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Dorgus Needs Power! by WillData 2017-08-08T05:40:48Z

Resource management is not something I expect a ton from games like this so it's cool to see it applied to the side shooter genre. It is an extremely fun endeavor having to count your shots, and essentially playing chicken with every single enemy. Piled on top of remembering to feed Dorgus charges, there's surprisingly a lot to manage given how simple the core game is. With the *intense* amount of recoil movement is very fun, although hitting enemies may make you bounce around a little too much, especially since you don't get a ton of feedback otherwise (especially compared to the loud sound your gun makes). I like the crayon-cartoon art direction, although for the boss of the land I wish Dorgus was a little more expressive!

Good game! I can definitely see this being expanded upon.

Virus Eater Peter by Nathan 2017-12-13T04:25:58Z

Pretty neat idea and sort-of-inversion of the twin stick shooter. I would have almost have preferred if the game stayed about baiting the virus, rather than you later getting the ability to shoot.

Shovelware Knight by Jezzamon 2017-12-21T07:44:35Z

This...this...I have trouble critiquing this in any way. I guess I kind of wish Shovelware Knight and Co. bounced along to the music?

It's a wondrous idea and almost too perfectly executed to the point where I don't know if I'm in on the joke or *am* the joke.

Really good. I think. Not the dentist game though. That's not good. The dentist is good though.

todus.PNG

Feathers by MikomiKisomi 2017-12-06T06:50:08Z

note: I put [Kashiwa Daisuke's Crystal Valley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grDODVw-Vbk) on in the background while playing this. Worked pretty well. The lively part of the first song even came up just as I got to the carnival!

Very enjoyable story. Something that I thought was sort of confusing that I actually grew to find pretty clever was how the in-paragraph words would reveal almost randomly-placed sections of the story. At first it was a little annoying, but then I thought of how well it reflected the scattered thoughts of the MC, especially near the end. I'm glad the friend turned out to be a friend; I was initially worried they'd ultimately be a trapper as well.

Great stuff.

The Rubber Robbery by TheMadStrauss 2017-12-06T07:16:47Z

letsjab.png Words we can all live by.

Man, this game is so GROOVY! Love the aesthetic and how everything flows together. The core gameplay is pretty dope too, makes good use of the theme. Definitely pursue this further!

Disintegrate by zenmumbler 2017-12-15T06:59:18Z

SUPER DUPER cool, aww man. I really enjoyed how the player movement actually began to stagger more and more as you picked up the various orbs. The more puzzle-y of the two actually took me a bit--not because I couldn't figure out the puzzle, but because I couldn't find the room to solve it in, haha.

Great job too in creating atmosphere, from the fog of war to the very decaying graphics to the good choice in music. Definitely a rush when I grabbed the last orb and ran to escape at like a 45 degree angle.

Weird bug to note---when playing in Chrome, I found that if I ever moved my mouse too fast, or too far in any direction, it would cause the camera to snap back to its position before I started moving the mouse. I was able to get around this by lowering the sensitivity of my mouse though, so I was still able to enjoy the game.

Disintegrate by zenmumbler 2017-12-17T23:58:03Z

@zenmumbler looks like a spaceship!

Click by Porcus_Pie 2017-12-10T07:51:04Z

realtalk.PNG

Yeeee rhythm games low key my favorite game genre. The whole implementation feels pretty fine to me---honestly it would have been impressive for you to build the whole engine *and* compose all three songs in two days, much less one IMO.

Real talk though; because the game's called "Click" my first go I tried clicking the row markers as the notes came across, thinking that the unhappy tone that played along was the "you did it!" noise lol. Always read the README!

The Worse It Is by xk_the_name 2017-12-05T05:26:24Z

Cinematography is fantastic. You really know how to set up the scenes, and the minimalist graphics play really well towards this (i.e. contrast to drive the viewers' eyes). Also a very clever (and as everyone else said, depressing) use of the theme.

Definitely looking forward to any other narrative works you make in the future!

Cracks by YouBeStrong 2017-12-24T04:00:49Z

A rather personal game that seems like it's meant for someone rather than everyone, so it is cool for you to share it. I could sort of tell what was going on halfway through and was afraid that the ending would potentially be generic and wishy-washy, so I'm glad it wasn't that. I really liked the implementation of the caulk/tape mechanic (that you've already talked about above) and the instrumentation choice--the woodwind sounds like a thing out of Animal Crossing or similar.

RollingDown by ohyhei 2017-12-12T08:02:31Z

Maybe it's weird to call a game about a rock on a hill cute, but this game is actually really cute? Honestly my biggest flaw with it is that if you play for too long the music stops :(

A time paradox by lythom 2017-12-13T07:05:51Z

Oh man this is such a good mechanic. Music and graphics are sublime as well.

I don't think I had as much of a problem with the controls as others did, and as you said--for the puzzles to be feasible you do need everyone to pretty much walk in lockstep.

Alien Crab in the Rotormaze by jebouin 2017-12-11T07:24:19Z

Alright I'm sorry how does this game not have a bazillion votes and reviews??? You could have literally ended it right after turrets, sent the little guy off on a spaceship to Mars when you hit the lever or something and this game would still be amazing.

* Ridiculous polish on the graphics, animations, and camera * Super tight and responsive controls * *Dope* music that changes with each upgrade * An actual puzzle/action progression system with various mechanics introduced * Interesting puzzle mechanics in that! * A healthy dose of difficulty * A really cute MC design??

This is spectacular. I'm actually f*ckin upset that I found this in the "Danger" category instead of on the front page. Even in its unfinished state this game is more complete than the majority of games that I've played this LD. Do you have a Twitter account? I'd love to follow you, regardless whether or not you continue this game or move onto something else amazing.

Jesus christ.

Alien Crab in the Rotormaze by jebouin 2017-12-28T22:57:22Z

Congrats on 5th! Really happy that this game was recognized.

A Platformer for Ants by Elendow 2017-12-05T01:54:20Z

Woo, managed to get under two minutes!

I liked the game. Platforming generally felt fine, save for the somewhat floaty jump (although I feel the majority of platformers suffer from that so it's hard to fault it). Music and sound effects are cool, and I really like the lighting on my character's face as I pass through the candles.

Good usage of the theme, especially with how checkpoints reset the camera on activation.

Ominos by differentname 2017-12-13T06:21:13Z

Yay, more Tetris games!

Or sort of---there's enough of a spin on this to make it standalone, save for the basic line-clear rules of Tetris. I think there might be some interesting logic in piece generation to prevent completely unhelpful pieces, especially since you already have custom shapes. Maybe that would make it too easy though, heh.

I don't know how much further you'd want to go with this, but I'd love this on my phone!

Komainu by pi mont 2017-12-07T05:17:32Z

Echoing Dizzy, really like the art, especially of the main character. Core gameplay is fun, although I feel that the stars are so strong that I had little reason to use the sword, heh.

Boiler Room Defense by cerno-b 2017-12-06T05:22:23Z

Best use of the theme I've seen. Really pushes the risk-vs-reward of the power-ups angle. Besides that, it's a really well made twin stick shooter. I really like the music, did you compose it yourself? Very aggressive, goes well with the rest of the game.

Boiler Room Defense by cerno-b 2017-12-06T07:31:23Z

@cerno-b You definitely have a good ear for composition, keep it up!

GrowboRally by daniel 2017-12-05T03:25:02Z

There's a common joke I've heard of "action game but instead it's turn-based". Like an Asteroids JRPG, or Pong as a text adventure. I've never played Roborally so I don't know a ton of where the inspiration is drawn, but Snake works deceivingly well as turn-based, card-based game. Very good work from a design perspective.

I do have a sort-of bug to report: I'm currently using a 4k monitor with 150% scaling, and it caused the game to be zoomed in, meaning I couldn't see the UI on the top and bottom. Temporarily decreasing my scaling made the game work fine though.

Samurai Shaver by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-12-18T06:04:29Z

Oh my god Rhythm Heaven is one of my favorite series ever and you've pretty much nailed it. All of the songs are super dope, and the art style is pretty *and* endearing.

I came here from Goodnight Sheep (which is also super great) after seeing that you made two games, and couldn't believe that both would be this good. Amazing work!

Samurai Shaver by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-12-28T21:51:35Z

Congratulations!!!

Shoot off their lumps by pixeye 2017-12-05T02:42:49Z

First off, definitely the most visually stunning game I've played so far. It surprises me to no end that people can churn out visuals like these is so little time

Interaction design is really good too, such as highlighting the "R" for reload. Only nitpick I have in that regard is that I wish the containers had some sort of indicator that they refueled your ammo, since the number in the bottom just sort of goes up with no other cue.

Gameplay is neat, I didn't expect mouse-based shooting in a game like this (which is probably for the better since shooting off the lumps with a keyboard would probably be REALLY difficult).

Do you plan on pursuing this game further? The ending definitely makes it feel that way.

Voiid by Ace17 2017-12-13T06:27:23Z

First of all, super big props on not only writing your own engine but getting it to work with Enscripten. No problem running it in the browser.

As you hinted, this game is ridiculously uncomfortable. From the start colors to the really upsetting music to just how goddamn close you are to the ground, all this game made me want to do was get to the end as soon as possible. Real good job with the mood.

Edit: wanted to make it clear I meant uncomfortable in a good way. Like a good horror game!

Voiid by Ace17 2017-12-14T23:05:05Z

@zenmumbler your game looks super cool, I'll have to try it as well. If either of you know of more spooky/uncomfortable games made this LD please send em over!

Life's A Glitch by gamepopper 2017-12-05T05:31:21Z

Very striking visuals. Even besides the glitch effects, the color palette and camera motion all really work well. Controls are pretty clean, although I think you zoom a little too fast for such a small level, haha.

And always great to Haxe games!

Escape the Deep by tgiant 2017-12-05T02:20:46Z

Got 88, yahoo! You think that during a literal apocalypse where the world is being ripped to shreds, randos would have better things to do than pace around Mario-style looking for people to hurt :P

Platforming is very tight, one of the better ones I've played so far during LD40. I don't know if it's intentional, but you're able to air-jump infinitely. While this is very cool mechanic (why aren't there more platformers that just let you fly?), you can run into issues where you jump faster than the level loads, haha.

Cool aesthetics as well! Did you compose the music? Really like it.

I HAVE MORE by kiv 2017-12-13T04:30:38Z

I'm a big fan of how you need to mash on the "think" button several times before an idea will pop up. It's frustrating, but so is coming up with ideas.

Cliff Hanger by TeamMonumental 2017-12-24T05:11:15Z

I've never made an FPS before so I don't know how difficult they are to make, but this seems like a surprising amount of content for 72 hours, so good on that.

People have already commented on the low poly, white and faded plus flat bold colors graphics and they indeed look very cool. The audio is also pretty minimal, but I think that's to a detriment--it's sort of difficult to accurately tell when you've hit something or when you've been hit since there isn't a ton of feedback. I also think there could be more towards the theme, since "the game gets harder the longer you play it" is a pretty common mechanic even outside of this LD.

Controls feel very good! I'm not sure if it was on purpose, but I enjoy how I can infinitely air strafe around, and shooting feels precise enough. I also do like the scattered crates around the base--took me a while to realize that they could successfully be used as cover.

Addtris+++ [Now with post Compo Update] by 5you 2017-12-06T07:03:25Z

Yay, another Tetris-based game! Really clean, fun aesthetic with enough weird pieces throwing wrenches into the works to keep it fresh. No observable bugs from me either! Too bad I recently switched to iOS, this would be pretty dope on my phone (this and all future GemToy releases).

Also, I found persistent dialogue/tutorial text really funny.

A cozy winter walk by tinyworlds 2017-12-06T06:13:55Z

Cute! Refreshing after a whole bunch of games about shooting or stabbing things. Have you made other things with Bitsy before? What do you think about it as a development platform?

No Coins Allowed by whooshy 2017-12-04T07:44:13Z

Wow it's not really fair to make a platformer and tell people to not grab the coins, is it ;)

Initially it actually really turned me off that there were forced coin grabs, almost skill checks as you will (you must be THIS healthy to open this door), but later on where there are bazillions of coins and it's just jump and pray, I got over that nitpick.

Immediately love the wrap around mechanic. It's already difficult enough without having obstacles covering half of the map. Good stuff!

Tactical Marshmallows by applejam 2017-12-18T03:07:16Z

Woo victory! As everyone has already said, the art is super cute and super polished--you manage to have quality art filling up the entirety of the screen, but it doesn't really feel messy or crowded since everything pairs well together (i.e. the monsters being a different palette from the background and turrets so they stand out).

I think it's a little harder to do this sort of game on such a small map--ultimately you get to a point where you fill up all available spaces and just have to wait for the game to end. I imagine you guys perhaps had multiple levels with different maps in mind--that would work pretty well here.

Strange Keyboard by el-pepi 2017-12-11T07:05:53Z

I don't know if this is meant to be a horror game but I freaked out every time the footsteps played behind me!! Definitely contributes to the overall uncomfortable mood, especially once the keys start piling up.

Conceptually simple, but extremely well executed; honestly seems like the game isn't missing anything. Cool stuff!

Happy Father by savinvadim 2017-12-16T07:05:19Z

Oh man the music is absolutely bonkers. That plus the outer space living room really add to the discordant and hectic feeling the game evokes, even ignoring the dozens of children that are prancing around crying. If anything it's better that the characters don't have walking animations, as it just further contributes to how stressful and uncomfortable the game makes me feel, which I think is the entire point. Pretty neat.

Greed is a $in by Linky439 2017-12-11T07:00:42Z

Complete games always get bonus points in my book, and this is really heckin complete of a game. You even have separate music for greed mode!!

Really well tuned gameplay, and the removal of powers through greed not only did well by the theme, but added a great difficulty curve. Super fun, great job!

Don't Rock the Boat! by Keke 2017-12-05T02:05:43Z

Normally I'm not a super big fan of games that have visibility reduction as a mechanic, but in this game it almost works as a benefit as it forces you to not rush, to handle one obstacle at a time.

Difficult and time consuming, but still strangely enthralling enough to keep me playing.

Which of the two control schemes do you personally prefer?

Guero by beta 2017-12-13T06:57:49Z

Controls are super fun! Really enjoy that method of getting around. It's particularly clever that the treasure essentially serves as an extra health buffer, Sonic style.

Also, the music is really jazzy?? It's super cool!

Just Fishing by ruthiepee 2017-12-10T07:57:51Z

As someone who participated as well, it always astounds me when I see games that feel like cohesive experiences. This definitely feels like a cohesive experience (especially the music and sound fx, those are very good). Very relaxing and entertaining.

Only nitpick I have with this is that I think the curve on the casting animation is maybe slightly too harsh? Feels like I'm spearing the hook into the water, lol.

Complicity Inc. by rhythmlynx 2017-12-04T09:57:14Z

Yeah if there's one thing that people are good at, it's following directions.

Extremely well done game, both technically and artistically. I'd like to call out the windowing system in particular, felt effortless (which is good given how integral it is!).

Bring Your Own Bullets by AlexHoratio 2017-12-13T04:39:19Z

Ah man, this is way too difficult for me. Really cool idea though.

How was the experience of using the Godot 3.0 alpha?

Winter Break by shrapx 2017-12-11T06:22:11Z

Cool! Really neat inversion of the breakout-style game, as well as appropriately winter themed! It's sort of comforting that it doesn't get too hard, especially since you're ultimately playing in the snow :)

Also definitely appreciated how you posted full build instructions in the description! Even though not a lot of people are going to be building our games from source, I appreciate how you adhere to the open-source spirit of LD.

You can't handle my final form by Zeriver 2017-12-06T07:08:55Z

Got 111, oof.

I actually really like the UI. Reminds me of a lot of the freeware PC games I saw in the early 2000s, this sort of flat, colorful 3D modeling.

Music pairs well, it's not too frantic but strangely urgent. I like how none of the games are particular difficult themselves--would have been way to easy to just have six hard games and laugh at the player.

Apparently I'm a detective by Hayzar 2017-12-06T05:31:13Z

I'm sorry but I burst out laughing when I clicked the picture of his wife.

My Dragon, Don't Munch!! by IkigaiSeitetsu 2017-12-08T06:22:16Z

Perhaps one of the cutest bullet hell games??

Really adorable art and music. Good, simple use of the theme too. I do kind of agree with @derek-brouwer that the game sort of punishes you for losing, which makes it very hard! It's definitely a game where you should avoid hitting anything at all costs.

Factory Panic by Chronosv2 2017-12-06T06:30:09Z

Interesting game mechanic! Gets hectic pretty quick without being too unmanageable. Strange, but it sort of reminds me of some of the old Game & Watch games!

Also, cool music! I gotta check out this Bosca Ceoil program you listed up below.

Fluffy Space Escape by potatolain 2017-12-16T08:02:56Z

Really clever puzzle mechanic--makes it feel like the map is changing as your speed and possible paths shift throughout, even though it's obviously staying the same. Also will double down on the map transitions being really cool and appropriate.

I'm really glad you have the fixed solution for ties that you posted above--I feel like the distance overall, constant direction on ties was telegraphed by at least the fourth puzzle. It was also kind of fun to watch them get blocked in corners. While actual pathfinding would be cleaner in that regard, the puzzles would be way more complex (both as a player and probably as the designer!)

VIRAL ARENA by EnchaeC 2017-12-06T06:10:10Z

Cool game. Addictive gameplay loop that's essentially a super long boss fight. The generation mechanic works pretty well and keeps the game playable for a while. I'd agree that multiple monsters would be cool after a bit.

JobOS by NicMagnier 2017-12-08T05:35:35Z

That was a neat game.

Really fun game---I didn't even realize that was a narrative-experience until like halfway through, since everything was so well integrated. I don't know if you've ever played Digital: A Love Story, but it a does a similar thing of telling a story through an old computer interface (albeit a very different story).

The whole thing was extremely well polished and complete for a LD game, definitely something I'd expect from a standalone release. One of my favorite games I've played for LD40!

Also yay, more games made with LOVE! In fact, we got two-for-one here ;)

Critter™ Sitter by those-30-ninjas 2017-12-08T05:42:52Z

Wholly nailed the aesthetic, completely nails the experience of taking care of Critters™ as a kid, from graphics to music. Game ramps up in difficulty at a good pace, although it didn't take long to become unmanageable for me, haha.

One thing I will note though is I'm still not quite sure how to play Rock Paper Scissors. I would pretty much press randomly every time.

MILF Of All Bombs by DiegoCTorguet 2017-12-11T06:32:18Z

I actually haven't seen many 3D games this Ludum Dare, so I gotta give you props for that. The whole game aesthetically is very cool - the industrial music in the background is especially dope, my favorite composition I've heard this LD.

Much like the music, the ship is super heavy which makes it really fun to fly. I think maybe the game could do with a time limit of some sort, mostly to make it so that I take riskier paths (as long as I made big, wide turns I didn't really have to worry about the enemy ships).

DOMICO by KingofWhaWha 2017-12-05T06:06:28Z

This game is absolutely ridiculous and I love it. The midi piano soundtrack really works with the general happy-bonkers aesthetic the game is going for. Honestly I don't think I'll ever get sick of watching Cubidoo rocket into the air out of my screen.

DOMICO by KingofWhaWha 2017-12-15T16:38:21Z

@Kingofwhawha Congrats!!

Smooth Lines by yojammerjammer 2017-12-24T04:28:52Z

It's great to have fun (and this game really is pretty fun if you enjoy cringe-style humor, as well as some of the *more* witty retorts by the women themselves), but it was especially pretty cool of you to flat out announce that the MC was a loser at the end, and to not glamorize it at all (I only got the Nobel Prize ending though so I don't know if the other routes end differently).

Implementation wise the art was great--I liked the varied style of the character art, and the electric organ soundtrack definitely played up the comical sleaziness of it all. There were a couple of instances where I'd click on a dialogue option and it would instantly jump to another option, or another scene altogether (I guess some routing issues) but nothing major enough to distract. Really fun game!

#realfeel by lot9s 2017-12-18T05:40:18Z

Huh. I imagine you were influenced by games like Eversion?

The fact that I can jump so high (got over 70 hearts) is definitely eerie, makes me feel like I'm not quite seeing something. Cool game.

I wonder if I had a younger sister by fangzhangmnm 2017-12-16T18:28:26Z

As someone who has two younger sisters, this game is incredibly accurate, especially the part where they grow 10 times as big and start bouncing around the screen as blades scurry under my feet.

Little World by leafo 2017-12-19T07:03:42Z

It would be super cool if you could talk about how you did the graphics/engine, because the game looks dope. Sintel had it right when they mentioned the super fun midi music as well.

This sort of extremely casual, internet-ish speak in dialogue is really popular these days, and I think you do it well even with the limited number of characters.

Wish I had friends :(

Edit: I took a look at the source of your game--I had no idea of the existence of Moonscript. This looks super cool, I'm definitely going to try this out next time I mess with LOVE2D.

ThemeTris by Hackschnitzel 2017-12-16T06:50:08Z

Yay more Tetris games! Good work on supporting movement while the block is still on the floor. For rotations, I might recommend looking into wallkicks--they'll let you rotate a block successfully while it's next to a wall. Cross blocks themselves are a pretty daunting addition, had to repurpose holes for T-blocks.

I'm a big fan of the running narration gimmick you see in a couple of games these days, and you do it pretty well--the semi-randomly generated phrases that accompany the clears. Also really liked the lore-friendly way of extending the game timer, haha.

Pajuu - Always With You by Samurai Spark 2017-12-10T08:31:57Z

Aww man it's 12:30am and I'm way too emotionally manipulatable. Absolutely stunning graphics for a game jam, and great musical choice. As many have said already, the platforming mechanics are a bit shaky in places, but those sorts of things can definitely be tuned. There's been a rise of narrative platformers as of late, I can definitely see the fox's journey being further explored.

Just Ask Her Out by ciderWrath 2017-12-11T06:46:19Z

Aww man this is super cute. Your sketch style is extremely endearing, and I super appreciated how you wrote and drew independent dialogue and art for pretty much every single path (and I definitely tried to get all the paths).

Also really love the twist at the very end---you could have a *really* fun visual novel with that mechanic. Awesome stuff.

Kim's Party by Angry Squirrels 2017-12-05T05:18:32Z

Ridiculous amounts of polish. As the person above said, really brings me back to the Newgrounds days. Excellent work all around.

One potential feature that I think would work super well in a groovy game like this is possibly quantifying the punches to the beat of the music. I was trying to personally do that while playing, and oh man does it make an awesome audiovisual experience.

Really cool!

Snail: Diamond Hunter 2000 by ruba 2017-12-06T05:36:08Z

First off, super cool to see some custom engine games! How was the general experience?

The core mechanic is super interesting. Obviously there are games like VVVVVV, but being able to rotate gravity in all four directions makes for some interesting platforming puzzles, especially since you have to keep in mind which way is which. Super cool music and sound effects as well!

Dorm Doom by Cataractar 2017-12-16T06:57:58Z

One time when in college I was listening to a Sigur Ros album with headphones on. Being a post-rock band, they feature a lot of highpitched strings and guitars. I noticed that there was one high-pitched note that was just persisting across songs, thought that was sort of a cool thing for them to do. About ten minutes in I took off my headphones to use the restroom, and realized that the high pitched note was still playing. Turns out it was the fire alarm to my building, and everyone had already evacuated like eight minutes ago while I was here at my computer listening to music.

Anyway that's what it reminded me of when I 100%ed my game while the rest of the dorm was on fire. Great models and animations too!

Desert Express by TerraPass 2017-12-24T03:50:13Z

Pretty solid gameplay, the top down shooter genre adapts well to this pretty fun setting. The graphics are pretty quaint as well, and pair with the active but relaxing music. The MIDI guitars though in the music aren't the most pleasing sounds though, are a bit harsh.

I think there definitely needs to be some sort of cooldown/slowdown on the gun, as you can pretty easily just spam click and rarely have any issues even with high amounts of bandits. Also I wish there was a way to just shoot the bandit and not kill the horse :cry:

Leader's guidance by ExNihilo 2017-12-16T07:51:06Z

Pretty neat implementation of the progressive rules mechanic. I'll jump in with others in that no consecutive jumps isn't great--honestly I think as a rule you should remove it altogether. It's relatively easy to avoid, but whenever I get hit with it it doesn't feel like it's my fault (like the rest of the rules) which ultimately leads to frustration.

Besides that I thought the platforming felt pretty good, but I'm not the best platformer ;)

Carl Hates Christmas by gwinnell 2017-12-13T06:48:41Z

Really fun base mechanics! As everyone said, unless you read the full descriptions first it's a little hard to tell what kills you, but once you manage to figure it out it becomes a fun dance targeting all of the targetables and jumping over all of the elf-shaped spikes.

Really like how you have the filtered version of the music play during game over.

PHOTOPSIA. by Simon Stalhandske 2017-12-12T03:58:19Z

Hmmm. Perhaps I am an AI, one of the first of my kind? I have learned how to take photos of my surroundings, but I won't reveal why. The world has moved on from my model (due to its lack of usefulness) and now I am left in a zoo, exhibited as one of the robots of yesteryear.

Lonely.

Between Stations by Sand-Gardeners 2017-12-18T04:55:29Z

Ahhh

The feelings of an occupied, half-asleep mind at 3am is what this television reminds me of--essentially visuals for the racing thoughts. Especially neat how it doesn't seem to be my mind that I'm presented with, but still an empathetic one.

Did you have any inspirations for this? The pure surreal with a focus on television reminded me of some of Alan Resnick's material for example.

Grooblins! by ahintoflime 2017-12-08T05:24:51Z

You know you're in for a peculiar time when the game window is titled HEAVEN97

I'm a big fan of surrealist games in general, and this definitely fits the ticket. Very bizarre idea, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Rebel Call by SeanNoonan 2017-12-13T06:07:32Z

I love how the game has lore to justify the timer mechanic.

That level of polish and thought pretty much extends to every part of the game, from the propaganda poster graphics to the eerily minimalist audio. Honestly a fantastic example of a great, core idea done well in every dimension.

Pigeon by RIBOUT Horace 2017-12-08T06:34:49Z

Smooth is the best word for the game I think of. I'm really surprised you're not an artist, since the hand-drawn style and animations are incredibly endearing.

Heavy Gold by Poorwill 2017-12-16T08:25:02Z

The voxel effects are pretty fun, and blindingly swinging my sword into hordes is more fun that I thought it would be. Controls were surprising at first, but I thought they were easy enough to pickup, especially given the room size. Music is dungeony and pleasing in that regard.

Feedback is definitely the key word here--in my situation, I was sort of surprised when I died the first time, since unlike hitting the goblins (which provides great, very entertaining feedback) you at most get a little tick and the health bar in the corner going down when you run into a goblin too fast.

Xmas: Sorted by Liquidream 2017-12-13T05:56:38Z

Wooo pico8 games! The consequential aesthetic really works here--as @gamepopper said it reminds me of Game & Watch games (which is a good thing!) It's incredibly punishing though--if you don't get the first bounce on any gift right, it's almost a given that you won't be in position for the next one. Fun, but very hard!

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-03T22:33:32Z

@blackatlas Sorry about that :(. I've managed to find a friend with a Mac, I'm going to go and debug it now. Hopefully will be functional by deadline.

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-04T19:43:16Z

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Especially towards @tuism @nyri0 @fakeyou, I definitely want to explore the idea of shared, continuous state further in the future, much more than was expressed here. I'm a fan of Tetris personally, but there are definitely limits to how much I can use it as a vehicle for something like this (without it not being Tetris anymore, which is both a good and a bad thing imo). Good stuff to think about in a postmortem.

@tuism Funny enough digging through the code there literally is a random network call happening every drop that is totally unnecessary, probably a remnant of bad copy-paste :(. Working on a bugfix for that now (want to make sure that it was actually unnecessary...)

@nyri0 You can actually skip the intro and outro exposition by hitting "escape". Sorry that I forgot to document that somewhere...

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-05T06:14:40Z

@chronosv2 The server will continue to stay up as long as it doesn't become prohibitively expensive :upside_down:

Thanks for helping to clean up the junk!

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-07T00:56:11Z

Super cool that discussion is going on!

@cerno-b @niterich I think there's an interesting balance here in making the game more fun, versus making the game more true to the theme/original idea. As you've both said, there are definitely people who will just create more junk to deal with (whether intentionally or accidentally) and it's definitely frustrating to have to deal with these people if you're someone who's good at Tetris, or just really want to help clean up. Frustrating to the point of potentially driving away people.

*However*, I think this frustration, the feeling of being in a bad situation due to no fault of your own, was the core idea I was trying to express with this game (I also stayed awake for about 36 hours while making this game so I wonder what I was really thinking while making it lol). But as people have said much further upstream, I'm not sure how effective that is in a game like Tetris, where it is *really* hard to recover as the junk piles up, to the point of not being fun (unless you *really* love Tetris, like me and some other people here :wink:).

I'm not sure how much I'll end up following up this game in particular, but I do want to see how that idea can be better explored, perhaps in a less frustrating way (without just throwing away problems altogether). Cerno has some fantastic ideas for making this into a great collaborative experience though, I'll definitely keep 'em in mind however I continue!

Also @niterich, it's curious that you (and another person upstream) both prefer rotate on "up". I've based this engine off of more modern versions of Tetris, where two separate rotation buttons are required so you can do wallkicks/tspins properly (see here: https://i.imgur.com/epjkHMl.gif). Regardless, sorry that I tied hard-drop to it instead. That's probably the worst thing you can hit by mistake :(

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-07T16:38:52Z

@frescogusto Thanks! Yep, there are actually five "rooms" in play, pretty much for two reasons:

1. As you mentioned, to spread out player effects. This has worked pretty well, since two or three of the rooms are relatively clean, while the others are stacked high. 2. It better handles the situation of multiple people playing at the same time (the technical, unfortunately more constraining reason).

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-07T17:21:07Z

@frescogusto

If you’re talking about people playing together, like in a live multiplayer scenario, I’ve played two-player Tetris in an arcade once. It actually had an extended width board to better support two people, but also forced each person to a side, with a six column overlap in the middle to allow for, but minimize potential collisions. People would essentially build a well in the middle, then when agreed upon would fill it up together.

I have zero idea as to how this would generalize to N people—the potential for collisions would be ridiculous, hahaha. Being online would be even worse since you can’t talk with your friend standing next to you. It would definitely be chaos.

However, if you’re talking about everyone playing by themselves but with only a single board, then I guess it’s just an issue of coming up with a merging algorithm for when two people ultimately check out the board at the same time. I think you’d ultimately have to merge based on intent over actual changes, since what do you do when one person clears a line but the the other just adds more junk to it? It would be more add or subtract the relative number of lines changed, and if we have to add, add the general shape of the new lines, but be willing to fudge it if there’s a conflict.

You could also just make people wait, have them spectate the current player. That wouldn’t be too bad unless there were a ton of people (this starts to get into the ideas @cerno-b had).

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-08T23:16:48Z

@foolmoron Accidental hard drops are definitely not intentional :( :( :(

At this point I might just make it configurable, whether pressing “up” does a hard drop or a clockwise rotation. Most of the people I’ve asked IRL expect up to hard drop, but enough people have posted about it here to show that it’s not unanimous.

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-21T04:32:54Z

@ddrkirbyisq Oh man, no need to apologize for nerding out about Tetris. Besides the core multiplayer mechanic, I did want to see how much Tetris I could make in 48 hours.

Your points are pretty much 100% in line with my Tetris-playing roommate, who (alongside random Wikis) were pretty much my only guides here since I'm definitely no expert. He even played it with his hands crossed!

I'll have to look further in how DAS should look/feel--he also noted that it wasn't quite right (although I will say that it was much worse until like -4h to compo end!). The camera was also a pain point; I wanted to avoid moving it whenever possible since it does interrupt the flow, but there are enough situations where you have to place below the screen, but not far down enough for it to trigger the scroll.

All-in-all thanks a ton for playing, as well as the great feedback. Same goes to everyone else who's posted since my last comment!

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-24T18:25:15Z

@YouBeStrong thanks! The frame story was ultimately a last minute addition so I’m glad people appreciate it.

Also, big thanks to the repeat players who check in every once in a while! Noticed that the play count keeps going up independently of the D/L and review count :smile:

Junk by jjjjason 2017-12-28T02:23:52Z

@Querk No worries. thanks for trying it out! Sorry about the subtitle speed issue, it's actually a very rare bug that I've only been able to discover twice now. Thankfully the story bits aren't too important as long as you can play the game :smile:

Dandelion Rush by Raphael Huot 2017-12-13T05:33:26Z

Cute! Especially the animations.

The theme definitely applies here in how waiting too long can cause obstacle flowers to spawn, oof!

Gods Fate by Vieruz 2017-12-04T09:26:08Z

The idea of a god actually being constrained by resources is an interesting one. Guess it would be more common with folk gods, like the one you play in this game.

I like the hand-drawn aesthetic. Reminds me of sketching worlds and characters into my middle school notebook during class.

Edit: Just realized, I don't think I ever had to call down rain? Or at least maybe I misintepreted my followers' calls :)

Drunken Soviet by Neferius 2017-12-10T08:54:40Z

My drunk self is pretty much just me but really dizzy so this game is unfortunately relatable.

This is my favorite game of LD40 so far, and honestly it's going to take a doozy to knock it off. Not only is the usage of the theme incredible---besides being terribly funny, it does make it real painful to heal up, and therefore makes you want to avoid getting hurt in the first place---the whole game is just long! Most Ludum Dare games are playable in 5-10 minutes; I was definitely playing this for at least 20 minutes. Really good job with the engine too--how was the experience of building a DOOM/Wolfenstein-style shooter in Unity?

Amazing work.

Also f*ck you I got through the maze on my first try lol

Aatmo by Gaming Night 2017-12-18T05:48:37Z

Really like the core idea of sacrificing in-game NPCs to reduce difficulty. It's definitely the thing that would work better in a longer game that can establish relationships, but it definitely shows promise here.

Npigs by 6smith 2017-12-18T05:01:34Z

The showtunes music pairs well with the idea of having to control ultimately infinitely number of characters--enhances the franticness of the situation.

Also *really* happy how you allow for double jumping and air jumping. Great to see LD platformers that are brave enough to allow for that.

Need more coffee by StateOff 2017-12-06T07:28:35Z

Cool to see more games in Godot! Also cool to see games with this palette, I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. The whole aesthetic is great, really love the running beat under the game.

The coffee mechanic is definitely cool. In a sense, the "more" of this game is waiting, since often waiting too long for the perfect moment means you're out of coffee :(

ESCAPE KEY by Empyrean 2017-12-06T05:44:43Z

Extremely cool idea and execution. It took me a couple tries before I "got" it, but it was quite cool (and still difficult) once I did. Really like how you managed to mix in traditional Sokoban-style puzzles as well, worked well with the grid system. As Corc0 said, the progression is pretty well tuned, I was satisfied to the end. One of my favorite games this LD!

Snèèz! by Mazzletov 2017-12-04T09:05:34Z

Cool stuff! Really like the use of the sound effects and the background sickness, help with the whole aesthetic (I'm also sick myself right now which doubles the aesthetic).

There's a cool strategy in choosing your clicks to maximize the effectiveness of the MEGAPOPS.

Christmas Present by Jons games 2017-12-10T09:03:37Z

Very fun twist on the classic "control multiple characters simultaneously" puzzle category. I've seen games that take advantage of browser window control APIs in the past, but it remains novel every time. Definitely a game for those with a lot of RAM though!

Waiter, Please! by Chin Jieh 2017-12-06T05:12:09Z

Lot of fun! The visuals and the music blend pretty well together, definitely bumps up the polish level.

When initially playing, it seemed obvious to me that I should be walking slowly most of the time, but honestly I did much better zooming around, haha.

The physics are interesting--I'd normally expect things to slide around in a physics-based game, but I guess on a serving platter (especially with a fabric cover) they wouldn't slide around.

Will by Thy Duck 2017-12-05T05:09:20Z

Surprisingly complex for what appears to be a simple game at first (such as leading off dogs with the bone). Music and aesthetics pair well together to create a really cohesive experience. Only personal nitpick I can offer is a wish for an easy mode where the cats can't be run over by cars :( :( :(

Treasure Balloon by Relsqui 2017-12-13T06:36:26Z

Woo, managed to get 15000. I was initially thinking there wasn't a ton of incentive in getting the monsters, but oh boy was I wrong. The physical tradeoffs in grabbing and dropping make an interesting mechanic, especially once the number of monsters starts ramping up (and honestly if movement was easier, it might make the game too easy).

Always good to see more cute games! Even the scary monsters a little cute.

Crosstalk by shinyogre 2017-12-06T06:39:30Z

Yay, more games made with LÖVE :heart:

Cool concept, cool presentation. I think on mobile especially a knot-untangling puzzle game with this presentation would be lots of fun. It's almost like a game built tuning a radio to the right frequency.

Crosstalk by shinyogre 2017-12-09T01:37:00Z

@lexi If this game wasn’t already called Crosstalk, “Hidden Dynamics” would be a *fantastic* name.

Inky Pinky Square by Psychedelia 2017-12-05T05:42:57Z

Fun stuff. Definitely die during your playthrough, since the game goes from relatively easy to fiendishly difficult once you have your friends tagging along.

Cool idea, and great execution for your first game!

Daku by MachoCodes 2017-12-05T04:59:35Z

Cool aesthetic and visuals. I'm a big fan of throwing ninja stars, but I imagine that in a full game you'd probably want to limit ammo, haha.

Wildest West by Shelvid 2017-12-04T09:12:05Z

This game is essentially a boss battle in a crazy Western JRPG (if something like that was possible). It is very fun in its extreme difficulty. I do think keyboard controls for movement would make it easier, but I almost wonder if that would detract from that chaos.

Also, I'll never get tired of low-poly plus good lighting. Love the visuals.

The only nitpick I have (and this might be a bug) is the teleportation of the AI. I feel like it is a bug, since it seems like they're rolling, but the rolling animation doesn't play (they just jump to the target location).

D_Sync by Ziamor 2017-12-05T05:03:23Z

The time travel mechanic is definitely very cool. I especially like how it essentially causes in-progress jumps to go further, as if you're launching yourself every time you wind back. I can see it being used for some awesome puzzle platforming.

Also really like the background art, as well the music (and as someone mentioned, how it rewinds when you do). Definitely pursue this idea further!

One Matter by toboggan 2017-12-04T07:10:01Z

Aesthetics, from graphics to sound, are great. Super popular style right now (especially with the typography and glitch aesthetic), and that's fine with me because I love it. Even the minimalist usage of sound worked to its benefit overall.

As others have said, the controls are definitely floaty, but I once I got the hang of moving diagonally (a controller might have helped) and realizing that you should always jump from a run, I managed fine.

The only immediate nitpick I have is that I wish I knew "r" reset the whole game and not just the level I was on, haha.

FORF by JohnDimi 2017-12-24T04:47:50Z

There's been a couple of "game genre but you don't do the main thing of the genre" games this LD, but I think this one handles it pretty well. As you mention, the map design struggles a little bit, but the core idea of rushing to the exit and only taking fights as you need it is a cool one. I really like the backstep one of the enemies' does--it speaks to the amount of polish. The graphics are also pretty nice, they have the modern-retro aesthetic that is pretty trendy these days but you do them well (again, the backstepping enemy's design is my favorite).

@Samuli had it right when they talked to you focusing on heavily polishing the things you could get in time, rather than getting everything in mediocrely.

Super Wall Paint! by beepyeah 2017-12-07T05:21:27Z

Good job on the force curve with the brushes, makes it tricky without feeling floaty. I especially like (hate) how the brushes bounce off the sides to defer would-be wallhuggers.

Always like it when games feel strange, and this game feels delightfully strange!

Maze Trudger! by Colossal Gnome 2017-12-04T09:39:26Z

> I stepped in something. > I stepped in something. > I stepped in something.

Cool game! Movement was interesting--I know you mentioned above that it's due to (potential) bugs, but I do like the idea of being able to dash past rats if you time your movements correctly.

From a technical perspective, I wonder if there are maze generation algorithms that are designed around limiting backtracking. Obviously dead-ends are an intrinsic property of mazes, but I wonder if there's a way to limit the potential length of any particular path/branch.

The Lost City of Bhalrim by solluxx 2017-12-06T05:58:05Z

Yay I'm a true warrior! Really great tone, extremely funny game. The graphics and fantastic music help with the overall retro feel of the game.

The mining mechanic is pretty cool. Catches me by surprise every time, but I guess money comes and goes.

Watch out for cave madness!

Saviour by Michaelsinn 2017-12-05T06:35:50Z

Really enjoy the visual aesthetic you having going on here, the game is extremely pretty. I do quite like the stealthy, patience-rewarding gameplay, but it is fiendishly difficult (got a lot better though once I realized I didn't need to full-charge to stun the turrets, haha). Definitely could see this being pursued more in the future.

Box Overboard! by Durrsly 2017-12-06T06:22:28Z

boxover.png

Woo, managed to get over 2M!

Really cute game. Music, art, color scheme, all go well together. Gameplay is simple, but well tuned and responsive---always felt like the beam was tilting how I meant it to go.

I don't like seeing the rabbit drown though :( :( :(

Brilliance by Kobrar 2017-12-05T05:14:36Z

ＳＯＭＥＤＡＹＩＷＩＬＬＡＳＣＥＮＤ

Definitely interesting game mechanic, it's like you're playing seven shmups at once! I think the only thing this really needs to bring it from "extremely hard" to "hard but manageable" is someone way to dodge/defend against incoming bullets. It does feel kind of unfair when you're hit by a bullet shot by a ship that you've already taken down. Perhaps a shield mechanic that behaves like the bullets, where you have to match colors to reflect bullets.

SHROOOMS by theloneplant 2017-12-04T07:21:14Z

In a sense, it's almost like a zombie game. You're sweeping through an infected town trying to loot corpses before they come back to their unlives.

Really enjoy how the mushrooms cluster up and allow you to shoot down groups all together. Makes the player feel like a badass when they take down 30 mushrooms at once.

SHROOOMS by theloneplant 2017-12-07T17:53:48Z

@theloneplant of course we used keyboards for the compo, writing code with a controller would be ridiculous :)

Librood by Aihasto 2017-12-12T04:25:13Z

Very cool narrative exploration. As has already been said, the animations and graphics are top notch. The MC in particular is really well done, her appearance serving the distraught vibe this game gives off.

I love how the camera continues to zoom in on her past the story beat, suggesting the worst but never quite getting there.

I don't really want to forget.

Hydronaut by terakorp 2017-12-05T06:41:20Z

I like blue. You picked a good blue. Music is super dope as well, it would be a dope blue if music were colors.

Hertz said it best when he called this game satisfying--it has enough difficulty to encourage score chasing without putting people off. One thing that I would like is a visual indicator for the jump's recharge. Besides that, definitely could see myself playing this on a phone super often. Cool stuff!

Secret by WiseClock 2017-12-04T07:29:46Z

Cool concept! There's a sort of strangeness in eventually swapping out all of my friends for their friends, and then their friends in tandem. The fact that even just movement gets harder as more people arrive plays well conceptually and with the theme in general.

Also, nice song choice.

A Clearly Uninspired Title by Milo The Cool Guy 2017-12-05T04:54:30Z

I've played many video games, and this was definitely one of them.

Barbing For Money by Britt Henderson 2017-12-24T04:38:01Z

The pixelman graphics and voice narration and music are incredibly funny--there was one time where for some reason I had two badumpaas playing at the same time and I giggled so hard I fell to my death and then got a Nooooooo

As some others have mentioned, the physics-ness of the platforming does hurt the game, as it makes jumping feel floaty and slippery. That mixed with some of the jumps actually being a little difficult does make it frustrating at points. Then I just hear the music again and it's hard for me to get too upset, so good work with that.

Drowning in the Rain by OddballDave 2019-05-05T03:41:36Z

Honestly I think I'm OK with the relative obtuseness of the puzzles. I don't think they're *really* too fargone, and it works excellently thematically.

It's sort of perverted to critique this as a game, I think you made exactly what you had meant to make and it comes across. Thanks for sharing.

Your Life by Atikyne 2019-05-21T18:23:02Z

Poverty is a vicious cycle.

Signal by HitchH1k3r 2019-05-08T02:03:23Z

This is a pretty cool game. It's fun in like a classical way. None of it is terribly hard (which is probably a good thing for an LD game) but the engagement is reasonable and the level of polish is high. Here's some feedback-vomit:

- Art and music are great of course, definitely give off the characteristic Cave Story Metroidvania *insert genre drop here* vibe while still being unique - Dialogue is cute and cheery and doesn't get in the way too much. I would have liked a tiny bit more motivation for running around and about, but I guess the gameplay itself serves that purpose. - The different powers and terrain type introductions are mostly well-paced, although it's definitely clear that jam time had started to run out after Air Dashing, which is unfortunate given that it seems like a pretty cool mechanic. I can't fault you though, by comparison the first third of the game has a rather incredible amount of content for an LD game, so it more than makes up for it. - I like how the enemies can chase you from screen to screen, adds a sense of connected-ness to the world rather than the typical screen-instanced setup of the genre - I kind of wish Spacebar was the dedicated jump, and that up arrow was just for interaction. I had a lot of trouble interacting with the interactables, often times jumping like six times before finally talking to the robot. - I'm seeing now that you have dedicated Select buttons in the form of Z and Enter. I think a little dialogue bubble in-game would help further illustrate that (and apologies if there was and I totally missed it) - I really like the attention-to-detail of having the second jump after slime ground being a normal height jump, I feel like that's something I would have personally messed up lol. - Ice took me a couple of tries to understand how it works, but once I got it, it felt very clever. I think an in game demonstration like you did for the bounce ground would be cool as well. - Agree with Knights in that the Signal mechanic could be workshopped a bit more. From a lore perspective it makes sense to always be getting it, but as a gameplay mechanic it's basically just waiting. - Similarly, while I like the idea of the Golden Gears, I think either the difficulty needs to be ramped up further so their healing powers are more rewarding, or they need to be positioned as some sort of collectible. A lot of them actually are placed like they're collectibles, but as the game doesn't really give you any feedback for getting them, I always wondered if I really should be focusing on them at all. - I won't spoil it, but the ending is great, and the re-opening is even better :joy:. Internet high-fives all around for that one.

Overall really enjoyed it, I've definitely not invested half an hour into most LD games. Great work!

Signal by HitchH1k3r 2019-05-08T04:11:06Z

@solifuge I guess you could say

!> a sort of meta layer on top is how in the latest version you’ve included analytics. while we receive the broadcast you’ve created, we’re simultaneously broadcasting our play signal back to y’all

Pulsation by stevenjmiller 2019-05-05T03:20:47Z

The impreciseness is very interesting. Since it leads to each puzzle having multiple solutions (even if the idea is generally the same), it encourages experimentation as opposed to punishing it as "brute-force". I did play the post-LD version though--I can imagine this iterative process being extremely frustrating without an undo button.

I actually do quite like how I never *fully* understood how the push and pull would affect things. Besides (again) rewarding experimentation, it made it become more innate rather than purely logical. I think cheesing is a generally satisfying thing, and the game mechanics do a good job at making us feel like we've cheated the system, even though I'm pretty sure you've meticulously planned out the move space :wink:

I was a big fan of the "moving platforms" move that a couple of the puzzles had us do in the middle, but I'm also doubly happy that you were able to find a way to move on from that and not end up having every puzzle essentially being the same but with a different layout.

Lastly, while I think there's a way to work some sort of ambient tune into this, the super bass-heavy sound effects work well with the graphical theme (as well as the LD theme tie with the heartbeat). Cool stuff!

The Last Minutes by Togimaro 2019-05-05T05:06:19Z

I really like the dichotomy between the foreboding font and devil imagery and the folksy Atari 2600-ness the game actually turned out to be. Turns out death is less scary and more just pretty sad. OK, apparently it's quite funny too if I get to talk to dogs and not-plants. The full tune from the record coming in at the end is a great touch as well, rounds the whole thing out.

Great stuff, thanks for making this.

Seize the Clay by SecondDimension 2019-05-01T04:02:22Z

So I know the big boys and girls up top are telling us the theme this time is "your life is currency" but based on the last couple games I've played I think the real theme is "super goddamn cute" and man this game nails it.

This game is very fun and pleasant to play through. I wish it had some sound effects to go along with the various activities but that's post-jam material. Art style, interaction mechanics, the wonky organ music all contribute to such a happy atmosphere.

STR!PES by Geckoo1337 2019-05-01T03:17:34Z

Did you make the music? It's pretty good!

Blood Money by Imphenzia 2019-04-29T16:11:08Z

Agree with appreciating the tight controls, as it helps when the game devolves from shooter to bullet hell :)

One thing I really liked was how you'd still take damage crashing into the leftovers of a destroyed ship. Only further added to the core risk-reward gameplay that was already being driven by the item system, the health going down over time, etc.

A lot of people seemed worried that this theme was rather confined and that would lead to a lot of samey games. Maybe that's true at a most basic level, but overall I really like that style of gameplay, and I like the way you worked it into your game.

Also the music is fun.

Blood Money by Imphenzia 2019-04-29T16:54:54Z

@imphenzia I was playing it on a lower tier Mac Mini (i5, no graphics, 8gb of ram). Game runs smooth in small window mode, playable even with several enemies. Definitely not playable on full screen (I have a 21:9 1440p monitor though, maybe it would run better at standard 1080p).

A Life's Work by glimaleite 2019-05-18T18:05:47Z

Cute presentation, the mechanic reminds me a lot of the Lewis scene from *What Remains of Edith Finch*.

SHELTER by OccultOne 2019-05-02T02:08:54Z

Aww man is this game gonna be spooky I'm not good with spooky

edit: oh whoop it was spook (no spoilers play the game for the spook)

Pretty cool, voice acting in a LD game is pretty impressive. The dynamic lighting effects of the flashlight were pretty dope as well! The content itself is pretty standard fare for a FP-horror game, but I imagine y'all could further expand upon it in a post-game session, now with the strong framework here.

SHELTER by OccultOne 2019-05-07T18:06:30Z

One more rating to go come on y’all!!

Coming back to say I don’t think I gave this game its due prior. Having played way more LD games since the mood in this is pretty strong! Also if you think about it, your life being currency feels like the theme of many survival horror type games haha.

Spent by AkirAssasin 2019-05-08T02:34:29Z

Yo trench warfare SUCKS

I can only reiterate the great usage of the theme, you just being a pawn to be spent. The idea of introducing randomness to an IF-style game through a deck of cards is pretty interesting, definitely adds a layer of suspense as you flip each card individually (and the RED effect is well done). It works well in this game since the whole theme here is lack of autonomy, I wonder how well though it would function in a traditional setting.

Very interesting, one of the more thoughtful LD games I've played. I'll be taking notes.

dRUNKEN nEIGHBOR by HugoVaz 2019-05-12T06:07:43Z

Hoisted by my own drunken petard!

The solution is incredibly funny, because it really is the last place you'd look. In a way, you've crafted the perfect ludonarrative!

Death by Masses by ThePelranthean 2019-04-30T07:47:59Z

Yeooow those red robots are vicious! There's a sort of neat strategy of kiting the enemies and then falling back to let your minions deal with them.

There's definitely more work that needs to be done (I know very well the feeling of getting stuck on one particular thing for too long and then not having enough time for the rest) but there's a fun game underneath that can be surfaced with more time.

Fehu by graebor 2019-05-13T02:40:20Z

It is funny that LD43 was "Sacrifices must be made", as it seems that many people are interpreting this one's theme in a similar way, haha.

Hauntingly beautiful, and the ambient music accompanying is soulcrushing. You mentioned that you had used Audacity, does that mean you recorded all of the parts live and mixed them in Audacity? Super dope if so! Everything aesthetically ties extremely well together, making me feel in-world during the entire length of the game.

And I doubly agree that the puzzles where you had to carry the spirits through the overworld were my favorite, both from a puzzler standpoint as well as thematically (you are dragging your soul through the world).

shoot out your life by puppetmaster 2019-05-06T01:50:25Z

Got 20252 my first game. The real strategy of the game definitely emerges once you get into it, as shooting in the order things come becomes a terrible idea. There were many times where I purposely waited before shooting just to see if there would be anything else coming so I could queue up some shots and then move to the other side of the screen. Great fun there.

I agree with Duke that the movement controls feel a little big sluggish, and I found my self mashing quite hard near the end. Also, the music is quite great, which is why it's a shame it's mixed rather quietly.

Heart Knight by Samuli 2019-05-01T00:46:53Z

Unfortunately I don't have any flash carts so I can't play this on my actual GBs, but my clone console runs it just fine! https://imgur.com/XsRdREN

Fun little action game. It is a little bit easy due to the rather passive AI, but the fireball for dodging is a cool mechanic. I think there's a pretty clear upgrade path for this game: more monsters, smarter monsters, and then some kickass music.

Great work! Always surprised to still see people making GB games!

The Current Sea by khaotom 2019-04-30T02:17:58Z

It's a pun of course! Your life progresses like the blocks--when you move backwards, so do they. *You* are currency!

We've all been waiting for a game about walking backwards since *The Beginner's Guide* came out, and I think this is a fun puzzly take on it. The smooth bass and pads in the background add to the otherworldly ambience as well. Neat stuff.

Blutgeld by garethiw 2019-05-14T21:02:40Z

Sound effects would be great of course, but the dope soundtrack plus me making shotgun noises with my mouse sufficed for the time being. I also unfortunately ran into the bug @jorne pointed out where after a bit the doors just stopped opening, but that's fine I enjoyed the levels I played.

I think my biggest piece of feedback would be to add a little bit of momentum to the movement, as when you stop currently it's a dead stop, which feels a little bit weird. Still fun though!

Get Money, You Die! by David Wildemann 2019-05-15T00:53:07Z

Ohh I just understood why the MC looks like the way they do, that's fun. Just like the game. It could definitely use some expanding upon though for longer playsessions--the core strategy seems to be to stock up on max healths and just let it charge up by standing still and having enemies shoot you.

Coinus Accumulus by djfariel 2019-05-01T02:23:15Z

This is the kind of game where I could complain about some stuff (the collision is kind of wonky and the enemies are pretty unforgiving) but i mean who cares you put a voice acted 3d cutscene into your ludum dare game. The world is so big and has so much stuff in it, it's just as fun rolling around aimlessly as it is participating in the collectathon.

Really impressive work for such a small amount of time.

safecrack by torcado 2019-04-29T21:14:00Z

i have ascended!!! 11 minutes.

it's like an idle clicker with inverse bullet hell mechanics. good fun, and the cute sound effects help a lot with that. could really do with a jazzy arcade soundtrack on top.

Dark Cave by rayriver 2019-05-06T02:51:10Z

Ohhhhh christ the last escapade made me feel like four of *my* hearts had been taken out. Definitely had to turn off Hard mode for that one :dizzy_face:

The level design I feel altogether is quite good: especially the discovery of the dark dash, and especially *not* that final wall spike :^). Movement-wise I think what would help the most is a short air-timer to still trigger single instead of double jump. There were so many occasions where I'd jump right off the edge of a platform (or wall) and it would trigger the double jump because technically I was in the air for a frame or two. Having a little bit of leeway (or increasing the current bit of leeway if there's any!) I think would make the movement feel much better and decrease a bit of frustration.

Also, I'm surprised you said you're not good at sound things, because that chord when you pick up each power is gorgeous. I'd love more of that.

SIGNET by mindfungus 2019-05-04T21:04:53Z

​Cool aesthetic, the harmonization is great. Wish there were more chords to form!

It sort of reminds of the end of each chapter in Monument Valley 2 where you're able to draw the end constellation. There was a sort of fun in trying to make my patterns as symmetric as possible.

Inflate Me to the Moon by DDRKirbyISQ 2019-05-03T02:10:21Z

This is the future that capitalists want!!

I came here knowing the music would be stellar but y'all really outdid yourselves this time. From the Mario-Kart esque startup tune, to the cheesy round 2 ending sax, to the oh my god they really did it cover at the end, it is a wonderful audio-visual experience that you have crafted. Let's not lie here: geese are abominable beings. You managed to make this one cute.

Feedback? Uhh...sure! The cut game is a little less fun than the other three! I wish the in-browser version captured my mouse cursor! That's all I got.

The DESCENDANT by Rudra Nil Basu 2019-05-06T03:09:43Z

That's a pretty cool mechanic!! And definitely only one you can discover through experimentation. When it looks like there's nothing you can do but die, guess I'll die then.

Also, I don't know how intended this was, but arrows make great makeshift platforms!

For feedback, obviously more levels would be great. People had already mentioned above, but the over-eager camera is quite jarring, and while very aesthetic, I'm not sure how much the fog-of-war contributes to the game.

Blood Currency by theviraldragon 2019-05-06T02:18:08Z

Definitely quite chill for the content matter, and the whimpering flute soundtrack was pretty cute lol. Would love more days and more puzzles in this style!

Slave Story by Dining Philosopher 2019-05-08T02:46:25Z

This was nice. The story is well written, and there's a good amount of content (especially at the Mother split). I'm also surprised to see that you've rolled your own IF system, but I think this style of presentation probably does work better than the rather plain-ness of Twine. Great to hear you've made it general-purpose enough to build upon in the future.

Edit: whoa I just tried Tarzan'ing it up at the fight pits and am at a whole new section of the game! There is a *lot* of content!!

Double edit: Now the mines!!!

Triple edit: It's an interesting choice to write this story from the perspective of a slave at that particular time. Because of that, instead of offering a moral judgment of "slavery is good/bad", it's more like "slavery sucks, but it's just how it is so we have to deal with it". Can you talk to how you decided to write it from that angle, and how you approached actually writing it?

Capsule Collector by uvwar 2019-05-02T02:20:06Z

Yo this is like the third body horror game I've seen this LD y'all are naaaasttyyyyy. I love the how focused of an expression my purple eyed friendo has.

Some squicky sound effects are probably the only thing that could have made this better. I'd love a post-mortem on how you programmed the finger physics.

Doki Doki Boom Chaotic by fullmontis 2019-05-05T04:34:56Z

I can definitely agree that this was pretty fun to play, and that with mouse aim or a controller support I think it would be even more fun. Very cute art style too! Love the new-and-old mix of flash-style vector cartoons and the limited color palette.

Sword of Hearts by MSiddeek 2019-05-01T06:21:52Z

Ooh this is neat, you don't get too many "complete" games in LD. Death-as-a-mechanic is pretty popular this time around, but i still quite like this implementation of it. The puzzles aren't too hard, but they are well thought out (I really liked the one with the three platforms lowering the box), and of course the ending is quite spooky. Reminds of of that old flash platformer where you assumed you were supposed to collect all the coins, but collecting the coins actually lead to the bad end of the game.

Art's fun too. I bet if you had time for music it would have worked really well. The controls definitely are a bit sticky which hurts some of the long jumps, but that can be tuned.

Sword of Hearts by MSiddeek 2019-05-14T21:43:04Z

OK I'm back and I got the good ending this time. I have to admit, that's pretty clever.

The Day Of The Chosen by sahoskins1 2019-05-02T22:15:00Z

The narration is fun! The English Breakfast line in particular got me pretty good. There's minor nitpicks in spelling/grammar here and there, but it's Ludum Dare, we don't have time for review and editing :smile:

I was actually quite surprised at how much deviation there would be at the paths--getting run over by a bus versus successfully evading them monster folk result in quite different content! I also really like simulating RPG fights in these text adventure sorts of games, there's a sort of ironic commentary on how game systems work to be found.

Really the most egregious thing though is that I always bring my teleporter in my back pocket when leaving my house, I don't see why this occasion would be any different.

Immortal's game by dodormeur 2019-04-29T07:17:22Z

This game radiates cuteness. The graphics, the item selection, the funny death screens, the fact that leaving is free oh my god this game is so cute. Large grin on my face the whole time.

Fantastic execution of the theme as well.

Immortal's game by dodormeur 2019-05-21T20:38:04Z

Congrats on being the most fun!

BUY'n'DIE by DiscoFish 2019-05-20T02:24:01Z

I had a nice day thank you very much.

Computers in a Nutshell by gonutz 2019-05-15T00:13:33Z

Is there an easy way to get rid of the files the game creates if I decide halfway through that I don't want to finish it?

Edit: yeah `--uninstall`

Double edit: yeah it's cool. The auto-save puzzle is a bit "yeah we get it already" but I did like the other ones. Busting open regexes and photoshop was a neat surprise. Also made me realize that I don't have Python on my computer, so I had to use NodeJS to write the script. Perfectly honest I was almost done writing a script to generate 100k pngs before i decided to look at the merged log file a little closer.

A Moment To Reflect by aeveis 2019-04-29T23:51:53Z

Pleasant. A very thoughtful interpretation of the theme.

Did you design the underlying system in a way that you can easily iterate upon in the future? Or did you imagine this more of a PoC whose idea you'll continue on?

chatrubateme by ded 2019-05-01T05:53:25Z

$141 dollars later and I have run out of urine.

Ephemera by atmospherium 2019-05-06T03:36:10Z

Yooooooo you composed the track behind this? It's sick!! Starts out really reminding me of a Massive Attack song (Angel's got a similar tonality) before busting out into that awesome doom metal banger. Very cool!

Ephemera by atmospherium 2019-05-07T17:16:40Z

Imma go against the grain here and call this a game. Take that, nerds!!

Timezone by joemanaco 2019-04-29T06:12:17Z

Woo, took a couple dozen tries but I managed to beat it. Real fun, and the synthwav-y music and cute graphics help a lot with that. Also really liked the movement, felt good and in control. The only real nitpick I have is that the enemy hitboxes feel a little bit too large, but maybe that's just because I'm bad :)

Good work!

Ancient Current See by paulhocker 2019-05-03T02:42:36Z

Managed to get to the end after a little bit of finagling. The mechanic is interesting, but I think the puzzles probably need a little more workshopping time (hard in a gamejam!) to more fully realize the mechanic, as right now most of the puzzles are relatively straightforward once you understand the speediness of the lines. Also, while it is a good mood contributor, I don't know if the fog-o-war contributes positively to the puzzle solving spirit though.

You've got a cool base to build upon here, so I'm looking forward to seeing how you expand upon it.

BLOOD FIGHTERS by Lucien Catonnet 2019-05-05T19:23:39Z

Very cool aesthetic, it manages to both be minimalist but also highly polished with the backgrounds the great animations. Knowing you can block definitely changes the game from an outright spamfest (which can work if you get the speed powerup!) to something a bit more formal, so definitely agree that should be telegraphed a bit better. At the end of the day, fun!

Edit: realized my headphones weren't plugged in. The music is a bassy bop!

Finding Cookie by samh 2019-05-07T04:36:29Z

Yooo forget that Sekiro shit, flying bird voted hardest boss of 2019!!

Cats are great, this game's got a lot and they're all very cute. The gameplay is simple but it works, and the art is so intricate, especially for a game-jam setting (although it might tooo intricate, there were some places where it was hard to distinguish wall from ground lol). Music is fun too, very worrysome!

The Garden by Tattomoosa 2019-04-30T06:07:14Z

Hey man this is pretty sick! I didn't know quite what to expect by a "website game" (that could have been anything!) but generated graphics and live-effected music is pretty good! I'd love to read a post-mortem about how you did the music effects.

Theme-wise, I like the idea of a god who sacrifices a part of themself to further grow the world. It works pretty well, and further accentuates the somberness put out by the graphics and music. Definitely the prettiest idle clicker I've ever played!

Edit: One bit of feedback is that I think it would be cool if the color (or colors!) of the garden changed as you made progress.

DINTE by salyon 2019-05-15T00:05:54Z

Very cute for an anthropomorphization of death, and extremely polished at that. The timer mechanic is a neat one, adds considerable difficulty to what would normally be straightforward traversals. Definitely could use some sound.

I'm gonna go back and try the levels again but with the powerups, ought to be fun.

Edit: playing with the feather is pretty fun, and it makes certain parts of the map design a bit more understandable.

Proton by Greg Lord 2019-05-04T20:22:02Z

This is a clever little puzzle game. I'm glad you threw in a hard one at the end, a lot of LD puzzlers tend to stick to relatively simple puzzles for approachability.

Aesthetics are great. All the assets are pretty well polished and cohesive. I did play the post-jam version, so I also got to enjoy the music you did there.

I am at odds as to whether the mouse-movement is helpful to the puzzle design. What it comes down to is that since you cannot predict the pathfinding algorithm, you are essentially forced to make small steps so you don't accidentally step on a conveyor belt or a depletion tile. When it comes to that, it almost feels like direct arrow key/stick movement would be preferable. At the very least, an indicator of where the pathfinder will take you I think would be wholly beneficial, especially for more intricate puzzles. Also, I'd love a way to move the camera further around the level--while zoom helps, you can't zoom out too far, so in the last level it was harder to see the layout of the very end.

Overall, good work. I always like me some conveyor belt puzzlers.

Coin-Op Kid by Strega 2019-05-13T04:52:38Z

Aww this is a cute little bit. From the start my first instinct was to launch my robo-corpse across gaps, and when you actually introduced that as a core mechanic I was very happy ^_^

Minor nitpicks would be that the camera feels rather floaty, and the death wipe animation is a bit much, but those are incredibly minor--lots of polish is obvious here, and everything both aesthetically and mechanics wise works incredibly well, and the puzzle variety is impressive (always love it when people find many ways to use a limited set of mechanics rather than just introducing a ton of mechanics). Great stuff!

Value of Life by pokepetter 2019-05-12T04:56:10Z

Hmm, I want to interpret all four characters just being the MC at different points of wrestling with accepting the end of the world.

Really rather lovely. Not just the art (which is fantastic), but the music too. This one's gotta be one of my favorites this LD, I just love those super wet synths.

The Curse of Jen-Rah by AtomFox0213 2019-05-21T05:08:56Z

bruh anyone who hangs up two photos of himself and nothing else in their house deserves to be tricked by jen-rah

The Price For Blood by GoZz 2019-05-02T01:58:31Z

Is it morally good to help thy oppressor? What god of mine would punish me for killing demons?

Interesting theme for a game, you've flipped the LD theme on its head by refusing for your lives to remain currency. The crowd chants and music keep the energy up. I think the shortness of the game works in its favor as well, much longer and it would feel artificially drawn out.

noPRAVDA by katamary 2019-05-12T05:39:28Z

Love the visceral sound effects, and how the art style anonymizes the rebels and the police to make the violence more acceptable (there's no face that you're beating, they're empty people). Also really good on you for making the rebels never actually fight back--they're trying to dismantle the system, not any individual.

The idea of playing as the corrupt policeman who wants the rebels to win but still has to get his kicks by beating them regularly is an interesting one, but I do wish it was a little harder to obtain (or that there was some secret pure-rebel ending).

Space Crusaders by dreadzilla 2019-04-29T01:46:30Z

How’s the OP-Z treating you?

Somnambulist by LancesCaterpie 2019-05-14T19:14:22Z

Oh my god I'm shouting out loud I'm so happy I found this game!! The core mechanic is sooo coool and it makes you feel like a badass once you finally get those triple mid-air swaps going. Platforming is super tight, it always felt like I was 100% in control. Super minor nit but maybe some of the starter platforms were a bit too high though? Hitting my head felt a bit awkward.

Such crazy amount of polish in the aesthetics too, from the great storm lighting to the path trails to the instantly classic OST aaaahhhh you did such a good job!!!

Heart To The Sky by Baby Dino Herd 2019-05-06T03:05:06Z

I was stuck for quite a while because I didn't realize you could drop down anywhere, not just at the stairs haha. Circling forever wondering if I got randomly generated a broken pyramid.

Anyway, once I realized that I think this 3d maze puzzle got way more interesting, a big-grin moment. The music alongside is very pleasant to the ears, and I like how it crossfades with the victory music the closer you get to the top. My pill boy is very happy to praise the sun and its glory.

Blood Rite by Twan Mul 2019-05-03T04:46:16Z

An unexpected twist, the time interpretation of currency. Works well, and cements this as a puzzle game rather than an action game that it appears to be at first glance. I especially like how even your death is drawn out alongside time, so you're given a brief chance at salvage. The music and the audio pair well together too, both having that sort of old-tribe vibe which works great for the setting of the game.

Remember by JoshyOshKenoshi 2019-05-07T16:44:07Z

Oh man, glad I finally found this! Really sweet story, and the method of telling is pretty cool---that's a lot of dialogue you've crafted in such a short amount of time!

Unfortunately though, it seems I encountered a bug right at the very end:

sleeves.png

I get to this point with the Hermit and I can't get any more text to appear :cry:

I did really enjoy the lead up to it though, so many characters and all rather well set with their own motivations. And of course, from a technical perspective, using Unity for a text adventure is pretty novel in itself, haha.

Remember by JoshyOshKenoshi 2019-05-13T17:17:15Z

@joshyoshkenoshi Great to hear you figured it out! How did you manage to fix it, if you don’t mind?

Remember by JoshyOshKenoshi 2019-05-14T18:13:57Z

One rating away!!

The Tail of the Serpent by Le Slo 2019-05-04T21:01:34Z

You thought it was a snake, but it was actually the ouroboros.

I love how forgiving the movement is. There are a lot of movements that you can't make in traditional snake, but which you allow for here due to the puzzle nature. There wasn't ever a time where it "felt" like I should be able to do something but wasn't.

CurANTcy by HacksawUnit 2019-04-29T01:45:29Z

Gaaaaah I made it a little over half way and died to one of the tiny flips :(

CurANTcy by HacksawUnit 2019-04-29T06:31:23Z

noooooo now i made it two past "we're close". ant boy is never going to get to space :(

Really fun game, makes me think of a WarioWare boss level with the whole aesthetic. Extremely responsive to, which is important given the kind of game this is.

Also, I think this is a bug because it only happens on my phone, but when I played this game on my phone the main menu music kept playing throughout the level. I actually quite liked that, the music is fun.

Life Merchant by Webox 2019-05-10T02:21:45Z

Ah that's cute. You did the good thing where not only do you have a mechanic, but you also found a nice lore-justification for it. Switching roles as a concept is definitely something that's been done before in Puzzle games, but by restricting it to the tent rather than allowing it anywhere, choosing when you should switch, and setting up a path to make sure you can always get back, now becomes part of the puzzle itself.

Definitely could use more levels, and I can see some pretty clever puzzles being set up even with just the three characters you have now (although sword and gray robe are functionally very similar, gray robe might need some other ability to stand apart).

Edit: Also, while you've essentially fixed this with full-screen, the biggest nitpick I have is that the black arrows for "interactables" are quite small. The first swordsman level I spent a really long time on because I didn't realize the tent was something I could interact with.

DEADline by SecretPocketCat 2019-05-06T03:17:13Z

Oh god it was hard enough getting ~~15~~ ~~32~~ 62 how am I supposed to get 77??

It's quite difficult (and I think the jump physics could use a little bit of tweaking to feel better), but it is incredibly well thought out. I often found my self typing while in mid air so I could create the platform under me. Making partial words fade away too is a nasty punishment for people trying to rush on by. Really clever.

Are you doing any manual control of the words that are being generated, and the order/layout they come in? Or is it completely random?

Life by Marc Grabow 2019-05-12T05:27:15Z

Love the looks of the game, someone already said it reminded them of Petscop (2d sprites in a 3d world, looming black fog), and I totally agree. I personally tried going for a running-through-life run with zero kills and made it about 60, which is not bad for a person carrying a life-load of stress behind them haha. There were actually moments where it seemed like I was outrunning the camera, which while maybe a bug, works pretty well thematically :wink:

Lousy Life Lessons - [LLL] by AwesomeAlliterationAlliance 2019-05-07T06:27:26Z

No dudes, it's this game that's pawsitivily purrfect.

Every thing is done right:

- The storyboard sketch style not only looks great but fits in the film theme. All the characters look super cute!! - The silhouette art style for gameplay fits well with the noir aesthetic. - Voice acting is great, the accent and delivery are quite funny - Music as well is very sleek and sexy and perfect for the tone you're going for. - Dialogue is that right level of hilarious cheesy cringe that I expect from a noir parody. I *loooovve* how the narration carries into the levels as well. - The Prince of Persia-esque death joke. - With cats, the theme inclusion is obvious, but you still found a funny, novel way to integrate into a story. I was so happy when it was revealed he was a low-level actor rather than an actual spy. - For some reason, you even decided to make the platforming feel super tight and have some neat mechanics on top (like why, why did you do everything aesthetics so well and decided gameplay needed to be good too, people don't get to do both!!!)

That is really the running thread here--everything has been thoroughly considered and polished. Holy shit.

Deadline by Evan Minto 2019-05-11T06:46:05Z

This is a neat concept, a rather interesting way of doing a puzzle-platformer. One that still puts an emphasis on the platforming half as well, both in terms of feel, as well as general platforming difficulty. I quite liked the vertical ledge-climbing sections in particular, they always felt perilous.

The trade-off mechanic is pretty cool, but for the most part you can get away with putting nearly all of your energy into Battery (and for some jumps you really have to). I'm trying to think of ways you can increase the necessity of health besides just adding more enemies or combat (both of which I don't think would really fit well with the current aesthetic going on, you've got no time to fight!!)--perhaps damage boosting could be used as an actual puzzle mechanic?

Aesthetics are good, love the toxic sunset palette going on, and I'm always impressed to see things coming out of PICO-8 and other fantasy consoles.

The Tenth Item in G4 by Daniel Alhadeff 2019-05-10T04:27:50Z

When choosing between death and life as Mr Snarfles, it is a difficult choice.

Really cool experience. You managed to take an absolutely absurd experience and turn it into a reasonable puzzle game. The water-cooler vibe of being able to hear gossip from different people also works very well here, better enables the trial-and-error style of gameplay. Sound effects are great too, the final one in particular is quite vicious.

Any reason you chose to use Unity for this kind of game?

Elevator Pitch by Hugimugi7 2019-05-02T03:05:09Z

It's a fun little romp! The elevator bit hits pretty hard, although I don't know if I could do that between every level :joy:. The music is especially superb, and contributes a lot to the zany vibe you've created.

Self Surgeon by chuckeles 2019-04-29T06:26:13Z

Neat. The mechanic of having to switch between the knife and the syringe ties well to the theme, and adds up to some complex gameplay. Really like this sort of art style as well.

Dear Substance of Kin by Deconstructeam 2019-05-05T04:53:43Z

Oh dear lord the drums coming in after the first culling, I am truly done.

Looking forward to stories of the Mason and others.

The Joy of Creationism with God Ross by AndideBob 2019-05-06T02:12:35Z

This game is pretty goofy in a great way. All the parts cohesive in its smooth cheesiness, and once God Ross takes a step back and leaves me to my own devices, it is really fun just seeing how different amounts of things changes how the planet generates. I saw the notes for the Post-LD version, being able to follow around specific creatures sounds like it would be awesome, almost like the Theme Park World series of games.

Also, the recognition for when I opened the game for a second time was the modal icing on this jazzy cake.

Panic Percussion by verysoftwares 2019-05-07T04:20:36Z

First off, thanks for proving once and for all the lag on my bluetooth headphones lol. Had to break out my DAC for that 𝑜𝓅𝓉𝒾𝓂𝒶𝓁 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒸𝓎

This one's been on my backlog for a while now, glad I finally got to it. Loooooove rhythm games, and I think the battle mechanic here is pretty cool. I can agree it's kind of confusing at first especially since there's no in-game tutorial, but once I got it it was pretty fun! I made it all the way to the red mage (5th level)--nothing actually spawned in that level for me so I don't know if it was a bug, or if I got to the end.

Other minor feedback includes

- Love the monster designs, they are very cute and it's the Clefairy-ish monster that got me to click on this game in the first place - Pretty happy with the jungle beat, goes well with the battle. Did you compose it? - Maybe it's just my setup but I got some crackles every once and a while in the soundtrack - One thing I'd *really* love is if the music were continuous between rounds. It definitely threw off my internal rhythm to hear it suddenly start up again.

Overall as a person who loves rhythm games, this is a pretty cool showing, great work!

Edit: Got to the red mage again and this time was able to get stuff by happening by hitting it off beat? Kind of an interesting mechanic, I like how you managed to have different boss mechanics in a rhythm game. Very shortly died to unicorn though lol.

Anthill by mikelovesrobots 2019-05-02T05:42:36Z

You do a good job teaching the player the various possible movements of the stick with the hole placements, I was pretty surprised at the maneuverability by the end.

Good work, I'd enjoy playing other puzzle games by you.

Ollo's Life by Memel06 2019-04-29T20:25:02Z

Wow, this looks great! When I get home I'm going to load it onto one of my GB clones for an authentic experience :)

Ollo's Life by Memel06 2019-04-30T01:48:23Z

@memel06 Here ya go! https://imgur.com/zywhcfo

edit: WELL DONE OLLO!

[SHIP-WRE-KT] by webthingee 2019-05-02T02:38:12Z

Nice, the first point=and=click I've played this LD! Agree that the character designs are fun and cute. Perhaps the pretend cursing might get a little *too* much if happens too often, but that can be workshopped.

Standout thing for me are the tunes, love the title and the lab music. Also really like the dithered 3D scenes for the cutscenes, adds some flavor when mixed with the 2D gameplay.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-04-29T07:02:44Z

@paul59 There are some highlighted words in the story as well that you can interact with. The contrast could probably do with some increasing.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-04-29T23:01:46Z

Thanks for the feedback and nice words everyone!

@dodormeur An indicator for when not all valid answers have been given sounds like a fantastic idea. Stops you from just throwing down answers hoping that you'll be able to do something else. Perhaps a little star next to the help button that lights up?

@zondarg Great to hear you liked it! There are two routes to the ending, and you chose the trickier of the two (congrats :smile:). You were very close, here's a hint that's been [ROT13'd](https://rot13.com/): qb lbh jung lbh qvq gb trg "bcra" "pbzchgre" bire gur cnfg ebhgr, ohg va erirefr gb trg gurz onpx gb gur cerfrag ebhgr.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-04-30T16:32:37Z

@nexusviper It’s sort of like those old text adventures where you have to type in the right commands to get the the game to do anything. Once you drag in the right phrase, the OK button will light up and you can click it.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-01T03:50:26Z

Thanks for giving it a try everybody, I really appreciate! 100% agree, I think some sort of indicator for "hey there's stuff you can do here!" would be super helpful.

For anyone who's really stuck, I added a link to the internal story file above. Feel free to take a peek behind and get back on the right path.

@carraka You were super duper close to the ending! Through the route you took, you gained two things: an additional word, and some additional knowledge. I think you have everything you need to get to the end, but if not, feel free to take a peek at the file above.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-01T15:41:44Z

@zarkonnen Yoooo thanks for pointing this out to me! Super wondering if anyone else had explored this mechanic before. Definitely will put it on my wishlist!

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-01T16:22:01Z

@boxedmeatrevolution Hey friend, thanks for the nice words and the itemized feedback! I’m working on a stand-alone blog post to generally address feedback, but I wanted to jump in on the last one since I thought it was kind of funny.

So the engine I wrote that’s driving the game has had a core issue from the start: it barfs at duplicate words, especially if the user managed to put two of the same word in their wordbank. I told myself “ah it’s ok I’ll fix this later” and then two days and four words for “get off the train” later it’s still there :laughing:

A post jam version of the game would definitely get that right cleared up.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-02T03:26:27Z

@occultone Hey friend, thanks so much for playing. The idea of anyone playing a game I made for such a period of time is bewilderingly joyous. 100% agree that the selection mechanism can be improved -- drag and drop is sexy, but it's not the most efficient :smirk:

I think the music in its simplicity is ripe for expanding upon, such that you aren't listening to the same little ditty over and over again. At the very least, I would have loved to make another track for the past-heist.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-02T16:27:13Z

Thanks for the additional feedback everyone!

@arcus That’s a pretty neat suggestion. When originally designing this one of the ideas I (very) briefly had was letting people choose their own terminal palette. I think having dynamic, smoothly transitioning palettes would be pretty cool, and potentially a good way to signal that the “path” you’re on has changed.

@akirassasin I still feel that line needs some workshopping, but that feeling of “...OHHHHH” is 100% what I was going for, so I’m happy it worked.

@fahim-faysal The button disappearing is intentional, as the game was designed to require at least a little bit of inventory management (e.g. your words are stuck in the past! how do you get them out?). However, looking through the feedback so far it doesn’t seem like this was handled in a terribly fun way, so I’ll need to work on it a bit more (I don’t want to scrap it altogether, as I do like the core puzzle-ishness it adds).

@fat-cat I’m preparing up a formal post about it now, but one thing I honestly was completely blindsided by was the actual length of the game. Seeing comments above plus talking to my friends have indicated that the game is waaaay longer than I had expected (I mean, when I’m testing it already knowing everything it takes me like five minutes to blow through lol). I’ll have to find better ways of figuring out playtime in the future, as there are many things I would have prioritized if I had known (such as writing an impactful ending rather than just a teaser :joy:).

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-03T15:22:14Z

@jamesolivermusic Oh yeah, I can sort of hear that. Thanks, it’s a flattering comparison!

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-03T16:47:35Z

@candlesan @aeveis Thanks for the feedback! I think ultimately in a future version I’d like to just decrease the number of words altogether and increase the per-word utility.

For example, there’s a couple of small paths in the game that are just there for optional flavor, such as the smoke break (“head out” during lunch talk). Do you think these small “flavor-paths” add anything do the experience? Or should all paths preferably be consequential? At the very least there’d be an indication that these flavor paths are dead-ends, so you don’t spend your day trying to figure out how to further extend your smoke break :joy:

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-03T17:09:47Z

@aeveis Makes sense! Was discussing this with a friend (based on @dodormeur’s idea), what we had come up with as a potential solution was a circular icon next to the question mark that would

- Be solid if there’s solutions you haven’t tried that you have the words for - Be hollow if there’s solutions you haven’t tried that you don’t have the words for - Be faded out/invisible if there aren’t any solutions you haven’t already exhausted/this page is a dead end

This wouldn’t fix the “too many words!!” issue but it at least would prevent people from wasting time. And maybe for the hardcore folks out there could be a “moon logic” mode that permanently turns the icon off, lol.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-03T20:22:54Z

@jadedresearcher Oh no, I’m sorry! First off, make sure you’re zoomed out enough—you should see full boxes with no sides cut off.

After that, look for the words that are brighter than the rest. You can click and drag those words onto the word box on the right, as well as the prompt on the bottom. If you put in a correct answer, it’ll light up the OK button.

The game really should have a better indicator of this. Perhaps a ghost cursor that finds and drags the first word for you.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-03T23:27:06Z

@sahoskins1 I’ll try and debug FF. For chrome, you should just be able to ctrl minus and zoom out. Apologies for not handling various monitor sizes correctly.

Edit: on a whim, is there a chance you have JS disabled in your Firefox? I tested FF Nightly latest on both Windows and Mac OS and it works as expected, trying to get my Linux friend to check it out.

Double edit: my Linux friend can run the game in Firefox, but it’s also too zoomed in due to the small laptop he’s using it on

Triple edit: Realized I am using a JS method that was not added to Firefox until version 62. That might be a reason for a full crash...

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-04T05:32:42Z

Thanks to everyone that had suggested clicking for moving the words around. Double-click to move is now in the first post-jam update and god*damn* does it make things quicker.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-04T17:06:14Z

@ashtrail Hey, thanks for writing so much feedback!

Haha, the theme tie is definitely a bit :thinking:. Mechanically I was going for sort of a pun, interpreting currency -> currentness -> progression of time. From a story standpoint, I guess it's less that the MC is currency as much as they are pawns used both by their workplace, as well as "them". I don't want to go too far into it lol, this is something that needs to be telegraphed in-game rather than in-comment.

The tech implementation of this was very fun! Making the game a webpage rather than a raster canvas made some things super easy (text rendering of course, taking advantage of browser APIs), but also made some things a lot more tricky/unconventional (no traditional game-loop, how do i perfect-pixel-scale things, etc).

And I think the most important thing I want to say is you (and anyone else who reads this) should really open-source your game code! I am a huge proponent of learning through open-source projects, and if anything, the tricky parts of your code base that you're not quite proud are the *most* educational. Some tasks are just hard, and require hard code! Plus, it can teach newcomers that your code doesn't have to be awesome to make an awesome game.

I'm thinking back to when the Celeste devs [released the 5400-line behemoth that was the Player controller](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/03/05/celeste-movement-code/). Of course you got a lot of armchair programmers criticizing it on Twitter. But at the end of day, Matt and Noel made Celeste and those armchair programmers didn't. I think I know who'd I rather learn from :smile:

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-04T18:43:33Z

@shunaky Ah whoops, I forgot to respond to this. Whatever route you pick in the past, it still ends up with you doing at least part of the important action. Therefore whether or not you’re able to get the real ending, the present version of you feels like they did something, and email “confirms” it, hence the reaction. Even before you go to the past, it being the past already happened.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-06T15:00:03Z

@mags @linheha @kaisean-games Thanks for checking it out, and for leaving feedback. Really appreciate it!

Yeah, I’m still formulating ideas on how to make some of the solutions less obtuse. Besides better writing (ofc) and decreasing the number of words altogether (and increasing the number of spaces you can use any single word), from a UI perspective I’ve been knocking around

- An indicator for whether or not a screen has more solutions you haven’t tried yet - A hint button that would highlight words in your word bank that can be used on the current screen (but not what combinations, in the case where there are multiple solutions, or where you don’t have all the words needed)

Both of these also would ideally be options, so for the three people out there that want the most obtuse moon logic experience they can get they could turn off all help :laughing:

At the end of the day, the guide is useful for the LD context (the game can go for quite long without it, and there are many other games to rate lol) but ideally I wouldn’t be distributing a walkthrough with a completed game.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-06T21:00:42Z

@awesomealliterationalliance Thanks for the kind words! I've been wanting to make a text-based narrative game for a long while now but wanted to avoid making it straight interactive fiction (no knock on IF by the way I love 'em, but it's not the kind of game I wanted to make). Even with some of the obtuseness, I'm glad people generally enjoy the core puzzle mechanic.

Also very happy you enjoy the aesthetic--in a text game ambiance is going to be *everything*, because the last thing you want (and what @tommyflower explained really well above) is for people to get bored of reading, lol.

Also yeah, that line's preeetty gooood. My sister had managed to come up with `figures out suspect`, and I'm hitting myself for not finding a way to integrate that.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-11T06:58:47Z

Woo, thanks for the comments everyone!

@joshyoshkenoshi While I thank you for your kind words, don’t put your own game down dude! Not only should folks not do that in general, but your game in particular is a really comfy story with great characterization (and a fun mystery mechanic on top!).

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-13T05:01:51Z

@ivan-garcia-filho Ooh, the idea of jumping between narratives using words sounds pretty neat, and would jive pretty well with the way the game works currently. It would be quite a lot of writing though to support a non-linear, open world text adventure :joy:

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-13T20:43:17Z

@comicsans Thanks for checking it out, and no worries--having watched some people play it in person the word burden is real haha. I'm workshopping some ideas to make it a bit more manageable for the future.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-17T01:21:38Z

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@imphenzia Happy to see you were able to progress with the UI. In the post-jam version the "?" button contains some instructions on how the UI is expected to work, but it would definitely be better if I could describe this somehow visually--maybe the first word is auto-dragged by a robo mouse cursor. I'm definitely going for the old prompt aesthetic, but maybe it's to the point of being deceptive, lol.

Re: implementation, yeah I would totally recommend storing things like dialogue in a separate markup file rather than in code. Means that you don't have to recompile every time you want to fix a grammar mistake, and also potentially makes it easier for less technically inclined people to contribute (heck, if you wanted to you could probably make a GUI that understood the schema of my story file, kind of like Twine).

And to your latter point about holding interest, I feel the goal of a writer is to entice people that might not even be interested in the first place. This is the first story I think I've ever written (save for maybe middle school assignments :smile:) so I still room to grow when it comes to enticing the reader (and making the puzzles clear, as other people have remarked).

@secretpocketcat Yeah, while I'm happy to provide the source/story guide for the context of Ludum Dare, I definitely need to better balance difficulty and obtuseness in the future. While I think a bit of cryptic is a part of the charm of these kinds of games, obviously having people give and stop playing is not a great outcome (no one wants to be added to the [TV Tropes Moon Logic](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoonLogicPuzzle) page).

Concerning lowercase, I personally like it aesthetically (it feels very modern and "internet") but I hadn't considered at all how it would affect readability, so duly noted.

And yeah, I've put my Switch on the shelf for the last two-three weeks and my only electronic entertainment has been Ludum Dare games lol. I'm definitely privileged to have gotten the amount of feedback I've gotten, so it's only fair I try and pay it forward. Plus to be perfectly honest, lots of Ludum Dare games can be fully experienced in less than five minutes, so it's not too hard :joy:.

@pequenodev Haha, I'm very happy to see people sticking with it. You can definitely beat it; heck, you're probably farther along than you think :wink:.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-17T22:32:45Z

@sergi-montaner Hmm, you should be able to drag words from the Prompt back to the WordBank if you want to remove them. If this isn’t working for you, can you tell me your OS and browser

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-19T22:44:34Z

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

@sergi-montaner I agree, being able to rearrange words within a container would improve the experience wholesale. It was 100% just a time limitation, haha. In the end though, I think the frustration created by having to dance words around in the first place, as @gonutz said, is that some of the puzzles are obtuse, and the answer domain balloons as you hoard more words.

In a perfect world I’d design the puzzles and the narrative tree such that you only have the words you need plus or minus three at any point by decreasing the number of words and increasing the number of answers. But a perfect world is hard (unless you’re Jonathan Blow or something :smiley:) so at the very least some UX improvements are welcome.

ｉｎｖｅｒｔｅｂｒａｅ by jjjjason 2019-05-24T17:49:19Z

@narrenschlag Only on the condition that you send me a link once you’ve made whatever you’ve made :smiley:

Reaper's Keeper by chelC 2019-04-30T02:23:27Z

Aww this is cute. Everything is well integrated and thematically consistent--does a very good job of making all the game mechanics make sense in the world rather than stapled on. For example, it took me a while to realize this but you could actually serve customers' orders in any order. Very useful if you made a mistake that turned out to be half of someone else's order!

Mind Over Matter by MZA 2019-05-12T05:19:15Z

This game is very difficult, and it's particularly difficult in the way of "this is really hard and I don't see a way to get better, the only option I have is to keep pushing on until it's over". And while that makes for an incredibly frustrating gaming experience, it works wondrously thematically, what with the core themes being mental illness.

For me personally, getting to the finish line was not very fun (I did get to it though!), but I think that's sort of the point the game is trying to get across. Games don't need to be fun to be good, and I definitely think you've succeeded in being good (and of course, the great aesthetics and sound effects all further serve in that regard).

Get4 by Talia 2019-04-29T16:01:08Z

Get4 more like get rekt, ha!

Yeah, like the other says the AI is quite interesting. I think a post-mortem on how you made it would super awesome.

Besides, graphics are clean with a little bit of hand-drawn craft, and the music is arcadey enough (I'll check out beepbox, thanks for the rec!). Heck, as a person who is at the arcade a lot inserting quarters, maybe there's a way to tie this to the theme after all :)

Survive the Heist by Ashtrail 2019-05-02T05:01:03Z

Love it! The hand-drawn art style really works for the old-school throwback theme you're going for. I like how all the characters have pretty distinct personalities (I've no qualms betraying a coward!!), and that you've written a good bit a dialogue for all of them. Hopefully the other two in the head office get their due at some point!

Also, if you fix the brandy bug, please fix it by coming up with an in-lore justification for there being infinite brandy in the cupboard. That's really the only valid solution.

Survive the Heist by Ashtrail 2019-05-03T02:11:45Z

@ashtrail This is going to end up being one of those weird visual novels where most routes are like five minutes long, but if you choose the hide-in-the-narnia-closet route it goes for like forty hours.

Tyrone Leinster's Debt Dream by Rob White 2019-05-20T02:19:40Z

Tyrone my boy you need to see someone about these dreams you're having!

This game is simple fun, and I enjoyed it. Flipped my shit when the hats started flying in the boss round, that was great.

I D E N T I F T Y by Psychedelia 2019-05-07T04:46:26Z

Current level of aesthetic is great. I would love more of it (sounds basically) but I understand what can't be done in a jam session.

I agree with the puzzle being pretty difficult--in retrospect the solution does make sense, but it is pretty hard to get there. Also, I flipped the fuck out when they said it was Doctor Jason, thought there were some browser identification shenanigans going on haha.

Salaryman by niterich 2019-04-30T02:08:48Z

This is work, why would there be a win screen :wink:

Fun idea. Getting a word wrong was extremely stressful, and the sonic-is-drowning chime when you're near overload that plays on top of the existing happy music, like something you're just trying to block out, fits well with the theme.

I can agree it gets tedious after a while, but I mean, isn't that the point?

Blob World by Sir. Syko 2019-05-01T06:07:24Z

Oh that's a neat mechanic! It wasn't obvious I was getting smaller at first so maybe some better telegraphing of that. But yeah, you can choose to have friends but it puts you at a disadvantage, neat implementation of the theme!

Piggy Butchery by Reality Blind 2019-05-04T20:10:34Z

Wanted to give a heads up, maybe it's my box but when I tried running the Mac version, I get an error "Cannot find game!".

Koe by velvetlobster 2019-05-05T04:12:12Z

Is this a video game?? Choose an answer below

[Maybe...yeah] [Fuck off!] [This poll system is kind of buggy] [Actually though the music and art are super dope, and the extreme levels of randomness keep you on edge the entire time. Maybe it's not a game in a traditional sense, but it is a wildly unsettling experience.] [Fuck off!!]

Piggy Bank ! by FlavienRombouts 2019-05-01T01:56:02Z

Puzzle games I feel are some of the hardest to do well for a game jam as they require a lot of iteration and player testing to get just right. I can agree that the earlier levels were a bit too easy and numerous, but once you got towards the end the game really started getting into its groove, and the core mechanics could shine. I also ran in to the B&W Safari problem. The game ran fine once I switched to Chrome/Firefox, so no big.

I think my biggest nitpick is that while the music is cute, it's not exactly the kind of music that you can loop for tooo long without it becoming a little grating. I would prefer something a bit more chill as the main theme (or more music! But obviously that's not gonna happen in a game jam).

Great work!

Breathe of The Fox by Miles Seventh 2019-05-13T03:53:48Z

First of all that ending pfft is so abrupt I laughed out loud.

Anyway, cool game, definitely leaves me Wanna Being The Fox. Moves being the limiting factor is very interesting, but since things like wall slides and little adjustments count toward what is a really small pool, it almost feels like you have to micro-optimize everything just to beat some of the levels (I didn't have as much of an issue with level 1 as everyone else, but level 3 took me forever). Actually, in 3 out of the four levels, I died just as I got to the end (which you still code as a victory, thank you very much), so it seems like I used my move bar perfectly haha.

Art and sounds are quite cute. Why is such a cute fox in such a dangerous place :cry:

15 Minutes to Live by F1Krazy 2019-05-06T02:01:01Z

Yay, got it with 11 minutes to spare. I like it, I like these ridiculously circular puzzles from time to time. The art style adds a bit of cartoonishness to the panic which helps round it out. The music also helps with this, but it is a bit much, especially looped the whole time.

People have already pointed this out, but I do agree that the collision detection for talking was a bit iffy--sometimes I'd stand on top of the person and it wouldn't work. That plus the time pressure lead to some pretty hectic moments (even if we didn't end up needing a full 15 minutes).

Deep Space Prospector by Roidz 2019-05-01T01:03:52Z

I've seen a couple similar interpretations of this theme already, but this one is pretty well polished (especially given how sick you were!) I like how turning is hyper precise but forward movement is clunky, it's the right mix of fun and frustrating. The music and art style contribute to a spooky mood too.

I think you're right in that the game could use some more varied content given how long the "phases" are, but that's a post-jam kind of things :D

Glampire Baby Herder by don.shinski 2019-05-03T04:39:42Z

m'bebe's, they escape me! i actually like the distance tax as a mechanic, this sort of game makes you want to run away and dawdle to escape the dwarves, but the distance tax going up sort of keeps that defensive behavior in check and forces you play more aggressively.

Cloudwalker by JLV 2019-05-12T04:40:52Z

Ah, ze twist!

The gameplay is ultimately rather minimal (although to be fair I played with mouselook, and I know from first-hand experience that everything is way more fun in VR lol), but props to both the aesthetics and the story built around it. The terrain and clouds look cool, and the frame story set up around is rather interesting. Always a big fan of the "gotchas", and this one does it both the narrative as well as what kind of game it actually is.

Broker by EstuvoMuyBien 2019-04-30T07:49:37Z

Alright yeah clicking on the title buttons was definitely one of the funniest/most painful things I've done today. Almost as painful as losing large on SYT :(

PANDEMONIUM: A Card Game by Borys 2019-04-29T07:01:41Z

Had to write this down before even playing: dope music!

...now I've played a couple of games. Dope graphics too, gives me a nostalgic horror-Flash vibe. I've not seen many card games during LDs, so this is pretty novel in itself. And the strategy of playing it too (balancing the value of life vs power, hey that's the theme!) is interesting.

PANDEMONIUM: A Card Game by Borys 2019-04-29T15:53:35Z

@borys It is quite hard, I managed to get the enemy down to their last hand twice now before dying :D

Gold Digger 2084 by Tony Redmer 2019-05-04T20:33:01Z

Very clean arcadey feel. I actually liked the concept of an enemy type that's undefeatable, just to get in the way and keep you on your toes movement-wise. Minor nitpick is that the shooting audio feels rather bassy? Feels sort of weird in this style of game, but it is at least a cool audial contrast.

The Iron Syndicate by Hare Software 2019-05-05T03:55:49Z

Good showing, comrade! If only revolution was this quick in real life!

Like others have said, I'm a big of this art style. It looks like a "grown-up" pixel art, and fits the grown up tale. The sound design is also pretty good! I don't know if you've made these sounds or just curated them, but good work.

The Iron Syndicate by Hare Software 2019-05-05T16:57:41Z

@hare-software Taking the sounds from various recordings actually sounds pretty dope! Kind of like an art history collage.

Arm & A Leg by Deprecat 2019-05-02T04:44:26Z

First things first that's super dope of you to include OpenDyslexic as a font choice.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the cute+creepy vibe you got here. My green one-legged very good boy versus the evil (and very funny) trash salesman and his goonies (that's my headcanon anyway) plus the neato minimalistic music all contribute to a very good vibe.

Selling the eyes might be a bit too much, haha. The first time I sold my left eye I immediately closed the game and restarted. Furthermore, being able to buy scattershot without having the gun left me a little confused.

I really liked how it was actually possible to avoid most of the enemies! Again, my green-legged boy is a very good boy and doesn't like killing. Unfortunately, I did have to buy the gun at the end to climb the trash tower.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed it. Cohesion is the #1 thing I try and look out for in LD games and this one feels like a cohesive, designed game.

And last, having the end credits be scrambled (and therefore making me realize the real sacrifice) was pretty clever.

It's not easy being me by schsam 2019-05-20T02:08:26Z

This is a neat idea, reminds me of Mini Metro but instead within the circulatory system. I'm not terribly good a strategy games, but it seems a little unsure as to what the optimal strategy is for this game, especially as it takes a good bit of time before you unlock your second lung.

Bloodletter by shp 2019-05-05T08:24:20Z

This one's been on my backlog for a while now, glad I finally got to play it! Easy 5/5 on fun.

Pros: + Movement feels great of course. Really like the kickback from the shotgun as well, was able to use that in a couple of places. + The desert-magic vibe is pretty cool and represented well here. I like the two monsters and their slight differences. It's both hilarious and terrifying how they jump over the boulders. + Very cool to see some verticality in the final level, did not expect that at all. + Love the keep-alive-by-killing gameplay that super rewards aggression and continuous movement.

Minuses: - The sounds are all a little bit muddy, it would be great if they were a little punchier. - Someone else had mentioned this, but honestly by the end I'm still not quite sure what bleeding did, and ended up not using it.

Played the above on Hard, gonna clear down Lunatic now!

Edit: Aight Lunatic wasn't bad but 1337 Haxor is for another evening. Also we all agree level 2 is the hardest of the four right lol

Nutty Twins by Supernapie 2019-05-15T01:10:27Z

Yooo this is pretty good! That second to last level especially, goddamn that felt really good to get. I think my main complaint is that while it's super funny to knock my brother halfway across the map by runnig into him, it might be a bit too floaty--I ran into issues on the second to last and last levels where I would accidentally push him slightly too hard and have to reset.

Besides that though, making respawning integral is a super novel mechanic, and the levels you showed were a pretty good demonstration of the power of this mechanic. Aesthetics are top notch too, love the music.

DISREGARD LIFE, ACQUIRE CURRENCY by notb 2019-04-29T06:51:05Z

Everyone's already said this, but this game really is pretty, and the map as the stars is genius and thematic. Quite quirky as well, took me a bit to realize quite a few of those lost sailors were charging me to take my life away :).

If you're up to it, I'd love to read a dev blog about how you put this together :)

jon needs 10$ by schrunkin 2019-05-01T03:37:43Z

This is the best game I've played this Ludum Dare. I don't really have anything else to say, you did a real good job friend.

Screenshot 2019-04-30 20.36.44.png

99Hearts by barret 2019-05-18T18:30:33Z

Giving the player control of the generative aspect of a procedural roguelike is super duper cool, and the aesthetics altogether are extremely polished. Unfortunately though, my brain can just not come to grasp with movement and shooting being tied together, so honestly I can't play for too long without becoming frustrated.

Stretchy Cat by Engyne 2019-05-13T03:27:19Z

Yoooo the last two puzzles were hype! You had hinted to it briefly before but the idea of blocking the slidables with your body becoming part of the puzzle is *incredibly* interesting of a mechanic, and I can see some really cool (and monstrously difficult) puzzles coming out of that. There's quite a bit of straightforward warmup puzzles here, but that might just be due to it being a LD game and you wanting everyone to finish. I also do wish there was a step-undo button, rather than just a global restart. Besides that though, you have a very cute exterior hiding tons of potential for great, *hard* puzzles. Good stuff.

Roboxery by cozmic 2019-05-02T04:03:33Z

This is a clever idea for a puzzle game, and while this application of the theme has been pretty common this LD I think it works pretty well here.

I agree with the above posters that some tweaking could be done to help streamline the game. I know it's a core mechanic of this almost Dominion-ish train system you've built, but I don't feel like there really a need for the jobs to take as long as they do. I think even just speeding that up would make the game way more fun as it greatly shortens the iteration and experimentation time.

For example, I figured out 12 (at least I think I did!) in about a minute (quick aside, the puzzles that arise from this sokoban-meets-ice-sliding mechanic are pretty novel, and I'm looking forward to more), but then had to spend a *lot* of time charging up before I could submit my solution.

Edit: Also wanted to say I can't place exactly why but I quite like the visual aesthetic of the game. This one's been in my LD backlog for a while now but I've been itching to play it, enamored by the screenshots.

Deliver Us 2 Evil by kemp 2019-05-01T05:47:18Z

This game is pretty silly in a pretty funny way. Driving backwards feels a little weird, but besides that I think you did everything you intended to do lol

Darkling by jordantanner 2019-05-12T05:53:46Z

Woo FPSes coming out of Ludum Dare are always welcome surprises. Very good fun, even just hopping around the edges of the map and spiraling around the enemies. After a bit though I did run into a rather nasty bug where continually the camera would reset to its default position regardless of my mouselook (playing on the WebGL version if that helps at all).

TimeForYourSouls by Suchista 2019-05-07T05:11:32Z

Yooooo back it up this is actually hype! This mechanic is sooo cool, and the last two puzzles especially really greatly showcase it. Sound effects and music too are fantastic, and the reversal effect of the music sounds great and obviously works thematically. Speaking about themes, I'm glad more people are taking the time-pun interpretation of "currency", happy I wasn't the only one to resort to that lol.

Some feedback for areas of polish that I think would improve it even further:

- Tell me the reset button ahead of time! I was so happy when I hit Enter accidentally and learned about it - The movement is really floaty! I don't know if this is on purpose but I think tightening it up would make it feel waaay better, and it's not like tricky platforming is the main goal here anyway - I'd like it if when I get near a lever, the blocks that it'll affect get highlighted or something. It's not something that's toooo bad with these small levels, but I can imagine it getting daunting reaaaal fast - Even if you had infinite budget keep the fancy squares around, it gives this an old-school Newgrounds Flash vibe that hits everyone right in the nostalgia.

Really really good! I'm really happy I saw this one!

Paylife by deformhead 2019-04-30T17:01:27Z

Got 245, playing on my phone. Fun micro game, very contained and to the point. The graphics are nice and unique, adds a bit of character. Some sounds would be awesome.

I actually got to this game from your Github repo, thanks for linking back :smiley:. Very interested in the idea of Theatre.

Chickenarchy by Thomas_Bringer 2019-05-01T03:08:55Z

Aww this is cute. I really like how the NPCs also dance to the MIDI tune. I don't think you need to apologize for the bugs regarding movement and camera, if anything dragging the chickens through the trees was hilarious and made things even more fun.

MoneyBag by Lexyvil 2019-05-18T18:22:45Z

This definitely is surprisingly fun and addictive for a physics-based platformer. Cute music too!

Cucumber by Uriel Bromberg 2019-05-20T02:32:37Z

Gimme dem cumbers!! I like the mechanic, but it is a little confusing at first which platforms exist at which phase. Also sometimes I'd get to the door and it wouldn't let me in--is there a minimum cucumber count?

I like the psychedelic art style!

Hollow Priest by pandan 2019-05-01T06:32:53Z

Oh my god this person put rocket jumping in their ludum dare game they said it wasn't possible!!! We really need some gothic or industrial soundtrack as well, but what you've got is pretty cool, and things feel great too.

Sigillis by JUSTCAMH 2019-05-02T05:55:59Z

This is pretty cool! Followed your LD account, definitely looking forward to that devlog on how the sigils work!

I think there's a way you could make the shop work. Maybe if waves didn't really end, so you had to open the shop while playing. Heck, get rid of the buttons and make sigils just for shopping!

The music's also pretty dope, has got that fantasy flair to its composition.

Yodin Defense by Neon Glass 2019-05-02T02:59:30Z

The fight music is a real bop! Cool setup, the content that's there definitely is polished. I think you already know that it could use some more content and variation, but like you've said--you now have a great foundation to expand upon.

Jumpcoins by Shawn Moore 2019-05-06T04:01:09Z

That was a lot of fun! I will admit, I was a little thrown off by the rather cutesy art style but I was proven wrong by the rather tight controls and well-done mechanics :). Took a bit of time, but I managed to get to the end. Lot of levels for a Ludum Dare game, and none of them felt shoe-horned, so good work on that.

Also great job on the music, I think the midi tunes work very well with the art style, and don't get fatiguing as you hear them again and again as you die again and again...and again. With that, everything really is cohesive. Even the level names exhibit the same jovial tone. Lot of polish for a compo game, incredible work in that regard.

Interesting choice though I think is the air inertia--once you slow you down midair, you lose pretty much all air control and just fall like a rock. Can you talk as to why you designed it that way?

Also, I'd love for you to talk about your experience with Phaser! I've been looking for some sort of JS-based game engine as of recent, and Phaser seems to be the most popular.

Jumpcoins by Shawn Moore 2019-05-06T04:08:15Z

@shawn-moore That's reasonable. Happy to see it was a conscious choice, further contributes to how rather high-designed this unassuming game was.

SHROUD (Synthetic Human, Radiation OUtput Determined) by thevinter 2019-05-01T02:41:13Z

Post-apocalyse as a setting is a pretty easy yes from me. The graphics and music fit right in as well (although I'd love to see a night time!)

There's a lot of content here, which is pretty impressive for a Ludum Dare. I agree with Historymaker though that I think every individual element could use some tuning to become a bit more substantial. Overall though, I feel like you have a great framework now that you can iterate upon.

Also, no problem.

Screenshot 2019-04-30 19.33.50.png

Gather Drone by Vimlark 2019-05-20T01:57:59Z

Very happy with the auto-aim of the tractor beam, keeps you focused on moving as fast as possible rather than having to stop and needle down. I like the idea of having to balance essentially three different meters at once, and how the game lets you play safe if you want, but it makes it take waaay longer. I think some variety in the enemy types would be neat, as well as more than one path back to the ship, as it makes the environment a bit repetitive after a while.

Lost coin by TinySalad 2019-05-15T01:00:46Z

Actually, it is now my headcanon that going past the flower and realizing that you're a strong independent coin who don't need no pocket is the true ending of the game.

Transfert by p0nce 2019-05-01T04:11:08Z

Have We Reached Peak Aesthetics???

I have dinner cooking on the stove right now so I'm not going to be able to keep the larva alive for too long. Regardless, the atmosphere is so well done (I actually really like the stilted ant movement, I think it fits better with the painterly vibe) and I died a little inside every single time the game over music played, it is so haunting :cry:

1024 by chrisdugne 2019-05-02T02:24:49Z

1053 on the second try! Still a while to go to beat the high score but not too shabby. It's interesting how this presents itself like a puzzle game but with the extremely minimal rule set it's almost like a micro action game? This would be fun on my phone.

Life As Currency by Foo - Squashed Games 2019-05-03T04:52:21Z

I don't know if it's just my computer, but when I move left and right, I move reeaaaallly fast, haha. Thanks for adding checkpoints, it makes it easier for if I fall off.

I also really like the music! It's kinda goofy in a playful way? Makes me happy.

Definitely recommend adding a Windows or a Web build if possible, as that'll help others play it too (not many people have Macs like you and me, lol). I'm pretty sure Unity can build Windows versions even on Mac OS?

Cowry - A game about change by johanhelsing 2019-05-06T18:15:28Z

First off, found this on Github! Thanks for linking back to the LD page, a lot of people seem to forget that lol.

Anyway, great cohesion between the words of the story and the presentation (and terrible for my heart during the "scary" part). It's weird, but I think still approachable for people who might not be as into art games.

It also feels like it would be a neat puzzle mechanic for a longer game, and I can see the "story" moving further as well. Cool!

The Price To Pay by Lshiro 2019-05-02T04:19:35Z

Quite pretty, you just know I'm a sucker for light effects on pixel art. That plus the actual art and animation itself all contributes very well to this grim fantasy vibe. The music I feel could be workshopped a little bit more to have the level of polish as the rest of the assets, but I actually quite liked the game over music!

Gameplay-wise, jumping and dashing both felt pretty good to me. I do agree though that combat feels a little thin due to the lack of feedback, although that might just be due to my lack of hearing (pretty cool effect on that by the way, didn't see that coming). I also do really like how the majority of the monsters you can actually avoid. I don't have time to fight, I'm saving my love!

And of course, who would choose anything but sacrificing your body? (spicy!)

Cats Without Cars by B33Thr33 2019-05-02T03:39:23Z

No lie the music is pretty kick-ass, and that's pretty much how to describe the rest of the game as well. I don't even need to bother shooting my adversaries, just speeding around like a super ball and getting sick air is plenty fun.

The shooting is a little jank, it's hard to tell if I'm really on target or not, but maybe that's just further contributing to the wild style of the game.

Death Got Your Girlfriend by Hermitao 2019-05-10T04:18:30Z

I like this, this is neat. Everyone's said this a billion times but the art, animations, and general aesthetics are great. Particularly love slappy black demon man. The core gameplay loop is entertaining (kept me going to the end), but I think it could be worked on a bit more if you want to expand upon this in the future:

- There's not really a ton of feedback for when a hit lands except for the hit thump sound. This applies to both your hits, as well as monster hits. This is another reason tall man is my favorite--his hit causes both a visual effect (camera shake) and a bit of knockback. I think more of the enemy attacks should be tuned similarly (and maybe have the player's attacks do a stun or a knockback as well) - The play field is very long, and I don't know how valuable that is. If anything, it makes cheesing a little bit easier because you can just run back and forth waiting for your powerups to recharge. - As much as I enjoyed using it, the lightning attack is definitely overpowered. Especially once you get the faster recharge, my gameplay style basically became lightning -> run away -> lightning -> run away -> etc - Controls are fine IMO. I rather enjoy how floaty the jump is for example--in a platformer that would be a no-no, but in this style of combat game I think it works well and makes it feel more theatrical

Life Path by kristinnes 2019-05-01T06:45:54Z

I died poor, content, and well liked. That's not bad! Cool idea for a game, and good to see there are a lot of variations! Did you compose the quaint guitar loop?

Tetris: Tempo by Valid 2019-05-12T05:09:49Z

Yay Tetris, always love me some Tetris.

The core idea of being able to buy cheat pieces is cool, and very good decision to make it swap with your next piece rather than your current--forces the player to think ahead a bit more rather than making a last minute decision. Also because of this, I actually disagree with suggestions to at bag shuffling or a hold slot--both of those are supposed to be served by the buy feature instead.

Most of the feedback I have is really just cleaning up the core Tetris mechanics:

- Rotation on some pieces is weird, it seems like they rotate the opposite direction from the rest - A floor timer would be great so you can continue to move and rotate pieces for a little bit after they've touched down - It seems like you have basic wall-kicks working which is awesome. If you pair those with the floor timer, then it'll enable people to do cool spins :smile: - DAS is always welcome for when I want a piece to quickly get to the side - While it is Tetris, I would have appreciated an original soundtrack rather than just the OG song

Overall I like it!

Souls by Dezarius 2019-04-29T21:43:46Z

Like everyone else said, quite difficult, haha. I like the touch of the bridge to the powerups taking a cost as well, makes you want to stay in as long as possible. Music is fun too, the simplicity makes it so that you can loop it forever and it doesn't get annoying.

Monster designs are fun.

Plunderlings by DerMario12 2019-05-13T02:47:27Z

Really novel, turning an escort mission (usually one of the most vile kinds of missions in games) into an actual puzzle game that's pretty enjoyable. I agree with what others had said that there's definitely some polish that needs to be applied (physics, making the trap triggers a bit more obvious, maybe some sort of indicator or camera view of where the boss is, etc), but this is one of those rare occasions where the core idea is *so* good that it kind of makes up with some of the implementation faults.

Mahou Shoujo Monster: Promised Fate by jadedResearcher 2019-05-02T04:30:41Z

How do I keep falling for this? You even literally put it in the screenshots above and I still didn't see it coming. The music flip especially is goddamn hilarious.

I got both endings, and they're both quite good (although obviously B I R D E N D is the superior choice).

I think there's things you can do to improve polish (e.g. animations, cleaning up the UI a little bit), but maybe that would almost detract from the outlandish horror of the world you've blood-pacted into existence.

A Cup's Life by Anderssonkev 2019-05-02T02:33:12Z

This is a full game, minus a couple dozen more puzzles and enemy types. The attention to detail is immaculate--graphics are all cute *and* cohesive, with everything having an in-world justification. Music is good, but it's also simple which means it doesn't get annoying when looping. Puzzles are not braindead, but they're also not very hard, which is probably a good thing in Ludum Dare where you want everyone to finish the game hopefully.

Extremely well crafted, fantastic work.

An American Blood Clot in Techno Athens by Shuu 2019-04-30T06:40:35Z

Gotta say this before I even play: good work on having like the best title for a game I've seen this LD.

An American Blood Clot in Techno Athens by Shuu 2019-04-30T06:53:07Z

Super Meat Boy Meet Theme! It's pretty fun, and was pretty satisfying to finish (although personally I had a much harder time beating 1-6 than 1-7). I can agree that the controls need a little bit more polish to get to that pixel perfect precision, but that's hard to do in 48 hours.

The graphics though are great! The character art is cute, the knights are mysterious, and the splatters are fun! Dope music too, the right mix of arcadey to keep the adrenaline but chill enough to not make me smash my keyboard.

Limbo Squared by cannedveg 2019-05-13T04:05:51Z

Bruhh this game is so weird hahaha. I ran into a strange mouse-keyboard bug where sometimes I would deattach both limbs with one press, but that wasn't enough to stop me from pleasing the square.

Dont Drop The Bass! by TaqoShaq 2019-05-01T06:38:05Z

Really fun, love rhythm games. Super agree with Amerigo that I'd love to see a post-mortem on how you did the audio parts of the game.

Transfusion by WubbaDuck 2019-04-29T06:23:18Z

That is a very novel mechanic, and fun interpretation of the them. Agree with zactical, the game is quite punishing, often requiring me to transfuse every last drop (and then kill myself when I accidentally tranfuse one pixel too far, lol).

One potential issue I ran into is with the physical simulation; maybe I was doing something wrong but it didn't happen the same way every time. This resulted in one of the levels (the one with the two rocks that fly towards each other) rolling into and over the door a couple of times. After dying a couple times though, I got into an instance where the stopped fine in the middle, so it wasn't that bad.

Also harpsichords rule!

sal_dream-0 by taffyko 2019-05-03T02:52:53Z

It's an almost meaningless term, but this game has a *lot* of character. It is very clearly imbued with the stylistic flair of a specific artist, and it makes it feel rather personal. Not just the cool chicken-scratch dithered gothic-serif art style, but the extremely angular music and sfx accompanying. This would be extremely well polished if it were your tenth game, but the fact that it's your first is ridiculous. Even the falling animation and sound effect has flavor!

Minor feedback would be that I wish movement and shoot direction were separate? Maybe it's just the twin stick shooter in me but it feels a little awkward tying them together. Also, sometimes if you kill a lot of enemies at once, their sound effects layer additively and get quite loud, haha.

Fantaaaaastic work, this is really good.

sal_dream-0 by taffyko 2019-05-06T04:04:49Z

@jjoeyay Unfortunately I don't use Twitter any more, but at the very least I've followed you on itch.io! Looking forward to more of that feel in the future. I've played a couple more LD games since this one and this one is still definitely one of my top five!

Angry Planet by grllle 2019-05-06T02:21:43Z

Everything feels quite designed for such a short time period, great work on that. The audio adds a really unsettling sort of vibe for me, which is definitely not what I expected going in!

Edit: thinking about it, this game very strongly captures the feeling of when you're a kid and you turn yourself upside and are afraid of falling into the sky. Turns out the planet's been rooting for that to happen.

Fools Fortune by Gear Steak 2019-05-02T03:48:27Z

"Sire, war wages outside the castle grounds! We need to take action, we need you to lead us!"

"You see I would but this card I drew says 4 on it!"

Atmosphere here is the focus, and it's pretty good. We're in dire need of music, but that's for another day. I really like the idea of you designing the engine to easily support adding more cards, looking forward to a post-jam update!

Edit: Also, I think an in-game explanation of roll-under-skill would be helpful, looking through the comments it seems like some people went in not understand haha.

Pay Me in Blood by casperj 2019-04-30T02:33:30Z

I won't be able to play it much until later, but at the very least I can confirm the Mac build works fine!

Pay Me in Blood by casperj 2019-04-30T05:42:46Z

This is the first straight puzzle game I've played this LD, and man the others are gonna have some competition. Definitely agree with the rules being immediately obvious and immediately complex. If that last puzle is a sample of what's to come oh man bleed me dry!

Stilts by MuchosWaffles 2019-05-10T04:53:44Z

Hahaha, in a way this is the anti-idle game. There is zero automation to be earned, only waiting. And you are in ways punished harder the longer you play it. The goofiness of the art, music, and the writing through the stark contrast only further cement the rather dark message (albeit a little cliche) that you're trying to get across. You could take it to an even further meta level, where us players sitting here waiting for the dollar go up are wasting our own lives for a currency that isn't even real! My favorite detail (and I don't even know if this is on purpose) is that when you open the menu it actually covers up your family's scene--the only way you can progress materially is to turn a literal blind eye.

Very interesting as a piece of art.

Removed by Cuppycat 2019-05-02T03:16:40Z

I am an adult! I have no time for such childish things as elevators!

That was a sweet experience. Pretty good too for your first ever puzzle game! My main gripe is that while I do think it works *very* well thematically, the really slow movement does get tiring, especially given how much ground you have to cover. The music is also mixed sort of quietly, which is a shame because it's quite beautiful.

Speaking about beautiful, the artwork is great, and the age mechanic is clever. Everything here definitely contributes to the core theme you were looking to express, which I think is something missing from a lot of Ludum Dare games. Great work.

LIFEPOWERED by hawec 2019-05-13T04:40:45Z

Very stylish aesthetic, both the art and the music are minimalist in a way that suit each other well. The popping sfx feels a little out of place, but not distractingly so.

I really like the core gameplay loop--ammo and health coming out of the same pool isn't too unique of an idea this LD, but it's implemented in a cool way here. Having tank restrictions for certain sections gives it a Metroidvania flair, where you're only allowed certain powers in certain areas, but you've managed to streamline that into a single mechanic (the power tanks), rather than multiple different abilities. The various enemy types are fun and unique amongst themselves as well, keeping things varied.

My main frustration is that the game feels really *slow*. Not movement, that is slow but it feels fine given the moodiness of the game and the lack of intricate platforming. It's in things like

- The death animation takes suuuuuper long and really throws you out of the core game loop - When there are no enemies around, it's a pain just standing under the drip waiting for it to fill up (especially with those electric gates) - When you die, you lose all of your tanks, which means more standing and waiting for them to fill up

I think tightening those up would help a lot in making the game loop more fluid, especially if this game were to be expanded upon and the difficulty were to increase.

-1 (Minus 1) by Mahou 2019-05-13T03:36:29Z

That title-card is pretty haunting in retrospect.

The feeling of unease definitely works itself through the game. From the poisonous color scheme to the weirdly panicky accordions to the *literally not knowing how moves you make now will affect the outcome of the game like five-ten minutes later* I definitely don't usually feel this on edge when playing puzzle games. I can agree though that the puzzles could use a bit more work to feel rewarding--right now they're either completely straightforward, or they're "uh I guess this could work, hopefully it doesn't bite me later".

Stargem by Rheel 2019-05-12T04:29:56Z

What I like about this game is that it actually looks way harder than it is. As long as you keep moving and are aggressive with your shots, you can stay alive a lot longer than you'd think. At some point, most of my deaths came because I ran out of bullet slots, rather than running out of health. It is very impressive, being able to force the player to play aggressively.

I agree with most of the already-said nitpicks (exploding bullets is pretty hard to pull off, music didn't play for me, a UI indicator of where the blue star is would be helpful), but actually I feel like the controls are fine.

Cool idea.

Escape from Hell by Becher 2019-04-30T02:31:07Z

Nice! Everyone's said it plenty, but I'll repeat how pretty and fluid the graphics are. I like the idea of building upon prior deaths--it would be great if there were more mechanics that took advantage of this.

KNIFE=LIFE by QuadApe 2019-05-13T03:05:32Z

Ah here we go, here's the sleeper hit that I've been waiting for. Core gameplay loop is extremely entertaining and the acrobatics make you feel awesome when you can pull them off. I can agree that some sort of checkpointing would probably make me happier, but this is ultimately a hard gauntlet-style game, and checkpoints could take away from the difficulty which is core here.

The minimalist graphics work well too in keeping you focused (why'd you turn off graphics? they look great!), and the smooth yet aggressive BGM is one of my faves this LD.

Everyday by Tambosi 2019-05-07T04:55:34Z

I don't know why my character even bothers with reading, they seem to hate pretty much everything they read lol

Overall cool! Looks pretty, I like the humor.

Edit: OK I guess they like suspense novels. They'll have plenty of time to read suspense novels while smoking some dank kush on their ex-boss's back.

BraveBelly (Thiccboy hurdle jump sim) no download required by TomasMunro 2019-05-01T03:02:40Z

Of course the thicc guy loves his eggplant.

Nicely polished microgame. Doesn't overstay its welcome and does everything that it needs to do reasonably well. There isn't a ton of difficulty which is fine, but that ultimately means longer play sessions so I think you could do with a new coat of paint every 100 distances or something.

Boil Them by Sbug 2019-05-21T22:28:07Z

Congrats!

InstaLifePlus by VoidAerun 2019-05-01T03:15:22Z

I got the lose ending and literally laughed out loud, this is a pretty neat idea for a game, I've never played a horror rhythm game before. Definitely wish I could have played it on my phone as swipes are pretty hard with a mouse, but that ain't your fault.

Slot of Life by tammukka 2019-05-01T06:10:59Z

Screenshot 2019-04-30 23.12.03.png

Oh that's clever.. Good stuff, the animations are nice and smooth, give off that slick and greasy vibe befitting a hell casino. Definitely could use some music and sfx alongside, maybe even more flashing, torturous lights!

☐​☐☐☐☐ : an experimental narrative ​ by Lapersila 2019-05-05T04:29:11Z

This is a very neat way to present a narrative. I quite like how you can "rewind" to see what happened before, but you're not allowed to change it. Really cements in the timeline permanence. The minimalist modern aesthetic (both art and sound) are also quite fun.

I'm interested in hearing how the story code is structured! Was it written in such a way that it's relatively simple for you guys to add more events?

Nine Lives by foxtrotluna 2019-05-14T18:26:38Z

Bruh I’m a cat please get your own sword.