FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → -Y-

-Y-

By iluvatar

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall9513.3765
Fun13642.7465
Innovation8673.1965
Theme14522.4164
Graphics2094.2667
Audio3413.6966
Humor11812.0556
Mood1933.9863

Comments

wafflecomposite 2021-10-03 15:46

Really like the style!

oillen 2021-10-03 17:01

Fun: (-) the game is too short & simple (I didn't mean too easy, but it is almost too easy) (+) The world & characters are beautiful & interresting , that promises a lot of adventures. (o) The game needs to be more as it's current state, it is a (successfull) proof of concept. Innovation: (+) Communication only by pictures/pictogramms is an interresting concept, although there could be more going on. Theme: (o) is there something about the theme? I usually don't care that much about it myself... Grafics: (+) Art is well done both in concept & execution. (+) Animations are well done. Audio: (o) there could be some soundtrack, something like occasional tribal drumming in the distance. Humor: (o) the game is not about making jokes, that is all ok to me. Mood: (+) The artstyle & sounds creates a gloomy mood. --- my cathegories --- Quality/Polish: (+) There is a main menu, where you also return when the game ends by the character's death/victory. (+) Wow esc opens an additional menu! Genre: (o) another point&click adventure, that could be a lot of entertainment if expanded further. Szenario: (+) Your task in the game is initially unclear, what creats tention. Setting: (+) The dark forest/jungle seem to have a lot of mysteries, dangers & treasures, that could be explored. Story(telling): (+) There are "dialogues" that might inform or confuse the player, which is innovative Controls: (+) the game is easy to use (+) the cursor has a feedback if an object is interactable Rules: (+) interactions are easy & clear (o) there could be more objects/point of interrest. Complexity: (-) the game can be rushed with 6 clicks (including the main menu). (o) the game could use more puzzles, items, item combinations and/or dialogues with options. Difficulty: (-) there is only one interaction that is some kind of resistance, the adversary. (o) it would be cool if all options could be viable solutions, with the condition, that each option need some kind of preperation like solving a puzzle, an information out of a dialogue or gaining a certain item/ items combined. Content: (-) 3 of the 6 interaction can be ignored, they seem to be more of a distraction to me. (o) the Stones Glyphs could be part of a puzzle, or you need to find a missing one (o) the Warrior could be more part of solving the game, e.g. giving you a item or the knowlege to overcome the adcversary (o) all or at least more dialogues could be with options (o) a second level/area would have been great --- verdict --- Overall: Y is a proof of concept, it is a very short game with very few features. It holds up standards in some technical areas, what your older games didn't. As almost usual, the game is leading in areas of art and story. This game is quite lovable, has serious potential, but leaves me alone in want of more. final Suggestions/Ideas: It seems to me that your Ludum Dare games are "shrinking" more and more. You could be more open about joining the jam instead of compo - not only for additional time, although nobody prevents a jammer to release a game early, but to have a more loose rule set allowing cooperation and/or far more extensive preperations. In a jam you could create a improved version of your older games with or as additional episodes of an adventure... or get gud, do moar! ;)

fortey 2021-10-03 17:10

Wow! very beautiful!

the-crane 2021-10-04 03:39

Hello, I can't play the game, do you know the reason?

iluvatar 2021-10-04 06:45

@the-crane Hello, what exactly is the problem? Do you have an error? Are you on Mac? Or you can't even download it?

bklolo 2021-10-04 07:14

Great concept. Not really my type of game, but this simple set up did pique my interest!

listonos 2021-10-04 07:51

I remember your last LD entry and once again the art is stunning. :clap: for going text-less. I was little confused but did manage to finish it. I wasn't huge fan of the controls, small hit-boxes and the movement felt little choppy for some reason. Very short game indeed but the amount of assets makes up for it, at least effort wise :blush: It looks like a very interesting world, I would love to see more of it. I think it would work well for hollow knight style game.

ytaha 2021-10-04 08:25

I really liked the concept of a textless adventure game. I might steal that someday :D Firstly the art is amazing. Audio is really good. Doesnt really need a music. And the main thing is the game is too short, it doesnt really touch on a textless adventure without much story at all. But of course this is made in 48 hours so its quite normal :D Overall amazing game. Keep up the good work

fabernull 2021-10-04 08:28

It's so pretty! the environment and gameplay style makes me want to explore the world. Interface felt a little slow and it was a bit short but that just means it did its job in making me want more. Great work :grin:

m11 2021-10-04 09:30

Stunning art (lovely colour palettes) and a great execution of a textless adventure. The one thing is (to echo other comments) the hitboxes felt a bit small? But overall, a brilliant take on the theme :)

final-act 2021-10-04 14:19

Cool and it looks amazing!

dent 2021-10-04 17:49

Very pretty and moody and I also like the "You need to figure this out on your own" aspect. It was a bit hard to click on some objects because you had to aim pixel perfect with the mouse, but other than that it was smooth sailing!

cerieyele 2021-10-04 19:01

Way too short, small hitboxes and poor animations, but good palette, great idea and style

jin9310 2021-10-04 19:45

Great entry that might be short, but I must say that I am impressed how you handled to tell player what to do without using any words. Certainly not an easy task. Also the atmosphere is amazing! Would love to see more from this world :P Great job and thank you for such experience

niterich 2021-10-04 20:59

I'd love to see more from this game! Beautiful art and excellent sound design, but it's just too short!

psv-games-studio 2021-10-04 21:42

I liked this game. I thought it was really cool the fact that there are no texts, it gives more complexity to understand what the symbols mean, the graphics are very nice and worked, they manage to convey an atmosphere of a dark forest, I also found the game very short.

glaikunt 2021-10-04 21:54

The graphics are stunning! I put the stone in the staff and things happened wasn't sure what else I was to do. Enjoyed playing it though. The sound really fit well with the environment. Great job!

henriquecanella 2021-10-04 22:05

Beautiful pixel art! The only thing that was kind of annoying was the hitbox for clicking on some objects, but overall simple but very polished game =)

python-b5 2021-10-04 22:19

This was really cool! I loved how detailed the graphics were. Just wish it were longer! :)

I also thought some of the wait times for interacting were a bit too long.

Really good job!

jammygunns 2021-10-04 23:45

Beautiful art and an interesting idea to use only symbols instead of text.

It is a great start to what could be a more involved story.

I hope you continue to work on this game and expand it further.

forik 2021-10-05 00:33

Cool graphic and atmosphere. Nice work!

mabrax 2021-10-05 01:27

Very nice game. I like the old point-and-click pixel art-based games. Too sad it was too short.

beats 2021-10-05 01:30

The art and atmosphere is awesome, the game itself was very short and simple, good to still see an AGS user ,nice.

vectrex28 2021-10-05 04:09

Audiovisuals are top notch, really gives the game a mysterious feel. Very innovative game too. However, while it is a cool proof of concept, the game is very short. I'd have appreciated some more content. Understandable given the care that went into the assets, but even then it feels a bit frugal. Also, I don't really see the theme in this game. Not a deal breaker but I still want to point that out. Keep up the good work :D

amkingtrp 2021-10-05 05:32

This has the makings of an interesting adventure game like Samorost; I absolutely love the art style and the textless concept works pretty well. This would probably work well as a point and click mobile game (tablet rather than phone).

human-writes-code 2021-10-05 06:11

It's certainly a beautiful game. The colour palette, the lack of text and the squawking of crows gives it a definitely unsettling feel. I am not 100% sure I really understood what the pictures/icons were telling me to do but I still managed to complete the puzzles. I'm kind of sad that it was so short because I was just starting to get into it when it ended. Overall, a gorgeous game that left me wanting more.

z0rg 2021-10-05 07:47

Love the graphics and the sound ambiance, the game is a bit short, I would have liked to play it longer =D

darthboseiju 2021-10-05 09:11

I like the sound design and visuals a lot. Having to interpret the icons was fun and it was a cool experience. As some of the others have mentioned, a little short! Would have loved to have seen more but such is jam life!

becky-rayner 2021-10-05 11:47

Love the visuals! Absolutely stunning, great concept of going text-less; makes it very accessible for a wide audience. Sound design also amazing, great job!

randomphantom 2021-10-05 15:14

Cool idea to make a textless adventure. Although it feels kind of like it ended just when things got interesting. The adventure game bits felt a little sluggish with a long break between clicks. Great pixel art and audio work.

gord10ahmet 2021-10-05 15:47

I loved the idea and the graphics!

amaroq 2021-10-05 15:59

No hot take here but the art the stunning and the sounds add so much to the mood. Well done!

saltysa 2021-10-05 18:35

The game is so beautiful and the ambiant sound is really nice. Like everyone else, I wished it was longer but I loved it while it lasted

hellequinne 2021-10-05 21:40

Very pretty. Nice concept. Would love to see what you could accomplish with more time or a larger team.

e-m 2021-10-05 21:49

Nice visual style and sounds!

hotowlgirls 2021-10-06 00:36

Nice imagery, it's a little short but it's a solid game.

mrbell270 2021-10-06 16:03

Wonderful artwork and fitting sound-design!

It makes me sad, that art is not going to be in some massive adventure game.

I hope you are planning to continue development, oillen wrote pretty thorough review to begin with.

Good luck, keep up the good work!

jpatchz 2021-10-06 16:07

Very intriguing. It's way different than I expected. A little hard to understand at the beggining, but after a few minutes I think I could understand how the game works. Nice job!

rongo-matane 2021-10-06 19:28

I don't think i understood anything. I assumed: - the fairy said to talk to the monster, so i would grow - the ston said that if i strike a monster, it turns evil/angry - the big guy said to put the crystal into the staff - i could strike the tree, talk to the tree or heal it

I initially did everything correctly, but i felt i lost the game because of the big dangerous eyes at the end. Is there another ending? What did the fairy really say?

Overall it was interesting, and i especially liked the soundscape. The palette is also really nice. It would have been great if i could have decided when to move ahead, not wait for some timer until i am allowed to move again. The premise/idea of non text based game was also interesting, i wonder if that worked out (as in, players interpret it mostly correct). Good work with the game :)

zhanna 2021-10-06 20:30

The game looks good, I don't think I understood anything though

zacharypinkham 2021-10-07 17:24

Nice concept, I liked the visuals and the forest sounds were a nice touch. I often found it hard to click on one specific thing, I understood how to line up the former of the cursor, but the control required was a little bit too fine…that being said, maybe I’m just dumb, but it was a little hard to parse any information from the very low-poly art, so I wasn’t really sure where to find things or what to do—that combined with the cursor control issues preventing me from feeling my way around made it so I couldn’t really progress, but I’m willing to chalk that up to my own error and stupidity so I won’t hold that against you ;), still happy to give this a good score because this looks like something really good is there!

jerem-watts 2021-10-08 03:54

Short but sweet! Good use of pleasing palettes for the background art for sure! I'm glad to have done the same ludum dare as games like this one!

javicoder 2021-10-08 09:24

I would highlight the setting. it is a short game with few features, but for a jam the rest is great.

tatu-heinamaki 2021-10-09 19:10

Great mood and I can sense a bigger world existing outside the scenario of this game. Just using symbols is a cool idea and making a game like that is a challenge. Balancing that hardness works quite well altho I found some symbols obvious and some too cryptic. Don't really see the theme applying to this. The weird huge knight dude is cool!

kukurammus 2021-10-09 19:31

Art is good, but felt a little short and easy

blushingcrow 2021-10-16 02:13

Art/pallette is inspired and it's clever to make theworld-building necessarily happen in the interpretation of the player - but of course textless/non-explained games are a double edged sword - because you can't convey a tale in depth, the puzzles and interactions necessarily become more simplified/maybe trivial.

I'd be interested to see this game taken in a direction like a game like Samorost, for instance - I think it's a fertile concept.

dock-frankenstein 2021-10-17 08:47

One thing I can point out is that the game is in an odd resolution that you can't change. Sometimes it's hard to click on a small animated object (as the pixels move) and when interacting there was no clear way of exiting the animation. The pause was so long I thought I either didn't know which button to press or I was soft locked. Having more to do would also be appreciated

emaigualmc2-art 2021-10-18 16:34

I really liked the style and the color palette, the sounds accompanied the setting very well. I think that with more animations and more polished details, an adventure and excellent game would remain! great job xD

kiwi663 2021-10-20 17:49

Nice graphic and mood. Well done