japes

Expedition for salvation by Nikteddy92 2015-12-21T15:55:00

Nice entry! a bit buggy (I said go left at one point and next round I was 2 places ahead and to the right) and the up/down thing got a bit repetitive, but the graphics and mood where very cool. You managed to create the feeling of a post apocalyptic world well, I even found myself wondering about their backstories and relationship. That's quite an achievement for a jam game.

So for me it's full marks for theme, high marks for mood/graphics, lower marks for fun and overall because of the monotonous up/down mechanic.

Thought Garden by batzerk 2015-12-21T16:12:00

That was very cool, cooler than some finished games I've played here.
Only rating I'll knock you on a bit is mood because this thing is dying for some music! Really felt the lack.

Would love to hear more about the idea this was supposed to be, or even see a post version.

QM Snake by Thepattybeast 2015-12-16T10:05:00

I agree with the other comments: the buttons are just confusing, and the 3D background is distracting.

Otherwise a solid snake remake.

Folkk by Kalinka 2015-12-16T12:45:00

Very cool!

One suggestion: make all the buildings have a "processing" animation, like the windmill does, just so it's clearer what's going on.

Was the idea to allow one output to go to many inputs? Because I couldn't seem to get that working. (e.g. a well to both a field and a donkey breeder)

Also some bugs where buildings wouldn't be assigned workers once things got really busy. Not sure if there's a population cap, or something.

You and your parasite by local minimum 2015-12-16T19:28:00

That was strange! Felt like I was on MTV in the 90s.
I enjoyed that, thanks :)

Vitality by lastninja2 2015-12-16T14:19:00

Awesome game, very difficult though and not always in a good way.
I think things would feel more "fair" and less random if platforms only moved in the direction you were pushing. Something rushing up when you push down (sometimes) is confusing.
Not sure if that would work, but hey...

But I enjoyed it nonetheless, cool idea.
(there's a typo in the last bit of text)

GROW by Japes 2015-12-16T18:05:00

@local minimum I agree completely, would've done so if I hadn't run out of time. See the post version :)

GROW by Japes 2015-12-22T09:19:00

@Captain Awesome thanks! The cost algorithm obviously needs some tweaking, this is a common complaint. At the moment your distance from the seed increases cost way too much. Also size of roots/leaves doesn't increase their production but I will change that too.

@bitdecaygames this is also a common complaint :) the default unity behaviour is for things to pause when it loses focus so it wasn't a deliberate thing...will fix.

WiggleTwig by mikołak 2015-12-16T21:58:00

Cool idea! One thing that would make it cooler would be if the monsters had health bars or something, so that you can see how effectively you're hurting them. Same goes for plants. I assume your position matters, but some feedback showing your area of influence, or whatever, would've been good.

Reaching Skyward by SelfTitled 2015-12-16T11:54:00

Dude I had almost the exact same idea as you!
Check it out: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=38385

Because of this I might be a bit biased when I say it's a great idea :)

You're is definitely more polished. I added physics to mine, so branches can break if they're too heavy.

One thing I would suggest is make the energy and water rates always visible, I had to always have one node clicked to see how my resources are doing.
Other than that I would just say the variables need a bit of tweaking to make it more challenging, but you probably would've done this if you had more time anyway.
Mine doesn't have an end goal either, and also suffers from balance issues.

Good job :)

Grow by Dimitri0xFF 2015-12-16T12:06:00

Interesting idea - was a bit unclear what was going on with the red/green arrows and what affected my health, at first. But after a while I figured it out.

Rotate And Match by pcmaster 2015-12-15T20:57:00

Cool, simple game! I actually had fun playing it. My only criticism is that there could be more levels and maybe the matching algorithm could be improved, sometimes I felt I got away with a solution that was quite different from the goal.

[JJJ] - Jolly Jail Jumper by AwesomeAlliterationAlliance 2015-12-28T10:43:00

Perfect. What more could you ask for in a gamejam entry? Maybe more levels? This is a finished, polished game. Well done sirs. Loved the difficulty, it made me determined to stick it through to the end.

Rollin Lemmin by PixelStuff 2015-12-15T20:00:00

Great graphics, pity about the lack of sound, and it's really too buggy to play at the moment. If the physics issues are sorted out I'm sure it would be a fun game.

Lumberjacks Must Die: The Story of Treesus by Captain Awesome 2015-12-21T15:41:00

Nice idea but I can see you ran out of time. Lack of unit animations and some other graphical kinks made it look unfinished.

Dendrite by bitdecaygames 2015-12-21T17:33:00

I give this 5 stars it's really impressive you made such a polished game within the time limit. well done!

Karel by Dry Tree 2015-12-19T11:41:00

That was really great, best game I've seen yet. Really polished, clever mechanic. My only real criticism is that it's too short! Some more levels would be nice.
I suppose you could easily add more, and then you'd have a finished game.
One other thing is that I would often mistime when trying to go through an open door, resulting in my colliding with it and turning instead.

Room Sprinter by FutureCodesToday 2015-12-20T22:35:00

Wow that music was amazing, definitely the highlight of the game for me. 5 stars for that. Nice entry. Would've been nice without the massive download though!

Evolution, bitch! by derugin.s 2015-12-19T14:36:00

I agree with Coomzy, rather have 1 well made level than three which feel unfinished.
Nice models. I found the branches moving in front of the character distracting.

Feed Mother by Clabbage 2015-12-29T13:26:00

Great game! Nice spin on the classic agar.io mechanic. As others mentioned, the flocking behaviour is awesome and really adds another element to the gameplay.
A bit more info explain what the parasites/stinkbugs are and what they do would be nice. But I figured it out pretty quickly.

Ball Street Journal by modenv 2015-12-15T22:33:00

Nicely polished!
+1 humor star for the name :)

Yanush Twofingers by Lizandros 2015-12-19T11:52:00

That was really cool, great idea for the theme.

Project sandtree by Rikstar 2015-12-15T20:50:00

It feels really satisfying when you plant a tree, and once I figured out how to use the white boxes to reach higher levels became more interesting.
A few small things which I think would really improve the game:
1. Centre the crosshair. Unless there's a reason it's off centre?
2. I agree with other raters, get rid of the 2 button thing and use normal wasd. When I plant a tree I want to backpedal and watch it's growth.

Cool game I think it has potential.

Feed the King by Creative Turtle 2015-12-16T18:50:00

Brilliant artwork and sound, but not much of a game really?

Grow a Beard! by martin-denizet 2015-12-21T17:47:00

lol! awesome. My favourite was the barber. Noooooooo!
@Shurty: Strange, I found those the easiest. Hardest for me was the steak.

Dragon's life by timotei 2015-12-19T10:11:00

Not sure what's going on here...

Double Army by abuzreq 2016-05-03T22:01:00

Great idea, don't really have much to add besides agreeing with what others have said:

1. bit confusing at first, some feedback as to what's going on other than the text at the bottom would be nice,

2. gets a bit tedious ferrying your troops over (Although I did figure out that things go a lot faster if you get a big crowd of the enemy to follow you over to YOUR side :) )

3. leveling up faster for killing higher-level enemies would make sense. feels a bit like cheating when I kill a bunch of low-ranking enemies with my squad of strong guys.

Great game really enjoyed it! Maybe I'll even come back to it and try to kill the commander :)

Sock Wars by TiByte 2016-04-27T17:40:00

Nice game - the graphics are cool. I like the idea of different stages that follow a story line - very nice. I'm not certain what to do when I meet the big blob after collecting the soup. This game has potential - the stages could be a bit longer perhaps (dodging the dirt is very, very easy in the beginning and a bit long), but it's cool.I'm not a fan of the music.

CHORUS by Pantelis Petsopoulos 2016-04-27T17:47:00

I like the idea of the game, but (1) I think that it would be cool if the shapes added to the music (think Guitar Hero; or perhaps act as a different instrument), and (2) there could be instructions about how to change to the different shapes. The music is a bit tweaky.
However, I think that there is a good idea here. I do wonder how this game will develop further - how would you make this game new or different in this genre?

Can't Drive This - #cantdrivethis by pixel_maniacs 2016-04-24T19:56:00

Wow great quality entry! Menus, music, graphics were all tight. Lots of laughs when playing two-player. Was just super difficult though! Even with a friend.

Robot Snake by eduardogacn 2016-04-27T18:00:00

Cute game - I really like the idea and the puzzle solving aspects. If you were to develop this game then I could see a variety of challenging scenarios being developed and extra goody items (or booby traps) being placed. Very cool.

Squarcle by bagface 2016-04-27T18:13:00

This is the only comment that you need from me:
My partner wants dinner - and my response is "Just one more turn". It's a great game, well done. :)

Rock scissors paper by spb_Rusty 2016-04-27T18:06:00

Damn, this game is quite difficult!! :) I often get trapped by my enemies, whom I then transform into, and then m new enemies are able to kill me. There was a glitch in one of my plays where the rocks and scissors weren't leaving their corners and my board was overrun by sheets of paper. Really cute game, but damn, so tough. But cool. Great work! Please rate my game.

Eye in the Sky by doublesquare 2016-12-27T12:19:00

Interesting idea and gave me a very cool nostalgic NES feel :). bit repetitive, a nice simple thing you could've added is maybe timing a game and seeing what score you can get in a given time? Then you could try to beat your score and compare with others.

Drunk Guy! by bramvanelderen 2016-12-29T09:13:00

Great graphics and feel, i actually feel dizzy irl now, cant play this game for too long! Good effort.

Biragela by kuicreaciones 2016-12-23T12:51:00

Very cool idea! Stretched my mind in new directions. Super hard though. As Decentsauce mentioned, its hard to get your bearings sometimes, the transparency settings (or something) make it look a bit confusing. I think this could be made into a great game.

Neural Escape by Kroute 2016-12-23T13:21:00

Dude great game! Really enjoyed it. Nice non-annoying sound, cool feel, interesting mechanic. Just needs a bit of balance, maybe a bit easier (at first) and less luck based. Well done :)

DEBOI-OPPAI by TBOI TEAM 2016-12-24T12:12:00

Nice idea, cute graphics, good sound. Hacking minigame was a cool idea!
Whole thing was just a bit short and I would do away with the auto-exit. Also maybe the movement could be a bit quicker.

Starlight by savethejets1 2016-12-28T21:39:00

Best entry I've played so far! That was brilliant, well done. Music, graphics, mood, great story, difficulty level was just right to provide about half an hour to an hour of gameplay.
Thanks for this! I hope one day I can make something this cool :)

room by Esenti 2016-12-29T07:10:00

This is great! At first I thought that it was just a statement about the rat race and how depressing life is, but I've just managed to get a bit further, so will play a bit more :). Also I LOVE the fact that only 3 words were needed for your description.

Building Contract #DE190290 by FloatingGhost 2016-12-28T18:47:00

Not that bad! cool idea, funny robotic voice. Just broke down at the higher tempos, but I don't think it was a bad effort.

The Bridge of SHIP_NAME_HERE by joe40001 2016-12-28T20:55:00

I'm going to comment here before playing the post-jam version (I'm sure it's much better)

It seems like a really cool idea, I'm just sorry I couldn't figure it out. How do you die? I could only train 2 of my 4 guys (the minigames were fun!), was anything other than the guys and the main screen clickable on the screen? I feel like im missing out here, so I'm going to play the post jam now :)

Hotel One Room by runvs 2016-12-24T11:48:00

Great game, reminded me of the sim tower days :) graphics and sound were great, just needed a bit more difficulty and a lose condition as others have mentioned.

The file I downloaded ended with _postcompo so I'm not sure this is a fair rating :/ I'm going to subtract 1 from my 4-star rating for fairness.

FUNRiDE! by SUNFURY 2016-12-24T11:58:00

Great game, actually quite like the voxel graphics. Unfortunately only played it by myself but I'm sure it's a fun little party game with friends. Does it make a difference which animal you choose? Do some weigh more than others?

I'm no shut-in by Junber 2016-12-27T11:17:00

Great idea for the theme. Loved it, some really freaky moments (one in particular got me, but won't spoil it).
I got a crash while playing fullscreen on my 1366x768 screen. Window mode worked fine.

Neo Spiritu by Anti 2016-12-24T12:26:00

Something about this feels really satisfying, the fire rate and bullet speed make it so that you have to really think about where you're aiming, and it feels great when you hit an enemy mid-air or cancel one of their bullets.
Graphics and sound fit perfectly!
Love the weapons, amazing what you can do with just a few simple shapes and tweaking the bullet behaviour. well done!

Manic Mars Base Manager by Downtown 2016-12-29T08:09:00

Very cool, I enjoyed this. Reminded me of my own entry but this has way better art :)

Sound Crush by Tortoise 2016-12-27T11:01:00

Cool game, feels nice and polished. Simple but effective. Only criticism is that the difficulty level is kind of all over the place, it swings back and forth between super easy and impossibly hard :) good job.

Fantastical Flora by QuestionableQuality 2016-12-28T21:55:00

Really polished! Well done, can't really fault it except to say that I would've liked more of a sense of purpose, it was just experimentation. But then again I guess that's what you were going for :)

Heavy Industries by TurboCorp 2016-12-24T12:52:00

Best game I've rated yet! Superb, such a cool idea. Love the are style, everything is simple and just works. Can't wait to try it with more people (1v1 is a bit too easy for the CEO, we found). First time i've heard of happyfuntimes, will have to investigate for my own games...

The Downtop Massacre: Pepper Invasion by aemiliu5 2016-12-24T10:31:00

Solid game! Simple but polished, nice music/sounds, cool menu. One minor thing: walking diagonally gives you double speed :) well done.

Gun Shop Loadout by Green Soda 2016-12-29T07:45:00

No audio category? I thought the audio was pretty good.
Great game, great graphics, sound does just enough to set the mood without interfering. Maybe a bit too easy?

It Came from the Dessert by Maniac 2016-12-27T12:01:00

Strange game lol. I seemed to kill some in the oven I think. Maybe you should've had a score counting how many you've killed, or something, to give more of a sense of purpose.

One Room Factory by Zgragselus 2016-12-29T09:45:00

I enjoyed this once I got the hang of it! What had me stuck for a bit was missing this crucial line:
"Each station also requires intermediate product from previous station".
Once I figured out the mechanic it was very satisfying to set up an efficient assembly line. I think you could easily expand this into a marketable game.
Some suggestions:
- make each station and component look completely different, so you don't have to zoom in on it at a certain angle just to see its number
- make the stations/parts different sizes, would make coming up with an efficient setup more interesting
- make it so you don't start off with quite so much capital, so you have to start earning some money before you can improve your factory.
- as others have said, maybe an even clearer tutorial

Thanks for this! well done.

Endless Hexagon by David Cookie 2017-05-11T21:15:15Z

Thanks for your feedback on my game (looks like there's a little hex community forming)

My personal best was 3980 :)

Love the polish, the pixel transition, the music, the animation, all looks very slick and cool. Very interesting mechanic but I think there may be a slight bug with the first recycle? It doesn't seem to behave the way I thought it would. Or maybe I'm just not understanding it fully?

Great entry, thanks

Obelisk by Orcolom 2017-05-02T20:47:03Z

Great graphics and sound!

Unfortunately I didn't play it to the end, but I may come back to it at some stage... Some minor criticisms: It wasn't obvious at first what was going on with the tile-swapping. I click 2 things, they rise and then come back? or something? It's not immediately obvious (And I kept forgetting) which of the rotation tiles is the "handle" and which is the one that gets turned. But when i did realise how everything worked, this turned out to be a very well made game! good job!

Transistor Soup by stuntddude 2017-05-04T19:27:11Z

Very cool game - this should be a required play for any first year electrical engineering student :) You could extend this as far as you like - I guess it would inevitably become more of an educational thing than a "game", but I'm sure there are people out there (in addition to me) who would love to progress in complexity until you're building a processor :)

Some suggestions: - agree a "clear" button would be great - full screen support would be great - some sounds/music would of course be great

To make this more accessible to non-elec eng nerds, you could maybe build more on the "big corporate" backstory. You've probably played Spacechem? That had a great story behind all the logic.

Great entry, thanks :)

Angelic Design by Joror 2017-05-10T21:58:02Z

Great entry, was it inspired by the Small World board game?

I beat it on my second go, but I feel like I didn't really deserve it. I just randomly placed races all over the map, giving them some space to grow and "harvesting" them when it looked like their capitals were about to get destroyed, or they seemed to be stagnating. At year 1000 I then just shuffled heroes around until all 3 tasks were marked "passed". (I think there may actually be a bug and that some stats arent modified properly when you rearrange heroes on the task screen, but I didn't look into this more carefully)

I love the mechanic, and I'm sure that if you'd had more time you would've sorted out some of my major criticisms: - icons/pictures instead of text for the races and their modifiers - race colours that had some kind of meaning and weren't random - a more intuitive/helpful tutorial - have the underlying rules be a bit more transparent (although I feel this way about some AAA games too). It would be nice to know exactly how the stats are awarded(or are they random besides for the starting bonuses?). I was dropping orcs and goblins when I needed combat, dwarves when I needed tech etc but it seemed like after levelling they could actually get stronger in other areas. Is size and time all you need for strong races (and therefore strong heroes)? does the terrain have any effect? Would "frost" races do better in the north, for example, or "sea" races do better with a coastline?

With all that said, I have to also say that this is quite an achievement for a jam. Very impressive, well done!

Alysson by Jod 2017-05-07T21:54:41Z

That was great. These kinds of games aren't normally my thing, but I think I played through to every ending! Would've given full marks for "mood" if it had some audio :) but it really got me at the "dark times" section. thanks and well done!

Low Orbit by quadtree 2017-05-14T10:17:35Z

Performance issues with the download version made this unplayable for me, was getting about 1fps. Pity, because it looks like a fun game, with a lot of work put into the models and environments.

Mini Shaders by bestnickname 2017-05-11T21:39:58Z

Cool retro feel and music. Bit overwhelming at first but in a good way, things look interesting so it makes me want to figure out what's going on. Then again I am a programmer, so maybe that won't apply to everyone.

Pity about the try again button bug! I had to redo some levels...but not that much of a train smash. Would be cool if there were goals to try to achieve in terms of number of operations.

All in all a really cool little game!

SmallHexWorld by japes 2017-05-08T05:35:02Z

@stuntdude that is amazing! I wish I could give more than one feedback heart. Did you whip that up using processing? What's the highest score you've seen? Current highest I've seen by a human is 9049. (unless you've beaten that)

I am stoked that the mechanic stands up to the simple greedy approach. The quest for the optimal strategy continues!

Please keep me updated with any progress you make!

Check out my post version, it has an online leader board. But no bots allowed there ;)

SmallHexWorld by japes 2017-05-10T22:06:52Z

Thanks for the comments everyone!

@kantieno thanks for the feedback, I've fixed the annoying case of getting a farm before any waters in the post version.

@Scriptorum thanks! I plan to add some more visual feedback to the post version so that things feel a bit more intuitive. I'm just not sure if showing all the potential scores would take some of the fun out of it? Will try it out and see.

SmallHexWorld by japes 2017-05-14T17:22:50Z

@david-cookie I think seeing the next tile could be cool too. Will experiment :)

@flaterectomy thanks - that is an intended mechanic. Cities can attack each other under certain conditions, turning them into wastelands, and if farms are too far from water they also turn into wasteland. It isn't clear if you don't read the text carefully; an animation showing what was going on would be much clearer. This is one of the things I'd like to do in the post version.

@headmade thanks! check out the post version with online leaderboard!

SmallHexWorld by japes 2017-05-21T11:02:09Z

@stuntdude That is awesome man, no worries! I'm just stoked someone is taking an interest in my game :)

Will definitely take a look at your code when I'm able to get back to this. I am planning on working on this more and releasing it on the google play store, RL will just be in the way for the next few weeks.

Current highest by a human is 9266 by me :). I got this on the post version, but the rules are the same. It just disallows farms before at least 1 water has been provided. So maybe something in the 9000s is close to the theoretical best.

World Requires by phaze0 2017-05-14T10:10:59Z

Nice entry - it's simple but everything works, and there is a win and lose condition, which is more than I can say for some of my earlier entries :)

I feel like the mechanic is a cool idea, but needs to be tweaked a bit before this can be really fun as opposed to just interesting. As it is, the requirements don't really affect gameplay, they could be made a lot stricter. The option to recycle pieces means you can be mentally lazy, and just keep recycling until you get something that fits, as opposed to carefully strategising your placement.

Maybe a smaller map, with fewer, simpler pieces that are pre-selected to fit together nicely. Also, stricter win/lose conditions would make this more interesting.

Also came across the recycle weirdness - I think it returns the same piece if you drop near the edges of the drop box.. Some sounds would've been nice!

A Perfectly Lovely Expedition by cerno-b 2017-05-14T09:14:18Z

I love that very little explanation is needed to start playing. Everything is clear and obvious, and that's really important for a fun game. The day/night mechanic is awesome! Cool idea, full marks for the "small world" theme from me.

At first I thought this would be a Motherload type game, and was preparing for a long grind. But then I was surprised by a charming little puzzler! Very cool. Love the graphics and sounds too. Well done :)

Teddy The Tardigrade by wujood 2017-05-07T21:10:20Z

Must say the controls took away from my enjoyment a bit, and it took me a while to figure out that the red floaty thing was actually an arrow indicating an enemy, and that everything else is edible.

But on my 3rd or 4th time through I started getting the idea, and it is a cool idea! Cool sounds, and lots of cool little surprises along the way.

Unfortunately I didn't finish it, but if you work on this a bit more and get the controls tighter please let us know! I'd love to see how it ends.

Gnome Digger by bobsleigh 2017-05-11T21:57:29Z

A well executed take on a fun, established genre. Everything works, cool music and graphics, working your way up to more advanced tools is satisfying.

Hair Protector by NoroMoon 2017-05-12T14:10:06Z

That was bizarre hahaha but I agree with @poffle this is what makes Ludum Dare so cool.

It is strangely satisfying when you smack a little speck of dandruff away with a well-timed wiggle of your giant hair.

Thanks for this!

It's a Small World, So Let's Crash It into Things by simonhutchinson 2017-05-02T14:05:23Z

Great entry. Love the feel of the controls, the physics of sliding around a bit, bouncing back slightly when you collide with another planet, and getting slower/more sluggish as you grow. All little things that add to the polished feel of the game. As others have already mentioned, great sound and super scary dark star voice! Personally I liked the retro jerky screen transitions, i like how it makes things more risky the bigger you get (since you can see less of your surroundings)

Critter by Skruffye 2017-05-07T21:34:27Z

Wow this was really beautiful. Art and sound are top-notch, something the rest of us can aspire to :)

I see some Reus influence here! Loved that game and love what you've done here, too.

It took me a while to realise that the arrow keys rotate the world, don't think that was mentioned anywhere... Also on my first run, my critter died and the game didn't end, which was a bit confusing. I'm still not sure what the top bar is, temperature? Not sure how to alter it, creating mountains or deserts didn't seem to affect it.

Anyway I'm sure you've addressed those issues in your post-jam version, which I'm going to check out right now!

Tiny Asteroid War by Hackingroelz 2017-05-17T19:45:57Z

Very similar to this game https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/polar-conflict and I love it for the same reasons, interesting spin on a classic genre. Well made, everything works, the sounds/graphics are simple but get the message across. well done :)

Small Survival by Fengol 2017-05-01T20:09:49Z

Pity you couldn't finish, would be interesting. Looks like you've at least got a good start here though!

Path of the Rabbit by managore 2017-05-12T04:50:20Z

Once again, an amazing entry! Interesting mechanic, and the level of polish very high. Graphics and sounds are not only great but work together to create a distinct mood.

Personally I don't think the difficulty is too high. Or rather, it is high, but not in an annoying way - I always feel like I'll crack it the next turn. Just master a few simple rules, and hours of play open up to you. Well done again, I'm always inspired by your games.

Tiny Battlehex by meisterfuu 2017-05-07T20:52:18Z

Great entry!

I have come across this mechanic before, but you implemented it well.

Great sound, +1 to sound for the cool end game elevator music!

Just one criticism, some things could be a bit clearer. Which hexes are currently controlled by me? Which ones can I attack? Why can't I move units from some hexes etc. I did figure out all these things eventually but it took a while.

HexCity by MartensCedric 2017-05-02T11:31:16Z

Great idea - I'm probably biased when I say that though, since I had a very similar one! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/smallhexworld

(please give it a go and let me know what you think!)

I plan to come back to this and really try my best to get a good score, it really is an interesting problem to try to wrap your brain around. As has been mentioned, the graphics and sounds are simple, but I think they achieve their purpose given that this was a compo entry. With the mouseover text it's not even necessary to read the rules up-front, I would actually take down the rules on this page and just make it clear that you can mouseover tiles for more info.

Well done!

Super Smash Globes by 100th_Coin 2017-05-09T21:29:07Z

Great, well polished entry! The fact that you managed to generate so much content (music, campaign levels, character customization, great graphics/animations, a tutorial) for a compo entry is really impressive. I can't really find anything to criticize really. If I was really nitpicking, I could just mention that sometimes I'd get the "draw" test over my "win" text, little graphical glitch there. The background dudes could be a little distracting at times.

Well done, this is really impressive.

Dispyria by Tat2Tim 2017-05-02T20:58:27Z

Love the retro style, it managed to give me a good dose of nostalgia for old NES games :) thanks for that. My main criticism isn't so much the controls as the difficulty. The whole thing was too easy, every time I fell into a pit it was actually ok, none of the enemies were challenging at all, and the final boss did...nothing? I walked into him just to make sure he was actually an enemy and that I could actually take damage.

I think with some more challenging key/door puzzles and some enemies that were actually a hazard, this could be a really cool old school game. well done :)

Tetripolis by kasarun 2017-05-09T22:15:24Z

Great mechanic! The interactions between tile types, the satisfying feeling of slotting shapes together tetris-style, the tradeoff: do I need more points or do I need to optimise space? Really enjoyed it, will come back to it and play it some more.

One thing I would change if you work on this more (and maybe this is just me) is the graphics. It's quite intimidating at first to be presented with this intricately detailed map with number overlays. Looks almost like a computer motherboard. I would simplify them a bit just to ease a player in.

The Deific's Guide to Creating, Exploiting, and Destroying Pocket Worlds by Smiling Cat Entertainment 2017-05-10T22:16:46Z

Interesting idea and well presented, but I found the running around and collecting boring, when all i wanted to do was experiment with element combinations.

SmallWorld by arg410 2017-05-01T20:05:22Z

Great idea, I think with a little polish (menus, more feedback) and some balance tweaks (things are a bit easy) you'll have something good going here. Nice entry.

Hexoworld 9999 by Lugdumdare Team 2017-05-02T14:10:52Z

Great game, really well polished in terms of graphics/sounds and awesome UI. Agree with other reviewers that the difficulty curve is a bit skewed - impossibly hard at the start, too easy towards the end. But great idea and with some work could be a very fun game.

RC kitchen Throwdown by oxrock 2017-05-02T12:48:51Z

Cool, different idea. The performance issues killed this though unfortunately, would play it much more if things were faster and more responsive. Well done on graphics and sounds for a compo entry, will definitely look into using fameMusicGenerator in my next entry.

Bounceball by DusteD 2017-05-14T09:34:21Z

Great, simple entry. I like the minimalism, and the little haiku-style text sections added to the minimalist feel nicely.

Considering you made this in 5 hours using SDL (I assume this is a bit more bare bones than something like Unity), this is a really good job! In terms of time-spent versus quality of game, this is probably one of the best I've seen :)

+1 to "Some sound would've been nice" comments +1 to "Game over screen skipping because I was holding down a key" comments. I had to deliberately kill myself (carefully) to actually see it.

A Mote in the Dark by Kirenio 2017-05-09T21:52:35Z

I feel like you're on to something cool here, and you have a well thought-out idea, but the implementation goes over the player's head.

Expecting a player to read (and understand!) that description of the game mechanics is a bit of a stretch. 90% of people will just scan it and dive in (like I did) and then be confused.

With that said, graphics and sound add a great feel to the game, and everything felt nice and polished. I'm sure it could be something special with a slick, intuitive tutorial. Well done!

The Evolution Game by EvoGenGames 2017-05-02T21:51:15Z

Very interesting, any chance we could get a look at the source code? ;)

I know it's a jam and it probably wasn't easy implementing the neural networks, but since this is an idle game, I feel some more effort could've been put into SHOWING the learning (as mentioned by @burgee). I realise it's quite an abstract/complext algorithm, but must be some ways? I can think of a few:

- energy level could be shown by facial expression - age could be shown by size, or colour, maybe they could get more dull as they age - does moving require energy? if show it could be shown by a facial expression, or a very simple animation to make it look effortfull - do the creatures interact in any way? If so it should be shown somehow as well

As it is, much is left to the imagination. Perhaps this was deliberate? But I still think it would be cooler to somehow get an idea of the inner workings of the creatures.

Also, it would've been nice to have a little tick or something to show which achievements have been completed.

With all that criticism, I still thought this was very cool! Well done and thanks!

Polar Conflict by Jaenis 2017-05-14T11:00:30Z

Love this! Unique spin on a very established genre. I felt like I had to learn an entirely new skill here, trying to track enemy movement over this round surface. Had lots of fun with this simple little game.

My highest score was in the high 4000s, which I'm quite proud of.

The controls feel perfect (except for 1 small issue - see below), and it's really satisfying to see your shots fly off over the horizon. The music is great, and the low-poly visuals are awesome. Love the random world generator. The fact that your fire rate goes down as you hold down fire is a great idea, I would've just held down fire permanently like I usually do, otherwise. in response to @hampst 's comments, I actually like the fact that there's no health bar. After a few playthroughs you start to get a feel for how much damage you can take. I do agree that it would be better if the enemies looked different to you though, but I'm sure this was just due to time constraints.

One of my favourites of this LD. I do have some criticisms/comments though: - I was about to take a screenshot of my score when I noticed a bug - the high score keeps increasing while I'm on the menu screen! So it's currently in the high 7000s. - a small control issue that got in the way of maximum-awesomeness was that I couldn't hold down fire, up, and left at the same time. Other combos seemed to work though, not sure how one can get around keyboard jam issues like this.

Thanks!

Devoured Intellect by BoobMarley 2017-05-14T10:35:11Z

All games should have a "Skip this shit, I'll figure it out" button :)

Nice music, art, and feel, and an interesting take on the theme. I enjoyed how different this was to most other entries I've rated.

2 small points: - Throughout the game I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to the info parchment (besides the first page) that I just couldn't figure out how to access. (there isn't, is there?) - The "success" music was a bit jarring

Otherwise, this was a very entertaining 10 minutes. Thanks!

ARR World by Simon Rahnasto 2017-05-02T21:41:58Z

great entry! my favourite so far :) the 3d ships are awesome! I love the style, and the giant hand placing the baseball/island at the start was a nice touch, I'm a little kid imagining all this right? Very fun mechanic, I think this could be part of a great pirate game. By itself it feels a bit unfinished - what's the point of all this fighting? As mentioned in another comment, being able to conquer the neighbouring islands would be an awesome touch. At first I assumed there would be some exploration involved, maybe finding hidden islands or sea monsters. If you develop this further I think that could be really cool! Have any of you played Sunless Sea?

Thanks again for a fun entry :)

Colonial Kart World by adamalexander 2017-05-02T13:31:57Z

This is great! You should develop this further, with online multiplayer you'll have a proper game on your hands. I for one would pay to play it.

Would love to know how you did the waves, the wave mechanic made things way more interesting for me. Also the feeling of hitting an enemy ship with a well placed shot is very satisfying.

Could see pro players making use of the ricochet mechanic off cliffs to hit enemies :)

Well done!

Pennies Are Gold by commanderstitch 2017-12-21T12:27:12Z

At the start I thought it was silly, but then I saw how it is actually quite deep/strategic. I like the balance between action/strategy: * "action": running around collecting coins, scouting, avoiding crowds * "strategy": deciding how best to lay out your factories so that you can harvest coins from them efficiently, deciding how to lay our your bases

nice!

A time paradox by lythom 2017-12-17T16:52:59Z

The polish on this is top notch! graphics, sounds, menus etc are not far off from games you can buy on steam. Great mechanic, though I tend to agree with @btw that discrete steps might be better. The speech text was a really nice touch :) good job.

ICE RINK RALLY by japes 2017-12-17T13:53:53Z

@lythom thanks for the feedback! I agree gamepad support would be cool, especially for local multiplayer. Didn't have time to squeeze it in, but will add it soon to my post-version :)

ICE RINK RALLY by japes 2017-12-19T12:16:18Z

@knarf thanks! You can press escape and there's a restart button, but it's a bit buggy in the submission version. Check out the post version, it sorts that out and also the random physics freak-outs on startup :)

ICE RINK RALLY by japes 2017-12-21T18:27:00Z

@chunkybrewster ya, the leaderboard is down atm, not sure why :/ (cheap hosting option I guess...) If you got your time to 30 seconds you would've been top! current 1st is 31.99s

Eight More Drinks, Please by rplnt 2017-12-17T17:08:31Z

+1 to the left/right confusion - often I would mess up because I wouldn't remember which way (left/right) was which with the plates, but I suppose that's kind of the point with this game? Graphics and polish are awesome. Sounds were great but some lounge music in the background would've really completed it.

Gladitorial Moneta Victoria by Aggrathon 2017-12-17T13:08:12Z

My favourite entry so far!

It's clear that, like me, you're more a mechanics/design guy than an art guy, but you made some clever design decisions to make that work: - simple parchment/cave painting style graphics - gets the point across, works with your theme, super easy to do - nice font/sounds - small, easy touches that add a lot to the feel - funny "fight" sound for humour :) I enjoyed the music especially, it reminded me of the old civ games.

Mechanics wise, this is great! The turn-based combat style is simple but deep, little touches like your stats reducing when you're holding stuff in your bag are great, they add depth and balance. Interesting equipment choices and enemy types. This is already a fun and deep game and that's hard to achieve in a compo! I'd love to see this expanded into a full game!

Some minor criticisms (though you're probably aware of these issues): - the text that tells you what just happened last turn can get delayed if you play quickly, which was confusing at first - number 8 in that font looks like it could be an infinity symbol or an X, that confused me for a bit - some balance issues, it's easy to get into a situation where you have nothing to fight with and just have to click "wait" until you get killed

Brick Racer by nekoballs 2017-12-17T10:53:26Z

I took first place! Really fun game, great concept. The graphics and audio are bare minimum, but the cool idea and tight controls made it fun to play.

International Gift Helper by Pete 2017-12-18T21:04:08Z

Pretty simple but solid, nicely scoped for a jam. Of course, the second level I played was my home country (south africa), which turned out to be quite an advanced one! Very cool level select screen! Some sound would be nice seeing as the graphics were so good...

Tavos Mining Corporation by killthealias 2017-12-17T21:00:57Z

Same here for having to lower graphics quality - the weather effects did look really cool though. I felt it was lacking in some feedback as to how your settings affect unrest and income - I just set everything as low as possible and sold when things went green. Seeing how different things affected the outcome would've made things much more strategic.

Loot! by atmospherium 2017-12-20T16:16:47Z

Clever/funny statement, made me smile :) Not really much fun though, but I suppose that's the point.

BattleTennis DX Ultra Super by toestee 2017-12-16T22:20:04Z

Not sure how this ties in to the theme? Took me a while to get the hang of it but I'm glad I stuck to it until I did - really innovative and fun mechanic! this is what game jams are about, trying out things that are commpletely new. I love how it balances action with strategy. This could be seriously cool if you worked on it some more.

Unnatural Occurrences by Plasmonic 2017-12-18T20:34:50Z

Great, atmospheric game! Love all the text: book titles, newspaper headlines etc were clever and entertaining. The music and graphics, while simple, were immersive and drew me in to this world. It made me want to play more until I won! (which I did ;) )

The only real criticism I have is that the menu design could maybe be improved, and I came across a few bugs: - "money" menu in the first room stuck open on my second run - bug when exiting settings menu, couldn't figure out how to get back to the game

Other minor criticisms: - button icons could maybe have been a bit cooler (considering how cool the rest of the art is) - Font a little hard to read sometimes (though it does suit the theme well)

Feature Creep Inc by knarf 2017-12-18T20:52:40Z

Dude cool idea! I love it! Of course it's not quite finished, there are quite a few bugs and I'm not sure what e.g. the smiley face at the top was for, but I see where you're going with this! would love to see it finished.

A Hero's Burden by muffty 2017-12-21T14:37:11Z

As others have said, the graphics/audio/presentation of this is insane for a jam game. Great story. Without giving away too much - I was a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be a path that took the story...in a certain other direction ;) Buttons to skip text would've been cool, especially on your 3rd or 4th run. I encountered a bug when selecting chapters where it seemed like I got stuck right after making my first choice?

Dashing Delivery by Mars 2017-12-21T15:50:20Z

Great visuals and cool idea - a bit too hard! I couldn't win once :/ The kids voices were a little creepy lol, but added to your humour score :)

World Domenation by SvartTand 2017-12-18T21:27:21Z

Cool and deep game, bit confusing at first but once I got the hang of it I found it was challenging but well balanced. I didn't play an entire game but I intend to come back to this and beat it!.

Overdosed! by Madbeagle 2017-12-17T13:46:52Z

Great entry, just needs a bit of polish and maybe a tutorial. Glad I stuck it through and figured out how to play, because it was loads of fun once I did.

RQ5: backup-dancer rampage! by Adrien Dittrick 2017-12-16T21:47:33Z

What really stands out for me is the level design - you've done a great job of making the game explain itself, without needing a separate tutorial. Good job!

Fireball Dungeon by Andrew White 2017-12-21T18:44:16Z

Solid game, satisfying mechanic. Fun to play! The powerups were cool, I like that they all gave visual feedback as to what they do, there was no confusion.

Was a bit short! More levels, or better yet an endless survival mode would've increased the play time loads. And off course, sound and a death/victory screen would've been great.

P.S. dig the time lapse! will do one next time.

Populous by Astavie 2017-12-21T18:04:47Z

I have so much to say I'm going to use the @lythom style of commenting :)

#### What I liked: - The whole experience was intuitive and fun - not everything is explained up front, but it didn't have to be (and would probably be overwhelming if it was). Maybe you could just mention that mouseovers provide more information. - interesting mechanic, i like how the various factors (influence/co2/food/pop interact). - I like how all the effects are visible on mouseover, so you can get a feel for the cumulative effect on each stat

#### What IMO could be improved: - "boinb boing" sound got a bit annoying :/ it is cool to hear the crowd when it gets big, but maybe the volume could be turned down a notch. - could maybe have some more early-game cards - got a bit repetitive for a bit before I realised more would become available with tech - still not quite sure how influence works, sometimes i couldn't click on cards even though I had more influence than their cost(?) at the bottom right, and there was space on the "board" on the left. Think it might have been a bug, as there was no buzzer sound when clicking on the cards. - Lack of a clear goal is what stopped me playing - would rather win/lose and try again than play endlessly with no goal

#### Overall: - Great mechanic, can see you've put a lot of thought into it! Played this for quite a while! - Reminds me a lot of "Reigns" the mobile game, have you played it?

Island Businessman by Andro 2017-12-20T19:59:11Z

Yes - the explanation was definitely necessary! Cool music and a cool idea, but I agree with everything @mighty-chebo said. Once I realised that I would be clicking the forest and boat for hours before seeing anything different, I lost interest very quickly. With a bit of work it could be a fun game.

Autonomous by The Dankasaur 2017-12-21T07:23:20Z

Really impressive that you built a working RTS for a jam, with build animations, various unit types, everything solid and polished (besides a few bugs here and there). Love the fuel mechanic, really feels like war where you have to think about your supply lines, and timing your attacks so that they are best suited to your layout. Really impressive entry. My only complaint? "gas" should've been something more futuristic like "unobtainium" or nuclear fuel!

Taco King by benjamin 2019-05-01T18:12:01Z

Really impressive that you managed to make 3 mini games with such good polish all round! And the story hit me right in the feels. Great entry.

Mr Moneybag by managore 2019-05-01T11:03:34Z

Another great entry. Interesting mechanic with a well executed, minimalist interface and stylish design! You are an inspiration sir. Just have to mention that it would be great with sounds! Even some beeps and boops made with sfxr would add a lot to it imo.

PathOfForest by ThiefViolinist 2019-05-03T18:44:14Z

Nice game, like the theme and I think with a bit of polish it could be great.

Main feedback I can give is that you need to make it more intuitive to play. It took me a while to figure out how it worked, and even when I did I found the controls unintuitive, I had to keep looking back to remind myself what did what. A way to cancel orders would be nice maybe, and maybe lanes or something to prevent the inevitable clump of chaos that arises in the centre lol.

But despite these issues I did play it for quite a while, and had fun! nice entry.

300 Hearts for Escape by invader 2019-05-03T19:07:26Z

Great entry, I had fun :)

Liked the minimalist tutorial at the start, gets the point across and not that much of a drag to play through each time. Much nostalgia for old games like carmen sandiego on my dad's 386 :)

Courage, My Knight by sparewizard 2019-05-03T19:41:51Z

Not usually a fan of story-driven games but enjoyed this one :) What a fun experience, tidy little slice of fun perfectly scoped for a compo. Like anyone who's ever taken part in LD, I can identify with the feeling of not quite finishing :) but it was still a joy to play! thanks for this!

Lousy Life Lessons - [LLL] by AwesomeAlliterationAlliance 2019-05-01T19:32:29Z

Awesome story, awesome cutscenes, awesome music/voice acting. Character animations were great.

I felt like the gameplay was a bit fiddly with regards to controls (or maybe I'm just not skilled enough). Not sure exactly what it was, but it felt more difficult than it should be.

BloodBath by Tiberiusuciu 2019-05-03T19:21:30Z

Great game, it was fun, and the balance felt just right. I felt like I had to think about every spell that I cast. And the right clicking to cycle through spells, while a bit clunky, actually added a bit to the "spellcaster" feel, I think. After playing a few rounds I got a feel for how many clicks it took to cycle to the spell I wanted, and it made me feel like a badass blood mage. None of the spells felt unnecessary, they all have their place. Great design. If you worked more on this I would totally spend a few dollars for it on steam.

With It Or On It by SaRNEh 2019-05-02T20:03:56Z

Honestly the best looking game I've seen this jam, even the itch page looks amazing. The audio, the dust, even the title - every little detail leaves a great impression.

Gameplay is a little simplistic, but that's to be expected from a jam. (I was looking forward to multiple attacks for "Stab, hit, slam and bash" :) )

It wasn't quite clear how getting wounded effected me? Gameplay seemed the same throughout.

Boogie Till You Die by Tezza48 2019-05-01T11:56:34Z

Audio and graphics are great in this one - but I couldn't figure out what the end goal was? I killed all the guys, does that mean I win? :)

Force of Nature by Griddolini 2019-05-02T19:36:32Z

This was great, i loved the mechanic of using your health, and the theme of being a huge treant guardian of the grove! Stomping on little goblins was so satisfying and watching them chop down my trees filled me with wrath!!

I agree with a lot of the other reviewers that things could've been made a bit clearer to the player somehow. I only briefly scanned the instructions screen (as most players will) so it took me a while to figure some things out. Is RMB to move mentioned somewhere? If so I never noticed it. What is the purpose of planting trees, to obstruct the enemies?

Great entry overall.

UnderBreak by MlleAB 2019-05-04T15:56:19Z

Goes without saying the art amazing, love the combo of low poly and pixel art. I managed to escape hell! I thought that was a clever twist.

Gameplay wise: It felt a bit fiddly - I think for a shooter like this its very important to make the player feel like he has precise control over exactly where he's shooting, and where he should aim. I wasn't sure why I was missing enemies sometimes, and I wasn't exactly sure where the bounds of my hitbox were.

Good job :)

Goblin Launcher by FelipeDermann 2019-05-02T19:09:51Z

Great entry, could do with some tweaks on controls and enemy spawns as described by other reviews.

Gave me some nostalgic feelings, reminded me of old 90s/early 2000s pc games (maybe the audio had something to do with that)

With a bit of work I could see this becoming an addictive physics-based mobile game :)

Bonus mood points for the king threatening me at the start!

WAVE by japes 2020-04-30T16:28:43Z

Thanks for the comments all!

@jonaspk the "AI" is not complex at all. I simply have guys cheer as the imaginary line of the wave passes them. The length of the cheer has some randomness added, and there is a chance to not take part in the wave at all. This chance is inversely proportional to the strength of the wave. Really happy with how it turned out, glad it fooled you into thinking there might be more complexity than that :). I spent way too much time on trying to get a realistic wave though, at the cost everything else haha. But it was a fun experiment, and that's what jams are for.

Keep It Alive by danman9914 2020-04-20T19:30:41Z

Yup just really good all round. This inspires me!

[some minor spoilers ahead]

Few minor nitpicks (mostly echoing what others have already mentioned: - I found the text sound a bit grating - I also thought the shoelace thing was a timing minigame - I didn't appreciate the final scene the first time round because I was so stressed out that I might have to do some active-time-event type thing at any moment (played it through a second time though :) ) - Coal reserves were never really an issue

Super slick tutorial, very clear, got the point across, at the same time building the theme/world.

Great atmosphere and world building (amazing considering how short/simple the game is). What is HQ? what was that thing at the end? I want more! I freaked out the first time I saw an enemy! I had quite a few moments of panic after tripping over my shoelaces!

Something about the tripping kind of reminded me of old NES games like duck hunt etc. Random cutesy things that happen to your innocent character (that add great game mechanics)

Thanks for a great game!

Defend the Keep! by omaskery 2020-04-25T21:50:29Z

Ah, my old nemesis the Unity cube primitive!

I love the rocket mechanics! Having to time your shots to hurt the enemy adds a great element to a frantic tower defence. It's tempting to wait and see if your shot hits, but when things get busy you just have to move on and hope you timed it right. While the infinite ammo and quick reload is very fun and satisfying, it's probably a bit imba. I think I've found an exploit where if you just constantly circle and hold down the mouse button just at the foot of your tower, you create an impenetrable ring of hellfire.

Took me a while to figure out that the height of the tower = health. Maybe you could add some additional feedback when you get hit? I do like the fact that it gets harder to defend the higher it gets.

+1 for @quinn-patrick 's suggestion of shadows/texture on the ground. I think with a bit of polish this could be a really cool game. Let us know if you do anything more with it!

Lay Down Your Roots by NotExplosive 2020-05-13T20:01:54Z

Hey great game! I enjoyed it. Very relaxing :)

It is very similar to an idea I had for ludum dare 34, check it out: https://japes.itch.io/grow

Yours is way more stylish and polished though. And balanced! well done.

Robositter Infernal by Phlip45 2020-04-21T18:19:04Z

Fun game! I appreciate the brutal difficulty, it kept me playing for quite a while! I died immediately my first 2 tries, maybe ensure that churches can't spawn too close to the baby/player? I feel like maybe the player's hit box is a bit big? Could've sworn I got hit a few times despite not visibly touching the zombies.

Great game though, fun to play :)

Pennywise Crossing by kromeboy 2020-04-20T18:37:05Z

As others have said, controls felt weird. Totally understand that it was an experiment though, that's exactly what jams like this are for IMO.

Cool graphics, liked the fuzzy/blurry effect. Liked the humour, playing off the contrast of the horror font and the cutesy gampelay/sound effects.

do not go gently by nsadie 2020-04-21T16:55:19Z

Dudes well done :)

Nicely polished, love the little LD46 detail on the plane, the writing is great, everything is clear. Liked the combat system, very simple yet presents you with interesting choices. Minimal graphics for the monsters works great.

Few little nitpicks: - Think I found a bug: the radio parts on your notebook are still scratched out if you restart. - found it a bit easy - my first run didn't have very interesting cards, maybe you could consider fudging the RNG a bit to ensure an interesting run on your first go? or something.

Save the FOX! by Euforia Games 2020-05-01T09:14:39Z

Amazing polish, the menus/transitions etc look really pro. The graphics and sound are amazing. Controls could use a bit of work maybe, tweaking of player speed/jump height etc. The ability to move down from a branch would help a lot. I felt like I couldn't see enough of the tree at a time but maybe that was deliberate. Tutorial didn't work for me sadly, I just got a black screen

PULSE by JonasPK 2020-05-01T09:01:36Z

Great game! Interesting concept, once I got past the initial "wtf" stage I really enjoyed playing it. Seems silly at first but is actually a surprisingly deep game. What happens if you connect up the inputs? Never quite managed it :) If there was some kind of scoring system or win condition this would be really cool. Lots of potential here actually, you could have different levels with unique goals etc. Could be a fun mobile game maybe.

well done!

Balloon Balloon! by JetTheSimon 2020-04-25T21:25:35Z

music and graphics are amazing, and great/cute take on the theme :)

unfortunately I think the controls a bit fiddly! Understand that for a "silly physics" game you want it to be a bit wobbly, but I think maybe it could be a little bit easier on the player. Maybe make the top speed a bit lower and have a bit more friction.

Great entry though, very impressive for 48 hours' work.

The Pongs by schizoid2k 2020-10-07T20:45:23Z

cool little mechanic, simple but fun. felt like I was playing an old NES game :). I think this would work well as a minigame in some larger game! I like that you added the option to tweak the rules, cool thing to add in a game jam where things are basically prototypes. My personal favourite is 4 pongs and fast speed. Just one vortex though, 2 is crazy :)

Kiwi Intergalactic War Initiative by Iak 2020-10-08T20:33:42Z

great, weird little game :)

I wasn't able to beat all the levels (properly, all ducks in one shot) BUT I was able to do the last one, and that was satisfying as hell.

Good thing someone mentioned the click/drag, because otherwise I don't think I would've figured it out. This game me serious Incredible Machine vibes and that is awesome!

Nice entry :)

Bugs Must Die by adjo 2020-10-08T20:16:35Z

Classic genre but well executed.

Things I liked: - The shooting is actually necessary and doesn't feel just tacked on (until the end game, see my comment below) - also loved the 2nd entrance, caught me by surprise, was exciting - really well balanced! Felt like all the trap types were useful, and the different bug types were interesting. The level design is good too, there were very few obvious bottlenecks and the branches force you to think a bit about trap placement - liked the fact that there was some randomness in the bug paths, so wasn't obvious which route they would take

Criticisms: - bullets are hard to see - wasn't immediately obvious which side was the spawn point and which was the destination - retry button would've been nice instead of a forced exit - got some serious slowdown after around level 7 - you can get to a stage where you have so much money you can coat the floor in spikes and nothing will get through

Great entry!

On the Run by dusho 2020-10-18T12:33:43Z

Great take on the theme, cool, unique, and interesting mechanic. I think pursuing this idea further could result in a steam-worthy physics based platformer (imagine it in 3d, with some sonic-style loops and pipes?). Of course, would be better with sound, more/longer levels etc, but this is great for a compo entry especially considering the quality of the graphics. I also got the transparent/opaque glitch a couple times, but seems like this is just a cosmetic thing. Well done!

Samsara Safari by jelch 2020-10-16T11:08:27Z

That was a cool little experience, thanks very much :)

Neat little platformer, good level design as well. Controls were a little bit fiddly at times but not too bad. At first I thought it was a very simple entry, but was then delighted to see that there was more to it! cool, novel idea.

Also love the style of the whole thing, the sounds and claymation-ey graphics have loads of charm!

Red Snow: The Thirteen Dwarves by undefinist 2020-10-18T10:53:41Z

Interesting control mechanic and like the premise. Dig the music, it gave me nostalgia for old DOS games. Unfortunately I was not skilled enough to finish it :( that last boss is hard!

Existential Speedway by kromeboy 2020-10-07T20:38:56Z

interesting take on the theme :)

Everything is Garbage by vfqd 2020-10-06T20:10:56Z

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of music at first, but that quickly made sense :)

Elegant dependencies that make you think. I stuck around after beating it just to see if I could make a sustainable loop, and I could! So, your take on the theme makes even more sense :)

Great little game. Minor nitpick: I think I may have found a bug where a building was consuming the wrong input for the output it was providing.

Low Level Operations by Tomssuli 2020-10-16T10:58:35Z

Interesting idea, does come across as a bit rushed though. (understandable given you only had 13 hours) Would be keen to see it if you decide to pursue the idea further!

Singularity by nsadie 2020-10-06T19:20:23Z

Great little game, clever design and super polished!

+1 to some comments made so far: - bit confusing at first what the cards were, how they related to the instructions, and whether the elements name meant anything - clearer indication of what the nearest object is would help a lot (and also make it clear that the opponent also counts as an object, although perhaps you wanted that to be a surprise) - I think more push and attract cards in the mix would make it more interesting. More card types maybe as well, though I'm sure there would've been if you had more time.

I thought it was cool that the 2nd player is only introduced when you start playing, nice little surprise.

Yes! by Dandala88 2020-10-08T21:04:00Z

Nice entry! I second the for camera and performance issue comments. Looks really great but felt a bit fiddly. Some sound would've been great!

Escape from Space by marrs 2020-10-11T09:24:14Z

Fun mechanic, the controls felt tight and satisfying. Of course, goes without saying that it would be cooler with some sound.

I think the zooming in based on speed is a cool idea, but it's a bit too fast so made me feel a bit dizzy. I think there should be better feedback that bumping into barriers causes your shields to drop, some kind of animation or sound. I only realised it hurt me after I died the first time.

Still, its a fun arcadey mechanic, so I replayed quite a few times :) personal best is 3000.

There is a bug where you can get stuck on a barrier and die.

nice entry!

Danger Beat by rhoff95 2020-10-16T11:34:39Z

This is so creative and cool, I love it. One of my favourites so far this LD. Love that the difficulty is self-balancing, it's satisfying.

Two criticisms: it's not clear when you've "won", took me a while to realise I'd completed the track. Also, there were a few times that the records appeared underneath the turret so it was hard to see.

Thanks for this, man. It's inspirational!

Orbital Hostage by Meek Bits 2020-10-08T11:23:48Z

Nice little game, clever take on the theme and some interesting unique mechanics.

My trigger finger is sore lol. Maybe slowing down the asteroids a bit, and having a cooldown on your weapon would make it feel more skill based. You'd have to more carefully aim your shots (instead of spamming and creating an impenetrable line, like i did).

Great entry! I enjoyed it.

Paradox Planet by kingofsquirrel 2020-10-18T09:52:24Z

Decent game, controls felt good and I like the twist that enemies spawn from the spot where they died. Graphics are great for a compo entry. Some background music would have been cool but I'm sure you would've added that with some more time. Well done!

Haunted Loop House by smiley405 2020-10-13T18:13:36Z

As others mentioned, amazing atmosphere generated from a simple game. Dig the glitch effect in the menus, the sound is great, some of those monster sprites are creepy as hell. I was legit scared!

Wasn't going to add spoilers but I see it's already been mentioned, so... :middle_finger: for the jump scare!

The Limbo Runner by jk5000 2021-04-27T17:18:20Z

Full marks for humour, thanks for the lolz! Can't get enough of that silly limbo walk. Unfortunately like many others I was not skillful enough to be worthy of the name "limbo king", so I did not get to experience what would probably be another lol of an ending :) thanks

TRENCH by dirkinz 2021-04-27T17:40:51Z

Great puzzle mechanic, I reckon there's scope here for a bigger game if you ever feel like working on it some more. Also got that same crash at the end, and of course some sounds would've been nice :)

I might be the only one, but I found the second room very difficult? could've maybe moved that one a bit later, I thought it was a bit harsh as the 2nd room.

I love the intro screen and how it transitions into the game.

DeeperDeeper by japes 2021-04-29T18:12:54Z

@badpaul34 thanks very much man :)

@iovorobiev thanks, yes I'm definitely gonna add touch input so one can play this on mobile

@loig thanks, I did want to make some 8bit beeps and boops with SFXR, i think it would've suited the pixelatted diver dude. Unfortunately I ran out of time :(

@hpa97 thank you - yes I'm not sure myself, I suppose I could work out the maths based on the formulas I use, but that would spoil the fun ;)

@pierre-f thanks, the rotoscoping is quite time consuming so I had to settle for the bare minimum...

@kromeboy thanks - ya I was quite lucky that my thumb-suck formulas ended up in interesting behaviour

@tim77 thank you very much, appreciate it

@jk5000 thank you!

@mdotedot thank you for your feedback! I understand - I can see how not everyone would enjoy it :)

@dirkinz thanks, I think I will use PaintOfPersia in some more games going forward, it is fun to use

@nyanpierre thanks

@sode thanks - how did I not think of that?? :thinking:

Voyager by Jesús González 2021-04-27T16:39:47Z

Dig the style/aesthetic, felt very retro like I was launching a probe in the 70s :ok_hand:

The peaceful cruising through space was quite relaxing as well.

I think the music is very cool, especially considering you did it in 15 minutes.

I don't have any criticism besides what you mentioned yourself in the description. It's ambitious to make ftl in 48 hours :) I think you did well.

Holey Hell by managore 2021-04-27T08:35:37Z

Another great entry, really original idea. I do feel slightly ill after playing it for a while :joy: everything is so trippy and organic-feeling.

Holey Hell by managore 2021-05-30T09:55:01Z

@managore are we still getting a write up of how you did the wobble mechanic? :)

Super curious to see how you did it

The Descent by iovorobiev 2021-04-26T08:21:13Z

Nicely scoped for a compo entry, can see that you've boiled it down to just the bare essentials to get the point across and make it playable. Well done.

Interesting mechanic and I like how it was explained to fit the theme (e.g. sanity for move limits)

Could've used sound, maybe a main menu, and perhaps an easier level to start with (it's a bit overwhelming at first, but with that said I did manage to get to depth 4 on my first try). But I'm sure you would've done all this anyway, given more time.

nice compo entry :thumbsup:

edit: I just read the P.S. note and I must say this is really impressive as a first time entry and using new tools!

Deeper Trance by dhim 2021-04-26T20:59:28Z

This is why we do LD, to try out weird stuff like this and share it with other devs :) cool creative idea, kudos to you :)

Street Spark Racing by BytingGames 2021-05-03T20:01:36Z

this is hilarious and actually a fun mechanic too. the graphics and sounds are great, nice 90s DOS games nostalgia! Thanks for the chuckle!

The Forgotten Halls by vfqd 2021-04-26T09:34:05Z

Amazing production for a compo entry! Quality of the art, sound, and writing is great, the the quantity of it is crazy. Code wise as well, a city builder is a complex game to make (even if you're reusing engine code). I found no bugs.

Amazing that 1 person generated this from scratch in 48 hours.

Reminds me of Fallen London, which is a good thing :)

With that said, my constructive criticism/nitpicking:

- I found the gameplay a bit linear/boring at times, it felt like there isn't much to do while waiting for the next rite to complete. - Perhaps making the rites more like a tech tree with various branches would make the decision of which rite to do next more interesting - perhaps a bit of a stretch thematically that the cultists have to build mines/sawmills/wharfs in the sewers of london, maybe they could be reskinned as something else that ties in better with the theme. Maybe instead of mines, you salvage junk, or send pickpockets to the surface etc - while the sound is amazing, it would be nice to have some ambient background noise/music - I wasn't sure where mines could be placed - I managed to place one by randomly hovering over sections of the map - I was hoping for a bit more of an ending, at least another little paragraph of flavour text :)

But all in all I am in awe, well done sir

The MindDiver by Pierre.F 2021-04-26T20:12:50Z

Full marks for mood, the art style and sounds were very immersive. At first I felt like it needed some way to click through the text, but I suppose leaving it to enforce the pacing helped contribute to the mood as well.

I did find a bug where if you walk into the darkness in the top room the first time you find it, you fall off the edge of the world (I'm guessing that wasn't intentional!). There were also some other minor bugs/glitches (I got stuck briefly while trying toenter the last door, there are a few typos).

But totally understandable for a 48 hour entry, all in all pretty solid. Well done.

Smooth Debug by FabiGhindaru 2021-04-29T20:14:58Z

Yup I agree with most of the other reviewers, excellent idea, very creative, only complaint is that the bullet hell stuff could get frustrating. There is so much potential with this idea! Can only imagine what else you'd come up with, given more time. The part at the end to get the star was genius!

The biggest thing lacking was better sound and maybe a catchy soundtrack in the background. That's the first thing I'd, if I was going to work on this some more. Nice entry.

Mined mines by Alexey Kuzovkov 2021-05-01T12:00:01Z

Great well-rounded compo entry, the music and graphics are great, and it's fun to play. I think I may have found a minor bug where I couldn't jump from the very lowest spot. Other than that, I have no criticisms besides what's already been mentioned. Cool idea, well done.

Dikes & Polders by nsadie 2021-04-27T10:05:36Z

Awesome game guys :) reminded me a bit of Bad North at first.

what I liked: - overall it looks amazing, the music, visuals, menus etc are very polished and cool - love that the theme of the game (dutch dikes) ties in so well with the mechanic - mechanic is interesting and addictive, leaderboard makes it even better

what could've been better: - while the auto generated dutch town names are cool, i would've preferred it if i could add my own name to the leaderboard - there could be more in game tutorials/help as to how to play: - indication as to why an illegal placement is illegal - a shadow showing how much land a windmill would create - random starting map would've been nice (or if not random, more than 1 possibility) - there seems to be a bug where sometimes you can't make your final move and finish the game, for example: Capture.PNG

suggestions/nitpicks: - bit of a stretch for the "deeper and deeper" theme, but that's ok :) - the different heights for the blocks look very cool and interesting, but I think they distract from the gameplay, it's a bit confusing at first until you realise it doesn't mean anything - could maybe be more interesting if choosing a windmill meant you missed out on the flower tiles available that turn - windmill generates a 5x5 grid, not 3x3

But all in all this is an amazing entry! Fun to play, I would pay money for this. Well done.

Diver Dave (Saves The Sea) by Yanergy 2021-04-29T20:28:22Z

(Webgl version is broken for me - I just have a black screen)

Agree with the rest of the reviewers, main mechanic feels tight, difficulty level is just right, well done! I'm sure with more time you could've easily made it a lot better too.

+1 for making the good/bad fish easier to distinguish

Dig Deep Get Gold by Tim77 2021-04-26T21:11:52Z

solid mechanic, simple but addictive, like the minimalist design. satisfying to nail some perfectly timed switches. Sound is great too, minimalist but effective.

The volcano woke up ! by Yamzho 2022-04-12T19:39:46Z

19 turns of bravery :) Thanks for that, that was a fun game! Cool idea for a mechanic and well executed. Simple/intuitive to pick up but deep to play. Can see myself playing another few rounds trying to beat my score.

The theme/symbols you've chosen perfectly describe the mechanics. For example it's intuitive that fire will spread to neighboring forest tiles, but not clear ground. It doesn't have to be explained, one can just pick it up and play. The interplay between the 3 tools is great and I think the cost balancing is spot on. Do you play a lot of board games by any chance? :)

All in all the mechanic feels super polished, like there's been a decent amount of thought/iteration put in. Great entry, would be proud to have made something like this.

EDIT: I see you've added an arrow showing where the fire will spread to your post-compo version. My 2c: I think the fire spreading to a random neighbouring tile is better. It adds a push-your-luck element, sometimes you might want to take a chance and rather spend your coins elsewhere

ZombieDefense by japes 2022-04-11T14:15:33Z

@congusbongus I hear you...

@zettelkasten thanks for the feedback :) I may have gone overboard with the difficulty. In keeping with the theme, I wanted to ensure that you will always eventually die. But I think there are ways to do that without making it feel unfair...

@drumgadget-433 ya that is pretty brutal :) will definitely rethink that event if I decide to take this further.

ZombieDefense by japes 2022-04-11T18:20:20Z

Thanks very much @janku ! Great suggestions, I have lots of other ideas for this as well. I think the first thing I would do if I had more time would be rethink the events for gaining/losing people.

ZombieDefense by japes 2022-04-12T19:05:19Z

@iamwave FTL is one of my favourite games of all time :) definitely an influence there

ZombieDefense by japes 2022-04-20T08:22:27Z

@baconinvader thanks for the feedback.

Regarding the accuracy, there's a set chance to miss on every shot, if a "miss" is rolled, the shot goes 1m to the side of the target.

The chance to hit is independent of how far away the target is, which is not intuitive at all, and looks kind of janky when the target is right in front of the shooter :joy:

If I pursue this further, I'll change it so that each shot goes out at a random angle within a "cone" from the shooter. The accuracy attribute would then set how narrow this cone is.

This Mortal Coil by Baconinvader 2022-04-17T18:46:22Z

I really like this idea, it's original, simple but fun. The graphics/audio are minimal but get the job done, it's clear what everything does. Love the simplistic intro

My main criticism is the tutorial at the start, I accidentally skipped it too quickly. I wouldn't make it disappear on the first keypress. With that said, the design was intuitive enough that I figured it on my own.

I love the colour shift effect as time runs out, you almost don't need a timer, the fade effect is enough.

The obstacles/enemies were interesting, again simple and intuitive.

Good job :)

Sir Blocksalot by jhandsy 2022-04-11T19:15:45Z

Really cool old-school NES/arcade style fun. Great idea!

Seems simplistic at first but has some depth to it, i can see this being a game where if you spend enough time you can achieve real mastery. There are layers to it, when to repair, when to bulk up your defense, the tetris-style optimization of your layout, don't wall yourself in, keep an eye on the dragon!

And I only played for like a few minutes.

Graphics/sounds/theme match the old school mechanic nicely.

Some constructive criticisms: - the instructions should be in the game itself, instead of in the description - the outline of how your block will sit was hard to parse sometimes, for me. perhaps a clearer indication of which blocks it will fill up and which spaces are currently blocked would help - probably not helpful to have rocks and bushes, there should just be 1 type. I spent a while trying to see what the difference between them was mechanic-wise and there doesn't seem to be any.

Wayfinder by Paul Nadan 2022-04-17T08:49:06Z

Creative idea, interesting challenge to try to be as inefficient as possible :) The car turning animation looks a little bit janky, but otherwise the graphics are ok. The music gets a little bit repetitive but it is appropriate and not annoying. Nice entry overall, cool to try something different.

Cut for Power by hexkritor 2022-04-17T17:52:59Z

The artwork for the enemies is amazing! gave me slay the spire vibes, but this is even better imo. I like the lore/story as well.

My main criticism is that the instructions could be clearer, I felt like I was chucked in the deep end at first. The fact that there is no visual indication of whats happening when you click a card besides numbers going down made it harder to pick up and play as well. Just a small slash animation or something when attacking would've helped a lot.

I did manage to pick it up though, so I guess it is good enough. But someone who's never played something like slay the spire would struggle to understand how it works, I think.

The main cut/combine mechanic is a really cool idea, with some more work it could be the basis of a cool game. The card cost seems to automatically scale appropriately, which is nice. It would be nice to be able to see what the cost of the resulting card would be (perhaps it is shown, but I missed it...)

The audio is appropriate, if a bit repetitive. As others have said, having more enemies/cards would be cool, but I'm sure there would be if you had more time

Board to DEATH by nsadie 2022-04-11T10:35:15Z

Great entry as other have said, interesting mechanic, impressive amount of levels, amazing polish (skeleton blew my mind when i realised his head tracks you!), entertaining writing, all in all a solid game!

Some constructive crit: - Also picked up the bug(?) where you can place pieces on top of the red ones. - thought the ending was a bit confusing - I found it a bit easy, also noticed a dip in difficulty about midway through - I thought the enemy bishop was a queen at first

All of those are minor, especially considering this is just a jam game. Well done Sadie Bros, another great little game :)

Board to DEATH by nsadie 2022-04-11T14:09:14Z

@nsadie I will play again just to see the ending :)

Mad Wizard's Attack by Fedora 2022-04-18T10:43:09Z

Presentation is very good, music etc is appropriate. Can see you spent a lot of time on the tutorial, which is great because the game is quite abstract.

The graphics are simple but cool, I like the tile slide animation.

Ambitious to make a strategy game like this for a jam, but you pulled it off! My first run I felt like the surge was unfair, but playing again and planning for/expecting it, it becomes quite a cool game!

A leaderboard or some kind of indication of how well you've done would be nice. As it is you just need to keep track of the population score yourself.

(my best score was 278 on normal difficulty :) )

Nice entry, fun game.

Delay the Invasion by Corporation 2022-04-17T09:20:11Z

Impressive that this was with your own engine!

Graphics:

simple but get the point across, some nice warcraft 1 nostalgia there. It's clear what each type of unit is, they are all clearly distinguishable from each other, it's intuitive that the enemies are evil and that they get progressively stronger etc. It was was clear what the bomb guys would do etc.

Audio:

music is decent for a compo entry, did you make it yourself? Audio suits the retro/low-res graphics like the difficulty level

UI:

Also simple but clear, no confusion anywhere. The text explaining that the game had to be restarted was a nice touch, of course a "retry" button would be better, but some text explaining it is much better than just leaving the player hanging.

Design:

You've "found the fun", balance feels right and it is a fun experience. I played quite a few times, couldn't get past wave 5 though :)

I like the level of difficulty. I like that the units move slowly, it forces one to be more strategic about their placement.

Impressive amount of enemy types and spells for a compo entry!

An option to place units directly from the shop (as opposed to first going into the inventory) would be nice, I don't think there will ever be a reason to keep units in the inventory. For spells it makes sense, though.

I was going to suggest unit health bars, but on second thought I quite like the minimalism without them.

It would be nice if there was some visual feedback on which level my units were, I suppose this would've been added if you had more time. Also, not sure if there is any info anywhere on what exactly improves with a level-up, but I think that would be nice.

Defend 'till the end by kjscott 2022-04-17T17:11:01Z

Enjoyed, simple but fun, nicely polished, liked the rotating earth effect with the damage indication

Gail VS Snail by Matthewsworld 2022-04-17T20:34:21Z

So bizarre that a giant snail chases you lol, is this a reference to something or just random...?

Satisfying to nail tricks and build up speed, like the art style and everything is nicely presented. Cool death animation :)

I wasn't a fan of the tutorial format, I found it was too easy to miss stuff because I thought the game had started to I was bashing spacebar. But once I realised how it worked and restarted, I found that everything was presented clearly.

As others have mentioned I also found the obstacles a bit hard to discern from the background, especially at high speed.

Nice entry :)

Desert Oasis by Janku 2022-04-12T10:11:01Z

Interesting concept, I've tried (and seen other try) to make an "ecosystem" type game and it often fails, this one does much better :)

Presentation is great, the graphics/animation are very good and the sound adds mood without getting annoying/repetitive.

I did feel like I didn't have too much agency in the game, it was more a chilled sandbox experience, like watching an aquarium or something. But overall not a bad experience :)

Out of Time by SolidSLR 2022-04-12T10:19:11Z

Nice simple game, everything works and is clear :) better to under-scope than over-scope for a jam!

It's solid, but could of course do with a bit more. More complexity (power ups, enemies, etc), better graphics, better sound, etc.

I think some of the first things to add (as others have mentioned) would be - diagonal movement - avoiding the frustration of an impossible-to-reach green cube - making the difficulty scale somehow as time goes on

But as it is, it's a decent little game.

Well done :)

Persist Ant by rynsy 2022-04-12T10:33:27Z

Decent entry, the splash screen and music are awesome. Dig the old school graphics in the intro :) Sadly I wasn't able to finish this on my lunch break (I got past the first checkpoint though) so bear this in mind with my comment!

Some constructive crit: - I found the controls a bit fiddly at times - The motion of the camera (especially when jumping) is a bit harsh/jerky, would be nice if there was some smoothing (i.e. it didn't exactly follow your ants position - I think the level design could use a bit of work. - The hectic chase scene should maybe not be right at the start, this is the point where as a player I need some to get my bearings and get used to the controls. The chase would be cool a bit later on though. - for some of the elements, it wasn't immediately clear if I should grab or avoid them. The "free life" ant head looked like it might be an enemy insect - the placement of free lives seemed a bit random, they were in spots that didn't really make sense e.g. just after an insta-death obstacle

But all in all, a solid platformer with a cool theme! Well done.

You will fall by adobobo 2022-04-11T11:12:51Z

I really like this game. Presentation is simple/minimalist but appropriate and still easy on the eyes (like the little posters), audio is good and not annoying. perfectly scoped for a jam game.

I think the level design/difficulty slope is really good. It's clear you've put considerable thought into how best to let the player discover the mechanics for themselves, and slowly gain a bit more confidence/mastery with each section. I went from start/stopping my thrusters like a n00b to feeling like i was a master, even beat one part by doing a somersault and felt like a badass.

The mechanics (keys, rocks) are really simple but you put them together in creative ways that provide an interesting challenge.

Sadly I could not finish this on my lunch brake, but it was 23 minutes of good fun for me. Might come back and finish it later! (MINOR SPOILER: I got to the part where you need to carry a key through a series of narrow passages, companion-cube style)

Constructive crit: - When restarting from a checkpoint, I'd make the protective shield/bubble pop only on the player's first keypress - parts where rocks move up/down (as opposed to side to side) confused/disoriented me at parts, i wasn't sure of my speed and actually made me feel a bit giddy. I'd rework those parts so that maybe there are more features on the walls/background to give the player a better feel for their orientation.

Sails by ping78 2023-05-04T19:15:08Z

Technically, this is an amazing achievement. The scope is really impressive for a compo! Loads of features, most of which I only noticed on my second playthrough: the wind, the canon-reload indicators, the fact that the map and towns are randomly generated. The trading system. The fact that enemies drop loot.

Sailing feels great, and is much more intuitive than I thought it would be by reading the intro. I would do away with the mouse controls for steering/firing, and you just need 1 key each for main menu/toggle full screen.

Agree with some other commentators that the UI and onboarding could use a bit of work. Took me quite a while to figure out what was going on initially, and how to start sailing. Perhaps somehow make it clearer which side is "yours" and which is the "towns" (Maybe pictures instead of names). And how to exit the trade screen and start sailing. Also I would pause the game while at port (so that enemies can't keep attacking you) and have a UI button to leave. It would be cool if the average price I'd paid so far for my cargo was displayed, so that I have a better idea of whether or not it would be a good time to sell. With that said, once I did get it, it made sense and was easy to use.

Polish/aesthetics wise, the graphics were great, the sounds were passable. The writing style and UI sounds don't quite match the style of the game, though.

This is a super impressive prototype which could easily be made into a full fledged game, I think. A bit of polish, tweaking the difficulty curve of enemies, ironing out some kinks in the economy, adding a fitting soundtrack. You'd get a steam wishlist from me!

Longship! by japes 2023-05-07T13:51:37Z

@ashashza thanks, never thought about it as a party game, that could be cool! And thanks for the comment re audio, did spend quite a bit of time on that :)

@jaco-van-hemert thanks for the kind words, agree the slider input could be improved. One wants it to be QWOPy/difficult without feeling frustrating/annoying. Tough to get right. But I think just making it key inputs would be too much like QWOP

@mallansandan thanks, my thinking was that just getting it moving in a straight line would be difficult enough, but after seeing some feedback, maybe obstacles (or something like wind/currents) would be cool. It's not hard to steer, and the rudder seems not to be used all that often.

@nsadie thanks, the sliders being too small would be almost game-breaking I reckon...will look into it...

@andre-sadie shot. Checkpoints could be cool, never considered that. though I did initially have a specific point you needed to reach (as opposed to anywhere on the north coast) and that was a bit frustrating, one could easily just miss it and then have to turn around. Dig your ideas for the polish, angling them down on the backstroke will be super easy to do :)

A Town in Labor by EvoGenGames 2023-05-04T18:13:44Z

Super interesting idea, I'm afraid I couldn't quite figure out a strategy though! But this was surprisingly polished and nicely presented for an excel game, and it seems like it could be an interesting brain teaser if I could wrap my head around it!

Mail Day Mayday! by Thomas_Bringer 2023-05-04T19:56:42Z

Slick presentation, and a great tutorial (which is often an afterthought in compo entries). other extra frills like the stars, and the amount of content make this a complete game imo.

Question: why make all the pipes green? More easily distinguishable colours would've been better.

I was worried it would be very simplistic, but then around the first level with multiple machines I knew it was something more! some of the levels were very fun and were satisfying to nail perfectly.

The whole thing felt super satifying, actually. I could do this for a living...

Unlike some other commenters I found the pick up/drop ok, it seldom went where i didn't want it. the pace was chilled enough that the occasional mis-drop could be corrected. Keen to try the rework, though.

well done, this is a solid entry!

Chain Mail by AdamCYounis 2023-05-04T18:42:20Z

As others have said, graphics/music/ui/polish is super good, as good as anything I've ever seen on ludum dare.

Loved the general tone of it, the way information is conveyed by means of official reports, and the lighthearted mission descriptions (I loved the last one, actually had a chuckle)

Mechanics wise it was solid. A little easy (beat it on the first try, only failed 1 mission, it was "doomed" but I tried it anyway), and I thought the personality type synergy could've been a bit deeper. I basically just hired pragmatics, and so I often had good synergy. Perhaps thats an RNG thing, maybe you could weigh it so that it doesn't offer loads of guys with the same trait. Perhaps there could be a more complicated rock-paper-scissors thing instead of just likes/hates.

The other mechanics are great though, the terrain types are intuitive, the "push your luck" element where you could try a dodgy mission with your last few remaining guys, or wait a day to create a better team.

Well done!

Broomstick Blitz by nsadie 2023-05-03T19:38:35Z

Great polish as always, art, music and writing are all great. Nice that you guys tried something a bit different to your previous entries.

Agree with other commenters that the controls feel a bit wonky/unsatisfying and that it wasn't quite clear what I needed to be doing at first. Zooming past a destination at high speed because your aim was slightly off is also a bit frustrating.

I think the idea could have promise with a bit more balance/tuning. It's a cool concept and I liked zooming around the little world :)

Merge Barge by ashashza 2023-05-03T18:43:47Z

Quality entry!

Level of polish is such that you don't even notice the sounds/art/animations, which is a good thing. Everything just feels right. (A nice satisfying "squish" or "clunk" sound on merge would be cool though!)

I found the rules quite intuitive to pick up, took me about 2 rounds to grasp it. I've played an unhealthy amount of Triple Town in the past, so I found this a bit easy. One could probably scale the difficulty quite easily though, by adjusting the relative frequency of crates to smoke stacks, being more brutal with fuel, etc.

Agree with comments saying that the clouds freezing on mouseover (mouseunder?) was a bit distracting, and that it would be cool if the sea scrolled as well so that it felt like the barge was moving.

Unfortunately I didn't finish it, I ran into a bug on the 3rd level where things wouldn't merge anymore? And I could place things on top of occupied spaces?

All in all a cool idea and well executed, and lots of room to tweak/extend. Well done :)

No Matter the Cost by Jaco van Hemert 2023-05-03T19:19:08Z

Thanks for that, I enjoyed myself, and completed my quest! Brought back nostalgic memories of playing/reading the "Lone Wolf" gamebooks as a kid :)

Nicely polished, art and writing are great, music gets a bit repetitive but is passable!

It would be great if your current position (and your destination) was marked on the map. I just had a vague feeling that i had to head east, but didn't have a clear idea of how close i was to the goal.

Was not initially clear what exactly the icons next to the choices mean. Would it cost those resources? or was it an opportunity to gain them? or both? (it's both, right?)

I think I hit some bugs where a decision would do nothing, and I would be frozen at that place (specifically, heading for the wise men in the promenade, and choosing between the left/right fork in the darkling passage)

I think the resources were balanced nicely, I started running out of certain things towards the end, and the last few clicks were a bit tense, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. SPOILER AHEAD the option to refuel at the elf kingdom felt like it came just in time, which added nicely to the immersion.

Great interpretation of the theme, well done.

The King is Dead by Beep Boop 2023-05-07T14:58:29Z

Probably my favourite entry so far! Definitely one of the most solid entries I've seen.

Love the look and feel, the fact that it's a little board game and has a cool medieval sun-dial thing at the back. The little minis are cute and get the point across perfectly.

+1 for some comments that have already been made: - needs a fullscreen button - was tricky to figure out at first, unfortunate that you need a separate guide page - a clearer indication of how far away the end is. Is the size of the deck on the right supposed to do this? I also wondered if it was infinite at one point.

I would add some standard deckbuilder features: - some tools to keep the deck lean (e.g. drop party members, skip adding a party member) - way to view your deck

Mechanics/balance: - I love the core mechanic. The tradeoff of dealing with immediate threats vs working on the bigger obstacles is interesting. - As is the tradeoff of being efficient with your hours, vs dealing with important enemies and being a bit wastefull.

Some questions/suggestions for balance: - what is the point of the paranoia card, it seems like it only hurts if you play it? - I think the "big" obstacles (mountain, king of wolves) are a bit OP. I quickly figured out that 1 king of wolves is the equivalent of 14 wolves worth of damage, so it's a no-brainer to focus on him first. If he was nerfed a bit, the decision of what to focus on would be more interesting. - But with that said, the balance was still good enough to make this thoroughly enjoyable!

This is a really cool idea, the core mechanic is solid. I think with some polish, balancing, and adding a bit more content, this could easily be steam-worthy. I would buy it!

Stand and Deliver by rohanmoon 2023-05-04T17:10:10Z

Brilliant idea, and a creative take on the theme :) I reckon this is something that could go properly viral with all the chatgpt hype atm.

Definitely the most interesting entry I've seen so far!

graphics/ui/sounds were all pretty basic but passable!

Lexicon by John Kisner 2023-05-07T17:57:20Z

Thanks for this, art is great and the writing/music makes this suprisingly immersive! I really felt a sense of excitement/nervousness at meeting the extraterrestrials :)

impressive technical achievement to detect the patterns and generate audio based on the position of the cursor.

Was pretty hard to figure out at first, mostly because of the difficulty. If there was a gentler introduction, say for example a level where you had as many attempts as you like to just generate a single word, I think that would've helped.

Agree with previous comments regarding difficulty. It's too brutal even on "easy" setting, and harsh punishment to restart from the beginning each time (and click through the text). I'm bummed I couldn't see the ending, but after multiple tries (using handwritten crib notes next to my screen), I gave up. I think i was on the final level, and just couldn't get a certain word, I think it was "knowledge"

Spatial Delivery by Michael Darling 2023-05-03T20:33:08Z

Pretty cool how intuitive everything was, love that the start button is also your first instruction to the drone. Also love the progression from moving your drone around, inevitably clicking the "buy drone" button, and then realizing that the game is more than you thought, it's about multitasking the management of all these crazy drones. Also it's not so much about successfully making deliveries as avoiding getting overloaded with junk!

I think this is a very interesting idea that could really become something great with a bit more work. It gets a bit too crazy when you have more than 2 drones, almost impossible to plan anything. perhaps if drones didn't automatically collect everything they touched, but you had to click on a thing to specifically tell it to pick it up?

Well done, thought this was great.

Two For Flinching by SoulReviews 2023-05-03T20:04:48Z

Cool idea, the artwork and story was cool, especially like the intro document :)

Agree with others that said that a clear indication of which planets you've already hit would be nice, and accidentally flinging a package far into the outer rim breaks the flow of the game as you sit and wait for it to return. I think it would be a big improvement if the scrolling was smooth i.e. there weren't set zoom levels, you could smoothly zoom in and out.

Luckily I managed to beat it by pure fluke, so I got to see the ending :)

Eggs Delivery by yoddaa 2023-05-04T19:25:17Z

I got 1399 eggs by button bashing all the keys :) Cute little game, i lol'd at the eggs being spammed out at such a fast rate

Package Delivery by Fire Steam Studio 2023-05-03T19:51:32Z

Graphics/sounds were great, as was the menu/instructions. Though I think the instructions could be displayed for a little longer before disappearing. Perhaps make them stay until the player clicks something.

Great effort for a first entry! The gameplay got a bit tedious though, some puzzles/challenges would've made it more interesting. I was able to give the last package to the wrong person, and they were ok with it?

Compute and Compile by ping78 2018-05-01T20:39:14Z

It's insane that you made a full-on RTS game in 2 days, even though it's pretty simple. To be honest the turn-based approach didn't really do much for me, but I suppose that is the point of jams: to experiment with weird mechanics. My mind was blown when I tried to move around the enemy and go towards their workers - they moved to intercept! They actually have decent AI! Well done sir.

Space Bobble by japes 2018-05-03T13:42:39Z

@draklaw thanks for the feedback! We've actually addressed both of those issues in the post version by 1) making the enemies start off slower and 2) generating their colours pseudo-randomly, so you don't get annoying situations like what you described. We're also planning on making some hand-made levels at some stage. So we agree fully with your feedback :)

RTHM by fashionbatman 2018-04-26T20:24:07Z

Cool entry, nice idea! Liked the song, though it was simple. Pity about the "hold down space" exploit, I would say that's a game breaker and you could probably get away with fixing it post submission?

Would be cool if the emoji selection meant something (it doesn't, right?), that would really add another element to the game.

Type it like Schumacher! by Linky439 2018-04-26T20:45:18Z

Great game - my favourite so far :)

+1 to the "I cant type quickly enough" complaint - it takes away from the feel quite a bit for me. I would feel way more bad ass if i could type really quickly and avoid obstacles at the last second. That and the fact that I couldn't slow down fast enough (did you consider a BRAKE command maybe?) are my only criticisms. But maybe I just need more practice ;)

Very original idea, and I LOVE the music! 5/5 for audio.

CityDefense by JOrbits 2018-04-30T09:29:58Z

Great entry, with some balance tweaks and expansion on the tech tree this could be a solid game! The city building/strategy combo reminded me of They Are Billions, which is great. +1 to the "would be cool if we could see what we could afford" suggestions.

Dating Sim Hell by Cole and Jordan Studios 2018-04-26T20:14:24Z

lol, +1 for funny voice work, loved it. I tried hard for Birdie but I guess it was not meant to be. Was a fun game! Some criticisms:

- I'm sure the bits of text I was avoiding were funny, but I couldn't enjoy them because they were flying at me too quickly! Not sure how one would resolve this though seeing as that's kind of crucial to a bullet hell game. - I also wasn't sure if i was supposed to be shooting back - it's just arrow keys to move, right? How does the awkwardness bar go down? Just over time? I felt a bit unsure as to whether I was doing things right.

Great entry!

A Tale of Two Towers by Articulated9 2018-04-26T21:18:29Z

Really great game! I loved it. This might sound strange but I really like the feeling of distance from the action. It's like you're a lord sitting in your castle and you have to rely on word of mouth to get information and send orders.

To be fair I will have to rate this as if there were no RECRUIT/FASTER/SLOWER options, but even so, great idea and well executed. Sure there are some balance issues as @alex13 pointed out, but I think if you spent some more time on this, it could really be a great game and even a new genre.

Well done!

VRn't by Michael Clavell 2018-04-30T20:52:34Z

Cool idea :) The audio was really good, and it's a solid, fun game, although pretty simple. You scoped it well for a jam. Well done!

Bubba Illegal Construction INC by dunderroffe 2018-05-01T19:55:04Z

Cool idea! I quite liked the stealth aspect, hearing the inspectors and then spinning around like mad trying to see where they are. Agree with @Mordokay that more accurate building placement would've helped. Could definitely use some polish and expanding but that's normal for a jam. Well done!

Ludums Kitchen by tommohawkaction 2018-04-26T20:55:38Z

Great idea! The art and sound are great in this. I like the chop animation. Some constructive criticism: - the fact that you had to double-jump almost every time was a bit annoying - I would've made the kingdom a bit smaller, is a bit of a mission to go all the way down and up every time

Echo by japes 2026-04-20T18:29:55Z

@glem-fumeno had not heard of Dark Echo, it is VERY similar!

I see they persist the "sound waves" for a lot longer, so it's easier to visualize the space around you. Makes sense. As it is, my game is a bit too hard/frustrating, I think.

I get the audio glitch too on the web build :( sounded much better from unity player

Echo by japes 2026-04-20T18:30:23Z

@gettingrekt that last "bonus stage" just loops forever, you haven't missed anything :)

Echo by japes 2026-04-22T20:17:48Z

@nombrillus thanks, it does need a bit of tweaking wrt charge times and persistence. I want to make it a bit easier to visualize your surroundings without literally highlighting the edges.

CODE RGB by cogcomp 2026-04-22T20:32:36Z

super cool game brother!

simple idea that works well

I got some keyboard jam when traversing white sections :/

why so smol? fullscreen option would be nice (maybe i missed the option for it)

Hoist the Flag! by oller125 2026-04-21T19:40:36Z

cool, simple idea. Loved the way the flags waved and the music.

Relay Runner by GettingRekt 2026-04-20T19:57:56Z

Dude this was great, my favourite so far. Took a bit of time to dust off my old "lander" skills, but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun trying to get my little guy home. Really felt like i was on a dangerous mission to save a dude with limited resources. (I lol'd the first time I splatted him against a cliff)

If I had one criticism I would say that maybe the combination of tricky Lander-style controls with the signal mechanic makes the difficulty a bit high. I would maybe make flying a bit easier so that players can focus more on the unique "control signal" mechanic.

But I got all the way to the end and had a lot of fun doing it. well done

Logic Emitter by Jiri Hysek 2026-04-20T11:15:32Z

Amazing entry for a compo game, well done sir.

Graphics, sounds, polish all top notch. Instructions clear, always know what was expected of me.

Can't really fault it except I wish there were more levels :)

Average League by N.O.X 2026-04-21T19:16:39Z

Great art and music and a super cool idea but unfortunately my cutting skills were just not up to scratch - best i got was 84% of the first shape.

I think being able to actually see the shape (or maybe parts of it) would make the difficulty reasonable. As it is it was just totally beyond me.

But I see other players managed to do it, so maybe that's just me.

Blacksmith's Apprentice by ellaris 2026-04-20T10:19:50Z

I had a bit of trouble figuring out what was expected of me to get a good score at first.

Does one click as soon as possible after the audio queue starts? or as the word "now" starts? or when the anvil goes green?

I would've given up if I didn't see that @ejunegao seemed to have no problem, and then i figured out that you need to strike "while the iron is hot" i.e. when there are red pixels on the iron. (right?)

So I think this could be explained a bit better, also the player needs some feedback on every hit, to show whether or not that was a good hit.

Once I got the hang of it it was pretty easy, I got >90% for all the levels on the first try, just by looking at the colour pattern on the iron.

With all that said:

- this is a fun an unique interpretation of the theme - I loved the audio and the humour - the graphics and music were great for a compo game - this could have some potential with a bit of tweaks!

well done!

Pandemic Purifier by Zazzar 2026-04-20T18:46:03Z

Cool idea, and implementation is solid

gun controls felt satisfying, maybe the platforming side could be tweaked a bit (jump feels a bit slow, like we're in low gravity? perhaps that's what you were going for?)

One thing I would change, is make mousewheel control your gun setting. Bit fiddly to find the right number key when you've got red jumpers at your throat :)

Maybe you could even make it a smooth spectrum of colours instead of set numbers. Then you'd really feel like you're "tuning" your gun.

I think there may be a bug where sometimes the slimes die/dissapear randomly? loved the creative enemy types.

overall cool game, well done :)

Propagation by MemoLoop 2026-04-19T19:54:41Z

All in all a solid game, graphics, sound, level design all good so well done! Instructions were clear and controls felt solid. Some constructive criticism: - maybe it should say "Hold q" instead of "press q", took me a while to figure out how it worked - do we need both q and e? seems like it could be simplified and just have 1 "action" button

Cardboard Delivery Service by skale 2026-04-20T19:39:00Z

Super cool look and feel, controls feel great can see you spent a lot of time getting the driving to feel good.

Unfortunately I was not able to complete it, the tower on top of the ramp bested me :( but I had a lot of fun driving around!

I may have missed it, but are the controls explained anywhere? took me a minute or two to figure out how to drive (or even that I was supposed to drive)

Solid entry, well done

ECHO-7 by Crowelian 2026-04-21T19:05:45Z

solid entry, all the mechanics are pretty clear and i felt empowered to make my little base and try to survive. I found the CRT effect annoying at first until I discovered that signal strength improves it. How does one get "composite"?

Signal by Trav 2026-04-20T19:09:59Z

agree with previous comments: - difficulty a bit high! but fun. At least let us start from the same level if we die :) - really impressive that you did all the art/music and coded this with vanilla javascript

Reminds me a lot of an old game I have fond memories of playing: "pipedreams"

Signal, Frog by SteveOfStevesGames 2026-04-20T10:29:02Z

I love this idea, though it took me a bit of time to figure it out.

As mentioned, the signals should be clearer: the green light should be brighter, and the frog should be bigger. Perhaps you deliberately made them like this for an extra challenge? But I think clearer signals (and perhaps more of them) would be a more fun challenge.

Could also be clearer when you're getting positive/negative points, maybe some kind of animation like the frog jumping around when he's angry and you've clicked.

Graphics and audio good for a compo game.

is the angry frog a reference to something? because it seems pretty random lol.

With a bit of polish and maybe making the rules more intuitive (so the player doesn't have to do a bunch of reading before starting), I think this could be a really fun and addictive game. Could even spawn a while new genre of "logic clickers"

DROWNED OUTPOST by SHU WEN 2026-04-21T11:52:00Z

You profile says you are a noob? wtf? this is awesome!

Papers Please vibes but with more text and less pictures, and a different theme. Nicely simplified for a compo entry.

Full marks for mood, sound was super immersive and the writing is great.

Only real criticism I have is the waveform matching mechanic, it felt like sometimes I couldn't find a match and yet the ship should've been allowed int. Wasn't clear when i'd checked the full spectrum. Maybe that could be tweaked.

But otherwise this is great, one of my favourite entries so far

MORSE SHOOTER by AstroAceOne 2026-04-21T19:24:23Z

cool idea and well implemented!

are there only 6 stages? after stage 6 no more enemies spawned, and I was left wanting more :)

see lots of potential for this, probably gets really fun once you get good

Qwadrant by glem-fumeno 2026-04-21T11:13:58Z

Nice idea, I think clear instructions would be more important than juice at this stage, still not quite sure I was doing the right thing.

When the little balls cross the lines, you suffer a movement penalty and a small amount of damage, right?

I feel like as a player there's no real control over whether the lines will be crossed, once there are a significant amount of enemies. Or maybe I just suck :p

but fun mechanic, well done

Signimal by FrowsyFrog 2026-04-21T11:23:07Z

nice entry! graphics and sounds great for a compo entry

fun mechanic, nicely explained. Also can't think of much to criticise besides wanting more content :)

Inside a Sun by bonedaddy 2026-04-20T19:01:37Z

love the intro and story in general, you are obviously a fan of dark sci fi :)

took me a while to figure out what i was supposed to be doing - at first i thought i was shooting some kind of detection indicator on to the surface of the planet. Only after I started moving around did I realise I was boring tunnels into the 3d shape.

But once I realised that it was a cool and unique puzzle trying to track down the signal somewhere in this solid object.

I would maybe make the "signal" number get HIGHER as you get closer to the target. That would be more intuitive. Or otherwise label it "distance to signal".

creative idea, well done