Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → jordwest
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Between My Shadows | compo | 67 | 3.93 | 3.50 | 3.29 | 3.62 | 3.86 | 4.12 | 2.62 | 4.37 | |
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Phobos | jam | 741 | 3.69 | 3.28 | 3.97 | 3.70 | 3.85 | 3.52 | 2.77 | 3.85 |
I'm on a mac, so I tried loading up the source code in the [construct 3 editor](https://editor.construct.net/) and to my surprise it just worked! (despite a warning about it being built for construct 2).
I'm glad I did because this game is FUN. Such satisfying juice, cool sounds, great music, the graphics and lighting are top notch. Hard to believe this was done in 3 days, well done
Loved the atmosphere of this game, it just feels so peaceful. The sounds they make when communicating are so cute! I'm not sure I figured out how to play it correctly though, or when interactions happen between the characters. Would be great with some in-game tips or instructions.
Very cool little platformer! Felt very smooth and fun to jump around. One suggestion is perhaps adding some "Coyote Time" to make the jumps feel a little more responsive. Sometimes it felt like I was jumping at the right time but it was just a moment too late, and in a game like this that usually means restarting the level.
Here's a great thread from the Celeste dev on Coyote time and other tricks they used: https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/1238338574220546049
Nice work for a jam!! As it is the controls are pretty confusing, but I think with mouse controls this could be a lot of fun. I also think it might be worth swapping the main camera for the bottom right first person view, with mouse aim that'd be the one I'd be looking at most of the time.
Great looking game, and a satisfying shooter!
I found the controls a bit hard to use, mostly aiming and turning around. Aiming with the mouse might feel more natural, with keyboard just for movement.
Took a bit of getting the hang of the controls, but a lot of fun from that point! The effects are pretty satisfying already, but I think with a bit more juicy feedback this could be a really addictive game.
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
> Sadly, I always only find the first crowd to get drops and dye before I find the second and I didn’t understand what the stone does when throwing.
@leeloo The trick is all in the stealth, you can only collect fear from them while they're close to you, so you need to find a way to make them afraid without seeing you (they'll bolt at the first sighting of a monster). Without giving too much away, the stones create a sound that'll get their attention if it lands nearby, and so will your footsteps when you're not sneaking.
Really unique theme idea! Cute and satisfying graphics and sounds, challenging gameplay and good replayability.
As someone who doesn't play a lot of match 3s, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that the goal is to match three of the same tile, rather than fill a row (as in another well known unnamed block falling game).
Also possibly a very minor bug - I noticed that it seems the check for matches only happens after a block has touched the one below and not after a time warp. So when I did a time warp that resulted in a match, it didn't "consume" the match until the next block landed on top of it. I couldn't work out how to reproduce that situation again though.
Overall a really fun idea!
Beautiful and chill graphics, I had a really nice time playing this.
- Love the way the background subtly darkens as you get deeper. Feels eerie - Some chill ambient audio and SFX would really tie the atmosphere together - I wish I could press a key (or right click) to scan instead of moving the mouse down to the screen button
Overall beautiful work, agree with @robowarrior1982 that this could totally be a mobile release with some polish and more content.
Arrived here from Chernobyl Simulator, exciting to check out another VR game.
Those little guys are adorable! It's actually amazing how convincingly lifelike they seem in the headset with the way they move. The fur is also really cool, is that a custom shader?
I couldn't figure out if the tools were meant to do something or are just a concept for extending the game, that would be a cool feature. Also I never found a key for the instruction book if one exists.
One minor nitpick, I finally downloaded and installed WinRAR to unpack the files, but before this I'd skipped a lot of games because they were in .rar format and wouldn't be surprised if other people do the same. ZIP format is maybe a little less optimal but doesn't need any special software to unpack on Windows so might slightly widen the audience for jams (although, the VR audience is probably already pretty narrow haha).
Amazing work, so cool to see a VR game built in such a short time.
Also for anyone else reading, please give @shadowbrain extra kudos! They've been helping other devs get their games running on SteamVR, really cool to see in this community.
Echoing the other comments here, the art is beautiful and the environments are immersive, especially with the voices. The interface feels more responsive than many full fledged point and clicks.
One very minor thing I ran into in the first scene - as I was clicking through the transmitter frequencies, a piece of dialog appeared but because I was incessantly clicking I accidentally dismissed the dialog.
Just the kind of quirky fun I'd have expected from a miziziziz game. Love how it's so effective in its seeming simplicity.
This is excellent, hilarious idea and satisfying game feel. That effect with the choir voice when you sacrifice stuff is đź‘Ś
Only minor thing is it seems that once you die you have to Alt-F4 out of the game to restart? Or was I missing something?
A really fun play, I could see this evolving into a full game with more content. Would love to see more couch co-op games in the world!
Love the concept! Feels like a very unique take on snake or tron.
Only thing is every now and then a timeline that I was dragging would suddenly end, even though it didn't collide with anything. I'm not sure if that's intended or it's a glitch and colliding with itself?
Nice work!
Really cool mechanic! Love that it forces you to be really resourceful.
One suggestion for a UI improvement... I found that I kept thinking the top next action was the current action. It might be less confusing to show the current and next actions all in the same list, but highlight the current one. Something like:
#### Action Queue - > **Shoot** < - Block - Move - Move
Haha really loved the hilarious social commentary on this one. The irony of an infinite clicker about devices.
In terms of controls, I found it a little difficult to work out how it worked at first, clicking things didn't give much feedback on what happened so I found myself clicking all over the screen until something did something. Also maybe the clickable things could have a little more contrast against the background so they stand out. On the other hand, the interface confusion kind of mirrors the real ad-filled world haha.
Loved the sense of humour, great game.
Cute music and solid tutorial. Some thoughts:
- It took me a while to work out that you could visit the market, the door is sort of hidden between the inventory hotbar. - The game froze up for me when I tried putting a meat crate on the bench, I wasn't sure how to get the meat out
Nice work on completing the jam!
Ok this is the funniest one yet, I laughed out loud several times. It feels like it belongs in a universe somewhere among Little Britain & Tim and Eric.
Game feels good to play too, typing out the keys is satisfying. Good SFX and ambience.
Really nice work.
Cool idea! I like the challenge involved in deciding whether to lock yourself down to chopping a tree or fighting monsters.
Some feedback:
- It would be good to be able to move diagonally. Eg pressing south and west at the same time would move south-west. There a [tutorial on doing that here (option 1, though you don't need a KinematicBody)](https://kidscancode.org/godot_recipes/2d/topdown_movement/) - It's pretty challenging, even on easy mode! - Feels a bit slow in the early stages, could default movement be a little faster? - Some audio and/or visual feedback when enemies are getting close to the fire might be helpful to the player. I was often off farming trees and an enemy had snuck in from a corner of the screen, I didn't know it was there until it reached the fire.
Overall I had fun! Great game.
Love the concept! Nice graphics and responsive controls.
I couldn't quite understand the candlestick mechanic though - when I place a second candle it doesn't seem to light until the first one goes out?
Same problem as @widdershin here, it might be that there's a build option missing for a release in Unity. I don't have Unity installed, in case that makes a difference.
It's working for me now!
I think this idea has potential with a little juice. Some thoughts:
- The particle effect every time you move the chip is a little distracting. The others (collecting suits) are great, they just sort of get lost among the move particles. - Even just some rudimentary sound effects (like with [sfxr](https://sfxr.me/)) would go a long way to making the game feel more responsive. It's amazing how much even a simple sound can transform the feel of a game. - Some visual feedback on which suits have been collected would help, I wasn't sure which suit to go for each time. - If you haven't already seen the classic "Juice it or lose it" (on YouTube), there are a tonne of ideas in there that would work really well in this game
Nice work, and congrats on completing the compo!
This was fun, I think there's real potential in it. Some thoughts:
- The UI around upgrades could be a little more descriptive - it's not clear what the different stats do - It would be cool to be able to click on units (friendly and enemy) to see their stats, HP etc.
Nice work!
Very cool, unique puzzle idea, relaxing visuals and satisfying game feel. Super impressive that it's built with vanilla JS and canvas.
I couldn't work out if there was a way to restart a level when you've failed so I just refreshed the page - was I missing something?
I had fun with this, it was challenging, the enemy AI is surprisingly good for a jam game. The music works really well with it.
It would be cool to have upgrades to cannons, speed etc. The shooting mechanic felt a little slow sometimes. I wished I could shoot two single cannons in quick succession rather than a double shot.
Nice work!
Pretty incredible graphics for a compo game! The interface also feels really smooth and responsive.
I could quite work out any strategy, but it felt satisfying to play nonetheless. I think it has a lot of potential, with some more cards to play and a little more strategy involved it could be a lot of fun.
This was a lot of fun! I felt like I was learning and get better at using the different classes as I played, that's always an enjoyable experience.
One thing is the allied AI was a bit frustrating sometimes, like a single warrior just marching right into a horde of enemies haha. I found myself wishing there was a way to toggle warriors between offensive mode and holding their position (so I could draw the enemies back within range of the archers).
Overall, a fun game, nice work!
@corporation
> me personally felt like the balance was a little off
Yeah I agree the balance could be improved, but that's just the nature of jam games, there's not enough time to balance everything. I think it has a lot of potential with some tweaks though.
@scrawny do you remember which weapon you were using? There are a bunch of collision checks that are happening when the "reject" weapon is fired that might be the issue, I might need do find a way to reduce those.
@noobhereo that's very kind, thank you! I would have loved to have more time to add more cutscenes and flesh out the story.
> EDIT: The sounds by the way; they are amazing. No clue how you managed to make this game in 48 hours!
The sounds were actually one of the easier parts, I spent probably around 3-4 hours on them total. For horror games the secret is reverb. Take pretty much any sound - banging a table, voices, breathing, then reverb on top of reverb on top of reverb... covers up most inconsistencies :) The weapon sounds and background ambience were made in FL Studio with the open source Surge XT plugin - I use it a bit like a fancier SFXR. Piano and string instruments come from Spitfire Audio's free LABS plugin, again horror is easy here because you can get away with simple one-note beats, single drawn out notes, or playing random discordant notes that sound really off.
@sirjupitron
> Feel like very close or deep feelings are presented in a cinematic like, tough one, in a good way.
Thank you, that's what I was hoping for!
@eaglev
> I did find it a bit too easy to beam away the shadows, which made them a lot less scary.
Agreed, I wish I had more time to work on the balance but as always that fell to the bottom of the priorities. Definitely needs some more difficult enemies.
And yes, the double dash is because it's the only upgrade left at the end if you've upgraded the primary all the way. I wanted to add more upgrades too but that was another victim of the time limit
Haha this is excellent, I actually laughed out loud. The difficulty ramps up well and it's such a fun idea for the theme.
I struggled for a while to find the pull cord for the curtains, if that's unintended maybe there could be a little more colour contrast between the interactive elements and the other parts of the scene.
Great game!
Haha this was really unique and fun! I wouldn't have thought I'd enjoy shoveling coal for fun!
Loved the cutscenes and voice acting too, that really added to the whole experience.
Haha chaotic and fun, I love it. The rubber bandy controls felt like they fit really well with the quirky aesthetic.
One thing I wished for was if the red sphere would indicate when they're about to expire, like flashing, or changing size or something. Quite a few times I'd start chasing a sphere only for it disappear just before I reach it.
Overall a fun play!
Love the art style, and the game feels really responsive.
One small trouble I had is that if I accidentally click outside the game, I can't seem to get focus back on the game and WASD stops working. Since you're using Godot, have you considered using [`MOUSE_MODE_CAPTURED`](https://kidscancode.org/godot_recipes/input/mouse_capture/)? It might solve the issue.
Great game!
Hi, I'd love to try this, but I couldn't get SteamVR to recognise it as a VR game - it just shows up as a desktop app for me. I've added the executable to my steam library but it still doesn't seem to launch within VR. Is it exported as an OpenXR game or something else? Is there a step I'm missing?
Just got around to playing it with the patch, works perfectly now (I'm running a Quest 2 via Virtual Desktop). Thanks for solving the problem @shadowbrain!
Some thoughts: - The glowing refined uranium looked so cool - The physics were a little jumpy, and when I dropped the instructions they fell through the floor - It was immersive enough that I actually jumped when the reactor exploded haha - Movement felt a bit frustrating and slow, but I guess maybe that's the point. Was wishing I had teleportation, but that would also change the balance of the game.
Amazing work building a VR game in 48 hours, and I'm happy to see you've hit the min ratings. I think you've inspired me to try doing a VR game next jam :)
This is excellent for a first 3D game and only in 24hrs! The atmosphere is cool, I like the way the music builds up. I tend to agree with @ryne that the music gave it a more DOOM vibe than creepy, if that's what you were going for.
It took me a while to find the monster, I wasn't sure if there was going to be anything to shoot (I'll be honest I didn't read the description before playing) so I just wandered around for a while and had a bit of a jump scare when it did appear.
One thing I noticed is it feels like the player is a `RigidBody` with acceleration and a sort of weightiness and momentum, which is cool if you're going for realism. For game feel I tend to prefer `KinematicBody` driven player with instantaneous movement - while less realistic it just feels a bit more like the controls are connected with the player. Also I noticed the gun starts shaking when you aim down sights while running, that might be related to the physics especially if the gun is a child of the player.
I love the dolly zoom effect while sprinting, that's a nice touch. Nice work!
Great ambience, and I love the retro feel of the graphics style. The feel of grappling asteroids is pretty satisfying.
I was a bit confused at first thinking the dots on the minimap were distant stars, maybe it could have some visual separation to differentiate it from the play area - eg a different background colour?
Also some parallax stars would really help with orienting the sense of speed/movement when there are no asteroids around.
Nice work!
This is really interesting! I love the visuals and audio (although the voices were kinda terrifying haha)
I'm not much of an infinite runner player so I'm not sure if this is intentional, but it feels like the slide is not very forgiving in terms of timing. If the animation hasn't completely finished, I can't start another slide or jump which is what usually ended runs for me.
Also agree with others - it would be good if I could at least click to skip the typing out of each piece of dialogue.
I had a fun time playing overall. Nice work!
I laughed out loud when I first saw what the fist weapon does haha. The idea of punching asteroids out of the sky... I hope NASA is looking into this :)
I wasn't sure if I needed to worry about asteroids falling in areas on the other side of the globe. I assume if the alert indicator isn't there, it's fine?
Simple idea, well executed. Nice work.
Love the minimalist neon aesthetic! Took me a while to get the hang of the controls, the tips in the description helped.
I think the hitboxes on the enemies could be a little more generous. It felt like I made quite a few shots that should've hit but went through the corners of the enemy.
Also some visual feedback when the enemies are hit would be useful. The first time I played it I thought my shots weren't hitting at all, then realised they had HP. Just changing the colour of the enemy for a fraction of a second would probably be enough.
Great game, nice work!
Cool game! Looks like there's some gimbal lock when flying near the poles, you could likely solve that by using [quaternions](https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/111051/what-is-a-quaternion) or [rotors](https://marctenbosch.com/quaternions/), but it's not like it's a game breaking problem. Nice work!
Too real, haha! Reminds me of opening Slack on a busy day.
Some thoughts: - Is it just me or is mouse sensitivity really high? - Love the 2D illustrations, they really give the workers some character in a 3D environment - Would love a sprint button, maybe as a powerup?
Fun and unique idea, nice work!
This looks great, unfortunately I'm having trouble getting it to run. The loader works fine, but as soon as the game starts I hear one note of the piano soundtrack and then it crashes without any error. I'm running an RTX 3060 Ti.
Event Viewer shows this in the crash logs, if its of any use: https://gist.github.com/jordwest/bf981e145825e18f56ec2e8bf9eb4c47
This was fun, cool puzzle mechanic.
A few thoughts: - Would be great if I could skip the typing of the narration text. As in pressing space or enter would skip to the end of typing animation. Especially when you die a lot like I do, it's a little annoying having to watch that animation each time. - When I start the game the sprint shows (2), but as soon as I activate it once it goes to (0). I would've expected that I'd have two uses of it. Is that a bug or does it mean something other than the number of uses?
Great work for your first LD!
I like the feel of the game! Very chill audio and music, with visuals to match. I think there could be a bit more variety in the game play (eg different collectibles) but it's a good start.
I did notice I got game over screen a bit randomly though, it wasn't clear what caused it so I'm not sure if it was a bug or something actually hit me? Or did I run out of time? Maybe pausing on the screen for a second to highlight what happened before showing game over would help the player learn? (This was a common piece of feedback in my game too :)
Also since you're using Godot, have you considered doing an HTML5 export? It should be able to handle a game like this pretty easily even with GLES3 and might make it easier for people to play (esp those without a Windows PC)
Nice work!
@aka-black-dog It happens to all of us, it's not easy to complete a game in 72 hours, that's what the feedback time is for. Congrats on finishing your first LD!
This is really cool! Unique and interesting mechanic, and the graphics while simple work really well.
A few ideas for improvements:
- Drawing a line from the planet to the cursor might help guide the eyes when targetting - The controls were a bit difficult to get the hang of, although maybe that's intended? Releasing to fire then clicking again to detonate might be more familiar. - I missed that you could guide the missile after launching until I read @jsmitq's comment. Drawing a line from missile to cursor might help with this too.
Also congrats on your first released game, nice work!