Dr & Dr by Daniel Jenikovský 2019-10-08T12:42:39Z
Interesting concept. I was in awe of the scope of the game for a while there...
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Samuel Hollywood-Summers
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57 | Depths | 👥 | The Depths of Winter: Survive Until Spring | jam | 700 | 3.15 | 3.41 | 3.04 | 2.60 | 3.34 | 3.52 | 3.50 | 3.52 |
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | 👥 | Camouflage Garage | jam | 475 | 3.61 | 3.68 | 3.65 | 3.89 | 4.21 | 3.34 | 3.54 | 3.47 |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | Geiger Cubes | jam | 1500 | 2.52 | 2.52 | 2.12 | 1.97 | 3.53 | 1.95 | 2.66 | ||
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | Songwriter's Block | jam | 1509 | 2.85 | 2.54 | 1.91 | 2.66 | 3.08 | 3.74 | 2.60 | 3.05 | |
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | 👥 | I am pet | jam | 1417 | 3.40 | 3.07 | 3.14 | 3.95 | 3.51 | 4.01 | 3.69 | 3.53 |
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | 👥 | Geary Grinder | jam | 260 | 3.76 | 3.66 | 3.81 | 2.71 | 3.59 | 3.54 | 2.22 | 3.40 |
Interesting concept. I was in awe of the scope of the game for a while there...
An interesting input mechanic and running smoothly for me without bugs. I agree with Caro on the gameplay feeling a little too much like work though. A bit more motivation to go faster, with some sort of balancing of risk and reward might make it feel more exciting. Also, I feel there is an opportunity for more humour in the item descriptions (I like the cordless hammer, for example).
Great concept. Very difficult, and I'll have to come back to try to finish with more than one part of my partner intact! In addition to making the learning curve a little gentler, there are a couple of suggestions for improving the game: Some of the sfx cause clicks and pops as they start and end: add fades to the start and end of all audio assets to avoid this. Also, the pixel size of the body parts being the same as everything else would make the game fit together more coherently, visually. Oh, and it was frustrating to have to sit through the intro several times before I made it off the first screen with the heart! Final note is a positive: Thumbs up for allowing a choice of sex for both partners. Great little game!
Brilliant concept, and well executed. I felt like some of the middle levels were harder than some of the later ones, but that may just have been due to getting to grips with the mechanics. I really enjoyed this, what a gem!
A nice concept and pretty well executed. It would feel so much more enjoyable with some audio, though. The game seemed to be quite repetitive towards the end, and even normal mode felt a little difficult, but that could be me. Shortening the time before reaching the end might help with this, or tweaking the difficulty to work for people who did not actually create the game (you will, of course, find it a lot easier!) Hard to test during a jam though. Good work!
Would be great to have a mac build or a browser version, I'm intrigued!
Fun game. I think it would benefit from an increasing difficulty level though. Once it hatched it actually became easier to keep alive. You could also have set the music to loop, because once it drops out the fun really does start to go. Great effort for a first game, well done!
Great little game. I had fun learning where to click through discovery, without being confused or frustrated. Nice, simple narrative and a few endings that were possible to work out from the clues you drop in. Stylistically coherent for the most part, but I would have liked the music to be a little more medieval. Well done!
I really like the music and the mood it brings to the game (It reminds me, baby, of you...). The assets also look pretty. There were framing issues with the visuals though, and in the menu and the win screen, the music was only in the left speaker. Some audio feedback when the snakes cause you to drop the egg (and perhaps more visual feedback, like a flash of red or shake etc) would help identify the cause of dropping the egg better, since the snakes are often hidden. I like the use of the text prompts at certain points, but they should be bigger and remain visible a little longer when leaving the trigger zone, as it would be possible to miss them. I had to walk back to read information that quickly disappeared.Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 11.53.37.png
A lovely idea, and an emotional experience. The impact of the final memory could have worked better if it wasn't expected. The game description kind of hints at this. The choice of music and the environmental sounds worked well. The ambiences, though, should have been faded in and out as you enter and leave the relevant areas: they start and end abruptly, resulting in clicks in the audio. Changing small details about the 3D models you reuse could help add variety to the game world, too. For example, the slides could be different colours, etc. I enjoyed the calm and ease of the gameplay, and it nurtures the right frame of mind to be emotionally impact of the memories. It seems, since you opted out of the audio category, that you did not make the music yourselves, but it would have been a great touch if the music practice melody fitted with the game's underscore (in the same key, in time with the rhythm, etc). This would really enhance the emotional impact of that scene. Thanks for making this, I enjoyed the experience.
An interesting concept, and consistent aesthetic. I enjoyed solving the puzzles up until the 5th, which I lost patience for. I noticed in the comments that this bug is already known, but it would be nice to be able to jump onto a square that another thrall is leaving in the same step. If you hadn't declared that the idea is not original, then I would have thought it was, I've not seen gameplay quite like this before. A great submission, which I enjoyed playing!
I can't interact with the jewelry (US)/ jewellery (UK) box (see spelling!) when I first re-enter the room. I restarted the game and tried again, and both with and without the key, I just can't interact with it. I have not rated the game because I don't really feel like I've experienced it. Am I missing something, or is it a bug?
I enjoyed this game. The mechanics took a while to work out, and the difficulty seems a little hard for a jam game. This is closer to the escape when time gets faster. Before the acceleration, the challenge is maybe on the low side. Despite the fact that the difficulty could be tweaked, I really like the idea for the game, and the music that ramps in tempo with the worm's speed is a great touch that enhances the feeling of urgency and risk. I eventually managed to escape, showing that the game is engaging despite feeling very difficult when time speeds up at the end.
A cool game. Easy concept to understand, and fun to try out different approaches. There doesn't seem to be a penalty for staying still though, which feels like a missed opportunity for additional challenge. It would also be nice if there was always a sequence of possible moves to stay moving on every beat. There is at least one moment where you end up in the middle of three lanes with another ship on either side, just waiting to pass by.
A nice concept, with a good level of polish in the art and sound. The music is upbeat and funky, adding to the enjoyment of the game.
A great idea, with many elements implemented well. The mood would certainly be enhanced with Werner Herzog doing VO! I'm not sure how much impact my action were really having on the balance of power in the game, but the constant changing of the technology offered enough intrigue for me to keep playing through to the end. I liked the music and the art, but the voiceover recordings could be much clearer (a quick fix would be to drop the volume of the music considerably, but making clearer recordings in the first place would help). Thanks for making the game, I enjoyed it, and it has a positive message (I think).
Easily my favourite game of the jam so far. I love the movement mechanic. It feels awkward to begin with, but I feel I have just enough control with practice that using the awkward controls is fun rather than frustrating. The look, sound and feel of the game is gorgeous. So simple and elegant, and cool. The vocal sfx are a lovely touch. Very soothing and this counters the sometimes frustrating difficulty. I would like to see a high score, rather than just my most recent score, and when turning in the tightest circles it is difficult to see where the head is, which could be made clearer. An amazing jam game, and a very promising concept. Please develop this further, I would love to play more.
An interesting concept. The protagonist could probably use a shift in his priorities! Lovely lawn, though...
It is great that you have included a narrative, and the game has a consistent aesthetic style that contributes to a pleasant mood. The biggest problem to solve is that the projectiles are very difficult to see against the background. There should be much more contrast there. Another minor thing is that the VO and text do not always match, and there are a few spelling errors. Interspersing the cut scenes with the gameplay was a nice touch, and enhanced the overall feeling of the game.
Thanks, @wheybags I agree! This is my first game as the sole developer, and so I didn't solve all of the problems I ran into (limited time and lack of experience). I quite enjoy the chaos of the ball, but the slow speeds are frustrating, true. I thought about adding an additional mechanic for the player to inject some more momentum into the ball in these moments, but having a failsafe coded in might also work (and more simply, in terms of gameplay). Thanks for taking the time to play and to provide feedback. :)
Thanks @dan-flockhart I would have loved to have added more gameplay mechanics and variation, but in the end I scoped down to make sure I would have a working build. Lots of lessons learned for my next solo jam!
Thanks @noah-kuhn it was a great learning opportunity for sure.
Thanks for the kind words, @error-ff Whatever you're putting off, you'll get it done when the time is right ;)
@nocity Thanks for the kind words. Atmospheric is an adjective I can get behind! @rmonthil Glad to provide some catharsis where it is needed! I'll probably keep tweaking the project once the rating period ends to learn more and improve the variety of gameplay, not to mention fixing the slow brain issue (another metaphor, though, perhaps?) @untitled-studios You hit the nail on the head there! Thanks for your kind words. @keyurrana I thought about choosing a sequence of notes to form melodies, or a random note of a scale, but chose the ascending scale for a feeling of forward motion or upward progress. Definitely something to toy with in future. @guimoliveira Recurring theme! Definitely the first bug to fix...
@lumue Your 'fun feature' suggestion was my exact plan for the game! I actually set up the adaptive music system in FMOD, but my lack of experience on the game development/coding/engine side of things meant that other features took more of the limited time and I never got the updated variables sent to FMOD from the game engine. In the end, my adaptive score got stuck in the first 8 bars, and this feature was sacrificed to the gods of down-scoping.
The full track can be heard here https://soundcloud.com/samuelhollywoodsummers/songwriters-block-ld47-game-soundtrack
I do plan on fixing the slow brain issue, implementing the adaptive music properly and adding some variety to the gameplay in levels 2 and 3, but I want to wait until after the rating period of the jam.
@abregado What a poetic experience. Sometimes it pays to ship the bug as a feature...
Great concept, and the larval stage animation is great. I like the way that the puzzles require understanding and application of the life cycle, but at times the timings are frustrating. A major bug (lol) is when only 3 corpses are available, and the moth stage ends while trying to place the final corpse. It wasn't added to the nest, and I could not pick it up again to finish my nest. In my opinion, the moth stage should not be able to end whilst placing corpses. A fun game, and the potential for some really interesting puzzle design if you choose to expand on the concept.
The recoil on the gun wasn't enough to get out of the pit. I started again from the beginning and had the same problem. It didn't feel good to run into such difficulty so early on in the game. I don't know if your parallax is working the opposite way to how it should do on purpose (some sort of spatial distortion due to the 'rift' mentioned?) or if this is a mistake, but it was distracting and disorienting. Let me know if there is something I'm missing for the problem of being stuck in the pit and I'll try again.
I liked this more the longer I played it for. It somehow manages to be both relaxing and frustrating. I wish I'd played it first with a mouse rather than my tracker pad, and definitely plan to try it again that way. With how long some of the levels last, it might be nice if the music varied a little more. Also, the gameplay is much more enjoyable than the intro, which could be shorter. The gameplay really drew me in. I like the simplicity of the idea, and subtle design choices like only being able to use each node once, led to more strategic thinking when finding the correct route. It might be nice if there was more of a clue where to go. I found some levels frustrating due to heading in the wrong direction. Overall, a really nice jam game. Well done!
An interesting idea, and very calming gameplay. The issue is, after the first asteroid impact, I couldn't seem to take most actions, and could not understand why. For example, I could not build a farm, and it was not clear why. I'm not sure the mood of the music suits the narrative framing of the game, although it did match the calm experience of the gameplay.
Interesting concept, and I love the celebration screen when I managed to enter my new life. It took a while to realise that 'hits' are a good thing (I think?) and it felt awkward that I was kicking successfully at all points in the kick animation, rather than having to time it so the foot or knee should collide with the sweets. I enjoyed the music, but it could loop more smoothly, and music for the celebration screen would make the breakdancing feel even more awesome. I made my own game for the first time this jam, so I appreciate how difficult it is to get everything perfect, so well done on making a fun little platformer.
I really enjoyed this. Great attention to detail with the audio, and typical Nocity humour in the interpretation of the theme. I enjoyed the challenge mode, as during the story mode there isn't quite the room for mastery of the individual minigames (although I did enjoy the discovery aspect of the story mode). The ramping up of the tempo and therefore intensity of the music during challenge mode was a great touch, and felt like it was enhancing my motivation to succeed. Nice work.
I love the dripping cave ambience, and the gameplay mechanics were intuitive. The lights and fireball sfx helped to warn me of the enemies, but a sfx for when I or an enemy is damaged would help the game feel much better. I also heard no music, even when the text 'Why do I hear boss music' appeared on screen. These audio elements, as well as animations for the player character, would be the next things to add, in my opinion.
I like the idea, but as other people have mentioned, it is difficult to understand what to do, and why. Seeing the life cycles play out was an interesting touch, but people tend not to reproduce asexually outside of this game. It might be nice to have the camera more zoomed out to see what might be worth heading towards. Because it was not clear what I might be able to do, and what my interactions achieve, I played for less time than I would have if I was playing this with a dev to hand to answer my questions and explain things.
The most fun I've ever had with a suicidal cat. The 'Kill the Monkey' bits were frustratingly difficult, and not as much fun as a result, but I was stubborn and played until I pushed the TNT box all the way to the centre. 'You Win' flashed up for a fragment of a second before the game reset back into the main gameplay, is this a bug? Great fun (mostly) and looks and sounds great. Good job.
Cool idea, but constantly respawning in a spike pit just isn't any fun. Sound would also really help to keep me engaged to play more.
I loved the audio and visual style. I feel like the questions I was asked were a bit trivial, mostly, but I suppose they put me into the role of a scientist. I'm just not sure a scientist would place any significance or see any challenge in correctly identifying which thing is bigger. The text was engaging enough, but I would have liked more philosophical exploration. The fourth wall break towards the end was interesting, as was the implication that the player is acting as another observer, but there was not always a compelling point to the text. For me, the biggest strength was in the audio, which I really liked. Good stuff!
Level 6 is annoyingly difficult. I think this is because the jump is very difficult to tame. I could not reliably jump at the minimum height. I knew what I needed to do, but did not have the patience to keep trying and waiting for the movement controls to play ball. I liked the idea of platforms that require a sacrifice to use, and may or may not be needed to use to solve the puzzle. Some sound effects would really help with the game feel. And having a different sound for a minimum height jump compared to a higher jump might help to train me to get it right more reliably! I think it would also be a good idea to introduce the time limit only after a successful completion of each level without the limit first. The choice of music really helped inject some character into the minimalist aesthetics of the visuals, and probably kept me motivated to play for longer than if there was no music.
I enjoyed this! Most of the fun was in learning what was going on and how I needed to play. Once I got the concept, though, the gameplay lacked challenge and strategy until it got to the point where enemies formed a barrier to the cookies/chips. At this point, the difficulty went from trivial to near impossible. This is a great idea, and with some tweaks could make for some more interesting level and puzzle design, rather than just hanging around at a cookie or chip spawner, and a more gradual difficulty curve would be ideal. Great work for a first jam! I also enjoyed the gradual way that the garbled sfx became more and more intelligible as the game went on. At first I had no idea they were words. 'Move' was the first one I noticed, and eventually it seemed obvious that they are all just the words for the actions occurring. Nice touch.
A great concept. I've not seen anything like that before. The sounds and music suit the visual style, but some of the sfx that play during gameplay seem to have clicks or bad edits in them. Also, it got frustrating to try to avoid enemies and also not fall in the pits sometimes. With some fine-tuning for difficulty, this game has a lot of promise.
I eventually gave up on the last saw. Very challenging, and great use of the iterative level design. It would be great to have music that ramps in intensity with the increasing difficulty of the levels. Also, there were some unpleasant sounds that felt like they were clipping or contained clicks/thumps. The music could have looped more smoothly, but it was well suited to the mood of the game, and the music itself did not grow irritating despite the length of time I stubbornly spent trying to complete the game. A great game for a jam and a good difficulty curve that will become challenging to any player eventually. Well done.
If you are going to rely on audio hints, you need to make sure all of them are intelligible. Some were clearly "up" or "down", but others are an ambiguous mumble or groan. Regardless of whether I interpreted them as up or down, I could not reach the ending. Due to the limited gameplay, this just gets frustrating very quickly. I feel like there was an interesting idea here, but it wasn't implemented in a way that is friendly enough to the player. I started to feel almost like the game is intended as a practical joke on the player, which would be rather mean-spirited and not very funny for the only person experiencing it.
I love the texture of the wall, and the infinite looping of the staircase was done well. I do like the mood of the audio, but the creepiness level has sacrificed too much intelligibility in the dialogue.
Awesome game. Certain influences come through clearly, but in a good way. I love how the loops were used to solve puzzles. This is an interesting application of the theme. I'd like to play a more expanded version of the game with more challenging puzzles, but the difficulty was just right for a jam game. Good stuff!
I loved this. Effort put into all the things that matter, and that make this game unique. A sound effect to accompany the collisions in the bullet hell would be useful. I thought at first that I was tying to pick things up, not avoid them, and the druggy visual effect seemed to match with the floating head as a potentially thematically related and potentially positive thing, rather than being a clear thing to avoid. The music and visuals are, of course, highlights, and the gameplay was engaging enough that I wanted to stay longer in the world. Thanks for sharing, this has been a highlight of my experiences playing others' games.
Thumb.png Oh yeah, and I meant to put this in my other comment.
Similar to other commenters, I'm not sure if there is a goal or puzzle mechanic I'm missing here. I like the overall mood, which is created through distinctive sounds and visuals. The music could feel quite busy and chaotic at times, and I was unsure if I should be shooting particular cubes, or sides of cubes, in a particular order in order to calm the music into something more serene? If I was, I wasn't able to work out how. Perhaps the aim is just to land as many hits as possible? And the number of world's destroyed: Does anything I do impact upon this? I can't figure it out.
Overall, great work, especially on the mood, but game mechanics and/or goals could be better communicated.
I enjoyed playing and was able to pick it up pretty quickly. The 'towns' look more like campsites to me. It would be great if sounds related to valuable player feedback were prioritised (in particular, a positive jingle or similar to indicate when health is replenished) as this was not clear without the text instructions. I managed to complete the game on my second attempt, which is a great difficulty level for a jam game. Thanks for sharing!
I love the artwork. It's also great to have an easy, non-demanding jam game to play amongst the platformers and shooters etc. I enjoyed hearing about the lives of the animals, and was pleased to eventually build the barn. Some sound effects would have gone a long way to improve the experience of playing. For example, UI sounds when selecting and then confirming a choice would make the game feel more responsive and inherently pleasant to interact with. Different music for the win screen would also feel much more rewarding than a cut to silence. Narrative was a strength of this game, so it is a shame there is no rating category for this. At first I thought here was no objective to the game, and that it was just an interactive narrative experience, where the order the text is read is partly randomised and partly down to player choices. It might be sensible to somehow communicate to the player what they are supposed to be doing/aiming to achieve, as this was not very clear. Thanks for sharing!
Mac build isn't working for me (Catalina). Will try on my PC later.
Awesome game. Great puzzle design, a unique concept, and lots of little moments of discovery. I loved it! The sound could be better: It feels like it is missing music, but other than that I love it. Great stuff, thanks for sharing!
A great idea for a spellcasting mechanic. I found it easier, and more advantageous, to just make use of the fireball throughout though, and water heal when not in a battle. The other spells were too difficult to remember, and no design decisions forced me to make use of them. I was also far too tempted to take all of my battles to doorways where the enemies would get stuck. If you could make it harder for me to make things easy on myself, the game might be a little more fun. I really enjoyed the art and the audio. I think it would be really helpful to have a door creaking open sfx for when all of the enemies have been killed in an area and progression is possible, as making the same tip to a locked door several times was frustrating. The game was fun and engaging enough for me to manage to finish it, so well done for that! Great visuals, and the chests were satisfying to open. I'm not sure why, but with each hit of the fireball, enemies sank further into the ground before dying. Great game, and thanks for sharing!
Truly beautiful experience. The gameplay was simple and relaxing. The music was beautiful and really helped to create a pleasant atmosphere. I spent a while struggling to find the final ghost, and unsure if I'd already been everywhere and there was just no end state. I enjoyed listening to the music as I explored and finally found the last ghost. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome game. I really liked the playable win-screen and the bonus levels. It made me feel smart for trying to get to the goal on what I first thought was the end. Drillbert 2 Diggeroo.png
My only complaint, and it is a small one, is that I didn't like the drill sfx, but I quickly forgot about that while playing due to the brilliant puzzle design and interesting movement mechanics. The other choices of sounds and music were spot on for the mood of the game, too.
Thanks for sharing!!!
How do you progress from the building/module placing phase? I only managed to move off this screen by over-spending stability points and the building collapsing. Running out of space to place modules didn't work, and I couldn't find a key to press to progress to the second wave.
Thanks @wolfmeryx :)
An interesting idea. I do think that the puzzles would be more fun to solve without having to constantly look up at the attractions, though. There seems to have been a lot of attention and effort put into the ambient spooky sound effects, but sounds that communicate to the player what is actually happening would be much more useful, and could still be designed to be scary. For example, the brick being thrown by the first attraction, I first thought was just a brick on the floor that I found. Having the sound of the builder attraction picking up a brick, and grunting as he prepares to throw it, then throws it, would communicate to the player what is going on, and also could act as a way of telling how long you are able to look away for (ie, until the end of the preparation grunt, before the throwing grunt). The very quiet impact brick sound, that is drowned out by the music/ambience, doesn't really do this effectively. I enjoyed the transitions, and was impressed that the one into the first attraction kept pointing me at the problem I needed to fix. It did still take me a long time to notice the broken tracks, though (facepalm).
It would be nice to know who did what in your team, and what (if any) assets/tools etc were used to make the game.
Thanks for sharing!
Can't progress past level three. I split into phases where the wrong colour is in each room with a block I can't interact with (red with blue, blue with red), and unable to take a single step back. I restarted the level several times but can't work it out. Not sure if this is a bug, or if the learning curve is too steep from level two to three. Great, intuitive puzzle design for the first two levels though. Nice vibes. I'd love a sound for each movement and interaction. Thanks for sharing.
@binary-systems There are a bunch of short impact sounds per block type. On a collision, a random file from a selection is played, with some pitch randomisation and with volume tied to the velocity of the cube at the moment of collision. The stone block also has a low thud element added through sine wave synthesis in MetaSounds. So that you don't get too many sounds triggered by all the physics collisions, once a sound is triggered, another one can't be played for a certain amount of time, which I have randomised between 0.1 and 0.2 seconds. This randomisation helps the sounds feel natural rather than rhythmic or artificial.
@ninjacatz Yeah, have you read the description? I modified the first person template, adding textures, sounds (the main focus) and music, and adjusting the mass of some cubes. My intention was to learn Unreal and MetaSounds, focusing on audio triggering, procedural music and using a combination of designed sound effects and synthesis within MetaSounds. No focus on gameplay this jam.
Great mechanic idea with the time shift, and ambitious and complex control system for the time you had to develop the game. The movement mechanics are all introduced too quickly though, and feel awkward, making me pretty terrible at the game. Because of this, I realised the music does not loop if you don't get to the next cue trigger quickly enough. I would make sure that the level design was much easier, with new controls and movement types introduced and reinforced slowly, one at a time, rather than being introduced to all at once without time to get used to them. A great jam game difficulty level should feel super easy to the devs, who are playing the game over and over as they develop. You want other players to get through to the end of your game without too much difficulty. I couldn't, unfortunately.
The mood was great, and the music felt appropriate to the different settings, reinforcing the difference in time period. Many sfx did feel missing, though. It would be worth trying to have a sound for every possible action and interaction. Think about the JUICE.
Finally, I'd love to see on your game page who did what, and what (if any) existing assets or tools you used. It is hard to rate art and sound without knowing if you made it or used assets.
Thanks for sharing!
A great idea for a game. I like the abstract visuals and soothing sfx. The gameplay idea is interesting, but I found that I could get points most easily just by rocking the see saw one way, then the other, through the equilibrium point, rather than by spending more time in a balanced state. I would expect the game to reward me for keeping the board balanced, not for moving from one side to the other repeatedly. Thanks for sharing!
Great fun, which is only enhanced by the music. Loads of challenging levels, and great movement mechanics. I had to give up eventually, but I was able to complete a satisfying number of levels before I did, especially for a jam game. I think it would help if there was more of a visual contrast between ice platforms with the background/non-gameplay ice blocks. This would help readability of the levels, and allow for more reaction-based gameplay as opposed to learning the levels through trial and error (as I had to a few times). Also, more sound effects for movement, gliding etc would be great. Oh, and another positive: the quick level reset was a wonderful touch. I kept playing for a lot longer than I would have if there was a lengthy pause/death animation/other interruption. Great decision!
Great art! The audio doesn't quite match up to the visuals though, and makes the game feel quite empty. The opening cutscene was so detailed, and such a great touch, but with only one sound effect it felt unfinished. I really enjoyed walking to the village. The mixture of pixel art and 3D worked really well, and the landscape and features to navigate around changed at a rate that kept me engaged. The inclusion of a rain sound effect was a great idea, but being located at a specific point in the game world made it feel wrong: the rain was visually surrounding me, but sounded like it was ahead/to the right, until it was behind/to the left. Triggering a stereo ambience to start playing as you enter the rainy area, and stop as you leave, would work better. I also got a bug after talking to one of the villagers in a house. After talking to them, every time I pressed the up key, the dialogue was started again, even back out in the world, so I could not climb any ladders. Because the introduction took quite a while, I didn't restart and get to play the whole game, which is a shame, as I was enjoying the peaceful gameplay and the relaxing world. Thanks for sharing!
A fun shooter. The audio was frustrating though. Rather than the voiceover, prioritising sfx for player actions, and to indicate when enemies are spawning/shooting/damaged etc, would have been a much better use of time, and help with improving the gameplay. I loved the window size growth after dying: not something I would expect! Thanks for sharing.
Great game, if a little punishing. I'm surprised I was able to beat the game, having struggled a lot with specific obstacles. I'm glad the checkpoints work after the coffee mishap, as the prospect of doing all of that under time pressure in one go would be too much. My suggestions would be to be more lenient with hitboxes, and to get non-devs to playtest games like this as you go in the future. Many jam games end up way too hard because the devs know exactly what to do and practise it loads while making the game. The character and their changing facial expressions are great, and I enjoyed the visuals and music. The text narrative at the star was a nice touch, but I did find it interrupted the flow of the game a little too much and too often at the start. The game feels really complete, and is impressive for a jam. Well done! Thanks for sharing.
I find this intriguing, but I can't win. I think I now understand the wrapping, but I don't find that intuitive. I tried to work out how to win (in terms of strategy) for quite a while but I haven't cracked it. I keep being given a choice of two elements where both with cause a match 3. Are the black elements broken ones? If so, could this be emphasised in the sfx when placed? Similar with the match 3? (A negative sound to communicate that you have lost). A great idea, but unfortunately quite frustrating for me, because I can't work out a winning strategy for element placing. Thanks for sharing!
Other than clicking on wood to collect it (not mentioned in the instructions) and using a and d or left and right to move the entire screen left or right (sometimes far enough to end the game) I can't actually do anything. I just pick up a few logs, usually one person is created, then everything eventually falls off the boat. What am I supposed to do? Left and right click are not creating people or houses for me.
A nice little game. I like the concept, and I'm pretty sure I've not seen it done before. If the donuts were replaced by some semi-transparent crystal, or similar, then it would be easier to see which colour cross the player is stood on, which would help with knowing where to stand. Also, if the hammer was raised higher at the end of a spin, it would feel a little fairer, giving that moment to respond to which colour cross is about to be hit. Sound effects would also be hugely helpful. Maybe a different sound associated with each colour, both for squares stood on, and for which button is hit by the hammer. Everything would feel more full and alive with footsteps, hammer hit sounds etc.
The idea for the mechanic and gameplay are the biggest strength, I think, and the visuals in a close second. Well done, and thanks for sharing!!
(PS, also, I love it when jam games are at a difficulty level where I can complete them in two or three attempts, so spot on with that!!)
The absence of sound made the game feel quite empty and eerie. I enjoyed the nighttime visuals outside with the glow from the windows. I think the whole thing would be more impactful if you concentrated on a smaller area and added the detail (sound effects, etc). The distance between interactable objects outside could also be smaller, as walking between them can feel like a chore once you have done it once. A rich soundscape of cars, buzzing lights, and the movements of characters might help make traversal feel more enjoyable. Impressive scale. Thanks for sharing.
I really enjoyed playing this game. The level of polish on the visuals is great. There were a few things that felt missing in the level though. I would love to hear music (which could enhance the mood and character of the game), and some vital sfx were absent (for example, a sound to signify that an enemy is preparing the throw an apple). The combat sounds felt great, but the death of an orange sound was quite annoying. The orange halves were a great touch! Gameplay and visuals were by far the standout features, and work really well. Gameplay would be enhanced with more attention to audio. Thanks for sharing. Great work!
I found the controls awkward at first, but then worked out that the frustrating stickyness when touching a wall could be used to climb walls. I stuck with the game long enough to beat both levels and had fun doing so. The slipping when sprinting on blue ground mechanic was intuitive to pick up quickly, and alternating whether to sprint or not in response to the surface was a nice touch. It could probably be better communicated to the player that a double jump is possible. My favourite touch was the dynamic music, adjusting to the amount of time left. Good stuff, and thanks for sharing.
A fun idea, and it looks great. It's nice that you made the effort to include a responsive VO and the opening cinematic is a nice touch too. This project may have been a bit over-ambitious for the length of the jam, and many important things don't seem to work. For example, other racers provided no competition, because they didn't seem capable of navigating around the track, and instead got caught on the side of the track. I'd also prefer a different visual presentation for the portals, as I thought the one in the castle door was just a dead end at first. Something glowing or sparkly could still be opaque, keeping the technical requirements limited, but look more like some sort of magical transportation portal rather than a solid black nothing. This game is super charming and very much a jam game with all of its quirks. It made me laugh and I had fun sailing in my car, driving in my boat. Thanks for sharing!
Interesting platformer with a nice vibe. It would be great if you could also include a downloadable version, as the web version has some problems with glitchy audio. Also, it was very cruel to have platforms that drop if you touch them at all (the bottom or sides) and made this far too hard for me! Thanks for sharing.
A pleasant and relaxing playing experience. I liked the simplicity of the objective, the low level of difficulty felt appropriate for a jam, and the music was enjoyable. I would like to hear sound effects used to communicate to the player when interactions happen, when the berries deplete, and to reward success at the end etc. Thanks for sharing.
A charming and fun little game. Perfect difficulty and length for a jam. I was grateful for the respawn/checkpoint mechanic which allowed me to retry without frustration on failing, and to get to end. It feels like a shame that there isn't a piece of background music or ambience to score the usual gameplay, or SFX for general movement, changing direction etc, but I like everything that you have included. Good effort, and thanks for sharing.
I really like the menu music: really bold and whacky. The game idea is really promising, and could be really good if the rope mechanic was more predictable and controllable. I found that in places where it felt like it should work, I was hitting my head on a roof and getting knocked back down, and at one point I got stuck in the tower. I tried to stick with the game and get to the top, but being unable to control the rope placement easily made for too much friction to continue to enjoy the game. If you polish that, you could have a great game on your hands. I like that you covered a lot of interactions with audio, too. Good job!
I love the look and sound of the front end menu. I had fun feeding gnomes and making hats for a while, but some interactions started to get blocked (not being able to sell the hats, for example) which became frustrating. I managed to get to the point where I had little blue crescents on the hats, but looking at all the icons scrolling past at the bottom, I assume there is a lot more to discover. Thanks for sharing.
'Couldn't find pdz file main.pdz' - I made the effort to install the Playdate Simulator but can't get your game running. If you could explain how to get that going in more detail, I'm sure you'll get more people playing the game (I know I'm keen to!)
Ah, good to know. I have a Mac, so I can test on that rather than my PC, or if you add a PC version of the build that would also work. Thanks for the reply.
The music works really well with the visual style, and you have an ambitious concept. I did get repeatedly stuck 'mid-fall' on parts of the environment that looked like I should easily be able to walk past or jump up onto, and unfortunately this stopped me from proceeding. I liked the touch of having a pre-game splash screen for your team.
It's nice to have a boomer shooter to play in this jam. I love the idea and the setting of the game, and the silliness of fighting germs with a shotgun. I have mixed feelings about the audio, because I really like the mood evoked by the music and ambience, but the vocalised SFX are pretty gross and off-putting, in a way that is annoying rather than satisfying. Similarly, I like that the green projectiles stand out from the red environment, and from most of the enemy types, but when a green bacteria fires at you, it can be hard to tell because of the enemy being the same colour as what it fires at you. Well done for making a game that is full of character and fun to play, and thanks for sharing.
This seems to be an interesting idea, but I think the gameplay and controls need communicating better: My slime would always attack a second skeleton (I assume) that was off-screen to the right, but I couldn't change the view to see more.
Thanks, I've been able to give the game more of a proper go now!
I enjoyed this game, and it is the first of the jam games I've rated that I've stuck with to the end and managed to complete. I had fun doing so, and felt nostalgic for Lemmings! I think it would be nice to have a time bonus or encouragement to save as many ants as possible. Thanks for the relaxing puzzles!
A fun and simple game. Ramping up the music speed and increasing the number of creatures part-way is a nice touch. Having a sound for creatures appearing was nice, but using a different sound per type of creature would work better for communicating where it is likely to have appeared. My best score in 2 runs was 45. Thanks for sharing!
There's a lot to love here! The Music on the menu screen, I really like, and the fly-like buzzy vocals are a nice touch. I did struggle to work out what I need to pay attention to, and what was just visual noise (I'm still not 100% sure after a few playthroughs). I love the moments where the adverts and commentary push aside the main view of the gameplay: it really leans into the source material the game is making reference to. Great jam game, thanks for sharing!
Gloriously weird. Once I worked out the mechanic and goal, I started having more fun and appreciating the bizarre humour. Next time I feel under pressure I'll be sure to try growing more necks to relieve it.
This was fun! The visuals are charming and stylish, and I like how they draw from a few different styles and aesthetics. The music was nice, and I appreciated the additi9on of some SFX, but there could have been sounds for many more interactions. For example, the grapple hitting its target, the hook retracting again, etc. I also couldn't quite work out what to do about the bugs: were they enemies? Collectibles? Some of one, some of another? Overall, a great little jam game with a clear goal that is fun to play. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great little prototype. I think some audio would help round out the experience a lot, but as you mention, this is more of a tech demo. Although the amoeba doesn't, this prototype could have legs if you wanted to pursue it further. Thanks for sharing.
Love the music and the front-end menu art. Despite reading the tutorial screen, though, I found it hard to do anything meaningful during gameplay except produce new bacteria. I would have liked to be able to zoom out further and figure out what was happening. I never instructed any of my bacteria to do anything but won anyway. I like that you have SFX to highlight certain actions and interactions, which is a nice level of detail for a jam game. Thanks for sharing.
A lovely little game. The perfect length for a jam game. I did think I ran into a bug for a while at the pumpkin, but it was a fun discovery to get to carve it. I was a little disappointed that my face wasn't preserved on the zoom back out, and it was a pre-authored one, but never mind. I'd love to hear SFX added to the various interactions and used to (for example) point out the appearance of the mouse etc. I love the simple, high contrast visuals. Good work, and thanks for sharing.
I found this really enjoyable. Relaxing and un-challenging gameplay is what you want from a fishing game (even if there are no fish). The interactive music was ambitious and alternating to the guitar-forward variation of the music on catching a bite is a nice touch. I particularly liked the change when finding the violin, though I would prefer for that to stick around longer (or permanently?). The big problem with the music, though, is that it fails on the basics: it does not loop seamlessly! With a loop this short, it really does become annoying, and diminishes the impact of the otherwise really great music that captures the mood of the game so well. I intended to collect all of the items, but got a bug where my hook disappeared off-screen and got stuck when reeling in one of the deeper items. Good job pulling this together in an unfamiliar engine, and thanks for sharing!
I enjoyed this experience, but I agree with the other comments that having more to do, or a smaller brain to wash, would help to avoid the feeling of sameness setting in. Having one simple, repetitive task without surprises and challenges is meditative, so if that is what you want to achieve, well done, but there are many opportunities to push this idea further. The humour of the initial idea would be one thing to explore further, and ways of making the player's progress feel more rewarding through visuals, audio and additional gameplay events is another area you could explore. Thanks for sharing this satisfying experience with us, and for making me worry about microplastics more than I was already...
A fun little shooter with a twist. Good stuff. More attention could be payed to telegraphing threat: a lot of the sounds were confusing (was I being shot at by swordfish?) and the lack of visual communication of enemy attacks (I think this is what most of the confusing sounds were?) made it hard to know for sure what was happening and how I should respond. Always try to communicate important information to the player through as many channels as possible (good job on the icons pointing to these threats though, nice touch). Thanks for sharing. Now to spend my gems...
I like the concept here. It took me a while to understand what the symbols on the sliding puzzles were communicating, but once I figured that out, everything became clear. I did have to revisit the game page for a bit of explanation and was not able to figure everything out through discovery. If you were to pursue this idea beyond the jam, I think it would be worth exploring ways of teaching the mechanics more organically through discovery. Things like low, rumbling, geological SFX after exiting the puzzle screen, to communicate that the world itself has shifted, etc. Thanks for sharing this game with us!
I enjoyed playing this. The simplicity of the gameplay seems to have allowed you to balance the game well. The amount of harpoons and lives offered an appropriate level of challenge. The changes in the tile-set communicated effectively that I should be travelling up, not down (I had assumed down at first, but thought again when reaching the boundary). I also thought you covered most of the main sounds required to communicate important information to the player. Enemies just off-screen, especially vertically, could be announced through sfx, as I was often surprised by them travelling down as I was travelling up, without time to react to their appearance. Music would have helped set the mood better, too. Overall, a good jam submission. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I had fun collecting up tears and eventually catching the moon. I like the ambition with the adaptive music, and it works well, but more of the time spent on audio could have been used to get more actions and interactions covered with SFX. Thinking about how to telegraph the tears' attacks before they happen might make for a player experience that feels more fair, and allows the player to anticipate what will happen better. Well done on submitting a fun game!
A lovely little story with emotional impact. I love the positive spin on a dark series of events. Good stuff. The first jump forward in time, though, was a bit of a sudden jump in mood. The implied outcome of the camping scene clashed with the upbeat music choice on waking up. Something more emotionally ambiguous might suit that particular transition better, so that the reader has time to absorb what was hinted at.
I love the visuals. This is an ambitious game to make over a weekend, which is probably why there are some bugs and unfinished content. Not knowing what should and shouldn't work meant that I couldn't be as immersed in the game as I would have liked, but you do have the start of something really good here. Thanks for sharing.
A fun little game. Probably the cutest killer submarine I've ever come across. Thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed this. As mentioned in many comments, the overall mood of the game is a strong point. The visuals and audio are enjoyable and do a lot with a little. The fixed camera positions work really nicely. I would have liked more coverage from the audio, with more of the environments being given an ambient bed, for example, and the sound of the lift moving would add to the effect of the shaking that you did include. Overall, cohesive, compelling and cheeky. Good stuff.
Really intriguing. I like that a game exploring themes of game discovery and hidden gems took a recommendation to discover: I didn't find this one by myself. The jam entry page and the itch page both make very little effort to invite players in, nor to let them know what to do. This does seem intentional, and an exploration of the game's themes. I needed the comments to teach me what to press, and to give me a clue that there is more to discover beyond the first chest. I enjoyed finding my own secrets in the game, including beyond what I initially thought was the intended end, though if there was much more that I missed, I don't know. Thanks for making this, and thanks to the person who posted about the game and led me to play it.
A great puzzle game. Hard to make sense of at times, but I'm glad I stuck with it until the end. Solving (what I assume is) the last puzzle was satisfying. The mechanics could probably be tutorialised a little better, and I would like some SFX for specific actions/interactions, but I really enjoyed the puzzle design and overall experience of playing the game. Thanks for sharing.
Super chill experience, with a number of impressive features. I enjoyed how I was able to take some really quite beautiful images, and there were interesting and surprising discoveries to make. I did feel as though the audio let the experience down somewhat. I know you've opted out of the category, but a more thorough pass of sound design and music could really elevate the experience. I really enjoyed my sail on the cloud sea, thanks for sharing!
I love this. Minesweeper in 3D is a lot harder than 2D, but you have put in some measures to help visualise the adjacent cells, which I found really useful. It took me a while to notice that though. The q harpoon might also help me get past the hard cube. I've only managed to solve medium up to now. The choice of ambient audio really fits the type of game, and contributes to an overall relaxing underwater aesthetic and mood. Well done. I'll be playing more of this, I'm sure.
An engrossing story, and captivating mood from the sound and visuals. It would improve some of the music tracks if they were edited to loop seamlessly, and there were some silent moments at the end of the story despite having plenty of music tracks throughout the story that could have been used here, too, but overall, everything is very well done. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Very fun. There was lots to do but I was able to pick up what I was meant to do very quickly. Audio and visual cues to the player were communicated well and so did their job well. I might suggest that the difficulty ramp up a little slower from a calmer, more manageable beginning. Great job, fun game!
A general response to those not seeing the connection to the theme: The depths of winter refers to the coldest part of the winter, hence the physical setting/visual theme, and the voiceover explores a couple of 'depths': as @shp points out, it is written as a 'deep' reflection of philosophy, ethics etc, and also touches upon darker emotions (the depths of despair/depression). I had fun dipping in and out of both deep thoughts, and shallow, vain ones, in the script. Thoughts of varying depth. The theme doesn't really inform the mechanics of the game, and I love when jam games do that, but the theme absolutely informed our creative choices for this game. I hope that clears things up!
There is so much potential for me to love this game. The concept is great, the puzzle design is great, the levels are sequenced in a way that tutorialises the mechanics really well. But... The controls are awkward (especially in 3D), the movable box physics is awkward (especially in 3D) and the game not always placing you on or above a solid surface when moving from 2D to 3D mid-jump, when it could (and when the player expects it to) made for an incredibly frustrating time as the puzzles got more difficult. I thought switching to control pad might make things easier for me, but the right stick did not move the camera. If you can improve the quality of life details mentioned above, this would be a fantastic game, and I would love for you to let me know if you smooth these edges so I can play a more forgiving version of the game. As it is, I had to give up on the tree level after reaching the second of the brown floating cubes. I just wasn't willing to push past the friction in implementing my solutions. In a puzzle game, if I know what I need to do, it shouldn't be this hard to do it. Really great jam game though, well done!
I enjoyed playing this game, but there were a few frustrations, all centred around mis-judging my duck's position relative to the obstacles, causing me to collide with obstacles unexpectedly. I think a light causing shadows to be cast by the duck onto the scenery would help with this a lot. The bats being so much bigger than the duck model was a little counter-intuitive, too. I loved the music slow-down effect on failure, and enjoyed the blocky art style. It would be nice to have more coverage with the sounds though: moving obstacles making sound would be an improvement, as would having a whoosh or similar on the dodge. Overall, a great jam submission! Well done!
I love this take on the theme. I played the original submission version. The mood is perfect. Solemn reflection and (this is my favourite part) a reverence for all three responses to each question. The optimism and acceptance matches the overall meditative, calming and reflective tone well. The visuals and audio could do more to further enhance the aesthetic presentation of that mood, and a greater number of questions and responses would allow a 'player' to enjoy the 'game' for longer. Thanks for sharing.
Bonkers and fun. It would be nice if the post-ejection launch was more powerful, as I felt like I had very little influence over what happened after the initial launch. In pinball, the ball can be away from the flippers for a long time, but you can hit the ball away with significant force when it comes back to the flippers. Something equivalent to that near your black hole would be a good idea. More of a VFX/SFX on the wormholes would help them read better: it took a while for me to work out that it wasn't just a random glitch that I changed position. Visuals and audio are both the highlights of your game. Well done. Thanks for sharing.
I really enjoyed this submission. The audio was spot on for the mood of the game, being relaxing and calm, with rewarding SFX on combos. Once I got to grips with the mechanics and scoring, I realised just how powerful the broken sunglasses were, allowing me to complete all the floors and finish the game. The game could probably be balanced a little better in that regard, but it did feel good to watch all the combos going off. The game did start to stall and slow during the late game mega-combos though. Overall, a really fun submission. It is always a good sign when people finish your jam game. Well done!
I had fun playing this, but it felt like it was harder than it was meant to be. It is always a good idea to lean on the easier side for jam games, so that your players experience all or most of what you have made. Limiting the number of enemies in active pursuit would be a good idea. Also, highlighting which resources you still need when attempting to craft items would be helpful. I managed to get to the point where I needed leather to make an improved slingshot. It seemed like I wasn't going to find any in the starting area, so I went further afield. I didn't find any leather, but did find a jaguar I was unequipped to battle and died very quickly. Giving some sort of indication where to go to find the next required resource would be helpful, as I'm guessing I went in the wrong direction? Thanks for sharing.
I love that the character is controlled indirectly, that's a nice touch, and makes a simple idea more interesting. You have already addressed the biggest problem in your description: the high score system being broken takes away the ability to know how well I'm doing: while playing, I want to focus on catching fish. Congratulations on your first solo jam game!
Massive congratulations for your first jam game after a month of game dev experience. This is original, expressive and bold. In future jams, I would consider trying to have a little more interactivity and a goal for the player, but you should be proud of your first jam game. Well done.
Congratulations on your first jam game. This is a solid submission. My biggest piece of advice would be to make jam games easier than you think they should be. I really struggled with the first level. By the next two, I had gotten used to the controls more, but the first level is very hard for the first thing a player needs to do. Also, the vertical movement from just a small tap was really quite far, and that caught me out a few times, with an evasive manoeuvre taking me right into the jaws of a predator. Thanks for sharing your game!