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John Darrington

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrHuMo
201841Combine 2 Incompatible GenresPuzzled and Dating a Monstercompo2973.463.463.063.063.463.853.40

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

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Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

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Mood vs Overall

Comments by John Darrington

LD41 — Combine 2 Incompatible Genres

Snakeout by BoltKey 2018-04-23T04:04:59Z

Clever game mechanics, good sound effects and physics - didn't feel glitchy or slow at all.

Heartless Ninjas by King Kujito 2018-04-23T18:37:41Z

You've hit on something pretty freaking cool here. Building up a tower defense that you can still beat, but the PC can't is genius. You're fighting against the computer on two different things, it's a great mashup and I feel it hits the theme very very well. Very impressed with how much you got done - I'd seriously run with this idea.

The Sparrow Served Danger by incobalt 2018-04-23T22:13:00Z

I'm not sure what this did to incorporate the theme - but this time around was super tough. It was dark and spooky (due to your unfinished graphics) but it worked well with that music. 48 hours isn't a lot of time, I'm sure you felt like you had a timer that a minute == six seconds in real time :D

Jump Beat by notime4games 2018-04-23T03:10:07Z

This was the first game I've rated for the compo - and it's a great start. It took me a minute to grasp that I can only do the actions when I hit the beat - once that realization hit I was sold. It's a great proof of concept and it's a game I'd love to watch continue to develop.

The only real critique I think to offer might be more about me than you, I just felt like grasping the concept took longer than it should.

Line 'em Up by mao 2018-04-23T04:03:00Z

I sucked at this game - but not because it was bad. It was actually a big challenging to me and I enjoyed that. I'm very very very glad you made some tutorial screens :)

Zap Herder by foolmoron 2018-04-26T02:02:55Z

Loved the mechanic, loved the "sharpshooter" reminded me of quake. Polished idea, was hoping for more random dying based on your description :D

Atlas Runs by Secretmapper 2018-04-23T04:09:31Z

clever idea! I really liked the dual camera setup as well. There are some bugs- but what you accomplished in so little time is amazing. Keep going with this game and idea!

Mob Defense by dkdwrek 2018-04-24T21:47:04Z

Enjoyed it quite a bit. I agree with @kilosaurus reminded me a lot of old games I played. I liked the concept of the game, good mashup of existing game mechanics. The music fit well with the theme of being a mobster. :thumbsup:

Neural Network Ratatouille by polegar 2018-04-27T02:14:40Z

Holy sh**. This was amazing - and one of my favorite ideas here this year. I was impressed with the hard work in finding a good mechanic.

Flatformer by Nick Rafalski 2018-04-23T18:29:35Z

Red beam was awesome. Audio effects felt great. It was a little slow - however, the complexity you were able to squash in there is great. I work as a software developer too, and graphics are always last on my mind. Yours was the first source/project code I dived into because of it.. Awesome job :D

Battleship CRUSHER by Hilvon 2018-04-27T02:11:44Z

Good idea - my wife and I had a blast.

Space Maths by mikedirl 2018-04-24T03:36:08Z

Enjoyed the combination of the genres and the music was great. I liked @gemberkoekje ideas of some screen shaking or something more visualizing for players. I liked the mechanics of it - very very clever.

mechROMANCER : a top down shooter dating sim about relationships by Useless 2018-04-27T02:17:44Z

So many dating games - I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Great job - I liked @Aaron Nemoyten word of "hilariously hard" exact same thoughts.

Mad King by agrdev 2018-04-24T21:56:10Z

Dude this was awesome. Fantastic gameplay mechanic - really enjoyed it. So much room to grow this idea. Graphics are simplistic - but it reminded me a ton of Kingdom - and that game is amazing. Thanks for being a solid gem amidst other games

True Love Adventure by neowhoru 2018-04-24T03:30:47Z

The art on the building is great. They felt authentic to me. I'd almost have focused on the buildings and the graphics and don't a simpler mechanic.

Dicey by Tim Eriksen 2018-04-23T03:23:34Z

I got a very FTL like vibe from where the graphics are heading. I'm sorry you didn't have time to flesh our more of your ideas, I could see where this would have kept my attention for a lot longer. I like the concept of the game and I think it warrants some more Proof of concepts. Thank you for all the work you did!

Perplexive Perspective by quixatocs 2018-04-23T18:25:09Z

This was a ton of stuff to have done in 48 hours - great job! I enjoyed the music, and it lent great atmosphere to the lava. Controls felt way squishy - almost like I was on ice the whole time. I liked the concept of the game, though some more visual cues on time skipping might be better early on.

fantastic job mate :)

Order Up! by jchaplin 2018-04-25T21:23:27Z

I literally fell out of my chair when that first sound hit at the start of the game, caught me so off guard. Enjoyed the game, it was hard though - and I wonder if that's because of the controls as they felt a little soft. Great sound affects, and I really like the concept of the game. Overcooked + Super Meat Boy would be a fun combo.

Claude Van Clam Presents: Roberto Fishermun's Horrific Fishing Adventure 2019 by The Enigma 2018-04-25T21:13:49Z

Great pixel art. I really enjoyed the game. Was super tough for me - I really liked fishing, now I'll be paranoid about an army of fish coming after me. I loved the inclusion of the theme - you might have hated it, but you did a great job implementing it.

My little secret (by Rapter and NomadFox) by Rapter 2018-04-26T02:06:58Z

Freaking creepy. Good music , perfect for the atmosphere - I'm done rating games tonight thanks to you ◉︵◉

Kartonnki by Dumivid 2018-04-24T03:40:01Z

I thought I was a smart person. Concentration and matching was apparently not something I was destined to play. "Casual" because you can play it in business casual clothes, "Hardcore" because you can get fired for swearing at your machine while you're playing at work.

BouncePUNCH by wsKilljoy 2018-04-23T22:15:54Z

I enjoyed the starting screen music - felt like a 1960's diner lol. This game gave me such bad flashbacks to my early SSMB days - getting shoved off the edge I wanted to yell at the other person playing. Simple mechanics executed well. :thumbsup:

S.M.A.R.T. by FussenKuh 2018-04-23T03:35:29Z

I'd love to have this as a mobile game for my boy. Concentration is a fun game, practicing memorization is great - but having that paired with racing would blow his mind. Clever idea. Enjoyed the music. Not much feedback to give. I find it hard to give real solid feedback when the idea is there, everything is going in a good direction etc. because I know how little time 48hrs is when you're doing some of these things from scratch. Good on you :)

1884 - Golf over Africa! by slashie 2018-04-26T01:59:16Z

Good idea. Graphics and controls felt good - good physics

Battlefield Hearts by zanhava 2018-04-23T03:20:44Z

If you can, you should fill out some information about your game here.

I ran into a game breaking bug: once I clicked one of the people I couldn't exit the conversation bubble. I tried all the keys and clicking everywhere, had to reload to go in. Also didn't even realize that I had to click the door to go anywhere , having some kind of visual indicator is good.

It felt like you had a lot you wanted to do, and a lot you started, but not enough time to finish. Something I've learned this Compo is that keeping scope small is so important. Simple and Fun is better than Complex and Not working/fun.

Pretty Crowded Dungeon by sprvrn 2018-04-24T03:26:36Z

There's a reason you're getting a crap ton of reviews - this game was fantastic. It felt like a solid polished game, even having only taken 48 hours. Well freaking done man. Loved the audio, the gameplay mechanics were fantastic.

Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington 2018-04-23T04:23:07Z

@Crown Games that was a 2am addition. I wanted one more to make that initial screen square and it was all I could come up with. Glad you liked it :)

Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington 2018-04-24T14:53:25Z

Thanks @Secretmapper - I looked for a tool I was extremely familiar with so that I could focus on the mechanics and assets. I think there is some power behind Vue.js for these types of games, puzzlers and interface games.

@Dumivid I'm glad you pointed out it's easy to understand - it was one of my bigger concerns so I tried to streamline as much as possible. Then I was freaking out because I wasn't sure if it was too simple. I'm glad I made a finished product though.

@DeltaNutmeg I can see where a repetitive part is - but could you explain what part the "guessing" is? That way I can tweak the game for when voting is over. Thanks for the compliment on the design.

@Chris Coe - the reason I focused on simplicity and a technology that's not normally used for games is so that I could focus more time on the assets like music and graphics (both of which I haven't tried my hand at for years) and leverage the things I feel I do very well at - like writing.

Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington 2018-04-24T21:47:55Z

Good point @BoltKey - I was running close to the wire at the end :)

Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington 2018-04-25T02:20:41Z

@DeltaNutmeg looking at the code.....I only have 6 positive choices total. Whoops :D

Puzzled and Dating a Monster by John Darrington 2018-04-25T21:43:46Z

Thanks @Carvster glad you enjoyed it :) Something that's not readily apparent is that Robert and Melinda do give different answers. Not much more in replay-ability - but I figured a good, polished experience once was a good goal for a first jam.

91' Evolution Football by Derek Volker 2018-04-23T18:32:43Z

Finding where I was on the field was pretty hard. I wasn't able to move diagonally with the ball very fell, and because of that my actions where pretty clunky. I liked the song, felt like I was playing Contra Soccer or some such. At the title screen/name I'd hoped you'd added some more humour or played on the Russian no rules soccer some more.

Life Simulator 9000 by Alans Antics 2018-04-23T03:59:25Z

I lost it when I was an owl and "pooped out a mouse skeleton". This was amazing - I'm sad you only got 28 hours on this one, I think you'd have an even better job on your hands. I really liked the humor, it was the first game that made me literally laugh out loud. Where were you when I was writing my dialogue? XD

Cold Stars. Empty Voxels. by Alexander Danilovsky 2018-04-24T03:37:59Z

I liked what I could play - but after about 2 minutes I got some vertigo pretty badly. I liked what I saw.

Endless shooter by theBOSS12 2018-04-23T18:21:36Z

good work on getting the game done in time. Not much in the way of going with the theme, but still it was functional and well built. The mechanics were very simple, but not in a bad way.

TypeBoxer by KScorp 2018-04-23T03:43:02Z

Other games I played I wasn't trying to win, simply experience the game. With yours though, man I couldn't let the computer beat me at freaking typing! I take pride in my WPM! That being said...I'm not sharing my score. Sound was sharp to my ears, I muted it halfway through because of the treble. I think some tweaking on the sound and if possible - a small 15 second song loop would have been fantastic.

Elemental Monk by Biterkid 2018-04-23T03:16:50Z

I enjoyed the music, it made trying to figure out the game possible instead of leaving quickly. I liked the idea of the game, but the UI felt a little cluttered and the movement of the characters wasn't entirely clear at first. In the end (and maybe this was the point) I just had to find the right order to push into the people and hope that luck got me to the end.

CHARLIE by notb 2018-04-23T03:48:03Z

Biggest complaint - it was so hard to see Charlie :(

The concept of the game is awesome - I'm a sucker for music building games. You were able to accomplish a lot with 48 hours, and I could spend some serious time going through it. Super impressed I loved all your write up too! It made me connect just a little deeper and think about it as a little world, instead of just a music creation game.

10/10 would make crap music again.

⏰ :alarmclock: by Stralor 2018-04-23T03:29:09Z

I had no idea wtf kinda story I was making, but I loved every minute of it. About halfway down I was making up my own story for each of the emoji - felt like Dwarf Fortress Lite (or fisher price dwarf fortress). This is a pretty innovative idea man. The only criticism I have, and I'm not sure how you'd go about it, is making the progression of the game a little more obvious. I wanted some kind of end-state but it took forever to get there, if there was one. Some signs along the road would have gone a long way in giving structure to a fantastic idea.

Rolling Soccer by palsina 2018-04-24T21:49:50Z

Dude - this was brilliant. Such a fantastic concept - full 5 there. There's a lot of polish that could happen - but for 48 hours I can't complain about it. This is a game that would feel great on mobile, and I really think you should pursue it. Was impressed with the graphics as well.