Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Just why?
By donitz
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 13 | 4.22 | 89 | |
| Fun | 31 | 4.09 | 89 | |
| Innovation | 154 | 3.52 | 89 | |
| Theme | 61 | 4.17 | 89 | |
| Graphics | 39 | 4.20 | 89 | |
| Audio | 110 | 3.51 | 86 | |
| Humor | 152 | 2.83 | 77 | |
| Mood | 31 | 3.95 | 85 |
This game is excellent.
You're totally right when prefacing that it is "brutally difficult" and you're also right to recommand playing in full screen, which I didn't see at first T.T
The way the biomes are separated and the way they still sometimes have a "side effect" on other biomes is pretty neat.
The limited checkpoint mechanic is really fitting the genre.
That being said, I only passed the first biome before giving up :-D
@sevansevan Thank you for the feedback! Yeah I love it when worlds are interconnected. You change something in one place of the world and it affects the others, or you return to some old location via some other route like in many Metroidvania games.
@donitz did you manage to beat your own game? =D
@sevansevan Yepp, but not without using both checkpoints. I had originally planned to only allow for one checkpoint, but that seemed a bit cruel.
@donitz 2 is a really good number I think because it makes the player much keener to use the first one and try it out.
Great game, definitely will return to it later and hopefully finish.
Finished the water section, but got jumped on by the shark. :weary:
Awesome concept (I mean it's old concept but I've never saw it in a video game) :) It also look so nice it's interesting just go see the path and all movable obstacles and stuff. But it's also super hard, I'd appreciate some easy mode with like 10 checkpoints at least :)
nice game, that sound when you hit something was jarring at first but kinda funny after :D.
That is very tough. Too tough I would say at first but then I realised how the checkpoint mechanic worked. It is really tight but you can make it a lot easier (and, less frustrating) to yourself by setting your checkpoints smartly.
Really solid compo entry. I will probably come back to this at some point.
This is my favorite game on the compo until now. Amazing!
This looks like a genre that I never played before. I'm gonna need a proper /computer/ mouse to play it again, lol.
Or perhaps I need to use the pause feature more often. The only issue is that it's not as easy to "click" on the same spot with a touch pad as it would be with a mouse.
But I digress. The game is pretty cool. My only complaint is the sound design. The explosion (death?) sound is too loud. I had to set the system's volume to ~20% to make it bearable (or should I say mousable?) :)
This is probably my first or second choice in the Compo so far. Absolutely great work. Didn't realize there were only the 2 saves (rushed into it) but want to revisit this to play through fully. Might even cheat and get my drawing tablet out to beat it π
I could absolutely see a multiscreen version of this or unique spin, but overall great work. Hard to find a negative!
Simple but really effective !! A really nice game, i like it ;)
@quasilyte Thank you! Yeah the explosion sound was a bit loud. I balanced it to with the loudness of the other sound effects, but the only sound you hear often is the cannon which is also really quiet so it may trick you into believing the volume is too quiet.
@jellycopter I'm happy you liked the game. Hehe, I challenge you to find a way to cheat the game. I remember the old tricks from the flash games. Those will not work here.
30 deaths and 10 minutes! I used up my checkpoints way too early but still managed :) Good thing I have a pretty large mouse mat, especially with the obstacles towards the end. I really liked the visual design of the maze, it feels very "professional" for the lack of a better term. The only thing I think could've been better was the performance, when you drag your mouse pretty quickly the game's FPS definitely went to somewhere in the 10-20fps range for me which was a bit frustrating, but other than that really nice job!
@marcus-otterstrom Great job!
Yeah the performance is a bit confusing. Under normal circumstances reading a single pixel shouldn't be that costly (or more like 1 pixel for the entire distance traveled), but at least in Chrome I noticed some severe dips in performance until I set willReadFrequently to true. Though it sounds like it may still be a bit of an issue in some browsers.
I was on the latest version of Firefox if that helps :)
I really like the design of the game. The sound effect fit perfetcly with it.
Find it not that hard but I might be biased because I trained by mouse mouvement skill all sunday on my game.
I died 16 time mostly on the elevator :)
@marcus-otterstrom Thank you for the info. I wrote a small bugfix for Firefox for the pixel data reading. It should work smoothly now.
Works great :)
Haven't beaten it just yet. I was making small progress, saving as I go. When I realized I couldn't save, because you only get 2 points... it hit me hard. It's solid. Great game good job.
No way I'm replaying this after losing near the end. But glad I did. 5/5.
i think "brutally difficult" is a little bit of an understatement lol. Not really my cup of tea, but i can see some people that wouldn't stop until they can finish it
This game was amazing! I really loved the graphical style, the difficulty felt hard but fair, and it was overall very intuitive and above all cool to play. Thank you!
So clever and fun. I needed many more save points than I had, but I enjoyed trying. Got past the ocean segment once, but couldn't finish. Very neat idea and very cool concept with great execution and design.
Jeez that's a really awesome maze. I haven't seen this kind of game before, but I'll have to check out more. I love these detail-packed little worlds!
I usually don't play these kinds of games but this one got me hooked and I managed to finish it after 123 deaths. Everything about it is really nice. You have a nice mix of easy and hard sections going, the checkpoint system is good and the art is really well done. Probably one of the better compo entries I've played so far. Good job and congratulations for making this!
Holy moly this was fun and infuriating. Terrific graphics and levels - you were very creative in building on top of the base mechanic (drips of cave gunk, mechanical looking things, organic looking things). And great work building with vanilla js :wink:
Yess, finally. Π‘Π½ΠΈΠΌΠΎΠΊ ΡΠΊΡΠ°Π½Π°_2023-10-03_18-07-53.png
it is really hardcore! i enjoyed the graphics and the level design, but i wish i could actually enjoy playing instead of dying too much :D you can watch me fail at it [here](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vj8GAYsJtfoh3hFX4nQvLr?start=6m17s)
1. It's excellent. 2. Never make me play this again aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh
This feels supper cool. The only nitpick I can make is lack of sound effects, but it's really just a small nit, nothing more. Great entry!
Great concept and execution, I love how some elements are reused and the shark surprise. Always happy to see vanilla js games.
Excellent game! The ability to "pause" the game to reposition your mouse hand is an appreciated detail. Love how it's divided into areas each with a specific mechanical theme. Good stuff!
Crushingly brutal but also fun, and a great use of the theme.
Hard but fun! I'm going to have to return and beat this later. The design and use of colour for each obstacle theme is great. Wondering if the OXY is for anything or is it only relevant if you reach the end :laughing:
@ani Thank you! The Oxygen indicator is only relevant in the underwater section and will kill you if you stay too long.
OMG this is genius, the design of it is great and really stands out artistically well done - Think I have steady hands :wink: image_2023-10-03_223432349.png
I m very bad x) but this game is fun !
AMAZING!!!
This is so addictive, damn i think a vein is bulging on my forehead. Congrats on the cool entry !
REALLY GOOD !!!!
You did a great job !
Very good game, the art is very stylish and there's so much variation in the map that it was fun to watch, it was challenging but the waypoint is a great way to relieve some of the pressure. Excellent work!
That is a really cool game. Nice concept and well implemented. It is a bit of a rager, but the checkpoints make it worth it / not super hard. Really liked it. Good one!
Good job. But now i'm mad and stressed
Nice mouse maze game. I absolutely suck at this :D but it was fun to play nonetheless. I love how you compressed the entire world, which is quite big, into a single screen. The usage of color makes the different parts feel distinctive from each other. There are a lot of details in the design. Nice to be able to place checkpoints manually. Amazing game.
Really fun game, had me reaching for the low DPI button on my mouse :) I love all the level detail and the different coloured areas. Reminds me a marble run. :)
great game!
Utterly diabolic. I think it was on purpose :)
I would have liked a more casual mode with more spawning points. Solid polish.
The look of the game is very pleasing to the eye and I liked the rhythmic noise of the factory. I'm sadly not good enough to make it to the end but I really did enjoy playing it!
Damn I really enjoyed this! This game taught me patience. Definitely my favourite entry!
Screenshot 2023-10-04 185953.png
Well done, the difficulty curve was perfectly tuned for me. I entered thinking I wont be able to end it and I finally had the urge to tryhard this. Took me 3 resets. Very nice entry !
playing this game with a mouse that occassionally drops inputs sure was interesting hahaha. (I also shot myself in the foot cause I didn't see the 2 checkpoints per reset haha). But this game was incredibly fun! I think the oxygen was a super interesting way to force the player to move quickly in some sections too. I haven't played a game like this is years and it was incredibly fun to work my way through it again! Good Job!
Love the art, love the scope, love the simplicity and the design well executed ! It's really great to choose your spawn and have a limitation, and the difficulty is acceptable for the brain with this tentation "security/recompense". Great to have a also a difficult game where you can see the end, what is after you next. The universe is really great and sobber. Could be a complete game well polished or at least a cool mini game in a bigger one, congrats !
Incredible game and concept for a compo. Would have liked a more sandboxy mode (with more checkpoints, for example) to explore all the areas with my limited time though.
But its got fun, visual identity, cool gameplay and all there is to desire!
Solid entry!
I really like the scope and design of this. The difficulty was appropriate, and combined with letting you see what's coming, it never felt overwhelming or daunting. Every section *looked* doable before even attempting them, being good for motivating completion, and every death along the way felt fair. Great work!
Fun game, a bit hard for me but I kept retrying. The ability to save only twice is a nice touch that adds a bit of resource management to it.
That was a throwback to the old flash days. I remember having fun playing these mouse-pointer maze games. Yours in particular is very well polished. The graphics are excellent and I love that you added the option of click to pause so we could reposition our mouse. I also really like the water level and its oxygen mechanics, that area really makes you take aggressive risks. A third checkpoint would have been nice but I managed to beat it with two. Great work!
It felt like the mazes I scribbled in my notebook when I was young came to life as a game, and I was thrilled! I really love the simple yet captivating art style!
It's challenging, but I can't help but play it!
@zundou Thank you! Yeah drawing stuff in old graph notebooks was a blast, like Duke 3D levels.
OH! MY GOD!!!
I lost the rest of my hair!
:D
Great game
Going back to the flash era, I don't know if my nerves can support it! Great rage game!
I have only played this kind of games with my friends using pen and paper, this felt really fresh and nostalgic at the same time. Almost like it wasn't a game but just an image. The first time I died was because of the sharks, which felt kinda unfair. It also looks neat, all the colors make it really easy to follow what is happening
Wow, that's really tough! Too tough for me, tbh. But I really loved the graphics and SFX! Thank you for the game!
This game is brutal, and also my favorite game of Ludum Dare 54. At first I didn't read the instructions (usually a bad idea), and kept thinking I wished there was a checkpoint system, and also a way to pause the game so the cursor wouldn't move while I'm letting go. And it turned out both of these were totally built in.
I love how the laser gets louder the closer you get to it. And the visual representation is kind of perfect. Only criticism I can think of is that it's non-obvious that the seaweed is dangerous (since the bubbles are not).
Also ouch my wrist xD
mousegame.png
Brutal and excellent. The game is very solid around the theme. Except for the font, the graphics perfectly fit the mood. The pause/checkpoint mechanic was unexpected and I tip my hat to that. It allows to take breaks, readjust the hand position, and play the game for longer while keeping the challenge intact. Good design here. Very good job!
Amazing game: polished and fun despite so many constraints! I love pixel art with so many moving parts and detail. But retrying huge parts of the game can be a bit frustrating for me. Oh, I know, I just have to get gud. π
Great job making the game!
This game is a gem, the mechanics and the visuals are top-tier!
Not my cup of tea but it's really well designed, it shows you really like these kind of games. GJ
This was quite possibly a perfect Compo entry for me. I didn't quite catch the save-point mechanism at first, but once I did, giving two save points was great. I really like the subtle push-your-luck mechanic that really creeps in there - "Can I make it through just one more challenge before I burn a save point"? Excellent work.
I find the one-screen level design MESEMERIZING, but I don't have the patience nor the skill - certainly not the skill - to complete this game :D Nice!
I put the game on full screen and turned my dpi to the lowest setting but i still couldnt complete it xD Very nice to see that concept again! I find the minimalistic pixel art to be super cool. Well done!
So uh- not to flex *too hard* on everyone here, but:
Checkpointless speedrun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7s2ZV0E0eM
This game was a lot of fun! I love the use of limited palettes for all the different "zones" and the way you re-use the laser throughout the entire maze was a cool motif! I like how the laser only plays when you're near it! There's a shockingly large amount of details in this.
Ignore that part at the end of the video where I call this an easy game for babies. This game was a fun challenge to speedrun. Cheers!
Woohoo, I did it! The hardest part was to avoid triggering my RSI :sweat_smile:
Neat trick with checking pixel color for collision. Very polished and congratulations with good game!
Screenshot from 2023-10-18 20-41-56.png
Wow I haven't played a mouse maze in a long time. This one was indeed brutal, but the checkpoints are a great to have. Really clean art, it's fun to look at and experience all the little details in the different areas. Great job!
Holy heck I finally got it! Came back to it two streams in a row to finally get it, gg awesome game!
Screenshot 2023-10-19 204440.png
NOOOO why did i put my save in the first room thinking i'd have unlimited saves??? i was so close hahahaha
i liked this game. i'm not sure i'll have the nerves to do another run right now, but i might come back and try to finish it once!
i really like what you've done with the sounds, becoming louder as you approach their source.
in conclusion, a simple, cool and raging game hahaha