Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Jaker
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | Afrocalypse | jam | 2.37 | 2.50 | 2.62 | 2.37 | 2.50 | 2.62 | 1.62 | ||
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | Flocker | jam | 517 | 3.58 | 3.48 | 4.12 | 3.48 | 4.32 | 1.81 | 2.97 | |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Top Texplosion | jam | 753 | 3.52 | 3.70 | 3.43 | 3.11 | 2.77 | 3.37 | 2.97 |
This reminded me of the level in Super Mario Bros where the Lakitus are dropping the spiky balls, except here the floor is unstable. It was pretty fun overall!
Two things I would change are 1) making the player's hitbox smaller so it's easier to avoid get hit, and 2) making the jumping mechanic more reliable (sometimes when I would jump, nothing would happen).
I know the narrator said I wasn't hallucinating, but I'm still not sure...
Quite a trippy experience. The gameplay was like celestial skeet shooting. Like the other commenters said, I didn't really know what the goal was except that I had to shoot the cubes (I was tuning the worlds with my celestial tuning-fork shooter I guess :D). So that's what I did, and it was pretty fun regardless. If that issue was addressed, this game would be nearly perfect.
With that, the audio and visuals were really solid. It really sold the celestial mood.
Loved the mule animations :heart: I agree with the above comment that it was confusing how the upgrades mention dodging and kicking, but I figured dodging=WASD movement and kicking=how much you are slowed when a farmer gets you.
It took me about 5 or 6 runs to beat the game (and 10-20 minutes overall, but I wasn't keeping track of either). The extra stars and star speed upgrades seemed the most powerful of the bunch.
Charging is a great mechanic, but isn't tutorialized very well in my opinion. The other nitpick I have is that sometimes pickups spawned inside rocks or other unreachable locations (without smashing into a rock). That being said, I wouldn't know how to fix that (tiny) issue myself.
Overall, a fun game with great replayability!
Hilarious game with an interesting mechanic, and one that is on-theme! Great job. My only complaint was that it took me a few tries to understand how I was supposed to hide bugs. A simple demonstration of correctly and incorrectly hiding bugs at the beginning may remedy that.
It took me a couple attempts to realize the ingredients aren't necessarily color-coded to the type. After that, I was able to beat the game. Also, the art and audio is very well done. Good job to the whole team!
This is a good concept for a puzzle game. I tried about 15 times on the level "Smile" before giving up. It was pretty adventurous to expose the player to two new mechanics in one level, but fortunately the mechanics are intuitive. Some of levels were extremely daunting at first glance, but were surprisingly doable and felt rewarding to complete.
The main change I would make would be to ramp up the difficulty more slowly, but it's fair to have a steep ramp given the limited time to design levels.
Oh, and I also loved the void/space theme.
Very unique infinite game. I especially liked the transitions to the next level after your tower collapses. It's kinda relaxing at first, but quickly becomes really chaotic (the random shapes and sounds add a lot to it).
Some of the levels remind me of the original Rayman game. I'm not sure why, I think it's the precision-based nature of them.
I thought the graphics were simple, yet effective. Everything was clear and very distinguishable, and it was satisfying to look at. A few of the jumps felt a little unfair as the player had no control over the height of the jump. I think that is something that could be improved. The music was awesome, but it made me feel like I was in a forest rather than a robot in space :D. Still, I loved it.
Overall, I thought the game and its 'unstable' mechanic were well executed.
A cowboy that shoots with his lasso :D (don't worry, I understand it is clipart). Overall, I found the difficulty to be about right. That being said, maybe the hitbox of the player could be shrunk a little? I had a hard time dodging the shotgun attack of the farmer near the end as a result. Everything else felt very fair. I beat the game on my first attempt in about 1:30.
Like many other, I loved the art. Sadly I couldn't listen to the music much because the volume sliders bugged out and locked the music audio at 0%. What I did hear in the main menu was sweet though. The gameplay was pretty funny, I loved running around and punching those cockroaches while guzzling gallons of alcohol. That being said, the objective could have been clearer. I died due to the infinitely(?) respawning enemies while I looked for the objective, and that's after I saw a comment saying that you have to throw the bottles into the holes. The pointing hands are definitely a step in the right direction in that regard.
P.S. I noticed the non-perspective-correct UV interpolation on the textures. That's a lovely detail. Was adding it as simple as adding `noperspective` attribute (or whatever the HLSL equivalent is) to your pixel shader input, or was it more involved?
Great game. One thing I noticed was that interactions felt a little unresponsive at times. Other than that, I have no complaints. Good work on the mood and theme of this!
Fun little particle sandbox! I haven't seen one with particles modeled as squares and spheres before. The 1000 particle limit is unfortunate, but given the more complex particle shapes it makes sense. I liked the mechanic of unlocking new particles through interactions, but found it a bit jarring that everything got reset when a new element was discovered. I think I managed to discover all but two of them when I played. I think this has great potential if the particle limit could be removed (but I understand if it can't be).
The robot was a cute design, it kinda looked like a frog. Also, being filled with liquid (which changed your movement) is a fun and unique gameplay mechanic. If you wanted, you could expand on it by using various amounts of liquid, or liquids that have different properties.
In terms of graphics, I agree with the others here, it was difficult to tell how fast you were spinning, especially when zoomed out, which is pretty crucial for landing particular jumps. Some other graphical nitpicks are that it was difficult to determine movement on long, flat sections (can be solved by using textures or adding extra), and the loading/unloading platforms being quite aliased when zoomed out (can be solved by using low-res textures or solid colors). Let me emphasize that those are pretty minor issues in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, the gameplay was solid, and the third level was really difficult, which is okay for a finale :D
When I told my friend about the concept for this game, they said it was a lot like rocket jumping in TF2. I can't say that's far off! In hindsight, it would have been useful to look at rocket jump maps as a source of inspiration.
@ukulelefury Thanks for the comprehensive review. I appreciate it (as well as the other commenters)!
- I originally submitted this to the compo, but upon realizing that I missed the compo deadline I changed it to regular jam. - The difficulty varies wildly due to both a lack of time and playtesters. The middle platform in "Skip and a Hop" is not supposed to be a red herring, but due to the inconsistent explosion force it may seem so. The soon-to-be-released update should make it a little more consistent. - I'm sorry about the crash. I was experiencing some memory bugs near release and I thought I fixed them all. Apparently I haven't! It's tough tracking down those buggers. Fortunately I haven't gotten any other crash reports yet :fingers_crossed: - Oh, and I only spent about 15 minutes on the random death text thing. It's just an array of 7 strings that I randomly pick from whenever the player dies.
Again, I appreciate your thoughts. I'm learning a lot from others playing the game (mostly about how certain things are unintuitive :D). Perhaps I will make a postmortem detailing my learnings.
@heremeus Thanks for the feedback! I intentionally made the air acceleration low to encourage good bomb placement, but I think that was a mistake. The ragequit button being close to the retry button is another problem too. I can easily add some spacing and maybe rename it to "Quit" so it doesn't resemble the word "Retry" as much.
@epb9000 it should compile fine on Linux if you can provide PhysX binaries or can figure out how to correctly add PhysX to the CMakeLists.txt
@electric-bonfire The bomb triggering and explosion forces are not as robust as I would've liked them to be in an optimal sense. Heck, it took quite a bit of finagling PhysX (and reading API documentation) to get it to behave how I wanted 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time... well, I'm sure you're quite aware :D
I agree with the other comments- this is a unique idea for a mechanic (and well executed too)! I can see a lot of potential with this mechanic, and it's great that you explored the three main ones (jump height, weight, and character size) a bit.
These aren't big issues, but I noticed collision with walls was kinda jumpy and I was able to run outside of the level. The game was rather easy as well- but that's fine, I had fun playing it.
I really liked how the controls were simple and the mechanic was intuitive to learn. Good job on that. The pixel art was nice, too.
The grapple hook was janky, but fun to use after I understood how it worked. My only suggestion would be to add something to indicate the "death plane". I died to it multiple times on the final level when trying to use the grappling hook. Fun game :thumbsup:
Web version works for me (I'm using Chrome on Windows). One minor thing I noticed is no indicator to advance the text. A simple blinking cursor would help signal to the player that they are in control of the advancement of the text. You also might want to reconsider using left control for crouch. I tried crouching and moving forward, and it closed the tab (Ctrl+W hotkey), as well as triggering other hotkeys.
As for the game itself, it was a great little narrative! I got a little more than half the clues correct by my estimate, but that's probably due to me being a poor detective :laughing:
This was one of the more polished entries I've seen, well done! The mechanic is simple (and on-theme), yet each level brought a fresh take on it. I applaud games like this that have simple controls and surprising depth. It got really hard near what I think is the end (I made it to the level where there are three bars before I gave up), but the ramp up to that difficulty was smooth.
The visuals were clean, yet stylish, and the audio was good too. However, I did have a minor issue with audio where the sound of the anti-player entering was loud even if the volume was turned down.
I would suggest updating this page to add at least one picture of the game and perhaps some extra info, just to attract more people to play it.
I liked the mechanic of having the rotating light/dark clock on the screen and I liked the different ways you explored the mechanic.
At first I had issues understanding where to go, then I didn't understand how the doors in the bottom room opened so it took me a while to get started in that area. Besides that, none of the mechanics were confusing and I felt the overall difficulty was right.
I also found the camera to be a bit slow.
As a whole, it was refreshingly straightforward to learn while still having a unique and interesting mechanic.
Surprisingly addictive once I figured out how to not immediately lose. The other commenters had the right idea with lining the floor with pegs. After that I stopped failing and started having a lot of fun.
Another thing I might add is that there isn't much of a tutorial. I wasn't sure what to do at first or what the goal was. It took me a few minutes to figure things out.
The second-to-last level was brutal! It took me 8 tries and a lot of thinking :D
My only complaint is that there is a considerable amount of reading for the player at the start of the game.
The theme is a little on-the-nose :pensive: The end message is quite fitting though :D
As for the gameplay, I agree with the others that there wasn't a lot of feedback to indicate why things turn out the way they do. It might help to have a way to show how the population feels about a particular candidate by hovering that candidate (e.g., each person would show a smile or frown depending on whether they like that candidate).
I didn't mind the simplistic graphics at all. In fact, I think they help in a game like this.
Also, the "every 10 seconds" theme didn't really seem to impact gameplay at all. It was more of an animation timer. I'm not sure how it could be better integrated into the game though.
Ultimately, the game was effective at making me think about IRL politics, so well done.
I won't reiterate what everyone else said here- I agree with them. The mechanic was unique and fun, and the music was great.
I found the camera to be difficult at times, especially with the fixed perspective. I also occasionally had trouble determining the depth of my character due to the extremely thin shadow at certain times. I think this could be improved by adding a "blob shadow" under the character (like in Minecraft and older games) instead of using a shadow map. I think the shadows were great for everything else though.
Besides those relatively minor issues, I had a lot of fun. Well done.
One of the best LD games I've played yet! Too bad the difficulty ramps up so I couldn't finish it (or maybe I just suck :D). Still I'm surprised at how much content there is.
The game felt polished overall, except for the floaty character controls and some rather minor issues with the graphics (visible mipmap filtering on the terrain, motion blur on the character, and low res shadow map).
I got stuck on the fourth puzzle (bridge building). It would be useful to have a way to pause the game and enter camera mode just so the player has some time to think. The player would be relieved of some of that pressure which makes their brain not work well. Well, it would at least help in my case :D
As a non-artist, the environment assets felt well-chosen and the character was well-designed. The little animation at the end of each level was cute. The explosion effect was hilarious in a way that juxtaposed everything else. The choice of music also seemed fitting with the game, and the slow-down effect when you were underwater was a nice touch. It helped to add to the polished feel of the game.
The game was somewhat easy, but I liked the graphics and controls a lot. The simple controls and obvious objectives helped me start playing with little friction.
I noticed a few places on the second map (particularly on the right side) that were missing the "transition" wall pieces. Another small complaint is that there was no volume slider.
The main thing that, in my opinion, would benefit the game would be some more variety in the gameplay. Monsters with different attacks (such as ranged attacks) and different objectives would help.
I enjoyed the story elements as well, and particularly the art that accompanied it. They were a concise way to express the plot and objective.
The concept and audio were both funny and well-executed. I could see this being turned into a "full" game, so to speak.
I found the jumping mechanic to be a little janky (it didn't seem very consistent and you were able to make minions jump several times in midair), but it worked well enough and overall the game was fun.
@100th-coin even at 480p it looks decent, if I say so myself :smile:. I really appreciate the feedback and the video.
I wish I could have added more options to the sandbox before the deadline, though.
PS: here's a gif I recorded: https://gfycat.com/chiefjauntylark
I got 319430 points. Quite chill like the previous commenter mentioned, but I don't see how the theme fits with the game jam. Either way, it's a fun and well-polished game.
I thought 1-4 was literally impossible, but reading the comments here just made me realize I'm a brainlet.
Overall, the gameplay concept seems really flexible, and according to the other comments it seems well-executed.
I think it could have been a little clearer initially, but I was able to understand all the mechanics very quickly.
It was a little funny how some of the tips came after the initial level they would have been useful for.
I wish there was a volume slider. I had to mute the audio soon after starting. I don't think it impacted the experience much though.
I managed to collect all but one of the creatures! I liked the choice and variety of creatures.
The music was a little bit intense, but I preferred it over no music. I would add a volume slider next time since it was pretty loud.
The grass could have used a little love, and the 3D chicken coop felt out of place with the rest of the 2D sprites.
Normally I do not play games like this, so I was surprised that I enjoyed this one :D
Fun game! There are some evil modifier combos, like jam + delivery. I foolishly took that combo twice and subsequently lost to the wave of trucks that came.
The controls felt very polished and everything "worked". The 10 second mechanic felt inspired by VVVVVV :). I agree with the other comments that the movement was a little sluggish, but it felt close to "perfect".
The only technical issue I encountered was my browser sometimes trying to add a bookmark when I pressed Ctrl+D. I think browser games typically avoid the control key for this reason.
Overall a well-polished, balanced game with a good pace and fitting mechanic.
Funny game! I liked art, and the mechanic was simple to understand and thematic.
The controls were mostly fine, but they got really janky on the rotating gears. I really appreciate that they were simple, making it easy to get started.
I found it a little annoying how I had to start at the beginning every time I died. I understand that's the main mechanic, but maybe if restarting was quicker it wouldn't be an issue (for me).
I eventually gave up after raising the box and encountering the three spokes with the gear. It wasn't obvious to me what to do next and I didn't want to spent many :rat:s figuring it out.
Overall, I think, with tweaks, this has the potential to become a really fun and original "full" game.
I liked the concept, but found it exceedingly difficult to build overlapping connections without the buses eventually crashing (and often before they paid for themselves).
I think the game would benefit from having more routing mechanisms like tunnels or signals (see Factorio's railway building for inspiration).
Another thing I would add is that there was no urgency to build any connections (as far as I could tell). It might be beneficial to make stranded passengers disappear after a while or cost you money. It seemed like one could make infinite money by building one connection and waiting. Anything that adds urgency would bring a lot of focus to the "every 10 seconds" theme.
Finally, the controls didn't feel fully explained and I found myself confused at the beginning with the camera zoomed way in. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to discover how to move the camera and zoom in and out. Maybe a simple graphic on the side (along with the costs) could help explain this aspect.
Overall, I think the game has great potential. Besides my complaints, the mechanics worked flawlessly, the graphics were simple and concise, and the controls were solid.
I also found the challenge to be a bit lacking. One thing you could do to make it more difficult is to shuffle the objects each time the teapot covers them.
I like a fresh take on an old concept. It felt very well-polished overall. The controls were responsive and all the animations were smooth. Pretty much no complaints here :D
@aristurtle I think the only thing that limits the responsiveness is the fact that the snake smoothly moves between cells instead of instantly moving, like in most Snake clones.
I guess you are interpolating parts of the snake between the previous position and the current one? It might make more sense to extrapolate instead, that way changes in direction are immediately communicated to the player. It might look janky when turning rapidly though. It's certainly something you would have to test.
I loved the strategic depth and the various tactics that the cards enabled. The balancing wasn't perfect (shopafrogaholic was very OP) and I couldn't figure out how to use the frog sacrifice upgrade, but otherwise it seemed quite polished and coherent overall. The froggy theme was the cherry on top.
I love those little rats. Too bad we have to fight them.
The limited locations to place towers is an interesting concept that I haven't seen before. It forced me to think instead of clumping everything around a chokepoint :D. The choice of towers was limited but not limiting, if you catch my drift. My dacha broke a few times, but I eventually found a strategy that would work on the final level.
The pixel sprites and animations were lovely.
Hi @tremisabdoul, sorry about the crash. Do you have any more info about it? Is there a message that appears? Also, which version of the game did you try? v1.0.0 has a bug that can cause a crash during gameplay.
@tremisabdoul thanks for the pic. I suspect the issue is that your GPU doesn't support OpenGL 4.6.
If you're willing to try, the latest version of the game (v1.1.1) displays exceptions in the console before closing. To see them, launch the game from a command terminal (e.g. cmd or powershell).
I uploaded the wrong build :face_palm:, sorry about that @sviborg. The broken build has been replaced by v1.1.1b, which should not immediately crash.
@stuckne1 I fixed that issue just a few minutes ago, can you try the latest link again?
I liked the intrinsic balance between the units. I did experience a bug that prevented me from placing units (it seemed like it was due to an interaction between the horizontal scroll bar and the number of units being displayed?) but overall the gameplay worked as expected and the difficulty ramp was smooth.
The main frustrations I encountered were tedious unit placement (as others mentioned) and having to replay the same fights every time I entered the dungeon again. I also found it odd that you had to re-buy lost units. These mechanics meant you could grind the first few levels to make a lot of money to upgrade your army and subsequently steamroll the rest of the levels. The simple pathfinding led to units engaging opponents in inefficient ways (reminds me of AoE2), but I don't expect a game jam game to nail this.
The graphics were great and the audio served its purpose. Overall, I enjoyed it!
I got a high score of 8 nuts! I had some difficulties climbing the trees, but I found the movement and animations to be quite endearing. The objective was communicated well enough that I had no difficulty understanding what to do or how to accomplish it (aside from not realizing that the "drop" button only dropped one nut, not all of them).
I encountered an issue in which there was what seemed like an invisible restart button, so when I clicked in a certain area the game would restart :cry:. I also had issues getting it to run in the browser- on Firefox it simply wouldn't load, and on Chrome it would load into a white screen, so I played the desktop version.