Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Aceria
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 27 | 10 Seconds | Bomb Defuse Simulator 2013 | jam | 263 | 3.17 | 4.43 | 3.37 | 3.15 | 2.94 | 49 | ||||
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Fragments of Him | jam | 26 | 3.95 | 2.68 | 3.79 | 4.11 | 4.09 | 3.95 | 1.69 | 4.41 | 79 | |
| 2012 | 24 | Evolution | Go Back | jam | 43 | 3.55 | 3.82 | 3.31 | 1.75 | 3.36 | 3.55 | 1.87 | 3.07 | 47 |
I like the idea, the but execution could've been better. The turning speed could use a bit of a boost (I was having a lot of problems just turning around), and it's rather hard to move up due to the height of the player.
When I loaded the tutorial level I got stuck in the tree, took me quite a few shots to get out of it.
Overall it's not a bad attempt at all.
Had some fun, but the controls annoyed me to death. Jumping over enemies was extremely annoying because you had to wait 3 seconds for your player to get back on the ground. Haven't seen any of the different playing modes because the jumping just murders me every time. Having to restart at the beginning doesn't really help there either.
I just played 3 of the modes, and in all 3 the movement seems to be the biggest issue with the game. In all those 3 modes (couldn't figure out the mouse one) it felt slow and unnatural.
Apart from that I love the concept of playing different types of games depending on how you make your first move. Could provide for some very interesting gameplay.
So simple, yet so much fun. Audio was amazingly well done, graphics are charming as well.
The gameplay was simple, but very effective (although maybe a bit too simple?). Best submission I've played so far.
Well, that was unexpectedly easy. I randomly clicked on things to make sure my health didn't go down and then started attacking the other creatures. Once I started evolving it was easy enough to keep killing the rest and eat meat to stay alive.
Great use of the theme!
Awesome game! As the rest of the people have said, it really needs some sfx and some music to get the adrenaline flowing.
I would also recommend making the powerups last a bit longer, because the movement is already so slow it takes ages to move from one side to the other. It's rather frustrating to move there and not even get the powerup because it just disappeared.
Great music, amazing art/animations, but I found the gameplay a bit repetitive.
Still one of the best (if not the best) game I've played in LD, amazing job guys!
Very interesting spin on the theme and I like your concept. Only problem I have so far is that there's no feedback towards the player once he does something wrong. When I type a wrong letter I should get some sort of audio or visual poke.
While it was interesting, I didn't stick around till after level 4 (which was easy enough if you ask me). It's just a personal thing that I don't like typing games.
Same as with clavicarius, you kept me going for quite a while there. Great concept, and as a bonus this would've worked with the 1000 kittens theme as well.
Graphics were a bit meh, but they definitely served its goal.
Pretty well done, cute art style and didn't come across any bugs. The controls were terrible though. If you decide to continue with this you should change those first, it just doesn't feel natural at all.
You may have destroyed part of my keyboard. Doesn't have a long lasting gameplay (as it was quite repetitive), but I very much appreciated the humour of the images.
I'll start with the bad:
The collision with the saw feels a bit wonky here and there and the gameplay is a bit repetitive (perhaps adding some powerups or so would be fun). Didn't really see anything with evolution either.
The good:
You made me chuckle quite a few times, that janitor is the best thing since sliced bread. The concept is pretty darn cool and it was quite addicting. Great work there.
Every time I play the game and I win, I get a "You lost" screen. Very depressing :(
I like the scrolling with the noughts and crosses game.
I thought transparent objects ignored the raycast, but I could be wrong. There was a major bug in the camera that I found an hour before submission, I fixed that but might have messed up that one (which should be a 1 line of code fix). Glad you enjoyed the game.
I'll also add the same link as a web link to make that more clear.
You evolve by passing levels.
No seriously, you do. Apparently it's difficult to see, but every time you pass a level you gain cubes to fill yourself up. Once you complete all 25 levels you get an ending that binds it all together. At that point the name also makes sense. It's all a bit far fetched, but we decided that gameplay > theme.
Great that everyone is enjoying the game!
Thanks for all the amazing comments everyone! We're discussing on what path we're going to take for continueing (is that even a word?) this project, but there's definitely going to be a follow-up.
Short-term this means fixing up some of the levels, like the one you got stuck on Cataclysmic (I hate that level, you have to get up there in 1 go, damn stairs are difficult to climb), some minor bug fixes (choose if you want to mute on start, better laptop control support, minor bugfixes).
Long term this will probably mean refining the controls a bit more (although I personally love the way it currently works, but we'll see), building more levels (we're aiming for 64) and adding more block types. I love block types.
Thanks again everyone for playing!
Well done, love the graphics. Gameplay was a bit "meh"-ish, but the art definitely made up for that. Well done!
Quite fun, nice choice of music and sfx. Gameplay wasn't all too shabby either, but it didn't feel very natural. The movement would probably be nicer without any smoothing.
Either way, good work there, it's a pretty addicting game!
Love the art, makes me think of Cardboard Carnival. The audio is also really well done.
The concept is really nice, I like the idea about emotional evolution. However, I felt that the gameplay was a bit too random. I didn't feel like I was really able to control the outcome. I tried my very best to get only blue words, but pure randomness pushed the red letters in my face all the time.
Overall a very enjoyable game.
Didn't find it all that fun, but it was very interesting. Great interpretation of the theme and the tech looks pretty interesting.
Never thought that watching a tree grow could be this captivating.
Love the graphics and music, but I'm not that charmed by the gameplay. It played quite smoothly (although sometimes it didn't seem to register the key press, but that didn't bother me at all), but it was just a bit too repetitive to me. Still nothing but love from me, great job.
Pretty enjoyable, although when I started I had a "So, what am I supposed to do?" moment. Once that was out of the way it was a very nice experience, the screens on the side were a very nice addition.
Addicting gameplay, great music and a solid artstyle. Great work overall!
The only thing that was a bit annoying was the movement. I can see why you smoothed it, but it feels annoying in this arcade style game. Completed the game and loved it all the way.
Surprisingly compulsive! 8900 ish was my score after a couple of tries. I nearly got stuck around 7000 where two tall, vertical platforms' movements were almost perfectly synced (rising and falling at the same time), making it nearly impossible to progress.
Good mood and graphics, but missing interaction. Maybe you could have had a distinctive visual style for the enemies that meant they needed to have different buttons used to defeat them, rather than only one attack button per dungeon?
When you're designing games, there are two main approaches, either you start with gameplay or you start with story. You appear to be starting from the story, so really think about what interactions you need to convey your theme and events in the story. If you want to start with gameplay then think about what the character is going to be capable of doing then start mixing those abilities around with the interactive objects in the world (the terrain, puzzle objects, enemies, etc.) until you have something that feels interesting. It feels a little like you just went for your first idea here without spending enough time designing at the start.
If you fancy a brilliant book on game design for inspiration then check out Jesse Schell's Art of Game Design. It's by far the best book available on the subject: href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&ajr=2&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=jesse%20schell&linkCode=ur2&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ajesse%20schell&sprefix=jesse%20sche%2Caps%2C308&tag=theothersid08-20&url=search-alias%3Daps
Keep at it - design gets easier!
You're welcome :) Good luck with your next game!
A neat little game.
Give the ship inertia and wrap the screen (like asteroids) for a more dynamic feeling control scheme.
I liked the surprise end of game boss! :D
I know you said you wanted it to be hard, but this is like driving up a cliff.
At first I didn't notice the corresponding colours on the arrows so I didn't have a clue why I was missing the objects, but when I worked out that I got through to the third level.
Interesting... It's got potential, but better tutorial information or earlier levels would make this much easier. For example, a first level where you only have to repel triangles and then a level with only squares would get across the idea in ten seconds, saving on a longer period of frustration.
Good implementation and it fits the theme well, and good audio too.
Nice idea. With some development this could be very cool. At the moment my life span is around five seconds!
That's really weird, what browser were you using?
I'll export a .exe version soonish, maybe that will help.
Spliter: Your comment made the narrative designer's day. Thank you! :D
Note to self: take acting classes before the next jam ;D
Thanks for the feedback Kyyninen. We tried a couple of systems to assist people in finding the final objects in a scene - it's a tricky thing to do without breaking the mood!
And thank you everyone else for your comments too - we're really enjoying reading them!
@smilingrob As a programmer, I have no clue what you just said. But I'll forward it to the right people, thanks for the feedback!
@Everyone else, thanks a lot for playing and leaving a comment. This type of reaction is the reason we love making games
Designer here: I agree with your points on the removal sound, unfortunately I couldn't find a copyright free set of samples that worked well enough with the rest of the audio aesthetic during the time that we had for production; however, the benefit of this was that it is very distinctive and doesn't interfere with the score. I think that piano notes might upset the soundtrack... I'll put some thought into it and see if I can find a set of plucks on a cello. That's what I tried to find during the weekend but couldn't locate a source in the time.
Thanks for the feedback ladies and gents, keep it coming, it's really wonderful to hear so many people have engaged with this story. Critique is as welcome as praise - both inspire us to create more adventurous things in the future!
As the writer, I was concerned that the theme of my story might not resonate with people due to my choice of characters. It was the first time I've done something this serious for a game, addressing both a heavy emotional topic and societal preconceptions. From this sample set of people who have responded, you have given me huge hope that as developers we can move beyond the narrow set of themes that are usually in games and still find an audience who wants to see something that speaks to them as humans with emotions and empathy. Thank you all so much, you don't know how much this means to me!
Thanks everyone! It's great reading your comments! :)
Unfortunately, my version of Unity does not have a Linux export. I'm currently working on a big project and I do not dare to update until that's done.
Designer here: Thanks Joe. 'Pretentious' is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot. I wrote this with a lot of passion for the subject matter, and I'm glad that this came across to you. I completely understand that it won't be everyone's thing, but I'm immensely happy that so many people have engaged with the story we've told.
Thanks again for your feedback everyone! It's great reading your thoughts!
Thanks for the feedback Misael.K, we agree! We've actually improved all of those things in the version on Kongregate - we kept the main web link as the unpatched 72 hour version :)
Nice try. An interesting idea that could be developed further.
Unfortunately it wouldn't start when I pressed Enter.
Sorry, I don't have what's needed to play a .jar file so I'll move on to the next game to rate, but the concept sounds interesting :)
I've failed to work out the controls here completely... What am I supposed to press to make anything happen?
A solid first entry. Try adding a little audio next time. Good work!
Thanks for your comments on our entry. Yours is... Unique? :D
Umm... Sorry, I don't understand my objective.
Good to see a game using humour!
Unable to play because I didn't have a dedicated graphics card in my laptop... I really need to upgrade! (No score given.)
I'm not entirely sure what is going on, and it took a moment to realise firstly that it's neither controlled with the mouse nor WASD, but the atmosphere is nice.
Good fit with the theme. This feels a little like a proto-Super Meat Boy in the difficulty. Maybe add more checkpoints?
The camera system is pretty slick to use and initially it is pretty entertaining to explore the area and fight your way to the next level. However, this soon gets very repetitive and before long starts feeling dull. The experience could benefit from some music playing in the back. It can get pretty annoying when I can't find the stairs to the next level. Perhaps the levels could be smaller or an indicator could guide players to the next level after a while. Overall, pretty entertaining but lacking finesse. Keep it up!
Very pleasant to play and a fitting use of the theme.
It can be tricky to pick the right line to extend when there are two ending at the same station - maybe split the end points at the station to make them easier to grab? A little more audio feedback on interactions would also improve the experience. Otherwise though this is very nice and a great entry. Good luck with future development!
Very much enjoyed the game regardless of how frustrated I got with it. xD It reminds me of 'The Impossible Game' but without music. Just out of curiosity. Did you actually make it to the end yourself once?
Good premise, and I like the protestor quotes :)
Fun idea, but really lacking in vocabulary. I could see this concept being applied in some interesting ways in the future.
Yep, that definitely nails minimalism in a game!
Nice job. Quite compulsive when you get into the rhythm of it!
Perhaps putting the text scrolling along behind the line (maybe at half the speed?) would make it easier to read?
No problems with the installation for me, although web versions are always nicer for these things.
Fits the theme well visually, musically, and for the interaction.
Lovely, one of my favourites so far.
However, I did manage to accelerate the ball so much that it fell out of the screen. Maybe you should add a check to make sure that doesn't happen rather than relying purely on collision detection?
Still, bloody good game.
I didn't really understand my objective, but it was quite soothing!
For some reason I couldn't turn? Shame - it sounds interesting from the other reviews.
Odd, but interesting.
Really nice game. More signposting of what is going to kill you would improve it further, and what you are trying to achieve, but the simple and well implemented rope mechanic feels very intuitive. Great job!
Aww, that's adorable. I love the random people saying things.
BIRDS! :D
Not particularly 'minimalism' though... But then again, this is a game jam and so everything is going to be fairly minimal - it's not your fault that the theme wasn't much to work with!
Aargh... Flipped controls melt my brain!
That was fun! Good job :)
A good start!
Top tip: when text is appearing, make the first mouse click show all of the line, not skip to the next line. I can read faster than it was appearing, so clicked to make it go faster, only to skip the end of the sentence!
Good to have some environmental audio in there.
Overall a good job. Nice one :)
Wonderful! Duke Dashington does its name justice. The difficulty curve feels comfortable to me. The mechanics and story are kept simple but are executed masterfully. After I reached the treasure I did not know I had to press enter in order to see the end sequence though. Great game!
For some reason I was really fascinated by the rotating star in the menu. A nice execution of a concept that leans on the work of Braid and Canabalt.
Really loved the style and puzzles. Reversing time with the wrench is pretty clever! Would love to see more of this to be honest.
The game cannot be played by anyone else due to our technology. Unless you happen to have the same size boxes, a beamer with the same lens, a kinect, an xbox controller.
Watch the video to see how the game & technology works.
We did indeed use the kinect to do the head tracking. We only used 1 projector, pointed at 2 boxes at an angle.
The player obstructing the projector was the only thing we couldn't really fix with our setup. We know it's possible to do, but we'd need a better projector and a bigger room. Right now we just let the player walk in front of the beamer and give them a moment where they can't see anything.
We'll be writing up a post-mortem in the coming days, like our FB page if you want to be notified when that happens:
https://www.facebook.com/SassyBotStudio
@IhackedDeath
Thank you for the encouragement. We knew that what we made is really difficult to judge by others without playing it. For us, Ludum Dare is about creating new games and finishing them. We will elaborate more on the setup in an upcoming post mortem.
@gre
I'm glad you understand why this can't be played by others. Without the augmentation hardware and reality environment the game won't be playable. Most of the time was spent on getting the technology set up and calibrated. As you can tell it made some of the other aspects suffer. :)
@spychomonster
The bomb does indeed say Hodor when you raise both your hands. It's like a little party!
Even if you have a Kinect you would still need to set this up. Kinect distance/angle/height are important, projector distance/height/angle/lens and the boxes that we project on.
We might release something later which makes the setting up easier and more dynamic. For now it's pretty much impossible to replicate this game somewhere else.
Thank you all for taking the time to watch and rate!
@GaTechGrad
Obstructing the projector is not that big of a problem for gameplay actually. Even if the player could see the projection from a point that would normally obstruct the light, the player would not be able to see where the cables lead or where the scissor is going.
Creative take on the theme! Very nicely done within that timeframe. :D
Great concept! Did not manage to get past the rocks falling down the slope with around 4 seconds left. I died after the timer hit 0. Would have like to go back to the checkpoint instead.
Trying to figure out how to remove nodes was not very intuitive. The system itself was very neat though. :)
All out 5/5 apart from audio. Could have used some nice background music if you ask me. Superb job!
The concept was unfortunately lost on me. It seems interesting enough though!
Kittens! Always kudos for kittens. The concept is simple but works well. Upgrading the spaceboat is neat and it would be even neater if the upgrades stayed for another play. The music did not really fit the game well. Your games are always a joy to play. :)
Stupidly fun!
Timing the jump was pretty difficult. I ended up just spam clicking to fly out of screen. The game could have used more player feedback to indicate when the best moment to jump would have been.
Addictively frustrating!