Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Lachlan James
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | 👥 | Will of the Wisp | jam | 233 | 3.88 | 3.64 | 3.68 | 4.33 | 4.39 | 4.18 | 2.59 | 4.23 | |
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | 👥 | Death Death Resurrection | jam | 118 | 4.07 | 3.95 | 4.25 | 4.45 | 4.05 | 3.96 | 2.94 | 3.83 | |
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | 👥 | Exodus | jam | 108 | 4.10 | 4.00 | 3.70 | 4.46 | 4.29 | 4.27 | 4.19 | ||
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | 👥 | Dark Harvest | extra | ||||||||||
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | 👥 | LD51 | jam | 1112 | 2.90 | 2.58 | 2.53 | 2.79 | 3.63 | 3.45 | 1.78 | 3.45 | |
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | 👥 | Tick | jam | 488 | 3.68 | 3.34 | 3.25 | 3.97 | 3.83 | 3.85 | 3.58 | 3.60 | |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | 👥 | Erosion | jam | 886 | 3.42 | 3.40 | 3.53 | 3.68 | 3.26 | 3.63 | 2.72 | 3.29 |
Lachlan James leaves an average of 18.7 feedback comments each event.
Wow, this was tight man! Really satisfying loop - loved the progression through biomes and the different 'soul powers' that came with it. Art was awesome, as was music - loved it. Not sure if it was rendering issues or what, but were the undead enemies meant to be coming out of matte black squares...?
Also - loved the atmospheric start with the vignette. Really nice touch to set the mood.
The physics in this one felt spot-on. Music was seriously solid stuff for a compo entry.
Loved how simple shapes were used to build such an immersive atmosphere. You did a lot with a relatively small asset list, great work for compo. Plus, the animations and art? Top-notch, especially how they interacted with the physics.
Dual control scheme was really well implemented. Everything felt really juicy and tight all round.
Overall, a real standout! Really, really good entry.
Super immersive! Props for pulling off the 3D aspect within the jam's timeframe; that's no small feat. Clever spin on Phasmophobia with the title and gameplay.
The parallax effect was a nice touch, adding some depth to the visuals. But hey, where'd the audio go? Seemed like it was missing in action. Definitely caught some Kingdom game vibes in there (in the name too), which is cool for a jam. Liked the day/night cycle. I noticed some AI acting a bit wonky at times. But hey, bumps in the road happen.
Overall, solid entry!
The art style was refreshingly simple, and the palette choice really hit the spot. Props on the ambient sound design; it really set the mood just right. Plus, there was this cool sense of scale that added depth to the experience - loved the camera shift on the first climb out of the cave. I appreciated how the mechanics were gradually introduced with more sheep, keeping things interesting. And let's not forget about that sound design—had me chuckling more than a few times... loved the sheep sound. Overall, a pretty enjoyable ride.
Seems like there were some hiccups with the embedded HTML5. Not sure if it was just a glitch on my end, but the audio didn't seem to kick in for me. Art was a real standout, especially digging the idle animation and others. Text boxes wer sticking around longer than expected, which threw me off a bit. Overall, solid effort!
Pretty straightforward ride, keeping it simple from start to finish. Kudos for your first jam; hopefully more to come! Though, gotta say, the difficulty ramps up real quick. Feels like you're diving into the deep end right off the bat. Visually, it's simple but gets the job done nicely. Overall, good hustle!
Good on you for opting out of categories you didn't create (e.g. audio)
Hits the mark with its nice graphics that catch your eye right from the start. The sound design is good, even though you opted out of audio - good choices add impact to the gameplay. While the mechanics may be simple, they're effective, making for smooth and enjoyable gameplay. Overall, it's a solid entry that impressively utilizes the timeframe given. Great job!
This was wild. I liked the art a lot. I had a good laugh at the slapdash 'NO :(' and the game just closing to desktop on victory. Fun submission, good luck for future jams!
Hey, I really liked this!
I didn't initially think that the mechanics you'd set up would have had as much staying power as they did, but the variation kept it interesting and the actual gameplay loop was satisfying. Art style, music, sound, aesthetic, all awesome. Loved the clock-eyes - nice touch.
It's a minor gripe, but the scrolling text at the start was a *big* issue for me as a player - as someone who reads quickly *and* has pretty spicy ADHD, having a 'tap to finish sentence' button is VITAL. I didn't want to press the 'skip' button because I imagined it would skip to the next sentence - but I actually missed most of the tutorial because it was going too slow for me to read it... if that makes sense.
Hopefully this is useful feedback! Obviously not a big deal for a jam game, but for a retail release I'd have lost my mind.
Thank you for opting out of ratings - from your comment about wanting rock/paper/scissors to win, I am guessing that you started on this early and just committed to it regardless. And isn't that one of the greatest things about this community; to still get a chance to have you game up there and have some feedback and dialogue about it!
I was a little confused about the mechanics/actual 'game' at the centre of it, but the art is undeniably great - really consistent aesthetic and overall, quite a vibe.
Yo! Neat response to the theme, I think. I like what I can figure out about the game world it's set in, but something a little more prescriptive about what's going on might help sell the thing a bit more. Why am I summoning...? Is my boss the devil? Why doesn't he like me summoning? It's definitely a cool setup, but I just needed a little more info for it to land for me.
I like how dynamic the job requests were, the boss added nice pressure (though I agree with comments about about the spacebar thing), and visuals were solid. Audio was solid too.
Overall I liked it, but would love to see what it could turn into with a little more time in the oven.
Hey, this was COOLLLLLLLL (see what I did there?)
Very simple assets (both sfx/visual) but super readable and tight to play. Not sure if there was meant to be music after the menu loop, but it disappeared for me. Difficulty escalation felt fair and rewarding. I got a bit excited about my bow and lost all my arrows and bombs but that's probably on me. Loved the leap animation effect with the berserker(?) enemy type.
All in all, solid as.
Constructive criticism: Not sure about the summoning link, really (I get that there was a wizard and he may me have been summoning the enemies...???) Feels like maybe it could have been made for any jam.
Hey, this all felt really tight. Nice concerted vision re: sound design, visuals, music and gameplay. Loved the weapon randomisation and changes between camera angles. Was awesome that all the different weapons had SFX to match - really sold it. Controls felt tight and gameplay stepped up in challenge in a satisfying way. Nice entry!
Great stuff! There's a really impressive amount of art in this game, and it's all got a wonderfully consistent style. Mechanics are interesting and make you think strategically, and the music is a great vibe for the setting. Well done all.
Hey, well done, especially for a solo! Very ambitious stuff setting out to make something this mechanically complex, and it seems you've executed it really well. Fights felt pretty balanced and challenging, progression was solid, and I had to make genuine strategic decisions - more than could be said for most jam games, where balance is a nightmare. Hope to see you make more stuff like this in the future.
Hey, cool entry! I loved the art - really consistent aesthetic and lovely little animations. It's great you guys managed to get a bit of a difficulty curve in there to make for a play experience that built up slowly - was exciting seeing what new summon I was going to get next! Gameplay felt nicely balanced and built up in difficulty at a healthy rate.
The OST was great - I loved the menu theme in particular. One of the great tragedies of making music for game jams is lovingly crafting a menu theme that the average player will spend about 10 seconds listening to - but I let it loop and I loved it :') I loved the combination of classical sounds and electronic percussion throughout - good stuff @wandering-composer !
Some constructive criticism - * A few more SFX would have been great (just some combat sounds etc, a couple of hits) * I admit when I booted it up I didn't actually know what to do at first - didn't notice the (admittedly obvious) summoning menu popout until I closed the game and looked at the GIF there. Probably my fault * Would love to see even more variation in the summons - I liked that the first one was stationary, which made it appealing to use as a counterpoint with my other ones. Other than that (as far as I got) it seemed just about mana vs power after that - so some more specific behaviours would be amazing!
Well done guys, super solid entry.
This was cool - surprisingly addictive once you start to see the logic of the summons and so on. I loved the loop of being rewarded with a funny new 3D model once getting a successful summon.
I had some issues from time to time with dropping things in the cauldron. I feel like a bit of music (even if you just grabbed something and credited it) could have helped a little with the overall personality of the thing. But all around, great job - fun concept and executed with style.
Killer stuff!! Only had time for one playthrough, but I was really impressed with how dynamic it clearly was, with potential dialogues being cut off by my choices many times over and leaving me curious to come back and see what I'd missed.
As other have said - really cohesive too - art, text, sound and narrative all really fit together beautifully. Definitely the product of a team with a singular vision. Well done to all involved.
My friends. What the hell. This is easily the most mystified I've been by a LD Jam gam. And I mean that in the best way possible. It feels like if the Cruelty Squad devs did a crossover DLC with Sportsbet. And I'm totally here for it.
I have *NO IDEA* what is going on here, but I loved the whole thing. Or what I saw of it. One of the few things I've seen on here that I'm inspired to return to to try and figure out more about.
The racing sequences were so wonderfully weird, both audio/visuals, and the interface was eerily opaque (the lips and eyes?? what???)
I'm a fan. Go make more games please, I'll buy them and concern my friends and family by playing them.
This was solid! I had a bit of performance trouble on web, but nothing game breaking. It wasn't 100% sure about what each of the units did, but everything felt pretty smooth and chunky. As said above, maybe a little more immediacy in the waves arriving would have been great - but in general, great achievement for a jam. Good stuff!
Aww. I loved this. The little scenes were inspired between the levels. Animation and art were great, platforming was solid. A few little sounds for character movement would have gone a long way into making the movement feel tactile. Parallax stuff was really well done.
I don't always finish LD games - but the little story progression was beautiful and inspired me to finish it. Great work - can really tell this was made with love :)
Beautiful art! Really thorough and complete looking for a 3 day jam. Puzzles were nice and challening.
I accidentally skipped to a level at the start thinking the numbers were maybe for pages on a tutorial screen. Might be good to group the SKIP text closer to the numbers.
I love the dynamic movement in the OST. Not sure if the drum layer was meant to kick in at level 3, but it happened for me and it was cool as.
Would love a little more variation in sound design (say a few different goblin spawn sounds) just to keep the sounds from feeling too spammy.
Overall, loved it. Great work!
We actually did something really similar (Helldivers/DDR-like summoning sequences) if you'd like to have a look at ours via my profile.
So keen to check this out - just only able to play web stuff at the moment. Saved for later!
This was unreal. Would love to have been a fly on a wall for the development of this - I can't believe how complete this feels. Best I've played so far.
My only feedback would be for the game to start a tiny bit slower to give the new player time to get a grip on things before the pressure is on. But this is amazing.
Hey mate, similar problems to others with the browser build unfortunately. Made my (reasonably powerful) system hang for a bit, eventually loaded, then crashed within a couple of seconds. This is on Ventura running Chrome - will have a go again later on my Windows box.
Amazing presentation! The visual style was incredible - very, very professional presentation. As some others have said, a little more time to build up to the pace would be wonderful - I'm not sure I was able to really do anything with the mechanics because I was just so frantically clicking and replacing things based on very vague understandings of what the items were actually doing. I love this concept for an auto battler though, and once again, the presentation of it is incredibly impressive. Just a little more refinement in execution and you'll have a banger on your hands here!
Hey! Beautiful concept and art I thought, and even though you didn't make it yourselves, I thought the audio choice was smart in tying the mood of the whole thing together. Your world is definitely coming together beautifully here, and it feels like it could be a wonderfully emotional journey.
That said, I feel like at the moment, the fire ring itself is a little too hard to work around to be a 'fun' challenge for the player at the moment - my play experience was pretty frustrating unfortunately. From what I could tell, the ring didn't harm enemies - that might be a nice way to offset the limitations it imposes? Even just giving the player some 'health' (3 chances or something) might make it a little easier going to start with.
All in all, this was a really brave and innovative entry - I hope you keep going with it.
This game is *hardcore*. Controls well and definitely makes you feel like it's your own fault for being bad, which is a great sign. Nice take on the theme. Visually nice and clear and cohesive, and audio definitely gets the job done. Also didn't encounter *any* bugs myself, which is a really impressive feat for the jam.
Wish list: Difficulty obviously ramps up fast - a couple more levels in between to ease the player into the mechanics would be good (but I get it, jam balancing is rough stuff). Player experience wise, I think a little more zoom out on the camera would be nice to help see things that are coming up - while I understand it's a part of the experience, a lot of the 'green zone into red zone' type challenges felt a little cheap.
I'm curious about a smoother way of controlling speed (e.g. scrollwheel for those that have it) - sometimes the input spam needed to raise or lower speed fast enough felt a little excessive.
Really nice art and presentation - amazing amount of detailed and cohesive assets for the game timeframe. Music feels nice and appropriate to the setting/energy of the game. Nice work implementing some voice acting in there to help set the tone of things. Audio implementation-wise I definitely don't think the voice-line spam was a good idea (the 'welcome' one) - it comes up way too often for it to be desirable for the player experience. Definitely a little bit of a confusing experience at the start, but I really like where it's headed. Nice work everyone.
Hey, this was pretty neat. As with some others I found the laser a bit hard to get my head around, but it was generally a balanced and well designed experience. As some others have said - keyboard controls would make it feel a lot more flowy I think (even just numbers 1/2/3). Overall, nice entry. Make sure you rate some games so you get some more ratings back to qualify!
This was pretty funny. One of my favourite takes on the theme - even if it was kind of infuriating to play, hahaha. Whether it's for humour or not, I'd recommend not allowing the ship to be obscured by UI elements - whether it's the popup, or particularly the HUD down the bottom.
Sound was great, and while the ship was tricky to control, it was fun to get the hang of. As before, I definitely had a good chuckle at the interpretation of the theme. Well done.
Hey, this was cool! I interpreted it as well as being 'limited use of the space key', but the theme connection does feel like it could have been laid out a little more explicitly. Puzzles and art were cool. I found the dialogue at the start a little hard to get around (felt a bit disconnected to me) but I'm curious to learn more about Mink and his world.
Controls were solid (if a little floaty), and the mechanics were interesting with the rotating abilities. Good submission!
Lovely graphics and audio. As other have said, very hypnotic and fun to try to master.
I'd love it if the death/restart loop was way snappier - the lengthy wind-down and restart menu etc got in the way of getting into a flow with it.
I'm not 100% on the music restarting either - though I understand it could be an incentive for the player to try and stay in the game to hear more of the track.
Hey, I can confirm the same issue as @local-minimum and others - thought I was crazy seeing all these comments of people talking about later levels when level 1 felt truly impossible. I like the idea and presentation a lot - but you do seem to have a .... bug.... there.
Seemed really interesting - I'm certain there's a heap of depth here. I would have loved to see a tutorial, or even an example solve for one of the early levels so I could really get a sense of how to leverage this engine you've made. The right click menu has a *crazy* amount of information for a first-time player - it would definitely be helpful to spoon-feed it a bit. If you ever post a video or yourself playing with the engine and showing what it's capable of, tag me!
Heaps of complexity here. Love the way the spells slowly faded in the book, and the connections between the words and the spell shapes. Couldn't see a super viable reason to do anything other than just stack my 'crossword' words vertically, but maybe I wasn't playing close enough attention. Crazy depth for 48h. Well done.
Hey, this was tight, especially for Compo! Love the whole aesthetic, it's very convincing. Puzzle design is great. I got through the third level fine after a moment, but as above, the ramp between levels 2 and 3 feels a little steep. Nice QoL feature with the ability to take moves back. I thought that maybe the 'compiling' feature, while neat, felt a little redundant in the beginning when I was keen to just punch levels.
Hey, really cool - especially considering it was made with Scratch! Neat little innovation on the formula (even just having singleplayer Pong). Movement and sound all felt tight and bug-free. On my first play I hit the frost powerup which wrecked me - but after that, I hit a bunch of powerups on my second play and couldn't tell if they were doing anything - not sure if the powerup broke or whether it was just subtle compared to the first one I hit.
Either way, good stuff - this was nice.
Beautifully put together. The feel is really cohesive in terms of the interaction between the visuals, sound and mechanics. Definitely a vibe. Mouse movement around the amoeba could be a little janky sometimes (kind of flicked around) and I would have loved the nudge to have a little more 'oomph' to it.
My game-overs weren't always clear to me how/why I got them (even on casual mode?) so maybe a little more feedback as you're approaching a lose condition would be great. Overall, this was a killer entry - loved it.
Hahaha - really good stuff. I didn't think I'd enjoy managing a busy toilet so much. Was incredibly curious when I just saw the upgrade for 'minigun' pop up at the end of my urinal chain.
Difficulty ramps nicely, though I got to the point on my first run where I feel like I'd hit the cap (max urinals/bots) and I appeared to just be maintaining from there. Think this could definitely expand into a successful little mobile/Steam game and do pretty well. Funny concept, well executed. Good stuff.
Audio is minimalistic but well done. Didn't come across any bugs - very tight.
Hey, this was really cool. I don't always finish jam games but I cleared this one because I was engaged and interested - which is a really good sign. The core mechanics and gameplay loop were super tight, and it was an interesting puzzle to keep trying to solve.
- I would have like to be able to move my ships around on the grid (not sure if this was a balance choice) - Adding vertical rows, but then getting a new one *behind* your ships felt counterintuitive - The expand vertical button stayed available-looking even when I didn't have enough money to do it - A little music or something would go a long way toward tying the vibe together - $ and <3 signs were clear but ✟ for damage isn't universal to me, despite being the last possibility
Ship designs (both enemy and friendly) were unreal, and it felt really balanced to make for a pleasantly challenging experience which is cool.
Great stuff!! I'd play this - especially on mobile I think.
What an innovative response. You guys are definitely pushing that bleeding edge in terms of seeing what's out there to play with. I wasn't able to get speech recognition to work in the time I had, but I can see all the gears turning - very, very cool response to the prompt and use of modern tools. Excited to see where this field goes and good on you for having a play with it during a jam.
Cool application of the theme - I definitely see it. Visually beautiful and I love the writing and feel.
Shift to breathe didn't respond properly all the time which was a bit of an immersion dropper.
Would have loved to get some audio in there - feel like it would have made all the difference for bringing the aesthetic together.
Well done!
Craaazily impressive for a jam. Loved the progression of the puzzles and the application of the theme. Puzzle design was deep and interesting, and you got humour points for the way the last level came together - what a lovely punchline.
Little bit of BGM would have been cool.
Can't believe how tight the physics (or simulation thereof) felt. Great, great stuff.
Hey, this was cool! Art style was really original and all fit together beautifully. The limit break felt nice and powerful and the boss designs were cool.
It definitely kicks off **hard** - would be nice to ease the player in a tiny bit more. Would also be great to leave credits about what was/wasn't created during the jam/by who - I loved the music but wasn't sure whether to rate it as an asset made by your team or not.
Good start - be careful opening with an obscure puzzle in your first LD game because people will probably just assume it's broken. I lucked out with the ESC key as well (trying to quit after a while haha). Had a hard time making much progress but it felt good and interesting. Reminded me a lot of the FAITH games in style which I'm guessing were a major influence. This looks like it could shape up into something interesting - keep it up.
Was keen to play, but had some issues with the web window loading weirdly sized and not being able to see the game window properly no matter what I did. Didn't rate - but thought I'd let you know.
There's a heap of depth here for a jam game. Love the aesthetic - really cool way to leverage simple art into something that looks great. Clouds are a killer touch. Bit of a steep learning curve but really impressive for something developed within jam time.
Love the little ticker down the bottom and whatever's going on AI wise. Crazy you've managed to get all these different scenarios and so on done within jam time.
Very impressive. Modular mech is cool as heck (especially the way the model adapts), and the tetris element feels very core.
I would have liked to be able to rotate pieces but understand if that wasn't your intention with the balance. Sound design was solid - minigun felt a little underwhelming. Not sure that collision with robo bodies was ideal for keeping it fun (getting boxed in just feels kind of frustrating). Was having a great time, then suddenly hit a crazy difficulty spike and instantly died to 1000 mortars after breezing through the last level.
Overall, wildly impressive entry and one that I played for a fair bit longer than I planned to :) Well done.
Hey, I liked this. Adapting 'limited space' to fit into your ability selection screen was a great idea and lent itself to the gameplay nicely. Having a modular bot whose controls change is a very cool concept. I think a little more explanation early on would be helpful - the first ability assignment screen was a little confusing with no clues about what exactly to do.
Movement felt great, and the art/music fit together to make a nice cohesive feeling. Good stuff, hope you keep going with it.
Hahaha... this was dumb, in the best way possible. I am an adult.
Loved the premise, theme application, and (wonderfully janky) presentation. Next time I pack the fridge this is definitely going to be taking up free real estate in my head.
Had some issues with placement of objects (some small objects that I couldn't put on empty shelves etc) but generally, it answers the game's key thesis - watsinnafridge indeed.
Good stuff.
Really interesting and polished take on the theme. I found the movement mechanics really neat, and love how you were able to represent a complex (and procedural??) game world so effectively with simple graphics. I had a bit of trouble with the map experiences in terms of knowing where I was meant to go (both squares being red and some other things with information accessibility) but I gather that was also part of the navigation experience.
Very impressive considering the timeframe - well done.
Hey, this was a lot of fun. I loved the unseriousness of it - the voice acting in particular (and the bit of music at the start) was hilarious.
- Difficulty ramps a bit fast (though encourages replayability - beating Timey Tim felt vindicating) - Wasn't clear what happens if you pick up the same upgrade again until after you'd done it - looked like it would just be a wasted opportunity initially - Obviously very button-spammy with the main attack, which is okay - but I think you could make it a little less finger destroying by offering maybe two attack buttons the player can 'gallop' with or something? - The K/L control scheme seemed less punishing, but then I couldn't choose upgrades or anything with my keyboard, which sent me back to using the mouse anyway
Overall this was awesome - mechanics were well thought out, theme closely implemented, vibe was fun, progression was interesting. I haven't finished many jam games and this was one of them - so that says a lot!
Well done team.
This is really tight. Simple and effective presentation (surprised you opted out of graphics - still looks great), and the level design and emerging mechanics are fantastic. Great use of theme.
*DID* absolutely annihilate my eardrums when I cranked my headphones up trying to see if I could hear music, and then touched a wall :x
Satisfying to play. Puzzles were fun and nicely designed. Artstyle was neat - loved the clouds and moon between levels. Integration of the different guitar chords was cool - felt a generally nice Necrodancer influence running through this thing. Overall nice submission :)
Movement feels good! Being able to hold mouse would be really great. Cool take on the theme. The 'system error' thing was hard to understand - I feel like I'd play for a couple of seconds then get smashed with system errors and die :'( Good stuff for your first jam mate, keep at it!
Core reflecting game loop is really solid. Nice and chunky and satisfying to nail - camera movements on click gave it a heap of gravity. Death animations would have been nice for the enemies to solidify that.
Wasn't sure why enemies were bouncing projectiles back sometimes and sometimes not. Interesting universe I'd be keen to learn a bit more about. Overall good stuff!
Hey, this was cool. Like the art direction - simple and really effective. The little bit of wordbuilding there was cool - definitely a consistent aesthetic/mood.
My snake boy was obviously a little wild and did some freaky stuff that I don't think he wanted to, but when he was under control he moved nicely.
My biggest gripe is I have no idea what the lose condition was, or how to win. Seemed like no matter how fast I ate stuff I'd lose anyway, which made it hard to keep striving to play better.
Overall, cool game especially for a solo.
(And yes, as above - didn't realise I couldn't rate when I wrote this - shame)
Mate, this was *cool*. I'll admit to going straight to the post-jam version because I was too curious to see how this ended up.
Love the artstyle and overall energy - the little chunks of writing added a great deal to the overall mood. "Always save one bullet" says so much. Reminded me of Cultic and Dusk a bit in equal measures.
Sound and feel was solid - first couple of guns felt nice and meaty, revolver a bit disappointing. Upgrade trees between nights was a great thing, especially for a jam game.
Would have loved a little walk animation to make the character seem a little less slidey.
Overall - love it. Super focused entry and a wild achievement for a jam.
This was a great submission.
Art - great all round, loved the use of the larger pieces at the start to set the scene for the story. The aesthetic was nice and consistent, and the lighting was unreal - really, really impressive stuff going on there, including how it made its way into later puzzles (buckets, movement, etc).
Movement generally felt good - obviously a hard thing to totally nail down within jam deadlines, and I'm awfully spoiled by stuff like Celeste - but I generally felt competently in control of my cat. Difficulty was definitely there, but it was pleasantly challenging for the most part. I have a note on this below with audio however.
Audio - music was really restrained and professional. I love the slow evolutions and introductions of new instruments (from just the synth/percs, into the keyboard, into the flute, etc). Super minimal but really tastefully put together. I didn't feel like the character sounds were as strong (kind of bassy and... hard?) considering the protagonist, but they were serviceable. One criticism on audio implementation is that having died *a lot*, the strings lick got pretty abrasive after awhile. First time it happened, it hit beautifully - but as the game got more challenging, it started to sting a bit. I think in a game where the player is expected to die repeatedly and quickly (and you've managed this great with quick respawns), any visual/audio cues should be a little more restrained so the player doesn't feel too punished.
Oops, this writeup got huge.
Well done all! Overall killer submission.
So cool to see the way you integrated the music with the timer!! This was something I worked really hard at doing in our entry as well. Overall, this was really slick. Great integration of the theme with the gameplay, visuals and audio. Everything felt like it really came together here into something that felt super intentional and built strictly for this jam. One of my favourites :)
Loved what I could get through of it - but as with other reviews, a manual/video guide/something would be huge. I'm sure there are things about this that I wasn't able to figure out, and I would love to have gotten deeper into it.
This was a wild ride. What an experimental approach to the theme! Great art and music, and a really out there gameplay concept.
Really loved this. Feels great to play, very polished. Slick stuff - one of my favourites of the jam so far.
Nice satisfying simple gameplay loop with super solid implementation of the theme. Good entry!
Very cool. Love the aesthetic and the overall mood of it. Nice classic audio design. Visually very strong, and generally plays pretty tight (though had a little bit of weirdness with the movement).
I noticed there was an audio/visual cue every 10 seconds, but beyond that couldn't figure out if the theme was otherwise implemented.
Really neat interpretation of the theme. I love seeing themes that are this deeply embedded in the final work - 10 seconds makes all the difference...! Would love to see some atmospheric music/sfx etc if more time was allowed for it. Keep it up :)
Love the art and overall vibe. Theme was nicely implemented. I did find as with someone above that I was able to do pretty well just spamming the contents of my hand without thinking - but totally understandable with jam deadlines. As a wish - would have been awesome if there was a bit more of a chance at a tutorial to ease into the mechanics - there's heaps going on here.
Neat game :) Loved the use of the theme, quite similar to what we ended up doing (using the 10-second timer as a danger/move opportunity). Dodging the candles and using the map ended up being a bit too easy, but loved the atmosphere and the tension you generated. Good stuff.
Love the mood. Music is really nice and atmospheric, controls feels snappy, all feels pretty polished. I found the connection to the theme a little hard to grasp, but overall I really enjoyed this one.
Fun little game! Can see the Vampire Survivors influence :) Controls and plays well. Enemies spawning on top of me was a bit of a buzz kill, but generally a tidy gameplay loop that's very complete for something done over a game jam. Good stuff.
Unreal. Refedined my expectations of what could be done in three days. Rating #100...?
Heeey, well done. This was fun to play. Ended up calling it quits around the 10 minute mark after figuring out I could just run around hitting the trees for one strike each and all the zombies would just pack into one giant conga line that was easy to avoid - but this was a great little gameplay loop. Had some framerate issues but nothing game breaking. Excellent stuff!
Neat aesthetic :) I like the vibe of the spinning (planet? void?) and the astronaut. Just when I thought the difficulty was somewhat static the sphere thing caught up with me. I think a little quicker difficulty scaling would be good - felt like I was cruising til around the 500m mark then was suddenly in trouble. Good work!
Hah! I enjoyed this. Upgrade system was nice - I got a kick out of pumping up my nerf gun. The spray pattern made for some nice risk/reward gameplay with trying to close in on the Karens. Voice overs were funny - someone's clearly worked(or is working) in retail...
As above, some variation in the sound would have gone a decent way - but that's jams for you :)
Nice work.
Neat idea - I liked the persistence between rounds of what was available to you. Fun to watch it play out. I think with some post jam polish this could be an interesting mobile game - all the best with it!
Nice art! I think for having a dance based game having a really strong backing track with a pulsing beat etc would be really beneficial.
Hahah, good fun and well executed. I enjoyed this. The music was right on the money. Some minor graphical issues (shadowing popping in and out etc) but super complete for a LD project. Love it!
Heeeey, I loved this! So playable. One of the only games that after losing the first time, I genuinely felt the need to go back and improve my strategy. Really well made, and onmly that can imagine with some post-jam polish could be a really great standalone game. Well done team - definitely above and beyond what I've come to expect from a LD submission <3
Very cool. I really like the integration of the theme. Sound design was simple but added a lot I think. The writing is great. Definitely grinned when the bell chimed (no spoilers here!)
Cool vibe. I liked the mechanics and it controlled well. Visuals were simple but communicated the point well. I found that I got a big overload of text prompts as I moved around and found it hard to tell what they were in response to.
Weirdly eerie stuff. I wasn't totally sure what my goal was (5 minutes seemed like a long time to collect the things) but loved the promo animations and the creepy deadness of the store. Well done!
Beautiful visuals. The scale of the boss was awesome, and the whole palette shift that went with it. Had some trouble getting the character to cross any brown bits on mountainsides, but nothing gamebreaking. Well done!
I LOVE this. Music is great, animations and concept are funny, and the gameplay works smoothly. Well done team, I had a good laugh at this and played it for longer than I should have.
Really impressive! I struggled a little figuring out how to purchase all the different defences (I imagine that's UI stuff you didn't get to finish) but the core gameplay and animations are awesome. Well done.
No links, my dudes! Edit: Cheers :)
Really cool man. Really enjoyed the existential conversation with whoever that was. You write super well!
Love the soundtrack :)
I lost :( Poor toilet paper.
So strange, but pretty funny. Well done.
LD56 — Tiny Creatures (18)
Juicy Little Morsels by Brendan Milos 2024-10-16T09:05:47Z ♥ 3
I dig how tight the scope is here. The game isn't huge, but everything you've done you've executed really well. Audio and visuals are top-notch, my experience was bug-free, and everything feels really tactile and playable. Difficulty ramps nicely too. Great jam game!
Was Have a Nice Death an influence for the team by any chance? I couldn't help but wonder, with the palette, visual themes and music. If so, awesome. If not, take it was a compliment - the game is audio visually stunning :)
Special note on the music: Loved the full orchestral approach here. Really suited the atmosphere of the game and made me feel as the player that I was definitely the heinous villain in the setting, haha. What VSTs were you using for this? Was it just one kit or a range of stuff? Sounded great.
Head'quarters by YogurtTheHorse 2024-10-16T08:56:54Z ♥ 3
What a thoroughly cool entry. Visuals were super cute (and monolithically alien at the same time), audio was a major plus all round, and the alien language presentation was a really cool way to go about things. Really original, and also very slick - I didn't encounter any bugs (other than my lil wormies) during my playtime. Pathfinding etc was all great.
Special note on the music - I really love not just the sounds you've come up with, which were wonderfully mechanical and alien, while still so groovy, but also the way it was implemented. Holding off having the first track drop until the first mini-puzzle was solved was so satisfying. Love the way this was all put together.
Was a big fan of your team's entry last year too! Very cool stuff.
Code Bunny by Stevie257 2024-10-12T04:12:11Z ♥ 3
Hey, this was really cool. First off, big ups for the dynamic music - loved the way that the layers popped in and out in response to the action on-screen. Nice approach to the theme too - I know our team and many others ended up in the sort of forest-y realm, so this felt fresh to see and play.
Agree with other comments about the attack interrupting movement feeling a little off - movement itself felt pretty tight, and the attack itself felt juicy, but the interaction between the two made me feel a little clumsy rather than deadly some of the time.
Love the visual feedback and attention to detail, some cool variation in enemny types, and an interesting upgrade tree. Strong submission indeed!!
Gull and Ray by Mathstr0fficial 2024-10-12T04:00:04Z ♥ 1
Hey, great character designs and implementation of the theme were great. Really original setting. I loved the 'The Urchin' in particular.
I imagine with some more tuning time, the playthrough path could have been a little more straightforward (at least in the beginning, when the player's getting oriented).
I think while feeling like you were on a huge ray was cool, with the trial-and-error nature of the puzzles (or even the path forward), minimising travel time is really important to avoid player frustration.
Overall a nice entry - well done!
Springtail by KeithSwanger 2024-10-12T03:47:08Z ♥ 1
Haha! HARD game, I'm glad there were cheats. Reminded me a lot of Getting Over It. Nice use of the theme, I was indeed a tiny creature. I agree with the points about recovery time - bouncing around out of control for long period of time adds a bit of insult to injury when you've already taken the fall.
The leg animations of the springtail were GREAT - as well as the little sounds of movement. Subtle stuff, but really tastefully done.
Would love to see clear credits on what was made by you for jam (ie music and sfx?) so as to rate accurately in those areas.
Oh God Please Don't Kill Me Mr. Frog by crushedsummers 2024-10-12T03:37:10Z ♥ 2
This was a beauty. Congrats on the super cohesive art style - visually stunning - very cool papery artstyle. Loved the end backdrops. The minigames were really inspired and varied. Lots of fun all round. I really like this one :)
TINY PACK by xk_the_name 2024-10-12T03:21:41Z ♥ 1
Not much to say here, we all already know this was incredible. Congratulations to you, hope you get a win. Best I've seen in LD56 so far, and that's including Jam games.
You are a machine.
Perdita Creaturae by R1tz 2024-10-12T03:02:36Z ♥ 3
Hey, cool entry! Puzzles were well designed and while you could soft lock, easy resets were a winner. Agree on a 1-2-3 control scheme as per @frostbeak's suggestion.
I also would have loved to be able to move my little forest crew around on the back of my bear for travelling to the end etc, but that's okay :( I was sure I was going to be able to based on the screenshots.
Critter Gang by lastsecondgames 2024-10-12T02:48:03Z ♥ 2
Wow, really tight and complete for a game jam. Obviously hard as nails, but when you're celebrating Cuphead that feels kind of par for the course.
Although it looks like it wasn't in-house, I loved the music selection in terms of reinforcing the overall aesthetic. Art was obviously a big plus, and controls were tight, though it felt difficult at times to marry up shooting in the right direction with maneuvering my character, though I wish I was playing on keyboard so maybe didn't quite get the optimal experience.
Bosses were really developed with really different level aesthetics and designs. Really thorough stuff... well done all!
Algie's Adventure by Jonathan Fischer 2024-10-12T02:32:54Z ♥ 3
Hey hey! Other than some of the framerate issues discussed, this was broadly a really cohesive-feeling and impressive entry. Everything feels really intentional and part of a clear direction. Not sure if enemies were unfinished or I missed something, but wasn't totally sure on how the interactions with them were meant to work.
I'd say for the sake of clarity, it'd be great to get a specific credit list of what everyone in the team did - ie were the animations from Mixamo, or hand-done? Music appears to be in-house which is awesome (loved the audio), but it's just a little hard to tell what I should be fairly rating based on what happened in the jam. If it's all from scratch, obviously that as a huge compliment (and take the credit!)
Wish Town by Iwant_Pizza 2024-10-09T11:55:15Z ♥ 3
Hey, loved the vibe of this... really creepy. Reminded me of Cruelty Squad a bit. Unfortunately got a white-screen error pretty early on and wasn't able to do anything, but still had sound. Overall, really cool ambience, and I loved the combined idea of 'Wishtown', the stuff about the parents fighting, kid hiding in the closet... really moody and interesting. Would love to see this developed into something complete one day. All the best with it.
Familiar Bones by barryrichter 2024-10-09T11:42:25Z ♥ 1
Beautifully moody :) Loved what you were able to achieve with the 1-bit palette.
Unfortunately got hard-stuck at the bat section unable to move, but really enjoyed it up to that point. I loved the touch with the pumpkin carving, and the bat's dialogue absolutely sent me :')
I know you didn't make the music, but it was a really cool vibe across from the art. Love aesthetic and feel throughout. :)
Cute Cunies by Bloodbane 2024-10-09T11:22:20Z ♥ 3
This is a strange thing to say, but I really liked the menu! It felt really tight and responsive. Art was nice - I liked the way the little dudes wandered around the screen.
I found it a little hard to tell what I was meant to be doing, even though I read the instructions carefully - it felt like I wasn't achieving anything, but would progress to the next stage anyway. I was able to shoot the fruits, but couldn't seem to pick anything up - but kept advancing through the game while struggling to figure out my role in it.
All up, definitely a nice execution of the theme - just a little hard to follow.
Our flap of wings by Gusther 2024-10-09T11:13:48Z ♥ 2
From what I could tell, this was a really interesting concept - but I had a really hard time understanding what was happening. Played for quite a while, but couldn't seem to get a handle on the strategy or what my role in all of it was.
I think it was really innovative, and credit to you for documenting what was going on in your 'help' section, but I still had a hard time bringing it together.
Music was nice, and visually it was pretty pleasing. Overall a nice entry - I'd love to have seen a tiny bit more of a tutorial or something to bring it together.
Contra Ceptive by Alex Chertilin 2024-10-09T10:58:21Z ♥ 1
Nice core gameplay - controls were tight and combat was difficult but satisfying to get a handle on. I admit to not getting past wave 5 (took me a few tries), but it was cool seeing the ranged attack added in to give the progression some depth. I'm not sure if there was more afterwards but was finding it difficult to progress.
Would have loved to see more exposition about the setting - it seemed you were on to something funny/interesting, and the protagonist's design was weird as hell in a cool way - I just would have loved to know what it actually was, and why...!
Cool art. Would have loved to see a little more sound (even some royalty-free background music)!
Crimson Ants : Donut Conquest by AdrienM 2024-10-09T10:47:26Z ♥ 0
Neat little demo of a game. I liked the art and the small animations. Would have loved to see a little bit of sound in there. The gameplay itself seemed tight and bug(ha!) free, other than being able to stack towers on top of each other. Well done with the theme.
Great stuff for a group of students!
If You Give A Mouse A Machinegun by Shaolin Dave 2024-10-08T12:17:30Z ♥ 2
Hahaa! I loved this. I saw a comment about the apology letter 'at the end' and was curious how much I got to play through before getting there. Was not disappointed.
Tiny Fallk by Anekich 2024-10-07T23:02:06Z ♥ 2
This looks beautiful! Commenting now to save for later :)