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Ballsy Escape
Ballsy Escape
By generalanimal
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 271 | 3.31 | 81 | |
| Fun | 225 | 3.26 | 81 | |
| Innovation | 326 | 2.86 | 81 | |
| Theme | 140 | 3.62 | 81 | |
| Graphics | 377 | 2.86 | 81 | |
| Audio | 256 | 2.94 | 80 | |
Comments
boltkey
2019-04-29 02:40
Alright interpretation of the theme and cute graphics.
While it is nice that the shop is not controlled by mouse, I think that 3 specific key strokes just to place a box is a bit too much. I don't think there is a reason to have any inventory or shop at all, there is never a situation where you would rather have 3 boxes in your inventory than 9 health. Why not just place boxes with space and open chests with c, making it cost 3 and 2 hp, and just cutting the shop? The hotkeys made me lose a lot of hp just by mistyping.
I had a feeling that the spikes were unfair.
I restarted the level with the first yellow button several times. Then, I hit the "start again" button by accident, which made me quit immediately.
I would much rather have interesting puzzles with limited amount of hp per level than many levels connected together.
attala
2019-04-29 05:21
Nice idea, but the key combinations could have been easier and more intuitive. I couldn't open the chests as nothing happened when I pressed 'c'.
Not bad, as above, the shop seems like a bit of a waste but good implementation.
khaotom
2019-04-29 05:46
I liked that there were a few different switch types. Kept me guessing at what was going to happen.
Cute graphics and music. You managed to make the theme work quite well for your game. I wasn't really clear with how the shop and activating the boxes and opening chests worked but I figured it out eventually. I would probably simplify that down a bit since it could leave a bad first impression. It's not easy making puzzles and not to mention storing them so major props to all your effort in such a short time.
jk5000
2019-04-29 05:56
A simple and fun little game idea. The idea for the game fits the jam theme very well. I liked the music and the graphics was overall okay. I had some issues with opening the buy menu, but this could very well be a browser issue (I played the game in the Chrome browser). Overall a good LD game. Well donne.
n-one
2019-04-29 10:23
I like the concept a lot but theres one level that was a littel bug for me. Anyways I like it a lot!
@n-one was it the one with the yellow button? or what bug are you referring to?
niteb
2019-04-29 15:25
Interesting and simple concept. The buy menu could use some work tho!
Cute game, strongly agree with the great feedback from Boltkey above. Show flow felt cumbersome, relative to just deducting the cost upon pressing space or c. Frustrating when I'd place a box, and then it'd physics its way off the button, with no way for me to push it back.
Nice game ! Fun and well done. Maybe could be more simple, and use less keys to play.
@trevor-shoe yeah, had a real struggle with the physics of the box, if I had more time, maybe I would've gotten it right. The box went through **a lot** of modifications to its physics in these 48 hrs :laughing:
The controls were on point :)
@kristinnes glad you liked it :smile:
Good, except how do you buy a key? All that happens when I hit space is I buy a box.
@sillyman987 go to the shop, press the down arrow key, the key will be selected, press enter.
Thanks!
@sillyman987 sure thing :smile:
https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/3.0/png/64/1f604.png
xcvzxc
2019-04-29 17:12
Screenshot_3.png
yeess! Great level design!
i liked the game but there are few bugs in this game.
1 when you are buying from shop you could actually place a box you cant move but you can place box.
2 sometimes even i was landing correctly i was dead for no reason.
3 sometimes even boxes are placed correctly on the trigger box rotate by itself.
4 sometimes box have Colliders and sometimes i could pass through them.
Overall i liked the game but controlling with arrows keys in platformer are really irritating you should always provide W A S D keys as an alternatives.
Switching between mouse and keyboard was really confusing because i had to use mouse to buy from shop and use the arrow keys with one hand and space s and c with other hand.
using arrows keys to switch items in the shop and buying the items using mouse was another annoying thing.
i would have played more but lot of bugs stopped me from doing so.
@xcvzxc Well done! Thank you for sharing your achievement :smile: I'm very glad you enjoyed my game.
@nexusviper thanks for pointing out the bugs you have found, I will try to fix them as soon as possible.
Also, you can actually handle the shop only with keys, up and down to select items, and enter to purchase the selected item. However your frustration is noted and will be improved upon (next ldjam perhaps) :smiley:
I love having a web build. Takes me back to the good old days of playing flash games on miniclip or addictinggames.com (yes I know they still exist). But anyway points for accessibility, points for level design. Points for your LD page. Great instructions. Love how you even produced graphics for the instructions. It's the little things. I like your interpretation of the theme. I've seen a lot of people go in this direction, which for some reason didn't even occur to me at the start. Thanks for the play. Cheers!
@michael-feldman Was going exactly for that miniclip experience so I'm glad it came through :smile: Thanks for the positive comment, glad you enjoyed the game :smiley:
dumivid
2019-04-30 14:01
Nice game, a new touch for the classic design approach. During the playthrough, I got a few bugs (box collision was off and chest refuses to open) and a soft lock (an intentional one, if you use all your boxes on a precedent level the game get stuck). Glad you managed to add sounds bc a lot of games lack it and it makes the whole experience a little worse. Good job and have fun with future games.
@dumivid did you buy a key to open the chest? :smile:
Can you elaborate on how the game got stuck if you used all the boxes?
mykola
2019-04-30 20:01
Very simple yet very fun. Impressive number of different levels. One of the most complete games I've played so far. Everything is present and everything fits together: gameplay, graphics, sound, UX. Especially well done with the tutorial. Overall, great job!
@mykola thanks for the great review, really glad you liked the game! :smile:
harusame
2019-05-01 10:37
Simple game but quite fun ;) Keys are not very intuitive but it's nice to see many levels. Strong complete game, well done !
skoggy
2019-05-01 10:38
Nice game! I think the theme fits very nicely. Good job!
@harusame @skoggy Thank you both very much !
teo989
2019-05-01 13:16
Hello there! Nice and simple game with cool aesthetics and music that fits the theme nicely. Good Job! :v: :key:
Not bad! I like the idea behind the gameplay and the level design was pretty nicely done. My only complaint is that boxes sometimes tilt and fall of boxes, which is kinda annoying. Other than that, nice game!
Nice game, literally fits the theme!
If you'd like a little feedback, I've got a few tips for improvement (at least from my point of view):
- buy and place enough boxes is a viable solution for every level. It would be nice to have also levels that cannot be solved by buying and placing a box :)
- Probably because previous point I had no need to buy keys and open chests.. tbh I finished the game without caring about chests at all
- a tricky thing (in a positive way) is that your lives don't restart by finishing level. But when you retry the level, they're number are reseted, you have 25 lives again so you can always finish the level by buying enough boxes. If you'd have constant number of lives for the whole game, I'm sure I would care more about what's in that chests and trying to complete level with as few live losses as possible
- and the last one - it takes too much time from touching a portal to actually let player know the level is finished. I understand it's probably intentional - you need to have a stable position to finish the level, but when the portal lays at the floor it feels like I missed something and the portal wont let me in.
The movement feels fine, I'd add also posibility of control by WASD - I personally prefer arrow keys but a lot of people are used to WASD. I'm always using both when it's possible. Other bunch of people, are used to use space for jumping, you cannot please everyone :)
I like the number of levels, making a reasonable amount of interesting levels drains me the most during game jams :)
I hope at least something from my feedback will help you with creating another cool puzzle platformers!
ludwici
2019-05-02 09:25
Good level design
exewin
2019-05-02 10:00
I tried to be smarter than the game.
2-5-2019 12-2-51.png
Sometimes it worked...
2-5-2019 11-55-26.png
Sometimes it didn't.
@exewin hahah! Just so you'll know these were both intentional :smiley:
The first image depicts exactly what I thought.. if the player is observant enough, he will understand he can pass the level with just 1 box instead of 2
The second image depicts the greediness of the player that gets ruthlessly punished :smile:
oddsocks
2019-05-02 10:12
Very enjoyable game. I was hooked pretty fast. The level challenge steadily got harder which was spot on. The shop might not have been needed. I think just pressing space to create a box and then deducting from your health would have worked fine (likewise for chests). But either way it works great. The theme was there for sure. Also really liked the colourful art. Top notch stuff for just 48 hours! Congrats.
@darylsteak Yeah the boxes falling off was a feature that I didn't know if it will be good gameplay or not.. It was intentional however.. if you place the box just right, it will never fall off, but if you place it hastily or carelessly you just wasted a box.
@jiri-hysek Thanks for the great feedback, noted! and I'm glad you enjoed it :smile:
@oddsocks Thanks for the great feedback and glad you enjoyed the game :smiley:
The shop was clearly the pitfall of this game entry, as you are not the only one to mention it was unnecessary, but hey, you live and you learn :smiley:
cee-dee
2019-05-02 10:29
Although the contest theme is kind of pressed into the game, it was fun playing! Challenges becoming harder each level was really nice! I grasped the controls quite fast, so I could focus on enjoying the game. Good work!
nebrazif
2019-05-02 11:24
Great game, it's an enjoyable gameplay and the theme is well retransmitted !
Nice puzzle platformer. Didn't realise a proper physics engine was being used until a box ended up being wasted by falling off the switch I placed it on, so might have been better to lock rotations but that's a minor setback.
dk5000p
2019-05-02 13:13
I wanted to be able to push the boxes around but besides that I liked the music and the sounds. The puzzles were good, but like a few people have stated, the fact that just buying boxes and jumping on them could be used to solve most of the puzzles took away some of the clever design you took the time to do. I didn't hate having to use the shop like others have stated but it would have made the game simpler to eliminate it. I usually see shops as buying powerups and permanent things and while items might persist through levels, it didn't seem like there was a need for that. Still, overall good job.
mags
2019-05-02 13:27
Nice game, had fun playing it and I guess that's all that counts. Theme is also in place. All in all good job!
Very nice level design.
Cute little game, but I think there's too many things going on, what I'm referring is that you should simplify how to get things done. I think you could just get rid of the shop and just punish the player for using a box or a key, you just have them in your inventory and whenever you want to use one the game makes you lose lives.
Also, the life system is a little weird in my opinion, if you just die in a level you can just start from it with all the lives from the beginning, maybe is a better idea if in each room you have limited lives, that will also affect the gameplay and the player should think carefully what to do so they don't run out of lives.
Well, that was my take on it. Aside from that I think it's well done and it has potential, putting more mechanics and thinking more complex puzzles would definitely make a great game. But it's a jam so I understand that you couldn't get a lot done.
I love this game!
jlelez
2019-05-02 18:17
It's really funny, the level design is cool !
cool game and happy upbeat music
neowedge
2019-05-02 18:30
Goof game ;). I think it was a bit easy, but funny. Maybe the shop screen could be removed. Great job, congrats!
tddawson
2019-05-02 18:38
Well done! It was hard to know how best to ration my life without knowing what was coming up next. That made some levels impossible as soon as you got there, so I just found myself reseting or buying myself to death to be able to move on to the next level. A few of the hitboxes seemed off on the spikes. I liked the different uses of the boxes and all the different types of switches you implemented in such a short time. I also liked the "a box" label :D. Fun all-around puzzle-platformer!
sylvie
2019-05-02 19:35
Cute game, I found the controls kind of hard to remember though. I'm glad you don't have to restart the game when you run out of life because I died on the final level, although it does seem to make the life system a bit pointless.
emf31
2019-05-02 19:41
Really cool game, I´d like your level design, maybe your life system is not well defined. Overall, I like it very much.
ausstein
2019-05-02 20:21
rly.png Found an infinite live exploit. Jump over the first brickwall offscreen use two boxes and a key to unlock the chest and kill yourself on the spikes. Gives you 10 lifes costs you 9 xD. Farmed my lives to 40 as a proof of concept :) Great game!!
@ausstein Wow very nice! I was **not** aware of this haha
Just curious, did you find it on your first go of the level? or were you looking for exploits? :wink:
ausstein
2019-05-02 21:04
rly.png @generalanimal Well i found the jump over the brickwall on my second playthrough (I guess that is an intentional shortcut?). After I died on the last level the first time. Then i noticed in some other level that the chests reset when you die, so i put one and one toghether. I also got boxed in in a level once after the box had fallen of a switch and build 4 boxes on top of each other to get out again xD
@ausstein haha nice thought process!
Will you be available to do game testing for the full version of the game? xD
ausstein
2019-05-02 21:55
@generalanimal Sure, sounds like fun :)
stark
2019-05-03 08:28
Great puzzle game with interesting level design. I believe it will have good Kongregate reviews if you polish the graphics and add more levels. (Noticed some issues with hearts. I had only 4 left, but after fail-restarting the level got 24)
zax
2019-05-03 09:03
I Really liked the level desgin makes me feel a bit bad about my game XD well made !
bartosz
2019-05-03 10:19
Good game, but i found few bugs.
1. You can die multiple times before screen fades out (takes multiple hearts) 2. Sometimes you can hang to a wall (i think this was not intentional) 3. I think hearts should not be passed from level to level - there are some ways to exploit this and some levels are extremely easy (you can just spawn boxes) 4. It's weird to use c for chest, space for placing box, s for shop... it's too many keys i think
persegan
2019-05-03 10:54
This was a blast to play! I liked the idea of the shop, and using your life as currency in it
Good entry - as others have said, the shop felt a little pointless and it would have been nicer to have gained health in other ways. There's a bug where you can hit space bar whilst in the shop and still place a box. Well done for making so many levels in such a short amount of time!
It's a fun game and I think it's good material for a multiplayer game someday. But like others already said, the controls are quiet difficult to remember and it would be nice if you could move the boxes you place.
Also, after I played it the first time, it wasn't possible to get trough the fourth portal, so i had to start again to fix it.
It's a good idea to pay the material you need with your life and also i liked the concept of the shop, but it could be a bit more easier to handle.
Altogether a great idea!
your game has a very good level design, and a theme largely respect. very good work
f1krazy
2019-05-03 19:00
Your lives are literally currency. Clever use of the theme, I like it. The game could use some polishing, I feel - the music loop gets a bit repetitive, the controls are a little awkward, and it sucks that you can't push the boxes into position. But this is a really solid concept, with a fun premise and an impressive amount of content for a Compo game. I'd love to see an expanded version of this!
miu
2019-05-03 20:55
nice game also like bartosz I could hang to walls sometimes, not on every walls though
bradur
2019-05-04 06:37
I think it's a clever little puzzle game. Has some bugs like if you reset after dying you get 25 health back, etc. The shop UI was hard to understand at first, couldn't figure out how to buy a key (use down arrow).
Clean graphics and nice sounds, well done!
@persegan Glad you enjoed it :smile:
@f1krazy Thanks for the great review, your and other peoples comments encouraged me to create an extended version, and I can confirm it is progress :smiley: