Changeling Infiltration Simulator by ProjectX593 2016-04-18T06:04:00
Superbly polished and great visual style. Love this entry.
Played to completion. :3
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Casey Jordan
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | Th | Gr | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | 'Pillars of Life | compo | 188 | 3.56 | 3.24 | 3.94 | 3.35 | 3.67 | 66 |
Superbly polished and great visual style. Love this entry.
Played to completion. :3
Absolutely loved this. Not revealing how to identify the shape shifters is such a tease. :D
Fearing bias, I wanted to put some distance between playing this and reviewing it. I had been talking to Geti in IRC.
Looking back, this is still one of my favorite entries so far. Excellent scope and a lot of nuance. This game just "feel" right.
More importantly, the minimal exposition creates a context then allows the player to create their own narrative as they attempt to "figure out" what's going on.
For some reason I came back to this even after I knew the trick. There's some special, intangible quality here. Really feelin' it.
Really feelin' it.
Really impressive systems in place given the time constraints of the ld. :3
Unfortunately, game balance crowds out most interesting choices. Self-directed play reveals a lot of interesting potential, though. Power up stacks creating a temporary boost is cool. Deconstruction perks need to be buffed to make this worthwhile, but it's an interesting choice.
Keeping an eye on this. :3
I agree with Dasginger's comment about each enemy "investigating" their respective environmental objects!
There was a surprisingly level of depth to the dynamics. You could tease a lot of out of these mechanics with more time to iterate on level design. :D
I'm a fan of Paradox Interactive games, and this touched on a lot of similar aesthetics. (Fantasy, projection, a lot happening in player-head-space, etc...)
I played numerous times, each time altering my approach, not in an effort to win but to explore a different narrative arc. There's a LOT in this tidy little system.
I can't help but love this. We have a similar design philosophy, so I'm a little biased. But shamelessly so.
One bit of actionable criticism: I wish an in-fight was triggered on drag/drop, not consecutive clicks. As thematically appropriate as being able to accidentally trigger an in-fight is, it's frustrating. Cx
You're a design genius. You deliberately craft bounded experiences and allow players to explore themselves through the tools you create.
I've got mah eye on you.
Cute.
Shapeshifting squirt while Lola is on top bugs the game. Squirt flies into space, never to return. D:
Taking Lola and Squirt across the same map areas feels redundant. You could exploit their jump height difference to give them different pathing options independent of one another to eliminate some of this repetitive play.
Excellent mood. Bonus points for being bold enough to take the theme outside of game-space.
I lost mah pen, though.
A lot here! :D
A bit unforgiving, though. I wasn't able to see all of the content. I agree with josefnpat about progressively introducing mechanics.
36768 (hard)! :D
Excellent graphics for a compo entry. Unfortunately, more time should've been spent on balance.
I want to enjoy the art, but the game is so unforgiving and jump windows are so narrow, that I (literally) couldn't make it over the third box after 10 minutes of play across two play sessions.
Love the time lapse. :D
I almost thought this was off theme, but then it hit me. xD
Can't open this. Gives me an error. >>
Overall, a bit disparate; the music actually detracts from what would otherwise be a brooding mood. I muted it.
Otherwise, the name, concept, graphics, all play really nice together and make this a solid entry. :D
This a really cool little proof of concept. There's not a lot of interesting dynamic play (yet?), but I can "squint my eyes" (so to speak) and imagine something cool springing from this.
Great job, guys.
Very on-theme. I don't know if a lot of the design decisions that I'm lauding were intentional, but I'm really feeling the vibe of this game.
You give the player the affordance of combat, but make it...prohibitively weak to be of any value, especially after you unlock the ferret.
Giving the player the OPTION to fight, but making it useless might seem pointless, but it has a massive effect on player perception. It did in my case, at least. There was a notable point when I was just, like, "Eh, fighting these guys is pointless". Which helped me fall into this shamnistic role. The music reinforced it as well.
Very cool. :3
The intense time pressure makes the decision points actually a challenge. Cool little game. :3
Nice to see someone else in game maker! :D
This is fantastic.
Noticed a bug, though. It didn't detect a lose case when I was against the level edge.
I agree with the lot saying it's difficult. The game doesn't hand-hold, and I had to die multiple times to figure out the mechanics/what was going on.
This wasn't a bad thing!
The responsive controls and short levels made death not that punishing, which thematically suits the "eternal struggle" mood.
Didn't rate in graphics category because that isn't where the game has merit, but want to honorably mention the moon. It's charming and stylistically consistent.
I'm not sure I agree with Hankenstien. The delay when morphing isn't wholly negative.
It's easy to get frustrated with the delay in changing, but it creates situations where you are punished for not deciding sooner.
Given the simplicity of the game, I think that this is one of the only reasons it was engaging for any length of time. xD
I see where the comment is coming from, but it's one of those "careful what you wish for" situations.
Given you had time to iterate on this, I figure the decision to keep the transformation delay was deliberate. :3
I disagree with Hankenstein. Given the simplicity of the game, the morph delay was one of the only things that kept the game engaging.
It's easy to get frustrated with it, but I'd say it's a "be careful what you wish for" situations, because the game wouldn't sustain my interest for as long as it did without it. That said, it's also probably the reason I stopped playing.
Probably a miss-step for the genre, but it added to the fun in the short term.
Oh! wboqm is right! Colliding with a rock should push you to the edge of the rock, that would create a natural weaving behavior.
Hitting a rock is still punished (because you are moved lower on the screen), but it adds a negative feedback loop.
Maybe this only happens as the fox.
I thought I might have a seizure.
Another stand-out entry. :D
I tend to rate games that exhibit good scoping/time budgeting really favorably, especially when the finished product is intuitive and polished. This is an excellent example of that.
Not super ambitious, but the core mechanic is unique. Lots of possibilities for cool iteration. ^-^
Good job.
First off, didn't beat it... but there is a LOT here for a compo game. You built a nice little system and had plenty of time to iterate on the actual content, it seems. Good on you.
The one downside I can note is that managing clutter is frustrating. I wish there was an easier way to managing your goop.
At first I found meticulously collecting and organizing my goops engaging, but that charm wore off before my desire to continue seeing game content did.
Nonetheless, I loved this. :D
Quite fun. Between the graphics, sounds, and general polish, an excellent overall entry.
One point of criticism, though, is that some of the random events during game play seem somewhat inconsequential.