nicorm 2022-04-05 01:15
Its really fun, but the music is really loud. Check our game as well!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Mama
By charred-axolotl and seabats
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 593 | 3.59 | 35 | |
| Fun | 487 | 3.57 | 35 | |
| Innovation | 897 | 3.09 | 35 | |
| Theme | 426 | 3.87 | 35 | |
| Graphics | 709 | 3.63 | 36 | |
| Audio | 332 | 3.70 | 29 | |
| Mood | 387 | 3.77 | 33 |
Its really fun, but the music is really loud. Check our game as well!
This is great! I feel like you really nailed applying the theme to this game. I didn't notice how to tell mama was dying until halfway through my first playthrough and honestly, I loved it. The very subtle change of her eyes closing over time is pretty immersive. Loved the sprites as well. Great job!
Pretty fun! I was surprised at the amount of mechanics in it. Also, the music's really nice!
It was fun! I really liked how the difficulty ramped up and made the game super frantic once you lasted more than like a minute.
I feel like there isn't enough variety for what happens. do the different crystals do anything special or is it just visual? There were a few times when the crystal would spawn right next to mama.
@purpoappo Different crystals will heal mama at different rates. The more complex-looking ones are better at healing her faster. I figured since that follows a few common design trends in games it would be self-explanatory, but more feedback for what was actually happening definitely could have helped.
I feel accomplished, yet still empty inside. Can this really be called a victory? An achievement? At what cost. At what cost... 3.PNG
This is such a wonderful, adorable game! The music is enchanting, and the art & implicit story are so compelling. The sound effects are also great. I'm immediately drawn in and eager to help my dragon mama.
I love how new mechanics keep being introduced and the difficulty keeps increasing. The pacing is \*chef's kiss* absolutely perfect. Every time I thought that the game had reached its maximum level of complexity, something novel happened. Seriously, how did you get the pacing and balance so good? How much time during the jam did you spend playtesting?
Like another commenter said, I really like the use of the mama's eyes to indicate how close she is to death. It's such an immersive and dramatic way of communicating that information.
Another small detail I really appreciate is the font used for the timer in the top left. A lot of Ludum Dare games don't take the time to make sure their font meshes with their art and mood, but the detailed, flowy numbers in your timer are just exquisite!
I want to reiterate how great I think the music is. It absolutely nails the "magical forest" vibe, while also capturing the protagonist's helpless desperation. The music adds so much.
Really sincerely excellent work. Congratulations on your first game jam!
Game was fun! I like the art and how it contrasted from the background. Only thing I would change is a slider for when the mama dragon is getting close to death. I had a blast playing.
@simpathey Mama's sprite actually changes as she gets closer to death! I thought it was a little more immersive than an HP bar, but maybe I could make it more obvious. Thank you for the feedback!
I was in frantic state when game starts, moving carefully avoiding any obstacles while bringing crystal to mama dragon. However, Mama.png
10 minutes later, I kept bringing crystals without care much about safety and mama is still alive. I could go on forever but I decided to stop. That being said, it's fun game. I like seeing increasing difficulty after couple minutes.
@iamsodarncool Thank you so much!! This comment makes me really happy I've already read it like 3 times!!
@bloodbane It's honestly cool to me that someone even played for 10 minutes lol. It actually used to get much harder, but I thought it was annoying past a certain point. Maybe if I revisit this in a post-jam build I'll add those harder sections back when Mama's health is getting too high.
I like this game! It's very imaginative. It also kind of reminds me of The Dragon Prince, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intent, heh.
Nice game! I think it all builds nicely together to a cohesive game. The game good difficulty progression, and I like that it keeps introducing new enemies to keep it interesting. The collisions with the thorns were a bit weird, since I didn't fully know when they are effective when they appear. Still, it was fun to play, and I enjoyed the mood, even if a bit sad!
Good music, nice aspect of the controls is the quick moving character is detrimental when obstacles show up, but advantageous when there are none. Gameplay could use some more depth, like bonus for being quicker ect. Otherwise solid first entry :D
You had me at DRAGON! AAAAAAA! I've been dying to play this since I saw it. I may be a bit obsessed with dragons. I also may have been a bit emotionally invested in the mama. The thorns didn't seem to always hit me. Not sure if I was going too fast or if the vines don't hurt only the thorns and I just got lucky. I had fun and tried to keep Mama Dragon alive as long as I could. Cute game, well done!
Very nice game :smile: The vines were a bit weird (didn't hit me as I expected) but the sound, art and gameplay were all pretty good. The music was great and the mama dragon slowly closing her eyes was a pretty nice indicator for her hunger :smile: Great job!
Cool game, got a time of 3:29. I feel like the collision boxes on the vines are tad weird, as they are inconsistent in whether they hit me or not. It almost feels like the collision boxes activate too long after they've already emerged out of the grown and too early before they disappear. The purple goo and wisps that appear do make it a fairly decent challenge though.
@flyingkaida @sir-syko @edmanbosch Thank you all for the feedback!! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I wanted the roots/vines to be telegraphed, so they only hit you as their thorns are popping out. Any time before or after that animation, they're okay to run over. It's kind of a small animation, though, so it can be hard to notice. Definitely wanted to add a sound effect that made it a little more obvious, but naturally I ran out of time.
Fun little game! The music really sets a nice mood and it's super nice to keep playing! Nice work ^^
Nice little game, I would probably prefer it to be more difficult, but this way it's at least more relaxing. Also I managed to get stuck in the dragon's collision box and could not get out.image-41858438420379784.jpg
Great game! The art style is great and it's great to keep playing! The later levels are a little harder for me ...... NO MAMA NO ;(
@mar3k hmm I thought I fixed that. GMS2's collision detection has been a nightmare to work with lately.
I'll upload a fix once I get home, thank you for letting me know.
Extremely good job for your first entry, you should be proud of it. Your partner also did a great job with the music and sound design. (or is it you that made the sound effects? I'm not sure, but the sound effects were sooo good as well.)
Since you participated mainly as a learning experience, perhaps here are a few things you could consider: - A health bar for the Mama (so we know how much health she has and if she is close to dying) - A fade-away animation for the crystals, so we know if the crystal is going to disappear and we should just wait for the next crystal - A way to know when the obstacles' colliders "activate" and actually damage you e.g. for the branches, the colliders "activate" some time after the branches actually appear, so we can't tell the exact moment they activate and hence for how long we can walk through them before we get damaged. What I could suggest is that the colliders activate once the branches fully appear out of the ground, but the entrance animation is slowed down so we are given time to anticipate their positions and plan our path accordingly.
But then again these are just small things to take note of, your game is still great regardless.
Definitely a great game for a first entry. I do have a few pieces of feedback for you that'll hopefully be useful for future games :)
* Firstly, diagonal movement is much faster than just moving straight - this can relatively easily be fixed with trigonometry (Apply velocity to X/Y coords based on "angle" of the movement) * No indication of the health of the dragon * Collision of the thorns seems inconsistent
Loved the concept and the atmosphere. The music set the mood straight away. I expected to game over as a little dragon if I hit the vines, but for better or worse it didn't happen. The vine collision wasn't what I expected, but I appreciate how you did them, making them twitch. Early game (first minutes) felt quite easy. I don't think it's a bad thing, though, since the mood is very calm anyway.
I saw dragon and immediately wanted to play, the concept is so cute! I will say though after trying to avoid obstacles for a minute, I realized they didn't really get in the way too much. I also think maybe a hunger bar or different style of showing the mama dragon's health would be cool! The graphics were nice; I really like baby dragon because he's so fast and cute!