sillyman987 2018-12-03 10:07
If this dosen't work on linux or macOS please tell me.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD43 → Maze
By sillyman987
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1036 | 2.21 | 21 | |
| Fun | 1039 | 1.89 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 1039 | 1.94 | 21 | |
| Theme | 1025 | 1.97 | 21 | |
| Audio | 575 | 2.76 | 21 | |
| Humor | 868 | 1.58 | 20 | |
| Mood | 974 | 2.13 | 20 |
If this dosen't work on linux or macOS please tell me.
I don't know how to open it on Windows either. You provided only the source file Construct, I guess. Which I haven't installed.
sorry about that.
but thanks for rating it :)
Can't open with Windows so I can't rate at all.
you need construct 2
Try it now
I would've liked to see some instructions...
@maxkyckling Here you go
To be frank this game isn't very good. It feels very unfinished. The good things about it is not the worst audio, but the whole experience is rather bad. You're just walking - and even walking feels off, since it feels like sliding on the floor instead of walking and stopping when I want it to. Regarding lava, it looks like the character is stepping on the floor, so it obviously shouldn't step on the lava, but... when you catch the lava piece with your head your health is dropping, too. There is no feedback - audio, visual or other - that you lost a health point or gained a coin. There is no way to determine where the coins are and how much you should take to go to the next level. The yellow rectangle doesn't do anything, at least it didn't for me. Overall it feels unfinished, but - think whether that game would be fun even when finished. Just walking around? It's like platformer with only platforms (and only static ones) - it's just boring.
I take it this is your first time doing something like this, is that correct? If so, please, don't feel bad. I know that time constraints together with inexperience means that the game won't be good. Advice for future game development: first try to find something that you could be doing for a long time (you can choose what that means; for example hours or just 20 minutes) and try to implement this. There is for example game that you just need to rotate yourself and shoot. It can be fun. Walking isn't really fun, because it lack feedback. Shooting is more fun, because you see the effects on your actions on screen, usually in animations and so on.
Hopefully you'll find this feedback constructive and helpful. I wanted to point out all the things that are important so you can learn from it. I hope you won't give up on making games just because of some negative feedback such as mine; everyone makes bad games at the beginning and you, frankly, did a little better, because your game *works* ;) I'm looking forward to see your games in the future.
This is my first time, but no offence taken, i am not very good anyways!
I can't try it, Im on firefox on windows 10 and I only see a white screen :( I can only hear the sound
@kaipi Sorry, but I don't now how to fix it.
@sillyman987 don't worry it happens :(
It seems really interesting, but it doesn't work on my browser - Firefox v63. Please fix it ++
I read that this is your first LD with us. Don't give up boy - sometimes it happens. Next time, try to check your project before posting it. Find one/two testers on different OS, just to try your game. I will be happy helping you next time - you can use twetter to contact me (@geckoo1337). I wish you best. Bye ++
Hey, you should clean up your Ludum Dare page. I'm on Linux, and I almost didn't play this game because your entry claims that it is only available for Windows. Could you please switch it from "Windows" to "Web"? Thanks!
Also, as Mr. Anonymous said, your hitboxes are messed up. The camera angle is tilted since you can see the character's body, not just his head and shoulders. Because of this, his hitbox should be only on his feet. For example, [our submission](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/altar-1) for Ludum Dare 43 has the same camera angle as yours, but the hitbox is only on the feet since those are the only part of the character's body that is touching the ground.
Another improvement you could make is slowing down the player when they go into the lava and giving some kind of auditory/visual feedback for that happening. Same with picking up the coin.
My final suggestion is replacing **Health: 5** with :heart::heart::heart::heart::heart: or a simple health bar. A simple numeral doesn't give the player much of an idea of how much health they have, which is made worse when you consider the fact that there is no sound effect for taking damage.
However, don't let these things discourage you from making games for Ludum Dare! I understand that this is your first jam, and in Ludum Dare 42 I was in the same position. If you can, try to set aside at least 6 hours a day during the jam. It is really difficult to get a satisfying end product otherwise unless you are an absolute wizard.
Good luck on future projects, can't wait to see your entry for Ludum Dare 44!
So, since this your first LD, thought I'd offer some suggestions. This may be a lot of criticism, but don't let it scare you away from doing another LD, I just mean to help so your next game will be even better.
If there was any one thing I'd do differently, it's that I would use a different, less obscure game engine next time. Engines such as Game Maker, RPG Maker, Unity, and Unreal are a bit trickier to learn, but they also have a much larger online community of people willing to answer questions and help out. The [r/unity3d](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/) subreddit is a huge community, so despite larger engines like Unity being trickier to learn, it's also easier to find answers to things when you get stuck.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure you leave extra time for testing and packaging your game. Firefox does not appear to run Maze at all (you just get a white screen), and Internet Explorer runs it, but without music. A few test builds while you're making your game go a long way to making sure your game is playable once it's time to release. When you're finished with the game, you're only 75% of the way done. The other 25% is testing, getting your friends to test it, fixing bugs, etc.
Many of the games people do during LD are similar enough to other games, or have similar game mechanics with some creative deviations. Your game is no exception, and that's not a bad thing. However, for each game mechanic that you borrow from another game, you'll want to find your favorite implementation of that mechanic in an existing game, and try to recreate it. Take, for instance, your character's movement. He seems to have an acceleration and deceleration when you move him. That causes him to slide all over the place and makes it difficult to avoid the lava. There are plenty of GameBoy games where you navigate pits and lava with an overhead 2D character (the 2D Zelda games come to mind). I would have mimicked their controls, which are a lot tighter and leave no room for sliding. In turn, that would have allowed you to make more complex challenges with the lava, since you're no longer forced to place lava so sparsely to account for the character sliding.
Also, pay special attention to your UI. Starting with level 2, the "Level 2" text at the top stays at the top and scrolls off-screen when you move. Additionally, the black text is very tiny and difficult to read with such a busy background. Surrounding the text with a white bubble would have gone a long way towards improving the quality of the UI.
As for the stuff like level design, graphics, and animation, it would be unfair to critique as this is your first game, but again I highly recommend picking an existing game's art style and doing your best to mimic that. Usually before a Ludum Dare me and my team sit down and make a design document detailing the style we're going for and the art assets that are going to be needed to get the bare minimum of level functionality working. The theme doesn't get announced until Ludum Dare starts, but you can still pick a style and general concept of a game ahead of time.
Hope this helps man and welcome to Ludum Dare. Congrats on your first entry!
@linear@mertios@geckoo1337 sorry about the trouble but, really i don't know how to fix it.
PS:No offence taken either. :)
The music wasn't too bad... but overall, this was challenging without any feedback on what was going on. Great first entry, but the whole game felt like an initial prototype for something rather than a finished game.
first LDJAM game congrats ^^
@gamefive Thanks for the support man
I will look forward to the next game.
@gamefive Thanks
Certainly some issues, I'll try to get straight to the point. The collisions of the player felt a bit weird. You would expect to take damage when standing on the lava, meaning that your feet should be on top of the lava. Even if your head is over the lava from the camera's POV, the feet are on ground, so no need to take damage. Consider moving the hitbox to encapsulate just the feet. It was also weird that the lava rendered OVER the play and UI. This render pass should have been done between the ground render and the player render, since the player is standing on the lava (not the lava hovering overhead). The game window was also very small, making it hard to read the health.
These were the major issues that I noticed. If you are looking to further hone your game dev skills, why not try joining more jams, there is at least one every day on itch.io: https://itch.io/jams. Best thing to do when learning is to use every opportunity you get to hone your skills! The music was rather nice however, and the player sprite was well made. Not sure if that was an asset, but at a beginner level, don't be afraid to use assets to improve your game (just credit it of course). Keep developing, and hope this feedback helps. :thumbsup:
@justcamh Thanks
I think other people covered the issues in this game pretty thoroughly. I'd just like to say: congrats on this little game, it's a lot better than what _my_ first LDJam was. As @gamefive said, I'm looking forward to the next one :-)
@xlambein Thanks
@sillyman987 The mentions don't work if you put them all together. I never got the notification.