F1Krazy

Paradise Inc by Criobite 2018-09-02T10:26:59Z

It's always good to see story-based games in Ludum Dare, and this one in particular has a very engaging (if slightly predictable) storyline. There's also not much in the way of gameplay, but I'm not sure what gameplay there could have been here that wouldn't have detracted from the story. I'd definitely like to see more of this.

Running Out in Space! by Ekilibr 2018-09-04T18:34:40Z

Overall, this is pretty good. I like the graphics (except for the extremely obvious seam in the background texture), as well as the central mechanic and the clever gameplay that extends from it. Level 8 had me stumped for a good long while.

I have a couple of other issues, though. You can't move straight away when you start a level, which takes some getting used to, especially when some of the levels don't display the level number at the start. My frame rate seemed to drop quite a lot in Level 8, and I don't know why that would have been because it only had one moving wall (the other levels were fine). The collision detection also feels a little off: you start out standing precisely on top of the floor, but can easily end up sunk halfway into it for some reason, and you can end the level just by running into the pedestal the orb is on without actually touching it.

I reckon that with some more polishing, and a bunch more levels, this could definitely be an excellent platformer. Nice job with what you've done so far!

Senbir by CliffracerX 2018-08-30T20:00:25Z

Well, first of all, I have to commend you for the sheer audacity of this game. I know you had some planning down on paper already, but to build an entire virtual computer in 48 hours, complete with such an in-depth tutorial... wow. That's impressive. (And a lot more original than my game was!)

Could have done with being a little more in-depth in explaining the controls, but I saw you acknowledged that in your post-mortem, so hopefully something for you to work on in the future. The UI could also use a lot of polishing, but considering the amount of work it must have taken just to get the actual game working, I can forgive you for not spending too much time on it.

As for the actual game, I'm not very good at it. I have no experience with assembly writing and can't wrap my head around the documentation, which is probably it. The lack of feedback doesn't really help either - I couldn't tell whether the computer was on or not because the indicator light doesn't seem to work (64-bit Windows build), and I didn't know whether or not I'd passed the first tutorial level until I went back and saw I'd unlocked the second tutorial level. So I assume I passed it.

Not the most "game" game here, but a fascinating piece of work nonetheless. Well done!

Senbir by CliffracerX 2018-08-31T17:45:20Z

@cliffracerx I chose Ultra graphics, but I was running 1280x720 in Windowed mode, dunno whether that would affect anything.

Shrinking Panes by Pennycook 2018-09-01T22:23:26Z

This is a nice little game! I always like seeing story-based games, even if they're usually quite short. The graphics and audio are obviously quite basic, but it's your first time making a Unity game so I can't really fault you for that.

One question, though: why were they trying to unlock your "latent powers" if they were just going to crush you with the shrinking walls anyway?

Potion Seller by CameronPenner 2018-09-01T22:11:43Z

This is great fun! I like the voxel graphics, and the characters are hilarious, especially with the voice lines. Some of the recipes are quire funny as well, like the one where you just crush a rat with a hammer. The complexity of the recipes gradually cranks up as you unlock more ingredients, and while I only played in Chill Mode, I imagine in Timed Mode things will quickly get very hectic as you frantically flick through your recipe book trying to remember how the hell you make a Potion of Sleeping so you can use it to make some other thing.

There are other, smaller things I liked about this, like the running total at the bottom of how many recipes you've discovered, or the ability to fling the title graphics and tutorial pages around. Annoyed at a customer's complex order? Fling a Knife at their head. It's okay, it won't hurt them.

A couple of people have already mentioned that coins will sometimes get stuck between or behind the bowls. In Chill Mode I can eventually fish them out, but I imagine in Timed Mode they're as good as gone. More often, though, I found coins would slip off the edge nearest to me, and then they really were irretrievable. So the coin physics perhaps need a little work.

All in all, this is a very fun, very well-polished game. Good job!

Wingman by minibobbo 2018-08-15T05:59:19Z

This is great! Very good graphics and sound design, a very clever interpretation of the theme, and fun gameplay. The progress bar and minimap are good touches. I found I could beat the early levels just by sitting in one place and aiming according to the minimap, But I'm sure the difficulty ramps up in the later levels (which I sadly don't have time to play right now, I have work soon). Good work, just like last jam!

Human Tangram by nusan 2018-09-02T15:14:08Z

Not a bad puzzle game. I feel like there's some kind of twisted social commentary going on here, especially with the snarky comments at the end of each level. My main concern is I'm not sure how well this fits the theme. Maybe that's just me, though.

Space Escape by paulhocker 2018-08-17T05:56:02Z

I got the same glitch as @sarah, any time I made a wrong move the piece would stay highlighted and sometimes it would refuse to let me do a correct move afterwards. It's possible this is a feature - you're running out of selection space on the game board - but it needs to be better telegraphed. Other than that, this looks like a solid game. Just needs some bug-fixing.

Space Shack by Apple Dash 2018-09-04T18:48:14Z

This is a brilliant and highly-amusing game. When you're laughing before you've even started the game, that's a good sign. I like the pixelated graphics, and your friend's humorous statements.

I have two issues with this game. Firstly, you need to be able to pick up the objects that come out of packages. I ended up dying because the fuel incinerator thingy was blocked by a shield generator and a lamp, and I couldn't get them out of the way properly. Secondly, the description says that you're trying to survive long enough to reach Victory station, but there doesn't seem to be any indication of how close or far away you are. If there is an indicator, it needs to be made more obvious.

This is great fun, though! Would like to play a more polished version of it.

Blockie by kamikaziuk 2018-09-02T10:07:36Z

Simple, but well-polished. I particularly like the music. As some of the other reviews have noted, it'd be cool if it had a few more mechanics, like a way to get rid of some of the blocks and survive longer, but for 8 hours' work, this is extremely good. Well done!

Grid Weaver by HacksawUnit 2018-08-13T05:36:35Z

Very fun! The logo graphics seem kinda rushed but the actual in-game graphics are excellent, which is the important bit. The gameplay is clever, and fits the theme quite well. I feel like the difficulty curve needs smoothing out a little, it's extremely easy until you reach 5 points and then it immediately ramps right up, but that's the only real criticism I can think of. Good work!

Crates by Solrun 2018-08-29T16:53:35Z

Another LD game that's a lot more than what it appears to be on the surface. The mood was so eerie that it set me on edge. I'm still not entirely sure what the story was meant to convey, but it wouldn't have been half as effective if everything was spelled out for you. The physics were solid, the sound effects were great... all in all, a very well-executed little game. Well done!

Memory.exe by Squidly 2018-09-04T18:18:29Z

This is good! Very well-polished. I'm a fan of minimalist graphics and sound effects, and they really worked wonders for this game. I'm not very good at games like this, so before long I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do, but I still very much enjoyed it. I'll have to have another crack at it after voting ends.

Bityville by Blueman 2018-09-01T16:40:33Z

A nice, relaxing city-builder with a simple retro aesthetic. I like it. It's not particularly deep or challenging, though - once you start placing Offices you earn money so fast that the limited building space stops being a problem because you can just upgrade everything. I'd like to see a bit more variety, in terms of both buildings and scenarios, and perhaps slow down the rate at which time passes so you're not earning money so quickly. Still pretty good for 48 hours' work, though.

Honest Dan's Clutteral Damage by Honest Dan 2018-08-29T18:24:17Z

I thought I'd played the Jam version, but I think I must have somehow played the Post-Jam version by accident. Not sure how I managed that.

The game does get a little repetitive, but it's still very entertaining. The first couple of days are pretty hectic, but your partner's comments are so funny that I didn't even mind not doing very well. In fact, the game as a whole is very amusing - why does your partner want you to show her your Book of Lust just as she's about to head off to work? One can only imagine...

I love the character customisation (especially the ability to be in a same-sex relationship), and the ability to purchase more space to deal with the "running out of space" aspect. The graphics are good, and the music is a nice little background loop that doesn't get annoying. Good job!

Overflow by Mors 2018-08-14T06:13:29Z

I probably shouldn't play games like this at 7am when I'm half-awake, I couldn't even beat Level 3. I couldn't get the hang of the wall-jumping mechanic, it feels like it takes you slightly too long to stick to the wall so you can make the jump.

The difficulty is probably my only complaint with this, though. Overall, it's extremely well-polished. The graphics are excellent, the sound design is excellent, and there are even little touches like remappable controls and secondary objectives. A very good game! Just wish I was better at it so I could see more of it :P

Arnold, the dazed Grasshopper by 11tomi12 2018-09-02T09:58:39Z

This is an interesting take on the theme. The graphics and sound effects are good, and the central mechanic is well-implemented, but I agree with the other reviewers: the jumping and mid-air controls just feel off somehow, and caused me to die on multiple occasions. That really needs fixing.

The shrooms and cacti also need to stand out more: I ran into the cactus at the end of Level 1 without even realising it was there and was very confused about why I'd died all of a sudden. At the very least, there should be an in-game controls screen with pictures of the shrooms and cacti and brief descriptions, so you know what to look out for.

AsterVoid by F1Krazy 2018-08-13T21:21:25Z

@draperdanman Thanks! It's a relief in particular to hear that the collisions and sounds are good: I wasn't sure about the collision detection system, and last Ludum Dare the sound effects were the most criticised part of my game! (And don't worry, I'm not that great at Asteroids either.)

AsterVoid by F1Krazy 2018-08-29T18:25:59Z

@rik-thunder Oh wow, a YouTube review! Much appreciated, I'll be sure to give that a watch.

AsterVoid by F1Krazy 2018-09-03T19:42:22Z

@blinkenlights Thanks! I agree, this isn't my most original game, that's something I need to work on for LD43. As for music, I don't know how to use PICO-8's music-composing tool... which is another thing I need to work on for LD43! I tried to make the controls a little easier by allowing you to brake, which you can't do in the original Asteroids.

AsterVoid by F1Krazy 2018-09-04T18:17:26Z

@hellsquirrel Thanks! I'll definitely have a think about what else I can add to this game - something to discourage you from just staying in the middle is a definite must, though. And that's a pretty good score!

Brick by Brick by JoshCanProgram 2018-09-02T19:24:59Z

I like this! It has a very nice retro aesthetic, especially with the music (which is very good IMO). Looking at the screenshots, I thought pink-on-black might have been a bit difficult on the eyes, but I don't think it was that bad in the end. The sheer number of enemies means you quickly get overwhelmed if you're not careful, but it gives the game a frantic pace that I also really enjoyed.

I'd like to see this expanded into a full-blown game. More enemies, more weapons... maybe different level layouts? I feel like it has a lot of potential.

Jelly Thoughts by Andy Wolff 2018-08-13T05:50:33Z

A good start. I was looking forward to playing this, and it's kinda disappointing that it's only a half-finished tutorial. I think the collision detection needs a little work too, as the jellies keep getting impaled on walls and sometimes they'll fly out of the brain within about a second of spawning (which is fine if they're a distraction but not so fine if they aren't...)

I encourage you to keep working on this after the jam is over. I'd love to see your original vision come to fruition.

Leaving Room by LastLeaf 2018-09-04T19:29:11Z

This was so sad, but so beautiful. I love it. Possibly the best story-based game I've played this Ludum Dare. I'm not very good at these kinds of slider puzzles, but I was absolutely determined to see this one through, and I did. For her.

There's not really anything I can suggest. It's short, obviously, but it doesn't need to be any longer. It's already a good enough game by itself.

WearOut by Abhis1Kadian 2018-08-29T17:20:12Z

The intro is great. I loved the humour, and the graphics weren't too bad either. Sadly, it's the actual gameplay that's the problem. After a little initial confusion, during which I lost three of my five hearts somehow, I realised that I could just stand near the right-hand side of the screen and just hammer the W key until I got bored.

There's not much of a game here at the moment, to be honest. I can see what you were going for: a beat-em-up game where you're frantically knocking enemies off a platform to keep it from overcrowding and collapsing. But at the moment, it's too basic and a little unintuitive - I believe I saw you mention in a response that you could click the left or right mouse buttons to increase your attack range, which isn't listed in the controls.

From reading the reviews, though, it looks like you're aware of the gameplay issues and you're planning to update it at some point to improve the experience. Don't let the negative feedback get you down: this game has good potential, it just needs more work than you were able to get done in 72 hours. No shame in that! Keep working on it, take people's feedback into consideration, and I hope to see you back next game jam with an even better (and equally-funny) entry!

F.O.U.R. by Ava Skoog 2018-12-10T20:43:32Z

Finally got round to playing this! It's very good! Plenty of story and gameplay for a Ludum Dare game, and it's a good story too. I like the idea of someone sacrificing themselves to catch a serial killer. Didn't quite work when I tried it, I must have missed something regarding that security camera.

I like the graphics, especially after seeing your blog post about how you manipulated a single texture to paint every model. Very clever. The music got a bit repetitive and the inventory system was a little fiddly, but all in all, a very good entry!

Night's End by glimaleite 2018-12-29T17:55:49Z

This is really good for a compo entry. The graphics, gameplay, and music all feel really well-polished, and the story is well-written. I couldn't manage to finish it - those bloody spinning lasers - but I'm amazed and impressed that you managed to fit all this into just 48 hours.

My main complaint is the text - sometimes it's a bit blurry and hard-to-read. When I first played, I didn't quite catch which button was the "Teleport" button, so as soon as the shielded enemies appeared, I had to restart the game so I could look it up. Then when the game first tells you to drain the baby's energy, the button looks like a P or an R and it took me quite a long time to figure out that it was supposed to be F. Maybe it would be a good idea to list the controls here, or on the itch.io page?

That's really my only complaint, though. This is an excellent entry. Very well done!

(oh, and I highly recommend you start rating a few more games, otherwise your entry won't be counted! It'd be a shame, because I expect this to be rated quite highly!)

Colors of Your World by DDRKirbyISQ 2018-12-20T20:17:15Z

[Note: I played the Compo version, I don't know whether the issue(s) I'm going to mention have been fixed in later versions.]

I honestly feel like this puts my own entry to shame. The platforming gameplay is simple, but challenging, with nice, short levels and tight controls. I like how instead of making you sacrifice abilities as you progress, like a lot of other entries, the game gives you more abilities but sacrifices the world's colours.

The graphics are good, and the music and sound effects are excellent. The cutscenes between worlds, and the way the graphics and music changed between them, really helped tie the whole thing together.

I did encounter a game-breaking glitch in World 3, though: at the start of one of the levels you just clip through the floor and fall to your death. If you're fast enough you can grab onto the left-hand edge of the screen and climb up it, taking you back to the previous level, but you can't progress any further. There were also a couple of times in World 1 where it didn't acknowledge my button inputs when I pressed Z, so I'd walk straight into a bottomless pit instead of jumping over it.

All in all, though, this is a great entry. Well done!

Super Sellout by Moski 2018-12-12T21:00:32Z

This is amazing. The visual flair and level of detail are astonishing for just three days' work. You've put in an impressive number of "power-downs", and I was particularly impressed by the effects on the 3D one. It's got good replay value as well, with the high-score tracking and the power-downs that get unlocked over successive playthroughs.

My main complaint is that the controls are a bit fiddly. It would be a lot more convenient if the "jump" and "save" buttons were right next to each other (say, Z and X), especially since jumping right after saving cancels you out of the long posing animation, which really comes in handy. That's really the only issue I have with it, though. Everything else about this game is highly impressive.

Oath of Balance by pickens-inc 2018-12-29T15:28:11Z

This is a good game, with good voxel graphics. I like the mechanic of sacrificing enemies at different altars to gain different abilities, it makes a refreshing change from the "sacrificing abilities" angle that a lot of other entries went for.

My main issue is that it feels too easy, and I didn't even find the exploit where you hold down both mouse buttons. I just stayed near the God of Life's altar and attacked anything that came near me. I gained more than enough life from attacking the floating eyeballs to offset the damage they dealt me, and I only ever needed to dodge for the spear-wielding enemies or the boss. I don't think I ever actually used the shield, nor did I feel any incentive to sacrifice enemies to the God of Death's altar.

So my main suggestions would be to rebalance the altars and fix the exploit, but this could definitely be expanded out into a very good full-length game.

Together by beta 2018-12-10T20:23:47Z

I can't draw at the best of times, let alone in the freezing cold! xD

cant-draw.png

This was an enjoyable little game. I loved how the "sacrifice" mechanic was worked in, forcing you to choose between your materials or your family. My choice is obvious from my crappy drawings :P I agree with the consensus, the music would have gotten annoying if the game was much longer, especially as it didn't seem to loop cleanly. It seems like there's an awful lot of things to draw, though, so there's some good replay value here compared with most Ludum Dare games. And made in only *one* day! Good job!

Breach Squad by guoboism 2018-12-22T09:57:50Z

A very different take on the theme. It's always good to see games that tackle real issues. The voxel graphics are pretty good, and I like that you managed to fit in a full intro sequence. As others have said, the gameplay is a bit bland for an RTS, though that's understandable given the time limit. Still a good, well-polished game. I reckon you could definitely expand this out into a full game and put it on Steam (though don't be surprised if it's banned in China xD)

Way of the Dodo by chrismcmath 2018-12-20T20:45:06Z

"Hey, you know that thing from *Super Mario World* where you can throw Yoshi into a pit to get another jump? You know how that's such a horrible thing to do to poor Yoshi? Let's make an entire game based around that!" Genius. Definitely one of the more amusing ideas I've seen this Ludum Dare. The whole things ends up as a very fluffy black comedy: the use of dodos as the characters, the "honk" noise as you jump, the feathery explosion when you jump on another dodo...

I didn't mind the collectathon gameplay, but I feel like the jumping physics are kinda off. Sometimes I jumped too far, sometimes I didn't jump far enough. Sometimes I'd double-jump and gain barely any height at all. I tried one jump about fifteen times, and then gave up and stopped playing. Getting the jumping physics right is pretty important for a platform game.

This is a good game, don't get me wrong. It's just a shame that it's let down by the wonky physics, otherwise it'd be great.

After Hours: A Reverse Metroidvania by MattWoelk 2018-12-12T20:24:17Z

This was really good! I love the music and the visual effects, even if I had to run it in 720p windowed mode on the lowest quality setting because my laptop sucks xD I love the concept as well, having to run through and put everything back once the protagonist has finished the game. The platforming is very forgiving, letting you stand on a platform even if you're about a pixel to the left, which is handy for some of the trickier jumps like the route to the Pulse Gun.

I have a couple of little niggles, though. I feel like the jingle that plays when you pick up or put down an item goes on for a bit too long, especially at the start when you're hearing it four times in a row in rapid succession. The control scheme also felt a bit weird - Space to jump, and Ctrl to shoot? - but since the Pulse Gun is only needed in a couple of areas, it's not such a major issue.

I couldn't figure out how you were supposed to do the Lava Boots last without the Double Jump, so I didn't beat it, sadly, but I'll try dropping them off the other around and see if I can beat it. Overall, good work!

After Hours: A Reverse Metroidvania by MattWoelk 2018-12-12T21:09:33Z

@rebecca-kremer Ah, didn't realise you could skip the jingle! I tried a couple of different buttons but I must not have tried Space, thanks for the heads-up!

Santacrifice by Epono 2018-12-24T17:51:40Z

An amusingly dark take on the theme. The graphics weren't too bad, and the stealth worked well enough, though it took me a couple of tries to figure out that enemies have to physically touch you for you to get a game over, and them just seeing you is okay-ish.

Some of the rooms in the first level felt like giant empty spaces, so the level design perhaps needs a bit of work. The jump animation needs to be slowed down, you're not in the air for anywhere near long enough to have precision control over where you land. The elevators on the second level are more trouble than they're worth: more often than not there's someone waiting at the other end who spots you immediately, and on one occasion I entered an elevator and immediately died because there was someone passing by the other door at that exact moment. (Do the elevator doors glow red when there's someone nearby on the other side, or do they always glow red? The former would be a good idea.)

A couple of people have noted that getting a game over dumps you back to the first level, but I'd also like to note that the "Yes", "No", and "Continue?" timer on the "Game Over" screen are all layered on top of one another, making it very difficult to select a specific option.

Great idea, just needs some polishing.

Tiima's Sacrifice by bastilo 2018-12-30T10:58:39Z

A neat little management game. Some of the hints are definitely more useful than others. "It's not a cow" - which ones are supposed to be the cows?!

Vincent's Sacrifice by Honest Dan 2018-12-10T21:27:39Z

Holy hell, this is good. A very deep and well-written plot, with the sacrifice theme woven in the whole way through in a way that really impacts you. I kept thinking, "How are these sacrifices gonna screw me over later on...?"

I dread to think how hard this would have been without mouse aim, but as it is now, it's perfect: challenging, but not frustrating. The puzzles were spot-on too, they took a little figuring out but they weren't bash-your-head-against-the-wall difficult. I'm not sure about the cutscene artwork, but when you've only got 72 hours, you gotta cut corners. (And the ending still gave me a shiver... brr...)

My main complaint is the final boss: it might be the mouse aim, but it felt too easy. I was able to beat it by backing right up against the wall, dodging occasionally, and just firing at the centre of the room, where Lucifer was. Even his assistants (without spoiling anything) didn't make things much more difficult. All in all, though, I really enjoyed playing through this. Well done!

One last thing, that occurred to me while I was writing this: is Vincent named after Vincent van Gogh? What with his ear getting cut off and all...

Volcano Island by Arvejeitor 2018-12-20T21:04:31Z

"BLA-BLA-BLA-BLAH"

For a last-minute entry, this is great! Sure, it's simple, but it's well-executed, very addictive, and very charming. The graphics are good, your music choice fits well, and the screaming when you throw someone into the volcano is more satisfying than it has any right to be. Managed to score 2800 on my second go - on my first go I got about 1000 then accidentally double-clicked and threw in one more person than I meant to.

Great entry. I'm sure there's a way you could turn this into a fall game somehow, because I'd definitely play it if you did.

"BLA-BLA-BLA-BLAH"

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-03T06:31:02Z

@rombus The "gods are angry" view is just the title screen, so you're supposed to see that after the victory cutscene. I'm not sure why it took you straight there the first time, or why the geysers didn't work the second time. I'll investigate that. Thanks for flagging those issues, and I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless!

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-04T21:26:07Z

@niarkou I'm kinda sad I didn't get to do music either, but I honestly feel like it works better with the eerie background hum instead. The cutscene skipping is fixed in the post-jam version.

@samh Thanks for the heads-up, I'm usually pretty good at spotting typos. Glad you enjoyed it!

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-13T06:29:52Z

@manimal I didn't want the game to feature traditional enemies as I wanted the environment itself to be your enemy, but I think that may have been a mis-step, so it's something I'll look at if I ever come back to this idea. Glad you enjoyed it all the same!

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-16T20:20:22Z

@pfs Making the geyser sounds only play while they were on-screen was one of the things I wanted to do but sadly ran out of time for. I'll have to do another post-jam update that adds some of these things in.

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-20T06:53:02Z

@chrismcmath I'm sorry about that. The story, and particularly the ending, was supposed to be a bit ambiguous, but I guess I didn't quite pull it off correctly. Endings are hard.

@ddrkirbyisq I'm glad you enjoyed it! I definitely need to work on making this more challenging. And maybe I shouldn't have focused on the lightning effect so much when advertising this, so it would be more of a surprise and less of a "when do we get to the lightning?"

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-29T13:27:46Z

@ava-skoog Thanks! Yeah, audio levels are something I still need to work on in future games, but I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of the game!

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-30T20:19:50Z

@mouthlessgames Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I agree that the movement speed was a bit slow, but I feel like it worked for this game; future games based on this engine will be faster-paced.

@302-dave I didn't manage to get in as much level variety as I wanted, so I wanted to try and make sure there was still a visible sense of progression. Glad I succeeded! I've been told the sound effects are a bit loud, so that's something I need to work on in the future. Thanks for your feedback!

The Gods Are Angry by F1Krazy 2018-12-30T20:24:44Z

@jeremy-ryan Thanks! I honestly wanted to put in even more details and different hazards, but I ran out of time and ideas, so I'm glad to hear that you think the graphics are detailed enough as they are!

Don't Take my Stuff! by OrionDark7 2018-12-30T20:06:37Z

As others have noticed, this lags to the point of being completely unplayable. Which is a total shame, because it looks like an interesting idea. Even in the main menu, the sound effects lag, so you click an option and hear the "beep" about a second later.

I feel like you should have gone for the Compo rather than the Jam, and given yourself more time to try and fix the slowdown issues. At the very least, it would have softened the poor ratings you're inevitably going to get. I hope this doesn't discourage you, though, and you try again next Ludum Dare. Maybe consider a different game engine? I know nothing about Pygame, but perhaps you wouldn't have suffered such horrendous lag if you'd used Unity or Game Maker Studio...

AkimBear by ecmjohnson 2018-12-10T21:43:06Z

From the very first post you made about this, I thought, "I have *got* to play this game". I also thought, "As cool as this is, how does it fit the theme?", but I see now you've gone for a gameplay sacrifice rather than a literal one. It's a different take on the theme than the other games I've played so far, and it works very well.

From a graphics and audio standpoint, you've done a fantastic job for 72 hours. Everything is so neat and crisp! I was playing via keyboard so that made things much harder, but I understand that this was optimised for controllers and it actually made for a fun challenge. Might have done better if not for those bloody birds! They kept hitting me before I could point either gun at them.

Still the coolest game I've seen this Ludum Dare. A cigar-chomping bear dual-wielding Gatling guns?! How is that not pure awesome? Great idea, and great game!

AkimBear by ecmjohnson 2018-12-10T21:43:06Z

[My Internet derped and submitted my comment twice, whoops. Ignore this one.]

Astronaut's Journey by Radical Dog 2018-12-10T22:28:45Z

This is a fun little game! Reminds me of a 2D Kerbal Space Program. There's plenty of content here for an LD game, especially a compo game. I love the funny headlines on the newspapers, some of them cracked me up. Dunno if it's intentional, but sometimes it feels like the rocket deliberately tilts in the opposite direction to the button you're pressing, just to screw you over.

I think the tech tree needs a little work; there's no indication that you've already bought something until you click on it, and at one point I accidentally clicked "Start" twice without buying the upgrade I'd been intending to buy. Or maybe I just shouldn't play Ludum Dare games at 10pm xD Lack of music and sound is also kind of a bummer but I've been criticised for the audio of my games for the last three Ludum Dare running, so I can totally sympathise with you for not even bothering.

I liked it overall. Well done!

The Affliction by Jono953 2018-12-29T18:35:43Z

This is pretty good, dunno why it hasn't received more ratings yet. The graphics are well-done, and I really enjoyed the music. I like the crafting system as well, but I found it was a pain to use it during battle, because the enemies keep attacking you and when they hit you, the menu closes. It kinda works, though, because then you have to balance between fighting the boss with lots of spells and low HP, or fighting the boss with full HP but hardly any spells.

Another thing I noticed was that, if you move from one screen to another while fighting an enemy, it messes up their AI and they end up jittering back and forth on the boundary between screens. Either enemies should be able to pursue you across screen boundaries, or they should retreat when you move to a different screen, so you're not immediately surrounded the moment you return to the screen.

Overall, a very nice game! I'd like to see an expanded version of this!

Downgradius by xjcl 2018-12-16T14:53:14Z

I managed to get past Level 1 on my first try, stupidly chose the "Double enemy firing speed" downgrade, got my ass whooped and restarted the game, and now I can't get past Level 1 😂 What's up with that?

Anyway, I like the concept of having to make the game harder between levels, and I like the name pun as well. However, I feel likethis needs a lot of polish. The graphics seem a little bland, and there's not a lot of variety, especially since (from what I can tell) the three levels are actually just the same level with a downgrade applied. The difficulty might also need tweaking; looking at the other reviews, it doesn't seem like anyone can get further than Level 2.

Something I'm not too sure about is the way your bullets kind of angle away from the direction you're moving in. On the one hand, it does come in handy sometimes - you can move out of the way of enemies while still shooting at them, and with some careful tapping of the A/D keys you can spray bullets in three directions instead of two. However, I do find it makes aiming harder, especially when you're trying to kill those damn enemies that spray bullets in all directions while carefully dancing through the bullets.

There's the beginnings of a good game here, it just needs more work to get there.

Total Party Kill by adventureislands 2018-12-16T16:07:07Z

This is great! A lot of retro-styled Ludum Dare games have quite grating music and/or sound effects (including my own!), but the sound design in this game is absolutely spot-on. The graphics are great too, you've nailed the 8-bit aesthetic IMO.

I'm disappointed with myself for not being able to get further than Level 6, I wanted to play more of this!

Blast Ant Omega by 302_Dave 2018-12-30T20:32:48Z

This is a very fun game! I like the mixture of humour and educational facts, and the Lemmings-style mechanic of blowing yourself up so that your fellow ants can progress.

I dunno if I'm just being an idiot, though, but I can't figure out how you're supposed to beat Level 2...

Mr. Island by Jantaaa 2018-12-20T18:56:31Z

Nobody else has mentioned this so I don't know if it's just me, but the intro and "Game Over" screens have half the text cut off, making them very difficult to read. It's a shame, because it looks like there's an interesting backstory to this game. You should probably take a look at that.

I had a difficult time getting the hang of the gameplay. It took me a while to work out that the cats continue to fire automatically at the spot you click on, and by the time I realised you could fling the cats into the water to distract the fish, it was too late and I "Game Over"ed about ten seconds later. I also think the difficulty at the start needs to be lowered; you quickly end up with three or four fish gnawing at Mr. Island's legs and you've only got one cat firing at them and it's just not enough. Or maybe I just suck at this game, idk.

The graphics are brilliant, but I will agree with you when you admit that you over-scoped. There's the makings of a very good, very fun game here, it just needs polishing and refinement. Not a bad effort, though!

dRUNKEN nEIGHBOR by HugoVaz 2019-05-07T14:31:58Z

"I don't understand. I've checked all the apartments of people who own yellow cars except 303, which I already went to, so I know it's not--

...wait a minute..."

Pretty small for a piece of interactive fiction, but very amusing. I enjoyed it. Could use some music, though, and I don't see how it even remotely fits the theme.

BOB by Phyro 2019-05-03T12:17:30Z

This is really good! It's unusual to see branching narratives in a Ludum Dare game. I like how there are different decisions to make every time, too, which gives it good replay value. I tried three times to get a good ending and failed all three times >.< Maybe I'll have to check out that guide.

My main complaint with this game is the spelling and grammar. I counted maybe five mistakes in the intro text alone. In a mostly text-based game, that's a big problem. Are you non-native English speakers? It might be worth running the dialogue through a spell-checking program in future. It would also be nice if you had some way of knowing how close you were to your destination, so you could weigh it against how much energy you currently have. (No need to see the other variables, as I think that might make the game *too* easy.)

Solid effort, well done!

Inflate Me to the Moon by DDRKirbyISQ 2019-05-15T16:08:13Z

This is such a wonderfully imaginative game. It's utterly bizarre, but that's what gives it its charm. The sort of WarioWare-eqsue, minigame-driven gameplay is something I don't think I've seen before in a Ludum Dare entry, and it fits the game perfectly. You managed to make it fit the theme in a pretty clever way, too.

Good job, well done!

Florp Farming by groverburger 2019-05-03T15:20:29Z

This is a fun little game, with some imaginative mechanics. On the surface it's just an idle/clicker game, but the way all the different elements interact makes it a lot more involved, and not very idle at all. You're constantly dragging things around: feeding florps, harvesting gems, charging your tree-shaker, making sure your cursed tower is optimally positioned (and won't harvest any florps by accident...) It honestly starts off a bit boring, as you try to scrape together enough money for a few items, but once you have them it rapidly picks up.

Does the sunflower actually do anything beyond forcing you to buy a crystal condenser? Are you meant to sell it once it's fully-grown? It hadn't occurred to me to do that.

Computers in a Nutshell by gonutz 2019-05-08T13:35:14Z

Man, that was a real mental workout. I was only able to make sense of the log files by looking at the source code to see what it was supposed to spit out (no way am I opening all 1000 one after the other!), but other than that I was able to get the game running and finished without too much trouble. It's a very fun and inventive idea with a strong message. Good job!

MONEYMONEYMONEY by joewan 2019-05-09T10:51:50Z

Finally, a game that simulates the hell of retail work! It's not very exciting, especially on the lower difficulties, but it's a simple concept that's well-executed, and VERY well-done for just four hours' work. My main suggestion would be some kind of feedback when you try and submit an incorrect amount, instead of just clicking "CONFIRM" and nothing happening.

Also, just as a heads-up, you need to play and rate other people's games in order for your game to count for the Compo. It's not enough to just get people to rate your own. You need to have given out 20 ratings by the end of the voting period and you haven't given out any yet, so I'd start playing if I were you.

Venatio by ildfuglen 2019-05-13T21:02:14Z

This got really difficult really quickly. Those bloody fire-spitting eyeball things...

This is a very good concept, though. You've managed to cram in an impressive number and variety of weapons and power-ups, and it looks like there was some decent enemy variety too, though I can't say for certain as I only got to Level 6. The gameplay is surprisingly tactical; rushing in will just get you killed, so you have to keep moving and look for an opening.

The lack of music and low-quality sound effects are a minor letdown, as they could really help enhance the overall feel of the game, but my own entries tend to lack musis and SFX as well, so I can hardly fault you for that. I'm guessing time constraints were a factor there. Still a good game overall, well done!

Finding Cookie by samh 2019-05-05T21:05:46Z

This is amazing, especially for a PICO-8 project. The graphics are great, and I'm seriously impressed by the procedural generation algorithm. I like the mechanic where you gradually gain followers that ramp up your firepower. The storyline is equal parts touching and amusing, though the game is so difficult that I was never able to finish it (those goddamn bats firing bullets at me!)

I have to admit, I don't see how this fits the theme at all. There's a life counter and a currency counter in the bottom-left but neither of them actually seem to do anything. That's my only real complaint, though. It'd be great to see this expanded upon, with the missing content implemented, but what you have is already very good.

Filimonchi by foumart 2019-05-13T21:33:31Z

I'm sorry about your cat, and about the fact that you didn't manage to get this submitted for the Compo.

The game is simple, yet well-executed, and surprisingly addictive. Every time you see a cat get picked up, it's a mad scramble to get to the offending UFO before it takes off - and because the map is so large (by shmup standards) and there are other UFOs all over the place, it's actually pretty challenging to get there. I certainly couldn't manage it every single time, though I only lost about two or three cats per level.

There's a noticeable (but smooth) difficulty increase across the three levels, but the steady stream of power-ups helps alleviate it and also adds a true sense of progression. The graphics are very well-done, too. All it really needs is some music to tie it all together, and maybe some more levels with a greater variety of enemies.

Good job, well done!

Mint Sprint by kaiclavier 2019-05-11T14:20:51Z

Good game, great artwork. It's a simple enough concept, but well-executed. While there's no menu music, the percussion noises for the machines is a brilliant touch. As you move the machinery into place you get this steadily-building drum beat that's very satisfying, and gives you a real sense of progression. I think all you need is a smooth little bass riff to sit beneath it.

I agree that the difficulty curve needs improving, I got seriously stuck on Level 3. I know what needs to go where, but actually getting it there is the hard part. Mind you, I suck at slider puzzles and I have a migraine, so that doesn't help.

Life Merchant by Webox 2019-05-13T21:17:08Z

This is a very clever concept. I was expecting something like *Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages*, where you travel backwards and forwards in time to bypass obstacles that only exist in certain eras, but instead you're actually physically ageing and de-ageing yourself. It's a simple concept, and it works well. The way the colour and music change really fits with each age, too.

As yourself and others have stated, the biggest problem is that it's too short. The "really old" age is only introduced in the final level, so it feels underutilised. A longer game, maybe with more complex puzzles, would be brilliant to see. Maybe you could start off with a trinket, and you can sell it to shrink yourself down to an infant to crawl through small gaps that you can't otherwise fit through? That'd make for another layer of complexity.

It's a great start, it just needs expanding.

Lousy Life Lessons - [LLL] by AwesomeAlliterationAlliance 2019-05-07T12:24:03Z

This is incredible. Possibly one of the best Ludum Dare entries I've ever played. The music, graphics, storyline, dialogue... everything is well-executed and ties together perfectly into your noir aesthetic. Pawel is such a charismatic character, I love him. There's a surprising amount and variety of content here for a Ludum Dare entry, as well.

You should be really proud of yourselves. Giving you an immediate follow and looking forward to your future Ludum Dare entries!

Elevator Pitch by Hugimugi7 2019-05-03T17:13:08Z

This is fantastic! It's disappointingly short (I think the cutscenes and loading screens take up longer than the actual game), but what gameplay there is is *very* cathartic and enjoyable. Sometimes, you just gotta smash stuff. The art is excellent, and the music and sound effects are spot-on.

Another small issue is that the logo on the title screen partially covers the "Start" button. All in all, though, this is a great concept, and I'd love to see an expanded version.

The Coin's Unexpected Adventure by CharlieMrl 2019-05-03T12:48:39Z

This is one of the most peaceful and relaxing Ludum Dare games I've ever played. Sometimes it's fun to just... *explore*. No enemies to fight, no frantic deadlines to meet, just look around and enjoy the scenery. This game captures that perfectly, and even rewards you for it with the various achievements. I could only figure out about half of them, unfortunately. I thought for sure that you'd get the "One in Many" achievement by jumping into the treasure chest, but it didn't work for me.

Good job! I enjoyed this!

PizzoTyping by Carpin 2019-05-03T16:46:19Z

This is excellent! It's more subtle with the theme than some other games, but I can see how it fits. I love the ominous theme that plays every time the Mafia enter the shop, it really sets the tone that you *do not* want to mess with these guys. It was a really nice touch making you type their dialogue as well, really made me feel like I was under their control.

The words got a bit repetitive at times, especially in the second phase ("pineapple", "mayonnaise" etc), which lasted noticeably longer than the others. I think the difficulty ramp could have been a bit smoother - looking at the reviews, I'm not the only one who panicked a little when the Italian words suddenly appeared! I also noticed the same issue as @hunter-towe where the web build just sometimes doesn't register a key press - I type so fast that I couldn't tell when I'd made an actual mistake and when the game just hadn't registered what I'd typed.

I cleared the game on my first try with a score of 91, which I think is pretty good. Well done!

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-04-28T21:41:16Z

@yellowzombie I'll look into that in the morning, it's possible I made a mistake with the event flags. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-04-29T05:43:41Z

@yellowzombie The event flags are fixed now. There's always something stupid I miss before I hit "Publish"!

@gonutz Thanks for the feedback! The unusable doors should be all the same colour, both in and out of buildings. I'm glad you like the music! It's my first time composing in TIC-80 and I wasn't sure how it come out, though I like the steady heartbeat rhythm it has. I noticed the collision detection issues but didn't have enough time to try and fix them as I was frantically trying to piece the rest of the game together. I'll take a look when I have more time.

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-04-29T11:59:00Z

@pl4typus: Yeah, I thought 15 minutes might be a bit too long in the end. I wasn't sure how long it would take people to read through the dialogue and figure out what to do. I wanted to put more explorable buildings in the game, but I just ran flat out of time. Good job spotting the dialogue issue, I'll fix that.

@gonutz: Those are serious enough issues that I'll allow myself to fix them. I knew about the wonky chat hitboxes but wasn't quite able to fix them in time. I'll get another patch out tonight. And I'm glad you enjoyed the ending!

Thanks for all the feedback so far, it's really appreciated.

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-05-03T16:49:20Z

@tamail Collision detection is the bane of my existence. I hate it. (Also, just for the record, you don't need to speak to the fast food cashier to complete the game - although you do need to speak to the other two people standing at counters.)

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-05-07T13:32:43Z

@jjjjason @tamail I've made another quick update to improve the collision detection for talking to NPCs. It checks a slightly wider arc now - you still need to generally be facing the person, but it works better when you're underneath them.

Thanks to everyone for all the reviews and feedback, it's really appreciated :D

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-05-11T09:52:12Z

Thanks for all the reviews! No idea where you've all come from all of a sudden, did I get featured on a stream or something?

@evan-minto I did want to do different music - a cheery jingle when you're in the fast food place, maybe something more energetic when you're in the gym - but I ran out of time to compose anything else. It's something I'll look at for the post-jam update.

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-05-13T22:51:49Z

@mediocremonty This is a great review to receive, but for me the most wonderful thing about it is that you played through it a second time and didn't experience any glitches from things not getting reset. Looks like I've finally ironed out all the problems that plagued me in previous jams!

The Trade by chickenpt 2019-05-16T19:26:30Z

A very clever, subversive use of the theme. Reminds me of another entry I played called "Computers in a Nutshell".

For the full experience, I suggest playing the web version first, then the downloadable version. Just trust me on this.

Life Engineer by Coder Channel 2019-05-09T15:39:13Z

This reminds me of my first published game - I would have been about the same age you are, and I made a simple drag-and-drop "scene creator" in Flash. People liked it, and I've been developing on and off ever since. Now I'm 24, and my games are a lot more complex than this, but we all have to start somewhere.

So in the context of you being 12, and having only 72 hours to make this whole game from scratch, this is really very good. It's simple, and more of a tool than a game, but it's a fun tool, and it works well. Just stick together weird mix-and-match creatures and watch them wiggle. What's not to like? Good job, I think you should be proud of yourself :)

TREASURE ROOM by jutjuan 2019-05-03T18:43:58Z

This is a neat little hack-and-slash, with good graphics and sound effects. You've managed to get a pretty good variety of enemy designs, even if they pretty much all behave identically. The difficulty ramps up slowly but noticeably with each passing wave, and there are some neat little touches, like the treasure chest gradually filling up as you earn coins.

The main issue I noticed is that enemies have trouble finding their way round obstacles. You can hide on one side, and your sword can reach through the obstacle and kill enemies on the other side without fear of retaliation. They need to be smarter about going around things to reach you.

I think this could be easily expanded into a full game. You could have multiple rooms, and the requirement to pass through each one could steadily increase (first 100, then 250, 500, 1000...) Might be a bit of slog, but maybe having enemies drop coins as well would help with that?

Overall, this is a really good first game jam effort, and I hope you stick around to make more!

Corporate Hamster by Anandhi 2019-05-09T11:01:07Z

A unique little twist on the "endless runner" genre, where you're running and running but never actually going anywhere, a cog in the machine. The graphics are really good and well-polished, although I experienced a graphical glitch where the top of the machine was constantly flickering and glitching. I'll try and get a screenshot.

The controls were a little awkward - I feel like you could have picked better buttons than Space and C - and as others have said, some sound effects would have been nice. But overall, not bad for a first jam game, and it fits the theme very, very well.

Divine Worshiping by Maxime Cyr 2019-05-14T14:59:03Z

I converted the entire world to the religion of Thicc Anime Thighs :ok_hand:

On a serious note, this is a promising idea. The problem is that it's way too easy, even for a clicker game, and ramps up way too fast. Once you place your first Holy Scripture, money and followers start pouring in so fast that they basically lose all value, and there's nothing stopping you from just spamming more Holy Scriptures across every inch of the map until you inevitably win.

Ballsy Escape by GeneralAnimal 2019-05-03T19:00:59Z

Your lives are literally currency. Clever use of the theme, I like it. The game could use some polishing, I feel - the music loop gets a bit repetitive, the controls are a little awkward, and it sucks that you can't push the boxes into position. But this is a really solid concept, with a fun premise and an impressive amount of content for a Compo game. I'd love to see an expanded version of this!

Don't think about others by DAVidus 2019-05-06T12:09:45Z

I always like seeing Ludum Dare entries that try to send a message, and this one does it very effectively. I actually had to stop playing because I felt bad :( It nails the theme, and I love the game mechanics, although I felt like it progressed a bit slowly. Maybe that's just because other LD games progress so quickly, though...

Financial Getaway by Josh Mcmillan 2019-05-07T14:11:20Z

Very entertaining! The dialogue from your partner was amusing, though it would be nice if there was more of it, maybe some mild banter or encouraging remarks every now and then. The driving physics are spot-on, and I never got tired of watching the cop car skid round corners at excessive speed and slamming into walls. Being able to smash fire hydrants and watch the water gush out was a nice touch.

My main complaint would be the lack of variety in the game world. It's just a 4x4 grid of the exact same streets and generic skyscrapers, and driving round it over and over and over starts to get boring. It sounds like you wanted to do that but ran out of time - don't worry, I know the feeling! Would be great to see an expanded version of this with a larger, more varied city to drive round.

Perfect Date by limbo 2019-05-07T19:27:48Z

A very funny VN, it's rare to see a Ludum Dare entry that's just pure comedy. I had fun going through and seeing how many different endings I could get, and toying with the options in the main menu. Nice work!

Tale of the Dreamer by Criobite 2019-10-26T19:30:52Z

(Copy-pasted from my Newgrounds review.)

A very interesting story. I love the art style, and the way the world evolves around you as you explore. My main complaint is that it feels way too short; it ends just as it gets going. I'd love to see this expanded into a full game, because right now there just isn't enough to it.

World Collector by Joe Williamson 2019-10-12T20:27:24Z

For 48 hours' work, this is astonishing. The graphics are excellent, the idea of constructing the world as you go along is a fantastic implenetation of the theme... the music is great as it is, but then you zoom out ***and there's another version?!!*** I cannot believe the amount of polish that went into this!

My only regret is that I only managed to collect the first five worlds. I can't figure out how to get the next sixth, and I really want to play more of this but I'm completely stuck! :sob: I'll let you know if I figure it out.

I concur with those who said that this needs to be a full game. I would legit play money for a several-hour version of this on Steam.

Alphabet by rplnt 2019-10-28T21:25:06Z

Simple, but surprisingly addictive. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it but eventually I was able to surround myself with a few letters, start shooting, and gradually snowball into a giant unstoppable wall of death.

I think it could use a tutorial, even just a single screen to explain the mechanics and goals. The first time I booted the game up I was like "okay, what do I do" and then I died. I didn't realise you could shoot until I read the game page a second time, and didn't realise your goal was to collect all 26 letters until I read it a third time just now (I was wondering why the number on the central block wasn't always increasing!)

It's still a good game, though! Proves you don't need fancy graphics and music to come up with something that's fun to play.

Stop at Nothing by mao 2019-10-11T19:38:05Z

You're right about this being confusing... but it's a highly innovative idea, and very well done. I particularly like the subtle details on the anti-levels: the change in the colour and direction of the starfield and the arrows, and the little backwards-sounding "woop" each time a block spawns from the exit.

All it needs is a better explanation of how the controls work, and as a fellow PICO-8 dev, I appreciate that that's not always the easiest thing to do in this engine. Great job overall! It's always good to see other people using the same engine!

A Brand New World by RealityCheck 2019-10-26T13:34:50Z

This is a very promising game, especially for just 24 hours' work. I always love these kinds of world-building games, and being able to place animals as well and watch them eat, breed, and die in the world as you build it around them adds another layer of strategy and entertainment.

Of course, the limited development time means there's a few issues to address, most of which I think have already been raised. First off, 256 cards feels like too many; I can see I'm not the only one who got bored before they were even halfway done. Secondly, land turns into dryland far too easily. I thought for a few turns that adding enough adjacent water tiles to a grassland/forest tile would keep it livable, but then half my world (including half my water!) turned into dryland in the course of a single turn. Thirdly, and I dunno if this is just bad luck, but I kept drawing animal tiles and having nowhere to put them, partly because of the expanding dryland and partly because everywhere was already occupied by animals. Those herbivores breed fast.

I'm glad that you're continuing to work on it and come up with improvements, because despite its current problems, it has a lot of potential and could end up as a very entertaining game. It's just not quite there yet.

The Greatest Game in the World by AhmenX 2019-10-26T20:10:26Z

This is hysterical. I thought my game was meta but this just blows it out of the water. The commentary throughout was so entertaining, as were the bits where you have to "fix" the game. Brilliant job!

FUTHARK by dikkop 2019-10-26T21:25:13Z

God games are always fun, and this was no exception. The tools are simple, but let you craft features like forests, mountains, lakes, and seas with ease. I love that the Vikings not only cut down trees, but use the wood to construct little houses for themselves, that's a really neat touch.

I'd like to see an expanded version of this with a few more options for things to place, and more ways for things to interact. And maybe more ways in which your world can be destroyed, because that's always fun (but then it starts a new game rather than crashing to desktop)

Vicious Cycle by ryzy27 2019-10-13T16:49:23Z

I like the art style, and the general idea, but I feel like there's not much of a "puzzle" to it. You just press Space and that's it. Then you get to the part with the alien language, and just like everyone else, I had no idea what to do or how to decipher it. It's very atmospheric, but I feel like it underused its potential somewhat.

Bob the Brawler by itsdanidre 2019-10-27T13:23:30Z

This is a great little brawler, with some real style. The graphics and sound effects are all excellent, and the music managed to avoid being annoying. Having to move around to collect power-ups prevents you from just camping in one spot for the whole game.

I have two issues with the game as it stands. The first is that the building mechanic feels somewhat redundant; I never actually used it at any point. The second is that the gameplay feels rather repetitive; the enemies are all identical, you only have one punching move, and the power-ups don't seem to spawn frequently enough to be able to mix up the gameplay effectively.

No Stone Uncrumbled by Jonasz999 2019-10-26T20:58:05Z

This is a fun math game. I liked the little touches, like the numbers counting down as you push them around, and the fact that you have a little leeway and don't need to match the target number exactly. It proved surprisingly addictive, and I happily sat and played all the way up to about Round 14 before screwing up my math slightly and deciding to call it a day.

Entertain Your Damn Self by RedHermit 2019-10-13T13:00:50Z

As others have said, it's more of a "digital toy" than a game, but it's still a fun little time-waster. I *love* the mechanic where the window gets bigger as you fill it up with balls, that's absolute genius. Sometimes we need relaxing entries like these just to take a breather between all the fast-paced action games, mind-bending puzzles, and atmospheric narratives, so this was a welcome distraction. Nice job, especially since you were so strapped for time!

Nothing by Spiced Pigeon 2019-10-12T18:15:38Z

I'm using the latest version of Google Chrome and all I get is an error message saying "Your browser does not support any of the required graphics API for this content." Is there a downloadable version? Do I have to download a whole other browser just to play this?

Nothing by Spiced Pigeon 2019-10-12T19:52:29Z

@spiced-pigeon Tried restarting, tried following all those steps, and still nothing :( I think there must just be a problem with my graphics drivers. Never mind!

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-07T05:38:40Z

@bobotast @bjeaurn Glad you both enjoyed it! I'm not sure what happened with the bar but it's definitely something to look into.

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-09T20:25:12Z

@avsc I hope you don't mind me going into a bit of technical detail here, because how you ended up seeing that is quite fascinating IMO.

PICO-8 is special in that the bottom half of the map, and the bottom half of the spritesheet, occupy the same area of memory. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, as the game map fits neatly into the top half of the map and I only used half the spritesheet.

However, for some reason, the palette-swapping trick I use for my logo screen no longer seems to work in Google Chrome. So I had to physically draw three logo sprites and switch between them, and that meant going onto the second half of the spreadsheet, which in turn drew that garbage data onto the map.

...and normally, *that* wouldn't have been a problem either, but I forgot to turn on the collision detection for the traffic cones, which (I'm assuming) is how you were able to glitch out of bounds and see that! I've patched the collision detection now.

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-09T21:38:12Z

@gullyngames That's in the "Known Bugs" list, I had a crack at fixing it but haven't been able to work out an approach that doesn't just break the collisions even further. You should still be able to move away from whatever wall or object you got stuck on, though.

@jefvel No, it isn't. I might implement those as additional sidequests in a post-jam update. And thank you very much for the gif! I've had other people report that glitch but this is the first time I've been able to see it in action. I'll see if I can patch that tomorrow.

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-12T11:57:25Z

@stefanie-leitch @guitarbro Whoops! My collision "fix" broke the doors! I've patched that now, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

And yeah, diagonal movement is too fast, but that wasn't high on my list of priorities and I didn't want to have to deal with the headache of non-integer-based movement >.< As you can see, I have enough problems with collision detection already!

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-14T11:39:30Z

Thanks for the feedback, all!

@pl4typus This is indeed smaller and more relaxed, but I like it that way. I feel it contrasts nicely with *15 Minutes to Live*, rather than having the same tension. As for music, I completely ran out of energy towards the end of the 48 hours and simply didn't want to try messing around with PICO-8's music tracker.

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-17T20:24:38Z

@philomory Thanks for reporting those! They should be easy fixes.

I think the first glitch is because the janitor is coded as an NPC but has no dialogue, so the game initiates an empty conversation instead. The second is because I forgot to disable the Z key (and probably also the X key) once the wipe to black starts! Whoops!

Inspiration. by F1Krazy 2019-10-26T23:16:37Z

@selkkie Thanks for the feedback! I came up with the ideas in the game as I went along, it wouldn't have made sense for me to switch to one of them from what I was already doing. It would have been way too late :P

Regarding the ZX thing, the controls are baked into the PICO-8 game engine and I can't change them, unfortunately. *However*, your comment reminded me that CV and NM will do the same thing as ZX, so I'll be sure to list those as alternate controls in future Ludum Dare entries. Thanks for the heads-up!

The Firebrand by selkkie 2019-10-12T22:38:49Z

As a fan of story-based games, this enthralled me. I played through twice and got the bad ending both times, but watching the plot and backstory slowly unravel before my eyes was captivating. I learned a lot about the world in the second playthrough that I hadn't expected based on my first playthrough. The limited colour palette and minimalist piano music really help sell the atmosphere.

In terms of criticism, I agree with what's already been said. Figuring out what's going on isn't too difficult - obviously I'm not going to give it away, though. But figuring out the exact path to take to get to the "truth" that I already actually know - or at least, I *think* I know - feels a bit like guesswork. I'm sure if I played through a couple more times, I could get a clearer picture of which leads are important and which aren't, and grasp my way towards the correct route.

But having to get a "game over" repeatedly in order to figure out the correct route... I'm sorry, but I have to say, it feels like bad game design. Especially if the correct route is *exactly* as long as the time until curfew (about 24 questions), and there's absolutely zero leeway. It's fine if you have to "game over" repeatedly in order to see all the different dialogues and get all the world-building information, but actually winning the game shouldn't be this hard to fathom.

I do like the idea of the curfew, though, especially how it's presented as part of the game world. As soon as I noticed the clock moving after every question, I knew there was going to be a time limit. Without it, you'd be able to beat the game by just methodically clicking every dialogue option, so it does press you to try and make the right choices instead of just "let's see what this one does". I just think it's too strict.

I also agree with those who said the notebook was too hard to open. On more than one occasion, I tried to open it and accidentally clicked a dialogue option instead. I don't see why you couldn't just make it pop up automatically after each dialogue ends. I also experienced the same restart issue as @alphish, just after completing the "name" dialogue - so I hope that one isn't compulsory!

I think I've sounded a bit negative here, so let me just reiterate: this is a fantastic entry with an engaging storyline, and definitely one of the most gripping Ludum Dare entries I've ever played. You should be proud of yourselves for developing such an excellent story. There just needs to be an easier or more intuitive way to get to the normal and good endings (or to know what you have to do to get them). At the very least, consider releasing a flowchart of how to get each ending after the jam is over?

...wow, I don't think I've written an LD review this long before. I think that in itself is a sign of how much I enjoyed this. Well done!

The Firebrand by selkkie 2019-10-26T12:58:44Z

@selkkie Thanks to the flowchart, I just went back and got the Normal and True endings and... wow. Even more twists that I didn't see coming. This is a phenomenal piece of storytelling and I hope it ranks highly in the final results <3

Race of time by Darkwing00Duck 2019-10-27T21:18:42Z

I really wanted to like this.

Racing games where you get to build your own car are always great fun, and having to race against the AI to build it adds another level of challenge: do you waste time finding the best parts, or just pick up the closest ones and throw them on?

Unfortunately, it's just... not well-executed at all. The controls are really awkward when walking around, and there's not enough of a detection zone around the crates: you can walk right into one and it won't prompt you to "Preese" E to pick it up. It can be hard to tell whether what you're picking up is an engine, "Cabine", or rear, so I kept coming back to my car and finding I'd replaced a part I already had.

The AI finish building their own cars inhumanly fast - I genuinely don't think it's possible to finish your car before they do - and then when I finally set out to try and catch up, I invariably crash at the second corner and get stuck. There doesn't seem to be a pause menu or any option to restart, so at that point I have to close the game entirely and re-open it.

I really wanted to like this game. But I just can't. The concept has so much potential, but it needs a *lot* more development and fine-tuning before it can even begin to live up to it.

バクラウBloodless by Danilo Freire 2019-10-28T20:39:33Z

This is a beautiful entry. The graphics, art style, and music are all sublime, and combine to create a fantastic atmosphere. The pacifistic fighting style is a breath of fresh air, too. Unfortunately, I am *shockingly* bad at this game; I gave it two goes, and both times I died on the third wave of the first level :joy: I dunno whether it's the timing or the positioning that I can't get the hang of, probably both. I'll have to give it another try someday and see if I can get at least to Level 2 :joy:

J'Accuse! by bobotast 2019-10-11T20:38:06Z

On the one hand, this is short even by Ludum Dare standards. On the other hand, the fact it's randomised gives it a level of replayability that very few LD entries have. Gameplay-wise, it's simple, but tricky: you gotta try and chat to everyone, keep track of the most common colours they mention, and then try and find whoever matches that description. I love the stylised character designs, they have real personality to them.

And it's always good too see other people using PICO-8 for this!

Jared's Fresh Start by DrCheetos 2019-10-25T19:34:42Z

Pretty good. The graphics and sound effects are impressive, especially the little spotlights to highlight important things, and the weapons seem pretty well-balanced. It's very satisfying when a horde comes and you can just whip out your flamethrower or assault rifle and mow them all down.

There's a lot of glitches though:

- When I go to start the tutorial, I'm given the option of using a keyboard or a controller. I click "Keyboard", and nothing happens. I click "Controller", and the game starts, but keyboard controls still work. Which is fortunate, because I don't have a controller that connects to my laptop! - Not exactly a glitch, but I, like a couple of other reviewers, didn't know how to open the weapon upgrade screen. That needs to go in the tutorial. I also didn't know what I was actually supposed to do with the C4 once I found it, so I was left just wandering around getting ambushed by zombie hordes while my weapon supplies dwindled. It could use a spotlight or something to highlight wherever it is you're supposed to go with it. - When I quit back to the main menu, the "You died!" menu was laid over the top of it.

I'm guessing you just didn't have enough time to playtest and find those. Don't worry, I know that feeling :sweat_smile: Good entry overall, it just needs a bit of fixing and polishing up.

Genesis 1 (God Simulator Procedually Generated) by Ausstein 2019-10-13T13:17:43Z

Highly amusing and entertaining. There's not much to do other than experiment with different wacky combinations, and the generated worlds feel surprisingly small, though I'm guessing if they were any bigger, they'd take even longer to generate than they already do.

My sister is a massive Will Smith fan so I *have* to show her this game and see what she thinks :joy:

Nothing is my car ! by T-Bo 2019-10-12T18:09:31Z

[For reference, I played the original jam version.]

This is a fun little game! As others have said, it's surprisingly tricky to remember which pieces you've already picked up, especially when some of them look almost identical. The fact that the driver isn't sitting in the exact centre of the lane threw me, until I realised that of course he wouldn't be, he's in a car!

The low-poly graphics are charming, but I think the draw distance is a bit low; new obstacles very noticeably pop in. Having the driver sat in a tree on the "game over" screen was a really nice touch :joy:

The other criticism I have (and I think the post-jam version fixes this too?) is that the collisions feel off, and sometimes it registers a collision when I swear I haven't hit anything. I dunno whether it's because the hitbox is for the full-size car even when you only have the driver, or what, but it might be something to work on, because it doesn't feel right to me.

btw, is it possible to "win" the game by collecting all the pieces? Or do you just keep on driving in your finished car until it inevitably falls apart?

(P.S. the web version doesn't work, I just see a black screen with the UI over the top :( )

Nothing is my car ! by T-Bo 2019-10-12T21:01:26Z

@t-bo I have the latest version of Google Chrome, but I've been having issues with other WebGL entries so I think it might be my drivers more than anything else. I might check out the post-jam version at some point.

HONK by Tricky_Fat_Cat 2019-10-13T16:58:45Z

This is extremely well-polished, and very enjoyable. There's an impressive variety and progression of enemies, the action is wonderfully fast-paced, and the sound and visual effects really help tie the whole thing together. Great job!

Girl in a Dungeon by Phoenix Fireflower 2019-10-12T20:09:29Z

I feel like the brown spiked columns are too difficult. They accelerate when they get close to you, or perpendicular to you, and it makes them almost impossible to dodge, especially once you have to deal with more than one of them.

I like the idea of "starting with no mechanics" and easing them in one at a time, it's a clever interpretation of the theme. The graphics and sound effects are both good, could do with some music but I won't fault you for not including any, it's a hard thing to fit into a 3-day jam. Good job overall!

Sentience by Alxertion 2019-10-13T10:05:29Z

A very fun little shooter, with a surprisingly profound storyline. Without giving anything away, I loved the little twist at the end. Progress gets a *little* grindy at times, but it's very satisfying to watch your pixel grow from a tiny black box to a giant square juggernaut spraying technicolour death all over the place, especially as the music grows in intensity to match.

In terms of suggestions, first of all, in the latter stages it becomes hard to keep track of the enemies and pickups with all the bullets on the screen, but at the same time, the health system is so forgiving that I never really felt in any danger (don't think I ever dropped below 35/40 health). Even the final boss was a bit boring, since it only had one attack. A bigger variety of enemies, and more challenging enemies, would be a welcome addition.

Some extra chatter from the narrator would also help break up the mid-game; he mentions that you're "overriding his protocols" about five minutes in, and then falls totally silent until the final boss about 10 minutes later.

Overall, though, very solid entry!

Boing! by Refsa 2019-10-27T21:31:50Z

This is promising, but the gameplay felt a bit confusing and rushed. It was hard to tell when I was being damaged and when I wasn't, my jump height seemed too low, and as others have said, I'm not sure how the vendor system is supposed to work. I also wasn't sure if the scrolling wall things were supposed to be damaging or not, I'm sure I ran through one at least once without being damaged.

As I said, though, there's some promise here. The graphics have a simple charm to them, the stacks of powerups that spawn at random points seem to make a gradual but noticeable difference to your stats, and it's satisfying to pick up huge piles of coins and powerups at once.

Needs a bit of work, but it's a good concept!

Save The Bird! by F1Krazy 2020-04-21T17:34:09Z

Wow, where are all these reviews coming from all of a sudden? Did we get featured in a stream or something? Thank you all for your kind words!

@zeggamer I did want to add a little more animation, like a proper sprite for the bird instead of a circle, but I just plain ran out of time. I'll see if I can patch some in over the coming days.

Save The Bird! by F1Krazy 2020-05-12T10:00:30Z

@pobix Yeah, that's the problem with restricted palettes. I could make the drone a bit greyer, but then I'd worry about contrast with the enemy drones. Glad you enjoyed it so much, though!

Lamps by qkjosh 2020-05-07T18:52:30Z

This really creeped me out, especially once the camera started flickering and glitching as you got into the lower levels. It seems to be a common theme that people got confused about which direction to go in, and how to refill their bulb - I for one thought that the idea was to light up every lamp in the room, and that would somehow unlock things? But it didn't work that way. The ending also confused me, but it sounds like that was intentional.

Definitely one of the more bizarre (and creepy) games I've seen in a Ludum Dare, but also one of the most graphically impressive. Great job!

Feeding Words by notgreat 2020-05-10T14:45:10Z

A pretty good entry. I'm not sure what word dictionary you're using but it's very comprehensive, there were no occasions where I tried to make a word and it wouldn't let me, and a couple of occasions where I was able to make a word I didn't think it would let me.

I feel like it could have done with some extra visual polish, and some audio as well. Perhaps it might have been better if you'd gone for the Jam: you'd have had extra time to polish it up, and you would have been able to use third-party audio assets.

As it is, though, it's not a bad game. I reckon it could be very entertaining if you took the time to polish it up.

The Tale of the Lumberjack who did not want to cut trees by Thomas_Bringer 2020-05-10T13:49:52Z

This is great! I was amazed at how many levels you managed to cram into this, and how complex some of them were. You really had me racking my brains! The game's mechanics are simple but flexible, and utilized in pretty much every way possible, and the result is a surprising amount of variety and challenge. The graphics have a lot of charm to them, as does the story.

My only complaints are relatively minor. The music got a little repetitive after a while, especially since it doesn't loop very smoothly, and if there's a long straight area, it's a pain to have to press the appropriate arrow key several times, and wait for the jumping animation to finish between each press.

Overall, though, this is a really impressive entry, especially for a Compo game. It actually feels like a fully-finished, standalone game. Great job!

LD 46 - Guinea Pug by Notredamstra 2020-05-07T17:32:59Z

Very entertaining! I do feel sorry for that poor pug, though.

The randomly-generated level makes it very difficult just to keep going, never mind complete the objectives - my best distance was 78m, and I'm not sure how well I did with the other two objectives. I could probably take it easier and get further if it weren't for the blocks fading away behind you. Even so, the game manages to hit that sweet spot of being difficult without being frustrating, and instead enticing you to keep going and try and beat your high-score.

It'd be better if there was some clearer indication of how you were progressing. For example, instead of going back to the first tier of challenges when you fall off, it could keep you on whatever challenges you're on but just reset your progress to 0. I hope I've explained that well enough.

Anyway, good job!

THE PATH by theblackfrog 2020-05-07T17:55:52Z

This is a really well-put-together game. The cars at the beginning were frustrating, as there's barely enough time to race across before the next one comes, but the rest of the game was a lot fairer and managed to hit that sweet spot of being tricky but not frustrating. The mechanics were really intuitive, and it was easy to get the hang of guiding the chick where you wanted it to go. I really appreciated the use of checkpoints so that I didn't have to go through the whole thing from scratch when the chick did die, though.

The cartoony, *a capella* sound effects kinda detract from the general dark tone, especially as the surroundings grow gloomier over time. The result is this odd contrast where you have cartoony birds walking through forest fires and pools of battery acid while chirping merrily. I guess it adds to the innocence of the chick that you're trying to save... poor thing just doesn't comprehend the dangers around it...

A beautiful and haunting experience. I may have to check out the full-length version, though I do have to wonder how long the gameplay can last without getting stale.

Earth 2.0 by AryanJumani 2020-05-08T17:18:50Z

Nice and simple, but it works, plus you're a beginner so I can't fault you for starting with something small and simple. That's always the best way.

The 3D graphics are very good quality, and I appreciate how you slow right down when you hit an asteroid, so you don't two lives in rapid succession. The engine sound was actually kinda relaxing, I didn't mind it, but it did cut out after a while. My other major piece of feedback would be to make Mars transition into view a lot slower and smoother, because right now it just kinda appears from nowhere when you're halfway there and it really breaks my suspension of disbelief.

For a first effort in a game jam, and in 3D to boot, this is a pretty good start. I hope to see you enter future jams!

Scrambl'd by StarErik 2020-05-10T14:22:16Z

Wow, I gotta give you guys mad props for making an actual full-blown Game Boy game in just 72 hours. That's amazing. This is really tricky - the lack of checkpoints and small screen size mean it takes a lot of trial-and-error and memorisation before you can complete each level - but that only adds to the retro feel, and gives you a great sense of satisfaction when you finally get it right. The momentum-based gameplay really appeals to me as a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, and the music is catchy as hell.

Fantastic entry! Well done!

Dr. Statnil's Dodo Egg by Voidsay 2020-05-10T13:11:00Z

Despite its flaws, this is really fun! I love the premise, and the opening narration was hilarious, although the fact it was accompanied by a static logo made me worry that the visuals had locked up or something. The gameplay is solid enough, and kept me entertained for a surprisingly long time, and the graphics are great by jam standards.

My main piece of feedback is that the AI is unfairly hard. It's able to slow right down, so it's always precisely positioned underneath the egg, whereas you're stuck moving at a set speed. The only way to beat it is to strike the egg exactly front-on, which gives it enough forward momentum that the AI can't keep up, but that's a lot easier said than done. I kept hitting the egg straight up or backwards, or missing entirely, and the AI never did anything of those things, so I was losing 4-8 by the time I stopped playing.

For a first-timer - and especially someone who's never coded before - this is still a very promising and enjoyable effort. If you can improve this after the Jam is over then I'll definitely give it a second look.

a nice place by netmute 2020-10-14T19:47:19Z

I'm a sucker for both story-based entries and PICO-8 entries, so I absolutely adored this. The graphics and sound effects are very high quality, especially the day/night effects, and I liked both the writing and the overall storyline, with its existential feel. I can't think of much wrong with this; it's honestly one of my favourite entries so far. Very well done!

Escape the loop by Vivoubos 2020-10-13T08:41:55Z

A fun little game. Even with the map, I found it hard to navigate my way around, especially with the fast instant-kill monsters that track your movement perfectly, but I'm guessing that's part of the point. The graphics need a bit of work in places, especially the "you died" screen, which got annoying after about the fifth time I saw it. But when you only have 48 hours, you do have to take shortcuts here and there, especially when you're making a game with this many areas.

Stuck in a while(true) by Neowedge 2020-10-21T19:50:26Z

Very fun! I loved the presentation, with the scrolling debug output at the side, it really added to the overall feel of the game. The difficulty ramped up nicely, with the upgrades just about offsetting the gradual increase in difficulty level. I wish there was some sort of scoring system, or even just a level counter, so if/when you die, you could tell how well you did. I died shortly after the pentagons started showing up, and I wasn't sure how much I had actually accomplished.

Stuck in a Loop (station) by erikiene 2020-10-17T21:55:50Z

I really enjoyed this! I liked the literal interpretation of the theme, and how solving each puzzle gradually added onto the background music. I managed to figure out the first three puzzles without much of a problem, but the final one really stumped me for a while. I think it could be made more obvious what the hints actually mean, but I managed to figure it out eventually!

Lone Racer by gwheel 2020-10-21T20:27:02Z

This is a neat little driving game. It actually requires you to be a bit strategic: you need to make enough mistakes that you'll be able to beat your ghost on the next lap, but not so many mistakes that the lap becomes unrecoverable and you're unable to catch up to the current ghost. The steady-escalating speed gives you an edge,

I don't know whether this is intentional or a glitch, but the walls sort of wobble and distort as you drive around. It's very distracting. I can try and record a GIF of what I'm talking about, if it would help. As for the audio, I think the engine noises in the updated version are actually worse than the silence in the compo version, as they're *very* grating.

I'd like to see a polished, updated post-jam version of this! It has a lot of potential.

Loop Frogs by GaryS 2020-10-15T09:41:18Z

I love the idea of this! I got stuck and wasn't able to finish it, but I enjoyed playing until then. The pixel-art graphics are good quality, and the puzzles generally manage to be challenging and engaging without being overly-frustrating. While the lack of music is a bit disappointing, it's understandable, and the sound effects make up for it by being very charming. Good job! I'd like to see an expanded/polished version of this!

4 Minute Work Week by JoelLikesPigs 2020-10-12T19:25:54Z

This was good fun! It makes great use of the theme; it's one of those games where it takes several tries to learn where everything is and what's required to complete each task. It took me three goes, but I managed to figure everything out in the end and finish the game.

While you said the game was small, I was impressed at how much you managed to pack into a four-minute game. The game world is large but without too much danger of getting lost, and there's plenty to do. I did notice there were a few items that served no purpose - I'm guessing they were meant to, but you ran out of time to make them do anything? It's not really a problem, if anything it added a little more flavour to the game.

The graphics and music were very good as well. I liked the not-so-subtle hints woven into the dialogue, and the way that clearing some quests provides you with the means to complete other quests. Overall, great job!

Circle Golf by CG_Fred 2020-10-13T10:50:04Z

Very good for only 12 hours' work. Some of the levels are deceptively difficult, especially the last one, but once you know what you're doing you can breeze through it pretty quickly (my best time is just over 3 minutes).

I had to turn the post-processing off, not because of lag, but because I wear glasses and the blur was messing with my head and making me think my glasses were smudged. If you only had 12 hours, then that probably wasn't the best use of your time, to be honest with you. You could have traded in that post-processing for a couple more levels.

Saisons by Gaming Night 2020-10-15T13:31:22Z

A really clever interpretation of the theme (one I saw coming, but only because I know what the theme is). I actually went round twice just to try and make sure I got all the interaction spots. I had a lot of difficulty with the final tune, and from reading the reviews, I'm not the only one; I think it needs some work to make it easier to solve.

I'd also suggest changing the area transitions so that you don't have to walk so far off-screen before moving to the next area. The first time I walked off-screen and nothing happened, I honestly assumed it was a glitch and that the camera had stopped panning for some reason. It was only when I kept walking that I realised I hadn't gone far enough to trigger the transition.

I feel like I've written a lot of criticism here, so I just want to emphasise: this is a very good game. The graphics, audio, and general atmosphere are all very well done, and the gameplay is unique and creative. It just needs a few tweaks to make it even better.

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-06T16:44:28Z

@joellikespigs That's just what I wanted you to think, so that the part at the end would be a surprise. I'm glad people seem to have caught on to the fact that you need to play it repeatedly, I thought I might have been too vague about it.

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-12T20:52:10Z

Wow, a lot of replies suddenly! Thanks for all the positive feedback! :D

@ditam I know how the rating system works, but I was busy until earlier today and didn't have a chance to play other people's games. I'm currently reviewing the games of everyone who's commented here, and I'll keep reviewing for the rest of the rating period.

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-15T09:13:14Z

@coryru That is, in fact, the plan. I won't be able to do it in PICO-8, as its limitations don't give me much room for expansion, but I could definitely try creating a full-length version of the game in something like Unity or GameMaker Studio.

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-21T22:52:21Z

@peace-of-cake-games The dialogue is random; every now and then, the game pulls a random line from an array and displays it. Connecting the dialogue to your actions, and writing multiple lines per action per loop, would have taken more time than I had. It would definitely enhance the experience, though, so thanks for pointing it out!

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-22T14:16:14Z

@can123ten The controls are listed above.

Super Jump Guy by F1Krazy 2020-10-23T12:50:24Z

@can123ten You have to click the white "Play" button inside the window, that initialises the game.

Chicxulub by Literal Games 2020-10-13T09:24:56Z

Oh hey, I remember you guys from your LD41 entry! Good to see you again!

This is one of my favourite games I've played so far this jam. The graphics, sound effects, and general gameplay are all spot-on. I really like the fact that, despite it being a bullet hell game, you have so much health that you can't actually die, and the challenge thus becomes retaining as much health as possible. It puts a unique spin on things.

Looking through the previous reviews, it seems like I have the high-score so far:

chicxulub.png

I'm guessing that in order to wipe out 100% of the dinos, you have to collect every single piece of rubble and not get hit once? Good luck to anyone who can pull that off!

Broken Dungeon by PurpledArtFrog 2020-10-12T16:48:25Z

Very fun, and very challenging. I got stuck on the part with the shadowy guys who fire giant energy balls at you, I just couldn't dodge them quickly enough. I'll have to watch someone else's playthrough to see how you're meant to get past them.

The gameplay is very smooth and fast-paced, and I like the low-res graphics, but I feel like it could have made better use of the theme. Maybe it's just because I didn't get far enough into the game, but from what I could see, it's just a regular dungeon-crawler with the theme tacked onto the respawn mechanic. It's a good dungeon-crawler, definitely, but I feel like you could have done more with it theme-wise.

Ringchaser by jordantanner 2020-10-20T17:18:18Z

This proved surprisingly difficult. Trying to keep track of all nine zones at once was a little too much for me to juggle and I kept pressing the wrong combinations, especially when trying to deal with the triples, but that's probably just me. The graphics and music were all very well done, and for a jam game, this is extremely well-presented. It even has what looks like a global high score board!

I think there might be some timing/detection issues: sometimes I was certain I'd pressed the right buttons, but the game said I hadn't and lowered my accuracy multiplier, and other times it looked like I'd pressed the right ones and my accuracy multiplier went up, but the blocks didn't disappear. It made it even worse for me to keep track of things. Nonetheless, I made it to Level 7 and 75,000pts before the game suffered a WebGL error and crashed on me.

Despite the niggling little issues, this is a very good game. It just needs some bug fixes and it'll be there.

Oh, and you should really rate other people's games as well. It'll give your own game much greater visibility, and allow you to reach 20 ratings much more easily. (I was also under the impression that you *needed* to rate 20 other games in order for your own to count in the final standings, but looking at your LD46 game, that no longer seems to be a requirement...)

Planet Hopper by Suchista 2020-10-12T20:45:17Z

I like the interpretation of the theme - literally going round in circles!

Unfortunately, I really couldn't get the hang of this. I don't think I ever scored more than 1. The controls seem a little unintuitive, but I think the biggest issue difficulty-wise is that the planets move way too fast relative to the ship. You can't catch up to the planet you're targeting, and you can't get out of the way of the red planets fast enough; by the time you realise one of them's going to hit you, it's already hit you.

I think if you slowed the planets down, at least initially, that would made the game a lot easier.

I Reboot by WegPast 2020-10-15T14:31:40Z

This is a really clever interpretation of the theme. It really forces you to think your actions through, so you know how to beat yourself on the next interation. You also have to think carefully about where you shoot, knowing that L.O.O.P. will fire in the exact same direction. The graphics and audio are both very good, I enjoyed the backstory/exposition that came with the tutorial, and I also appreciated that you could skip the tutorial or just let it advance automatically.

Someone suggested adding a visual indicator so you know how long you have left before the portal closes. I'd also suggest adding a cooldown indicator so that you know how long you have left before you can fire again. I once missed a shot, tried to fire again, couldn't, and thought as a result that I only had one shot per iteration. By the time I realised you could fire repeatedly, I'd gotten multiple game overs from firing, missing, and watching L.O.O.P. escape in the belief I was powerless to stop it.

I also once got a game over from spawning right on top of a bullet, so I'd suggest some sort of fix to the spawn system to prevent that from happening (or at least, reduce the chance), because spawning straight into a hazard is never fun.

This isn't part of the review, but I thought I'd mention it anyway: as far as I'm aware, the "only bug fixes" rule is only for Compo entries, and for Jam entries like yours, you can make whatever improvements you feel are necessary. If in doubt, the safest option is to provide multiple links: one to the original version of the game, in the state it was when you first submitted it, and one that has all the post-jam fixes and content.

Revenge of Loopy the Turtle by Flying Dog Fish 2020-10-17T21:27:08Z

This is a surprisingly fun game considering how tragic the premise is. The cuteness of the art style only made it that much more disturbing, IMO. I found that the rate of fire made the game a bit too easy; you could just rapidly click to spray bullets at anything that moved, and you couldn't lose unless an animal happened to spawn on the track right in front of you. Still a good game, though, I enjoyed it.

minotorus by AceArcher 2020-10-21T20:46:52Z

I'm impressed that you managed to make such a high-quality 3D game within the time limit. I was also impressed with the size of the laybrinth, though simultaneously bored by how uniform it was: you've seen one corridor, you've seen 'em all. The candle's life bar didn't seem to actually deplete, and then all of a sudden *my* life bar started to deplete and I died in one second without even seeing what killed me. Was it the minotaur? A trap? I don't know - and that strikes me as bad game design, if I can die without knowing what killed me.

There's a promising idea here, but it needs fleshing work.

opLo by JoaoG 2020-10-17T22:15:10Z

Definitely one of the more interesting games I've played so far this jam. I liked the looping on the title screen. As the other reviews have noted, I'm not so keen on the physics, they're far more annoying than any of the looping mechanics. I also got stuck on the room with the Stanley Parable reference, I'll try out the hint and see if I can figure it out.

EDIT: I managed to find one of the endings and it was deceptively easy to get. I also found a fun little glitch: if you hold down D right at the start of a level, you'll move right while still facing left :joy:

opLo by JoaoG 2020-10-20T18:38:04Z

With the physics fixed, I was able to play through more of the game and get the second ending. Now that I've seen more of it, I can really appreciate the looping, and the *Stanley Parable*-esque battles against fate and the narrator. There's a surprising number of rooms and different mechanics, and there's surely more that I haven't seen yet. Thank you for fixing the issues and getting back to be, it was definitely worth it for both of us!

Hamster Simulator by snowinn 2020-10-15T10:11:36Z

This shouldn't be as fun as it is, but... it's really fun. There's something so satisfying about mashing the right arrow key and watching him speed up and up and up. My best single run was nearly 500m, but I'm sure if I could be bothered to sit there and grind for hours, I could rack up some serious distance.

I concur with those who said that some sort of achievement system would give you more incentive to keep playing. I'd also suggest an autosave system so the user's progress is persistent between gameplay sessions, and you can grind away a bit at a time.

As it is, it's a silly game, but it works. Nice job!

A Day in the Woods by ditam 2020-10-12T20:33:36Z

Interesting little game. It took me a couple of loops to realise that I had to break the loop myself, but once I did, I loved the sense of exploration you got as you explored the world beyond your humble little house. I loved the little moment where I went from the bridge to the woods, and the narrator said "oh, I misremembered, he actually went that way".

One little thing I noticed was that when I reached the bridge, there was a piece of dialogue that I accidentally skipped before I could read any of it, but I think that's the only serious complaint I have. Overall, nice job!

Driven Round the Loop by JoeShanahan 2020-10-20T17:35:04Z

A very colourful and humorous puzzle game. The main menu screen taking the form of a petitions site is a great touch, as is the fact that you have three puzzles unlocked from the start, so getting stuck on one (as I did) doesn't prevent you from reaching the final puzzle. I especially love how the objective in one of the levels is to cause a crash instead of avoiding one, that's a wonderful little twist.

I wasn't able to solve all the puzzles, but I'll put that down to my own brainpower, and not any issues with the puzzles themselves. Good job, especially with devising such tough puzzles!

TIME TO DANCE! by Savvy Community 2020-10-15T13:57:42Z

Great game, and a fantastic interpretation of the theme. It's not often you see multiplayer games in Ludum Dare! It's a bit of a pain having to create a new dancer every round, but I'm guessing the reasoning behind it is that if you keep getting matched with the same people, and they always have the same appearance and dance moves, it would make it way too easy to spot them.

I really loved the ambiance, and the way the music evolved as you found more and more of your human friends. I look forward to seeing more from you guys!

The Lone Starmen by cyberfrank 2020-10-12T17:11:54Z

A very beautiful, relaxing game. I always enjoy entries like this, they make a nice change of pace from the more action-oriented games that people tend to make. I also like the more subtle implementation of the theme: there's no goal or ending, you're just going round and round in a loop, linking up stars for as long as you want. Very good job!

Justin Time by pandepic 2020-10-15T14:57:18Z

I feel like this game is just a little bit too unforgiving. Whether the caveman enemies hit you or not seems to be blind luck to an extent. The future enemies and the boss are extremely hard to deal with because they're faster than you, move seemingly at random so you can't predict their movements, and shoot seemingly at random so you can't predict when you'll be fired at. When you only have 90 seconds, fighting them without losing buckets of health takes way too much time.

Which brings me on to the time limit. It took me about 10-12 loops just to get hold of the little hand and bring it back. I have no idea where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do to get the big hand, and *less than zero idea* how I'm supposed to do *both* in just 90 seconds. It seems like a genuinely impossible task.

I want to like this game, I really do, but it needs some serious rebalancing because as it is, it's just too difficult.

Rogue-Life by KeyLime 2020-10-20T18:14:54Z

For a first game, this is pretty good. There's not a whole lot to it, but the graphics are good and the gameplay is solid. I noticed that once you've entered the treasure room, you can leave it at will and roam around killing the enemies, but they can't harm you anymore even though they keep chasing you. That's the only thing I could really call a bug that I encountered.

The music seemed a little harsh and grating, I think maybe the patterns you used were too loud. The biggest issue is something that's already been pointed out: the game is a bit too short for the looping mechanic to actually come into play, especially since the dungeon maze at the end seems to take up about 80% of the game world. As a fellow PICO-8 dev, I know and appreciate its limitations, but I still think there was more that could have been done with this.

Looking forward to you improving and doing even better next time! (Also, I'd suggest playing some other people's games if and when you have time; it'll give your own game more visibility and help it get to 20 ratings more easily.)

Escape the Sun by MikoMikoSpark 2020-10-13T10:35:33Z

Took me a few goes to figure out the controls and how to get to the next planets, but once I did I found this to be a very fun and enjoyable experience, with a unique gameplay loop (no pun intended). The graphics and general atmosphere are very good. One little tweak I'd suggest would be making the death animation end faster, so you're not staring at a white screen for several seconds before you can continue.

I've Been Busy Being Dead by instrex 2020-10-12T21:03:39Z

This is so clever! There are so many little touches here: the animations, the ghostly whispering in the background, the gradual addition of new objects, the way the music changes depending how scared or comforted the current visitor is... this is really well-polished for a Jam game. Very well done!

BL0CK by GregoryBlomquist 2020-10-15T10:30:00Z

I'm impressed at how terrifying you managed to make this with just some creepy audio and flickering effects. Once I read the manual and knew what I was doing, I got through the first few levels easily enough, but then I got to a level where the pathways were just barely wide enough for me to pass through and I wasn't able to evade the corrupted block quickly enough. Horror games really aren't my thing, and I'm afraid I don't think I have the guts to go back and try again!

Dryad's Quest by Cyborg Studio 2020-10-12T20:12:57Z

I really liked the retro graphics, but I think the gameplay was a little bit too simplistic. You're just clicking on things, and there's not much variation in what it is you're clicking on. Sometimes the hit detection was a little bit off, and you had to click around a few times to actually select something, especially if the revived mangroves ended up obscuring a plant behind them.

I think this would work better if it were expanded out into a full game, with more levels, more varied gameplay, and a longer story. As it is, it's a decent demo, but it's crying out for more.

Outside The Loop by Peace Of Cake Games 2020-10-21T20:09:32Z

This definitely has potential, but it could use some work. I think a lot of the main issues have been pointed out already: the graphics aren't really that great (though I appreciate that you're a programmer, not an artist), it could use some music or extra sound effects, and it really wasn't clear to me at first how to exit each loop and move on to the next one. The exits need to be signposted better. The platforming actually got surprisingly tricky, as you have to figure out where best to place your loop, but just as it started to get tricky, it ended. I hope you do expand this, because it's a bit too short right now, and could use some extra levels.

This is your first game jam (or at least, your first Ludum Dare), so I don't want to sound too harsh. As you take part in more and more jams, you'll learn how to better manage your time, and you'll be able to draw on your past experiences to make bigger, better, and more polished games. I look forward to seeing more from you in the future!

Oh, and I really liked the looping title screen at the beginning. Very clever touch.

Time Saver by Daniikk1012 2020-10-20T17:55:26Z

I really like this take on the old "play to earn points to let you progress further" type of game. I found the hardest part was actually figuring out how to deal with the enemies, but once I had that down I was able to make it all the way to the end. My biggest complaint would be the graphics: the backgrounds are good, but the technicolour enemy sprites just look like an eyesore. I can see the kinda vibe you were going for, but somehow it just doesn't click together. At least, not for me.

EARTHWYRM by HolyBlackCat 2021-05-09T17:42:10Z

Tricky little puzzle game. I know a few people got stuck on Level 8 but I managed to figure it out... and then got stuck on Level 9. I'm sure I can figure it out if I keep trying, though.

I like the graphics, as well as the general idea of guiding an earthworm's movements. It's a little difficult to predict where the earthworm is going to go, but you can always just run the level without doing anything, see what the worm's default behaviour is, then plan around it. By proceeding in that sort of trial-and-error fashion, you can usually tease out the solution to each level, even if it takes a few goes.

I love the pixel art graphics as well, nice job with those!

Minigun Miner by drludos 2021-05-12T15:54:45Z

A fun, inventive take on the mining games that so many people have submitted. It's tricky to control your character, but seeing them shred through the landscape beneath them is very satisfying. It'd be nice if you could scroll up as well as down, so you don't get stuck against an invisible ceiling.

You should probably go give out a few more ratings, it'd be a shame if this didn't get ranked!

Falling For Treasure by Laaph 2021-05-12T16:15:38Z

I love the literal hand-drawn graphics, that's a really nice touch. As others have noted, the controls are quite slippery: I found that most of my deaths were from sliding off the left or right edge of the screen, not from hitting the turtles. You can also find yourself in situations where there are two or three platforms directly underneath one another, and you physically can't move from one to the next, so you have to just kind of fall off and hope you hit something solid. The platform generation might need adjusting, so that this doesn't happen.

This is a fun game, it just needs a few adjustments to really make it shine.

Cosmonoid by neontropics 2021-05-09T18:11:34Z

This is a really fun game, with some beautiful graphics. The controls are surprisingly easy to get the hang of, especially once you turn off the Y-axis inversion. The platforming is really tricky at times, due to the danger of just flinging yourself off into space, and by Level 5 I was struggling to get my head round it and had to give up. I think I'm just too reluctant to try bouncing off the lava, even with all the health orbs.

This is a really fun and immersive experience, though, and I'd love to see more of it!

depthscraper by lexi 2021-05-12T15:42:20Z

A simple idea, beautifully executed. What more could one ask for in a jam game? I do hope you do something with this, because it has a lot of potential.

Edge of Space by Marc Grabow 2021-05-11T14:47:01Z

I love the graphics and the audio, this looks and feels very polished. However, it needs a bit of balancing. The levels are so short that the fuel mechanic never comes into play, and you *really* should become invulnerable the moment you enter a wormhole. Almost all of my deaths were from an enemy shooting me mid-wormhole, and I couldn't move or shoot or do anything about it. It just feels really cheap.

I also noticed that, in the time between your ship being destroyed and the "Game Over" message appearing, you can still fly around as though nothing happened, which is a bit silly. Ideally, your controls should lock up and the trail you're leaving behind you should disappear.

Demden by Wesxdz 2021-05-08T17:41:39Z

I like how distinctive this is. It's a very unusual game, in terms of both gameplay and how it interprets the theme. As has been noted, though, nothing is explained very well: it's not clear how you know which teeth you need to dig out, I didn't even notice the lantern timer until it ran out (I still managed to get out okay, though), and when I purchased an upgrade during Level 2, I'm not sure what it actually did (I'm not even sure that I *did* purchase it).

I do have to applaud you for something something different and unique, it's just not quite there yet.

Welcome to the Factory by epb9000 2021-05-12T12:39:18Z

I love the unique, hand-drawn art style, as well as the way the music subtly evolves as you progress through the level. The controls are quite finicky and take some getting used to, and even once you have, the game remains difficult due to the sheer precision required to get round some of the obstacles, especially the fans. It took me dozens of tries to get past one of the levels (either 3 or 4), but I persevered.

The sound effects on the obstacles are quite grating, even without the popping issue on WebGL (which I know you're aware of), but in a way, it just adds to the sense of dread every time you get near them. The fans in particular have this really sinister drone to them.

You're running out of time to get to 20 ratings given/received, so I'd hurry up and get started with that if I were you! It'd be a shame if this missed out on receiving a rank.

Welcome to the Factory by epb9000 2021-05-12T16:55:51Z

@f1krazy I'll give your niece's game a go, thanks for mentioning it!

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-04-26T22:35:12Z

@wesxdz That's most likely the broken collision detection, it keeps thinking you've hit a wall when you haven't (and thinking you haven't hit a wall when you have). I'm glad the story was at least enjoyable, I was hoping it would be.

Thanks for the support so far, I'll definitely have a think about what I can do to fix this up a bit.

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-04-28T21:18:02Z

@jeremia I found that same glitch myself earlier today and I think I already have a fix for it. Thanks for the heads-up, though, and I'm glad to hear that you liked it anyway!

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-04-28T22:37:25Z

@vrerabek I've just published an update that fixes the worst of the issues, feel free to give the game another go.

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-04-29T07:10:19Z

@lordsylvestrion Being able to run over the foot soldiers is actually something I considered, I just never got round to it. As for having only one map, that was a conscious decision: you're going *deeper and deeper* into the base each time, as well as getting *deeper and deeper* into debt, so it gives a nice double meaning to the theme.

@supergamersgames Any collision issues will likely be on my end. Can you provide more information so I can take a look at them?

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-04-29T17:01:45Z

@supergamersgames Strange, I thought I fixed that along with the other bugs. I'll take a look, thanks for letting me know.

BreakEven by F1Krazy 2021-05-16T13:50:26Z

@epb9000 I learned about TIC-80 myself through Ludum Dare, this jam teaches you a whole lot of new things! Glad someone picked up on the theme integration as well.

Conspiracy Dive by wizard sino 2021-05-09T18:26:04Z

A very fun take on the theme, with some interesting (and tricky) puzzles. It's short, yes, but most Ludum Dare games are, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

For me, the most irritating part of this game is the character's footsteps. They get very, *very* repetitive, especially with the slow movement speed. Luckily you don't have to wait for him to actually walk to an object before you can interact with it. The graphics also aren't the greatest, but that's understandable considering the short length of the jam period - if you're a coder and not an artist, you're gonna struggle in this area.

There are some improvements that could be made to the puzzle interactions as well - I have no idea what the solution to the final puzzle was, and it wasn't immediately clear what the final step of the third puzzle was. But there's a solid base here, I think, for you to build upon in the future.

Research and Rescue by Kaleido 2021-05-09T19:45:38Z

I love the music, as well as the minimalist aesthetic of the graphics. I think my main gripe has already been mentioned before: enemies have a lot of HP and tend to swarm you, so you're stuck frantically backpedalling through the level while constantly taking damage, firing as much as your energy reserves will allow, and hoping you don't run into even more enemies. I got as far as the Artillery Department level and then I was immediately overwhelmed by far more enemies than I could ever reasonably be expected to fight.

With some balancing tweaks, this could be an excellent game. Keep up the good work!

BLAST MINER by SuperGamersGames 2021-05-09T16:51:51Z

Very fun, but also very challenging. I got to about Level 5 before I just had to give up, as the endlessly-respawning enemies made it too difficult to move around. If they respawned less frequently, and there was more of a "tell" before the Jetpack Moles charge at you, I think the difficulty would be a lot more manageable.

Blowing up the terrain (and those pesky moles) was very satisfying, but there's also a nice strategic element in that you can't just blow up everything in sight - you have to make sure you can get back out of whatever hole you've just dug, and back to the portal.

I'd like to see a full (and easier) version of this, it's very fun and has a lot of potential.

Escape The Employees by Benjamin Leroy 2021-05-13T13:16:30Z

I love the graphics, music, and general gameplay. The office setting is well integrated, with the use of vending machines for upgrades and trash cans as treasure chests. The combat is nice and simple and you get the hang of it very quickly.

I think my main gripe is that the game quickly gets... same-y. The rooms are basically all identical - the items inside them may vary but it's not enough to stop it running into the [10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal problem](https://galaxykate0.tumblr.com/post/139774965871/so-you-want-to-build-a-generator). It doesn't help that there are only two types of enemy, and the same boss gets re-used for every level without any difference in behaviour. By the time you reach the third level it just feels a bit stale.

Another thing worth noting is that punching doesn't seem to work very well (right-clicking did nothing about 90% of the time), and feels redundant anyway. Why would I fight enemies up close and risk getting hit when I can just spam projectiles and kill them safely from across the room? You need a way to make the punching mechanic actually useful - perhaps a shielded enemy that blocks your projectiles, and you have to punch the shield away before you can hurt them?

I think all this really needs is a bit more variety, and a bit more content. A post-jam version where the environments and enemies are more varied, and you have a wider range of power-ups to choose from, would be fantastic fun to play.

Dip Deeper by Spaghetti 2021-05-09T19:22:49Z

I'm not sure quite how well this fits the theme, but it's a quirky and unique interpretation, regardless. The difficulty does plateau quite quickly, but the short time limit still keeps you on your toes. It might be more interesting to have the difficulty ramp up slowly but endlessly, so the sequences just keep getting longer instead of capping at six.

Capsule Fall by Jeremia 2021-05-09T16:26:36Z

Nice and simple. No fancy bells or whistles, just a solid gameplay concept, well-executed. I like it. I also have to commend you for squeezing an entire game into a 16KB console app. A lot of LD entries are 50MB downloads for ten minutes of playtime, so something this compact is a breath of fresh air. Good job!

Caverns by Gossian 2021-05-09T19:33:56Z

This is beautiful to look at, and the music is really relaxing. The platforming is mostly a case of frantically running and jumping around and hoping you land on something that takes you closer to the goal. It's never really clear where you can and can't move to - while you get the gist of it, it's still not always intuitive when you suddenly hit a wall or fall off a ledge.

What @lisyarus said about the Linux version is also true of the Windows version: I must have clicked the Start button at least a dozen times before it actually registered. Not sure what the problem would be there but it's worth looking at.

Trposhi by mira 2021-05-08T16:53:39Z

A neat little idle/management game. There's a gentle, natural progression of difficulty as you dig deeper and deeper, and a bit of strategy starts to come into it, too; do you just send your dwarves to sleep and waste digging time, or do you send them all the way up to the tavern and risk them not making it? Do you leave it to the last second to restore their energy, or play it safe and (again) waste a bit of time? The fact each dwarf has their own unique strength really plays into the strategy as well.

The graphics are sound are very well done, too. A couple of people have noted the way the ambient sound changes depending on how deep you are, but I also noticed the terrain subtly changes as well: at Level 10 there are grey flecks added in, and at Level 20 there are golden flecks instead. It provides a real sense of progression, and a sense that yes, there really is more gold the deeper you dig.

I managed my dwarves well enough that I never got to see the funeral scene, I might have to go back and deliberately kill a dwarf just to see it :joy:

One thing I wish this had is a save system, so you can stop playing and come back to it later. It's really an essential feature for any idle-esque game. I got to Level 23 before deciding I should probably quit and write this review, or else I might end up playing it all day, but I would have loved to have been able to come back to that run instead of starting all over from scratch.

I really hope you do make a post-jam version of this, with a save function and some of the other improvements that have been mentioned, because I'd honestly pay money on Steam for one. It's already that addictive.

Archeo by zimny11 2021-05-08T12:57:23Z

The pace is frantic, as you go back and forth between the shop, dig site, and cleaning table, but I don't feel it's frantic enough. Once you've bought enough workers, you quickly accrue artifacts much, much faster than you can clean them. Before long you can afford to ignore the digging portion of the game entirely, and just sit there dusting off artifacts and purchasing time until you've burned through your backlog and can start digging again.

Once you have enough points in the bank, you're never in danger of running out of time, because every time you hear the beeps you can just quickly splash out to set the timer back again. I got to 15,000 points before I got bored and stopped playing, and I honestly think that if I had the time and patience, I could keep playing indefinitely and never run out of time.

Apart from that, this is a nice, straightforward interpretation of the theme, and I can see what kind of game you were going for. With some balancing work and a bit of polish (no pun intended), you could have a very fun and addictive game on your hands here.

Vacuum Kingdom by Prof.Suarez 2021-05-13T11:21:23Z

I have no idea what it is you're actually supposed to do in this game. Beyond the controls, nothing is explained. I don't know when you're supposed to attack enemies or when you're supposed to use the vacuum on them, I don't know what the "souls" I'm supposed to collect are or how you collect them, I don't know what the different styles do or when I'm supposed to use them, I don't know what XP is for or why I'm gaining it just from running around... nothing in this game feels intuitive to me at all.

I'm sure this is a deep and engaging experience once everything clicks, but right now *nothing* is clicking, and instead it's just confusing and unsatisfying. This is crying out for a tutorial level to ease you into the mechanics and help you get a feel for how the game is meant to be played, rather than just dumping you into the middle of a forest and leaving you to it.

Katavasi by variable_enigmatic 2021-05-09T17:16:57Z

I don't know whether you intended this, but all the different gameplay aspects combine to create an extremely difficult, yet rewarding experience. The fact that shooting drains your energy means you can't just spam bullets. The fact that enemies carry over from one level to the next means you can't just flee as soon as the wormhole appears. The optimal strategy seems to be to take your time and pick the enemies off slowly, but even that's easier said than done: the enemies quickly flood the level with hundreds of bullets, your ship is ***so*** difficult to control, and if you get too close to the wormhole it just sucks you in and takes you to the next level.

I'm really impressed at how you managed to fit everything together to create such a challenging entry. Good job!

Mine of Mine (web) by darkshadow 2021-05-09T18:36:04Z

I'm not sure this quite fits the "chill" vibe you were going for. The music and sound effects don't seem quite relaxing enough for it, and without any sort of goal or challenge, there's no real incentive to dig. You're just doing it because you can. It gets boring really quickly.

I have a couple of other nit-picks, as well. The controls are the wrong way round (it's Z to dig and X to jump, but the game says otherwise), and the lift seems redundant when I can just wall-jump out of the mine.

I think you should consider reworking this into a more goal-oriented game, where you can (for example) leave the mine and spend money on upgrades.

volcano falls by riana123 2021-05-13T11:06:15Z

Not bad for a first attempt. The hand-drawn graphics have a certain charm to them, especially the "BANG" that appears when you touch a bomb. It might be a good idea to have some sort of "kill zone" at the bottom of every level, in case you fall off: currently there's at least one level where you can fall off the platforms and just keep falling forever, with no way to restart the level. I also think the character's jump speed is too slow.

Keep working and keep developing! The more games you make, the better you'll get!

Taaanks! by Squerf 2021-05-11T15:03:05Z

Okay, this doesn't really fit the theme, but it's fantastic fun! It's like Worms, except it plays out in real-time, so you have to really pay attention otherwise you'll get blown up before you've finished aiming. The graphics and sound effects are all spot-on. The controls took some getting used to, but you did the best you could within PICO-8's limitations (for the benefit of anything not familiar with PICO-8, Arrows/Z/X are the only control inputs allowed, so @duo-afgebeld's suggestion to make this twin-stick is simply not doable).

For a first-ever entry - and especially for just 10 hours of work - this is amazing. I'd love to see what you can do in this engine with more time available to you.

Down to the Wire by Mieeh 2022-04-05T18:34:31Z

I love this! The simplistic graphics really work well, and the music is perfect, it does an excellent job of ramping up the tension. I couldn't finish it, sadly - I got to the level with the lamp you have to light three times and just couldn't figure it out. The rest of the puzzles hit that sweet spot of being challenging, but with an obvious solution once you stopped to think about it for a moment. I'd love to try again at a later point and hopefully beat the whole thing.

Revenge is Inevitable by minibobbo 2022-04-06T17:37:37Z

I found the controls a little finicky. Sometimes I'd try to jump and end up running, or I'd try to run and move about three pixels, or I'd jump and end up landing slightly off from where I aimed at. I beat the first level in 5.99 and have absolutely no idea how I did it because I can't get anywhere near that. It sadly just kinda spoils the experience.

The graphics and sound are great, though, and I like the interpretation of the theme - you're trying to make something good happen instead of preventing something bad from happening like most other games I've played so far. I think it just needs some adjustments to the control system and it'll be an excellent game.

The Last Church by sawtan 2022-04-08T19:03:18Z

This is very well done. The graphics are excellent, the art style and sound effects really compliment each other and perfectly convey the mood of the game, and the difficulty strikes just the right balance between making you feel like you're getting stronger while also still leading you to an inevitable demise. Making you choose between building more towers, upgrading your existing ones, or healing yourself adds an extra element of depth and strategy, too.

I really enjoyed this! Keep it up!

Afwas by thomz12 2022-04-05T17:19:19Z

Okay, this is a really funny interpretation of the theme. Stacking the dishes to avoid having to inevitably wash them? Love it!

The pixel art gives it a charming vibe, there's a nice variety of objects, and the music is more than just a simple loop (I played for about five minutes and right at the end I'm sure I heard it shift into a variation I hadn't heard before). The leaderboard is a great touch as well, not many Ludum Dare entries have that kind of competitive aspect to them. I'm afraid I can't beat your mum, I couldn't get higher than about 75.

Good job!

Invaasion by Ace17 2022-04-06T17:59:13Z

I'm not sure if it's just me, but it feels like the difficulty ramp is a little off. I was able to get by pretty comfortably, without really feeling like the game was challenging me. In fact, somewhere around the 500-point mark I was starting to get bored, and then the game suddenly just went mental and started spawning an endless torrent of enemies that are impossible to deal with because you can't build fast enough to do so. It might just be me, though. I don't have any suggestions for how that ramp could be smoothed out.

As for the game itself, the graphics and music have a pleasing old-school theme to them, and I like the freedom of being able to place towers anywhere you want instead of being restricted to a path. The fact that you even built the engine from scratch only makes this more impressive. Well done!

Volcano Lullaby by jd557 2022-04-13T19:51:16Z

I like the graphics, and especially the different environments you managed to squeeze in. You don't often see Ludum Dare games with this much variety. Unfortunately, I feel like the levels themselves suffered a little as a result. They feel too short and straightforward, with the challenge stemming entirely from the fact that the jump physics don't quite feel right. There's definitely promise here, but the levels need fleshing out.

Friendly Corp by kamikaziuk 2022-04-05T18:14:23Z

A delicious dose of black humour. The way the employee things cheer when you pick them up, and then scream when you throw them into the monster's maw... brilliant. I'm a sucker for low-poly, low-res graphics, so I enjoyed the game's graphical style as well.

As the game progresses, you have to go deeper and deeper into the building in search of employees, and eventually you just get lost. The "Sacrifice ->" signs scattered around the place really don't help. I think it adds to the difficulty ramp, though, even if it's unintentional, so I don't mind it that much.

Chicken Dinner by Brusi 2022-04-08T19:51:35Z

I enjoyed this, especially how the number of chickens gets gradually whittled down over time and it naturally becomes harder and harder to get the farmer to snatch one of them instead of you. The graphics and sound give it a pleasantly light-hearted tone, considering this is a game where you're tricking your friends into being killed and eaten in your place.

I don't know whether this is an intentional feature or not, but your movement speed seems to really vary. You'll be running away from the farmer and all of a sudden you'll slow to a crawl. It's still possible to avoid him if you know what you're doing, but I found it rather annoying and would prefer if your movement was more consistent. That's my only real gripe, though. Good job overall!

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-04T16:53:28Z

@cary-stanley I knew there were collision detection issues (which I'm fixing as we speak) but I wasn't aware of any bugs with the powers. I'll take a look and see if I can replicate it.

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-05T18:16:36Z

@nethead @minibobbo I knew it would be possible to get stuck in certain circumstances, but it seems there are more of those circumstances than I was expecting. I'll have to think about how best to deal with that particular problem.

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-05T22:18:23Z

@ace17 Did I forget to patch the bug that let you walk off the left-hand side of the map? Whoops. It's late where I am but let me take a look at that tomorrow. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-06T16:55:10Z

@ace17 Haha, I see what you mean by fireworks now! There's more to that particular bug than just being able to walk off the map, but I understand what's happening and I'll get it fixed. (That *is* one of the funniest bugs I've ever encountered in one of my games, though!)

@sdelay Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-06T17:34:50Z

@yogurtthehorse I've had a few comments complaining about the music at this point, so I think I'm going to have to lower either the pitch or the volume. Glad you at least liked the graphics, though!

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-08T19:38:45Z

@brusi Some doors can only be opened by shooting a fireball at a nearby brazier. I didn't do a very good job of signposting that, I don't think you're the only person who got stuck there. Sorry about that!

@glayson There's definitely a better way to handle the inventory system than what I have at present, it's something I'll look at in the post-jam version.

@wouter52 TIC-80 is its own thing, though it's definitely inspired by PICO-8. While PICO-8 styles itself as a "fantasy console", TIC-80 styles itself as a "fantasy computer", so its specs are a bit higher: it can handle more sprites, more code, a larger map, and so on. I prefer it over PICO-8 for that reason, though I know a lot of devs enjoy PICO-8's tighter constraints. TIC-80 also has a free version, so I'd recommend checking it out and seeing for yourself whether you prefer it to PICO-8.

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-08T21:40:38Z

@brandsma Yep, that balance between solving puzzles or killing enemies is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Judging from the number of people who ran out of fireballs, I don't think I got it quite right, but I'm glad you noticed!

@starr-fighter05 I wanted to include some little pop-up messages that appear when you get close to something, to give you a better idea of what to do, but I ran out of time to implement them. It's on my list of planned post-jam features.

@unbugged I wish I could take credit for the CRT filter but sadly I can't, it's a built-in feature of the TIC-80 engine that I honestly forgot about until now :sweat_smile: Glad you liked it so much, though!

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-10T19:32:35Z

@thedevduellist The different control configurations are a built-in part of the game engine, that's not something I spent any time on. Same with the CRT filter that you can enable. I didn't think the feather jump gave you enough momentum for you to clip through the ceiling, so that's something I'll have to check.

@diego-escalante Oooh, that's a serious issue. The flower isn't a powerup, I just put it in the inventory to show that you had it, but if it can be consumed like a powerup, then doing that makes the game unwinnable. I'll have to fix that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

The Flower of Marasca by F1Krazy 2022-04-18T18:53:01Z

@joror What I'm planning to do is increase the number of fireballs you get from each pickup, which will give you a bit more breathing space, especially in later areas where there are more enemies. I have to admit, I underestimated how many would actually be needed. I'll also add hints, as I wanted those in the game originally but ran out of time to add them.

Farm Dog by Trypants 2022-04-13T19:17:08Z

Very enjoyable! A "last stand" game isn't the most imaginative use of the theme, but a game where you shoot eggs out of a chicken's backside can hardly be called unimaginative! I love the voxel graphics, that's not an aesthetic you see often in Ludum Dare.

Gameplay-wise, there's a nice variety of power-ups, allowing for a wide range of playstyles. You can focus on outrunning enemies, tanking their hits, taking them out ASAP, or simply increasing the rate at which they drop XP so you can level up faster. I would have liked a bit more enemy variety, but I get that there isn't always the time for that kinda stuff.

Very good job! Well done!

Moonshot by Diego Escalante 2022-04-15T14:23:24Z

This is one of the best games I've played this Ludum Dare. The graphics and sound effects are exceptional, the storyline is superbly-written and really kept me engaged, and the controls are finely-tuned. The collisions seemed pleasantly forgiving, there were a few occasions where it seemed like I *just* clipped an asteroid and a less forgiving game might have punished me, but this one didn't.

There's a definite difficulty spike after the second launch: I didn't get hit once during either of the first two launches, but then failed launches 3, 4, and 6, and barely scraped through launch 5. I like that the game continues even if you fail, though, it kinda emphasises the futility of what you're doing rather than allowing you to try again.

Brilliant job, you should be very proud.

Life of a Mosquito by Cary Stanley 2022-04-05T16:55:20Z

This is a fun little game. I love the art style and the sound effects, they really compliment each other well and give the game a whimsical, humorous vibe. Gameplay-wise, it does get a bit repetitive after a while, but not quite to the point of tedium.

One other thing I'll mention is I thought the bug spray cans were water bottles at first, because it looks like the people are holding them up up to their mouths to drink from them. I was like, "Why is this guy spitting water at me-- oh, it's not water". This doesn't really detract from the game, just something I found funny that I thought I'd mention.

The Great Flood by cassowary 2022-04-08T18:53:41Z

A clever little puzzle game with a nice Biblical theme, cute, colourful characters, and simple but well-thought-out mechanics. Not much else to say, really. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Zombie, M.D. by Starr_Fighter05 2022-04-13T20:04:54Z

The gameplay is a bit confusing, I think it could do with a tutorial. It's not obvious that you can only brew potions from the other side of the desk, or that the number of potions you can have is capped at 5, so I was standing there spamming Space wondering why nothing was working. It seems like the potion bottles can collide with yourself, because if you fire one at certain angles, it just shatters immediately.

I like the graphics, and I definitely think there's the beginning of a good game here, but it needs some work and polish. I'm sure you'll improve in future jams, so keep up the hard work!

Salvation From The Alien Planet by Tomssuli 2022-04-13T20:19:51Z

This is surprisingly in-depth for a Ludum Dare entry, with plenty of mechanics and things to juggle. Unfortunately, I feel like this works against it, as without much of a tutorial, it ends up being quite overwhelming and you don't really understand what to do. It took me ages to figure out that, in order to pick up a resource drop, you had to send someone back into the base.

There are other strong points, though, like the global leaderboard and the soundstrack. I especially like the dual interpretation of the theme: you're *delaying the inevitability* of your base's destruction, in order to send as much data as possible so scientists can *delay the inevitability* of death. Very clever!

Overall, though, I feel like this is a bit too ambitious for its own good, and the time restraints of Ludum Dare mean it's not quite there yet. I'd love to see a more polished, upgraded post-jam version of this.

Message in a Bottle by hechi 2022-04-08T19:28:06Z

I love it when people try more experimental things like this. This is a really fascinating social experiment, seeing the kinds of different things people send. Some people are taking it seriously, some people are just having a laugh with it, a few people sent blank messages, and one guy just quoted *Frozen*.

Can't help wondering whether anyone will ever see my message. I suppose I'll never know, and I suppose that's the whole point. This game is a simple, yet powerful statement. Well done.

Too Cute for Space Fights by YogurtTheHorse 2022-04-08T17:11:47Z

I love the graphics, that pixel art is utterly gorgeous. I love the music choice as well, the dissonance between the fiery chaos surrounding you and the cheerful music playing in the background is just hilarious.

For me, the gameplay is simple and easy enough to understand, but the difficulty ramp feels a little off. After one minute, there had only been one malfunction for me to fix, and after two minutes, malfunctions were popping up faster than I could even locate them, let alone go grab the appropriate tool and fix them. I ended up losing hearts without knowing what had caused me to lose them, and that's never fun. A few others have suggested adding a minimap, and I really think that would help with understanding what's happening where.

This is *so close* to being a fantastic game, it just needs a couple of tweaks here and there, but it's still a very enjoyable game regardless. Good work!

Runic Moon by pke1029 2022-04-08T19:10:37Z

Always good to see another TIC-80 dev! I love the game's art style, and I think it manages to strike a nice balance between the casual, relaxing nature of the tile-matching drag-and-drop gameplay, and the frantic nature of the ever-decreasing timer. I would've liked to have known what my score was before I got a Game Over - I got confused and thought the 60 was my score until I realised it was the FPS timer.

Very nice job! I enjoyed it!

5 More Times by uboretsky 2022-04-15T13:26:15Z

Very sad and melancholy, but a beautiful narrative nonetheless, with excellent graphics and sound effects. As tragic as the twist at the end was, it was also well-executed and subtly but clearly foreshadowed. Good job.

Hex'd by Paroxysmal 2022-04-13T20:32:59Z

This is really fun! The graphics and sound/music are among the best I've ever encountered in a TIC-80 game, especially for just 48 hours' work. This really feels like something you would have played on the SNES or Genesis. The controls are tight, the mechanics are easy to understand, and the levels are well-designed and with a pleasing amount of variety. My only regret is that I got stuck on Level 3 and couldn't see everything the game had to offer, but even then, I appreciate how genuinely challenging this manages to be.

This has to be one of my favourite entries this time round, and I'd love to see more of it.

Oedipus Rex by Brachistosauro 2022-04-15T14:02:56Z

A very clever twist on the Oedipus Rex myth. Even if you know how the original myth goes, and go out of your way to avoid it, it comes true anyway. A perfect take on the theme. I didn't play through every route, but from reading the comments there's apparently a true ending that happens if you do, so I guess I'll try that later and see what happens.

SensenCemetery by Wouter52 2022-04-08T20:08:07Z

I got stuck at the 288m mark, just like so many other players. I panicked and couldn't find that path you mentioned :( Ah well. A very tense runner game, though I found it a little hard to tell whether you were going to collide with something in your path or not.

I love the idea of being able to see other players' tombstones and know how well you're doing relative to them, I love when LD games have those sorts of multiplayer aspects. I was a little surprised to see so many tombstones right at the beginning!

Last Day of Serenity Orbital Station by Glayson 2022-04-08T19:56:32Z

I found it difficult to tell which asteroids were dangerous to the station and which weren't, it seemed to lose health at random without me seeing the collisions. I can't say I mind that too much as it fits with the theme somewhat, though. The graphics are impressive for a Compo game, and the greyscale shading adds to the sombre feel of the whole thing. The fact you were able to make this for three game jams at once is even more impressive. Really nice work!

NAP GUARDIAN by nethead 2022-04-05T17:58:30Z

The tutorial made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, the writing is honestly the best I've seen in a Ludum Dare entry in quite some time. The graphics, audio, and core gameplay loop are really polished as well, especially for a Compo game.

Some of the gameplay mechanics feel like they need some work, however. Your horizontal dash travels such a short distance that it's basically useless, while the vertical dash feels rather clunky to use considering it's the only way you can jump. The one and only time I tried using a bomb, I didn't realise you'd throw them instead of just placing them down, so I ended up yeeting it into a corner where it detonated harmlessly.

As a few other people have already said, this feels way too short. I think part of that is down to just how much I was enjoying it - I was starting to really get into it, and then suddenly it was over. I understand why you didn't want to make it an endless game, though: I've played more than enough Ludum Dare entries where I eventually had to stop out of boredom (though I don't think this would have been one of them).

If you ever want to flesh this out into a full game, my suggestion would be to have a series of finite levels, with what you have now being Level 1. It would avoid the issue you mentioned about the game potentially being endless, and it would allow you to include more of those hilarious cutscenes (perhaps with the client changing from level to level)? Either way, this is a very good game and I want to see more of it.

CryptoHunk Market Platform by jabsatz 2022-04-05T16:46:03Z

Very fun. I'm not quite sure how the game is meant to work, but apparently that's the whole point, so you definitely nailed the vibe. The humour is on-point as well. I hope your ratings go TO THE MOON! (My crypto's value sadly did not, RIP)

It Will Fall by MadR 2022-04-05T17:07:58Z

Stacking things is a gameplay concept that never gets old. Who doesn't like Jenga?

What really impressed me about this, apart from the physics, is the sheer variety of stackable objects. Even on my second playthrough, I was still seeing new objects, and in my experience it's *really* rare to discover new things in a second playthrough of a Compo game. I presume these are actual photos of actual things in your house? That probably made it quicker to add them to the game, and the photorealism gives it a distinctive look, so good idea there.

The physics aren't perfect - on my second playthrough I swung a lamp(?) into the side of the tower and the game lagged like hell for a second while it worked out all the collisions - but they work well enough for a game of this kind, especially with such unwieldy objects. Good job!

The Fire Will Die by PolymathLD 2022-04-08T17:42:07Z

I love Ludum Dare games with engaging storylines like this, and this was one of the best I've played. As somber and dark as it gets, there are enough moments of levity to balance it out, and the writing deftly handles both tonal aspects so I never felt any whiplash from the mood changing.

The graphics, audio, and sound design all work together to enhance the mood of the story, and the limited inventory means you have to be careful and balance your various goals. I didn't find the game too difficult, and even the final day was easy enough once I stopped for a moment and figured out an actual strategy.

My only real criticism, and I know this has been brought up by others, is that the music stutters for a few seconds every time there's a scene change. It's really jarring, and it just pulls you right out of the world.

This is a fantastic game for 72 hours' work, and if you do expand it into a larger game, I'd love to play it.

Five Knights in France by Pixelydian 2022-04-08T18:22:20Z

Oh, I get it, it's a *Five Nights at Freddy's* parody. Clever.

Unfortunately I have no idea where the kitchen is, so I couldn't get very far with this. The rooms all look very similar and it's hard to tell where you are exactly. Some sort of visual indicator of where the kitchen is would be a real help. It was also a little distracting that you had to actually use each of the controls in order to get their prompts to disappear. I ended up pressing Shift just to get rid of the "Hold Shift to run" prompt.

The graphic are very good, and the music really suits the game's theme, I just wish I was able to get further into it.

Dilate the time! by milq 2022-04-15T13:42:59Z

I think this game needs a bit more explanation. I didn't understand how the time dilation mechanic worked, specifically, why time was slowed at some points and not at others (from reading the comments above, time is only slowed while you're moving?) I also didn't realise what the difference between the observed time and the regular time was, or what they were counting down to, until all of a sudden I got hit with "Your loved one died!" Wait, I have a loved one? And the goal is to reach them before they die? The game never tells you that beforehand, so it comes out of nowhere.

My main problem with this game, however, is that the platforming is just far too unforgiving. You move too quickly for any kind of precision platforming to be possible, yet the game is *full* of precision platforming. Level 7 in particular destroys my run every single time, because the platforms are tiny and most of them are *just* within the limit of what you can reach, so you either don't quite make it on, or you overshoot and fall off the other side. The furthest I could reach is Level 9, and while I could probably make it further if I gave up on collecting the coins, I doubt I can ever make it to the end, and I'm sorry to say that I'm probably not going to try again anyway, because the platforming is just that frustrating for me.

I'm sorry, I know this is a very negative review. This is a really clever concept for a platformer, and I really wanted to enjoy it, but I just... can't. The movement physics just completely ruin the experience for me.

Wait For It ! by Forgin Bits 2022-04-10T13:03:39Z

This is a very clever and imaginative game! I was impressed at how many minigames you managed to cram into this, and how well they all handle, especially for a Compo entry. They're all, for the most part, easy to understand, with nice, simple controls.

Some of the microgames are made harder than they should be by the fact that they begin immediately, rather than giving you a second or two to get ready and/or read the instructions if you haven't played it before. On more than one occasion I immediately failed a microgame before I even understood what I was meant to be doing. I failed the "Dodge the bottles" minigame every single time because I was never able to get the hang of the controls, and because I was failing it so quickly, I never had the chance to practice and get better at it.

I still greatly enjoyed this, though, it's a very fun take on the theme. Good job!

SandCastle by sdelay 2022-04-06T18:44:32Z

It's simple, but it works. The graphics have a certain charm to them. The tutorial was a little confusing, as I didn't realise you had to press Space to advance the dialogue. "Maintain X" is also a strange phrasing to use, but I understood what you meant and I'm assuming English isn't your first language, so it feels unfair to dock points for that.

For a first jam entry, this is pretty good! Keep it up!

SandCastle by sdelay 2022-04-07T18:37:27Z

@sdelay Yeah, "Hold X" is better, and some kind of hint that you need to press Space would be helpful as well.

QUIT GAME by Korvack 2022-04-09T16:50:52Z

This is a fantastic take on the theme. Instead of the player trying to delay the inevitable, the game is trying to delay the inevitability of the player exiting the game! Love it! Unfortunately, even with the edits I still found this way too hard to finish. The Q and I just stunlock you into helplessness, and the letters break free far too quickly after you place them, leaving you nowhere near enough time to catch the remaining letters. Reading the reviews above, apparently you're supposed to use the letters' powers against each other? It's never explained that you could do that, and I'm still not sure how you're even supposed to.

This is a good game with an imaginative concept, but sadly the Q and I alone make it far too difficult to actually complete.

Paddle Panic 🚣‍♂️😱 by Marlon 2022-04-13T19:01:58Z

"No little German man don't go to the river" "Mein gott! Zis is ein river full of WÄSSENFÄLLEN"

Memes aside, I really enjoyed this. It's a fun idea, charmingly executed, with excellent graphics and sound effects. The gameplay strikes a good balance: each task is easy enough to perform in isolation, but it's impossible to do all of them at once and you *will* inevitably trip up and fail. The camera change as you approach the waterfall is a neat touch, but sadly it also makes it impossible to dodge any oncoming obstacles and only makes it harder to recover.

I think my main criticism would be that, while the tutorial tells you how to re-inflate your boat, it never tells you that you can fix the holes that are causing the leaks in the first place. The button prompts to fix the leaks are also very hard to read in windowed mode, so I didn't realise what they were until my second playthrough. You also sometimes suddenly get five or six holes at once, which is basically a guaranteed game over - I know it happens when you collide with something but I'm sure it also happened without me touching anything.

Overall, great job!

Shadow Rush by Brandsma 2022-04-08T20:40:19Z

I don't think I've ever played a Ludum Dare entry that came with its own level editor before! That's very impressive! I'll have to check it out when I get the chance.

This is very enjoyable, and a great take on the theme. I love the graphics, especially the day/night cycle with the ghost cars' eerie red headlights during the nighttime. It's also very atypical for a racing game in that you're encouraged to take different paths and racing lines so that the same sections of track don't get clogged with ghosts.

One little bug I found is that the level intro you're shown corresponds to how many levels you've played, not which actual level you're playing. I played Level 1 to get to grips with the game, skipped to Level 5 because I thought the track layout looked interesting, and it showed me the intro for Level 2. Level 1 also doesn't give you an explicit game over when you get hit, you're just left sitting there until you think to press Escape.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this. Looking forward to trying out the map editor!

StopShot by AugustCoder 2022-04-13T19:35:07Z

For a first game jam effort, and only 24 hours' work, this is pretty good! The controls are tight, and you've managed to pack in a few different mechanics. The time stop in particular is very impressive, and opens up some interesting gameplay opportunities. I found that the best strategy to deal with enemies was to hide where they couldn't see you, then stop time, move into the open, fire a couple of bullets, and then hide again before time resumes.

The execution does need some work, though. Bullets clip through the wall blocks and don't stop until they emerge on the other side, so you have to be careful when hiding behind cover. Sometimes if I fired while time was stopped, my bullets would immediately disappear as though they'd hit something. The section at the end with four enemies is also too much to deal with and I died there every time.

I will say, however, that in my experience with Ludum Dare, collision detection is ***the*** hardest thing to get right, so don't beat yourself up about the problems you've had with it. Hopefully next time around you'll have more time to work on your game and get it polished before the deadline. I wish you all the best for it!

Clocks & Cards by TerraCottaFrog 2022-10-16T13:22:13Z

I loved the concept of this! It took me a couple of rounds to fully get the hang of what I was doing, and it's also pretty slow in the early rounds when you don't have many cards. However, once you start improving your deck and getting more powerful cards like the one that draws three at once, the game really comes into its own.

You still have a lot of dead time at the start of each level, but as you get more and more cards and gears and things snowball, you find yourself with plenty to do in between each number. I was impressed with the number and variety of cards, and they all work well together to create an excellent game of strategy. I actually had to tear myself away from it just to write this review! Well done! I'd love to see you flesh this out into a larger game in the future.

LOve FInder by limered 2022-10-15T09:55:03Z

Nice little game. It's tricky sometimes to gauge whether someone meets your requirements (I got "animalistic" as a requirement once and had no idea what that meant). Very relaxing, and some of the profiles you get are very amusing as well.

autoball by torcado 2022-10-04T19:40:19Z

This is so simple, yet so addictive. My only complaint - though this might just be a skill issue - is that I found it really hard to gauge where the ball was going to travel, and how it was going to bounce, which made it very difficult to actually do anything. The vast, vast majority of my points came from rounds where the ball was already aimed in such a way that it would land in the bonus area, and all I had to do was let it fall unobstructed, and that just felt really unsatisfying.

Tank Factory by GlacierEclipse 2022-10-16T14:37:25Z

This is good, and I like the idea of being able to upgrade your tank and tailor its design to the enemies you're about to face, but I feel like it's underutilized, and you *really* need to re-balance the waves. The first four waves are practically identical, so there's no real incentive to experiment, and then the fifth wave finally throws a new enemy type at you but also *triples* the enemy count, which is just completely ludicrous. I must have spent ninety seconds firing at a solid mass of orange with no visible reduction in their numbers before I just got bored and stopped playing.

Radioactive Rocket Fuel by JonathanG 2022-10-20T17:06:23Z

Am I the only one who can't actually find any other planets? I launch off the starting planet, collect some more fuel, and.... fly off into empty space and die helplessly, no matter which direction I go in? There obviously *are* other planets, as other people seem to be able to fly to them and complete the game, but I have no idea how you're supposed to know where they are. I hope it's not just tedious trial and error. A minimap would have been better.

I hope I'm not sounding too harsh on you here. I want to like this, as it's clearly had a lot of effort put into it within the Compo deadline, but I can't actually play enough of it to make a fair judgement.

Ravenous by dusho 2022-10-16T11:01:03Z

Wow, you did this in only *one* day? That's great work! The art is simple, but works really well with the caveman theme. I was a bit confused about whether the number in the corner was the victory condition or the loss condition, but I quickly worked out that it was the first one.

My favourite part was the subtle difficulty ramp. At first the game felt too easy, as the boars drop two pieces of meat and run right to you for an easy kill. Over time, however, they gradually stopped spawning, and by the end there were only rabbits, which run away from you to the edges of the screen. Combined with your slow movement speed, the game quickly becomes much more difficult, and I eventually lost with just four pieces of meat left.

There were a couple of layering issues, with the caveman being rendered behind objects he was actually in front of and vice versa, but for one day's work, I can overlook things like that and the lack of sound (I understand that's not a priority). Well done!

HAZCAT - Toxic Feline by johnnysix 2022-10-20T16:56:22Z

This looks great, especially for a Compo entry! The graphics are great, and the idea of a danger rising upwards every 10 seconds works really well. I think one of the other reviewers said it had a PS1 vibe, and I agree with that. The music is excellent, too.

Unfortunately, it's let down by the gameplay. I struggled to reliably pull off the wall jumps (and since it's never actually mentioned that you *can* wall-jump, I got very stuck on my first couple of tries). The controls feel too slippery, which makes the game's precision platforming extremely difficult even without the added pressure of the rising waste. I also find it annoying that the switches are triggered automatically when you touch them *and* can be turned back off again - one or the other, please, not both. The ones on the walls are too hard to turn on, and the ones on the floor are too easy to turn back off again, turning them into a massive inconvenience.

I don't know whether you fixed this in the Post-Compo version, but the countdown doesn't actually start at ten seconds, not does it reset when you die, so sometimes you die and restart and the danger level rises after only one or two seconds. That's a much more minor issue, though.

Da Bomb! by Cal 2022-10-10T09:59:53Z

I love the idea of switching characters every 10 seconds, I'd considered something similar but decided against it. It does, however, end up being frustrating when you're trapped as one character and you need a different character to attack the zombies or complete a terminal task.

The first time I played, the engineer somehow glitched out-of-bounds and couldn't move anymore, and the second time, I was unable to pass the terminal game. I don't know whether I'm doing it wrong, but it doesn't seem to work at all - red squares flash up, you click them, and the terminal just goes "nope" and closes on you. It doesn't make sense to me. Then Da Bomb got killed by the zombies and killed everyone else as well.

I want to like this game, but it needs work.

RandoBots by Brusi 2022-10-16T13:33:49Z

I remember your LD50 entry, *Chicken Dinner*. Always good to see returning faces! I saw this one on the frontpage of Newgrounds as well and was looking forward to playing it, as the asymmetrical battle concept sounded great.

I'm not disappointed. This is a slick, well-polished game, with simple controls and enjoyable gameplay. The music switching every ten seconds along with the gameplay is a really nice touch. The enemy AI is good but I've noticed it has a tendency to run into blocks and get stuck, which makes it a sitting duck. I expect this would even more fun in two-player mode anyway, so I don't mind. Good job!

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-03T20:54:47Z

@kostas-nik You're absolutely right, I didn't consider that. I'll update the description.

@shimmerscale I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-04T20:15:24Z

@ideaspersecond Balance is always something I've struggled with, as I'm not too great at these kinds of games myself, so it's hard to know where the line is. I'll take a look at toning down some of the enemies.

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-04T20:18:35Z

@diego-teran Would it help if the cockpit was a different colour? I've been wondering whether the light blue cockpit doesn't stand out enough against the light grey bodywork. It's probably not great for colour-blind or visually-impaired players.

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-07T14:07:57Z

@katboo Thanks! Having a hitbox that's smaller than your actual craft is a standard feature of bullet hell games, and in this case I thought it would make sense to make the cockpit the hitbox.

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-10T11:50:14Z

@ryupold Unfortunately TIC-80 doesn't support that. I can play sound effects at different volumes but I can't make music tracks play at different volumes. It would have to be a binary on/off toggle.

@fifut That's something I'm considering for a future update, but it would need a lot of work and balancing to get it right.

@wouter52 I originally had the gun fire automatically as well, but I changed it for example the reasons you mentioned: to add an extra element of strategy.

@leekanarchism Thanks for the heads-up. I have a sneaking suspicion that enemies and bullets aren't being deleted when they move off-screen, which would gradually cause the game to lag. I'll investigate, and if that is indeed the case, I'll fix it.

I'm plowing through my backlog and I'll get round to all your games shortly! Thanks for your reviews!

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-15T13:40:31Z

@furano Z is one of the default inputs provided by the TIC-80 game engine I used. I think I can change the control scheme to use Space instead of Z, but I'm not sure, as I've never tried to before.

Long Shot by F1Krazy 2022-10-21T19:40:51Z

@artofluba I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I'm glad you loved it so much!

Digital Bacon's Every 10 Seconds by digital bacon 2022-10-16T14:17:22Z

It's a shame you never got round to finishing this, as it looks like it could have been really promising. Instead I'm just clicking cards randomly with no idea what effect they're actually having. I hope you'll consider revisiting this someday and upgrading it into the game it was supposed to have been.

Space Hourglass by PatteDeCanaard 2022-10-10T09:30:23Z

This is amazing, especially for a Compo entry. The graphics and sound are all on-point, and the gameplay loop is solid if a little complex. The difficult ramps up a little slowly at first, but after that it's perfect. You can keep up pretty easily at first, but somewhere around the 30 beats mark you gradually get completely overwhelmed (I lasted 37 beats in total). Great job!

Factory Reset by ComicSans 2022-10-10T11:26:01Z

I'm really confused as to how this game actually works. I can't quite wrap my head around the time dilation mechanic, and how best to make use of it, or what the point of the waypoints is. I got stuck on a level where there were six spider mechs and I only had four missiles. The closest I came was blasting a gap between the mechs and then darting towards a waypoint I'd placed by accident, but then I couldn't move off the waypoint once I reached it, and I forgot that you could clear waypoints. By the time I figured out to just set another waypoint, the spider mechs had already caught up to me and I lost.

There's a great game in here somewhere, but it's in desperate need of a tutorial, or some way of easing the player into the mechanics so that they understand what they're actually supposed to do when faced with six mechs with only four missiles.

Factory Reset by ComicSans 2022-10-10T17:29:27Z

@comicsans I understand that with the Ludum Dare time constraints, getting it working is always the most important thing, so you should be proud of yourselves for managing a fully-working, bug-free release. That's better than I've done sometimes! If you do manage to upload an updated version with clearer explanations, let me know and I'd be more than willing to give it another go.

Every 10 seconds life by aDeCon 2022-10-16T11:21:23Z

This is real nice! Each of the scenes is simple yet poignant, as is the final message at the end. The 1-bit graphics are simple and work very well. I enjoyed the bleeps and bloops *except for* those made by the granny during the candy scene, which were super harsh and grating.

It was fairly easy to figure out what to do in each scene, especially with the sparkles to highlight important things (great touch btw!), and the minigames were intuitive as well. I have to disagree with the reviews that called them "repetitive" - there was enough variety that I never felt as though any specific minigame had outstayed its welcome.

There's a bit of wonky grammar in places, but I understand that English isn't your first language, so I can overlook that (and from the sounds of things, you've already made some improvements compared to what it was like initially). Overall, a really good game with a really powerful message. Well done!

10 seconds Delirium by Furano 2022-10-16T10:45:56Z

This is very fun! The graphics are great for a jam game, the therapist's random lines are very funny, there's lots of polish, and I love the idea of the first minigame giving you extra lives to use in the second minigame. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the other reviews in that this is too easy. The shooting minigame simply doesn't last long enough for you to lose more than two lives, and you can easily gain those back again in the yin/yang minigame, so the only way to lose is on purpose. I'm not sure how you'd address this, though - maybe have the yin/yang minigame replenish your ammunition instead of giving you extra lives? I'll repeat, though: this is a great game, and the difficulty is the only thing holding it back. Good job!

Escape The Ice by Dannyk1994 2022-10-16T13:49:55Z

For a game made in four hours, this is really great! The first time my controls changed and I immediately fumbled and died, I burst out laughing. Great job! I hope you manage to get the 20 ratings you need because it would be a real shame if you missed out on getting ranked.

Coronga Strike by elzeu 2022-10-16T13:56:22Z

This is difficult, but fun! I love how you have to dodge and turn to avoid the enemies, while being careful not to run straight into one. The shooting part isn't as satisfying as it could be, as the enemies run away immediately and you're left shooting at empty space for a few seconds. I also didn't realise what the red squares were supposed to be, it's not obvious that they're health or that you have to shoot them.

I *really* love how, when you die, the triumphant metal music just deflates and grinds to a halt. That's a fantastic little detail.

For twelve hours' work, this is excellent. Well done!

HeartBeat by chromaphase 2022-10-06T19:15:28Z

I'd love to try this, it looks great, but the keyboard controls don't seem to work. I can click on the menu options, and those work, but when I start the game I can't move around, and pressing F to go full-screen doesn't do anything either. I'm using Windows 10 and Google Chrome Version 105.0.5195.127, in case that affects anything.

Murmillo vs Murmillo by leekanarchism 2022-10-15T12:42:52Z

I had to play it by myself, which obviously made it a little tricky, but it does seem fun! The "hot potato" mechanic is a really clever interpretation of the theme, and I like how the shifting platforms provide an extra element of strategy. Good job!

10s Bar Brawl by Cedric86 2022-10-16T13:45:30Z

I love the idea of your weapons switching every 10 seconds, it adds some real variety to the gameplay. Making you wait 10 seconds to even start the game is a fun touch, as is what happens when you try to click "Exit Game".

Combat feels somewhat unsatisfying, though; it's hard to tell when enemies are attacking you, and if you're not careful they can easily trap you in a Cycle of Hurting and wipe out a chunk of your health. They also have a tendency to get stuck on environment objects. The physics-enabled blood spray and objects are fun, but the main gameplay itself needs some refinement.

EPOCH by Wouter52 2022-10-15T11:25:24Z

Oh, I remember SensenCemetary, your game from the last jam! Always good to run into familiar faces.

This looks and feels great! The graphical style is unique and fits the game perfectly, and I love the idea of the playing field changing around you at set intervals.

My main complaints are that bug-fixing feels too repetitive and trivial - you don't even need to read the error messages, the answer is always `int64` or `long` - and when the maze shifts, you can end up getting trapped and unable to reach any bugs. I had this happen to me three times in a row and helplessly game over'd as a result. (It it helps, I noticed that this is especially prone to happening if you, or a bug, are close to the edge of the screen, and especially if they're close to a corner. I had one bug trapped in the bottom-right corner that I couldn't reach for about twenty scans in a row.)

I saw you'd addressed both of those in the post-jam version and gave it a try, and honestly, I felt that with the improved maze generation, it was too easy. I was able to repeatedly clear the screen of bugs entirely, beat the current high score by nearly 100, and only lost because I was bored and needed the bathroom. There needs to be some kind of difficulty ramp-up, because I honestly think I could have kept playing forever, had I actually wanted to. As I said, it's a great game, but it's clearly not intended to be played for an hour straight like I was able to, and the fun wears off quite quickly.

epoch_score.png

One other likely bug I noticed: on a few occasions, I got a "change value to a lower number" error where there *was* no lower number, and the correct solution was to select the number that was already in the code, which makes no sense:

epoch.png

Cyber Survivor by theheheo 2022-10-10T10:07:33Z

This is a nice little game! Trying to position and time yourself to make the most of your cyber-abilities adds a nice level of strategy to the game. I agree with the other reviews in that it would have been nice to see more variation in terms of abilities and enemy types, but I understand the constraints of jams. It's also a bit disappointing that you can only take one hit before getting a game over, but it does add to the challenge considerably.

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Diego Teran 2022-10-06T19:45:33Z

Wow! I love a Ludum Dare game with a good story, and this is a doozy. I love that the trial-and-error aspect of some of the puzzles is incorporated into the story - you learn what to do by reading the journals of other operators, write things down in your own journal as you learn them, and when you inevitably get stuck and die, your successor picks up the slack.

The puzzles struck a nice balance: they were challenging enough to make me think, but not challenging enough that I couldn't work them out in the process. And it was worth it, as that was a heck of a twist at the end! Good job!

Paper Prison by Fifut 2022-10-15T10:07:02Z

Took me a few times to get the hang of the controls and gauge how much could be done during the 10-second windows, but once I did I managed to get it completed in 9 shifts. I really like the hand-drawn aesthetic, and the smooth transitions in the menu make it feel really polished. I think the controls could be tweaked a little, and perhaps it could be made clearer what the guards will bust you for, but overall, this is great, especially for a Compo game.

BTW, the version embedded on this page doesn't work for me, I get the following error:

*Failed to read the 'serviceWorker' property from 'Navigator': Service worker is disabled because the context is sandboxed and lacks the 'allow-same-origin' flag.*

I had to play the version on itch.io instead, which works fine.

Best LD Game Ever! by alks 2022-10-15T12:59:16Z

This is great! I was having so much fun with the upgrade system, and how meta the game's premise was, that I didn't actually realise it wasn't adhering to the theme... then the boss battle kicked in and I was like "ohhh, *there's* the theme!" I think I actually lost the boss battle but I seemed to get the good ending anyway. Still, I love the premise, the narrayion, and how the upgrade system was implemented (I burst out laughing when I saw the wonky :thinking: emoji). Great job! :)

Impact-Effect by IdeasPerSecond 2022-10-06T19:08:34Z

Wow, this is great! The minimalist graphics work super well, and the slow-mo and colour change when you shift into Attack Mode is so satisfying. The difficulty ramp feels just right, with a constant stream of new, more challenging enemy types to keep you on your toes, and while hits don't matter so much at the start, by the end you're struggling to avoid every hit you can because they deal so much damage. I sadly didn't reach Level 10, but I came close!

So they met. So they talked. by batkoi 2022-10-15T13:46:50Z

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here - as others have noted, the story is a bit confusing and ends so abruptly that it's hard to tell if you actually won or not - but the result is a very eerie, surreal experience, amplified by the droning background music. Definitely one of the more unique and memorable experiences I've had so far this game jam.

ChickChick by DaivyIsHere 2022-10-16T14:13:55Z

I couldn't figure out how the "Only one pressure plate works" minigame was supposed to work until I went back and read the spoiler. Thanks for explaining that. This is fun, but would definitely be more fun with friends or strangers online; unfortunately I don't have the time to sort that out and had to go through the game myself.

Lex Temporis by ImmanentDeath 2022-10-16T12:50:30Z

I love the music and graphics, as well as the game's generally ominous feel, with the constant countdown and the eerie noises of whatever's chasing you sounding every 10 seconds. The lava that cools and hardens is a great game mechanic as well, that forces you to pay attention and not just race wildly through the level.

The enemies made things a bit too hard, IMO. The fact that you stop moving when you shoot makes it too much of a challenge to dodge their attacks *and* chase them away, *and* you're losing even more time all the while, *and* if you're standing on cooled lava, you'll invariably get caught out when it heats up again and lose *another* chunk of health before you have time to react. The fact that they're only chased away instead of being killed also feels rather unsatisfying.

I have no idea how close I was to the end, but there's a section where you have to walk on cooled lava and get to a safe spot while avoiding the enemies' attacks and shooting back, and I simply could not juggle all of that *and* the rapidly-diminishing timer, and died with less than a minute left on the clock.

On top of that, I also found it very hard to tell where you were meant to be going sometimes, as there are some areas that look like paths but aren't, and some areas where the path is only one tile wide and you have to spot where it is and thread yourself through it, and all the while that's wasting even more time.

Overall, this is a game with some great presentation and a strong central premise, let down by (IMO) unsatisfying, overly-challenging gameplay. It needs some balancing and level design tweaks to really bring the best out of it.

Internal Business Struggle by SimonO 2022-10-10T10:28:01Z

This is such a ridiculous, hilarious concept. I love it. The fart-related prompts are the icing on the cake. Toliet humour aside, it's actually quite an interesting challenge, especially in later levels where the ventilation isn't as good, and you have to run off and find areas to fart in without upsetting anyone.

Here's a handy tip, especially if you're a slow typer: if you walk away mid-sentence, you can come back and resume where you left off without having to start the entire sentence over again. Not going to finish a prompt in time? Just run away, fart somewhere safe, and come back again! I'm a very fast typer but I still had to use that tactic multiple times in order to schmooze the head honcho.

Clique Hell High by Sean Esopenko 2022-10-16T11:53:49Z

This is great! I love the concept of some bullets hurting you and some bullets healing you depending on which character you are, and having to try and strategise around that. The graphics and sound are all excellent, and the gameplay itself is well-polished; I love the detail of bullets bouncing off you and rolling away when they hit you, instead of just vanishing on impact.

I personally found this a little too hard, and haven't managed to beat it yet. I can collect three of the items, and I figure the other three are on the other side of the lunch hall, but I can't reliably make it through with enough health. The first time I entered the room with the damaging floor, I didn't know it was there, and died before I realised what was happening. I saw the danger signs the second time I entered, but still couldn't navigate my way through the damaging floor *and* the bullets without dying (it doesn't help that you *have* to cross the damaging floor to retrieve one of the six items).

This is definitely one of the most polished games I've played this Ludum Dare, I just wish I was good enough to actually beat it :sweat_smile:

Earth tremor by Nel Creation 2022-10-15T12:32:15Z

This looks nice, and I like the idea of having to stop every 10 seconds or get shaken off, but I feel like it needs work. As others have stated, the jump controls are a bit finicky: often, when you try to an arc jump, you just fall off the wall. The 35-second time limit before you lose isn't mentioned anywhere, so you don't know it exists until you reach it, and it just feels really unsatisfying and arbitrary, especially with the control problems.

The game also feels much too short. I don't mean to sound too harsh here, but I'd honestly expect a team of three people, working in 72 hours, to create a game with more than 30 seconds of content. It's in desperate need of more levels, or even just a longer level (and ideally without the time limit).

Soul of Seasons by shimmerscale 2022-10-04T20:11:01Z

I thought about doing something like this, with the environment changing every 10 seconds, but went for something simpler instead, so I'm glad to see someone else went for this. While it is a bit annoying having to wait for the seasons to cycle back round again if you mess up, I can't think of a way around it that wouldn't risk accidentally fast-forwarding past whichever season you were waiting for. There are times when you're forced to wait around and see what changes as the seasons cycle round anyway, so it's not much of a problem.

I think my main complaint would be the jumping physics. When Ivy jumps, she maintains all her upward momentum until she reaches an arbitrary height or you let go, and then she immediately falls back down with the same amount of momentum. I would expect her to slow down as she approaches the apex of her jump, which would make some of the game's precision platforming a lot easier and less fiddly.

Overall, though, this was an enjoyable experience. Good job!

Torquemada, Heretic Slayer by Kostas Nik 2022-10-04T19:52:56Z

I enjoyed this. The graphics are excellent, and the atmospheric lighting really tied it all together. Combat is satisfying, though a little confusing at times. I managed to last 198 seconds before dying, I think the enemy that landed the final blow was tucked up against a wall so I didn't realise what they were. All in all, a very nice entry.

Every 10 Seconds I Find New And Exciting Ways To Hate Myself by ActuallyTheMoon 2022-10-10T11:03:01Z

I had to stop playing after Day 1 because it was starting to drive me to tears. That's a good thing, though. This tiny little game jam game has wrung more emotion from me than any AAA game I've ever played. It's just too depressingly relatable. You should be proud of having made something so powerful.

I'm also impressed at how much content there seems to be. Getting to the end of Day 1 took maybe 10-15 minutes, and most Ludum Dare entries can be played through twice over by then. A lot of that is down to the gameplay style and constant intrusions, but even so, creating a game with (guesstimating here) at least an hour of gameplay in less than 72 hours is highly impressive. The length and slow pace also adds to the feeling of drudgery.

My only complaint gameplay-wise - although this may only be the case for Day 1 - is that the workloads feel somewhat unbalanced. Human 3 always has work to do (i.e. snapping Humans 1 and 2 out of their dissociative states), and Human 1 has lots of Things to collect, but Human 2 only has four boxes to push and is then left standing around. I guess if someone's finished their tasks, I could just not wake them up when it's Human 3's turn, but I'd feel even worse if I just left them alone with those nasty intrusive thoughts :cry:

As an aside, I was extremely confused as to why the game was 190 MB until I downloaded it and realised it was an RPG Maker project with all the default assets left in. I'd recommend deleting all those unused assets as they're massively bloating the game's file size.

Pandora’s Box [WebGL/Win/Touch] by AJ Studio 2022-10-03T20:51:48Z

The controls are quite slippery and hard to get the hang of. It's especially bad while jumping; you can't seem to maneuver properly in mid-air and it makes some of the precision jumps more difficult than they should be.

Once I did manage to get the hang of it, though, it's actually quite enjoyable. The "ten-second time limit per level" concept was one I'd considered doing myself, and it works very well. The level design is good, with enough variation to keep things interesting, and (slippery controls aside) manages to be challenging without frustrating. Nice job!

(And well done on giving out so many ratings in such a short space of time, too! That's honestly quite impressive in its own right.)

Not Mushroom for Error by TerraCottaFrog 2023-01-16T17:43:17Z

This is a fun little game! The procedurally-generated mushrooms are a great touch for a Compo game and add serious replay value, while the steady stream of new mushrooms provides a natural difficulty progression. I only made it to four pages before tripping myself up and losing but I'm sure I can go a lot further than that, which is the feeling you want when finishing a game like this. Good job!

The Dark Forest and the Memories of Harvest, of One Autumn's Days by Tygrak 2023-01-15T20:16:04Z

Everything in this game comes together to create a really unsettling atmosphere, from the eerie monochrome graphics, to the minimalist banjo-playing in the background, to the increasingly alien landscapes, and even the way the "level complete" text goes from a terse but polite "enough harvesting" to frantically screaming "ENOUGH. DOOR. DOOR." at you. The sequence with the extremely lengthy hallway dialled it all up to eleven, and I must confess, it rather reminded me of when I had a mental breakdown in college. Which I think is a good thing? I'll applaud you for it anyway.

I made it to the final level, with the hills and the rivers, but I keep getting stuck on the level geometry and I'm not entirely sure where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do, if anything. But I don't really mind, because I think it would be entirely fitting if there *was* no final objective except to stand there, watching the pixelated sun creep across the sky, forever...

Well done. I really enjoyed this.

A Day in the Life of Death by DDRKirbyISQ 2023-01-15T19:52:30Z

Wow. I can't believe you managed to create something that's so funny, yet so poignant all at the same time! I loved the narrative parallel between the souls getting burned out and Death himself getting burned out, as well as how it all came full circle right at the end (and nearly brought me to tears, which doesn't happen that often when playing video games!). Bravo. I'll be amazed if this doesn't get at least one medal.

EDIT: OH MY GOD THE SYMBOLISM OF HIM BEING INTERRUPTED BY HIS PARENTS DURING THE FIRST HAPPY LALA LEVEL, THAT'S GENIUS

Furious Farm: Total Reap-Out by TRASEVOL_DOG 2023-01-11T18:37:36Z

This is amazing for a game jam entry! You absolutely nailed the 16-bit aesthetic: the graphics and music are spot-on (there's even a CRT filter!) I was expecting there to be only one round, so for there to be *four* rounds, with random upgrades between each one, was a very pleasant surprise.

I think my main feedback points are things that have already been touched upon. The power-ups feel under-utilised - it's way too easy to win without ever using them - and the score tally at the end of each round is far too slow. I think there should at least be a way to skip it.

Overall, though, this is a very enjoyable game with a staggering amount of polish for 72-hour development window. I'm excited to see what the full game will end up looking like!

Fruit Fall by F1Krazy 2023-01-10T14:58:13Z

@avareii Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! The main issue for me in terms of technical constraints was the 16-colour palette, I had to adjust it slightly to stop things from blending into each other. Being able to just toss the fruit at the basket was a deliberate design choice just to make things a little more forgiving. And yeah, the fruit bounce in different directions depending on where they land on the trampoline, maybe I could've made that a little clearer as it's a very pivotal game mechanic :sweat_smile: Glad you managed to figure it out and progress further!

Fruit Fall by F1Krazy 2023-01-10T16:39:35Z

@wouter52 Glad you enjoyed it! The "how to play" screen shows the fruits in order of rarity: apples are the most common, then banana, then orange, then mango.

Fruit Fall by F1Krazy 2023-01-28T16:05:53Z

@aune The speed of the trampoline has been the one piece of negative feedback I've gotten, I'll have to try a version of the game with mouse controls instead and see if that feels better. Glad you enjoyed it otherwise!

Alien Cropping by CodeForJoyCaro 2023-01-15T14:08:50Z

I love the graphics, there's a real "alien" vibe to them. As others have pointed out, the camera is very finicky, swinging around all over the place, and towards the end of the game it starts juddering and moving all over the place for no apparent reason. I also felt the game could have done with a bit more of an explanation at the start: "get seeds and find a growing area" isn't much of an instruction when you don't know how to get seeds or what a growing area looks like. I spent several minutes wandering around before I figured it out.

There's definitely a solid concept here that can be expanded upon, though. Not bad!

Turbeets racing by Aune 2023-01-22T20:00:29Z

This is surprisingly hard! It takes a few runs of each level before you can figure out the ideal line to get through it without smashing into too many obstacles or missing too many turbeet patches. Some of the obstacles require either very precise lines, or for you to have picked up a turbeet patch just beforehand so you don't lose speed plowing through them.

I love the graphics, and I'm impressed by the AI for the two-legged radish, and how accurately it's able to weave its way through the obstacles (although now that I think about it, maybe it's just following a fixed path). In any case, this is a nice game, and there's definitely scope to make something even bigger and better out of it. Well done!

Seeds of Civilisation by Istaera 2023-01-10T20:39:43Z

This was great fun! The gameplay is tricky, but only because of its realism, and because more often than not, by the time you realise there's an asteroid on a collision course with the planet, it's too late for you to do anything about it.

I love the humorous presentation, with your activities being presented as... not exactly legal. I also love how the music changes as the planet goes from era to era, and the number of different puzzles and mechanics you were able to integrate. I think I must have been playing for nearly half an hour and didn't even finish it, and there aren't many Ludum Dare entries I can say that about. Good job!

Harvest Dune by rrsmtz 2023-01-19T18:05:57Z

This is great! I wasn't expecting it to be as challenging as it is, especially with the sand worm giving you a strict (and I mean *strict!*) time limit. The increasing screen shake as the sand worm approaches, and the fact you don't know exactly when it's going to strike, really adds to the sense of panic as you try to extract that last bit of spice. I liked the challenge, but was sadly never quite able to juggle the mechanics well enough to survive.

My main complaint is that the turrets aren't effective enough at dealing with the raiders. You have to build multiple to actually stop them, which you can't do effectively because you can only build one at a time, and they move so quickly that they're already taking lumps out of your health before the first turret is even built.

There's definitely scope here to make this a full-sized, multi-level game, with the first levels being a bit less punishing and easing you into the mechanics more. I'd like to see that.

Hobo Harvest by magicstunts123 2023-01-15T13:32:53Z

I'm not sure I understand how this game works. I think I have to collect enough food to fill the food meter before I run out of time or the mushroom gauge fills up, but food and mushrooms are really hard to find. I scraped through the first level with two seconds to spare and lost on the second level. I have no idea what playing the guitar is supposed to do, or the purpose of all the NPCs walking around. This looks cool, but it's so weird and poorly-explained that I can't quite grok what it is.

The Harvest by EpicGameFan 2023-01-16T17:58:38Z

This is great! It's always good to see people creating console games for Ludum Dare. The music and sound effects are great, and you did a good job of crafting the graphics within the Game Boy's limited colour palette.

I got stuck on Demonface, I'm *sure* I tried everything in my inventory but nothing seems to work on him. Maybe I'm supposed to craft something, but I can't intuit what it is I'm supposed to craft...? I'll see if I can figure it out later. The rest of the puzzles had been fairly intuitive up to that point so I feel like I'm just missing something obvious.

Racing Reaper by Crygos 2023-01-15T14:29:17Z

Simple, but very fun! I love the "ancient device", that's a brilliant idea. Having the health pickups also increase your speed is a great and subtle way of incrementing the difficulty, too.

Took me a few tries, but I managed to get Reaper of the Month:

2023_01_15_14_25_40_Racing_Reaper_by_Crygos.png

Buzzy Business by amarokczukay 2023-01-22T19:52:16Z

This is fun! It manages to strike that sweet spot of being difficult but not infuriating: you just have to concentrate and know where the next hazard is likely to come from. It's short, but well-polished, and with a great sense of humour. Well done!

Harvest Pen by Roroto Sic 2023-01-19T18:22:17Z

This is a nice idea, but sadly I'm not too sure about the execution. The puzzles with the blue pen all seem to have an intuitive solution about where I'm supposed to draw the lines to make the fruit bounce where I want it to, but it just... doesn't. Actually getting the lines correct seems to be nothing but trial and error, and it gets very tedious very quickly, especially since every time you hit restart the game freezes and stutters for several seconds. Add in the frame rate drops (I'm guessing your collision system needs optimising - don't worry, collision detection is the bane of my existence), and what should be a fun experience unfortunately has all the fun sucked out of it.

Out Of Sight by Kizilejderha 2023-01-15T14:41:01Z

This is much harder than it looks! It's difficult to gauge whether you're out of the hunters' line of sight or not until it's too late, so you have to be a bit lucky when getting out of the way. However, the game still manages to hit that sweet spot where you *know* it's possible, and you keep trying without getting frustrated. It's really satisfying watching the hunters get run over by the harvesters, though sadly it usually happens a second or two too late to save me :sweat_smile:

The graphics and music are excellent, and this is a clever interpretation of the theme. A top-notch entry all round. Well done!

4 Harvest Bags by kenneth-dd 2023-01-09T18:01:46Z

I like this! It's a simple premise, but manages to be challenging without being overly-punishing. I struggled with the cabbages, as they have the highest bucket and so you have less time to move it in order to catch them. Luckily, because you only have to catch a certain number of each crop, once you've hit that target you can ignore that crop and just focus on the ones you haven't done yet. I managed to win with 32 seconds to spare.

It's a shame there's only one level, as there's definitely scope here to build this out into a much longer game with more of a difficulty progression (faster fall speeds, higher targets, etc). I understand the constraints of game jams, though, so no worries. Well done!

Combine Harv-racer by procrasteroid 2023-01-11T18:13:07Z

Just about managed to go sub-1:45... though sadly it looks like someone's already beaten me to it!

ld52_combine_racer.png

Competition aside, this is great fun! It's very satisfying carving a path through the wheat and then watching it grow back over the following laps, and I always like it when racing games allow you to increase your speed by collecting things. The track layout caught me by surprise on a couple of occasions on my first go, but was fairly easy to learn. The pixel art graphics are great, and the banjo music that plays as you race is just perfect.

I think the main problem with the game is the camera. It should position itself to show you what's in front of you, but instead it does the opposite and shows you what's behind you. That makes it very difficult to dodge obstacles (i.e. cows) because you can't see them coming in time to do anything about them. It also doesn't help that the white cows are barely distinguishable from the pale wheat and flowers - the first time I hit one, I genuinely didn't see it, and was like, "Wait, what just happened?!"

I'd love to see an expanded version of this with all the features you weren't able to include, and maybe some new tracks as well. What you have at the moment, though, is great for a jam game, with the camera being the only thing that lets it down.

Professor Package by Remco 2023-05-02T16:47:10Z

It took me a moment to figure out what I was doing - it wasn't immediately obvious to me that the green symbols were meant to be ticks saying "Boxes with this symbol are okay". It could perhaps have used an in-game tutorial screen to act as a visual aid. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was a lot of fun. It's easy to miss when the change occurs and drop a box a second too late, but trying to keep track of the boxes *and* the objectives is where the difficulty stems from, so that's fine.

It's always great to see PICO-8 entries, and this is a very enjoyable one. Good job!

Continuous Factory by congusbongus 2023-05-17T20:26:17Z

Good to see another TIC-80 game! This is great fun! The graphics and music are all top-notch, and the difficulty progression of the puzzles feels spot-on. I got stuck on Level 9, I just can't fathom how you're supposed to get the folders into the centre once they've gone through all the build processes. Maybe it'll come to me later. Great job!

Grav Garb by Alchemic 2023-05-16T19:53:05Z

This is good. Unlike most entries, where the challenge is to go as fast as possible, here you're encouraged to be slow and deliberate, carefully picking your way through the debris. Sadly, that's not always possible: the random placement means you'll often get gas clouds(? The little green things) that you can't fly around and have to go through, draining a massive chunk of your health. Other times you'll find bombs positioned in such a way that that punt you straight into a gas cloud and there's nothing you can do prevent the resulting game-over.

I love the "strand-like" gameplay, it's always fascinating to see multiplayer elements in a jam game. The one weakness is that, again, sometimes a gas cloud will spawn in such a way that it covers a station and makes it difficult if not impossible to use. I'm also not entirely sure what the point of the "fence" item is supposed to be, it's just another massive obstacle that gets in the way.

This is overall a fun experience with a lot of potential, but I feel it needs some adjusting to make it feel a little less frustrating.

Before the Storm by dusho 2023-05-10T17:17:14Z

I was wondering why this was called *Before The Storm* until I got to the third level, and then it made sense.

Anyway, this is a pretty solid entry. It's simple, but it works, and the arrows are very helpful for guiding you through the level. My main complaint is something that I see has been brought up a few times already: it's hard to trigger the dash consistently. Sometimes I'd trigger it without meaning to, while other times it would take me several tries to trigger it on purpose. I'm guessing there's an invisible timer that isn't shown to the player, which isn't great. It would also be helpful to have a clearer indicator of when a lightning bolt is about to hit, so you don't get sniped by one from off-screen. This is especially bad in the final level, where one of the houses has a thunder cloud directly above it, that's impossible to see while you're actually in the process of delivering the baby.

This is a good game, and you did well to get it finished in 48 hours, but it just needs that little bit of polish and bug-fixing to make it perfect.

Messenger Boy by alec 2023-05-10T17:53:18Z

Another TIC-80 game indeed! Kudos for the use of a custom palette as well.

I love how the music speeds up on each repetition, and how each trip adds a different mechanic to mix up the experience. I think it goes on just long enough to not be repetitive. I liked the plot twist at the end but I feel like it could've been elaborated upon; you spend the final trip pondering the twist, then you get back and the game just kinda ends without exploring it any further. I can understand, though, since this is a Compo entry, so you probably didn't have time to elaborate any further. I also noticed a couple of minor typos, things like missing apostrophes.

All in all, this is a great entry, and I should definitely check out more of your games in the future!

Olith by Enver Arco 2023-05-09T17:49:14Z

The graphics are mostly great, and I'm highly impressed by the variety of music in the game - I had five attempts and I think I got a different song on each one. Unfortunately, it's let down by the combat mechanics. Enemies that shoot at you from off-screen before you can react to their presence, while you're controlling a slow-moving drone in a narrow tunnel, is *absolute hell*. Even if I made it past the first soldier, I would invariably be shot down by the second one. I never even *saw* the second soldier, only his bullets. That's not a nice feeling. As I mentioned, I tried five times and just gave up.

My only other gripe, and it's fairly minor, is that at the start of the game there's an obvious black void around the edge of the map. I'd adjust the camera so that it can't pan beyond the edge of the map like that.

Ultimate Pigeon Post by Yorsh 2023-05-06T12:31:17Z

This is super fun! The graphics, sound, and gameplay are all superbly-executed, especially for a Compo game. The scoring system makes me long for some kind of chart of my best times and scores for each level, so I can try and beat them, but I can understand perfectly why one wasn't included (it's not exactly a priority). I expect to see this high up the rankings come the end of the jam!

Maily Melo by Blix 2023-05-06T12:45:02Z

This is a neat little game. It's easy to guess who each letter can be sent to, and fun to see their responses. Took me a little while to work out that I could drag letters back to the pile if I didn't want to respond to them. My other main complaint would be that the music and sound effects seemed way too quiet, I had to dial my headphones all the way up to be able to hear it properly.

Contraband Critters: A Tactical Transporter by makerart 2023-05-04T17:20:52Z

I'm not entirely sure where the strategy comes into play here. You send your robots in, they get swarmed by the enemies and die, rinse and repeat. It doesn't seem to matter which entrance you go in from, or how much you spam their abilities, they just get massive chunks of health ripped away in five seconds flat no matter what you do. Looking at the previous reviews, I'm not the only one.

Graphically, this looks excellent, except for some of the text (like the description of Dr. Pi's ability) being cut off mid-sentence. In terms of gameplay, though, this is crying out for some kind of tutorial that walks you through how to play, or at the very least, some re-balancing so it's not so difficult. Right now it just feels like sheer trial and error, and that's not fun.

Deliver Us From Evil by F1Krazy 2023-05-02T06:57:22Z

@makerart Have you clicked on the game window to make sure it's focused? That's probably your issue.

@kr0meel @mikoziq I was told it was a bit of a stretch but I still think it's a clever interpretation. I won't argue if people disagree though. That's an interesting glitch with the box, no idea what would be causing that off the top of my head, I'll look into it.

@yorsh That's not intended, but I can understand why it's happening: since you're technically not on the ladder anymore, the game won't let you climb down it. I think that one should be a simple fix, thanks for bringing it up.

Deliver Us From Evil by F1Krazy 2023-05-06T17:51:12Z

@wouter52 That's fixed in the post-jam version. You can press S to restart the level from the beginning, no need to refresh the tab. And yeah, I recognise your name! Was struggling for ideas for enemies and obstacles so I borrowed some from *The Flower of Marasca*.

@quinn-patrick Again, most of those should be fixed in the post-jam version, though I wasn't aware of a bug where you could fall through the floor. I'll need to investigate that one.

Deliver Us From Evil by F1Krazy 2023-05-17T19:56:24Z

@markais My brother in Christ the controls are literally right there in the game description

Traz Logo by Delta Key 2023-05-09T16:57:25Z

I played the original version and I don't think the physics were *that* bad. I did notice a box clip through the floor at one point, but some jank is perfectly acceptable when you're making a physics-based game like this in just 48 hours. I did find the last two levels quite difficult - it's really hard to keep the bomb steady - but at the same time, the difficulty spike makes up for the fact that there's only four levels.

Gameplay aside, the graphics are excellent - I love the strained expression the robot makes if it's carrying something for too long! I could definitely see myself playing a much longer version of this, with a more gradual difficulty progression and maybe some extra mechanics. There's a lot to build upon here. Good work!

Bundle Dumper: Florida Edition by cheesepencil 2023-05-17T19:55:10Z

This is crazy hard, but crazy fun at the same time. I got stuck on Level 4 and gave up, as I just couldn't get the timing right to drop the babies past the drones, but I was still having tonnes of fun. Somehow, getting shredded by drones in an oversized shower of blood, and watching helplessly as the baby you were carrying gets eaten by alligators in an equally oversized shower of blood, just doesn't get old.

This is a great use of PICO-8, with excellent graphics and sounds effects as well. Great job!

Flight Dispatch by Fedora 2023-05-17T19:30:46Z

This was not as chill as the advert led me to believe :T

I did enjoy the frantic gameplay, though. Having to constantly open, close, and reopen windows, and re-type prompts so you know where everything is, gets really hectic really quickly. The uncaring nature of your co-workers just adds to it all. There's a lot of impressive stuff here for a jam game.

One slight issue: when the final order came in and the countdown timer started, I tried to minimise the Sluck window so I could see what I was doing but it refused to close for an entire minute. I'm not sure I would have beaten the final mission even without that delay, but it certainly didn't help!

Airdrop by Quinn_Patrick 2023-05-09T18:03:13Z

This is a fun little game! For 48 hours' work, you managed to create a fair number of levels, and I enjoyed how increasingly wacky they got. The last one being a shameless placeholder got a chuckle out of me. Well done!

Rail Blazer by alanxoc3 2023-05-09T17:29:05Z

This is a neat little game! You have to put a surprising amount of thought into planning your routes, optimising for things like terrain, turning back round, whether you might end up picking up a resource you don't want (speaking from experience there)... it's not as easy as it looks! I approve of the user of PICO-8's music tracker, it's good for those sorts of retro vibes.

I came unstuck on my first playthrough because all my missions were for coal and wheat, while I could only see sheep on the map. I didn't want to go blindly shooting off across the map, wasting all my precious money, just in case I happened to stumble across coal or wheat along the way. That's just the perils of procedural generation, though. My only other complaint is that the icon for wood doesn't look anything like wood (though it looks like wood when it's in the train carriage).

This is a very good game overall, and feels complete in its present form. Good job!

Chateau Grenouilles by Paul Merkamp 2023-05-16T19:21:08Z

This is deceptively difficult at first, but it's not too hard once you get the hand of it. The pixel art graphics are very charming, and I like how the music slowly builds as you progress through the floors. I do think there should be a warning about objects coming in from off-screen, but I managed not to get caught out by it. I may have to go through this again and see if I can track down any of those frog tokens. Nice work!

Fuscus and The Garlic Kin by Buumiii 2023-05-16T20:32:14Z

This is a fun little platformer, with a clever gimmick and great graphics. Unfortunately, the black-and-white graphics make it too hard to spot the enemies, which makes the game a lot more difficult than it should be. Another word of advice for platformers is that the camera should move to show more of what's ahead of you than what's behind you. This game does the opposite, which makes it even harder to see obstacles coming.

All in all, though, not bad! It just needs a little refinement to really get the best out of it.

Crystallium by MikoziQ 2023-05-04T18:03:21Z

This is a neat little infinite runner game! Everything, from the controls to the graphics, is simple yet well-polished. I was a bit confused at first about which crystals were soul crystals and which were just obstacles, and died immediately on my first two runs as a result, but once I encountered an *actual* soul crystal on my third run, it was immediately obvious. My best was 32 but I'm sure I could get further with practice. Good job!

Feathered Envoys by chromaticGray 2023-05-18T18:15:51Z

This is good. There's a surprising amount of content for a jam game, and the graphics and sound effects are excellent. My main complaint, and I don't know whether this is just me being bad at it, is that it plays way too slowly. It takes ages for a pigeon to get from A to B and back again - if it makes it back at all - and in the meantime you're stuck with no seeds and no pigeons and can't actually do anything.

Getting more pigeons if you're running out is almost entirely down to RNG, which doesn't feel good. It took several tries before my home DIY actually got me a second pigeon, and the very next time I tried it, I had a beam collapse and kill a pigeon ***that wasn't even in the aviary at the time*** (it was still returning from a mission). I have to be honest, I rage-quitted the game at that point because it just felt like total BS.

I'd love to play a version of this with a bit more balancing and a bit of a faster pace.

INTACT™ by pierogo 2023-05-10T17:02:49Z

I like how each package you deliver adds an extra obstacle that makes the game incrementally harder. The graphics and music are great, and the writing is very witty. I got stuck on Level 3 because I couldn't figure out where the hell I was supposed to go; every route seemed to be blocked off, with no obvious route. I was enjoying the game up until that point, though.

Careless Couriers by python-b5 2023-05-16T20:13:43Z

I'm afraid I just didn't find this fun to play at all. It's far too unforgiving - you hit a wall, bounce back a little bit, and then immediately drive straight back into the same wall again. Trying to pick up a package seems to require more precision than it should do, I kept skating through the coloured squares and nothing would happen. Then when I did pick up a package, I could never actually find the person I was supposed to be delivering it to. I thought that the light circle around certain characters meant there was a package to be delivered to them, but it actually just meant that the game was making them visible from behind a wall - which is a neat feature, but I'd also have liked something to help me find whoever it is I'm meant to be looking for. I could probably have found them eventually if not for the fact that, as I said, the finicky steering and unforgiving collisions mean you die in thirty seconds anyway.

The graphics are great, and the music is charming, but the actual game itself is just so much harder than it should be, and it sucks all the fun out of it. I wanted to enjoy this, but I just... didn't.

I Am The Real Dahlia Verry by shreemp 2023-05-18T17:19:23Z

Wow, this really is short. I'm guessing most of the development time went into the game engine and artwork, because it looks very slick and polished. It's just a shame that it ends before it even really gets going. I hope to see this get finished someday!

The Bun Slinger by BlackCat508 2023-05-10T18:08:33Z

As I read through the controls, I have to admit I got more and more overwhelmed. Even just the "build and shoot burgers" gameplay aspect felt a bit too complex for me to get my head round, and then there are just so many other mechanics piled on top of it. It's extremely impressive for a Ludum Dare entry, don't get me wrong, but it's also a bit... overwhelming. When I actually tried to play I just ended up wasting all my ingredients in ten seconds flat and then panic-quitting.

I'm gonna come back and try this again when I'm feeling a bit more relaxed.

Takeaway by Juss 2023-05-17T19:36:38Z

It might just be me, but the game doesn't seem to be working at all. I can run around and collect burgers from the dispenser, but I can't actually shoot them, and no customers appear for me to shoot them at. The other reviewers seem to be able to play the game without any issues, so I'm guessing it's a problem at my end. I'd really love to rate you, to get you just that little bit closer to 20 ratings, but it really doesn't seem fair to do so.

Delivery Boy by waptaincaffles 2023-05-04T20:04:35Z

@waptaincaffles I regret to inform you that the fix doesn't seem to have worked, I just tried the game out and got stuck just to the left of the coffee shop. I saw you were conflicted about fixing it in the first place, but I'd say that getting stuck on the level geometry and being unable to move is pretty game-breaking. (Another note: what I usually do wrt. bug fixes is keep the unpatched version up on a separate site, so if players want to play and rate the original jam submission, they have that option, or they can play the patched version if they prefer.)

I still really loved this game, though. It's so simple, yet ends up being so frantic as the orders keep coming in and you're dashing back and forth trying to fulfil them in time. The art, music, and sound effects all have a perfect retro charm to them that really helps tie the whole thing together. And the delivery boy looks awfully familiar... :thinking:

Good job!

A mailman's nightmare! by Nature Pixels 2023-05-10T17:38:25Z

This is nice, and it's an impressive amount of work for 48 hours, but it feels far too short. The levels are all nearly identical and can be beaten in about three seconds with minimal effort. I didn't need to shoot until I got to the final boss, and when I did it took me a moment to figure out how to actually do that. It seems like you have an inventory and can press 1-5 to switch items, but you only have one item - the gun - so it's ultimately a pointless feature. (I assume you intended to add other items but ran out of time?) Also, sometimes you spawn off to the left of the level and just fall endlessly until the game decides to respawn you in the right place.

There's the makings of a good game here, but it's not quite there yet. It needs expanding upon in order to fulfil its true potential.

SatisfAction - The Ultimate Marble Machine by MarkAis 2023-05-17T20:07:08Z

This starts out almost relaxing, just watching the marbles rolling down the tracks, but then it very quickly spirals entirely out of your control. I have absolutely no idea how people are getting scores in the tens of thousands, I gave it several goes and could only manage a high-score of 280! The marbles seem to come at you faster than you can possibly deal with them. Do I just suck, or is there a trick I'm missing? Still a great game, though! Would love to play an expanded version of this, perhaps with a slower difficulty ramp.

Travelling salesman by Kr0meel 2023-05-04T17:54:19Z

I have to be honest and say that this is one of the most unfinished-feeling Ludum Dare entries I've ever played. I like the idea of a game about the traveling salesman problem, but that problem isn't actually present as a gameplay mechanic - you can visit each city as many times as you like and there doesn't seem to be any requirement to visit all of them. The other main mechanic (buying and selling cargo) isn't implemented either, so you're left to just wander aimlessly from one city to another with whatever cargo manages to stay in your basket.

This would still be okay except that the platforming feels very bare-bones; you're maneuvering a static sprite around plain, boxy levels, with no music or sound, and no challenge other than jumps you can only make by pushing around blocks, and your character's awkward tendency to get stuck on the level geometry mid-jump. Any of those on its own would be fine, but put them all together and the fun drains away very quickly.

Looking at your profiles, I see you're all first-time competitors. It seems that what happened here is that you massively overestimated how much work you could get done in 72 hours, overscoped, and ran out of time long before you could finish. There's a potentially great game in the works here, and I hope you don't get discouraged and continue your game dev efforts, either by continuing to work on this game or by moving on to another project. But as it stands - and again, I hope this doesn't sound too harsh - you have little more than an extremely unfinished prototype.

The Frog Prince by Thomas Karcher 2023-05-16T20:01:51Z

This is a neat little puzzle game! I like the mixture of turn-based and real-time elements. The early puzzles are fairly easy but that last one is a real toughie! Would've been good to see a few more levels, but as it is, it doesn't outstay its welcome. You and your son can be proud of yourselves, and I hope he has a long future in gaming ahead of him!

Valhalla Calling by Aviv Levy 2023-05-18T18:40:42Z

Nice game! Your interpretation of the theme is very similar to mind, which is a relief, as I hadn't seen anyone else interpret it that way. I love the CRT filter, and the gameplay is very fleshed-out, with the block and dash mechanics. It ends up creating an interesting trade-off: you have to look for the right opening to send enemies to Valhalla, otherwise you'll get battered by the surviving enemies in the meantime, but if you wait too long then they'll spring back to life and attack you again. The only thing I could ask for is a bit more of an indication as to when an enemy is ready to be sent to Valhalla, as I didn't realise on my first playthrough.

Banana Snatchers by HaymakerCoding 2023-05-06T12:57:16Z

I have to be honest, the controls are extremely confusing even without the technical difficulties. Only being able to face in four directions and switch between three preset speeds is extremely unintuitive for a driving game, and the walls don't seem to be very forgiving. I had a lot of trouble even just getting to the delivery truck, couldn't figure out how to actually launch the monkeys, and then decided I just couldn't be bothered.

Honestly, I think you would've been better off going for keyboard controls from the get-go.

Textris by davision 2023-10-10T16:27:40Z

Very nice twist on a classic! I love how the game makes a conscious effort to pick letters and punctuation symbols that will fill in the inevitable gaps - I can't imagine how much work was required to get that right! The graphics and music really tie the whole experience together. And the difficulty really ramps up over time: you have to pay super close attention to what letters can go where!

textris.png

Space Promenade by Jesús González 2023-10-12T19:48:11Z

There's one base in the second (and final?) level located in a narrow cul-de-sac that's swarming with enemies, far more than you can possibly handle even with a full-size fleet. Every time I try flying in there I just get annihilated. You really need to tone that down a bit. That's my only real complaint - otherwise, this is a tight, well-polished game that's refreshingly simple to play.

Raft Blaster! by Alchemic 2023-10-20T20:57:11Z

I don't know whether I'm playing this wrong, but even on Easy difficulty I quickly found myself completely overwhelmed and unable to do anything as I was completely penned. It seems like you can only move each symbol one tile at a time, as opposed to being able to carry them, which makes it really hard to actually make any matches, especially with how quickly the items are coming at you.

There definitely needs to be a smoother difficulty curve, with items coming at you more slowly at first until you've gotten used to things. There's a good idea here, and it's very well-presented with the polished artwork, but it's all rather undone by the non-existent difficulty curve, which makes it almost impossible to enjoy.

Limited Space Under Press by asfdfdfd 2023-10-09T20:13:43Z

This is a neat little rhythm game! It's shorter than I was expecting, but I burned through almost all my lives on the final level so I guess that's a good thing? The music is good, and the background graphics were quite entertaining. Good job!

Purrimeter by johnnysix 2023-10-07T09:33:17Z

This is great, especially for what's essentially a Compo game! It took me a few moments to figure out what I was actually supposed to do - an explanation of the game mechanics in the description would have been appreciated - but once I figured it out I was hooked. Figuring out how to get from A to B in small steps is surprisingly tricky at times, and I gave up entirely on the final level because I have no idea how you're even supposed to get past the first spike pit, let alone the rest of the level. It'd be easy if not for the toggling blocks...

Great job! I'd love to see more of this in the future, it has great potential to be expanded out into a larger game.

Locked Together by kr4ft3r 2023-10-15T20:01:35Z

All but one of my cellmates liked sport, so I just spammed "talk sport". One of them eventually shared his drugs with me, to which my other cellmates reacted by stabbing and raping him. This is all kinds of messed up and I love it. Would love to see an expanded version with more in-depth gameplay, such as more conversation topics or greater cellmate variety - there's a lot of potential for hilarious chain reactions here.

As allov said, getting every cellmate to max happiness crashes the game. You might want to take a look at that.

Ace of Space by n.feofentov 2023-10-07T09:00:47Z

This is great! An honestly ingenious concept. The overall neon aesthetic is great. My only issue is that there seems to be a major difficulty spike at level 5, the previous waves are easy but that one wiped me out. Sounds like it gets even harder at Level 6, too. Overall, though, a fantastic idea. Well done!

Obelisk by Untitled Studios 2023-10-10T15:14:46Z

Very fun! Most Ludum Dare games are very brief, so it's refreshing to see one that's geared towards a longer playtime. I did feel like it started off a bit slow - I didn't see any enemies until Tier 4 - but the game seems like it's designed to be slow-paced in general, so it works.

I like that you could expand the playable area instead of drilling, while also collecting items to help you at the same time. I've played a few games where there space gets *more* limited over time, so again, it's refreshing to see someone do the opposite. Moving around and understanding where/how you need to drill can be a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it you can set up some very satisfying automation to feed your obelisk while you take care of other matters.

One question: I couldn't understand what the red-and-orange boxes were for. Are they just there to provide extra obstacles, or do they do something?

Overall, this has astonishing depth, quality, and potential playtime for a Compo entry, and I think you should be really proud of what you've managed to achieve here. Good job!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-01T22:17:23Z

@cheesepencil I caught that halfway through submitting and I guess the fixed version hadn't been uploaded yet. It should be fine now. To be extra safe, you can try the linked versions, as they definitely have the fix.

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-06T20:32:01Z

@cheesepencil That's a known issue that's fixed in the other versions. Always good to know who people chose, though, so thanks.

I've been busy this week (and will continue to be busy for a little while) but I'll make time to rate everyone's games, don't worry!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-07T08:53:28Z

@beeb-gamecodecompany I imagine the lack of plays is down to me a) not having played anyone else's games yet, and b) not advertising it. I haven't had time to do either, but I'm gonna rectify the first one this morning.

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-07T17:02:29Z

@n-feofentov I specifically thought ahead and made sure you couldn't refuse everyone. I didn't want the game to be *that* cruel. I agree about the dialogue, and would have loved to implement something like dialogue trees, but I just didn't have the time (or cart space).

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-09T20:59:04Z

@kobato-games Yeah, that was my thinking: the silence fits the mood better than music would have done. Thank you very much for the kind words, and for the favourite! :D

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-10T07:22:48Z

@untitled-studios Wow, that's very high praise! Thank you so much!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-10T15:22:41Z

@kasmilus Technically there is, but it's only half a second. It may be worth cranking it up, but I don't want to crank it up too much in case people think the game isn't responding. Glad you enjoyed it though!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-10T21:51:58Z

@quasilyte Yeah, I thought about ways of making the gameplay a little more involved, like adding dialogue trees, but I didn't have the time or PICO-8 cartridge space to include any of them, so I had to make do without them. You're not the first person to suggest having the ability to take off without selecting all six people. Honestly, that idea simply never crossed my mind, because I didn't think anyone would actually *want* to do that. Clearly I was wrong!

@jesus-gonzalez That was part of the idea: I was curious as to what kind of reasons people would find for saving certain characters or turning away others. I'm not judging anyone for their selections, but I do find them fascinating.

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-11T08:29:36Z

@chii I will! I make a habit of playing and reviewing the games of everyone who reviews mine, so yours is on the list now!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-11T14:28:48Z

@oter I was wondering much of the same. Randomized positions wasn't something that occurred to me, but it actually might be interesting to try. I thought about making a Survey Monkey quiz or something and putting a link in the description, but never got round to it (and it'd be a bit too late in the day now). Glad you enjoyed it so much!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-19T22:06:20Z

@nuin I knew someone was going to.

@octahedron I'm not sure how to approach that. The ideal solution would be the ability to repeat the initial conversation, but I'm not sure whether that would detract from the realism. Glad to hear you played it multiple times!

@lincolnsalles Yeah, it's not the most exciting game in the world, I'm afraid. Physically dragging the people into place could work, but I'd have to think about how to implement it.

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-20T22:06:38Z

@tetracold Sorry for not getting round to rating you back! I had stuff to do this evening and just barely ran out of time for it. I'll still try and take a look at your game anyway. Thanks for the feedback!

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-22T21:37:50Z

@aaln That's some very detailed feedback, thank you so much! PICO-8 does indeed have limitations, including a fixed colour palette, so there's not really much I can do about the colour scheme, I'm afraid. I am working on a post-jam update that fixes some of the voices, though.

Can you elaborate on the bug with the arrow indicators? I can probably fix it in the update but I need to know what I'll be fixing first.

Six Seats Left by F1Krazy 2023-10-23T16:29:57Z

@aaln That's not strictly a bug, since you can interact with those NPCs as well (or rather, you *should* be able to - if you can't, that's a more serious bug). You can't invite them on board, but I don't know whether it's worth giving them a different triangle to indicate that.

Spaceout by very dark lord 2023-10-15T20:33:53Z

I'm surprised this has so few ratings! I'd hate for it to miss out on getting ranked :(

This is a really clever take on *Breakout*, with an impressive variety of power-ups and effects. I really appreciate how some of the power-ups make things harder for you, particularly the one that spawns more asteroids; in most *Breakout* clones you'd kill for a power-up like that, but here it turns the game into an impossible juggling act that invariably costs you a life.

I also really love how your name constantly gets spelled and pronounced wrong, that's a really clever little running gag. I'm not a big fan of AI-generated graphics, but they're allowed by the rules and I imagine they saved you a lot of time, so the only graphical element I'll complain about is that it's *really* hard to tell that that's Earth I'm meant to be saving.

Overall, great job! There's definitely scope here to expand this into a full game with additional levels and such.

Ominos by OgelGames 2023-10-07T10:07:54Z

I thought about doing something like this, but went in a completely different direction in the end. This is very well executed! Simple, but fun. I like the confetti and "toot" noise you get when you satisfy all the criteria, as well as the fact that you can keep adding ominos after that. I had fun seeing how many spaces I could fill on each level, and on one level I actually managed to fill the board entirely! I don't think that's always possible with the randomised ominos, but still.

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Good job!

If I Fits, I Sits! by cheesepencil 2023-10-07T09:16:34Z

haha long boi

On a serious note, this is a very fun, cute game. The timing is harder to get right than it looks, especially as the game speeds up, or on those occasions where the cat is actually shorter than the box it needs to go in and you have to try and remember to stop the back end first, not the front end. I got exactly one perfect fit and was very happy with myself when I did so.

The only real complaint is a lack of music, but I understand perfectly if you couldn't fit it in before the deadline. Overall, great job! 10/10 would sits again

longboi.png

Heron's Subway by MnemosyneVL 2023-10-12T19:05:30Z

I can see what you're aiming for here - an atmospheric narrative puzzle game - but I feel like you've missed the mark somewhat.

First off, there are two choices on how to play the game at the moment. You can either try and figure out the order yourself, which (judging from the comments) requires an infuriating amount of trial-and-error as the game gives you zero feedback on how correct you were, or you can simply hunt down the correct order from your comments here and on itch.io, and have the entire game spelled out for you with zero effort required.

I think this is your way of incorporating the theme, but to be brutally honest, the whole "game is too cramped to fit in the .exe file" meta-premise falls flat for me, since the game is already hundreds of MB bigger than every other game I've played this LD. I feel like there has to be a middle ground somewhere.

My biggest problem with the game, though, is that it desperately lacks any sort of context to get you invested in the main goal. We need to figure out this soldier's name, but... why? Why do I *care* what his name is? What's my motive? What's the payoff? Personally, I'm much more interested in finding out why nobody on the train seems to remember anything, or why the medic seems to be unconscious, or why the guy in the light blue shirt is cackling like a madman. Those feel like much more engaging mysteries, with much more story potential behind them, than "what's this guy's name". Maybe you're trying to make a point about getting to know strangers, but if you are, it needs to be communicated more clearly.

(**EDIT:** Having now finished the game, I feel like I was right: the answers to those other questions were much more interesting. The whole thing feels very arbitrary, to be honest. Why do you need to speak to the people in *that specific order* to trigger the thing that happens when you do so?)

One other thing: it's possible to be in talking range of both the lady leaning against the door *and* the lady in the suit at the same time, and the first-person viewpoint means you can't tell. I tried to talk to one and ended up talking to the other, and didn't realise until I got the same dialogue twice and realised I'd messed up the order. For a game that relies entirely on sequencing, that feels like a fairly major error.

Super Low Memory Bot by LaserPanzerWal 2023-10-12T19:58:45Z

Very enjoyable entry! The gameplay is simple to understand, but gets very challenging after a while, and I love the Game Boy-style presentation. There seems to be a fair number of levels, and the ability to rewind on a move-by-move basis, rather than just restarting the whole level, is a very handy feature. Sadly my ability at these sorts of games only goes so far, I got to this level and just completely blue-screened:

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I'll be back to figure it out later! In the meantime, great job!

On the bottom side by Jasuse 2023-10-15T20:44:41Z

I recall playing a game like this before, but I don't remember it being this hard. It's easy to get trapped by the falling blocks and left unable to move, and they fall at a fast enough speed that even if you *can* get out of the way, you often don't have time to. Most of my deaths came within about five blocks, before any power-ups appeared. Some kind of advance warning of where the next block is going to land would be enough to make this a much less frustrating experience IMO.

Limited (in) Space by Martin183 2023-10-09T20:54:26Z

This is a neat little game. It wasn't that hard to switch between shooting UFOs and dodging asteroids, and there's plenty of wiggle room for you to lose pieces of the station and still continue. I also like how, while you do get the occasional asteroid shower, you also get pauses in the obstacles every now and then to give you a little breathing space.

I found that the easiest way to dodge the asteroids is to move partially off-screen, but then you open yourself up to getting hit by things you can't see. As one of the other reviews said, a following camera would be nice.

There's plenty of scope here to expand this with extra obstacles and game mechanics. For now, though, good job!

No Room in Hell by TomatoLamp 2023-10-20T20:17:29Z

Horror games aren't really my thing, but I found this quite effective. The limited weaponry and lighter fluid, as well as the claustrophobic environment, made for a very tense experience as you tried to sneak your way around and find the keys without getting attacked. The old-school vibe isn't to everyone's taste, as I can see from the number of people complaining about the controls, but I can see what you were aiming for and I think you've nailed it. Nice job!

Mechanizyn by Lincolnsalles 2023-10-20T20:44:24Z

Gameplay-wise, this is an interesting fusion between a platformer and that old Helicopter game. I think it really works, and there's definitely scope to expand this out with more levels and mechanics. The hand-drawn graphical style is very impressive, it reminds me of a grungy old Mega Drive game and I mean that in the nicest possible way. The lack of sound effects is a shame but I think the real problem is that it's just so short. This is just crying out to be expanded into a full game and I'd love to see that happen.

I love that you've posted insights into the game's creation as well, that's really nice to see!

Plump on the Stump by Bloodbane 2023-10-07T10:34:30Z

Are you sure about the "shoot in 8 directions" thing? I, like the other commenters, was only able to shoot left and right, regardless of which direction I was moving. You may want to check that your shooting code is working properly.

In any case, I usually found it more efficient to just ignore the enemies and focus on trying to collect the drops as fast as possible, with the enemies bouncing the resin balls out of the way for me. As some of the other commenters remarked, it's easy to get stunlocked and lose all your health before you have a chance to get away. I wouldn't mind having to start over when you die, if not for the fact that your health regenerates after each level: I would suggest either allow you to restart from the current level, or remove the regenerating health to make it more of an explicit "how far can you go". You already have health-restoring powerups, so I'd argue that regenerating health isn't needed.

No Room at the Movies by Kobato Games 2023-10-09T21:36:05Z

Very fun little choose-your-own-adventure game! Plenty of branching pathways, not too lengthy, and very humorous. I like it! Always good to see something more narrative-focused like this!

Misplaced Tie by knexator 2023-10-09T16:38:08Z

This does indeed remind me of the old Flash classics, so you nailed that. Takes a little bit of fiddling to figure out what needs to go where in order to do what, but it's not overly frustrating and I managed to complete it without too much bother. Nice job!

Tableflip by HexStart 2023-10-12T19:30:03Z

Very fun take on the old "fit stuff into a limited space" gimmick! Not only do you have to think about what needs to go where, and what other items you might need to leave space for, but you also have to think about *how* to get each item in the right position with the right rotation. It's not always obvious! I love that you included an "endless mode" as well, which I'll definitely be trying out. Great job!

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing by ottos 2023-10-07T11:28:20Z

You had me at "cute sheep boy".

On a serious note, I wasn't expecting this to turn into what it did. The graphics and sound are great, and while the gameplay itself is a little easy, the hilarious storyline makes up for it. I love how the farmer is just 100% done with the whole thing. I got Ending #2 and I'm not sure what you're supposed to do differently to get Ending #1 (lose the final battle, perhaps?) My only real complaint is that the dialogue has a lot of spelling and grammar issues which detracted from the experience at a few points.

Overall, though, great job! I look forward to seeing more games from you!

Past by Chii 2023-10-13T12:56:31Z

A very somber, bittersweet game. I've seen two of my grandparents suffer from dementia in the months before they died, and that made this game feel even more impactful. There's not much to it in terms of gameplay or graphics, but there doesn't need to be.

Airpansion by Beeb GameCodeCompany 2023-10-07T10:58:45Z

This is surprisingly fun! I wasn't expecting there to be such a large game world, with so many tools to find and use. The crude graphics and sound effects are very charming.

Once I got to 100% air cleanliness, it took me ages to figure out how to reach the "one last thing" I needed to find. It's also a bit clunky when you try to switch tools, you have to try and wiggle around to get into the exact right place that the game wants you to be in before it'll let you.

Overall, though, good job! I enjoyed playing this.

Fit In Bed by SelkieHarbour 2023-10-09T20:09:10Z

This is hilarious! It's very awkward to get everything into the right positions (I gave up on Level 5 as I couldn't quite get everyone into position), but the ensuing physics-based hilarity makes up for it. The graphics and sounds are all very well-polished for a jam game as well (I love the "COZY" when you finally clear a level). Great work!

PSI by goddzeproject 2023-10-07T09:59:14Z

The only thing I have to say about this is that it's extremely hard. It's difficult enough just to move around, especially if the brain isn't facing in the direction you want to go in; I often ended up barely moving at all, or ricocheting off a wall and back to where I started, or spinning around to face the wrong way. Then there's the fact that you can't see where you're going, then there's the fact that moving in the wrong way damages you, then there's the furniture blocking your way that's really hard to shift (partly for the aforementioned reasons)...

The graphics are good (especially the visible damage building up over time), and the sound effects are creepy, but the gameplay itself just feels a little too frustrating to enjoy, sadly.

Gacha Fever by Falestress 2023-10-09T20:27:22Z

It took me a little while to figure out what I was doing, but once I did I had a real blast playing this. The overall presentation - graphics, gameplay, audio - is absolutely top-notch for a jam entry, and I love the overall anime-esque theme. Lots of variety in terms of equipment and weapons, too, which is great. There's easily scope for this to be fleshed out into a full release, although it's pretty fleshed out as is! Great job!

Postcards by oter 2023-10-11T09:50:00Z

Very nice narrative adventure! Don't see many of these and they always make a refreshing change of pace. It's lengthy enough, and very engaging. I love the descriptions.

Couple of minor things: there's a test note left in somewhere around Luxembourg, and when you compose the first postcard you get a message reading `(click-append: ?17,` at the bottom of the page. I understand perfectly if you didn't have time to fix those, and I hear you're going to be working on it some more, so I'm looking forward to seeing the improved version.

Postcards by oter 2023-10-11T14:23:40Z

@oter Yeah, I was able to keep playing after that, it looked like just a display issue rather than anything game-breaking. Glad to hear you're already on top of it!

Jambulance by NuiN 2023-10-20T20:25:19Z

Short, but fun! You could have penalized the player for hitting cars, but instead you went in the complete other direction, letting you freely shove them out of the way and even having them blow up if they take too much damage, and the result is much more entertaining. It's a creative interpretation of the theme, too.

I'd love to see an expanded version of this with multiple levels, there's definitely scope here to make something larger.

Greasy Justice by kasmilus 2023-10-10T15:38:54Z

This is a very interesting gameplay concept, but I'm not sure how well it works in practice. The fact that you need to roll two Shoot actions to actually shoot, the limited amount of ammo you have, and the fact that you actually have to aim and time your shot (which I didn't realise) all mean that you're killing enemies at a snail's pace. I spent most of the game just pointlessly moving back and forth, watching helplessly as the enemies just piled up and up and up while I couldn't do anything about it. The amount of micro-management you have to do - manually spawning and moving enemies, manually rolling after performing an action - just adds to the tedium.

The graphics and music are brilliant, and overall this is very complex and polished for a Compo entry. I can see what you're trying to do here, but I'm afraid it's just not working for me.

CaveBots by quasilyte 2023-10-13T12:42:35Z

I can't get the hang of how to play this game. I need more Generators to be able to power more bots, but I can't find any beyond the one you get at the start of the game, which completely gimps my progress. The game tells me I can build on the harder stone tiles, but doesn't tell me *what* I can build on them or *how* to build on them. Most of the game seems to be spent either standing still or getting out of the way of your bots, while you wait for your energy to recharge at a painfully slow rate so you can keep hunting for more Generators. And to clarify, I'm playing on Easy difficulty.

From a technical perspective, this is clearly a very impressive effort for 48 hours, and it's great to see a more long-form game as opposed to the short-form blasts you usually get. From an actual gameplay perspective, however, as much as I want to enjoy this, I'm afraid it's just not clicking for me. I dunno if it's a you problem or a me problem, but I've tried this three times now and it ended the same way every time.

Shadow's Edge by octahedron 2023-10-20T20:31:21Z

A tricky little platformer, with a clever interpretation of the theme. I found myself disappointed that there were only two levels, there's definitely a lot more that can be done with this. The sounds feels a little lacking but the graphics are extremely impressive. I hope you'll revisit this in the future!

Beefore the end by sebbernery 2024-10-24T15:50:47Z

Reminds me of the old air traffic controller game, but with a whole bunch of additional mechanics: managing the limited number of pollen in each flower, avoiding trees, and swarming bears. It's all very complex, and quickly gets a bit overwhelming (my poor bees kept crashing), but fortunately the game is very forgiving and there doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of bees you can let die, as long as they're not carrying pollen (because eventually you'll run out).

Very enjoyable! Well done!

Jarred by Tommy 2024-10-24T16:07:19Z

Fun little battler! It's hard to know which bugs to take with you, especially since their respective strengths and weaknesses aren't clear, so it feels less like strategy and more like guesswork. Even the strategy of choosing where to deposit your creatures feels a little too random, as they fall out in a random order and not necessarily where you'd want them. There's definitely a good idea here, but it needs some polish to really bring out the best in it.

Light Cave by GlacierEclipse 2024-10-18T13:14:05Z

I agree with the previous comments, the game is too unforgiving. I still hadn't gotten the hang of how to use the orange critters when the game threw this at me:

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...and while I did sort of get the hang of it, I still found myself throwing my hands in the air and giving up because I haven't the slightest idea how you're supposed to do it. No matter what angle I approach the first orange critter from, I either yeet myself into the ceiling spikes or fall short of the second critter, every single time.

I can see what you're trying to do here, and it would be a very enjoyable game if it all came together, but I'm afraid it's just not clicking for me at present.

Fish Rescue by CrociDB 2024-10-12T15:55:18Z

I love this! The gameplay hits that sweet spot of being simple yet fun and addictive, and the retro CRT-style graphics are amazing. I got to Level 4 and then the gravitator started pulling fish towards it without me being anywhere near them, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to prevent that. Still, though, very enjoyable, and very well done for a Compo entry. Good job!

Algie's Adventure by Jonathan Fischer 2024-10-18T13:03:25Z

Game doesn't seem to be compatible with my graphics driver for some reason, which is a shame, because it really looks impressive.

Flower Friends by Jejkobb 2024-10-12T15:45:53Z

When a jam game says "Make sure you play until the end", you know it's gonna be good. And it was good. Very simple, relaxing gameplay, and an ending that perfectly hits that "crossing the line twice" threshold of being way funnier than it should be. Good job!

Stellar Slime Ranch by Arqcenick 2024-10-25T13:28:15Z

Very fun little incremental game. I agree with the other commenters, I got confused when I first started as I didn't notice the free starter turret and was flying around wondering why I couldn't do anything. I also think the scaling breaks somewhere around Level 5: there are no new mechanics introduced past that point, you're raking in slime faster than you can spend it on upgrades, and the goal amounts are so pitifully low that you don't really *need* to upgrade, so it just becomes a case of how long you can fly around watching Number Go Up before you get bored. It'd be nice to see an expanded version of this with more mechanics and better balancing, to keep you engaged for longer.

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-06T22:28:37Z

@guadalupe-murgo I can't say I'm familiar with that game, I'll have to look it up. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, though!

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-07T16:08:45Z

@mmph You're not the first person to complain about the reset key not being listed, I could've sworn I'd mentioned it in-game but maybe it need to go in an earlier level? I'll add in a proper "Controls" section to the description.

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-08T20:36:00Z

@wouter52 I'll write up a more detailed breakdown when I do my traditional "Techy Bits" deep-dive this weekend, but for most of them I just thought of which mechanics I wanted to use in the level and how I wanted to combine them, and then TIC-80's mapping system made them quick and easy to put together.

@everyone I've been laid up with migraines and back pain ever since the compo ended, I promise I'll get round to rating your own games as soon as I can! Thanks so much for all the kind feedback so far!

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-19T08:45:01Z

@satless I believe there is a way to make it so that you move repeatedly while the arrow key is held down, but I forgot to implement it and can't remember what it is now. It's something to look at post-jam. Glad you liked it regardless!

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-19T11:50:05Z

@louiewu I spent a lot of time on the last level as well tbf :joy: Glad you enjoyed it so much!

Color Critters by F1Krazy 2024-10-25T13:06:03Z

@arqcenick I feared that the gameplay would feel too slow, so I intentionally stripped out anything that would have slowed it down further, including any sort of death animation; you just immediately start over.

@everyone Thanks so much for all the feedback, it's truly appreciated!

Xemaverse by dp3rucha 2024-10-24T16:40:15Z

First of all, great job giving out so many more ratings than you've received! You really deserve more ratings in return.

As for the game itself, I agree with the other reviews in that, while the mechanics do make the game more challenging and engaging (the Xemas and Xoxo spawners teleporting means you can't just surround them with walls; having to zoom out and back in when you want to buy things makes it more of a race against time; and so on), but they can also make it feel more clunky. Accumulating money felt very slow as I kept having to spent it to buy the Xoxo-killing liquid, and before long one of the Xoxo spawners teleported to be right next to my Xema which left me helpless to save it.

I'd also like to note that the "Back" button in the tutorial page is partially off the bottom of the screen, and when you're playing minimized, some of the text is off the sides of the screen as well. It's just a little thing that needs tidying up to make the game look nicer, especially when the tutorial button has "(PLEASE READ)" written on it in big capital letters.

It's not all bad, though: the graphics are great, the music gives it a much more relaxing vibe than I'd been expecting, and there's definitely some good ideas for gameplay here, they're just not all clicking together quite yet. I hope you continue working on this and refining it!

Pick Up Lines by gamebuilder 2024-10-19T12:07:43Z

Very creepy and atmospheric, with a very distinctive visual style. The way the music changed after I collected the first doll had me thinking something terrifying was about to happen but then it changed back again after I collected the second one. Unfortunately I couldn't find the third doll, which I think may have been the result of me forgetting which ones I'd already collected and searching the wrong maze by accident. Some kind of way of tracking which dolls you've collected and which ones you haven't would be helpful, so I don't end up accidentally searching for one I already have. I'm also not entirely sure how this fits the theme.

A Flicker In The Dark by FreshD 2024-10-18T20:48:13Z

I love the minimalist graphics and premise, but unfortunately the actual gameplay gets tedious fast, with the fireflies constantly wandering out of the torch beam and forcing you to either scoop them back up or come back for them later, with no clear indication of how to mitigate that. It didn't help that I loaded every firefly into the left-hand bulb thing, only to then realise there was a second bulb-thing on the right that the game never told me about, and at that point I realised I'd have to try and somehow manhandle half the fireflies across the entire width of the map and just gave up. So... yeah, maybe a bit *too* minimalist in terms of telling you what to actually do.

Microbial Menace by tetrapteryx 2024-10-25T13:00:23Z

Very nice! Love the gradual introduction of new mechanics, and the eerie visual effects when things start to go wrong (which they will, given how the number of workers will invariably exceed your ability to process them in a timely fashion). There were a couple of occasions where a worker would immediately zoom into the middle of the decontamination room and just stay there for the entire shift, not letting me actually process them while still letting me process everyone else who came in. I'm not sure if this was intentional or some kind of glitch?

As others have stated, it's also not entirely clear what you have to do to progress. I notice that everyone who's "won" the game actually failed more shifts than they completed, which doesn't make intuitive sense to me.

Overall, though, this is a very well-polished and cohesive game. Well done!

Microbe match maker by martonel 2024-10-13T09:44:09Z

Very nice little game! I was able to complete it through sheer trial and error, without needing to consult the "Help" section at all, but I appreciate that you added one regardless. The animation is super cute, and I liked the music too. Good job!

PEPE's wall of pride by Wouter52 2024-10-18T12:57:51Z

I dunno if it's just me not being able to get the hang of it, but this just feels completely impossible to control. I spend a good three-and-a-half minutes just trying to get hold of the first critter from Facebook, and every single time I would either overshoot and go flying off into space, or undershoot and watch it fly off-screen before I could grab the critter. Eventually I just gave up. I can see what you're trying to do, but the controls need some serious work, because this just isn't fun or playable in its current form.

Protect the crabs! by Kniffen 2024-10-12T15:35:52Z

Very nice! It feels like a fresh take on *Missile Command*, with charming pixel graphics and cute crabs (every game needs crabs). For me, the main challenge was the barrels; the floaty controls make it hard to hit them with the torpedoes, and I ultimately resorted to ramming into them and sacrificing health. I just made it to Level 15 before that strategy killed me, but could have gotten a lot further if I was able to hit the barrels more reliably.

I appreciate that each piece of debris only actually kills a crab if it collides with it, rather than automatically losing a crab whenever something reaches the bottom. It gives you an extra safety net and allows you to play more strategically in the later levels by ignoring any debris that won't hit them.

I feel like this could have been fleshed out more, with a greater variety in debris and maybe some extra mechanics, as it does start to get a little repetitive after a while. All in all, though, it's a very enjoyable jam entry. Good job!

Tiny Brigades by nataku92 2024-10-13T10:08:44Z

Very nice! It's impressive that you were able to throw such an impressive variety of cards and mechanics into the game in just 72 hours. As others have said, it takes a few turns to get the hang of what you're doing, but once you do it's very engaging and strategic. Some turns you need to focus on healing from Not-So-Tiny Slime's last attack, other turns you need to focus on generating Blocks to guard against its next attack, and other times you need to take advantage of an opening to hit it as hard as you can. And of course you need to build up your brigades at the same time, so you can do all those things more effectively. It all adds up to a much deeper and more engaging experience than I was expecting. I'd definitely play a whole game of this!

Mission: Runaway by LouieWu 2024-10-19T12:27:56Z

Very clever puzzle game! You've taken a fairly simple premise and managed to craft some fiendishly difficult puzzles with it. Great job!

Tiny Crowd by Kateryna 2024-10-25T13:42:32Z

Once I re-read the instructions and realised how to submit (the first time I just helplessly ran out of space with a score of 0), this became a nice little puzzle game, although the lack of variety meant it did start to get a bit stale after a while. I could easily have played for a while and racked up a score in the millions but my ADHD didn't allow me to. There's definitely scope to expand this out into a fully-fledged game with more mechanics and a wider variety of cards (perhaps cards that require creatures of multiple colours; I also agree that the multiplier mechanic feels slightly underbaked). For 48 hours' work, though, not bad!

MonkePok by LetsSnack 2024-10-18T12:44:59Z

Very impressive for 72 hours' work! Unfortunately I ran into an insurmountable roadblock in the form of a Level 12 enemy that seemed to outspeed and 2-hit-kill everything I threw at it. The way the battle system works - with the first hits being simultaneous and subsequent hits being determined by Speed, which is invisible for enemies - means that's impossible to counter, and sometimes it looked like my Monkepok would withstand a second hit and then it didn't and I lost it.

Would have loved to have played for longer, though! There's definitely scope for this to be expanded out into something even bigger and better. Great job!

RATSTALKER by mmph 2024-10-13T09:26:49Z

Much creepier than I was expecting a game about rats to be. Those eerie sounds as they approach are just so perfectly unsettling. Unfortunately I was only able to kill about eighty rats and find one of the notes, and then I got swarmed by rats and died (which I wasn't sure you could do). They're so small and move so fast, and your gun reloads so slowly - I guess this is intended to make the game harder and thus scarier, but really it just makes killing and collecting each swarm feel really tedious.

Great job, though, I really wish I was able to beat it and fully unravel the plot.

RATSTALKER by mmph 2024-10-14T16:24:48Z

@mmph I can confirm, I had no idea you could run by holding Shift. That definitely should have been documented somewhere. I'll give the game another try with that in mind.

RestaurANT by Guadalupe Murgo 2024-10-12T14:58:22Z

This is a good first try, I appreciate how simple the idea is and the music and graphics have a real charm to them. Unfortunately, the game is too buggy to really enjoy (no pun intended). I think a lot of these things have been brought up already, but from the top:

- The amount of time you have in each level is far too short, so you tend to start failing levels very quickly, and the game doesn't tell you how much time you have left so it comes as a shock when you suddenly lose. - Only once, on my first try, was I actually able to serve a bug. Every other time I tried, the bugs refused to accept the order even if it was correct. I haven't seen anyone else report this so it may just have been me, but I did try running the game multiple times and it happened every time, and it made the game impossible to play. - There doesn't seem to be any point to the level goals, because the game lets you progress to the next day even if you don't complete them. It's nice that you've tried to make the game forgiving (assuming that was your intent), but if I can just stand there doing nothing and still progress through the game, it makes the entire thing pointless. - Having the arrow keys control the menu when the main controls are WASD makes no sense to me.

I hope I'm not sounding too harsh - I know you're only young and this is your first effort, and I don't want you to get discouraged - but it would be disingenuous for me to pretend this game is better than it is, or avoid pointing out its flaws. You won't improve if you don't know what you're doing wrong, and I hope you do improve, because you do have promise, as does this game. You just need to keep practicing, and you'll get better in no time. Good luck! I hope to see more from you in the future.

Snail Typing by SatLess 2024-10-19T12:16:24Z

Very nice little typing game! I was a little worried by the other snails' speed at first but fortunately my typing speed is fast enough that I was able to clear the game in one try. Given the lack of variety, I think it's just long enough to avoid outstaying its welcome. Good job!

Tiny Terrors by ArtAllester 2024-10-18T20:34:53Z

This is a neat little *Vampire Survivors* clone, but I feel like the balancing needs work. You shoot way too slowly, the cockroaches move quickly, and there's not much room for maneuver, so I think I got hit by more cockroaches than I actually killed. The game doesn't offer you upgrades quickly enough to keep pace with the roaches' strengthening, doesn't give you any indication of when the next upgrade is, and doesn't tell you that refusing to mutate will kill you (in which case, why even give you the option?) There's promise here, but it requires more balancing and better player feedback.

Sounds Familiar by lilyspren 2024-10-24T16:18:35Z

Nice and simple, and honestly not the greatest in terms of artwork, but the writing is good enough to carry it and it's not too difficult to figure out what to do to solve each puzzle. The music is good, and the ending is very amusing. Good job for a first entry!

Manually counted Reference GC by sebbernery 2025-10-07T13:47:53Z

I'm not sure if I failed? I got to 543 points during Level 2 and then the game just kinda stopped giving me tasks and just sat there doing nothing. This is a good game, with a clever interpretation of the theme and a lot to keep track of without feeling overwhelming, but a little more feedback as to how well you're actually doing would be appreciated.

Vault of Stars by graebor 2025-10-15T14:53:58Z

I love a good story-based Ludum Dare entry, and this has a good balance of storytelling and gameplay. The graphics and music are great, and come together to create a soothing atmosphere that compliments both the gameplay and story.

While I like that you're left to figure out for yourself how to solve the puzzles, by Fearful Clouds I was beginning to have trouble understanding *why* the correct solutions were correct, and I had to give up entirely on Fearful Clouds 5 because I just have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do (unlike @blue-pin-studio, it was the middle one that stumped me).

Great job! I hope this does well!

Windows Explorer 2 by torcado 2025-10-24T19:21:10Z

Oh hey, I remember you from Windowkill. This is a similar sort of concept, simple yet ingenious. For a moment I was like "I wanna keep playing this but I have better things to do", but then I remembered that since it's an incremental idle game, I can just leave it running in the background while I do those other things - like typing this review, for example.

This might be one of those rare entries that I keep coming back to even after the jam itself has ended. Well done!

Relic Hunter by ehtd 2025-10-07T14:23:04Z

Nice! It's a bit short and simple - you can get almost all of the uranium you need in a single drilling session - but there's no real issues with it other than that, no bugs or anything. The graphics are solid, the movement feels smooth, and the sound design is great. Good job!

Hatterdashery by Alchemic 2025-10-15T15:40:53Z

The hat-throwing mechanic feels like it needs work. It's very hard to actually hit a Capling with them, and when I tried speaking to the spider girl after throwing her some hats, the game froze. It was also very unclear at the very start what I was meant to be doing or where I was meant to be going, as there were no enemies in the immediate vicinity and no indication of where they were. A minimap or something might help with that.

I don't think I was really able to play enough of this to be able to give it a fair score, but it looks promising enough.

Tiles Collector by dhim 2025-10-24T19:04:51Z

This is a really cool and unique concept! I love it! The minimalist vibe works perfectly IMO.

Mushroom! by Tim Eriksen 2025-10-15T15:13:43Z

Always great to see PICO-8 entries!

The gameplay is pretty simple at the moment, and it's a shame you weren't able to incorporate all of your ideas, but it's still surprisingly addictive. I kept playing until I had perfect specimens of everything but the wood hedgehog. I did notice it was possible to get mushrooms with a quality rating of 101, and the green bar would then poke out of the right-hand side of the white outline. There's also a brief flicker when you close the guide while in the market square - I think it's loading the woods area for a frame before correctly loading the square?

Those are just minor details, though. All things told, this is a pretty good entry and I'd love to see an expanded version with more of the mechanics you had in mind!

Clam Jam by Fis 2025-10-15T14:03:15Z

I agree with the general vibe: this is a very cozy and relaxing game with fantastic artwork and music, but the game gets a bit too frustrating and difficult once the homing crabs come into play. Because your acceleration is so slow, and your top speed is barely higher than the crabs' even when unencumbered, they can very easily end up stunlocking you until too many of the clams have been washed away for you to be able to complete the level, and then you're forced to keep playing anyway just to pick up the few that are left.

I managed to get a score of 5020 on my first go, which I think is pretty good.

Carrot Collector by F1Krazy 2025-10-07T14:15:52Z

Thanks for all the feedback so far! Glad to hear that most people have enjoyed it so far. Sucks that multiple people got stuck on the last lever, though, I thought I'd made the levels too easy but I guess not :sweat_smile:

@she-wrote I found it hard to account for every possibility of where the player might end up after bouncing on a mushroom, so there are indeed a few areas like that. There are a couple of places where ending up outside the fence is an intentional fail, though. I probably should have added a custom animation for ending up in the water, and I do like the suggestion of prompting you to restart if you get stuck rather than just leaving you to figure it out for yourself.

@ehtd There are twelve levels, as stated in the description.

Carrot Collector by F1Krazy 2025-10-08T12:30:52Z

@she-wrote @sebbernery @wouter52 I've checked and it turns out I made a mistake with Level 12. It's not actually possible to complete it within 29 moves. I'm going to upload an updated version shortly to make the game actually winnable (I consider this a bug, so fixing it should be allowable within the Compo guidelines). Thanks for alerting me to this!

I'm curious how you would solve this within 30 moves, though? The best I can come up with is 35...

Carrot Collector by F1Krazy 2025-10-08T19:05:54Z

@wouter52 Wow, that path never occurred to me. Good find!

Carrot Collector by F1Krazy 2025-10-15T16:32:17Z

@dhim My bad! I've uploaded the cart to the TIC-80 website, you can download it from there and then open it in the web version to have a look at the code.

Carrot Collector by F1Krazy 2025-10-15T16:33:56Z

@catusfelony Really? I know Level 12 did, but I didn't know about Level 8. I'll have to have a look, thanks for letting me know.

Super Sucker by leorean 2025-10-24T19:45:16Z

I've been looking forward to playing this one ever since I first saw you post about it, and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. I love PICO-8 games, and this is one of the best I've played in a long time. The fact that it only took you 3 days is incredible. The graphics, sound effects, music, and overall vibe are just fantastic. Unfortunately I either wasn't very efficient with my sucking or wasn't good enough at finding upgrades, as I ran out of energy with a score of just 1767. I'll have to try again sometime, or perhaps wait for the post-jam version.

Fantastic job! I'm sure this'll rate highly in the jam.

Skeledaddler! by Catusfelony 2025-10-24T18:54:10Z

I'm really impressed at how polished and juicy this is for a Ludum Dare entry, as well as how many levels you were able to pack into it. Unfortunately, I struggled a *lot* at figuring out the ideal trajectories; it took me about fifty tries to beat Level 5, and I had to give up entirely on Level 7 because I just have absolutely no idea how you're supposed to get to that button. I think that's just a "me" problem, though, and my only complaint about it is that I wish I could have experienced all 14 levels.

Very well done! I'm sure this'll rank highly.

Hammer & Horde by Paroxysmal 2025-10-15T15:55:11Z

I have to be honest, I found this rather frustrating. There are too many places (like the giant spike pit with no platforms over it) where it's impossible to proceed without dumping or losing all your treasure, which defeats the purpose of collecting any in the first place. It's not indicated that you can double-jump or wall-jump - I had to find those things out from the comments, after initially getting stuck in the starting area - and as @john-gabriel pointed out, there's a very obvious underflow glitch where getting hit without any treasure causes the bar to wrap around and fill up, which *would* be a great exploit if it didn't cripple your movement with no guarantee of being able to fix it.

On a more positive note, I do love the Game Boy-style graphics and sound effects.

There's a great idea here, but I don't think it's quite there yet, sadly.

Pollen Pusher by Quail Weaver 2025-10-07T13:34:12Z

I'm not very good at sokoban, let alone hexagonal sokoban, but I really enjoyed this nonetheless. The graphics and music are really cozy and charming, and making it hexagonal is a clever twist on the formula - I found it surprisingly easy to get the hang of the controls. I'm also very impressed that you managed to fit in a level editor!

I too got stuck on Sink, I get that you can safely ignore one of the pollen blobs, but beyond that I have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do.

Hottentottententententoonstelling by Wouter52 2025-10-08T19:25:43Z

This was fun! A really unique concept *and* a really unique use of the theme. For the first one I drew a "mystic cat" because that's what the word sounded like, and by the time they started giving descriptions I just ignored them and ran with what I was already doing. Was fun to see everyone else's interpretations of the descriptions as well!

Can you give me a hand gesture? by She Wrote 2025-10-07T13:39:32Z

Pretty small and simple, but it does what it says on the tin. Well-executed. Good job!

Paperboy: Time to Collect by sslees 2025-10-15T15:32:08Z

Simple but effective! As others have said, it's really impressive that you were able to code this entirely in HTML and JavaScript, without using a proper game engine. As others have *also* said, the difficulty ramps up a little too quickly. Some music or sound would have been nice but I don't know how easy that would have been given the limitations you were working within, and you opted out of Audio so that won't affect your score anyway.

Very impressive, though! Good work!

Aeternia by VPro 2025-10-15T16:26:01Z

This is great! Very atmospheric, with very unique gameplay. I was able to figure out how the meditation mechanic worked, and found all but one of the species, but found it hard to progress after my first death (those damn skents!) because scanning new species is your main source of income, and if you've already scanned most of the creatures, it's hard to earn enough money to buy back the items, especially the axe.

I'll definitely come back to this and unravel its secrets later! I think I know how you get into that southern area to find the final species...

Pumpkin Jam by SoloAdventurerGames 2025-10-07T13:18:53Z

I was hoping to see a 3D collect-a-thon or two get entered, and this is a pretty good effort. The graphics are good for 48 hours' work, the art style makes them look even better and creates a great spooky vibe, and the size and variety of the game world is impressive. I assumed that the 60 candies/5 brothers door would be the end of the game, and then I went through it and saw the 148 candies/9 brothers door and went "There's *that much more?!*" I didn't use the "Collect All" button but I appreciate that you added one for people who just want to speed through the game as quickly as possible.

I did find the camera controls a bit finicky. I spent the first twenty seconds or so staring at either the sky or ground until I managed to get the camera pointing in the right direction, and even after that the camera had a tendency to move too slowly or too quickly. The collision detection feels wonky in places - I know you said the corn maze lacked collision to make it easier, but I feel like it defeats the purpose. I wasn't sure how you were supposed to get onto the church roof and had to kinda glitch my way up there with a wonky jump.

All in all, though, a very good effort! I hope this does well!

Cats King by av_shustov 2025-10-07T14:03:12Z

A nice little incremental idle game, and a cute take on the theme. It's oddly satisfying to see your chains of cats reach that little bit wider with each successive upgrade, allowing you to cast your metaphorical net that much wider and gradually increasing your output. I definitely wouldn't mind playing a larger, more elaborate version of this.

Build-A-Bot by Tykki19 2025-10-15T13:44:58Z

This was fun! I like the way that the first four levels slowly introduce the mechanics and then the fifth and final level just ramps up the difficulty as a final test. Sadly I fell about $1000 short but I had fun regardless!

The Internet Collector by YibiRabbit007 2025-10-08T20:01:00Z

This was a lot easier once I realised that the button in the top-right of the main menu switched the language from Chinese to English :sweat_smile: I feel like that could've been signposted a lot better, especially since the majority of participants probably speak English better than they do Chinese.

Once I knew what I was doing, though, I managed to complete it and very much enjoyed it. At first it was rather alarming how easy it was to get from phishing a guy about his cat to hacking into a nuclear launch system, but the ending rather defused that (all that just for some eggs? lmao). A very unique gameplay and presentation style. Well done!

Collection Time by Psevdonim 2025-10-15T14:38:20Z

I have to be honest here: this is so barebones that it's hard to really come up with any real positive feedback. There's just *nothing here*.

You only really do two things during gameplay: select your next destination, and collect the items from the chest there. The first one feels meaningless, since there are so few choices and they all lead to the same place, and the second one *is* meaningless because the items don't do anything and there's no story explanation for why you're collecting them in the first place. The collection aspect just feels like it's been tacked on to satisfy the theme, rather than actually being an integral part of the game.

The music is a ten-second loop, there's no sound effects, and the fact that the items are so well-drawn makes the crude graphics everywhere else in the game stick out like a sore thumb. I'd be willing to overlook those things if there was more of a game under the hood, but there just... *isn't*. I realise this is your first Ludum Dare, and I don't want to sound too discouraging, but I'm genuinely struggling to understand how *this* is all you have to show for 72 hours' work. It feels more like you made this in *7* hours. Maybe you did, but you haven't said so.

As a matter of fact, you haven't said *anything* about the game, or about any of the feedback you've received so far, which is strange given that the other jam game on your itch.io profile has a full and very detailed description, and lengthier responses to feedback. It comes across like you don't really care.

Again, I'm not saying any of this to discourage you, but to help you understand the problems with both the game and the way you've communicated about it, so you can improve for next time. However, I would appreciate it if you could respond with something other than "Thank you for your feedback"; something that tells me you have actually read my feedback and taken it on board, rather than just skimming over it.

I hope to see you return for Ludum Dare 59 with a much better entry.

Collection Time by Psevdonim 2025-10-24T19:44:34Z

@psevdonim Thanks for your response, I appreciate it. I agree that I may have been a bit too harsh in my criticisms, but I'm glad to hear that you're aware of them and saddened that, whatever the reasons may have been, you weren't able to create the game you'd originally envisioned. I wonder if it may have been better for you to go for the Extra category instead, to give yourself more time to work on the game.

Either way, as I said, I hope you're not discouraged and continue to work on creating games in the future.

Self Golf by SecondDimension 2018-04-23T19:51:57Z

This is one of the games I've been looking forward to playing the most, and the end product is just... wow. So much content in just 48 hours! The graphics are great (I love the CRT effect), the gameplay starts off easy and gradually gets trickier, and the entire concept is extremely fun. This is definitely one of my favourites so far.

Infernoculus by icxon 2018-05-14T21:28:44Z

This reminds me of Football Tactics on Steam, except your team is getting massacred by demons and everything is on fire. I love the graphics, I love the AI, the gameplay is well-polished and has plenty of features. I dunno if it's just me, but there's no music or sound effects? I think it must be a glitch, as you mentioned music a couple of times. I'll refrain from leaving an Audio rating, just to be on the safe side.

I loved playing this, though. It's a highly impressive game for just 72 hours of work. Excellent job!

artheria by joe40001 2018-05-14T21:44:01Z

Hey, didn't see that coming. Nice twist with the genres! The dialogue was very amusing. I game over'd on the city-building portion because I had no idea what the actual goal was, or that there was a time limit. The graphics are kinda mixed? Good in places, and then bad in others (I think the main character's sprite is intentionally bad? Or at least, intentionally a different art style.) Good music and sound design, though.

Overall, a pretty clever game, I just wish it was a bit more intuitive.

Last Stand by glimaleite 2018-05-14T19:49:50Z

Phew. When you said this game was hard, you weren't kidding. Juggling RTS tasks is a whole lot harder when you're dancing through a hail of bullets in order to do it. The graphics are great for a compo entry, really top-notch stuff. A few areas for improvement:

1. Better feedback when you hit an enemy or when you get hit, instead of having to keep an eye on the health bars. 2. Sometimes I drop metal on a building and it misses, so I have to go pick it back up and try again, all the while getting shot at. A wider collection zone would be nice. 3. I think it would help the difficulty a bit if the ore-to-metal conversion was automatic, but gradual (say, every second or so the factory will convert 5 ore into a chunk of metal). That way, it's one less thing to do, and you can go off and shoot enemies for a bit rather than sitting there and mashing the E button.

Great concept though, I really liked it.

Shootanoid by drludos 2018-04-28T23:53:49Z

A very nice fusion! I'm very impressed that you managed to complete this in just one day. Imagine what you could have done with two! As others have said, the mechanics could use a little refinement, but it's a simple, solid game, and very enjoyable to play.

Also, I gotta give TIC-80 a shot sometime.

Eldritch Engines by CameronPenner 2018-05-14T18:44:21Z

This was really fun! Very atmospheric, and I loved the cheesy Lovecraftian voice lines. As the others have said, the tunnel entrance is a bit tricky, but I think that's to do with the track design as much as the lighting: it's a blind crest, so you can't really see where the bend is until you're already going round it. The frame rate drop when playing on High graphics didn't help either: I didn't have a problem with it after I switched to Low (although I had played it a few times by then).

I also like how your own attacks can ricochet back and kill you if you're not careful. I did that once.

One gameplay aspect I'm not sure about is that there doesn't seem to be an incentive to actually race, especially since you have to be *behind* an opponent to shoot at them (I know you changed that for v1.3 but you said not to rate that version :P ) I'll have to try it, but it's probably possible to win the game by doing absolutely nothing, sitting at the start line, and waiting for your opponents to kill each other or fall off the track.

Nice game, though! Good graphics, good gameplay, great atmosphere. Well done!

Card And Run by bloodyaugust 2018-04-23T20:10:01Z

I enjoyed this! The graphics and sound could use a bit of polish, and perhaps it would be better if the obstacles were randomly-generated, but overall, it's a good time-waster. It's tricky to try and plan ahead, especially with the "discard" cards, but it's a great feeling when you put a nice run together. My best so far is 16 - I got a bunch of 2x cards in a row and reached that one rock before the bat did. Get rekt, bat. Nice game.

Rex McFury: Public Defender by minibobbo 2018-04-24T05:59:28Z

I was looking forward to playing this one, and it's exactly as much fun as I expected it would be. The graphics and sound design give this game a real sense of personality. Rex is possibly my favourite protagonist of LD41 so far. I don't play brawlers very often, and I'm not very good at them, but I still had fun with this. Good job!

Super PunchTime by groverburger 2018-05-01T08:21:44Z

This is a neat, well-polished game. It's tricky to try and predict your opponent's moves, and get in a position where you can hit him without being hit first, but that's probably true of regular fighting games. The graphics are good, and the fighting mechanics are simple and well-polished. Good job!

Legend of Zoom by pkenney 2018-04-23T05:46:25Z

The graphics are bright and crisp, and the controls are smooth and precise. It takes a while to get the hang of aiming so that you hit the enemy instead of driving headlong into it, as i kept doing. But there's a reason these are considered "incompatible genres"! Love the little skidmarks that show up as well. Fun game!

Super Bigbo Commando by harusame 2018-04-24T21:31:28Z

I think you pulled this off really well. Timing your jumps really was the difficult part, but the zoom effect was neat. The level was surprisingly long, and there were plenty of collectables along the way. Could maybe use a little more variety, especially in terms of enemies, but it's a very good game as it is.

Cartenstein by Iluvatar 2018-04-24T19:29:24Z

This was really enjoyable! The graphics are good, the sound effects were good, the rhymes are a little iffy in places but they work well with the cryptic feel of the game. I could only find 10 cards in the end but that was enough to win. Sargan's riddle is gonna be bugging me now :P

RPGs Done Quick by rhythmlynx 2018-04-23T19:07:52Z

A great idea, and well-executed. I love the self-aware nature of the game, how it knows it's slowing you down and tripping you up and takes pride in it. I might give it a few more goes just to see how fast it's possible to finish the game if you know what you're doing beforehand.

DUNK EM UP! by lukbebalduke 2018-04-23T19:35:12Z

My one gripe with this was that it wasn't immediately apparent to me that you had to kill the enemies before they reached the middle, I thought you just had to kill them and not get hit by them. That's probably just me being an idiot, though. It certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the game - I've been following this with anticipation all weekend long and the final result is astonishing for just 48 hours' work. Great job!

Cinema Drive by Texou31 2018-04-24T19:02:01Z

This is a fantastic idea, and well-executed too. The dialogue is hilarious. I didn't manage to finish it, but I'd happily go back and try again, and maybe try the other dialogue options to see what happens.

Call Of Bob Ross by PapyKent 2018-04-26T18:45:42Z

I've honestly never listened to Bob Ross before, but I can see now why everyone finds his voice so calm and relaxing. And yet somehow you've managed to take his quotes, pull them out of context, and make them sound genuinely sinister and/or badass.

I'm no good at art, especially when it's being made by splattering things, but I still had a lot of fun with this. One glitch I noticed was that occasionally, enemies would run around in circles at the spawn point and clip through the walls. It also would have more intuitive, I think, if you had keyboard inputs for cycling the colours. Maybe that's just me though.

Sneak To The Rhythm by BlakeMcDeezy 2018-05-14T19:31:50Z

Very fun! I got stuck very quickly, but that's because I suck at both rhythm games and stealth games, so it's no surprise that the two put together is a nightmare for me. I'm so thankful you added in the ability to just hold the buttons down.

Still, even if I wasn't that good at it, it was great fun watching the obvious Solid Snake parody disco-dancing around the room like John Travolta while the guards all spin in circles and bob their heads in time with the (very good, if a little repetitive) soundtrack. The obvious weak point is the graphics, but I can't really fault you for that because I can't draw either :P Well done!

Motor Challenge by rvenson 2018-04-23T06:11:24Z

I feel like there could have been more to this game. I finished 2nd solely by clicking "Keep the pace" or "slow down" based on the gap to 3rd, and then pitting when my fuel ran out. The comments each lap get quite repetitive too. I would have loved to have seen more variety overall, although I'm guessing it simply wouldn't have been possible within the time frame. So yeah, not bad, just a bit repetitive.

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-23T05:22:29Z

@Sharks Menu items are selected with Z. Sorry, I forgot that not everyone will know the PICO-8 control scheme, I'll add that into the description.

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-24T18:40:37Z

@minibobbo Thanks! I hadn't thought of waves, that's actually not a bad idea. And it seems I should have tested the boss more, you're not the only person who's reported problems with it. Ran flat outta time, though >.< Glad you enjoyed it all the same!

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-24T20:45:06Z

@Lyje I wanted to put a health bar on the boss (or at least, some visual indicator of damage), but that's another thing I ran out of time for. I'm putting together a list of features and big fixes, and once the contest is over I'll be working on an upgraded version.

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-25T17:39:40Z

@lukbebalduke Thanks! The boss isn't time-based, it just requires a lot of bullets to kill. The lack of health bar is a problem that I intend to address after judging is over.

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-28T23:19:57Z

@CalebLewis Oh wow, I thought I was the only person who came up with this combo! Yours looks pretty cool, so I'll be sure to give it a play.

Rhythm Racing by Sammy6 2018-04-24T21:56:12Z

Wasn't expecting to see a Scratch game here. Very good for a first try. I could just about keep up with the rhythm notes, but I couldn't steer at the same time, and when the notes started getting faster I honestly just gave up. I'm not dextrous enough for this. Very good demonstration of incompatibility, though, and I enjoyed it all the same.

Shadow Cards by Matt Christian 2018-05-14T20:37:11Z

This is a neat concept! The simplistic graphics work very well. I feel like it was a bit short, though, and a bit too easy - I killed one enemy, stunned another, and just danced my way round all the rest. More varied enemy types, and a greater necessity to battle sometimes, would really help bring the whole thing together. I think the music got a bit repetitive as well.

All in all, a very good concept, it just needs expanding a little. Well done though!

Space Captain Rodriguez by CalebLewis 2018-04-28T23:33:45Z

I found it difficult to get the hang of the mechanics (keyboard, and a lack of memory of what did what to whom), but this is a very clever fusion! The artwork is excellent, and I love the anime stylings. You're right in that it could use a bit of polish - perhaps a tutorial to ease you into the mechanics, and some extra sounds. But that's what happens when you have a 72-hour time limit. What's there already is very good.

BIRKANOID by MateCziner 2018-04-29T15:57:56Z

Outstanding! The graphics are brilliant, the enemies have a ton of character, the sound effects work extremely well, and the mechanics are very well-polished. I love how the game slows right down when it's time for you to make your next choice, allowing you to time your moves to snipe enemies. Very addictive. Probably one of the best games I've played all jam. I really need to give TIC-80 a go at some point.

A Carpenter's Tale by DeadlyMidnight 2018-05-14T21:01:23Z

Sadly my laptop isn't capable of running this at anything higher than about 10FPS, which made it almost impossible to play. I really am bummed about that. I was so looking forward to playing this. I won't fault you at all, it's my terrible old laptop's fault. I'll just judge what I can.

The graphics are astonishing. For 72 hours' work, you've managed to make something that almost looks like a retail game. The concept is great: it looks like you managed to work in quite a few commands, and I like how they're revealed naturally through the dialogue, though I would have liked to have been able to type just "left" and "right".

It'll be way too late for the jam, but once I get a new computer this'll be on my list of games to play. For now, I've just rated what I can.

Modern Fairway 4: Spec-Ops in the Rough by Lost Dutchman Software 2018-05-14T20:10:09Z

Man, I left it too long to play this. Great fun. The frustration (and the incompatibility) comes from how small of a target the golf ball is, and how it never stops rolling but instead keeps following the terrain and veering off in this or that direction. But that just makes it all the most satisfying when you finally nail the sucker, especially if it's in time with the music. I think my final score was 128, partly because I kept going full-auto on it with the FAL before realising it was more efficient to actually aim.

I love the function that highlights where the ball is, very handy for when it goes flying off after a drive. Only thing I would really recommend is a faster running speed, or maybe a sprint option, to let you catch up to it faster. Very enjoyable, though! Good work!

Soccer Fight by mic_matrix91 2018-05-14T20:21:59Z

As a Millwall fan, I don't really see how soccer and violence are "incompatible genres".

...I jest. This is great fun! I feel like the power meter didn't work properly, or maybe I just wasn't holding the mouse down long enough? The gameplay gets a bit repetitive too, but the cheers of the crowd and the little "AAGH" sounds as the opponents go down just never got old. It's especially fun when you manage a trick shot, like firing a ball that goes over a player's head then bounces off the wall and hits him in the back. Very satisfying.

Made it to 61 before suffering my Tom & Jerry-esque demise. I really enjoyed this.

Seven Ate Nine by topbraj 2018-05-14T19:16:09Z

You know what? This was genuinely creepy. The screen flicker, the cries and screams of the numbers as they're chased and eaten, seeing their bloodied corpses scattered around... yikes. I love, as well, how the heartbeat sound in the background becomes more frantic as the 7s get closer to you, and slows down again as you pull away from them.

I'm good at math, so for me, the struggle came from trying to find a specific number without accidentally running into a different number (or, god forbid, a 7). Took me a minute to realise that you can collect more than two numbers, but that's probably the only gripe I have with the game. Very well done!

Tiny Crusader by nilstastic 2018-04-27T20:11:45Z

I was looking forward to playing this, and it turned out very well indeed. It's quite challenging to frantically dig a route once one crusader dies, before the rest all pile in after him. I love the graphics and sound design, and as a fellow PICO-8 dev I'm impressed that you managed to pull off things like randomly-generated, destructible terrain, and dynamic blood splatters.

I think it's weird to see lost crusaders just randomly hovering in mid-air when you start a new level, and I can see from the reviews that I'm not the only one it confused. Dunno how easy it would be to change the engine so that they're always on or under the ground. Kind of a nitpick, though. Overall, a very good entry!

Dog Petter by Raphiell 2018-04-24T06:24:42Z

The most wholesome game I'll see all Ludum Dare. The yips and barks are adorable. 10/10 would pet doggo again

Rythm-based shmup by halvorsh 2018-04-23T20:23:43Z

I have to be honest, this was a tad disappointing. You did a good job with the "incompatible" part - I found it almost impossible just to keep up with the button prompts, and didn't even bother moving the ship at all. But it seems like there was only one wave of enemies, and while the "Game Over" screen says "press R to restart", nothing actually happens when you press R.

I can see what you were trying to do here, and this idea has potential, but I feel like you would have been better off using the extra day to get the game polished and finished, and entering it into the Jam instead.

Infinite Checkers by blake.s 2018-05-02T06:15:44Z

Very fun! I didn't realise you could jump off the left side and you'd reappear on the right side, that's quite handy for pulling off clever strategies. The graphics and audio are solid and the gameplay is challenging without getting frustrating. The one main improvement is that, as a few others have said, there needs to be better feedback about how close or far the hazard is. Otherwise, I'd say you've done a pretty good job here.

Desert Drifter by Literal Games 2018-05-15T19:25:20Z

Fun little game! I love the low-poly aesthetic, there needs to be more games like that. The visual effects as you got faster were great too. It's very enjoyable just driving around, backflipping off obstacles, drifting round corners and not really bothering with the objectives. The photography mechanic by itself is impressive, though.

All in all, this is a very solid entry. Good job!

Flappy Soccer by Teo SK 2018-04-23T19:17:16Z

Man, I thought regular Flappy Bird was hard, but this... this is just brutal. A fantastic demonstration of incompatibility, and somehow it makes you want to keep retrying even when 60% of the time you miss the very first goal. Nice job!

Rock The Road by Bintex 2018-04-24T21:46:34Z

13! Wow! I wish I'd been this good at game development when I was 13.

This is a well-polished game with a very clever concept. As a couple of others have noted, there's not much strategy to it at the moment: you camp at the start line, place some rocks either side, and wait for the racers to pile straight into them. I did drive around the map a bit during the first wave, if only because I wasn't sure how the game worked at that point.

It needs some work, to make better use of the game mechanics and the size of the map, but for a 13-year-old this is a damn good first try. You should be proud of yourself.

CHARLIE by notb 2018-04-24T19:39:38Z

This game is what I imagine being on acid is like. Utterly bizarre, but brilliantly unique, and quite the accomplishment in PICO-8. I look forward to seeing how this develops!

POLITICS VS GAMES LOL by Lyje 2018-04-24T19:55:28Z

Damn... as satire goes, this is pretty scathing. Not a straight interpretation of the theme, but the end result is a lot more thought-provoking than many of the other entries I've played so far. Watching the game change as I went on honestly got disturbing at times. I hope this ranks highly, because it deserves it.

Sneaky Signals by almost 2026-05-08T22:57:39Z

Very clever entry! I was confused at first, thinking the signals didn't do anything, until I realised that was a practice run without them and the signals gradually came into play afterwards, which I thought was a really interesting way to ease you into the mechanics. Eventually it got to the point where there were too many signals and I couldn't remember them, but that's where the difficulty stems from, I guess.

The music sets a great atmosphere, and the whole thing feels lively and strategic. Good job!

Sacred Bleorgan Artifacts by marudziik 2026-05-08T22:41:25Z

This is great, especially for a Compo entry. I always love seeing PICO-8 entries, and this is a doozy. There's a solid number of levels, the difficulty ramps up nicely (digging up artifacts is harder than it looks!), the animation and audio are both on point, and there's a surprisingly lengthy (and entertaining) storyline as well. Very well done!

GigaHurtz by johnnysix 2026-05-04T13:06:53Z

The game doesn't seem to be working for me. The loading bar fills up and then I just get a black screen. Could you upload a version of this elsewhere? This wouldn't be the first game I've encountered that doesn't work properly on the LD site but works perfectly fine elsewhere.

GigaHurtz by johnnysix 2026-05-07T18:29:36Z

@johnnysix The external one works, thanks.

I love the retro graphics, but I have to admit that I found the music a little grating. My biggest complaint, however, is the difficulty. This game is definitely not "very easy" as the description claims. I too was stumped by Level 2 until I read your description, and then I got completely stumped by Level 3 (how are you supposed to get yourself *and* the satellite dish up onto the second conveyor belt?). I *could* just watch your walkthrough, but at that point I'm not really playing the game.

This is a good idea, I think you just sorely underestimated the difficulty and/or ramped it up way too soon. The game needs more antepieces to ease you into the puzzle mechanics, so you know what you're actually doing by the time it starts throwing the trickier things at you.

Multiplayer Signal by mdotedot 2026-05-04T09:25:47Z

The fact that each level just resets and wipes out your progress as soon as you leave it completely killed my motivation to keep playing. If everything I do gets immediately erased, then what's the point?

There's a good idea in here, and as others have said, it's impressive that you managed to get multiplayer working within the jam window, but unfortunately there are some bizarre design choices here that just sour the whole experience for me.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-04-20T08:52:06Z

@debugman18 If you're still stuck, press 1 to consult your mentor and have a think about what he might be trying to tell you.

@rbgondim I wondered whether that might be a problem, and considered adding a feature that would let you see the previous messages you'd deciphered, but ran out of time to implement it before the Compo deadline. I might add it in later but since this is a Compo entry it won't be in the version here on the site.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-04-20T17:25:47Z

@rbgondim I mean, the fact you went out of your way to do that is enough to tell me how much you enjoyed the game, if you ask me. Thanks for the review!

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-04-21T21:07:01Z

@alchemic You're not the first to get stuck on the Vigenere ciphers, so I'm going to have to have a think about how better to clue them. I *will* say that they're all spelled out in the messages you crack. I'm glad you like the UI design, though, I'm quite happy with it myself.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-04-24T20:36:19Z

@wouter52 Thanks! I thought it was important to make sure the ciphers were explained well enough without it being too wordy and boring the player. I've received a lot of feedback about not being able to review the previous messages so I'll see what I can do about that.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-04-26T14:56:55Z

@johnnysix I didn't think of the waveform idea, that's actually pretty cool. I'll have a think and see if I can come up with something for that.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-05-03T13:32:31Z

@andriybyelikov I still haven't actually updated the non-Compo versions of the game to include the ability to view previously-decoded messages, and this deep into the jam I'm honestly kinda on the fence about whether to even bother. The damage is already done. Again, though, the fact that you cared enough about the game to hack into its source code so you can see the ending is something I consider a compliment, even if the fact that you had to do so in the first place is an obvious problem.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-05-07T17:48:41Z

@marudziik Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into that bug with the Affine cipher.

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-05-08T07:30:31Z

@lloydlobo So have I! This was a learning experience for sure.

Thanks all for the feedback! I was a bit worried but I've just managed to scrape past the 20-rating mark in time.

Digital Squirm Processing by GuyUnger 2026-05-08T23:11:20Z

This has to be one of the most entertaining Ludum Dare entries I've ever played. It's incredibly fun *and* incredibly informative all at the same time. The difficulty feels perfect, and it's just oozing with charm and personality. I hope and expect to see this right up at the top of the rankings.

Trainsmission by WiredOverload 2026-05-04T09:56:49Z

This is great! Very fleshed out for a jam game. The graphics, gameplay, and audio are all on point. I do feel like it dragged on a little too long without much in the way of variety, though, and I eventually lost both my guard and my healer on the same turn, which prompted me to give up. I really enjoyed it up to that point, though!

Love Caps by Wouter52 2026-05-04T10:16:09Z

2026-05-04 11_03_18-W52_ Projects _ Ld59 _ Play.png

This was much easier once I realised how the stamina mechanic worked. Fun little game! I'm impressed with the variety of mushrooms you were able to come up with, and I like how the music and artwork changes depending on what you're doing.

To walk on Strange Roads? by alyd asmar 2026-05-08T17:39:56Z

This is great! I admire the effort that must have gone into constructing an entire conlang just for this game, and I like the two-part gameplay of having to hunt down where the invisible parcel is (with the music getting louder and your gadget thingy beeping faster as you get closer) and then figure out who it's meant for.

My one complaint is that you're kinda thrown in at the deep end with this massive twenty-page PDF that you have to parse in order to be able to actually do anything. I think it would have been better if you were taught the language by the game itself, one piece at a time, though I appreciate that there was only so much time in the game jam and you probably couldn't have gotten that many levels done in time.

Still a very clever concept, though. I'm impressed.

On Ivy Boulevard by python-b5 2026-05-04T13:27:07Z

This is great! The overall atmosphere is amazing, and the storyline and gameplay are well-crafted. My only complaint is that it's difficult to remember what's happening in each photo you took, and therefore what's relevant and what isn't. It took me four playthroughs but I finally managed to piece together which photos I need to take to incriminate all three conspirators (and I like that you still have a photo to spare, so there's some leeway).

I also found a minor bug: when you successfully prove a conspirator's guilt, the sticky note with their icon on it falls off the pinboard. If you restart the game (e.g. because you didn't identify *all* the conspirators), the sticky note isn't placed back on the pinboard, so you have to remember who that red pin was for. It's nowhere near enough to affect the score (it might even be intentional, in the sense that you've already identified that person?), but I thought it was worth mentioning.

On Ivy Boulevard by python-b5 2026-05-04T15:33:12Z

@python-b5 Yeah, it's purely a visual bug. The pins still work, you just have to remember which is which.

Man On Fire by debugman18 2026-05-04T09:19:25Z

I like that you can just set fire to everything you touch, and the music and general atmosphere are great too. I'll echo what others have said about it not being explained well enough what you actually need to do, though. I have no idea how "fanning the flames" was meant to work, it felt like I was just mashing the A button until the game told me I was done without anything actually changing, and then when I was asked to "begin the ritual" I had no idea what that meant. I'm guessing you have to light the three pyres in three different colours but the logical solution of "one yellow, one red, one green" didn't work - if specific pyres have to be specific colours, then that really needs to be telegraphed more clearly.

FM Escape by woona 2026-05-07T18:01:55Z

Honestly, I found this too frustrating to be enjoyable. Whenever I came to a door that required a three-digit code (including the very first door in the game), I would repeatedly scroll through the entire frequency list without being able to find the one frequency that actually told me the code. Trying to remember where the traps even are, let alone which frequencies clue you in to which traps, is hell on Earth when you have ADHD, poor spatial awareness, and every single corridor looks exactly the same. The fact that there are *so many* frequencies just makes scrolling through them all the more arduous.

There's a good idea here, and it fits the theme well, but the way they're executed just isn't enjoyable for me.

Funnel World by andriybyelikov 2026-05-08T17:22:44Z

It's cool that you were able to make a game revolving entirely around real-time raytracing, but unfortunately you've fallen into the same trap I've seen so many other games fall into this Ludum Dare, which is not making it clear enough what you're actually supposed to *do*. It took me about a minute just to get the hang of where I was and how to move around properly, because all I could see was a green dot in a black void with zero context. From there I got as far as picking up the torch, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do with it. There's a walkthrough, but the fact that I need one for the very first puzzle in the game tells me that something is deeply wrong.

Smoke Signal Officer by Tundra 2026-05-08T22:20:56Z

I had to read through the comments to understand why I was getting stuck on the first puzzle. With all due respect, you were told that the solution you gave in the description was wrong *two weeks ago*, and you still haven't corrected it. Why not? It would have saved me a lot of time and confusion. The description also says that the monitors are supposed to give me feedback, but they don't, they just say "asdf".

It's a cool concept, with some nice theming, but I'm afraid the fact that the first puzzle is broken and hasn't been addressed has just soured me on the whole experience. It's a bad first impression.

(I can't remember whether I played the original version or the 1.1 version, if you fixed the puzzle in the 1.1 version then fair enough.)