Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → FalseIncarnate
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | Journey of the Homunculus | compo | |||||||||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | Blood, Sweat and Taxes | compo | 2.37 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.37 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | ||
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | Financial Burden | compo | 2.41 | 1.75 | 2.83 | 3.33 | 2.75 | 2.10 | 2.08 |
Rather short but otherwise fun, simple yet offers a moderate challenge. Did run into a bug on the second hole where my disc somehow launched itself through a diagonal wall and was irretrievable, should possibly allow you to return to the tee to restart the hole for cases like those.
Fun game, bad puns, the words "bear-blasting"; probably plays smoother with a controller but fun nonetheless!
Most of my feedback has already been said multiple times over above (nice graphics, would be nice to have ability to pick up 1 instead of all, etc), game is fairly straight forward yet still offers a bit of challenge. Ending was kinda meh, I get what you were going for but it felt a bit unnecessary. No obvious bugs I could find, so great job!
Simple game, yet challenging. Easy to die, had once where I literally died on the surface (when I should have been healed), so it seems that the health is subtracted prior to actually seeing where you end up.
Game is a bit short but keeps a fairly steady pace. The game-play itself is pretty basic, but the mood makes up for that quite easily. Couldn't quite tell if there really was much use in blocking (especially during the orc fights), and there wasn't much indication of how effective your attacks were (no real feedback on hits like a health bar) aside from the small recoil enemies would take when hit that could easily be confused with hits by your allies.
Slightly harder than it looks, but simple enough to not frustrate you too much. A quick play and simple mechanics.
The inclusion of the "Zen Mode" is a very nice touch, especially to get the hang of the controls and practice flying without lasers everywhere. Keyboard controls felt too clunky though, as others have stated
Did notice what appeared to be lasers blasting through rocks, not sure if that was a graphical glitch or if they were actually killing my birds.
The game is definitely large, that's just a result of the rooms all being equal size (except shops) and generated as you open doors. The more doors your open, the more space is filled, thus the larger the world seems. This is entirely controlled by the player in that doors do not open without interaction and rooms don't generate until the instant a door is opened.
As for concerns about game play, there is currently no goal. There is no back story or win/lose condition since I didn't have time for those prior to submission, though I do want to add them in the future. Automatic coin collection was deliberately cut since the coins are a major trade-off, so it felt like it would punish the player for not avoiding them rather than punish them for hoarding them as I envisioned. Auto-exploration/fast travel were likewise not included because the game was about the player balancing their choices according to their situation. Do you continue along the same path in hopes of a new store nearby or turn back to one you know exists? Do you carry the coins and waste your time trudging slowly through many rooms, or press on knowing you can come back for them later? Adding ways to essentially bypass these choices means the player is less a player and more an audience. Though providing the user a one-way "fast recall" to the starting room via a one use item could be a reasonable future addition
The rooms are randomly generated, with various chances of containing things like coins, targets, shops, challenge doors, etc. A challenge door (door going up from main path) will lead to a path of variable length with higher chances to include rooms with more coins or challenges to overcome, but still has the chance for a room to be empty and/or a dead end. The rates of things being included likely needs tweaking in the future, but part of the issue again falls back to things that I had to cut for time.
A bug with movement throwing you off center was something I rarely experienced in testing and development (would sometimes inconsistently occur with coins in front of doors), if you could post an issue report on the github on how to reproduce that (if possible) I would very much appreciate it @zinkler
Thanks for the feedback @ambi
Currently, there really isn't much "skill" to the game. It's a pretty simple collection and exploration game in its current state. The slowdown doesn't feel as dire since there is no threat to the player that the slowdown would amplify (enemies, a time limit, etc) currently. I wanted to add enemies which the player would need to avoid or kill in order to continue playing, which the slowdown would definitely add to the difficulty of doing, but had to cut them for time since I got hung up on some pretty major issues with the coin gun that ate more time than expected. They are still something I'd like to add post-voting.
A shop recall is starting to seem more reasonable (and requested) as long as there is a cost and limit on it... starting to think that you'd need to "pre-purchase" recalls from stores (or find them via loot in challenge rooms and such) which function much like the fast travel resource in Horizon: Zero Dawn (you need an item to fast travel, consuming them each time you do so until you get the infinite version of the item in the later game). This is likely going to be added in post-voting for sure.
Other post-voting goals: more room variety, more items, more challenge mechanics, and perhaps a "win" condition for the game as a whole so it isn't infinite exploration...
Fun game, albeit a bit short. Managed to retrieve all of the food (didn't sacrifice any, though it did take 2 tries). Not sure what the brain symbol on the HUD is all about, guessing it was a cut feature (did see "sanity" mentioned in a menu)?
Audio and visual style were enjoyable, and the little UI prompt for picking up the crates was definitely a nice touch!
Fun game, simple mechanics but still provides a moderate challenge. The graphics are definitely a great fit for the game as well, simplistic yet conveying the exact theme you wanted without being too distracting.
Wasn't exactly able to determine where the thresholds for different star ratings were, most levels were really easy to get 3 stars for, and I definitely think you've got a great game foundation to build upon in future updates. You already seem to be planning the few suggestions I had for how to improve upon the base you've clearly nailed down here, so looking forward to seeing more from you!
@ryzy27 Thanks for the report, I'll look into it tonight after work. I probably just messed up the packaging somehow and will need to just do a rebuild of the 64-bit build.
In the meantime, try the 32-bit version and let me know if that also gives the error. Out of curiosity, which version of Windows are you on? Doubt that's gonna make a difference, but I've seen dumber things happen with Windows before.
@alec Thanks for the feedback, glad this was able to trigger some (hopefully) fond memories for you. The inventory screen was something that was tricky to pull off, breaking it into the categories helped keep it readable but still provide a way to show everything. In a future update, I'll probably end up completely redoing it so it is better formatted and perhaps have a toggle for a "show only owned items" version.
The options are definitely overwhelming and unfortunately the game isn't explained well outside my post because I didn't have time to include the main menu (which would have had in-game explanations and control listings). This is again something I want to include in a future update, because I really was kicking myself having to cut that from release in order to make submission time.
Did you have any issues running the game, since that seems to have been the case for at least one other player so far?
@ryzy27 It seems that I accidentally included the 32-bit version of the UnityPlayer.dll file in the 64-bit folder. I've rebuilt the version and updated the version available for download with the new build/dll file. I also confirmed able to run it on my machine in 64-bit, so you should hopefully be able to run it too. Please let me know if you still get the error with the new version.
Thanks for the feedback!
Definitely agree it is overwhelming and not really well explained. I had hoped to include instructions and such on a main menu option, but having to cut the main menu for time definitely left things in a lurch there, so I definitely apologize for that.
Sound was something that I unfortunately have no real experience with so I made the decision to just leave it out altogether. Lacking significant feedback was more of just an oversight on my part, and looking back really should have been a priority I built on from the start.
The bug with shops I'll look into tonight or tomorrow, those didn't get the level of testing other parts because they were one of the last things coded prior to submission, so I'm sure it was something stupid I passed over in my rush. I've also noticed that the shrines aren't showing their upgrade requirements, which was also another bug that I missed by having to cut end testing. Expect a bugfix for both by the weekend.
EDIT: Bug-fixed version uploaded!
@generictoast @flaterectomy An always-visible inventory (or at least partial one) definitely seems to be a common request, and one I'll definitely experiment with after voting is done (when we're able to do new features without breaking the rules/spirit of the compo).
The menu feedback definitely needs an upgrade, right now the menu closing is generally the only way to tell if something happened. Not my greatest design choice to be honest, but one that luckily isn't impossible to change down the line. A few of the menus do somewhat hide options that aren't available, but those are mostly ones that are locked behind an upgrade (notably the brewery and furnace crafting stations which require upgrades to unlock "higher tier" recipes and usage), so they just don't name the option outright. I did consider having those show as blank instead of "Upgrade Required", as well as cases like your example of only showing options you have the requirements met for, however I didn't want to have players mistaking a blank menu as incomplete or a waste of time, and would rather they see what COULD be done there and what they'd need to do it.
The art style is incredibly rough and cartoon-ish for the simple reason of I'm not a particularly talented artist. This game is 100% programmer art, and I won't deny that at all. Post-voting, I'm going to dig up some public domain assets or contact my more artistically inclined friends for better assets. Visible cows and chickens in their pens will hopefully come with that visual upgrade, as will displaying the names of the interact-able objects in their respective menus.
I've definitely got plans to improve the user experience, such as in-game help and control listings that were dropped because of not having enough time to implement a title screen / main menu. If you have any questions or additional comments, I definitely appreciate the feedback!
Fun game, some of the platforming bits felt a little tedious and inconsistent (namely sometimes you'd jump normally and sometimes you'd get a "super jump") to get across, but otherwise fairly straightforward on how to overcome the obstacles.
There was a section on the third level that looked like the terrain wasn't texturing along the edge properly (it all was just the blank blue brick right up to the edge, no red flecks like other edges), not sure if that was intended or a bug.