Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → fronwewq
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | Dwarven Delve | compo | 288 | 3.46 | 3.35 | 3.75 | 4.05 | 3.55 | 3.06 | 2.71 | 3.11 |
I liked this a lot, a simple concept well-executed. The difficulty scaled very nicely, I got to 34165 once and it was very challenging at that point. Sound effects were clean and effective, especially when surpassing your high score.
Nice take on the theme, I agree with others that this could be a cool educational piece of software. I'm not sure how to make it more of a game, since there's really no fail-state. Would've loved to see more circuits with more complex parts.
This was fantastic. Such a clever mechanic and use of theme that turned out really fun. Very frustrating in the QWOP-way, where it feels immediately unintuitive and yet imminently conquerable that I had to keep playing to master it. I loved the cat noises too! My main critique - crashing was way too punitive on your score, my rankings should be higher!
Excellent artwork, the idle animations on all the characters looked fantastic! The difficulty certainly ramped up, was fun figuring out since failure was not very punishing. Great work!
As you say it's a small silly game, but I'll admit I played it four times with a big grin on. Something about the sound effects, character animation and rendering method made it very joyful.
Really clever puzzles, was really fun to figure out! I thought I figured out the last puzzle, but couldn't solve it... though I tried for a while and enjoyed my time. Great use of the looping mechanic, every puzzle used the theme strongly. I'd suggest adding some audio for the dialogue boxes, since they felt a little long and unable to speed up. The use of 'text-speak' can make reading dialogue more natural. Here's a good video about the practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZMWkmXX3k Well done though, I really loved this!
Wow, that's incredibly impressive to pull off in 72 hours. It's obviously light on content and features, but the core of it plays just like a classic Westwood/Blizzard RTS (and maybe the audio is a little too close :P). Super smooth and responsive controls, this is a great foundation to build on.
Nice game, I liked the use of switches to make levels more interconnected (dare I say, looping?). It was a little hard to make out the icons, but I appreciated the minimalist UI, definitely had all the information needed on the board. I would've loved to see more levels with higher difficulty, but I understand jam constraints.
This is a really great entry. Very strong vibes of Papers, Please - in fact, I could see expanding this in a similar fashion, with more annoying tasks to maintain. I thought rotating the objects was a brilliant way to introduce difficulty. There were a few problems I encountered, like the scanner not scanning consistently (even when the red light was on), and the later difficulty felt physically impossible. I tried just grabbing everything and throwing it through without scanning, and I still ran out of time! Understandable issues given the time constraints, but I really loved the idea. I think you should keep developing this!
I really liked the driving mechanics, felt like the old top-down racing games from the 16-bit era. The story was oddly dark for me, couldn't help feeling very sad for the couple, but I did appreciate the voice acting and effort on the narrative.
I was able to play the Windows link. Very neat concept! Haven't played something like this before. It felt pretty difficult, but maybe I'm just not good at judging relative speeds. I wish there more levels, especially a slower introduction with easier challenges to get the hang of things, but I also can imagine how hard it is to level design for this kind of game. The two levels were pretty interesting, so I bet if you had more time it could really flourish. Good work!
What an incredible level of polish, from start to finish it plays like a complete title. The gameplay is simple, but it's paced so well - just enough time to memorize, good ramping up of difficulty. Really amazing level of work in just a weekend!
Really liked the idea of being an NPC taking revenge against the player!
I like the concept! Very creative take on the theme. Reminds me of some old flash games I used to play, like Taco Joe. Really great artwork too, very strong style and nice choice of colors. Controls were a bit difficult, sometimes I couldn't grab or release what I wanted, and the removal belt didn't always work. In general I think there were too many objects in each suitcase, and too many suitcases on the belt, that it quickly became overwhelming. Also, I figured out whenever a new customer would appear, their suitcase would spawn at the same time - was that intentional? I think the design of needing to check every suitcase and quickly match customer demands works well, so I don't think it should be as easy as grabbing the new bag. Finally, it might help to add an additional requirement based on an observable without the scanner, like the bag color. Then the player can quickly prioritize based on what they see before scanning.
Well done though, I enjoyed the design!
Very clever puzzler, and great use of the theme! There were some really nice touches too, like the slight pause before the robot moves after teleporting, the foreshadowing of the laser trap, really good design. I think a way to speed up the robot would've been helpful, since sometimes I'd mess up movement but need to wait for him to get all the way to the end. Otherwise I enjoy this a lot, great job!
Interesting game, it controlled well and the physics felt great. I was a bit confused about the objective, was it just score as many points within the time limit? At first I thought you had to score once and then defend, but even when the bots score you get points. I think with a stronger objective (or more clear instruction) this could be great.
@marbles I think the crash is intentional, I got that too. I assume that was the true ending.
Simple little game but I enjoyed figuring out how to escape the loop. Nice ending too, very stark contrast to the joyful soundtrack.
Really great idea, plays very well. Definitely an 'aha' moment when Green joined. Did you try with 4 players and it was too chaotic? I think you should add some wall/barricades to the bottom level, after a bit I realized you can just put all the players on the bottom and it becomes quite easy. Still very fun, especially when trying to pull off cool kills. Great work!
I really liked the idea of a rotating level! Very good application of theme. I just wish I could've made it past the first pillar to see the rest of the level... As others have said, the controls are pretty difficult. I also wonder why there is a resting animation after jumping where you cannot move? Haven't seen that in a platformer before, not sure what it adds to the game. I absolutely love the animations, there's a ton of character in how the frog moves, slides, and pants with his mouth open. They were the highlight for me.
Pretty nice little shooter, good use of the theme. I agree that the first few levels were quite slow, it takes a long time for the game to get challenging. Have you tried slower but more numerous enemies? I think what's cool about this mechanic is trying to correctly sequence your shots so you hit 4-5 in a row of the same color. It was hard to do that at least through wave 9 since the enemies came so infrequently, but they moved too quickly that I couldn't really wait for more to appear.
Very nice update @superunknown, this is what I was expecting the game to be like! I was hitting those shot sequences as early as wave three. Really fun, I played it multiple times. On higher waves, it becomes less about correctly sequencing your shots and more about only taking shots you can safely hit, since there's less space to shoot an unwanted color. Can't say if that's good or bad, just an observation.
Are you using an unweighted uniform distribution for generating new enemies? If you wanted to preserve the color-sequencing aspect of the earlier waves, you could consider making the randomization weighted based on what's currently available, to create more strings of different colors. You could even make a rhythm/puzzle mode where the enemy spawns match the ship's color cycle perfectly, requiring perfect accuracy.
Anyways, great work, I enjoyed this a lot.
Solid game, it plays well and does what it sets out to do. I appreciate the increasing speed as score increases, however it seems like frequency of objects doesn't increase as well. Also I think the projectile speed should be a bit higher.
Wow what a great jam game, so much content and polish to it. I really enjoyed this, thought it was a lot of fun. I think movement could be improved to feel better, the acceleration felt off somehow so I kept bumping into objects. Some more audio feedback would be useful, such as when you save your body or run low on ammo. I thought the use of theme was very clever. Dying every 60 seconds didn't bother me, it was a clever tension to be careful of your progress and deciding when to bank your upgrades. The save stations were possibly too common, so I could constantly save after every fight. Spreading them out more would've created some interesting strategic decisions of pushing forward to save or being cautious and backing up. The level design was excellent too, especially after keycard 3. Really good crescendo of enemies and firepower. Only wish there was a big boss battle at the end, but I understand the time constraints.
Overall an excellent entry and super fun experience.
Really well done! Very clever puzzles, the whole experience matched the theme perfectly. I finished around 16:30. Some puzzles were definitely quite tricky, especially since sometimes I couldn't tell if missing a jump was my fault or if I wasn't suppose to make it. I think that was both the biggest strength and potential frustration of the game - not knowing what was possible. It was really fun to try different unusual solutions and test what the game wanted you to do. In some places it maybe crossed the line into frustration, but only minorly. I really enjoyed this, and the level of polish for a jam was fantastic. Great work!
Very nice concept, reminded me of Battleheart on Android. Agree with improving visual clarity, which is hard to do in a weekend. I'd suggest also toning the speed down which will make it feel more strategic. Also, it wasn't clear to me what a winning strategy looked like. Maybe improved visual response and less speed will help, but I felt like I couldn't do a ganging-up tactic of making my whole team fight one enemy. Certainly an impressive prototype in just a weekend, keep tinkering with it! EDIT: I should add I loved the visuals and music, it had a really fun energetic feel.
Really loved this one! The game felt much bigger than it was, really well done. Accomplished a lot with very simple pieces. Boss battle was great. Couldn't figure out how to finish it though, but I will check back later. Thanks!
That was beautiful. A very strong message told minimally. This spoke to me personally, as I've had this same sensation of being stuck in a loop and unable to see past difficulties. The first splash of color was so surprising and powerful, and also matches my personal experiences. Really lovely work, thanks so much for sharing this.
@eldar Apparently you shouldn't brush your teeth after eating acidic foods, since the toothpaste will strip enamel off your teeth. Otherwise, you should brush after. Though I only learned this later in life...
I really liked the concept, a simple but interesting little sandbox to play in. Multiple endings with different narrative implications was a great touch too. I found a few bugs, mainly NPCs not properly exiting so that column would fill up, and overall I think it was a little chaotic, maybe cutting back on the spawn rate would've helped. I also found it very difficult to get the sword, I must've played over a dozen times and could only get it once. The enemies moved through the office too quickly, and the guards randomly spawned as well as tracked behind them. Loved the aesthetic and music, had a very cool vibe to it. All in all this was a big success in my opinion!
Also, I'd like to think the office is moving along some incredibly fast roller coaster, constantly doing loops and sharp turns. That must be the explanation for all the spilled water and vomit :)
Cool concept, the torus was clever (we're stuck in a double-loop!). Changing the entire environment as time changed was a nice touch. I wish there was more to explore, I enjoyed seeing how things were different between time periods.
Interesting idea. I see how it fits the theme, especially with the horror-esque art style and audio (which was a bit loud for me). Conceptually I like the reversed objective of not trying to kill, which is sadly too common in games. I think adding more than 4-directions of aiming would've helped, and some limited ability to move. Good work though, keep tinkering!
Really clever idea, great use of theme. I think you could make some very tricky levels with this design.
Great work, especially for a first ever game! Playable through to the end is a massive achievement. There are some really cool ideas in here too, I think you use the loop theme well, plus the upgrade path is clever. At first I didn't like how long some actions took, but I realized later it was to create necessity for the Time Stabilizer. Great job adding an ending cut-scene too. I'd also like to nominate this entry for 'Best Welding Sound Effect'.
It plays well, but I agree that I don't see the theme connection. The description mentions the infinity symbol, is that what the object in the center is suppose to be? I couldn't tell if the entities were spawning around it in any particular way. This will be a good warm up for playing Dota :) thanks!
@extar Same problem here, on Windows.
That worked! And I'm glad it did! Games like this are why there's a mood category. The aesthetic, pacing, and most importantly the soundtrack combined wonderfully, really made me feel like I was exploring some long-lost woods. I agree that combat was a little rudimentary, but I still had a good time exploring the large world. Absolutely loved the music, including the progression towards a (lute?) solo, very fitting. Last shout out to the animation, the walking-upwards with the cape swaying look fantastic. Nicely done!
I couldn't figure it out, I think I'm stuck on a misinterpretation. The symbols above the switches are clocks, right? I'm trying to read clues from the time they show, though it is a little hard to get an accurate time due to the resolution. So maybe they aren't clocks...? I'm not sure, I'm stuck. Happy to revisit if you have any hints :)
Nice little game, I liked the block-jump mechanic. Just tricky enough to pull off consistently.
The lasso has an excellent feel to it when it snags. I really enjoyed using it, only wish there was more content! Maybe a randomized level creator - randomly generate objectives and the creature mixture? Well done though, really unusual mechanic!
Thanks for all of the feedback! I'm encouraged to expand this out into something more substantial and challenging.
@jonathanfdr @Thorn I haven't been able to replicate this, but I think a better indicator for which row you're trying to push would solve it.
@BradyG @CursedSoldier Apologies for the music, the instrument choice was a bit shrill in retrospect, but I ran out of time to make anything longer than a 20-second loop.
@jimbly Good point about the bug fix. It's certainly not a challenging game as is, but I think future releases can make the enemies a bit more menacing.
@zimny11 You and I think alike :)
@perfectsquare Thanks for the feedback! Yes I agree, more special objects will help highlight the key tension of matching versus avoiding enemies. I aim to make the monsters varied and more challenging, which will require giving the player more tools via power-ups to fight back.
@staircase27a Thanks for the feedback, I agree, an outline of which row you are currently targeting will be helpful, especially once the conveyor belt starts moving quickly.
@Battlerager Yes that's a good point, the mushrooms aren't visually clear that they are poisonous, especially when everything else is clearly a monster. I'm not sure what you mean by turning enemies into skeletons - they are just a basic enemy type. You can destroy objects on the conveyor belt by pushing a similar object from the puzzle into them. That said, I'm working on adding a more fully-fledged interaction system, where enemies have attacks and other behavior, while the player can use items and powerups found in the puzzle.
Thanks again everyone who played and left a comment!