Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → der Mondhase
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Chemical Love | jam | 463 | 3.72 | 3.79 | 3.41 | 3.79 | 3.11 | 4.04 | 3.96 |
Probably, one of the best LD49 games I have played. Amazing variety of missions and gameplay for a jam game! The music and atmosphere was also very good! Maybe a flash warning could be a good addition to avoid causing seizures to hypersensitive people in the storm beacon level.
I loved the concept and rated it accordingly, but it's not a game for me: I have no patience to wait for favourable lag :D Very interesting idea, honestly quite unique, and technically well done! I wish I had more patience to go through it - I'm getting frustrated already at the first set of laser gates after the first check point =P
I passed the 35 meters with what I think was a cheat, but nonetheless this game was brilliant :D The idea was simple yet effective, and the audio was jarringly comedic! The 1400s portrait cutouts were a touch of genius!
I think I have sworn against some Greek god the moment my character fell down near the rocket after the first 3 levels :D Aside from this, I think this game had a really nice loop. How was the "Vrooom" noise made? :D
Quick question: is there an ending somewhere? I feel like there is some narrative behind this, but I cannot understand if there is a way to unlock any ending, aside from moving up and down the wire for enough time. Anyway, I loved the creepy, unsettling music and the minimalistic tone. Theme fulfilled to a T.
I *loved* the sheer creativity of this game, including the scanline (no pun intended) aesthetic and moody background song! The "four objects per line" limitations with the fading in/out made for an incredible variety of puzzles! Kudos for both the creativity and the end result!
Hi! First off, nice game! I have actually started from the sewers and got away without alerting the police for maximum profit, which I found hilarious :D What is the difference in starting point, though? When you start from the chopper, you can follow the way in the sewers or enter gun blazing. Is there any gameplay difference? One last thing: what is the room above the caveau, under the air duct? I realized I could enter it and reach an elevator door, but I couldn't find a way to interact with it.
@toxiccomputer I didn't understand that you could start the helicopter, I think I tried to press Space or click on it without success, so I guessed that I "used it to land on the building" and that it wasn't an interactable. How can you use it?
@toxiccomputer *facepalm*
*Press E To Use Helicopter* it was THERE THE WHOLE TIME.
This is what I get for NOT reading the instructions. Thanks a lot, I've tried it and now I get how it should have worked :D
I liked a lot the "different color for different enemy" mechanics. The game is fun and immediate, but maybe the trucker's hitbox is a bit too big. Sometimes I died for one tiny pixel overlap too much :D The trucker with the steering wheel in the left corner is a very nice touch!
After talking to the guy, I found myself in an endless corridor and couldn't really understand what to do... does anybody have any clue?
The drifting mechanics and graphics feel good, but it was a bit too hard for me. Good job with the 3D models and the drift physics!
I utterly loved the voice acting and the way this game worked! That stereotypical Russian accent was just *chef kiss*. Disturbing American communications had never been so fun! Thanks a lot for having this wonderful idea!
HOLY MOTHER OF SHOWS! The creativity of the dialogue! All the branches! I have thrown the piano on BOTH the princess and the baddie at different times! it made me laugh a lot, comedy at its finest! Seeing Baddie McMoustache waving the leek wand or berating the guards was just awesome! I don't know how you had this idea, but be it known that I wished this game could be a full feature game with more levels!
Graphics and audio are top notch! The production values were crazy high to be a game for a jam! At some point, infinite mode just broke down and no enemy came down anymore (I guess I found a bug?). The only thing that might make it better is a slightly bigger hitbox for the enemies or the gun projectiles!
@jpatchz I still think you did an impressive job with this game. I really feels like a little miracle: I mean, made in 72 hours only, with this level of polish? Holy heck, screw the bugs, it's just amazing! :D
Holy sheep on a motorcycle, the... the implications of the ending are... oh my goodness. I think I might have given the first straight score in this jam. Holy heck. I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't ready.
Got all three endings, nice variety of situations - even if obviously the E. ending was my favourite. The music was EXTREMELY well done, and the graphics too! It felt a bit rail-roaded, but for a Jam, one cannot expect a full graphic novel! The game was overall impressive!
Very fun game, I loved it! Graphics, music and gameplay perfectly integrated with the theme! I liked a lot having to balance shooting and venting, while also moving inside the maze among enemies. It feels like a little miracle that this game has been done in 72 hours!
Chrome marks the executable as a virus :/ No idea why...
@jazzathefoss I will try to download it with another browser. Which engine did you use to build the game? Maybe it's an uncommon choice that triggers some Chrome "heuristic" recognition?
Had a bit of troubles with the Green enemies, while juggling the controls. The idea, direction and mood are extremely solid!
Very good game, but the background song can be a bit grating at times. I've never mashed Spacebar so much while shooting at enemies :D Overall the concept is neat, it would be cool to see more enemy variety in a post-jam update.
A good implementation of the concept! Graphics and music were very well done, and I appreciated the fact that if you are attentive/effective enough you can unlock a secret debug menu :D Simple but very well crafted!
Immediate yet fun and with a very good rendition of the theme! The music had something of French, I loved it!
Difficult to get the controls at first, but after getting the hang of it, it was a positively refreshing experience. My poor robot was destroyed one too many times to send those 61 pieces of information back to Earth :D
Screen resolution made it hard to see everything happening, thus making me not focus on the bottom screen bars. Overall, I like how the theme was interpreted. Nice result for your first game!
Some issues with the punches ignoring the people's collision boxes, but overall a very funny experience that was also perfectly, thematically fitting!
The idea was impressively well crafted, as game mechanics go! The game was perfectly in the spirit of the jam. I liked the control system a lot, it took a bit to become well ingrained in my muscle memory, but the tilt + movement was a very clever idea to implement this type of movement. Also, now I understand what it feels to swim into a sea of people while having to deliver packages.
I like the idea, the graphics and the music, but I think I have found a bug: sometimes, I get blasted away even when I am standing on a tile with a color different from the one pushed by the hammer :/ It happened more than once that I was between a blue and yellow tile (e.g.) and while the cat at the center pushed the red tile I was still sent flying...
Nice idea and use of the theme! As an arcade game, it works quite well and doesn't feel unfair. It was a bit laggy while played in my browser though, but nothing too serious.
The idea was good, but there was an implementation issue that allowed pushing the magnetized rocks against the enemies to kill them immediately, without having to make the other rocks crush them in pairs.
Removing camera shake and setting sensitivity to 1 made it a much more enjoyable experience for me. Had some fun blasting aliens :D Good job!
Short game, but right to the point. Lots of different decisions that might be found in real life. For an introvert like me, who has troubles with choices, it was an interesting "seeing myself from outside" experience.
@misfire-dev I liked the game quite a lot, but I would ask if it is possible to add a checkpoint in the post-jam version after you find the portal. I kept on dying there in what I think was the last platforming section and never reached the ending because of tiny miscalculations...
Exactly what it says on the tin - I have sworn against the ball randomly changing color right before hitting my pad several times:D Good job managing to give good ol'Pong an interesting twist! Perfectly in theme for this jam :D
*due to a network failure, my comment was posted twice, sorry for the double notif*
The music is cool (but it doesn't loop), the graphics are VERY stylish. The jump physics is unfortunately very rough/unforgiving. Having a bit of "coyote time" (i.e. being allowed to jump 1-2 frames after leaving the platform) and a bit more invincibility frames after hitting an enemy would make it much less frustrating. The idea has a lot of potential, though!
Very good idea for a jam! I liked the graphics, sounds and concept! "Sadly", hiding near the big haystack on the left allowed me to win the game rather easily, as the wolf would have troubles getting out of it and attack the sheeps. Overall, a very solid prototype!
Thanks a lot! Yeah, I didn't manage to find a way to add a "chapter jump" that made sense before the end of the jam. I had an idea right 30 minutes after the submission window closed... oh, well, I will implement it as a post-jam improvement probably!
@loadoftoad this version here has actually a true ending that wraps things quite nicely! I have added a walkthrough txt if I remember correctly, but I will definitely upload a version with chapter skip! My issue during the jam was that ALL bad endings are required for unlocking and seeing the true ending (except the so-called Trigger Ending). Still uncertain on how to do that effectively. Maybe allow for chapter skip only if all the bad endings in that chapter are unlocked?
@brotherst thanks a lot, the Stegosaurus ending was my favorite to write, and the "moody" part is all in the true ending :D There is a walkthrough inside the game's folder which lists all ingredients, if you want to give it a shot again! To unlock the true ending - which messes the tone in a way that I don't want to spoil - you need the Combustion, Devil, Stegosaurus, Zombie, Self-Seduction, and Annihilation endings! if you have time/will, please try to get to the end, because I would VERY like to know what people think of the last choice!
P.S. Combustion is the fallback for day 1. For the good ending, you need to select 1,1,1,2 in the list of ingredients and for the Devil ending, 2,2,2,1 (that is, the opposite as the good one).
Thanks a bunch to you all!
@matthieu-riboulot P ending was also my favorite to write. Overall, I liked that how it worked out the most!
@khelian thanks a bunch! Yeah, sadly I couldn't get a meaningful "chapter skip" function in time for the jam. I will try to improve the experience in a post-jam improvement!
@sli Thanks! For the intensity, I would have liked to have more time to refine it. There are basically three ranges: 0-2, 3-6, 7-9. 0-2 will always get Self-Seduction or Zombie (single), 7-9 will get Stegosaurus or Zombie (Horde). The trick is that, once you get a Good potion, the "premium" bad ending one is always the exact opposite of it. E.g. if the Day 1 good ending is given by 1,1,1,2, the "premium" bad ending (devil) is 2,2,2,1. For day 2, the "good" range for the intensity is 3-6, to get the other bad endings one need to use the 0-2 and 6-9 range. 6-9, even with the correct ingredients, will spawn the Stegosaurus ending. There *should* be a walkthrough TXT in the game folder. I think I will try to rework the game a bit for a post-jam session! Thanks a lot for the feedback!
@sli yeah, in the limited span of the jam I couldn't explore all things :D More than evil, the protagonist can just be... not really proficient with potions! This was at least my take!
@wakobu Thanks a lot! the P. ending is the nearest to a good ending, the Am. ending is more bittersweet, while the An. ending is a downer. The power is on the player's hands to choose what is the most apt. I wanted to make that choice matter, so this is why the game "locks" down after that event!
@aznz Thanks! Programmer art struck again! Honestly, I would have loved have an artist friend of mine join the fray, but he was unfortunately too busy and couldn't produce art for the game in time. Maybe for a post jam version? I would love to expand it a bit!
@wakobu if you really want to see the other ending, you can delete the save.rxdata file to "reset" the game. The An. ending is very similar to the bad An. ending, so I would suggest a second replay only if you want to see what happens in the P. ending!
@morcado thanks! Since the music was not original, I didn't make my game take part to the audio category, but I had a lot of fun writing the dialogues - especially some of the most bizarre endings!
@ryusui thanks! And yeah, now after the jam I had an idea on how to implement a "chekpoint system", but I stupidly didn't get it while I was working on this. I will add it to a post-jam version after the voting period ends. And yeah, I should add a note about the walkthrough being in the game folder, hoping someone will read it :id:
@voyagerix thanks a lot! Honestly, storytelling is my specialization/forte. Writing stories is like breathing for me, I cannot live without. The RPG Maker engine was the easiest choice for me to build a narrative game. I had the inspiration while talking with a friend about the theme - Unstable - and speedran the writing in about 6-7 hours. I am very proud of how it came out!
@ugly-robot Thank you very much for the kind words! Limitations foster creativity, I didn't have the skill to draw very good graphics, so I went for a minimalistic tone - and I am pretty happy it paid off!
@0x-void-x0 good, old, dated, reliable RPG Maker XP, with some additional Ruby scripts :D I used to play with that engine A LOT ten or so years ago - I literally learned how to program thanks to it - and I'm still pretty proficient with it. At odd times, when I need something proven and working, I dust it off and put it to work again ;)
@kumber Potion Guy must really start avoiding advertising his shop. But there is no such thing as bad publicity, or? :D Out of curiosity, which true ending did you choose? P., Amn. or An.?
@kumber P. was actually my favorite ending to write. Am. is bittersweet and An. is very nihilistic. I tested them all, but I always got back to P., eventually. Thanks a lot for taking the time to go through it!
@notke thanks a lot! The audio is not rated because it wasn't produced for this jam. The comedic main theme was composed quite a lot of time ago, the ominous theme is a Creative Common CC-BY-4.0 asset and the sound effects are from the RPG Maker runtime package. It would have been unfair to ask people to rate my game for assets I didn't make explicitly for this game!
@lauchsuppe fair point about the first day. The first potion should have been for the girl, but I could make it clearer. Which true ending did you choose? P., Am. or Ann.?
@lauchsuppe All endings are the true ending - it is up to the player's choice. The P. ending is the nearest to a good ending and what I consider the best ending. The Am. ending is an alternate, bittersweet ending which leads to a different conclusion. The An. ending is VERY similar to the bad An. ending, except this time it is deliberate.
@hadik Agree that the graphics are not that good. I am a programmer, not an artist and did it all alone, so point taken! :D The theme was "unstable" as in "miss one ingredient and everything goes wrong". One ingredient is the difference between "Potion of True Love" and "Potion of Self Combustion", what can be more unstable? I think you are wrong on this. The core of this game was the mood/story, so I am happy that worked well. No offence taken ;)
@jpatchz thanks a lot! Glad that you enjoyed the story! Which true ending did you go for? P., Amn. or An.?
@mighty-tiny the owner of the potion brewery should have paid more attention to his chemistry classes too :'D
@fromthechasm thanks a bunch! Yeah, I have actually liked to try and twist the theme on its head, I still find the P. ending cathartic, the Amn. ending bittersweet and the Ann. ending simply sad. I think I will try to rework the game a bit for as a full post-jam submission, with some additional QoL features!
@fromthechasm sadly, Windows Defender thinks the executable to be a virus and auto deletes it on download. It doesn't even allow me to add an exception, it's axed even before it touches my PC :/
I have tried to download the version hosted at itch.io. System: Windows 10 Professional, game downloaded via Google Chrome.
**EDIT: it was a stupid false positive by Windows Defender, I HATE IT - now it works and it is easy to download**
@fromthechasm funnily enough, trying to download it now had no issues. I wonder what in Norton's name did Windows Defender smoke when I tried two weeks ago :/
@fromthechasm is there a way to make it full screen? The window gets cropped on my pc... EDIT: it was the default scaling in Win10, by setting it to 100% it worked fine.
Really liked how "Unstable" was implemented in this one! Juggling all the parameters to avoid the meltdown was compelling and chaotic at the same time!