I liked this game, it was very nice as a play for fun thing but I didn’t really feel too much of the Sacrifice theme. At first I thought I had to keep my circles indicating how much of a power I have from running out or else the acolyte associated with that power would die. I tried my best to use the spells minimally as to not drain their life force, but when I did hit bottom on the power indicators everyone was fine and I could still use the spells.
The possibility space was very nice in size, especially since the spells of both monsters and myself would grow as they traveled, but I did have a very hard time maneuvering and being able to tell what I could stand on and what I couldn’t stand on which caused some frustration and interrupted the flow quite a bit.
I think it’s hard to identify one single core mechanic, but if I had to it would be that the spells can cancel each other out. Since in order to aim spells you have to turn and walk towards the enemy (in order to face the enemy) having a spell on your tail about to hit and being able to block it before attacking was a nice touch instead of having them simply not interact. It made me feel I could build more tactics and have more risk at turning to attack with lightning instead of simply blocking with water. That definitely added more meaning to spell choice.
As far as the main dynamic, I truly enjoyed the use of water as a shield to run away into before turning and shooting out lightning. Since one normally augments the other, it almost felt like a logical choice to shoot them out like that even though I know they didn’t interact with each other, simply with how we used them. However, I made almost no use of the fire other than to break boxes so I wouldn’t run out of lightning. The range was simply too small and impractical due to the frequency the enemies shoot spells and because there were not melee enemies.
I can’t say I felt much empathy for my avatar though. He was very heavenly looking but he felt shallow. I think if it was your job to PROTECT the acolytes at the sacrifice of maybe your wings (if they are used as shields) or at the cost of damage to you, then it would have been rooting more for the avatar. The storyline of having to prove to the gods that you are worthy would have been able to still stay, but just with that small tweak I personally would have felt more invested.
Considering the inherent narrative, the struggle felt very satisfying. The way you learn how to combo spells to make yourself more powerful had a bit of a learning curve but felt very nice when you start to combine them. You did a great job of allowing the player to come up with these combos on their own without being felt led to them. However, the goal and the transformation felt very weak. Again for me it was because the goal didn’t seem quite appealing and also because outside of combos I didn’t feel much character growth.
Despite that though, I had a very nice time playing! At one point I was surrounded and didn’t know what I was gonna do but in a clutch moment my mind connected the water spell and shielding so I simply combed one water spell after another to keep blocking while looking for pauses in spells to come out of and take out a couple enemies at a time. Being cornered like that was a very nice “do or die” moment.
This game is super funny! Granted, I might just be reading into it a lot due to political stuff, but I thought it was hilarious. I’m not sure if you meant it like this, but I really liked the theme and how the mechanics work to support it. To me, it was about SOME cheeto colored president with a very bad hairdo that is insisting to go walk around the streets in very obviously dangerous areas and expecting bodyguard after bodyguard after bodyguard to keep dying for his selfish requests. Again, sorry if it’s a bit political but to me it really tied up to how Trump is very selfish, doesn’t listen to his intelligence team, insists on stupid public show stunts, and doesn’t care how many people’s life end ( in the game the bodyguards die but in real life it can be ending of a career or other things) as long as he gets what he wants.
The choices allowed in the game did seem meaningful. For example, I could choose to either dive in front of the president or to push him along depending on the situation. Simply standing in front of the bullet also would stop it. The possibility space was very narrow and set, but again I saw it as a political statement of how narrowminded certain president is so it just added to the humor for me.
I felt like the core mechanic of the game was stopping the bullets with your body and it was very elegant in it’s simplicity. Add to it that the president will not allow you to guide him off of the path and it made for a very funny experience. The dynamics were very open as well which I truly enjoyed and I feel that the push dynamic was the core one. At first I thought the matter which you’d dive at would be the key, but to be honest I would only use that for the snipers. Outside of that I would just try to frantically corral the president around to have him avoid the bullets in time. Again, to me this was funny and seemed on purpose.
I did feel empathy towards the avatar as well. When I first read the instructions, it said that I could take a few hits, so I figured I would have a lifebar but it seemed only our very orange president was the only one worthy of a lifebar. Instead, by having the bodyguard die each time and have another one just pop right up FROM the president’s feet, I felt a lot of empathy. The graphic animation of the bullet hit on the bodyguard was a good touch to add empathy too.
I couldn’t really get into a flow for it, but I think that was more of my fault than any type of design issue. Also, the random spawn points of the president made me frustrated since when I would have two bullets coming to our dear old old old old old old Trump rump I would often times end up pushing him into the way of a bullet trying to get around him shortly after dying to the first bullet and trying tot block the second. I did read that you tried a few different options for spawn point and I agree that close to the president was a good idea. I think a few steps back would have helped with the pushing into the next bullet though.
It has a very good sense of struggle on later levels when you have so many projectiles to worry about, but I didn’t quite feel anything for the transformation. Also, the goal was clear and easy to feel but I also felt quite unhappy every time I would walk him into his safe limo.
Very cool game! The graphics look amazing and the sword swinging action looks very fluid. I really enjoyed it! The theme was very clear and I found the spin you took on “Sacrifices Must be Made” to be very funny. Instead of thinking of self sacrifices, killing people and sacrificing them instead was great. It fit very well too since you play as the demon not the humans. That gave me empathy for the avatar very quickly. The graphic design of the demon with such silly big front teeth and the expressions on all characters made me empathize with the demon very quickly despite going around killing humans and sacrificing them for my own volition.
I didn’t feel that too many of the decisions I could make had meaning though. I feel that was tied to the core mechanic. On earlier levels the projectile wave that shoots out of the sword was really good! It allowed me to have to make judgement calls on risk/reward of how close I wanted to get to an enemy if I wanted the shockwave to hit the enemy behind the one immediately in front of me. Later own though, this mechanic became very OP since the width and the travel distance of the wave both grew a bit too much. This made me go from tactical positioning and maneuvering to simply running around spamming my swing button and having the ridiculously huge wave hit everything without much effort from me. Since the possibility space was only that small room, it seemed unfair to have a wave that could cover half the distance of the room and be about a quarter of the size of the room.
As far as the core dynamic though, I was glad to see your tip about moving the bodies with your sword waves too instead of trying to push them in. If that would not have been possible I think it would have really made the game almost impossible since pushing them has that type of “sliding” effect on them.
I was really getting a good flow too during the beginning and mid game. Dodging the bullets, maneuvering to the corners of the room (instead of the walls since that’s where the enemies step inside from), brooming in dead bodies to get incinerated, and seeing the little sword swing around with all it’s might felt really good. Again though, after you increase to level 3 on your demon, it kinda looses that flow of excitement and replaces it with more of one of slight boredom. In my opinion, the level two should be the most strength the sword should get unless the enemies become harder.
The inherent narrative could have been a bit better too if towards the end you’re not as OP. The struggle is supper satisfying at the beginning since very quickly the gunmen are introduced as enemies. Then the more you see the little demon with it’s silly teeth burn bodies the goal becomes more exciting. However, again, I wasn’t very happy with the transformation since it was very quick and very OP.
A large part of my enjoyment from the game aside from mechanics also came from the graphics. The graphic effects were very clean and I liked the harsh colors used as the bodies disintegrated too. Growing the horns as he leved up was a nice touch too! I’m also glad he healed at those points as well. It was super good!
This game was pretty tough, I had a hard time even with the first and second wave. The “Sacrifices Must be Made” theme was very clear even in the directions. The mechanics also supported it very well and were nicely explained in the directions. I liked how the directions were explained in the narrative of the game too, it made it possible to feel the role more genuinely. They sounded like instructions coming from higher-ups that would be given to a robot stranded trying to escape the planet and really puts you in the avatar’s shoes right off the bat.
The sacrifice mechanic was very nicely implemented. Having two ways to sacrifice the accumulated “glitched” enemies that were fighting on your side made the choice to sacrifice much more meaningful. I quickly found out that you can’t sacrifice them willy nilly because the accumulation of enemies quickly overwhelms you so I would find myself on my last core of health a lot of the time before I would choose to heal myself at the cost of one of my troops. Also, I would never have my troops self destruct unless I could get them to hit two large tanks as a minimum. Anything less was simply not worth it, even when there were already many enemies surrounding me. This created a lot of conflict and was a great use of the sacrifice core mechanic while strengthening the “overwhelming/panic” core dynamic.
The possibility space was very well organized too. It gave me enough choice of cover and obstacle since depending on my positioning walls would either act as good cover while I attacked or would become an obstacle that I would get pinned against. The addition of water as an obstacle gave a good boost in difficulty too.
As much as I enjoyed the game, I felt it hard to really find a flow in it. It took me a while to figure out what about the game was causing me to simply "not feel it", but I think it might be because the screen seems to be very zoomed in. Having the characters be so large and the “view” of the area be so small as a top down didn’t allow me to think a couple moves ahead since I couldn’t see the enemies, just the barrage of bullets coming at me. This felt a bit unfair since the bullets would not be random but would follow me with very high precision as if they had me right in their sights, yet I had no view of my enemies to know which way to shoot back. Instead of being able to really formulate strategy I was forced to deal with aimless shots at my enemies hoping they get hit and dealing with the immediate threat of bullets already on top of me. This could have very well been done on purpose to provide more urgency and encourage players to get close to the tanks and other enemies, but since there is no reloading or pauses between the constant array of shots it made it made me play even safer and simply find cover and then fire randomly from that area to thin down the wave instead of rushing it head on.
The avatar was very nice and the beginning instructions (framed as a directive that must be followed in order to escape the planet) created good empathy towards it. I especially liked how it was framed as an escape mission instead of an attack and conquer.
In order of satisfaction, I would say the ludemes were Goal, Transformation, Struggle. The goal was very well portrayed with the empathy and the status bar at the top. The transformation was very good as well though since I needed to learn how to sacrifice my troops in a strategic way since they provide so much support alive. Lastly, I didn’t quite enjoy the struggle much again because of the lack of vision.
Overall though I really enjoyed it, good job! There was a point when I was really trying to figure out how to deal with such large numbers and it was great to make the realization that you have to struggle to try and have a positive inflow of new glitched robots. I did this by trying to only sacrifice one when I have accumulated two. After I started doing that, I felt much more confident I could beat the next wave which gave me a renewed sense of excitement.
This was an amazing game on it’s own and even more so as a Ludem Dare. The mechanics of the game matched the “Sacrifices Must be Made” theme very well. I liked how you did not include any mention of having to kill your avatar to advance forward. I feel like that really puts you into the avatar’s shoes when you reach the first locked door that you can’t keep open until you realize you’ll have to jump into the spikes. The first death felt very real, since at that point I didn’t know if I was going to come back to life or not. I just thought that it might be the only option I had at that moment. The possibility space of the game is a bit limited, but despite it, I still felt my actions validated since you continued to increase the emotional attachment of the actions taken.
The core mechanic was very quick to identify, sacrifice your body to be able to advance forward. The core dynamic was also very evident. Under the assumption that you were created inside that lab and have never seen outside, there is a sense of desperation to leave that increases with each purposeful death. The empathy to the avatar is instant since she has the figure of a young girl. Then I really liked how you had steps of how to die (Not sure if on purpose or not but it was great)! The first death is done by an inanimate set of chain saws. The second sacrifice that is a needed is done by a slime blob monster (since the avatar is also a slime creation it feels more real but not too bad since most of the time slime blobs are not considered very sentient or be anything other than mosnters). Then a little later you see that there are other slime blobs (the red ones) that when you get close they grow into the image of a girl who shoots a very slow projectile. That was a very nice touch because that death is more impactful than the slime blob since this was done by a fellow slime girl! That the projectile moves so slow was great too because I felt that I could dodge it easily but I know I must die at that spot. So instead it almost allows you to contemplate on your life as you see this “bullet” slowly approaching the spot of your death.
I feel like you really gave each ludem a very strong position. The “Transformation” was the strongest. Realizing what you have to do and how many of your own form must die for you to succeed was very good. I think I felt the “Goal” of the game right off the bat but not as strong. Seeing what I assumed was my conscious body in the tank immediately gives a sense of urgency to leave though. Finally the “Struggle” was felt more in emotional empathy of the avatar instead of a personal feel.
Finally, I’m not sure if this was also done on purpose or for aesthetics, but I think it was great how the saws had a slight glow of green to them too in some areas as you got close to them. It was very subtle but it had the same shade and shine as your avatar. It almost gave the impression that even though you spawned when you started the game, maybe you’ve been trapped inside that lab for years before the player starts and that you are just another copy that does not remember how long you have been trying to escape. This dread is reinforced when you move from one level to another and you see that the starting tank where you are is also transferred to the next level. If that tank kind of “follows” your progress, who knows how long it has been that you’ve been trying to escape and it is entirely possible that the green glow on the saws is from countless amounts of deaths you’ve experienced but simply lost memory of. Surly replication that many times will deteriorate the mind. Very good job!
LD43 — Sacrifices must be made (5)
Ascension by tvle83 2019-02-04T22:45:18Z ♥ 1
I liked this game, it was very nice as a play for fun thing but I didn’t really feel too much of the Sacrifice theme. At first I thought I had to keep my circles indicating how much of a power I have from running out or else the acolyte associated with that power would die. I tried my best to use the spells minimally as to not drain their life force, but when I did hit bottom on the power indicators everyone was fine and I could still use the spells.
The possibility space was very nice in size, especially since the spells of both monsters and myself would grow as they traveled, but I did have a very hard time maneuvering and being able to tell what I could stand on and what I couldn’t stand on which caused some frustration and interrupted the flow quite a bit.
I think it’s hard to identify one single core mechanic, but if I had to it would be that the spells can cancel each other out. Since in order to aim spells you have to turn and walk towards the enemy (in order to face the enemy) having a spell on your tail about to hit and being able to block it before attacking was a nice touch instead of having them simply not interact. It made me feel I could build more tactics and have more risk at turning to attack with lightning instead of simply blocking with water. That definitely added more meaning to spell choice.
As far as the main dynamic, I truly enjoyed the use of water as a shield to run away into before turning and shooting out lightning. Since one normally augments the other, it almost felt like a logical choice to shoot them out like that even though I know they didn’t interact with each other, simply with how we used them. However, I made almost no use of the fire other than to break boxes so I wouldn’t run out of lightning. The range was simply too small and impractical due to the frequency the enemies shoot spells and because there were not melee enemies.
I can’t say I felt much empathy for my avatar though. He was very heavenly looking but he felt shallow. I think if it was your job to PROTECT the acolytes at the sacrifice of maybe your wings (if they are used as shields) or at the cost of damage to you, then it would have been rooting more for the avatar. The storyline of having to prove to the gods that you are worthy would have been able to still stay, but just with that small tweak I personally would have felt more invested.
Considering the inherent narrative, the struggle felt very satisfying. The way you learn how to combo spells to make yourself more powerful had a bit of a learning curve but felt very nice when you start to combine them. You did a great job of allowing the player to come up with these combos on their own without being felt led to them. However, the goal and the transformation felt very weak. Again for me it was because the goal didn’t seem quite appealing and also because outside of combos I didn’t feel much character growth.
Despite that though, I had a very nice time playing! At one point I was surrounded and didn’t know what I was gonna do but in a clutch moment my mind connected the water spell and shielding so I simply combed one water spell after another to keep blocking while looking for pauses in spells to come out of and take out a couple enemies at a time. Being cornered like that was a very nice “do or die” moment.
Thank you!!! Awesome job!
Get down Mr President! by GenericToast 2019-02-04T22:18:09Z ♥ 1
This game is super funny! Granted, I might just be reading into it a lot due to political stuff, but I thought it was hilarious. I’m not sure if you meant it like this, but I really liked the theme and how the mechanics work to support it. To me, it was about SOME cheeto colored president with a very bad hairdo that is insisting to go walk around the streets in very obviously dangerous areas and expecting bodyguard after bodyguard after bodyguard to keep dying for his selfish requests. Again, sorry if it’s a bit political but to me it really tied up to how Trump is very selfish, doesn’t listen to his intelligence team, insists on stupid public show stunts, and doesn’t care how many people’s life end ( in the game the bodyguards die but in real life it can be ending of a career or other things) as long as he gets what he wants.
The choices allowed in the game did seem meaningful. For example, I could choose to either dive in front of the president or to push him along depending on the situation. Simply standing in front of the bullet also would stop it. The possibility space was very narrow and set, but again I saw it as a political statement of how narrowminded certain president is so it just added to the humor for me.
I felt like the core mechanic of the game was stopping the bullets with your body and it was very elegant in it’s simplicity. Add to it that the president will not allow you to guide him off of the path and it made for a very funny experience. The dynamics were very open as well which I truly enjoyed and I feel that the push dynamic was the core one. At first I thought the matter which you’d dive at would be the key, but to be honest I would only use that for the snipers. Outside of that I would just try to frantically corral the president around to have him avoid the bullets in time. Again, to me this was funny and seemed on purpose.
I did feel empathy towards the avatar as well. When I first read the instructions, it said that I could take a few hits, so I figured I would have a lifebar but it seemed only our very orange president was the only one worthy of a lifebar. Instead, by having the bodyguard die each time and have another one just pop right up FROM the president’s feet, I felt a lot of empathy. The graphic animation of the bullet hit on the bodyguard was a good touch to add empathy too.
I couldn’t really get into a flow for it, but I think that was more of my fault than any type of design issue. Also, the random spawn points of the president made me frustrated since when I would have two bullets coming to our dear old old old old old old Trump rump I would often times end up pushing him into the way of a bullet trying to get around him shortly after dying to the first bullet and trying tot block the second. I did read that you tried a few different options for spawn point and I agree that close to the president was a good idea. I think a few steps back would have helped with the pushing into the next bullet though.
It has a very good sense of struggle on later levels when you have so many projectiles to worry about, but I didn’t quite feel anything for the transformation. Also, the goal was clear and easy to feel but I also felt quite unhappy every time I would walk him into his safe limo.
Thank you so much for a good laugh! Great job!
Demon Rising by GerardB 2019-02-04T21:10:34Z ♥ 1
Very cool game! The graphics look amazing and the sword swinging action looks very fluid. I really enjoyed it! The theme was very clear and I found the spin you took on “Sacrifices Must be Made” to be very funny. Instead of thinking of self sacrifices, killing people and sacrificing them instead was great. It fit very well too since you play as the demon not the humans. That gave me empathy for the avatar very quickly. The graphic design of the demon with such silly big front teeth and the expressions on all characters made me empathize with the demon very quickly despite going around killing humans and sacrificing them for my own volition.
I didn’t feel that too many of the decisions I could make had meaning though. I feel that was tied to the core mechanic. On earlier levels the projectile wave that shoots out of the sword was really good! It allowed me to have to make judgement calls on risk/reward of how close I wanted to get to an enemy if I wanted the shockwave to hit the enemy behind the one immediately in front of me. Later own though, this mechanic became very OP since the width and the travel distance of the wave both grew a bit too much. This made me go from tactical positioning and maneuvering to simply running around spamming my swing button and having the ridiculously huge wave hit everything without much effort from me. Since the possibility space was only that small room, it seemed unfair to have a wave that could cover half the distance of the room and be about a quarter of the size of the room.
As far as the core dynamic though, I was glad to see your tip about moving the bodies with your sword waves too instead of trying to push them in. If that would not have been possible I think it would have really made the game almost impossible since pushing them has that type of “sliding” effect on them.
I was really getting a good flow too during the beginning and mid game. Dodging the bullets, maneuvering to the corners of the room (instead of the walls since that’s where the enemies step inside from), brooming in dead bodies to get incinerated, and seeing the little sword swing around with all it’s might felt really good. Again though, after you increase to level 3 on your demon, it kinda looses that flow of excitement and replaces it with more of one of slight boredom. In my opinion, the level two should be the most strength the sword should get unless the enemies become harder.
The inherent narrative could have been a bit better too if towards the end you’re not as OP. The struggle is supper satisfying at the beginning since very quickly the gunmen are introduced as enemies. Then the more you see the little demon with it’s silly teeth burn bodies the goal becomes more exciting. However, again, I wasn’t very happy with the transformation since it was very quick and very OP.
A large part of my enjoyment from the game aside from mechanics also came from the graphics. The graphic effects were very clean and I liked the harsh colors used as the bodies disintegrated too. Growing the horns as he leved up was a nice touch too! I’m also glad he healed at those points as well. It was super good!
Last Key of Robotica 3 by elitegoliath 2019-02-04T19:26:04Z ♥ 1
This game was pretty tough, I had a hard time even with the first and second wave. The “Sacrifices Must be Made” theme was very clear even in the directions. The mechanics also supported it very well and were nicely explained in the directions. I liked how the directions were explained in the narrative of the game too, it made it possible to feel the role more genuinely. They sounded like instructions coming from higher-ups that would be given to a robot stranded trying to escape the planet and really puts you in the avatar’s shoes right off the bat.
The sacrifice mechanic was very nicely implemented. Having two ways to sacrifice the accumulated “glitched” enemies that were fighting on your side made the choice to sacrifice much more meaningful. I quickly found out that you can’t sacrifice them willy nilly because the accumulation of enemies quickly overwhelms you so I would find myself on my last core of health a lot of the time before I would choose to heal myself at the cost of one of my troops. Also, I would never have my troops self destruct unless I could get them to hit two large tanks as a minimum. Anything less was simply not worth it, even when there were already many enemies surrounding me. This created a lot of conflict and was a great use of the sacrifice core mechanic while strengthening the “overwhelming/panic” core dynamic.
The possibility space was very well organized too. It gave me enough choice of cover and obstacle since depending on my positioning walls would either act as good cover while I attacked or would become an obstacle that I would get pinned against. The addition of water as an obstacle gave a good boost in difficulty too.
As much as I enjoyed the game, I felt it hard to really find a flow in it. It took me a while to figure out what about the game was causing me to simply "not feel it", but I think it might be because the screen seems to be very zoomed in. Having the characters be so large and the “view” of the area be so small as a top down didn’t allow me to think a couple moves ahead since I couldn’t see the enemies, just the barrage of bullets coming at me. This felt a bit unfair since the bullets would not be random but would follow me with very high precision as if they had me right in their sights, yet I had no view of my enemies to know which way to shoot back. Instead of being able to really formulate strategy I was forced to deal with aimless shots at my enemies hoping they get hit and dealing with the immediate threat of bullets already on top of me. This could have very well been done on purpose to provide more urgency and encourage players to get close to the tanks and other enemies, but since there is no reloading or pauses between the constant array of shots it made it made me play even safer and simply find cover and then fire randomly from that area to thin down the wave instead of rushing it head on.
The avatar was very nice and the beginning instructions (framed as a directive that must be followed in order to escape the planet) created good empathy towards it. I especially liked how it was framed as an escape mission instead of an attack and conquer.
In order of satisfaction, I would say the ludemes were Goal, Transformation, Struggle. The goal was very well portrayed with the empathy and the status bar at the top. The transformation was very good as well though since I needed to learn how to sacrifice my troops in a strategic way since they provide so much support alive. Lastly, I didn’t quite enjoy the struggle much again because of the lack of vision.
Overall though I really enjoyed it, good job! There was a point when I was really trying to figure out how to deal with such large numbers and it was great to make the realization that you have to struggle to try and have a positive inflow of new glitched robots. I did this by trying to only sacrifice one when I have accumulated two. After I started doing that, I felt much more confident I could beat the next wave which gave me a renewed sense of excitement.
Slime Girls by nervous-composers 2019-02-04T18:21:29Z ♥ 0
This was an amazing game on it’s own and even more so as a Ludem Dare. The mechanics of the game matched the “Sacrifices Must be Made” theme very well. I liked how you did not include any mention of having to kill your avatar to advance forward. I feel like that really puts you into the avatar’s shoes when you reach the first locked door that you can’t keep open until you realize you’ll have to jump into the spikes. The first death felt very real, since at that point I didn’t know if I was going to come back to life or not. I just thought that it might be the only option I had at that moment. The possibility space of the game is a bit limited, but despite it, I still felt my actions validated since you continued to increase the emotional attachment of the actions taken.
The core mechanic was very quick to identify, sacrifice your body to be able to advance forward. The core dynamic was also very evident. Under the assumption that you were created inside that lab and have never seen outside, there is a sense of desperation to leave that increases with each purposeful death. The empathy to the avatar is instant since she has the figure of a young girl. Then I really liked how you had steps of how to die (Not sure if on purpose or not but it was great)! The first death is done by an inanimate set of chain saws. The second sacrifice that is a needed is done by a slime blob monster (since the avatar is also a slime creation it feels more real but not too bad since most of the time slime blobs are not considered very sentient or be anything other than mosnters). Then a little later you see that there are other slime blobs (the red ones) that when you get close they grow into the image of a girl who shoots a very slow projectile. That was a very nice touch because that death is more impactful than the slime blob since this was done by a fellow slime girl! That the projectile moves so slow was great too because I felt that I could dodge it easily but I know I must die at that spot. So instead it almost allows you to contemplate on your life as you see this “bullet” slowly approaching the spot of your death.
I feel like you really gave each ludem a very strong position. The “Transformation” was the strongest. Realizing what you have to do and how many of your own form must die for you to succeed was very good. I think I felt the “Goal” of the game right off the bat but not as strong. Seeing what I assumed was my conscious body in the tank immediately gives a sense of urgency to leave though. Finally the “Struggle” was felt more in emotional empathy of the avatar instead of a personal feel.
Finally, I’m not sure if this was also done on purpose or for aesthetics, but I think it was great how the saws had a slight glow of green to them too in some areas as you got close to them. It was very subtle but it had the same shade and shine as your avatar. It almost gave the impression that even though you spawned when you started the game, maybe you’ve been trapped inside that lab for years before the player starts and that you are just another copy that does not remember how long you have been trying to escape. This dread is reinforced when you move from one level to another and you see that the starting tank where you are is also transferred to the next level. If that tank kind of “follows” your progress, who knows how long it has been that you’ve been trying to escape and it is entirely possible that the green glow on the saws is from countless amounts of deaths you’ve experienced but simply lost memory of. Surly replication that many times will deteriorate the mind. Very good job!