Hungry Holly by Avon 2019-10-19T03:57:26Z
At first I was thinking the game would be boring but as the difficulty slowly ramped up I was having more and more fun which was a pleasant surprise!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → CafeLovai
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | 👥 | Defective | jam | 871 | 3.10 | 3.03 | 2.66 | 3.15 | 3.00 | 3.46 | 3.31 | 2.88 |
At first I was thinking the game would be boring but as the difficulty slowly ramped up I was having more and more fun which was a pleasant surprise!
Very funny game. I bursted out laughing for a good minute within the first few sentences. Art is pretty good as well. The mechanics are also solid, I like the stress mechanic which gave a surprising amount of dept (pun intended) to combat.
Cute main character. Difficulty ramps up quite a bit but becomes manageable after some upgrades. Attacking was a bit odd with it being based on which direction you last moved. I think attacking should be based on where you click since enemies can move fast and attacking while running away can be difficult. The boss was also surprisingly easy
That was a pretty unique experience for me. I think you did a good job with the difficulty curve. The music was great as well, it fit the mood of the game and there was a good amount of variety. You did a good job making an addicting experience as this game is a great fusion of two different gameplay types I would never had thought would work well together. The numbers next to the buttons was confusing at first as I thought I had to press that button that amount of times, but when I caught on to what they represent, it helped me to react to the button prompts much quicker.
The audio and visuals combine for some interesting ambience to the gameplay. Took a bit of time to figure out what too do but not crazy long.
I need to know the story behind this man. Why is he half-naked? What happened to the city? Is he cold? When did zombies get proficient at riding motorcycles? This game gave me a really good laugh and I had some fun with the gameplay. Music gave a kinda dreadful feel to such ridiculous visuals. Nice work!
Nice job with the physics of this game. It was fun to discover how to navigate the environments. And I like how it was challenging but the checkpoints were generous. Made the challenge fell less frustrating and more relaxing which was the mood you were going for.
Truly "Nothing" is only a state of mind. This game made me look at the world and my relationships differently.
Really though, I thought this game was going to be cheesy but that quote in the first level and how the mechanic was introduced was great. Speaking of the mechanic. It was very cool, I have not seen anything like it and it made for some fun discovery as I learned about the extent of the mechanic. Especially in later levels where you have to mix the nothing mechanic and the items you actually hold. The music was really nice as well, putting me in a bit of a zen state as I figured out the puzzles. Nice work! The mechanic would make for a cool full game.
Great game. It is impressive how you essentially made two games and combined them into one. The progression feels pretty rewarding. Sprinting is somewhat awkward (very fast and useful in only one part) and the SHMUP portions could had used a bit of a invicibility-on-hit. Despite this I had a blast with the challenge and the final SHMUP was really fun.
Great graphics and audio very charming. I had trouble with the first level cause I would often get stuck in place when trying to jump which was pretty frustrating
This is an amazing idea and I think it would make for a great full game as the possibilities are endless. The graphics are simple but are well juiced and really add to the charm. I also adore the music. A great spin of a crossword puzzle and a game puzzle. I wish it was longer but I think the little we got to experience was amazing! Nice work!
That was stressful in a cool way. Dying the first time and hearing that horrifying sound really made me not want to die the second time. Going through the game with the music speeding up and those off putting graphics left me in an odd trance state of NOT DYING. This might haunt me whenever I lose my internet connection.
It was fun collecting the parts and gaining more abilities over time. This game has a nice progression to it. I got confused when one of the parts made me lose my arms. Not sure if that was intentional
First of all the art is amazing. Second of all the music is amazing. 3rd of all the concept is amazing. I think the one big flaw of the game is the control scheme. I didn't really want to switch between all the powers due to how far I had to stretch my hand to hit some of them.
Also really like the ending. I see what you did there.
I think you guys did a good job easing the player into the mechanics. There was a good variety of abilities. I think the enemy difficulty could ramp up a bit faster as the player gets a lot stronger very quickly, leading to less strategy and more spamming strong attacks. Besides that the art is great and I think this is a cool spin on combat!
Fun game. At first I thought the ball had too much inertia but I got used to it. Level design is interesting and I usually hate wall-jumping mechanics cause they tend to feel unnatural but I think you did a really good job with it here. I especially like how u can use the wall jumping to save yourself from death, but it is not so forgiving that it works every time. Like others said, the most important thing about graphics is that they communicate clearly what needs to be known about the gameplay. I think you did a great job with that here!
How dare you. How do you expect me to get rid of everything when the objects keep making me laugh lol. Nice game.
I like how you added a message to take away from with this game. A cool spin on the "Start With Nothing" theme. The puzzles were less mind games and more trying everything until something works for me, except for the last one. I really liked how you finish the game. Audio was also nice, helped me to get lost in the game world.
Funny graphics (and made me a biiiiiiiiiiiiit uncomfortable but in a good way). Not really sure what is the point of collecting body parts. It seems staying a head is better for a smaller hit box.
Great game and unique concept. I think this a great interpritation of the Start with nothing theme. I also think you guys nailed the difficulty. I felt myself get better and I didnt get too frustrated along the way. Movement speed felt a bit sluggish and hit boxes felt a bit bigger than they should be on the red enemies but besides that amazing work!
This game looks great! The world looks interesting and I love the color scheme. The player walk cycle is also nice. It would had been nice to add a simple tune for the level to complete the atmosphere. My biggest criticism is that I think melee enemies should have dealt damage after a wind up animation. Allowing you to weave in attacks without getting hurt if you are skilled enough. Because you instantly get hit when touching a melee enemy it makes using the crossbow a much better option.
It was a cool adventure, nice job!
This was a really cool game to go through. I think there are only 6 stages? It stopped after I finished that stage. I think the puzzles were challenging but not too difficult. I felt very satisfied when I figured out each stage. Great concept with endless possibilities. Visuals are minimal but effective.
Sfx is on point here. Helps make the place feel more alive as the sounds get louder and softer depending on the room you are in. If it wasn't for that I don't think I would had been as invested in the game. You really took advantage of the factory setting in that department.
This was a nice horror game. I felt pretty spooked through it. The only thing that ruined the mood somewhat was the dolls T-posing right before attacking but it was a good laugh. Wasn't sure how to escape so I didn't finish it but from what I played it was a nice visual and auditory spectacle!
I like how this was essentially a puzzle of conversations. Also these characters really do like to waste your time. But that is fine cause of how amusing all of them were!
Great choice in music it really complements the risk vs reward gameplay. I was trying to get to 100 but died at the last second. This was really fun. Great job!
I knew one of the "start from nothing" games would be something like this and I am not disappointed. You guys did a great job making the game feel like it was being created as you progress (just needs 20 cans of empty monster energy drinks). The animations from the square to the bipedal character were great and well juiced. I also got a good chuckle from all those script names. Only problem is the platforming was awkward due to feeling a floaty (possibly due to gravity not being strong enough) plus very small platforms to land on, this wouldn't be so bad if the camera didn't follow the player so tightly making it hard to see the ground you want to land on. Also wasn't sure if this was intentional but my controls were reversed when I got to advance movement.
Despite all this I am impressed with the amount of things done in 72 hours and still rate this game highly and recommend it to my friends. Great Job!
It was a good call to make the death sequence skippable. I think what often makes a hard reaction heavy game enjoyable is the ability to be able to retry quickly. I don't think I would had gotten as far if it wasn't for that. This is an entry I enjoyed alot because I could really feel myself getting better. At first I was blaming the controls when I got rekt, but as I experimented more I found that the controls were pretty tight! The random generation of the enemies and weapons could get a bit annoying as the weapon would fly along a row of enemies sometimes. To mitigate that I think increasing the rate the weapons spawn might be a good idea. I will say however I felt a big feeling of satisfaction when I caught a weapons and I was suddenly overpowered.
tight rope LD45.png Overall amazing job! I have to say, whenever I died and all the red guys just turned to stare at me I truly felt defeat lol.
I really appreciate how there is an tutorial room to allow the player to be comfortable with the game before starting the real game. Made the game a lot more enjoyable as I was able to learn things at my own pace rather than scramble to not lose immediately. Core concept of the game is straightforward and effective. The addition of walls as your progress is also great. I think my only criticism would be to add a visual indicator of getting hit (maybe a red screen flash). I also think de-spawning the bullets on the ground at a faster rate would be good.
Overall Nice!
Great art, your style is very soft and inviting! The songs could be a bit harsh and hard to listen too. The book choosing minigame being the biggest example.
At first I was like "Man im so weak." then I was like "Man Im so strong!". Really like how attack upgrades were not just an increase in damage numbers. I think the coins should had scrolled towards the left when they are dropped. Hard to get more coins when you kill enemies as soon as they appear due to high attack upgrades.
Nice job on the enemy AI. I love how they can figure out how to get around doors if u try to get them stuck and how they scatter if you try to rush them. Made it hard to find exploits to the system. And exploits tend to ruin games are designed to be soul-crushingly hard, lol. Nice work!
A fun mechanic and overall enjoyable game that can be played with one hand. Quite liked the color scheme and I felt the character movements were fluid. Sound stopped shortly after starting for me. One of the checkpoints was placed above spikes and put me in an infinite death loop which is where I stopped. Before this happened though, the platforming challenges were very fun.
I like the graphics. They look well polished. I also like how you went for a cinematic mood. It would be nice if the dialogue could appear above object like with the character tending the bushes.
Mood wise this is one of my favorite games. I love the storytelling and it motivated me to move on from level to level. Even to replay the game to get the full picture of what is going on. This is a nice physics platformer which introduces concepts and controls at a nice pace so that the game doesnt get too intimidating. Great Work!
@thor1 @pixamentory Thanks alot!
@hyperscope Having the enemies wander around was something we thought of but ran out of time for. Still, we never actually planned to have them aggro on hit. I think your suggestion would make sense, thanks for the feedback!
@asimov Glad she liked it! We will keep in mind balancing diagonal movement speed when we make another game of this genre.
@papaver Thanks for the detailed review! Really appreciate it! One thing our first game jam has taught all of use is to allocate a good amount of time to tweaking things lol. We spent most of the time dumping things we wanted in the game without really testing them. So the one picture you showed is honestly impossible to get to.
Restarting is something we realized we should had added after we submitted but we don't want to add features for the sake of LD rules. Something to definitely remember to do in the next game!
Quite the assortment of minigames. Gave me a good laugh. The 3rd minigame controls were confusing but didn't frustrate me since you are allowed to mess up alot.
Presentation is nice and makes me feel like im playing a much older game in a good way! The wall jumping was pretty frustrating and I wish the levels has less of it. Besides that, its cool how you gain more skills over time.