jk5000 2026-04-20 09:04
I like the visuals and the games atmosphere. The gameplay idea is really fun, but the game is also really difficult to play. But overall an interesting and fun little game. Well done.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Pawn Patron
By deformhead
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104 | 3.60 | 49 | |
| Fun | 71 | 3.66 | 49 | |
| Innovation | 81 | 3.62 | 49 | |
| Theme | 262 | 2.65 | 47 | |
| Graphics | 30 | 4.21 | 50 | |
| Audio | 62 | 3.69 | 48 | |
| Humor | 49 | 3.43 | 47 | |
| Mood | 113 | 3.57 | 47 |
I like the visuals and the games atmosphere. The gameplay idea is really fun, but the game is also really difficult to play. But overall an interesting and fun little game. Well done.
The art as incredible! The idea of the gameplay is really cool but it was a little bit complicated pass through all the levels, not a big fan of the time limit that the king gives you if you stay still. In summary, very cool! Good job!
The art is really good, but I'm afraid I just can't get started.
The game starts, it shows me a chessboard and some diagrams on pieces of paper, and while I'm trying to read them, something explodes and it all disappears. I have no idea what to do or what the controls are.
The game LOOKS great, so if you want to edit in some instructions I'd love to give it another go. Gonna hold off rating until I can play it.
@jk5000 @frowsyfrog @rogual Thanks a lot for your feedbacks!
I edited this page to explain the game context and controls (@rogual, you'll need to select the cards to send instructions to the Pawn Patron. Good game! :wink:).
(I fixed some bugs too! :see_no_evil:).
@deformhead Thank you! After you added the instructions, I was able to play through to the end.
It was hard at first, but once I figured out how to predict what move choices it's going to give you, it became a lot easier to move around and focus on the puzzles, which are well designed.
Like others, I also found the Hadouking a bit frustrating — don't hurry me when I'm thinking! — but I gotta admit it does add a lot of tension. Like, that element is not doing nothing design-wise, and perhaps it'd be too easy without it. Maybe it'd work well if the king only learns how to Hadouking after you've solved a couple levels and got the hang of it?
Anyway, good game and very nice art. Thanks for making it!
(By the way, the link back to LD 404s cause it goes to "pawn-patron" but the URL here is "pawn-patrol".)
Haha, I find this hilarious! :smile: The reason is I die all the time and the sounds are funny.
After the 5th death I realized what is going on, bbut I am afraid it's very punishing from the beginning. :smile_cat:
One idea that came to me - since it's a little bit confusing and brain must calculate, why not upon hover, highlight "where your pawn will go"?
Note to remember (to myself too) - games are WAY harder for your players than for you, always :smile:
Thanks for this funny creation. But I can't get past level 2 XD
**EDIT** OOH I SEE NOW. I did not see well the RED squares which are the problematic ones - I thought he just always shoots at you..... but he also shoots you if you are too close to him?? That doesn't feel fair :D
The game's art is gorgeous! The rest of the game was too difficult for me.
Not easy, but very fun puzzle.
On one hand the time limit pushed me to keep choosing moves rather randomly just to keep moving. On the other hand it adds a layer of difficulty, and when I've gotten used to it didn't felt as punishing.
The art is gorgeous and funny, and sound design is amazing! I love how the game feels.
Really enjoyed the audio. I assume the attacks were not random and the cards were indicating that, but did not really get that. Overall a well composed game.
I like the character design. I also like the sound FX and the attacks of the enemies.
The audio did not loop well. The transition is very abruptly.
The overall style fits together. :)
The game is fun to play. Really liked the visual style and the idea. I couldn’t finish it myself, though maybe fast chess puzzles just aren’t my genre. I also really liked that even though the amount of art and mechanics are small, the game still has several levels and a solid amount of polish. Really great work!
Really polished game with a lot of satisfying game juice. Absolutely loved the art, it made everything feel great to interact with. It was a bit difficult to get started and understand what needed to be done, but it became much clearer with a few replays.
Overall, a strong and well-executed entry
The sound design is very funny
Very nice! I enjoyed the art and sound a lot. Also very nice puzzle that keeps the brain busy. It took me a while to understand what to do though. Overall very good =)
Cool art! The animations look very polished, and the audio is top-notch as well. The game isn't easy and takes a bit of time to get used to, but it's worth the effort. Great job on the overall presentation!
Awesome visuals, and cool mechanics. What I miss the most is some kind of visual indicator how much time do I have until the king kills me. Time pressure will be the same but it would be way less frustrating. Or if not indicator, there could be a *signal* that lets me know I need to act now or I'll be smashed :) But other than that, it was very well done!
It's funny :) The first levels are quite painful, but then you adapt and begin to understand the mechanics. I went through to the end. Thanks for playing, I'll be waiting for new levels
This had some interesting puzzles that were obfuscated by the time rush. The puzzles only vary slightly between attempts based no what moves you start with, so it just feels stressful and a little unnecessary. There's pretty much no delay on using a move, so it feels very responsive to sprint through a solution you already know. Overall, I enjoyed the puzzles, but I didn't enjoy redoing them when I died.
Quite frantic! It took me a moment to fight out what I was doing, but this is a really nice action-puzzler!
The aesthetic made me nostalgic for the computer games of my childhood :heart:
Well done making a tight game with animations and audio that match up with each other.
The move system is clever. There are 4 moves, 1 randomly omitted at the beginning, then the missing move is restored by replacing the chosen move. So the game always cycles among showing 3 of 4 choices. I'm not sure if it would fit what you have in mind, but one way that could make the game easier is to have all 4 options shown in a big spaced out 2x2 grid, then shoot out the chosen instruction(, kind of like a shuriken being slid forward,) leaving a disabled ghost behind. That could teach the players how the move system works intuitively, and touch users still cannot accidentally make the same move twice in a row.
The current system and timer feels more arcade-y, so maybe the above system would feel less fun? But it definitely reminded me of great board games like Scythe or worker placement games where you cannot repeat the same action twice in a row. It also would not fit the arrow key shortcuts, so it might turn into more of QEAD shortcuts or something to represent diagonal choices.
Also clever idea of having the ending screen's button link to this page for rating the game, I like that a lot.
As a non chess-player, I'm now all for regicide (just kidding, I always was). Jokes aside, it was actually a fun challenge.
Timers are always a bit tricky in "turn-based" games, they can be quite aggravating, but also, when you get into the rhythm, exhilarating. I experienced both cases in the course of playing the game.
I think the game could have benefited from a visual indicator of the time remaining. It makes the tension more legible and provides the small win of surviving a close call. As things stands, you only get the bad feeling of being slightly late.
I really love the visuals and the sound. The game mechanics require players to make quick judgments and reactions — it's very tense and exciting. The overall pacing is fast. I haven't fully figured out the trigger mechanism for Hazouking yet, but other than that, I think it's really fun and really hope this could be developed into a full game, the mechanics is cool.
Very cool concept with great visuals, both fun and challenging to play. GG!
Hadouking !
It was fun. The graphics and sound were good. It would be nice if there wasn't such a long wait after dying, or if there was a transition effect.
Damn, love the graphics and the sound effects :smiley:
I had no idea what I was doing and couldn't make it past the 2nd level.
The character design is really cool though, and the polish of the game overall is top notch!
Screenshot 2026-05-06 221006.png
nice grahics, and effects/animations, but those red dots and blood are poorly visible on brown tiles, i'd prefer to paint them blue or green, to keep contrast. too short timeout for Hadouking, also it would be nice to see that countdown, to understand how much time is left for a turn.
Very cool mechanic and nice idea. Great visuals, sounds and music. The only thing that's missing, as for my taste is the indicator how much time you got left to choose your card. But thats my personal neance.
nice interaction and feedback!
Wow great polish, and what a cool idea! It took me a little while to understand (were these other pawns my allies since they are the same color? what is my objective? what causes the hadouking? etc) After sticking with it a bit and experimenting, suddenly it clicked and I understood what I was being asked to do and what the time pressure was for.
After I turned that corner I started really enjoying it! Next thing I knew I was whipping around and stomping pawns confidently.
For all the great polish, I did wish there was a celebration sound/fx for victory, because they were very satisfying just inherently from the puzzle, so I was ripe to have that amplified to super-satisfaction. Other really tiny things that I noticed were that I wished for a red danger mark on the squares where the pawns kill me.... and then later noticed that there IS ONE! So maybe more prominent? I also could have stood to shave a bit off the restart delay on loss (I lost a LOT while learning the rules, and restart felt fine once I understood the game and lost at a more reasonable pace).
Really nice all-around entry! Polish was slick, art was really nice, loved the hadouking pun/voice, and the music/sfx worked well. You really got me slinging knight moves around with my brain riding the edge of panic because I knew the king was about to get me. Well done.