Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → mollusk
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | Deep DooDoo | jam | 812 | 2.83 | 2.64 | 2.80 | 3.25 | 3.07 | 2.58 | 2.82 | 2.70 | |
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | Celestial Summoner | jam | 440 | 3.70 | 3.81 | 2.98 | 3.87 | 3.67 | 3.47 | 3.20 | 3.57 |
Cool game, great sound effects and feedback. Has a lot in common with my submission!
- The gameplay mechanics are interesting, cool idea - An in game tip informing users to use q/e would be helpful. I came back to the landing page to check controls after starting the game. - Its very hard! Maybe slower enemies in the first couple levels to let the player get used to the game mechanics would ease up the learning curve.
Very fun game, Love it. Could get addicted easily, love the conquer mechanics. Great graphics, the background music is nice but could use some more audio feedback e.g. when you capture a new town.
Fun and true to the original, would love to see it scaled up!
Bonus points for providing a Mac build, but I get pinwheel of death after the second screen.
Beautiful intro screen!
Cool game, fast paced and the graphics look great
Good concept! As others have noted, this could use more feedback to let the player know how the battle engine is working. At first I wasn't sure if I was even doing the right thing.
Great bouncy style, the look is really cohesive! Gameplay is really smooth and comfortable, nice job.
Fun game. The core bullet hell mechanics are in place and done well, although I think they could be a little easier in the beginning to get the player used to switching weapons. The weapon switch mechanism is a little complex and its hard to switch up when dealing with multiple enemy types-- with a more natural way to switch weapons I think this would feel less frustrating and more fun/challenging.
Fun game, I played through the whole thing. The positioning of the head and fists combined with the trajectory of the enemies naturally disincentivizes camping.
Punches would feel more satisfying with some kind of sound effect. Level progression would feel more satisfying with new backgrounds.
Really fun, would be great on mobile!
Fun start, it was hard to see the enemies would be nice to have the camera zoomed in a bit.
Fun game, plays smooth!
This game has a cool look and sound, nice style. The energy mechanic seems to slow down learning the controls, which are complex. Once you figure out the controls a bit the movement feels smooth.
Overall nice submission
Fun game with the possibility for lots of planning and trying different tactics.
Its very hard at the beginning, newcomers might benefit from a slower learning curve.
I had a problem with the music where it kept slowing down and glitching, turning the music off was nice but it didn't keep the setting when I started a new game.
Great submission! Fun little game with nice graphics and fun sound. Could get addicted to this if there were more levels!
Fun little puzzle game! Could be a great mobile game with some more work.
Interesting game, fun idea. I had issues with the wrong enemies being in front and the slimes getting stuck on each other.
Great job, feels like a complete game!
- Graphics and Audio design are top notch!
- I had trouble understanding why my cards were failing/succeeding when they got to the towers - A different color for visited nodes would add information to the map screen to easily see where I'm coming from and where I am on the map
Nice graphical style, fun game. Would love to see more!
The graphics are really nice, and the sound creates a great mood.
The controls to summon abilities seemed a little inconsistent, there seemed to be a wait time after using each ability that isn't indicated on screen. Waiting for the ability to recharge made it frustrating to get better at using the abilities.
Nice sound design and gameplay flow. I had some issues with the mouse pointer and the in-game hand getting out of sync.
Fun take on the theme!
Cool bullet hell.
- feels great moving around, and once I figured out the ult I that produced a nice rhythm to the controls - sprites seem a little small - slower moving enemies at the beginning might ease the learning curve, its hard!
Very fun idea, and has some similarities with my submission! - graphics and audio look and sound great, nice presentation - had to play around to realize you had to press the space bar to execute the summon - Very hard, the summon mechanic takes a little bit of practice and it feels like you don't have enough firepower early on. Sometimes it felt like my minions weren't actually attacking?
Overall great job!
Cool game, graphics look good. I felt the summoning was a little tedious with a mouse, but this could be really fun on mobile.
Very cool, would love if you could right click/left click to summon each type so you weren't clicking the bottom as often.
Great concept!
The text selection was a little hard to read because of the low contrast between fonts and backgrounds, and my eyes had a tough time staring at the high contrast small tiles.
Other than that, the game was fun and easy to understand, nice job!
Very addictive! Easy to learn, would benefit form some harder monsters and some music and sound fx.
Love it!
Fun idea, seems hard not to have all your units stack up attacking the same enemy though
@jan5366x @LocksmithArmy @Fataljg @phost-dll @amberfall92 @breadstick @crushedsummers @simontzky @brandsma @aznoqmous @crylica @umu-dev @pierre-cilluffo @kallico
Thanks to everyone who played and Rated, and especially thanks to those above who commented with feedback! I'll be making changes based on some of the great feedback you left.
> the rats touch you at the start … there is a proper feedback missing - @jan5366x
> The game would feel more responsive if there was an animation for getting hit + some screenshake. - @crylica
I totally agree and the next feature I'll implement is feedback for getting hit. Screen shake is a great suggestion I can't believe I didn't already include it!
> I found an unbeatable pair in witch+fireball - @breadstick
> The fire powerup is insanely OP - @crushedsummers
> fireball and witch upgrade make you invincible. - @brandsma
Glad everyone had fun with the fireball! Definitely agree the weapons need some balancing!
Right now I think the fireball is so powerful its the only viable weapon when you get far enough (like around 50k mana or so). A future version will have more viable weapons later on and better balance!
> I was able to walk off screen - @amberfall92
Always intended to fix this, but didn't get to it before submission time, thanks for your feedback!
> movement bound to WASD and select bound to ENTER was really arrgavating - @kallico
Totally valid, a future version will allow you to click on the selection instead of hitting 'enter', I think this would be better for keyboard/mouse players.
--
This is the list of changes I think need to be made for a future version.
1. It feels like the enemies don't increase in numbers fast enough at the beginning, and then when the numbers ramp up (around the time the bats start spawning), the increase is rapid... If you have the right weapons (e.g. fireball and witch) these masses are pretty easy to handle, if you don't you may die instantly. I think a smoother increase in enemy numbers would help the mid game feel a little more interesting.
2. The game feels a little zoomed in, A larger gameplay field would probably feel less cramped.
3. More spells and minions! The current set is fine for the time given to development but I envisioned lots of different kinds of weapons. And they should probably be balanced after a fireball nerf.
4. More enemies! The current list of enemies provides about 5 minutes of discovering new enemies. I think there should be dozens more enemy types that take a longer time playing to discover.
5. More visual indicators-- like a bar that shows channeling progress, some icons showing your current weapons, and a health bar instead of just a number in the top right
I had a great time making this game for Ludum Dare 55 and I'm really glad people are having fun with it!
Thanks again for the feedback!
Fun game with smooth gameplay. Would be cool if you could drag the runes left and right.
Cool game, would be nice if there was a better way to ready your spells without having to take your hand off the movement controls. Either mouse movement with right click, or clickable buttons to ready the colored crystals.
Fun game, I like the way health is used as a resource to buy more animals. Nice learning curve at the beginning.
I got stuck several times in my herd, at one point I got pinned to a corner and couldn't progress anymore.
Cool concept, reminds me of a fighting game. Might be enhanced with attack animations.
Nice job, I love it! Would play more
Fun mashup of a twin stick with a wave survivor... nicely designed with balanced choices and a variety of behaviors. Nice work!
Very cool idea that deserves more development! Very cool, nice work
I could see this being really fun on mobile
Cool text adventure, easy to play if you're familiar with the genre. Changing the font and making it a little bigger would add a lot to the feel of the game.
Nice work
Cool vibe, nice graphics and sound. In a couple instances I had trouble placing the items, sometimes the items felt like they snapped to a location in the bag and I couldn't add other items unless I added the in the correct order.
Fun shooter! The playground tutorial was a good idea, and I like the facial expressions on the main character.
Cool game, it froze on me after a couple dozen cycles through the deck. would love to play a finished version with an ending!
Fun game, plays nicely, looks good, easy to pick up. Would be fun to see it developed with upgrades or enemies.
Very fun, I love the art!
Awesome title screen!
Game looks and sounds great!
Really cool environment, and nice visuals overall. The music is great. Nice arcade game. I had trouble using the pickaxe? Space didn't seem to work.
Nicely done!
@letmebeme I tried it again, I was a little confused by the tutorial message I think, it says "press space to use it" but I hadn't bought it yet, didn't realize I needed to buy it during first playthrough.
Great game, sounds and looks wonderful. The fishing mini game was a really cool idea.
Fun game, great sound design! I had trouble aiming the torpedo. I Would recommend using a key other than F1 for the help menu, some laptops you need to press a function key to hit F1.
Great work, I love the music and sound fx!
Could use a tutorial, I wasn't able to really figure out what to do. I tried bringing ingredients over to the forge based on the picture, but nothing seemed to happen?
@maybeagoose It can be a little tricky at first, you need to release the space bar right after you hit the enemy-- the enemy will 'squish' and you have half a second to release.
I was trying to implement something that felt in the neighborhood of a parry mechanic, but adapted for a bullet hell style game. It might be too hard!
Thanks to everyone who has played so far and left feedback!
I totally agree with many commenters the mechanic is tricky and could use more introduction. I appreciate everyone who stuck with it and made it work!
> Maybe it would be less frustrating if there’s a visual cue of when to release.
@dubiousduck I totally agree with this, the enemies "squish" a little bit when its time to release, but its not very obvious and something I would improve in a future version
@matid90 I haven't had anyone report this issue yet-- I've noticed some browser/OS combos don't work with the input system (like firefox on macOS). The other issue is that you need to be in range of an enemy for it to shoot. Are you able to get it to fire using the left mouse button or the enter key?
@marcos-tulio-cavalcante Dang I thought I got rid of all these traps! Its possible to jump your way out by alternating attack and dash with the right timing. You're right the first part of the game can be completed without much trouble by holding attack...
@gamurmakesgems Glad you enjoyed it! The gold nuggets give you upgrades when you collect them-- every 100 gold nuggets adds an extra lazer shot, and the range of your attack and collect increases gradually over time.
@gaspar glad you enjoyed it-- the windowed mode works better on the itch.io version.
I didn't have time to add a shop, so instead you get gradual range upgrades and an extra laser shot every 100 gold.
Really cool idea, nice work!
I feel a kinship between our submissions.
This plays nicely and is packaged well. I think the challenge could ramp up a little faster. I was able to hold down dash the entire time with no real detriment, might be interesting to add a mechanic to prevent this.
Nice work!
Fun game with a nice presentation and it feels good to interact with. I was a little confused at first whether or not I was identifying correctly. Some green text for "correct" responses might help. Overall nice work!
had a nice time with this, at first i wasn't sure what was causing the game to restart, then i noticed the lives going down. could use an explosion around the character when you lose a life!
nice work
Nice work, lots of fun! would be great with sounds!