Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Historymaker118
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | Carrot Patch | compo | 108 | 3.68 | 3.62 | 2.88 | 3.22 | 3.84 | 3.36 | 3.25 | 3.53 | |
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | Bail Out! | jam | 707 | 3.46 | 3.49 | 3.03 | 3.08 | 3.71 | 3.52 | 3.21 | ||
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | 👥 | Jake, Zack, and Chad's Day Out | jam | 1653 | 3.30 | 3.41 | 3.12 | 3.46 | 3.62 | 3.45 | 3.82 | 3.30 |
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | 👥 | 60 Second Supermarket Sweep | jam | 567 | 3.42 | 3.33 | 3.05 | 2.71 | 3.62 | 3.41 | 3.63 | |
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | 👥 | Dear Leader's Diet Plan | jam | 915 | 3.09 | 2.87 | 3.18 | 3.54 | 2.80 | 3.40 | 3.71 | 3.00 |
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | 👥 | K.R.A.B.S. | jam | 585 | 3.04 | 3.04 | 2.69 | 2.08 | 3.37 | 3.65 | 1.47 | 2.81 |
Very clean simple tile placement game. I enjoyed playing it, though the multiplayer option didn't seem to be working for me so I only played single player. Could be improved with some background music and a more interesting skybox, but other than that, a very polished game that I would be happy to play again.
Well other than the awkward silence after the music failed to loop, and the sneezing sound effect making me feel somewhat uncomfortable, and my poor co-ordination to be able to use the arrow keys and wasd keys to move and shoot in different directions, this was a solid game concept that was well executed in the time you had. I would love to see a version of this with perhaps a slightly more forgiving difficulty curve (once it hit around wave ten, things ended pretty quickly for me), some nicer looking graphics, and a set of sound effects that didn't make me squirm. Congratulations for completing the jam and making a working game, not everyone can do that.
Wow, this is pretty much the exact same concept as the second game I ever made, felt weird playing a very similar version of something I had spent months of my life working on, so perhaps I'm incredibly biased when I say I liked this game. The graphics were cute, and there's plenty of humour in picking up and dropping exploding cars onto the people and cows below. Could have used some music as it felt rather quiet, however for something made in three days I can forgive it for not having any. A really great entry.
Really beautiful game, I just had to play it on seeing the screenshots. The music was also lovely, shame it didn't loop for me, the game really lost something without it.
It took me a while to figure out the controls, but I managed to get the hang of it and completed the first level, though jumping between the boxes took several attempts to get right, it's quite hard to tell what angle your character is jumping toward when zoomed out, and the hand often got in the way.
However, I was able to complete the game, and I enjoyed the experience. This is incredibly good for a three day game, and I hope you continue to develop this concept further, I'd love to be able to play even more levels.
Very atmospheric, the story was interesting and I liked the way you used the theme. Had some trouble with the controls though, and navigating was difficult due to a lot of invisible walls and it not being clear what I could and could not interact with. The graphics and sounds worked well to create an interesting mood, and overall I would consider this a good effort for a game made in three days. It would interesting to see where this would go if you had more time to work on it.
Absolutely stunning to look at, those textures are incredible. Music also fits really well and was a pleasure to listen to. I'm pleased to not be seeing yet another space/planet game, I know you've said that you normally 'hate the theme' but well done for coming up with a novel concept that went beyond the obvious in how you used it.
Thankfully I have an adjustable mouse and was able to turn down the sensitivity to play without too many problems, though I was very confused as to what it was I was trying to achieve at first. I soon figured out the growing and shrinking and managed to find the key, though I somehow managed to lose it by dropping it through one of the portals in an attempt to shrink it down and was forced to restart the game.
The art and music really reminds of the old Titanic point and click adventure game for PC, it has the same atmosphere. The surreal feeling of scale changing was also very reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, I half expected to see a white rabbit in there somewhere.
I found this from following your youtube channel which I discovered a few days before the jam started while looking for inspiration and helpful advice from those who had done this before. I'm really looking forward to seeing your documentary postmortem on how you made this.
I was really excited to play this, however the windows build I downloaded would not run, instead crashed with an error and deleted itself from my system. I attempted to install it three times, but had the same trouble each time. I'm incredibly sad to not be able to play this game as it looks incredible. I will abstain from rating it, but at least know that I love the art style.
I lost my first battle. And apparently the game. Had no idea what it was I supposed to be doing or how the game worked. It took several attempts to begin to understand the game. Once I did understand what I thought I was supposed to be doing, I still had great difficulty forming a winning strategy. There is a good game idea in here somewhere, I'm not sure you managed to make it work for this attempt. With some more time and playtesting there is the potential to do better.
I liked the retro graphics of this, and the arcade style action. Has a very retro feel. Unfortunately like most old school games, I found it very hard to play, either I'm just bad at the game's mechanics, or it's intentionally nintendo hard, after five attempts I could still barely get to 30 seconds. Perhaps it's something I need to practice to get good at. Great work for being made in only 2 days.
Unfortunately I couldn't seem to pick up the treasure (I'm assuming you have to press spacebar when the symbol shows up) so I wasn't able to play much of this. It's a shame because it seems like there's probably much more content than what I experienced.
The art style is cute, and the game has a nice sense of humour, and I'm super thankful I'm not seeing yet another space/planet game for this theme, well done for thinking beyond the obvious. I like how the screen wraps around, makes a nice change from simply having colliders on the edges.
Downside, the controls feel very floaty, I'm not sure if that's what you were trying to do what with it being underwater and all, but I kept accidentally sliding past the activation points for the fish conversation, and missing half of what he was saying. Also it would be nice to jump. Not that jumping necessarily has an impact on gameplay, but it would make the game feel perhaps a little more responsive.
For a single person dev-team in under 48 hours this is a good effort, and I hope that you continue in developing games and learn from the experience of making this one.
Had fun smashing the floating things. Wasn't too sure of what it was I was trying to achieve until after I lost. The game feels like it was missing things to manage other than the catapult. The music and sound effects were cute and added to the world, and the graphics were nice. Solid effort for something made in a weekend.
Loved the concept of this game, found it very difficult to solve, but once I understood what it was I needed to do, I started finding the right combinations and had fun. I wasn't able to grow all of the plants, but this is a game I want to return to later to at least try again. It's nice to have a puzzle game I want to come back to after getting stuck, that doesn't often happen for me.
The art and music are of a nice quality, and the sound options were a nice feature (something I've neglected to put in my own game now that I think about it). A solid effort for the jam, and I'm really pleased to have not missed this.
I hope you continue developing games of a similar nature.
Game looks and feels wonderful to play. Super smooth controls, clean minimal design, really nice soundtrack.
One thing I did notice was that it wasn't immediately obvious what would cause a gameover, but after the first time I lost, I quickly picked up the rules of the game. The gameplay was simple enough that I didn't need a tutorial, so that's a plus. Excellent work for the time you had, didn't find any bugs other than not having a way to exit it (but maybe that was your plan ;D).
I played the windows version but I'm definitely going to put this on my phone, it's exactly the sort of thing I enjoy playing on android.
Great effort for a jam game. Managed to figure out the puzzle and escape the room. Really clever use of the shadows for clues, haven't seen a puzzle like that for quite some time. Music and atmosphere were both great, I think my only complaint would be that it was perhaps a little too easy to solve, then again I have played a lot of these in the past so perhaps certain conventions are more obvious to me than the average player.
@Archimagus Thank you for taking the time to play our game, I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. To address the issues you've raised, we are actively working on a more fleshed out and complete version of this game, and have added controller support, as well as clearer instructions on how to start the game (both players need to press the fire button to begin), and faster restart times (the game submitted for Ludum Dare does reset after ten seconds, you shouldn't need to quit and begin again, however we are aware this was not an ideal solution but was what we were able to get working in the limited development time available).
We're waiting for voting to close before releasing our improved version of the game, which also includes AI opponents, round length settings, additional game modes, and tournament brackets.
This is a very ambitious game for something made in three days. Perhaps a slightly smaller scope and a bit more polish would have gone a long way to making this better. As it is now, it is a very enjoyable experience, though there are some aspects that could be improved.
The controls feel very clunky, I'm not sure having to have the player hold down a button to run is a good idea, as there was no reason not to run so just making that the default movement speed would have helped the flow of the game and reduced development effort in having to create two sets of animation for the player character that could have been spent making the jump animation smoother, the jumping felt incredibly floaty. It was hard to tell where the trigger points were for interaction with the npcs which also didn't help.
The game looks nice, the low poly designs for the worlds was a nice throwback to early 3D platformers, and it was nice to have a lot of variety to explore in the three worlds you made. I enjoyed smashing up the rocks, trees, and flowers, but it took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to do with them once I had collected them all. I had fun flying around shooting the UFOs, it was a shame that there was no response to my actions doing so, and the final boss fight was over in less than five seconds, so that was disappointing.
In conclusion, a really excellent attempt for a weekend's worth of work, you are clearly a very talented team. I would be very interested in seeing what future games you manage to come up with.
Great little game, excellent graphics. Had a bit of difficulty timing my evades with the roll mechanic not feeling too responsive, but maybe that was just me. I really like the visual style, very well executed.
Good tutorial, nice implementation of the shrinking room mechanic, a pretty looking puzzle platformer with really nice atmosphere and music. I did have trouble with the controls though, and sometimes I seemed to get stuck and had to reload the game (I played the comp version, though I'm assuming this is a bug you've addressed in your post-comp version). I would say that it wasn't initially clear what it was that was killing me at times, some better visual feedback would have helped. Good work for a solo effort.
I really found the animations funny for this, the bit where you hit a penguin with the box got an audible laugh out of me. I think I was having some framerate issues trying to play this, which might just be the computer I'm on right now. I'll come back later once I'm on my home pc and check this out again.
Oh, I'm not able to play and rate this because I get an 'Index out of bounds' exception thrown when I try to play the web version. I'm really disappointed because I like these old top down style racing games and your graphics look great from the screenshots. Hopefully you can get this fixed soon.
I'm using firefox, and it's as soon as I load the page and click 'run game'
This is very impressive for a game jam, though it has nothing to do with the theme of the jam so I'm a little skeptical as to whether or not this work was all done this weekend. However I will trust that you did indeed make this for the jam and will rate it accordingly.
It's a very nice looking and sounding game, and while I did encounter a number of minor bugs there was nothing game breaking about any of them. The controls were smooth and the character felt good to control except maybe when trying to use the moving platforms. I like the ideas going on with the gameplay, though I was left a little confused by the puzzle eggs purpose, it seemed at odds with the idea of collecting a set number of eggs. (for example I was trying to find all of the puzzle eggs in one level, but I was moved on to the next one before I had even had a chance to properly explore the current stage.
If your intention was to make a collectathon style game then make the focus on exploration and finding secrets, or if you were wanting to make it more of a race game (ie collect things against a clock) then perhaps make it so that you have to find all of the items in a level to complete it.
Overall, I enjoyed this game and I hope you continue to develop games in the future.
Controls are smooth and responsive, and the gameplay is decent, simple objective, good little arcade title, not bad for a first outing. A nice interpretation of the theme. Clearly art is something you need to improve with, the biggest problem with this was the visual hierarchy of being able to see your character on the screen in the world. Being the same colour as the ground makes it really hard to tell where you're at which isn't a good. A good way to check your game's visuals are clear enough is to do a 'squint test'. Take one step back from your screen and squint your eyes. If you can still see all the important elements of your game then the odds are good that your player won't miss anything either.
You've got potential to be a better developer and we all have to start somewhere, this isn't bad for what it is. Hopefully see you in the next jam with an even better game!
This game is... weird. And I didn't really get into it at all. The controls felt awkward for me on a keyboard (I initially almost didn't play it because I don't have an xbox controller and I couldn't figure out what the keyboard keys were - but I eventually spotted them in really tiny writing buried in the bottom corner of the screen, so your UI design could really use some rethink!) This game really needs a tutorial, it's not clear what I'm supposed to be doing apart from trying to get food into my stomach, and I ended up getting stuck because a piece of food got lodged in the throat and I couldn't find a way to unblock it. Having said all of that, it's a unique and fun take on the theme with some original ideas going on here, it just fails a little in the execution of those ideas. Keep developing games, hopefully you'll continue to learn from this jam and will return for the next one with something even better!
Really simple game, but surprisingly addictive. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, nice work.
Really simple game, but surprisingly addictive. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, nice work.
Nice graphics, but not really sure what I was doing with the gameplay. I assume this is meant to be some sort of city builder, but it wasn't clear what my objective was, it also took me far too long to realise I could scroll around the city and expand more than what was visible on the screen. The art is nice, but for a game called 'Disco Lovers' the lack of soundtrack really bothered me. The screeching audio over the text at the start was pretty awful on the ears too. I have no idea what was going on with the plot or how it related to the gameplay, but I'm sure I must have missed something important. I struggled to see how this related to the theme of the jam, but you clearly worked hard on this and you should be pleased that you managed to make something this complete in only 72 hours working alone.
Maybe in future try to get some more feedback from people early on, a resource management game like this would also benefit from some paper prototyping to figure out what the core elements need to be.
Not a bad little platformer, really challenging, took quite a few attempts to move that first box onto the switch but eventually got there. The other levels were otherwise not too hard. Good gameplay for something made in a weekend.
Ooh a card game, haven't played one of these yet this jam. There are some really interesting mechanics on display here, well executed and seemingly well balanced too. My biggest complaint would be the user interface and graphics need a lot of work, it's just not always clear what is going on. A good place to start would be with choosing an appropriate font, and making sure that the user interface elements are cleanly laid out on screen so that the important information isn't being covered up. The game is also a little wordy, and with some well thought out iconography you could easily get away with less text to read taking up valuable screen space. You're clearly dedicated to becoming a better developer. I hope you can learn a lot from this experience and come back for the next jam with an even better game!
Sorry I've had nothing but technical issues trying to play your game, not sure what's going on but I think it might just be something on my end.
This game while very simple has it's charm. The art is amateur but it works. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the unconventional use of the mouse to move, it made the game feel very fluid and responsive. The game would really benefit from some 'juice' (there are some excellent lectures on game feel on youtube I recommend you check out) a few details like something to indicate you've picked something up, screenshake as you move faster, more upgrade options, some hazards to collide with? There are plenty of places you can take this game idea. Don't give up on development, I'd like to see you improve for the next jam!
The controls for this are really awkward, I'm not sure if it's just something wrong on my end but it felt very unresponsive to play (there seemed to be a delay between me pressing the jump button and my character moving as an example). I found it a little frustrating that I couldn't use my shield when I was too close to the wall. The music is catchy and goes well, and the graphics aren't bad. You have an interesting idea for a platformer here that I would like to see you continue to develop and take further, I think it's got a lot of potential.
This game is surprisingly difficult, I think it might be to do with the strange angle and lack of feedback to where in the level you are combined with the blocks falling too fast to react to (or maybe I just need more practice?). I like the idea, the graphics while simple and nice to look at and the music is good. Hopefully for the next game you'll get more time to playtest and get feedback to help with the iteration and balance.
Nice little game, cool concept, though I did have the game crash on me several times and had to keep starting over. The graphics and sound are decent, and the game is responsive to play. There's a good game in this somewhere, just a shame I couldn't properly experience it because of the bugs.
Ahhhh the controls are so frustrating with my keyboard! I could not get the jump to work consistently, and I kept failing to jump over and over again, falling repeatedly without feeling like I was in control. It's a real shame because there is some interesting puzzle design going on here that I otherwise should have been enjoying but wasn't able to. The graphics are nice and clean, though you could potentially add quite a lot to the game's visuals by having an interesting skybox/environment. The music and sound effects are also well presented. A good game, with a major flaw :(
A typing game? Interesting concept. The story was intriguing but I was a little confused by the mechanics, the whole 'spacebars' thing didn't really click with me. The graphics were nice and the music was very atmospheric and helped add to the experience. I'm not sure what this had to do with the theme, but it was a unique take on it regardless.
Really interesting story, wonderful music. I played through a couple of times, trying some different options, and got similar results each time. I'm not sure how much my character skills were affecting things, but the story was engaging and I liked the character you created. It's nice to see something so different for the jam, and I really appreciated the atmosphere of this.
I enjoyed this, took a few attempts to figure out what I was doing, but seemed to get there in the end. I like the art style, though was disappointed in the lack of music. The game could do with some better balancing as the challenge seems to escalate a little too quickly. A bit more depth to the mechanics would improve this (maybe a third type of tile you can place?) but not bad for a weekend jam game.
I really like these types of games, and this is a brilliant entry for something made in a weekend. It's a shame there isn't any music for the game, and the sound effects are a bit lacking, I otherwise had a great time with this, and I'll be keeping it around to play it again later.
Oh this is challenging. I found it really hard to keep track of what floor I was on, where the people were, and where the lifts were, if I had one suggestion it would be to reduce the number of lifts and floors you have at the start and gradually add more to increase the challenge, as it is it throws a lot at you at once and doesn't give you much time to learn how to do it. The graphics and music are nicely done, and I found the concept quite funny. Good work for a jam game!
I'm not a huge fan of these balancing games unfortunately, and wasn't all that taken with this one. I struggled to understand the pattern (if there even was one) to how the animals spread over time and I couldn't get very far with it even after a few attempts. The graphics really need some love, it can be hard to see what is going on at times and as a player I should never be asking the question 'what am I supposed to be looking at'. Think about what the most important information is for the player to know and try to find the best solution possible to making it as obvious as possible from the very first glance. A good effort for a jam game, just not my favourite.
This is brilliant. Great graphics, good solid gameplay, clever use of the theme with inventive mechanics. I really enjoyed playing this game, it's one I'm going to hold onto and keep coming back for! Well done.
I see someone has also watched the art of screenshake by vlambeer ;) (I can't really blame you it's one of my favourites too) it's nice to see that you've incorporated a lot of the game juice ideas presented in that. The art could have used a bit more work, but you still managed to make an enjoyable challenge. Good job, I hope you keep developing your skills and are able to apply what you know into other genres in future.
Had high expectations for this, the graphics look incredible. It's a shame that I was left feeling disappointed by the gameplay. I felt as though I was moving far too slowly and there was delay between me pressing the button and my character moving on the screen which didn't help things. The shooting felt very random as to which direction the block would move in, and because I felt I was moving too slowly I didn't seem to have enough time to correct my mistakes. It was frustrating to not be able to have some way to rotate the pieces falling which again added to my feeling of not being in control. There are some interesting ideas on display here, I think with some more playtesting during production you could have iterated out some of the issues holding it back. Hopefully you'll keep developing and will return for the next jam.
I wasn't really all that sure what I was doing with this game, sure it was fun throwing boxes around, but I couldn't figure out how to get my score above a certain point as boxes stopped spawning in and I had none left on the screen after a while (they all fell down the hole) and I only had 14/20. I tried to jump down the hole but was taken back to the menu with no explanation. The physics was fun and the graphics were ok, just needs more playtesting and iteration of your core mechanic. I noticed you had tried to develop several different game modes none of which were polished. I would suggest next time just pick the one and spend as much time as possible refining it until it shines. Game jam games don't need tons of features, they just need one implemented well.
This was surprisingly quite challenging and rather funny, got a few little laughs from me for some of the posters. A really creative idea and great use of the theme. Only gripe I have it that the controls were rather awkward, I often failed to pick up a poster and sometimes they would stick somewhere I didn't want. Good game.
Oooh a splatoon style game! I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen any others like this yet for the theme, we almost made one like this ourselves.
I really had fun with this, the controls were smooth and felt good, and the escalating levels helped build up the tension and gave some great challenge (though I did find that even when I lost I could still go to the next level - seems you may have a bug there). The only thing I would say is that you could really use some larger projectiles and some better feedback on whether you were hitting your opponent or being hit yourself. A simple colour flash or some screenshake would go a long way to improve the overall feel.
Not bad for a weekend's worth of work, I'd like to see you take this further and improve it, and hopefully you'll be back for the next jam with something even better!
This isn't a bad game, had a bit of fun with it. The music was repetitive, but quite catchy. The controls felt a little bit too floaty at times and I didn't always feel like I was in control of my triangle ship thingy which I really ought to be when the only thing I can do is move and the objective is to not be hit by things. Could do with some more polish, but well done for being complete in a weekend.
I enjoyed this, great graphics the popups got a few laughs out of me. A few things I would tweak would be the amount of damage your projectiles to, even at the maximum fire rate I didn't feel I was capable of hitting the large numbers of robots before they reached me. Also the aim felt a little off. Otherwise, really excellent entry, glad I got to play this.
I enjoyed this game, though I was really bad at it. Fun concept, well executed. I wasn't a huge fan of the ambient sounds, but they fitted the theme of you game. The models are very good and the whole thing has a nice polished feel. Good job.
Ooh, yeah this game needs some work. I really wasn't sure what I was doing here, I didn't initially realise that this was a real-time strategy game and was taking my time to consider where I placed my units and before I had a chance to figure out what I should be doing, I had already lost. I tried a couple of times just spamming units on enemy territory but seemingly could never win any encounter even with a significant numerical advantage. A bit more balancing of the mechanics would really help this, perhaps even try prototyping with a simple board game version before you begin coding could really help you iterate quickly and find the right values to set things at. Some interesting ideas on display here, and quite an ambitious game for a solo effort during a 48 hour period. I wasn't bothered by the lack of music, though some sound effects would have helped make me aware of what was going on in the scene as I found it difficult to focus on more than one section at a time.
Fantastic art, really weird concept, somewhat confusing gameplay. I enjoyed this but it still felt a little shallow, a few more mechanics, or perhaps a bit more 'juice' would really make this game shine. Other than that the art is some of the best I've seen so far, and you did something unique with the theme so well done!
This game left me very confused, it took me far too long to figure out which character on screen was me (I had assumed I was the yellow robot dude - red in games usually denotes an enemy) and the controls were very confusing. I ended up winning, not because I knew what I was doing but I think more out of sheer luck. I can see what you were trying to go for but the awkward controls and poor affordances in the user interface didn't help things. The music and sound effects were well done though so props for that. I think you've got potential, maybe try to get more playtesting feedback during development and iterate often!
This was funny, reminded me of Octodad with the controls. First I boiled, then I froze. I liked the music and the unique take on the theme. Great job!
Fantastic graphics, love your art style. Gameplay needs a bit of work, most notably in the 'game feel' department, even a very simple flashing animation when an enemy is being hit would add a lot to the experience. I would like to have seen some additional gameplay elements such as powerups or perhaps larger 'boss' sized monsters, but I appreciate you only had the weekend. Don't forget the importance of sound effects and music in your games, this game could really use some. A nice entry, a fun take on the theme, and excellent art work. Good job!
This was really confusing at first, and then I figured out what I was doing. It didn't always seem possible to find the right numbers to match the equation and it was all too easy to click on the wrong number and be stuck. I can see what it was you were trying to do here, but perhaps a little more time spent playtesting could have helped you iterate out the difficulty curve into something more reasonable. An interesting idea though, just not my cup of tea.
Yikes UI really needs some tlc here! It took a while to figure out what I supposed to be doing, the instructions weren't super clear, and I was really confused with what I could and couldn't place and the reasons why. I also wasn't sure why things kept disappearing. I would spend more time on your next game thinking about what information is the most important for the player to know and finding the best way to convey that, be it text on screen or otherwise.
Visual hierarchy is also really important, as is a good colour palette. Part of the reason I was so confused was because I wasn't sure what was going on in the scene. What were the numbers telling me? Were these numbers good numbers or bad numbers? I had a rough idea of how to make the numbers change, but I couldn't tell if what I was doing was correct or not.
I'm sure you had a great idea in here, it just needs more playtesting during development and iteration of the ui to really nail down those core ideas into something fun to play. Keep developing games, I'd like to see you come back for the next jam with something even better!
What a great little puzzle game. My only real complaint would be that having the things you are collecting be almost indistinguishable from the thing you are moving made it really confusing on several of the levels. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it felt like an artificial way to make the game more of a challenge when it was already well balanced without it. I'd like to have something like this on mobile as it feels like it would fit the platform really well and would be something I'd enjoy being able to jump in and out of playing. I'll be keeping this around to play again. Well done.
Well this was a random find, but a surprisingly great one. Really funny dialogue, and the music is fantastic! Took at bit of practice to get gud with the syringe throwing, but I'm having fun regardless. Congrats on making such a fun experience!
Well this was a random find, but a surprisingly great one. Really funny dialogue, and the music is fantastic! Took at bit of practice to get gud with the syringe throwing, but I'm having fun regardless. Congrats on making such a fun experience!
Took me a few minutes to figure out the controls and what I was supposed to be doing, but after I figured it out I had fun with it. Great atmosphere and music.
Had a quick play of this at lunch at work today, but I'll be coming back later to give it another go. The graphics are a little lacking, but that can be forgiven when the gameplay is this well put together. Excellent job for a jam entry, I'd love to see you expand on this, make some nicer art and take this game further, I feel it deserves it.
Ooh this is a fun little puzzler, I haven't seen this mechanic used this way before so you've got some innovation going on here which I like, the randomisation leading to infinite game possibilities adds a lot of potential replay value. The graphics are simple but have an old school charm to them, though the game desperately lacks music to help complete the experience even if the bleeps and bloops are serviceable as sound effects. I'll possibly come back to play more of this once the jam is over as I quite enjoy little puzzle games like this, especially on mobile which it would be awesome to see you port this to. Good job!
This was fun! Silly graphics and humour, and some nice simple gameplay, glad I got to play this, good job!
Really lovely graphics and a nice idea. I would say that I had some difficulty with this game mainly due to what seemed to me to be a noticeable delay between pressing the attack button and the animation completing enough to then inflict damage, in which time I appeared to be taking damage myself? Well I'm not sure, because there wasn't really anything letting me know for sure if I was hitting the enemy or being hit myself until either one of us died. I feel like just a bit more tweaking the feel of the controls and bit more feedback for the player on their actions would really turn this into something great. As it stands, it's not a bad game and I can see this being fun.
I love this. I've played nearly 100 games but so far this one is my favourite! I saw you post the screenshot and thought "Viscera cleanup detail? I love that game" and just had to come here to check it out. It did not disappoint. Beautiful atmosphere, great tutorialisation, smooth gameplay. I have only one real complaint and that is how the camera gets obscured when moving the larger boxes. Wish the whole thing was bigger with more content, but I appreciate you only had a weekend. Excellent, excellent work.
I really struggled with this game. I wasn't sure where to click, or if my attacks were even doing anything, I'm not sure if there was something I'm missing about this game, but I couldn't get into it. The graphics and music were ok, though they could both use a little polish.
Oh this game was fun! The art is fantastic, made me think of one my favourite games (day of the tentacle) and is super polished. Great game feel, good use of the theme and nice simple controls and mechanics. Really awesome game, thank you for sharing it.
Do you have a version of this game that doesn't have an installer? I'd prefer to not have to install anything to play your game.
This is an interesting concept. Got some unique mechanics going on that were a little tricky at first to get used to, but I eventually did. There was a bit of humour in the dialog boxes on the side what with missiles being sent out against me and everything, but the sound effects got very annoying very quickly. It would have been nice to have some music in the background to offset the bleeps and boops, as it was I ended up muting the tab. A great jam game for something made in a weekend, I hope you can come back for the next one with something even better!
I enjoyed this, great graphics (though your font choice could use a little work) fun fast paced action that plays smoothly. I would preferred if I could have adjusted the camera a little more as your character takes up a little too much of the screen but the breaking obstacles and escalating challenge were well implemented. Awesome music. Shame I couldn't see how this met the theme at all or I would have rated it higher.
I have no idea what is going on with this game. Your tutorial made no sense at all and if I clicked on literally anything at all, I just ended up with a game over screen. The music was great, but I just don't know what I'm doing enough to properly rate this game.
This game is nice to look at, but really really lacking in the gameplay department. There is no indication of what the objective is (I seemed to warp to the next level without having done anything) I don't understand the purpose of the toads, you die in the water far too easily (a single pixel out and you're forced to restart) and I cannot see how this in any way relates to the theme. Check out some videos on game feel (also known as 'juice') and try to add some better tutorialisation for your next project.
@yayapipi I'M SO SORRY! I accidentally mixed up your game page with someone else's and put the wrong review on each page! I'm super sorry for the confusion. Here's your actual review:
This game is so cute and enjoyable. The music is awesome, really added a lot to the experience. Some really clever gameplay ideas going on here, though I had a few issues with the controls not being as responsive as they should be (for example there was sometimes a delay between pressing a button and something happening on screen). Some improved graphics would have really helped make this game shine, as well as bit more game feel, but for a solo effort in a weekend it's a good little game. Nice simple mecahnic that I haven't seen before made into something fun. Well done!
Controls are very awkward, I kept getting stuck and unable to move properly which didn't help matters. Not a fan of the zombie theme, personally I find zombies a completely played our genre, though you did make the climbing on the corpses an interesting idea to work with the theme. Art was okay, might want to try doing a squint test on it for the next time you make a game, it was a little tricky trying to figure out was was in the foreground and what was in the background, the helicopter didn't fit at all with the rest of the art. The sound effects were far too loud and poorly balanced, had to turn the sound off after a short while. Not bad for something made in a weekend, but certainly could be improved on.
Had a very hard time trying to play this game, the camera was far too sensitive and it was incredibly hard to control. Also I felt like I had no time to complete objectives (for example I was asked to collect 4 objects in 1 second, but I couldn't even see the objects in that time, let alone reach them!).
It seems like you probably over-scoped with this project, in future try to remember that quality wins out over quantity in game jams, and making smaller simpler games with one or two levels that has great polish to the gameplay as well as look and feel are often better received. I don't doubt that you worked hard on this project but it's clear that you needed some playtesting feedback during it's development. I hope you continue to make games and come back for the next jam having learned a lot from this one!
First let me say how much I enjoyed the music for this game, it really added to the experience. The gameplay is solidly executed even if a bullet hell top down shooter isn't the most original idea out there. Where this game falls down is in the graphical department, simple things like making sure that your player character doesn't blend in with the background assets, selecting an interesting (but legible!) font would help improve the UI, and just 'juicing' everything up to help ground the player in the world by making every input felt in some way. You've already got some of that going on here, but even more would really improve things in future. I would also add that you probably could afford to cut back on some of the mechanics for a jam game, there were a bunch of upgrades that never really got their chance to shine in the five minutes I spent playing your game. Keeping your game scope small, and giving it that extra level of polish is what helps make your game stand out from the crowd. You clearly understand how to make a function and fun game, and I hope to see you back for the next jam!
This game is really cute, and really challenging. I really struggled to meet the objective, and gave up after 15 minutes of trying, I seemed to be stuck in a loop of using up resources to mend ground faster than I was able to collect enough to get my fifth character. I love the art style and the gameplay is nice and straightforward to get into. Great work.
Clean graphics, smooth gameplay. I beat it on my first attempt but had fun doing so and there is just the right level of challenge. Sound effects got repetitive after a short while, some music would have helped improve the atmosphere significantly. I liked the sprite work and the user interface was easy to understand. The only things I would think could be improved on would be the general 'game feel', a bit more 'juice' on screen to help the player feel connected would go a long way, and maybe a few additional features such as powerups could help expand the gameplay further. All that being said, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected from the screenshot alone, and I'd probably come back to this one when I had five minutes I wanted to kill. Good work, hopefully I'll see more games from you in the future!
I enjoyed this, though I feel it was a little heavy on the rng side of things with how dependent you are on getting the right things out of the drops to keep your party alive. The graphics and sound are well implemented and it got me to smile. Good jam game!
Beautiful graphics, really gave me some early gameboy nostalgia. The game was fun to play, but it was rather easy to complete. My only complaint is that I wanted more, but I suppose that's not really a bad thing. A bit more polish in the sound/music department would have helped a lot, but otherwise a great game. Thank you for sharing it.
I wasn't expecting much from this, the graphics didn't look all that impressive and I was ready for yet another uninspired top down shooter. But somehow you exceeded my expectations and I had a lot of fun playing your game! The controls were so smooth and felt great, there was never that moment where I didn't feel in control of my character, me failing was my own fault. The guns had great variety and felt good to use and taking down the large monsters was surprisingly engaging.
Of course there are plenty of things to be improved here, most notably in the graphical department, but mechanically this game is super solid. Well done!
I really enjoyed this game. So simple, yet very touching. The music got a little repetitive, and the levels could do with a bit more challenge (I found the whole thing to be a little too easy) but a fantastic effort for a two game solo game.
I think the game is crashing on me, and I'm not sure why. I get to the end of the first level by solving the puzzle and then the music stops, everything freezes and I can't do anything but refresh the page. I've tried three times now to play this game, but I can't :(
Edit: I'm using firefox on windows 7. I hope you can get it fixed, I'll hold off rating until I can properly experience it, but if it helps, I love the art style.
I'm sick and tired of them putting chemicals in the water that ~~turn the friggin' frogs gay!~~ help stop the population growing!
Dark humour, funny concept, well executed and and original take on the theme. Reminded me of that mobile game where you spread viruses. Graphics were nice, though they could do with a little bit of refinement. Good job!
This game is excellent. Wonderfully made, well produced art, funny dialogue, nicely presented tutorial that explained the game's surprisingly deep mechanics very well, and solid gameplay. I could nitpick the difficulty of this game and how the bodies seem to pile up unreasonably quickly, but that would be overly critical for a game made in single weekend. Brilliant entry, well done.
Great concept, horribly balanced? This game really needs a tutorial or perhaps some way of explaining the mechanics to the player, I couldn't understand why my population kept expanding so rapidly and I wasn't able to keep up with the constantly increasing food and housing demands for more than a few minutes before I died trying to get the research upgrades. I think this game has potential, it just needs a bit more iterating to get the balance right.
I know the aim of this game was not to squish things, but you had to go and make squishing things so stupidly fun that I couldn't help myself. The graphics are cute, the music is catchy (if a little repetitive after a while) and it's a unique take on the theme, even if I feel as though you are stretching it a little. My only real complaint is that I didn't realise for the first couple of attempts that I had to hold down the spacebar to properly stomp and I was a bit confused as to why I kept gliding forward after tapping it. A short tutorial screen or similar might help, though perhaps just adjusting the timing a little on the button press would work just as well. A good entry that I'm glad you shared with me, I had fun.
Took a while to figure this game out but eventually got there, an interesting concept, though it could have done with a better tutorial. The music was really repetitive and rather annoying after a few minutes so I had to mute it, but the graphics were great. Not a bad game.
Simple game with frustrating controls. Half the time my clicks were doing nothing and the game rarely registered a right click so I ended up with an inventory full of sealed items I could neither drop nor open. An interesting concept for a game, inventory management of finding the good loot is a core component of many rpgs and I enjoyed the idea of this game because of it. The graphics are nice, but the music is too repetitive and got very annoying very quickly. Not bad for a weekend's work, I would just make sure that your controls feel responsive first and foremost for your next game. Hope to see you back for the next jam having learned a lot from this experience, you've clearly got potential.
Nice graphics, shame about the rest of it. There's a few things that you could probably do to really improve this, firstly I'd make it so that your character can move faster, maybe add a jump? Some simple things like a way to see your score/timer, a few bits of game juice such as screenshake would go a long way to making the game feel responsive to your actions, and don't forget how important music and sound effects can be!
I'm guessing as this was your first jam that you probably mismanaged your time enough that you didn't get it playable for feedback before you submitted, and while having nice graphics is important, good gameplay always wins out. I hope to see you return for the next ludum dare, maybe join a team who need a good artist designer as you're clearly skilled there.
Ooh an interesting little puzzle game. This was surprisingly more challenging than I thought it might be, but I soon started to get the hang of things. A really interesting mechanic with creating your own gravity centres that works rather well. The graphics could do with some work as they aren't anything to write home about, and the lack of a soundtrack hurt the game too, but you're working alone so programmer art can be forgiven when the gameplay is this nice. A good experience.
Jumping felt good, the spritework is cute and not bad for a jam game, however I was very confused whether I won or not? I managed to find all the chests, and surrounded the blob thing with the blocks, and then I just saw a screen with 'exterminated' on it? Was that a game over screen, if so what did I do wrong? The whole thing needs a bit more polish and could really do with some more game feel (aka 'juice' - there are some great videos on youtube about this subject) but you have some interesting concepts for a 2d platformer that show you have the potential to become better. Keep making games!
Clean graphics, nice sound, excellent tutorialisation, good use of the camera, smooth intuitive controls, and it made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Not sure what else I could want from a game really. Excellent work!
I wasn't very sure where the challenge was in this game, was it just to make sure that everyone got given the right letter and only let certain people in, or did I miss something? Lovely art and music though, very atmospheric.
I do not have the co-ordination to play games like this, so me being bad at it is entirely my fault. The graphics are really lacking, but the gameplay is smooth and I can see what you were going for with the theme. Not bad for something made in a couple of hours, hopefully you'll get more time for the next jam. Don't give up on development, you'll get there!
Nice game, had fun with this, I really like the music and the art style, game has great atmosphere. Reminds me of Dexter's Lab with the colour choices.
I managed to save Earth! (and then immediately died) This was a fun game, though if I had one complaint it would be how poor the controls felt most of the time, it was almost impossible to steer where I wanted to and there seemed to be some delay between pressing buttons and seeing the ship respond (this might have been just me though, I'm not sure). Not bad for something made in a weekend though.
I did it on my third attempt. Was a fun little challenge, only thing I would change is how long you have to wait until you can try again. There are a lot of ways you could expand this concept into a more complete experience, but for something made in a weekend this isn't all that bad.
Incredible graphics, smooth gameplay, some great humour, and a nice soundtrack to round it off. Only thing I'm not too sure about is how it relates to the theme, but a really solid entry regardless. Going to save this one and come back to play it again.
I really enjoyed this game, the music was really fun, and I liked the quick matching mechanic. I would like to see you take this further, perhaps by having more advanced combinations with more powerful effects (being able to combine matching potions for example) perhaps in a similar manner to 2048/threes? This was an unexpected gem to find, thank you for sharing it with me and well done.
I like a good puzzle game, and I like snappy 2d platformer jumps, this game had both. Really clever puzzle design, though perhaps a little heavy on the trial and error approach as you can't see the whole puzzle until you've already failed it multiple times. I enjoyed this little game, and while the music and graphics weren't anything special, they worked for this. Nice job!
This is probably the first game I've played that made me feel dizzy and motion sick which is a shame because the graphics are very beautiful and polished and the music is relaxing and pretty chill (I've even left it running in the background to enjoy while I type this review). I'm a little disappointed at how the gameplay is squished up at the top of the screen, and the dialogue pushed right down to the bottom (on a large monitor it's not very comfortable to keep track of), and while very pretty to look at for short periods, the main background spinning was very distracting and didn't do anything to enhance the gameplay (and for me personally made the experience worse). You've clearly got a flair for visuals though so I hope you continue to make games, the game was really well balanced and thought-out and I never experienced any bugs or crashes which is impressive. An interesting experience.
I have no idea what I was doing because the writing doesn't make sense (I'm assuming English is not your native language as the grammar was all over the place) but the music, visual design, cutscenes, and UI were all fantastic and totally worth rating very highly. An interesting take on the theme and some interesting mechanics at work (I figured out that I was supposed to take a chance on the contract being fulfilled or not, or just taking their soul there and then) with some good balanced risk-reward. Really impressive for something made in a weekend.
This was really good. A really clever take on the theme, a simple core mechanic implemented really well. Lots to like about the UI, art, and music/sound effects. It had a good level of polish and balance and just the right level of challenge. I can't think of much that I would change about it really. Nice work! I hope you continue to make more games and come back for future jams!
This was an interesting game. First thought was how much I liked the colour scheme you used, it's a rather unusual combination that really works with your art style, so kudos for having some great graphics. The general presentation and user-interface were both clean and easy to read which is always a plus. I also enjoyed your screen transition animations, they helped bookend each game day nicely.
I had a little bit of trouble getting to grips with your game's mechanics, maybe it was just something I wasn't quite understanding, but I did die several times trying to figure it out and am still a little confused as to how I could sustain my income. The fertiliser also seemed very inconsistent as to where I could and couldn't place it. Perhaps there was a bug, or maybe I just missed something?
I think you've done a great job of using the theme to come up with an interesting concept, and you certainly have a good eye for striking game visuals and good UI design. I didn't encounter any bugs either so you've probably got your coding ability nailed too. Nice entry, thank you for sharing it with me.
@madbeagle Seems a last minute bug made it's way into the build, we'll work on getting that resolved before the deadline. Thanks for the feedback, we hope you'll check it out again in the future.
Update: Yup, found the bug. Patching now, and getting a new build uploaded.
@cozmic Thanks for the feedback. You can purchase an upgrade from the upgrade shop that allows you to move faster, but it will cost you in available time. I'll definitely consider your feedback on the colour brightness for when I eventually get around to making a post-jam version. (not this week though, I need to sleep and there are other people's games to play!)
@frostdragonliz Could you please explain what you're doing to get it to crash? I've not been able to replicate the issue on my end.
@cee-dee thank you for the feedback! We didn't really have time to implement a more explicit tutorial into the game so tried to make it as intuitive as possible (run around collecting items, get to the checkout and leave before time runs out) but you're right that it isn't initally clear. We'll certainly have a good think about how to better turorialise the gameplay for the next iteration. On the subject of the 'large display support' there is an option in the in-game menu (under graphics) to toggle fullscreen on. For some reason the itch.io page fullscreen button that gets added doesn't work :shrug: There should be a prompt come up when you get near something that can be interacted with (a little speech bubble with the letter F in it) but if there are any missing it would be good to know so I can fix it for the post-jam build.
I'm glad you had enough fun to keep coming back to it, I'll certainly try yours when I can.
@kaiomoi you can always use the arrow keys in place of WASD if you don't have a standard qwerty layout
This isn't too bad, could do with some more polish. I'm not a fan of platformers, but this one isn't the worst game I've played. I liked the idea behind trading in life for power-ups but I think you need a few more iterations before the mechanic feels little less 'tacked on'. The art was okay, certainly was easy to see what was going on, and I enjoyed the exploding animation you get when an enemy dies. Jumps felt nice and tight, no awkward floatyness going on which is always a plus so well done there. Not a bad attempt for a game made in a weekend, I hope you continue to refine your skills and keep making games. This is certainly better than anything I made when first starting out several years ago.
This was fun, and the voice acting made me really laugh. If there was one thing I would change it would be the jump, it seems very floaty as it takes longer to fall than it does to rise up (normally you want this to be the other way around for smooth and snappy jumps). Nice take on the theme, and some great artwork in there too.
The story was really interesting and well written, and it tied into the macro game perfectly. The music was nice and the art style fitted the game very well. I especially loved the ship design! My one real complaint with the game is that it was very hard to see the enemy projectiles in the shoot 'em up sections and I wasn't sure if I was dodging things coming at me that would kill my crew, or just background scenery. Making them larger, or the background stars a little less bright in comparison to the interactable game objects would have helped immensely. I really enjoyed the concept behind this game, and it's a great take on the theme. Awesome work, and well done for only having a weekend to make this!
This was strange. I don't understand it at all, but at least you've invented something unique.
I really enjoyed this little game. It has a charming art style that's very unique and a great soundtrack that adds to the whole aesthetic nicely. My one complaint would be that the controls were very floaty and hard to control, and I was left feeling a little frustrated on more than one occasion after drifting into an enemy while trying to land on a lower platform. Having said that, I've given this multiple attempts and I still had fun with it. It's a nice combination between pac-man and a 2d platformer, and there's certainly a fun game in there with just a little bit more refinement on the movement. I hope you continue to develop games and come back for future jams, you've done really well on this one.
Well that was creepy. Not sure if I enjoyed it, but it was certainly an interesting concept. It was a little hard figuring out what I was doing for a while, because I just seemed to be able to press and hold down the right arrow key and spacebar and get points, and there wasn't any reason to move upwards or change direction as far as I could tell. The audio was good, and the art style works for what you were going for (I got a strong Limbo vibe from the glowing eyed kids). Not a bad effort for a weekend, and an interesting take on the theme.
Not a bad game, very interesting concept, though I did struggle at first figuring out how to play. It's got some potential, and isn't bad for something made in a weekend. I hope you continue to develop games and compete in future events, you've got some real potential.
I really like that you had an opening cutscene, really helped pull me in to your game, and not something many people have time for for a game made in a weekend. The story seemed interesting and you certainly put a lot of thought into your world building.
I had a bit of trouble with the gameplay as I wasn't too sure at first whether I should have been focusing on mining for resources or constantly trying to jump to new systems, and finding the right balance was a little tricky when I kept ending up in systems with none/low resource planets.
I enjoyed the music, reminded me of the soundtrack to one of my favourite games that not many people have heard of called 'American McGee's Scrapland' so that's a huge plus, and the overall presentation of the game (art, user interface, effects) were all well put together and worked well.
Great jam entry, I hope you continue to make games and refine your skills, you have the potential to become a really great developer in time.
Well done. Really enjoyed seeing you pull this together over the weekend, thanks for all the support, hope you do well. Really sweet visual effects in this btw, and that music is super catchy!
J and K as inputs on a keyboard? I take it you don't use a standard ansii/uk iso layout because that was really uncomfortable to play with those keys, in future perhaps try to keep to more standard keys, or give the user an option to rebind them.
The game really could have used some music or at least some sound effects, though I understand that you perhaps didn't have time to add them in.
The artwork is nice and well presented, and the user interface was clean, easy to read and showed everything needed.
Gameplay wasn't all that exciting (though I'm not a huge fan of 2d platformers in general so take that for what you will) however the physics were a nice touch and I had fun punching robots.
Good use of the theme (which was a tough one this time) and an overall well presented experience. I didn't experience any bugs, so that's another major plus. Solid game guys, I hope you keep making games.
This was great! Really simple concept executed well - exactly what a good jam game should be. I loved everything about this game and I really can't think of anything I would say negative about it except that it was perhaps a bit on the easy side and could do with some more challenging levels, but this is certainly something you should consider developing future. Excellent, excellent game.
Ooooh, I love me some parallax effects, and this game has really great ones! Also the music is excellent, really chill and adds a lot to the game's atmosphere. Had a bit of trouble getting into this because the controls felt really unresponsive at times as though there was a delay between pressing the button and the character doing something, but with a bit of practice I finally got into a rhythm and managed to survive for longer than before. Not bad for a game made in a weekend, you clearly have some potential as a game developer and I hope that you will continue to improve your skills and level up irl.
This game is great fun! A really simple set of mechanics that work really well together in a unique way that ties to the theme, plenty of good quality art and music and a well designed easy to understand UI made this a very enjoyable experience and a great jam entry. My only complaint would be how the diffuculty was very dependent on RNG and there was one powerup I never got from the slot machines. I did enjoy the 'push-your-luck' approach to gambling life for upgrades though so I wouldn't know quite how to balance this out. I hope you continue to make games, I'd love to see what you do in the future.
This was great. Really had some cool ideas going on with the core mechanic and the puzzle design, definitely a good use of the theme. This game was just oozing atmosphere despite the limited details, and I think a large part of that was the soundtrack which was perfect for this game. I'd really love to see you take this concept further, get some better graphics, make some more levels, give this some real polish. You could have the next portal on your hands if you know what to do with this. Good work!
This is such a simple concept, but it's surprisingly fun to play and a really innovative twist on the defence game concept. The music was a little irritating after a while and you could have really done with a slightly longer sample, but it does have that great 'made in a weekend' charm to it too. Graphics weren't anything too special, the game could have really benefited from some more 'juice' and feedback, as an example I hadn't even noticed for quite a while that I had lost a couple of hearts from getting swarmed, something simple like a bit of screenshake, or even just a sound effect would have gone a long way to helping.
You've clearly got potential as a game developer as you have a great mechanic here, and you've implemented it well (the game feels nicely balanced with just the right level of challenge) so I hope you continue to refine your skills and keep making games!
I liked the explosions and screenshake, it went a long way to making this something I played for far longer than I thought I would initially. The UI was a little hard to read, the thin bright font on the bright background wasn't the easiest to read and was the main thing that needed improving. Just something as simple as putting a background panel behind the text would have made it easier to read during the middle of gameplay. The game was actually very challenging, but I'm not sure the upgrade system was working properly as the two upgrades I had enough life to purchase during my playtime (auto-fire and I forget the other) didn't appear to do anything. It was also very hard to acquire any additional life and considering how easy it was to lose, the upgrades seemed very expensive and it was hard to judge whether buying one would be worth it. Not bad for a jam game though, and it was a fun experience. I hope you continue to make games and get better, you've got potential to become a good developer in time.
Art wasn't too bad, though you might want to check on your tileset as there are a few places where there's a couple of pixels from a neighbouring tile hanging mid-air which spoils the otherwise consistent aesthetic. I liked the music though it stopped playing shortly into the game and never restarted (have you remembered to set it to loop?) and it's absence was sorely noticed with the overly spammy sound effects. I'm not a fan of 2d platformers, but I didn't have any issues with your controls so that helped me enjoy the experience. I would say that you need to give the player more feedback with the combat as it wasn't clear when I was hitting an enemy or when the enemy was hitting me. It also took a while to figure out I needed to press and hold 'e' after killing an enemy to drink their blood (which was a cool mechanic and great take on the theme!) as the text vanished too quickly for me to read it at first. I didn't understand the point of the sunglasses and the umbrella (I guess they help protect me from the sun or something) as there wasn't anything to make it clear that having them did anything.
You've clearly got the potential to become a good developer, just take more time to give the player clear feedback on their actions, and you'll have a really good game in the future. I hope you keep developing and come back for future jams.
Someone managed to make a tetris game fit the theme, now that's creative! Really polished UI and visual design (simple but works really well for this sort of game) and the audio was a fun retro style theme that worked nicely with the gameplay. I was frustrated by the lack of gravity on the tetriminos which made the game feel very random with not enough room to fix mistakes, the ability to t-spin would have helped here. Not at all bad for something made in a weekend, though I'm not a huge fan of this type of puzzle game so take that for what you will. I hope you continue to make games and come back for future jams!
Lovely clean graphics and UI, it was clear how to play and what to do (though it took me a few minutes to get used to switching between all the screens). It would have been nice to have some visual reminder of what potions were needed on the potion creation screen, or some visual notification when a customer order changed or time was running out as on more than one ocassion I found myself making the potions needed only to return to the main screen and no one wanted any of the potions I had made and I didn't have the ingredients for the ones they did. An interesting concept overall, and a very polished entry for a weekend jam game, I hope you continue to make games.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this game, got some fallout/kenshi vibes from it which is never a bad thing. I would say that it was difficult to figure out what I was doing at first as it wasn't clear what objects could be interacted with and which were just there for decoration. Definitely a bit of over-scope here as it seems the gameplay got spread a bit thin. (Always try to keep your jam games simple and short, and spend that time putting the polish in). You've definitely got potential as game designers though, as there are some great ideas in this as well as some nice world-building (which is always appreciated). I hope you guys keep making games and come back for the next Ludum Dare.
I had no idea what was going on with this game, the tutorial was more confusing than anything else and the poor grammar and spelling mistakes combined with the bad UI made it really difficult to follow. You seemed to have made a rather complicated game here, but didn't do a great job of explaining it properly which you really really need to do. The music was nice though so that's something good.
This was super cute and I really liked the art style and music. The gameplay was interesting and a good take on the theme, though I did struggle a bit with it due to not knowing where I was supposed to be going at first and the boxes needed to move around took too long to push where they needed to go which just felt like I was wasting precious time I could have been doing posting letters. A great concept and excellent work for something made in a weekend, nice entry.
This was great! Really simple concept executed well - exactly what a good jam game should be. I loved everything about this game and I really can't think of anything I would say negative about it except that it was perhaps a bit on the easy side and could do with some more challenging levels, but this is certainly something you should consider developing future. Excellent, excellent game.
This had really nice art and animations, and the concept was pretty solid. I had some serious issues with the controls though, they were very unresponsive and I continually found myself getting stuck on objects that I don't think I should have been getting stuck on, as well as the jump being very inconsistent and didn't seem to register most of the time I pressed the button. I think this was meant to be a puzzle platformer, but the speed at which you moved made me think I had to race through the level which led to me dying frequently and not understanding why at first. A few more hours of polish to the controls and level design and you would have a pretty decent game. Really good job on the art style though, my first reaction to your screenshot was 'woah that looks cool' which doesn't always happen with jam games. Well done.
This reminded me of 'geometry dash' and considering how many hours I've somehow managed to sink into that (something with nearly 3 digits) that's not a bad thing! The art was simple, but works really well for the game you were making, and the user interface was clean and easy to understand. My one big complaint would be how inconsistent the jumping was, half the time the game wasn't registering my inputs, or was reacting several frames too late (which made timing my jumps impossible) combined with a jump cycle that was the wrong way around (you need to make sure that you land faster than you take off - yours does the opposite, you rise up faster than you fall which feels very wrong) and it was frustrating to play in all the wrong ways. The rewind mechanic was cool though and implemented really well (I suspect that's where you spent most of your efforts this weekend and it wasn't wasted) and it was a great take on the theme (which was a tough one this time around). Good work for a first time round - you've got the right stuff to become a great developer with some time and practice. It's far better than anything I was making as a teenager. I hope to see your next game in Ludum Dare 45, keep going!
I enjoyed this game a lot. It's a very simple concept, with very simple mechanics, but you clearly put a lot of time into refining and polishing it which is exactly what a good jam game should be. The models were all really nice and the overall look and feel were great. I can't think of much else to say other than well done! I hope you continue to improve your game design skills and come back for future game jams, you've got potential to be an excellent developer.
Janky, janky controls, you might want to check what you're doing in your update function because the characters were stuttering along every frame and it felt as though I was dragging them through gravel rather than having smooth platforming and responsive jumps. With very little to offer in terms of music and sound, it's clear that most of the effort went into the puzzle design, which wasn't bad. An interesting take on the theme, and not awful for something made in a weekend (and you finished it which is awesome considering so many people didn't - and the theme this year was pretty tough too!). I hope you continue to practice your game dev skills and come back for future game jams, you've clearly got the right stuff to become a good developer with time and hardwork.
The controls felt very floaty, and moving in the direction your mouse pointer is at feels very unintuitive as a method for turning in a top down 2D view. My biggest complaint was how quickly the fire went down compared to how long it took to move to the nearest burnable object and put it in the fire, and how much fuel that provides. The game definitely needs more balancing in that regard. I liked the core concept a lot, and there is plenty of humourous potential here.
Nice graphics, nice atmosphere. Took a while to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but soon did. A tutorial would probably have helped. Not bad for a game made in a weekend.
Not sure what the gameplay here was, got really bored of the lore dump intro cutscene thingy (though the visuals were very cool) and kept getting stuck in a loop of repeating dialogue. The font choice made reading difficult and the lore was so filled with Proper Noun Exposition that I gave up trying to understand it after the first couple of questions and tried to skip it to the end.
Excellent game, and I recognise exactly which board game this is based on, though I did notice you tweaked a few rules to make it harder for the king piece (normally in tafl games you have to surround the king on all sides, not just two to lose). Great visual design, and a nice soundtrack. Going to add this to my favourites list and play against the computer when I can't get anyone to play me irl.
Really wonderful art style, clean controls, good level design, a simple twist on the puzzle platformer exectuted very well. Beautiful music really helped add to the atmosphere and overall I had a lot of fun with this. Not sure what I would say to improve this game, but a good job nonetheless.
Very QWOP with the physics/controls in this, very challenging to play, but I think that's the point? One issue I would raise is that I seemed to get stuck on the slopes if I miss timed my jump even slightly which led to far more restarts than I would have liked. A good challenge is one where you feel that you as the player messed up and failed, not that the game cheated and made you fail. Would have also been nice to have some music in the game, and the art was serviceable. Well done for trying out a new engine though and for getting something made in a weekend!
This was frustrating to play, which is a shame because there is a good game idea buried in the poor gameplay execution. Too many instant deaths without a chance to respond meant having to start over too many times in ways that felt very unfair, clunky controls and poor key choices made playing on a keyboard uncomfortable, and the stiff jumping and using of items felt unresponsive and I wasn't sure what I was even doing when I used them half the time. With some more time to polish up the responsiveness of the controls, some more balanced level design, and a bit of tweaking to the core mechanics, this could be a great little indie game. Lots of potential here, and hey, you made a brand new game in a weekend so that's a huge thing to have done!
I enjoyed this game, a nice mostly well balanced little management game with some well designed mechanics. When I read the tutorial I was at first concerned that perhaps you had over complicated it and given too many things to manage at once, but once I started playing I found that actually was not the case. Real shame this didn't have any music or sound effects, I think a good sea shanty and a few "arrrs" would have really livened the game up a lot. Nice effort for a weekend though!
The control scheme is really weird and doesn't work the way you'd expect it to which took a few minutes to figure out. The game lacks any sort of challenge beyond 'use the broken control scheme to awkwardly navigate to the nearest balloon' so some sort of obstacle to navigate around would add a huge amount. The in-game UI needs a lot of work, the black default font is not readable if you wander into any of the night time areas of the game, and doesn't match the atmosphere of the game. Speaking of atmosphere, I couldn't tell what sort of mood the game was going for. The title screen and tutorial screen, along with the 'spooky clown' would imply this was meant to be a horror game, but then the game is bright outside visuals with happy trees and chirping birds. I feel like this concept needed a lot more thought put into it before trying to execute it, perhaps in future game jams, try to spend some time prototyping the gameplay (you can use paper and pieces for this, it doesn't have to be digital) and figure out what tone you want the game to have and design your art style to match it.
Really liked this one, reminds me of the game I made for Global Game Jam a couple of years ago, very similar graphics and gameplay. I had fun with this, it wasn't too complicated or too easy, it felt nicely balanced and played very well with no bugs that I encountered. Great job!
The art direction is great, some really nice clean looking UI which is always a plus, and a nice bit of humour. Gameplay felt strangely paced, the idea of 'do nothing' to score is interesting, but perhaps not quite the right sort of 'interaction' you want for this type of game. Interesting idea though and I did have some fun with the game.
I enjoyed this, cute graphics, really nice music, simple to use and understand interface, and a good concept that seems to work. It's a little disappointing that this doesn't try to do anything new with the virtual pet genre in terms of it's mechanics or setting, but it's a well executed game nonetheless.
Nice art style, great atmosphere, good storytelling, excellent audio design. Gameplay however was a little frustrating due to the control layout feeling a little awkward to use, and the high difficulty in getting past zombies and solving puzzles right from the start took the shine off it for me. Really good effort for a weekend game, and with some polish and balancing I could see this being a proper release I'd throw a couple of quid at to play on itch/steam/gog.
I like the art direction, and the game is very simple but well executed in the time available. Wish you could move a little faster, but I guess that just adds to the challenge of it. Nice idea, well done.
This really reminded me of the classic game Loom with the using music to trigger events. If anything I felt that there honestly wasn't enough use of the music mechanic in this game, and I spent more time micromanaging firewood than feeling like a bard playing music to ward away enemies and conjour up tools. I did enjoy this game though, and it's nice to see such a unique take on the theme in terms of mechanics. I would like to see this expanded on in some way, perhaps your team could make the spiritual sequel to Loom that I've been wanting to see for years, you certainly have shown a lot of talent here.
Reminds me of that SNES super mario game where you play as a yoshi carrying baby mario. This was cute and I liked the sprite designs. Gameplay wise, this really needs some tweaking, either you need to move faster with and without the baby, or the meters need to fill up significantly slower than they currently do. When I have to retry the *tutorial* multiple times due to this issue something is off. Music was good though, I 'll give it that.
Really liked the graphics of this, and it's nice to see a co-op game made for this that also has an AI option (which is what I played with). I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be doing though to keep the bar filled. I kept collecting the markers and staying near the blue player, but still the bar kept dropping and never seemed to fill up. Perhaps there was a bug? An interesting take on the theme though, and some really clean UI and minimal art style helped a lot.
Really was looking forward to playing this, as I am very impressed with the striking visual design. Unfortunately when I launched the game it immediately crashed to desktop, and then wouldn't launch again (kept getting error messages - no game). I then deleted the folder, re-downloaded the game, extracted it again and tried again, same problem. I was using the Windows build of the game if that helps. Let me know if you get a fix out, I'd still like to review your game!
Wow, this is beautiful! I love this game. Very relaxing gameplay, though still a challenge enough to keep things interesting, wonderful art direction and soundtrack. I always appreciate a simple game with unique mechanics that is so well executed. I'll definitely be returning to this one again and again. Well done!
Took a while to get comfortable with the controls, but once I did I started to enjoy it more. The music was very pleasant to listen to, shame the graphics weren't very good to match. One big thing I would add is better indication of when you're taking damage and what is causing you to take damage, as well as perhaps a slight improvement to change your momentum when you turn around to make it feel less floaty and give the player a little more control. Nice innovative idea though, and well done for getting something made in a weekend!
Well this was.. innovative. I didn't particularly care for the unusual controls which I found to be very awkward and clunky to use, but there's an interesting concept in this entry. I think what this needs is a different way to charge up the attack rather than dragging away with the mouse, perhaps simply click and hold to charge and release to shoot would work better, especially as what you have now seems to conflict with the movement of simply turning in the right direction. Otherwise I liked the music and this has a nice minimal aesthetic.
This was a very pleasant game to play, lovely minimalist art, relaxing music, simple gameplay mechanics and a cute story told without words. Good game for a weekend jam, wish it was longer. Maybe you would consider adding to it in a post-jam version?
The moving feels very weird and hard to control, but otherwise a really nicely executed little puzzle game with great atmosphere and visual design. Thank you for sharing it!
This is probably the best one I've played so far, really really enjoyed this game. Excellent graphics, audio, gameplay, everything is polished and works, the game feels balanced and keeps the pace going without ever feeling too easy or too difficult. Not much to really add except I hope you find ways to take this further and expand on it. Excellent work for something made in a weekend.
This was the weirdest game I've played this LD. Not sure how to really respond to this as it's so 'out there' as a concept. I guess the art and music were well done, and the game didn't have any bugs that I could find. Perhaps my only complaint is that it's perhaps too easy and too short.
There is a really nice little core gameplay loop in this that kept me playing far longer than I would have expected. A few things could have really improved this game, either have the player move a little faster than the lumberjacks or make the lumberjacks more slower, or move in a less direct route towards the tree, far too often I was away from the tree for a couple of seconds and then had two or three lumberjacks seemingly spawn in on top of the tree (they had run in very quickly from the opposite side of the map) and I had no chance to stop them. Also having to stop them from behind the tree was very counter intuitive. Perhaps having something on the UI to indicate the presence of a lumberjack near the tree would help as well.
If I were to improve on this game I would have the map be a little smaller, but have obstacles to avoid (for example put down some hedges or a park bench that you can't walk through) and more than one type of collectable with different score values (perhaps even add some flowers that add to your score at the end that grow over time, but die if you trample on them).
Not bad for a weekend's work. Look forward to seeing what you create next time.
I liked the twist on the tower defense mechanic where in you had to have the 'transformed' enemies reach the end to score, but also could destroy them while trying to attack oncoming waves. The music was nice, but it needed to repeat (it cut off midway through the second wave and didn't start again until the next wave did leaving an uncomfortable silence). Art could have done with being a little clearer and the UI would benefit from something indicating how far along a wave you were. It would also be good if the game didn't end the moment you lost one of your three dragons, and instead treated them as lives. Other than that, this was a good entry for a weekend's work. Nice game.
Controls were a little strange at first but I soon figured it out. I think it would be a little better balanced and feel better to play if you started out with fewer people on the street and fewer infected people and then slowly ramped up how many were on the street over time, as it is right now, it starts off already feeling very challenging and quickly becomes very unmanageable. With a few minor tweaks to this balance it would probably play a lot better. Nice graphics and sound design though, and a clever use of the theme.
This was a fun little game, with some nice clean art and unusual music. The one big complaint I have with it is that it's not very clear what does and does not cause the egg to become damaged. Sometimes rolling along normally damages the egg, and sometimes dropping onto a surface does too, however sometimes neither does, and this inconsistency did not feel good and left me feeling cheated as a player when I lost as it didn't ever quite seem to be my fault. I did complete both stages of the game eventually, but if it had been clearer what I had an hadn't been doing correctly it would have felt more of an accomplishment and less like luck through trial and error.
This game really needed some more time to balance the difficulty. There is simply not enough time between waves of enemies to open the upgrade store and upgrade enough to take on the hoards of enemies that swarm the screen, and even fully upgraded it still takes seven or eight bullets per enemy to kill them, with no knockback and thirty enemies on screen at once, I can't survive more than a minute in game. The sound effects were good, but it really needs some music, and the UI was way too small. Other than that, I liked the art and attempt at humour even if it didn't really land.
Interesting game, really nice art music and UI design. One big problem I did have with the game was I was never sure what was causing my balloon to pop, and what assets were just background elements and what were intractable things in the foreground.
Nice art direction and sound design, gameplay was a little on the clunky side, the random placement of the items, the size of the map, and the time limit all work against you in a way that feels very unfair. Perhaps a better way to have done this is to have fixed locations for each food type so you can learn where everything is and use that to optimise your route through the town. Interesting idea, and not bad for a weekend.
Not bad for a first effort, a simple concept but one that mostly seems to work. However I've got a couple of issues for you, the first is that the mouse control is really stiff, I don't have a lot of room for my mouse to move, and with the poor acceleration in the controls I found it very hard to play the game well, I did try opening the options menu to see if there was a setting I could change but the game hard crashed when I did so and the refused to launch again afterwards. I really liked the water effect you had for the hose/gun weapon, and having the splashes on the plant ground texture was a nice touch. Big thing I would do to improve this would be to work on a clearer to read UI, and have more feedback when you were actually damaging the robots as it was difficult to tell the effective range of my water pistol. Perhaps having them flash a different colour, or if you ahd the time, have a electric shock particle effect. The music was fun, nice job with that.
First thing I noticed was how bad the font choice is. I had a very hard time reading the instructions which did not leave a good first impression. The art style felt very 'messy' and made it difficult to differentiate the interactable sprites and backgrounds. I had very little idea what I was supposed to be doing at first and it took a while to realise I could interact with the white thing in the middle to start the first wave. The main attack feels very weak and could do with some sort of knockback effect as far too often I found myself surrounded on all sides and unable to do enough damage to clear a path away to avoid damage which felt very cheap and unfair.
The music doesn't quite match the rest of the game aesthetic and I wished I could turn it off after just a few minutes. The other sound effects were drowned out by the music so they did little to help. I wasn't sure what the aim of the game was. No matter how much I upgraded the trees they didn't seem to do anything to the enemies, and my attacks felt the same in the fifth round as the first.
For a team of six people working on this game I would have expected a lot more from this, had this been a solo game, or simply a two person team, I would be a lot more forgiving of this game's many flaws.
The game does run smoothly though, and the controls for moving and shooting worked well enough to keep me playing this longer than I initially thought I would.
This game lacks some much needed UI to let the player know what is going on in the game. I have no health indicator or timer so I couldn't tell what was killing me. I had no idea what the coins and chests were for, and I found judging the distance I needed to be to successfully hit an enemy without getting hit back to be very difficult. The controls were very floaty, and it felt as though I was moving across an ice rink most of the time. The screen shake was perhaps a little excessive and could do with turning down. Some improvements to the npc pathfinding would also help this game a lot. It's a shame this game lacks any music or sound effects, and the graphics are very 'programmer art' which unfortunately did not help alleviate any of the other issues. At the core though there is a solid idea for a game and a fun action rpg gameplay loop. With more time, more polish, and better design this could be a decent game. While this isn't a great jam game, it is a game that you made in a weekend, and that is still a huge accomplishment. Learn from this and come back for the next Ludum Dare.
This was great! I liked the art style, I liked the music and sound effects which helped add a ton of humour to the game, and I liked how simple the concept was. If anything it was perhaps a little too easy to beat, but I could see this being expanded on to have different "levels" with perhaps multiple snails to care for while dealing with the other distractions that get progressively more difficult over time. Reminded me of my school days playing flash games which was a nice throwback for me. Thanks for sharing it, hope you do well in getting good feedback.
I managed to throw a successful pizza party, even if it did take me a few too many seconds to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. This game was pretty neat, a nice take on the theme I hadn't thought of, and a well executed concept that hasn't tried to over complicate the mechanics as too often I see done. It really would have benefited from some music and sound effects to help with the 'party atmosphere' but I know it's not always possible to have the time in a weekend jam. Still when your theme is a party, perhaps putting a little time aside for adding music should be something you consider. Other than that, a good entry, thanks for sharing!
This was a simple concept well executed. The music was a little repetitive and got annoying very quickly, and I didn't like that I had to figure out what was 'combustible' and what wasn't by trial and error, but those are my only real complaints. Nice little game for a weekend's work.
This was super cute and very fun to play. A great example of a simple game executed well. I really liked the music and the sound effects, and the gunplay was surprisingly satisfying. The only thing I would improve would be to make it a little clearer when the rabbit needs food/water/attention and when you're too close to pushing it too far. Right now it's a little hard to judge what his needs are and how much is 'too much' love. Other than that, really had a good time with this one. Thank you for sharing it!
I didn't understand this game at all. I could move and jump and holding down the mouse released a ball that I could shoot onto a platform, but then the game immediately gave me a 'game over' screen and told me to try again. So I did, and I kept experimenting trying to figure out just what exactly the game wanted me to do. And the same game over kept appearing. I read the description and tried again, and once again made no progress before the game seemingly at random decided to end. This game desperately needs a tutorial, some form of UI or way of telling the player how close to a game over they are at, and clearer objectives.
Named my eldritch god 'Chad', recruited some cultists, fed them to him, got caught eventually, had fun doing so. This game is really unique and an interesting twist on the theme. I don't usually enjoy text adventures made during game jams, but this one was unusual enough to get me to have a good time. Nice mechanics and decent art. Well done!
Was hoping to review your game, unfortunately I'm getting a unity error when trying to launch it on the web build. Let me know once you've fixed it and I'll come back and review it properly!
Very hard to see what was going on, the foreground and background elements are too indistinguishable, couldn't always see what was killing me, however I did like the graphical style. No health indicator and no way of knowing what was and what wasn't killing me. Platforms are too small for the floaty jump arc, made movement feel very imprecise. The spit attack has poor range and couldn't be aimed up or down which made it pretty much useless for most of the game. I liked the lighting effects and the atmosphere and it's a unique take on the theme, though I'm not quite sure how it fits it.
Lovely music and pretty art. I enjoyed the concept for this game, it's an interesting take on the puzzle platformer. The controls were a little janky though, and the jump just feels a bit 'off'. That being said, this is excellent for something made in a weekend and I enjoyed playing it. Well done.
This game is extremely polished and well made for something made in a weekend. I really enjoyed playing this game. The art is excellent, as is the sound design. I feel it's possibly a little too difficult at the moment due to how quickly the enemy starts overwhelming the player with bullets, and how slowly your shooting attack recharges. Overall a great job, and I will definitely be bookmarking this one to play again!
That was pretty neat! Love the simple gameplay loop, you made something clean, coherent, and most importantly fun! I did struggle to beat the final level, as there were just not enough souls spawning fast enough to summon in the defence I needed to survive. Have you put this on the pico-8 bbs yet? I'd love to be able to play this via splore on my rgb30!
Incredibly polished graphics, cute soundtrack, really funny voice acting. This is a great game for something made in a weekend. That being said I tried for ages and I could not make back enough money to pay rent, no matter what I did my summons kept dying to the slimes and the amount of money I got from the slimes wasn't enough to replace the cost of getting them from the gacha machine. It would help if there was a secondary way to get money that didn't involve summons, or if the slimes dropped more money or the gacha machines were a bit cheaper to use. That being said, I really love the attention to detail in the animations, you clearly have some very talented devs on your team. I hope you make more games, I would love to play them.
This game is interesting. It took me a while to figure out what I should be doing (a typo saying pants instead of plants didn't help matters) and there didn't seem to be enough time to actually turn all the way around before the round ended so I kept losing, not sure what I was doing wrong. The art is nice though, and there is some decent sound design. A good effort for a weekend's work.
Wow, just wow. The art is beautiful, the audio is pleasant to listen to, and the gameplay is just so smooth! I really love this game! Did you upload this to splore as well? I'd love to be able to play this on my rgb30. From one pico-8 jammer to another - you absolutely killed it!
This is nicely made game, and I like the art style. My only issue is that the difficulty ramps up far too quickly, and I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but sometimes I couldn't give/take things from customers even when standing next to them. A balancing pass on this game would go a long way to making it more fun to play. Good effort for a weekend's work, please continue developing games!
This is quite fun, there's some interesting art and a nice game loop. The movement feels a bit janky and there's probably a few too many cars on the road (it doesn't help that they move slower than the bikes). I could definitely see a polished version of this with some more gameplay mechanics being something people would play a lot. Nice jam entry, thanks for sharing!
I like the concept and the switching back and forth between the two characters to tackle different platforming challenges. I did really struggle to play this however, the mouse sensitivity is far too high! The camera was spinning around wildly with even subtle movements and often this led to accidentally jumping into the void due to the characters following the camera view. I do like the character design and the music though. If you can refine the controls further and put some more interesting models in for the boxy platforms, this is probably worth continuing if you're considering a post-jam version.
Hey thanks for sharing your game, I quite enjoyed it.
I did struggle with the aiming controls as there was no crosshair to show where exactly I was shooting which made trying to target the enemies flying at me very difficult and the lack of a clear indication as to the position of my ship in relation to the incoming attacks made figuring out if I was about to be hit or not very hard until it was too late. I'm not sure if this is down to the camera angle, or just the flat lighting but it was hard to tell what the 'depth' of objects was on screen. Perhaps some additional background parallax effects (ie a moving starfield or similar) would help here.
That being said, the controls felt smooth, moving and shooting felt good, and when I did eventually start hitting things and making them explode, this also felt very satisfying. The music and sound effects are also pretty great, not too loud, not too distracting, and fit the gameplay well.
Other than the poor fit for the theme, this was a solid entry. Well done for making this in a weekend!
I absolutely love this game! An autobattler with some awesome pixel art and a kickass soundtrack too - what isn't there to enjoy? There's such a great selection of units to choose from and good variety in enemy encounters to help keep you mixing up your strategy. The only thing that would improve things would be some clear indication as to what the health of your units is during the fight and a better explanation in-game as to what each unit does, but for a jam entry I can't complain. I hope you continue to develop this once the event is over, I'd love to buy and play a full version of this. One of the best games I've played so far!
Very funny game, and it's cool to see someone else who went the 'legal' definition for the theme. I really enjoyed playing this, some great animations, good use of humour, simple but effective combat controls and enjoyable music. The only thing I didn't care for was the attack sound effects, they got a bit too repetitive given how often you heard them, some more variety in the sounds being made by the characters when they attacked would definitely help. This is very impressive for being made in a weekend and you should be very proud of your efforts.
Woo! Pico-8! This was a lot of fun, it took me a bit to get used to what I was supposed to be doing, but once I got the hang of things I had fun piling up the papers and trying to get tasks done. I'm really impressed with the music too, I personally struggle a lot making music and sound effects in pico-8 (I didn't have the time for that this jam myself) so I always appreciate a great chiptune track! Did you upload this to splore too? I'd love to be able to continue to play this on my rgb30.
@speedphoenix yes that should work to get it on splore. I'm definitely adding your game to my favourites list!
those are indeed ducks. thank you for making this. I don't know why you did, I don't know why I played this, but I'm glad this happened.
Well this was an experience. I always enjoy finding these weird experimental games in jams like this. I enjoyed playing (even if I couldn't seem to get back to the portal? - bug perhaps?) and the unexpected twist of fighting the goblins did get me to laugh. The text on the summons is pretty funny too, kinda similar to what I did with my game for the theme. Thanks for making this, and I hope you had as much fun making it as I did playing!
What a lovely game this is. Such a nice cute and relaxing vibe, but still with enough challenge in the gameplay to keep it engaging. I especially enjoyed the character design and how well the controls created the feeling of moving through the water as a jellyfish. Only complaint would be that I struggled to collect everything in a level without running out of health/stamina as the level is so maze-like that it requires a lot of backtracking. I'm sure there's a strategy that could be used to make this a bit easier, but for the time I spent playing it, I still had a good time. A really nice game for a jam weekend, no bugs or lack of polish here. Well done!
A very cute pico-8 arcade game (and it has penguins!). This was a lot of fun, I really love your art style and you've come up with a great original game loop that is very fun to play. The only gripe I had was that I ended up in a situation when I couldn't get to the baby penguins with my fish because they were behind obstacles that I could not cross, so the game ended on what felt like an unfair loss, however I'm sure this a bug or something you can account for in a future patch. Other than that I loved this game. It's always awesome to see what other pico-8 devs manage to build during these events and you did a fantastic job with this.
A bit light on content, but what you have is really well made. Lovely pixel art, and a good atmosphere help add to the experience. I like the mini-games that you made, it's a shame there aren't more, however I understand the limitations of only having a weekend to make a game. Congrats on making this, and I hope you continue to make more as there is clearly a lot of talent between you.
Oh this one is so cute and so much fun! I like having to balance the different statuses by the playing the mini game and trying to decide what to do each day to make sure they stay happy and healthy. I managed to get my kokin to grow up and enter the reserve. I'll definitely be coming back to play more of this in the future (and it's going on my favourites list in splore assuming you've added it to the bbs). The only suggestion I have is that if you wanted to expand this, having a couple of different mini-games to play for each status would add some variety to the gameplay, but the one you've chosen to use here is perfectly fun as it is.
A fun little puzzle game however I keep running into a situation where there's only one available vegetable on the board yet everyone wants that vegetable. Maybe consider adding a way to refresh a row of vegetables, or just make sure that there is always at least 3 of each in play? Very cute art though! Loved the concept and I think with a bit more refinement you'll have a very fun and addictive mobile game.
What a really unique mechanic! I really enjoyed this game, nice music and art direction and very fun gameplay. The only thing that I felt didn't quite work for me was a delay in the time between pressing a direction arrow on my keyboard and having the character respond on screen, I crashed far too many times because I pushed the button to turn away only for the input not to register. If you could fix the responsiveness it would really improve things. Other than that, this is a really polished and complete experience for a weekend's work, thank you for making it and sharing it.
Wow this game is so hard! It took me quite a while to figure out how to use the power meter and time my jumps and even longer to figure out a way to get past the first row of traffic without getting squashed. If anything I'd say this is a little too punishing, perhaps a little bit of tweaking on the timing for the power might help given the additional challenge of having to also time movement based on oncoming obstacles. However having said that, this is still really solid and a great game idea, and it's still fun! I enjoyed my time playing it and I'll probably stick this on my rgb30 and practice this week to see if I can beat it.
(I love the penguin design so much.)
This is a really nice well made game with some great visual design, a clean UI, a good audio design. I enjoyed playing however I don't feel the balance is quite right. Once you start losing a couple of units you don't have enough money to build back up to survive for many rounds, and this is compounded with each round your enemies get a lot tougher to fight so you keep losing units, which becomes a rapid downward spiral to defeat. This doesn't feel good especially if you end up losing a unit you've invested a lot of money into. I think there's probably a better way to balance the rounds (the early ones feel to easy the late ones too punishing) to make the engagement curve smoother, though I'm not quite sure what the solution would be. However you've clearly got a lot of talent working on this game so I'm sure with some more iterations you can figure it out.
This definitely feels like a solid prototype that demands to be expanded and built into a full game (there really aren't enough quality auto-battlers on the market right now) if you want to do so. I hope that you do continue to develop this, or take what you've learned into a future game. Great job, a really great game for only a weekend's work!
Hey a Pico-8 game that I almost missed! So glad I didn't this is a really good unique concept that's executed really well. Very simple game idea, but very well implemented, which makes for a fun puzzle game. Good job doing all this by yourself in a weekend, and I especially enjoyed the music. I always really struggle with making music in pico-8 in my games so the fact that you managed to nail the sound design on top of a finished game in the time limit is awesome. Hope you keep making more Pico-8 games and I hope to see you on Splore.
Ok so I think this just isn't quite the game for me. I gave it a good 10 minutes of trying to figure out what the rules were for how to know which door to go through each time, and I just could not do it. Every time I thought I understood what was going on I was left confused again as my assumptions were wrong. The longer I played it the more confused and lost I became. I don't think this is really a flaw in the game, but I would like to have had a bit more direction, at least a clue for the first room.
This is certainly a very unique game, with a gorgeous art style, and it oozes atmosphere. Really nice take on the theme, very polished and complete for a weekend jam game. Nice work, keep making games!
Really fun but also really difficult. It would be better if time didn't tick down when you cut away to the various locations to give a message as it takes away control from the player and makes you lose a lot of time, I was only a few seconds away from winning but because of this timeloss I didn't make it :(
Great art, a really fun unique gameplay loop, and a complete experience with no obvious bugs (except for a few ants) or crashes. I had a good time and would love to see a post-jam version. Keep making games!
Lovely visuals, innovative gameplay, fun mechanics, really polished and well presented. What's not to like about this game? A very good entry. Hard to believe that you managed to make this in only two days! Great job, keep making awesome stuff!
Interesting and unique art direction and gameplay. Quite fun to play, and a nice amount of content for a jam game.
I really enjoyed this game. It has wonderful visuals and music, and the movement feels very fluid and fun. The gameplay was a little confusing to me, I'm not exactly what it was I was doing gathering all those materials and I did encounter a bug where I became trapped underneath a bridge I had just built, however I still had a good time with this and will probably return to it again to give it another play. Really excellent work for a weekend jam game, you're very talented developers.
After really enjoying your marketing campaign during the weekend, how could I not check this one out?! I'm very glad I did, a very amusing entry with a great soundtrack and visuals. The gameplay was decent, but perhaps it would have benefited somewhat from better feedback on whether or not you had successfully smacked a gnome (maybe a slight screenshake, or some sort of visual effect?) However for a game made in just three days this is a really good game.
Oh this game is so awesome! The art, the gameplay, the boss fight! It's all so polished and well executed it's hard to believe this was only made in a weekend by one person! You have some amazing talent and this proves it. This game feels like a demo to a much larger game and honestly I wish it was because it would be going on my wishlist right now. Really reminds me of Wuppo which is one of my favourite 2d platformer adventure games. The only nitpick I have is that I was initially a bit confused about the "background" platforms that actually I could stand on but I quickly figured it out. Excellent work, I love it!
This is a fun concept and I like how you designed the core gameplay loop. I think it would benefit from some additional upgrades that you can purchase as I had far too much money left over at the end. Maybe add some upgrades that allow you to carry more bugs at a time, or one that highlights an area that will give you an increased chance of finding a bug you haven't caught yet? There's a solid little game in there somewhere and for a prototype made in a weekend it has a lot of potential. I hope you had a lot of fun making this.
This was really cute, creative, and nicely made. I enjoyed the puzzles and would love to have had even more. The art is very good, I always enjoying seeing well made pixel art, and your character designs are great! The only thing I found a bit frustrating was the x,c,v controls. I struggled a bit to use these keys in the right order as I don't normally use them in games (space, e and f might feel a bit more natural for qwerty keyboard users) but I did eventually get used to them. Great work for a weekend compo entry, no bugs, it feels complete, and has a nice clean UI. You should definitely do a post-jam version with some more levels.
Graphically this game looks great, but the game feel is just a bit 'off'. I don't there is enough feedback for when you are attacking/being attacked, hits don't seem to have enough impact and it takes far too many hits to do enough damage to kill enemies for far too small a reward, xp very quickly becomes very hard to level up which slows down the rate of growth and kills the pacing. This isn't a bad game by any means, you've clearly got a talented team of artists, the game is certainly very polished (no bugs or crashes) for a weekend jam, and you even have an online leaderboard which is very cool to see. With a few more iterations to really balance things and 'juice' it up a bit more, you'll have a commercially viable game that I can definitely see gaining an audience. You've done some interesting things with the survivors-like genre and your character designs are very cute. Thank you for sharing, I hope you continue to make games!
Very challenging puzzle this. Excellent presentation of sound and visuals. Clear instructions and a clean interface make this easy to play leaving the challenge to come from the game itself not from any bugs or janky interfaces so well done! A nice game jam game that does what it sets out to do and is a good experience. Really nice work!
I made a mistake one time and arrested the wrong suspect but I was otherwise able to beat the game. I really enjoy logical deduction puzzles like this and so I had a lot of fun playing your game, even if the constant ticking clock was a bit stressful. It's a shame you didn't really make a game that meets the theme of the event, however I still like what you managed to create and I'm glad you took part and submitted a finished product.
This was a pretty fun little resource management game. Not sure how well it fits with the theme of the event, but what you have made here is pretty decent. I really like the art direction and the music, it really gives a nice relaxing vibe. It's got a rather compelling game loop that is pretty fun to play, even if it did take me a little too long to figure out what to do early on - I certainly left it far too late to prioritise defence over gathering! I'll probably come back to this and give it another go in the next couple of weeks. Great job!
Oh this game is great! Love the art and the music, really gives it a chill vibe (even if the gameplay is a little bit less chill!) I enjoyed the twist on the "endless jumper" genre (though I know this one isn't actually endless) by adding just that one little mechanic of having to stop and gather items as well as timing jumps properly. Lots of fun, nothing bad to say about this, congrats on making such a complete game in only a weekend! I hope you all continue to make games as there is clearly a lot of talent here.
I got the dustbug. Accurate. Very good job with this one, lovely creative writing with the poetry and well done for going the extra mile and voice acting too! So many little details in this that really flesh out this little adventure game, I can really see the passion that went into making this game.
Oh this game is such a vibe! Loved every second I spent playing this game. The art, the music, the atmosphere, the relaxing and yet so satisfyingly simple gameplay, those little story beats as you made your way up the tree... just so good. The only thing I would say needs improving is making it clear to the player that you have to go back to the doorway at the start to move to the next branch after clearing the first one, it took me far too long to figure that out and I nearly missed out on most of the otherwise wonderful experience! Really enjoyed that 'snip' sound effect when taking down those orange leaves! Cute character designs and some lovely world-building really make this stand out as something unique and special. Thank you for making this, I had a great time!
Beautiful graphics and audio direction, let down by confusing and difficult gameplay. I think this would really benefit from being more lenient in the stealth detection because I found it incredibly hard to judge when to hide/appear and not be seen and killed. Really nice concept though, and really excellent for a weekend's work!
Cute little Pikmin style game. I like the art and the music a lot. The gameplay felt a little bit too slow you spend a lot of time waiting for your boys to do what you want/need them to do. Still a very polished entry for something made in a weekend, and I had fun playing it.
This was pretty fun, just a couple of things I'd like to point out. The first is that the music was a bit too repetitive, (but that's more a personal preference I guess) and the other is that I'm just not sure that the upgrades are working? At least there is no description of what they do and there's no obvious visual change to the gameplay after you choose one? Maybe it's just me and it's late at night and I'm missing something obvious, or maybe something is broken? Either way some clearer indication of what I'm choosing would go a long way to improving this.
All of that aside, I really like your art and the gameplay is fun. Nice game for a weekend's work! Hope you continue making games.
Nice artwork, interesting game concept, some cute creature designs. Really nice little game you've made here. It would be nice if there were some more in-game explanations as to what is going on as I was very confused at first. I struggled to figure out what the different bars meant, and what the shop items were. Even with this minor drawback however, I still appreciated what you've made and it's very good (no obvious bugs or crashes either) for something where you only had a weekend to make it. Keep making games!
This game is making me wish there was a 'cuteness' voting category because that ending would earn this game 5* in that category. I really enjoyed playing, it was a fun little experience, with a solid central mechanic, some adorable characters, and good level design. Please keep making games!
Great little puzzle platformer. Well made levels, cute character designs, and some fun mechanics of switching between the cat and the dog to get past obstacles. Nice jam game!
Great concept and a decent entry for a game jam. It feels a bit too micromanagement heavy right now as you have to manually move all your ants between locations one at a time and when there is a beetle that can move through obstacles and move much faster than your ants it feels very unfair. Then on top of that being punished every three rounds with needing to spend food just to keep the colony going makes it extremely difficult to make progress in a meaningful way. I think there's a good game idea in here, maybe some automated pathfinding to allow ants who have found food to return to the nest without having to manually click on them would help a lot, or perhaps being able to select multiple ants at once like units in an rts game would make having to click on the tiny hitboxes easier. I liked the music though, really helped with the mood of the game.
Really enjoyed the gameplay, controls felt very smooth and it had a nice difficulty curve. I'd love to see a post-jam version with some polished graphics and few more upgrades to choose from (some additional attack types would be cool), as you've got a very solid foundation here. Nice job for something you made in a weekend!