JorgeGameDev

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-04-28T02:30:27Z

@xxdoombox Thanks! We were waiting for someone to comment about the Anime event, and seems like you took care of doing it. We plan on publishing a post-mortem explaining how our development progressed over time and how sticking to a simpler idea allowed us to focus on polishing it more with features like the log and the camera. Hope you look forward for it and that you had a whale of a time with the game. :whale:

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On another note, we also updated the game to **1.0B2**, which only made some small bug fixes that we weren't able to fix as we were closing up but we're taken care off, as well as fix some typos we noticed from feedback. **No new features were added** as we want to make sure we follow the Ludum Dare rules strictly to the line. That being said, those final bug fixes make the game pretty much done for the time being, and we won't be doing any more bug fixes to the game during the judging phase.

If we end up developing a post-jam version, it will be after judging. We hope you look forward for it in case we develop it! :smile:

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-04-29T22:27:20Z

Some people have been voicing concerns regarding jammers performing bug-fixes on their games. Thus, we decided to go ahead and re-submit the original submission hour builds (_1.0B0_) to itch.io. We understand that some users might believe it is unfair to judge post-game builds when they've already been updated and we completely agree with such. The build mentioned above (_1.0B2_) only has bug-fixes (no updated content) but we understand how, although some people might be comfortable judging bug-fixed games, others might find it unfair to others.

As such, itch.io now has these original versions for **Windows, Mac OSX and Linux** on the downloads section, next to the current builds, marked accordingly has **(Ludum Dare Submission Version)**. If someone who had visited this page and has read this commentary thought it was unfair to play the game because of the bug-fixes, we apologize and want to make clear our intentions were not as of trying to gain an advantage in regard to other users.

If you're looking for the original builds, make sure that you're downloading those versions. The web version will be the current day version, as most of the game's traffic, right now, on itch.io comes from users from that site alone searching for the Web version, rather than Ludum Dare users. We believe this is the best trade-off and we want to make sure we please everyone as we can. :smile: Sorry for the wall of text.

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-05-03T22:58:00Z

@simple-blue Thanks! @moski has been commenting on as many games as he can since I've been partially busy with real-life issues (still trying to look at games though). We feel we've been a bit distant from the community on past events and want to make sure we give as much feedback as possible this time around. Since we decided to stick with a simple concept this time around, it allowed us to allocate enough time to dedicate to small things like polishing the UI and even exporting it to Android. Don't feel jealous though, your game looks great!

@mikea Glad you enjoyed it!

@nuebomundo Some of the early events definitely need some tweaking for future versions. As for the cosmetics, it's not that some answers nullify others, but it's more that, if all the cosmetics started stacking, the planet would probably look really messy in the end, and we decided to have them swap around so it looked pleasing to the eye and not too much visually polluted. But overall, we're pleased that you enjoyed it! (I'm still personally disappointed that we weren't able to have all the actions and ending swe wanted on the Anime tree 👀).

@awesomealliterationalliance Oh no! We didn't mean to offend the Awesome Alliteration Alliance! We instead would like to offer our game's extraordinary extraterritorial example of alliteration to the awesome alliance! We're perfectly passionately pleased that the game satisfied your god complex! (My alliteration game is pretty bad compared to the rest of the team, sorry.)

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-05-09T01:00:05Z

@jojocanard Sometimes the RNG system can be really picky and not show some of the best choices right from the get go, which sometimes leads to players getting some of the more purposely non-satisfying endings on their first playthroughs, which doesn't always cause the best first impression (it's something we want to look into). But we're glad you gave it a few more tries and got some some of the other endings. :smile: What other endings did you get?

And yes, we completely agree, we'll definitely look into increasing the palete of early-game choices so starting a new game, although it might not be as diverse as the end-game, it still feels somewhat different every time you start over. Thanks for your feedback and for playing the game!

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@mestrerothld You can skip text by clicking twice, one for making all of the text to show up, and another for actually confirming the message. We did miss making you able to jump the "_100 Years Later_" notification though, but we want to make those skip-able on the next iterations. Thanks a lot for playing and believing the game is great enough to be a top contender of this Ludum Dare! :blush:

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@xavier-indie-gamedev We're glad you enjoyed it! We tried to make something unique with the theme and tried to give it our own charm, as we've had tried with our previous jams, and we're pretty satisfied on how it all came together. :wink:

We're also a team that believes people are much open to discussion and creativity when there's a transparent relationship between the team that creates a game and the people that play it. Even if most of us are developers here, we believe it's equally important to try and speak to everyone and be clear on things that some people might take in a different way than others. It's just the values we try to follow as individuals. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thanks for playing! Hope you had a whale of a time! :whale:

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As a foot-note to this comment-replying bulk, we will be posting some more stuff regarding the development of the game soon on the front-page. Some of the upcoming posts that we've got planned include the _post-mortem_ of the game (like always), and another post we want to do to involve to start involving more of the _Ludum Dare_ community in helping to shape the future iterations of this project. We hope you look forward to it! :whale:

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-05-17T17:00:13Z

Thanks a lot to everybody that has been giving the game a last wave of feedback and ratings before judging ends! We know we've said this multiple times already, but for us it's never too much to emphasize upon again. You guys rock!

As usual, here's another comment chunk to reply to the feedback that has been posted. We're not sure if most people tend to recheck the comments they've left on games they've commented on, but hey, we still like to reply to people. Site notifications couldn't come sooner, as we're pretty sure that, when those become a thing, much deeper conversations and feedback exchanges will be taking place over all the games.

Oh well. Meanwhile we wait for those, here comes another set of replies.

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@goncalo-monteiro I sure do! I personally still got to post the feedback I already gave you on your page as well. Will try to take care of that today! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@simplepotential We hope you actually had fun with it! Thanks a lot for playing. What elements do you think are there that help making the game fun? We would love to hear your opinion in extra detail!

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@numnumdude We tried to emphasis the curiosity of the player wanting to know what kind of cosmetics would get added to their planet depending on the choices, and decided to pair those with some references here and there in the text to make it extra engaging, and funny at times too. :smile:

Thanks a lot for playing! We hope you had a whale of a time, and @moski will definitely be happy knowing your liked the game's graphic style!

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@jackson-frankland We're glad you liked it! Polishing our games is something we always strive to achieve!

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@jupiter-hadley Thanks a lot for featuring us once again! We owe you a great part of the game’s reception and overall popularity, especially after the article you posted on _Alpha Beta Gamer_. Really, thanks for all the coverage you’ve done in the game, and we’re really glad you found it wonderful! Hopefully during the next jam. we will be able to surprise you once more!

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To finish this comment chunk off, and for any people that might come across the game until friday, we've recently posted a [blog post for people to post their own ideas and suggestions on what they would like to see on the game](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/petty-puny-planet-38/petty-puny-planet-38-planetary-expansion-ballot). We would like to involve the _Ludum Dare_ community and the people which have played and gave feedback on the game more on the development process of future iterations. As such, in case you do come across the game, please check it out, and if anything crossed your mind during your playthrough of the game do comment on it!

Meanwhile, we've been also trying to catch up with reviewing more games. It's been some busy weeks for all of us at [**Whales And Games**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) with school and professional work, but we would also like to give one last wave of feedback before judging closes. :whale:

Petty Puny Planet 38 by JorgeGameDev 2017-05-19T23:58:12Z

Judging is practically closing in, and I see that @moski's post and feedback exchange earlier certainly brought quite a great ammount of new people commenting over here!

As usual, it's time to reply to all the new comments, as the last hours on the clock tick off until the end the judging phase!

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@binaryferret Thanks a lot! Having different hats and cosmetics on the planet wasn't even on the plans originally, but once the thought crossed our mind, we knew we simply had to stick it! Glad you had a whale of a time with the game! :smile:

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@wolderado Saying this is the best game you've played so far is really flattering and we're glad you liked it!

As for the mobile version, there's already one available for _Android_ on the itch.io page, and we will be looking to add _Play Store_ support when we develop and publish the post-jam version. As for _iOS_ support, it's an harder platform to tackle given it's requirements, so we don't know if we will have a way to support it anytime soon.

Hope you have fun as much fun on your next playthroughs as you had on your first one! Tell us which new endings you found afterwards!

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@wisstopher Thanks a lot! As we've mentioned in one of the many replies above, polishing is one of the things we strive for the most, even during Game Jams. Thanks a lot for marking us as one of your favorites! :star:

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@gimbalock The @moski will definitely be pleased to hear you loved his graphics, and @zachery-blystone will also feel pretty fulfilled knowing you loved the sound effects! Thanks a lot for playing!

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@himeija Didn't know making choices could get so addictive to some players. Complied you found you one of your favorites. As for the mobile version, read the reply to @wolderado, as a version of the game is already available for mobile, but we plan on extending it's support! Thanks a lot! :mobile:

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@tony-godfrey Thanks a lot and we're glad you had a sea of fun playing the game! Glad to know we're on the top there with the game's polish, and that the whole thing feels solid. @moski must definitely be proud you found the graphics cute as well!

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@syndelis Maybe your favorite part is exactly the mix of both? Thanks for finding everything to be on the point (and for the follow on _Twitter_ as well, which we have already followed back). That's a great and very unique planet! :earth_africa:

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Thanks a lot for everyone that has given feedback on _Petty Puny Planet_ during these past weeks. We're definitely looking forward to see how the game ends up performing once the results are announced. Whatever ranking we end up achieving, it was all thanks to everyone single one of you who played the game, rated it, commented and gave feedback on it!

We definitely want to continue developing the game, and the structure in which we developed the game in lets us quickly add new features and actions very quickly. That being said, there's quite a few things we want to tackle, and some feedback we want to reply by adding new specific features to the game. We hope you look forward to it, and if you wish to keep track of any future updates, we suggest you to give us a follow over at [**Whales And Games**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) as it's going to be our main method of communication going forward (although we will definitely still post an update article here when the update happens).

Once again, thanks a lot, and we're glad everybody had a whale of a time with the game! ​:whale:​

My Very Own World by Flipsy 2017-05-01T18:20:15Z

This game was just so dorky (in a good sense) that it had me smiling at how simple and charming the game was. The simple narrative and progression of the game really kept me curious about what the next thing that was going to happen. As some of the previous commenters have said before me, the silly dance was the pinnacle of it all. It was great.

There's not a lot of stuff to say about the game really, just that it was nice seeing how the planet involved. I legit tried to destroy as many asteroids as possible thinking it would impact a bit in the direction the planet was heading towards, but in the end it was just a scripted event. :disappointed: The audio and graphics were simple, but they worked for the charm of the game.

​I know Flash has started to fall in disuse, but there's still something about it adds an extra layer of charm to games like yours. Overall, it was a nice and cute experiment. :smile: The question is, what kind of being is my uncle to be able to leave me an entire planet?!

For Eternity by holgk 2017-05-01T22:07:58Z

Played the game for a while, and finally was able to get the pyramid on my third playthrough, since there were a lot of things I missed on my first two playthroughs. Although there was a lot of stuff I didn't really get by the time I was able to complete the game's goal. It's amazing to know that someone tried to do a full-fledged city builder on the jam's limited time frame, but you can also see this was a pretty harsh limitation for a game of this scope. :disappointed:

I have to say that the instructions and tips and tricks didn't really help me much while building up my city. I was honestly confused about what counted for _Quality of Life (QoL)_ and what did not, although my suspicions by the end led me to the conclusion, that I needed workers to work at my cisterns and other buildings in order for them to count towards _QoL_, however, since my _QoL_ was low, I wasn't getting enough new citizens to satisfy those worker needs, therefor resulting in a loop-hole of not being able to get my _QoL_ up no matter the situation.

It would be nice to get a streamlined explanation of how _QoL_ works, together with more clearer instructions of what each building does. I saw in the instructions that you we're supposed to get some info if you hovered the icons, but I don't know if just seeing the _Name + Price_ was all that info, or if there was more to it. I also didn't really get the benefits of turning off trading in the trading menu, as it didn't seem to have any impacts on the prices whatsoever.

​There were a few more issues, but I have already hit the character limit. Overall, I admire your bravery to tackle a game of a scope like this in a Jam, but honestly, it's a game that would require more time in order to really show it's true potential. I hope you pick this up after judging ends (or even during it) and give it a bit more polish, instructions, and streamlined systems. After all, even with all it's issues, it still grabbed me for a while. Imagine how it would be if all the previous issues were fixed. :wink:

Super Snowman Spider Showdown Supreme by TheClintHennesy 2017-05-01T17:52:57Z

How a game with such gorgeous art didn't have a comment until now is beyond my comprehension. The game is really aesthetically appealing! The graphics are definitely the game's forte, the modelling from snowman to the spiders is really well done and cutely animated and the tittle screen illustration and logo are also nicely looking! :smile:

As for the gameplay, it's simple, but it gets the job done. The spiders shadows crawling through the inner-sphere of the globe helped create some tension as to when to exactly expect for them to come down and attack the ginger-man. On both of my playthroughs, my time-span was about of 160. :snowman:

Some things we're a bit disorienting regarding the gameplay though. I've noticed there was a small cool-down to when you could fire carrots at the spiders and I think a small indicator of when you could fire again could have helped establish when I could fire again instead of guessing if I had or not passed the cool-down yet when I pressed the fire button again. I also found the camera slightly disorienting at times, but I would guess me having two monitors plugged in was also a bit at fault here. I wouldn't say it's really that much of a big deal.

I don't know if it your team was the one composing the music or not (since you opted-out of that category), but I did feel the loop became somewhat repetitive after a while, and the music suddenly cuts off near the end when you're almost defeated. I think having just a little more to the loop would be enough to the looping less noticeable.

On another small and minor note, the _Main Menu_ button on the _Pause Menu_ quits the game instead of going back to the _Main Menu_. Just a small issue really. I also liked you had some sounds options for the players. ​:wink:​

Overall, again, I really have to praise the graphical aesthetics of the game. Hope you get more comments with feedback soon, as the game really deserves it!

Minor Alternative Destroyer by wolderado 2017-05-17T22:04:10Z

Gave your game a try. A simple yet fun game to play. I personally liked the idea of a endless runner set across multiple rooms representing parallel universes and how the apocalypse explosion was chasing after you. It's not terribly innovative, but it serves its purpose.

I also liked the mechanic of how running over certain props in the world gave you extra bonus points, almost like as an incentive to try different routes and see what's the best way to increase your score while speed is building up. :stuck_out_tongue:

There's not much to say regarding gameplay other than what's been said above. However, even if I'm not our teams artist, I do have to agree with the previous comment and say that the different pixel scaling between objects is really the only major problem I see in the game.

Basically, what I mean is how certain objects both in the background and foreground use different pixel scaling references. It's kind of difficult to explain by words, so I've added a mushroom picture example by the end of the paragraph. Notice how, in the scaled mushroom, one border pixel isn't exactly one pixel, but multiple ones together. Having multiple sprites with different 'border sizes' like this creates a clashing sensation, and disorients the player a bit when it comes to environment scale which exactly the problem with sprites in your game. Giving sprites a small touches, like the manual touched-up mushroom, where each border pixel is exactly one pixel helps the game look much more consistent.

MushroomExample.jpg

I understand the game was made under a tight time limit and some stuff needed to be prioritized/cut as a consequence, but in case you plan to revisit this later after _Ludum Dare_ I would definitely suggest you to work together with another artist, as I can definitely see see this becoming a fun and fast-paced endless runner to play on a mobile, even if it's just for a quick playthrough. :smile:

We at [**WhalesAndGames**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) have given you a follow with on Twitter, as we're always looking for more creators and developers alike to follow, and we would also love to keep track of your work - especially if you decide to continue working on the game after judging ends. Cheers and we hope to see more from you in the future! ​:whale:​

Symbios by drestuff 2017-05-01T20:42:30Z

Whow! This entry really has a lot of polish to it! I loved the overall small details of even being able to move the cells/microbes around on the tittle screen. I played two rounds of the game and was able to get a perfect colony on the second run, doing the exact same strategy that @wtoa mentioned above, and sectioning the map into two separate corners. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Overall it's really a great and solid entry, but the one thing I didn't understand in terms of gameplay was the purpose of feeding healthy bacteria to the microbes. Did it make them distracted for a moment or was it for some other purpose? I wasn't really able to find what exactly they did, especially after using the separation strategy.

I also really like the music and how it fits with the game, as well as the simple graphics of it. Everything is simple in nature, yet effective. Congrats! :smile:

A Platformer for Ants by Elendow 2017-12-11T00:52:01Z

A Platformer for Ants

Now that was a really nice and clever gimmick! It was definitely a very familiar platformer in terms of controls, but the whole camera reducing size as it went made it mush fresher and fun to play. The idea of the checkpoint flags being used as both checkpoints and as a way to reset your camera view was also really spot-on, and I loved the touch how they were always in extra challenging rooms to make you question if you wanted to risk getting to the flag or not.

Overall, I really liked it and the only thing that made me feel kind of sad was due to how short it was. :disappointed:

I'd love to see this idea further expanded and improved upon on (which, given from your comments above is something you already have in mind)! I can definitely see several ways that this mechanic could be used for all sorts of different puzzles and perspectives, and would really like to see it take off.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), I must congratulate you for the really cleaver gimmick (and fellow _Newgrounds_ feature too!). I will definitely look forward for the future version of this game if you decide to push it forward, which I think you definitely should! :whale:

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-07T02:23:33Z

Well then! As @moski wrote just right above on the previous comment, the amount of feedback we’ve got in such a small spawn of time is really overwhelming. We’re really humbled by all the feedback and overall opinions you guys have left so far, and we can’t thank them enough! :yellow_heart: Hopefully as we go along during the rest of the judging phase, we are able to share some more insight on how the whole thing was created.

As @moski started doing on the previous comment, here’s our replies to all of your feedback so far! @Blizary Glad you liked Jazzychan! If it wasn’t for the fact that I know you and know that the P.S. is a joke, I’d probably be making a full-fledged rant at this very moment. Gladly, that’s not the case, and I can simply shove the game on the face of the professor that thought that idea was good idea. :thinking:

@kroltan Thank you for keeping up with us Kroltan (especially on Discord)! I’m really proud of how the overall Menus came out too. There’s nothing to shame about having spent an undisclosed amount of time clicking on them, we did it too. I’m pretty sure @RobinhoodPT would love to implement that sort of procedural music at some later date!

And yes, you’re totally right. I was worried during the whole development process if we were giving out enough feedback or not when you hitted other fans, and apparently, it was a bit on the lesser side. Same thing with the ranged ability (which was the trumpet). Since the collisions were being checked globally with all the fans, it seemed more like a knockback than direct damage when hit large groups at the same time (despite only supposedly hitting one). Oh well, food for refinement. As for the pallete issue, @Moski will take note of that. Thanks a lot for your feedback!

@Gruhh Thanks! More feedback is something that’s been being requested a lot. E temos todo o prazer que tenhas gostado da arte e da jogabilidade! :smile:

@james-studd After some certain fandoms went a bit too crazy at local McDonalds for some sauce, I’m not sure punching would do much better. Glad you liked it! @Moski certainly had a blast with all the art process! @ollec I’m not going to lie and simply say that, when I read your comment yesterday, I felt like my heart just melted on the inside. Your whole comment about WAG was just really humbling. :blue_heart: As @Moski left in your page yesterday, our congratulations as a team on such a fun game of yours! Hope to see more from the future from you too! Glad you really enjoyed it!

Not so sure about the part of having it as a commercial title, but you never know what the future might hold, isn’t that right? :wink:

@Danneh Awesome Indeed! :trumpet:

@brandon-anderson We’re glad you liked the art! Poor @Moski is still complaining about how much his wrist hurt by the end of it all. :whale: But yes, TWEWY and Skullgirls were definitely two inspirations when it came to the art. We’ll definitely look into tweaking the combat. Thanks for your awesome feedback!

@muromets Balancing out the SFX and the Music up was one of the big challenges when it came to this project. Sadly, it seems the SFX ended up a bit too muffled by the actual Music (when @RobinhoodPT was exactly worried about the opposite). In the tweaking list it goes. We’re glad you liked it!

@guoboism Fans won’t actually collapse or disappear. As you’ve mentioned, fans will constantly be converted between sides, meaning that neither idol will hold them out for more than a short period of time. Your progress is mostly seen through the idol’s health bars at the top, which will start depleting as they’re hit by fans. The more fans you control at the time, the more chances of them causing damage to Bluessom there are.

As for the theme - ‘The more fans you have, the worse it is… for the opposing rival!’!

@andrewballinger Glad you liked it! Animation is all on @Moski this time around! He spent the last days prior to the jam learning how to work with that part of Unity just to make it sure it was perfect!

(Continues Next Comment)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-07T02:24:43Z

(Continued)

@ithildin Theme interpretations are always a bit questionable. Even if we thought it scrapped by, some people are likely to think it doesn’t fit that well, and that’s an opinion (and rating) everyone is allowed to have. The ultimate skill definitely needs some tweaking as we mentioned on the previous answers. Glad you found it interesting, and we’ll definitely let you know when we make some tweaks to it!

@renato-felix-martins Glad you liked it! Thank you!

@lereveur Thank you! We’re kind of surprised that people have been finding it an original concept, but I am glad to read so! We tried our best to make the game challenging, so if you’re up to it, I’d definitely suggest you giving it a try again! @hillexed We’re really proud to read that indeed! The SFX could totally use some balancing. We’ll let @RobinhoodPT know about it.

@mase Glad you liked them! Jazzchan is a cute little goober indeed. We’re pleased to know that you liked the backdrop! We tried to put some of our signature details here and there. Just as I mentioned on the previous reply, increasing the SX feel is definitely something we’ll look at next. Thanks for your feedback!

@Samusoidal As a jazzy fan (eh? eh?) we’re joyed you had a fun time with it! We’ll look into improving the control scheme and animations in the future! :whale:

@Jegus9 Thanks for checking out the game through GDN and rest assured that I am getting onto your entry today still! As he also replied on GDN yesterday, @Moski is pleased that you guys really liked the art over there (and how the inspirations from _Skullgirls_ is noticeable).

And yes, this is our fourth time at the rodeo, with [_Colossorama_](http://jorgegamedev.itch.io/colossorama), [_Hyper Holomayhem_](https://jorgegamedev.itch.io/hyper-holomayhem) and [_Petty Puny Planet_](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/petty-puny-planet-38) preceding this game. We actually plan on making a full blog post about our history with _Ludum Dare_ and what we learned through it during the judging phase. I’ll make sure I @ you when we have it posted. Thanks for keeping up with us!

@Luciax @Moski will be flattered that you liked the artwork! Improving the feedback of the attacks and making their difference clear is on our TODO list for sure!

@cliff-lee-cl I actually had on my plans to make the message at the beginning a prompt that you’d press a button to continue, but unfortunately, time didn’t allows us to accommodate for that. Hiding the cursor was also on that list, the system was even done from a previous game.

As for the punches and kicks, it was just a matter of creating a redundancy. You’re able to do all that with your idols fans, but to her directly? Nuh-uh. Not a chance. Glad you liked!

@reality-blid Indeed! This has to be one of the best art styles @Moski has came up with!

@szekeres-szabolcs Guess we really packed a punch with it, heh? Heh… I’ll show myself the way out now.

@sebastian-m Polish is definitely one of the things we always aim for in a jam (even if it might not seem like a thing you should care much about in a game jam). Maintaining a combo is absolutely a challenge. My personal highscore with it is on the 200+, but I kept having to dodge and use the ranged attack to make sure I didn’t lose it. To what combo did you make it in total? Let us know!

@bonelazy We tried to simplify the beat-em-up concept as much as we could, but we probably simplified it a bit too much. Great knowing you liked it!

@spierek The goal with the kick was that you could chain it together with the punch ability in succession. One of the things that I felt lacking at the beginning of development was exactly how there was nothing to complement the punch, but when we added the kick in, it definitely improved the feedback a lot. Unfortunately, you’re right when it comes to the point that it overshadowed some of the other abilities. We’ll see into tweaking them. Thanks for your feedback!

(Continues Next Comment)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-07T02:25:14Z

(Continued)

@syndelis Obrigado pelo o teu feedback Synd! I was actually a bit worried about the squishing animations at first, but @Moski definitely made them work (together with the rest of the whole art). @RobinhoodPT also chuckled when he saw your comment about the different notes on the buttons. It was really a touch thought up by him and he deserves the full credit for it! Obrigado por jogares, e vou ver se jogo o teu jogo assim que possível!

@xoidberg We feel awesome that you liked it!

@Stadoblech Groovy indeed! Glad you liked it!

@Shodanon Jazzy is totally waifu material, and we can’t wait to make more stuff with her in the future! (Hopefully that doesn’t sound so weird I mean-). I’m pretty sure @RobinhoodPT would be the best man to explain the whole thought that went into the soundtrack, but we were actually the ones that suggested him to look into a more Noir/Jazzy/Blues soundtrack.

If we ever get the chance, I’m pretty sure we’d have a blast making a K/J-Pop inspired soundtrack. Just have to make sure we get a chance to do so. Thank you for playing and good job on defeating Bluessom!

@poorwil Thank you! We actually have this itch to slowly start expanding the world of ~~ripoff shibuya~~ the game. Who knows? Maybe more down the line we’ll see some posts here on the site about how we could expand the world of Jazzchan? Honored that you found it top notch!

@kirezar Somewhat disappointing to read that gameplay lacked depth, but you’re fairly and definitely right! We’ll look into improving it in the future and making sure we make some more not-playing-it-safe design decisions when it comes to the gameplay depth! We expect that you continue keeping up with WAG and whatever we create next! @Moski will, once more, be really proud that you liked the presentation! Thanks! :whale:

@wildgamut Thank you! Glad you found the UI of excellence! We really did our best there!

@roaring-cat-games Thank you! We’re glad it’s not overwhelming! We tried to make sure the game was just a few minutes long as not to overstay the time it needed too. We wanted to make sure that, even if the experience was short, that it didn’t felt repetitive or boring. Glad you liked it and good job on knocking out Bluessom!

Phew. That was a much longer reply batch than the one I could ever have imagined, but we really like to reply back to the people who have commented our game! In total this whole reply batch was made up of five pages and that’s insane! Hopefully it isn’t much of a text wall to punch.

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far! If you get the chance, and if you’d love to hear more of what we make in the future, we’d suggest you guys giving us a follow over on [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) (we follow back all game devs, especially LDJam ones!) and, if you’re into some chatting, join us over at our [**Discord**](https://discord.me/wag)! Thanks again!

(I definitely did not expect to have to break this comment into three.)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-09T01:32:01Z

Thank you all again for the recent comments and feedback from these past two days! :blue_heart: During these past days, we’ve been working on getting some blog posts ready, making adjustment to the game’s pages and preparing to release on more game portals, as well as restlessly rating and leaving feedback on games. We’ve just released the game on [**Newgrounds**]( https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/703223) although it still in judgement. :whale:

As last time, I wanted to thank you all personally, and give some more replays to your comments, so let's get to it!

@kerdelos Thank you!... and my apologizes. We honestly didn't take AZERTY keyboards into consideration during the development of the game and it's honestly something we should take into consideration as we go further. I'll see if I can do some research in regards to how our input plugin handles different keyboard layouts to assure that our future projects and jam entries support it out of the box.

And yes! We actually had some ideas for different fans. One example was a fan that would run around and heal either you or the opposing idol. However, due to time constraints (as always) we weren't able to get them in. Who knows, maybe on a future version? Thank you, and sorry for the whole keyboard thing!

@honest-dan Thank you and glad you found it wonderful! I didn't catch it on stream, and as such, if you have a link for the VOD around, it'd be great so I could see your reactions and impressions first hand. And yes, the ultimate ability was probably a bit too... ultimate. This is worsen by the logic side, which tries to have both Jazzchan and Bluessom on the same difficulty pedestal - same cooldowns and everything - leading to the situations you described where she would use her action just as you did. In regards to the theme, it's always a grey area, but we understand where you're coming from. :smile:

As for everything else, thank you! We welcome your feedback very much!

@merzlot Thank you! The whole team is proud that you liked it! :blue_heart: :whale:

@undefined Thank you for your feedback! Sad to read that you found the gameplay repetitive, especially when your suggestion was exactly how we were originally planning to do the R action, but on the fear that it could get too overwhelming, decided not to go with it. Maybe we can return to that idea in a future patch, mayhaps? :thinking:

@nils-gecko-munch Don't worry! No [*Whales And Games*](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) character is ever forgotten, and I'm totally positive we will see more of Jazzchan and Bluessom in the future. :wink:

@smbe19 You can convert the fans with any of your attacks, but they deal different damage values (that is unfortunately not telegraphed as well as it could, though.) After a certain amount of damage, they'll become your fans. You need approximately 3~5 hits before they convert over, unless you use, like you said, the Ultimate Sax Drop, which converts them over in a single hit.

@nokusu Thank you! Pleased that you realized the whole irony of the unprofessional joke. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: And yes, as I've mentioned to in a previous reply, since we tried to have both the player and the enemy on the same level of difficulty, it can sometimes become overwhelming to people playing on their first time. We tried to make the fans have different properties, such as being slightly displaced from their current target, as well as them having different velocities, but we could have probably done some more stuff to ensure that the player had the possibility to get into combat with smaller groups even in late game. Oh well, stuff we hope to address sometime in the future! Thank you again!

(Continued Next Comment)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-09T01:32:15Z

(Continued)

@blackoptics8 Thank you! We try our best to assure we always give a reply to every single person that comments on our games, and hope to create a more mutual conversation with them in regards to the feedback. And yes, that would definitely been an interesting idea. I've been envisioning this four-player mode in my head with four different players, but, for now, it's still a distant concept. Glad you liked it!

@brendan-milos Whow! @moski will definitely be pleased that you found the the art and UI great! Same wise to @robinhoodpt in regards to the audio. As for the game's strategy, yes, it definitely requires some tweaking to make sure we avoid extensive and repetitive times like that. And thank you! We're definitely proud of what we've created here! :whale:

@themadpangolin Thank you! The art style is totally kudos of @moski which really gave his best this time around! As for the sound effects, they're actually there, but they get mixed too much the game's music to the point they're not always audible. We'll be looking into tweaking their volumes into the future, after the jamming period has ended.

@adsilcott Thank you! Joyed you liked the concept! What kind of strategy did you come up with? Was it waiting for the best opportunity to make the Ultimate Sax Drop, or did you use a combination of combos to try to get the best out of the fans? We'd love to know! :wink:

@patrick-d That's the type of comment that makes @moski proud of this own work! Unfortunately, music is always a hard thing to get spot-on during a game jam, and @robinhoodpt wrote quite the [extensive devlog](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/jazzy-beats/dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats) about it today. It might be a bit repetitive for now, but we're sure he will continuously get better with his workflow and music composition with time! Glad you liked the 'musical brawler' idea! :smile:

@yangtianqiang Thank you! _TWEWY_ together with _Skullgirls_ were one of the inspirations that lead to the game's art style, so we're happy that you were able to get the reference. Thank you for playing our work! :relaxed:

@wolfo Thank you! @moski actually wrote a [devlog yesterday about how he managed the whole sprite creation process during the jam days](https://ldjam.com/users/moski) in case you're curious about knowing how he managed the whole ordeal (it was quite crazy indeed, the poor man's wrist probably felt terrible at the end of the jam). Flattering to read that you go as far as considering it a masterpiece. Thank you!

And phew, that was another long set of comments! I cannot believe that we're already over **110** ratings and that we're still in the first week! It's definitely insane and a whole new record for us that we almost have to pinch ourselves to believe. This was all thanks to the great likeness of everyone that has commented and left your feedback so far. You guys are really a bunch of cinnamon rolls. :yellow_heart:

If you want to know more about the whole development process of the game, @moski [has written a devlog about the game's art process and how he managed to do all of the sprites involved in just three days](https://ldjam.com/users/moski) and @robinhoodpt [has written another about the music creation process during the jam, his workflow and the challenges involved in composing music during a game jam](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/jazzy-beats/dropping-the-musical-beat-on-jazzy-beats). I'll be writing my own devlog about the programming side of things soon too, so keep up for that! :smiley: Remember once more that, if you'd like, you can give us a follow over on [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) or join our [**Discord**](https://discord.me/wag) if you'd like to keep up with us! **Thank you!** :whale:

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-21T19:38:17Z

Thank you everyone who has left comments once again! As amusing as it is, we’re just a single week away from the end of judging! As we’re closing in, to the final days, we’ve decided to try and release the game on platforms we hadn’t had the chance to release on before. As such [***Jazzy Beats*** is now available on *Game Jolt* as well!](https://gamejolt.com/games/jazzy-beats/305517)

However, you probably saw that on the front-page already. What we’re doing here on the comments now is to reply to the avalanche of comments we received this last week. So let’s get to it, shall we?

@kyle-pham Thank you! @robinhoodPT will be joyed to read that you think the audio was the game’s highlight! One thing we’ve been noticing is that there’s a big opinion curve when it comes to the game’s difficulty, such as some finding it either too easy, and others too hard. Adaptive difficulty seems to be a very interesting topic that we’ll probably have to make some research into for future projects, as it would definitely balance out the difficulty situation.

@racso Glad you like it! There’s definitely several things regards to the game’s tactics that could be improved on, especially the feedback when it comes to the character’s attacks. The punch and kick are definitely similar attacks, but the kick actually applies more damage to the fans. However, due to the lack of any indication of that, it isn’t that clear. Thanks for your feedback!

@trabitboy Pleased to know that you enjoyed audiovisual quality! CAPCOM beat-em-ups are definitely something we will look for further inspiration in case we end up coming back to refine the gameplay more. As for the animation, it was @moski’s first attempt at animating in Unity and we had to cut some corners since we didn’t have that much time to work on that many different frames. We’ll totally try to have a smoother animation for next time!

@mundis It’s superb that you liked it! I’m relieved to know that the game shows no problem when running in the web version, as some of our earlier games had a few issues here and there. :relaxed:

As for the strategy problems, we’ve definitely have it noted. Gotta take in mind to try to make more varied mechanics in the future. Glad you liked the theme too! Cheers! :whale:

@samboyer276 Thank you for feedback! There are actually some attack sounds for the hits, but they aren’t that high in terms of volume unfortunately, which kind of resulted in them blending in with the rest of the audio sources.:disappointed: As for the combo counter, it was originally intended as the way to charge the ultimate sax drop but we ended up changing that idea unfortunately. Glad that you found it brilliant!

@francyreckless @robinhoodPT is joyed to know you found the audio amazing, and it’s really flattering to know you consider this one of the top LD games (which is kind of a big thing given how many quality entries there are this time around)! As for the theme, we tried to be a bit sneaky about it. Since the phrase was just “The more you have it, the worse it gets”, we thought “who does it get worse too?”. As such, we made it so the more fans you have, the worse it gets to the opposing idol. An alternate interpretation of the theme, or just a sneaky way out? We’ll let you be the judge of that. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@tqv5964 Glad you liked combo-ing the fans through! I’ve personally been picturing this game as a 4-player splitscreen mayhem. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but I can definitely imagine the chaos that it would be. :thinking:

@andrew-white It’s even more amazing that you liked it! Thank you!

(Continued Next Comment)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-21T19:39:26Z

(Continued)

@spiffy Thank you for your feedback! Getting the enemy AI to a passing point was actually a pretty blind process unfortunately. It’s always hard to tell when it is too hard or easy for those who will be playing it during the development process of the game, and in this specific case, it ended up being a bit shuffled. Sometimes she is easier, sometimes she is harder. This, connected with how the ultimate sax drop is handled, unfortunately created a bit of some entropy when it came to the strategy of the game.

As for the audio responding to the controls, that would definitely be a fun thing to try! I’ll leave that suggestion over to @robinhoodPT!

@sun-wukong Gotta give @moski the credit for leaving some feedback in your page then! Glad you got to check our game out! As we’ve mentioned previously (it’s becoming a regular thing), we’ll definitely look into improving the ultimate sax drop with a cloud of fans situation. I personally would like if their AI could a bit more noisy and less predictable. It’s pleasing to read you found the polish amazing as well! Thank you!

@icxon You’re not the first one not to recognize the health bars to be honest, some people also only realized that they were health bars a while after playing. It’s the side-effect of having such a stylized UI. The combos definitely need more love alright.

The time flickering issue is also something that’s been bothering me for a while now. I totally want to check that out too. As for the future plans with the game, we never know what we’re going to get with _Whales And Games_ :whale: Glad you liked it and thanks for your playthrough! Jazz out! :saxophone:

@edmond00 Thanks for your feedback and glad that you had a whale of a time with it! And yep. The attacks could definitely have had a different level of balance to them and Bluessom totally needs a nicely deserved nerf to her converting abilities. She’s always a tough and fast one to fight. We will take your feedback in mind! Thanks!

@jason-kennedy Saying this is the best game you played this _Ludum Dare_ is really flattering! Thank you! :embarrassed: And it seems we both share the same technique when it comes to fighting against Bluessom! :wink: SFX really needs some more love, and we already left the note for @robinhoodPT to improve their volume balance in the future.

Glad you liked it! Ever since we bought [Rewired](https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/21676), making sure that our games support controller support out of the box has been one of our top-most priorities. Pleasing to read it came out alright! :gamepad:

@killthealias Couldn’t we say that this is how you acquire fans regardless of the area of interest? :wink: Great to know you found it good on all fronts! :whale:

@sgadrat Calling it one of the prettiest games on here is really going to get @moski on a good mood for the remainder the week! :smile: Your suggestion for the audio cues is actually the first time it has been suggested for us, and now that I think of it, I don’t know how we missed such a basic cue. Thank you!

@bocodillo I’ve also have had some situations in the past where I’d get stun-locked as well. We tried to counter it a bit by adding some invincibility frames, but overall, it seems in really swarmed situations, just a few more frames to avoid you being jazzed out of the screen would have been ideal. Will take note of that. :pencil: Glad that you found the idea cool as well!

@ddkirbyisq Great to read to know you liked the concept and the graphics! Gameplay could definitely receive some well-deserved improvements. :whale:

(Continued Next Comment)

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2017-12-21T19:40:18Z

(Continued)

@chriiis88 Similar as I tried to explain to a comment above, we tried to be a bit sneaky when it came to the theme. Since the only thing we were told was just that - “The more you have it, the worse it gets” - we thought - “who does it get worse too?”. As such, we made it so the more fans you have, the worse it gets to the opposing idol, rather than having an obvious “the more you have it the worse it gets to you, the player”. Not sure if that counts on your body, but we tried our best to keep with the theme. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@nanda Great that you had an amazing whale of a time with it! Thank you! :heart:

And phew. That was another ginormous slew of comments. We’ve been holding out a bit as we were slightly busy with personal work and events in these last days, but as we’re getting into vacations this next week, we made sure to catch up as we expect to post more devlogs and insiders in the upcoming days. :tada:

If you want to keep up with what we’re doing beyond _Ludum Dare_ stuff, we suggest you guys giving us a follow over on [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) and, if you’re into some chatting, join us over at our [**Discord Channel**](https://discord.me/wag)! We’ve been making and testing some wacky experiments over there and it’d be fun if you joined in. Thanks you! :whale:

Jazzy Beats by Moski 2018-01-09T00:10:54Z

@jupiter-hadley We have dropped you a comment and reply on the Youtube video and on the tweet you made with it, but since we have replied to all of the people who have previously commented here on the game's page, we figured we'd also copy and past the comment we posted over those sites here as well for consitency!

Thank you for covering us once again Jupiter! We're glad that you found the concept interesting, and @moski will definitely be pleased to know that you found the graphic's style 'amazing'. We have to wonder what was the outcome of your combat against Bluessom though, as you cut the video right before the battle ended. Guess it will be a mystery left to our curiosity. Thank you again!

Trial of the Reaper by Cliff Lee CL 2017-12-28T19:46:16Z

2017-12-28 19H28M25.png

Well, that's definitely going to make me ethically question myself for the next decade, as I've personally found myself enjoying this slashing experience a bit too much. :skull: I'm personally glad that my boss found my work noteworthy enough to be considered a suitable reaper, however, I worry what will be the future of the people in the square-box world if the day job is anything as similar as the test.

Likewise to others have commented (such as my team-mate @moski), I also didn't fell that the love/mercy meter had that much impact when it came to the gameplay. Since souls were abundant it was pretty easy to keep the combo and speed going and avoiding the meter effectively. In fact, at first I even thought that the meter worked the opposite way, making the gameplay harder the more I slashed away, but apparently not. I personally thinking its a design aspect that could be rethought if you ever plan to pick this up again after jam. :thinking:

Presentation wise it gets the point across, although if I have to mention something that other people have also commented about is just how good the movement feels when paired with the camera. It felt really responsive, and must be one of the first instances I see of motion blur actually helping to convey an action rather than feel like an unnecessary image effect. Congratulations on that!

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thanks for making us feel like some sadistic monster reapers, but at the same time, thank you for the interesting experience. From what I see, you also have a very considerable back-catalogue of _Ludum Dare_ games which puts me wondering just what you're going to create next. Cheers and see you next time! :whale:

Sum of Its Parts by mrjoshuamclean 2017-12-10T05:15:23Z

2017-12-10 04H51M18.png

First off, I have to start with a thank you for streaming our game! However, I am here to comment on your game instead of mine, so let's get to it! First off, I have to say that this was a neat experience with a lot of good ideas ideas at it's core that, with just a little more refinement and fixing, could definitely make up an even better and interesting concept. The audio was a great touch and you can feel the overall game had a lot of effort put into it. However, it also goes without saying that it also got a few aspects where it felt a bit short.

For starts, the ship felt a little too heavy to control, even without the extra parts that make controlling it worse (as its expected from the theme). I felt it took quite the time to align the rotation perfectly with the cannons that we're attempting to hit me in order to hit them back, and most of the times I would just get blown up before I could even aim at them properly. If I was going to suggest an improvement, I'd say to have the folded ship rotate at instantaneous speed, whilst having the unfolded ship turn slowly depending on the number of parts you got. This would reward your reflexes at folding and unfolding, while punishing the player from trying to use all the power at their disposal.

One aspect that, for me, didn't sell the theme on the game as much as it could was exactly the piece removal mechanic on the main room. I understand why it was put there, and how else the game would be practically impossible, but it also felt like I was doing a cop-out from how the theme was supposed to be experienced, especially when I already had the folding mechanic. I think the theme's execution would have been flawless if you were forced to keep all the pieces with you, and having you think the best order as to collect them. Of course, enemy placement and spawning would also have to be tweaked to assure that the player wouldn't be hit no matter what they tried to do.

Then, there's the other small technical issues, but it seems like you already got those pinned down yourself. :thinking:

I re-iterate that the game was a really nice and really sticking-to-the-theme idea and even with it's flaws, I still enjoyed it immensely, special that final section after you leave the roomed layout. [In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), I look forward to experiencing the game again post-jam with all the issues you have down fixed and once again, thank you for your feedback you gave on the stream in regards to our game! :whale:

$adist by CKlidify 2017-12-23T04:16:02Z

2017-12-23 03H10M58.png

I did it! I crashed South Korea's economy! :moneybag: That should keep them out of eSports.

This was a nice and surprising experience. The whole game's motif is certainly a very ironic one given how sadist the character is that he's willing to be a masochist as well to go through all of those different jobs just to satisfy his economy-crashing lust. That being said, it was certainly humorous on that aspect. The BTC inclusion was also a nice nod to all the current cryptocurrency events going on, blowing in value all of a sudden, and crashing on the very next moment. :currency_exchange:

As expected, the mini-games are obviously the core focus of the game, and I have to say they had a very warioware-like vibe to them, especially with the tips where you have to perform the task under the time-limit. I found them enjoyable and fun to play, and even when I though I had played them all, I found myself playing new ones. As the game progressed, I would pretty much play a mini-game, go deposit some money and check on my BTC, and immediately go play another one.

Presentation-wise, the graphics and music were also pretty appealing for a Compo game! Nothing out-there but comfortable enough to complement the overall experience. My only minor issue with the game is really just how repetitive it can get after a while, especially if you're constantly playing it. Once I crashed South Korea, I didn't go forward and play through Australia for that very much reason, since I had already experienced everything there was to see.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) and of a certain _Polite Whale_, thank you for this sadistic job-working experience. Cheers! :whale:

Honey Money by harusame 2017-12-09T21:44:10Z

2017-12-09 21H27M30.png

That was a very quirk, funny and interesting take on stealth... robbing! I really liked the experience you guys set up here, from the original gameplay to the cute graphics and fitting audio. The gameplay was very easy to understand, the controls working with a controller were also a much welcome addition! The networked scores were also a very nice touch too, and I personally got the 6th place at the time of writing this. :moneybag:

Although, despite the very simple gameplay and controls, the one mechanic that left me a bit head-scratching was how the hiding worked. At first I thought it could have been a small music issue because I wasn't being followed by anyone and the high-beat music still continued, but later as I played more and more I found myself start being chased by dogs and guards almost in the opposite side of the street and getting caught in the process.

This adds up with the guards and random movement patterns. They definitely spiced things up and made it a rough-like experience, but while attempting to escape sometimes, I would find myself stuck between a wall and a guard, or bump into a dog I didn't expect to see in that specific zone. I feel some level design changes could have made these issues much less recurrent. But again, regardless of this harsher feedback I really liked the game here!

Although that's one very needy girlfriend though if I must say so myself, at least based on the first ring I gave her. [In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this great robbing experience, and we expect to see more from you in the future (although I see you already have quite the _Ludum Dare_ experience!) :whale: Remember kids, get someone that loves you by who you are and not by the ring you get them! :ring:

Duck Guardian by mahalis 2017-12-10T03:00:15Z

2017-12-10 02H41M18.jpg

My friends always ask me why I carry a Rubber Duck with me every single day. I was never able to explain them properly why. Was it because I'm a programmer and feel the need to carry a Rubber Duck? Was it the satisfaction of squeaky noises left by the toy? Or was it simply love at first sight? For all of those questions, I feel like this game right here pretty much defines all of the charm there is with Rubber Ducks.

I had a whale of a time with it and let me tell you that this is one amazing and quite impressive _Compo_ entry! Everything, from the gameplay, to the graphics and even the audio felt top-notch and carefully crafted. The only smaller issue that I can really point out is, like other comments have said, that you can use the _Quacking_ ability to an insane level and pretty much make a agglomerate of ducks. Maybe, under all those ducks, an even more powerful duck is rising? Who knows. I did get up to 2500 points thanks to it though.

As a suggestion for the future in case you plan to do a post-compo version, I'd suggest increasing the difficulty curve of the game a bit more beyond simply adding a cool down for the quacking. Maybe make it so the circle moves around the sink as you get into later levels, forcing you to manage your movement and the position of the ducks together with you? Just a suggestion, as I've really had a great time with it and can't think of anything more to perfect the formula!

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), the only thing I can really say is... QUACKERS! Thank you for this duck-filled experience! :duck:

Santa's Factory by SaraMartins 2017-12-28T19:17:59Z

2017-12-28 19H03M02.png

Well, that was a very nice and comfortable little Christmas themes entry, to the point it slightly disappoints me that I am actually playing it after Christmas has gone by. :disappointed: But regardless, I'll just take it in my mind that I helped saved _next year's_ Christmas already!

I personally didn't find the gameplay to be that stressful, and I even found it a bit soothing. Picking gifts and throwing them into boxes (and sometimes hoping to be able to do it from the complete opposite side of the room) is a simple enough premise and in this game in particular it gets the point across. That being said, however, I did notice the difficulty slightly going up as I played, and it would have been nice if it continued in that trend. Perhaps a suggestion for the future would be to add an endless mode? I personally know I'd enjoy it.

Presentation wise the game was also pretty appealing, although if there's one thing I have to point out that felt slightly off is how the gift container boxes had a realistic wood texture to them when everything else was flat shaded. I don't know if this was a designed decision to have the player be able to easily notice the containers regardless of their position in the room, but artistically speaking I think they would have looked fine even without the textures. The audio was also nice, although you started to notice the loop after a while.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this pleasant and enjoyable Christmas experience. It seems there were some few rough edges with the game at first, but it seems you guys worked them off. We look forward to see what you guys create next! Cheers! :whale:

Mistral - Wave-based Survival Retro Game by Syndelis 2017-12-09T02:42:21Z

2017-12-09 02H30M44.png

Finally got around to playing your entry! And whew, what an entry. My first impressions were feelings of overwhelming-ness. When I first started the game and collected the first coin, I immediately felt like there was a lot happening at the same time before I was able to grasp everything that was going on, and it felt over-the-top fast-paced. Overall, it felt like the gameplay was really harsh on me.

Hitting skeletons with the arrows wasn't a problem at all, and it felt really responsive with the whole juice with the screen-shake giving a real feel of accomplishment. It was hitting the birds that really felt out of my control and very luck based. Most of the time that I'd try to hit them, they'd move and I would end up falling on top of them, hitting another enemy on the way, and being pushed out of the screen into an instant game-over.

That being said, with a _small slowdown_ I can see this being a very neat experience, especially with the screenshake and all the other juice involved. Like my colleague, @moski, mentioned above the coins could have had a more significative impact in the game, although that's probably more a fault of mine for already having the concept of coins being used as a currency hard-coded into my mind. :moneybag:

The graphics and audio were also really nice and it was overall very nicely packaged, it just felt like an experience that, sadly, I couldn't keep up with.

Obrigado pela a experiência, e espero ver mais de vocês no futuro! :smiley:

Ghosth - Annoying Ghosts by Crowno 2017-12-07T04:14:30Z

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That was an amazing and really polished experience! I firstly saw this game over on the _Danger_ category, and when I opened to see the screenshots of the game I was flabbergasted how an experience like this hadn't gotten enough votes to pass by judging yet! (Gladly, that has changed since).

First off, and I believe this is going to be everyone who play's the game first highpoint, but the whole art and sprite work is fantastic! Everything was just so poppy and balanced in terms of colours, together with the backdrop with all the touches and details here and there really made it shine in that department. Everything that needed to stand out did so, and everything was readable at first.

However, where the game really shined in was in it's platforming twists and variation on the platformer mechanics through the ghosts buddies. When I grabbed my first ghost and realized I could use them both as a way to gain an additional jump as well as throw them to turn on switches, I knew I was in for something different and great, and it was definitely great alright. The room layouts themselves also served as great small tutorials, which, reading from the comments above, was one of your priorities to get right when designing the game.

However, as @antti-haavikko mentioned, there were definitely some problems with the pacing and layouts. The part where I re-spawned the most was the chained balls stairs and the ghost platforming segment. For me, I wouldn't say it was because of the hitboxes of the balls themselves, but just because of how close everything was to each other, which lead to situations where I'd just be trying to climb down the stairs and would get hit by one of them accidently. Same thing happened in the climbing segment. The first time I got there, I just tried to ghost-jump my way up, only to be hit by another chained ball and having to repeat the whole process again.

By the time I got to the top and saw one of the secret crystals (which I got a total of three out of five as shown in the screenshot above) I personally though about giving up on it and just carrying in, but alas, my completionist self eventually came back and was able to do whole process once more.

Other than those level layout issues, I don't see anywhere else where the game falls short. It was pretty, polished, and totally fun during my playthrough of it. The personally of the ghosts paired together with them sometimes crippling in front your view definitely gave them a lot of character and personality! :ghost:

The music was also great and the distortion that happens to it when you get just too many ghosts was also a neat touch!

Obrigado pela a ótima experiência! I'd definitely come back and try to see if I can get all of the extra crystals. On behalf of my team over at [Whales And Games](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), we definitely look forward to seeing more work from you and I'll definitely be waiting to play that post-jam updated version! :whale:

Lights Out! by rubr 2017-12-28T02:53:20Z

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That was a nice and shortly-contained clever puzzle platformer, and despite the unfortunate and sad theming of having to destroy lava lamps that did absolutely nothing wrong, it featured several interesting ideas that make it a really clever entry.

Mechanics and levels were really well thought, especially in the latter ones with the teleportation and lava-jumping lava lamps. The only mechanic that I felt didn't really connect much with me was the wall-jumping, as it felt irresponsible or too frame perfect at times. I personally think the design of the levels would have allowed for double-jumping to work without compromising the blue lava-lamp mechanic.

Otherwise, the presentation was simplistic but direct to the point and I personally found myself comfortable with it. If anything, I'm slightly disappointed at the lack of any sound or music, but I'll look over that as I don't think I'd want to hear the breaking sounds of those poor lava lamps either.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) ~~(got to plug it even if moski has already commented above)~~ allow me to say that you've made a very nice work and I honestly hope that you're able to reach the 20 ratings until tomorrow! Thank you! :whale:

Paparazzi by Michael Feldman 2017-12-10T04:00:29Z

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I guess your tittle of _Rithm Gaming_ really doesn't lie because on the latter levels, I was really micro-managing all the keys and mouse clicks I had to make to be sure I completed the game! This was a really pleasant surprise and a gameplay gem, especially for a _Compo_ game! It started off simple and comfortable, but it definitely didn't hold back as the different levels started flowing in (which, by the way, were a very nice addition). Overall the gameplay was really really engaging!

The audio and presentation were also very nice, and the level select with the alternate gender options was also a neat touch. I found my self swapping frequently to keep the character I was playing as fresh. Not very frequently you see _Compo_ games with this level of polish, but in this case, it felt ever present.

Thank you for this rhythmic experience, and [in behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), we look forward to see what you create next! :whale:

Dream Roamers by Jegus9 2017-12-07T03:25:20Z

From the descriptions and the screenshots, I went in expecting a very _Binding of Isaac_-like experience and inspired game, as you cited in the description that you were inspired by other games of the rogue-like genre. What I found instead was a very neat rogue-like with it's very own set of original ideas! The idea of your ammo (spirit energy) depleting as you fight enemies, and having to collect their drops to restore it was genuinely a new take on the formula for me.

An entire room generation system seems like one big undertaking for a compo game, but it was definitely interesting seeing a completely different layout in the three runs I did of the game (one of which I lost)! So as a programmer, I really have to give you kudos for that. Graphics and Audio were simple, but they also had they're very own charm to it given the setting. It was also nice to see some backstory at the beginning of the game!

If I had to point my only single problem with this game is how fast the 'bomb' enemies are. My first run was lost because I ran into one and had no time to react as he collided with me by one of the room's doors. I almost lost my second run for the very same reason, only this time, the room had three of those baddies on it. Some extra reaction time for those would have been great. :bomb:

Also, as @Moski mentioned, that Borderland's 2 quote when you lose a run was spot on.

Glad to have meet up with you over at GDN, and seriously hope you make it through the judging phase! Thanks a lot for the experience, and once again, on behalf of our team, we'll looking forward for what you create next! :whale:

Melody : Burden of Sorrow by BumiBomber 2017-12-09T04:30:01Z

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Now that was a very nice and overall nicely wrapped experience! An overall polished and juiced up platformer with responsive controls is right up my ally. It was also a nicely paced out especially when compared to other games I have played on here during this judging period, taking me some well twenty minutes to finish. The tittle screen and the overall artwork was also pretty great, and the whole overall theming of losing powers as you went certainly spiced things up (as well as having to do the whole game once more in reverse). The music wasn't the most extraordinary thing ever, but since each level had it's own loop, I still applaud all the work that went there.

As I've mentioned previously the controls were really nice and tight, but at certain points after the tutorial phase, I kept forgetting that I had some stuff at my disposal that I didn't remember given how few they were used outside of the levels that required them. For example, only on the third section (right after you lose double jumping) when I found myself stuck in a section was when I remembered I had the fireball ability at my disposal, because previously I had barely used it at that point. The same thing with the dashing. If the levels could have been more designed across all the abilities you had until a certain point, rather than focusing on a single one I think those types of situations wouldn't have been as remember-able as they are with me writing this feedback here.

Another thing that previous commenters on this game have also written is that there's certainly a big focus on wall-jumping that's probably a bit tad overdone. This also connects with what I mentioned previously, and that specific ability could have been spread out more rather than used all over the game. Some sections (like the last phase, for example) also felt alienating with the sudden jump in difficulty, reminding me just a bit of Kazio Mario.

My only complaint on regards to the graphics was the fonts. They felt slightly unreadable in full-screen and the credits screen actually had the text cut off (at least in 16:9). In the other hand, the whole gameplay view and experience was actually much more comfy when playing in full-screen than in windowed, with the sprites and viewports being just the right size (which I can see why it could be a problem for those playing in window mode).

Finally, did the green gems and and the big purple gem serve any purpose? I didn't notice but they didn't seem to recover health and I was expecting some kind of small surprise by collecting the purple gem because I was definitely surprised when I bumped against it on accident. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: If they didn't do anything in this version, I certainly hope to see them doing something in a future version!

Overall, I hope my feedback doesn't sound too negative. This was really a very nice experience and [in behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), I look forward to seeing more from you. Keep up the good work! :whale:

Fatmans Fortune by Z4zion 2017-12-09T05:24:45Z

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Simple, easy to understand, and hilarious to the point it left me with a grin on my face even when writing this review! That was a short, but refreshing experience overall. I didn't know what to expect when I got into it, but from the moment I started seeing all the different characters from the sky and understood the simplicity of the game, I knew I was in for a treat.

As others before me have mentioned, it would have been nice to have seen some variation with the difficulty curve over time as to keep the experience even fresher as it went a long, but even so, I found myself frequently having Marcus catapulted by being too off-guard in regards to one of the boat's sides. Graphics and Audio were also pretty neat, although after a few plays, the loop got a bit tad repetitive, but that's something you'll probably keep improving on.

I wonder if Marcus will ever be the same after being on a boat with a huge-man, a gorilla and a alien that felt from the sky... [In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), congratulations on this compo entry, and we expect to see more from you in the future! :whale:

Magus O-Minus by Nucleose 2017-12-11T02:28:57Z

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For me, this game right here was all about the *Mood*, and at this point in time, based on the games I have rated so far, it's definitely the strongest entry I've seen in terms of it. It was a profound experience that made me seriously take into consideration my health more than I think I've did in practically every other game, and the whole heavy setting, from the visuals, to the audio, to constantly seeing I had failed a villager from the start of the game made this a very solid playthrough all the way through.

As I've mentioned, the whole setup from the graphics to the audio was really well done, and the gameplay was as polished and as demanding as one could expect. At a certain point, I was legitimately preoccupied in understanding the enemies attacks as to make sure I could avoid them as much possible in order to conserve health to give the villagers. That on itself, also tells a lot of this game in specific.

If there's one thing that I have to critique is that the game started feeling repetitive after a while, and that some of the latter sections could have been shortened down. The impact still carried with me all the way through the end, but with the latter section lasting multiple rooms with not as much sense of progress as the beginning, I felt like some of the gameplay (plus visuals and audio) started to wear out much more. Gladly, given how well the mood was executed the game was it really didn't impact as much by the end as I thought it could, and everything else, as I've mentioned, was really there!

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), I must re-iterate once again that this was the game that got perfect _Mood_ for me, and I really look forward for the stuff that you create next! Thank you for this absolutely amazing _Compo_ entry and experience! :whale:

Loot Grabber by AndreB 2017-12-28T04:48:00Z

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That was a very interesting bullet hell experience! It was especially surprising to see multiple levels and the different types of enemies. Overall, it was a pretty solid twin-stick experience.

I personally think the gameplay would have been a bit more comfortable if the camera was zoomed up just a little bit and the gameplay speed down a little. Most of the time, I felt enemies were spawning and attacking the player way faster than I had time to react and collect the loot dropped by the previously destroyed enemies. Having played with both a controller and mouse, I felt some slight lack of control over the shooting. Even if fired in the direction it was supposed too, it felt like the shooting was too precise, once again, to be able to wipe enough enemies in a zone and be able to collect the loot dropped by the previous ones.

The presentation was also not too shabby and got the job done, although if there was one thing I'd like to point out, is that sometimes the pellets would blend in with the actual dropped loot. Once again, probably a result of the point I pointed previously. It'd also have been nicer to have the loot be just a tiny-itsy-bit bigger to make it easier to collect as well, as others have pointed out above. :moneybag:

Despite the points I pointed out, I still enjoyed my time with it, and it was nice to play another game with controller support. [In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), congratulations on this experience and we hope to see more from you in the future! :whale:

Forgotten Machines by SaphireS 2017-12-28T18:53:00Z

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That was definitely a bullet-powered experience. First off all, It's nice to see another person tackle the theme as it getting worse _to the enemy_, and I think the whole upgrade-based gameplay transmitted that theme interpretation very clearly. It was endearing to see the number and spread of bullets increasing as I collected the different upgrades found on the crates and which enemies dropped, although I never really got to the exact same level of chaos as the gifs you included in the images in the description. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

As others have mentioned though, the one thing that really felt off in regards to the gameplay was the camera controls. I felt that, both of the times I played, immediately after moving and attempting to aim, the machine became un-centred in regards to the camera, making it hard to see what exactly was in some of the sides of my surroundings. The low FOV also didn't help much in regards to this, and it would have been nice to have the camera just slightly a bit more zoomed out, especially with the previous issue present.

The graphical presentation is overall one of the best aspects of the game and I really liked the whole pixel-art inspired texture and model work. However, sometimes I would get the particles/feedback, such as the cube collecting particle and the explosions stuck on screen. I don't know if it was intended effect (although I wouldn't think so) but it felt off to see them like that. Seeing the Unity default skybox and the completely off-style grass tiles at the edges of the map was also slightly immersion breaking.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), congratulations on making it through your first _Ludum Dare_ with such a action packed entry, even with all the points I mentioned previously! Being able to successfully going through one is just the first step to many other great ones, and we personally can't wait to see what you create next! Cheers! :whale:

Feature Creep by Garur 2017-12-13T04:56:44Z

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Finally, after post-pone-ing playing your game until I was sure I could give it the proper feedback I finally got around to doing it. That being said, it's finally time to get on with it. :trophy: I'm pretty sure @moski will also be proud that I finally decided to give my whale-pals some feedback after making him play the game for me the first time. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

The first thing I have to say is that the whole thing was an overall great experience, and a fun one at that too, especially as I got to see all the different content get constantly added in. Every new feature had me thinking what would be next thing to be added to the world, was it a new mechanic, gag, or simply a new currency.

The dialog and interactions between the narrator and the player were also very well written and humorous. I can tell one of you knocked a ball out of the park getting as many potential references into the text as possible. :thinking: The final features added into the game, including the ending, were also a great touch and a nice way to close it off.

One impression that I got was that some of the early actions and achievements seemed like they got desynchronized. For example, I got the achievement explaining me how to use the katana, but I only got the katana (as the narrator itself said) on the add feature after the one that triggered the achievement. Same-wise, for latter texts (before the whole final section of the game) there also seemed to be situations where the text seemed to disappear either too early or not render at all, although could also only have been my impression due to how distracted I was with all the mechanics and flavour features that you guys added in.

It'd would also have been nice to have the enemies re-spawning as the game went on. I felt like I didn't get too see some of the latter spells, interactions and mechanics (such as lives) used to their fullest potential because there was nothing else to experiment with them with that'd require enemies and similar to interact with it. This instead lead to the game to be pretty much a collect-a-thon of collectibles as they spawned, which isn't exactly a bad thing, but as you went through all the trouble to add all that flavor combat mechanics in, it'd have been nice to actually be able to experiment with them.

Presentation wise, graphics and audio were also pretty great and eye/ear-catching with the most minor thing here and there being just the overall consistency of it, but since I'm not an artist, I'm probably not the most ideal person to tell you about it. Overall, for your first _Ludum Dare_ game it felt really nicely packaged and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) (~~adding that link here is kind of pointless since you all know me but for consistency sake~~), I am proud to finally see you guys survive your first _Ludum Dare_ and to release a game to the wild! I hope you enjoyed your overall experience, and I can only look forward for the stuff that you guys create next. Now if you guys would just release _Stacks for Good_ I'd be real amused. Thanks! :whale:

Infernus: The Descent by Team Infernus 2017-12-09T22:44:00Z

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This was definitely different from what I've played and judged on this _Ludum Dare_ so far, that's for sure! However, differently to some reactions I've seen before, I believe if someone wants to do a non-safe for work game for a game jam that's mostly made up of safe for work games, they should have the creative liberty to do so, and for that, I say kudos to your team! :tada:

Now, in regards to the experience itself, it was actually really nice. For a game made in three days, there were definitely a lot of points with depth, from the equipment options, to having to mix-and-match attacks to make sure you didn't fall in hell, to the progressive storyline and the whole succubus themes were engaging. The art style was also pretty interesting and the amount of artwork involved was also surprising.

However, despite all the ideas, it felt like there was a lot added in already with the plans for expansion at mind, which isn't a bad thing, of course, but it would have been nice to see a more core focus of the experience developed during the _Ludum Dare_ period. There were a lot of ideas and systems here and there but I personally think it would have been better to just focus on just a small group of mechanics and try to add as much depth to it as possible. Instead, a lot of the gameplay felt shallow than and I honestly that could have been performed better, especially with the latter parts of the game starting to feel repetitive and grind-y as another comment has mentioned above. It would have been nice to have some sort of sound behind as well, even if it were just simple loops or audio cues.

However, despite this harsher feedback, I insist, I enjoyed the experience, and the lewd part of it was luring. [In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), I once again applaud your choice to going through with the adult theming, and will definitely keep up with the hellish succubus shenanigans you guys come up with next. Cheers! :whale:

Vermin by Hertz14 2017-12-13T03:38:01Z

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Now, this was a completely different and clever type of experience than the one I was expecting. The concept of being the king in-control of a hoard of vermin and being responsible for their survival is definitely an interesting take on the theme, and one that made a very different experience. Never thought commanding rats around would be something I'd be doing anytime soon. :rat:

The gameplay was pretty fun, although the only thing I didn't really seem to get at all was really the follower's behaviour. For most part, it seemed like a group of mice would follow me closer than others if I accelerated, while others would have a more noisy and random movement pattern. I didn't feel like I was in control sometimes, and even if that lack of the control was part of the theme here, it put me into questioning if at a certain point I couldn't just get a game over because all of the mice would just decide to run into a building. However, reading the other comments, it seems that understanding the movement comes with practice, although, to be honest, even after a few playthroughs, I really couldn't figure out most of the ways they moved.

I also felt slightly confused in regards to what the different icons over each of the mice's head meant. Some of them were easy to figure out, such as when the mice were hungry, or when their speed was increased, but some like the... vampire teeth? and the power icon weren't as obvious for me as despite the intention. I can assume what they probably do, but I didn't really get to a point where I was able to clearly be sure of it.

I found the game to be quite pleasing when it came to the graphics and the audio. Everything in terms of graphics really popped out and there was a really humorous (and disturbing) tone with running over the humans and proceeding to get a nutritious meal out of them. Presentation was really a forte in this one.

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this mousy and funny experience, but I personally think I'm going to keep sticking it to whales. Thank you! :whale:

Super Sellout by Moski 2018-12-05T18:32:22Z

And with @moski's replies to the previous batch of comments, I will cover up for the second half. I echo his words by absolutely thanking you for all the feedback and kind words you have posted so far! I've also been scavenging through your profiles and finding games to add to my list and it's building to be quite the queue! :whale: Let's go!

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@phearbot The chroma effect doesn't have much magic to it. It's Unity's brand new post-processing stack (you can find it on the _Package Manager_) with Chromatic Aberration turned on to the max. It doesn't do the perfect 3D effect, but it's enough so it doesn't get in the way. As for the buttons, it's really Unity Animator in UI components acting up again. Thank you for your feedback and hope that clarifies it!

@reality-blind We're glad you liked it! You guys did an amazing job with _Sacrificio Inc._ and I've been looking forward to playing it myself (I know for starters that @moski already did). Your team is definitely a stand out as well!

@pranjalbisht The jumping could have definitely been more pronounced. There were a few work-a-rounds we had to do in order to ensure the jumping worked with the perspective, but unfortunately, it still ended slightly rough. The game is actually supposed to pause all scrolling when you fall off buildings so it doesn't look weird, but unfortunately it keeps breaking that on release builds. Pleased that you liked the pages design! I am a huge defender that the containers around the game cater as much to the overall immersion as the game itself. Cheers! :champagne_glass:

@tweedle It's awesome that you liked it! Waddle on indeed! :duck:

@ermgerd As we have already told you on our Discord, it was actually developed in 72 hours. That being said, we're pleased that you liked it! Thanks for sticking around! :whale:

@coleslaughter We have a joke phrase that we use internally saying _"I can imagine how even more spectacular this would have been with one more day."_ because even if we seem to include a lot of personal details and polish, there's always a lot of ideas that stay at the drawing board, including a bunch more of modifiers we had in mind. We decided to have contracts unlock over rounds to create a better difficulty gradient and give people a chance to see the game with very few effects turned on at the beginning compared to the end. A 'Unlock All' button was planned at some point, but didn't make it through unfortunately. Glad you've been impressed! :tada:

@kovareka It's nice that you've liked it!

@Quackqack Thank you! @zachary-blystone really did an outstanding job with the music! (We could him beat his keyboard during our voice calls.)

@earlybard Glad that you liked it! There were definitely a few animation glitches when it came to slipping/failing that we could unfortunately tackle in time and a lot of modifier ideas that stayed in the drawing board. :thinking:

@theonethatneverwas It's great that you liked it! What was your highscore? :money_with_wings:

@matheus-mello Glad to see that you've played multiple times! Unlocking stuff overtime was partially to motivate people to experiment with different modifiers and see how they did!

@slizzben You are awesome too! Thanks! :wink:

@jfraser314 The art-style @moski pulled off is definitely calling a lot of attention it! I personally also really enjoy the style the art has taken. Glad you found it amazing!

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And that makes it for another round of comments. We're going to keep doing our best to play as many games as we can and start posting some development stories in the main feed in the upcoming weeks. If you'd like, you can also [**follow our team on Twitter**](https://twitter.com/whalesandgames) (we will follow anyone on LD right back!) or join our [**Discord**](https://discordapp.com/invite/whalesandgames)! Would love to see you all there! Cheers! :whale:

Super Sellout by Moski 2018-12-31T15:13:39Z

Phew! It's been an amazing set of weeks hasn't it? It's quite insane to think that it's been three weeks since the last time we replied to some comments. Time advances fast when you're in an holiday and busy mood, but at last we're on the final stretch before we close off the year! That being said, before the jam closes up, it's time to catch up with some comments. Let's go? Let's go!

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@budaniel Making sure that our games work with controllers always tries to be one of our priorities during the jam. Glad to see you enjoyed them! :video_game:

@freixo Thank you for playing! Proud that you found it 5 stars! :blush:

@relictooth There were several other slapstick situations we thought up off but were unable to implement unfortunately. Great to know you still found the ones we were able to add in humorous! :clown_face:

@sockyman Might have been a WebGL issue. We've had a few issues with the physics of some of our previous projects when exported to the web, but that seemingly worked on the desktop version. Did you get to try that one? Good to know that you still had fun despite the issue.

@gerardb If you've only been doing stuff as a solo-dev for now, I totally suggest you to try and team up with a team through [Crowdforge](https://crowdforge.io/) or the like! It's a completely different experience, and it can teach you a lot about your own skills! As for the rooftop issues, we had this problem in earlier builds where the map would keep advancing even if you had already fallen down. Resolving a game breaking bug while at it coincidentally fixed it, and it should be much more comfortable to play without getting into consecutive falling loops now. Give it a try if you get the chance!

@cjn Thank you! @moski and @zachary-blystone did an amazing job on the graphics and audio respectively!

@ruddgasm Glad to know you had fun playing it! We will be actually starting some longer-term projects with the swap of the year, and we also have some plans regarding how we could expand both _Super Sellout_ and past jam-projects of ours. If you're curious and want to keep up, I totally invite you to follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/whalesandgames)!

@ghostmaple Thank you! Glad you found it extra polished! :ok_hand:

@esina-yana Thank you! :thumbsup:

@randomphantom The jumping was an attempt at having the player be alert to another challenge, but unfortunately you are right regarding it being a bit clunky. If I had the chance to improve one thing first moment it'd definitely be the overall movement controls, making them feel more weighted and tighter. That and more sponsors. Thanks for the feedback!

@christina-antoinette-neofotistou We're always (mostly) proud of the games we make! :blush: What makes us even more proud is having people playing the game and telling us they liked it and giving us feedback. Glad that you liked it! :smile:

@beardmage All of the outstanding artwork is a product of @moski's fiery passion and numb hands! The interaction range is obviously a thing we have to look at considering that there were a lot of patch-ups we had to do to it and it still doesn't feel quire right. Thank you for your feedback!

@n4tticus The art direction is once again a by-product of the amazing work by @moski! The jump definitely needs some better weight. Glad you liked it!

@sadsmile Awesome that you're looking out for us! We'll definitely be participating in future editions of the jam! I've actually considered making a mobile version prototype with some tweaks to it to be more comfortable to play with lesser inputs but still haven't gotten around it. We'll let you know if we end up making something of the sort. Thanks!

@fobia Glad you're eyes liked it!

@rhukl Good to know you had a great time with it! :tada:

@sadzanenyama Different puddles have different effect. While the most noticeable ones are the ones that make you slip, some of the others actually reduce your speed. Glad you liked it!

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(Continued on the next comment.)

Super Sellout by Moski 2018-12-31T15:14:00Z

(Continuation of the previous comment.)

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@jongjo Those are some interesting observations. I'd be up for experimenting with only vertical movement and trying to see if the gameplay ends up feeling tighter. I'm under the impression that the reason why the free-range movement feels off right now is mostly a question of balancing the rhythm and the rate new buildings get added in. The being pushed towards the edge is definitely part of the issue as well. Comments like these are always useful and definitely provide some insight. Thank you! :thumbsup:

@hadesfury All kudos to @moski! :flag_mx:

@wheatleyscience There were a lot of different sponsors that stayed on the drawing board that we'd love to add on top of the existing ones to give the game more variety. Also, we believe the presentation on the webpages surrounding the game are just as important for immersion as the games themselves. Thank you! :smiley:

@niterich The discussion about what key we should use as the action key was actually quite the debate while we were developing the game. Half of us thought E was better while another half thought F would do the job. Ultimately, we went with F because we had started with it, but I still much preferred the E key. I actually wanted to do full Arrow Keys+Z+X support as you mentioned, but unfortunately never got around doing it, leaving the arrow keys as a slight half-assed tape fix.

As for the power-ups, it's literally as you put it. There's definitely a lot of different power-ups that stayed in the cutting room floor (I've actually described some of them [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/super-sellout/scripting-super-sellouts-sponsors-and-behaviours)) that were meant to hamper the player's abilities much more. Increasing the power-up variety is definitely on our to-do list if we get the chance to revamp this game. Thank you for you feedback, and we're glad you still had a whale of a time with the game! :whale2:

@neowhoru Glad you liked it! :clap:

@hellsquirrel The sponsor's magnet has to be one strong magnet in order to attract hydrants and lampposts like that. The not-falling through a pit without jumping and the double-sound are two things we definitely need to look at in the next patch. Thanks for playing!

@lereveur I could have sword I had disabled 4:3 resolutions so that it'd still force 16:9 but apparently I must have missed it. It's on my wishlist to support more resolutions, but for jams, it's always better to pick a resolution for a art and trying to stick with it. Thanks for playing!

@omiya-games Like I've mentioned in one of the previous comments, the controls actually took some internal debate and discussion before we made the final decision on them, going back and forth between E and F and we really just struck with F in the end. As for the scrolling speeds and jumping, you're absolutely right in regards to the fact they need to be tighter. Thank you for your feedback!

@dusho Glad you liked it! Art's all on @moski! Sluggish controls are probably on me, but oh well, we'll do better at some point! :whale:

@jupiter-hadley Thank you for featuring us again Jupiter, both on your channel and on _Alpha Beta Gamer_! We swear that the _Colossorama_ update is still coming!

-----

And that makes it for my part. Like previous comments, @moski will be taking over to reply to the second set of comments. We have to divide the work, or that _pareto_ won't come through, eh?

Send In The Interns by A-Flat Miner Studios 2018-12-31T16:39:22Z

2018-12-30 21H-39M-09S.png

Well, that was definitely an interesting puzzler yet one with an unsettling premise. Not only are those poor interns getting barely any (if any) pay, they still have to deal with the chances of falling down pits, being squished by boulders and being impaled on spikes and... well, dying. The professor really needs to get it's own game going.

Jokes on the plot aside, I really found the puzzle mechanics of the game to be engaging, and I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that there were multiple difficulty levels with increasingly hard puzzles. You can really tell the difference on how hard it it is to micromanage the different interns movements and levers from the easy levels, in which I was able to obtain full-stars on, compared to the hard levels, in which I was only able to obtain two stars in most of the levels.

I also really enjoyed how there were secret levers in the latter levels that made solving those puzzles a much easier feat, all while motivating you to click on everything in the level in order to see if you could find any of those.

All in all, if I had some suggestions to make, I'd really have enjoyed if there were some keyboard shortcuts for calling run and increasing the speed (rather than just the mouse) as I couldn't be pushing a lever to get interns through while increasing the speed at the same time. It'd also been nice if I could resize the game's window, as the graphics are look really crisp and appealing!

This was a great entry, and on [behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this intern-powered puzzle game! :whale:

PURITY by jantunes 2018-12-31T17:10:07Z

2018-12-31 16H-55M-40S.png

Somehow, I have already gotten used to the weird and sometimes macabre experiments coming out from this team's designers, yet, I still manage to be surprised at that times. Guess that's just the way things are, and I will just have to continue being amused. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Like always, that means that the mood and the presentation are the strongest points of this game, including everything from the choice of palette colours to the way text is presented and animations. It really emitters the eerie feeling of being in a cult circle, featuring child believers and all, and having to do 'purity' sacrifices for the sake of keeping integrity. Theming is strong in this one.

As for the gameplay itself, I have to echo some of the previous comments that have been made regarding the game and have to say that some of the clues had me scratching my head first. For example, I originally thought the clue of "It was not passed twice to anyone" meant that it hadn't been passed around through a second-set of persons other than the partners of the person who has sacrificed, and only later realized it meant that it hadn't been passed to the same person twice. Likewise, the clues of who held the item also only specify some specific traits that multiple characters share, yet at the same time I feel like having such ambiguous descriptions is forcing you to pick on luck, risk it being wrong, and doing some sacrifices.

I haven't had the chance to play the post-jam version yet as I am marathoning some last games before the clock ticks down to zero, but when I do, I will make sure to give it my feedback and buy both the creators a drink or a coffee or something. All in all, this was yet another intriguing entry from them and I got amused yet again! :whale:

Serial Dater by ColeSlaughter 2018-12-05T02:14:16Z

2018-12-05 01H-49M-03S.png

From the moment I came across this game I knew I had to give it a play and see what it was all about. For starters, I don't think I will ever be able to see devil as anything other than 'Momma' after that. I was able to survive in both of my playthroughs and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The presentation was superb and the randomly generated dates really made the game look varied, and proved just how much appearances could be deceiving. The sound design was also on point and I really liked the effect the jazzy music got with the clock ticking down sound effect.

I really like how the different methods you could use to detect if someone was a serial killer or not got harder and more convoluted as you played, from the dots when using the eye power-up starting to move and increasing in dot counts, to the mouth one making you have to type more and more words that appeared on screen. A really nice difficulty curve overall!

On [behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) I have to say that this was a really great entry and I really enjoyed every minute I was hoping not to pick a wrong date and be back-stabbed by surprise. Now... if only I could appeal to momma devil... :smiling_imp::whale:

Master Key by Jeremy Ryan 2018-12-07T19:52:01Z

2018-12-07 19H-14M-39S.png

Well this was a pretty neat little entry! I really liked the puzzles that were on it and the whole idea of sacrificing game keys in order to try and solve the different puzzles. That racoon definitely looks dapper with the hat they have on. :cowboy:

If anything I would have loved to have seen some more levels and challenges come up, especially with all the keys you can sacrifice. The idea of sacrificing movement keys actually came up to me a level earlier than the one you're supposed to use it on and I can think of a bunch of potential ideas for going back and forth swapping your keys. It'd also have been fun if there were multiple altars across a single level, forcing to micro-manage the keys you have sacrificed along it, but those are really just ideas that popped to mind. :bulb:

Other than that, I really liked the presentation and the graphics were clean and accomplished what they needed too. The music was also fit the raider-mood well enough and the key combinations were also comfortable to play on.

For me, again, the only sad thing is the lack of more content, but I hope you get to pick on it again and add some more levels to it! On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this neat puzzle game! :whale:

Sacrificial Run by Cosmic Adventure Squad 2018-12-31T17:54:13Z

2018-12-31 17H-24M-58S.png

I'm surprised this game didn't have the 20 ratings until a moment ago. It's a small yet clever management game, and one that got me in my toes as I tried to manage and keep as many sacrifices alive for as long as possible. With so many obstacles in the way, trying to keep them in a single controllable group proved to be an interesting challenge (and yet, I only figured out the huts gave you extra sacrifices only by my third run or so and just now re-reading the description I figured you can change the circle radius).

The presentation with the pixel art is top-notch and charming, yet I found the aspect ratio to be an interesting choice, while at the same time, an awkward one. I assume the decision to keep the game's aspect ratio like that was to allow for the player to see ahead, but at the same time I feel like the game ends up feeling a bit narrow when in the context of the rest of the itch.io page. The aspect ratio ends up looking close but not exactly like a mobile game, which I have to add would be an interesting thing to see this game ported too!

The music was kind of a surprise, not just because it sounded good and was appropriate, but for how much it reminded me of _Runescape_ music, which I've been played quite a while recently. Probably just a coincidence because of the shared instruments, yet a nice one to be sure.

On [behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you and congratulations for this jam entry! I checked the _itch.io_ and _Twitter_ pages for your _Comic Adventure Squad_ group and I'll definitely be keeping tabs on your games for future jams as well! Cheers! :whale:

Identity Crisis by Josh Bothun 2018-12-05T20:18:05Z

2018-12-05 19H-47M-27S.png

I saw this game yesterday on stream and from the moment I saw it I knew I had to give it a play. While it's not the first time I see games where you have to micro-manage multiple entities at the same time, this one really caught on to me, probably due to how well it fits with the overall jam theme. I played through all the levels and suprise-suprise was able to unlock the bonus level.

The bonus level for me was the epitome of this game. With all the mechanics taught, it really showed how much you had to carefully micromanage the clones to try and get them into the right place while avoiding as the bullets as much as possible. I do feel like I broke through it, as I believe one of the switches stayed pressed despite having no clone on it. Oh well. :bust_in_silhouette:

As for the presentation, I really liked the clean style of the game and despite the game having no music, liked how the sound effects faired in the background. The game controlled pretty well and was pretty smooth on a controller too!

So far, it's my favorite jam puzzle game and I really liked how great it was overall! On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this really in-depth and engaging puzzle game! :whale:

Rift Plugger by Mikeliosus 2018-12-15T02:12:46Z

2018-12-15 01H-23M-34S.jpg

I really liked the presentation in this one! The way the rifts and the player standout against the grayscale environment really brings attention to the most important game elements as you search the landscape for other villagers, reindeers and boulders to fill in the rifts. The sound also fitted really well with the environment and the sound effects were really nice as well (although the main character's scream on death felt a bit out of place with everything else). Gameplay while not really innovative, did accomplish what it meant to do, despite the issues with throwing some stuff into the rifts like other comments have pointed out.

Unfortunately what broke the game for me a bit was the flow of it. I was really enjoying myself in the early levels and felt really compelled by the games pitch and mechanics but the later levels didn't fell as solid as the first ones and ended up breaking the feeling of flow I had in in the earlier levels. I feel like introducing the new enemies and hazards in more but smaller levels would have kept me on the flow state, but by the current 5th level with the whole following and brain(?)-spitting enemies with the increasing number of rifts while keeping the same health was already a bit too much for me.

I also feel like your idea for the theme didn't exactly stick to me. I did notice there were some heart doors that demanded a heart sacrifice if you wanted to get through them, but they didn't feel like they were a _must_ and were more of a quick-way to get some stuff if you wanted to get the level done easier/faster.

Other than that, I do think that the game was really solid in terms of gameplay, but could have definitely used some different pacing. On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this game, and I hope to see more games with such stellar presentation from you people! Cheers! :whale:

Volcano Island by Arvejeitor 2018-12-05T01:16:13Z

2018-12-05 01H-05M-17S.png

That was a nice quirky entry! Wasn't expecting a Simon-says game at first, but it was a curious fit with the theme. I made around 1100 points before losing my run because I confused the last character of a chain of six I believe. The graphics are really the shine of the game though, and the pixel-art is very crisp and appealing. The Kevin MacLeod was also a nice fit. Overall a very nice package that would have been even better with just a bit more content and innovation to it!

The only issues I found with the game was that you sometimes could click through people that were behind each other which would throw them all into the volcano in a single go and make me lose the game. The second issue was that, if I clicked on individual people too fast, only one of them would count for 100 points, rather than each of them. Playing it more slowly rewarded me with 100 points each though.

On behalf [of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), congratulations on your entry and we hope we have pleased the volcano gods! :volcano::whale:

Alpaca's Redemption by Oceanosaurus 2018-12-08T00:08:35Z

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Well, I just learned never to trust Alpaca Gods again. This was a really nice and polished platformer, and the way you give-out your powers kind of mixes it in into a platformer-puzzler, having to figure out how to adapt the loss of your powers with the different elevators, spikes and platforms around the level.

I was originally worried about giving out some of the powers in a less natural in the fear that the levels would become harder without some specific power-ups, but honestly felt that all of the levels were pretty balanced and chill even when you lose all of your stuff. Levels felt just as challenging with all powers as they did with no powers. It really showcases some great level design skills! (I made a second run specifically to test that theory down, trading a different set of powers-up as I went, and found the flow to be just as great.)

The presentation was also really clean with the pixel-art being phenomenal. The controls felt tight even when playing on controller, sans for one or two issues where I suddenly dropped off a wall when climbing it. Just a minor annoyance, but nothing that deteriorated the experience in any way.

On [behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this alpaca-powered entry! It felt great overall and I'm glad I had a chance at playing it! :whale:

Skømp by phearbot 2018-12-09T19:54:40Z

2018-12-09 16H-55M-15S.png

Well that was definitely a cute platformer with a certain mood-twist twist to it. The first time I had to sacrifice the friends to open the first gate I honestly felt like laughing out load. The unexpected guts on such a colourful and cutesy platformer really caught me off my guard and really gave the game a nice humour tone. :laughing:

The presentation of the game was really charming, and the music was also pretty fitting. The game felt a bit standard-ish in terms of the platforming action, but the controls felt pretty tight anyways. The achievements and all were a neat touch as well. Some more variation in the level design (such as using the cave tiles a bit more) would have given it a bit more variation in terms of level design.

The only thing I feel that would have been welcome would be having some indication of where the finish is, as in the two runs I've made, while in the second trying to collect every friend, I didn't know there were two different paths to finish the game, and ended up finishing the run again before understanding it was the finish line. A quick reset instead of having to refresh the page would also have been welcome.

On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), congratulations on this entry. I am going to have my friends guts exploding as I open doors in my mind for a while. Cheers! :whale:

Tim's Christmas Nightmare by Zombie Virals 2018-12-05T01:44:06Z

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I don't think I'll be looking at Christmas the same way again for a while. That was definitely a chilling experience, and the introduction really set up one terrifying mood that I started wondering if it wasn't a bit for me, Capitan Scared-pants. The overall presentation was really top notch, from the graphics with terrifying Christmas-monsters designs and the overall eerie mother-is-missing atmosphere. Controller support is also appreciated.

If anything, I found the game to be just a bit to unforgiving at first until I was able to get a proper hand of how I was supposed to kill the monsters and use the dash properly. Other than that, I didn't really find any other glaring gameplay issues or the like.

Other than that the small phrases of _"I don't feel so good."_ and _"Coding your games is easier thank you think."_ lifted out the heavy mood a bit and put me a small smirk on the face. Even so, I find it a bit hard to rate the game in terms of humour properly.

For me, the real star of this game is really the mood. It's perfect, made me consider how scared I would have been as a kid if I was in the same situation. In behalf of [our team](https://twitter.com/whalesandgames), congratulations on your entry, and I really hope our Christmas isn't as monster filled as Tim's. :christmas_tree::whale:

Altar by Elnu 2018-12-08T01:14:51Z

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As much as I wanted to reach the end of the game and seeing the 'You win!' screen, I unfortunately ended the game mid-way through. Like other comments have said, the game would definitely benefit a lot from direction queues and sign-posting as to where to find the altars, as in both of my runs I spent a great span of time just moving around trying to find where the 3 :skull: and 4 :skull: altars were.

The game had several interesting ideas in terms of the different levelled spiders and collecting mushrooms in order to collect spells, and the different spells gave the game a more strategic point of view. Although they do feel like they could also be slightly a bit more balanced as in most situations I mostly ended up using the third spell.

Other than that, the graphics had some appeal to it even if you used some free packages, and the audio also gave it some mood, despite the rain sounds with no actual sound overlay. I'd recommend you increase the size of the embed on itch.io though, as some elements were slightly cut-off the screen.

On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), it's really sad to hear that you had the issue of two team members dropping out during the jam. I really hope that all of you that made it to the end are able to do their best next time and that you don't unfortunately end up with the same situation. We'll be cheering for you! :whale:

Death Metal Crowd Pusher by WizardOfOzzy 2018-12-10T23:28:05Z

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That was metal as hell! The graphical presentation and music were really stunning and the graphics looked really sharp and neat! The gameplay, while it did have the smashing issue that others have already talked about, did feel tight in terms of movement and pushing the others down the fiery pit. The combo at 666 points also made it interesting and varied in terms of pacing. :guitar:

However, I do feel like such great and really-well-designed graphics also come at a slight sacrifice (no pun intended). It took me a while to figure exactly where to focus my attention at first when I started the game due to how busy it was, and I eventually noticed that I was supposed to look near the stage, to see where and who I was aiming.

I think this is probably more due to the way the presentation is setup than anything though, and my only thought is that I'd really enjoy to see a mobile version of it so the portrait presentation gets more justice. I hope you do consider it at some point, as I feel in the current desktop versions most of the graphics get downscaled that it doesn't make them the justice they deserve, and I think the gameplay would definitely work excellently on mobile!

On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this rockstar moment, and once again congratulations on the whole theming and the sharp art! Cheers! :whale:

Goat 6 by joaosdev 2018-12-05T19:38:05Z

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Really nice entry! It has a very cute and endearing charm with the goat trying to sacrifice itself theming, and it's overall nice and well paced. I got to the end going through all of the 32 levels. :goat:

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the others and say that the controls are really the only thing holding the game back. There were some levels where the controls were spot-on, and others were where I had to smash the arrow keys about 5 times each in order to move (and sometimes I was able to move beyond the map as well). If you could fix those issues, then the game would be one of the best games on the jam I've played so far!

The graphics and sprites were really captivating as well and I like the complete change of themes at mid-point and later on with the hell levels! Music was really nice as well, although I think the track at the final levels might have gotten just a little too bit heavy compared to how smooth the first two tracks were.

Like I said, if the controls were fixed, it'd be spot-on. On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this entry and we look forward to seeing more from you!

Welcome to the North Pole! by fre 2018-12-14T03:24:13Z

2018-12-14 01H-38M-57S.png

For some reason I can already hear "do you want to build a snowman" in the background. That was a very cute puzzle-platformer, and one that reminded me very much of _Katamari Damacy_ with the growing snowballs. While I didn't collect all of the different presents, I did make it to the end and had a nice time overall.

While the music was very season-y and snow-y (those are verbs now), I do think it got repetitive after a while, in opposition to the rolling sound effect that definitely gave the snow a very audible texture which felt really nice. Presentation was really cute with the different snowballs growing in size, and the spike hazards were visible enough despite being ice-toned to match the rest of the presentation. Not terribly innovative, but enough to have a nice time.

If I had to point out a complaint tough, I'd have to agree with some of the previous comments regarding the sudden switching of focus between snowballs depending on the direction you moved. I feel like it'd have been better to delegate that task to it's unique key as I often found myself switching between different snowballs unintentionally after already having gotten one snowball where I wanted it to go. Some of the puzzles to get some of the presents also felt a bit too harsh compared to the rest of the game (like the one from the screenshot I shared above).

Other than that, I really liked it! On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this snowy experience! Glad I had to chance to give the game a go after you guys posted your programming post yesterday. Cheers! :whale:

Sacrifice Simulation: GOAT FARM by phanxgames 2018-12-07T22:18:14Z

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Well, it seems like I just became a goat genocider because that's a really demanding volcano! It definitely required some goat micro-management, and it took me a bit in the first run to notice that goats multiplied depending of the number of ones in the pen.

However, it definitely became harder to do a lot more points than the ones possible with the goats on the pen. While I have read in the description and on the comments above that were some balancing issues, it's unfortunate since it's really the only thing that's stopping the game from becoming an arcadish min-maxing goat sacrifice sim. :goat:

Besides the balancing problems, the art style was also cute and I gave a small laugh when I saw the female goat with the lipstick and all. The background is really appealing as well! The animation for when the goat gets thrown into it also gave me a few smirks. Really polished graphics wise!

On [behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), thank you for this neat entry! Hope you do a balanced-fixed version at some point, as it would definitely make for a neat and funny game! Cheers! :whale:

Woofice Chair! by JorgeGameDev 2020-10-06T03:56:37Z

@ectucker1 From feedback we've gathered from outside, it seems like the title screen isn't clear enough at the moment. :bow: You're meant to press space _repeatedly_ to gain spin speed. Could you test it out and see if it works? Thank you and sorry for the hassle. :sweat:

Woofice Chair! by JorgeGameDev 2020-10-11T00:25:03Z

**And hey hey!** I'll be picking up from where @moski's answers left-off, and will be taking over the second half of the comments we've gotten! Ready for part two? Here we go!

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@gabriel-dias-oliveira-de-almeida Thank you for checking it out! @Moski's art really shinned this time, and its immediately draws people to the game! :sparkles:

@peace-of-cake-games At one point we were going to have a buffed postman and maybe non-buffed animals too! But unfortunately, we had to cut them due to the time constraints. Here's an early concept for them! Thanks for checking the game out! :smile:

Cut Enemies

@dxk2294 We were going to have an accessibility mode that would have you only hold space, but we ran out of time before we could implement it. It's my only regret we didn't implement this jam. :bow: Still glad you had fun!

@raz3ll Glad that you enjoyed it! The weapons were really fun to design, and we even brought some back from previous jam entries of ours! :wink:

@jeremy-ryan Hah! It's been a while indeed, but we couldn't get around during last year. Glad to see you're still around too! I was really happy to see a notification of a new game from you pop-up on Itch and I'm seeing about setting up Parsec to actually have a chance play Spinnerets with the proper multiplayer later tonight/tomorrow.

The weapon comes out when you decelerate (you stop pressing space). Originally we had it so the weapon was out at all times, but it made the game even more non-challenging. Unfortunately, it feels like we didn't get to communicate when the weapon gets stashed/shows up either. It's a shame. :sweat: Still, glad you liked the package again! :muscle:

@mar3k Glad you liked the animations! @moski had a lot of fun coming up with the animations for the enemies. Beyond the doggos, we also wanted to add different chairs, but the first one took so much time to get the perspective down, we just focused more on the dogs and enemies instead!

@valentinefondreamer Saw Loopy multiple-times on the feed and it's already on my list of games to check-out! Glad you liked our dogs! :dog:

@james-dunlap Humor is our key! :ok_hand: Thanks for reporting the issue with the ESC key. It has been happening randomly with the games from our past year, where sometimes they crash on close, and other times they close just fine. :shrug: I'll have to look more into it. Thanks for playing!

@joh Hey! Glad there's been folks that remember us because of @moski's art style! :blush: The enemies were really fun to work on! You can see we had some more cut ones planned on one of the replies above! Looking forward to playing your game soon! :smile:

@eldogg Thank you! I made a truce with @robinaite that he could use FMod for the audio stuff if he pulled off his best work for a jam yet. And goshdang it, the madlad actually did it. :clap: Thanks for checking us out!

@peachtreeoath Pleased to know that the screenshots do the game justice! :thumbs-up: And now that you've sent that game's link, I cannot un-see it. We should try drawing one of the dogs as a buff character some time in the future. :joy:

Glad that our games are still a joy! As we returned to LD, we wanted to make sure we focused more on making the actual gameplay even more juice. I still think we can innovate more, so hopefully we will delight even more in future jams! Thanks for commenting! :sparkles:

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Thank you to everyone that has commented! We're going to continue checking out games across the entire jam, and we're definitely looking into playing most of the ones from the comments here! As always, you can reach us in our [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/whalesandgames) or our [**Discord**](discord.gg/whalesandgames)! Cheers! :whale:

Woofice Chair! by JorgeGameDev 2020-11-04T02:30:45Z

**Hey there!** :wave: Just like last time, I will be taking over replying to the second half of the comments. We're a bit late replying since we were a bit busy getting Halloween stuff out, but we didn't want to leave this thread hanging! :muscle:

Without further ado, let's get into my answers! :point_down:

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@ddrkirbyisq Glad to see you around again too! :wave: We played a bit with the weapon spinning mechanic, and it was kind of a last-day addition to add a bit more depth to the game. It definitely could have used more work to make it feel even better. :ok_hand: We also received scolding from other artists regarding the saturation of everything, it's definitely something we're looking into improving with our graphics going further! Thanks a lot for your comment, and I hope to see you around for more jams as well!

@meatball Tweaking the enemy speed and position was something we definitely wanted to do, but unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could give them a proper balance. :bow: Thanks for the compliments though!

@thegamer @criobite Making games full of character is one of our team's mission statements. :ok_hand: We really want to see if we fuel our team's flash-inspired art style and gameplay inspirations even more! We hope that personality comes across even more in future Ludum Dares! :relaxed:

@omiya-games Thank you! Glad that you like our team's style! And yes, we're sorry there was a bit of a struggle in the visual spread of the information. :sweat_drops: Unfortunately we didn't have as much time to tweak and iron-out the UI as much as we'd like in this one, which led to those information splits that you've mentioned.

We were trying with some new techniques for the camera. We thought it'd be more useful to have the camera ahead of the player. However, like you said, a different camera setup could have probably been more useful for the player. Thanks for the in-depth feedback! :smile:

@sakura-magika Glad you liked the character designs. The Behemoth (Alien Hominid, Battleblock Theater, ...) are one of our biggest inspirations, so we're very happy to be compared to them! The blue haired girl on the background is ***Whalechan***! She's one of our mascot characters that we feature in most of our studio-wise artwork! :blush:

Whalechan Profile

The weapons have some slight stat differences, but they're not very noticeable right away. The foamy hand, for example, will deal much more knockback to the enemies, while the bat deals more damage. Treats award you extra points. Some extra explanation could have definitely been in place!

Overall, thank you for the in-depth comment and the suggestions of things we could have done! Here's hoping you like _Whalechan_! :whale:

@yword Leaderboards would have been lovely! For a future jam game where we have simpler mechanics and more time to spend in polish, I definitely want us to try implementing a leaderboard system we have developed for our studio a while back. Here's looking forward to you being around when we make that game! :thumbsup:

@snowinn @jjoeyay @rafaelgiordanno @esphoros @pee-thief @betovf @ancient-pixel @danielblanco3d Thank you all of you folks for your compliments and for liking the style of the game. It was really fun to put together, and we're glad to see that people liked our inside-joke taken too far. :blush:

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And that fully finishes _Ludum Dare_ on our side! Here’s hoping that some of you folks are still around to see our replies! Like always, you’re more than welcome to [come chat with us at our *Discord* server!](discord.whalesandgames.com) You can also [follow us on *Twitter*!](twitter.com/whalesandgames) to keep up with our work in other non-ludum-dare games!

**From all of our team and studio, thank you for playing _Woofice Chair!_ Returning to _Ludum Dare_ has been incredibly fun and even if we’re going to be fully occupied with our commercial project this next year, we hope to see you around and to have the chance to participate again! Cheers! :dog:**

Solar Edge by mar3k 2020-10-09T04:56:10Z

Solar Edge

**Well, this was a very neat management-sort of game! First off, kudos on everything you've achieved during the 48 hours of the compo!** There's a lot of neat ideas here, and having programmed everything in Java its an incredible achievement by its own! The pixel art is also pretty appealing, and I like the whole motif of the ~~heat death of the universe~~ expanding sun. :sunny:

As for the game design, I felt lost a bit at the beginning, the first times I played the game. The game starts off by suggesting to build a Metal Refinery, and since there were no tags to indicate which building it was, I assumed it was the first one in the toolbar, only to create the Gas building instead and having no way to recover at that point. I had to reset the game a few times to trial-and-error until I found the correct buildings. I think some labels when you hovered over the different buttons and what each of the buildings (and stats) were, would have helped make things clearer.

Something that someone else has already mentioned too, was the difficulty spike. I only managed to make it to the third planet, and even by then, I only had 11/80 Uranium. I kept sending the few survivors I had on expeditions, hoping to get more survivors and uranium, but it seems the fail-rate was too high. There were points where I ended up with negative survivors, and on my last planet, I eventually reached a point where I couldn't have an working ecosystem of Gas/Food/Metal due to no longer having enough survivors. I also didn't full grasp the concept of how Food was distributed by Survivors, when in contrast with the Oxygen.

Even then, I can see how it was intended to work, and I think some more clearness on what-does-what could help go a long way in future games! :sparkles:

I don't know if it's related to the game running on Windows instead of Linux, but the only real technical issue I found was that I felt my clicks weren't registering, and I sometimes had to click multiple times on the planets and on the buildings to get the prompts to fully appear. Nothing too major, but still thought I'd point it out!

**Major kudos for the guitar playing.** One of the great things about the compo games is getting the chance to see how people apply their other life skills when making their game, and I absolutely think you nailed it and it gave the game a very nice tune!

On a final note, as you pointed out, I had to install the Java SDK to run the game, which was no issue for me, but I can see it turning a few people away from rating your game more. Would there be a way to package it alongside the game in the future? **Cheers! :whale:**

Satelloop by diptoman 2020-10-11T03:10:03Z

Satelloop

**I really liked this game!** Everything about it seems to have been extremely well thought out, from the great on-boarding tutorial to the actual gameplay. The idea of having to deploy the drones to collect energy, and others to defend the satellite was pretty great. The graphics and music were also pretty clean and catchy, and the game really nailed it down on the space-atmosphere!

I did run into the issue with audio that was already reported by someone before, where the music just suddenly cut-off. I was playing the Windows version, and had just restarted for my second playthrough. The music cut a few moments after I skipped the tutorial. It didn't return afterwards, so the third playthrough was only SFX. Still, listening to the game music during my first playthrough and as I write this review, I can guarantee you its a great tune! :musical_note:

I can't really see much flaws in this game overall (I was a bit unsure how to rate the humor category here). While the mechanics were on the safe-side, everything worked as intended, and the balance was very good. I fell towards the end it was a bit hard to balance energy with the speed I had to deploy drones to destroy the asteroids, but that's common as far as arcade games go.

**My final highscore after three playthroughs was of 323 days!** Almost a full year, but I couldn't quite pull it off. Seeing you guys profiles, I can tell that you already have some experience in this rodeo, so I made sure to follow and I look forward to seeing your projects next time around! Thanks for the great time, and cheers! :whale:

Gene Cycle by joh 2020-10-11T04:38:42Z

Gene Cycle

**This game went from being confusing to being my favourite entry of the jam yet.** For some reason, it took me a few tries to fully wrap my head around the mechanics and realize how the connections between nucleotides worked. However, when it clicked that it was pretty much just about queuing sequences, and that changing the order of things broke connections, it became a real joy and fun to play. :clap:

From the previous comments, I think the learning curve is the only real game design issue here, although I can't really say why it was so confusing at first, since when you get it, it becomes pretty obvious. Even with the tutorial screens from the fixed version, it still took me two/three retries until I felt I had a full grasp of what I was supposed to be doing. Don't know if I was just heavy-minded but still, worth pointing out.

The only other smaller issues I felt like were the 'physics' with the connections. I certainly liked dragging un-used sequences around to clear the board as to focus on the nucleoids I was currently working with. However, when trying to get a sequence done ASAP as the game speeds-up, the connections would most of the times twirl with each other, and move around a bit erratic. That made it a bit hard to connect nucleoids in time before the sequence looped again.

I also think it'd be a great QOL addition if pressing the right mouse button when you accidentally select a nucleoid would cancel the connection mode for that node, rather than having you click the already selected node, which sometimes moves around/takes some extra precious seconds. Just a suggestion, since everything else works pretty great!

Gene Cycle Highscore

The graphics and audio choices worked great for a puzzle game too and really helped get that hyped/zen mentality afterwards. **My final highscore ended up being 12. Not to shabby, eh? Thanks a lot for making this game, and it ended up really being a real surprise. Kudos!** :whale:

Gene Cycle by joh 2020-10-11T21:54:02Z

@joh Help, I keep coming back to it.

Gene Cycle Highscore

Goblin Alchemist by James Dunlap 2020-10-10T06:16:46Z

2020-10-10 06H-43M-17S.png

**Well, I played this for a lot longer than I am willing to admit.** A great chunk of that time was me being dead-set on trying to get all of the three essences that, I assume, when combined would allow me to defeat the undead. Unfortunately, in both playthroughs I had gotten up to two of the essences, I ended up getting caught by the undead, and unfortunately, there's more games to be played. :bow:

2020-10-10 07H-01M-39S.png

Talking about the actual game, and speaking of the undead, I guess I didn't fully finish reading the description first-time. **When I saw it the first time in game, I got real spooked.** :ghost: From that moment on, the mood pretty much settled in, and I was always on my toes to make sure I didn't get caught my the thing, and trying my best to mix potions that would help me be faster and aid exploration. The night helped add some extra atmosphere, though I think some light emanating from the circle and the player would have helped make things a bit more readable.

**The crafting system was really in-depth and I liked experimenting combining the different items to see what I would get.** However, when there was only one or two combinations missing for an ingredient, it became a process of trial-and-error to know what I still hadn't used and what I hadn't used. Some sort of hint system suggesting which Y ingredients you hadn't combined with X yet on the crafting menu would have helped, as well as someway to track recipes that require combining multiple items (as was the case of the essences).

The graphics presentation of the game was really nice, and I really liked how visually descriptive the items were. Since I made more than one playthrough, I realized that the map was procedurally generated, and sometimes some items I required to make the missing potions/items were not at all close to the circle and I had to travel long distance to find what was missing. Even with the compass potion, I think some more variety of birds-eye view decorations would have helped a bit more with long-distance orientation, as it was frequent for me to end up getting lost anyway.

Other than, also though the music was pretty nice, and it fit both day/night variations respectively, and the distortion when the undead was close to you only helped contribute more for the mood. Any other criticisms have mostly been mentioned above, such as better potion feedback.

Thanks for the game, and I hope one of the future comments can properly celebrate having defeated the undead! If I get the chance, I will revisit after the jam. Cheers! :whale:

Dude Ranch by ColeSlaughter 2020-10-13T18:26:37Z

Dude Ranch

***Is there something accidentally... kinky about this?*** :eyes: Jokes aside, this was a very and fantastic fun play! It needs no explanation why it excels at both gameplay and humour, and I immediately felt in love with it from the moment I started playing it! :sparkles:

Gameplay-wise, the game was very straight-forward to the point. I was a bit concerned when I saw the controls were about aiming in the opposite direction, but after a minute it just clicked into place and it worked perfectly from there.

I really like how the wrangling of DUDES feels, and I really like how you've included the different types that appear as you collect the defaults, and it was very fun to chase after the golden guys. From wrangling right next to each dude to get the points faster, or throw a longer loop to score more points while pushing, there's a lot of strategy that can be pulled away from this (hah!).

The only other thing that left me kind of off visually was how blurry the grass was compared to the crispiness of everything else. However, that's only a small detail. Everything else from the looping character animations of the characters, to the choice of music and even the inclusion of wild-west-esque voicework really added a top-notch quality seal on this game.

I tried to aim to get as far as @jenkinz94 did and try to grab the highscore of this thread, but I went as far as I did before my wrists started aching. **I guess I will have to settle for my score of 3440$ instead then!** When I get the chance I will make sure to give it another try! :ok_hand:

Thanks a lot for the laughs with this game, and you have to be proud of the polish it has! Looking forward to seeing even more from you folks! Cheers! :whale:

Dude Ranch Highscore

Spinnerets by Jeremy Ryan 2020-10-27T00:45:43Z

Spinnerets

**Took me long enough to get to it, but here we are!** Had the chance the take a game for a spin (hah) as a multiplayer game like it's intended, remotely through the power of Parsec! I ended up playing against @moski until one of us got to ten points, and while he started on the lead, I ended up taking the spinning trophy home! :trophy:

It's really fun to see a compo game done with group-play intent too, and I think you did that pretty well! I feel Ludum Dare ends up motivating people to try more single-player experiences since its a do-from-home jam and because of the rating system. However, multiplayer games are always some of the most fun I recall having in game jams, so thank you for brining that experience here too!

First off, I have to praise the really good presentation! While simple, it conveys all of the information that is intended. The spiders stick out with their unique looks from the environment, and you can easily tell the destructible stuff from the walls. The little polish such as your intro screens and the trail effect of the projectiles were all pretty good! :spider:

Gameplaywise, I had a lot of fun! However, I feel like I was having _even more fun_ when some of power-ups were around, especially the sock one and faster spinning ones! While I can see the reason as for player's not to spam each other, I feel like I would have appreciated the faster spinning and firing. It did feel at times that the default firing speed was a bit on the slow side.

Even then though, the power-ups were really fun and created an interesting dynamic between going after them while avoiding getting hit by the other player. The only power-up we really didn't understand the effects of was the mandible power-up. Even then, everyone of the other ones were really fun to try out and try to use both to our advantage and disadvantage.

**I can picture this being a really big mayhem with four players, and I hope I get the chance to play it some time.** Once again, it was a delight to try this game out, and it's really fun to see your skill with different code libraries shine and deliver really polished stuff in 48 hours. Now that we're back to Ludum Dare we hope to see more stuff from you around again! Cheers! :whale:

Spinnerets Results

Loophole Kingdom by MateusBoga 2020-10-18T03:35:52Z

Loophole Kingdom

**I want Veronika to step on me.** That aside, this was a very fun read and playthrough, and even if it wasn't a fully fresh new concept, it was fun poking around the concept of the time loop as a way to actually explain replaying in-universe. Finding new paths you can take when you get information or knowledge from other loops helps explore that concept even further!

I've been following your art for a while and I've seen the impressive rate at which you publish art and you can see that same skill applied here! I'm amazed that you've written this many paths and different possibilities in the short time of the jam, whilst having everything well kept and polished together. The overall humour, including the useless options (always pet the horses) was also very on-point, including the self-awareness of the characters themselves! :laughing:

My only qualm with the game comes from its own nature though, as despite the time loop idea being a fun one, it does get repetive after a while. By the time I was at ~18 deaths, and was already in the later paths (by the time ending #2 and #5 happen) trying to find my missing endings, and I was mostly repeating me getting a cookie from the narrator, grabbing the bucket, getting the letter, and later-on dying to me experimenting different options to find the missing endings, death, rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, that made the first parts of each loop wear down progressively over time.

There are several ways that could be solved, such as being able to roll-back a choice that leads to a death instead of having to start over. However, I understand that given the jam limitations, you did what was possible. With that said, **I still enjoyed the 4 out of 6 endings I got!** Maybe given the chance I will go back and get the missing ones.

Thank you for the game, and I look forward to keeping up with your art and future games! **Cheers! :whale:**

Time Loop by _Kassjak_ 2020-10-10T04:44:09Z

Time Loop

**This was really good!** The idea is simple and straight to the point which makes the gameplay really good! The controls are tight and straight-forward and the scaling of the difficulty as time goes on is also on-point. The bolts recovering HP is a great choice to keep the player in-game despite sometimes getting hit by bats.

From there, I'd say that my only distress was what everyone has already mentioned in the previous comments, where at the beginning, it feels like the bats fire faster than you can get to them when you jump between sides. I also thought that timing my jumps to fall on top of the gears would also award points at first, but then I realized it only helps to clear them from the clock faster.

The presentation is _absolutely top-notch_ and I really like the style and all of the polish/juice that the game has, from the flashes, the screenshaking, the trails, to the floating animation for the bolts. I also really like the choice of music that was made!

Congratulations on this first game jam for @bbqgiraffe and I look forward to seeing more from you folks. Cheers! :whale:

Beat Bash by Overlook Studios 2020-10-25T03:02:06Z

Beat Bash

**This was really fun, unexpected and well done!** :sparkles: Mixing up both a combat and a to-the-beat system really makes for a surprisingly fun and interesting combination. I really like the whole pitch of the game, as well as the different effects of the runes and how you have both a defend against magic as you have against melee, making you have to swap runes as the battle goes on.

**I really like all of the details that were put in pretty much every aspect of the game.** Having everything from little menu prompts to the background elements also scaling up/down based on the rhythm really helped both backgrounds and interface feel alive. The inclusion of different sceneries was also pretty great, and given that this is a game all around the beat, having the beat also change a bit depending on the area was an awesome touch and kept the game feeling fresh!

If anything, I wish there was a way to see some sort of rune inventory while you're in the shop screen. As I started getting gold and buying runes pretty much every round, I wasn't sure of how many of each runes I already had. With the current depth of the game I don't think it'd matter much, especially since the runes were also escalating with the difficulty, but I guess it's something I am used to from make-your-hand/deck games. Oh! And showing the price of a rune by hovering rather than having to actually drag it to preview the price would be a nice quality-of-life change too!

While I might have only played a loop and a half, my time with the game was fantastic. I don't know if the locked game-modes in the menu were a teaser, or just a joke regarding the jam's theme, but even then, if you continue working on it, I think it'll be a fantastic time. Overall, thank you for this entry, and cheers! :whale:

RESCUE ATTEMPT #[REDACTED] by Junebug 2020-10-25T05:00:54Z

Redacted

**Well, this was a curious experience!** It had an interesting premise, and the idea of collecting different power-ups as you go through different section of the level. While you called them loops, because of the variation they end up having as you go through the five 'loops' they felt more like sections of a single-level than a true loop but I can see what you were going for.

In terms of presentation though, I really like the limited palette that you've gone for and it has a very clean but still appealing loop. I especially applaud the extra effort put into the title screen as well as the ending scene. The music also fit the aesthetic very well!

Personally, I have to agree with commentaries above, where the movement felt more enjoyable than the combat in the long run. While it might be necessary to defeat a few enemies during the first two loops, as you collect the movement power-ups, it almost becomes more fun to dodge them than to engage in direct combat. The enemies are certainly missing some challenge in the later loops. However, this all makes me wonder if putting a speedrun-like timer on the game would have led to a completely different experience as a player. :thinking:

Still, this is mostly food for thought. I ended up making a second run where I got a score of 837. I can't tell if it was because I ended up defeating more enemies, or if I did something else. Even then, this was a tight controlling platformer overall! **Thank you for creating it, and cheers! :whale:**

The Convolution by Greebs 2020-10-09T05:28:59Z

The Convolution

I saw this on the feed, and well, it was certainly something! **From reading your posts and the comments above I can see this was more of an experimental and playing-around-with-ideas sort of game, and I think it serves its purpose as just that!** Here's hoping making this little project achieved its purpose for you to move forward with your personal work.

It was curious to click around and try to find the different things and puzzles that were interactable. The graphics, which seem to be your speciality, were also very appealing and I really liked the palette that you went for! The little jokes, the guy fieri quote and everything else were also great humorous and I had a fun time with it given its scope and goals. Thanks for it! **Cheers! :whale:**

~~_Jonathan Blow blocked me again, but that's fine._~~

Far Side of the Mirror by DDRKirbyISQ 2021-05-02T03:40:48Z

Far Side Of The Mirror

Well, another game by the cocoa moss team and @ddrkirbyisq! I was looking forward to trying it out since I saw the notification in my notifications, and reading the description, it sounded like it was certainly going to be an interesting trip down dreams, and that's precisely what I've got. The entire experience was gorgeous and amazing from start to finish. :cat:

This is an incredibly well-crafted and introspective narrative and world that you've put together in the short time of this jam. It's bite sized, but it has the perfect amount of character and polish to really stand out. I love the character designs, with Mocha genuinely feeling like plushie material. I love the run animation that they have, how the one-eyed human react to you running, and even things like how you can mess up the dance and appropriate reactions for doing so. The audio design was on point too! ​​

Personally, I feel like the only thing I would have liked was to see a bit more of the gameplay and introspection connected. The little segment with the spiders-people and people moving around to catch you was a very nice start and it'd be fantastic to see more like it without necessarily over-doing it over the narrative nature of the game either. Seeing some more conversations and opportunities to use those sweet text animations would have been great too!

Allow me to end this comment by stating what must be stated. ***Lenny G was the best character, dawg.*** I hope to see more of hi'rhymes and this universe someday, as I believe this is genuinely an extremely well-crafted narrative, game and piece. Thank you a lot for giving me the opportunity to experience it. Cheers! :whale:

Far Fetched by johnfn 2021-05-02T02:42:28Z

Far Fetched

This game was extremely adorable! The presentation of the game brought me here in the first place, but the imagination-theme of the game keep me hooked and extremely engaged. As mentioned by previous comments, the contrast between the clean artwork and the rough sketches really helps sell Olive's imagination! The game's writing is also super adorable, and Winston gets the star for being the best boi. :dog:

The polish of the game is also incredible! Like other people have mentioned, small touches like the vocals during goblin chase were really surprising and the music composition was extremely well put together! However, it did feel like some additional SFX when eating chocolate, the dog barking, or sounds when pushing the rocks would have been welcome adding though, as it felt a bit odd that those had no matching feedback to some of the other things (like the actions) had.

Level-design wise the game was also very good and I liked the inclusion of the shadows on the second chapter, which helped give the illusion that time had passed! I definitely would have loved to have seen a few more bullet-hell-like enemies though. I felt like the flowers added the most depth to the game, with you having to time movements and solve puzzles. Enemies of the second-level felt like they didn't have as much to them though. I don't know if the goblins in the coats or the frog people were supposed to be more active in damaging me, but they mostly felt just "there" and they were a breeze to get though. The boss was a really nice inclusion though!

I really wish there was a downloadable version of the game, since it feels like a native version would have allowed graphics to be even more crispier (namely the text-boxes). I also had some slight crunchiness with the audio that happened here and there and I feel they were also a result of web-limitations (doesn't impact your ratings whatsoever though!).

Overall, this is a really nice and chill game overall, even beyond jam standards. I hope to continue seeing even more from your team in the future, and I'm really glad I had the chance to play this. Thank you very much. Cheers! :whale:

Financial Depths by joh 2021-05-05T00:30:12Z

Financial Depths

[Gene Cycle](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/gene-cycle) was one of my surprise favourites from the last _Ludum Dare_, so I was really looking forward to trying out this new puzzle-like game from you as well! Needless to say, just like your former entry, this one takes a very specific sort of themes, and tries to adapt them to interesting mechanics and I think the game successfully achieves just that! :raised_hands:

The interpretation of _Deeper and Deeper_ as going further and further into financial debt, especially with the line in the background showing your ever decaying net worth, is a genuinely curious one! Micromanaging and continuously stacking new cards while paying off the debt and old cards felt like a tip-the-scales sort of situation and a considerable exercise. Like some of the previous comments, it took me a while to notice that, in addition to the cards, you also had a small bank account. I possibly would have made the bank balance a button at the beginning of the queue just like the rest of the cards to make the feature more obvious to starting players.

I assume that it isn't possible given the theme, but it'd have been curious to see if there was a way to carry the game with a positive net worth until the end somehow. Maybe through extremely rewarding play. :thinking: I also know you're not being rated in audio, but I think some slight background music, even if royalty-free would have a nice addition!

At the end, after having played the game, I have to ponder. Are we all doomed to unpayable debt and credit? To see our bank accounts plummet endlessly downward as capitalistic mega-corps and the government cash-us out from all of our hard-earned cash? Or am I just being exaggeratively nihilistic for the sake of ending a comment in a funny ironic tone? One has to ponder. Cheers! :whale:

Masseuse you Loose by ColeSlaughter 2021-05-04T23:10:18Z

Masseuse you Loose.png

I know that @moskidraws already reviewed and played the game for our team above, but since it's you guys we're talking about, I knew I also had to give it a try because I knew I was in for something special. :smile:

I'll start by prefacing with this. @ruddiculous commented on our game saying that WAG has one of the most recognizable styles in _Ludum Dare_. I'd say without a doubt that the _Keyboard Cowboys_ team has just has as much, if not a more recognizable style. Ever since playing _Serial Dater_ all the way back in LD43, all your games have featured wonderful wacky and humorous presentations, mixed in with some genuinely innovative gameplay choices. After the gem that _Dude Ranch_, this game is no exception.

The whole setup right from the start, with you being introduced to Shitzu as this massage sensei is phenomenal. As much as @coleslaughter is not the biggest fan of his voice-lines, they're an incredible addition to the point I wish there were more of them during gameplay. The amount of different backs, with some of them being call-backs (heh) to previous games was also pretty amusing!

I really enjoyed the different type of inputs using the mouse and keys for different massage techniques. If anything, the only thing I struggled a bit was that I'd press way too early when reaching a spot, since the hand would be over the spot but not just enough for it to be considered the massaging zone. I know the hands change when you're de-facto ready to massage a spot, but just a lil'bit of visual feedback would have gone great. It'd also have been great to have just a little bit more feedback to know how much more you have to input before you're done with a spot, so you don't overdo it either.

The challenge mode was a very nice bonus after the end of the main three days. I don't know if it scales in difficulty the more you keep playing (though it does continuously say Day 4) but if it isn't the case I'd definitely would have enjoyed to see the difficulty escalating even more the more you played. @mateusboga might have hurt his arms, but I was ready to have mine destroyed! :muscle:

To finish this comment off, I'm extremely glad to continue having the possibility of jamming alongside you folks and enjoying your games. This is yet another fantastic entry, and I genuinely look forward to what the next editions are going to bring out from both of our teams. Here's to many more amusing and fantastic games like this one! Cheers! :whale:

Masseuse you Loose Results.png

Fade by Jeremy Ryan 2021-05-05T03:51:56Z

Fade

@jeremy-ryan, this one is tough. I really want to love this game! For a compo game, the presentation is phenomenal, the gameplay and narrative association are on-point and the music is amazing. But the difficulty was a bit alienating for me. I was wondering before playing from reading the comments if it was really as tough as the description and as other commenters were saying, and it eventually checked out for me. :bow:

I'm not sure if it's because I'm not the biggest (nor really a good) rhythm game player, but I really couldn't make it past the third section even after multiple attempts (to the point my wrists are actually hurting as I am typing this comment) and balancing all eight notes was very hard for me. Even then, despite my struggles, I really need to reiterate that I think there's a fantastic bit-sized story to tell here that's really pretty and emotional for anyone that has an attachment or love for an hobby and for their family.

The polish was incredibly well put together with the screenshake, particles and feedback from hitting the notes, and it genuinely feels like a game made for the jam done in compo time. It's really that good in my opinion!

I hope that you make a post-Ludum Dare version of this with a more accessible mode for those of us who aren't as good in rhythm games. I really want to give it the best opportunity and shot I can. I really believe this game truly deserves it. I look forward to seeing your next compo entries! Cheers! :whale:

Derpy Deep Drive by Extrone 2021-05-02T01:46:40Z

Derpy Deep Drive

Saw this game on stream a few days ago, and the clean visuals made me look forwarding to giving it a go! It's a simple and easy-to-pick up game, alright, and the aesthetics are very appealing! I really like the bus model, how the health is displayed on the back on the bus to keep the immersion in-touch, and the small chromatic-aberration that the shadows of the edges have help give the track a nice splash of colour! :bus:

The UI polish is really something to talk about, with all the different menus - including the aforementioned mouse sensitivity - and the feedback on everything looking incredible, which is something to be expected of someone that said they enjoyed making menus! However, I think it'd have been nice if some of the time invested in the UI polish could have been spent with some extra gameplay depth.

I feel like making the endless mode actually endless would have been great, turning this into a proper highscore competition here in the comments. Some variation of the track would have also been nice, such as cubes that could heal your bus, boosting tracks, or even a drifting function (I noticed if you click your bus lights turn on/off, so you even have feedback ready for that!) could have made it more chaotic and replayable! Ideally you could add new mechanics that don't displace the simplicity of the controls, but rather add to what is already a satisfying built-in loop.

Overall, this is some really nice work and a fun game! Kudos! :whale:

The Deepest Fish by LeYamez 2021-05-04T00:10:29Z

The Deepest Fish

When I started this game, I certainly didn't expect I'd be fishing in the moon by the end of it! That was a pleasant experience, and I really liked the juxtaposition between the tranquil fishing scenes and the bullet-hell segment from the actual fishing. The way the tones of the guitar change from the fishing scenes to the minigame really helped separate the feeling of both sections, though I do wish there was just some more slight inclusion of SFX, feedback, and maybe even a few more notes or layers by the latter levels. :fishing_pole_and_fish:

From what you mention from your description, it seems like some folks missed that you had to click the paper on the right corner to progress and it does come out a bit like a menu icon at first. Something like an indicator, an exclamation mark or a notification when you're ready to progress to the next stage/boat would have definitely been a good call-to-action! The first note was also a bit hard to read with the yellow text in the paper, but the subsequent ones were fine!

While I think the bullet-hell minigame was pretty nice, I think that the final level was already a bit too long with the 65s fishing. At that point I started failing the cheaper fish on purpose to focus on getting the vampire squid and anglefish to make it to the final scene quickier. I think some extra variety on the bubble effects (kind of getting some inspiration from Undertale attack) would have been nice if possible! It would have been nice to see a few vertical bubbles alongside the horizontal ones, or maybe even some that would home in your direction. There are multiple ideas to be had!

Finally, I also echo @wuppos suggestion! I definitely would have liked to see some sort of fishing log with the different fish that you've caught, though I can understand that would have likely been out of scope! Some indicator of which fish you've caught in a zone would have still been welcome though.

I did consider the experience oddly soothing overall! Also how did I catch a giant whale from a fishing rod alone? That has to be one very strong rod. Then again, fishing on the moon. Videogame logic strikes again! Cheers! :whale:

Excavatris Inc. by Neon Glass 2021-05-02T01:15:20Z

Excavatris

I saw this game on @omiya-games stream yesterday and seeing how it was based off actual Tetris, being a Tetris-aficionado myself, I knew I had to give it a shot as soon as possible! Starting things off the bat, I have to say that this is a really fun take on Tetris thanks to the use of some new smaller but very well thought out mechanics. The bombs and the moving blocks helped give this game a very unique and fun take on the Tetris formula. Like most people in the comments, those small additions really motivated me to keep playing for a good while! The clear graphics and the very fitting music, especially how the track changes every N-depth also keep it very fresh as it went along. :blush:

There's a few homestead quality-of-life things from the standard Tetris that I felt would have been really welcome. Being able to hold pieces and swap them was really nice, however, the thing I missed the most was the ghost piece that appears in most modern Tetris titles. Being able to see where a piece is predicted to land on with a hard-drop would have been-nice, and early on I was having a few issues placing a few pieces due to the lack of a grid or a ghost like that.

As a minor nit-pick from playing so much Tetris normally, I would have also looked a bit at the controls of some of the existing Tetris games on PC, such as the [online version](https://tetris.com/play-tetris), [jstris](https://jstris.jezevec10.com/) and [Puyo Puyo Tetris](https://store.steampowered.com/app/546050/Puyo_PuyoTetris/), which use Z/X for rotation and C for hold and that layout would have definitely been welcome here! Though again, these are just a nit-pick from me playing the original game fairly frequently! :sweat_smile: Speaking of nit-picks, the game over glitch mentioned for web happened to me in the Windows version, and there's was the occasional fake block that stayed on screen. They were no biggie though!

The power-ups were a great addition in my opinion! The earthquake one was a god-send starting in 100+ depth. The first and second power-ups were also great at removing mistakes early on, but with the speed increasing in the later-game, it became harder to have actual breathing room to use them. I feel a small SFX or a clearer indicator when a power-up can be used would have been fantastic! Same thing with the deployment arrow. It felt slightly misplaced to use it with the Q/E keys. Maybe have it target where your current piece is about to land?

Overall this is a really fun game, and I was trying my best to head for a high-score. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to pull it off just yet using the tiny laptop keys I'm on right now. I got extremely close at 132 though, so once I get back to my regular location with my proper keyboard I will be sure to be back here to take the crown off your hands, @dragonayzer! Look out to it! :whale:

Excavatris Inc. by Neon Glass 2021-05-03T20:22:52Z

Excavatris Highscore

My job here is done, @dragonayzer (and CC @omiya-games just because). :trophy: The music for reaching Depth 151+ didn't even play to me, so I had the last 10 levels in silence. :stuck_out_tongue:

Down Whale by notpjriavs 2021-05-05T02:38:16Z

Down Whale

_Whale whale whale, what do we have here?_ Considering we're the folks from the _Whales And Games_ team, I was immediately intrigued by the idea of scavenging through a giant whale and seeing which sort of loot these ~~sea~~ celestial dwellers had to show from the inside! :whale2:

I'll be honest, and similarly to @ruddgasm I was also expecting the gameplay to be a bit more tunnel focused from the screenshots rather than being mostly about the drill with the occasional fuel trip through one of the side-routes. I had to read through the comments here in the page to understand in the first playthroughs that you're meant to go through the side-paths, and then drop into the drill shortly after - and ideally with fuel with you. The idea of making it all procedurally generated is fascinating though! Even then, I did fall off the map once and got stuck in a hole another because I didn't have enough jetpack fuel. It happens. :sweat_smile: I think it would have been interesting if you could stop or slow down the drill (even if it cost you fuel to start it back up again) to explore the sides a bit-more.

One thing I had a complicated relationship with were the graphics. While they look great while still, such as in menus (the menu art is extremely gorgeous/vibrant) and screenshots, during actual gameplay and motion it's a bit hard to get readability for a lot of the things that are going on on-screen at the same time. It took me a while to realize that the glowing green rocks on the sides gave you currency, and that, likewise, that those green rocks were the same currency that is obtained from enemies, and that it was not just a green blood particle for added effect!

When the camera is zoomed in, like in the side-tunnels, the game looks and reads mostly fine though it does feel like it still has a bit too much going on at times. It could have used a bit more simplicity on the background while the foreground could have kept the same level of detail. While on the drill and in other scenarios, I feel like the game could have used a bit more feedback, like flashing or screenshaking when the player gets hit as it was a bit hard to see when I was losing health even with the big health pie. The combat was decent, though with just that bit more of feedback I also think it wouldn't feel as much stiff as some comments have mentioned!

I hope I didn't sound too harsh! I do think that there's stuff to like here in the game and I really like how you went and also had every single of your team members in the credits screen with their own individual portrait. That's a nice gift to each of them!

If you guys continue doing more _Ludum Dare_ either on your own or as a team, I genuinely look forward for more stuff from you folks, as it seems you have some very interesting world-building ideas as presented here in this game. I look forward to them! Cheers! :whale:

Dive & Dig by andrewkennedy 2021-05-05T04:54:33Z

Dive and Dig

Before I started writing this comment, I was genuinely convinced this was a jam game at first, only to then notice this was a compo game when double-checking!

It's really well-polished, and I really enjoyed the first two playthroughs where you pretty much present the game as if they were two separate concepts, only to bring them together in the third playthrough in a genuinely humorous way. I think that's a pretty neat way to do it, especially with the Play buttons switching places each time! :smile:

Digging the blocks was pretty satisfying and the game was pretty easy to control overall! Balancing both the O2 and Temperature, especially as they start becoming depleting/filling faster was pretty satisfying, and I really like how you even went and added unique particles to each side and even transition animations to the _Dive & Dig_ when you switch sides! Pretty good stuff I'd say!

While I think that the depth highscore works perfectly fine, part of me wishes there was some sort of secondary objective to go along it. I'd really have liked to see the number of total blocks broken for example, to motivate you to min-max the number of blocks you break in one side before swapping other to the side, but I can understand this being a compo game that there was a limited time-frame to do everything.

Even then, this was a pretty fun game to give a shot to! Glad I had the chance to play it! Cheers! :whale:

Reactor by Birdwards 2021-10-09T01:34:29Z

Unfortunately we cannot rate this time since we didn't get the chance to participate this time around, but it was really fun to play it on stream! Thank you for submitting! Because I absolutely love puzzle and match-esquee games, I kept up playing this well after we finished recording.

Definitely was a bit try-hard but I wanted to have my current highscore recorded for the thread to see. :pray:

**Thanks a lot for making this game! :whale: **

Reactor Highscore