honeyhop 2022-10-04 21:15
Super cute game and it was a lot of fun as well! It took me a second to get the hang of it, but once I did it was a blast, good job!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Winding Woods
By tetrapteryx
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 516 | 3.58 | 26 | |
| Fun | 551 | 3.41 | 26 | |
| Innovation | 161 | 3.85 | 26 | |
| Theme | 412 | 3.83 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 251 | 4.10 | 26 | |
| Audio | 207 | 3.79 | 26 | |
| Mood | 207 | 3.87 | 26 |
Super cute game and it was a lot of fun as well! It took me a second to get the hang of it, but once I did it was a blast, good job!
Cool Idea! Was tough to keep up! One thing I couldnt figure out is how the critter decided what direction to go, was it whereever I placed a card? Or was it random each tile? I think adding some sort of indicator regarding its intended direction would be helpful! Good Job!
wow that was a really great gamiing expirience, i loved the concept so much, was a lot of fun to play it :O
Played a few rounds and got better and better. Nice moody game, well done!
@thedude3600 It picks a random direction among any "safe" adjacent tiles. If there aren't any safe ones, it picks a random woods tile, or an already visited one as a last resort if there are no better options. There is an indicator around the tile it's going to visit next, but I'll make a note to make that stand out more! Thanks for playing!
This was really cool! I love the concept, art and music!!! Great work!
I'm sorry to hear that the jam didn't go well. The game overall I thought was enjoyable. It took me a few runs to get a feel for it, but I was able to get going after that. The highest I was able to get was 23, not sure if that's decent or not lol.
A couple of things I noticed; sometimes the placement square didn't seem to go up a full square? It's like it got stuck halfway to the next square and just snapped there. I wasn't sure as well how the critter decided to which direction to go. Generally it would walk in the direction I expected from the arrow cards or placing the grass. Sometimes it would just turn around though and walk back the other direction? Not sure if that's intended or not, but it did lead to some unwanted deaths.
Good work though.
Took me a while to figure out what all the cards do, but eventually I figured out most of them and got the hang of it (although it did sometimes seem like the little guy changed directions for unclear reasons). My high score was 55. The atmosphere is great (the art and music both fit). The idea of past tiles being "full of ghosts" is very evocative. Overall, I enjoyed it.
Super unique concept! I got really invested in keeping that little guy alive. I liked how the music built up and added layers - and it was a great track. Art and UI are very well done. Overall your game has a great vibe and I think it would be cool expand it a bit post jam! Good job!
Really innovative idea, i didn't understand how it picks direction in all of the tiles, but i really think it's a very good idea to explore more for a game. Great mood and sound and pretty polished.
Wow! What an innovative entry - I loved it! I was surprised at the sense of dread and nurturing I was able to feel twoards the adorable little wormy. The atmosphere - especially the music -really sold the idea of a mysterious and dangerous (but wonderous) woods. The UI was clear, beautifully rendered, and totally fit with the aesthetic. A really unique and special entry - well done!!
Great art and idea.
Great entry! Very much enjoyed this game.
Pros: - The game is beautiful, art is super cohesive - The music and sounds fit well
Feedback: - It was a bit too hard imo, not because it required a lot of skill, but because of sheer randomness. As you have no indication of the critter's next direction, no way of redrawing or changing cards, and waaaay too many ghosts everywhere, sometimes you just die without being able to do anything - especially with the fact that you get so many tornado cards later on (justified by the number of ghosts), which means if the critter decides to go straight to the dark part, you get to just watch him die :( - It took me some time to understand what the different cards would do. I got confused by the cards you could play on visible tiles or not, and the movement ones (at first I thought it would change the critter direction when played ahah)
I really liked the mood, thought :)
Nice game, everything goes well together. I found the music really great. The game might rely too much on randomness, that and there is not point in living x). You keep moving where you can, some tiles other than wood could provide an objective for the player to try to go in a way or another. Good game overall. Well done!
Game was super chill, I loved the music and the gameplay loop. I think it could feel better to drag and drop the cards directly on where they would go, but overall good job
I can only emphasise on what others have already said. The movement of the critter is too random to really know what to do next. It also took a bit time to figure out the cards (which you usually not had due to the critter dying so quickly). I also would have liked some more feedback on the placement of the cards. Sometimes it felt like nothing happened. Otherwise the visuals are beautiful and it is an interesting concept. Good work!
Interesting idea and nice graphics! Instantly dying to the darkness is pretty harsh. It might have been nice to always place the "next" card wherever the player clicks to be faster and/or to respawn the player somewhere (possibly adding lives). Also, the player does not have that much control to keep the critter away from the ghosts in my opinion (apart from the arrows). Perhaps some item would lure the critter onto the neighboring tile but I did not figure that out.
@tinylittlestudio @dining-philosopher Thanks for the feedback! Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind taking the time to answer, I was wondering what you think would make the movement rules come across more clearly? They're consistent and can't be random in a way that's directly detrimental to the player, you have enough control that you can keep it going indefinitely as long as you're planning out a safe movement sequence quickly enough, so I'm wondering what might be giving the impression that it's unpredictable and how I can clear that up.
The rules are: as soon as the critter reaches the center of a tile, it chooses its next move and marks it with a cursor on the next tile. If the tile it's currently on has an arrow, it chooses that direction no matter what. Otherwise, it chooses a "safe" adjacent tile, ie. not woods or ghosts. If there's only one safe tile, it's guaranteed to go there. If there are two or more, it picks one at random. If there aren’t any safe tiles, it picks a woods tile at random. Until it reaches the center of a woods tile, you can place a new tile in that space to avoid death. If there are no safe tiles or woods adjacent to it, that's the only time it will go towards ghosts (aside from when there's an arrow pointing to the ghosts).
@tetrapteryx You said it yourself. You have to "plan out a safe movement sequence quickly enough". You need to add in the time for the user to register that something has changed and the time for the motion to react. You as the developer probably tested it so many times and understand the concept well enough to do that motion quick enough. Personally I would probably add a short waiting period before the movement or indicate a short path instead of only the next move. There is simply not enough time to understand all rules instantly and repeating failures add up to a feeling of inconsistency when you do not understand why you failed. Conveying knowledge simply with the given circumstances is difficult. You already do a good job. It just feels a bit random due to the short time span you have to aquire all the required knowledge/ rules. Hope that helps!
@tinylittlestudio Yes, I appreciate the perspective. Thanks for taking the time!
Even if the jam didn't go well for you, I think the game you made definitely went well! I like the gameplay loop, it's pretty unique, and the gameplay made me play a few times to see what score can I get (which is very good). Cool entry, keep up the good work!