Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → pparadigm
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Ms Grunhilde's Sandwiches | jam | 686 | 3.36 | 3.00 | 3.04 | 2.64 | 3.58 | 3.50 | 3.11 | 3.70 |
This is a game with such a weird vibe that it seems like a game that could transform with crazy secrets that you find only after exploiting something that looks like a bug but was intended, especially with the piano notes that were out of place. Neat experience, but like many others, I wasn't really sure what to do.
This was a pretty frustrating experience. There was no clear indicator to me how much longer I'd have to tenderize, and the tooltips would come and then go away without me really knowing what was going on. I still have no idea what is happening with the tomato. I deployed burgers, but they didn't seem to do anything. The music was good for the feel of the area, but very distracting/overpowering when trying to internalize what I needed to do.
I played the HTML5 version, and the graphics were a bit blurry in the instructions. I also had a hard time remembering which gun was which, and my left hand was starting to get tired with so many controls on it. I would've preferred to cycle through the guns with maybe a right click? I just don't play a lot of games with multiple weapons, so maybe this is more intuitive for someone who does.
Loved seeing the images in the discord! I love how unique this game is.
This game was fun and because the asteroids aren't too mobile, it wasn't stressful to play. I hope this doesn't overwhelm you too much, but I have a list of things I'd like you to consider if you make a future updated version:
- when learning the controls, I ran into an asteroid and I thought that the losing health ticks were a bit fast. I'd like to see a damage cooldown, where there's a short period of "invincibility" after the ship is damaged. Really liked how your "redness" indicated your damage level, though my familiarity with the game Heat Signature kept making me think it was how often you were thrusting.
- the music is okay--it doesn't get annoying after a bit, but I think this game could benefit from a more atmospheric, sparse, spacey soundtrack, or at least a track that's a lot longer with more variation
- it was hard for me to distinguish the orange and the yellow from each other based on color, but they also had shapes in them, which was a great addition for usability. One way to make colors more distinguishable is to mess with the saturation. Really I'd just like to see more differentiation between the yellow and orange.
- Since it takes so many of the same orbs to remove them, a way to make the game more match-able would be to reduce the number of colors by one, so that matches are more likely. Or you could reduce the number of orbs required for a match. Just right now, it seems too slow to get a match. I agree with the ideas to only be able to fire orbs with colors that are already in the playing field.
- the edges of the room seemed to be beyond the edges of the game window for me, was that intentional, or just something with my machine? Either way, it didn't feel right.
- because the red orb doesn't have a glyph in the middle, it feels different from the other orbs, even though it acts the same way (I thought it would explode upon matching, because it's red, I guess). I'd want to see a glyph added to the red one as well, just to even it out. Maybe a dot or plus?
- I really wish escape paused rather than shut down the game. It takes a really long time to play this game in its current form, and sometimes I needed a break from the intense concentration, and losing what progress I'd made up to the point that I wanted to pause was a bit saddening.
- I agree with the person above that having a small score animation when matches happen would add juice and also point the player in the direction of the score
- I really liked the asteroid physics and the way the ship moved about the space.
- Sometimes I could shoot past the surface and into the heart of an asteroid, which was mildly frustrating, but I could see how this might be difficult to address technically.
- I was wary at first of the ship controls, but they were very usable. However, sometimes my mind would mix up the shoot and go buttons.
- There needs to be a win condition since it takes so long to clear the level :sob:
- At some points during play, I wished I could see the orb I was going to shoot *and* the orb after that one, just because sometimes it's difficult to maneuver into the small asteroid crevice and if there's two of the same color, I want to shoot them rapid-fire after each other.
Overall, this was a really fun game that triggers the completionist in me too, because it felt very playable and the steps to move to the next point were obvious and felt accomplishable--it was easy to get into a state of flow. I'd really love to see a more polished version. Actually, on second thought, I really wouldn't because I'll waste so much time playing it! :) (But let me know anyway if/when there is one)
I hope this feedback helped! I thought your game deserved a playthrough after you promoted so many under-voted games, and I wasn't let down.
P.S. Because of the shade of the blue orb, and because it has a star in it, the orb looks like a blueberry and I really like that.
Even though strategically it makes more sense to leave the asteroids big and whole, the most fun I have making matches is when it'll split up a big asteroid.
Man, this game is fantastic with it's sound, art, and its play-ability. I'm so glad I was pointed this way by @infinitycore.
I love food-making games, and that really held with this one even though it's not a "typical" food game. I have to say though, the atmosphere was so *intense.* With the beating heart and the constant atmospheric sounds, it was like a constant pressure on my soul--which is fantastic for mood, but made it so I had to stop playing after a bit, due to just being physically uncomfortable.
I think what also contributed to that is the first-person perspective and the view-bobbing... I can get motion sickness from that, and so I was ever-so-slightly queasy while experiencing this TENSE and overwhelming/oppressive atmosphere. I can see myself possibly coming back to this game in the future, but the effect it had on me physically might keep me away. It definitely made it less fun to play, even though I liked the experience.
I really loved how large yet sparse the pantry was. I know that's probably more a product of it being a jam game, but even in a full release, I think that would be the way to go.
I enjoyed the game, but the fighting at the top stressed me out!
This was a quick exploration of a small world. I enjoyed looking at the animated plants and goldfish, and I enjoyed the trees as the "background."
I made two small, one medium, and one big fish in someone's backyard and ended up with maybe 4 different cards throughout play? The one that makes you fast, the one where you can throw a rock, the goldfish one, and the make a goldfish bigger one. Once I summoned my 4th fish, there was a lag spike, but it went away after a little while.
The walking sounds were unexpected at first but I grew to like them. I think they might've been better with more bass and lower in pitch, though they weren't bad at all.
Was there any place to use the rock card and change the game world? I tried throwing one at a window, and another at a door, but it didn't do anything that I could tell.
After a while, I couldn't find any more cards. Are there meant to be a limited number, or are they supposed to continually spawn? I was expecting the latter, but it didn't seem to be the case.
I think the biggest thing I wish this game had is a way to change the game world. All you can do is summon fish, but I want to go in a house or earn new cards or at least earn an achievement when I've collected all the cards. I'm curious to hear what your goals for this game were during the jam.
Man, the art looks really awesome! I'm sad it isn't playable.
The art is beautiful and I love the idea, I just wish I didn't have to throw the key to get more cards.
OMG! This is hilarious! I love the sounds and the music doesn't get annoying. I love the auto-aim because then my poorly-coordinated self can still play and have fun. Really great game!
Really hard but I like that you can iterate, and it's fun to see when you finally get it. Music can be a bit repetitive. The pause screen doesn't show the correct level number.
I'm not good at these games, so I got 5475, but it was really fun. I did seem to be experiencing some lag from time to time though in the browser version that made it frustrating because it would change up when the beat was supposed to hit. I'll try again on the downloadable version. Love the mashup, and the songs didn't get too repetitive, I just wish the "you hit the beat" sound was more melodic with the music.
I really liked this game, even without sound, but it was anticlimactic when I won and just got a victory screen. I wanted a blushing carrot! It was also harder to find matches in such a small grid and I wish it would've recognized T- or L-matches.
I really like this combo! Since the shooting is kind of mindless, it works with the monologue. I agree with @Potondo that sounds when you or an enemy is hit/killed would make things clearer, since I wasn't really looking at the battlefield except with my peripheral vision.
This was a fun game to play! I liked the graphics and the mechanics are really neat; I could see this successfully turned into a full-fledged game. Aside from some refining of the movement, the only thing that bothered me was that the music was much too loud for an extended period of time. Other than that, this game was great!
After I figured out you could duck, I ended up just repeatedly ducking the whole game. Made the final scene less romantic though--I dodged her affection. A tiny quality improvement would be to have the words that are longer than the end of the textbox to never start typing on that line, but then next instead.
I had the same problem as sunnray, the game was too tall for my screen. However, I really like the aesthetic and had to play after seeing the images in the discord!
I have a headset mic and share a wall with neighbors. So I blew into the mic instead. The music is LOUD!
I like it because I can never line stuff up in Tetris, but I can click blobs of similarly-colored objects!
The only problems I've found are that sometimes you can't click on the color block to disappear, you have to spam click around to see where the game will recognize it. And the blocks, once a color has been moved out from under it, sometimes fall like I'd expect, sometimes don't. But these problems both aren't too bad to work around, overall it's a very enjoyable experience, and even the pared-down background track performs well with the beeps from the blocks.
I'm a person that's bad at combat, so I'll probably never finish this game. But I really liked the creepy people who fade in and out of existence at your shop. I agree with @RobertoHigor that only loot should be lost, because money allows you to progress in the game. For a more skilled fighter, they'll have lots of loot and be able to progress quickly, but since I'm not skilled, I just ended up back at zero every time, and there's no way for me to try out the later (and I'm sure cooler) weapons and make my own way through the game, at a very slow pace. I'd play more if money wasn't lose-able, but I can understand if I'm not the demographic you're trying to target.
I made a food-making game too, so I had to play yours! At first I didn't realize I could go through doors and then that pizzas needed dough, but once I figured that stuff out, it was smooth sailing. Sometimes hard to tell what toppings exactly are on a pizza.
Damn bird just wants to be under my blocks!
Fun game though. :)
Hmm. On my screen it seems like the bottom and top of the game are cut off in full screen. I played the Eggplant (inspired by Eggplant Kindergarten) first on easy and won, but then I tried to play the broccoli on easy and only got: hmm.png
I'm going to try restarting and going windowed and seeing how it is. Windowed is also cutting things off--it doesn't seem like the graphics are scaling.
noscale.png
Seemed awesome, so I'm disappointed that it's not working for my machine.
I'll be honest, I was secretly hoping this was a dating sim based on the title. But wow! The other shippos move fast!
This is a really solid game! I love witches, and while it was a bit frustrating starting over from the beginning, I think I'll be returning to this game multiple times to work my way through it--the atmosphere that the art and music make is so immersive.
He never comes back after the Grand Prix???? ;_; WHAT IS HE TOO GOOD FOR MY SOFT HANDS NOW!? I UPGRADED THAT BITCH WITH CARE AND HE GHOSTED ME! More people need to be let down by his actions!
Pretty chill game. I like that progression is one thing, and health/coins/etc are optional goals.
@plufmot97 Definitely! I'm not the most coordinated gamer, but I love story, so it disappoints me when my lack of skill/coordination gates me from progressing further in a game story much longer than it does the average gamer or at all. With some games you can watch play-throughs from other people, but if it's a compelling-enough game I'm going to want to complete it myself! So I really enjoyed that aspect of your game.
@meijerson I was planning to make a day cycle where you earn more sandwich fixin's as you go and have a daily conversation with Carson about his time in school each day and watch him and his little sister/other students develop in daily interactions as well. But alas, it took two days to get the sandwiches working and then I barely got in the intro! Thank you for playing!
@Amatwiedle Thank you so much!
@kleinzach The font thing is a good point. I wasn't thinking about too much since the font did okay at the low resolution, but there are probably people who would get more enjoyment from my game if the font was more standard, so it was less figuring out some letters and more enjoying the text.
@kleinzach + @Shelvid I got lost making sandwiches a few times during development, it can be pretty meditative. Sadly, one of the last things to get put in was the sandwich counter, and I was spriting it because I couldn't find a good font for such a small resolution. I kind of regret it though, because it really is unsatisfying not seeing the counter go up past three. It really signals "there's nothing more after this," which is sad.
@GiovanniBarrottu It is pretty simple. I hope next time I can have longer gameplay. @GiovanniBarrottu + @ed3187 + @Rapter Thank you all for playing my game!
@sanjeev I'm glad you caught that part! When I first programmed it in, it made me tear up because I liked that idea that Ms Grunhilde is doing a service for Carson. It would've been more sentimental if it had gone on to the next text "cutscene," explaining how he brought a friend, but it was pretty much submission hour at that point.
@xephrys + @Lawrence Thank you all for your kind words!
@BauBau I thought about what message it would portray... if I'd been able to make more gameplay it would've turned into a more genuine story, but I like that it follows a tradition of Hansel and Gretel... even though it's not canon, sometimes I like to think of Ms Grunhilde as a nice old witch making potions (sandwiches) for the children to help them grow up and become strong!
@randomphantom Thank you! I wish there was something beyond 3+ sandwiches as well.
@lukbebalduke I agree with changing the counter, but I don't think that falls within the Jam "revision" rules, which is why I haven't done it. I'm glad you found it harmonic, that's a feeling I was hoping to get across. I agree about the images, but don't know what to put. What images were you thinking?
@Sibi Thank you for your attention to detail! I think the next time I include text at such low-resolution, I'll have to create it myself for readability.
You'd be surprised at how hard it was to code to get the sandwiches to form from two breads (one peanut-buttered). I can't imagine how difficult it would be to implement multi-layered sandwiches, but if I could somehow implement infinite sandwiches, I can just imagine someone stacking them up and up until the stack was offscreen!
@hankworx Ah, like make a sandwich and then put peanut butter on it?
@Ashtrail Thanks for your thoughts, especially on the sounds! What made you think she advertised a pb+j?
@Ashtrail What! You're taking her out of context! And that was the last of her jelly!
@Darkwing00Duck I've made multiple real-life sandwiches because of this game!
@Sondrian Or maybe you're an angel because the next person doesn't have to make themselves a pb sandwich, there already is one made for them! Jelly (or jam (probably jam because I like jam better to say, eat, and because this was a game jam)) is certainly going to be the next progression step. I've been thinking about how peanut butter is the soul of a sweet sandwich though... you can pair it with so many things: jam, butter, honey, nutella, bananas, and even pickles! No other condiment comes close for pairability that I've found. I'm glad you experienced some nostalgia!
@ultrarat Thank you! As for the knife, where to "hold" it didn't come to an easy solution while I was setting it up. By default, it was in the center, but that really felt wrong when it swiped, so I moved it to the handle and that felt better, but like you mentioned, the swipe radius with the peanut butter and the bread sometimes didn't respond nicely (though it was still better than the center). I guess if I wanted to really refine it, I would have pickup/setdown "collision" checking where the cursor "holds" the knife, and the spreading/scooping hitbox on the blade or even the upper half of the knife blade. Although, I would try to implement this much later in development (certainly after jam and more story!). Thanks for your thoughts! I really enjoy thinking up solutions, and I think one of the things I value in a game is for the interface to go almost unnoticed by the player, just because it does what it should. Or perhaps they notice it initially, if it's different than what's usually done, but then fades into the background quickly (without causing muscle cramps!).
@ava-skoog I'm still not sure if I'm going to work on it after the jam. To be honest, part of the reason I haven't is I would have to shell out quite a bit of cash to keep using this engine, which I'm not sure my wallet can handle. My other hesitancy is that part of my code is a bit spaghetti-like and I'm not eager to spend time detangling it. But I think it could be a good experience to use all of the feedback to make my game better, so maybe I'll do it as a learning experience.
As for the resizing buttons, the game is "naturally" one size smaller, and that's just too small. With pixel art, it's hard to give window size control to the user and still keep the graphics looking nice, so I knew I had to implement it myself, and I knew people would generally want it bigger than its default (I certainly did). Originally, the window could be resized with the Z key, but I didn't want to have to document that and have it be non-obvious in game, so I took inspiration from Stardew Valley (and I believe Minecraft) and put little buttons onscreen. If you haven't heard of it/played it by the way, Stardew Valley is a super chill game with little violence as well. I highly recommend it.
@honest-dan Thank you for playing my game, I thought I should see it played at least once to get an idea of how other people play it and for the experience. Your commentary was very insightful--I'd like to develop my own game judgement skills, and because of you I made a note that the zoom buttons should go away in fullscreen, so thanks for that!
I like the dichotomies of the snail and salt and snail and racing... really good use of the theme. Got a bit stressful near the end since it was going so fast, but it was fun to play. I'd be even more excited about this game if there were sounds.
There's a lot I can learn from this game about game design, so good job! Very enjoyable to play.
The controls are frustrating to me. Moving left/right with arrow keys and jumping with A just doesn't make sense to my brain. I agree with @Jaime-Paz-Lopes that it wasn't clear that you need coins and to press up to use the crane. I like the music and the art though.
Another game in GameMaker! I'm always curious to see what other people come up with. I liked this game!
"Not too proud of it" -> gets first or second in almost all categories. Goes to show that people don't know their own strengths. Congratulations on your game!
I enjoyed this little game. Haven't played a game with non-pixel graphics in GameMaker that I know of before this one, so it was interesting to see. Mine's also a short cute game in GameMaker if you're interested.
My screen wasn't big enough to show everything, either in the browser or downloaded. :(
too big.png
I was super excited to play this game because the smoothies look mouthwatering, and I love games about making food (that's why I made one!). I really liked the music and looking at the art, but the controls were a bit difficult to get used to.
@tsedate Thank you so much for the follow-through. I've had a similar issue on other games and haven't heard back yet. The fix worked for me! I was better at the game this time around, even managed to make a smoothie. Mostly, I really enjoyed looking at the art and listening to the music. The screenshake from firing was a bit much for me, I think if I played for a while it would make me motion sick. But overall this game is very enjoyable!