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Mike Hommel

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankFuInGrPo
20057GrowthLD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - MikeHommel results and commentscompo2.623.542.752.31

Comments by Mike Hommel

LD7 — Growth

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Aggrav8d results and comments by Aggrav8d

Stolen Simpsons sound is bad. Some sort of instructions might've been a nice thing to have. But I found the plus key eventually, and worked things out. It's not much of a game by any means, but it's a little fascinating to see them do their thing. There are some serious bugs with workers flying off into space, but I'm very intrigued by the tech behind the tunnel digging. It's pretty impressive, although I note that even if you give them a better way to go, the workers always just backtrack. There's good potential here, but I would like to note that the theme connection is highly tenuous.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Allefant results and comments by Allefant

I'm marking you down on sound - I don't know how you could've done it better (other than to just make it silent!), but the nonstop flame sound was entirely uncalled for. But you still get a 3 there, because the music was really good. This was an original game, and it was pretty good, with some major balance issues. I liked that you could lose a level and keep your upgrades though - as long as you didn't give up, you'd eventually win for sure! Not a lot of strategy involved, though...

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - CalvinFrench results and comments by Calvin French

Drops dead after you buy seeds for the second season, kind of limiting the play value... too bad, because I was looking forward to more farming. It's really too simple to be much of a game but it's kind of fun in its own way. I was curious whether hunger was an actual factor when I tried eating a spoiled plant and ended up hungrier than before. I have a feeling it's not, though.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Deepflame results and comments by Deepflame

If I could rate Innovation lower, I would. It really bothers me to see a highly original and interesting game being cloned exactly. What a waste of a weekend! It also misses out on what makes the Grow games a little bit fun - watching to see what happens. In this version, win and lose look almost the same, and, until the last chapter, never show anything very interesting at all. There wasn't a lot of time for making interesting animations, of course. So why not make interesting and original gameplay instead?

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - DrPetter results and comments by Dr Petter

At least competent in every way. Really great graphics, and great gameplay - dealing with the constantly changing landscape as the pigs come at you is tense. And of course, you found my weakness: grappling hooks! Hooray! I can't rate it too high for innovation, as it's basic platforming. The only really unique thing is the nature of the landscape, but it definitely works well. With a tweak or two, it could be the next Icy Tower.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - ErikJohnson results and comments by Erik Johnson

Another total clone! At least here, the limitations forced it to be sort of different from the original. Big problem here that killed the game for me was the controls. They were SO bad... I'm either standing still or zooming across the map at light speed. The zooming out was nice and subtle though, you hardly notice growing bigger. I guess I need to play this Katamari game everybody's so excited about. After I play Guitar Hero, that is!

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - GerryJJ results and comments by Gerry JJ

I get that you're "growing" a maze, but this is pretty minimally thematic at best. I love the graphics, speaking of minimal. It's annoying how you can't see the number where a key, lock, or you are though. And it's just easy enough that it doesn't blow my brain out like a Jolle game. Bonus Production points for including an editor.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - JamesHofmann results and comments by James Hofmann

Took a chance turning Tetris all around... but unfortunately, I don't think it works. Seems like the best strategy is just to hold down the down key. There doesn't seem to be much of any incentive to build 'solid' (packing things in well). I guess it would make your nail combos bigger? The way the nails flow down is very strange, and doesn't always get stuff it seems like it should. It's a nice concept, but I wish it included some notion of trying to build a sturdy tower as opposed to just stacking pieces up as high as you want. Like if the goal were to reach a certain height, but it takes a certain amount of underpinning to hold up a piece above, and ones with nails are much sturdier. Something like that. As it is, it just doesn't quit come together as a game.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - JayWard results and comments by Jay Ward

This is just purely unplayable! Partly because I'm on dialup, but mainly because of the nature of it. Making a game played on a web page requires a certain type of game design, and a game that should be a series of very quick clicks is not the right type! Well, unless you're using java or something that could allow for immediately playback. It's a cool and original idea though, but I think the grass makes it virtually impossible to win. I'd experiment more to see what I should do, but it's just too painful! Another nice thing would be if you could see how strong the wind was, rather than just an X in the general direction.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - JeremyPenner results and comments by Jeremy Penner

Good engrish. Bad gameplay. There's a reason shooters don't make you earn your ammo... it's no fun! It would also be more fun if you moved faster (and everything was faster). This game is just a tiring wait to get a lucky shot which is not so entertaining. It was an interesting idea to try though.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - JohnCampbell results and comments by John Campbell

The plants grow really cool in this game. It's great just to watch. The control on the bee is really basic, to the point of being pretty awkward (i.e. no friction or acceleration). Definitely helped to make the last level hard! Interesting difficulty ramp by the way - super easy until the last level!

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Jolle results and comments by Jolle

A classic Jolle entry. Really cool puzzle, that got too hard for me (didn't bother trying the last level, and the river level I worked at a bunch but never really got very close - I got the one in between though!). I want to keep the Innovation score down some - there's no game exactly like this that I know of, but it's pretty common stuff, "click on objects to add to the world which interact according to rules".

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - JosephWhite results and comments by Joseph White

Stole my idea!! This game was just way too hard for me. I couldn't come close to level 5 or 6. I just can't seem to split my brain into enough pieces to manage the multithreads. Really cool though, and looks awesome, especially when the ends sprout. Very original (originally stolen from me, that is), and the epitome of the Growth theme.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - KrzysztofKluczek results and comments by Krzysztof Kluczek

Some kind of horizon line would've been a BIG help here. At some angle there's some kind of gimbal lock problem, but since all angles look alike, it's a bit tough to tell where. Gameplay isn't so exciting. It's kind of cool just to fly through the mass, but otherwise not so great. I think just adding a sound for shooting and hitting enemies would've made it way better right away. Of course, some shooting visuals wouldn't have been too bad either.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Lerc results and comments by Lerc

I'm really intrigued... I want to see where this was going. Building the triangle bits was kind of nifty, though it broke in several ways (I had one that was a beam shooting off to the upper left corner of the map!), and I'm kind of curious what the point was. Looked like there was no collecting possible, so all there was to do was build triangles? I think there is potential, but I'm not sure quite what it is, since I don't fully understand what I was doing. A major flaw with the building seemed to be that you couldn't close a gap - go from one point to another point.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - MarkR results and comments by Mark R

I wouldn't call it flamingly original, but it's definitely a twist on basic platforming. That poor deformed Jack... The footstep sound is really nice. I think you should've laid off the life limit though - just having to restart the level is pain enough, nevermind restarting the GAME if you die too many times.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - PhilHassey results and comments by Phil Hassey

Nice music. And the only entry with an intro movie, however disturbing it may be (nicely timed to the music though). Also, finally, an entry that's too easy instead of too hard (well, I don't know if it's easy, there's no way to lose, I presume... guess it depends on what score I'm trying to compare to). What I really liked best was the Dr. Katz-style animated lawnmower. This is so marginally on theme... it would be much more themey if you were fighting a constant growback. As it is, the you just get little stubble at the end which doesn't even affect the game.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - Rale results and comments by Rale

Wow, a one button entry! If it weren't for the balance meter, this would be a fairly easy game. With the balance meter, it's an unbelievable nightmare. I passed the first level eventually but felt like I was practically bending the rules of the game to accomplish it. The balance meter is just way too sensitive or something. Then I did break the game rules to beat the second level - I ran into the side wall and proceeded to simply slide up (with the balance meter showing off the chart), unable to even move away from it, but not hitting anything. Man that level was long. I gave up about 5 inches into the third level.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - SMX results and comments by SMX

A readme could've helped... but this appears to be a sort of bonsai simulator. Once I figured out I needed to snip off leaves, I kinda got it. However, I found I won levels more often by not cutting anything than by trying to interfere. The 4th level was impossible for me. I think I got the idea, that you need to figure out which globs are going to head in the wrong direction and catch them before they can. But the click response is bad, and it grows so fast! I just couldn't catch anything in time. I like the springy tree, and the whole concept, but man, it's got to be made easier! If it was much slower, I could see it really being billed as some kind of simbonsai. ALT-F4 was a clever choice for an exit button.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - TomaszDobrowolski2 results and comments by Tomasz Dobrowolski2

Weird and kind of disturbing to drag my distended belly around (also kind of disturbing to do the same thing in the context of the game). I grew a head right near the end that ended up inside my stomach (circulatory system, sure... looks like a big belly to me). The way it's big and slow and you have to drag it is weird. Not too much of a game really, kind of like an easier and simpler version of Snake. But nice spring effects.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - WojtekDabrowski results and comments by Wojtek Dabrowski

I like this one! My suggestion: add an indicator of how things are currently moving on each nutrient. For example "Nitrite <<< 745" means Nitrite is at 745 and dropping rapidly, "Nitrite 68 >" means Nitrite is at 68 and rising slowly. Straight out of Guild Wars! As it is now, you have to watch them change, which is really tough. It'd also be nice if there were less nutrients to think about in the first place, but I got into it anyway, and even passed the super easy level.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - XOut results and comments by XOut

I don't like being killed for guessing wrong (beginning of level 2!), and this is another case of "why limit the lives??" You make me restart every time I die, so why not let me retry all I want? It's also quite awkward sometimes to get the egg where you need it (again beginning of level 2... kept pushing it a pixel too far and leaving it behind). But I think this has real potential to be a real game though if it were polished up and made EASIER! It's quite reminiscent of Rock N' Roll, although frankly it's better.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - drZool results and comments by dr Zool

Pretty nice puzzle type thing, but after you've completed a few levels, the rest is pretty much "duh". There's not enough variety in it to make anything really tricky. I always like 'action' versions of farming though, for some reason. Jumping around and weeding.

LD48h#7 unofficial and pending votes - xaver results and comments by xaver

My votes got deleted, I'm trying to remember... not very innovative, because it's just the usual dodge stuff, though of course the theme is wacky and original, so in the middle there. Sound is good except when it's supposed to be bad. Semi-fun, pretty dull. I like the movement, it's smooth.