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Dark Arts and Sciences

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCo
201635ShapeshiftChameleon Clickerjam11282.492.033.492.341.922.0332
201533You are the MonsterNose Walljam
201532An Unconventional WeaponEye Contactjam9102.712.263.293.522.522.633.1957
201430Connected WorldsOr Else They Will Disconnect You (for Oculus Rift)jam7262.572.382.772.562.312.262.232.3296
201429Beneath the SurfaceYou Don't Want Thatcompo9992.712.223.372.651.671.322.863.02100
20132710 SecondsTrigger Warningjam6012.101.412.792.211.971.711.472.0055

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Dark Arts and Sciences

LD27 — 10 Seconds

Teleporting Zeppelin by Gremlin 2013-08-29T19:58:00

Nice concept, needs difficulty tweaking. Maybe I shouldn't be trying to play it with a trackpad, but I couldn't survive long enough to try out the teleporter.

PolyBlade by nastynate 2013-08-27T02:18:00

On MacOS X 10.8.4, I get "PolyBlade cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure PolyBlade works with this version of OS X."

LD29 — Beneath the Surface

Ordained by RadioLemon 2014-04-30T02:46:00

The jar worked on OSX for me.

The hidden-vampire image made me laugh. :)

Beneath The Surface by adamwoolridge 2014-04-29T22:38:00

This would make a great mobile game with swipe or tilt controls.

If you're evil, add an in-app purchase for a powerup that auto-fires the laser. Lasts until you die, $0.99 each. ;)

Beneath the surface by siondream 2014-05-13T06:02:00

If you're stuck, try "enter break" and "exit room".

Also, there's a typo in the crate room, the command is "look create" where it should be "look crate".

Killer Without Color by GlowingSnail 2014-04-30T02:56:00

The Linux build works on OSX too (if you have Love installed).

LD30 — Connected Worlds

Connecting LD30 to the Real World by Will Edwards 2014-09-15T17:15:00

I really wanted to try this, but...

I can't see any pins, just the blue background. The red section disappears after "I admit it." and "Cool! Let's Play!", but never gives me a login window, or the three icons in the screenshot. (on both Chrome and Firefox on MacOSX; Safari doesn't even load the background)

Is it broken?

Do I have to comment here BEFORE playing in order to unlock the login window?

Connecting LD30 to the Real World by Will Edwards 2014-09-15T17:37:00

I'm getting this error in Firefox a few seconds after clicking "Cool! Let's Play!"

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30. websocket.js:6
"websocket" "ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30" "encountered an error:" error { target: WebSocket, eventPhase: 0, bubbles: false, cancelable: false, defaultPrevented: false, timeStamp: 1410802454997684, originalTarget: WebSocket, explicitOriginalTarget: WebSocket, isTrusted: true, NONE: 0, CAPTURING_PHASE: 1 } websocket.js:32
"websocket" "ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30" "closed"

Heart Star by AdventureIslands 2014-09-15T18:34:00

Cute AND fun!

The only thing I'd polish is the audio: it should be as two-sided as the visuals. Start with a midi file, change one set of instruments to slow warm heartbeats and the other to high glassy watery sparkles. Pan the heartbeats to the left and the sparkles to the right. Make two music files, one for each world: one with the left side loud and the right side quiet, and one with the reverse. Maybe make a third version with no panning and even volume, and play it when both friends are on the platform.

VRtist by wallmasterr 2014-09-16T00:40:00

I don't have an Android but I played the web version twice, first on a 2D monitor and then on an Oculus Rift.

In 3D, with both eyes open, the stereo effect is perfect. The cubes look like 3D cubes, the road and fence and trees stretch out ahead of you, even the trunks and leaves merge into single trees. The art styles blend into one fully lined and colored scene; there's a distinct psychedelic shimmer to it, but it looks like a blended whole. Only the score is easier to see with one eye closed.

If anything, the stereo effect is TOO perfect. The ??_ and _?? blocks merge visually into a single block on one side of the road, and it's immediately obvious that you dodge by moving all the way to the other side. Meanwhile, the ?_? blocks merge into what looks like a single block in the center of the road. You dodge one of these NOT by moving to either side, but by staying in the center as it rushes up to smack you in the face then splits at the last second and goes harmlessly around you. It looks really cool in 3D, but it makes the other patterns seem too easy; in 2D mode, all three patterns are hard, but they're evenly hard.

I thought the controls were "floaty" in 2D, but in 3D it's immediately obvious that there are only three positions on the road, and you can't sneak between the blocks in a ??_ pattern (or whatever it is that we're doing wrong). It's also always obvious which left block goes with which right block, which can be hard to keep track of in 2D.

Or, a little more bluntly: there's nothing wrong with the controls, it's us playing poorly...but we're playing poorly because showing both screens to both eyes makes the game so much harder that it's not the same game anymore. 2D mode is a fast-twitch game about splitting your attention in two, about keeping track of two separate streams of input and merging them manually under time pressure. 3D mode is a slow drug trip in which you work up the courage to stand your ground before a giant concrete block coming to crush you. I can't say I think you did it on purpose, but I like how that fits with the theme. ;)

The only thing I don't like is the difficulty curve; in 3D it's too easy once you figure out the ?_? trick, while in 2D it's uniformly frustrating. You already have a score multiplier telling you how well the player is playing; try using it to adjust the movement speed and maybe the spacing between blocks.