Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → PhindieGames
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | S.H.I.P.S. | jam | 1128 | 3.27 | 3.27 | 3.87 | 3.48 |
The Pongs are adorable and the game is easy to understand and play. I like that it has a very configurable difficulty. I would change the "nudger" to something that is not rotation symmetric, because while the offset is enough to see which direction it is facing it would be easier to see with a different shape (e.g. reduce the base of the triangle).
Very cool! Didn't expect this. One thing that had me puzzled at first though is that the stairwell window does not change (I think? I didn't notice it). At first I was going up/down checking mostly through that window. I did check twice through the place where you do see progress, but was unfortunate to do so when I had actually not moved (moved up as much as down). This threw me off and had me stuck in the stairwell for a while (walking backwards to see if that helps etc.). I liked the ending.
I really like the art style and the random "collectables". It's kind of a puzzle game, but it really solves itself. I'm not sure if that was what you were going for, but I enjoyed it. A moment to relax :)
I like it! Unfortunately even with reading your explanation of how to use the green controls, I could not figure them out :(
Love it. It feels like a complete game too! One thing that I think would have been neat, is to allow you to actually "fire" the particles and see them travel their trajectory.
I like the idea, but for me it was a bit hard. Initially I thought I had to dodge the 'coins' because I just saw them as obstacles. The hit registration can be a bit better, sometimes I slid through an obstacle and other times I got hit even though I (feel like?) jumped on time.
Liked how the theme was integrated! But it would be more fun if there were more location based rooms (like the shop). I also felt that while the rooms were different, they did not feel meaningfully different to play. Similarly the slimes and skeletons did not feel like different enemies as I had to use the same strategy to kill them. Finally, it seemed that enemy spawns were on timers since they would suddenly pop up out of nowhere (I played the HTML version). Some kind of spawn beacon, or spawn animation, would help communicate what is going on in the game. At first I thought it had to do with line of sight or similar (or maybe it is line of sight? but then sometimes I would see through walls).
The game seemed to be a little unresponsive at times. Another issue had was that when I was holding a stick, the only recipes I saw for a pickaxe required gold? I saw a gold rock nearby, but that didn't work (recipe also said nugget). I also dug up a treasure chest, but that was not enough either? So it would be nice to have a little bit of guidance perhaps. Or I am just not the brightest bulb in the box :) I am still really impressed you managed to make this in the span of the jam.
Great game! For me it was a bit hard to read the incoming keys as they had different speeds and there was no logical mapping from circle to key. I think it would have been better if you had the place to hit the keys on the left instead, when the visual order of the rings matches the keys? I had issues hitting the "double notes" on the medium difficulty song, often one of the three would not register.
@recher Pressing Z twice accomplishes a 'level reset'.
I really like the idea! It would be more interesting if there was some variations in the puzzles across the same level. As is, I am just focused on one "room" of the level and everything else is then solved automatically anyway.
Adorable game! Controls and physics were a bit wonky. I could "swim" up the invisible wall to get a great view of the scene! I was also captured by an invisible rod more than once after being launched into the air. duck_fly.png
I enjoyed the game, different puzzles. There is a bit of a problem in establishing that not everything is what it seems though. At this point I am (like the first poster) stuck at level 17. I jumped the pit. I tried to jump past the robot. I shot the robot while in mid-air (which stopped my forward momentum so I fell into the pit anyway). I tried to walk through a wall. I tried to just wait.
I don't know if I should try to find another entrance from level 16, try to land before the robot and shoot him (maybe mid-air), or jump past the robot. The latter two seem impossible, and the first seems unlikely given the rest of the game. This makes it a bit hard to reason what the possibility space for the puzzle is, which makes me want to give up.
Edit: I managed to get past level 17 (before watching the solution). I don't think the puzzle is well designed, given there is a pretty big penalty (10 seconds?) for failing even if you know which portals to take. I just got reset to level 1 not too long after, after another somewhat uninformed decision (maybe there's a pattern here that I am too tired to spot). (edit2: after watching the playthrough, this was the very last choice to make)
It's a nice game, takes a bit to figure out how it works, but all in all not too hard to complete in just a few loops. The biggest problem for me was the food, at some point I was going around with a pizza in my inventory but nearly starving. I had no idea how to use it! I still don't know if it is auto-use when starved, or if me hitting a pipe with a wrench was what triggered the eating (or something else). But I am glad my astronaut decided the eat the pizza in the end :)
It showed that you focused on just a few puzzles! It felt like a very complete demo :) I think this is the game I've enjoyed the most so far this jam! I had never completed a puzzle similar to this before (Antichamber is still uninstalled in my library) so it was enjoyable. At the same time it did not overstay its welcome.
I had to play with keyboard, but it was really enjoyable! Unfortunately I did not get past the "third" section where you had to alternate Green, Yellow, Green, Yellow into a Green "launcher". More than once it felt like I was being pulled to the wrong magnets (e.g. I'm on the last yellow, switch to green, and somehow end up being pulled/slung towards the green closest to the floor). It might just have been a fast chain reaction swinging me down there, but it was so fast I couldn't tell.
Great idea, and I think the loop mechanic is well executed. However my robot did not seem to interact with the map? It would float through the electrical cabinets and it could drive off the map. But then sometimes it would bump into one of the belts/tables? This made it very hard to play the game for me :(
Great first game! Nothing wrong with some programmer art :) Overall I found the movement a bit clunky, so even when I wanted to go horizontally where there was a floor, I would just jump up and just the backfire from throwing wrenches to propel me forward. That said, just flying around by throwing wrenches was funny (even if it is hard to control). The game is a bit unforgiving, and just walking can easily get you killed from an off-screen turret. In combination with the fact that you have to explore the space ship to figure out where the switches even are makes for some frustration at times.
I loved the quirky characters (main and zombie), animations and sound. Great job for a first game jam! Some feedback: - bullets are always given right before a zombie, so there is not really a point to saving bullets - you can't save more than one bullet at a time (?), I was saving up some bullets and then found out I could shoot only one!
Is there an end to this game? I tried a couple of different things (e.g. shooting the tower, shooting the angry guy to the left of the path by the darker grass level, killing all the zombies), but... I was stuck in a loop!
Solid game. Liked that I could wrap around the screen even though it was a side scroller - something I did not even try until I was forced to!
A great game! I dove right in without explanation, because I was curious how much the UI would help me out. I managed to understand the game just fine in under a minute. At the same time, the puzzles were still (increasingly) challenging! While the intro dialogue was funny, it was a bit long (given the focus of the game). Perhaps you could have spread the dialogue out a bit across puzzles.
Thanks for the feedback! I agree, most of the problems listed are even on my list :( it's mostly due to a lack of time (and experience) that I couldn't finish it.
I am confused about the button layout not matching. I used the new Unity Input System, which defines the gamepad keys as north/east/south/west, so I figured that would have worked for all controllers.
@duke Someone else had also reported their controller not working. I'm sorry to hear you also ran into some issues. I am not exactly sure why this would happen, I used the new Unity Input System in hopes it would work for all controller setups. This is my first jam - are bug fixes allowed after the deadline? I might still not be able to fix it though :( I don't have DS4 controller myself to reproduce the issue.
@ashashza Thanks! I definitely noticed this myself too, but found myself out of time. If there were a few more hours, I would have tackled that issue :)