Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD49 → Variable Volatility
By kimbsy
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 533 | 3.68 | 27 | |
| Fun | 549 | 3.60 | 27 | |
| Innovation | 637 | 3.42 | 27 | |
| Theme | 285 | 4.01 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 938 | 3.40 | 27 | |
| Humor | 321 | 3.64 | 27 | |
| Mood | 464 | 3.66 | 27 |
Had me in stitches, great writing. When I lost and restarted it bugged out and I couldn't play again sadly, might want to fix that! I love how the buttons are placed just right so your fingers get in eachothers way, great game, so funny hahaha.
Oh no, too cold! Very fun game and nice take on the theme!
Fun little game, enjoyed the light tone and the hectic balancing. The keybindings were a little too awkward but otherwise a good time
I really liked this game! The gameplay was very tricky as the button layout is made for some other species, but that adds to the charm in some way. The general presentation is great! I really liked the graphics and the music, and the "tutorial" baked into the game was really good. The game became quite hard quite quickly as I instantly forgot what the button for lowering the pH value was, but other than that the game was very enjoyable.
Fun game! required a lot of brain dexteryty to play or a companion. =)
Nice work, I really liked the art and animations.
Good fun, very frantic. Would have liked to see a highscore/longest run feature, as I would have gladly went a few more rounds had I been able to one up myself.
@3mpty thanks for playing! and thanks for spotting that bug (how embarrassing).
I'm super glad you enjoyed the awkward key layout, I'm always worried people will find it more annoying than funny, looks like I did ok this time :D
@beth thanks for playing!
@smooches thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it :) Maybe next time I should add configurable controls
@cubanfrog thanks for playing, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Getting the timings on the tutorial took me faaaar too long so I'm happy it comes across well.
I was worried the simple aesthetic might have been a bit too minimal so it's really nice to hear you say you liked the look of it <3
@pilgrim1987 thanks for playing! The idea of playing co-op hadn't even crossed my mind, maybe I'll try and make it a special mode next time :D
@thegamerasd thanks for playing, so glad you enjoyed the art style! I'm a prgrammer, not an artist so it means a lot :smile:
@triggthediscovery thanks for playing! You're absolutely right, having a highscore timer was _literally_ the next thing on my todo list, but the deadline cut me off. I'll try and remember to add it in post-jam!
Fun writing and an interesting take on the theme for sure :) Took a bit to get the hang of, but quite a fun game!
Good work!
@python-b5 thanks for playing, glad you had fun!
Well done! Simple but effective graphics and enjoyable gameplay. Controls are a bit weird and placing two bars on opposite sides is not really that convinient but I liked it anyway. Good job!
@mukhavertolet thanks for playing! Super glad you enjoyed it.
That's a really good note on the bar placement, I probably should've sketched out a wireframe or two before getting stuck in :P
I love how this game slowly introduces the elements of the game, and also how simple it looks to be and how difficult it actually is!
@staticbits thanks so much for playing! Really glad you enjoyed it 😊
The controls were definitely awkward, but I think that's a good thing! It reminded me of old Bennett Foddy games like QWOP or GIRP. I think it would be a little too easy if the controls were any more "intuitive." Fit very well with the theme, and I liked how the liquid in the vial would shake more-and-more the closer you were to losing.
Also "mmm green" SO TRUE that's what I've been saying for my entire life
@decadedecaf thanks for playing! I absolutely love those games, super chuffed at the comparison :smiley:
The liquid shaking was _surpisingly_ tricky to get working so I'm very glad you enjoyed it! The game is written in Clojure and is essentially a colossal tree of pure functions composed together and applied to a global state each frame, which is fun, but makes seemingly simple stuff like 'mutating variables' (ew lol) relatively tricky.
Obviously I've no one to blame but myself :sweat_smile:
Intro was really, liked to mood and tone of the game. Trief playing with one hand, then two hands with fingers on C and H and when ph level came into play my brain was overwhelmed with things to look at. Too hectic for me, but it was enjoyable :)
@felixwentzel thanks for playing! I focussed on the mood and pace of the game a lot this time, so really glad to hear it was worth the effort :D
Maybe I could've had the keys to press displayed on screen as you play, I've seen other games this jam that did that. That way you don't have to remember all the controls all the time, which would probably be helpful as most people are rating 20+ games!
I really liked this game! I was so focused on keeping the temperature stable that I missed one of the controls for the acidity, so I just watched the pH decrease while I bashed every key on my keyboard trying to get it up again :laughing: Great job!
@joaosilva22 haha yeah, looking back I reckon I should've added a ui with the keys to press on screen so it's not possible to miss. Maybe next time!
Thanks for playing :D
Under linux, the game crashed after a while with
> Exception in :draw function: #error { > :cause line with format PCM_SIGNED 44100.0 Hz, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, little-endian not supported. > :via > [{:type javax.sound.sampled.LineUnavailableException > :message line with format PCM_SIGNED 44100.0 Hz, 16 bit, mono, 2 bytes/frame, little-endian not supported. > :at [com.sun.media.sound.DirectAudioDevice$DirectDL implOpen DirectAudioDevice.java 484]}] > :trace > [[com.sun.media.sound.DirectAudioDevice$DirectDL implOpen DirectAudioDevice.java 484] > [com.sun.media.sound.DirectAudioDevice$DirectClip implOpen DirectAudioDevice.java 1241]
Nevertheless, I think I experienced the whole game. The core game loop was very simple but enjoyable and challenging (what do you want more?). Keybindings were a little awkward and it would have made it easier if temperature were two keys on the left and the PH stuff two keys on the right. But actually the current ones worked as well and having fingers crossed on the keyboard was kind of fun.
The tutorial was very nice and felt really polished.
Also, the music choice was superb.
Great submission!
@simonl thanks for playing!
And thanks so much for providing the exception there, I've got a good idea of what's going wrong. It's a really hacky audio system I rigged up, and it sometimes falls over if it has to play too many sounds in too short a space of time . It's been on my backlog to improve for ages, I guess I should finally get round to doing it :P
Glad you enjoyed the game though, I'll pass your compliments on to the musician :)
The game has done really well to flash out the theme and overall it's a solid submission. However controls are a bit awkward to use, pairing them together should allow more comfortable controls. Example: a-s for cool-heat and k-l for acid-base. Had fun with it, thanks :thumbsup: !
@bgdc thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the game :D
It's a good point about the controls, they are a little awkward. I just used the letters of the actions while k was making it and then never thought to change it. I might try and do something a little more configurable next time.
Very nice game, the music is nice and the game challenging... Also I appreciate that it can be run on Linux
@mar3k thanks for playing! So glad you enjoyed it :D
Open source games deserve to be run on open source platforms :penguin: :heart:
Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 49 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/x_dDMWkmRHA
@jupiter-hadley thanks for playing! I like your videos! Insane commitment to playing so many Ludum Dare games, very much appreciated :clap:
Liked the narration and simplicity of the game, though the controls felt a bit messy, C-H and A-B aren't exactly keys that go well together/feel intuitive. Also I'm still quite unsure if there's an end to the game or if it's just trying to keep it going as long as possible after you unlock the ph.
@vladadamm thanks for playing! You're right, the controls are a bit janky, I just used the first letters of each action during development, I never got round to changing it to something more comfortable (should have done more playtesting!).
And yeah the end of the game is just trying to see how long you can last. If I were to do it again I'd have a score counting up the longer you last to give the player some feedback.
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