vlad-dae 2018-12-06 12:45
I don't have a friend beside me right now. But I appreciated the good visual, music and smoothness of the game. It all cool. Good work!)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD43 → Bokeh
By arron-fowler
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 726 | 3.17 | 54 | |
| Fun | 693 | 3.04 | 51 | |
| Innovation | 248 | 3.53 | 54 | |
| Theme | 874 | 2.85 | 53 | |
| Graphics | 434 | 3.65 | 54 | |
| Audio | 170 | 3.69 | 53 | |
| Mood | 364 | 3.51 | 54 |
I don't have a friend beside me right now. But I appreciated the good visual, music and smoothness of the game. It all cool. Good work!)
@vlad-dae Thanks for your comment. I have got it finished if you want to have a go again. Post jam has 1 player mode and instructions! I would love to hear what you think.
It's a pretty entertaining battle game. Great job!
@ty-victorson thanks for your feedback.
@drtizzle I have finally got my game up and working properly. I would love to hear your take on it. 4 LD Jams in a row, I did not expect to keep it up! I loved your game
nice to have a 2-player local game ;)
I tried it solo, so I couldn't get a full impression. I think the art style is really neat and the chorused background music is so cool and beautiful. The controls seemed very fluid and your camera scaling and movement was very slick. I didn't find the shot timer/stances very intuitive. It would have been really helpful to have a life bar or some other indicator of how things were going, and some other feedback on the stances. Nice work.
@xarona thanks. It was supposed to be a nice bonus, not the only options. I have had some pretty epic 2p games with my son so that is all good. Did you try the 1p mode on the post jam version?
@dob I seem to have a knack of making really simple games that are totally unintuative to play. Once the penny drops it is really straight forward, but until that moment it is all confusion. I had to talk a friend through it on the phone last night as he just was not able to grasp what was happening. I am a bit rubbish at making tutorials, that combined with my facination with not having text on screen seems to be a bit of a killer. I shall use the next LD to tackle that part of my offer. There is a life bar in the bottom conner which is a big white bokeh which shrinks and grows depending on your HP. Again subtle but once you know, you know. Did you try the 1p mode on the post Jam? Much has been remedied - but not so much the intuition required. I guess I am stuborn LOL. Thanks for playing.
Honestly loved the direction. And it feels weird to say this, but the game feels most hampered by... well, the game bits.
Like, the visuals, the audio, the mood, it's all the highlight. But then the multiplayer game feels almost like it's a totally different thing. Honestly I feel the game would have been more fun with something better suited to the art direction. Heck, I enjoyed it most when I played it single player and just moved around, playing with the light in the middle, while rhythmically pressing the fire button.
Not gonna let my backseat driving on your design choices hamper your score though. Gameplay was a bit lacking, but I actually enjoyed just about everything else to it. You outlined a vision (heh) of making a game inspired by the beauty of the lights you see at night without glasses, and I really felt that beauty. So very nicely done, and genuinely one of my favourite entries so far!
@hannaesthetic thanks so much for your feedback. I get what you mean, maybe I should make a passive mode just for the fun of the music. I am really pleased to hear you liked it.
I really like the sporelike sprites, particularly with the rainbow layered effect to tell what part of the arena the players are on.
looks amazing)
@drfallos thanks. It was one of the hardest things I have ever tried to draw (if draw is the right word) I am pleased you like it.
@gamepopper I like the rainbow too, all thanks to a moment of sunlight casting a rainbow through one of my good ladies crystals. Just at the right moment in my planing session. Sometimes the universe provides
I actually like this game alot. I think the overall feeling is really nice and showes once more that a more simple idear that is well made, outshines a too complitcaed game. Good job with the visuals, the aesthetics, the music and the nice circle mechanic. But it is not quite there yet. The fighting actually doesnt works that well, and the game feels better than it actually works. And I am also not that big of a fan of the games typography. Maby taking a look at a similar minimalist game and see how that is aproched there. But overall i really like this game more than most games in the competitions, becouse it just feels right.
Would have been nice to not use right shift. God damn sticky keys. Should probably just disable that.
I really like the visuals and aesthetics of the game. It feels really inspired and inspiring at the same time. The screenshots of the game are mesmerizing. Unfortunately at the start, I didn't quite understand the gameplay even as a single player. I had tons of questions like where was my HP bar, how do I shoot? This was made even more confusing by how there appeared to be visual feedback for pressing 'R', yet nothing was happening even when something was coming out from my character. In-game controls and instructions could have gone a looong way here since most players may not bother with scrolling down to read long game descriptions. Even till now I feel like I am still missing out some elements of the game.
After figuring out that I had to press in rhythm, I thought the idea was genius. It is such a waste as I almost left the game due to confusion and am not sure if there are others like me who might not have had the patience to try to understand the game.
But moving beyond that, this is just my personal opinion, but I think it would have been better use of time to focus on a single player game during the jam and not actually do the AI but maybe have a stationary/static boss? I found it really wonderful to just keep shooting blankly at the other player and watching the projectiles fly as that has its own charm. I really wished that the other player had infinite or more health so I could keep doing that :D Of course I understand you have your own vision of the game as well and if taking it beyond the jam, you can definitely have the second player/AI implementation if given more time. I don't have a friend to play with this so I cannot comment on gameplay or give a rating on 'fun', but if the gameplay works well, I can imagine it could look really spectacular with two players!
The music was great and combined with the mood it makes the game very relaxing to look and listen to. I actually left the tab open and continued listening to the game's music.
Good job on the game! Definitely very innovative with the graphics. :)
@simonjamjam thanks for the feedback. I completely agree. I think I will give it some proper consideration once the dust has settled.
@wowbagger I will put in some alternative keys to use. You are the second person to mention sticky keys.
@yyz thanks so much for this feedback. I really appreciate the time you have put into it. I have put up a post jam version which has 1 player now. More importantly all the weapons are made (72 options) and each set has its own sounds to play. I am so much happier with it now as my jam entry was a bit disappointing compared to my vision. I knew I was in trouble on day 2 and then it was a race to the end to even get anything done that was working.
I played solo and did not understand exactly what was supposed to be done, even reading the instructions, so i dont really got the feeling of the game.
However, the aesthetics were really nice and the audio as well, so it was a pleasant experience for my eyes and ears even if couldnt understand what was going on.
I guess ill try again later with a friend.
@derek-volker Thanks for giving it a go. I know it needs more of a tutorial - something I really need to work on. I only just got something that worked by the skin of my teeth, it was touch and go as the deadline approached. There is a 1 player mode in the post jame version if you want to have a go but obviously you cant rate that one. I would love feedback on that one though. I felt really bad about only having a 2 player entry but it was what it was - time runs out too quickly for my skills and ambition! I loved your entry.
I liked it, it reminded me of some old games that had a similar multiplayer system.
@alysson-moraes I expect it shows my age lol. Thanks for playing
Lovely little game, but I have feedback! The menus weren't very obvious as to how to control them. The bokeh used for the background of the button is identical to the rest of the bokehs in the environment, providing no ability to distinguish a button. It also wasn't obvious how to control said button. There was only ever one button on any menu, could have maybe had a 'click any button to continue' type of thing?
The multiplayer element seemed a bit limited. I don't actually have a buddy :cry: , I'm just simulating one in my mind. Here's my guess to where the game's multiplayer flopped a bit. I read over the game mechanics and was wondering, 'what'? The gameplay mechanics feel a bit complex, and when I'm playing around with my mates, I don't really want to be learning complex weapon and health systems. Lives, hp, damage multipliers, rhythms, combinations, stances, distance from centre, stance properties and HP of projectile drops off. This seems a bit too complex, and isn't really fun in the ways that multiplayer games should be. An effective multiplayer game is rather simple or easy to understand, and complexity arises from the chaos of players using simple mechanics in advanced ways.
Phew, hope that makes sense. Certainly a nice attempt, but I can't imagine myself enjoying the multiplayer aspects. Art and music is nice, could maybe focus more on that? Nice game, :thumbsup:
@justcamh Thanks for the feedback. I would love to hear your thoughts on the post jam version. The 2 player was always meant as a bonus, it was a last minute decision to do it as I knew I could pull it off quicker than 1 player. I did not have a functioning game with 30 minutes to go to deadline so it was all a bit of a rush. So I know that that list seems complicated, I get that it has lots going on but all of that works from pressing 1 button. It takes no effort just timing. I seem condemmed to make games that are simple to play, yet hard to grasp. All there is in this game is move and fire - the rest just sort of happens. One day I will work out how to communicate it in an easy way. So far when I have watched people playing it in the flesh or on streams it is a case of once the penny drops you understand the game and crack on. Getting the penny to drop easily is my challenge to overcome. I made a dear friend of mine actually angry wihilst attempting to play it. I am working on updating the menu as we speak and I agree. I would love to hear your feedback having had a 1 player go so you can see how little of the stuff in your list actually gets in the way. I am learning lots of lessons from the Jam as ever. I loved yours btw great concept.
Music is really relaxing, the art reminds me of that game bubble tanks. The game though it seems to have a high barrier of entry I couldn't quite understand exactly what I needed to do, I was pressing shift to the beat and was shooting but just couldn't grasp it, I tried sorry. Anyway since its your first unity c# game I'd say thats a very good first attempt.
@digitaldude555 you are not the only one my friend. One of my best friends and I will be doing the next LD jam together, he knows his stuff. He was totally baffled and I had to talk him through on the phone. I will attempt it again for you but I dont rate my chances. Think guitar hero - the weapons are fired to the beat. once you press fire you have to be on beat to select a weapon successfully. Timing is everything. The longer you wait to fire the more powerfull the weapon. By linking the weapons to timing bokeh has 72 different weapons all fired from the same button. If you miss time your fire then it wipes out your stance (colour) and you have to start again. Does that help at all? I am now very comfortable with c#now and that was my main goal from Ludum so in one way I am winning.
Yes I was able to do multiple different color attacks.
@digitaldude555 ok so other than that it is a straightforward fight to the death. Kill or be killed.
@arron-fowler No problem! I am glad that the feedback is useful to you and that you're happy with the new version of your game. 72 weapon options does sound like a lot. Great job and all the best for the jam!
Interesting game... nice visuals!
I really like the graphics/atmosphere/mood and colors of the game. I also really like how they spin around each other when they collide (That is a really nice way to handle that problem).
Your graphic presentation and audio was really well done. Good job.
Very pretty aesthetic. I was just explaining to someone that one of the nice things about having bad eyes is that lights at night are much prettier as massive distorted orbs. I didn't realize there was a term for it. Thank you teaching me something!
This is a very cool and interesting game! It took me some time to figure out what to do but it is definitely a very creative entry!
I played this with my girlfriend and it was fun to play. Took me some time to get used to the gameplay but it was fun! This graphical style always hits home for me :) so I liked it, simple but effective and clear. I also like the fact that you made it based on personal experience, pretty cool to try and visualize it!
There is no vs computer?
@pompi-pompi not in my jam entry. Long story short I had technical issues that ate up too much time and it was this or nothing at all. I have posted a post jam version with a vs cpu mode if you want to have a go. I no longer need ratings so try that one out. I would love feedback on it.
There seems to be a bug where my keys control the AI instead of myself.
I donn't seem to be able to control my own ship. It's the right one, right?
@pompi-pompi yes you are the one on the right. You can only move when you turn on your coloured stance. If you get hit or miss time your fire this gets wiped off and you have to turn it back on again. I added this feature to raise tension as both you and the AI automatically aim at each other. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for persevering.
This is really cool. As said upthere, very cool visual, shots animations are smooth, and the music fit well with ll of this, maybe it need some SFX feedback (when hitting or collecting HP). The gameplay is interesting, maybe a little confusing at start, but I tried ti push harder and I find it really cool. Awesome job keep it up !
@benjouille SFX is on my list of improvements. I think a few little tweeks to make it more reassuring will go a long way. Thanks for the feedback.
@owl-and-jackalope I had no idea what a Bokeh was called before Ludlum. It took ages to find it and I typed all sorts into Google before getting anywhere. That's what I love about the senses and our perception, they are experiences that are very hard to put into words. I have enjoyed reconnecting with my Bokeh and attempting to draw it was wild. Such an abstract thing. I am particularly enjoying looking at Christmas lights without my glasses on. A solid recommendation. Loved your game.
Unfortunately I had to play this solo as I had no one else to play with, however I loved the rythm style combat and trying out the different choices was fun and interesting. It would have been nice to have an AI mode, but I realise time is tight with these events. Good entry!
@hi-im-greg thanks for playing. It broke my heart to publish it with only Multiplayer. It did push me to get a post jam version up. If you wanted to get the full experience then it is on the page for your pleasure. I am much happier with it. 72 distinct weapons to hit.
Musical atmosphere is pretty good. It's like a Tetsuya Mizuguchi's creation. Your entry is original and honestly interesting
Beautiful game! The graphics and sound gave the game a great mood!
@acaral thanks for the comparison to Tetsuya Mizuguchi. High praise indeed. I particularly love Rez and Child of Eden, both have left a mark on my vision for what makes a cool game. I feel very satisfied that that association has been made to something I have made. Made my ludum for me thanks
Nice atmospheric game. I did a double take when I saw the screenshots and instructions, but its very playable and engaging. Great job!
Thanks for submitting your game. You did ask for no rating caouse we played the Post-Jam version so my comments are: Good game (PJ), but needs much work on a interactive tutorial because gettiong used to the game is quite hard.
@firesplash-entertainment thanks so much for playing. It was very useful to watch you play. Sorry for your frustration, I think I assumed it was much easier to get than it is. It is a problem that comes from making it, you play it as you made it, not as someone who is working it out. I will get a better tutorial working on it ASAP. Thanks again it was super helpful.
While it is interesting in concept, Bokeh is a bit confusing in practice. I can't quite figure out what firing actually does. It's as if there's a separate interface for that whenever you fire, but I don't know how to affect that.
The audio is very interesting. It definitely achieves the feeling of wonder and awe while still being ambient and subdued.
Cool game. From one near-sighted person to another: Good job!
@wfmg firstly thanks for playing. You are certainly not alone in finding it confusing. I am working on a better tutorial but it is something that is proving technically difficult. I need to write a load of new code.
It works just like a drum machine or sequencer you press fire to start it off and then the GUI displays on the side. A white Bokeh starts to move and this represents time passing, it passes by 6 coloured Bokeh each of which represents an available weapon. If you press fire again at the right time to select a weapon it fires and the time (white) Bokeh starts again at the begining. If you dont fire before 4 beats pass it counts as a missfire, if you press fire off beat it counts as a missfire and everything turns off and you cant move until you start it off again by pressing fire.
I realise that I am quite comfortable with playing with sequencers. Having watched a few people play it now it is a case of it "clicking". Once you get it there is not much to get - until that point total confusion. A successful selection keeps you looping through the weapons. I wanted to do a one button game that accessed multiple options through code breaking. In the post jam version I have got 72 different weapon options all working off of a single button press. It seems I have a knack for making simple things that are really hard to understand - but once you get it, it is really simple. Also the longer you wait the more powerful the weapon you fire - just dont wait for longer than 4 seconds!
If you have time to play the post jam and manage to get it from this additional explanation I would love to hear if it has clicked for you. I am trying to perfect my explaination. It is actually fun once the confusion ends.
Very interesting concept! Forcing the player to shoot in rhythm is a good way to prevent bullet spam. The fact that you have to choose between switching stances or shooting with the current stance introduces a nice tension. Alas, I did not have a player 2 at hand to test how it plays out in a match, but the next time I do, I'll be interested to discover how balanced the stances are.
I think this as the potential to being shown at an art+game show. The music and bokeh aesthetic is a really good mix. You could do a cooperative variation as well, where the two players shoot enemies rather than each other.
@fmdkdd thanks for the review. I had not thought about co-op mode interesting idea. I shall have a play with the idea. The post jam version has a 1 player mode on it and a full rosta of weapons to play with. 72 in total.
Very cool game for two people, my wife and I lied long enough for this war) Thank you for such a complete and pleasant project and good luck in the future)
I've updated the post jam. Added some feedback and better movement. Still no tutorial, but I am working on it.
*Feels* really good. However, I never really figured out how it worked. "Stances" in particular confused me. Instead, I was just trying to match lights as they went by, which seemed right. So I won against my friend but never quite knew why!
Kind of beautiful game. Music is nice and fits the aesthetics. Gameplay is simple and you shoot projectiles and destroy the other player. I didn't have a friend in hand to test the multiplayer, which is a common problem when testing LD Jam games. Multiplayer games are risky because of this. Not much fun to play alone.
Projectile system was interesting as I had to focus on tapping at the right time to get right type of projectile. After that the available projectiles changed. I can imagine this to be quite fun game when playing with friend.
Thanks @keppu the post jam has a single player mode if you are curious, it is much improved.
No friends, so I only rated some of it (sorry!). Liked the mood and the "stances" idea, and it looks and sounds great. Very cool concept!
@sorlok if you fancy a solo game the post jam has a one player mode. Thanks for playing
Original game and concept, i was confused about playing mode, i enjoyed the differents shooting modes depending colours. Graphics were good, i appreciate the cellular style ^^. The hard part for me is to define where is the sacrifice. But good job =)
@outlife thanks for playing. The sacrifice is that every time you fire you sacrifice some of your hp. It hurts to fire.
Cool game! This is one of the few 2 player games I have seen. Well done!