Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Dries Vuylsteke
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | A blob with a destination - LD42 | compo | 473 | 3.19 | 3.13 | 3.06 | 2.93 | 3.26 | 2.78 |
Sets the mood! It's hectic and I love it. There seem to be a couple bugs with bomb disposal detection though, making you lose without a bomb timer visual.
It made me think of overcooked, this game would shine with multiplayer. Just sitting on the couch with some friends trying to find all the bombs!
Overall it's one of the better games I played, you kept it simple and yet got a very distinct core mechanic that draws people in.
@predominant for some reason little text popups with angry/happy faces seems really appropriate in this game. I'm looking forward to see what you make out of this, do you have a page we can follow your development?
I really enjoyed this! Some health indication or visual indicator on how to approach each stage would be useful. For example the third stage I could not complete without reading your guide. All in all a very fun boss fight, what tools did you use to make this?
So many good things to say about this so lets get started.
Pro: The particles, art style and music gave me an arcade feel. The increase in speed enforced that feel even more, gives it that competetive edge when playing with friends. The music did not grow boring after playing once, I never even had the urge look for a mute button. The mood the game sets is awesome, not only are you running for your life but you get to kill a bunch of people on the way! The boulders give the game that little extra, you are not just running but also jumping to dodge the obstacles.
Con: I died going too far down? No enemies, so you can just kill any character by walking over them. An enemy to dodge (with a dodge roll to get past perhaps) could add a lot of depth.
Over all a really good game, enjoyed playing it quite a bit.
I like the main menu and the bear. The game however felt like it missed a challenge, I went on to about 700 and decided to see what death looked like because I kept waiting for a challenge to appear but there was none.
The crack in the ice is really well done, I found my self running around it just to look at how it bent and curved all around the ice.
A little simple, but you did submit so that is the important part. Given it was made in 8.5 hours I'm sure you learned a lot while making it, making this jam a success.
The snake graphic was cute and kept my interest in a snake game longer than I would have expected. The controls felt a little slow if not pressed exactly right.
Over all it was a nice little snake clone.
Don't be unhappy with the result, it's a fun concept! I'm sure that if you can add a few mechanics it would become a lot of fun really fast. Overall I enjoyed this approach to the theme.
What I personally missed was some variance, perhaps a tooltip for the items and some different stats that randomize the value. That way you'd have to manage, dodge and decide which items are worth it. The way it currently is you spent the first minute learning what items are worth most and just throw everything else out.
The graphics and music are good. This idea seems to be a common approach to the theme, but the graphics make this one stand out. However the other variants I played had significantly more levels. What is there is good, but it feels like it's missing content.
Nice little game! I was scrolling the LD page and recognised your art from your youtube video's. The art is stunning and the sounds make you feel for the planet, well done. I didn't find a way to lose the game though, do you just keep going untill the entire planet is filled with the best buildings?
I like the animations, mechanics and concept. I'm not too big a fan of restricted four directional movement, but that's personal preference.
Perhaps it could be cool to be able to drag boxes? that way you'd have more control of the contraptions you build to trap zombies.
Took me a while to orient myself, but the compass helps out a ton! Landing was quite hard, specially the first time when I didn't realise the screen was rotating. That first approach couldn't really be qualified as a landing.
Great game, the music, mood and idea were all well done.
Clean UI, a funny tune, a tutorial and a companion explaining the mechanics! The idea is creative and the execution is very well done. I don't see the link with the theme, but going off theme is no problem if the result looks this good of course.
It could be a lot of fun if ported as a mobile game, I'm sure plenty of redditors would enjoy doing this on the train for example.
Nice one! The controls are easy enough but it would be nice to have a little guide before you start playing.
I got stuck at the level where there are three bars coming and you have to make it to the top, probably because I missed some kind of interaction required to complete it. This is where visual feedback to the user comes in handy.
Overall I liked the sound, the idea and the gameplay a lot. I like thinking where these games could go, and with another couple of days I could see this concept getting a lot of depth. Good job!
I don't know about the mod, but this is a really fun concept. A creative approach to the theme combined with solid mechanics. The game was just difficult enough. In the level with the double gu it was nice that you could fully eradicate one side.
Over all well done, especially the end was enjoyable for me. You just beat the game and it pops in your face: IT WAS ME ALL ALONG.
Very well done!
I enjoyed playing this. The art was solid, the particle effects felt like they belonged and the music set such a mysterious tone that went well with the main character and enemies. However I felt like the dash served little purpose since there wasn't really anything to dodge because the enemies were melee (I consider the projectiles melee too since they were kind of slow).
The biggest problem I had in the game was the hitboxes, it just did not feel responsive. I've been working on a game from a similar perspective in my spare time and the way I got the hitboxes to feel good was to have one hitbox on your feet that does collision detection and blocks your path and one across the entire body to detect colliding with bullets and enemies. This way your movement doesn't feel restricted to the top of your head, but you still take damage when your head gets hit.
Overal I think this is a really good submission! I'm a personal fan of hand drawn graphics, especially if they are done well like it was here.
A take on the match three genre I haven't seen before. The controls felt okay, but somewhat clunky at times. That might just have been me having trouble with the rotations though!
The coming in of the sides felt somewhat random, your guide does a good job explaining the game but perhaps a little detail on when exactly the sides come in?
I liked the concept, would enjoy getting flooded a bit more though. Add more boxes! let them spawn in multiple places so you have to run across the entire room.
The visuals were pleasing to look at.
Managed to get 1550 high score.
really nice point and click game. The visuals were amazing, the music was stunning and both set the mood just right for the story. Job well done! I was amazed to only catch one type too.
It's simple, it's quick, its OH GOD MY EARS. I was loving the cute menu when it launched, moving onto the game being pleased with the looks. It made me think of those youtube video's doing unity tutorials where you think "Oh I wish I could do this cute art style".
However what broke the immersion and mood for me was one of the squeek sounds. It was loud and rather unpleasant to listen to.
Over all a very cute game, good job! (just take out that squeek please)
Love it! The graphics sound and humour all set a very fun mood. However the controls felt a little clunky to me, didn't actually manage to get a lot of the potions on the shelf or in the trash. That didn't really matter because the voice line and options to soothe the angry sorcerer were amazing. Job well done!
The artwork is great, the concept is fun. It took me a while to realise what the health and mana bars actually meant, once you get the hang of it it's a lot of fun. Would love to play this game but with short levels where you have to clear out areas of the red things.
It felt a little slow. The soundtrack was fun, but the truck sound was quite annoying after ten seconds, it bothered me that I couldn't disable the effect sounds.
The particle effects when delivering a box were amazing though, gave me that old school solitaire rush of euforia whenever i delivered a box and won the game.
Were the graphics hand drawn?
Overall not a bad game for sure, but not much that makes it pop except the actual fireworks.
What stood out for me was the music, but then I saw you got it from somewhere else. It's a bit of a shame that what makes the game pop isn't something you made yourself.
It took me a while to understand what was going on, but after that I only had two problems. The first was that there wasn't really a way to dodge enemy attacks and shoot them at the same time unless I gave up durability on the big ships. The second one was that the map is so big and I keep hearing my big ships get destroyed but have no clue where, perhaps some visual indicator pointing towards a damaged big ship could help out here?
Over all I like the concept. For the next time using outside assets is totally fine, just make sure they don't put a dampening on your own work, which is what we are here for after all.
Graphics are on point! The gameplay is fun, I managed to get to 12 points a couple times but always died straight after that.
A nice submission, functional beautiful and to the point.
Nice game! I would have loved to see another mechanic in there (like sliding, portals or gates that require a certain key). The programmer art is cute, keep on jamming!
Love it! The music is good, the simple art sets a nice tone and the mechanics are fun with the triple jump. The only thing that bothered me is that the triple jump seemed inconsistent, sometimes I could jump once, sometimes twice and sometimes three times
Lovely circuit logic! Something tells me you had this idea before and implemented it based on the theme. The execution is well done I enjoyed playing the couple of levels you made.
The music and art style give a great mood. The game is very well polished, love that I don't run in to issues, that's a rare sight during game james (including for my own contributions).
The one thing I found was lacking a little was that I just held down my right arrow key and kept going. Some small dialogs when saving one of the squares could keep people engaged for longer perhaps.
Over all I rate this game really high.
@melmo I meant to put it in the bottom left corner but may have forgotten to.
@wizard the one where you just fall out of the level? I forgot to put a kill zone, you could probably do this on the later levels too. Outside of the falling out of levels I had some issues with getting stuck inside colliders/walls, didn't quite manage to fix all of those.
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
@mrjorts thanks for the feedback! The trajectory bothored me too, but making a suggestion of your trajectory seemed like a lot of effort so I focused on the other elements of the game (like art and multiple levels).
The first few levels didn't have anything to kill you, I added that during the final level polish (because I was tired of fixing bugs). Forgot to update that text message it seems @pace
Glad you are all enjoying the game, I went in with very low expectations since it's my first time ever releasing a game.
@sylvie I understand your problem, if there was time I would have made some visual indication of where you would peek, but it turned out to be quite difficult to code this in. After a bit you get a feel of where you go and it gets better.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
@brandon-js-lea You hit the nail on the head there, my main issue is that I didn't get enough polish in. It's my first ever jam/game release and I probably should have cut a few mechanics and focused more on having the mechanics in the game actually work. I appreciate the feedback a lot, I'll keep these things in mind for the next jam.
@antti-haavikko I'm glad you enjoyed the game. Your problems seem to be mostly with my UX, where I fully agree the game is lacking. The jump queue is annoying and glitching through the level is just plain sloppy. I mean to put in a kill zone around the levels but totally forgot about it because I kept finding bugs to fix.
I'd like to thank you both for the extensive reviews, I joined the jam for feedback and that is exactly what you gave me.
Super fun approach to the theme. I didn't really think while playing and that is what kept it interesting. It's like one of those 2048 games, it doesn't take much to figure it out but that doesn't mean it becomes less fun. Great job on this, could probably be a nice mobile game if you port the movement.
It seems rather complex, you won't get the hang of this game in less than five minutes. However it seems very promising! The bonus fields and temporary bonus give greath depth.
The sounds were not overwhelming which is very good and the graphics all felt in the same style, showing they were created with a specific goal in mind.
Overall well done! Perhaps some tutorial levels could give a better understanding of the mechanics?
Probably the most enjoyable submission I played so far. Sound graphics and mechanics all on point. I love platformers and this made me think of geometry dash a lot. Going faster and slower kept it challenging and the auto restart made me want to try the game over and over again.
Short but very fun game. I am missing the restart button because one run is not enough to fully enjoy this game.
Music and graphics are good and the mechanics are solid. I wish the games would last a bit longer, perhaps with more item diversity.
All in all quite the enjoyable game, played it multiple times!