Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Kiln
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Outta Juize | jam | 932 | 3.60 | 3.67 | 3.28 | 3.46 | 4.00 | 2.48 | 3.35 |
While not my favourite gameplay-wise, I definitely won't knock it in that department. The game is well-made with neat mechanics. I love the concept of the logs having two sides to burn to extend their duration, that was smart. The audio was good as well. Overall an enjoyable game.
I loved the music, really gave me a Zelda-vibe. I felt like I was in a dungeon in the original NES Zelda which is definitely a huge plus for me. The mechanics are solid. I failed a few times but I never really felt like it was the game's fault, which is good. The art style was good. I liked the added touch of the grates in the background actually dumping water into the room, I thought that was nice. The "Flame Doused" and "Brazier Lit" animations were also well done.
I think my only slight criticism might be just the control scheme is a little off, but that might just be a me thing. Using the arrow keys was fine, but having my fingers on A, S, and X seemed a bit off. Maybe something like Z, X, C might do better, or any combo where all your fingers are on one line on the keyboard, I don't know. Clearly I'm just nitpicking at this point. The game overall was great as-is. :smile:
I hate slider puzzles, but that doesn't mean I don't like this game. It's very cute, aesthetically pleasing, and an overall nice concept. I did get stuck when the baby crawled into the pit w/ the guns and there's no reset button so that was that, but overall it was a fun game.
An interesting puzzle game! Great use of the theme, and the art style is actually pretty neat. While being low-res, it almost gives me an old school Windows 95 kind of vibe. Nice work!
The graphics are very lovely, very GBA-like. The controls are nice, though a touch tricky to get the hang of initially. I wasn't sure if I was clicking *on* the bubbles, or how to aim for the bubbles. There is quite a bit of content in this though, for a Jam game, which is really nice. Good job!
Gorgeous game! Gives me Settlers of Catan vibes which is a game I absolutely adore. I can't wait to see what this game becomes!
Simple, yet fun and addicting. I definitely played 4-5 times. I like that it stays on the screen you lost at so you're able to see where you went wrong.
Very cute game. I definitely could see this expanded, and heck, I could even see it being used as an educational tool of sorts as well, if done properly.
This game is so *simple* yet so *interesting*. I've never seen a multiplayer idle game before but I hope I see more of them now because it's such a neat and interesting idea. It's like sitting in an IRC channel chatting with strangers, but being able to do something menial while you chat. It's like sitting around an *actual* fire in the middle of a forest. Amazing!
Great game, I loved the animations for when he went between frames. The music wasn't too distracting and fit well with the game. If I had to make a suggestion, and really this isn't something that's NECESSARY just something that could be, but maybe add a pause button for when you have to make quick adjustments. For me it was fine, but I know some people can't make rapid decisions which could lead to frustration. Overall though, 10/10 game. :)
Hugely cute idea. I love that you added a peaceful mode too, I like having it just sit there on my screen. I kind of want more games like this. The idea is so simple yet so fascinating.
Very cute game. I liked the shader for the darkness, that was nice. Also interesting having the enemy be unkillable so they're a constant threat. Overall, a pretty decent concept. :smile:
Interesting little minigame-game. Bit confusing at first, but when I got the hang of it, it was kinda fun! And for PICO-8, the graphics aren't bad.
Phenomenal game, I hope the teaser that more is to come was accurate because I want more. I love minimalist games like this, they always looks very sleek and well-made. The shaders for the dialogue were nice, and the background animation was a great touch to keep the background from being wasted. I'd love to see more levels and variety added in the future!
Interesting concept! Kind of reminds me of Tiny Tower (a mobile game) which I used to spend unreasonable amounts of time playing. The graphics are also simple, yet fun nevertheless.
I love the fog idea, that was a nice touch to the game. It did feel like the game was maybe a bit too zoomed out, I don't know. It feels like it could've been zoomed in just a *tad* more, but other than that an overall nice game!
I love the concept. I'm not hugely into rhythm games myself, but I can definitely see this being enjoyable. The music was also nice and easy to follow.
Very cute game. Admittedly, I was a bit confused at first, but I quickly got the hang of it. Neat little puzzle game.
Gorgeous game. I love the music and the particles of the flame especially. I can see this being a whole game, and I hope one day it is!
A really interesting take on the idea of "keep it alive". I loved the art style and the ability to choose which side to be on, very cool!
I loved the voice over, that was a great touch that I've not seen anywhere else. Very humorous game. Obviously, from a gameplay perspective it's a little simplistic, but I don't mind that. I'm a big fan of clicker games so it wins on that point alone.
I got to around 103 before stopping. It's a very lovely game with a great concept. At one point my tree did grow through one of the circles, which made trimming it a bit odd but I did get through it so that was mostly fine. The only criticism I can see giving this is to perhaps "prettify" the background. There was a squirrel in there, maybe have it interact with the tree somehow, or scurry off, I don't know. You could also use actual trees to block light instead of misc. shapes, and maybe have us trim those to keep the tree alive. But even without those ideas, the game itself is great.
Great audio. Took me a second to understand that you need to try to lift off a few times. Had a cool time where a pigeon knocked the heart out but I caught it again. Not a bad concept overall, the liftoff was the only thing I had some issues with.
@thompson Thank you!
@frozedon Thanks, and yeah I know what you mean! I had that exact same idea. Unfortunately, I just ran out of time, but I'm definitely going to keep working on it so we'll see!
@glazey Thank you so much!
@bmacintosh Thank you! I've heard a lot of varying feedback on the controls. I definitely agree that they could be better. I'm going to keep working on the game (I'm actually going to start from scratch and rebuild everything). I also appreciate you thinking I limited strafing for balance because while yes strafing was OP, the truth is I actually just couldn't get it to work while moving, so I made it so you had to be not moving to use it to hide the fact that it didn't work otherwise :sweat_smile: Also apologies that your game ended abruptly like that, I really tried to fix that issue, and the problem with random placement is that when testing it myself I never got that error so I thought it was fixed. Will definitely try to do better on that.
@zachary-rodrigue Thank you so much! When I started making it, originally I had move-towards-mouse controls like the final product, but at one point I scrapped it for WASD-movement before scrapping that and going back to move-towards-mouse. As I said in the last reply, I'm definitely going to need to rework controls. Moving towards the mouse seemed pretty central to the concept at first, but I'm definitely going to sit and think about it moving forward.
@dreamcastgh0st Thank you! I definitely agree about the explanation. Unfortunately, I just ran out of time and couldn't squeeze it into the game. I'm glad you liked the controls, they've definitely received mixed responses :sweat_smile:
@ldd Thanks! I definitely had SO many ideas when making this game that I want to expand it with. If I'm being honest, the game isn't even meant to be a wave-shooter, at least not the way that it is now, that was just my last minute "Oh s---, I need an actual point to the game" attempt to actually give the game some gameplay.
@helloletsplayers Thanks! I'll definitely be looking into the controls more.
Thank you all so much for your feedback, especially about the art! That's what I was most self-conscious about, and you've all helped put that feeling of doubt to rest. :blush: I'm honestly amazed at how positive and/or constructive the responses have been, but I'm even more amazed that people actually played my game. Y'all could've said you hated it and I'd still have been over the moon about the fact that you actually played it, so thank you! :hearts:
@zalop Thank you so much! I do agree that the controls could be better. Will definitely work on that!
@xenith Thank you thank you! Glad you liked it! :blush:
@maniulo The "spacebar to exit the drone" bit is mentioned on the itch.io page for the game. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to implement an in-game guide for the controls, so that's totally on me.
You can purchase new guns, yes. When you press the Tab button, the game pauses and a list of things to buy w/ scrap collected from killing drones pops up. If you hover over them, it'll say how much scrap they cost and if you have enough you can just click and hold on the button and it should give you the gun.
Again, apologies for the unclear controls. Entirely my bad. :pensive:
@tomyomy Thank you thank you! I can't take credit for the music, which was why I opted out, but for what it's worth, the SFX were mine.
@r2isabot Thanks! :heart:
@thedoctoroftime Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I definitely agree that charging needs to be safer. I *intended* on adding more upgrades to buy, such as a drop shield or bubble shield, I don't know, as well as objects to use as cover. I have so many ideas for the game, so we'll see, but thank you for your feedback! :smile:
@abregado Thank you! I agree about the bullet speed, I was playing it a bit myself earlier and was finding some difficulties with that. Particularly the minigun. All the guns you purchase are meant to be upgrades from the main gun but the minigun almost feels like a downgrade in some respects. Will definitely rework that going forward!
@virtuaworlds Sorry about the controls! Definitely some mixed results on those. I'm considering multiple options, one of them *being* options to change the controls, as some people seem to like them while others do not. Plus versatility is always best in games. Thank you for playing though!
@god-colo Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! :blush:
@superpatch Definitely agree on the enemy indicators! It's funny because I actually realized after the fact that *you really don't need an indicator to find the charger*, I implemented that back when level had walls everywhere ~~which I had to remove for my sanity and time constraints~~ but I forgot to remove it. Definitely could've repurposed it for enemies though. Thanks for your feedback and compliments!! :smiley:
@danilshekarev So sorry you got a crash! Thank you for providing the error message though, that really helped. I *think* I fixed it, so I'll upload a hotfix for it. Glad you enjoyed it while you could though. :smile:
@morel-8 Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Truth be told, this entire concept started with the battery and was initially going to be some kind of racing game, but *I don't actually like racing games* so I made this instead, plus it just seemed to fit the theme. You're the *battery*, not the robot. You're keeping the robot alive.
@no-grapes-games Yes, I definitely messed up on that area. While not a reasonable excuse, at the last minute mark I figured "Well, you can usually wiggle your way out by getting in the drone and spamming strafe buttons." Not an ideal solution for sure (not even really a solution), but it was just time constraints. Poor planning on my part. Thank you for your feedback and compliments though!
@game-coder28 Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :blush:
@javasaurus Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I hadn't even considered having movement bound to RMB, but I could see that maybe working. It would sort of make going backwards difficult, but I could make work around that. I'll definitely keep that in mind, thanks for the feedback!
@lucasp8 Thank you! I'm definitely going to keep working on it, so we'll see. So as to the "respawn" bug, the thing is there isn't a respawn mechanic. When you die, the game just restarts, so I believe the reason you couldn't buy anything was because you didn't have any scrap. I could be wrong, I'll look into it, but my best guess is that's the reason. As to the "spawning enemies outside" bug, yeah that ones my bad. I tried to resolve the issue but clearly I haven't yet. I will continue to work on it. Thank you for the feedback!
@primum-ludum Thank you, I will! ~~Hopefully.~~ It's my first release and I've definitely had numerous ideas for it that I couldn't get to for the jam so I'm eager to get on them soon.
@lucasp8 Thanks for your feedback and bug report, I've uploaded a new version that *hopefully* fixes this issue, as well as some other things. I'm hesitant to *add* to the game before the Jam is done, I feel like that would go against the point of the Jam, so I'm trying to restrict any updates to just bugfixes and minor adjustments.
@dinaharison Thank you, I'm so glad you like it!! :blush:
Very cute game. Loved the little noises they made instead of talking, I'm a big fan of game gibberish. Interesting concept too that I could see being fleshed out a bit more.
I'm assuming the music wasn't yours because you opted out, but nevertheless it was a great choice. Very fitting to the game itself, and even if it wasn't yours, picking the right music is still important. I loved the game, very Oregon Trail-like in gameplay I think, but definitely your own. It plays like an Interactive Fiction game which is fun.
Simplistic graphics actually worked for this game. At first I thought it was an Agar.io clone, which to be fair it is very similar, but it's not exactly the same thing which definitely works in it's favor. Needs some kind of SFX or background music to go along with it maybe, but overall good job!
Cute game. Graphics and audio were on point! Bit harsh having to restart when you die, but understandable. I lost once because I threw the egg on a platform over some spikes and the egg sat on the edge and slowly slid off, which of course made me go "WTH?" but it's cool that you programmed it to behave in such a way that that happens so KUDOS TO THAT. :smiley:
Amazing game. I loved the self-contained mini-story, it was very good. Definitely gave me an "Oh S---" moment at the end. The music was great. The mechanics were a little weird at times, like when you'd bounce into another room on accident and completely skip a checkpoint, but other than that, 10/10.
This was a fun game to play! It's so simple yet so satisfying to just lob objects everywhere and the art style is cute. I especially liked the animation for when Mama Slime respawns the Baby Slime. Very nice!
Very hard game, but nevertheless an interesting concept! I liked the audio cues, very fitting with the pressure of the game.
Love love love the art for this game. The audio is perfect. The gameplay is very smooth and responsive. You did good!
I loved how well this fit the theme, it probably fits the theme more than most. As noted as a known bug, my game did crash near the end, but that's fine. Overall, the game was fun. I think my only slight criticism was that the options to respond to your wife go away a little TOO fast compared to everything else. Sometimes I'd barely have enough time to read what she'd said before the responses disappeared.
Very appealing art style and an interesting concept. Never seen a game where you play as the healer in a dungeon crawl. Add in some Music/SFX and I think this could be a pretty fun game!
I loved this concept! Great re-purposing of chess pieces. The balancing might be slightly off, I felt like I wasn't getting nearly that many coins-per-kill compared to just how much any of the pieces cost, but at the same time on the first level a single bishop swept nearly every wave, so I don't know.
I loved the art direction for this game, it's very uniform and cute-yet-creepy at the same time (and I mean creepy in a good way). I was a little confused for a bit what to do from the get-go, but I eventually got the hang of it. Nice and interesting concept!
Beautifully done artwork. The audio was nice. The concept was great, I especially loved the RGB slider mechanic. It seems like a somewhat difficult game to balance however. My plant died because the temperature gauge kept fluctuating rapidly and it didn't matter how fast I was at changing it, the temp wouldn't go up/down fast enough to reach it in time before it died. Overall though, phenomenal job!
This is a clear winner if I ever saw one. I loved the snappiness the game had, and the effects for each upgrade were great, my favourite was the sword for sure. It felt very fun to use.
This was fun. I'm not too sure how it fit the theme, but regardless the concept is neat and not one I've seen done before as an online game. I remember playing this in middle school drama class, so it definitely brought back some memories.
The overall concept is good. The artwork is nice, especially in the intro scene. Could do with a little more visual feedback when the player is hit. I know you've got that hit animation and the audio cue which is good, but when you're fighting enemies, the audio from swinging your sword and your focus being drawn towards the enemies kind of detracts from that, making it harder to notice when you're hit. A good and quick screen shake or screen flash would definitely help this aspect, but other than that, your game is great. Nice job!
The sound effects worked well for this game, and while it may not be the most complex of games it does what it does really well which is good. A recommendation I would make, if any, would be to reward the player for hitting more at a time, and giving the player an audio cue for that. Beyond that, it's a simple, but well-made game.
I don't know if this was intended or not, but boy were the controls wonky to use. The concept was fine, but it was really awkward to switch from using the mouse to click the UI to having to quickly swap to the keyboard, using unusual keys no less, to control the game. I think I'd lose every level the first time because I couldn't get my hands in the right place fast enough. I think either having a small countdown at the start of each level would fix this, otherwise maybe switching the keys to something easier to use like WASD or arrow keys.
Beautiful non-game, and pseudo-tribute to Conway! It definitely has a very peaceful and relaxing vibe to it, and while yes it's very simple, it's still fun in a way.