nick-barrash 2021-04-26 04:18
Art is beautiful, simple concept but actually a lot of fun. I assume the enemies move randomly? Neat!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Dahla's Journey
By pijamar
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 143 | 3.86 | 56 | |
| Fun | 241 | 3.66 | 56 | |
| Innovation | 421 | 3.25 | 55 | |
| Theme | 525 | 3.45 | 56 | |
| Graphics | 147 | 3.98 | 56 | |
| Audio | 123 | 3.78 | 54 | |
| Humor | 339 | 2.72 | 48 | |
| Mood | 65 | 4.03 | 55 |
Art is beautiful, simple concept but actually a lot of fun. I assume the enemies move randomly? Neat!
Spectacular look and feel. The music in particular builds a great ambiance. Due the look/scale of it, it took me a few levels to get out of the mindset of puzzle game and in to the mindset of dungeon crawler, and then it really clicked. Great work!
@vickles Thank you for playing — and for the kind words <3 The point you make about the "puzzle feel" is very on-point, I'll keep it in mind, appreciate it :wink:
Hey @nick-barrash, the movement is, well, kind of random:sweat_smile: The plan was for each enemy to move to a random position each turn (if possible). However, this was my first time making a turn-based game, so to be completely honest I did not figure out the movement "code" correctly and sometimes the enemies simply don't move. I just went with it :smile:
Thank you a lot for taking the time to play and comment, I really appreciate it!
Haha interesting! I actually thought it was intentional when they didn't move, it seemed like the enemies were always up against a wall when they didn't move so I just assumed the direction they picked to move was into the wall.
A lot of fun! I had a blast learning the strats
Nice entry, graphics with limited color pallet, and game introduction! I just felt the moving sound fx a bit repetitive after couple of tried, but overall all are fitting well together :ok_hand:
Loved the intro screen. Game felt fair, but a bit slow. Good job, good luck.
Nice aesthetic and story. Slightly slow once you get into it.
Hey @mahjoub I appreciate the feedback! Will take it into account when working on new versions of the game. Thank you so so much for playing :heart:
Hey @xmatos yeah, it is a bit slow isn't it? :sweat_smile: I didn't have the time to adjust the gameplay speed, but will definitely adjust it for possible future versions. Thank you for playing and leaving feedback, you are awesome :two_hearts:
@deepinthewoods I will definitely work on the gameplay speed in the future, thank you for your input :wink: And I deeply appreciate you for taking the time to play the game and leave a comment :slight_smile:
My only real nitpick is that it felt slow after a bit, but then everyone already said that. Instead let me say I loved the song, really added to the overall vibe. I get the sense that it is to be played contemplatively and is more puzzle than rogue, and I like it a lot for that. Do you plan on continuing to work on it?
Hey @threeli thank you for playing and for the in-depth feedback :slight_smile: Yes, I plan on keep working on it, and I completely agree the gameplay is slow, will definitely fix that in the future. I also want to add some items and a bit more story (like randomized lines at the end of each run) to flesh out the experience. Really appreciate your kind words :heart:
The gameplay is slow but the experience is great!
Thank you, @magna, I appreciate the feedback and the kind words :heart: So glad you took the time to play it :smile:
As others have said already, waiting for the enemies to move before you can move again takes the speed out of the game. I would love to have a 'wait' option to stand still for a turn. It's fun having to carefully choose your moves, but sometimes the best option is to wait or else you take damage. Also having no way to regain health makes the game a lot more difficult. This all being said, I still liked playing this game, would love to see where you take it from here!
I like this style :heart:
The presentation is beautiful! I really the like the concept, and it makes for really interesting puzzles to solve. However, due to the enemy movement being random, it feels bad sometimes when you get stuck and can't avoid taking damage due to an unlucky roll. Overall great work!
Great work. Wish the enemies moved a bit faster and that you could regain health to deal with some of the random patters. Loved it!
Thank you for playing and leaving feedback @vimlark! You're a great inspiration to me, I feel super starstruck every time you get to play one of my games :heart:
Hey @corbeng the plan was to have some items to heal or deal AOE damage, but I didn't have the time to implement them :sweat_smile:. Thank you for playing and for leaving valuable feedback :heart:
Thank you @ben-yazi I love the style of your games as well, it's amazing what you accomplished with such a low pixel count :slight_smile:
@bridgeonastick I love the in-depth feedback, thank you! Not having a "wait" action is kind of a pillar of *broughlikes*, but I completely agree the game needs *something* to prevent the annoying "going back and forth" loops, and will definitely work on fleshing out the gameplay for future versions. I deeply appreciate you took the time to play and share your thoughts :heartbeat:
Cool game, love the art style.
Thank you for playing and leaving a comment, @schuster, I appreciate it :heart:
Excellent submission, especially for a Compo game! I think the real shining element of this game is the underlying story and lore. I genuinely had a desire to continue progressing through the levels to see how the story would unfold (though just to be sure, there's currently no further story after the intro scene, right?) If you end up developing this game further, I'd love to follow the story and see where Dahla's quest to answer the question of the meaning of life leads.
I think the gameplay itself is good groundwork for more complex puzzles in the future, maybe with enemies that eventually have predictable paths based on some sort of visual cue. I feel like the current strategy is to just ensure you're always one square away from an enemy until they approach you first so you can attack them safely. I got pretty far following that rule of thumb. Honestly that mechanic of waiting for the enemy to make the first move might lend itself well to a metaphor with the storyline too...
Anyway, great game and nice work!
@jordan-ottesen Hey, I'm super stoked that you got to play the game, and very flattered with your feedback :heart:
Yes, there's no more story after the intro at the time. The game is "endless" at its current state, but the plan is to add more backstory and a proper ending in the future. I wanted to implement more interactions between "The Power" and Dahla, such as multiple different lines of text after the end of each run and item selection in between levels, but I ran out of time :sweat_smile:
I appreciate your insight on the gameplay mechanics, especially your thoughtful suggestion on tying it with the storyline, great suggestion! Haven't thought about it to be completely honest :smile:
Thanks for letting us play! Never seen a game like this before, was very strategic, yet very simple. Just how I like it. I do want to find out the meaning of life, though. And see if it's 42 ;)
I liked this game. It mildly gave me Into the breach vibes, which is another fantastic game. It's a cool idea and a really fun take on a turn based style of game. Great job! Thanks for joining the steam and letting us try it out!
This had a really fun mechanic. I like the turn based strategy. I am notoriously bad at this sort of gameplay style, but the art and the sound were immersive so I didn't mind. Good job!
@1minatur Haha, we all know it's 42, come on! I'll definitely add a proper ending in the future. Really appreciate you guys playing it on stream, thank you so much!
@link270 Hey, thank you for playing the game, I had a lot of fun in your stream! I absolutely love Into the Breach (and FTL), so that's a high praise for me, appreciate it :heart:
@tanner-shelton Glad you enjoyed it, thank you so much for taking the time to play and leave feedback :heart: Also good to know there's something to appreciate even if you're not a hardcore player of super-niche turn-based strategy games :smile:
got to level 12! It's a nice puzzler, I think options really opened up once I realized I could attack back. Eventually I end up trapping myself in a corner though. Is there an ending? Nice job!
Thanks for bringing your game by my stream for playtesting! If you’d like to revisit the play and commentary you can view the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1006134088
Nice puzzle! Just was hopping for an end, for the backstory setup, but still pretty cool!
Thank you @marcmagus! I had a lot of fun in your stream and the feedback you gave was invaluable. It's good to see a veteran *rogueliker* playing the game, it opened up some very interesting questions on the mechanic / gameplay, especially from a strategic point of view. And props on making a physical card game for the jam, super bold move :slight_smile:
That was the initial plan @waltsontanaka but I ran out of time :sweat_smile: Will definitely work on a "proper ending" in the future. Thank you for playing and for commenting, I deeply appreciate it :heart:
@aeveis No ending for now, but I'll add one in future versions. I also think the game is suppose to give clearer instructions on the attack, a lot of people took a long time to figure out they could run into enemies to damage them. Thank you so so much for taking the time to play and leave feedback :heart:
Oh boy has it been a while since I've played a turn based game like this! I always love to see fresh and creative takes on stuff like this! It was very well polished as well, I don't know if I have anything bad to say about it!
@sharks Thank you for playing! I deeply appreciate your kind words :heart: But if you ever find out something "bad" to say about it, don't hold back, any feedback is valuable feedback! :smile:
This is an excellent entry for your first jam!
The enemies were just the right amount of predictable and random to where you had to decide whether or not you could make a risky move, or play it safe. I ran away my first attempt, went full aggressive on my second, and tried to strike a good balance on the third.
I managed to make it to level 3 on my third attempt. Accidentally backed into a corner being too reckless.
The classic Rogue mechanics, sans stats, puts a lot of emphasis on positioning. I would have liked to see variety in the types of enemies and level layout. Also, some way to get back HP, such as one more life every 5 levels or something, would have kept me playing longer.
Good job!
Wow, great great entry! I love the overall look and sound of the game (great music!), and it was very fun trying to find your way to the exit without making mistakes. I made it to the level 8!
The fact you always had to move made it an interesting game, like a strange game of chess where you have to move to some place no matter what your endgoal is. Overall, a fantastic game. Congrats!
Loved the 1-bit aesthetic, great job on music and the lore on the page it really ties it together.
I would have loved to see one more enemy just to see the different synergies and strategies, also having the enemies move the instant the player moves would improve the player experience.
Overall it was a great entry, good job!
@exopunk Thank you for playing! Will definitely work on fleshing out the gameplay with more enemies and items and adjusting the pace for a future version. I appreciate the feedback, glad you liked the game :heart:
@link270 Wow, level 8? That's not an easy feat, congratz :sweat_smile:
Not having a "Wait" action is one of the pillars of the *broughlike* sub-genre, created and popularized by game dev / designer Michael Brough. If you like the mechanic, I recommend checking out his games, especially Cinco Paus.
Thank you for playing and commenting :heart:
@andrewkennedy Thank you so so much for playing and for leaving such in-depth feedback! I was planning on adding items with effects like recovering HP and AOE damage, but simply healing every X levels is a neat idea, I might steal it for future versions of the game :wink:
very nice graphics and atmosphere, I loved the sound effects and music. I just have one thing to complain, the control response its 1s delayed, but idk if its on purpose? but I found it a little annoying. good game! =)
Hey @felo07 thank you for playing and for commenting, glad you liked it! I didn't have time to adjust the slowness of the movement before the deadline, but I'll definitely get to it soon :smile:
Very nice game! I really like the idea of timing your position to attack. It could be interesting to see the same game with other events/enemies/hazards that happen at different times. Fun game, best of luck!
Thank you, @juako, appreciate the feedback :heart: I will definitely add some more stuff to flesh out the gameplay after the jam, so any ideas are very welcome :slight_smile:
Simple mechanics but challenging. I love the art and the music and sound effects are good. Sometimes it feels a bit laggy, but I guess that's because you can't do anything while it's the enemies' turn. I think it's just a lack of feedback or something like that. But apart from that I find it damn solid and polished. Very well done!
@tanis Appreciate the feedback! Will definitely work on improving the pace of play / movement in a future version. Your game is awesome, by the way, great concept, hope you keep working on it :slight_smile:
First of all, thanks so much for the kind feedback on my game, despite it's lack of content. In all honesty, this is maybe my favorite game so far. It has great atmosphere, with it's simplistic and deliberate graphics and audio. The intro got me interested, and wasn't too long. The gameplay was fun, and although it seemed simple at first, it steadily got more challenging. I found you could be unlucky at the start of some levels, and receive unavoidable attacks though.
I couldn't finish the game, but then I read a comment on the itch page that there was no ending, and I came to think that it suited the game's intro story that way. The character's goal was to find the meaning of life, which I felt got answered through the gameplay. You keep pushing forward until you give up and stop trying, or simply aren't able anymore. That' also a valid way to view all kinds of life in general. At least that's how I interpreted it.
Good job!
Really liked the concept and art style! The animations were so smooth for pixel art. My only gripe is that it was hard to tell if there was a way to strategically know where the enemies were moving. Sometimes it was just moving back and forth in place until an opening happened. Generally though, I enjoyed playing your game - great work!
@japayne I greatly appreciate your praise and feedback, thank you! I'm very glad you "got" the concepts of the game, gameplay-wise and story-wise, and that you had fun with it.
About the unavoidable attack situation — you're totally right, it's far from perfect right now and it can lead to some awkward situations. I believe having some way to recover health or some sort of powerful item / special attack that you can use once in a while, such as an AOE effect, could mitigate that. Or I could also rework the level generation somehow to prevent these weird scenarios where there's simply nothing you can do to avoid taking damage. Just brainstorming here :sweat_smile:
I'm honored with your comments and will take them to heart when working in a new version. And congratulations on your game as well, I loved it! :heart:
@echo-gameworks Thank you for playing and commenting :heart:
Some people suggested having an indicator to where the enemies would move on their next turn to expand on the strategic decisions the player can make when moving. I'm not sold on that solution as it would remove some of the "randomness" of the experience, however, I totally agree that I have to do *something* to mitigate that "going back and forth" as it's far from satisfying gameplay :sweat_smile:
Loved your game by the way, congratulations!
This game was really cool ^^ I think the story and art were amazing! The game itself also looked pretty polished. Because of the randomness the game sometimes felt a little unfair, since sometimes your just synchronized to die or spawn in an unfair starting condition with 4 enemies right next to you ^^ Maybe some balancing or handcrafted levels could solve this issue. Other than that I really enjoyed playing the game :) It was really well executed and the game flow felt right. Good Job :)
Thank you for the kind words, @drskort! I can definitely agree that the current randomness/proc-gen results in some awkward situations in gameplay, I'm definitely going to work in a solution to mitigate this in a future version. I appreciate the detailed feedback, you're awesome :heart:
This one reminds me somehow of Caves of Qud.
@pierce-brooks That's a hell of a praise for me, I love Caves of Qud :heart:
Might have been inspired by it without realizing it, I can see where you're coming from. Similar color palette, broody music. Good eye, thank you for playing :wink:
Simple but great graphics, really love the style and the gameplay is nice, music adds to the mood very well. I hope I get to play an enhanced version after the jam as well!
Great work!
Thank you for playing and for the kind words @okamit! Will definitely add stuff to the game after the jam. And hey, your game looks sooo cool, saw it on a live stream a couple weeks ago, super sweet! Will play it later tonight.
Congratulations to you and the rest of your team for the great entry :slight_smile:
This is a very interesting game. The randomized nature of the combat means that the only way to actually kill enemies is to stall and hope that they decide to do a dumb move. It also seems to me that the combat can essentially trap you in unwinnable situations.
I think, then, the question is: how much control you want the player to have over the outcome of the game. The thematic implication of RNG dominating the outcome so strongly is that the player's decisions and skill is largely insignificant--and it seems to me like that fits with the rest of the story in the game so far.
It also could be interesting to give the player more and more tools as they complete more runs, and tie that progression into the story somehow. I think a strongly RNG-dominated game does give a lot of thematic material to work with, if that's what you want to do.
Aside from that: I liked the graphical style of the game, especially the introductory text. The gameplay of the game as it stands got a bit repetitive by the time I died (floor 12 or 13)--I'm sure adding more enemies and other things would help there.
I did enjoy the combat despite its RNG nature. It's kind of fun to keep dancing around the enemies until they make a bad move.
@pijamar Looking forward to it! And thank you so much! <3
@honey-pony Very in-depth feedback, I appreciate it!
You raise some very good points about the randomness from an unusual point of view. The initial idea was that the story would be gradually shown to the player between levels and runs, with a little bit of meta-progression (for instance, I wanted items / skills to be randomized so you'd never know their effect before using them for the first time). I didn't have enough time to do all that, so I ended up cutting a lot in favor of a more simple experience. But I'll definitely revisit some of my first ideas post-jam — and the things you said gave me the opportunity to look at them in a different way. Thank you very much :heart:
I really had a blast playing your game. Felt complete. Perfect mood and esthetic.
Hey @danceswe thank you so much for your praise, very sweet of you :heart: I'm also grateful that you took the time to play my game and leave a comment, I really appreciate it :smile:
I love the color palette! Are the enemies moving in a random direction, or does the AI try to hunt you down in any way? I noticed some levels were incredibly easy, even compared to levels before them. The music is pretty catchy though, great work on that! Nice game.
Hey @100th-coin! Thank you for playing and for the kind words :heart:
Yes, the enemy movement is random (and a bit glitchy, the enemies were supposed to always *try* to move if there's a direction available, but I must've messed up the code somehow). I will definitely rework the proc-gen / movement in the future, to make the level design a bit less random and prevent these incredibly easy levels where you basically just walk forward and get to the end.
Quite cool, loved the monochromatic look!
Thank you for playing and commenting, @brice-mahier :heart:
Cool concept, very polished for a solo project! I played my first runs without attacking enemies because I hadn't read all the instructions, and turns out it was a fun game too :laughing: with the attack it sometimes gets a little grindy, as people before me might've said it already. Overall very cute, and very relaxing to play. The music is cool, my roommate came to my computer to watch me play when they heard it!
Really cool game. Would love to see more mechanics added. Alternative color palettes would also be a really fun addition.
@rhoff95 Nice idea on the alternative color palettes, will look into implementing that :heart:
Also, thank you for taking the time to play and leave feedback, you're awesome :slight_smile:
@alyd-asmar Thank you for playing and for the kind words (and please thank your roommate for me :sweat_smile:). I definitely plan on adding more mechanics to try and mitigate the repetitive grindy gameplay in the future.
I loved your game so so much! The cutscene at the beginning was really intriguing, and what an ambiance!! The music is really effective, the graphics are beautiful.
I didn't unsderstand how the ennemis were supposed to move, I guess it was random? Either way, I managed to find some kind of strategy to progress through the levels, so that's fine for me!
I don't have much to suggest, you did a really fine job here, congrats!
Thank you, @madorly, glad you enjoyed the game, I greatly appreciate the kind words :heart:
The enemies were supposed to pick a random direction to move to every turn if able. However, I somehow messed up the code and sometimes the enemies simply don't move, which made the movement a bit more randomized than I planned. I did not have time to fix the coding, so I just went with it :sweat_smile:
Ah, a Construct3 Game! How was your experience with the Engine? I had been using it for the last two Ludum Dares and quite enjoyed myself with it. Especially the flexibility you have towards working with Visual Scripting and mixing things up in some parts with Javascript.
Overall, I love the nostalgia that your color palette gives me - it reminds me a lot of a old GB game. And the Music was very well done as well! Very awesome stuff, looking forward to your next entry!
I didn't get to rate this in time, but I love the artwork and music! The gameplay is a bit too slow-paced for my tastes though.
@alchemic Thank you for playing and for the kind words :heart: I will definitely work on picking up the pace of the gameplay in the future, I appreciate the feedback :slight_smile:
@xatulu Thank you for playing and for leaving such a lovely feedback :slight_smile:
I love Construct 3! I made my first game using Godot, but I switched to Construct 3 afterwards. From what I read / watched, it seems it's very important to make as many games as possible when you're learning gamedev, and not having to actually write hundreds of lines of codes to make a simple prototype makes this easier for me. It's very easy to explore genres and gameplay mechanics while also learning the basics of object-oriented programming in Construct 3. I can see myself making the switch back to Godot in the future, though, or using both engines for different things when I'm more comfortable with writing code.
I loved the concept of your game, hope you keep working on it :trophy: