Goodbye, world! by chromableedstudios 2017-08-02T22:41:01Z
Kind of fun! it reminds me of that old school dos game "Scorched Earth"
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Arden
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥉 | 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Rogue Pawn | jam | 4.45 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Advise the King | jam | 21 | 4.34 | 4.19 | 4.36 | 3.72 | 4.17 | 4.10 | 2.71 | 3.63 | |
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Rogue Pawn | jam | 3 | 4.45 | 4.32 | 4.39 | 4.57 | 4.67 | 4.28 | 3.61 | 4.26 | |
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | RuneLight | jam | 46 | 4.08 | 3.89 | 3.82 | 3.10 | 4.20 | 3.84 | 2.33 | 3.82 | |
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | Roboy Awakening | jam | 40 | 4.13 | 3.89 | 3.46 | 4.42 | 4.28 | 3.96 | 4.00 |
Kind of fun! it reminds me of that old school dos game "Scorched Earth"
Annotation 2020-04-24 171915.jpg
Pretty fun little game! I liked the different interactions you came up with between water and lightning. One additional use for lightning would have been really cool too, since water has more uses. But overall, I think it's really well thought out and looks and plays great!
Clearly a great entry. hahaha I saw people talking about this concept in the discord. I'm glad such a great iteration of the idea was made. It's almost perfect.
Pretty fun game and game idea! I like the concept of a TD war / tug of war game. Not sure I've seen anything quite like that before.
I didn't find it difficult to stay alive, but I couldn't figure out a way to actually win. Even after saving up 40 mana to send a full wave of bears and elephants, they still all died before getting to the enemy base. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'm impressed by the amount of cards you were able to put in, and I agree that the pathfinding, if built from the ground up, is impressive for a weekend!
Also, it's funny that we both decided to go with cards as the way to interact with our game.
Thanks!
Love the art! Furthest I got was roughly round 6. It gets so tough!
Is there an "end state"?
I like the base concept! It reminds me of a mix between a brick breaker game and an old minigame for Mario Paint for SNES where you had to swat flies.
Some things I liked: - random level generation was a nice touch (although perhaps uneeded for a jam game) - the fast-paced action - I honestly kind of liked the art and vibe. probably because it reminded me of the Mario Paint minigame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAQXJbfihxo
Here's some suggestions I think would improve this game: - all locusts hit by the ball should die, instead of just one. If it felt overpowered, it could have been improved by (a) having the ball bounce off locusts or (b) just spawning more locusts. - an arrow should show how you're aiming the paddle? net? Also, I kept wanting to pull back and release like it was a slingshot, so flipping the controls may be a natrual choice. - catching the ball is difficult. Perhaps that was intentional, but maybe slowing the ball down after the first bounce would be nice. - If there was time, having something to break up the action, like a rounds system that gets progressively harder, would feel nice.
Nice job!
I didn't get far enough to see any health packs; scored somewhere in the 650 range. I'm glad to see there were things other than two sizes of asteroids. Pretty simple idea. The randomness and ranged speed of asteroids make it quite challenging. I kept wanting a gun or something to defend the planet with.
I'm amazed. This is one of my favorite entries so far. It's such a clever concept and execution. What a diamond in the rough.
You're really on to something with this concept!
Thank you all for the amazing feedback so far!
@blackmoodgames Thanks for posting a video! That was great to be able to watch and hear your thoughts in "real time"
@fabula-rasa Thanks for the feedback! I suppose you're right that it could be pretty small depending on your monitor size/resolution, etc. Good to know! Thanks.
@david-bohan That's great to hear! I'm personally not much of a chess player, so I'm glad I was able to "do it justice." Thanks for the feedback on the level flow.
@cobear25 I do intend to upload a mac version. I'd have done it by now, but I'm having some technical account issues and am waiting to hear back from the staff behind GameMaker. If I'm able to get it taken care of, I'll let you know when the mac version is up.
@willoxs A line -1 crash? lol. WEIRD. Do you have an unusual screen setup?
@willoxs, ah okay, good to know! Thanks!
@treska, I haven't heard of Onitama! I'll have to check it out!
@jacksendary I found the knight bug that got you killed. It was a pretty rare circumstance where a knight would jump right over you and be counted as an attack. oops. The fixed version is up now, so if you want to give the game another shot later on, I definitely recommend downloading again!
Thanks!
@terry Thanks for the in-depth feedback!
I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. Playing with both energy limitations and being able to plan out further than one turn at a time would be a natural addition. If I had time, the next card I was thinking of was: "**Castle** -- *Draw one card. Place on card on top of your draw pile."* That alone I think would change the game quite a bit.
My original "mental image" of AtK actually didn't even take place on a standard chess board -- that was just my starting point, and all I could manage to get to after obsessing over card interactions and piece pathfinding for the first two days. 😅 Adding holes to the board was my compromise. Haha. I like the idea of unique tiles that provide passive effects if you're on them!
I'm not sure what my further development plans are quite yet, since LD was more just a break from a bigger project. But feel free to follow my itch page or twitter if you'd like to keep up!
Thanks so much @walkalope! It was really fun watching you experience it! If you get the chance to finish it, I'd love any more specific ideas of what changes or additions you might like to see!
@empty-set That's all really great feedback. Thank you for the suggestions and insight! I honestly hadn't thought about cards through a synergy perspective during the jam, and was just trying to get the basics thrown in. I could tell "something was missing" that was too far down my checklist to get to, but the synergy lense and provided examples are really helpful. Thank you!
@joh Ah, so that cursor bug is still in there somewhere. I found it right before submission, and thought I squashed it, but I couldn't figure out how to re-produce it. SO WEIRD. Thanks for your feedback! And yeah, I'd love to chat about GM implementation. Feel free to find me on Discord or Twitter and we can get linked up. Info is in my bio.
@tobiasw Thanks for your thoughts! It's always helpful to get "stream-of-consciousness" feedback from new players! I appreciate your feedback! I'll take it into consideration for any potential future updates!
Hi all!
If you happen to see this somehow, ***a year and a half later***, I'm pleased to say I've taken a few weeks to take a bunch of the constructive feedback people had to offer and expanded the game.
I've doubled the amount of cards, added a new mode, and a few other surprises.
Please check it out and share your thoughts here or [on the itch.io page](https://lionarc.itch.io/advise-the-king/devlog/310426/version-110-out-now)! Thanks!
There's something charming about this simple TD game. I had a good time with it! I'll say though, it's a tough game! I tried it about 4 times and couldn't get past the second boss on my best run. I liked the little details, like pointing out where the next wave would come from. It definitely made it feel more playable.
I would have liked upgraded towers to feel more potent, but I understand how hard it is to playtest and balance much during a jam. Fun entry! well done!
As others are saying, the art and music are great. I especially enjoyed the way things bloom around your character. Really nice touch.
I thought the story was a little wordy for my taste, and the collisions seemed a bit crude in general. I enjoyed the level design, and thought climbing the tree at the end was really cool. Glad I made it to the end. Nicely done!
Fun little game! I found it challenging to know if an "enemy" was on screen without constantly running around. some sort of indicator might be nice, especially with all the views/subs/cash "noise." Perhaps all that "noise" could be smaller, too?
I also found the challenge a little bit low. (Maybe it picks up more later)
Around the time i got to about 2.7m subscribers, the game suddenly dropped frames quite harshly. If the game was paused, framerate picked back up again. That was where I quit. (I saw the "windows version preferred" note after I played it in web)
Thanks!
Pretty interesting as a jam entry. Theme and coloring is fun. If you want to improve the game (as I think I saw you asking for in the discord), here are some things I thought could use improvement:
- The levels could use some updating. A lot of the same solutions were used multiple times without much added mechanics, which made level progression get boring quickly, and it felt like the most complex levels had maybe a two-step solution tops. Perhaps part of it is because you're confined to such a small space. Maybe slightly larger levels would help. - On that note, "tunnels" that you can't carry the egg through is an interesting concept, but far too many of the levels are based off of it. - More scenarios that require Candy and the egg feel like different entities that have their own abilities would be nice. Since the egg seems pretty rugged, enemies that you throw the egg at might be a nice add (admittedly, I didn't beat the game, so I suppose it's possible they showed up eventually). - "calling the egg" felt clunky and in most cases, like it was too difficult to get it to come to me. Perhaps just making Candy auto-pickup the egg when it gets close enough would help. - The jump arc feels very sluggish. I understand that it's probably to prevent Candy from jumping over some gaps, but it feels a bit like the rug is pulled from under you when you lose so much momentum during jumps. - The music and the call sound effect clashes pretty badly.
I hope that helps! Thanks for sharing!
That ending... 😭 Really great entry! One of my favorites yet!
Such a clever idea. I really liked it, and how each dialogue "solution" was different 😂. I also liked how you just made a bunch of features unavailable until the system updated. It took me a few tries to understand the CPU temp killing the computer.
A few suggested improvements: - Have a "restarting" animation that plays out when you lose, show "update failed", then restart the game, rather than exiting. (or something similar) - Add a "shutting down" victory animation like the "restarting" one. - Hardware spy CPU temp should be a bar or have a warning icon or some kind of indicator for what "too hot" is.
I really enjoyed the art. Hand-drawn art is a great way to utilize a skill you have, and the way you used it was a clever way of only needing 10 or so drawings.
Gameplay is decent. Dragged on a little bit without much ramped up challenge, but I enjoyed it for what it was!
All I gotta say is... I feel sick after that interaction with the mayor.
I really enjoyed the art style. The enemies are kind of creepy looking! The gameplay is really simple, short, and easy. But it IS a jam game, after all.
Good work!
Pretty interesting! I like the weird/creepy style.
I was able to get 2/3 endings. I'm not sure if there's a "true ending" that has to do with going shopping a certain number of times?
Fun, strange entry!
Graphics are pleasing. The game is much shorter than I expected. I was thinking the whole game was the first level that explains a few mechanics, then there'd be at least one more level. But that's game jam games!
I really liked this entry! (quite relatable, too!) It reminded me a little of what the sims for gameboy might be like. haha. I had fun figuring out all the different things you could do, and would have been happy playing for a few more "days." So you could have made the lockdown longer!
Good entry!
This is a pretty interesting game. Overall, it was fairly confusing, but I had fun experimenting with the different "crafting" elements -- although it took me a while to figure out how it worked.
I figured out the fleshbone and soulflesh combos. I was hoping for a third combo, but couldn't figure one out. Also, from what I could tell, soulflesh didn't do anything.
I also don't understand what gave me further range from the heart as time went on.
Really interesting gameplay!
That was a great little game! I love the art style, although the color tone makes it a little hard to see everything.
Seems well thought out, and I like how much content you were able to get in there in a weekend. Nice job!
Pretty fun idea! The concept of Noah's arc is a clever choice for the theme. Fun entry!
Really cool entry. I could really see this becoming something. Like a "puzzle mode" that removes the timer and forces you to solve it in as few moves as possible. The level generator might already know the most efficient solution?
Then something to up the difficulty over time, rather than just the speed of the timer. like switches to open passages, etc.
Great job! I hope you develop it out a bit more!
fish (3).jpg
I'm not sure if puzzle games your your "jam" (tee-hee), but I really enjoyed this entry. I played for a little while. I'm guessing there's no "end state"?
It could use a number of improvements, like sound, a few more "events" or something that drives gameplay forward, but I like the fresh take on the traditional "match 3" games.
Pretty fun entry! At first, I almost didn't play it simply because I didn't feel like reading, but I buckled down and went for it. The story overall is decent, there are a few typos here and there.
Overall, it feels mostly like a maze in novel form. Might have been nice with some puzzles or some decisions that weren't random guesses on what was the best option. I did find the hint at the lonely tree, which was a nice touch. Food rations didn't seem to ever come into play for me, and instead I died (or finished) long before running out of food each time. I suppose running out of food is more just one of the endings rather than a resource to manage.
Pretty decent little action game! It reminds me a little of the visual style of Children of Morta (although obviously not nearly as fully developed)
I'm not sure what the "it" you're keeping alive is... your sword's need for blood?
I liked the boss and the effects of his attacks. Overall, the graphics were my favorite piece.
One small tweak -- you could have put the controls for the attack and dash on the HUD somewhere to make it a little easier to figure out. "o" and "p" are kind of unique choices.
Nice entry!
(also, the web version worked fine for me!)
The art & general vibe is nice!
It looks like other people have said it -- but a few things to make this gameplay feel nicer would be enemies telegraphing attacks somehow, you & enemies flashing when getting hit, and maybe sliding collisions so you don't get stuck on walls when moving diagonally (although if you've never done it before, that can take some time to program, so I can understand it not being in a jam game).
This was a pretty ambitious game idea for a jam, and my guess is you hoped for much more content than made it in. That's the game-jam way! haha.
Really great story telling! It got a little slow as it went on, but overall, I loved the experience & the sound.
This is a great entry. It's a unique and innovative idea, and it's executed quite well. The controls were the most challenging. I know that's partially the whole concept, but remembering what keys do what wasn't super intuitive. I might have preferred the option to just play entirely with the mouse. But overall, I thought this was a great game. Well done! I'd be interested in a more finalized version!
Cute little game! I didn't really fully understand how energy worked. (my friend didn't do anything on the first day, and somehow he ran out of energy before me?)
I like the concept. The completion screens for each level and the Title/level selection design were great. The fourth level was brutal. I never could beat it.
I agree with @peculiarcarrot and @larx about the menu stuff. I'd suggest keeping one control scheme throughout (arrows and spacebar for menu navigation instead of mouse)
Fun, and difficult game. I liked the visuals and "feel". (I also appreciated gamepad support)
Some thoughts (both positive and constructive): * I liked the feel of running out of fuel and having to resort to classic platforming. Doing that under stress of a timer was also fun. (sometimes) * I didn't realize there was a death timer the first few times I played. Amplifying timer audio/visuals when it's low might help. * I liked the level design, and that the player has (up to) three different routes to choose from. There were definitely moments where I would approach something and say "I don't want to go that way" and turn to fall to the lower level, haha * The fact that it chooses rooms at random made it hard to tell how I was progressing. I never did figure out what triggers the store. Or what the big back arrow meant. Are there checkpoints? Or do you start all over when you die? Conveying information like that to the player somehow might help. Even if it's just a progress bar/map at the bottom showing how many "rooms in" you are. (But the arrow signs definitely helped me understand the segments and when you get more time.) * The game is definitely "unfair" (read: intentionally difficult), but memorizing how to best get through certain segments (with the most gold possible!) was really fun. * The random rooms and confusing progress markers made memorizing segments challenging. Dangling the carrot of progress in front of me (e.g. progress bar map) would have had me playing longer. * I made it to the store a few times, but couldn't get much further than that. Which was sad, because the levels after the store were new interesting.
Thanks!
This is a good start into learning how to program! Keep learning and experimenting and you'll only get better!
Upbeat and colorful, I liked the music! gameplay was a bit strange perhaps more onscreen prompts would have helped me understand what's going on?
@togimaro oops! We didn't think of that bug! We'll be sure to fix it. :slight_smile:
Thanks for your feedback!
Thanks for your support everyone! We're definitely pleased to be 40th overall!
@eremiell, thanks for the request. We don't currently have the capacity to port the game to Linux or HTML5, but we'll keep that request in mind!
Fun game! I didn't have any audio through the whole game, which seems to be a bug. but the game overall is fun! It feels like I keep getting zerg rushed! haha
I got a "missing MSVCP120D.dll" error which crashed the game. Maybe I need to download visual studio?
This is a good start! you should keep working on it!
I really liked the innovation, music, and overall feel of this game. Really clever take on high verses low energy. It's uncommon for "low energy" to ever be a good thing. Smart thinking!
I agree with the end of the level part, but overall I really like this entry!
This entry has some cool qualities, but I'm afraid most players will miss it because of a lack of visual feedback. My guess is that a lot the available of time was put into the structure of upgrades and the actual gameplay suffered as a result.
I like the concept and want this one to be more "filled out" so that it can be more fun to play!
Fun game! I like the recharge mechanic.
I really liked the mechanics of this game. A mage firing fireballs, with multiple different spells to cast... Super fun idea, and a fun take on the theme. Running out of (mana) power!
Unfortunately, the pacing was way too slow for me. Destroying spawners is quite easy, and if you get all of them, there's nothing to do for a while. I never really had enough of a challenge to use any of my spells. Which is unfortunate, because they were fun to use! I got to level 10 before I got bored and died on purpose.
As a side note, that ground texture really messed with my eyes... :dizzy_face:
Fun little game. I tried the mage, and felt like he was super powerful in later levels, since his attack hits everything inside the circle. Got to level 22 before I died. I think there might be a memory leak in the game, because when I died, my computer completely froze. (It's a newer computer, nothing else was running, and it hasn't frozen before)
I like the feel of the game! A little slow paced, and I accidentally found the "arrow-keys-to-change-my-energy-level" cheat, but I like the visuals.
I like the visuals on this one. I couldn't figure out how to win, but I still had fun for a few minutes!
Terrific entry... This is the best I've played so far. Solid mechanics, cute art & sound design, difficult but fair challenge. . . and and ending that leaves the player feeling something. . .
I think the only thing that could be tightened up at all are the controls. In my opinion: * Jumps should only trigger when the jump key is pressed, not if being held. * Switches can be finicky if carrying rabbits. Perhaps make them auto trigger when touching them. It adds interesting complexity or strategy in some levels, but feels more like an flaw with UX than intentional game design.
Again, great entry. This will probably be in the top in at least a few categories.
fun and simple entry!
really smart entry. Well done
great compo entry! The game mechanics (particularly that you could fire multiple directions at once) were interesting, but definitely not bad!
I like the basic idea here!
I tried twice, got to wave 11 the second time. It seems like the better strat is to only pick up stuff that doesn't apply negative effects, even if that means not having more health or better stats!
Fairly fun game. I enjoyed the audio. The art was cute (although there wasn't as much as I'd expect for having 3 artists!) and the mood was decent.
I like the idea of cursed armor and how it fits the theme. That's definitely the main mechanic of this entry. Some cc on it: * I would have liked to see more interesting "curses" in cursed gear, or perhaps some funnier ones. (See Rogue Legacy for some pretty innovative examples), but I can see how what you chose fits the theme well!
* At one point, I picked up an inverse Y helmet, and I expected that replacing it with a non-inverse Y helmet would remove the effect, but didn't. The way the armor applies "curses" didn't behave how I expected. I'm wondering if that's a bug or not?
* The armor stats is a bit confusing read. Something simple like red text for curses, green for boosts, ect, might help the user experience.
* My only other suggestion is it would have been nice to see the armor you pick up get equipped since the character is only ... 2 images? Perhaps that would have been your next goal if there was more time.
Thanks!
*whew* that boss was challenging!
I beat the game. I guess I missed the theme, I didn't find what you were talking about. I also died several times in the first few levels because I ran off a ledge right as "navi" started talking, which prevented me from jumping. I also might have missed some critical dialogue because of it.
As others have said, the controls felt challenging, but not exactly master-able. Well polished and interesting.
WOW, this is a challenging title!
I did manage to beat it after about a billion attempts. haha. :laughing:
Graphics and audio were great. The hook is challenging to master, but I started getting used to it near the end. Not much cc on this one. Great entry!
This entry reminds me of an old DOS game :smile:
I liked how the wizards powers change with the more crystals you collect. Until I ran into one of my own "bubbles"... and died... that was a sad day. haha.
Cute and fairly fun.
Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback!
Some of the biggest areas that need tweaking that I've noticed (with mentions to people who mentioned something similar in the comments):
* Learning how to create and cast spells is confusing for most players. People tend to figure it out, but only after running around confusedly for a while. A longer introduction path before the level opens up and tweaks to the UI would probably help that. * UI placement in the spell menu isn't as obvious as I had hoped. Tweaking that and adding hotkeys (some exist, but I didn't add in 1-4 like I planned), and making queued spells more obvious would likely help. I do like that casting spells takes time and requires focus, but it should probably feel more like an action combo than it does. Rehashing the UI wouldn't hurt! (@huvaakoodia, @conk) * When the road ends at the circle near the end of the level, most don't realize there's more to the level at first. Dirt paths or some other visual cue would probably solve that * The red/orange shield spell is expensive and ultimately not worth its cost. It also doesn't continue the intended concept of needing to work your way up the "chain" of baddies, since you don't need the spell to kill the yellow spirits. All spells and the spell system itself could use tweaking. I created the spell shield because I didn't just want another more powerful attack for the yellow baddies, but the concept needs tweaking.(@piscythe) * Ghost re-spawns of some sort would probably be useful. Perhaps a portal that opens up occasionally a few spirits pour out of, adding pressure to cast the moon spell before the spirits are too overwhelming... (@logicon211) * I ran out of time needed to make the corruption meter have more meaning. I was hoping to have time to have an "intermediate" (about 50%) state where the character seemed more insane, instead of only adding darkness near the end of the meter. With the corruption meter being as subtle as it is, it's easy to lose the "More is Worse" theme in this entry. (@huvaakoodia, @willisika)
* I'm fairly happy with the rune system. Expanding it to do more, and adding more complex spells would be fun. If this were a longer game, then I'd need to reconsider the cost and/or worth of spells. One rune per baddie is quite expensive for a spell that lasts about 4 seconds. * I love the "haunting" concept. That wasn't part of the original design, and was an idea I kind of "fell into" when programming enemy AI. It'd be great to give spirits abilities based on whatever object they're haunting. Perhaps trash cans can hop around, and trees can spit out fruit, etc. * Designing new areas that fit the general feel of this game would be quite a bit of fun. I'd enjoy the process of adding graveyards, haunted forests, towns with more thought (instead of 4 basic houses), and of course, many more spirits and spells, and even bosses. * I think this world also begs for more storyline and lore to be discovered. * I'm not sure I'll put effort into continued development on this game, but I think the systems are interesting enough to give a lot of promise beyond a 10 minute experience. Knowing that alone is pretty rewarding!
Thanks again for playing and commenting!
really fun entry!
I especially liked learning I could stomp on the guard's heads. Haha. Might be slightly more fun with a progression of levels and a dollar amount requirement?
Very interesting entry! Quite innovative. I ended up beating it, although I didn't feel I understood my objective at any point in the game.
The graphical fidelity you managed to create in such a short time was quite impressive, but the gameplay mechanics seemed to be missing something.
I also don't know if it was intentional to make depth confusing, but it sure was! Even with changing the camera angle, there were several times I couldn't tell what height the surface I was trying to get to was at. Weather or not it was the intention, it "felt" like a design flaw from my perspective.
I also don't know what the "noise" was about, other than cool looking.
Great entry!
Humorous idea. I loved the concept of being asked to ACTUALLY sign an autograph before continuing. Controls were rough, and I got stuck between fans on the third? level.
This was a pretty fun game for how simple it was. The movement mechanics were very fluid and visually appealing. Probably the biggest reason I played it for as long as I did!
I think it had the right amount of forgiveness before giving you the loss, considering some levels are almost impossible. :laughing:
I didn't feel the size of the levels lead well to the theme. I almost didn't catch that it was happening.
This is a good example that simple graphics can work, if polished well!
I spent the majority of my time on this entry trying to figure out how it worked :confounded:
As the player, I expected different items to yield different effects to your weapon, rather than upgrade tiers based on weight. That probably took me the longest to understand.
I think it's a decent concept. It seems like the main goal for the player is to strategize what to keep and what to drop. Which is a good tension to live in.
Some cc: * as someone mentioned above, hitboxes for the robots are too large. * Some sort of effect (graphic and audio) for bullets hitting robots might help quite a bit with feel. * The pacing of the game was too fast for me. with all the chaos on screen and all the different things introduced right away, I spent most of my time trying to understand all the information presented to me, then would die because I was trying to take it in rather than fight. A slower progression of info would help this game out quite a bit, I think.
Regardless of ways this game could be improved, I think it's pretty impressive for only 8 hours of work!
fun concept. Felt really polished for the first few levels. It eventually got hard enough that I lost interest (the level with two cookies and a mushroom) Solid entry though!
I feel like it's usually unlikely that people can make a jam game that has me playing for more than about 10 minutes. Sheer curiosity and seeing the growth of my village managed to make that true for me on this one!
I liked the music and laid-back pacing. Fairly fun!
Some cc: * I didn't feel like I ran into any kind of tension or challenge in this game. Even with a long list of Gods, I had no trouble managing resources. I suppose that's what your note about disasters was about. * I also had trouble finding the theme of the game in here. I think the intention is that the more gods you're appealing to, the more difficult it is to keep them all happy? This entry would have worked just as well with only small houses and farms, fewer resources, or whatever else you could have cut from development time to get the main tension of the game in. That would be my biggest suggestion.
Thanks
I like the concept of this game. If it had more levels I would have kept playing! I'd love to see this sort of game with 50+ levels of varying length and added elements (more potions!) over time. It's casual fun! The tutorial level was humorous.
It worked fine for the jam, but if you keep developing this, I'd suggest tweaking blue potions so they don't blow up cracked walls, and put careful thought into level design. Some examples: * There are several areas where there are skeletons trapped behind cracked walls that you have no reason to blow up. You gave out potions liberally enough that it was an unnecessary risk. * There are no (in my memory) walls that you have to "accidentally" blow up in order to get through a nearby wall, other than the barrel trap. * The barrel trap discourages exploration, and teaches the player to only blow up what they absolutely have to. That design element was a great opportunity to let the player have fun with the barrel concept, so it should have been rewarded in my mind. Traps like that also might lead to making the game feel unfair.
These design elements aren't problems by themselves, they just don't collectively seem to work together, and lend toward a play style of only doing what you obviously have to. You have the workings of a great casual / puzzley dungeon explorer, so I'd recommend you lean into that! :)
The only category I couldn't rate you well on was theme. I enjoyed your theming, but I couldn't see two incompatible genres here. Well done, Keppu!
Thanks for all the great feedback and ratings, everyone! We're thrilled to get 3rd in the Jam category. I especially appreciated the suggestions for how Rogue Pawn could have been better balanced, etc. Your thoughtful replies are valued!
We're talking about making a commercial version of Rogue Pawn, so if you enjoyed it, feel free to give us a follow on itch.io to keep up with any updates!
What a great entry! I really enjoy the aesthetic and the concept of the game!
Some constructive criticism: - you can farm and get "bookoo bucks" without playing pinball at all. more interplay would have been nice. like a "sun" mechanic that is only active while a ball is out (maybe the ball could be the sun? idk) - pinball collisions are a bit sloppy, especially with the ball launcher. clean that up and the game will feel great! - you should put the controls on the page so people don't have to smash their keyboard to figure out how to play :)
I liked the story and humor. Excellent audio, overall.
Took me several tries to get to the end! It's a pretty frustrating descent. But I did love the shark's ability to destroy obstacles on it's way up. Clever!
Fun entry! I the visual aesthetic was especially nice. A "distance traveled" and "furthest distance traveled" would have been a nice edition to the end screen.
I liked the colors and the glass barrier and watching the AI opponent do his thing. This entry is visually appealing. I don't know if I like having ammo as a resource. reloading is fine, but running out of ammo feels like a chore.
I'd be interested to see where you go with this one!
What a great entry!
The mood and mechanics are really great, and make this simple game feel fun to play.
#### Details I loved: - chucking current held weapon with right click - music cutting out when dying - different weapon types respond to different parts of the beat (default gun gets the quarter, shotgun gets the 2 & 4 or snare)... is there an auto rifle that gets the 8th note? that'd be cool! - the blocks changing colors with the beat - little penguin (I mean duck) man
#### Some suggestions & crit: - ramp up difficulty instead of starting full-on hell-mode (specifically, stage 1 should have about half the baddies, and it should get harder from there) - the beat *doesn't quite* line up with the music, which is a big bummer for a rhythm game. - if you chuck your weapon, you should pick up a weapon on collision, rather than having to right click on it.
I'd love to see what this game is like with about 10 more hours of dev time! Great job!
game looks great, but the ground collisions are super finicky.
You have an eye for visuals! great presentation! Would have been great if there was more completed.
As @synedraacus pointed out on [our entry](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/rogue-pawn), it looks like this competition has made "chess-souls" a new genre 😄
A decent little puzzle game you have here, with fun art and some interesting puzzling! well done! I would have loved some audio to go with it, of course, but a weekend only provides so much time! Also, on chrome w/ a 4k monitor, I had to go fullscreen in my browser to see the bottommost part of the screen, which made finding the button to continue after the instructions a bit confusing at first :)
Not sure if that's an issue at different resolutions/browsers or not.
Great entry! Congrats on 5th place!
Well done with this one! The mix of elements is pretty smart. The rhythm part isn't very rhythmic, more just a grind (which i'm okay with). I enjoyed the city build portion. I'd enjoy seeing this game more fleshed out! Interesting entry!
Great entry!
The idea is clever and the game itself is well polished, as everyone seems to be saying. haha. My only suggestion would be to find a way to merge the two concepts more. The "boyfriend" part only required randomly answering questions before the timer ran out, as far as I could figure. I don't have any good ideas of HOW you could have done that for these two concepts though.
Either way, I thought the game was charming! Well done!
Congrats on 4th place! Great Entry!
Interesting game!
I like the art style and music/sfx!
It's a little difficult to figure out, especially with the somewhat clunky controls. I can see why you included the gif instructions! (which helped marginally)
I couldn't figure out how this fits the theme, but it's a neat little game!