Placeholder by PoV 2018-08-31T18:47:33Z
Seriously, guys. You're just making more work for him by making him have to take this game out of the final scores. Lay off the trolling, would you?
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Koala Squad
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | đź‘Ą | Cook | jam | 447 | 3.50 | 2.52 | 3.34 | 3.94 | 3.13 | 3.21 | 2.15 | 3.86 |
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | đź‘Ą | Exhaustion | jam | 732 | 3.25 | 3.09 | 3.06 | 2.93 | 3.14 | 3.28 | 3.26 |
Seriously, guys. You're just making more work for him by making him have to take this game out of the final scores. Lay off the trolling, would you?
@jeremy-ryan Oops! My bad!
@aguakev @hadi-danial @cloudcraft @krasse We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
Uhhhh, what did I just play? Seriously though, great job! You tried for weirdness and you got it spot on! Of course, it's pointless and completely weird, but that's sorta the point, and I'm really glad to see someone innovating in such a strange way.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Good job! Impressive work on the speedrunning design! The game feels great, and the controls are great for this game. I like the joke about the theme, but it isn't going to get you many theme points. The art is also rather lacking, along with the audio. The leaderboard design is cool though, and the game is fun. Overall, great job, and get some art that isn't placeholder art!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! First things first, it was a little counter-intuitive. The controls were strange, the ghosts making you lose Mbs wasn't obvious until I read the comments, and the mine level cut to a black screen for me and never moved on to the mine. I just got stuck in a black screen forever. However, I really love the art work, and the idea is pretty darn good! It fits the theme too, and the audio was superb! Overall, great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
I've tested the game on a 144hz screen, and it works fine. No need to worry! The game is fun, although rather hard, and I love the art style (quirky, but very fitting) and the audio! Good job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! Impressive work on the writing, and the art is well done! The complete lack of audio does kill the mood a little though, but other than that great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Amazing work! I LOVE the art style! It's a really fun game, and I the music/SFX fit perfectly! The theme fit really well too! Great job! Keep on coding!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! I love the art and the audio, and it's fun! It doesn't fit the theme that well though, mostly because it's way too easy to defend just a couple of squares with your scream and do nothing else. However, I liked the humorous idea and mood! Overall, great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Amazing work! The art is quite good, and the game is fun! It's truly an innovative idea and creative execution works wonders too! The MANY, MAAAAAAAANY puns really helped put your game up there in humor (Especially the pun on the theme), and the audio is great too! Amazing job, and good luck!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! My first thought when I jumped into the game was "Worms Battlegrounds." It is very much like that game, and that's not really a bad thing, since the game is fun and quite interesting. I do wish you had an AI for single player, because playing against yourself doesn't really work. The audio is impressive though, and combined with the graphics really sets the mood (although the SFX are a little lifeless, especially the ones when you take damage). The huge pit in the center of the map is kinda a game killer though, because it's almost impossible to stay out of it and it is impossible to escape. Minor issues aside, great job on this one!
Great job! I love the art style! I do wish that it wasn't so madenningly impossible though. If you had a little slower of an approach to the harder sections, that would help a lot. The music is alright, along with the SFX. Overall, great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! I would also agree that the game is really tough because of the wacky camera. The art looks amazing though, and it fits well with the theme! The game is quite fun too!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Through no fault of your own, I am unable to rate your game because it directly conflicts with some of the software that I have on my computer. I'll rate the game based on what I can see. First of all, the graphics are awesome and clean, and the idea is just flat out AMAZING. It's really impressive that you executed on this idea so well! It doesn't quite fit the theme that well, but it's still impressive! Good job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@antti-haavikko Nope, no antivirus. It's an internet filtering software that also includes Reddit, so the part of the game that uses reddit is put out of commission. There's nothing you can do to get around it, and it certainly isn't your fault.
Good job! The game really fits well with the theme, and although it is short, the mechanics do make it seem oppressive and fun! The mood is pretty good, but the poor audio and graphics do kill the game's overall atmosphere, as well as the buggy physics that send the objects teleporting back and forth between the walls until they are destroyed or just bug out. Overall, good job, and I'd love to see some music, SFX, and better models, as well as maybe a bit more length (levels, difficulty, etc.)
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Amazing! The graphics are incredible, clean and pretty! The mechanics worked really well too! The only issue is that it is a huge guessing game about which bricks are which color, and that is an issue when you have to go for specific colors to reach certain doors. I'm not sure what caused it, but the game crashed due to a "fatal error." Maybe you should get on that... Anyway, the theme fits well too, and the mood is quite well done! Overall, incredible job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@nnnikki We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@nnnikki It's finished processing! Check it out!
Good job! The mechanics felt solid and fun! It could use some work on the graphics though, and the audio is rather lacking. It fits the theme quite well though.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
I don't know why, but the web version (Which is the only version) shows a pink missing texture the moment you click play game. I'm using Microsoft Edge browser, and the rest of the game does run right, so I'm not sure what's going on. I can still play the game "Normally", but I can't see what I'm actually doing...
With the windows build, it's time to rate! Great job! The art is VERY well done, along with the audio! The mechanics are also pretty solid, with it being simple, intuitive, and pretty fun! There is an issue that messes up the game though. When you click on the big alien, you are unable to click on another alien until you move the big one, which can completely break the game on occasions. Other than that, truly outstanding work!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Quite a good job you've done! The mechanics are pretty solid (Although no matter how hard I tried I couldn't smash an alien with a wall), and the art is really impressive! It fits the theme and is pretty darn fun! The audio is awesome too! Good Job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@daria-s We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@swampinpunk182 @fosterboy123 @doswosh We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
Great job! I love the art, it really looks great! The gameplay is a little lacking though, and it's really hard to know what's going on and what to do. I got stuck on zero points for about ten tries because I didn't know that the jetpack has LITERALLY unlimited speed. Unfortunately, it's really hard for me to make the connection between this game and the theme. Overall, great job, and maybe try the jam next time (It's a LOT easier to get a game done with more time).
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Good job! I like the idea, although the execution was a bit lacking. As far as graphics go, it looks alright, but the fact that it is missing any music is a bit of a mood killer, and since the alien ship shoots straight under you, it's simply a matter of holding down spacebar. Overall, great first attempt! Keep working on this, and it will look SO much better!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Interesting idea! I would agree that more ways to interact would be good, such as different tracks that you can toggle on and off for drums, guitar, etc. Another thing that would be good is to import your own songs rather than just the songs that come with it. If you want inspiration, google did something very similar. Check it out here: https://experiments.withgoogle.com/webvr/inside-music/view/ They obviously have a bigger budget and different goals, so you have some room to make yours unique. Great job on the execution!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@zykroma We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@raphael-maia We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@hare-software We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuAc (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
Web GL 2 not supported... What is that supposed to mean? Are you using an older version of Web GL that isn't supported by newer browsers? I'm using Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer and they both get that error when you try to open the game page.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry I can't rate your game.
@saering @valentin @icekyu @talyn We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@saering It's ready! Check it out now!
Good job! The art is fantastic, and the idea is quite well done! It fits the theme really well, and it is pretty fun. The music is quite well done, but there is one issue with it, and that is looping. Basically, you need to make the songs start and end on the exact same sound, whether that's a note, a drum beat, or silence, because otherwise you get this tearing as the song abruptly changes from he end to the beginning. That's why most radio songs have a few seconds of silence after their songs: to prevent tearing. It becomes even more of an issue for a video game because the one song could have to loop for hours on end! Other than that though, quite a good job! The bugs that I noticed have already been brought up by others and I'm sure you're already working to fix them.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great work! The concept here is quite interesting, and the physics are impressive! It's not really optimized well though, because I was running at about 6 frames per second or less by the end of it, and I have a pretty powerful computer. The graphics are quite good, and both the raft and the water looked really nice, although the background and the cube container didn't look quite as good. The mood is awesome too, with the nice descriptive text and the great feeling of being out at sea in a cube! As far as fun goes though, it mechanically was just spinning around the torrent of water the entire game, but the visual appeal helped make it a lot more fun, especially with the quirky raft physics! Great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
First thing to address: If you have a screen refresh rate higher than normal, play it on WINDOWED, not FULLSCREEN! The game relies on framerate, not on standardized time, which means that at 144hz refresh rate (As is my monitor), the game is almost unplayably hard. Aside from the major issue, I absolutely LOVE your graphics and audio! They fit the game so well! I also love the fast-paced action of the game. It's really fun, and the challenge is a fun part of it! As a little side-note, the insanely fast version of the game actually works REALLY well if you remove the lasers, which pretty much one-shot you before you can get rid of them. Maybe consider speeding up the game WAY too fast and make it part if the fun! Overall, really great job! Let's see it even faster!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
For those wondering, we also received a generic comment about our game being balanced.
Moving on, I really love the graphics! I love seeing a game that makes graphics the focus instead of gameplay, as it does tend to freshen up the competition! Now, I understand what people are saying about the assets used. However, I feel like we are making a rather large mountain out of a molehill here. The only reason this has become an issue is because you did not opt out of graphics, for the very reason that this would absolutely kill your game. Now, here's my opinion. Firstly, you should have been up front about all of this, addressing it in the description rather than letting it devolve into a flame-war. Honesty is the best policy, especially with something where you may get panned if you remain secretive about it. Next, I believe you are fine with using the spaceship, as well as any materials for the game, because they aren't the point. The main focus of the game is the art in the menus, not the game or its art. Putting some other people's assets into minor pieces of the game shouldn't take away from the major purpose of the game. Really, it should just kinda be shrugged off, because it isn't the focus of the game.
Finally, the biggest issue with the assets: the background in the menu. I've got to be honest about this one: it's going to hurt your score. There's no denying that this is an issue. It's a major piece of the graphics, and the best part of the game at that. I'd take away a full half-star from your graphics score, mostly because it is the visual crux of the menu.
Now, the gameplay. I'd say that I'm kinda just going to throw this out the window. It's going to get a terrible score because it is a pretty terrible game. It's got a basic premise, it's almost impossible to lose, and it lacks mechanical interest. It is free from bugs, and it does work for what it is, so I will give you 2 stars, but overall I'd say that because this isn't the purpose of this game, you really should just opt out of it so you can get a good rating at the end.
Finally, the audio. It's really top notch stuff! However, I'd like to express some doubts about the originality of it, particularly the ambience in the menu. I don't doubt that the music is yours, nor do I doubt that the SFX are original, so that already is a major contribution. Forgive me and tell me if I'm wrong here, but I just can't tell. The audio that you used work really well to bring home the mood though. The mood was absolutely amazing! Incredible work tuning the graphics and audio to fit the style and mood of the game!
Overall, great job on the graphics and mood, not too great job on the theme, and be honest about what you did or did not make as far as graphics go, and maybe make it all your own next time, even if it has to be terrible, simply to avoid this stuff.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Oh, and one more thing. I am still taking half a star off graphics because the image isn't original (as well as the other models). However, I think that you guys are being a little harsh because the image is only based off a tutorial, not a download. Tutorials are perfectly legal, as long as the final work is original, which it is.
Good job! I like the art, and the fact that you took on the compo really impresses me! It does have some issues on the fun side of things. First of all, the window size makes it impossible to see asteroids coming. Second, there's no way to tell how close you are to dying. Third, you can just fly in the space between the asteroids all the way down and just skip the challenge in the game. I know you already knew most of these things were a problem, but I'm trying to be helpful. I like what you did with the theme though (I just KNEW someone was going to take "Running out of space" and use the literal meaning for running on it!) Overall, good job, keep going, and maybe try the jam next year (It's WAY easier, and you get a much better game with the extra time).
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@tinynerd We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
Good job! I like the graphics, and the idea is well done! It is really hard to take care of the planet though, especially later in the game. It definitely fits the theme, and it is pretty fun! The audio is simple, but it works fine that way! Overall, great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Incredible job! The puzzles are absolutely astounding! It's really fun, and the music and graphics are spectacular! I did get stuck on the second level with the NPCs, and I could not kill it because it wouldn't destroy the block as I walked off of it in front of the robot (annoying, possibly a bug). The mood works great, and the theme fits great! This has got to be the best implementation of the most literal interpretation of the theme that I have seen so far. Great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@cary-stanley We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
@frontlinesaint We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
Great job! I love the art here, and it's a really fun game to play! It fits the theme quite well, and the mechanics work great (even though the page is French, it still works!). The only major issue I have is that the mouse cursor completely disappeared whenever it hovered over the game, so I couldn't use UI elements without a lot of work. Other than that, great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Good job! The art is pretty good, and the idea is nice. The buttons are almost unusable, working only occasionally. Plus, the game is DEFINITELY a troll. It's almost impossible. However, the mechanics do work for what it is, and the audio isn't half bad. Good job, and keep coding!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
@watdowtal Oh! I'm sorry, the game isn't even close to finished in this build! Please check back after three and give it another shot! I just published this to get the link for itch.io to use.
@watdowtal No no, that's not what I meant. I mean that I haven't finished developing for the jam, not that I had a post jam version coming! Sorry for the confusion. The game file that I have currently uploaded is just a placeholder for the full game entry, which I will be uploading by the end of the jam.
Finished early! The full build is now available! @watdowtal, now you may try.
@ghastlymicrowave sorry about the exe! I'll fix that! Yes, the sleep and ice effects ARE really annoying, which is why you have access to them! Thanks for the tip about the turn marker. I'll try to explain it better in the description.
@unknownevil Yes, the game is rather easy, but it wasn't intended to be impossible. If you pick up the wrong cards though, it can be quite difficult. I was thinking about adding the ability to skip the tutorial text, but I didn't have time. I'm glad you enjoyed the game!
@himadri-sekhar-mahanta I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! The text skipping feature is duly noted and shall be added in the future updates outside of the jam. I'm glad you liked the art too; it's my favorite part of the game!
@cristihkj Thank you! I do need a little work on the tutorial to make it clearer, but I was very short for time. I'll try your game if I have time, but right now I'm very busy.
@punisherxa I'm glad you liked it! Yes, it is a bit confusing at the beginning. I didn't give it a very good tutorial. It does run a little slow, but maybe that's just how I have it working. I was already thinking about turning it into a turn-based game rather than a timed game, and this seems to confirm my suspicions. Thanks for the feedback!
@timbals Thank you! Yes, I do need to work on some incentives for saving your cards, or just reduce the starting hand size. It would fit the theme a little better that way. Thanks for the feedback!
@johnyf Thank you for the feedback! Mobile would be interesting. I've never done that before... I might give that a try. Yes, the enemy AI does need a lot of work because they currently are completely random behaviors. I'll put some more work into them as far as playing cards!
@pepelumen Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! We definitely will be adding more enemies once we continue on this game. I had some ideas left over, and we could definitely work on reusing the single enemies to give a more dynamic game. I had some ideas... Anyway, glad to know someone likes the action timer! I realized that I have another solution to make it run quickly but speed up if the player wants to, and that is instantly skipping the timer whenyou select a card. I'll see if that works well.
@erikiene The development build was not on purpose. By the time I realized it was a dev build, it was already past the extra day submission. I should have done the web build, but I was rather pressed for time. I might try building to it next time or post jam, since it's against the rules now. Thanks for the feedback!
@antti-haavikko I'm sorry everything was so confusing! Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I really needed it. Quitting the game when you die was an artistic decision over instantly respawning, although I realize now that this may not have been the best decision. I'll add a decision to quit or try again. Yes, the game's difficulty is a bit of a pickle. You have games where you destroy everything without even trying, and you have games where you draw only sword cards as the enemy uses armor and fireball repeatedly and kills you instantly. I tried to put some balance into the game and tried to make it challenging without making it impossible, but I obviously need a refactor. I'm thinking about some different card drawing and playing mechanics that would really serve to make the game unique and put the difficulty curve on track, and with a bit of confirmation I'm starting to grow on it. Unfortunately, there was no way for the enemy and the player to both play cards at the same time, but the status cards definitely do need to be cared for and I'm starting to grow on a turn-based game. I think that if I add some more cards, such as curing cards for more enemies and a magic barrier against status effects, it would add some needed complexity and style. The lore was a bit of an afterthought; it was mostly intended to fill the screen and give a little bit of interest to the game for those who want to read it. Yes, the map does need some work. I'm thinking about using the map as is, but instead of making each space on the map just one encounter, make it an entire level, with multiple encounters and a walkable environment. It would be a lot more complex, but it would add some interest to the game and would serve as a great way to pace the game. Originally, the action timer moved a lot slower, so the card slots disappeared at times where it did actually cause problems. However, when I sped up the action, I didn't adjust the other timer, which pushed it almost entirely out of the game. I'm glad you actually took the time to beat the game; the feedback is greatly appreciated and really will help put me in the right direction for future development. Thank you!
@erikiene Oh! Good to know! I never saw that before... I'll get right on that! Thank you!
@erikiene Your wish is granted! Web version added to itch.io, with one on the way for GameJolt. Thank you for the tip!
@oneiros Thank you! Yes, polish is ALWAYS something that makes a game better, and we will have time to do plenty of that!
@fakefirefly I'm glad you enjoyed the game! We were originally planning to add a health bar increase after certain bosses, but couldn't think of a good place to add it in, especially with the basic health card being a powerful defense against effect cards and the armor/shield cards taking care of any melee attacks. I'm thinking about a new set of mechanics that will take care of the fact that it's hard to make sure you have a healing card, and I think it'll be a great addition to the game. Thanks for the feedback!
@drums I'm glad you enjoyed! Skip button duly noted!
@paulo-augusto Thanks, but was the 4 comment spam intentional, or is site lag just killing you?
@dancan Thanks! I'm glad you liked the art! It's my favorite part too!
@oberon Yes, I need to work on making it clearer to get into, as well as rebalancing the hand size reduction and the fact that the game instantly closes. It was intentional, but a rather poor choice. I'm glad you'd like to see it fleshed out, because we do too!
@mykola I'm glad you liked it so much! More confirmation about old problems is always a good thing because it means that there aren't new ones! Thanks!
@axoona Thanks! I'm glad you liked the story, even though it was very limited. We'll be fleshing that out a LOT in the future! As far as the issues with too much variety, preparing your hand, and all that, we're almost entirely remaking the mechanics, and it will hopefully be for the better!
@coomzy Haha, sorry! The skip button is implemented, but I can't add it for you to rate the game, so if you want to leave a rating, you're going to have to do this the hard way!
@rahim-pxr Glad you liked it! Graphics games are interesting, so hopefully this will be a nice surprise!
@synfoniz Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it and had an all-around great experience!
@keebleryestime I'm glad you liked it! We do indeed plan on taking it further. A LOT further. Hopefully, we can continue with those plans. Yes, the tutorial itself wasn't too well thought out (and was not tested), but hopefully it'll be better the next time around.
Good job! The core mechanic is an interesting idea, and as has been mentioned, it does turn into one big platformer/maze solver. That being said, the mechanics are a little frustrating. You should be able to place the anti-viruses wherever you want rather than at terminals, because it quickly becomes impossible to actually deal with 99% of the viruses, and this does kill the fun of the game. The graphics are decent, although the default unity audio should have been replaced. The mood was kinda killed by the lack of music/ambience and the aforementioned frustrating mechanics. Overall though, good job, neat idea, and a lot of work ahead of you if you intend to take this long distances.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! I love the art, and the cute mechanics tie in with the theme quite well! I would say that you do need some better sound though. Programmer music and SFX won't take you far. There is also the fact that you can quite easily die within a split second if you take 3 hits of damage from different enemies, which is kinda an issue. Maybe an invincibility time would help. Overall though, I'm quite impressed! Great job!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
I've gotta say, that was REALLY hard. I love the visual aesthetic though, and it fits with the theme really well! The audio is pretty cool too! Overall, great job!
@johnyf Ok. As long as you opted out of audio, no harm done!
I have one word for you: CHECKPOINTS. Other than the complete lack of such, great job! The mechanics worked pretty well, and the graphics were quite good! The audio was alright, although it really didn't fit the theme.
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Funny idea! It really fits the theme, and it's a fun game overall! That being said, the controls could use a little work. It's almost impossible to click the arrows while they are moving, and the abcd keys are spread all across the keyboard, making it impossible to use them. Maybe WASD would have been a better idea. Anyway, I love the graphics, and the music is pretty great! Great job, and happy coding!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Great job! The idea is hilarious, although it perfectly resembles a game about hiding body parts from the last time around... Anyway, it's quite fun, although the mechanics are a bit strange. Voice acting is always interesting and a good way to shake things up, so good job including that! Overall, great job, and get some polishing done!
Cheers! - The Koala Squad
Here's my thoughts: As far as fun goes, the mechanics were pretty good, but nothing stood out to me about it. The puzzles failed to explore the mechanics fully, opting for an easy, throw workers in this direction then that direction. The movement itself was, of course, flawless, but it failed to make itself interesting and creative. My rating: 4 stars. Not a whole lot of innovation going for this one. Sure, the game worked great, but it didn't bring anything new to the table. My rating: 3 stars. The theme was... not that great this year. It left a lot of people using pretty much the exact same game ideas, and yours wasn't that different. However, it did fit the theme to a T. My rating: 4.5 stars. The graphics.... Well done, my friend. Well done. Hats off to you. It looks amazing. My rating: 5 stars. The audio was pretty darn good, although there's no praises to be singing about it. My rating: 4 stars. The mood was great, although a variety in the mechanics would have greatly contributing to making the mood complete. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Overall, I think that this is a very good execution. For Ludum Dare, this is absolutely a quality game, and holds some of the best qualities of a successful game. Unfortunately, it didn't have a whole lot of innovation to its name, and the mechanics lacked the variety and intrigue to make the good qualities truly stand out. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Good job, good luck, and happy game development!
Cheers, The Koala Squad.
Alright, here's my thoughts:
The gameplay was somewhat fun, and the mechanics worked great early on, but they failed to stand out. They're nothing amazing, and they started to fall apart once you got to about 20 seconds left. My rating: 4.5 stars
It's a pretty innovative game, with a unique and interesting take on a runner. My rating: 5 stars.
It fit well with the theme and didn't use a generic interpretation! Great! My rating: 5 stars.
The graphics are truly the strongest part of this game, and they work wonderfully! The animations started to fall apart a bit once the game got too far in, but that's a drop in the ocean. My rating: 5 stars.
The audio was decent, but I kinda expected more from such a polished entry. The music was good at first, but grew to be obnoxious. The sound effects were fitting, but didn't sound that great. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Heck yeah, finally a game that actually has a reason not to opt out of humor! 5 stars!
You nailed the mood that you were going for, between the graphics, gameplay, and audio. My rating: 5 stars.
Overall, it's a very nice, very polished game with a unique idea that was executed on quite well. The audio and mechanics had quite a few kinks to work out, but the overall mood and polish shined bright enough to make even those issues reflect the quality of the game. My rating: 5 stars.
Good luck, and good job with your entry!
Cheers, The Koala Squad.
Alright, here's my thoughts:
You nailed fun. The frenetic, multilayered mechanics were really interesting to play, and very engaging. There were, of course, minor issues here and there (make the ship smaller and the rounds shorter!), but it was still a good experience! My rating: 5 stars.
Nice, innovative game! My rating: 5 stars.
Fits well with the theme and uses a significantly less generic interpretation of it! Great job! My rating: 5 stars.
The art looks quite nice, with the space aesthetic fitting well with the presented art. However, there is a major issue. Almost everything uses the exact same colors. This might not seem like a big deal until you try navigating the ship at full speed on the hardest difficulty. You see, it would be great if the important objects like turrets, crates, generators, etc. were color coded. It would make the ship so much easier to navigate and would allow the player to tell at a glance what machine he is looking at. Currently, it takes more thought to distinguish objects, because the only differentiating factor is the shape. My rating: 4.5 stars.
The mood is pretty well done, but I never really found myself immersed in the game. Maybe it was because the ships outside felt like they were programmed for galaga, or maybe it was because the fighting mechanics seemed so out of touch with reality or out of place, or maybe it was because the oxygen drained without any visible or physical indicators, and it drained incredibly fast, but something about the entire game just kept me from feeling like a part of the character I was playing as. However, the audio and graphics do set the tone somewhat well, and the frantic pace has its own mood separate from the serious one the game presents. My rating: 4 stars.
Overall, this is a quite nice entry, with good audio and a very nice, innovative interpretation of the theme. It was incredibly fun, and while it did have some substantial issues, it made up for them enough to keep me playing it longer than any other entry yet (although maybe this was because of the artificially long timer and huge ship). My rating: 4.5 stars.
Alright, here's my thoughts:
The fun was top notch! It got crazy trying to protect all of the vehicles, although that is something that was an issue. It was almost impossible to control more than one car before an obstacle came onto the screen, which meant that I had only one car for pretty much the entire game. The controls could have been a bit more streamlined and that would have helped the difficulty, but I think that the massive difficulty was, for the most part, not an issue in this game. I don't know whether making the controls more or less manageable would help. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Innovation. Heck yeah. For this theme, this is the single most innovative idea I've seen used, and it works! My rating: 5 stars.
You used the theme in a non-standard way and used it well! My rating: 5 stars.
The graphics were interesting and strange, but they worked in a unique way! The textures on the arms were a bit stretched out, but other than that, it looks great! My rating: 5 stars.
This is actually the first game that got me laughing out loud this ludum dare. Phenomenal! My rating: 5 stars.
The mood was pretty amazing, although the music wasn't a perfect fit. It had its benefits, but it still wasn't the best. However, the other sounds, graphics, and gameplay all made a really great mood. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Overall, this is one of the best entries I've seen yet! Everything about it is extremely polished and executed well, and it's all done on a strong idea foundation that fits well with the theme. Astounding work! My rating: 5 stars.
Great job, and good luck!
Cheers, The Koala Squad
Alright, here’s my thoughts:
The game concept was a great setup for fun, but the difficulty was completely unbalanced. The randomness of each quest (not to mention the randomness of the resources resulting from them) was a huge issue. If you had focused on the feature you had already added, where each adventurer focused on different resources, and leaned into that aspect more heavily, it would help balance out the game a lot. Also, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that everyone’s nocturnal, so try changing it so that you can only act in the daytime. There’s no reason for night. My rating: 3.5 stars.
It wasn’t particularly innovative, although that is, for the most part, the themes fault. My rating: 3.5 stars
It fit the theme, and you aren’t using one of the most extremely overused interpretations of it! My rating: 5 stars
The graphics were simple, but outstanding! Great job! My rating: 5 stars.
The audio did do the job, but it didn’t stand out. My rating: 4 stars.
The mood was very well done, but the extreme difficulty, random typos, and other issues were terribly immersion breaking. My rating: 4 stars.
Overall, this is a quite artistically polished game, and has a good setup, but the gameplay backbone severely lacks tuning, and the audio and mood were mediocre. My rating: 4 stars.
Great job, and good luck!
Cheers, The Koala Squad
Here's my thoughts on it:
The gameplay was an interesting and compelling start, but it was SLOW. I mean, sure, slowness is often necessary, but it would have been quite easy to speed EVERYTHING in the game up by like 3 or 4 times, and it would be so much more fun! My rating: 4 stars.
Heck, I suppose it's somewhat innovative. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's somewhat original, and even somewhat is *great* when the theme is so **painfully** polarizing. My rating: 4.5 stars.
It fit the theme. Just like every other game that requires you to sacrifice the things you're saving. It's not your fault: this theme is making everyone do this! However, it still isn't a new interpretation of the theme. My rating: 4.5 stars.
The graphics were decent, but lacked polish, and the animations were lacking. The player seemed very floaty when walking, and you could've at least made it so that he actually LOOKS up when he WALKS up. My rating: 4 stars.
Ah yes. Bosca Ceoil music. I know the program well. I also know that it almost always sounds terrible. I myself am no different: My Ceoil music is absolute trash. Anyway, I know from experience that programmers aren't musicians, but do yourself a favor and go download a better program. I just yesterday learned that the guy who made SFXR also made a music software, although as to the usefulness of that program, I can't say anything, since I've never tried it. On a lighter note, your sound effects were pretty good, and you made music that sounds really good for Bosca Ceoil. My rating: 3.5 stars.
The concept is quite funny, although the actual game doesn't do much to help the funny factor. My rating: 4 stars.
The mood *sorta* works, but much of the game seems to be all over the map. Each piece works somewhat well on its own, but the pieces don't work that well in unison, and thus hurt the overall mood. It felt like the game couldn't decide if it wanted to be dark and depressing, cute and happy, or a satisfying blend of both. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Overall, it's a good start, but it needs a lot of polish to get it up and running, and needs some more overhead to ensure that the final game works with all of the parts working as expected. And for crying out loud, dump bosca ceoil already! My rating: 4 stars.
@mrpiedpiper @kenn50games Have you tried WASD and arrow keys? If so, then I’ll try to figure out what’s going on. Sorry it wasn’t working so well!
@peet-cooper I’m glad you liked it!
@firebug Yikes, this is an issue! I’ll be fixing that as soon as I have time. Thanks for the feedback!
@firebug @kenn50games @mrpiedpiper Fixed the issue! Sorry about that! The movement should now be working as normally.
@smuhlaci I have been having some technical difficulties with Unity and can’t build to Mac (and before anyone says it, i do have the build module installed). I’ll try to get it working so that you can play, but don’t count on it. Sorry.
@smuhlaci **Correction:** I've fixed it! One extra large Mac OSX version with no onions and a lot of spice, coming right up! Will that be for here or to go? And do you want some sauce with that? No? Alright then, have a great day!
@mrpiedpiper Whoops again! This time, I fixed it and tested it to make sure nothing else was wrong! Sorry about this buggy mess I posted! Basically, here's what went wrong. I have a couple of developer buttons in the Unity editor that let me skip certain parts of the game to test it more easily. I happened to press one of them without realizing while I wasn't running the game, which changed a few of the settings on some of the objects ever so slightly. Those changes were just never reset. Now, they are. Thank you for the tips, and hopefully, you can play the whole game now!
@mrpiedpiper I’m glad you liked it, despite the repeated tech issues!
@firebug Thank you for the comprehensive feedback! I’m glad you managed to give this feedback without spoilers too!
Good to know! Minor improvements noted, and will probably make it into a post-jam, if i make one.
I do tend to get a bit wordy with my writing, and I see what you mean. Thanks for the tip! I’ll try to make everything more meaningful or just remove the meaningless sentences.
Glad to see that you liked the mood (the one massive draw to the game, lol), and thought that it was innovative! This theme was pretty specific, so I’m glad I managed to distinguish the game! I’m also glad that you liked how the audio and graphics fit! I too really appreciate the value of silence, especially when it comes to being creepy (although nothing sets the mood like a powerful ambience). Plus, some of it came out of necessity, so it just kinda came together perfectly if it’s own accord.
Oh, whoops! Meant to opt out of humor! Although I might leave it now....
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the humor category, and your consideration of dry wit as a humor thing is something that I had never really thought of before! I’m not sure it’s not a reason, however, to include the humor category for rating in this game. Everyone typically thinks of humor as either slapstick, jokes, or something along the lines of glados, and it’s really hard to change that perception, so I’d rather just avoid a category that is, for the most part, completely random. Still, I’m leaving it open now that you mention that, as I hadn’t realized that the dialogue was funny in its own dry way, and that it garnered rating because of that.
Yes, the mechanics aren’t fun, but that’s not the point. It’s much more about the atmosphere from a passive perspective, and the fun factor does indeed take the fall for it. I suppose it’s designed as a different kind of fun, just as an action game is fun in a different way than a horror game.
Yep, you got the reference thing quite clearly.
**SPOILER ALERT. GO PLAY THE GAME BEFORE READING THE COMMENTS!**
The very first sentence in the game is a direct quote to the first creepy pasta I’d ever seen, “Ben drowned.” If you’re into dark horror writing (I’m on the fence. I love the powerful storytelling and rich, thoughtful stories, but I hate being scared), I’d recommend checking it out, although it might take you a little while to get through it. I had no idea what I was getting into, so it made that experience 10x better and more powerful. I didn’t intentionally make any other references, but I might have by mistake, as with any creative medium.
Thank you for the review! Super helpful!
@firebug @mrpiedpiper I tried anticipating a couple of things that the player might do (try leaving the second house after the second to last message appears, or just sitting around for too long in any of the houses after the last message appears in each), although I could have expanded on it immensely: I just didn’t prioritize it enough. There’s a lot more I could do with it, I’ll just have to sit myself down and get creative with it. Thanks for the tip!
I have and love majoras mask, but I’ve never realized that the quote was from the canon game. Probably because I haven’t seen the beginning of the game for at least 2 years. Anyway, good to know.
Yes, more solid explanations of each category that are mandatory reading would be perfect! Maybe we could make a formal feature request or something if we could get a bunch of people on board.
@DWaM Thanks for the review! Sorry the police weren't treating you all that well. Did you try bribes? They're very effective.
The cucumber's annoying demeanor was the point, since it left you wanting to kill him at the very end. Just be glad you actually got to kill him ;)
A lot of people mostly leave out their tutorials until the end and then either give them in the description or in an ugly wall of text at the beginning. I tried to be a bit more original with that, which is what tends to make or break a lot of triple-A games. This should really be more widespread.
Glad you liked the graphics and mood! That's what I was going for here.
@selkkie Thanks for the input! I wanted to add an intro sequence in which a chef explains the intro of the game rather than dumping you right into the game, but I was pressed for time. I also was planning on making it so that the user had to click to stab the final boss, but I had no good way to tell the player this without breaking the flow of the game. I have a couple of ideas, but for now, it's going to stay cut-scene style.
@peterfonts I usually restrict my jam games to 512x512 because scaling UI is a nightmare to deal with. It typically works on a few resolutions, but it never works well on everything without more time and effort than I can afford on short notice. I usually add that feature in post-jam versions though, and I do already have a couple changes made. I think I'll add it to the post jam. Yes, the text needs a LOT of meta pushed into it. I added a couple of things that the player can do if he tries to ignore the instructions, but the text is missing that. I want it to be linear, of course, but little things that the player can do would indeed be good. And yes, I improved the sound, but I like the idea of pitch variation. As far as feedback for the player arriving at the bed, I'm not sure what to add. I might add a single-frame animation, but other than that, there's nothing that I can think of to provide more feedback.
Thank you both so much for the input, and I'm glad you enjoyed the experience!
@peachtreeoath Happy you enjoyed! Yes, that build is broken, to say the least, but part of the point was that by doing that, you neglect the most annoying vegetables and are forced to endure their obnoxious monologues. If you can endure it, then that’s designed to be powerful. Sacrifices must be made, after all.
@megalink Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed!
@taikuri Thanks for the feedback! I had been wanting to implement control as a way to contrast the game and all the stuff about not being in control, but I didn't have any ideas. However, right after I read your comment, I had some ideas for making it a reality, and now the post-jam version is so much better! Thank you!
@fre Thank you for the suggestion. I did get rather redundant, and although it did help set the mood, you're right about it only needing 2-3 sentences. If you want, I'm almost finished with a post-jam, and you had finished a significant portion of the game (although yes, this was an intro). Thank you!
@fre @DWam @selkkie @taikuri @firebug @megalink @smuhlaci @peterfonts @peachtreeoath @mrpiedpiper @kenn50games @peet-cooper
We've just finished a post-jam version, if anyone is interested. A lot of your suggestions made some significant changes to the game, and I'd like to thank all of you for giving me your time and suggestions!
As far as what specifically we've added to it, check out this post: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/cook/post-jam-version-out-now
@lucidus Hmm, that's a good idea. I'll try to add something to make the text box more obvious, although I think I already did in the post-jam. I can't even remember. Lol.
The sound effects were made using SFXR, and I'm really happy with how they turned out too, especially since I had never given the software a good try and thought that it wasn't good.
Lol, that's the point. The post-jam is even better, with a new, fake intro. If you want to see it, it'll only take a minute. Thanks for playing!
Alright, here's my thoughts:
That was pretty darn fun! It kept me coming back and felt (more or less) balanced, with an appropriate difficulty curve and fitting match times. My rating: 5 stars.
Nothing new. I mean, there's something, but that can mostly be blamed on the theme. My rating: 3.5 stars.
It fit the theme, although it didn't do much inventive or new with it. My rating: 4.5 stars.
This art looks fantastic! Phenomenal work! I did find a minor issue though: The player kinda shakes back and forth by a few pixels each frame in the idle animation. But that's just nitpicks. My rating: 5 stars.
Great job with the audio! It fit well, didn't get repetitive, and sounded great! My rating: 5 stars.
Ugh. Please opt out of humor. I hate having to tell this to like every other game I rate, but I'll say it again: Always opt out of humor unless you think that your game has significant enough humorous elements to prevent the category from hurting your average score.
The mood was almost perfect! It was quite immersive, although it didn't stand out as having a particularly great mood to it. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Overall, it's a really great and polished game! The mood of the game didn't fit perfectly, and the game wasn't particularly innovative, but it's very well done! My rating: 4.5 stars.
Alright, here's my thoughts:
The gameplay is clean, and works pretty well. It's pretty fun until it gets hard, but other than that, it's pretty well done! My rating: 4.5 stars.
Innovation... It's Mario but with Vikings, tropical rainforests, and sacrificial animals instead of plumbers, mushroom kingdoms, and flags. Oh well. My rating: 3 stars.
The theme fit well, but the interpretation of the theme is, of course, generic. My rating: 4.5 stars.
The graphics looked really nice! They did have some technical issues though. The flicker is the most obvious one, but aside from that, the player's animations had some problems. If you were using Unity, this would be because exit time is enabled on all the transitions, but in any case, they had some difficulty transitioning when you jumped, started walking, or stopped walking. My rating: 4.5 stars.
The audio sounds nice and fits very well with the game! My rating: 5 stars.
I hate having to tell everyone this, but unless your game is specifically humorous, opt out! The cat interaction was the closest the game got to "funny," but this was a stretch. My rating: 2.5 stars. I'm not going to put that rating officially though, because I think you need to opt out.
The mood was quite nice. Everything meshed to create a rather convincing mood. Of course, none of this is even close to historically accurate (although Vikings did sacrifice animals), but whatever. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Overall, this is a very well done and polished entry! My rating: 4.5 stars.
I have written this review twice now, and twice, my computer crashed itself on me before I could post it, forcing me to start over. Excuse any lack of details. It’s my fault. Your score hasn’t changed, I’m just more laconic.
The gameplay is somewhat fun, but the difficulty needs a lot better tuning. It’s too hard at the beginning but then gets really easy, really fast. I came up with a solution though: prevent the bears from spawning until the player has, say, 10-20 bees total. Then, make the bears gain health much faster than they do currently. My rating: 4 stars.
It’s not that innovative. The gameplay is rather basic, and the innovation that is there mostly stems from the theme, and when everybody does the exact same “innovative” thing, it gets old. My rating: 3 stars.
It fit the incredibly polarizing theme. Yay. My rating: 4 stars.
For mood, all I can say is: why did you opt out? Never opt out of mood.
I’m not going to lie here: the screenshots look bad enough that I almost didn’t rate this game. However, you took the “programmer art” and gave it life! The animations and effects truly are fantastic! Get yourself someone to collaborate with to draw better stuff for you, and your games will look amazing with those effects! My rating: 4 stars.
Overall, it’s an alright entry. Don’t let the screenshots fool you: it’s way more interesting when you’re playing than it appears. It has some major tweaks that need to be made, but its still a good game. My rating: 4 stars.
Alright, here's my feedback:
The mechanics show promise, but they aren't exactly fun yet. Having to constantly stop while shooting, coupled with the long charge animation before firing, really served to kill the fun of the game, incentivizing you to turn into a turret (which will kill you) rather than running and gunning (which is way more fun). It has potential, but some of the core mechanics need to be redone. My rating: 3.5 stars
The graphics are your strong suit. Great job with this one! The art looks great, and everything is well animated! My rating: 5 stars.
Not particularly innovative. The theme doesn't allow for much innovation, but still, it is a rather old formula. Tower defense is stale, hands down, and while the whole ammunition thing would be innovative in any other setting, it is just a side-effect of the theme. My rating: 3 stars.
A generic interpretation of the theme. At least it's light hearted. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Aaaaaaand it's time for another rant about opting out of (shocker) humor. Seriously, it doesn't have a whole lot of funny to it, so opt out! It will just hurt your overall score by lowering the average value, not increase it!
The mood is cute and nice, but is SEVERELY hurt by the complete silence the game sits in. The graphics set up something that just seems heartless without audio. Next time around, try SFXR, if you have time, or try to get someone else to make audio for you. It's WELL worth it. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Overall, I'd say that this game rather heavily relies on its graphics, and while they are quite well done, this does end up leaving the rest of the game, mechanics, audio, and all, lying in the dust. I'd suggest looking for a team to join, as that would allow you to focus on making your art good and let your teammate make the rest of the game better. My rating: 3.5 stars.
I've hit the comment length, so this is a multi-part post. Sorry for the massive text wall.
Alright, here’s my takeaway.
I’m going to have to list the major issues before I can explain the mechanics and whether they’re fun or not. So, without further ado: • The controls are annoying because you can only damage tiny slivers of the buildings which are horizontal, not vertical. In a tiny window with a horizontal aspect ratio, swiping horizontally only feels natural, but vertical feels stilted and boring. • The loss condition also felt super arbitrary, especially since most of the hitboxes were on the bottom of the buildings. • Tiny issue: Pausing the game doesn’t stop buildings from spawning, so if you pause and come back, every single row will fill with buildings. • The difficulty was all over the place. Normally, you’re supposed to use a difficulty curve that allows players to pick up the game and get used to the difficulty slowly without ever feeling like they’re being babied or that the game is punishing. However, this game completely misses the correct curve. For the first 30 seconds, it feels way too easy, whether this was the first play-through or the last. From about 30-40 seconds, it seems just about right. Then after that, it becomes a nightmare to use, and the difficulty serves more to beat the player over the head than to provide the player with engaging challenge. • You placed the bomb powerup in the upper left corner of the screen and made it a button you have to press. That causes two issues. One, it’s not apparent that the button is even a button, and I had no idea that you were supposed to press it until I saw your comment at the bottom of the Itch.io page. Two, the button requires the player to move his mouse away from the game field and press it, and even though it has no consequences, it still feels terrible, especially since it would have been quite easy to make right click trigger the bomb instead. • Finally, the tutorial is terrible. It tells you very little about the game and uses an image that doesn’t even try to represent gameplay. Heck, even the images and description did little to explain the mechanics, and that’s assuming that the player will read those (not a good assumption)! You need to include a good explanation of the game, even if it requires a wall of text at the beginning of the game (which is not something I would recommend, but it’s better than nothing). I spent the first 3 games trying to figure out what on earth I was supposed to do. Phoo! That’s a lotta issues. Anyway, here’s a summary. There are a LOT of root-level issues that are a result of some bad design choices. The game is not fun. I wish I could say it was, and there are a lot of times where I can squeeze something fun out of a game, but in this game, the only fun is provided by the other aspects of the game: graphics, audio, and other stuff. Sadly, this will only get you so far. My rating: 2 stars.
Innovation… Hmm… I’m sorry, but I just don’t see any. My rating: 1 star.
Heck, this is a really interesting interpretation of the theme! I’m happy to see some uniqueness here, especially since this theme is very restrictive against creative innovations! My rating: 5 stars.
The graphics are quite interesting! The 2D view of the 3D landscape allowed you to add some neat effects, such as the bomb, the grass, and other visual niceties. However, this is where the trouble begins. Every single bit of terrain and vegetation in that scene is from the unity standard assets, as well as the bomb explosion effects. I also can’t tell if the water, skybox, or buildings are unique, but they certainly don’t seem like they were made for this jam. The UI elements also look nice, but again, I cannot tell if they are made for the jam. This raises a very important issue. If all, most, or a significant portion of your art was premade or downloaded from the internet, that means that you must opt out of the graphics category, according to the rules. I don’t want to be calling any names here, but if you don’t want to get on the bad side of the rulebook, I suggest that you opt out of graphics. With that out of the way, I also noticed a lot of random visual bugs. There’s even one featured in the gif at the top of your game page: the water is freaking out in the background every time you trigger a bomb. I’m going to rate you a 1 star in this category until you can confirm whether the art is original or now, but for reference, my rating would be 3 stars if either the UI elements or the models are original, and 4 stars if both.
I can hear a lot of audio that isn’t original in this game. The seagulls and ocean effects at the end are, without a doubt, from somewhere on the internet, and the main menu is only slightly less obvious. The UI element and the bomb explosion sounds are unoriginal. The in-game music is hard to tell, but my guess is that it’s a mix of several different, unoriginal loops. Not to mention that it’s super loud and sounds terrible in the middle with a lot of clashing instruments (although the beginning sounds great). Heck, even the tower swipe noise is both awful AND unoriginal! It doesn’t get much worse than that! I can understand and even respect a little asset usage (or a lot if necessary) if the user is respectful of the Ludum Dare rules, but right now, you haven’t opted out of the category. I’m going to rate this a 1 star until you opt out of the category, because right now, this is cheating people who legitimately worked hard on their audio out of a higher placement.
Humor. Nada. My rating: 1 star.
The mood was inconsistent at best, and immersion-breaking most of the time. The audio, graphics, and gameplay are all inconsistent and serve more to prove that the game is an asset dump than to make a good mood and experience. As if the transition in music mood from the main menu to the game and to the death screen don’t speak for themselves. My rating: 1.5 stars.
Overall, I was really disappointed by this entry. It seemed interesting and looks like it had some time and effort put into it, but under the surface, it’s really just an asset dump in disguise. It only adds insult to injury when the creator doesn’t even bother to respectfully opt out of categories. Even if you take the art and sound away, the gameplay is boring and dysfunctional. I wish I had more good things to say, but I just don’t. My rating: 2 stars.
Also, a tiny little nitpick: Why is it named Venus? There are no relations between the name and the game. I mean, you couldn’t have just picked something super cheesy and used that? My second ludum dare entry was named “The not-so correct platformer,” which is an awful name, but it’s at least representative of the game. There’s no reason to call the game Venus. You might as well have named it Potato or Excel Spreadsheet.
Cheers, The Koala Squad.
@arnau I'm glad to see that you made the art and music yourself! Thus, I'll be giving them 3.5 and 3 star rating respectively, which bumps the overall score up to a 3 star rating. I especially like the UI elements, although the vegetation is still from the Unity standard assets, and while the menu music and beginning of the game music are good, they lack thematic ties to each other, and the instruments clash still in the middle. Good job!
Sorry about the venus thing! I misread the title, and was a little brain-shot by the time I finished that post.
First things first: Please opt out of graphics and humor. The game isn't particularly humorous and it certainly isn't fancy looking, so leaving the two options in is like shooting your rating in the foot. It messes with your average (overall) score.
With my usual "opt out of this" rant out of the way, here's my thoughts:
I don't find this type of game particularly compelling, although this is just my opinion. Heck, my only release on Steam is a text-adventure hybrid (Terror for Two, go check it out, shameless plug stuff, etc.), and I still don't really like the genre. However, it is particularly well made for a text-adventure, and about as compelling as any good text adventure should be. My rating: 4 stars.
It's a game based on an overused fantasy (robin hood, in case nobody else caught that) in a stagnant genre that does nothing innovative other than re-word everything. Sorry, but the innovation here is low. My rating: 2 stars.
I think that your method of implementing the theme was a bit contrived. The impact that your "sacrifices" actually had was a bare-minimum. I understand that nobody wants to die to save the kids or kill the kids to survive, but that's literally the definition of sacrifice. Don't worry about being too dark: The theme is literally asking for the darkest satanic stuff the internet has to offer. Even if you changed it so that you could only survive by sacrificing your siblings, your game would still practically be sunshine and roses in comparison to most of the entries (mine included, mind you). Still, at least you're trying to be unique with the interpretation. My rating: 3.5 stars
The mood was great. You can't do a whole lot with text to set a mood and make the user feel emotions, but you did a pretty fantastic job of it. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Overall, it was a very nice execution on a poor idea. The idea has almost no innovation, no room for the entire graphics category, and moderate fun value. Additionally, the plot drops the ball and delivers without a valuable use of the theme. Spending a little more time planning the plot would do wonders to the overall experience, for future reference. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Alright, here's my thoughts:
It's pretty darn fun and compelling for a twine game. I don't mean to be offensive, but text-adventure games are rarely compelling to me, and even some of the most polished and creative ones rarely stick out to me more than an exposition dump at the beginning of any other game (mostly because they are one big exposition dump). Heck, my only steam release currently is a text-adventure hybrid, and I still don't like playing them. However, for a twine game, this is very well done! My rating: 4.5 stars.
Uhhh... Nope. No innovation here. I mean, maybe if you squint your eyes at the story, there's something, but not really. My rating: 2.5 stars.
The theme doesn't really even fit this. I suppose you **[SPOILERS]** "sacrifice" yourself at the end of the game, but sacrifices have to a) be trading one thing for another, bad or good, and b) they should really be willing. I don't think this was a sacrifice so much as a clickathon. I can see where you tried, but the result is just too contrived. My rating: 3 stars.
You killed it with the mood, and I suppose that's the point. My rating: 5 stars.
Overall, it's a polished entry, but the foundation is shaky. It's aimed at a stagnant genre and brings little to no innovation to distinguish itself. Additionally, it doesn't adhere to the theme hardly at all. My rating: 4 stars.