Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Jimjam
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Cm | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | I'm Scree! | jam | 72 | 3.94 | 3.85 | 4.00 | 3.28 | 4.41 | 3.68 | 3.50 | 3.70 | 56 | ||
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | 0G | jam | 60 | 3.98 | 3.43 | 3.98 | 2.58 | 4.39 | 2.29 | 4.48 | 71 | |||
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Mimesis | jam | 165 | 3.66 | 3.27 | 3.45 | 3.70 | 3.77 | 4.04 | 2.68 | 3.83 | 53 | ||
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Road Rage | jam | 109 | 3.59 | 3.40 | 4.05 | 3.77 | 2.93 | 2.93 | 3.11 | 3.24 | 79 | ||
| 2012 | 24 | Evolution | Rise of the Meebas | compo | 434 | 2.86 | 2.33 | 3.03 | 3.53 | 3.61 | 2.77 | 2.43 | 2.94 | 73 | ||
| 2012 | 23 | Tiny World | Astrosurf | compo | 427 | 2.97 | 2.74 | 3.31 | 2.94 | 3.55 | 3.00 | 2.34 | 2.67 | 71 | ||
| 2011 | 22 | Alone | Left Behind | compo | 377 | 2.63 | 2.13 | 3.06 | 3.56 | 3.06 | 1.00 | 1.56 | 2.86 | 2.33 | 46 | |
| 2011 | 21 | Escape | Cells | compo | 183 | 3.07 | 2.77 | 3.57 | 3.33 | 3.97 | 1.27 | 1.25 | 2.83 | 4 | ||
| 2011 | 20 | It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This! | Pathfinder | compo | 196 | 2.54 | 2.39 | 3.18 | 2.61 | 2.89 | 1.36 | 2.17 | 2.88 | 13 |
Thanks DrPetter! Wow, the number of puns in that post is head turning (<- uh huh?), and thanks for your input (sigh).
The collisions are still quite a big problem, and I was sorta tempted at the beginning just to use flixel. In not doing so, I learned a lot, but obviously lost plenty of time, so I think I'll opt for flixel next time.
Thanks ACodeGerm, I still have a long way to go and I really appreciate your feedback. The slapping effect really came together at the last minute too, and I would have loved to focus more on it to emphasise the effect, like that old slap the monkey game.
Thanks again.
Hi guys, thanks for your comments.
Orangy Tang, I will definitely add more levels. I'm letting my brain recover for a bit, then I'm gonna carry on, and I intend for there to be plenty of levels and puzzles eventually.
philomory, thanks for you comments - that swatting action would definitely be more self explanatory with some slick audio and animation, and if the enemies flew in directions other than 225(?) degrees :0
mintman, I like the gestures idea! I'm still not using the left mouse button so that could be a sort of gesture mode trigger. A more abstract environment would also be very interesting, but I think if I really managed to convey a puppet-like hero, with more cartoony/dungeon keeper silliness, that setting/style might be fantastic.
LiquidAsh, thanks for the comment, much appreciated. Re: Enemies through walls - I ran out of time there, sadly, but I did see someone else here talking about making his enemies ghosts, and the thought crossed my mind :P
Thanks Dark Acre Jack!
Fantastic idea! It reminds me of one of those kid's games, where you had to divert a ball through a maze, except much more taxing. Also had some problems with the keyboard input from time to time though.
Thanks for your thoughts guys! I agree, a decent explanation of the hacking mechanic is missing, but I did want it to have a sort of escape the room feel, leaving the player to look carefully at each "cell" and work out what to hack.
In an updated version, I'd like to see a menu popup when you try to hack a room. This could have many options, like kill lights, blow power, open door, move conveyer belt, etc., so that the game would have much more a puzzly feel. Right now, you just sort of have to wing it to get through the levels.
Oh, another explanation on how the keys work: The number of keys you need to reach a room is based on jumping from the current room (with the terminal) either horizontally or vertically. Each "jump" takes a key. You can't jump diagonally. I wanted to show this visually but didn't get around to it.
In the second level, btw, you can *OMG SPOILER ALERT* hack the room above the terminal. :)
Thanks guys, your feedback is great! It turned out in the last few hours that making a level was very quick, and I could've done a few more levels with just one main puzzle in each (elevator ini lvl 1, lights in lvl 2, etc), but the problem was items/entities.
I sort of shot myself in the foot with the 3d graphics in that while pretty, making an item for a puzzle was quite time consuming. Plus, my code for player actions was and still is quite a mess. I'll be very happy once I find an elegant way to code puzzles, and design some puzzles that really challenge the player.
Amazing man!
Hi guys, thanks for your feedback. The controls are definitely in need of a tweak... at this point, I'm not even sure why the bird gets stuck in the water, but I was also very, very tired on day 1 when I did most of the controls/physics code. By day 2, I was too terrified of it to try and rebuild it.
As before, I had the same old problems with getting sound in the game, which is a great pity.
FrankieSmileShow, the angler fish/Cloverfield monster ripoff (TM) turns up if you go too deep, but you also lose if you run out of O2 (the blue bar). Running out of stamina doesn't do anything except slow you down, which prevents you from reaching your flock, which in turn will cause you to lose. I probably should've mentioned that.
Thanks mes! I'm glad you were able to beat it easily - I spent about 15 minutes yesterday trying to beat my own game and getting nailed by the red birds :) I guess I made that route a little hard, and others a bit easy, so I'd need to adjust difficulty too.
Ta for the comment!
Hi guys, thanks a mil for your feedback! I see that controls have definitely been a weak point in this one.
I've had this idea for flight mechanics for a while now, being more or less based on an ooooold game called Ugh! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugh!) in which there was a sort of hover/glide mechanic for controlling a prehistoric taxi. Give it a play - it has a fairly uncommon feel to the gliding/flying. What I wanted with the bird was to have the player have to balance falling and flapping up to kind of create a glide (not sure if that makes sense), but somewhere along the line it just became straightforward 2d movement marred by the wrong kind of controls.
Also, in a game like Ugh! there are all kinds of reference points in the view to tell you where your flying craft is - in fact, if I remember, there was no camera panning. In my game, even with the addition of the clouds and mountains in the BG, it still feels a little disorientating, and difficult to tell exactly how fast the bird is moving.
@Black Ships: The air current thing was actually a planned feature initally, but I knew quite early on I wouldn't get to it sadly. I also appreciate that my interpretation of seagulls has raised the bar, but I don't think it's quite as important a contribution as the knowledge that even a small quantity of fresh seagull blood has enough cooling power to cool a spaceship entering Earth's atmosphere.
Holy crap! 10/5 for graphics. This is a thing of beauty!
@Darien: Doh! I realized that soon after uploading the game - a real fail on my (and the browser's) part! I'm planning on releasing an update at some point, so I may well consider switching to a hotkey or mousewheel system for switching weapons.
Haha, I love the golf analogy!
Hi all, thanks so much for all your comments! It really helps to get this feedback, and having various issues echoed a few times by different people is still very helpful, because it gives me a sense of which features were overwhelmingly in need of a fix.
I've been trying to release a small update with: a more practical zoom range, a shift-click option for vine shooting (for the web player), and more suitable population loss/gain system, as well as a few other graphical bits. However, I got caught up working on awesome mini-sim planet orbiting feature, which should be great, but my inner tinker got the better of me and I spent ages making stars look good while exploding. Anyway, I'll put that aside for now and release an update soon!
@Scott Baker: Thanks for your insight! It's very true. I remember trying to drive up mountains in an old racing game - Monster Truck Madness I think - totally ignoring the race track. I may well factor this in when tweaking the planet's movement, but I guess that would be sort of missing the point, because it's about what other people discover with the gameplay. Thanks!
Wow, that was tough! I think a more fluid, 8-direction movement would make it easier to dodge and get around. I really like the idea of bits of the universe manifesting in and around the player.
Ragzouken - I've just added an explanation in the notes above - it appears that 2nd level is quite confusing, so have a look. HINT: Pan up :)
Thanks for trying guys, I should look into clarifying some of this stuff in game. You don't need to jump in the second level - find the hidden hive above in the darkness, and click on a Meeba to have it drop down. Then roll it to the exit on the right.
Thanks guys, this is some great feedback, and thanks for the compliments.
Jeremias, I think you've nailed some of the fundamental changes that have to be made, so thanks for pointing them out. I'd made a note of some of them, but I think what you suggested would really help. Ta!
Thanks guys! Am definitely keen to submit a post-compo version as soon as I get time to fix up some of those bits. So far I've added a mouse wheel camera zoom, level shroud, and a few graphical tweaks, and jumping is a priority. As Christina pointed out, it definitely needs some work. I'll tone those church bells down too, they're quite jarring!
Thanks to you all for playing!
Wow Jedi, thanks a ton for that feedback! That's incredibly helpful, and you've really managed to get at the core of what I also feel is mostly wrong with the design at the moment - hell, you've articulated it better than I thought I had it in my own head!
I definitely felt creatively bankrupt with the puzzles in the end, but as you've suggested, there is the start of something cool there, and it was because of that that I carried on with the idea.
The one-trick pony thing is particularly true, especially with having the Meebas fall to develop wings. Obviously this started as a means to forcibly (although kinda boringly) show the player *how* to develop wings, but unfortunately the puzzles never really got to a point any more sophisticated than that. Same with the legs one - there's too little direction - and though you can't really not develop the legs, there's nothing guiding you there. There was always this great puzzly idea on the tip of my tongue, but I didn't give myself enough time to flesh it out in the beginning, which is a pity.
Anyway, I like these ideas. I'll work on it some more tonight. Probably with the dangerous intention of letting the gameplay come about as I go in a freeform way. But heck, this is Ludum Dare, and when else can one be totally experimental?
Thanks for the feedback all - I will definitely add a few tweaks to the player speed and a couple of other things so that mad traffic jams found in the last level can actually be controlled better :P
@recursor: so true! I'm from South Africa, and like the UK we drive on the left side of the road. I knew this would mess with all the Americans' minds :D Seriously though, it would be good (and not too hard) to add that option, just to keep everyone's sanity!
Hi all, thanks again so much for the feedback! I'm busy working on a post-compo version, taking into account a lot of this feedback, like changing the HUD, player speed and repair dynamic, among other things.
I'll also eventually include more maps, and an actual difficulty curve :P
Thanks,
Jem
Really fantastic game! You've managed to take the core mechanic and allowed it to expand in a number of very cool ways (eg. bouncing a ball off a wall to break through the opposite force arrows). Makes the game feel very tactile and sporty. Well done!
Really nice game with a simple mechanic that's lots of fun! I love the graphics, and the procedural generation is always good fun.
My only crits are that it would be nice to see a bit more "wildness" in the gen, as the different land types are a bit blobby for now. Also, just what some other people were saying about showing more feedback, ie. certain buildings showing that they are being worked at.
Awesome game!
Very cool concept!
This is fantastically original and was a lot of fun to play once I got better at the arranging. Love it!
My only issue was difficulty. The opponent's non-stop torpedoes meant I only got to the second level on try # 2, but I definitely felt that I was getting better at it over time, so maybe the difficulty is just right then.
Awesome game!
What a charming game! The audio is hilarious too. I did find the character movement to be a little slow, though I liked having to find the right parts of the level to move through.
Great stuff :)
Lovely atmosphere and graphics, but the one-hit kills and difficult attack timing, along with having to restart down that long pier, made it frustrating.
I love the snakey dragon! It's great how much you've managed to get in here (multiple locations, upgrades, etc), awesome stuff.
The controls did take some getting used to and could probably use some tweaks. My only other issue is that it isn't immediately clear what the goal is each level. I assumed there were a certain number of villagers to take out to complete a level, but I gather you just destroy as much as you want to gain loot.
Anyway, nice work!
Oh wow, I made something uncannily similar to this for the last LD, but your implementation is about a million times better! :D
This was a lot of fun to play, the level design flowed nicely and I got a great feeling of power from controlling the monster (especially dropping down on guards from above). My only gripe about controls, was that the mouse seemed to be unlocked and dragging to jump would sometimes take it out of the window. This is something I bring up because had an unlocked mouse in my own web build and it made controlling very difficult.
It might've also been cool to be able to take out an armed guard by just touching them, especially in situations when you land right next to one, but have to jump again to take him out.
Awesome entry overall! Would love to see more of this.
What a great game, definitely one of my favourites :)
Great mood and style! I felt that the running section was a bit unforgiving in terms of having to hit the arrow tiles to actually make a jump, but otherwise, awesome stuff!
That was a great fun in terms of watching the story unfold! I liked the kind of cyclical nature of it. But like others have said here too, it would've been great to have a little more gameplay, if only in terms of choice.
Anyway, awesome game!
Thanks for your feedback everyone, I'm glad the game is enjoyable :)
@JoshuaBurr: Not sure what the issue is there with the cursor, but it should be locking and hiding itself at the start. Thanks, I'll look into it.
@TurtleP: True, it can be quite a pain to hunt down all the pieces. I originally had fewer parts in mind, but ended up with 15 of them, which does make the process quite a hassle.
Thanks for your feedback.
That was a lot of fun!
Really fun entry, and the audio fits really nicely!
Some of that difficulty may also be reduced by reducing some of the noise on screen. For example, the shadows cast by the obstacles look great, but may mess with the player's ability to judge spacing and distances.
Great fun!
Fantastic entry, well done!
Great entry overall! I really like the art style and references back to old games.
Quite tough to succeed at though - I wasn't really sure what effects the powerups had, and I could never really get to a safe space in terms of health and powerups, but I guess as the monster you're pretty much always fated to die!
Good stuff :)
That was pretty damn bizarre! Though I think we've all experienced that kind of intense rage in which you turn into a flaming pig :P
Nice work!
This was an enjoyable entry! The tie in with the theme was great, but the movement controls were a little sticky, and the repeating gameplay loop could've maybe benefited with an added mechanic to add some variation. Great work :)
Those poor Boomies! I couldn't help myself...
Heheh, fun game :)
Mother of god, that was terrifying. 5/5!
And now I'm late for work :(
Seriously amazing and fun game, well done! I've seen similar sorts of process of elimination puzzles, but this was a lot of fun, and the ruleset made things really interesting.
Really interesting shape-shifting mechanics, especially when it came to the more "layered" shapes which revealed themselves only when I got them matched up properly.
The mood and audio is also fantastic! I'm a little torn about the graphics - on the one hand, your compositions can be a little difficult to make out, but on the other, this fits really well with the idea of confusing/obfuscated shapes, and shifting them to reveal something clearer. Not sure if this was intentional, but it works well I think.
Great entry!
Really cool entry! The mechanics right now seem more like a proof of concept, in that there's only really one path in collecting the powerups that lets you complete the level. So it would be nice to see this expanded with larger levels in which the player has to pick which order to collect the powerups in.
Great looking entry! The cloud interaction could've been a bit more interesting and the drag less slow perhaps, and I wasn't sure when if and when I was getting the shape more correct (or how accurate I needed to be), so I never matched the first shape. Otherwise, great entry!
Really fun entry! Pretty difficult, but fun :)
Awesome little mechanic, well done!
I had fun playing this, but it seemed unnecessary to me to use the mouse to switch shapes, as opposed to space or something. Cool!
Stunning visuals! This would be nice with some more engaging gameplay, but I love the tone and mythical styling. Nice one!
Holy chromatic aberration! :P
I enjoyed this, and apart from a few niggles (enemies sticking too close when damaging you, perhaps another use for the white souls) this is a pretty solid entry.
I think the porta-a-john is the most creative version of a health giver I've ever seen!
Woot! A cool 17 points!!
That's really awesome! I had a hard time getting used to the controls, but when I did, it became really satisfying to get into the rhythm of switching between the forms. It also feels like more of a cerebral challenge than your usual runner-type game, because you have to think about a lot more in terms of how the physics of the different objects work.
Nice one!
That was pretty enjoyable! I love exploring 3d spaces, and the shifting and lipstick mechanics were clever. I found that the game became a little grind-y later on, as I couldn't get beyond the secion(s) after the bridge, so I ended up running around rechecking everything over and over, which always breaks the suspense in these games a little bit. I know the idea is to feel lost, but the tension wile playing the game can break quite quickly this way (spotting the eye for example - spooky as hell at first, but after running by it for the 5th time, it lost it's edge :P )
I really enjoyed your graphics and mood, though there were a few things that diminished it slightly. Text popups like "heavy breathing" take away a little from the sound of the heavy breathing. You could've probably darkened things a little too, if you wanted a little more of that fear factor. Lastly, I really enjoyed the music track, but didn't really feel like it quite fitted into the game. A little too upbeat in places.
In any case, sorry for the stream of consciousness here, but I enjoy these kinds of exploration games, Good job!
Really fantastic visuals, but really tricky to tell depth and manage the controls. Cool entry all the same :)