Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Gabriel

Gabriel

Overall Medals

			Year	LD	Theme	Game	Division	Overall
		🥉	2012	23	Tiny World	Tiny Shards	jam	4.21

Category Medals

	Year	LD	Theme	Game	Division	Category	Score
🥈	2014	29	Beneath the Surface	Last Dive	jam	Mood	4.57
🥈	2014	29	Beneath the Surface	Last Dive	jam	Theme	4.30
🥈	2012	23	Tiny World	Tiny Shards	jam	Mood	4.20

Games

Year	LD	Theme	Game	Division	Rank	Ov	Fu	In	Th	Gr	Au	Hu	Mo	Co
2014	29	Beneath the Surface	Last Dive	jam	7	4.31	3.83	4.03	4.30	4.37	4.18	3.02	4.57	49
2013	28	You Only Get One	Volcano Explorer	jam	25	3.94	4.06	3.06	3.28	4.22	3.72	3.20	3.69	32
2013	27	10 Seconds	The Super Fair Trial Show	jam	13	3.98	3.98	3.40	3.74	4.24	3.60	3.26	3.66	91
2012	24	Evolution	Singularity	jam	18	3.83	3.75	3.06	3.32	4.11	3.90	2.61	3.43	85
2012	23	Tiny World	Tiny Shards	jam	3	4.21	3.87	3.12	4.08	4.43	4.17	2.83	4.20	100

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Correlations

Feedback left by Gabriel

Gabriel leaves an average of 21.8 feedback comments each event.

LD29 — Beneath the Surface (6)

Infection by InfectionTeam 2014-05-11T01:21:00

Hey there! Finally managed to play this game, and I gotta say - I am AMAZED! The amount of stuff you guys managed to put in the game is simply unbelievable, together with pretty solid art and polish. The music also fits well, and the overall SFX is very competent. Seriously, dudes. This is amazing!

On the constructive criticism side, I think it would be better if level 1 was way slower and easier, so that people have some time to get used to character control / aiming / looking at ammo and health / collecting cells and buying stuff and pretty much understanding what is going on before actually having to face real difficulty. Kinda like a hands on tutorial disguised as level 1, you know?

Also, the art style and execution is GREAT (as always, it seems, you rock at this, man!), but I think it could be tweaked a bit for gameplay clarity purposes. In a nutshell, I think you could color code the gameplay relevant stuff in a very distinct way (specially the avatar, the enemies and the cells, which are the things that you have to spot quickly in the middle of the action in order to play), and make them always visible (maybe they could emit light to highlight them from the scenery?).

These minor feedbacks apart, this is clearly one of the best games I have played in this LD. Congratulations! :D

PS.: We GOTTA jam together eventually. Just way till we're more comfortable working with Unity. ;)

Please Come Back by PapyPilgrim 2014-05-08T14:05:00

Wow, that was INTENSE! :O

On my first shot I managed to stay afloat but the boat never came back and the screen got black (which I felt as the sun going down and, with it, any realistic hope of rescue). I kept swiming and pressing the call for help button (although the screaming sound ceased) for a good 2-3 minutes after the screen was black, even though I honestly didn't believe anything would happen. Still, I kept trying and struggling for a while - I just wouldn't let go!

Then I felt it was the end. A quite sad one, in fact! Then I read through the rest of your description (the one flagged as spoiler) and tried again. I managed to see the intended ending - man, DESPAIR! Seeing the boat and being unable to call for help! It is horrible! The stamina simulation was great - I understand that turning the mouse wheel becomes less and less effective with time, right? Anyway, I slowly faded to black. It was quite depressive - which is probably why the game left such a strong mark!

Finally, I tried to get the "good" ending a few times, but once I let myself sink a bit in order to trigger the return of the boat, I can't seem to stay afloat anymore, no matter how hard I try (I nearly destroyed my mouse in the process! hahaha). I didn't manage to see the good ending, but trying to go for it and being unable too only reinforced the impression left by the intended ending. Man. I literally held my breath here. What the hell! Good job!

Overall, I'm rating this game really high, as it displays what I personally like the most in the strongest compo entries: a visceral experience that I will remember for some time, and that was built with few elements (all of which necessary, though).

Top rating in innovation, theme and mood! The theme is the very reason for the game to exist, and it is integrated in the very mechanics. I don't think it can get any better than that. Considering my genuine effort to not drown even on my first attempt (the one where I kept swimming and crying for help for like 3 minutes after having no audiovisual feedback) and then my successive failures at getting the good ending, I must say I was hooked. This is an indication of superb mood for me.

My only constructive criticism goes on the sound department. I really liked the music and sound implementation overall (the extra layer of instrument that gets muted underwater, specially, and the inability to call for help underwater which also contributes to the sense of despair), but I think the ambient music is quite relaxing, which kinda generates a cognitive dissonance for me. I think it would work better if, as stamina started decreasing and you spent more and more time underwater, the music changed to some heavy, fast percussions instead of something relaxing. Maybe some good old microphone recorded heavy breathing when above water would also increase the sense of despair, specially because it would be muted when underwater.

Anyway, all in all an stellar performance! I think that, unfortunately, a big part of this community will only favor traditional games that are fun in a traditional manner (the very bias you discussed in your post about consistent rating), so I'm guessing some people will just go like "ah, I didn't have fun, I'm actually feeling bad, so I'll give it 1 star", which might drag you down a bit in terms of score. Well, not for me. I wish that seeing bold entries like this was more common nowadays. Top ratings here, buddy, congratulations!

Wireside by Solifuge 2014-05-06T22:15:00

Wow, this is just GREAT!

It is exceptionally well written (should have guessed by the detailed comments you left us!), and the 'dark world' twist on the tactics gameplay was awesome! I also loved the take on the theme - Ray Kurzweil stuff seem to be quite popular these days! :D

The interface / controls get in the way a bit - the one thing I think would make the most difference in that department would be increasing the clickable area of things (characters, walk button, etc) and making them highlight when you are over them. I believe these two adjustments alone would greatly reduce the amount of times one accidentally clicks outside the command areas and end up cancelling it and having to redo it.

Anyway, this is an exceptionally complex and well realized entry for a 72 hours timeframe. Quite impressive! Congrats, and thanks once again for the detailed comments on our game!

Cheers

Ice Treasure by EpiphanyG 2014-05-03T05:18:00

I really like the main idea! As some of our fellow devs mentioned, it is a bit too simple as it is, but it's a great base to expand on. The thing on queuing commands is very interesting, as is the hidden strategy that you slowly starts to uncover (maybe a second layer of implementation of the theme?). :)

Overall, my only complaint is that you have to rely too much on luck even if you optimize your melting path to avoid travelling long distances and maximize visibility. Maybe if tiles that were adjacent to buried objects were different, it could add some extra complexity to the game, as it would favor the strategy of not checking ALL tiles. Another interesting twist would be if there were random walls placed on the board that made your torch have to go around them to reach other areas, losing time in the process! That would make it a lot more complex, as you'd have to manage your systematic exploration of tiles in the context of different shapes of local areas.

Anyway, I see the potential of a really fun puzzle game. Do let me know if you further develop it, I'd love to take a look!

Cheers

this is kevin by hbocao 2014-05-02T17:50:00

Really liked it! The Sokoban mechanic never gets old, and I liked the twist of bridge building that gives rise to new ways of exploring the possibilities of block pushing to create puzzles.

Still in that department, I was amazed by the quality of the level design! How long did you guys take conceiving the levels? I always wondered what the process is like to conceive puzzles - I guess that's an ability I'll never have! The last level, in particular, is ingeniously evil! The first approach obviously goes by ignoring all the other islands and trying to go for the shortest way, only to find out that you actually don't have enough crates and have to start over through the long way. Brilliant level design, honestly.

On what some dev fellows are complaining (about you only touching the theme too lightly), I tend to disagree. I see the theme pretty much as a general guidance and a mandatory element that adds fun to the competition, and you guys *DID* include it (actually in a smart way!). You're getting more points in that category from me than games that are *just* about digging or diving. I like games which have more than a single layer of meaning. :)

Finally, the two endings. I only got to see the 'bad' one (from what I'm reading in other folks' comments). Not fair! I went that extra mile to solve the last puzzle in a way per which I'd have that spare crate! I do understand what you guys aimed for (not all sides of our personalities should necessarily be nurtured or saved), but from a player experience standpoint, it sounds unfair. I wouldn't remove the mechanic, though - instead, just add a message that says "you got the bad ending" and let the player play the level again! I would do that to see the good ending if I didn't have to play the whole game again.

Still, one of the most complete and enjoyable entries I have played in this LD. You're surely getting high grades from me. Congrats! :D

Vaults Inc by Bruno Massa 2014-05-01T13:39:00

My final score: 159! Is that a lot?

I really liked the base mechanics once I understood them (didn't take too long). The interface is super juicy and well polished, which is a very rare thing to see in Ludum Dare. I also liked how it is informative in allowing you to understand the economic impacts of placing a block before you actually confirm its placement. Still on the interface, if there's one thing I missed was a more clear way to seeing how adjacency influenced the resources outcome (ie. with the new block placed but not yet confirmed, it would be nice to understand from which adjacent blocks I'm getting +1s and -1s to the different resources).

Also, once you finish one playthrough, the objective is made extremely clear, as you get to see your final score and then challenge yourself to make more points next time! However, on the first playthrough, it's not very clear what is the objective. I think it would be great if you added something like a progress bar that clearly showed you approaching the end of your turns - so that people think something like "OMG only 8 turns left, I better start converting all that infrastructure into population for a final score rush" or something. I believe that having a clear perception on when the game is about to end would make it more emotionally engaging.

Finally, the thing with the adjacent tiles inter-relationship is AWESOME, you should definitely explore it!

Awesome game.

Finally, my compliments for making a board-like game with innovative rules in a game jam! It takes extra bravery to build rules from scratch in such a tight timeframe and still end up with something that is playable and fun! 5/5!

LD28 — You Only Get One (6)

Christmas Cookies by hissssssssss 2014-01-06T15:15:00

I liked it! It is strange how such a simple mechanic can in fact evoke some of the sensation of trying to focus on work while permanently being tempted to do something else, and as the compulsion unconsciously grows, it becomes increasingly more difficult to work. Not sure if that is what you meant, but it really reminds me of the god damned Twitter and Facebook tabs tempting me as I try to focus on coding or something.

Also, this is one of the most 'cost-effective' designs I've seen in this LD! With a very small amount of technology and assets, you managed to conjure a rather unique theme. I've rated you better than several system-heavy games! This game is almost a manifesto against the feature creep. haha

Great job!

Dream forever, live once by Volute 2014-01-05T05:26:00

Congrats! I really like the metaphor! And as simple as the game may be, the sum of all mechanics really do manage to get the message through in an impressively intuitive / emotional manner. You get to train, but the menu tells you that there's only one chance when it's for real, and only when you actually start playing for real that you get to know about the stages of the life thing.

Maybe I'm super sensitive to the sad, linear nature of our lives, and how it sometimes indeed feels like an inevitable run to our end... And I feel even more for people I see around me, having to deal with getting old and coping with the fact that they didn't manage to do all they wanted in their lives... As Ray Kurzweil says, to me death indeed is the greatest of all tragedies. Or as Tyrion Lannister says, the problem with death is that it is so definitive! hahaha

Anyways, what I mean is that I could really relate to your game. It's subtle, evokative and obviously has a very honest and personal message. I love it!

Blue Harpoon by FrederickK 2014-01-03T13:40:00

Hey, Fred! Congrats, your game is quite fun!

I really really like the concept of having to retrieve the spear, and also, for some reason (maybe the bullet speed), shooting it is very gratifying, and even more when you hit the monsters.

Agreeing to some darers' feedback, I think the spawn time between monsters is a little too long (see how frantic Super Crate Box gets, I think it might be a good reference in that regard), and also it really is essencial to somehow protect the player from having a monster spawning overlapping to him when he's getting the spear. Maybe you could make that the spawn point closest to the spear becomes inactive until the player gets the spear back, and then add more spawn points to avoid losing the surprise element of having a monster spawning just beside you (but not over you)?

Other than that, I'd definitely suggest a huge decrease in game resolution! Not that pixel art is necessarily the only way to go, but because of the lower resolution, the same level of production (time invested in making graphics) results in a more balanced sense of polish. Basically, if you have to rush to put anything graphical on the game (impact splashes, particles, new props, etc), even if you can't spend too much time on it, it will end up blending naturally better with the rest! It might also save you some time to code particles and sound feedback, which always help giving a greater sense of control.

Anyway, congratulations once again, your game is really stylish and fun to play! High rates! :D

TITAN SOULS by Claw 2014-01-02T20:38:00

Congratulations, this is surely one of the best entries I have played in any LD! I didn't find the controls sluggish, as I understand the game balancing is made for you to shoot only when you're almost sure to find your target, and you usually die if you go for it before the exact right time. I know that action balancing is very difficult to make in such a small timeframe, and your game surely is remarkably well balanced. Basically, if you know what you're doing and have a decent amount of skill, you can keep dodging and manipulating the boss position until the opportunity to a killing blow arises. Wonderful! As for the backtrack, I did hope I would reappear at the temple's doors when I died, but I do understand the approach of forcing the player to lose time in order to raise the stakes. I don't know, It just *started* to bother me after a couple times in each boss, which I think is a reasonable amount of backtrack, but since it didn't take me more than 3 attempts at any boss, I found it ok! To other commenters here who have complained about backtracking, here's an opinion: people here do play a game every 10 minutes, but if we start developing our games to such a short attention spam just for the sake of Ludum Dare's quick evaluation mindset (to which I don't necessarily agree), we lose one of the most valuable aspects of participating altogether, which is learning the craft through feedback. A 15 seconds backtrack may *sound* like a huge one if you expect to rate a game every 10 minutes, but many designs simply don't work in that 'instant gratification / skip everything but the main challenge' frame. A 15 seconds backtrack is TOTALLY OK as a punishment for losing a boss battle IMO, and I find it unfair to penalize the ratings due to this LD quick evaluation mindset.

Anyway, back to a last piece of compliment, graphics and music (and the mood, almost as a consequence) are absolutely fantastic. The music was particularly awesome for me. This game is amazingly polished and well rounded, with no obvious flaws IMO. I will surely keep an eye on your entries in next events! :)

BTW, I have probably run into a bug at the end, cause from what I read on comments, apparently I got the wrong ending (or maybe I didn't understand it?). Basically, the north temple was empty and I couldn't find any way of summoning a boss there. Eventually I gave up a puzzle approach and started shooting arrows in all props to see if something worked, and finally got something when I was in the brown strip close to the door, between the two skulls. When my arrow hit the left skull, the screen went totally black and, after a while, the game credits appeared. Maybe I accidentally insta-killed the last boss on the very moment I summoned it? Or was it supposed to show a little cutscene or text instead of the final black screen?

Anyway, I'm ignoring that problem, I bet it is something on my end. You are getting a ridiculously high rating from me! :D

Congratulations, man!

"a sword game" by droqen 2013-12-17T19:04:00

Fantastic, very clever mechanics! The idea of having to chose to which side to point the blade and how that fits with the level design really creates some interesting emergent gameplay. Also the idea of frequently losing your sword really creates emergent situations all the time!

At one playthrough, I lost my sword as it got stuck in a door - I couldn't get it back, but the door didn't open either, so I had to restart. Also, when you lose your sword at a certain part of the screen that makes you need to manouver through other screens to get it back, it feels a little oppressive that the enemies in both screens respawn. But of course, I understand it is probably a limitation caused by the short time available for development.

Anyway, one of the most interesting usages of the theme so far! I really loved how it was really embeded into the mechanics, and the game is entirely built around that mechanic. Congratulations, man!

Creator Story Saga Tycoon by Bruno Massa 2013-12-17T18:37:00

LOVED IT! :D

LD27 — 10 Seconds (29)

Firefly by kidder 2013-09-11T04:55:00

The graphics are truly beautiful and inspired! I loved the colors of the platform tileset, mostly dark with some bits of light that give it a dreamlike feeling. The dawn effect is also absolutely beautiful! You mentioned in your description that you had this mental image and you pursued it as you created the art - indeed this is reflected in the final product, it is amazing how such a simple composition is able to evoke such an emotional response even with minimal gameplay! The game would certainly gain longevity by having a richer gameplay, but as you also said this is something you already know! But seriously, this looks like a beautiful beginning, I'd totally put some time to enhance the mechanics and adding some music, even if you don't plan to sell it. This short composition piece deserves to exist and be realized even if it is just to remain as a portfolio piece! :D

Congrats man!

Btw, did you use any particular plugin or framework to do the 2D graphics and mechanics in Unity? I've been tempted to try Unity, but I'm constantly scared by everyone talking it is still difficult to do 2D games on it (at least until the next update)...

Antidote by Antidote 2013-09-02T22:47:00

Wonderful game, really loved it! The general aesthetics (sound, graphics and movements) are simply top-notch and could be in any commercial release - for a jam game then, it is completely outstanding! I also enjoyed the controls and general gameplay. Regarding the 10 seconds limit, I found it a little too oppressive for the size of the levels, specially because the overall level of polish and cuteness really makes one spend some time just looking around and exploring... Still, I played a lot of games this LD and this surely is one of the very best I've seen so far! Congratulations, this really is unbelievably good! :D
(is 'unbelievably' even a word?) hahaha

10 Second Mazes by ArmchairArmada 2013-09-02T03:09:00

I like it! It has that strange addictiveness quality, I think because it is so simple and easy to control, and because it keeps constantly changing before getting boring! I like the increasing amount of enemies, I just found some of the initial setups unfair, like you starting the level surrounded by two gears that are already coming in your direction and there's nothing you can do to avoid being killed cause there's no space to manouver. But I know, this is a burden from quickly done procedural levels, right? This jam was my second time in LD doing procedural levels too and, well, as much as you try to place rules to ensure all levels are fair, 72 hours (48 in your case!!!) is way too little time to stumble on all possible situations. Personally, I don't care, though! Making a game that is really challenging to make is also part of the fun for me! :D And you know, for a fan of procedurally generated stuff, not knowing if what is waiting behind the next corner will be fair or not is actually part of the charm too!

Congrats on your game, it's simple and fun! :D

Cheers from Brazil

Gabriel and JP

10 10 Second Game Design Lessons by douglasv 2013-09-02T02:51:00

Really fun! It is interesting how much this can actually teach by showing the effects of doing things wrong! A very clever and interesting design, congrats man!

Cheers from Brazil!

1.863 million miles by netmute 2013-09-02T02:43:00

This turned out quite fun! Love the art style, the dialogs, and the general vibe.

I'd feel kinda stupid point out potential enhancements cause I'm sure you already got them in your to-do's list (and I'm honestly hoping you have a to-do's list for this game and plans to finish it!), but I'll do that anyway cause I think interacting with fellow devs and having constructive feedback is always the greatest takeaway from Ludum Dare. So, here it goes:
-Moving around is a little too slow and he feels too 'slipery'
-It should be possible to press a button to advance text
-I think some lines of text were not necessary. Usually players want to get into the game quickly, so they don't value information as much as they would later on in the same game! However I know this is an unfinished entry that ended up being about text, so I do understand the reasoning :)

But you know what? If I didn't know this was an unfinished LD game, this begining and all that is in it would have me totally in the mood to start a long, story based space game!

Please let me know if you keep developing it, I really liked it and would be very glad to play, or playtest, or give feedback, or all! :D

And congratulations for your participation. As Linusson said, you're already ahead of the 90% of game dev aspirants who always end up finding excuses for NOT making games. You started one, and it's turning out quite interesting. Keep going, man!

Cheers from Brazil,

Gabriel and JP

0.1 Hertz by ibilon 2013-09-02T02:21:00

Congrats, it was fun! And OH YEAH, I WON!

I'd definitely go for a post compo version! I think the 10 seconds rule would match well with putting the player in a situation where his situation (platforms and spikes-wise) isn't so easy to understand. In that sense, the 10 seconds become like a countdown for him to figure out and try to run to a place where he'll be at an advantage (or at least not dead) when the gravity flips. Congratulations, this is a neat concept, I'd definitely come back for more if you did a 2.0 version! :D

Congrats on your game!

'Speedrun' The Game by Dotanukii 2013-09-02T02:13:00

Well, this is actually fun for a non-game, man! I loved the art and the fact that no matter how much you run, you get hit by a meteor at the very last second. It's like a joke on the player. I had my laugh! :D

<-Saccade-> by Rave Radbury 2013-09-02T02:09:00

I really liked your approach to the theme! Indeed, your perception of what 10 seconds means is totally different depending on the context. The later levels really feel like 1 minute or so. hahaha

I kinda got the same impression of time stretching / compression in my game. I made a shooter where every 10 seconds you are subject to a special rule, out of several options. It really is amazing how 10 seconds go blazingly fast when it's something to your benefit, and how it takes ages when you're at gunpoint. Never had heard of the Kappa and Stopped Clock effects though, this was enlightening! :)

Congrats on your game!

'Dungeon Escape' by designatius 2013-09-02T01:54:00

Nice game! This really is that kind of game that has you sitting at the tip of the chair, completely focused on the screen and clicking franctically! hahaha
Reached level 5 I think! Then it gets really messy to keep adjusting the path in front of the character and at the same time checking back to see if he isn't stuck in some stupid place. hahaha
This would really make a cool mobile game! Congrats buddy!

#ERR@ 10 Second Glitch# by urth 2013-09-02T01:46:00

367!!! Is this the current record here or what? :D

Really nice entry, pretty fun, you could definitely keep developing this into a full polished game!

"Save the comrades" - CAT_IN_THE_DARK_WOOD by CAT_IN_THE_DARK_WOOD 2013-09-02T01:23:00

Very funny! The plot takes a completely unpredictable twist when the general decides to kill his own men, it's a totally crazy idea! hahaha

I found there are situations where it seems impossible to make some men cross the bridges, which makes some be left behind at each bridge.

Ah, GREAT music btw! Loved the funny military approach, very nice! Congrats!

ARGENTUM FORM by blackotus 2013-09-02T01:14:00

Very nice game! The atmosphere is superb, it kinda reminded me of a combination of the old Alone in the Dark games, Fallout (for the 50s vibe) and Eternal Darkness (for the nightmarish / 'getting crazy' feel). I love all those games, so you can guess how much I liked this one! Kept roaming through the house until the very last objects (the car and the cat were the most difficult for me, probably because they are kinda isolated from the dorm cluster).

The level of polish in this game is just crazy - the household items' consistency and completeness, the visual storytelling, the light effects, the creepy film grain. Unbelievable! Sound design was spot on too. I honestly would love to see this concept expanded!

Here, take all these stars in your ratings. hahaha

Hyper Furball by DDRKirby(ISQ) 2013-09-01T23:15:00

Very nice! Even though the mechanics are simple (specially after you get a high attack power and range, which renders the defense less necessary), you really get all the juice out of it! Also, due to a sum of simplicity, great level of polish and excellent aesthehics, the game is simply FUN! Seriously guys, this is one hell of an aesthetical accomplishment. The music, in particular, is extremely good and appropriate for the frantic, nonsense atmosphere of the game. Congratulations, one of the best games I've played so far, I think I distributed like 784 stars all over your ratings. hahahah

Cheers!

xhon by savethejets1 2013-09-01T22:51:00

Good job! I'm a total sucker for cute pixel art! I had some trouble with the gravity flipping thing (I guess it's just me, apparently I'm unable to play games like VVVVVV or the vertigo characters in Rogue Legacy), but pressed through anyway and found it pretty fun. Congrats!

BeautyIsTheBeast by Valandre 2013-09-01T22:34:00

Here, take these dozens of stars in my rating!

I am totally in love with the princess! This is one of the cutest characters I've seen in a while (not talking only about LD here). The way she stands really tense looking around when she's stopped is amazing, gives her a lot of character! Seriously, this is one of the most charming games I've seen here, complete cuteness overload!

About the gameplay it is sweet as well, and the bookshelf/vine twist is nice. It gives rise to some dominant strategies that can make the game very easy though - basically, you can keep lurking around a spot where you have the wall cross advantage and keep atracting your 'enemy' so that he is always around. If he gets too close you cross the bookshelf and he'll instantly start running to some alternative path, then you just cross back and it is usually enough to stall the 10 seconds you need to run away while keeping the adversary close enough to be an easy prey when the cycle changes. One possible approach would be to make vines or bookshelfs instantly disappear after used so that the same passage can't be used twice in a row, and maybe making other spots turning into bookshelfs, vines or normal walls randomly - this would make the playfield less subject to exploits and overall a little more unpredictable.

Anyway, if you guys end up making something out of this game, let me know! I'll play any game that has this princess. I totally love her. :D

You are a killer by FrederickK 2013-08-31T05:59:00

Hey ya! As simple as it may be, I really liked it! Got it right at first attempt, but it really surely is oppressive! It is also amazing how a simple well written text can do wonders to create an interesting context and situation. It's a super simple design, but I think a lot of things in it are just right: the dark screen, the big oppressive gun pointed at you, the bizarre last question which answers are out of the standard established by the previous 4 questions... Really neat! Congrats!

Oxy by hbocao 2013-08-31T05:50:00

Congrats, man! Very highly rated! Really loved the mechanic of dragging the other guy around, very creative and really creates an oppressive feel of urgency. I went pretty far but was unable to finish - if there's one thing I suggest, is making the difficulty curve a little less steep! Maybe it would encourage more attempts if one didn't need to restart the game from the beginning but instead from the last checkpoint. Anyway, I loved it!

About Construct, I hear ya. But I really think using such programs ('makers') is a great optimization of time and allows for focusing on design and creation rather than technical aspects. It does require getting familiar with the tool in advance, though! As a reference, Super Fair Trial Show was made in MMF2, which is also a 'maker'. But it is only worthy, of course, if you want to learn that language - ultimately the best language is the one you're used to, right? ;)

Congrats on your first finished game, it is actually quite good, and cheers from Brazil!

Gabriel

Adventure Company by Mark Venturelli 2013-08-31T05:30:00

Hey, Venturelli! Gabriel from Pixel Cows here! Congratulations, AWESOME game! I loved the tactics / tower defense hybrid approach, really makes for an equally deep but less brainy approach to this type of game. As others said here, this is surely a concept that deserves to be more fully developed to see where it takes. Personally, I think dragging and dropping characters within their allowed movement circles instead of moving in 8 directions style would make it a little faster to set up the heroes at each turn. Also, it seems I stumbled on a visual glich that would have the floor replaced by random bits of other images, take a look: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69894467/Adventure%20Company%20ground%20glitch.jpg

Still, surely one of the best games I've played in this LD. I'm a total sucker for tactics games, I guess. hahah

Great work! Congrats!

Cheers from Brazil

The Curse of Chronos by Vaalen 2013-08-29T22:46:00

Very nice! I just *LOVE* this tiled visual and roguelike mechanics. I don't know what's wrong with me, I really love it! hahaha

Liked the twist on the theme as well - a opressive time limit that, in fact, isn't really a time limit but a movement limit. Clever! Liked the greek mythology approach and running against time as well, having to balance between the desire to explore and see new things, and the need to save time for whatever seems to be an essential path. Very interesting and even enlightening, considering I've been thinking a lot lately on how to make exploration interesting in a 2D topview openworld context. Awesome!

At some point, though, apparently I triggered a bug where the objects just wouldn't be destroyed - neither time vials or monsters. At first I thought it was specific to a certain part of the map, where I noticed that first (a part at the bottom right that has a narrow corridor filled with Goblins, with some Time Vials at the end - I could just keep walking over them and gaining massive amounts of time and they were not destroyed - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69894467/Time%20vial%20bug.jpg). Then I went on to explore the rest of the map and saw nothing else was being destroyed anymore either. I tried to identify what triggered the bug but was unable to. The only info that might serve as a clue is that I opened the game and started to play it, but then had to run a chore and was out for several hours, returning to the game after that - I *think* that stuff wasn't being destroyed after that. Maybe you have some sort of verification routine that is set to repeat a very large amount of time that is not infinite, so that a very long time away could trigger that? Let me know if I can help with debug ;)

Regardless, this is one of the entries I most enjoyed playing so far and my rating reflects that! Congrats man! Roguelikes rock! :D

Dinosaur Jr. vs the 1960's by devi ever 2013-08-28T22:53:00

This is very funny! For some reason it reminded me of McPixel (which is a great thing). Loved the nonsense feel, really feels like one of those old MTV crazy ads. I definitely think you should consider expanding it a little bit, at least so that it sums up to a 20 min experience or so. I would definitely play it! :D
Congratulations, really loved it!

The 10 (other) Seconds Journey by PaperBlurt 2013-08-28T22:40:00

Lovely! It really does get you to think about life and choices... The burning people part is incredibly visceral. Congratulations! I admit I got curious about your personal story. :)

Second Base by Beardo Games 2013-08-28T21:59:00

This is SO MUCH FUN! Really got me laughing! hahaha
And the graveyard level is really freaking scary (for me at least). hahaha

It really could use a little more feedback so you know if you're doing well or not. It also took a little too long for me (I wonder if I was moving back and forth through an invisible 'success meter' until I finally reached one of the extremes and either succeeded or failed).

Anyway, this is just hilarious, had to show it to other people! You really managed to create something visceral here. hahaha

Congratulations!

10 Second Happy Rocket by Starspell 2013-08-27T20:38:00

LOVED IT! Managed to get to the top, but taking two extra weights? IMPOSSIBRU! Sirtetris, you must have used some really obscure form of witchcraftery with that record of yours! hahaha

Hey, Starspell, you know what would be great? A 'creative mode' with no time limit. I'm really curious about what I would be able to build if I had time to play with some more complex structures! :D

Congratulations on the entry, loved it!

ten seconds of prototypeness by zakchaos 2013-08-27T20:20:00

Loved it, congrats! What I found amazing is that it is functional and infinite with 2 hours of work - even being a simple game, it has a solid structure that doesn't rely on content creation. These days I'm very interested in such designs, like: instead of doing a game where each hour spent in production represents a few more minutes of content for the player to see, you instead make a game that can theoretically be played indefinitely up from the very first hours of work, and instead of adding content in a linear manner, you add features and functionalities that enrich the overall experience. Loved it, really! As simple as it may be, it gave me some good insights. Congratulations! And man, 2 hours - this is MADNESS! I took longer than that on the title screen! hahaha You are a true warrior. So many poeple whining they want to make games but can't spare a weekend, and here it is - a fun little game made in two hours. Seriously man, I'm honestly congratulating you here for several things!

Approaching Ten by Reverend Speed 2013-08-27T20:07:00

Hey, really cool entry! Obviously it's a tech demo as stated in the game, but somehow this really has some good mood! There's definitely some Hitchcock feeling, either something like "looking from the outside at the lives of these people living their lives, completely unaware of the big picture of life", or then "I can see they are up to something dark, but I can't really tell what". Like, what's that guy doing on the roof in the middle of the night? Someone surely got murdered somewhere in this building! hahaha
Also, for some reason the low polygon 3D with smoke and light effects combined with this kind of setting really reminded me of the mood in the original Deus Ex. Super nostalgic!

Finish this one, buddy! And let me know, I'd definitely play it! :D

Congratulations!

10 Seconds to Speech by Bruno Massa 2013-08-27T17:46:00

Very, very nice! No doubt it's the deepest mechanic I've seen so far. Also a very different take on the theme. Definitely saving this one to make some more attempts later!

The First Odyssey by davisan 2013-08-27T17:13:00

Really liked it! The arrows trajectory thing and getting stuck to stuff is really fun and add a toy factor to the mere act of interacting with the game, which is something I always appreciate. I liked the main mechanics as well, although I felt the time limit is a little too opressive considering you have to mode around a lot to understand which button unlocks which door. Still had my fun, congrats buddy!

Boyfriend Simulator: Feed My Boyfriend by leafo 2013-08-27T17:00:00

This got me laughing! It really reminds Wario Ware (which is great)!

Proletarian Ninja X by deepnight 2013-08-27T06:37:00

Very interesting controls! And uses very well the theme while still making sense as a game. Great work as usual, I'm a fan of your work! :)

LD24 — Evolution (25)

Strike of Rage ! by deepnight 2012-09-17T10:01:00

AWESOME game! Congratulations! This is by far the most well polished entry I've seen in terms of graphics. The visual feedback of the punches is awesome and the main character movement feels very natural (more than most SNES beat-em-ups too).
By the way, I'm definitely keeping a link to this entry as a reference for combat visual and audio feedback. It's one of the next areas of enhancement in our main project.
Congrats once again, and good luck! I bet you're running for the top positions here this time! ;)
Gabriel - @pixel_cows

Gems of the Evolving Land by RawBits 2012-09-16T18:59:00

Hey RawBits, nice little game, and I enjoyed specially the random terrain generator, we've actually tried to build something like that for an early prototype of the map in The Journey of Eko (our main project) but it didn't work that well. And you did that and everything else in 48 hours, amazing! Congrats!

BTW, thanks for the compliments on Singularity! :D
I've explained how our random level generator works here: http://www.pixelcows.com/2012/09/the-singularity-arrived-grab-your-clubs.html

If you ever use this for anything, or if you wanna share how you did yours, pls tweet me! @pixel_cows

Cheers from Brazil

Emergent Dungeon by attagcatc 2012-09-16T07:41:00

The text part really reminds us how powerful the player's imagination is as a tool for the designer! In some ways, your graphics for that section were as good as Skyrim, since I imagined that while playing. ;)
Unfortunately I gave up after dying on the rat combat, due to not being able to identify the right command to attack (use stick, attack, attack rat, etc). But it's cool, reminds me of the first games I designed, using paper and pen while on school. That felt very nostalgic to me. :D
Congratulations on your entry!

Ulovetion by Colapsydo 2012-09-16T07:23:00

Congrats, I think this is the compo game I've rated higher so far! I really liked how the portals and mutated lovis interact in an organic way, and through experimentation you can start figuring out what does what. To be honest, I didn't find out myself all the actions / reactions, so I was unable to win, but I found this to be a cool, procedural thing that feels like an alchemy or magic system. Could very well be tweaked to that! On the constructive criticism side, things are TOO cryptic! It's really hard figuring out what's going on, even in the post compo version. Still, very good work!

This is one of the entries I'd love to know if it ever gets developed into a bigger or more complete game. Please drop me a tweet if you ever continue development! @pixel_cows

Cheers from Brazil!

Evidently by jamioflan 2012-09-16T06:08:00

Very fun and funny indeed! :D
I liked the fact that the archeologists arrive by car and the car works as a barrier for the player's shoots. It's an elegant, naturally evolving difficulty mechanism. Good work!

Involucion by elxris 2012-09-16T05:54:00

Nice entry! I agree with most comments, the only problem is that it is a little cryptic as it is right now: difficult to understand what is going on until you get used with the several abstractions. Maybe if you placed graphics and clear measurable objectives so that players can gradually come to understand the inner workings of creatures and resources, and get used to manipulating it, it could become even more satisfying and accessible. Anyway, good work! ;)

Human 2.0 by dengzo 2012-09-15T21:32:00

One of the best moods I've seen so far! Good atmospheric music does a lot in that regard, but I also really enjoyed the strangeness of the graphics. The humans 2.0 flying to the black hole as if 'transcending' was pretty creepy specially the first time! :D
Congratulations!

Bot-Volution by Gornova 2012-09-15T21:21:00

Good start! Definitely needs more interaction and gameplay, but I like the mood and can imagine a good game emerging out of this. Keep going! :)
One cool thing I noticed, not sure if it was on purpose or not: despite my ability to kill the robots, I don't WANT to do that because they seem very pacific to me! I still need to kill them because that's what all the years playing videogames tell me that is what I must do to win in the game, so I kinda do that against my will, but it almost reminds me of the horrible sensation of executing prisoners in Blackthorn (oooold stuff, remember that one?)... And then the ending has a message exactly about that. Nice little touch. ;)

Fend off waves of zombies with your evolving gun DELUXE by Ezzam 2012-09-15T20:45:00

Nice little game! I like the minimalistic approach, it really is all about evolution. :D
Audio and visual feedback for core events such as being hit, hitting enemies and having different graphics for evolved weapons would help (it took me a while to even know I was being hit when I jumped over the zombies).
Also, The way it plays right now, mouse aiming is irrelevant for the gameplay and could be simplified to a 'go left to shoot left, go right to shoot right' scheme. Or, even better, to add some emerging complexity, make the zombies fall from the sky real slow, like if parachutting, so that the directional aiming system can be useful, and the player would tend to try creating 'holes' in the zombies formation before they hit the ground, so that they could them jump between them. Anyway, good entry, best of luck! ;)

EvFighters by FrederickK 2012-09-15T07:49:00

Very nice entry, Fred! It's awesome that you can make a nice feeling 3D fps gameplay for the 48 hours category, really impressive! I liked the combat system, really the only problem was with understanding what the upgrades did. Still, I can't get past the 3 enemies level. I'm always amazed at how much I suck at first person shooters. Man! hahaha
I'm definitely giving it a try again tomorrow, I just can't accept that I can't go past that god damn level. Anyway, nice entry, good luck buddy! ;)

Gapaos by mipi 2012-09-14T21:14:00

I like the game structure! The idea of going around on the map and "discovering" locations is fun, I think it just needs some more explanation to the player so that he understands what he's supposed to do. Also the boss is the only action oriented part, which is a rather shocking way to even introduce the player to the shooting mechanics. Maybe an easier combat could be presented in an earlier level, so that the player knows how to move and shoot before the final fight?
I liked the unusual aesthetics, it really causes a sense of strangeness. And touching the father envy theme was interesting! I got the 'family structure' message, thought it was pretty cool. Congrats, and keep participating to keep evolving! ;)
PS.: Your game's structure (moving around a topview map to discover locations which you then explore in a platformer view) is similar to the one we use in our project, The Journey of Eko! Actually, our blog's description for the game literally is "platforming action and combats in a physics-based environment with exploration on an old school topview map" (http://www.pixelcows.com/p/the-journey-of-eko.html). I loved to find an entry here that follows the same structure! ;)
If you happen to keep developing this exploration system or add new mechanics to it, pls tweet me or something! @pixel_cows
I'm always looking for novel ideas about this concept (which was actually the structure of Zelda 2, for NES. Neat!)

()! If you happen to develop this game or this exploration concept further, please

How Mosquito Became Human by SaintHeiser 2012-09-14T20:42:00

Wow, very nice! It's simple but I really couldn't let it go before I finished. And the ending is well worthy it! :D
The dark humor is awesome, but what I really enjoyed the most was the absolutely nonsense science notion. hahaha
The part with the frog almost made me give up, not because it's hard to control (I understand THAT is the challenge after all), but because the wall to the right (right after you become frog) is just tall enough for you to not reach it for a few pixels. It makes it seem like I was doing something wrong or the game had some bug. The tiny hole that led to the left made it look like I was going somewhere I wasn't supposed to go, so I didn't insist on that at first. Once it became clear that I had to go back, I enjoyed everything else. Congratulations, very nice entry! :D

SURV: Evolve to Survive! by Siegfur 2012-09-14T19:46:00

Very, very good entry, congratulations! What I like about this is that it is really a game and nothing else. You don't play to see the next graphics, to hear the new music or to know more about the story. It just has you playing it because it's fun to survive while intercalating moments of stress (when totally surrounded) and relief (right after getting an upgrade and feeling a sensible enhancement in your own power). This is the best entry I've played so far on what regards playing by itself, this is pure gameplay!

Things I'd suggest if you ever wanna make a post compo or complete game out of this:
1. As Mes said, visual recognition is an issue. Maybe you could have visual effects that have no effect on gameplay (like smoke, blood, etc) at a low saturation color close to the background; enemies and their projectiles in another range of hue, and so on. The most common problem I had was red enemies versus particles of blood, and my own homing magic bubbles versus the blue enemies' bullets. The mouse cursor was pretty easy to lose track too, specially in later waves.
2. Upgrades make a big difference at the beginning but you lose interest in them after a while because the 'power leap' you feel when you gain a level decreases. I feel that both your power and the enemies' don't keep escalating at the same speed after a while, so which power up you pick becomes kinda irrelevant in later stages.

Still, one of the best entries I've rated. Congratulations, and PLEASE tweet me if you ever develop a complete version out of this! @pixel_cows

ps.: You might wanna check out our entry, it's very gameplay / upgrade based too! ;)

Cheers from Brazil

Colorlies by songman 2012-09-14T19:10:00

Wonderful aesthetics and mood! It reminds me of Flow, or maybe Spore's first evolutionary stage (although in that particular case it's about survival of one cell).
Here's an idea: maybe you could add some rules a la Conway's Game of Life. If actual structures actually start forming as the music slowly evolves, I think it would have a wonderful aesthetic effect, of 'seeing life growing'. Great submission, loved it!

Beyond Our Sacred Sun by the31 2012-09-14T18:41:00

I spent some time trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, and then had a BIG surprise and a moment of total despair when I understood in the hardest way what the hell was going on. hahaha
Congrats on the idea! As a game, it needs some time invested in more mechanics, some sort of evolution, win / loss conditions, etc, but it's a really interesting concept. ;)

Robo Rancher by metadept 2012-09-13T22:53:00

Nice concept! And the graphics are awesome too!
It kinda reminds me a mix of tamagochi with Tower Defense, I think it definitely has potential specially if you add a challenging progressive difficulty (right now, it's impossible to die due to lack of ability or poor choices). Hope you keep developing it! ;)

Cheers

42 Stories by Priapus 2012-09-13T22:14:00

Nice concept and beautiful visuals! It really is way too easy though, but I think you can make this a really fun game with some balancing, IA enhancements and maybe one or two new mechanics to make the interaction between the towers a little more complex. I'd love to see a post compo version of this one, drop me a line if you ever make one! @pixel_cows

Diverge by patrickgh3 2012-09-13T22:04:00

Nice little game! I really like metroidvanias, and this one does it well! Congrats!

The Debate by KevinWorkman 2012-09-13T21:41:00

Haha, loved the concept! Had some laughs as well! Even the Pong mechanics got a nice twist with the acceleration thing, which makes it more interesting and difficult.

On non-game-design-matters, I don't think Campbell's quotes really belong to the religions' side, since his ultimate meaning is that 'god' or 'spiritual' are just ways to understand what is beyond rational understanding, but if these things really exist or not are a matter or personal faith. I think he should be in the middle. And I'd love to hug him. hahaha
Oh, and the dinossaur's quote is AWESOME, really got me laughing here!

But here's the greatest thing: most people make excuses to not participate in Ludum Dare. You actually dedicated the 4 hours you could in the jam time and did *something*. That's the right attitude man, you have my respect! ;)

Slime Slayer by Mjiig 2012-09-13T21:30:00

This is the entry I've played the most time so far! :)
I liked the idea, and the first level really challenged me. It's always fun to decide which upgrade to get!
However, at level two I discovered you can actually farm the slimes - aka letting them grow in numbers and them killing 90% of them, then going away and letting them reproduce again and killing 90% of them again... For the upgrades, after Speed got to about 10, I'd always improve Attack, except when my health was really low, in which I'd pick the health upgrade for healing. At some point, my attack was at least twice the HP of even the strongest slimes, so I started accumulating XP to use as health potions when needed, and would only use them when my HP was below 20. I then rushed until level 12 without problems, and turned off because it was clear to me I had found an exploit. :(
The reason I'm giving this detailed description is because I'd REALLY LIKE to see a post compo version! I love this kind of game, I actually played Desktop Dungeons and other dungeon crawlers quite a lot (hell, our main project, The Journey of Eko, has several dungeon crawler elements!). To avoid the farming exploit, I'd increase A LOT the slimes' evolution rate in a level, in order to make it less worthy to farm them. Another approach would be to add some fog of war so that you can't really know what's going on in all the labyrint (that would make it riskier to let slimes live), and/or make slimes have an increasing chance of spawning slime-bosses, which are unworthy for farming (low XP but difficult to kill). Anyway, just suggestions! ;)
Also, since killing slimes is a major part of the game, I'd work on making that visually interesting. Maybe a few particles will do the trick! Notch said that Minecraft's main action is to destroy blocks, so he made sure that doing that was visually pleasing (with the gradual cracks and particles). I loved that advice and employ it all the time! Our games usually have a lot to do with running and jumping, so there are always particles associated with those actions!. ;)
Another point: it would be great if there was a visual indication of which "type" the slime offspring is becoming (stronger, faster or more resistant), as well as which level they are.
Anyways, congrats, I hope you put the time to finish this! If you do that, I'd love to play - maybe you can let me know in Twitter or something? @pixel_cows

Cheers!

Assimilation by KR-Eddie 2012-09-13T20:14:00

Really cool, congrats! It is difficult to judge what it could become if expanded, since it is so short and the content / amount of features is just right for the actual gameplay duration. I definitely like the mood and the core idea. Hope you keep developing it!

Evolve and Conquer by skintkingle 2012-09-13T19:41:00

I really LOVED this entry! It's very simple, yet fun, intriguing and has an elegant risk versus reward system through the possibility of splitting military units into more workers (a nice twist to the genre) and the rock paper scissor element logic (which combines nicely with the idea of the elements being resources spread through the map).

Here are some things I'd suggest:
-Scrolling doesn't help in this game, maybe it should fit in one screen to enhance the effect of seeing everything moving at the same time?
-Collision boxes could be much smaller, since movement precision isn't supposed to be a core challenge for the game
-Movement speed and walking distance per turn are kinda redundant balancing factors, so I'd accelerate the moving pace of everyone in the game for rhythm's sake, and use only walking distance per turn to balance the units!
-The IA is impressive for a jam game, but still lacking as it seems to completely ignore what I'm doing - and action / reaction is everything in your game's concept! Maybe you could add more enemies and make that a battle against quantity (the classic 'zombie attack' shortcut to IA). :D

Once again, I really loved the several natural risk vs reward game systems, which means a very elegant difficulty design. I truly hope you keep working on this game. Actually, if it's not too much to ask, please let me know in Twitter (@pixel_cows) if you ever make significant improvements on this idea, I'd love to play it! :D

Cheers from Brazil

Dragonkin EVO by bobiniki 2012-08-29T14:46:00

Nice!

I REALLY liked the idea of the underwater current. The 'collect goods while being swarmed by enemies' mechanics has been used a lot, but this really adds a very nice twist to it! In fact, I'd considerably increase the current strenght, make it affect enemies as well, and make this into a game of taking advantage of the currents while managing the risk of moving in high speed through the enemies. Seriously, that has the potential of being really fun!
As others said, though, the huge backtrack (restart the game) summed with the long time to beat the 1st level descourages a second playthrough. Also, I feel the second level mechanics is too standard comparing to the first one, why not make this a game entirely about playing with new gameplay elements added to the core mechanic of the 1st level?
Good job, let me know if you ever make a post-compo version :)

Seed 1,801,360 by cambrian_era 2012-08-29T14:30:00

Your game looks great, but I can't seem to open it :(
Got this error message: "Unable to load mono library from C:/Documents and Settings/Gabriel/Desktop/LD 24 Seed/seed_Data/Mono/mono.dll". I'm running on XP, any ideas?

Eat or Die by yettatore 2012-08-29T05:41:00

Hahahaha, the beheading hunger concept is AWESOME! And I got a kick out of the oppressively short time to get to the next chicken leg. Nice! :D

LD23 — Tiny World (43)

Antibody by Woodpecker 2012-04-28T02:18:00

I like it! I enjoyed how it was really possible to use the big antibody to shove the viruses to someplace (at first I though: this isn't going to work, the movement will be clumsy - but then somehow the balancing made it really easy to do!). I can see some of the gameplay aspect probably couldn't be made in time, but I understand the concept and think it could be developed into a really fun game which is part puzzle, part simply the joy of moving around (like in Flow). Plus, I find it lovely that you and your wife did this game together and had a good time doing it - I hope I can also have a wife that likes designing games someday! Congratulations for the entry :D

Overpopulous by Make A Game 2012-04-28T02:07:00

This is certainly one of the most well polished entries I have seen so far, and I've rated lots of games! And I LOVE the characters, they have a lot of personality! Congratulations!

Aegaeon by ToxicFishGames 2012-04-27T21:08:00

I liked the idea and apparently it was evolving nicely! It is really a shame that the controls or what you are supposed to do is so hard to understand - I replayed like 8 times, and felt like a real champion when I managed to get like 3 meters away from the base in Aegaeon :D
But I really like this type of game, I think you should continue it at least to the point of making it more accessible to a newbie! Lovely graphics too, congratulations!

Poiesis by Them Games 2012-04-27T20:16:00

Very interesting entry, and certainly one of the biggest productions so far, congratulations! I liked the control scheme and really felt like a surgeon, so extra points for making a creative control method that talk to the theme as well. The thing with this game is that I think liking it really goes from person to person as much as gardening or building miniatures, for example. It is calm and contemplative, you really need to have the right expectations and get in the vibe. I'm usually only fond of toy-like games that present lots of simulation characteristics and emergent behavior coming from the simulation, but I ended up really enjoying this one. Plus, I'm definitely maxing out your score on innovation and theme - it's so rare to find games that really go against the flow! Congrats!

Nano Ascension by mikelovesrobots3 2012-04-27T19:40:00

Wow man, that's a superproduction! Amazing to get all the graphics and shaders done in such short time! The camera is really the only big downside, but I think it's difficult to code camera in such a short time. Anyway, great entry! :)

The Lair by Lilleman 2012-04-27T17:27:00

Nice! Even if a little too short, it feels complete in its scope. The floatiness of the jump and the fact that the commands sometime don't respond is definitely something to improve, but doesn't ruin the experience, it's still fun!

Stage 2 Chaos by skyboy49707 2012-04-27T14:37:00

Nice little game! Really looks like Desktop Dungeons, but without the 'exploration restores HP' part. This creates a dominant strategy of exploring the whole map and collecting everything useful before engaging combat, which reduces the level of meaninful decisions considerably. However I do appreciate a variation of DD with less focus on that very peculiar mechanic and balancing it on the more traditional side. I'd love to see this one a little more polished and with more content, I love this type of game!

Are You Okay? by Bread 2012-04-27T14:14:00

Considering how minimalist it is, it is really able to evoke some atmosphere! A shame it's so short, I like this kind of interactive text story (used to write some in my college notebook instead of taking note on whatever teachers were speaking). The simplest type of game I can think of, but isn't it effective nonetheless? :)

Free My World by runnane 2012-04-27T14:08:00

I like it! Reminds of an action version of desktop dungeons, like a mini dungeon crawler with fast progression. As Jeremias and Caranha said, I'd remove the button mashing aspect and replace by a 'hold down' alternative, and yes, definitely some more elements to expand on the decision making aspect - either on the long run term (like some powerful magic attack that takes time to recharge) or something embedded into the gameplay, like monsters having a certain attack rate that you are able to predict and dodge at the expense of breaking a growing damage combo attack you are making... Anything to make it less linear!
On the bright side, this IS a finished game that makes sense from beginning to end, which some sort of organic balancing (something many games didn't manage to have, specially in the 48 hours category). Congrats, I'd love to see the idea expanded and developed!

Ant Farm Simulator by Ovno 2012-04-27T13:48:00

Great game, loved it! Just because I really liked it so much and would love to play a complete version, here's some ideas:
-Could it be a little more slow paced, like Settlers? The logic is very similar, I think it would benefit from a non action based balancing
-Could the 'precision drawing' aspect be replaced by paths that automatically follow the closest node, which is always conveniently positioned at the crossroads? This would direct focus to the general path optimization instead of having to struggle against the mouse precision and the ants jumping pattern (which sometimes gets in the way).
-Now I'm really inventing stuff here: maybe you could make the paths themselves be dug by the player? Not sure how much complexity it would add, but it would certainly enrich the whole ant farm building experience!
Loved it, would gladly play a complete version if you ever release it!
Cheers

When Worlds Collide by AlwaysGeeky 2012-04-27T01:57:00

This is surely one of the greatest technical feats in LD I've seen so far! As you said yourself in the postmorten, it's lacking maybe a little deeper gameplay, but I can definitely see this becoming an interesting game with some time invested! Are you considering expanding it? Would love to see! Cheers, Gabriel (ps. Tks for your review in Tiny Shard!)

Soul Searchin' by MaximSchoemaker 2012-04-27T01:05:00

LOVE IT! Congrats man, I think you got one of the strongest entries! The mechanic really talks to the theme, and the fact that the whole game is contained in the first screen is indeed a technical feat! I just didn't enjoy precision jump too much, but I know that's the kind of thing one doesn't have time to test, detect and fix in 48 hours. Awesome man :)

ONLY US by Datamosh 2012-04-27T00:38:00

I loved it! It is slow paced, so one has to be in the right mood to enjoy it properly, specially because there is a lot of meaning embedded into the mechanics. A very well executed and thoughtful entry, loved it! The mechanic and setting is promising too, I would love to see more of it. Wonderful work of art! Abrazos de Brasil! :)

Astro Break by hulahulahest 2012-04-26T23:50:00

Great! Asteroids with radial gravity, that's a nice twist and approach to the theme! Each level starts a little too difficult and finishes easy, maybe part of the wave's asteroids could start appearing during the wave instead of in the beginning? Nothing else to add, this game really feels complete and well polished in its scope. Congratulations!

Prince of Leaves by evilseanbot 2012-04-26T22:49:00

Very cute! Perfect for a child game, for example! The tune is also catchy and, summed with the painted BG, gives this entry a very strong personality that totally stands out of generic game themes. Congratulations, very charming!

Oh Boy, Oh Boy by Digitalis 2012-04-26T22:18:00

Beautiful! One more entry that reminds me Flow, for the slow rhythm and contemplative nature. Very calm and good to look at, even though it lacks actual game mechanics and is more of a simulator / pretty toy - but nothing wrong with that! I'd love to see this game expanded, congratulations!

Tinysasters by Volute 2012-04-26T22:12:00

Love it! The board game visual is very charming, and it is a very well polished and well balanced entry! :)

The Last Rainbow by Vandash 2012-04-26T21:58:00

I like it! And very well polished, as Orni said. This reminds Flow a bit, with its contemplative nature. It's just a little too fast in comparison, but this is an action game after all! :)
Kudos for the innovative mechanics too! Congrats!

gravity by Rémi 2012-04-26T21:52:00

Very good! The graphics and procedural music are definitely the highlight here, and I liked the mechanics idea, although as other have said, it is really a bit too difficult in the beginning. But it's 48 hours man, balancing is a luxury. hahaha
Great job! :)

Tiny Wizard by kebabskal 2012-04-26T21:45:00

Love it, very good entry! Well finished and polished, good amount of content, charming graphic, and this mechanic is always fun. Congratulations!

Worlds in Cards by summaky 2012-04-26T16:36:00

Loved the mechanics! I can definitely see this being expanded into a full puzzler game. Congrats, nice entry!

Casal Navity by Nanofus 2012-04-26T16:21:00

Interesting! Even though a little disgusting, it is surely creative, I would play through it, but died in the second attempt at the blood flood part, and the lack of a checkpoint is a little discouraging due to the time it takes to get back to where I was... But I liked it!

Recluse by chambers 2012-04-26T14:25:00

Chambers / Pedro, this is by far one of the best 48 hours compo entries I've seen! What impressed me was the design consistency - the level is spiral, the character and the core mechanic has a lot to do with the theme, and the metaphor is very cleverly embbeded into the gameplay. Graphics are charming too! A shame it doesn't have sounds, but silence definitely hurts less than poorly implemented sound, so I think you were wise in spending the extra time in polishing what is in the game. This is my first 5 stars rating for Overall. Congratulations! And thanks for all the feedback in my game too, I'll be removing the Portuguese sentence and adding the checkpoint (I swear I played it through 3 times and didn't notice the sentence there - probably it's the stress! haha)
Abraço!

Super Shotgun Showdown by danlthemanl 2012-04-26T13:16:00

I was able to finish it, and it was quite fun! Not too much to do with tiny world really, but still a nice game, that feels finished and even features a final peak of interest with the boss. Good work!

Tiny Timmy and Big Bill by OmarShehata 2012-04-25T23:07:00

Certainly one of the best entries, congratulations! This really got me laughing a few times!

Archipelago by scottychips 2012-04-25T20:45:00

Yes, agree with the comments above! Controlling is really hard and clumsy, but the whole idea is nice, and it really gets interesting once there are several little fellas moving around!

Stupid Ants by rvmook 2012-04-25T20:26:00

Interesting concept, and does adhere well to the theme! Only problem is the combination of non-trivial mechanics with the super-fast timer, gets really difficult to understand what is going on. But nice entry overall, and I know how limiting 48 hours are! :)

Core Buster by Maato 2012-04-25T20:18:00

Agree with all the comments, great entry! Some enemies would add challenge and intrinsical value to the guns and upgrades, but of course there's only so much one can do in 48 hours! :)

Affinity World by Jilius 2012-04-25T20:02:00

Great concept, loved it! It feels too random at times and all the walking around (even though pretty fast) doesn't help too much since the game is basically about testing the option tree - this is made worse by the mandatory tutorial at the beginning. But I do understand those are balancing matters, which are common due to the 48 constraint. This is one of the best games I'm rating so far, and a very interesting interpretation of the theme. Congratulations! :)

Away from Home by pirate-rob 2012-04-25T17:35:00

Nice entry! It feels like one of the games with more content in this LD. Nice mix of Mass Effect and Terraria, the game feels good and could definitely work if more developed! Really enjoyed the design.
On the bad side, I couldn't understand what I was supposed to do besides collecting coal and parts, and I couldn't know how many I had collected after a while, so I lost motivation after having lots of fuel and no way of knowing how close I was from finishing the game... Another interesting thing is the plant mechanic, although I only found out about that (or that Space was a command altogether) after reading some comments - I liked the idea and found it interesting, but have no idea how to use this in terms of gameplay. Also didn't realize how I can shrink planets or get back home, or why I have triple jump sometimes. In short - looks like a great game (seriously), but it needs some further explanation in the beginning! Maybe you could add some to the description? Cheers, and congratulations for the entry, it's really good!

Flea Circus by Edd Morgan 2012-04-25T16:47:00

Nice little game! I particularly like the theme interpretation and the initial story. Didn't get to finish, though - took me a while to understand I was being hit by the fly, and suddenly I died and the app closed (I think a simple setback to the beginning of the level would do the trick as a punishment without scaring players away). Anyway, good job! :)

It's a crazy tiny world after all ! by krelix 2012-04-25T16:39:00

Man, you got me laughing! This is a very, very sick game! hahaha
The sounds and music loop are annoying, but I guess that's part of the design. And the whole concept of shooting at things that represent the different places of the world - WTF man, this is really insane and got me laughing all the way through the end!

I think you are not allowed to use internet photos for the 48 hours compo though, so this should be registered as a jam entry. Anyway, nice job!

Tiny World by Andrew 2012-04-25T16:01:00

I like the crazy graphics! The major problems for me are the sounds (kinda irritating), and the excessive luck - trial and error component of the gameplay (this is a matter of personal taste, though, but usually players feel it is unfair to them if they don't have some way of avoiding failure because of luck or lack of knowledge of the level design or state). But it IS a finished game, which is definitely something for 48 hours! :)

A Perfect Purpose by Siewart 2012-04-25T15:53:00

Nice try, a shame it isn't finished! Maybe you should have used more 24 hours and submitted it as a jam entry?
I get the message and I think it's cool. As others said, some actual gameplay would help. This reminds me of another very cool entry, "love in the time of fishbowl" - http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=12630
And my own entry as well, which is vaguely related. ;)

Another Kind of World by daandruff 2012-04-25T15:46:00

Cool game! I liked the core mechanic, and think it would work well with destructible blocks! I don't think that spamming bombs is a problem considering the game balancing, and the fact that throwing them pushes you a bit, it's enough balanced. On the bad side, I don't think it fits the theme too well or at least there isn't an obvious connection, and I'd love to see more variety (even diferent colored blocks and enemies would help!).
Overall, one of the most fun I've played so far, and it really manages to be an actual game, not only a test - few of us manage to do that with such a short time! Congrats, very good entry :)

Attack on the Planet XXS-01 by TenTonToon 2012-04-25T15:22:00

I like it! I mean, you clearly state in the readme file that it is unfinished, and in a funny way (got lots of humor points for that!). Other than that, there's all the feedback that is a direct consequence of the game not being finished in time, I obviously don't need to tell you that. But hey, finish it, why not? ;)
Cheers

Planet Gravity by Jens Nolte 2012-04-25T15:09:00

Couldn't run it...
Maybe it's the DirectX 10 requirement. Too bad, looked interesting :)

Battle For 35 Leukothea by Rectifier 2012-04-25T12:51:00

Cool game! I like TD games and enjoyed the 'world growth' twist! But even though I'm not the type of player who goes for graphics, ASCII is a little too hardcore even for me... A little too difficult to tell things apart, and also the arrow movement gets a little clumsy (the shortcuts were a nice touch to compensate the tech limitation, though). Overall, pretty fun and a very good entry, I'm rating you well! And man, you did manage to make a functional and fun Tower Defense game in ASCII - maybe that's the first time someone does that? :D

love in the time of fishbowls by otaviogood 2012-04-25T02:08:00

Great, one of the best I've rated so far! Nice casual game with a smart, organic progression system and an unexpected good story! This one got me thinking. Congratulations! :)

subAtomic by MurrayL 2012-04-25T01:34:00

Very good entry, congrats! Got me smiling like in the old Sierra / Lucas Arts games, very nostalgic. Loved the text, and the fancy shirt guy shaking his arms is super funny!

Short Life in a Box by tequibo 2012-04-24T23:34:00

Love it! Very interesting interpretation of the theme and great mood. I liked the rhythm per which you get new powers. One thing I'm not sure if was on purpose or not, but which worked well, was the complete lack of instructions - learning what to do next, from beginning to end, happens very organically! Congrats, nice entry!

Homedefender by Hopps 2012-04-24T19:37:00

Quite cool! It starts slow but then gets frantic with all the missiles! I would just make that holding the mouse button would permanently shoot at a certain rate, otherwise it gets a bit too much on the button mashing side. :)

World Panic! by pinkmonkeyhead 2012-04-24T19:15:00

VERY GOOD entry! The game is incredibly hard, but it's fun to try and beat it! Let me get one thing clear: this is the best entry I have seen so far, practically maxed out the ratings. Here's what frustrated me: I had no chance, spent quite a lot of time but couldn't get past the 2nd planet. The main reason isn't the difficulty itself, but setback punishment: after losing in the 3rd bullet pattern, I have to play again patterns 1 and 2, which are very easy once you figure them out, so it's really just an operational task demanded to get to the 3rd pattern again (which happens often considering the game difficulty). I'd go for a difficulty / punishment balance like that on Super Meat Boy, where the super hard levels are compensated by having death being punished with very little setback. You die and you're right in front of the challenging bit again in 5 secs.
On the bright side, for some reason I had to keep trying again and again - there is something really charming and provocative in this game. The soundtrack is awesome too and really sets the mood for what's coming. I'll definitely leave the flash window open and try it again later, when my motivation is higher! This is the best entry I've seen so far. Congratulations!