CHILL PILL by alvarop 2016-01-04T23:02:00
Not particularly interesting apart from the screen growth. It does have a bit of an aesthetic sense going on, so I'll translate that to the Mood score we all love.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Jwatt
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Category | Score | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥈 | 2011 | 21 | Escape | Escape the Fate | compo | Community | 4.21 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Cm | Co | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 36 | Ancient Technology | To Give a Game | jam | |||||||||||||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Neo Oxygene | jam | 508 | 3.33 | 3.02 | 3.98 | 3.92 | 3.56 | 2.48 | 3.28 | 79 | ||||
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Terraform Junction VS | jam | 447 | 3.31 | 3.06 | 3.78 | 3.14 | 3.58 | 3.21 | 1.87 | 3.03 | 58 | |||
| 2014 | 30 | Connected Worlds | Kemono Worlds | jam | |||||||||||||
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | The Leeway Brothers' Bohemian Debut Of A Lifetime | jam | 348 | 3.25 | 2.80 | 3.60 | 2.05 | 3.70 | 3.68 | 3.13 | 2.88 | 32 | |||
| 2013 | 28 | You Only Get One | Public Mischief Performance | jam | 229 | 3.16 | 3.07 | 3.31 | 2.33 | 2.96 | 3.03 | 4.06 | 2.62 | 84 | |||
| 2013 | 27 | 10 Seconds | Maximilian Lambda Caster | jam | 339 | 3.02 | 2.68 | 3.54 | 2.79 | 2.78 | 3.18 | 2.00 | 2.58 | 73 | |||
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Vineyard Adagio | jam | 476 | 2.58 | 1.93 | 2.81 | 2.87 | 2.47 | 2.87 | 2.53 | 60 | ||||
| 2012 | 25 | You are the Villain | Hunter to Hunted | compo | 334 | 3.04 | 2.64 | 3.64 | 2.78 | 3.09 | 3.37 | 2.19 | 2.83 | 71 | |||
| 2012 | 24 | Evolution | Manual Population Control | compo | 417 | 2.90 | 2.43 | 3.14 | 3.48 | 3.43 | 3.30 | 2.46 | 42 | ||||
| 2012 | 23 | Tiny World | Downsize | compo | 261 | 3.26 | 3.29 | 3.20 | 3.14 | 2.77 | 2.42 | 2.14 | 2.69 | 65 | |||
| 2011 | 22 | Alone | My Own World | compo | 142 | 3.15 | 2.85 | 3.69 | 2.77 | 2.85 | 3.33 | 2.00 | 2.55 | 3.44 | 37 | ||
| 2011 | 21 | Escape | Escape the Fate | compo | 102 | 3.33 | 3.06 | 3.44 | 3.00 | 3.17 | 3.29 | 2.00 | 4.21 | 6 |
| Year | MiniLD | Theme | Game | Rank | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 55 | Preparation | Mr. Mizu's Leaky Faucet |
Jwatt leaves an average of 37.1 feedback comments each event.
Not particularly interesting apart from the screen growth. It does have a bit of an aesthetic sense going on, so I'll translate that to the Mood score we all love.
A modern classic. This will go underappreciated in its time, but I predict an academic interest booming decades after.
Unmistakably a bitslap game, in both good and bad. The music was like avant-garde free jazz.
I know it's hard to make anything that revolves around music and still feels like a game (without it being a rhythm game). It's equally hard to rate, cause I was pretty impressed, but it's hard to defend quantifiably as a game.
This is an interesting experiment in its own right, and the interface has lots of neat tweens going on. Of course having any sort of online play is a technical achievement. The way it's one object per player makes this a social experiment kinda thing.
That was one wild ride. I don't go "woah" about LD entries often. Concept aside, it has solid audio design and a visual style that stands out.
Take this to the next level in post-jam development and have the timelines influence each other somehow, that would make for some great puzzles.
This is actually quite well done and solid. Now that this exists, I finally have a game for which to give 5 stars in Theme.
The performance chart at the end is much appreciated, would hope more of these kinds of high scoring games displayed some stats.
Oh god, it's Invisible tiles: The Game. And when I thought we had, as a society, moved on.
The cube aesthetic is neat and all, but... no. Not my type of concept, no matter how cool the execution might seem.
It would add an extra layer if tapping Z didn't reverse your direction and you'd have to go around the planet when you miss something. That would've been a more natural way to utilize the whole two-button theme and complemented the gameplay as well. I mean being able to tap-dance around the same spot suggests fast maneuvers, but this game is actually quite slow-paced, and the difficulty curve doesn't seem to ramp up anytime soon.
Speaking about slowness, and on a larger scale easiness, that's my main gripe. I managed to get the impression there was no way to lose - even if enemies do crash on the planet, it doesn't seem to get smaller or anything, and you just get more points. Weird.
It's a fun, mindless sort of reaction game. Good for rapid replaying. Was having difficulties determining what my orientation is for shooting, though.
Looks like we have some lore going on here. Very simplistic when it comes to design, but the gameplay isn't as zen as this would warrant. (Lore-wise, a nearly enlightened monk certainly wouldn't fight off enemies! They'd just accept them and spread kindness to them or something like that.)
While I would argue that space+mouse stretches the definition of "two buttons", making breathing the focus of the Growth theme is pretty clever.
Okay, let's get this out of the way first: 5 stars for Audio, easily. I could see this claiming a top 3 spot in the Audio category overall, comparing this to the Jam entries I've played. A case in point of how it really does improve the whole experience when people have a dedicated sound designer in their team.
The puzzles were just the right easy/medium difficulty. Nothing too challenging. Some fairly clever uses of the simple mechanics that I was anticipating to see, like your limit of 6 drops coming into play, and things like fires spreading to other blocks. I don't primarily think of this as a puzzle game after all, but more like a Knytt-style exploration game which happens to have environmental puzzles in the mix.
Speaking of that, I did note how the levels have all sorts of neat nooks and crannies. Sometimes there's a longer walk to get somewhere, sometimes there's purely decorative fires out of your reach here and there. All this gives you the impression that levels don't exist only for the puzzles' sake, which is important for the sort of immersion you were surely going for. This game really has a sense of cohesion about what it want to be and convey.
Graphically it's a bit hit-and-miss. Many of the sprites look like a "first attempt", but then again, there's a lot of content visually and none of it is ugly per se. I'm not sure if I should count the lack of contrast between foreground and background as a criticism, as the game's pace is slow enough for you to stop and parse the landscape for a while. But I'm sure all of what I'm saying has to do with acknowledged time constraints, and post-jam development would be a good time to round off some of the sharp corners in the visual look.
Overall, this really managed to engage me for a while. I think you did a great job making an experience that seems complete as it is. It left me with a positive impression, with just slight quirks that I see have been mentioned and taken into account.
You asked for feedback, and this is a great chance to give some, since I immediately saw some issues that were fundamentally hindering the simple gameplay. So while I am focusing on the negatives because they're easier to write about (and maybe because that's the kind of guy I am), I don't mean to discourage you in any way. I can see the effort is still there, and I appreciate you taking risks to liven up the game, like those 90 degree turns upwards. The neat Japanese aesthetic to tie it all together thematically is worth mentioning as well.
...
Okay, so the biggest nuisance is easy to condense into one example: those small platform jumps.
They demonstrate a lot of what needs fixing in this whole experience. I've seen straight up bugs like the player flying inside a wall. There's the classic missing the jump because I wasn't able to predict what was coming. Sometimes I manage to do it and feel like I didn't earn it.
The point about not being able to see it coming implies that the running speed in this game isn't proper for doing these kinds of precise jumps. There's no variation with how heavily you've pressed the jump button either, which is a detail I really feel you should've focused on, since - well - it's only one of two buttons, after all. Plenty of those "little things" that pile up to make me feel like it wasn't my fault I died. And they come back to haunt you on a lesser scale when fighting enemies, for example.
I think the common factor is that the game feels like it's going in fast-forward. This is something that happens with a lot of entries - during testing, the authors get bored of the slowness and ramp up some variables. After a weekend of having gotten used to the speed or difficulty or whatever other adjustable setting, they release the game, and the poor players who are just seeing it for the first time will feel left out of the ride. Having a third party playtester somewhere along the development is the best kind of reality check about what aspects of the design to focus on.
So because of the above points, you'll be resetting a lot. Regardless of how often you die, I'd say there's never a reason for a jam game to return to the title screen. The music restarting with resets is an additional small thing that becomes a big deal over time.
(In fact, I think title screens in LD games are unnecessary altogether. They don't offer any kind of meaningful representation, because a screenshot is more informative in a huge list of games anyway, and the lack of an options menu is simply an exercise in having reasonable default configurations to begin with.)
The graphics are tasteful for the most part. You've got some shader and particle type things going on that aren't overused or distracting. Be careful of pixel-perfect sprites stretching out, though. The only place where I felt like you were being lazy with the sprites was the sudden screenful of monotonous brick tiles in the tunnels.
One trick people easily overlook is fonts. Picking something beyond system fonts is an implementation-wise quick way to bring the visual style to the next level - for a game like this, many of the more readable bitmap fonts on Dafont would be appropriate. Consider the layout as well; place the relevant text to where the player can see it, and try to keep the possible text spawns to a minimum. (Text popping up in the middle of the screen is a bit of a dirty solution, and in this case makes some of it blend with the backgrounds. Better to dedicate some spot on the screen for announcements only.)
...
Hopefully you'll find at least some of my ramblings helpful. Grats for finishing and good luck on future LDs.
The updated version makes a better use of screen space regarding the arrows, for sure.
It's an alright take on a fighting game, even if there didn't seem to be any time pressure or rewards for being quick at tapping. The environment changes gave a distinguishing character to each level, and made it look more like a journey to tie it into the (J)RPG aesthetic. Mood-wise, this comes across as more than the sum of its parts, which is really needed for an idea this simple and straightforward.
But with two graphics artists, you really should've worked more on your palettes. Also, those glow effects mainly only serve to blur any important information. No complaints for the audio, though.
Pretty clever, and you've taken the concept places. Since people are already raving about this, lemme work some quirks out for your further development.
The ball getting stuck fairly often is a bummer. Tilting is a cheap way to fix this, when you could just avoid flat tops in the level design or have some boosters going on.
Flipper physics need some more work, feels like there's not enough punch and the ball's position doesn't affect the shooting angle as much as would be intuitive. And when the ball does manage to gain some speed, the camera lags badly, which is problematic in a table this large.
Also, I'd like to have a special mention for the music. This is my jam, successfully captures the visual aesthetic in audio form.
One of my favorite concepts so far. And you've done a lot with it.
Objects with varying uses increasing your hitbox, making it a risk/reward thing to capture new weapons. Then you think that's subverted with dummy objects, except dissassembly is basically a bomb attack no matter what you had attached. And there's a bunch of enemy patterns relating to your configurations, testing your understanding of the possibilities in various ways.
The one gameplay quirk in the current execution is that the player's movement isn't symmetric - going up is way faster than coming down.
Madly wanting to see this become a more polished little experimental game. This leaves you hungry to see the full potential, like a bunch of new enemies/blocks for all sorts of combinatorial effects. And of course you could slap some fancy graphics/audio on top while you're at it. Stay in touch with the community about this.
This could scale quite a bit faster, so that one could see the different types of enemies and test out the shot types with less tedium. The cash system is a decent start.
Reeaally not a fan of the audio. Brings back PC Speaker flashbacks in a bad way.
You should have the controls in the description rather than hidden in some menu. People just don't read menus. It seemed intuitive that it would've been just the mouse, but the mouse buttons did nothing. (In fact, why don't they?)
Your take on the growth theme seems like a good idea, but it has a very one-dimensional effect, and I feel you could've done more with it to add some variety. Like shooting different kinds of enemies would cause you to grow in different ways, with your shots becoming different and all.
The bumping gets pretty crazy sometimes, but it seems well playtested enough.
RIDING ON CARS
JUMP AND SHOOT
MEGAMAN MEGAMAN
Holy crap, this looks and sounds exactly like a C64 game. Not just vaguely retro, this is faithful stuff down to the title screen.
5 stages is a lot of content, with fairly interesting enemy patterns, an upgrade system and the whole kitchen sink. It's very much a complete shoot-em-up. Pretty impressive all around.
Woah, the mouse pull is crazy. Makes this pretty intense, like you actually gotta put your body into survival. Especially when the bottom part is pretty much instadeath. I kept thinking this could be nudged slightly towards a more ambient, artsy kind of game.
Perhaps surprisingly, I haven't seen other games interpret the two-button theme as a "light vs. dark" motif. So it's got that personality going for it.
This is a clever and polished little toy, unique as far as the entries I've played go. Tamagotchi vibes. The zoom-out is cool.
You can tell this was made by someone who thinks of themselves primarily as a "programmer". There's no transitions, no interpolation, no rounded edges. Everything either just happens discretely or doesn't happen at all. Zeroes and ones brah.
Conceptually very basic, no mentionable twists to break the monotony, or to change the player's relation to the environment. You've pretty much seen every mechanic there is in the first few moments. And it's very short to boot, almost ashamed to exist on your screen for the briefest moment.
Had to play this in fullscreen to make anything out of the text or sprites. You've got liberal screen space - use it!
Okay, those little creeps take like a cosmological amount of time to kill. It comes across as an artifical way to stretch out the game, as fighting them isn't very dynamic. Would've hoped for some variety here, as it's kind of the only thing you do in this game.
I feel like the audio was a nuisance more than something that complements the gameplay. So honestly I can't give that aspect more than 2 stars at best.
Solid entry. This gave me an inspiration of a game with a similar control scheme where you need the ball to grow larger to break thicker and thicker walls.
But there is one big problem here. One that I'm surprised not to see in the comments already.
You are simply transforming the local coordinates of the *room*. It does not change the relative movement vectors for the *ball* in its local coordinates. There's no need to have this smoothed out trajectory business when turning.
Consider a short scenario without collisions. If a ball goes up at t=0, and there's a rotation at t=t_r, then it'd damn well keep going up (from the camera's perspective) at t>t_r. The direction of the gravity in the ball's coordinates doesn't change either! Which means the ball doesn't start swerving right/left or doing those bonkers loop-de-loops visually, even if one did keep spinning the room around. The way you're doing it now is as if the ball is collecting extra momentum from the rotation itself, but there's no interaction to cause that, which fucks with the player's brain.
This is a big deal because it causes the result of your input to be less intuitive and harder to predict than it needs to be. Also there are some additional concerns with the floatiness (common to Unity games because of default physics I guess?) and the lack of elasticity of the ball.
There's plenty of things that have got to be just right to even land one shot in a terrain like this. This premise could be interesting if dealt right, but the biggest frustration comes from the game not doing a very good job communicating where the worm is.
It's not easy to put my finger on what exactly it is that bugs me about that, but I think it's a mixture of
1) the camera angle,
2) the reticle pointing at an inexact direction,
3) misleading depth perception due to lack of luminosity differences with the distances you're dealing with, and
4) the worm's aggro respawning almost instantly after it's gone underground.
This was kind of a surreal experience to play first thing in the morning.
The game seemed to play itself for the most part. Gotta have more feedback for the player about what their actions are doing. If watering the mushroom is the important bit, it'd help to have some visual cue of water falling when you press left Alt or something. Just in general visualizations of the information that would affect your watering, like a timer for when elves spawn.
Starts getting pretty tricky later on. Zero production values, but it's got heart.
Looks like most everything has been said. This makes you forget you're playing a jam game.
Uh, okay, apparently the mouse controls are the opposite of what the instructions say. That took me a while.
It's presented like a strategy/resource management game, but it's more like a micromanagement smash and bash. On a larger scale you just buy all the farmers ASAP and grind some soldiers. Then you just move the guys around and sorta hope something sticks. Seems like wasted potential on the whole setup's part.
The fail condition of 250 bunnies comes across as an obvious quick solution by the programmer, especially when there isn't a counter in-game to support it. Strange because there is a visual cue of bunnies stacking, and I thought that'd be an indication of how deep in danger you are.
Would also be convenient to be able to click on the mini-map and hop around like that. And maybe to not have the instructions just float around awkwardly.
All in all, it's pretty solid, but there are also signs of lackluster time management. It's gonna take a few more bandages to keep this package together, and apparently you've already been working on post-jam fixes, so let's hope something comes out of it.
Huh, rare to see GUIs in LD with this amount of effort gone into them. On the other hand, the crude sprites aren't exactly a treat for the eyes.
This sort of interpretation of the theme could easily be an excuse, but it's actually been worked into the game well enough. The whole ranking thing is a solid framework for keeping an otherwise simplistic game interesting.
Now, the actual gameplay has Unity Physics(TM) written all over it. Too much focus on acceleration and not enough on dampening. The result is a velocity curve that swooshes all over the place, making basic control an unnecessary hassle. (And no, the possible comedy aspect isn't enough of a defense.)
I'm intrigued, but get your differential equations together.
This is such a Java game. There's something about the controls that gives them that shared feeling of unresponsiveness. Similarly to how Unity games are bound together by floaty physics and the mouse swooshing all over the place.
Combat is pretty tedious due to enemies being so static. I'd say you should rethink this with more of a Binding of Isaac control scheme in mind, which would let you could go wild with enemy logic. The lack of autoshoot and the slightly too slow movement are more annoyances that could be easily fixed. Unless they're a requirement in Java(TM)(R)(C).
All my cheekiness aside, it's moody for sure. I wouldn't call this a 1-star entry at all, the story and ambience are the meat that kept me playing. Maybe speed up the dialogue boxes a bit and lose the "use your gun to shoot" type lines.
This had tons of style. A puzzle game that's actually a puzzle, not just an exercise in repeating a bunch of rules.
4 stars gj (5 for everyone's favorite category, Mood)
I'll give you credit for being ambitious, with special props for the audio work. The concept came across as somewhat unique, even if the constant underlined catering to 90s' kids was close to cringey levels.
And to reiterate the same complaint once again, this really ought to have a checkpoint in every room, considering the timing isn't very precise and leads to tons of fake difficulty. Having to replay 3+ rooms in a row all the time is nearly a game-breaking flaw here.
Can't get this to run. "Game.exe has stopped working" straight off the bat, using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I did unzip the game first.
Looking at the other comments, this is probably a problem on my end. The game seems to be based on SDL, so I wonder if it's somehow trying to use some of the SDL 1.6 DLLs I have on my system instead. (SDL has been problematic to setup before...)
Ohgod this game. I kept playing because I wanted to see all the dialogue. Also all these faces are killing me.
Is anime real??
Quite a lot of uses for a fundamentally simple mechanic. I could confuse this for a Nitrome game in spirit, but also in terms of production values.
Your choice of song affected... nothing, which is strange especially in a game like this. The entire gameplay seems like an afterthought, and nothing in the visuals really wants to complement it. Even the "enemies left" text is ashamed to be there and would rather sit this one out in the corner.
But hey, I guess it's at least neat to look at.
Hah, I appreciate the surprise factor. I'm not sure if stuff was syncing with the music or not, would've made the multitasking easier.
This is a clever little game/toy. Big up for the timelapse aesthetic. Also that music is hilarious to me for some reason.
No se oli sitten vissiin vaan semmonen. Ilmeisesti aika helkutin tärkeitä puhekuplia kun pitää aina tulla hiiren tielle. Eipä mulla muuta.
I wonder what kind of unrealistic expectations you had if you call this "unfinished", it's an order of magnitude more finished than most entries. This actually utilizes the mechanics pretty thoroughly, and as a package stands out from the average game. Real good job all around.
Captivating audio, and I guess including bits of narrative adds some level of charm.
But ultimately I'm with HuvaaKoodia on this one, the levels themselves are more of a chore than anything. Everything's already been conveniently settled for you, every step of the solution is in the right order. Despite all the stuff you've gone out of your way to introduce, there's no assembly required.
Just by seeing a level, it's like you immediately know what you gotta do, and then you just have to do it with no surprises or depth ahead. It's endless exposition with no resolution, and once I realized this is how it's gonna be, I didn't bother playing till the end.
Besides that, there's something very repetitive about the basic interaction that peeves me. For a bit of automation, you should be able to drag a new mechanic over an old one. I mean, instead of dragging the old one out of the way first. That alone would go a long way.
I actually kinda like this a lot. There's a lot of different elements that go together in fairly interesting ways. Well-executed in the gameplay department, and I can say I'm still having fun after quite a few retries.
But let's have a word about visual presentation.
There's something about this style that seems very MS Paint-y as far as pixel art goes. Muddy colors, palette all over the place, shading not having much contrast with the environment. Also moving things kinda-but-not-really snapping to the grid - which I guess can be excused as a stylistic gimmick in games not actually based on old hardware - but in combination with everything else, it just comes across as carelessness.
It's not just about looking pretty, you gotta consider functionality too. Composition-wise, most of the screen is just empty space. And there isn't really any gameplay consequence for everything to be moving like you're on a treadmill, so it's an unnecessary (even misleading) visual cue. Not to talk about how the more urgent threats don't always stand out more.
...Yeah, it's a lot to digest. But I'm not pointing it out to be mean. In fact, I'm hoping you'll find advice like this useful in your future games, so you can give them that extra polish to really complement your already solid design thoughts.
On the plus side, the audio's OK, seems like you have a good sense of what kind of tune fits the mood.
This is fundamentally a very fun game. Hard to give it anything other than 5 stars for Audio, as it's very listenable but also used effectively for gameplay (I mean, duh).
No major gripes about this, it's a game that knows what it wants to be and delivers just that.
Now this is quite an interesting experience, and a creative take on the theme(s). Goes to show there's a lot to do with two buttons. I mostly enjoyed playing to the end, and this is one of the more memorable entries altogether.
To help you work on this more, maybe, here's my two main gripes regarding the gameplay:
1) The reaction times required are occasionally a bit overwhelming. It sorta feels like playing a debug fast-forward mode that you got used to during development, and which you never slowed back down for the poor players who are just taking their first look.
2) The skills aren't really explored to their fullest extent. I guess this is one of those things that feel "off" to me about many modern Metroidvanias. You only get skills to reach the next area - as a new key to a lock - not as a new degree of freedom that allows your character to explore more. This can sort of be excused considering it's made in a weekend, but I'd like to see you play around with non-linearity more after the compo.
Also, the audio does get on your nerves after a bit. Actually it seems out-of-place right from the start, mood-wise. It's just there doing its thing but not really complementing the gameplay.
It's moody and stuff, but man is the control scheme off the wall. It's fun to look at but not really rewarding or enjoyable as a game, and it's utilization of the theme seems like an afterthought.
The best way to describe this is that it feels like the result of an animation studio hired to make a game, when they don't really even play video games. I'll be a bit bummed out if the presentation fools people into rating this high in the jam.
A no-bullshit arcade game/reflex test.
The fundamentals check out, it kept me trying for a while. The visual style has a distinct personality to it, and the palette is fairly tasteful. Music's alright, gives this a fittingly tense touch.
So yeah, this is a solid entry. It's just that I can't really see a connection to the theme(s).
This has quite many layers of misdirection to hide what's "only" a memory game at its core. It's moody as heck though, I'll give you that... couldn't have expected an entry like this from a two-button restriction.
This control scheme combined with a noisy level type is quite a frustrating experience, really. It seems like an obvious case of a design issue when the player spends nearly half of the game time in an input-blocking state.
Some fixes would include the frog grabbing onto ledges when hitting blocks from the side, or a slower movement in general for more precise left-right mid-air twiddling.
As it is, this felt more like fighting against a software's quirks than playing something, unfortunately.
Nevermind, I hurried to play this now after all.
I see this primarily as a tech demo to build on. Even without the features you were aiming for, some feedback from the enemies could make this an interesting little experience. The presentation is of course on point, but what's being presented is very barebones.
Keep us posted on future updates!
I like the concept of only having half of your movement directions, but the execution suffers from some false difficulty at its core. The sluggish movement makes it tricky to estimate where you'll slide and bounce. While it was fun for a while, ultimately my patience wasn't enough to reach level 15.
You could try ramping up the speed or having some visualization of your expected trajectory.
The commentary from the player adds an extra bit of charm. The audio is listenable I guess, but those graphics kinda hurt to watch.
These sort of coffee break strategy games are my jam. The difficulty's pretty well optimized to not be too easy and to make use of every structure type. Looks very much like a DOS game with the details of aliens doing their thing inside the hexagons.
If there's something explicitly negative to be said, having the camera just snap around the place is kinda disorienting. And there's the bfxr effects once again, taking the focus from the otherwise spacey ambience.
4 stars gj brah
It was charming alright. About the difficulty curve, the first lesson felt like the most tricky to time right, but after that it was smooth sailing.
This reminds me of the very first (unreleased) game I worked on, which had a similar concept. Except you'd also place down springs where you wanted to jump.
Okay, this is buggy and short, but you still get an award: http://i.imgur.com/j75vIc8.png
The physics feel as you'd expect from a pinball game, no complaints there. The presentation is fairly charming too.
But the character growing seems kinda like a gimmick, it doesn't have a real effect on gameplay. If you want to take that aspect further, consider blocks that are only breakable when you're big, or something.
A thousand points for the name alone. Bookmarked so I can try this after finals week.
Tricky, partly due to the challenge of the controls, and partly due to the cramped level design. Since the knight orbits the cursor so far away, he's got kind of an "icy floor" vibe to his movements. I ended up trying to lunge whenever I could, but I still didn't get very far.
ZAT IS NOT HOW MOMENTUM VÖRKS. ZAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF DIS VÖRKS.
More seriously, having the camera follow the ball all the time makes the screen a bit too active. Unfortunately, my run ended by getting stuck inside a wall.
Now it's just me and this music... forever.
Audiovisually a pretty damn impressive entry.
But you could've afforded to sacrifice some of that detail in favor of more content. LD is always a learning experience in time allocation.
A clever and cute little package. The way the next level portal scales with your progress is pretty next level in itself. Also good thinking for including dampeners for the effects, they get pretty hard on the eyes after a while.
...But really, space bar and right arrow?
Let me just fetch my good old Playstation Move controller, which I totally have. It's like a mountain of Playstation Moves just piling up in my closet.
You think you're an OG gangsta but you ain't seen Jazzy Jeff
This one just doesn't strike me as LD winner material. The gameplay is essentially "tap harder to win", with little content or captivating design. I would appreciate it if fans of the game explained the appeal.
Most of the games I thought of as 5-star entries are now sitting somewhere in lower top 100, so I'm legit curious of what the difference in taste (or popularization) was in the end.
As a multiple LD winner and a cool dude, I'm really expecting you to up your ante constantly.
So I'm honestly disappointed to see you do just another stock platformer with a shader. There's a few puzzles alright, but they're fairly straightforward, with floaty controls that don't match the gameplay style. And it just has to be the standard issue "playing with light and darkness" concept.
For someone's first entry, this would be a solid, fairly polished game - not a standout, but solid. For someone like friggin' Managore, I get the impression you didn't truly challenge yourself this time.
Soft 3 stars. You can do better, man.
I don't see a reason why the bread is a limited resource. There's no way to collect it, and the game even explicitly tells you to respawn to get more, so the pressure of bread running out feels pointless. Besides, being able to carelessly create bridges would make traversing things like those spikes less clumsy and eliminate undeserved deaths.
And a bit more about undeserved deaths. Right at the start of the game, the hectic nature of the controls becomes apparent when trying to jump over a sensor but also over the birds. You could tone it down so that you stay airborne a bit more during jumps, so you have better control over your airtime. Fidgety character physics like these are for games like Super Meat Boy, this could've done with a more relaxed and moody feel to it, starting right from the controls.
The traps quickly become overkill, with little room to utilize the birds, and so it's in this weird state where it's temporarily a hectic platformer between bits of exploration. Give yourself the permission to make this an honest artsy-fartsy exploration game - it feels like you were compelled to add the usual tricks and traps just for the sake of it being a platformer.
All in all, these are flaws that can be easily fixed. I'm resorted to pointing them out not because I hate the game, but because I want to see you fix them. I can't honestly rate this below 4/5 as it stands, taking into account some unnecessary frustration and a slight lack of focus. I appreciate how there were a few clever uses for the birds, and it's trying to be moody in a way, but the impression is damaged by the previously mentioned out-of-place platforming cliches and the obvious Autotracker music. (Yes, people *do* notice.)
To sum it up, it's a solid idea with flawed execution, and this warrants my seal of "please develop this further".
Textboxes are wonky and written in lackluster English, which doesn't help with the first impression. I'm conflicted because the design is generally amateurish with some fake difficulty and things like jumps into unknown, but the floppy system is kind of creative, and the production is surprisingly good. It's weird, but I can't tell whether this is somehow fundamentally crude or a solid but rushed game.
Not nearly as dynamic as the quirky presentation would've warranted. No strategy or skill required, just tappity tap tap at roughly the right time and see what happens.
Unique as fuck. An easy to learn but hard to master kind of game, getting long combos is satisfying. Really creative in the audio department too.
You guys get -it-. A lot of people don't get -it-, or might even want to distance themselves from -it-, but I really appreciated the absurd humor style here. Screw the theme, the fact that this exists was worth that sacrifice.
Could've used ledge-grabbing or something to give leeway for the jumps that require you to gain speed first but to *also* make a pixel-perfect jump. Or when you have that one tile to gain speed during the escape sequence and waste 20 seconds hitting your head. For a game that's entirely about character controls, these kind of things feel like fake difficulty.
Most of the time, I got the warning messages when it was already too late. Gotta go fast.
It's got a cozy style overall, I had a bit of a DOS game flashback. The best part was the way the stealth style changed into speedrunning during the escape. But I was hoping for some twist to really tie this into the theme, it's quite vanilla for a platformer.
This crashes Flash instantly after the HaxeFlixel logo on Ubuntu. Lemme try on Windows a bit later.
Okay now this is a genuinely impressive entry. Some kind of special abilities to make monsters stand out more would probably be the next level for continued development.
This has somewhat satisfying gun physics, which I would figure is kind of the point of the game. Character momentum is too easily stopped by a simple bump in the road, though.
But the game as an experience is just plain lazy for a team with 72 hours. It's like, I'm given this neat gun to use, and then there's really no use for it. You just go down, catch the last few oranges, and win the game.
I mean, you had the structure that the player's travelling to a boss fight. Why not have them actually prepare for the fight with some proper treasure hunting that's essential to winning? Juice just seems like the first of many resources that never got implemented. It's a letdown cause the fundamental "physics gun" idea seems polished enough and would've had a lot of potential.
You've convinced me that the main mechanic could be going to places, there's a few creative uses in here already. Nothing particularly bad to say about this, more content would've been nice.
I've never understood things like QWOP and its legacy. A game about awkward controls is no excuse for awkward controls, and intentional bad design is still bad design.
Like, I can't honestly say this was fun to play, even taking into account the humor aspect.
Dude, this is C64 as all hell. (Well, except for the music.)
I don't have anything explicitly negative to say about this. It's quite a complete package as it is. There's a clear level progression, variety between the different types of people and what they're converted by, then things like using your converts to spread propaganda, and how even that is subverted by enemies that deconvert your allies. All of this for the benefit of the political sub-theme.
Well-placed delays are your friend, as are animations that communicate enemy intelligence. There's no delay between an enemy noticing you and shooting at you, and then there's suddenly three things on screen spamming rapidly. There's no real window for reaction, things just sort of happen. Another thing is that the physics are fairly sluggish, trying to fine-tune your momentum to jump over tiny pits can a pain. Save points are aplenty to compensate, though this is more of a duct tape fix to the underlying difficulty issues.
Having said that, the weapons you get are fairly imaginative, and additionally each of them seems to have a strength and a weakness type of thing. It would've ruined this if the weapons were just "shoot forward in 4 different ways". Something like going around zapping things with the transmat is just crazy. I actually like that even if the other commenters might've wanted something traditional, I find it gives the game this roguelike unpredictability vibe. Like a feeling of genuine exploration where the world and all its items aren't just obviously handcrafted for the player character.
The production's slightly programmer arty, spiced with ugly sfxr beeps and all, but there's relatively a lot to see and do, with no need to sugarcoat lack of content with flashy graphics.
Overall, I can see it's a good effort. It's a soft 4/5 entry with room for rethinking some details, and I hope you take it further.
Dude like, one sees oneself in that hourglass, and so like, everyone sees a different image in a way. But still all of our lives equally drip away like the sand, yo.
5 stars for humor, had a few genuine laughs. And that's kind of all this ride is, appreciating the nonsense, like I don't see how one would even play this "optimally".
I see a lot of the specific things I would've complained about you've already fixed in the post-compo version, so good for you.
Some sort of simplistic beatmatching would've gone well with this game. It's kind of one of those games where there's an audiovisual theme, but it's not really used to its full potential - the gameplay would be basically the same if you were zapping fishes in water or whatever. The solo is a nice touch though.
The challenge ramps up faster than your cursor can react to that. I'm not a fan of the discrete hops it does, especially when Shifting, just feels clunky to control. It's a letdown that the most crucial way of interacting has an unpolished air to it, when the rest of the experience has attention to detail.
Your games often seem to have this thing where the interface shapes the gameplay. It adds a certain charm and makes for interesting conceptual games.
It's got a bit of a panicky feel to it, trying to come up with any word whatsoever. I feel like this would be more focused if different scenes had different themes (like words beginning with a letter, or words relating to nature). You'd have a smaller pool of words to sort in your head, so you could spare the short related words to counter attacks. Those kinds of things seem to be details you've planned for, but you didn't really add further mechanics to support them.
This definitely has a C64 air to it, in the music and sine scrolling and all that. I'll translate this to the mood score. Using default-looking UI elements kind of subtracts from the impression though.
It's a bit flat for a shooter, but amusing enough to go for score a few times. The shot types don't really have enough variety to justify their existence, so the lack of autofire feels like a cheap compensation for that. Even if it's trying to be retro, things like these just don't translate well to 2015 games, where we're not playing with C64 joysticks.
It took me a while to figure out that the enemy particles are hurting me, and I'm still not quite sure where all my health modifiers are coming from. The hitbox feels too big, too, which is the most obvious with the bullet hell-style spams now and then.
I'm blue balling here, dude. This is so close to being good. Honestly it just needs more effort, not even a proper advice for finding a focus. It's got all the resources to be fun but it doesn't really do anything with it.
And I'm not even sure if there needs to be "anything" like upgrades or whatever. You could (and probably should) take the simplistic route that it's a TD about figuring out placements for towers and hearts. But looking at how the bullets never really hit anything during the actual wave, and how ultimately placements don't seem to matter much, is just a letdown.
As it stands, it's a two-star entry, but don't you drop this one quite yet.
The best audio I've come across so far. FM for life.
Some awkwardness in the controls, I protest against using attack+jump for throwing. And the level complete cooldown is long enough to make you think you've still gotta do something.
But these are just small details, it's quite a complete package as it is. It has a limited pool of mechanics and all of them go well together (like the way you've still got to catch dashed enemies.)
It does have that Ultima feel to it a little. Or just DOS RPG one in general. Attacking is wonky, maybe hilight the target tile or something.
The visuals are certainly in the "brag more" department, but there's more to do than just to look at it. The idea is pretty unique, and the tutorial walks you through it concisely.
My main problem here is that it isn't really as balanced or strategic as the mechanics would suggest. Spam happens without micromanagement appearing to clearly control the board situation. I didn't get the impression that you'd planned that much for effective strategies, which is crucial in tower defenses.
Also seemed a bit buggy. Sometimes rocks just don't care that towers were added/deleted, for example. This is definitely a game made by an artist (rather than a game designer or programmer), for better or worse. It's got a lot of potential and effort, but it's not quite there yet in all aspects.
Yea this has some AAaAaaaA vibes but still a distinct focus. Does feel a bit unfinished as you said, this has room to be more dynamic with some more work.
Hoo boy, there's a lot going on here. Well the starting point of combining two types of beating is memorable enough, and it's taken quite far with the disco theming and brag-worthy production.
Unfortunately at the core, it wasn't responsive enough for a rhythm game, and that's a downer. It felt like there was basically a 50/50 chance to get "perfect" or "fail" regardless of whether I was syncing with the music. (This could have to do with some Unity lag for audio playback, and maybe a larger window for pressing keys would help with that.)
I'm a sucker for games with multi-purpose abilities. The game made an effort to showcase quite a bit of the bubbles' potential. I got a SNES vibe from the experience.
Attaching bubbles to walls was a bit buggy, though. And for the sake of responsiveness, I'm not sure if there needs to be a delay for making the smallest bubble. Should've been like, tap Z to spam small ones, hold Z if you *really* want the bigger ones.
I chuckled at this, it uses audiovisual effects for humor effectively.
Bonus points for multiplayer, definitely improves the experience and goes well with the lolworthy nature of the game. (I guess it wouldn't have been too hard to add a moderately paced AI just to make single player more of a race, though.)
The physics are moderately satisfying, could use some super fragile objects for good measure (like tone down the sturdiness of the trees). I'm not sure if it's because of the isometric projection, but it was tricky to stay alive for long at first.
Props for the music. Surprised you've disabled the Audio rating since you've made it yourself and all.
There's no threat of failure whatsoever. I guess it's fitting for this kinda game, but then you could've focused more on the humor aspect instead.
senpai pls notice
It was amusing enough to keep me going till the end. And this is coming from someone who isn't big into story-heavy games in LD.
I am so smart, I am so smart, laa laa lalaa, I am so smart
Streamed this. It's an interesting new take on the tower defense genre, but I still felt like the gameplay wasn't involving enough. There weren't really any decisions to make apart from spamming projectiles (past the upgrade screen of course). Also, the 3D environment made it hard to sense the enemies, felt like they were just sneaking up on me. Could've used some sort of indicator for approaching enemies. But it's alright, upgrades make any game better.
Streamed this. A solid game, enough variety even if it was kinda short. Conceptual games like these are always alright.
Streamed this. I could've used some more threats until the last minute, the difficulty curve is kind of exponential. Maybe you could've incorporated the branches into the gameplay somehow (like being able to prevent monsters from spawning). Randomness in arcadey games like this is kind of cheap, and this could've used more tweaking than some 12 hours.
Streamed this. The game ends before it's even started, and it's a bit of a shoddy run even for that short length.
Streamed this. There's a point when low-res graphics stop being "retro" and become simply unreadable. I feel like it was trying to be moody but didn't really succeed, and there wasn't much else to carry the game. So yeah.
In a simple game like this, polish is extremely important, and the lack of it is an eyesore. The difficulty curve is ok, but the restarts are what really subtract points. You're trying to teach the player the basic design implicitly, yet you punish them for trying things out. It doesn't work out like that.
Oh resource management games, my Achilles' heel.
The gameplay's decently addictive here. The layer mechanic and the mayor add extra personality. But the programmer art/audio are a turn-off. I actually had to mute the game because the banging sounds were getting on my nerves.
Okay, this is pretty fun in a roguelike way (the focus on replayability is neat for jams). Hard to tell it's made in 48 hours.
Just a joke game made for the sake of being a joke game. If you're gonna have humor, at least incorporate it to some meaningful gameplay.
This is the sort of single-concept game that jams are good for, but the execution is lacking. There's not enough responsiveness in the controls, and seeing where the openings are feels awkward.
Yeah this is pretty clever, one of those ideas I should've seen before but haven't for some reason. Gotta love social experiments like this.
Pretty unique, not badly implemented. I think I could've used a higher mouse sensitivity to try out different configurations.
Kind of a dull execution, but there's room for expansion in the concept of a turn-based platformer. Would've loved to see enemies or just anything more interactive than bouncing around. The audio is derpy too.
Haha, what the heck was the deal with those rockets? They seemed to have no relevance to anything. First a typical platformer where you just jump a lot, and suddenly rockets knocking over boxes for no reason.
Quite fun in a Super Crate Box-y way. The physics feel right for the most part, which is the most important aspect in these games. Dislike those obvious bfxr sound effects though.
Pretty indie. A bit of awkwardness in the controls, like the way the sword slings itself away when it touchs a wall, but I guess it's somewhat excused by the level design that forces you to think about it.
I like conceptual experiments like this in LD. Seems like something is forming there, it's not a purely random mess.
However, the first time I tried, it complained I didn't have a color selected even though I did. Tried again and it fixed itself.
Oops, forgot to rate this one when I first played it. GUDGRAFIX but much to my surprise the gameplay's tolerable too.
A fairly moody and difficult game that's still intuitive. Probably the best audio design I've come across so far.
The tileset bugs out regularly, you can go inside walls at several places. I guess I should like the risks involved in just having one life, but in practice, the controls feel somewhat clumsy since you have to stop to fire an arrow. It makes deaths feel frustrating rather than justified.
There doesn't seem to be any meaningful gameplay to this. You just hold right and talk to every creature. It's like the entire game is a cutscene and the whole time I was just waiting when it actually starts. "Yeah I get it already, I'm a cripple".
It's got its fair share of mood, and I guess it's trying to make a point, but there's nothing particularly engaging about this interactive way of conveying it.
Foolgarbage with a cool interface.
"I only had X hours" is not an excuse. You had 48 hours, or even 72 if you'd jammed. Whatever obligations you might've have during all that should still have left you with plenty of time to do more content.
Regardless, I think it's a promising concept, and I like the way you need to collect the arrows in the right order. The minimalistic presentation is appropriate.
So this game is basically about evaluating which monsters you should kill, instead of just bashing everything. I appreciate games with some strategic value like that, and enemy behaviours support the gameplay.
One drawback is that the levels don't feel equally designed around the idea. I could use some more information about where I'm going to get new items, and more options to backtrack. Like, I got into the strawberry boss fight before I was supposed to, and had to restart the game. It felt like a punishment for doing well.
With more appropriate level design, you could also safely have a checkpoint on each screen transition. I get that this is meant to be retro and all, but it's the year 2013, and by now you have the freedom to question NES games' fake difficulty/length that comes from replaying sections.
Nonetheless, this game had a definitive feeling of exploration. There's quite a lot to be seen for an LD game, so good job for that.
The idea of using enemies' weapons against themselves is pretty good. The execution leaves some fluidity to be desired, and the applet lagged a lot for me in addition.
The graphical style is alright, but the music is the worst I've come across so far. Not only is it annoying but it also had to start at FULL VOLUME when I played. Killed my buzz before the game even gave me any.
The difficulty curve is spot on, I can tell this was playtested enough. I appreciate the spherical coordinate physics, it just could use some kind of a reminder of which direction is relatively left and right. Props for being able to shoot horizontally, vertically -and- diagonally.
In addition, it looks and sounds alright, too bad you used that terrible font and sfxr blips.
I am a physicist and I approve this game.
My favorite thing about this game is how it feels alive in a way. The day/night cycle, the hot dog van driving to your stand, the random events.
Meanwhile, my biggest grief is that I seem to get robbed (or something) all the time and there's no way for me to prevent the sudden losses of money. That just seems like a design flaw to add fake difficulty. It's keeping me from getting anywhere at the start for a long while. Not quite gamebreaking but super annoying.
The overlapping menus are a bit ugly too, not a good use of the limited screen space. Otherwise it looks and sounds good.
It's a decent game for what it is. The controls and enemy paths feel right, with "juice" like the screen shakes, and I like the dungeon system. But yeah, the cursor should stand out from the darkness, and you should indicate how many shots enemies can take. Some non-programmer graphics/audio would make this more appealing.
Also, it bugged for me once and I got a completely empty map. Can't replicate that one.
Pointless gameplay. Even for the simplest type of platformer possible, you didn't even get the physics right with the stairs. At least there was some story that was probably trying to be funny or to have a moral.
The audio is the only redeeming factor.
Block placement was a bit derpy with that projection sometimes. Adding shadows or letting the user rotate the camera freely could help with that.
Of course, a multiplayer game of any scope is pretty ambitious for LD. I like to think that simple as this is, it raises some philosophical points about impermanence and anonymity in the process. Or it's just a toy and I'm overanalyzing.
Super laggy, unintuitive controls. The vaporizer *is* pretty cool though, I saw that development video when you posted it and was looking forward to trying it out.
Demo Effect: The Game, I guess.
Could use some more challenge. Absolutely no relation to the theme, but nevermind that if it helped you finish a game. It's like I'd heard that track somewhere before, though.
Well, that was... short?
The secret to happiness is making games.
Despite being a fan of resource management games, the lackluster usability kind of ruins the potential. There's simply not enough information shown to the player. Little things like highlighting selected tiles, showing your gold income in a meaningful way, AND NOT BEING ABLE TO BUILD A FENCE ON TOP OF YOUR ONLY HOUSE GASFASDA would already come far. I can't believe you don't even show when the next batch of enemies is going to attack.
It starts off really sluggish, and the endgame comes soon since there's not that many upgrades. Surprised this is a jam game, because with 3 days' work, one would expect more content.
Woah, didn't expect to see a bullet hell with this theme. A pretty unique take on those.
With more polish and better designed challenges this could be a success. There's some variety in the challenges as it is, but the patterns just don't feel very carefully tweaked. Can't really put my finger on what this is missing mechanically, maybe I'm just too used to Touhou controls and attacks.
I appreciate the idea of a first-person resource management game. I'm left wishing this was more complicated/involving though.
I feel like this game suffers mostly from trying to be too faithful to the theme. It's perhaps the most obvious idea one could have, and there isn't any added variety like ways to influence the bullet's trajectory. The presentation is similarly mechanical, with "that one font" and pseudo-chiptune noises.
I like games like this that question the basic tropes of game design. This one essentially swaps hit points for a more unique and engaging way to measure damage. It seems to even produce some interesting gameplay despite being simple, and the flashback to dungeon crawlers is appreciated.
Gets my seal of "please develop this further".
I told you about drugs man
It'd be fun to explore, but the (seemingly unnecessary) time limit hinders that.
I've said it before, but a game about awkward controls is no excuse for awkward controls.
The fundamental idea behind this (=player's input gets processed) could've been implemented better in a puzzle sort of way, with some predictability or a way to influence the processing. You'd probably end up making a turn-based game in that case. Right now it's just unplayable.
Not really as fun as you'd expect from a game labeled a "very fast-paced FPS". A lot of the difficulty is artificial, the mouse being too sluggish and the AI erratic. Also it has that problem of the physics feeling too much like an Unity game.
This is just beautiful. Everything from the camera manipulation to the audio and the lack of instructions forms a melting pot of confusion and hilarity.
This was very "2013 jam game trying to be a "2005 Flash game trying to be an Amiga fighting game"".
Surprisingly fun/relaxing in a cookie clicker way. A great game to just leave at the background and check back every once in a while (which I translated to mood points). The graphics are total programmer art, but at least you can tell what everything is.
The novelty of the joke wears off fast.
Not much variety in this one, at least there was the story to read. Extra graphics point for having indications for the path.
Despite being short, it managed to be quite repetitive. No challenge to it at all. A reluctant bonus point for the bulldozer, which was the best part of this little presentation.
This game is a joke.
An absolutely pointless reflex test. It's like Hotline Miami in a parallel universe of the worst possible remakes.
Glad it was so short because nothing happened.
A very tense kind of game. Done well, save for a few bugs/oddities.
This was fun while it lasted. Gets chaotic near the end and turns into button mashing, but it's pretty amusing nonetheless.
Businessman foolgarbage (with candies and crashes). Probably shouldn't even bother submitting games that are this unfinished, honestly.
One of those conceptual games. Well, there's not much "game" to it, but it's pretty moody while it lasts. Also remember E=mc^2 yo, energy does not simply separate from matter.
A bit of a twist to an old idea, nice to see there are multiple solutions to each level too. I've seen so many of these games that it felt pretty easy. The music was a bit annoying.
Gets pretty repetitive fast. I felt the random spawning adds fake difficulty.
FUCKING ARROWS/5
So, this game mainly suffers from usability problems. You spend a lot of time explaining the obvious, and the Next button is only tangentially mentioned in the jungle of instructions. Also, there wasn't a Next button on the intro, which is further disorienting.
The reload button looks just like your browser's one, and even the text says reload, so I kept refreshing the page. That was silly.
Also, I don't get why the ship's position is randomized every time. Makes no sense when these kinds of games are about improving your estimations iteratively.
It's promising, but it shows that you ran out of time.
I appreciate the thought that went to this, Metroidvania-style level design is always fun. My biggest nuisance was the music, which sounds somewhat derpy with all those hard chord changes.
Great use of the theme. Super funny and unique, with a memorable graphical style and lots of polish to boot.
Very 2010s. LD needs less platformers and more creative experiments like this. You get my seal of non-foolgarbage.
This is a well-made game, can't deny. Surprisingly addictive for its simple resource management.
As opposed to other commenters, I didn't find it hard at all, in fact it's quite relaxing. Just keep upgrading the sheep's health, stand close to a teleporter in dangerous areas and let the sheep's health drop to less than 10 while it's grazing. Also let the wolves pile up so you can take out a few with one shot.
Okay, I have to admit I found this funny, props for the song in particular. Not much of a game though.
Oh, ain't this a clever proof-of-concept. Glad you already have plans for a post-LD version because this idea deserves to be taken further.
Some of the notes would bug and remain on screen despite pressing Space.
Ragdoll physics are always hilarious, this is a nice way to combine them with proper gameplay.
This actually made me feel nervous. Here's some mood points for that.
Meh. Pretty repetitive, at least it's got some humor in it. Also I might add that I really dislike that graphic style.
Pleasantly silly, but the lack of actual gameplay makes this a novelty entry.
My beautiful RPN tarnished by being featured in a mobile-y game! Nooo!
A solid 4-star entry. It's like some sort of twisted dark comedy social commentary, but the gameplay idea of causing reactions is fun just for the sake of itself.
Got a wacky feel to it, almost like it was made while drunk. Guess that's just cause for some mood points.
A game about awkward controls is no excuse for awkward controls.
There's something strangely moody about this. A lot of it has got to do with the pressure in the gameplay, and the audio too. Having to protect the friends somehow would add more difficulty/variety to an otherwise immediately accessible game.
Well, that got annoying quite fast.
Doesn't appear like a jam game.
This makes me feel quite paranoid.
DAAN DAAN DAAN DANANANA DANANANA
Yeah, don't do that thing where you don't give the player any cues as to where to go.
Pretty surreal. Feels quite shoddily programmed, lags with a reasonable amount of obstacles and there's those things like the level slowly building itself every time. Some of those details add to the weirdness I guess, but it still feels dangerously "Unity factory presets" to me.
I really really love the controls, everything feels responsive. There's details like how you can control yourself in mid-air (and even a level built around that, nice). The hyperactive camera adds to the hectic feeling. Hell, any game that reminds me of N is a good thing.
It crashes when you're out of focus though.
Everything about this is hilarious. The music, the crude 3D models/AI, and obviously throwing things.
Woah, great job with the audio. The masses want more and promise to do their best to not execute the emperor this year. I also like the details like upgrades having their own icons.
Too bad the core gameplay gets old fast. It's like eating rice with lots of spice, there's spice but it's still just rice, y'know?
This game made me feel good. :1
I loved how not only the clock and the platforms are connected, but you also extended that idea to the key dropping part. The audio was sufficiently subtle, not the usual loud bfxr noises. I'd definitely like to see a more complete game based on this.
(I found this from here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/09/05/list-some-really-cool-games/)
This is a pretty clever take on the theme, glad every level wasn't as monotonous as it seemed at the start.
I was hoping for a sandbox mode where you just build things without a time limit, haha.
The melody in level 2 sounds kinda like Legend of Aokigahara by ZUN. The music is pretty much what makes this so funny.
"That's it?"
Also I won the last level basically by jumping at the right time.
It's unintentionally humorous because of how shoddy it is. Can't tell the bullets from the background, a timer with a default font floating in the middle of space, popups, that music loop...
Much more dynamic than the usual LD game.
Running, jumping, spikes. Been there, done that.
The holders of the secrets of the oracles have deemed you not worthy.
This is pretty cute, board game vibes. Too fast to get anything really done though. The resolution is a bit awkward, you really didn't need that much scaling.
They should hire smarter guards.
It's kind of awkward to move any objects around.
This isn't T IN Y WORLD.
lol
Rounds are unplayably short even when other players happen to join in. Should be something like "you have 6 HP that each lasts 10 seconds, one shot gives/loses a HP"
I'm sure glad you managed to spend so much time on the intro that the game itself feels like it's barely been playtested.
I didn't manage to get a 302 even when I recorded every 10-second segment.
Leftist Society: The Game
The controls felt clumsy, the ships don't move smoothly enough to actually do any leet bullet dodging. I feel like you tried to artificially balance that out by spamming extra lives. The cooldown thing with the first ship seems to add nothing meaningful or tactical to the shooting.
This feels really creepy, threatening. The low production values just add to the whole feeling of things not being right. A memorable entry.
Quite plain gameplay coated in a sugary presentation.
This was quite surreal, gotta love that FOV effect.
It's a pretty fun arena shooter. I can smell a Super Crate Box influence.
Suffers from a lack of music though, and the sound effects are too much like bfxr factory presets.
Pretty awkward controls. Must be more fun with other players but sadly none connected.
THE MAGIC OF THE CRYSTALLL
Made me smile on the inside. Not on the outside though because fun is not allowed.
A 5-star entry here. Unique (right down to the presentation) and fun. The egg's physics felt a bit too floaty on the first try, but later it leads to some funny results. I actually like how subtle the audio is, it does its job well.
Takes a while to figure the controls in each game, some more cohesion is needed. I mean Wario Ware only uses a few buttons, but this has mouse and keyboard, and sometimes the other doesn't work.
The levels should cut if you fail instead of waiting for the timer to run out.
Liking the difficulty. Feels like a quite complete game with some neat level design. Some of the collisions are buggy, especially with the small blocks.
This feels like quite an achievement for LD. Not often do you see networked entries, or ones that are this well done. Great use of the theme to add extra dynamics to the gameplay.
Some of the punching is a bit wonky I think, you can hit an enemy a few meters away but not when your sprites overlap.
I don't mind the difficulty, but there's some bad design accompanying it that makes it worse. Level 2 should totally be level 1, and you shouldn't have to start all over when you die, just restart the level.
The audio seems to get louder as you clear levels.
Quite original and simplistic. Liking the music a lot. The level designs should be more involving, right now it's kind of "go to point B then wait for the timer to reset".
I couldn't help but think of some RoboRally-style pseudo-programming game while playing. That would be neat with the main mechanic.
I never thought I would say this about an LD entry, but this game is too long. The levels are varied, yes, but if you want us to speedrun it... well, after 18 minutes, starting over wasn't exactly on my mind.
Pretty good production values. Only one slight physics bug where I'd stop sliding at the bottom of a hanging pillar, and I'd still get the speed boost even if I'm heading to the wall's direction.
Bonus points for investing in audio.
While this is perhaps the most obvious idea for this theme, it's a solid execution. I get that randomly generating levels is outside of the scope of LD, but one way to cheaply add more variation would be to randomize the player's starting location.
Glad this is getting exposure outside of the Ludum Dare crowd. One of the best entries this time, rich in quality content.
Oh wow, this is creepy. The audio -makes- this. I love it when gamedevs actually pay attention to sound design, rather than treating it as a necessary evil that can be rushed.
Some clever puzzle designs too. Great entry.
Doesn't do much, but does it decently.
Clumsiness in the form of unskippable text and awkward attacks/collisions. The player character it animated all right, everything else looks programmer arty. A bit heavy on the scanlines, don't you think?
The premise is a clever take on the theme as it is, but you also explored a lot of interesting possibilities with the level designs. With some above-average visual/audio design thrown in as well, it's a memorable entry overall. Solid 4 stars.
The boss fights are the weakest part. Too repetitive, too long, you can get stuck in the walls, have to restart the whole level if you die, and what else.
The idea of the character growing works well within the theme. It's spiced with cool details like the intro sequence.
This is creepy, I jumped a bit when the first enemy ran at me from behind. As non-existent as the gameplay is, the super-sensitive controls don't really work with it.
A pretty damn solid game, to be honest. The "stealing enemy parts" thing is clever, but there's something too heavy about the ship's movement. Sleek graphical style.
A technically good proof-of-concept, but the main problem is a lack of explanation. Basic things like what you actually need to *do* in the game, what items can be pushed and why.
I can see this as a mobile app, yeah. Just needs a bit more variety, more meaningful uses for the breaking mechanic. I particularly like the audio.
Because of this game, I made a boo-boo.
***END TRANSMISSION***
Eh. Simple and funny, but I'd like it to be more about deductions than guesswork. Some graphics bugs with the text.
I love this. The resource management is so simple but so addictive. Really forces you to think about the essential, which is what the theme is all about.
Above-average content for 48 hours. Gotta love the player-character relationship.
I think there was a double jump bug in the chasm, I needed to jump once on the ledge or the double jump wouldn't activate (reeks of faulty game logic).
A bit unsettling. For an atmospheric game like this, programmer art/music is a turn-off.
I understood it, but it needs better level progression.
Experiments like this are the soul of Ludum Dare. It's a bit chaotic for an arcade game, but since there's feedback for just about every interaction, playing around with it is quite pleasant.
Cool toy, not nearly enough responsiveness for a good game.
This is some kind of a standout for its production values.
However, it's sad that the gameplay feels like it was never playtested. For a plain runner game, you should have a lot of reference material for making the controls work. The character's so slow and clumsy.
This is quite original, but unfortunately suffers from some design flaws. For example, it's hard to make up any cool strategies because the game limits you to the immediately "correct" choices.
viiskauttaviis
It lacks some focus and has a bit of awkward progression, but it's still one of the most promising prototypes. 4 stars just for the amount of content.
I could see this being made into a full-length game, with higher production values. Please consider that.
Good use of physics, but that's what made it resource-intensive. This game is great for giving you a feeling of power.
The graphical style is interesting, but results in some awkward controls.
Well, that was a mindfuck. I love how Ludum Dare encourages people to make innovative experiments like these. Definitely needs fleshing out, but this could be the egg from which the next Portal hatches.
The idea is fun and well executed, it stands out from the sea of entries. Hoping to see you take this even further with more content.
The only flaw I found was that the game crashed after the first level on Opera. However, I tried again and didn't encounter that anymore.
A pretty compelling "short story", high mood points. Yes, it only exists to deliver a message, and I prefer any possible social critique in games to be subtle, but I have to admit the delivery makes it a clever take on the theme.
Yeah, it's pretty easy and basic. You should've at least done more with the gnome/goat mechanic, as once you've realized what they do, you have no incentive to talk to them again.
Ooh, this is a fresh take on defense games. Loving the puzzle aspect of it which forces you to think like a programmer. The prehistoric motif is memorable and well presented.
Great game, but not quite flawless. The difficulty curve could be more refined - it feels like the second level was easier than the first, for example. And the AI has obvious bugs, most clearly in level 3. Sometimes in crossroads, they manage to clear one path but then take the other one anyway. It seems their behaviour isn't perfectly predictable either (they do different decisions with the mammoth even in identical setups), and I'm not sure if that's a good thing considering the planning this game requires.
I wrote a lot about the flaws, but that's just because I think this game has potential and I want to give you ideas for a post-compo version. Even now, it's a 4-star game that stands out from most other entries.
Abstract and different. It's strangely fun for a while even if it all comes down to frantic clicking, and seems to have no difficulty curve whatsoever.
Delightfully surreal as your games always. It's like, yeah I get -how- this works, but I don't get the -why-. I guess it requires no further context or progression because the gameplay holds up alone.
Wall jumping? More like wall humping.
I was promised a torture chamber and that's all I got. Fair enough.
More than the sum of its parts. Some deaths feel kind of cheap because of unresponsive combat. Being chased by an angry mob is fun, but their pathfinding seems to lag the game considerably.
This would be on a whole different level if the materials had some in-game benefits through a crafting system.
Deconstructions are well in line with the theme. It's a bit difficult to effectively micromanage, particularly after Pacman's had a power-pill and you can't tell who is who.
There seems to be a graphical bug that prevents me from playing properly: http://i.imgur.com/pyKCy.png
If you have a solution, let me know, I'll check back because it looks like worth playing.
Oh my lord. Ahhahah. The dissonance of blowing screaming people up while a triumphant Sigur Rós song is playing is some of the best humor I've seen this LD. And blowing things up is, as we all know, amusing in itself. The low framerate on my puny laptop made some of the platforming parts more frustrating than they should be, even on low resolution and quality, but that's not the game's problem.
Good game, good use of Unity, everyone gets a present.
Simple as they may be, you got a lot out of the mechanics and strategies at hand. The clear level progression is pleasant and held my interest all the way to the end.
Could use some puzzle elements rather than being just a test of reflexes. Something like not being able to step on nodes already hacked (which would naturally require changes to the level design).
It's like a pocket world, the base seems functional with all the gadgets and drones. It's immersive how you're managing it from the inside, not from an abstract strategy perspective.
But the music... please make it stop! I can't take it anymore!
Failed to load in Opera, but works in Firefox.
Audiovisually, this is in the highest tier of entries. The gameplay is fairly unique and simplistic enough not to collapse under its own scope (like many management games in Ludum Dare).
I feel like the interface is hiding something from me. There's not enough feedback on what I'm doing and whether I'm doing it right, so it's hard to learn. But I guess that's kind of the point in a game about deduction, so yeah.
The game froze when I killed the thugs. On the far right end of the imaginary gameplay-art slider, not really relevant to the theme either.
Also, there is a streetlight in my room, and its reasons for being there are likely to eat my sleep for the following days.
Also, NIPPONRAMEN
A direct approach for this theme. Who doesn't want to be an evil tyrant ruling the land? But I felt it lacks two things: pressure and control. Too much of the game consists of waiting around, and too many of the game's functions are invisible or abstracted away.
Weird game. I see what you're trying to do, but it doesn't feel challenging or rhythmic enough. You can kind of dash to the end, the queue mechanic is only superficially explored. These kinds of games need strict limitations to feel right.
Plenty of mood here. It's more like a short story than a game. That's both a strength and a weakness.
I love the trading system, hunting for efficient deals is what sets this game apart in terms of innovation. The Atari-themed presentation is heartwarming.
All the pieces of a good game are there, now you just need more content like you said.
Competitive level design, what a great concept. Multiplayer is ambitious for Ludum Dare, and you approached it well.
The main flaw here is the interface. Going back and forth across screens isn't very intuitive - I only figured the nature of this game with some experimenting. And the editor is simple enough to not have to rely so much on menus.
I'd be thrilled to see a post-jam version. It has so much potential.
That resolution is poison for laptop users, I can barely fit all the important information on the screen.
Anyway, the gameplay itself has the fundamental problem that the prisoners approach junctions simultaneously, and all junctions also switch simultanelously. You wouldn't have to design the order as carefully if the player could toggle junctions individually. This'd also add more micromanagement, which is what the game is all about.
3 stars overall, leaning towards 4. Being a jam game, I'd expect more content.
I can't believe I actually had to install a game in 2012.
And it didn't even work. The cursor just blinks at the main menu and none of the options respond.
The prompt to "find the gatekeeper" at the start is misleading if you have to kill everyone.
I wasn't very impressed by the rest either. There's not much interaction beyond throwing blocks, and even that is clumsy.
Could use some indication of health.
A solid entry. There's some cool ideas, like how collecting takes scaring first, and the incorporation of screen wrapping in your level design. The music is tasteful, but the sound effects are a bit jarring.
Pretty tongue-in-cheek. I like the gimmick of using objects as shields before eating/throwing them, that's something you could've explored more. I felt like you should add more pressure to take this game to its full potential, since dodging projectiles is a pretty shallow way of interaction.
Oh, and it's weird how the people stay alive and blinking for a while after they're dead.
This shows how even a simple game can be memorable with tons of polish.
Glad to see you did a post-compo version, the option to buy itens makes the game strangely more addictive.
Neat 3D, not much in terms of gameplay.
Great, great gameplay. My favorite part about this is how the lockpicking and lighting mechanics are connected. Both are fun as isolated cases, but you've also implemented the It's essentially a balance between more risk to get caught and easier lockpicking. This is something other game designers could and should learn from.
Also, too often in indie stealth games you're caught the moment a guard sees you, without giving you a chase scene. Chases are a blast!
Definitely could profit from better presentation, but I'm glad you prioritized your entry for gameplay instead. It's a fun and complete game as it is, so a post-compo version with less programmer art, more suspenseful audio, and possibly more things to watch out for could only be a success.
Honestly, I'm trying my best to find something good about this. The gameplay consists only of tapping a button, hacking and slashing at an enemy that could as well be invincible. There seems to be no action, no strategy, nothing to keep you going. There's seeds of AI and tower defense mechanics, but they haven't been developed far enough to be useful.
And what particularly strikes me as lazy is the game's complete disconnection from the theme. It doesn't help the impression that the author didn't give a damn.
I do like the concept, but I only see asteroids like once every dozen ships, so I can't get much out of the traction mechanic.
There's something inherently funny about the physics and the low production values.
Many Ludum Dare games try too hard to be lolsorandom using text. Sometimes no words are needed.
Noooo! You monster! You used the control scheme where "up" is top left rather than top right!
I'm a sucker for these "art games". I'd love to learn Unity and make one of my own in a game jam some day. Everything in the presentation contributes to the narrative, and its open-endedness is intriguing.
I felt like I was being talked down after having done something wrong. A bit alienating, a bit victimizing. It's a different, abstract take on the theme for sure.
Upgrades are always neat, it's just that they seem to determine everything in this game. The player's role is to passively sit and listen to the cool music. The comments were what kept me going until I maxed out.
Oh you clever you.
I like management games, and this is reasonably functional for an LD game. You could use a graphics artist, though.
It would have more longevity if the destruction wasn't so obviously constrained to a grid. I'd love to destroy the houses with some kind of beam that carves out pixels.
Oh, and the music fits this perfectly.
Whoa. This has plenty of content for a compo entry. And it wasn't for nothing, this is great fun to play.
One of the most polished entries.
NONONO-- YESYESYES! SHOOT! SHOOT! NO GODDAMMIT HOW COULD YOU ALL MISS IT WAS 3 VS 1 AND HE WAS RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.
Oddly exciting for a zero-player game. I guess it's because the mechanics are simplistic so it feels fair to estimate which team to bet on and to understand how a match develops.
Like others have said, the main problem is that the player doesn't have enough information to make good decisions. It still has pretty solid production values though.
I was following the updates. The result's kind of cool, but post-jam multiplayer would kick this to a whole new level.
Interesting puzzle twist on block-building games. Really cozy and strangely addictive, it's nice to discover surprises like the monster and big gems.
Sadly it's easy to get stuck and have to restart, because you can't plan ahead if you don't know where the crucial locations are, and I'm sure many just give up at that point.
Oh, and 5 stars for audio, glad to see developers paying attention to sound.
Well, that was surreal. Being scientifically minded, I thought it was fascinating to try and figure out the logic in the mutations. Seems like the cyan meteor randomizes the thing's width, the yellow one randomizes its height, the magenta one its color and the black one gives it some sort of trajectory.
My favorite part was when after one too many black orbs, the thing went on a rampage and I was able to touch it. I was expecting to find a developer message or something inside it, heheh.
Only in Ludum Dare do you see games like this, and I love it when a game first disorients you and then offers you a sense of discovery.
>It inspires fear and dementia
>It smells like tuna
Oh man, this game is hilarious. Had a couple of shots at it just to try and get some of the seemingly unreachable items. Didn't know about pre-programmed combos until I read the comments.
Hah: http://i.imgur.com/Uy7XA.png
The left photo was a "scenic shot" and the right one was a photo of a bird. wat
Besides some flaws like that, (and the programmer art :P), it's a cute and immersive game with emergent gameplay.
This is adorable. 5 stars for mood. The controls were a bit clumsy at times but the basic mechanics are nice.
Cute little building game. Can't believe it's made in just 8 hours (but why is it a jam entry?).
I'd like to understand how that genetic algorithm works. It was fascinating when I generated a level with a death pit, and they eventually learned to jump over it. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/UF5dR.png (they even managed to killed me later)
Wow, those are some smooth animations. I don't know how easy this sort of art style is to do with your tools, but it doesn't *look* like a 48-hour game at all.
In addition, it had some neat gameplay, sufficient variation, and a solid take on the theme. Good game.
Great ambience & presentation. But I did get the feeling of "that's it?" after I opened the gate. Would make for a neat intro sequence to teach the basic interaction in a larger game, but that'd need more direction (didn't know you could break bottles without looking at the walkthrough).
Great concept and execution, like some sort of procedural Metroidvania puzzle monster. You have to think about which upgrades to buy to not get stuck. Lots of content too, it feels like a very complete game.
At first I thought you'd proceed by going beyond the level boundaries, but it turned out you just have to collect everything, meaning you have to kill the enemies too. While there's attention to detail like trajectories turning into parabolas above the surface, the mouse-only controls seem a bit awkward when trying to move small distances.
Nonetheless, this is clearly a 4- or 5-star entry.
Story and mood are clearly the focus here. Kind of reminded of the Avernum RPGs. It's too bad the technical problems hinder the enjoyment.
I could see the relation to evolution. It's not really a literal take like "bacteria in a petri dish", but something more subtle and memorable.
This is a clever game. Almost as clever as one of my puzzle-platformers! You make me proud, son.
My only gripe is the character movement, it's slippery and collisions are unprecise.
"You didn't make par. Try again."
My thoughts on this game in a nutshell.
Great little game, this has potential to be one of those notoriously addictive Flash games like Winterbells.
It's got some technically impressive quirks like the procedural generation and mass-centered gravity. All spiced up with programmer art/music, heh. Quite fun for the while it lasts.
I really like the push mechanic over the usual "touching means death". Especially since the collisions are rather... unforgiving.
Guaranteed Jonathan Whiting quality. Very imaginative, you really got the most out of the game mechanics. Some real moments of ingenuity here, like having to die to progress, and it doesn't have the "over too soon" syndrome common to LD games (although I wouldn't complain to see more levels!).
Overall it just feels like a surprisingly complete experience. 5/5.
Pretty fun as it is, even though the destruction isn't quite as intense as I'd hoped because of the player's slow speed and tiny hitbox. Maybe you wanted to sacrifice something for the challenge and cute appeal, but we want to see carnage!
Neat premise, but the execution can be disorientating. The god doesn't seem to care about anything I build/do/train, apart from lashing out on me in an eventual game over. I mean, a lot of the game is about figuring out what to do (and that can be fun in a "game-long tutorial" kind of way, it's not necessarily a design flaw), but there isn't sufficient feedback to make it work.
ARE YOU A QUANTUM PHYSICS
The concept is good, but the execution needs more love. The throwing is often awkward and the progression doesn't seem to be well thought out.
Lovely progression here.
Only tangentially related to the theme, but still in the top tier of jam entries for all the detail.
The controls, the controls! My brain is on fire!
Pretty difficult, yeah. The first level(s) should be just a "retard check". I think what makes this slightly unfair is the unnaturally large hitbox of the player.
Delightful concept and presentation, and I love how you addressed the issues in the post-compo versions.
The best presentation I've seen in LD23 so far, with solid gameplay that fits the theme.
What bothers me most is that monsters can spawn right next to you, I think they should only spawn off-screen so you'd have some time to react.
You got surprisingly much out of minimal gameplay elements. Still, I'd like to see you expand on the concept.
So camp.
Surprisingly fun considering gameplay consists basically of waiting for resources to grow. But it has an abrupt ending common to LD games. A post-compo version should expand it to have multiple planets to control and more variables to twiddle with.
A solid game, 4 stars for everything (except humor, which I don't think you were going for). I got stuck because I didn't realize what really makes up a "part" and what you can rotate. You did something new with a formula I've seen before. Luckily the content doesn't run out right when you've got the hang of it.
The setting is memorable and reflected everywhere in the presentation. It's just that the graphics are a shade too dark on my screen. The narrator talk is kind of interesting, not the sort of lolrandom filler usually found in LD games.
Short enough for the lack of variation not to matter. Some strange bugs like jumping through walls and text that never clears.
For me, the .jar file only launches a window that shuts down right away. Too bad.
Moody, but not very fun as a game.
Simple but addictive, a good formula for LD. Lacks difficulty once you're past the start though, and you should be able to affect the blood patterns more by pushing enemies around or something.
Even if one can't solve the puzzles, it's fun to just explore the planet, since it feels alive.
I can tell you spent most of your time on the graphics/polish instead of refining the core mechanics first. Needs more pressure to feel like survival.
I got lost in this game. Absolutely love how there's inherent puzzles in discovering the game mechanics and placement patterns. A rare case where a tutorial would hinder the gameplay.
The sort of LD game I'd want to make, it captures the joy of discovery/creation while also fitting the theme and having a polished presentation.
Surprisingly fun as it is, but there's lots of potential here for a post-compo version. More ways to wreck the planet, people trying to defend their home world, maybe even simple physics modeling like detaching fragments.
i_have_no_idea_what_i'm_doing.jpg
The gameplay would've desperately needed variation, it got tedious quite fast. For example, the one-way floors had potential for puzzles, but they never came. And neither did I.
Building the gameplay around the super-low-res limitation is a good approach. The difficulty is just right, the levels actually feel like challenges and are rewarding to complete. My only gripe is that the targeting feels slightly off.
Hilarious. Does what it does really well with all the polish.
The disturbed mood really sets it apart from other entries. Never got a hang of the targeting, though.
Simple but polished gameplay, it's pretty fun just grinding for a while. And it's got attention to detail, like Dr. Freeze creating tiles in lava. I love discovering things like that.
Interesting concept. The clumsy movement detracted from the enjoyment, I think.
This begs to be made into a full game with mouse look and objectives. Glad you tried something different, graphics are crispy as usual.
"What's going on, the hell am I supposed to do? Can't push these blocks... oh, there's another screen... more blocks, but this time I can push them... I wonder why-- Wait, these blocks look like... OH. OOOOOHHHHH."
Thanks for giving that feeling. One of my favorite entries this LD, really polished and unique.
A gem of a game.
The best part of this game is luring him to a pit. Also the way you actually need him to solve some of the obstacles, I think that could've been explored more.
GOURUDU METARU
M-MASAKA
movy's
Pretty hard, yeah. That particle effect revealing the invisible platforms is brilliant. Lots of mood too.
Pretty tangentially related to the theme.
Delightfully surreal, yeah.
Kind of strange you only need to throw a stone once in the game. Was expecting that to be the core mechanic.
Some ambient sound effects could've bumped the mood to 5 stars.
Loving the concept here, looks and sounds pretty neat.
A couple of bugs, though (which probably aren't news to you, from the looks of it). For example, you can get stuck in the walls and walk on lasers.
And I agree that it started feeling unfair when the lasers came in. Too hard to aim through the mirrors.
I love how this conveys a story without dialogue and leaves room for imagination. 5 stars for mood.
Don't forget to unzip before playing.
Nice idea for a game. I've wanted to do a sound-only game, but your approach was different. Found the kitty too.
I think you bit more than you could chew. It's pretty long for an LD game, but it still feels like there was next to no content in a way. Not enough challenge, not enough variation between stats or enemies.
Some of the enemies never appeared despite the warnings. This was especially bad with the UFOs - I think I only saw 3 of them, but kept hearing the sound all the time. That's what made the game too easy, only the grey planes felt like a threat.
A simple concept, but great presentation and so much fun. Games like these are Ludum Dare's speciality.
The "original" version has fake difficulty caused by having to restart from the start after dying. I'm glad you've tried to respond to complaints by making improved versions; that's why I gave you a high community rating. "Escape velocity" is also a distinctive take on the theme.
However, the game still has very little content despite being promising. I feel that you should keep developing it further.
;_;
Yeah, I'd also like to advance the dialogue by left-clicking since I'm a fast reader.
But that's just nitpicking, it's quite impressive for a 48 hour game.
The movement was too heavy for my tastes, but I guess it was fitting for an atmospheric type of game. You wouldn't really want to breeze through the environments because there's lots of eyecandy.
Your contributions to the community shouldn't be ignored either, you've written a couple of interesting blog posts and currently have the highest coolness rating on the site.
This game pushes my blocks.
Augh. Did anyone else get the feeling that the jump key didn't register even though you clearly pressed it?
A solid game with a neat mechanic.
I didn't think it was particularly hard. The only thing that caused frustration was the way you keep moving left or right while jumping, even after you let go of the key.
Good stuff. Kinda like a tower defense with moving towers, heh. There's enough variation between levels to keep things interesting, and the upgrade system is a plus. Enough challenge as well, and it doesn't end just when the fun's gotten started.
Surprisingly fun with minimal game mechanics.
It's weird how right after the player gets a speed boost, the level design becomes more about nimble jumps. Luckily there were some wide open spaces to run in after that.
This desperately needs an online high score mode with an infinite path that keeps on going faster and faster. Also, how about something to do with the left mouse button, such as jumping?
Liking the art style a lot. I get the feeling you spent most of your time on the graphics and missed out on some features you would've wanted to implement.
Oh you
It's pretty and sounds good. But like the others said, the exploration feels too maze-like despite the changing sceneries. There's little incentive to check every nook and cranny.
The concept is good but the execution is lacking. The controls are awkward; it's as if the game can't decide whether it's a top-down Sokoban-like game or a platformer. It takes much longer than expected to clear each level, to the point where rearranging the blocks over and over starts feeling tedious.
I like how the switching mechanic forces you to think where to leave your character, then quickly adjust again. The controls feel fair and the one life policy keeps the player on their toes. Addicting stuff, I'll get all the tokens eventually!
Not quite varied enough to stay interesting all the way.
This stands out from the average entry. A bit liberal take on the already loose theme, but it's worth that sacrifice.
Some of the upgrades and instructions are unnecessary because memory slots are plentiful. This tones down the difficulty and variation.
The music does get annoying quickly, I think this game could do better without it.
"Reverse tower defense" sounded promising, but it isn't quite what the player might expect. Gets a bit uninteresting quickly because of the lack of variation. Also, there's little payoff for fighting rather than running away - but I guess that just fits the theme, heh.
Beautiful, yeah. The interaction needs refinement, though. The instructions at the bottom right are unclear and you'll end up trying to click everything. Use text rather than images - you could even tell a story (describe the events) while you're at it.
It ends right when it's started, but that's only to be expected from 48h games. I'm hoping you'll develop this further on your own time.
These are the kinds of games LD is about. Short but sweet. I could play like 50 levels of this, so I'm glad there's a level editor.
Just tricky enough for my tastes. Fun stuff, and a great name.
One of the best graphical styles in this LD.
The evolution of Mojang games: from punching trees to punching boulders.
LD36 — Ancient Technology (16)
Apalis by Tselmek 2016-09-02T13:29:00
This seems very polished. While being simplistic, the level progression makes this pretty appealing to play through.
I would just appreciate outlines on the spikes, especially with the randomized foreground decorations. I died a few times just by not seeing that I walked into something deadly. The controls are fairly responsive in themselves.
The music is actually really nice, while the sound effects can be kind of jarring in comparison.
Super Egyptian UFO Cat Pyramid Overlord 2000 BC by rjhelms 2016-09-02T13:22:00
It's got style, very C64. Appreciate the modern touches like shaders too.
The gameplay is a bit spammy though, considering the low reaction time (which is further diminished past level 5).
Cryptoglyphics by Bogden 2016-09-02T03:47:00
Ohh, this is a novel approach to user-generated content. It's quite interesting as an experiment in its own right.
But... there's no way to deduce your way through any of the puzzles, is there? Like, it doesn't seem to give any kind of feedback about the correctness of your guesses, so trying to figure out any glyph comes down to randomly getting everything right. There doesn't seem to be a Hangman-like penalty either, you only get to request a hint (and that feels like cheating).
Am I missing something?
BRAVE To The Core by NUEBO MUNDO 2016-09-02T03:33:00
This seems quite unfinished. There's little to no challenge in drilling, even with the time pressure. Having a concept of money is suggestive of upgrades, but the game just resets after playing once.
The fundamental controls are pretty good, I'll give you that. But it's kind of like a sandbox rather than a game, as it is. Are you planning on taking this further post-jam?
Yggdrasil by AnaGF 2016-09-01T18:29:00
Some curious uses of the cloning thing. It seems to have a surprising amount of lore to it.
Now, let's talk about the very basic things like collisions and camera. Those feel very funky, and that's what makes this more frustrating than it needs to be. The bit with the stairs is a good example: you get stuck on every possible wall, struggle to make the jump across, and when you do, the intended click spot is in the lower right corner of the camera view. (As an added bonus, the checkpoint next to it doesn't seem to register for me...)
Really needs some tuning with the essentials, because I think there's something here!
Relics of Mortality by JeanValjean 2016-09-01T18:11:00
This game was very consistent in weirding me out. Perhaps that was the intended experience, like living the main character's Groundhog Day setting for yourself. But there were also collision quirks as extra spice.
I think I get where you were going with the platforming style, but the biggest issue is the sluggish controls combined with everything else happening super fast, often without warning. If I had the velocity necessary to dodge anything, I might actually complete one of the levels.
And I've never seen a graphical style like this. It's inconsistent in a way that makes it look almost randomly generated, sort of like every sprite and UI object came from a different game. Is this what happens when people use Unity assets??
Javelipes by Tegu 2016-09-01T17:01:00
This is some simple, good fun. It feels fundamentally pretty nice to control, and I actually appreciate that there's no automatic stopping. It adds an extra layer of depth trying not to overstep.
My top score for now is 343: http://i.imgur.com/ZYLcZS5.png
Forever Someday by TheOneThatNeverWas 2016-09-01T16:27:00
It feels quite honest and polished for what it is. I'm glad the lack of ratings gave room to these kinds of narrative games - I'd have no way of traditionally judging this.
But describing your own entry as "a deep psychological experience", "full of meaning" etc. is kind of overkill, no? You should let the game speak for itself.
STONECONF 12,016 BC by Tijn 2016-08-31T19:15:00
Whoa, this is like... resource management with a narrative. Whatever term you'd use to describe it, it's pretty damn unique and cool.
I agree with Wan that the minimalism didn't hinder this at all. There's actually quite a bit of diversity and challenge from a few possible events. So it's very much got that old-school spirit I love.
Rune Stacker by drnick 2016-08-31T19:02:00
Oh, this is a clever take on stacker games. Just pretty laggy on Chrome, and it seems like I have to reload the whole page+game after every game over.
Avastory by Devark 2016-08-31T10:37:00
After Momotori, I wasn't able to interact with either of the doors. It didn't seem intentional, because the game was also lagging quite a lot.
Maybe I'll give this another shot later, it reminded me of mid-game Undertale slightly, and I'd like to see what you have in store.
Key Adventure by g12345 2016-08-31T10:28:00
After Momotori, I wasn't able to interact with either of the doors. It didn't seem intentional, because the game was also lagging quite a lot.
Maybe I'll give this another shot later, it reminded me of mid-game Undertale slightly, and I'd like to see what you have in store.
RAM by Evilperson77 2016-08-30T17:48:00
This game is very clear on what it wants to be. The enemy types complement the simplistic controls nicely.
The music is a big part of the charm!
Excavation Manager by Tetha 2016-08-30T17:45:00
Ooh, I have a sweet tooth for resource management games like this. This one's seems to have a clear "coffee break" focus too, the world needs more games like this.
I can see how the lack of guidance can be a hindrance, but the visual feedback allows learning through several plays.
Ancient Robots by blackbird04217 2016-08-30T17:38:00
The presentation is very transparent, good work on that. What makes this unique is that it's so freeform - it's not a puzzle game with predefined steps, you're just exploring the level with (presumably) random cards.
This made me think of how the punch card system could be used in an RPG. Like making the environment also dynamic, so that different cards would have different use cases.
Steam Heart by SinclairStrange 2016-08-30T17:28:00
This game is legit. Pure action all the way through, with an uncompromising Sega aesthetic.
Also one of the most polished games I've seen in Ludum Dare, like, ever.