are consistent. Make the controls a little more responsive. Add more feedback so its more obvious what is happening.
Fun little game! I liked the Graphics and the Audio was nice!
It wasn't really clear what I should do, but after some time I found it out.
Interesting concept!
As other guys said, at start, I thought the "E" did nothing, because it need a minimum of feedback who tells me "you got a plant" or "you have nothing to put into the pot"
Im sure that u will improve this in your next game (I think this is one the goals on participating in jams)
Nice game anyway
As some other commenters agreed I think it would be really nice if there were instructions, and a little feedback when you have interacted with stuff especially when planting. A little green dot in the pot maybe? If the progress bars were larger and more prominent that could also help people figure it out fast. :slight_smile:
Overall I had a good time! I played it over and over until I got very surprised that I had won :smile:
Very cool theme / mood. Felt like I was right on a spaceship, and the audio was outstanding. The controls when moving up and down stairs was a bit iffy at times. Good job!!
"The developer has not uploaded a game yet..."
Nice music even though it got a little bit repetetive after while. Also the game was a bit confusing at the beggining, I had to read instructions twice (second time after first playthrough) to understand what I'm supposed to do. And also as mentioned above I had no idea if the game is infinite or if I have to least for some time or if I'm aiming for some high score which is not visible. Also it would be nice to have some visual / audio feedback on actions. But don't take me wrong for criticising so much, I'm just trying to provide as much feedback as possible :)
Lets start with the good things. The graphics is charming and the music is good, maybe not the best fit for the game but it is good.
The less good thing. It was confusing to understand what was happening. I've got to a state where it was impossible to continue to cultivate tea because all the monsters(?) filled the base. Is it possible to win? The collision was a bit bugged with the ladders.
Maybe it's just my old device, but I wasn't able to play it on Mac for longer than 15 seconds. Then it crashes. :sob:
The idea sounds fun though. Hope others have a better time playing it.
Interesting job converting THGTTG into gameplay mechanics. If there were no ladders and the pots were placed more strategically it could have made for a compelling experience. Nice try anyway :)
Uhh, is it just me or...? I can't find the web version.
Great game! Very cool and interesting! :D
I liked the concept of your game. Good Job
@grizeldi this is strange..
None of this would have happened if only they used coffee instead of tea ! A little too hard for me but I liked the arts and the fact that boxes pops randomly along the game. I had a small bug but the game end even if the time bar is not yet depleted. If you know it, it's not a big issue. Well done here !
Weird game, took a while to figure out how to play it. The shaking ship on the title screen made it kind of seem like one of those intentionally bad joke games, but the humor was well balanced with the gameplay. Graphics and everything fits together nicely with the mood, though some sound effects would be nice. Some pots are just too far away, that there's no point in going to them. I'm probably bad at playing this; I never got to the end.
Nice game, Love how everything is balanced! Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam! Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a
@rahim-pxr your link is unavailable