Deep Space Hope by namrog84 2021-05-03T05:33:13Z
The boss was a little easy, but I liked the ending message!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Rashcan
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | 👥 | Nano Commando | jam | 723 | 3.36 | 3.23 | 3.44 | 3.92 | 3.71 | 3.36 | 3.50 | |
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | 👥 | Eyes On-Myoji | jam | 894 | 3.28 | 2.84 | 3.07 | 2.95 | 3.88 | 3.64 | 3.29 | |
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | 👥 | Golden Harvest | jam | 321 | 3.60 | 3.10 | 3.52 | 3.65 | 3.92 | 3.89 | 3.25 | 3.57 |
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | 👥 | Murders at the Manor | jam | 635 | 3.47 | 3.42 | 3.90 | 4.27 | 2.87 | 3.45 | 3.52 | 3.47 |
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | 👥 | Winter Blossom | jam | 1070 | 3.21 | 3.21 | 2.10 | 3.10 | 3.47 | 3.57 | 2.50 | 3.23 |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Pasinko | jam | 662 | 3.58 | 3.58 | 3.58 | 3.83 | 4.05 | 3.38 | |||
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | Cavernicus | jam | 776 | 3.59 | 3.54 | 3.40 | 4.16 | 3.76 |
The boss was a little easy, but I liked the ending message!
Made it to 1200 before I had to call it, lol. Would like difficulty to ramp up over time. Otherwise, very simple and fun!
First time I played easy mode I think the gold requirement was impossible to meet? It was fine the second time, though.
I agree with @fiakaiera on collisions and targeting. Also, if mining/placing doesn't use mouse, I would recommend using some kind of indicator for which block you're targeting.
Cool mining simulator though!
I think it's a bit harsh to require 100% of the shards to get the good ending, especially for how easy it is to end the last level on accident.
That aside, I think it's interesting that the game explores the deep psyche of a person with psychological trauma. However, I would have liked the concept explored further than finding all the shards to find the will to live. The levels could have been more thematically varied and tied to Mindy's journey through her own mind.
Ultimately I think the game leans a bit into the "your trauma is your own doing" philosophy. Even though some parts of mental illness are self inflicted, recovering from it is not as simple as switching your perspectives around. Healing takes effort, more so than time. In some parts of the game, Mindy has to actively attack her shadows to reach certain shards. This may be incidental design, but I think it's a step in the right direction.
This review got serious real fast, and it's in no way meant as an attack on the game or the team. I think it's a neat platformer with a unique story. Some people have problems with the controls; I think they're okay. But a game with a serious tone and theme deserves some feedback on that front, too.
I like that this game is a modification of minesweeper, but I can't help but feel it leaves too much to chance to be fun rather than frustrating. A lot of people are saying that they're bad at minesweeper, but I think the issue is that no matter what you see on the ground, there's almost never enough information and the best you can do is make an educated guess with the limited time you have. While guessing is not inherently a bad thing, getting to the star tile safely is ultimately a game of chance with a pretty high rate of failure. Since getting to the star is the only way to score, getting a high score is heavily dependent on luck.
Many people are suggesting that increasing the time before a platform gives way would make it more fair. Technically, you can bypass that timer by pausing. Despite having that knowledge, the problem of luck does not go away; you can play smart and still gain very few points.
I think this kind of gameplay is frustrating because the game doesn't always reward you for good decisions and punishes you too much for guessing wrong. It would make for a better puzzle game if the player was able to make concrete deductions before going forward.
This game is otherwise pretty well made! I particularly like how this game looks and sounds.
Really cool! Unfortunately hanging paintings is a bit cumbersome, and my second to last painting made contact with two different outlines and the game faded to black, then back, without anything happening. I assume there is an ending? Oh well, I may have to revisit it later.
I especially like the application of theme here, with the impossibly endless museum of paintings in the back. Very easy to get lost in there, in a good way of course.
Wow, that was pretty cool! I think Deeper had a harder time reaching the chalice than Deeper, with all those narrow dead ends. But once I managed to find Deeper with Deeper, guiding Deeper towards the chalice with Deeper waiting for him was no problem, save for that pesky phantom.
Very fun concept and atmosphere!
The 3D effect and lighting are pretty good! In all, I really like the ambience. I would have liked to see more enemy types. Perhaps if some anemone could shoot projectiles, or different sea creatures had different swimming patterns?
Nice game! I liked the sloped look of the platforms, although the ground detection fights with it sometimes. Cool use of TTS for effect. I agree that subtitles would have helped with hearing some sentences.
Interesting to frame religion as a weapon against the singularity lol.
I like the concept of this game. Delving for treasure in a submarine is cool! But like @skleembof said, the UI can be pretty confusing. For example, it wasn't clear that the gunner view was rotated 90 degrees from the main view. Additionally, the shop could have been streamlined without a free look mode that had to be escaped with the tab key.
Overall, I think the game could improve with a simplification of design and some helpful tooltips when hovering buttons and icons. With some clean up, I think this could be a pretty cool game!
Neat concept, wish it were longer!
Ah, this takes me back to the days of flash escape room games. Solid puzzles, although most of the combo lock puzzles are easily brute forced once you figure out the numbers/letters to use. Had to resort to that a few times when the order wasn't clear to me.
I know the MC was dead before the game started, but the abrupt end made it look like he died from shock after learning his name lol.
Very nice lighting and audio. Minor nitpick: I think the right mouse button could have been used for the bomb instead. Overall a very solid experience!
I gotta stop playing this to give other games a chance lol. Very fun and polished game!
Edit: Hang on, if the drill is hamster powered, then what are we doing with that coal???
I like the physical chaos of picking up items. Cat was definitely the hardest noisemaker to find. That video at the end was surprisingly long lol.
@mlho7 @lrvstudios The reflex game was unintentional but too fun not to keep in the game. I'm glad others are enjoying it as well!
@fireslash I definitely agree with the deadly fall distance being ambiguous. The main way I tell the player how close a fall is to being fatal is by how loud the landing is. It's (mostly) consistent that two platforms is the most you can drop. In hindsight, I probably should have used a fixed falling distance rather than velocity to determine player survival.
@ardorugus During development, I actually entertained the thought of providing a "motivator" in the form of a giant worm descending from above. It was a bit too late to throw that in, though, so the best I could do was say that it's the call of the abyss compelling our hero down the hole.
Thanks for playing the game, everyone!
Presenting sliding puzzles as defragging was very novel, and I liked the matrix rain as well!
The atmosphere was really cool! Checkpoints would have been nice. Definitely wish the game didn't just make you restart if you mess up, since I had trouble getting up those stairs. Thankfully it's not too long a game, and I managed it eventually. The ending was abrupt, but intriguing nonetheless!
Love the music and the goofy looking cat! The platforms were a bit hard to see, I'd add some contrast there to make the world more readable. Otherwise, everything looks great!
Great job! The presentation, level design, visuals, and audio are really solid. The controls were a little complicated but I appreciate that you included a tutorial at the beginning.
However, assuming that the game takes 5 minutes to complete, I think having lasers kill you and send you back through the tutorial section is a bit rough.
I also managed to fall through the world when time-rifting, so I think I'll come back to this game later. But this is really cool for a game made in three days!
The ice is really cool (pun intended)! Thanks for sharing the gif above!
How dystopian that the last remnants of fuel simply be consumed for the sake of acquiring more fuel. Love the parallax, btw!
I had fun with it. Only problem right now is that it's really easy to die right when you spawn (a cactus might even spawn on you!) Glad someone else was able to act on the "unstable" pun :P
Nice use of TTS!
I liked it! Overall presentation was nice. The map seemed daunting at first but it didn't take too long to navigate the whole thing. The minimap helped me figure out the layout without having to write it down. I would have liked to see more depth story-wise and puzzle-wise, but making an MS-DOS text adventure is impressive as is. Well done!
I liked the sounds!
The concept is fun, because it's like solving a mystery through deduction. Though in truth, I spent most of my time confused whether or not I'm actually playing correctly. For instance, I don't know if I should be sending messages to every recipient in a particular region, how quickly the suitors are moving around, or what to do with information about the suitors' crests, especially if it doesn't match any known crests. And it seems that, in order for an accusation to be valid, they must exhibit all of the telltale traits (I attempted to accuse one of bullying when I discovered cruelty and dogma, but the queen didn't seem to be troubled at all because he didn't have confidence, lol). Clarification for these mechanics would be much appreciated!
Really cool idea! I really liked the way the trees amble towards you in the shadow dimension. The music switching was well done too! Although, it did get a little repetitive considering how long it takes to find the crystals. I ended up dying unceremoniously somewhere near the last crystal due to the evil wisps being overly persistent bastards, but I think I got the full experience of the game. Well done for 48 hours!
That was a neat game idea! I liked the monster designs and music too! The lamp lure was pretty funny :)
I ended up learning most of the level layouts through trial and error, rather than waiting on the flash to appear, so I tend to agree with other comments about the lighting occurring a little too infrequently. But rather than disregarding the theme altogether, I think it could work if the player can see more of the level, so that it's a matter of memorizing as much of the snapshot as possible. I also think the game would feel a lot more tense if you discouraged trial and error gameplay by having a lives system, but that might also be more frustrating than fun.
I had a lot of fun playing your game and ruminating about the design. Good work!
Ah, it seems like these scientists work for the Ministry of Silly Walks :)
I took a glance at your code btw, and I was surprised you used Unity's navigation system! I had considered it when programming my game, but I wasn't sure if it would work in 2D, and thought it would be too complicated for our purposes anyway. Good stuff!
Wow, that was a lot of levels, and each one introduces a new idea! Not too hard but not too easy either. A bit of trial and error, but it was a fun test of memory. The ten seconds allotted isn't... a lot (hehe) so there were times I had to click really fast to keep up. I would definitely love to see more of this!
I think it's cool that the volume sliders were included diegetically! The lever being a UI slider was also a nice touch :)
The voice acting was charming, but also made it difficult for me to read the manual while paying attention to everything else. I imagine the game is a lot easier to play once you've memorized the manual, but that first time around sure is overwhelming! I think the manual ought to be shorter and easier to read, since most of the player's attention is also being diverted to other things.
There's actually an impressive amount of dialogue and events (such as completely silencing the music and poking a system not in need of reset), and judging from the manual, I'm sure there's a lot I've missed! I would like to have heard it all, but after failing some minutes into the game, I wasn't as interested in having the mechanics reintroduced to me again. But it was a cool game, so maybe I'll come back to it again!
Record: 7:44
That was a really cool game! My hand got tired after a bit, so I had to stop, haha.
@nullval No way! The dinner party is too important! Haha thanks for playing our silly little game :)
@dp3rucha We had a lot of fun coming up with the concept! Having the soundtrack synced to the events of the game was a bit of work, but it really paid off!
As for your second comment, I'm not certain I know what you're referring to. Was it the method for finding the killer that you found confusing? Or would you have preferred the killer to leave more trails behind?
I wasn't sure if I had reached the end, so I checked the source just to make sure. Sure enough, that was the end! I really liked the background, and the way the camera zoomed into the eye. Cool game, wish it was longer!
This game made me very nostalgic for flash games. Very nice!
I think the execution on the theme was a pretty neat way of conveying Myles' state of mind. I was very tense at the start because I wasn't certain if there was a fail condition (there isn't thankfully) but more relaxed and focused as the game went on. Even if their situation wasn't relatable to me, I found that I was still engaged with the story through the gameplay. It all came together very nicely!
Everyone says the wordle puzzle is hard, but that crossword puzzle kicked my ass!
Music was pretty good, although I wish I had a better sense for the rhythm of it. Big fan of the change in feel halfway through! Also, loved the dancing cat and the ending screen lol
Nice, very Ninja Gaiden!
I liked how tactile tearing the sugar packets was, great job!
The character designs are pretty cool and the sounds are fun! All around great execution, and a neat twist on the theme as well!