FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → all the king's men

all the king's men

By otresnjak

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall594.0741
Fun4093.3739
Innovation1433.8241
Theme3533.7341
Graphics2683.7141
Audio274.1041
Mood34.5141

Comments

hotpaw 2021-04-25 23:00

Hey! Itch io page did not work for me! Might not be set to public?

otresnjak 2021-04-25 23:03

@hotpaw yup! I've fixed it, thanks so much :)

hotpaw 2021-04-25 23:06

@otresnjak np! Ill try the game tomorrow, need some good rest now

mausimus 2021-04-25 23:08

Pretty cool game, "it's nice to meet you ;)"

otresnjak 2021-04-25 23:19

@mausimus thanks so much :grin:

wasd 2021-04-25 23:25

Cool idea and implementation. AT first i thought this would be a golf game :D. Damn was i wrong. Gonna come back to vote once its open. Great job man.

otresnjak 2021-04-25 23:37

@wasd thanks! :D

prof-suarez 2021-04-26 01:23

Will come back to play after sleeping...brain is fizzing out.

h0pe86 2021-04-26 06:32

I really loved the aesthetics of the game and the emotional message that communicates! There's a cool game mechanic in there. I hoped for more music and some SFX. Great job!

hilvon 2021-04-26 06:36

I think I found my pick for the Best Game of LD48. Not many games can evoke such strong emotions with such seample presentation.

otresnjak 2021-04-26 06:38

@hilvon Aw, you're much too kind! I'm really glad it connected with you. :)

otresnjak 2021-04-26 06:40

@h0pe86 Thanks so much! Maybe once my brain's recovered a bit I'll explore the gameplay a bit more. It was a bit hard to wrap my head around level designs for this. :D

h0pe86 2021-04-26 06:45

@otresnjak Keep up the good work! I really loved the concept behind!

seamonsterart 2021-04-26 08:30

I really loved this one :) so atmospheric and i felt like the game mechanics really connected well and amplified the story you were telling!

nazorus 2021-04-26 09:27

The message of the game hits close to home, I really enjoyed that, the mechanics also do a great at conveying the struggle of getting stuck in doubt. Atmosphere and soundtrack were great too. Good entry.

otresnjak 2021-04-26 12:23

@seamonsterart @nazorus thanks for the kind words! I wasn't sure about the mechanics for a long time but they finally clicked after a lot of experimentation and tweaking. weirdly the trails were kind of the key-- without them it feels kind of random! :)

moomka 2021-04-26 13:57

First level hard to complete without knowledge about sprint)

moomka 2021-04-26 13:59

Musid is good but little depressive

esosek 2021-04-26 14:02

I love the music :) also the effect of going into next level and then vice versa was pretty cool.

the-g 2021-04-26 14:06

Really great, the hints for the controls can be a bit confusing as they're targeting towards a controller, but once you figure it out the game is simple enough. The start is hard but the game rewards you for making it past.

joshuc 2021-04-26 14:11

I liked the game, although there was one level I was stuck on for far too long xD. One thing was that I didn't quite understand the story, but the mood certainly felt like it was there.

gilborn 2021-04-26 14:14

Great art style and music, I loved that you see the coming levels in the distance. Obviously great music and a cool story. The gameplay was interesting and fun. Thank you!

daegonz 2021-04-26 14:22

The connection between the mechanics and the story is awesome! I really enjoyed the mood and the overall consistency of the game, great music too! The only issue i had was with the difficulty of some levels where I got stuck for too long, haha. Great job!

anchorlight 2021-04-27 01:58

Everything felt very deliberate and feature complete in this game-- I like the clean aesthetic, the smooth transitions, and the music score. Nice job tying the mechanics into the actual presentation, too. I kind of wish the game had a second stage of gameplay, but that also might have messed with the pacing.

All in all, great work!

otresnjak 2021-04-27 07:07

@moomka good point! I wanted to teach the player about the movement before introducing sprint, but maybe that first level should be a bit easier...

@esosek thanks! that level transition effect was the idea from which the rest of the game grew out of lol. :)

@the-g yup, meant to make the hints contextual but ran out of time. maybe for a post-compo version! thanks so much for playing!

@joshuc the story's meant to be a little vague (I'm a sucker for innuendo and allusion), but I'm glad the mood came across! :D

@gilborn Thank YOU so much for trying it out!

@daegonz the levels could definitely use a bit more difficulty tweaking, and I think if I do a post-compo version I might add something like ghosts of the trails so you can at least see the things you've already tried. :) thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!

@anchorlight I'm glad it came across as complete-- a lot of it didn't come together until the very end (but I guess that's usually how it goes with jams!) tbh I experimented with adding more gameplay to the 'ascent' versions of the stages but it's exactly as you said, it made the pace feel off. anyway thanks for the kind words! :D

kitsomo 2021-04-27 10:00

Cool entry. I loved the main mechanic and the transition between the levels was really cool. I found it pretty hard to finish though, well done!

skelleroznik 2021-04-27 10:31

Just wow. Such a deep and emotional idea. I loved everything about this game: message, art, music. It just feels so natural. I played through it enjoying every second. Thank you for creating this beautiful thing.

vederant 2021-04-27 12:54

Wow, one of the best games I've seen here so far! Loved the atmosphere. Great medium for self-expression.

maximbegunov 2021-04-27 13:41

I really liked your game. You managed to make a game about moving the ball between other balls very deep and atmospheric. I even had goosebumps for a bit when the two balls became one. Also the transitions between levels are awesome.

thegreenworm 2021-04-27 13:54

This is the best music I've come across so far. Art is simple but super clean. Your levels were hard, but there wasn't many so it wasn't annoying. The story was straight forward but well delivered. Very good entry.

foursay 2021-04-27 15:37

the game play is amazing! though the contorl is a bit hard for me at first but the experience of overcoming each move is interesting. At last the 2 meets and become together satisfy my need. Nice music btw and the interface design is truly splendid. Just confused for the last credits "Made in kyoto": does that mean this game is made in Kyoto, Japan?

antonishig 2021-04-27 21:08

amazing, crazy concept! I like how gameplay difficulty and the story are tied together! <3

deepinthewoods 2021-04-27 23:10

So good! Amazing storytelling, perfect graphics. So happy I played this

turquoise-moon 2021-04-28 00:16

This is very cool!

c4scar 2021-04-28 00:41

So beautiful and a very nice message. Great experience :)

guitarbro 2021-04-28 02:10

Really appreciate the storytelling here. Goes to show you don't need the fanciest graphics to have a compelling game.

My one critique is that it seemed like level 3 was disproportionately hard compared to the surrounding levels, but otherwise a nice little experience.

fatebreak 2021-04-28 15:34

This is probably my favorite game of the Jam thus far. You managed to interpret the "deeper and deeper" theme in a depth of emotion way without feeling too gamey or contrived. This resonated with me a lot. Especially the end. I did not expect to get this kind of emotion from a 48 hour game jam game but here we are. Congratulations and well done!

oldengamer 2021-04-28 21:50

Loved the message of the game.

bassguitarbill 2021-04-29 00:20

Very nice, I really wish there was more. Well done!

phealsout 2021-04-29 00:24

I love it

phealsout 2021-04-29 00:25

The visuals are very nice, the sound is super good the feel is just amazing and the story intertwined in the game is superb. I can do it, I believe now

matterlinx 2021-04-29 00:50

Great job with the story telling. I thought this was a cool take on the theme.

mxbi 2021-04-29 22:39

Loved the game! Did not expect this from such a simple concept - love the personal touch :) and music

aeveis 2021-04-30 06:19

Very nice, liked the message and the simplicity of it. Nice work!

publicidadeba 2021-04-30 15:13

This is my career in the gamedev industry. This game touched me. Thank you.

brad-make-games 2021-04-30 18:37

A very simple but very eloquent game. The song fits the mood and brings it together. The art is minimalistic but works here. And the story is a simple one but is relatable for many people and has a solid mood to back it up. The gameplay itself isn't bad either, although the gameplay didn't evolve much and I think the mechanics had a lot of potential that could have been reached with more in depth levels. Overall this game was still a great experience and a great entry.

joeshanahan 2021-05-01 18:28

Woah, really incredible mood achieved here with such simple visuals. I have to confess I died probably about 30 times on the first level because I didn't know about the sprint. The tutorial for that is on level 2, so perhaps there needed to be an even more basic first level where you don't need to sprint?

I liked going back through the levels and not having any difficulty with them any more, I got the feeling that was part of the metaphor? If that's the case, I think it would've been cool to leave the gravity-sucking things in, but have them affect you much less (maybe not at all) to show that the problems are still there, but they don't affect you any more.

soarendev 2021-05-01 23:19

**vv - Heartstrokes - vv**

- Polished game - Simple but efficient - Awesome overall, everything works together - Awesome narrative design: gameplay, art and sound corresponding perfectly to your message / mood

**vv - Improvements - vv**

- Honnestly, nothing cross my mind except the lack of tutorialization for the first level. Maybe just moving your Sprint explanation directly to the start of the game would be great (or make it easier so we don't need the sprint) - <-Ok maybe just some "discrete" sfx could do the trick, at least when you lose and when you reaches the end of a level; but I do get it could create unnecessary noise to the mood so idk>

= =

Big bravo ! Honnestly you nailed it. I was very touched by the message, and every aspect of the game was corresponding perfectly and working together with it. And even if I put away the message, that's exactly the kind of game I expect from the compo, and here it's polished and "means" something.

Probably my biggest heartstroke of the jam so far, bravo again :sunglasses:

radmccool 2021-05-02 00:41

💕 i really enjoyed playing this. it made me feel good. best game i played so far!

javicoder 2021-05-02 08:30

a beautiful and minimalist game. I loved it. The transitions between levels are very well done.

ruthiepee 2021-05-17 14:13

Beautiful and clever. I could see this game being very popular. Lovely affirmations to read on a day when you're feeling down. I really like the particle trail, it helps you learn what path to take next time. And being able to see the next level deep in the background is very nice for understanding what's up next.