FoonLudum Dare ExplorerUsers → Gremlin

Gremlin

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCo
20132710 SecondsTeleporting Zeppelincompo8732.722.442.482.603.062.141.842.4654
201326MinimalismNothing Leftcompo2673.473.473.053.933.022.391.832.7575
201223Tiny WorldThe Sheep Are Sinkingcompo4252.982.723.722.682.721.562.312.36100

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 Gremlin

LD23 — Tiny World

Balance by hadesfury 2012-05-04T14:33:00

This is harder than it looks. So many little squishes and screams as the little guys get herded...

Free Donutia by the8donut 2012-04-24T01:43:00

I thought about making an RTS, but decided it'd be too hard in 48 hours. You've proved me wrong, congratulations. I played it to the end (dragged a bit, but that can be fixed if you ever want to expand it).

The Wizard Delven by Polar 2012-04-23T19:55:00

Interesting. The walking speed is a little slow, but maybe that's something you fixed already in the right version? Shame about that, but hopefully you'll be able to do something with it later.

A Pale Blue Dot by ronkmonster 2012-04-23T22:08:00

Worked for me after installing XNA (Windows 7 x64). (Though I had to kill the process to get it to stop playing the music once I was done.)

Interesting take on the whole space invaders scenario. Would have liked to be able to attack the other planets, or something to have a reason to get away from home. Seems like to dominant strategy right now is to hang around the home planet...

WTF World by Misfit 2012-05-09T18:18:00

Very clever. Also very hard, unless you are good at doing two different things at the same time.

Asylum by Orni 2012-04-28T02:59:00

It works; despite the long intro and the lack of sound it drags you into its twisted, claustrophobic world.

Tiny World by piterlouis 2012-04-23T22:13:00

Fun and clever little concept, and very playable.

Hoperay by Shackhal 2012-04-24T13:59:00

Man, this one is hard!

Since it's a comp game, and the music isn't yours, I had to give it an N/A for audio.

Tiny Wor ds by BNeutral 2012-04-24T00:40:00

Oh, wow. Clever.

I wish my jump went just a bit higher, or that people would post shorter tweets(!) :/

Tiny Wor ds by BNeutral 2012-04-24T00:44:00

Starting to get the hang of it now. :) The secret is in timing the double jumps.

ONLY US by Datamosh 2012-05-09T19:05:00

Love the atmosphere. Graphics and sound are top notch. It gets a little slow when you are just waiting around trying to restock on rocks.

Deconstructorium by Deconstructeam 2012-04-23T22:33:00

I like the combination of platforming and combining/crafting.
Control is a little fiddly when you get the higher speeds.

I Should Clean My Keyboard by cmo7 2012-04-23T21:36:00

Interesting variation in the enemies. Like the story.

6 Degrees of Sabotage by dukope 2012-04-23T18:29:00

It's a very clever use of the concept, even if I can never click the right people fast enough at the end.

Berries by tlaine 2012-04-24T13:24:00

Interesting action RPG. Not sure why "select" and "attack" are two different commands. And the character could probably move a little faster. But hey--you made a game in 48 hours!

Around the World in 80 Seconds (or less) by gormio 2012-04-23T23:17:00

Worked fine for me (Windows 7 x64).

Invaders! by wibblymat 2012-04-23T22:47:00

It's a little on the easy side, yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing--it does make it slower paced, though.

Tinysasters by Volute 2012-05-09T17:51:00

Clever little puzzle game. A little on the easy side once you figure out the basic mechanics: there's not a lot of important decision making in the late game.

Pocket Strife by josefnpat 2012-04-23T19:30:00

There's the core of a fun little strategy game in here. I agree with the above posters that the world needs more casual strategy games.

I'm not sure I can ever catch up to the AI's tech level...I fairly rapidly reached a point where I could only chip away at the AI defenses 'cause anything I placed in range was eliminated almost instantly. Maybe a tank-like damage-soaking unit for the turrets to hide behind would be useful?
Or maybe multiple AI's?

Once the AI has taken over a significant part of the planet, the game slows to a crawl on my (Windows) machine.

And for me the awkward part of the controls was that the mouse cursor was too laggy and there was no way to place something with the keyboard! I really wanted enter or space to place a building...

The games I like the most leave me brimming with ideas and potential, and this is certainly one of those...

Pocket Strife by josefnpat 2012-04-24T01:52:00

@Seppi Maybe color the player's territory or border, so they can see where they can build at a glance? And set the flag as the first thing selected (right now I think it defaults to 1 instead of 5).

Nano-Clash by Zathalos 2012-04-27T03:18:00

Graphics are pretty slick for the time you had.

My big critique is that the weapons didn't feel like they had much effect, mostly because there wasn't a lot of feedback to let you know if you were causing damage (other than enemies just vanishing).

Tiny Crash Landing by Ranoka 2012-04-23T23:28:00

Love the graphics.

If you're going to keep developing, the biggest change I wanted was to walk faster.

Beyond by ben 2012-04-27T03:31:00

Like the aesthetic. Very Zarch/Virus vibe. Retro in a very slick way.

I kept falling off of things. If you keep working on this, I'd like slightly more solid controls, where I do less sliding off of things...

Fort in the Woods by pkdawson 2012-04-24T13:46:00

Interesting: it's a turn based strategy game with real-time-strategy mechanics. More uses for wood would be nice, and the battles were a little slow, but I enjoyed myself.

Tondie and Zupe by Cosmologicon 2012-04-24T00:17:00

I wasn't expect heartwarming with a poignant ending, but that's what you delivered. Well done!

March of the Ladybirds by MrDanH 2012-04-23T21:04:00

It's an interesting take on whatever you would call the lemmings-genre.

When Worlds Collide by AlwaysGeeky 2012-04-23T21:12:00

Runs a little slowly on my PC, (Window 7 x64) especially during a comet storm but it runs.

Sun Save World by castor 2012-04-23T21:57:00

Nice atmosphere, though I would have liked to see more interactions or growth or something...

The Tiny World of Pixels by Wampus 2012-04-24T04:19:00

We all know how the time limit feels. :) You have great stuff going with the idea and the effects, and it is a complete game. Lack of variation between pixel planets and general whack-a-mole-ness means it lost my interest fairly quickly, which is a pity.

Minilization - Dawn and Fall of Man by jarnik 2012-04-23T18:25:00

Clever. I'd love to see more depth to the choices and systems. There are a lot of directions the basic idea can expand towards.

Oh, and for those who have trouble figuring it out like I did: you can only upgrade a house/city to a higher level <i>if it has enough room around it</i>. A grid of houses right next to each other can't be upgraded!

Tin World by TheSheep 2012-04-23T20:08:00

Love the title screen.

The controls are a bit sluggish (at least on my keyboard).

Ethereal Isles by Izzimach 2012-04-24T00:27:00

Lovely idea, would play more levels...

Large Hadron Collider: Ludum Dare Edition by Muhiz 2012-04-24T04:38:00

Talk about bullet hell! My highscore is 24.683 nanoseconds...that's probably the shortest amount of time I've had for a highscore ever.

I think there's a difference between slow movement and sluggish movement...this felt less responsive than it could have. A simple speed-up may or may not fix this (usually, in my games its a latency thing, but there are a bunch of things that affect the feel of movement & controls).

Neat idea, though.

gravity by Rémi 2012-04-23T19:35:00

Took a little while for the web player to load, but it was definitely worth it.

Tiny Boss by 11clock 2012-05-12T18:22:00

Yikes, that just gets harder and harder...

Download Incomplete by trq 2012-05-13T21:16:00

Very solid and polished. If it was any longer, I think there'd need to be a new mechanic to change things up, but as it stands it ended at exactly the right point for me.

The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin 2012-04-23T20:11:00

Thanks! The zero-sum terrain thing was based on a suggestion from the friend I was jamming with. It really makes that part of the game, I think.

The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin 2012-04-24T00:47:00

@uprightpath No, sinking terrain doesn't give you anything back (that was too easy when I tried it).

I'd like to add some levels with different constraints on the terrain editing tools, though, like one where the ground is rising, or one with a different water depth.

The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin 2012-04-24T00:47:00

@ben If the sheep aren't moving, it usually means that they can't see the tower. Raise it higher and they'll come running.

The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin 2012-04-24T01:21:00

@liger13 &@free_napalm
Yes, I think my first move after the competition is over will be to increase the sheep's speed. (If you want them to move faster right now, you can raise the tower higher, which makes them go faster in certain circumstances.)

The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin 2012-05-09T23:07:00

@Tom 7
'W' is to call the sheepdog. ;) To call the sheep, you'll have to raise the tower.

@TyrusPeace
I wanted to add better pathfinding, but didn't have enough time. Maybe later...

Red Guy by Beep2Bleep 2012-04-27T02:57:00

Yep, it's a tech demo. I'd like to see more about how you did it, since I'm thinking of doing something pixely in Unity in the near future. (Not just the toolkit, but a postmortem of using it, etc.)

Microscopia by azurenimbus 2012-05-09T17:05:00

So many tiny little things moving in different directions...inverted controls were where I gave up too.

Little Poui by jami 2012-04-23T21:20:00

This has just overtaken my previous choice of "Weirdest Game So Far".

Bellerophon by eriwad 2012-04-27T03:11:00

There's an art to finding the right difficulty level. Most LD games are a little too hard, this one is the exception: it's a little too easy. I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing, but there wasn't enough else in there to make it interesting apart from the challenge.

The game basically stops when you die, and you have to manually quit, which is kind of a bummer when you just died...

It controlled really well, which is something a lot of people struggle with. (I'm terrible at twin-stick shooters like this, and I got to 690 points.)

Good luck on your next one!

Giant Wizards from the Outer Rim! by tompudding 2012-05-09T17:15:00

It's a good start. The rules need work, of course, since at the moment it just comes down to whoever gets lucky with attacks. More actions and tradeoffs would help, as well as meaningful terrain and more limitations (to shape the strategy).

I did have the game randomly close a couple of times, and the interface is really really clunky for a game with one unit (having to click move again and again gets tiring).

I Painted a Tiny World by jellyislovely 2012-04-24T04:32:00

Cool concept, but way on the hard side. I consider it an accomplishment that I got to level 2. :)

Matrix Creatrix by piman 2012-04-23T21:18:00

I'd prefer to have some more feedback on how well I'm doing, but it is a clever basis for a puzzler.

Tiny God wants a Bigger World by Thotep 2012-05-04T14:20:00

This makes two populous-style terrain-editing games in the comp that I'm aware of.

I do wish there was some additional way to engage with the enemies; the race against time works but its less satisfying than actually being able to achieve a stable state.

Planet Defender by Kyvos 2012-05-09T17:29:00

Lasers are key to early survival. For those of you who think you have permanent protection: just wait.

Not a whole lot of depth to the system, but well-balanced. Probably could use a timer or some way of comparing your progress with other runs, since you're pretty much guaranteed to get smashed in the end.

Tiny World Civiliaztions by Square Particle 2012-04-27T15:45:00

Interesting idea, though, as you said, there isn't much point to it yet.

Planet Gravity by Jens Nolte 2012-05-09T18:02:00

I survived 3 minutes and 5 seconds. Is there any way to win, or is it just survival?

Little City by dustmyte 2012-05-04T14:12:00

That ending was unexpected.

Predicament by orangepascal 2012-04-28T23:01:00

Why has it taken me this long to get around to playing this game?

Civilized Pixel by Terrified Virus 2012-04-25T15:31:00

Clever little simcity-esque strategy game. I tried building a farm first, which didn't work out so well (mines are what you want to build for resources when you're starting, looks like).

The cursor was a little distracting, and the pop-up when I had too much money(!) was a little annoying, since I'd keep having too much money and had to hurry to place buildings so it would go away.

Tiny Worlds by Lidfrid 2012-04-23T20:42:00

I like the audio. The controls were a bit fiddly, but the mechanic is interesting.

Cowboys and Endians by ComaToes 2012-04-24T13:32:00

I'm picky about how platformer controls feel, and for me the jump was to high and the moving was too slow and imprecise at the same time. And I was getting some apparently random slowdowns in places.

But a very clever take on the theme.

Delirium by Puccini 2012-04-24T00:23:00

Yeah, great idea. Love to see a longer take on it. (Only complaint is that the controls weren't perfect, but that's relatively minor.)

Tiny World Domination by Reparadocs 2012-04-25T15:12:00

Could use a readme or something explaining the rules.

Kumiho by Christina Antoinette Neofotistou 2012-04-28T13:33:00

When I respawn, I have to lift up the Z key and press it again before the ship will fire. It feels like you're using the key down event rather than polling to see if the key is pressed.

The teleport mechanic is really clever, though sometimes a little difficult to tell if its going to land you on a bullet.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy by Digitalis 2012-04-25T17:00:00

Looks gorgeous. Would love to see the systems expanded and a win condition...the interaction felt a little sparse, but growing a planet like this seems fun.

Seeds Of Destruction by MrPhil 2012-05-09T18:11:00

Clever take on Missile Command. It's quite hard, and if a seed pod lands on you it's pretty much game over.

Aether by Danik 2012-04-23T18:45:00

I'm inspired by the mix of the two modes.

I did get stuck a couple times when the holes in the landscape made sheer cliffs (mostly at the first hill-cave) and I didn't want to wait around for more bombs to smooth things out.

Ant, Bee, Cow, Pig and Spider BOSS by karnakgames 2012-04-23T20:37:00

Very linear/puzzle-solving design. The audio's humorous. One of the weirder games I've played so far.

Bright Worlds by johnfn 2012-04-24T13:19:00

Pushing crates is really twitchy. Clever mechanic, though.

ANT SURF HERO: THE SURFENING by JigxorAndy 2012-04-24T05:11:00

Strangely, it reminded me strongly of the original Duke Nukem for some reason. And Out of This World/Another World.

My Little Planetoid by matthias_zarzecki 2012-04-24T14:19:00

Great concept. Found myself withing for different camera controls--too slow, and kept moving when I was near the build buttons. Had a bug where I couldn't build anything on a plot after I deleted one of the labs--just that one plot, not any of the others. I won anyway. Would like to see a bit more of strategy or branching paths, but had a fun time.

Mr Cool by Rialgar 2012-04-28T22:49:00

Fun.

I've only got a couple of complaints: the music gets a little repetitive, and the fire enemies melt you at a longer distance than you'd usually expect (maybe they need a glow or something to show the danger zone better?)

Dude Rescue by agnulf 2012-04-23T23:12:00

Clever idea.

I found myself wanting the controls to be a little more solid; they feel a bit imprecise and sluggish and I was never quite sure if I could turn it precisely enough to fit another tiny dude on board.

Shrink Force by DrSuperSocks 2012-05-09T18:26:00

Yeah, I can't even make the first jump. That's a common problem in Ludum Dare games, of course: most of them are way too hard. The idea sounds interesting, anyway, even if I can't play long enough to experience it.

Three Trials by nek 2012-05-12T17:56:00

When I fell off the planet, I got a bunch of tile out of bounds errors scrolling across the screen.

The way the character keeps moving forward even after landing from a jump makes it really hard to target where you're going to land.

Pin Party by cambrian_era 2012-04-23T18:38:00

I like the approach to the theme.

The highest I got was six angels. I kept getting swarmed and losing all of the followers. That said, I'm terrible at twin-stick shooters (and I think my keyboard had an issue with me trying to press four buttons at once).

Gravity Sucks [WEB] by Nocturne 2012-04-23T19:46:00

Somehow, it's always the exploding planets that get me.

Wulcan by leafo 2012-04-23T20:22:00

Loved it, especially the balance between keeping the canyon from closing in and making it easier to shoot the enemies.

Pixel World by RevoluGame 2012-05-12T18:12:00

The character slides forwards a bit after the jump finishes, which makes some jumps a little difficult. Also, the main character moves a bit slowly, especially for all the walking parts.

Also, that last jump is nasty.

Milunar by WITS 2012-04-23T18:55:00

I keep saying these games are clever. Well, this one is too. I'm too impatient to wait for a clear shot, so I'm sure my high score is easy to beat.

Triskelion by 23 2012-04-23T23:07:00

Runs file for me in Chrome (Windows 7 x64, if it matters).

The planets are a bit of a challenge, as is trying not to run out of fuel.

Poor Pluto's Revenge by DavidErosa 2012-04-23T23:33:00

I like the way you collect the enemies' bullets for your own ammunition. Very clever.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the controls aren't as responsive as I'd like.

Burger Defender by Beerman 2012-04-27T03:24:00

The different weapon implementations were nice, even though it felt really tough to aim. And the aiming was partially because it was tied directly to the way you were facing, which was tricky to control because the character feels like it doesn't have much friction on it. (It doesn't feel like you're running around on a table, it feels like you're flying the ship from asteroids.)

Oddly, I was expecting to defend the burger on the picnic table from the ants instead...

Genesis by TyrusPeace 2012-05-09T23:14:00

Love the graphics.

Quaternion Nightmare by Dry Tree 2012-04-23T21:00:00

Interesting. I found it a little hard to escape from the enemies once they caught up to me.

Inside My Radio by TurboDindon 2012-05-04T14:29:00

Awesome, and very polished. I'm rubbish at keeping the rhythm, of course, but even so I didn't care.

I did get an error after I quit the game (something about not being able to write to a surface).

48 hour MMO by mikolalysenko 2012-04-23T20:05:00

An MOO in 48 hours? I never would have believed it possible.

Though, the grass texture pattern assaults the eyes, which increased the difficulty of clicking on stuff.

Globe by gavin5564 2012-04-24T04:27:00

Love the concept and the style, but found the gameplay a little frustrating (Partially because the collision detection seems a bit off).

Predominantly Tiny World by Graham Weldon 2012-04-24T13:54:00

I got 408. There were so many UFOs!

I'll echo some of the above commentators on the slow speed and hard-to-find enemies detracting from the experience, but the core idea is solid.

Mirror Rays by keenblaze 2012-04-23T18:32:00

I didn't have any unusual problems figuring it out (unusual for a puzzle game, I mean). I was never really stuck. But this visual/spatial thinking is kind of up my alley. Either way, very clever mechanic & implementation.

Tiny Shooter by Strkl 2012-04-27T03:03:00

Bullets everywhere! Yeah, the movement controls were a bit tricky. And it felt like the little guys should really spread out a bit more. But I did like the add-more-guys-at-each-stage concept, even if it wasn't really balanced.

Save the World by Derek 2012-05-09T17:55:00

Maneuvering the world while defending it is a very tricky balancing act. I love the idea, even if I never last more than a minute or so.

All That Are Lost Will Be Found by R3ason 2012-04-27T03:39:00

I like how agile the character is: able to run up walls, etc. And those monsters are seriously creepy in the dark, illuminated only by light flashes.

Man is the game dark, though. Really hard time finding my way around.

Interested enough to go play the non-comp version...

Tiny Defender by KunoNoOni 2012-04-24T03:08:00

Nice shooter, but there are more levels than there is variety. Still, solid, responsive controls, which is more than I can say for some games.

caveman defending his cave from aliens while monoliths drop down from the sky by bms 2012-04-23T20:01:00

Fun. Funny.

I tend to lose when the next monolith is really far from my cave.

TinyQuest by Zesh26 2012-04-28T13:15:00

Yeah, on my machine it runs so fast, the jumps are almost instant. You may want to look up how to do a game loop that takes the same amount of time to run no matter how fast the computer is running.

A Tiny New World by Gameko 2012-04-23T20:27:00

Not much to interact with, but you knew that already.

Works fine on Windows (It's a Java .jar, for those wondering).

Minikin by tummyache 2012-04-23T22:40:00

Felt like Knytt crossed with Castlevania (good things, both).

Dr. Biology's Educational Game by Draknek 2012-04-23T18:42:00

I actually like how the one multipush level requires you to discover the mechanic to advance, though I mostly discovered it by accident, so that's a bit of a wash. And restarting the whole thing after one wrong move did get a little old, but that's obvious.

Biology!

The Battle Of Tiny Earth by Pixel Shield 2012-04-28T13:02:00

I got it to run in Windows 7 x64, but slowly. Running in XP-Compatibility mode seemed a little faster, but the cursor still moved oddly.

My defenses seemed completely ineffective, without much feedback as to why.

I liked the graphics.

Spaceship Planet Merge by codeapparat 2012-04-24T14:07:00

I think the running around on the planet speeds are a little slow, but I did manage to blow all of the little guys into space.

Tinyvilization by Lythom 2012-04-23T21:52:00

Very clever strategy/puzzle mechanic, I enjoyed figuring this out. Beating level 10 was hard!

subAtomic by MurrayL 2012-05-05T15:57:00

Tiny Albert Einstein!

Tiny World Hero by ddr2 2012-04-28T13:06:00

I'm not sure your interface is working. The only button that seems to do anything for me are 'A' 'Z' 'U' and 'I'.

Petri by @Micle2000 2012-05-09T17:33:00

I'm not sure if my controls are actually doing anything. You weren't kidding about the psychedelic part.

Tiny Archaeologist by toaster 2012-04-25T17:08:00

Huh. I was not expecting the second twist. I *was* anticipating the first twist...something had to happen when you got the idol. I was expecting more spike traps and skeletons come to life, though. This was more sophisticated, if a bit light on the interaction.

I do like the idea of platforming down to learn the space and then platforming up to escape it.

tiny World Defence by _ferritt 2012-05-09T18:15:00

The controls are a bit weird, which made it hard to fly and aim. And my score kept going down for some reason that I couldn't see.

Kupow by DSidhion 2012-04-23T20:55:00

Very clever mechanic. Surprisingly tricky to work out the best way to edit the level ;)

Expand Explore Expatiate by KevinZuhn 2012-04-24T14:47:00

Clever puzzles. I loved the surprise of the transition to the big, stompy robot.

The Last Colony by Wyzfen 2012-04-23T22:43:00

Agree with some of the things above (need more turrets! and upgrades!) but you've got a very promising start, here.

Controlling by aeveis 2012-04-24T03:25:00

I like the way the mechanics and the message reinforce each other. And I always like puzzles that force you to reevaluate your understanding of a limited ruleset.

Pogo Planet by ExciteMike 2012-04-27T15:53:00

This is pretty awesome. At first it seemed really straightforward, and then the invisible/missing sections showed up, and the UFOs, and it became a lot more challenging.

I think there were a couple of times I managed to bounce off the 'missing' sections (on the face, not the sides). I think what happened was that I went through the first one and bounced off the second one.

Rockland by Jeroenimoo0 2012-04-23T20:48:00

Works for me (Windows 7). The birds taking away the resource you are collecting is clever.

I'd like a way to skip the intro text, though!

Rat Conquest by Canard Sauvage 2012-04-23T22:58:00

Yeah, I found the starting speed a little slow, too. I couldn't dodge bullets or eat enough to advance.

If there's anything I've learned today, it's to err on the side of speed (I think my game is a touch too slow too).

LD26 — Minimalism

Schrodinger by myachin 2013-05-16T13:26:00

This is awesome.

TOWLDR by Hamumu 2013-04-29T03:50:00

This is hilarious. Annoying, as I try to figure it out, but hilarious. I'm stuck on level 3.

Minimal Conquest by manax 2013-05-13T23:08:00

Switching between mouse and keyboard is kind of annoying, but you knew that already. And the problem with the sounds isn't so much the volume but the repetitiveness.

I like the general idea of the game, though it's really hard to win.

Car Lancers by jwolf 2013-04-30T05:52:00

I, too, was unable to properly judge the fun. Playing by myself, the controls felt a bit twitchy. Hilarious setup that I can see developing into something fun. It's all about anticipating that clash.

What about adding some additional cues so that the players have a better idea how closely they're lined up when still offscreen? Some kind of hint line or arrow or something to suggest vertical positioning, maybe...

GRAViTRON by grimpunch 2013-05-17T02:55:00

Clever. Like the audio.

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-29T13:26:00

It does get off to a bit of a slow start. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too hard to begin with, but the first few levels may be too easy if you quickly get the hang of it. I generally find that it really starts picking up around level 5.

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-29T16:25:00

Yeah, at the top of the list of features that should probably be added is a game over screen. I'll probably make a post-compo version with that tweak.

I was concerned that the shield was overpowered, especially early on, so I tried to balance it out by putting each successive shield further apart. If you pick one up early, you might not be able to find one later when you really need it.

The stopping-at-the-edge thing seems to be a browser-behavior issue, since the desktop version doesn't do that. I may try to edit the raw javascript to change it at some point...

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-29T23:00:00

For those of you who have played and rated the game already, I've posted that start of some post-Ludum-Dare changes based on the feedback I've gotten. Shields are harder to get, the difficulty curve has been tweaked, and there's an actual game over screen so you can see your score!

http://isaackarth.com/games/minimalism/current.html

If you haven't rated the game yet, play the compo version first.

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-29T23:01:00

<a href="http://isaackarth.com/games/minimalism/current.html">Post-Compo-Version</a>

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-29T23:39:00

Eh, you get the picture.

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-04-30T05:45:00

If I could compose the music I would have added it. But, then again, it's a little more minimalistic without.

That said, I already have some music picked out if decide to add some to a future version...it's by a minimalist composer, of course.

Nothing Left by Gremlin 2013-05-01T20:44:00

Whoops! The fonts weren't automatically included. I should have expected that. The Desktop versions should work now, though they still don't have sound. Unfortunately, so far I've only been able to test the Windows version. (OSX: Please read both the readme files!)

Moonshine by TravisChen 2013-05-13T17:46:00

The controls took a little getting used to with the keyboard, but otherwise a really polished little game. I like the narration.

Perfection Achieved by Misael.K 2013-04-30T06:06:00

Great minds think alike.

It's a hidden object game, sort of, but it's a clever twist on hidden object games. It's a Surrealist art piece, except that you're removing the surrealism...

Oh, and I beat the last level on the first try without knowing the poem. I think it's to do with the structure of poetry, but it made me feel clever.

Bridge Crosser by Elemental Zeal Games Studios 2013-05-17T04:08:00

Man, that chicken is hard to control.

Mime Over Matter by AlexFili 2013-05-04T14:35:00

A nice little artillery game. Solid physics, though there were a couple of times a box took a moment to settle.

The music gets a little repetitive after a while.

It would be nice to have a reset button for when you totally muff the first three shots and have no hope of beating the level. Is that what Recall is supposed to do? It didn't seem to do anything for me.

PONK by Sos 2013-04-29T23:49:00

Awesome idea. I'm going to try this after I get back home.

PONK by Sos 2013-04-30T13:56:00

The ball moves faster than the paddles can react, at least on an emulator. But its a working C64 game in 48 hours!

Orb by Grouflon 2013-04-30T22:48:00

Love the sound and graphics.

This is a hard game--you don't seem to get lives back and it's easy to lose a ball if you try to treat it like Breakout because the circular orbit means that it's much easier for the ball to get away from you.

Did I mention how much I love the music and graphics? The ending of the levels is awesome.

Phase Shft by nickusername1 2013-05-04T16:28:00

Really clever idea, you could probably do quite a few more levels with it. I like the double-jumping, though the jumping in general feels a bit floaty.

Night Story... by LemonTree 2013-05-17T02:39:00

It'd be nice if you could restart without using the mouse.

The music is a little...aggressive; it feels intense the whole time. I'd like it better if there was a wider range of intensity.

I like the art style and the way the level pops in and out around you. And the little squashes and flips in the animation.

Labyrinthine Tower of Misery and Flashing Colors by BipoleMoment 2013-04-30T05:42:00

A little easy to get stuck if you're across two colors when the switch happens (mostly happened to me around the letters).

I like the color switching mechanic. A little harsh on the eyes, admittedly. (And the audio drone gets a bit annoying.)

Takes too much patience for me to personally like most of the puzzles, but there are some proper brain-twisting bits in there too.

If you want to make changes, you don't need quite as many rooms where the only thing you really need to do to get through is to brute-force it by waiting through the entire cycle.

If you're going to have lots of rooms that are relatively straightforward, maybe make it about finding a faster route than brute forcing it? Maybe a few rooms where if you hit the timing just right you can get through a lot quicker. You don't need to punish the player if they go the long way (the delay is punishment enough) but some rooms where the right approach means you just sail through would be a nice change of pace.

Labyrinthine Tower of Misery and Flashing Colors by BipoleMoment 2013-04-30T05:42:00

Oh, and I like the title and the text in the game.

The Parasite by jahlgren 2013-04-30T06:12:00

Love the feel of the controls.

Really hard, but in a fair way. I didn't feel frustrated by the system, I felt like I'd lost the game. That's the sign of a well designed feedback loop.

(Follow the) Line by Chman 2013-04-29T14:53:00

Love the slick minimalism of the graphical style. This is a clever use of one-button input.

Millisecond timing is clearly an important part of this...if you haven't already you might want to look at ways to reduce latency in the input loop. Are you polling or using event driven input? Checking for the key down or the key up?

Permanent Destination by NegativeZero 2013-05-14T06:14:00

Can't play it because the Jar won't run. :(

One Word RPG by Clavus 2013-05-04T14:57:00

What did you use to build it? The controls are solid and I like the smooth way the screen scrolls. Hitting the zombies was a little fiddly, but otherwise a very solid example of what it is.

I like your original idea, but props for shipping something!

Golden Age by LandoSystems 2013-04-30T05:15:00

Potato.

I like the progression between the games. The Breakout part was a little twitchy for my slow reflexes, so it got a little frustratingly long. The others were good (though maybe not perfect) feel.

Golden Age by LandoSystems 2013-04-30T05:15:00

Oh, and I like the sound.

Linewalker by jcmoyer 2013-04-29T04:01:00

Some clever puzzles. It starts out looking like it's just going to be confusing but then it starts revealing glimpses of a deeper system. So far I've found one of the ends.

Snake In A Cube by OU GDA 2013-04-30T05:07:00

My brain hurts.

Lots of people have done dimension-switching puzzle games, but you've managed to find a way that I haven't seen before.

It's really, really hard to tell where the snake and cubes are in the 3D space, but I imagine with some practice it get slightly easier.

I like the sounds and music.

The Epic Journey of the Narcoleptic Cyber Kitten: Floppy Disk Deluxe by theRestlessTaxidermists 2013-04-30T21:35:00

Hah. The puzzles definitely get trickier as you go up levels. The controls are a little fiddly for being so expensive to use, but after level 2 that doesn't matter so much.

Tiny Runner by Jarcas Studios 2013-04-29T14:31:00

Tiny little Unity camera! Chrome resizes it just fine though, so I zoomed in to make the pixels a bit more readable on my 1080p display.

It's the times where I have to switch colors twice while sliding under a wall that tend to end my runs.

Part of me wishes that I could see two barriers ahead instead of just the current and the first upcoming one, so I could anticipate what's coming next and get into even more trouble as I over-anticipated and switched too soon. Kind of works against the minimalistic purity of one focus, though.

The timing between the barriers is about perfect, but I'd also almost want them to be more spaced out but everything moves faster, to get a better sense of speed. That would probably work against my sucky reflexes, though.

Pity it doesn't have audio.

The Sentient Cube by Omiya Games 2013-05-14T05:40:00

The physics get a little crazy as the mass of stuff gets bigger, with the air-jumping being kind of out of control as some people have mentioned.

But it's a clever use of the idea and there were some nice twists to each level.

The Sentient Cube by Omiya Games 2013-05-14T05:41:00

Oh, and I love rolling up the credits.

Minimal Win *Proof of Concept* by Cognizant Game Studios 2013-04-30T05:19:00

What are the controls?

Minimal Win *Proof of Concept* by Cognizant Game Studios 2013-04-30T05:22:00

The controls are WASD and Space, of course. Really could use better platforming physics, but you already knew that. ;)

Really good job on the lighting effects.

Omega by shohs 2013-05-04T15:17:00

The music is pretty awesome. I clicked before I tried the arrow keys. With that and the sound effects, I thought the grapple was a ball-and-chain and the hero was a prisoner who I'd have to propel around using just the chain pull him places.

The jumping physics aren't quite as nice as the grappling physics. Since you stop when you hit something from the side, standing too close to a wall makes it hard to jump over the wall. Fixing the feel of the running and jumping would probably do a lot to lessen some of the inherent frustration of platforming.

Erase by iterative deepening 2013-05-17T04:11:00

Clever puzzles.

The jump feels a bit awkward.

Mimisi (Minimalistic minimalism simulation) by Aron 2013-04-30T14:35:00

I ran the Jar.

Finding the balance to keep the little guys alive is really tricky. They keep starving...I think I tend to overbuild too quickly and then not have enough workers.

Other than that, it's a fun little city builder.

I Dream of a Beam by ocmu 2013-05-04T15:01:00

I like the music. And the combo scoring system.

I played the Windows Jar file.

NinjaFlare by 8BitPimp 2013-05-13T18:36:00

Love the look. I had trouble getting the hang of jumping until I realized that I didn't need to run at full tilt all of the time.

Still, some of the jumps I missed felt a bit arbitrary and I can't help but wonder if the game would be stronger if there was always something to land on, so that missing a jump was just a delay rather than instadeath. Make it easier to keep the flow going and stay in the groove. (And it did seem like you could only press one of the buttons at a time.)

Also, there wasn't really a way to tell how well I was doing, since there isn't a score or much indication of distance or how many warriors you've passed, so I played for a while and then stopped after what felt like a fairly long run.

Potato Yoga by magnpeas 2013-04-30T15:32:00

Potato.

Props for using Scratch.

I really, really overthought the first question.

It's mostly a guessing game, but the pictures are clever.

BlindSight by silentspartan72 2013-04-30T05:56:00

Who knew that a 2D game could be so creepy?

PHILIP KLAS by neight 2013-05-01T01:04:00

Potato.

This is hilarious.

Time to Spudstep: 1:14
Distance Conducted: 1703
Lost Inspiration: 30

Telekinetic Minimalist Cult 5: Packrat Nightmare by RobotLovesKitty 2013-04-29T23:47:00

This is hilarious.

Garm by Lizzip 2013-05-04T14:52:00

Interesting. It seems like you were going for a survival or horror/suspense feel?

I didn't feel like I had too much control over planning my survival--my survival depended more on my ability to keep running. It's skill in execution rather than skill in strategy. I could see that part getting pushed a little further. If the running around was fine-tuned some more it could be a bleak little survival horror game.

The enemy/scary threat in the darkness is a little too arbitrary to be really scary. There are probably a bunch of different ways to help with that...maybe have the time-stealing happen after a moment, so the player has a split second to get further away? Probably lots of ways to do it.

Old Man Looks For Flower Seeds In His Pocket - Plants a Flower - Then Leaves by hejfax 2013-05-14T06:17:00

Huh. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Kind of meditative.

Title: Subtitle by Liz England 2013-05-16T14:09:00

Clever. I do feel the jumping could be a little more solid, but the controls were pretty good, just not quite as precise as I would have preferred.

Ping by Cybearg 2013-04-30T05:01:00

I can't seem to get the original ROM to run. The second version works in the emulator without a problem, but the first seems to have issues (just shows up as random purple lines). I'm on Windows running the Stella emulator, though the Java one gives me the same issues.

Solace by kazukishida 2013-04-30T15:38:00

Nice.

I'd have liked it to be a little longer, or to have a little more to explore, but the concept is solid. The soundscape is very effective in conveying a sense of place...if you do more with it, you could easily have the player walk through a whole host of environments entirely defined by their sounds and little suggested glimpses of geometry.

Pongless by Otoris 2013-04-30T04:36:00

The AI is way better at this than I am.

The rotation doesn't feel smooth, which makes it a bit hard to aim precisely (are you using float or int for the rotation?). Also, the force push feels a little short.

I really liked the sounds. Glad to see more people learning Unity.

Uber Tic Tac Toe by chume 2013-04-30T04:30:00

I don't have matlab, but kudos for making a game in it. Are there any Matlab development communities you could tell about this game? I'd love for you to find an audience.

Mobius by 3beards 2013-05-16T13:50:00

The level where the exit is behind you is fiendishly hard.

Touch Blocks, Avoid Spikes by ecbambrick 2013-04-29T04:09:00

I really like the graphical style.

Subtract by SlamBlasta 2013-05-04T15:07:00

I like the idea, though I had trouble figuring out how I might be able to score higher. Maybe some kind of feedback loop other than the score would help?

The color palettes are really lovely minimalist pastel selections.

My high score was -18866436.

Hurdles by dreamlogician 2013-04-30T22:56:00

Are the runners supposed to sometimes get stuck on hurdles of their color or lower? That seems to happen sometimes.

I really like the idea of the game, and the way you have to spread you attention all over the place. I never really felt like I was going to lose all of the runners (since I could just click to get another one) but I did feel concerned about individual runners.

My high score is 224.

PRISMA by Dark Acre Jack 2013-04-29T23:29:00

This is awesome.

I wish I could run around the levels faster, but that's a nitpick and would interfere with the puzzles.

Without Light by Cidolfas 2013-04-30T06:08:00

Any specific feedback you're looking for?

Moiety by aDFP 2013-04-29T15:00:00

Very atmospheric. You could probably extend this to a longer experience...there was one point I thought one of the rocks was going to turn into an enemy, which would have been cool.

The guidance towards the end is subtle, but I think it's there.

Love the graphical look. The grayscale reflections in the water was a really nice touch.

The Void by Frib 2013-05-04T16:23:00

Creepy as all get out. Excellent use of everything.

"This part look like it's going to be easy...I guess I was wrong." Ha!

DudeJump by agnulf 2013-04-30T04:25:00

Things I didn't like: Really, really needs checkpoints (unless you make the whole game way easier). The controls are a bit floaty and imprecise, which makes the platforming more difficult. The switches can be switched on from the side, which makes the game easier.

The timing on the jumps and switches was tight enough that I personally had trouble completing them.

I did like the music and the graphics, and I expect that many of the problems that you've got here are because you only had 6 hours. If you keep working on this, I hope this feedback helps.

DudeJump by agnulf 2013-04-30T04:29:00

If you haven't read it before, Steve Swink has some useful stuff about making controls feel right:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130734/game_feel_the_secret_ingredient.php
Might help you nail down the feel of those jumps.

Lone Blade by Floko 2013-05-13T18:44:00

Love the mechanic, especially the way the later enemies develop more complications. It seems so simple at first, but the tension rises with each opponent.

It is a little bit trial-and-error, but I think it's worth it overall, since once you know the patterns you still have the patient difficulty of executing at the precise moment of weakness.

, by OnionBlaze 2013-04-27T17:31:00

What are the controls?

, by OnionBlaze 2013-04-27T22:58:00

Well, I figured out the controls, though it took me a few minutes. Which is a bit odd, because you basically spelled them out right there on the screen. It's interesting how you can make something so obvious (the comma to start the game) that players didn't realize it (or at least I didn't at first). Figuring out that A and Q did something different from the arrow key took me a little while too.

Not sure if I'm being particularly dense today, or its something about the interface.

Also, my highscore was 3.

, by OnionBlaze 2013-04-29T02:20:00

Not going to review the game yet, but the navigation on your website is awesome.

, by OnionBlaze 2013-04-29T04:08:00

I really like how mimetic the AQ keys are here. The way the player's actions outside the game mirrors the response in the game does a lot of the game's feel.
There's no way I'm going to be able to get by two 80-ish challenges in a row, though. My current high score is 8.

Gardener in Minimalism Spring by tcstyle 2013-04-30T21:24:00

A relaxing gardening/puzzle game.

The tricky bit is figuring out when it switches between each plant type. After that the puzzle becomes how to cram everything in the tight space.

Felt like there was a little bit of a delay after I clicked.

Gardener in Minimalism Spring by tcstyle 2013-04-30T22:39:00

I'd like to see more levels with a different seedling pattern. Of course, you'd probably want to have more hints as to what the pattern is in that case.

Dark City by kryger 2013-05-14T06:10:00

Had trouble running it in Chrome for some reason. (It claimed Unity webplayer wasn't installed.) Works fine in Firefox.

Not particularly fond of the movement: it's slow, but that doesn't make it much easier to dodge the oncoming buildings. If you make any improvements, try tightening up the feel and giving the player a sense of inertia. You can probably have the player go much faster and have the game be easier/more fun to control.

Like the background sound, though the shooting sound gets a little repetitive.

Are the levels prebuilt or procedurally generated?

Drug Hunt by kill0u 2013-05-17T04:13:00

OK, that's...trippy.

Robo-Sheriff: Minimalising Crime by spiral 2013-05-16T14:14:00

Wasn't really fond of the way the character controlled. Made it much harder than it needed to be and felt less fun than it could. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to check out the book "Game Feel". It'll help you get solid-feeling controls with less trial-and-error.

I do like the scanline effect.

Squares by KunoNoOni 2013-04-29T23:34:00

I like it. Very minimal, but as it speeds up you have to think ahead and figure out where you need to be to survive the longest.

If I was going to make any change, I'd tweak the movement speed and especially the inertia. Right now there isn't much weight and it starts and stops kind of abruptly. Smoothing that out would make the game feel better (though it would probably make the game a tad bit easier).

Z by bms 2013-04-29T14:44:00

Minimalistic dimensional shifting! Yay!

Very short, but good proof of concept. If you extend it with some really brain-bending puzzles, it could be a lot of fun.
(I'm thinking something along the lines of Miegakure, Fez, Faultline, and some of Increpare's more twisted dimensional-shifting puzzles. There's probably a couple more examples I'm forgetting.) The key, I think, will be putting your unique spin on the puzzle design.

Works fine for me on Chrome.

I managed to figure out how to drop out of the level, by turning around and going back the way I came.

CHUCK by brodavi 2013-05-17T04:16:00

I won! Wait...ok. Took me a minute to work out the way the game played. I guess I'd compare it to an arena brawler, sort of? It's an interesting variation, in that you're giving away your hit points to the other players...

Spellflinger by bigbadwofl 2013-05-14T05:51:00

This is pretty awesome. I don't survive long after the difficulty jump, but 16000 or so isn't too bad, I guess. I really like the way the powerups you find are different each time.

I did figure out that the teleport can embed you in the left wall.

Cubic by DalsGames 2013-05-04T15:29:00

A minimalistic approach to an endless runner. Good music.

I almost want a little more visual feedback when the block moves, like a simple animation or something...though it'd have to be purely visual so that it wouldn't affect the tight gameplay.

When it said rotation, I thought the screen might start smoothly rotating around 360 degrees. Something like Super Hexagon, maybe.

Line Surfer by FrozenCow 2013-04-30T23:04:00

I really like the sensation of speed. I wasn't too sure what was going on in the second half, especially when the ball started falling straight down and it took me a while to catch it. Time: 71 Score: 21

LD27 — 10 Seconds

Swarm by spacechase0 2013-08-26T03:05:00

Frenetic shooter. I would have liked to have something in the background, because right now there is no way to tell that you're moving unless you get near the edge of the arena.

Chrono Switch by dlan 2013-08-29T19:50:00

Like the idea. Wish the characters were a bit more robust so that I felt like I could make more progress, particularly with the skeleton. The controls weren't quite as solid as they could be, the feel was a bit off.

Clockwork Cat by patrickgh3 2013-09-01T02:24:00

Very nice. It's *hard* to design a core gameplay loop that fits in exactly ten seconds, and you've done a very good job of pulling it off.

Clocked In by rylgh 2013-08-27T22:12:00

I liked it. Not too many games that ask you to go clockwise instead of a straight line.

Barrage Trigger by PaulSB 2013-08-26T03:35:00

The hiding places as resources are a good mechanic. It feels like the if the game was just a bit tighter they would matter more.

10 Seconds to Save the World by HacksawUnit 2013-08-26T20:47:00

Man, that's some really, really unforgiving jumping. It looks straightforward right up until you run out of time. And then you start realizing the insane moves you have to make...

Extreme Trauma Surgeon by Blooperly 2013-08-26T23:49:00

It'd be nice if the cutscene was skippable, for situations like when you play it again.

One Hundred in One by acro 2013-08-29T19:55:00

This is pretty awesome. A good use of the theme, and it can't have been that easy to implement so many minigames.

Sacrebleu! by Liz England 2013-08-29T20:00:00

Best use of theme. Ever.

Fireworks by Schulles 2013-08-27T11:51:00

The shop-text display speed is a little slow. It gets really hard in the later levels. Good use of the theme.

Black & White & Time by NachoDA 2013-08-27T22:06:00

It's tricky trying to anticipate what will happen next, but I guess that's the challenge. I would like to have a bit freer camera so I could get a closer look at the far edges of the map when something important is going to happen there.

10 Seconds Before the World Ends by Lustdante 2013-08-26T20:55:00

Clever use of time.

Astenroids by GuillaumeGwi 2013-08-27T17:13:00

I managed to get up to 530 points. Very clever time-travel mechanics.

Ten Seconds by motty 2013-08-27T11:27:00

That's hard. And confusing. But it's definitely a game.

QuickHunt by MvdLaar 2013-08-27T22:17:00

Love the art style.

Deep by tamy 2013-08-27T03:44:00

Inception gameplay!

The controls are a bit floaty, but mad props for the idea, weirdness and all.

Last Words to your Loved Ones by syradinegames 2013-08-26T03:20:00

Love the idea. The interface is a bit clunky (having to switch to the mouse to send the message is annoying).

Bob Won't Be Late by TeamBob 2013-08-27T17:46:00

The time limit and the floaty controls make for a really hard game. I love the art style, though.

Anti-Grav Drive by bnhw 2013-08-27T17:46:00

Nice use of a 1-button interface.

laGrengine by fdevant 2013-08-27T17:46:00

Tricky, though I eventually won. Huge positive feedback loop. Very sensitive to initial conditions.

Distress Signal by Kohijin 2013-08-27T03:38:00

The ten second delay is a bit annoying. I do like the idea and the way the transmitted images look.

Every Ten Seconds A Kitten Drowns by matthias_zarzecki 2013-08-26T21:00:00

Good use of randomly generated names. For the boats and the cats!

It's a bit dark, at least on my screen.

I had a cat generated right on top of a landmine. Poor Nermal didn't make it.

Yin: A Game About Happiness by Sanguine 2013-08-27T17:46:00

This is a very happy game. :)

I'd like the to be a bit more depth to it (there's not much penalty for not making Yin happy, and the reward is that...Yin is happy) but I'm not sure how much that matters in the end. This is a game about happiness, not competition or challenge.

10 Sec Hero by StabAlarash 2013-08-26T23:59:00

It only need a little bit of polish on the inputs (and sounds!) to have it be a solid little game.

The 10-second limit is perfect for having time as a resource. I think you should keep it.

The Thief by N0_Named_Guy 2013-08-29T19:27:00

I like the use of the 10-second escape, escape is underused in stealth games. It's not always obvious where the guards will spot you. The controls are solid, which is a lot harder to do than you'd think, so good job!

Jet Racing by lulzfish_4 2013-08-27T17:46:00

I got up to 13 laps. I like the ghost mechanic. The colors are a bit dark.

Time Wizard by zzForrest 2013-08-27T17:46:00

The time-warp puzzles are clever. The controls are a bit floaty, though. I think if the handling was just a bit more solid, the game would feel better.

WindBuilder by Per 2013-08-29T19:46:00

I think this is a really cool idea for an arcade game. The balance is a little wonky--it's hard to tell what helps or hurts maneuverability--making the game challenging. That doesn't hurt the game much, since its about that challenge, but it does mean the game doesn't have room to be about anything else.

The adding screen doesn't give you a lot of time, I think I'd prefer it if the game paused until you chose. Also, I'd like to be able to put multiple modules on a single key, and it didn't seem like that was possible, though I might have missed something.

T-Minus by Keevor 2013-08-26T03:11:00

With a bit more polish could be an interesting puzzler. I'd like to see the controls feel more solid: the robot just crawls along. The game could be faster without sacrificing any of the potential fun (though you'd have to rebalance, of course).