Solitary Freedom by CMLSC 2017-05-16T21:47:12Z
Nice combination of a puzzle + action genres. Before playing your game I would have thought it was impossible :-)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → M-1
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | Islands | jam | 2.85 | 2.21 | 4.21 | 3.71 | 2.85 | |||||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | 👥 | Bribe | jam | |||||||||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | 👥 | Kingdom of Spades | jam | 2.43 | 1.87 | 2.12 | 2.12 | 1.81 | 3.31 | 2.00 | 2.28 | |
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | 👥 | Steps | jam | 607 | 3.43 | 3.45 | 3.29 | 3.34 | 3.17 | 4.00 | 2.94 | 3.31 |
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | Chubby | jam | 980 | 2.95 | 2.84 | 3.18 | 3.59 | 2.71 | 3.06 | 2.60 | ||
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | lit | compo | 457 | 3.09 | 2.47 | 3.00 | 3.66 | 2.90 | 2.54 | |||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | 👥 | Protect | jam | 336 | 3.44 | 3.62 | 2.85 | 2.20 | 2.31 | 4.44 | 1.62 | 3.03 |
Nice combination of a puzzle + action genres. Before playing your game I would have thought it was impossible :-)
Great relaxing game, especially the SFX is perfect!
I managed to get just 123 ants.
Nice and simple storytelling. There are some bugs others have mentioned, but I have not encountered anything critical. I like the idea of having the same level layout with obstacles appearing in each level.
Nice! It took me a while to figure out the controls (T to teleport to the next level.) Maybe I have overlooked something?
The levels are challenging and rewarding when passed. Congratulations on making a fun game and thanks for sharing!
P.S. here you have have some :unicorn: :unicorn: :unicorn:
Although it did not seem difficult, it is harder than I expected. I also got stuck - in a level where you have to "build a ramp".
You should definitely add a warning to the main post that the game is very addictive. :)
I also think that the camera "look ahead" when going left/right is too intense, especially when I just want to get a bit further away from an enemy. The sound only worked in the HTML5 version, not the Windows version.
Other than that I like that you give player multiple objectives (keeping health, protecting boxes and killing enemies), all of which are visible. NPC AI is also nice. It's great you managed to do that in just 48 hours!
Congratulations on actually making a multiplayer game! However, at the time I played it, there were no other players to fight with :cry:. Having a simple AI to play with would be nice (but it is probably out of scope of LD).
I like the "polygon sphere" shape of the planet and the unique dithered graphics. After some experimenting I got used to the controls (understanding which unit was selected was not clear for me at first) and captured a few tiles...
Once again, great work!
P.S. It didn't start in Safari. Firefox was OK.
Great sense of humor. The text was slightly blurred for me - WebGL version on current Safari on Mac, not sure if it can be set somewhere in Unity or if it is a feature of all WebGL-exported games... After two tries, I am "by proxy almost famous too". Thanks for the experience!
Perfect presentation! Awesome graphics, especially the lighting, and nicely stressed/depressed atmosphere also built up by matching music. Unfortunately I couldn't beat level 3, maybe due to low FPS (something in Update vs FixedUpdate?), or maybe it's just because I'm tired... I will try again when I get to a suitable computer. Slightly less demanding WebGL port would be great.
Skvělá práce!
The visuals are just beautiful and the atmosphere influenced by the ambient music and post-processing effects is unique!
Controls remind me of the flight school in GTA: San Andreas. It wasn't that hard to get used to :wink:.
One little thing: sometimes I "suddenly" start to fall, but I don't know why (SPACE does not recover me). It happened twice. Maybe there is a reason for it, which I have overlooked...
Resource management is rather tricky, especially when there are 5 resource types and the tiles constantly explode. But without challenge it would not be fun! :smile:
The UI could be improved - instead of showing a "two-item-menu" when clicking a tile, the tile could just activate/deactivate. The menu could start showing only when Spaceport becomes available, or the Spaceport could be created by doubleclicking (PC) or long-tapping/holding (on tablets) on a tile, but that would need to be documented and people are lazy to read...
Tip: Using colors would help players to quickly identify tile types.
Bug?/Optimization: When the timer gets closer to zero, the FPS drops.
It's a nice game that is both relaxing and challenging!
Nice music and fun gameplay. It reminds me of the game "Tasty Planet" (or Agar.io or other similar games :wink:), but I love that there is only one main enemy (although all collisions with larger planets decrease your population). It's nice how the two audio tracks ("Ambient" and "Dark Star") fit together. I also liked that although it is "just" a 2D game, it uses 3D models with lighting (and particles).
Personally, I would prefer if the "screen transitions" were smooth (not "sudden" when getting near the edge of the screen). Also the camera could zoom out as the "Earth" gets larger, so the gameplay could be longer (the Dark Star could be much larger in that case), but it's just an idea...
Have some :earth_americas: and :star:!
Fun idea and great execution.
The inertia is a bit too high in my opinion - it makes collecting protons/neutrons difficult. But after some time I almost got used to it.
I managed to become Argon, then got into fight and came out as Sulphur... For me it is quite difficult to focus on both shooting and particle collecting and bullet dodging. Staying near a group of atoms fighting each other and collecting the scraps worked for me quite well. :wink:
Nice minimalistic graphics and interesting gameplay. In the second scenario it was quite difficult to balance food and population, but that (apart from starting fast and defending from enemies) is what the game is about. Thanks for sharing!
Nice and original! There might be a time limit/countdown to make it more challenging, but on the other hand that would ruin the nice atmosphere. Congratulations on making it in such short amount of time.
Cleared the first two quadrants, couldn't beat the third.
"Bugs"/remarks/experiences: - I got stuck behind the first tree in the second quadrant (labyrinth) and had to restart the game. It would be nice if there was a way to respawn without restarting. - The ball could be bigger, but I couldn't switch to fullscreen (caused by Unity WebGL + Safari). - My mouse cursor got to the edge of the screen after some time of playing and I had to re-center it (moving the mouse past center so the small world is level when the cursor is in the middle of the screen). Again, I think it's caused by WebGL (not being able to change mouse position?), native build is probably OK (untested). As a workaround (or a different design decision) you could solve it by just using the absolute mouse position instead of computing changes of cursor positions between frames. - There is visible aliasing/blurriness - apparently also a Unity thing.
Nice choice of music, great looking visuals, perfect adherence to theme!
Nice concept and execution. Controls/movement mechanics are just right (being able to wall-climb out of a hole and to "put the rocket in a pocket" is useful and fun feature). The levels are nice, difficulty increases at a good rate and keeping the updated stats/objects when dying helps not-so-experienced-platformer-players (me) to finish the game without frustration. The music is great, especially the Jupiter track. It's awesome you have created so much great content!
Only one issue: when the FPS dropped (due to too many objects or something unrelated running on my computer), I was able to walk through the solid blocks for a few seconds.
I like that instead of making one game, you actually made 7 of them! I agree that they might use more polishing, however this is quite an achievement!
The RACING world is actually rather difficult, you might want to increase the time limit a bit. Also I got stuck in a wall in the KNIGHT world - it would be nice if a level could be restarted without restarting the whole game.
Nice idea and an interesting genre - there are not many 2D-tapping rhythm games I know about.
I finally got to a device I can play your game on. The game is actually quite hard - I couldn't finish it. It would be nice if the "targets" appeared a bit sooner or if there was some error tolerance.
I like the Earth shown as a square. The music is nice, sad and fitting the rest of the game.
As other have said, the game is really nice and addictive!
One thing, though: according to the linked Newgrounds page the music you used was made before this Ludum Dare (Apr 3, 2017) and it appears to be made by someone else. If that's correct, **you may want to opt out from Audio category**...
I would personally invert the left/light controls by default (right = clockwise, left = counter-clockwise), but since it can be done in config before launch, it's not an issue. Porting it to a device with an accelerometer (phone/tablet) and just using the gravity direction (not rotating the on-screen "box") would make the controls more natural, but maybe it wouldn't be that much fun - it would have to be practically tested. The game itself is well-polished and the effects make it super juicy!
Nice idea and great execution!
I got stuck twice at the same place because I pressed a wrong button/direction. Undo button would be nice. ;)
This would make a great mobile game - I think the controls would be easier on touchscreen. Are you planning to develop it further?
Re: @lennart-jansson: *Do you mean an undo action would be nice in addition to the restart-the-level action (R key)?*
Yes, being able to undo just one step would be better than resetting the whole level and having to repeat all "good" steps I did before I got stuck.
Fun facts: - The assets contain only one sprite. Its size is 1x1. - Part of the game is written in PHP - the web application "backend" - the API for leaderboard. - Creation of the server instance and installation and configuration of the server software was started < 18 hours before submission deadline. (I had nowhere to host it so I ordered a VPS on Saturday. It took almost 2 days to get activated.)
@j-hong, @boats, @huvaakoodia: Thank you for your feedback!
@boats, @huvaakoodia: I just fixed the bug with squares appearing "outside of the main game area" when playing in fullscreen mode on a non-square monitor. Thanks for reporting, I haven't noticed it since I only tested in Safari, which does not support fullscreen (at least for Unity WebGL games). The lifetime of all squares (from sides and from top/bottom) should be the same now thanks to you!
@samurai-spark: No, something even simpler - the simplest possible thing :smile:: adding a random vector (generated from uniform distribution) to a fixed position, with amplitude decreasing exponentially over time. This is what I have attached to the camera: ``` public class Shaker : MonoBehaviour { public float amplitude = 0; Vector3 originalPosition;
void Start() { originalPosition = transform.position; } void Update() { float diffX = Random.Range(-amplitude, amplitude); float diffY = Random.Range(-amplitude, amplitude); transform.position = originalPosition + new Vector3(diffX, diffY, 0); }
void FixedUpdate() { amplitude *= 0.9f; }
public void AddShake() { amplitude += 0.3f; } } ```
btw. if you (or anyone else) are interested in the complete source code, I will send it to you. :wink:
Thank you all for your feedback!
@joyfired: Was that an inaccuracy of specific squares/notes or of all squares/notes at one moment? I was thinking about long notes you suggested during the development, but I wanted to keep it simple (especially from the design and implementation point of view: How would the scoring work? Would player get score at the beginning and at the end based on how precise he/she pressed/released the key or continuously while holding the key? What should it look like? One long rectangle? Would it have a different starting colour (e.g. dark square at the beginning, then pale rectangle)? I would need to change the internal structure of the code possibly breaking what was working...) I will keep it in mind and maybe implement it in the future.
@jushiip, @move127: **Regarding the not-so-good fitting with the theme:** I admit the game could adhere to the theme more than it does. The original idea was ~*DSP world*: the blue square in the centre is a sine wave generator, which needs to be protected from rough waves or noises (e.g. square/sawtooth waveform or "drum pulses") disrupting it (because those waveforms contain sudden changes, which are much more audible than a smooth sine). (Don't judge me, I wasn't fully awake at that time :neutral_face:). This is why @cheeslo used so "aggressive" instruments when composing the music to match the "enemies", which he captured really well imho. Because the original idea was too technical and kind of stupid or at least not understandable for most people (and because I didn't want to clutter the visuals with textures/sprites), I decided to keep it simple (to avoid forcing the theme into the game at all costs) and just stick to a simple description I have written in the main post under "Thought processes" as an explanation of how I got from the theme to the actual game. I believe this was the lesser of two evil, which isn't that bad after all. :wink:
@move127: Rhythm-based tower defence sounds great! I won't be able to fall asleep today... :smile:
I love the FEZ-esque 2D-3D transitions.
However, the downloaded game looks different from the screenshots and GIF/YouTube video. I see only the player on the cube, I can shoot, but there are no enemies, no menu, ... When I go close to an edge, the cube rotates (sometimes does not work and i end up in space) and there is "Start" written (in Arial?) on one side of the cube (does not seem to react to anything).
Maybe it's just me or my PC ("glorious Intel graphics master race" :neutral_face:), but just in case check that you have uploaded a correct version of your game. (Similar thing happened to me when I uploaded a zipped game to Itch.io using the same name as a previous upload – instead of using the new version, it reverted to some old version.)
The characters, overall graphics and animations/tweening are awesome. The soundtrack fits the rest of the game really well and the game fits the theme perfectly. Really fun game, I'd love to try the multiplayer - if only I were in my previous school's lab right now... I suppose you aren't planning to implement an online multiplayer. :cry:
I played the WebGL version - it didn't work in Safari (menu was OK, but after starting the game, the screen remained black, only the music+SFX played). Strange... However, it did work in Firefox. Thanks for making such a nice game!
I also rated the game and just noticed that I could rate audio, which wasn't made during the jam. You may want to update the Opt-Outs to avoid confusion. :)
"Some intern messed up Kelvin to kilogram conversion" :D
Nice simulation, the trajectory prediction is super useful! The controls take some time to get used to, but for those, who played Asteroids by Atari, it's not a problem.
Congratulations on making such simple yet complex game!
btw. Trying to get on the stable orbit is fun!
The first level is quite difficult for a first level. I don't even know how many times i fell. I liked the glitchy second planet (although i fell inside it and still don't know how I managed to return to the surface). Some of the glitches might have been caused by WebGL + Safari. After collecting third key on the second planet i was launched into space... I appreciate the possibility to respawn. After that I managed to finish the game. (There is a button "PLAY BITVERSE" at the end, which does not do anything. Also I didn't understand why there are alternative camera views, which do not really help in gameplay...)
Overall it's a nice game with interesting environment and physics and challenging gameplay. It could use some more polishing (and maybe more levels). :wink:
Nice! I love the idea of destruction of the platforms you need to survive. I got only to the level 5, it gets really challenging.
One thing that could be improved is the selection of positions where the drills fall from - it happened a few times to me that the drill fell directly on me (giving me instant points) or on another drill... Also having to play the first levels every time I die was not so fun after some time (personal feeling). I would also appreciate knowing the controls before the game starts and being able to control the game with arrow keys.
Congratulations on making making such simple yet complex game!
Wonderful.
I am also just one step away, stuck at finding what Aviana constellation is "looking at"...
If there were more puzzles, it may be a good idea to allow a small failure rate - allow progress even when only e.g. 4 of 5 puzzles were solved. You could also give hints after some time (e.g. the background noise's amplitude could tell "how far" you are from solving a puzzle)... Or does it already have a hidden meaning? :slight_smile:
Nice low-poly graphics, interesting gameplay. I appreciate that the planet is actually procedurally generated. The vignette lowering the field of view is a great idea and the fact that health automatically regenerates is awesome.
Got hi-score of 201 at the default difficulty and 152 at the difficulty 10 with seed 81.
Interesting observation: try looking at some text just after losing the game. You will see *THINGS*. :smile: (I hope this optic illusion does not happen only to me...)
Nice game, I love the graphics. A "competition mode" (collecting points for wins, whoever first gets to 10, wins) would be a nice addition.
It reminds me of the good old times when we used to play games at school, four players on one keyboard...
Very nice game. The idea of moving within a grid in a rhythm is great. The pixel-y graphics matches the chosen music. I love the how the difficulty gradually increases in each level.
I really like the rules for improving material production, minimalist graphics and the game's name.
Thanks for getting me stuck playing your game for ... how long did I even play it? It's really addictive!
I like the similarities (inspiration? :wink:) to the old arcade game Asteroids by Atari: splitting of asteroids, cyclic space (whatever crosses one side of the screen, appears on the other side) and controls. The differences from Asteroids are nice touches: not just trying to survive, but protecting your small planet, having a laser and knowing enemy's health by color, ...
The graphics and animations are great and ESJ is super cute!
Great! I love the juicy pixel-y over-the-top animations and effects. And the colour palette. And the music and SFX. And the dynamic playing field. And everything else. :)
Telling you my best score would be embarrassing. I'll just blame it on my laptop's trackpad...
You all did a great job, congratulations!
I like the slow-paced "idle" gameplay. Who would have thought that destroying a city can be so relaxing...
I ate 9.13670 cereals per second! At least I'm good at something. Will you send me more cereals? :smile:
Great art style, fun mini-games and nice "plot twist" at the end - when I figured out what (not) to do. Thanks for the experience!
Beautiful visuals, music and the overall atmosphere. I have only one complaint: the game could be longer. :)
The game is simple yet challenging! I got only 7524 points. I would appreciate if the speed increased at a slightly slower rate or if there was a way to reclaim lost lives (e.g. as a reward for 10 perfect hits in a row - maybe there is?).
I like the overall simplicity and built-in single-computer multi-player (or extra challenging mode where you play both players at the same time :wink:).
(Sound does not work in Safari, but in Firefox it does.)
Nice and fun game! The folder-teleportation game mechanic is great.
Nice sandbox and simulator. It reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=214rZ1SWewg :grinning:
The physics could be tweaked - i tried putting ~5 items in the drawer and it started moving around on the yellow surface. When I picked up a battery from the drawer, everything catapulted far away from the playing area. It was a hilarious ending. :)
The WebGL build seems to have lighting issues (at least on macOS + Safari): when there are many light sources, strange rectangles appear on the yellow surface. (Maybe just graphics quality settings could be tweaked.) screenshot
Everything else is great. Thanks for making and sharing it!
Nice player animation and visual style. Keeping the enemies visible while fading-out the platforms and obstacles looks great.
As I'm not a professional platformer so I could finish only half of the levels. Btw. does the level 10 even have a solution? :grin:
Designing 10 levels in Compo is impressive. Great work!
Nice visuals, audio and game name. :grin:
The game could be easier to play by making the checkpoints more dense and making the spikes deadly only when standing/falling on them (not running into them when they are already out). But this way it is more challenging.
Jolly good game!
There are some things that can be improved (low cursor visibility, text on Controls screen is hard to read, intercom text out of screen and WebGL performance) but I really like the graphics, especially the bullet trails.
Overall the game looks polished and is fun to play.
Random ideas after playing:
- The intro text should stay visible for longer amount of time (or be shown until a key is pressed).
- Music is nice and simple, but feels repetitive after some time. Making it a bit longer and making slight changes in the melody in each level or adding more voices with each collected gem would be nice.
- The yellow level was the only level I found difficult.
- Fish in the blue level were glitching when they touched a bubble.
- Collision could be improved by making the player's collider smaller (or pixel-perfect) - It felt like I hit obstacles that were still many pixels away.
- Sometimes I wasn't sure which objects were "active"/obstacles and which were just in the background until I hit them.
- Hitting a vertical wall caused the player to "glitch-climb" it, which was strange.
- Being able to speed up the diving would make re-playing a level more fun and would add a new strategy to avoid an enemy.
The game could be more polished, but the level themes are chosen nicely and I like the overall simplicity of the game.
I can't help myself. The exploding bats reminded me of Charlie the Unicorn :grin:.
Lowering the difficulty just a bit (maybe just increasing the time limit or the number of lives) would be nice.
Great work!
Nice and challenging game. The player character could be lighter to increase the playability. I didn't note my score because the Game Over screen was too fast, but I think I died at the end of 4th level.
I thought the end-level-box-with-something-yellow-in-it was an enemy and tried to destroy it. Even after I touched it, I thought it was killing me (I was losing energy and I couldn't move, which I thought was a glitch) and was surprised I appeared in a different level afterwards. After a while I noticed the score was increasing and I finally understood... A level counter or a more "positive" SFX when touching it would help.
The enemy sprites are cute. I appreciate that level-restarts do not re-spawn enemies. The laser power consumption could be higher to reduce its unnecessary usage. Also the bombs could be per-game, not per-level, but the game is already challenging. :wink:
Nice entry, especially for a Compo!
I lasted 269 years, which is more than I expect to live, so I think won the game. :smile:
I like the concept and the minimalist graphics. The game is well polished and the rules complexity is just perfect - they are not trivial, but simple, easy to learn and also very intuitive, which allows this game to be played *casually*.
In my opinion this game is perfectly suited tablets (after figuring out how to solve scrolling).
Byla rudá barva radikálů zvolená náhodou? :wink:
> Oh no, I spoiled too much food! At least I was cool for 6 hours and 42 minutes! A+ REFRIGERATING LIKE A BOSS! :sunglasses:
Nice one, probably the most humorous LD39 game I played so far!
Thank you all for your feedback.
@eduardogrdev The levels without branches are the cost for *unsupervised* procedural generation. I would like to improve the quality of the level generation in the future.
The circle is in fact a sphere, but it is perfectly black/non-reflective, only emissive so it appears to be just a circle. You are right that it should be more visible.
@hammers The difficulty curve still needs to be tweaked based on measured level gameplay times. The current time limit grows quadratically with maze size (time = width * height * constant), which makes high levels really easy.
Reaching level 20 in ~250 seconds is not bad. :thumbsup:
@ryzy27, @sarah Music has high priority on the TODO list. The idea was to make a multi-track composition, which would fade between tracks/instruments based on remaining time to "increase the drama" (and maybe also distance from start/finish to give hints to the player and to make level transitions more enjoyable). Unfortunately the composer was too busy to "implement" his idea during this LD so you have to wait until a post-LD release. No ETA yet, but we are both looking forward to finishing it.
@ryzy27 Regarding the maze without a solution: all levels should be solvable based on the generating algorithm (find a path, clear it, then add some noise - only remove some randomly picked blocks that are not on the path). I play-tested all levels up to 51 - they do have a solution, only it is sometimes rather strange. :wink:
Notes: - When I started the game, I was a bit lost. I understood the instructions but didn't really know what to do until I knew what robots, solar panels, terminals, etc. look like. It took me a minute to discover what is what and how to interact with it. It might be helpful to create a "30-second GIF" of "commented gameplay" (subtitles?) showing how to play the game. I know you already wrote the important information in the main post, but a video is better. :wink: - Moving between sectors could be done with arrow keys (or the currently visible sector could be highlighted in the floating console window for easier navigation). - Enabling full-screen mode would help, especially on small, high-resolutoin screens. - The console window was taking a lot of precious space and seemed to react to clicks even when closed. I think it would help the GUI to get rid of the window after showing the instructions to the player and to put the gauges (+ upgrade button) "somewhere in the corner"...
Nice take on a strategy game with an interesting visual style and animations. Well done!
Nice audio and game concept. At first I couldn't figure out where to get the violet gems needed to build a shield or solar panel. After upgrading the hangar it was obvious.
Interesting game. I would appreciate having a bit more details on how trading works and time counter to be able to see how I did...
Who would have thought that "just pressing two buttons" would be so difficult...
The game is fun and I had a good run. :smile: More upgrades and a score counter would be nice additions.
Interesting, I also put all power sources next to each other and was wondering why they break so often. I was too busy repairing them and didn't monitor the city so I was surprised by the end screen "out of nowhere". It would be nice if the city was visible in the background of the end screen.
The WebGL version worked fine on macOS + Safari after switching to fullscreen, only the FPS dropped whenever multiple particle-emiting nuclear plants were on screen.
Nicely done!
I love the word-play on *Inside* and the atmosphere of the game created by its visuals, subtle animations and SFX. The lighting and post-processing and camera tweening really impact the overall feel of the game.
I had to restart the game once to be able to activate one switch (I think I broke it somehow). Otherwise the most difficult part was the timing of jumps. (I am quite bad at platform games and I don't think the game reached 60 FPS on my computer so let's blame it on that. :grin:)
It is so nice I can't believe this is a Compo game. Well done!
It was a bit difficult to keep the squirrel stabilized and flying in the right direction, not crashing into the islands, but after ~5 minutes I got used to the controls.
The only little thing I noticed was not perfect was the abrupt music transition when switching scenes. Cross-fading the tracks might be nice.
The game is a wonderful piece of art with an incredibly peaceful atmosphere. Congratulations, well done!
Nice tower defense game with a twist. Upgrades that also downgrade other properties are an interesting addition, which makes it more challenging. (I got score 574.)
Just two nitpicks: - The UI panels could be smaller to make more space for the game view. - When there are more targets, the **closest to the finish** should be selected as shooting target. (I noticed once that a turret chose another target, probably because it saw it first and locked-in on it...)
Great work!
The game is actually pretty difficult. I don't know how many times a zobmie killed me... It may be better if zombies moved more slowly so I actually start running out of energy. Or it could have been caused by the Web version...
The concept and graphics are nice and make me feel the uniquely dark mood. Well done.
(If the audio was not made during LD, you might want to opt out from the Audio category.)
I have noticed small lighting glitches in WebGL build - blinking/disappearing surfaces when looking around with mouse. If you also experience this, you might try increasing Pixel Light Count (or decrease light range).
I like the mechanic of borrowing and giving energy. The visuals are nice and simple, only the round objects would look better with more polygons IMO. The gameplay is slightly more difficult than I expected, but it helps build the mood.
Well done!
At first the difficulty was rather high, but after some time I got used to the controls... I didn't manage to make it to the dinner though.
I liked the "Achilles and the tortoise"-style of drill movement. Finding the best strategy movement/collection was fun.
Ideas: - The dialogs could be displayed for a bit longer. - It was tempting to go to the farthest planet i could reach (and dying almost immediately).
Nice references. It is great you made all the mini-games in the Compo timeframe!
Nice Asteroids-esque game. The controls feel good for me, the *mouse-look-at* is interesting and easy to use (I tested it on a tablet with a pen).
The difficulty increases rather quickly - I started having issues at level 5. The main problem I had was that I was so busy avoiding bullets and shooting enemies I stopped paying attention to my energy and Energypack collection. Adding a visual/audio warning about low energy would help.
Nice choice of fitting music and simple SFX.
I lasted just 1:34.98. I guess I'm not good at resource management...
It could use some polishing but the game is fun. It reminds me of tower defense games, just without towers :smile:.
It's funny that all outcomes of my decisions are negative in some way. I managed to lose my children and my wife. At least I became a cat person...
After 93 years of hard work I earned enough money so I can finally retire. Assuming the life expectancy of 80 and starting to work at 10 years age, this would leave me with -23 years to rest and enjoy my savings. Well, ...
What worked: 3-4 relatively small (4x4) pens, each with feeder and 10-15 chickens of same age. I gave up on cleaning as it required too much work and was nearly impossible with more pens. Chickens were not happy in these conditions, but I could still get between $17 and $18 for each of them when they reached 2 years. Sorry I turned the game into a chicken slaughter simulator. :cry: Did anyone manage to finish the game while keeping the chickens happy?
Maybe the controls could be improved a bit (picking up chickens and cleaning), but the game is well polished and addictive.
(Audio does not work in Safari 11.)
What I liked: - increasing difficulty as the levels progress - more mechanics/"movement patterns" being introduced in each level - the mechanics themselves and their uniqueness - the little details (rubber duck sticker on the boxes) - the game made me think about how the puzzles could be solved using a program :) (and how a level generator might work)
What I didn't like that much: - being slightly overwhelmed with too many things to comprehend in the last level (nearly all fields in the playing are non-empty, some fields contain even more "elements") - the between-level dialogues - inability to restart instantly
I was missing some kind of progress indicator (how many levels there are, how many puzzles have I already solved). Also saving and loading state of one puzzle (or undo button) would help, but it would make me think less and "mash buttons" more...
This game is perfect for touch controls on mobile devices, it could be really successful with more levels (and even quite profitable with paid hints and more polish with flashy images/animations :neutral_face:).
It reminded me of playing Sokoban many years ago... Good job making something familiar, yet unique.
I love the graphics!
The difficulty is rather high - I failed with just 15 points.
I couldn't run it in Safari (only text, no 3D), but it ran fine in Firefox. I found a bug (twice) when the octopus started running in circle in the corner farthest from the bar until i dropped a plate...
Nice take on the topic and well executed!
Great one-button rhythm game with nice visuals and perfect music! Please make more games like this!
The first three levels felt too easy, but that's probably good.
Scores after first try: Level 1: 12/12 Level 2: 9/10 Level 3: 10/10 Level 4: 9/14
Well written and illustrated. As I'm not used to playing text adventures, one of the commands was not obvious for me, but a quick look at the source (also known as cheating :smile:) helped me get in the right direction.
It would be nice if the game had more options rather than making the player go in just one path. Multiple solutions to a room/problem and more endings would make it more "interactive" and would improve replayability, but that would require MUCH more time than Ludum Dare offers.
I want to quit the game. Can someone please give me 19,99$?
It would be fun to try to connect it to a real micro-transaction system and see how much you can earn. (not really)
Sadly, I couldn't get past the 7th checkpoint.
The acceleration curve feels strange to me (too slow at the start, then getting too steep), but I'm not used to playing platformers, so feel free to ignore me...
Other than that I love the concept, art style and the "checkpointing=extinguishing" game mechanic. Congratulations on drawing the best fox sprite that can be squeezed into ~ 18x13 pixels!
(Btw. the game didn't load in Safari, but it worked in Firefox. I see what you did there :wink:)
@aeveis: The errors are:
16x (for each sound asset): ``` [Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden) ([sound name].mp3, line 0) [Error] TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'a.apply') (anonymous function) (soundjs.min.js:17:894) ``` and once: ``` [Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 (Forbidden) (monsterrat.svg, line 0) ```
The downloaded files contain following error description: ``` Anonymous users does not have storage.objects.get access to itchio/html/694982/foxflares_by_aeveis_html5/flixel/sounds/flixel.mp3. ```
This happens regardless of whether I am using private browsing mode and content blockers or not... I guess hwcdn.net just doesn't like me.
Thanks for the tip to skip checkpoints with "[" and "]". I loved the ending!
(I found it too difficult to go from checkpoint 10 to 11, but going from 9 straight to 11 by jumping up on the blue blocks was somehow easier for me...)
@yishalee Yes, Chubby jumps higher and moves faster when not fat. The best strategy to climb the steepest stairs is to lose weight (become a cube), then step on the stair and jump, then press "Right" in-air when reaching the "peak" of the jump. This should get you up easily.
@aeveis There is a velocity limit throughout the whole game except for the last part - it is disabled when touching the catapult (hacking at 3 AM :grin:) to avoid getting slowed down when flying. It should be re-enabled (and maybe controls disabled until) probably after touching the ground (or even better: the speed limit should be applied only to player controls), but I didn't have time for that... I was also thinking about more advanced things I could do with physics, as you describe, which I would like to implement when I have more time.
@huvaakoodia Thanks for the detailed review and interesting ideas.
The game is not entirely linear, there is one "secret" passage right at the beginning (if you are slim enough, you can fit below the ramp), but you are right, there could be many more paths (and endings :thinking:).
If there was more time (and debugging the catapult didn't take so long), the last level would contain more platforms to land on, based on player's weight (player would have to eat "just enough" cakes to find the right weight). But you are right, more complex puzzles or enemies should be there.
@carraka Thanks for your thoughts and ideas. The game wasn't meant to make fun of anyone, I just liked the idea of changing player's weight throughout the game in a way that affects the gameplay so I implemented it without thinking about its deeper meanings. I think the main message of the game could be "the *easiest-looking* path may not be the best one – think before you act else what you do may cause you trouble in the future".
The "cake addiction" (inability to avoid eating more cakes) is just a result of the increased weight (lower jumps for unchanged "jump impulse force") in the physics simulation. (Physics parameters will need to be tweaked so the impulse force is higher with greater weight...) The player's model was just a cube in the early stages, but it felt natural to make it "rounder" rather than adding a progressbar or text showing current weight.
(An interesting fact: although it wasn't designed that way, game can be finished without eating single cake by jumping over all the cakes using [space], but that would eliminate basically the only game mechanic. :grin:)
Nice herd simulation + simple and effective graphics = fun to play. (I saved 263 sheep.)
Just a couple notes (just my opinions): - Great visual style. I would like it even more if it was a bit "washed-out" (higher brightness) like in the screenshot. The colours would feel "softer" and the feel would be more "retro". - Controls could be slightly less sensitive. - Invulnerable enemies (as unintended as they are) are a great idea. They could just be visually differentiated from "normies". - I like that player can choose the firepower by (not) collecting powerups. - Interesting scoring system. Is the secret ending triggered by a high score (overflow? :smile:). (btw. I reached 350M points) - There could be a losing/winning condition (at least I didn't find it)
Won with just 2 health points. Does it still count as a victory? :wink:
Beautiful graphics and animations with great storytelling and fitting music.
I have just experienced occasional frame-drops, which caused me to fall down a few times. Also changing direction while standing on the edge of the platform is deadly (probably wrong pivot point). Overall the game is well polished and enjoyable.
Please do more cutscenes in the next game jam :sweat_smile:
Well, if I worked in a real call centre, I would probably kill myself after (or during) the first day :grin:. (I would probably be fired in the first five minutes, though...)
Interesting callers with even more interesting problems, making this game fun.
Although it seemed simple at first, it is not. The slow turning and inverted controls were quite difficult to get used to, but the game is nicely challenging and "multitasking-intensive". Good job!
I got score 1400.
There should be more benefit of popping enemies' balloons. (Maybe getting lighter or "stealing" the balloons as others suggested?)
There might be a time limit (or time "counter" with leaderboard) to force the players to find and use a good heart-collecting strategy.
More diverse enemy trajectories would make it more challenging. I would also appreciate more levels, but I understand the Compo time constraints...
Anyway it's a nice and simple game, which fits the LD theme perfectly.
(btw. I couldnt't get it to work on Firefox Quantum on macOS, but Edge on Windows 10 worked surprisingly well.)
Sometimes it was difficult to set the shooting direction to hit the enemy. I got score 7375.
The game could be more polished (fonts, more complex object models, terrain/background, ...) but it't definitely not bad for a Compo entry made in "raw" JavaScript without any game-making-optimized libraries!
(You might want to look at triplanar texture mapping to help you with texturing spheres.)
Nice low-poly models and interesting gameplay.
I couldn't finish the level "get 25 food" – a fox ate me after collecting the food (twice), then I didn't have time to collect it again. The bird gets difficult to control after eating more than 20 food.
Some difficulty balancing would be nice, also being able to restart a level (rather than the whole game) would be helpful. I would also welcome a key to "fall faster" so I could get food without having to wait to slowly "glide" down.
Anyway, it's both relaxing and challenging game, which is well executed! It forced me to start thinking about strategies how to progress a bit more...
(btw. I played the WebGL version - it suffers from lighting artifacts caused by Unity's default settings. You may want to try increasing "Pixel light count" in Edit > Project settings > Quality).
I can't get the application to run on Android x86 (7.1-rc2). Could you, please, build a Windows version, if it's not too much work?
Nicely slow-paced action with nice and simple graphics. Using the *"zap the zombies nearest to the house and try to hit more of them if possible, also try to stall them before they attack"* strategy I managed to reach 7th wave with just 4 zombies left.
Some tips/ideas: - reduce the waiting times before next wave after killing all zombies - swap the keys A and D - increase the firepower of the laser - shooting the house should damage it - add a possibility to change the altitude (to be able to zap more zombies in a row) - add a possibility to land (for faster recharging or even disable recharging when in-air, maybe also for pickups/upgrades or for setting zombie-traps) - increase the stall time after hitting a zombie - discharge the battery when moving (A/D) - add more weapons! (upgrades? EMP? stronger laser pulse, which would need to be charged?) - add more levels of destruction to the house model - the game got stuck when the house was destroyed (Animations stopped, but no end-game screen was showed. I could just move the laser, but firing or moving the drone did not work)
Thanks for the WebGL build. I'm glad I could play it!
Most polished LD entry I played so far! The only little distracting thing was sudden changes in sheep z-index (sheep popping in front of others) and left-right orientation changes. (Not sure how to solve it - maybe with fade-out-fade-in?)
Great (and relatable) story, which reads like poetry, complemented by fitting graphics and music with subtle sfx.
I died in Level 3, wave 3. Noob.
It would be nice if the levels were more diverse and you had to fight your way to some place instead of just "protecting your ground". It would better fit the story. A bit of screenshake when hit would be also nice. :)
I got 7100 points (in the imaginary "trackpad" category). It might be interesting to try on a tablet.
Is there a downloadable version of the desktop background?
Just a tip: you might try using "fixedsys" (or one of its clones) as the bluescreen font.
Note: it is more stable than the actual Windows OS. Much nice. 10/10 would install as a main OS :smile:
When I accidentally sent an iceberg off-screen, killing all animals, I got "Rank 3 of 5, That's the way I like it". YOU MONSTER!
Other than that, well done, had fun.
@geeitsomelaldy, @tony-redmer, @jk-studio Thank you for the tips.
Keyboard camera-control and zoom tweaking is definitely necessary and planned in a future release.
@peachtreeoath Code elegance would not probably work as a regular voting category due to few (zero?) people actually looking at the code. Maybe a special sub-competition consisting of self-nomination followed by jury voting would be more appropriate. But LD is not mainly a programming-beauty competition - fortunately for most participants including myself (previous LD entries). :grin:
Although it is not meant to be played as a multiplayer (two-player) game, it would be certainly easiest for one player to control the cannon and for the other to clear bubbles with the mouse. :smile:
Nice soda-themed music and visuals. (I would not have believed that music can be soda-themed, but you did it!)
Sodaboi is so punchable! :angry: Next Ludum Dare idea: make a VR game starring Sodaboi that you can play with a real sledgehammer. I guarantee it will be a hit. (pun intended)
(Inappropriate bug report: This "game"/page displays instead of the unfinished game list (when choosing "Unfinished" from the hamburger-dropdown menu on the https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/games page. Someone with Twitter/Github account might want to tell @pov. :slight_smile:)
The enemy pictures are just perfect and the game is fun to play. You could fix the bullet-enemy collision sometimes not being detected, and maybe add/lower a/the max velocity limit. Limiting the spawn rate when there are already many enemies would be nice (or somehow embracing it as a game mechanic like "too many enemies on a tile make it disappear"). Ability to set up lures/traps/bombs for the enemies would be fun.
Overall the gameplay is goofy and IMHO many people would like it, possibly even beyond Ludum Dare.
The gameplay is enjoyable but gets challenging soon. Fast button-mashing ability or an auto-clicker is a plus :grin:.
A few ideas to make it more approachable to a larger audience: - pre-level delay/countdown to have time to see the enemy positions before the shooting starts - easy/story mode where the game would restart just the last-failed level, and possibly add some extra health
Simple game, well executed and polished. I like how you made the levels simple at the beginning with the difficulty progressively increasing; personally I would prefer seeing the more difficult levels sooner, and I would definitely play more non-trivial levels like the last one. Making a level generator should be rather simple – with that you could ship it on mobile for commuters to enjoyably waste time with :innocent:. Diagonal movement is a nice touch.
Not being used to playing top-down shooters I did not progress past the first room. I found the controls a little hard to use. I somehow managed to keep the system cursor shown once, which helped me a little with aiming :slight_smile:. Perhaps adding a crosshair, or constraining the mouse position to a smaller circle in the center of the screen would make it more approachable to noobs like me. I still enjoyed the game.
The monsters are scary, sprites are nice; perfectly fitting sound effects and ambient music earn this game 5:star: in the Mood category.
Well-polished, great visuals and a calm gameplay. I liked the idea of a turn-based strategy game without fighting, just tile capturing.
Adding a short in-game tutorial would be nice so players don't need to read the rules (breaks immersion). Also more diverse music would be nice in a future release, if you plan to continue working on this.
Cool little game and subjectively funny endgame screen.
The grid could be darker/transparent so it does not interfere with the background/sprites. Feel free to add more levels :wink:.
That's unfair: the endgame happens after landing the last jump, not when trying to jump again with no jumps left as I would expect. I want my money back! :grin: Also the hitbox was a bit hard to estimate in the beginning. Seriously though, I don't have any other complaints.
Overall this game is pretty polished. I really enjoyed playing it and would welcome more levels, perhaps with some "danger" and/or moving platforms etc.
I like the twist on the topic *limited space**bar*** - must admit I also considered going this path. Also finishing the landing after being fully on the platform was a nice touch. Cute sprites/animation btw (by elthen, non-LD54).
Nice idea, well executed! I especially like the camera movement and movement tweening.
Tip: make it more challenging by making the zombies attack you. (The player does not have a need to run away in the current version of the game.)
Bug report: when I started the Windows build for the first few times, it got stuck before/after downloading the dictionary (I ran it inside Sandboxie and offline at first). When I ran in in the "normal" environment, it worked well. :slight_smile:
Well done!
As I am not really good at platformers and shooters I had to skip most of the levels after dying halfway through, but the music is great and fitting the visuals. Also the sound effects being generated from the enemies' position was a nice touch.
Tip: it might be nice to include an "outro" - an animation of flying away from the planet (if the player collected enough batteries).
Wow. I really enjoyed playing the game.
It took me a while before I found out what to do in the room when being followed. Maybe a little hint (a light ray coming from the window) might help.
The music is awesome (as always :wink:) and fitting to the mood of the game. The contrast of the calm melody in the bedroom with the "scary" ambient sound and sound effects when a monster is nearby with the cute and scary graphics create an atmosphere full of tension.
P.S. There are some lighting artefacts ("full-light box" around the character and light discontinuities especially visible in the room with red light, in v1.02, WebGL) in Safari. (Does this happen in other web browsers? Would increasing pixel light count solve it?)
Before playing your game I wouldn't have been able to believe that such combination of genres is actually possible!
I would appreciate a stronger indication of "a transition to the other character is coming in 3..2..1". Also the light should not be so high above the player's characters (there should be no highlight/reflection on top of the the maze blocks when the character is near). Other than that, I'd say it's perfect!
Offtopic: This reminded me of our game [lit](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lit) from Ludum Dare 39. :smile: