FoonLudum Dare ExplorerUsers → Black Ships Fill the Sky

Black Ships Fill the Sky

Overall Medals

YearLDThemeGameDivisionOverall
🥉 2014 29 Beneath the Surface Yojimbrawl! (2 Player Fighting Game) jam 4.39
🥇 2012 25 You are the Villain Ore Chasm jam 4.20

Category Medals

YearLDThemeGameDivisionCategoryScore
👥 🥈 2023 54 Limited Space Everything Must Go jam Fun 4.64
🥇 2014 29 Beneath the Surface Yojimbrawl! (2 Player Fighting Game) jam Fun 4.52
🥈 2012 25 You are the Villain Ore Chasm jam Audio 4.27
🥈 2012 25 You are the Villain Ore Chasm jam Fun 4.20
🥇 2012 23 Tiny World Rambros jam Fun 4.11
🥇 2011 22 Alone Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? compo Humor 4.39
🥈 2011 22 Alone Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? compo Fun 3.92

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCmCo
202456Tiny Creatures👥Little Peckerjam304.264.094.144.044.644.214.404.07
202354Limited Space👥Everything Must Gojam104.434.644.273.774.394.414.504.27
202149Unstable👥🕷💩Poopy Parker💩🕷jam624.184.143.863.534.173.834.383.78
202047Stuck in a loop👥Everything is Garbagejam64.464.354.033.794.684.074.31
201842Running out of space👥ECO WARRIORSjam314.144.123.142.404.574.144.333.86
201739Running out of PowerManshooter - So Realistic It Hurtsjam4.004.004.002.004.002.004.003.00
201429Beneath the SurfaceYojimbrawl! (2 Player Fighting Game)jam34.394.523.191.854.684.112.824.1733
201225You are the VillainOre Chasmjam14.204.203.932.604.504.272.924.0033
201223Tiny WorldRambrosjam74.044.113.071.604.644.053.733.67
201122AloneSuper Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro?compo173.793.923.711.324.133.554.392.353.6353

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Black Ships Fill the Sky

LD22 — Alone

AB-ALONE by SonnyBone 2012-01-08T16:06:00

Very cool game!

Couldn't work out what the question mark craft item was, couldn't finish it. Couldn't work out why a canopy or fire could help me...

Maybe some thought bubbles coming from the character could help? I certainly don't want things spelled out for me... but if he were to say "I'm feeling tired" when the red bar is low that might explain things and stay in character...

I had fun getting as far as I got!

CANDY WORLD DREAM REALM by Maple 2012-01-08T18:08:00

Noone wants to hang out with turd munching guy?

Sweet game! Made me really happy! Glad it wasn't another monocromatic sadness game.

Cirque du Seul by ian_snyder 2012-01-08T15:38:00

Lovely!

Flocks of seagulls freak me out as well :)

Lost by Manuel777 2012-01-08T14:57:00

Really liked the graphics and the cat animations and the mean neglectful pet-owners (who seemed to leave their cat to fend for itself? Maybe it was a nasty cat, certainly not a very nice cat to earn such hatred from its owners... Maybe they reckoned it was its time, seeing as it had only three lives left...)

Oases by newton64 2012-01-08T15:00:00

The sounds were nice... couldn't play though :(

shoot stab sprint save shooter battle by FuzzYspo0N 2012-01-08T14:46:00

I liked the interactive menu battles... also the bullet deflecting and the sweet moody architectural plan level graphics...

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2011-12-19T15:38:00

Oh Dear! Okay, I've uploaded again. Please let me know if it works!

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2011-12-19T16:53:00

I've added a post-mortem for it. (It's got a bunch of thanks for the important people, like Helloserve who went out of his way to accommodate a Ludum Dare Game Jam in Cape Town) http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/19/super-smash-la…ro-post-mortem/

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2011-12-19T16:54:00

Ack! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/19/super-smash-lander-suicide-party-bro-post-mortem/

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2011-12-21T21:17:00

Thanks for playing! Thanks for the kind comments!

@ VDOgamez. I'll be the first one to admit I borked up the theme (well second because you've already pointed it out I guess).

In my defense I live in South Africa which is 8 hours ahead, so I didn't know the theme when I started. But to my great dishonor when I did find out the theme I kind of screwed it up even further.

The game was meant to end differently, kind of tragically in fact, but then I discovered how flipping cool high-fiving is and I put that at the end instead. High-Fiving is kind of the exact opposite of being alone :(

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-01-05T01:16:00

Fixed the source code link.

Also updated the post-ludum-dare version to include actual elements of the "alone" theme! :) (As well as a shop where you can purchase sweet upgrades like "Seagull-Pheremones")

(Though in truth you'd have to finish the game to discover it and even then it's pretty weak theme-wise)

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-01-10T11:11:00

Thanks for all the kind comments! There's a enhanced Web version now for anyone who wants to play it and reads these comments: http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/SuperSmashLanderSuicidePartyBro/Super_Smash_Lander_Suicide_Party,_Bro.html

Left Behind by Jimjam 2012-01-08T14:38:00

I really liked the Cloverfield monster touch. I have much greater respect for seagulls as a result :)

It'd be great if you could fix up the controls and maybe add some other mechanics... like wind currents that carry you or obstacles or something... and maybe fishes that you can munch on (thus triggering the angler fish revenge cycle.)

Left Behind by Jimjam 2012-01-08T14:42:00

Doh! My bad, you can already munch on the fishes. *Preempted face-palm*

Courage Quest by triplefox 2012-01-08T15:35:00

Why did my beautiful green griffin beast have to die? I couldn't work out what to do with the pickaxe afterwards...

Very solid platformer. (Sweet Megaman jump)

Leave Me Alone by StabAlarash 2012-01-08T17:41:00

Very polished!

Survive The Desert by angrygeometry 2012-01-08T16:19:00

Damn! Succumbed to capitalism again :)

Nude Guy will haunt my naps for many days to come...

Nice one! Really loved it. Easily my favorite experience this Ludum dare. (Though the gameplay is pretty simple certainly)

Robot Armageddon! by Raptor85 2012-01-08T16:42:00

Robots have so many advantages... including being inpervious to their own explosions.

Fun game.

Alone in His Mind by 89cookies 2012-01-08T16:34:00

I couldn't touch things... I think... I don't know, it was lighting up but nothing happened when I pressed the red buttons...

Enola by magnolia_fan 2012-01-08T17:17:00

Grest atmosphere. Beautiful.

The snivelling sounds were a little weird... some footstep sounds and really soft ambiences could have been quite powerful?

Really impressive!

Hikikomori by quasi 2012-01-08T16:46:00

Loved the characters visuals and music... please make more levels and things.

Does "Hikikomori" translate to "drop the egg for the little bird" perhaps?

Party Quest: Never Go It Alone by ScreamRawr 2012-01-08T17:37:00

Very cool concept. I killed an awful lot of kittens to get where I am today...

Also, +1 for medieval rollerskates on characters' walk cycles :)

Enjoyed it!

Fur Ever Alone by TentacleNoises 2012-01-08T17:48:00

Nice feel. Doesn't control as well as I'd like (I got stuck on level 6 or 7 and the glitchiness made it impossible).

Interesting mechanic though!

Sociophobia by cappelnord 2012-01-08T17:20:00

I feel that way about people too sometimes :)

Alone with the Shifters by kernel panic 2012-01-08T15:41:00

Weird. The zip is broken and 2Kb for me?

Insanely Awesome Physics Saga by Merrik 2011-12-30T09:50:00

This was fun and a very singular platformer experience! (And it was awesome jamming with you and seeing it develop at the time)...

And I liked collecting kittens, made me feel like I was part of a sweet kitten posse, made me wish I could use them to defeat enemies or fetch me snacks or something :)

Faster, Goetterdaemmerung! Zombie! Zombie! by andrebeton 2012-01-08T16:08:00

Moody. The mines were painful.

Speed to Freedom by helloserve 2012-01-08T15:13:00

Managed a score of 22666... which is probably pretty high? Was consentrating really hard on the corridor so I couldn't work out how it was calculated (my first fewattempts were like 0 score or 10 score or so).

The graphics and sound are really effective. I like the pitchshifting wind. Though I'd suggest you also pitch shift the woosh of the objects you pass... maybe even try doppler them, and make them louder for closer shaves maybe?)

Also... It says at the beginning that I am a messenger with an important message to deliver... only... the corridor is infinite! Making the corridor to the leader infinite is a pretty sneaky trick for the warmongers to play... I felt like I was in an outer limits episode following a test-subject in a simulation that was all one big cruel trick. The omninous music at the start reinforces the feeling of "All is not what it seems and the tables have been rigged against you".

Nice work!

Speed to Freedom by helloserve 2012-01-08T15:15:00

Oooh... I forgot to write... If it is a multiplier based score then perhaps flashing something closer to the center of the screen like "10X multiplier!" would give players more feedback as to how well they are doing... at the moment it is tricky to play the game and work out the strategy for getting high-scores.

HUG MONSTER by recursive frog 2012-01-08T16:27:00

The hug monster is kind of terrifying?

Really liked it! Nice concept.

Welcome to TheCity by ncannasse 2012-01-08T18:11:00

Really pretty and big, expanisve, kinda lonely.

Divided by TeamInk 2012-01-08T17:58:00

I can't pass level 2.

Is it intentional that the two characters become out of sync horizontally. It makes it seem kind of buggy that you can lose because the white guy misses your feet.

I guess the rules are a bit unclear... like why can you always stand on the ground but the white guy falls through it.

I love the style and the music. This could turn into something quite astounding.

Alone With a Phone by waynebeam 2012-01-08T16:51:00

Clever idea!

LD23 — Tiny World

Rambros by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-04-26T02:40:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I've fixed the links now (I had some blank links up because I wasn't sure if I could edit this page and I was exhausted).

We didn't finish the game sadly (that's why there is no point or theme tie in).

But we're going to fix that this next weekend hopefully.

Rambros by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-05-15T01:08:00

Hey, thank you everyone for playing!!!!

We are in fact continuing working on it... I feel bad now because I've been so busy with that I didn't get to rate anyone else (I'm going to play them anyway as soon as I can).

Turned out there is another game in development called "Rambros". We were super bummed to discover this, but it looks like an awesome game, check it out.

We're renaming the project "Bro Force". We'll have a build out in a few days (hopefully). The game now actually has a win condition :)

LD25 — You are the Villain

The Twist by amassingham 2013-01-08T00:04:00

Cops hate moustaches, true story. Really fun.

Missile Rider by rylgh 2013-01-08T00:47:00

I feel like this is too frustratingly hard to be as much fun as its potential.

Just a couple mechanics that favor the player instead of screwing with the player would make this a whole lot more enjoyable. Like being able to jump upwards past missiles instead of being knocking downwards off of them, or explosions from missiles always shooting you at least a little upwards (instead of quite often firing you down at the sea), or a little bit better air control (like whenever you land on a missile you get back all your flying power), or something. I think a couple too many things interfere with the player as it stands, I felt more often than not I would die to no fault of my own.

Maybe just if the start of a game was a little more straight forward and then it ramps up the difficulty/complexity (to the current difficulty) it would feel a bit more satisfying?

Though it's a very cool, very elegant design. I must have tried beating my highscore of six twenty or thirty times.

You are Bankster! by Deril 2013-01-08T00:17:00

I enjoyed the subtle irony :)

ASMOSNOS by Mase 2013-01-08T00:13:00

What a magnificent jam game! The controls were a bit sticky, but that's a minor gripe when there's so much on offer in ASMOSNOS.

Kitten Hater by Dyn 2013-01-08T00:56:00

I didn't hate kittens until now :P

Liked the always run mechanic. Felt like this could borrow some mechanics from Runman/Donkey Kong Country and be very interesting.

Evile, inc by nickworks 2013-01-07T23:54:00

Found myself playing this for quite a while. I've seen developers approach this concept before and come up short, whereas this had just the right amount of progression to keep me playing.

Damn, I really found myself loathing that nasty hero ship.

Painful Traps Master by allinlabs 2013-01-08T01:08:00

Goat-legged villains are the best kind of villains.

Nearly killed myself with spikes at first (somehow). Some sound effects might have juiced this up nicely (obviously).

Though I had fun smashing the NES and SEGA characters :)

Ore Chasm by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-12-18T08:44:00

@Nickworks Thanks for giving it a try! It was super hard getting it all working and sadly we didn't have the time to adjust the gameplay.

We'll definitely take this a bit further. Hope you get a chance to play it then!

Ore Chasm by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2012-12-19T14:31:00

@Caribou Thanks for playing! I'm super pleased you enjoyed it!

I don't think we succeeded on the theme myself :)

BendoReflector X-25 by caribou 2013-01-08T00:07:00

Waiting for players :(

Princess Frenzy by prettymuchbryce 2013-01-08T01:12:00

Didn't have anyone to play against. My latency made the movement very choppy (I think).

Though demon princess-stealing is a cool theme for a competitive multiplayer game. I imagine it's a lot of fun.

LD29 — Beneath the Surface

Safety Blanket by SimonLarsen 2014-05-03T15:10:00

This actually made me feel very panicky. Well done!

Brilliant audio design supporting a really elegant mechanic (that of pulling the blanket around).

I actually move around in my sleep a lot like this. Though I've gotten over worrying about the tentacles. So far so good!

Yojimbrawl! (2 Player Fighting Game) by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2014-04-29T10:44:00

I'm hoping that error is fixed now. I tried uploading the file again. (Sorry, I've got South African internet)

Yojimbrawl! (2 Player Fighting Game) by Black Ships Fill the Sky 2014-04-29T14:26:00

We're thinking of changing the kanji...

Yojimbo = 用心棒 translates to. "stick who uses precaution" and is used in place of "bodygaurd".

We'd like to make the kanji this: 用心鬥 which means something like "The battle that uses precaution".

Which sounds both badass and confusing!!

Heaving of the Depths by Christina Antoinette Neofotistou 2014-05-04T02:09:00

My damage kept resetting (like someone else mentioned).

But this game has wonderful charm. I love the rippling ocean and the shadows of sea monsters are really unsettling.

Obviously the time constraints limited you, but I would have enjoyed more of the ocean floor coming to life. I accidentally sailed over a sea trench at some point, I expected to be attacked by a giant eel, and had a moment of adrenaline... but nothing actually happened.

In any case. I think there's a really rich space to explore here.

PR0BE by Softwave 2014-05-03T15:05:00

I didn't struggle to drill through the ice. But I'm not sure how to pass what came after that. As you said it's unfinished I'm guessing I got to the end.

I'm a fan of games that tell narratives through multiple different gameplay sequences (like landing and then swimming and then something else). So I hope you do flesh this out some more.

In any case, well done on your first Ludum Dare! Hope you compete again!

End Game+ by 1upcreations 2014-05-03T12:47:00

Yeah, that's just the Unity EXE. You've got to zip the whole folder that's contained in and distribute that.

LD39 — Running out of Power

Manshooter - So Realistic It Hurts by EvanGreenwood 2017-08-07T08:50:13Z

Hi @risist ! I suppose you played and missed what was going on. The game isn't actually unstable, it pretends to be unstable. That's the (weakish) connection with the theme, that the games are poorly put together and so crash after a while. It is possible to get further in the game than just the first crash.

To be fair, the game is a joke, and it's not told very well. I'd like to learn better how to tell this particular joke.

LD42 — Running out of space

The Swarm by Wahooney 2018-09-04T09:55:32Z

Really nice entry!

The increasing acid pools fit the theme well, and I appreciate that there is a way to fight them with the blue barrels.

The guns felt meaty (especially the turrets and the shotgun). I didn't realize at first that I could switch weapons (I tried using the mouse wheel, as I noticed picking up different boxes). Maybe some HUD display of the different ammo counts to make clear there are definitely different weapons.

The aliens are kind of cute and kind of terrifying. And their swarming behaviour works well with the confined space and the acid pools.

I was a little disappointed that acid pools kept eating my ammo. I think that's a nice mechanic, but I think it could happen a bit slower and with a little feedback (like they fizz for a while). The blue canisters also get eaten by the acid and don't spawn a white foam explosion when they die from acid, which I felt was a rule tweaked a little too harshly against the player.

There's a lot of really nice touches, like the aliens creating some acid particles as they travel over acid, and the white foam looks beautiful.

The kick attack seemed a bit unreliable. I imagine there's a long cooldown or something? But I didn't notice any feedback as to why it's sometimes possible to kick and othertimes not.

The rendering is really great, with the depth of field and the slight darkening as you lose health.

I felt like the alien and box health was a bit high. Personally I'd have preferred more aliens with less health, or if the aliens reacted more to being hit (shooting them a few times before getting any reaction isn't ideal in terms of satisfaction).

Smashing the boxes got a lot more satisfying after I discovered a turret in one of them :)

Sorry if this post seems a bit nitpicky. I'm only pointing out these little tweaks because the fundamentals in this game are really strong.

Gut Reaction by blacksheepza 2018-08-29T16:48:53Z

I really love the title screen art actually. The pixel art is good, but the title screen is wonderfully derpy!

I also missed the "E" to pick up at first.

It controls well though, the shooting is satisfying and pushing enemies back feels good (before knowing about "E" I was shooting enemies towards the hole).

Though the player damaging bounding boxes are a bit unclear (particularly for the acid). Given the camera angle I feel like they should damage you when your feet are near them (rather than damaging your head when it overlaps the acid).

I would have liked a way to deal with the loss of health, or a way to improve my ability to receive ammo. I felt I was a little bit at the whim of the world, with my only ability to avoid getting hit while having to pick up every single ammo drop before it disappeared and no way to solve some of the problems I was facing (like low health or low ammo or the clogging up of acid piles). I'd like to see you take this further and play with that possibility space.

When I did get a bit further in the game (I got to Day 3) I had a nice moment where I was being ganged up on by a horde of sickly food.

Have you seen that Adventure Time episode with the zombie candy? That's what it reminded me of, with that wonderful tension of food trying to eat YOU. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9OOLl2rdCY

I'm not a fan of enemies that hurt you just by overlapping you (unless they're covered in spines or something). But for the purposes of a jam I think it's fine. If you do take it further I'd suggest trying to add in enemy attacks (like maybe just for the sickly food, who can then vomit just in front of them, making temporary vomit piles that damage you, while the other enemies just slow you).

LEO by Bracula 2018-09-04T10:49:12Z

The musical tones as the satellites pass over their origin is a really nice touch! I think the exact sound effect they use is a bit piercing, but with a little tweaking it could be a really cool generative soundtrack.

There's also a nice feeling of progress here, getting more money faster as you produce more satellites.

I think the shadows are a little dark, given how peaceful the feeling of the gameplay is it might be ideal to match that in the visuals.

Also it brilliantly incorporates the theme (along with having a real world concerns present within the game).

I think it's a very strong entry!

Knight's Crush by Zaphire 2018-09-02T16:47:58Z

Nice job!

The game felt a bit like those coordination excersizes, where you pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time. Trying to remember the order while judging the jumps while trying to get to the end as fast as possible. I don't know if it was the intention, but it feels like a ridiculous challenge that an evil twisted wizard might send a knight on, like one of those fantasy movies where the hero has a series of unfortunate trials to beat (like a twelve tasks of Hercules), but where the taskmaster is more sadistic.

I guess I'm saying, I think there's some room for humour in the theming if you were to take it further.

Those later levels were very difficult (thanks for the warning in advance). Is that the standard Unity character controller? It feels like the character has a capsule collider on it and so it slips off the edge when it is just off the edge.

I actually got quite good at the jumping by the end :)

The knight character and animation looks really good of course!

BLOCKADE by PixelJerry 2018-09-04T14:13:14Z

A really cool variant on Tetris/Match3.

Like others have said, those row wiping blocks are really fun. At the same time they might make the game a little easy.

I do enjoy making combos in this kind of game, so I'm definitely not suggesting taking the special row-buster blocks out, though I think ideally you could find another way to introduce more difficulty. Even as it is you have a very short amount of time to make a decision about where to lay the next block, so I don't think the speed can be increased.

I wonder whether the jump could be reduced. I had a moment where I had made a cliff that I couldn't get over, and that affected my strategy, but placing a block with my jump was always a bigger concern than getting to where I needed to be, and there was never much time to make a decision in any case. I don't know if it would work, but it might be interesting to have zero time pressure and more types of blocks, meaning that it would play out as a kind of puzzle where making matches is actually difficult and requires planning (because navigation and block placement would be completely tied). I don't know if you tried this already?

Otherwise maybe introducing grey blocks (that don't combo but row busters can destroy), or blocks that require special conditions (like two matches).

Also extra points for connecting more than 3 blocks would be rad. As well as combo points for creating a combo when falling blocks connect.

I played twice and had a good time. A really nice entry.

This Way Up by Virtual Window 2018-09-03T21:47:27Z

Really impressive visuals. The game looks gorgeous!

The opening screen is really great as well. The atmosphere for a Overcooked game is spot on.

Like others have said, filling the boxes isn't very motivating yet. It takes a long while and doesn't really reward you. It's a nice start to a box packing game though, and I expect you had a ton more planned that didn't get in.

Congratulations on making a game with such a large team with so many different levels of expertise! (I know it can be tough keeping everyone pulling in the same direction on a project like this).

Acreage by pomb 2018-09-01T19:50:08Z

I can only get 119 on 5X5 (After about 6 tries).

I tried a mass boot and flower run, but it seems not as effective on the 5X5 as building houses and chopping trees. Maybe flower runs are effective on the larger levels?

But the fact that I could see multiple strategies towards scoring makes me think this game design has great potential.

The reason I gravitated towards boots and flowers is that I really like strategies that involve feedback loops, like building machines that generate more resources over time. When I saw that the flowers returned each turn I wanted to try exploit that. I wonder whether it'd be possible to do make more of the tiles exhibit this behaviour (so as the level gets filled, a sort of machine emerges, with, for instance, ways to make the trees renewable and renewable ways to spend that wood etc). Something like a really stripped down version of Stardew Valley.

I've played a bit more now... I've tried the 15 X 7 map placing a lot of boots and flowers, I got 804 points, but played far from perfectly. I think houses still are the best earners, certainly after 18 turns from the end, but flowers and boots are very useful in other ways (and some of the flowers placed near the beginning do earn better than houses).

Like others have said, it feels like the player is a bit at the whim of the random tiles provided. I think providing some way to overcome that might be a good addition. Some way to be able to affect your deck would help. I don't think this needs to go as far as a deck builder, but perhaps some elements of that?

Like if there was a building that could be built that allows for a hand to be discarded in favour of another one.

And if that sort of thing is possible, maybe some buildings add future tiles to your deck. Like building a house adds the possibility of a marketplace tile (for instance). i.e. as you play you trigger certain conditions for more complicated cards to be available.... I guess I am suggesting a kind of deck builder :)

In any case, I think this is a strong design! Love to see this taken further.

Deep Down by Nyunesu 2018-09-01T18:32:58Z

I really enjoyed that you worked the theme into the level design. Really tight levels as well! (it took me many deaths before beating the game, but the check points and the quick respawns stop it from ever getting frustrating).

Hope this game does really well!

Get Off My Boat, You! by Eric Kulbiej 2018-09-01T18:18:19Z

Fun game! I enjoyed the way you incorporated the theme and the disregard for swimmers' safety.

I also found this a little sea-sickening, particularly when I tried playing it fullscreen. I wonder if inducing sea-sickness was a goal?

I enjoyed turning round in circles and herding the swimmers until driving right over them, there was a bit of strategy to getting a higher score.

And the art style is good. It looks particularly charming at fullscreen.

Given it's Unity, it might have been cool to pitchshift the boat sound based on whether the boat is turning or not. In the HTML5 version I played the boat sound was pretty constant and some variation might have been rad.

Like others said, steering with the boat wheel felt great! I like games where the controls are more 1-to-1 rather than being abstracted to right-left-up-down.

Move_LD42 by Diablo 2018-09-04T10:07:43Z

Nice jiggly loading screen and a clever incorporation of the theme.

It's quite tricky moving left and right and horizontally over a grid that is diagonally arranged (though a different diagonal orientation to pressing up and right). I got caught moving over a corner of a hole a couple times.

Is there any warning/logic about which tiles are going to disappear?

If you take this further, I'd like to get something for eating the coin. Like growing longer (and so perhaps having more segments to sacrifice). Or getting more jumps. Or some gameplay reward for collecting the coin.

Well done on making this in such a short time. Really well scoped for your constraints!

ECO WARRIORS by FreeLivesGames 2018-08-14T13:21:36Z

@tuism Thanks for the feedback!!

Yeah. We would have loved to have spent more time polishing the combat. Some of the things we did try didn't come together as well as we'd like, and the design of the final level isn't very good (my fault). Technically the game works in co-op (with up to four players) but a lot got cut due to time constraints.

Broforce (Rambros) was more interesting in terms of tactical play in its prototype form. And I think that was excellent, but for this game idea we felt we had to do so much more work in terms of explaining why the badguys are bad, and we've ended up putting in nearly as much story telling in this prototype as the finished version of Broforce had. I think this was a good move, but it came at a cost.

If we work on it further the run-and-gun mechanics are where I'd like to spend a lot of time. I'm pretty happy to make a top-down derivative of Broforce, but it has to be as tight.

Here's a video of the Rambros prototype for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBTQ-JaA_k

ECO WARRIORS by FreeLivesGames 2018-08-21T18:28:13Z

Thanks for the feedback everyone! We're going to work on this at least a bit more (at least a bit next week, @squidcor has promised)

@halomegames The first thing we need to address is that elusive sound bug. I can't figure out what's causing it, the audio code in the project is pretty elaborate (it's ripped out of a previous project), and the bug is hidden deep in there.

And we'll try adjust the way the enemies move (they shouldn't be able to push the player around like how @cresceda pointed out).

A lot of the code in the game either existed in a previous prototype/experiment, or was something we'd done several times in the past. The one big chunk we hadn't coded before was the pathfinding, and it was using some pretty undocumented Unity code. I kind of hate the way the enemies move, in terms of implementation, and I think we'll scrap it and do it better ourselves.

About @rend, @halomegames and @antoined73 comments on the trees: The trees are mostly just a cone collider on a very springy joint (i.e. really high angular drive forces on the joint). The bullets apply a force when they hit and the joint springs the tree back. (It's the same trick we did on the trees in Genital Jousting). It's actually quite quick to implement. We can probably make more things springy!

@atom0520 We're going to try improve upon the top down shooter combat. Robbie (@squidcor) wants to get co-op working (so there are multiple players and the potential for coordination). I want to figure out how to mix up the combat (like the random changing of characters in Broforce which force you to reconsider your tactics). We've also got a ton of jokes we never got to tell. Honestly, I've never managed to create something much better than a standard top-down shooter, but I'm sure we can figure it out if we beat our heads against it for long enough.

I really love this game, but before Eco Warriors could ever be considered to be a commercial project we have to do much better than the standard top-down shooter experience (in terms of combat).

@minibobbo I'd like to work the mission briefings more into the gameplay. Maybe using Al Gore to give clear instructions when the objectives change. Maybe the design of the levels (or elements in the levels) can make the objectives more intuitive. I'd like less up front reading and more discovering information within the levels (like how the tree talks to you).

Here by Asriele 2018-09-02T17:07:45Z

Love the setting and the story!

The change of character to the enforcer was really interesting. I'd love to know where this story leads, in general I really like the idea of starting a story long after something horrific has occurred from the perspective of a detached/confused observer. The text at the beginning lead me to thinking that we are observing a universe from another universe, and as such being decoupled from time and causality.

I wish there was more of this. It left me intrigued. I played through twice to see what other dialogue options there were (I assume it ends always with the station exploding?)

I don't know if this was the intention, but this captures something of the feeling I had when reading Slaughterhouse 5, or watching Twelve Monkeys, that a everything has occurred and ended already and as much as we want to affect events the best we can do is witness them.

LD47 — Stuck in a loop

Permafrost Pirouette by Junber 2020-10-22T13:30:27Z

Really enjoyed playing this, good job!

Wild Ride by CaptainDreamcast 2020-10-26T11:05:48Z

Really enjoyed playing this game ! Good interpretation of the loop theme and the intro was quite humorous, well done!

Day in the Life of an Ordinary Turtle by NoahRo 2020-10-21T11:03:56Z

Great interpretation of the loop theme and the boss exploding when his demands weren't met was quite humorous !

Record Runner by unplugred 2020-10-20T12:33:04Z

light-hearted, fun game that was a pleasure to play ! The music was a great addition as missing or hitting notes affected the rhythm of the chosen track. Good job!

Feed the Bear by Emperor Eagle 2020-10-20T12:54:00Z

It seems like the sprites aren't rendering which is a pity because it looked really promising. Good choice in background music :)

Curse of Huh by JagsyFox 2020-10-26T14:18:13Z

Great concept! Enjoyed the implementation of a force reset button so you can continue with the game without having to wait for the timer to run out. Tried the game quite a few times.

A Ghost with Alzheimer's by POBIX 2020-10-26T11:45:59Z

Really enjoyed the music and graphics - well done !

Out the Door by davidwesst 2020-10-26T12:32:30Z

Really enjoyed the audio and the mood was good, great effort!

Olivia by Abellion 2020-10-22T10:20:48Z

Really great entry for your first jam, well done ! Clever interpretation on the theme.

Stuck In A Loo by riroriro 2020-10-26T12:45:54Z

Well done Daniel! This was a really fun game to play :)

Fire in time by leggy 2020-10-27T11:37:33Z

Went up to level 7 and thoroughly enjoyed playing your submission, well done!

LD49 — Unstable

You can do it, Astro Pup! by benskca 2021-10-21T09:32:46Z

Wow, that was tricky. It felt very true to the theme, and I felt like the different tasks gave rewards on different interesting axis (like the shields stopped the asteroids causing the shaking). Like it functions like a Metroidvania, but with novel upgrades. The game has a lovely sense of discovery about it.

It did feel a bit confusing at the start, but I'm not sure how you fix that. The visual language isn't super clear at the beginning (everything is dark, and it's not clear where things need to be put, it's a lot to take in), but after placing the fuel the rest of the game makes a lot more sense. Maybe if there was a slightly easier goal right at the start that teaches how the picking up and placing works then the very beginning would feel a bit smoother.

Also, a very cute doge.

Brittle Buildings by J.Broccoli 2021-10-21T13:46:38Z

I had a lot of fun playing this! I encountered a few soft-locks, but I restarted the application and came back for more.

I'd love to unlock more options over time, the strategy of arranging the modules felt really interesting to me.

Like others have said, the visuals and the sound are really rad. Good job!! :)

Space Wrecker by Sipfindel 2021-10-21T13:24:13Z

I love the trucker character! I want some cutscenes with that guy in it (have you played Hot Throttle by Cactus?)

Felt like the strategy was to just keep firing and wait until the right bullet fired. It got a bit more strategic in the later levels, where I felt the need to watch which bullets were coming next, but I felt like the mechanic reduced my agency rather than increasing it. A lot of the time it felt like a horizontally scrolling shooter where my bullets had a 25% chance of killing.

Maybe if hitting enemies with wrong colored bullets had some positive effect? Like they might fire out the wrong coloured bullets upon death and kill nearby enemies of that color? I'm not really sure what to suggest. It feels to me like the game is one trick away from being super fun to play.

The cascades of enemy deaths were cool.

🕷💩Poopy Parker💩🕷 by TheJunt 2021-10-06T14:19:02Z

Thank you @clonze ... Yeah, we only just made the page look good now, and just having the name "Poopy Parker" (with no images or description) probably wasn't enough to get people excited to play.

Portal Problems! by LadyMistLeaf 2021-10-21T14:28:26Z

Love it when jam games have voice acting.

I enjoyed solving the hints. Nice job.

Restroom Rampage by jaoel 2021-10-21T14:00:08Z

I love the idea of a stealth game about not farting. Well done! This was the most entertaining game I've played from LD49!

I got a bit frustrated with the wall collisions, but the joy of holding in my farts through "clenching" more than made up for this.

I normally wouldn't do this, but you might appreciate the game I worked on, "Poopy Parker". It's also got poop and a lot of physics.

Citride by Asemic 2021-10-21T14:39:09Z

I felt like I got pretty good at this by the end. Having to strategize around the three cycling characters kept the puzzles interesting.

Very well presented as well. The animation for falling off the edge was very funny :)

Plip-plop! Unstable Conditions of Care by sakura_magika 2021-10-21T09:45:51Z

That got so intense! The plipplops are very cute and I want to look after them, and the audio adds a lot of pleasant charm. Definitely fits the theme as the game gets more unstable as it goes along.

However, if the game wasn't cute, but instead scary, this would be a great design for a horror game. Trying to manage all the food and poop and temperature etc in order to avoid a jump-scare would be terrifying. Maybe I just feel that way because as it stands the game is balanced to be very difficult :)

Better Tomorrows by DzejPi 2021-10-21T15:00:26Z

I really enjoyed this one. I'm a fan of incremental games with narratives, like A Dark Room and Universal Paper Clips.

The fantasy of building a business in a country that is falling apart really resonated with me. Obviously it's less extreme, but I live in South Africa and governments make questionable (but thankfully still peaceful) decisions around here.

The aethetic was really cool as well. I'm disappointed I didn't get to the crashed "weather baloon" before the missiles came in.

I liked the elements of exploring the landscape. I would have enjoyed more actions in the world. Like finding people to help who then upgrade your production.

Juicy Cauldron by nightlight00 2021-10-21T16:07:43Z

It was satisfying wracking up a score with high combos, and the bitter rain was suitably "unstable".

Though the game did require a bit of patience, waiting for the right fruit to pass by, patience isn't my forte. I'm not sure how you'd tweak this though... maybe incentivising the right fruit instead of demanding the right fruit.

Status (LD 49) by Cloud Studios 2021-10-21T15:56:58Z

It goes by a bit quickly, and I'm not exactly sure how I shut down the machine (I didn't feel like I was doing it right).

But I had a good time. The music really sells the high-pressure-environment.

Reflate by Cody Miner 2021-10-21T09:10:28Z

Nice game! It controls well and has adorable pixel art. It's got a bit of "simple-to-pick-up-but-hard-to-master" feeling in it. I could imagine this being fun to expand on, like a Super Crate Box but for jumping on heads.

AllRound by Rayredd 2021-10-21T14:34:59Z

That was the weirdest game of snooker I've ever played!

Eerie Erratic Expedition by Bloodbane 2021-10-21T13:13:01Z

I thought it was pretty rad that the shooting patterns kept changing. It meant that I had to keep adjusting the way I was playing. It feels like a big game built from this could be awesome.

Had you considered making the shifts in firing occur upon collecting something? Like Super Crate Box when your gun changes upon picking up a crate. Randomness is great, but it's nice when it feels triggered by the player.

The music was also really cool and the sound effects were retro in a good way.

Noinun40 by Itzemii 2021-10-21T10:13:07Z

Love the mechanic for the game. And the vibrating feedback of the nearly-completed match-3s are unnerving. I felt the pressure building as I played and it really did feel increasingly unstable.

I think the art and music could be polished up to feel more welcoming. The music and symbols and typography have a strange alien vibe to them, and while this might be the intention, I think a game like this could start off as fairly conventional and pleasant feeling and become more unnerving over time (instead of starting off with jittery jazz music and strange symbols). Does that make sense?

I guess I'm saying the mechanic does a good job of delivering and increasingly unstable feeling over time, and this feels good, but the art and sound start off as feeling unstable and strange, and this undercuts the brilliance of the mechanic.

The Lonely Ghost by firetaku 2021-10-21T15:09:28Z

This was a fun but eerie experience. The music gave it a feeling of gravitas, but the reason for that was unclear. It felt like a mystery with no answer.

I left it feeling curious.

Rock punk by Proz 2021-10-21T15:12:32Z

The art and presentation is really nice!

I also liked the way the level shifted as the weight increased.

Tower Crawl by AlbyK 2021-10-21T14:23:48Z

Wow, that second wave was awful. I finally got a turret placed, and it was right in line with all the banshee bullets.

The day/night cycle is super long. I spent most of the game waiting for something to happen. Didn't seem like there was a speed up bullet or enough to keep me busy (and when the enemies came they were overwhelming)

I was really enjoying the game until it wrecked me and undid all my hard work.

Unstable Explosives by Sploky 2021-10-21T10:03:05Z

I'd love to play this with more players. Could be a fun party game (as others have said).

The game becomes absolute chaos pretty quickly, which I think fits the theme really well.

I only got to about 1400 points, but it felt pretty badass by the end.

绝地天通(Babel Blocks) by ELITTK 2021-10-21T10:27:00Z

I too struggled a bit with the interface at first, but I worked it out eventually. It wasn't clear to me that pressing "F" multiple times was needed (I expected that it would run like a continuous simulation).

I enjoyed placing the blocks though. I feel like there's something really cool about building the a tower out of your imagination.

I'd have liked for the game to have escalated a bit more, like unlocking abilities with more height, like gluing blocks together. But I understand you had limited time!

My best tower eventually collapsed after its foundation gave way. It was a very sad moment for me.

Bermuda Night Fever by Drat 2021-10-21T16:15:35Z

Damn, that music track is banging.

I enjoyed the frantic action in this game!

Scootles by Surfa 2021-10-21T13:37:04Z

I behaved completely differently the two times I played. First time as a maniac, second time as the most polite shopper you ever met.

Very funny game. Learnt a lot about myself :)

the cards we're dealt by rainedoe 2021-10-21T09:55:09Z

I enjoyed playing this. I don't know what it says about me, but I found myself choosing the choices that left me overwhelmed. At the end I tried to correct this, and ended up afraid, and I felt a bit like I'd betrayed myself by playing the rules instead of playing my way.

The art and audio is lovely and adds a lovely charm to the experience. The very beginning reminded me a bit of A Dark Room, and I guess that's got to be because of the understatedness (and quality) of the writing.