Foon →
Ludum Dare Explorer →
LD50 →
Can't Tax Me
Can't Tax Me
By sasquatchbstudios
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 481 | 3.68 | 57 | |
| Fun | 522 | 3.53 | 56 | |
| Innovation | 983 | 2.99 | 57 | |
| Theme | 562 | 3.76 | 56 | |
| Graphics | 577 | 3.79 | 56 | |
| Audio | 465 | 3.50 | 56 | |
| Humor | 459 | 3.34 | 52 | |
| Mood | 696 | 3.47 | 55 | |
Comments
Solid game all around! My first try I didn't even break 30 until the last round, but after realizing the loop I went over 175 my second try. The powerups decrease in usefulness after the bomb, though - the second one can get stuck on the large ghosts, and I didnt find the pillars particularly effective. The whirlwind is good at a last ditch burst option, but it's incredibly likely to drop you at the bottom of the map - so bomb is just the best.
Speaking of what makes bomb the best, it's the enemies that are always just out of your reach, below the door platform. Ultimately, that's where my first main gripe lies - you *need* to use specials to hit these enemies. You can technically try climbing down and jumping from below, but you'll take too much damage - it almost feels like a two-player job. Building off this, it leads to my next point of contention - the map's massive. My first run was just exploring and endless wall jumping around - but more importantly, the map size de-incentivizes doing anything except standing by the door and placing bombs in the center. There's no chance you'll miss a jump and lose 5-10 seconds, and those are seconds you can't get back. Going back to my first, embarrassingly short run - there's also a lot of snowballing (positive and negative). If you don't unlock the bomb in the first round, you're gonna have a bad time - you just can't kill the enemies effectively. If you do unlock the bomb, though, I managed to get to reputation level like, 85+ in the second round alone.
Overall it was definitely engaging - but I personally think it encourages camping a little too much for it's own good.
Graphics and effects are great, and the game is very fun to play.
cresceda
2022-04-05 19:11
Quite fun to play! The powerups feel really nice. The only feedback I have is that it would maybe be cool to be able to stay afloat more or maybe combo between ghosts (in short, more mobility), though that sounds like a post-jam thing =)
ok that was really cool exprience, but the flow of movement was weird, my character was weirdly flying in double jump and stoping why jumping
from the other hanhd i really liked the rouglike addintion in upgrades between levels
Fantastic game! This is really impressive. The art is so good, and the gameplay is tight! I got to Rep 193. I wish there had been more reason to move around the map and try to take the fight away from the door, and the spin attack helped with that, but maybe some powerups or something around the map would be fun? Either way, amazing job!
The music is great the only thing I would suggest is doing more position audio that way it's easier to find where everything is if you get lost like I did xD but overall great game!
Highlights - Fun gameplay, it was really satisfying to kill enemies and defend the door - Skill Animations were fun and I like the visual representations of enemy strength - Great atmosphere and music that energized me - Chopping grass is great
Areas of Improvement - Once I got to the door I had no reason to leave unless I didn't have the skills to kill the enemies below the door. - The jump mechanics are kind of finnicky and I got kind of stuck the first time I played before I got used to it and was able to properly defend. - Skills a bit OP once you got them and simplified game play
wouter52
2022-04-05 19:32
Fun to play! Reminds me a bit of a tower defence like game. The graphics are cute and the music brings a feeling of urgency. Easy to learn, hard to master, as it should!
Nice game! I liked the enemy variety and the controls were quite good. I also liked how there was a little bit of a story between the levels. I found it hard to defend against enemies who attacked from below though, I basically had to repeatedly jump at them with my scythe and it wasn't fast enough to be effective, I guess the upgrades help with that though.
swidge
2022-04-06 00:26
I really enjoyed this game! I thought it was very kind of the village people to provide me with mead and a frogswoggle! It took a while to figure out, but once I did I had a lot of fun with the wall jumping mechanic. Thank you for sharing your game!
Really fun Platformer. I especially liked the Art(-style). It's a bit weird that the first ability is much stronger than the second one, but apart from that, no complaints. Great game!
sjpixels
2022-04-06 00:50
This is a really awesome game to have completed for a jam! The learning curve was pretty steep but once you figure out the controls it gets a lot easier. My first attempt I only got around lvl 50 but my second I got 192!
Things I liked:
- The art was very readable and communicated exactly what it needed to. The scythe swing felt satisfying and I liked the FX animations for the various special attacks. - The music was catchy and the enemy death animations were a funny touch - You really nailed the theme. At first it was stressful but once I just accepted that each level ending was inevitable, I had a lot more fun with it.
Things that I think could be improved:
- I didn't really like that enemies could attack the door from below the platform. Especially in the early levels where you don't have the powerups necessary to deal with them it doesn't feel great to have to jump down below to kill one enemy knowing that will leave the door open to 20 enemies up above - Although there were different looking enemies, they all felt about the same in terms of gameplay. I know this is a jam game so it's tough to really pack content in but I think 2 different enemy types (and then variations) would make the gameplay a lot deeper
Overall, this was a really fun game. Most jam games I just play through once but this one had me come back for a second playthrough and the second was even more fun!
okamit
2022-04-06 01:28
Fun gameplay with some nice wall jumping that worked really well. GOood looking,effective and clean looking art. The visual effects looked really nice as well! Music was nice and fit the game well.
As others have said, a bit unsatisfying that some enemies just can't be reached without using special attacks, but other thant that, pretty solid gameplay and great for a game made in such a short time.
Well done!
Fun game, overall! The graphics and sound design are solid, and it's hard to find anything to complain about in terms of them. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and it is very satisfying to take down enemies. The camera shake during slashes, and the graphics and sound effects during special moves makes it VERY satisfying.
The only thing that really agitated me when playing was enemies attacking from below. This works fine when the player has powerups such as the bombs to counteract it, but during the first round it just comes across as frustrating and cheap on the AI's part.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this one a lot! I managed to get to reputation level 114.
foxwater
2022-04-06 01:52
Really enjoyed this! I was initially playing on keyboard and struggled a bit, but with the xbox controller I cruised to level 169 and found the power ups to be really fun. It looks and plays super clean and feels very polished all around for a LD game. Great work!
rxbbie
2022-04-06 02:34
This is a cool little experience. The movement feels good, combat feels tactile. Visually, it's a pretty game that definitely has some polish! Other commenters have mentioned this, early game the AI is particularly frustrating, especially when they attack from below. The skills make it very fun though! Solid entry!
svntax
2022-04-06 05:28
Pretty fun game! I liked how you have several rounds to get powerups so you can do better each time. There wasn't really a reason for me to go away from the door, and sometimes the double jumping felt like it didn't work when it was supposed to, but other than that, it was still fun to play through.
dzejpi
2022-04-06 21:01
That’s a lot of content for such a small amount of time. The controls in this game are probably the best I encountered in this jam. Feels super polished. Great job!
csdoescs
2022-04-07 01:39
Nice work! The movement took some getting used to, but once I did, it's quite fun, and scraping along the walls with the scythe is a cool little feature.
junklab
2022-04-07 01:40
Cool game, I really like that you encounter multiple waves and are rewarded for how well you did the wave before with upgrades. The bomb ability is super OP I loved it, was a little frustrated with the final ability, the whirly wind bomb of death? The random placement sometimes put you super far away from the vault door, so you had to scramble your way back to defend. Other than that, super solid entry!
Here was my best "score".
Screen Shot 2022-04-07 at 11.38.01 am.png
Cute game! It does feel frustrating to not be able to hit some enemies. Overall, great work!
Game is awesome, I love the interpretation of the theme. Killing the ghouls while managing specials is pretty fun, and definitely feels like delaying the inevitable. The narrative is good and it's really cool that there are multiple stages to the defense. The game looks great and the music is superb. Also, it's a really cool detail that you can actually cut the grass tufts with the scythe. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that the tornado special sticks you in a random place when it's done, sometimes doing more harm then good because the vault is defenseless until the player can get back. But the game as a whole is amazing.Screenshot 2022-04-07 204059.png
cakts
2022-04-09 06:49
Really cute game! Graphics, audio and animation were great and I had lots of fun playing it. The platformer controls were really smooth, however I feel like this game could have worked better as a top down game, as constantly fighting flying enemies and gravity did get a bit painful at some times. Despite this, I think you have managed to implement the platforming controls well and I would be very happy with what your team achieved in (what appears to be) your first Ludum Dare! I will also check out your Ludum Dare devlog on YouTube after I review a few more games and I hope to see your team competing in LD51! Great work, keep it up :smile:
Nice game, with good music. I liked the idea of taxes haha, made me laugh. I did have some trouble figuring out what to do at first, but then it was fun
Overall the game is pretty fun but at first i did have a bit of trouble getting the hang of it, and I wasn't to sure how i was supposed to play, but after the first round i got the hand of it and i had a great time. It does seem like the bomb is a little bit over powered compared to the other power ups.
I couldn't get to the power-ups part, because most of the enemies clipped into platforms and I was unable to combat them, leading to my inevitable death. I wish it had a volume slider. Overall, good job on the art and platforming mechanics.
erkberg
2022-04-14 20:08
Really amazing game you made there! I featured it on my let's play stream today, here's the link: https://youtu.be/LUs4mltqVVw
@erkberg thanks so much!
marvis
2022-04-17 06:38
wow, verry good platformer!
Pretty good game! Congratulations!
i1415
2022-04-21 18:02
I’d like to point out that our games have exactly the same theme. 5/5 no questions asked. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/last-night-at-tax-fraud
@i1415 we'll try to take a look at yours before voting ends, thanks so much, looking forward to checking your game out too!
This was super well polished! Gave you a follow on Twitter because I'm definitely excited to see what more y'all can put together (and on a Metroidvania mentioned in your profile I'm definitely interested). Nice entry!
@alpharock6 thanks so much! The goal is to have a demo available in 3 months. It's a looooong to-do list but I think we can pull it off