Wizard n' Slims by rickylee 2023-10-04T07:26:13Z ♥ 2
Did...did I win? I_think_I_beat_it.png Anyway, I know you mentioned you had some balancing issues right before you uploaded, but I had an absolute ton of fun nonetheless. Before I really started to figure it out it was a great little puzzle trying to work out the right combination of powers to play with. I can definitely see how with some better balancing it could be really challenging and fun. And believe me, our own team knows as well as anyone how hard getting difficulty balance can be. Art as always is amazing and adorable. You absolutely nail the clean minimalist look while still conveying all the necessary information. In the end I settled on the basic magic missile and the lightning bolt combo where I set up a mouse macro to automatically fire 5 missiles and then the lighting and combined with the health regen carried me smoothly onto level 1025. I know that wasn't your intention but it's also a testament to how well it's put together that I went that far and everything still worked just fine. I'm sure I could go for another 1000 levels but for now, I must sleep. Great job as always!
LD57 — Depths (20)
Captain Death by Sarah 2025-04-21T02:17:21Z ♥ 2
Like many have already said it took me quite a while to figure out how to actually you the hook angle mechanic. While it is very unique and innovative I think the implementation is just a touch off. I totally get the idea of having to plan out the route your hook needs to go. However as you upgrade the length of each section the work you just put in to plan a path based on the old length just goes out the window and you have to experiment again, and repeat this every time you make that upgrade. The more sections of line you buy the more the screen is covered up in all of the compasses, further obscuring the players ability to plan their route. I think one possible solution to this could be to have the player choose the angle after each individual section of line. So you cast the line, it travels down and then at the end of that section another compass would appear and you would choose your next shot angle. If you want to keep the planning a route aspect I think I would simplify the upgrades to only number of segments and somehow make the angle selection of all the segments less obtrusive on screen. Other than that all the art was suuuuuper cute and as a whole it all looked very cohesive. Overall well done for coming with a very unique take on a fishing game, great job!
Getting Drilled! by Ryano 2025-04-21T01:56:34Z ♥ 2
Solid entry and a nice take on the idea of breakout. Unfortunately I think I'm just not very good at it. I think it would be nice to maybe be able to take a few hits before dying on lava instead of instantly dying. That would allow people to see a bit more of your game if they are not as skilled at a game like this. Other than that well done!
CoreBreaker by Grimwitch 2025-04-21T01:46:39Z ♥ 1
Looks like this was your first LD entry so congrats on submitting your game! Unfortunately it seemed like there was no way for me to purchase upgrades so I gave it the best go I could. Made it down to about 460m before it became almost impossible to get any farther. I probably would've made it to the end if I could buy the upgrades. Like others have said the collision damage is very over tuned where using the rockets for even a second gets too much speed to get damaged. I also ran into the issue where there were random collision boxes which made it impossible to drop straight down a shaft without dying. I would also suggest only taking away fuel based on movement or drilling. I think if you're not moving the fuel should not just deplete. Good job though, I had a good time otherwise!
Dig and Delve by RobLaro 2025-04-17T02:54:07Z ♥ 2
You managed to hook into the part of my brain that has to dig and clear as much as possible in a game like this. Very well done. The smoothness and polish of what you have here is very nice. I think the only thing I really found lacking was there was no music. I know there's only so much time in the weekend but even adding 1-2 looping royalty free tracks would help to set the mood. I ended up finding some random dungeon themed chiptune songs that I put on in the background while I played. I did indeed manage to complete the game and save Drillda (as well as get back down again to get the big gem!). It's clear you balanced this around people progressing down through the levels at a regular pace but I ended up meticulously clearing out 100% of the first level was fully upgraded before I even cleared it out. I continued to clear out everything out to the perimeter of bedrock and even started to get lost going back to the ship because I mined out all the rocks. Some sort of difference in ground texture near the ship could help to guide players back if they clear out a lot like me. Also, because I cleared it all out I had enough fuel to go straight to the bottom and almost down to the bottom again without mining any more. Perhaps there's some sort of overall timer, or timer per level, or even certain resources only spawning on lower levels would encourage players to continually work their way down rather than clear out the first level and blast to the end. But I am acutely aware of how hard it is to balance progression of games. Also maybe some indication of when there's nothing left to do because I went down for a third time only to encounter the big gem again. But props to including the secret ending for going down a second time! Overall great job at grabbing my attention for over an hour! diganddelve.png
Pits and Bricks by jimmothysanchez 2025-04-17T00:46:43Z ♥ 1
Nice fun entry, good job! I encountered what felt like a bug a few times where the paddle just stopped moving entirely within a few seconds of starting so I instantly won. Once I got the hang of it though I jumped straight into hard mode. I'm not really sure what the differences are between the modes? sometimes I felt like the ball kind of had a mind of its own and would break a block then instantly keep coming forward and break more without bouncing back. The difficulty ramps down fairly quickly though once you get a few brick makers going and build a wall to protect them. Perhaps it could get harder over time by adding multiple balls, or it gets the ability to smash through 2 blocks at once? Other than that good job! Here was my score on hard!
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Flushed away by IDos 2025-04-12T01:07:01Z ♥ 3
Good job on submitting an entry! I'll start off by saying I really like the visuals. The fish is very cute and I want him to escape! Minor note on the visuals, there is some sort of strange lens flare or refraction or shadowy effect happening on the entire screen that's like a ghost of all the geometry. I'm not entire sure what is happening but it was a bit distracting. Besides that I was a bit thrown off by the controls at first. I would probably tell the player that the WASD is more for water and the jumping is more for land, or at least that's what it seemed like to me. I found the pipe in the water that said I found an exit but I went back to explore further. I was EXTREMELY confused by the controls and how to jump up the platforms, but eventually I figured out that the jump height/angle is based on where the camera is angled. That brings me to the camera which is inverted by default with no option to change that. I would highly recommend un-inverting the camera by default and adding an option for people to do that if they want. And in regards to the jumping even when I understood the controls I felt like most of the time I was guessing whether or not I would actually make a jump. Instead it being purely based on camera I would maybe do some sort of system like golf games do where you have some sort of preview arc of where you're going to jump. It doesn't necessarily have to show exactly where you will land so maybe the preview arc fades after a few feet just to give you some idea of the jump while retaining some difficulty. The system you have made it especially hard to jump on top of the small thin orange barrier at the end of a level. I did manage to make it to the second level but failed once I tried that little barrier jump. Some sort of checkpoint system would be nice as I ended up quitting after being sent all the way back to the beginning. Apologies for the wall of text but hopefully it's helpful! Overall after I got over the controls and camera I did have fun and got excited making it to the next level. Good job!
Oasis Dawn by pickens-inc 2025-04-12T00:24:32Z ♥ 2
Nice job on your entry! Very impressive to get an animated character in and it felt pretty smooth to play. The intro cutscene was very well done although the crystal kinda invaded the camera view a bit during it. I didn't actually realize there was a riposte mechanic but it felt like I could kinda just stunlock the enemies by swinging at them fast. I accidentally closed the game a couple times by pressing esc expecting a pause menu where I could adjust volume, but I totally understand there's only so much 1 person can do in a weekend. I had a good time fighting through several waves though and you made the art nice and cohesive. ( By the way is that the default unreal landscape scene is see as the mountains in the background haha ;) ) Also when I wandered out the edge of the playable space I noticed the sand texture on the terrain expanse was quite small scale so you might just want to scale that up a fair bit so it feels the right size relative to the player. Anyway good job!
Dynamite by TimeLost 2025-04-11T23:53:00Z ♥ 1
Good job on completing a game for the jam! I successfully managed to get the bottom and win! Along the way though I was a little confused about a few things. I understand you want to have it get dark and creepy but I think it gets way to dark way too fast and it was almost impossible to see what was happening. I don't think adding a small light source a round the player would be a bad thing, even if it just went a tile or two to either side just to give the player some reference of where they are. You could even make it something they need to go find and pick up. I think the triangle things were the strange creatures? But they didn't really feel like they posed a threat to me. Maybe once they're activated they could start tracking towards the player before exploding. Lastly I seemed to randomly take damage and heal without knowing what was happening so I think I got a little lucky when I made it to the end. Overall though you successfully made a complete game so good job!
Departments of Depth Corp. by reivilibre 2025-04-11T23:39:38Z ♥ 2
Why have you brought the hell of this office to our fun game jam? Really though, nice entry very funny. There was just enough back and for to make me start to get annoyed but luckily I found the vending machines to zoom across the office! Couple small notes I have is that the collisions on the generic office workers at their desks felt a little too big and I kept getting caught on them, especially when I had speed trying to navigate the main office floor. Also maybe some sort of small indicator of which cabinets are interactable when you need to find something in them. It took me a minute to realize that in the HR room. Other than that solid job!
Race Through the Depths by Cure 2025-04-11T10:33:01Z ♥ 0
Very solid entry! Very impressive that you managed to get so much playtime out of just a 30 second level. As I get runs in I could feel myself improving at the controls and had fun unlocking new movement tech like jumping to slide up hills faster or releasing a jump sooner so I could land on a conveyor belt sooner. I could see the possibility for improvement on my time so you managed to hook me into grinding until I got a gold medal. I don't know that I'll ever beat that 26.50 but I'm pretty proud of my time. I could definitely see this being developed into having a few more levels with leaderboards of the best times. But I know designing a tight speedrun like this can be hard for a single level let alone multiple! Also last thing is I would love for the bronze/silver/gold times to be displayed somewhere in game to let the player know exactly what they're aiming for rather than just "40 seconds or less". Overall really nice game!
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Hooky Fish by DurkaGames 2025-04-11T10:22:13Z ♥ 1
Very nice entry you have here. Always love a good fishing game! I was a little confused at first about the sunglasses fish that I was going for and wasn't sure if I was just missing it or it was way down lower. I like the idea of fishing up new baits and the shop in order to access those features however I'd like it if I could hit ESC to leave those menus rather than have to hit the key again as sometimes those menus covered up the key you hit to open the windows and I'd forget momentarily. I also think telling the player in the thought bubble to catch specific items in order to help guide progression would ease a lot of the confusion. Overall nice job!
Blip by osh.studio 2025-04-11T10:15:48Z ♥ 2
Very nice entry here. The controls were a bit strange to get used to but once I got it I had a great time and would gladly play many more levels of this. I could see new and difficult mechanics like attaching your teleport to moving platforms or maybe some sort of zero-g zone, I don't know just throwing out ideas. The movement felt very slick. My only minor complaint was that I wasn't playing in full screen at first and for some reason that cut off the sides of the game a bit and I couldn't see the side walls in the final hurdle room. Other than that great job!
Hadal by ColeSlaughter 2025-04-11T10:09:29Z ♥ 4
Great entry as always. As someone that spent 5 hours working on our water shader and it's just flat colors really nice job on the water. I am definitely not good enough to compete for top spots on this leaderboard. But I really like that you came up with a pretty unique style of movement for a platformer and I can definitely see people breaking through to that high skill ceiling. Props to Brainoid for the dope music that gets more complex with each. Overall solid performance from all parts of the team, programming, music, and art!
Dig in, Gus! by bigwhiteshogun 2025-04-11T10:00:10Z ♥ 3
Just getting around to rating this but really solid entry. The mole is so cute! Liked the fact that the diamonds glowed a bit to hint where they were. The enemies I didn't feel like really ever posed any threat to me. The most dangerous thing was the bramble bushes but I figured out how to remove those pretty fast. Maybe some sort of ranged enemy could be added to pose more of a threat as you explore around. Always love a good digging game though. Reminded my of Steamworld Dig 2! Great job!
Deep Fry by thyoi 2025-04-11T09:54:24Z ♥ 2
Just getting around to rating you now, but absolutely fantastic job here! The art is all so pretty and cohesive. You tutorialize things quite well and the twists you uncover as you slowly work through the game are excellent. I love the fact that the words animate in such a way that their movements describe what the word is like Tempura boiling or And smushing together. The characters look great and the way the whole environment shakes and rattles when you drop an order is really neat! When we played it there were just the words and seeing you in some later streams it was very smart to add the parentheses into the orders. Since they're basically equations if makes it just a little bit easier to understand while still being complex enough to be a solid challenge. Oh and last note you might want to disable the game scene underneath when you get to the final ending. I could still interact with the kitchen behind the vast emptyness off the post-tempura-ed earth haha. Overall really great entry and definitely one of my faves this jam!
Grandpet by deadroach 2025-04-11T09:42:32Z ♥ 3
Absolutely love the throwback to old flash games. I felt like I was back on kongregate playing some random little adventure someone made. I really like the art and consistent style you have. Your voice acting is great too. I really wanted to find all the endings but I just couldn't seem to. I found the couch as that seems to be the easiest. Then I found the basement after turning all the lights on with the creepy mass of bulbs hanging and skeletons but couldn't seem to interact with anything in the room to trigger and ending screen. At one point I went back to your pre-patch version and somehow randomly opened the trunk in the basement but could not repeat it so I have no idea how to actually open it. And finally I assume there is a code for the door somewhere but could not for the life of me sus out what it might be. Maybe I'm just dumb but nothing seemed to indicated a password number what I could see and I clicked ALL over all the rooms. Like I said I really wanted to find the endings so if you have any hints I'd love to try and finish it. Besides that I didn't figure out I could drag him around for a while but I'm not sure it was even relevant to the game play. The only need for it seemed to be to enter the left and right rooms but then I could drop him down holes but didn't need to carry him to upper floors so it just felt a bit inconsistent in terms of how I needed to get around this house. Also if I dragged him against the keypad door I would teleport to the bathroom. Loved the variety of voice lines. I think my favorite was the cat poster "I'm tryin little man". I know it can be hard to cram in everything you want in a jam so overall great job on what's here!! And again maybe I'm just dumb and need some hints for the other endings.
DESCEND with CAUTION by LightningST 2025-04-11T08:51:56Z ♥ 1
While I'm a bit late behind Bongard getting around to rating you thanks again for dropping by our stream and sharing it! I had a great time with it! Tutorialization was quite well done in the first few areas and while I didn't love the acceleration of the character at first I grew to understand the choice and once I really figured out how to use it it clicked. The explosion and grave when you die is really cute if not a bit disheartening to see where you've failed so many times. I think unlike others I understood the wibbly air section pretty quick and like that there were some jumps that felt really good to nail once you learned it. A couple jumps however I did feel were a biiiit to tight like the jump straight up with the spikes above your head I felt like needed to be a bit to precise and would love just a few pixels more room. Overall great job!
Helmet Man by Sevadusk 2025-04-11T08:43:34Z ♥ 2
Good job on your entry! I really like the hand drawn art you did. It gives it a 2000s era flash game feel. It was quite an interesting idea to have to switch between the two falling modes and that there were some challenging bits that you could only start to do after buying a few upgrades. I'm not sure I entirely understood the point of some of the long sections of blocks with a corridor down. You didn't seem to get points for smashing blocks and I don't know why you would opt to walk down so I usually ended up just bashing through those to get to the next area to grab money and stars so they kinda felt unnecessary. I was also a little unsure of the distinction between some of the upgrades like reduced gravity vs jump height. Those two kind of seem like they could be lumped into one. Overall solid entry. Managed to snag first place too!
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(P.S. don't tell Ausstein I took first!)
Coin Grind by jester1454 2025-04-11T08:16:56Z ♥ 3
Nice entry! Seems like you had a goal for a few levels of a mining action platformer and achieved it! I know you only had to get 6 coins to get through level 1, which happened to be the exact number of blocks needed to dig through to get to the exit. However I noticed that I got 1 coin for each block and immediately started mining as many blocks as I possibly could. I ended up with about 250 coins before finally deciding to head to the door. I was a bit disappointed to then find that it just rest with a new counter for the next level. I think maybe you could rework this as a core mechanic if you're going for the idea of greed and having to pay for the exit. For example maybe each level has some sort of threat that means you need to complete the level in X amount of time while getting as many coins as possible. And with that maybe some sort of count at the end of the game with how many total coins you managed to collect by the end. On another note, what you do have is pretty fun to try and get through. My favorite were the bombs trying the blast my way directly to the exit as fast as I could. I did notice sometimes the enemies didn't notice me? Also I was a bit confused on when sometimes enemies and bombs would spawn out of rocks with seemingly no way to tell if they would. Your movement of the character feels great and I like the overall design and look. Good job!
High Pressure Arena by HexStart 2025-04-10T22:14:47Z ♥ 1
Very nice entry! Really enjoy the movement model you created. It feels very smooth to transition between normal propulsion and the drifting decoupled mode. Creating a satisfying flight model within the time frame of a jam is quite difficult! The little bubble vfx were also very cute as was the overall vibe and color pallet of the environment. Very pretty while keeping things simple. My only major nitpick was that I didn't even notice my health bar until I was almost dead. The healthy color of the health bar being purple blended in with the rest of the submarine. I think just adjusting that to a more typical green to red gradient would help. Other than that, great job! Here's my score!
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