Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Jasper Hansen
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | SUNSTAMEN | compo | 400 | 3.28 | 2.87 | 3.44 | 3.47 | 3.37 | 2.09 | 3.33 | ||
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | SUNSTYX | compo | 165 | 3.69 | 3.37 | 3.37 | 3.20 | 4.00 | 3.85 | 3.91 | ||
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | Gem Miner | compo | 167 | 3.59 | 3.43 | 3.00 | 2.56 | 4.18 | 2.23 | 3.16 | ||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | The Gunslinger | compo | 3.78 | 3.28 | 3.00 | 3.50 | 3.66 | 2.50 | 3.21 | |||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Temple Trap - The Game! | compo | 414 | 3.28 | 3.19 | 3.44 | 4.03 | 3.36 | 2.46 | 2.50 | 2.85 |
Very well done aesthetic. The complete absence of SFX helps to enhance a feeling of isolation and fits well with the game's setting. The traditional artwork adds something else to this tone, a lighthearted playfulness. These two aspects come together to give this game a really unique tone and aesthetic.
I really wish this wasn't a game jam entry. You can only do so much in the span of 48/72 hours. This game was over too fast. I want more. The graphics are "simple but effective" to an extreme. they're really effective. Game play and physics were hilarious, as sometimes you have the wrong color, and have to cover the entire level with blocks just to pick up another color. There are some very interesting and well-executed ideas in this entry, all I want now is more.
Really enjoyed some of the puzzle designs. All the artwork and sound design fit well with the games premise. As has already been stated, I think grid-based movement might have fit a little better with the games core mechanic.
This game establishes a nice mood with it's graphics. It also feels fairly smooth, despite the retro aesthetic.
This game is really visually pleasing, and everything feels polished and smooth. The idea is really interesting, and the premise is unique, especially among the other LD42 games I've played. Despite this, the game wasn't very entertaining, and it felt repetitive after a few rounds.
Very smooth graphical presentation. What is in the game feels like it got a lot of attention, but what really brought it down for me was the lack of a difficulty curve. The latter half of a play is really no different from the former, with the exception of how much pizza remains.
I really like how you turned the theme on it's head by making a game about isolating yourself, rather than the more oft traveled route of having the running out of space be a bad thing.
This game's graphical presence is quite impressive for a jam game. The game play is nice and smooth, and the design of the world gives off a very alien vibe. However, the game really wasn't very entertaining, and that really brings it down.
You utilized this interesting concept really well when designing the levels. Graphics, game play, and entertainment value are all at a relative high in this game.
@xcvzxc In regards to the soundtrack - I totally agree. I actually had an ambient song in the game until I read that all music in compo games needed to be done by the developer. My Ableton Live 10 free trial literally just expired, too.
@tom7 The feedback is greatly appreciated. I must admit that in being the developer and therefore the one to make the collision masks, I failed to realize that slight inconsistencies such as having the bat's collision mask being directly on the sprite and the player and cyclops' masks being at their feet could cause confusion. I'll have to add it to the post-jam list.
(I was hoping those Spelunky references wouldn't go to waste (: )
@gtrogers Thank you for the feedback, I'll be sure to keep your critiques (particularly regarding the drive and level size) in mind if I choose to revisit this game post-jam.
@jan Damn! I was hoping no one else had encountered that. The cause is the weapon instance existing past the point when the player instance was destroyed, causing a crash because the weapon instance requests the player's x and y coordinates without the inclusion of "If(instance_exists())"
Very satisfying and well executed game play, with Graphics that are simple yet effective. I'll skip pointing out bugs, as others have already exposed all that I noticed. I had a good time with this one, but despite the polish and enjoyable game play, this game felt lacking in innovation.
I was secretly hoping that someone would completely flip the theme on it's head by doing this. It seems you had the courage to do just that, and the result was this fun little puzzle-platformer. The graphics are simplistic but still attractive, and the game play feels smooth and satisfying. It does nothing spectacular, but it's entertaining. I like being entertained.
Lots of great ideas in this game. I'm impressed at how well you managed to make the levels feel varied and unique considering how simple the idea of the game is. Love the audio, I think it stood out above just about all else.
I love this game. Like, seriously, who'd a thought inventory management could be so fun? The concept isn't even all that great, but the execution is fantastic! Definitely the best LD42 game I've played so far. Be proud of this one.
This game is both visually and mechanically pleasing, but what I really like about is the eerie mood set up by the wonky and slightly offsetting music.
This game rocks. I love the villager sounds, the music is great, the graphics have such a nice style, the humor is brilliant and gives the game a fun, lighthearted tone, and overall the game just feels so clean and professional.
The game play is satisfying and can be quite fun. I found the death particles to be quite effective, and the satisfying sound that comes with a kill really helps this game. Unfortunately, it still feels unpolished and messy. Work to better yourself and I can see you accomplishing great things in the future.
This simple game concept is made quite entertaining by the amount of content and shop upgrade variation in the game. It's nothing too original or groundbreaking, but it's fun. And that's what matters.
@lontrus I noticed the issue with the spawner, and made it remove all collision tiles around it. However it is still a problem, as there is no visual accompaniment to tell the player they can go there.
Phenomenal for a 48-hour compo entry. Nothing much here to complain about. Well done.
Great graphics. The game play is very enjoyable considering how simplistic it is. This is a stupid nitpick, but it feels like the pitch of the pickup sound should be increasing with every pickup you pick up.
Great entry, great sense of humor. Though personally, I feel that it would have been a lot better if you had given the player opportunity to improvise / be creative
Great game. The personality and aesthetic were very well done, and the game did a great job making me want to explore the world. The time limit seems like an odd choice to me, though.
Very enjoyable game, and a good use of the theme. The audio was (charming?) Ultimately, it seems like the game's biggest downfall is it's small scale, but nothing much could have been done about that without more time.
Nice game. I liked that going near a dangerous swarm was more forgiving than it could have been.
Great concept and solid execution, just not very substantial. There was a hint of the creativity you'd have to give players to fulfill this idea's potential, but it wasn't as prominent as one might want.
@davidsheadgames The ability to make things other than the player capable of getting the jump would be the kind of thing I'd try to add more of. It's a big step in the right direction. Other than that, just more variety would be great. Probably nothing you haven't heard/realized yourself, sorry if it's not much help.
Very well established aesthetic. Nothing much else stands out to me, though.
@plazmaz Crap! Thanks a lot for the heads up, it should be working now.
@notgreat Thanks for the feedback, and pointing out the bugs, and the dev shortcut I apparently forgot to remove. (oops.)
I'll be sure to consider all of this if I decide to work on a post-jam version.
Concerning the theme, no, it does not fit well at all. I had originally intended for collectibles to be a much larger part of the game, but in the end I decided to prioritize other aspects, since the game had developed an identity that I liked more than that which I had originally planned.
@davidsheadgames Level 4 is the last level, the penalty for getting burned is just losing your points in that one level. You didn't miss anything, but it probably could have been clearer that you didn't get a game over.
Sorry 'bout that!
As for the water, I think the only reason that there are infamous water levels in so many games is because the purpose of water in most games is to take the player out of their comfort zone, which inherently makes them uncomfortable. So yea, movement is difficult, and it's also not Mario, so there's nothing to appreciate on a critical level. (The way that it takes away the traditional jump in Mario, the jump being Mario's main mechanic, is, in my opinion, a bit genius.) But I figured it added some fun, harmless game play variety, so I put it there anyways. Hopefully it wasn't too painful for you, and hopefully reading my excuse wasn't painful either.
Thanks for bringing all this to my attention.
Seems like an interesting idea, but the mechanics don't fully make sense to me after finishing what's here. Just something for you to consider.
Very nice game, though I wish you could have done more with it.
Honestly, it doesn't seem like this game should be as entertaining as it is. Very solid entry.
Quite well done, being a joke and all.
The game feels very unpolished, but the ideas and concept are fairly solid. It could do a much better job of telling you what to do and making you want to do it.
This is an interesting take on the theme, though it lacks polish and could benefit from more extensive refining. Overall, nicely done.
Great mood and look. Though, the text is small and hard to read, at least on the web version.
Great idea for the theme, and executed pretty well. Could probably have a bit more to it, but there's nothing wrong with simple.
Very nice little game. It looked great, but it didn't have a great feel, partly because of the audio, which sounds awfully rushed. It also would have been neat if there were more to do, but I can't really complain about that in a jam game.
Very nice execution on a decent idea. Great mood in particular. As far as play is concerned, though the navigation does give it depth, the game is unfortunately a bit shallow. But, it does do a damn good job accomplishing what you seem to have intended.
Funny that a game about jumping through hoops isn't a platformer. Funny in general, really. Seems like you nailed what you were going for, very well done.
Fun game, going for 100% kills seems like it could be addicting though I didn't myself. Killing them directly rather than setting up a trap seems like a stupid obvious route to take at first, disregarding the larger groups it was mostly jank that kept me from relying on it. This is part good since you don't clearly want me to be relying on it, but in which case I have to question it's inclusion. It seems like it may have been a sort of insurance that a goal of 100% kills isn't struck down by unforeseen happenstance, maybe it's worth considering something else to fulfill this need? i dunno, but overall it's definitely a solid enough foundation to be built upon. Nicely done
Nicely presented, probably should have read the description more closely but when I figured out what to do I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining it was. I guess my major gripe would be the unpredictability of the monster's movement. that's probably supposed to add to the spook factor, but i personally didn't find it more than a bit of an annoyance.
@william-derksen I think it was just that the monster's movement felt random enough and your ability to keep track of it is so limited that by the time you do know where it is you've barely got any time to react. Not sure what the best way to fix this would be? I think just decreasing it's hitbox could be something to consider.
ha, this is great. Really nice use of the theme. Not much to critique, it was a little bit irritating that the time still counted down while people are talking, (specifically since you can't move,) but it's really not an issue, just could've been done better, maybe? I dunno, i think that it seemed worth bringing up is a testament to the quality of this entry more than anything else.
The mixture of platforming and shooting has potential. obviously the game itself isn't finished, but the idea is worth exploring further. also are there invisible enemies? like, what?
Good game, definitely disorientating at first but not really to a detriment. The upgrades were neat, but it never quite felt like they were making up for the attention they required when everything else is moving and such. Maybe they'd be a big help if i were to play enough for everything else to come naturally? i guess more vaguely something just felt a bit off, that probably doesn't help but i'm not sure how else to put it.
Quite fun once you get the hang of it. I really like the idea of having the game be built around perspective rather than a more traditional sort of gimmick. The mood is nicely constructed aswell. Very solid overall. I guess if i were to criticize something it'd have to be that playing my first couple rounds was very disorientating. Starting with that sort of intensity doesn't give the player any chance to adjust to the unusual presentation. Something to think about, maybe.
Quite fun to mess around with. The puzzles were all easy to solve, but I still had a good time with them. Maybe a large level with tons of blocks and myriad solutions would be fun? I'd be curious to see how you'd take this game further, anyways.
@albertofdzm whoops... I swear i published it... sorry! it should be working now.
@mikoziq yeap. actually, that's all that damages them. sorry about the learning curve. I know it's probably pretty bad considering most people just want to give the game enough time to rate & critique and then move on. hope it wasn't too hard to get the idea.
@guaranteedtrainwreck oh no, i probably should've realized that the pseudo-waves weren't made especially clear, the beams only appear after you've destroyed all the asteroids and more start spawning. Maybe something could be introduced as a safeguard against the player making an assumption like this? I'll think about it, thanks for the note!
@snowinn hm, I'll see if I can get a virtual machine running later today. either way there's no debt or anything; obviously...
Fun idea! Feels nice to play, just not much to do. obviously we were all limited on time, but regardless I think making something more of the shop should be prioritized over the "free play area", if you decide to do post-jam work on the game.
Good game, the clone mechanic made for an interesting twist to the otherwise unremarkable combat. Probably quite a few directions / changes this could take; personally I think the floaty movement doesn't work particularly well with the sort of bullet hell. It could work under different circumstance but I don't think it's justified in this case. i think that's the only problem I saw that hasn't already been mentioned. It's an interesting foundation, regardless.
Really neat take on the theme, and I liked the introductory writing. Obviously, there's not much else to it. The combat is plain enough that if you were to decide to take this idea further, I think more of a visual novel approach would be worth taking into consideration.
Navigating parts of a moving machine is a neat idea. But the game instead chooses to focus on it's combat, which feels good and all but is still remarkably unremarkable... I think you'd have been better off focusing on making the navigation more interesting, because clearly there's a lot of potential in that department and yet it all seems to amount to just a neat visual touch and the occasional period of waiting for a door to line up.
Feels very nice to control, the obstacles are nicely arranged in that it feels good to manuever around them. However the difficulty curve feels negative; generally ice is meant to be a twist on movement and not to be treated as an introduction to it. Then the final level's crumbling blocks feel like the tamest twist in the game, isn't that backwards? The game is quite fun to play but i'd forgive someone for not wanting to give it a chance to engross them.
Desktop Screenshot 2020.10.19 - 20.30.23.51.png 1000 hamster levels closer to death
@unhandyred haha, nicely done...
Very fun! I have some notes, though, all of which are fairly minor and don't subtract too much from the experience. My biggest gripe was the difficulty progression. It seems that all the enemy planes stay localized around the centre of the screen until you reach a certain score threshold... and maybe that's wrong, but if it is then i'm not sure what the case really is. The problem with this is the way it makes your ability to grab the point a bit too random; if it's near the edges then you're good but if not you'd better hope for the best as you go in for a kamikaze. Again, not a big deal, but worth noting. (And if i'm wrong about this, maybe try to figure out why this seemed to be the case.) Two more smaller issues : first, I think that the enemy planes should NOT kill you after they've started to fade away. Feel free to disagree. Lastly, I think the enemies should've started spawning after you collect the first point, just to smooth out the learning curve. That's all, I really enjoyed this one, very nicely done.
I like all the creativity. Hard to think of something criticize given the nature of the game... but the last screen implies there's no way to exit, and yet falling enough times through the hole in the floor can boost your speed to such heights that you disappear. hm...
Seems like an interesting idea for a puzzler, i'd love to see it taken further. I think being sent back to the start every time you die could incentivize proactive play but considering you're redoing the same puzzles again there's probably better ways to explore that aspect of it. As it is now yea, just restarting the puzzle would probably be better.
I think the black laser thing is more satisfying than the bullets, but both could use some more audio/visual feedback. Juicy screenshake would add a lot, and is generally very easy to implement. Some SFX would be great too. Enemies could flash and crunch when you hit them. The game already feels quite nice to play, but i think it's worth thinking about how you could take the overall game feel to another level.
I understand the advantage of minimilism and think it was a good idea to keep the scope of this project small, assumedly treating it more as a learning experience than anything else. I noticed some collision oddities, but they seem the sort of thing that you'll inevitably sort out in future projects; and there was nothing game-breaking, anyways. good job
Very nice, it does seem fair enough to have a good skill ceiling but I guess I kinda suck. it's simple but effective, if a little frantic.
Nice take on the theme, and nice presentation overall. It felt like I wasn't understanding something though, it feels more like a pretty proof of concept or something? Unless I really was missing something... the sort of puzzles felt really arbitrary to me, meaning to say I don't understand the point of one after completing it. Pleasant to play though, if that was your goal I can safely say you've done it quite well.
Fun game, maybe I was missing something but it seemed kinda aimless. Not a bad thing to be clear; that's a valid way to take this sort of thing, just seems a bit of an odd choice given the limitations presented by the jam.
Solid puzzle design, the progression was good but I think it maybe got a little too hard a little too fast? I guess that's better than not getting the oppurtunity to get difficult. Other than that, there was too much talking all at once. Probably would've been better interspersed throughout the game. And, the tutorial was kinda not good. Took a lot of text for just a bit of gain, i would've preferred key prompts or something. Regardless, once I got into the meat of the game I had a lot of fun. Nicely done
I really enjoyed the graphic style you used and the game was pretty fun to play once I got used to it. I think the controls could stand to feel a little more responsive, i like that moving horizontally takes a bit of a wind up but I couldn't get used to having the jump mapped to releasing space rather than pressing it and I feel like it could have had more of an effect, it definitely wasn't high enough to overcome most obstacles and it only felt worth using when coming up on a steep part (maybe that was intentional), but all in all this was a fun little game
great idea and executed with a lot of personality, the dialogue and animations are a lot of fun. i'd like to have more options but can't really complain about a lack of content in a jam game, and what you've got here is great
this game is super fun, there's so much to keep track of and it's bound to get overwhelming but it always feels like you're balancing your attention and taking risks and all in all i just really enjoyed it. You did a great job crafting a simple set of rules that spirals into a bunch of really engaging gameplay decisions. I liked the presentation a lot too, it's a good balance of readable and hard to keep track of and complements the gameplay well. It could maybe use a bit of fine tuning in balancing but this is a really solid game
@david-york thanks for the heads up, i'll go ahead and delete the download for mac
& the game runs in 800*600, which works out in windowed for a 1080p display, but i'd imagine for higher resolutions you'd have to play fullscreen (F11) with the caveat of it's not going to look great upscaled. i'm really not great about that...
@arihan10 i don't entirely agree about the tutorial, but the issue that you can't pause the game to read it is a great point i hadn't considered. thanks for the tip. and regarding debt, the thing is that you can't order more than eight seeds at a time, and can't place an order while in debt, so you'll end up failing faster than if you manage your garden more smartly. however, you can place yourself in irreparable debt as a tactic to extend the game at the end, which was intentional. The lack of a scoring system is another intentional point, as I personally feel monitoring your score would detract from the moment to moment play, and i don't intend for people to be playing for the sake of chasing a high score, but for the small decisions and learning experiences they have while playing. You have great points, but it just happens i have kind of wierd and stubborn philosophies on game design... i probably shouldn't ramble
great presentation and engaging gameplay, at least once it clicks how you're supposed to play. The tutorial you put into the game feels a bit bulky and is fairly overwhelming, it's hard to follow what you're going to be supposed to do before you've even been introduced to the environment. For this sort of game I think I would like to have a tutorial that's presented more like a manual I can look at while i'm learning how to play, which you did provide in the itch.io description, over something stuck in between the menu and the game. Other than that I had fun playing this and most of the gameplay quirks at worst didn't bother me, it's a neat concept executed as well as one could hope
the intermittent music between periods of silence helped to set a nice mood and sense of momentum, and i liked some of the gameplay decisions that arise from the concept, such as going into the ash to reach a bush without being sure whether or not it has berries on it. The game lacks a sense of urgency but the slow gameplay does itself help to set a particular atmosphere. The controls were a little awkward to me but the game was slow enough that it wasn't too much of a problem, in particular i'd like a different input for eating than casting a spell, because those two actions don't intuitively go together and it can feel off to perform them both with the same input. Also for selecting spells my instinct is to use the mouse wheel rather than the number buttons because that action is faster and feels more directly tied to the action being performed. Overall, i'd say i found this game to be quite interesting, and i think it works very well for what it is.
The physics were really finicky and I think you'd benefit from avoiding that sort of complicated system while you're still getting used to game design, for something like this game i think it would help to just be able to move the block in four directions, and then you might have an easier time designing puzzles out of that simple & predictable result of whichever side you push towards it will move there. you did a good job putting together all the different systems that make the game function, i think you should keep at it and maybe try something a little more straightforward for your next game
The game looks and feels really nice and there's a cool element of balancing your focus between the enemies and stabilizing platforms.
having a ranged and melee weapon that perform different tasks works well i think, but switching between them wasn't very intuitive to me, ideally if you're going to use the mouse wheel you should make it so either way you spin the wheel will toggle your current weapon to the other, because paying attention to which direction you have to spin it is an unnecessary complication when you're trying to focus on playing the game. I also don't think it's necessary to have the player switch between them, you could have the hammer mapped to lmb and the gun mapped to rmb so they're both equipped at the same time & that would make it a little easier to focus on the action.
Having so many platforms to target across such a large play area also felt overwhelming to me at the start of the game, i think specifically there was so much going on outside what the camera is showing the player and you could have made do with a smaller play area or made the platforms falling less of an immediate threat so I have time to notice a falling platform and make my way over there before it's already fallen
you did a good job with gameplay feel and feedback and I think the basic gameplay premise is well realized, all in all i had fun playing this game
I liked the presentation and though the controls felt finicky I found it was more consistent and fun to play than i'd expect. Low-poly graphics are always my cup of tea. It wasn't clear to me how the turrets were helping, but I didn't play long enough to see the meter at the bottom drop to zero, assuming that's the helicopter's health. I might suggest putting together a more clearly defined and communicated gameplay loop, but I think for what it is this game was fun to play and nicely chaotic
i found the atmosphere here to be very effective, and i think you did a good job conveying your message. it's clear this was meant to be kind of a simple idea, so it's hard to find anything to criticize, and i'm not about to start complaining about pixel sizes, so i'll just say, nicely done
great attempt for a first game, it was very playable and i liked your take on the theme. i don't use unity but everyone else seems to have you covered on the technical side of things. Good luck on your next project
I had fun with this game once I got the hang of it, there was a lot more to keep track of than it seemed at first. I enjoyed the bright aesthetic and the music and sfx went well with the gameplay. The biggest thing that sticks out to me I can criticize would probably be that it feels like you were trying to make a casual, relaxing sort of game and it ended up being actually quite tricky! But I had a good time with it regardless. Maybe for a more laid back feel to the gameplay you could try and use one or two fewer elements, or communicate them in a more concise manner. For example, I had a difficult time keeping track of the breath meter while trying to focus on stamina and movement, and that caused the game's control to feel finicky/inconsistent in a couple of scenarios
I don't use godot, but if i had to guess it seems like you included a download for the application but not any of the associated data files it would need to run. I'm going to guess when you package a game for release with godot it will spit out a .zip or file folder with all the game's necessary files, and what you did is include just the executable itself. i'm assuming it should work if you upload the entire folder
the player control immediately came off to me as nice and responsive, though the camera shifting when looking up/down wasn't as smooth as it could be. The graphics were also nicely done. as far as the difficulty goes, i think you generally didn't leave enough room for player error while learning how to play, specifically in this case getting used to how the encounters are designed, which is a very common mistake among new devs or when you don't have other people to play your game. difficulty in general is both a fine line and a loose cannon because while it takes a lot of fine tuning to make sure an experience is both fair and engaging you can never make it work for everyone and everything appeals to someone... if that makes sense. The advice I would give to you is to make sure you can as the developer overcome any challenge in your game without taking a hit (to be sure it's fair) and to consider how players who know nothing about your game are going to experience your learning curve, because it never ends with the tutorial. an easy example of something like that in this game is how you put motionless targets that block your progress before you expect the player to fight a proper enemy, so you know they've had a chance to experience every aspect of the control scheme at a basic level. This is something to be considering with every part of the game, not just the beginning. I'd like to stress i'm not talking about teaching specific mechanics or even difficulty curves in general, but getting players accustomed to the nuances of playing your game before you expect them to demonstrate mastery of it... i hope that makes sense
sorry that kind of went on, all in all you did a pretty good job with this game and I really enjoyed it