hsandt

Ollo's Life by Memel06 2019-05-02T19:52:22Z

Good job for finding a way to finish the story efficiently!

Having a look at GB Studio, I see better which parts you've worked on and which parts were already in the template. I was about to say the UI was a bit slow due to the dialog box moving in and out of the screen for every new text, but it seems this is not customisable in the editor. So I ranked you on the original content. Well, there doesn't seem to be a UI or Control/Game Feel category anyway, I guess that enters Fun and Innovation.

For simple games like this, I think the more direct the experience, the better. I was a bit confused by the coloured rocks, I think a bug showed the "Touch/Leave" question twice. And since the natural order was to touch from centre to outside, I wasn't sure if there wasn't something else I missed out. I guess a change of sprite shapes would have helped, since we cannot see colours anyway.

About the story/pacing, I thought the fever was related to the mushroom at first, making me feel I lost a life for nothing. But considering the whole sequence of events, now I think they were unrelated.

Nine Lives by foxtrotluna 2019-05-03T18:50:20Z

At first I thought there would be 11 different complete endings depending on how you spend your nine lives, but there are actually 11 ways to spend your life. The old man is my favourite, I didn't expect it!

Also, I had a look at GB studio after checking another game boy entry, so I knew what the framework already provides and could appreciate the variety of the content.

#000000 by kevinworkman 2019-10-19T18:53:41Z

It uses the "tradeoff puzzle" principle I have seen in a few games (you start with a grid of 0 and 1, make all the cells 1 but toggling specific groups of cells like square, horizontal and vertical line, one by one; as in To The Moon). But it's numerical and future values cannot be predicted, so I couldn't apply any more strategy than "pick the highest total value" and then be a bit more careful when one of the colors reaches the max, and when I was getting close to white.

It matches the theme and I like the experimental/aesthetical aspect though.

Wit Fighter by hsandt 2019-10-09T01:54:32Z

Thank you! Unfortunately all the insults, etc. are just on paper, I didn't make any audio and the graphics and basically what you see now. But it seems I'm more motivated than last year to continue the game, although my submission started with even less. So you may see some change on itch.io at the end of the month.

Frankenstore by wyattis 2019-10-09T19:17:15Z

Hmm couldn't find how to buy shirts with the money.

I understand it's not finished, but could you list the implemented and missing features? It helps evaluating the game on what has been done.

Snow Ball by Cryptex 2019-10-07T21:59:02Z

Katamari Damacy in auto-scroll! Less to think about, tenser action... But the collect/get hit condition is not so clear, sometimes my ball radius would seem slightly bigger than the tree and I would still get hit... Maybe because trees are not spherical?

Collect or get hit, it's all or nothing, so it would be nice to have a neutral threshold where you don't collect but you don't lose radius either.

Not losing one's score when losing radius is good to track one's progression though.

At the end I got pretty big and as I was approaching 1000 I thought I would finally be able to collect big trees and houses... But as I hit a tree of similar height, I lost all my radius. Fortunately the score stayed around 800 so I could reach 1000 as a small form still. I stopped at that point at it seemed it would take time to become big again, and if there is no scripted end I should stick to my own objective anyway.

The game has still a good mood and is fun to play with a short session thanks to the subtleties of gravity on the mountain, I just reduced the Fun score a bit because of the radius issue.

It Lives by Sbug 2020-05-09T16:29:18Z

I checked this game just because it was one of the ideas we had for the jam (but didn't pick in the end). It really gives the mood (and your other games on itch.io seem in the same vein!).

In terms of game design, I find it hard to make the beast eat sheep (and other fleeing animals), as they just run too fast. Fortunately, you can (and should) play with the fences to have them trapped, but even while you're moving around to find the right position, they may see the monster and start fleeing already. And if they escape, it becomes very hard to have them eaten (I had to drive them into a corner of the map, then quickly change direction).

It was also not clear when the game would end, as during the end phase of the game, I was expecting some message to tell me the beast had eaten enough, but didn't see it while the beast was already very big. So I wasn't sure if I could just end my own life at that point or not. Turns out it was a good idea to go on, as the message finally appeared.

In a snowball progression game, it's very important to regularly show progress to the player and know when to stop; I think the beast goes to the next step at the right pacing (except maybe at the end where it gets a bit long as there's nothing bigger to eat).

Otherwise, it's easy to understand the beast's behavior and lead it where needed at the start. In the second part, I wasn't sure if the flame really attracted it anymore, so I just considered the beast would come to me and only used the flame as a tool to see around.

I gave fewer points to Theme since technically, the beast cannot die so you're not exactly Keeping it alive. There could be a mechanic that forces you to make it eat regularly; but it may be weird in the second phase where it's so big and you sometimes only care about avoiding it in emergency, so maybe it was a better choice mechanically speaking.

Live, breathe, beneath by t3ch 2020-04-21T14:58:33Z

Even if you only have a simple proto, you can put it on your hosting website and link us to it. But if you don't have a working prototype, screenshots are fine.

However, in both cases I'd recommend to select "Unfinished" instead of "Jam" when publishing the game, so people know what to expect. Actually, you can still edit your page and change the category at the moment.

Flame of Hope by Cicero 2020-05-09T16:08:22Z

Thanks! We're still working on it to add actual puzzle rooms. Check out the itch.io for updates!

Banish Pit by Firebelley 2023-05-11T13:57:14Z

A peculiar interpretation of delivery indeed!

Interesting that the game focus on jump and only allows Charge punch in the air with slow motion... Also, I realized later, when fighting balloon enemies, that Uppercut jumps higher than max jump, and I had to use it to reach them (or throw other minions at them).

The PFX on lava when sending an enemy back to hell is pretty satisfying. SFX do their jobs too.

I think maybe there could be some work to do on music like some filter effect during slow motion.

Also, it seems that hearts are actually lives. I thought it was a bug when I got hit several times and didn't lose a life, until a hit pushed me to lava and I lost a heart. But with only 3 of them it's better this way, as I got hit by spikes multiples times (sometimes trying to jump higher with them!)

Deliver to Whence you Came by JUSTCAMH 2023-05-03T12:50:21Z

Coming from "Help, I cast the wrong spell!", and doing the LD this time! Nice concept and implementation! It reminded me a bit of Morkredd, but the mechanics are completely different.

Because of the title and the few empty screens after kicking the ball very far, I thought you'd have to go all the way back on the past screens, but apparently not. I don't remember if you had Lure at this point, so maybe those screens were meant to play around and test it, but since you could just run through them I didn't pay attention.

The environment/slugs are interesting and creepy at the same time. As others mentioned, move is sometimes unpredictable, and even when you put the bait very close to their head they do a weird complete turn. I realized only their head can "see" the lure glow, which sometimes makes it hard to get a slug rolled on itself to move. I feel like the mechanic is something that's meant for more organic shapes, but you managed to make it work with tiles.

The later levels cleanup the environment for a more puzzle feel with only a few slugs, I liked them! I wonder if you started by thinking about simple puzzles like this then added the more organic screens with slugs everywhere, or the opposite. I feel like the first levels could have been the ones with few slugs for a more traditional tutorial approach, but in this case you'd lose the "wow" effect of the whole environment moving.

Serum Run by 3LSTMsInATrenchcoat 2023-05-11T15:05:10Z

That was cool! I didn't know about Oregon Trail but played a few textual or hybrid text/visual adventures like that... even after several tries, I didn't make it eventually even when I thought I did, as I calculated things to have exactly 10h for the last trip and somewhat still missed the deadline... Do I need 11h after the last house? I shouldn't have played the piano!

I'm not sure how some items like the lamp are useful. For the saucepan you can often cook anyway, but I suppose it unlocks cooking in some non-equipped places like the bedroll for sleeping? After some tries I always took the bedroll, and shotgun as dually useful vs wolves and to unlock the extra house... Throwing stuff at wolves works but it auto-chooses your first item, which is my case was the bedroll!! I suppose the trick is to pick the saucepan first... But then again, shotgun is better as not consumed.

In the end I just stopped looking at the cairns, and even speaking to people... Maybe you can get good items if you're lucky (and on the Miser's way it's not even based on luck) but I generally got a lamp, so again not sure what it was for (ah, it just occurred to me it may slow down cold between houses?)

Maybe trying a last run now. I shouldn't spend so much time on one jam game. But one of our team's ideas was sled dog delivery so the cover made me curious!

Instant Delivery by Scorpion 2023-05-02T11:49:55Z

Same issue as Heuser, I'm on Linux and I cannot unzip the archive at all (even if the game is for Windows, it's worth trying because Wine may be able to run it). I may try again on Windows later.

Instant Delivery by Scorpion 2023-05-02T19:30:44Z

OK, remember you can add an itch.io link too. Add one entry for every supported platform (in this case, just Windows)

Canine Courier by bened 2023-05-02T20:32:40Z

I think it's okay to have a short game if you focus on quality and consistency, so players will feel like everything was done on purpose. A few things you can do:

- use pixel art with constant resolution and palette (I know it's harder with free assets, so in this case it's mostly about choosing the right packs from the start, and a little about adjusting the sprites; you can easily swap colors, but not resolutions). Also art style, but if you take a pack for the whole environment, then one for animals, in general it's okay - polish the intro and ending

Now it all depends on your objectives. If it was to train at integrating some assets and coding motion, it's fine to focus on this and care less about the rest.

About the Ludum Dare submission, note that you can opt out of some categories. I could not rate Humor, and probably other people did the same, which is why you get a Ratings received with a fractional of 1/6. So it should be better to opt out of Humour in this case.

demaker.s game by Kent Lizardo 2023-05-11T13:41:11Z

I played the version with end for Linux on itch.io. Camera didn't mouse with mouse motion, so I could only move back and forth and was stuck.

I tried again but the intro was too long (text appears slowly, not skippable). The game looks cool though. Since I couldn't test it I won't be scoring it, I prefer trying again later on Windows (but @milq made it run so not sure what was wrong). If you can implement intro skip in some update, and indicate all the controls in the description in case I missed something, it would be great and encourage me to retry!

Purrfect Delivery by Mashiro 2023-05-20T18:19:22Z

I managed to enable fullscreen thx to SurWeaver's comment, but I had to check it in the settings *then* click once more on the window. It was really useful as click area are quite small. I often just drag the ad popups too, seems more reliable than closing them.

At first I clicked on the Desktop icons to open the manual but it didn't work. It would be nice if it was an actual shortcut.

I feel like the core game would have been a nice game on its own. To counterbalance the lack of popups, you'd simply have more delivery cats to manage and obstacles to avoid!

Delivery! NYC by Obe Dot 2023-05-11T13:28:09Z

OK, after reading all the other comments I start to think I must be super exigent with jam games, but I admit I didn't enjoy it too much. But I like the concept, it's more about execution, game design, polishing, etc. Maybe if this was the first grappling game I had seen, I would have enjoyed it more.

I've played several grappling games and in fact, the one I disliked the most had loosy motion. This one hasn't, however I was once sent high into the air to the point I couldn't see the city anymore, and it tooks ages to fall down. Some safety clamping would have helped.

For a spider-man experience you'd need shorter range and an actual pendulum motion, but I see it wasn't the point here, so it's fine. A Zelda hookshot / Attack on Titan motion is cool too, although again a shorter range would force the player to hook from building to building more often. However even with the very long range, you had to control yourself not to overdo it, so why not.

My biggest issue was the vehicles. The first times they just fell out of nowhere on my camera for instant game over. Then I started paying attention to the sky. But once you're out of their zone, there's not much to fear. I'd rather have a classic experience with obstacles along the shortest ways to the delivery zones to make you decide whether you should avoid them or risk it for speedrunning, and/or collectibles along the way so you can high-score by taking certain paths.

There is no metaphor/explanation for the flying vehicles, visuals doesn't seem to match their motion either. Yeah I know, it's just a fancy idea, but even if crazy games like Goat Simulator you *can* understand the crazy logic behind the thing. A kind of surrealism.

For the easter eggs, I suppose this kind of humor is just not my thing... ? I don't know NYC much but I suppose there are some literary jokes you can do about it.

And the music was chaotic and a bit repetitive, I think in this case I would have preferred ambient street sound (that changes when you fly higher maybe?)

Sorry, I intended to just score the game and leave silently because it's not fun criticizing beginners and sometimes pointless bringing rationality to something the author knows is absurd. But I feel like there are too many comments only pointing the good parts, so I decided to bring some balance to feedback (but keeping it constructive).

EDIT: Wait. The karma system means more people comment on your game if you commented a lot on others'. So maybe the sheer amount of comment is just because, as another comment mentioned, you did a good job at reviewing other people's games. So maybe it doesn't really need "balance". Just take it at my personal feedback then.

Less is Moore by Aurailus 2024-04-15T15:14:45Z

Nice web game! I see components have been written from scratch too, that's an impressive job to animate text letters like this!

I think the tutorial said RAM was required but it turned out to be SSD drives?

It took me a while to find all the hints about invalid building (missing component type shown in orange in the left panel, orange highlight on overlap, half transparency on disconnected component) but even with that I would have liked to get a proper message on what's wrong with a given building as it can be stressful when counter is close to zero, everything *seems* okay but the Deliver button cannot be pressed and you're not sure why.

Otherwise I like that you can go on with a minimal design and get some ranking, then try again to cram more components and get a better ranking next time.

It would be nice if you could: - skip the dialogue as it fully plays after each retry - disable timer for experimentation mode (to find the best designs) - a level select / time attack to try missions again with better ranking

Anyway, I'm playing this as part of studying Ludum Dare submissions with good ranking to get hints on how to make minimal, successful games, so that is really instructing!