Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Lou Bagel
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | Busy Bar | compo | 104 | 3.82 | 3.74 | 4.05 | 4.50 | 4.06 | 3.77 | 3.59 | 3.82 | |
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Fish Motel | compo | 378 | 3.58 | 3.56 | 3.84 | 4.30 | 3.92 | 3.62 | 4.34 | 3.65 | |
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | 👥 | SpaceOut | jam | 93 | 3.96 | 4.00 | 3.76 | 3.59 | 3.86 | 3.82 | 2.78 | 3.52 |
This is a great game all around. Though, is there a way to beat it or advance to the "next level"? Is is it basically a high score game?
Would love to see after a while people call for their cars to be pulled out, after getting them boxed into weird spots lol.
Great game, fit the theme perfectly, artwork was great. Very different as it is kind of a strategic racer, ha.
Great game! First round was figuring it out and trying to kill the chickens instead of the ship. Second round sunk 8 ships. Couldn't do a third...too much baby crying going on :P
Love the art of the game and interesting mechanic of the wand leaving behind the shards. Was a little disappointed that the hammer is only used to clean up the mess, thought it may take care of the underground enemy. Also thought it was a bit rough avoiding some of the enemies in such tight quarters and moving a tad slow. Overall great job though!
Great art, fit the theme, interesting puzzles. I didn't finish because I got frustrated. The blue double jump arrows were a bit harsh on the timing as a lot were directly over spikes. Would have been nice to have some forgiveness there (maybe increase the hitbox so can press a bit early) as I would randomly die on easy parts I passed numerous times before.
Awesome mechanic of the tetris base building! Would love to have a wave number or something for a sense of accomplishment. Personally I get a bit unmotivated when I know it is just endless until I die. Other than that it is such a great game!
Took a bit of trial and error to figure out, but that is the fun part in games like this. Nice work!
Love the art and feel of the game! Took me two plays to figure out killing enemies move the nova back and that grabbing weapon power ups are essential. Only complaint is it seems like enemies are attacking from inside the nova—maybe that is intentional but seems a bit unfair! :)
Love the art. Was a bit frustrating because the fridge starts empty and then people come in requesting food you don't have (unless I was missing something). Was confused why food flies in the air while they were supposedly eating it and why dropping a food loses a life.
Hey @candlebird the tutorial isn't exactly what we wanted it to be, didn't get to add tips due to time so it ended up more as a practice mode. Exactly the same as regular game except you can't die. The only way to get out of it is to enter a portal, which isn't intuitive to figure out but it is an important mechanic to figure out. Wrote a little post about the tutorial: https://bagelshorts.itch.io/spaceout/devlog/44781/tutorial-mode-what-the
Thanks for the comment!
Hey @flashviper thanks for the comment!
Yes, it is usually pretty easy to stay in the same spot and survive, but maybe you are missing out on rescuing the space men and returning via the portal?
We kind of ran out of time before adding those tips somewhere in game and only came up with very short instructions screen.
More details on that mechanic here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spaceout/spaceout-core-mechanic-1-rescue-space-men-1
Thanks for the feedback @aeveis! We first had setup to get points for each brick breaking. Then when we added the spaceman I (the dev) switched points over to being strictly on the spacemen. Meant to bring up the question when the others woke up (different time zones) but with the time crunch completely forgot lol.
Yeah, you lose the upgrades when rebuilding a ship. It seemed logical...and we also like to be mean :)
I really want to like this game but it is a bit hard to grasp the strategy. Specifically, it seems like you have to play every card so don't really have a choice. Maybe I am missing something?
I do recognize the effort to make a strategy card game for a jam. So pretty awesome to pull this off and I like the look of the cards - pretty slick!
Very well done! Could use a bit of randomness or a couple of events to add a little something but loved the concept, art and execution was great. Not sure what the toilet and sink are for though, ha!
This is awesome, great work! Having trouble playing without a mouse right now (on a trackpad, ha) but will plan to come back to this and finish later. Gave this a perfect score and would love this to become a little mobile game.
A mechanic where the torch dies out slowly but there are spots to re-ignite it would have been good for this game.
Nice game! I didn't think it was too hard, like some people suggested. Though I did go straight towards a monster the first time I saw one to see what happened and I didn't die until 3 or 4 seconds into the hug.
Hey! Honestly from the intro I didn't expect much but the mechanics are built out nicely - as in learn one at a time - which made it very enjoyable to learn as you play. Nice job!
Good concept. The sound effect was a bit off-putting FYI.
Love the character sprites!
At first I was like huh, this isn't working . . . but that's because I did not heed the advice of "patience", ha. Then I loved it.
What I didn't realize that finish meant finished for good - I thought you could "finish" as in leave it alone for now and let it grow and come back to it.
But once I understood everything I was hooked. I really think you should make this a mobile app. Would be pretty cool if it was real time so you log on a couple times a day and trim it, water it, etc. Make people actually work for it so it can be appreciated. Of course, it would be difficult to get people hooked at the beginning . . .
Re-uploaded after deadline to add bug fix for not consistently advancing to next level upon level completion. AKA, would very frequently not advance past level 1 or 2 even after completing.
@ruoyu & @dani-desa thanks both for the comments! There was a lot lacking so I understand that feedback. I ran out of time and didn't get much time for level balancing and initially planned to have different kinds of fish and upgrade to a bucket of water, but oh well. Thanks for the compliments!
@boltzmannsbud thank you and I agree, I did not get around to fine tuning the hit area for watering the fish so wasn't perfect!
Thanks @nekoruma & @artyom-volkov !
Thank you @epiphanyg and I was very happy to think up gulp.com and was planning more with the end game screen - like an actual Gulp.com rating out of 5 stars - but didn't get to develop that out or do much balancing, ha! It is impossible to keep up with those fish!
Thanks @scowsh good to see you here!
@maytch good to see you here too! Did you submit an entry this time?
Thanks @gonzo13 !
@kuiefs yes, that unfortunately did not make the cut - level balancing and adding different types of fish. Wanted to be able to at least upgrade from a solo cup to a bucket as well. Hope to do that after the rating period ends.
@perpetuummobile thanks for the feedback - will do that after the ratings period is over.
Thanks @jin9310 - good to see you around!
Thanks all!
Love the art and the balancing mechanic for training is very unique! Though I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be doing anything during the battles or just watch.
Also, would have been nice to get one second once you click "train" to move your hand from mouse to keyboard.
Hey! Cool little game! I didn't get very far though. Difficulty kind of ramps quickly which doesn't pair well with starting completely over. Also, noticed lag/clunkiness at times. But love the art, music, and main mechanic. Thumbs up!
Great entry! Love the retro aesthetic!
Really awesome entry!
I only have two pieces of feedback. The rest I absolutely love.
1) I'd say that sometimes the color and heat changing so quickly can be punishing. I think a mix of the heat changing fast sometimes and slow sometimes would be a nice change to try and track. The colors - I thought I knew decently - but maybe I'm just so used to using HSL or HSV - but can be a bit tough to get under pressure. I wouldn't say change that part much but maybe either a mix of fast and slow like suggesting with the heat, or some kind of hint/helper if it is red for so long.
2) I'm not sure the text at the beginning is necessary. The game is for the most part very intuitive. I would rather suggest more of a tutorial type introduction. First have to get the color correct without any pressure. Then that unlocks the temperature button. Then that unlocks the water button. Then it is full on game. Making it learn as you play.
Great job! Loved the art, sound, and overall theme/mood!
Hey! Absolutely loved it! Best entry I've played in a while. So simple conceptually but it didn't get tedious or boring but got more fun as it went (good ramping). Cracked up the first time I accidentally killed a peasant and the King yelled at me!
I didn't know there was a backpack until I just read some of these other comments - the text flashes on the screen quickly so I thought it said "You can only fit two logs in your backpack" . . . or maybe it didn't flash quickly, but the first time I died just exploring the mechanics and such.
I left some notes on itch about the collision boxes. Also, I'm not sure it is a good idea for first time players of a game to have to input a speed without knowing what the scale is out of.
Hey, I think this has great potential. I'd say the ducks are too close to the edge of the screen no matter where they fall, especially when it is in portrait orientation like it is.
It would have made more sense for flying enemies to come at them - maybe vultures or some large bird - giving you more notice before you get killed and ability to come in at different angles. I ended up just blindly swinging between left and right entrance point and killing enemies before they came on screen, which I realized was no fun.
Love the art and idea, just needs a few tweaks!
Hey, I tried to play but it game me an error asking if the pck file is missing
Hey, a couple notes or thoughts while I tried it: - Fullscreen didn't work but would have been nice with the items on the ground being small (to see and click) - Is there a reason you didn't use a click to pick-up an item? Seems more intuitive since using clicks elsewhere (menu; inventory) but not in main gameplay - I couldn't find the "extraction zone" so had to just abandon even when I did get all the items one time - Giving the player some kind of feedback (sfx; text) when inventory full and trying to pick-up an item would be helpful
Re: @interface - Totally understandable, don't expect you to troubleshoot that during a game jam. Just saying it was kind of hard to see which item it was on the ground until you got used to them. Also, FYI - on itch, you can uncheck an item so that fullscreen icon doesn't show up - Ignore my comment then! I don't play a lot of FPS on PC, so take what I say with a grain of salt. If it is the normal controls then I'd say it is a positive! - I didn't notice the text on where it was. It was the last level, I got all the items, and did like 3 laps around the level before I gave up. I didn't see anything that looked like it was marked for an extraction point. - understandable
I hope you are enjoying the game jam! I did have one other thought/tip:
The items seem randomly strewn about. I think it would add a bit more if there was some logic to it, where a player could be like "oh, I bet this item would be near the X". The map you used looks like a fairground or something - I know you wanted to have enemies and this be a FPS - but you could have done something silly, like made the items fairground items or toys, call it escape the fairgrounds, and made the intro text "try to carry all the items your daughter wants so she doesn't throw a temper tantrum when you leave" - a silly example, I know, but just something so the player can see the Ferris wheel in the distance and be like "oh I bet this item is over there" or "oh that pond must be where I find her the pet fish she wants" - this may all seem a bit trivial, but it really helps the player make sense of what is going on, and players are trying to do this all the time, which is why they get a bit confused when things are just random - they can't use there logic to try and guess where things are and instead feel like they don't get it. In one word: intuitive. And this would have been achievable with the same mechanics you implemented, just different items in different places.
Hope I didn't step on your toes with that - was just trying to illustrate the idea. Game jams are also a great place to have silly concepts and have that kind of fun with it. Have a good one!
@leparlon oh I played again and figured it out! I think it is the tiles that are used to create the canals!
I notice it goes up by just a couple of percent points even when not clearing area. When I played the first time, I must have been just a percent or two below the goal on the 2nd level. Then I split an area but cars were on both, so I thought, oh that was pointless - but then the YOU WIN popped up and I was confused, haha.
It is a nice game mechanic!
This is too funny!
One time both characters ended up horizontal - as in sideways, the wrong way on the bed - and the left/right seemed to still move them left/right on the screen, not their left/right. It was just kind of odd, because neither character could really move towards each other.
@rongon - "too much control" - I can appreciate that! Never give the player too much control, ha :)
Hey, I was clicking all over and pressing arrow keys but the only thing I could get to do anything was the wire box.
Thanks @jiri-hysek - yeah I am trying to think of other mechanics to implement to replace time, as when I was testing, it felt stressful and tedious to rush. In retrospect, I probably had to cut more features and extra levels since I spent more time on the animations, so glad you appreciate them!
Thanks @haydads - I'm curious, was the screen with the worker's tasks help? Or was it not knowing what tile they needed to be on? I know, for example, the sink to wash mugs is really tucked under there, plus, pixel art in general can be hard to figure out what's what at first.
Thanks @247gamestudio - glad you enjoyed the no timers, ha, and yeah, I really regret not making a couple of more levels, I almost decided to enter the jam instead of compo to give me another day.
@seam00se - thanks so much! I definitely thinking about adding to it!
@rongon - thanks and yeah I did have mobile in mind. I just put out an app on the iOS store that was a game jam game from 6 years ago lol, so had mobile on the mid.
thanks @stmate03 - I'm glad the chill factor was well received!
I didn't have a lot of time right now, but I am definitely gonna come back when I do, now that I got a few things figured out.
My main struggle at the beginning was not realizing the left panel could scroll down, so I wasn't aware of all the resources and why I couldn't build certain things. After I got a hang of it, it would have been nice to be able to hide that panel, as it takes up a lot of room, but still see the resource count, like with just icons and numbers that would take up less space.
@seam00se - I left a comment on itch page to explain further what I meant. Figured it was easier to explain with images there.
Nice game tho!
I was so annoyed at first . . . and then I felt so smart :)
If trading is the main mechanic of this game, the placement of that button needs to be prioritized.
To illustrate that point, I clicked depart first and got an immediate game over. Next time I tried some other buttons, but didn't notice Trade because it is grouped with "main menu" and "pause" - so died again instantly.
Also, the up and down arrows on the trade screen are very small when there is plenty of space for them to be bigger, which would just make it easier to click.
Neat idea! It would have been nice to have gotten used to the controls while not getting shot at, ha, either like an easy intro level or just a practice space to pickup and rotate items.
I couldn't make it 30 seconds . . . can you give me a spoiler of what happens? heh
Very nice! I would have loved a restart button since I kept having regrets, lol
It took me forever to figure out how to rent land, which is the main unique mechanic - a game changer - which makes it a very interesting risk vs reward decision! Very clever! Nice!