moonblast 2024-04-15 18:49
What a genius idea, the interactive experience is like casting a spell, very smooth and the sound effects are humorous
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Circle Tracer Cookie Defense
By pkenney
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 87 | 3.81 | 23 | |
| Fun | 38 | 4.02 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 72 | 3.81 | 23 | |
| Theme | 248 | 3.26 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 137 | 3.66 | 23 | |
| Audio | 183 | 3.13 | 21 | |
| Humor | 88 | 3.42 | 21 | |
| Mood | 234 | 3.07 | 21 |
What a genius idea, the interactive experience is like casting a spell, very smooth and the sound effects are humorous
This is fun! I absolutely loved the crazy expressions on the cookies. The encircling feels very fluid, and not too strict. I agree that having the imps break the circle was best left out. I worked on a game with the same encircling mechanic a few years ago, and we left in a similar circle breaker. I think it made the game more frustrating than it needed to be. So, you made the right call in my opinion, despite the amount of time sunk in. As for difficulty it definitely scales up and by around summoning 11 is where I start losing ability tor keep up. I can get to around 14 or 15 I think. It's hard to tell because by then I'm definitely not looking at the counter. Really fun stuff overall. I think it would work pretty good on mobile too!
The gameplay was so smooth it felt great to play. The presentation was fun and worked with the arcade-y gameplay
I like this idea, it feels very responsive and the sound effects are great! I wouldn't really mind having more challenge in the form of enemies that can break your line as long as they are clearly visible and have a predictable trajectory. I found the tutorial to be a bit misleading since you can still clear it after eating the round face, only later I realized I was supposed to keep them alive. Also it would be great to have a game over screen that shows your final score, I think I managed to get more than 20 points but it was pretty hectic and I couldn't keep my eyes on the counter.
A really cool idea executed well. Felt responsive. Great graphics and sound (loved the "pop" sound effect) - worked really well together to make a cute and fun mood, which was cool 'cause the game got kind of intense as it went on.
I think that's when I had the most fun - when I was down to one cookie and the screen was absolutely filled with enemies and I could just go nuts in a blind panic.
Also - I feel the pain of having to make something toddler-friendly. No idea if mine would love this or be filled with existential dread at the idea of the cookies being eaten. Could go either way.
You did a really great job with this! One of the more fun jam games I've tried.
⭐ I really liked the sound effects and vfx of the wand.
⭐ Easy to learn, difficult to master.
Possibly adding another move (maybe something that could guide the cookies) could make the end game more manageable.
Overall, great work!
I really love the animation of the trail shrinking to capture the enemies. Very satisfying
This was really fun! It is (as you yourself admitted) quite simple, but I don't think that's a bad thing in this case. It's a satisfying gameplay loop (pun not intended), and your art and sound design complement the idea you were going for very well. It reminds me a lot of Pokemon Ranger, which is a great game with a similar enemy circling mechanic. The circling trail was very nice and stayed with my mouse more consistently than I would have expected. I had a few issues with the game registering a complete circle, but once I started using smaller circles more often it mostly solved itself. There's a lot of fun stuff you could do with this mechanic, and I truly appreciate you knew when something needed to be cut for fun rather than just having more features. It's a hard thing to do, but I think this game is much better off for it.
I was pleasantly surprised at how fun and well made this one is! The visuals and audio provide great feedback, and make it feel great to play. The gameplay is unique, and doesn't fall into the common jam pitfall of making everything too easy out of fear of scaring people away. I feel like anyone could pick up and play this, but it would take a while to get good at it! I'd definitely appreciate more types of enemies, or maybe even stage hazards of some sort, but the game doesn't suffer for lack of them. It stands well on its own, but something else to spice it up could definitely help prolong its playtime. Overall, nice work! I'd love to see an expansion.
That was a fun mechanic. And saving the cookies from the monsters was a genius way to solve your problem. Just wait a few more years and your kid can join you and help you make the game. My daughters have been on my LD team for a while now. The creativity of young children is amazing. And there's something very charming about crayon art in game jams. Thanks for the game!
This game is seriously underrated! The fact that it starts out so simple and then gets insanely hard very quickly makes it super addicting! I absiolutely love the little "oh no" when a cookie gets eaten <3
Simple but fun game! Got to 19 waves.
Reminds me a lot of Pokémon Ranger, which actually does the breaking the traceline thing you wanted to do pretty well (even though to do that in your game it would require a button to press)! Make sure to check it out for a couple ideas.
It took me a while to understand I wasn't supposed to encircle the cookies but instead protect them...!