FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD45 → Better than nothing

Better than nothing

By fictions

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2533.76190
Fun2493.66190
Innovation1973.70190
Theme364.26190
Graphics4523.69190
Humor4352.97176
Mood5663.32183

Comments

iozsaygi 2019-10-06 19:34

The characters are sweet and Leaderboard table is huge thing for a game jam (imo). Good job!

unnamedpl4yer 2019-10-06 20:16

Cute characters and interesting gameplay. All in all very impressive for a 48 hour jam! Good job :D

2019-10-06 20:24

Easy early game and hard late game and a lot of fun. Realy nice :)

addnone 2019-10-06 21:16

The game looks pretty decent. Impressive game jam content

gaz-ireland 2019-10-06 21:19

This was amazingly smart! I loved it! :smile:

bjeaurn 2019-10-06 21:27

What an incredibly creative idea! Well done, I played it on WebGL first; saw how interesting the game was, and it lagged a bit when new characters where spawned or the shop opened. So I downloaded the Mac version so I could also do highscores; still lagged when new characters were added or the shop opened; but ran smooth after. Great game! Easily sunk 10 minutes into this!

fictions 2019-10-06 21:29

@bjeaurn: I wanted to do a time slowly unfreeze effect when you come back from the menu, that's why it is lagging... It's not smoothed out, but it should help to come slowly back into the game. Also I see you scored well in the leaderboard :D

kuviman 2019-10-06 22:02

I really like how all the characters feel. So smooth!

fictions 2019-10-06 22:03

Thanks :) I was trying to go for a squeezy consistence on enemies xD

fictions 2019-10-06 22:12

scores.PNG The scores so far xD

kanonix 2019-10-06 22:12

It was so cool ! I really enjoyed my moment playing your game !! The art is so cute, reminds me a bit of Bindings Of Isaac series, am sure Edmund McMillen would be so proud :D

Really good job in such a short time ! Keep up the good work !

fictions 2019-10-06 22:14

@kanonix: Thanks for the inspiring comment. I love binding of isaac and Edmund McMillen is an amazing game creator... :3~

jordaneh 2019-10-06 22:21

It's nice that the first game I play of the jam is so fun. :)

creepycatdev 2019-10-06 22:36

Its pretty good

pfeyffer 2019-10-06 22:58

Cool idea. I think I got dashing for free :-) I was unsure about some items and what they do, for example the torches. I figured it out when they were deployed though.

iconocatstudio 2019-10-06 23:06

This is a really great concept, and I love the little touches that give it that nice polish

tero-pulkkinen 2019-10-07 05:42

wow, you got tons o different features in the game...

tic 2019-10-07 07:02

Really cool concept, nice polish, nice audio track, and I love the fact that you should your own hell on earth by adding the monster yourself :)

tadeas-paule 2019-10-07 07:14

Incredible, getting so much done in 2 days, great job! The graphics were cute, the enemies all unique and the movement and actions, like taking damage and dashing, all had a good feel to them.

As pfeyffer has said, the main thing missing for me was some indication on what the items do. I would definitely keep it mysterious for the enemies, as each new enemy type you unlock will be a gamble, but the "friendly" items could've used a tooltip at least.

fizzpowmike1 2019-10-07 07:18

Wow, the assets look great, though, I'm not sure what I was supposed to be doing. Was there an attack I was supposed to be doing to the enemies I fought?

chambre19 2019-10-07 07:21

This is really well done! You should definitely be proud of it. Besides some lag every time creatures spawned I didn't really notice any bugs.

Keep up the good work!

appoxgames 2019-10-07 07:21

Nice polish and fun gameplay loop. I could not see the crystals in the beginning of the game but they popped up after a while. Goodjob!

fictions 2019-10-07 07:22

@TadeasPaule: Thanks :) That makes so much sense that the mysteries are just kept for the enemies, I will keep that in mind for the future :D

cantthinkofname 2019-10-07 07:24

I like the idea of creating the enemies yourself to upgrade.

joellikespigs 2019-10-07 08:33

Really well made! Nice job man - incredible work with the leaderboards, thats a great idea and very impressive to get working for a Jam. I got around 2400 points, I was a little confused at first with what each item was doing and what I was supposed to be doing, but thats the nature of the design and after slowly unlocking upgrades it all became much more clear. Great work! You really nailed the theme

fictions 2019-10-07 08:37

@joellikespigs: Thanks for the nice feedback :) And if you had uploaded the score you would be #2 on the leaderboard right now XD

shared 2019-10-07 09:13

Really fun game, I played on the web version so idk if it went through, but i got 2500 points Pretty charming graphics too

n-one 2019-10-07 09:18

Fun game and preaty good idea! I really like the concept and the music

thoof 2019-10-07 09:28

Like the enemies and animations, could see it becoming more fun with more varied enemy types, maybe you could even unlock side rooms.

hcursino 2019-10-07 09:46

I was never so scared of a slime before hahaha, those damn slimes following you around just freaked me out. Fun concept, fun game, well polished. Just gonna add that I could move and dash even before unlocking those, but other than that it is all fine. Good job.

fictions 2019-10-07 09:47

@shared: Nope, sadly the web versions leaderboard doesn't work :/ @n-one: Thanks, but the music is license free music from the asset store by Marching Dreams... They have amazing free sounds for games :) @thoof: That's an amazing idead by unlocking side rooms :)

thulium-games 2019-10-07 12:37

Having to unlock the enemies is a fun concept. I think incorporating some use for the diamonds like upgrades or something would have added some more good strategy to the game but it's still good and fun how it is now.

louis-hilaire 2019-10-07 14:00

Great idea and really nice graphics A bit laggy before and after the menu... Good job !

justinooncx 2019-10-07 14:27

What do you mean I have to unlock my friggin' health bar?!

Quite an interesting game which follows the theme quite well! It took me a few rounds of purchases and running around to figure out what was going on, but after that, the game became quite challenging! Have to admit, though, nearing the end, I was starting to think having nothing would be preferable over all the rocks and slimes and eyes thrown my way! Nice job!

frank-gevaerts 2019-10-07 14:30

Very nice game. Looks great, and the concept fits the theme very well.

phillserrazina 2019-10-07 15:36

That was interesting! Took me a bit to realize what I was doing but it was simple enough to be fun! There was a bit of lag whenever I exited and entered the shop, and i couldn't see the highscores unfortunatelly :\ but other than that, great job!!

tjosoft 2019-10-07 17:00

Awesome game! A lot content for such a small period of time. The soundtrack is just amazing but there was always some lag. Nice job!

2019-10-07 18:28

Pretty cool game! Especially for 48h …

dumivid 2019-10-07 19:48

An original take on the idea and really fun to play. Do you have more ideas on how you could expand this into a full-scale game?

creepycatdev 2019-10-07 22:14

Its a pretty good game over all

penguinboy 2019-10-07 22:36

What a creative game! Definitely one of my favorites this year. I really like how the game gets built up from nearly nothing, thus a cool and innovative take on the theme. Great job!

simxple 2019-10-07 23:15

Impressive amount of content for such a short time. Like really awesome!

cyrolis 2019-10-07 23:25

Leader Board was a great idea. The game could be cool if you pay to get monster in your dungeon and in the same time you must kill them to earn more ! But nice concept and good graphics :) !

dylan-wolf 2019-10-08 00:50

Great use of the theme. I like the idea of building out all of the game elements, including the UI, as part of the theme. It's also interesting that you only figure out what's going on "behind the scenes" after unlocking certain elements (timer, etc.).

adrenallen 2019-10-08 02:26

Nice entry! Graphics were really lovable!

I wish that the abilities didn't truly unlock until you unlocked them (i.e. dash).

I really like the leaderboard! I had the same troubles with my game originally and had to setup SSL on my server so that it could record and get the scores from the web version, lost a solid hour to that one :(

sgalasso 2019-10-08 02:34

Great imagination ! Very nice work, great theme match and good sounds and simple but nice design !

gold5games 2019-10-08 03:07

Great stuff. Lots of devs have made "build the game as you go" ideas for this comp, but I am amazed at how unique each one has been. The slime squish sound takes this up a notch for me.

frozen-spirit 2019-10-08 04:09

Great game. Very interesting interpretation of the theme. Did make my computer lag at some moments though. Overall great entry to the jam!

khaotom 2019-10-08 04:26

Plays quite well!

khaoz-fang 2019-10-08 05:02

Nice job.The characters feel good!

matthewjd389 2019-10-08 07:08

Really cool concept! I love the shop coming in after a time period and then allowing you to buy things, cool take on the theme. Bugs: -I had some big frame drops when entering and leaving the shop, I would drop like 3 seconds before and after -some UI elements are missing (i think, maybe i didn't finish it haha)

hajden 2019-10-08 07:52

Even though you didn't make the sounds/music, you picked great ones! Graphics are great too. The game controls really well. I did get the dash for free when buying controls, just without its UI element. I wish the timer was the first thing to unlock, as it was a bit confusing why I'm getting upgrades when I get them (before buying the clock at least) did I click something? Is it timed?

mikethehuman 2019-10-08 09:01

Great job! Enemies looked cool and movement felt good. Nice choice on music and SFX as well.

jaypay 2019-10-08 10:20

The sprites are so cool ! Well done on this project ! :)

tricky-fat-cat 2019-10-08 10:41

A terrific game, I like everything in it. Smooth controls, neat animations, dynamic sounds, well made!

crazywulf 2019-10-08 10:52

I love it! Nice progress... Nice upgrades and nice mobs!

crazywulf 2019-10-08 11:06

Update: got 2,5k points ! This game rocks!

benjames171 2019-10-08 11:14

Really good fun and looks good too. Could use some more variety but you achieved a lot in such a short amount of time!

muruw 2019-10-08 11:46

Very addcitive. Like my friend said "This game looks much better than your game". Also, loved the concept.

dimlight 2019-10-08 12:07

Wonderful game, I gain the score of 2775. It almost has no disadvantages, but the score goes up too slowly after the monster is unlocked, maybe a button can be added to increase the monster's size?

nightvision65 2019-10-08 12:19

Impressive amount of content as a 48h game. The concept is nice, adding more content like unlocking player's attack will make the game even better. Sadly the time is just not enough...

mechanicallife 2019-10-08 16:11

Great stuff, I feel the Issac inspirations :) Although not so much in game play. Very unique and cool!

alina-burgert 2019-10-08 16:12

Great game! The enemies look and move awesome, especially the green ones^^

cornel 2019-10-08 16:40

Can't believe you did it alone! You catched a nice loop here and the scope was on point. Music, graphics, effects - it all makes coherent whole. Good job!

ausstein 2019-10-08 16:40

Increadible game, One of my favourites so far.

wansou 2019-10-08 17:00

This is the best game that i have played on LD, no joke, i spend around an hour to get 2525 score, i lost to a bat... welp its a really nice game i love it! keep up the good work mate!

fictions 2019-10-08 17:43

Oh my god, there are so many comments... Thanks to all of you for the amazing words and the nice feedback. Never thought that the Ludum Dare would be such a wonderful experience of positivity :D

jellzilla 2019-10-08 19:29

I love this entry! The characters and the movement are adorable. I really like how the difficulty ramps up quickly, since it scales superlinearly with the number of enemies. Unfortunately, the things you buy don't scale up as quickly so it feels like you're gaining a lot more difficulty and not a whole lot of "game elements" later.

nachtwitch 2019-10-08 20:01

10/10 work you did there my friend, looks stunning and the leaderboard is amazing

kate90 2019-10-08 20:36

Very nice graphics and I got into it, but it was a bit laggy for me. I wish I could maybe enter new rooms and unlock more content

tobias-maushammer 2019-10-08 21:03

It's better than nothing...

Much better in fact. Not only do I build up the game from "nothing", also by doing so I begin to understand what I'm supposed to do step by step. That's a really cool and original concept.

Not to mention the great graphics and animations as well as the perfectly fitting soundtrack (even if you searched for it that's still something!)

Thank you for this great experience :)

croewens 2019-10-08 21:58

Hey, @fictions !

👉 Things I liked about your submission: - Lots of content! - Highscores (Wish I had time to get them implemented before time ran out) - Web version :pray: - In line with the theme

Other than that, great game! Keep on making games!

Make sure to go rate my submission as well! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/ld45-submission

embedder72 2019-10-08 23:37

Great game. I loved the mechanics and the animations. I would have liked a little more feel to the motion. Speeding up and slowing down just a little bit smoother. But overall a great game. One of the best I've played.

brokenmirrormedia 2019-10-09 02:09

A fun idea, and a neat take on the theme, I was a bit confused at first but it slowly all started to make sense. Enjoyed the art style as well!

tumati 2019-10-09 02:14

Great job! Really good use of the theme.

kapitstick 2019-10-09 02:47

Awesome game! I loved the idea of having to pick your own enemies. It was quite amusing when I found out that most "upgrades" just add to your visual UI. When a bunch of enemies got out, it was quite stressful an kept me on edge -- a good thing :)

bubblewandgames 2019-10-09 04:29

Loved the trade off of unlocking a new ability while increasing the number of enemies you had to deal with

ryzy27 2019-10-09 15:40

Nice idea, not being able to attack. However I'd like to have some unlocks that allow me to disable enemies, maybe stun them for a bit.

Even without it I enjoyed it a lot. Art is amazing, control fluid. Great entry!

jusw85 2019-10-09 17:16

Pretty fun game! I ended with about 2100 points. Slight nitpicks: I played the WebGL version of the game and there were lag spikes at some points. Also, I wasn't entirely sure what the some of the upgrades on the first page did, but it didn't matter in the end, didn't stop me from understanding the gist of how to play.

onury 2019-10-09 18:20

I like your game, good job.

porocyonak 2019-10-09 18:30

Neat! WebGL was lagging a bit, but ran fine for the most part

dib 2019-10-09 19:45

Very, very fun! Takes me back to when "upgrade game mechanics/graphics/ui" web games became popular. This was very well executed, although the lag is bothersome. Thankfully, it only lags when the round starts or ends. It really got difficult towards the end, with only a few enemies left to unlock.

florian-oster 2019-10-09 19:55

excellent game!

aradied 2019-10-10 00:28

Interesting game mechanic!

ghostgoatsgames 2019-10-10 03:42

Really cool. Had some performance issues on the web version, the game would lag a little whenever the unlock panel showed up. Really cool though and the leader board was a nice touch.

mykola 2019-10-10 05:56

I really like the idea, haven't seen anything like that before. However, it would be more interesting if you made waves of enemies that you can slash + some power-ups you can buy. Otherwise, exploring consmetical features is fun, but gets monotonic pretty quick. Great job anyway, I really enjoyed the game!

banksho 2019-10-10 08:27

This was a really good game! I hope to become as good as you eventually :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

tori 2019-10-10 08:36

Great use of the theme, very fun game and good pacing, great job

saintheiser 2019-10-10 16:47

Interesting concept "Buy and pay", "feature and revenge". But I don't like "unlocking" interface things. The weapons or abilities to survive will be better on my opinion.

cg-fred 2019-10-10 20:10

Awesome concept and game. Well done! The high score thingy didn't work for me, I just see empty space with no names or anything

recursor 2019-10-10 20:17

This was much better than nothing. The graphics were simple but the animations made them work well with the style of the game. It got pretty busy in the little room, and my only wish was for more fun stuff to upgrade. This is a different take on a dodge game and I quite enjoyed it.

alexascher 2019-10-10 20:38

First few waves are very boring becouse so easy. I think it will be better if you make speed of character slower and let player upgrade it.

arcus 2019-10-10 20:52

Wow, I love the cute little waddle the player does when they move :smile:

joe-bustamante 2019-10-11 01:08

This is so good! My team had this same idea for the jam but ended up going with something else. I'm really impressed with how well you pulled it off though - the game is a lot of fun and surprisingly well polished. Having a leaderboard is pretty cool to get implemented for a jam. I thought the gameplay felt good and was fun. The only complaint I had was that it got really laggy when levels were starting and ending, especially near the end. Otherwise though, this was awesome - really great work!

hermitao 2019-10-11 05:38

Thank you for the game! Quite innovative, and so nice that you managed to make a leaderboard!

cybersoftuk 2019-10-11 05:52

Really nice idea, unlocking/adding in the game elements as you manage to stay alive, its a fun game.

alicecrd 2019-10-11 14:14

Very good game, I spent lot of time on this game :) Btw the little green monster is so cute !

skyridge 2019-10-11 14:22

the slime is cuuuute ^^

huntrox 2019-10-11 15:18

game jam with leaderboard well done enjoyed the gameplay . the music/art are great

bilalch213 2019-10-12 10:49

A very good concept and its execution. It really matches the theme very well. My highscore is 1850. It is quite impressive to have a leaderboard in a jam game. I didn't like the particles and the slow-motion 'lag' before the upgrades panel appears.

In the end, I would like to say that this game is better than nothing ;)

nickykendy 2019-10-12 16:06

A brilliant idea! Truly start with nothing. Quite little fun game

anttiviljami 2019-10-12 16:17

Amazing job! Really enjoyed this one.

rhymar 2019-10-12 19:45

2750 Score not bad not bad and the game is extrem fun^^

honey-pony 2019-10-12 20:00

Pretty good game! Lag spikes as the beginning and end of each round were annoying but ultimately didn't seem to matter.

I personally would have liked it if you couldn't pickup hearts when you were at full health but I guess that's just one feature that makes the game harder. (I accidentally ate two heart pickups when trying to get away from enemies :slight_frown:)

Sadly I didn't see the note about high scores. My high score was 2375.

danilo-freire 2019-10-12 20:10

5 stars on innovation and theme! That new experience of discovering the game while playing is so interesting. So many things that you can do with this system. Congrats on this one! :D

drevilbrain 2019-10-13 04:14

I unlocked the "black diamonds" thinking it would be something else, but it was just floating torches until I got the walls. Then they became nonfloating torches.

importantcreations 2019-10-13 07:22

Took me some time to understand what to do in the beginning, but on the second run it was really funny! ;) When the "shop" / "menu" opens, the game lagged (Web-Version) always a little bit. Don't know if it is only on my pc...

khud0 2019-10-13 09:52

Great game, well done! I like that enemies have a distinct red outline and that choosing a good object comes with a punishment of getting a bad one. One bad thing is that for some reason the game begins to lag hard when you pick something from a shop.

frenchie 2019-10-14 00:14

Had a blast playing this! I unlocked everything but one chaser and I only had one heart left so I called it quits :sweat_smile: Awesome job!

captandrey 2019-10-14 21:09

great work! Some minor issues with repeated music and not so clear effects of upgrades, but over all amazing for jam)

asfdfdfd 2019-10-15 19:54

Really nice concept. I was not able to figure it out for couple of minutes but then played with pleasure!

niborious 2019-10-16 06:41

Your art and animation style had me hooked, I loved it

some notes * the web version doesn't fit in the browser very well * I was confused by what the gems were for * game lagged pretty hard before and after upgrade screen popped up. If this was an intentional slow down, it felt like lag

pretty neat and meta concept haha

jamesolivermusic 2019-10-16 20:13

Nice work. Took me a few tries to get it but got there in the end. The web version seems to overfill the screen in my browser which didn't really effect the gameplay too much, but something to be aware of. Can't wait to see what comes in the post jam version!

mharring 2019-10-17 01:14

Nice! I like how you avoid the monsters instead of attack them, and that unlocking more monsters leads to more points. The animations were very lifelike, great job! Like others, I noticed some lag after each round, and I'm also not sure if I was supposed to start with the dash move since it was an upgrade for later.

gossian 2019-10-17 11:39

Really great concept really well executed! The graphics were great too and the animations had a satisfying feel to them. One thing that I felt was missing though was some sort of goal to work towards. As it stands, all you can really do is avoid enemies, but it would be nice if there was something to do while avoiding them. Even being able to attack them would make the player's role a bit more active. Otherwise, great start!

acronaut 2019-10-17 21:17

At first I thought unlock the [controls] meant unlocking Character movement, instead it unlocked the display of controls :smile_cat: There were moments that I thought the game started to lag, it seems that it was to time-freeze everything for in the name of selecting the [unlockables] screen. :thinking: Suggestion: to add sound for time-freeze and unfreeze effect.. I Could see further expansion on this unlockable-progression mechanic; Accumulate significant amount of gems and/or unlock 3/4 of game-objects to progress towards another room. :dizzy:

rubel-nmb 2019-10-20 15:00

Got 2775 and can't upload it and check the highscore table. Console says that requests were blocked (http -> https) But that was very fun

2019-10-22 10:04

Fun and cute little game. Sadly I have huge freezes after a new enemy spawn but that doesn't take any fun away from the game

anion-z 2019-10-22 23:42

Heh, had fun playing it, at first glance I assumed that game isnt that good, but after I played it, quickly got into the mood, reached 2125. I think the best way to avoid things is to go along the boundaries of the square. Nice job!

strega 2019-10-25 05:39

Interesting survival game! I like how each upgrade introduces a new enemy and makes it harder. I waasn't sure what I was doing at first, just running around, but I understood better after getting the timer.

virimine 2019-10-26 11:17

Nice game! I enjoyed the gameplay though I missed some combat. Yet I know that combat was not the point. I think heal doesn't work as it should but I am not sure if it's a bug or not. The only thing I didn't like was the "Controls" being displayed when unlocking them. You could instead just make them viable for example at the beginning you could not be able to move or dash and then unlock them at next "stages". Good job overall! Characters are cute! :3

itsdanidre 2019-10-26 20:33

Ahaha, well it definitely is better than nothing! Neat game playground where you increase score over time. At first I wondered how was I able to do certain things you needed to unlock (move, dash) but later on I realised the unlockables are ust for visuals (and score!)

Also...at the game start I had 450 score even without playing yet :sweat_smile: Capture59.JPG

6smith 2019-10-27 22:57

awesome concept! fun and simple. a little rough around the edges, but definitely in top 5% of submissions

elysiagriffin 2019-10-30 00:21

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/494940957?t=3h6m51s

Hope you got some valuable feedback on your game and looking forward to seeing you next LD jam if I dont catch you before then! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin