Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Aran Ink
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | 👥 | Commuter | jam | 583 | 3.64 | 3.63 | 3.39 | 3.64 | 3.96 | 3.88 | 3.11 | 3.31 |
Always happy to see a cute cat in a box!
I think more discrete (grid-based) movement and a "step" counter would help a lot in helping to communicate that you're trying to time up your movements from previous steps. It also seems like up/down movement is significantly slower than left/right, which felt a little weird. :)
Lovely art and music! I like the twist on the Binding of Isaac gameplay model, where you're adding your own chambers to the map as you go. I also like the idea of taking more dangerous rooms to increase how quickly you gain blood.
Clearer enemy responses on being hit to indicate when you've done damage to them would be really helpful -- I frequently couldn't tell whether I was doing damage, or how much, and I had a very hard time predicting how many times I'd have to hit enemies to kill them. The bullets from the plant enemies felt more annoying than dangerous -- being able to destroy them by shooting them with your own bullets would have made those fights feel less tedious and more engaging.
Cool concept! I think the first level could have been a little more helpful in explaining the mechanic. I think you also need to solve the problem of having to wait a long time for your clones to get into position, for longer chains of actions that need loops to solve.
Cool idea! I was a little worried it would be a classic roguelike at the start, but I like the idea that each level is its own little puzzle. The sound effects started off cool, but ended up being pretty harsh after hearing them a bunch of times, and an in-game mixer to reduce the volume of SFX would have been nice.
I also found myself getting stuck on terrain quite a bit, which made the more action-packed dodging sections more frustrating than challenging.
Hard to tell whether I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't actually figure out how to attack effectively. Without sound effects and the animation resetting, it wasn't clear how I was supposed to be interacting with enemies.
A neat idea! I like the tightness of the game's premise. I read the instructions, but they didn't make much sense until I actually played it, and realized the biggest threat was my own bullets coming back to hurt me.
I think maybe the concept would have worked better with a few smaller levels which you have to loop through some number of times, with each loop more crowded than the last. That would force you to plan your moves in advance, instead of just focusing on dodging bullets.
Love the cute diorama design of the different stages. Wasn't clear how to get back to the beginning after reaching the end -- a "back" arrow to reverse a previous decision and try something else would have been nice.
The simple piano hits on the different rooms were also a lovely touch!:)
Very cute! I had some trouble figuring out what the goal was for each level, but snagging bunnies and wolves was fun on its own. :)
Loving the music and atmosphere! The controls felt pretty floaty to me, and I found it a little frustrating to move around, especially inside the maze.
A shorter "loop" time might help with encouraging people to play through multiple times to find everything, along with a map of some kind to help remember where things were in previous attempts.
What did I just experience? I'm confused, and upset, and weirdly satisfied. 9/10.
With a simple game like this, I think some visual and audio feedback would have done a lot to keep the player engaged. Some sound effects on bounces, maybe some size changes on the ball hitting the paddle, that kind of thing.
Love the visual style and the music, but a bunch of console errors kept me from getting anywhere.
Given that the game is on a 60-second timer, matching the length of the background music to that 60 second loop would have done a lot to ratchet up the intensity as time ticks down. The song getting faster and more intense the closer you get to running out of time would have really helped sell the "just a few seconds left!" feeling, and would have avoided the strange way the music currently loops. :)
I like the concept, but after a few attempts I just couldn't reliably figure out where to go! I think maybe making important stuff more visually distinct from the background would have made it easier to tell what's interactable and what isn't. Blocking off parts of the office to keep it from being too big and overwhelming at the start might also help.
Might want to update your game description to add the itch.io link, since the description makes it sound like everyone will have to build it themselves. I almost missed it before checking the comments.