Out of Time

mihkelroomet 2023-01-08 23:01

I definitely loved the look of this game. The models look superb and the ghosts are funny xd

Would have loved to have some win condition to aim towards. Surviving in general didn't seem to be too much of a problem since the ghosts would overlap and bunch up so they would just form a trail behind you.

Also I was confused in the beginning about how to plant stuff. I guess you need to go plant twice for each item? It was just that the first time when you clicked a planting spot the planting animation played but there was no indication of anything having changed at the plant spot, so it gave the impression that the action had failed.

greynovembergames 2023-01-08 23:04

I had a bit of trouble trying to read while defending the ghosts. Good concept!

jackroxton 2023-01-08 23:40

First things first : great job. The game is fun I spent a surprisingly good amount on time on that one and I think I'll try it a bit more when I get the time.

Now for the criticism

the plus - the visual assets are simple but good, the ghosts are quite fun to look at, the animations are fluid - the planting and harvesting part is fun - your character controller is pleasing (the diagonals makes you go faster be careful) - the time ghosts takes to turn and attack is a good idea to balance the game

the minus - it took me 5 minutes to understand how to play the game. there is no asset when you plant something, only when your harvest them. interacting twice with an empty spot to get something is hard to understand with your tutorial running as the ghosts spawns. - the towers are surprisingly weak. they cannot even take a ghost 1 on 1 and takes too much time to make you end up with an army of ghosts and nothing you can do about it. ammunition management makes the whole thing even worse. - no music. you can try little loops with beepbox.co if you want

other - the strategy I used made me somewhat immortal : packing the ghosts and going back and forth between 2 plant spots planting turrets or ammo. with the time they take to turn around and their attack animation they cannot hurt you. - no zqsd but we're used to it

the game balance is not very good, there is no time or scoring so no real point to keep playing but the game still is fun, quite good looking and works very well for a 2 day jam so once again good work and have a nice day

caranha 2023-01-09 00:57

Hey, not bad! I think there is a seed of something great here! Tower defense kinda games are always cool in my opinion. I also really liked your "voice over" as the game was played. I think that gave a lot of charm to the game.

I played it about three times, but I don't think I managed to kill any ghosts :crying_cat_face:

The first thing I would suggest would be to make the ghosts die with one bullet :ghost: :gun:. The main character is already slow, and the ghosts are numerous and fast - if my goal is to kill ghosts, let me kill them in one hit! You can add stronger ghosts later.

Another thing you could add is a little bit more feedback: For example, sometimes I would pick up a turret seed and plant it, but nothing would happen, other times a turret would appear immediately, and it was not clear to me what was the difference :thinking:

Also thank you so much for making a Linux build!

Hope to see you again next LD!

kenneth-dd 2023-01-09 10:56

good job making a game in 2 days

xdefault 2023-01-09 17:58

@mihkelroomet Thanks for the feedback. Glad that you like the models, the ghost appers to be a favorite of people haha. I was, sadly, unable to make a win condition to the game due to time. The lack of feedback was, i belive, the biggest of problems of this game, its happen because of lack of time to implement. But yes, you have to plant and then, after a little time, harvest what you planted.

@greynovembergames Glad you liked. I guess it would be a little hard to run and read hahaha.

@jackroxton Thank you for the feedback. I though the lack of feedback was going to be a problem, i sadly just got out of time to implement, its actually my first gamejam in general, so i kind improperly divide the time to make the parts of the game, i kind of spent a big part of the time making the assets and characters. I will have a better plan of work next jam. The balance was something that i though to be a little problematic, since i was not gonna be able to get one of my friends or family to playtest before, so i kind just have to try the numbers with the little time that its has left. Music was something that i have to drop out entirelly, for time of course haha, but i apreciate the recomendation, i was not aware about this site.

@caranha "A seed of something great", i see what you did there hahaha. Thank you for the feedback. Most of the lack of feedback to the player, specily in the plant/harvest part was sadly because of time, its kind of how the jokes in the "voice over" begun haha.

@kenneth-dd Thank you!!

jonqs 2023-01-10 15:28

I agree with the other the turret are too weak and the condition to plant twice is hard to understand without reading the comment here. I like the graphics, ghost looks cute ! Your screenshot are from a different POV, is there a way to turn the camera in game ?

stephanschue 2023-01-11 21:51

It was hard for me to get in. The ghost come to early and took me a while to successfully plant a turret. Maybe you can time the first turret placement with the ghosts and put a bit more tutorial for the start inside. Cheers!

lfreinoso 2023-01-17 00:27

I found the game very beautiful, there was a lack of background music, but the mechanics are simple. However, I couldn't plant the gears, many times I went to the seedbeds to plant and nothing was born, I didn't understand that. Other than that, the game worked entirely.

Check out my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/space-harvest

bentglasstube 2023-01-21 00:29

I like the concept and the artwork is great. As others have said, there is not enough feedback on what is happening with the plant plots so it's hard to understand how to play. Still, it's a good start to a game. Well done.

mcnuttys 2023-01-24 22:09

Cool game, I really liked the models! Most of the other comments have covered my issues so I will try to add something new. Because the ghosts can stack onto of each other and there is no invulnerability frames you can lose all your sanity in an instant. Regardless cool game!