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gaarlicbread

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuCo
201532An Unconventional WeaponThe Cheeseburgermogrifiercompo8732.822.632.242.693.003.5024
201430Connected WorldsThe Theft of Purposecompo6383.132.933.333.403.2728

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Comments by gaarlicbread

LD30 — Connected Worlds

The Amazed Rogue by UntitledQ 2014-08-27T19:00:00

This feels like a super-early version of a potentially awesome game. It feels not-quite-finished, but I like the fundamental idea and mechanics. I like the idea of a roguelike with the multiple planes that you can constantly switch between.

I have one suggestion, which is to choose the floor colors to more clearly distinguish between can-switch-planes versus cannot-switch. I realize different colors already aim to do this, but I easily forgot which color meant what. I suggest, for example, making cannot-switch-planes floors be something simple like a matte black, and then can-switch floors all be something more interesting and colorful.

It would be cool to see what happens if you keep working on this!

Nhelee by S0rax 2014-08-29T16:39:00

My favorite part is the music. It doesn't jump out at you, which is what I want in continuous-playing game music, but it sets a perfect mood and is nice.

I also thought the level design was good. I only played the first few levels I could get to, though, so I can't talk about the later levels. But it felt like the beginning was easy for new players, and there were quickly slightly harder jumps or places to get to. The required jumps fit well with the game's jumping mechanics.

If you continue working on the game, I'd request polishing the exact jumping mechanics a bit more since the current jump feels a bit strange to me. I guess I would probably get used to it if I played the game a lot, though.

Elite Smuggler by JosephLittle 2014-08-29T16:51:00

I really really like this game! Nice work!

I think the level of difficulty at the beginning would fit better as to what you'd see after finishing several missions. I was also a little confused by some missions that said their destination was the planet I was already on.

Overall, though, I think the graphics are consistent and nice, and that the mechanics are pretty solid. It's exciting to avoid the space cops and asteroids and to try to land all at once. Really good! And the perfect scope for a game jam.

Cyperspace Connect by Xgor 2014-08-27T19:28:00

My favorite part about this game is the constant sense of motion and urgency, tied nicely with a feeling of being in control. It has a great balance between requiring continuous attention but not being impossibly difficult.

It took me a few deaths to understand some of the control mechanics - that you never stop, that you have to turn at dead-ends or you die, and that if you hit a turn button at the wrong time, you also die. Once I got that I felt like I could fall into just playing for a while.

I had a few ideas for extras - perhaps the map could change as you progress levels. It seems possible to make the maps randomly generated. Being able to jump between tracks also sounds fun.

I like that it reminded me of tron. The bits on the player's sphere are a nice touch. Also, the music is awesome!

Last Call For Magrathea by nintendoeats 2014-08-27T18:32:00

This is cool. I like the interface. It has a nice pace, a little like GalCon or Civ. I really enjoyed the audio intro story. Using a voiceover is a great idea that I may use in future game jams. I also enjoyed the use of the mandelbrot set in the background.

I quickly figured out to send in the needed resources to Magrathea, although I had trouble understanding what was good about new universes. I also had a little trouble sending ships to specific locations. Sometimes I would click an outgoing arrow, and the ship would travel along it - but other times nothing happened, and I wasn't sure why. In other words, it would be cool to make it easier for players to learn in-game how to play. But I can envision a polished version of the UI, and it seems good.

The Theft of Purpose by gaarlicbread 2014-08-25T23:38:00

Hey @Endurion, I plan to add a windows version if I can manage to do it quickly.

The Theft of Purpose by gaarlicbread 2014-08-27T19:17:00

Hi @DvanderAart - thanks for reporting that! I added msvcr120.dll to the zip file. It's tricky for me to test it myself because I already have all the necessary DLL files on my laptop and don't want to delete random ones to see if my zip file contains everything it needs :)

If anyone still has trouble running the windows version, you can download the needed runtime components directly from Microsoft here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784

Just click the Download button on that page. I hope the current zip file makes downloading that unnecessary, though!

The Theft of Purpose by gaarlicbread 2014-08-27T19:54:00

Hi @Ventura - sorry it's not working for you. I developed on a windows 8 machine. I tried to make it windows 7-compatible, but perhaps I messed up and it requires windows 8 after all. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure. You could try downloading the windows runtime components to see if that helps. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784

The Theft of Purpose by gaarlicbread 2014-08-29T22:33:00

Hey @RobotFriend, you can fix the screen size by resizing it before starting to play. Sorry about the difficulty.

Also, @nintendoeats, maybe the app requires windows 8 despite my efforts to avoid that. If anyone has gotten it to run on windows 7 lemme know. Otherwise I'll assume I messed up the dependencies and it only runs on windows 8. Sorry :(

In My Garden by MercuryLegba 2014-08-27T19:48:00

This was more interesting than I had expected. It reminded me of other life-as-a-whole games like Passage or Notch's game from the last LD called Drowning in Problems (links below). I appreciate the quote from Nabokov, and the way the story felt tied together. I also felt involved in the way the sense of time moved forward. I think it was well written.

Life is at once beautifully sad and sadly beautiful.

Passage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_(video_game)
Drowning in problems: http://game.notch.net/drowning/

Reminisce by nikki93 2014-08-25T23:36:00

This is awesome. I like the way the puzzle elements fit in well with the dungeon crawler feel. I thought was stuck once but realized I was just learning some new puzzle mechanics.

I took a quick look at your cgame github repo. It sounds promising. I'm a fan of C + Lua! I'd love to see more docs on that. Right now I don't know what to read to learn about how to use it, or to know what it's capable of. The in-game editor looks cool, although it crashed on me.

Overall, excellent work.

Super Alien Bro by nerd burglars 2014-08-27T20:17:00

This is awesome. I think the mechanic of temporary power-ups all over the place are great.

The first level was a well-planned introduction to the power-ups it contains.

Then I hit the second level and it said to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpaZU4Q3Ubk

and I died. A lot. Maybe a more gradual difficulty curve?

Overall awesome game. Also, the music is GREAT!

LD32 — An Unconventional Weapon

Rocket Rabbit by jcmoyer 2015-04-20T21:01:00

Haha, this is awesome!

I got the giant shooting eyeball several times and never past. I wanted to have a sense that I was at least hurting it - maybe flash when it's hit properly, or a life bar?

I like the music and the enemies felt fun. When I started, I was surprised that it was immediately throwing many enemies at me at once. I was expecting more of a warm-up level, but that's ok since I think most people will only be playing most Ludum Dare games for a short time, so shorter games are better here.

Choose your own title! by jlauper 2015-04-20T20:50:00

I had fun playing this. I think interactive text is under-rated. I love great stories, so why not a story with some choices? This is also a very practical choice for getting something done in 48 hours.

If you make more games like this, I'd be interested in seeing a bit more about the characters involved. Why is the mad scientist doing it? What is my backstory? Stuff like that.

Specter Snap by Snicklodocus 2015-04-22T21:10:00

This is great! I love love the graphics. Consistent style that fits the mood perfectly. The music is also nice.

If you keep working on it, I would recommend adding a sense of progression, but that's not critical for a fast ludum dare game.

Overall, this is one of the best ld32 entries I've played so far. I would want to check out other games you've made to see what kind of graphics are around for longer-term creations!

PS The camera mechanic is a great idea that fits the theme perfectly.

Fatal Traction by NegaByte 2015-04-22T20:48:00

Fun idea! Definitely an unconventional weapon.

I like the music.

My main suggestion would be to make it feel more natural to learn the emergent behavior expected for the advancing puzzle levels. I think you could achieve that either by tweaking the mechanics until they felt a bit more natural / easy to control, or by more gradually building up the level difficulty so that each new "trick" the player learns is bludgeoned into their player-learning-how-to-play brain until they have no choice but to understand the moral of the level :)

Keep up the good work!

PS I like the squish sound as well.

Eurovision: world domination through the power of song by Tijn 2015-04-20T20:36:00

I had a lot of fun listening to all the songs. Great job writing those! The polka one made me laugh out loud :)

Move Them by remiv 2015-04-22T21:19:00

Really cool idea. It's almost as if you're controlling a pacifist player without any weapons but then you grab them and smash them together and it's all like supplies, little guys! gotcha.

I like games that have a 1st-person control perspective but are top-down views because I think it adds a challenge that at first feels strange to control (at least for me) but becomes natural with practice.

I had a little difficulty understanding when my weapon (pressing space) would capture a little creature or not. Sometimes I expected it to work, but instead I died :( and cried. No jk I didn't cry but I was maybe a little bit sad.

Overall good work!