Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Joe Sycalik
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Oddblock | compo | 450 | 3.23 | 3.23 | 3.08 | 3.92 | 3.26 | 2.82 | 3.00 | ||
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Hungry Hungry Shippos | compo | 341 | 3.39 | 3.47 | 3.34 | 3.76 | 2.67 | 2.43 | 2.25 | 2.81 | |
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | 👥 | Gem Rush | jam | 2.93 | 2.81 | 2.43 | 3.50 | 2.75 | 2.71 | 2.43 | 2.91 |
Nice work! The art looks fantastic and I really enjoyed the music as well! The presentation overall was great, though I did find myself a bit annoyed by the popups at the bottom (stress increasing/decreasing, etc) overlapping the buttons at times. Overall, it's a cute, relaxing game. Some more variation and some visual indicators of stress and other fluxuating elements would be nice!
Cute game! Those archers sure do hurt! I really like the concept and 3D art, as well as the title screen music and menu aesthetic! The eating controls do feel a bit weird and I personally would have liked it if the music in game sounded as good as the menu music(the recording sounds a bit muddied). I'd also agree that the fireball disappears a bit too quickly.
Nice work, I really enjoyed the music! The gameplay was pretty fun, albeit a little frustrating at times (I played with a controller) though I was improving over time. Maintaining any accuracy felt fairly tough and it felt like the enemies shooting at you wasn't telegraphed as well as it could have been (sometimes it looked like I was nowhere near any projectiles but I was still getting hit rapidly). The tinier enemies in level 2 were cool as well!
The game was a lot of fun! Really nice job; it matches the theme very well! Overall I thought it provided a really good challenge! Thanks for sharing on stream last night!
I had a lot of fun with this! Was cool to see how it fit the theme at the end there! I would definitely recommend making the nutcracker's projectiles stick out a bit more, as they're a bit small.
Thank you for the feedback! Pushing out a patch that changes those shoot controls. I agree that it was a bit awkward and admittedly not tested thoroughly enough before being pushed today.
Yes, the player is currently able to essentially ground himself on the wall. Though initially a bug, we decided to keep it due to the belief that it made the game more interesting (it does need to be tuned for consistency in regards to registering the player as grounded and resetting their jump). I didn't do any work myself on the physics end, but it would be a good opportunity for me to experiment with it.
I personally found that we were having a blast with the local multiplayer in our playtests. Much of the weekend was spent echoing the mantra "It's a feature, not a bug." I do wish we had implemented some basic AI to give players the chance to experience multiplayer play when nobody else is around. I'm glad that you like the concept behind the game, though I'm sorry we didn't have more implemented for solo players in time!
Thank you for the feedback @banan! I admittedly hadn't even thought about the jump; however, I did run across that video earlier today while starting preliminary research into fixing the physics! So implementing new physics will be my top priority as I begin to work on expanding the game, and I'll be pushing a patch out for the jump while I take the time to dig into sections of those sections of the code that I didn't write and see what I can cook up =)
This is certainly my favorite game so far! Please do continue to expand upon it because you definitely have a real gem here! Seriously, I have nothing but praise for this game! It might be good to have an arrow to your seat in the future if you expand on the game and made bigger or more complex levels, but I personally love how hectic it gets =)
It's a fun concept! The player feels very floaty and the momentum feels weird though. Something about how it controls doesn't feel very tight or precise, which can certainly make it a bit frustrating given the precise movement needed on certain levels. Additionally, the point where you can no longer jump when moving off of a ledge feels a bit off (there were a few time I had momentum and was right at the edge of a platform but it wouldn't let me jump).
Some other recommendations: Give players a button to return to the main menu Let players skip the text on launch instead of having to sit through it after relaunching the game Raise the killzone, as the player currently falls for far too long.
This was a really cute and fun game! I absolutely love the visuals and audio; it looks and feels so clean! It can feel a bit strange at times, with food sometimes falling right through the broom and with the lower boundary feeling so restrictive. Great entry overall though! My girlfriend and I had some real laughs while playing! =)
@Reality-blind Yeah it happened fairly frequently. It did make things fairly awkward at times but we still had a good time playing!
It's really inspirational to see a game like this come out of Ludum Dare! To think that you put all of this together on your own in 48 hours is truly an amazing feat! The lighting and particle effects really help draw everything together, and I think the concept matches the theme very well! Congratulations on a job well done!
Very interesting concept! I think that the game could be a bit unforgiving at times, as the physics seemed to be a bit too aggresive in many cases. I thought it was really fun though and overall executed well. Thank you for having a way to quit the game easily (Esc). The art was simple, but cleanly made. Very nice entry =)
Very cool game! Definitely a unique and interesting concept! I love that you can "draft" your own set of pieces, and I thought the music was a great fit!
I'd love to see this game made with some cleaner art and released on mobile. I think it has a ton of potential =) Great entry!
Loading in and being hit by a wall of text is never great, and despite that I was still not sure what I was supposed to do initially. Once I figured it out, I found myself having a lot of fun with the game though! It's a very interesting and unique concept (as far as I know). It certainly is more difficult than it appears at first glance. Nice work!
This is definitely one of my favorites so far! What an interesting idea and a surprisingly very fun game! I didn't feel like there was much of a challenge at all, even during the timed mode.
I didn't really get how it hit the theme, as I never even came close to running out of space. Sometimes it was a bit hard to grab the right item (poison root), and after a while, many coins would get stuck at the front of your stand. The most serious issue though is that the book got pretty buggy at times. It seems that the way it was updating was perhaps a little strange? When there were new recipes and I was trying to navigate it, it often wouldn't cycle in the way you would expect. This was frustrating, but not game breaking necessarily.
Overall, this was a fantastic entry! The voice acting and visuals were very well done, though a little variety in the dialog for each character would have been nice. The game felt a bit slow, but it was rather relaxing. I found myself playing it far more than most jam games. Good job! =)
I absolutely loved playing this! I simply didn't want to stop!
I think it's a great take on the theme and it's executed very well! The controls feel very tight (thank you for having short hops and hold to jump higher) and there is a great variety to the guns. I could easily see myself paying for an updated version of this game. It's simple but highly addicting.
The player and enemy sprites and animations are really well done (the flipping really adds a ton of charm). Some art for the walls and background to provide more visual cohesiveness, along with some music would certainly be nice additions. I do think that the space bar would be a better choice for the jump, as the controls were initially quite awkward, but I was able to adapt quite quickly. There does appear to be a bug upon trying to restart the game, which causes the game to crash rather frequently.
This was a very well done entry with excellently executed gameplay; I had a blast playing it and I certainly intend to play it again another time. Great job!
@neipo13 I had seen that prior to submitting my comment, so I adjusted it accordingly. While there are some strong similarities. It seemed to me that your twist on the game was a good one that created quite a different feel. Additionally, I think a significant amount of the extra charm came from the animation during player and enemy jumps.
First of all, I'd like to say I'm impressed that this was all done in a custom engine.
I thought the game had a good amount of juice and little details that greatly improved the feel of the game (such as the screen shake and death animation). The graphics were well done and the controls were responsive, but the gameplay felt a bit too floaty to me.
Some nice additions would have been: -Having an option to move to the next level after beating a level in level select -Speeding up transition time after beating or failing a level would be nice. -Making the numbers selectable in level select, rather than the ROOM text above them, which seemed quite unintuitive to me
Very interesting concept! The controls felt a bit unintuitive to me, and there were often issues with accidental bookmarking of the website during gameplay. Highlighting target blocks and making it more clear when you can and can't pick up a block would have been very helpful.
When playing 2 player games, it seemed like we almost immediately ran out of blocks to use. Perhaps pulling the camera back and giving the players more space to work with would alleviate that.
This is a pretty interesting idea! There's a lot more polish and general juice than I'm used to seeing in jam games, which I appreciated. Being locked down while shrinking is a bit weird to me. I'd say it did a decent job at hitting the theme. Nice entry overall =)
Very well done! I thought the game hit the theme very well! The music was well done, though it did get a bit repetitive over time. Controls overall felt great. Animation was well done (and a very good touch for the player). The game does seem to feel a tad too slow to ramp up, but over time. Graphics were simple but well done.
Very nice job overall. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.
Very unique idea! Graphics were well done, so I hated them ;) I thought the concept overall was well thought out and well executed. I don't think it hit the theme all that well, but it was a good game nonetheless.
This was a relatively interesting idea. I thought the tribbles were interesting but overall they never really felt threatening. Outside of that, there wasn't really much that was innovative. If you're making a platformer, you definitely should look into giving a variable jump, as it was a bit floaty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KiK0Aqtmzc. The art was good, sounds and music were serviceable. Level design was pretty good, though the player could easily get "stuck" for a few seconds on level 5 or 6 I think. Good entry overall nonetheless.
@tony-li Thank you! I do wish I had left the score counter in during gameplay, as I had it implemented at one point. I'll add it back in the post-jam version =)
@gamepopper Thank you! I definitely agree that some additional visual effects and a longer and more varied soundtrack would be necessary improvements. Hopefully next time I'll be able to work with Inkscape and Bosca Ceolis a bit more quickly now that I have a better feel for the tools!
@neipo13 Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I was thinking the same after playing it a bit more. I hadn't intended for it to have such a slow start. I believe it's okay for me to tweak that scaling value or boost the starting balue within the compo rules for bug fixes, so I can have that fixed tonight =)
@chaitae Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
@boltkey I appreciate the feedback! I'm glad that you had a good experience with it =)
@iballs @shredmer Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Repetitive/annoying/terrible music and the lack of a score counter and timer during gameplay have been the main complaints I've received(which I agree with completely), so those are certainly my priorities for improvement in the post-jam release of the game! The score and timer have already been added, and I will certainly be improving the music variety and length!
@rafael-endo Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words! As mentioned, the score display and numerous other improvements to improve the game's replayability are planned! I really appreciate the point about adding colorblind support! I have added it to the game's Trello board, so I will definitely aim to provide good colorblind support on release =)
@tuism @mike-inprinciple I appreciate the honest feedback! I agree with each of your points completely. My goals for this jam were improving familiarity with tools for art, music, and sound effect creation, and creating a cohesive experience with polished gameplay. As a result, the game admittedly is quite lacking in features, sense of urgency, and general replay value. These are all getting more attention in the post-jam release, which I began to work on last night.
@manbeardgames Thank you! I also noticed that it's a little too easy at the moment to overshoot a block when moving. I'm working on a fix for this that maintains the smooth and responsive feeling of the controls others have praised.
@g4mr Thank you! I'm glad it was able to catch you by surprise! =)
@tuism The moving blocks are always drawn over the pink blocks, and the red flashing sprite is always prioritized over other moving blocks. I haven't seen any examples that seem to indicate it isn't working this way during any of my own testing. Am I misunderstanding what you mean?
When they have selected a place to drop, moving blocks will have a warning period where they will flash red-blue-red-blue-red-blue before turning pink. This flashing is meant to be drawn over everything except for the player's own shadowed sprite (which I implemented because I don't want to player to ever be in a situation where they can't see where they are).
Fun game! I thought the concept was pretty interesting and allows for a pretty fun experience.
It's weird that you have to use the arrow keys for menus, WASD to move, Click to progress in the tutorial, and click to use the sword. I think streamlining the controls a bit more would be really helpful. The collision boxes are bit too unforgiving, meaning you often are hit during times that it looks like you shouldn't. Additionally, there's a pretty big bug causing the game to essentially teleport the player to another spot at times. I'm not sure if it's just trying to make some type of correction by snapping you to a point, but it often sends you over walls and into enemies, which is just frustrating. The tutorial is admittedly too long, with way too much text as well. It would be nice if there was some animation when your energy is draining in order to make it clear that you can't attack.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that I didn't really have much fun playing the game. The randomization of spawning foods should definitely be tweaked to skew towards spawning foods that are in your current orders at least a bit. I find that most of the game is spent just waiting around and hoping that the right foods spawn, which gets old rather quickly. It tends to just feel like the game is playing itself.
The game felt rather polished, but I do wish you had the option to make the window fullscreen.
Great entry! The game felt very polished and the gameplay was fun, unique, and interesting! Not sure I really have any criticisms right now. It's executed very well =)
Nice little puzzle game! Would be nice if the teleporting animation was a little faster. Well done though!
I thought the game was very well executed! Clicker games are absolutely not my type of game personally, but I found it to be very well done nonetheless. It's a very simple, but that comes with the territory of course. The graphics were well made, the physics felt good, and everything overall was very cleanly done. It had a good, polished feel.
I felt that the sounds detracted from the game quite a bit, getting to be annoying rather quickly. Once I turned off my sound, I certainly found more enjoyment in it. I do wish that there was some way to close the game outside of using alt+tab and closing it from the task bar. Simply adding the option to press Esc to close the game would be sufficient.
I thought the visuals were very well done and it was a very creative little game! Very good job for your first LD entry and your first Compo game! It hit the theme and mood very well =)
I do think the game lacks replayability once you figure it out due to the rather simple and short gameplay, but it's a fun little game that isn't like anything I've seen or played before. I really enjoyed it!
Good work! The art was well done. Menus looked sharp and had a good look and feel.
Would be nice if you didn't have to go through the tutorial every time you died. The character movement was a bit too floaty and bugged out on edges a bit. Not a big fat of toilet humor personally, so overall it's not the type of game that appeals to me, but the execution was pretty good overall. Nice entry.
The graphics definitely are my favorite part! Combined with the music, it sets up a very nice mood. I feel like the game has a bit too much going on, especially with the huge quantity of balls that spawn on start, but it's a good job overall! Very creative and interesting approach!
This was a really interesting idea! I liked the gameplay, though I did find some frustrations. I think that time moves too quickly or that you don't have enough days. It takes a while to figure out what you need to do, even after reading all of the instructions and your description. I think having additional tasks and letting you enter a command to mass-crack the passwords would be nice, as it took me 2 days alone just to crack them. The special twist at the end was cool and overall I thought the project was very creative, fun, and well done!
This was a really cool concept! It took a little getting used to initially, as I just focused on shooting the enemies and ignored the 2D game initially. Eventually I started to get the hang of both dimensions though and I thought it was really cool! it would be sweet to see an expansion of the idea down the road! I wish I could have seen my score on the HUD during the game though. Good job =)
This is honestly one of the most fun jam games I played! I thought the multiplayer/singleplayer twist was really interesting and innovative, the movement mechanics were immense fun and I thought the interaction was hilarious! Thanks for stopping by the stream and playing it with me =)
The atmosphere you set up is really nice and I like the hand drawn aesthetic! I thought the game got a little stale after walking around for a while without much happening. Movement felt really slow due to the time you had to wait. Overall I think it's an interesting idea that could use a bit more polish and direction.
I thought the quality of life in the movement indicator was nice andzooming the camera based on number of bullets was really interesting!
Very interesting idea! I found the controls to be a bit frustrating though! I think the movement was way too fast compared to the turning speed and I think it was frustrating that you could only break and couldn't reverse. Dying is a bit jarring due to the way the camera flies back as well. The concept was really interesting though and my girlfriend and I both had a hilarious time playing it!
Really enjoyed the game! Looking forward to seeing what you guys do for the full version! There is some delay between when the GO prompt comes up and when you can start moving, and the controls are a bit floaty. I'd definitely work on refining the base controls first and ensuring it feels great, and then proceed to adding some elements like boost perhaps!