The Little Glitch by Kroltan 2012-04-25T05:26:00
I'll also echo the nice innovation/art but I had no idea what I was doing and accomplished nothing.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → TaoPhoenix
I'll also echo the nice innovation/art but I had no idea what I was doing and accomplished nothing.
Sorry, this game fails Discovery from my view. When "smush your hands over the keyboard" does nothing and the ladder kills you after five levels, there's nothing here to help.
Sorry, this fatally crashes on my XP box.
I coudn't find anything to do. After the left and right arrows running my hands over the keys did nothing. And Bad Physics, if you're gonna let me run "under the planet", don't kill me by making me "fly off at Australia".
I can't find any objective. It seems like it's nothing but escaping sharks, but without any end objective. (Or if there is one, it's too far out.)
For example, a Northern felt pretty easy, a Straight South route felt incredibly difficult (25ish deaths in 10 minutes)
Cute little entry. I'll go easy on you, since I can't program at all. My easiest improvement would be to have spent just a wee bit more time on the graphics, even half an hour, to make the main character be a smiling critter with a hat or something. Maybe 7 lines of text would establish a meta-joke that you're stuck in an Atari, just to turn the retro look into humor.
Not sure how to proceed. I made a bunch of blocks on top of the (viruses?) and then it all just sat there.
I got about 4 screens in and then it seemed umbeatable but different, aka the famous "run the hands over the keyboard" did nothing against a green square. But I think I had all/almost all the previous T-mushrooms.
"You need the August 2008 DirectX update in order to run this application...."
I won't even try - my comp is older, circa 2006.
"Hard to get used to the physics. I think it would take a good bit of practice."
I dunno, I caught on to the basic concept in five minutes, and in fifteen I made it almost twice around the planets. What worked well for me was taps of the arrow bar to keep the speed down and a little lucky intuition that you can "Lap" the enemy knights so to give you room for planet jumping.
Instead, I found the easy difficulty relaxing - I won't be playing this game again, (because there are so many of them!), so it was nice not to have to deal with such a brutal difficulty level to goad me into faux obligation. I slipped down to as low as about 2 lives near the end with the triple-beehives and the MonsterBee, so total brain dead playing would have killed me. But I was able to beat the game on the third try after a couple sacrificial runs just seeing what can be touched or not.
Was someone talking about Combo Systems? Not necessary. Instead because multi creatures take damage with a bear slap, the way I beat the bee hives was to break them open and then power-slap 4 bees at a time. Then when they fly back to regroup run, and they trick themselves into flying single formation.
Too hard to install - all the pieces were on Google Docs.
Tips for first timers:
Ignore punctuation
love love is a double word
try to stay way ahead to give time for the big words.
The first couple are magnificent and administrators
Yeah well when fellas go Retro, you "lose" all those million dollar CGI renders but you go back to the games that made us as children.
Especially in a time limited compo/jam, it's a clever trick that can save an entire day if you can polish it enough. I think I'd wish for more than one life here.
But I was slightly too late for pure PET goodness. I'd seen notes about it all here and there, but I grew up on a C128 which was a C64 packaged with a top-layer of easier Basic. But I screen-shot'ed the opening intro! Commodore lives again for one weekend!
I will post a different comment that the mere mention of "PETSCII" sparked a 14 page excursion into Wikipedia! I only knew the C64/128 "as is", and except for a couple of times I peeked at all this, I didn't know much of anything about the earlier models. My father had a choice on what to buy, he was smart enough to know "computers are the future", but he waited to buy a pair of C64 and later C128.
Yeah, this was a subtle entry.
P.s. I am getting an error.
"
error during shader init:ERROR: 0:3: 'highp' : precision is not supported in fragment shader"
And I'm not sure what "s" does. In my Windows version it started changing the overall size of the game screen.
I am stuck. What are you supposed to do once you have the stuff from the underground room?
The controls feel a bit off to me. To get to the secret chamber in the tree I click over an inch to the side?! Going down is not the stairs but another inch above it?!
For those of you who were hoping for more depth, he was trying for it, but got jammed in the stat balancing. See his writeup here:
http://hybridmind.com/games/ludum-dare-29-in-the-black-post-mortem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ludum-dare-29-in-the-black-post-mortem
Meanwhile, there are at least a few paths to a win, so if you beat it once, look for one of the other ones.
Often I wish these games had adjustable difficulty settings. I really liked the layout of this one, but it would have been more relaxing to play if you had real chances to save all five miners with mostly smart play. (When going through a whole bunch of LD games I'm not a fan of really hard games, and a lot of the devs keep remarking that their instinctive settings are too hard! I did finally manage to save a couple of miners but as mentioned elsewhere bad draws can really sink you!)
I also think there's a small problem with the random generator. I started keeping charts and in a few whole runs of closing the game and re-starting it, the "preferences" of who likes what consolation remained constant, and one of those runs almost forced bad draws!
Otherwise I really like the layout and I have been talking about it on DonationCoder.com! : )
Hallo. Any news on a revised version? I don't know how to contact you. It's hard for me to visit you on these pages. My main hangout is over at DonationCoder.com . We were going to experiment with some of the game settings. I got a 4 miner win the other day but that's darn near the max possible.
Despite a few comments here, I'd rate this game well on the side of easy, which is "relaxing" vs a frenetic miss a move and you're dead kind of thing.
I created a "minigame" to push the game to its limits. I've gotten a couple of wins on the 600+ man range. With a little work I think someone can hit 700+. But around there feels like the limit - just running out of room in all categories because the villagers can't serve the last couple of rows of houses.
But the engine still sorta worked with 600 items, so that's impressive for a Ludum Dare.
That "sacrificing" idea is vicious and bears a bit of thought. Remember, the "you win" clock doesn't start if you're losing people! So you can keep building and then you put a couple of cannon fodder tents way at the front.
It's Occupy Wall Street except you are the 1%!
Another cute one all about the fun and the art. Many games here are getting good music, especially the jam teams with a music guy. But art seems to be much harder, and this is amazing for a compo!
It's my first clicker game in a long while, so the novelty was good for me. I got to the e120's and let it go there too.
That seems to be the spot, after about an hour and change.
Yep, this was just a blast of fun art!
Yeah, ya gotta let experiments live in their own space. So it's about the art and mood, and not about bunches of levels.
Cute little thing. I quit after a best of 8, but at least you stayed simple and completed it.
A nice relaxing platform "mini puzzle". When I play LD games, I enjoy them on the easier side, and this one was really generous with level choosing, and the game play wasn't "pixel sharp or die in 1 minute".
Cute little game. The last level 7 is the one that made me think and work a bit. You sorta have to change directions because that first planet on the left has the really fast transfer rate.
I never played the original flappy bird, but this was cute.
I'll go a little sideways and pass on the "graphics" because with minor tweaks they could have been Atari 2600 graphics.
It's just a cute little theme, and for these kinds of things, when the UI is minimalist, you can't have many bugs and this one didn't have many.
I write posts on DonationCoder.com, and I try to rate games to my own (very subjective) difficulty scale. I think this did a decent job of training and easy early levels, then about 2nd before the end of the slow levels and def the fast levels, it jumped a notch in difficulty.
But nice concept, something I haven't seen before.
Yeah, I too liked the idea but the difficulty was too hard!
Hmm, I'm not seeing anyone posting spoilers yet. The plane is in fact the last level. (That seems to have been happening a bit in LD lately - fairly short games, but everyone gets stuck on the last level just when they are about to win.)
The way to beat the plane is to fly diagonally up or down and far right, then match the rhythm of exactly five shots and a space, so that in the interval you decoy the plane up or down not to get cornered, forcing the red plane out of position, then it can't catch up. After some 4-5 times of doing this, it starts to get close, so then just when it's done firing, you brake hard and get behind it. Then it can't hurt you, so stick your nose turret into its rear engine or whatever and press the mouse to blow it up.
Sorry, the ending doesn't explain anything, but not bad for a beginning developer. I'd prefer like here that there don't seem to be any/many bugs, rather than sometimes otherwise the dev burns a crucial 6 hours in the start and then gets jammed at the end.
Funny spoof on the old Nintendo fighting games.
The health bag is nice and generous.
PS. It's got the Brokken flaw of World Heroes 2 - kicks are about 5 times stronger / distance advantage than your punches.
Nice little relaxing concept!
Cute game indeed, but I ran into some bugs where it would lock up esp at 0 action points.
Yeah, good concept. I'm getting bugs where the souls get stuck spinning in circles. I managed to beat it once so far though.
Update: I have the pattern down now, I can beat it even past the bugs : )
Yeah, I'll echo all the comments above about the art, and loose controls.
Fun tip to beat the boss: Run back to home base. It prevents the spawned minions from bothering you too much except the dog. : )
Hysterically funny parody of Windows!
It looks like this game wants to involve a microphone where you make actual physical sounds.
I won't be playing this one.
Pleasant little concept, but the controls are really loose and bouncy!
I'm just getting "not a valid application".
I'm not sure if this is funny because the tiger eats you first, or if it's really unbalanced gameplay!
Great art and a funny "grow noodle" mechanic.
But I couldn't get the instructions so I don't know what to do! "Press any key to start ... press any other key for directions" ?!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Not a bad start. I got a little confused on the differences between cabbages (?) and tomatoes, how to control one or the other, and a bit of flow.
Harder than it looks. I think the "danger box" is so far away from you, it makes it tricky to see when you get hit. I think I'd have preferred if they fly all the way to you before it registers a hit.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
I don't understand. The link is a picture.
How do the controls work?
"!! The game requests latest version of Java. !!"
Yeah, something is wrong with my version so it doesn't run.
Hi Nick!
Doreen Konbberts remarked on this. I posted a self reminder to me over on DoCo. I'll try to take a whack at it when I have a good chunk of awake hours again!
--TaoPhoenix
"stuffedgravy says ...
Apr 20, 2015 @ 3:00am
I went a few floors in before giving it up. From what I saw, it doesn't seem like there's much room for error. Since you can between rounds totally set everything up it's pretty easy to play perfectly and it just becomes a bit tedious to do the math for it. "
Hi StuffedGravy.
Nick has a tendency to make hard, math-strategy based games. Setting up things in between each round is precisely the point - it's not about real-time attacks. It's whether you can find optimal strategies.
See Undermined from LD29 by the same dev. (Different online handle.)
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=29805
I got interested in that one because "playing perfectly" sometimes has a surprising twist strategy! That may apply here.
I haven't yet seen any recovery of health on this game though, so eventually your guys will just get ground down, and it becomes how many floors do you last until you do.
There's also no clear indication of how to "win". So it's a little harder to talk about except "I made it X floors".
Nick, it seems you found a new game dev framework. It might be nice if you ported Undermined over to this with that modular stats file we were talking about and then it would be interesting to see what it takes to make a 5-miner win.
--TaoPhoenix
An interesting decision not to have "game-enders". There seems to be no life counter and no time limit. And I think this is a good thing for this one! It's hard enough that even having a bunch of lives would get really frustrating!
It also seems to be pretty generous on "save states".
Fun little platformer!
I agree, if there's a post-compo version, try to tune the fine mechanics of sprite placement. I'd also make the art slightly less jaggedy for the terrain - maybe a bit less "grass and vines".
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, a very initial version of the collectible card game style play.
I played a lot of Magic the Gathering in its early years. So this little game brought back a nice little memory or two!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Well, I think it's a bit "risky" to make meta-jokes for LD.
When I click Begin ... nothing happens. So, I'm sorry everyone if that's a spoiler, but there's enough roughness between people not finishing de-bugging games, and user UI problems everything from broken Unity plugins to quirks of the user machine.
Update:
Because it IS a meta-joke, AND my settings were blocking it!
It DOES use a browser popup. So everyone check your popup settings and maybe for ten seconds turn them off.
On my machine, I am using Firefox variants, and I one day clicked "do not show message" when it detects a popup. But sometimes you need to see them! Like here.
You can try going to About:Config in Firefox, and look for
privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage
It's normally True, but it can switch over to False so even if you know there might be a popup, it doesn't give you the options to allow it.
But sadly, I still have to disapprove of this one.
Fun little game!
I'm not so good at multi key controls but I made it to level 11 once.
I can see distant echoes of PacMan here! I did best by running first, putting a hole down, letting the enemies run into it, and then switching hands for the closeout nav to the door.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in!
I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
I don't understand the objective to be able to go for the win.
Mood is sometimes the easier of the two to get - but really good art can be tough! So clearly you've got a suite of tools around. I looked at your web page too.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
This one is just missing the cut for that, but that's where I fuzz my reviews a little - I'd like to see a post-compo version with all the stuff added back in! Drop me a line on DoCo because this one could really take a review!
--TaoPhoenix
Funny little game!
The only trouble is deciding when and why to use the teeth.
So it looks like it could benefit from an end condition so you can decide if there's any strategy.
Cute little pseudo skeet-shooter type thing.
The birds were easy - but something about the precise movement to shoot the turtles/hedgehogs was really tricky!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
I like these little strategy games. I have rated this "Phoenix Easy" over on DonationCoder.com.
For anyone getting stuck trying to win, start reactive, then get about four tornadoes going in tandem.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my reviews of some LD games, and I put a mini review of this one over there!
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, a fun little game.
The controls feel a bit loose though.
Also, maybe you can put in more than one life, just to save annoyance when you hit the dangers.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Hallo!
This is one of the first detailed reviews I posted over on DonationCoder.com
That link is:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.msg380019#msg380019
This is an interesting "little brother" to a Tower Defense style game. The enemy aliens travel only on a certain diagonal path, so this suggests a winning strategy of planting your crop fields in the corners.
After a couple of early rounds just getting the initiative, then you slam on the accelerator by upgrading all your turrets and planting lots of fields. I don't know exactly what the final triggers of a win are, but somewhere in that range where the aliens stop damaging you and you have a lot of fields going works.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games. Yours is one of the first!
--TaoPhoenix
--TaoPhoenix
This looks locked behind Google Drive.
Hallo!
"This is my first Game Jam, I have no idea if work has to be up to a certain "standard" but I didn't want to be over ambitious and work beyond what I believe I can do."
Yeah, work *does* have to be up to "certain standards plural", but then those move around in the context of each individual submission. A key idea is that prototypes might be a good idea to get comments. Then in the "little bubble" of that dev's game world design experience, you look for little settings that show you put some polish into the game.
So on this one, what velloso was saying that I agree with is that you need to put more warmup into the game, and more slack time before collision, and more than one death.
So look at your size settings for all the "moveable objects". I think if all of them became skinnier horozontally then it would take the enemies some 12 seconds to reach you instead of five, and a "3 2 1 go" countdown would help too because you need a mouse to click play but then run out of time getting ready for the keyboard controls.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, the "slow down penguin" was priced too expensively for me, and starting around round five it really gets tough!
I also agree there's no trade-in system, so you're forced to use some optimal placements early on just to survive, then you wish you had them later for a big defender.
It jumps again around wave 10. But there's a fun start to a post-como tweak! Here's some ideas:
1. Yeah, the audio gets a little clunky after a while. I'm okay with the turrets, but the "eggs! Give me eggs!" Does get a bit old.
2. I think a couple of the options are mis-balanced. I didn't see any great use for either the penguin or the ostrich, when I was getting slammed with basic minions. Hens into Turkeys seemed like the only way to go.
3. Make the placement zone a little wider. I think the bottom should be able to smoothly hold 3 deep, and when it does, "not be pixel perfect" so that if your first hens are off by 3 pixels you wreck your entire game. Same idea in the middle zone. I lost a crucial placement zone for a turkey because an early hen was a bit too far to the left.
4. Replacement system
It's hard to prove, but I think Hens into Turkeys really is the key to this game as it stands. So you'd trade in hens from rounds 1-5 into Turkeys about level 9 because 10 and 11 and up start going off the charts with another jump in difficulty. Maybe some players do, but I don't want to try pixel-perfect placing turkeys in the middle of a round when suddenly I get 400 credits to spend, and have 12 seconds before my base gets trashed!
But good stuff! I like simple Tower Defense games!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in!
I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games. I think a tweaked post-compo version of this might be good for a review!
--TaoPhoenix
Hey guys notice/don't forget that big possum thing eats 5 eggs from your base!
Okay!
A good game teaches you as you play it!
So maybe I am okay with only being "2 deep" in the lower placement section.
Still not a fan of the Penguin.
But the Ostrich makes a good "closer" on the far right, top left, and the top row after the turkeys thin out the hordes.
Yeah, my desktop ground to a halt about wave 19 and I had to close it down.
"I think one big thing for a tower defense game is making towers target the enemy closest to the base. Sometimes it seemed like the hens would shoot enemies that were further back, letting the enemies in the lead keep going even though they were in range. "
I think you're right, "tackle the most dangerous first".
To get around that I had to purposely put turkeys way at the top of the edge where they "wouldn't get distracted" to take care of the runaways. I dealt with it, but I think you're right a tower should deal "most dangerous first" though this is not the first T-D game that has "distraction problems". (It may even be a feature!) I played Autobot Stronghold for a month, and the "big tough guys" also tended to draw fire, forcing the same strategy.
The Web and Windows versions don't play the same!!
The spreads of enemies are not the same!
Level 1
Web:
2 Fast Black, 1 Med Brown, 2 Slow Orange
Windows
*Random*!
That's not playing fair!
What's going on?
Hallo!
This is a compo entry, so where did the graphics for the avatars come from? Do you have a character designer software program?
The art is really good all around. The concept looks nice, different from "mash the keys to type words as fast as you can". This one is more of a word search.
However, I think it's some combination of too hard and Mordrax is borderline cheating, because here is a sample of "words" he was picking:
Skrik
Cly
Deva
Skol
Rill
Are the letters chosen at random? It seems to have a lot of odd mixtures that make it really tough to get "regular words".
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
This one is just missing the cut! I'd like to see a Post-Compo version!
--TaoPhoenix
Okay, here's a bit of a controversial post. At least part of my audience is the game reviewers.
This is also, the Age of Information. That also includes game spoilers!
Arrow keys move, and the 5 key spits out a green blob to help you fight the existing red blobs. But if you bomb the screen, then you find they all flip and turn into angry red enemies and you die!
Instead, only split out about 2-3 green ones. Then when a couple of them left turn red, the same 5 key shoots stars to kill them.
You should be able to win in about 30 seconds.
I think LD games should angle a bit past a "1 time joke", and more towards a repeatable game in itself. A game that is easy to beat is fine - just don't make it so the entire gameplay relies on first-play ignorance!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
A pretty tricky game.
What's the final objective?
I was trying to use the moon to knock the green planets together, but I couldn't get it done.
You might want to add to the readme some basics. It looks like if you get too close to the planets your hit points go down until you die.
Tech note: For Unity Windows, I was getting horrible near crashes, because the "Windowed" checkbox was unmarked. Once I checked that, it did what I wanted, which was to play the game in a window less than full screen.
In some senses, I'm not sure this is a game - I picked random stuff until I ran out of picks each year, and destroyed the island in about four years.
I visit Ludum Dare to find fun concepts, and it's the time limit of the compo/jam that nudges people into certain scope. But then it would be neat if some of the devs liked the concept enough to keep doing stuff with it.
Sometimes it's a "quick fix". I don't think that's here this time. I think this is a fun concept, because it's the "build game" in reverse.
You've got a tremendous number of things to pick. But they don't really seem to do anything. You could make a 2.0 version if you tied them all together with something like 7 stats of the island/citizens, and then gave the options prices, specs, and damages. Then you have running readouts as the user picks his weapons!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
This one strikes me as having lots of potential for further work, but it's up to you if you "just mashed it out to make the entry", or if you like your idea enough.
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, I get some kind of "log in to Google Drive".
Very funny!
Another one harder than it looked for me. My reflexes didn't take to judging how long it takes to hold down the charger to launch the chicken a certain distance.
Def high marks on the art and humor.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
It doesn't seem to be running as a valid application on my machine.
I did pretty well with the controls using two hands. I put my middle right finger on the Z key and my left first two fingers on the A and Q. I got to 171.
It has a little trouble drawing the socks around that point.
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, me too, but funny take on the idea and a good example of how to stay in scope if you run out of time.
This looks like a cute little platformer. Very fast initial impression is it's decently balanced, so I'll play it a bit and give another update.
Fun stuff. Don't let my low tolerance for difficulty spikes matter! I start getting stuck around the spot with about seven "rickety" jumps in a row. But it's got a nice little feel about it!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
For the "Red Thingie" level, I somehow couldn't get it "intuitively" so I had to iterate it.
The winning combo is Tech Support/Beam/Unclog.
"Done Naturally" I would have expected Unclog/Beam/Tech or Tech/Unclog/Beam.
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! So I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Yeah, I think so too!
By the way,
The DonationCoder LudumDare 32 April 2015 thread is here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40573.0
It happens to be their 10th anniversary! I don't program myself ... so I am unleasing Weapons Grade Enthusiasm!
If you stop by DonationCoder, please put in the code/tag LudumDare-Tao so they will know it's my doings that brought you in! I'm not
part of any of the site structure ... just doing my bit for my favorite site on the net!
Also over there, I post a few of my detailed reviews of some LD games.
--TaoPhoenix
Fantastic art!
To me though it makes or breaks if there's a way out, and I didn't find it! It would take grinding and I'm not up to it.
Hmm. Okay, I found the game quite easy and beat it within minutes. For those of you who find it difficult, your key is that you can "wiggle" the ghost and PacMan really doesn't, so you can box him in pretty easily. So He goes for the power pills too fast, then he's stuck with dots everywhere.
But brilliant concept!
I'm new to your games, and it's *Compo* not Jam, so you def have a talent for art! This is a quick post that the concept is a lot of fun, and I'm building a list of games to go back over in more detail over at DonationCoder.com so I'll post back again in a few days during voting with more!
Yeah, pretty good stuff.
There's a couple of big font comments per "act" that don't move, so that might help a little to stay anchored and it's holistic, so if you miss a fragment it's not like a game where you lose your character-life.
Hysterical parody of the LD process!
It's a pity though that 60 sec is just a little too fast for me!
Very pleasant little game!
Great example of a game that rides on the character art, so it's crisp and well done.
It has a slow learning gradient so people who like leisurely pacing will like this one. The last level or two is tricky though!
And don't forget the dev was wise enough to have no lives, no timer, and infinite level restarts by holding down both left and right keys. So it's all about the puzzle, without "artificial" external pressure.
Nice! : )
Yeah, all that art work, for me only to be "ruined" by trying to jam it into the 2 keys bit. The controls were *very* strange.
By the overnight into Wed Dec 16 2015 US East Blackbird put up a different build that can sometimes help players running XP avoid "invalid app" errors so I got to play it just now.
I'd call this game a really solid entry, easily 3-4 on a lot of categories.
There's a couple of different types of puzzle games - the ones with "sneak shots" where a player can get really frustrated (some like it though!) with obscure things to do to advance the action along.
This one tries to "play fair" in that it's about the pattern sequencing of the water vs the max capacity 6 drop cap and which way you go which direction and so on.
So I just ran through it with the help of the devs and with one exception once I got past "some funny stuff" I did just fine on all the levels except one.
More detailed stuff in a second post just to avoid walls of text.
The art is solid, there's some soft music, and the puzzles are ultimately very doable. There's one level in the middle Into the Trees that some of us think is actually harder than some later levels so don't get discouraged!
On the more technical side, a chat with the developer lead yielded the following "fairness tips".
- A couple of the levels have small sprouts that are really hard to see and know they're there. One idea is to just "burn lives" because there's no timer, no game over, each level has a restart, and no need to rush.
- Wander around just trying to water everything in sight to find out what grows. The game "plays fair" so it's about interlocking your water usage, not "find the hidden sprout".
- When you're putting out fires with the water, *don't stand on top of the "smoldering logs" * (that only catch fire when you cross over them once) - you have to stand to the side to put the fire out.
- Mushrooms and other "background" plant lichens don't grow - only the main green sprouts and vines grow.
- Wander around "wasting a couple lives" learning which are "legal" jumps and which are unsafe (you die). Otherwise you could miss a legal move because you thought it was an unsafe / illegal jump down (falling off a raised element.) Some work, some don't.
More stuff:
- Because there's no time limit, no "lives lost", and full level restarts, go slow, use small taps of the movement keys, make sure you don't scramble your muscle memory trying to do some kind of speed run, because if you mis-click and lose a water droplet, don't waste your time because chances are you're hosed and can't finish the level. just start over.
- The level "Summit" isn't all that hard, but there's a vine on the top level in the middle that you can't see that's the finisher. This game "plays fair" so it's about the water droplets, not trying to find hidden vines.
Two strategy tips:
- The *implications* of only holding six droplets is that you can't "fill up with less than 3" so you waste the last drop you need somewhere else. So make "partial progress" growing something you need.
- In a couple of cases you have to run across a smoldering log and grab the water and back before the fire lights up.
- The trickier levels have "loops" so watch what order and direction you cross the smoldering log because that one's free but it wastes a water coming back and if you do the loop the wrong way you'll likely be one water short somewhere near the end.
Good luck!
I will also be reviewing this one over at DonationCoder.com with mostly a mirror of these notes, along with some other Ludum Dare 34 games!
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=42010.0
Logicon, yeah, the point is when you're small you basically gain nothing for points.
So the whole point of the game is kinda pseudo-psych-warfare trying to "outsmart" the bullets when to grow and your points skyrocket.
But a tip is you gain the same points "1 step shorter than max" so you grow and then *shrink 1 level* so you're only two taps from being small then you can jump the grounders.
Difficulty ... a little strange. This LD is producing a lot of games that are "both easy and hard".
I know, it's prob random gen, but if you "pseudo-treat it as psych-warfare" if you think you see "1 opening to grow" don't fall into the "trap". Stay small and deal with the 7 grounders!
Then when it looks like you've got a legit window, grab points.
I made it over 10,000 a couple times before I began to do other things.
Yeah, per sathorn and the others, this is a prime candidate for a Post Compo version. I'd think some kind of width addition check in pairs should work.
And I just rolled my critter to very small and left it that wsy. I didn't see any incentive to get bigger.
I think the game is a bit better than the pics might suggest.
The difficulty seems doable for anyone with shooter experience - I'm terrible at those and I got to near the end. It's a short game.
I didn't see many outright bugs - it was just awkward trying to snipe at the robots. So the "gain health as you shoot" is actually an interesting mechanic, so I ended up discovering you can "stand on top of the robots" and your health comes out as a tie, so you save that if lucky for the last round and it could be tight but feels winnable.
In the chat we went over it could have used with a couple of level saves, and a fast option to skip all the dialog, but a pleasant little game!
I rather like the lack of "pressure" like #moves or a time limit etc, because if you don't have the pattern down to a science but just know the basics you can afford to mis-step and then fix it the 3rd time around or whatever.
So maybe it's been done, but it's all where you look, and since my main focus is on LD, this is the first exact copy of this I've seen!
And like the other people were saying, sometimes it's nice to have a nice presentation on top of a simple puzzle, because in other contexts you can possibly "separate and sell" the graphics engine to be put on top of other games in the same class.
Whew!
I beat the game with only 88 retries! (Yikes)
Some tips for players:
Some of the moves are pixel sharp. But they all work.
In my opinion there are 2-3 "scorcher" levels near the end; the early levels are to demonstrate the mechanics.
There is no "gravity penalty" as found in some games of this genre.
Good luck!
Yep, me too!
Sometimes it's nice to have a game that just is lots of fun even when it is super easy!
Contrary to some opinions, there are plenty of hard games on LD, I probably would have been frustrated if there was a "fatigue meter".
For once I just liked doing two air raid bolts then hailing down wings of fire!
The question of difficulty is tricky here. The first several levels were like a tutorial with little risk. Then I got in real trouble with one of the ones with the spikes and gave up because it's just getting late. But really cute graphics indeed!
You can grow your herd!
But it's tricky, I only got a few sheep, it's really easy to get jammed into a corner (but they have bump detection) but in-game that top cul de sac next to the herd pen is really tricky.
It's important to separate what might be an "Easy fix" vs harder stuff. I'd think stuff like the rising prices of everything is a snap to change, and I'm with amras0000 when you build cities, (except maybe small "yearly" increases), the units stay the same, so you start with little houses then build bigger stuff. With the price of everything increasing *every purchase* and the "time to wait for a sane time to buy land" is in realtime, he's right that maybe a good concept got crunched into the "clicker" category that's an imitation of the fun like cotton candy, but then you sour on it REAL fast.
I know this is LD, but even something as simple as "build enough money to build Hotels and become a millionaire" is a goal. 1 more bldg type, but it's closer to the city build genre not the clicker "increase forever until a house costs 400,000 and you wait half an hour to buy land".
Some of your games are skull bending! But I played Unconventional Earth a while back (though my comp is misbehaving now!) and I think I recall that one being fairly easy to grasp and beat.
(I think it was some kind of defend and slowly push an advantage kind of strategy.)
This one is too hard for me because I'm no good at visually assessing complex angles and stuff!
He says instructions are coming soon but I'll jump in. You get to control the speed that two dropping / bouncing balls travel and then have to mentally calculate projected trajectories to get them to hit target spheres with a + sign.
I'm curious if any expert pool players try this one, it feels like a similar skil set needed, but you have two to adjust in realtime!
Very pleasant!
There were old skool handheld Nintendo games before they got into hi-tech that mechanics a lot like this, except the ones I remember used falling items and not a curve bounce.
And it's nice because I am a casual LD gamer, so I liked not getting crushed on level 1! And I'm terrible at most speeds of DDR type games so I could mostly pass this one at least the silver trophy within a few tries though I had to work a bit at the last one.
And really clever music note placing, that had to take work!
I agree very strange!
I couldn't figure out how to get past the wolf though!
Cute little strategy game.
The initial spread is random so my highest score was 125 because the virus was trapped in a lump and some spreads you can't beat at all.
But one of the better early ones.
I wish there was a way to know where the boss was. I kept fading into the distance!
But at least I got my serpent the right length in the post compo versions, but still had trouble finding the boss so I couldn't even try to figure that out!
... For 20 hours work! (Plus Post Compo)
Yes. in fact
i play chess.
Ya gotta know (on paper!?) about 7 equations then you win.
52 cards per deck is 4 x 13 so nothin' near 54
And the prog likes to ask it twice
Yeah, I'm in the crowd of really being impressed at the art and quiet music too, and it actually *runs* on my undead monster of a comp!
Hi Gang.
Thanks to Tetha for the shout out!
Tetha said it was okay for me to give y'all a couple of VERY basic tips just to get a handle on what's going on. But you'll need a bit of cleverness to beat hard level!
- The soldiers can sometimes move diagonally to auto-attack in horizontal or vertical directions, and it's the same move, not "attack next move".
- Except for strategic gameplay, "nothing happens" until a soldier gets to your source saproling. About mid game, when you get time, station a ManEater kinda near your saproling just to help prevent last minute disasters and buy you some time to think.
- You have to maintain invaders at *all the towns* to win, so if they break free you're not done yet.
-- Strategy tip. You don't have to spend all your points every round, so bank some points Because it's all about the ManEaters.
Good luck!
Haha Prymidion!
I think in our early testing it was called a Sapling, so a Freudian error!
But yes, paraxite, a few clever strategies suddenly turn things around!
Me again.
Let's bump it up a notch.
- Place your center sprout 3rd from the right or left edges.
- Do some quick math because the first 3 moves will make or break you. You have to get the optimal combo to get drillers running *pronto*.
- We did some test runs for data but basically you need all eight drillers running on both rocks. Anything less is either a stunt or a mistake and start over.
- It's all about the Maneater Point Count. If you drop a leaf because it "does something" and trash a ManEater in the process, you goofed. There's about three spots in the middle when you make sure "nothing can be legally attacked" and then you make those small moves (after dividing by five!) and then *do nothing* and then with 38 points they both wasted a turn getting closer to you, are easier to kill, and you now have 38 points to switch it around.
- Do that *twice* - the first one removes danger - skip a round - the second one secures the lock, then it's mop up.
2nd from the edge is even easier because you get a crucial two more tempos.
Hi Jupi if you ever see this!
Tao here.
It's far from clear why you couldn't drill the first rock. You should have been able to.
And while the game doesn't give "buzzes for errors" when you placed the leaf under the higher rock, that was a strategy error because you basically need 7-8 drillers on rocks on *adjacent* files. So that leaf "locked up" a driller slot.
It's one of those I am beginning to ponder "legal in the rules but at what level do we tell players it's an error?"
As for the Man-Eater plant, he/we didn't include a "combat animation" so I think you placed it fine, it ate a guy 1-1, and they both vanished.
But thanks for reviewing! Good to know these First Impression things!
Haha, my counterpart Phoenix849 has the comment I want to echo, that the "2 button" theme has kinda tricked some of the devs into a playability trap but after a little practice you really get into your "weapons of various destruction"!
I got 25,000+ on about my second try.
Re ElliottD's note, the way I got into it was noticing how long and far the missiles went, so you can prepare "cover fire" to crunch the planes at the beginning of their range.
I plan to write this one up over at my favorite other site DonationCoder.com !
I agree with most of the above, nailed the presentation. I think it's not at all a clone of Simon because the distraction factor begins to get to you! I believe this could actually have use with psychologists!
And it has a Phoenix!! :)
-------------
Hey guys, for all of you who got frustrated with the first ultra hard version try it again. It's balanced much better and while I still lost first try, I'm gonna go back and try a few times because at least it feels like I have a fighting chance this time!
Yep, I had a lot of fun on easy level, I'll repeat the comments above about simple but effective graphics and a nifty concept I'll liken to de-energizing your opponent's nodes.
I glanced at hard-mode and it does seem to be firing more accurately, so I'll think about that later the next round of playing.
Yeah, just left and right shooting and not a lot of strategy so I kept dying about half way through Gatling Gun and didn't see what else to do.
Extremely simple game but per the site notes the guy isn't a coder, but found something and gave it his all, and made a game and I don't see any / many bugs.
And it is the closest I've seen to a private joke about a program I made as a child some 28 years ago and now it reminds me of "avoiding random people here in New York City wandering around looking at their cell phones and you have to dodge them" : )
Ps I got to about 720 but if I worked at it I could get higher so I might post back during voting.
Tip - you can move one orb diagonally to safety then jockey the sizing back and forth and save the other one.