Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → MachWerx
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | Critter Mayhem | jam | 337 | 3.75 | 3.88 | 3.50 | 3.59 | 3.68 | 4.04 | 2.52 | 3.76 | |
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | Space Harvest | compo | 174 | 3.46 | 3.28 | 3.32 | 3.76 | 3.22 | 3.39 | 3.31 | 3.04 | |
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Life of a Floof | compo | 516 | 3.01 | 2.55 | 3.41 | 3.71 | 3.11 | 3.44 | 2.85 | 3.58 | |
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | Snake on a Sphere | compo | 112 | 3.92 | 4.19 | 3.83 | 3.71 | 3.69 | 2.81 | 2.82 | 2.97 | |
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Innocuous Pong | compo | 204 | 3.79 | 3.90 | 4.12 | 3.03 | 3.79 | 3.58 | 2.65 | 3.65 | |
| 2019 | 44 | Your life is currency | 👥 | PigsyBanksy | jam | 109 | 3.94 | 3.63 | 3.55 | 4.17 | 4.18 | 3.69 | 3.41 | 3.74 |
Thanks for all the comments! We used Unity, which gave us pretty good lighting. Joel did the backgrounds in 2D and the big green block in Blender. Jeremy and I used Tilt Brush to create the pig, coin, and other 3D assets.
That was a lot of fun. I liked the slots, power-ups, and coin mechanic. But I couldn't figure out what to do with the claw boss at the end of level 3. I kept on firing and I thought maybe I should be aiming for its coin collector, but I couldn't tell if I was doing any damage and eventually just ran out of bullets and lives.
I love the use of the theme on this!
We had a similar idea for our game (Pigsy Banksy) where you play a flying piggy bank, collecting and shooting coins as your life / ammo. It was fun to see similar ideas expressed in different ways. Great job with the platforms. The ideas really built on top of each other in interesting ways.
Loved the music and the chill vibe the game had! I also loved the look of the game with the stylized art and the expanding color circle in the middle.
Impressive amount of work for 3 days!
At first, I thought it was pretty dumb because I just hit the space bar as soon as it loaded. Then I read some more, cleared my cookies for that site, and tried it again. I was happy to see that there was more to it than I initially thought. (You can also try running this in an incognito window.)
Great game! Loved the concept. I had a really hard time with the moving platforms but other than that, it was pretty fun. Thanks for offering to rate games today. Mine's called Innocuous Pong. There's a WebGL version, but it's a little buggy and the Mac and Windows executables are better.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I've released a new version with the following fixes:
* Cursor is locked so the paddle won't get stuck part-way to the edge. * More stable collisions. * The paddle speed has been slowed down so it's not crazy on the web. * The score displays 0 at the beginning instead of the placeholder 99.
@norris-eldridge Oh, the mouse should lock to prevent that from happening. Did you play the WebGL version? You might have to click once in the screen to get that to happen. If you get the mouse to lock, then try to get a score of 15 to see the surprise level. In any case, thanks for trying it out!
@frozen-spirit If you were playing the web version, sometimes you have to click a couple times in the window to get the mouse to lock. But thanks for trying the game!
Love the style of the game! The initial window was too big for my laptop so I had to zoom out a few times to see the whole game, but then it made a lot more sense. Great work.
Nice concept! I liked the innovation of trees that create highways between them. I wish it was more clear where the off-screen trees were so we could align the highways more conveniently. Also, I couldn't figure out the plants even though I got to difficulty 2.
Very cute! I liked the art and sound style. I think the controls need some work to make it feel more smooth and fun, but I like the concept.
Clever idea! I've never seen a concept like that. I think having the canons auto-aim would make it a little more playable. But cool concept
Sometimes the randomly generated levels make it impossible to continue (like, if one platform is directly above another and not high enough to squeeze your character in between). But the art and sound are cute.
Fantastic concept! I managed to get a few words and even made it to dream level -1. I got lost pretty easily, but it was still fun navigating around the different levels and trying to find new things to inspect. It would be nice to have some highlighting around the objects that you could either inspect or triggered sleep/wake. Also, did you mean to leave in the debug pixel position information in the upper left? Feels like the dream level information could go there instead.
Great audio! I struggled with the "Clear the Sky" minigame but all the other ones felt pretty good.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I fixed the overly aggressive self-intersection test bug so now you can turn sharper corners without dying. I also think I've fixed a camera stuttering problem on some computers. And I've also fixed the final red level bonus stage. It used to be basically impossible to survive more than a second or so but now it ramps up slower so you can actually score some decent points before it goes too fast for humans to react.
I loved it! I was making pretty good progress the first couple of days but then the ocelots started coming and they started coming faster and faster. On the last day, I was demoralized when 2 ocelots stole a pair of my tools. I almost gave up, but decided on one last desperate foray into the grasslands and found the gem! Great job on the game!
Nice concept for a game that fits well with the theme! I feel like the thrust towards the cursor is so small that it doesn't feel like I have that much control. Also, for this particular control mechanism, it feels like the cursor should be visible so that it's easier to change the orientation. As is, it's hard to tell whether I'm near the center (and thus only need to make a small movement to change direction) or towards the edge (and so need a larger movement). And when the cursor goes outside of the window, the clicks can't be detected so teleport won't work. But I like the upgrade system and feel like there's good potential here.
I also thought the crosshairs were going to be used for something, like steering. I saw that you're using Unity. If you were interested in using the mouse to steer, you could lock the cursor and hide it using
``` Cursor.visible = false; Cursor.lockState = CursorLockMode.Locked; ```
And then use `Input.mousePosition` with `Camera.main.pixelWidth` and `Camera.main.pixelHeight` to get the position.
Such a great concept! It really captures the feel of trying to go deeper and deeper and the terror of pushing too far. I would have *loved* to have a minimap. Also, on a minor note, I think the shop should switch "heart container" to "heart recovery" when you've taken damage. It could still be the same price but this way you'd have the visual of the hearts recovering instead of having that damage permanently showing, which feels a little harsh.
That was fun. Loved the moodiness. I saw the occasional air bubble on the ground. Was that intended to be a health recovery power-up?
You should include "E to do an action" in the list of instructions because it's easy to miss the very small type with black on dark blue lettering. I managed to get to the dinosaur level, accumulated past the goal amount, and got to the bottom door but nothing happened. If there's more to the game, I missed it.
Neat tech demo! I also did procedural mesh generation for my game, Snake on a Sphere. If you're interested in the mesh generation part, I wrote [a brief post on it](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/snake-on-a-sphere/snake-on-a-sphere-procedural-meshes)
Cute graphics! I feel like the leadup to the battles are a little long but I like the guided rockets. I wish there was a way to get a sense of which asteroids are closest. I started to try to go out to find the asteroids but died when the one I picked was much farther out than a close one that hit the earth.
I liked the amount of depth in this game. As @potkirland mentioned, it's hard to get into the flow when there's a few seconds of leadup to the first piece and the garbage piles are of limited size. Also, it took me a couple plays to understand that the only piles we could interact with were the ones in the frontmost layer. It feels like the separation between "repair" and "deposit" doesn't really add much to the game. Also, the 5 second timer / delay on repair felt unneeded. Feels like just matching the repair types is enough. But the game was compelling enough that I played it a few times until I got to the goal!
What a clever idea! I would have loved a "rotate" piece button but other than that, everything felt pretty intuitive and elegant.
I had some trouble maneuvering around the platforms, but I thought you made clever use of rope mechanics. Very innovative!
Clever idea! I loved the tension between maintaining energy and keeping the other mosquitos distracted. Impressive how solidly you executed your concept in just 48 hours!
Great start! The assets, lighting, and animation all look great. One suggestion for future games would be to put in additional keyboard controls for things like right-click because some people use trackpads where right-click isn't as easy to use.
Great job with this game! Feels very complete, especially for 48 hours. Unfortunately, it's just too hard for me. I spent a long time getting 50 coins so I could get the first upgrade, but even with that, I couldn't keep the ball in the air for more than a couple bounces. I tried it on an iPad and that was a lot better, but it kept on crashing after a few balls. So I think this game isn't for me, but other than the difficulty, loved everything else about it.
Wonderful little story elements and the graphics were great!
I couldn't get past the second part but the graphics were cute! Nice music that added to the ambience.
I could only get the first couple endings after several playthroughs, but I'm impressed at how much you put in there! It felt like Reigns, but a little more intuitive. I would have liked to have seen live polling data available all the time to get a better sense of the ramifications of each action but overall, it was pretty enjoyable.
Great concept! This is one of the most fun games I've played in this jam. I filled the space with a bunch of bumpers and at one point it got stuck and I think it could have gone on forever. Another time, it bounced really hard off a bumper and ended up off screen:
Catchbot.jpg
But even with the bugs, the game was a lot of fun. Great job!
Fantastic! I loved the way that the used bullets become resources for you to build. Also, the health packs were great for luring you outside of the safety of your fort. Good decision to make them non-movable.
Oh, what an ending! Such a simple game idea, but very well executed. I'm impressed with how much you managed to put into the game in just 48 hours!
Clever idea! I wonder if this would be easier to play on a touch screen.
What a fun little game! Does it move any faster if you're not firing? I couldn't really tell, but if not, that might be an interesting thing to give it a little challenge to decide whether to move or fire.
That was fun! I got a little confused towards the end because the turrets all looked the same to me so it was hard to know which areas were well protected and which ones weren't. But it was fun balancing between coins and colonists to rescue.
I saw your comment about how this was your first jam, so congratulations on making something! I think you're on the right track and just need another several hours to really test the gameplay and feel to get a satisfying platformer.
Great tech demo! I kept it lit for 1050 rounds and at first, I thought it had crashed because I was so far from the fire that I didn't see any tiles falling for a long time.
I think the game would benefit from an arrow pointing back to camp. Also, I noticed that the hexes turned gray just outside your area of view, but you wouldn't spot logs in those spots until they were in the green area. So when you walk a long distance and everything looks gray, you can't quite tell if you've actually seen a hex or not. I'd suggest either showing the log when you expose it or coloring hexes differently if you've exposed it but not had it in view range. Also, a "life bar" at the bottom would be helpful.
Nice comic-style intro but there should be a way to skip it after the first playthrough. Sometimes it feels like I'm swinging and they're hitting me, but I'm not hitting them. I think it could use a little more feedback for when the hits are connecting or not, especially with the boss fight at the end of level 5. But great job creating a distinctive, atmospheric experience!
That was a lot of fun! I did find my hand getting pretty cramped from all the clicking and dragging. I also tried it on an iPad. It didn't work but I think this would be great on a touch screen!
Congratulations on achieving so many personal firsts! Each time you create something, you increase your toolset of things you can use for your next creation.
The words were a little small and hard to read on my screen, but I love the art style!
Nice atmospheric music and interesting concept for a game. The controls felt kinda floaty, but maybe that's the vibe you were going for. It does feel like there needs to be something that makes you want to stay closer to the sun and maybe some indication of where the sun is. Otherwise, it feels like you could just keep flying out forever.
I'm amazed at how much you packed in during a 48-hour competition! The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay is subtly deep. The first time I ran out of wood made me realize that you have to carefully manage which trees you cut down. A great idea and a great execution!
Great execution of a tricky concept. I had a hard time getting an intuitive feel for a good tactic but I enjoyed the way the different ships felt. Great job!
I managed to get 1:18! I like how simple and compact this game is. It's a little tricky getting hold of the clouds but once you've got one, it feels pretty natural. Feels like you managed to squeeze a lot of little gameplay elements into 48 hours. Congrats!
You may have forgotten to hit "publish" on your game in itch.io. Also, I coincidentally made a one-sided pong game for Ludum Dare a couple years ago: https://machwerx.itch.io/innocuous-pong-webgl.
Impressive procedural animations! I was overwhelmed by the orders and in the end, couldn't fill a single one. I couldn't consistently get a stem. I feel like the game might be better if it didn't have any stem requirements or if there was a better way to get them. But great job on how far you got with such an ambitious idea!
Impressive amount of work! For games like this, I think it's vitally important to have interactable objects highlight when you approach. I got stuck because I couldn't find any keypad. For anyone else looking, look in the room to the very left of the elevator. But other than that, it was fun.
Hah, I chuckled. =)
Hah! Such a simple concept, wonderfully ... "executed". :smile:
Nice job with the mini games! Very ambitious but it paid off. I enjoyed all the mini games for finding the items. Also, neat tie in with the Marketer's Dream game.
Beautiful graphics and sound! I didn't feel like the mechanic of moving vertically added anything. It felt like I just needed to press up the whole time, which wasn't very satisfying. But I did like the fact that the bridge would get damaged over time.
I love Slay the Spire! I can see how it was an inspiration. I feel like the game could use a little more balancing. I just picked the "+1 attack" upgrade each time and pretty easily got through all the bosses except the last one where I fortunately had enough shield to get through to the end.
Oh, also, I noticed that you used Unity and WebGL, which is what I used as well. It turns out that you can embed the game directly on your LDJam page. If you're interested in doing that, I [wrote a post about it here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/space-harvest-1/embedding-unity-webgl-directly-in-your-ldjam-game-page)
That was fantastic! The harvester was so cute, the sounds were adorable, and I loved the simple mechanic of adding more and more harvesters at each level. Very solid, tight, fun game. Great job!
This is the most fun I've had playing games in LD52 so far! Love the idea of creating minions out of your loot. It could have used a little more direction in getting players to head towards the end goal but I got there eventually. Nice music, cool Minecraft inspired art, and I enjoyed the funny flavor text. Congratulations to the team for this effort!
Great concept! I love the mechanic of planting and then having to run away. Also, great job with balancing out the two different types of monsters so they have different strategies. I think you're on to something here with this game.
@milkwine there is another end condition! If you get the civilization level up to the max level, the bunnies learn interstellar travel. There's a hint about it at the end of the description above.
@amarokczukay thanks for trying it out! There is one last goal, which is to try to use the research to get the bunnies to the max civilization level so they can escape the horde of space cats. If you'd like to try for that, you can use the "shift-G" cheat code to skip the first sections.
Nice idea! For the embedded version on this page, you can set the game's resolution to 948x489 to prevent the scrollbars, which obscure some of your UI. Also, it's good practice to minimize the number of clicks people have to do. For example, instead of mode switching buttons, you could have the seeding / watering / harvesting / weeding action chosen automatically when you click within a field. Then you'd just have to choose which seed to plant but you still get the fun part of managing the timing between all the different fields and plant types.
I had a hard time with the controls as well, although I eventually kinda figured them out. Nice minimalist art style! And cool music.
Nice idea to have the hats be a hint but I couldn't figure out the system. Also, it bummed me out that I couldn't just cancel the negotiation and that they would just steal the item in the end. But I liked the tie in with the other game. Fun idea!
Fun idea! I also wished pieces could rotate. I could imagine that'd make it harder to balance the game but here's how I think that could work:
* pieces start arriving on a timer * press up and down to select between them * press left and right to rotate * the selected piece is visible on the field as you hover your mouse over it and planted when you click the mouse * pieces start arriving faster and faster until you can't keep up * non-square areas (like 4x3) should also clear
Anyways, I love puzzle games and yours has some cool mechanics. Nicely done!
I tried the WebGL version, but it would never fully load for me (MacBook Pro 2021 running Chrome). It might be an issue with the settings. But the game looks interesting!
Nicely done! Elegant execution of a simple idea. I wanna see Phase II!
Great art and fun game! Were there supposed to be unlocks after the first 3? Also, I think the UI could be simplified. You could just show the stats when you hover over each weapon and then have upgrade and sell buttons only visible in the corners while hovered. Lots of fun and I liked how the harvest theme was integrated.
Fun concept! I wish the guns would upgrade after collecting multiple ones. But I could see how that would be tricky to balance.
The combo mechanic was something I'd never seen before. I feel like going all the way to 0 when you get hit is too harsh, though. It made the game feel more frustrating than fun and I didn't want to continue past the pumpkin. It might have felt more worth it if each combo was exponentially more powerful than the previous one (up to a max of something like 5). Then there'd be a specific goal to hit. Neat concept, though!
Fun idea! The variety of crops was a neat concept but it was hard to use the different crops strategically.
This was the most complete game I've played in LD52! Loved the mechanic, especially how you got slower as you got more fed. Good tension between getting more blood and risking getting swatted. Great job!
Fun idea! I couldn't make it to the end. I kept on planting, but couldn't figure out a strategy to last beyond 2:30 or so.
Edit: I figured it out. Just try to collide with the old people and always keep on planting. It doesn't seem worth upgrading the plants because it's more expensive to upgrade than it is to just plant again.
Beautiful visuals and lovely audio to go with it! I was confused about the goal, though. It seemed like the gods were asking for specific things, but they didn't look like the seeds on the ground. My kid and I muddled around and did some stuff and we somehow managed to awaken a god, so that was cool
I managed to get a gem into the goal area but wasn't sure what to do after that. It was nice swimming around for a bit, though.
It was very hard to get the harvest into the last bucket. Also, I think "Hold to set strength" could be taken out and it'd still be as much fun. Nice concept!
Impressive amount of gameplay that you squeezed into a weekend! It felt pretty complete. I ran into a few bugs like the radars disappearing occasionally, but I loved the variety of powers and upgrades. Very cute art style as well. Well done!
Impressive amount of work in a weekend! Pretty gruesome health loss consequences, but fitting with the theme. I managed to rescue a couple sprites but died quickly afterwards. In the next games, the sprites were no longer there. Are they intentionally in different spots or was that a bug? Also, I fell into an under the bed area and couldn't get out so I think there might be a collision bug in there somewhere.
Nice atmosphere and neat concepts of having to juggle a couple different powers!
The game visuals are cute but I felt it was too difficult. I got the idea of how things interact pretty quickly but it took so long to line everything up. I prefer puzzle games that are more about figuring out the strategy and less about redoing attempts over and over and over to get it right. But I did manage to get all three bunnies so at least one person made it through to the end
[HareRescueWon.jpg](///raw/878/22/z/68d1b.jpg)
A simple but fun game. Good use of the Synty city asset pack!
I didn't make it to the exit, but I did get a point for finding a doll. Nice music and atmosphere!
Very ambitious! I'm impressed with how far you came in a weekend. It's hard to make state machines and I think it's even harder to make a game out of making them.
@ellearx Thanks for the feedback! I just started interacting with some other games but I'm on a Mac so I'm limited to just Mac and Web games so far...
@oliver-day Thanks for trying it out. The pearls are the little pink spheres and collecting them increases your flock. But they're randomly places so they might have been a bit offscreen so I hope you can find them if you try again.
Thanks to everyone for your feedback!
@machinic Hah, we have similar names! I custom programmed my own flocking but it's probably pretty similar to boids. Each critter tries to move towards the closest other critter but also towards the mouse pointer. Also there's a very primitive scatter that happens when you click the screen. The radius of it increases when you have more critters.
@tete Wow, I wasn't sure if it was possible to get over 30. 31 is impressive!
@someone It's possible to avoid the whale consistently up to around 21 but you have to move orthogonal to it at just the right time. The scatter helps and it scatters more the larger your flock is. If it's large enough, you can scatter right before the whale arrives and then regroup behind it. But it's pretty tricky to get that timing right.
Thank you all for your feedback! I've made some bug fixes per people's comments:
@oliver-day, @someone, @natnspectrum, @urfoex: I've added indicators for the pearl and the whale when they're off-screen and I've fixed the rock mesh gaps
@grummelchen, @pepnou: I've lowered the pitch and volume on the pings from the pearl to be less jarring
@brainles-etertainment: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've added an itch.io link. Here it is as well: https://machwerx.itch.io/critter-mayhem
Loved the idea of using the ants as ammo themselves. Also great job with the procedural ant swarm animation and firing. It all felt very fluid. One of my favorite games I've tried out so far!
I loved the art and atmosphere. I missed the language selection at the beginning so started it in Chinese and I almost gave up but I found the settings and switched it to English. I had trouble figuring out which ones were "good" but over a few games learned that pretty much everything except the candy is good. Nice job!
I had difficulty with the controls so I kept on falling down but I enjoyed the audio and voice over. It feels like you were going for some acceleration in the movement but most platformers get to full speed very quickly so that they feel more responsive.
I made a very similar game! Mine is also a swarm game where you grow by collecting things, try to avoid an enemy, and you can split apart. In my case, it's controlled by mouse cursor position, clicking, and the graphics are very different. But it's interesting to see someone else's take on a similar idea. I liked your music and it was nice to see the whole world in a single screen.
I managed to complete it but I feel like the controls were a bit awkward because the "w" and "e" are right next to each other on the same hand and it's hard to switch between them. I think using spacebar for activating the food's ability and then "w" for entering or exiting would work much better.
But I loved the idea of using the different foods for their different abilities. Very clever gameplay.
It feels like there's potential here. I like the idea of the bee dance and it's cool that there's some real world science in the game. But in practice, it wasn't clear that the dancing I did had any actual effect on the game. Nice use of "Flight of the Bumblebee" as the background music. It gets a little repetitive after a while, so thanks for the mute option!
Huzzah, I managed to get to the larva in 1319.73 seconds. It took me a while to realize that the goal was to get to the larva in the bottom right. I was just having fun building turrets and digging. Impressive how much you managed to squeeze into the game in just a weekend. I would have like to have some waypoints or other way to automate what the ants are doing. But other than that, pretty nice little experience!
I loved everything about it except that on my platform (playing in Safari on an M1 Mac), the audio for the devil sounded like it was popping my speakers when it died. I don't know if it's like that on any other platform but for me, it was like nails on a chalkboard and I had to turn off the sound.
But the rest of the game was great! It wasn't clear what a good counter was for bombers or rams, but I just kept spamming archers and bombers and eventually won. Lots of fun and it's incredible that you put this all together in a weekend!
Nice simple game. I liked that everything worked and it's a complete experience.
Great game! It took a little while to understand the controls but once I got it, it felt pretty good. I also didn't understand the bugs at first but then I realized that stepping on the skull ones would lower health and that bugs will attack feet on the ground. After that, it just took a few more games to beat the boss. A nice tight little game experience!
Nice atmosphere! Great job getting all that in there in just a weekend.
I played this game for a pretty long time but couldn't get very far because it was so dark. I wasn't sure if I was making progress or not. In the end, I figured I must've fallen down. I wasn't sure what was going on after that so I gave up. But the character design is very cute!
The game looks great, but sadly wouldn't load for me. I'm trying to play in Safari on an Apple M1 Mac.
A lovely atmosphere, calm and soothing. I liked the idea of guiding tiny creatures to safety. It was a little frustrating to see the creatures go all the way back to their beginning when they were out of reach of the lights. I think they could have just wandered around a little instead. But it was cute seeing them crawl around. Great job with the assets.
Simple and fun concept! I agree with the others that the default should be drag and release to attack, and maybe "C" or right-button to cancel. In general, it's better to optimize for the action that is taken most frequently. But other than that, loved how straightforward it was.
Lovely experience! I didn't quite understand the points or numbers but I had fun moving the little gweebles around and forming sentences. It felt like the refrigerator magnet poem words. I loved the little animations.
I had some technical issues where the game would crash when I clicked too many times on a gweeble. I'm running on Safari on a Mac laptop (Apple M1) so that may have been an issue.