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Pabo

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrCo
201429Beneath the SurfaceTitle Unknown
201326MinimalismPlanetscompo13012.172.111.693.351.8130

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Comments by Pabo

LD26 — Minimalism

DropPix by AtkinsSJ 2013-05-02T15:57:00

A solid entry. One simple game mechanic, as the "Minimalism" theme suggests, dictates the whole game. I like puzzle games for exactly that reason, and actually believe that it's more difficult to come up with a solid puzzle game than with some already established video game genre.
The game plays well, it's all wonderfully clear. No spectacular graphics or sound, but this isn't needed anyway. Except from one minor glitch (I sometimes had to move the frame a little to make a button clickable again), the game ran very good and responsive.
What I believe your game lacks are puzzles - the supplied puzzles aren't as challenging as your gameplay idea could allow for. Should you wish to continue developing it, you'll have plenty of time to come up with great puzzles (I guess LD really is too short for these things).
Or maybe you could add a puzzle generator. I don't know how easy it is, but it might work with the following two rules:
1: Shoot tile adjacent to another tile.
2: Prefer a "shooter" that places the tile so that it creates empty space between itself and another tile.
It's the empty space between tiles that makes the game difficult, as it restricts plain stacking. This was evident in your last stages, with especially the last one being rather entertaining to solve.
All in all, a solid, focused and quite polished entry, that already offers everything it needs to improve itself with a few more maps.

Fade by SimonRhys 2013-05-02T16:40:00

Seems like an interesting concept. Too bad I couldn't get far enough to see the transition. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the controls are a bit too "floaty". But apart from the controls everything is just fine, smooth rendering/scrolling, the graphics give the game a dark mood, and the premise of slowly changing into another style sounds very interesting.

Bliss Wings by john_conder9 2013-05-02T16:15:00

I can't run it on Windows 7 32-bit, maybe it's because I don't have XNA installed. It looks like fun in the video, though.

Invasion by KR-Eddie 2013-05-03T22:57:00

A polished entry. The animation is very smooth, and the game runs flawlessly, without any hiccups or noticeable bugs. I seems like you had a good time management during the two days.

If I were to suggest something, it'd probably be the controls, as most people are used to keeping WASD relative to the screen, and not to the body orientation. It's probably just a matter of time before getting used to it, and I now know how easy it is for a developer to get used to his own controls after a little bit ;). Oh, and the window was too high for my resolution to fit it in, but it didn't affect my gameplay (I just could't move/min/maximize the window).

Apart from that, a solid entry, one that is actually very pleasant to play and looks more polished than the average game jam game.

M-G by dotteri_thecatwolf 2013-05-02T13:53:00

I was lost at first, but it didn't take long to find out about the controls and the goal. You know you have a good minimal game if you can pick it up and play without any instructions, and you nailed that one. The gameplay is relatively well balanced, although with a steep curve - I couldn't get past Score 50. I don't know if the difficulty was on purpose or not. It was a tiny bit frustrating (mostly when losing from collision with the border), but not as much as to top me from playing. I like how a single mechanic can result in so many playstyles, and it looks like the game rewards elegant gameplay rather than a clickfest. Graphics and audio were just enough to make the game playable, but given the theme this was quite appropriate. All in all, a wonderful entry for this theme, with minimality in controls, information, and game mechanics.

Dream Min by Argembarger 2013-05-02T15:16:00

Now this is a unique entry. I didn't really understand what was going on, everything was so random - but to a point where this becomes a plus. The gameplay itself was all right, with some collision issues, and quite hard when I didn't walk along the borders (which became the only winning strategy for me). But what stuck with me was the randomness. The various objects were strange enough (potato bonus FTW), but what I loved were the sound effects, and also the intro screen. That way, I was already expecting something wacky, and the game didn't disappoint me.
All in all, an unexpected entry with some issues, but what shines through in the end is the fun you obviously had while making it. Also, kudos for trying to make a game with a new technology, I'd have had to study for weeks before coming up with something like that.

One Crate Sokoban In The Dark by stqn 2013-04-30T01:40:00

A very minimal entry indeed. I like the exploration aspect the short line of sight imposes in the player. The levels generated were mostly okay, even though some couldn't be completed. The "minimality" seems to be reflected even more in the gameplay than in the graphics - good idea.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T13:18:00

@stqn Yes, I'm not really satisfied with it, and you're totally right in saying it is too static. The player=smallest body issue is something I noticed but forgot to fix later on, thank you for mentioning it.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T13:20:00

@dotteri Thank you, I had a good time indeed. I'm planning to bring it to a more complete stage in my free time, in the coming weeks.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T15:22:00

@Argembarger Thank you, glad you liked it. I should totally have added some "sluurp" mouthFX, now that you mentioned it.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T15:29:00

@john_conder9 I also hope to continue working on it, I had a good idea or two, but like you mentioned, it's in the nature of LD to cut back on features. Glad you found the prototype interesting, though.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T16:04:00

@AtkinsSJ Thank you! I'm also happy that I got to finish the game, even if it's far from its original conception.
The graphical glitches are very likely, especially in the beginning the game runs at about 15-20 fps on my laptop, causing the player's planet to "wobble". It's weird that this simple task takes up so much processing power, but at least the end game runs smoother.

Planets by Pabo 2013-05-02T17:09:00

@dotteri Even better! :)

Prisma by sophron 2013-05-02T14:33:00

A very interesting game mechanic - probably the most innovative from the games I've already played. I love the simple idea of combining an endless runner, so to speak, with a color matcher. You have one simple idea that is easy to pick up and generates the whole gameplay - a perfectly minimal game mechanic, in other words. Once I got the hang of it - which didn't take long - it was a thoroughly enjoyable game. I found myself trying to stay ahead, to have time to correct my course whenever a change of route appeared.
One minor complaint about the gameplay is that it's not clear when to switch the prism's front color on time, when changing tile colors - but luckily, there're enough green tiles to do that.
The game runs very smoothly, and the many colours are surprisingly not straining the eye. The music used also fits the game well. The controls are responsive and the level is generated with enough diversity to keep things interesting.
All in all, a good game fitting the "Minimalism" theme, with a very innovative gameplay mechanic. We all need fresh ideas, and this is a well implemented one.

@Frosnite: You must first extract the zip files - it worked for me after that.

min-max by tgwozdz 2013-05-03T01:00:00

A novel idea, that fits the theme. Maybe basing the gameplay less on luck (randomization of bars) would benefit the game even more, I'm not sure though. Good minimalistic concept and well executed.

LD29 — Beneath the Surface

SOS by alexio 2014-04-29T13:39:00

I managed to get to a score of 61 before the last hope of humanity crashed into its own torpedo. Argh!
Nice game. Unfortunately I couldn't hear the music (that may be my browser's fault though), but thanks to the music-based level generation I was able to "sense" it in an optical way. This is a really interesting approach to level generation, which I don't recall having seen anywhere else.
The overall gameplay is very easy to pick up, yet the game remains a challenge thanks to its floaty physics.
It's possible to "dive away" from the HUD, and on one occasion I got stuck at the bottom of the level, but other than that the game is bug- and glitch-free.

Congratulations to our fellow Bl@ckDuck team on their submission!