Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Catalystl
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Josh Dumb | jam | 122 | 4.11 | 3.90 | 3.78 | 4.25 | 3.83 | 3.80 | 4.37 | 3.61 |
I liked this game. The graphics are nice, the sound design is good at making it satisfying to kill the eels, and it was a pretty chill experience. One flaw is that the camera moves when you're at the edge of the screen, making it hard to see where you're going to go, tiny things like that you could improve to make this game better.
This was really atmospheric and well put together.
This game has had the best graphics I've seen so far in the jam. The sound design was also good and made blasting away the lobsters fun. I would add another addition to the moveset to help the character move around faster though. Good Stuff! My highscore was 40.
Deflecting the wizard's projectiles is definetely the most fun part of the game, and I think you should design more enemies like that, where they pose a threat but you can use their attacks against them. Besides that, I found it abrupt to attack, and stop dead in my tracks (I would just slow down the movement speed by a lot so you can adjust your aim slightly). I had a good time with the game, nice job!
I finally finished the game and it was all right, so I'm gonna list a few things you could do to improve on it. First of all, I think there should be a way to tell which animal you selected that isn't based on whether or not you can see the animal following your cursor, since the selected animal only appears on the ground. I would put a highlight around the box of the animal you select.
I also had trouble with the section with tons of moles, since it wasn't obvious as to which one would take you the right way. I was gonna give up, but since you played my game all the way through, I wanted to do the same with yours.
The jump shown in the image I uploaded was a bit weird, since sometimes, I was able to get to the moles in the top right of the screen, but other times, I didn't. You should align the ducky with the grid of the level to ensure that each setup will have the same outcome.bug.PNG
I wish you could cancel out the animal you selected also/remove animals since one misplacement can mean you have to restart the whole level and that can get annoying.
I think the Eagle was a really good addition, since it served two purposes, one for getting through the level, and the other for using it in other places to get through the level faster. The Sound Effects were also really funny. Good job!
Probably my favorite game I've played so far in the jam. The design choices are really smart, such as the cannon not only serving as shooting enemies, but also collecting coins and propelling yourself. Writing this reminds me of how Marc Brown talked about Downwell's dual purpose design and speaking of that game, I think this game is perfect for mobile as well!
Here's my small nitpicks:
* Game takes off a little slow in the beginning because it takes too long to reload. * The win is abrupt, and I would instead switch it out for a device that calls a super powerful UFO towards the planet that you have to face off to win. (Although one big thing to fight isn't really where the fun of the game comes from so I would have more things to shoot other than it) * The shop is pretty bland. (though I like how that is for some reason but I don't think most people will) * I would want to see how much I upgrade a certain thing on the shop.
Overall, it's an awesome game.
Played this game on Newgrounds, so I decided to rate it here. Nice job!
I really like the graphics and dialogue! You should design the map around funneling the player do different locations before letting them roam the open world or atleast populate the map a bit more to improve on it.
I just finished the game. I really liked it! The level design was great and taught me the controls instantly without any dialogue. My only problem is that the body wouldn't stop moving as soon as I clicked on it with the soul, unless this is just a design choice. It made one part of the game a little frustrating, since I felt like I had little control over what was happening (this part was near the beginning, when you raise a platform up after freezing the body). Regardless though, amazing job!
@ismael-rodriguez If you want to give the character "weight" I would just speed up the brake speed, and maybe extend that platform a little bit to fix the issue. You're welcome for the detailed feedback, I like giving people tips.
Congrats on getting first in overall! :D
I LOVE the music and graphics for this game. It has a lot of charm! The game itself is pretty basic though, I would add a few more levels.
Good stuff! This was a bit like the concept of my game when I started brainstorming of ideas. I thought a guy unknowingly sending himself on suicide missions was hilarious, but instead I opted out for a guy you have to steer through levels without him falling victim to something horrible. The Battle System was fun enough to keep me going throughout the game, although I wish you could level up atleast a little bit.
Pretty chill game, the music isn't amazing but it adds to the charm. You should add the ability to plant more seeds and some people to talk to so you can immerse the player, there's tons of potential for stuff to add. Sometimes simple things are the most fun and memorable.
Edit: Wait you can plant seeds oh I'm gonna go back to this game now sorry.
Edit 2: Okay I played a lot of the game now but I don't think I have the patience to get to unlock the 10000 coins gate.
I also ran into one bug, which is when I equipped the scykle and right clicked to harvest a grown plant with a full inventory. It plants another plant in the already grown plant spot.
A good way of keeping the player going throughout the game is teasing them with different upcoming purchases/events. I explored the rooms to the left, right, and bottom of the starting area but each of them just expanded my ability by just a tiny amount. You should add more and more depth to the game as the player unlocks such areas. Like I said before, have npcs to talk to and maybe some small quests and random events and this game would be improved by a lot.
This game was pretty good :D giving the player time to recover after making a mistake was a good design choice. My high-score was 40.screen.png
This game was alright. It's not too polished, but I liked the setting and the ridiculousness of it!
This was probably the funniest game I ever played. I'm not even sure why but it probably has something to do with the tiny cats with funny names that don't move at all the whole game, or the sudden tentacles flooding the room, or the tiny gun that makes bubble sounds.
As for the gameplay, it's pretty barebones apart from the humor, which it adds to it honestly. I usually give a lot of constructive criticism in my comments but honestly i'm just left speechless by this experience. That's a good thing I think.
Good game, the visuals are really nice, although I think you should include more feedback in the game, by having a death animation, walking animation, and add sounds for when you hit an enemy. I found the particles that appear when you kill an enemy to be a little out of place because they're blurry, and the camera didn't show much of what was below me which lead to a lot of deaths in level 6.
The movement, although simple, is really nice because it lets you glide through the air really fast. You should design levels around this though or make them longer because the levels themselves are a bit short. Overall, a good first Ludum Dare entry!
Edit: also I agree with @fabula-rasa that the theme wasn't very clear. I think a good idea would be to add an ememy that takes away the flower you're carrying and you have to chase him for it back.
Pretty good game, I think you should allow the player to make up for at least 1 bug reaching the fire like Sheinxy said not only to be fair but to add tension. The incentive to keep on the move with the Hope pickups are a good touch as well. The graphics are a bit rough around the edges, but the sound effect of firing makes this game pretty satisfying! Nice work.
Like other people, I went into this thinking it would be an okay game, but nope this is actually really good! It has the right mix of platforming and puzzles, your level design skills are awesome!
Nice game. it has a lot of charm, but the gameplay is a little slow in my opinion. I would add some more dangers like things following you at a slow pace and maybe another group of dinosaurs you have to keep alive with a different input.
I tried this game out and it was pretty confusing. Here's what you can improve on:
Make the movement speed of the character and the speed at which he turns around faster.
Make the area brighter, (possibly by adding lighting around the outskirts of the map.
Improve on the collision detection because to add logs to the fire, I had to click above it.
Add more danger to the game other than the fire running out to build up tension. (perhaps enemies that try to douse the flames or people just generally trying to kill you.)
Overall this was a rough attempt but of course it can be much more enjoyable if you improve on it. I hope you get to do so in the future.
@mrpiedpiper Nice job making it to the end! The coins surrounding that last turret are a joke, since they're impossible to get, which is why the level is named "Don't Release It". I know about level 7 being broken, and I fixed that in the newer build I linked. Thank you so much for the review.
Edit: The newer build makes the game a little easier by the way, I thought the game's difficulty spiked at the previously mentioned level 7, which is why I tweaked it.
@kosmo Thanks for the constructive criticism. I actually planned on using WASD to rotate the arrow, infact if you look at the source code there's a script called "todolist" where I have that unchecked. I personally found switching objects to be easy to do, since I designed the levels to use only 2 objects. The rotating/switching objects is part of the game's difficulty, so I don't want to change it too much, however, I'll patch in configurable controls in the future.
@ismael-rodriguez That's strange... I haven't gotten that error, and I just tested out the game jolt download right now. It seems like an error with winrar, now that I realize it, I zipped the file with winrar instead of compressing it normally with winzip.
Try this mediafire download, since it takes way too long to upload stuff to gamejolt:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vclh3gtzcgv0e31/Josh_Dumb_Windows_v1.0.1.zip/file
@ismael-rodriguez Thanks for the feedback. Screen buttons would be easier to understand, but the game's challenge/fun comes from the quick switching between your shield/cursor/objects. Having to move your mouse to a section of the screen would make the game impossible in certain sections, like in Level 7.
I'm sorry that you can't get past the controls. I'll upload a patch that lets you configure the controls when I can if that helps. Other than that, if you're having trouble, try strategizing by breaking blocks when Josh isn't in danger, and keep in mind that the arrows are rotated clockwise.
If you ever go back to this game, I suggest trying to play the game up to level 6 because my sister, who doesn't have the best reaction speed was able to make it there and get more out of the experience.
Either way, thank you for trying it out.
@otterdisgrace Well it says to press enter to continue when you beat a level, are you saying you should press enter to start a level once you reach it? If so, I actually considered that but I ran out of time to add it. I'm going to add it in the Post-Jam version.
@rsninjadev Your shield breaks when it gets too close to the turret, this is to stop from cheesing the game. I will add that in text form in level 4 when the shield is introduced. Thanks for the feedback!
@toddthewraith I'm adding a fix for that in the post-jam version.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I uploaded the post-jam version of the game to the game jolt page just now. Here's what I added:
* Control configuration * WASD to rotate arrows * You can bind the arrow/spring to a certain key * Right click to start each level on the first attempt * Josh's brother's "shirt" says COOL GUY on it in the ending cutscene (no way) * Font has lowercase letters, making it easier to read * Bad ending music
I was originally going to add more to the update, but because this took a while to do, I'm uploading it in its current state and adding onto it in the future. I'll post another comment here when that's finished. Sorry for the wait, and thanks for sticking with me if you're reading this.
@flyingbear Thanks for the really detailed criticism! Controls using the mouse to switch to different things wouldn't really work out (because of the strict time periods between switching and placing things later in the game), however, now that I'm thinking about this again, I realize that on mobile you could use two fingers to do it easily so if I ever get around to porting this to mobile I'll definetely include that.
Because the challenge of the game is the juggling between tasks quickly, being able to place things before Josh starts moving would point/challenge of the game. I think most people give feedback on how the game is too hard to manage because it looks like a puzzle game when you first start playing but technically it's a real time strategy game with light puzzle elements.
Also I like how you were sold on the premise because the name Josh Dumb because personally the stupidness of the name would make me want to check it out if I glanced at it, and it's funny to see that someone else was interested in it for that reason.
This game has a good mix of simplicity and complexity. It's very charming and hearing the beepbox music was pretty cool. Reminds me of when I started making music with that 2 years ago. Keep making games! Your skills will only improve.