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Steampirates of Bermuda
Steampirates of Bermuda
By bificommander
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 825 | 3.02 | 36 | |
| Fun | 775 | 2.91 | 36 | |
| Innovation | 509 | 3.16 | 36 | |
| Theme | 793 | 3.04 | 36 | |
| Graphics | 751 | 3.02 | 36 | |
| Humor | 566 | 2.74 | 35 | |
Comments
aevek
2018-12-04 08:31
It looks like your itch link is to edit, but the drive one worked fine. Once I figured it out I really enjoyed the core gameplay loops. Hunting down merchants while always being afraid of the evil purple dot was fun. It also really made be think hard about which crew member should be thrown overboard to appease the purple demon entity. I did have trouble knowing which crew I still had available, but as you said you ran out of time for UI. Its a shame, as with that I think this would have been an excellent game.
corbak
2018-12-04 08:55
The concept is cool, and the graphics good. I would change the stearing control a bit it feels like you control a big piece of soap when you are turning, maybe to much inertia? Too bad you couldnt finish the in game UI , it would be easier to understand how to play :-). I look forward to the update with some UI ! Good job!
@aevek: Glad to hear you liked it. I was in such a rush at the end, I didn't have much time to polish up the gameplay loop. I'll check out that itch link.
@corbak: The steering is quasy-deliberately. I did want there to be quite some drifting, but I'll admit I may have gone overboard. I tweaked those controls on the first day, when I didn't have enemies yet, and these settings were kind of fun to just zig-zag between obstacles. But I didn't rebalance them when it became time for the actual gameplay. And yes, I think I will make a version with the UI added, plus some other minor tweaks. Bigger gameplay elements like the big merchant ships shooting back were also planned, but adding that seems a bit too much.
@aevek, @corbak: I made the updated version if you want to give it a try (and aren't already up to your armpits in games to play)
What are the controls of the game? Just mouse and arrow keys? i didn't got it.
rumor
2018-12-10 04:05
Thank you for being honest and forthcoming in your updates! To start, I also had some trouble with the controls, through the inertia is important to the experience it's just a bit *overboard* (heh... sorry). The UI is kind of hard to read at high resolutions. And I thought a laser was kind of a strange weapon choice, thematically wouldn't a gun or something work better? But you do a great job invoking a mood, especially with that distant music of the ship I'm chasing, and the creepy music that comes with the purple dot? Whew. The weapons have a good feeling of heft (thanks in no small part to a great fire sound effect) - I just wish there was a meter/timer to show my reload progress since it takes quite a while. Or maybe keeping with the theme, a way to fire early but at reduced strength (only a few cannons and not the whole broadside) and risk injuring some of the crew! Sorry, this is all coming out as constructive criticism. I think it's a really cool start and want to see more. If you keep going with this, feel free to keep posting updates (clearly marked as not your jam entry) if only so I can follow along and see how it blossoms! You did a good thing here. Yo ho!
Nice pirate game. I had a bit of trouble with the controls though, without Helmsmen picking up loot in time was simply not possible anymore. Maybe that is the purpose, but therefore either the enemy ships have too much health or the thing is appoaching you too often/fast. I cant sink and loot a single ship without sacrificing at least two crewmembers. Also the automatic zoom is annoying me a bit, because when you stand still its way too far zoomed in. Firing broadsides has the most beautiful GFXs in this game, and I can barely see it, because Im zoomed in on my upper deck :/ also there is a typo in the end screen, I guess Im supposed to be a "Bilge Rat". That was a lot of negative feedback, but you still managed to put a well rounded prototype together in my opinion. Like I said, firing broadsides looks awesome and has the right feeling, to enhance this, you could even make the cannonballs spread out a little bit, instead of flying perfectly parallel. Features like hearing the music of merchant ships instead of relying on a minimap add a nice touch to the gameplay as well.
@edwingamedev If you press escape in-game there's a list of controls. The basic movement is WASD + mouse, Q and E fire broadsides, 1-4 sacrifice various crew members.
@rumor Point taken on the inertia. There are the green lights on the side of the ship showing when the broadside is up, but indeed there isn't a timer to see how far along you are. The considerable reload length was added so there'd be a point in maneuvering to bring your other broadside to bear, but I admit it didn't feel as fun to play as I'd hoped. As far as further updates, I was originally planning to do this type of ship-combat with space ships, but when I saw the theme I decided seagoing pirates made slightly more sense. But I think I'll use the spaceship idea for further developing, (apart from variaty, that's also the reason I wanted to include a ray-weapon) although I might release a second bug-fixed version based on further feedback.
@kruemelkeksfan Yes, I also noticed picking up loot without helmsmen gets very hard. Although you could probably use the fact that the loot always comes out on the right of the ships to be in the right place from the start. My personal best score is 51/54, and I'm up to a little over 1 crewmember per ship looted, but that's admiteddly with knowledge of the ships' general routes. I didn't think the zoom-in got that bad, but the effect is indeed a bit stronger than it ought to have been. Woopsie on the typo. If I do another update, I'll also try out a bit of spread to the cannon balls.
Thanks for your feedback everyone.
syrok
2018-12-12 00:11
Well, this is quite an interesting idea, of course, the control is not intuitive and the ship drifts like a street racing vehicle, but for the rest I liked it) respect for the works)
Ok, so, I like to keep context at the forefront of my reviews. In this case, this is a game 1 person made in an insane time crunch. With that in mind...
Wow. Ok, so the controls aren't the greatest, ok, but they aren't convoluted, and they seem to do what you intended them to do, so kudos there!
I'm impressed you were able to include these particle effects in this time crunch too. I mean, the graphics in general are top notch for a Jam. You did well meeting the theme, and overall I have to say that I have nothing new that others had not already mentioned to tell you other than I think you really crushed this. You obviously have a lot of talent, and you should be proud of this entry. This is a real accomplishment, not just anyone can pull off. And, you seem humble and honest. I'd pick you for a team any day.
@syrok Thanks for the review. The drifting is going to be rebalanced if I do another fix. The controls are probably going to stay as they are though.
@elitegoliath Thanks a lot! I'm happy the graphical effects worked out well. I didn't have a whole lot of experience with them, so most of it was started from scratch and learning as I went. I didn't have time to implement a wake-effect, but the rest looks decent. I hope you're right about my talent, in a few months I'm going to try to make an actually releasable game, one that's tangentally related to this one but with spaceships. Wish me luck :)
That's a really ambiouse game for 72h gamejam. Enjoyed playing it, I liked the sloapy/slinding controls, kind of tricky but that's fun. The visuals are cool, especially the FX for shooting and impact. Great work !
Really like the directional audio. What was that eyeball following me though?
@benjouille Thanks, glad you liked it.
@wowbagger That would be the Eldritch Horror haunting Bermuda. Its evil aura is visible but its true form is hidden in the darkness at its core. This is done to heighten the mystique and fear, and not at all because I had no idea how to make a tentacled monstrosity within the deadline :p
An enjoyable game , I found the steering controls a little tricky. Looks nice and the audio was good.
I loved the graphics but I feel like some instructions at the beginning of the game would be a huge help. I also feel like the movement is a bit on the sensitive side.
@henry-denny Yeah, there are in-game instructions accessed by the esc-key, but that's not mentioned anywhere. I ran out of time to make a proper start menu where the How To Play was properly signposted. I'm working on a last Post-Jam version that at least says how to access the in-game menu, and fixes the controls. But glad you liked the graphics. The particle effects are the one thing in this game that I'm really pleased with.
hdugmag
2018-12-27 19:22
Really nice game! The audio is outstanding and I liked the implementation of the theme. But the feedback from the thermal gun made it feel a bit weak. Other than that, well done!
Nice Sinterklaas experience in a way. Sound design is really well done and really gives this game a great atmosphere. Controls were a bit hard, but at least there is plenty of ways to figure those out. So all in all, good work!