Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → dani128
dani128 leaves an average of 42.0 feedback comments each event.
I second nilsf's comment. Knowing how close I am to the end would be a really strong incentive to replay.
Overall, it's amusing, and I like how the nog and buzz have both positive and negative effects.
Interesting, and I think this might have legs as a sort of framing device for a collection of Wario Ware-esque minigames.
I got to level 6, where the game seemed to bug out - my character refused to move and got promptly squashed. This was after the "pet that kitten" prompt briefly flashed on screen and then disappeared, but no kitten was in sight.
Good job with XNA. It's really a very nice platform - incredibly powerful but easy to work with - once you get over the amount of crud it requires your endusers to install...
Only one technical issue: Scoring is quite clearly bugged. You don't score once per wall, you score and keep on scoring every tick for the same wall. The first time I ran the game, the game scored me 0 points per tick on level 1; the second time, it scored me 1 point per tick. (Don't tell me that's intentional?)
This was the first entry I played. I like the little tile graphics, and the game overall is pretty fun for a short while. Only thing is, it's really irritating when it puts a pit in a corridor bend.
It would be nice if the advancing wall followed the corridors rather than just moving indiscriminately, though.
No Windows port?
15.5 seconds, using a double column strategy.
I like this, mostly. The gameplay is solid and quite unconventional.
Fascinating. I really like this. 5 for fun, except I can't seem to win! My best score was only 3100...
Edit: Hmm, it seems like if you're playing for score, the best way to go is to just bomb everything at the start. Shouldn't big goo be worth more? Also, the nanovirus doesn't seem to be scoring properly.
Runs on my machine. It didn't crash.
But I was able to send units over walls. Odd.
Oh well.
It's a *ceiling* of doom, not a wall...
The game would be more interesting if you make the player choose between two portals. As it is, it's just a linear run from point A to B, through a couple of portals.
Same story as DrPetter. I'm using Python 2.5 with pygame 1.8.1 and the latest pymunk installed.
I hardly think that abusing your players constitutes a valid humour technique, unless your name happens to be Eric Cartman, Esq. Nonetheless, the game mechanics are fairly interesting, and worth further experimentation. Others have mentioned the poor randomization and the drawing of thrust particles in front of the player-object, and I will second those comments.
PsySal: Going through the side walls is not that difficult. Basically get yourself moving slowly in the direction of the wall, and just use the up key to balance. The bottom and top walls tend to be harder because if you have sideways momentum, it's very difficult to stop yourself so as to go through the hole straight, and you still need to regulate your vertical speed.
Interesting but a little simple for strategy nuts like me :)
(1) Interface needs a bit of work. If you don't play a particular subgenre of turn-based strategy games, it's difficult to figure out that you start each level in the pre-deployment phase.
(2) Visuals are nice, but on the small window it's a pain to click faraway targets.
(3) Ranged units are really overpowered! Should limit their range to 4 or 5 squares. As it is, my army of archers basically mowed the whole wall down.
(4) Defenders are kind of underpowered. Even if they can clear their column, they're nearly useless after that. I'd allow them to move 2 squares when going backward, but not forward. Also, they need to have some regenerative ability (regain 1 power per turn, maybe?).
(5) More bits in the wall would be nice. Like towers which shoot at your pieces randomly.
Overall, it's not too bad an effort :)
This is interesting. On my second play I lucked out and managed to eliminate the rabbits (I keep thinking of the yellow dots as rabbits) before they chewed up too much of the grass, so survived for about 1400 years. Subsequently my best record was 4789 years (eliminated rabbits right at the start). This kind of went into a boom and bust cycle where the map would go green, and my dots would naturally multiply like crazy until there were only a few isolated grass patches left, then they would die out and leave a small band of nomadic survivors who moved from place to place while the map slowly re-greened itself, and the cycle would repeat. Fascinating stuff.
It seems like the main interest in the gameplay comes from judging when to switch behaviours and migrate to a new food source - too late, and your dots die out before they get there; too early, and you risk overpopulation. Very interesting!
Edit: I think the game would be more interesting if there were a compelling reason to keep the rabbits alive. For instance, if the rabbits helped with seed dispersal - a moving rabbit might have a chance of leaving a brown dot which would turn green after a short while. As it is, the beginning of the game is simply Wabbit Season.
Fun while it lasted. It's a good thing you didn't make multiple levels with just this feature set; it might get a bit monotonous without additional gameplay elements.
This could have potential though. As it stands it's kind of average - nothing wrong, but nothing outstanding either. And the wall doesn't do any advancing...
Hmm, it's pretty much Feeding Frenzy in space. Can't say very much about it, I guess. It's a good idea to keep your design within realistic bounds, but I guess a slightly more ambitious design might have made things more interesting. Also, is the black hole image original?
In defense of the Arkanoid clone, it's about as original as the Generic Platform Game clone (jump from block to block, avoid/shoot/stomp enemies, avoid environmental hazards which may include: spikes, falling objects, lava or other unpleasant fluids).
The use of the advancing wall is interesting, but it seems to be causing too much negative feedback (the system settles into a stable state). When the first level takes 15 minutes, that isn't really a good sign, I think. I was almost falling asleep at the end.
I like what has been done with the dropping items (hint: green is really bad!) and the use of velocity to control the ball.
I second lokijki's opinion. Also, you get my first 5 for humor. The walls' facial expressions are priceless.
Didn't complete it. The silly level with (1) lasers on either side of the window, (2) a jump that makes you hit your head on the laser 9 times out of 10, and (3) a platform just underneath a constant stream of cans was just too frustrating. Tried it approx. 30 times. When I found that the last platform was almost impossible to pass due to the cans, I gave up.
I would love to rate your game down simply because it pissed me off so much, but my conscience won't let me do that.
I played levels 1-5 with taxes set to 5 percent. Seemed to work pretty well. The black dots were annoying.
...I wonder what that last upgrade does?
Hmm, the range of the windmills is really short.
As for the control issues, I think others have covered them. Also, the fire tends to be very random, which makes the game difficult in a bad way - since it moves too fast for you to take control of the situation.
The visuals are kind of cute though. And I found the game a lot more interesting once I realized it was possible to create firebreaks rather than just killing the locusts directly. I got to the level with 4 farms.
Also, windmills don't work like that :)
I assume the music is original. It's certainly nice.
Audio feedback on correct/wrong answers would be good. Also, more elaborate visuals might have added to it, as would more words and possibly phrases.
Other than that, it's a solid game, and I actually felt like playing again. Nice.
That was amusing :) Well done. Although personally I prefer geometric shapes to hand-drawn art...
Won. That was rough.
You win the award for "Only LD14 Game To Make Me Swear At My Screen", as soon as I get off my lazy butt and make it. Also, the only game to never get less than a 4 in any relevant category.
This is really excellent. It's not just about arcade-speed, although that is needed, but there's a certain economy of movement that the game stimulates - it has its own aesthetic of play. I am awed and humbled.
Would work well as the first level of something much bigger. I like.
39623 with two fingers.
Ha, ha, I got some of the phrases before they finished appearing :)
Nice. I read the readme, so I guess I'm a bit ahead. Reminiscent of 30 Second Hero and Ginormo Sword...
I like the art style, although the icons are a bit hard to read at the default resolution.
The game is fine as it is - I think the only way to improve on it would probably be to add more variation. Like various levels where you have a goal (reach the end, kill the boss, etc). Apart from that, I don't think there's anything that other people haven't already said.
Agree with mrfun. Also, it is a bit too hard at the end. I do believe it might be easier if you set a hard cap on the total number of cops, as well as implementing the super-strength power.
Oh, and if you can manage it, knocking out a cop should send him flying (fast movement). If he knocks into his buddies, they get taken down too, and if he knocks into the wall, it moves a bit. That would make for interesting play and help with the difficulty issues a bit.
Very polished. Reminds me of Road Fighter. The graphics and controls are nice. Audio is kind of average - nice, but there are no sound effects for some parts where you would expect effects (bumping into other cars, for instance).
Only a couple of things:
(1) as nilsf says, it would be nice to have different races rather than just endurance.
(2) it doesn't feel fast. I feel like it would be better if the whole game was sped up. In this case I suppose the walls would have to be moving objects (moving in the same direction as the player) so as to avoid making it horrendously difficult.
(3) it would be nice if collisions with other vehicles made yours a bit harder to control for a couple of seconds.
Played about 8 entries so far, and this is far and away my favourite. I'm a sucker for the little-city art style, and the game itself is good fun - nicely balanced. Unfortunately, there are some technical issues such as framerate, visual seams (especially with the roads) and a nasty sound glitch. Still, I like it!
It's okay. The gameplay isn't bad, just kind of average and not as interesting as one would hope. Good first entry, I'd say, and I like the visual style (although the character is kind of scary).
That was cute. I like what you did with the characters, although the game itself is kind of simple.
Please check your physics. Something appears to be very wrong somewhere w.r.t. jumping and falling.
Also, not enough time to solve puzzles like Upside-Down U before getting lava'd.
Good try, though.
Finally got it after reading the instructions, playing, reading again, playing again, and then reading again.
I think the main thing is that things move way too fast once the game gets under way. There's a lot of strategy in choosing which squares to arm, but everything moves so fast that you can't really form a clear plan or see the results of what you're doing.
Also, the "Max" display seems messed up. A lot of times, the "Max" is less than the current size.
Clever. Only... It's really annoying when you've got enough villagers but they keep getting stuck in the houses.
I think it would be better if the giant didn't have a hitbox, and instead could pick peasants up by right-clicking. But then maybe the game would be too easy...
Brilliant, but I had to look at the video too.
I will use this to mess with my colleagues and make their hair fall out. >:)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoddamnedBats
The game itself is average except for the pacing. It *seems* like you're meant to rush at first, but actually rewards careful and strategic play, which is nice. On the downside, it's quite punishing (1 hit and you're back to the start).
(1) I assume kitteh is after Earth's supply of cheezburgers. You lose points for failing to mention this. (well, not really, you just don't get as many points as you would otherwise)
(2) I thought that laser kitteh wanted you to input -8 at first... Would have found it more interesting if he gave you (e.g.) 6 math problems in a row, and if you fail to solve one he shoots lasers at you.
(3) I guess for some people, math really is doom.
I actually felt motivated to finish this one. Nice going! The audio is cute too. (Only... player ship is xbox hueg. all that's missing is the big green x.)
Hmm. I can't tell which of those counters is supposed to be the score.
My guess is that you're supposed to go up to get the greenish things to make you faster, then down and avoid the walls to pick up the boxes which score points... I dunno.
Anyway, the framerate goes way south after playing for more than 10-20 seconds. Also, I don't get any sound, not even white noise. Nice colours and visual design though.
Wow, that's really unfinished. May I suggest you organize a separate competition - "Crustulum Dare"? ;)
Looks like you spent a lot more time on the visuals and animation! I like the little people. Shame they had to starve - it looks like you were that close to getting the gameplay running. (Add a food resource counter, cows on the ground, a kitchen room for preparing the squashed cows, and get the fortress moving, and away you go!)
You get a 4 for innovation and theme, though. :)
Just a note - if it takes you 3 hours to get one sprite on screen, you may want to consider fixing up a library on top of your chosen engine beforehand, like I did.
Very smart game. I would have gone with grey rather than purple for the background, though.
Only... The advancing gas doesn't feel "wall-ish". And the walls do not advance.
Finished the game. Was more focused on surviving than picking stuff up.
It does put me in mind of "Antarctic Adventure", though. Especially the flags. The gameplay is fun enough to make it better than average.
It would be nice if the obstacles in the air also cast shadows on the floor, and (of course) if, like Rob said, the camera was attached to the Advancing Wall. To add to that, it would be amusing in a dark way if, when the wall caught up with the player, you got a 2 or 3 frame animation where he half-turns, then turns his head while running, and you can see the [cartoony] panic on his face as the wall catches up.
Also, I like the pseudo-8-bit sounds.
Good job!
Runs at 3.82 fps for no discernible reason. Also, most levels can be solved by the calculated application of a single yellow ramp, possibly aided by a down bumper. I only found one level where I had to use blocks at all. Finally, bouncing off the walls is kind of funky - you aren't actually reflecting the vector, or so it seems.
Still, extremely polished and an unusual choice for an LD. Shame about the theme.
Level 2 has invisible obstacles/bullets. Move to the area where there are 2 turrets and 3 powerups. Pick up the powerups, destroy the right turret, then fly left to the boundary between the grinders (to escape the right grinder). I keep getting killed there despite being nowhere near either grinder and the bullets from Turret 1 being blocked by the right grinder.
Sorry, but I did not enjoy this very much, despite having a fair amount of fondness for the Gradius series. The player ship's hitbox feels pretty enormous, so squeezing into and out of tight spaces is problematic, as is avoiding enemy fire. The invisible obstacles only made matters worse. Also, it is not clear whether the particles from explosions are actually bullets or just decoration.
The game is very polished, though, with nice graphics and sound.
I wanted to like this, because the concept is great, but there were just too many annoyances.
One, not enough obstacles (especially on stage 3).
Two, the controls are awful even when all wings are intact.
Three, I'm sorry, but those are sound defects, not sound effects.
If you have time, though, it could turn out to be something pretty special.
Life counter seems bugged. Other than that, nice work. The only thing is that I would have liked a bit more inertia on your ship, to make it easier to circle-strafe the enemies. Framerate was smooth on my machine.
Quite amusing and very polished. Nice.
Hmm, the basic idea is sound but somehow it doesn't work so well in practice. I think part of the problem is that the game is too random. A lot of the time, the game generates a map with so many enemies blocking the exit that it is impossible to win, even though the player has gained as much XP as possible on previous levels. Then the game devolves to a dominant strategy:
1. clear all the enemies who are blocking the way to the exit
2. if you have 3 or more HP, kill additional enemies until your HP is less than 3
3. go to the exit
And the only way this can be interrupted is if the game generates an unwinnable map (which seems to happen a lot).
Apart from that it's very polished, though.
Clever spin on the Tempest idea, but the enemy AI is just annoying. Enemies seem to love to get stuck on the edge behind you and don't do anything after that. I got it down to about 5 million or so.
Overall, not bad but didn't feel outstanding.
Good job. The globe photo and intro maps were clearly not made by you during the 48 hour period (wait, don't tell me they were), but I guess it's ok since they're not gameplay visuals. The game itself is kind of easy, but not bad I guess. In-game visuals are nice.
Had some sadistic fun with the second house, where you can block off the exit and then shift the right wall just a little to make the guy panic. Unfortunately, the guy can go through a wall if you move it when he's right next to it.
Like everyone else, I'd say this has some real potential.
I'm not sure whether it's an innovative use of the theme, or out of point.
It only gets interesting on Impossible after about 5 levels. The rest is far too easy. I found that when working into the wee hours of the morning, I grossly overestimated the difficulty of my game when playtesting - did this happen to you too?
Apart from that, pretty nice. I couldn't help but feel like the game has wasted potential, though. Also, the shooting sound FX got a little hard on the ears after a while.
Nice. Level 6/7 irritated me no end, though. I finally quit there.
By the way - can you do positional audio in Pygame? Would be excellent if you could hear the big wave coming before you see it.
Jason Rohrer called, and he wants his schtick back. ;)
For that matter, Rohrer's stuff, esp. Gravitation, is closer to what I'd call a "game". Heart does fit the formal definition of "game", but in such a loose way that I have trouble considering it one. As it is, your blog entry seems to suggest "it is a game because I intended it to be one", which really doesn't sit well with modern notions of art. Further, the very fact that there is a simple way to make it more gamey without sacrificing the artistic value (I'm sure you can guess what that is) kind of underscores the un-gameyness of the work.
Still, this is an excellent work, and I'm confident that people who try to use it as an excuse to submit flash movies for LD will be summarily scorned.
LD16 — Exploration (20)
Gallery by ExciteMike
I like the concept, and the execution doesn't outlast its welcome. Would have been nice to have more variety, but that would of course have been pretty time-consuming. One complaint: guy doesn't jump high enough, except on that one level where he doesn't need to.
Fuck Oregon let's go find El Dorado by crackerblocks
Is there an alternative download location? I can't access it - connection keeps timing out.
Edit: Finally managed to download.
I think this is the most entertaining game I've played this compo. Am seriously hoping it will win.
Apocalypse Adventure by Hempuli
I like it, but it's really hard AND unforgiving. Died a few times (note to self: don't bring a pistol to a machine-gun fight) and gave up. This is so big it really doesn't feel like a 48-hour game at all. It feels like it could have been a commercial shareware release from the mid '80s, before development budgets swelled to ridiculous levels. Kudos!
Penguinagain by dock
It's an extremely beautiful set of lock-and-key puzzles. I really dig the art and the chiptune BGM, and the feel of moving around is good, but the gameplay left me - pun not intended - a little bit cold. The part which struck me as smart was how the wooden block had multiple uses - if the game had more of those "aha!" moments it would be so much more interesting. Also, the use of Pengy Pan to cue the player into the possibility of physics was very smart - well done on that score.
In The Field by Entar
The game is impossible to lose if playing carefully, or even if not playing very carefully - as such it lacks a strong sense of agency. It would be helpful to add some impetus for the player to enter the danger areas. I suggest randomly seeding "treasure" on each board (possibly in areas which cannot be entered), and scoring the player on treasure picked up vs. time taken. This forces the player to make tough decisions on grabbing treasure vs. clearing the level. You could also make the danger areas do gradual damage (possibly partly random) rather than killing the player outright, so as to make the decision-making process more involved.
In the end I'm not sure whether this is a good idea, but my rating will take into account the fact that you only spent 7 hours on it. For 7 hours it is definitely really impressive. If you had spent double the time to enhance the gameplay, this might have been a contender for best game.
Adventure Quest by TenjouUtena
Hamumu's got a point - the player here is mainly a healbot. I'd suggest three major improvements:
(1) A targeting cursor to indicate which baddie the adventurer is going after, and some feedback on the baddie's level and abilities.
(2) Improved targeting interface which is pausable and allows mouse control. With XNA you can implement mouse picking using Viewport.Project() and Viewport.Unproject().
(3) Rock/paper/scissors with the weapons - you know, like Fire Emblem - so that there's a compelling reason to decide on certain targets rather than others.
towlr: EXPLR by philhassey
The original Towlr gave very clear feedback as to how each game element worked. All the information was there, and the interpretation was as straightforward as it could be without using text. This one is not like that, which is a shame. I found the dragon and the borders of the maze, but the exact function of the timer is still a mystery after dying many times, as is the method of defeating the dragon.
Mars Rover by Rafael CP
I believe the "repeat until water found" instruction should terminate when the robot is unable to repeat the instruction. Either that or it should terminate the program altogether. All the other comments here apply, except that I didn't have much trouble figuring out what the robot was up to at any given moment.
Also, I feel like it would be more interesting if each instruction had an associated energy cost, and you had to make the program work without running out of energy. This could also be used to introduce interesting dilemmas like tunneling through a hillside vs. climbing over it.
Authentic Space Exploration by Hexane
Didn't run for me (not going to install Chrome just for this - sorry), but I suspect the people who are complaining it's boring simply don't get the joke. Were you inspired by Terry Pratchett?
Amke's Revenge by Mark Overmars
It was a decent experience - I rather liked the atmospheric nature of the piece, with the contrast between the cave and the desert. You made a very smart design decision by making the player exit in different directions rather than continually proceeding left to right - this does help the sense of "exploration".
However, I think you were over-generous with the checkpoints. This has had two unfortunately detrimental effects: first, it renders the thirst system irrelevant, as the player almost never runs out of water before he dies. Second, it also allowed you to be too strict with the jump timing and climbing mechanics, since the player can just bulldoze his way through and respawn in the new area when he dies.
Overall, it's not exactly earth-shaking but still a pretty enjoyable way to spend a few minutes. Good job!
PATHWAYS by hubol
Peculiar little piece. Not very "gamey" but somewhat interesting nonetheless.
Tower Quest by moltanem2000
Not sure it really appealed to me, but it does have decent mechanics and a nice progression hook. I wasn't too interested in continuing after reaching the level with the homing enemy - perhaps make it a bit slower?
Planetary Explorer by Selkie
For what it's worth, I'm going to go out on a limb and say you probably shouldn't have done 2 separate games. The shooting portion was definitely a lot weaker than the exploring portion - the controls are too "squishy" because the ship doesn't brake or accelerate fast enough, its maximum speed is too high, and it has different movement speeds in the vertical and horizontal axes. The inclusion of a high score table is also a little odd and doesn't fit the exploration concept. Better to enhance the exploration gameplay - possibly with enemies or some puzzles to solve - as I thought that was a lot more interesting and fun than the shooting.
Do you see it? I saw it by cptalbertwesker
Found the uberbug. I think this is a bit stronger than your average treasure-hunting sort of gameplay because the objects in the game pretty much give you a very strong hint of what kind of bug you can expect to find. I wasn't expecting something very interesting but was pleasantly surprised.
Heli scout by Laksen
Pity about the collision detection, because the concept seems quite interesting. Also, your elevator event doesn't seem to trigger properly. On the first run, I couldn't trigger it and enter the second map.
Conceptually it is interesting and very much on theme, though. Can I suggest you plan ahead before the next LD and create a library (or find a free one) to handle troublesome stuff like collision detection? I did that before my first LD and it really helped.
Legacy of HYDON by Arne
Everything I want to say about art has already been said. As for gameplay, it would be better to have a few monsters or classes of monsters with unique gameplay abilities, rather than a large number whose only distinguishing attributes are power and speed.
Dark Fire by Stalker_23b
Couldn't download it as of 2nd January. Please host somewhere other than mediafire? It looks really impressive.
Phish world by grayger
I have a soft spot for melee "shooters" - actually made one before - so this is interesting. Main thing is that the physics are difficult to handle. If I were to make a ramming game like this, I'd probably go with an Asteroids-style control system instead (left and right steer the ship, up accelerates, down brakes). Also, why do the bullets follow you for such an incredibly long time?!
EchoExplorer by refrag
I like the dialogue and concept - it's cute - but the gameplay itself didn't do it for me. Sorry. It would be interesting if you added a couple of puzzle elements - possibly with more NPC bats?
Robot Wants Kitty by Hamumu
Would have been nice to get more use out of the air dash. Still, this is really good.
Also, I suspect I have been playing too many artgames - was waiting for the other shoe to drop and the game to announce "Robot has genocided two peaceful races of acid-based lifeforms in its quest for kitty."