Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Kodiqi
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Fly Zone | jam | 1462 | 3.39 | 3.50 | 3.24 | 3.04 | |||||
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | First, you get the potatoes | jam | 925 | 3.03 | 3.08 | 2.68 | 3.32 | 3.24 | 2.26 | |||
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | Knight Time | jam | 563 | 3.43 | 3.18 | 3.64 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 3.18 | |||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | You Shoot Walls | jam | 350 | 3.61 | 3.31 | 3.85 | 4.42 | 2.68 | 2.50 | 2.76 | ||
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | Shotgun City | jam | 699 | 3.32 | 3.87 | 3.50 | 3.29 | 2.76 | 3.53 | 3.16 | ||
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | More Energy! | jam | 435 | 3.35 | 3.50 | 3.31 | 3.15 | 2.73 | 3.68 | 3.21 | ||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | Agoraphobia | jam | 381 | 3.39 | 2.69 | 3.39 | 4.08 | 3.73 |
Kodiqi leaves an average of 15.7 feedback comments each event.
Unless a simulation is what you're going for, I think the mini-games could be a bit more fun. Human Resource Machine is a game that handles coding in a fun way. Currently they felt too much like actual work (for my taste). I'm not sure what the purple bar at the top is displaying when you're in the code/art screen either.
Really cool idea, I had fun playing this. It might not appeal as much to people not familiar with Scrabble but I think you explain how the board works well anyway. I like the different layouts and the way the challenge increases as you go. A few minor things; - The wrong word sound effect is harsh. - The exit tiles and empty tiles look too similar. - It would be nice to have a scramble tiles option and a recall tiles option. - I didn't really bother chasing points but they could be given more value with achievements.
Otherwise, I thought this was great, maybe my favourite game so far. This should be a game mode on Words With Friends.
Clever take on the theme, starting with the letters of "Nothing". I played through to the end. Most of the riddles were good, the punch guard took me a few goes though. I think the level with the "brighter" riddle could be designed differently; I got stuck there not knowing that I needed an additional letter to pass as every other riddle on the right side of that level didn't need the new letter. If you were to expand on the idea, I think it would be cool if some riddles had multiple answers and maybe you earned extra points (or gold or something) if you use the more obscure answers. Maybe some kind of hint system for when players get stuck too (it could show where one letter of the solution goes).
I found this via Reddit but will comment/rate here. I'm been playing this for about an hour (mostly idle), so I'm adding notes here as I go. - The start isn't very intuitive. It could use some more explanation (but not a forced tutorial, please). Maybe hide a few UI elements until they're needed too. - Selling is a bit annoying with every sell action being 2 clicks; right-click to sell, or a "sell mode" toggle would be a good addition. - It wasn't clear to me that you had to drag items to the bottom of the screen to assign items to characters. Better to have the slots right below the inventory. - Nice mix of items to collect and the items increased in stats at an enjoyable rate. - I like that each new area is gated behind an initial fight. - The map is really good, it gives variety to the gameplay and some smaller goals to achieve within the game. The panning feels a bit awkward at the moment because the map is only just big enough to need panning around; if it's made bigger this won't be an issue. Allowing the player to pan a little past the map edge might make it feel better too. - The fights move too fast to make potions much use. Maybe a skill (that can be earned) to auto-use a potion would be better. The exception was the dragon/vampire fights, where potions almost felt overpowered. - Single item "quests" like the red crystal fragment are really cool. I also found the blue fragment, are there any more that I missed? - Graphics are great. No sound but it's an idle game so that's fine. - I didn't spend much time doing any of the jobs (field work, mining). They weren't as fun as the fighting and you only got gold, which you got from fighting anyway. I like the idea of different areas offering different activities, maybe if they just gave different resources they would be more engaging. - I've reached ascension. I'd happily keep playing if there was more to do! - Hopefully you continue working on this after the jam. Prestige would be good, especially if there are some really difficult areas to tackle that you need to power up to take on. - I don't know how a cat can wear armour and wield a claymore but I don't care! If you do expand on the game, adding some more story would be cool too. - Levelling up is quite quick, which is ideal for Ludum Dare. It could be slowed down a bit if the game was continued. Overall the pacing is good for a game made in 72 hours, I know idle games usually take a while to balance. However, I say that as someone who likes/plays idle games; the pacing will put some people off (as other comments have shown). - I'm not sure if there is any difference between the characters. I switched my warrior to a wizard but didn't notice any difference, so if there is then maybe put some details on the recruit screen. I did like that reaching new areas opened up new characters!
Now that I've finished it, I've gone back and increased my rating. I really liked this, great work!
This is really good. Really liked the mechanic and the various ways you have implemented it across the levels. Controls are pretty good too. I can't say I love the graphics but I would have happily kept playing for more levels anyway. Nice work.
Interesting twist on Flappy Bird, though it may lose some of the addictive quality of the original. I got 17 after a few tries, so I think it's a bit more forgiving too.
Really cool twist on Tetris as you are fighting the existing urge to rotate the blocks all the time. You have to approach it totally differently. I don't think it quite fits the theme as the rotate function isn't really your life in Tetris but 5/5 for innovation.
I saw this on twitch.tv/z_doctor stream and had to give it a go, lots of fun. I'm wondering how the pieces are deployed though - is it totally random what comes next, or do different pieces have different likelihoods? I think it would benefit from a bag system, like many Tetris games use, just to give the player some kind of strategy they can use.
I really like the idea of managing the 3 different stats to stay alive, along with the different ways to maintain them. Visibility of the stats could be improved though, maybe showing them on the player character somehow would keep them easily visible while you're focused on the combat. The l-ctrl key also caused issues as it's used for many shortcuts, so maybe a rework on the controls would be good (right mouse button maybe?).
Presentation is pretty good. Great effort for your first jam game. My high score was 251 but that "Fetching..." guy is just owning thescore board right now :)
Really good entry. I like the take on the theme; I did a similar sort of game for a Game Maker jam but I didn't execute it as well as you've done here. The puzzles were intuitive and the fast restart with small levels kept them from getting frustrating. Good presentation and good execution, I hope you make more levels for this!
Cute game. The controls feel nice and I think it uses the theme fairly well. I think it was fun but it became repetitive so I didn't fuel the ship to 15,000. Not sure if anything happens when you do. Maybe just more more enemies or some traps to avoid would add some variety.
Definitely reminds me of the events in FTL. The presentation here is just fantastic. It could definitely use more content though as success feels pretty much down to luck. I wish trading were a more common occurrence that had a bigger influence on your success. That would incorporate the theme a little better too, as currently fuel is mostly used as fuel with only a couple of chances to use it as currency. Even just a bigger map, with some fuel hubs spread around, would add some more strategy.
Good presentation, very consistent and you went all in with the theme. The shooting and upgrades are fun. However, the slow fire rate was frustrating and gets in the way of the game being fun, for me.
It works as a shooter but the movement is very slow. The map is also needlessly large, there isn't enough content/enemies to warrant that much space. If the shops and enemies were closer together, then the loop of earning -> spending -> earning more etc. would be faster and more enjoyable.
I really like this concept. The difficulty curve could definitely start off easier. Also, it would be nice if you could use the UP arrow as jump instead of the space bar. I also don't have the Euro symbol on my keyboard, using the number keys would make the shop controls more universal. I think this just needs some quality of life improvements to make it more enjoyable to play.
I saw this being played on twitch.tv/mrjoshuamclean and then decided to download and play it myself. It's really well presented; high quality graphics and sound for 48 hours. It's a lot of fun to play too and the upgrades all mix up the gameplay a bit. I played a couple of times to try out the different choices (triple arrows that bounce were my favourite). I don't think it works that well with the theme, mainly because this type of game is so fast that you don't really manage your health much.
I saw this on twitch.tv/mrjoshuamclean and had to give it a go. The spinning gun is a really cool idea and the game is a lot of fun. The addition of the jump works really well too as it means you're not at the complete mercy of the enemy's random aim. The graphics are simple but good and the sound is really great - love the intro speech by each enemy. The gun spinning faster adds a nice challenge too. My highest score was 120,000.
You could definitely add to this if you wanted to flesh it out more, maybe an upgrade system (including one that displays your reload timer would be great). Also, maybe reduce the cash to smaller amounts or add a comma separator for readability. I don't think this really used the theme effectively but it's one of my favourite to play so far.
This looks great, obviously. Fantastic graphics for 48 hours. The music is good too even if it feels a little mismatched to the graphics (which are more light-hearted). I like the idea of the game - that you can't have everything in life so you have to choose between things and that those choices can have lasting consequences.
I didn't feel much of that from the gameplay itself though. Just running to the right is a bit repetitive for me to want to go through and find all the different possible endings (maybe if they made me run faster). Also, is there anything I can do with the jump ability?
The presentation here is quite good; the graphics are decent and I think the sound is especially good. I think the story at the start is poorly implemented though. If you're going to have that much text, don't have it load one letter at a time like that. It might have been fun to program but it's not fun to read; thanks for the skip button though :)
I think it misses the mark on the theme because while your timer is your "life" the player has no control over how it's spent. I do like that you've tried to add something to a match-3 mechanic. Having to avoid bad matches is a cool addition, though maybe a little difficult in combination with the timer.
I really enjoyed this. The twist of seeking out enemies instead of avoiding them is fun. I like that it starts off simple but then really ramps up at the end with lasers and bombs and coins all over the place.
Sound effects work really well but the lack of music does stand out when you are in the shop and it is suddenly all silent. Also, I thought the enemy upgrade screen could communicate exactly what you're upgrading better. Those are minor issues though, the main thing is that this was a lot of fun to play. Great work.
The visuals and audio are fantastic and combine well; a great example of why the Mood category exists. Incredible for 72 hours by one person. The puzzles were OK, not much challenge to them. I think if they were larger and intersected through the level, it would make them more engaging. As is, the game was probably around the right length for the depth of gameplay.
Everything works well and it fits the theme nicely. I liked the different tactical options available; I mainly focused on boosting my damage when I was dealt the right cards.
I found readability an issue; it definitely could have used a clearer font and larger text. The heart icons on the card also get in the way of the text and they don't convey any useful information because all cards have hearts regardless of their use. The background changing colour doesn't help either.
Wow, there is a lot to like about this game. The control scheme isn't one of them though; the WASD movement rather than the mouse isn't intuitive and hinders the player from doing what they want to do. Also, the combat is maybe too automated; even just being able to see enemy stats or a battle report would make it more engaging.
Those things aside, this is incredibly polished for an LD game. It just looks great and I enjoyed the music (although the dying sound effect was a bit out of place). It nails the theme and is the best take on "running out of inventory space" I've played so far.
This is one entry that I really think should be developed further; you guys obviously have the skill and people love a good loot/strategy game.
Well done on your first jam and getting it all done within the Compo limitations.
I enjoy city builder games so this game is right up my alley, I think this is a good start.
I think there is an issue with every building costing both money AND resources. Specifically, the Resource Miner should probably only cost money because if you drop below 50, then you can't build another one. The Resource Miner is already costing you land, so making it money-only shouldn't unbalance it. Alternatively, if you could destroy your existing buildings for a small amount of resources (less than the initial cost), then players could dig themselves out of the hole, rather than it being game over.
The graphics/music are simple so I won't go into detail on those but I think one easy improvement would be to make the UI bigger.
Thanks for making it HTML5!
You can't help but like this game after the first 6 seconds. The music and the dancing animals are great, lots of fun. The actual game part of it isn't that strong, which is a shame. Maybe the physics were more hassle than they were worth? Manipulating the waves didn't feel very intuitive, with some issues such as clicking at the top of the screen sending the waves in the wrong direction.
Just thinking out loud but maybe it would be more engaging if your clicks grew new ice patches, rather than creating waves, so you just had to build a path to stop the dancing animals from falling into the water. After all, they are so caught up in the rhythm to watch where they are going! Wow "rhythm" is a weird word.
I did the tutorial but I didn't find it all that helpful, I think you could definitely explain the mechanics in fewer words.
Are the pieces selected at random? It felt that way, as some times you'd get exactly what you were after, other times you just got unhelpful pieces over and over. I imagine a bag system, like Tetris, would be a good approach.
Also, when I lose I have to start all over again, not just the level I was on? That made me stop playing sooner than I would have otherwise.
Anyway, it's an interesting idea for a puzzle game and it looks good for what it is (shapes).
Really good entry, I had a lot of fun playing this. Using the start screen as a tutorial works really well. The game looks and sounds great. My only gripe was the randomness of the portals; most of my deaths were just running our of resources because I couldn't find the portals.
Thanks, I learnt some stuff!
This was a fun game. My highest score was 52. I like that playing gives you a sore hand, just like taking an exam :)
There is not a lot of longevity in the gameplay but that's not unusual for an LD game. It was a cool use of the theme with good presentation (not the most beautiful graphics but very fit for purpose). Good instructions too, which helps. Good effort for your first entry!
There is a lot to like about this; the graphics and sound match well and create a good mood, the mechanic is innovative and really fits the theme. I just didn't really enjoy playing it because it felt so slow. Also, you seem to take damage whenever you get hit by darkness, even if most of you is still covered in light; this felt unfair, mainly because it just slowed the pace down even further. Like I said, I really like the concept and mechanics of the game, I just think it would be more engaging if the pace was faster.
I saw this being played on Twitch and had to give it a go. It's a good use of the theme and it's executed very well. I wasn't able to finish the final level, I gave up in frustration eventually. Still, I really enjoyed this entry. Shame there is no sound, that would be a good addition. Also, maybe some sort of option to undo you last move would be good if you were going to do a post-jam version with more levels. Great job!
Review? Nope.
Seriously though, this game suffers from a lack of information. You spend you first couple of plays learning what each building does. I'm still not entirely sure how the lab works; it mentions a farm... what farm?
The graphics are great and the sound is pretty good too. The game is fun too but help your players out.
I played the web version. This is really good for your first entry. It's an interesting take on the theme and uses some unusual mechanics, just what I like to see in a LD game. There were a few visual bugs, mainly with the depth of things, such as you walking between the chair and the popcorn, or the speech prompts being blocked by movie goers. This might just be the web port? The tasks do become repetitive quite quickly, so I think it was a smart move to keep it short.
You made this solo in 48 hours? Wow. The content and presentation is great. Using the theme in relation to VHS tapes is cool and brings back memories. I didn't really feel the theme in the gameplay though; I didn't feel like I was running out of tape, as I was only trying to make short clips. Still, this was a lot of fun but in the end I just cheated, as watching the video was the most enjoyable aspect.
A good take on the theme and nice presentation (UI could be clearer though). I found the game a little frustrating to play and I'm wondering if mouse controls would have improved it? I know that using the arrows means you have to navigate around the grid, adding to the effort required by the player to accomplish the goal. However, I didn't find it a rewarding effort (if that makes sense); I felt like the controls were a challenge, rather than them enabling me to do what I wanted.
This was a lot of fun! I think my best was 107 years. Probably my favourite game so far.
Going forward, you could polish it a little bit; a better graphic for the heir, maybe some small character animations, display the current high score as you're playing, a nicer font. I think it would do really well on a site like Kongregate.
The presentation here is lovely and it really fits the theme well. There isn't a lot of innovation with the mechanics but I enjoyed playing it nonetheless.
I enjoyed this a lot more on the second play, so I feel it could use some kind of tutorial. There is a decent trading game here though. Some upgrades (bigger platform, asteroid shields, better prices, etc.) would add to the longevity, as well as giving you some kind of drive to make more money.
The controls were a bit awkward. I think this would be a better game in 2D to be honest, or at least move the perspective to top-down. Some UI elements could be bigger too, it took me a little while to even notice the junk option.
A good use of the theme and you captured the Windows look/feel pretty well. The notes were interesting to find and read.
I think it could be improved if the searching for virus file was a bit more guided and less "needle in a haystack" searching and relying on luck.
The music was OK but some more sound effects would have been good, especially since you're supposed to be using a computer.
I enjoy clicker/incremental games, which I feel is the best fit for classifying this game and I think you could learn a lot from that genre to improve IBM. This game doesn't have a good progression system, so the player isn't getting any kind of positive feedback loop from playing. Everything thing you buy costs the same amount of effort, regardless of how long you have been playing. Productivity should have a snowball effect, i.e. the more money you have -> the more wood you can produce -> the more houses you can build -> the more money you make. The boat is a good start but it only adds a small amount to wood production and you have to click it every time, some kind of automation would be good and encourage the player to leave the game running (idle).
Also, I don't see any benefit to the size of the map. I would suggest reducing it all to fit on a single screen, no WSAD movement needed. The graphics would probably look better zoomed out too.
Underlying mechanics are good and nice work with the multiplayer. Presentation and game feel need work though. Could really use a full-screen option.
I really like the idea and I think it's a great fit for the theme. The herding mechanic, in particular the responsiveness of the sheep, works very well. You are definitely engaged as a player and are driven to herd all of the sheep before time runs out. The game looks pretty good, though some animation for the dog would be nice. I like the transition to night, as it looks good and it gives a visual indicator that you are running out of time. The foxes as an additional threat are good too, as you really feel under pressure. Some way of neutralising the foxes might be a good addition if you add harder levels though.
The keyboard controls I found a little frustrating, the dog controls more like a car than an animal with its wide turning circle. Seeing one of the other comments that you could use a controller, I tried that instead and found it much more intuitive to control with an analogue stick. I can't see it stated anywhere that controllers are supported, so you might wanted to publicise that fact a bit more. It's a real shame there is no sound, just a "woof" and a "bah" noise would have really added to this and even injected some humour too.
Pretty solid top-down shooter, I liked that it included a money system, as well as a gun shop and a few quests. Decent pixel graphics, UI could use some improvement. The music was fitting and there were sound effects for most events but the guns sounded a bit lame. A clicking sound effect when you're out of ammo would be a good addition.
Having to reactivate the quest when you die is a bit annoying. Otherwise, it was fun to play and I did get some Hotline Miami vibes, which is always good. It didn't make much use of the theme; I know the enemies notice you from further away but you didn't get a sense of that when playing. Maybe if the money was more important to gameplay, then the player would feel more protective of it and thus more fearful of enemies when trying to get back to the safe.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your favourite colour is brown. Seriously though, it's been mentioned by others that contrast/outlines would help here, as well as some feedback when pieces have been placed or placement fails. I thought the music was kind of strange and cool, no other sound effects though that I could notice.
These are a classic type of puzzle and they can be fun, I enjoyed most of the levels but got stuck on "We have the technology". Apparently there was some kind of story to this, so I'd suggest having an ability to skip levels (or a hint system) so the player can get to them (this is purely for game jam purposes, people want to see all the content). One thing that did annoy me was having pre-placed pieces that were wrong. In puzzle games it seems, to me, like the standard is that pre-placed pieces are to be used as a guide, not part of the puzzle themselves. If you're going to ignore convention, be explicit about it. Otherwise, the initial "tutorial" levels were good and I enjoyed playing.
I haven't played Undertale, so I'm judging this as a standalone game. It's very simple; basic graphics and no sound, so I cannot give it much praise for presentation. There is no feedback when you hit enemies either. The most frustrating thing though is having no ability to retry when you die, I shouldn't have to restart the game so that I can play it again.
The mechanic of your movement becoming faster and therefore more difficult to control as you level up does fit the theme well.
Lol, your game is a jerk! This was very good, you really managed to frustrate me, as a player, which made it all the more funny. A lot of jokes have been made about the EA situation but I think this did a great job of actually getting an emotional response out of the player. Good satire indeed.
No sound and some spelling errors hurt the presentation a little but you can't have everything.
An interesting (and timely) idea for a game. The graphics were good, although there is not a lot to them. The market seems far too easy to manipulate when you seem to be the only player, you can pump & dump your way to millions pretty quickly.
I think this just needs more meat on its bones, e.g. have some random news events that affect the price, make it multiplayer, have different people giving predictions and you need to figure out which ones to follow, multiple coins and you have to pick the good from the trash. I realise these ideas would all take more time to implement but the game is too simple, as is.
Also, Buy/Sell ALL buttons would be handy. Being able to name your coins (and the automatic shortening) was cool.
I think this could be an interesting premise for a game but I don't really see how it connects with the LD40 theme. I like the graphics of the bedroom and Jonny, although the pop-ups and screen graphics might be too pixelated and hurt readability.
It took me a few goes to get a grasp on all the mechanics; it wasn't clear to me that I had to click to earn points. I don't mind a good clicker game but mixing it was keyboard movement felt a little strange, you probably could have had the mouse used for all actions. Also, the food items seemed to have too many disadvantages, so I ended up not eating and just going with sleep. Maybe I would have experimented with the balance a bit more but the lack of a retry option discouraged this.
I think, overall, that the biggest improvement you could make would be to make the game more player-friendly; retry option, simpler control scheme, label the UI elements, etc.
The mechanic of getting heavier as you go isn't an uncommon one this jam but I think your implementation of it was really good. It even had a little story to go with it but mainly the effect of your character becoming solid gold and slowing down just worked very well; both the visuals and gameplay communicated what was happening to the player and the slower movement gives the player a real drive to avoid it.
The graphics were good - quite sparse but the 3D was functional and more than just giant cubes and spheres, not bad given the time frame (I assume the models and animations were made during the jam as there is no outside credits). The music fit the setting and there were good, clear sound effects for every event.
The puzzle mechanics themselves are fine, dragging could be a little smoother and using objects to set switches is fairly standard. It's a shame there is only one level, the game is quite short. Still, I enjoyed playing it while it lasted.
Lovely looking game and the music is just a perfect fit, nails the mood for sure. The characters at the ports maybe weren't as nice visually but they had some humour to them, which was a nice surprise. The gameplay itself feels a bit under baked; the trading is very simple and there is no challenge or risk involved.
I thought this was a great jam entry; a clear idea of the game it was aiming to be, well executed. I had a lot of fun with this and I think it is a really fun take on the theme. It really nails the risk vs. reward gameplay. I was always trying to see how many glasses I could fit and being too greedy.
The graphics were solid, I especially liked the different nervous looks on the waiter's face as you added more and more glasses. The sound was good, the music fit and the glasses had a good smash sound effect, which was the main thing that mattered.
I guess I didn't really care much about my overall score though, so maybe some kind of leader board would encourage score chasing a bit more.
I would be nice if it didn't show the tutorial graphics every time you restarted but they aren't there for long so it's only a minor nuisance.
I really like the depth idea, I have not seen that in a top-down shooter before but it really works well. I did find the graphics a bit garish but given the setting, of course there's going to be a lot of red. The UI was a bit ugly though, it at least needs a nicer font but more visually appealing "health" bars would be good as well. You could really make it look like it was all taking place under a microscope to give it a cohesive aesthetic.
Also, an indicator of which depth you're in would be nice, as they do all look similar (but maybe that's supposed to be part of the challenge?). The graphics were all very simple shapes but come together with the music to create a nice mood.
There is a bug in the HTML5 version that if you hold left-click too long, movement just follows the mouse instead of having to click - however, it actually feels nice to control it that way, much smoother.
Overall, I really liked the depth mechanic and this held my attention for longer than I thought it might. It could use some polish though. I didn't end up winning, so I'm not sure if there is any end content that I missed.
I feel like the time it takes to reach the end is just too long, as the gameplay doesn't have enough variety to it to hold my interest that long. Maybe you could include population stats about the planets you're swallowing so the player feels a bit guilty, or have a more interesting way of communicating the size of the black hole as it grows (like you did with the timeline). For example, you could say it's now the size of 100 Earths, or that its gravitational pull is as wide as our solar system. Otherwise, the gameplay just needs more to do; power-ups or some way of reducing your mass would be easy ones. The graphical representation of the timeline is fun and the graphics overall are good, though the font used doesn't fit with the space setting.
Really cool idea and nicely presented. This is a fun art style and you nailed it for the most part. It's a little odd that the character is walking but nothing else moves. The sound is OK, it might be nice if the music played throughout the game (just more quietly than in the menu). The jump is weird but has already been addressed by several people, it did make this less fun than it could have been for me though. There isn't a ton of content here but the splitting mechanic really makes this interesting. A great take on the theme too.
I had to give this a go just because of the title. It's a shame you didn't get the sound done for this as it would have really added to the game. Still, the art is really good and the humour is certainly there. I didn't love the platforming, I echo ManBeardGames's comments there. It would be nice if there was a need to toss a baby, like getting them through a small space, or to unlock something, as it is a fun mechanic (that was a weird sentence to type).
I'm playing this after I saw your request for more detailed feedback, so I'll do my best to provide that. I played this through the ich.io app.
The title screen is quite ugly, specifically the text for "SUGAR", it doesn't mesh very well with the font used for "CRASH" or the buttons. I'd suggest reducing the number of colours used on the title screen overall. It's great that you included a guide on how to play. I would maybe try to explain it in fewer words, or at least break the text up into paragraphs. The "QUIT" button doesn't work for me.
The game (at least for me) only had a short playtime, which meant a lot of retries - so it was annoying to have to return to the main menu each time to begin again; a quick retry option would help.
The graphics are OK, they have a cute quality to them; they remind me of those play mats you would drive toy cars around on as a kid. There isn't a lot of variety in the buildings. There isn't much in the way of animation either, so the game feels very static. I think you could really commit to the cute art style and populate the town with people and buildings to match. You could also just go with it being all about sugar and fill the place with candy and that sort of thing. As is, the "POP" on the soda bottles is hard to read. Some kind of visual feedback when you get some soda would be nice, maybe a bit of screen shake when you crash too.
The UI is fine but I think the "time until crash" bar is a little small and you really have to take your eye off the action to check it. Some kind of visual indicator closer to the car would help, I think. Maybe the screen could lose colours and slowly shift to greyscale as you run lower on sugar (or just the car could become grey/transparent). I didn't use the controls display much, easier just to figure it out as it changed; I can see you need to include something like this though.
I liked the music, I thought it fit the game and its style well. The sound effects are very simple and there are no sound effects for the car.
The main mechanic, the changing controls, is good. I like games that use the controls in interesting ways. However, it is difficult and not everyone is going to like it, as there is also an element of frustration to it. The main incentive for replaying is to better your score, so a scoreboard would be nice. However, if it were a bigger game, then some kind of objective would add to the replay value (e.g. reach this place in X seconds, Kasper's suggestions too).
I see how it used the theme but it become "worse" to the same degree each time, so I don't think it nailed it 100%. If there were other disadvantages as you consumed more and more soda, I think it would use the theme better. Maybe the screen could start to jitter, a rapid heartbeat sound effect or other effects people associate with sugar highs/crashes.
I tried to go as far as I could in different directions and I never hit an invisible wall. Also, the roads varied so that I couldn't just go straight forever without hitting a building, so good work with the level wrapping and design.
The controls when reversing don't work like they usually would, specifically the left & right are swapped to what they should be.
Sometimes a soda would spawn directly where the car was, meaning you unexpectedly swapped controls. So you may want to check that there is no collision with the car when spawning a soda.
The download seems quite large for the size of the game; I'm not familiar enough with Unity to know how to reduce it though.
The atmosphere of the game is good, even though the graphics and audio are fairly minimal. The gameplay is quite simple, so I feel it needs something to give the player some kind of agency within the world, rather than just repeated attempts until they memorise (or stumble upon) the correct path. A game like The Stanley Parable uses the narration to do this. You could do it with text instead, as recording the voice within a jam timeframe would be difficult. Otherwise, even a tally of your failures would give the player a bit more feedback and sense of investment into the game, making them want to reach the end more.
Balancing your rep among different groups can be a fun mechanic and using different outfits to do so is a cool idea. I really like that each outfit had its own mechanics; thought the football throwing idea was great, the skater controls not so much. It would be nice if there was some kind of mission you had to do to increase your rep, even if it was just a fetch quest, rather than just standing next to people for a while.
The graphics were OK, it would be nice if the movement animations only played while you were actually moving. It might be nice if the level design was more interconnected too, so you could take different paths to get around. The music was good but did get repetitive quickly.
There was a good amount of content in this and the level design, for the most part, is quite good and works with the mechanics as they are introduced. Sound is a little disappointing and I'd say the graphics are good but not amazing. The combat mechanics are interesting, as the player sort of hangs when you're in a position to hit enemies multiple times. I would have made the downward attack a bit stronger against enemies as it takes more skill to hit correctly.
Not having a checkpoint when you got the running ability killed this for me though. I kept getting killed on my way back out and never reached a checkpoint, so I had to keep going to get the running ability. That just became too frustrating after repeated attempts. Especially with the bouncing enemies at the end of the ledges. I know you float for a bit when you attack an enemy but where you are already at the height of your double jump, it only takes a moment of non-contact before you drop down and have to repeat the process.
I'm curious to what the ending is... does it turn out you're Satan? (I watched the play-through video on your itch.io page, I was close!)
Looting is fun, so it's a good basis for a game. I like the graphics, though some animation would be nice. The music is fine, even though it repeats quite quickly. I like how the music was situational, really adds to the atmosphere. Some way of distracting the sheriffs would be good, plus it would add to the depth of the gameplay. It wasn't clear to me that the vaults didn't work until you had all the other loot first, so that was a bit frustrating. The camera is an issue, the borders it follows the player at should be bigger, as it would often lead to you not being able to see what was ahead of you - so if you then hit a sheriff just as you could see them, if felt like a cheap loss.
Best sounds, maybe ever. I grinned every time it got to the really high pitched "di di di". Game otherwise was fun, the track was maybe a little long considering how featureless it is, some landmarks would make doing the same lap over and over again a bit more tolerable. The way the car stuck to the wall as you added engines was a bit annoying. I understand that it's supposed to be the more you have, the worse it is but I felt like it slowed down the action too much. If you could add other cars that would be great, then it would really add to the chaos, which I think is where the fun lies in this game (aside from the sound).
That core mechanic of this is fun and a good fit for the theme. I liked the variation through the levels as well. A restart level button would be a welcome addition. A UI indicator of what you require for the level you're in would also be handy. I didn't find myself needing to rotate very often, so maybe the levels could change direction, or the space gate be at an unusual angle, to force this.
Pretty solid entry here. The prologue section felt odd to me with the lack of leg animation, getting caught on the text board, then floating into the battery... I guess this was for the story but it wasn't really clear to me. Maybe you could do comic style panels to tell the story instead? I think it would fit well with the theme of the game.
Anyway, once starting the game proper the graphics, as well as the character floating (instead of leg animations), worked much better from the top-down POV. Charging up the batteries while stunning/killing/avoiding enemies works (it's a tried and tested mechanic), while having to balance your energy keeps you thinking. It led to me kiting enemies around mostly then zapping them in big bunches, often as I simultaneously spun around to activate the generators (having to spin around with the mouse was a fun touch).
Sound really was fantastic, great music loop and the voice-overs added some humor (lol @ exploding Galaxy Notes). Having to repeat levels isn't ideal, I get that it was to extend play time but I think just having more levels would be the better option going forward (it was fine and made sense for the jam release though). Hiding the generator behind the house on the third level was awkward though, mainly because getting to it was hit & miss and enemies just got stuck on the other side of it. A lot of people have gone with the use of batteries as an interpretation of the theme this jam but I like that you fully committed to doing so, extending it to your character, visuals, story, etc. Yeah, this one was a lot of fun.
I really liked the idea for this and unfolding the story as you work your way through the maze. I played a couple of times though but couldn't find any exit or ending. Is there one? The music was very fitting too, I think this game nailed the mood it was going for.
There were some messages that didn't load any text for me, I don't know if that's a glitch or intentional. Also, sometimes the text conflicted with the graphics and I couldn't read them clearly, you might want to have the messages appear within a box for clarity's sake.
This is a pretty polished game, as you would expect from a team-made entry. I really like the idea of splitting the puzzle up into 4 sections, it really captures the idea of having to balance the different areas of one's life. There is maybe a bit of a disconnect between the pixel art portraits (which are great) and the playable area; they are both good but clash a little in style, a minor nitpick. The music and transition jingles are lovely and charming.
The levels are paced well and nicely designed, I could see you adding some story to this and expanding it into a full game. I enjoyed playing this, one of my favourite games so far really. I scored this well in everything aside from theme, as it was just swapped in place of time as a resource (which I assume you would swap back if releasing this outside of LD).
Neat idea and well executed too. As was said, very polished for a jam game. Consistent graphics, fun sounds and a good challenge (though I suppose that comes down to the player's typing skills). Glad you included the cheat to advance so I could check out all the game. Sometimes the tweets didn't make much sense at all (even more than the tweets they are satirising) due to their random generation. Still, quite a bit of humour in this game, with Clippy and the newspaper headlines (the weather predicting baby was my favourite). I enjoyed playing this one. A fairly tenuous use of the theme though.
This is an excellent take on the theme. The graphics are simple but it's well presented nonetheless. I really enjoyed the combat due to having to time the attack. It was very satisfying killing an enemy while they were still falling from the air at the start of each level. I tried reducing health over and over but you limited this which was a good idea (I was wondering what would happen if I tried to halve 1 HP).
Definitely an interesting way to tell the story using this theme. I wonder if it might work better if the things you lose weren't your choice though? It probably wouldn't be as good for gameplay but it would reflect the again process a little better. Perhaps it could be determined by how you handle each round; for example, if you rely on jumping around a lot, it takes a toll on your legs, so your movement is reduced.
There isn't a ton of content in this but it's a good idea executed well. Going forward, you could add more content in the form of other weapons, shields, bosses, etc. It may dilute the idea of the game though. Anyway, this was really good.
I saw this on ZedKraze's stream and wanted to give it a go. It's a fun puzzler, definitely makes you think and plan out your moves. As ZedKraze said, this would make for a good mobile game; it's easy to pick-up and play for a short burst and it would really suit touch controls. The graphics are good for a jam but could do with some polishing up before a full release, particularly just making the UI more obvious. A level select option would be good too, so that you don't have to work your way up every time you play. If you are adding features, maybe include a node that isn't necessary to make your path through but if you do, you get bonus moves the next level. Also, a restart level option, as has already been mentioned above.
I played the web version and I did feel like the mouse buttons should have been switched around, left button for counter-clockwise, right for clockwise, so I intuitively made the wrong move sometimes.
The controls do feel good, you could re-skin this as a skydiving game. I like that you slow down as you gain feathers and that there is a visual representation of your progress on Icarus, as well as in how he handles in the air. The graphics could be 2D (sprites instead of the model used here) instead and possibly look better, that might not be your preference though.
You could emphasize that you're plummeting to the ground more. I'm not sure how exactly, maybe just make the altitude meter more prominent, then turn it red the closer you get. Just to dial up the tension and desperation in the gameplay (you could up the music tempo too). Icarus, in the myth, is a child too, so even just a couple of sentences to start the game, from the myth, would give some context to the character and make you care about them a bit more.
Really well presented game, lovely graphics and catchy sounds to go with it. Great work for 48 hours. The gameplay is fun and it controls very well. OK use of the theme but nothing unique.
Going forward, I think you could add to the replay value with some tweaks, as it felt a bit of an upgrade grind to me after a few plays (I love a good upgrade system, don't get me wrong). The altitude limit was particularly annoying because I was being punished for doing well. Also, I feel that if the enemies dropped batteries (ammo) so that I could keep a streak going, I would be more likely to play again to best my previous effort. Some randomisation in the enemies would also help keep it fresh.
P.S. One of your stars, when it's spinning...looks a little bit like something it shouldn't.
Oh baby. I like this kind of game, a bit of a puzzle but a bit of randomness as well. You could definitely add more block types and levels to it, I think it would make a great mobile/tablet game. The use of political figures might be a bit divisive though. I actually found the first level the most difficult as I ran out of energy and that was it, at least in the opponent levels they still made moves to keep the game going.
So yeah, the hearts didn't do anything for me. Should they have?
Yeah, this game is hilarious. I love the sound effects. I also love taking bribes and getting out of here!
The graphics were simple but done with humor, so they worked with the game. The controls were all responsive, no bugs that I could see. The mini games themselves were pretty clear, aside from maybe the Get Out Of Here one the first time it came up. I'm sure you could add more to this if you wanted, or put it online as is for a fun little web game, as it definitely is fun.
I like the enemies dropping power cells when they died, which you might then destroy if you're not careful. It's somewhat like the Kill Confirmed system you see in COD games. I played the HTML5 version and the thrust was definitely too much but I see you're aware of that issue. Still, being able to backward thrust as well would help with making the ship more maneuverable. Enemy spawns also led to a lot of unfair damage for me, which you've also noted as an issue already.
If you're adding more to this, I would suggest a shield of some sort, as well as a weapon upgrade with a wider spread of fire (like a space shotgun). If you're going to keep the energy mechanic, you might want to give a visual indicator of its status on the ship, as that is where the player's eye is usually focused. Just an energy bar above the ship would achieve this.
I appreciate the amount of work that would have gone into this in 48 hours. The Bullet Hell mechanics, which I gather is your main focus with this, all work as they should. I did find the collision detection with the purple triangles to be very forgiving (for lack of a better word), as many times I was sure I was hit but didn't take any damage. Though, as has been said above, there isn't much in the way of feedback to know when you've been hit or not.
There is a lot of great content here, especially all of the different abilities you have. The delivery of said content is a bit overwhelming though. You have so many different abilities but deploying them accurately is difficult because you're so focused on avoiding the bullets (I found the game difficult which didn't help). This meant that I just traded most of them for shields when I was trying to reach the end because I knew I wouldn't utilise them all. Perhaps drip-feeding the abilities to the player over a series of levels, then letting them equip 2 or 3 at once only, would make them more manageable for the player. Also, I'm still not sure what the focus key did, it didn't seem to restore my power, it just made me move slower; whatever it does, it could be made more obvious.
This does feel more like a tech demo than a focused game experience, though it does succeed as a tech demo; I'd like to see the content you have repackaged as a game. Nice music too.
This game looks fantastic, it deserves the praise everyone is giving it for the graphics. I think the physics are a great addition too. This was a lot of fun to play and it felt great jumping between RVs. It would be good though if there was more of a reason to jump between the RVs. The best strategy, for me, seemed to be standing still and just mowing down zombies. Perhaps if keeping multiple RVs safe was a bigger part of the game, or you could recharge health by jumping to another RV, it would encourage jumping around more. Music was rocking too. Not the most extensive use of the theme.
This is a pretty solid shooter, I liked that the character had a nice weight to their movement. I'd prefer to be able to control the shooting myself but the fire rate and power worked well anyway. This was on the difficult side for me but I think that was intended. The enemies spawned often and moved quickly, which made for apretty constant onslaught. Sometimes I couldn't tell the debris from the live enemies, which again added to the difficulty but not in the most ideal way. Nice use of the theme for the visuals, though not much beyond that. The graphics were very nice though, good touches with the lighting and effects. The music was pretty catchy too and fit the gameplay.
If you continue development, it would be nice to just see more content; more gun types, power-ups, etc. It probably does need an extra gimmick though to help it stand out more from other shooters.
There were some cool ideas in this one. I like that you collected pieces of the music as you grabbed cubes. The controls were responsive, so you were able to take the timing of the hookshot into account. The hookshot makes for a more interesting weapon than just firing bullets, though if there were some power-ups or other things to grab that would be fun. There were only a few levels so it was a short game but the difficulty was balanced well for those levels.
The graphics were just boxes, so not much to comment on there. Maybe add some music notes to them to give it more of a theme?
Argh. This is a beautiful game, I like the background music too. I just didn't find it pleasant to play (I played the HTML5 version btw). The graphics really are great in the city section, I'd pay for a whole game that looked like that. Once you get into the puzzles though, without the instructions on the itch.io page you'd just be lost. With the instructions... well at least you know it's something to do with circuits.
Just adding a visual indicator as to what the current shortest path(s) are, i.e. where the current will flow once the switches are flicked (or even up to the first un-flicked switch), would have made the puzzle-solving element of this much clearer and (therefore) engaging. Also, the display of the voltmeter is difficult to read in black & white, maybe remove the background digital lines (semi-transparent ones) to make it easier.
Maybe this is a bug in the HTML5 version but when I finished all 5 puzzles, a dude floated down from the sky and then just hovered there, no text or interaction. You might want to change the 'escape puzzle' key for the HTML5 version too as it takes you out of full-screen when you press it.
I played this twice and I still can't figure out if this simply a bunch of simple mini games with bad controls, or an inspired use of controls that lets the player experience a story through their interactions. I don't know what your intention was but I'm going to go with the latter.
I love when games use their controls as part of the story and this game did just that (reminded me of Brothers, if you're familiar with that game). Struggling early on as a sperm to control where you were going, then later mirroring that in the drive to work was great; driving your car seemed much easier but the message seemed to be that even as an adult we are just a small thing following a predetermined path. Then the walking, both as a child and when you're elderly, as the controls became more and more frustrating, just like the frustration one would feel as their body beings to fail them.
Graphics and music were great, the overall presentation here is very good for something made in such a short time. There was humor in there too with the peeing and yard defence sections. This could definitely be expanded upon, maybe including those awkward teenage years and some more use of "power" as an adult to tell a fuller story.
I really liked you application of supply & demand in this, as well as the take on the theme (I did something a little similar). I made $1,558,641 million, which I think is pretty good - a high score table would suit this game (if you continue development). As others have said, there is a layering issue with some of the graphics once it gets crowded. Also, some kind of sound effect or UI pop-up when a well runs dry would help (though maybe make things too easy?).
I think this was a good idea and you executed it fairly well given the time-frame. I think the events system is a good addition, so hopefully you continue with this and implement it.
I played this after seeing it on the Jupi Plays video. I really like the mechanic of the level unfolding as you go, making each little section its own challenge. I found the difficulty pretty brutal and sometimes a bit frustrating, mainly when you jumped into a new section and hit a spawning bear but I guess that's the cost of playing aggressively. I think I scored about 880 on my best run (I went by the name Jimbo). Well done.
Fun game, this has been my favourite game as far as humour goes so far. The gameplay is simple but fun and the graphics are great. The sound is spot on though I did tire of hearing "Need more energy" over and over. The soda machine cut scene is fantastic. I played a few times but it didn't have much replay value after that. I think this could be solved easily enough though with some kind of upgrade system. That would allow you to start the game off easier as well, resolving the energy issue (as currently you are just bombarded from the start).
Also, maybe some visual/audio cues for when you are approaching your stress limit would be good? As the game is so hectic with your slashing, you don't pay that much attention to the HUD.
Great stuff.
I really enjoyed this. It's a good (albeit common) take on the theme and it was executed well. The use of the Alice In Wonderland quotes was very fitting and the audio was a nice accompaniment. There was obviously some inspiration from Portal here and it makes sense, each room being a new challenge/twist on the underlying mechanic that drives each puzzle is a great approach. The gameplay was intuitive and the initial tutorial section was simple and very clear. I didn't realise the red "bullet" things were homing at first but still figured it out quickly enough (that they had to be blocked rather than outmaneuvered).
The only downsides are that the graphics were basic and the game itself very short. A good start though that you could definitely build on.
I played the web (itch.io) version. It's a fun game once you get going but it's pretty unpleasant to play at first. The UI isn't clear and the control scheme is just not intuitive at all. It wasn't until I watched your YouTube playthrough that it made sense (even then, the UI didn't match between the video and the web version). How to play, what your abilities are and even which character you are in control of currently could be made more obvious. For example, the Scout the description reads "Moves 6 spaces instead of 4. 1 Mana. Teleport self or other in same Province". This could be made clearer just with some different formatting, such as;
Scout
Can move 6 spaces each turn (instead of 4).
Ability: Teleport self or other in same Province.
Ability cost: 1 Mana.
Because right now it's not clear what the "1 Mana" is in reference to.
The game is very nice visually, though some more diversity between the building designs would help as currently I had to click on each building every time to see what it was. The gameplay was a good challenge and forced you to use a lot of strategy, I was able to succeed once but I got lucky with the ship spawning quite close to me. Other attempts left me stranded as I'd positioned the wrong characters in flooded parts of the map. The flooding and the small map was a good take on the theme, you definitely felt like your world was shrinking as you ran out of land to move around on. Some of the random events were pretty punishing but that is part of this kind of game.
Overall, an enjoyable game that looks like a lot of effort went into it. It's just let down by the initial learning curve, which is steep due to an unclear interface rather than the challenge of the game itself.
Excellent take on the theme, emphasised by the levels vanishing after you'd visited them (really, that's a nice touch that would often be overlooked). I think you could flesh out a bigger game from what you've created here. I felt the tone of the game was appropriate given the subject matter and the story, even when you "won", was sad.
The graphics were well done and the controls, while limited, worked fairly intuitively. There were some minor issues; the sound effects were a bit annoying and there were some grammar mistakes in the writing. Things that could be resolved if you had more time and nothing that really detracts from the overall game. This was really great work.
Not sure why you didn't opt out of the humour rating though.
This is pretty cool. Having seen what it has developed into on your Twitch channel makes it hard for me to judge your compo entry as a separate thing. Obviously there isn't a lot of "game" to be played here but that's not what you were aiming for. I'm not musical at all and this makes me feel like I am, which is a big achievement. With my lack of musical knowledge I don't know how far this could go as an actual music production tool but I would think the ability to export what you've created would be a useful feature.
I really enjoyed playing around with the music on your Twitch channel but found the inputs a bit overwhelming. Again that comes down to my lack of knowledge but the multitude of options left me sticking to the basics. That could be helped with better UI if you were to release it as a standalone application, maybe with some explanation of what does what for the Level 1 musicians like me :)
A fun take on the idea of 6 degrees of separation. The ducks are cute too, of course. Maybe if you had more branching paths to really explore the different "routes" you take through people to get to your end goal it would make things more interesting (but I'm sure that could be achieved with more development time). I was hoping to see more games based on this kind of idea, so thumbs up for that. The font was a bit ugly though. More text would be great too, the replies started repeating themselves quite quickly.
I thought this game was fantastic, even more so for a compo entry. It was really fun to play, the platforming was very solid (I played the web version with a keyboard). Flying around space is always fun and the progression to the inner planets kept you motivated to keep finding crystals. The graphics, though not beautiful, were consistent and clear. It all combined with the music and sfx very well. The amount of levels, even if there was some repetition, in such a small time frame is an accomplishment too. I would have to say that this is my favourite game so far.
I could definitely see you adding to this, maybe adding some more content like upgrades for some tougher planets, or some action in the space travel portion of the game. Feel free to name a planet Kodiqi if you continue developing :)
I really liked this game...in spite of it's UI though. I think I played all the levels, I'm not sure. Is there some kind of ending? I got the same screen as Veralos above, I just assumed that meant all the levels were over. I also had the cursor vanishing problem, as well as finding the corner pieces confusing at first due to the colours. Maybe either make them a different colour entirely or at least add transparency to the floor colour half. There were also levels that could be done quite easily using the portals, more easily than intended I would think as you could avoid using corner pieces entirely. The level selection was needlessly confusing too, maybe it was just done to fit the theme better.
Anyway, those were minor qualms than can be worked on. The main gameplay was quite enjoyable. Completing a level was satisfying and at no point did I hesitate in continuing on to the next level. The difficulty curve seemed fair, I'd love to play more levels with more challenge too. The graphics, while not exactly sexy, were functional and intuitive (the function of each tile made more sense in game than the tutorial screen for me). The music was nice too. The amount of levels you produced in the short time span is impressive. I must have missed the humour part :P Very fun though, one of the games I've most enjoyed playing so far.
I don't know if it's a bug with the HTML5 version (which I played) but the control input and collision detection are an issue with this. I would get stuck in places that didn't make sense to get stuck in (on corners while jumping). Plus the jumping felt very stiff. I really like the oxygen meter idea but when you are having to traverse platforming levels in a time limit then the controls and collisions need to be spot on. Maybe this plays better with a controller?
The graphics were nice but you may want to emphasize the oxygen meter more in the UI since it's such a significant part of the gameplay. Cool music too! Also, people seem to be commenting that they could reset the oxygen meter but I couldn't...how is it done?
I found this game a bit frustrating. The randomness of the enemy and bomb placements meant that success often came down to luck. I got stuck on level 3 for some time, then breezed through the next levels on my first try. One time I ended up at the bottom of the level, with all rocks destroyed following a bomb chain reaction, yet the door was floating above me halfway up the level unable to be reached (or any option to restart the level).
Also, what are these crabs made out of? I think most players would assume you could at least stun the crabs with a swing of your pick but they didn't even budge. Maybe some offensive upgrades that could be purchased with the gold you gather would be a good idea (as there is little reason to actually collect gold at the moment).
The graphics were definitely very nice and the sound effects all fit. I think some retro background music would fit very well too. It was an OK use of the theme, more of a small place than a small world. Having the UP arrow also activate jump would be a useful addition for keyboard users.
This is a well constructed game, very nice graphics (love the Twitter feed), with a clear mechanic and inputs. It's like a take on Carmen San Diego games, only you bomb the cities instead once you've figured out which city is being talked about. There's not a lot of replay value, you could add some by allowing the player to continue bombing other cities after the first one in an attempt to create the longest streak (with new tweets to identify the next target). Still, for a game in 72 hours it has a lot of polish. The "purely coincidental" is a bit of a cop-out though :P
I used to like the Carmen San Diego games and I was thinking of doing my LD38 game in the same style as well. I went with something different in the end as I didn't think flying around the world fit with the theme of a small world all that well.
Also, the great part about the Carmen San Diego games was trying to figure out the next destination based on the clues you had, which was lacking in this game. You do have to cater the clues to your target audience, of course, though I think they would all want some degree of challenge involved. I think the quality of a game like this is very dependent on the writing too, so that would be my suggestion on what to focus on if you continue developing this further.
Very clever. This actually made me feel like I had some musical talent for a moment (which is definitely not the case). It would be nice if we could save our compositions in a future release.
This is a lovely looking game and has tons of potential. This was very ambitious for such a short time frame, hence it being more of a sandbox than a structured game experience. I hope you continue to develop this beyond LD38.
Initially the controls took some adjusting to, my immediate instinct was to use the mouse to navigate around the environment and to spawn items.
The little sprout guys are very cute, I feel like they should be the focus of the game. Rather than spawning them, you create an environment in which they flourish (or die) outside of your direct control of their spawning. I think raising a little sprout family could be very endearing to players.
11 seconds and zero casualties, baby!
On another play I managed to squish 40 humans, is that the maximum? I was hoping for some kind of reward for that :)
I first played this game without sound on and thought it was fun. Then switching to sound makes so much difference, the squishes are brutal! Anyway, great little jam game, just the right size for what it is.
Fun idea and an interesting take on turn-based combat. I'm not sure if having to WSAD between consoles is the most efficient method of inputting commands; purely mouse-based inputs would surely be quicker. The WSAD of your little character does fit well with the Small World theme but if you are going to expand on this game then it may become frustrating at later levels. Speaking of levels, is there any advantage to increasing your level after level 4 when you have opened up all the command slots?
This could definitely be expanded on, more levels and upgrades would keep players coming back for more. It could make for a fun & chaotic multiplayer/Twitch game too (i.e. different people controlling each console).
The colour splitting/matching is a great concept, I could see it working really well in platformed puzzle sections. In this implementation, I got lost pretty quickly. I reached level 9 but couldn't figure it out. I'm not really sure what I actually did to get past level 8 to be honest. Maybe too many colours and mechanics introduced too quickly. On level 9 I couldn't get the bottom white circle to move or have any effect on my character. What am I supposed to do there?
I'm glad you put buttons for quickly getting back to the Home screen and for restarting the puzzle, being able to quickly retry is always a useful feature in puzzle games like this.
This is obviously a fantastic looking and sounding game, especially considering the development time frame. I can see from the postmortems you wrote how much work went into it. I really appreciate you creating the postmortems and showing us how this was developed in more detail.
Others have already mentioned issues with not knowing what to do, or more importantly knowing what is POSSIBLE to do, which can be frustrating for the player. I'm sure given more time though, the mechanics of the game could have been taught to the player more effectively; perhaps with the beast engaging with smaller animals before actual humans (i.e. lower stakes situations).
The mouse controls were tricky at times but I think this somewhat fit with the awkwardness of the beast awaking from slumber and being in such a confined space. I do like the theme of the beast being in an environment that is too small for it but this could have perhaps been emphasized more. Perhaps with the inclusion of small tunnels that the beast simply couldn't get through, forcing the player to navigate via the longer (but accessible) path. Still, it was a great (and uncommon) take on the Small World theme. The player using fear to manipulate the NPCs is an interesting idea too that could definitely be built upon.
Lovely looking game. The shooting mechanics were pretty simple but the Nerf dart riding was great. I wish there were more levels, or just a bigger level (perhaps vertically) to make more use of the Nerf dart; being able to fire your own platform on which to jump could be a lot of fun.
I do like the idea of an incremental/upgrade game with such a limited number of building spaces. I think if you were to expand on this and have the player need to carefully manage which resources they placed where, specifically with how they interact with each other, it would be fun as a player to figure out the maximum output you can achieve with different setups. I'm not sure why there is a need to have a controllable avatar (the little white square). Was there a plan to extend on what the character would do?
The puzzle mechanic is really interesting and something you could definitely expand on. It is a tricky game to get your head around at first, so maybe more levels that ease you into the way the game works would have helped. Also, it can be frustrating when you get the characters to the right spots but still have to use a move to match the move counter - it feels a bit like being punished for using fewer moves than the game thought you needed. I don't know if it made the best use of the theme either but I could definitely see this being fleshed out into a bigger game if you continue to develop it.
My high score so far is 77. Took me a couple of plays to get the idea but it's quite addictive once you get going.
Fun game but pretty challenging. With the graphics and sound effects I get a definite Space Invaders vibe. Maybe a power-up or shield would add to the replay value.
LD46 — Keep it alive (4)
The Ludum Dare Flame 🔥 by tobiasw 2020-04-23T04:31:32Z ♥ 1
Great take on the theme and very innovative too. Would like to see it fleshed out more. Would be great if you could earn upgrades and some automation the more you play. I think being able to idle more would encourage players (or a certain section of them anyway) to stick around a lot longer.
Whalestrom by aevek 2020-04-23T01:27:23Z ♥ 2
As others have said, this is a great looking game but the controls were a struggle for me.
As for specific suggestions, adjustable sensitivity would be an obvious useful addition. Personally, I found myself overshooting where I was trying to point; so maybe a button to automatically stabilise to where you are pointing? That might take some of the challenge out of it though. Otherwise, maybe an automated 180 flip, just to give you more control over where you want to be pointing. (I think it said to use 1 key to orient toward the nearest enemy but that never worked for me)
Idle Idol by Abdul Zakkar 2020-04-23T01:17:32Z ♥ 2
idol1.png Took some time but I finally beat it. Biggest challenge was the second jump on level 6, that almost broke me. The drop on level 8 is a challenge too, a good fit for the final level. Graphics are really good, wish I could make them like this :) The sound was good too but maybe the music became a bit repetitive.
I found the movement and jumping enjoyable. I think the jump was quite generous, so it gave you a lot of movement in the air. The control bindings themselves were a bit awkward for me; it may be a personal thing but if I'm using left and right arrows for moving, I intuitively expect up arrow to jump. For that reason I probably enjoyed the first 4 levels more, as the teleportation required more complicated input. Teleportation is a great mechanic for this game though, definitely added some more layers to the later levels.
Overall, I really liked this. I'd like to see a playthrough of someone better than me to see how fast it can be done.
idol0.png I did find a bug, I couldn't pick up the idol when it was in this spot. So I had to restart (so a restart level key might be handy too).
Get Away From My Human by hectorid 2020-04-21T07:03:56Z ♥ 1
Being able to hold down to fire constantly would be a nice addition.