budark 2022-10-03 20:10
I give you 5 in innovation. It's the first game i saw made with godot. It's your first one?
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → The Kraken Stone
By vegevan
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Fun | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Innovation | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Theme | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Graphics | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Audio | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Humor | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Mood | 3.50 | 3 |
I give you 5 in innovation. It's the first game i saw made with godot. It's your first one?
(in a rush to test many, don’t mind the cursory style)
1. "it’s den" -> "its den" (by the way, French me notices the spaces before "!" and "?"; are you too, by any chance? Also noticing one of your games is called *Supplice* :))s 2. I like the game’s thumbnail, especially how the Kraken is there sitting on his throne XD And he reminds me of some boss from *Equinox*, I would say! 3. capture: wow, the sea water looks gorgeous! 4. judging by the defeat capture, some occasional mistakes (such as "There a" -> "There are" or "both triggers" -> "both trigger") 5. glad to see someone use GitLab instead of Microsoft-owned GitHub! :) with good old master branch, down with preposterous PC Police ;) 6. **LINK PROBLEM:** the current download links (https://itch.io/game/edit/1728695#published) give a 404 itch.io page!! Searched the game’s title on itch.io and found it (you can still correct the information): https://esilvert.itch.io/the-kraken-stone 7. by the way, you can get the upper Ludum Dare banner on itch.io by adding a Ludum Dare link on the ‘Metadata’ tab for the game’s information 8. in game; ah, nice soothing mysterious music! 9. wow, fast hit by that giant tentacle! And already lost half of my health, while game has just begun! :o 10. movement is quite slow 11. getting hit again; lost! :o Giving ‘Day of the Tentacle’ a whole new meaning, there!! 10-second respite makes things hard, apparently 12. 2nd run, applying the safety hint (… which I had read on the game page, but still managed not to follow the first time around :p): all right, I get it, safe if not travelling. 13. giant swimming Kraken is impressive! 14. "Island Name" -> is this a forgotten placeholder or a meta-joke? XD 15. I get the economy system: resources + upgrades. Reminds me of [*Radioactive Rocket Fuel*](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/radioactive-rocket-fuel), by the way (although without selling) 16. in some (Eastward) dialogue: "Dude" -> I wonder what era this takes place; I thought some earlier century, but I may have gotten the wrong idea 17. evading the Kraken is rather straightforward: just click at the right moment! Will things get more complicated? 18. noticed now that islands darken once ‘used’, so I guess interactions are one-shot 19. "Google" now, so definitely in the present. The past would have immersed me more, but this may be an entirely personel whim 20. applying second upgrade: I like how the look of the boat changes with each upgrade. And travel gets pleasantly faster, now 21. the UI is very clear, by the way, including dynamic panels for resource gathering 22. I realize the deactivation of islands means you have to remember the clues and their locations! It could be nice to be able to hear them again, except if this is an intended difficulty 23. oh, moved after the 10-second timer, but got hit! :o Does collision with the tentacle still count? 24. I realize the pointy thing may rather be a pointing arm than the bow! XD Hero has extendable arms 25. I like getting the islands’ dialogues, it sounds like unveiling this world’s mystery 26. 3rd upgrage; since upgrading the boat repairs it as I already noticed, I think it should be mentioned on the button 27. I suddenly realize the concept of navigating while avoiding a Kraken reminds me heavily of [*A kraken Surprise*](https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-8/rate/1679061) 28. found the den! **[spoiler]** one clue I remembered correctly was enough; another one (‘leap of faith’) just tended to confirm 29. get the "Non-secret Ending". **[spoiler]** Hahaha, what a twist! XD Love the humour; at the same time, this is so sad! I sensed I would get the standard ending if I did not explore more 30. now trying to get the secret ending, but I hope this will not take too much time! Some way to save or skip so that you do not have to reroll everything once you have won once could be nice (later: discard this, you made it nice for the player! :))
(1/2)
(continued: 2/2)
31. I realize we are first on some flotsam; ah, this is why one island was speaking of a bunch of wood! I thought it was referring to resources. Oh, notice we have 1 wood! XD Nice semi-joke 32. notice now misspelling "denm" on the Kraken’s den, by the way; I know this is not serious for a game jam game (easy thing to correct), but watch out for important elements ;) 33. YAY, good intuition, managed the secret ending! :D **[spoiler]** I was wondering if I had some more exploring to do or if mere logic was enough, so I tried the shorter solution :) I am just worried some people might find the secret ending sooner; I had thought of going this route in my previous run and almost did, but went for upgrades just out of cautiousness. I would suggest to put this island farther, but this would make looking for the secret ending after the regular one a bit tedious… Maybe add some specific action to perform, that only someone that has achieved the regular ending can know!
**Takeaway:** the exploration and progressive enhancement of the boat made me want to progress and uncover what lied behind the surface (so to speak!)! The music and water made it charming, as well as the ominous giant undersea figure. On the downside, gameplay-wise, I think the game lacked 1) some mechanic to make travelling less straightforward (merely clicking at the right time was enough, especially as you upgrade your boat) 2) a more interesting way of interacting with the islands, as merely mindlessly getting resources and upgrading whenever possible was enough for me to succeed. On the other hand, the dialogue/narration and ‘riddles’/clues were a very good adventure-styled addition — there could have been more indirect clues so that the resolution could have been less straightforward, in which case, letting the player read back the dialogue would have helped (and possibly a map then?). I loved the atmosphere and some of the humour was welcome, especially the Shyamalanesque twist. Graphics (including that arm-stretching guy! XD) and sounds were nice too!
Thanks for the sea adventure, and the laugh (?) at the regular ending. :)
[Do not forget to review and rate other games, if you have enough time; it will also help yours get noticed and have testers and feedback. :)]
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@budark
Seeing the [personal games page](https://ldjam.com/users/vegevan/games), this is not the first game. ;)