Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → PjchardtTheSecond
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | KOCMOHaBT Spaceman | compo | 237 | 3.46 | 3.07 | 3.50 | 3.50 | 4.00 | 3.46 | 2.17 | 3.59 |
Nice to see a sim city/resource management style game! Balancing energy was interesting, but it all seemed a bit flat, as if there was an invisible clock ticking down to my failure regardless of the choices I made. I wonder if more ability to balance population and energy could help? That said, the game has a nice feeling of completeness to it, which is hard under such short time restraints.
Nice complete idea. As others mentioned, I think the jump height should be variable, and there were some weird collision glitches at corners. Additionally the levels could use some more variety. Storytelling in game and mood were well executed.
Mechanic grew on me over time. I found the game frustratingly difficult, although I admit I was playing on a touchpad which may have put me at a disadvantage. Interestingly, I kept playing. Seems like the mechanic is fun enough to try one more time, even with the frustrating deaths. That in itself is a solid achievement for a jam game :) The issue with clicking outside the window was very frustrating. Not sure how to fix this other than adding a padding around the game area of empty screen to click on. Additionally, the first level is a bit too hard, even more so than the second level. All in all, nice game!
Visual style is great. Missing a few pieces of polish to really tie it together, such as different visual cues for the various materials on collision. Sounds were nice but played very quiet on my machine? Additionally, I felt like the minimalism worked in most places, but not in the lack of feedback for when I was aiming. Not seeing some indicator of my aim direction and/or trajectory felt off. Overall, nice and well executed game,
I had a strange issue with the controls no one else commented on so I wonder if it was my machine. Anyway, sometimes I cannot look with the mouse (using a touchpad) while moving with the keys. Doesn't happen every time, and couldn't isolate it. Sorry I cannot be of more help, but I wanted to mention it as it made the platforming very difficult. Otherwise, the mechanic was pretty solid, although I would have like to see more puzzles stray from the timed platform theme.
Controls are pretty smooth, but a bit slippery as others have mentioned. Attack timing, animation, sound --all feel really nice. Feels like a pretty nice start to a platformer. Would have liked to see more design features to flesh out the play loop though. For example, an ever expanding level to increase difficulty, or increasing monster difficulty if they are not destroyed quickly enough. Something to increase tension over time and vary play enough to create tension and a "story" out of each playthrough. All in all, nice work :)
Balancing resources in a fast action game is a nice twist. I did find many times speeding through was a better strategy than balancing my resources. Would be interesting to see more variation in the level to force player to seriously consider resources.
As others have said, the animations and graphics are pretty good. Although they all seem at different stages of development, leading to an inconsistent visual style.
Overall, the game seems like a nice first step. The weakest link right now is gameplay. The gameplay is confusing and nothing feels like it has weight. Far fewer enemies, more oomph to my attacks, and some clear indicators of success/failure would help quite a bit I believe.
Thanks.
For a jam this game has a great amount of depth! Probably my favorite entry I have played so far, this is the first game I played that feels complete in what it is. Very nice work. Some criticism: Tutorial was confusing. I tried to drag tiles from my side unto my robot silhouette. Perhaps the wording "drag on your robot body" is confusing. Additionally, battles seem more random than skill based. In fact, as I write this, I am wondering if the whole battle is deterministic in the sense that no optimal strategies can beat certain configurations. Is this correct? If so, then some logic on how to structure enemies placement to allow victory would help the feeling of random defeat. Thanks!
Music was great, controls felt nice, overall highly polished! As others said, I struggled to understand where my hitbox was, which resulted in a number of what I felt were cheap deaths. The absorption mechanic was a nice addition, although it felt a bit finicky about when it would pull in an enemy. Sometimes I felt confident the enemy was within the sphere but nothing happened when I pressed the absorb key?!? All in all, enjoyed it. Thanks!
The main mechanic is pretty solid: works, controls well, nice audio feedback, and nice second layer of depositing batteries in the machine. I also enjoyed the raising/lowering of the neck. In terms of criticism, I think the overall play experience is missing a few key elements. The timer seems too generous, so I never experienced any tension. Without music and audio cues that the console is running out of power, there did not seem to be much motivation outside of basic game loop of shoot/collect/deposit. Additionally, a start and and end sequence would bookend the game play and be a nice way to give the player a frame of reference. Hope my feedback helps Thanks for sharing!
Simple but effective. Took me a couple of times to understand how the recharge worked (thought I had to hold it down), but otherwise everything was pretty solid. Really enjoyed the art and mood. My one major criticism is that once you understand how to play and go a couple of rounds, there isn't anything else to keep you playing. Of course, that is true of most games made in 48 or 72 hours :) Nice work!
Heya! I think your premise is interesting, kind of a puzzle game masquerading as a game about manning a factory and learning controls. I did have trouble trying to understand how buttons affected the screens, since I generally could not see all the screens when clicking on a button. I wonder if it would be better to have the mouse movement and head look independent of one another. That way, a player can keep the terminals in the center of the view while still pressing buttons in the periphery. Additionally,the number of variables is a bit overwhelming, perhaps spacing out the game into a few levels of increasing complexity may help teach the player how the game works! Hopefully my feedback helps. Thanks for sharing!
I agree with Chadivision that you have established a great mood. I really struggled with the camera though. The set views were nice, reminded me of old PS1 game, but there were time I could not see much in the direction I was travelling, which compounded with a need for speed since my power was decreasing led to frustrating deaths. I think the frustration could be minimized with checkpoints. Hurts a lot more when I have to start completely over after accidentally falling in a pit :) The light mechanic does seem pretty cool though. Maybe just give the player a bit more to work with: i.e. slower power gauge, a more generous camera angle/zoom, etc. Thanks!
Very polished presentation. Nice graphics, audio and move set. Tried to play online but no one showed up :( Will try to play the game later with some friends to experience the gameplay.
Agree with others that the art is nice, but isn't very cohesive. I am a fan of hand drawn art, but I feel the planet hit on the style while everything else did not match up. In terms of game play, I think everything could use some more development. The gravity/thrust mechanic is there, but it would be nice to see it a bit less "floaty" and some more obstacles to dodge, from above as well as below. The landing pad gives a goal for the player, but--just to brainstorm--perhaps landing pads give more fuel to keep going, so it is more of an infinite runner. As it stands now the game can be grokked fairly quickly. Thank you!
Impressive amount of content and mechanics for a compo. The game loop working through different mechanics kept me from getting bored. which is an achievement in and of itself for a compo game! Main criticisms have to do with repetitive qualities of the experience. Most notably was the music, some variation would have probably lessened the feeling of repetition even if mechanics repeated. Other than music, as much as I enjoyment the shifting mechanics they all did feel a bit flat. I think that is always a struggle in development, it is hard to explore a mechanic far enough to get depth out of it. Multiple mechanics leads to interesting new game play scenarios as well as narrative methods, but it seems to lead to flatter mechanics. Oh well, rambling a bit. Nice work!
Art style was great, gave the game some character. Voice commands worked very well. Overall, I think the game is well polished for a jam game and I am excited to see you all experimenting with voice commands! My main criticism is that while the keywords are entertaining and add more character, I spent too much time just going back to the help sequence to remember a few words. I think there is some interesting ground to explore with the idea of discovery and association between words and actions. As the game stands now, there is too little word discovery/association and too much memory/recall. I personally would prefer more complicated word combinations, but once found they stay on screen as a reference. Thanks!
I also had trouble at 5E6C7928ECHO99. Pretty sure I was inputting the correct numbers. Eventually I made it past, but in the middle of inputting the sequence. I am not sure if I misunderstood the sequence or there is a bug in how it checks. Otherwise, nice solid game in 48 hours! Tuning, radio chatter, managing clues all felt good. Audio was great. A bit frustrating trying to hit keys using a trackpad. Would have preferred being able to use number keys, although that would change the power requirements as light would no longer be necessary. Graphics were nice, although pretty demanding, could not use by integrated graphics card on my laptop. All in all, nice work!
Just a heads up, compo games should include source code :)
Visuals are fantastic. Resource management starts out fun, and can get frantic. After my first couple of upgrades though, there wasn't much threat anymore, it just became a game of patience. I know in some games such as tower defense, where there is resource management, the intensity and frequency of obstacles increases, ramping up difficulty on a curve the player has to match with skill and upgrades. Perhaps that could help extend the tension as players upgrade and become more efficient. Criticisms and suggestions aside, I really enjoyed your game.
Music was great. Mood, humor, writing were all fun. That said, seems like whatever the player does lowers some power meter. This is an effective way to communicate an idea or feeling, but it does remove some sense of agancy/play/game to the experience. All depends on what your goal is of course. Thanks!
Visuals are great, music is great, and everything works really well stylistically. My biggest gripe is with the physics. More realistic car physics are fun in sandbox games, but in a racing game I want control and speed. Feeling somewhat out of control because of how physics is going to resolve a bump or collision takes away the enjoyment for me of a solid racing experience. I would also like to see a course with more variety. More vertical change would be a nice bonus, and some varying scenery (would love to know what a beach and bay looks like in that style). All in all stylistically great, but physics and course design can use some work. Thanks!