Now this one was fun! The gameplay was fluid and tight, and required both planning and adaption, fitting the theme quite well (in particular, going with so many worlds and having them all look good was quite nice). The artwork did its job: with the descriptions I could tell which world was what pretty easily, though not having the player start out standing in an empty blue void was a bit off putting compared to the rest. The choice to not have it procedurally generated (while the game could have been) not only likely saved on time, but creates interesting possibilities with the score system, since everyone deals with the same map, so to speak, so different tricks and strategies for various high score may unfold. I did have a couple issues: in particular I think it would have been nice to have visible timers on the Radioactive and Moon worlds to easier tell how long you have there. There was also the aforementioned empty blue void of a starting section. Can’t say regarding the end, since my view was a score screen and a frown inducing several second (but to be expected) wait when restarting. Do the eternal roads end? The world may never know.
I think the best part is how skill can come into play: there's something for both the casual player and the one looking to top those currently non-existent leaderboards.
While it's neat concept, the execution is a bit iffy. The art is simple, nothing wrong with that (though some rotation for the blue player would have been nice since the red one has it as well even if it doesn't really matter for twin stick shooters). The controls for the blue player were adequate, but not really satisfying, while the controls for the red, while they worked fine, didn't seem balanced. I think the red player would have to be MUCH more skilled to survive for any decent length of time as is. And aside from that imbalance, I think it's a bit too hard. While I understand that's kind of necessary for the concept (too easy means infinitely long matches), more time been spent on balancing it would have been appreciated.
I imagine the usual round should go with both players struggling against both enemies and each other until one player makes the fatal mistake which leads to the end, followed by even more rounds with ever changing strategies, but sadly it doesn’t really pan out that way due to the short length of rounds, balancing issues, and, since I played before the fixes, troubles with closing the game. The crashing was what really kept there from being any of that addictive desire to play 'just one more round' so I'm glad to hear that it's been fixed.
Despite that, it's still a neat idea that could use more polish, so keep at it!
I wasn’t too impressed with this one. I will first admit that I didn't finish it, and I didn't have access to music at the time I played it (though I listened to it after and it was alright!), and I only read the comments afterward which had some enlightening bits. It's regrettable that you didn't have time to explain things better, since I found stumbling around a samey labyrinth hoping some collectibles would show up to be rather unfulfilling. Backtracking isn't a bad thing, but if the area is uninteresting it becomes tiring rather than giving any sense of exploration. Also the art could have used some work since the ship didn't really have a front or back, and the collectibles (which I didn't understand to be needed to activate the portal) being the same size as the player's ship seemed illogical, let alone the giant ones (though that I at least found amusing, though apparently the little ones were unnecessary to finish the game?). Speaking of illogical, the walls weren't really given a good explanation; something in the opening text might have been nice. And speaking of the opening text, it may have been the chosen font, but all commas looked periods.
In general I think some better design would have been a huge benefit, I think.
Not bad for the few minutes it lasts, but still felt lacking, even for something made in so short of time. A few animations would have given it more life, and the difficulty felt lacking: even in the final level I never felt threatened, the AI moves far too slow to be any sort of threat. There found myself enjoying myself most in the middle after I had fully grasped the mechanics but before the lack of difficulty began to wear me down. I also encountered a glitch where my dwarves would occasionally get caught in corners. As for the theme, at first I thought the way you handled it was pretty average, but I'll admit I became interested in the potential details. What causes the force propelling the soldiers? Wizards and Shamans? What are the histories of these societies, so close yet so far? I guess I'm weird like that. But as for the stuff that matters, a bit of polish in visuals, some more interesting level design, and some tightened gameplay could go a long way.
LD30 — Connected Worlds (4)
Around the Worlds in 80 seconds. by Vinyl Pixels 2014-08-25T17:58:00
Now this one was fun! The gameplay was fluid and tight, and required both planning and adaption, fitting the theme quite well (in particular, going with so many worlds and having them all look good was quite nice). The artwork did its job: with the descriptions I could tell which world was what pretty easily, though not having the player start out standing in an empty blue void was a bit off putting compared to the rest. The choice to not have it procedurally generated (while the game could have been) not only likely saved on time, but creates interesting possibilities with the score system, since everyone deals with the same map, so to speak, so different tricks and strategies for various high score may unfold. I did have a couple issues: in particular I think it would have been nice to have visible timers on the Radioactive and Moon worlds to easier tell how long you have there. There was also the aforementioned empty blue void of a starting section. Can’t say regarding the end, since my view was a score screen and a frown inducing several second (but to be expected) wait when restarting. Do the eternal roads end? The world may never know.
I think the best part is how skill can come into play: there's something for both the casual player and the one looking to top those currently non-existent leaderboards.
Dua/el by Galan 2014-08-25T17:53:00
While it's neat concept, the execution is a bit iffy. The art is simple, nothing wrong with that (though some rotation for the blue player would have been nice since the red one has it as well even if it doesn't really matter for twin stick shooters). The controls for the blue player were adequate, but not really satisfying, while the controls for the red, while they worked fine, didn't seem balanced. I think the red player would have to be MUCH more skilled to survive for any decent length of time as is. And aside from that imbalance, I think it's a bit too hard. While I understand that's kind of necessary for the concept (too easy means infinitely long matches), more time been spent on balancing it would have been appreciated.
I imagine the usual round should go with both players struggling against both enemies and each other until one player makes the fatal mistake which leads to the end, followed by even more rounds with ever changing strategies, but sadly it doesn’t really pan out that way due to the short length of rounds, balancing issues, and, since I played before the fixes, troubles with closing the game. The crashing was what really kept there from being any of that addictive desire to play 'just one more round' so I'm glad to hear that it's been fixed.
Despite that, it's still a neat idea that could use more polish, so keep at it!
The Signal by tillrobby 2014-08-25T17:42:00
I wasn’t too impressed with this one. I will first admit that I didn't finish it, and I didn't have access to music at the time I played it (though I listened to it after and it was alright!), and I only read the comments afterward which had some enlightening bits. It's regrettable that you didn't have time to explain things better, since I found stumbling around a samey labyrinth hoping some collectibles would show up to be rather unfulfilling. Backtracking isn't a bad thing, but if the area is uninteresting it becomes tiring rather than giving any sense of exploration. Also the art could have used some work since the ship didn't really have a front or back, and the collectibles (which I didn't understand to be needed to activate the portal) being the same size as the player's ship seemed illogical, let alone the giant ones (though that I at least found amusing, though apparently the little ones were unnecessary to finish the game?). Speaking of illogical, the walls weren't really given a good explanation; something in the opening text might have been nice. And speaking of the opening text, it may have been the chosen font, but all commas looked periods.
In general I think some better design would have been a huge benefit, I think.
Dwarf Wars by AxeTheory 2014-08-25T17:23:00
Not bad for the few minutes it lasts, but still felt lacking, even for something made in so short of time. A few animations would have given it more life, and the difficulty felt lacking: even in the final level I never felt threatened, the AI moves far too slow to be any sort of threat. There found myself enjoying myself most in the middle after I had fully grasped the mechanics but before the lack of difficulty began to wear me down. I also encountered a glitch where my dwarves would occasionally get caught in corners. As for the theme, at first I thought the way you handled it was pretty average, but I'll admit I became interested in the potential details. What causes the force propelling the soldiers? Wizards and Shamans? What are the histories of these societies, so close yet so far? I guess I'm weird like that. But as for the stuff that matters, a bit of polish in visuals, some more interesting level design, and some tightened gameplay could go a long way.