Certain Defeat by L 2013-08-26T04:28:00
I can't move. Can't click on anything (not even the CONTROLS button. Something's wrong on my Mac.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → OldPeculier
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | @73N: KEEP. HIM. ALIVE. | jam | 509 | 3.80 | 3.36 | 3.44 | 4.11 | 4.38 | 3.86 | 4.08 | |||
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | đź‘Ą | Bonnie | jam | 72 | 4.09 | 4.02 | 3.30 | 3.77 | 4.55 | 3.92 | 2.97 | 3.95 | |
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | đź‘Ą | Survival Dash | jam | 384 | 3.62 | 3.48 | 3.67 | 3.94 | 3.39 | 3.68 | 2.67 | 3.25 | |
| 2017 | 40 | The more you have, the worse it is | Exploding Golf, with Lovable Piggies | compo | 22 | 4.13 | 4.20 | 3.83 | 2.85 | 4.04 | 3.93 | 3.89 | 3.80 | ||
| 2016 | 37 | One room | "Whatever..." | compo | 83 | 3.81 | 2.81 | 4.29 | 4.05 | 3.81 | 3.75 | 41 | |||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Orbital | compo | 54 | 3.97 | 3.72 | 2.80 | 4.00 | 4.22 | 3.78 | 2.23 | 3.97 | 58 | |
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Hop's Hope | compo | 62 | 3.85 | 3.08 | 2.73 | 3.87 | 4.19 | 3.82 | 2.76 | 3.98 | 82 | |
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | Claustrophobia | compo | 146 | 3.68 | 3.17 | 3.56 | 3.81 | 3.81 | 2.33 | 3.47 | 94 | ||
| 2013 | 27 | 10 Seconds | Space-Time Adventure | compo | 180 | 3.50 | 3.07 | 3.61 | 3.75 | 3.80 | 3.50 | 2.52 | 3.07 | 100 |
I can't move. Can't click on anything (not even the CONTROLS button. Something's wrong on my Mac.
Wow, so feeling that make a single game in 48 hours was too small a challenge, raarlac decided to make FIVE games in 48 hours. Unbelievable. Fantastic.
Woah. Even for a 48 hour game this would be a real accomplishment. In 5 hours?! Brilliant. I mean...skid marks? You had time for details like that in 5 hours?! Amazing.
Woah. Even for a 48 hour game this would be a real accomplishment. In 5 hours?! Brilliant. I mean...skid marks? You had time for details like that in 5 hours?! Amazing.
High Score 261.
Nice graphics. It ran pretty slow on my system at times. Also, the creatures keep getting up inside my head—suddenly they've snuck up and they're inside me. That's not real fun.
Awesome concept, great visuals.
Really, really cool. Got tired of waiting for the text to pass though.
Love the theme, the film strip, and the music. Not much fun to be had here, though, am I right?
I simply can't believe how great this is. Can't believe it. Fun, beautiful, polished to a fault. Publish it. Make people pay you for it. That's all there is left to do. My favorite touch (of many): the jiggling blue ball when you collide with something. Kids, study your linear algebra and maybe you, too, will be able to make a game like this someday.
I enjoyed the "story". The beating heart visual was very well done. The game itself is competent but didn't grab me violently. I would like to play more though.
Brilliant concept, beautifully executed. That said, ten seconds is just no way long enough to count the syllables in long words and form a Haiku. I did see you had a second version, but then that breaks the theme.
Bit of a pickle
Make your game *good* or *correct*?
A real conundrum
Title screen wins! The game is promising but that staticky effect is extremely off-putting. Can't go on.
I'm just going to take this opportunity to say how freaking brilliant it is to be part of Ludum Dare this time around, and for one reason: getting to see the sheer genius of so many brilliant game developers. Not all the games are brilliant, naturally, but when they are... And this one is. Awesome concept, beautifully executed. It HAS to win something. Great job!
Achievements are impressive!
A pretty cool idea with amazing pixel art, but no key code.
Darned good fun!
That actually works amazingly well. Good times!
Cute, and nice intro, but pretty basic game.
The screenshot has me sold already. And the game does not disappoint. Terrific graphics. Fun gameplay. Super music. Great!
LOL at the name and picture. Play the game. LOL again. Brilliant.
Is there something I am supposed to do apart from pressing Q and E and looking at a piece of text stating that I lost? Some clear controls would help. This seems like an interesting idea but I don't know what to do.
The funnest game I've played so far. Awesome job!
You wrote this in 6502 assembly? That is insane and awesome.
Super! I had fun!
This is flipping brilliant. You are an actual winner. I'm serious, man: this has creativity, humor, logic... It's actually *fun*. No matter what people say, this thing is awesome. It reminds me of Democracy 2 (Lite). Only problem: it gets pretty deep pretty darned fast—a lot of calculation required very early on. Oh, and there was something unclear to me: I solved one level using "TAXES AND GOOD", but I didn't understand why. What does "AND GOOD" signify?
Very nice, very playable game.
Looks brilliant except I can't really get far: it runs choppy, and I couldn't make heads or tails of how to get out of the first little area.
If there was a category for "Particles" I'd give you a 10 (out of 5). There's tremendous potential here. I'm intrigued. The bubbles and plants are amazing. Tons of goodness. But I didn't find much of a game. Not sure what to do. Not sure why the world kept resetting. Confused.
Cool concept. A nice way to cut the Gordian Knot by being able to focus on content for the 48 hours rather than graphics and collision systems and whatnot. Nice job!
No possible way! Seriously, 5 stars is not enough to award this game for graphics. Un-be-lievable! Oh boy I'm dizzy now though.
I had to download the SWF. Why not put it on a webpage so it just runs? But I did download it and played it and the game has tremendous humor and a lot of promise. It's hard to actually eat people though--I was never sure where I was supposed to be standing. Then I ate up all the people and there was no-one left, so I just kept dying. Something missing here?
Okay yeah I think I'm gonna go out there on a limb and say that this is my favorite LD27 game so far (and I've been playing a *bunch* of them). Genius take on the theme, nicely implemented, with a cute opening segment (even) and fun gameplay. This deserves money, man. (Not from me. :) ) Polish it up a tiny bit. Publish it. The images of burning cars in a city literally in its last 10 seconds of existence... I tell you, this is genius.
The "Web" version doesn't work on the web. It takes me to a download link for a .zip file.
Yep, that's totally great. Brilliant idea, beautifully executed. I'm intimidated.
Pretty great. Run backward and shoot like mad! Cool concept.
I was confused. Who am I? How much are things to buy? How do I win or lose? I'm confused.
Nicely done! Here's some sophisticated programming. Wow!
You'll find that my game has some similar elements like scrubbing back and forward in time and adjusting physics. Not similar enough to be embarrassing, though, I think :) Try: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=25979
Cool concept. I really want to play it more, but I feel a bit confused as to the concept. Obviously needs a bit more time, but I hope you give it the time: I think it could be something excellent.
Couldn't run it.
Pretty cool. It's like the opposite of an RPG: the game is leveling up ("Faster Rockets!") instead of the player. Had fun with it.
Cool concept. Danged hard.
Yeah this is truly brilliant. This is the first game I've played so far (out of dozens and dozens) that I could see myself playing for hours, really bonding with, really making my own. Fantastic, elegant, clever. You deserve a handshake, a pat on the back: whatever it is that would make you feel a great sense of recognition and accomplishment. Seriously.
Man, some games just leave ya feeling intimidated by their awesomeness. This is one of them. Major polish here. Beautiful controls. Smile-inducing graphics. Superb!
This is genius. Unfortunately I can't get past level two: too hard! Brilliant though, apart from that.
Web version doesn't seem to work on my Mac. I get a blue and grey (alternating) 100% bar in a small window.
@kevinAlbs, remember that you have to keep the nice space people alive but KILL THE DARK ONES. Otherwise it won't progress.
Ravetcofx, it might take a little while to download.
Thanks mactinite and greysphere. I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Thanks nathanhoffer! About 9PM on Saturday night I thought I was doomed—I'd never get it done. But something broke through in the hours that followed and...well I did! Thanks for the kind words.
@Steve, thanks for the heads up. It has to reach the end of the time line (the 10 second mark) or it won't proceed. I haven't seen a bug here myself, but then obviously I haven't had time to do a ton of testing. Thanks for the report.
@SasoriDama, I'm thrilled that the levels fooled you into thinking they were designed. :) For most people there's at least one obviously broken level. I'm glad you had fun!
Sebastian, I was trying to make an allusion to Dr. Who, but in my brain-addled state I'm afraid I failed. Glad you like it though. :)
Not my cup of tea. And boy that hot pink did a number on my eyes.
Totally great concept and theme. Not much fun for one player though.
I found it a bit hard—too slow for the distances between "air bubbles"—which was frustrating because I really wanted to see the nice environment.
Great job! The AI, animation, and visuals are brilliant. And it's fun!
I love this so much that it's not even fair. Love the setting and concept. Clever play on the LD theme. And what an execution! Fantastic.
I'm sorry, I couldn't get through the intro—just too slow.
Very cool concept. Nice visuals—brilliant. I did get a bit confused and my character ended up stuck. I want to play this more though, which is more than I can say for some entries.
I really had a lot of fun with that! Cool!
I don't get it.
Incredible. What a great concept, and it plays beautifully. I love the use of the voice (although he does get tiresome after a while). Ten seconds isn't quite long enough for the later levels though. I got stuck on the first one where the pieces are already out between the two rockets.
Love the title. Loved the Wife art in the intro. Cool concept. I couldn't figure out how to open the fridge though.
Great concept and it's mostly there. I found that there was a lot of ammo starvation though. The AI is also a bit cheaty: when he's targetting you he's got no turning delay, yet your own slow steering speed is one of the chief elements of the game. Still, I enjoyed it.
That is pretty darned sophisticated for a weekend game. Cool!
Amazingly brilliant despite some bugs and difficulty. You've really made two games here: just fencing alone would have been enough, without the shooting and whatnot.
I want to love this. There are lots of beautiful things going on. Brilliant name—play on Knight's Templar, I trust. But I can't figure out what I'm doing or supposed to do. Why do I keep exploding? Should I run to the glowing things? Or, somewhere else?
Cool. Educational! Is there an ending? I gave up hope at level 16.
Had a lot of potential but just too hard!
Cool. Love the concept. Nice execution, though I did get stuck on the level after the one shown in your primary screen shot. Just could not get thorough quick enough. This game years for multitouch.
It really is amazing to have put something like this together in 48 hours. There's a ton here! And it's fun!
Brilliant, of course. Read about it via Hacker News.
I'm confused. I hold the left mouse button. I go slowly towards a thing. I reach the thing. I see a green face. I'm back where I started. What am I missing?
I was loving this game as soon as I saw the name. And the actual play does not disappoint. Beautiful job!
I don't get it. Is there some way to interact?
A game after my own heart. A lot of fun, though a bit hard for me.
I'm attracted by the graphics and theme but can't get anything to really happen. Arrow keys take me up a couple of stuffs, then red negative numbers start popping out and then the game is over. Is it a bug or a lack of instructions?
Feels very sluggish, but cool concept, and I did have fun dodging the objects.
Man I stink, or this is a bit too hard. Great graphics and sound though, and nice polish.
Web version doesn't run for me. Sorry I can't rate it!
Terrific minimalist use of the concept. Simple but fun!
A ton of work obviously went into this. Nice going!
Sweet. As in "Ah, sweet." Very nice look.
Lovely game! Man I hate those snowmen. Must spam them with snow!
That's funny. Bizarre. But funny.
Cute. Wrong theme, but nice start to a platform. But give a brother a jump key!
Woah! I was totally about to go this way for LD31. You did a great job on the concept.
The art is strong with this one. Nice gameplay too and good sound.
The title threw me off, even with the *, so I kept getting one point. But after I figured it out, I realized that it's awesome!
Brilliant use of the theme. Point-and-clicks are not naturally the most fun games, but you get big marks for nice graphics and overall creativity.
I couldn't start the game. Such a pity. Looks very cool from the outside though.
Wow, there's a lot of depth here. This could go far.
Yep, totally brilliant. Captures something fundamental about board games in general and makes it explicit.
Worked for me. I can't understand the controls, but it sort of plays itself, so kind of fun. Nice models though.
Awesome concept nicely executed!
Wow, you've got a lot going on in here. So far I'd say this is the game that kept me the most engrossed for longest. Great job!
This is actually rather great. At first I felt like it was going to be tedious, but then I realized what was going on: interesting player physics+waitress-style mechanics+"screen" theme = very nice job!
Beautiful, funny, but, uh, theme fail. Nice job anyway.
Thanks for the comments! I've cranked up the speed a little after your comments. It picks up more quickly now.
It's not deferred rendering, it's shadow volume rendering, except in 2D!
Thanks nicotuason. I'm glad you appreciate the depth! I must say I actually enjoy playing it myself—not something I can say of every game I've ever made.
Nice. I dig the text visuals and the Smash TV gameplay.
Simply incredible. Incredible.
Super cool. I want to play this in a bigger, expanded form. Please keep developing it!
Wow. Uh... not sure whether to enjoy this or not. It deserves some props though.
This game is so, so great in so many ways that it's disappointing that it is weak in other areas. It's one of the downsides to make a really great Jam entry: it gets so good that it's comparable to a shipped, fully polished game, and the comparison is disappointing. Here, the graphics and concept are outstanding and I could see myself buying this game. The downfall is, unfortunately, the gameplay itself: the actual mechanics of moving and attacking. It's not fun. It's really not fun. So you've got the shell of a game with absolutely beautiful and intriguing trappings, but it's empty inside. Fill in this shell with really engaging gameplay and you've got a winner. And "engaging gameplay" doesn't have to be complicated: just better movement and attacking mechanisms are all you need.
Totally awesome. I've evaluated a lot of games in LD31, and this is one of the very few that I would choose to play again. Fantastic for education value and implementation quality.
I struggled to shoot the bad guys—if they were too close I'd just shoot through them, and other times they just wouldn't die. Nice concept though.
Totally genius. Pinball meets RPG. Wow. Just wow.
Took a while to truly understand the game but it is really great! Reminds me of a minigame called Fruit on a Wii U game called Game & Wario.
Yep, took me a few plays to figure out the goal, but in the end...yeah, it's fun! And I love that the game itself is explicitly not limited to a screen (you can move the view), but it *is* "on a single screen." I've always wanted one of those arcade cocktail machines for my house.
Yep, that's pretty much totally brilliant. Hints of Papers Please with more eye-hand coordination juiciness (which thing do I look at?—the wound or the buttons?! But it's a good confusion). Love it.
Terrific. Amazing!
Cute. Fun. Clever. Theme fail, but nice game anyway.
Super clever and pretty fun. Great!
Terrific graphics. Nice platformer.
Brilliant. Really fun. My #1 recommendation would be to remove the auto-tracking on shots, because as it is I found that if I just spammed the fire button I never lost everyone.
Kind of a brilliant idea kind of destroyed by insane controls. Shift+Left click to fire? What?!
It's tough but a brilliant and fun idea. Reminds me a bit of Blink (Dr. Who).
Great audio. Nice little game.
Yep, not real clear on what I'm doing, but it really feels like all the pieces are there. Another few hours of work...?
Best game I've tried so far. I simply adore this. It's so simple, yet so intriguing. Am I wrong in thinking those are your lips flapping during the "explosion" at the end, there?
Lotta cool stuff going on here: tiles, big boss, nice art, cool sword concept. I think the motion of the sword needs work though: it is unpredictable and not very fluid, and overall doesn't "sing" like it should.
I found this quite brilliant and legitimately fun. It reminds me, of course, of the board game Labyrinth.
If I were improving it, I would:
* Either allow long-distance pathfinding (click anywhere for which there is a visible path and the character will go there automatically), or show a visual indicator as you mouse over tiles that reminds the player that the four tiles adjacent to the player are the only ones he can gainfully click on.
* Show a clearer end-result/threat. In the end I stopped playing despite enjoying the underlying mechanics because I didn't feel an ovearching purpose.
* Eliminate "dead end" tiles. There are enough dead end situations without them: that is, corners and straights often conspire to make a path impossible. I don't think dead ends are necessary, and I think they slow down the game and amplify the risk of unwinnable situations.
The name, by the way, rhymes with "Tourniquet!", which is kind of funny.
I liked this. It's like one slice of Minecraft, purified.
Really cool concept in a beautiful presentation. I had trouble getting keys to respond though.
Nice premise. I couldn't get anything to happen though.
Wait? How is this in the theme?
Freezes for me on the opening screen. Looks promising!
All right that's clever. Pretty fun, but very funny.
Love the theme, and it's darned fun.
Quite beautiful and a very clever use of the theme.
Destructible terrain! How awesome is that? Nice multiplayer game.
Beautiful music! Wonderful mood.
Hilarious, clever, and actually quite fun. Great job!
I'm gonna say that this is probably the funnest LD33 game I've played apart, perhaps, from deepnight's. Terrific concept really well executed. Awesome!
The screen is flashing! Am I hitting or being hit! The story screen and kit screen are impressive, but I couldn't make heads or tails of the actual gameplay.
Hard to beat the art. Gameplay... well it's a bit on the lean side. Delightful entry though.
Very cool. I like the unusual control scheme. I like the protect-the-egg dynamic. Just great gameplay choices here. Fun!
On my keyboard the Z key is next in line from X, C, and V. Why did you choose Y? Great artwork BTW.
Awesome adventure style. Good stuff.
Ridiculously, ridiculously clever. Funny. Fun. Awesome job. And hopefully Nintendo will get the joke and won't bring a lot suit against you.
Terrific stuff. I played this one probably longer than any other so far. The music, I'm afraid, gets old. Other than that it's good fun and very nicely polished.
Wait, so what's the goal here? I like the mechanic but what am I trying to do?
Truly awesome. You got some very difficult controls working very well. Amazing level of polish. Definitely one of the best games.
Awesome concept—loved it. I think the cards on the left should scroll smoothly rather than jumping; their overall motion is unclear. I couldn't drop a card after I picked it up. This is an LD game I'd actually like to play more of. Great job!
Awesome concept, and fun. I played several stages and enjoyed it.
Incredible, simply incredible as always. Five stars all the way.
You've still got "Source (soon)." How soon?
Yep, that's bizarre but well on its way toward being really fun. I think I could use some danger though. The flying is great.
Superb. I actually had fun with thus (unlike some entries). Great job with the large number of objects in their normal and destructed states.
At first I was like, what the heck? I'm clicking on a thing to kill it. But then after the first monster when I'm given a choice, the cleverness of the game came through to me. Cool idea.
Brilliant. Good fun. Nice round presentation. Want more!
Superb start. I really want to play this for real—too bad you ran out of time.
Superb stuff—one of the very best. Great story, great graphics, great lighting, great music, great sfx. It seems a silly thing, but I think the slow elevators were maybe the most obvious detraction from the "fun" of the game. Other than that it was a perfect game in miniature.
Wow! Definitely a cut above the average. Interesting gameplay mechanic—I'm the hungriest creature I've ever played. Good thing I'm vegetarian. Hilarious grumbly tummy "hunger" noise. I didn't quite get the "hiding" mechanic though—really just seemed more like dodging, since the poke masters always saw me no matter what I did (it seemed).
High score 171.5. Good fun!
Terrific. Simply wonderful art style combined with solid gameplay and good diversity. Love it.
Excellent! I enjoyed the theme and the mechanics.
This right here is what Ludum Dare is all about. It's not the funnest game I've ever played but good for a laugh and it must have been a blast to make. Good job!
Simple awesome concept and art.
Love the retro feel. Not the most riveting game I've ever played, but major points for look-and-feel.
Terrific art. Like many others I struggled with the controls—took me a minute to find "the button." Then I planted some things and...nothing happened. It's a shame—I want to like this a lot.
Okay, yeah, this is actually amazingly engrossing and fun. Simple yet clever. Hagwarts—nice.
I'm not quite sure what the appeal is here. The art is nice. The concept is sound. But it's an extremely simple game, and fundamentally I don't see that it requires much skill. Of any game I always ask: what's the difference between a skillful player and a poor player? In this case, you walk around and bump into little guys. I'm not sure that a good player would be much more successful than a weak one. Where's the fun?
Yep, one of the best. A snappy variant of the gravity-adjustment concept. Terrific fun.
How bizarre. But it's also oddly affecting. I like it.
Love the art. Not bad gameplay either.
Great art, but the gameplay isn't coming together for me. I don't have much of a reason to move here rather than there or to hit this rather than that. What's the difference between a good player and a poor player?
I really like the concept of chasing people around to eat them—very much Pac Man in reverse and very monstery.
Terrific art. I didn't find the gameplay terribly appealing.
Terrific mood. Nice presentation. Good fun.
One of the best. Hilarious. Fun. McPixely or maybe Wariowarish in a good way.
I'm not getting much feedback on whether I'm hitting things, and I think this really robs the game of a lot of its fun. Great art!
Maybe the best game from LD33. Pat yourselves on your green, disgusting, pimply backs.
Brilliant. Definitely belongs in that class of games made by clearly skilled people able to bring a game to within shooting distance of "a real game" in a very short space of time. Terrific.
Love the graphics style and GTA gameplay. Superb!
This feels like a wasted opportunity. The premise is cool, the art is great, and the first level anticipates some gameplay. But the uniform rows of houses in the following levels (I played just two more) destroy any sense of choice. I go down, I chomp. Where's the skill? Where's the game? It's too bad, because the presentation is great and it feels like a game is right on the tip of this game's tongue—but it doesn't spit it out.
This is very promising but I'm definitely confused. I see there are links between the birds and the doors, and it has to do with their "health bars", but the connections are far from obvious. Maybe that's the point, but it doesn't feel like an intended mystique—just confusing.
Utterly brilliant. Definitely one of the most, if not THE most, "sellable" LD34 games I've seen.
Five is not enough stars for the graphics rating—incredible.
Incredible. Such a cool concept so well executed.
I love the motion of the fish—the up-down dance each one makes to convey the overall sense of schooling. It's very satisfying to collect more fish!
Terrific music.
Thanks pianoman and Eshford and Zeezgames and RadMcCool! Makes me feel happy!
Cool concept, creative and effective controls. Audio is probably the weakest point: the growing sound is unpleasant and the music is minimal.
Hard! But hilarious. Long laughter here.
Six stars for fun, graphics, and audio. Definitely one of the very best of LD34.
This game feels one inch from being really exceptional. As a platformer, though, the collision is wonky and I feel like I keep falling through the floor or getting hung on things.
This feels like a great game that just didn't quite get done enough. I couldn't make heads or tails of the "going to work" coin collection subgame. Consequently I never got close to having the $100 needed to gamble, which presumably was the point of the game. At the beginning of the game the music started playing twice—twice at the same time. Another day or two of development could have made this great.
Good graphics, nice gameplay, good music. My only beef is that I think the interface of two panels of music was more confusing than it needed to be.
Extraordinary as always, though I agree with the others that I find the game demoralizingly hard.
Okay, now that is a brilliant game. The best of LD37 so far (for the ones I've seen). Thanks for making this! Five stars all the way—and well deserved too.
At first I thought this game was pretty weak, but after playing it a couple of times, it's actually quite fun. I'd love to play it more in a more polished form.
Music is wonderful. Overall experience was, for me, weirdly immersive and enjoyable. The level design is good but I did encounter some technical problems: I got hung up on some stairs in unexpected ways, and I found I could move through the roof of the enclosed area up the white floating stairs to the right from the entrance. Great job overall!
Wow! Jolly spooky. Very fun! I was a bit confused by the ending too.
That is extraordinary. Well done!
Sweet! Definitely one of the better ones. Great music, winsome graphics, pleasing gameplay. Just an all-around well-executed game.
This is two inches from being a really outstanding game, but I found that death was just too random and unpredictable to enjoy myself. Music is tops, however.
Fantastic graphical effect, strong audio, good use of theme, and pleasantly funny. Just one thing: my kingdom for a decent jump button! X or Z, please!
Superb. What most amazes me about your entry are the hundreds of little details you were able to get in: the jiggling hp/gold bar whenever you get a coin or heart, the attract mode at the beginning, the waggling flag when you touch a checkpoint... One of the best games I've seen so far.
Love the graphic style. I like the gameplay premise. This game would have been the bomb in 1980. As it is, it's still full of charm.
Art style great. Sound great. But I cannot make heads or tales of the level, and after 25 deaths have still not moved more than a few pixels from the initial spawn point in the first level.
Awesome theme, good graphics, promising gameplay. The levels feel kind of arbitrary though. More time balancing and structuring them would have made this one of the greatest.
Superb graphics. Nice gameplay. Feels like the game could use some expansion and development (it's too binary right now: one collision and it's game over), but it's already enjoyable.
Cool idea, nicely executed. Good fun! I like the PixelVision "Operating System" as well.
Cool concept, nicely executed. Overall it feels too easy (an unusual problem on Ludum Dare), but other than that, perfect.
Best LD40 game I've played so far. You know how it is: even the best games, you're kinda done playing after 5 minutes or so. Not this one! I could play this all night. Probably will.
Scores very high for graphics, mood, and overall fun. One of the best!
That's definitely one of the best ones. It's hard. But delightful graphics, good audio, nice tight gameplay. Very well done!
Brilliant, brilliant premise. Cool graphics. Not bad controls. The main problem is that I can't keep my tank/tower up for more than two or three blocks, no matter what I do. It feels like that's a solvable problem though, and the game is close to being really fun.
The graphics are to die for. The whole premise is very promising. I got stuck at the first obstacle though, the rotating glowing orange thing near the sign about "stomping them."
Gosh this game wants to be a really great one, but you needed a little more time to really polish it. The jumping gameplay is like a thousand other games. What's up with the scarf and warming? A frame rate problem occurs periodically, chugging the game and making it difficult to time jumps correctly. Beautiful art though, great music, cute scarf, neat scarf concept. It's a good start!
Third LD40 game I've played about old ladies managing an excess of cats.
Nice one!
Yes, that was actually shockingly fun. At first I thought, "This is way too simple." But then it got quite intriguing. I got 81 points.
Superb. I love the tiny little player sprite, and the general look and feel. Nice lava and particles. And, most importantly, it's a fun game. Like Super Meat Boy it tends toward the brutally difficult, but I think that works for it. Superb job.
Genius. This is either a fantastic game masquerading as a silly one, or a silly game masquerading as a fantastic one. In either case, at first I thought, "boy, what a nothing experience," and three seconds later when I "got it," I thought, "why has no one thought of this before?" Well done. It's fun: that's the point.
This is one of my favorites. Love the art style. Fun and funny writing. Nice short looping experience. Just a delightful little LD experience.
The artwork is extraordinary. I couldn't figure out how to win, but the visuals are top-notch.
This one feels close to my heart: almost like a children's book come to life. If it were longer and there were more things to manipulate, it could become a truly sellable game. Very nice job!
One of my favorites so far. Clever, funny, fun!
Clever concept, nice art and sound, good two-player fun with my daughter. Nice job!
Looks brilliant, but nope, the Mac version doesn't work for me.
I'd say this is the first LD45 game I've seen so far that deserves to be made into a full game. You could make money on this as an iPhone game, for example. HOWEVER, the rhythm aspect of the game isn't working. Partly it's not working because the timing doesn't feel right—it feels buggy, inaccurate. Partly it's not working because even if it felt right, I think it's the wrong mechanic for the context. The rhythm mechanic basically limits the player's ability to move—it makes movement a skill test. But the player already has a much more interesting skill test: that of avoiding getting pounced by pieces by seeing where they'll strike, the essential chess skill. The annoyance of having to press the keys in rhythm (especially since this often doesn't sync properly) is a distraction from this much more interesting gameplay. Better if you let the player move as fast as they want (up to a point), but use the _scrolling speed_ instead to drive the pace of the game.
In a word, consider Tetris. What forces the pace of that game is the speed with which pieces drop. Now, imagine if in Tetris, in order to move a piece, you _also_ had to press the arrow keys in rhythm. This wouldn't make Tetris better; it would make it a lot worse. That's your situation. The idea of rhythm-based chess is really cool, but it's not helping your game. Your game has something even cooler than rhythm based chess, which is pace-driven board "reading" in what feels like an adventure context. Truly, this could be brilliant. I'd buy it.
Utterly brilliant. Totally bizarre, but brilliant. My favorite LD45 out of ~20 played so far.
Absolutely astoundingly good game. Definitely the best out of ~20 I've played so far. It's so good that the only criticisms I'd give it are not what would make it a an even better Ludum Dare game, but would make it an even better COMMERCIAL game.
The one thing I'd work on is taking out a little more of the perceived randomness in the game. Although it's wicked good fun, a great proportion of the player's death feel like they were random or accidental, like they "weren't really my fault." This defies the principle of "Intentionality" in game design, where ultimately, the player should always end up feeling like they *deserved* their result, whether winning or losing. This game has a ton of intentionality, but there's just a little too much chaos that determines your success sometimes even more than you yourself do. Here are some of the factors contributing to that feeling of, "Hey, I just failed but it wasn't my fault!"
- Enemies are gray against a gray background. - The walls loom up and block your sight. - Enemies can see and shoot you (or your friend) from off-screen. - Your sidekick—whose AI is actually pretty great—often does dumb things, like getting in front of you. - The auto-aim sometimes doesn't shoot who you think it should.
Not one of these things is bad. In fact, most of them are really good: the enemy AI is great and they generally feel slow enough to feel pretty "fair"; your sidekick is great, knows to try to stay behind you; the auto-aim system is pretty great. The problem isn't any one of these things: it's the combination. There are enough "automatic" things going on in the game that add randomness and chaos and make it harder to translate player *intention* into the desired *action*. Again: this is occasional. If it were happening all the time the game would be bad. It's occasional and the game is really really good. But as the levels get harder and death becomes more common, the game becomes more hopeless because there are too many automatic or "blinding" factors that make you unable to convert intention into result. Is this making sense?
I actually think the solution is extremely simple. I'd suggest just two changes.
1. Change the enemy hat color to stand out just a little more from the floor. It's hard enough to see the enemies given the limited sight radius and the looming walls. They shouldn't be camouflaged. The player should never lose a level and think, "Wait—I didn't even see him there!" This single change will help a ton. 2. Slightly decrease the radius at which enemies shoot. If you make it so that enemies only ever shoot when their target is within—I don't know—two or three body lengths (measuring relative to the dead bodies on the ground), this will prevent a lot of accidental losses while keeping the game hard.
I'd play this game for hours if it were slightly less random (in that sense) and if there were more levels. Terrific!
Jolly good fun, and a nice mental workout.
Favorite game so far! Binary trees rejoice!
Great graphics, wonderful car controls. This needs to be on my phone! BUT, lay off on the F-bombs, eh? Why narrow who can enjoy your game?