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(Nu) Da Drum
(Nu) Da Drum
By trexxak
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 1450 | 2.95 | 77 | |
| Fun | 1445 | 2.69 | 74 | |
| Innovation | 948 | 3.21 | 75 | |
| Theme | 1300 | 3.04 | 74 | |
| Graphics | 1308 | 2.92 | 78 | |
| Audio | 862 | 3.00 | 74 | |
| Humor | 775 | 2.73 | 69 | |
| Mood | 944 | 3.25 | 75 | |
Comments
It looks like that you might have a pretty good understanding of color theory. You seemed to use colors that either complemented or contrasted from one another purposely. I reckon if the art design / direction (overall aesthetic decision) was A.) more cohesive, and B.) more direct / clear, that your color theory application would be superb.
That being said, as it stands, the multi layered artwork just leaves the screen looking like a mess.
I dont really understand the project, if I am being honest, and really only was able to play for about 3 minutes- before getting caught in an audio / clipping loop. A+ on capturing the theme: caught in a loop.
trexxak
2020-10-06 01:20
Thank you for your nice words on colour theory @popdaddygames. I didn't even think about anything too much for this game, so it's fun to see what other people see in it :D
The clipping issue is unintentional and I would love to resolve that before someone else gets headaches... Would you mind giving me a few details on it? How was the audio/ clipping loop manifesting itself - what did you hear?
Other than that - there's not much to understand. It's about memories and not being able to let go of them and breaking the loop, if you will (hence the bear you drag around all the time). Very selfish game of me this time, although I hope not too painful to play.
aurath
2020-10-06 01:38
Though the game engine is a tad broken, I can see and feel that this is an intensely personal game, and I think it communicates the intended experience incredibly well.
tori
2020-10-06 11:55
I must agree with other comment on the personal feel this game has and i'm glad you made it (even though, those kind of memories are not always nice to remember, and to write ):)
trexxak
2020-10-06 15:28
@aurath Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad to hear my game achieved conveying feelings. If this is the consensus of my game, it succeeded its goal!
@tori Thank you for your kind words. I actually struggled whether or not to release it, your comment makes me think I did the right thing, maybe. Thank you for your time u_u
2020-10-06 18:06
loved this game and the concept behind it even more. the thumbnail and name are what attracted me to it. the story behind it made it even better <3 and also 10/10 sound design hahahahaha
2020-10-06 18:59
why am i getting emotional over a game about a silly lookin blue bear
eckkert
2020-10-06 20:04
You're back! I remember your game from LD 46. I don't usually use Windows so I'll have to download the game later, but I'll be sure to play it when I get back.
mattc
2020-10-06 20:24
Thanks for sharing this experience, as PopDaddyGames said, the graphics are really cluttered and hard to see, but they are really pretty and feel very personal. The turquoise squishy bear is awesome! Loved this experience for the pretty visuals and the bear, thanks again :)
eugenik
2020-10-06 20:50
wow very polished game, and story is great!
Let me share what i understood from something a didn't understand hahahahha.
So, fat always be the goal keeper, got attracted to a girl, felt like a teacher to be honest XD. Made a friend. started to have feelings for friend. Suddenly on a love confusion triangle or diferent genders thing. Confused with own feelings. Wanted to be a girl. Solitaired yourself in mmo, time passed, felt more ok with itself, started drawing, conformed with yourself, but strange feelings mantain and it's ok.
Moral of the story, never throw a teddy bear on a trash bin.
Oh, the first bear squeak on the start menu almost exploded my ears and if the "holding bear" timer were a little higher, trying to figure out the story would be more entertaining
trexxak
2020-10-06 23:18
God I love Ludum Dare <3 It honors me greatly that all of you decided to give the bear a try u_u
@dr-khan I'm actually moved, thank you so much for playing! <3 Don't know what else to tell you, but I'm glad you found your way to my short little game :3
@Eckkert PLANETSITTER!!! I'll make sure to look at your game aswell man, like seriously, I couldn't see your phenomenal team not succeeding in again delivering a well-polished enjoyable game <3 Glad you're back too :D
@mattc thank you for your praise! I love to hear you liked the visuals! A lot of time was spent on conveying feelings with lines and colours (the main gameplay work was done by friday evening), so I feel immense relief that you like the visual aspect of it! Thank you so much for playing!
@eugenik whoa, from all the things I did not expect hearing my game being described as, "polished" would probably be the number one spot :'D Thank you so much for playing and thank you so much for your praise!
@zebraatomica Bro, you actually played it! Great to have you guys back aswell <3 Uhm, to your interpretation: I hate to tell people their interpretation of something artistic is wrong, buuut yeah, you got some stuff really right, and other stuff wrong when it comes to the ""intended"" storyline. Obviously the game should mean to you what it already does :D It's more about the feelings than the hard facts. I do feel honoured though that you actually played the whole way through, man! Oh, and sorry for the first bear squeak xdd. I'm pretty happy with the "holding timer" actually, as it was intended to leave a certain frustration/ annoyance at the bear, only to look at his innocent face and realize he is not at fault, purplehand is the one who drags him along. I'll make sure to look at the looping witch again soon! Is there again some hidden mechanics you didn't tell anyone about? ;D
Visually it was compelling, I wish the squeeks changed pitch or something. wasn't a fan of clicking so much to navigate, wish I could've ran around as the bear.
riroriro
2020-10-07 03:23
The music in this is amazing! Great job sticking to theme! I had some challengeswith everything being visible but I can totally relate to the story and loved being taken on that journey. :heart:
I love the idea of this game. I had problems with the floating screen, though. It would go out of range a lot so that I could only see like half of the scene. I wasn't able to complete it for that reason :(
wow weird game, I like it when godot users (like me LOL) do crazy stuff with the engine. well done, I don't know how you managed to make the screen move (transparency of the default background maybe? :thinking: ) so... are you planning to share the source?
I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection
I really like the story told in backgrounds and left to player interpretation and experience. It works well as it plays with your own imagination and memories to create a story that is singular and personal to you (the player) but also says something about you (the creator). And as I navigated this life told in backgrounds and tried not to leave my bear behind, I got quite drawn in by it. Well done, sir, very well done.
The mechanics of a screen moving around my screen is very unique and I liked it. Dragging the bear was hard and frustrating at times. But I realized that that was exactly the point! I loved the background humming as well.
Sometimes my bear bugged a bit, I think. It just glitched in place, making his squeaky sound over and over. But dragging him again fixed that.
And on a side note - I managed to take both the bear and the trashcan with me for a time. What does that say about me, I wonder ;)
Screenshot_10.png
So this game had something to say and I'm afraid the mechanics where the limiting factor for me. Beyond picking up the bear from the trash can I could not for the life of me hold onto it for more than half a second, and trying to move the mouse fast while holding it just doesn't help and sometimes made it worse. I was able to complete the game by dragging the bear THROUGH the boundaries, but I was laughing so hard at the machine-gun squeaks and my absurd method I couldn't grasp what you were trying to say. I will say I enjoyed the art, it has the nostalgic childish-dream feel I think you were trying to accomplish. In that aspect I say well done.
nolife-m
2020-10-07 19:45
Cute bear, I like the sketch on the wall.The Dragging time is a little short.
*Cracks knuckles*
Alright, I have some things to say about this one.
First of all, I think the premise here is super neat, and I can appreciate how difficult it must have been to make something so personal and put it out in the world for strangers to play. Kudos to you for digging deep and finding something in this theme that you felt was worth sharing like this.
I loved the way that this was presented, too. Having the sketches appear as you got closer to them, and changing the audio as you progressed really got the player to focus on the narrative you were trying to tell. In that regard, I think it was very effective.
However, I do think that you'll find a lot of players won't be able to experience all of this because the core mechanic here is a bit difficult to get to grips with. The short amount of time you're able to hang onto the bear, combined with the bouncy physics and the fact that your grip bar depletes the moment you hit a wall, makes for some pretty frustrating segments that I feel detracts from the story you're trying to tell.
The good news is that, while this is a significant problem for the overall game, it seems like the fix for it is pretty straightforward. Giving your players some more leeway in controlling the bear, and designing your levels in a way that doesn't demand skillful dexterity would probably be enough to have players really connect with this experience.
This all might sound super critical, but I'm mostly typing so much because I like the core of what I see here, and I'd love to see it improved upon. I always like to encourage projects like these, and I hope people are able to connect to this one the way I did. :slight_smile:
After starting the game in fullscreen and clicking on the teddy, the window moved to the top left corner, making it unplayable. Sadly the window mode didn't work. I tried pressing 'i'. I'm on windows 7 if that helps :)
I love the idea of this. Unfortunately it seemed to be partially broken for me due to my 1440p main monitor (and I couldn't find a way to move it to one of my 1080p side monitors), and I couldn't get very far.
It's really great to see someone making a game (or maybe calling this interactive art is a better description?) out of their personal experiences. Even with the breakage on my system, you're getting a high rating from me. :)
curly
2020-10-08 12:50
Nice story, you choose a good theme, emotional idea, overall good!
trexxak
2020-10-08 14:57
Finally got some time to react to all your feedback, yay!
@blind-lemon-games Thank you for your feedback and high praise! I appreciate it greatly, especially coming from the creator of one of my favourite games this ld up until now :3 The squeaks actually change pitch, but maybe not to a level one could easily notice it. About playing as the bear... well, that would be a different game entirely then, wouldn't it :D Hope I can show you something you enjoy more next ld ^_^
@riroriro Aww, I love that you took the journey <3 Thank you for playing!
@anxietizi oooh, such a shame :( If I had more time, I would've looked for a solution that made it possible to be played in all resolutions. The "fullscreen" mode was my bandaid for that, although miles away from perfect. I think I will create a short video playthrough and stick it to the description for cases where the game cannot be experienced properly. Again, sorry for letting you down :(
@arad-hamidsamiee oof, making the source public you say? D: I'm very anxious about my coding, as I really only see it as a "means to an end" rather than something I actively enjoy. I do try to learn more and more things about it, but I'm just way more the 'ideas guy' so to speak. Yeah, so my code looks awful... BUT for now I can tell you how I managed the floating screen stuff, and while we're at it even most parts of the game :'D
Most things in the game are commanded by an AnimationPlayer which gets triggered whenever you reach the Area2D of the current screen (visually represented by the white lights at the edges of the respective screen). I have two export vars, namely: *export (Vector2) var window_position_ = Vector2(0,0)* and *export (Vector2) var window_size_ = Vector2(0,0)* - with them being now easily changeable on the fly, I can integrate them in my main AnimationPlayer. In the *_process(delta)* function, I command the following: *OS.window_size = window_size_* and *OS.set_window_position(window_position_)*. Boom, there ya have it :D I'm sure it's not optimal, but it really worked out for me!
@fabula-rasa AHAHAHA, nicely done with the trashcan :'D Thank you for playing n_n And yeah, you got it exactly right - dragging the bear should feel frustrating (at least to a tolerable extent). The question of whether or not it is even worth it dragging the bear around should come up at one point preferably, like it is with some memories you KNOW you should not think of but are compulsed to drag along indefinitely still. Oops I just spoilered the whole thing. The bear bugging out on the bottom - yeeah, sorry, I know D: If I was a better programmer things like that wouldn't happen. Thank you so much for playing my game and thank you for your feedback <3
@lurkinmcclerkin Thank you for your nice feedback and of course for playing :'D Yeah, most screens are designed to be completed within not one but multiple draggings, so you would drag him little by little to the target marker. That being said, I'm actually quite happy that someone took the cheesy route of just glitching the bear out. Not that it is a feature, but it was a bug I wasn't able to fix in time, and I think combined with the mentioned machine-gun squeaking, it makes for a fun alternative (glitchy) gameplay method. Hey, I invoked your laughter, which honours me aswell! Don't worry about the intended message too much :3
@nolife-m thank you for playing! And I agree, the dragging time is indeed a little short :DD
trexxak
2020-10-08 14:58
Ok sorry for the double post, I just... need the space :'D
@coleslaughter naaah man, you don't sound super critical at all, you make some very valid points I will try to incorporate into my next projects actually... especially the point about the bouncy physics is something I tend to agree with you - while funny at first, it can get really frustrating to lose the bear AGAIN to a stupid collision outside of your control. The grabbing bar part, while I do feel very strong about it being just the right level of annoying, I can totally see what you mean and have to admit, that I could've at least eased up a bit about the strict wall collision rule. The level design was just me trying to experiment with the mechanics, but of course I shouldn't have focused so much on my own, biased perception of difficulty as the creator. I'll try to get better with that :3 Thank you for your thorough feedback and I'm so humbled that you actually played my game. I'm also really happy the cowboys are back in town <3
@bytinggames The game window moving to the top left corner and getting a bit smaller is intended - but you say it wasn't playable? Oof, really sorry to hear that D: I'm way too technically illiterate to figure out what the problem is, I'm afraid... but if it is any help, I will upload a playthrough video if you are still interested. My apologies, again :(
@firetwoonenine awww, don't give me a high rating just because of that... I'm flattered :') Did the fullscreen mode help at all? Otherwise, I will upload a gameplay vid to honour people like you who actually gave my game time only to be left with an unplayable mess... My sincere apologies, and thank you for your nice words :')
@curly thank you for playing! :3
Mood, lots of mood here.
When I read the description, and saw "Narrative", I was expecting narration. I think its part of what drove me through to try and get to the next part, the anticipation of narration bits. So I continue to click and drag as fast and accurately as I could looking for more to the story.
Reading the description of the game, saying some inspiration was drawn from the inability to let go of things, set the first stages of the mood, pretty personal, yet relatable. The graphics style combined with ambient "music" further drove this mood. I didn't want anything bad to happen to this bear. I like the colors used, the bear really popped but didn't look out of place. I think the ground pieces could contrast the background a bit more, really communicate that they are solid.
Gameplay was confusing at first. I couldn't determine what to do, I kept trying to interact with the trash can, maybe put the bear in and out of it? The goal points need to be emphasized, draw more attention to them so the player identifies them as a point of interest, and not just a random out of place particle.
I ended up completing the game(made it back to title scene), and I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the experience. Scoring high on mood! Good job on the jam!
@trexxak hahahahaha it was fun to create a history in my head anyhow, mostly when i didn't undertand i filled the gaps with something XD It' to see that you went for LD again ^-^ But for Witch Loop I worked more as a producet/artist then game design since Erukolindo was the Lead. My team couldn't join so atleast i found a nice group to work with. I only helped with the story and initial design, did the background , menu(unitt destroyed it) and splash art. Also that little monster on the page was supposed to be one stage of the boss. The heavy lifting went for euruko since i was assigned a college work to deliver on sunday, could help mostly only in the last hours. @Erukolindo , in my opinion, deserves a lot of praise for doing design, art and programming. Cheers my dude. Trexxak, i'm curious to know what i got right, can u share later or is it a secret? XD
kharath
2020-10-08 20:21
I loved the idea and the art aesthetic was really nice. The sound design was really fitting to and gave the whole experience a wonderful mood. It was clear from the outset that this was a personal piece and contained some fascinating images.
The idea of having the play area loop around the screen was an interesting one and it added to the mood around the game but I have to admit it just confused me at first and I thought it was a bug.
I tried to play the game on my laptop using the trackpad and I'm afraid that was a killer. It was just impossible to get the bear to move much without a proper mouse and I ended up just watching the video.
Overall a nice and very artistic game but I can't say it would be something I'd come back to and replay.
spotline
2020-10-09 07:56
Cool entry ! The moving screen is a very nice gimmick, it goes well with the exploratory feeling and environmental storytelling. I had lots of technical issues going in the way of enjoying the game and story though, such as losing the bear and not being able to get it back, and the drag action felt unpredictable.
humnyn
2020-10-09 15:23
A very sweet and unique game, I really like the concept of what you were going for here. Unfortunately the game was pretty much unplayable on my laptop, the resolution was completely bonkers and the fullscreen/window function seemed pretty bugged. I found the controls aren't very intuitive because I had no idea what to do, but that definitely could be fixed with some patching up :)
kszaku
2020-10-10 11:20
One of more original entries. There must have been some magic behind all of these window transitions, lol
trexxak
2020-10-11 03:33
@acuriosity Awww, thank you so much for your nice feedback! I do agree with you regarding the ground pieces. I tried a lot of different things to make them be visible yet fit the scene and ended up prioritizing them fitting nicely a bit more. In hindsight, playing it by bright daylight especially, it is hard to make out what is solid and what is not. Also very much agreed on the goal points. They were included last (because why would I need them hehe), and while I tried to make them a bit pop out more, I wasn't satisfied with the result so I went with the basic variant. Thank you so much for playing the game u_u
@zebraatomica Oooh, I see my bad. It's just "zebraatomica... and his friends" in my head, as you seem to do a lot of "community engagement" and thus just stick out more :DD Hope to see you guys full force next ld maybe :D Yeah, I'll tell you later, no worries. Cheers!
@kharath aww man, didn't even think about trackpads. Impressed that you tried in the first place :'D Yeah, can't blame you for watching the video instead. Thank you for your nice words and... trying to play :D
@spotline thanks for your praise! I do agree with you... I'm just not that experienced yet in terms of coding, I'm sure most of the issues just come from my inability to do things properly! I'll try my best to get better though. Thank you for playing anyway!
@humnyn awww sucks to hear that... Thank you anyway u_u
@kszaku haha :D Believe it or not, the gimmick of the looping window was the first idea I actually had for the game, everything else came later. It's so cool that the idea gets appreciated <3 Thank you for playing
Your story is very touching. I had a black stuffed pupper that I carried around everywhere with me. Even to school long after it would've been considered cute to do such a thing. I lost him when my dog at the time got ahold of him and tore him to shreds. I was upset with her for the longest time but eventually came to peace with it. Your story restirred that in me.
As for gameplay, unfortunately I'm having issues. I can pick it up the first time and the timer starts ticking down, but after that it drops immediately when I click it and I can't do anything beyond that. idk if it's something I'm doing wrong or what.
hakro
2020-10-11 23:23
This is really a lovely game. I liked the mood and the graphics, well done man. Had fun playing it. Cheers
I will leave my new observations, I loved the drag system and the screen to move, I found the audio that you probably produced very creative and super fun, it’s super congratulations, I found a problem playing on another PC, it opens I play at a very high resolution, and then it decreases and goes to the upper left, and if you drag the bear to the right it reaches a point where it leaves the field of view, the sound of pressing the bear is 10, it should in the future develop for mobile, because it is a lot of fun, if it were in pixel art it would make art for you, a big hug.
matlab
2020-10-13 16:05
I found the idea of the narration with the drawings very interesting! I even found it rather moving (although I hadn't read the presentation text before playing, but I think I understood the story a little bit anyway!). I finished the game in full screen, fortunately I read the description afterwards because I would have missed this great effect of moving the game screen that I find very very cool !! Concerning the gameplay, I found the time frame very short, I thought it might be more pleasant if it was longer, but at the same time I was struggling and I guess it's intentional (since you can start over as many times as you want). :) Thank you for this little game full of love!
duke
2020-10-13 19:57
Mhhh... interesting. I saw your game on stream this week think. The concept is really interesting and the main focus seems to be the narrative, which was (at least for me) hard to follow due to the erratic nature of the drawings. The game play feels tacked on but maybe has some kind of deeper meaning. I'm really not good with this sublime stuff. The sound effects of the bear got on my nerves pretty quickly and some of the levels were rather frustrating due to the nature of the bear rolling down the platforms on his own. I often had to reset after transitioning screens as well because the bear was still the other side. This one is really hard to rate because it obviously is a very personal narrative that didn't click with me.
Still, I played it till the end which is not something I do with every jam game, especially when they're artificially designed to waste my time. Keep it up :)
trexxak
2020-10-13 21:49
Right, the slower days begin it seems :D
@game-endeavor Whoa, surreal seeing you on my little game, man :'D At the beginning of this year I was studying your tutorials very hard to actually get into game dev! Love to hear you connecting to the story, sorry to hear about your pupper though :( In terms of mechanics, it worked as intentional. The first pull out of the garbage bin is indeed quite a bit longer to not make the player lose faith in the game from the get-go. Starting from around screen two, you actively drag the bear only bit by bit. It should be a tad bit frustrating, but not to the degree that it feels bugged, err D:
@hakro thanks man, glad you enjoyed the game :3
@etrealjunior really glad you enjoyed it, thank you for the high praise!
@matlab no, thank you for your great trip of a game! I feel bad for not giving you more feedback on yours, but it's simply perfect the way it is for me :D Yeah, the short timeframe is indeed intentional, and one shouldn't feel too bad about respawning the bear. I definitely tried to frustrate the player to a certain degree, but I feel I shouldn't have been as harsh as I was. Thank you for your high praise!
@duke haha sorry, I guess you're right with wasting your time! You shouldn't feel obligated to rate my game differently because the game is a "personal thing", I think. It was I who was selfish enough to just get it out with too little concern for the player! Sure, there were a few players who did connect, but that shouldn't make you feel too differently about your own experiences with the game :3 I do want to defend myself a bit though: Gameplay came first and birthed everything else. I do agree with the point you are trying to make - yes, I indeed did not put enough care into the gameplay once I was done with it u_u I hope you can forgive me for the dull game. I feel nothing but gratitude for you trying to get something out of it until the end! I promise to do something a bit less frustrating but simply fun next time :3
toccio94
2020-10-14 15:50
This was for sure an unusual experience, I liked the mood, especially when going down (I guess?) and the weird sound starts playing. The window moving from my point of view was also very original and helped settings an unsettling mood, especially since it was all on my desktop made it feel it even more weird, giving a huge boost to the immersion. All that movement also makes you feel lost and again this help the mood of a weird and "troubled" journey. Glad that you put the light to know where to go though (maybe the light has a meaning of some sort, like going on?).
I think tho it was too hard, I mean it could be your intention to make it frustrating to make me feel in some way, but I think it was a bit too much and it ruined the mood for me. For those kinds of experiences it's hard to tell though if it was intentional/enough or not, I just think being a little easier could still make someone feel frustrated without detracting from immersion.
More or less for the same reason (hard grab mechanic) I had problem at the very start because I couldn't grab the bear, and just resetting the game until it popped out somehow. I also think you could auto reset the level if the bear goes out of the screen, at first I was waiting it to come back and was afraid that reset meant whole game reset.
To be honest, I couldn't quite grasp what you were trying to say, it seemed like a recap of some events in your life, but I was not involved enough to want to know more. Also, replaying the game was a total no being that frustrating lol (I did replay it but just to watch again the beginning and see if that could give me a clue). Even though I couldn't understand it, you manage to make me feel some sort of discomfort you may have felt/feel. Probably for this same reason (couldn't get the story) I couldn't get the theme connection =/
At some point near half the game maybe, when a pink girl say he's cute, there is a yellow man pointing something. The bear falls more or less on him and his arms resembles a penis, I hope it was intended LOL I should have taken a picture.
This may be a weird tip, but for the description of the game here I would have preferred a short one and then another with some spoiler warning for those who needs to read more before playing or want to read more after. I say you this because if you explain the mechanics before playing, they are less surprising and shocking cause I'm prepared, I usually prefer to just experience it!
What bothers me is why you talk about a bunny and then the peluche is a bear XD I can't remember too well but I think I needed 30-40 forgetmenot.
Overall, is a very unusual game, maybe not too much polished but for sure one that does not go unnoticed, and that leave you with something more, at least for me is something that could broaden your horizons, I don't know how to better say this! Great work =)
vphyre
2020-10-17 20:00
Well the main mechanics of your game seems to be very creative and different. Although I believe I was not able to play because I didn't understand exactly how the controls worked, other than the fact that I was playing on an ultra-wide monitor (I don't know if that exactly has any negative influence). But then I came back here on your page and saw the video you produced. So I will base my assessment on what I can see in the video. Your game is very interesting, and unique. I liked the interpretation of the theme, and how it influenced the main mechanics. The graphics are simple but very functional, so this is a good thing. The sound is fun too. The experience in general seems to be good. And finally, if you allow me to suggest, I think you should think of some way to refine the controls, or else find some kind to elaborate a more "playable" tutorial or something like that (if you consider making this game something bigger, and I I hope you consider it because I see so much potential) I really found your idea very creative, and even though I was not able to play much, I found something very well designed (taking into account that we all had to race against time hahaha). Good job!
I had some technical issues, so I watched a dudes playthrough. Love the concept and the story. Bonus points for the sound effects. :smile:
bunny.jpg
I really liked the drawings and the singing set the mood quite well. The mechanics however were hard to grasp. It wasn't clear to me that the greyish layover was actually solid until halfway the game. I also didn't really understand where I had to throw the bear exactly to advance and the grabbing was a bit tedious. The concept of going through the memories in the background was cool especially since we had to guess what exactly happened but as a game it wasn't really fun. I had a nice experience though.
sharks
2020-10-22 22:09
I didn't fully understand the narritave but I liked the humming and the squeaking sound effects, from what I was able to follow it definitely seemed like a well done narrative, the idea of having the game 'screen' move about your screen is quite innovative but I ended up going fullscreen so I didn't click out every time I used... 'Strategy' to get out of a tough level :wink: Solid entry!
miklo
2020-10-22 22:59
Took me a while to understand the mechanics but after that the game was really fun. Both audio and the graphics really helped to set the mood. Fun game.
trexxak
2020-10-22 23:02
Oh boy, only a few days left.
@toccio94 eyy, thanks for your rich feedback! I'm glad I could make you feel something, first off. That's the cardinal goal I had for this game, I think. And yes, you're right, it is a bit too annoying to play and I can totally see how it distracts from the immersion. While it is certainly intentional to some extent, Looking at feedback from my previous game, it really seems like I have to learn to make my games less difficult in general.
Concerning the story - well, it's pretty vague, which too is intentional. It was hard enough for me to give away information about me that really shouldn't be of any concern to anyone else, so I chose to take a less coherent, more "fill in the gaps yourself" narrative, I played with the idea of giving the pictures a clear voice over but decided against it for that very reason. So whatever your interpretation of the whole story is, I would probably not resist it at all.
I will tell you how it connects to the theme though. The game ends right at the garbage bin where you started, implying you just go on walking through your memories again, and drag all that baggage around all over again, OR you just leave the bear in the garbage and end the cycle, both interpretations count (thus "(don't) let go"). Basically it's just about cycling memories you can't get rid off. A neverending loop for so*me*.
The penis was not intentional LOL :'D
About the bunny and the bear: The bunny is what I talk about, correct. The bear is what you, the player, drags around. The journey presented with the colored lights is not the same journey the player goes through (obviously) and thus the plushs are completely different entities in a similar situation. Also grats for being the first one who actually told me how many resets you had to use haha :D 40 is actually really good, I think something like that is my average aswell :D
@vphyre thank you for your nice words and suggestions u_u Sadly, I won't pursue making this game into more than it is currently, because it did its work in terms of being an emotional catalyst in a turbulent time for me and it showed me that I certainly can move people. I did learn a lot from the feedback too and know exactly how I would've created the game today. Maybe I'll revisit certain ideas, maybe even remake the whole game in a few years, but my intention is to make less pretentious but more fun games in the future. I never wanted to make an artsy almost unplayable experience, but that was just what I needed to do for this jam. Oh well. Hope I can show you something creative but FUN next Jam n_n
@johnnysix aww thanks, appreciated :'D The sound design especially I didn't put much thought into and just rushed it with the first ideas that came to mind, so I'm very glad people like them! The 20/80 rule in action, I guess :D
@Shakedimus Yeah, I agree. Could've made the ground a little more visible, make it a bit more stand out. Thank you also for "but as a game it wasn’t really fun. I had a nice experience though." Perfectly fitting as a description! :D
@sharks Ey you know, I can respect that! I included the fullscreen mode for people who have trouble with the resolution, but I'm all for creative problem solving!
vphyre
2020-10-22 23:21
@trexxak, answering your quote about my comment: No problem buddy. Most importantly in a game jam, i imagine it is personal and professional growth in many ways. And from what I felt in your comment, I believe that you managed to achieve this growth, even more in a troubled moment as you yourself mentioned. I think that in complicated times, that's where we grew up the most, and I'm sure you are overcoming all of this, in an exceptional way. And your game is fun and creative at the same time. We all try to do our best in 72 hours, and I know you did your best too! I really want you to overcome the bad times, and continue on your journey as a game developer, providing beautiful moments for people, as was your game. :)
ps: I'm sorry if I somehow seemed rude in my comment. Writing in English is not my specialty hahah (I'm trying to improve on that hahaha). I will follow you here on the Ludum website, interested in seeing your new projects and games!
trexxak
2020-10-23 00:09
@vphyre Thank you again for your nice words of encouragement u_u I agree with you completely - the gamejam is more about personal and professional growth than anything else. I didn't take any offense by your comment btw, sorry if it came off that way. It's more that I know my game does not qualify for the conventional way one may perceive fun, and I know that very well, and I'm a bit annoyed at myself as I was too experimental with it. Also you were the first one to suggest working further on the game, so I felt you deserved a more detailed answer :D
P.S.: Your English is just fine! Don't worry about it :D
This is a really neat game. I have to admit I probably didn't entirely understand the narrative, partially because I probably wasn't paying quite enough attention, but I at least related to some of the frames taken out of context. The atmosphere of the game certainly puts one in a contemplative mood.
I think I would rather talk about a couple of purely practical things: essentially, things I thought about the way the game accomplishes the game-y parts of the game. Or something like that. :smile:
So, it took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that the bear was, sometimes, supposed to not be on the screen, and that at that point you were intended to push 'r.' At first I thought it was just my resolution was wrong--and it turned out it was, Windows had it set to 1920x1080, but zoomed in. So I fixed my resolution, and tried again, and then the bear kept disappearing from the screen. So I tried messing with the resolution some more. Then I started pushing 'f' every time I needed to put the bear back on the screen, and pushing 'i.' But then I pushed 'esc' by accident and had to start over, and it was at that point that I finally realized that, in fact, the bear being ungrabbable due to being off the screen was an intended mechanic, and that that was the point where I needed to press 'r.' (By the way, I used 35 restarts getting to the end. :smile: Although I must admit I used a lot of cheese, which feeds into my next point...)
The other thing I want to talk about is the physical platforming of the game. I feel like this is a tricky thing to get right, because by the very nature of using mouse-based drag and drop, the amount of distance you can get is unbounded right out the gate--there's nothing stopping the player from moving their mouse all the way across the screen and just dragging the rabbit to the exit point for each "level." Which is of course where all the cheese potential comes from. And I feel like the amount of time you have to actually try to drag the rabbit around the obstacles is astonishingly short. One I recall is the level at 1:37 in your video--where you very quickly drag the rabbit all the way to the right and then back again. I never considered using such a violently fast strategy, likely because I was trying to give it an honest, non-cheesy attempt... I was trying to methodically drag the rabbit in a big loop and land it on the upper platform, but I really couldn't get it to work.
I think cheese-proofing the physics and maybe giving the player a littttle more time to move the rabbit around would help. In fact, I think maybe limiting the max speed of the rabbit would be a good idea, so you *have* to move it carefully and consistently (...but still pretty quickly, of course). I can appreciate that perhaps the very short amount of time you're able to grab the rabbit serves a narrative purpose, but at this point I think it might be getting in the way of players actually caring enough to not just go for the cheese strat.
Or, perhaps the player is intended to use very very fast mouse movements, but not through the platforms? That would also make sense. I honestly stayed away from mouse movements unless I was specifically trying to cheese, because, well, I thought that fast mouse movement at all was considered cheese. So when I was trying to play legitimately, I always went for the slower movements. So maybe this is just a problem of communication, who knows. :smile:
One small other thing is I didn't understand when the game ended: on my game I got sent back to, I think, the beginning of the game, but everything was grayed out--but I could still move around and eventually I somehow landed myself in this big gray void, and I believe that is the ending of the game? But it looked different on the video, so I don't know if I got a glitch or something.
Anyways, aside from this very long description of how I experienced the pragmatic gameplay elements, there's a couple extra notes...
(continued in another comment, apparently!)
I really like how the game uses the windowing system. It could be considered kind of gimmicky, but I really think it works well. It makes the game seem like just an incidental part of using your computer--it superimposes itself onto your normal environment, and so makes it seem like a sort of natural thing rather than a game that I'm playing due to other motivations.
I think the aesthetics of the game and the music and sound effects are really effective. This game is not lying to you about what it is--it is not intended to be an action-packed game that you play because of its addicting fun, it is a game that you play to see what it's like, to experience it. And this game is under no pretenses otherwise.
As I said, it definitely puts one in a contemplative mood. And although I'm not super great at following visual stories, I still did get some feelings from some of the individual frames, taken out of context. And that's maybe not the worst possible outcome!
So yeah, I like this game. After writing all this, I honestly think I really like this game. I hope some of this feedback was helpful. This is by far the most feedback I've written for a game..... :smile:
ellladee
2020-10-23 16:57
Wow, story is really great and it's pretty original. Love it!
matootsy
2020-10-24 08:27
I'm so sorry but I don't understand the gameplay at all...
In the explanation you say : *I know it is easy to cheese the whole game with flicking the mouse really fast. Maybe try and ignore that?*
But I was not able to play without doing that. I don't understand why there's an energy bar and why is it going so quickly down...
Otherwise it's a good idea. It's a very child art but it fit the back to basics of memories with the bear. And in this way the audio with mouth is matching too. This give a good mood. It's a narrative experience in fact. With more polish on the control it could be pleasant to discover the story.
Well made. Fun little casual game with a strange aesthetic. However I was really surprised by controls which work very well. Intuitive and clever - especially window system. It could be enjoyable on mobile device. You deserve respect. Thank you for your feedback ++
I had to watch the playthrough to really grasp the gameplay, but even when doing that it seemed like the game had trouble transitioning to the next screen when it should have (My resolution is 1920 * 1080 so I'm not sure what the problem would be). I wasn't crazy about the controls, and it really seemed like the bar was going down slower on your video when it would just drop instantly on my computer (but maybe that's just my perception).
This definitely feels like an "art game." I appreciated the mood and aesthetic, even though I'm pretty sure I didn't understand everything that was going on. It was really innovative the way I could see into a little window in the game world, which moved around my screen. Overall, it was nice to see a game that was totally different from anything else I've played. Good job!
trexxak
2020-10-30 15:15
Apologies for the delay!
@honey-pony wow o: Thank you for your awesome feedback! <3
You point out something very critical to the games buggy behaviour I couldn't put in words before - to implement the drag and drop really did give me headaches. I'm way too new to gamedev to understand why, but Godot has some real troubles detecting collisions if one of the colliding bodies is dragged by mouse. I even experienced this annoying phenomenon with my first LD game but still went to make it the principle game mechanic of (nu) da drum lol. So, to counteract the glitchy behaviour, I did what I could to make it as little of an issue as possible (i.e.: Hitting a wall will make you lose the bear), but as you pointed out correctly, the game wants you to flick the mouse at some parts - so level design and mechanics didn't quite match :/ Yes, I should've specified that the cheese comes with the clipping through platforms, erggh D:.
So the other thing with the end not really playing out as it should is indeed a bug. Due to the game being programmed immensely shoddily, if the bear falls down the last platform in the short timeframe before the platform disappears but after the last background appears, a certain "switch" is not activated that would result in the game returning to the game menu a short while after hitting the ground. It would've been a quick fix, but I promised to myself to not work on the game after the deadline is over this time around. Still working out the fairest way to participate, and after I pushed out a lot of post-ld builds during my first LD, I chose to take the complete opposite route this time.
Thank you for your praise on the aesthetics! While there are certain things that would still need more attention (the platforms blending into the background too much, for one), I think it successfully conveyed the mood I was going for. The moving window I feel is more of a gimmick in retrospect, however. I love your interpretation of it just forcing itself onto your normal environment, as would be the case with memories, but at the same time, I couldn't really make my intention of it work. I thought of it as a way to tell the player "this is still not the full picture" and an interesting way to represent "stations in life", which both would be cool narrative concepts, but they weren't implemented in any other way really, nor did the moving picture have nearly enough gameplay implications. I do think however there's great potential in the moving window. I thought about maybe recycling the idea for a "mining" game or a somewhat meta "hidden object" game!
I'm flattered you gave me so much feedback, and even moreso to hear my game put you in a contemplative mood! Rest assured, your feedback is incredibly helpful and I'm very grateful you took your time to write it all out u_u I had to take a few days off, but I made sure I read through the newest comments every day at least :D Oh, and also: 35 restarts is really good! Gratz to that o:
@elladee thank you so much for your praise! :3
@matootsy One day I'll have a game you like, I promise :'D Yeah, the wording in the description isn't really clear on what I meant exactly. It's okay to flick the mouse, the problem is rather that you can just bypass a lot of collisions by doing so, which would defeat the point of the whole game. Sorry for the confusion! The energy bar is meant as an indicator to tell you how long you can hold onto the bear before it frees itself from your grip. Thank you on your praise on mood and idea, and thank you for giving my thing a try! u_u
@geckoo1337 "You deserve respect" I never knew I wanted to hear this so badly, but I did! Thank you so much! :')
@codertrevor Huh. Intriguing it would go down faster on your machine... I'm way too inept technically to explain how that could be, though, sorry D: To hear my game was different from anything else is definitely something I love to hear! Thank you so much for your feedback! I promise next time around there won't be nearly as many technical difficulties! :D