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Goldenglade

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMo
201945Start with nothingCascadejam2583.763.853.132.794.072.602.323.55

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

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Goldenglade

LD45 — Start with nothing

From Nothing, To Nothing by khaotom 2019-10-09T00:31:07Z

The small games within this collection could use some fine tuning. Skill requirements for the first portion of the game can be bypassed by spamming controls, and the second portion felt stilted (perhaps due to a lack of diagonal movement) and requires a reworking of the spawning of the shelters for them to appear in fair positions. The boxes of the third portion spawn a little too close together for the platforming to accommodate. Disregarding these issues, there is fun to be had here. Nice work.

Singularity by dob 2019-10-08T03:47:21Z

The concept of this game is very solid, and the gameplay is quite fun. However, the game's greatest weakness is its control, in that both radial and tangential movement of the mouse about the pivot point of an arm of the constellation appears to cause perplexing rotation of the arm. I would recommend having the arm rotate about the pivot point to face the mouse's location. In addition, if pursuing further development, you may want to consider replacing the current ambiance music with a more instrumental piece, though that is personal preference. Other than those two things, very nice work.

You are Nothing by ectucker1 2019-10-08T05:49:22Z

Great stuff, the diversity of weapons was nice, and the ASCII art managed to remain readable throughout the game. The music was enjoyable and the sound design was impactful, though the mixing on the audio left the sounds too loud in comparison to the music. The enemy placement tends to be a little brutal, especially in the latter half of the game, especially when it involves the enemy that shoots the insta-beam. The insta-beam enemy should have some form of telegraphing implemented so the player has the foresight to react properly, rather than relying on panic rolling. The limitation of ammo and the guaranteed drops from enemies forced skill refinement and utilization of the wide array of weapons, keeping the game interesting. Overall, nice work.

There were 8 hours left and I decided I wanted to participate after all by Corny 2019-10-08T07:27:05Z

A fun and short game. Excellent music accompanies graphics sporting both a pleasing color palette and superb animations (though the attack animation is a bit stilted), creating a great mood that fits the game well. The slimes are a bit annoying and risky to hit due to their perpetual jumping (a risk amplified by the forward lunge of the main character's attack), so if you develop this further I would suggest for greater enemy diversity to be in the cards. In addition, the swift movement of the camera when switching directions is jarring, so perhaps it would benefit from slower tweening. In addition, I would place the "attack", "jump", and "pick up" keys in a more comfortable position, such as on Z, X, and C. Overall, very fine work.

Amor Fati by starvingindie 2019-10-08T04:41:14Z

The game has pleasurable and apt graphics and music, as well as satisfying visual and audio polish and punch. It seems to end too quickly, however, and the game can be beaten without even moving the mouse, its only form of control. I would suggest expanding upon the bumping section if you decide to expand the game any further, perhaps by adding an element of strategy. Overall, nice work.

I Was Nothing At All by gord10ahmet 2019-10-09T01:18:24Z

A fun short game. Some polishing could be done, such as adding visual cues upon evolution. In addition, I suggest adding distance between the main character and the enemy, as well as reducing the radius of the explosions. This would reduce the difficulty and allow the player more foresight and versatility when platforming. In addition, this decrease in required precision from the player when jumping would allow you to tweak the currently stilted variable jumping, by setting the y velocity to some division of the upwards jumping velocity (instead of zero) when the y velocity is upwards and the jump key is released. The music during the jupming section is repetitive, but the boss music is well done, and the slow motion during the final moments of the game are a nice touch. Nice work.

Vicious Cycle by ryzy27 2019-10-11T06:40:09Z

Visually interesting, though not very interactive, it may have worked better as a visual piece that didn't require any spacebar input. In addition, it would have been better to indicate that the language section at the end was optional. However, impressive work for such a short time period, especially with the amount of animation.

SNEN - Start with Nothing, End with Nothing by FredFilo 2019-10-11T06:51:37Z

Its a very enjoyable game, and a nice difficulty for a set of eight initial levels, teaching the player the mechanics of the game at an adequate pace. The graphics are pleasing to the eye, and the audio present is pleasing to the ear, though perhaps audio could be added for the menu buttons. Overall, very nice work.

Loot Simulator 2019 by Adam Gaskins 2019-10-08T02:21:04Z

The variety of power-ups and the escalation of power over the course of the game are its strongest suits. Some improvements I would suggest are more polish in the audio and visuals, as well as a reduction of the recoil, which is way too heavy. To ease the game's flow, I would suggest increasing the speed in which the dropped collectibles are obtained and elaborated upon, whether it be through an increase of the strength of the magnetization effect, a decrease in the time in which the items' descriptions are shown, or through allowing advancement to the next room whilst still displaying the items' descriptions (though in that case you'd likely want to diminish the screen presence of the descriptions). Overall, a fairly fun game, nice work.

Boltzmann by Hermitao 2019-10-11T07:10:23Z

Though it lacks in content, it is polished. The music is extremely pleasant to listen to, and the visual effects implemented are great, such as the use of moving cloud textures on the inside of the star. I experienced a crash, though to be fair, I was running the game on ultra and right-clicked straight into a blue supergiant. Overall, a fun and short experience. Very nice work.

HUMAN by QuadApe 2019-10-11T05:12:48Z

Very nice work. The mood is shaped nicely by the graphics, color palette, and music. A small quality of life improvement I will suggest is the implementation of an element on the GUI that indicates that you are paused. A negative element of the game is the homogeneity of the movesets of the bosses (only dashing), only separated by levels of aggressiveness. In addition, the bosses should relent longer when they are parried during a multi-hit attack, as it currently dupes the player into believing they have a window to attack due to the brief pause. The fear status can sometimes be unfair if the player is too close to a boss due to the lack of a dodge, so I will suggest that if a boss is within a very short range of the player, the status dismisses, therefore allowing for a parry, testing the player's reaction. The pain status is well implemented, though when you will receive pain and fear should be better telegraphed. The poison effect is too severe, as it rises much too quickly and punishes the player for being aggressive towards an extremely aggressive boss with a tight window for attack, causing the fourth boss to be a massive difficulty spike. Regardless of these issues, the game overall is fun and well constructed.

FROGBERT: Road to Culinary Stardom by trmrddr 2019-10-09T04:46:19Z

Cute game, with an enjoyable gameplay loop that is accompanied by charming graphics and music. A small piece of graphical polishing would be having Frogbert's mouth open when he attacks and have it be closed otherwise. The game's greatest weakness is the isometric perspective, which artificially inflates the game's difficulty and diminishes its fun factor. Partially due to this perspective, the penalty for selecting an incorrect item feels somewhat too great, an issue that could be resolved by the removal of the trash hole and instead allowing Frogbert to swap the item he currently has with the item on the lilypad he attacks. In addition, there is a minor bug on level one in which Frogbert's tongue extrudes from below his mouth. Overall, very nice work.

Erasure by seankennedy 2019-10-08T03:16:03Z

This game has workable concepts in it, but the complexity is to its detriment. The concept of eliminating the tiles of the background and using their physics to detect platforms is novel, but the act of experimentation is discouraged by the very strict tile elimination limit and the damage-dealing properties of the removed tiles, making each level difficult to navigate. In addition, the introduction of vertical walls (especially in the first level) adds to this difficulty as their presence is not as easily indicated by the removed tiles as horizontal platforms are. If you continue developing these concepts, I would suggest removing damage, the tile elimination limit, and the ability to see visible platforms behind removed tiles, and instead focus on constructing challenges that require the player to balance using enough tiles to discern the location of the exit with using fewer tiles to avoid some sort of implemented penalty (perhaps a par).

Keep Me Burning by NavrcL 2019-10-11T08:03:02Z

Keep Me Burning has great graphics and the audio definitely sets the mood, both in its music and sound design, and these high quality components make up the game's greatest strengths. The gameplay is this game's biggest weakness, however. Each point to replenish the main character's light are one time use, which discourages exploration. One possible solution is to make each station permanent use and space them out further from each other whilst maintaining that the light lasts long enough to travel between them. In addition, the penalty for death is very harsh, further discouraging exploration of the game's nonlinear level design. One possible solution for this is to make each light station a checkpoint, granted they are spaced out sufficiently as to not make the game too easy. Overall, though the gameplay may have faults, the visual and audio design are to be commended. - P.S. Excellent "making of" video.

Return The Stars by BanJaxe 2019-10-11T07:38:36Z

Excellent visuals and excellent audio make for an excellent mood. The game makes great use of contrast with its visuals and audio, such as the void vs. the outer cosmos, the empty void vs. the full void, safety vs. danger, etc. It was nice to add markers to the remaining stars at a certain point so the player wouldn't feel stuck. Though the game does give sufficient feedback for when you are in danger, the boundaries of the hazards are somewhat unclear, and this is apparent during the maze sections. Overall, amazing work.

The Darkness by Iconocatstudio 2019-10-08T04:54:17Z

The gameplay concept is workable, and the mood is well set by the setting of the pipes, the flashing red lights in the darkness, and the audio cues of the spookies. However, the game is too difficult too early on due to the small radius of light initially afforded to the main character, the infrequency and unreliability of ambient light events such as flashes and red lights, and the rapid waning of light after the collection of pickups. If these elements were counteracted in some way in which tension could still be caused, I believe the game would be more accessible, whilst still retaining an atmosphere of horror.

little BEETLE bottle BATTLE by AP Thomson 2019-10-08T02:02:28Z

Fun and very well put together with a nice interface, accompanied by pleasant music, as well as intuitive gameplay. The combination of the match-3 and strategic gameplay surprised me, I didn't expect for the match-3 board to transition so seamlessly to the strategy board. Improvements I would suggest are matching the colors of the borders of the match-3 tiles with the coloration of their respective icons, as to reduce the visual noise of the board (especially in fullscreen mode), as well as making the coloration of the resource icons match those of the tiles they are obtained from (such as making the log entirely green), as well as finding differing colors for the field and mountain tiles. In addition, the game itself should more clearly lay out the expertise of each kind of beetle. Overall, very well done.