Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Breadmower
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | 👥 | Superbugs | jam | 84 | 3.94 | 4.05 | 3.89 | 3.44 | 3.10 | 2.05 | 3.20 |
I like the concept - reminds me a bit of Assassin's Creed multiplayer or The Ship. The photograph could be a bit clearer (though it makes sense that it's not the best picture - taken from a distance by the investigator), and I feel like there's not enough pressure to blend in (perhaps have a shorter time limit for tasks, so you're forced to focus on them and keep an eye out for your target whilst you do them). Definitely shows potential, though :-)
Interesting idea with not having direct control over your units, was something a bit different - can get quite tense when a bug is attacking one of your forts, and you're hoping that a few of your ants will reach it in time to prevent it being destroyed. I'd suggest having a way to deactivate paths, so you can focus your ants in a particular direction, but I guess that would go against the idea of not having direct control. Good stuff :-)
Simple and fun, though quite challenging when there's several enemies after you - I was constantly spinning around to look over my shoulder and check that I wasn't about to hit an enemy behind me! One suggestion: it's sometimes a bit difficult to line up your shots correctly - have you thought about allowing the player to use the mouse to aim (so mouse left/right would do the same as A/D, but you'd have a bit more fine control).
I really wish I had some VR gear, as I think this would be awesome if played with a headset! Still fun playing with a mouse, but I can really see the potential of it in VR :-)
Suggestion: could do with a time limit - eg see how many items you can swat in a minute - and perhaps make the score for an item depend on how long it takes to swat it (kind of like one of those reaction test games). Love the idea, though - nice work :-)
I have to admit that I didn't really like this at first (everything seemed a bit too floaty), but after a few minutes you start to get the hang of timing your rocket boosts and leading your shots, and it all comes together. Very fun, with just the right level of difficulty - there's something very satisfying about timing a shot just right and sailing the ball over the head of an oncoming robot, then blasting it through the goal :-)
Well, that was annoyingly addictive :-) Really enjoyed this - the final level was hectic, but I was determined to get though it (always the sign of a good game!). Very satisfying when you get stuck in a hole, then manage to escape when a meteor blasts a way out for you.
One suggestion: would be nice if the fully upgraded radar gave an indication of time to impact - perhaps the target could shrink (or change colour?) so you can judge whether you want to risk running past it.
Fun, but quite difficult until I realised the trick is to plan ahead and set up your ropes before luring the cat in and finishing the enclosure.
I think my only suggestion would be that the difficulty ramps up too much between level 1 and 2: Ro-cat moves a lot faster and targets you more directly than Grand Meow - perhaps a level between the two would be good (eg a cat that aims for you, but moves slower, so you get the hang of feinting to lure him where you want).
Thanks for the feedback so far everyone :-) I think we're going to expand the game a bit and give it a proper release after LD is finished.
@ColeSlaughter - thanks for the suggestions. I originally wanted to work out a "par" system so that you'd have a target number of drugs to beat, but didn't get chance to implement it. The puzzles are randomly generated each time, but - as you say - perhaps that should be moved into an endless mode, and we should have some predefined levels. I'm also thinking about some kind of procedural generation where levels are generated from a seed (perhaps the date, for a daily puzzle?) so players could compete against their friends to see who can find the most efficient solution.
@tbureck Thanks :-) As you've guessed, the levels are procedurally generated each time you play. Each size of grid is used twice: the first time the game tries to fill (roughly) 1/4 of the cells with viruses, and it aims for 1/2 of the cells the second time. It should only generate solvable grids (if I've coded it correctly!), so sometimes there's one or two fewer viruses than the target number.
Lots of fun - easy to pick up, but then gets a little tricky later on. I'm always a fan of puzzles where the obvious move to make isn't the right thing to do! I do like the motion of the microbes in the dish when they're getting pulled together.
Minor bug: I think you're spawning a new music playing object each time you load the main menu (eg going to help, then back will cause the music to play twice).
Nice and simple, but fun - love the cute planet :-)
Interesting idea, simple, but a lot of variation possible. It's quite nice to "play" something without objectives, and just have a creative sketchpad - I was rather pleased with the tune I managed to make :-)
Enjoyed this, though I agree with a few other comments that the lack of a tutorial meant that I spent the first few batches randomly pressing stuff to see what worked (though, thinking about it, that's actually a pretty accurate description of natural selection!).
Couple of suggestions: it's sometimes difficult to keep track of where your amoebros are when you've scrolled around - something like arrows around the outside of the screen pointing to where they are would be good. Also, the ability to click and drag to scroll around would be good (I kept finding myself trying to right mouse drag for some reason - must be a behaviour I've learnt from another game (C&C?)).
Oh, and the momentary defocus effect when zooming is a nice touch :-)
Novel take on rhythm games, though I seem to lack the co-ordination to get very far - I panic and let go of left/right when trying to punch! As someone else said, perhaps pressing to change lanes, rather than holding would make it a bit easier (or let the player choose?). Good fun, though :-)
PS: Love the plot :-)