Kosmo

Five Minute Fire Fight by Josh Riley 2017-05-04T03:53:08Z

Brutally difficult -- the pace of the game is really fast and it takes a while to understand what you should be doing. Even then the AI responds so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up.

Those complaints aside, I really like the idea of a tug-of-war style 2d RTS. It almost reminds me of Castle Fight or Nexus Wars from WC/SC. The art is also subtle but works really well here. I could have done with a more interesting planet texture though.

I feel like I'm constantly dinging games for not having audio/sfx -- but you nailed them. The background music is great and the sfx are telling as to what is happening in game. Good job!

I think you have some really cool ideas here but either need to slow the game down considerably or have a better difficulty curve.

Thanks for

UFO in a box of bricks by maartene 2017-05-04T22:21:11Z

I enjoyed this a lot! It's a very unique combination of physics puzzler and shooter. I like that you need to make the bricks fall on the enemies to kill them instead of hitting them directly. To really capitalize on that, though, I would like to be able to aim my shot with the mouse. That would really let me feel more accomplished for hitting the pieces correctly and making them fall correctly.

The concept is unique, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the music was awesome!

REDBOW by PixzleOne 2017-05-02T02:34:28Z

A nice skeleton for a twin-stick shooter game. I think you executed what you made very well. The controls are tight (some diagonal shooting issues aside) and the game has good feedback (shots, hits, and damage sfx make it obvious what is happening).

I made it to level 16 where I finally died redbow.PNG

My biggest issue with the game is an overall lack of content (I understand its difficult within the time constraints). I'm not sure if you did procedural level generation or if you made them by hand, but perhaps a few less levels in favor of some more enemy types would have been good -- the game starts to get a bit old after a few levels.

Also, I have found that a basic background music, even if its very limited, can make a big difference.

Thanks for the game :)

Wrong Delivery by g12345 2017-05-04T04:38:07Z

You did an amazing job of level design here. You revisit areas multiple times and there were a few places where I was like "hmmm.... I'm definitely going to be back here once I get a new ability" -- so great going there. Additionally I never felt lost even though nothing was inherently pointing me where to go.

Unfortunately, the complete lack of audio hurts. As others have mentioned there are some great utilities out there for SFX and I think you would be surprised how quickly you can get them in your game. They really add a lot. The same goes for background music.

The theme didn't quite land for me either. Seemed like just a straight up platformer.

I think people are knocking you a bit on innovation though. Sure, most of these mechanics have been done before in other games-- but compared to most LD paltformers yours used some great mechanics to loop the player around to multiple areas.

Overall I think you should be extremely proud of your level design here. Thanks for making it! :)

Intergalactic Gold Rush by Omiya Games 2017-05-05T02:23:39Z

I really enjoyed this game! The gameplay is straightforward, frantic, and tons of fun! It was great to be running away from 10s of enemies at a time, frantically searching for mountains to hide behind and water to regenerate.

The menu screens add a ton of polish and professionalism to the game. The controls are very smooth too (in the downloaded version, the web version is a bit laggy in Chrome).

I think you already addressed all of my concerns from the jam version in the post-jam version (balancing issues, mostly). Thanks for the game, I've added it to my collection on itch!

Small World Simulator by Rialgar 2017-05-04T04:10:56Z

I love simulations and this is a really interesting simulation. I like how it appears that you actually modeled generating land via volcanoes and rain via cloud formation.

Its too bad you didn't have the time to add forms of interaction since this kind of thing is right up my alley. I'm not really sure what you would really add to this that isn't essentially a 'full game' on top of what you already have here.

Either way, you made something really cool even if at the end of the day it ended up not really being a game. Thanks for making it!

A Small World Cup by rujo 2017-05-02T22:32:46Z

Excellent -- A lot of fun to play. Reminds me of SportsFriends. This could actually be a lot of fun playing multiplayer against your friends. My only real criticism is the lack of any audio -- good music/sfx really add a lot to a game. Congrats on making such fun game :)

Small World by Calzep 2017-05-19T21:53:48Z

I'm not sure if maybe my version had something broken in it -- but talking didn't actually have any effect. They would turn from light gray to dark gray and I would get money, but no dialog occurred. It made talking seem to have little impact on the overall game.

Shooting felt good although the AI was pretty bad at taking shots at me so long as I didn't aggro the entire screen.

Graphically speaking, I don't mind the sprite used for the characters, but some kind of textured background I think would have gone a long way. Sometimes its difficult to tell if you are moving at all (if no one else is on screen, or they also happen to be moving in the same direction). Doesn't need to be anything fancy, but something that makes it easier to tell how fast I am moving.

Overall I feel like its an interesting idea that you were going for; having a bunch of people that you can choose to talk or fight with -- but I wish that talking or fighting had more consequence. For example, maybe you could make friends by talking with certain people enough (or talking to their friends as well). This would serve as another way to 'hire' someone that doesn't cost money. They might then help you out in fights that occur near them but don't physically follow you around. Really anything to add a little depth to the game besides left or right clicking on everyone.

Either way, I enjoyed it. Thanks for making it!

__EDIT__

I can't help but notice that your game shows 'Ludum Dare 35' on the title screen. Whats the deal?

Heckin' Ants by Thirsty 2017-05-17T23:53:10Z

Really nice background image. The gameplay was pretty generic platformer though. Kudos for managing to get it all done in a single 24 hours -- but I think a few QoL improvements could go a long way. For example -- I assumed that the little flag waving ants would be checkpoints -- however every time I died I went back to the very beginning.

Also, some of the jumps seems quite difficult for the control scheme. Difficult platformers need really tight controls. The controls here were fine, but for the level of control you were expecting for a few of the jumps I wish they were a bit more responsive.

Either way, congrats for squeezing it in just in time -- Thanks for making it!

Mallows World Adventure by geeitsomelaldy 2017-05-01T19:39:38Z

Nicely done! Very complete for the short timeframe, has an entire storyline, good audio, humorous, and it involves the theme in a clever way. I want to take Mallow on more adventures!

My only critique is that it was hard to tell what the hat was before I gave it to the guy who needed sunglasses, and I still don't know exactly what it was I used to thaw Mallow's brother out.

Thanks!

Anthill Multitask by Asturk 2017-05-02T04:09:52Z

Whew, that gets real tricky once 3-4 of them start popping up at the same time.

I got 'Gold' rank: anthills.PNG

I really enjoyed your game. I think that you did an excellent job of making sure that each game has unique sound effects so that you know when you need to act in each game. I also think that some background music that perhaps got more hectic/sped up as the game went on may have added a lot to the overall feel of the game.

Overall a solid game -- Thanks for making it! :)

Food Fight by nick.bota 2017-05-03T13:58:28Z

Hello! Great little game, the graphics/animations and audio are really well done. I felt happy just playing it :)

However, I do have a few comments:

* I literally didn't even realize you could attack until I went back and read the description afterwards. There was no impetus to use the attack in the Story Mode, and there was no one in Brawl (not your fault). But even a simple enemy in Story Mode would have made a huge difference there. * Don't put in menu items that don't do anything (Options, Quit). * If you're next to and facing the wall, the the animation goes through the wall. * The bouncy platforms are easy to fall off of. Maybe make them two squares wide instead of 1? * It's neat that I can hold on to the wall, but then I have to just let go? I'd suggest letting the player do a jump off of the wall. * I recommend against using the middle mouse button for an attack. Not everyone has a middle mouse button.

Haha ok, weird bug just happened. I'm letting the game run in the background in Story Mode writing this, and a Soda character starts randomly floating around the screen. He's jumping around on air, and trying to attack a bunch, and then the screen pops up saying "You are Dead. Respawning in -705" and doesn't let me respawn. It appears that someone joined the Arena, and that person started playing over my game in Story mode. See the screenshot below (I'm the Chips character hiding behind the numbers, the Soda character is the phantom one):

Screen Shot 2017-05-03 at 9.34.21 AM.png

Sure enough, I reload the page and join Arena, and there are people I can play against!

The Arena is fun with other people, I like that you can see your health drop as you get hit. However, there was a clipping problem here, as I got hit when the enemy appeared to be facing the wrong direction. Also, the raising/lowering platform showed up to the right of its "tracks". See the screenshot below:

Screen Shot 2017-05-03 at 9.36.50 AM.png

Overall, the game is fun and very engaging, but I would suggest prioritizing more content and bug fixing over some of the added visual goodies next time.

Thanks!

HexaHover by AJ Weeks 2017-05-02T02:40:50Z

A fun take on the class 'bumper cars' mini game. The graphics are quite nice as is the music. The hover cars control well and have a nice amount of inertia to them to keep it interesting. It may have been fun to add some powerups or abilities to spice things up a bit though. Still, a nice entry.

Edge of the Abyss by piscythe 2017-05-05T00:23:01Z

It was really tough at first. I had to read the other reviews that suggest forgoing the Crystal and just build Towers before I was able to get a build going. An RTS is real tough to get right, because there's such a fine line between it being too easy and too hard. I wouldn't have made it past 2 minutes without help, and there are some people that got to 16:30 apparently no problem. And it seemed like I was throwing away money every time I built a unit. So just build towers ad infinitum? I assume the 700 unit is worth it, but my whole base got destroyed when I tried to save up for it.

So yeah, without good experience of the game, it's tough to do well. It was satisfying to finally progress, and I'm sure even moreso to get to the Enrage part.

It's also been a while since I've played an RTS, so take my opinion with a grain of salt :) Thanks for the game!

Commander's Log by smbe19 2017-05-01T16:10:28Z

An interesting game and an impressive genre to try in a LD -- but I ran into some issues. Most notably, getting past the 1st day seems unnecessarily difficult. Perhaps it would have been better to start the space station off with the basics for basic survival?

Pocket World by BtheDestroyer 2017-05-01T15:48:40Z

Interesting game -- I like the concept of growing the world but it (at least in the beginning) didn't seem like you really had much of a choice in how it grew (the order). That and it overall was taking a long time to really accomplish much.

The graphical style was very impressive though -- I loved the original gameboy green/scanline thing you have going on here!

Chill Bill by drtizzle 2017-05-02T02:54:37Z

A solidly created game -- It controls well and I felt like I had control over my character/he did what I wanted/expected. I'll parrot what some of the other commentators have said in that it seems more luck than anything else as to when you die due to either a low density of people to kill or an unavoidable fart bomb in your path.

I think the game could be improved by adding some unique characters to the game -- maybe there are some people who tick Bill off more than others so killing them grants more sanity. Or maybe Bill could fart himself -- after all everyone prefers their own brand right?

All said, a solid entry. Thanks for the game :)

Food Fight by Scornz 2017-05-02T16:40:36Z

Overall quite decent. The sweeping mechanism was cool, and it looks very clean. Just a few things:

* Clipping while walking past some of the items made me stop in my tracks, causing me to die * One item got moved in the way so there was no clear way for one of the enemies to get to me, so it didn't move at all. So when I killed all the enemies for that round, nothing happened, and I needed to wander around for a while to figure out where the last enemy was. * I like the idea of moving stuff around to make it more tower-defense-ish, but there was no clear indication of which items were moveable and which were not. I would have liked all items to be pushable to be able to take advantage of the environment more. * The AI wouldn't go around items near the edge, so I was able to cheat a bit and get them to take the long way around the bread.

With those cleaned up, more enemies and weapons, I could see myself playing this for hours :)

Thanks!

Binary Glitch by JOrbits 2017-05-04T20:31:53Z

The trailer absolutely makes we want to play, it looks like a lot of fun, but unfortunately the Mac build is still broken. I'll try to find a Windows machine.

Galaxy Glove by merlyboy 2017-05-02T21:27:50Z

I loved the animations! Really well done. I also think you nailed the theme in a way that is unique. My biggest criticisms are that its a tad easy (although I'm not sure how you make it more difficult without making it feel cheaply difficult) and that it could really use background music. Also, either in the description or in game somewhere you really should say what the controls are -- I figured it out pretty quickly but still.

Especially for Compo, very well done.

Ant Runner by unit684 2017-05-04T03:43:03Z

I like that the level is procedurally generated -- but it doesn't seem to get more difficult as time goes on. Sometimes I would get like 3 jumps right in the beginning and then go a full minute without another one. Additionally, shooting seems like an afterthought since you can just spam left click and it will automatically shoot at anything that comes in range.

I'm a bit torn, because if you were going for just a relaxing game where you more or less watch an ant crawl around a procedural tree then you probably didn't need the shooting mechanical at all. On the other hand, if you wanted to add some more challenging gameplay then shooting should require some skill.

Theme wise, I get the idea of small world -- that being said, what exactly is the ant shooting? I can't shake the idea that this was originally in a different setting but was reskinned towards the end of development.

Either way I think you made a really interesting game and kudos for trying to do it procedurally in such a short time! Thanks for making it! :)

It's a Small World by NedMakesGames 2017-05-04T03:22:57Z

The background music was awesome! Great job on that. The jumping mechanics all worked well -- but I felt like most of them were not necessary (although I will concede that I didn't make it terribly far, like 7 hearts).

I think you could really have something fun here if you made the collectibles require chaining together all of the cool jump mechanics you built in. As it stands I feel like all you really need to do is double-jump. Maybe you could do things like add a bunch of heart fragments in the arc of one of your fancier jumps where you need to get them all to 'level up'. This might promote using, for example, the mid-air jump to get a bunch of horizontal pickups without hitting the groud.

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-04-25T04:37:07Z

Thanks for the comments! Your health is your monitors -- once they are all static-y, one more hit and you lose.

Originally, light attack added a delay and heavy added two -- but this made the game quite difficult. We ended up removing the delay on light attack since there are times in later levels when you need to carefully choose when to heavy attack and when to light attack. Light attacks do not hurt armored opponents and heavy attacks hit all units in front of you. So while you could always fill the gaps with light, it is sub-optimal.

In terms of Small World, the idea is that there is a tiny little world inside of each of us where tiny little people control your inner workings. You play as Little Man in his Small World -- at least that was our idea.

Thanks again for the comments!!

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-01T05:45:34Z

Thanks! I really appreciate that :)

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-01T18:58:28Z

@fernandoadolfo thanks for the kind words! We are hoping to expand on it in the future (more actions, more enemies, etc.). Glad you enjoyed it.

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-01T22:21:32Z

@geeitsomelaldy It is definitely a little bit of information overload. We hoped that the images would be self explanatory, but we concede that things like face left/right and the stopwatch are inherently confusing. That and we never fully explain when to heavy attack.

@pixzleone We actually agree with you about the difficulty ramp up. Originally it was WAY harder but our friends/family who we had playtest it were having a hard time. We figured for LD, a tad too easy is better than a tad too hard. We are hoping to continue to develop it and make the curve a bit smoother (so it still starts easy, but doesnt take 15 minutes to get difficult)

Thanks everyone for the awesome feedback! We love hearing you are enjoying it :)

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-02T15:33:28Z

@Kodiqi The idea of controlling the little guy inside your head was absolutely because of the theme -- although we do quite like the mechanic. We were hoping to go in a slightly different direction and have more things that little man needed to do to make his world more of a game in itself -- but we are also exploring alternative control schemes.

Leveling up after 4 doesn't increase your power, but it does increase the spawn rate and difficulty of the enemies you face.

Thanks for the input!

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-02T18:22:44Z

@mutfak-studios Thanks for the input! The lines along the ground were meant to be seen as a grid without making it too obtrusive.

@philomory In a development version we have (but haven't posted since it was work done after the jam period) we have added little lights under the monitor to show that your entered actions are in fact still there even though you cannot see them.

@spaceman You aren't alone. We have also been working on streamlining the controls based on all of the terrific feedback we have been getting.

Thanks everyone for playing and commenting! :)

Mind's Eye by Kosmo 2017-05-05T02:39:23Z

Guys thanks so much for all this amazing feedback. @micah and I are big board gamers and we did draw on some of the mechanics of a few board games we like when designing this. We agree that there is some untapped potential with this style of control in video games.

Again thanks everyone for all the kind words!!

LD38 - Big Dreams by Iron Leonem 2017-05-04T02:51:21Z

Fun game. My biggest issue was that I am not accustomed to W being jump in a platformer and it was really throwing me -- but that isn't something I would dock you for.

As for the game itself I think you executed the mechanics well and had a consistent artistic direction (graphics and audio). I also think you hit the theme well. The only thing is that I think you played it very safe. It is a pretty standard single screen shooter. I think the powerups were a good touch, but I would have liked either a few more enemies or control mechanics -- like maybe the kid comes in and everyone has to freeze because toys can't move; anything to add a bit of unique flair to it.

Overall though great job! Thanks for making it :)

The Z Axis by Meaty McLazerPantz 2017-05-02T22:06:30Z

Cool mechanic that can lead to some really interesting puzzles. I think that at least for me personally, I would have preferred that the levels have a bit less death in them. There were situations that seems to make it a puzzle game and others that made it hardcore platformy -- but the controls weren't tight enough for a platformer.

Also, I had a surprisingly hard time keep track in my head of which way the screen would rotate on z/c -- as much as it stinks to clutter up the screen with UI stuff, it might have been nice to showcase in some form on the screen which way the various buttons would rotate.

Overall a really cool game with a great mechanic. Thanks for making it! :)

uP-8: Microprocessor by Spaceman 2017-05-02T03:59:15Z

Finished it -- those 5 years of college and 6 years of work experience finally paying off!

Proof: up8.PNG

Some comments:

As others have said, you provided far more instructions than were necessary. I generally won by allowing my robot to smash into walls continuously moving say Up and Right every turn until we got to the goal. The last two levels required (or at least it made more sense) to make use of scanning. This made the majority of the manual unnecessary. Perhaps you should add some hazards into the level requiring that you not run into the walls? or dare I say dynamic obstacles that require you to legit navigate through logic rather than brute force. I also understand not wanting to make the game even harder for the non-programmer however.

The biggest issue for me was that end and home keys did not work as I expected them to (end moved the cursor to the end of the document which required that I use the arrow keys to navigate). Additionally, some form of sfx would have greatly added to the game.

Overall I enjoyed your game as a career programmer. Thanks for the game :)

Suds of War by James Dunlap 2017-05-01T18:46:15Z

Very funny take on the theme. Everything worked well, but the AI destroying me in one go without me even having a chance to fire back was a bit disheartening. The move and attack sounds (especially for the enemy) was far too loud and didn't fit with the lullaby music in the background.

Thanks!

No Minor Task: Party of a Lifetime by XAVIER_INDIE_GAMEDEV 2017-05-01T04:30:48Z

So I played it a few times but never could figure out where my home was. I would invite 200 people and then it just told me to go home -- was never able to finish it.

Edit: Thanks for the tip! Figured it out this time

Mind The Gap (First Ludum Dare) by Izunah 2017-05-02T04:24:45Z

Took me a few tries to figure out what I was supposed to be doing -- but I got the hang of it eventually. High score 850.

I know time is short on these games, but even a simple soundtrack makes a game so much more interesting in my opinion. I like the idea of having your multiplier be based on the number of enemies on your side along with the ability to move people over to one side without killing them -- but I feel like it ends up coming down to you circling a big group of red guys while keeping the other side as low on enemies as possible so you can switch when things get too rough.

Overall I like the concept and think you made a nice, playable, interesting game for your first Ludum Dare compo. Thanks for the game! :)

Small World by andrewl 2017-05-06T14:36:28Z

3 X 2 hour stints, so just 6 hours? That's very good, especially for your first game, well done! What you've done is very clean and neat, easy to understand, and pretty well balanced too.

If you expand on it, I'd recommend adding in some mechanic that involves gravity - maybe give all objects a gravitational pull, then if your gravitational pull is higher than an object's, then it redirects a little towards you, and vice versa.

Also, maybe your planet could grow in size as hit gets hit by asteroids, or smaller if it collides with another planet-sized object and breaks apart? I think that would be a neat way to do health. Thanks!

Barely There by benbennett 2017-05-04T23:49:56Z

It was a bit too easy to cheat: after a few levels, instead of actually flying, I just sat on the ground and the level kept going without any penalty. In fact, it let me easily avoid all the birds!

It's a cute game, but a little too simplistic for my taste. The music was pleasant, and it has a good twist in the end. Thanks!

Strangeness by philomory 2017-05-04T22:44:30Z

This is a decent puzzle game. You got a good amount of content in here for such a short time frame. I like the music a lot, and the sounds were good, too. And a few of the levels were neat in that you can beat them in multiple ways.

A few things, though:

* I pushed a rock onto a monster that was facing me, and the monster moved through it and I died. I didn't expect to be able to push the rock at all. * Level 4 was confusing. I like the laser monsters, but it was difficult to tell when they were looking "up" versus "down". I thought it had something to do with the rock. I ended up just needed to time it right. * It's not intuitive that you can push the rocks in the space that you cannot actually walk.

I think you have a good sense for making puzzles, and I would definitely have played more of them. Thanks!

Until the End by FernandoAdolfo 2017-05-01T17:13:45Z

The game does a very good job at being frustratingly slow and setting the mood. The theme is spot on, and as an artistic outlet it's very good. Unfortunately as a game it just ends up getting repetitive.

"If your mood decreases you could do some crazy thing." I never saw this happen though.

Thanks for an interesting take!

Shrimp Tank by slash_random 2017-05-05T01:47:48Z

It's a cute game, but mostly you need a little more feedback for the user. With no description of the controls, and no audio/visual feedback when I was jumping, it was difficult to tell what was actually doing something. I couldn't tell at first if I was eating, or even what I was supposed to be eating. I thought maybe you had to push a button to eat, but then nothing was happening? And it took me nearly the entire game before I figured out that you could actually jump more than once and actually swim through the tank. I had actually ridden the snails up the sides a few times to get high enough to reach more food! (which is a neat touch, by the way).

I played it again knowing everything and had a much better time. I got super anxious about getting eaten whenever the fish got close!

Thanks :)

Way Out by Mutfak Studios 2017-05-01T16:44:35Z

Overall quite solid. Platformers are tough, but very rarely did I feel like the controls were being difficult. The audio was humorous and engaging. It started out difficult, but once I realized that you're pretty much invincible if you just hold down attack, then it made it a lot easier :)

I tried the boss a bunch of times, but the rocks falling from the ceiling come down with absolutely no chance of being able to avoid them. So it became completely up to chance, and I didn't get lucky enough.

Thanks!

It's square to be a cube by Khorm 2017-05-05T01:23:34Z

The growing and shrinking world is neat, and the wraparound levels also make for some interesting level design, which is very cool. As others have mentioned, the little cube is hard to control, and dying on a long level due to feeling like you don't have control is no fun :-/ Besides the control difficulties (which is always hard in a platformer) and a few clipping bugs, I had fun. Thanks!

Just You And Your Porch by lilroo 2017-05-01T18:37:52Z

A bit straightforward, but relaxing, enjoyable, and unique. Thanks!

Intergalactic Lemonade Inc. by kawales 2017-05-02T03:16:47Z

I really liked your concept of what felt to me like a small world space trading game. You need to go get the raw materials from a bunch of different places and combine them back to make a 'profit'.

That being said, I think that the game takes too long to play and doesn't reward you properly for succeeding. Making order 2 takes quite a long time without any real challenge. I think the game might be more interesting if you could perform tasks that made it easier to fulfill orders. For example, I really liked the way the Ice Machine worked. Once you have it, getting ice is no longer an issue anymore. Similarly, perhaps you could plant a lemon rather than turn it into lemonade then water it so you don't need to go to the lemon planet anymore.

Overall, I like the concept but its just a bit too slow for me.

Thanks for the game :)

Hexoworld 9999 by Lugdumdare Team 2017-05-01T18:24:04Z

Very good! Very polished, good sound and graphics, a lot of fun.

The one complaint I have is the balance. It's quite hard at the beginning to shoot anything due to the large size of the planet and the movement speed of your turret moving. Getting hit a few times is actually beneficial because you can move around the planet more quickly. And then when you start getting power-ups it gets a ton easier very quickly. Maybe if you started on a smaller size planet, and then add a "leveling up" component where you add more layers to the planet but keep your power-ups? Or maybe some of the power-ups healed your planet or added terrain?

Overall, nicely done!

Spabullare by Chuck Zelvis 2017-05-04T04:04:36Z

The game is fun -- I think you made a really interesting decision to go with mouse movement and WASD aiming which gives the game a much more twitch feeling as opposed to more traditional twin-stick shooters. There is also a fun decision to be made in upgrading the 4 sides of your ship differently. I ended up making my right side all around, top mostly fire-rate and left mostly damage and speed (didn't upgrade bottom).

Unfortunately, the lack of audio, relatively basic graphics and overall theme I can't score as highly. I suggest you opt out of some of the categories (like audio) since I don't think you really intend to be scored on them anyway.

Some suggestions: Like I mentioned I liked the upgrade system, but since you have full mouse control over your spaceship its not terribly difficult to make sure your 'good side' is facing the enemies. Maybe you could make the upgrades more in utility -- like spread shot, laser, bomb/aoe, ect. This means that given different situations you might want to use different weapon types which requires you put the enemies on other sides of your ship.

Overall, its a fun game -- thanks for making it :)

MiniRacer by AyyAmThe1 2017-05-15T23:04:44Z

The visuals are quite nice and I like the idea of a forever race as a LD game -- however I ran into a few control/physics issues.

I feel like not having reverse is a strange choice as I often wound up facing a wall and my instinct was to reverse out of it.

Additionally, the physics gets all wonky while driving into the wall -- I ended up upsidedown at one point and the car continued to drive around without any issues as if my wheels were still on the ground.

Finally, I think that you need a larger view of the game -- you have essentially zero time to react to obstacles. I get that part of the fun of this game is crashing, but I wish that it was more so a result of me messing up as opposed to simply not seeing it with enough time to avoid even with perfect reflexes.

Despite all of my criticisms I think that you should be proud of what you made in the time allotted -- thanks for making it!

The Evolution Game by EvoGenGames 2017-05-02T21:03:51Z

I've always been partial to simulation games -- although I still feel like there should be some basic interaction that the player can have to try to influence the game. Having a more supervised learning model might make it more replayable in the long run -- event if it was something simple like being able to reward good behaviors.

Thanks for the game :)

Agoraphobia by Kodiqi 2017-05-05T00:44:28Z

Very effective at the goal of making you feel anxious about leaving the house. The sounds and visuals are very good at eliciting that emotional response.

It took me a while to realize that your house stays grown larger even after you "die". Since it had started getting a little repetitive, I just started staying out longer and collecting all of the upgrades I could before passing out, and there was no real penalty to this. Eventually I had collected so many that the house didn't get any bigger, and I thought it was a glitch. Turns out you're just supposed to go off the map, which is unintuitive.

But I had conquered my fears! Thanks for the game.

Cryozia by Flipsy 2017-08-02T05:05:52Z

I like how 'arcadey' this feels. You did a really good job of making it similar to the old style arcade games. Also, I don't think I've seen a game where you control an astronaut outside his ship before -- and while the controls are a bit finicky I think it does a good job of making you want to do just the tiny bursts like you see in movies.

Good job!

Drone Supervisor by Jimbly 2017-08-01T22:41:53Z

Pretty fun -- almost has a 'clicker game' style wrapped up in a more strategic simulation.

My only real complaints would be that it was not intuitive how much money I would make from combining certain materials. While I understand the crafting system after I looked at the recipes, I did not notice that until after I had played. During my first game I spent a while combining 3 different materials and the resulting money I got was barely more than I would have got for simply returning the 3 ingredients.

The Factory by Jack D. Taylor 2017-08-02T05:25:51Z

I like the concept -- trying to do a 3d stealth game for compo is rough. So, I'll admit that I tend to jump into a game first then check back at the LD entry page to see what was clarified there. In your game, you only mention WASD and E -- not Space or Shift (which are crucial to playing).

I played about 4 times and only the 4th time did I actually find any boxes outside of the original box. I think it may have been good to make the power boxes stand out more or give me a way to deduce where they are (like maybe something about how the buildings are powered/lit up).

Overall though, good job.

Extend that cord! by Zirrrus 2017-08-02T02:41:58Z

Well made, good graphics and fits the theme. One thing I didn't fully understand was how turning was supposed to work?

In general I found that I had to hold turn down way before I actually wanted to turn and then it was hard to stop turning. However, I could 'rewind' and then all of my turn 'momentum' was gone which made things a lot easier. Not sure if this was intended or not.

Thanks for the game!

Space email 4000 by Kosmo 2017-08-02T00:47:52Z

Thanks for the feedback guys!

@linver We were kinda hoping for a bit of email overload -- part of the fun :)

@theblondebass Thanks! We didn't want to punish people too badly. It does not give a meaningful amount of energy in the long run, even if you did it nonstop you would not survive long without doing real requests.

Space email 4000 by Kosmo 2017-08-02T05:28:07Z

Thanks @phlip45! Can I assume you played 'easy mode'? On hard mode, you get much less energy for incorrect recipes. Thanks for the feedback!

Lights Out by Brandon Diaz 2017-08-02T04:38:38Z

It took me a while to realize that I couldn't connect multiple houses with the same power line -- the fact that it shows a unique graphic when you do that made it seem like it would work.

Other than that, an interesting and fun puzzle game. Thanks for making it!

ROOP (Running Out Of Power) by Spetsdod 2017-08-02T00:56:59Z

Game played well for me -- no control issues. Overall the gameplay was a bit simple for me, not a whole of a reason to play it more than once or twice -- but hey, that's compo. That being said it runs well, has good sfx and definitely fits the theme. Next time I'd try to make a simple background music to go with the game, I've always found it adds a lot. I use http://www.beepbox.co.

Thanks for the game!

The Political Juggle by Phlip45 2017-08-02T02:50:12Z

Final Score: 21009, Final Year: 1980

Very funny -- great sound effects :)

Overall I really like it, my only complaint is that it doesn't really feel like 'running out of power' to me so much as do this as fast as you can. Either way well done! Thanks for the game

Into The Darkness by ProgrammingDimension 2017-08-02T04:50:52Z

Music is the best part of this game -- you did a great job of making it feel ominous. The game itself is a bit simple and doesn't really offer much outside of walking around somewhat randomly hoping to find some batteries. I think it could do with another mechanic or two to make it a bit more engaging.

Not Like This... by quixatocs 2017-08-02T04:45:09Z

I really like that the instructions are just straight up on the screen. Overall I quite liked it but I have two criticisms. One, it was not immediately obvious when I was holding something. Some kind of animation or change in the visualization of the battery might have made it more clear that pressing W was actually doing something. Two, the sound effects were brutal! I had headphones on and they were quite screeching.

Good stuff though, thanks for making it!

The Infinite Mine by SuperCrunchy 2017-08-02T05:00:40Z

This is a fun game that seems to be well built and polished. I had fun with the one game I played, but I think it needs something more. Since there doesn't seem to be a requirement as to where you put your extractors it seems like its best just to place them everywhere (and you kinda have the money to do so).

For compo -- I think you made a really solid game. As a game though, I think it needs just one or two more mechanics to be really engaging. Thanks for making it! : )

Stranded by KunoNoOni 2020-04-22T04:03:52Z

Game was fun, although I feel like I should have lost a few times -- the game did not seem to be properly tracking days without food/water. Thanks for the game!

Inhabitable by inzombiak 2020-04-21T03:21:36Z

Definitely made me smile, great job! The arm animations/IK worked really well. My only real criticisms are that the game is a bit simple and while the audio was pretty great, it did get a bit repetitive. Making the track longer or giving me a way to lower the volume would have been appreciated.

Overall good job and thanks for the game!

Aqua Vitae by zimennik 2020-04-22T06:22:42Z

If the graphics were actually made during the 72 hour period, that is extremely impressive. I think this probably qualifies more as an experience rather than a "game". As an experience, I think it is quite good -- however as a game it is lacking interesting decision making. The only real aspect of the game that you can 'mess up' is allowing the pressure to build up unnecessarily.

Overall, I enjoyed your game. Thanks for bringing it by for me to play.

DUNDER by nuclearfriend 2020-05-08T06:58:23Z

Great game, very well done! It took me a minute to realize exactly how the wires/triggers modified blocks, but once I got that everything was very intuitive.

My team actually made a very similar game (place objects to help guide an uncontrollable character to a goal -- lemmings-esk). We made the decision to have large levels where you scroll the camera around. In hindsight, I think limited the puzzles to a single screen was a good design choice as our levels can be a bit daunting at times. I'd be curious to hear your teams thoughts on our game if you get the chance.

Great job!

Useless Machines Inc. by herniewise 2020-04-22T04:39:30Z

Took me a bit to actually understand what I was supposed to be doing -- I saw the bars on the back, but didn't stay long enough to realize they were decreasing. Once I figured out that they correlated to the three interactables it started to click.

My favorite action was the pump. I liked that you had to do it at a particular interval. The crank and the hold button were a bit too basic by comparison. It felt like I could just stand there holding the mouse. The wheel for example, could have required I crank at a specific speed.

Finally, I was able to activate all of the things while standing at the rear looking at the monitor. I'm not sure this was intended as it led to me moving around the world a lot less.

Overall, the graphics were high quality, the game ran well and played well. Good job!

Brawnfire by bitdecay 2020-04-21T04:45:31Z

Definitely a highly polished game -- good job. The audio, visuals, and gameplay were all pretty solid. Good job!

Ducky's Day Out by Kosmo 2020-04-21T02:36:59Z

Hmm, the game is designed to be played at a fixed 1280x720 resolution. How did you manage to get it fullscreen'd like that?

Thanks for the error report!

Ducky's Day Out by Kosmo 2020-04-21T22:24:37Z

@grentacular @ssh-randy @catalystl We just put out a small QoL update that alleviates some of the issues. You can now move critters (while ducky is dead) and sugar gliders respawn -- both of which are the majority of the tedium of the game. Thanks so much for all of the helpful criticism!

Ducky's Day Out by Kosmo 2020-04-23T20:05:33Z

@carlix we did, but since Ducky is technically a physics object -- speeding him up potentially leads to different responses to tools. In hindsight, we probably should have made our own simplified physics that is not effected by simulation speed, but we didn't think it would be a problem until too late in development to do anything about it.

Ducky's Day Out by Kosmo 2020-04-24T03:38:56Z

@cheesepencil that should not be happening. Was the game running really slow/choppy for you by any chance? The game is technically running via physics and if it was running slowly its possible that Ducky might fail to make it through. Never seen it in testing though

Ducky's Day Out by Kosmo 2020-04-24T14:10:36Z

@cheesepencil The game should be locked at 144fps (you can check this if you go to developer tools in chrome, the framerate gets dumped there -- 3dot menu->more tools->developer tools-> console). While you are there, let me know if you see any interesting errors or messages. I've tried to recreate it a bunch of different ways and don't seem to be able to on my end.

OVERHOSPITALIZED by Stacka 2020-04-22T06:16:46Z

Really enjoyed the game! No major complaints at all actually. The game played and controlled well, I think there was an appropriate amount of difficulty, and it was just silly enough to keep me entertained while playing (nice easter egg btw).

As I said on stream, I think the easiest way to improve it would be to make each of the medicines have a slightly different mechanic (e.g., the washing your hands with the virus, reusable defibrillator) -- but that is a small nit pick.

I think you should be very proud of the game you put out especially for a 72 hour jam! Great job!

Dream Hoppers by giu.zcc 2020-04-21T03:52:37Z

The game looked and sounded great -- the gameplay was a bit repetitive though and I can't help but feel like this was made for a different theme. I think it needs another mechanic to make the game more complex as time goes on. Thanks for the game!

Orb Crunk by Claybro2021 2020-04-22T06:18:48Z

The art was by far the standout here. I'm amazed that you accomplished it by digitizing real watercolor 'sprites sheets'. I think a few quality of life improvements would make a big difference though -- the most obvious being an indicator as to which direction the old man currently is. Thanks for the game!

Connection by Trifectuh 2020-04-21T04:08:35Z

Managed to win on my first play -- but it had me thinking. Great audio, the background music had my head bobbing and the 'chunk' noise it played when slotting a card was satisfying. My only real complaint is that I didn't see a strong connection to the theme other than trying not to lose.

Overall, I enjoyed the game! Thanks!

Kims little shop of Convenience by Ripter 2020-04-21T04:14:29Z

Thanks for the game! It looks like a really good start, but I had a hard time finding anything to do? I walked around a good part of the town and found a few people to talk to -- but never found any monsters to save.

Keep up the effort and hope you do another game jam in the future!

Keep What Alive by Valeth2124 2020-04-21T03:08:02Z

The graphics and audio were both good and the underlying mechanics seemed to work well enough. I had an issue though where the game window (html5 on itch) was not large enough to fit the whole game window and it was difficult to read conversations.

Reckless Brave by dimlight 2020-04-23T07:02:25Z

Great game, very well done! We actually made an extremely similar game for our game jam (guide a duck back to his mom by placing helpful critters to help him navigate the world, frogs=spring, eagles=dash potion, blockers=signs, and we had a sugar glider as a parachute instead of a platform).

We definitely approached the level design differently though. Our levels are way more sprawling, and because of that, possibly more frustrating as it takes longer to see your plan executed. While this smaller level design limits the extent of puzzle, I think that it was a great design choice. If you get a chance, take a look at my game -- I'd be curious to see what you think of it seeing as they are so similar!

Thanks for the game and great job!

Lights Out by Shafournee 2020-04-21T02:15:11Z

You did a good job of coming up with unique mechanics that effect the candle (drips, windows, waterfalls) -- but the gameplay was just so slow that once you start getting to the more difficult sections (I didn't get past the geyser things) it feels extremely repetitive and slow.

The graphics were high quality and the mood is fantastic. In my opinion, each room should have been a bit smaller. This cuts out unnecessary repetition (solving the same puzzle again), and allows you to keep your slow pace for the mood.

Don't take my criticism too harshly though, I still enjoyed the game -- just some advice for next time : )

Snip Snap by Quackqack 2020-04-22T03:51:20Z

Game ran and worked well. It was clear what I had to do and it definitely got stressful as it sped up. It was a bit slow in the beginning though. Having to click the pot definitely makes it harder to keep up with the typing! Thanks for the game

Seven by zc74560 2020-04-22T06:10:55Z

Thanks for bringing it to me on stream, had a good time playing it! Really interesting mechanic that led to some interesting and rewarding puzzles. I appreciate that you changed up the mechanics over time, introducing them slowly throughout the game. Allowing for quick 'undo' and 'restart' are also extremely important quality of life features, so good job on recognizing that and implementing it. My only real criticism is that I don't think it strongly relates to the theme.

Overall, great job! I enjoyed playing it.

Happy Life by scalliondelight 2020-04-21T01:59:57Z

Definitely got the stress of all of the multi-tasking across. Graphics were good. I had some issues understanding what exactly I was supposed to do -- was there a difference between responses? What was the purpose of the menu/drinking? I think a little more feedback about what my choices were actually doing (other than ignoring people) would be beneficial.

Overall great job though!

Royal Decree by Furqaan 2020-04-21T04:00:33Z

My first round I'm fairly confident was bugged -- I ran around the whole town but only found 1 cake (I needed two) to satisfy the princess. I don't fully understand how it relates to the theme either?

On the other hand, the game controlled well and the graphics and sound were very nice. Thanks for the game!

Planets wars by raguel 2020-04-22T06:13:56Z

Thanks for bringing it by the stream, I enjoyed playing it. Overall I think you did a good job with game feel. The controls were tight, the bullets felt good -- particularly destroying incoming weapon fire. My only real complaint is that the game is a bit simple for how long it is. The one level where there was a mix of enemies stands out as a more interesting level as I had impactful decisions to make. Do I focus on a bigger ship that will take longer to destroy? or the little ones? Adding more types of enemies (like say a sniper enemy, or bomb layer) would make the player need to do more decision making rather than just bullet hell.

Overall though, great game and good job!

Bubba's Beach Balls by HuddyBuddyGreatness 2020-04-21T02:36:13Z

Great job for your first jam! The hook-shot mechanism worked without any issues and it was fun to swing around. I did get stuck on top of a seagull for a little while -- but that is partly my fault since I purposed tried to land on it.

I think with a bit of level design (mid air obstacles, and maybe an ever increasing risk of failure?) and the game would have a lot more replay value to it.

It's Coming Right At Us by ChristianAufiero 2020-04-22T04:48:10Z

Really liked the Ghost -- his face and the title were the reason I clicked your game. I found the timer to be very tight, although since the level never changes it only took a few tries to get it down. You did a good job of making the mini-games feel hectic, but the first time I got to them I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I still don't actually know how to use the beehive.

Overall I enjoyed it though. Thanks for the game!

Keep the Conversation Alive by im the progamer 2020-04-21T04:38:28Z

It actually loads if you wait a fairly long time -- but then you just get a tutorial.

Protect the Plant by smallgaier 2020-04-21T02:51:30Z

Petal drop was a great idea to show health. Good job on making audio (although some fly buzzing would have really sold it for me!)

I think it would have been fun to have a few other kinds of insects come to vary the gameplay up after a while. Overall good job though.

Josh Dumb by Catalystl 2020-04-21T05:17:31Z

Whew! I managed to beat it but it took a lot out of me. Overall I like your game, definitely on theme! The game my team made for this Jam is very similar (placing objects to steer a helpless create away from hazards).

There were a few levels where the timing was extremely tight between when you would get an item and when it was need (coupled with needing to switch to my shield to avoid incoming fire). I think if you want to keep the timing that tight, I would recommend giving the player more control over object placement. I would often over/under rotate or accidentally switch back to the arrow when trying to get the spring. If there were specific buttons for each thing (maybe WASD for up down left right arrow, Q for shield and E for spring) I think it would go a long way to lowering frustration without making it easier.

Overall, a solid game! Plus, I appreciate the cut-scenes : )

Puppy Peril! by Terderrer 2020-04-21T02:56:59Z

Audio a clear standout! Great job on the music. Question: Is it intended that ghosts subtract from your score? You can't stop them from reaching the bottom right?

Alien Medicine by PIPS 2020-04-21T03:44:17Z

Managed to save my organism. Game was ok -- I didn't realize at first that the main way to lose was through the green guys corrupting the 'walls', but that's my fault as it clearly said so in the tutorial. It felt like i was having hit-detection issues when shooting the main virus (may have just been the hit sound not playing though).

Overall, good job -- but I think the game needs a little more content (more enemy times or abilities).

Thanks for the game!

Greedy Monsters by Yadir2447 2020-04-21T02:24:27Z

Good job on the game -- I especially liked the title screen. It is a simple idea but you executed it well. Next time, I'd try to get some music/sfx in there as it can go a long way to making a game feel more polished. Might be interesting to give the 'attackers' a bit more AI too.

Thanks for the game : )

Egg Scramble by bennybig98 2020-04-21T04:27:35Z

Conceptually, I like the idea of tying ammo to a timer -- however in practice it made me not want to shoot. I think the sheer number of enemies makes shooting feel like its never the right move as there will always be another beetle or bat right around the corner. If there were fewer enemies, I would feel more compelled to use the gun. Thanks for the game!

Kaze No Kami by ssh.randy 2020-04-21T03:32:44Z

Simple gameplay but it all worked well. Its a bit of a tech demo at the moment. Great job for the time constraints, but I think the game would benefit from some more interesting interactions -- maybe oil fields that rapidly spread the fire or a dam that if burnt would steam water through the zone.

Thanks for the game!