Hell's Janitor by Happy 2018-08-14T15:08:55Z
@rebdc yeah, there are invincibility frames but a bug sometimes allows enemies to hit you again during them; i wasn't able to track it down and fix it in time
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → jm2k
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | 👥 | Home-O-Mancer | jam | 172 | 3.98 | 3.87 | 4.05 | 4.55 | 4.17 | 3.74 | 3.81 | 4.00 |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | 👥 | Stylish Aeroplane Dress 'Em Up | jam | 208 | 3.94 | 4.02 | 4.18 | 4.05 | 4.23 | 3.47 | 3.60 | 3.71 |
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | BeetShield | jam | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.50 | 3.50 | ||||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | 👥 | Hell's Janitor | jam | 408 | 3.55 | 3.37 | 2.94 | 3.05 | 4.11 | 3.33 | 2.80 | 3.01 |
@rebdc yeah, there are invincibility frames but a bug sometimes allows enemies to hit you again during them; i wasn't able to track it down and fix it in time
uploaded a separate version where the bug which caused the hurt animation to be cancelled early is fixed. (the original version is still up alongside it)
@outstar i assume the pings you're talking about are the music, it gets more layered and builds up as time goes on but i can see how it can be confusing given you don't start with any other layers
Very stylish game. Looks nice and feels nice to play, feels very polished. The minigames are enjoyable, the music fits well.
While the theme is reflected in the fact the player is running out of space and energy, I feel like it could've been incorporated a bit more or in a bit more of an interesting way, maybe in the minigames themselves as opposed to just resources which are running out.
I also feel as though the concept of a minigame collection isn't the most innovative and it could've had some more management aspects; or rather the ones that seemed to be there already could've been fleshed out a bit or communicated a bit clearer (for example I wasn't sure if the theme affected which categories one should try to fill up most or whether it was just there for flavor)
I liked it overall. Incorporates the theme, gameplay is fun.
The acceleration on the controls felt a bit too heavy and I feel a bit more tightness would help make them feel a bit less awkward. Another thing I'd suggest is adding some sort of indicator, for example a shadow under the player, to the jump to make the player's current height clearer (as otherwise it gets a bit confusing in a 2D environment like this).
Controls feel decent, I like the art direction and the idea of having to trap enemies to stop them from spreading but I feel the execution was lacking in that there is barely any challenge. Maybe I was missing something but there wasn't any point during the fight where I felt threatened at all.
This could be solved by having multiple blobs spawn from different corners or decreasing the block capacity/making the cooldown more punishing. Again I might be missing something here but I also feel the segment in the beginning doesn't really have any point and just worsens the issue of the second part being too easy.
@pacman oh, i'd forgotten to publish the page in the tired haze yesterday left me in; big thanks for notifying me! should be up now
very chill and pretty puzzle game that, in contrast to my usual experience with puzzle games, left me feeling smart and satisfied instead of frustrated. the ending was also very cute... if there's one thing i'd point out it's that i think block pushing games like this reallly benefit from some sort of undo button that doesn't fully restart the level and i found myself wanting one a couple times in this.
@very-dark-lord thanks for playing and giving feedback!! you were not doing anything wrong, the system for placing parts just unfortunately ended up a bit awkward and buggy... also, to drop parts pressing the R key should work
very very fun and intoxicating game loop with a central idea that's easy to understand but hard to master (and it's incredibly satisfying when you manage to do so). also loved the visuals, very sleek and stylish.
i think the only thing i was really left wanting were more, crazier mechanics that get introduced once you're past a certain level (like special tiles with unique effects). it really feels like this is a kind of game that would support stuff like that without straying too far from its core idea.
also, a technical issue i had was that audio was seemingly panned to the left channel entirely (and i did check with other audio to make sure it wasn't just caused by my headphones)
very stylish game. the puzzles were hard but they definitely gave me the classic "ooh im on my way to figuring this one out now" puzzle game satisfaction once i did manage to solve them, good job!!
while i had no trouble getting the overall idea of having to get your house to the target zone, it took me quite a bit to get my brain away from thinking the "platforms" would allow the house to rest on or slide off of them and initially i even thought the game might be bugged on my end somehow. maybe some sounds/animations would help with better communicating the fact they cause things to bounce?
one specific thing i liked a lot is the way the game's intro screen introduced the connection stuff by just allowing you to click on things instead of there being some separate tutorial level, that felt cool.
visually i like this game a lot, it reminds me of old rts games. initially it was hard to remember whose units were whose and it would help if the units were colored by team in some way, like the flags are.
it feels very difficult to recover from a major loss or counter enemies once they have amassed huge amounts of units. that's not inherently a bad thing but i eventually found myself wanting to restart mid-game every time as i felt it was practically impossible to win at that point and starting over and trying a different strategy from the get-go would be easier.
that said, after a bit of trial and error i did manage to win a game and it felt very satisfying after all the losses that had come before it. the AI is difficult to beat but it's usually at least easy to understand *why* it beat you so i never got too frustrated. cool game!
(minor technical issue: the pause menu doesn't seem to actually pause the game)
loooove love love the idea of a musical keyboard typing game. very cool that you can connect a midi controller. very fun game.
this might be some kind of notation standard i'm just not used to but both capital and lowercase letters being used in the same pattern really threw me off and most of the mistakes i made playing were from mixing up those pairs (my problem isn't with the patterns themselves, the large intervals are nicely challenging, just with the way the notes are written)
also, something i found really cool and think is something to be played around with more if you ever expand on the game is the way multiple different enemies' note patterns flow into each other if they share notes.