El Canyonero by TimBeaudet 2021-04-27T02:23:48Z
I couldn't steer well enough to avoid literally any walls, but the engine noises kept me going.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Harrison Dunn
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | XORN | extra | ||||||||||
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Incomplete Horse Nonsense | jam | 1435 | 2.84 | 3.00 | 2.68 | 3.54 | 2.25 | 3.06 | 3.70 | 2.85 | |
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | One More Lap! | jam | 927 | 3.50 | 3.38 | 2.86 | 2.83 | 3.26 | 3.94 | 3.49 |
I couldn't steer well enough to avoid literally any walls, but the engine noises kept me going.
Ok, that's the first 5 i've given out for fun. Things quickly got out of hand and I was just holding down the dynamite button and obliterating the level. Very satisfying. Movement felt a little unintuitive at first, but as soon as you unlock the laser, it makes sense so you can move and fire at the same time. Well done.
I didn't know I needed metal meerkats in my life until today. Fun use of the theme. The controls felt a tiny sluggish, but that didn't stop me from rocking out. Nice project team!
I'll get the bad out of the way first - this wasn't fun for me. And the player repeating the dialogue choices made it drag a bit. However, everything else is phenomenal. The mood. the presentation. the audio. damn, this was a cool game. For a weekend build, this is incredible and you all should be proud. I would definitely be interested in seeing where this goes if you decide to continue development. Good job!
I'm not sure why I lost or the game restarted, but it's a cool concept. The randomizing roots are a neat idea, but in practice, they're more frustrating because they're so small and change so quickly. Thanks for making this! Cool project :)
Others mentioned - yeah, start is too slow. Also, I'm not sure if this was a bug, but I couldn't tell where or what the pickups were. Everything just appeared as black shapes on the seafloor. WebGL build. Bug? I like the loop of diving, upgrading, and diving deeper, but this was just a little too slow with not quite enough stuffs. Thanks for making this!
I beat it on the first go. Though the last level was so dark I don't know what I killed to trigger the end. I had 48 coins. The ending theme song felt abrupt and out of place compared to the rest of the game's tone. However, I really enjoyed the song. Thanks for making this!
I got a high score!! 2hp and 6 gems. That's good, right??
As an uncle, this game really resonated with me. Dev is right - controls are bonkers not great, but it almost contributed to the whimsical experience.
I found myself always using the booster because the bouncing was too erratic otherwise. This resulted in a few 'breakthroughs' into open caves that launched me super fast and made me laugh.
@good-enough wait... the face changed, right? To a realistic photo? Or was I just imagining that?
@good-enough i didn't recognize it. but ive only seen the first season and very long ago. Sorry!
This is quality jank. I love it. The music is on theme and just mellow enough to not be distracting while still being relevant. And the timed shot mechanic is great! The full scene transition when getting hit by an enemy felt a little too much. Could that be sped up? Overall, this felt great. Good job!
I played this game as I would in real life... Just sit on facebook for 3 minutes. Any job that will fire me for the difference in 3 minutes of work is not a place I want to work at anyway :P
Great job on this. Clean graphics, unique premise. I like it!
I... uh. Well, you made a game. Did it make me chuckle? Definitely. Was it good? It was a jam game. I'm glad you finished your game. The controls were a little frustrating, but I really liked the idea of racing against a large number of AI opponents.
This is a pretty neat idea. It gave me sort of a Rampage vibe. The controls need a little work for sure. And I'm not sure how much game there is. I went through three worlds and then the little arrows disappeared and I kinda just got lost in space. I couldn't tell if the other worms were "my team" or working against me.
This is a super clever idea. It got me thinking really hard early in the morning, so thanks for that, jerk :up:
Great job on this. I couldn't find volume control or mute though and the audio was really loud.
The controls on this didn't make sense and seemed unresponsive. I'm not sure what I was supposed to be doing other than "going deeper" because of the jam theme. I got caught on edges and stuck with sharks a lot and ended up dying quickly. The presentation was nice and clean though which is always appreciated. Well done!
Welp, I just found my favorite game of the jam so far. That last level was challenging! I really appreciated limiting piece types to force creative solutions. Very awesome.
Weirdly, this is the second "moles in love" game I have played today... did you collab with @voidfishing?
I've never seen anything like this before! Nice!
The core concept here is really cool. Rotating pieces used to solve puzzles based on the 'key' configuration. There's lots of opportunities to explore stuff and I think your level design did a good job of introducing a concept and expanding upon it. There was a slight amount of tedium that could be a problem with longer puzzles though. Indicating which color axis you needed for a given puzzle was good, but it was a 50/50 shot if you picked the right one. This means some of the puzzles had multiple answers that looked correct but the player couldn't tell which one was true. I don't know if 4 colors would work for this? And a little UI key to tell you which key is which color?
Art was clean and the audio added to the experience. Nice job team!
This is amazing. This is a perfect jam game. Simple concept, smooth implementation, and a tiny bit of polish. I love this. Great job :)
Spectacular. The art direction is standout. But that track is also amazing. When I saw the landing page and noticed the bunny had concrete feet I busted out laughing. Well done, team! I was able to 'win' with 216 points. Controls felt a little wonky with the small hop/slow down when you change direction, but I got used to it after a bit. I think my favorite bit was the horn SFX on fail and at the start.
This feels awesome and clever. It doesn't have a strong tie to the theme, but it's a strong game. Nice job. It feels really fleshed out, too. I'd love to see what you'd do if you ran this further with more building types, terrains, etc. Great job!
I had no idea what I was doing, but it looked super cool. I don't think I click with this style of game, but I'm glad I tried it out. This looks like a lot of work for a weekend, but more guidance in the beginning would have helped me break the ice and figure out what I'm doing. Cool game :)
Wow, this was a really cool take on the box pushing puzzle game. Sokoban? My gamer brain has been trained to be terrified of walls and corners in these games but this turns them into tools. Well done. Nice music and art, too. I have to say I was a little stressed out by the step timer and enemies, but that's probably just not my style.
Charming! The audio and graphics carry this far beyond what the gameplay offers and turns an otherwise simple premise into a experience worth having. Well done!
I would tweak the controls to have WASD match the world up, left, down, right so players don't have to hold two keys to move in the cardinal world directions.
Default audio on the SFX was really loud compared to the music. I saw you could change it from the start menu but not in game. The controls were a bit floaty, which is fine, but combined with the loose camera follow, I ended up crashing a lot when going upwards. All of my crashes were from that. The pickup animation feels way too long, too, especially because it locks your movement. The ambient noise and sonar pings were neat. Thanks for making this!
I'm not sure I can say much that hasn't been said already, but well done. This is a really unique take on the theme. I didn't finish the story because I didn't want to go to a bit link that said it was discord, but still a really cool experience. Thanks for making this. Execution was clean and the audio was super well done. Not too intrusive.
This is a wonderful concept. I love it. However, after I realized that bombs don't have numbers on them, it took a little of the mystery out of it. Also, the controls flipping back to dig after disarming killed me twice. That didn't feel great. Good job. Fun game.
This is a fantastic take on the theme. I love the scribbly art style. It fits really well with the music. This could have used a mute/volume control because it was a bit loud, but otherwise this is great. Well done! One question - what does the Anvil powerup actually do? It says allows you to "fall" downwards? How is that different than going through a hole normally?
This was a blast to try out. The perfect little thing for a jam. A full game like this might be too gimmicky, but this was the right length. I knew I was enjoying myself when I spouse shouted up the stairs "WHAT are you DOING?" as I was whistling and calling the dog repeatedly.
The momentum felt a little too strong on the movement. If you shot off too strongly in one direction, it was difficult to course correct except to let the momentum die first.
I felt clever when I figured out I could just tap the mic, but that wasn't as fun. Nice job on this game.
Well this is short and sweet. I liked what little there was of it. Those lil mole feet got me good. I wish there had been a little more!
I could not figure out the controls at all. But the presentation made me not care I was failing so miserably. The music and fail state are both so wonderful that I'm not even made I didn't make it past the 2nd arch or collect a single pickup.
I really liked this procedural dungeon in that it didn't have as clearly defined "room types" as other procedurals have. That being said, it made navigation a nightmare. I got lost quickly and only found the stars by dumb luck. The trap variation was cool, but they all boiled down to "timing" challenges which felt the same. It would be cool to see more exploration of puzzle elements for each trap type, especially if you'd like to see traps be the feature of the game. Good work on this one!
I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Why do you have to walk all the way across the room to get a different flower? Maybe providing more instructions or a tutorial might help players understand what the intent is.
The song was fun, but overall it was all too loud. It would have been nice to have volume control or a mute button. Game is cleanly executed, but I didn't realize I should be picking up the green blocks until... well, it took me awhile lol. A bit of instruction would help.
Oh man, this music was wonderful. Big banjo-kazooie vibes. Nice job team. Game was a little difficult - I kept getting stuck on the first bouncing section because it would knock me back up above to a ledge and i'd lose multiple hits. That being said, I finished it and was not disappointed lol. Thanks for making this!
This is pretty neat. The addition of placing blocks helps this to stand out a lot. I had a lot of trouble with the character's collision though. I got stuck on walls frequently. Part of it might have been that placed blocks didn't snap to a grid making weird sized paths. Overall, pretty cool game. Good job! And thanks for opting out of humor if you didn't plan to put humor in the game. It feels bad to have to rate so many games for humor that clearly don't try for it.
I made it to the 4th level (falling sequence?) and it became unplayable with no character and the game just restarting. It looks like the model was there because I saw a small shadow flicker, but it wasn't playable. That's unfortunate because I was enjoying it! The 3rd level was a little wonky (I couldn't tell why I was dying/restarting). The game was beautiful, audio was pretty good, too. I loved the egg acquisition animation. And I loved the egg seemingly added just to make a pun in the title. Good job!
@goldenevolution yep! you fixed it. I was able to finish it this time. Though the 3rd level still stumped me. I finally figured out you were supposed to be hiding behind the bushes. But they looked so similar to the bushes in level two that caused you to fail that i didn't realize they were hiding spots.
That art is spectacular. The gameplay... needs work. But you knew that. I'm guessing this would sing with some SFX. Good job! Needing to hold space to advance more than one turn felt weird.
This felt way too difficult at the beginning. It took me 10 minutes of trial and error to solve the top left level and I gave up after a few minutes of the other corner level. Maybe this is easier for sokoban pros, but this had me stumped without much reason to keep trying. I did like the music change with colors though. I wanted to see what effect other colors had but didn't have the brainspace for it right now. :(
I giggled when I hit a platform and the falling animation kept playing. Also... the red high heels are absurd lol.
This is such a good time. I watched a streamer play it for quite a bit and still found huge enjoyment in playing it myself. I ended up missing out on 4 fish. For some reason the clown fish, crab, marlin, and blue tang never appeared. I really enjoyed this. Also found a possible bug (web build) - when using bait, the bait total doesn't update unless you buy from the shop. For example, it showed I had 10 bait until I bought something else and then it updated to 2 or something.
Cool idea, if a little frustrating to learn at first. I lost more than half my energy trying to figure out how to deploy and fire for the first time. Could use a pause screen and mute/quit options. Nice job. I would definitely play more of this if you developed more.
Tried a few times and couldn't get past 500ish. I just couldn't get used to the controls. That song bops though! Nice job!
I love it when a game keeps the concept simple and cleanly executes. This isn't super innovative, but who cares? It's fun and well made. I particularly liked that bullets persisted after hitting an enemy. Lining up those multi-hit shots was very satisfying. If you implemented a scoring system based on kills, it would cool to see gameplay around the risk/reward of letting enemies get close enough to be multi-hit. Good job and nice game!
This was a blast. I got to the third depth, 2nd checkpoint and had like 60 some strokes. Erp. I think some sort of trajectory guide when charging a shot would help a ton. I loved the transition from "generic mini golf course" to "wtf cave system" a lot. That reveal and the music change was a big wow moment. I'd love to see a game expand on that with more 'worlds'. Nice job!
I really liked the paper art style, but I couldn't figure out what to do. I died nearly 10 times before giving up. I don't even know what I died to. And I couldn't tell what "firing engines" did other than make a number go... down? The inverted Y axis but normal X axis made controls feel really wonky and unintuitive.
with max speed upgrades at the end, my best time was 47.51s. This is a very satisfying little game. Well done! At the end, you can't see your currency total when you finish a full run. Perhaps the flower generation animation for subsequent full runs could be sped up? it felt a little slow after you've already seen it once. great job on this game!
oof, that was a little heavier than most of the emotion-based interpretations of the theme. not sure I wanted that. clean execution though. well done.
Welp, turns out I'm really bad at this. The difficulty ramp seemed a bit much at level 3. Controls were fast but tight. I like your art style. The 2D gun/hand was fun. Nice job. Good art direction, too.
edit - the world needs more enemies of type 'octopus with gun'
This is a fun take on the theme. I like the idea of having to manage small snippets of time to manage your resources. The simple controls let the player focus on the game. Now I want to see what you could have made if you had the time! One issue I saw was that planets sometimes spawned under the HUD or offscreen so that their icons weren't clickable. A quick fix for you if you keep working on this. I hope you do!
This is super well executed. The music and sword particles give the game a really cool feeling. I think the hits are where it felt a little flat. You really have to get into the enemies' faces to be able to hit them and it's hard to tell when they're going to attack. With a little more time, this could turn out really cool. Good job team. Seriously, that music fits really well. Well done :)
Name? Check. Art? Check. Music? Check. This is firing on all cylinders and they're all troll. Good job. Game itself felt super difficult, but where else can you be a pig in a minecart and listen to chiptune renditions of overrated pop music? A+
@alexey-kuzovkov - yeah, I figured that was going to be the case. I tried to capture "deeper into madness" but I was too timid to be blunt about it in the text. I felt putting "deeper and deeper into madness" in the game would have been too on the nose. Do you think that would have helped? Or would the theme still be too loose?
@axeltherabbit yes, there's more. Thank you so much for playing!
@good-enough it seems popular with kids! I shared it with a few friends that let their kids play. Ages 8-13 really enjoyed it and begged the parents to keep playing. Glad your lil sister enjoyed it :)
@madr - thanks!
@themoonrise - Yeah, the dizzy can be real. But I personally dislike steering controls with a fixed camera. It gets wonky. Did you play fullscreen? The default in-browser size is less dizzying.
@reallyqbert - thanks for playing! yeah, I started brainstorming with "deeper into madness" -> "insanity" -> "repeating something and expecting different results" and then tried to weave those bits back in as a built it. There's text that mentions madness and "deeper into nothingness" but I didn't want to be too heavy-handed with the theme. I'm happy with the result, even if the final product is far-removed from the theme.
@koalaura this is the highest praise I could have asked for <3 thanks for playing!
@asue shoot! that was the last theme??? this is my first one. i'll have to time travel and check that one out ;)
@anticdope @almighty-games - yeah, this is my first jam. I didn't know 47's theme when I made this. I derived my core loop by exploring "repeating and expecting different results" from "deeper into insanity". I was happy with the concept, so I was willing to stray from the theme for some folks. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for checking it out!
@justcamh thanks for sharing this! I really appreciate your feedback on stream. I agree that more content/commentary related to gameplay (speed, camera, etc) would be good. I had to left quite a bit on the cutting room floor, too (like an autopilot pathing system so the narrator can 'take the wheel' from the player). I posted the source if you want to see what was beyond where you stopped.
@lisyarus thanks for checking it out! Yeah, the camera was a tough decision. I think it works well, but if I spend more time on this, that would be something getting the most work and playtesting. 5.8 is good! My best during testing was in the 5.9 range.
@etrealjunior @badabooom63 yeah, the dizziness was a concern during development. I chose the follow camera because I didn't want keyboard controls to feel inverted when the car was moving down versus up. Static camera plus car driving is just boring, too. If I continue developing this, refining the camera is the biggest priority.
And yes, that's my mouth-sound. You nailed it. khhh. ;)
The graphics are really fun. Are they scans of pen drawings? Or did you create them digitally?
The level design is the weakest part I think. I died probably 20 times before I could even make it past the first clock enemy. The amount of stuff presented to the player with the controls and small platform size just made it very punishing. Thankfully the reset was quick. I eventually got down past the first layer then met my demise to a bird. Good news is that your jam went better than I did as you in the game XD
Thanks for making this! I enjoyed it!
These controls are just a bit too whacky to make meaningful decisions. I see you recommend gamepad though. So... idk.
I liked the idea of an 'endless faller' that wants you to land on or hit things. Usually it's all about dodging. That was a nice change.
Not a fan of the player model... I don't know what you were going for (alien? tail? 3rd leg?) but it definitely looked like a penis. That's uh, not great. You might want to throw an adult content note at the top of your page. And if that IS what it's supposed to be.... why? As far as I can tell, it serves no purpose in gameplay or story which makes it appear as if someone thought it was 'funny' and reason enough to add it.
I understand the classic 'tank controls' you were going for, but I think the dynamic lighting on the tank actually hindered this. It was difficult to tell which way the tank was facing and I often caught myself going the wrong direction which didn't feel great. There was one room that spawned a turret right on top of me upon entering, too. Audio was super loud - could have used volume controls in-game. But sorry for all the negative stuffs. The upgrades and progression were pretty nice. I liked that you could ram obstacles. You're a tank! Just because you're a tank doesn't mean you have to shoot everything. And the self-damage from splash makes you be more thoughtful about just spamming shots which I appreciated. Good job on the game and thanks for making it!
The music in here is great! Nice job team. This is a nice cohesive submission too. I really liked the character and sprite art. I scrolled through the tons of comments you all have here (also nice!), but im sure someone has already mentioned the controls being a tad finnicky. The character not automatically grabbing ladders/ropes made for some weird inputs required to progress. I died a lot at the very start because the camera didn't follow like I thought it would/should.
I gave up on the third(?) section with the long rope and ghosts. I just got chain stunned too many times and gave up. Cool game :)
I really liked the visuals here. I couldn't tell what was my character at first but the trails made for a really unique look. Good job! I got stuck with the controls a lot. For example, if you go up against a wall, you can't jump. Definitely died a few times because of that.
This is pretty neat. It has a few unintuitive aspects. It took me forever to figure out you needed to "spend a move" pushing to offset the spike/fireballs. I got stuck on the skeleton/double river level because I couldn't figure a way to offset their movement. I liked the game though. Looks excellent!
Erp. Nope nope nope nope nope. I couldn't play this long. That big face was a bit too much for me. So good job on that, but not my style. What little I did play felt a little too floaty. I was constantly sliding into obstacles and the falling section was difficult to navigate. The hitboxes on the big face and the ground traps also felt off. Or maybe it was the player? I got hit by those a lot when I thought I shouldn't. It also felt really bad not to have the mouse follow my cursor if my character was facing the wrong direction. I see what you're going for, but it makes the mouse controls feel clunky, even if it's more 'realistic'.
@lysenti I'm sorry for misleading. I gave it good ratings for theme, innovation, and mood. I recognize that going for what I experienced was conscious. I personally don't like that style, but you executed the style well. That's a good thing, right? Good game, but not for me lol. Thanks for your reply :)
The graphics are cool, but a little disorienting. Maybe that's a good thing for this atmosphere. Unfortunately, I got stuck. There were several things that just said 'PROMPT [E]' but nothing happened so I'm not sure what I was supposed to be doing. Wonderful style though. Good job!
This is a lot of fun. The lack of music and the creaking and groaning are a perfect fit for the dark depths. I found myself at 1hp, $2000, and at 150ft with no idea where to go. Spoiler - engine speed is a trap. Get insurance! I couldn't control the higher speed and ended up bonking away my fortune.
I'm not sure what I was supposed to be doing. The walljumping felt pretty weird because you have to rapidly spam jump and it slows you down a lot. Also, it felt really bad to go "underground" and get trapped with no way out.
It looks pretty though! And the music is nice n moody.
I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to like this a lot more because it's a cool concept, but there needed to be a tutorial or more instruction. I didn't even know what I was looking for. Was the music? It changed, but I couldn't tell if what I was doing changed it.
Nice! Well done! I think my favorite part was how the steady movement of the octopus lined up with the rhythm of the music. Nice touch. There are a lot of well done things here. Leg count is health. Hunger is separate from health. That just makes sense even if it's not a gaming standard. My only complaint is that the eels are too fast. I even tried moving slowly/not at all and still got attacked. I made it past the "halfway" point before I lost. AND PHENOMENAL ANIMATIONS. WELL. DONE.
Cool game. The audio clips were all over the place and I got eaten alive by bats very quickly. It seemed going left and down did nothing, but as soon as I went to the right, i started finding tons of stuff. I died with about 20 iron and a few gold. So maybe it's a bit too hard right now? Thanks for making this!
The game won't work for me. I can click the cannisters, but pressing Space to extend arms doesn't work. I can't do it before moving or during movement. Can it only occur in certain places? At the mouse location? I couldn't get it to work.
I somehow got to level 3 and thoroughly enjoyed all the news anchor lines after my fail attempts though!
Congrats on finishing this!
@dob are the control rods fixed objects in the environment? Should I be able to see them? i'm using a traditional keyboard. using chrome, too.
@dob ooooh, ok. Yeah, the tutorials talked about how to use the rods in levels before they appeared. Okay. I was overthinking it. I'll check it out again!
Nice! I like seeing incremental submissions. Thanks for making this :)
I think this had a nice little curve to it. Not too long (good for a jam) and not too short (bad for an incremental). You could say it was a great mixture!
The light crackling of the fire lent a nice atmosphere to an otherwise often thematically-disengaged genre. I had a little trouble with the instructions in the beginning thinking I had to keep the meter between the fire and the bottom instead of over the fire, but that might just be my tired brain tonight. I could see this being fleshed out into a longer game and that I'd enjoy, especially if the auto-stir feature is polished and made into a true idler, allowing you to expand and add other mechanics.
Overall, well done! I thoroughly enjoyed myself :)
I really liked this game! The core concept here feels like it offers a nice little puzzle that you've put a lot of content into. Well done!
Unfortunately, I think this falls a bit short for me as a jam game. The brew timers, while thematic, don't serve the gameplay. It actually detracts from it, making the player wait for no reason other than theme. And then after the timer, you still have to wait for the randomized roll animation to finish? Perhaps if audio made it into the game, this would be less frustrating to sit through? But as it is, it just takes too long to do anything meaningful. And when you finally get an engine going to make better potions, there isn't a whole lot of strategy or gameplay decisions beyond "pick good/bad ingredients" to get your desired results.
I really like this idea and I'd would definitely try it again if you put some more time into a fuller release. As is, it falls a bit short for a jam game. There's a lot of potential here, especially if you developed into the idle/incremental genre.
Congrats on making this for a jam. The character animation is superb :)
For 5 hours, this is a surprisingly fun lil game. Nicely done! Simple premise, simple execution. I tried to just spam space to get power and that didn't work, so good job on that lol.
The animation on Forse is great, the music is thematically derpy. A little content light but I'm not gonna knock a jam game for being content light. I honestly can't find any more problems with this. You set out to do a thing and did it and now there's this game in the world. And the world is better for it. :)
Well done! I thought the game was bugged at first because I didn't understand what pressing R did. I don't know how you could better teach that though.
Once I figured it out though, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the experience. I think the SFX were a little repetitive and loud (compared to the music). The level/puzzle design was really well done though. It was straight-forward in the difficulty and learning curve and never felt too overwhelming despite the potential to do a lot.
Sometimes the theme doesn't make it into the game and the game does better for it. Well done :)
Nice little game. Congrats on making this for the jam!
I think the levels are a bit too big. If you had kept the game to a single screen, I think you could have created more interesting and rewarding 'puzzles' and eliminated the problem of the player not knowing where the exit is. Also, it was a little frustrating that sheep kept getting stuck in corners. And that I could only effectively herd one sheep at a time because they ran back to their default spots too quickly. This made levels more tedious and gives players less opportunity for skill expression or strategy by being able to 'juggle' herding multiple sheep.
A great effort and neat idea, just could use a bit more polish! Well done :)
Yes, I love all the self-made noises. Mouth sfx! Unfortunately, the movement/squeak is a bit too much. It's too loud and repetitive. I wish there was some way to mute just that. :(
The controls feel a bit too unstable. Sometimes I would just sprint and other times it would move only a small step, making it feel really unreliable. Maybe this was intentional?
I liked the idea and the mechanics felt like it matched the theme. Well done on making this and congrats on finishing!
Your games continue to impress, congrats :)
Trauma is beautiful and does a good job of handling the subject matter respectfully. I was worried that we'd see a lot of takes on 'unstable' that would make light of mental instability and wellness. So thank you.
I really appreciate the very simple controls for better and for worse. Only needing three keys feels like a smart choice for a jam game. It was a little unintuitive at first to be able to swap card positions while *not* on an action space. Needing to move off a space to be able to rearrange your cards felt weird. I'm not sure how else you could solve for that though without ruining the pacing of the game (choosing an order every time you use a space, for example). If you developed beyond the jam, you might be able to come up with something that keeps with the simplicity. Maybe holding space then pressing the arrow keys lets you move the first card to a new position? It would be fewer keystrokes than hitting space each time to open the menu and select a piece, but it might not be as intuitive.
I'm happy to see you continuing to improve and enter jams. Well done and keep up the good work!
At first, games that look as good as this make me feel really bad. But then I realize you had a team of 10. That's not even on the same level! Super well done and 30 levels is a ton of content for just a few days.
The core game design feels really good. Your terrain (and safety) is your weapon. The controls took some time to get used to. I think I need a twin stick setup because my brain can't quickly throw in a direction and control using the same inputs. The single hit life made the levels feel a tad long and punishing though. I only got to level 4 or 5 because it got too frustrating to get hit once on the last wave. A little safety net for hits would have felt great.
Y'all did a great job on this. I expect this will place pretty highly. :)
The art and animation are stand-out here! Great job on finishing this in such a small timeframe!
The gameplay was easy enough to figure out, but it lacked much decision making. With only effectively one unit and one bomb to stop things that get by, it feels like it's just a game of spamming guys and hoping for the best. Because your units walk towards the enemies, a lot of the action ended up happening "off screen" and I'd have to move the camera over to see if my troops were effective, but then I'd have to go back a screen to spawn more guys. It felt a little cumbersome. I think it'd have been more effective to just have your troops be stationary or only move within the confines of your spawning area.
Well done though! I loved the sprites :)
Nice job on this! The sprites were really charming and the presentation was overall pretty clean.
I think the camera and hitbox could use a little bit of tweaking. The camera is a bit too high, making it difficult to see where you're going to jump, especially after the early crumbling platforms before the 4 slimes. Bringing the camera down a bit gives the player more chance to react and more confidence in the jumps the first time through. The hitbox felt a tad unforgiving. Making your hitboxes slightly inside the actual sprites can make the game feel better. Pixel perfect hitboxes don't always feel 'fair'. I got stuck and couldn't make it past the 4 slimes in a row because I kept clipping one on either the start or end of the jump.
Overall, really nice submission and you should be proud of the work you did in just a few days! Congrats!
Hey Piggy, nice to play another entry of yours. Well done on this! This game feels really complete in this form. A nice, arcade-y little beat'm-up with a twist.
The controls took a second to get used to, but it felt pretty rhythmic once I got into it. The minimalistic graphics worked well, too. I think healing felt a little too safe, but maybe it gets harder further in. I got past the boss. That could have used a health bar or some damage indicator and felt like it dragged a bit.
Otherwise, super solid entry. Well done!
Congrats on making this for the jam. There's a lot going on here!
Unfortunately, the controls killed this for me. The car was frustratingly difficult to control. It didn't accelerate or respond to inputs quickly, if there was any braking, it hardly seemed effective, and getting enough control to stop in a safe space or pick up a passenger was too meticulous that it killed the pacing. I wanted to like this premise a lot more :(
The idea is great and I wanted to see it through to the end, but the controls and the repetitive engine noises kept me from enjoying this. Y'all should still be proud of making this in a single weekend. Well done! The models and triple compass display worked nicely.
@bklolo @pwnzer thanks! I had typed in the url like a dingus and had a slash instead of a dot!
@spudboy @bklolo final version is up. I didn't realize folks would rate/play before the jam ended! Thanks for checking it out.
spud - it's actually "neigh, mother BUCKER" but I agree it's hard to hear lol
@eharp thanks for playing! yep, silly mode was just a change in audio. I had friends submit audio clips and a lot of folks made joke ones, too. It seemed a shame not to use them!
@turkey yeah, I made them spawn in randomly around you to mix it up a little bit as you got further. But the strat that emerged from playtesting was actually to *not* open every stable and use the stables to get the enemies stuck so you could put distance between you and them. I built the rest of it that way, but left it as a discoverable "ah-ha" moment for players.
@jeanbon thanks for playing! the controls are on the start screen :)
the cowboys actually get stuck behind stables, so the clever player may discover they can skip freeing some horses in order to form a block and put distance between them and the enemy. I've debated on whether or not to straight call that out for the game jam though. In a 'normal' game, I'd leave that as a discoverable strategy, but maybe calling it out in the game description is better for a jam, allowing quick plays to have that tiny bit more strategy. After all, I can't expect jam players to play more than a few minutes which may not be enough time to see an enemy get slowed by a stable naturally.
Love your avatar btw :) HxH <3
A very chill little experience! Well done on selling this atmosphere. The music and spritework are lovely.
I had a some difficulty draining the water and stopping the drone. The other 'obstacles' had clear resolutions, but those two didn't seem intuitive or working properly. I eventually got the water to drain, but I'm unsure if it had something to do with where I stood or not? And then I thought the game was over because I couldn't build the castle anymore. But then it started building more layers when I built from the from instead of the back? Unsure what was happening though.
I like the art and the take on the theme, but the goal and execution could use some more love. Great job on this though team, I enjoyed my time with it :)
Ooh, physics based idle game? That's sort of what this felt like at first. Incremental upgrades and income. I usually like this sort of thing, so you have my attention!
I was a little lost at what my goal was other than to 'make money' which made things feel a little aimless. That's usually a conceit of traditional idle/incremental games though. It took me far too long to realize there were upgrades unfortunately. I think putting some label or text on that would help a ton.
And I know you didn't implement audio, but the overall experience is brought down a lot by this. Even a simple click sound for feedback or a light music track behind it all would have enhanced this a lot. Once you're comfortable implementing audio, setting up something super basic should be quick and simple.
The core design is solid, I just would have liked to see a little more focus on directing the player towards a goal.
Great job on completing this AND working a weekend job. I hope you're still catching up on sleep! Congrats :)
I don't think I've seen a jam game use the microphone before, super cool! Congrats on making this in such a short time frame :)
Unfortunately, the microphone just seemed too inconsistent. I couldn't tell why I was getting eaten by the bear every time. I only lasted a few seconds and it seemed that whispers and shouts always ended with Bob getting eaten. An onscreen volume indicator or something would have helped immensely I think.
Keep up the novel ideas!
Cool little game you've made here. Well done!
I like the take on the theme here. It's a little silly and pretty clear about what it wants to do. The game itself was straightforward, but I think you could have streamlined it a bit more. 10 reps felt like a lot of repetition for each combination. It might keep jam players more engaged if it were even as few as 5 or 3 reps.
I also discovered you could "cheese" it by hitting all the buttons at once, but that was a bit difficult to do simultaneously, and I'm guessing some keyboards won't register all those presses at once.
Overall, good job and congrats for finishing a jam game!
I had a really hard time figuring out what the "game" part of this was. Is there anything to do when the music and pointing isn't going on?
That being said, this is a really fun idea and I loved my few minutes with it. Very well done. Getting these little goofy mouse people to talk about random things was amusing, but seeing them segue into related topics was even more entertaining.
Not much game but certainly entertaining. Well done! And for a jam game? Congrats!
Congrats on finishing your game!
I found the game to be a little frustrating and difficult. Not having a checkpoint + unclear enemy hitboxes made for a lot of deaths that felt unfair or unclear. I couldn't get more than a few jumps into the second section. After nearly 15 attempts, I decided to give up. Sorry!
I REALLY liked your art style. The simple sprites read super clearly and the attack, however basic, looked really cool. The controls felt pretty good after I got used to them. I'm used to jump being space so my first few deaths were just getting used to controls lol.
Neat little jam game. Keep making games and learning and improving! :)
Ooh a card game! I'm still a pretty new dev but this is on the list of things I'd like to make one day. Congrats on making this for a jam!
The core gameplay felt pretty solid. Card effects were clear, but a little underwhelming when compared to the enemy cards. I understand that's to serve the jam's theme, but I'd like to see a version that lets the player feel more powerful. Another way to do this would be to allow the player the choice to play more than one card at a time. For example, if you choose to play two cards, the AI also then gets to play two cards. It would let you feel better about combining buff cards with attacks while also increasing the feeling of risk and reward because the AI could do the same.
For the presentation, I think the big green background was a little much. Maybe it was supposed to feel like felt-topped gaming/poker table? Also, moving the "flavor" text to the bottom of the card might make them a bit more readable. Not quite an issue because the player cardpool is small enough. Oh, and putting individual buff timers on the screen might help. Maybe keeping the card out with a number/counter in addition to the net % change? Small things that make the game more player friendly.
Overall, this is a cool thing you did. Well done team and keep making games!
LD really brings out the coolest games in folks. Fun idea and cranked out in such a small time frame. Well done!
For jams, it's a really nice QoL addition to include volume controls. Your game ran a bit on the loud side and the volume scaling with water level made the audio range pretty wide. Even if it's just a master volume slider, that can be nice for folks.
Uncovering seashells felt a little weird sometimes. I quickly found out that seashells are worse than other squares in that they're neither seaweed or blanks, so they gave no information about adjacent jellies. Perhaps removing them from the board and replacing them with more information might make them feel a little better?
I really liked the mashup of picross and minesweeper. I'd love to see this combo explored more and it got my brain juices going thinking about other ways to mix and match these two. Great idea!
Congrats on finishing the jam!
Ah, pink juice? I see you're also a fan of cara cara navel oranges ;)
This is a whacky concept. I live for jam games like this. Congrats for making such an odd and neat little game for the compo!
I don't think I quite understood the controls. I saw the arrows and read a few comments, but I kept crashing at the first and sixth (end of the narrow straight) and couldn't finish a lap or see more content. More clear instruction would have helped a lot. The little sprite art is fantastic.
Keep making games!
Thanks for checking out the early prototype @nate954 & @oneowerse! I plan to animate the character, but it took a backseat to getting everything else up and running. When I made it, I wasn't completely sold on the concept yet.
And I don't blame you for not getting the game - there isn't much of one yet :)
@magicbarbu Does it happen every time you start the game? I haven't been able to repro this issue.
@yokin shhhh, stop looking at my design doc ;)
@rollyrollin thanks for checking it out! Yeah, it's untuned as of yet. I intend to playtest with significantly more and faster enemies.
That infinite direction bug is still there, eh? I'm not sure what's causing it. I'll try some new things. Thanks :)
@magicbarbu @rollyrollin @zimny11 @jzucc12 BUG VANQUISHED! Thanks for your help and feedback in figuring this one out!
A neat active puzzle game. Congrats on finishing your game!
Once I figured out how it worked, I liked what I saw. You have a good core concept. For your next jam/game, spend some time thinking about how to more clearly display the consequences of the player's actions. In this game, it was a little difficult to perfectly line up a move due to larger grid size. Highlighting the row/column of your mouse hover might help with that. Also, some feedback as to why a player can't move off the edge might help. I thought the game was broken at first, but then I realized it prevents you from self-destructing.
You did a good job with the art direction. I like the cool color palette and the simple objects with character. Well done!
Overall, you should be proud for making this in just a few days! Keep making games!
Y'all have a really goofy art and music style and it's beautiful and perfect. I love it. Well done!
I found the controls a little unintuitive. Having each bullet correspond to a different mouse button felt weird and took me a bit to figure out why I couldn't fire when I still had a bullet. Melee attacks not following the same mouse-direction as shooting also felt weird. Melee also had a bit too much of a windup/delay when pressing it, making it even harder to use. I also think using collision on the rats to prevent them from stacking up would feel better. As it is, once they clump up, your bullets feel like they do nothing because it only hits 1-2 of the 20 or so chasing you. Making the bullets kill more stuff would help the player feel more powerful and make the game more fun. I understand the point of this theme was to make defeat inevitable, but empowering the player to feel like they have more agency in delaying that inevitable is also important.
Sorry if that all feels like too much negativity. I do really like your style. The overly dramatic story text on the itch.io page made me think you were going for an ultra-dour FromSoft-esque world. But when the game loaded up with the snappy music and main character that looked like a dancing sentai hero, I had a good chuckle and it all made sense. Well done!
Keep making games and congrats on finishing in just a few days!