Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → rumor
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | precAIRious | jam | 735 | 3.53 | 3.53 | 2.95 | 3.63 | 3.30 | 3.63 | ||||
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Panda Smash | jam | 1099 | 3.55 | 3.31 | 3.75 | 4.00 | 3.95 | 3.56 | 4.10 | 3.76 | ||
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | Space Battle Zero | jam | 153 | 3.88 | 3.56 | 3.78 | 3.13 | 2.50 | 3.72 | ||||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Introvert vs. Extrovert | compo | 322 | 3.44 | 3.31 | 3.50 | 3.23 | 2.63 | 3.31 | 3.69 | 3.14 |
rumor leaves an average of 26.2 feedback comments each event.
Incredibly ambitious for a weekend's jam! Good No Man's Sky vibes. I managed to get as far as landing on a planet and finishing a resource extraction, but I'm not sure what to do next. The only option I can see is "stop extraction," but that doesn't seem to have an effect?
Wow, this is a compo game? Those graphics are nuts. I will say it feels a little too slow and needs more in-game feedback, but the latter is totally understandable for a game made in a weekend and the former is just my own impression. I understand if other players like the pace as-is. I think it's an incredible entry overall though, really polished and well-done. Nice work.
I think it's a shame you opted out of mood! In my interpretation of what that category means, I think your game does very well. It's a bit too challenging right out of the gate though. There's not enough feedback about what I'm doing right or wrong, and my happiness seemed to plummet instantly even if I didn't sacrifice anybody. I like @arkiruthis's suggestion to have the messages show up in a sort of log. But it's a good fit on theme, graphics are okay, and it's pretty complete overall. Not bad.
Surprisingly fun and challenging. I didn't see that running was an option at first and couldn't do any better than 5, but after I got the hang of it I managed 7 I think. It still seems really hard overall, especially since once I finally catch up to my target they can easily slip away in the crowd! It also seems like there's a bug where if I panic and click someone more than once I get a "whoops" even though they're already being sacrificed (guessing since they don't match with the new target description?). But yeah, I liked this a lot. I had my wife over my shoulder reading out the descriptions and helping spot while I drove, and we got really into it! Nice job.
Very nice. I like the FTL-like interface, made it easy to figure out what was going on quickly (though I wished I could pan the camera around independent of my character). Agree with @erasmus-crowley that you should only be able to click on the interactables when you're near them. Also found myself wishing for more depth to the interactions. But the graphics are clean and cute, the sounds are decent, and it plays well to the theme. Seems like a solid entry!
This is absolutely stellar for a compo submission. I'm impressed with the depth and balance of the game. @gurbx pointed out how frustrating it is when the fire spreads out of control and the way you eventually "make peace" with having to make sacrifices, and I agree completely. It's a brilliantly-done learning game in that way.
The rough edges are few and far between. It's not terribly clear that you need to click and drag to aim the plane. The tractor is so slow as to be basically useless after the first couple levels. Building fire breaks is an important containment tool so it'd be nice to see that option upgraded in some way on later levels to keep it viable (multiple tractors moving faster, something like that).
And it might be out of scope, but it could be interesting to add another layer on top with managing funding, like use your expensive options (helicopters and planes) less to retain more funds for later levels. Or other municipalities can lend you equipment later if you help them out now. But that's all pie in the sky. What you delivered is already fantastic, and very impressive. Great job!
I think you did a fantastic job on this. It is, no lie, the game I've spent the most time playing of the entire jam. The retro (we can call PS1-era retro, right?) graphics are perfect and perfectly-suited. Sound effects are sort of cute. You have a complete and fleshed-out game loop. The balance was a little too punishing on new or risk-taking players though. Skipping even a day's tribute can wipe out a week's worth of work, so it's less of a sacrifice and more of a tax. I also wish the controls were a little less fidgety. It was simply too difficult to focus on the square I wanted to sometimes. Quality-of-life improvements like streamlining tool changing would help a lot too. Maybe let me swap a tool for another instead of placing them back down on their original tables? Then I could optimize my layout for the things I actually use and stick the hoe in another area code. And cut me some slack stamina-wise if I fat-finger the button and do the same action twice on one square.
Overall though, brilliant entry. I'm impressed and thrilled it got made for this jam. Nothing else to say now but time for another play-through!
As others have stated the gameplay is a little lacking. There isn't much to do but cross my fingers and hope I don't get squished. I played a whole game where we just took turns rolling 4's and getting smashed immediately. (I think I won though.) And hitting spikes at the end after finally making good progress for 10+ turns is heartbreaking.
That said, you did an incredible job overall. The graphics are spectacular for a jam game, let alone compo, and you put a great deal of polish into this. With a little more work on interaction I could see it being outstanding!
I like your interpretation of the sacrifice mechanic. A lot of games have you sacrificing yourself, but in doing so you have to replay a lot of stuff you've already seen where here you're right back into the action. The goal is simple but clear and fun - I managed to climb pretty far in the leaderboards but expect to get stomped off quick as more people play! The aesthetic is cool and charming (I recommend adding a screenshot to your description to let potential players see this better). Controls can get a little frantic but are tight overall. Really nice work!
This is a really clever concept. I feel like the hitboxes could be a bit more forgiving and the game could use some checkpoints early on so I'm not replaying the same beginning stretch over and over, but yeah, super interesting overall and very fun. Nice work.
This is really catchy and complete for a compo game. I like it. My one suggestion is that there should be more feedback that the hammer is ready to throw. It shows when it's powered up but I think I just have to remember to hold it for a few seconds before it can be thrown. Good work overall!
The theme and graphics are fantastic. Gameplay is a little simplistic and, I felt, unforgiving. The touchiness of the controls and they way the platforms disappeared so abruptly at the bottom of the screen was kind of furstrating (typo... but I'm leaving it!). But it's fun enough and adorable, which is what really counts!
Thank you for being honest and forthcoming in your updates! To start, I also had some trouble with the controls, through the inertia is important to the experience it's just a bit *overboard* (heh... sorry). The UI is kind of hard to read at high resolutions. And I thought a laser was kind of a strange weapon choice, thematically wouldn't a gun or something work better? But you do a great job invoking a mood, especially with that distant music of the ship I'm chasing, and the creepy music that comes with the purple dot? Whew. The weapons have a good feeling of heft (thanks in no small part to a great fire sound effect) - I just wish there was a meter/timer to show my reload progress since it takes quite a while. Or maybe keeping with the theme, a way to fire early but at reduced strength (only a few cannons and not the whole broadside) and risk injuring some of the crew! Sorry, this is all coming out as constructive criticism. I think it's a really cool start and want to see more. If you keep going with this, feel free to keep posting updates (clearly marked as not your jam entry) if only so I can follow along and see how it blossoms! You did a good thing here. Yo ho!
Hmm, concept is easy to get right away, so that's cool. Good production value - menu, sounds, and music are really nice, and I like the visuals on the the swipe effect and bomb. I would have liked more oomph to the actual building-slicing though. Maybe some rubble noise, or the sprite actually cutting off and falling away (perhaps comically building up in the background?). Nice job overall!
Wow, you really have a lot of game here. I'm amazed you were able to put together all these different unit types, a map editor, level sharing, and everything else you have going on in one weekend. It looks pretty good, too! You could definitely use some polish, especially around in-game instruction and discoverability. I had no idea how to get tears at first and didn't know I could pick up animals until I re-read your description, for example. But there's a good deal of personality here, it's funny (what can I make with a pile of meat and bones? how about... a pile of meat and bones!), and it pretty much all works. Good job!
So uh, good job on the nightmare fuel. The controls are a little rough, it took some work to get the hang of actually moving and shooting where I wanted to. Maybe a custom cursor would help make it more clear, and you could change it when you're over a target to help players understand they're supposed to be shooting them. Cheers!
Wow, this is a very unique game. I dig it (though I'm also very bad at it). I have very few suggestions, it's a pretty perfect expression of your idea as-is. I wish the miner dug a bit faster. The intro is easy to accidentally click past, and I got stuck not knowing how to quit. Umm, that's pretty much it. Awesome graphics for what you're doing, good personality, good theme. Are you planning on doing more with it? I'd keep an eye on it for sure!
*Very* cool. Probably the tightest-controlling platformer of the jam. You have a flair for presentation, the polish level is superb. Great audio, good use of mood. I felt the checkpoint spacing was a little mean at first, but considering how much the difficulty ramps up it turns out I really needed those extra practice deaths early on. Really just an awesome job all around.
Nice game! I like the concept, it's creative and hits the jam theme well. You could have a bit more feedback in the beginning, especially pointing out where I'm supposed to go (the door kind of blends in with the other props). I also thought it would make more sense if you had to carry the stuff back to the ship, so there's some strategy to sacrificing folks to get parts a little closer for the next person. Right now I'm basically throwing bodies at it. And speeding up the cycle would be nice, so I don't have to spend so much time walking out the door when I respawn. But overall it's a really nicely done game. I had a good time anyway!
My strategy was simple: *eat the rich*. Unfortunately I forgot to pick their pockets before throwing them overboard and ended up with a pretty low score.
Anyway, nice little experience. It looks good, the music is nice and epic, and I won on only my second try! Thanks for this.
Saw this on Twitch and had to try it. Nice work! Your game has a ton of personality. Music is reasonably good (important considering the genre). Some of the art is going to give me nightmares though. It's fun, funny, and flies by. What more could you want?
Impressively full-featured arena FPS. I'm not sure why (considering the simple graphics) but the game ran pretty rough for me, which made it kind of difficult to move and aim reliably. Maybe my rig just can't handle those cubes and capsules. But the things that work work really well. The blue spray weapon is tons of fun to use, easily my favorite. All in all a pretty neat entry!
Nice step up from Pong! I really like the pixel art. Didn't see much connection to the theme (no real sacrifice involved), but it seems like you achieved what you set out to do and hopefully learned a good deal for next time. Good work.
Movement is brutally slow for me, maybe I'm doing something wrong? Cute premise and the retro graphics are neat (crossed with the hand-illustrated stuff makes it kind of creepy though!). Let me know when the vegetable farming gets implemented. π
Awesome, caught this on Twitch and had to try it for myself. Amazing work, even apart from being a compo game. Graphics especially are top notch. Tough but fair platforming, and thoughtful puzzle design. Don't know what else to say. I want to see more!
Rather than a cheatsheet, how about just telling me what color I'm going to get when I add them (by showing a ghost of the prospective color in the middle/merge area)? At least until I get the hang of things. Then I don't need to look at some intimidating chart. For that matter, maybe some way to see what a dot I already have is made from? Like right-click on burgundy to show a flyout of the colors that make it. Then I can learn how to do it myself without a ton of trail and error.
Anyway, enough with suggestions. You did a great job for 12 hours of work, more complete than many entries are after 48 (or 72!). Could definitely see this as an addicting mobile game with a bit more work on the feedback. Good job!
Impressively complete for a compo entry! Nice graphics and decent sound. The mechanic of sacrificing my battery is *clever*, but unfortunately running out of juice just isn't very fun. Scrap or lessen the charge cost to move (cost for lasers is fine). I wish the batteries had some indication of their blast radius before I shoot them. Blew myself up more than once. But I think you did good job across the board, and great on graphics, innovation and theme. Cheers!
I love this, big change of pace from most of the jam games. Really impressed by the complete (and easy-to-understand) interface, though it's a little finicky at times. As you're already aware the biggest issue is just the readability of the cards and discoverability of the mechanics. I think I lost 2 or 3 times before I figured out I completely overlooked *attacking*. D'oh. Just adding section names to the cards would help a lot, and some sort of quick explanation about attacking.
Other than that, I'm not sure what to add. Would like to see more depth and customization but it's a jam game, what's there is great work for a weekend. All in all a really respectable showing.
P.S. You should add some screenshots to your game description. It really stands out among the rest of the entries, but it's hard to tell that from a wall of text.
Cool puzzle game. Easy to get the hang of but challenging to think through some of the solutions. Excellent job on mood. What's the theme connection, that I'm sacrificing innocents by letting the deer get them? Since killing them is required it doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice. But yeah, I liked pretty much everything about it. Nice work.
Pros: - Great level of polish, nice game feel - Cool pixel graphics, consistent art style - Like the sound design and music - Good use of theme in theory (though I almost always died before I actually had to sacrifice any planets) - Most of all, it's fun!
Cons: - Font is kind of hard to read - Ending is too abrupt. I'd like to see my ship explode and planets fall to the enemy before "game over" pops up - Balance-wise it seemed my ship's shields were the bottleneck. Maybe if I could siphon shield energy off my planets, there'd be more of a "sacrifice" element to it and I could keep playing longer. At the very least my shields should recharge a bit during downtime or something.
Thoughts and suggestions: - I have a hard time with mouse aiming in games like this. I'd love the option to play with a controller as a twin-stick shooter - It'd be nice if the offscreen indicators communicated some level of urgency. Maybe bigger/darker arrows depending on how close the enemy is? Right now it's hard to tell which enemies to prioritize - It's almost impossible to take down big ships before they disgorge their fighters. It'd be nice if I could intercept them on their way in and take them out to save myself some mopping up later - Some more variety to the combat would be cool. You could add a superweapon on right-click (like a bomb that wipes out all nearby enemies) or maybe hold down left-click to charge my beam up Mega Man-style
Overall one of the better entries I've played, and one of the few I could see myself going back and playing more. Very nice work.
Whoa, this is actually pretty cool. It definitely needs more UI so I can understand what's happening, but a networked brawler is a really impressive accomplishment for a game jam! You should add some screenshots of the actual gameplay to your description to draw more players and maybe a quick walkthrough of how to get a match started (I just hit "host" and played against some bots I think). Nice job!
Yeah you're missing some files. It should look something like this altogether:
Whaaat. I gotta admit I'm not normally into this type of game, but it's super interesting to see here and refreshingly different. Neat story, and good job setting a mood. In terms of user experience it was mostly nice, but the individual letters bit was just frustrating, maybe after the first few switch to regular text with a lot of ellipses in between the letters? I think I lost some of the words clicking through that part. Also a minor bug, image "bg streets A" didn't load for me. Again, cool story and experience though. "I really like physics, so I do it a lot" might be my favorite video game dialog of the jam. Nice work!
SPACE GAMES! Really nice game you've got here, fellas. The sound design is top-notch, it's on theme, and you do a great job evoking a mood. There are a bunch of little tweaks and quality of life improvements I could suggest, but I'm sure you had most of them and more on your "todo" list. The one thing I'll say that I sorely missed was a summary screen after an encounter. If I'm gambling on an outcome, I can't easily tell how it went by which bars went up or down 1%. Let me know if I rolled a 6 or a 1! Also some indication of how much of each resource was represented aside from numberless bars. Do I want to give up 2 fighters or 150 people? I don't know, how many do I have of each? 150 sure sounds like a lot. (Anyway, the answer is always trash the fighters. I have like a bajillion of them apparently.)
Very cool game though. I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for making it!
I was pleasantly surprised! You have a cool, fully-functional game and it looks pretty good. (Just a heads up, consider adding some pictures to your listing so people know what you have to offer!) I think the balance is a bit off - the wraith meter is really aggressive in the beginning, but once I got my town hall leveled up a couple stages it basically never went down again. I just built a ton of stuff, raked in resources, and cruised to an easy victory. Nice job for a weekend's work, you two.
It's a little bare-bones right now. Is there anything more you wanted to do with it if you had more time? I liked when the goats showed some spunk and ran away; they could get quicker and more panicky over time. And instead of being endless, how about a time limit so I have to keep up my sacrifice rate or lose the game. The damage rate was a little too slow, too. Maybe if I stayed focused on a goat for longer, or hit it more with the center of my beam, it would sacrifice faster? That way there'd be an element of skill involved. Anyway, nice job finishing! Cheers!
Hey, interesting concept. It seems like you tried to do just a bit too much. The expansive deathmatch arena is nice and the characters have some personality which is cool. But it's really unforgiving with how long I can carry someone before they break out of my hold, and how many hits I can take. Please make sure to include a way to quit gracefully next time though so I don't have to CTRL+ALT+DEL to exit. Cheers!
The core of the idea, where you have a character traversing a card-map and have to make choices/sacrifices, is really promising. I think the most fitting mechanic to add, and the one that gives you the most depth with the fewest additions, is to have each player add or remove a card from the board every turn (or maybe every season?). I could see players luring each other into traps, rescuing themselves from being stranded, and carefully choosing their paths and sacrifices around their draws.
I'm not sure the "interactions" are really that compelling even if you added more, since the math is currently too simplistic (-1 of one kind of point for +2 of another kind of point is still just +1 point in the end). If building up a lot of a certain *kind* of point unlocked additional abilities, then I could see it being cool. Maybe something like the character with more reputation (i.e. higher status in the monastery) can push the other player off their square, or getting your learning over 5 doubles the value of squares in the library/study for your character.
Good luck going forward! Once I wrapped my head around the rules I got kind of into it, so I'd definitely be interested playing a fleshed out version in the future.
Devious! I'll be honest, I wish there was more feedback about why my attempts to change formation weren't working (I eventually got the hang of it after studying the layout charts closer - red shirt guy is the key). But it gets tricky fast, and it's rewarding when everything "clicks," which is just what you want out of a puzzle game. Nice job. (PS. Congrats on clearing 20 ratings!)
I get why strategy games don't usually make you play as a peon - it's kind of boring. But I really appreciate the little guys' sacrifice so much more now!
As for the game overall? Wow. Great job on the aesthetics (it reminds me a bit of the Xbox 360 game *Kingdom for Keflings*) and you wonderfully captured the mood of Warcraft with those grunts. The looming players are just awesome imagery. If you want to keep going with this I agree that there needs to be something to actually do while walking from A->B, but as a jam entry? I'm so glad this got made. Props.
Oh man, those enemies are brutal! You did a good job on mood and were on point with the theme. The platforming mechanics were actually better than a lot of games I've tried so far (and good work on the Yoshi's Island style aiming system - works great). Overall, not bad!
Popping in after seeing your game on Twitch! Nice graphics, but it really did a number on my computer even at the lowest quality setting. But pushing through I really enjoyed the puzzle elements, and it's got a ton of personality and charm. The song is genius of course, but even just the Zelda-style "in the beginning" animation, only with sacrificing goats instead of Triforce lore? Really sweet.
Nice entry, an FPS is a welcome change of pace! The minion idea is really cool. I like having bots fighting on my side, although I also got confused about them turning on me. If you're amenable, you can always release a patch version that patches the bot color issue? And just a heads-up, your PC build seems to be missing some files and won't run for me. But even as-is this is a really promising showing for a compo game.
I see an awesome idea that needs just a little more time to be fully realized. The building was awesome, but throwing me right into it without any idea of how stuff will be used... well, let's just say my first ship ended up backwards! But you've got a really cool concept with a lot of incredibly complex systems working impressively well. Damn fine job for a weekend's work friends.
Yeah, I tried to play and got the same error. Seems you missed a few files when packaging your game for upload? @ me if you fix it and I'll give it another try.
Yes, it's very Missile Command. I did like the twist that you had to sacrifice something (your shields, and in effect one of your cities) to get more ammo. I wish my shots moved a little faster and didn't stop halfway up the screen though, and that I had a "nuke everything" option I could deploy when things got really hairy. But a good effort overall.
I... what? I just tried to explore the cave! Why did you make me do those things? You're sick!
In all seriousness, I see what you were going for. It was a little hard to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but hey, I don't think beating the game is really the point here. Audio was pretty decent, it's on theme, and you did a good job on mood!
I gave it a test drive but it doesn't seem to be in a terribly playable state right now. @ me if you release an update and I'll give it another go!
Really cool idea, I can't believe nobody else has noticed it yet. I had a little trouble making progress since my keyboard doesn't have a right-ctrl button. But swinging rope and sliding blocks are platformer mechanics I can get behind, and I like that you blended puzzles and action instead of going all one way or the other. And I know from experience that pulling off multiplayer in a jam game is tough. Awesome job!
Really fun idea, though yeah a bit too real at times. I wish there were some other ways to recharge motivation besides wasting time on a game. Maybe a combo bonus if you get on a hot streak developing? Nothing is more motivating than seeing a project come together. But I honestly had fun with this over several playthroughs. Nice work!
I really liked the concept and progression. The controls I thought were a little too finicky. Even with all the stability upgrades, my lightest stage would flip almost immediately. When I finally won it was basically just luck (and persistence). But it's a nice game for sure, with a lot of room to expand. Keep it up!
Liked: suckin' up sheep, spittin' out platforms. Really cool concept, and a lot of fun to do! Nice innovation angle.
Didn't like: platforming controls. They were just too finicky. And some gaps were too small to easily fall through, so I had to run back and forth trying to convince gravity I wasn't on solid ground anymore.
Cool game overall, I'll definitely be giving it another play tomorrow!
I love the theme, fire and ice is super easy to understand and lends itself well to "sacrifice." Since you mentioned you were a beginner, some things to look out for in future projects:
-Holding down forward and sideways to run makes you run faster than either direction by itself. Normalize your movement direction before adding it to your position to keep a constant run speed in all directions.
-Restarting by pressing R didn't reset my life counter. Also, dying reset my life before repositioning and sometimes the baddies would get one last hit in between the reset and reposition, so I'd start with 7 life instead of 10. I ended up having to waste all my shots to reset for real.
-You could fix the aim feeling "off" by firing from the center instead of the arm, so from the game's perspective you're firing straight forward, but offset the graphics for the fireball so users still see it coming from the hand.
Still a really good entry, you should be proud! Can't wait to see your next game. π
Hah, those puzzles ramp up fast! The red wall took me a minute to figure out. The first one with green took ages, but not because of the puzzle (I actually thought the green block was a great way to hint there was another character you needed to seek out). Rather, the platforming mechanics made it *really* frustrating. I was severely wishing for some [ledge forgiveness](http://kpulv.com/123/Platforming_Ledge_Forgiveness/), or a checkpoint or rewind system. It's tough when you know just what to do and but simply can't pull it off.
But it's a clever game for sure. Good puzzles, lots of promise. I like it!
@jessicawall I think you can only carry like 11 of each color elf, and then any more of that color just get sucked past you instead of sucked up.
Neat little game for sure. I got confused and thought I was breaking something when my jumps just turned into flying, and then I *did* break something when I flew over the top of the level and right off the bottom of the world. Luckily I could fly though, and made it back okay. I also wish I ready the instructions beforehand. I wasted a lot of time on low-level elves near the chipper when I should have been exploring the bowels of the level hunting yellows.
Overall, yeah, it's a little simple. But it made me smile, and that's pretty great.
It got a lot easier once I figured out I had to hold down the left mouse button to attack and not just click really fast. It's kind of hard to find my way around though. Even once I did find the right altars, the world is too big and looks too similar to make navigation easy. Simplest thing I'd suggest is just adding a wayfinding arrow that points to the correct altar for the spider type I'm holding. Or you could throw in a couple of unique objects as landmarks (recognizable rocks, a big weird-looking tree, lakes, whatever) that I could use to build a mental map - oh there's that one rock, that means the altar I need is up and to the left! That sort of thing. Good job overall though!
I really dig the art style, very clean. I wish there was a bit more feedback when farmers are assigned to a building, and that the gods weren't so brutal about destroying all my crops right away. Give me a little time to get going first. Now the gods are angry, I have no food, and all my farmer wants to do is throw away broken pumpkins! I think I'm not very good at this game. π
But good work overall. Perfect scope for a jam game - simple to pick up but takes a little figuring out, some nice polish, and a good expression of the theme. Cheers!
I think it's pretty clear that you rocked it on polish. The motion graphics are spectacular, and the effects give it a ton of personality.
In terms of feedback, I found myself wishing slow-mo was a keyboard button or something a lot. I kept getting my wires crossed frantically clicking between the two mouse buttons and frequently messed it up. As another commenter @shweep pointed out this made it tough to find a rhythm. But I could see this playing spectacularly on a touchscreen, aiming with one finger and pressing an on-screen button for slow-mo with the other. Please keep going with it!
Wow, this bear mom is more supportive than my actual mom!
Really incredible job here. I love the theme and aesthetics, and it's got a ton of charm and personality. My biggest request would be to add a bit of [ledge forgiveness](http://kpulv.com/123/Platforming_Ledge_Forgiveness/). It's heartbreaking to run off a ledge and waste my double-jump because I hit jump a tenth of a second too late. Also, the hints could be better placed. I sometimes tried a level for whole minutes before I gave up in frustration, only for the hint to finally tell me about a mechanic I needed but hadn't been told about yet. You could have told me that 5 minutes ago.
But yeah, the frustrations are the exceptions that prove this game rules!
@pancakefriday, can you help me with an issue I'm having? I'm intrigued by the concept and I've tried to play several times, but every time I reach a self-sacrifice door I get stuck writing my epitaph. I simply can't click on "send" and no button presses seem to do the trick either. For reference, I've tried in both the Win64 and Win32 builds.
Wow, cute game fellas. Really dig the art style, and the humor is great - that grinning face indifferently scavenging its robot kin for parts? Adorable.
I didn't read any of the disclaimers going in and managed to figure out scavenging restored health and how to attack, but didn't see any real feedback on whether I was doing the right thing. How many cows do I have to defeat, and what's my progress? I also started to get stuck a lot as the game went on. It wasn't clear whether this was a mechanic (did my treads wear out?) or a navigation bug. But considering where you're coming from and everything you put into it, I'd say good job overall!
I was originally a little put off that it seemed so blatantly inspired by Papers Please, but actually did a really good job of making it your own. Nice political commentary, plenty of humor but also some feels. I'm not sure what it says that my bleeding-heart strategy of open borders got me fired almost immediately, but just rejecting everyone out of hand wins 1 out of 3 objectives. When in doubt, be heartless?
I too liked how you can control the character and their attacks independently. The running is a bit of a slog. But the biggest thing that would make it immediately better and more clear is just some feedback that you're damaging the enemies. I thought for sure I wasn't doing anything until I stumbled on to killing them with multiple hits. Definitely some real touches of brilliance in there though, great job.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the game to run. It crashes on startup in both Opera and Edge.
Opera: "An error occurred running the Unity content on this page. ... The error was: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'buffer' of undefined"
Edge: "An error occurred running the Unity content on this page. ... The error was: Unable to get property 'buffer' of undefined or null reference"
Lots of great feedback so far, it seems most of the things I wanted to mention got covered already. I'd just reiterate the importance of a jump tolerance (ability to jump even if I'm slightly off a platform) and checkpoints. The first time I died on the last platform before the end of a stage I about cried.
But you've got a really fun platformer here. I really liked the pixel art - except the space shuttle, *space shuttles do not work that way!* :P - and you have an excellent mix of obstacles and mechanics. More simply (and more importantly), it's fun!
The art and sound are excellent and very fitting. I won on maybe my third try, but it wasn't a very satisfying win, I think I just got lucky. It needs something more to it so there's an element of skill. But I mean, it was made in a weekend. And turned out super charming. Definitely more to like than to dislike here, nice job!
Legitimately good. I liked the depth of the mechanics, and you really executed the idea wonderfully. I did get confused about what was going on in the ranged levels (more feedback there would be nice), and agree that you too quickly expanded the board as the small levels were the most compelling. Still, totally something I'd play more of. Fantastic work.
I think the biggest thing this needs is just more feedback. I got completely stuck, wondering why I couldn't bury anyone in my fancy new grave or why the fancy man couldn't just go in a plain hole in the ground. But what's there is surprisingly fun, and really charming. I like it a lot!
Good if not mind-blowingly original use of the theme, gameplay is easy to pick up but offers a touch of challenge, pretty good overall. But the thing I really enjoyed was the playfulness of it. I totally believed the intro was setting up a very different mood and laughed out loud from the fake-out. Genuine 5* on humor from me!
I was pretty confused about what I was doing. Why does kicking people produce reviews? Where am I getting the other reviews from? They seem to pop in whenever. It needs more feedback in general. Did I do a good job collecting X number of reviews on a level, or not?
On the other hand, I love the creative idea and use of theme. The cute, simple visuals really fit the game well. Neat concept with good execution!
Simple and fun, exactly what I hope for in a good jam game. Easy to pick up, a little bit of challenge, and plenty of personality. Nice work!
Impressive amount of detail in the graphics, even the lights and vents look amazing. The controls feel a little sluggish, mainly because it's too easy to move too little (just turn in place) or too much (overshoot my target). Still, great execution, consistent theme, and a ton of polish - really well done!
Really addicting and very complete! Nice ramp-up of challenge and adding new obstacles. Once the spiky blocks showed up it started to get too hard for me, but still very fun. Good job!
Looking past the basic presentation, it's actually pretty fun! The biggest thing I'd change: I wish the blocks already resting on the ground weren't fatal to touch. The point is mostly to miss the falling blocks, and getting done in by rogue brushes with inert blocks was more frustrating than fun. I get how that meets the theme (running out of space), but you could accomplish the same effect by them penning you in, a sitting duck for falling blocks.
But for real, good effort. Enjoyed my quick solo sessions and would totally give it a spin with the full 4 players!
Oh man, those hitboxes are not forgiving! I got plucked pretty hard. Cute and straightforward otherwise. Needs a little meat on the bones, but I'm not going to lose my head over it. Eggcellent start.
I liked it also! Very promising concept. I agree with others that more intent to the randomness would be nice, but I think a better change would be to remove the time element entirely. You already have a fun and compelling "time" with the move/shrink mechanic. Sharpening the focus a bit and playing to the core mechanic's strengths could actually make it much deeper overall. Maybe enemies/obstacles that only move when you do, but in predictable ways so you can plan your maneuvers around them and to the expanders? Anyway, I like what you've got so far!
I was really confused that I kept warping into new systems already out-of-bounds and dying. But the general idea is refreshing and fun. Execution is pretty great (good sense of urgency and jumping between macro & micro goal) and you knocked it out of the park on aesthetics. Great job overall!
I admit I didn't "get it" at first, but I came around. The art is really pleasing, and you do an excellent job of invoking a mood. I wish there was a little more feedback that hitting space bar actually does anything (some vignettes were more clear than others).
Super cute aesthetic. Concise and fleshed-out micromanagement and progression. Fairly challenging to juggle it all. Who knew beekeeping could be so stressful?
That starfield is really nice looking, and I like how easy it was to pick up and play. It's pretty easy to cheese by sticking to the bottom wall and hoping for the best. But considering the short dev cycle you did a great job!
I had a really hard time getting any higher than level 3 or so. Dropping a new layer seems to be the hardest part for me, since it's very unclear where it's going to end up. When it works and I can actually pull off the placements I'm trying for it's really fun though!
I like it! Actually came back to play it a second time. It goes from too hard (not enough feedback) to too easy (more money than I know what to do with) too quickly. But in between it's very compelling! I'm especially proud of my mountaintop cluster of laboratories. Those elitist scientists in their ivory towers... saving the world!
Really love the graphical style! The controls are challenging but in a good way. Progression needs some work - my heart sank after I got the upgrades and saw how much junk was left to collect. The teapot is a nice touch.
Good take on running out of space! Controls well and pretty complete in terms of features. Another attack type would be really useful, especially something lateral. The fire trail expansion could be more fun if it was temporary, so you could to "weather the storm" of a miss and earn your way back to some breathing room by playing well. Nice job overall.
LD49 — Unstable (20)
Under P'ARRRR by Fear Games 2021-10-06T19:23:28Z ♥ 2
Okay, this is pretty damn genius. Just the fact that the boat floats ahead a bit with momentum like a golf ball? Perfect, the kind of perfect that makes me kick myself someone else thought of it first. I'd love to see this fleshed out - maybe with waves or even whirlpools that affect the "terrain"? So many possibilities, which is the mark of a brilliant concept. And the execution during the jam is impeccable, too. Just wow!
Tower of Idols by simex 2021-10-06T19:08:49Z ♥ 1
I dig it! Really clever and original, with lots of strategic potential. It really hits its stride with more abilities and having to balance saving followers and smiting heretics.
I only wish I could have more feedback or visibility of what my moves will do - like play time forward and then reverse, or track past trajectories of pieces in flight - to break out of the "pause, play a microsecond, pause again" loop. I think it could also benefit from limiting how many moves you have access to to up the difficulty.
But that's like v2 stuff, what's there is already rock solid. Which is more than can be said for the followers' building skills!
Banana Republic: Nuclear Power Plantain by LandoSystems 2021-10-06T17:01:42Z ♥ 3
Awesome game - little bit of Peggle, little bit of Angry Birds, and a whole lot of originality to bring it together. The humor and style are top-notch, too!
Cursed Duality by harusame 2021-10-06T16:22:13Z ♥ 4
Incredible idea for mixing two genres. Personally, I was terrible at it since I needed almost all of my attention for the platforming side and couldn't pay attention to the block puzzle aspect much at all, let alone use that information to inform how I jumped. For sure someone will be great at this and I'll be glad to watch them play, but that person's not gonna be me. π
Go Hard! by bernard-bumblebutt 2021-10-06T16:14:28Z ♥ 1
I liked the idea of having to juggle the meters, but in practice the ammo ran out way too fast and recharged way too slow. Even being judicious with my shots I ran out constantly. Then I'd circle back around to fire at someone on my tail and I still wouldn't even have a single shot charged, so I'd crash into them and lose a heart. It would be nice if a single-shot amount recharged faster than the rest so at least I could take a shot or two in those instances instead of constantly fleeing and waiting. But the frustration was mostly borne out of really liking the shooting, so clearly you did an excellent job on the game feel. This would be incredible with a bit more balancing!
Unstable Ground by gamepopper 2021-10-06T16:02:46Z ♥ 2
I saw your development posts pop up a few times during the jam and was really jealous of such a beautifully simple and succinct idea for this theme. It turned out great, too! I will admit it wasn't always clear why my people were dying off - I was more focused on the physical balancing. But still - fun!
SHORT FUSE by ToxicHouse 2021-10-06T15:51:45Z ♥ 1
Short and sweet. I like the duality of running out of time making you actually run faster, which can be a lifesaver in getting to that extra wick, but also potentially harder to control and easier to mess up. Would definitely benefit from more levels that make you explore that, like letting your wick run down to be fast enough to run over some collapsing ground or something. But for something made in a weekend you did a fine job. π
Unstable Pinball by T C 2021-10-06T15:47:13Z ♥ 3
I agree that the ball is a little slow and the natural flow lines don't match up with the targets, so making progress can be excruciating. But I powered through anyway because the pinball implementation is remarkably well done and I wanted to see where the narrative went. Congrats on getting as far as you did in a weekend, overall a job well done!
Jumpy Train! by Szkocka 2021-10-06T14:53:32Z ♥ 1
Little hard to see what's happening since it's so dark, but a nice infinite runner nevertheless. Who knew a train was the perfect vehicle for an on-rails action game? π
U-49 Meltdown by Blue Pin Studio 2021-10-06T14:46:50Z ♥ 2
This is adorable. A uranium rod escapes a reactor to go cool off and then... go back to the core it just escaped from? Is it just doing its little part to stop the meltdown? I love it!
It could use a prompt at the start to follow the arrow - I definitely ran right into the abyss at first because I assumed it was a standard left-to-right platformer. But once I got the hang it was pretty straightforward to speedrun. The audio logs are a good temptation to break from that "just get to the end" mentality! Great use of limited scope to tell a bigger story.
Unstable Genius by Doc Kaos 2021-10-06T14:36:47Z ♥ 1
I loved this! Charming and weird in the best of ways. Really funny and fun to play, too. Ace jam game.
BALANCE BLOCK BATTLE by squigglez 2021-10-06T14:18:41Z ♥ 2
I totally love the idea of a fighting game that's not about fighting, and this is a really creative use of the theme. Top notch!
Untrailed by bakuchi 2021-10-06T14:16:41Z ♥ 2
Oh man this is awesome
Honeycam 2021-10-06 16-14-05.gif
I've got a rhythm going! π
Karawan by Rongo Matane 2021-10-06T13:59:29Z ♥ 3
This feels really unique to me, like a PvE board game. Really fun and thought-provoking, with lots of room to replay and test out different strategies. One of the best I've seen so far!
Cynthia and the Forest Restaurant by CloudLunar 2021-10-06T13:41:45Z ♥ 1
The atmosphere and mood of the game are awesome, super chill and satisfying. I liked unlocking progressively more complex recipes and figuring out how to make them well.
It's a little hard to see what's happening at night since everythingg is so dark, and the interactables can stack in a way that makes it hard to select the one you want (like when the cat walks in front of the storage cabinet). Also, I wish there was a consistent way to exit the current menu - right now it's usually the last number in a list, but that is different depending on what you interact with, which can be confusing. Making the controls a bit more consistent and simple would really amplify the sit-back-and-relax vibe that the game already excels at!
Meltdown by LouieJams 2021-10-06T13:24:42Z ♥ 1
Nice job, straightforward and engaging. If you keep going with it I'd wish for a bit more ramp-up in the difficulty, or some overarching goal that capped off a level and then more stages/layouts after that.
CryptoCoaster by the.jahn 2021-10-05T20:45:06Z ♥ 1
A fun, accessible game that perfectly fits the theme of the jam. The idea isn't unique, but the perfect execution definitely is. An enviable effort and a really fun game!
50 Crowns for 50 Kings by juxipolo 2021-10-05T19:50:30Z ♥ 2
What are you doing to me man? This is so addicting. I came in first and still wanted to "one more turn" a few (too many) times just to see how feasible it was to control a whole continent. I see elements of Diplomacy and Risk, but with plenty of innovation and uniqueness. Plus, just super execution for a jam game. There's so much in this and yet you managed to cram in enough polish and quality of life to make this feel like a proper game. If anything there's a little too much to keep track of, especially on a first try, but I love what I saw and would gladly come back for more.
ALL PLANED by pythong 2021-10-05T17:45:09Z ♥ 2
Wow, the graphics on this are something else! Brilliant scenery and effects, and the art style of the little Pikuniku people is adorable. If I had one complaint it was that it was a little too easy - I managed to land with sixteen survivors on my first try. But I'm glad to have played it, and to find myself in rare air with another awesome wobbly βοΈ game!
Vive la rΓ©volution by felixwentzel 2021-10-05T17:00:34Z ♥ 2
Creative idea for an RTS-like (RTesque?) and excellent out-of-the-box use of theme. I like the use of real-world locale too! Strategically, I found it too easy to push all the enemies to the dome, where I could send in small molotov hit squads that did huge damage to the blue crowds with minimal casualties for myself. Managed to win on just my second try, so that's neat!
Also it seems like there's a bug where the cursor will get stuck indicating something like throwing even when I don't have anything selected, and it makes it difficult to select (or change my selection?) of items. If it's intended, I found it kind of confusing / hard to control.