Michael Horst

Displacement by ryannielson 2020-04-23T16:29:21Z

Excellent game! I really enjoy Sokoban-style puzzles. It was very cleanly made, and I liked the small camera wobble and non-direct world space UI to give it a bit of stylistic flair. The mechanic to push and pull everything in a direct line from yourself is very creative and fits the puzzle style incredibly well.

I was okay with the turn limit, since it was pretty generous on most puzzles. However, I would have liked to see it be a little less punishing for dead moves. If you're against a wall and try to move into the wall, or if you attempt to push/pull when there's nothing to push/pull, it still counts as a move. On that note, I wish the push/pull controls would have been more distinct in some way. E and Q don't inherently convey either, and even by the time I finished the game I could never keep the two straight. This wouldn't really matter, except that the turn limit punishes it.

That said, it wasn't enough to detract significantly from the game for me. One of my favorites that I've played so far, though I'm partial to good puzzle games. Well done!

Trap-o-mancy by karreg 2020-04-21T15:39:42Z

Very excellent game! Creative and unique, fun to play, and sets the perfect mood. My one gripe is that, for the third patron, in 10 attempts I never even got cards that could feasibly add up to the amount of money they asked for, so it started to feel that I was just praying for rng.

Vinyl Hills by MatthewPoletin 2020-04-21T01:03:54Z

Creative and quirky game, with great music! Unfortunately, there were two intrusive problems with the mechanics. All of the audience comments overlap, making them hard to read, and all of the comments on the far right side get cut off the side of the screen. Even given that, though, I enjoyed it!

Guardian Lich by svntax 2020-04-22T23:58:35Z

Very fun game, and creative concept! The player mechanics were satisfying, and I liked that attacking an enemy cancels its attack. When many enemies are on the screen, sometimes it makes more sense to slash them all once to cancel their attacks and let the minotaur finish them off.

Speaking of the minotaur, I think it would have been more satisfying if it were a bit more effective, even if that were counter-balanced with more/harder enemies. It seemed to smash the floor very frequently and aggressively when there were no enemies in sight, and then freeze up and miss a lot when there were.

The music was catchy and the game was well-rounded, with graphics, audio and mechanics that matched each other well. Great job!

Turnip Turmoil by Jonas Michael 2020-04-21T01:40:50Z

A very creative game! I can tell that a lot of passion went into this. I think the tutorial could have been streamlined to get into the action quicker, but it explained the game very clearly. Overall had a great time!

Save us by Curtis Pelissier 2020-04-21T18:35:35Z

Eventually, I grew tired of humanity and settled back to watch them die. They deserved it.

Fantastic game! The mood, theme and music were spot-on. The gameplay was a little lackluster; I would have enjoyed a bit more variety, and perhaps at a slightly slower pace so I could take things in a bit more rather than rushing to react to everything.

I think many people will eventually let the planet die. reading the messages that appear over time is a great and funny way to pass the time as humanity perishes. Great touch!

Keep the LEVEL ALIVE! by magicera 2020-04-21T14:30:06Z

Definitely a creative take on the theme! I enjoyed it, though I ran into a few issues with the dash strike that occasionally left me unable to move. Some background music (even something free off the web) could have helped set the mood of the game.

Story of Lost Demon by Epsulon 2020-04-21T18:00:58Z

I loved the look of the game, and the basic mechanics were fun. The invisible pits into spikes were a bit frustrating when retrieving the artifact, especially considering the long elevator ride to retry. A little more effort into the story text to use real words instead of abbreviations would have gone a long way as well. Overall, though, fantastic job and I enjoyed it!

LAMPCHASERS by MachMarten 2020-04-23T00:26:24Z

I really want to like this game; the graphics are cute, the audio and setting are fun, and the gameplay is just the type of thing I'd like! However, there are a few things that made it very difficult to play.

It took me a while to figure out that the shop "right there behind" Lucca was actually invisible in the distance at the back of the cave. I restarted the game and went through the extra-long, unskippable dialogue a second time to try and figure it out.

If you're holding an item and cancel before placing, you lose it (whoops, restart, I destroyed my lamps).

I got 2 lamps up and planted some flowers, and went to buy more. I spent all my money on flowers and ran back... to see my lamps and flowers had been destroyed by a weird black thing I seem to be unable to do anything about. At this point, I chose not to restart again.

SPOF: Single Point Of Failure by spectralcascade 2020-04-21T14:35:34Z

I get the same error as Elmos. I will bookmark the game and return later to see if it has been resolved!

Flora by LDF Productions 2020-04-20T23:32:25Z

Seeing the flower grow in stages was a great addition. I had to win to see it full grown!

Need for Feed - High Voltage by slam0 2020-04-21T15:10:43Z

Great game! Yes, it was a little rough around the edges, but once I understood everything I had a good time. A couple points of feedback I have: I'd like the progression to be a bit faster for a game jam, and it would be nice if the money you earn from selling had more function (I'm guessing that's a piece of scope you had to cut).

Scrappalooza TV [LD46] by Coord 2020-04-21T01:26:35Z

Definitely a challenge! My biggest advice for your next jam is to cut back on menus. Short and sweet, and jump right into the gameplay. Thanks for sharing your work!

ENGORGE by Slothtimistic 2020-04-21T01:13:45Z

I enjoyed the theme and had a nice laugh. It would be nice if the early game were a bit easier. A few times I started and only a couple people were close enough to get to before the bar ran out. Overall, though, fun and quirky and a great submission!

Corona Bizarre Adventure by Fernando Segovia 2020-04-21T00:55:52Z

The movement mechanics, if refined, have potential to be quirky and interesting. As it is, I think that every sprite in the game just rotates to the direction of movement.

DefenderOfSnailFood by CorruptedComputer 2020-04-23T00:09:13Z

A good start to a game, and though there really isn't any progression, it's fun for the two or three attempts that it takes to survive the initial wave and reach a point of perpetual slaughter. I agree that it would go a long way just to be able to exit with escape. I assume your intention was to have multiple turrets, but understandably had to cut it for scope. Considering that, though, it would be nice to have the single turret selected automatically so you don't have to click it when you start.

Another One Loops the Dust by limered 2020-10-10T18:18:05Z

Cute game! I love the creative theme and gameplay, and the hand-drawn graphics were a lot of fun. I have just a couple pointers of feedback that are hopefully informative: - A progress bar paired with the "Time Stuck in a loop" song timer would have been helpful. For a while I thought that timer was just saying how long I had survived and not the song time. It's also hard to see while playing. - Some sound/music when the game starts would have been nice, especially when it says "Play with sound on!". I thought I accidentally had sound muted because I heard nothing, and the first sound isn't until you start playing.

All of that said, it was an excellent game and a great entry! Well done!

Pendulum Jumps by svntax 2020-10-06T02:54:02Z

Not for the faint of heart! This one has a bit of a learning curve to get used to using the momentum, but it's a lot of fun to swing around popping the balloons. It plays very cleanly and I like the pixelated style. Of course, it could have used some music, but the sounds that were used fit the rest of the game. Very well done!

WhereIsMyWand? by Szkocka 2020-10-10T19:04:15Z

Nice little submission! I can see where you were going with the theme, and I've had the experience where the need to cut scope resulted in a game that doesn't fit the theme as well. I ran into a bug in the first 2 seconds of playing where if you move to the left at the start you get permanently stuck. My biggest suggestion for a quick win on quality/polish is to allow quitting with the escape key. It takes 30 seconds to implement and is much nicer than needing to kill the application to quit. It's the first thing I add to every new project.

Besides those two things, overall I think this was a good submission considering your time limitation. Well done!

Runaway Railcar by Michael Horst 2020-10-06T15:14:04Z

@toasteater I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why a couple of the rooms cause a brief lag the first time they're generated, I think it's a CPU thing rather than graphics. I wasn't able to nail it down in time :( Thanks for playing and reviewing!

Runaway Railcar by Michael Horst 2020-10-07T23:45:05Z

@marinee thanks for letting us know. Which build did you try to play, Windows or Mac?

Runaway Railcar by Michael Horst 2020-10-10T19:23:18Z

@joeshanahan thanks for the feedback! The rooms and arrows are indeed procedurally placed and will be different each playthrough, and your comment about them appearing too close together is helpful.

Looponaut by exopunk 2020-10-05T23:58:59Z

I liked that not only does each loop become more challenging, it also provides a power-up that allows you to more quickly and easily navigate the level (at first, I found the mechanics felt a bit cumbersome, but then the payoff was the upgrades). Most elements were nicely polished, which I like to see in jam games. Unfortunately, the game froze on me when I died (I lost my final HP to the second flying on loop 3). I was hoping I could restart the current loop with full HP, for the sake of timely testing the game.

Overall, a great submission!

Whorl by ZerstorenHV 2020-10-10T17:30:41Z

Very creative game! The boss is very challenging, but fun. I applaud you for having a well-rounded game; the mechanics, menus, graphics and audio were all consistently polished and fit well together, albeit a little minimalistic. One or two additional features, like a way to restore some health or temporary power-ups, would have added a lot, but I'm all for polishing what you have instead of adding more in a game jam. Very well done!

Death Day by Nekopi 2020-10-10T18:43:51Z

Great game! I loved the art style and the ambient music set the mood especially the first time through when I wasn't sure what the risk was. It's unfortunate that it still felt somewhat buggy and unpolished, even after post-jam fixes (nothing game breaking, just small things like the player continues to move when you're killed). My second attempt I got far enough to stun the spider, but after 5 more attempts of thoroughly searching and trying things in different combinations, I wasn't able to figure out anything to do with the torch or how to kill the spider, so I gave it up. My final impression is that it really could have used some additional play testing and polish around the edges, but it's overall a very creative and beautiful game. Well done!

Stuck in the Luntic by Harrm 2020-10-10T19:18:44Z

I liked the mood of the graphics and the interesting creatures! However, this game really, really needed sound; it would have gone so far. Even picking up some free sfx and ambient sound off the internet.

I think it would have been more enjoyable if the player were faster and perhaps a map or something to help navigate. It quickly became laborious to move about and try to find where I had been and where to go next, especially in dead silence. I felt like I had experienced almost everything the game had to offer in about 20 seconds. Also, I highly recommend escape key to quit. :)

I think that overall you had a great idea, and that it was a little ambitious for a game jam. My suggestion to improve in future jams is to aim for small, contained and polished. Thanks for participating and sharing your game!