Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → dansludumdare
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Super Mondria Brothers | compo | 975 | 2.77 | 2.77 | 2.97 | 3.80 | 2.48 | 2.96 | 1.75 | 2.65 | 45 | ||
| 2012 | 25 | You are the Villain | Untitled | compo | 609 | 2.53 | 1.95 | 2.68 | 2.55 | 2.87 | 2.89 | 1.96 | 3.55 | 76 | ||
| 2012 | 23 | Tiny World | Terraformer Breath | compo | 364 | 3.09 | 2.71 | 3.52 | 3.35 | 2.20 | 2.52 | 2.98 | 2.81 | 100 |
dansludumdare leaves an average of 23.7 feedback comments each event.
This is a cool idea.
I think what I saw was that if a player defended a fireball, HP is not decreased when it hits. Would've been nice to see the fireball explode before it hit you if you defended it.
Might be annoying on some keyboards that don't respond to multiple keystrokes. You can generally assume 2 keys at once will work, but that's about it.
In Windows, pressing shift repeatedly will bring up the sticky keys dialog box. Annoying usually, but I was holding the right arrow when it happened and got stuck in go-right mode which in most games can be corrected by pressing and releasing the right arrow....
Anyway, funny game.
I felt like a multitasking villain badass when I figured out how to use the spacebar properly.
Would've been cool to implement a divebomb with the down arrow, and some physics adjustments.
I couldn't really figure out how to use flame properly. Just spray it in new areas and some things burn, then default to picking up and dropping.
At some point I glitched into a house I think, and then flew upward pretty quickly. I think it was a special glitchy house (it looked normal though -- it was 2 tiles tall and I could "land" on the bottom tile of it).
Well done.
Good title.
Cool little game. The villain twist really made this different than the original.
I didn't get any audio, but I think I saw an audio program listed at the end... is there supposed to be audio?
I found it pretty hard. Or at least, I died fast.
Nice polish.
Game got slower for me as it ran for longer. Maybe as more cops spawned?
I really like you guys who interpreted the theme as "Lotsa crime. Gotta crime some crime."
When I tried to put more things on my triangle, there were only 3 circles to click, the vertices of my triangle. Wasn't sure what to do.
I also got stuck at the end message of the first level, never got prompted with the "add to yourself" thing.
The controls were also a bit laggy. Are you displacing on a keystroke, or changing velocity on a keystroke? The latter is probably what you want.
Nice shader.
At first, didn't know the green things only were bases, didn't even know you could scroll.
I made 2 zombies, from different bases, attacked, lost one, and then as I think I was about to lose the other, but the game crashed.
Excellent currency choice.
I also wish the player moved faster.
I wonder if it'd be a good idea to implement multiple entrances/exits? As it is now, you basically play each level twice. It would also add more gameplay in the form of route planning.
This is a really excellent idea. I wouldn't be surprised if music visualizations evolve into games like this.
@LucaPavone -- it really isn't hard. It's probably some error.
So the goal is to delay the hero as long as possible?
Can you explain a typical strategy?
I ended up unable to play any cards, so the game was a stalemate I guess.
Really unforgiving game, but awesome otherwise.
Some kind of progress indicator at the loading screen would be nice.
That GMechanism thing is interesting.
The "ding" sound effect was really loud.
I really wish I knew what was giving me money and what was costing me money. Maybe just write a floaty number over the building every time a transaction happens?
I can't stand waiting for platforms. The only thing it challenges is my patience. Cool concept, but maybe it should've been a spaceship that needed to use gravity correctly instead of a giant dude. That way you have something to do while waiting for the next moon to come around, and gravity would make a little more sense.
What's the deal with the rock in front of the cave? I think I got a split second of a cut scene but I was trying to click on the food rock next to it and missed it....
The emoting thing felt tacked on since you can emote with buildings... it's basically just another thing you have to remember to do, but there's no new difficulty associated with it. I wish I had a food building too.
Good, cute game.
Adorable dog. You should make his tongue hang out sometimes (unless I missed it).
I think since gravity is so low, you should make it so you can choose your jump height based on how long you hold down the jump key.
Jumping is buggy; you can jump in the air pretty easily and sometimes you can't jump when you should be able to.
The open world concept is awesome. Making a platformer allows LD players to jump right in, which is important for LD games I think.
There should be some kind of indicator of when you have enough parts. I think I missed the instruction to go back to your ship and just assumed I had to once I had 6 parts.
The graphics are nicely stylish, but you're drawing them weird. Round to the nearest integer before you draw them or something -- the fine lines are all blinky-seizurey. And I couldn't figure out the parts with blue background. Was I under water? (Not talking about the obvious water pools) Was I in an ice cave?
I don't really like the probe. It gives good information but it doesn't seem doggy enough. Maybe if it was a tennis ball with an antenna sticking out or something, I don't know.
An explanation of the buildings would be good. I tried human, house, turret, and shot, and then just built a global network of turrents. Eventually I spotted shield, but couldn't figure out if it was invulnerable to the fireballs or just a single shot barrier, since all the aliens were getting shot down by the turrets already. And I never figured out what speed did, unless having at least 1 of them speeds up your character's movement slightly. How many dudes does a house hold?
Anyway, this is good. The cross between shoot-things-that-come-from-outside and building stuff worked well.
ET SPACE ROK. MAK MOR MANS.
I've always hated games with limited mana. It's like games with limited continues. If you get this far spending this much, you might as well give up and start over. It's also like... is this an ability, or a cheap trick from the mana store? Anyway, goes without saying I didn't try again after I ran out of priest mana and died. Maybe the wizard should steal mana from enemies. Anything that makes it so you aren't running on batteries.
The game could've felt more cooperative if you could push your allies out of the way when you hit them (like the difference between Starcraft 1 and 2). Right now it feels like your AI buddies are these guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSMF35t0JA0&t=19m11s
(watch for about a minute)
Everything else was pretty awesome. Impressive for a 48 hour compo game.
I think I know how pawlmurray got stuck -- I was here for a bit just now -- the place where you get two blocks and are supposed to use them to get yellow dimension -- I didn't "see" the roof in the first room with yellow blocks as something you could jump through for a while. It's the first time you have to go upward through something, and it's the first time something you can go upward through is an entire ceiling, not just a platform. I don't know what to do about that, but I think it's legitimately not straightforward.
I find placing blocks at the right height a bit annoying... maybe aim with the mouse within a limited range. It doesn't have to make sense (the blocks already just disappear and reappear), and I don't think the point of your game is to learn the height vs time relation for a jump. Especially since you spend most of your jump at the highest point, which puts a block just above where you can jump to.
Also don't need separate keys for pick up/put down.
When I got to very close to the leaf, I jumped up and had to do that loop again. Seems more like a perception trick than a peice of gameplay -- I just don't think of jumping through ceilings much in every day life.
I got to the bottom left corner (I think) and got stuck. Did I win?
Also I had to test the gameplay myself when I jumped on a dog. Having to test the rules brings you out of the game.
About zzForrest's comment... I don't agree with him, but it does feel very "Here are two mechanics, it is a game." Maybe make it so the blocks you place also only exist in some dimensions? Some way to make the two things compliment each other, or seem like 1 mechanic instead of 2.
Moth is right about everything. And you're playing as a bunch of kids -- choosing to be good or evil is like choosing between studying ants and studying burning ants with a magnifying glass (I imagine most kids will do both). Also the panning and the choosing to be good or evil go hand in hand. If you can see the entire level up front, choosing to be good or evil will be less arbitrary. As it stands, if I saw the portal from the first screen and no objects obstructing it, I went good, else I went evil and shot the planet diagonally fully force at the ground over and over. I think that might explain the thing about everyone expecting the evil ending, since evil is much easier.
I was confused about the ending - it asked me if I was good or evil, and I put evil since that's what I was most recently. It didn't accept my answer so I tried again and then said I was good. I think the good ending showed up for a second and then the bad ending showed up.
And yeah, I skipped the wall of text at the beginning.
Good take on the theme.
Takes way more processing power than it should. Do you poll events without sleeping for a little bit?
I feel your pain about stupid mistakes. Way to take it in good humor though. Beat the game yourself before submitting it next time I guess.
There's obvious suggestions I'm not making because they're obvious and other people have made them already. One thought I had that I don't think is obvious is this: you have a small window to go with the tiny theme, but the audio is as big as ever. Maybe make it have a simple loud line and lots of quiet bits (if you make a straight up quiet song, people can just turn up the volume and you lose the effect) or stay within a small frequency range to make it feel tiny as well.
I found the levels played the same. Maybe set the walking guys on predefined paths, and make the shooter guys shoot in patterns, both unique for every level.
Excellent game. Kudos for randomly-generated world.
Here are some things I found annoying, that I think are easily tweakable:
1) Sword being limited to NESW. I imagine that if I used a sword in real life, I wouldn't have to line myself up with my target before attacking, I'd just turn toward it and slash (not stab). So there's no such thing as a "blind spot" when using a sword, but it appears in this game because a) you limit the sword to NESW b) enemies can approach diagonally. These are both understandable as they are simplest to program. However: a simple slash animation (the sword going from left to right while facing N, say) together with a big enough hit box that there are no "blind spots" would mean a much more playable game while still keeping it simple.
2) Enemies invincible after being hit. <rant>Come on! Nerf the weapon, not the ... what is it? What is going on when enemies are invincible after getting hit? I don't get it! I hate it! Who invented it and why does everyone keep doing it?! It's particularly annoying when I shoot a sheep, and he then manages to charge me while invincible. It's like... you know, Karate 101: back away from your enemy after you shoot him in the face because he's invincible. </rant>
3) Enemies don't slide. I figure you made the player accelerate instead of moving exactly how they input for esthetic reasons. Fair. But the fact that the enemies don't do that, especially in the ice level, and because the enemies have the simple job or running into you whereas you actually have to hit them with something, and because both you and your enemies are sheep (instead of the enemies being, say, robots with all-season tires and constantly rotating saw-arms) it just feels like cheating.
Seriously though, it was a sweet game. When something new and nice happens I don't have lots of words for it, but when something I see in video games a lot happens, I have lots of ammo for it. So don't take the disproportionate amount of words the wrong way.
6 fps. Doesn't seem like it needs such a computation intensive way of doing graphics.
The mouse sensitivity was incredibly high. Not used to inverted Y-mouse either.
Very compelling gameplay -- went through it twice. Too hard and luck-based though, especially at the beginning -- there should always be a majority of purple blobs and a healing chest. The trap chests are no fun. Maybe some way to cautiously open a chest. It's also hard to tell when you're ready to face an enemy or not. I'd be killing blue dudes and the next enemy that appeared was a bear, so I tried to kill it and got one-shotted. When I fought the boss, I one-shotted him.
Didn't play because I don't like installing things -- not just Ludum Dare entries, but anything (I use portable programs). I don't trust programs to uninstall themselves completely, or not screw around with my boot sequence. Don't know what tools you were using, but can you compile to a simple executable?
Getting dropbox 404 on Windows link.
Way to learn Unity in 48 hours!
My main complaint is the ball physics. I'm not sure if I just didn't understand it or what, but it seemed more complicated than I could be expected to understand (given lack of tutorial and whatnot). I got that there was momentum, but I also felt like I was slipping for a little bit when accelerating 90 degrees away from where I was currently moving.
I'm not sure if it's that the language is too complicated so much as it isn't self documenting (what's mytsl?) and doesn't have comments.
I've been thinking of making a programming game myself. Didn't even occur to me to have the code and simulation displayed at the same time. Duh.
Anyway, kudos for doing a programming game. I'll probably spend more time on it some day in the future -- perhaps perusing the source as well -- interested to see a homegrown compiler.
I had trouble with the lag in the controls as well. Did you play this on a fast computer? It's possible you're below the event horizon where processing events happens faster than keyboard events are created when a key is held down, and I'm beyond it.
Ground could use some texture -- gets weird when you see only a solid line below you and are between two purple guys.
Maybe picky about this, or it was a time thing, but I would've liked if all rotations stayed true to the pixely nature of the game (like the green squares do). I don't like seeing rotated pixels... they don't actually do that! In particular, the star at the end of levels.
The enemies looked hilarious. I like when they stacked too.
I liked the frequency of save points.
That bee!
I'd suggest making the graphics consistently big-pixelly. The leg, blood, and nail break the esthetic. I think the bee does as well.
The galloping leg animation is adorable.
Missing OpenAL32.dll on Windows distributable.
Real nice game. My suggestion would be that text at the end (the one I got) was a bit too dramatic/Matrix Reloaded. Oh, and love the slinky sounds.
Also too slow on Firefox, Windows 7, mediocre video card, 2-year old laptop.
Seems cool otherwise. I think it fits the theme fine.
I feel like if you added one single rule to this (simple enough to be able to rush in when time is running out), like only so many mutations per kill or something, you'd have a "real" game. As it stands, you just select things and give them poison and then aggression.
Otherwise really cool. I've created similar things myself (not in 48 hours).
Holy SHIT how did I not know about SFML? ...I'll wait for version 2 before I adopt it though. Shaders! Everything else is fine (and I've already coded it) with SDL and OpenGL. Did you move from SDL to SFML? If so, any comments?
I also love randomly generated stuff.
The music was pleasantly wonky. Love and marriage, love and marriage....
I didn't even know I had PyGame. I'm at 7 fps. Don't use PyGame! Well, do what you like, but there doesn't seem to be a PyGame game out there that's not ultra slow on my computer.
Not on a Mac. I feel lame saying that, but I'm encouraged to. On the topic of lame things, I'm also avoiding unfinished entries... maybe put being able to finish higher on the priority list next time. Or finish the game early and then add stuff later, and never let on that you didn't finish.
So you hold q/w and left click on a planet to select dudes right? I sent my miners to a planet on the 3rd level (where your opponent is introduced) and then they stayed there and I couldn't select them to make them come back with their gold.
When I got game over, the "bang" sound effect kept playing. Hahaha!
I find it bothersome that the robots can see farther than the magnifying glass. Cool concept though.
Bang bang bang bang bang....
I didn't realize I was supposed to protect the red p as well until I started losing life. Actually, I wasn't sure that I was supposed to protect the blue p either. And I thought there were 4 red ps -- didn't realize the world wrapped.
At one point I held down the arrow keys and ended up having to wait for a bit for the thing to finish handling all the arrow key events. I don't know what freedom PyGame gives you, but something like turning off key repeat or flushing events after refreshing the screen would suffice.
If it weren't a Ludum Dare game I'd say the enemies should be more varied -- 30 waves of the same dudes (as far as I could tell) gets repetitive. I ended up using basic towers the whole time. (I played on easy -- don't know if that makes a difference).
Love the ASCII.
I don't know much about XML, but I noticed you used it to, I think, define some interface stuff. What's the reason for using it instead of just hardcoding? Is it the output of some other tool?
I don't know why I didn't think of this.
Is the voice yours? I would've been too shy. Awesome.
baby -> man -- yeah
crib -> bed -- OK
trough -> toilet -- I... thought you eat out of troughs
food -> refrigerator -- why do you have to naked to operate the refrigerator?
pond -> desk -- what
duck -> woman -- I get it, like a chick
pig -> pig
I saw a duck ride the pig, and then I think I rode the pig!
I'm not sure if I'm addicted to tower defense (I've only played such games a few times, but enjoyed them) or this particular take on it. I'm also not sure if I want to see it fixed up or not (the graphics are endearing and figuring out that ants exist in a square is cool, even though it "should" be intuitive). (Although I'd like to see the price check fixed -- you can't spend down to 0 AP when upgrading).
Did anyone find a strategy that worked that depended on anything other than fast ants?
My strategy: fast and near hole, fast ant near entrance. Upgrade and near hole so you can survive, then upgrade ant near entrance, to take dudes out faster. Anyone find something that works faster on the completely big ant wave? The front guy isn't upgraded enough in time for it.
I put a light source in a hole (locks underneath) and couldn't get it out or go anywhere without going insane.
Sluggish on 2 year old laptop; Win 7, 32 bit, 1.3 GHz dual core, 3GB RAM. Interestingly, the character responded quickly, but the camera, world, and text were the slow things. Something to do with Pygame threading I guess.
Just wanted to specifically say that I enjoyed the exact awkward timing between falling and the gave over screen.
"You need the August 2008 DirectX update in order to run this application...."
I didn't bother updating, so it's possible this is my fault. But I purchased my computer after 2008. Window 7, 32 bit.
Windows 7, 32 bit
"""
Failed to find a pixel format supporting antialiasing ; antialiasing will be disabled
1.6 1.6
1680 1050
Failed to create image, its internal size is too high (4508x668)
"""
LD26 — Minimalism (8)
Phlux by vrld 2013-05-10T19:21:00
I was still a bit confused about how energy worked by level 5. I think I lost my generators because I let their energy go to 0. I figured I didn't need reserves in generators. And it seemed like the more connections you put, the more energy a node made. I'm sure I would've figured it out with more levels though.
I really dug the floating menu, although it did make me expect a similarly unnerving game.
The game got my resources management jollies going. Nice work.
tequilaJumper by mort96 2013-05-10T19:03:00
I didn't get any audio.
Um, I think the controls didn't offer enough control. I'm not sure if that's what the people calling them stiff mean. And I realize that sounds weird so I'll give examples. I couldn't control my jump height, which I can totally do in real life (being unrealistic is OK (you're a cube), but what did you gain from breaking my intuition?). It was hard to reverse decisions about jumps because you moved faster on the floor than in the air (ie if you move left, jump, then hit right at the apex of your jump, you don't get back to where you started). And slipping off horizontal sliding platforms (by standing on its edge and pressing nothing while it switched directions) probably could've been interesting, but because it was so hard to hit a previous platform, it was just frustrating.
Regardless of my take on difficulty vs. frustration, this is an elegantly executed concept. And well done on the random generation.
Guiding Light by ilo 2013-05-10T18:52:00
Didn't work on 32 bit Windows 7. Screenshots looked cool though!
LOOP by vandriver 2013-05-10T18:47:00
/: I didn't know I was going to rip out the little girl's hair, and I didn't realize z was deadly when I was on fire.
I wish there was more variety in gameplay. Maybe that's tied to so easily accidentally being mean to the girl. Scavenger hunt is kind of boring, but scavenger hunt where you think morally about the items you collect is cool.
I'm only going into specifics on what I didn't find said anywhere else. This game is awesome.
10 Second Language by loren 2013-05-10T18:22:00
I like keyboards. There are lots of "create art from a strange input" things, the "canonical" example I can think of is otomata. But this one uses the keyboard! Something about the way I understand keyboard makes this feel more like I'm exploring a giant space of possibilities rather than painting random stuff with the mouse or whatever.
T.O.M.B. by Knighty 2013-04-30T21:20:00
I didn't bother getting past the room of turning because it was too frustrating. I'm not into these "I wanna be the guy" type games I guess. I think if I understood how jumping worked better, it might not be so hard, but I couldn't figure it out (namely the jump height).
Very cute and nice otherwise, and good interpretation of theme.
Minimalize by CogentInvalid 2013-04-29T07:02:00
Really awesome idea, looks and sounds cool too. I was using a trackpad so I got frustrated and stopped once I tried a level a few times (the one where you're supposed to go back and forth for powerups). But I also wish the jump button made you jump as long as it was held, so I could avoid minimizing blocks by just holding it and look elsewhere to click while doing so. Also so when I move off a 1-high ledge and jump in the air, I wouldn't fail at jumping and fall.
Tech Troop Tim's Big Pay Day by Guardian_Bob 2013-04-29T06:34:00
I like it!
You should write what feedback you want in the description! Are you new to game programming? Do you want feedback relating to the gameplay? The user experience? Intuitiveness?
Anyway, here're some thoughts: I'm wondering what the experience would be like if the tiles didn't switch around when you hit a wall. I lost my bearings when that happened. So I used the green tiles I'd been to before, but then it felt like I was just bumping around expanding my domain of greenness toward the goal.