2021-10-05 07:42
Trying to get out of a party? I think this is just a game about my life lol
Awesome job well done guys it's a cool little game :)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD49 → Ghosting the Party
By fer-gueler, notaltright and qaeron
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 625 | 3.61 | 40 | |
| Fun | 918 | 3.26 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 868 | 3.19 | 40 | |
| Theme | 1233 | 2.96 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 63 | 4.53 | 41 | |
| Humor | 431 | 3.43 | 39 | |
| Mood | 239 | 3.90 | 40 |
Trying to get out of a party? I think this is just a game about my life lol
Awesome job well done guys it's a cool little game :)
i definetly love the design of this little game. Also the soundtrack is good too! gj
Amazing art!!!
The minigames can get a bit difficult, but seriously, the art is just amazing.
Sweet and cool game. Story + Art is cute!
Really liked this! The art was amazing and the style overall was very strong, and the story was funny as well. (Especially loved the tiny running ghost animation, so cute.) My one bit of feedback is that I'd love to have more dialogue/story in between the minigames because all that freakin jumping took me so long that I'd prefer longer breaks/more of a story reward in between :) really well done!
Wanted to play this so much, but I cant pass even the first running! Even my husband coudnt do it in 5 mins and he is a very experienced gamer. So no "chilling mood" for me. Is there an opportunity to skip first run?
@natalia-dushkina Sorry about that, the game is a bit too hard. There's no chance to skip the first run, but you can skip other runs. I bet you can do it if you persevere a little :) Are you using dashes(X)?
@fer-gueler I suppose X can help me over jump that 8th Hand that I can't pass. But it's a completely next level of skills for me. You see, I prefer games where you wander around, gather some clues and objects and solve puzzles. Games that need good reaction and coordination kind of stress me out :) Maybe if you decided to publish this game, you could make an opportunity for such people like me - to open some hidden door by solving some puzzle :) which appears only after user has made at least unsuccessful attempts :D Maybe you could share a gameplay video link, it's very interesting to see what would be next if I passed.
Damn I really want to read the story but I keep dying at the second run (I'm happy that I got past the first run at least!) This is really cool combination of art, story and the jumping game.
Ouch, I find it too hard as well, couldn't get further than level 2. I love the style of the game though, I'd definitely watch a playthrough of someone with way better reflexes than myself!
The knives showing up really threw me off since they weren't always in sync lmao but i managed to get past the hell party and back into the safe comfort of my bed in the end. Feels like a fun little kaizo game that you kinda have to memorize when and where the traps show up to really get past it. Love all the characters, had very nice monster mash vibe and writing's nicely done where I just want to get away from them (but in a nice way)
Ditto what @jane-wei said. I liked the art style and was interested to see how the story progressed, but I could not pass the 3 rapid dashes in the 2nd running section. The only time I passed it, my character had gotten so far to the right side of the screen that I couldn't see what was coming up next. I'm not saying I would have beaten the rest of the running, but maybe keep the camera more tightly locked on the character.
Oh and congrats to all of you on first LD jam!
What a great concept (seasonally appropriate!) and beautiful art! I really liked the characters.
I absolutely love the art and aesthetic of this game. I ended up giving up after several attempts on the third stage, but overall I enjoyed my time with it.
@mhorth Thanks for your feedback! The dashes eating space and eventually making it difficult to see what's coming is an intended mechanic. However, it's true that this plus the rest of the level design ended up making it a really difficult game :cold_sweat:
Interesting story and nice character design
Great twist on the runner type game! My only recommendation would be including control directions on the first run and to also make the first portion shorter/easier for people so they understand it's not just a runner game and that there's a dialogue aspect. Great job!
Edit: Generally having the directions show as you run over the obstacle it references is a great way of doing this. Like having "Use X to dash in the air over longer obstacles" over a long portion or something haha.
The runs were too challenging to me: I couldn't get past the second one and I didn't want to redo the first one to pick a different dialogue ;). The UI style and the graphics are coherent with the story. I suppose further on it would be more clear how it is related "Unstable".
I like the idea of this game. Music is a bit annoying for me, but it seems to be coherent with the whole theme.
The art and mood of this game is stellar!
Nice work!
The art is really good. It feels so clean! I wish there would be a bit more feedback/audio queues when reading through the conversations. I felt like sometimes, the dialogue was getting a little length, but that can easily be countered by providing some sort of audio effects in the background, just to keep the readers engaged.
Great work nonetheless!
phew beat it! the game is too hard. The controls are actually pretty good and the jumps are good timing puzzles, but its just way too precise. Not being able to see things (especially if they are coming behind you, means you have to memorize the pattern, which I could see as a thing but it's asking a lot for the player to do by the third level). When you dash, you move the ghost forward on the level which can throw off the timing of things. This was utilized somewhat painfully in the last level, where by the time you are done dodging all the knives you are at the front and think you are done, and then an obstacle hits you, so you just need to know that it's there before hand to jump. I would either add some more air control, add variable jumping (holding does jump or dash longer or shorter), or smaller hitboxes. Some fx would also be helpful with the reads- I really like the poof with the dash. I enjoyed the characters and writing. Keep up the good work!
@tiberiusuciu thank you very much! Very useful feedback, sound effects could have added a lot to the game, but we didn't have the time or skills to do it hehe.
@aeveis Thank you sooo much! Your feedback was very useful, and helped me realize where the difficulty lies in the game, it's kind of hidden in that memorization/timing puzzle, and not throwing off the timing of things like you said. Sorry about the last painful obstacle hehe, right after making it when playing the level the first few times I thought it felt a little to ill-intented... Thank you again! <3
I streamed a few games from the jam and I started with this one and the challenge was there! I like this kind of game, I thought I spent 10/15min max per game and I spent 1 hour on your wanting to arrive at the end, as much to say that I did not test as much game as expected on the evening ;) but so satisfying to see the end screen GG!
little issues with the pause menu, not really a pause but a return to main menu, I had to redo the first and second level because of that but it's a detail
@robindbois Thank you so much for playing our game on stream! I just watched the video replay, it was a lot of fun watching you. It was also quite useful, I learned which parts can be a little too hard hehehe. Sorry about the issue with the ESC key, returning you to main menu. We didn't have time for a pause menu. <3
Very cool idea, amazing art, great writing and choice of music. Regrettably, the minigame segment could use a lot of work, from making sure it's not so terribly unforgiving, to making it a bit more interactive, to implementing some form of recovery for the player when things don't quite go according to plan. Great work nonetheless!
I was interested to try this, because your aim was exactly the same as my entry had; To create a moody black & white narrative minigame-experience! :performing_arts: :film_frames:
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The art-style is clean and consistent. I especially like the running animation of the ghost.
I also like that you had different dialogue-options to choose from, even though it didn't seem to matter what you say? (It would always be good to add at least one line worth of extra-dialogue to different replies!)
I think the intro would need some establishing shots in the beginning. The presentation feels a bit flat since you only see the ghost-character by himself, and you instantly jump into action. You could sell the illusion of being in a big party better if the player would get a glimpse of the environment, or some party-folk mingling around. Some proper background-ambience would also help.
And when it comes to gameplay, I find the running-segment frustratingly hard. I'm still yet to pass the second phase. Those mid-air dashes are just too hard to pull off, so I'd go and tweak those hitboxes!
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But yeah, I like what you were going for here. My own life-long ambition is to create a proper combination of storytelling and gameplay where these two elements hang in balance ( the opposite of **Unstable!** )
I can say from experience that it's far from easy!
Keep on JAMMING!
Nice game! I don't like infinity runners, but the story was interesting. would be cool to have other types of minigames. Nice job!
I loved the art style of this game, I love how the gameplay fitted within the dialogue screen!
The gameplay did seem like it came secondary and the dialogue primary, as it was a bit too difficult while the dialogue and characters looks amazing. I think I almost reached level 3 but some jumps were very difficult.
The character itself was very charming, I loved seeing the little ghost run, so even though it was a bit difficult the game was definitely charming and well set up!
@dis0rder thanks for the useful feedback! I agree, the setting of being in a party surrounded by people didn't come out as clear as we'd hoped. I like your idea on fixing that regard. And yeah, it turns out the gameplay is more difficult than we expected. I kept on telling Fer to make it harder, so sorry hahaha. Glad you liked it even so!
@jon-nova Thanks! Cool idea if we ever happen to make this game bigger!
@jvdwijk I appreciate you liking the lil gosthie run. I hope you enjoyed it even if it turned out too difficult in the end!
It's already said, but man great art!
I like this game and the way it intersperses the story with the levels.
Nice art style and overall engaging game. What annoyied me quite much is that if you dash too much your character gets too close to the right corner, thus it becomes impossible to jump at the right time.
Great art indeed :)!
The running sequences are devilishly hard, but the gas-powered ghost :wink: is just adorable enough to keep me running. Still, it's too hard. Feels like some levels require you to try and try until you know them by heart and remember exactly what is coming. Some players might enjoy that, I never liked this kind of "repeat it till you can recite it in your sleep" approach.
The story parts are well-written, totally enjoyed that part!
Fun concept, but it's really hard to run from this party (could be easier).
This game has an adorable style and I love the blend of genres!
I do echo the same difficulty issues that others experienced. I typically feel I'm pretty good at auto-runners but found the jump arcs so hard to discern. Though I can't exactly determine why. It could be because the arc is so high that there's just more room for error.
I think this could be solved for by having a variable jump rather than a static arc. Allowing the player to take tiny jumps when just clicking the jump button, and taller jumps when holding. It would give players a chance to realize they misjudged their initial jump and try again closer to the obstacle and make things feel more fair.
Great work!
Interesting idea, but I found the main gameplay very hard and almost a little boring - it didn't have any creative ideas and felt more like filler. I like the art and narrative, though!
The art style is supremely good！ It's just too hard (I still stuck at level 2) hopefully there are some walkthrough videos around~
Wow, extremely difficult but what I could master currently was excellent, nice story, good audio and despite being challenging the gameplay did feel solid. I will come back to this at a later date when I have time to really master it but overall, it's great! ^-^
I really liked the artstyle and specially the audio. The music is very catchy!
The concept is interesting.
Good job on developing this game!