Jungle Noir by vinull 2014-05-01T23:16:00
Love the humor and soundtrack!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → mark.goetz
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Siren Song | jam | 115 | 3.64 | 3.36 | 3.77 | 3.87 | 4.07 | 2.69 | 3.13 | 3.21 | 81 |
Love the humor and soundtrack!
This is insanely fun! It's fast-paced and has a surprising amount of variety in the encounters you have and the abilities you pick up. I thought it was a bit confusing at first, but because restarting is so fast, I was able to pick it up quickly. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of it!
I like this - very timely! The sense of humor is definitely showing through. I don't know if it was intentional to only show 4 digits, so that you roll over if you get the ET cartridge and then get anything else, though. In any case, nice job putting together a great callback in such a short time!
Great concept, and I love the use of different items! I did think it was a little hard to move around and use some of the items, and as such I wasn't able to actually catch the robot. If you miss with the gun, it's especially hard. But still, any game where you have to figure out who's an android by poking them with your finger and seeing if they clank isn't a bad one.
Very nice little adventure! I did like the touches of humor, and I enjoyed it despite its short length. A bit more exploration and possibilities for failure would've improved it (although I'm glad there are no unwinnable states!), but overall great job!
Wow, this is super impressive! The graphics and sound are amazing at conveying mood, and it makes me curious what the meaning is. I love the structure of the levels too, it makes a great in-game tutorial. I only have two pet peeves - first, the up and down arrows tended to scroll the browser (which is something I've dealt with too), and the perspective makes it a bit hard to know if you're hitting the rocks or not. Otherwise, this is one of the best games I've played for LD29.
Cool, I like the music a lot - it really fits the mood! And congrats on getting levels done within the short timeframe. I felt the controls were a bit slippery - double-jump occasionally didn't register, and there was a bit too much inertia to negotiate some of the smaller platforms. Great job getting your first LD in!
Love the graphics and gameplay idea, but I got myself stuck in a wall somehow. :(
I like the combination of mechanics! There's a lot of interesting tradeoffs for what you should try to do. I did think the movement for pushing food was a little clunky, and I thought it was a little too hard to kill things, but the idea is great.
I love the concept, and I'm glad you made adjustments based on people's feedback! The concept shines in the later levels, so it's great to avoid players getting too frustrated at the start. Even still, it got a little confusing on levels like the Moebius, where you cross the screen boundaries and suddenly left and right are swapped. I see what you were trying to do with the red and blue circles on your ship, but that's nowhere near strong enough to overcome your innate muscle memory. But as a math nerd, I loved the idea and it was strong enough to keep me playing through the whole thing.
Very good, love the graphics and sound! It gets hairy pretty quickly, but it is just too adorable.
I like the art style and sound - they go a long way towards setting your mood! I did feel like there wasn't enough connection between what I chose and what the end result was, so I felt a little helpless, like I had to try to read your mind to pick the "correct" answer. Also, the screen was too big - it barely fit in my 1440x900 laptop's display. Nice job handling a serious topic in this format!
I'm really impressed you put this together! The Braid comparison works out pretty well, and it's a really creative interpretation of the theme. I did feel like the light-hearted music and graphics didn't exactly fit with your theme of exploring different options, though. Some of the early platforming challenges also seemed a bit too pixel-perfect - even the first level after you get over the first pyramid. It sounds like you have bigger and better plans for this after the jam, and I'm looking forward to what you come up with!
Got mine in 65 seconds! I like the tradeoff between moving and using your flashlight. I think some graphical and audio polish would've helped, as well as making it clear what the exit looks like. I did like how the exit turned out to be close to the start, though.
I like this a lot! You added in a bunch of strategy within such a short timeframe - it reminds me of a board game that I'd want to play. The music and visual design add a lot to it, too. My only criticism is that it is a bit short of choices and other interesting things happening, but it made it really fast to replay and try different strategies. Nicely done!
Nice take on the theme! I agree with a lot of the other comments that there are too many options (both questions to ask and diagnoses to choose), and that elements like the 'confidence points" you mention need to be communicated better. (Although that in and of itself could constitute "beneath the surface"...hm...)
I love that you made an interesting puzzle game in such a short amount of time! I wish there was a bit more guidance in some of the levels, and the charge bar is more of a frustration than anything, but this is an excellent effort!
I enjoyed this a lot! The gameplay was fun and exciting, I like the visuals, the sounds work for what they were, and I was impressed to see that you even added in a grading system after each level. I think a bit more feedback for when you hit enemies or when you get hit would've been nice, but it didn't significantly interfere with the game. Have you already revealed the secret yet?
I really like how you made the lighting part of the gameplay - that's pretty innovative and impressive for the timeframe. But honestly, I think incorporating that into a 3D platformer (already a genre that's difficult to judge and control) didn't work out as well as I'd like. I got disoriented pretty easily. But I do like the darkness aspect of it thematically and gameplay wise.
Love the two endings! I felt some of the puzzles and mechanics could've been communicated a bit better (especially finding the blue plant), but the graphics and sound help a lot for what you're trying to do.
I really like the art style and the sound, but honestly the gameplay left me confused as to what I was trying to do. Glad you found some time to fix it up afterwards, though.
Very nice! The movement is great, the music and graphics are outstanding, and it's a creative use of the theme. I wish the idea of acquiring knowledge would've tied in a bit more closely with the gameplay, though. I think a map would've helped me get around too, but I realize it wasn't really possible in this timeframe. Besides, I liked the touch where if you set another dolphin or shark spinning in a circle, it'd continue to spin.
Great game, love the music and graphics! There's a lot of strategy, and a simple and effective level system - I like how your oxygen meter was also your HP. I was hoping for a bit more progression but given what you had in the timeframe I think it's fine. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
And yes, I beat the boss.
Not bad for a little puzzle game! It could've used a bit more polish visually, but I liked the tradeoffs in the mechanics - using your diver to clear mines, deploying your diver to draw sharks away from treasure, etc.
Love the upgrade system, and the graphics and AI seem pretty good too! I'll echo the complaint that once I upgraded my sight, the text was impossible to read, which I felt detracted from the experience, though. Nice job getting all this in!
Oh man, that's so creepy (which I'm sure was your intent!). It's really simple, but it gets the job done. I felt like the bugs were a little harder to click than I expected, though. But great job making a game that makes my skin crawl and makes me want to take a shower, in a good way. :)
Hey, good entry! I like that you're already considering how it'll work on both desktop and mobile. I felt that the coins and pearls were a little too random to make much of a difference, though.
This is a really interesting take and I love the way you communicate mood through the theme, audio, and graphics. I feel like I might've been missing something though, because I never encountered any gold (maybe that's the point?) and my character just walked off the bottom edge of the screen after a while. But I love the physical nature with which you make decisions.
Nice! I like the dual interpretation of Beneath the Surface. I think some audio might've improved it, and it did also start to lag towards the end, but not to the extent that it stopped me from completing the game - which is good, because I enjoyed the fact that the background got darker the farther down you went.
Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback! Definitely agreed on the number of cannonballs that come at you on higher difficulties, especially as compared to your character sprite. The hitbox is actually a little smaller than you'd expect though - your tail is actually invulnerable to getting hit.
@mrspeaker - good call on the turnaround. There's a bit of inertia in turning around, but I can increase that.
@hanoth - Yes, and we even did it in 48 instead of 72. :)
@CommanderJ - indeed, you are correct!
I like your interpretation of the theme - the idea of reading people's emotions and stealing them is a neat one, and the music suits the location. I did run into the same problem where if you accidentally take the wrong emotion, it seems to lead to a failure state. I also had some performance issues on my computer. Anyway, nice job getting your first one done, and I think if you built this mechanic out it could be very interesting!
Very cool! I like the theme as a variant on the "get to the girl at the end" trope, and the gameplay is creative. I wish it were easier to tell what direction he'd run after getting off a ladder, but that's about the only criticism I have.
I really like how you use the smoke and music to get your mood across. And it seems like the antagonist is randomly generated each time? I'm in agreement with there needing to be some visual polish - the main character's walk animation, the blockiness of the dialog font, the death effects, etc. - as well as polishing of the concept - where are you, why is it that the other knights would come kill you, etc. There's actually an Adult Swim game called Westerado that has this basic gameplay mechanic, and it would be really cool to take your medieval spin on it and flesh it out a bit. Nice work!
I definitely liked the music, but honestly I thought the controls were a little frustrating. I couldn't get my character to do what I wanted him to do. It's also sort of unclear what you should be doing. Keep at it though!
Very cool, I like the sharks with laser beams and that they come in different sizes! It got a bit frustrating to kill sharks with only one bomb at a time, but getting in close worked well. The difficulty ramping works well too!
I like how you introduced gameplay mechanics one at a time, and it's easy enough to pick up. You made a good effort at audio feedback, but there's a number of things with no feedback (picking up bread, getting hit by some obstacles, shooting, etc.), and that makes it a bit confusing to figure out what happened. Nice work!
Hey, congrats on completing your first game (this was my first LD as well)! The artwork is really good, and I especially love the mole popping in and out animation. I think it's a little frustrating to time the bomb explosion to when I thought a mole would appear. I was essentially throwing bombs at random. But you did a good job with scaling the difficulty - one mole, then several moles on one side of you, then moles all over.
Nice job getting a lot of mileage out of your mechanics through clever level design! My rover exploded at the section where there are three platforms alternating going up and down - I'm not sure if that was a bug, or a legit death that just wasn't communicated as well as I'd like. I also felt like a bit more consistency visually would've improved the game - the illustrated rover and enemies kind of clashed with the realistic background and explosions. But the level design makes it feel very complete and well thought out.
I like the graphics and the audio design adds a lot! I wish there was a bit more to do while waiting for your main weapon to charge, though. But nice job getting in the tower defense mechanics!
I like how you came up with the sound effects! I felt like there needed to be more variety in danger in the gameplay, and the visuals could've used some polish. Congrats on completing your first LD game!
Very cool - really easy to pick up and decently challenging, too. Speeding the game up was a simple way to bump up the challenge level as you went on. I like the graphics. It lagged a bit on my machine, but not enough that it was unplayable. I was also wondering if you had considered adding in rocks that move as an additional challenge? In any case, nice work!
If you're keeping track, my score was 683.
I like the strategy and the deformable terrain! Unfortunately, my poor laptop couldn't quite keep up with big areas, so it got close to unplayable. I also wasn't able to find food or gems, just water, which made my playthrough a bit frustrating. But I love that you recorded the sound effects yourself!
Nice work. I like that you gave the other gas drops some personality. I also ran into the same issue as many other people, where the rate of other gas drops spawning was off - too much dead time without seeing other drops, followed by a bunch of humongous drops spawning. But it's an interesting new theme to play!
This is a really innovative concept - I'm not sure I've seen anything like it before! It is a bit tricky to predict the course of your actions, which is more of a difficulty with Conway's game of life than with your game. I think if you added some tutorials at the start, it could go a long way.
This crashed for me as well on 10.9.2.
This is a nice innovative take! You did a lot with a little bit of audio, and I like the touch of your character's arm rotating to face the mouse. I felt like it could've used some more polish, especially with making the death animations more visible against the background and easing the transition between fall mode and grapple mode.
Lots of fun! I love how you had a great time putting together the art and sound effects, and it adds a lot to the humor of the game. The gameplay is a bit limiting and avoiding the goblins was a little tedious, but I definitely think you accomplished what you set out to.
This is a lot of fun! I love your use of the surf patrol and sun-bathers to force the player to keep an eye on their surroundings. The audio is fun too.