Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Polka Never Dies
By a-flat-miner-studios, ghostmaple, AFlatThrasher and jodiSladeArt
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 891 | 3.62 | 30 | |
| Fun | 1361 | 3.25 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 618 | 3.59 | 29 | |
| Theme | 307 | 4.12 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 396 | 4.20 | 29 | |
| Audio | 229 | 3.94 | 28 | |
| Humor | 141 | 4.00 | 27 | |
| Mood | 561 | 3.75 | 28 |
Very cute! I like the theme and the goal of trying to keep the group marching. It took a while to get used to the timing - it could really use a bit more visual or audio cues for when you are on time or not (I couldn't figure out the bouncing ball)
Such a well made entry -- love the graphics and concept! Took me a while to get the hang of it, but it clicked after a few tries. It felt satisfying to finally get over that rock...
Very fun concept was a lot of fun. Defiantly a little bit of a learning curve but once you get the hang out f I burned about 10 mins just playing it. Solid entry into the game jam. polka humor the best humor.
Very nice art style. Graphics and animation here look pretty awesome. I think controls here need more improvement. Took me a while to figure out how to play. Anyway, I really enjoyed playing it. Good Job
Very nice entry! I really like the concept, controls are a little hard to master, but it's a very good job. I really enjoyed the idea of surviving by following the rhythm of a polka :)
Thanks for the game. It so good mooded. Reminds me Patapon game and musicians from Titanic movie. I wish you the best of luck.
nice one!
This has to be my favorite entry in the jam. Great visuals, beautiful music, and the weirdest concept I've seen in quite some time.
I didn't get far - it would be nice to have a bit of an assistance at the beginning. But maybe the difficulty was higher because I played on a virtual machine with streaming, and this added some lag. Otherwise, I don't think there's anything I'd change about the game.
Love the art style, and love the music! I wish I was better at hitting the timing correctly. If you were to do a post-jam update, it'd be cool if there was maybe a graphic in the style of DDA / Guitar here, with scrolling arrows / icons so it's easier to anticpate the right buttons?
I might just be I suck at these kind of games haha.
Great job, and top marks for theme, graphics and innovation!
I suck at keeping a rhythm and I was a little confused, well I still am. And part of that is probably because I miss every other beat. If I got it right each arrow was one of the band members but I could also move everyone by jumping with the up arrow three times? That seems odd since it was already assigned to one in the band. If at each bounce of the ball there was a slot for a key icon and it showed the one I pressed if I was within accepted error, and if the character moved right then when pressing the key, that would have made it easier for me to understand what I was doing right and wrong.
@johnnysix and @local-minimum You both hit on one of the things I was personally most disappointed about here. We wanted a bit better of an indicator of timing/what you had pressed, but ran into some time issues (isn't that always the case?). The bouncing ball and the hearts hopefully helped some, but they weren't an ideal solution there. If we ever decide to come back to this, that will probably be the first thing I put on the board to upgrade/fix.
Wonderful artstyle and nice, unique gameplay, good job.
I was often simply confused. How long is a bar? The dot moves way faster than the bar, so should I press the keys when the dot is there, or slower, or what? I couldn't get the guys to jump, either. Mostly I was just randomly pressing keys and hoping for the best.
On a side note, people will click on the window to focus it, so don't make it jump into the game upon click.
Please, I need further explanation of how this rhythm input system works:
Is each bar an "oom pa pa", and then in the following "oom pa pa" the actions happen? Should I be pressing an arrow key on every beat of the song in order to get the most movement? If I need to jump, do I hit "up" on each beat of "oom" "pa" and "pa"?
I'm so confused right now, but I want to play and rate this game properly because it seems like it would be fun!
Also, that bouncing ball makes no sense to me. When do the hearts light up? It seems random so far.
I love this game!!!! The music, charcaters design! Great job guys!!!! Only one thing, i really found it difficult to Jump! eheheh if jump were another key like space i think it better. Good game!!!
@mattwoelk Each measure is an oom pah pah, yes. The measures alternate between input and output measures. So, in one measure you hit a key on every beat. Then the next measure your inputs will be processed and the characters will move (or not, depending whether you got the input in). And yes, to jump, you hit "up up up" one on each of the three beats.
The ball should be bouncing so that it hits on each of the three input beats and then slides back on each of the three output beats. The hearts should be lighting up when you have input an arrow on the beat properly and then turning off during the output measure once input is being processed.
Hopefully that helps.
Menos que metade da minha melhor pontuação. @.@ Infelizmente apertar algum botão retira da tela de pontuação (mesmo que eu esteja apenas fazendo print). Hahahahahah.
Less than half of my best score. @. @ Unfortunately, pressing any button removes it from the scoring screen (even if I'm just printing). Hahahahahah.
Polca.png
Análise...
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo: A mecânica ficou muito interessante, ter de apertar os botões certos no momento certo (combinando com a música e com a bolinha vermelha). Infelizmente o aprendizado fica prejudicado, porque falta um pouco de tutorial prático, pois quando entra som e ter de tirar a atenção da ação na tela com tudo ao mesmo tempo, fica difícil de ter certeza se está fazendo a coisa certa na hora certa. Falta um pouco de feedback ou desse tutorial para aprender melhor. O fluxo de jogo parece estar razoável, achei bem difícil avançar (na primeira vez passei de dois mil pontos, nunca mais consegui novamente). Sinto que apertei botões "aleatoriamente" e tive melhores resultados do que quando estava realmente aprendendo. Então, apesar de ser uma mecânica muito boa, creio que peque um pouco em aprendizado (principalmente). Gostaria de ver uma versão melhorada (caso seja do interesse da equipe produtora dar continuidade ao projeto). De qualquer forma, parabéns porque realmente ficou interessante. Talvez o pulo fique melhor em outro botão (espaço talvez), porque há quatro instrumentos e me pareceu algo a se experimentar ter o pulo separado.
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa: Os gráficos ficaram incríveis, gostei bastante. Creio que apenas apontaria melhorias na HUD. Centralizar a parte da bolinha (talvez). Se o objetivo for apertar quando ela estiver em determinado lugar, talvez um ponto, linha ou símbolo venham a ajudar (especialmente para novatos, talvez apenas nos primeiros níveis do jogo, caso seja a ideia criar mais estágios). Parece-me que os corações já indicam as direções que precisam ser apertadas para dar andamento aos respectivos personagens (talvez seja uma redundância pretendida para facilitar a sessão de jogo dos testadores, mas creio que poderiam (após o tempo do evento) alterar os corações levemente para já conterem as setas em questão). O áudio também ficou muito bom (apesar de repetitivo depois de tentar dezenas de vezes). Hahahahah. Se (fora do tempo de evento) for possível criar mais música do mesmo estilo, talvez seja uma boa ir variando (caso a ideia seja ser sempre o mesmo estágio). A narrativa não é muito explicada no jogo, mas fica a cargo do ícone de coração (que achei muito bem empregado). Suponho que o retorno de membros mortos-vivos poderia ser uma boa (quem sabe também com a cura deles mediante alguma sequência musical especial). Só viajando um pouco nas ideias.
3 - Cultura: O jogo faz uso artístico muito bom, o que já entrelaça bem com os aspectos culturais. Além de ser uma peça de jogo experimental, tanto pela música, quanto pelo estilo curvo da plataforma. Além de unir o tema de apocalipse (ou fim do mundo). Creio que o jogo sendo polido e estendido possa reforçar ainda mais esse encontro de temas/tópicos.
4 - Monetização: O jogo sendo bem polido poderia vender em stores como itch.io (creio). Caso (além de polido) seja estendido, com maior narrativa e estágios diversos, creio que poderia vender para Steam. A venda nos celulares parece outra forma possível (em ambos os casos). Creio que com propagandas entre tentativas e uma versão barata (mas paga) sem as propagandas.
Analysis...
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow: The mechanics were very interesting, having to press the right buttons at the right time (matching the music and the red ball). Unfortunately, learning is impaired, because a little practical tutorial is missing, because when sound comes in and you have to take your attention away from the action on the screen with everything at the same time, it is difficult to be sure if you are doing the right thing at the right time. Lack a little feedback or this tutorial to learn better. The game flow seems to be reasonable, I found it very difficult to progress (the first time I went over two thousand points, I never got it again). I feel like I pressed buttons "randomly" and got better results than when I was really learning. So, in spite of being a very good mechanic, I think it lacks a little learning (mainly). I would like to see an improved version (if it is in the interest of the production team to continue the project). Anyway, congratulations because it was really interesting. Maybe the jump is better on another button (space maybe), because there are four instruments and it seemed like something to try to have the jump separate.
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative: The graphics were amazing, I really liked it. I think I would only point out improvements in the HUD. Center the part of the ball (maybe). If the objective is to press when it is in a certain place, perhaps a point, line or symbol will help (especially for beginners, perhaps only in the first levels of the game, if the idea is to create more stages). It seems to me that the hearts already indicate the directions that need to be pressed in order to proceed with the respective characters (perhaps it is a redundancy intended to facilitate the game session of the testers, but I believe that they could (after the time of the event) change the hearts slightly to already contain the arrows in question). The audio was also very good (although repetitive after trying dozens of times). Hahahahah. If (outside the event time) it is possible to create more music of the same style, it may be a good idea to vary it (if the idea is to always be the same stage). The narrative is not very explained in the game, but it is in charge of the heart icon (which I found very well used). I suppose the return of undead members could be a good one (who knows, perhaps with their healing through some special musical sequence). Just traveling a little on ideas.
3 - Culture: The game makes very good artistic use, which already intertwines well with cultural aspects. In addition to being an experimental game piece, both for the music and for the curved style of the platform. In addition to uniting the theme of apocalypse (or end of the world). I believe that the game being polished and extended can further reinforce this meeting of themes / topics.
4 - Monetization: The game being well polished could sell in stores like itch.io (I believe). If (in addition to polished) it is extended, with greater narrative and different stages, I believe it could sell to Steam. Selling on cell phones seems another possible way (in both cases). I believe that with advertisements between attempts and a cheap (but paid) version without the advertisements.
This was a gem of an entry, the Art was excellent and felt cohesive, I agree with the above commenter that it felt like something I would see on a finished product. Music was good, if I had a wishlist, I would wish for the instruments to fall away as the players died, but overall it felt great.
I had a little trouble personally figuring out how/when I was supposed to move, maybe I just suck at Rhythm games... Some additional visual assistance for the Muscly Disinclined (Like myself) would be nice.
A fantastic submission as usual!