logflames 2020-04-21 09:22
This was a fun game, the music and sound effects were spot on, well done!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Soaring
By talops and Null_Skull
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1590 | 3.33 | 23 | |
| Fun | 900 | 3.47 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 2081 | 2.81 | 23 | |
| Theme | 2129 | 3.09 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 1630 | 3.31 | 23 | |
| Audio | 617 | 3.57 | 23 | |
| Humor | 1755 | 2.34 | 21 | |
| Mood | 1561 | 3.19 | 23 |
This was a fun game, the music and sound effects were spot on, well done!
I really love the concept! Too bad you had so many issues with the tools. Right now my biggest problem is that the environment is hard to read visually because of the lack of contrasted colors. But this game would be amazing with more levels. Oh and good job on the music. It fits really well.
Quick reminder to get more players: Use a thumbnail for your game. Otherwise your game is presented with this grey box. Some great Games are not played because of a missing thumbnail ... You can still change it by editing your submission page :)
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The design wasn't very unique, but its well made and constructed.
Really fun to play and explore the land. The crystals were placed in interesting places. I especially liked the only in the windmill. The start to a great game.
Nice game but I couldn't find any cyrstals. The way you set up the links it made it look like there only is a windows game and that would deter mac and ubuntu players. Even if it goes to the same link you will wannt to add all operating systems.
@silas-the-dev @michael-fritz Thank you, glad you liked it! We didn't feel inspired by the theme at all so we decided to mix it up with the theme I suggested which ended up surviving until the last round: Momentum!
@shaubbyplayz Hint: You can actually go inside the windmill :wink: And thank you for reminding me about the build categories I completely forgot about that!
Neat idea, but the flight physics felt very weird and the game seemed impossibly difficult. I played it for about 15 mintues and was never able to collect more than 3 crystals in a single run. Some of the crystals are on top of mountains that seem impossible to reach. The time limit is extremely pushishing, and the one-time-use air streams also make it very difficult to explore the map. The flight physics seem extremely janky. In most flying games (and in real life), turning loses energy, and the optimal path between two points is almost always to fly in a straight line, so you try to fly directly between points while making smooth turns when needed. In this game, you will crash very quickly using that strategy, even if you hit every air boost. Instead, you have to exploit the weird physics. It seemed like if I dove straight down and reached a speed of 30+, I could then swoop back upwards and actually gain energy. This was how I managed to navigate the map and find most of the crystals that aren't placed along the boost path. But the problem is that it takes 5 or 10 seconds to reach 30 speed, and then swoop back up, and there aren't enough stopwatches on the map to keep you alive. Also, while this technique can help you gain altitude, you still lose speed very quickly while flying horizontally, so you have to keep repeating the technique just to stay above the ground. Oh, also the roll keys seemed way too sensitive and hard to control. But it didn't seem like there was much of a reason to roll in the first place, so it's not a big deal. As for the theme, it seems like a bit of an afterthought. I think there was a bit too much text to try and explain the plot. And while playing, the gameplay didn't really give me the feel of "keep it alive". It was more like "don't run out of time". The graphics were fine, it's a cute low-poly style and the island has some decent variety, especially for a game jam. I think some animations on the main character/vehicle could have made it a little more interesting to look at, and some trees or animals on the islands would have helped them feel alive. I wish the UI had a little bit more love. I spent a lot of time staring at the little speed meter in the corner. I wish it looked a bit prettier, and it might have been better to have it bigger. The music and sound effects were great. The music is really the thing that made me keep trying to figure out the game, it really fits the atmosphere perfectly. I think the wind sound effects were also very good: subtle but really makes it feel satisfying to be diving through the islands at high speed.
@blushine Wahey, thanks a ton for the in-depth feedback, really means a lot! Concerning the flight physics, I wanted to go for a feeling between Pilotwings' hang glider and Mario64's winged cap, using a combination of air currents and dives to gain momentum, and a slightly downwards angle to keep it optimally. Once you know the location of the crystals, it becomes more about planning your path and knowing when to dive without losing much time (the perfect moment to dive is when you reach 20 speed, then climb straight up after either grazing the altitude limit/collision or getting 50 speed). Personally my best run was a 9/9 with ~30s left and leaving two (+10s) watches! Although I admit the topmost crystal is the game's biggest challenge, requiring you to do one full 50sp dive at the island's height in order to reach it. For the roll, I intended it for moments such as the end of the bridge islands. Maybe I should add more angular damp to it? :thinking: I also really wished to make a more polished UI, unfortunately the pipeline issues I mentioned in the description took us so much time we barely had enough to finish the core game. So we settled for the bare minimum: a non-default font :sweat_smile: I am really glad you liked the audio so much! I've always wanted to try and make BGM but never had the occasion in my past jams, so I used this opportunity to put a ton of effort in it!
@talops Once I started thinking of it like Mario 64, it helped a bit. I think Mario 64 helps you learn the rhythm of the swooping motion because it basically forces you to dive after a minimum velocity. For the roll, I think more angular damp would help a lot. Also, add a bit more acceleration but put a hard cap on the angular velocity. Another solution would be to just implement auto-roll, so the plane slowly rolls itself upright. I realized that going through the rings automatically levels you out, so at the bridge island part I just flew upside down until the ring at the end spun me around.
I really like the environment and music, the game has a really great mood! I agree with @blushine, the flight controls were really difficult to grasp with a mouse maybe it would feel better with a flightstick :stuck_out_tongue:
I love the design of the level, not only from a game design perspective but especially from an easthetic point of view! It looks amazing and 3D is always very hard considering the face that it is just three days. Amazing job on the music as well, everything is very fitting!
I love the art style, it's very playful and fun. You've created a cute world.
No matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to make it past the bridges after the windmill island. There just aren't any boosters in that area, so it's not clear how one is expected to get through there. It also doesn't help that the controls are inverted, an option to invert the controls would be nice.
@rhiz at the end of the bridges a booster makes you go upside-down, and from that point you can reach the crystal between the two flying rocks, after which you can dive once you are near the volcano for a gigantic speed boost. You can also invert the Y axis with * on the keypad. Was your X axis inverted as well? If so I can also add a button to invert it.
Nice game. I really liked the mechanics/flying in this game. Well, at least when I got my speed up. It was very rewarding to soar when u have the energy. On the other hand it was frustrating to never have enough energy :) Maybe you could lower the difficulty a bit and let the player enjoy the soaring more often and for longer periods. I really like this idea.
I love this amazing game with nice style! And I like this mechanics. But a little bit hard to play without mouse. Thank you and good luck!
It looks nice, and had good controls. Quite hard to get any crystals though.
Music and graphics are nice and flight controls run smoothly in my opinion. So the overall gameplay feeling is very good but the game is pretty hard to beat, I couldn't complete it.
@attala @naca @maskrosen Thank you for your feedback! I have released a new version with a difficulty setting that allows for a much more relaxed exploration, you might want to check it out!
A very simple and fun little game idea. Okay, the controls makes the game a bit too difficult, but it is still pretty fun to play. The graphics and the music is good, and it fits the game idea very well. Overall is this a good jam game. Well done.
The music and sound effects are nice, they fit the game well. Controls take some getting used to.
@blushine just got all the words from my mouth: same thoughts about this game