FoonLudum Dare ExplorerUsers → Bensonance

Bensonance

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCo
201637One roomMind Over Munitionsjam1253.863.764.173.413.573.192.703.6961
201534Two Button Controls / GrowingHarmony Bloomjam5583.282.813.323.664.003.381.953.4071
201532An Unconventional WeaponQuiver of Clawsjam1083.803.823.193.374.363.743.433.6082
201431Entire Game on One ScreenRaptor Polojam1363.723.803.583.874.353.353.893.5791
201429Beneath the SurfaceTitle Unknown
20132710 SecondsFire, Fire, Burning Brightjam3932.892.422.883.003.853.062.253.17100
201225You are the VillainManaging Morder: The ground is always blacker on the other side.jam1343.152.542.943.833.693.333.023.39100

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Bensonance

LD25 — You are the Villain

Parasite Quest by Hatscat 2012-12-18T18:05:00

It's a great idea and a decent execution, but the mouse control makes it difficult to shoot the white cells.

Swag by feltip 2012-12-18T12:40:00

Art is great, level design is fun, but that music is so repetitive ! ;(

Crobal and friends by Gaeel 2012-12-19T17:41:00

Great game! Only game I've seen so far with an ambiguously presented villain. The voice over was also a great touch.

The Big Bad Wolf by Alex Shestakov 2012-12-18T10:15:00

Awesome concept! The slow intro combines with the music perfectly.

All Galactic Creatures by somethingbeautiful 2012-12-19T10:21:00

Get an error saying the drive or network the application refers to is unnavailable. It's a shame because this looks great.

Virus by Ardale 2012-12-18T12:13:00

This is a great game all round, but I feel it needs a bit more explanation to ease players into the game.

Managing Morder: The ground is always blacker on the other side. by Bensonance 2012-12-18T05:45:00

Oh wow that was a noobtastic error :/. I updated the link with an actually playable build.

Managing Morder: The ground is always blacker on the other side. by Bensonance 2012-12-18T13:20:00

Hi Guys, thanks for playing!

We knew using that font would be a risk, but we hoped it would be legible because it really adds to the aesthetic. I guess it backfired though :p.

@MaTX That menu bug was a concession I had to made because Game Maker's collision was being fussy about the the strangely shaped sector. It really frustrated me the whole time I was coding :/. As for the '1' returning to the main screen it's in a pop up at the beginning, but I agree there should be a button or something to allow returning to the overview.

@Starspell yeah in order to win you basically need to stockpile alot of food before you begin building lots of spawn pits :).

RPS Battle by LogiQ121 2012-12-18T12:45:00

The game is great, but it doesn't match up to the theme very well :/.

War of the Drones by galchwyn 2012-12-18T15:51:00

I love the art and the color palette, but the gameplay is a little repetitive and the sudden framerate drop is pretty jarring. appearance is great though :).

Barback by Radiatoryang 2012-12-19T15:03:00

Dude, fantastic game! Loved the gameplay, art and music, but narratively as soon as you justify a character's actions they begin to lose their villainess. They turn into more of an anti-hero.

Aximilator by VonZippenstein 2012-12-18T12:05:00

Great visuals and decent gameplay. However, its relation to the theme is weak or at least needs more explanation.

LD27 — 10 Seconds

Clocked In by rylgh 2013-08-27T09:37:00

Really great entry! A clever interpretation of the theme too. You make me so envious of your programmer art ;/.

LD29 — Beneath the Surface

Moby-riDickulous by Crooksister 2014-04-29T20:54:00

I could just watch that nuclear harpoon effect shaking the screen with the 8 bit Pirates of the Carribean music playing in the background forever!

Epic work for your first jam!

LD31 — Entire Game on One Screen

Raptor Polo by Bensonance 2014-12-09T11:06:00

Thanks for all the graphics and audio praising! The music and art people can't wipe the grins off their faces :).

@TriSquare Thanks for the advice! Crunched a few hours afterwards to get the PC controls working, and it seems to be better for people :).

@bitserum Yeah the difficulty is a tough one - when you play with two players it's a little easier, I think :).

@Lars Faust Thanks for the wonderful comment :). Coming from you and the gorgeous looking, "S", that's a big compliment! :)

Raptor Polo by Bensonance 2014-12-10T09:40:00

@Tuism thanks for the rad and comprehensive feedback! The controls are definitely something we want to revamp a little bit: make them a lot simpler :).

You can hit the ball while its on the ground, but only when it's lower than your raptor. Currently it's a bit awkward, so we want to make it easier to hit it on the ground.

Agreed about the strict sequence, we want it to flow a lot more freely :).

@ben_pxlplz Thanks for the art praise! We're totally keen to work on it it a bit more and iron out that control weirdness.

@Murchurl So glad you were able to play it two player! :D

ATTACK ON RADMARS by radmars 2014-12-09T19:40:00

This is really awesome! Love the black hole mechanic to push away missiles! Probably my favorite jam entry so far! :D

ATTACK ON RADMARS by radmars 2014-12-09T19:42:00

Also, I totally feel our jam game about Orks playing Polo should be set on Rad Mars :P.

S by Lars Faust 2014-12-09T01:45:00

Super pretty and I can see the potential for an interesting system - just needs for feedback for what the goal is and how to reach it. Make sure to finish this up after the jam!

Silian Rail by Warboys 2014-12-11T12:35:00

Game is awesome! Song is amazing. My only feedback is to attempt to make the collisions a little less 'sticky" :).

Awesome work!

Man on the Field by Double Zero One Zero 2014-12-09T01:42:00

Awesome game! Loved the mechanics of it - the camera moving around the wound was a cool challenge. I think the music didn't really match up to the dark theme of the game's art, though - think something darker would have been better!

Inventory by TheMeorch 2014-12-10T08:47:00

This is so good! Love the dark humour - the twist at the end is hilariously dark metaphor for "leaving people behind" in the apocalypse. Awesome work!

virOS by Antworks Studio 2014-12-09T19:46:00

This was really cool! Loved the idea, and the alternative gameplay hooked me in! I'd probably recommend an easier starting pace, while you get the hang of the game though :).

Bionic Bliss by Mechamew 2014-12-11T12:58:00

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Case #31 by Pestel Crew 2014-12-09T19:51:00

This is really awesome! Love the gameplay and the art style. I have to admit that I find the writing a little painful though :). Get a little more experienced writer for the project and then definitely continue working on this!

GhostRing by Robotic 2014-12-11T10:06:00

This is utterly spectacular. Beautiful graphics, wonderful audio design and fun gameplay.

That said, I think the controls - at least while you're walking to the car are a bit clunky.

Please add more to this and make it a full game! :)

LD32 — An Unconventional Weapon

Functor by Enneract 2015-04-22T13:28:00

Excellent Game. It is unlike anything I have played before and you deserve credit for how innovative the game is. However as a side effect of how different this game is I did find the rules initially difficult to understand. Well done on this entry

Bubble Trubble by Jon Reid 2015-04-22T17:30:00

An excellent and very challenging submission, well done. This is by far the best sound design I have seen in this Ludum Dare, reminding me a bit of Tear Away. My only suggestion is more confetti. Best of luck to you.

Shield Maiden by bitslap 2015-04-22T13:19:00

Super fun, super pretty, super sounding!

One major critique: the deaths are super jarring! Need a death frame and a fade to black to smooth that out a little. Great work! :)

Eye Rush by asobi tech 2015-04-22T17:49:00

Hey guy, awesome entry. This game has so much nostalgia, not just because of the limited use of color and pixels but also because the game play feels finely tweaked and fun. This has been one of my favorite entries.

font is slightly illegible though. Nevertheless excellent work

Mable: The Journey by tripleVisionGames 2015-04-22T14:33:00

Love the art and sound direction!

The gameplay is great, but some sort of goal would have been pretty cool too! Oh and also, some sort of feedback (sound/screenshake) when the sword hits the ground after being dropped would help a lot in terms of aiming your sword better :).

This Fart of Mine by rodrigomotta 2015-04-22T18:44:00

This game is juvenile in the best way, There is also a certain finesse in charging your farts which was engaging. Well done.

Quiver of Claws by Bensonance 2015-04-22T14:40:00

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Some of the gameplay stuff we'll fix in a post-jam version.

Thanks for the reports on the second level bug - we'll upload a fixed build now! @Kawaii Game Studios thanks for the screenshot, that helps a lot :D

Hugline Miami by Figglewatts 2015-04-22T13:47:00

Very Cool compo submission. I am impressed with the amount of content you made for this game in the short space of time. Good work

(mental)fairy by 0x0961h 2015-04-22T18:30:00

This game is simply fantastic. I loved the excellent art, frantic music and compelling game play (albeit much too easy). This is a lot of lay time for a weekends work, very well done.

What Have We Created?! by Ranmara 2015-04-22T14:28:00

Very cool "Miami-like" game. The bullets blend in a lot with the brown tilesets, an issue of their tonal values, but otherwise an admirable Ludum Dare entry

Dreamfisher by Tanser 2015-04-22T14:00:00

Cool entry guys, really loved the graphics. The hand painted aesthetic is beautiful and the fish design are quirky. The controls feel a bit unintuitive however, aiming is also a but sluggish. That said this is a great entry

Baguettes! by jglrxavpok 2015-04-22T13:53:00

Hey man, a cool Jam entry, whats this genre called a "miami-like"? There are a few rotation issues however where occasionally I found myself looking at a wall while my mouse was in the opposite direction. That said I think you did a good job.

Nuclear Autumn by phi6 2015-04-22T13:48:00

This game was awesome. I am amazed at the amount of content and puzzles you guys managed to design over the jam. One gripe I have is the washed out color scheme of the tile set occasionally blends in with the equally washed out background, but this is a minor issue. Well done.

You Are a Skunk by LTPATS 2015-04-22T14:06:00

Haha, I enjoyed becoming a skunk menace more than I care to admit. Loved the graphics (reminded me of early 3D games of the late 90's). This is an awesome submission guys well done.

Ludicrous Battleaxes by muumeroinen 2015-04-22T14:34:00

haha novel and fun game idea. Very good work guys. I think the graphics are great, especially the trails on the axes.

SLICK LICKER by KodingNights 2015-04-22T17:42:00

A very cool game, liked it a lot. The screen is very cluttered though making objects obscure, furthermore which objects do what and what purpose they serve was difficult to decode. That said this is an awesome game, well done.

Jump Gun by renanlindner 2015-04-22T18:19:00

A very cool game, I love the concept.

Mimesis by Jimjam 2015-04-22T12:32:00

Awesome idea, and the mood/music is really well done!

As Tuism mentions above though, the controls of the platforming is super slidy and awkward. I also felt the dragging attack should have had a much higher lower jump threshold (i.e. you jump much higher, more easier).

That said, making a good feeling physics Unity game is no mean feat, it takes ages to tweak it correctly :).

The War Dog by Xinelu 2015-04-22T17:37:00

So many feels, Very well done and well written. I really enjoyed the clumsyness of the controls which added an ideal level of difficulty to the game.

Disco of Thrones by Maxi and The Gang 2015-04-22T14:53:00

Such a cool game with a great theme. This is one of the best I have played this jam. Well done.

You Brought A Knife To A Gun Fight! by AlexDJones 2015-04-22T14:32:00

A cool entry for Ludum Dare. I had a slight issue with the bullets blending into the brown tilesets, this is an issue of tonal values an easily remedied, but otherwise a great entry.

Whore by razzle_dazzle 2015-04-22T14:14:00

Vicious and malicious virus embedded in an equally distasteful game cocnept. I am disappointed.

Deadly rain by Sublustris 2015-04-22T14:39:00

A moody game for sure, excellent in its execution. However The lack of any weapon whatsoever does make it a bit of a rogue entry. That said excellent work on the graphics and sound which bring to the fore the tone of the game very well. Good work.

Tipping Point by lonestar 2015-04-22T13:51:00

Really excellent game! Love the potion idea and the way it turns out mechanically is super interesting.

The visual narratives you tell in the background are super interesting and I love how effectively you got the sense of contrasting scale across!

Minor things:

-Ability to skip/make text scroll faster would be cool
-I know it looks better for the animation, but having the character's horizontal motion stop when you land is super jarring and makes the character's movement feel unresponsive.

The Rock the Paper and the Scissors by BIZM 2015-04-22T13:40:00

This was amazing! 5 stars everywhere!

Got stuck on the third person, though - saw he was healing, but wasn't sure how to offset it?

Aora, Spirit of Nature by Archive Studios 2015-04-22T17:56:00

Interesting game, good work. I especially like the eagle mechanic.

Art is excellent but would suggest you look at the pixel densities next time, the frog character looks blown up while the main character appears shrunken down(causing fuzziness). While these are not really problems I just thought the marred the otherwise beautiful graphics.

very well done and awesome game.

BodySlam!: Oil Wrestling Simulator by ss64games 2015-04-22T12:50:00

hahahaha!

So great!

Gameplay controls are a bit awkward to control (on keyboard), but it was still super fun. Loved the size of the guy changing to represent health, but often the size difference meant it was hard to see my character.

Sounds really emphasized the silliness of the game, and made me laugh every time :).

Also, I want a pre-match oil lathering up mini-game! :D

SNIFF by dyfer 2015-04-22T18:40:00

This game is fantastic! Excellent on all accounts. However the jump is very floaty " Which may be your intention" but it made jumps harder than they needed to be because it was hard to pinpoint where I was. Otherwise very good work.

Space Cowboy by JK5000 2015-04-22T18:09:00

This is an odd but delightful entry. I am not entirely sure what I was doing, but the graphics were so good that I didn't mind. Well done.

Evil Cupido: Haters gonna hate by Pixel Heart 2015-04-22T14:45:00

Awesome, simply Awesome. Great graphics and good soundtrack mixed with some creative puzzles and mechanics. That said the game has several bugs and fatal errors. Namely when you enter the house I had an error shooting the bottle while the granny and grandpa were fighting. Best of luck to you with this great game.

Sivo: Trial of the Lava God by rattower 2015-04-22T17:25:00

Very cool entry, I really liked how different it dared to be. Great graphics and sound. Well done

Demonic MeatBall by CafeAmbivalence 2015-04-22T12:21:00

This is a neat little idea!

The mood is really neatly constructed!

I think the controls need some work though! This could be really fun, but the controls were a bit awkward an hard to manage :).

Gravitas by SpringCabal 2015-04-22T14:12:00

Awesome jam entry, but the controls feel odd and moving is a bit of a chore. That said the concept is very good and the graphics extremely impressive.

Kawaii Destruction by Kawaii Game Studios 2015-04-22T13:34:00

A valiant first attempt and I encourage you to come back and try again. That said the game is hard to play because the rules are inconsistently applied, why does standing on the heads of some enemies kill them, and others not.

Cluster Mine by creative630 2015-04-22T12:35:00

Pretty neat, simple idea!

I enjoy the simple art style, and the sound/particle juice was cool (it feel pretty satisfying to shoot/mine stuff).

Just needs more stuff! :)

The Mighty Writer. by Miltage 2015-04-22T12:17:00

Such a great idea! Really love this :D.

Think you need some game design tweaking though, the jams/blocks/misses happen quite frequently and it becomes frustrating. Also, it takes way too long to kill an enemy, I think their health or the bullet damage should be increased :).

Make this a full game, please! :D

LD34 — Two Button Controls / Growing

Left-leaning by tayl1r 2015-12-23T17:39:00

Absolutely brilliant!

I adore the way you designed this game - very simply mechanic and a slow introduction of level elements that change the gameplay. Great job on the death game feel - made the constant dying sorta enjoyable :P.

Congrats! :D

Concrete Jungle by Miltage 2015-12-23T17:46:00

This is excellent!

Love the controls of the the vine - satisfying to use! Love the little sprite flashes to communicate time passing - such an elegant way to do that while still keeping the game real-time. I also enjoy the brave design choice to have a definitive end to the game, rather than an 'endless-viner' or something.

Congrats on the great game again! <3

UPSQUID by 01010111 2015-12-23T17:26:00

Awesome game!

The controls are superb, the graphics spectacular, and the music excellent and the fan-service on point.

Congrats on an awesome gamd!

Major Tom by OberynMartell 2015-12-23T17:09:00

Excellent game!

Adore the mood, graphics and music. The gameplay system is really clever and neat. Really loved the secondary satellite idea. I love how much detail you put into the world!

I do think the satellite is a bit too trick to control, but it's really hard to do this right without good playtesting.

Great job and congrats!

Super Lefty Garden Fighty by hexagore 2015-12-23T16:52:00

Great little game! Gorgeous art, great music, and effective sound effects!

The gameplay got a little repetitive, although the scaling of difficulty with groups of enemies in quick succession was neat! I think some enemy variety (speed, movement type, floating/ jumping) etc. would have gone a long way. Just blending the same sprites a different color to represent different behaviour would have been great.

Great job!

Mt Etubo by thebrickanator 2015-12-23T17:17:00

Sweet little game!

Really like the idea of the game, and the perspective/graphics work well too.

It's a bit tricky to play at the moment - I think you need more feedback that you're getting damaged (screenshake/sound etc.) just so that it's clearer. I'm also not sure that the health part was needed? I really enjoyed fending away villagers - I think more of a focus on that part of the game would have been great.

Good job! :D

LD37 — One room

There is a Light by Bahiyya 2016-12-14T18:47:00

This is lovely!

It's like a little interactive poem :). I like the way you varied the sentence lengths, and also how at the end you broke up the paragraphs into multiple links.

The writing is very rich and illustrative. Because it's so rich, it can be overpowering. You sort of need to be eased into it maybe? Perhaps simpler sentences should have gone sooner, with plainer images, with richer stuff building as you go along?

I could imagine a whole series of these littler Twine poems :)

Moving-In Simulator 2016 by Zirrrus 2017-01-02T18:30:00

This is really fun!

I would really hope you work on this further! I think levels might suit the game quite well? Like maybe you're a mover and you have to help families move into tiny homes, lol.

Maybe families have different priorities or something?

Really cool!

Heart Heist by SleepyStudios 2016-12-16T08:22:00

Fun!

Was nice and clear when you were spotted, but it wasn't clear, at a glance, when an enemy might have seen you :).

2D Cat Wants Out by Tuism 2016-12-14T11:15:00

This is fun and cool! Love the way you use the blur to add focus to the middleground/currently focused axis. Love the quick flowing nature of the puzzles.

Here's a bunch of other feedback for you:

- Jump should only activate on press, not whenever in contact with ground.
- Need more visual difference between horizontal/vertical changing directions. Get's too confusing when there's a lot of them.
- Introduce elements on their own in really short puzzles. This was done well until that first one-way platform that escalated super quickly and I got stuck.

Don't stress too much about the puzzle design - I think it's pretty hard to do good puzzle design in a jam :)

Crawlout by Bracula 2016-12-14T14:22:00

This sequel is bad, is this NoMoreAForests? No trees, bad survival game -2/10.

This is cool, guys! I like the art, and the mood is great. I also like the world you've set up, and the way you build it in the little interactions. The big faces when you interact with people are really cool.

I think the game could have been condensed a bit more. Like the nihilistic nature of collecting resources and interactions is cool for a while, but then it just gets a little boring. :)

Especially because everything is so expensive? I played for a while and only got 100 scrap, and eventually just gave up, because it was so long between finding things of scrap. I think making the time between finding scrap less might have made me play longer. Also, I think you need a first building/construction that is cheap so players get committed. With nothing built after 10 minutes of playing, it's pretty easy to put the game down, because you don't really lose anything.

From that first conversation I got the sense that there were area/buildings where stockpiles of resources might be, but I never found them. I just ended up the black end of map at the top. I think little arrows pointing to where to go is inelegant, but you kinda need it right now because there's so little direction in the game. In Don't Starve, you collect things like every minute, so you keep engaged. Either make collection plentiful, or give destinations for players to travel too. Doing neither makes it hard for players to keep interested I guess?

UI is really neat and clever. Love that you mouse over top things in order to eat/drink etc. Elegant.

The sound and music is really lovely too.

Other stuff:

- First text interaction a bit of a slog

- Walking animation not in time with movement, feels like you're sliding

Bob's Burgers by Zettelkasten 2016-12-16T08:37:00

Really pretty and cute idea!

It was realllllly hard to tell what I could interact with - I was just clicking all over the place.

Some highlighting would have gone a long way.

Some basic sounds would have been cool too of course :).

Horde Room by Tutti Ankka 2016-12-16T08:31:00

Really fun, and feels great!

Killing stuff feels really good, but one hit kills for those basic enemies would probably be better.

The balance is really off though! Way too hard and takes too much to get a new weapon.

The sound effect for hitting people doesn't feel meaty or impactful enough - it feels too tingy.

Need some feedback passes on when you get damaged. It's hard to keep looking at the top corner :).

Cubby Crypt by bigbadwofl 2016-12-14T14:57:00

Love the music and the art. The game idea is cute and fun!

I think it might have been a good idea to start the map small, and then increase the width over time. Took me quite a while to get a combination when I first started :)

Tripoly by WeaverDeveloper 2016-12-16T08:52:00

Super pretty and fun!

Love the feel of shooting and killing stuff! Art and sound are great too!

The controls need a bit of work, particularly the turning, which feels pretty sticky.