Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Secret Magic 404
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | CHROMAHOLIC | compo | 657 | 3.15 | 2.38 | 3.11 | 3.58 | 4.27 | 3.64 | 1.73 | 4.14 |
Seamless tutorial is very well designed. It teaches you all the mechanics without feeling like a tutorial.
Level design and to a certain extent game design is one of the hardest things to truly notice and appreciate in a game... yet you did it in 48 hours!
Length of the game is perfect too :smile:
I'm not surprised that this is far from your first game jam... well done!
Great intro, great transition, and impressive cinematic effects. The button mashing was a great touch.
I'm really curious about the half of the game you said you cut. Maybe we get to play it in an update?
I hope we get to see more! :smile:
There is a number of multiplayer games online in which the objective is to grow bigger. Some of these games are good, but this game... this game is great! Seriously, the developers of the other games should play this and take some notes :smiley:
Hey! I collected all 14 stars, but nothing happened. Did I miss something?
I love that whole Windows95 screensaver vibe going on. Very cool :smile:
Overall I would say it's pretty satisfying to play this game. Those slimes however... moving through walls... they give you no time to rest!
That sandwich sound effect is amazing :laughing: I think it's my favorite bit of the game. How did you make it?
Great entry!
Awesome! I haven't played a typing game in years!
This is a great idea and use of the theme. I had fun fishing and typing :smile:
I only hoped that it would go little faster. It would have been nice to be able to adjust the difficulty, but 48 hours is not a lot of time to add these kind of options, so it's perfect just the way it is!
Hey! That was really fun! :smile:
I just realized after I finished playing: this felt like a fun *puzzle* game but it could actually also be an *educational* game. The format could be used to learn numbers, or could be modified for learning letters, algebra, etc.
The problem with educational games is that you can always tell they are educational content disguised as entertainment software.
Perhaps it's the pico-8 style that gives this game its pure gaming feel...
I think you could be onto something worthwhile if you continue developing games with the format you showed us here :slight_smile:
Congratulations on this achievement!
Wow... everything is great about this game. The art, music, UI, sound, controls, gameplay... I was having a really good time.
Then, out of nowhere, a big Mario 64 eel instakilled my character by shoving it into the wall and making it impossible to escape. Having to restart from the beginning broke the immersion and is simply too punishing in my opinion, considering you would have to wait several minutes just to have another shot at avoiding the eel.
I really want to see the bottom of your game, so I'll give it another try later today. The intro is excellent, so it will be awesome to dive back in. Hopefully next time will be smoother :sweat_smile:
I've never played anything like this. :O
This is such a great use of the theme! The controls feel great, and the animation is really good. Even without any objective, the game is very satisfying to play.
It's such a good and original idea... I feel like this would have the potential to become another fun plant-themed game in the same vibe as Pikmin.
Please let us know if you plan on developing this further, I would like to see more! :smile:
I've played a few board games in the past which use the same path building mechanic, but you implemented it in a new and interesting way!
It took a long time before monsters started appearing on my path, so it was kind of underwhelming at first. Then, as I got really close to the end, the amount of monsters was suddenly way too high and it became overwhelming.
It would be nice to play this again with a difficulty curve ramping up a little bit more smoothly :smile:
Well done!
I like the simple and accessible gameplay. Anyone should be able to play this!
I agree with what @onnofal said. The red platforms look like they should be avoided like the red enemies. Perhaps making them orange or yellow would have been less confusing at first.
The controls were tight, you never feel like the game is unfair to you.
Well done :smile:
Great use of the theme!
I love that you get to jump into the game right away... and that you get to dive super fast! Nice and tight controls, and all this in only 4 hours?
...and yes, as you hoped, I had at least a little fun :smile:
Such a relaxing experience... the deep blue of the ocean and slow-paced music created a nice chill vibe.
Is it even possible to collect all the trash in the ocean? Or is this a message to tell us that it's already too late?
Good job on implementing such complex controls for a compo entry! :smile:
Nice! I never thought a game about babysitting boxes could be so fun! :smile:
On my second attempt, I was doing really well until it became impossible to avoid dangers as both upper platform had spikes come out at the same time as a laser on the bottom platform. Still, it was good fun :slight_smile:
Such a dramatic/cinematic vibe! Reminds me of those coin flips in movies that take forever before we get to see the result - if we ever see it. Needless to say a video game version is very welcome!
I really liked the simple one button control scheme. The UI was very helpful too and allows you to have more control than you usually do in these one button games.
Excellent submission! :smile:
Easy to play but hard to master... hehe :smirk: Achieving that balance usually takes a lot of time and playtesting. Congrats on making it happen in a compo submission!
Very nice game!
If you haven't already considered adding a few more levels and publishing it to mobile... I think you should :smile:
The space theme and color palette took me all the way back to 2010 when I first played a certain flash game known as REDDER.
I'm glad @0x746564 mentioned the walking sound... otherwise I would not have noticed it! Speaking of sound, I noticed you have some SFX variations for scrap collection, but apparently not for shooting and other common sounds. Slightly randomizing the volume and pitch of the sound effects would be a subtle but nice improvement.
You made it obvious that this is a game intended to be fun to speedrun... and it is! The vertical movement feels great. Unfortunately, the horizontal movements falls flat in comparison because of the speed difference. Did you consider using the same vertical dashes for moving left and right?
I'm curious to know more about your thought process in the development of this game. For instance, I noticed that enemies only shoot projectiles vertically. I immediately thought about rotating these enemies 90 degrees so they could shoot horizontally (or even diagonally), but I realized that might not be compatible with your established movement and shooting mechanics. I think that framing these design challenges and talking about how you approach them would make a very interesting and educational video. If you can make it happen, I'm sure you would help a lot of young aspiring designers make better game jam games!
Very good game :smile: let me know when level 5 is available!
Yay ^v^ I was able to catch all the thoughts on the first try!
Super cute character design, soothing music... great use of the theme... well done :)
Golf games are usually always colorful and cheerful... so golfing in your dark and gritty caves was a very refreshing experience! Excellent use of the theme, both for graphics and audio. If you happen to design some levels too, I think that would be a great addition to the already existing procedural mode :smile:
Your sound design / voice acting really is top notch :laughing:
After completing the Standard mode, I tried the Survival mode and started hearing sound effects I had not heard during my first playthrough. I started running into literally everything, even all the bad stuff, just so that I could hear all the amazing sounds this game has to offer.
I can't think of many games that reward you for losing HP... so congrats on making an unexpected mechanic that is surprisingly fun!
Awesome platformer! Great levels diversity! It's like a mini Mario Odyssey :smile:
Did you know that you can cheat level 2 by holding right when the level start? :P
Very impressive amount of content for a compo game... I hope we get to see more stuff like this from you someday :smiley:
Hey, that was amazing! Everything about this is great: graphics, musix, sfx, controls, theme...
I agree with @rngames that it would be nice if it was a little more challenging. If you add a procedural mode and higher difficulty settings, I could play this for hours.
I hope we get to see more soon! :smile:
Oh yeah... that's a really good one :smiley:
The art and gameplay reminded of an old flash game called Platypus. I think the strongest point about your game is the enemy diversity. Also it was funny to go to level " - - 1 " and get negative scores :laughing:
A lot of people participate in game jams because they want to get experience to work in the games industry and that's perfectly fine... but they often try to make a game that fits a popular genre, and unfortunately often end up making a soulless watered-down version of a popular game, which is instantly forgotten right after playing it.
This however... this is the kind of game that game jams are for. It's so unique that it can't be compared to anything else.
I won't forget about your game and neither will other people who have played it! :smile:
Awesome game! I ended up with exactly 1024 gold! :medal:
It feels great to have these minions dig for you, but it's also fun to shoot at the same time. Congratulations for making the game feel so good to play.
The only thing that would have made me enjoy the game even more is if the minions could move faster... but then again, I feel like their slow speed ensured the game was properly balanced.
Very nicely done. If you keep working on this game, I would be interested in following its development. :smile:
Awesome! Super smooth game!
Great intro/tutorial.
Challenging gameplay... however it didn't take long for me to find out I could move to the edge of the screen and avoid all the obstacles :smile:
Endless mode is definitely the highlight of this submission! I enjoyed the dramatic zoom upon collision: it made for both a comic and cinematic effect :smile:
Wow! I've seen branching trees representations of data in the past, but not interactive ones. This is so original! I would love to see a more advanced version of this on a dedicated website with nice animations showing the new words people are adding in real time. Good job on making this work flawlessly :smile:
So calm and relaxing... this is my first time playing a mermaid game and I really liked it. Great work :smile:
This game is very well done: gravity is super realistic and quite difficult to navigate. It reminds you why people always refer to rocket scientists to describe highly complex situations!
If your intention was to make a realistic simulation, I would say mission accomplished. If however your objective is to have more people enjoy the game more easily, then I would suggest giving a bit more power to the thrusters for a much faster acceleration curve and amplified feeling of being in control.
Nevertheless, it's quite fun even if it's really hard! :smile:
Very nice level design and variety... and great use of the theme :slight_smile:
What a fun and original idea :smile:
The art direction is really good too.
If you were to add some nice music and sound effects, as well as more levels, you could have a very good mobile game in your hands!
After getting lost multiple times in the forest, I kept trying to find the red exit to avail. Can you share a hint that would point players in the right direction?
It would be great to be able to play your game until the end :slight_smile:
Wow that was fun! What a great snake-like adventure game. I was having a blast, but the game crashed!
The message error I got is "runtime error line 418" and apparently had to do with the update process for the cavities.
Hopefully that will be helpful to you to debug the game. I'll give it another try later to see if I can make it to the end! :smile:
Very clever use of the theme :smile: I noticed that you put a lot of care into designing a great UI, which is often the most neglected part of most game jam submissions. This makes your game stand out as more polished! Good job!
Wow, perfectly balanced for my taste! This is a puzzle game just the way I like it... not too short and not too long. The mechanic is simple, yet can go surprisingly deep... very fitting for the theme! Some puzzle games can be completed without much effort, but this isn't the case for this one. As you progress through the levels, the game forces you to really understand its mechanics. It can seem a bit daunting at first, but the difficulty level is perfect in my opinion. It makes it so much more satisfying when you make it to the end. I would love to see you make a 3D version of this game, I would be your first player! Well done! :smiley:
Making an escape room type game where you can't actually escape the room? You're really going to trigger the OCD of escape room enthusiasts :smirk: Although thanks to @vimlark that's not going to be a problem anymore :wink:
The music is an excellent fit for the game: both intriguing and relaxing, which is the best kind of music any kind of detective game can hope for in my opinion.
The visual design is very good and makes the game easy to navigate.
I always thought that this kind of game would take a long time to design... it's incredible that you were able to make it happen in just 48 hours!
Congrats! :smile:
It reminded me of an old game called Robot Rage, which I assure you is a great compliment. Destructible environments are often hit-or-miss... but this one is a hit for sure! Well done :smiley:
This is very intriguing... the combination of visual presentation along with the game mechanic create a feeling that draws you in and makes you want to see more.
I hope that we get to see the finished version someday!
Facts: - This pixel art is quite fantastic - These controls are very satisfying
Super impressive. I want more :smiley:
Same thing happened to me @gaminghamster
Then, I tried completing the game without going underground even once. Apparently, this is how you win because I was greeted by a success message :smile: but saying that everyone else had died in poverty :anguished:
Is this a bug? Or is this some kind of social commentary about how you should not try to pursue riches? Either way, good game :slight_smile:
Those other games are always too easy.
Now finally we've got a worthy challenge!
Wow! That was so original! I can't remember the last time I played a game that didn't remind me of another game I've played before. It really was a completely new and fresh gaming experience for me :smile: Thank you for making this!
Such an original game! Genius use of the theme... your character and voice acting gave your game a super fun personality and I definitely enjoyed it more because of it.
If would like to quickly update your game with some minor improvements, I would suggest getting rid of the typos and cleaning up the voice audio files (removing the noise).
With the very high popularity of card games online, I think you could easily turn this into a commercial product. Either a more polished single player experience or PvP... I would be very curious to see what you could come up with.
Well done :smile:
I loved the underwater rainbow corals! They looked beautiful! The big skeleton looked pretty cool too.
I wish the game was little easier... but having something a little more challenging to play once in a while has never hurt anyone :slight_smile:
Wow! I really liked it! The game has an old school "nature educational PC game" vibe to it, in a very good way. :smiley: I would like to see more of it. If you plan to continue working on this project, I would be very interested in following its development!
Very nice! :smiley: I reached the end with a score of 43000 on my second attempt. It reminds me of some flash game I played a long time ago... so nostalgia bonus points for you! I like your version better though, because it is more challenging :stuck_out_tongue: It would be cool to play this in VR, probably because of the nice effects of the world coming towards you. I think your interpretation of the theme is pretty awesome too!
This is a very good clicker game! :smile:
I played until the end, but there was not much left to unlock/buy once you reach level 4, which makes it less motivating to continue playing.
I like that it gives you the option to keep playing once you win... and so it would be nice to have some post-game exclusive unlockables :smirk:
Your game reminded me of some of the early space-themed flash games... which is nice :smile:
Have you considered making a mobile version in the future? I think touch controls would be a good fit for your game.
Good job!
That was neat! It's quite hard to make a compo game which is pretty much equally good in all rating categories... kudos to you @ghost-wave !!! :smiley:
I like tank games, even if they rarely offer anything new... but your game managed to be innovative in 2 distinct ways: - The game looks really cute for a tank game - The minimap elevates the gameplay experience
You have something very nice here... I would love to see the game updated with more levels! :smile: