Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Psyho
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | Let Me Out | compo | 393 | 3.35 | 2.93 | 3.05 | 2.41 | 3.18 | 3.56 | 1.81 | 3.85 | 71 |
Seems that the game can be cheated by always going for health and/or shield when they're available, and then increasing max health for reduced variance.
Still, I actually found it quite fun. Minimalistic music actually fits nicely with graphics and gameplay. Having more cards and potentially maybe more characters (several lines), adding possibility for saving cards, changing positions/items, and few others, could make a decent time-killer mobile app.
I really like the visuals, but at the same time they don't work well together. It seems that each asset has been drawn separately without having bigger picture in mind. Having pixelated "hills" next to disney-like clouds and then classic 16-bit protagonist looks really weird.
The bullet-time made everything too easy and sluggish at the same time. Usually bullet-time is used in games because the action is too fast for a player to be able to tell what's happening and to make him feel like a goddamn hero. Here however, from easy game you make it sluggish and super easy. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but my point is that you've included it, but it's not in a real symbiosis with other elements of your gameplay.
My last criticism goes for including "special" arrows. I think it diluted the main aspect of the game, and was just added "for the laughs". And to fit the theme of course ;)
But all of that doesn't change that you've made an interesting game that has more potential than most things I've seen here so far. I guess I'd get rid off special arrows or just make them very unique. Then, you could go either for a puzzle-platformer (minimizing usage of arrows, adding gravity to them, etc.) or alterantively make a fast-paced shooter where it's possible to avoid enemy arrows (ideally it would be clearly visible where and how they shoot) and there's no need to artificially slow the time if the player feels skilled enough.
Anyway, considering it's LD, it's a great game :)
@randomperson42:
Yes there is, although first 6-8 screens are pretty much just walking/jumping. Once the lights go out, pretty much there are no more "filler" screens.
But I agree that the beginning is too lengthy. Especially for LD.
@Figglewatts:
The transition effect is actually pretty simple. I use wrapper methods for creating all of the level elements, instead of instantiating them directly. Those wrapper methods automatically disable physics & scripts while the effect is lasting. The animation itself is done with the help of Unity's coroutines.
I actually wrote the whole system for such animations and my goal was to use a random effect every time you change the screens. If you want to check the code, see the GameLoop class for the wrapper methods and ObjectEffects class for the effects itself.
Just a few words from my side referring to the common comments:
- The game is very minimalistic on purpose. The goal of the game is to get out. The ending is using a conventional weapon in a very unconventional way.
- Yes, the usage of the theme is very cheap pseudo-artistic one. I had to scrap 60-70% of the level design ideas (due to approaching deadline) and change the ending. The original idea had the unconventional weapon acquired at place where the ending happens. I guess someone can figure out what it was doing considering one unused door throughout whole game.
- Messing up with spatial recognition was done on purpose. All of the platforms start on the same level and you can use personal light to guide you. While I think it's a nice idea and the levels using those were quite decent, I absolutely failed at proper tempo of increasing the difficulty of the game. Such thing would probably be fine after 30 minutes or so of playing when the player is accustomed to the mechanics. So definitely this doesn't fit here under any circumstances.
- I don't really understand what's wrong with the controls, although I tried to improve them in my post-compo version, there are no bigger changes to them.
- If you're reading this and you're leaving comment. Please tell me, how far did you got. I'm guessing that a lot of people gave up either on jumping level or at "dead end".
While I think I saw the "Shield is your weapon" idea like dozens of time. This is really nicely executed + probably the most enjoyable game I played so far. Good Job!
Nice concept, good music and very nice graphics.
Unfortunately, the mechanics are very clunky. The jumping & walking feels really awkward and lacks any dynamic. Shooting is essentially just constant spamming. And restoring objects positions feels like a player that fixes the game instead of the game developer. Also, I'm not sure what's the purpose of allies.
Really fun, a bit challenging, and actually has potential for a bigger game.
Animation of skeleton walking and the sound it made was hilarious.
Great Game!
Funny game.
It would be nice if you could jump and thus juggle your targets. Moving while attacking is also desirable. Both of those elements would significantly improve the dynamic of this minigame.
Also, It would be better to have clearly stated goals. Once you're in the level, things are not well explained at all. Some one-time instruction like "kill them all" would be good. The UI elements could be more clear.
Art was great for 48h. Unfortunately the gameplay itself was really boring. There was a single very distant goal and no feeling of accomplishment other than increasing stat of killed pigeons.
Maybe I was unlucky, but for me it randomly crashed during level selection and it bugged during the levels (negative karma).
Still, interesting idea and impressive amount of content.
Not sure why you exported only to windows, considering the project is done in Unity.
As for the game itself. Good music and nice sounds. Great concept with using different sounds for different monsters.
The character movement seemed too "floaty". The view distance is very short considering the movement speed of the player. It would be far better to increase viewing distance and maybe offset this by increasing the movement speed of the monsters. Also, as other pointed out, it was very hard to locate yourself on the map - adding some "random" shapes as doodads could help it a bit.
There's a bug where if you put yourself on the edge of several squares, you'll put the same sign on all of them simultaneously.
The more important issue is that you can replace a sign in the same square. So the winning strategy is to only put X or O in all squares. You would just take a single path that goes through all 9 squares and put the X in each of them. If you can make the whole cycle faster than the timer for the bomb, it's impossible to loose.
Nice twist with the sword and in general nice mechanics. Very consistent visual theme. Good gameplay, although the top part of last level was a little bit frustrating (playing on XBOX pad wasn't that easy). I like that you didn't do any filler levels and the game itself has a good length for LD.
My complaints goes to repetitive music (the quality is ok and again works well with your game). Also, when you're grabbing sword, you shouldn't stop movement - this slightly reduces dynamic.
Ok, I don't know what is supposed to be difficult in that game. After understanding the rules, I got pretty bored after getting to 500K without having any kind of challenge. I also didn't saw any increase of difficulty. Even with more things spawning you can just leave your maxiball in one place, and use your miniball to "guard" the maxiball from the boxes.
Still, I find the concept for mouse-avoider games with 2 objects very original. I just think that balance is completely off and there's no real fun. The point of mouse avoiders is to be constantly in tension that you can die, but you somehow manage to survive. Here however it's opposite, there's no pressure at all - only a small chance for a very unlucky spawns of blocks and then you're screwed.
Great sheep animation and overall nice graphics. Well, except for that font. That thing was horrible and looks like tribal tattoos. It took me some time to actually see that there are instructions in each level.
Also, the gameplay is essentially just "wait for the right moment and click", which may be fine for mobile games, but on desktop it gets tedious after 5 minutes. It doesn't really feel rewarding when you correctly hit the sheep, but it's very irritating when you don't, and thus you have to restart the level.