In Cold Blood: Hatching a Conspiracy of Epic Scale by Brian Corr 2014-04-28T05:27:00
The game's funny and the story is enjoyably weird, but the gameplay feels like an afterthought. The guards can also be extremely cheap with their bullets.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Manky
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Category | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | The Trial of Tyrone Rex | jam | Humor | 4.85 | |
| 🥈 | 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | The Trial of Tyrone Rex | jam | Audio | 4.63 | |
| 🥇 | 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Billy McMath Solves Problems | compo | Humor | 4.66 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | The Trial of Tyrone Rex | jam | 50 | 4.03 | 4.02 | 3.59 | 4.20 | 4.03 | 4.63 | 4.85 | 4.10 | 33 | |
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Billy McMath Solves Problems | compo | 16 | 4.18 | 4.01 | 3.73 | 4.10 | 3.68 | 4.53 | 4.66 | 4.08 | 73 | |
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Strawberry in the Underworld | compo | 425 | 3.31 | 3.16 | 3.15 | 3.96 | 3.80 | 3.53 | 3.12 | 3.38 | 69 |
The game's funny and the story is enjoyably weird, but the gameplay feels like an afterthought. The guards can also be extremely cheap with their bullets.
I like the atmosphere, it's definitely very soothing. Pretty unique gameplay concept and some clever challenges with the different fish combinations.
Relax mode would make a great screen saver!
Very trippy, unique implementation of the theme. My main complaint is that after a few minutes it becomes very monotonous, but the pressure to completely remove the face is definitely there.
Pretty solid technically. The way the sword handles makes some of the enemies seem unfair, especially the potato fellows who take several hits to kill. Gets a bit repetitive by the third floor. I think I died to a pitfall, but it was impossible to distinguish it from the darkness of the fog. Traps should be made clear and the player should immediately know that they're dangerous.
Not bad, overall!
I loved this game! The whole thing is so insanely frantic and difficult. The music gets you pumped. I love it.
Some of the worms seem absurdly difficult to grab and the control scheme makes jumping a bit tedious considering the tight movements required, but overall an exciting experience. The achievements are so tempting.
You tried very hard on this game and it's almost fun! Your use of the theme is perfect because dragons live in caves which are "beneath the surface" I get it very nice.
At least the mythical creatures look cool!
Very interesting game, impressive that you got a roguelike structure going in just 48 hours. Graphics are charmingly minimalist, I like it.
Theme felt very shoehorned. Seems very easy to become overpowered, but it's still fun to lay waste to enemies.
I love the combination of RPG and point-and-click adventure. Theme felt like it was tossed in as an afterthought. The puzzles were pretty good considering the time constraint and I really dig the little green character.
We had similar ideas! Your game is pretty fun and has some good ideas. I particular like using the environment as your primary weapon.
I feel like the mana system is an arbitrary limitation and I would suggest removing it entirely. All it really does is cause the player to stand around waiting, since every action they do requires mana.
Solid game overall, well done!
Surprisingly large amount of content for such a short time! Excellent work!
Creative interpretation of theme, pretty fun gameplay mechanics, although the physics could use a little tweaking. The colored tiles remind me a lot of Portal 2's gels.
Very cool game, I liked it a lot.
Wonderfully disturbing! I knew right from the start that this was going dark places.
The whole thing, unfortunately, moves too slow. The text speed especially is kind of mind-numbing to deal with. Especially when you're asking us to play through the game multiple times.
Appreciate the feedback, guys! It would seem the universal grief with my game is the floaty platforming, and the real tragedy is that fixing most of your problems (including the camera) involves nothing more than tweaking a few variables. I've gotta stick to the rules and leave it the way it is, unfortunately.
I wish the keyboard was more suited to platformers, but it's really hard for it not to feel awkward, which is why I recommended using a gamepad. Even so, giving the option to use arrow keys is a pretty stupid miss on my part.
I'll definitely get a post-compo version out that feels a little nicer to play and relies less on strict platforming. Again though, thank you for playing and possibly enjoying! This was definitely a fun one to make! :)
Took me about three deaths to figure out the connection between prayer, statues, and ammunition. This information could be conveyed more clearly. The statues, for instance, look like decorative elements rather than something the player should interact with.
A little bit jittery in places, but the technicals seem to be working properly.
A little bit dull, but for 48 hours it's very nice. Very nice touch putting the exit in clear view near the beginning.
Probably the most original idea I've seen so far! And I even got to kill Tim Schafer!
It does feel a little bit like you don't have much control over the situation. Maybe a minimap would help so you have a better idea of who's about to run into a body? It's also extremely difficult NOT to bump into people, which can get really annoying when you're just trying to move to another location.
Between the barely-visible player sprite, the pitiful attack range, the bullet hell situation, the boss's incredible movement speed, and the measly three hit points, you've made a game that's virtually impossible.
I understand that you were going for bullet hell, but please try to cut the player a little more slack.
Simple and sweet! Having the up key as your jump button is a bit awkward on the keyboard, but otherwise, nice work.
Art is gorgeous, but the gameplay is very, very simple. Very nice polish on the whole thing, definitely impressive.
I wouldn't recommend EVER limiting your number of jumps when making a platformer. At the very least, let your stamina recharge, otherwise players are going to get stuck almost immediately.
The enemies hit a little too hard I think, and in one game I was struck down by an invisible foe. The concept is really funny though! Pretty solid game!
Physics could use a lot of refining and the voice clips didn't really fit very well. Level design was decent enough, although in some spots the sawblades got a little ridiculous. I also fell through the floor a few times.
I thought this was going to be a basic platformer, but the swapping mechanic came out of nowhere and really surprised me. There are some really cool ideas with the color-swapping going on here.
Seems like an odd choice making down the jump button for orange, and your acceleration seems to be backwards once you're upside down. Otherwise, fun idea, nice game.
Really cool game! Pretty unforgiving killing the player in one hit. The sword swinging also becomes problematic when you hit the border and the camera stops moving, but I don't suppose there's a way to prevent it. Great concept!
Lots of little issues with this, although the experience as a whole is pretty solid.
-The shaky player sprite does a terrible job of conveying where your hitbox is and it makes platforming difficult.
-There should be a pause between death and respawn to prevent players from immediately running into lava on their next life.
-Camera is too basic to accomodate your level design. Most obstacles are impossible to prepare for, especially on maps that are zoomed in quite far.
-The inconsistent room connections made the game extremely confusing. I'm not sure if you were going for a "maze" element, but it's very confusing when entering a door takes you to a room you just left.
The little joke at the end was pretty funny at least and I didn't run into any bugs, but the game needs a lot of improvement.
Pretty fun! The screen was taller than my resolution so I couldn't actually see the bottom row. Also the sound was extremely quiet for some reason.
The gameplay is 100% trial and error, and in that respect the concept is inherently flawed. Next time try to spend more time on the design aspect and figure out how you can make the gameplay more engaging.
Really cool concept, the Eversion-esque world changes really caught me off-guard. Very nice interpretation of the theme!
My main complaint is that the cooldown on the eye could be a little faster. Trying to avoid going "darker" means standing around waiting a whole lot. Overall, fun idea, well-implemented.
Not too bad, I was motivated at least to try and beat the thing. Hit detection on the sharks was sometimes questionable and some of your sound effects are pretty high-pitched. Otherwise it's pretty fun!
The idea's pretty great, but the "dangerous" items are nearly impossible to distinguish, especially since you only get a glimpse of what you're looking for at the beginning. Maybe have a sign listing dangerous items during the actual game so you at least know what you're looking for?
I'd also say the images still need to be bigger, I'm leaning close and squinting but I still can barely make out what's in the suitcases.
Fun game, great idea, just needs some tweaking.
Cool idea, probably much easier with a touch screen than with a computer mouse!
I should note that you can easily survive just by focusing on one planet. At least as far as I could gather.
The spritework is amazing! Seriously, this looks really good. Pretty solid game mechanic too, though in practice it turned out to mostly be going from point A to point B. I did enjoy the dark twist as well.
Any kind of audio element would have been nice too, but I'd say the graphics make up for it.
If anybody worries their idea will be too offensive, I will show them your game. This is art.
The idea's really solid, but the music was wildly out of sync. If the music was synced up it'd be a pretty satisfying experience! Also, the world is pretty large compared to how fast your character moves, so it takes a long time to get from place to place.
If you can get the timing to work right, there's a lot of places you could go with this.
Cool idea! I like how the camera zooms in when you're sucking. Overall, I'd say this game really sucks. ;)
Gotta love insult sword-fighting! I really like that every comeback corresponded to different insults. It really made you have to think about it every time. The dialogue's pretty funny too. Good job!
I love the visuals! Killing pinatas is very satisfying. It's a shame there's no sound element, because I feel like that would've added a lot to the mood, but still it's a very fun game.
This is such a brilliant and simple idea and it's so stupidly fun to play.
Great parody! The isometric graphics look really nice and work surprisingly well with the game. All of the visual effects are really cool too.
It's starting to look like alcohol was a popular choice for unconventional weapon. I couldn't be happier that this is the case.
This game is simple and sweet. It's too bad you didn't get more use out of the different alcohol types, but I really like that you had a proper puzzle in there. Mostly it looks like you just needed more time to add more content.
Cheers!
Thanks for letting me know. It should be good now.
This is a very charming take on the space shooter! Fits the theme really nicely. The chalk movement slides just a little bit, which can make it tricky to control, but otherwise this is a really cute game.
The music is great and the idea is definitely cool. In practice though, it does usually end up with your just standing in front of the enemy waiting for them to die. The dialogue was pretty fun as well.
Fun game, the graphics look really nice. You want to make sure that your menu is triggered by the key being pressed DOWN, rather than checking the state of the key itself, as the menu sometimes closes as soon as you open it.
Man, that was really cool. There's something immensely satisfying about seeing your clones tear into each other.
The twist ending totally caught me off-guard.
This is the kind of interesting gameplay mechanic I'd hoped to see with this theme! I'd really love to see a fully fleshed out platformer with kite mechanics.
As much as I like this game, I have to say that it's way too easy to die and dying is way too unforgiving. I think some sort of health system would have improved it, since going back to the beginning is so frustrating. Otherwise, this game is really pleasant and creative and cool.
The mouse-hovering gameplay was really cool! I love logic-based games, it's good to see them being made. Unfortunately, a lot of the conversational parts boiled down to trial-and-error, but I think that can be forgiven to an extent. Very cool game.
I should have known poop as a weapon would happen.
The dialogue was hilarious, and the 3D effects were pretty cool! I wound up falling through the world in the end but this was fun.
Whoa, this is pretty trippy! The shaders look great as always. I feel like you pick up a ton of momentum in the air and it makes some of the precision jumping kind of frustrating, but other than that it's very inspiring.
You got wall-jumping in! Nice job!
The coins were a little plentiful, I found there wasn't really any challenge at all. Although there was definitely an innate satisfaction to killing all the enemies who kept piling up at the bottom of the level.
You probably should have a better visual to convey information like how much time the player has in living weapon mode. The text blends into the background and it'd distracting to stop and read a number in the middle of gameplay.
Pretty cool overall!
Fun mechanic! Reminds me of the pull stars from Mario Galaxy. I think it could've benefited from being able to let go of your current peg, but for the time you had to make it, it's pretty fun.
It's a shame your game had to be cut so short, the yoyo stuff is really cool. I also really dig the art style and the creepy alien enemies. I think the collision with enemies didn't work right though, I definitely should've been dead.
Pretty tough game, but not impossibly difficult! The spartan section was particularly tricky.
The one suggestion I would make is to have the spikes stand out a little more. They blend into the environment a little too much and sometimes you'll die unexpectedly from landing on one.
Pretty cute little game! The main problem I have is that the player has to get on top of enemies to hug them, but for some of them, contact also hurts you. It was confusing since the enemies chasing me made me feel like I was supposed to run away, but the mechanics told me I was supposed to go touch them.
It would've also helped a lot to have some sort of meter representing the cooldown on your other attacks. The can seems to be the best way to deal with the angry guys, but it takes a long time to charge and I really have no idea when I'll get another one.
The game's pretty fun to play though. I could see myself killing a little time with it on my phone.
I like the basic concept and the Plants vs Zombies thing you have going on. I think the game would've benefited considerably from having more information on the screen. Also, the clicking gets kind of hectic between collecting minerals and dropping in units. I think just requiring them to touch the mouse pointer might have made the controls feel less cramped.
Looks good though. I haven't used the framework you used but I'm assuming it's a lot tougher than using Unity!
It's always cute when you have a non-violent option for dealing with enemies. Could've used a visual indicator for when your singing was available, but otherwise I like it.
This game is too sexy for me.
For such a short development time, this is pretty solid! It is a little frustrating having people become "un-drunk" as you play and the interface could make it a little more obvious what your percentage is. Fun idea though.
I like the idea, although it doesn't feel like the player is adequately equipped to deal with the adults. Having them come through a single choke point also made the game extremely simple, and it feels like the adults take candy so fast that death is nearly instantaneous when they hit it.
I did appreciate the voices though.
The physics are kind of janky and it seemed to drop a lot of inputs. Also, sometimes the unconventiality gun didn't seem to have any affect.
Fun idea, though. I like the revolution theme going on.
I like the idea, but the weight of the ball makes this thing really hard to control. Realistically it makes sense, but I think it would've been more fun to play if you'd let the player move uninhibited by the weight of the ball.
Otherwise, it's very satisfying to kill stuff with the ball. And then get killed with it yourself.
The game could've really benefited from having a reset button or some way to remove ingredients. Making a mistake winds up being pretty unforgiving. Also, I don't really understand how the cutting portion works.
The idea's great though! If you added resetting functionality to the sandwich-making part, it'd help the game a ton.
The art looks good and I like throwing desks at people! The game's pretty simplistic though, but these sorts of things happen with game jams. Very cool.
It's basically Dr. Mario, so I can't complain too much about the gameplay. I'm awful at Dr. Mario and that hasn't really changed. The story is pretty fun in a kind of sadistic way.
That dialogue had me laughing out loud. What a ridiculous scenario.
You should probably explain the controls or the objective though. It's very confusing to figure out what's going on.
The control scheme is kind of awkward and it seems pretty incomplete, but I do appreciate the sheer absurdity of it.
There's something about accidentally killing yourself in this game that's absolutely hilarious. I think it's just how fast everything happens.
I feel like there could be more visual indication and some delay when using the magnet. It feels like I don't have as much control over it as I do. The map is also built in such a way that there are a lot of really cramped spots and considering how fast the blocks move, it's really hard to not kill yourself.
The ending was unnecessarily cruel and I liked it.
Whoa, this game's really cool. I like how you hurt yourself if you miss an enemy and how it balances with healing yourself when you do, since it discourages reckless shooting. This would've done great in the arcade era!
The idea's definitely unique, but in practice I found it was pretty distracting to stop and type in a word every five seconds. It was also an odd choice to feature an idea that so heavily involves the keyboard, yet ask the player to attack with the mouse button. To use the word system, the player has to move their right hand back and forth between mouse and keyboard.
On top of that, there's not really much incentive to actually USE the system. I found the mouse-based attacking to actually be very satisfying to use and wound up using to knock enemies away. That was actually more fun than stopping to type in a word and your mouse and keyboard control scheme feels very nice on its own. It's also not particularly hard to just run past enemies and bolt towards the end of the level.
I do have to give you major props for NOT using W/Up as your jump button and binding it to a more convenient and separate button instead. That's quickly becoming one of my biggest pet peeves.
Overall, the idea is pretty cool, but in practice it doesn't really work. Your platformer mechanics otherwise feel pretty good and the sketchy paper style is very charming.
Great idea and very well-implemented! I can't express how much I love that the gun the dealt the killing blow does a little victory dance.
The only real issue was that there's not an obvious relationship between the direction you're facing and the direction your pipe will be oriented. Sometimes you can tell where you should put the pipe, but it might take a moment to figure out which direction to face to get it in that position.
I feel like this works better as a demonstration of the mechanic than as a game. The guns are a really cool idea and they're satisfying to use, but sometimes it's really hard to adjust to the new rhythm on the fly. Between platforming, avoiding enemies, AND keeping up with the rhythm, it becomes overwhelming pretty quickly.
I love this idea though! I'd love to see something like this expanded on.
Very very cute game! I liked the idea, but there's definitely a lot more you could do with it.
Lots of fun smashing stuff! Could use a little more feedback for smacking filthy peasants around. Graphics are simple but convey what they need to and are super charming.
I have, in fact, had the exact same problem with two other people! I'll look into it tomorrow, thanks for letting me know it's happening to other people as well.
Bug squashed!
The engine is very nice, and works pretty well! Very funny moments, I'm glad it didn't take itself too seriously. Would like to see more stuff with your engine.
Pretty solid game, I'm not big into RTS games myself but the fact that you pulled one off in a jam weekend is insane and I'm giving you high marks for that alone. Well done!
Very fun game! Gameplay could be fleshed out a little more, but definitely a lot of fun with stuff flying around and funny sound effects.
Amazing look, very good atmosphere, sprites look awesome! Could balance the gameplay a bit, give the player a little more to defend themselves.
I like the art style and the little voice clips are a lot of fun! Gameplay is a little simple and could definitely be expanded upon.
The ending is one of the greatest things to ever happen to me. Very solid game, very fun with all the crazy stuff going on. Punching could feel a little better.
Pretty good game! Item balance needs some tweaking and it's hard to tell where you are in relation to the enemies. Otherwise, lots of fun! Good job!
Very cool style, very cool idea! Gameplay could have a little more depth but what you had worked pretty well.