maybeagoose 2025-04-08 02:11
Good graphics and smooth gameplay, I like it!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Voidwood
By tobius, Vary, Manatee Webster, JB Rock and MegL
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 85 | 4.08 | 57 | |
| Fun | 127 | 3.87 | 57 | |
| Innovation | 162 | 3.79 | 57 | |
| Theme | 26 | 4.40 | 57 | |
| Graphics | 121 | 4.31 | 57 | |
| Audio | 78 | 4.03 | 57 | |
| Mood | 69 | 4.20 | 57 |
Good graphics and smooth gameplay, I like it!
Well polished simple game. Love the audio it fits the aesthetic. I did find it a bit easy, or maybe it just felt low stakes? Good take on the theme. The art style is fantastic as well, and I really like the root growing effect!
Oh, this was sick!! I was already into it, but I really loved when the second stage kicked in. Time to try for a high score!
The switch into the eldritch aesthetic was so cool! Such a great moment, especially with the music switch-up as well. I don't know if there are more stages below - I'd have to give it a few more tries.
I do think the gameplay could maybe do with a bit more fleshing out, especially as you get deeper. I also felt like I couldn't really plan ahead, especially since doing well means you have no space to see ahead of you (at one point my roots got so far ahead of the screen I could only guess what was going on!).
Overall, really stylish entry!
@sam-gorman Yeah, we unfortunately just kinda ran out of time on that front. We tried a few things to help alleviate the problem of the roots going off the screen, but couldn't quite solve it in time.
@gold-daniel I've never designed a level before so it was definitely a learning experience and I wanted to err on the side of making it too easy. A lot of trial and error and cursing got it to where it is. Balancing the water was a lot trickier than I thought it would be!
Thanks for the feedback to all that have commented so far, I look forward to checking out your entries!
@manatee-webster Makes sense. Honestly, I found it really funny when it happened.
I thought that the game was cool and looked nice while I was playing through the first section, but then I got to the second stage and it really kicked things into overdrive! The chromatic aberration looked *so* good, and the sudden vibe shift was a (good) kick in the seat. I went from thinking, "This is an interesting little endless scroller" to, "Wait I really don't want to die, so that I can see what comes next and keep soaking in this atmosphere". That was a great twist, and my only concern is that folks might not get there to see it, because it really makes the game sing!
Gameplay-wise, I did feel a little bit like I was at the mercy of the generation sometimes - I had a few runs where I was sucking every water pool that I came across dry, and still died before the end of the first area. I'm not sure if there was something that I could have been doing differently, but it was a frustrating way to lose because it didn't feel like I had any other choices to make, I was just starved for water.
Overall though, this was a really cool entry, and I'm glad that I played it :)
oh this game felt so smooth to play -- and absolutely loved the visual style going on here. having to balance the branching roots made my head spin in a fun way!!!
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really cool idea! i enjoyed the art and music. nicely done!!
Really fun take on the prompt! Loved the visuals, especially with how trippy it gets and the music fit perfectly. Gameplay was super smooth and intuitive as well! Seriously great work!
I was having a great time, loved the music, the flow of the roots, the simple yet addictive gameplay. And then the music and vibe changed all together and then I had an even better time. I could only get just shy of 400k, but I did try a good few times. There were a couple of occasions where I was blessed/cursed by rng so my roots where shooting off way ahead of the camera.
Great game! Loved the unique art style, and the branching root mechanic is super cool. That second phase totally caught me off guard—in a good way!
It's not immediately clear which items to collect and which to avoid - but I really like the system, it's quite original!
This was a very enjoyable experience! The controls, the music and the visuals worked so well together and it was just so nice to play. Loved the switchup into the second phase.
Cool, polished and well made!
Really polished game, I was really amazed by the art switch. The root ramification matchs naturally the game design. I wish I could accelerate by holding key down to go faster to the _hard_ part on new sessions.
This is a good really good thing to add an end to the level it gives to the player a challenge to reach ! Well done you could be pride of your game!
The visual style is really nice... kinda trippy in a good way. And the music fits in perfectly. More look-ahead distance when the roots are at the bottom of the window would be nice though.
Great controls and love the art. I wasn't super confident the red squiggle was organic matter at first, overall solid entry Screenshot 2025-04-10 215631.png
So I just played it and died at what I believe is the literal ending, I'll beat it though. But yeah, my mouth was actually open when I understood what was going on in this game, visually very nice and music is great too. Simple gameplay mechanic that's really cool and unique, I feel like this game would've been really cool on a Nintendo DS, looking back and forth between screens to follow different vines. Really nice separation between each water location, didn't feel cheated. The main 3 problems I had with this, there isn't a tutorial or a way the game teaches you how to play naturally (like how Mario or Megaman X teaches), it just starts and you gotta figure it out. The length of each section seems longer than needed, I wasn't sure if it was an endless loop until I reached the transition. Annnd in the transition, I was not sure at all what was friendly and what was dangerous and lost all but 1 root. I was impressed with this game, for real.
Amazing and very addictive
This game was fun! The transition between themes reminds me a bit of Chrome's dino game changing between day and night.
I got to 529100 FT deep, it reminded me of warioware for some reason. I loved the change in visuals as you get deeper. My only complaint is that there were times where I just couldn't see where my roots were going because they were too far down off screen. The music was perfectly pushing the speed and feeling of urgency. This is an excellent entry.
Incredible! Love the vibe, love the music. It's hard, I could reach 612900 and I see some kind of giant pool of red water just below?
I don't know what it was, but I really enjoyed it! Nice art style, addictive gameplay, simple and easy to understand and yet addictive, in short a cool game.
Simple and addictive game! I really liked the graphics. I will definitely try to create something like this. You inspired me! Thank you!
Heeeeell yeah, ain't no one beating this. Really crazy to see all the roots going but up at the end, again impressive stuff.
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Amazing visuals! And smooth controls. Also love the granular sound when the root hits a rock! Great job!
Love it. I like how you rewind back to the surface and see the fruits of your labor.
Lovely game, I really like the design and the gameplay of it.
Very original take on the theme. I really enjoyed the art and the music, and I was not ready for the second part ! Game is smooth and well polished.
This was really polished and super beautiful! The cover art alone really drew me in, and the art during the game was also extremely pretty. I really liked the music as well, but I felt it did not match the vibe very well, especially during the first part. Then in the second part (which was completely unexpected, but super cool, by the way) the music did fit really very well :) I also liked the mechanics of the game. The multiple roots going down often made my brain go into analysis paralysis whenever multiple roots were on a collision course with rocks XD Really well done! This was fun :D
That was a crazy adventure O_O!! Loved the visuals and the sounds, matched the mood perfectly, and I love the creepy elements that popped in, although I was initially confused if I should dodge the skulls or not xD
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WOOOOW niceee @nuelijarma Same as you I died right before the giant pool, and... well redid the whole thing and indeed we both died 2 meters away from the end with the mischievous trap lol. Did not expect the second part, it was the best surprise, and also the end cinematic is super cool! **Graphics**: over the top, I absolutely loved the background art, the fossils in the first part, and the aesthetics of the second part. Eyessss + chromatic aberration :eye: :purple_heart: :purple_heart: :purple_heart: **Music**: not a musician here, but I loved the vibe and the progression! Gave me the feeling of speed. **Game design**: loved the "left or right... left or... AAAHHH" moments, controlling multiple roots at the same time, the fact that it can get hard to water some late roots, and also sometimes you end up with all your roots in the same place and you know that you're one bad decision away from losing them all... (cf. the end lol). **Prog / game feel**: The controls feel very nice, and also fair (I felt like I deserved all my deaths lmao). Liked that the scroll slows down when you drink. Also good use of SFX, the rock one is a bit louder than the rest which is good because with many roots it's easy to miss one being blocked! Overall a very polished entry and a super cool and inspiring game, thank you so much! :sparkles:
A fun game. Simple controls and a clear goal are icing on the cake. One of the better games here. It's hard to find fault with this.
Cool idea with roots and depth! The graphics are super, simple but deep mechanics. Super good!🤯
Very intuitive game mechanics, beautiful abstract art style, nice music and great job on the sound design!
This is how I did on the first try
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Well done!
~Xp
Your game should be 6/5 for graphics alone. The art is so beautiful.
Very relaxing game!
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yo actually sooooooo crazy, bruh when i got to the dark part i almosted crashed out
I’ve put down my roots))) Great game! I think it would be interesting to see the tree and what happens to it as the roots grow.
The visuals are beautiful and the gameplay is wonderfully intuitive. Well done!
Great graphics and music!
Although I am experiencing some issues :
- a bit lagging on my mac/chrome which makes it stutter which is at the point of not really playable.
- My brain wants the control reversed! I keep pressing left to move everything right maybe because I am not controlling one element I think I am controlling the background ? A reverse control option would be a nice feature !
- I am restarting over and over because I want to experience the second phase, but even missing only one water makes me lose before that
edit: I have downloaded the Mac version and I have the same stuttering effect... but I powered through and got to see the second phase, which stopped the game to a crawl before painstakingly getting back to speed... Strange as I don't see anyone else having performance issues and my setup is not that bad (albeit a mac...)
photo_2025-04-19_14-25-18.jpg Wow, I didn't expect that at all! I really liked the graphics and music, and even though it's kind of an "action" game it felt quite relaxing to play it. Nice! I wonder what our tree was on after certain point :D
@dhim We really appreciate you powering through! Sorry you had such performance issues, we (unsurprisingly) didn't have much time to optimize the game. Thank you so much for your feedback about the controls as well, maybe we give an option to invert the controls?
If you're comfortable doing so, could you share your computer specs? That will help us make sure more people don't run into performance issues if we keep working on this project.
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click General in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) - Click About, then click System Report.
- Model Name: MacBook Pro - Model Identifier: MacBookPro18,3 - Chip: Apple M1 Pro - Total Number of Cores: 8 (6 performance and 2 efficiency) - Memory: 16 GB - System Version: macOS 12.5.1 (21G83)
That's a cool game ! The game play is very intuitive. Good job !
This was really cool, love the art and the change half way through. I also love how the game gets harder the better youre doing and easier when youre doing bad because you cant see as far ahead of the vines when theyre closer to the bottom of the screen. The music was good too! Its really cool that hitting a rock or other obstacle doesnt instantly kill the vine too, you get a chance to recover if youre quick enough. Nice job ^^
The art for this game was absolutely gorgeous, and I was able to pick up the controls fairly intuitively. I will say that the sound designed worked really well for me, the music felt a bit out of place with the visuals--I would have expected something a bit less energetic.
Scored 438k. I thought the game was getting a bit repetitive but then I hit the style change and things sped up in a good way. Though I was a bit unsure of whether or not some things were good or bad to touch until I tried touching them.
Wow, really like the artwork
I love this! The intro is spot on, and I love the music. The game itself is really simple, but fun! I found it was a bit of an experiment for a few items to know if they were good or bad, but I liked that. I love the nature theme and it fits really well into the LD theme.
Great job! I think this could be really fun as a mobile game too. One of my favourite entries!