FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → The Spark

The Spark

By le-don

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall13223.4641
Fun7813.5340
Innovation18142.9741
Theme19423.2641
Graphics17333.2141
Humor17752.3033
Mood15563.1938

Comments

gargantus 2020-04-21 12:29

1. You don't need to recharge the spark 2. The player is too slow 3. For some reason level 6 is much harder than the other levels It was pretty fun tbh

pilarius 2020-04-22 13:30

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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le-don 2020-04-22 15:10

@gargantus yea, you might be right about the spark not needing to be recharged. I decided to charge it when changing/restartting rooms, as the player might otherwise be locked (like, starting the room with only 10 energy). I should have recharge it at only max 50 or 75.

@pilarius Dude, I know and I will come to it when I have time :).

chief141 2020-04-25 19:07

I really liked they are game...

jesterseraph 2020-04-25 19:43

The game didn't stand out in any major factor, but overall it felt like a solid game. It's something that's playable, keeps you interested, and upon finishing would feel like you played a full game (which is hard considering the time constraints, so 10 levels is a LOT). It felt like it was greater than the sum of its parts.

Biggest feedback: my friend and I would just let ourselves die to get 75 spark to start a level with, making the spark lifespan more of just a 75/100 timer than a mechanic where we needed to recharge it to keep going. Starting the spark amount on respawn as a lower number (like 35 or 50) would have better incentivized charging the spark to a higher value on the prior level in prep for the next.

Definite big plus though, having a colourblind mode. Huge kudos for that, thank you :)

fer9001 2020-04-25 20:11

I enjoyed the game, I'm always glad to see some sthealt games, I really love the mgs vibe. It has some problems but nothing that you couldn't have solved if you had more time.

rongefilet 2020-04-26 11:17

I first thought that the movement speed was too slow and that guard's vision not showing were an issue but I quickly realized that it served the NES-aesthetic/MGS homage very well so I ended up liking it, furthermore I found it boosted tension witch in a stealth game is a requirement. (Although, I've seen it mentioned the spark's lifespan is a little too generous.) I had a really good time completing it, great entry!

le-don 2020-04-26 12:19

@chief141 I'm glad to hear this :).

@jesterseraph yea, I agree with your comment and I'm not sure if 75 is the right min value when the player restarts the level. I don't want to make it too hard, as there a lot of LD games to play, but making it too easy also hurts the recharging mechanic. I think about adding harder version with a lower number.

Also I'm glad to hear the colourbling mode might be helpful :).

@fer9001 yes, MGS was definitly an inspiration for this game.

@rongefilet Oh yes, I'm going back and forth about adding vision coins, but I think it doesn't fit with the NES-aesthetic I'm going for. I hope the yellow and orange states helps to give a little safety net.

rongefilet 2020-04-26 12:37

@le-don Totally agree on the visual style, and the in-between alert state indeed does a great job at balancing things out. I was thinking maybe just watched tiles highlight to keep fancy lines out of the way, but I fear it might result in a lot of clutter and a messy look in the end.

bjornkri 2020-04-26 20:05

Thought the recharging mechanic was interesting, even if not really enforced. A bit unclear when shot as the laser didn't always appear. On the other hand, got stuck standing with my back to a wall with a baddie shooting at the square in front of me without ever hitting :) Still, see promise here, could become a good puzzler.

phantomeniasll 2020-04-26 20:07

Liked the game, but it would be nice to have a way to distract guards or at least see their visibility cone.

halflemonstudios 2020-04-26 20:31

I liked it very much! Not innovative, but fun to play, great amount of work especially for only one! Although graphics was not astonishing it was OK. It was hard to navigate into corridors. Generally a pretty neat one!

le-don 2020-04-27 00:16

@bjornkri Yea, I think I mentioned it in the describtion, but the lasers really don't work that great. That is one of the things I would redo, besides...

@phantomeniasll ... the lack of abilities, as the player has no real abilities. And I think it is this one, which leads to the game being...

@halflemonstudios ... not that innovative (but hopefully still fun :>). I think adding an additional twist to carrying the spark would also help to this.

I was thinking about having the spark creating a little ping when carried - the enemies would hear this ping, adding a little risk to it and also encourage to put the spark down, which drains the energy faster. But I scrapped it because of the time constraint.

He, love how I could combine your comments :).

nicolasjl9 2020-04-27 14:14

Nice game

odd1in 2020-04-27 14:15

I liked the game. It was challenging and fun.

sigton 2020-04-27 14:32

It was surprisingly exciting! Pretty challenging, and the running out of charge thing made it very intense. Great concept, I really like it!

nabo369 2020-04-27 14:41

I really enjoyed this game, simple yet a fun challange. The only thing I noticed is you never really need to recharge the battery because you either make it to the portal or you die really quickly, but that didn't make the game itself any less fun so great job!

mr-field 2020-04-27 17:34

reminds me a lot of the vr missions from mgs: ghost babel, which was cool to see

charging the spark seems to be useless, unless you're planning on stopping and eating a sandwich or something, i don't think this detracts from the experience at all though

i think the enemy ai is a little funky, them running to exactly where you are once you've been noticed enough gives you no chance of cool-ly dodging them. it'd be sweet to hide under a table while an enemy is coming to my position, but at the moment they just stand infront of the table until you come out.

i also found that sometimes they were able to spot me from weird angles, and could perhaps see me from too far away? getting blasted from off-screen often feels a little cheap ;)

another quick note- i thought the last few stages become much more fun, with the enemies circling around smaller areas and taking relatively clear paths.

:)

le-don 2020-04-27 21:01

@mr-field Yea, the enemy density in my levels is quite high and therefore it's almost impossible to escape them. I think the timer for the alarm state could be lower.

eduardogacn 2020-04-28 06:32

nice game

vollfeiw 2020-04-29 09:53

I pretty like the old Metal gear feel. If only this had the good old panic alert music from it (I know you know what feel i'm talking about). Pretty interesting concept to get with that theme, I like it. The fact that the spark energy decrease make a clever way to force player into taking risk, i love the minimap, well done for that, great design overall.

le-don 2020-04-29 10:48

@vollfeiw thank you. Yea, the old music would be perfect.

vollfeiw 2020-04-29 11:35

@le-don May i suggest that we listen to that music together ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iekGOi3IPcE

daria-toni 2020-04-29 16:10

Hey, hi! Remember me? I'm here and I really like your game! Very simple graphics, but the process itself is so exciting. Reminded me of early MGS games in some way. I like that you need to do the calculation of how to pass each level correctly. The story is nothing special, but fits the topic. I would really like to hear the sounds in this game (sound like on early consoles maybe?)

gorypixels 2020-04-29 20:25

Loved those old school Metal Gear vibes! Simple but very enjoyable, a great jam entry, well done! :D

guladam 2020-04-29 20:46

Well done. Simple, easy to understand, yet captivating gameplay. Really like the art style you picked for the game. Some levels were a bit frustrating for me, but it is a really decent game nevertheless. :)

le-don 2020-04-29 23:31

@daria-toni Oh, yes, glad you like it :).

tyfus 2020-04-30 14:37

Now this one. This one is fun! The stealth gives the game a lot of tension. Graphically it's really solid. It's not pretty, but the minimalist aesthetic works really well (I appreciate the shadows ^^ ). My only two complaints? The enemies have no cones of vision, which would really help in my oppinion, and you can complete the game pretty much ignoring the tables completely. Still, I had a lot of fun. Great job!

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nunoribeiro 2020-04-30 20:04

This game is cute. The animations are nice and the stealth gameplay is solid. Nice entry!

sugarsores 2020-04-30 22:31

The graphics communicate clearly what's going on, with some added particle effects on the spark for some polish it would really shine. I would have liked the option for the player to move faster, but they did not feel slidey which is great. Oh and that sound effect is a little familiar eh? 🐍

virtuaworlds 2020-05-01 08:42

I thought the debugging tool was part of the game haha. I was like "oh you divert them away with the sound!" Nice game wish there was some music but otherwise nice work!

le-don 2020-05-01 09:16

@tyfus Yes, there's indeed only one table needed. I had to rush the last levels and couldn't properly think about how to use the tables better.

@sugarsores Yea, I think I mentioned it in the description, but that one is part of my debugging tool and wasn't meant to be in the game, but I forgot to remove it. I did remove it in the 1.1 version.

@virtuaworlds Ha, yea, I thought about using it as a ability in the game, but hadn't enough time to do it properly. It could work really well with a cooldown (or once per level charge) and as a code "Orange" distraction (meaning the guards will check out the pinged location, but will be alarmed and search the map afterwards, as opposite to a ceode "Yellow", when guards just check a distraction and go back to their route).

play-pause-games 2020-05-01 19:24

a bit unpolished but pretty well done, maybe not too unique but still fun!

frozen-spirit 2020-05-02 12:39

Super cool game! I think the colour blind support was a great touch. Knowing how far the enemy can see could really help in some situations and I kind of forgot about the battery until the end because you don't need to really charge it. I do think that the ai is pretty solid with it also have a caution state instead of just the agressive and non-aggresive but it would help if they stopped being suspicous when you go under the table though. Overall pretty solid game. :]

rjhelms 2020-05-02 16:51

The graphics are minimal but work great, take me way back to the 1980s. I agree with others that seeing the guards' cone of visibility would help - over time you get a sense of it, but the first few times I got seen it wasn't clear why.

Really solid overall!

nuanda79 2020-05-03 17:56

A good stealthing game. I'm sad for missing end at level 10, i hoped in a reward! thanks for sharing