(Follow the) Line by Chman 2013-04-28T19:34:00
Very stylish and elegant! Crippled somewhat by inaccurate keyboard input. It seems I have to let go of all keys before a new one will register, which goes against the typical method of always triggering on the next hit regardless of held keys. I managed to beat challenge mode, but almost gave up on the last two levels where I'm convinced I would have had less difficulty with snappy response. Could be more fun with increased "actual" difficulty balanced by spot-on control.
LD35 — Shapeshift (13)
ShootShift by elkiwydev 2016-05-09T22:45:00
I like the presentation and kind of fuzzy feel of the shading. Especially the really deep FOV shadows make it spooky and surprisingly complex-seeming since you interpret them as holes in the floor. So it's almost as if the room is changing as you run around.
I'm not as sold on the autoshifting mechanic though, ends up feeling quite random when there's no user influence except sometimes skipping a move to hold on slightly longer if you like the current weapon. The diagonal one also is very confusing in the heat of battle.
Maybe one improvement would be to ease the player in by enabling the different weapons one at a time for the early levels? Either that, or allow some kind of limited action that skips a form or takes you back to the previous one at a cost. Not quite sure, it might be enough to just make the unchanging stints longer than a few steps. Also what about switching manually for a +1 HP reward and the risk of getting a worse weapon that you can't get rid of for N steps? Maybe some would even be non-weapons or stuff like reversed controls... I don't know, there's definitely potential in the style and general formula here.
Sluggy's Tiny Adventure by FrankieSmileShow 2016-05-09T22:28:00
Cool! Often graphics-type developers end up making lots of pretty pictures but no real game in the end. You delivered this time.
I chime in on the occasional jump/collision bugs. Managed to cheat over the first door to the left, and going over it from the other way dropped me below the level. That happened at a point where I was running out of ideas for how to proceed though, so I'd need to make another attempt some day. Maybe with company to share the burden ;)
Spent a fair number of minutes and retries jumping across the treetops in the right overworld screen trying to get that rusty key... Finally grabbed it, but the super-precise jumps are pretty tedious with these blatantly unprecise controls. There's some welcome "Coyote time" leaping off a ledge, but you simultaneously lose altitude and it generally feels a bit hit-and-miss. I'd prefer slightly more generous margins in favor of some other elements to add challenge, like timing a jump between swooping enemies or whatever.
Did succeed in getting the "secret flask" in the starting room and it was quite rewarding due specifically to the tricky jump, so it's not all bad! Generally feels like one of those filed-away Amiga disks that you could rediscover and dust off from time to time, playing just long enough to really remember how frustratingly hard it was and why you kept it stashed in the back.
Therianthropy by technocf 2016-05-09T21:56:00
Lots of level design for the compo. Gets a little bit repetitive after a while, but quite playable. I never really got to a particularly "puzzly" level since the path to take was mostly obvious, but I eventually gave up on the hot/cold thing where I had to switch two colors to reach the end.
The controls are somewhat unforgiving, although not necessarily buggy. The height of the first few levels is weirdly chosen since you often get a few pixels of vertical scrolling before it abruptly stops.
Looks cute enough.
Druid of the Catalyst by SchrodingersCult 2016-05-03T18:49:00
Got 223 on my best run. Graphics and sounds are very good. Gameplay works ok, but my main issue is that the mouse cursor tends to pull the view around too much, which is unsettling. Makes me want to keep it closer to the character, but then it's hard to aim properly. Not quite sure how best to solve it. Probably a larger dead zone where you can only aim, so you must point further away to begin moving. Could also use RMB to move, I guess. Once the window just randomly closed while I was playing.
Green Box Game by knason 2016-05-02T23:19:00
Yikes. Surprisingly mind-bending when you toggle the map to remove almost everything, falling helplessly, then panic to switch it back and somehow find yourself exactly where you needed to be, and continue along... Actually caused some replayability since I wanted to get a better feel for the second level once I knew a bit what to expect. Still scary every time though.
Weapon Shifters by Nick Weihs 2016-05-01T19:50:00
Wow, lots of level design here. Such a big environment. That's NOT common for LD :)
Most of it works pretty well, although it's not super-unique of course. I was surprised to see the relatively complex hovering enemies, they feel almost like minibosses and are entertaining to fight.
Final boss was a good challenge, took me 3-4 attempts to win.
Cyan by rxi 2016-05-01T19:31:00
Yay! Very pretty, very good music, nice balance once you start to get enough coins to hold a few continues. The game is hard enough that winning feels like a good reward and relief.
It's true that the controls are slightly cumbersome at first, when you have to switch back and forth between keys to do seemingly a single action (multi-jump). It does get easier when muscle memory kicks in though.
The thing I was most afraid of after a while was falling down, mainly from using the dash attack near platform edges. It did add some sense of urgency though, so not a bad thing.
The Tentacle Problem by kirilllosev 2016-05-01T18:26:00
Score: 54. It looks very cute. Could you elaborate on the "interesting idea" that didn't end up in the game? The LEGO-looking pegs on the platforms are presumably tentacle/octopus suckers?
It's a nice touch to see birds as you get higher up. A simple sense of progression through the level.
Cubes by gilead 2016-05-01T18:17:00
Oh no! Can't beat the second level, try as I might. Great game, really good idea and well executed. The presentation and sound feels Nintendo-esque. Only problem is the difficulty level, in part due to mouse accuracy (tricky to touch the hotzones when your blocks are moving) but also brutally low margins of error for the early levels. A "weird" game like this should have at least 3-4 very simple levels to let you get comfortable with the mechanics.
Really though, the best improvement would be to have the end blocks be more forgiving snap points, and once you click one of them you are in "erase mode" where you can go pretty far off with the cursor and still remove blocks. Similarly if you start near a "grow point" it will let you extend easily without having to touch exactly on every successive square. That way it should be easier to quickly "move" in mid-air by growing and shrinking as appropriate.
Great job though!
J is for Triangle by SwedishCheese 2016-05-01T17:45:00
Got 54, and before that almost exactly the same. Seems like there's a risk of hitting a difficulty knee where everything suddenly gets exponentially harder.
I like the gameplay though! The feeling of hunting around a morphing playfield looking for areas of "good" shapes is nice. It's just a little bit too chaotic and unforgiving right now, but maybe that's due to the framerate and controls being somewhat sluggish. Could even see this kind of game being played with the mouse.
Seems like there should be an automatic extra innovation point for any entry that doesn't use circles, boxes and triangles for shape tokens ;)
Chromeshift by diesel 2016-05-01T17:33:00
Looks good, and the concept is pretty solid for a quick little game. I had a lot of trouble accepting the slow constant rotation speed of the box though. Most of the time I feel like it's the rotation that loses the game for me, and not my inability to select direction fast enough. Would be better if it spun much more quickly (3-4x as fast) but that you instead ramp up the rate or complexity of incoming rays to keep a good challenge.
It also felt strange that the rays are sometimes allowed to pass inside the box before they hit, kind of like it's done to compensate for the added difficulty of the rotation delay.
Figurophrenia by Trasevol_Dog 2016-05-01T17:26:00
Pretty well-balanced. It constantly had the feeling of urgency and challenge, but on my second session I managed to get to 54 kills before I strayed too close to an edge and got hit. So as long as you stay focused and near the center of the screen it's probably not as difficult as it seems. Has the benefit of making a player feel skilled.
Crosshair could have used a different appearance to stand out better, but maybe hunting around for it is part of the concept.
I wonder if hitting enemies with the wrong weapon should be associated with stronger consequences than just no effect? They could get temporarily invulnerable, or maybe soak up some energy to take more hits before they die once you do find the right weapon.
Shapin' Up by kik0729 2016-05-01T17:11:00
Music definitely works. I could imagine it being integrated even more with some disco-like flashing or other graphics that builds on the mood and also distracts you from the shape-matching task. Probably the difficulty progression could ramp up more gradually, making it really easy and relaxing in the beginning so you can just enjoy yourself, and after a minute or two it starts getting more hairy. The "holes" (which feel more like objects, maybe they should show a pattern/background inside?) might even have more funky movement than a straight line to make it interesting. Could be an alternative to create challenge balanced with the boundary tightness, so weirdly moving larger holes are similarly difficult as small ones with a predictable path.
Oh, the huge level/score splash screen isn't very rewarding. I'd prefer something less jarring which keeps a sense of the playfield while you prepare for the next match.