Philosophers Battle by BubuIIC 2015-04-21T15:05:00
As a philosophy graduate, I really enjoyed this game! I think that it would certainly benefit from some sounds, but having said that what you've got here is great! :D
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → JoshyOshKenoshi
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | Remember | compo | 72 | 3.77 | 3.44 | 3.19 | 3.60 | 2.72 | 4.29 | ||||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | Orb Defender | compo | 433 | 2.86 | 2.57 | 2.50 | 3.02 | 3.18 | 1.56 | 2.17 | |||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Petris | compo | 639 | 2.81 | 3.15 | 1.27 | 2.89 | 3.13 | 3.21 | 3.16 | 3.05 | ||
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Lunar Lander Lunacy | compo | 192 | 3.63 | 3.71 | 3.73 | 4.26 | 3.68 | 3.02 | 2.83 | 3.65 | ||
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | Speed Skier | compo | 297 | 3.45 | 3.66 | 2.73 | 3.52 | 3.76 | 3.38 | 3.05 | 3.15 | ||
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | 👥 | Kingin' It | jam | 3.10 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.70 | 2.40 | 2.55 | 3.55 | 2.80 | ||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Snake | compo | 632 | 3.06 | 3.00 | 1.88 | 4.19 | 2.69 | 2.67 | 32 | |||
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Pro Gardener - Monster Edition | compo | 354 | 3.25 | 3.20 | 3.20 | 3.28 | 3.00 | 3.40 | 3.76 | 3.00 | 45 | |
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Tim's Bad Day | compo | 889 | 2.79 | 2.96 | 2.42 | 2.83 | 2.46 | 3.38 | 3.42 | 3.04 | 44 |
As a philosophy graduate, I really enjoyed this game! I think that it would certainly benefit from some sounds, but having said that what you've got here is great! :D
Just to add: as a friend of mine pointed out, it would be nice to see some female philosophers featured. ;)
This was a really nice, simple game. I liked the art style, and the music seemed really fitting. However, I did run into a couple of problems:
1. After the traveler slept, in the morning his sprite disappeared for the rest of the game;
2. I paused for a few seconds at the last, giant mound of rocks. Then, once I cleared them, the game jumped right to the end.
Something I would have liked to see would have been the use of tools of some kind to interact with the environment with, rather than straightforwardly clicking directly on things. Still, overall I enjoyed the game. :)
I absolutely love your graphics! Quite a fun little game really, although the web player didn't all fit on my screen!
I was really impressed by how complete this game feels. The graphics are really great, and the game itself flowed well.
I thought this was a fun little game. Such a strange idea, though! :P Anyway, I liked the graphics, although the controls could be a little bit awkward at times.
This is a really neat little puzzle game. Clearer instructions of placing and rotating mirrors would have been good, though. ;)
I really loved this game. The jumping was a bit awkward, and the game lagged quite a lot on my laptop, but otherwise I thought the game was great. The graphics are simple, yet effective, and the message is strong. :)
Thanks, everyone! :D Windows and Linux versions didn't work because I'd completely forgotten to include the data files - oops! I've uploaded Zips for both platforms now, though, so all the downloads should (hopefully!) work! ;)
I really like your take on the theme, and thought that overall your game was really sweet! The console threw up a few errors about a missing prefab in the second boss battle, though... Also, it took me quite a while to work out how hugs worked. Still, very enjoyable. :)
I really liked the interactivity and plot-driven elements of this game. I did get a little bit confused by the trap system, though, so missed quite a few opportunities, I think.
An enjoyable, well-presented point-and-click adventure. :-)
I think this is a really nice, simple, yet clever game, brilliantly executed! Great job! :D
A very original concept, although rather fast-paced!
This game is great! I love the original concept, the artwork, and the humour. I feel that the fight scenes were a little restricted, but I still think it's cool that each was different.
A highly enjoyable, fast-paced game! The spells were good to keep combat fresh and interesting, as otherwise I'd be worried about RSI! :P
Quite a nicely done 3D game. It didn't run completely smoothly with the web player, but I did enjoy the twist at the end. ;)
I really enjoyed playing this. To be honest, I didn't really understand the shooting element on my first playthrough, but I felt that the game was fine without it. Quite beautiful, really. :-)
I certainly like the concept of this game, but I just found it too difficult! It got really frustrating when I'd just slightly misjudge a jump and the level would reset. Or, in the case of level 3, a lot of the time I didn't even make it to solid ground most attempts!
I do like the concept, and I can see the effort you've put into it. I think the controls are a bit fiddly, but it's got the makings of something that could be pretty cool! Don't be too disheartened. :-)
This is a really cute game, and I love the art style! Just a couple of thing I noticed, though:
1. the backing track doesn't seem to loop, so the levels I took rather long on got a bit quiet once it had ended;
2. the citizens count as 'saved' once the monster touches the ambulance, rather than once the citizens themselves touch the ambulance, which felt a bit strange when a citizen had become stuck against a building or something.
Still, great job! :D
I like the classic platformer style of this game. It was a nice little fun game to play.
I did, however, get a NullReferenceException error on the End screen.
I like your very literal interpretation of the theme. It's a funny concept, and has been well implemented, although it's rather hard! :P
This game is absolutely fabulous! There were a few times when I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but otherwise the originality and creativity is just great! :D
A rather crazy, fast-paced game! It's obviously quite fun to be a dinosaur, going around destroying things, so it's a perfect formula. ;)
I really enjoyed playing this. For a weekend's work, it's a good, solid game! Great job! :D
I kinda wish that people didn't have such big lawns, but I'm super happy that I've finally saved up enough for that N64 I've always wanted!
A nice, simple, yet original concept. Might have benefited from some funky audio. ;)
I found this to be a simply but fun game. Well done! :D
A nice little platformer. Seemed like everything wanted to kill me!
Man, I wish my facial hair grew as quickly as that guy's! Not that I want my entire face to be covered in hair, of course... Anyway, a fun little game! I did feel a bit bad for shaving over his eyes at times.
Wow - this game is crazy random! At one point I ended up with so many bunnies that I was stuck in the middle of the board, with pretty much all squares filled; the next thing I know, they've all died apart from one! Very odd, but very fun!
Certainly an original interpretation of the theme! I liked the randomised aspect of finding the USB cable, but it is quite a restricted space. Further, some of the interaction seemed a little unreliable, such as when I was trying to plug the USB cable into the phone.
I'm really impressed with this as a compo entry. Your models and textures alone, although relatively basic, must have taken a great deal of time to create! As a simple FPS this game works really well. As an idea for a possible improvement, I'd suggest having 'caves' or something in the rocks for the ants to spawn 'out of', as at the moment it looks a little strange if you're looking at them when they spawn. ;)
I must admit that I didn't really know what I was doing a lot of the time. I wandered around for a bit, talked to a few people, then just kept on ending up at places I'd already visited! As a quick tip for something I noticed, I'd recommend having the captain face the direction in which he's walking, as otherwise his movement looks a bit silly. I did appreciate the references to Firefly! :D
I think it's largely just my own lack of skill in playing racing games, but I really struggled with the controls for this, and they seemed perhaps a little too sensitive? Still, it all contributes to the 'mayhem', I suppose! Some very nice AI from what I could see. :-)
A simple and enjoyable game. The music was really catchy, although I think my burning desire to dance may have distracted me when I was trying to run. Graphics were nicely done, and the overall look and feel was spot on - well done! :D
I like the idea of the light slowly fading; it added an extra layer of challenge to what is already quite a tricky game. I agree with what others have said about the clunky movement: you really have to be precise with some of your jumps, which is difficult when you're also essentially playing against the clock.
This is an incredibly sophisticated entry. The artwork is beautiful, the music really helps to suck you in to the story, and the writing is sublime. Further, I really love the mechanic of only being able to choose a single action on each play through! However, I did encounter a bug on a couple of occasions whereby, after I typed an invalid action, the input box wouldn't reappear, requiring me to exit the game and start it up again.
Some absolutely stunning artwork (which, I must confess, is what attracted me to this game!) A very original concept, although the people themselves are very small and difficult to see, and I didn't feel like I had long enough to really talk to a lot of them.
This is an incredible effort for a compo entry, and the little hex world you've created is really impressive. A difficulty I had was in knowing the effect that my actions would have on energy/money/happiness - quite often I lost early on because, for instance, happiness would dramatically drop in the space of 1 turn and I wasn't too sure what had caused it... maybe all of those coal plants I built? :P
An interesting concept. I never quite got to grips with it, and seemed to die pretty much straight away whenever I played. However, when I did survive a bit longer, I agree with what some other people have said about the difficulties with the combination of mouse and keyboard controls/
I'm impressed with the concept and what you managed to achieve in the time. I did, however, struggle to know what to do some of the time, as there doesn't seem to be any clear indication of what you can interact with. Some sort of icon for this (maybe something floating above interactable objects?) would be helpful.
This is possibly the most complete game I've seen so far. The graphics are absolutely stunning, and everything works really nicely. Having to choose where the prioritise channeling the energy made it challenging and fun.
A wonderfully pessimistic view of family life, although perhaps a half-decent commentary on the pressures put on men in modern society. Very enjoyable, and I liked seeing how each of my decisions went horrendously wrong! ;)
A very good effort considering you only used HTML and CSS, and strangely addictive! I didn't really feel like I had time to read a lot of the messages, but the ones I did catch were certainly humorous! Some sound effects would really lift the game, I feel.
I really enjoyed this game, and echo what others have said about it being simple yet fun. :-) When I saw the massive drop coming up on the last level, I cried...
A very nice little game, which I thoroughly enjoyed! The central mechanic was very clever and the puzzles were well-thought-out. Great job! :-)
I had a really great time playing this, as the idea is completely absurd (which I love!) However, I did at one point experience a slight bug, whereby I was outside and then ended up rolling straight through the wall to find myself inside the house, briefly getting stuck inside the kitchen cabinets!
I'm not sure what I just played, but I really enjoyed it - an excellent interpretation of the theme!
I funny and clever take on Tetris, and a good interpretation of the theme!
I found this to be an excellently constructed game. It's sleek and smooth, with an important - albeit subtle - underlying message. I also really like the art style.
Boy! rainforest, Inc. is such a fun place to work! An all-round excellent game, really polished and a nice bit of satire.
@jordantanner Thank you, it's much appreciated. A large reason why I decided to create a Tetris clone was for the challenge, although in the end it wasn't too difficult. If you'd like to find out more, you can check out a post-mortem blog post I wrote about creating Petris over on my website: http://joshatkins.co.uk/blog/ludum-dare-42-petris/#main
I really like the graphics, and in particular the animations for the zombie ingredients. A greater variety of enemies would be nice, but at the same time I can appreciate how long it must take to create the sprites for a single one!
Overall, I think this worked well. However, I did experience some jittery movement with the player, which got accentuated at greater speeds. Also, as others have said, at high speeds I couldn't really focus on what was going on, and actually got a bit of a headache!
A very cute game! I really enjoyed saving the animals!
A very clever mechanic. I think that with a bit more work this could be a really excellent game! As others have said, it would be good to implement a lose condition.
A simple, but very enjoyable game. I like your art style: the added 'reflections' really bring the objects to life. Something I did find was that some bullets collided with other things before hitting the wall, yet still pushed it back, despite having very little velocity left; I would therefore suggest having some sort of bool on the bullets to determine if they've already collided with something before the wall. Otherwise, great game! :-)
I really enjoyed playing this, and came out with a pretty good 'game'! I really like the added touch of the ratings at the end - they were much higher than I've ever achieved before!
My first thought when I saw the theme was to make a game based on the trolley problem, but I couldn't work out how to make it tasteful. Turns out the answer was chickens!
I like your literal interpretation of the theme, the pixel art is lovely, and it's great to see someone submitting a game using Godot! I did find that the person generation didn't seem to be very even, so I ended up spending a long amount of time waiting for the required sacrifice to appear.
I found this to be incredibly engrossing. I feel like the very simple visuals did a lot to make this game more than simply a text adventure. Excellent job - well done!
As a vegan, I sure love ethical smoothies! I also love murdering fruit! I found this to be a very fun and original interpretation of the theme, so well done! Slightly worried that Ethical Smoothies Co. seems to be operating at a loss, though...
I do like the idea behind this game. Having all of the Astra following me around reminded me quite a bit of Overlord. On that basis, it would be quite nice to have some sort of mechanic to control where the Astra go, rather than just having them follow behind you all the time. Overall, I enjoyed playing, so well done!
I found this to be a simple but effective game, and an original interpretation of the theme! From your description, the way you've implemented this is very clever and refined indeed! Also, the inclusion of a live leaderboard is a great added touch!
Very nicely done! I had a lot of fun playing this, and my personal highlight was an incredibly powerful gutter ball! ;-)
I initially had a bit of a problem with the graphics loading time of the web build - I thought it was a bug! However, when it did load I really enjoyed your art style!
This is very nicely made, and your visual effects are stunning! However, like others I wasn't entirely sure what I was meant to be doing. I think a little more explanation would go a long way.
An excellent, excellent game! Something I find particularly difficult during game jams is to balance a game, but you've done a great job here!
This is very impressive for a weekend's work - well done! I can't lie - I'm not usually a fan of these sorts of games because they provide a lot of jump-scares and I'm a massive wimp (like, serious, I only made it about 10 minutes into Grimrock...), but I persevered and made it to the end of this! Your ~~beholders~~ enemies look great, although less so when you kill them.
On a side note, I can see that you don't have a whole lot of ratings at this point. I'd recommend playing as many games as you can today, in the hope of getting scored.
A very interesting concept for a game! I'd have preferred it if it were possible to succeed by most effectively using your lives to search for traps. So, for instance, after a couple of tries I used the minimum number of lives required to ensure a safe passage through levels 1-4, then died 1 square away from the end of level 5. Instead, it becomes more a case of necessarily dying and having to remember the safe path through each level to preserve your lives.
I experienced a couple of problems during my first playthrough: I found myself stuck in the jumping pose part-way through, and then much much later fell through an invisible hole in the ground into an infinite void. However, problems aside, I did enjoy the mood that you managed to create in this game!
I really like your artwork for this game - the character and knight sprites in particular. Personally, I felt that the game before the boss fight was a little too easy, as there were so many health packs everywhere that I didn't really need to worry about dying. The boss fight was well-balanced, though - I died first time around, then just won the second time around.
The lighting effect you got is absolutely spectacular! Unfortunately, it meant that I really struggled to actually see what I was doing, which I found rather frustrating. Still, overall a simple but clever puzzle game!
I think this is a very clever entry - sadly, too clever for me, as in both versions I had very little idea of what I was doing. I could identify where the puzzles were, but I don't think I had any success in solving any of them.
On another note: although you don't get marked on your post-jam build, I just wanted to say that it's really beautiful! I can only imagine how you'd be able to make it look if you used UE4...
Right, I had another go (I'm not one to just give up!) and managed to solve all of the puzzles in 9:39. I still don't understand the chess puzzle, and only solved it by trial and error, but never mind. I do very much like this game - I'm eager to try and make a sort-of 'escape room' style game myself - as it many ways that is what this is - and it has given me some good ideas.
Regarding, UE4, I myself have only been using it since the start of the year, and to be honest C++ isn't as scary as it might initially seem. The good thing about using C++ is that it forces you to be more explicit with your programming, for example by protecting againt null pointers, etc. If you are itnerested, Epic have a lot of free tutorials available, and I'd suggest converting a project you've already worked on to get a good idea of what's similar and what's different. Plus, if you're lazy (as we all are from time to time!), just use blueprints. ;-)
@jaywoody - thanks for the tip! Now I feel silly for having completely ignored that table! Not sure why I did that; I think I gave it a quick look and just thought 'that's a nice pattern!' Super work - I'd love to see where you could take this game in the future!
@tammukka @geckoo1337 - thank you both so much for your lovely comments!
@jjjjason - thank you for bringing this problem to my attention, and I apologise for it undoubtedly ruining your play experience. I'm a little late properly testing this game as I've been taking part in #ue4jam for the past 5 days. Not entirely sure what's going on there, but I'll have a look into it.
@ildfuglen - thank you for your feedback, and for making me aware of the bug you experience. I'm sorry that your game groze; it sounds similar to the bug that @jjjjason experienced, but I haven't yet been able to work out what's causing it! It seems very strange for the game to break in the middle of a block of text...
@joror - I definitely agree with your suggestion of a 'Click to continue' to separate out the larger text blocks. This is something I'd have liked to implement, but sadly didn't have time to do. It's part of the reason I used text formatting, so you can tell where you need to start reading from. ;-)
@ildfuglen and @jjjjason, the bug is now fixed. You guys were playing so thoroughly that the text log became too long, which caused the freezing. It was just a coincidence that you were both on the same passage of text when this occurred. I thought I'd avoided this potential problem by using a TextMeshPro element, but apparently now!
@jjjjason The log is comprised of a list of string elements. I've made it so that the length of the list caps at 100, with the first element getting removed each time a new one is added. It means that the log isn't whole any more, but I figure that nobody will need to scroll that far back! It's really only a problem anyway if you're thorough with your exploration of the story, and seek all possible dialogue options. This fix also helps the game to remain responsive, as it otherwise started to lag as the log got longer and longer.
@lubaka - Yes, it was rather difficult keeping track of all of the dialogue. I ended up compiling a lengthy text document. Don't worry about your score - it's only a guideline for efficiency of play; you clearly explored a lot of the dialogue options, which is great to hear!
Thanks, @jimbly - the only problem with using a spell checker is that it doesn't catch instances where you've used the wrong word, rather than misspelled a word!
@jaywoody - thank you for giving it a go, despite your reservations. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I myself would choose to play a game like this (without knowing quite a bit about it first).
I'm tempted to have a go at turning it into a mini-RPG by building the scene and letting you control the character and walk around and speak to the people, keeping the text but displaying it in a smaller log at the bottom of the screen (Baldur's Gate style). That's the sort of game that would appeal to me more, even though the gameplay itself would be virtually identical.
Thanks, @kristinamay.
I don't have any particular resources to share with you per se, although I did start out watching a series of videos for a Unity live training course linked below. However, I didn't watch them all the way through because what they were doing didn't quite match up with what I was doing, meaning that they were only of limited use to me. Something important that I did take from that course, though, was the use of scriptable objects for various aspects of my game. I use scriptable objects for the characters, the memories, and the action words (verbs) that underlie each action.
For any more information, I'd suggest just having a look through the game assets (if you have the time and will!) It's a little bit messy, since I built it all from scratch, but it should give you a general idea of how things connect. Any other questions, just give me a shout here, on Twitter, or wherever you like!
Link to video course: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/scripting/introduction-and-goals
Or catch on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAf1I1UWo5Q
Edit: okay, so I wasn't expecting it to embed the video - that's kinda cool!
Wow, that was... surreal! I really enjoyed your dialogue options, they were very cleverly woven together.
Oh, Ollo, you were too good for us... It's been a while since I've played a Gameboy game like this, so thank you for giving me an excuse to experience some nostalgia!
I found this to be a very well-polished game! It was a little difficult at times, and I frustratingly I found myself having to refer to your story guide once or twice, but the main mechanic of taking words from the text and then using them to perform actions is just ingenious! I would have loved for my own text-based narrative game to be as well-finished as this is. Great job!
Well that was... surreal! For a compo game, I think this was very well executed, and completely and utterly bonkers! Good job!
This is a very difficult game! Your ship destruction effects were seriously cool! The first time a meteor came sweeping through and tore an enemy ship to pieces I was in awe! The screen does get a little bit busy, though, and it's hard to distinguish between friendly and enemy projectiles in all the madness.
I very much enjoyed this little game, although I found the controls a bit tricky to begin with. I particularly liked the procedural generation of the planets. A suggestion: for space game like this, if you split the starry background into two layers, with the layers moving at different speeds relative to the camera (the top layer faster than the bottom layer), then you can achieve quite a cool, yet simple, parallax effect. ;-)
Also, I experienced a possible bug(?) where my city buildings stopped displaying when I was on Earth, and were only visible when I was in space. I've attached screenshots below to show what I mean:
Plantiverse01.PNG
Plantiverse02.PNG
I'm very sorry that you lost Zeppelin. This is a very well put together little game, and obviously has quite a striking emotional impact! Thank you for sharing it.
A very clever and original mechanic, and an excellent interpretation of the theme. I like the idea that @datagreed suggests about when you fall from height - it would be a nice added touch to what is already a very well thought out entry.
Wow - this game is so well finished! I didn't really know what I was doing to begin with, but I quickly got into the swing of things and thoroughly enjoyed all of the minigames! Turns out, I'm not that great with a hypodermic needle...
This is an excellent, excellent game, with such an original and well-executed mechanic! I am very interested in your pattern-matching algorithm as, for the most part, it worked very well.
I did find that I got a bit bored after about half an hour of play, though, as I'd managed to make it through all the waves without losing any health at all, and reckoned I could go on quite a bit further. Is the game infinite? Not sure what wave I got up to, as the wave number was cut off. Also, your sigil scroll bar is a little funny, and allows you to seemingly scroll off so that none of the list actually appears on the screen.
Ignoring the fact that I'm apparently too good at your game, once again I just wanted to say how great it is, and you should be very proud for having been able to produce something of this class within 48 hours!
I feel like you've made a good start with this game, and I'd love to see it expanded. It's nice to gave the visual prompt on the left-hand side to accompany the text.
As others have said, having options reappear at the bottom of the screen would be beneficial, as I, like others, got a little confused before figuring out that I had to scroll back up. You could maybe store all available options in an array or something, and then print then out after each action has been performed.
There are some really nice touches in this game, such as the tractor beam and the fact that enemies turn to face you. Also, the graphics are superb! I didn't fully understand what was going on during my first playthrough, though - I was far off from the ship collecting energy when suddenly I was warned that my crew were going to die, and I really struggled to find my way back! Then I gave all my energy and died... Maybe that's just my fault for not reading the instructions properly, though. ;P Would be nice to see some sort of lose screen though, as it just took me straight back to the main menu and I wasn't initially sure why!
I think it can be quite hard to portray animal cruelty within a game without massively putting people off from playing. Sure, as you say, it's a fun and goofy game, but I think it still does a good job of portraying your message. Kudos for going down this route!
I absolutely adore your hand-drawn art style in this game! I felt that that this entry fits the theme really well, and is simple and fun to play. The only slight issue I experienced was that I sometimes found it a little bit difficult to see where colonists were because they were so small.
This game has an interesting narrative, and I feel is well-executed and a novel take on the theme. I played through a couple of times, although didn't make it to the end either time. As I believe others have mentioned, the text is a little difficult to read, and I think that slightly increasing the line-spacing would really help!
A very interersting concept! I really enjoyed playing this but, like others, wish it were longer!
I thoroughly enjoyed playing this. I thought that the animations were very well done!
I really enjoyed playing this. I've been working on creating a chess game for... a while, so it was great to see what you managed to achieve in just a weekend!
There are so many good things about this game! I think it is incredibly original, as well as being well-balanced. The moving water backdrop is absolutely beautiful, although it doesn't really fit in with the art style of the rest of the game. The pathfinding for enemies and projectiles is sophisticated. Although I only played the LD version, I'm glad you added a fast forward button in your updated version of the game. I agree with others in thinking that, with a little bit of polish, this could be a great game! Well done! :D
I enjoyed playing this, and I must confess that it's one of only a few games from this jam that I've actually completed! I must say, though, that although the gradual speed increase is clearly meant to make the game harder, I actually found it kind-of helped, especially with the jumps - I really struggled with that first jump, as I was running so slowly that I had to time it perfectly, yet for the subsequent jumps I was moving fast enough to clear them quite easily.