Tiny Sorceress by L 2012-12-17T03:53:00
Excellent humour!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Arakade
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Go Dots | unfinished | ||||||||||
| 2016 | 37 | One room | Fantasizing About Bankers During a Recession Fills Me with Shame | jam | 10 | |||||||||
| 2014 | 30 | Connected Worlds | Romeo and Juliet, The Game -- make love, not war/suicide! | jam | 716 | 2.59 | 1.94 | 2.59 | 2.27 | 3.53 | 2.50 | 30 | ||
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Enderscope's Game | jam | 491 | 3.00 | 2.35 | 4.00 | 3.83 | 3.52 | 2.88 | 3.45 | 33 | |
| 2012 | 25 | You are the Villain | Oil Co Exploits | jam | 239 | 2.71 | 2.21 | 3.07 | 3.29 | 3.29 | 50 |
Excellent humour!
Very playable! Harks back to Spectrum titles "Jet Pack" and "Lunar Jetman" -- my muscle memory just kicked right in and I was off :-)
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Super! Awesome graphics -- possibly too good! Are you a villain?
Spiffing, simply villainously spiffing! Highest ratings I've given so far :-) I love that you can multi-loop and that there appear to appear more coppers as you do better :-) Also loved the Android version (so nice to be able to rate some games from the tablet :-) )
P.s. cheeky but I've fixed my game since your review and built an Android version too :-D
Nice!
Gorgeous + fun = excellent!
Love the use of one colour with the different shades for different depths. Will have to try this some day. Ditto on theme match but perhaps you'll take it further to fulfil that part?
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Cute :-) Like you said, I bet it's better 2 player!
Great concept. Lovely 8-bit era feel to the graphics (though I half want Super-Cars / GTA-1 physics on the driving despite it being pointless ;-) )
Had expected to find the customers walking the streets and that the field of coins was a plot for sale. Obviously after driving looking, I realised what I'd missed :-)
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Lovely lighting. Controls seem to lock so mouse won't move while you still have a key pressed. Makes manoeuvring hard! Played twice, got caught twice :-)
Love the concept but fear the sprites are somewhat corrupted (perhaps that's thematic ;-) ). Sad that nothing happened when I killed the Rogue :-( (but it was fun enough that I played all the way through :-) ) I didn't get any audio (but that might just be my laptop so haven't rated for that) but some clash of swords and clatter of collapsing skeletons would really make this!
I note you're using Unity + NGUI. I used Unity + 2D Toolkit. How do you find NGUI (generally + for this sort of thing)?
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Nice! Beautiful use of minimalisitc graphics (text). Curious how it was done.
Sorry, I'm not Windows so can't play but wanted to say "Year 11 students" !? Good for you for doing this! Keep it up (many of us started in bedrooms, etc) and good luck :-)
(author) Thank you, all!
You're all correct -- it's BUSTED! That'll teach me for changing the graphics in the submission hour! Turns out it didn't auto-generate a collider for the ice-blocks making the game utterly non-interactive! That's a one whopping big DOH!
So, given it wasn't really sufficiently complete anyway, I'm going to withdraw from the competition, switch to the jam and use these remaining 5 wee-small hours to improve it a bit and resubmit it. Hope y'all give it another try then?
(Anyone know whether one can get scores reset since I know I'd have rated this ... not great.)
Still, given my personal challenge was publishing something non-perfect, I'm actually calling this a #win ;-) Yay me!
Thanks again for giving it a go :-)
(author) Right, /sufficiently/ fixed to make it viable!
Really keen to hear people's thoughts on the *actually working* version now!!! Thanks in advance and...
Have at it! :-)
(author) ...and added alternative ports and screenshots.
Few! Thanks guys! 2 positive reviews just made my day ... well, really early morning. Wow, who knew reviewing annoyingly addictive games was addictive!? 05:45 is time for some bed here in UK!
@monomanio
"no game over screen"? that's odd. It can take 5-10 seconds to appear after the last ice drops but it should appear. Um...?
Thanks re. the art style! That means a lot coming from you! (How do you do your gorgeous graphics? How long does it take?)
Re. ice wave (@Keevor & @ilo)
Thanks. This was a difficult choice. It was one of those common coding dilemmas of perpetrating a shortcut (hand placed ice) requiring increasingly more effort vs. better implementation requiring more up-front time with long term payoffs for future features (only the wave made it in). That's one of my biggest doubts on my jam approach. What do you guys think?
The other features it would have enabled ranged from lapping waves through wandering animals to a tower defense approach (in case destroying the North Pole wasn't sufficient to prove you a villain, you'd also be shooting penguins, polar bears, Greenpeace protestors and Santa and his elves!) I'm wondering whether to add this to the final version. Overkill? (Perhaps a sequel?)
@Keevor
Thanks :-) You're right - there was intended to be an extra lose condition of $0 but I ran out of time :-) Even with that, you're right there's something missing. Any suggestions? Perhaps its just a case of balancing? Tweak the costs and it might just resolve?
@ilo
Thanks - lovely to hear the message came through :-) I should have used tracking links just to see how many did similarly but nice to know one finished :-D
Re. approachability, yep - I actually wrote a whole in-game tutorial which would be shown incrementally where the bottom 1234 is. Obviously I switched the one liner in at the final minute :-D Still these are great lessons - time has always been my greatest enemy. If I don't release a final version of this in January, please spam my Twitter as a heinous procrastinator :-O
@CoffeeOnimal Thanks!
Hmm that's a fair point. Obviously they're random drops based on an increasing probability linked to the global warming. However if random doesn't happen... What would be a good resolution? I /could/ cheat but the rest of the game tries to be a realistic model (including the past & predicted global warming temperatures from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming ).
IIRC different models say melting Arctic may be positive and negative feedback loop. I /could/ choose positive which would make those last ones go like hot-cakes!
Alternatively perhaps an "I've realised this might not be such a great idea" button where you retire? (And bonus karma points for players that just hit that before building any mines? ;-) )
Thoughts? Better suggestions most welcome :-)
@CoffeeOnimal p.s. yes the costs were in my (outtatime) in-game tutorial! Glad to hear votes that they should definitely be included in the final product :-)
Yeah, so it's an Angry Birds remake but really nicely done! Love the fact (intentional?) that the protagonist looks like "Gangnam Style" dude!
Ditto on what most said. Good for you for entering. Wow! that you got so much done :-)
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Simply, Wow! This was so good I played 3 rounds :-)
Throw in a turbo boost (i.e. tweak the driving experience slightly) and reduce (but not eliminate) the throw latency (perhaps a little anim where the demon readies the next one like a javelin causing a delay?) and it'd be better. Some challenges, etc, building music with each convert, some cop-priests trying to exorcise you... this could go on and on :-)
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
"But your leg's off!" >_<
Like others, I loved it, including the pixel art (how did you do it?). Would have been nice to be able to move diagonally but generally super-cute :-)
I think the Android/Ouya/etc ports will do well -- good luck!
Android link seems to go to Deviant Art site so couldn't play? Sorry. Good idea to use app-inventor though :-)
Um, very Gish-like but nicely done in HTML5. Controls are a bit finickity but with some tuning, this is good. Not certain how it fits with the theme though?
Man, I'm a sucker for tower defence games and doing one of these in Java in 48 hours? Nice :-)
Wasn't entirely sure what the "Evil Edna" character did but I enjoyed enough to finish it for more App developer rip-take :-D
Nice. A little random but I know one friend who's addicted to space games like this. Just throw in some trading and you're on to a winner :-)
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Awesome! Love the colour scheme - really clever way to expedite art ;-) Agree with the others about robot speed - perhaps a sprint that gets tired after 8 seconds so you need to ounce out on the prey?
Lovely having the Android version. Unity is THE way ;-) (guess what I used though I cheated with 2D ;-) )
Well, I loved the concept, aesthetic, music, mood, etc. However, the game gave me some bugs. Here's a report in case useful...
When I started the game, the intro text starts repeating after having read all the intro text. Then, when I got to the gravestone and press Z it says "Computer Dialog" then blanks the screen and does the knife dialog (which I'd have thought was later since I hadn't found the book yet). Went to the south east but, when I pressed z on any doors, it started the intro text again.
Fun + hilarious = Awesome :-)
Also, is it just me or was Opera hard to beat back in the day!!! Wow, don't know how many times it got me!
p.s. I've fixed my game since your review <nudge, nudge> :-D
Ending made me laugh :-)
It's a good advert for your Lens game -- an interesting story you have shaping-up there! Let us know when there's more.
Great fun and great humour. Was a little uncertain what the snake things were but WHO CARES! GUN 'EM DOWN! ... sorry, it got me channelling my inner 80s action hero :-D
p.s. Your Steam game http://turtle-sandbox.com/website/index_stage.html looks great fun too!
Nice art (lovely bloom -- Unity Pro?), good old-skool platformer feel in 3D, no theme use that I could divine.
That the collectables were also powerups wasn't obvious but that's good (nice when you learn as you go!). If you could come up with more twists like that, you might well have the makings of a good concept here. Tempted to go further (but journal entries lacking)?
Beautiful. Almost meditative :-)
(FROM THE AUTHOR)
Argh!!! I'm suffering from "WHHHHHY did I leave the Web build to the last minute!?"
There seems to be a known bug in Unity's Protobuf which I'm using to load the level data! (hence you get an empty world)
I've just spent 3 hours trying to fix it (from 2am to 5am). I've gotta be up in 3 hours so I'll upload some native builds and ask people's patience with getting the Web version working.
Really sorry and thankyousooooomuch for trying my gamelet!
Simple but nice :-)
Could probably throw in different things as the game progresses: 'currents', big fish, rocks, etc.
But that'd slow down #1GAM per *week* !? Wow! Go for it!
Crashed on Windows 7 x64 extracted into /tmp/LudumDare29/. Was proper LD zip. "Problem signature" sent via e-mail. Happy to review properly
Wonderful! I've always intended to do a "small viewpoint" game (insect/cat/something) and this is a great take on this.
If I may throw some of my ideas out there:
- Add some pheromone visuals in (since I believe that's how ants route their previous trails).
- Missions would involve trail-blazing for your colony (hence time-pressure of the rest following your trail), perhaps you can turn it off/on and/or erase it so consequent ants route differently?
- Oh and when you die, you become the next ant following who's just been promoted!
- Ant lifespan might be affected by nectar/water refills and/or environmental factors (drying out in direct sun ... yeah, and a little boy with magnifying glass!)
- Some carrying mechanics (since they can lift lots)? Also might get to order the 'line' to ferry things about by laying certain type of trail!
- Physics-based world could allow creative solutions to problems.
- Also perhaps include flying ants in later levels?
In fact this is great! Man, so many ideas for this one! Ping me @Arakade if you fancy chatting! (and are you re-joining the Ouya dev hangouts?)
p.s. damnit, why aren't I developing *this* game?! Fancy a collaborator?
Great use of theme (my first thought was something psychological but didn't come up with anything as good as this!)
I must be getting old because I found it too hard! Those lightbulb ghosts seem to drop on my head every time I start digging! Got 1 memory, clicked "not related" then got 'bulbed again! 8 play-throughs and I'd had enough. Still since that's probably me, I still think it's good work :-)
Excellent -- my highest rated game so far. Shame the ending seems a touch borked (I, too, walked off screen in Ego|Anger screen without using Shield). Expected?
Sure some choice/other depth would be nice (as +thrishart said) but with 48 hours, you've stayed beautifully on target and made something that works. Good for you! (tangents are so tempting ;-) )
Needed a few play-throughs to see what you were saying with this game. Very clever message vector and great use of the theme. My first idea for the theme was something psychological, too... but I didn't contrive a sufficient 'game' to pursue (since I wanted something procedural).
That said, it's kind'a small -- seemed like it could have had a lot more? What's next? (tempted to develop further?)
Basically a fun game (had me retrying levels = always good). A few things made it annoying so gave up.
- Nice clear aesthetic (though baking the lightmap is free in Unity and would have removed those jaggy edge shadows in the world geometry).
- Controls need tweaking for my taste -- the air-control thing deviated from existing expectations so took a few attempts to get up first jumps.
- Couldn't get "sensitivity" to increase (- decreased but none of shift-+, +, KP-+ increased) so was stuck with track pad needing repeated swiping just to move view 90 degrees!
- I was never good at Quake's rocket jump but I stuck with trying yours. Good implementation. That said, I didn't feel I was learning 'the details' of it so ended up mostly pointing myself backwards and trying again and again. Mostly worked but got stuck trying to cross the chasm. Probably just my lack of da skillz ;-)
Can't add much to comments above about how amazing this production was!
Sadly, I will say it desperately needs a "turn down the graphics" option -- basically un-playable on my (admittedly rather antiquated) laptop -- that may also be why I couldn't seem to hit anything (lagging hit detection?) (but only knocked off 1 fun star for this). Will retry on a more beefy Linux machine later if time.
Loved the "behind the scenes" video! Next: watch all your vids, learn all your tricks and see you next time!
Hmm... Web game starts but "click to play" doesn't do anything. Will try non-Web / Linux tomorrow. Was really looking forward to this one!
Love the aesthetic and concept sounds great but, like others, link dead. DNS says noirgame.com is unknown. Shame!
Hey @Buttsteam
Thanks for trying. I suspect it was still uploading then! Dropboxing 56m! Hope you'll give it another try anon (Azuroj looks cool - will try when I'm on desktop!).
Thanks!
Definitely the best entry I've played so far. Superb!
Spoilers:
Level 15!? Was that supposed to be solved by reflecting off the back of the mirror?
P.s. I finished it but a couple of puzzles one didn't need all the pieces and the "please don't kill anyone" could be solved without killing them or destroying the planet. Perhaps by design, perhaps by accident?
Yep, fun but gets a little repetitive with the humour becoming the only motivating factor. Bravo for braving doing it in HTML5 though! Gleep! Oh, also a double encore for the marvellous humour and references :-)
Interesting, quite enjoyed this and liked the concept. This was largely based on the explanation above. That said, I avoided plants and animals and seem to get bumped to the 2'nd world shortly after starting. I then proceeded to find 4 artifacts, started looking for more and got caught by something that must have come out of the floor/wall? There was no way to tell it would happen or was about to happen such that I could avoid. Sadly that discouraged me from playing again because it becomes a game of chance rather than skill -- this was after I'd spent quite a while avoiding and drawing away monsters. Perhaps a sound indicating an imminent monster attack such that one can get scared and run for it?
Regardless, a nice idea and, with more time (including for graphics boost to draw a larger crowd), this could be something?
Oh, I also think you could stick in mouse acceleration option for laptoppers -- touchpad turning became "swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe ok that's 90 degree turn, pant, swipe, swipe..." (you get the idea).
@Dans17 Mouse lock seems to be there if one clicks on the webplayer.
Thanks. (p.s. I hope I don't dream of giant red ants emerging from the ground tonight or I'm gonna come find you with some stern words! :-P )
Good fun ... although would say started to get a little samey after a while (I'll continue playing tomorrow though -- it's gotten too late for now). It felt like a 3D platformer with some "Spot The Difference" thrown in (find the green thing). I rather wanted options and consequences involved. ... but perhaps they're there and I just haven't played far enough yet?
What did the gardens represent? Felt like there could have been many things that one could move and removing them from the other world might damage the world and that could be represented by the health of the gardens?
Anyway, good stuff -- thanks!
Wanted to try but got error (below). Perhaps my graphics card is not able to provide something your game needs?
65543: WGL: OpenGL profile requested but WGL_ARB_create_context_profile is unavailable
panic: Can't create window.
goroutine 1 [running]:
runtime.panic(0x5ac4e0, 0xc0840033a0)
C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/2/makerelease250988475/go/src/pkg/runtime/panic.c:266 +0xc8
main.main()
c:/Users/stepharne/workspace/ld30/src/main.go:129 +0x84
goroutine 3 [syscall]:
runtime.goexit()
C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/2/makerelease250988475/go/src/pkg/runtime/proc.c:1394
Fun but started getting a little tedious after I had something like 8 dudes. A little planning made this too easy. Perhaps some more levels, perhaps with some paths that only allow certain paths to work at certain times, thereby gating things down a bit? (Yeah, I know 72 hours, right!)
You could probably take it further though.
Very much enjoyed this memory game. Like others, I'd say it was a little easy but I suspect the AI got stuck -- I'm pretty sure it was say in the furthest corner going backwards and forwards red-red on a couple of rounds.
Add some more levels and I could totally see this being a phone/tablet game for commuters (nice money potential).
Thanks.
Good fun. I actually liked the momentum-based platforming.
Like others, I found Q poorly placed. I must admit I got disheartened and gave up on the level that introduced save-point. Kept failing the bit below the save-point (jumped onto a platform with blue spikes then down past a red-spike onto a red platform). Perhaps 23:30 is too late for platforming but I felt moving the save-point down there would have been the more obvious frustration point. ?
But all in all, fun stuff. A little tuning and I'd come back for a retry. Thanks!
p.s. My game finished uploading if you fancied re-evaluating? :-)
Loved the concept. Found it appropriately disturbing (IYKIWM) -- didn't want to continue but felt I should.
This is the sort of game that needs making and having people play. A good example of what games can be and do -- an insight into others' [internal] worlds. A refreshing change from the the usual shootey-shootey + zombie-zombie treadmill. Keep it up!
That said, I fear I may have missed something since I got into a rut (which might have been the point). School, work, couldn't talk to David (assume correct -- just says worried he'd laugh), asked Jim about poem (but wasn't aware what the poem was that I was asking about?!) who said check bookshop in Mall but no option for bookshop(?!). Ran out of progressing options (other than simply wake, sleep repeat with no progress.) Again, might be intention or might be I missed something/deviated from correct path (?)
Anyway, graded on basis that it played-through :-) Thanks!
Great fun, guys. Just sad I can't vote you up due to not entering.
Lovely art. Colour me confused -- how do you open the encyclopedia? I must have skipped the instructions and couldn't figure out after that. Great level design too! Cozy vibes achieved!