Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → richardjs
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 36 | Ancient Technology | Flamethrowing Dynamite Wizards on Ice | compo | |||||||||||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Harvestown | compo | 24 | ||||||||||
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Turtle Troubles | compo | 313 | 3.31 | 3.12 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.19 | 3.53 | 3.27 | 3.07 | 32 |
Great idea for the theme. The graphics were a little hard to interpret at first, but I like the style and once I got used to them they worked fine. I was upset/confused after fighting the monster, but then the ending happened and I felt better.
Another Mario-inspired entry where you play a turtle! We clearly had the best idea.
I thought you nailed the art and music style. It was very humorously satisfying to pull off a successful hit.
I appreciated how he changed up the jump occasionally, so it wasn't simply a game about hitting the timing perfectly without anything else going on. The challenge to get to 100 points, while simple, adds some replay value for the completionists, and was a smart idea.
I really like the art style, especially the square characters. The range of characters you can make just inside a square with blocks of color is actually pretty cool.
I like how there's an ending. A lot games similar to this might make it an infinite runner. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's also nice to have a set ending and feel accomplished.
Great idea for the theme; not only is it original, it gives you a whole framework for setting up these detective stories. The art was great, and I particularly liked the protagonist design.
The fights were frustrating at first, but after I approached it as solving the puzzle of their movement patterns vs. viewing it as a pure action sequence, I enjoyed them more.
A short finale sequence after solving all three cases would have been a nice capstone.
I like the humorous tone of the art, and the concept is clever.
Nice animation, although more animations for different attacks would have been nice. I thought the body part upgrade system was an interesting addition.
Incredible visuals. I especially loved the coloring and the way you used particles.
I wish there was more to the story, but I'll readily accept that you were going for understatement (or maybe I missed something).
Once I got the timing of the higher jump down, it was fun nailing them. I liked the smiling frogs, and the ghosts were an interesting addition. Ultimately, my main strategy was to avoid killing frogs so as to not have to deal with the ghosts.
I found the king very difficult. In fact, after trying a number of times, I downloaded the code and gave myself 300000000 health. Ironically, once I did that, I beat him without needing it, and beat him in the real version as well. I guess the trick is confidence.
Good music. Right from the beginning, it set a tone and drew me into the game. I'm impressed you wrote and recorded all that while still programming a game.
The main gameplay section got pretty difficult at times, but it wasn't punishing and didn't prevent you from moving on, so I was fine with it.
I was ready for a larger story, and was surprised when it ended so soon.
I really like this use of the theme. Not only is it an interesting twist on the theme phrase, but it attempts to speak to the player on a level most games don't attempt. I only wish it was more fleshed out, or wasn't hidden in a song. I missed the lyrics of most of the songs on my first playthrough, and replayed to it hear what was being said. On the other hand, maybe you liked the more subtle placement of the message.
Great music and art. Made me feel like I was playing one of the old Mega Man games. I laughed at some of the little details, like the top hat and the mustache flapping in the wind as you fell. Not to mention the rolling trees and sky people running for their lives.
Great mood, and cool idea of a tree growing through space to music. It'd be nice if the keys, the tree's growth, and the music were all connected better. (Also, it'd be good to credit the source of the music.)
Unlike some of the others, I didn't have any issues with the controls feeling backwards; they felt completely normal to me.
Great job. I've played it once, got to level 7, and was going to stop. But then I saw a comment refer to beating the game, and I had to go back and try again. Still died at 7, but I'll probably come back. If you actually can beat the game, it'd be good to let players know, so they're motivated from the start >:).
I really like how you took a simple rhythm game mechanic and layered a miniature RPG fight over it. While it doesn't *actually* change much (you still want to hit the buttons at the right time), it makes the player feel much more involved. It gives a clear sense of working toward a goal, with a definite end state (many rhythm games just go, without much change or arc, until the song ends). It'd be cool to develop the fight mechanic further.
Again, great job.
This is a perfect example of a game built on a simple, clean idea that, with quality and interesting level design and a smart selection of level gimmick mechanics, could become very good. Definitely keep working on it.
As it stands, the levels are a little too punishing. Work on building up the player's skill by introducing them to new mechanics and platforming challenges one at a time, before combining them all together. There's nothing wrong with a few easy short levels preparing the player for the difficult ones (and they keep the positive feedback loop going).
I love the art style, and especially how the solid white and black backgrounds interact with the solid white and back circle to form illusory contours (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_contours).
I like your take on the theme, and having the objects to keep away from obstacles is interesting. Collision detection feels pretty punishing; consider giving the player some grace distance before killing them. Good music!
Really cool idea. Solving a puzzle by programming a robot with a network has a lot of potential. I beat the first level; does the game have multiple levels, or is there only that one?
It took me a long time to figure out that I needed to right-click drag to connect nodes. More detailed instructions would be very helpful.