DamonWakes

Akashica by Skruffye 2022-04-21T20:16:59Z ♥ 1

I started this a while back and thought I should leave a comment before the event wrapped up, even though I never quite managed to finish - I found the events got a little repetitive considering the amount of exploration needed to progress. I think I will come back to this at some point, though, especially as I see you've made some changes since the initial Ludum Dare version. It's an interesting project for something made with Ren'Py - obviously less in the way of art assets than a traditional visual novel, but still more flair than I'd typically expect from, say, a Twine game. It's actually quite a nice demonstration of how versatile the tool is, being something that steps away from the usual characters-and-backdrop setup but has a cohesive look and feel nevertheless. It's also nice to see another submission set in a spooky library! Thanks for pointing me towards it: I think this is one of the stand-out games of the jam for me.

Embers by andrewkennedy 2022-04-20T21:37:36Z ♥ 0

The QWE-ASD movement works very well, I think. I found the going to be a little slow, but only because I wanted to be able to essentially hold a button to travel: I was going quite long distances by the time I finally gave up (though I've seen the board-breaking animation in your devlog - good stuff!). I'd be curious to see what else you do with this, as it has a lot of potential.

Only You Can Try In Vain To Prevent Forest Fires On An Active Volcano by bigbazwa 2022-04-20T21:21:55Z ♥ 1

Mmmmmmm, that's good futility!

Actually, though, quite a nice mix of absolute chaos (since sooner or later one of those hot boulders is going to land in a bunch of trees) and genuine strategy. I enjoyed being able to try and carve out a channel for the lava somewhere it would minimise the damage. Being able to dig a big hollow in one area and then direct the flow into it was quite satisfying, and always made for an interesting trade-off between making the hollow as big as possible and getting the lava into it as soon as possible. Plus the game looks and sounds great! There's actually not very much I'd like to see done differently here - I've given it high ratings across the board. Lovely stuff!

Dead Stars by ImmanentDeath 2022-04-20T21:02:28Z ♥ 1

I scored 5888 on my first try and now I can't beat it. 😃

Your guide seems more or less essential to grasp what's going on here, which I think is okay - I'm not sure how you could get it across within the game itself. Having turned to that pretty quickly, I feel as though you've really got the theme down here. I love the graphics too - the way the portion of the ship you can see drifting by looks like a big toothy mouth. It does a lot with very little, and the soundtrack fits too.

The main thing I reckon could be tweaked a bit is the ending: the game just sort of stops, when presumably what's actually happening is that there's no more energy available in the universe and what supplies have been gathered just sort of dwindle away. I'd like to see that play out on screen rather than immediately be given a score. Or rather, I think thee score should maybe be "time survived" with the final sequence of the game showing that time tick up as stored mass/energy is used up. It could also perhaps be a little clearer that the object "identified" after choosing to farm radiation is the same one you were already at (if I'm correct in thinking that it is).

Definitely one of the highlights of the event for me, though! Of all the things I've seen so far, I think this one best matches the theme (despite there being no shortage of other contenders).

THE FIVE KINGS by pymiro 2022-04-20T20:38:37Z ♥ 0

I like it! The gameplay might be basic but I feel as though there's nothing wrong with focusing on great-looking characters and a cohesive style. It certainly feels complete and that's an achievement in itself.

There are a couple of things I think might improve this without vastly increasing the scope. One would be tweaking some of the timings a little: I'm definitely delaying the inevitable here, but not in a particularly meaningful way. I'd like for there to be enough chains that it felt as though I *could* hold the kings back if I were a little quicker, but at the moment I'm spending a lot of time standing around waiting for a chain to appear in the first place while the kings keep popping up decidedly un-delayed. I'd also like a little more audio feedback: a noise when I chain a king, and a noise when they break free (or just grinding while they rise - either option would do the job). I'm also not positive the soundtrack fits. It's not wildly inappropriate, but your characters are super sombre and mysterious: I think some kind of eerie drone might be a better match.

All in all, a satisfyingly polished entry. I think this is probably one that I'll point people towards when I need an example of a jam game - it's definitely one of the best presented that I've come across!

Train Wrecked by darkmonkey inc 2022-04-20T20:17:48Z ♥ 0

This is nice! Reminds me a little bit of *Unrailed!* if you've ever come across that. I actually think I prefer your game, though: it's nice to be able to lay track down directly without moving a separate character around.

Like others, I really struggled with the combination of mouse controls and a moving camera - I think the idea of using arrow keys instead is a good shout. The only other gripe I had was that I got caught out pretty early on by the inability to lay tracks to direct the train from right to left (particularly given that this makes the second bag along impossible to collect without dooming your train, unless I've missed something). It's just a little odd that your options at the start are "left, right, or straight ahead" but then as soon as you point a track upwards there's no left option even if the ground there is clear. I'd like that extra little bit of freedom to place tracks, or some visible reason why it's not an option. That's a minor quibble, though - I like it overall!

Distant Colony by mikouaji 2022-04-20T20:02:45Z ♥ 1

A decent tower defence game! Nothing really groundbreaking as far as I can tell, but the unit descriptions add a lot of flavour and the whole thing fits together really well for a 48-hour job.

My main issue is the FPS drop - I'm up to Day 27 (with the game still running as I type this) and it's basically at a standstill. I think I've had a big crowd of enemies running right up against my base for days now and it's possible that they're just piling up rather than doing damage. I'm still on 83% health, though the fact it's dropped a bit suggests that something's chewing away at it. I don't think I'll be able to actually see a game over screen because it's basically frozen: I can't plonk down any new units and I doubt it'll keep running for the remaining four fifths of my base health.

Still, the basic idea is very much there - I like the way the enemies show up so unexpectedly, and that I can orient and set down proper little walls - and the music ties the whole thing together nicely. Great work!

World Pees by EvoGenGames 2022-04-19T11:37:53Z ♥ 1

You know what? It's basic but it absolutely nails the theme. My only real complaint is that the pee just sort of vanishes into thin air once the water reserves have drained past about halfway. Seems like it would have been fairly trivial to have it fall all the way, but otherwise I feel as though this is a solid entry even though I'm, uh, not positive that what I'm doing in the game is ultimately making the situation any better...

LightQuest by Tempii 2022-04-18T16:44:01Z ♥ 1

Like others, I'm struggling with the controls (though didn't have a gamepad handy so maybe that would have helped). Pretty much every jump seems very demanding - I couldn't get the first pickup until I realised there was an element of "Coyote Time" involved where you could jump shortly after leaving the platform - and that's especially punishing given that going back for a second attempt will use up more time than you'd gain by grabbing the thing. Also, a minor quibble, but I feel as though there's more trial-and-error involved than really suits the theme: you've definitely come up with something that fits, but my main takeaway from it is more "I'm getting a little further each time" than "I'm delaying something that's going to happen no matter what I do." Still, not too shabby for a first attempt at the compo!

Drag For Life by zlitch 2022-04-18T14:03:09Z ♥ 1

This is pretty much exactly the game I wanted to make for LD50, but couldn't quite manage! It's great to see that somebody else not only ran with the whole "drag stuff around to form barricades" idea but managed to execute it well. I ultimately ended up doing something similar (still avoiding a horde of enemies, still primarily by dragging obstacles) but much less strategic. I like how much time this one gives you to to try and seal off the entrances: it's much more about crafting a solid barricade and much less about frantically running around away from enemies (though I did end up doing that towards the end).

There's really not a whole lot I'd like to see done differently. Other people have mentioned wanting to be able to push the blocks, but I quite like that having to leave space for your character on the "pull" side prevents you from forming perfectly neat barriers. Okay, it doesn't make a lot of sense but it strikes me as being a little like the convention that tower defence games will never allow you to block off every enemy path: I buy it as a game mechanic even if it strains suspension of disbelief in terms of the physics involved. Having draggable objects (tables, boxes, whatever) rather than just coloured blocks would also be nice, but in 48 hours I think the game is the most important thing and you've really nailed that.

My only real complaint is that after a couple of upgrades, the distance at which you have to pull a block seems to become significantly greater than the distance at which you can attach the rope. Dragging something, having it disconnect, and then having to run back towards it to have another go becomes a little frustrating, especially if the aliens are already pouring into the room. Even that's kind of a minor quibble, though: I think this is my favourite game from the jam so far!

3rd Emu australian war simulator by sebbernery 2022-04-18T13:43:43Z ♥ 1

Haha! Love the music. I feel as though my main suggestion for how to improve this would be to double-check your spelling and grammar, but at the same time I did get a laugh out of "Sorry for what you saw" and I feel as though those slip-ups in the writing sort of contribute to the overall style of the thing, which is perhaps its greatest charm. I actually didn't mind the difficulty: sure, beyond 30 seconds it gets a little ridiculous, but you get a complete experience in that time and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Nice work!

Cursed Unicorn by gord10ahmet 2022-04-15T20:56:32Z ♥ 1

I can definitely see the influence of *Vampire Survivors* here, and the game strikes me as a good sort of proof-of-concept for a side-on take on it. To really scratch that itch I think you'd need a bunch of different weapons/upgrades but in 48 hours who has the time? I feel as though the effort put into the intro was probably time better spent: it helps the whole thing feel complete.

One quibble I do have with the game as it stands is that it seems as though the witch targets the enemy that's closest on the X axis but doesn't consider the Y axis. I also ran into the piggy-backing enemies problem that a bunch of other people have already described, but felt as though I could possibly have taken out the upper one (particularly with a well upgraded attack) if I hadn't been stuck targeting another that I was currently flying over. I might be mis-reading what's going on there, but unless I was pretty much ramming into the top guy it seemed as though I would usually shoot at the one on the bottom, even if hovering quite a way over him. I'm also not positive that "heal" pulls its weight as a level-up option: since you can't simply plough through enemies, I pretty much found that the only time I lost significant amounts of health was when I was already doomed.

All in all, though, this is a neat game! I found myself compelled to try it multiple times which is always a good sign.

Shotgun King: the Final Checkmate by benjamin 2022-04-14T00:59:06Z ♥ 2

Big fan of this! The gameplay feels extremely well balanced, which is hugely important when you've got a fairly rigid set of rules and can't, say, react a little bit quicker or level up before tackling a particularly tough challenge. At the same time, the between-floor upgrades add a whole lot of variety. I managed to get two engraved scopes at one point (which I assume stack - it was hard to compare against just the one) and it was very satisfying to be able to reliable snipe pieces from several squares away. I might take the other approach at some point and really blunderbuss it up!

Since this is such a polished game I don't have that much in the way of suggestions. The one thing that really springs to mind - though I think it's down to personal preference rather than what the game "should" be - is that I'd like more of an indication where each piece is going to move. It's hard to keep track of a bunch of them at once - something you never have to do in regular chess - and since part of the challenge is planning more than one move ahead I feel as though highlighting enemy moves when you hover over a destination/target would help avoid sudden game-ending disasters without detracting from the overall challenge. Basically, I'm sort of hoping for something that plays just a little bit more like *Into the Breach* but realise that may not be the goal here.

Oh, also I see @faceless asked about a Linux version - I actually played this on Ubuntu through the Itch app, which can launch stuff in WINE. No idea if that's an option on the Steam Deck, but possibly something to look into.

Rising Tide by VivianMochi 2022-04-07T20:43:39Z ♥ 1

This is a really polished game! I feel as though it could maybe tackle the jam theme a little better - my actions don't delay anything, and if I'm being really picky they're actually what prompts the tide to come in to begin with - but it's definitely in the right ballpark in that you'll lose sooner or later and playing well is what staves that off. The actual gameplay is lovely. My only quibble there would be the heavy element of luck that comes in later (four jellyfish in a horizontal row of five tiles, for example), though I suppose if there were some guaranteed way of working out how many were where then failure wouldn't be inevitable.

I do like your idea of a starfish to indicate clusters of 3+ jellies. It might still involve a bit of probing around to work out what sides they were on, so wouldn't totally break the game, and more than anything it would avoid the situation I ran into a few times where sections of a level were more seaweed than anything. I also wonder if the shells could be reworked a little so they didn't stop a tile from helping you. Obviously finding one is a win overall, but occasionally they pop up in places that would have really helped to work out where everything else was.

Candler by SunJet 2022-04-07T20:03:12Z ♥ 1

This is a fantastic first attempt at a jam game - working out what you can complete to a decent standard is a big part of the challenge, I think. This might be simple, but it looks good, it's easy to pick up and play, and everything generally feels well put together.

In terms of areas to improve, I wasn't certain initially whether the blue circles represented the shadow of rain about to fall, or a puddle of water coming up from the ground (and if the latter, whether I could safely jump into/over them). I'm still not absolutely certain at what point squares with anything on them become safe/harmful (since obviously the whole point of the game was to try and stay on the clear ones!). A little more audio would also be welcome - maybe some drippy water sounds for when rain falls.

All in all, though, a great entry - especially for your first go at something like this. I hope you will come back with another entry for a future jam!

Heat Death by triggthediscovery 2022-04-07T19:52:19Z ♥ 1

This is a really impressive effort for 48 hours! It's hard to fault it given the level of ambition, though there are a handful of very small additions/changes that I think would make it vastly easier to get to grips with - I couldn't make head or tail of this before watching your tutorial (thanks for putting that together, by the way!).

The main thing that I think would make a massive difference is having item names appear when hovering over them (if not simply printed below the graphic). I spent quite a while trying to build a mining drill (like in the tutorial) only to realise I'd picked something completely different that looked quite similar. I'd also really welcome a clickable "inventory" button somewhere on screen: obviously you show the controls at the very start, but there's a lot to take in there, and I don't know how many people will think of pressing "I" to check in the inventory for items they've never been told they have. I think it would help to have a complete working mine-to-powerplant setup working at the point the game starts, rather than solar panels providing power in a less visible way. Finally, I'm not sure "Target Item:" is the best way to describe the thing you want the factory to produce. Something like "Product:" or even simply "Making:" would be much clearer, I think.

Again, though, it's great to see something this ambitious. It's a great take on the theme too!

Death, Taxes, and Bananas by markymark 2022-04-05T19:56:08Z ♥ 1

I managed to get this running on Linux using WINE but it was buggy to the extent that I don't feel comfortable giving a rating on the actual gameplay (since I'm pretty much positive that what I saw wasn't representative of what you've actually put together). Mostly just wanted to say that I love your take on the theme! The blocky graphics have a lot of character too.

Zom-Beware! by adam-gould 2022-04-04T23:38:07Z ♥ 2

A very solid effort! I got a little stuck on my first attempt (on a 3x3 grid) and gave up halfway through because I'd used all my tiles for banks and houses - I'd been under the impression you could reassign them later. A little more information on screen would be welcome, particularly how long it takes to train a unit. I also found it difficult sometimes to click on a unit instead of the tile it was on. But the game as a whole is easy to read, I think - I didn't find the lighting to be a problem - and the pawn style pieces have a surprising amount of character with their little hats! It's also quite satisfying to see your little army come together.

>ARGUABLY SPOILERY DETAILS BELOW:

>I know you say discovery is part of the fun but I would have welcomed some hint as to what the zombie invasion would involve. You're committed to five minutes or so of preparation, and the invasion itself (at least on a 5x5 grid) seems to go on even longer, so it's not the sort of game I think really lends itself to multiple attempts in a single session. Assuming that you only lose when your last unit falls, I feel as though I could have gone for far longer by clustering mine together closer - I'd spread them out because I suspected that there might be some kind of penalty for allowing zombies onto my tiles. That also takes me out of the game a little. Obviously it's all pretty abstract, but it would be good to know up front whether tiles need to be defended, whether units can move once placed, etc.: the people these pawns represent would know that from the start, so I feel as though I should too. But those are pretty minor complaints - it's worth a trail run just to get a handle on how the thing works.

All in all, a neat game that I think I may well come back to sometime in future!

Stranded Trooper by Balgorode 2022-04-04T22:53:02Z ♥ 1

Really good game! I too would have loved to have some sound here, but I imagine to do the game justice it would have been a whole lot of extra work - I was impressed by the variety of weapons and characters and I expect you'd want a set of distinct noises for each of them to make the most of that. The graphics (particularly the glowing eyes) and the different enemy types were also great touches. All in all, it feels like there's a whole lot here to have been put together in such a short space of time, and ducking out of audio altogether strikes me as a reasonable trade-off: what it does, it does really well!

Way before death by Arfilish 2022-04-04T15:26:47Z ♥ 1

This is a solid game! I can't get past the third level myself - I didn't quite manage to get the second box to the switch on my best attempt, so I don't feel as though I've got much chance of making it all the way to the exit.

It's a minor gripe for a jam game, but given how much luck it would take to make it through anything past the first level on a first attempt and the possibility of accidentally nudging a box off a switch at a critical moment and being unable to recover from that, I'd really like to see the option to restart from the current room (with the same starting time you had going in). As it is, death means going all the way back to the start screen and clicking three times with a significant delay between each before you can make another attempt. I want to retry that last level right away - which on the plus side I think is one of the hallmarks of a great game!

Oh, also, thanks for putting out a Linux version! I know that's probably a hassle given the time constraints, but it was great to be able to jump in without having to rely on WINE or anything.

Holey Moley by bitdecay 2021-05-02T19:11:58Z ♥ 2

Holey Moley! Definitely one of my favourite games so far! The mole rat facts are neat, it's fun to explore (while the following snake also makes it pretty tense), and it's a solid take on the theme. The one thing I think would improve it would be if the snake could find its way towards you. I tried zig-zagging back and forth (ie. going left across the level on one layer, dropping down a bit, then going right on the next). I got quite a way ahead of the snake, and though I'm reasonably confident I crossed my own tunnels at some points (meaning that the snake had a shorter route available to it) I don't get the impression it did anything other than follow my exact route. Still, a top-notch effort even as it stands!

Dino Digging by Argon 2021-05-02T16:44:53Z ♥ 1

This was fun! It's kind of a shame it doesn't have an ending screen because it otherwise feels pretty complete. The only other tweaks I'd suggest are pretty minor. The main thing is that the pickaxe makes a disproportionately huge difference to the game, to the extent that it's virtually impossible to progress beyond a certain depth without it. I found that I'd regularly hit two "columns" of stone - no way of clearing two at a time, no horizontal stretches of dirt to drop both down into some kind of combo - which pretty much makes that stretch of the dig a guaranteed game over. At times it was less a matter of actually thinking through the puzzle and more a matter of grabbing as many fossils as possible before that inevitably happened.

Once I got the pickaxe and could reliably clear out more than one tile at a time, it got much more interesting: I really like that the late game more or less depends on placing two-hit rocks around regular ones so you can clear a whole bunch out at once. It would be neat to have some way of regaining hearts during a dig so that letting a rock slip through now and then could be more of a tactical choice than a definite step towards the end of the expedition.

Digsite Simulator by PerfectSquare 2021-05-01T17:12:51Z ♥ 1

I considered something like this for the theme myself but didn't have the technical know-how to pull it off. I'm glad to see somebody more capable ran with the idea! I did find that occasionally a single pixel or two of an upper layer would prevent me digging down to a lower layer (while being almost impossible to get rid of), but figure that's probably quite hard to avoid.

One thing I think would have made for a substantial improvement would have been steadily darker soil colours. As it is, once you've torn up the ground a bit it can get very difficult to tell what it is you're trying to dig. Really nice little game overall, though: very satisfying to gradually clear out whole upper layers while you're poking around trying to find things on the lower ones. Like others I'd appreciate some sound effects, but I'm actually not sure it really needs background music. If you did turn it into a mobile game, for example, it's the sort of thing I might tap away at while watching TV so might just mute that anyway.

Dwarf Inc. by Matthieu Riboulot 2021-04-30T19:50:06Z ♥ 1

This looks (and sounds) great! It's a simple idea but it's super polished. About the only thing I'd suggest changing is the options at the end: it's not really clear what either "Diggy diggy hole" or "Leave the mine" actually mean, which is a bit of a shame when it takes a while to reach that point.

Down to Goblin Town by panurge 2021-04-30T16:30:11Z ♥ 1

This is thoroughly charming! The unconventional graphics and sound actually give it a really cohesive style, and the movement of the images does a lot without needing actual animated sprites. It gets across everything it needs to very clearly, and the difficulty feels just about right: easy to start with, then fairly frantic towards the end (I, uh, didn't quite make it to Goblin Town myself).

Under the Surface by Wolfrug 2021-04-27T12:13:50Z ♥ 7

This is fantastic for a 48-hour effort. Sticking with the same basic background for each floor seems like a really good move: it fits the theme, and looks as though it probably let you focus your attention on putting together the actual game rather than needing a whole lot of unique assets.

I ended up stuck on a black screen after trying to take the flash drive up to Level 0. Not sure that's supposed to happen, but the story felt fairly complete at that point anyway. I also got a message saying "Cannot consume item - not enough in player inventory" after using the keycard (which was properly removed from the inventory). I also noticed that inspecting the terminal that takes the keycard, it says "I should try my luck elsewhere" even though that is actually the way forward (and that inspecting a body after looting it later on gives the same message as inspecting a locker). Really minor stuff, though: I think this is my favourite game from Ludum Dare so far!

Little Mother by Save Sloth Studios 2021-04-27T00:57:43Z ♥ 1

Very sinister! I found the sound a little bit repetitive - particularly at the very beginning - but it bothered me less once I got into it.

Far Gone by TomBuston 2021-04-27T00:41:52Z ♥ 1

Nice work. I guessed what was going on pretty much immediately, but it was still interesting to explore. The graphics are very atmospheric, though I found myself spending longer than I would have liked trudging towards blocks of grey that turned out to be rocks on the ground. I also feel as though this is a bit of an inversion of the theme, since Emma's sort of getting closer to the "surface" throughout.

Untitled Bruce Game by icefallgames 2021-04-26T23:28:41Z ♥ 1

Love this. It reminds me a little of the levels in the original Rayman that force you to keep up as the screen moves along from left to right, or as water fills the level. It's nice that you get a little more time to think through what you're doing, though! The only real improvement I could suggest would be more levels - it feels as though the ones you have already are pretty well polished.

Drill Out by MrLeao 2021-04-26T23:02:11Z ♥ 3

I like this. It's simple, but it does encourage you to sit inside that turtle drill even while the aliens are coming down the walls, which adds quite a bit of tension. It helps that it's hard to know exactly how many hits it'll take to kill one. I feel as though the controls could be simplified a bit, though. Maybe just the down key to get into the drill and upgrade your weapon (since it's otherwise unused and you can't do both at once)?

Descent into Midnight Trench by kfischer-okarin 2021-04-26T15:15:08Z ♥ 2

This is pretty neat for a 48-hour game. The graphics might not have much variety (at least down to about 100 metres, which is as far as I got - if there are other fish I feel as though they should maybe come in sooner), but what's there is good. The controls seem like the real standout element of this for me: it's got a real underwater feel to it, and I love how the harpoon shoots out fast at first and then starts to drift.

One small change that might improve this is a bit of a delay before you can use space to dismiss the Game Over message. I happened to be hitting that button at the point my guy got eaten (which I figure is pretty likely to happen for most people) so the text was only on screen for an instant.