the digging game by ultramailman 2014-05-04T18:13:00
You have some groundwork laid out to make a game, but in its current state there's not a lot going on. The software also seems to run slower as you dig deeper.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Mental Atrophy
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Strike Dungeon | compo | 80 | 3.84 | 3.95 | 3.33 | 3.73 | 4.14 | 3.91 | 3.03 | 3.76 | 78 | ||
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Jetpack Caverns | compo | 8 | 4.32 | 4.36 | 3.16 | 3.88 | 4.33 | 4.11 | 2.29 | 3.65 | 85 | ||
| 2013 | 28 | You Only Get One | One Earth, One Defender | compo | 366 | 3.17 | 3.22 | 2.05 | 2.48 | 3.37 | 2.00 | 1.79 | 2.66 | 79 | ||
| 2013 | 27 | 10 Seconds | Polarity Countdown | compo | 471 | 3.14 | 2.83 | 3.08 | 3.22 | 3.31 | 3.21 | 1.95 | 2.73 | 63 |
Mental Atrophy leaves an average of 26.8 feedback comments each event.
You have some groundwork laid out to make a game, but in its current state there's not a lot going on. The software also seems to run slower as you dig deeper.
My coworkers are almost as annoying as the background music.
Unsure what to do. The Dig button seems unresponsive.
Somewhere at like the 270s mark the screen just suddenly filled with highspeed badguys and seemed sort of impossible to overcome. Something neat to do might be having your white blood cell change the yellow blood cells back when they collide, making the movement speed level more useful than just allowing you to pickup DNA faster.
I didn't look at the screenshots before playing, so the sidescrolling portions were a pleasant surprise. This could be like a reverse-Blaster Master, where the exploration-oriented gameplay is top-down while the high-action phase is from the side. Enemy variety was pretty good and mixing things up with the harpoon-immune crab was a good touch. Terminal velocity could be a little higher in the sidescrolling bits--you reach it pretty quickly while descending, which makes the physics feel a bit stiff.
This is definitely mechanically similar to 80s arcade and Atari games. I think that, overall, you've achieved your goal which is easily the most important part of Ludum Dare.
Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily make the game very much fun.
Paddle motion could use some acceleration, both to give motion more weight and to allow finer control over small motions.
The slow projectile speed coupled with the 1-bullet allowance makes missing excruciating--and while this encourages deliberate/efficient player action, deliberacy works best with more cerebral games than simple action ones.
There didn't appear to be much variety in treasure velocity on a moment-to-moment basis (maybe it was increasing steadily over time?). If treasure fell at varying speeds, it would make the player's decision making more dynamic, since the priority of actions they can take would shift. As it is, the slow treasure speed means they can be pretty safely ignored until the last moment.
So, congratulations on creating a pretty authentic-feeling Atari game, but I think it needs a few tweaks to be a fun game.
This game was so pitted. I have nothing constructive to say, except that it was super dope and my favorite jam entry thus far.
This was really great but also really hard. It took me a few attempts just to understand effective ways to slide and rotate for the desired result in the fewest number of turns. I already mentioned it in chat and you acknowledged plans, but I'll mention it again that a pentagon monitor that shows the current status would be very useful--at least a number indicating how many moves remain until total failure.
Heh... It made me smile, but this isn't a very good game which you probably already knew when you conceived it.
I thought this played pretty well. The controls/physics felt pretty spot-on for a 2D submarine game. I liked the wobble on the spotlight which, along with the bubble particles, enhanced the overall atmosphere. It is a simple game, but a pretty good one. The only major thing I caught was with collisions as previous users already mentioned, which became more noticeable on Stage 2's narrow passages.
Great art and gameplay. My general strategy was to avoid leaving any line near the edges, so that I wouldn't get ambushed. I also prioritized going deeper over clearing an entire row, since getting the bottom rows was more difficult and I'd inevitably have retract to clear some sharks/jellies anyway.
Very excellent. Clever mechanic, smooth controls/physics, and a really robust amount of content--none of which felt like filler.
I think a sense of space is pretty important for exploration games, and the way the player sort of teleports to unobservable anchor points defeats my spatial awareness.
Some diagonal motion that allows the player to slide against walls would be helpful. As it is, it's easy to get caught on corners when trying to enter doorways, and then getting so surrounded by ghosts that it becomes difficult to get out of that position.
This is a really rough experience and it took me many tries to kill the green monster (my final result was ~7000 frames). Without any sort of acceleration on the player, it is very difficult to make the sort of small movements needed for these types of games. The boss moves very quickly, and without any sort of impact feedback I am always uncertain if my bullets are connecting or if the boss's superior speed allowed it to dodge.
I finished the game. As far as I could tell, the general strategy was just to select the card with the highest number of rolls to increase your chances of winning. Since I didn't appear to be rolling against anything but myself, there seemed to be no depth to my decision making, but I could be misunderstanding the mechanics. Also, when you get too many cards they start to go offscreen, obscuring the description of any special abilities.
I chose to sacrifice bunnies for the greater good instead of carefully plotting the minefield. My strategy was just to jump towards the goal if I dug a red spot and take my chances. It's a humorous skin on a slightly more simplistic Minesweeper, and the artwork was very good.
This idea works pretty well, although I was unable to defeat stage 5. I like how turrets reveal their position when they fire, but because the different layers are rotating independently there's some complexity to predicting their location.
The green flicker on the platforms was a nice, simple way to make the game look nicer.
General movement felt good, although the way the knight snaps to a platform when he jumps through it is awkward. Instead he should pass through it while moving upwards, but not actually stand on it until he descends. You should be able to do this just by checking his y-velocity to determine how he is colliding with the platform. If it's positive and his previous position was above the platform, then land on its surface--otherwise pass through it.
Other than that, the game is pretty simple and probably too lengthy for its mechanics.
A good start for a standard roguelike and always nice to see another Pygame entry. I ran into the stairwell bug the first time. Also, it seemed like about half the orcs/goblins were completely docile and just let me have my way with them.
Great graphics with the vehicle silhouettes against the colorful background.
Very cool way to visualize a one-button rhythm game.
Nice physics-based gameplay and one of the most unique games I've played this compo.
Masterpiece.
Your nephew is brilliant. Unless he's like 27-years-old. Unless he's handicapped... then I'm just an asshole.
Ha. I didn't read the description very closely so it took me a moment to understand the goal. First I tried punching the walrus, and then I ran around for a minute just slamming the moles upwards. I was pretty content with that, but once I figured it out I definitely had a lot more fun. Very fun.
It's pretty dark. Not so dark that it's unplayable, but I had a hard time making out the asteroid shape without changing my display settings.
Oh, man. I am getting destroyed here. I will have to go dig out a gamepad because my keyboard skills aren't up to the challenge. It looks great so far, though.
Very nice and reasonably challenging. There's some luck involved but you can still employ some strategy to push luck in your favor within the drill limit. Wasn't a fan of the music, but the graphics were nice and the vibrant colors against black fit the whole muerte theme.
Once you get hit by one jellyfish it is really hard to recover.
Nice game. I got to around 400 before deciding it wasn't getting hard enough fast enough, but I am definitely a fan of these simple diversions compared to some of the more complex jam games. My strategy was to always be looking a direction, even if there were no monsters present, because I figured I always had a 25% chance the next one to appear would be in that slot. Nice job.
I get the same error as Seraphina.
Pretty good overall. The audio was great, especially during the intro. I liked the narration as I continued to explore deeper. I ended up not using the light, since it seemed to obscure more than illuminate. The multiple gameplay phases, between landing the ship, planting the flag, and utilizing various tools was enough to sell me on the idea that I really was a spaceman landing on Neptune.
I don't get it. I've played four times seeing if I missed something, but after the initial text fades away nothing else happens until the timer runs out and the screen reds out. On my first play, I managed to locate another small paragraph, but that's the only time.
There's not a lot going on her, but at least you got something done on time for the compo--that's meaningful in and of itself.
The player physics are really harsh, making jumping a lot harder than it needs to be. Gravity is too powerful. There are also a lot of collision issues, where I'd have to jump to unstuck myself out of the floor.
Nice ending. Great graphics. The range on the cane attack is super short which made it difficult to attack without colliding with the enemy.
Very simple and intuitive controls. Nice job.
Air squid. I must be tired because flopping the tentacles around is hilarious.
A five ton pumpkin is pretty absurd, and I could probably do a lot better now that I know how it all works. The art is really pro.
Hey, we nearly made the same game. The zoom really helped with finding the gems.
The snow looks great and conveys depth really well. I was only able to find one person between my three attempts. I am sort of unclear on how the sniffing helps. Nice work overall.
Would be cool to see movement playing a bigger role. I was able to just stand in one spot.
You chose some really awkward keybindings, but the art was super nice. Well done.
The whole Twitter thing is a barrier to entry. Sorry.
It sort of blows my mind what some people can get done in a few days.
I can't seem to aim very accurately. It's only shooting towards my mouse cursor at north/south, while skewing further away as I approach east/west. Might want to check your trig math.
I gave up. I couldn't clear one of the stages. Very hard, but good. Double jump is weird, though.
Took some finagling to get it to run since I only have Python 3.3 (I am assuming range() can accept floats in 2.7?), but I was able to play your game. I thought it was fun, if simple, and played about five rounds. I just wish you could move diagonally as well.
Great animations--especially the explosions. Can't really tell when I'm being shot at so I just circle the target until it explodes, and then move on to the next one.
Angelina makes some bizarre, creepy games.
I was disappointed it ended. The story/narration were nice and you could probably engineer some really cool puzzles with these mechanics, given more time to dedicate to it. Very nice concept and game.
It works now. The art was phat. I probably shot more wildlife agents than other animals.
This is super dope. I'm glad your puzzles introduced diagonals so early, or I probably never would've figured that out (I am dumb).
Your update fixed it--works on my end. Just a note for the others: the Enter key on the number pad won't work for the door keypad.
I thought it was fun. I have a poor short-term memory so I had to write down the two number sequences. The animation when you lose is actually more fun than the victory screen. Collision with walls is a bit... generous. Good job overall.
Well constructed but I couldn't really tell which towers were more effective for what situation. It was a cakewalk until about wave 20 when I just couldn't do enough damage to any of the spiders, finally game overing at wave 22.
I'm confused. What am I doing? I pressed spacebar and tried clicking the red dots and what not. Eventually some green messages appeared on every frame.
Cool timing/memory puzzles. I'd catch myself about to take the wrong path sometimes, making me feel more clever than I actually am.
Fun game. Tomorrow I'm going to start replacing the staircase in my house with a ladder, to honor your bloodline.
The mouse controls are really weird and it's extremely difficult to steer.
That woodchipper sound never gets old.
Really liked the variety in level design.
This game is gorgeous--great job.
Great art, music, and narration.
I really liked how the music blended from room to room.
Hey, this is a pretty neat idea and you guys should continue making this. It's like a combination of two of my favorite things: Gauntlet and tower defense games.
I am not cool enough to know anybody to play with. :(
Like others have already posted: 404.
I liked the art and little backstory to discover. The music was both homey and somber at the same time, which fit the general mood well. I'm sort of dense so I don't know how it fits the LD27 theme, though. Great job!
LD32 — An Unconventional Weapon (29)
PROTOCOL ON BLINDING LASER WEAPONS 20XX by radmars 2015-04-26T03:41:00
Immediate thing I noticed was the camera doesn't really keep up with the action when you accelerate to max velocity, so there isn't a lot of head room for higher skill gameplay. Unlike others, I liked how the vehicle kept some of its horizontal vector when steering and thought it made the controls more engaging.
Agents of YIELD by nightlord 2015-04-26T03:29:00
Like others have mentioned, the main thing this is missing is a strafe key, which would make simultaneous offense/defense possible and the gameplay a lot more dynamic. As it is, I just exploit the enemy's inability to aim precisely at certain angles, which feels more like I'm cheating than outmaneuvering them. I like that your levels are just flat text files so they can be edited and modified by end-users really easily. The rotation effect was pretty cool too--reminds me of the special levels in Contra 3.
Chaos Tomb by Dietrich Epp 2015-04-26T02:54:00
Nice job. Really glad you were able to finish this up in time for the jam. The extra day made a lot of difference, with so many areas and item types. The thing that surprised me the most was that you even took time to make the camera more complex than just following the player entity.
Evil Cupido: Haters gonna hate by Pixel Heart 2015-04-24T00:04:00
Terrific art and humorous puzzle results. I envision some puzzles that make better use of arrow bouncing.
Flail Rider by jushii 2015-04-23T10:05:00
Had a blast playing this, but it would be even more fun if the blue coin boost lasted longer and were easier to chain with additional blue coins.
TUGBOAT by lucentbeam 2015-04-23T00:14:00
Hello fellow Portlander and Pygamer. Fun game. The farthest I could get was stage 9--after that there are just too many things for me to dodge. Swinging enemies around and throwing them into each other felt great, with some nice and crunchy sound effects to accompany it. Nice work, and an especially good title screen.
Black Beam Blaster by Xgor 2015-04-22T04:18:00
Nice little puzzle/platformer. The audio and visuals for the gun make it feel as powerful as the text describes it.
Sand Blower by babilounet 2015-04-22T04:04:00
Good snake-like gameplay. I think separating the camera/viewport logic from the tile coordinates would make it feel better to play, having it lerp to the player's location rather than snapping to that immediate tile. Very catchy music and some nice graphical touches like having the sand tiles smooth out their edges when adjacent to each other.
Eye Rush by asobi tech 2015-04-22T03:58:00
Simple, fun, and a really slick presentation. Great sound, music, and chunky graphics. I tend to be a fan of arcadey experience like this. Nice work.
Billy McMath Solves Problems by Manky 2015-04-22T00:55:00
This was astonishingly hilarious.
Eyebrella by hydancer 2015-04-21T05:55:00
Controls were difficult to get used to and it seemed like sometimes my umbrella eyeball would stop working until I restarted the program, but it was otherwise quite fun. Nice graphics too.
B000MERANG by TheBigShot 2015-04-21T05:33:00
This was very good. My best time was 37 seconds. Early on I spam attacks since I'm guaranteed to hit a lot of things, after that I start aiming more carefully so I don't kill myself.
Octopus Odyssey by Flayk 2015-04-21T03:37:00
I was unable to beat the stage with the billion clams because sometimes picking up an ink powerup would create another octopus and the camera/viewport would get really confused. Since there were so many powerups it was difficult to avoid this happening.
Sivo: Trial of the Lava God by rattower 2015-04-21T03:18:00
Pretty keen mechanic, though I wish there were more songs.
Interstellar Borders by Reis Mahnic 2015-04-21T03:10:00
Nice job, guys. I was following orders up until I had the opportunity to puff the bellows. Bellows... on a spaceship. Had to do it.
Rocket Rabbit by jcmoyer 2015-04-21T02:40:00
I think this game could use more bullets.
Nuclear Arms by Logicon 2015-04-21T02:35:00
Intro was funny! I found the timing and range of the nuclear punch to be too tricky, so I just ran through and used the nuclear blast whenever I had energy. Lots of uncertainty whenever dropping levels, because the camera would hide the dozen goons on the ground below me.
Zombie Revenge Party by popcorn897 2015-04-21T02:26:00
Toaster. :)
Bagelbot by furriKira 2015-04-20T22:57:00
Great art and audio. Like others have said, the way you inflate your enemies reminds me of Bubble Bobble.
Nuclear Space Buckets by oranebeast 2015-04-20T22:43:00
I can't rate this since I only played it solo, but the laser beam looked pretty sweet.
Attack on Castle Tubswicks by Jokerbomb 2015-04-20T22:39:00
Missed the Squeak! sword the first time. Second time was easier as a result. Liked the background music a lot.
A Knife Made Of Whispers by managore 2015-04-20T22:05:00
This is the second game of yours I've played, and just like that one the level design is quite variable and excellent. Nice work.
Their Own Worst Enemies by ObscenelyTrue 2015-04-20T21:55:00
Very cool--never seen an NES game in a jam before. Unfortunately the sprites are invisible invisible in Nestopia, but do flicker into view when you move. Fortunately it works just fine in FCEUX. It took me a moment to realize I could move before enemies have finished moving, but once I did I cleared the three stages. Good graphics and an impressive programming feat for a jam. I'd be interested in more stages if you ever find time to revisit this.
Word Warriors by UKCoder 2015-04-20T21:47:00
This is pretty difficult. I only won because for about eight turns in a row the wizard didn't make any actions. The main reason this is hard is because I'm not used to identifying words in this way, since the board can be navigated non-linearly.
Toby the Reckless Giant by amras0000 2015-04-20T21:34:00
Haven't managed to really play this yet. Right mouse just brings up a Unity menu for toggling fullscreen instead of throwing houses.
Bread Ninja by GanonsSpirit 2015-04-20T21:29:00
The title screen alone is pretty hilarious and this is probably the only ninja game ever made where you can also bake muffins. Cheers.
A few things to consider: Baguette range is very short so you have to get uncomfortably close to things to attack them. Also, for a ninja the character moved pretty slowly and stiffly. It seems like you might be tying input directly to movement, though I could be wrong, but consider tying acceleration to input instead. Holding left/right would then increase the character's x-velocity up to a set maximum. Then, when not holding a direction key have velocity decrease by some amount of friction. You'll want to tweak the acceleration/friction values until they feel just right--too low and your character will feel like they're on ice. I find this sort of movement makes action games feel a lot better to play and not so stiff.
Shield Maiden by bitslap_ 2015-04-20T21:08:00
Great art, great controls and great enemy variety. Very impressed.
Sword Fishing by HacksawUnit 2015-04-20T19:50:00
Looks and sounds great. Unfortunately I find it difficult to identify the results of my actions, even though they're labeled I don't know exactly what's happening and it makes my choices feel arbitrary. I ended up winning by just choosing Yank repeatedly. Sometimes damage goes up even though I'm letting the line run... and for that matter I can't even tell if damage being high or low is a good thing. I expected Reel to raise the hook depth more effectively than Yank because of the damage penalty, but I can't tell if it actually is since the orc and fish boss plummet the hook so much either way.
Off to the Races by RyanNielson 2015-04-20T19:29:00
Unfortunately I'm playing alone so I can't experience the multiplayer chaos. My fastest time was about 16 seconds and serves as a reminder that I have no idea where anything is on a keyboard when not typing out sentences. Scratch that, I just got 11.67 through sheer luck, pulling C&Y twice in a row. I find the explosion and "Yay!" far too amusing--I can't believe I'm an adult. Nice work.