Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → nul
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | Ring of Sacrifice | jam | 855 | 2.98 | 2.73 | 2.94 | 3.11 | 2.36 | 2.12 | 3.14 |
An interesting idea at the very least, and, interesting graphics. And hey, you've got a lot to be proud of for being an amateur and submitting your first entry.
As for the game itself, it definitely needs some rebalancing, or new mechanics introduced to balance it with. You can actually avoid ever having to sacrifice just by spamming left click. The points gained greatly outscale the points lost. Up until you crash of course.
The first game so far that I've wanted to play more than once! Everything about it was good, other than as Silvae said, connecting the veins was sometimes a bit tedious.
Very interesting RTS game! The existence of bombs both satisfying the theme, as well as the problem with having 'equally produced units'. You really have to micro manage your units to minimize losses and open up potential to attack. The graphics are really cute and the sounds are great!
Made it to like wave 42 by sacrificing the gun until I could not shoot, and it seemed to be automatically reducing my move speed after that point, despite clicking the gun still, but I was still able to manage with just the laser and the sword. I ended up needing to do other things.
Interesting concept though!
I may have a bias for SRPGs in general, but I really liked this! I didn't have much time to actually beat it, but it has some pretty interesting mechanics!
Pretty solid concept, really like this one! I kinda suck at it but, I'm sure balance would be less of a concern over things like... more content and progression if this were to be developed post-LD. Would've been nice with music but the sounds are very satisfying and clear.
Pretty interesting game. It could definitely use a uh, less awkward movement system though. It's such a tedious process, with the speed, the vision, and also the noise. And also, it would be nice to have some sort of indication for which effect took place from random cards. For healing, sacrifice, and duplicate, it was pretty obvious, but other cards not. An end goal would've also done nicely. Maybe killing the snowman could've been a 'game end' screen. As for bugs, I've encountered two. One, is that the "enemy loses 6 turns" card does not remove itself from your inventory on use, nor does it leave the use/disenchant/cancel screen. Another is that the snowman is labelled as a cute ghost after it respawns.
The card and gem mechanics are very neat though, could definitely see where this goes as a full adventure game. Random equipment with enchantment cards? Progressively better cards as you get further into the game?
One big issue I had was dealing with the camera. Going through tight turns on the last level. Don't find out where the corners pop out until it's already too late to adjust.
Otherwise, very nice game, especially in art and sound!
Yeah, the biggest thing I would've really liked to improve on is animations and weapon feel. I also feel as if I made the 'easy mode' too easy, which doesn't really let you explore the mechanics of venturing out of the comfort zone. Easy mode was kind of a 'last minute thing' because all but the last 5 hours was just me playing my own game without having anyone test it. And once I had someone test it, I realized just how lost they got and how frustrating the game became to deal with. I think my biggest mistake with easy mode was making the fire die slower. It takes the whole theme away because it's not really a sacrifice if all you're doing is putting junk in it.
Thanks for your feedback guys, I'll keep all this in consideration for future projects.
@themadprogramer Yeah, one of the things I wanted to add but didn't have time for was allowing the player to set their own time limit. The attacks do have a sound effect, but, one thing I forgot to add is a sound for when an enemy got hit. I also wanted to add some kind of indicator that damage was being done as well, whether it was particles, damage numbers, or a health bar above them. And also an indicator/timer for enemy stuns would've made that mechanic much more clear.
Thanks for digging around the danger queue, it's much appreciated. I haven't had much free time to get my smart balance up. And thanks everyone for the feedback, it's all appreciated for sure!
Some other mistakes was making the 'easy' mode too easy. The fire dying slower than 'hard' mode was a big mistake, as upkeeping the fire in easy mode was so simple that a majority of the enemies that 'prefer cold' would just stay in the corners of the map. I feel as if this gives the game a bad impression because like... the most important feature is made significantly less important, even though it was just a change from 5 seconds per tick to 6. Speaking of the corners of the map, another mistake was letting the size of the 'warm area' scale that far, and the map could've been bigger. As well as making the rarer loot more common at longer distances, and less common near the fire.
Everything is pretty good about this game, except two problems. Enemies can shoot through bodies and you can't. Dodging the star enemy shots becomes nearly impossible when there's more than one horizontal from you. Your hitbox is huge and it's topped with a pretty low jump.
"You survived for 145 seconds by sacrificing 92 of your eggs. Was it worth it?" A question I was asking myself 10 seconds into the game. Am I only producing eggs to protect my egg production? What do I gain in the end? I love it.
The theme and the atmosphere is amazing, paired with the sounds and music as well. Could've easily been 5 star graphics if the hand models were original work, as well as those flickering black cubes not being there. But I definitely do not find the game fun. The controls are pretty bad. No pitch control, very high yaw sensitivity. And with only two buttons that aren't WASD, didn't feel necessary that one of them had to be B. I died simply due to... If the game is RNG based on it's layout, then I died to that. If it's static, then I lost simply because I didn't have any way of knowing which door to choose.
But this atmosphere is great. You should either improve on this project, or bring that same style into a new one for sure.
Could be a great game if the physics were fixed. Having a lot of 'rubber banding' trying to jump into that hole behind the door was painful. But good sounds, music, graphics, and a neat little twist on the theme. Many out there believe the sheep must be sacrificed, but there was I, actively proving that the sheep did in fact not need to be sacrificed.
I'm not entirely sure what purpose the formations served, nor what the different 'skills' of the main character did. The combat was also way too mindless. Focus all attacks on a single enemy to reduce incoming damage as quick as possible, then heal any injured party members. I feel as if more time should've been spent on adding some more depth to the combat. If the different characters had any stat variations other than "this one heals and this one attacks", then I was completely unaware of it.
The mood of the game was pretty nice though, good use of music, graphics, and incorporating them along with the theme into your game.
Seems like it has promise, but unfortunately the game does not seem to work. Out of what I know is intended, is that the floor tiles indicating a 'doorway' are just a little bit confusing. I thought they were just odd looking walls. I am strongly curious about how this game could turn out though. Do you have any plans on continuing work on this game?
Very neat game you got here! It's probably for the best that I didn't play it during the rating process, seeing how the LD version actually doesn't work for me. With KB+M, character just swings once as soon as the game launches, then doesn't allow me to melee/shoot/dash. With a switch controller, the character just constantly moves north shooting in random directions. The latter still happens in the 1.1 version, but I can play with KB+M in 1.1.
Was fun, definitely a good concept, very Devil Daggersy, except more focused on rushing for upgrades than trying to dodge every single thing that exists.
Balance wise, there's one major issue. You are practically invincible so long as you can hold W and mash right click, after you get about 200 hp + both regens. I think a good solution to this is to have regen be a flat rate instead of % based. Sure, at 100 hp, you only regenerate 6 (4 if it doesn't stack?) hp. But at 200 hp, you regenerate 12 hp. 18 at 300 hp. etc. This also makes the 'free right click' upgrade a downgrade. Because the amount of health you would save is not worth the amount you would just regenerate if you still had all that max hp.
I think a 'skill tree' type system might be nice, too. That way, if you want to stack up on regen, you'll miss out on things like grenades and maybe some damage reduction.