Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → netpunk
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | 👥 | Myst the Alchemist | jam | 1261 | 2.96 | 2.63 | 3.34 | 3.51 | 3.03 | 2.90 | 2.89 |
Nice game! I've really enjoyed the balanced created by the night/day cycle, forcing you to make risky decisions. The incremental difficulty with houses and guards also feels just right, allowing you to enjoy the game without being overwhelmed.
Overall a solid entry! I'd love to see it turned into a complete game!
Thank you for the comment @mascoll! Isn't the pig lovely? Our artist will surely be happy to hear about it.
It is indeed hard to find the correct combinations! The idea is not to be afraid of mixing things, as even after death, you will still be able to see all your previous receipts (as long as you drank the potion!). As a little clue, it might be worth starting with only combining two things, and then moving up to more "exotic" combinations. The map does change after each death, but it shouldn't be a problem, there's plenty of items! (Make sure to reach for the water near the river!)
As you said, there is lots of things in there, and we were a bit short of time. Ideally, we would have wanted to have "random" combinations also yield positive outcomes (ie. not always poison that takes time). Sadly... There was no time for it. Neither for the poor fish that lived in the river (although the butterflies did make it in time!).
Once again, thank you for your honest review!
Thank you @dkmk100!
There is some logic to most combinations (like water and fire not mixing, or almost always consisting of a base element, such as water/fire/air, and then some flower/stone/gem), but nothing too absolute or rigid. Sadly, we didn't have time to incorporate any hints as to what combines with what, so right now it indeed is hit-and-miss. The trick, though, is not being scared to try, accumulate knowledge in form of simple receipts, and then complicate them in further runs. Dying is not only fine, but encouraged!
Also, as I was said in a previous comment, we would have wanted to have “random” combinations also yield positive outcomes (ie. not always poison that takes time). Sadly… There was no time for it.
Thank you again!
Hey all! I'll try my best to address all comments! Thank you all!
@eli-delventhal Yeah.. we get the feeling! The number of combinations can be overwhelming, specially if you try to combine more than two items at once. I'd recommend starting with easy combinations, some are even somewhat logical (see comments above!), and then once you got some juice to keep the game going, build you way up to the harder ones.
@anaxie-studio I'm so glad you loved it so much! Indeed, plentiful is not quite enough to describe the myriad of items in the world haha. Your suggestion is not only good, but in the right direction I'd say! We already have some items that only spawn at certain places, such as water on the river at the border of the map (remember where your table is at!), and stones over the stony paths. Next step would be, as you said, making some of them more scarce and tied to environment. As for tracking process, try hitting ESC! It will bring up the menu with the number of seconds you have survived so far. Admittedly, it breaks a bit the flow if you must hit ESC, maybe bringing it next to the bar at the top would be a good idea, don't you think?
@sacredbacon I like the idea of the pig giving clues! That is something we will look into for sure. Sadly, we didn't have enough time for that. As for taking the difficulty away... be careful with consuming too much of a single potion! Myst builds resistance to it and each time it gives you less seconds! Although... Right now it always gives at least 1 second, so it can still be exploitable I guess? Mass-producing a single potion and then right-clicking faster than 1 second (totally doable)... Yup, must change that! Thank you!
@jesus-gonzalez Thank you so much for the lovely comment! We are so thrilled to have reached 20 ratings! I can't agree more with you, a mobile game would totally fit the theme (and dare I say... a Switch game? Although we are far from being able to do that).
@muriel Hahaha! Totally! Why else would a pig talk to you so calmly after being poisoned? Thank you so much for the kind comment!
@flaterectomy embrace death! Nah, in all seriousness, while dying is expected and encouraged (make sure to drink the potions to find if they are any good), the difficulty might be a bit too much. With a bit more time we might have placed a hints system, maybe finding complete receipts on the map, something. As it is, it is hit and miss, although that is okay if you don't mind dying; receipts persist for next runs.
As for pixel issues... I'm going to come clean here. All I have done with Unity is 3D, our artist occasionally paints as a hobby and has just started with procreate (and had never done pixel art), and our other dev had only done some dabbling in Unity. You can't even imagine how much we struggled with it... For a good three hours I thought I'd have to tell the artist to redraw everything! It's not perfect (certainly not pixel-perfect, sorry for the bad joke), but we are extremely proud of how it ended up. Next ludum dare, though, we'll come much more prepared! Btw, no hard feelings, it's honest feedback and the truth! We will improve! :D
Hey! Just a quick heads up, the game does not run in Brave (DOMException: The user denied permission to access the database). No problem with Firefox.
Overall the game is cool and I like the mechanics, but I've lost several times due to being detected through some blocks or right outside the edge/end of the light.
Some randomness in the guards initial position could spice things up a bit, as right now replayability suffers a bit. Also, I've missed some kind of indication of what to do or where to go (at least in the first run). Map panning does exist, but it feels weird to do in the middle of moving.
Overall, tho, good game. I can see the idea being further developed and extended into a full fledged game.