Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → qapn
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Catcall Simulator 2015 | compo | 368 | 3.37 | 2.47 | 3.88 | 3.72 | 3.65 | 3.10 | 3.15 | 3.65 | 72 |
Making the enemies more interesting and varying some of the sound effects (they became grating after a while) would improve this game a lot!
Music was some of the best I've heard so far in games I've reviewed, congrats. :)
Option A! I played before reading the text below and my thought was "there's something interesting here that just needs more time".
As you say, with some additional mechanics, you could have a really solid platform for a puzzle game.
I absolutely loved this one! I had no one to play with while testing it but I can imagine with three other people it will be a blast. I've bookmarked it for later. Great stuff.
Loved this one. The graphical style was reminiscent of a more whimsical Pokemon or a NES era Kirby game. My only major criticism would be that the puzzles were too easy for all of world one and then ramped up a bit too rapidly when I got stuck on 2-6. But your core mechanic was excellent.
Great game!
Yeah sorry, the game is much harder than I anticipated. I dramatically changed the gameplay about 3h before submission and didn't have time to balance it particularly well.
The most advice I can offer is that you have to repeatedly tap the arrow keys quite rapidly, rather than holding them. Holding them does nothing.
I will probably provide a link to a post-compo version with annoyances like that fixed. Thanks for trying it out!
No unfortunately, there is an ending that does what you're trying to achieve, but you have to activate it another way. In hindsight I should have enabled that ending for your method too, but I barely got this finished in time, and sleep deprived me didn't think of that.
But I have put that on the list of post-compo changes. Let me know if you find the hidden ending! I recorded some crisp as hell sound effects for it in my housemate's car.
@RockhopperGames: Yeah, it was a constant battle between making the game stick closer to the unconventional weapon message, and making it an actual game. I experimented with a bunch of mechanics but settled on the OK, but very flawed steering one. For a while, I had a brake button instead, and your goal was to not let more than X women get offscreen with their health bars still not depleted. But that ended up trite as you needed a flood of women to spawn to make it challenging, and that just made it look ridiculous.
@Crowbeak: Agreed, the problem is the hidden ending works by clicking something else onscreen, so I didn't want horn to be space bar. The steering mechanic was a last minute addition, so the controls ended up quite convoluted. I will fix that in a post-compo version - offer W/D controls in addition to the arrow keys.
@Adreqi: Well, it's very unconventional in a game. That it's very conventional in real life is a sad thing, but my expectation is that if anyone who actually has done this themselves plays the game, they'd feel very uncomfortable about it because of the presentation here (while I think playing from the perspective of those being catcalled themselves wouldn't have been very powerful at all IMO).
I think the coolest thing you've got here is the easy modding/inserting of your own weapons! I haven't seen that in any other games so far.
Besides that I think it's let down by some weird control quirks - maybe my PC is messed up but I moved way too fast to feel accurate in navigating around the zombies or aiming at them with weapons. I also sometimes got stuck in the vending machine (which is how I eventually died).
But it kept me entertained for a bit!
HAHA this one is ABSOLUTELY outrageous. Actually got me to audibly cackle. Rough around the edges, but a good fun take on the theme. As a part time desk jockey trying to pay my way through college/uni, I certainly relate. Well done bruss.
Wow. The art was amazing. Relation to theme or not, the game evokes a whole lot of feelings for me. Yeah, it's unfinished, and it's really linear which is a shame (I was disappointed on repeated playthroughs that I ended up in the same place again and again). But of all the entries I've played so far (this is my first LD), this one I think will stick with me the most. I hope you keep working on it.
I didn't really get the premise. What is the unconventional special weapon? If it's Abe, I couldn't use him :( every time I play a round, I don't seem to have enough money to afford him, even after killing everyone/the enemy base.
I found the controls really frustrating. Unlike other top down RPG style controls, this one I felt you had to predict where you wanted to move in advance.
Nice atmosphere and some good sprites.
Haha this is outrageous. Well done. Good choice on the FOV as well. Pretty amazing to put something like this together for compo.
I thought the game was challenging but I was distracted by minor glitches and felt my deaths were as much to do with the controls/platforming feel than anything else.
yessssssss, I liked this one when you showed it on IRC, and I like how it has turned out
I found this one really difficult. There was also a lot to process/take in - lots of numbers on the HUD, and lots of things happening on screen that I was unsure about. That being said (and as is so often the case with LD games), the core jumping and licking mechanics were fun.
I enjoyed this one. Good work! As a core mechanic, this could be interesting if you extrapolated the concept with additional stuff (more weapons, more mechanics, more dynamic enemies, etc).
As others have said, it's very peaceful and the perfect sort of "game" for a rainy day (it's pissing down here in Sydney). Gameplay wise there's not much going on, and the controls feel cumbersome, but it's really good looking. Your choice of post-processing effects etc are on point.
A cautioned tale of the dangers of second hand smoke.
This was great. Hope you take the time post compo to polish it up, add a tutorial, menu etc. Great take on the theme, and surprisingly intense to play.
FYI Chrome had a mini-temper tantrum about your Windows zip, might be because of your file host.
It was confusing at first how to play, but once I got it, I can only say it's an awesome concept. I love the idea of the unregulated capitalist market as a weapon, this is something truly unique - I love seeing hot takes like this in LD entries, a really creative interpretation of the theme.
Sound effects were minimalist and appropriate. Graphics were great, but hit and miss - the stock cards and the fonts were very appropriate, as is the "stock board" sort of thing. But I didn't like the background spriting.
I kept getting slaughtered in the game which tells me I should stay out of stock trading.
Anyway this is probably the most I've written on a review so far but I just think this is a remarkable concept. You should seriously continue developing this and extrapolate the mechanics. I could see it as a full indie game in the vein of Uplink or something (a lot like Introversion's earlier work really).
A unique entry! The best I could do was around the middle of the pack, probably because I'm a poor strategist. Music was excellent.
Congrats on your first Ludum Dare entry! A lot like worms, but with school kids. I think you're let down by lots of bugs. It says you've fixed these issues but I still could buy indefinitely (into negative money).
The physics seemed a bit weird, it was hard to gain momentum at times.
But I think this is a remarkably ambitious first Ludum Dare compo game, I certainly wouldn't have attempted a game this complicated myself.
The double jumping was nice when it worked, but sometimes it bugged out and so I died a few times because of that.
The level design was a bit weird because I found it easier to just plough through the level without using my weapon and just avoid all the enemies - it's balanced a bit too generously with ample health.
Otherwise, slick platforming dude. Make some more levels, tweak the mechanics a bit, and put up a post jam version as well!
I didn't really get how this one related to the theme. It would have been nice to have some artwork for some of the story stages too.
Had some funny bits in your writing though.
I like the concept. But it was very glitchy, which undermined your game mechanic (which I thought was nice!)
Shiiiit, this is awesome. Just awesome. Great take on the theme. Visually fantastic - you picked a great minimalist art style and it works brilliantly for your style of game.
What lets you down I think is just a product of the rushed development - the controls feel floaty and difficult, and the difficulty scale is sort of all over the place. I had a lot of trouble lining up my drug bottles.
I hope you expand on this post-jam, you got something here!
The art and visual style is fantastic. Mood right off the charts. Hope you get more attention, your game deserves it.
The physics kept glitching out for me however, and then when I'd die, I was punished for it harshly. But hey, few of us have time to balance our games in such a short jam.
Legit I can't get over how good this game looks. At full res on my PC, it looks like a pretty polished full game to me. Great stuff.