Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Hekateras
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | 👥 | Ten-Second Teleport | jam | 418 | 3.67 | 3.28 | 3.57 | 4.15 | 3.69 | 3.30 | 3.42 | 3.58 | |
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | 👥 | Project Memory: Delay Extinction | jam | 295 | 3.85 | 3.43 | 3.83 | 4.03 | 4.19 | 3.86 | 3.84 |
Hekateras leaves an average of 12.3 feedback comments each event.
I love this game. Excellent atmosphere, core gameplay loop was satisfying, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of lore and flavour you put into all the little things you could discover. Exploration and reading the flavour text was a highlight. I got to the end and had a lot of fun.
Seriously cute game. At first I wasn't sure what the big deal was (I missed that you can shoot stingers at the enemies so I just kept dodging them and collecting pollen), then I tried attacking them and saw the different waves of enemies you can get. Really neat progression and the graphics are super cute.
Cute little game and pretty solid gameplay! I also just plain love me a rat platformer. There needs to be more.
I had a similar issue as GreyNovemberGames but was still able to play a bit. (I'm on Firefox.) It might help to add a fullscreen option to the itch.io page, that way it should adjust automatically to the resolution.
I love the concept and art, haven't played yet but I wanted to share that in case I forget to play it
Delightful, simple little game. As a biologist, I approve
Fantastic game, music is A+. I could see this being really fun but I didn't get far - even with the soap upgrade, cleaning even a single dish takes forever, it's terribly slow and unresponsive. Would love to play a postjam version of this with smoother hitboxes and easier dragging, and a significantly easier dishwashing mechanic. I could see this game being really addicting.
This is incredibly impressive for a Compo game. I didn't get very far, but I do enjoy the idea of "farming sim but even more hectic", and the graphics are cute. If I had to suggest a single feature that would drastically elevate playability of this while hopefully staying in scope, it would be if the game had isometric movement/movement was on a grid. I wasted far too much time simply sliding past the things I was trying to till/water/harvest and trying to target the correct tile, grid-based movement would have made that easier.
Fantastic little game, it's wild that this was a Compo game. Extremely polished and plays in a really fun way. The gameplay is incredibly intuitive and the puzzles that result from these simple mechanics are fun. Agreed that controls are a little bit slippery for my taste, though I suppose it's part of the challenge. I like the little lines the robos say sometimes, it's amazing you found the time for that. Unfortunately, despite MANY attempts, I can't beat level three. I get pretty far in the level but the wall of death catches up to me whenever I need to slow down to work out the next section, and it gets too frustrating to retry the whole level from scratch. The limited visibility is a problem too, it's annoying to have to restart simply because you couldn't see crucial parts of the puzzle until you moved far enough in the wrong direction. Still, I enjoyed it, thanks!
I'm so glad I remembered to check this out before rating is over!
An amazingly atmospheric and philosophical game. As with your previous creation, I love the watercolour-style graphics. I adore all the little fish designs and their descriptions. This world you've built and offered a glimpse into is so fascinating. The gameplay is simple and really supports the story. I'm curious what goes on under the hood in terms of the probability of catching fish, I nearly gave up on Chapter II because I seemed to have the fish escape more than ten times in a row. It feels like sitting calm and not fishing seemed to "fix" that? But maybe it was just me reading into it.
Incredibly touching game.
I didn't get very far, but I love this idea and implementation. Top marks for graphics, sound and humour, as well. :)
An incredibly unique game, though sadly I didn't get very far. I would love to see this core mechanic explored further, though.
For a Compo game with even harsher time constraints, the sense of mood/atmosphere here is also impeccable!
Fantastic little game and extremely well-executed! Everything is honestly top-notch.
The art style reminds me of Tim Burton and Don't Starve in a great way, and the look is completely cohesive. The core gameplay loop is really simple and clever. I would love to see a longer game based on this design.
I was stuck for a little bit after getting the rope because I thought I'd have to go through the entire loop again to break the glass, but luckily I realised I only needed to get the axe, and from then I could take my time and get ready until I could complete the final sequence in the timespan allowed.
Might be one of my favourite jam entries as a whole. For a 72-hour game, there are no obvious weak spots or places missing polish that stick out. Really good.
Fun little game! I like the idea of exploring Pandora's Box and of 10-second levels. I'm not a huuuge fan of platformers but this was still pretty engaging and I got quite a few levels in. Graphics are cute, music is nice too, especially the menu music. Having audio cues for when you're about to run out of time works really well. In terms of critique, it was sometimes unclear design which things were collectibles and which were enemies/hazards. Something simple like a red outline around enemies/hazards would help. This isn't a huge issue though since the reset loop is so short.
This is immensely cute and original
Fantastically fun game that feels like a spiritual continuation of games like Uplink and Hacknet. I had to stop my session because of a visual glitch (I think a spider moved to my node while I was trying to select a dialogue option and the dialogue box was overlaid for the rest of the session), but I'll play it again. I'd just "unlocked" getting friends to dive with you, which minimised the annoyance of the math locked node. I've figured out ways to get past every type of security so far and it was pretty satisfying. I enjoy the fact that difficulty is customisable, too. also, "Greetings 1s, 0s, and nonbinary types" got a good chuckle out of me. :D
I'm glad you released a version which fixes the display issue on small monitors as I was having that problem, having downloaded this game on day 1 of the jam (but got sidetracked before playing it).
It would be nice to have a button for exiting a dive. I have my Esc key mapped to something else (after spilling tea on my actual Esc key :'( ) and the game wasn't responding to the alternate mapping, so I was stuck in a dive until I deliberately got caught by a spider. My problem is pretty rare though, so I understand if this isn't worth your time.
This is a super fun little platformer! Funnily enough we had a similar idea, although the use of shifting between planes is incorporated a lot more directly into the platforming in your case. Awesome little game, music was great as well.
Fun little game! Surprisingly deep design
Wow, this was... really touching. Finally a realistic simulator of what it's like to have serious conversations with ADHD, haha! I kid, I kid.
No, but I really adore the design of this one. You did so much with just a few simple mechanics. The best part is how much the gameplay supports the feeling/experience of the game. Having an emotionally difficult conversation with your best friend (who you have feelings for) and everything finally clicking into place, and things becoming clear, portrayed literally through sorting out the turmoil of your thoughts as represented by puzzles until it's all solved and there is nothing more distracting you, it's perfect.
Perfect incorporation of the theme, too, and a special shout-out for the anti-frustration features. I was incredibly grateful that once I was at the "Take your time" stage of dialogue, that screen was down to 3 seconds instead of 40 so I didn't have to wait long before getting back to the last remaining puzzle.
An extremely rewarding experience, than you.
Interesting concept, but mouse controls way too sensitive so it's not really playable atm.
Fun little game, really well-executed for what it is!
Fun little take on a "less is more" tower defense game! I really love all the little unit designs and the gameplay loop is pretty interesting, even if I don't seem to last very long. Also, it's wild that you did this all by yourself. Mad respect.
Stylistically this game is amazing. Unfortunately, I can't even make it past the first (proper) level where you have to use the gravity potion. ^^; I can't get the timing on it right and the resetting and prep time are really not conducive to trying over and over again. Agreed with whoever said above that adherence to the theme hurts the game here. Would love to see a more relaxed postjam version of this. It must be disclaimed that I am generally very picky about platformers, and I've never enjoyed those that rely so much on timing-based execution. So maybe I'm just an oddball and not the target audience.
I really love the art style! :)
I'm kinda interested in participating in this as a supporting artist. I love solarpunk stuff and the sample story you picked. I'm good at writing dialogue, too.
Super cute, fun, and meta game. I didn't get very far though, haha. Art is amazing! I actually kinda want to play that Wendigo-style Slender The Eight Pages-like horror game...
Amazing, cute, fun little game!
Fantastic take on the theme, and really fun take on stealth and manipulation. Sadly I didn't get to the end, I quit at one of the levels after the syringe is introduced, the one where you've got multiple guards and civilians lined up in one room. Tried it over a dozen times and came close but not quite. Awesome work.
Really cool concept, I like the aesthetic and the basic gameplay, but it got a little repetitive. I would have preferred it if dying didn't reset your journey progress.
I like the concept of this game, although the platforming aspect proved a little too punishing for me so I didn't get to the end. I really like the character designs though!
Super neat little, controls and mechanics were pretty intuitive too. I beat the first level and get a grey screen with victory music, not sure if there's more to it or not? But this is really nice, and awakes my nostalgia for old games like Chip's Challenge. I really like the aesthetic and the frog thing, too. :) Good job!
I got a score of 103! :) Nice little game, simple but interesting.
Love the concept, love the implementation, this is both incredibly polished and the core gameplay loop you have here is excellent. It's really punishing though. I had to keep trying despite dying many times and I'm still not good at it yet. Any tips? I keep dying after 3-4 upgrades when I get swarmed by multiple seeker enemies that just don't get repelled long enough. I'd love to have an "easy mode" of this for postjam. :)
This felt pretty damn polished! I would have liked to see subtitles/text for the intro instructions, voiceover was a little hard to make out. Graphics, sound and SFX are great. I gave it about three or four tries before dying, I was slowly getting the hang of it but this isn't really my type of game. I felt like ammo ran out too quickly, and only once in several attempts did I encounter the health restore orb. I feel to be more forgiving to casual players, the upgrade types should be distributed a bit more densely. Also, it would be good if there was an arrow at the edge of the screen pointing back to the space station. Still, very impressive!
I'd love to play this (especially since this seems to be a different twist on the same idea we had!) but I don't currently have a QR code scanner available. It's a really odd choice to have your game be dependent on that. I'll keep an eye out if a QR-less version of this becomes available.
The idea of navigating a maze by periodic flashes of light is an interesting one, but it needs a bit more to it in order to be truly fun, I think. I did 3-4 levels and decided to stop when it looked like the core gameplay loop wasn't changing. The monster being stationary detracts from its threat level quite a bit, too, though of course I understand the time constraints of a jam game.
Love the music and concept though.
This is an incredibly promising game. Core design is really good, graphics and mood are amazing, but currently the balance keeps this from being really playable IMO, and it's mainly just a few little balance things that need to be adjusted. Currently orders come in way too quick and once your table gets overwhelmed with clutter and you've fallen behind on orders, you can't really recover, at the same time as there are a few annoyances and issues that contribute to you falling behind and slow you down way too much for a 10-second average time to potion completion to be viable. So the failure spectrum of the game is really narrow, which makes it frustrating.
I have a few suggestions/requests on specific things to change: - Make it so potion recipes, at least, can never be rotated more than a few degrees. Having your recipe go spinning upside down because you moved it across the table is both frustrating and unrealistic. - Either slow down the time between orders (I know, I know, the theme, but this is postjam so it doesn't matter, you could even make the timing customisable in options) or make it so you never get ingredients along with the order, and only use ingredients from your drawers. Currently the clutter mechanic is more frustrating and annoying than fun. I can see this becoming an incredible potion-making game where you juggle things and brew multiple potions in parallel, but you NEED to have a reasonably clear work surface for that to work, and keeping the work surface clear can't be such a significant demand on your time or go hand-in-hand with how close you already are to failing. - Adding ingredients to the bottle should be streamlined. It took me a little while to figure out that you need to have the ingredient next to the bottle, then drag it onto the bottle... as opposed to simply dragging it onto the bottle from anywhere on the table. Little things that slow you down like that should be minimised.
I would LOVE to play a polished postjam version of this.
Really cute and funny game, the visual and sound design are on-point. The mechanic of choosing different powers in order is really simple and easy to understand, but really interesting. (For context, I got about four levels in.) Awesome job incorporating the theme as well!
I can't figure out how to make turrets, help?
EDIT: Okay nvm, figured it out
Aesthetic and vibes of this game are on-point. I love the character designs, even the enemies feel interesting and memorable. Dialogue and setup are intriguing too. I desperately wish to see more of this game, but after a handful of battles I did get a little bored of the grind. Would love more info on what the different attacks/abilities do (I haven't been able to figure out 'Tag in'), or why some abilities are available at some times but not others.
I'd love to see this polished and the combat streamlined into something a bit less grindy and repetitive. Keeping my eye on this one!
Absolutely love the idea of a bee game. The implementation is really cute and challenging.
I'd love to get the hang of this, I will definitely come back to this game later. It would be really helpful to see (whether in-game or on the game page as a guide) to see for sure what each resource is, and what the bars on the plants represent. That's the part that currently has me confused - I assume it's nectar and pollen, but I'm not sure which flowers to send my bees to, and what it means when a plant is greyed out. Help?
Nitpicks: I too was initially stuck at the 'beegin' screen for a bit, but nobody in the comments mentioned the game being broken so I kept trying.
I really like this game. I didn't quite make it to the end (see later). The blend of platformer and stealth game is something I LOVE and desperately wish more devs would make, the stealth and puzzle platformer aspect reminds me of Mark of the Ninja in a good way. Controls feel pretty good (especially with keybinding options), graphics are superb as well. Music is really enjoyable and atmospheric. It all feels incredibly polished so far. I like the non-linear level design too.
Only quibble is, I got stuck in a wall while dashing (a common curse of platformers XD). ( See https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/392739131173896202/1026864721120460850/unknown.png ). I forgot restarting the level was an option so I lost my progress. But I want to come back to this game later.
This was a really engaging little city builder! Very strong atmosphere, unique music, and I love the watercolour vibes of the artwork. Took me around five attempts to win but I felt like I had to keep trying. Gameplay was incredibly intuitive, too. Really nice! settlers_and_prophecies.png
Gorgeous graphics and music! You made some really nice scenes and an interesting concept here.
I seem to keep running into the blanked out text bug after the third encounter no matter what I do - also, the narration suggests new items should be appearing in the bag to replace the used ones, but their spaces in the inventory remained empty.
That aside, I LOVE the concept, humour, music and art style. Top marks for sure. Would love to see this expanded further and I'll be checking back for a bugfixed version ^^
Love the concept for this, graphics and music and mood were all very solid too. Gameplay was a bit wonky (fiddling with the pipe took ages) but I still enjoyed it. I was hoping someone would tackle more space and galactic themes for this LD. I also got Zork vibes from the first location and the art style, which is always welcome. :) Молодцы, ребята.
Not my usual type of game, but really fun! HP and ammo being one and the same is certainly an innovative touch that I don't think I've ever seen before. Graphics and sound were awesome too.
Haha, so cute!
Love the music! Surprised you didn't opt into the Audio category.
Went to the first orb to the north (ravine dive), couldn't seem to be able to touch/interact with it?
I love that you made a game with penguins though, it's so cute
Not an ambitious game, but still made me tear up in the span of two minutes.
Pleasant, pretty polished little game. I greatly enjoyed the idea of a city builder with a balancing act like this. Artwork is really nice too! As an artist, I can appreciate when someone can make assets that are simple but still look good.
Post-Jam polish wishlist: - Group-specific "you died because they were too happy" and "you died because they were too unhappy" end screen messages - The houses of the different groups being more visually distinct at a glance - Number indicator for the approval next to the approval bar - Little icon representing the group next to the +/- indicators, for easier overview of whose favour you're gaining or losing
Unfortunately I couldn't get quite it to run at a decent FPS on my potato PC, but I appreciate the idea a lot! I love the concept. Seconding the request for less demanding graphics settings.
Fantastic little game. Great take on the theme, and the Sultan's responses feel organic and the gameplay really conveys the time pressure of having to improvise a story on the spot. Music and graphics are up to snuff too!
Fun concept :D Soundtrack and visuals are charming too
OH BOY. You have an incredible concept here. I absolutely love the idea of a platformer where you paint your own platforms, incredibly satisfying to do. Graphics and sound are incredible as well, the background city is gorgeous. I think if you polish this further you have the makings of an incredibly innovative platformer here.
Criticisms/post-jam polish wishlist: - Giant boulders falling from above are too hard to dodge (at east without 'pausing' using Space every second, but then the platformer section doesn't flow very well), I suggest either getting rid of them or zooming out so they're easier to see coming - Currently, music stops when you hit space to paint, which is a shame and a bit jarring. I suggest making the music muffled or something instead - It took me a bit to get used to Space being something other than jump, oops... Maybe an alternate keymapping? - Add collectibles (perhaps that you get snippets of story with) so you have something to do while trying to avoid death. At one point I finally learned how to survive but I let myself die so I could move on with the plot - Bug: Sometimes the paintbrush would stop responding until I reloaded the browser window
Great job again!
Nice music and visuals, bit lost on how to combine things though
Fantastic, incredibly polished little game. I got stuck on level 7 but I appreciate that you can skip levels... Graphics and music are cute and fit the style an I really like the little humourous touches, like the animations or the fighter pacing back and forth at the exit :D
I cannot seem to be able to run this from Windows 7, but the art style is so expressive! Love it and the idea of a typing game
You have a really interesting concept here. It's a bit simplistic right now but I'd love to see this polished - a bit more structure and it could be a fantastic horror experience. Main complaint right now is that the logs are pretty hard to see (I realise this is intentional to an extent, but the balance is just a bit off for me) The shadow monster is very spooky, I love it
I can't really figure out the gameplay (might just be me, I'm not good at this type of game) but I appreciate the premise and the art style a lot!
Same issue as kemp, looped on the intro scene.
Such a cute little tower defense game. Fits the theme perfectly, graphics and music are great and balance and gameplay seem really good too. I lasted ten waves before the game froze on me (it lagged a bit each wave spawn so I'm not sure if that was on my end or the game not being optimised)
Wow. This was really atmospheric and metaphorical. I got the puppy ending but- yes, let's not talk about how I got the card ;_; I loved the flood of new cards at the end. Feels like a really interesting metaphor for psychological/mental struggles.
Short tutorial while author is still asleep ( :P ): 1. Place a beaver on a tile with trees on it to gain sticks 2. Place sticks on a tile to build dams that are impassable for the river 3. Your goal is to prevent the river from flooding the circular thing (nest?) in the bottom right side by redirecting the river elsewhere
Even though this is for an older gamejam, I had to give this a try, especially seeing that there's a postjam version available. I love cyberpunk stuff and you used the setting really well, it even got surprisingly intellectual for such a short game. Art is fantastic too and immediately drew my eye. As an artist, I also have to admire how economical is.
Молодцы, понравилось)
Lovely little game
Incredible game - looks and feels and plays gorgeous. My only wish is that the fire attack were mapped to something other than the Ctrl key.
Just had a few wonderful hours with this. Had a bit of a learning curve, for sure, but I got the hang of it. Only criticism is some UI tooltips would be nice, it took me a while to realise what damage, range, etc. were represented by. Thanks for the lovely game.
Balance feedback: I feel like Bamboo really needs a cap on maximum range. I eventually hit a point where I never even saw the enemies anymore because my Bamboo was nuking them across the map... Also, maybe max sunlight cost for planting Bamboo should increase with each Bamboo planted?
LD53 — Delivery (2)
Pheasant Courier by cagibi 2023-05-01T10:40:34Z ♥ 1
This came out incredibly cute and charming! Unfortunately I'm a bit bad at this kind of platforming ^^;
The Infernal Trail by Tudvari 2023-05-01T10:30:10Z ♥ 1
Itch.io link still not working, I'll keep an eye out for when it updates