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Tough Luck Mr. Harvard
Tough Luck Mr. Harvard
By smashcrate
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 243 | 3.22 | 31 | |
| Fun | 232 | 3.12 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 227 | 3.10 | 31 | |
| Theme | 235 | 3.34 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 256 | 3.08 | 31 | |
| Audio | 190 | 3.03 | 31 | |
| Humor | 139 | 2.87 | 31 | |
| Mood | 264 | 2.87 | 31 | |
Comments
Hey this was pretty enjoyable. I found the control scheme to be a little... not counter intuitive but more so offbeat. I mean you lay out what the controls are very clearly so it was really just a problem of muscle memory from other games saying "Hey thats not how that works", but I got over it pretty quickly. The sound effects where pretty nice. I personally find that a lot of bfxr-esque sound effects end up being a little sharp\chirpy and these sat just a little more on the side of comfortable listening. The music also definitely helped with that as well. Good work on the game I enjoyed it.
phlip45
2023-01-09 04:20
Played until day 40ish when I made it to ~$1000. Really liked it. The music was nice and the graphics gave a really retro vibe.
@theseusinabottle yes, I wanted to give changeable keybindings, but couldn't fit that during development time. I wanted to work little more on the sounds but couldn't due to time. But I am glad you liked the overall game :). I spent too much time on the game mechs, like different types of vehicles have different characteristics depending on weather, 2 different kind of enemy movement styles etc. I will keep the feedback on my mind during the next jam.
@phlip45 thanks for the nice words :). playing for 40 days is amazing, double thank you for that. During the design period I came up with more ideas such as upgrading each vehicles, more weapon types, more enemy AI types etc and they will be revealed during progress. But I could only fit 2 enemy types and 4 weapons in 48 hours.
It's fun but it should get more difficult as you go on. I learned to ignore the enemies and stay below just two lightning strikes to fill my kwh. Also the shop should have more expensive items.
@verttixpertti true. I had set up all the parameters to handle difficulties(enemy count, aggression, weather system) with progression. But didnt get time to tune it, so made it little easy so that at least others can play it without getting stucked. I am planning to update that after the rating period ends and I will redeploy it.
@smashcrate Yeah I get it
Solid mechanics and challenging to play, nice graphics too. I tried focusing on fight but soon get overwhelmed by enemy. Avoiding combat and focusing on harvesting seems the easiest strategy. Maybe add some tuning so combat is more rewarding?
@imyellowfish thanks for playing my game and the feedback :). During development, I already set up the codes to tune enemy types, aggression, weather system etc. But due to time constraint, I couldn't add more variations(I was going to add more enemy AIs and weapons) and also didn't get much time to tune them. I kept it on easy so that at least others can progress and unlock the items easily.
Interesting concept of harvesting electricity. The game can seem repetitive fairly quickly but given the 48 hour time limit, that's kind of unavoidable. Overall it's a decent game, well done.
Very good game! Because I figured avoiding combat and trying to beat the level as soon as possible seemed to be faster and easier, even if I took damage, maybe have the HP persist through levels and a healing item on the shop to balance it out a bit?
@holysparks ya, I didn't get enough time to tune all the properties (weather, enemyAI, health-damage, vehicle etc). Adding healing potions is a good idea. Also I want to add different upgrades for lightning rod and each vehicles. After the rating ends, I might add few more weapons and enemy AIs and reupload. @adamwatters ..thank you both for playing and honest feedbacks.
augmotic
2023-01-09 18:21
All Mr.Harvard wanted to do was dance and commit felony tax fraud but everyone has it out for him.
Seemed like all the equipment that wasnt the rocket and laser beam got replaced almost instantly.
Flying controls worked okay but the shooting the direction you are moving is always a weird one for me. Maybe adding mouse support to shoot at angles no matter the flying direction would feel more fluid.
I could see it being super fun as a roguelike/lite type of game. Would have to plan out and make decisions on equipment and drops and stuff as you go. Maybe implement the tax fraud thing into it and you have to run your lighting collection business while evading the tax collectors lmao.
Really enjoyed it and the storyline :laughing:
@augmotic glad you enjoyed the game. Thanks for the feedback :smile: . At first I thought to put 2 shoot buttons - 1 to shoot left, 1 to right..without changing movement direction. Later I thought, maybe it will be too difficult to shoot while switching to lightning rod, so removed it. But defiantly I can improve more on the controls. For Mr.Harvard I had a whole story planned but couldn't get time to draw it like comics :cry: .
The menus were a little clunky but I had a lot of fun frantically avoiding enemies because I'm *thiiiiis* close to filling my energy bar and I just need one more lightning strike before I die lol
@manchmalscott thanks for playing my game and the feedback :smiley: . Your observation is spot on. So, I am very slow at making UIs. The UI development ate away time from the game balancing...at the end nither UI looks good nor the game is balanced properly lol :laughing: . I was gonna fiddle with the enemy system, weather etc at the end but I ran out of time :cry:
gcake
2023-01-10 12:44
Fun game ! :smile: , keys used are a little all over the place lol, pressing 'Space', 'Enter', 'Escape' that are a bit far from the main keys 'K', 'L', 'WASD'. I would suggest to at least put 'OK/Confirm' actions all on 'K' key. I think that's usually how it is done, the attack button does the confirm action while in menu.
About the weapons, shooting weapons were a bit hard to control as it shoot only on the direction we going :sweat_smile: , I ended up keeping the lightsaber as it is easier haha
Overall nice game ! Good job on this entry ! :tada:
@gcake thanks for playing and the feedback :smiley: . I was going to use K and L for menu as well, later in hurry i thought people might like enter/esc in menu. To each of his own. And also yes, the controls are little weird. Btw, you probably had to run towards the red enemies to kill them because they always keep a distance from the player, unless you just focused on harvesting while dodging bullets and enemies.
kilirane
2023-01-10 22:03
it's very nice ! The graphics and the retro look work well! I like the idea of having to alternate between shooting and harvesting, it gives an interesting rhythm. The shop system brings variety. I think it deserves balancing because it's too easy to spend a day without using the weapon (life drops too slowly, and you earn too many coins quickly). Well done!
@kilirane thanks for playing my game and such nice words :smiley: . I had set up all the parameters to easily tweak difficulties(enemy count, aggression, weather system) with progression. But didnt get time to tune it, so made it little easy so that at least others can play it without getting stucked. I am planning to update that after the rating period ends and I will redeploy it.
I really want some super saving weapon that I could collect and use for a better stress curve and releasing expirencse.
@leoatopos hopefully I will get sometime later and I can add some more enemy and weapon types. Thanks for playing my game :smiley:
Great game!
@taikinaaa thanks for playing my game. Hope you enjoyed :smiley: .
cogcomp
2023-01-11 19:27
Nice game. I liked the music and the game was quite enjoyable. I don't have too much to add on top of what everyone already has said but it would be cool with a couple of bigger enemies to avoid or maybe enemies that only need to be avoided if they're hit by lightning.. Well done!
chompdev
2023-01-11 21:51
Cool, I had fun playing this one! The lightning-catching mechanic reminded me of Spiritfarer a bit, which is great! The upgrade/shop system is really neat, and it was fun to be able to afford a new upgrade almost every level. I like the progression of being buffeted by the wind on the kite at first, and then eventually having much more control with the jetpack. The weapon upgrades are pretty solid, too. I really enjoyed being able to time your movement so that the lightning itself would pick off a few enemies at a time. Nice work on a very solid jam entry! :)
leggy
2023-01-11 23:48
Tried it only be avoiding enemies, mostly. I could not even wield a weapon and attack, bought weapon, pressed k, nothing happened. But maybe just because I'm too tired. Btw it was nice and catchy :smile:
@chompdev thanks for playing my game and the nice feedback :smiley:
@leggy after buying you need to equip it in the menu page 😅
tanis
2023-01-12 21:13
It took me some time to understand the controls. And even more to understand how to shop items :smile: And then I had no idea how to hold a weapon during the actual gameplay... I believe the controls could have been better streamlined or even simplified, but that's just me.
The game itself is fun, it's got some interesting mechanics and the art is neat.
@tanis thanks for playing.. And yes, the controls and ui needs more polishing
Very cute game, it reminded me of Balloon fight for the NES but still mantaining his own "personality" ahah, it took me a few seconds to remember all the inputs/etc.. but the game was overall enjoyable! Good Work!
@marcoming thank you for playing my game :). The game defiantly needs some more polishing. I am planning to work on the controls and add more weapons, enemies, vehicles etc after the rating period and reupload it.
mr-lazy
2023-01-16 17:01
really simple and cute looking game....easy controls and simply cool gameplay and a cool shop...nice art!!good entry... but change the ESC button to exit shop...when i pressed ESC button ,it exits from fullscreen webgl
@mr-lazy thanks for playing my game. Yes the esc button :smile: . This was my first time doing that and I never thought that esc can exit the full screen. I will keep these in mind next time :smiley: .
Definitely took me a minute or two to wrap my head around the gameplay and the controls, but once I got the hang of them I thought this was a fun, original game! It was very easy to just play "one more game" after I completed a level, and I liked how forgiving it is, that dying (which I did a lot to begin with) doesn't set you back to the start.
@alex-de-la-cour thank you for playing my game and the nice words :smiley: . After building all the system i didn't get time to tune the difficulty, finally I kept it in easy mode so that at least players don't get stuck. And yes the controls need little bit more reconfiguration in both menu and gameplay.
Good entry! Its impressive what you got done in the compo time/rules! I liked getting more powerful weapons, but needed some armor because I died so easily :joy: keep on making games!
@frozenfire92 thank you for playing my game and the feedback :smiley: .