designernap 2026-10-20 12:14 ♥ 1
aaah classic feel :D Screenshot 2026-10-20 131342.png
160 though!! Would have loved those little clicky sounds :D but nicely done
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → Game & Roots Two-Flavor
By lereveur
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 17 | |||||
| Fun | 16 | |||||
| Innovation | 16 | |||||
| Theme | 16 | |||||
| Graphics | 16 | |||||
| Humor | 15 | |||||
| Mood | 14 | |||||
aaah classic feel :D Screenshot 2026-10-20 131342.png
160 though!! Would have loved those little clicky sounds :D but nicely done
@designernap didn't you tried Factory, or you feel like your score on it is too bad to share? ๐ Though Slalom was the first of the two I made, so I think Factory is maybe less balanced
kinda crazy to make two games for a jam but this came out really charming, nice work!
Played both games, as jawdan said: crazy that you made two games! And as you said: some bleeps and bloops would have been great. It gives some extra feedback to the player. It's like magic, like adding salt to your dishes ๐ My advise: take time next time to add them. As for the gameplay, is there a difficulty curve in there? It did not seem to speed up. So the gameplay became a bit stale after a while to me. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh.
The design is great btw! It really felt like one of those LCD games from back in the day. I think you did a great job with that.
@jawdan the main idea beneath this entry was in fact to make a specific LCD old-fashion sub-game engine in my own engine, so initially I planned to make several games with it after finishing it, in order to propose a pack as my jam entry - but as often with jams, I encoutered some bugs and other issues (starting by the SFTP upload which don't work anymore for a reason I didn't found out - finally I had to manually upload each file one by one ๐ฌ), plus I underestimated the time I would need for balancing (yes, even with simple games, I discovered that balancing still is the most difficult part of creating games ๐) ; so, with all those issues I managed to make only two at the end - but it could have been worse, I could have only managed to make one, which would have took down my main idea ๐
I can feel that chunky plastic from here! Nice touch. My kids will never know what that feels like.
@wouter52 Yes, I really wished I could had sound this time, as the ones for this kind of devices were really simple, but I wanted those to get as accurate as I could, and I struggled too much long trying to find how to emulate this, despite of my internet research about it I didn't find anything useful, all I know it's that piezo sounds are based on square wave, but I couldn't find how to make the sound like I remember it (I tried f.ex. with bfxr), and did not have time left to finally find a way to make and record them in real life (which I should have tried first, now that I'm thinking about it). About the difficulty curve, yes, there is one common to the two games, each 10 points the speed increases until it reach a defined limit, and Factory has another increasing difficulty, as each 30 points the packages are thrown less time after the previous (until the last level, where two packages are thrown at the same time, instead of alternating). Don't worry, I don't take it personally, as the stale and repetitive aspects were yet an inherent issue with the original LCD games ๐
@mugule I'm glad if I could have approch, even by a little, the nostalgic feeling of what it was to play those old fashion games - this was the idea, after all ๐ And about your kids, I'm pretty sure there's some people who sell second hand G&W games somewhere - however, maybe at a way too high price for what it is ๐คฃ
Two?? I like the concept, the theme connection is clear. The controls are very simplistic and easy. The two points of feedback I have... The first is technical, the https. I am not good with pcs, so if my SO ( @wouter52 ) had not said it was safe I would have stopped trying. The other? Sound... I notice soon as there is no sound staying focused is difficult. The graphics were clear and nice, and... Two games??? ๐
The blue and red LCD units look properly chunky, right down to the little score displays. Slalom and Factory make a fun pair for this format. A few simple beeps would complete the handheld feel.
If you have a moment, I'd appreciate a rating on my latest game, [Robot Workshop](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/60/trashfight).
The LCD handheld look is spot on and made me think of those old pocket games. Two mini games in one entry is a nice bonus. Some beeps would have added a lot, and a difficulty curve would keep it fresh longer, but the look and feel are charming. Nice work.
@lizz I already answered all of this, except the https part: I struggle with this for years by now. The problem is that my web space is not a cloud server that I manage, but a common simple personal space provider, and that this provider is one of the rares ones who refused for a long time to include a secure connexion within the plan I'm paying for, and if I want one I had to pay extra feesโฆ Recently they added it (probably because many of their customers have criticized them for this outdated approach), but only for the main domain name (which actually redirect to another web space, for reasons I won't explain here, all I can say is that I can't use this one to upload my LD entries), and if I want to extend it to the sub-domain "workshop.xenedon.com", I still need to pay extra feesโฆ At this point, one could think I just have to change for a better provider, and I would like too, but I'm really stuck on this, as almost all of my emails go through a "######@xenedon.com" template, and if I request a domain name transfer, they would be out of use until the domain is transfered and I've finished reconfiguring all my email redirects - which will take something like several days, possibly up to a week, during which time I'll lose all incoming emails, regardless of their importanceโฆ All the joke above this is that I never choosed this provider, at the start I suscribed to another provider, which eventually stopped this service, and reselled all its accounts to the one I'm now stuck with.
Cool LCD handheld style, but the lack of sound really hurts. Even a few simple beeps would complete the retro feel.
For someone who played those hand-held games in the 80's, this felt really authentic โ in good and bad. ๐ Perhaps more responsive than the actual devices, but I consider that a plus.
I played both of them โ and as others have said, managing to make two games in one jam is pretty awesome โ and everything worked nicely. At first they seem too slow, but then you have to really put in an effort when the pace picks up. So, again, just like in the real deal.
Really nice entry!
I know I'm not treading any new ground by saying this, but these felt like the real deal, for better and for worse :)
I read through the comments before leaving this note and oh man, if you had a piezo buzzer in there it would have really hit hard. Maybe next time! :)
If you do need to generate square waves again in the future, I think you should be able to generate the square waves you need via Audacity. The only thing to watch out for is that pure tones are *extremely* loud, so you'll need to mix them down (and probably want to not be wearing headphones when you listen back to them for the first time ๐)
As someone who also grew up with those old LCD handhelds, the gameplay felt *almost* perfectly authentic; the only thing that was missing for me was a ghosted image of each space that wasn't currently lit up! I assume that it was an intentional creative choice to remove those, but I like to think they're part of the charm of the medium!
I don't have a lot of feedback to offer about the gameplay. Old LCD games are intentionally simple and both games were simple and served their purpose well as LCD showcases, but I would have personally preferred a sharper difficulty ramp. I never felt like either game was challenging me at a gameplay level; most of the challenge was coming in the form of a test of my cursor accuracy quickly moving back and forth between the controls before I realized I could also use the keyboard ๐ I got to ~60 in each before wiping out to see the kill screen, because I didn't notice the speed increase and thought it could go forever.
Nitpicks about the medium aside, these games both do exactly what they set out to do, so well done! It's always a pleasure playing your games each jam :)
@koolruz Regarding the sound, I already know how to make square waves directly with the AudioContext object - I just did not implemented it yet in my engine, but that's not the issue here (as I have test scripts appart and I could have adapted those in the engine code without lot of work), it's more that with my searchs this week-end I didn't found how to mix/filter a row generated square wave to get the particular and recognizable sound of a piezo buzzer - my tries with only square wave did not sound like it at all (or, at least, like I remember it), and I could just go with this in order to get at least a sound, but I'm pretty stubborn and my idea was to get as close as possible of the original games so I prefered giving up (well, maybe more regarding that my stubborn mind made me lose too much time searching for that particular sound and then I did not have the time anymore to just insert even basically the raw square oscillator) - I guess one could see this as another way of overscoping a jam game Now that you mention it, I had completely forgot the ghosted image - looking at the photos I found on the internet I did not noticed those and that's probably why. It's a bit of a shame, as it would not had been any of difficult to do (in the LCD game sub-engine I created this week-end, all of the LCD "segments" are procedurally drawn, including digits and player's character), and this would have enhanced the LCD effect, along with the existing multi-layer shadows effect (which even have separate parameters for the LCD part and the foreground "print" decoration). About the difficulty, I spent a lot of time, for each of the games, to refine the balancing at most as I could, and for each, the first parameters made them too difficult, too soon, so I prefered nerfing them in order that the games would permit satisfaying scores for the players who are not so used with old school games' difficult curve, which I guessed would be the most part of the Ludum Darers (maybe I was wrong about this, it's just that I'm turning 50 at the end of this year and I'm still conscious I'm more on the older half of this community - if not the forth ๐) And speaking of the mouse controls, in my defense, I did clearly state in the game's detailed description that I strongly advised against using it, rather than the keyboard controls ๐ Thank you for the detailed feedback, and I will probably try your entry this week-end, along with the other from this comments I didn't tried yet
> but Iโm pretty stubborn and my idea was to get as close as possible of the original games so I prefered giving up (well, maybe more regarding that my stubborn mind made me lose too much time searching for that particular sound and then I did not have the time anymore to just insert even basically the raw square oscillator) - I guess one could see this as another way of overscoping a jam game
Oh man, I feel that on a deep and fundamental level, and I respect the heck out of it :) I'm the exact same way - I ended up spending a few hours in the middle of the jam fiddling with the most minute animation timings, even though I knew no one was going to be paying as close of attention to them as I was, because I knew that they could be improved and hate to leave anything in a less-than-intended state ๐
> About the difficulty, I spent a lot of time, for each of the games, to refine the balancing at most as I could, and for each, the first parameters made them too difficult, too soon, so I prefered nerfing them in order that the games would permit satisfaying scores for the players who are not so used with old school gamesโ difficult curve, which I guessed would be the most part of the Ludum Darers (maybe I was wrong about this, itโs just that Iโm turning 50 at the end of this year and Iโm still conscious Iโm more on the older half of this community - if not the forth joy)
I think you probably made the right call! I personally tend to prefer that old-school difficulty, but I'm also probably pushing the upper 50% of the bell curve in terms of age ๐
> And speaking of the mouse controls, in my defense, I did clearly state in the gameโs detailed description that I strongly advised against using it, rather than the keyboard controls
You did! I'm just very absent-minded, and completely forgot that you had said that as soon as I clicked into the game ๐
@koolruz I just forgot to mention this detail: the reason why I decided to let the mouse controls instead of totally discard those, is that I think maybe it would work if someone wants to play it on mobile - butโฆ I did not even tested it myself this way, and so I can't even tell if it's working ๐คฃ
Ah, the good old days! I remember those (very expensive) games with simple gameplay that were so much fun. I had Donkey Kong. They were the forerunners of video games as we know them today. This is a very original interpretation of the theme, and it works well. All it needs is those electronic beeps to complete the experience. A lovely entry that brings back fond childhood memories. Thank you for this trip down memory lane. I really appreciate it. Thanks for your comment on my entry, too. I wish you all the best! Merci copain ++
pretty cool idea, I remember some of the similar games back then. Sound could add to the vibe, but even without it this fits the theme very well. Gameplay wise this wasn't too rich, but it was omage to those old games, so that's the idea there.
I remember getting games like these in an McDonalds HappyMeal. Great work.
The font in the in-game display simply hits the deepest.
@aweskybear I'm not sure of what about you say that, but just in case: there's no font used in the LCD-like display. All the "LCD" parts are fully procedural - to be more specific, all the "segments" are drawn with html/javascript canvas primitives (lines, rectangles, circles, โฆ), including the digits, for which I tried to find polygons that could best look like what I found while zooming on hi-res photos of old Game & Watch (or alike) games I searched on internet, for ex. [this one](https://retromtl.com/cdn/shop/collections/Collection-Console-Game-_-Watch.png) _(and, yes, I spent way too much time on this detail for a jam, but I don't regret it, as it was really how I wanted to do this, even if using a dedicated font would have save me time ^^) (โฆbtw, if someone have spare time and don't mind losing it reading dirty jam code, the counter object is defined in [this js source](http://workshop.xenedon.com/LD60/scripts/game.js), with "LCDNumber" class)_