liammasters 2021-04-25 21:54
The story element and music are really well done! It felt like the difficulty ramped up a little too quickly. The different poses everytime you move are a nice touch and really funny.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Elevator Ninja
By loig
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 329 | 3.60 | 30 | |
| Fun | 175 | 3.77 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 578 | 2.98 | 31 | |
| Theme | 190 | 3.96 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 401 | 3.51 | 31 | |
| Audio | 130 | 3.77 | 31 | |
| Humor | 39 | 3.93 | 31 | |
| Mood | 372 | 3.37 | 30 |
The story element and music are really well done! It felt like the difficulty ramped up a little too quickly. The different poses everytime you move are a nice touch and really funny.
The game was really well put together, the sound effects, music, visuals, story, and gameplay all felt really nice together, the only thing about it that I did not like was the fact that whenever you died you had to start from the beginning of the game rather than at the beginning of the level you were in, but overall it was the best game I have played from this jam yet.
Thanks a lot for your very kind comments.
@liammasters indeed, you probably are right about the difficulty curve. I think difficulty is something very difficult to deal with in jams: time lacks for making other people test the game… so it is adjusted to my taste only.
@zim I chose to make the player restart from the beginning because the game is very short and I felt it was a good way to increase the challenge a little bit, while still making the game beatable in a few minutes.
NINJA! Haha very nice :) Nice pace, and these ninja moves are a lot a fun ^^
Took a while before the controls did something. A 'you have reached ..' would be nice to have. Nice graphics and I love the animation of the dancing dude.
The sound effects and visuals were amusing, and fit well into the mood. It was also quite enjoyable to play.
Hahaha, this was really fun! Thanks for making it. You managed to make some classic gameplay have really good gamefeel.
Great game! Pretty difficult indeed, but who doesn't like a little challenge. Can't find anything wrong with the game, hope you do well in the competition!
Gameplay is simple but challenging. The presentation is very well done and charming. Good job!
Super nice graphics! I like the idea to have several games into one. Well done! Quite challenging for me and my lake of skill but I pass the first lvl!
Loved the difference poses for the movement!
Thanks a lot for all your kind comments.
Cool game. I like the idea, but was confused why the platform is lowering. I would have liked to see a more mechanic-based integration with the theme. Well done.
I guess I was expecting to control an actual ninja and that was a little disappointing, but overall a well done game :)
The difficulty was just right for me, I wasn't expecting there to be a second section so that was a nice surprise. The short story at the beginning was a nice intro and the music really helped create a light humorous vibe.
As for improvements the sound effects could have been better, the sound of the rocks hitting the platforms felt too loud and samey. Also, it would have been nice to see particle effects when the rocks break.
Was still a fun experience, thanks!
Thanks for your comments.
@vasco-freitas sorry for the disappointment, this was inspired by NES era games for which you had a wonderful cover, at best vaguely related to the game. Also, I agree that particle effects would have been nice, unfortunately it was a bit too much to make in one weekend (I am using a library that basically can display images and play sounds, that's all… so programming particles would take some time. I guess that not having such things easily accessible is the counterpart of the fun I have programming everything from scratch).
Love the graphic!!!!!
@loig I meant disappointment jokingly, but I see now, that makes sense :)
Well doing it with such a basic library makes it all the more impressive. I of course understand the time constraints, my suggestions were just what I felt would be the next things needing improvement.
I appreciate the LD rocks that was a nice touch. Nice and clean intro, it was super easy to get into it and immediately start playing. I am not that good at fast gameplay so it quickly became not that enjoyable but that's okey. Cool entry.
Fun little game. The intro cinematic was a nice touch, added context and a bit of humour to the experience. A score counter would be a great addition.
Are all the gems in the second level obtainable? It seems like some are placed just to tempt you to die.
Overall, great work!
@jason-wilson yes, all gems are obtainable (in the falling levels at the end, for the elevator phase — which contains some random generation — I did not find time to program a way to ensure that they are all always reachable), even if the last ones may be difficult to reach.
The counter is, by choice, at the end only (it gives you the number of gems you got and the total number of gems in the game). The goal of it is to push the player to try it again by showing that there is a fixed number of gems and all are reachable.
The character animation combined with the sounds he makes was my favorite part. It gave the game lots of personality
A game with a lot of personality and charm - I really liked it! The intro cutscene was helpful little addition, and the gameplay itself was fun. The way the difficulty scaled was nice too - the game felt very nicely paced. It was a little unfair at times, though - having to rapidly move left and right at the end of the falling rocks section seemed almost impossible to do at times. Falling through the spikes afterwards was a nice way to shake up gameplay, but not being able to see below you at times was not too fun. Knowing that info on my second run, however, did make it much more enjoyable. The sound effects were great, and I loved how silly the whole thing felt. It was a really fun experience overall, and the game was very funny - great work!
Sound effects are great, and the stupid and absurd death of the two friends at the beginning is also very fun.
The rocks "48" is also weird and fun, and made me die the first time because I thought it was a bonus.
I did not managed to reach the end, partly because of lazyness to restart at the beginning, partly because I fell on the left side at the beginning of the spike part, and the good path was on the right side. I imagined I would have to learn the complete good path by trial and error, and was not motivated enough to do it.
I did not understand immediatly what was the big brown shape above the hero on the second part, then I realized it was just his backpack.
"Ninja !!"
@recher I think that any screen of the spike part is solvable from any starting position… but indeed it can be more or less difficult depending of this position. It is always difficult for me to balance difficulty in game jams, I don't want to make games that are too easy, but I realize that without having other people testing, there is always a risk to make something too difficult. Hope it was not too frustrating and you still enjoyed it.
Super fun. The controlls are very quick which really makes this game work. I think the audio is my favorite part though. I love the little "ninja!" sfx.
That was so much fun! The mechanic is simple but the ninja poses make it awesome. I was amazed to read in the comments that there was a second level, so I had to go back and keep playing until I beat the first level so I could see it. But you're cruel to make me start over the first level when I die in the second! I did appreciate a lot that it skips the intro (which was great) on subsequent attempts, so it's easy to try over and over. Next time I'm in an elevator I gotta try some ninja moves...
The humor is excellent and I appreciate the different poses! It was really fun, good luck!
I did not make it till the very end... if it is even possible, but this is really nice entry. First I thought that the game takes place just in the elevator, but it was great to see that there is more! I would just do some adjustments in the falling part in the terms of level design, as some obstacles is bit tricky to avaid as the gap is too tight and it is quite hard to fit in with the controls. But really impressive work! Good job done
Thanks for all your kind comments. I really appreciate it.
@jin9310 Yes, it is possible to reach the end of the game, and there is a little endgame animation. There are five screens to deal with in the falling part (including the first one with no obstacles). It indeed requires to be quite quick moving left and right (and I agree it may be too difficult, as it seems to be hard for many commentators). You have some margin though: the collision detection is voluntarily not too strict so you can move a bit before your head is below spikes or after your feet are above it.
For such a simple concept, this game is quite fun to play. The cute art, funny sounds and responsive controls are a big help in that regard. I like the way the difficulty gradually scales up at just the right rate but, like a few other people have mentioned, I would have very much appreciated not having to replay the entire game every time I died at the very last set of spikes...
Also, the introduction seemed very slow paced, especially compared to the brisk feel of the rest of the game.
game should not start from the begining if you die in the parachute section
Two games in one! That's a lot of content, but kinda wish there was a checkpoint after the first part. Was not enough of an issue to stop me from finishing the game, but definitely too much to try to get all 10 diamonds.
Nice art though - hard to make clean colors with hand-drawn shapes look good, adding shadows really helped.
Also nice intro - it must have taken a good chunk of time to create.
Sounds and character poses were really fun - added a lot of hilarity to the game.
Drawn button are a nice touch to explain controls without text.
Fun, fast elevator music, with a nice shift after first part. Also nice asset utilization slowing it down for end of game screen.
Overall, the game has a lot of content and flavor, it was fun to play.
I love the voice acting! My biggest criticism is that when you die you need to restart the game entirely. Even after getting to the parachute section, I hoped I at least had a check point.
I never made it to the end, so I don't know if the gems actually matter at all. It would be nice to display the gems collected on the death screen though.
The graphics are nice, and I love the various poses the guy makes when dodging attacks.
Thanks for all your kind comments!
@msipp27 @100th-coin I agree that I probably should have put a checkpoint at the beginning of the second part of the game. However I did not for two reasons: the game is quite short (maybe a solution would have been to shorten the first part of the game so that it is not boring to do it multiple times) and with such a checkpoint one can no longer voluntarily die to restart if she missed a gem just before this second part (but this could have been dealt with in other ways than having no checkpoints, it's just that I did not find these ways during the 48h of the compo).
@100th-coin Regarding the gem count, it appears at the end, also displaying the total number of gems that can possibly be collected, as a way to convince the player to try it one more time. But I agree that an always visible counter or a counter during the death screen as you suggest could have been a good idea.
Thanks again for all your kind comments! See you next time.