Rain Systems by thebmxeur 2022-10-06T10:06:42Z
Couldn't get the game to run on Win11, screen pops up for a few seconds then closes. If you have any solutions I'll give it another shot tho
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Kizilejderha
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | ...Or You Are Fired | compo | 84 | 3.81 | 3.71 | 3.57 | 4.15 | 3.52 | 4.05 | 3.58 | 3.73 | |
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | Wingspan | compo | 69 | 3.94 | 4.00 | 3.63 | 4.08 | 3.77 | 3.61 | 3.72 | ||
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | Out Of Sight | compo | 79 | 3.75 | 3.65 | 3.30 | 3.75 | 3.59 | 4.09 | 4.14 | ||
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | Termination Imminent | compo | 43 | 4.00 | 3.98 | 3.96 | 4.28 | 3.67 | 3.88 | 3.28 | 3.96 |
Couldn't get the game to run on Win11, screen pops up for a few seconds then closes. If you have any solutions I'll give it another shot tho
This is the best compo entry I came across so far, and I have a feeling that it will stay that way for a while.
First of all the visuals are absolutely stunning for a jam game, the overall game feel is awesome with a lot of screen shaking, flashing sprites and clean sound effects.
Controls are very simple and easy to pick up, mark mechanic is very clearly communicated to the player without the need for an additional tutorial, dodge feels fluid and doesn't feel either useless or overpowered. Enemy variety is also quite rich and every enemy is different in a meaningful way.
I wanted to give it all 5 starts but I HAVE TO deduct one point from audio for the lack of music, this game is begging for a super intense action-packed fight theme and lack there of is the only thing holding it back from perfection. As a matter of fact I did play some music over the gameplay myself and it felt awesome.
Excellent game overall, awesome job :]
I love the visual style of the game, but sometimes it's a bit difficult to distinguish empty slots from actual moveable triangles. The little direction thingies on the tip of the triangles could be bigger to make them more readable too.
Shaking is a good idea, but as the number of triangles increase it gets to the point where you cannot even recover from the last shake before the next one hits (this was only a problem for the last level tho, which seems to be intentionally difficult)
Good game overall
The game is a lot deeper than it looks, you have to have a perfect balance between leading them to a dead end, covering the door so that they can't escape, not being too close to the door yourself before the switch happens, and actually killing them. Gameplay is enough as it is, it just lacks a bit of atmosphere as there in no music and the map is a bit too empty
Got 9 kills +A grade after getting used to the core loop. Very good game overall, nice work
I like the gravity mechanic. It can be used to boost your shot in unpredictable ways but might also attract enemy shots, which is a really cool trade off. The visuals and sound effects get their job done but some music would be nice.
That's all I could gather from playing it on my own, I can imagine how fun it would be to play with someone else tho
I like the idea of defusing bombs to lo-fi beats, the art style and sound effects along with the music gives a unique atmosphere to the game.
About the gameplay, elemental modules are simple enough, select the correct ingredient from a look up table. The player being able to memorize the table after some time gives a good sense of improvement and looking these up isn't too hard either.
Symbolic modules are rather pointless in the current state of the game as they can easily be disarmed by brute forcing, just try each symbol until you get the right one, there's no punishment for getting it wrong.
I didn't really understand the alchemic modules, they never disarmed regardless of my actions :F
It would be nice if the next bomb was delivered immediately after the current one is defused, waiting for the next bomb to arrive hurts pacing after the player masters the basics of single module bombs
good entry overall :]
Very nice visuals, I also like the way screen shake and particles are utilized to make op for the lack of sound. Having the enemy rockets despawn after a while would be nice, as in it's current state you often have to take the hits regardless of what you do.
Trying to combo different pillars and running away from the rockets while getting all the buffs and unleashing all that power next round feels very good, it's a very promising game loop that could easily be expanded further.
kinda unrelated but I don't like the idea of attacking an enemy while they are sleeping >:[
Good game overall, my best time was 62 seconds
The controls and visuals are awesome, both very minimalistic but look and feel very smooth and natural. The music is an interesting choice, I figure it would be a much emotionally heavier game if the music went for that. tho the current soundtrack gives the story a greater focus on acceptance and carrying on, which seems to be what you were going for.
Good game overall, I got 1490 in the end, which I assume is my high score
Menu/kill-order shuffles accompanied by the enemies with different weaknesses all blend together into a rush of going through menus and enemies all within a strict time limit. Truly one of the most action packed, nerve-wracking and chaotic turn based games ever
personal best score 175 btw :]
Loved the gameplay, and the overall atmosphere, also like how most bug fixes are replacing variable definitions with higher capacity data types, since the bugs are caused by an overflow error.
Map being rearranged is both mechanically and visually cool, but the way it works often results in layouts where it's physically impossible to reach any of the bugs. I was doing good until I got stuck in a small corridor and none of the map resets set me free.
cool experience overall, I often end my reviews with my personal best score if the game has a score system, but you already have a global scoreboard which is pretty cool :]
Not gonna lie, the game truly didn't work for 10 seconds.
ok now seriously,
Trying to keep the damage and anger in balance is a cool mechanic, didn't really get what effects did the different tools have tho, just mashed them at random until something worked.
I like how it's implied that the music is playing in our character's head since sister's game supposedly has no music. The ending kinda came out of nowhere tho, definitely needs some build up.
I love the idea and the voice acting. I would love to have some subtitles tho, I guess it would be kinda cheating but I didn't really understand neither what she was saying nor the bomb defusal guy (bomb defuser? bomb defusal specialist?). At least an option to tell him to repeat himself would be useful.
Art and music are cool and complement each other very well. Having a fully voice acted game with so much dialogue is a great achievement for a game jam game.
Very good game overall, even tho I didn't get to enjoy some of it.
Absolutely loved this one, the atmosphere, the visuals, the challenging but fluid controls and the main idea of the light house showing you the way all blend in beautifully to make this a fulfilling experience. The occasional lightning lighting up your way while also signaling the impending storm is also such a great idea.
my only small nitpicky problem is the voxel art for the boat and the rocks. they appear a bit out of place and could easily be replaced by some low poly models. Some stronger wind effects and maybe (just maybe) some ambient music could be nice too.
Extremely good entry overall, very nice work :]
I like the chaotic nature of this game, there is so much going on at any given time and you have to keep track of all the drops, enemy bullets and the time remaining till the next wave in order to stand a chance.
Some sense of progression is definitely needed tho, even a very simple score counter would do the job. At it's current state it feels like we are just fighting for the sake of it.
Also good choice of music, I mean it doesn't fit into the rest of the assets in any way but you have good taste :]
I like the upgrade system. some levels seemed to be designed with specific upgrades in mind; and while I couldn't figure out the correct path it feels like a perfect order of upgrades can be found that will allow the player to pop all the targets in every level. Which is pretty cool.
Crossbows popping our targets before we can is a cool mini reflex challenge which goes well with the overall time limit theme.
3D animations in an otherwise 2D game is an interesting idea, sprites were a bit too small to convey the effect tho.
Got 975 points btw :]
Changing characters every ten seconds is a coop concept, but it could be implemented in a more interesting way. What if both characters kept their original position so we were teleported to the other character's position after a switch? or maybe there could be enemies that can only be killed by one of the characters? There's a lot of possibilities with such concept
Fight mechanics are ok, the enemy variety is nice but not enough for the duration of the game. The procedural maps keep things fresh tho. The upgrades are cool, but reduced damage upgrade is a bit too overpowered. I like how the sword guy can destroy bullets too, it's a very cool detail and is actually useful in some situations
Good entry overall, but definitely needs some post-jam improvements
Truly a keeping a worm alive experience
I like how the title suggests some sort of cosmic horror but the game itself is about having cute little adventures with an actual cute little worm.
Didn't see what happens when they die tho, couldn't bring myself to do it.
The core loop of balancing all three stats is quite fun. And the monitor taking time to start gives a nice bit of depth as it opens up new strategies such as studying/taking a nap while it charges. Having the focus, boredom and tiredness directly effect study efficiency makes the balance of these stats even more impactful and prevents the player from cycling through all three activities constantly. The timer disappearing mid game is a pretty cool element of challenge, too.
The visuals look nice, lack of audio definitely hurts the overall feel of the game but it's forgivable.
Good entry overall, got an A+, didn't get the sword tho. I hope there will be more events that are not the day before my exams :]
I like the atmosphere and storytelling, with some music this would be a very cool experience, even in its current state it gives the vibes it's going for.
Taking the player's sight away is a bold move, but the mechanics and level design allow the game to flow even with minimal visual indicators. The enemies glowing in the dark before their attack is a brilliant touch, not only that it gives away their position, but you can also approximate your own position based on their orientation.
It would be nice to have the lives reset after each room, as having to die once after clearing each room hurts the pacing. Doesn't do much harm tho since death is a 5 seconds setback at worst.
Good game overall, got hurt 51 times btw
I like the artsyle and the way tutorial is mostly arrows and drawings instead of text.
Having to lead the enemies into traps is a good mechanic. They don't always follow the player directly, which gives the player an extra challenge but also kinda hurts the core loop of the game as sometimes you are just waiting around for an enemy to start chasing you again.
Having to rush to a heart while dodging enemies, then running back to the shade before the sun shines was quite fun. Enemies being able to steal your health pickup is also a cool mechanic, tho often times they will get there first before you can.
Map being randomized each time is cool and could be expanded further, perhaps have the trap locations randomize every time the sun shines?
very unique mechanic, actually the mechanic itself may not be unique but the way it's represented is very unique. The error popping up and briefly going back to menu and hearing the menu theme before loading to the last checkpoint really feels like what happened was a real crash and a full restart (even tho it's not)
Controls are fluid and it feels good move around. having to go through checkpoints within 10 seconds and being able to go back and save at previous checkpoints really turns what could be a boring platforming section into an interesting puzzle.
The biggest problem I had was that you cannot reset unless there is a "crash". If you mess up crucial jump and don't have enough time to retry you have to wait the rest of the timer till you can restart. This doesn't seem like a big problem at first but gets very annoying over time.
I like the sprite work, music and sound effects are also on point.
Very good entry overall, couldn't finish the entire thing tho, sorry :[
I'm very new to Ludum Dare and I thought there was no way of replying to a specific comment, as it turns out I can just mention everyone I want to reply :]
@oolimry Thanks for the in-depth analysis, this game was inspired by the trial and error style game loop of games like Hotline Miami and Katana Zero, I'm glad to hear that the game feels balanced and fair, since it's rather difficult to have good balance in games that require you to try over and over again.
@peachtreeoath I don't often get compliments about the art of the games I worked on as I'm mainly a musician, I was quite happy with the cover art and I'm glad that you share the same opinion.
The game was originally a lot more focused on gunplay, and stealth only came into play once I figured since the player has no way of hurting the enemies without a gun, and cannot receive a gun without killing enemies, I can fluidly switch between stealth and action by using the weapon pickups. I had a few more stealth levels in mind but didn't have the time to implement them.
I also thank everyone else for their nice comments and feedback, and I'll try to be faster to reply future comments :]
43 overall lets go!!! :D Thanks to everyone for their ratings and feedback :]
The game has great gun feel with the sound effects, screen-shake and the damage pop-ups. Some music is all it needs on the sound department.
Visuals are clean and enemies are easy to distinguish both from each other and from the background, The weapons on the ground are quite difficult to spot tho, as they appear near identical to other non-pickup objects on the ground.
The walls opening and closing around you is an interesting mechanic. Apart from the times it traps you in a confined space, the dynamic map keeps the engagements fresh. Transparent outlines appearing before a wall spawns is a nice quality-of-life addition.
Enemies are a bit bullet-spongy, the starting pistol is not a reliable tool even to defend myself until I find a better weapon. And after a point it becomes impossible to clear out the enemies before new ones spawn in; resulting in a huge, practically undefeatable horde chasing you around. It's forgivable tho as balancing in a jam game is rather difficult.
Didn't really get to experience the boss fight, it sure does look cool tho
Good work overall
Simple and solid core loop, my strategy was to continuously plant right below me while I pick a path that goes through as much seed points as possible before the first ones I planted became pineapples. This way I could just go around in a circle a few times to get 150. but I got sidetracked with bhopping and didn't get a good score :P
Visuals and sound effects are nice, some music could be cool but not necessary, scoreboard is a nice touch. Solid game overall, nice work :]
nice little story, wouldn't wanna spoil anything.
Visuals achieve the C64 aesthetic you were going for, some audio could go a long way too but I presume this was intended as a compo entry, so it's fine.
I love how much freedom you are given as the player, you can dig a hole wherever you want, you can kick stuff around, you can play it as a completely normal farming simulator (not implying that it is not a totally normal farming simulator). I eventually did run out of things to do (at least I hit a point where after apparently trying everything on everything I didn't get anything new), a guide would be nice.
I like the music and the sound effects in general. I also like the sense of humor, like how we can pick up flames with bare hands just like any other object, or how the anvil makes us move extremely slow even tho apparently nothing else has any weight.
Very good entry overall, nice normal farming simulator, truly a normal farming experience
bouncing the fruits around is fun especially when you throw a bunch of fruits in the general direction of the basket then throw them all in at once. having to start the entire game from the beginning when you lose is not very nice tho. Audio is good but the music sounds detuned (might be a web build problem?) visuals are clean and easily readable. Had a good time overall
good core loop, having to fit and move around the organs without overlapping them while trying to keep up with the newer organs is challenging but manageable. The collision area for the organs and the boxes could be more clear tho. Good entry overall
wow this one is really good! the controls are a bit rough but apart from that, shooting the asteroids/enemies feel good, body slamming asteroids out of the planet's way feel especially cool. The story is humorous and places the enemies and obstacles in a meaningful context. I absolutely adore how planets start protecting themselves with little rockets when they reach a certain level of development.
some levels felt kinda tedious (especially the one where we have to push monoliths into the planet). Having the option to skip levels is a nice addition. And it has A LOT of levels, with a good variety too. quite impressive. I like the music, I love how it adapts to the age the planet is going through.
Very good entry overall, nice work :]
the game has a nice core loop but it's a bit too difficult at the beginning and gets a bit too easy towards the end after you find all the tools. some preparation time to get your tools could balance it out. Visuals are cute, I like the enemy designs. Music is nice too. Enemies stopped spawning after a while so I guess I win? I got 13 points.
Also I would like to see a game about Fenasi's brother Fecisi as well.
nice little story with charming graphics. There isn't much gameplay tho, it would be more interesting if dice rolls were replaced with a minigame or some dialogue options (tho I understand that both of these would be harder to implement). I like the acapella-only soundtrack, gives the game a very unique atmosphere. Good entry overall, nice work on your first solo jam :]
Very unique idea, using the harvester to collect a lot of crops in a single sweep feels satisfying. car controls are fine but since the car sprite only has 8 axis, it's a bit difficult to follow precisely where you are facing. The power ups (I only ever came across big harvester) are a good idea, they make avoiding cows a bit difficult but it's a fair trade.
Some audio could go a long way here, core mechanics are satisfying enough, some juicy sound effects could make this a much enjoyable experience. MIDI music fits the visuals well, I am a fan of the FluidR3's Grand Piano myself (I know that sample when I hear it). Anyways good game overall, just needs some polish (and more levels) :]
Great idea and execution, the game forces the player to multitask and take risks at points to achieve a high score while simultaneously being a very chill experience. You as the player control the difficulty with your playstyle which is quite unique. A time limit would be a good addition to keep the player from playing too safe, but I figure it would take away from the chill atmosphere off the game. Good use of the theme and nice visuals too. Solid entry overall, nice work :]
Very cool idea, but very difficult. I was basically making an educated guess based on the overall shape of the graph (or maybe that's how it's supposed to be played?). The little chatbox is a nice touch.
Just out of curiosity, does the "one in a million chance" message actually have a one in a million chance of appearing? I was really lucky if so :D
@gamebuilder
I originally planned to have a separate hide key but it turned out rather impractical as you had to rapidly hide/unhide whenever you needed to maneuver quickly. So I decided to tie stealth to movement, stand still to hide seemed intuitive enough, but I agree that it makes it somewhat difficult to know if you are truly hidden or not.
The win screen was a last minute (literally) addition that I couldn't work on at all, black screen with white text just seemed natural after a fade to black, it also had it's own music but it doesn't play due to my poorly implemented audio player. Thanks for your feedback, you are the first one :]
@jakobthequizguy
Wow thank you so much! Glad to hear that you could feel the atmosphere I was going for, and that the difficulty is fair. My jam games tend to be poorly balanced so I did some work to make sure that this one was fair. I started as a composer before getting into game dev so feedback about the music is always appreciated :]
@the3rdhunter
Worked hard on game balance after making a bunch of extremely difficult games for the last few jams, people seem to think this one is fair so I'm very happy with the game's balance, thank you!
@joey-shipley
I'm very happy with the atmosphere on this one glad you liked it too. harvesters are intended to be a force of nature that may work in you favor or against you, and they turned out quite interesting.
@youjing
I was kinda afraid that it was a bit difficult to figure out what to do but people seem to catch up pretty fast, thanks for the feedback :]
@sito
Thanks for you feedback! I updated the page to point out that the controls aren't explained in game.
@automatonvx
once you understand the mechanics it becomes quite manageable, there are some scripted behavior to prevent easy rng wins so you probably actually played well on first try. Thanks for the feedback :]
@fedora
Did a lot of balancing this time, glad it worked out. Thanks :]
@astrid
Interesting comparison, it's unintentional but they really do have similar vibes, thanks :]
@jormarysky
Thanks, I was a composer before getting into game dev so I really appreciate feedback for the music. I like adding neutral "enemies" that work for both sides to the games I make, glad you liked it too
@hawkin
randomness is somewhat scripted to prevent impossible scenarios or very easy wins but might need a bit of tweaking, there also _is_ a very bare bones timer in the top left corner :P Thanks for the feedback both for the game and the music
Great art style and humor, minigames were intuitive and fun. Good entry overall :]
I love the visuals on this one, ASCII art is very rare to come across in jam games and it was handled really good here. I like the unique twist on Tetris, some Tetris mechanics like tucking and spins actually come in handy too. softdrop requires you to tap continuously on some occasions, it would be better if we could hold down to softdrop at a reasonable speed instead (like regular Tetris).
The music is very good, but a bit too epic compared to what is happening on screen. The story was easy to follow and it nicely connects to gameplay. Very good entry overall
Cool idea, the offices could be extra crammed and labyrinth like to really fit into the theme tho. I like how the bots pick floors at the beginning and loot around like actual players
by the way, Godot 4 uses shared array buffer. you can enable it on your itch.io game page settings for the HTML exports to work (I couldn't find a way to enable it for Ludum Dare website tho :P)
pretty cool music and atmosphere. I like how turning off the system power has it's own track that's overlayed on top of the normal level music. Visuals are nice and consistent.
The control panel in the first room could use some explaining as it's hard to tell what it's doing initially, and having to go to each room to check if double power actually did anything wasn't super fun. The character should definitely be faster, as most of the time you know what to do but you have to go across the map to do it. Platforming itself was fun tho, the climbable/walkable platforms were pretty cool
very good game overall, great job
great visuals, sound and music. I like the dialogue too. The gameplay connects nicely to the theme. Solid entry overall
Pretty cool! both the gameplay and music remind me of Simcity series which I'm a big fan of. I like how plants don't die immediately when misplaced and gives you a chance to fix those mistakes
Nice game, movement could use some polishing, and some sound effects and music would be nice, tho I understand doing all that solo with a bunch of tools you just started to learn would be difficult. If you are planning to get into music and sound design I would recommend Audacity and LMMS, both are free open-source tools.
Have fun with your new tools (and welcome to Godot) :]
good game, controls require a bit of getting used to tho. I like the visuals sound effects
pretty cool idea and worldbuilding. It takes some getting used to but it's fun figuring out everything at your own pace. Some music and sound effects would be nice, but not crucial. I like how you put in the extra effort to implement TTS and all the language options
I like the early 3d flash game aesthetics, using the asteroid belt as a world border instead of just killing the player is also pretty cool. Level design was good (but kinda difficult), with some randomization to each run (which is impressive for a jam game)
Screenshot 2023-10-13 120300.png
Pretty cool mechanic, I figured the best way was to divide the circle and line patterns into two separate areas, one only has parallel lines (kinda like a highway) and one has circles all centered around the same point
My only problem was the collision warning sound, it's too loud and since the game has no other sounds it comes out of nowhere
Pretty good entry overall, nice work!
very well made! I like both the dash and blocker moves, they are neither too overpowered nor too weak, they fell just right. The enemy placements (I guess that would be this game's equivalent of level design) is very good, they force you into difficult situations that you can only get out of with the smart use of abilities. Graphics are nice, I really like the music too. It has the 80's footballer success story movie kinda vibe lol
I really like the over the top chaotic nature of the game. the visuals, ui and humor really give the game early 2000's flash game vibes. Having high risk high rewards alternatives to the main road (driving on the opposite lane and going off-road) is also pretty cool
The idea of having a limited number of mechanics available at any given moment is cool and a good connection to the theme. The level design could be better, the levels are too big to traverse in time. I like how you can use the blood cells to boost yourself around, I couldn't finish the first level even with that boost tho
Cool character design and storytelling, I really wouldn't mind seeing more of Demetrius and Victor in the future :]
cool idea, meteors blocking your way connects nicely to the theme. controlling two characters at the same time is quite difficult, if they both had unique abilities that complemented each other it would be super cool (but also super hard to make in 3 days)
Also I noticed some textures are blurry, this is caused by the texture filter. you can set the texture filter from "linear" to "nearest neighbor" for clean pixel art :]
typing out what kind of spell you want is a cool idea that could definitely be expanded upon. Didn't notice the spell book at first and though we had to explore them on our own to find working spells. I kinda wish we were allowed to just spam spells at some point tho (against a bigger horde of enemies of course).
this is the most polished game I've seen so far, gameplay is fun, nice music and excellent graphics and animations. enemies could use some pathfinding tho. R to restart would be a nice quality of life improvement.
Nice work overall!
I am surprised by how complete this game is, good job!
very strong inscryption vibes. Very cool atmosphere. Finger cutting could be more impactful, I wish we could see the demon we are summoning more clearly.
Individually weak items being super op when used together gives creates a fun dynamic (sometimes leads to unavoidable failure when you can't combo, but we are given 5 lives to deal with that).
Cool rhythm game with a fitting the theme, but I would love to have some music!
the weather mechanics are cool, would love to see what kind of levels you could come up with if you had the time.
Nice take on word puzzles. Having to focus both on specific materials and overall power creates a good dynamic. Gotta work hard to summon Jeff.
cool puzzle game, I wish there was something on the top of the last tower tho (maybe there is and I just didn't notice?). Getting better and better at quickly picking the spell I want was satisfying. Nice to have music in a compo entry.
Good humor (tho the original material is already funny). I like how every move has an accompanying voice line, having voice acting for a jam game is often not easy. Gameplay is fun, tho a bit easy to cheese some sections, and some parts seem impossible without the angelic horde which has a very long and unspecified cooldown.
I can't believe BMX bandits did all that on his own with no help!
Cool Portal-like (not a real genre but whatever), nice to see voice acting in a compo entry.
My only complaint is that the reflective boxes sometimes just shoot the laser straight at you. But it doesn't take much away from the game as retries are instant.
There is also a real programming/computation software called MatLab, not related to anything, just felt like pointing it out.
@tomatoomelet Thanks! I actually had multiple levels planned, with the one available here being the 2nd of 3 levels. Didn't have time to implement the others tho :P
Wow that's a lot of comments! I thank every single one of you for your feedback and support, we got 20 ratings!
The game really has some charm that makes you want to keep going and I really started having at least some level of connection with certain characters.
Some images for the characters would be nice so that we could easily identify each one, but drawing that many unique characters could be out of scope for a jam.
I really like the idea of a reverse-isekai. Tho it kinda makes you feel like the bad guy when you essentially kidnap someone then rob and imprison them when they prefer not to do your bidding. (not necessarily a bad vibe tho, makes things more interesting actually)
I wish we could call some characters back when they starting going rogue, but I guess it fits with the narrative of the game as we realistically would have very little communication with the heroes once they start their quest, and I imagine the reports we receive being rumors and stuff we overhear instead of being direct reports from the field. There's also the joy of finally catching a traitor once they return.
Very solid entry overall. Nice work.
Nice visuals and fitting sound and music, ending is pretty cute. the dedicated surprise button is much appreciated, truly a cute lil fella
Could be a very fun memory game if we got extra time with each fare and could give inputs a bit faster. I like the way store names and such are edited to fit the theme lol