There is no instructions!? by nitroix 2016-09-07T02:23:00
This game looks fun - reminds me of Myst and other environment escape games of its ilk - but I had real trouble controlling the camera. It wasn't capturing the mouse, so I could only turn so far left or right, and the motion was quite jerky. I didn't feel like I could be very precise with the controls, and the motion felt inconsistent.
The game does seem very inviting and I did want to explore this little world. The symbology and the mystery were inviting, and I would have liked to have been able to delve deeper into it. You clearly put a lot of work into the environment and the puzzles, and it looks like it would be a fun game to play if I could navigate it.
LD38 — A Small World (33)
The world is (a) flat by Jordgubben 2017-05-19T16:28:16Z ♥ 2
Nice little adventure game. I liked the illustrations and the premise. I had the same concerns as other players about the UI, but reading your notes, it sounds like you've got that under control for future games with the same engine - looking forward to playing them in LD39.
I managed to get to the end, but I wasn't able to wake up the roommate - is that possible?
Match the Fleas by DaisyChubb 2017-05-19T16:16:51Z ♥ 2
Hmm. When I go to the link off of the page you linked to, I just get a large fuchsia box on the screen and nothing else. Is there a particular browser we need to use to play the HTML5 version?
What Remains. by Fiote 2017-05-19T07:21:56Z ♥ 1
Nice. I liked this game - it had a lot going for it.
The game felt a little slow to me - building up resources and such seemed to take too long.
I'd also like the vault dwellers to be a little more intelligent. They were frustratingly bad at just deciding to become idle, even though I had set them to do a particular task. And the icons on their boxes on the right didn't seem to always correspond to what they were doing; for instance, it would say that they were idle when the icon showed that they were supposed to be pumping water.
I think it might have something to do with the "4x per day" for the water and food machines or something, but it was kind of frustrating to be out of water, tell your workers to go pump water, and have them do nothing. This issue hit me a lot with the food generation - there were times when it wouldn't even let me click that task button, and there was no UI feedback to explain why - I'm not sure why they wouldn't do anything.
What I'd prefer to the existing UI would be something like what Dwarf Fortress does, where you assign your workers to tasks as stations. For instance, you could tell Olive that this water pump is her station, and this bed is her bed. When she is awake, she goes and pumps water at that pump. When she is sleepy, she goes to that bed to sleep. When the pump is broken, she works on fixing it, or scraps while waiting for it to be repaired, with a little notification icon to indicate that she's not really able to do her assigned job.
Anyway, despite the above comments overall, I enjoyed this game. It's clear there's a lot going on under the hood, and the game is otherwise quite strong - an impressive achievement for the time frame.
It Shakes the World Apart by lectvs 2017-05-19T06:33:42Z ♥ 1
Nice! A solid, complete, well-presented story. I would have liked to see more interaction with the characters, rather than linear conversations, but overall, it was really quite well done. I enjoyed it.
Dispyria by Tat2Tim 2017-05-19T06:15:44Z ♥ 0
Nice. I enjoyed this. I normally don't go in for platformers, because they tend to get pretty brutal in difficulty, but this one used the platformer mechanics for exploration instead of all the challenge, so that made it more enjoyable than most.
I thought I was stuck for a while there before I realized you could go underwater - that was a nice touch! Indeed, the overall aesthetic was quite well done.
There were a couple of places where I felt the hit boxes were too large. Trying to jump up near a platform quite often blocked me when it looked like it shouldn't. I realize this was probably to be more forgiving when you are standing ON a platform, so perhaps a way to reconcile those would be to have a "traveling up" hitbox and a "falling down" hitbox, so that the platforms are forgiving regardless of which direction you are coming at them from.
But really, that was a minor quibble. This was a particularly strong offering, easily one of the top 10 LD38 games I've tried so far.
Planet Pinball by lucentbeam 2017-05-19T05:59:54Z ♥ 0
I loved the idea here, but I found it pretty unplayable. The controls were responsive, but the ball coming out of nowhere, from any direction, and having to move a flipper to a place where it would intercept it and THEN timing the flip to send the ball back was pretty much a fool's errand (for me, at least). It ended up being more frustrating than satisfying.
It's a shame, really, because the rest of the game - the presentation, the graphics, the controls, the innovative concept - were all really strong. I think with some polish and features (like an indicator of where the ball is coming from next, say) would go a long way towards making this solid.
Commander's Log by smbe19 2017-05-19T05:53:51Z ♥ 0
Wow - there is a lot of simulation and depth to this game for the span of the game jam! This is very cool. Reminds me of games like Prison Architect, Dwarf Fortress, and the like. Well done. Bookmarking this to come back and play it later.
Mediator by randomhuman 2017-05-19T05:44:02Z ♥ 0
This is really great work, but it certainly doesn't deliver on the promise from the first scene. This is a real shame, because what's there is SO strong! I'd love to play the fully-fleshed out game of which this is the first scene. It's clear you've got some great world-building and writing in place already, and the art/animation/interaction style really lends itself to the tone. I could see this fleshed out into a commercial game. Well done.
5-Minute Civilization by Stevie Bushman 2017-05-19T05:33:36Z ♥ 1
This was a fun little game. I enjoyed it. I didn't feel like the enemy AI was all that smart - especially on my first several games, they could have annihilated me if they didn't wander randomly around the map.
The nuke seems a bit overpowered, but it strikes me as allowing you to quickly draw a game to a close instead of letting it be a long drawn-out war of attrition, which is often the problem with games of this nature.
Unlucky Planet by Siridakis 2017-05-19T05:24:11Z ♥ 1
Nice. I liked the presentation of the game and how you can gradually beef up your capabilities while defending the planet. The game felt really responsive, and sessions went quickly enough that it didn't feel like a slog. Well done.
MiniWorlds by Mektidas 2017-05-19T05:17:17Z ♥ 0
Nice. I like how there are a lot of different games to choose from, and how you can start with the easy ones and ramp up to harder challenges. You can find the right challenge level quickly.
One suggestion: Whenever you allow arrow keys and mouse, also allow WASD and mouse. Playing the Zombies game, for instance, is really difficult on a laptop.
A Brief Retreat by Jakob Willforss 2017-05-19T02:08:15Z ♥ 1
Nice. I liked this little survival game. For such a small little sandbox and such a short development window, you packed a good amount of options and variety into the little world. Good job.
Angelic Design by Joror 2017-05-18T17:13:54Z ♥ 2
Interesting premise. Reminds me of the "Small World" board game in a lot of ways.
I get the feeling that there's a lot going on "under the hood" in this game, but it just wasn't exposed very well to the player. I realize that's hard in a game jam - a post-compo version with better on boarding would be a good idea!
I liked the element where you raise up races and they decline, only to make room for new races. Gave it a grand feel.
I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing, with regard to cursing, exalting, etc. And there was something about "tasks" that I didn't know what I was supposed to do in order to complete them. I got all the way to the 1000 years, and it said to exalt the heroes - which I had been doing all along - but then it appeared that there wasn't anything to do after that.
I didn't care for the manner of navigating the map. I think I would have preferred a smaller, static map that wouldn't have to be scrolled just to get to the edges, and instead had a slightly smaller world where it could all be reached without scrolling. It seems that the only reason it was there was to give you access to the very corners of the map that were intruded upon by the HUD displays, so I think you could slightly revamp them to the point where it doesn't require moving the map at all.
Anyway, looks like it's the start of a compelling strategy game. I enjoyed the parts that I was able to connect with, and I suspect after getting into the rest of the mechanics, I'd enjoy them, too. This is probably a game worth fleshing out into a larger offering.
World of Echoes by multiplexor 2017-05-18T16:56:11Z ♥ 1
Wow, I liked this one. Reminds me of "Braid".
The art style came off as a bit "programmer art" at first, but when that first door opened, I decided that it was pretty cool looking after all.
The multiple-versions element was well done, and it brought a surprising amount of challenge for how simple a mechanic it is.
Overall, a thumbs-up effort. Well done.
Tooth decay by Ithildin 2017-05-18T16:46:41Z ♥ 1
Fun little game! The controls were responsive and supported the frantic nature of what you're trying to do. The graphics worked well, and the theme came through. Nice job!
Antology by ragnta 2017-05-18T16:41:27Z ♥ 0
Interesting little game. The art style is something that I haven't seen before - looks like it was hand-drawn and scanned in?
I liked the premise of the game, but I didn't manage to get very far. I played several games where I'd die on the first fight because the other ant would go first, which seemed to be the sole determining factor on whether I would win the battle or die. That made the game a little too "swingy" for me - I would have appreciated something that would bring more strategy to the table.
Still, it all appeared to work, had a consistent and interesting art style, and had some little humorous flourishes, like the ant leg sticking out of the grave at the end.
Greyer by ccglp 2017-05-18T05:31:00Z ♥ 1
Nice. Really liked the atmosphere you were able to build up with the shapes and simple characters. Managed to get 9/10, then blocked at the end.
Overall, well done. The jumping feels a little "floaty", but it actually meshes fairly well with the mood of the rest of the game, so it's not really a huge problem.
Rickshaw World by tobico 2017-05-17T19:05:53Z ♥ 1
This is a nice little diversion. I enjoyed walking the rickshaw around.
I do wish you could go a little faster, or that the fares you take on would generate closer to your current position. Some of the longer "drives" seemed to go on longer than they perhaps could have (although the banter was a clever way of mitigating that).
Overall, a solid effort for the time frame. I enjoyed it.
A View from Above by OfficialCodeNMore 2017-05-17T16:26:17Z ♥ 1
This game is a little light on content, but what is here is quite clever. I'm not sure the core conceit of the game would support a fully-fleshed out experience, but as a quick little diversion, it was interesting.
One comment - it would be nice to be able to skip the text, or always have the text advance. I was playing without audio, so it was kind of frustrating to have to wait for seemingly-arbitrary amounts of time on some text, but could advance other text immediately with the space bar. (I realize you intended for players to play with the sound on, but the reality is that not everyone will. From an accessibility standpoint alone, it's good to assume that the person playing may not be able to hear the audio of the game.) Still, that's a pretty minor point, and didn't really detract too much from the overall presentation.
Not sure how I feel about goat explosions. 😄
Small Town by Zerbroesler 2017-05-17T06:32:04Z ♥ 0
Interesting start for a game. It dries up quickly because of the lack of anything else to do, but what's there is certainly fun and engaging as long as it lasts.
One thing I would like to see would be for it to block you from building if no one would be able to enter the building as placed. I started out placing buildings a little bit away from the road, just to give them some space to grow, but couldn't figure out how to get the people into the houses.
Overall, pretty nice for the short time span. You could probably flesh this out with some more mechanics and make it quite fun.
A small world by CoderDozer 2017-05-17T06:20:40Z ♥ 0
Hmm. I tried to play this game in Safari, and after "Downloading..." it just says "Failure during startup, see Javascript console."
Here's what the javascript output was from the console. (Sorry, don't mean to spam the comments, but I figure you'd want to be able to trace this.)
``` [Error] Assertion failed: undefined printErr (index.html:353) abort (a_small_world.js:3:12075) assert (a_small_world.js:1:7592) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:25187) doCallback (a_small_world.js:1:110515) done (a_small_world.js:1:110601) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:89322) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:90884) getDB (a_small_world.js:1:89602) getRemoteSet (a_small_world.js:1:90826) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:89271) getLocalSet (a_small_world.js:1:90721) syncfs (a_small_world.js:1:89197) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:110753) forEach syncfs (a_small_world.js:1:110677) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:1:25160) _emscripten_asm_const_v (a_small_world.js:1:28308) Yi (a_small_world.asm.js:21:28884) callMain (a_small_world.js:3:10663) doRun (a_small_world.js:3:11369) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:3:11524) [Error] abort("Assertion failed: undefined") at jsStackTrace@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:17547 stackTrace@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:17721 abort@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:3:12292 assert@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:7591 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:25186 doCallback@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:110514 done@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:110600 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:89321 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:90883 getDB@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:89601 getRemoteSet@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:90825 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:89270 getLocalSet@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:90720 syncfs@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:89196 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:110752 forEach@[native code] syncfs@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:110676 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:25159 _emscripten_asm_const_v@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:1:28307 Yi@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.asm.js:21:28883 callMain@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:3:10662 doRun@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:3:11368 https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/451977/a_small_world.js:3:11523 If this abort() is unexpected, build with -s ASSERTIONS=1 which can give more information. callMain (a_small_world.js:3:10904) doRun (a_small_world.js:3:11369) (anonymous function) (a_small_world.js:3:11524) ```
Day by Day by Frolicks 2017-05-17T06:09:43Z ♥ 0
That is a very clever little mechanic - rotating around the center point to get points while dodging/ramming items that float in. It felt great during play, and every time you died, you felt it was solidly your own fault. High "one more play" factor.
Really well done. I enjoyed my time with this.
Tinyverse by zener 2017-05-17T06:02:46Z ♥ 1
Nice. This is all the fun of games like "Lunar Lander" without all the frustrating and annoying parts, like limited fuel and instantly deadly walls. Enjoyed it. Well done for such a short time frame.
The graphics were attractive. I didn't know what the green rectangles were when I first saw them - thought they were a glitch - but other than that, it was all readable at first glance. I'd recommend changing the green rectangle to a barrel or something that looks more like a power-up.
My only other gameplay suggestion would be to place all the lost travelers at the beginning of the level so you can see where they are when you pass by them. Or make it so that you have a directional indicator or something so that you don't go looking for a wanderer only to realize it was back where you've already been.
Overall, nice work.
The Button Room by Laylow 2017-05-17T05:44:37Z ♥ 0
This is a nice start for a little puzzle game, but as you noted, it probably needs more content to be really satisfying. It's clear you ran out of time, and had more planned. It's a shame - I would have liked to see where you were going with it.
I did like the aesthetics of the game - the robot and its interactions would be fun in a more fleshed-out puzzle game. Reminds me of the old "point and click" adventure games somewhat.
Graphically, I liked the simplicity of the presentation. One suggestion would be to make the robot a different color than the background wall so that it doesn't get so lost against the background.
Across the Ancient by dawn 2017-05-17T05:36:51Z ♥ 0
Looks like a good start to an engine, but without any instructions or any dialogue boxes or gameplay feedback, it's hard to call this a game.
The world layout looks interesting, especially with map elements like the volcano which clearly take up more than one tile, and it's obvious that you have/had plans for more than you managed to get through here, so I'd encourage you to keep working on it.
You Are An Elevator by Pixel Maniacs 2017-05-17T01:52:49Z ♥ 0
From the description and other commenters, this looks like a fun game.
Unfortunately, it wasn't working for me. I called it up and got nothing but a black screen with some controls in the lower right corner that wouldn't do anything. (This was on Safari 10.1 / OS X 10.12.4.)
Fossil Blastr by christina-antoinette-neofotistou 2017-05-17T01:46:45Z ♥ 0
Nicely done! You got a lot of polish into this game, and it was fun finally getting a dinosaur skeleton put together. I see that you mentioned that you wanted to get in some indication that you're close to bones - I think that would definitely be a good addition, since it seems like you're just randomly digging around, hoping to find the bones before you reach the time limit.
Another good addition would be to add more bones, say from different dinosaurs, and then have part of the time challenge to assemble as many complete skeletons as you can. That strikes me as a great way to add challenge and depth to the game.
Overall, thumbs up!
The Morix Colony by Somnium 2017-05-03T04:09:08Z ♥ 4
Nice world building game. I like some of the story flourishes.
The game feels a bit like it's playing itself, though. The vast, vast majority of the time in the early game, when an option comes up, there's only one possible option available. It would be nice if there were some way to have some agency over what happens, even if the other options are not currently available.
Also, the enemy fighters make the game a bit tedious. They come SO frequently that there's no point in acceding to their demands, because even if you do, another pirate will just show up the next time you hit the advance time button. If pirate attacks were infrequent, you might consider paying when they show up, but when it's pirate after pirate after pirate after pirate, you basically have no choice but to accept the attrition.
This brings up another point - it feels like you just sit there as ruler and let the enemy hammer you. There should be some way of taking charge of the situation. We should be able to recruit more colonists electively (rather than just waiting for someone to offer). We should be able to spend money to beef up our defenses (I think one time I got a "build planetary defenses", but it didn't appear to do anything, since pirates still came fairly often and killed by colonists). As it stands, you don't really get the sense of being a ruler because you just sit back and let things happen to you.
I liked the worker placement element you had going, but it almost never came into play. I managed to win the game on the first try, but never once did I come close to filling up my planet. The maximum number of colonists I ever had was five, I think, and even that was short lived. I would have liked to see more colonists coming in, more options for placing them, and more interesting choices as to what to do with them. Most of the time during play, I only had two workers, and it's pretty obvious what the distribution should be of those two workers across two potential jobs.
This game is interesting. I like the world, the UI mechanics, and the main gameplay loop. I think all it needs is some minor tweaks and a few more expansions to the core content, and it would be really slick.
Raven Delivery Service by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-05-02T05:26:26Z ♥ 2
Well done. The controls are slick and responsive. I only played the single-player version, but I was able to quickly figure out the game and be productive. The graphics are pretty charming and well-integrated, and the gameplay feels quick. It would be interesting to see some recipes that mix ingredients, but for the abbreviated timeframe, this is really impressive.
Pale White Dot by cosine 2017-05-02T04:50:26Z ♥ 1
Nice little incremental game. I'd like to see some more technologies to be able to be built, but as it stands, it's pretty solid.
Some suggestions:
* Make it so that you can't select text, because when you're clicking the links quickly, you often accidentally select text instead. (Also, you could make the UI elements buttons instead of text links.) * Add in some ways to buy multiple items at once. 10x, 100x, and max, for instance. * Some visualization of the fleet strength other than numbers would be nice.
Anyway, a strong offering for the time period. Quite fun for the time spent!
Pixel Town by automatonvx 2017-05-02T04:29:57Z ♥ 1
Nice. I enjoyed the various elements you need to balance - space, resources, housing, etc. - to manage the town. The pixel art did the job for the most part, even though it was pretty simple, and was charming enough for it to work. I didn't feel like the monsters were particularly aggressive, at least as far as I got, and I couldn't seem to get the "clear" command to work. But other than those minor things which I imagine could easily be tweaked, it was a pretty strong offering. Well done.
Bureaucratic Deity Simulator 2018 by mmason 2017-05-01T05:59:11Z ♥ 3
I quite enjoyed this entry. The puzzle construction and design is well-integrated with the theme of the game, and the rules all make sense in that context, too, to the point where they're intuitive. Overall, quite clever.
A lone colony on a small planet by makiki99 2017-05-01T05:32:25Z ♥ 3
I liked the aesthetic of this game. Figuring out the mechanics of purifying the planet was interesting, although it felt a little odd "purifying" the planet by absolutely replacing the wilderness with mines, coal-fired plants, oil refineries, etc. Overall, the game felt pretty solid and engaging. The worst thing you could say about it is that it just needs more content because what's already there is strong. I'd love to see more terrain types with more options for building, or some other mechanics that throw a wrench in the gears, such as things that cause the corruption to spread, enemies that attack your infrastructure, etc.
I would also like to see the price of the purifiers go down, or their range increased. As it stands, covering the planet with them would be a rather long and tedious process, so having some better shortcuts might help people complete that.
But overall, a strong offering that fits the theme well, is fun to play, has a good look to it, and is fun to explore as long as it lasts. Thumbs up!