fabula-rasa 2022-10-03 22:56
We all do. Need sleep that is :)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → HURTEC
By trexxak
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1063 | 2.98 | 33 | |
| Fun | 1004 | 2.87 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 818 | 3.04 | 33 | |
| Theme | 1104 | 2.83 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 1009 | 2.79 | 33 | |
| Audio | 631 | 3.00 | 33 | |
| Humor | 649 | 2.71 | 28 | |
| Mood | 1030 | 2.85 | 29 |
We all do. Need sleep that is :)
This is death for my poor, poor fingers :laughing: Also, my smashing skills are definitely not good enough - my husband reached the "you're done here" screen much, much, much faster *hangs her head in shame*. But that's okay - the game is so fast and hectic that there is little time to wonder about how bad you are at it.
Would be nice if there was a bigger difference between the player character and the enemies (make the player mech bright pink!) - you would see better where you are at a glance.
I had a lot of fun with this! I like the gradual introduction of more and more buttons to mash, and I almost wish it spiraled to absurdity. imagine if by level 10 you have to mash Q W R M NUMLOCK HOME F6 TAB and ` just to have a chance to win. Ahh, that would be goofy.
I recorded myself playing so you can have some extra feedback:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq3qOoTl9ao
Cool design. Guys, if anyone uses vimium, turn it off in advance :)
Cool design and the sound experience is smooth, congratulation !
Interesting combination of mobility, mashing buttons, and shooting cotton balls(?). I like that I had some control over the projectiles by powering them up, but it took me a little while to figure that I was supposed to repeatedly hit the buttons to charge them up. I eventually got to a level where I seemed to be out of ammo, but I couldn't figure out how to reload. I also don't think I really understood how to use LMB/RMB to heal myself - maybe that would have reloaded my ammo?
I loved fighting in this game! it makes me feel very powerful I could see there being a skill to it but maybe the difficulty got too hard too quickly.
@fabula-rasa totally with you. Making the player character stand out would've been my next priority, alas...
I ran out of time so hard this jam... I made a few stupid coding decisions right at the beginning that made working on the game an absolute mess <.<
Glad you still had your fun with it. Oh, and sorry for your fingers :(
@100th-coin Oh yeah, giving you more and more buttons to mash for progressively worse reasons would've been totally a path I could've seen going with this :D I'm honoured by your feedback! Also - you have such a nice voice o:
@goddoesplaydice @whitenoize thanks for playing :3
@defrag Oh, no problem. So, I think I communicated that a bit poorly, but the LMB and RMB are not actually for healing yourself (although that IS a fantastic idea!), but rather to solve the binary sequence that appears at around level 5, where LMB lets a "1" disappear, and RMB lets a "0" disappear. After making the whole sequence disappear, you shoot one cotton ball (I didn't intend the missile to be interpreted as a cotton ball, but I like the idea a lot :D )
@austin-sierra well to be fair, there isn't much skill involved in how the game is played as is. I could see it expanded upon (and the heatseaking from mashing 'R' being nerfed a lot) to make it so, however. For now, it's just a bit of mash-and-pray :D Thank you for playing n_n
I quite enjoyed the button smashing, I think I would've preferred it if that just kept on going though rather than bringing in the binary mechanic! The binary mechanic kind of brought everything to a crawl and at first I wasn't even sure what I was meant to do. Besides that I agree with others that it was hard to tell who I was vs enemies, but otherwise there's a fun little game here, good job :)
neat, i think there were a lot of things going on, but good job with the tutorials. still not sure why the bullets looked like snow balls, but why not, great job!
Some interesting concepts! Button mashing is always fun, and having to put in the code to fire as you were button mashing took some skill. It didn't leave me any time to move my tank or anything though, but I still got to the last "impossible" level. Maybe a slightly slower paced, more strategic game would be a better fit - though then there would be no button mashing :smile:
It was a neat idea! I found that clicking LMB and RMB in binary sequences was a bit of an unnecessary challenge on top of everything else! The movement scheme (rotating, move forward or back) was challenging enough to dodge incoming fire XD
The combination of the level resetting every 10 seconds AND when I lost all health made the level switching doubly hard to track. For that reason, the theme seemed a little forced.
I did enjoy the different powerups (Q, E, R), and had fun blasting opponents away (when I managed to check the sequence).
Wow this game is hectic So much going on, it was hard to remember to mash buttons, aim, and dodge bullets while trying to complete the binary sequence. At first it felt extremely difficult, but then it felt extremely simple. I think you have some cool ideas here, but the pacing and difficulty curve makes the player just rush through the enjoyment. Obviously play testing in LD is nearly impossible, and I notice that you tried to ease the player into it by gradually showing new mechanics, but when I reached the end I felt like I'd just learned how to play.
Overall though, great job coming up with such a unique idea and putting it all together in time for the jam. The music was great btw
A little bit frustrated about controls, I think I understood smth wrong but smtimes I couldn't shoot at all, while at start I was shooting like a machine gun Mechanics overall are nice made, maybe a bit more speed to movement because avoiding is impossible and I didnt actually understood 10 seconds timer and death it was weird levels were changing weirdly Graphics and rotation of robots, and AI looked nicely done) Good job overall
I accidentally clicked past the instructions for the binary sequence and was confused why I could no longer shoot but I eventually figure it out. Satisfying when you get a big shot, but I was confused about why some were super homing and others didnt home at all, though in hindsight maybe it needs a full 10 of some stat in order to home and I was afraid of dying so often fired at 7 or 8 of each stat. For the later 10 second cycles, I often could not tell whether I died from damage or the time ran out or what as it just starts another 10 second battle.
https://youtu.be/Xty0TvPfvGA?t=11789
Thanks for submitting your game to stream!
Once again, love the creativity you bring to your games. :slight_smile: I especially like the mechanic for shooting once your mech gets "damaged." I can totally see that being a fun mechanic in a bigger game, if you ever wanted to flesh it out more!
Nice Game. I too clicked past the binary instruction and was left wondering what to do. I like the different mashing, but in the end i stopped moving and smashed q,e,r completed one or two sequences and the enemies went boom.
It took me back to the days of the old action rpg where you're randomly mashing every key frantically to fire off attacks. It'd be cool if the vehicle moved more like an 8 direction, and a little faster, just to have some change of dodging .
Whoa! I quite enjoyed the button smashing - the mechanics work well as expected. I had fun playing. I really liked the main aesthetic and especially the HUD. Soundtrack are pleasant... you made a solid entry with a cool gameplay and many good ideas. I wish you the best ++
(I am now in a rush to test as many games as possible to help, so please do not mind the cursory reviewing style.)
1. wow, sweet music! What did you use? :) 2. went for the ‘time limit’ interpretation of the theme (which at least [*10 seconds or less*](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/10-seconds-or-less) also did, including clearing out levels) 3. timer goes on during level 1 explanations (but not for level 2, weirdly) 4. Oh no… Controls are QWERTY-only instead of layout-independent (I have an AZERTY keyboard). And this is **not** the kind of game where my fingers enjoy this. :o XD I was wondering upon reading the description 5. "wololo" -> nice keeping alive the *Age of Empires* references ;) 6. progressive interactive tutorial: great!! 7. showing 0 and 1 instead of Left and Right is nerd-oriented ;) 8. concept is interesting (pretty much QTEs on steroids), but currently, in practice, looks like furiously bashing the keyboard without even getting a chance to move! Suggestion: remove movement altogether? 9. WHAT?! I do not get how I am supposed to win the first level that has enemy ‘mechs’ in it: the binary sequences are way too long!! <:o (right after) Ah, made it with a gigantic superpowered shot! 10. next level: that homing shot looks like billiards! XD 11. last level: using the same technique, made it in just a matter of seconds! Actually, a single superpowered shot wipes out the screen, and this seems to be the optimal (very simple!!) strategy. So, beat the game super rapidly, I was expecting hell because of QWERTY movement controls (which I did not need at all in the end!) and two levels before, but this turned out fine! By the way, the timer went up to 11 shortly after I won; expected? The end, my friend. 12. agreed with fabula_rasa (and you ;)) that the main character could stand out some more 13. while writing the conclusion, testing clicking on the upper-right square: oh, this *is* a button! XD It was not obvious to me
**Takeaway:** the (original) concept **does** have potential, but I think the 10-second time limit plays against it by making everything like a frenzied semi-blind QTE experience. Suggestion: instead of making whole levels as 10 seconds, just ask for some *action* or *group of actions* to be performed each under 10 seconds successively! This would also allow more movement (for example, some sequences could be based on movement, or some 10-second sequence groups could be triggered only at some points), which I really did not use. Superpowering one’s shots is pleasant (as is movement with its sounds and two independent body halves, which I tried more… after the end XD), the background is nice too, the characters and story setting (cleverly developed through the tutorial!) are nice, and I love the soothing music (well done!). And progressive tutorials are a scarce yet great feature: good job once again. So, to recap my main criticism, I would say the game could become even more engaging and challenging by incorporating the theme just *a bit* differently, this is really the only big shortcoming I see.
Do not hesitate to enhance the game, there is definitely something! :) Thanks, and once again, especially for the music, I could let it play for the rest of the day. XD
PS:
> I didn’t intend the missile to be interpreted as a cotton ball, but I like the idea a lot :D
This is *Yoshi’s Island* all over again. With mechs. X)
I think mashing is a very interesting mechanic in games. It is physically strenuous to pull off (to the point where it can be actually unhealthy if you're not careful!) and so in any case it gives a real sense of weight to things. A previous Ludum Dare entry I found interesting in that regard is [this one](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/dig-box-dig) from Ludum Dare 48.
In this game, though, I find that my favorite mechanic is the mouse button mashing. It took me a while to figure out exactly what it did, and I admit that it is pretty difficult to actually pull off in the context of the game... but it is very fun, for me at least, to tap out a binary code on my mouse buttons, and more specifically, to try to do so quickly.
However, I do find myself tending to focus all my attention on the binary code at the bottom of the screen. As such, my only real hope of ever hitting any enemy is to get the heat-seeking missile upgrade, as I don't tend to aim very well. This is interesting, as it means I am one way or another mandated to also mash the R key. In general I find myself mashing all three keys to get the best chance at winning. I think that's kind of neat... the game does sort of require me to mash these keys, but it doesn't do so explicitly. It is an emergent consequence of the other mechanics.
Of course, I imagine the game is explicitly designed to mandate the mashing. I mean, the whole reason that the mashing feels so necessary is that I have only a ten second time limit and so I need my missiles, once I actually get done with the binary code, to do as much damage as possible.
I did find myself basically never using the movement mechanics. First, because I was focused on the binary codes primarily. Second, because when I did look away from the codes, it was to attempt to aim. And third, because the movement speed of the Hurt-Mec is very slow, and the tank controls make it difficult to move as well. So, I suppose the movement mechanics are in this way the opposite of the mashing mechanics... there is nothing stopping me from using them, but everything else about the gameplay makes me very unlikely to.
The other consequence of all these mechanics is that whether I actually win is somewhat random. :sweat_smile: I tend not to move out of the way of enemies, so really what determines whether I win or lose is whether they are able to shoot me before a missile that I happen to shoot wipes them out. Because: I do often fail at firing a missile; I will often get, say, 6 codes right and then mess up. It does seem like the game will give me easier codes for a bit if I keep messing up repeatedly, which is a nice little mechanic.
So, basically, I would say the thematic core of this game, to me at least, is emergent incentives. The game is explicitly a mashing game, but a raw description of its mechanics could suggest that I instead, say, run around with my Mec and aim with the mouse and shoot stuff. But then, the emergent properties mean that, in practice, I don't run around, and I focus my eyes on one little part of the screen, and do nothing but mash. So it is a mashing-game inside a not-mashing-game inside a mashing-game, if you will. :smile:
An interesting game concept. The graphics are functional, and the sound is nice. I like the character's movement. The mechanics of binary numbers are interesting. Good job.
@relick Thank you so much! I agree, the binary mechanic is a bit much, especially if you get 8 digits and need to move... also could've made it easier to understand what is meant to do e.g. color coding the digits or use some more readable symbols... or both!
@natpat Appreciate the compliments! Movement is pretty hard combined with all the other stuff going on. I'm annoyed at myself for not at least reconsider how movement should be handled :D
@hawkin Thank you! Yup, can see how the 10 second timer comes off as forced - in retrospect, maybe settling for enemy spawns every 10s would've felt more intuitive? Idk, thought it was an easy theme, but yeah, I myself get disgusted at how literal I took the theme this time around :D
Thank you for your feedback! So, there's an increasing chance of homing when mashing "R" that is at 100% when constantly on 10. Doesn't feel balanced at all however, as the homing @almost feels needed (or like cheating) later on, especially when also mashing the mouse buttons.
@coleslaughter As always, honoured to get your feedback! Yeah, I may reuse the mechanic some day. No promises though, I have way too many projects to work on as is :'D
@rentem Thank you! I think you figured out perfectly how to consistently win! :D
@geckoo1337 Aw, thank you! Appreciate your high praise very much!
@mossieur-patate
Wow, honoured you're in a rush yet still give such insightful feedback! I don't deserve this :D
1 - I used https://1bitdragon.com for the music. Back when I bought it, I immediately felt underwhelmed, however it turns out to be phenomenal when composing a track in a hurry - especially when you can't get into the mindset required for creating music because you only have about 2 hours left :D
4 - Oh man, sorry, totally forgot about azerty-mapping. I did think about letting the player remap the keys, but yeah... that would've been a stretch goal, I must admit. I hope to remember doing this kind of stuff next time.
8 - Agreed. Something would need to change about the movement. In the early stages, I even had it planned to not let the player move, yet for some reason I was very stubborn about that. Lessons learned :/
9 - Agreed! :D
Super happy you enjoyed the music so much! I must admit, I'm not all that musically inclined , so I doubt myself all the time when composing, as I can only judge with my own ears.
Thank you so much for giving my game so much time!
@honey-pony
Whoa, that Digging game is awesome. Thanks for showing me! o:
Your feedback is as always very much appreciated, and made me weirdly proud of myself :D In return, I'll tell you why there was the possibility to move in the first place. So, right from the beginning, I dreamed the game up to be a strict multiplayer game, at the end of the first day though, I got cold feet and instead worked on enemy AI...
My hope was that with human players, certain metas would emerge and disappear again, and the more options the player has, the longer the metagame would continue on before becoming stale. At least that was my thinking.
Part of the reason why I decided against going Multiplayer was that there were simply way too many mechanics the player would have to master before getting into the arena, so I started with a tutorial and put the whole network-stuff on ice until further notice. We all played the tutorial of this "vision" I had :laughing:
Thank you so much for playing!
@vphyre Ah, great to see you're back for LD51! Thank you so much for your compliments! :D
@trexxak omg yes remapping controls is always a pipe dream for me, but there are only so many hours.. in the past I've always included a pause screen (which isn't too hard now with a utility I've written for myself), but it still takes time AND isn't really necessary.
That said, there's someone on here that has advertised their utility library for jams. If you use Unity, I believe it is on the asset store.