raoz 2019-04-30 12:07
Amazing, but quite hard; couldn't get to the interesting things really.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → DEADline
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 28 | 4.18 | 70 | |
| Fun | 5 | 4.33 | 70 | |
| Innovation | 1 | 4.65 | 70 | |
| Theme | 1000 | 2.70 | 69 | |
| Graphics | 450 | 3.70 | 69 | |
| Humor | 271 | 3.32 | 64 | |
| Mood | 255 | 3.67 | 66 |
Amazing, but quite hard; couldn't get to the interesting things really.
Oh, I like typing games and this is the good one! =) I like this minimalistic design and music sets the mood of the game. A minor issue I found that, seemly, some generated levels are impossible to pass which is quite annoying. But it doesn't spoil the fun completely. =)
A really nice concept implemented really well for a game jam. Good job :slight_smile:
@raoz , @extrone Thnak you guys, for playing. Care to share your top scores?
@yngvarr I know about one particular case at the start in which it's either very tricky or just nearly impossible I'm probably gonna fix that by adding mobing platform below the problematic shop. The first shop is actually guaranteed to offer the double jump ability, which should get the player out of most sticky situations, though some saws might be just awefully placed. As usual, not enough time to properly test it all. I actually wanted to mix it with some premade chunks to make it more varied, but I unfortunately ran out of time. :cry:
Typing and platforming at the same time is something I never expected would work, but my god this works perfectly. I love how smooth the player character looks and feels, and the platforming works solidly. I found myself being creative by not fully typing out every word so I could use them as platforms.
I also like the shop system, but I never found the powerups entirely useful.
Man, this game is hard.
I don't like that buying upgrades costs score. If the goal is to have the highest score, it is correct to not buy upgrades. I think that you should have it so you earn score for all the money you earn, but pay only money, not score, for upgrades.
I played a lot of runs (15?), and got a 56 in a decent one.
I really like this concept. The difficulty curve could definitely start off easier. Also, it would be nice if you could use the UP arrow as jump instead of the space bar. I also don't have the Euro symbol on my keyboard, using the number keys would make the shop controls more universal. I think this just needs some quality of life improvements to make it more enjoyable to play.
I really enjoyed my time with this game. It was an interesting combination of typing game meets platforming, where both aspects impact the other. I gave feedback on stream, but generally - just a bit more time to explore new powerups, as the difficulty seemed to ramp up just as you learn and acquire your first powerup. Good job!
Incredible game, easily a 5 on innovation. There were so many things that went well with the design it's unbelievable:
a. Deciding between typing full words or typing short ones for best speed (debating typing vs platforming skills)
b. Deciding which letters/words to type out to create the best platforming sequence for you
c. The juggling between typing and platforming, at one point I was doing stuff like jumping up a vertical line while typing it rather than using wall jump, and also trying to play 1 hand while typing minimally with the other hand.
soooooooo much emergent gameplay from this, though I eventually asked a 2nd player to just play coop with me and we had a blast trying to coordinate and guess each other's intentions. The only ding I have to give is the connection to the theme seems like a stretch. Make no mistake though, this is one of my highest rated games for me and one I'll be sharing a lot!
So it was a bit rough for me lol. I had a difficult time going from typing to jumping. But I love the concept. There aren't very many games out there that use this mechanic now days (Last game I played that was similar was Typing of the Dead). There's definitely something fun here. I would love to see how you further develop this out, if you decide to continue with it. Great job! <3
Thanks for hanging out on the stream, as well. Here's the [link to the stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/420903849). Your game should start around [01:59:55].
Oh god it was hard enough getting ~~15~~ ~~32~~ 62 how am I supposed to get 77??
It's quite difficult (and I think the jump physics could use a little bit of tweaking to feel better), but it is incredibly well thought out. I often found my self typing while in mid air so I could create the platform under me. Making partial words fade away too is a nasty punishment for people trying to rush on by. Really clever.
Are you doing any manual control of the words that are being generated, and the order/layout they come in? Or is it completely random?
This is so creative!! I am obsessed. Hi, I'm Kati. I'm sitting at #2! Hell yeah!!!
There is kind of a learning curve, because you have your jump keys, but then you also have to type. Makes you remember how to spell words for sure.
A note, though. I didn't realize I needed to fully spell the word. I thought typing part of it and then hopping on it was sufficient as I thought I was climbing as opposed to spelling. Maybe just an info page or something to refer to, because there's also the bit where if you don't spell the full word, then it disappears as soon as you hop on it.
It's cleverly designed and fun and simple. I'd definitely continue work on this.
All I can complain about is the randomly generated unsolvable platforming puzzles sometime, but other than that this is a very fun, polished and innovative game!
Also there's the theme but... bleh x)
Thanks for posting this, was fun playing something fun ^^
As for my piece of feedback, it would be wise playing and rating other people's games, so you can get even more ratings and feedback on it :)
I would turn it into a level-based RPG, with weapons, bossfights and all if I were to release it.
Fantastic idea, and so well put together. Particularly love the visuals, which had to serve the double purpose of looking good and being extremely clear and legible and did a wonderful job of both
Wow, the mechanics are actually something new and I really enjoyed playing it although I am very bad at it. It was a little hard for me to actually type and jump at the same time. Thanks for coming up with such a nice game.
That was really cool, and really hard. I think I got 7th place at one time, but that was really lucky. In the future, it'd be nice to randomly place the words, but not so your only choice is to jump into a saw or the lake of fire. Great feeling otherwise. Good job!
A really cool concept and I love how you have to sometimes only type half the word to not block yourself, but the you have to continue, since the word starts disappearing.
A really cool game with a lot of potential, would love to see a multiplayer!
I like it, it's a lil bit hard but it's quite fun
I have played quite a few games around here and this is most innovative approach I have seen so far! Really great execution of fantastic idea. I was able to get to 7th place, but I am sure I´ll try some more later on. It is quite challenging and sometimes it seems that the platforms can be generated in a way you that you can barely reach them. But overall this is really nice entry! Thanks a lot for this game!
I am pretty sure this is my favourite entry so far, you did absolutly great, thank you!
@gamepopper To be perfectly honest, I wasn't at all sure it would work at all, but I really wanted to give it shot and it came out pretty great.
Not all items are great, but as the current record holder lemme tell ya - the double jump is pretty much essential - sometimes it just gets you out of those sticky situations. I also buy the autocomplete upgrades - tehese help quite a bit.
@boltkey Fair enough, but it's not the correct strat. The deadline actually gets faster based on your current score, so if you shop, you gain upgrades, but slow it down a bit, so you can get the score back, but hopefully a bit more easily.
I put that in mostly to at least partially cover the theme. Scoring the player on distance for instance would probably make more sense.
56 is pretty damn good :wink:. That would almost get you into the current top 5 (5th is 60 as of right now).
@kodiqi Yeah, the difficulty curve is pretty steep, I gotta own upto that. You missed on the shops then - you are supposed to type buy items. Euro and dollar are the least obscure symbols on the shop items, but that's just for flavour. (Double jump is Yen a have no idea how to type that :sweat_smile: ).
Agree to dissagree I guess - I hate jumping with up. You are also not really supposed to use the arrows but rather A/D and type the words without the need to akwardly shift to the arrow keys and back.
@honest-dan I very much enjoyed the steam and some kind of a sandbox to try out the newly acquired abilites isn't a shabby idea. I'm not entirely honest that it would gel it the current score-attacky nature of the game, but I'll think about it some more.
@peachtreeoath I'm glad you got the game :thumbsup: I actually thought about trying it coop as well - that might be neat.
The theme is weak with this one :laughing:
@snowschu Thank you for playing and covering it. If I continue development, I'll keep you posted.
BTW. I still need to try out The Typing of the Dead.
@jjjjason 62 is a great score. I actually have a recording of the 77 - I might post htat eventually.
I'm actually quite satisfied with how the player controller handles with many bells and whisles (grace jump, buffered jump, trigger-based wall jump). It would definitely need a bit of tinkering, but I don't feel that much would be needed.
I'm quite proud of the fade-away idea, though I'd still like to come with a way to use that without the possiblity of letting the player completely screw themselves.
The generation is pretty simple - spawn the next word within, then given a certain chance make it horizontal and/or moving. There are few tiny tweaks and consecutive count-based restrictions, but really not anything special. The saws are just random (which might lead into some really bad levelgen). I'd love to completely overhaul it to chunk based approach - a word is here and maybe there and a saw might spawn in the middle etc. That would give me the opportunity to make the platforming more intering and I could put in some jokes as well - win-win.
@bakenshake From the leaderboard it seems you've changed your name as well, so you took the 2nd and 5th I think. Well played and thank you. I prefer the 'show, don't tell' approach. I'll try to think how to telegraph it better.
@lyrcaxis Yeah, sometimes it gets nasty to downright impossible - sorry about that.
As for ratings, I've always given more than received, so don't you worry. It just a slow process for me as I tend to spend quite a bit of time with each game and try to give verbal feedback.
You mention bossfights, but I've actually thought about that before. We'll see how that shakes out.
@jyrkface @geist-191 @microwerx @miu Thank you for playing and for the kind words.
@andidebob Co-op or versus multiplier? Both actually seem somewhat feasible.
@jin9310 Thank you. Barely is fine as far as I'm concerned, but the saws, oh the damned saws! :sweat_smile:
@feips That makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Your game is in my queue and looks amazing - I'm looking forward to it :wink:
Interesting game. inclusion of a leaderboard was a nice touch. it's a bit difficult to type and move at the same time. maybe let the up arrow also act as a jump button, ala Smash Bros default controls?
(edit) Also, the option to skip leaderboard uploads. I LOVE that this has a leaderboard, but if my internet is slow, i have to wait for it to send in a new score.
what a great time for the scoreboard to not work http://prntscr.com/nld0xl
Made it to the top of the leaderboard with 131~ Very original and fun game! It's quite addicting. The deadline feels like goes up faster in the end.
@acactus I've addressed the *'jump with up'* idea above. I've not played Smash, so I can't relate to its controls. Good point about the upload - for the postjam version, I plan to make the leaderboard upload fully async.
@lyrcaxis Sorry about that. The score didn't get trhough validation as the game sent in partially invalid data. I've marked it as valid (though the final score is actually 96 as enemies that die after you die don't count anymore, though the GUI gets updated incorrectly - I should probably fix that). In the meantime our scores got crushed by @lexyvil , so if you feel like giving it another shot, and I'd be honoured, then please download the fixed version (which also shows just the top score of each player).
@lexyvil Wow, what a score! The deadline does indeed go faster the higher your score is, good catch. (Hint, buying upgrades means it goes slower, so if pace is the only bottleneck, then buying the upgrades you like should be the way to go).
This game is so much fun ^^ honestly it's way better to learn to type fast than many other so called "fun typing games" as this is a well-made game which is challenging.
I really like this. Having you type all of the commands is nicely consistent. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered varying power-ups. I did have a problem though where I hit a certain gap that I just couldn't jump; it was impossibly far.
Nice work.
Well done game! The first few rounds it is really hard to get into the game but after a while you know what you have to do to get further upwards. I really like how the style of the game is built into the menus! The sense of humor is also really good (length does matter). At points it is simply a bit too hard to switch from typing to jumping, maybe that could be separated a bit more but other than that I really loved the idea and the game. Fantastic Job!
So I've been playing a lot more, and I had some extra thoughts that I wanted to add.
1. I think it'd be cool to add some data for when the player dies or maybe just to view. A stats screen if you will that includes but not limited to or doesn't include at all (lol): a. Longest word spelled b. Words per minute c. Number of words spelled since playing d. Most frequent upgrade bought e. Number of deaths by punctuation 2. A pause screen!!! Sometimes I get real far but then real life creeps up. 3. To really ramp up difficulty for those get git gud, you can include more than just words. Characters from the keyboard or l33t spellings. Haha. 4. Tweak the algorithm to have more words that have similar substrings for another type of difficulty. For example, when you spell spire, you also spell part of spit. This happens already somewhat naturally which forces players to only spell part of the word and then rush to finish it once clearing it. I don't know, thought it might be another layer of fun to add. Yay, regular expressions. :D
Okay, that's all for now, but I may have more. Hope you don't mind!! :)
Found out that if you jump above a partially finished word that has a spring and you're on the spring but you finish the word, you will fall through the word and die. :(
@ransom Double jump should save your bacon in most cases, but there instances of downright terrible levelgen. I'll work on that for the postjam version.
@tomfu By switching you mean switching to arrow keys or mentally switching from typing to platforming? You are the first to mention my silly jokes - either no one likes them or no one has actually noticed.
@bakenshake Wow, thank you so much for the comprehensive feedback and for returning to the game.
1. stats are on the todo list, no question (especially since it can hide the leaderboard uploads) 2. try pressing ESC :wink: 3. I've been thinking about various modes and hardmode was one them - I was thinking varying letter case with numbers and special characters as you have mentioned 4. using similar words for an easier difficulty is an amazing idea (no need for regexp though - simply sorting the words alphabetically should do the trick). I'll definitely play around with this. 5. there's a collision detection for activating springs similar to platforms (if the player's in the way, don't spawn just yet), but while it works in the editor, it's messed up in the standalone version. I'll need to look into that. Hope it hasn't ruined too many runs for you.
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421751050?t=01h34s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
@gecco-xyz I'm glad you like it, hopefully your wpm count has gone up :wink:
@secretpocketcat Sorry to keep commenting, but as you said sorting the words alphabetically, that could be the game progression. Each level is a letter set or something, and the jam version could be free mode. Could also do level sets by common words, uncommon, rare, etc.
It'd be neat to see a game like this localized.
@SecretPocketCat I think it is rather, switching from typing to the arrow keys. But I must say that it is quiet hard to dertermine. And thanks for answering on the jokes :)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/419497157?t=08h23m54s
Awesome Idea!!! Challenging and fun, congrats!!
Very interesting concept, I liked the general aesthetic of the game and the movement felt really crisp, well done :)
The game I made was also about word. The way the game was played was different but happy. This game is difficult for a person who is not as familiar with letters as the game I made. And if you don't know the meaning of a word, it won't be fun. Is there a connection between the meaning of the word and the game's? It was fun, but it was a typing game. I was a little tired because I lacked quickness. :)
wow! this is the most original game I've played on this jam!! Great job, super responsive, controls work great, art is beautiful and simple. You're just a caret and you can feel it having a personality haha. Great great job, loved the idea!. It's super hard, you need to have your mind in two places
Very challenging! Polished entry, catchy tunes
Amazing idea ! Congratulations on the incredible work !
Very cool, both the idea and the presentation. Also its too much additive, great compo job! PD: maybe playing without a cigarrete at fingers would was better for me :_D
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Really nice, simple idea, excellently executed. Can't find fault with this at all, it's lovely.
Pretty original idea. But I would like to note that it is difficult to input everything from the keyboard and at the same time to control the keyboard. But this was your idea, yes, admit it? XD
Damn it's hard.
I liked the idea that we can type only certain letters in a word to climb faster but then the word disappear if we don't finish him.
However, something (because I belive the positionning is half random) we can have words that we can't go to because others block the way.
very super nice idea, I really enjoy playing your game :)
This reminds me a lot of Epistory, which is a good thing. I expected to have fun based on reading the description, and I wasn't disappointed. There's more strategy to it than just typing words as fast as you can, which is an interesting wrinkle to the typing game genre.
Amazing, lot of fun for me
@elysiagriffin Thank you bery much for covering the game and sorry for making the game entriely text driven meaning there's not one single button :laughing:
@bakenshake Why would you be sorry? Thank you so much for taking interest. I'm sorry it took me so long to reply if anything. Anyway, there are plenty of ways I could take this. I'm thinking I could make a few levels with increasing complexity (think longer words and adding numbers, special characters and some enemies).
As for localization, I've been thinking about that as well, though accented characters might make this weird - I don't wanna introduce differently sized characters - that would visuallly clutter the game unless I take the plunge and try to modify/create my own font which includes accented chars at the same height. The other thing is that getting decent wordlists is hard enough for English and I assume it will be even more of a hurdle as far as other languages go.
@tomfu It takes some getting used I gotta own up to that :wink:
@mrjoshuamclean Thank you so very much for covering the game.
@shunaky @ildfuglen @cheesepencil @wigner-matos @pequenodev @garys @gaming-night @r2d48 Thank you very much, guys and/or gals, for playing.
@gamefive Typing words one doesn't understand does make it harder, but English is the lingua-franca, which makes it the obvious choice (it's not my mother tongue either). It would be nice to include other languages or typing systems even, but it's just a jam entry after all :wink:
Most words (with the exception of the starting platform and the shop and its preceding platform) are picke at random.
@webox :blush: I'm not sure how many people (that skipped the description) actually realised the character is a caret, so thank you for noticing.
@secretpocketcat Everyone liked it when I showed it to people around me. I'll look forward to another fun game next time.^^
@von-himik That's kinda the point, though I'd like to make it more approachable to be honest.
@pl4typus You can screw yourself by typing too much ahead which is part of the puzzle and entirely by design, though sometimes due to level-gen, that's not fleshed out well enough, it can be super hard to get out of such situations.
@coda-highland Thank you, I'll definitely take that as a compliment even though I didn't like Epistory that much (I do adore the visuals though - the game is just gorgeous). It seems they are actually making another typing game - I might give it a bash to see if I like that one.
@gamefive I'm glad to hear and thank you so much for sharing it with others. It means a lot to me.
Thank you all for being so nice, for playing it and better yet for providing critical feedback. I'm sorry if didn't get to play your game, I'm currently busy with a new project at work and planning my wedding, so I don't get much time to sleep let alone play games. :sweat_smile:
Congratulations. Happy.
@secretpocketcat Glad you did so well in Innovation, you definitely deserve it!! :)
@secretpocketcat Congratulations, this was definitely the best game I got to play by far!