Summon Or Unsummon by DaivyIsHere 2024-04-27T10:06:23Z ♥ 1
this is a really interesting idea! didn't click right away but when it did, i was definitely tuned in : ) it took me a minute to notice the letter hints, once i caught that it helped a LOT, glad y'all added that in.
i also kneejerk wanted a way to check what level things were without having to sacrifice a health to find out-- but I don't hate that sacrificing health was required to check, as it seems like a 'tough but fair' decision. There are times where the gameplay also does feel like a bit of a repetitive task but i think i also might have needed to strategize a bit more and reject more of the 5 point cookies that were coming my way in favor of more nutritious opponents to make things go faster.
The sound effects were useful... My eyes were glued to the left of the screen and i relied heavily on that crunching noise or the damage noise to confirm what the outcome of my summon was! They were super distinct sounds and that helped.
I like the minimal pastel pixel look, i think it suits the rest of the game very nicely, and i think the UI and animations do a good job of helping the player to understand the summon mechanic. Really like this take on the summoning theme and thought this was a cool, creative minimalist gameplay idea around it!
LD57 — Depths (6)
You Know the Drill! by ludokai 2025-04-10T08:33:31Z ♥ 2
My co-jammer mentioned this as a standout fun entry and got me curious to try it! After playing, totally agree : ) really fun and satisfying loop that is easy to get into and sink into a flow state. I also think the rock shake, white-dot resource collection and drill sparks are great feedback effects and i like the mesmerizing little rotation on the drill parts.
Once I saw that you go a bit faster through carved-out paths, and that "banked" resources aren't lost on battery death, ended up burning some runs not mining any resources but just going down as deep as i could to carve out a highway for later -- it was probably impractical but it was kind of fun to do exploration cycles!
Glad you are making this a steam release, I love chill games and would definitely be interested in playing this when it's out. Will keep a bookmark on the itch page if you ever end up updating it with a link for wishlisting later down the line : ) Great work!
Rapid Eye Microgames by Tetracold 2025-04-09T05:25:41Z ♥ 1
good stuff!!! i think i ran into one case in the "trim" minigame where i seemed to fail to trim a plant but still won the game -- not sure if that's the normal rules or a bug but i took it and ran!
the music, art and SFX are all on point and it's all impressively polished. love the 'nightmare' aesthetic vs the dream aesthetic. Also that meta intro made me chuckle and the overall presentation was really funny. (This might be the only time i have ever given an LD game full points for humor tbh, lol)
Below Birdsong by levi kingma 2025-04-09T04:59:39Z ♥ 2
I think this needs further tuning/polish but it's a good start! I think one thing that could make this feel better is changing the doors behavior -- right now it's pretty easy to get locked into a warp-back-and-forth-between-doors loop. A fix might be e.g. some kind of timer to disable a door for a short period of time after you are warped to it, to prevent it from warping you right back?
there are some real nice touches here like the subtle parallax in the BG and the swing on the canary cage. and LD jam timelines are intense so having a complete functioning loop by the deadline is a reflection of good time management and something to be celebrated!
Descent Protocol by DuKe.ua 2025-04-08T09:39:21Z ♥ 1
This was fun! The swinging back and forth on the grapple rope feels really good. I occasionally got frustrated with the grapple not connecting but it always felt like 90% a me problem and like it was fair. I got to an area with a bunch of falls and platforms going left and right before i hit a skill wall (though i also felt it was something that if i'd stuck with it i'd have come out on the other end). There was some nice level design and some fun traversal challenge here -- spent more time with this than most of the games i've tried out so far : )
Icebreakers! by npckc 2025-04-08T07:51:57Z ♥ 2
i'm seeing this error message pop up pretty frequently up at the top atm ld57_icebreakers_popup.png
actual game comments -- this is extremely polished and cute on all fronts -- art, sound effects, music and writing! I love the writing and the characters put me in mind of Undertale : ) i think the last encounter was a fun "boss" scenario and i liked the intrigue and the way it tests you a little bit by changing the presentation from what you've seen so far. Great work!!
It's madness, my dudes by Keys Presser 2025-04-08T07:31:21Z ♥ 2
I was initially a little stumped at the controls but this game got a lot more accessible once i realized that, 1) i should rapidly tap the WASD keys repeatedly to move around and 2) this was a slow paced puzzle game that you could just take your time with and sit in a spot and figure out how to progress!
Aesthetic is fantastic and the visual style and audio style go together perfectly. I really like the slowed-down track playing in the background, and the interesting mood from the stoic slippy toad trio and the danger message you get when you cross the first threshold. I think maybe i would want wall damage to feel a little less punishing, and battery target colliders to be a little more generous but that could be personal preference. Think I see what the game is going for and I appreciate this as a unique puzzle concept with a great worldbuilding/aesthetic aspect!