FoonLudum Dare ExplorerUsers → Lars Faust

Lars Faust

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCo
201431Entire Game on One ScreenScompo4593.282.833.723.774.173.312.403.1435
201430Connected WorldsORBIIcompo2883.482.883.723.574.393.091.703.41100
201429Beneath the SurfaceDIVEcompo3983.332.703.433.534.182.932.053.07100
20132710 SecondsHold My Beer!compo5693.042.942.982.473.522.393.213.0581

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Lars Faust

LD27 — 10 Seconds

Castle Clocksworth by My Sweet Whomp 2013-08-27T12:06:00

The art is great, the sound is absolutely fantastic. The gameplay lacks.

Sort of strange puzzles i have to say, the 10 second timer didnt really have a purpose other than forcing the player to take severel runs on a level and after 15 minutes of trying to figure out what to do at the boss fight i gave up.

So it is a very promising looking game, that couldve used some more developing time in the gameplay aspect, but what LD game couldnt? Good job overall.

Legend of Troll by Christina Antoinette Neofotistou 2013-09-16T19:28:00

Just read your Post Mortem.

This is amazingly well done. The graphics and especially the "turn into stone"-animation is absolutely gorgeous.

I will NOT criticize the fact there is only one level, because i myself struggled enormously with the time limit (even though your game is a JAM-entry), and the fact that you got this one level bugfree, greatly polished and beautifully done qualifies it for a fantastic Ludum Dare Entry.

You can expect a very good rating from me.

Subject 127 by Dohan 2013-09-03T14:04:00

I almost punched by monitor at the last level. Jesus Christ that was hard. I-I did it though. I finished it.

Now, this was cool. And very long for a LD entry i thought. The stealth mechanic was cool. The lasers worked well.

Jumping had flaws. People mentioned the issues already, but the most frustrating one i thought was the "small jump" versus "big jump" timing. To do a small jump you have to press the button for such a short time, you often do a big jump even if you just tapped Space for as short as you could. The sensitivity of that jump height mechanic was not good and made the saw obstacles where you had to jump inbetween two of them very hard.

Apart from that it was really good. The intro and end scene was lovely drawn. Good job overall.

Sky Trader by dekart 2013-08-26T11:40:00

The ships and isles look great and the trading felt very Port-Royale-y, which is great as well.

The theme was somewhat implemented, but the game wasnt really built around it, so that is the only negative.

Clocked In by rylgh 2013-08-26T08:50:00

Aaarrghhh!

Did 29 out of 30. Damn you!


What an incredible game you did there though. Perfect design, very cool look, smooth gameplay, balanced levels, great learning curve.

My favorite so far. Superb job.

Tetchy Mrs. Sheriff Saves The Day by Pol 2013-08-27T09:32:00

Very calm and relaxing interactive love story. 10/10.

Rude Bear Radio by Alex Rose 2013-08-28T09:00:00

Oh my god i loved the VVVVV level. The moment i heard that music i knew this was good, haha.

Seriously, the idea of imitating the theme songs of the original games is brilliant and so well done. Gameplay is smooth as well, i saw how hard it is to do many different gameplay mechanics in one game when i developed mine and your levels are a fair bit more complicated to program, too.
Great job.

Short Nightmares by Martin_Monosys 2013-08-26T21:02:00

2spooky4me





(10/10)

Test Chambers by 0xc0dec 2013-08-26T09:20:00

Looks cool, is in general well designed, but i feel it lacks something.

Still, good job!

Hallucivian by Hypnohustla 2013-08-26T16:36:00

Very fun and charming.

But what in gods name did you think when you chose that resolution? Not everyone has a 1080p screen, especially laptops usually have a height of 768. And as far as i can tell, the game wouldve fit on less space without having to adjust the resolution of the game assets.

Still, i am not here to rate the games resolution, but the game itself, and you did a very good job on that, really. Well done.

Tourmaline by NMcCoy 2013-08-26T21:08:00

Wow, one of the most unique movement schemes i have seen to this date. Extremely smooth.

The dynamic music is also very impressive.

The minimalistic art style wouldve fit into the last Ludum Dare competition as well, very slick.

Great job, one of the most interesting "time killer" concepts i have seen so far.

Jump Drive by smotko 2013-08-26T08:41:00

Surprisingly cool looking, with really neat level design for a 48h competition.
Liked it.

Streaker 2013 by ashdnazg 2013-08-26T15:46:00

Hahaha. I had a fantastic run, all the security dorks stumbled, fell and i had 2 seconds left to wiggle myself to international fame.

Tinkle Time by ShawnFeatherly 2013-08-26T08:09:00

I am a 10 second tinkle master. BEHOLD!

Funny little game that fits the theme perfectly. Well excecuted, easy to understand, bugfree. Good job.

The graphics are not so good, especially the blurry text doesnt look too pleasing, but the gameplay is well done and i believe you likely accomplished what you had in mind.

Darn Clock by sirdorius 2013-08-27T09:40:00

Amazing! That jumpy little fella is really darn cute and the physics extremely fun.

Great job!

Sixth of a Minute by Tork 2013-08-24T09:29:00

Highscore!

I quite like it. Smooth graphics and gameplay, easy to learn and not unfairly hard. Good job.

A Living Shell by kraj0t 2013-08-26T16:45:00

That was really creepy. 5 stars for the mood.

Gameplay wise it was pretty simple, although i liked the camera work and the fact the head followed the mouse. Felt smooth.

Not sure you hit the "10 seconds" theme perfectly with this, but it was something entirely different and i quite enjoyed it.

Blinking by Anoarith 2013-08-26T08:26:00

The concept of music beeing absolutely essential to finish the levels is brilliant. Absolutely loved that and it worked so damn well.

Great idea, smooth excecution! Good job.

Ephemeral by Delca 2013-08-26T21:37:00

That took forever to finish. The tile-making character is extremely time consuming and needs to be taken too often. It gets a bit repetitive.

The overall gameplay concept and realization of said concept is superbly done though. Graphics are pretty cute as well.

Good job.

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T10:18:00

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

There is a time limit of 10 seconds for every frame. If you dont finish the goal within that limit, it is game over.


As for the Standalone and Linux version:

Sorry for messing up the Windows standalone. Was in a rush yesterday, haha. Should work now. I also added the Linux download, i hope that works as well, as i dont have a Linux system to test it. Cheers.

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T12:17:00

@Recid:

Try just continuously walking towards him hammering the Enter Button. Whenever he gets thrown back a bit, that means you hit. That offensive tactic will mean that you will get hit as well one or two times, but unless you have some very unlucky dice rolls, you should be able to beat him. Just dont go "through" him, as you will have to retreat back then to be in hit-distance again and the AI will most definitely use that to hit you.

I am aware that fight can be a bit dodgy though.


Thanks for all the nice feedback so far though! :D

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T17:03:00

@Jumanzium, lordjosephdeburg & madk:

I tried the links and was indeed getting a 404 as well! No idea why, didnt change anything or even touched my dropbox.

So i went to my Dropbox account, just opened up the site and suddenly all links were working again. This is very strange. As if there was some inactivity timer on my dropbox account or something.

I hope it works again. I would appreciate if someone could give me a quick feedback if it is working again. Thanks.

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T17:36:00

Thanks for checking my game out as well Vince, haha!


And yeah, i actually noticed somewhat early in development that it would be kind of confusing at first, but when i actually got the game in the state it is now i completely ran out of time (the reason for the dodgy audio as well, i believe it has something to do with Unitys "3D Sound" i used) and couldnt implement any visual guides for the controls or purpose of the levels anymore. So i basically just sticked to the lazy mans old saying: "Its not a bug, its a feature.". Figuring stuff out is part of the fun. ;)

The thing with the time limit is true, but wasnt a design choice i realized until i actually published the game. At first, the camera wasnt jumping to the next level after you finished one, but instead slowly scrolled and remained over a level for 10 seconds, no matter what happened. However, after i noticed how quickly some levels were possible to finish, and i didnt actually want to frustrate anyone by making the levels much harder, i included the "skipping" mechanic, where the camera just jumps to the next level when you finished one. That made the gameplay much smoother, but also pretty much completely hides the "10 Seconds" theme from the player.

So even though my initial idea was completely built around the theme, the game turned out a bit different.

Still very happy with how it turned out though. Thanks for the detailed feedback! :D

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T20:58:00

@Recid: Im glad you succeeded at last, haha.

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-26T21:09:00

@Delca: You won a hamburger speed eating contest. :D

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-27T22:33:00

The thing coming from above is the progress bar.

Hold My Beer! by Lars Faust 2013-08-28T09:03:00

@Alex: Thanks for the nice feedback. At the end you have to not only shoot the satan-y red looking tall guy, but also the eye itself to win.

10 Seconds Before the World Ends by Lustdante 2013-08-26T15:30:00

Cool concept, great gameplay. Really good job.

What i didnt like is the inconsitency in the graphics. Either do only pixel-art or only hand-drawn, but dont mix both in varying qualities. I assume you did that because of time reasons, but it still doesnt look very pretty.

Seconds-Guess by plancien 2013-08-26T20:38:00

Fantastically excecuted, brilliant design, superb audio work.

Sure, one could argue it is not "gamey" enough, but that doesnt change the fact i am very impressed what a polished product you were able to offer. Seeing how i know absolutely nothing about HTML/CSS the smooth fadeouts and transitions are even cooler.

Great job.

Time Perception by Reyn 2013-09-02T20:45:00

Great mood.

Hit the 10 seconds pretty precisely every time. I love that you were able to put scoreboards and statistics in. Extra points for that.

The Floor Is Lava by Sloth Jesus 2013-08-26T16:54:00

I wish i wouldve been able to make sound of that quality for my game. Superb job in that aspect.

The gameplay is very solid as well, jumping felt a bit wrong at first, but as the levels got narrower and walljumping more important it was fine.

Good job.

Flippin' Matrix by DaVince 2013-08-26T10:02:00

Hey, i saw your blog posts during development and they were some of the most promising looking out there so i searched for your game and finally managed to find it. (Searching functions of Wordpress arent the best i have to say)

And its great! Exactly what i imagined it to be. Easy to figure out, hard enough to get through. Especially the teleportation puzzle was a bit tricky.

I also dont think the game was too short (yeah, i actually read all the text at the end). I thought it was pretty lenghty for an 48 hour competition.

The art style is simple, but good. I especially liked the animations at the start. The music is very fitting as well.

I generally tend to give everyone high scores in the "Audio" section since i am so horrible at it, haha.


The only little critique i have is that the old man couldve had some more action. Often i was just stadning around with him waiting for the 10 seconds to go down. That was a little problem especially in the middle part, it got better at the end with the doors to unlock and the server rooms to explore. Balancing that perfectly when you are under stress to finish a game in the time limit is hard though.


Overall, great game, really enjoyed it. Fantastic job!

QuickHunt by MvdLaar 2013-08-27T15:57:00

Best Jam entry i have played so far.

Cannot critizise anything about this really. Stunning job.

Must Hold IIITTT by Recid 2013-08-26T12:22:00

Hahahaha, those flailing-around physics are somehwat buggy, but hilarious! And the co-workers spinning on their seats. Haha. Really made me laugh.

Very charming game, although the gameplay is a bit dodgy.

Antipodist by Zap 2013-09-09T20:46:00

This is so cool.

Perfectly excecuted, very niche, creative idea, extremely smooth controls and animations, lovely physics. The gameplay is more about figuring out HOW to do it than actually getting a high score, because it obviously gets boring quickly, but as a Ludum Dare game, it really fits the theme and is really just lovely done.

Great job.

Proletarian Ninja X by deepnight 2013-08-28T16:17:00

Fantastic work. Absolutely stunning.

To make such a quality game in only one day. Phenomenal.

Every Ten Seconds A Kitten Drowns by matthias_zarzecki 2013-08-26T12:30:00

Hahaha, amazing!

And such a clean, pleasing 3D style. Extra points for that.

MY ASS by DrunkenOrc 2013-08-26T09:17:00

This took bloody forever to finish.

What an absolute piece of shit.


10/10.

Project: "Explosion" by Simple Ghost 2013-08-28T11:10:00

Amazing.

Super Box Boy Flies by Jesse Freeman 2013-08-26T09:29:00

Didnt understand the controls first either. Then i started just mashing the up arrow and that did the job.

My hand hurts now.

It was fun seeing that little guy jump into the orbit though.

LD29 — Beneath the Surface

Delve by conormn 2014-04-28T08:23:00

Great design, really fantastic, altough it does lack real gameplay.

Dig Hard by petey123567 2014-05-17T10:19:00

Hahaha that was amazing. That laser man. I kept using it, and it kept screwing me over.

This was immense fun, perfectly polished, from the camera movement over the screenshake to the physics.

Please Come Back by PapyPilgrim 2014-04-28T08:44:00

Is the boat supposed to come back and rescue you?

I am staying afloat the whole time and am clicking like mad, but the boat always drives away and the screen becomes black after a while.

I like the idea though, the manic scrollwheel-scrolling somehow fits the desperation of drowning.

SUNK by GeorgeBroussard 2014-05-02T07:56:00

Definitely something perfect for mobile, really liked the overall mood.
Couldnt get past the 60s mark, i felt like i didnt quite figure out how to ride the waves properly.

The Sea Has No Claim by dukope 2014-05-04T13:10:00

Amazing entry.

Ben Eath The Surf Ace by mess110 2014-04-28T19:11:00

5/5 Audio-stars.

Die Backpfeife aus dem Nichts by primaerfunktion 2014-04-28T09:40:00

This is brilliant.
The animations, the idea, the bloody title.

The only thing i noticed is that sometimes the guy transforms into Satan so quickly it is impossible to click fast enough.

Seven Souls by BrothersT 2014-05-01T15:08:00

Remembered your blog posts and looked your game up.

What a beauty. Stunning artwork. Probably the most gorgeous game made this LD.
Shame you guys didnt get it finished, as i really like the whole point and click idea of influencing the townsfolk. The dialogues are really cool as well.

Would love to see a post-compo version!

0x1D by bitnenfer 2014-05-01T12:15:00

Runs really really slowly for me.

Awesome concept though, theres a lot that can be done with that.

Escape Enclosures Expeditiously by zeh 2014-04-29T13:17:00

Pretty cool. I liked the turn based movement, but i felt that the enemies couldve been placed a little better to make it more tactical.

Ben Eath the Surf Ace by goerp 2014-04-28T19:17:00

Never have i experienced something more tense than those last 15 seconds of Ben Eath the Surf Ace very very slowly approaching the boat.

SWIM HARD by Spierek 2014-04-28T08:56:00

B-but i have no friends to play with.

Lovely clean visuals though, and i like the key randomization. I would assume that is a good chance to break all your friends fingers.

Friend of the Fisherman by rubna 2014-04-29T22:04:00

Fantastic.

I saw your blog posts but forgot to search for the game until now. Really love how you managed to convert such a physics heavy game into the pixel style. Looks great, feels alive and plays well.

Got no critique at all really. Great entry!

Ocean RESCUE by MerlijnVH 2014-04-28T10:02:00

Really really moody.
That big fish thing is well implemented, it is clearly visible when its going to come and is neither too strong nor too weak. Really well done, one of my favorite games so far.

Ocean RESCUE by MerlijnVH 2014-04-28T10:08:00

Also: You can go super fast when driving backwards. Holy hell.

Insane Grandpa by jahlgren 2014-04-28T17:28:00

Very nicely animated pixel art, cool theme.
Very hard though, people will get frustrated.

Moon Mole Massacre by jcvsmc 2014-04-29T16:52:00

Made it to Level 32. Score 527.

I think a few less moles and a bit more clicking wouldve helped the gameplay. This wouldve been a very good entry for LD27 where the theme was "10 seconds".

The Evil Tentacles! by Wuhao 2014-04-29T22:13:00

One of the most original games gameplay wise.

Once you get the hang of how to control the kraken, its a lot of fun trying to get all the ships flipped over. I wouldve liked a way for the game to end/the kraken to die, so you could actually set meaningful highscores.

Still really liked it though, great job.

Kalahari Babysitter by TijmenTio 2014-04-28T16:23:00

Holy shit that plays smooth as hell. And is so damn well and responsively animated. Wasnt expecting this, holy shit.

Superb job.

Wriggle Worm by gikdew 2014-04-28T08:35:00

Haha, the controls feel really... wriggly. They make a rather simple dodging mechanic really fun. Nice one.

My highscore is 911.

Under Google by mustaine 2014-05-06T09:14:00

Haha, very well presented.
Gameplay works as well, the punching feels good, but it does get very hard quickly.
Great job.

Wunderheilung by kbm 2014-04-29T08:05:00

Sweet art, interesting concept.

Wouldve loved to have some more patients.

Blood Pressure by CustomPhase 2014-04-28T08:52:00

Very creative use of the theme.
Loving the fact that there are so many different things to care about all at once. The enemies behind you, the enemies in front of you, body temperature. I only felt that i wasnt getting enough blue cells to actually keep my temperature low enough. That seemed like the biggest threat. Maybe i was just unlucky.

Fantastic entry though, well done.

Hostile Planet by rezoner 2014-04-28T21:57:00

Nice little game. Interesting visual style and i liked that i had to figure out how to get rid of the enemies.

Not really sure about the weird mix of english and german, but whatever. It werfs Flammen, i guess.

Soul Dive by John Drury 2014-04-28T09:56:00

Pretty good.

Might need an epilepsy warning though, haha.

Cry Baby by Elforama 2014-04-29T10:47:00

There was a bug for me after which i could not go right anymore. Did not appear during second playthrough. Nice platformer!

Fishes At War by jorgemoag 2014-05-08T09:04:00

Once you realize how to play and what you actually have to hit (the red button) this is super fun.
Would make a great Couch-Multiplayer game. I love that you can hit other sharks in midair and that bigger sharks actually make it easier to hit, giving it a tactical element as well.

Really good and original entry.

Under the sea surface by ibilon 2014-04-30T12:50:00

Pretty cool stuff.
Actually got the big ship in the end.

Beneath The Memories by StuffBySpencer 2014-04-28T12:11:00

Prepared for the Glitch theme as well, eh?

Good job on this. The narration has quite some charme, really.

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-04-28T09:01:00

Thanks guys.
I guess you can make it bigger by going Fullscreen in the Web-Player (right-click) or downloading the standalone. I presonally thought the size was fine for these kind of low-poly models.

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-04-28T09:35:00

Yeah, there is a 6 seconds block to change layers after going up or down. That is to prevent the player from just skipping through an enemy type and thus avoiding it altogether.

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-04-28T14:01:00

@oatsbarley: Thanks.

Yeah, Slashee the Cow said it as well, the menus last too long. I agree, i shouldve just programmed a shortcut that skips the whole instructions and title screen when restarting.

As for the enemy-AI:
It is indeed very simple and running circles around enemies is just one way of outsmarting them. Another is to already align yourself properly on another layer, then drop down/up and just shoot everyone without any problems. However, i did not want to make the enemies frustrating by giving them the ability to shoot back or make them move too quickly. They are also usually, at least in my experience, dead before they really mass up in the middle. When you then switch to another layer they respawn completely randomly.

The differences between the dark fish are simply:
1: Low HP, normal speed, gives 1 point.
2. Very low HP, fast speed, gives 2 points.
3. High HP, slightly faster speed, gives 3 points.
4. Tons of HP, normal speed, gives 4 points.

Knowing that, it is wisest to just change between layer 3 and 4, but if one would struggle beating these enemy types, he could also stick with the easier types up top. That at least was the thought behind it.

Thanks for the detailed comment.

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-04-28T19:32:00

Thanks for reporting the dead links, they are fixed now!

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-05-03T09:05:00

@shadow64: Thanks for the comment.
You can switch before emptying out a layer, there is just a 6 seconds block after switching, so the player cant just quickly switch two times in a row skipping a whole layer.

And thanks for all the other comments so far as well.

DIVE by Lars Faust 2014-05-07T20:31:00

@csanyk: You should be able to use WASD and Q/E as controls.

Balancitos by NickZangus 2014-04-29T08:09:00

Very original concept, sweet low poly style. Great job.

The Find by Alexis Moroz 2014-04-30T10:49:00

This is a very intriguing idea.

Blackwald Forest by RevelBase 2014-05-04T15:51:00

Weird mix of english and german in the title and description (why not just stick with Schwarzwald? Or Black Forest?), but apart from that the presentation is something very unique for a LD game. Good job.

Gameplay fits the theme and plays well, too.

The Sadness of Rocky Barbato by PaperBlurt 2014-04-28T20:16:00

Very cool and visually pleasing.
I like these sort of choose-your-way games.

Beneath the Game Developer by shs 2014-04-29T11:25:00

That guy looks like a fucking douchebag.

7/10 get a new haircut.

Beneath The Surface by zrl 2014-04-26T12:38:00

A+

Beneath The Ice by Danman9914 2014-04-28T13:04:00

Hahaha, that ending. Fantastic.

Perfect execution of your idea. Very funny, colorful and straightforward. Nice one.

The Crack by r0x0r 2014-04-28T09:18:00

I immediately killed myself jumping off a cliff, only to respawn and then kill myself once again after finding out i also killed some other people.
What a plot!

Beneath your feet by Druid 2014-04-29T09:16:00

Good little horror-game.

I dont really see how it fits the theme, but whatever.

Broken Heart by TsFreddie 2014-04-28T12:55:00

Woah, that was danger!

Deep Calls To Deep by Romko Pidstryhach 2014-04-29T17:15:00

Stunning visuals.

Mole Position by Glint Games 2014-04-29T09:20:00

I got stuck under a chest and couldn't get out.

Fun digging mechanic though, although the mole seemed to dig even if i wasn't pressing X.

Small Town by louiscarl 2014-04-28T09:30:00

"it looks like somebody stops frequently on Main street for no reason"

10/10.

Gophers and Choppers by abrie 2014-04-29T08:35:00

Very neat idea. Enjoyed it.

Winter Is Coming . . . by PixelFeet 2014-04-29T10:36:00

Really nice gameplay. However, it does start off very slow and also ends very slow when you have gathered all the nutrients there are in the ground.
Got a score of 177.

NOPE by shadow64 2014-04-29T08:29:00

Wha...

I almost stopped playing after that Flappy Bird part, but i forced myself through it. I am kinda glad i did, i have to say.

Beneath The Surface by adamwoolridge 2014-04-28T08:10:00

Loved it.
I have been fiddling around with Icospheres myself the last weeks, so i really enjoyed seeing this. Fits the theme absolutely perfectly.

Great job.

Whack-a-Meme by Mallot1 2014-04-29T09:09:00

Oh god.

Word Digger by MattV 2014-04-29T12:58:00

It seems to come down to just connecting two random letters as fast as possible, as the game will often accept that.

However, the general idea is very good. Would like to see a more polished and probably a bit easier version for mobile. I think that could work really well.

The submarine engineer by aelita1992 2014-04-29T09:05:00

Nice background art, but the game does feel unfinished. Hope you can improve it with the addition of the upgrade store.

Ice Mining Facility Mk3 by Roman Kornev 2014-04-29T13:12:00

Very good base, but some limits and goals wouldve been great. There is no real point in building many miners/solar panels, as you can just upgrade them infinitely.

Still, had fun with it.

WHAT IS IN THE SWAMP? (IT'S MONSTERS) by tacs 2014-04-29T11:01:00

One of the best looking 3D entries ive seen so far. Very nicely animated, very moody.

Deep Maze by hexabeast 2014-04-29T16:45:00

Pretty good, i concentrated on just memorizing the good colors without symbols and then choose either them (if available) or other colors WITH symbols. Worked pretty well.

Scary Ugly Face by Jonochrome 2014-04-29T12:44:00

That was really really entertaining.

Sure, simple gameplay and you kind of forced the theme in, but the narrative was really funny. The drawings were as well. Good one.

Stroppy Swan by bazld 2014-04-28T09:13:00

Haha, loving it.
Very slick look, very responsive and i really like the fact you added combo-functionality.

My best score is 370.

Upstream by Viza 2014-04-28T19:06:00

Fantastic game.
I was stunned by how many levels you managed to put together in the short time. And they all are fantastic, require solid planning to finish. Also love the Undo-mechanic, saves a ton of trouble and works perfectly with the kind of turn based timeline of the game.

Really really good puzzler, that has superb level design for a LD-game.

FoxyTank by matthias_zarzecki 2014-04-29T11:33:00

Well polished, succeeds in what it tries to do.
Good visuals.

Nice job.

DRAANG by Magdev 2014-04-29T08:43:00

When this guy flushes the toilet he becomes a serial killer.

Dive by quickfingers 2014-04-28T20:49:00

Have been playing this one longer than any other game so far.

Really great excecution. I like that you can just stay underwater until your O2 runs out and then shoot to the surface. Really really good. Visuals are great as well.

BULLA by moonmagic 2014-05-02T07:40:00

This seems very interesting, but i couldnt figure out what to fo for the life of me. Only after several minutes i found out i have to hold down a key to make the ball thing move in its direction, then i managed to drive that little monster thing into all corners of the map, but nothing ever happened.
I also cant figure out what i am actually supposed to squeeze. What is that dark stuff at the bottom?

I think this could be very fun if i actually know what i am supposed to do. How about a bit more of a description?

The Gathering by oatsbarley 2014-04-28T11:34:00

This is such a promising game, but unfortunately it seems almost unbeatable to me.

Things quickly go out of sync after a few nights, with mosters coming out of the woods in the morning instead in the night, the building menu only popping up way after noon, and the movement speeds seemingly changing as well.
Also, since it doesnt seem to matter which buildings the monsters visually attack, i always lose at least 3/4 of all my buildings in the morning, with all of my food resetting as it seems impossible to collect more in a day than gets consumed by hunger. This leads to me always building new houses late in the evening when my few remaining citizens finally come out of the woods again, only to immediately be destroyed again, leaving me with even less houses for the next day and the day actually "starting" even later than last time.
I think it would work nicely if the syncing issues were fixed and it would be a bit more predictable which houses get destroyed in the morning.

I really like the visuals and the idea, but it does seem to lack the polish. Correct me if i am doing something fundamentally wrong here, but i really couldnt figure out how to make this work.

The Gathering by oatsbarley 2014-04-28T13:42:00

Thanks for the explanation.

I tried it again now and had no problems beating it. I just didnt really understand the Hunger mechanic right the first time. I always spammed as many houses as i could, leaving me with almost 0 Food at the end of the day, resulting in most of my village starving, obviously making it harder each day. I did not realize houses would disappear because of food-shortage, i just assumed the hunger would consume as much food as there is and thats it.
With your tips and strategy it went much better. Its a thing i often notice with LD-games, though. I experienced it myself last time as well. You think your game has just the right difficulty or even is very easy because you, as the developer, have no problems beating it, but in reality people will often struggle with the difficulty set by the dev.

As for the syncing-issues: I still do think they happen. At least the monsters spawn in the middle at the night at the beginning, and then a bit later every time. Because i was building all of my houses very far away from the forest the first time, that was very noticeable as they didnt even get to reach my houses before disappearing. Following your strategy one hardly notices anymore though.

Anyway, upped my ratings since it was mostly because of me being bad, and not the game being as buggy as i first thought. Really love the concept and visuals. Cheers.

Six Clouds Above by Eniimal 2014-04-28T09:47:00

Extremely clever mechanic. Really really good use of the theme.

I found it very hard to actually hit enemy planes though. Only managed to kill two after playing for 15 minutes. You can also cheat the system a bit by flying out of the world where there are no clouds or mountains anymore, and just fighting the enemies there.

Doesnt take away from the really good concept though. Plus a visually nice representation of that.

LD30 — Connected Worlds

The Lion's Song by LeafThief 2014-08-29T18:12:00

Most atmospheric game i have encountered.
I found myself reading the text out loud.

Hypnagogia by Cake&Code 2014-09-15T11:37:00

Extremely interesting game.
I was impressed how well balanced it was.

Sadly, when i entered my third dungeon, i think it bugged out a bit. I could take no damage from normal mobs anymore, only the boss could do tiny amounts of damage to me. And that without me ever choosing the "defense" bonus in the awake-state.

Still, one of the more outstanding entries ive seen.

Heart Star by AdventureIslands 2014-08-28T14:41:00

One of the best crafted platformers this LD. Works well because of the tight controls, good visuals, and fair jumps.

Good job.

APOLLO by graebor 2014-08-25T16:32:00

Wow, this is really cool.

Extremely moody, and does not get boring because of the attention to details (quickly stating which solar systems were already scanned, nicely visualizing the distance to a scanned artifact, energy and shields being cheaper at liberated planets).
Very well crafted. And visually excellent as well.
Great entry.

The Salt Pleeease by ponk 2014-08-27T21:18:00

Amazing concept and setting.
Art style is very fitting and the whole thing works very well. This entry really has character to it. Great job.

Sideline by Vandash 2014-08-25T08:17:00

Really good, all aspects of it.
Great fun.

The only thing i felt could have benefitted it was some extra lives on the ship, so you can take some bullets before dying. But maybe thats just because i am bad at it.

Tribe of the Giant by MerlijnVH 2014-08-25T09:54:00

Lovely scene you built there, charming creatures.

It was not quite clear to me if and when i actually "ate" enemy creatures though. Maybe needs some better visual feedback.

\ \ World Shift \ \ by lambomang 2014-08-25T07:03:00

Fun platformer.

I liked the extra paths to collect the keys. The floaty jumping took a bit to get used to, but then it was possible to make precise jumps with it.

Bipolar World by havana24 2014-09-15T11:11:00

You see this mechanic quite often this LD, but in this case it was really well executed. Good job. And i liked the music, too.

Unto Her As She To You by Calahagus 2014-08-25T14:50:00

Liking this one.

Took me two attempts to beat, has a good difficulty for an LD-game.
To improve replayability you could make the patterns on the left randomized.

Circling Circles by Linus Lindberg 2014-08-25T10:32:00

Very smooth gameplay, especially for mobile. Slick.

Light Year Wars by nicotuason 2014-08-25T11:17:00

I could spend hours playing this.

Absolutely fantastic.

Data-Man by Hyoga-3D 2014-08-25T15:18:00

That music is catchy as hell.

Cool adaption of Pacman, with a few minor issues, like hard to make out enemies and some getting stuck in the wall here and there.

Other Side by Raphy 2014-08-27T10:19:00

Great mood.

John and the Arbitrary Gem Hunt by SteveSalmond 2014-08-25T09:02:00

This is brilliant! Hahaha.
I love the narration. I love the music, really catchy. Top notch.

I love the gravity. Works so well, especially on the beanstalks, where you can just circle around them.
Really well crafted, extremely moody and calm. Great entry.

ORBII by Lars Faust 2014-08-25T11:28:00

@Kinta: When you have two planets completely neutralizing each other in the last turn, you will of course, as a result, end up with an empty planet. You do not need to combine all elements until the very last moment.

ORBII by Lars Faust 2014-09-07T21:22:00

Hey vividhelix, good explanation, cheers, but your addition only applies to the very first choice, to turn number one. After that every planet affecting two following planets will affect both equally.

I realized that small inconsistency after i submitted, but it actually helps the gameplay to not have the player confronted with two exactly same looking planets in turn two already.

twone minds by Tonasz 2014-08-25T10:30:00

Very cool. Was a challenge concentrating on both sides simultaneously.
The only thing that couldve been better would be an improved pathfinding by the AI, so you cant lure them around the borders of the map so easily.

Got a score of 380.

RED Thread by NickZangus 2014-08-26T13:10:00

I love the camera work here, the tilting and movement of it.
It is also one of the few platformers i am seeing here that does not consist of the old upside-down double world gimmick.

The controls couldve felt a bit tighter, but the physics of the bond worked really well. Very good entry.

Linker by Stals 2014-08-31T19:14:00

Wow, those were a lot of levels.

Great entry. I got here through a little article on Spiegel Online (one of germanys biggest news magazines), they featured a bunch of games there, including yours.

Loved the Hexel-aesthetics, very rare style to encounter. Gameplay was perfectly excecuted, fits the theme, and was fun. Really really good.

Ports Ahoy! The Age of Trade by Literal Games 2014-08-31T12:20:00

Took me quite a while to figure out how to direct ships to their destination.

Once i did, this was a lot of fun. Love that you managed to put the upgrade-system in. Gives you a goal to play for. It was maybe a bit easy to make money, i never had to actually do a transatlantic trade route, lots of small ones in europe already make silly amounts of money with the side-effect of not having to bother too much with pirates.

Those are just small balancing-issues though, the idea and excecution for an LD-game is fantastic. Like the visuals, too.

The Legend of Light by Yword 2014-08-30T14:34:00

Really good, with an impressive length for a LD-game.
Love the particles. I wouldve liked the attack to not stop all movement and dropping off edges to give you bit less velocity, but apart from that it controlled fine. Good one!

Interplanetary by mactinite 2014-08-26T11:48:00

Very hard!

Only managed to make one delivery. Fighting the enemies is fun though, you have to do some reasonable maneuvering and also look out for the cargo they drop. Fluid gameplay.

Capsule by PaperBlurt 2014-08-28T13:12:00

That really sucked me in. Very moody.

I felt the ending was a bit strange, though. Why would i drop 3 compartments and kill 70m people, when not dropping any and just fly through the loop as it is would kill the "bad guys", who are not in their protective tubes, just as well?

I really like these interactive-story submissions though. Good one.

Sinister by Joe Williamson 2014-08-25T09:23:00

WUB WUB WUB WUB

(i liked it)

Guerrilla Blue by joekinley 2014-09-15T23:45:00

Simple, but not uninteresting. Had a spin on usual games of this kind.

What i really liked was the sound. That gave it some good mood.

Warmageddon by schizokoa 2014-08-30T13:23:00

Fantastic entry.

Hello Worlds by dustyroom 2014-09-02T10:27:00

First of all, the look of this game is outstandingly good.

The first time i played it, i got, as many others, frustrated with the clicking. Some levels i had to restart 6 or 7 times to actually beat, and my hand hurt afterwards. I liked the gameplay, but the control scheme just was not good.

Then i played your post-compo version, and wow, those controls are absolutely perfect. Spot on. Feels intuitive, fast, and convenient. Actually played all levels through again because it was so much fun. If you wouldve submitted that post-compo version in the first place, i wouldve called this a perfect entry.

Without those new controls, it is still a very cool and innovative game, but just doesnt have that playability of the post-compo version.
Great job on actually fixing that one flaw so well though.

Salvation by 43iscoding 2014-08-26T15:03:00

Really liked this one.

[ Awake ] by Jupitron 2014-08-25T07:16:00

I like all those scripted things happening. Orchestrated in a cool way.

Sadly, the fun ended rather abruptly.

Superdimensional by PixelMind 2014-08-31T22:34:00

You really got hit by a blast of creativity there.
Absolutely outstanding entry.

Hermes by BinRoot 2014-08-25T09:47:00

Couldnt really figure out the gameplay. After some time i was just boosting from one side to the other collecting minerals, with literally hundreds and hundreds of aliens floating around doing nothing.

The general premise is nice, but the gameplay needs some fleshing out.

Close Your Eyes by nonetheless 2014-08-25T08:45:00

Wonderful!

I love the visual design of this. Really fantastic, gives the game a great feel.

You also have the difficulty-curve spot on, which is very difficult to achieve for an LD-game.

Merge by vicious_br 2014-08-27T10:27:00

Sweet game.
Very good difficulty curve, props for that.

Galaxy Conquest 3000 by talecrafter 2014-08-25T08:34:00

Really cool, very nice use of the theme. I love encountering some board-game-ish entries here.

At some point i got stuck at a tight part of the system and had no way of outsmarting the CPU to get any further though. At least thats what i think. I tried for at least 10 minutes. He only had to attack two key points of my system, which i had to defend every turn, meaning i had only one action left to actually capture a planet, which would of course immediately be recaptured.

Still, very good entry.

Filter Prism by spacedoubt 2014-08-25T07:11:00

Always better to rather make games too easy than too hard for LD. New players will never have the same skill level as the developer, who has played his game over and over again.

From what i can tell, there might come some interesting mechanics later on, but i simply did not get there in the first place.

Starpiercer by Schrodinger Games 2014-09-01T10:16:00

Very good looking and sounding endless runner.
It is really easy though. Even before i realized that hitting the spikes is actually a positive thing to do, i could go on forever.

A bit more variety, a difficulty curve, maybe some other power-ups, and i can see this being a very good game post-LD.

Universal Gravitation by tmpxyz 2014-08-25T07:40:00

Interesting.
I agree with the others, the swings were the most fun things to use.

World of Beatrice, the girl next door by Lyszie 2014-08-25T07:58:00

Short but good.

Tangled Mini Worlds by Lars-Kristian 2014-08-25T22:30:00

Very cool. Got really fun when you ramped up the difficulty a bit for the last 2 levels.

Love the wobbling of the assets.
With some fine tuning and more levels, this can be really good.

Tin Can Internet by fserb 2014-08-25T07:21:00

Holy shit that is a cool idea.
And so smoothly excecuted.

Plays absolutely fantastic. Great job!

Pulley Planet by Patacorow 2014-08-27T10:12:00

Absolutely fantastic entry.

The visual feedback you get is brilliant, makes the game much slicker and intuitive to play. Really really good. Great audio, too.

Trappy Tomb by jimmypaulin 2014-09-10T18:23:00

This is absolutely brilliant. My personal favorite. Glad i stumbled over your Post Mortem. Superb!

Spend probably 40 minutes or more on this one, and finally got the 22/22 score. You managed to make the old trap game concept fun. The ghost-mechanic is absolutely astonishing. I loved to compare my speed to other ghosts and even recognize my own ones taking the exact same routes i was taking. Great fun!

Konigsberg by kblaney 2014-08-25T10:23:00

I like the concept.

I have some issues with the excecution though. The distances to walk are too long, and it is hard to tell which houses you have been to already. A little green light above solved ones or any indicator like that wouldve been very useful.

I also could not solve the big house, as it would reset whenever i went through any door in it.

Schrodinghost by Carduus 2014-08-29T17:50:00

Awesome.

Parallel Horizons by kebabskal 2014-08-25T07:55:00

Superb visuals!
Never really encountered this kind of art style before, but i love it.

The gameplay is fine as well, im glad you ramped up the difficulty towards the end.

The only critique i would have is that the controls felt a bit sluggish and unresponsive to me.

Jeru's Tower by ncannasse 2014-09-15T15:16:00

Wow. That took over an hour to play through (with some small breaks). How did you make this much content in 48 hours? Incredibly impressive.

One of my favorite entries. Gameplay is clever, always fair, and very challenging without being frustrating. Really good mechanics that work well together.

Fantastic entry.

DINO BOLT by GeorgeBroussard 2014-08-28T13:18:00

The 2-dino mechanic really makes this stick out over other games this type. Works very well.

Ink Motes by aeveis 2014-09-16T00:01:00

This worked surprisingly well, and had lovely visuals. Glad i found this on my last-minute rating-tour.

LD31 — Entire Game on One Screen

Raptor Polo by Bensonance 2014-12-09T11:02:00

Hot damn this is good.

Best entry i have played so far. Perfect fit for the theme, really using the whole screen, wonderful smooth and responsive controls and visual feedback, fantastic art.

Great fun.

Doll house: q-Be or not q-Be by Liam :D 2014-12-08T15:06:00

Man, that pathfinding must have been one special trip to make in 48 hours.

I like the interactivty you have been able to put into the objects and rooms, it does feel like a real little Sims-y sandbox.

S by Lars Faust 2014-12-08T10:47:00

Ahh, you are right, a nasty last minute bug! It is fixed now.

S by Lars Faust 2014-12-08T14:06:00

Thanks for the feedback!

@indigofiz: Yes, the order is random for every tile, so you need the information of multiple tiles to deduce the position of the elements.
Agree with the outline, wanted to implement that, but ran out of time.

@Krisjet: I see that, yeah. I had something more of a points "managing" rather than "gathering" in mind, so that it would not be so score-oriented, but it turned out different.

S by Lars Faust 2014-12-08T14:16:00

Haha, yeah, i noticed that one damn water tile after i submitted!

I had arrows implemented at some point actually, but scrapped them after i could not get them to look blend into the scene well. I definitely see how that could have helped though.

Grid Cars by Germanunkol 2014-12-08T14:57:00

I love this and really really wish there were people on to play against.

The whole mechanic seems fleshed out and really works surprisingly well. You need to truly look ahead and plan your breaking and driving line. This is a great party game.
It controls very well, too.

Also, impressive stuff setting up multiplayer and a level import system up in this timespan.

Cyclic Clash by indigofiz 2014-12-08T15:22:00

Nice, smooth aesthetics and snappy, fast gameplay.
Good entry!

Harpoon Raccoon by mahu 2014-12-08T15:29:00

Lovely entry.

From visuals to gameplay, it all feels very polished.

Blue Window by TyrusPeace 2014-12-08T15:52:00

Came here from your blog post, nice read.

And a great entry on top. Very nice use of the theme, cool visual style and engaging gameplay. A few checkpoints would have been nice, but the levels are short enough to live without.

Collectic by Krisjet 2014-12-08T15:15:00

Wow, this plays smooth.
Lovely animation, nice Pacman-esque gameplay.
Difficulty curve is very good as well.

Fantastic entry.

My score:
14740