Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → JasonD
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | 👥 | Tama-Gotcha! | jam | 910 | 3.62 | 3.22 | 3.32 | 3.68 | 4.16 | 3.71 | 3.50 | 3.89 | |
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | 👥 | D.R.I.E.D. | jam | 95 | 3.97 | 3.56 | 3.32 | 3.79 | 4.51 | 4.15 | 3.07 | 4.08 |
JasonD leaves an average of 21.0 feedback comments each event.
Really charming - the dialog was funny, and the art fits together really well! Pretty damn polished and complete - overall, great!
Only real nit-pick is that the theme felt pretty arbitrarily tacked-on - why do I lose money whenever my heart beats, and why does that kill me? Also, some more work on the audio would really flesh this out.
The title screen made me laugh out loud, which is a good start. Also, including Unity C# code in the HUD is pretty goddamn funny. Basically, the whole tone is on-point.
I think this needs some tweaking to be really playable - the movement is super floaty (doesn't feel like I'm a big heavy robot). The offset reticle also made me veer off course weirdly as I was walking around, but maybe that's something you would get used to.
Like the pixel art and audio 👍 The dash mechanic is interesting - feel like this would play better with a controller, though.
The crowd reactions and fame meter are neat, and really flavour-ful. I think this could be developed into something really cool - what's here all fits together really well, although not totally with the LDJAM theme (feels more like "fame is currency" than "life is currency"...)
Looks great!
I think the combat could be pretty fun, once you get the hang of it. The other events, and the way you lose your life, feel a bit arbitrary.
Wow, so much atmosphere! The writing is genuinely good - a couple of really great lines in there.
You also have that Bourassa-ish art style down =P
Very well put together! It's compelling.
The mouse-look thing is a bit distracting, especially during dialogue.
The premise is awesome! Really like the overall flow of the game, the mood, and the little details (like the vampire architecture). It's all very cohesive.
There are a few typos etc, and the connection between my choices and the outcome didn't feel particularly tight.
Overall, enjoyed this.
The retro vibes are so totally on-point! All of the audio (that spooky baseball music!), intro, screen transitions etc are just awesome.
The controls do feel a bit awkward in practice (although it's not totally out of line with the era it's emulating =P). Also, as you mention, the theme isn't really integrated.
Art is really nice! (except for those loading screens =P)
I feel like the connection to the theme is pretty tenuous, though.
Great! Nice graphics and audio, and overall pretty well polished. Genuinely had fun playing. Also, the pun-based name, "Ticker Clicker", is appreciated.
A few little niggles, like the slow intro text, and overlapping text/UI stuff when there are lots of towers on-screen.
Made it to wave 20!
Agree with most of the comments here - very interesting concept, and impressively polished. But would be great to see more direct feedback/indication of individual players' influence on the game world, and of objectives!
Looks interesting - the mood/theme is definitely there! But I think I'm missing something, because I can't figure out what's actually going on...
Skeletons are super cute!
The text speed is a bit slow, but I like the intro / premise. The idea of wagering your life *beforehand*, as opposed to spending it during play, is pretty novel I think.
I *love* the idea of tying the "life is currency" to selling limbs/organs, instead of just generic "health". Cyberpunk is a perfect fit!
I couldn't actually work out how to play, however.
So polished! All the little transitions etc are great! This is also totally playable, and honestly pretty fun.
Liked the artwork, and the audio was also really good. Music would really have set if off, though!
I feel like the theme could perhaps have been emphasized a bit more.
The screen is extremely grey for me - I end up dying almost immediately to something I can't see.
Cool! Straight away, it looks great. Very nostalgic visual style. This "demon pact" idea is a good interpretation of the theme.
With a little more tweaking, I think the gameplay would feel really nice - there are a few issues where the controls seem a bit "sticky" (e.g. if you keep attacking, you'll never turn, even if you're holding the opposite direction).
The premise is a really cool interpretation of the theme here, I think - I like the idea of the shadowy people who are demanding that you harvest lives for them.
The actual gameplay/implementation seems a bit rough, however.
I'm not sure if it was a glitch, or just something not yet implemented, but I'm seeing what look like white hitboxes instead of animations.
I found the jumping kind of awkward, and also aligning hits with the enemies.
The overall mood and artwork are so totally on point! The "looming boss meter", especially, is a stroke of genius. It all works very well - what you have is coherent and complete.
Of course, the gameplay is very simple. But you made a smart choice in that it enabled you to just add loads of monsters/customers, which is where all the flavour lies.
LD46 — Keep it alive (17)
Volty's Quest by Casey Macneil 2020-04-22T23:25:10Z ♥ 0
Great! Felt really nice to interact with - graphics and audio were also very fitting. The mechanics / mechanisms in the levels are pretty neat, too.
I had one moment where I got kind of stuck on the side/corner of a block in a weird way, but for the most part the controls were surprisingly solid.
Also felt a bit disconnected from the theme (as you're keeping "yourself", rather than "it", alive).
Overall, Very impressive!
You Reap What You Shoot by darkfrost 2020-04-22T19:42:38Z ♥ 3
I liked the visual of the plant being connected to you like that, providing you with air - helped to emphasize the theme. Also it was interesting how your bullets could be blocked by / bounce off it as you drag it around behind you.
I found the movement / performance a little laggy, so it was tricky to really get into the action side of things.
The Genesis Loop by jsmars 2020-04-22T14:00:11Z ♥ 5
Kind of crazy that you implemented and documented a custom scripting engine for this!
The content itself is great, and the presentation is simple, but feels cohesive and complete. Overall it's very immersive. I think you picked exactly the right number of things to focus on: the event writing, warp effects and planets are just enough, and they're all polished up nicely. Great work!
Cydonia by Wookie 2020-04-22T13:51:27Z ♥ 3
Nice! Seems like a pretty neat puzzle platformer, and fairly complete in terms of levels and mechanics. Good job!
I didn't think the mechanics tied into the theme particularly. Also, I quit in frustration the first time because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do on the first screen (that I could move the second character with the arrow keys), and just happened to boot it up to try again. Please list the controls!
Lumina Mori by Gafled 2020-04-22T13:40:32Z ♥ 0
Very atmospheric! Liking the graphics and audio, and overall look of the environment.
Unfortunately the mouse controls didn't seem to do anything for me, so I wasn't able to get into the gameplay. And also W always moving "up", as opposed to "forwards", felt like quite a disorientating control scheme.
Dunkegg by Luke Perkin 2020-04-22T13:36:19Z ♥ 1
Humour and overall cinematic presentation are totally on-point! The audio also feels really complete. Unfortunately the framerate really chugged for me, even on the low-quality setting, and I wasn't able to experience the gameplay properly.
Sisters' Lighthouse by imod 2020-04-21T22:47:45Z ♥ 1
**SPOILERS!! Play first if you're reading this!!**
Firstly, the characters and other artwork is really beautiful. Love this style!
The story surprised me! Very mysterious, and I was definitely curious to see what would happen. The first moment with the green light, and the later scene with all of the bodies, were both unexpected and compelling.
Nice job!
ROBOY by DoctorMozart 2020-04-21T18:52:14Z ♥ 1
Great! Roboy is frickin' adorable. Graphics overall are fairly strong.
The movement controls are pretty tight - but the combat felt a little bit rough/unfair.
Nice work! Overall it's on-theme, and feels complete.
Remember, Apollo by AdamCYounis 2020-04-21T18:44:19Z ♥ 2
Aesthetically this is obviously exceptional!
The central mechanic is also pretty neat, although it did end up feeling a bit frustrating / trial-and-error at times. Also, a bit disconnected from the theme.
Super impressive in an artistic/technical sense, given the time constraints.
Keeper of the Flame by nickavv 2020-04-21T18:31:04Z ♥ 3
Wow - I pitched almost this exact idea to our team, but we decided to go in a different direction. The only difference is that we had the braziers at the start of each level, acting as a kind of checkpoint, and some of the puzzles required extinguishing the torch and then looping back around to re-light it.
Really impressed with how you pulled it off! The graphics/mood are really nice and consistent. The level design is also great - and things are pretty dynamic with the rising water levels etc. I know that kind of stuff can be fiddly to get working, and it's really slick here - great work!
I'm biased towards liking this take on the theme, but I think you totally killed it! Very polished and well-realised.
As far as constructive criticism, it would have been nice to have a more detailed main character sprite, but the silhouette direction you went with works really well stylistically as a stand-in. Some of the platforming (mostly the springs) felt a tad slippery, also.
Symbiosis by -banzi 2020-04-21T16:43:17Z ♥ 2
Great! The visual aesthetic comes together very nicely. The intro sequence and in-game animations are also very cool. Although after a while, it did feel like it took a long time to move around, so could perhaps be snappier? During combat, that wasn't an issue - only really when moving through large empty spaces.
Gameplay wise, the move/attack system totally works! Feels pretty complete/polished. There seemed to be an issue sometimes where I couldn't feed - mostly when multiple enemies died on the same tile, I think?
The UI looks nice, but a couple of small suggestions - the "power" meter looked only half-full, despite me having 25/25 power. Also the prompt to choose an attack direction could perhaps be more prominent - didn't see it at all, and had to read the page to figure this out.
As for the theme, I really like the parasite angle. However, it might feel even more thematic if there was some kind of hunger which drained your power over time? Then you'd have to play efficiently to provide enough fuel to really "keep it alive".
Energence by noirdrive 2020-04-21T15:31:58Z ♥ 2
Wow - this looks spectacular! Amazingly atmospheric (especially the city backdrops). For a first game, this is really, really impressive.
Only visual comment is that the contrast/brightness of the "start" and "quit" options on the main menu is a bit confusing, and I accidentally quit the first time. But I did really like that little intro/tutorial sequence, where you're falling. Super nice bit of polish - it's great that you went the extra mile to add this.
Controls could use a little tweaking, and I think it's way too difficult - I so wanted to explore the world more, but only ever got past the first screen once. Definitely put a few more hours in now that the jam is over to refine this stuff, because I'd genuinely like to play more!
We're Lost, Boy by TheCommonThug 2020-04-21T15:04:51Z ♥ 0
Pretty good, graphics-wise. The dog sprite is quite cute! Although the lighting effect seemed a bit off - I could barely see the intro sequence / main menu (super dark), and it looked a bit odd when the game started properly.
HENCHLINGS by Rohun 2020-04-21T15:01:18Z ♥ 3
Neat aesthetic! The art overall is pretty great - although I'm not sure what the brown area in the middle is supposed to represent? Gameplay wise, it was not super clear how the cooldown/recharge for the workers is supposed to work. They seem to hang around the machine for a while after arriving, then return to an empty location, and then they're available again. Might be clearer if there was a "recharge station" that they returned to, and perhaps a bar/indicator for each worker which filled up until they're ready to deploy again.
Last Days of the Empire by Arqcenick 2020-04-21T14:55:42Z ♥ 1
Love the styling! The overall look is great - simple, clean, and consistent.
It also seems like you have the core of a neat little system here.
I did run into some game-breaking issues - it seemed like enemies and their cities were sometimes positioned on tiles which I had no way of reaching. So, unless I'm missing something about the mechanics, I don't think it was possible for me to win the game. There were also situations where it looked like I should be able to move onto a particular tile (based on the unit's movement shape), but it wasn't permitted for some reason.
A few more hours to address some of these issues, and I think you'd have something very cool!
OwOrbit by AudreyC 2020-04-21T03:44:13Z ♥ 2
Huh! Neat little mechanic. Took me a couple of goes to figure out what was going on - I think a more forgiving difficulty curve might have been good.
Aesthetically also pretty neat
Don't Kill Gil by webthingee 2020-04-21T03:41:49Z ♥ 2
Overall aesthetic is really nice! Would have loved some animations for the fish, though.
I didn't feel like the cards in play gave me particularly meaningful decisions to make.