Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Fire Punch
By stefan-funke
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1110 | 3.16 | 38 | |
| Fun | 1019 | 3.06 | 38 | |
| Innovation | 1377 | 2.22 | 38 | |
| Graphics | 391 | 4.01 | 38 | |
| Audio | 695 | 3.14 | 37 | |
| Mood | 1129 | 3.02 | 37 |
This was a fun lil platformer! I wasn't sure what the connection to the theme was, but the movement was tight and the combat was juicy. It was excessively hard though! Getting past those fire wizards with only 4 health and no health pickups was a real task. Fun though :)
The art and sfx are very nice. Retro gaming is always kind of cool. It was quite difficult though
Awesome! Pixel art is super clean and looks great, the controls feel very nicely tweaked, tight and responsive. The camera look is nice feature too. It is very difficult though! Perhaps you could introduce some way for the player to regain health?
All of these elements have a lot of potential to make a great little platformer game, I'd be interested to see if you continue development :)
Great game. Really tough, but I like that. Feels good to use those fire fists :-)
Yeah the wizards are tough. But nothing beats some fire punches. Well done :)
Nice graphics and platformer movement. The fire enemies were quite hard, I'm guessing you were going for a Souls-like 'dodge-a-lot' approach to combat? I got to a glowy orb which I hoped was a checkpoint but when I went back to the previous room to finish off the two enemies I went around I died and got kicked back to the beginning. The in-line tutorial is a very nice way to introduce the mechanics, helps onboard players, which is good. I just wish it didn't put you right back to the beginning each time you die. I liked the character animation and the fireballs looked really cool. Nice job. :)
Thank you all for the nice comments and playing my game. I appreciate it!
@junklab I would have loved adding some healing options. Sadly the time ran out and I had to cut some planned features. :( Maybe next time!
@extar Thanks! Reaching the glowy orb is the goal of the game. I didn't have time for a proper endboss, so I at least placed a treasure at the end of the level. But I didn't expect people just running past the enemies :D
Awesome game! You have really amazing art the helped the game shine. The main thing i would say is that the character controller doesnt feel quite as snappy and responsive as i would like. Especially for a game where dodging is so critical i think having precise control of your movement is a must. But either way great work!!
@mrjeremy Thanks for playing and the feedback. I will try to improve that the next time :)
Great art and very smooth controls. I'm not very good at platformers but it felt difficult however folks who like these games prefer the difficulty. I think you can could build on this. Best of luck!
Hey-hey, nice game!
I think most of the complexity comes from the fact that you can't heal your health back and the character is not very agile, which results in a certain frustration from not being able to dodge the bullets (which also come in a fairly unpredictable pattern.
The pause wizards take before going all hulk on you and beating you in close quarters could also be bigger, so to signalise that they are about to screw you up, too. I personally tried quite a few times but couldn't get past the second pair of wizards - and had to do over the same thing of killing the initial couple of walls and a wizard every single time - perhaps, a save game would be good to solve this problem as well.
So, this whole text above might look like I'm doing some harsh criticism, totally not intending that, just the requested honest constructive feedback. Hope you like it!
Nice game! Graphics really set the mood and the controls feel nice. The enemies are really hard with only melee attacks and only minimal health with no regen or checkpoints. I didn't reach the end. Perhaps a dodge could be added to mitigate the difficulty.
Another thing I want to comment on is the sfx. I think the may have been a bit too loud, although I definitely appreciate the effort of adding them in.
Overall a good submission!
@firellon No worries, didn't sound harsh at all. Thank you very much for playing and your feedback, I appreciate it. The "no healing" part seems a common complaint. So this will definetly be higher up on the priority list the next time.
@learus Thanks for the suggestions! I was worried about the sound being too loud and already turned it down a bit. Seemed okay to me. Maybe I will add a volume slider in the future. :D
The pixel art in this game is super top-notch! One critique I have is that I still had a bit of trouble with the input mapping, but the gameplay itself is tight. The difficulty could be adjusted though, maybe perhaps give some anticipation on whether the wizards will attack you, or maybe keep that, and have an easy mode for that feature. Audio-wise, everything in the game fits well.
Overall, it's a solid work! Great job! :thumbsup:
the player control immediately came off to me as nice and responsive, though the camera shifting when looking up/down wasn't as smooth as it could be. The graphics were also nicely done. as far as the difficulty goes, i think you generally didn't leave enough room for player error while learning how to play, specifically in this case getting used to how the encounters are designed, which is a very common mistake among new devs or when you don't have other people to play your game. difficulty in general is both a fine line and a loose cannon because while it takes a lot of fine tuning to make sure an experience is both fair and engaging you can never make it work for everyone and everything appeals to someone... if that makes sense. The advice I would give to you is to make sure you can as the developer overcome any challenge in your game without taking a hit (to be sure it's fair) and to consider how players who know nothing about your game are going to experience your learning curve, because it never ends with the tutorial. an easy example of something like that in this game is how you put motionless targets that block your progress before you expect the player to fight a proper enemy, so you know they've had a chance to experience every aspect of the control scheme at a basic level. This is something to be considering with every part of the game, not just the beginning. I'd like to stress i'm not talking about teaching specific mechanics or even difficulty curves in general, but getting players accustomed to the nuances of playing your game before you expect them to demonstrate mastery of it... i hope that makes sense
sorry that kind of went on, all in all you did a pretty good job with this game and I really enjoyed it
Amazing graphics and game overall! It was kind of hard for me because the range of attack is too small, but I guess it is intended.
Well done!
The game looks good, but, for a modern platformer, the gameplay is quite simple. The protagonist feels unresponsive. And it's hard. But the game still feels good.
Good graphics, but combat feel almost turn-based for me
@jasper-hansen Thanks for your detailed feedback. I appreciate it!
The graphics were really nice, great job on the animations! The controls also felt fluent. Like said above, it was really difficult but I personally dont see that as a necessarily bad thing, a good challenge can be really nice!
What I think helps with difficult games though, is if it is super super clear what is happening! It is already good that attacks were telegraphed, but even better would be to have bright flashing alarm signals that an attack is coming your way! The same goes for being hit, if it is super clear what caused the damage, it is easier to learn from it and it makes it feel more 'fair'.
Of course this is a bit nitpicking especially for a 48/72 hour game jam, I think you did a really great job and I enjoyed playing it!
Really really nice art style and animation. A bit brutally difficult though! Would be nice for there to be a bit more of a ramp up. Regardless, good job :-)
Very nice game! Congratulations. I feel myself stronger when I figured out the acting logic of the monster and made some strategic motions to beat them. But the battles against 2 monsters are still too difficult for me.
Overall a little difficult to play with at the start since the attack range is quite short. It took some getting use to but i still can't get past the part with 2 monsters surrounding you Still a fun game tho :)
Really really dig the graphics! Very challenge, but looks great and I kept wanting to try another run. My only constructive criticism is that I didn't really like the mouse to punch (since there is no aiming). I know you can do arrow key + control, but the right ctrl doesn't work so you can't do wasd + controls. That's just being super nit picky though, I really enjoyed what you put together, great job!
I would add a death animation when he is down
@marvis There's a small death animation, where she goes down on her knees. Sadly the time ran out on monday evening and I wasn't able to do a full falling to the ground animation. Thanks for your feedback!
The game seemed difficult to me, the controls are not responsive ... What is the inevitability?
Hi, a very cool entry! Really like what you did there :)
graphics looked cool and the anmations were really nice!
I feel like this is a game that would feel much better with a gamepad - but MKB was fine as well!
Also, classic gamejam syndrom - start outh with Level 99, lol. Why do we like to torture our players so much xD
Seriously though, I tried to be patient and played it for 10-15 minutes but never got past that 2 monsters. I figured it's impossible without getting hit at least twice (5-6 fireballs crashing into the floor, you can't stand in front of the monster - basically meaning you will get hit for sure)
Can you try to set off the aim of the monsters a bit? like make the delay higher or something und upload it again? (Gamejam rules are a grey area, but I think balancing still counts? but even if you post this as post jam)
tag me if you do, would love to try this again as I feel this game really has potential, I also quite liked the feedback of pushing and the monsters dying (turning to stone?) The range of you attacks is very narrow, which is fine by itself, but having to get close to the monster while it jumps in your face PLUS having 5-6 fireballs behind you (the location where you should theoretically be able to retreat) just really really is a bit too much imo.
But these 2 monsters could be like final boss style, no joke :p
congrats on finishing this by yourself, really impressive :)
@rogsound Sorry for that. That's been a common complaint sadly. I will try to balance the game better the next time. The theme didn't suit me well. So I just did something I had fun with. That's why I opted out of the theme category. Thanks for playing!
@angiemon Thank you very much for taking the time and playing my game. I appreciate your feedback and will definitely consider it in the next jam! :) I don't know. It's just really difficult to balance games. I didn't expect people to get stuck at this point so early in the level. But now that I know, I can put more consideration into balancing the next time! :) I'm doing a no-dev-weekend, but I will consider your suggestion of doing a small balancing patch next week (maybe, when I find the time). :)
Small strategy hint, that might or might not help: I will usually only do a small step back, so I won't get hit by the bump attack. Fireballs will then still land behind me and I won't get hit. That should work most of the time.
Thanks again for playing! :)
@stefan-funke oh believe me, I feel you soooo much. most people are frustrated with out game as well ^^°
After you spend 72 hours working on it, you tend to forget others haven't... :)
So yeah. Definitely a learning curve for us too! Add a couple casual levels, so everyone can enjoy and the pro players will rush through that to get to the harder levels will be my approach for the next jam :)
That is a good idea, I should do that too, but my ADHD brain makes me overfocus and obsess oder things sooo easily, hahah! :D
Ohh, thank your for the tip! I will give it another try! :)
Okay so I tried to implement your advice, gave it a few tries and…
blbl-IDIDIT.jpg
YAY!!! That actually felt preeeeetty damn good! I was positive my ending is imminent though, lol.
Then I actually managed to come quite far!!! I just ran away from most of the monsters to come across this mysteriousy sparkling beauty:
blbl_shrine.jpg
Man, better check this out! maybe it teleports me somewhere? Nope
Okay, but there was a sound that video games trained me to think of a positive sound, so surely I activated SOMETHING, maybe that's even a checkpoint? Yeahhh that's gotta be it, now I can kill all these monsters without having to di- INSTANT DEATH. lol
Duuuuuude xD Come on now :b
haha this definitely IS challenging! (And the lack of checkpoint, come on man.. yeah, yeah just go on blame it on the time limit again, and not just you being cruel ^^)
All kidding aside, I would add the following two things to your page description:
1. Gameplay Tip about little jump back (I might add: maybe even start shooting a step back and wait until the dumbo jumps into it, or did I just unravel a secret :3 2. Write something about it being a challenging but rewarding game. Because that's what it is, I added that to our game to and will I think at least weed out the people that give up after 20 seconds of trying (Frankly, I don't get these people as fellow gamedevs.. but I digress)
You know how videogames used to be way harder back in the day? When there was a max. of 10 coming out every year, so players needed to spend more time on the levels ^^ But players were much more inclined to keep trying and the feeling of finally making it is phenomenal.
Nowadays a lot of people want that instant rush of gratification and are impatient. Although not everyone!
Otherwise games like the Souls series and cuphead wouldn't exist.
But casual players know how to steer away from them :D Und even they offer jackpoints, bro :b
.. okay, roasted you enough about this now, hehe :D
(and between you an me: I also didnt like the topic, and I'd also rather do a game that is meaningful/taking a risk with trying something new that could potentially be worked on later on, instead of a little cute game that plays it safe that might raise hearts during a gamejam but in the long run was just a fun project and nothing more, no hate against those, absolutely not, but I really dislike the idea of not trying to experiment and come up with something cool for the sake of ratings. That being said.. arrange time for checkpoints and easy first levels next time ;))
After making it to the impossible 2 monsters
Pros:
- Quite good level design - Enemy variation (at least 1 extra ) - Intuitive controls*** - Hellscape-ish visuals - Definitely liked the 2-attack mode for the demons (CQC and range), so you can't exploit it too much
Cons:
- Not sure how it scopes to the theme. Some narration would be nice (no escape from hell or something) - ***Lack of jump-attack (veeery annoying) - ***Lack of coyote time for platforms (reduces game feel) - A bit confusing logic behind enemy fireballs. I didn't know if I could step on them after they hit the ground or not. I think that faster after-hit animation would help - Any sort of health regen (even a hidden pickup) would be appreciated
The game has some foundation, but falls short in the mid game right away, as any lack of health management gives you instant restart. It's a good effort though, so keep up the good work!
@angiemon Nice one! You did it! Reaching the white glowy orb means you won the game. Sorry for the confusion! You are not the only one who thought that. :( Checkpoints are definitely on the todo list :D
Haha, I know I'm blaming a lot on the time limit! :D But you should be happy, because I wanted to do a really hard endboss when I first planned the game. Instead I wanted to give the player a small reward at the end of the level. But I think the orb rather confused players. :(
I'm definitely learning a lot from the feedback. So I'm very thankful.
And don't worry about roasting me! :D I can handle that. Thanks for playing again! :)
@mikoziq Thanks for playing and for your feedback! There's a small coyote timer of 0.1s. Maybe it's not enough. Will have to finetune that. I agree with your other points and hope to be able to fix that soon.
@stefan-funke heck YEAH I did!!!
Ohh that wasn't really meant like I feel you do that too much, more like the relatable thing we all complain about :D (too little time D:)
Ohhh gotcha! So after killing the monsters nothing more would have happened? :3 Yeah, you know how players are, we need constat praise and such :D Maybe add a text next time :))
Loved the art. The game was too much difficult for my like, but overall a nice little platformer.