Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → mikeware
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Po | Te | Jo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | Odd Ball | jam | 580 | 3.04 | 3.40 | 3.22 | 1.90 | 2.42 | 1.66 | 1.50 | 2.29 | |||||
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | Mazelessness | jam | 944 | 2.79 | 2.32 | 2.63 | 2.79 | 3.00 | 40 | |||||||
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Battle Box | compo | 861 | 2.89 | 2.53 | 3.42 | 3.25 | 2.15 | 2.09 | 62 | ||||||
| 2008 | 11 | Minimalist | Framed! v1.1 Released | compo | 41 | 2.91 | 2.29 | 3.59 | 4.18 | 2.82 | 2.89 | 3.36 | 2.24 | 3.63 |
The main menu was a bit confusing, I was trying to use the keyboard to select options at first and nothing was happening. Also, you should make the full line select the option, I was clicking to the right so nothing was happening for me either.
The game itself is pretty interesting, but really hard. I feel like your cube needs to move a bit slower at first and also snap to the grid. It's really hard to tell exactly where you are when you're floating between squares.
This is pretty epic. It's a lot of fun to play, but the controls feel a bit loose at times. I would find myself holding the key down to move the toast left, not seeing it move, and then accelerating much faster than I wanted. Having a slightly larger plate area would help too. Your credits screen scrolls a bit quickly too.
Really intriguing puzzle game. I really enjoyed playing it, but I think the two biggest detractions were as others mentioned, the people had a path to the exit, but just bounced around, and figuring out the cycle when clicking. Even though the cycling can be consistent, since it depended on what color I was currently on, it was just very confusing. I know what color I want to make the square in my mind, so I don't want to be fighting thinking about if I need to left or right click and what color it currently is to get it there. Maybe you could also be able to hit a keystroke (one for each color) and then I could just learn which buttons move to which colors for whatever I have highlighted.
Really nice physics demo, too bad you didn't have time to add a goal.
I'm also just seeing a blank screen. :(
I saw Java load though...?
The game doesn't seem to start for me. I just see a bit black box in the middle of a larger outlined rectangle. Clicking on it or pressing keys doesn't seem to do anything or bring me anywhere that looks like the screenshot above.
Using FireFox 20.0.1
The movement aspect of pushing the ship at the limits was interesting, but with all the numbers and bars on the screen it was hard to coordinate how everything was related and what my main 'mission' was. I didn't feel that sense of danger from the oncoming asteroids nor reward for destroying them.
Really nice music. Like the premise, it's really hard to keep track of where all the other cars are. Did see one just stop at one point.
(grr lost comment before) Graphics and audio were nice, but it was very confusing to tell what was going on with the HUD in the first level with all the meters and plethora of enemies. I would have focused more on the minimalist third stage across the whole game, but then I couldn't defeat the boss at the end. I could just camp out in the lower-left forever...
This was pretty cool. Took me to the third room to really figure it out, so it'd be nice if the text repeated when you re-entered rooms.
The scale was interesting, but it'd be nice to be able to move a bit faster. Also, I think the mouse sensitivity needs to be increased, as my mouse cursor would keep leaving the unity window and wouldn't recenter.
Jumping and moving mechanics made it very hard to control the character. If I just tapped the key when I was on the edge of a ledge, I'd go flying across and then didn't have any control for my landing. With a few tweaks, I could get into this one a lot more.
Brilliant!
Really nice style. Took me a while to figure out a few things like that I can run as fast as the bullets. The second laser section was really hard initially. It'd be nice to not see the guards I already defeated respawn and to checkpoint every time I got loot.
Looks like the days still count down if I was just sitting there. Also it was annoying that the coverage didn't update until I let go of my mouse button.
Curious about how much went behind judging the artwork.
I think there could be a lot behind this, but didn't feel like my choice of where to put the line made a huge impact. Got boring pretty quick to just be sitting and watching. Also, Space and Shift are bad key choices especially when space moves you up and shift moves you down...
Maybe you could use the engine and give players more choices about troop movements.
Nice little strategy game. Computer played a bit quick sometimes to tell what was going on. Maybe have a way to indicate what they did last?
It'd also be nice to see a bit of a randomized layout so every game had +/- a few nodes and was different.
It seems really weird that you can walk anywhere but your bullets are stopped by the walls. Also, returning to center was really annoying as I couldn't let go of the arrow key to stop moving and then shoot. The graphics are pretty nice and I like the idea; just would like to see a bit more behind it.
Really interesting idea. Virtual Bonsai. Seems a little crazy to click each pixel though. Thinking it'd be interesting if it starts in the middle and you see it growing, and you have to trim it back continually...?
Also, be nice if the message at the end in the textbox actually stated if you won or lost as it says both right now.
I had to read the rules a few times, also didn't help that the keyboard wasn't responding until I clicked in the swf. The idea's interesting though, you can definitely get into it once you figure it out. Maybe it would help if you made your cursor a small version of whatever shape you had currently active instead of a background color? And maybe start off with one shape and add others a few seconds at a time to ease the player into the game and then tell them how to switch one at a time.
The platforming aspects seem to be pretty spot on. The jump and movement felt really good. It just took me collecting 10 atoms to realize the atom I was dodging was moving faster. I think if instead of increasing speed, you just added another atom to dodge every time you collected an atom it would get crazy enough quick enough and you'd feel that arcade pressure.
It was hard to tell at first what you meant by an 'empty' square. Also, there's no way to recover once you start messing up as the empty squares don't get filled again by what they take.
I like the concept, but it's pretty tough right now to tell what exactly is going on. Plus, I feel like having two blinking boxes to go after to give you a choice about how you lay out your path would be helpful.
It's a great start to something. I feel like you should have just had all three parts integrated into the tutorial the first wave and the second. I think one of the hardest things is that you occlude the status with your cursor, so having the light-blue filling up around the outside of the outer circle to show your progress would be better.
It also took too long to capture things, the manual dexterity is hard enough, don't make me have to follow or stay somewhere for like 5 seconds.
The right-trigger wasn't explained very well and I didn't see how it factored into the other parts.
I'd like to see this fine-tuned though. You could have also easily added mouse input, it probably would have made the game a lot easier even with the longer hold times.
Pretty amazing execution for 48 Hours. A lot went into this. It looks great. Can you actually lose though? It seems like enemies will bloody me up, but other than that, I just have to mash buttons.
It's an interesting layout and idea, but I didn't see the game part of it. Is there an objective? It seemed like I should just walk and pick my path since the busses are so random.
I guess the double-dominoes you just get to remove for free? That part confused me a bit, it was a little weird to be just thrown in and have to figure things out, but then that is more minimalist. It's nice to something so simple and compact though. Great entry!
Would have liked a bit more story in the game itself. Seems just the one map page could have been expanded on a bit more than just random encounters.
Thanks, it's down at the bottom in small text. Was trying to give the board the most space. Might try and add a more visual indicator on the player's next number later.
Thanks guys, yeah, I probably should have spent time making an AI instead of fighting with cloud code. I did get the cloud code working yesterday finally, so that's up on my site http://www.mikeware.com/battlebox/online.htm. It'll hook you up with someone else who happens to be online at the same time to play. (Works on FireFox, Chrome and Safari, the Parse cloud stuff doesn't support IE fully...grrr).
@Polar, yeah the cloud version only shows you your opponent's next move not their whole hand.
@someone, it's on my todo list to look at adding a 'currently online' player counter to the title page.
@lotusgame, thanks yeah, I got wrapped up in the mechanic and taking a minimalist approach to having the board fill the screen, that I only thought of adding the info for who's turn it was at the end near the bottom.
@alts, thanks! I'd be intrigued to see if there are multiple strategies or not. I was more focused on getting a cloud version up than a bot to play against. Have fun!
Really like the idea of not having to collect stuff. Turn the traditional platformer on its head. The jumping was pretty tough at times, especially trying to run and jump off the one block platforms. I couldn't make the long jump either shown just above in the screenshot.
Curious to check this out, don't have a mac though.
Interesting take on the traditional snake. Took a second to notice the twist. Think it could benefit from a bit tighter control, seemed like there was a tiny bit of lag when pressing keys and seeing movement. Also, progressively increasing the snake speed and starting with fewer prisms to fill would be good. Also, was tough when I needed a final color and had to just spin around to collect/dump colors until the one I needed was there. Similarly, it was weird when I had no color that I would erase my previously saved colors.
Wow, this is really hard. Maybe I shouldn't be playing it so late at night. I like the concepts behind this, but I think with the cycle of four, having a slower cycle time to start could help. Also, maybe only starting with a couple of colors. It felt really harsh when I hit the wrong key and would fall from the top to the bottom instead of just one platform below me.
Like the concept, would be nice to have a bit more pressure with the blocks slowly but constantly moving towards you, though definitely a surprise the first jump. Would have liked it to always give me a color I could use so I can't get in a state where I'm just waiting for death. Have the blocks reaching you be the only losing factor.
Really fun little runner. Kept dropping the sledgehammer though, didn't see the point. Wanted an action button to break through walls or zombie hordes. Wanted to make it to the chopper, but mysteriously would just run out of stamina, thought I was picking up enough food.
Would have liked to seen this polished a bit more. Could have been a lot more fun. Got a little tired of encountering the monster everywhere and trying to determine which button would take me in which direction (would be nice if they were laid out in a compass orientation). Also, a number of typos. I hope you keep fleshing it out though, great result for the amount of time you put in.
Gorgeous looking game. Got a little lost at first figuring out which path I should take. I think my biggest frustration was having to reach for the number keys to transform. Maybe 'space' to jump and 'up/down' to change transform?
Amazing graphical effects. Understanding the environment of what was invisible at times was a little challenging, especially with the people wondering around.
Curious about where to see this going in the future.
Really like this puzzle mechanic and the art. Would love to see a bit more ramp in the intro for introducing ways to split. Took a while to 'guess' the intended solution at times. Look forward to seeing this evolve!
Thanks everyone for the comments. Are the controls more about the dash or the QWAS vs. Arrow keys? Arrow keys are supported and the orientation for NW vs. NE as 'Up' is configurable, but I find the QWAS matching the orientation of the isometric worked best for me.
I didn't do a great job of explaining the dash on the help page. You can hit 'D' for debug mode to kind of cheat and see how the squares get labeled though. The Gray ones are the 'Canyons' (i.e. Pits) that you've actually seen and they become 'real'. So, if you try and dash and hit a real pit, you die, but if it's just ungenerated, you can dash over it.
Unfortunately, you can get stuck in a 'island' that is inescapable, sometimes you can dash back if there's enough space behind you if you feel you can get stuck, otherwise I was thinking of later adding a 'jump/hop' mechanic which would deplete more hunger (but I thought of it too late to implement for the competition).
I'm definitely continuing this game post-competition this summer, so appreciate the feedback. I'm glad that my initial concept came together and looks promising.
@broknecho Animation and Better Camera Panning were on my todo list, but got chopped. :P They'll be a future task for me. :)
@FrozenFractal Thanks! I realized the maze generation created islands mid-way through, I plan to address it later when I continue development with better maze generation and some form of limited 'jump/hop'.
Special effects for better animation/camera movement got left on the cutting floor too. Glad you found it cleverly tense though! :)
Really loved the artwork and effects. Just wish you were able to add a concrete objective in to give a bit more purpose and meaning to the mechanics.
Great start to some world building and ideas for using shape shifting. Just work out some of the bugs, and make sure the shape shifting is introduced more quickly.
And don't forget that 'Shift' is to run!
Really high quality modeling and texturing to see for a competition game. It's great to see the seeds of where the game is headed with the larger enemies coming out. Just a few camera/control issues to work out.
Maybe try a Pikmin style more overhead view, so the player can always see the swarms and be oriented to where things are in the air.
Wish the audio loop wasn't so short. It was also frustrating that the bullets destroyed each other, lots of times it felt like I was hitting an enemy but not destroying it (but it was probably that it just fired its own bullet).
A little bit more progression in terms of patterns and fixing the above I think would have made a big difference!
Lot of potential here, really would like to see this polished a bit more. I think it's really just the arrow controls which are the hardest to get through. The other shapes controlled well, but since you start as the arrow each time, it was a hard barrier to entry.
The fact that the entire background changed was a bit intense at times. Really like the concept and art, but the difficulty was really tough (though frequent checkpoints helped). I think a few of the jumps were a bit long and the timings very precise even when slowed down.
Would have liked to see a puzzle involving the speed-up button. Looking forward to seeing more of this.
Really great solid package. Loved the sound effects. Really interesting choices between movement and environment.
I think three things would make this pretty stellar: Letting the player move while in the air, getting better feedback when you hit the boss at the point of impact, and not getting stuck on the feet of the boss.
Too bad that you couldn't get a shape shift element in for the theme
Awesome job, really amazing use of shape shifting and the environment. Just hit a strange glitch with the pot room, otherwise was really engaging and smart.
Would love to see this evolve into a longer puzzle game. It really could turn into a hit!
Oh, and I want to turn into a tree too! :)
I could keep playing this for a while, it was pretty challenging.
I just wish I had a bit more control over my aim, it seemed hitting the left/right key once made a big change to my angle and prevented me from locking on to my target.
It was also hard to understand the power ups effects.
I guess I'm missing Audio? Took a little while to figure out I had to click multiple times on things, but liked the world you were building. Got stuck figuring out where to go after making the ramp near the sniper.
Really can't wait to see the next version of this. It has a lot of potential. Cursor has been mentioned before. At first I thought I could only build solar panels on the blue plants and mines on the rocks. I accidentally built a farm over my base. It'd be nice if building was contextual so the cube could just front-and-center (full screen support would be nice).
It's also be nice to be able to spend resources to get more explorers and beef up explorers for V2. That and start colonizing another cube, etc...
Really nice art and a great game for the theme!
Pretty different kind of game. Think I made the wrong choice to jump right to the boss instead of collecting power ups. I was trying to shoot around corners before the bots noticed me, but the wall hit boxes seemed a bit larger than drawn. The gun recoil seemed pretty large too, I kept disappearing off screen at the start.
Look forward to seeing this grow more after the competition. Could be neat to have some different elements added in to make up floors.
Interesting twist on Pong. Don't think you needed out of bounds (just have it bounce again), just getting hit was enough. Would be useful to have an AI though and some feedback on hitting like an explosion. Could be a lot of fun though in the future.
Didn't quite follow the intro and the player selection was a bit confusing, was I supposed to use my keyboard or the mouse? As I was hitting a key, but it didn't do anything until I clicked.
Hope you keep developing this. Certainly an interesting combination, but could use a bit more of a easing into it on the first few planets. Why not auto-checkpoint at each new ship though?
I made it about half-way past the third ship, but then wasn't sure where to go next... Gravity swap at reaching the 2nd planet was cool.
Audio was the best.
Was a bit confused about the objective and what I was supposed to be shooting at. I also seemed to just get stuck when I blew up and couldn't restart?
Took a long time to load initially, but then was fine.
The enemy movement was hard to get used to, especially the green chompers which could leap halfway across the screen. Would be nice if the initial enemies were a bit easier to kill, but I guess I had to get used to the teleport and scrolling mechanics more. I guess I just wanted a bit more breathing room and space to move around as I got used to the game before the difficulty ramp.
Certainly something I can see people sinking themselves into.
Loved the audio and visuals. Was really hard to wait for ammo to recharge with the number of enemies on screen. It was also hard to play on desktop and took a while to figure out about talking to people, but that didn't pause the game and I had to reclick in the game to regain keyboard control.
That's pretty cool to put together a level editor and system like that for the compo. Sets the bar higher for the future!
I only seemed to get one level though, would be nice if there was a button to select/advance to another level.
Feel like I needed another way to control my direction and it was strange I could leave the entirety of the star field. Couldn't see what I was supposed to find to shoot though or what the challenge was. :(
Hope you keep working on your concept though, if instead of planets you were trying to take out aliens which were causing the stars to disappear it could be an interesting time pressure mechanism.
Pretty good, though I made the mistake of playing fullscreen, perf was pretty bad, but was better when I went back to the original size.
Game wise, I was a bit disoriented at first by the camera movement, it seemed a bit too zoomed in to follow what was going on at first, especially with the arrow not pointing in all the directions of incoming attacks.
Feel like it would have benefited a bit from fewer enemies coming in more frequent waves with more doom on miss firing.
I did like the chain explosions, but without an explosion sound they felt a bit lacking. Would love to see V2!
Could be a great typing/learning game as well. Would probably help to just label the tops of the buildings with the keys. It's cute to maneuver with them, but really hard to figure out at first and would be useful to younger audiences if they can learn from it as well. Could see it turn into a typing tutor too if the UFOs need words to type to shoot at.
Was a bit strange that I could damage the buildings trying to shoot the UFOs. I guess I didn't see the incentive to leave the turret once I figured out how to get to one, because if I didn't shoot the UFO that was coming for me, I was pretty much dead anyway. Maybe if I had health and the UFO just destroyed the turret on top?
I was doing well, and then I accidentally clicked outside the window! Option for fullscreen would be nice.
Enjoyed the building vs action waves, though was hard to manage attackers from all the directions even with towers and things, seemed like they didn't help too much so I always had to be there to defend. Will be on the lookout for V2.
Seemed to have some timing issues? I could jump and run all over the place, but then cut scenes took forever.
Pretty cool to see you build all this from scratch though. You'll be set for next time now.
Thanks everyone for playing my game! I was happy I had enough time to get it to the state is in now. It was a busy life filled weekend last month.
Audio was probably next on the list, but I'll probably plan to get back to this at some point in the future. I haven't done a lot of web audio before, so that's why I've always left it to the end and cut it. :( Recommendations would be great for libraries/tutorials anyone's used in the past.
Your balls are fun too! Thanks for playing my game earlier. Was very mesmerizing.
I blew past the game over screen trying to move around and missed my final score, but that didn't matter at that point. Nice job!
Snowman.png
I made a snowman!
Great little time waster, very Zen. And you made it to the end! Especially for the Compo. Congratulations.
Really great puzzle game. I couldn't make it to the end though. I think a little marker on the ground to show where you clicked and where the robot is heading would help a lot. I feel like it went pretty close to where I clicked, so control wasn't an issue, but more the feedback for that control. Knowing that he'd stop on the point I click on and showing that point (and maybe the hit radius) would go along way for me to adjust where I want the robot and focus more on the timing aspects.
Wow, really nice to see some music evolution in the game. Like the concept, though having some negative thing to balance out with the transmissions would be nice to add some difficulty. I believe some lines would get overloaded over time and would want to be upgraded for efficiency, but it was hard to tell.
Reminds me a bit of Mini Metro, but like the sound/communication vibe. Would be cool if having a mix of communications was more beneficial so audio would diversify. Lot of potential for some interesting dichotomies in gameplay.
Pretty looking game, graphics were great. Nice controls and playability; however, it was a bit easy to just place turrets everywhere and be done with things.
Hope you keep working on it.
[dup]
Nice concept, would have been nice to have a bit more instruction. Took me a while to figure out I had to click/right-click on the sun to grow/shrink it.
Would be nice to see more levels and have the balls be effected differently by the size of the sun. Or have multiple planets to change the size of as well. Then you'd have to think a bit more about the exact sizes things need to be rather than just growing all the way/shrinking all the way slowly in order to beat the level.
Keep at it!
Controls were hard with the keyboard, wonder if joystick would work better. Level design was pretty good, but not lining up towers as expected (like ones above wave shooters in first zone) made needlessly hard jumps, was enough actiony/platformer/puzzle without trying to gauge depth and space.
Seemed to unlock final boss before going to right side zone though? But enjoyed it until I got stuck for a bit. Would be nice to see V2 with the ability to rotate/zoom the perspective and more levels.
Really wanted to like this game, it looks great. But being able to die from your own fire made this really hard to play. I couldn't move and fire at the same time as I'd just die. Plus, my bullets didn't always move towards the planet like I'd seem to expect. It was certainly odd to shoot towards the planet.
I think just having left/right and shoot as input and being a fixed orbit around the planet shooting outwards would dramatically make this an instant hit.