Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Displacer
By jesterseraph
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 779 | 3.21 | 39 | |
| Fun | 922 | 2.88 | 38 | |
| Innovation | 675 | 3.09 | 39 | |
| Theme | 427 | 3.70 | 39 | |
| Graphics | 481 | 3.58 | 39 | |
| Audio | 672 | 2.69 | 36 | |
| Humor | 740 | 2.30 | 35 | |
| Mood | 612 | 3.10 | 36 |
Cool game @jesterseraph . Never thought trash collecting could be so much fun. The controls needs a little bit of improvement as I often get stuck in some trashpile and struggle to get out.
All in all a very good game and effort. Loved the humming tune!
Really a nice game developed in 72 hours. And a innovative idea
I got stuck in the middle, but hey, nice game!
Fun game, movement could use work as jumping would get stuck while moving forward. Would also be useful to drop the player off next to the trader and also show the current item on the HUD at all times. Little bit of physics on the objects after they drop would also be cool. Had several moments were trash floated in the area and would not fall. Over all good game :)
Really solid game, the mechanic of tossing things behind you and storing them in your inventory to clear space felt really nice! I like how the difficulty naturally progressed as more and more trash filled the screen. Physics was kinda janky, but given how many rigidbodies are flying around I don't really know how to improve it :P Visual direction was really nice, though the game could definitely benefit from a bit more sound. Digging around through all that garbage would be much more satisfying with the sound of stuff clanging around! All in all, a cool game that adhered to the theme in multiple ways.
Thank you all for your comments! I'll try my best to respond to the criticism and advice.
@nick-shooter I agree cpmpletely! Sound and music were very much lacking. I wanted to add constant wind SFX, sounds for the flying garbage trucks of the future whirring through the air, and trash flying about. My major constraints were A: all sound and music was made and added in the final 2 hours (1 man team means something takes the L) and B: I couldn't be sure to test sound effects on junk collision in a way that wouldn't overpower the user's ears as tens of effects trigger in unison. I have ideas now to fix it but none then.
Physics was SUPER janky, and trying to figure out a solution to just keep frames from dropping as more items entered the game took me a lot of testing and effort. There's some stuff I can do to smooth out animation, but I'm a bit stumped on improving the ability to jump. That one was very hard due to the nature of the item colliders and their tendency to change or be any angle of rotation.
@darkguardsman I probably should mention somewhere that you can wall jump, so so long as you're touching something solid somewhere around your character you can jump. Helps when you have to scale the mountain of trash later in the game. I really struggled to find a way to male the trash both fall naturally and not kill the frame rate by having hundreds of rigidbodies all interacting with each other. That's why they turn static after they stop moving until you toss them. I had to make some weird, tough design decisions due to technical limitations.
But yes! I should have dropped the player near the shop. I didn't want to show the current desired item on the HUD because I wanted to force the player to have to kill time waiting for the shop keeper to tell you what he wants, just to further slow you down and let trash pile up. Then as youre rooting through the mountain maybe you see a few other shiny things and forget what you were looking for. I'm not sure if changing the game to display the want of the shop keeper would impact the gameplay greatly, but I'd be willing to try those kinds of changes out! Thank you for your feedback!
@rayne but isn't getting stuck in the middle of bad physics half the fun of Ludum Dare? ;) I'm glad you had fun! I was spending toi much time on the coding and had to stop to accept what I'd designed and redesigned over and over as I tried to make the game at least playable with the mechanics I thought of.
@magix oh thanks, I really struggled with idea generation. I was ready for a lot of the other themes, but not this one. When I got the idea for this trash hunting thing, I immediately stopped brainstorming and ran with it, so I'm glad you liked it!.
@cg-fred surely you jest, that humming is barely to a time signature and one set is slightly off-key! I'm glad you found it silly at least X) I definitely agree the controls coukd be tuned better. I ran out of time working on them, unfortunately, and had to take what I'd ended up with. Beloeve me when I say they're better than the v0.1 controls they started as. I also think giving the olayer some kind of score that they can see go up as they play would go a long way for replayability.
Interesting game with a lot of potential! Enjoyed the game, great work :)
I thought the W for jump would get annoying but it worked pretty well here. I do wish there was more ingame expanation on what to do. But it is still an enjoyable game.
Some potential here. Nice work on the graphics, especially the animated cloak behind the player character. Sound and/or music would go a long way to immersing the player. Good effort.
I enjoyed the fluidity of the movement and was impressed overall with how clean everything looked and reacted.. only got stuck in the trash structures once but was able to free myself eventually. Well done interpretation of the theme :+1
Awesome game. I was pleasantly suprised with the overall mood of the game. Hope you develop a post jam version for this!
Cool game. I actually really liked the humming and thought it really added to the mood of the game. I got through around 5 items and it was pretty fun, but became repetitive since I didn't have any clear goals.
Interesting concept and nice graphics for a solo entry. I was quite frustrating to see that there is no score, after playing endlessly and just giving up because I was always able to make it (even though the shop keeper was buried in trash). Maybe the timing could be reduced over time or something like that.
I never found an end to the game. It really could use some sort of an end goal or other pressure for the player to cope with. I like the idea of digging through the piles of junk. I never got stuck which was impressive. The game always made sure I was in an open area.
- Loved the humming tune - Fun game mechanics - Wasn't hard to pick up on what to do
- I wish the humming tune was louder - Something in the beginning pointing in the direction of the pawn shop would be helpful - Levels/goals that can be met quickly would help so that the game feels more rewarding and doesn't run on too long
Overall a really fun jam game :)
@wetbox @zicboy Thank you!
@n00b Yeah, I should have at least plopped the player down near the shopkeeper. There's been great suggestions on how to inform the player without straight up "telling" the player. I'll be making a modified version later with many of the suggestions, but I'll be keeping the original copy available for download and clearly state which download is which if I make the modified version before results end.
@digital-bacon Considering how long that cloak took, it was either it or the sound/music. I played to my strengths, but next LD I'll have a couple team members to help me out. Sadly I ran out of time, and didn't want to risk "on collision enter make sound" for 400 objects bouncing around against each other without a good amount of testing and a smarter solution.
@luckydaisy Only once!? You lucky dog! Though having to dig your way into (and back out of) the trash is the most hilarious part in my opinion. That's when you really start to break the physics.
@matank @nyri0 @tinykidtoo I definitely need to add a score. I knew that while play testing, but didn't have the time and didn't consider it more important than, say, sound, music, or art & animation. I've got some other ideas for how to make it less repetitive and more pressuring, but at the end of the day this game is meant to be a simple arcade "high score" game.
@jern I'm really surprised by how many people liked the humming. I guess it's true, you are your own worst critic. Was the humming not loud enough though after turning the music volume up in the settings? I would have to re-record it an inch from my mic to get it louder. I can't really turn up the gain without getting the sounds of Toronto from outside my window.
You wouldn't believe how many police sirens, firetrucks, and ambulances went by my block while I was recording music & sound. Nothing all weekend, then almost non-stop during the recording time. With two hours left in the jam I was having none of it.
Interesting idea! I like the gloomy aesthetic and the humming sets a somber mood. You made good use of the theme. My last LD reinforced to me that in-game instructions are a must so that's something I'll pass along. I'd also like to see a score system. Good job!
@jesterseraph The humming was a great part of the overall mood! Hah, I actually didn't try turning it up in settings. I bet that would have worked just fine. Maybe if it defaulted louder, or the other sound effects defaulted quieter, it would be perfect. :)
- The art style is seriously cool. Especially the player coat animation - The mechanic of throwing something over your back really gives the impression of digging! Good job
- The name of the game in the start menu should be more seperated from the options - Button to main menu in the death screen wasn't clickable for me - The state switching between landing and running wasn't working properly (the character is "floating")
Some ideas that could be added: a forward slash which pushes through trash and explodes it away to the sides would be cool especially later in game. Some progression is also needed as I grew more and more bored after some time.
Congratulations on your entry!
There are some bugs in the first version, but the game is playable and it's really cool ! I like the animations of the character and the graphic style of the game is great. Too bad that there is no music, it could be good for the mood. But it's a great innovation and a good idea ! Good job really !
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-42
Nice game a little bit hard to escape when you fall below all the objects but a really fun game ;) Well done
I am really digging the aesthetic of your game! I get a "Wall-E"-esque Earth vibe from it. I think I'd only refine the controls a bit more since jumping around with 'W' seemed cumbersome at times. My thumb kept wanting to hit spacebar to jump. Overall though, a solid entry! Great work!
I like the moving cape. I actually like the humming xD once I concider that it might be the mustache man expecting his goods xD It does make me a little unconfortable but it wasn't that bad. I like the concept of fetching things from a trash yard. I also like your art.
Now...it takes a little too long until mustache man decides what he actually wants. for me. Then, it would have been great if I could release my trash into the direction of my mouse cursor. Would have been great for digging throug hthe trash xD Sometimes the player seems like they are skating. Jumping seems to not work a quarter of the time when i run. maybe, though, it's because I have to press up. It's not very comfy.
all in all not too shabby : D