Towersprawl by 5Mixer 2023-10-03T16:11:46Z
Funny system. Some would love to have that in their Wallpaper engine!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Genroa
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | 👥 | Harvest Saturn | jam | 130 | 4.05 | 3.76 | 4.04 | 4.37 | 4.37 | 3.94 | 3.03 | 3.72 |
Funny system. Some would love to have that in their Wallpaper engine!
I feel like what we kind of failed to introduce as well as the rest is that the inventory space grows back if you go back up. We should have probably polished the level introducing that, or added a different tutorial message here.
Also, just to clarify: every single level has a solution that requires no execution speed. This game isn't designed to make you drag things at mad speed accross your screen. If the solution you're going for requires super quick reflexes and inventory management, you're probably doing it wrong (unless you're speedrunning it for some reason).
Build updated on itch io: edited a tutorial message to make the pressure mechanic a bit clearer, + crash fixes
The original build is still available here, on Ludum.
Not sure it really fits the theme, since there's no incentive to have specific things in our inventory or actual gameplay based on having to handle a limited space. But a very charming game nonetheless! The fishing gameplay loop is...weirdly addictive. It's nothing deep, but it just works well enough to keep you interested at least a few minutes, wondering what the next catch will be. Some of these are quite hard to catch...! The music is nothing to write much about, but it fits the vibe the game is going for. This was cool to play.
Possible bug: the "sea bass" fish never appeared as a fish to drag into my inventory when I caught one. This happened every time I caught one.
The controls were very confusing at first, mostly because of how dark the first scene is. I didn't understand I could control something, and understanding what was going on took a while, even with the light dot on the character. It gets better after playing in the first room for a bit.
Couldn't understand some of the puzzle elements (O2? Power?), but that's probably just me.
The intro cutscene was a bit long, but the art direction and the audio were really good to set the mood. I might revisit it and try to go further, I'm really intrigued by it but couldn't get to the end yet.
Played on the web build. The text is quite small, but it was manageable.
Cons:
- the controls are a bit fiddly, placing planks in particular is...confusing because it seems to be placed on the cursor, but still at a max distance, but you can't see where it'll actually land. A preview would have been nice!
Pros:
- the artwork is lovely, and the music fits the idea really well! - once you get more acquainted with the controls and the bullets start flying left and right, it becomes a really fun a challenging game! (maybe increase the movement speed a little bit, some bullets feel like you can't avoid them at all) - the tutorial island helps immensely, thank you very much for this kind of attention.
All in all, a short and enjoyable experience, with very few issues (and none that couldn't be improved with a few more days of work)
Took me a bit to understand it was a hangman game. The visuals are really good, and the theme was used pretty well. It was really fun to play! Does it give you a random sentence, or is it fixed?
I love the pun in the name. Making a game based on that sad truth was a great idea. The controls are great, the visuals clear, it's a great puzzle game. You could probably turn that into a great little game.
On paper, this isn't the most original iteration of the theme, but in practice the execution is flawless. Assuming you like racing, this is a must play of this game jam. The controls feel good and arcadey while still having enough for you to learn.
Simple, efficient, works great. The art is lovely and the use of the theme (the leash) is neat.
Pretty cool game. Some feedback: - the grabbing sometimes doesn't work on some parts of objects it seems - you can't grab stuff again after moving them once (intentional?) - the loop, even if you're bad at it, can last for quite a while... Maybe the water could rise a tiny bit faster, the main reason why my games ended were because the top of the tower was too badly built to add anything on top of it, even when taking my time, not because of the water rising?
Cut turtle though!
Nice use of the theme... You managed to make everything creepy with just a flashlight, a few noises and a tight space. Well done.
I love the artstyle. The general concept is quite fun to play, but with one major bug: if you drop an item you're holding onto a cell containing something else, it deletes what you were holding and grabs the item of the inventory cell instead. This makes the inventory pretty much impossible to use in the heat of the moment.
The game might also benefit from slightly more time spent on balancing it, as I almost never ran into the issue of my inventory being too full to grab something from the room. But it's a really fun game to play!
The vibe is really cool. Some feedback: - the controls could really benefit from a second pass on them. The platforming is really hard! - when you enter a level, the enemies spawn way too quickly, or too close to you, IMO - controls in the main scene with the statues are quite confusing, a few help texts could really, really help, especially with the drag and drop mechanic. Also, sometimes stuff just went in the wrong direction on the statue, even though they were clearly a leg onto a leg part, or an arm onto an arm part? - the theme feels slightly underused IMO - the art is superb but it's sometimes hard to distinguish platforms from the background
Overall, quite an appreciable experience that could benefit from a last pass of polish to help with the initial confusion :)
I'm...confused. I couldn't even pass that first jump using the space bar and/or the dash? I'm sorry, I couldn't pass the first level.
Also, letting the player test the controls on the first screen would have been nice (I think you can't jump or dash in this one?)