crumpet

Year	LD	Theme	Game	Division	Rank	Ov	Fu	In	Th	Gr	Au	Hu	Mo	Co
2015	32	An Unconventional Weapon	Purging Cuddle Kingdoms	compo	44	3.97	3.88	3.88	4.03	3.91	3.75	3.97	3.74	53
2014	31	Entire Game on One Screen	Deep Breath	compo	6	4.22	4.17	3.78	2.59	3.48	4.14	3.57	3.67	36
2014	29	Beneath the Surface	Esc	compo	32	4.03	3.62	3.47	3.79	3.76	3.71	1.94	4.03	51

Guidance by oyster_crusher 2014-04-28T21:47:00

Right off the bat, the controls are a bit awkward. A lot of people are more comfortable with WASD, and from the outside, it looks like you have little to lose in mapping the movement controls to WASD as well as the arrow keys. While U is a memorable undo button, it suffers from being too far from any of the other keys you use. Might I suggest taking a look at Puzzlescript games' controls?

The mechanics imposed a set number of moves to solve a puzzle, which imposes a sense of every action mattering, a sense I had already begin to suspect the moment I saw it had an undo button (love the undo button, by the way). Whenever every move counts, it makes you really think several moves ahead, which honestly makes you feel rather clever whenever you solve a puzzle. Optimizing your solutions to squeeze out that final step too many is a nice feeling, one I quite appreciate.

Sadly, the graphics are lackluster, and there doesn't appear to be any audio (correct me if this is an issue on my end), and the font you've used for text clashes with the pixellated art style of the game. Making a game comprehensible with such a small colour palette is a noteworthy achievement, kudos for that.

I always prefer when the theme is implemented mechanically rather than through story, it makes the game feel far more tailored to the theme, rather than shoehorned in at the last moment.

Guidance by oyster_crusher 2014-04-28T21:48:00

Guidance by oyster_crusher 2014-04-28T21:50:00

Sorry for the double post :(

River of Souls by Jiyambi 2014-04-29T22:36:00

Honestly, I'm surprised this game hasn't gotten more attention than it has.
The art is the best of the 13 games I've looked at so far, and by such a huge margin that I doubt it'll get dislodged from that spot anytime soon. I just love the cohesion of the style. Pentagons! Hardly the most common of art styles either.
It's a right shame about the lack of sound, because if you did have some nice sound design in there, the game would feel like such a captivating experience. I can't help but feel bad for how this game was robbed of such potentially moving sound design, by the ever powerful Ludum Dare deadline.
The story is well written, you follow the "Show don't tell" rule very effectively, and can tell quite an extensive background in only the first few lines of the game.
Overall, a really stunning entry. If not for the absence of sound, I would have confused it for a higher level jam entry. Already with what you have, I had to double check.

Esc by Crumpet 2014-04-28T13:48:00

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

The high difficulty of the game post-twist is intentional, although it could be seen as a poor design desition. Onecould have quite a lengthy debate as to how much playability of your game should be sacrificed in the name of the story, the message.

I realize now that after having remove a certain line partway through development, how I fit the theme in is never quite explained. I added it to the game description, but basically the idea is that in such relationships, everything can seem so normal on the surface, but once you look beneath the surface, the horrific truth emerges.

Again, thanks everyone!

Esc by Crumpet 2014-04-29T01:33:00

Thanks again for the feedback:

@Burnside: I'm afraid your comment is unfortunately quite an example of one of the big problems of domestic violence.

See, in abusive relationships, the abuser often tries to shift the blame onto the abused. He makes it sound like it's your fault. Like you are the one to blame for everything. Like it's your fault that he now has to drop you down a huge pit to hurt you to punish you for treating him in a way which he does not deserve.
In the earlier parts of the game, he shows the traits of an abuser in what is known as the "honeymoon" phase, where the couple try to forget anything ever happened. This is why his behavior is somewhat normal at the time. However, this doesn't last.
After the twist, the female character blames herself for what happened. The male character blames her for what happens. The scary thing is, as an outsider, it would be quite easy to also fall into this pitfall of blaming the abused.
The reason I always imagined as to why he gets pushed around with rocks and told to wait, all that jazz, is that the lady is trying her best to entertain him. She's trying to take him on a fun journey to a cave. He is reluctant, but she's trying her best to please him. She's doing all the work, so that they can progress further into the cave. She's doing everything she can to make him happy, and he's doing no work, as the lady feels she shouldn't be letting him do any. Until suddenly control over him is taken from you as a player, as he decides you are not entertaining him sufficiently. Begin act II.

Honestly, I did think about making the male character the abused. As you said, it would be a highly progressive thing to do.
BUT
The biggest issue with doing that is that I myself am male. Had I made the male character the abused, the message had a very high risk of being interpreted as "Nevermind abused wives, abused husbands are the real problem".
Don't get me wrong, abused husbands is a very serious problem. But much like a man standing up for women's rights, or a straight person standing up for gay rights, a message is always so much stronger if the person giving it does not stand to benefit from what they hope to achieve.

Esc by Crumpet 2014-04-29T01:34:00

I must also insist that male abuse is also a huge problem.
http://www.mensadviceline.org.uk/mens_advice.php.html
offers advice specifically to men in abusive relationships.

NYC by Secret_Tunnel 2014-04-28T22:51:00

The whole mood of the game is excellent, through the use of nice artwork, and sound design that absolutely nails it. Seriously, the sound was spot on.

I have some issues with the gameplay, in particular the combined unexpected deaths and the long waiting times between death and when you get back to a point where you do anything except just walk forwards. While I can respect that this adds a whole level of magnitude to each death, making you think over any decision which might kill you quite carefully, some aspects of the game can be quite counter-intuitive, meaning some of the deaths feel a bit frustrating.

Overall, a good game which could be made excellent if you somehow solved the aforementioned problem. Excellent mood, and even better sound design!

Flipper by zed0 2014-04-29T01:02:00

The combined graphics and simple, calm music makes this one of those nice, relaxing games to play, and the short length actually just adds to that (calming games do sometimes outstay their welcome).

The gameplay is simplistic, and should you feel like extending this in the future, that should be something worth keeping. This game thrives because of it's simple nature and soothing aethethic, and complicating the gameplay would only subtract from that.
As was said before, adding exploration would add, as the game does conjure up a certain level of curiosity within the player.

The graphics for the surface of the water could stand to be a little better, they feel very flat at the moment, and the rays of sunlight could maybe go down a bit deeper. I think there's room for making those surface rays of sunlight look nicer as well, they don't quite live up to the glorious sunset.

Overall, it is a game that sets out to do something simple, and accomplishes it nicely with a fair amount of polish. Congratulations!

The Westport Independent by Double Zero One Zero 2014-04-29T10:37:00

I hate to be another person to draw Papers Please parallels, but hey, it's obvious you've drawn some inspiration from it.
Not that this is a bad thing. You've taken the effective parts of the formula, and put them into something different.
The aethethics are lovely, and the game plays nicely, save for awkward controls.
I found it a bit easy to be the oppressive man I wished to be, and it would have felt good to have a bit more of a challenge in that sense, but honestly I don't see any realistic way of addressing that without taking away from the game in other ways, and it works fine as it is.

An excellent game, well done

LD31 — Entire Game on One Screen

Territorial by zed0 2014-12-09T14:40:00

While there is certainly fun to be had swatting insects, I can imagine this a lot more fun when facing humans.
That said, the idea is good, the polish does feel lacking. I feel this game could be a lot more engaging with more sound and flashing lights. The foundations are definitely very solid, you just need to build something more on top of them :)

Treasure Protector by resty 2014-12-09T14:19:00

The game feels a little too easy, or at least the appeal wears off before it gets challenging. You should definitely up the difficulty.

Forever Falling by danielilett 2014-12-09T14:59:00

Collisions against things, what with the screenshake and particles and sound effect, are really beefy and satisfying. Encourages bumping into things at high speed which is always good.
The main feedback isn't going to be anything new, really.
Generally you could get away with either a slow moving character or a game that resets everytime you die, one leads to a high risk high reward sort of tense game, the other to a more calm feeling. Both just leads to frustration, as you may have gathered from the other comments.
Could maybe have stood to have music, although that's hard to get in LDs, and no music is better than bad music, so you may have made the right call there.
Graphics are fine and simplistic, although the colour choices feel too inconsistent, I think? By this I mean you have bright saturated particles, flat blacks, and then light desaturated colours. I understand this may seem like a nitpick, but there was something bothering me about the art which I couldn't put my finger on, and that may have been it.
The room transition is lovely. The movement noise possibly gets too repetitive, I'd suggest either lowering the volume or straight up removing it, tinker until you find hat's right.

And yeah, I may be pointing out a lot of flaws, but only because there is an extremely limited number of them in this game that I can make what I think is an exhaustive list. The game feels very polished and well made, a shame some people may not experience it all if they ragequit due to game resets :P

Channel Surfing by MentalBlockGaming 2014-12-11T13:09:00

I love the interpretation of the theme, that's your best category :D
So there does seem to be a way to hang onto walls with your hitbox (use your head), then jump again. Dunno how intentional it is but I used it to cheese level 4.
The static element feels somewhat disjointed from the rest of the game, like a little chore you have to do in order to be allowed to play the game. Aside from maybe an evil mobile game where you need microtransactions to get rid of the static, I don't really see a way the game could need that element :s
The music is well chosen, the sound is neither lacking nor overwhelming, so points there.
The game may be hard, but because you show clearly how many levels there are, I find this is mostly OK. I say mostly because there is a bit (having to make blind jumps in level 5) which does feel unfair (even if you can think it over, it doesn't feel great having to do a blind jump so many times in a row)
Great game, strong contestant, and like any game has a few ways you can make it even better! Well done!

Lights Out by Forge 2014-12-09T14:27:00

Firstly, the bullets don't feel all that powerful, I'd suggest making them bigger, maybe making them move faster, generally give them more "omph", cause having bullets that feel powerful does a lot for any SHMUP.
Enemies move perhaps a little too predictably, although I don't really have any better suggestions.
More spawn points could be good too.
Oh, and a good rule in any shooting game is "give the player a reason to not shoot, or make them be shooting all the time". Having to click for each shot isn't great. Maybe make it so that there are more light powerups, and shooting visibly decreases the amount of light? Try playing around with that maybe :D
A solid effort, like any game there is room for improvement. Be proud of your work, but don't stop there either!

LD32 — An Unconventional Weapon

Shield Maiden by bitslap 2015-05-05T09:49:00

Wonderful entry, marred only by the fact the game is short, the story somewhat inconclusive, music was too repetitive, the gameover screen is a bit sloppy, and the boss is so frustratingly health tanky.

Of course, I'm only pointing out the downsides because I feel that's more helpful, it's still an incredible entry.

Love Worm by bnhw 2015-04-21T23:41:00

Games like this make me seriously wish mechanical keyboards were less of a rarity. The 3 button at any time limitation is a real shame.
Fun concept, I do see potential for further work, but it does need that work, it feels a little unpolished.

Particles maybe? Music? I don't know what I would say the most important thing to add first to this is...

April Bloom by Alexbrainbox 2015-04-21T15:10:00

Loved the change in colour
Could have done with some kind of background image I imagine. A sunrise or something like that.
Felt a bit difficult at first, but you do settle quite nicely into the rhythm of it. It is a very straightforward game.
Music did start to get a little grating before my game ended.

A nice and unique game, well done!

Purging Cuddle Kingdoms by Crumpet 2015-04-20T14:58:00

I'm afraid I made it with GM8, which doesn't let you export to anything except Windows.

I'd suggest using BootCamp or Wine. While it is a lot of effort for one game, it does open you up to all the other Widows exclusives :)

Stoned Scarecrow by gillenew 2015-05-02T17:32:00

The pixel art is lovely, I love your palette.
There are two things in this game that I feel stand out as the most important to improve, as well as not being too difficult.
The first is the character's firing patterns. It seems silly, but as someone who started pressing space before I realised holding it worked, the whole "fire 3 shots then pause" made whether or not I was allowed to fire feel so arbitrary. More to the point, I see no reason why you couldn't just remove the break between three shots, and have it be a more continual rate.
The second is sound. I know there are probably a number of reasons (time, ability) why you didn't put it in, and that's unfortunate, but the sounds are much too repetitive. If anything, just have 3 very similar shooting sounds and choose one randomly, it makes a world of difference without much effort.

Those are my main criticisms/nitpicks, asides from that, it's a very good effort, a lot of content for a competition, great job!

SUPER BRO THROW by SinclairStrange 2015-04-21T23:28:00

I couldn't ask for anything more of this game. I seriously can't think of a single improvement to suggest, and that upsets me.

Incredible work.

Roll Initiative by Lynx 2015-04-21T21:04:00

I really struggle to find anything to complain about. I racked my brains for a good few minutes and couldn't come up with anything other than "The gameplay could do with some spicing up after some time" and "More screenshake".

This is an achievement worth being proud of.

I Will Be Happy by danielilett 2015-04-21T15:02:00

Font was a bit out of place.
Enemies kept glitching and staying at spawn on top of each other.
Difficult to understand how many enemies there are in a place because of the way they stack. Having them not be allowed to occupy the same space could not only be a bugfix, but could make it more fun, as it feels like you're facing down a massive hoard.

Art was nice, especially the background. I feel the characters could have benefited from the shading treatment you gave buildings and windows and stuff.

Shame that it has no music, that could really have kicked it up to the next level.

Fix the enemy spawn AIs and you'll have yourself a very string shooter (dunno if the enemy spawn is intentional, doubt it is, but if it is a glitch you're allowed to fix it in your entry version I believe)

The Exgerminator by MentalBlockGaming 2015-04-21T11:54:00

Highscore: 217.

The aiming aspect of the gameplay felt a bit mindless, so I feel like the limiting factor in my performance was how fast I could click, which could be improved. I would bet that just giving the player another option that to click faster could add a surprising amount of depth, so that's worth looking into!

The splash screens were nice, the gameplay segment could have benefited form sticking to the same art style.

The loop you chose fit the mood, but it managed to get repetitive surprisingly quickly.

On a final note, if I get RSI I'm holding you personally accountable ;)

Dare To Juice by Dejvo 2015-04-21T11:43:00

Nice work! I'll give you a suggestion of things I would improve in a next version of this game. It may seem negative, but that's because what's good doesn't need improving :P

-The fact the juice fires from slightly in front of you makes it quite difficult to hit blocks beneath you. Since the player is rendered on top of the juice, it doesn't really make much of a visual difference, so you should probably spawn the juice closer to the player.

-The physics could be a bit awkward. The fact you couldn't accelerate while in the air made it very difficult to get out of gaps.

-When the ending screen appears, it should erase the starting screen. Because otherwise idiots like me who never click next on the start screen don't get shown this at the end:
http://i.imgur.com/eEr9HP5.png

-I'm not a fan of the virus health bar turning orange in the empty bits. Make it transparent like the player's?

A solid effort! Well done!

BitGun by TajamSoft 2015-04-21T23:37:00

My main gripe with this is that it's often too hard to see upcoming obstacles until it's to late.
That and the floatiness others have mentioned.
Those two aside, I think you'd have a very enjoyable game!

The Revenge Of The Sea by lunke 2015-04-21T23:51:00

I think you seriously need to up the range you can fire at. As it stands, it can be very difficult to hit anything without getting all cuddly and up in their grill.

Also, as a jam entry, I feel you really missed out on a chance to put some sweet music in (I'd personally recommend the Newgrounds audio portal, a lot of good stuff which the authors give you the right to use).

Don't just drop this, at least make a small Post compo version. At the very least throw in the two suggestions I made, see if they work for you. You have a solid game, I just think a couple of things can be done to make that more obvious :)

All the best, and well done!

Latvian Milk by Dreyan 2015-04-21T14:43:00

Intuitive gameplay was the highlight. Some great music, and I feel someone watched "The Art of Screenshake" and learned the important lessons from it ;)

The character sprites seem blurry, especially compared to some of the other sprites (like the barrels). The enemies feel too easy to avoid (the way they have to get near you and then do an attack?) The orange enemies are better in this regard.

Fun weapon variation, and a generally well put together game with some room for improvement.

Keep up the good work, and please do develop this further!

Crumpet

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Comments by Crumpet

LD29 — Beneath the Surface