diaonic 2020-10-04 19:38
Neat little game, I like the limited color palette. My only critique was I couldn't figure out how to start the game. Took me awhile to realize that alt was the primary control.
Nice job overall!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Arcade Legend
By samuli
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 181 | 3.66 | 27 | |
| Fun | 279 | 3.34 | 27 | |
| Innovation | 329 | 3.26 | 27 | |
| Theme | 451 | 3.26 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 128 | 3.86 | 27 | |
| Humor | 67 | 3.66 | 27 | |
| Mood | 186 | 3.46 | 27 |
Neat little game, I like the limited color palette. My only critique was I couldn't figure out how to start the game. Took me awhile to realize that alt was the primary control.
Nice job overall!
@diaonic Thanks! I'll add the controls on the page.
The theme is really clean and I enjoy the writing from the perspective of the arcade kid.
Gorgeous art style, simple controls and great atmosphere, I like this one a lot. Little too grindy for my own liking and no music are the only criticisms I have.
omg i love your game so much. super cute graphics, i love the gameplay and i love interacting with the NPCs. great work!!!
Wasted a bunch of coins playing Catris to find out that King of Streets was the deal. That guy was scamming me for sure (or I was scamming him by challenging after spending my allowance). I love the nostalgia that it brings.
It's the first time I spent so many time on a game with gameboy look. I enjoyed it.
Pretty cool game! It got a bit grindy, but at least there were new lines about my skills improving, and I could chat with NPCs, so it didn't get too boring. :) I finished it, though I don't think I even talked to the "Elite Gamer"... should have been more thorough.
The time limit seemed a bit generous? A fun game, still!
The amount of coins would have been nice to see on the screen. I didn't realise at first that the final game doesn't need coins.
Thanks all for kind comments!
@arzi Final game not needing coins was an oversight that I realized only after deadline. Luckily it doesn't really matter as I wanted to keep the game easy. It is no fun if you lose a game like this after 10 mins of playing. For same reason I gave plenty of time for the player. You really have to lose on purpose.
I tried adding coins, but GB Studio is quite limiting, so couldn't do it in a sensible way. I will most likely continue doing my Game Boy games in lower level C-based frameworks in the future. GBS is still a nice game engine with low barrier to entry for non coders. :)
I like it a lot!
I will suggest to add a "tired" meter to limit the number of machines you can do per game, because if you start playing against the guy on the second machine you can get a lot of money each day (I will say that you can end in two days if you start with the LUCKY machine, right?). You can also change the arcade place each day, allowing to play some machines and not others :smile:
But a part from that, I really enjoyed it, and I love the graphics :heart_eyes: Good job!
✔️ The environment was overall very detailed, I loved the little animations and the npc text boxes.
✔️ The retro art style really fits with the theming of the game.
➖ I would have loved so see some little mini games for each of the games, I think that could have been fun.
I think the game was actually a bit long for a jam game. Still, the writing was engaging enough and improving your stats is always addicting, and I finished it :D Nice job
I loved your game! Good to see that I wasn't the only crazy one to make a ROM for a game jam :)
The ending was funny, but it reminded me that I never tried to challenge the elite gamer. I'll have to replay the game to check that later.
...
And I can't believe that only now - while writing this comment - I understood why there was a cat asking for a cheeseburger :face_palm: :sweat_smile:
Nice game! Quite long and a bit grindy, but fun idea with some decent art! It really missed some arcade sounds for atmosphere...
Unexpected and cheerful game =) Visually is good enough, I mean I like a lot the GBA palette and the environment, but the characters are a bit too sharp.
I liked that you don't have actually to play minigames (I was a little bit cared by it but it's ludum dare fatigue of playing too many games ahah) but you tell what you are doing, and the way you do it is compelling (and there are so many texts!) and somehow helps staying in that fantasy. If the minigames were playable maybe the focus would have shifted.
It's very nice especially at the start, but I've to say that towards day 6-7 I was a bit tired, it is a bit repetitive but still I was engaged enough to want to reach the end!
That said, no music or sound whatsoever was so sad, they could have made the game a lot better but I guess you know and just didn't have time. I see this is a compo game so it is even more understandable you couldn't make it, and it blows my mind seeing the polish of the game and the content in only 48 hours.
The elite gamer that can take coin from you is a little bugged: if I had no coin I could still challange him with no problem. And when I was able to beat him, I could beat him indefinetily (I think at least) to have infinite amount of coin everyday. I don't know for sure since I didn't want to exploit it and I've done it max 2 times in a day.
I easily found the bottom entrance to the second room, but I think it could be a bit more obvious, being a gamer for me it was a second nature to try that way but it could not be the same for a more casual one.
The change of the speed through the guy it's nice but for me it is totally an extra, the walking speed is super perfect as it is now. I've also maybe added a way to know how many coins you have currently, and another option on games to just say no instead of practice and score.
I just realized towards the end that the games name were referring to real name like catris/tetris lol, nice detail ahah Besides, when the guy say that he must put sunglasses on to go on in the focus game, I hoped the sprite changed form then on to have them, it would have been so funny lol The cat is still a secret to me, who knows if you can find a cheeseburger somehow!
The end thing with you saying go away and stuff for me was a bit out of context and more a thing to add to sound cool like 4th wall breaking and stuff, but it was not fitting the rest of the game. Super cool tho that the game is playable on a gba, I don't know how hard it is to develop on it nowadays but for sure it is a challenge!
Overall, great and surprising game! I liked it a lot =)
@toccio94 Thanks for such a long and detailed reply. Glad you liked them game!
Elite gamer being an infinite money machine was a known issue that I left in. No harm done in exploiting his wallet. You could basically beat the whole game in two or three days by using him, but hss! Don't tell the secret to anyone!
As for total lack of audio. You are correct, no time to do everything in a compo game. I hardly got this done in time. Testing that everything works in a text heavy game takes time! I am pretty sure there are still some typos and weird sentences in the game leftover from my sleep deprived writing. :D
Great game! I like this a lot. Maybe adding an option to not play a game would be nice, in case the player changes decision their decision or just walked to the wrong game, but as every game has to be played, it might not be that important in the end.
This was pretty grindy but....the text was at least a little bit interesting and the ending made it worth it, lol!
The graphics are great and it looks like a great cozy dingy arcade! If you added some bleeps and bloops in the background it would go a long way to further sell the setting.
For me the gameplay was a bit repetitive - it somehow reminded me of Tamagochis which were always a bit too much busywork and too little satisfaction for me.