Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Josh Riley
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | Revenge of the Slimomancer | compo | 126 | 3.53 | 3.63 | 3.11 | 2.44 | 3.16 | 3.53 | 3.09 | 2.97 | ||
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Hurrikeyn | compo | 227 | 3.58 | 3.82 | 3.21 | 3.42 | 3.11 | 3.92 | 3.33 | |||
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Guns are Gas are Life are Score | compo | 366 | 3.59 | 3.57 | 2.86 | 2.83 | 3.75 | 3.89 | 3.43 | |||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Stacked Odds | compo | 437 | 3.25 | 2.90 | 3.08 | 3.70 | 3.23 | 3.28 | 2.94 | |||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | Five Minute Fire Fight | compo | 91 | 3.79 | 3.50 | 3.74 | 3.83 | 3.33 | 3.48 | 2.33 | 3.21 |
Josh Riley leaves an average of 11.4 feedback comments each event.
I like the graphics, audio and concept, but I can't beat any level but the first. It's so hard that I'm wondering if it might actually be a bug? I timed it and found out the "under 3 seconds" timer is actually 1.1 seconds for me, which makes me think that the speed of the game might be vary based on the machine it's played on. My character moves so fast I can barely tell it's moving.
This is really brilliant idea for this theme...It's simple and really fun, and the difficulty ramps at a really balanced pace without you having to anything unfair/artificial. I like it a ton!
One minor suggestion: I think it's weird to ask the player to press space to play when all the game's controls are mouse. Maybe you could have the player "Click Anywhere" instead? That way you signal to the player how you expect them to interact with the game before it starts.
There's a lot of moving pieces to this, but everything works really smoothly. I really like the parts of the art that are more fleshed out (the UI hearts look really good).
A couple of more constructive thoughts...It took me a minute to realize I needed to do something with the diamond, I wonder if you could have signposted what that was a little better? Maybe spinning the sprite to make it stand out or something? Another minor suggestion would be replacing the mouse cursor with some sort of crosshairs image.
In all, I enjoyed it!
I think it's a really good concept that needs just a little variability to be a great game. I love the idea of this sort of indirect interaction, but it didn't feel like I was really making strategic decisions, just typing heal when no one was around and attack if I was under attack.
If this was one of your first jams/games (as it appears to be) you're doing incredibly well...There's definitely some complicated bones here that just need a little more fleshing out.
This is crazy good, by far my favorite I've played so far. The music and sounds were great (the scrolling dialogue/sfx that go with it is an easy thing to skip in a 48hr game jam, but I think they were worth the effort here). Great job!
Haha, we did make nearly the exact same game!
I like the idea of making the words physics objects, I think there's some fun ways you could expand on that if you wanted to polish this up more (maybe words that change size, break apart, are bouncy, etc.). I also really like the way you handle typos, the coloring of the letters gives you really fast feedback when you mess up. That was something I struggled with in my implementation of this idea (ultimately my solution was to make any typo a failure, but limit the word length so it didn't get too punitive...your way is probably better).
Good job!
I like the game, I thought it was really smart to give color feedback if I was close but not quite on beat, I don't think I would have thought of that. I also like the idea of using the "Z"s as an in universe health meter instead of just plugging in the numbers.
If I had to come up with a complaint, I wish the difficulty ramped up a little more. I played for quite a while but it didn't feel like it ever got particularly challenging. That's something that's hard to nail in just 48 hours and with no playtesters, though.
Overall, good job!
It's a really cool concept, but I wish it went a little deeper (although I guess that's not really the point of LD). It seemed really easy to find a sweetspot, and just click over and over. If there were a few more complex interactions this could have really shined. I think this is definitely an idea worth coming back to.
This is a really, really good idea, and I like the sound and art a lot. The only issue I had was how short the minigame was.
I peeked at your source code, and while I don't know javascript, it looks like maybe your "gameTimer" is going down per frame, regardless of how fast those frames are rendered? If so, the game will play very different from PC to PC.
This was really fun, I like that you tried to keep the controls from getting to clunky (although my fingers are a little stiff after just one playthough!).
The only complaints I had were pretty minor. It took me a bit to realize why I was able to plant more, would have been nice if the tool went away went I ran out of seed or something? Also, it feels like it's hard to see due to the size of the sprites, and most of the screen isn't really used, so I wonder how hard it would be to just double the size of everything? I had a particularly difficult time seeing the pests.
Really fun, I think you're character art and shadows are very strong. The only thing that was a little frustrating at times was the hitboxes being a little bit too punishing. A lot of the times I lost hitpoints I felt like I didn't actually get hit.
Really good job, I especially liked the spritework for the main character and the music.
I really love the art, the baby turtles look incredibly good.
It's very simple but it works well. I really like the graphics, they're super cute and create a whole that's more than the sum of the parts.
One critique is that I wish the difficulty ramped up just a little slower, maybe even just a second or two before the first enemies start appearing would be nice. On one attempt I had a game over before I really got my hand moved from the mouse to the arrow keys.
This is super interesting, I don't think I've ever seen an MMO clicker game before. This seems super novel and challenging to build in a weekend (at least to me, someone who has basically no experience networked games. This actually sparks a lot of ideas in me, which is really cool! Great work!
I really like this a lot. The concept is really strong, and the game is mostly polished. I was stuck at one point for 10 minutes before I finally gave up, but I never really felt frustrated by it. I love being able to place my own checkpoints (aside from the couple of times I accidentally overwrote a good one).
The only issue I kept running in to with the web version was that I kept clicking outside the window. Don't think there's much you can do about that, though. Seems like this would work really well with touch controls if you ever wanted to take it further.
I really like this. The mechanics are super easy to understand, but they play well together. The level design is also really impressive, I liked that there were several "trick" levels where the obvious solution was wrong. MY only criticism is that it was tuned a little hard for my tastes, but I stuck with it and got decently far. I kind of wish there was ~10% more cushion from a perfect run, but that's probably more of a personal preference than an objectively correct decision.
I really like the concept and look, and I think this is a good base for a fun game. The only issue is that the levels there right now are extremely easy. It seems like maybe if the complexity was increased a little, probably with some different units/behaviors, it would really shine.
Really great looking game, I really like the color palette and text prompts. The game is way too fast/hard for me to get really deep in to though, it feels like even a small tap of the keyboard moved my character half a screen.
I'm really shocked this is a compo game given the graphical and audio polish. It looks great, and the concept is really solid, too.
My only complaint is that even after playing for 10-15 minutes, I still had a hard time with the controls. Maybe if I could swing the orb with left/right key mappings instead of the mouse? I was never sure which direction I needed to move the mouse to get it to do what I wanted.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like if I had a little more control I could have played this for hours. By far the best entry I've played yet.
At first I didn't notice the narrative at the top, so I was about to come back and critique the shooting, haha. Then I saw some of the other comments, went back and realized that wasn't really what it's about. Obviously it's really slow and not "fun", but I think this is a really good execution and idea. I especially like the simplicity and moodiness of the soundscape.
I like this a lot. Something I'm always thinking about in games like these is "Is there a reason not to just shoot all the time?", and you solved that in really elegant way. I also really love the font/logo, it looks really professional.
Wow! When I first saw the screenshots my first thought was "Wow, there's no way I could implement something like that in a weekend", but after playing it I realized this is just a really really good/elegant design. Obviously you did a great job on every aspect, but the concept/design of this is extremely good.
This was great, I think this is the first game I've played with an end!
One note. I finished the game, but I think I got too far ahead of the pre-recorded dialogue, so I had to wait for them to finish (30 seconds or so?) before the game ended. Not really a big deal, just a little weird. I really liked the sense of humor, and do think the voice overs were important to the game.
I think it's a really original idea, although I had a hard time being any good at it.
Also, wanted to let you know that playing the web version I got stuck on the "story" option. I tried everything I could think of, and couldn't get off that screen. I wonder if right clicks don't work in the web player maybe?
Good job, I wish there was a little more, I was really enjoying it. Graphics are super great, and it's really impressive that you didn't build this on top of any pre-made platform.
Hard to imagine that isn't the best audio in the compo.
Well that was painful, haha. I genuinely felt guilty placing the last few skyscrapers, good job!
I like this, and really impressed you had time to mess with a high score, even if it's just local. The graphics are simple, but non-offensive and the sounds a top notch. The only nagging thing is that there really isn't any reason to not always be shooting, so by the time the tunnel is closed down it's just a game of how long my hand can take the punishment of rapid clicking.
The visuals are great. It could have just been a webGL issue, but the controls felt really tough, seemed like I had to press twice each time to move. As @Cope said, had the same issue with the main menu button being finicky. You did a really good job putting together a lot of content, the only issues I have are more to do with bugginess than design, which it to be expected. Good work!
Thought this felt really good. A mistake a lot of people make with jams like this is going nuts with a million mechanics, when you don't really have time to message how stuff works to the player. You definitely didn't make this mistake, as I was able to jump in and know exactly what to do and how to do it immediately. Great work!
It was fun, I really like the little notes at the beginning and end. One thing, Is the music playing on top of itself? I thought it was fine at first, but by the end it was a muddle mess, like it was playing slightly off beat with itself.
I really love the polish, art and sounds. The tile sliding effect at the beginning of the levels is particularly good. I also like the idea of the game, but even after reading the instructions, it's difficult to tell what's causing income and expenses. In most cases, it seemed like I was better off making a road to nowhere anytime I was profitable rather than finishing a level. That seems relatively simple to fix, and other than that I think this is a really promising puzzle game. Great work!
This is really good. I had a similar idea a few LDs ago (can't remember which) but had to abandon it because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish. I'm always really in to games about the parts that the other games skip, like logistics and assembly lines etc. The sound in this makes it really relaxing, and I like that the physics of the ship and the solar system sort of work together to create interesting decision points. Great job!
Really like the sound and pacing. Wish it was longer, but you really nailed the mood.
This is really amazing. I'm glad you guys are continuing to work on it, as this has some real potential.
This is awesome. I watched it intently for several minutes, and even though I don't fully understand what's happening it's beautiful to look at.
Really like the idea of a collabrotive city builder, and it seems especially ambitious to build one in a game jam. I didn't have any network issues or bugs, but it also seemed like I might have been the only one playing. The graphics are fine, and the gameplay is really intuitive. Good work!
What a cool idea! I really hope you guys find a way to expand on this mechanic in the future. I was also really impressed with the level of tutorialization, I did basically no reading going in to this one and just about everything was intuitive. Great work!
Really like the artwork! The idea is really solid too, although my lack of a mouse at the moment probably made it a little more difficult than it had to be.
Really cool idea, and a lot of polish and content here! I really like the level select screen, and the core gameplay loop. One thing that took a while to get used to was the mouse cursor being invisible. Wish it was visible at all times when a tile wasn't selected.
I had a lot of issues with right clicking to fire (my browser kept trying to scroll and bring up pop up menus. I'm sure this wouldn't have been an issue on the downloaded version, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I actually like a lot of the sprite work and the direction you were headed, but it's fairly obvious that you just ran out of time, which is understandable. Maybe some thing to think about if you go forward (aside from bug fixing) would be a little more variance in enemies? Maybe some different movement patterns, etc., instead of just more hit points?
Wow, this is really good. Its really nice to just watch the pretty things and hear the pretty sounds, and occasionally have something surprising happen.
It has some rough edges, but I like a lot about it. It's like an adventure game without the banging my head in to the wall for hours.
Btw, I wasn't able to finish, as I couldn't figure out how to get out of the hole on the left side of the planet. I climbed the ladder, but it wouldn't let me walk either direction without falling back in.
Looks like the WebGL Link is no good?
I really like the idea and the way the sound, art, and writing mesh together well. The only complaint is that I wish I didn't have to click the little triangle to advance, maybe just click anywhere on the screen when there aren't buttons?
I really like the concept and feel, although it seems like it might not be completely finished (which is totally forgivable for a 48h jam). It was really pleasant to walk around and take in the sights and sounds, though. I will say that the sound mixing could probably use some balancing, I jumped the first time I heard the solve sound haha!
Hope that doesn't sound too negative, I actually really like what you've got here. Great work!
This is really awesome! I didn't read any of your description before playing, and everything was totally intuitive anyway. I really love the idea, execution, and the look and sound mesh really well with the theme and mechanics. Great work!
Really great concept, I'm a huge fan of one button games! I feel like the design elegant, and the game just needs some more polish. If this is your first game as you say in the description, you should be really proud!
It took me a little while to understand what was going on, but once I figured it out it was pretty fun. I think my problem might have been my screen size, since I wasn't really able to see what was happening on the bottom side of the planet. Anyway, this is a great idea, and I really like the art.
Really loved the sound effects, I always want to record little voices like that but always end up throwing some bfxr sounds in at the last second to save time. The only constructive feedback I would have is that it maybe takes a little longer than is ideal to get up and running. It was really fun to play and watch everything happen once I got going, but it took me a little long than I would have wanted to get up and running. Really enjoyed it!
Didn't have any issues with research btw, and played in chrome.
LD57 — Depths (3)
Echoes of the Deep by nyxkn 2025-04-09T00:09:54Z ♥ 1
This is really great, probably the best I've played. I'm a sucker for a Ludum Dare game that actually ends. Really fun idea with the sonar effects, especially once the screen was totally black it created a couple of jump scares for me.
One minor critique is that I wish the "good" and "bad" fish were a little easier to differentiate from their silhouettes. I got used to it without too much fuss, but early on it wasn't totally apparent which were which.
Target Practice by JCMonkey 2025-04-07T02:20:49Z ♥ 1
I'm really surprised at how fun this concept is. On the surface it's a really simple concept, but in practice it's pretty mesmorising to play. The only problem I had is that it seemed like I could probably play forever. I played for a few minutes, but it seemed like I was able to click the "+Time" circles faster than time went down. Maybe there could be a penalty for misses or some other mechanic that puts more pressure on the player?
Depth Defying by DangItsPang 2025-04-07T02:16:07Z ♥ 0
I like how tight this design is, I (and many others) have a tendency to overscope and leave abunch of half finished stuff in the final product, but this is a really cohesive fully realized thing, which is something to be proud of.
This reminds me a lot of "Don't Sh*t your pants", one of my favorite web games ever (I think it's technically from the same developer as the Rogue Legacy Games?) https://cellardoorgames.com/our-games/dont-shit-your-pants/