Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → DWaM
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | 👥 | The Firebrand | jam | 67 | 4.12 | 3.55 | 3.67 | 3.97 | 4.38 | 3.94 | 4.46 | ||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | The Vault | jam | 20 | 4.26 | 3.87 | 3.62 | 3.65 | 3.50 | 4.46 |
DWaM leaves an average of 18.5 feedback comments each event.
I liked this! The game was pretty short, but what's there was pretty fun and unique. I didn't experience any performance issues, either.
There was maybe an occasion where a foreground object made it a bit harder to angle my landing, but it's a negligable issue in the long run.
Overall, good job!
This was pretty neat! I do think that, as you yourself have said, the story kind of gets cut off before it really gets a chance to begin, but what's there was pretty solid writing-wise and managed to show off the central mechanics. Even if, unfortunately, we never really saw something resembling a more major sacrifice.
For 48-hours, I am, for putting it all together -- especially writing-wise -- it's good work!
The police always seem to go after me even after I choose not to slice the tomatoes. The cucumber was kind of annoying at times, too. Wonder why we had to wait until the last level to kill him. Still, the graphics were neat. You really got into the atmosphere of it all. The way the instructions were given was pretty neat, too. Overall, solid.
A solid submission. I enjoyed it. A few notes:
* Upon downloading the game, I was unable to run it. The issue being that the game's .exe is named 'Blas・exe' and the data file is named 'Blas・Data'. Making the former 'Blas.exe' and the latter 'Blas_Data' fixes it. * The game still doesn't seem to work properly if ran in windowed mode under a smaller resolution. The buttons and text are out of the frame. * The use of sound was creative and well-done. * The story itself worked. The theme of sacrifice isn't too apparent until the end, but it was definitely there. * One thing I would suggest is getting someone to proof-read the text, as there were quite a few typos. There was also the fact that, in some stages of the game, you refer to your partner as "girlfriend" but in some others "wife".
Overall, solid. As I said, I enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed this. The graphics work great, I liked the bits and pieces of story, the control player's thoughts showing in the upper corner, the strange surreal feel behind it all... Everything gelled very well.
And given the short amount it took to make, I think it achieved everything it set out to do. Good job!
Most of my thoughts echo what was said by others.
* The camera is too zoomed in while the areas are vast and generally empty. It causes long stretches of monotony, in my mind. The very first level, a simple garden, is so massive that I tried my best to first explore it only to find... nothing interesting. * The sign that should say "Quests" next to the old man is misspelled. * The art style is neat. * I like the premise and the mechanic of "sacrificing" items, even though I can see how it would get tedious for a lot of people, to be basically locked into a position of not progressing and having to restart all over (and, again, the massive areas with that level of zoom make that restart more tedious than fun).
Overall, I'd say a solid idea that could've used more polish.
* The art and the overall design seem to be really well-done. Great job there. The music also helped bring out the kind of mood one would have while driving through darkness in he middle of nowhere. * The idea of experiencing the same exchange after a tragedy, but with disembowled voices was a pretty interesting idea. Gave it the feel of a folklore from the midwest. * The idea for the controls for was pretty great, although finding four people to play locally is easier said than done. Finding four controllers casually lying around even tougher. I ultimately played alone, but I'll still acknowledge the innovative aspect of the idea. * The deaths themselves were gruseome in the perfect kind of way, I felt.
The game does suffer from a issues, admittedly. * I don't know if it's just my PC, but it took ages to load after pressing any key on the menu. 30 seconds to a minute, if I had to estimate. * The characters could've used some more interactions, if only for the sake of making the sacrifices feel more meaningful. Speaking of additional text, it would've been, in my mind, somewhat better to expand on the endings. As it is, there's not much reason to replay, as it basically comes down to "we made it". * There's actually, I'm pretty sure at least, a bug while picking who decides on where the car drives. Players 3 and 4 are switched around, I believe. * I am assuming the events that happen upon choosing the road are randomized to an extent? Assuming they are, I would add some kind of check to make sure a player can't experience the same scenario twice. (I got the car getting stuck one two times in a row.)
Overall, a solid entry. A pretty good idea that could've done with having a bit more meat. For the time it was made in, it's understandable, even if it unfortunately affects the overall experience.
I really liked this.
* The game looks fantastic. Music and sound design set the mood pretty well. Gameplay loop is simple to understand and effective. The only odd thing that comes to mind was the player character wearing a seeveless shirt while walking around a seemingly freezing cold. (But it's barely a complaint.) * It took me a bit to realize what the purpose of being able to explore this massive train with no seeming way to interact with anything besides the decoupling. Revealing that purpose through gameplay alone and with no warning at the start was a really good decision. * The game could benefit from some control instructions. I don't know if it was just me, but it took me a bit to realize "up" was used for interacting. Or that one could descend from an upper platform on the train by jumping downwards (I genuinely thought I was stuck for a moment). Beyond that, the game is self-explanitory enough. * It would have been good to be able to control the rotation of the gun. I found myself having to deal with the issue of enemies spawning on slopes, making it impossible to get a shot in. * The camera does pose a bit of an issue during platforming outside. Because the main character jumps so high up, and the camera follows, it's generally really hard properly land on the adjacent platform -- simply because it's completely out of view until the moment you land.
Overall, through, what complains I have feel pretty minor. Really great work!
This was fun. I loved the art. Sometimes some of my deductions felt like taking a lucky guess, but I feel like that was almost by design. Having to make choices you're not comfortable with, giving weight to the sacrifice.
Good job!
Choosing to do a visual novel, in an engine that's not really ideal for it, while adding extra 3d effects (namely the horse carriage), all in such a short amount of time is pretty commendable. And I think you did a good job!
The writing is a bit rough around the edges, admittedly. Lots of typos that increase in severity the closer one gets to the end. Still, it didn't stop me from enjoying the art and the overall atmosphere. I also appreciated the more interesting approaches the story in general took. (Most notably the player being pointed out as selfish for trying to play the hero, and the hidden ending.)
It's just short enough to where replaying and trying different option combinations to get the hidden ending wasn't too tedious.
The graphics were nice, as well.
I would've appreciated a bit more variety in music, but even some music is better than none at all.
Overall, I liked it.
I think I've encountered a bit of an issue.
If you happen to send everyone on tasks in such a way that on the next day they're all busy, the game will lock itself, as you will be unable to make any decisions.
That said, I love the art-styles and the aesthetics in general. Besides this one bug, it seems time was taken to get it as polished as possible, and I think it definitely paid off.
Neat game. I like the visuals. That said, I don't know if the bosses are randomized, but most of my bosses ended up looking Cthulu-like, so their design got a bit stale.
I'd also seen what I suspect were most of the movesets after the 3rd or 4th one, with all of them preferring to strike with lightning, almost never hitting me if I got too close. As a result, as mentioned by someone else, the game isn't really all that difficult. Losing health also never really seemed like too much of an issue, simply because of how slowly it seemed to drain.
Still, it's a neat idea and overall a well-made package. Well done!
I liked this quite a bit. Even though expressed through simple text, it was quite atmospheric. Appropriate for the time period. As mentioned earlier, though, it didn't seem like the choices that led to sacrifices meant that much, but I can respect the creative decision that was made with it, instead.
I'm admittedly a bit uncertain as to the mechanics of the game. The description suggests we're transferring energy onto the turrets, but there doesn't seem to be any indicator as to how much energy the ship has or how it influences the gameplay. As such, it's a bit hard to really determine theme relevance.
(Note: I played the web version. I don't know if the downloadable version is any different in these regards.)
It's solid, otherwise. In particular, I liked how you could be killed by your own bouncing projectiles.
Well, that was neat.
Admittedly, we don't learn much about what's going on or why, unless I missed some options that give hints to what's going on. Even so, I liked the visual details and the chapter-like structure.
There is, however, a rather odd bug. The aformentioned text that's difficult read does exist -- but only if you try and have the game be full-screen. Keeping it within the window on itch seems to avoid the issue.
Unless I've missed something, there doesn't seem to be a link to the game on the site.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. In particular, I liked that the decisions were more complex than the typical "obviously moral good thing vs thing you need to do to keep the meters high enough and not lose". You were always trying to do the right thing, but had to make an actual difficult choice on how to do it.
Well done!
A question -- is the bottle-smashing segment meant to go on for so long? Just making sure it's not a bug or anything, I've been at it for a while now...
(Enjoying the game so far, for the record. Quite interesting.)
While the concept is interesting, I'm not entirely sure it's entirely possible to win it...? Upon finishing a few playthroughs, events seem to happen randomly and in ways I'm not entirely sure is necessarily tied to the player's decisions (although, I could be wrong).
The idea to show how the family deteriorates as time goes on was an interesting one, but the text quickly becomes repetitive. Sometimes it's not present for long enough to read it. I'm also fairly certain that the message about how the baby is crying will always show twice in succession (at least, that was my experience with it).
(Also, was the fact that there's blood on the walls during those interludes intentional? It does, if nothing else, make one think that the family is one of serial killers.)
This was fun! I really like the simple visuals and the gameplay. Pretty relaxing, too.
At first, I was confused as to why include regenerating health given the theme, but it was absolutely necessary from a gameplay perspective, due to the absurd barrage of bullets that eventually happens. That said, as a result, you lost a bit on the theme. I never found myself in trouble or even really noticed my health going down as my ship fired off. Between the theme and gameplay, though, I'd pick the latter too, so you made the right decision, in my mind.
I'd add a note that players should play this in full-screen. I initially just placed it in the window on the itch page and as a result had a hard time differentiating between the small blue ships and the blue projectiles.
Also:
(Oh and, you have two misspellings on your itch page at the time of writing this. "Fortunatly" -> fortunately and "Controlls" -> controls.)
It's an interesting little game. While the concept is interesting, there are some things that could use refining.
* There are long periods in which the player is forced to sit back and wait without any interactor or any visual indicator as to how long a task will take. The first time I selected a job, I genuinely believed the game had frozen. I would suggest shortening the amount of time needed for the next "turn" to take place. * The game's concept of sacrifice could be framed a bit better. It sort of gives the impression that you're picking up freelance jobs that are available. Therefore, your choice feels less like "Pick 1 option, at the cost of another" and more like "here's two jobs, pick one, the other one will just have to wait for someone to take it at some other point maybe". There's also the fact that the monetary value between the two jobs, along with the risk of pirates, is generally the same. * A potential way to avoid this issue could have been by making the two options somewhat related. For example, have one option be supplying a group of rebels that feel like they've been opressed by a cruel dictator with guns at a low payoff, *OR* delivering something to that same dictator for a higher reward. * This is a minor complaint, but it would've been interesting to have a still image of stars be placed between the two sidebars, just to help give off that space-feel. I'd also suggest expanding the box around the ship, just so that it doesn't look so cramped in it.
Either way, a neat little effort that I feel like a story-based game could be built from.
Just like another person mentioned, I had some trouble figuring out what to do on the Violence boss. The only visual cue I noticed was the fists going red, but that seemed to just be an attack indicator.
In addition, before that, on Fraud, my character got stuck in the upper left platform and was unable to move, causing me to simply fire at the boss from the corner. I'm not sure what was the cause, but it appeared to fix itself by the end.
Still, an impressive effort. I liked the idea that instead of descending into hell, you're ascending from the bottom. I also like the idea of starting with a powerful character that eventually becomes weaker and weaker.
The calamity is clearly a metaphor for the economic downfall of wherever we're supposed to live. I mean, in what world can you walk into a store, clean out all their gasoline, and pay less than you would for a single cup of coffee?
Joking aside, it was fun enough. I beat it on my second try, and it never really overstayed its welcome. Not too hard to beat, either. I would've liked seeing more random events, though. Maybe some random lore sprinkled in while buying at convenience stores?
Either way, neat little game.
LD45 — Start with nothing (14)
Dear Diary by Rodrigo Denúbila 2019-10-08T23:35:05Z ♥ 3
This was neat! It was admittedly a bit tedious in the beginning with the way the door seems to direct you to the bathroom, only to find out you're first meant to go to the living room and then to the bedroom. The story certainly... escalated. I think what I appreciated the most about it was the voice acting. I also liked the idea of them all being faceless mannequins and things not appearing until mentioned. It gives the idea that we, the players, are visualizing only the things only written in the diary (even if gameplay-wise, it's the other way around.)
A small thing presentation-wise would be that the mouse cursor is visible and layered on top of the rectangle in the center of the screen.
Darkness is the nothing by Nadya Khromenkova 2019-10-08T23:17:23Z ♥ 2
The game looks gorgeous. This world looks mystery and interesting, and I feel like the game telling you so little about what's happening actually works really well. The controls and movement are a bit wonky, but the actual feeling of grappling gameplay was fun! Reminded me a bit of one of those old Spider-Man flash games.
I liked it!
A Quiet Dream by thevinter 2019-10-08T23:06:41Z ♥ 0
I unfortunately couldn't get very far. I get to the town, walk over to the door to the house that seems open, but I haven't found anything that might suggest the daughter's birthday. I can't find anything else to interact with in the house or in the section of the city I can walk around with at that point. And, as far as I can tell, I need to go through there to get to the police station. Or is there another way into the city that I'm maybe missing...?
Either way, I do have a few suggestions. * The opening of wandering in the fog in the middle of nowhere is interesting, but the issue is that there isn't much of importance for the player to see on the way for most of their journey. It could, in my mind, be trimmed down a bit. * The size of the house with the red back door doesn't match the size of the house outside. In fact, the house itself seems massive, unrealistically so. And given that you can't seem to walk through any of the numerous doorways there besides the red one, I'd have just made it into a smaller space. oh, and speaking of the house -- the sound effects while walking around it seem... mismatched. It sounds like walking around in grass rather than a tiled floor.
Anyhow, I won't make any rash judgements. If I've missed something or if there's an actual bug to be fixed, I'll wait for a response, give it another go, and then vote.
The Defective Detective by Polyethyleneglykol 2019-10-08T22:44:45Z ♥ 1
This was pretty cool! Really nice environments and a decent amount of features for a game made in such a short amount of time! I did have some issue with how case-sensitive the game was during the browser segments. And I would've maybe liked for the mystery to have been more engaging. Still, given everything else the game has going on, it was perfectly workable and showed off the game's features.
Great job!
When Nothing Came by velvetlobster 2019-10-08T22:27:16Z ♥ 2
Very much a stand-out submission! I enjoyed it. It can definitely feel a bit disorienting, but I think the game eventually eases you into it shortly after you get into the house. Would've maybe liked some more puzzles -- I don't remember anything that I really considered a puzzle besides the "key" segment. The poetry was nice, though, and the ending heartfelt.
What's Behind The Mirror by el_fideo_rubio 2019-10-08T22:17:25Z ♥ 1
The game looks really good, and I found its message and the way it was communicated really interesting and relatable. It's just missing a bit of polish. For example, better transitions between the dreams and daytime. I also would've liked a bit more options when it comes to painting besides just putting dots. If you do expand upon this at some point in the future, that last point is one I'd like to see addressed especially. It'd make the message of the game even stronger and the dream sections far more effective.
Overall, though, fun!
Glitch Of Hell by Draigius 2019-10-08T18:26:24Z ♥ 0
This was really fun! The graphics were simple, but sleek and effective! Admittedly, though, it didn't feel like a puzzle game as much as it was a reflex game. (I definitely appreciated the split-second turn appearing.)
Little Guardian by JUSTCAMH 2019-10-08T18:14:07Z ♥ 1
This was cool! Bit too hard for my abilities, but I really appreciated all the work that went into the visuals and sound design. The idea of the small planet and the gradual destruction was just great.
The beginning of the end by Thomas_Bringer 2019-10-08T18:00:34Z ♥ 2
This was neat! Very impressive to have gotten so much done, especially in the Compo time limit! The graphics were nice and the music, while getting a bit repetitive if stuck on a certain section for too long, was certainly a nice addition. I liked the puzzles. Nothing too complicated but some did take me a minute or two to figure out.
My one issue was with the perspective. At times I wasn't sure what was obscuring my path and what wasn't. And moving diagonally is a bit finnicky when using the keyboard.
Another small suggestion: I think you should remove the explanation of what was going on at the end. I think it's unnecessary and kind of takes away from what the story was communicating with the visuals and the conversations with other characters.
Overall, though, fun!
Writers Block by Copper_Aardvark_Games 2019-10-08T17:30:25Z ♥ 1
It's a neat little game that I can definitely see getting hooked on by just wanting to see all the numbers go up. Pretty relaxing. I just kind of wish there was a bit more to it. As it is, things get pretty by the book pretty quickly (at least up to the part I've played so far.)
I also think the idea of stealing other ideas is a really good concept in its own right that just doesn't get explored as much as it could.
Still, it was a nice little experience and I liked it!
While you're here by Dinorex 2019-10-08T17:18:53Z ♥ 3
This was a neat little game! I caught onto what was going on fairly early on, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the story. Really cool you guys managed to build all those rooms in such a short amount of time. My one complaint would be with the presentation of the text. For example, the font (at least the one used in the English version) makes the letter 'r' difficult to read.
Also, I would suggest maybe visually separating the protagonist's thoughts from the letters? I know the text of the letters of is in brackets, but it would've made more sense to have the text of the letters be on the sheet of paper, and the narrator's thoughts be somewhere else on the screen. It might also be worthwhile to have three fonts - one for the letters, one for the narrator's thoughts, and one for the user interface.
Overall, though, it's a neat experience with a heartwarming message!
The Persistent Thief by Darylsteak 2019-10-08T16:56:09Z ♥ 0
Really liked this! The game has a lot of things going on, especially for a compo game! There's even a tutorial!
I do feel like the game has the potential to get a bit repetitive (at least in my experience, I had to leave and come back and do the exact same things to get enough gold), but I loved how even a single item can give a whole new route.
My one true suggestion would be to maybe add a run button. The initial crawl to the sewers takes a bit too long, especially if the player happened to get caught.
Monochromacy by ItsHornUnicorn 2019-10-08T16:39:10Z ♥ 1
Really loved this! Visually simple, but really appealing! Really creative stuff!
(Unfortunately ended up getting stuck on the keypad section. Seems like I'm not the only one.)
Strange Adventure by randdir 2019-10-08T16:23:49Z ♥ 1
I liked the idea. It definitely captures the tone of an old-school text adventure. I really liked the graphics. Very moody.
The story itself, though, was pretty minimal, and I never felt too engaged, unfortunately. It seemed to end right before the interesting part starts, heh. I also think someone mentioned it before me, but I would've liked having a bit more for the other options besides just a one-liner and a redirect to the menu. Still, time constraints are understandable. Would be interested to see where it goes.
I noticed some grammar issues in the story itself (mostly the usage of tenses). If English isn't your native language, it's all the more commendable you chose to go with a text adventure!