Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → BORB
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | 👥 | Goodzilla [Sega Master System] | jam | 315 | 3.70 | 3.47 | 3.50 | 2.54 | 4.19 | 4.00 | 3.36 | 3.88 |
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | 👥 | Total Extinction | jam | 167 | 3.85 | 3.57 | 3.42 | 3.09 | 4.23 | 3.97 | 3.10 | 3.95 |
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | 👥 | Overseer | jam | |||||||||
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | Running Out Of Tiles | jam | 532 | 3.19 | 3.00 | 3.57 | 2.79 | 2.84 | 2.19 | 2.59 | 2.81 |
I liked that there weren't many objects in this game that were just static images - there was rotating objects and moving textures and the like. Motion kept the game alive even though the gameplay was simple. The mini-events were also a nice addition to spice things up.
Note: sometimes controls didn't work as intended, for example pressing down didn't always move the ship down.
This game looks and sounds very ready and polished. The gameplay progresses slowly, though. Maybe my laptop battery isn't that bad, after all...
@simonhutchinson: I'll add mac and linux builds today!
@simonhutchinson I finally managed to build a mac version, try it out! (No one has tested it yet and I haven't got a mac so I don't even know if it works)
This kind of abstract game design is really inspiring. Experiencing something that is just reduced to a synced connection between controls, visuals and music not only entertains but asks questions - is this thing a game? What is a game at all?
This isn't the first game to ask those questions, but doesn't fall into most obvious pitfalls of postmodern games - Low Batt most importantly feels fun and responsive and interesting, and that's what matters the most.
Thank you for this. Best thing I've seen in LD39 so far.
A feature-rich game with multiple different spells. Very nice! And there's sweet music and even a rare voiceover track.
The gameplay reduces easily to spam G and run, though - maybe there could be a clear distinction between which enemies to kill with which spells.
My problem was constantly running out of mana because I kept accidentally healing myself - maybe healing should happen by holding the button down instead of instantly?
Also, I think the controls were a bit too floaty - I didn't always feel I was in control.
I hope I don't sound too harsh, I overall enjoyed the experience and would like to see this developed further.
The game looks nice and feels responsive but I think there isn't enough visual distinction to see which projectiles are collectables, enemy bullets or just effects. For a game as fast as this it's an important aspect!
11412 points!
This was simple but soooo fun! Every death felt justified, as it should be in a good arcade game. The graphics, albeit primitive, were dynamic and made the game feel as fast as the gameplay demanded. In a sense, this gets into the core of jam games: it really doesn't need to be any more complex than this to be entertaining.
Win16 palette? Space exploration? Well count me in.
And this indeed was a quality entry, as was expected. The game felt like a mystery - one you'd want to figure out. Some things were easy to find out, like that some items would increase the bars with corresponding colours. I didn't yet get the gist of everything, for example the four-by-four grid in the UI, or the purpose of the white rockets or satellite antennas, or is it possible to kill the bats, THE friggin' BATS!
But, I'm still keen to find it out.
Minor nags: - I'd reeeeeally like to be able to fit in a one-tile sized hole. It would make the extra-vehicular activity a bit more tolerable. - The controls can be somewhat confusing - sometimes I just end up pressing all A,S and D to get something done.
The graphics made me install this. This really nails the nes-era style! I liked the details which added to the atmosphere (like for instance dead astronauts floating around).
Gameplay wasn't particularly difficult, but controlling the jetpack felt like a chore. Then again, it also added to the feeling of truly being helpless in the vacuum of space.
My only real nagging is about the boss: I really didn't know if I made progress by shooting it or not.
Anyway, two thumbs up!
Damn this looks promising! Reminded me of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.
I liked that the game didn't try to explain itself - I just fiddled with things and after my first death, quickly figured out how the engines work. Shame there wasn't more to it! The game feels right - there was a real sense of struggling to control a ship about to crash.
About controls: I think jump lasts way too long, it made navigating a bit harder than it should be. Also, the mouse-controlled crosshair was at this point kinda useless because you could only interact with the items next to you anyway. (But I feel it's there for future features, so that.)
Oh, it's Touhou in a Zelda dungeon! Interesting! I literally thought this is going to end after the first boss, being an LD jam game and all.
Little did I know...
I initially disliked the idea of having a time mechanic that makes you rush through a dungeon you'd want to explore meticulously. Not to mention that after all lights had went out, that 'gotta go fast' aspect disappears completely.
But as floors went on, the mechanic started to make sense: the rooms were very repetitive, so you actually WANTED to rush the game instead of conscientiously killing every enemy in every room.
And oh boy did that mindset make the later floors much more enjoyable. I actually made into fourth floor's boss while the lights were still on there and almost had it - but it got me just before the end!
I liked especially the third and fourth boss - there was a winning strategy to be found, and wrong moves could be fatal.
Oddly, this reminds me a bit of the first Legend of Zelda. You explore the world one lethal screen at a time. The directions you can shoot at are very limited and that makes things hard - it's not necessarily a bad thing!
There isn't much to do, however, and the gameplay becomes easily repetitive. Difficulty keeps things interesting, though!
Oh, I had a blast with this one. The game is fun (albeit not THAT innovative). But let's face it: 'Karting but in space' already sells the game for me :D
Power-ups like slow zone fitted the game nicely. And of COURSE there is drifting! The controls were also pretty good. Maybe it was the camera that sometimes made staying on track a bit tricky. I also have to agree with HuvaaKoodia: maybe the tracks could be a bit wider.
Also, the "no power for the last one" mechanic is a bit problematic: it creates scenarios where you have dropped completely out of the race because it's not possible any more to catch up with the npcs.
Anyway, well done!
Oh, and one more thing: sometimes it was unclear which contestant got which powerup. Maybe only the player's powerup text should be shown? Also, try to reduce the amount of text during the race, there seldom is time to read them.
Oh, you really can't stop to look at the view (or info messages, for that matter :D ) with these fast-paced levels.
I really wanted to play this further, but occasionally there was a bug that prevented me from lifting up boxes... :<
Time: 11:06 Deaths: 19
Very impressive. At times the game was very unforgiving - there wasn't always too much room for errors. But difficulty wasn't frustrating - my only frustrations arose from moments like when the box was difficult to take with or the physics made it hard to drop into one tile wide shafts. It was fun nonetheless, I would like to play this further!
I really dig the art style!
The camera zoom was also an efficient way of showing the surroundings - especially because exploration wasn't really possible due to the time limit mechanic (quite usual in this jam!). The zoom could be a bit smoother, tho, there was some jarring transitions here and there.
I think this is one of those entries that really should be expanded further.
Beat the game in 5min 10sec - first try! ^^
It was a fun FTL-like, even if quite easy to beat: enemies were quickly destroyed and I basically never ran out of ammo. Of course, given some additional systems, balancing them all might be more difficult (and more rewarding).
Anyway, the basic mechanics _works_, and it was interesting to figure out how fast your ship can reach the goal. I might give it another go!
This game looks and sounds ready. There has so much potential! Things like dynamic soundtrack make this feel already very professional.
But DAMN if this is difficult - at times frustratingly so. It's good when deaths are justified, and many times they are - but sometimes I felt I wasn't in control, sometimes there could have been a few more safe zones here and there. I just gave up in level... was it 5? Anyway, these are things that are easily improved on for a post-jam version!
Also: I think the energy meter cooldown should be faster when almost full (or there could be for example some always-usable attack move that would consume power) - it's annoying to just stand there and wait for the meter to drop to safe levels.