dsoberdan

Hikari’s Journey 光の旅 — the umbral world by Junber 2021-10-08T02:53:15Z

Wow, just finished. Listening to the recommended song as I type this! This was so creative from every angle. The contrast the end brings is just awesome. Like others said, it really is crazy how much you all fit into this jam game.

That being said, if I had one piece of feedback it'd be that I felt it was too long. Maybe it's just because of the expectations for jam games, but even though I was enjoying each part, I felt like I was ready to see it wrap up for a while there towards the end; particularly the Sorting puzzle game felt a bit long in the tooth. Though, to be fair, this is coming from a guy who didn't get nearly enough levels into his game in time, so what do I know haha. The story being so interesting was part of that too; I just wanted to get back to it and see how it finished!

Specific props:

The dialogue effect, particularly the first big wall section; other people have mentioned it, but it really is a unique way to keep the player engaged.

What also helped was the fact that the writing was really good! I feel like it's easy with games covering what this one does for them to feel a bit melodramatic, but it was really tastefully put together.

Great job all of you :thumbsup:

SEXY BOOBY 95 by silkworm_sweatshop 2021-10-08T00:59:56Z

Great execution, and such consistency to the tone and feel you're going for. Also love the wiggly Baba-Is-You-esque art style!

Nuclide by irwatts 2021-10-08T14:37:46Z

Great game that I think is the perfect length; four doesn't seem like many levels, but each was difficult enough that I spent a good amount of time with them. Also, like people have said, the particle effects and music are huge standouts.

My game is also about atoms and radioactive decay, so I've loved seeing all the different games that went in this direction and how different they all are! Great job :thumbsup:

II-III-V by miziziziz 2021-10-11T15:08:27Z

Was watching your stream during the first day of this and didn't keep updated since, so cool to see how it all came together. I liked the world-building of the letters a lot, though I only found two, so maybe I missed some.

Also the world rotating is an awesome change to what I saw that first night!

I also enjoyed the lack of combat, and just focusing on the tense situations made from the wheelchair controls themselves.

In terms of more "critical" feedback, I think it would have been cool to see more small levels like the one where you had to lure them away from the exit you were going toward.

On a similar note, the first thought I had when I saw the console and having to power off different systems, which was cool to see in and of itself, was that there was going to be more of a choice in what to power off, as in you didn't need to power off everything else in order to power on the fire suppression. One reason I thought that was that I actually assumed that what we were powering off would manifest in the gameplay (like the lights for example, I expected the level to get much darker and then I had to navigate with those new limitations). Maybe it's just because that crossed my mind while in the terminal, that not being the case left me feeling a bit like "oh, that's it?". But obviously it's a Compo, so you had to keep the scope down. That could be a good way to expand upon this if you ever wanted to.

I actually learned that Ludum Dare was happening at all from your YouTube post about how the theme was about to be announced like five minutes later lol. I'm really glad I saw it, because after wanting to do a jam for a long time but always talking myself out of it, I decided on a whim to take part, and so now I've done my first jam! You also have been a big motivation/help for me getting into Godot, so thanks for that too! It's been a lot of fun learning it.

Looking forward to seeing more small games like this once you finish up Wrought Flesh, keep up the good work :thumbsup:

Instability by R3L0ad1 2021-10-06T03:34:08Z

It seems you've addressed the biggest pieces of feedback people have had, which is awesome. I will just say that as someone who aspires to do a Compo one day, it's pretty inspiring seeing what you can achieve when leaning into incredibly simple art design combined with some great shaders! It's crazy to see how many jams you've been a part of. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make next!

Fool's Paradise by ghost-in-the-toast 2021-10-05T03:21:07Z

Chrome wouldn't download the zip. Said there was a virus :/

Taxes & Actors by gamescodedogs 2021-10-05T21:30:18Z

404 error, you might want to check your link :/

Unstable Rescue by RustyRobotGames 2021-10-05T03:08:49Z

Loved it! The graphics and little dust blobs were cute. The level design was great. It could benefit from sound effects and music, but overall I loved it :)

You can do it, Astro Pup! by benskca 2021-10-05T02:39:47Z

I replaced the two fuel tanks, but the others were on a part of the ship I couldn't access . Not sure if it was intentional, but couldn't get passed that. It was cool though!

Quadra by Delta Key 2021-10-08T05:08:55Z

Super polished, from the music to the wavy effect on the bottom of the screen to the sound effects to the trails on the pieces, well done! I will agree with others about the line forming being too forgiving; I often found that pieces that were on their way to teetering off would actually cause enough of a line to fill, making them disappear rather than falling and taking lives away, so maybe that could be a specific way to achieve the balance I've seen you mention in some other comments. But seriously, great work!

Oh, and I loved seeing a Godot game :thumbsup: Mine is too!

Unstable Atoms by Fersyvanderzee 2021-10-06T01:49:49Z

The art and music are huge standouts! I did find myself wishing it felt a bit more kinetic and fast-paced. When I saw it in the list I had to play it because my game also is about atoms and has a simple art style haha

Uranium-236 by XeduR 2021-10-08T19:58:27Z

Other people have mentioned things that have stood out to me, like the screen shake, the rapid escalation that, in one sense is hard to get a grasp of and could be a negative, particularly when it reaches a point where it was clear there was no return for me and I was just waving my cursor around essentially waiting for the score screen to show up because I knew it was over with; though this could just be my lack of skill talking lol.

One thing I would like to highlight is that I thought the interplay between cooling and heating was great! At first I was focusing only on keeping the antineutrinos away, because it was so cool that if they hit I would instantly lose, so I kind of taught myself that that alone was the goal. But as soon as things ramped up I learned in real time what the real hook of the game was, and suddenly found myself desperately hoping for one of those haha. Great job!

Everything is Fine by Noire 2021-10-06T01:43:16Z

A lot has already been said, but great attention to detail to convey everything you were trying to get across. One constructive piece of feedback is that I assumed for the first while that the more stylized cursor was to indicate interactable objects but it was the other way around, which was slightly confusing. Fantastic job! Oh, and thank you for commenting on my game, appreciate it! :D

Grabanakki by Saturnyoshi 2021-10-11T16:22:34Z

I'll get the gushing that others have mentioned out of the way; incredible music and art direction, animations/transitions are so fluid, unbelievable that there's so many levels, just overall really, really fun.

@saturnyoshi I can't speak for others, but I really had one "critical" piece of feedback on the controls, and even then I see it more as a design choice, and that is the aiming.

I actually played this first on controller, since this is the first entry I saw that specifically mentioned that there was controller support (thanks for that, by the way!). But I mention this because I think playing on the controller first lent to this feeling even more: that there should have been 8-directions of aiming. First playing with the analog stick, my brain assumed that I would be able to, and it was only throwing in the four directions, I thought I was aiming wrong or just got the sense that it was not as "responsive" as I wanted it to be. I even tried aiming with the other stick for a moment, which did not work of course and in hindsight would not have made sense.

So that was really it for me, and I got used to it pretty quickly and wasn't really a problem because I understood the constraints, but it did leave me with that early window of just feeling "this isn't quite right".

This is not even really the kind of feedback where I suggest you change it, that's up to you all of course; there's no doubt that allowing 8-directions for throwing would change a lot in regards to the difficulty and therefore the enemy/level designs. Did you all play around with 8-directions when prototyping? What made you land on how it is now? I'd love for you to talk a bit about that.

I genuinely think every other aspect of the controls are great, though; jumping, picking blocks up, the movement itself. Really excellent work. It's crazy to see what your team can do in 72 hours; I see you all have worked together before, and it shows.

Topple Tower by Kroporo 2021-10-11T15:32:24Z

As others have said, the presentation of this is really what sells it. The intro is super stylish and gives off that sense that you knew while making it that it was a slick intro that looked and sounded great; and you were right! lol

Played a few rounds, only started incorporating the table pound on my last round because I forgot about it because I only glanced at the controls once on the itch page; maybe briefly showing the controls as the tower is assembled in the intro would be a good choice.

Most importantly, as others have brought up as well, there should definitely be a count of how many blocks we've successfully taken out, and even a high score tracker that displays at the restart screen. You already want to keep playing with how good the physics are and the mood is, but even though it's cliché, I know I would have stayed for more rounds if there was a high-score of mine to keep trying to beat.

Great job!

Tables & Tremors by SlimmerBurger 2021-10-06T03:59:59Z

Great mechanic! Embarrassed to say it took me multiple levels to realize that the tables were meant to be used that way. I was just thinking "oh these tables are just hanging around, interesting" lol. If I had one piece of feedback it'd be that the death grunt sound got a bit tiring after a while, but maybe that says more about me dying too much. Loved the art as well, the glove animations were fantastic, and the background had a great dithered look that was much more interesting than some flat textures. Also, don't be hard on your level design skills! I thought it ramped up quite well.

AFTER SUN by rufson 2021-10-10T20:47:03Z

Love the z-layering effect, the rocket booster effect is amazing, and the voice effects of the NPCs, particularly when they are dying under the rocket booster lol.

Critical feedback wise, I thought the walking sound effect was a bit grating, and walking around slowly to collect a ship-full of people felt too long and a bit boring. But I'd say that is in comparison to how fun all of the other aspects of the game are! Maybe if we were able to pick up more people at a time that could be improved. Excited to see a post-jam update!!

Deathrail by Hotowlgirls 2021-10-10T21:04:23Z

You've gotten a ton of feedback here, which is great, so I'll concur with some common things I saw, such as the one-hand controls not being intuitive, and the shift between levels (at least with how far I got) being not very obvious (like someone else said, I thought I got hit by the bridge or something).

I think the juxtaposition in art style across the game is quite cool, and something that could easily not work, but I think does in this case. Narrow line to walk for sure.

Last thing I'll add is the disjointed-ness between the story and the game itself in the menu didn't make much sense to me; particularly since you restart the game itself automatically when you die. I also thought when I first saw the menu that it was one option, as in "Play Story" because the text is so close together. I suppose, again, because it's not common to see "Story" relegated as its own menu option; integrating the different story beats between the levels would have felt more cohesive.

Really fun fundamental mechanic to build off of though, I'd say! Great job :D

Cool by KewDev 2021-10-05T02:54:12Z

Super fun! Pixel art was great. Every time I tried going for the ice cream I fell and died so I kinda just gave up on them, but I got to silver! Great job :D

Bob's Underworld by chesschaser 2021-10-11T15:20:44Z

I basically echo @koalaura's input exactly; very first death was the lava and there was no restart menu that appeared; but that was the only time it was a problem. I also had the same thing where I didn't realize I could jump through platforms; that definitely made certain jumps easier lol.

Finally, others have mentioned this as well, but I had no idea there was any telegraphing of where the boulders would drop at all; I never noticed the falling particles until I read @lcstark's comment about how the appear behind one of the background layers. This is already an awesome entry, with the music, controls, and art all being really great, but I think fixing that telegraphing and the handful of bugs people have mentioned and this will be even better! Great job :D

Jobb Company by Pink shard games 2021-10-07T02:57:05Z

Really fun idea, and I liked the music a lot. Probably just me, but I never found the watering can to water the plants with lol. Great job!

Nucleus by mrBell270 2021-10-06T02:15:46Z

Easily the most polished game I've played in this jam so far. It caught my attention in the list because my game also involves unstable nuclei lol. I mention in my description how I spent too much time polishing and ran out of time for building out more levels, but this puts mine to shame in that regard haha.

Everyone has already said it, from the ambient music, the sound cues (that had multiple pitches for each object! Great touch), the particle effects, the transition between all the menus, the risk/reward of using your full shield but potentially trapping electrons inside, and on and on. All the more impressive as a Compo. Really great work, man!

Nucleus by mrBell270 2021-10-06T15:09:20Z

@mrbell270 If you found the time I'd definitely appreciate it :D

Unstable Steven by Toma Allary 2021-10-06T01:20:31Z

I thought some of the level designs were very cool, and really just the idea in general of making a platformer out of enemies/projectiles. I agree with others about the music, and I also want to highlight that there were times where I was enraged and it really looked like I should have broken the wall, but the collision didn't quite register for some reason. I'd recommend expanding the collision area a bit beyond the sprite itself to be a bit forgiving and avoid cases where the player feels robbed.

Also, thanks for commenting on my game! I'm sorry it didn't run for you, I don't know why that is. Others didn't seem to be having the issue, but I appreciate letting us know!

And one last thing! Just wanted to point out that I played the web version and had no problems! I'm on Chrome on Mac.

TREBOR by CaptainGrue 2021-10-05T03:29:53Z

Link leads to a 404 error :/

Watch my nucleus by Aquilart 2021-10-08T14:06:38Z

Just played your game after I saw @aquilart give feedback on my own radioactive decay game; it's really, really good! The trails, screen shake, particles effects, the shadows from the particles, and color palette all really added a lot to the look and feel. Played through it a second time and ended with all particles inside the nucleus, it was cool to see the different voice lines depending on how you did.

I concur with others here that having a quicker way to jump back into it by having a replay button and cutting straight to the countdown would be great; it's just a game with that kind of feel where you want to give it another go.

On that front, I think it fits so much in that loop that it would be even better served if there was a score-chasing element to it; how reduced the nucleus got could be kept track of and your best record can be displayed at the end screen. Trying to beat that would be really fun, and give people an excuse to keep playing!

So cool to see another interpretation on the decay idea. It's funny because we reference having another mechanic implemented that we just didn't get into levels in time, and (as the name of our game suggests) it's alpha particle decay! So really cool to see how you used that here.

Really great work for a first jam game guys; keep it up!

aaaaabbBBbABCSDgaw6stE_P! by sprunth 2021-10-06T00:47:06Z

LOL Awesome game! I liked that you had an attack animation, but it didn't really matter lol. I also loved the music, it was a fun contrast. Great job and thank you for commenting on our game too :D

Mudball by JD_Isaac 2021-10-19T22:57:06Z

Just wanted to say that I was not able to play it on Mac! It wouldn't let me open it because "Apple can not check it for malicious software". Hoping to try it on my PC if I get the chance later!

Dreamy Dimension Dive by zacryol 2021-10-16T02:37:18Z

Like others said, it really took time to get used to how the jump worked, and the controls didn't feel as tight as they could have, but beating the different areas was satisfying and the respawn was so quick and the respawn points forgiving enough that it let me focused on actually wanting to get used to the controls as opposed to just giving up on the game. I also thought the timer at the end was very cool. I did the classic, sit up straight and focus kind of thing haha. I really liked the effects in the background as well, it added to the tenseness at the end for me. Good job!

Where's My Tripod? by Pixelydian 2021-10-10T20:05:30Z

People have already highlighted a lot of great points, like the wonderful art and music, and the humorous ramp up of the different hiccups, coughs, and so on; those were a great touch beyond just the shakiness. Like others have said as well, I would have loved to see my pictures at the end, but we were limited on time after all.

Last additional point I'll add that I have not really seen so far scrolling through the comments is that I really liked the detail of those different noises, such as the sneezes and so on, causing the animals to react and run away faster! Really nice touch. Excellent submission :thumbsup:

Alpha Decay by dsoberdan 2021-10-07T04:39:29Z

Thanks everyone so much for all the feedback! It's been really fun having people play something I've made for the first time ever :D

@mrbell270 Wow, I really appreciate you taking the time. You're definitely right about expanding into new constraints to ramp things up, during development we were cognizant of the fact that we wanted to take inspiration from those real decay properties, but also take liberties for the sake of making interesting puzzles, because like you said, that's what is most important at the end of the day.

I love what you said about having your game ready to submit at all times. Although I was kicking myself right after submitting about having prioritized polish over adding the additional (and more interesting/difficult) levels and mechanic into the game, it's all just a trade-off at the end of the day, and I know that I would have felt worse about it if I didn't get that polish in.

Thank you for the kind words about the art, Victoria has been really appreciating all the great feedback about it, which is great because I think she did a wonderful job :D

We're both very eager to keep building upon it, and your follow on itch is just extra motivation, so thank you! We'll definitely have updates soon. I followed you there as well, going to check out some of your older games here soon :thumbsup:

Alpha Decay by dsoberdan 2021-10-08T01:15:29Z

Thanks @junber for the feedback! I remember seeing that one tooltip going off screen right after we submitted haha. We already have multiple ideas on how to progress the puzzles from where it is now, even before adding the other mechanic like you mentioned. We're focusing on playing through other entries for now though, but looking forward to getting back into the game. Speaking of which, I'm playing through yours now!

Alpha Decay by dsoberdan 2021-10-08T13:46:53Z

@quoc Appreciate it! Yeah it seems like that is a common sentiment; I tried to go for the whole "let the intro levels explain the game to you rather than an explicit tutorial" thing, but with how few levels we completed in time, that learning period is a decent chunk of the game haha. I think progressing the puzzles further with more levels will help with that, but perhaps a simple explanation of the general goal in the beginning would be worthwhile.

@aquilart Glad you enjoyed it! I just played your game, thought it was great! I'll have more fleshed out thoughts in your comments :thumbsup:

Alpha Decay by dsoberdan 2021-10-08T20:03:01Z

@sleepystudios Thanks for checking it out! Yeah I aimed to make the decay timing have some inconsistency, adding to the "unstable"-ness, and also imagining ways that irregular timing could feed into puzzles. However, how I handled the decay probability in the background leads to far too much inconsistency; sometimes the particle is just about instant, and sometimes it takes way longer than I envisioned it would when I coded it up lol. Definitely something to address in an updated version. Thanks again!