Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → EvilDemonCreature
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Cm | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 22 | Alone | The Cheese Stands Alone! | compo | 605 | 2.00 | 1.79 | 2.89 | 2.11 | 2.53 | 1.00 | 1.87 | 1.31 | 2.00 | 56 |
Your note doesn't give away too much. I ranked your game highly because I'm a sucker for games that operate bizarrely and I have to keep playing in order to build up an awareness of how things are supposed to work.
If you want to 'win' this game. The trick is to never leave the first two platforms.
Whenever a fan spawns, just lead him to the lower platform, and he'll almost always fall down trying to follow you to the higher platform. If the logic about where fans spawn were changed from fixed points on the map, to points relative to where you are standing, it might be harder to exploit this tactic.
As the fans start to pile up below you, you begin to realize that the solution is as elegant as the metaphor this game represents.
I had to play it three times to confirm that the doors do actually re-set after each attempt.
I'd score it better if there was a bit more to it. All I get for 'winning' is the exact same thing I get by just 'not playing and just imagining that I already won' instead.
I get the need to pick up and carry things (although I can tell it'd take me a few attempts to know what I need to use any of that stuff for), but you shouldn't have to use that key when you are near stuff that goes right into your inventory that you'd need anyways. The character is trying to survive, I shouldn't have to tell it that it needs to pick up that extra bottle of water, extra container of water or that extra bit of hope to hold out when I can't find a reason to even care that I still exist (The controls were easy enough, but I couldn't really follow how the status gui worked, and I kept losing all hope in the face of adversity)
(note: Also, I am entirely aware of how petty of a feature it is for me to focus my entire comment on, but it's that same spirit I assume that if it's something I personally neglect to mention, it's something that would never be brought up. In truth, I expect most times where I decide to write a comment, it will be written under a very similar context. If you do find someone else that comments on this very specific, very insignificantly obscure aspect of your game, please try and let me know, so I can maybe get in touch with this person.)
My intention at the start was to make that stuff more clear by throwing some plot/explanation pieces in the first two/three stages, but I ended up running out of time just getting it to work. It would have been nice if you said which level you got stuck on, I thought that at least the first stage would be simple enough to get past, even if the only thing you are told about are the controls.
Given how little there is to my game, I assumed that the objective would be self-evident and it wouldn't take that much of a leap to figure out how to at least get stuff moving. I thought it would be more fun leaving it up to the player to realize what he's supposed to be doing. (Was the screen explaining the controls clear at least? I think I'll update the submission page just in case.)
If you have to collab in order to figure it out, then I'm perfectly okay with that.
SPOILERIthoughtthetitlewouldhavebeenadeadgiveawaybutwhateverSPOILER
I like where you took the theme. My only criticism is that there should be an easy way to get a person that runs up against a wall (a common occurrence in a game full of guys that like to run away from you) un-stuck from that wall without having to re-start the whole stage.
With the difficult platform/puzzle game elements, I could imagine constantly getting stuck that way getting very annoying very quickly if you were planning to extend this game and put more difficult stages in.
The wizard is the worst. I really hate that guy.
If you are going to work on it some more, I suggest keeping track of how long it takes the king to finish his list to use as a potential score. (Otherwise your game might be nothing more than a tedious distraction.)
Why does the item always switch back to grass every time I click?
It makes using any item (except for grass obviously) very annoying. I think it's something you should have been aware of enough to try to fix. I can only imagine how annoying it was test your own game when it behaves like that.
Also, don't feel bad about your game being hard to understand. I thought I had submitted the simplest, most-intuitive game ever to this LD, and the first comment I got on it was "I have no idea what you are supposed to do or how to do it"
It's enjoyable for being so difficult, but it makes your story a bit inconsistent by leaving this one question constantly nagging at me.
How the heck did the mother duck get past all of this crazy dangerous stuff without losing any ducklings? I'd hate to finally find her, just to find out there was some sort of peaceful, completely-safe route that she took that I completely neglected to notice just because I hatched late.
I got as far as finding the sword. I'm assuming I needed to find an axe before being able to go any further (if there was anything further), but I never found one.