yojammerjammer 2021-10-03 23:16
Cute concept!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD49 → The Madness of Larry Donovan
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 465 | 3.01 | 58 | |
| Fun | 488 | 2.70 | 58 | |
| Innovation | 496 | 2.59 | 59 | |
| Theme | 451 | 2.92 | 59 | |
| Graphics | 498 | 2.52 | 59 | |
| Audio | 234 | 3.25 | 58 | |
| Humor | 353 | 2.37 | 50 | |
| Mood | 76 | 3.76 | 58 |
Cute concept!
A lot of ideas implemented pretty well! It's clear there's a lot more depth to the gameplay than I had the time to explore. Nice!
Nice! This was fun to play! Good mood. Not too hard, but I still felt on edge!
Fun, Although I didn't really see how the theme was included. Could you clarify?
Nice idea !
very interesting mechanics and concepts! the music and the overall theme of the game is really well executed.
i feel that the paint mechanic has a lot of potential, but when the main thing you're doing is wandering from room to room its pretty difficult to plan out a certain color that you want to have.
great work overall tho!
@fonkin
To clarify how I used the theme: Unstable as in mentally unstable as in madness. Also, the way the level changes is not meant to be a new level... Larry Donovan does not travel anywhere, the world is altering itself around him. That's why the screen shakes and he says things like "ooh my head!". Probably could have made that clearer somehow...
confusing at first, then I got the hang of it :P Mental illness is something interesting to use as a theme if you use it to raise awareness for these issues (see hellblade for example) :) great work :)
@rzfmzn I completely agree! Thank you for bringing that up!
I was a bit nervous about using that as my theme, but I tried to very respectful with my treatment of mental illness.
1. Larry Donovan is not a raving madman, he is just suffering and doing his best in a confusing situation. 2. When the Demons speak, it tells you their name. (I really need to make this system better, it might be going by too fast.) Notice the names of all the demons are types of mental illnesses or parts of the brain. My intent here is that Larry Donovan's struggle is against these illnesses or against his own brain. 3. My writing sucks and is mostly place-holder because I added it too late when I was already worn-down. If I had being doing the Jam and not the Compo, I would have gotten someone else to give me better lines to present.
The game is really scary, I turned on the light. I'm not sure if I was playing correctly. I was trying to find all the object without been attacked by monsters. The color object didn't really change the way I played. Thank you for making this game.
I feel like I've been taken back in time to old flash games on newground. The unstable theme is strong in this one.
The gameplay is really fun and intuitive. I know which things I should walk towards and which I should not. One thing I really liked, which is small but important, was that the player character properly turned around depending on what direction you moved. You could have just as easily left it as a static image, but that extra bit of polish goes a long way. I also really like that the art style is so consistent. It's got a really strong mood.
Interesting concept. Not sure I fully was able to play as the taser didn't seem to do anything that I saw, but maybe that was just me not understanding the instructions.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and mood of this game - I felt the sound was well designed, and the gameplay itself was engaging. One small suggestion I had while playing the second level, is that adding a minimap showing which rooms you've already been in might help, as I found myself going in circles a few times (although admittedly if this is added, it might detract a little from the atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty). Overall, I enjoyed it :)
@weenie-walker-games
That is a good point, I didn't think about how that might be unintuitive.
The Taser is supposed to change what happens when an Demon runs into you. Instead of causing damage, the Demon is stunned. Different Demons shake off the effects faster or slower, but it acts to protect you from an attack, if you use it at the correct time.
@thesedatedprince
Good suggestion!
I should totally have done a mini-map. I want to change some things anyway, and a mini-map is now the top of my expanded feature list.
It occurs to me now that a mini-map would be a good way to hammer home the whole "you are not travelling somewhere else, the level is changing around you" aspect of levels.
Mood was great. Cool to have different items and the progression of the "story"
Interesting (^w^). But way too scary for me ! (I personally keep dying after the 3 scraps (^^")) I'm curious to know what the flower does though. (Hysocyamus ?) It says it ward off confusion, but what does that mean exactly in game ? Does it prevents a specific monster from attacking you ?
Neat! The sound design is quite nice. It's impressive how a combination of good sound and gameplay mechanics can make even such a crude looking game atmospheric and tense. The gameplay has potential, but I found the levels to be a bit too mazelike. Some landmarks, less completely empty, fully interconnected rooms would help a lot, as would a minimap, like someone mentioned.
@yohsk13 Some of the monsters inflict different effects. If you pick up the appropriate item, it both cures the condition and prevents you from contracting it on further hits.
(Good idea that it could ward off the associated monsters! I like that!)
The status effects that are implemented are: 1. Confusion. When you get Confused, a Star symbol appears and your controls get mixed up.) Hysocyamus (the flower) to counter. 2. Venom/Sickness. When you are affected by this condition, you are slowed WAY down. Antidote (the syringe) protects you from this effect.
@the-lame-brain Ohhh ok. Make sense. Thanks for the explanation. I remembered being slowed but not confused.
It's an interesting concept, and I liked the atmosphere the game had. It's my first exposure to a spooky thing this October. Thank you for setting the mood for this month. :)
I found the theme to be very engaging, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Really cool! The graphics are simple but it makes it easy to focus on the feeling that the game is leading you. I really enjoyed the exploring of the maze. The tunnel vision and the fact there wasn't a map made a big difference (in a good way). The first time I heard the monsters was a big jump scare :laughing: The only problem for me was that the enemies weren't much of a threat (except the bouncy pink guy that gave me a lot of trouble). All in all I really liked the game. Well done!
I should have read the story first. Expected that I could be able to kill the monsters - but makes sense. A taser is for stunning and not for killing. So that actually matches very well.
For some "levels" I just could run through the levels - monsters never became anyhow dangerous. That makes it hard to handle them in the later levels.
What I really liked was that the game is communicating every item to the player very well! In many games one gets an item and creators thought they are self-explaining ... and I often don't understand them.
Like others I had problems to recognize the theme. After your explanation I got the idea behind it and I think it is totally valid to implement the theme as the story. But then the game should get more story-telling.
Very nice, the mood is very fitting. The items are a great thing, I found myself running back to places where I left some when I needed them, added a lot to the gameplay :)
Cool game, really like the atmosphere that you build by audio, graphic and animation.:)
My favorite enemy is the green vibrating trapezoid. My least favorite is the pink blob that charges really fast.
Never realized that a bunch of polygons could be so creepy. Eye indicator is quite cool as well.
atmospheric :) I agree with the other posters that having a minimap would help, though maybe it wouldnt fit with the theme
@ghoulean The trapezoids are mostly random, it makes it really hard for them to catch you, but they HIT HARD!
On the first attempt, the monster did not appear. The boots make you too fast. not a fan of pixel art, but the atmosphere in the game is there. especially felt when I was running on my first try alone. not a bad ambient.
Definitely a bit rough, but nice to see that you were able to strap something together! I am always stoked with compo entries. I cannot fathom how someone can do ever part in 48 hours!
Unsettling, aye). Loved the drone vibe. Wished for more action to happen sooner, and more narrative within the game itself. But cool entry, really, thanks!
not a massive fan of the art but the music and sound affect is very good at making me feel creeped out and knowing what the main character is feeling.
Graphic is quite basic but appropriate at the same time. You used quite nicely your skills and that's appreciable. The reason why I cannot forgive you for is that I got killed while I was on a menu screen, waiting for the info stack to reach the end (I gathered several objects and descriptions pop up quite slowly). That decided my stop in trying the game, sadly (I went quite deep, though). Overall, mostly, I liked the way you put things toghether.
The crude art and the music helps with the unsettling athmosphere ; I think more sound effects (relative to itemsfor example) would have enhance the experience. Also may be a little bug : I kept having items description show up again and again, not related to my current item... But overhall good job!
Very unsettling and stressfull, good job on that! A bit difficult to grasp the use of the various items for me but I got over it :-)
I COULDN'T FIND THE TAZER OMGGG Tbh wasn't really sure what the goal was. It felt like I was just mindlessly exploring. Sometimes the monsters felt really easy to avoid, and other they'd just pummel you to death in an instant. I quite enjoyed the atmosphere!
Spooky atmosphere. But why am I controlling a giant bobble head? oO
Interesting concept. The graphics, audio and gameplay all fit the "unstable mind" vibe you were going for. An annoying bug I came across was that the text at the bottom just kept repeating itself, luckily it disappeared the next level.
I loved the way how "Programmer Art" looks compatible with the theme and the game. There are tons of side mechanics like gathering items for each disadvantage or painting ourselves to camouflage. And all of those are very well thought with core mechanic.
Some mental diseases are very buggy like chasing across like 5 rooms. And also item pickup texts are shown infinite. But despite all these minor things, this game is legit! Well done!
Nice mood and audio. Pretty simple game, but evading the monsters and finding the pieces was fun. I never figured out how to use items, but still managed to beat the game by using the tazer at the right time. Wish there was an ending, it just reset me back to the main menu after I completed the collage.
It's a little hard, and relies very much on luck, depending on wether early or late you find the piece of picture.
I managed to take 4 of them, then horribly died from two pink demons or whatever.
I like all the mental-illness things. It's a good idea.
The texts said by the hero and the demons should be written on bubbles, above them. I could not read any of the demons sayings, because I was watching them to try to avoid them, and did not have even a microsecond to look at the lowest part of the screen where the text was.
It would have been good to explain more clearly how the paint cans work. I thought they were only one-shot, so did not want to use them until I realized they are "infinite paint cans", and you can use them to cycle through the quantities of color you put on yourself.
This painting idea is really strange, but I liked it. I also liked very much the monochromic designs, with color changing at each room. It reminds me of "Sortilège", an old game I played 25 years ago on my TO7-70 (a computer with cassettes). You can see screenshot of this game here : [http://dcmoto.free.fr/programmes/sortileges/](http://dcmoto.free.fr/programmes/sortileges/)
Overall, a nice and weird game. Thank you !