Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → negativeview
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Exploding Cubes of Cleanliness | compo | 231 | 3.52 | 3.24 | 3.36 | 4.24 | 3.12 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 41 |
Overall I found it fun. I played 5-6 levels, which is probably above the average that I'm going to do. That said, I of course have criticisms.
If given more time, I'd want it to be more polished and to give more direct feedback to the user, but I wouldn't add or subtract anything from the core mechanic. That's solid.
1) As a somewhat colorblind person, it took me a while to figure out that the colors cycle. Once I figured it out, I became a lot less unsure about what I was doing.
2) I was also unsure how big of an area was going to change when I clicked. I lose several levels because of this, but losing a level doesn't hurt TOO bad. A hover effect would be nice.
3) The little guys were often brain-dead. They had a path to the exit and I was just waiting until THEY figured it out. Broadening the path sometimes helped them see it, but not always.
This took me a long time to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I'm still not sure. These are my guesses:
Click the tile that is a unique color. You then get more tiles. If you don't, you get fewer tiles.
Is that right?!
I'm disappointed that there wasn't an alternate ending, it really felt like there should have been. Or if there was, I couldn't find it.
Kinda fun. The biggest complaint I had is that it was too hard to build back up momentum because of the arc of the jump. I get that it's hard to make the jumps when you're going fast. That's how it should be, but it should be easier to get going again when you slow down, not harder.
This game wasn't fun to me, but I still call it a game. It's nerve wracking walking through the dark areas. It's very visceral. I think that it totally deserves praise, but strays very far into "art game" land where I normally don't stray. Not sure what I would change as I'm not your target audience.
So far the best game I've seen on here BY FAR. I didn't want to quit this one at all.
This is a game that I would play when I needed to let my brain background-process something. It's interesting enough to not get boring, but doesn't take much brain power.
The walking speed was slightly frustrating (I felt like it took forever to get places) and I REALLY missed WASD. I'm not using to clicking to move.
The font is absolutely beautiful and the advice is VERY amusing.
The advice honestly makes the game. If the fish just went into a basket or something I'd probably be giving you low marks. Funny how one silly thing can just completely raise the entire feeling about a game.
The progression idea was very interesting. You pick up attributes from your enemies, yes? I found it rather easy until I was slain. The balance is very uneven, and I may have gotten lucky by getting size 5 fairly quickly. It was hard to tell before going into battle if I was going to breeze through or be slaughtered.
I can't seem to launch the game. :( Win 7, 64 bit. Java 6, which should be set up right as I did my game in Java, too...
@GreaseMonkey: If you have doubts about the music, realize that it's one of the default songs you can make with Garage Band, with a few of the instruments changed out (but playing the same notes).
It took about 10 minutes.
@The Reset Button Not Working:
I haven't seen the reset button completely not work personally. What I have seen is an infrequent bug where there will be some extra yellow tiles. It lets you win even with those tiles up. It's very odd and is going to be hard to track down since I've only personally seen it twice. It SEEMS to be related to resetting the level, though.
I don't doubt that there's a bug where it completely doesn't reset the level, just that I haven't even seen that one once, so it's probably going to be even harder to track down. Joy!
@hamster_mk_4: It was one of the last things I added, and it is stuck in an odd spot. Hit escape or make the game lose focus and you should get a pause menu. In there is a reset button. That pause screen is very ugly.
@jpverkamp: Did you use the HTML version? I don't see ANY lag on desktop, and for a while desktop was the only option. You could be right though for people on lesser computers, or after I posted the HTML build.
You're the person! I loaded up the game stats and thought someone was trying to mess with me!
The difficulty controls how fast the game ramps up. YouTube Commentator was designed for just a few levels, enough to get a brief introduction.
These are how the difficulties work:
YouTube Commentator: Places 1 + sqrt(level)
Normal difficulty: Places 1 + level
Harder: Places 1 + (level * 2)
In the updated version, difficulty will be tied into the density of placement (it's harder when things are placed close, but not on the same time), the number of colors (it's harder when things wrap back around to white again, that obscures some of the patterns), and the size of the tiles (it's harder when the tiles are bigger, because things are more dense).
Sorry you went through that grind. Why did you play 48 levels if it wasn't fun? ;)
@Cardboard An android version is now *definitely* in the works. As in, it's on my phone right now. And all the menu crapiness is getting fixed. And a third paintbrush. And maybe a new mode if I can wrap my head around how that would work.