Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → A Robot's Heart (Aedox)
By icegod
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3.09 | 13 | ||
| Fun | 3.00 | 12 | ||
| Innovation | 3.00 | 12 | ||
| Theme | 3.33 | 11 | ||
| Graphics | 3.20 | 12 | ||
| Audio | 3.30 | 12 | ||
| Humor | 2.72 | 11 | ||
| Mood | 3.50 | 12 |
Liked your panic-y post, actually intrigued me to find your game. However, the itch link doesn't seem to be working. No worries though, I suspect most people (myself included) will be sleeping for a while so you have plenty of time to fix it.
@NoNumbersGames I have fixed the itch.io link and there are game instructions as well
Hi there, i tried your game, but i think there is a bug with pressing space as it doesn't advance the dialog in the bottom left corner of the screen. WASD only gives some weird bass sounds, but i could swing my sword though. Also i don't know which game engine you guys are using, but Java is very uncommon for desktops these days. Maybe look into Gamemaker, Godot or Unity.
But i did like the story in the game so far ;) hope there is an update soon...
Also don't worry about the pressures of school... math for instance is very important for game developers (i miss math class :')
I liked this, I think it has a lot of potential, mainly with just polishing things up a bit, maybe making the sword swing faster, there were a few sections where collision was a bit strange so fixing that up, all of these can help make your overall game experience much more smooth. DEFINITELY make it so the text either moves faster or you can push a button to make it move faster, it was goin' way too slow for me. I love the ideas in play here though and I think with a little more elbow grease this can be something special, the character designs and storyline are intriguing and I enjoyed the overall theme. Keep at it and this can be even better!
The graphics looked great, also it looks as though you might have used your own game engine, which is very impressive. Especially Ben's character looked fantastic in my opinion. Small notes: there should be an option to increase the dialog text speed, and also if you use Pythagoras for the movement then diagonal movement speed will be normalized. Great game overall :)
I lol'd at the slow swing of the sword. The music matches up with the walking nicely. I could not find my heart, though. I think I will follow to see what becomes of this.
Files from Microsoft Windows links not work (
It's an interesting concept, and the fact that you made your own engine is impressive! Would like to see improvements with the collision detection in the future, if you plan on working on it further. Great game!
@palvel the .jar will not work unless if you have the latest version of java. Sorry I should have mentioned that!
Downloaded the file, tried running, it runs, but got an empty white screen. Updated Java to this:
https://www.java.com/en/download/win10.jsp
Recommended Version 8 Update 251 (filesize: 1.97 MB)
Release date April 14, 2020
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Still getting a whitescreen.
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Your posts mentions Java 13, so I found this:
https://jdk.java.net/java-se-ri/13
Downloaded the file but not sure what to do with it.
Also found this, but the download link doesn't work...
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk13-downloads.html
Version 14 link worked:
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk14-downloads.html
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Installed version 14, now the game works - **for anyone having trouble running the game, this is what you need:**
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk14-downloads.html
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Don't mind the other links, just wanted to demonstrate how much trouble it was to actually get it running properly. You might want to add the right link to itch or this page to make it easier for people.
Unfortunately that's all the time I had today, will come back to play and review later.
Alright, gave it a proper playtest, here is some feedback:
First thing I noticed was very good ambient sounds and music, along with background textures created a good atmosphere.
Nice change of music and background from peaceful area to hostile dungeon - gives a clear signal that you are in danger zone!
(Though I think the music doesn't change when you run out of health and respawn, just a minor bug)
Some sounds were a bit too loud/jarring - interaction and walk sounds in particular, and maybe a few notes in music. They were mostly ok, but since they are heard often they start to wear on you a bit.
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Nice little story, even a little bit of it can make a big difference. Made the game fit in with the theme better.
Felt a bit difficult to relax and read since the timer was still ticking when in dialogue mode. By the way really liked that you included text speedup with pressing space - very handy for repeated tries. You might want to make it even faster though.
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Nice character designs, liked both the pixel art townsfolk and enemies, and the more detailed main character style.
Noticed that quite a bit of love went into them, as well as backgrounds and various static objects.
Obviously you should choose and stick to one style, or at least one for characters and one for background and static objects.
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Player should really be moving faster in town - feels way too slow. Might be ok if there were a ton of things to do in town, but as it is, it is mostly a transitional space, and feels too long to travel.
Entering and exiting building/area feels a bit jarring. Might want to enter on interaction, not automatically, or add a transition effect (simple fade in/out should be fine). Or both.
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Mixed feelings on combat:
On one hand, actually hitting enemies feels good, nice knockback effect, hurt and death animations.
On the other hand, sword hitbox feels messy, not sure when it is going to register a hit and when not, sword animation so slow it is actually a bit funny.
Also the player hitbox feels messy. Unclear when the player is going to be hit. Being hit having a distinctive sound is nice, but might need to add a visual effect too. And probably make the hitbox a lot more forgiving - make sure the player is damaged only when the enemy is clearly touching him, not before.
Interesting decision to put the attack on H key. Feels like space would have been more comfortable, and something like E or F for interaction (H key makes the player use second hand just for it, and even then the right hand ends up too close to left and too angled to be comfortable).
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Would be nice to have main menu, volume control, game over screen and restart option.
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After something like 7 tries, still haven't found a single rose or coin. Wouldn't want the game to handhold me with something like pointer arrows, but maybe some hints through dialog on where to find the roses would help keep me motivated enough to continue looking.
Maybe I should just keep hacking at enemies, but the combat needs some polish to make me want to go through with it again.
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Keep in mind that view size scales with screen size, so laptop users will have a significantly reduced field of view compared to big monitor users.
Maybe that is why the areas have some weird invisible walls...
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Overall, lots of good content, though might have been better with a bit less, but more polished.
Anyway I'm extremely impressed you managed to do all of it in a weekend with a custom game engine. Very well done. The fact that you have the focus, will, energy and cooperation skills to create something like this shows great potential. Keep on creating, it is a wonderful process that is very rewarding and will teach you many great skills.
Great work even under pressure.. Also i think the game engine you made is pretty cool.... Hope more people would rate your game...