Devil's Thoughts by ponk 2015-09-02T11:13:00
Interesting concept, shame you didn't get to finish it :(. Also, yay boids! Fellow boids fan here.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → HThomson
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Prowl | compo | 354 | 3.25 | 3.06 | 2.86 | 3.62 | 3.60 | 3.20 | 3.60 | 73 |
Interesting concept, shame you didn't get to finish it :(. Also, yay boids! Fellow boids fan here.
I especially like the tactical elements to this game such as briefly exposing yourself to lure away the shepherd before sneaking around for an attack. The mood and graphics are also good, bizarrely enough our games share a pretty similar concept, in both you play as a wolf, chase sheep, avoid their shepherds and are hidden in the dark. Hive mind hey :)
Graphics are adorably cute. As you mentioned the game play is rather lacking but I reckon with a couple of tweaks you could turn it into a decent monster role-playing experience.
The graphics are gorgeous and the level of polish on this thing is incredible, it feels like a fully released game not a jam entry! Gameplay got a little tedious but still, for 72hrs work this is truly amazing.
The battle system was very comprehensive, I liked how you had to queue up multiple moves before making your attack, made for some interesting strategies.
One small point I haven't seen mentioned in the comments below, at first I found the health bar very confusing. I kept glancing at it and wondering why I wasn't doing any damage. Turns out this was because the entire health bar shrinks and there is no indication as to how much health the enemy had at the start of the fight. Having a second bar that lies behind the red health bar and remains constant would be a useful reference for when you want to check how much damage you've done.
The strategy element was very good and left plenty of scope for different tactics and approaches. Hiding in the shadows and picking off soldiers from the back of packs was a satisfying experience and that along with the cute pixel art graphics lead to a very pleasant gameplay experience. Very well done :)
Oddly enough in terms of layout and objectives it's actually pretty similar to my game :)
Simple, easy to pick up gameplay, the graphics and mood are consistent throughout which leaves the game feeling quite polished for the exception of the occasional bug.
Quick bug report: The 'play again' button sometimes vanishes, this should be quite easy to patch though :)
Too cute <3, and love the tail whip.
A refreshingly original take on the theme. Brilliant mood, straight off the bat I was engrossed in your sepia-tinted world of mystery and intrigue, the title music was the perfect opening and immediately set the tone for the rest of the game.
The dialog system was smooth and being able to skip text once you've finished reading prevented any frustration or unnecessary waiting around.
My only harsh critique is that the fight scene feels quite out of place and detracts from the main strength of the game which is the dialogue and story.
However, other than that, fantastic game! 5/5
The art was really pretty and the background audio set the mood very well. The gameplay was fun but a little easy.
Btw this game struck me as being a more graphically advanced agar.io, if you haven't played it you should check it out it's pretty fun.
Great entry though, I enjoyed it :)
An enjoyable experience with some nice variation in level difficulty. Music is a little repetitive but the fundamental puzzle mechanic is solid.
P.S.
Every game I've played in which the dev has abandoned the theme has been a puzzle game, weird :/
Fantastic aesthetic, I love the intro screen it has a very cinematic feel to it.
Fun game, the tentacle strike animation was satisfying and it got pretty exciting at the end with all the debris flying around. My only criticism is that the amount of traffic on top of the water seems to increase from 0 to 100 really fast. Other than that, great game!
Absolutely fantastic, the level of polish on this thing is just incredible for only 72 hours of work. If I wasn't playing this on the Ludum Dare site there's no way I would have guessed it was a jam game.
Hands down the most innovative game I've played throughout this whole competition. Also love the minimalist art style, fantastic job all round! As others have said it'd be great if it were longer however that's only a minor point considering the 48 hour time limit and all.
I see you're abandoning the theme and forging your own path you little rebel you.
Nice little puzzler though, would make a good mobile game.
Did make a refreshing change from monster games tbf:)
A fantastic entry, it's really impressive what you've achieved in the time available especially given that it's a compo entry. Love the mood, the bloom and distortion post processing effects paired with the eerie soundtrack makes for a haunting experience. Great job! :)
Nice game dude, like the monochromatic art style.
Couldn't make my mind up about the audio, at first I found it amusing, then annoying, then really annoying, then amusing again, then suspenseful, then annoying again. Argghh, one thing's for sure, it's unique :)
Basic premise is quite fun, although I feel like the controls would have been more intuitive had the frog followed the mouse cursor rather than having to click. This was more of an issue on the arcade game mode, the zen and timer modes both worked fine with the default control scheme.
Fantastic mood, especially liked the static and screen distortion, gave the whole thing a handheld cam horror film feeling.
Gameplay was a little dull and whilst the slow movement helped with the creepy mood and fits the theme you've established it did mean that the game lost momentum quite quickly, chasing humans down long stretches of road soon became quite tedious. Perhaps you could find some mechanic or ability that adds variety to chasing the humans whilst staying consistent with your theme, like a shadowy tongue that yanks humans towards you but has a cooldown or something.
Anyway other than that it's a very impressive game, great job :)
I'm in love with this art style, it's stand out unique from all the other games I've played so far. The sound effects are also spot on and are a perfect fit for the theme you've established. Big kudos!
The gameplay itself is a little lacking in variation, it would have been nice to have had a second ability like a ground pound or something that forces all the police back since they tend to build up quite quickly given that the laser does such little damage. Alternatively being able to move backwards would have also reduced this issue as it would have let you put some distance between you and the policeman whilst you attack him before marching forwards again once he's dead. In it's current state the only play style available is to just continually march forward, holding your mouse down over enemies until they die. If you just add a couple more attack/movement options then this issue will soon be resolved.
On the whole this is a really impressive game though. You've managed to create something that both looks original, feels polished and provides a cohesive experience the whole way through, something that's very hard to achieve within 72hrs, very impressed, well done!
Pixel art and animations are really fantastic, I also dig how the snake heads stay on the floor once they've been chopped off.
It's a shame that you couldn't include the final features like the cauterisation and the knock outs since without them there isn't really any challenge or goal. Which is a real shame since I feel like once these features are added the game will provide some interesting gameplay, dodging Hercules and timing your lunges to avoid Iolaus and his brand sound like the sort of things that'd be easy to pick up but tricky to master. Anyway, ambitious entry, hope you finish it!
The level of polish on this game is incredible for only 48 hours. I personally love the roll/dodge animation, it feels so fluid. Great job!
I love super hexagon so this was fun to play, but as I've seen mentioned before it was quite confusing at the start, especially given all the screen shake and vibrations. Making the game less hectic at the start would help. Maybe have one bar approaching at a time so that it's clear to the player what happens each time they swipe a bar and under what conditions they die.
I liked the bright, neon, shaky graphics but the shake might just be slightly too over the top, tone it down just a little bit and it'll be perfect :)
I liked the audio at the start, it helped initiate the immersion, something that's often hard to achieve with a text based game. However the timing was frustrating, having to wait for text to fade in and out without having any way to skip made it really hard to stay engaged.
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought we'd be building monsters. Eg, we'd build a machine that produces torsos which then feeds into a machine that produces heads, which then feeds into a machine that produces legs etc. That'd be really cool, but somewhat irrelevant so I apologise.
Anyway, the game as it is seems to follow the incremental/idle gameplay style (buy upgrades, get money, buy more expensive upgrades etc). You could expand on this by letting the player purchase upgrades that makes each factory more efficient, or makes each factory last longer etc. I think you've got quite a lot you can work with here and wish you the best of luck with any future developments :)
It looks quite good, the simple aesthetic serves the gameplay well.
The audio wasn't that great but served it's purpose (informing you that you've been hit etc)
One additional feature that would have been very useful is some sort of health bar, since if you've been alive for a long time it's hard to remember how many times you've been hit.
I like the minimalist graphics but my god the second level is hard.
The animation is fantastic, I love how the spines sway when you aren't moving.
Gameplay was a little dull, there didn't seem to be any way to fail so there was little in the way of a challenge.
I know you designed with controller in mind, but perhaps you should consider using the mouse to guide the movement instead of the arrow keys and then click to attack. I feel like that would give a smoother experience and would fit better with the winding, serpentine animations since the arrow keys make the movements kind of jerky.
Liked the mind control idea. You should consider implementing it as special ability with a cool down and stuff rather than the knights just gradually loosing their minds over time. It would diversify the gameplay a bit and give the player more control over how they attack.
The customisation element was my favorite part of this game, it would have been great if you'd taken it further and let people design their own body parts through the use of an in game sketch pad or something. That would have been really cool, overall great entry though.
You got the art, music and mood down, they're all fantastic. Gameplay got a little repetitive though.
@psypol I've been thinking about adding something to indicate the distance from the sheep and I really like your alpha idea. I was thinking about implementing some sort of numeric distance counter over the dots but that would clog up the screen too much, however the alpha idea solves that problem and retains the games simplicity, cheers :) I'll add it in a patch before I release the full post-compo version.
Personally I quite like having few farmers as it makes it more of a shock when you do bump into one, especially if you're focused on chasing a flock of sheep. Helps build the tension since you know one could appear at any minute.
Thanks for the feedback :)
I like the audio and retro monitor displays and liked how you could use slightly off the wall solutions to problems. It would have been nice to have been given some sort of feedback about each solution, such as: "The 20 kittens conduct electricity surprisingly well" or something along those lines.
Another nice touch would have been to have received a play style at the end such as "Hero", "Techie", "Tyrant", etc, that reflects how you handled the problems.
Smashing things was pretty fun, loved the roar ability. Sound effects were a little annoying though so including a mute button would be a useful feature. But overall, great entry!
This is really impressive for 48 hours, especially as it's in 3D, I find whenever I do anything in 3D it takes 3 times as long as it otherwise would.
Anyway, I liked the art style and ambient music, created a very unique mood, good job :)