goldfish-games 2020-04-20 11:03
Actually pretty good level design lol
Controls were not optimal, if possible allow double-jumping only after the player is halfway through the jump or something like that
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Protect the Walnut!
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 922 | 2.93 | 31 | |
| Fun | 824 | 2.87 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 944 | 2.70 | 31 | |
| Theme | 604 | 3.58 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 946 | 2.62 | 31 | |
| Audio | 771 | 2.26 | 30 | |
| Humor | 311 | 3.19 | 31 | |
| Mood | 867 | 2.70 | 31 |
Actually pretty good level design lol
Controls were not optimal, if possible allow double-jumping only after the player is halfway through the jump or something like that
Nice concept and puzzels, the controlles are really hard to work with. The levels are great, great entry Kudos
I messed around with your game, here are my notes:
**Things I liked** - enjoyable platformer, cool mechanics with Wallnut - challenging controls, added a layer of complexity to the game, made it more interesting - level design
**Things that could be improved** - difficulty ramped up too quickly, don't get me wrong I enjoy challenging games but I felt it get too hard too quickly, I was stuck for a while at first red button and had to learn control mechanics - some background music could improve overall atmosphere of the game
Overall very nice work in such a short time :smile:
@goldfish-games Oh, I never thought of implementing the double jump like that, next time I will try it out, thanks!
@barelos @saviqq Which part of the controls was hard to work with? Would you prefer to use another set of buttons? Thank you very much for the feedback, I'm very glad that you guys liked the level design!
HEey I got stuck in the Walnut believes in you part! But anyway, great job! I like the level design a lot. Some things were a little hard, it took me a while to figure out that you throw the walnut in the direction you click with the mouse. Apart from that and from not being able to finish the game, lol, I think you did great!! :D Congrats!
Interesting game concept, it has good ideas. Controls a little too hard for me. Game is nice.
Hey, nice concept you got here! First of all, thanks for making it available for web as it makes testing a lot easier for others.
I like the mechanic, and it is enjoyable to read those little messages all over the levels, some are handy and some other set some humor to the game, which is cool. I liked the level design, too, you get to learn how to play without too much hassle. The moving and, specially, the jumping behaviour was a bit odd for me. It was difficult to control the character as he has some heavy friction while moving, and some jumps were quite difficult to get them done right.
Nice game overall, and that Walnut is, indeed, lovely with that bowtie, haha.
The walnut mechanics are really interesting and there is a lot to explore. Great design idea! I think this game would be very very fun in an extended version where those mechanics are developed further. If such a day comes, here are my suggestions, from more to less important:
1. Really smooth out that difficulty curve. Pay special attention to how often you demand "perfect play" from the player, since that generates tension in a game where death resets you back to the beginning of the level. The first level, for instance, should feel welcoming and, thus, might be best without such tension. From there, it should oscillate but also gradually increase over the levels.
2. In that sense, maybe the game would benefit from recovery items, It would allow the player to make more mistakes and still have a good chance of overcoming the challenges at the end of a level. Again, you should use this as a tool to control tension, not just make the game easier.
3. Maybe art isn't your specialty, but some little things go a long way to improve how your game informs the player. The buttons, for instance, could have a little shadow so they look more "pushable". They also should definitely look different from doors. The matching colors between buttons and doors was a very nice idea, though =)
4. Maybe because I read the comments about the controls before playing, I actually didn't have that much trouble with them. They can, of course, be improved. You probably need to tweak the acceleration and friction parameters. I personally prefer platformers where you don't slide so much. Greater air control might mix better with the harsh level design.
My favorite part was the one where you meet increasing groups of 1, 2, and then 3 zombies and you have to jump over them. I chuckled out loud.
That's it, great game and hope you keep'em coming! =D
@makiyoshi Thanks Maki! I really should've explained the mouse direction thing haha.
@imod Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, I messed up the controls :p.
@daniel-moreno I'm very glad that you liked the messages and the cute Walnut hehehe. I'll definitly put more effort in the player movement next time.
@kazuo256 Thank you very much for the comprehensive feedback! You are absolutely right, I intend to finish this game occasionally and I'll take all of your tips into consideration!
Nice game! I had some fun while playing it :D
Very nice game! :) I liked in the second level that you could use the magnet to get the door to close again (totally useless but still :p). I would have liked if that would be used. Overall great game and really intressting gameplay with the walnut. It was pretty annoying when you died and got to do the level over again, but this was a moment you could see how much you have grown and improve your strategy.
Intresting entry!
Hey, it feels like it would be a nice little platformer and the throwing walnut mechanic could be fun, unfortunately I can't seem to make the walnut reach the first button, perhaps the physics is tied to framerate? Or I'm being silly and missing something :D
Very cool game. Even tho the game is not polished and not balanced. Animations and music will make the game a lot better.
@blaster391 You're not being silly at all! I'm sorry, I should have explained this inside the game: the strength of the launch is tied to how far the mouse is from your character. So if you want to throw it far away, point the mouse far away!
Interesting mechanic, I like the idea. I think the comments others have made about the difficulty curve are spot on, but it's still quite fun.
@eduardo-yukio Ahhh I see! I have managed to progress now, thank you :D
Good game with a cute walnut! Control was a little bit hard for me.
Okay, so there is a pretty cool game buried in this. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enjoy it. Maybe it was because of my unimpressive platforming skills. Which is a shame, because mechanics seem to be well implemented and explained. So yeah, nice game, just not for me :(
What a cute game! The double jump was a bit tricky for me to get a hang of at first but once I got that under control the challenges, etc were very fun! Nice job!
Nice job! I agree that the controls are a little iffy. I think W for jump would be better since the mouse is also being used. Also I think the vertical camera offset could be adjusted, the guy was too high on my screen and I couldn't even really see that first red button. Obviously the visuals are very basic right now, but the level design was good and the game was fun.
I think the problem I had with the jump physics was that the jump height depended too much on how long you hold the space bar. If you just tap the space bar, you don't jump very high at all - but if you hold it down for the whole jump, you jump almost four times as high. This sort of physics can work well if you're having to do lots of very small precise jumps, but it doesn't work as well if you need consistent big long jumps (as you often do in this game). And it doesn't fit well with a double-jump mechanic, since you want to keep holding the space bar down through the whole jump, but you also need to release it and press it again to trigger the second jump.
I'd have preferred something along the lines of: short tap gives you 75% of maximum jump height, slightly longer press gets you 100% jump height, and you've got time to release the key in time to press it again to trigger the double jump. If that makes sense!
Also: I love the walnut's bow tie :P
I was initially drawn to this game because of the walnut. As someone who's spent some amount of time designing walnuts with faces on them, it just seemed so familiar... and then I saw the zombies lol.
I have to give you kudos on the way you teach players the game. The text that's "stuck to the wall" is my favorite kind of tutorial for platformers because it gives you the info right when you need it.
I was stuck for a long time on the first puzzle where you're trying to throw the walnut upward to hit a button. I was pointing it in the right direction but never could throw with enough force. It was only after maybe the 20th try where I figured out that the further you hold the mouse the further the walnut goes.
I got permanently stuck on the tall wall puzzle. (right before the end of the first level) I thought that dropping the walnut would let me jump higher, so I double-jumped and dropped the walnut on the upper ledge first, then tried to jump unencumbered but couldn't make it up the wall any more, and the walnut was now out of reach
Theme is great, it's hard to go wrong with protecting a walnut with a bow tie on it. :)
The artwork reminded me of South Park. I had so much trouble getting the Walnut to launch to hit the button that I couldn't continue in the game, which is too bad.
@coolestdoggie @kszaku @eric-lagergren @cobear25 @dk5000p Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, the controls could be better implemented and the difficulty curve was a bit steep, I shouldn't demand perfect execution from the player on the tutorial level :P
I'm very happy that you guys liked the design and found the game cute haha
@PTSnoop Great implementation idea, this is very valuable to me, I will definitely try it next time!
@flyingbear WOW! I feel extremely honored to know that the director of a game I love played my game! Plants vs Zombies is my favorite Tower Defense game and, yeah, your character designs inspired me a lot hehe.
I'm very glad you liked my tutorial! And you are right, I certainly should have mentioned that clicking far away would throw the walnut far away.
My intention with the tall wall puzzle was to use the walnut as a stool, where you could climb on it to get further (and then you would leave it behind and another concept related to the metallic bow tie would be introduced 😏). But your way of thinking is totally valid! It just didn't cross my mind during development, I should've playtested to avoid these game breaking moments.
I'm a big fan of your work! Your feedback was extremely meaningful to me, thank you very much!