tulio 2022-04-05 08:31
amazing!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → The Lars Mission
By elysiagriffin, honest-dan, brainoid and spacey3d
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 12 | 4.38 | 85 | |
| Fun | 34 | 4.20 | 85 | |
| Innovation | 82 | 4.01 | 86 | |
| Theme | 74 | 4.28 | 86 | |
| Graphics | 14 | 4.70 | 89 | |
| Audio | 20 | 4.40 | 89 | |
| Humor | 92 | 4.10 | 87 | |
| Mood | 77 | 4.23 | 86 |
amazing!
Woaw, definitely the #1 graphics of this jam. You did a good job. I had a bug though, sometimes when I missclick a slider, my mouse is gone and I have to ALT+TAB to see it again. But overall, an excellent entry.
The game does a great job getting the player to adapt their task while managing a few points of interest. Comparisons to Overcooked and Among Us are apt, but the constant pick-up-and-drop that makes Overcooked such a great multiplayer experience is lost without the level design that puts it into context. The watering can, fuel can and chainsaw in The LARS Mission act as extra points in a path rather than points of interest. The player never really has to consider where to put them.
Everything else worked great together and I think the game could easily scale with more rooms, more stations and more tasks! There is a point about five minutes in when the humor of the situation really kicks in. The seventh or eighth crew member you let through the door who then immediately runs up to the tool tables to block your path makes you wonder to yourself, "Huh, really wish some of these block heads could lend a hand with such simple tasks. Of course not. Better start praying to the vine mom." This is where games like this really shine! I think your team will do great if you decide to take it to market.
Was a blast to play, felt like a similar style to Overcooked and boy do i suck at Overcooked. It was a very frantic time and i ended up getting everyone killed of course but i thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the game. The sound was a real highlight for me, the muffled voices and just the general vibe of all the sound effects was fantastic. The graphics are also top notch especially considering the time constraints of a game jam, so a great job on that part as well. Overall i really enjoyed it and its clear a lot of good work was put into this gamejam project from everyone involved, great job!
@krunk thanks for such a great review! I really see your point with the difference between pickupables in Overcooked. Due to scope we decided to consolidate the pickup and drop mechanic so that you have to place it back where you found it (it meant we could use the same base code class as other lab equipment!). However, it is clunky and one of the areas we would have loved to given more love! Glad you got to experience some of the "humour" :D
@bastienre4 Yes, we will try and get a fix for that - some issue with multiple UI elements interfering with each other! Glad you found a work around. And I agree, @spacey3d knocked it out the park with the graphics!
I've never been great at these kind of hectic management games, especially ones with this much going on. My brain overloaded with information quite fast I'll admit xD
I didn't quite get what you were supposed to do to get the launch codes. When I opened the computer it's just a black screen...
Also, the game crashed when I was refueling the generator.
Overall nice job! You really put a lot of effort into this and it shows!
@anchry Thanks very much for the feedback :D really kind words and we glad you enjoyed our 3 days of cram!
@mateusboga Sorry to hear about the crash :( as for the launch code, the text at the top says "Enter the following text:" and then has a phrase underneath. You type the phrase, and it will fill the screen with code then compile when you've finished typing. Thanks for taking the time to play and give feedback :)
Enjoyed watching the streams and seeing this all come together. Love the lizard, love the firing missile minigame and all of the other minigames. Graphics are superb. Amazing what a small team can put together in just a few days.
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What a timing, you just updated the itch.io page (probably uploading a bugfixed version) and the download button seems to be gone. Send me a message (mention me in a comment here) once it is back online so I can play it. ^^
@leorid Hey! It is up, we were indeed updating it as we hard a crash reported that could occur on the win condition... ! Fixed now though - I hope you enjoy!
@beefsock really appreciate the comments and the company during the LD jam streams. Its really draining, and sometimes during the jam I question if I am really enjoying it, but always at the end it feels worth it!
The art blow my mind! The atmosphere is cool and I like the simple and effective little story.
I was quite lost in what to do, the big text tutorial almost lost me at the beginning, Have to admit. For me, it lacks a bit of in-game feedback, the voice is not enough for my tired brain that is not native English. Haha.
But it was cool and it's very well done! So great work!
Awesome game! It was really fun to play. Music, art style and game mechanics are really well done. My only complaint would be the speed of refueling the generation. It feels really slow, especially compare to every other task player has. Anyway, great job!
@zimny11 Thanks for playing and the kind words. For the fueling and watering the crops; you don't just bring the slider way right, you have to find the sweet spot which fills it faster. And each time you try to use the station, this sweet spot changes, so you have to search for it again.
But obviously, it is not very intuitive. That could be the criticism here :D
Thanks again!
@brainoid Oh, that makes sense :) Thanks.
@fog-ryu Thanks for playing the game and giving feedback.
Any ideas for more in-game feedback? At the moment there are lights on every device that change colour when they are not operational (Blue is good, Red is out of action), the machines vibrate aggressively when the vines entangle them, and the lab ai voice announces almost all of the issue that can occur with the equipment. Do you think something like a list of problems on the HUD/UI would be something that would have helped?
The tutorial we worked hard to condense down to 5 points, that you can bring up at any time by pressing tab - it may be less overwhelming if you don't try and memorise it all and check it whenever you feel like "I'm not sure what to do".
@honest-dan Yeah, it's true, I shouldn't have tried to understand everything before launching the game. Haha.
Hmmm a list would have helped yes or especially maybe a gauge that empties or something like that to indicate in real time the state of each object at a glance and be able to plan our actions accordingly.
For example to be able to see the water gauge in real time without having to put down the tool we have in hand and then go use the water machine. That kind of thing.
And sorry, the comment may seems negative, but it's not, I'm frankly surprised about the work you did, frankly well done!
@fog-ryu thanks for the feedback - yeah I understand what you mean. These days its interesting, it feels a design choice whether you want to present player with all info on HUD, or have them be responsible for remembering things (like the Elden ring UI vs Assassins Creed). We thought it would make it more manic if we didn't give you a HUD that showed everything. However, we agree if there was a progress bar you could see without having to "use the generator", it would help. Thanks again!
Impressive submission! I love how frantic everything feels. I also absolutely love the coding jokes.
Congrats on a really cool entry!
Oh Wow! It very fun to play and looks absolutely amazing! I was stuck once the alarm started ringing, i don't know if it's a bug. But the game is Awesome! Great Job!
Graphics are actually crazy. Little overwhelming to get started with, but very fun. Amazing for a Ludum Dare entry
Really beautiful! A hectic game, but I loved keeping all the tasks in balance. Finally managed to escape with all(?) 5 of the scientists.
Poor lizards tho .__.
I enjoy the game in 72 hours, you are a very talented team! I wish you success in the development of your project!
I have escaped with 9 researchers. TOTALLY AMAZING! Best entry I've played :scream_cat: Your artwork is amazing, mechanics are fun and very addictive, can't stop playing untill escape. This "overcoocked"-slyle feeling of hurring and time-managment is very fun to play. Thanks for game, and I wish you luck!
@reronin the lizard :( it didn't take a pre-flight shot, and rules are rules!! haha we did want to have it so you could feed plants to the lizard but had to cut the feature!
@niklas-zhaga thanks very much! 9 is really good! I think the highest we've watched someone get is 12!
@sloke-t thanks for feedback - sorry about that, sometimes you can get "stuck" on machines, usually pressing E again will "disengage" you from it. I hope you still had a good time though!
@arya-s I am glad at least some appreciate the humour snuck in there hahaha!
i love it great job everyone! had a blast playing it. wish you extend the storyline and maybe add a stepped learning curve for equipments and build it into a full game for steam thats great highly polished.
Ok, very well thought game. It takes time in the beginning to get into action. And you have to be hurry all the time. Quite fun though. Well done!
I was too damn blown away, I had to see more of your talents so I went and played Cattenburg on stream too! If I write out all my feelings in text I don't think they'd convey my passion well enough so here's me voicing it instead!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcnBUgfPhe8
I tried to play it again and, even if I still haven't finished it, I did much better! It takes some time to learn what to do, and I still get lost a bit, but yep, it's a cool game! And I really like the lizard! So cute! (I hope they don't abandon it! :p)
Cool Game with very nice graphics! I liked the mars theme and the gameplay. UNREAL FTW
This was such a fun game. One of the more "real game" feeling of the jam so far. The art and overall aesthetic was super cute and made things feel very playful. Try to keep everything working could have been frustrating, but it never was. It was a bit confusing at points, but figuring things out wasn't too bad.
it was a great game, the art and gameplay was beautiful. A good game made with a good team. maybe the number of rooms can be added. good game
This was so good! It was just the right level of stressful running around dealing with all the different stations. Visuals and audio were fantastic! I loved getting crushed by the giant vine when I failed and then the real ending was so good! There were a lot of neat little quality of-life stuff in there and the systems all worked together really well! Great work everyone! The little floppy vines were great every time too :D
Oh nice, like it when I see a hug teamwork on a Project :) Great work :D
That's it. I give up. I'll retire to a solitary hut in a woods and will live the rest of my life growing organic tomatos or someting. If someone can make this game during a jam what's even the point... Yes, I saw it yesterday on stream, but didn't want to believe it existed until I tried it. Wow. Just wow!
PS: I'm tweeting about the games I play from this jam, here is yours: https://twitter.com/TheAntonSem/status/1512132524964732936
I like every part of the game :sparkling_heart:. This game is example what happens if team members has well synergy.
I had such fun with this game great job!
@antonsem Thanks a lot for the lovely words. We are kind of famous with our unnecessarily huge scoped games. We made a serious talk before this jam to make a smaller game. We actually did. Comparing this one with the previous ones, it's like 20% smaller ^^ This gave us enough time to polish and balance the game.
Like I said on the comment I threw on your game, I envy the scope of your game. Minimal controls <3 I wish we could keep it that simple <3
Amazing game!
Had the pleasure to finally play it early today and I'm glad I did!
**THINGS I LIKED:** - The audio, it was amazing, the intensity, it felt so hectic and I was just Kreying my gasms while pogging my champs. - The different "minigames", nice variety and not too easy at all! I loved the missile thing with the coordinates, great concept! - The lizard. I love them. - The main menu, both the button feedback AND the little dudes on the background. - I liked the 5/5 goal rather than running a timer.
Top notch submission! Had a good time playing it!
Super cool game! So many cool things about it turned out really well. A bit difficult to understand at first, and it took a while to realize the "sweet spot" part of refueling. It was also problematic when the cut down vines and the researchers got in the way, making it difficult to move around. Overall, I loved this game! So glad I got to pet the lizards!
Well done guys! You got so much that good in such a short time. There were some bugs but I was able to finish the game anyway (but saving only 5 researchers with me).
I giggled when I forgot the semicolon.
Well that is a set of strait 5s. seriously I don't have any idea how you all did this so well. Thanks for coming by, sorry my chat was all jank from hosting/raiding. :laughing: So much talent. The only mechanical feedback I can give is spamming chainsaw shouldn't penalize you. but I mean it's such a small thing and only a problem if the player is crazy like me and spamming eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. highlight: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1449896005?t=00h07m30s
Really cool game. One of the best in the jam I would say. I really like the small details and polish you put into this with petting the gecko (lizard?) and the chair that moves around getting in your way. Also the hazmat bois panicking when you don't open the door is really funny.
straight chaos man...haha that's how this felt and it was awesome! Great job on this
Damn, how did you make such a polished game in such a short time? I love you you put some graphics options in the game, as my ol'betsy runs on a Intel HD Graphics 3000 :P
I love this game so much, perfect entry. You guys keep inspiring every LD and the work you deliver is amazing. This game is pretty similar to what my oldest son loves to play. Everything was matching up so wel, the level design was pretty optimal, leaving room for different routes, which isn't always simple in these "overcooked" type of games. Well done to all of you and THANK YOU for making this !
Really makes you feel like a true space rocket researcher. The modular tasks work really well together and even though it took me a round to figure out how everything works but once I got it I had a really nice time running around and finishing all the tasks. The entire game looks and feels fantastic, the art is consistent and fits together really nicely. The music is also really nice and the voice acting takes this game to a whole nother level. Overall one of the best games in the jam for me so far.
Blep
All I can do is echo what others have said so far. The amount of content in here and how complete it feels is astounding, nice job!
Very polished entry! UI and art and stuff look beyond game jam quality! Good work!
The most detailed game I saw in the jam so far! Entertaining and funny! The protagonist's voice matches his face so well :D Like a little pumpkin
Wow! such an all round really well made game :D and hilarious, I wish it was longer!
This was an awesome little game! So much fun! The graphics were very nice, the sound fit the game nicely, the gameplay was a lot of fun! Great job!
Very nice and polished game! It's quite amazing how you all managed to pull this off in 72 hours, the graphics and audio are amazing. If there is anything I could suggest, it would be a small tutorial when you enter the map that tells you where things are - it took me a few tries to figure out where everything is and what to do even though I read all the instructions beforehand (although with a game this complex that would understandably take a lot of time). The humour is also on point.
Amazing polish, nice music, nice art. really loved all the details. Props do the chainsaw guy sound. Best SFX i heard so far!
10/10 my gpu didn't melt. So easy to forget to water the plants or pet the lizard. Great balance of causing you rush around in a panic without it being too complicated. I escaped with 7 on first try (after seeing some people play before hand). It took me a bit to understand find the sweet spot mechanic, but that's due to seeing other people doing it wrong and thinking what they did was right :laughing: I would have liked medium sized vines dropping and being able to jump over them or chainsaw them.
Such an impressive job for jam game! There are so many little parts of it done so well that now it just needs more content to be a full-fledged game!
Stunning visuals, immersive music and sfx, lots of humor. Well done all around!
The only thing that might need a bit of improvement is the learning curve. A small tutorial that explains every system in a non-stress environment. Not asking it from a jam entry that has so many other things though
Loved it :heart:
Thanks for bringing it to my stream @brainoid! Here's a recording in case you'd like to refer to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WudvDztkwdg
@caudatecoder lol I watched the Disaster City bit. You pressed the EXIT button. and it doesn't say if you won or lost. Thanks for sharing the VOD <3
Very polished visuals! The models, textures, UI, animation... it's all very good. The same goes for the sound effects and music, too.
The gameplay was also pretty good, but a little tricky to understand at first. I did mostly skim past the explanations, but only because they were hard to understand without context.
There are a couple of minor things I could complain about, like how it wasn't immediately evident how compiling the rocket code would work, or how maybe the water tank could have been more obviously a water tank, but these really are minor complaints.
I also ran into a bug, I think: on my first couple of attempts, the plants didn't seem to grow at all, despite me keeping them fully hydrated. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but on my third try they grew just fine and I think I did nothing different.
These kinds of bugs and issues are completely understandable. All in all this was a very impressive game.
@squimmy thanks for the feedback! We havent seen the plant not growing bug before, so thats good that you reported it and something we can look into if we continue working on it! We agree the launch code is one of the biggest hurdles - people just think they use it when they are ready to launch. Also its placement means people don't often find it when first playing. We would have like to tutorialise things a bit, would have done if we had more time. It is also true about the water and the fuel tanks, some signage or colour coding could help, but then I think a tutorial introducing the equipment would also work. Thanks for playing :)
@caudatecoder thank you, really nice to see - as I missed the live stream! :D
@thebooksnail yeah the sweetspot mechanic I've seen a few do wrong - its been hard to watch someone stand there for like 60 seconds as the fuel tank trickles full! Thanks for playing :)
@escapade 100% agree with a tutorial! If we had another half a day :D
Simply the best game I've played this week! Nothing to complain about. Congratulations the team =)
Since the begging, I became in love with this game
An catchy concept, an 3D well animated game, and the believing that you can save more searcher in the next game At an certain moment, you doesn't only play to the game but talk like him (yes i have to do the Nininini sound, and after I have to bip the door)
For me it was not juste a playing session with too much flex and clutch than the guys of the team hated me for dying stupidly at each try But I have got 3 achievement :
* Launch the rocket without electricty (Thrust me I'm an Engineer) * Play a game in hard mode (without the beautiful sound effect of the interaction) * Save 31 searcher
Its the end off my emotional feedback on the game
For the Techinical Feedback:
I think for the missil and plant and external UI is needed (I never sure about when an plant is full grow or just (80% done) perhaps for the plant a switch color ? or an led under the plant can be an good idea ?)
The other UI of the watering plan more on the left (Its hard to naturaly understand that is associated with the watering functionality)
They are some curious moment with pathfinding of the searcher (like when you refull the water and the searcher to pass by this road to take an antidote, the searcher just stop near you (and fix you with a creepy look (or it's juste on my head))
Im also not sure about the Satellite feature (in one or two of my game, I didn't have to re-align this module and that make a more easier (perhaps to easier) run)
Have a great day - thanks for that great moment I spent testing your game
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Watching people play this one made it seem easier than it seems 😅 Escaped with 9 researchers on my third try. The game was so polished, the only thing I can suggest if you decide to keep working on it is that we should be able to get the lizard when the rocket is ready to launch :)
PS: I just found one small bug, when I select the quality in Options, choosing any of the non-High ones changes the font for all the four quality buttons:
lars-low.png lars-medium.png lars-high.png lars-epic.png
Thanks again for participating in an interview! This is certainly one of the stand-out gems of this jam; it was a joy to play!
Escaped with 7 researchers. OR DID I?
Very nice one! Kept you busy but was not overwhelming.
@team-choo-choo
Look at who got a new high score :p
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@elysiagriffin :tada: :medal: :confetti_ball:
I tried to rescue Lars and his fellow researchers on my [HaaYaargh](https://www.twitch.tv/haayaargh) stream the other day.
Beginnings were difficult because there was a lot to learn. The tutorial page was helpful but didn't feel like I have enough time to read all of that carefully once I was in the game. After the first fail things become more clear and I began to have more fun hastily walking around doing various tasks.
Mini-games were on point and varied in difficulty and time necessary to complete them. Typing commands and rocket aiming jobs were most unique for me, if it was co-op, I would be on typing and aiming duty constantly! :) Slider thing was a nice simple touch. Refueling was most underwhelmed as it didn't even have a mini-game like water pumping, despite both being liquids of some sort.
The visuals and sounds were great. The sounds were very funny, especially cutting vines. I can tell you all had a lot of fun making these.
I would prefer a more top-down view, not entirely from top, but a slightly higher camera, because sometimes equipment obscured my vision. Visual language telling me something is about to break up wasn't clear for some time to me, later I learnt that it has blue and red/orange alarm, but in a general nervous atmosphere, it was easy to overlook. Sometimes plants visually looked like they are ready to be chopped or at least pruned a little, but you couldn't do any preventive work on them before they grow large enough.
Overall, great game (even though I had so many complaints above). Definitely co-op potential if you ever decide to continue the project. I will keep my fingers crossed for that :fingers_crossed:
:herb: :alien: :rocket:
This challenge have no ending... but I'm first ! @elysiagriffin
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Great entry! the art, sounds, ui, game play, all really good, awesome job!
lars.gif
Howdy y'all!
[Glad I was able to play this on stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1457959497?t=03h49m53s)
I still contest that I beat the game on my first run fair and square. :angry:
As usual, Lars remains #1 in my heart :heart:
Very polished game, fun and hectic. I especially like the character models, both Joh... Lars and the researchers. The UI is pleasant as well. Compliments for including an option to turn off the motion blur. Not encountered any bugs. One point of critique: the character movement isn't relative to the slightly rotated camera, which doesn't work for me personally.
Incredibly smooth both aesthetically and mechanically for a jam submission! The tasks are mostly fun and engaging, and the theme is represented quite well.
Here I was, proud of getting 20 people out of there, and then I come to the comment section and see that people have almost doubled that :laughing: you all killed it as usual, great stuff! I really like the main menu scene with the two people being useless in the background while lars looks up with that quiet desperation that was his (and mine) primary emotion throughout the experience. The muffled voices coming from the suits are great, especially when things get a little hairy and people start panicking.
I always feel like there's a million little details that go into the games you make, and I try to notice as many as I can. Like the way the camera moves when you go to realign the radar dish; you didn't have to add that bit, but it makes the game better to see the dish actually moving. or the shiny copper texture on the sides of the cabinets holding the equipment, and the little light-up logos that show which piece of equipment goes where. or the way the medical plants actually look like succulents with the thickness of the leaves and the shiny-ness. or the way the sliders change color to tell you when you've hit the right spot. a million tiny little details, that really add up to aid that suspension of disbelief and make things more fun. Nice work!
@markopolodev BUT DID YOU PET THE LIZARD?
@elysiagriffin After my 20-researcher run, to decompress I did a "pacifist" run where I avoided using missiles or letting people in, and just sat petting the lizard in the dark while waiting for the launch codes to compile. Much more meditative :laughing: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard: :lizard:
@markopolodev always a pleasure to hear from you! Grats on completing Extra!! Really appreciate your detailed feedback, and that you liked the details we put in the game.
@bauke-regnerus it is not John, I swear!! Well, actually, we should check with spacey... maybe she used him as a reference....
Loved it! The voice lines and sound effects were great, also loved the "no vines here, you okay" 😂
Only things I'd add: let us look at water amount and fuel amount without bringing the watering can (or gasoline thingymajig)
Great entry!
Congrats on the great placing!!
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