The Way Home by kei 2014-12-10T20:00:00
The controls are kind of sloppy making the game a bit frustrating. As mentioned before not really original.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → orion_black
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | Hyper Harvest | compo | 12 | 4.22 | 4.23 | 3.63 | 3.19 | 3.88 | 3.33 | ||||
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | Secret Admirers of the Forest | jam | 598 | 3.19 | 3.20 | 3.06 | 3.44 | 3.13 | 2.94 | 32 | |||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Raining Stars | jam | 466 | 3.37 | 3.06 | 2.67 | 3.78 | 3.72 | 3.53 | 35 | |||
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Bombercat | compo | 877 | 2.50 | 2.67 | 3.18 | 3.47 | 2.67 | 2.60 | 32 | |||
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | Underwater Fortress | jam | 679 | 3.00 | 3.11 | 3.30 | 3.46 | 2.38 | 2.65 | 48 |
The controls are kind of sloppy making the game a bit frustrating. As mentioned before not really original.
Really good design, the different elements definitely give rise to interesting interactions. I was expecting a devilishly crafted last level but it was good none the less. Definitely build upon it.
Weird in a good way, reminded me of Mr. Mosquito. The camera is kind of off but would love to try it in an oculus.
I like the general feel of the game, a bit on the floaty side, but still pretty responsive. I think the melee weapon should be power up in some way, aside from finishing up crowds after shooting it's kind of useless. Basically if you miss the penalization is too high. Just by running away and shooting at groups of enemies I got to wave 3 on my second try, I think, for an action game like this, having interesting risk-reward propositions results in a more engaging experience.
@Dream Of Sleeping Well, It's pretty much a consensus that the first wave is not easy, plus the game barely explains anything. So let me do it:
-Farms and mines will produces 1 resource every 5 second. -Workers(the little white thingies) will produce 1 resource every 4 seconds depending on which terrain they are occupying.
-Guns need to be operated by soldiers(the green ones) the more soldiers they have the fastest their fire rate.
-Soldiers can work multiple terrains at a time. Say one of them is half over a mine and half over a gun. As a result that soldier will be giving you 1 resource every 4 seconds plus the gun will be firing.
PS: I'm adding this to the description.
As someone who enjoys strategy/management/... games I can see how this could be evolved into a really interested game/toy. Good job.
It seems not many people around here are fond of execution heavy kind of games. I liked it, the only issue is that you can get screwed by the random placement of the 'objectives'.
Random speculation, but I have the feeling it would easier to pick up for a lot of people if you were to use 1324 or even QWER instead of WASD.
Interesting concept. It would be nice to see a more fleshed out version with less lineal levels.
The Binding of ASCII perhaps, I don't know why people keep bringing it up. Plenty of games with similar (even better I should say)combat mechanics and plenty of games with procedurally generated levels. Anyways, good job
I found the metaphor to be on the heavy handed side of things, but that's usually how this kind of games go.
I agree snowmen are op and auto-fire should be a thing.
Brix will be shat hehe, literally. Cool little game.
So this is basically Rainbow Road 2.0 on a piano. Cool.
Smart take on the theme, I liked it. A bit too backtracking-ish but good none the less.
The game would benefit from having less but more "intelligent" enemies. As the game works right now you can simply camp it out by the treasure without having any troubles at all(which is boring). That results in anything else happening in the rest of the level(enemies and platforms moving around) being irrelevant.
Being unable to move and shoot at a different directions is definitely an issue. The game could have been enhanced by adding some dodging mechanic or some progression via upgrades.
Congrats on finishing your first entry.
It works for the kind of game it's trying to be. Controls felt kind of clunky, but I get the impression it was intended that way. More visual feedback would certainly improve the feel of the game.
At first customers where kind of pissy but once I got the hang of it everything was ok, perhaps too ok. This could be expanded in a lot of interesting ways, super pissy customers perhaps ;). I really liked the music selection.
It made me remember a while back when I used to live by the beach and people would dress like it was snowing for christmas related stuff. Just to go back to "normal" clothing as soon as the holiday ended. Which in a way made sense because the weather was really warm to begin with. Kind of a weird behavior.
On a more game design related note. The game could certainly benefit from a more varied arrange of enemy behaviors and/or player attacks. It would also be good for the hitbox to be smaller than the character(as in most shooters), that way you don't get hit by bullets that literally disappear in the air.
No sure if a feature, but if you wait at the starting point for the guards? and just move on Y, they kind of crash into each other and lag for like 15 seconds. So waiting it out at the beginning it's kind of a dominant strategy. Also, a dash of sorts would add a lot to the game.
40 seconds BD
I think the game would benefit a lot from hitboxes(both yours and from the bees) being smaller, even if more bees where needed to balance it out.
As a technical demo of someone learning to code games it's alright. As a game on the other hand, there's barely any game at all, way too simplistic.
The game could certainly use a more carefully crafted level. There is only one route to reach many points, that's problematic because most of the "action" happens in one area of the level, making the rest kind of a "waste of screen". Another issue is that enemies tend to get closer and closer(a byproduct of the freezing mechanic), so later on when reaching the golden piece on the top you have to wait a lot.
As many people has mentioned the controls are really cumbersome. I find the scoring to be kind of off, in general I would say scoring is about giving/receiving feedback. If I play bad I would expect a bad score, if I play good I would expect a good score, but that doesn't happen in your game. Let's say we are playing a match and it's really, really grueling, in that scenario I would expect to get a so-so(or even a good) score. But given how scoring works it's not unlikely that we both could end with a zero. I can see the logic behind subtracting points for killing your people, but it's problematic. A better solution would be to have some kind of chaining(first enemy killed you get 1x, second 2x, third 3x, you get the idea) that gets interrupted when you kill on yours. Definitely not a perfect solution, but it would reflect more accurately how the match went.
I noticed when enemies collide with each other they can die, die and kill it's opponent or simply kill it's opponent. I couldn't really tell how that works. Is it their HP? Are there heavies, mediums and lights? Is it some rock-paper-scissors kind of thing? I think having a visual tell about said interaction would add a bit of depth to the process of choosing which enemy to kill next, making the game more interesting.
nice hehe XD
Jezz0r: upsss I really was half slept when I wrote that :P. Thanks for the heads up.
Don't worry, as mentioned, it's more on the easy side of things and, more importantly, could be turned into an interesting game.
A way to turn the camera around would be appreciated(specially with the two monsters thing) and also to skip heroes' actions.
Tiles and background hue changing was a nice touch.
Congrats on finishing your first entry.
It'd be interesting if you had to manage different stats(aside from hunger and health) and the humans put a bit more resistance.
The ending was expected(given the theme), but still kind of works. Aside from difficulty(level design), I would suggest to try to sync animation and movement speed it almost seems like the character is surfing through.
A bit too random for my taste, but nevertheless an interesting idea.
As many have said, an interesting idea. Also, naming it bomba atómica made me suspicious XD.
Aside from animations taking a lot of time monsters only having one attack(and one special) turns the combat into a rather tedious affaire. I mean for the most part you are clicking on your chosen target(a kind of a trivial decision most of the time) just waiting for you special that in many cases result in simply attacking the same target or other no-brainer decision.
It took me some time to get used to the controls, but once I did I really enjoyed your game.
Did you used some mathematical property of hexes to design your levels or just kind of threw them out and checked if they where solvable. I'm asking because I did this thing where I would look for a side and encircle as much as possible(maybe branching in once or twice), then either repeat or work it from the inside to the outside and finally fill whatever remained(here's an example http://imgur.com/0rFyrzH). At the same time there were other levels that I simply couldn't crack that way and took me more tinkering.
I'm not sure if there's an underlaying principle, it's a good heuristic or it was just coincidence(plus some perception bias from my part hehe).
At any rate, a remake sounds like a good idea.
Osmos? agar.io? I guess you guys never heard of Shark! Shark! :)
Your intro was kind of funny.
Easy mode didn't worked(I got it from itchio), had to play in hard, which indeed it was :). I agree that there should be some kind of visual telegraphing so that it becomes clearer at what frames movement happens in relation to the grid. At the same time, not knowing certainly adds an enjoyable element of tension, particularly when you are about to finish a level.
While the puzzle aspect is mostly a means to better fleshing out the action side of things(the best part imo). You probably want to add more options so that they aren't readily apparent.
Your music is superb, the increase in bpms works wonders.
@Foxtacy: Depending on what make you disliked about haxeflixel it probably hasn't gotten better. AFAIK the structure of the api hasn't changed a lot(also, I'm not sure since when we are talking about XD), but I'm aware they've changed a lot of the underlying(openFL/lime) stuff. This http://www.fortressofdoors.com/openfl-for-home-game-consoles/ talks briefly about the current(kinda, it's like 6 months old) state of things.
Also, you should try codelite, a light and quite functional IDE.
The main issue, I would say, is that the best parts of Risk of Rain come from the staggering amount of systems/subsystems working and clashing with each other. A design philosophy nearly antithetical with Ludum Dare.
Good results for just 72 hours, but as a game, even more so if compared to Risk of Rain*, is quite lacking. Thumbs up, keep at it.
*The comparison is meant in regards of capturing the good parts(not a proper one), a complicated task to achieve in just 72hrs.
I ran into a bug where units would walk out of screen and back(to the input) but never get to their destination(output). As some mentioned visual feedback into what's going on in some structures would be quite beneficial. Likewise knowing prior hand inputs/outputs of structures.
I think structures supplying only one output and distribution lines using one tile creates an interesting logistical dilemma, maybe that's a possibility space to explore.
I quite enjoy strategy/resource management/... games, if you keep working on it give me a shout to see how it turns out
As many have said your overall presentation is amazing and quite impressive for a jam. On the other hand, the puzzles themselves were mostly trivial, a direct result of this being a well-known puzzle. Having said that, I'm sure plenty of people would enjoy relaxing with a mobile version of this.
I can totally see how simply "fixing" the controls by allowing to move in whichever direction you want would break the game. At the same time, I also found the controls cumbersome and, at some points, got the feel that I was waiting instead of actively solving the puzzle(which wasn't the case).
If you were to build upon this I would suggest to allow four-way movement but having it "cost" turns instead(and showing it explicitly). So that for example moving up, when looking up costs you one turn, two when looking left, three when looking down and so on...
At first dragging blocks around was kind of a turn off. I was like: Is this going to be another one of those? but then I realized you can use them as a shield. If you were to take that idea and give more versatility to that mechanic I think something quite interesting could come out of this.
BTW, you can potentially get trapped on the bombs room. If you drop the gray box while attacking the red enemy you can't get it back. It isn't that much of an issue but in bigger/more convoluted levels it certainly would be.
Good sprite work and music selection.
Bombs appearing out of nowhere is a major annoyance. It mostly works like a slot machine.
Interesting take on the theme it reminded me of snaking in Mario Kart. I think the game would greatly improved(have a more fluid feel) from either having a more open, less angled level design or "rounding" collisions with corners.
Given that I self immolated a couple times when miss shooting laser emitters I would say breaks and a shoot button could considerably improve your game. Even without, I really enjoyed the level of movement expressiveness packed in just two buttons.
First of all your models and animations are really good. Now, considering you were going for mood I think you should pay more attention to movement. For instance Teddy's animation gives a sense of difficultness of movement that clashes with the sensation of how Teddy actually moves and also the corresponding physical input. Maybe this sounds too nitpicky but imo that kind of little details is precisely what really makes or breaks this kind of game.
I'm not sure how you actually manage the logic of your movement but by moving the mouse left and right(fast-ish) I was able to climb to the highest point on the map and walk out of the level. I reckon this "technique" could also be use to escape that dreaded crater.
The background/splashing effect was quite nice.
As many have mentioned a more fleshed out combat system would have a great impact. I get the impression you weren't going for a extensive-moveset-combo-oriented-combat kind of thing. Still, you could make it so that each subsequent attack takes a bit more time to execute/land and maybe increases your attack travel distance by a very little bit. That mixed with the knockback enemies get(and maybe some hitstun) would create this situation were you have to attack more carefully. Just some ideas from the top of my head.
The mix between controls and audiovisual feedback have a really good feel.
Game design wise I think the elemental advantage is too strong and devolves into the player on the losing end turtling. BTW, you can infinite jump while under the air platform making the turtling even easier.
Anyways, for a jam game this is remarkable.
At first I was like cool an old-fashioned game of sweet baby making, but poor attention to birth control quickly got me. So I decided to take a more traditional approach and only birth in a need-to basis. Some how that really works.
I haven't been able to grasp the rules for werewolf generation, or is that just random, but by keeping population super restricted, and only killing werewolves when strictly needed I was able to keep going for more than 200 moons and felt I could keep going on forever. I believe there might be an infinite somewhere in the interplay of the rules, but then again I haven't quite grasped them.
All aside, I think there's something really cool in your ruleset that if polished could result in a brilliant game(either a 1p puzzle or a pvp kind of thing). Anyways, good work.
I like the idea of scorting the baby. I found the kitten controls quite cumbersome, resulting in me spending most of my mental energy battling them. Congrats on the soon to be born baby "C".
@El Cabaro Nice catch, I totally forgot to remove that function. It was precisely that what caused the invisible walls bug.
It was hard not to obliterate the AI, so that I could try all the modules XD. I would love to see a more elaborate version of this with modules that counter each other.
Nice visuals, the colors are pretty.
Contrary to what people have said I think the "balloon mode" is way stronger to the point you barely need to use the other form. If you stay on the top, aside from the diagonal enemy formation, you barely have to evade anything. I would suggest to design your (enemy/bullet) patterns defensively so that they don't generate persistent "safe spots" that can be exploited.
Nice entry. I would really love to see a more flesh out version with a couple more abilities/enemies/... and some really devious levels.
Graphics are lovely.
Remarkable presentation.
The movement speed, jump height and gravity gave me a rather sluggish sensation. The enemies and variations on the doctor are really mild making everything feel rather samey.
Nice sprite work and music. You made me wonder, is this azerty and dvorak friendly?
Nice take on the theme. I think this game could benefit greatly from the enemies having different moving patterns that way the usefulness of each ship characteristics could be accentuated.
Collisions are kinda wonky and the game controls are really floaty. Interesting take on the theme and good work on the graphics. There's one shout that keeps happening over and over, not sure what it was.
Just played this one. Loved it. Interesting puzzles and really clever use of comic panels.
One of those pico-8 games where the screen size limitation really hurts. Even then, the presentation is stellar. Game design wise, it has a ton of interesting ideas and the positionality aspect posits a good tactical puzzle. Would love to see further exploration to these ideas.
Really nice entry. Quite fun, although, when you get to the latter levels, it's a bit annoying falling prey to a fish you haven't met before.
@reiqy I'm also fond of arcadey/action puzzle games, so it was fun to take a stab at it. You can see my highscore in the screenshot above, I'll have to play a bit more, or I'll get dethroned soon. Glad you enjoyed it.
@johnnysix You can get up to 4 fruits "crushed" and you lose with the fifth, but that isn't exactly clear or explained anywhere, oops (sorry). I'll have to revisit how the game communicates that, but for now an external explanation will have to suffice. This was in part to alleviate bad seeding issues. I considered adding some sort of "rng weighting", but I'll need to get a better feel for the game to do it properly. Thanks for your feedback.
@vasco-freitas You can also move by leaving keys pressed(the glitching might have obscured it), but even then, the game is input-heavier than it seems. The only solution I can think of would be to implement mouse as an input method, it's probably worth trying later on. A QOL I'll add for sure post compo is looping movement. Sorry for the glitching, with so many browsers and configurations out there, those things happen. Oh, and there's controller support, but that can also be its own can of worms.
@caranha Strongly agree, with so much fruit crushing taking place, way more juice is in order.
@mastoast That's indeed unintended behavior, even if, in a way, it fits the theme :smile:. Thanks for the heads-up.
@zahkros I need to refine the curve, so it's good to hear some thoughts.
@meep Yes, I'm planning in doing some post-jam work. I have some ideas for combo mechanics I'd like to try out.
@loig It's random, although, presently, the biggest limitation to keep playing forever is speed. I haven't done the math, but once it hits a 1 pixel every 2 frames speed, you're pretty much done.
@roblaro 1353!! Nice. It's pretty much the same for me, once it gets to around level 16 (or is it 17?), if I don't have a good setup going on, it's pretty much game over.
@madbeagle Thanks. If you end up porting it, do let me know, I'd love to see it.
@m2tias To be fair, those numbers were for the compo version. I submitted a couple of changes post-rating that caused a bit of score inflation. For reference, my best went from 1323 to 2030(just now). Even then, 2014 is for sure quite high.
hyperharvest_1.png
@loig Thanks for the bug report. I might have found the condition responsible for that. Were you matching a fruit as it was at the very top, about to disappear/become waste? If so, hopefully it's patched now (not so easy to confirm, since it's pretty much a frame-perfect condition).
Short and sweet game, impeccably executed. Looks good, sounds good and plays good. I got 48 carrots.
What is a Frank? :wine_glass: A miserable little pile of body parts?!
PokéVeggies is an idea I can get behind. While it feels a bit undercooked, it's noteworthy the amount of game you managed to develop in just 48hrs (even more so that you did it in a retro console of your own). I notice the music kinda glitches when you change tabs (I assume it's a runtime issue more than a game specific thing).
I tried the Cake Grid Fix, but the collisions got a bit janky after I grouped most of the cake slices together to push them all at once. If there's a trick as to when or why the cat attacks(aside from being close to the edge) I couldn't tell.
Good job, this game has a ton of personality. The concept, graphics and sounds effects all add up to really peculiar whole.
It was a bit cryptic at first, but it's interesting once you understand what's going on. Having a time constraint feels a bit at odds with the calming feel of the graphics, music and farming theme, specially because it mostly puts pressure when you're figuring the game out. It could be expanded in a lot of cool ways.
Really interesting "Rock-Paper-Scissors" interplay. It feels like a good foundation for a more spatial oriented version of a card game. Would love to see a more fleshed out version of this.
Solid audio work. I agree with the comments above, a more 'thematic'/visual differentiation for the directions would do wonders for the game. Perhaps the watermelons could come "rolling" from the back or something like that. You have a couple of unused buttons, having a restart level would be a good thing to have.
I manage to surpass the surprise with a 1800ish score (if you close the tab it gets lost). A mini map would be of great help to avoid crashing into walls and getting overwhelmed by carrots. Excellent presentation, the enemies are all lovely.
After two runs (180ish), I'm not sure if the card distribution gets a bit icky later on, or I haven't figured out a higher order (ordering) strategy. Either way, a really compelling core mechanic.
Really good game feel and attention to detail (like the mega carrot pushing the bucket) that give it a lot of personality.
I only played a couple of nights (is there an ending or is it infinite? communicating that, either way, is good in terms of knowing if there's a goal or you're meant to self impose one). Initially I got a feeling of "venturing into the unknown" at night because I had planted my crop deep in, but then I just grew my crops closer. If you're planing in doing further work on this game, incentivizing that kind of riskier play (better crops? different crops? the deeper you go) could be a good idea.
Quite amusing and really well put together.
Interesting. It took me sometime to figure out how to pick/construct buildings, but it went smooth after that.
Really cute. Gliding has a really good feel to it, although, once you get the hang of it the levels feel quite static.
Pushing is a bit tricky, specially because of the flipping/teleportation bug, but also has a bit of a "physics engine" feel that is interesting. If you refine that interaction, it could be a good core mechanic to build on top.
Interesting ruleset and cool levels, although some take too long for their intended eureka moment (specially considering the game is on the calculationey side of things). In this regard, an undo button would be a godsend. Visual feedback as to when a button can be pressed (for instance, highlighting reset when you ran out of turns or the sickle only when there's stuff to reap...) would also help in figuring out the game. As I said, I found the concept/ruleset to be compelling.