Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → rokasv
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | Path | jam | ||||||||||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | Merhygen | jam | 425 | 3.30 | 3.21 | 3.21 | 3.52 | 3.83 | 2.83 | 1.80 | 3.26 |
Don't make people install small games. Window was a bit too big for a 720p screen. The portal graphics are the best thing about the game. The music is very repetitive and I feel that I've seen the gravity switching mechanic somewhere already. Collision boxes seem too big for some items and too small for others. Keep pushing, young dev.
The lack of a screenshot kills a lot of potential attention and I'm glad mine wasn't part of that lot.
Got amazed just by the slickness and the options available in the menu screen. "And the garage." is pretty good. I don't read much beyond scientific papers or in-game text and found the story/text/wording easy and fun to follow, the amount of it was just enough to keep up the interest and not switch to TLDR mode. The sound effects are great, only the lack of them sometimes is inconsistent (nitpicking, I'd probably have picked an earth rumbling sound over an unhinged window/car door rattle for the earthquake).
The menu is sexy, text is good, add an image to the game to not make it look sketchy, because it isn't.
Took me 2.5 minutes to realize I have to click the jelly for the action menu. Having to restart the game manually on losing is dreadful. There is no reason for the action menu to exist (apart from the cool smooth-in animation) because you've got the same icons at the bottom. Happiness is free, making it only an exercise in clicking. Colors are -solid-, same goes for icons and music. My ghost evolved.
The main problem is that the stats aren't connected and the gameplay boils down to "Fill fork - refill happiness - fill pear - refill happiness - do code twice - repeat" and once you figure out a game, there's no incentive to keep playing it other than for the curiosity of the evolutions, which you would probably just look up online.
The music fits the game well. The bleep on question mark click is too loud. The font is very difficult to read, but the rest of the aesthetic is rock solid. It makes sense, at least in this version, to automatically research the creature on click. Not quite sure why I was able to keep researching the same type of creatures over and over again as long as I switch up the species. Would enjoy this with proper descriptions of what's happening and more atmosphere building.
Just barely scraped the 2 minutes from the 3rd try. The visuals are great and WASD rotation felt pretty smooth. Not a fan of the pixel-perfect thunderbolting, although holding the mouse makes it a bit easier. The exact point interactions aren't very clear - how do the humans reduce and the trees increase the points. An ambient track would have likely improved this drastically. The hill/waterfall structure had me curious. I'd probably have reduced the planet size even more so the consequences of the actions are more obvious. The concept is great.
Smoothest game I've played yet. The controls are fantastic and so are the particles and other visual effects. As I'm sure you're aware the whole does not take in the balls immediately even if they're directly directly at the center. This swings the massive planets around, usually into walls, which then you have you machine gun away from if the size is beyond that of a pebble, making the gameplay frustrating. No swinging on direct shots and some levels would probably make this a game I'd play for hours or until completion without noticing the time pass.
This is the game I've been the most engaged with. The plucked notes give an amazing eerie atmosphere. Didn't immediately understand how the aiming mechanic works (that you have to stand over the cannon), but even without that it was fun. Once I got that figured out angling the shots to circle the planet felt pretty satisfying. The notes ring only on the Right channel, realized playing with only my left earphone in. Turns out you get the white metal only when the rocks crash into the planet - that's not obvious. And the game crashed after around 10 mins on losing at the center of a planet with many turrets at the same place.
It's fun and the worms-like terrain is well done.
Don't know why but I enjoyed the background of the initial level a lot. That and the Scene Entry sound effect. The slimes don't take any damage from the spikes - better have some lore for that. Would have preferred to jump with Space or W. The cinematic effects add a lot to the game and don't feel quirky or out of place. Was prepared for a boss battle, but then the game ended. I'd play a longer version.
Intro camera work was pretty good, but did not quite ease into the final view, there was a jump at the end. I would have expected for C to also close the anvil dialogue or moving away from it would do it, but it required Esc to be pressed, which is not in the controls. I REALLY liked the atmosphere when moving into the dungeon. The camera is mostly useless, would probably prefer it to follow me behind my back or point to things I'm attacking. It's also hard to tell what am I fighting, but at least the healthbars help with the damage indication. When in the world view (and possibly when they update) it would be nice to see the collected resources. Played up to a steel sword (4 levels?). Had fun, but stopped using mouse for movement due to the camera - would be nice to have a keyboard button for attacking.
Overall, fix camera, add stuff and it's gonna be good.
--EDIT-- Forgot to mention that it reminded me of the times grinding in WoW, which felt pretty good.
Sequential experiences:
Launched on a 720p screen, bottom 20 pixels permanently hidden by the taskbar, frustration ensues, at least Alt-Enter worked. Walking animations make dust on any surface. Music is alright, but short and does not quite loop seamlessly. Standing in front of others is odd initially. Typing sound is inconsistent. Pressing Z on last message cancels interaction before finishing writing the text. Why is everyone shouting!!!!!!! The mystery was quite shallow and the game hanged on exit. The bartender doing it himself would have made more sense.
With a more clever mystery I'd likely enjoy figuring it out. It's alright.
Please don't make people install small games.
The visuals and audio are superb and the intro scenes are well done and had me hooked. The difficulty once the police after you is well balanced, but once you figure out that the search helicopters can be shot down with the lazer, the game becomes too easy - never got spotted in Los Angeles or New York with 328% heat. Accidentally did get spotted in Sweden and faced the wrath of civilian bombers, but the level was short enough to just run through. Never felt the need to use the hiding mechanics, but loved their sprites.
Apart from the mechanics everything's of high quality.
The screen is offset too much on a 720p laptop monitor. In general, it's very easy to click outside of the game window and scroll off, messing up the game, the lack of boundaries don't help either. The movement is glitchy, can feel the defaults - holding one direction will start humping a wall and won't stop when released or if the wall is destroyed. The art is beautiful and the sound effects are alright. Never seemed to need the dodge/roll and there's no apparent goal.
Enjoyed the idea of sending messages to other systems. The atmosphere, what's most important to me in a game, is well done. The gameplay on the other hand is too luck based, at times you get to 28% power without any of the stars pointing to anything. It's attractive and can easily be expanded with more communication mechanics.
Found the Sand, Caves, Forest, Sea levels. Visuals are fine and the variations per area are obvious. Not a fan of the floating traversal mechanics and would have rather had the game be silent than listen to the occasional gasps of air. After long enough you also realize that the character is glued to the center of the screen.
The variety drives the game though and I'm only disappointed not one of the levels had anything hidden in the see below the actual platforms.
The screen was too big, could not see the intro texts. More importantly, could also not skip the intro, which had me thinking that it got stuck, to confirm I alt-tabbed to check for non-existent controls, only to come back to a different screen. You had 1 sentence per image and held it for what felt like a minute. The actual game itself works, albeit it's a rather simple obstacle avoider. The best thing I got is the model of the planet. There's quite a bit more to do before it's a game, but at least it somewhat works.
Not a fan of "hunt the verb" games by default, by powered through this one to make sure I'm not missing something. I'd provide a list of actionable objects and available actions and the allow the player to perform them as they. That's probably not the convention and having most of the information hidden is part of the charm for some, but the description saying "There is a hole in the wall" and "examine hole" producing "You can't see any such thing." is frustrating. Need map. Wondered around for a while, failing the commands reminded me why I don't tend to play text games. It's probably not bad for what it is and it's just my predisposition.
Tried to kill myself on the altar "Violence isn't the answer to this one.". I thought a large feature of text games is that you can do anything and then suffer the consequences. If that's not the case you don't even need to think what to do - just guess the commands until something works, because if it doesn't, it means you're not meant to do it.
All the sprites are blurry. Typo - *Discomfort. Glad WASD is allowed. The sound effects are top-notch, the art would probably be too with nearest-neighbour scaling. The mechanics are simple to grasp, though I'm glad that in real life you don't tend to get hungry that fast while in the toiled. If it weren't for the general glithciness when interacting with the boxes I'd be inclined to keep pushing. Stacking boxes let you visit your upstairs neighbours, that would probably spike the discomfort to the max.
Starts sort of full-screen but not quite, making it partially hidden due to some offset. Music is very loud. Dropped down the bridge, got the intro message, thought "oh it's just like that cool flash game I played years ago" and then fell through the floor. Second time the same thing happened after the jumping prompt, but now the player also slid off the screen. Third time playing I made sure to use the sizing mechanics only when needed and absolutely necessary and managed to complete the whole thing.
Physics engines are a beast to control, but you either tame it ir not mess with it at all. Would play again.
You're bold making puzzles which seem like the game isn't running properly, which is common in short jams. Once you do the first segment, it's less likely the game is buggy and becomes more interesting. Managed to get the game to render the menu properly - colors, window sizing, refreshing. Not sure how to "run" it.
I looked up the code to figure it out, but then got: Capture.PNG Which is due to you trying to look up the boss file. It was either not exported with the game or I failed the test to generate it.
Your audience is very niche.