Aaron Nemoyten

The Matter at Hand by Chaseplays 2018-04-23T09:32:36Z

Wow, this is... really polished. Really the only major knock against it is that there are no sound effects. Besides that - it's an impressive puzzler with a great core set of mechanics and solid level design that slowly introduces them at a good pace. This is seriously impressive.

Are you really 16? I don't believe you :)

One suggestion - show a zoomed-out version of all available cards at the start of each level so I don't have to either scroll through all of them (or, as is more often the case, fail the level) in order to match them up with what's in the level and figure out a strategy.

Number One Take Out by Kappa.B 2018-05-01T06:22:02Z

Amazing art. Good gameplay. No sound :(

I don't think I have any other feedback that someone else hasn't said already.

g3ms by HolyBlackCat 2018-05-02T05:45:16Z

Awesome puzzles. "Match-3 platformer" was one of the ideas I threw out when I was going to enter this year because my idea would have been deliberately obnoxious and no fun... you found a way to combine those genres and make it really interesting!

V-Sync! Not sure if there's a way to toggle this in whatever engine you're using but it was really disorienting at first - lots of shearing when I moved around.

Gameplay-wise my only complaint is that it's unclear whether gems are solid or not - you can stand on them when they're still, they pass through you when they're not, and if they land where you are, you die! That took me by surprise.

The Magical Caster Card Gun by Fanttum 2018-04-23T09:12:31Z

That was fun. Adding the blue dudes was a great touch - it forces the player to be much more careful about how they play their cards. I do agree that the cards could use some more strategy/variety. Also - the grenades were really hard to hit with because their explosion is so small! Also - too much platforming! The bullet dodging, corner-peeking, SUPERHOT-type stuff felt way more fun to me than the platforming.

Bath Crasher by dwemthy 2018-04-23T20:42:34Z

I'm not sure what's going on here but I'm playing the HTML5 version and the game keeps pausing?

edit: Oh, there's a note about this. Whoops.

The Windows version just wouldn't open for me... there's probably some troubleshooting I would need to do because I'm running Bootcamp.

I like the concept. I actually explored the idea of a racing/TD hybrid as my LD entry this year and you pulled off something I thought would take me too long to do :) - that includes the "left hand steers, right hand manages the TD aspects" big. The elephant/birds concept is super weird but I like that you're like "Hey, I'll just throw in a bunch of crazy ideas!" That's what LD is for!

Bath Crasher by dwemthy 2018-04-23T21:15:21Z

Chrome.

Brainiacs! by Dylan Rainwater 2018-04-23T08:27:24Z

Awesome concept. This could easily be expanded into a full game, even something free with ads on mobile - it's such a simple but addictive concept. Well executed. I agree about the sound and the US-centric questions (more science! what about pop culture? what if we could pick categories? what if you made a full game and sold extra categories as expansions like Heads Up! does? hmmmm....)

Rex McFury: Public Defender by minibobbo 2018-04-29T07:35:43Z

This is very silly and I approve. Could use some more distinct hit sounds when landing vs an enemy as opposed to just hitting the air!

Shot! Shot! by smbe19 2018-04-29T07:57:01Z

Wow those are some hard words to type! Can't use muscle memory for this gibberish! The best part about this was the sound. Every drink was so satisfying.

CITY^3 by Wizcas 2018-04-29T07:06:17Z

That was fun! I did a bunch of timed runs in a row, and I really love the idea of a city builder/resource manager that has a countdown timer. It's cognitively demanding, but in a good way. I do agree that it feels a bit imbalanced, but it also might be that the resource consumption rates just aren't clear enough.

Final Click ZX by candlesan 2018-04-26T06:47:47Z

I won TWICE! Super fun, definitely gets at the core of what makes clicker games satisfying. Very polished. I laughed hard at the upgrade voiceover, especially when it said something completely different from what I expected. I want more!

Final Click ZX by candlesan 2018-04-26T07:02:24Z

@candlesan recording silly voiceover should never be stressful! :D

mechROMANCER : a top down shooter dating sim about relationships by Useless 2018-04-26T07:27:09Z

HARD! I think you achieved what you set out to achieve. My only design complaint is that bugs can spawn right on top of the player, which, given all the other stuff going on, tips things from "hilariously hard" to "kind of unfair."

Also, I clicked outside of the game by accident and couldn't figure out how to get it to unpause after that.

Silly idea. Good writing. Good music. HEY LISTEN

[VVV] - Vibrant Voxel Vengeance by AwesomeAlliterationAlliance 2018-05-02T06:34:18Z

Oh man, that was silly. I love the incongruity of that western-inspired driving music while killing dragons. I also love that the quest giver just hunts you down and delivers quests and the only option is to accept them. It's like it works on its own, and as a parody of how RPGs work. Good times.

Dodge The Bullet by Apace 2018-04-23T08:37:21Z

So for the first few levels I was like "Eh, this is kinda easy, I like the concept but the level design isn't very interesting. I can just move back and forth in two spots and win every level."

Then I got to level 5. Oh yeah.

The last few levels really show off this concept. It's really fun, and the bubbly particle effects make the movement really satisfying to watch, even when I lose and have to restart the level. The more bullets there are on the screen, the more fun it is to watch.

It's too short! I really wanted more.

And - the player death needs to be way more visually stimulating. It's more like a "boop" than a "OH CRAP I GOT HIT BY A BULLETTTT!"

She Against The World by Snowy 2018-05-01T06:01:24Z

Interesting concept, and I like that you tried to pack in a lot of ideas. Unfortunately, you were more ambitious than you could execute on in the time you had! The biggest issue is that it's just too darn hard - the fact that the player can take 1/3 of the health in damage every turn, randomly, is incredibly frustrating. The fact that the player can easily get stuck on walls ends up wasting a lot of turn time and I missed jumps several times because I overshot, got stuck on the wall, and then ran out of time and fell back down again.

That being said, a fully balanced and bugfixed version of this would be really cool. I love that it's basically a bare platforming level at the beginning and the enemies and obstacles appear over time.

Dyeswap by morphine 2018-04-23T22:26:07Z

Wow, really impressive work. Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Great concept, awesome puzzle design.

I agree that the movement controls feel a bit floaty - the player doesn't stop moving immediately when the button is released, and that feels weird.

I got stuck at the "face down" level. I assume that's my fault and not a bug.

I wish there were sound effects!

Nine Lives by CameronJSamuels 2018-05-03T00:52:30Z

Great job finishing and releasing a game at such a young age! Keep at it!

Dinner Hunter - Cook Or Die by ElRyoGrande 2018-04-26T07:01:39Z

I like the idea, I like the graphics, the sounds are okay, the samples in the music remind me of some tracker music I probably have but I can't put my finger on it... the game is just too damn hard though! The chef's weapons' hit areas are so tiny and the ingredients are constantly bum-rushing me. Without any kind of healing, shield, roll mechanic, nothing defense, it's just... insanely too hard.

Skeletons and Fireballs by snarf2000 2018-04-29T07:30:45Z

Very cool for three hours. I'd say put out an update and just sync up the countdown to the music every time! That was the one thing that threw me off consistently. I was like, "Which beat do I move to???"

ACCIDENTAL EXISTENTIAL by slovnoslomo 2018-05-05T06:51:20Z

I want to give the Sound rating six stars, or even eleven. Loved the music and sound effects!

I really like the faux-pretentious thing going on here. I'd love it as a more 'full' game, there's so much potential. It could be like Existential WarioWare.

edit: Upon further reading... is this seriously serious? Or is it tongue-in-cheek serious?

Patrick's Shoot Towers Pew Pew! by PatrickRMC 2018-05-02T06:06:51Z

I'm a sucker for Tower Defense games. I wanted more challenge though! I love the idea of madly bumping around the level, trying to upgrade a turret that's in a key position... if only you had more time! This could be a lot of fun if expanded, especially if you made the level geography more complex. Imagine if the enemies actually had an overpass that the player could go under to get to the other side of the level!

Puzzle Golf by Jiri Hysek 2018-04-23T22:00:19Z

Apparently I'm just as bad at virtual minigolf as I am at real-life minigolf.

Great execution. I just wish I had the patience to get better at it!

The not-so Correct Platformer by notpresident35 2018-04-29T07:26:51Z

I actually enjoyed the platforming. The combat wasn't great, mostly because there's no hit feedback so I don't know if I'm doing anything correctly or even hitting enemies of bosses. The bosses were super hard bullet sponges, too. Also the fact that if I'm moving diagonally and I hit a wall I just stop - that's not good! I know that movement code is tough to get right quickly, so that's something to consider for future updates.

Jump and Draw by Call_me_Nutty 2018-04-23T08:56:19Z

Once I got to the end of level one and realized I ran out of mana and couldn't jump I was like "Oh, oh I SEE WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!"

Great concept, very good execution. Very clever. My only real issue is that it's surprisingly difficult to hit enemies with the cards - it's hard to line up the hit areas and get the speeds right, so it's easy to waste a lot of mana that way.

Also, I want to call out the music - great original music!

Agent Patissier by sndr 2018-04-23T10:23:01Z

Awesome work. Great graphics, and a surprising amount of content and mechanics for a 48 hour compo! You are remarkably productive!

Zombie Tycoon by David Hunter 2018-04-23T09:40:23Z

I really wish there was more to this! I like the idea of like... mixing management simulation and idle game and zombie dance party etc., but in execution there just isn't enough to do.

That being said, it runs great and I'm going to have to look into Phaser.js now.

Honest Hunting by TheZingThing 2018-04-23T08:20:41Z

I really like how this combines kinda... Chess... with stealth and hunting. A lot of mileage out of some simple mechanics. Great job! You sould be proud!

Typodie by Kusaihana 2018-04-23T09:21:44Z

I think the build - at least the Mac build - is broken; The text at the top says "type this to heal," and typing that sentence doesn't seem to do anything. Also, hitting Space rolls the dice, so I can't type that phrase anyway without causing a turn to happen.

I'm also unclear on the character movement - the player character seems to move around randomly when hit, and as part of that random movement sometimes passes through enemies, thus taking even more damage.

That being said, I really like the music, the art, the idea... it just seems like the game is broken right now.

Ghost&Balls by kamtar 2018-04-23T08:12:16Z

Totally agree with Robowarrior1982, the platforming controls are ROUGH! But I like how the mechanics work together. With snappier controls and a higher jump, this could be a lot of fun as a complete game. Also - character shouldn't have to rotate to face the direction they're shooting... right? I dunno, worth reconsidering.

Ghost&Balls by kamtar 2018-04-23T08:34:35Z

Hey, prioritization! I think you made the right call then, since you got all the other core stuff working pretty well.

LD41 by Horbee by Horbee 2018-04-23T09:43:03Z

The Mac/Linux link seems to just go to the Windows download :(

Room Runner Extreme Deluxe! by ORECROS 2018-04-23T21:39:05Z

There was a bug where it said "Choose the best pet" but "dog" wasn't an option. Seems like a critical one. Fix asap.

Seriously though, I like it. This could be great if it was expanded with more options and multiplayer, if that's something you're interested in doing.

IMO the math joke puzzle should probably be preceded by a room that hints that it's possible for gag questions to have gag solutions, but not DIRECTLY preceded, know what I mean?

Agree with everyone that the platforming is tough. Best practices dealing with Unity update vs. fixed update, input handling, and physics are... well, I think I know what they are, but I'm never fully sure I'm correct about it. For my own (serious) project I collect input during update and save it into a struct and then read from that struct during fixedupdate. AFAIK it's actually possible for unity to "miss" keydown events between fixedupdates, so you *have* to read input in update if you're paying attention to keydown events, even if you're handling movement via physics updates that need to happen in fixedupdate. It's all very confusing. I could be wrong.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-04-23T08:58:06Z

Hey thanks for the feedback! The music is made with Logic X. I actually checked in the project file as part of the source code, though I'm also using SoundToys plugins for FX. Besides those, though, it's all Logic's built-in sounds, just with a ton of processing.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-04-23T20:11:37Z

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Sorry about the wall collision bug (or rather, lack of wall collisions) - that and the wonky push physics were both things that I noticed but decided not to fix so I could do all the other stuff. It's a first time for me for a lot of these things, so I decided to call those "good enough" and then focus on the sound, music, gameplay - the stuff I've got more experience with. The picking up code is functional but could be better, definitely. That and the fact that you end up with your view blocked by whatever you're picking up - whoops.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-04-26T00:55:42Z

Hey everyone on the thread, I just updated Monster Stew to version 1.1. Check out the game description for details on what changed. Spoiler alert: Not much!

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-04-29T20:29:58Z

@dwemthy I'm sorry that the game was too dark for you :( I wanted it to be feel moody and otherworldly but perhaps I took it too far? Do you have any recommendations? Did you play it with the lights on or off?

@BytingGames Sorry you didn't like the cooking part :( What about it could I have improved without doing a major overhaul of the game? I did try to design everything around that idea, so that's why the level is separated into sections that force you to go get monsters after you kill them and walk them back. It didn't occur to me that the bullets were LD colored but...sure, yeah, I did that on purpose, right?

@Kutase thanks for your feedback! Easy tip - all textures are set to use Point sampling (no smoothing) and that's an easy way to make everything look like software-rendered Quake.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-05-01T21:23:19Z

@notpresident35 What do you mean that the enemy detection didn't work very well? Each enemy type has a different "awake" radius - some will wake up only when you're really close, and some will wake pretty far away. And they always wake up if you shoot them.

I'm sorry you didn't like the billboarded sprites... the art is intentionally very basic and childish, and the fact that Bullion Cube is a sketched cube on a 2D plane is an intentional style/visual gag.

@BytingGames Thanks for the extra feedback and ideas. I did want the cooking mechanic to be deliberately very challenging; the original idea was to push enemies into the stew, which would have been even more difficult because you would have to avoid pushing them off the level by accident. It's also intentional that you can't really shoot while carrying a dead monster around; you always have to make the tradeoff of carrying versus shooting, like in a capture the flag game where you can't defend yourself while you have the flag.

That being said, I have thought about how this could be improved to make it a slightly larger game. Enclosed levels with set (instead of randomized) enemy layout could be fun if done properly. I don't want to just turn it into a fetch-quest game though. I love the idea of a protagonist hauling around these giant weird monster corpses that are all puns.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-05-02T05:19:19Z

@pkenney wow, thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much. Sorry about the view blockage, it's just not something I got around to fixing before the deadline.

Curious - did you hear the Bullions' awake sound? Did you know what it was?

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-05-03T00:40:51Z

@pkenney Okay, thanks. The Bullion Cube does have an awake sound, but it's a whistle and it's probably too quiet. It was supposed to be kind of a joke that in hindsight doesn't make as much sense as I thought it did on very little sleep.

@Slashee the Cow I'm surprised you didn't see a wider variety of enemy spawns. Thing is, the other enemies won't start spawning until you need them. It is theoretically possible that you just took so long to fulfill the first few orders that all the spawn points got filled up with Dog-O's and Shooty Shoots, so when it came time for other stuff to appear there just wasn't room for it! If that is what happened, I hope you can give the game another shot and try to just get the first few recipes out of the way faster.

Escape was supposed to be a mouse lock/unlock thing so I wouldn't get stuck in the editor; it's not really supposed to do anything useful in-game... though I have experienced some weirdness when alt-tabbing in and out of the app that Escape seemed to fix.... sort of.

@arche-san Glad you enjoyed it! I decided to punt on doing any fancy UI to focus on other stuff, so that's obviously got mixed results if you didn't notice the recipe at all in the beginning :)

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-05-06T05:48:16Z

@machrom thanks!!!

Infinite Checkers by blake.s 2018-05-02T05:59:22Z

That was pretty cool. I think with some refinements this could work really well as a mobile game - just let players tap either side of the screen to move. Plus, the 'infinite checkerboard stretching into the distance' would work great on a vertical screen. Seriously - consider releasing this as a mobile game with ads every few game overs, a global high score list, a relaxed mode with no score or time pressure... this could really work!

Type n' Jump by Richard N Silva 2018-05-03T01:08:25Z

Great job building a level around platforming mechanics that also work with the pacing that the typing allows for. I tried typing 'walk' and 'run' and 'go' before I went back to the move list... those would make sense, right?

Shooting Stars: FPS Match 3 in Space by creepyounguy 2018-04-23T21:25:53Z

Wow, I really like the 3D match-3 puzzle - balancing between adding vs changing was way more interesting than I expected it would be! A major feedback I could give that I haven't seen yet - change the shader/material of the cubes so they are always the same color - IE they shouldn't respond to light/shadow. There are a few colors that are close to each other (grey and light blue for instance) and when they're next to each other, the lighting can make it confusing to know which is a shaded blue or a lit grey or whatever.

That said, if you adjusted the controls (faster deceleration when no button is pressed would do the trick), this could be a really solid full indie game once you added some additional mechanics - consider allowing for more types of combinations, like matches that wrap around in an L shape, or getting some kind of bonus thing for matching four in a row.

edit: Also, having Earth literally approaching and getting bigger and bigger was hilariously freaky once it got really close.

SmackPaint! Combat Painting with Ross Bob by GregWLyons 2018-04-29T07:47:26Z

This is a very creative and very silly idea. Super buggy physics with the paint cubes, but I guess what can you do in just a few days? Would be great with a controls overhaul. Once I realized I could pop the animals to prevent them from running away with my paint, I realized there was this whole time-management/whack-a-mole thing going on. Very clever. Sometimes, though, the physics would bug out and my paints would fly all over the place!

Block Destroyer by ShinyTurtle 2018-04-29T07:13:00Z

Good start! The biggest problem with the execution is that the playing field is so large and the block layout so random that the fact that you can eliminate multiples of the same color by shooting one just isn't relevant for most of the game. There are other issues that people have brought up - the control scheme is awkward, for instance. But the main thing is that without sets of multiple blocks, the whole theme falls apart and it just becomes a game about shooting lots of blocks really quickly. Still, congrats on your first jam game! If you want to pursue this concept (which you could because it could be a lot of fun with another few weeks of work), feel free to hit me up and I'd be happy to give you some more feedback.

TypeRunner by ShiMapleLeaf 2018-04-23T22:04:51Z

The best thing about this game is that you came up with an idea that you could execute basically 100% in the time allowed. Everything fits together perfectly - the graphics, game-play, and audio. Great job!

Last Stand. [Web Play] by Darkwing00Duck 2018-05-02T05:51:41Z

That was satisfying! Great concept, good execution. I want more of this! It would be a great candidate to expand (add upgrades maybe?) and put on Kongregate or a similar portal.

My only complaint was that sometimes it was hard to read, visually, what was coming down from the helicopter at any given moment.

Line'em up by arche-san 2018-05-01T00:11:15Z

Wow! This is probably the most fully-realized game I've played yet for LD41! Really impressive. Great teaching design, difficulty ramp, etc. Really enjoyed it.