Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Nick Blackwood
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | 👥 | Hyper Hydra | jam | 52 | 4.23 | 4.19 | 4.05 | 3.73 | 4.61 | 4.21 | 3.12 | 3.87 |
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | 👥 | Corrupted | jam | 224 | 3.67 | 3.46 | 3.89 | 3.70 | 3.22 |
Art is great, and the music has a tune! The concept of powering the towers is somewhat innovative, but the gameplay is really slow and thus it feels like no challenge for me. I guess, a little bit of balancing might turn this into an awesome tower defense game.
Very retro and authentic looking, great level of polish! And awesome theme interpretation too! Gameplay though has some room for exploits and overall is heavily random. If you work more on the scale and depth of the game (to the level of, say, [Warsim](http://gamejolt.com/games/warsim/217136)), it can potentially become an amazing turn-based strategy.
Крутая графика! Flavour text на предметах и постройках тоже офигенный. Но без туториала и описания предметов, действительно, нужны пол-литра или больше.
Как-то можно спасти парня на снегоходе от волков? И от чего зависит шанс нападения? Проиграл несколько раз из-за рандома, надеюсь на пост-компо.
@pjchardtthesecond,@pixel-game-wizard, @nintendoeats Right, certain enemy layouts might be impossible to beat. This is a significant problem, but I had no time during the jam to do something about it. Right now I'm working on a Post-Jam version which will feature more advanced procedural generation to prevent certain configuration from spawning. Audio is planned as well.
Fast-paced and cool. Love the parallax background and the physics, that moon is bad-ass. But shooting lacks juice in my opinion - bigger projectiles, screenshake and more bassy sounds would help, I guess. It also felt not challenging enough, but it might be just me.
The idea is really cool, love the gameplay! Running around, powering systems and trying to dodge asteroids you just spotted on the map is quite fun! Although, it was unobvious what are gun turrets for and what does the ship's speed depend on (can you turn off one engine for example?). Great power-management game overall with huge potential!
Арт крутецкий, особенно палитра. Музыка атмосферная. А ещё селфи с рыбой, это-ж просто фича фич. Понравилось.
Loved the controls and the physics! The fact that you can block projectiles with your battery using momentum is pretty cool. The battery seems to run out too fast in my opinion and it immediately jumps from full to almost 0, so it's hard to tell how much time you have left. Due to that, exploring the levels wasn't as fun as it could be. Anyway, the game does have potential for sure, keep it up!
Fantastic game and impressive level of polish! Loved the power bar mechanic. And yeah, level design is great, difficulty curve, diversity and the all-around use of mechanics are all there. Oh, I'm also a fan of both the animated logo and the ending sceren. Such a cool entry.
The idea is really neat! Controls are very solid and smooth as well. It was pretty tough to predict rockets' paths though, as well as match 2-part explosives.
A very strong time killer overall, might get back to it later!
Атмосфера офигенная, музыка очень контрастирует с анимациями, и это прямо круто! Наткнулся на несколько багов.
1) Не смог пройти второй уровень, энергия постоянно висела на максимальной отметке. Перезапуск помог. 2) На 6 уровне закинул людей в food producer, и они перестали отрисовываться. Еду не производили, забрать их было нельзя, но их энергия отображалсь.
В целом, геймплей интересный и динамичный. Понравилось. Иногда, правда, не хватало паузы или возможности сменить скорость игры.
Art is lovely, especially particles and lightning! As some have mentioned already, it's difficult to realize that the sphere represents your health. Aside from that, great platformer with solid controls!
Fancy graphics, especially colors and detalization! The text was fun to read as well, love the jokes from AskTerisk guys, haha! Driving the car was a little bit off though. Big open world is a great feature, but it felt somewhat empty. And yeah, you should definitely add an option to skip the dialogs. Solid entry overall, I imagine this may evolve into an interesting open-world adventure game.
Pretty fun and innovative runner! Love the UI stylization.
Also, procedural generation is a cool feature to have! I implemented it for my game as well, and I can say it is really tough to execute under such little time. Great work!
Very distinctive and very deep. The constrast between music and colors one side and writing on another works. Reminds me of [Nebraska](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821549/), especially the way how it depicts casualty of the life.
The artwork is really distinctive and cool! So is the music, which also adds a lot to the mood. It was rather unclear though that connecting satellites restores your power. The fact that the ship slowly loses momentum in the open space is also weird. I doubt I managed to visit all the planets, but flying around and trying to use the gravity to accelerate / deaccelerate was really fun!
The core mechanic is unusual and fun! The difficulty is over the top though, maybe you should throw in some more checkpoints. The hero also changes velocity too quickly, which makes him hard to control, but it might be a feature. However, I still had some fun, cheers for the game!
The dialogues are awesome and got me really hooked! I had a lot of trouble with the riddles before I found out that each page is a short story. I think you should mention that explicitly in the game. It would be cool if there was some reason behind drawing the symbols by hand - even if it's just extra an dialogue line if you do it flawless from the first try. Or maybe more complex puzzles like having to draw the mirrored symbol to unlock an easter egg or something. Apart from that, an excellent mood and a very solid amount of polish, congratz!
It's very innovative and fun! I love how the core mechanic punishes you for being greedy haha. The difficulty felt a little bit too low for me, so I never felt a need to use the upgrades, but I enjoyed experimenting with them. I think this can be a really virus mobile game!
Huge props for experimenting with a such a complex mechanic during the jam! I had to constantly make meaningful decisions during my playthrough, and the difficulty felt just right for me.
What is the reason enemies shuffle "wound" cards to your deck? If that's to create choice (should I kill the enemy or not?), it's mostly nonexistent, because you die quickly if you don't kill them. But maybe the mechanic could work if there were ways to get rid of cards in your deck (or these "wound" cards specifically).
Overall, I'm looking forward to the expanded version of this! Ways to draw specific cards from your deck, synergies and cool combos will definitely add a lot of fun and depth to the game.
It's very stylish both in terms of visuals and design! Love the VFX and the looks of the board. I think if expanded it can either become something big and complex (Zachtronics-like), or a great interactive intro to programming.
I love how music, sounds and art blend together to create an atmosphere! I think it would feel more responsive if the objects you could click where highlighted (or the mouse pointer was changed when hovering over them), but I also understand how the decision not to do it makes the game less obvious and much more mysterious.
I actually has a similar idea I wanted to do a while ago! I enjoyed game feel and polish a lot. It took a while for me to realize I need to open my inventory to equip spells, so maybe could use hints/tutorial for that? Also the fact you need to aim the spell directly at the enemy made the combat very hard for me. Impressive amount of content for a jam game though! I can see how it can be expended with more clever spell combinations.
Ohhhh this is very elegant in terms of design! Had a lot fun figuring out the mechanics. I think we need more games like this.
Ohhh, this game has a lot of depth, but personally I was struggling a lot with understanding how it works. How do stats affect demon's performance? How do I get the the resource for summoning? What's the difference between the tables? Does closing the cafe stops the time? It's probably subjective, but for me it's important to understand how mechanics function in detail.
It felt weird I had to drag the demons to assign them to a job, but couldn't drag my own avatar. I was struggling with money a lot as well, couldn't afford the second table when the entrance was already crowded with spiders lol. But! I really do appreciate the scope and the complexity of this game, I think it could turn into a great tycoon.
Ok, this got me hooked for almost an hour. Love how each hero has their own gold and spends it. The game feels very alive with all the little detail, random dialogue lines and animation. And yeap, you indeed *feel* like a mayor of Tristram haha.
I understand indirect controls over almost everything is a conscious choice, but to me it felt limiting. I enjoyed watching the heroes fight in the dungeon, but I wish I could form the parties myself.
I liked the game a lot overall, especially in terms of mood, congratz!
Love the ambient and the voice lines! I think the game could display a timer, and maybe prevent too many object overlays - a couple of times the thing to cull was behind two other creatures, and I miss clicked haha. Win/lose conditions were also unclear to me - do you have to get "close enough" at least once to beat the round? Overall, it's a vey stylish execution, congratz!
Офигенно! Долго не мог понять, почему я не могу вызывать четвертого Summon Sage, видимо, общее число слотов для демонов ограничено. Еще было бы круто в меню подсвечивать каких ресурсов не хватает для саммона. В целом очень необычное сочетание кликера и стратегии, захотелось написать скрипт, который бы оптимизировал прохождение :)
Reminds me of [Slice and Dice](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1775490/Slice__Dice/), but the dice editing mechanic is unique and generates a lot of interesting choice. Maybe there should be a way to increase the point cap throughout the game? I had a lot of expensive dice sides, but I didn't have a lot of opportunity to use them. Also maybe it's worth to display your max HP somewhere, if you can't heal above it? As already mentioned in the comments, heal/armor builds are dominant, which is pretty unique by itself, but sometimes you want to destroy those enemies faster ahah. Overall, it's a very solid submission, congratulations!
I was looking for more synergy between the units and generally more unit types, but I understand the time constraints. Love the fact you can choose not to spend all the points and store them for later. If you plan to expend the idea: maybe the power of unit you summon also depends on the distance between the stars? But you cannot make intersections. This can introduce some interesting choices I think.
Oh man! It's fast, fun, variative and the difficulty is right on the spot. I love the fact that you should use all the tools at your disposal to succeed. I do feel like impacts could feel more juicy with screenshake and knockback though, but maybe that's subjective.
I love the animations a lot! The gameplay seemed like it's too dependent on randomness though, or at least I didn't see the a lot of control over it. You always want to get all the dice form the shop and pin the 6s. Maybe special skills like rerolling some of the dice or setting a specific die to a number could help with making the player feel more in control of the game. Overall, it's a cool concept, and I'm curious to see how its potential can be explored :)
The music is great! Also was surprised with the amount of tracks the game has. Combat can be pretty deep if items and abilities are implemented (maybe something to peek at your next card in the deck, see enemy damage, double the value of the card you drew, etc). Overall, it looks, plays and sounds very stylish and coherent, congratulations on the great entry!
I'm a huge fan of the mood in this game. It builds a lot of suspense, because you're so unsure of what to expect. The mechanic is very unique too and adds a lot to that. I wish there was more control in where you place the summon though, or at least a preview of where it's going to be placed. Really curious what is the maximum depth of the mechanic and what puzzles can be done with, hope you'll continue exploring!
Ohhh this is so minimalistic but soooo deep! There were a lot of choices to make each turn, and I even started building guesses on how the AI works and thinking about what's the best possible way to make it work. It can easily be expended with more abilities (maybe even asymmetrical) and more maps, but it's cool as it is in its simplicity.
This is the best jam game I've played in terms of art for sure! I was also very surprised there was a map screen and actual events that interact with your deck. Gameplay-wise, I was expecting it to be similar to a CCG and my troops battling enemy troops. What you have is definitely fresh to the genre, but for me personally it's not very challenging or engaging. This can be easily addressed with some balancing and experimentation though, you have insane amount of appeal already, the game can be really huge!
Очень круто! Пискель-арт напомнил стиль Десивера. Порадовало, что рецепты сохраняются, и помечаются ингредиенты, которые ты уже пробовал использовать. Подсказки на цвет нужного предмета в рецепте - огонь!
Несколько раз упирался в лимит инвентаря, это задумка? Если да, то достаточно неприятно: понимаешь, что скрафтить ничего не можешь из текущих ресурсов, но нет свободных слотов на лут.
Из багов: - Можно открыть окно грайндера поверх верстака. - Грайндер нельзя переместить?? - Если расположить верстак слишком близко к верхней границе экрана, UI не помещается на него. Upd: прочитал в комментариях, что можно двигать вид. Может быть, стоит автоматически его смещать, когда окно открывается?
В целом офигенная идея и стильная реализация, думаю, что на мобилки это зайдет очень хорошо) Желаю удачи с проектом!
I love how the spar ricochets and how the impulse of summoning it can both help you and screw you over. The fact that it changes color when you can throw it again is a also a really nice touch. The overall level of polish is insane, by the way! I usually try to come up with areas/ideas that can help improve the game, but here I have nothing to say really. Hope you turn it into a full-scale release!
Love how you explored the mechanic to almost its limits with elevators, unpassable obstacles, spikes and having to open portals mid-air. I was very confused where to go on the second level, maybe there could be a minimap or a way to zoom out / move the camera freely? It was also unclear that you could open vertical portals, but I figured it out eventually :) And yes! Why do you slide off the unpassable platforms?! That was very frustrating, to be honest!
Overall, it's a very solid entry, would be interesting to see what other puzzles can be built on top of the mechanic.
Ok, this sucked me in for almost an hour!
The SFX are top-notch :D I enjoyed it quite a lot deisgn-wise as well. I feel like hiring more workers is inferior to upgrading existing ones. Maybe adding the timer might help balancing it, it might also be beneficial for scenarios when you have the last imp with 1HP and you just wait for it to finish the job (I would not allow myself that if there was the timer ticking). I understand the intention to make things more chill for the player though.
And yes, it wasn't obvious what the rating is for, until I realized it's a win condition. Aside from that, I had a blast with the game, it's addicting and it constantly gives you interesting choices to tackle. Congratz!
Ok, this sucked me in for almost an hour!
The SFX are top-notch :D I enjoyed it quite a lot deisgn-wise as well. I feel like hiring more workers is inferior to upgrading existing ones. Maybe adding the timer might help balancing it, it might also be beneficial for scenarios when you have the last imp with 1HP and you just wait for it to finish the job (I would not allow myself that if there was the timer ticking). I understand the intention to make things more chill for the player though.
And yes, it wasn't obvious what the rating is for, until I realized it's a win condition. Aside from that, I had a blast with the game, it's addicting and it constantly gives you interesting choices to tackle. Congratz!
It's very, very stylish and has a soul. I love how it gives both bizarre and horror vibes simultaneously.
At first it was hard to tell walls from the the rest of the environment, but that can pretty much be a thing that adds to the mood. Items stopped working for me at some point, I couldn't bury the fish or use the glove to push the guy into the hole. I would have definitely played to end if I had an opportunity though and I would definitely play (and buy!) the full game if it's ever a thing.
Кайф! Мне понравилось, что это абсолютно не хоррор, хотя в начале кажется, что это так. Захотелось перепройти, когда из комментов узнал, что есть разные концовки, может стоит намекнуть в самой игре? Было бы круто добавить отображение текущего предмета в руках, пару раз забывал, что сейчас экипировано. В целом, очень, очень крутой юмор, повествование затягивает и стилистически все на высоте, поздравляю!
In my first playthrough I wasn't getting *any* I-pieces, so I was questioning what am I doing wrong for a long time. Next run they have finally appeared, and oh man, the game started to shine! I love the indirect nature of it, but I still wish you had more control over the pieces - either by having an inventory, or being able to trade/discard them. Or maybe there can be an option to gather pieces from the outside world - you click the skeleton, you think about the skeleton. Overall, the game is very stylish in both visuals and design, really looking forward to the expended version.
I love how you can not only choose which cards to add to your deck, but also have tools to get rid of filler cards. I think an option to mulligan at the start of the round could add more depth. Also maybe the round should end immediately as you reached the points requirement. Overall, it's very impressive in both visuals and design, and it's cool how the theme is expressed through the core mechanics (you place cards on a pentagram). Congratz!
It's very stylish and minimalistic, everything blends together so nicely - art, shader, sounds, mood, even the scope of the game. I love the fact that some of the weaker demons get destroyed when you're trying to kill the big ones. All the times that I lost the game ended very abruptly, I think making your sanity bar flash or make the screen go red would help a lot with letting the player know they are about to lose. And yeah, it would be so cool if you could play an actual song or even upload a song to play!
When I was working on [Ghost Croquet](https://ghost-croquet.com/), I initially had an idea that each enemy you can posses uses each own control pattern. While it looked fun on paper, we quickly realized that the fun comes not from learning the patterns, but from mastering the mechanics of each monster, so we scrapped it. I think the same can be applied to your idea, even though I appreciate the novelty and the experimentation. Maybe the drawing is used to only inlock a unit, and/or you have to do against the timer, with patterns being more complex? Overall, I think the game has potential, looking forward to what you can do with it!
The "I'm not eating that" got me :D I was not able to get the "Cutest takes it all" one though. Making the humans leave, then placing the cat after the rat sounds like a logical solution to me, but I might be missing something. Overall it's a cool concept, would love to see it expanded!
Love the graphics a lot, though they created an impression that your submission is board-gamey and turn-based. It would be nice if you could move by holding a button and if the square where you're summoning a unit to was highlighted. As already mentioned in the comments, some mechanics didn't work, but overall the interactions where fun and I enjoyed figuring out how things work. I'm sure this can be expanded, maybe there could some way to get/refill cards during a level, or even combine cards to create new units? Anyway, congratulation on a great game!
I enjoyed the writing and the humor a lot! The hero reminds me of the one from The Magus by John Fowles. The music change during the Angel Infernal dialogue was fire haha.
It wasn't obvious I had to click on the keyboard during the messaging phase, it would help if it was highlighted on hover and/or the mouse cursor was changed.
It was frustrating to go through the initial scene after I lost, I wish it was skippable. And I realized I can save only when I read the comments.
But aside from that, the game is among the best I played this LD. This despite the fact that I'm not really into visual novels. Thank you for making it!
This is a very cool Thronefall-like! I love how you're constantly facing a choice between building more oil drills and building more turrets. And it's a great detail that all upgrades are actually displayed on the tank's model. I was unsure how most of them trigger though - I bought rockets and machinegun, but didn't find a way to activate them, to do the fire automatically?
"Build a turret" prompt goes away away when you move close to another turret and never comes back.
The game was very fun to interact with in terms of juiciness and polish, but a bit too easy in terms of balance - I understand it's probably meant to be casual, but I wish there were different difficulties. It's a very, very solid entry overall, I'm looking forward to what it can become!