For The Love Of Money by KunoNoOni 2017-05-03T06:19:30Z
FYI the Mac version won't open.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Shaolin Dave
FYI the Mac version won't open.
Tutorial is a must, once the controls are figured out it's a good little puzzle game. I really think you should expand on this. I will say that you really shouldn't have used the Unity Web Player as it's going away and is already unplayable on many computers. If you're going to build for web, use WebGL
Sounds did a lot for the atmosphere. Tbe font was incredibly hard on the eyes, I'd suggest switching to something easier to read. There was a lot of repeating rooms/text, but I guess that comes with the time crunch. Overall it was pretty fun, a lot of potential as a horror adventure.
Interesting idea. I enjoyed myself while playing, even though I had no idea what the quck was happening half the time. I could see this evolving into something splendid.
The controls seemed to cut out randomly, so it was very difficult to play. I couldn't really figure out how to use any of the equipment.
Thanks for all the feedback, guys! I’ll try to check out any games you have available for me as well.
I’d like to provide some responses to your feedback:
- Art: Axle and myself filled in some missing frames, modifying frames of completed characters. I did a couple of the weapons. All backgrounds and character designs are from Mike, he did about 99% of the art involved.
- The challenge: This game is intended to be incredibly challenging. I guess some people are frustrated by this, so after judging is completed we’ll probably tweak it a bit. Personally I feel that the speed aspect is a little to easy while the damage avoidance is a bit too difficult. Still, I hope that no one ever completes the game with 100% health. I certainly haven’t.
- Enemy jumps: The enemies seem to jump randomly because they actually do jump randomly. I hear the complaints that theres no indication of when this will happen, and am considering changing the animation (after judging, of course).
- Stuck on enemies: This is something I don’t think we’ll change. If you run into an enemy, you should back up and approach again. If were were to update the game so that you can avoid an enemy AFTER you’d already run into them and are still all up in their face, it’d make plowing through enemies too easy. The challenge of this game is balancing speed and caution.
- Adding Countries: We might consider adding after the judging. Right now, most people who complete the game do so in about 35 seconds, so I think lengthening it is a good idea.
- Sound/Music: The simplistic sounds and lack of music are because of time constraints, so these might be worked on afterwards.
- Heath Bar: Another thing omitted by time constraints, we’ll add this is afterwards.
- Time and Scoring : Someone asked if the time limit is actually 80 seconds. Yes and no. If you pass 80 seconds you can still keep going, but the end score is calculated by the time it took and your remaining health. Over 80 seconds and you get no score for time. I haven’t decided if we’ll add any on-screen timer.
- Other improvements: As we were running out of time we had to omit a couple things. After judging we’ll probably add in a title screen, on-screen controller instructions, easy restarting, maybe pause features and high score saving. The stand-alone builds weren’t finished because of input glitches that prevented jumping, so maybe we can fix that and created downloadable versions as well.
The controls aren't very intuitive. I'm not sure there needed to be a "capture" button at all, but right-click would have been better than space. Still, I could see this expanding. Improve the controls, maybe randomize the environment, and you'll have a great casual game.
The graphics are really good, sounds aren't too bad.
The UI could use a lot of work, death leads to the game over screen way too abruptly. Why search for "R" when the jump or fire button could be used to restart.
A health system would be better than the one-shot kill. If you're going for Contra-style difficultly, then at least make use of death animations and scene transitions.
Finally, I think the scene loading was bugged? I only got about two screens in and then it loaded a small room, and every time I walked through it the same scene would load over and over again.
Started off doing well despite not knowing what I was doing, got more difficult despite not knowing what I did wrong... still really enjoyed it. It's addictive, but could use more clarification on goals and the means to achieve them
I love it!
Probably the best game I've played for this jam ( other than my own, of course ;-P ). I like it. Fits the theme well, reminds me a lot of "pipe dreams" as far as connection goes, but mechanically is much more unique. I suggest adding an easy way to quit out of the game, ESC button possibly.
The game doesn't work out to well in HTML5. I realized the same thing with my game as well, the web version doesn't do it justice and people don't download the stand-alone version because they can try the web version so quickly.
I did download the Mac version (thank you for supporting multiple platforms). Graphics and mood are amazing, but it's very obviously a trial-and-error type game. It's pretty tedious, especially for LDJam players who want to play as many of these thousands of games as possible.
The UI on the title screen could use some work, the image I was suppose to be looking at while adjusting gamma was halfway off the screen. Minor detail but it helps to pay attention to things like that.
Mac version isn't working. I get this error when opening: "“tiny_explorer” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash."
Amazing sound and music. Very good use of light effects and texturing, models were pretty good too. It fits the theme pretty well, but there wasn't much in direction. Definitely a "where the quck do I go?" type of game. At first I thought the mines were pickups so I only made it to level 2. After that I got to 13 pretty easily.
Crashes pretty frequently. I never did see any pickups, so for me it was just automatic walking until it crashes.
Mac version doesn't work
I didn't really get the point of two cannons at first, but it became apparent very quickly when I had to chose to shoot an enemy going across one cannon's line-of-site but into the other's. It's actually pretty genius.
Really the first criticism to come to mind is to make the power aspect a bit more obvious. Some GUI improvements could help with that.
Humor was great. I totally got that "Silver Surfer" reference when you die.
I like it, it's got that old-school charm.
Definitely innovative. I don't think I've ever heard of a bedtime story game before.
First, just wanted to give some UI pointers. The cursor is too small and blends in too much with the background. Having to click through the dialouge too forever because I had to find my cursor.
So, three suggestions here. 1 - Make the cursor biggest and more contrasting, maybe a light cursor with a dark border so it shows up everywhere. 2 - Allow keyboard inputs and clicks anywhere on screen to advance dialouge 3 - Allow ESC to pause/close game ' The 3d graphics are beautiful, even if the angle did make navigating and seeing what's ahead of you a bit difficult.
Overall it was a good game, just could use a little tweaking.
The visual effects where nice, I think I'll check back to see if you apply them to more complete graphical assets. Sounds were amazing!
The gameplay didn't feel very smooth to me though. The effects get too harsh, too quickly, and even in level 2 I couldn't recover from a single mistake.
It's made with Unity, so you could export it to platforms other than Windows. I'd love to play/rate it.
Very loosley followed the theme, seemed like more of a first-person tower defense. Aiming was very difficult. Enemies had virtually no AI.
3D modeling was really good, though. I'd suggest working on the enemies, maybe have waves spawn at different places and use pathfinding/AO to have them seek out the generators and the player.
Amazing graphics and sound. Fits the theme very well. I like the humor.
I'm not a big fan of the trial-and-error method of figuring things out but for such a short game it's not so bad. I'd suggest removing collisions between the pickups and player, they don't seem to have a purpose and I keep accidentally kicking items across the map.
Nice little shooter. The graphics were a little cluttered for such low-res, hart to see projectiles among the stars. Theme could've been more prevalent.
Great take on the "Jupiter Lander" mechanics. Very fun to play. Took me three tries to beat the first level so that's no so bad.
My only real complaint are the "P to play, C for credits, R to restart" keys. It's more important to have the keys be intuitive than have the letters match up. I'd suggest that both Play and Restart use the "Enter" key, and maybe "ESC" could pause the game and show credits.
Couldn't really get past the first two batteries, 200 points no matter what I do.
It's fun. I like the graphics, though with the car's handling/inertia it almost felt like it should've been a speedboat on a river instead of a car, or maybe a skiier. Still, not too bad.
Very nice all around. Should have an easy way to quit though (Esc key?)
VERY challenging. I like the way you worked the theme into here. Enemy AI seems to target either the EMP or the player decisively instead of randomly.
Also, I love that you actually got a coherent menu system. Most LD games (even my own) wind up not implementing this properly.
Haven't seen a puzzle with this kind of mechanic before, great innovation. A few times the guy getting books didn't move even though there was nothing in his way, not sure if that's a glitch or I just wasn't playing right.
A bit buggy. Every time I used the jetpack I'd be unable to use it again or jump. Also, waiting to be carried back when you die is very tedious. Iron those out and it could become a decent game. Graphics were charming,
Pretty difficult (sometimes impossible, in fact. I think three times in a row I spawned INSIDE of enemies, causing me to insta-die). If the random locations were polished a little, and sprites were smaller on screen, it'd really help improve the experience.
Graphics were good, the gameplay mechanic was interesting.
It was a little tedious going back and forth between keyboard for game input and mouse for menu. "space or enter to retry, esc to go back to menu" would make it a bit easier.
As for the games themselves, it's clever reimagining of the classics. The theme seemed to be shoehorned in. All games were pretty good, but I wonder if it would've been better to focus on one rather that divide effort among three?
Mac version doesn't seem to work, clicking does nothing so I can't get past the title screen.
Played once. Got 37,000. Is that a lot?
Very nice casual game, cute graphics.
The controls should be on the game themselves, and more clear. At first I just thought there was no way to not fall over and piss yourself after a second. The controls should be in the game, and more throughout. Difficulty shoots up straight away, maybe an easier start and a more gentle learning curb. Also, clicking it start/restart but keyboard to play makes it tedious going back and forth.
Graphics are great.
Doesn't seem to fit the theme. Still, very fun little game, I hope you expand on it.
I didn't quite understand it. The minigames were difficult to control, and goals were unclear.
You should get the HTML version sooner rather than later, you're missing out on early ratings.
It's made with Unity? You should port to WebGL/Mac/Linux so everyone can play!
I followed the web link but there's no web version there, only the download. Unfortunately, the download isn't working either. I'll have to come back later to check on this.
I like the graphics, but the gameplay was a bit too simple. I kept feeling like I was missing something, or accidentally advancing the time.
(EDIT : 404 error fixed)
Pretty good!
@LJN - Sound is added to our project but it's not uploaded yet. Please check back and vote after the deadline.
EDIT: Sound and music was eventually added.
@internetpaulicy - The bots have different AIs. The red one is always hunting you. The blue one is always looking for batteries, but if he sees you he willl chase you instead. The orange one patrols around in an attempt to get ahead of you, and will chase when he sees you.
@Coauctor - Haven't heard of any freezing before but I'll look into it.
If you click either the WebGL or Windows link it'll take you to the itch.io page which contains both. Underneath the WebGL version there's download links, including the Windows standalone.
I recommend the standalone versions even if WegGL works for you, as they perform way better.
Very nice graphics, sound, and concept. It did seem pretty buggy though. Jumps randomly seemed to not work, or the jump strength would be out of whack (sometimes I'd jump one foot, a couple times I jumped like 100ft). I'd love to play this some more, maybe it can be stabilized, and also expanded on after voting.
The second UFO-abducting-cows game I've played this jam. It's pretty funny. It's a little buggy, could use a bit more polish on enemy AI.
In-game tutorial would be helpful, maybe a little more thought into the UI.
Not bad for a first try. Teaching the player could be better. Rather than so much reading, guide the player through the first few steps. I died almost right away.
2781 on my first try. I like the music, graphics were good. The random spawning tends to put fuel way too close to obstacles, making them impossible to get.
Says it's been removed?
I see it's back up, so I got a chance to play it. I like it, the graphics are cool (love the derpy-looking foxes). Very funny.
Rock em Sock em Energizer Bunnies!
I was going to say it was too easy because I won immediately by button mashing, then realized I was playing a 2p game with 1p :-P. You should update this with some enemy AI for single-player.
The graphics. The gameplay is a little simplistic but it works. Good use of the theme.
Cute little twin-stick, though usually WASD is used for movement so maybe you should've set the arrow keys to shoot. Seems like a game that could've benefitted from gamepad support as well.
Does godot export to Mac, Linux or WebGL? You 'll get more ratings if you make it available to more platforms.
Harmonica is good, but there doesn't seem to be much in terms of gameplay.
I don't like tower defense games or clicker games. Still, the blend actually made this pretty enjoyable. This could benefit from more variety (multiple levels, multiple enemies), and sound + music.
Great job. I love that you actually options between player or cpu. keep working on this!
Can't play it, the screen says something like "press a to start" four times. Nothing seems to do anything. As of this writing, your LD page has nothing but "Say something" and the link to your github, so I'll try to check back later in case you add instructions.
You should add @SVR_Audio to your team on this site, you're not getting any Karma for the feedback he's giving to other games.
"If it's any consolation, you were delicious"... Actually, it sort of is.
Mac version won't open.
Biggest flaw is the tutorial text, most of it's in hard places to see. Most of it is sideways and clipping into the ground so you cna't even read the whole thing. I think a lot of the game was self-explainatory or easy enough to figure out, but I feel like I'm missing out on something. Also, the "Options" didn't seem to work, I couldn't switch to windowed mode, for example.
The gameplay is pretty good balance between managing your power and defending your base.
I noticed you used a stock sound effect for "FAIL" deaths (not sure about other sounds). You should remove premade sounds/music or opt out of audio voting.
These are among the best visuals I've seen in an LD game, great pixel art.
Neat concept, one of the more innovative games I've seen. Moving around was a little difficult to get used to. Game could REALLY benefit from sound.
Intersting concept.
One note, you used the AOL "You've got Mail!" sound effect in your game. I think you'll have to opt-out of "audio" ratings for that, you're supposed to create all sounds/music during the jam (sounded like some internet noises were premade too).
The idea is pretty good, goes well with the theme.
Love the art, controls are very easy, challenge increases at a good pace. Good job!
Pretty fun, though I don't really get the screen-in-screen thing that so many games on here do. Why not make the game take up the whole view area? Also, having playere controllable during transitions and cutscenes (door opening) leads to some cheap deaths.
Love the Rick and Morty reference. Unfortunately I can't play this one (Android only)
Nice game. I think the controls could use some work, I was getting a "Zelda" vibe and kinda wanted to control it that way.
Made with Unity, why not build for WebGL so Mac users can play too?
Noticed a few bugs. ESC pulls you out of fullscreen mode so backing out of the puzzle means you can;t play fullscreen on WebGL. The boundaries on either side of the game become passable, I think after exiting any puzzle. I completed every puzzle and the hero showed up, but nothing happened (game unfinished).
Seemed like an interesting start of a game though, I was eager to find out what the hero/villain aspect would be.
Unfortunately I can't play this. You made it with Unity, you should really do a WebGL build so people without Windows can play/vote.
Update: thanks for the WebGL build. I was able to play now. It's a good little game, simple easy-to-learn mechanics are important for games like this. The player controls could have been a little more polished (shooting while walking for example). Graphics and sound are good.
Couldnt catch any cows. They'd just kinda slide out sometimes. Got stuck in the ground a couple times. Still, interesting idea. With some bug fixes it could be really good.
Tried the web version and it was very laggy. Probably physics causing it but it could have been all those dynamic lights also. Doesn't really fit the "losing power" theme, more about "losing mass"
Very cool! Graphics and sounds were great, even professional-looking. Gameplay was mostly self-explainatory, which is good. I felt a little bad killing such cute enemies (just a little).
Took a bit to figure out what to do, but once I did it was pretty good.
Kind of fun. I like the interpretation of running out of power as running out of political power (our team breifly considered that, along with running out of magical power). I would consider an update were you don't necessarily have to type one word. If two words are coming at the same time, rather than delegate what the player has to type, why not let them choose on their own?
Pushing space causes you to drop down literally inside of your bed, clicking the mouse for three minutes or so moves you about a foot to the right.... Is this how the game is actually designed? What is this? Even exiting the game was too difficult, ESC does nothing,
The mini-games were too hard to figure out, I lost every one, most of them without even knowing what the goal was.
Mac version has been tested and works (though the UI was a bit small in the tutorial/selection screen).
I like it. Very good implementation of the theme. Controlling some mindless wandering characters in real-time reminded me of "Lemmings" (which is good.
I like the concept of tying power-ups to the lighting. The controls felt natural to use.
I love the animations on this.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the kids leaping at the bus and sticking to it, or the way they flew off in all directions once I got to the school.
By the way, you have your previous games listed on your profile but not this one
Well, I've spent more time playing this than anything else this jam.
I like it. Graphics were good (excepy, are you playing as a rhino in a parka?) I loved the comedic way the penguins flew off the screen. I think it wouldve been cool to have some sort of bonus for capturing multiple fish.
The mechanics are a little confusing, I like that the tutorial is built in and a quick-to-the-point type (most these games have no tutorial or they write a novel), but autoscrolling through the tutorial made it hard to read.
Great way to work Mad Bomber mechanics into the theme
Good twist on the theme. I like the multiple endings (I've gotten two so far)
Very unique, very funny, I really like it!
There;'s a glitch though. When you restart after the game is over the music will play over itself and you have no control.
The sky being a wall with clouds painted on it is interesting. Not sure if that was an intentional design choice but I like it.
I don't really get it. I might've gotten as far as I can but I'm not sure. "Theme Sucks" keeps flashing and I hear that voice over and over.
Awww, no Mac or HTML version :(
I'll have to try this later, I'll pass it onto my PC-using teammates.
Good idea, but the interface isn't very intuitive and the difficulty curve is insane.
Very cool take on the theme. It's a little wordy for an LD game (we're all trying to play as many as possible) but I'm defintely bookmarking this one to play later!
Love the art and music was good. Game is a little simplistic, I think it could be expanded on.
You weren't kidding about it being hard to learn! I love the graphics, simple, clearly identifiable, but pleasant to look at. Both the atmospheric and UI sounds were spot on. the gameplay was a bit tough for me, though. I might check back when I have more time to figure it out.
Character graphics are pretty good. Sound was minimalistic, but in a great way. The level graphics were way too dark, navigating the level was pretty much impossible to me. The grappeling hook mechanic was a great idea that was almost executed well too. I liked the freedom of movement, but I think it could have stood to be maybe a little more restictive. You should definitely build on that mechanic in a later game.
Well, I was about to call it a night but saw these goofy characters and was like "gotta try that out first" I like the concept, it takes the theme very literally. The controls aren't the most intuitive but the in-game tutorial is very well done so it's not much of a problem. I like the music. drawings are good by animations could be better.
I've participated in Ludum Dare 4 times and I make an effort to play/rate a lot each time.
This is definitely the best LD submission I've played so far.
graphics were good, i LOVE the music and sound effects. controls were almost perfect. theme-wise i think you interpreted it a lot better than most, and i like the risk/reward balance. the barrels exploding bullets into all directions seems like a clever way to quickly implement area damage. it works well here, but if you continue working on this later i might suggest a different effect (and probably player damage, too). Only major flaw I saw was that there was no player feedback when the next was being damaged, but I'm sure that was just a time restraint thing. Good job!
If it's possible to do a web build, I highly suggest it. Many people are unwilling or unable to download Windows builds, but I would like to try this out.
DEFINITELY need to play this game in full-screen. I think the graphics might be a little bit TOO simplistic. I couldn't really tell one thing from another. Controls were well-implemented, though.
Thank you all for playing and reviewing! I've realized that the game isn't very self-explanatory (had to pretty much dev this in one day, so a lot had to be cut for time). I've updated the game page to instruct players.
@ejmejm , @jedineeson : Glad you both like the graphics. FlyinMayan always delivers amazing visuals on these games. The simplistic sounds were mostly because I didn't have time to replace our standins, but I'm glad you like them anyway!
@guiltyking - The goal of the game is to see how far along you can get, and most times players shouldn't be able to make it. Perhaps 30 days would have been a better time, but I was afraid that there'd be too many of the same encounters in such a short timespan. The game does tell you how many crew members you have left, it's on the upper right corner of the screen.
@mrpiedpiper - 67 days to go? Great! I was too busy deving instead of playing so without cheats (for testing) I only got to 71 days to go. Variety was sacraficed for time, but after the jam maybe we'll add some more features.
@tommyflower - My goal is to make my games very intuitive and self explanatory. I obviously failed this time. To compensate, I've updated the game page with play instructions. Let me know if you give it another chance. The life resources are displayed on three bars at the top of the screen, along with the remaining crew members.
@fizzpowmike1 - I hear you. Clarity was sacraficed for time. I seriously only got the particle effects of the attacks seven minutes before the deadline, before that the feedback was audio only! I can't add features now, but I've updated the game page with instructions. Hopefully that makes the gameplay more clear.
@russ-moonbase @inferture Thanks guys. Yeah I wish I had the time to explain the mechanics more and probably will after judging is completed. tbh there isn't much difference between the lasers and torpedoes. I think the torpedoes have a higher hit rate? Mainly this is because there wound up being no difference between the enemy bomber and fighter. If I had another day (or even a couple hours) I would have had the torpedo be more effective on the bombers and the lasers more effective on the fighters.
@obalfaqih Yes, time constraints is exactly what prevented animations from being done. I'd actually started on them but removed them completely because I couldn't have finished them all. Next time I'll try to actually make good use of the full three days.
@sharks Not sure if you meant "snow" in general design or just how it ran. I did notice that the web build is slower than running in editor, which is weird for such a simple game. but both are things i need to work on.
@joe-bustamante thank you. my interpretation of the theme is very important to me and the main reason i abandoned my work up until i had this idea. I like your idea of allowing the player to control their fate, I hadn't really considered a more proactive approach but I'll have to think about that between now and when I'm allowed to make improvements.
@mykola 1. I'm not sure i agree that the game is too long. I'll agree that it SEEMS too long, because most people see everything the game has to offer in 10-15 days (though it did take my wife about 40 days until she was offered space mines!). When I rework this I don't know if I'll make the game shorter or make the events more varied and tweaked for balanced gameplay. 2. I'm not sure why that happens, but I did notice too. I'll have to research Unity/itch.io to see if there's a solution 3. Yes that sound is annoying! It's a standin sound that I never got to replace, maybe I should've just taken it out. 4. I'd like some music with mood and ambiance, but maybe something more energetic would work for battles.
@rakowu, @gregoire - Thank you, glad you like!
@fahim-faysal I did consider so FTL-like game mechanics but as usual, time prevented it. I'm not sure if I'll go that route later or not. Minigames during encounters are a good idea, I'll consider that. The ship being on the right was chosen because of this being a return to Earth. I thought right-to-left movement would've conveyed that, but in retrospect I probably should have made the view be from behind the player ship.
@flying-dog-fish - glad you like the take on the theme. I guess the implementing problems you're referring to are just what everyone else has already mentioned?
Graphics look great,sound looks good. Unfortunately I couldn't experience it any further than that. I'm just playing this on lunch break at work and don't have a gamepad handy, or others to play with. You should really make keyboard/mouse and option and have some sort of single player if you want more people to access your game. Anyway, I am bookmarking this so maybe I can check it out later.
I'm not sure I get it. I played once and it froze after I tied twice. Second time I tied then noticed the "Store". I bought "Lucky" and clicked "Birth"... and it's frozen again. I don't know if the game's broken or if I'm playing it wrong.
Don't have Windows so can't play, I highly suggest Web Builds (if possible) for people without Windows, or those who don't feel comfortable downloading apps. So I can't comment much on the game itself, the texturing looks nice. Theme-wise I'm not sure it hits the mark, you're not using your life to buy goods and services like you would with currency, it's seems more like you're just being injured by doors. Still I'm s sure that adds a layer of strategy to picking your path.
First just wanted to note that your link only says "Windows". If I didn't click on it on accident, I wouldn't have even realized you had a Web Player version. A lot of people will only play browser bases games, either because they don't have Windows (like me), or they don't feel comfortable downloading so many apps. I highly suggest showing that you have an HTML5 version on this play to modivate more people to play.
I noticed you used stock door open/close effects, was it the only AOL sound library? Anyway, unless you recorded those yourself, you should opt out on "Audio" voting. Some sounds for attacks/hits would have been great too.
It looks like you just put a semi-transparent black layer over the floor to make the walls? That's a clever time-saving way to make the barriers clear while still using a good texture. I did notice you kept the skybox on for some reason, I think a solid black background would be better.
I love the way the sprites looks, though the animations aren't great (the melee attack sort of looks like humping). I'd like to see more sprite art like that.
As for the theme, I'm seeing a log of ones that interpret it like this. "Your life is currency" implies you're using your life to purchase goods and services, these seem more like your powers/abilities hurt you that and sort of exchange of wealth.
One last thing, I like how you controlled the flow of the game with the doors locking/unlocking.
First I just wanted to point out that with the pre-made music and the scanned background, you technically should have opted out of both the "Graphics" and "Audio" voting. Game controls were intuitive. WIth this jam I failed to make a game that someone can play with little to no instruction, but you definitely did that well. For an embedded game, you really should have made the portal smaller. I happen to be playing on a 13" laptop now and it won't fit on my screen, and it's not really resizable.
I think this was a bit complex for such a short jam. The controls were clunky, even something as simple as switching weapons on the scrollwheel instead of the numbers would make it more intuitive, and the letters for spells were out of the question. The tutorial was VERY long-winded and I didn't even want to finish it. I do like the character models. Actually all the models and environment were pretty impressive. I also liked the music.
Sorry, but it was just unplayable for me. I downloaded it, I have a pretty high-spec machine, I turned it onto the lowest settings, but it still lagged way too much to play. I went upstairs, ran out of water, went back down, filled up... by then it'd slowed down to about 1fps. It seems like a good concept, i'd like to play it, but you really need to optomize.
Well, I like the pixel art, even if it's not animate. Music and sound is good. Unfortunately the rest is rather unpolished. I got the WASD moving but I can't figure out any more controls (if there are any?) The dialogue boxes for the woman on the main screen and the sign do not pause the action, and they have to manually be closed, so I was getting killed while my sight was obstructed. I didn't realize at first that a lot of the game view is cropped from the page until you fullscreen it (and I'm still not sure I got it all there). I had some sort of menu pop up in game and didn't know what to do with it or how to get rid of it.
I noticed you haven't filled out this page at all, or provided anything on the itch.io page. Some instruction could go there to make the game more accessible (and you should update the link to say HTML5 instead of Source Code, I didn't realize the game was playable until AFTER i clicked)
I like the concept, I think there was a classic C64 game that was similar. The aging seemed to happen randomly. The first time I played I "grew" up almost immediately. The third time it almost didn't happen at all. Every time I lost, it was unclear what had finished me. The return to the title is a little bit of a jolt.
There's a few tweaks I'd suggest. First, I think there should be a delay or cancellation to the death. Many times I shot the last of my ammo, lost, but caught the money from the enemy I killed. It'd be nice to only have game over after all potentially collectable money had disappeared. Also, the UI on the pause screen overflows. I think you can fix this during judging because it's technically a minor bug fix, allowed per the rules. I do see a lot of games this jam that combine life and ammunition or special moves rather than as currency, and this seems like the same. You are shooting currency, but i still know that i'm "shooting" my life, not using my life to purchase anything. Otherwise it's pretty good. I'd like to check back and see if there's improvements after judging is complete.
First with the negative, the controls. I'm using WASD to move, hitting space to jump is natural, but left-ctrl to dash was very difficult. I don't know if right-ctrl was suppose to dash as well, but it didn't work for me.
The levels were simple and repetitive, but more than acceptable for such a short jam.
Nothing else bad to say. The sound effects and music are amazing, I had to double check to make sure they were made during the jam. The character sprites looked like something out of a full retail game, and the background was extremely well-drawn too. I like how the grid animation in the background gave the illusion of movement.
My only advice would be to tweak the controls and tutorial text., I naturally go to the standard keyboard/mouse position so even if the mouse buttons were alternate inputs for jump/dash then it would've been intuitive. The tutorial text could have been integrated in a better way.
Good interpretation of the theme, though I think life would be more like currency if you were gambling for more life instead of power-ups. Still, gambling with life is something I didn't even think of. I noticed some people saying the music is great but the game was completely silent for me. Also the slot machine was blank for me. It'd tell me if I won but I never actually saw symbols.
@trozen I tried playing again, I'm using Safari. Still no sound, or images on the slots (actually the first few images show up but then when they scroll away it's all white).
But I get sound and the slot images when I switch to Chrome.
I think there's been a couple other games that have sound issues, even in Chrome. Most (mine included) work fine in Safari. I'd say it's probably a combination of Unity's player and the browser, maybe Java versions, and I wouldn't rule out Newgrounds either.
Maybe you can try tweaking the streaming/preloading settings on those specific assets and rebuild your HTML5 version?
I've considered doing a fan game for many LDs but couldn't find a way to fit it in with the theme. This does somewhat well. I like the graphics, even for "programmer art" it did it's job well. The concept of the game is good. I found the control layout to be a little odd, being so used to WASD for platformers. Guaging the striking distance to hit enemies was a bit though.
The concept is interesting and fits the theme better than most submissions this jam. music is catch. graphics are adorable. The follow the mouse pointer movement is interesting but I would've preferred a click to move type. Having the drag the view around was just tedious. If you work on this after judging, I'd recommend replacing the controls. In the meantime, I suggest you center the game view on the page, having it all the way to the left was a little wierd.
I like the concept, but its a bit hard to get into. there's a lot of UI elements covering the screen and things are zoomed in so much, that finding the right path is pretty much trial-and-error. I know that your life is currently draining, but I don't see the "currency" parallel there. Some sound/music would help too, even if it's just blips.
I love the arrow shooting. It's a mechanic I've seen before, but rarely seen done as well as here. The graphics were excellent for a jam, enough that it seemed like a style choice instead of one based off time constraints. I accidentally found a cave when I missed a jump, which was either dumb luck on my part or excellent level design on yours. I see other people praising the sound, but for some reason the games entirely silent to me. Not sure why that is. Theme was it was pretty good, but for the life to actually be a "currency" i'd expect it to be used for more that just tolls. You should keep building on this game after the jam is over.
Funny concept, though currency as ammo instead of life didn't really go with the theme. The controls were a little floaty but I still liked it. I had to play a second time because I didn't realize you could switch weapons the first time. The only big flaw I see is the aiming, Only being able to shoot certain angles the left/right seems unnecessarily restrictive for a game with 360 movement.
I don't think it fit the theme very well. You aren't using your life to purchase anything, so how is it currency? I think you could have made this same game buy replacing the characters with anything, and the coins with anything that they eat.
Artwork was cute, and I really liked the music.
I also made my game in about 9 hours. Spend Friday night and all Saturday on ideas that had to be scrapped, Sunday redoing it, then I had to work on Monday so I was rushed afterwards to complete and submit.
Can't play without a Mac or Web build. I like the concept though. The graphics look simple but effective. Maybe I'll come back if I get an opportunity to use a PC soon.
Ah, "your life is currency" == "currency is your life". I checked it out for a bit. It was a bit difficult to get into, my numbed wasn't working so I was having to play with the regular number keys. I think it could benefit from some on-screen controls, allow players to use mouse only. But aside from timing your buy/sells to get the highest numbers, is there really anything else to it?
There's a lot about the interface that could be improved on. The changing text size, as people have mentioned. Also, the font itself isn't very readable. Functionality you take place over style. Then there's the controls, having a right-click function when there is no left-click funciton is odd, and having to press space to advance text when my hand is already on the mouse... why no just click to advance text. I do like the concept and story, and I definitely lol'ed at "yeaa boiii"
Okay, graphics were great, the sounds had me laughing out loud! I like how you completely abandoned the theme while still referencing it. I really enjoyed the game, maybe because I'm a dog person.
Most games use WASD to move, so switching over to arrow keys was a little inconvenient. I suggest sticking to conventions, or allowing players to use either.
I do think I found a glitch, if you press both the jump and throw button in midair, you do a double-jump. I don't think there's much to exploit there, though.
The link isn't working for me, did you change the URL?
Unforunately can't play this one (Mac), but if you do a Mac or Web build later I'll definitlely check it out. This caught my eye because the pixel art looks great, some of the best I've seen on here.
Okay, I came back to play your web build. I really like it! As I said before the graphics are good. Experiencign the music and sound was pleasant. The theme works well. Gameplay was simple and there wasn't a lot to tell you what right actions were, but it was more than fine for a jam game. Definitely my favorite so far.
I played about six times. At first I really enjoyed the controls, but I found myself stuck to walls three of the six times (bug fixes are allowed during judging so you might want to update that)
I don't think it hits the theme very well. Currency is still currency, life is still life. I get that the risk of being robbed or killed is suppose to be the theme, but it still doesn't seem like your life is actually currency for anything.
I could barely hear the music so can't really say much there.
The graphics are great, though. Characters are cute and well drawn, I never had any question to as what any on-screen image was suppose to be.
Music and sound was good, the models were great for a jam. The sound lagged a lot though, might need some optimization/preloading for web. Some of the UI buttons wouldn't respond to me at all, and it wasn't really clear what was causing my character to stop moving a few times. I suggest tweaking this a little after the judging is done, it has potential.
The barter system seems like it's just a regular difficulty setting, I didn't get "currency" from it because there was no consistent value to the life. The gameplay itself was too simplistic. Every level being one room with the same exit, ever enemy being a "run at you" AI and no variety (just more of them). Not that an LDjam game needs a lot of levels or enemies, but at least two of either one would have been great.
I did like the ghosts, it seemed like a cute little homage to pac man. I loved the intro, though I really would have liked to be able to skip it as I had to reset the entire game after dying.
Some of the enemy sounds were pretty funny. Could have used some on-screen control instruction. I entirely on accidentally found the fireball button and didn't realize there were melee attacks until just before I died. Might come back later, see if I can get further.
Nice beat em up. The character style looked familiar to me, from Newgrounds? Only complaints I had are that the game over comes pretty abruptly (very common for jams anyway) and that the game is a little slow paced.
Unfortunately it's not working for me. The website reloads because it's using too much memory, then just crashes.
Okay, I have to say, this is the most impressive LD game I've ever seen.
I'll start with the negative, the controls weren't all that intuitive. W to jump felt weird, I kept wanting to hit space, but that's minor. I'm sure I could get used to it.
Graphics and music were professional level. The game has tons of personality. The mechanics are the most original I've seen in a while.
Okay, I have to say, this is the most impressive LD game I've ever seen.
I'll start with the negative, the controls weren't all that intuitive. W to jump felt weird, I kept wanting to hit space, but that's minor. I'm sure I could get used to it.
Graphics and music were professional level. The game has tons of personality. The mechanics are the most original I've seen in a while.
Mac version doesn't work. Trelet_macOS.zip is unzipped to reveal Trelet_macOS.zip.cpgz, which in turn unzips to Trelet_macOS.zip... and so on...​
I'll check back later in case it's fixed.
Not a problem. I might be able to help you with you Mac build if you’d like?
One of the few games I'm going to keep playing even after the jam.
On paper, the constantly changing fire style isn't something that I'd recommend. In practice, I'm surprised how well it created an evolving but still fair challenge.
Sounds are good, except the music cut out after a couple rounds. Graphics are the perfect amount of complexity.
EDIT: just wanted to say you should update your build. The app is named "Default Mac desktop Universal" and has the default icon.
Pretty neat game, though the visual feedback was a bit chaotic. A little too much going on at once, some color design to separate player/enemies/scenery could make the game more approachable.
Starting off with a shorter word, or with less unique colors, could give it a more gradual difficulty curve. Good puzzle concept.
Thanks for the first-day players for feedback!
@darknesslayer - I agree. I was adding audio late in development and it sounded like garbage, so at the last minute I decided that no audio was better than bad audio. My goal was to make the game so intuitive that not much explanation was needed, but I failed there. Live and learn, I guess.
@valerie-van-haen - The only collectable item at the beginning is the bricks by the radio room. You should be able to click on any locked doors, as wall as other objects, for subtle hints. I guess I didn't make it clear enough what was clickable, maybe I should've done a custom cursor that changes color over clickable items?
@thomazfilipe - I think that's already the case? About halfway through development, the constant clicking was getting on my nerves, so I changed it to follow on cursor down. If it's not working for you, we might have discovered a bug.
@mactinite - There's subtle hints, but obviously too subtile. I ran out of time to make paths/signs. I even had to put an invisuble wall up to prevent players from wandering too far into planned (but undeveloped) areas.
@thepelranthean - Thank you. I've decided to simply post the instructions to beat the game for people who are having trouble, so they can at least experience the entire thing in the limited time. I'm glad you like the interaction.
Day two, very thankful for the votes/feedback!
@mad-brokli - yes the camera angle was something I struggled with and probably would've overhauled given more time. Mixing 2d and 3d didn't work as well as I thought it would.
@skdf - don't be too hard on yourself, the key is a small item to find and the car doesn't even have doors on it! I'm just glad you were able to get that far considering how unintentionally cryptic I made this. Thanks for the note about the invisible wall not being complete, that was totally a mistake and I updated a patch so others don't find themselves in a similar fate.
@thepelranthean - Yes, I considered coding something in that wouldn't even allow you to get the car battery until after you saw the radio and got the clue. It's another thing that might've been polished out with more time. I'm still learning to keep my jam games within a reasonable scope.
@nachtwitch - Glad you like the idea. I doubt I'll be doing anything else with this specific game other than minor bug fixes, but I might start completely over from scratch, reuse some ideas, implement some that I didn't get around to, and make a "real" game out of this. Time will tell.
@jamioflan - Yeah I wound up with a lot of extra space because I didn't make nearly as much scenery/buildings as I wanted. I was going to move the mountain line down but it was seriously only minutes until the deadline. About the bricks, you only pick up one brick, you use it to bash the lock on the tool shed. I put in a pile of bricks to make it more easily spotted, but you only actually pick up one. Thanks for playing!
@kszaku - Glad you enjoyed it. I haven't decided if I'll do a post-jam version, but I'll definitely be developing other projects.
@itsnotagoodtime - I did not realize I had that typo, but it doesn't surprise me as I had about 5 minutes left when I rushed that scene in.
@clemonades - Glad you like it. I'm also a big fan of mixed 2D-and-3D, though I don't think I executed it well here. I think It was much better on my first game several years ago, but that was a side-scroller.
@sirred - Yes, audio was coming in late but didn't make the cutoff, silence seemed better than what I was rushing at the end anyway. Sorry you didn't like the controls, I tried to make it simple with clicking to move and interact. I think it's probably more of an issue of the hit detection for clickable areas.
@stephenwhoskins - Thank you. It's a mechanic I'm considering for future "real" projects too.
@asfdfdfd not sure it's "bravery", i just have a tendency to try projects that are too big, especally since I don't get much practice between jams. Thanks for the kind words though!
Played about a dozen or so games, this might be my favorite so far. The sound seems out of place, almost unnerving, but it's not too bad. Physics on the balls are really good. Sometimes it seems that they skip over the holes too easily but it's pretty rare.
The abilities being gained along with new enemies appearing was a cool mechanic. Graphics are charming. I love the sound design. Simple sounds, but did a lot to add personality to the game. I especially liked when the sound synced with UI messages.
I usually only got 3 ants, sometimes by luck I got 6, never could get any further though. I also noticed that sometimes when my ants were attacked, the wrong one would die. Aisde from that I think it was a cool concept that could definitely be built upon. Graphics and music were nice.
I'll try to follow up if I can play the Linux version, but I'm on a Mac so can't play it at the moment. I do really like the concept of fighting from within a computer, and think it's cool that you specifically chose a IIe (I was more of a C64 guy myself, though). If you continue on with this game, it'd be cool if the expansions could increase your capability (ie, installing a modem allows you do download weapons from a BBS)
Things were a bit chaotic so it was hard to get into, but I still found it fun. I love the pirate lingo, and that you even worked it into the website's instructions. Music was great. I liked how you used the squash and stretch animations for the cannon firing.
Don't have Windows so can't play, but just wanted to say that the graphics are very impressive and cute.
I like the game. Interesting concept. I did find an easily exploitable bug though, you can drag any platform underneath the player and simply carry them to the end, win many levels without ever touching the keyboard.
An HTML version would be helpful for us Mac folks. I do like the concept and the graphics look amazing for a weekend game.
Sorry it took so long to test, Mac version doesn't work. Just shows error message:
The application “Mac.app” can’t be opened.
No further details given.
Can't play Windows, if you happen to make a Mac or Web build I'll be sure to give it a go. Based on the screenshots, I wanted to say I like your choice to stick to greyscale except for key items. A flaw I see in a lot of submissions is that the grapchis are a mess of color that doesn't give meaningful visual feedback, but it seems you got that figured out.
Unfortunately can't play because Windows-only, but wanted to say that the pixel art looks good!
Could use a bit of tweaking, I got to about 21 points, saw part of a message, and then it restarted, so I don't really know what was going on. I actually had to quickly update my game because of a similar UI bug, stuff sometimes looks different in editor than on a page. I loved the look of the characters, pixel art was on point, the sunglasses on the crabs were a cute touch. Also, the pun in the title gave me a chuckle. One mechanic I'd suggest, maybe zoom out as you get bigger? You character grows, but to you it seems like the rest of the world is getting smaller.
One of my favorites so far! Impressive amount of mechanics for a jam game. Design is almost commercial-quality, Graphics and Sound/Music definitely are.
I got a good ways into the game and I'll be sure to come back to play more.
One issue, I happen to be playing this one a small-screen laptop and the play area is a little too big to fit on-screen.
I immediately jumped at this one, assuming it was a Space Quest game. I like the implementation of the theme, having to initially collect your weapons was interesting. The controls were a bit tough, I thought it was more like Asteroids controls at first. I'd suggest some visual queues to give the players immediate hints on what each piece of debris function is, and maybe a short tutorial.
Unfortunately can't play this one, Mac user here. Let me know if you add a Mac or HTML5 version. Also, some description or screenshots could be helpful for people looking for games.
Cool concept, but you're really thrown in there with no guidance. I was only able to get started after reading through previous comments. One of the best uses of the theme I've seen so far.
I like the graphics. The power-up system was nice, seemed to have a bit of risk-vs-rewards to it. I didn't figure out what buying clothes does, if anything, I wondered if it was just suppose to take money that would've been better used on powerups? Anyway, fun little game!
I like the level progression, and am very thankful for the forgiving death system that allows you to retry immediately. Muisic is nice, some sound effects to go with it would've help. Some instruction on the controls would be nice, the first time I played it it didn't accept any input and I thought I was just not hitting the right things, I didn't even know if I was suppose to use mouse or keyboard. When I reloaded all seemed to be sorted out.
The first time I tried the WebGL version it didn't work. The second time, it worked after I switched to fullscreen. Not sure if that will help other players.
The controls could use some work. I got comfortable with my left hand on WASD as usual, and right hand on space to jump, but when left-ctrl had to be used to shoot I had to awkwardly readjust. If right-ctrl would be accepted to, it'd be easier for two-handed play.
Aside from that I liked it. The concept of having to evolve to gain new abilities is really cool. The music was pretty good.
Humor was great, sound design is some of the best I've seen this jam, if not in every jam I've participated in. Graphics are amazing as well I really appreciate how quickly it gets to the action, games typically don't need stories but I'm grateful that you told this one so efficiently. For critical feedback, I'll just say that the movement control was a little unintuitive. I think WASD would have been just fine.
Okay , this is my new favorite. First time playing I thought it was impossible to win because I had no control over the alien and the car immediately pushed him off screen. After that it worked as intended, the alien landed somewhere where I could get to him. Love the music and sound. Animation and graphics are good. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but the way the walk animation and music syncs it seemed as if the alien was dancing across the roads.
EDIT: Okay, I thought the character looked familiar. I just started following you on YouTube like two days ago!
Anyway, that issue with the alien being knocked off screen has happened to me many times, once when I was at 239 meters! I think you should fix that, maybe have physics turn off for a moment after the car has pushed the alien for a while, so he falls under the wheels? I found some more glitches, If you don't walk at all, apparently the alien will continue past where cars are spawning at fall off the edge of the world. If you follow about a screen behind the alien I think he'll be safe from cars and you can sort of cheese the game. Also I noticed if you walk south you fall off the world forever, and have to reset the game. I was thinking that this shows you're calculating gravity all the time, I think you can save resources by turning on gravity when you get hit but moving 2-dimensionally the rest of the time.
Definitely a contender for "most innovative"
At first I thought I was suppose to be clicking the button at the bottom, so I didn't understand the movement mechanics. I found them out at the start of the second level, and had even more fun.
Might come back to this one later.
Ported it to Mac for you: (EDIT: Mac users can download it from his itch.io page)
I like the concept, and I like the name reference. I think there could have been a bit more visual feedback. I think it was a glitch, when it asked me to select a character (I guess I died?) my old character would still be standing in the same place. Bot bomb-throwing one was the only one I could attack without trading hits.
The 3d art was the high point, those character models are really good.
@masterkrepta NP, just a reminder you should update the link on this page to say Windows/Mac instead of just Windows.
First off, I played the Mac version. It didn't work as supplied but I was able to fix it with Terminal commands. I can give you the fixed .app in a .dmg file If you'd like. The game only played in Windowed mode, I would have liked a fullscreen option. The game itself was very good. The controls were simple but intuitive so it worked out. Player animations were just as complicated as they needed to be. I won on my first time, but I have a feeling I barely did, so the challenge is there or at least the essence of it. I didn't quite catch what I was saving in the end... some sort of llama king? Anyway, good job.
Congratulations!
Unfortunately as a Mac user I can't play this. Too bad, screenshots look great! I went ahead and voted on graphics even though I can't experience the rest.
Graphics look good, very impressive for a short jam. Unfortunately can't actually play it. Are you able to make a web build?
Graphics are good, the music and sound set the tone extremely well. The exception with the graphics is that the UI isn't properly scaled, everything is the same pixel size regardless of resolution: Screen Shot 2020-05-01 at 6.43.56 PM.png The controls made it a bit hard to play, the character would often walk right past where I was trying to get to. "C" to interact is a bit unconventional, "E" is the standard nowadays. I also don't think using "Space" seprately is necessary, the same button could have been used for both. But I do appreciate the on-screen context-sensitive instructions when there was something to interact with.
The position/rotation wasn't percise enough for me to get past the first level with two barrels, but maybe I'll try again later.
I never heard of a "reverse" tower defense before but I love it. Graphics/sound were really good.
First suggestion I'd have is to not have the turrets block the mouse. I couldn't figure out how to repair the ship because I kept clicking on the guns instead of the ship section underneath it. I think changing that would fall under the allowed bug fixes.
Second suggestion would be to make the GUI text more readable. I couldn't read how much currency I had most of the time.
Aside from that I really loved this game. It's an interesting concept and gameplay style that's easily approachable.
I can't believe it took me so long to encounter a game about pandemic! This is one of the most unique games I've played during this jam, and it'd diseptively simple at first. I love that you used standard and basic controls so this falls into the "easy to learn, hard to master" category. Great design!
Hey, just wanted to let you know that your mac version isn't working. Google drive takes forever to zip it up, and it must be corrupting it somehow because after downloading/unzipping I just get an error message saying the app can't be opened.
macCantBeOpened.pngIt didn't take long to zip/download this time, but the app still isn't opening. I've been seeing this quite a bit during this jam, so I'll try researching and as soon as I find something out I'll let you know. If you could, you should consider a Web build. it's a great way to reach audiences of all OSes.
I might've fixed the mac issue for you. Will have to test and see. Could you download my version, then replace yours with it, then I'll redownload to test? Just to make sure that Google Drive isn't scrambling it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/tq01vzfan19w58u/Pizza%20With%20a%20Pulse.dmg?dl=0
That works for me.
I talk about it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/dragon-eggs/some-mac-games-cant-be-opened-lets-figure-it-out
Basically the file was corrupted when it was zipped or unzipped. The solution I came up with was by putting the app into a Mac disk image file (.dmg). Not sure how you'd do that without a Mac, maybe you could do it with a Linux distro, or a Mac OS installed on a VM? You might just ask someone with a Mac to do it for you (feel free to reach out to me).
In the end, most people are just going to play the web version anyway.
Definitely an innovative gameplay style, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. The music was okay but a bit grating pretty quickly, so thanks for the silencing option. Graphics were good but a bit small, bigger tiles put closer together might've looked better. More visual feedback besides the lock would have been good for immobile tiles, like maybe make them in black-and-white? Or make the borders look like chains? Just some thoughts. The gameplay was excellent, perfect easy-to-learn-hard-to-master style.
First impression, character is really cute, pretty much pro quality. Music is good, very peppy. The first text box I see is VERY small. I'm playing on a 5k iMac so maybe it's a canvas scaling thing, Like you chose to have it a constant pixel size instead of scaling with the display? The replay/exit buttons didn't work for me either, I manually had to quit out. Gameplay is simplistic but nice. Once thing I learned from a game I previously made with GamePad support, is that no one here uses GamePads. It's best to design your game around mouse/keyboard and just have GamePads as a nice to have. Still, I played with my keyboard and it still played very well, definitely better than most I've played these past couple days. All in all, good job!
@fatpenguin - I was able to read it but just barely. The thing is, you can set the canvas to scale with the screen so it would be the same size on a 2K, 4K, 5K, or even 8K monitor, and I think that falls under a "minor bug fix" so you should be able to update that now without breaking jam rules.
@beanslasher - glad you liked it!
@symnel - It've fixed the loud sound, technically it was a glitch as the volume wasn't calcing correctly. Thanks for your feedback!
@lectvs - I'm glad you liked the dice rolling, because i BARELY got it in. There was a bug that constantly ready dice rolled as "4" to return "2" or "1" instead, and I spent hours reworking it. I'm glad I could get it in, because randomly-generated numbers would've been dull;
@gamer-fates - Thanks, I wish I could've incorporated the theme more creatively but I was happy to try some new stuff. The dice-rolling mechanic was one I chose just to make it more unique, and this is the most advanced computer-controlled AI that I've ever attempted.
@human-writes-code - I fixed the sound volume. I literally threw those two sound effects in the last 10 minutes because I burnt so much time on fixing a glitch that I accidentally had them way too loud.
@welliton - The dice were a little glitched as well. They should be better now, but any other changes would probably break jam rules (a speedup would probably be considered an added feature, not a bug fix). I'll definitely keep that in mind for my post-jam improvments.
@murrzipan - I did want to put more visual feedback but that was one of the things cut for time. I'm not sure I'd want markers to show where you can go because it might make the game too easy, but I'll consider it for post-jam.
@sergei - The dice should be quicker now with a bug fix, but to add a speed-up feature I'll have to wait until after voting is done. Thanks!
@boboman - maybe some carnage added. One of the things cut for time was some colorful player behavior, mainly funny quips like you'd hear in the "worms" games. The AI wound up being easy than expected but harder than I hoped, I might try to rewrite it with different skill levels since there's some complaint about difficulty. I unfortunately only got to do about half the scenery I wanted to, so I'll follow up with that.
@nazorus - The dice rolling and AI are the reasons this is my favorite game so far, it was challenging but satisfying!
@ohfiddlediddle I plan on adding a speed/skip feature in the post-jam version of the game. FYI, the 4-sided dice mechanics and some of the movement were inspired by a board game called "Ninja VS Ninja", you should get a physical version of that.
@pixelschnauzer @fabula-rasa Everyone is complaining about the speed, so I'll definitely do something about that for the post-jam version. I'm thinking just a button of click should speed up the timeline so the physics still work as-is. Anyway, thanks for the feedback!
@edalbung The dice rolling is physics, not animation. I never did animate the knights because of time restraints, I had to remove their smooth movement because it was janky and I didn't fix it. As for music, I know a few musicians so will likely reach out to one of them for the remake. Thanks for your input!
@civmaniac Yeah there was originally a glitch that had the dice even lighter. I thought this was a good balance because it give the impression that they have actual weight (and therefore, power) to them, like it'd actually crush the knights if it could reach them. Still, I'll work on a way to skip/speed up the rolls for the post-jam version. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for confirming that the Linux build is good!
@fatpenguin A video would have been nice but time didn't allow for it, at least not in-game. I've added a gameplay video on this page, mainly to talk about development, but I think it explains the gameplay too. For the post-jam version I'm thinking of having a "tutorial mode" that teaches to you play as you go, as the game is actually pretty easy to pick up by gameplay when you have guidance. I never did play those games you mentioned, actually I never played Witcher (It's on my list)
@nathan-wiles - Thanks for the feedback. I think you give me a bit too much credit, but I am thinking of a post-jam release that fixes the pacing issue and tweaks the rules/AI to make the game more strategic instead of random.
@ahistyap- The AI was pretty complicated, but was actually easier than I expected, and could have been easier than I made it (I thought of better techniques when it was too late). I also like flashy things, but since time ran out it'll have to wait for post-jam.
@mhykah - The pacing is the #1 complaint on this game so you're not alone there. Thanks for your kind words
@savvu - Thanks, good luck to you, too. I figured a video was good way to explain some of my decisions and struggles, but it also wound up being a decent quick gameplay tutorial IMO.
@creamybacon2- Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that someone's tried PVP on this, I assumed that people would either be playing entirely by themselves (hence why I put a CPU opponent in at all).
@jamesvaughan Yes, that's a good place for a defender to be but not for an attacker, hence why you can only get to that spot near your own egg by killing one of theirs. If I tweak the AI post-jam, I want to make it consider things like that.
@giulia - There are two sound effects, a slicing sound when a knight kills another knight, and a crunching sound when a knight kills an egg. I also had the knights screaming when killed but there was a glitch that had it always play loudly, so I removed it. I also had "walking" sounds for the knights before release but it was too annoying. Truth be told, I had a ridiculous glitch with the dice that I didn't get fixed until 15 minutes before deadline, and I thew those few sound effects in then!
@epicular - Thanks for your feedback. I hear what you say about the randomness of the dice going against the strategy. It was suppose to mimc a board game, but I am putting thoughts into how to make the post-jam version more strategy based. It's possible the egg's role will be tweaked or replaced entirely. I'm still fighting with the idea of showing all player moves, because I don't want players to just click all their pieces and immediately see all possibilities. I think that will even further remove strategy from the game. But, everyone wants it so I must be the one who's wrong, I'll have to figure out how to do that right.
@amazura - thank you very much. I'm glad you like the graphics because I'm actually very noonish with modeling (could you telll?). I'm going to practice more so hopefully next jam I'll be much better.
@kaafirookie - Thanks for the very detailed insight into the game. I'm taking all you suggestions into consideration for not only the post-jam version, but my future projects as well.
@adonisdevs - You mean the enemy landed on you but you didn't disappear? I think I noticed that once in a CPU vs CPU session but I didn't figure out the bug. Hopefully when I start over with the post-jam version I will avoid that bug altogether. The dice roll will be quicker/skippable in the next version, too.
@krakadushka - The 4-sided dice unfortunately wasn't my idea, it was from a board game I played a few years back. I can only take credit for creating it in video game form. With traditional dice, it'd be potentially too high numbers for such a small board. With a larger board, there'd be too many low roles that don't go anywhere.
@slimbun - You can still play it, there's single-player modes. Just choose "Player vs CPU" or "CPU vs Player", depending on if you want to be on team green or team blue.
@omickron - I'll have to think about that. I'm brainstorming for the post-jam version, and unique player characters/abilities might make gameplay interesting. But I'm also trying to keep it simple and easily approachable.
Best of the "campfire" games I've played so far. The graphics, while minimal, are pleasant and do their job. I totally wans't expecting that red-eyed axe killer, not sure if there's actually anything you can do to beat him.
Certainly is a new gameplay mechanic. I could see these controls for something like a slingshot, or rolling a ball. I think it'd be better if opposing units were more visibly distinguishable, but you can definitely build this into something more.
bonerland.png Heart this comment if you know the reference! (J/K)
I love the graphics and sound of this game, and the concept would make a good game.
I can't really do much because it's a bit bugging. I couldn't push F to place the box, so I fell in the pit and died, then the box was set inside the cave, then I died again, and now everything's piling up and I can't do anything.
Please @ me if you update with bug fixes, I'd really like to try this out.
I came back to try this out, but the web player isn't loading for me atm. I'll try again tomorrow.
This art style really caught my eye, unfortunately I don't have windows. If you have the ability you should really make a Web build.
Well, seem a lot of "keep the flame alive" submissions this time, but I actually really like this one. It's interesting that you have to put yourself into situations that will put the flame out and recover correctly. I'm not a fan of the pico-8 platform but if there was a game to get me into it, this would be it.
Neat game, like the graphics/sound, I didn't realize there were procedureally-generated rooms at first, so that was a nice surprise.
The UI on this was great, I've barely seen any turn-based RPG battles on LD and this was the only good one. It was a bit confusing why there were so many of the same options. I played for a bit but had no idea if I was making any progress at all.
Love the concept. Art style and music/sound are greaty, among the best I've seen in LD. Controls were a little awkward ("F" to interact took some getting used to, most games use "E") I also had no idea how to drop objects, I couldn't pick up the shovel to dig a hole because I was holding the dead lemming. There were a couple bugs. The fridge didn't work when I needed to get the meat, and when I needed to get the veggies it gave me meat again. Computer didn't work on second playthrough at all. Fix those minor problems and you have a perfect jam game here.
Just based on the screenshots, it looks beautiful. Unfortunately I don't have Windows, but I'm tempted to see if I can use that source code to port it.
I only have two real criticisms.
- for mouse-based shooting, it was very inaccurate. I'd expect 360-degree aiming but it seemed like 8-directiom? - also with mouse aiming, it's too easy to accidently click outside the game and mess up. Games like this should only be played in full-screen.
Aside from that I love it. Sounds good, gameplay is intuitive, graphics are amazing (not sure if it was on purpose or not, but I love that the main duck is the same color as the ones from Nintendo's "Duck Hunt"... was he getting revenge?)
This came recommended to me, but unfortunately I don't have Windows. I was going to try to port your source code to Mac/Linux/Web but I'm not sure what system it is. I use Unity, it looks like this is GameMaker?
LOL my wife is literally playing Animal Crossing in the next room, I'll have to show this to her. First thought, the 3d model looks simple but stylish. The opening text is way too small, especially with that hard-to-read font. I noticed it doesn't get bigger when i full-screen so i think it's just a canvas scaling issue, something that you could updated technically as a "bug fix". The round world looks cool, I was wondering if you actually used a sphere for the ground or was it a camera effect? Tank controls are a bit awkward. A couple levels in and I'm not sure there's any opposition in the game. My favorite thing is how you incorporated Pennywise because of "It" being in the theme, there's a lot of potential for funny stuff there.
Love the graphics, sound, and general atmosphere of the game. The controls showing up after you get the bottle wasn't very intuitive, so I'm glad you put the instructions on the page right under the player (and especially kept it simple!)
Okay, I'm not going to exaggerate, this is the best game I've played so far.
I always want to focus on negative feedback because I think it's the most helpful, but I'm having trouble finding how to criticize this. I love the art style, the music was great, sound was absolutely hilarios, UI was good, gameplay was very intuitive and needed almost no explaination, even more complex mechanics like lightning striking the puddles and fire damage were easily learned while playing.
It'll just throw out a random idea... what if after a while there'll be a random wolf come out dressed as a sheep, the "wolf in sheep's clothing" to throw players off who are used to looking for white sheep and black wolves? Just a suggestion, the game is still great as-is.
FYI I downloaded your source and tried to make a Mac port for you, but testing in editor is extremely buggy. Is the source uploaded the most recent? Uploading it as a .unitypackage might be better. If I successfully port it I'll let you know.
Here's that Mac version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5q6voectl3zp50/CloudyWithAChanceOfPain.dmg?dl=0
There was some text on the tent as I came up but couldn't read, something about sleep? Anyway, graphics were good, I liked the moody tone given by the background music, I wish I'd had more time with sound design on my own game. My fire never seemed to go down at all, I wasn't sure if I was being wasteful of wood by grabbing so much at once, or if I was just REALLY boosting that fire stat.
I like the compass you put in the corner of the screen, a lot of these games (some of mine included) and just big featureless voids with nothing to navigate with, I liked both the design and the functionality of the compass, I'll have to remember that for future projects.
The first two times I didn't really understand the shop, and didnt buy anything at all. It seems the only option to win is to buy one barrier. It's all you can afford besides an extra empty slot, so maybe the first level should actually walk you through buying that one barrier as a tutorial, and not let you start the game without it?
The music was very high-quality and pleasant to listen to, but not very fitting with the game.
Graphics are perfect.
I loved the concept and mechanics. My only thought is that it was a bit weird trying to "pojnt" by barrier at something but always have it off-center because i had an odd number of sections, or when my barrier died trying to position the others by an offset-angle. One partial solution would be to have a permanent visual part of the rotating gameObject pointing to the mouse to give visual feedback. Even better would probably not use a mouse to rotate, though I understand that you couldn't rotate as quickly keyboards and most people here aren't going to be playing with analogue joysticks.
First of all, love the name! Interesting interpretation one the concept. I might've found a couple bugs, I stopped growing at level 10 and there was no endgame event. The snow cloud got stuck on the left side of the screen so I didn't have to deal with it at all after about level 3.
Also, you might want to put this on your profile, it's still showing "Crazy Cat Lady" as your main game.
Well, never thought I'd see a game where you play as an EKG.
Love the concept, love MOST of the gameplay (it's a little confusing at time, but I do like the variety and challenge of the procedurally-generated game)
I both love and hate the visuals. In-game they give the whole thing a lot of character and really add to the astheic. For the menus and usable AI it really becomes a "style over function" thing as It's so hard to read basic menu prompts.
Fix that tiny issue and you have a near-perfect casual game. I bet you could tweak this into a good mobile game.
overall the best-designed tamagotchi i've seen so far. i love that the character actually interacts with objects instead of only animations and stat manipulation. my only suggestions are having the buttons present all the time, no need to have them hidden in a sub-menu, and make the stats more clear. Not only were they small, but I didn't have any insight into what was bad/good. still a very cute game, good job!
I'll definitely check it out, I love when people follow up with post-jam versions.
Graphics are good, I was a it concerned at the lack of controls instruction but that turned out to be okay. I have no idea how to tell when the mother will show up.
Gameplay was a little odd. I clicked so frantically that I skipped over one of the story choices. I guess that's what a "clicker" is though? I love the arts style though, and the animation. Was that a handdrawn character that was scanned and 2D rigged? Very nice!
I'm not sure if the graphics were because of limitations or a styilistic choice, but I like it. At first it was confusing, but then the abstractness of the ice monsters actually made them kind of scary. My only criticism is that the game is very hard to figure out without reading instructions outside the game, but that's par for the course.
Graphics look nice except a bit small, the font was very hard to read, and text kept popping up that i didn't notice until the next scene was loading. Sound is really good. I like the interpretation of the theme into keeping a train running. I unfortunately havn't gotten to experience much because loading is a bit buggy. It took four times just to get the page to load (probably nothing you can do for that), but as I started playing i entered a door, the screen went black, and then nothing. I'm about to give it another shot.
Okay playing a second time and the door worked. The game is definitely picking up. I noticed there were a couple slightly different ways to complete the first puzzle, I appreciated that. My only complaints are the the mentioned buys, low res, and maybe the ladder-climbing mechanics.
I'm working on the second puzzle now. So far I really like this. Great job!
I did not read the description, so I was really caught off guard by the monster attack. That was a great touch! Graphics and sound are great, concept is really cool. I guess my only criticism is that the making the ice cream is tedious with the stations being so small and so close together.
First I wanted to say... I like that you put the HTML5 tag on your cover image. Trying to track down games I can actually play as a Mac user, I wish that everyone did that or it was incorporated into LD somehow. I'll have to remember to do that next time.
As for bugs, my "Q" shooter died the first round but continued to talk for my whole game.
Also (this is common with these games) your fullscreen button doesn't scale the game. I guess you used one of Unity's default HTML template? They have better ones that will scale with the window size, I think the one I used was just called "A better HTML template". Just a quaility-of-life suggestion.
For the gameplay, I wasn't sure exactly how much you were suppose to tap the buttons, at first I thought you were suppose to keep the bar right in the middle, but I guess you're just supposed to go as fast as possible all the time? I guess that's why two of my guys died right away.
Maybe the game would be more interesting if there was a "target" area in the middle you had to remain in, and going outside that means you "miss" the opponents.
Anyway, I do love the concept and almost the entire execution. The graphics and music are pro quality, among the best I've seen in LD, ever. Good work!
macCantBeOpened.pngI seem to be getting this error with a lot of Mac downloads, so you're not the only one. Just wanted to pass it on.
@human-writes-code I've been researching on this today. I found a way for end users to fix the error so they can play the games, it's a bit tedious though so I don't think many will do it even if they know how. I also found the cause of the problem and a way for developers to prepare their Mac build to prevent it, but you need to do it on an actual Mac.
I appreciate you making an effort to make your game playable for all us Mac people, so I fixed it for you. Please download this and use it as your Mac download: Let me know when you got it so I can remove it from my dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/s/d56qbae40pbfapf/DoomsDayDeliveries.dmg?dl=0
Edit: corrected the file link.
Okay... now that I've actually played the game:
I first noticed that on the menu you have to click the words, not the icons next to them. Minor thing that just threw me off a bit, I'd suggest expanding the clickable area. Music is catchy, title screen looks interesting. I generally don't like the text stories in jam games, it takes too long to get to the action, but I like that yours was short and to the point, and I love how all the words faded out except "keep it alive"... very nice. However, it should be skippable, especially for replays. Its about this time I realize that I'm forced to play in windowed mode, for a stand-alone app a fullscreen option is appreciated. The actual game is pretty fun. I love the innovation of only having descriptions of houses to go by. Being able to rotate might help seeing houses from multiple angles, it's way easier to see houses to the north than to the south, but it's not that bad. Overall a pretty good game.
I can fix your Mac issue and provide a replacement download so that others won't have to jump through the hoops, would you like that?
Download this, then provide it as a download for your players instead of the .zip you already have. Basically I just fixed the issue the way the players would have had to, then put it into a Mac disk image file (a .dmg) so that it doesn't get corrupted when zipped/unzipped.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbxcrx5la17z27u/KeepItAlight.dmg?dl=0
(let me know when you've done this so I can delete this from my own dropbox)
My review of the game, I love the platforming mechanics, the wall and double-jumps are programmed very nicely, though it is very hard to pull off on a keyboard (especially arrow keys instead of WASD). The creepy dude that sees my light and chases me freaked me out, I didn't see that coming at all. That's as far as I got so far, I'll probably play further later on.
The web version crashed on load for me, just played a sound affect over and over and soft-locked by browser. Your Mac version doesn't work, but I managed to fix it. Here's the disk image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yrei8mgpp2jiehf/Antourage.dmg?dl=0 Graphics and sound are amazing. I like both the concept and the execution. Controls/UI could use a bit of work. WASD was suppose to move the screen but sometimes moving my mouse to the edge moved it as well, sometimes not. I also couldn't find a way to pause/quit/restart the game. The game crashed as I was starting my second play. I definitely thing you should polish this up a bit and keep working, it's pretty good.
First, this just overtook my previously-claimed "most unique concept". Music was relaxing, the small amount of graphics were amazing (quality over quantity, right?). The interaction was mostly pretty intuitive.
I first notice that the opening story is cut off of the screen. This is a simple GUI fix and techinically is allowed after submission, so I suggest fixing the canvas scaling. Also, it seemed the arrow keys worked but WASD only allowed rotating (@maja-saalamon give that a shot).
Music is good and relaxing. Graphics are good, but sometimes it's hard to find out what things are supposed to be.
If you keep the pointer far away from the dot, it auto-fires, not sure if that was intended. Moving the cursor out of the window stops tracking, this game should really be played in full-screen. once I had four enemies coming from four directions, it was impossible to not get hit 3 times then!
Sounds are great. Graphics are simple but effective, the visual cues were effective.
The play area was a bit too small, it was hard to click on individual tiles. I loved how the small area within the void made me feel isolated, but I think that could have been expressed by having a wide shot at the beginning/end and zooming in for gameplay. The second level came off as a bit tedious, but it wasn't too bad.
I absolutely LOVE the visual theme, it's incredibly cute. Despite my minor complaints it's a very charming experience.
Good spin on the tower defense concept.
I like the idea. I've mostly been seeing interpretations of campfires being kept "alive" but this being something that you don't just feed, you carry with you and protect, is very nice. They game is a bit slow-paced for my taste but I liked the concept and mood.
Music is nice and calming, the drawings are absolutely beautiful. Gameplay is a little lacking, sometimes not even offering choices (I actually would have skipped on those berries). Normally I don't like Jam games to be too wordy but this fit pretty well.
Aww, I was so excited to check out your game but its windows-only. Nowadays I normally build for Web first, and all stand-alone secondarily. It's very convient not only for people with all OSes, but also those who just don't like installing a bunch of new apps.
The game started off strong, the movement and attack controls were intuitive. I loved the dark and surreal art style. The only thing I noticed from the first part was that the spider's health bar was going to the edge of the screen, maybe over, so I felt like some of the UI had been cropped? As for the second room, I really wasn't a fan of the object search. There should be some visual feedback on what I'm looking for, I just wound up clicking everywhere, accidently skipped over the reveal of some peices, and only found the last one on accdient. I tried to go back to the dark as told, but couldn't, and then I was told "Congratulations, this is the end of the demo" or something. I never faced the spider again, I guess this is a glitch. Good start for a project but it does need some updates.
Could use some UI work, there didn't seem to be any reason for tbe build/stop button. I'm playing on 5k monitor and it doesn't appear to be scaled so all the buttons and stats were tiny. Not sure if it's a glitch or not: Based on the instructions I thought that more leaves would mean more sun, but in my case more leaves made the sun stat drop quicker. Aside from those issues it's pretty good. The branch and root building mechanic is something I've never seen before.
I considered making a "virtual pet" game but decided against it. This is the second one I've played tonight, but it's definitely more unique than the other or any of my ideas. I love the contrast of the cutesy game with the "real" violent threat. My only complaint is that the interface isn't very intuitive.
Nice relaxing music, models were good, i like the concept, and the round world was good (I've considered doing something like that as well). The interface was a bit hard to figure out. I restarted the game and then couldn't plant seeds afterwards. Some of the UI elements went off-screen.
On the critical side, I have to say the controls are very cumbersome. The jump having immediate momentum both left-right and immediately falling without hangtime made it very difficuly. e to pick up and shift/m1 to throw was odd, i mean they could have been the same button right? I also think the level should have ended when you got to the end holding the egg. Everything else was great though, loved the graphics and audio, I especially liked how the view zoomed out on larger levels.
Interesting gameplay concept. I could see the working with a Lemmings-type game where you need to monitor many suicidal NPCs.
The throwing mechanic was a bit odd, a couple times I accidentally threw sticks off into the distance, a limited range would've made sense. It also might've made sense for you to be able to melee attack enemies, holding a flame against them instead of throwing it. I could still attack even after dying, simply deactivating the player or at least the components controlling his attack when he died could prevent that. Graphics were good for the most part, I'm guessing you just didn't have time to finish the main character. Sounds and music were perfect. I liked how you had to add sticks to the fire, but also sacrifice the fire to make your stick into a flaming weapon.
Good use of the theme, very cute character designs!
Finding a lot of games about keeping fires "alive" instead of an actual creature, didn't think I'd find a game where you're doing both. The little first guy reminds me of the characters from the original Donkey Kong. I played a couple times but didn't get very far, I'm sure there's some sort of pattern to it all but I didn't last long enough.
For some reason it's not loading for me on itch.io Tried 3 times, I see the Unity loading bar but it never fills. Other games are working fine. Are you updating right now?
Your effects are AMAZBALLS
I actually did a video capture so I can look back on this one for inspriration.
Besides that, that's a unique gameplay style, I've never seen anything like that before. Music was cute, character art was great.
Reminds me of the game "Penguin Land" on Sega. I think you could fix up the physics and collisions. sometimes I'd breathe fire between two tiles and not hit either. Sometimes the egg would barely touch a ledge and be caught or barely miss a spike and still break. It'd be cool to have a circle collider on the egg so it'd roll if it's right on the edge of things. Concept is good to work forward on, sound and graphics design were really good.
BTW my game is called "Dragon Eggs".
@fatpenguin - and please let me know if it works for you. I've tried packing the game into a .dmg instead of a .zip to keep it from being corrupted, but it needs to be tested on more machines to confirm.
The 3D modelling was GREAT! I also light the light changing with time. The controls weren't perfect but were pretty good, a little more explanation could've helped, but it was still simple enough that I got into it after a couple minutes.
Sprites are really good, but I notice you opted-out, did you make them or use another source? UI and controls could use some tweaking, the "start" button blends in with the titles screen, the "how to play" button is practically hidden. The "continue" button for dialogue seems unnecessary (why not just continue with any click or button press) and I also didn't get why you needed different buttons to pick up food and drop it in her box. Those minor issues aside, the gameplay was fun. I love how the interpretation of the theme wasn't so direct, it makes it humorous.
Good interpretation for the theme.
You should look up the game design concept of "coyote time", no platformer game should be without it.
I'm assuming you're using a ray to change an "isGrounded" varibable for jumping. It seems that detects the branches but not the fox, so landing on top of her prevents you from jumping.
The tutorial was blank, nothing ever showed up, it just eventually loaded the game.
I played about five times, every time the fox immediately got attacked by an owl and killed. I was on my fifth try before I saw an apple, but she was already dying.
On my tenth play I got to 0:54 but shoving the fox off of branches until she was at the bottom, but she'd immediately run into the owl as if she wanted to be killed.
The music is great quality, very calming, but probably out of place for this game. The graphics are beautiful, like REALLY good, but I think that time would have been better spent on polishing the gameplay.
The controls were chaotic and slippery. I might've enjoyed it a bit more if it was under control, but on the other hand trying to hit the ballon but instead destroying the TV did make me chuckle. Music was nice too.
I played by myself, one hand for each player, it seems almost like that's the way this game should be played.
In general I like games that keep the controls simple, so thanks for sticking with simple WASD. I actually really like that you used a stearing-type control for this. Seems strange but it still worked out. I loved the aging character and changing scenery, too.
I love the concept of detective games and I wish I'd thought of a ransom situation for my own, it's a very good twist on the theme.
Definitely has a unique charm to it. The mechanice was almost perfect, thought it was a little hard for me to time it right. Not sure if more visual feedback is needed or if I just suck. The cheering sound was great, you blended the states together really well.
I can see it's still a work-in-progess but a very good one. I like that you focused on mechanics more than one visual, but what you did have finished is really great!
I noticed the start button overlapped some stuff, minor GUI glitch that's common in Unity. Also, it seems that no matter what attack I had selected it'd just strike lightning.
Funny concept, I like the reference to LD always going nuts when it's under heavy load. Resetting the time with new servers was a good "checkpoint" system. platforming mechanice were basic but good enough.
Suggestion in case you plan on updating this, maybe you could work the cable into a mechanic for movement? Like you can use a cable as a rope to reach certain areas?
Ah, someone else who did a turned-based game! I like the style, it took a little bit of clicking around so some on-screen prompts might help. Love the character designs. Some sound might've helped as well, but I also tend to leave it out (this time I barely got two sfx in, rushed at the end).
Cool controls/mechanics. Only bug i found was that after i died, some of my projectiles remained on screen and blocked new shots. The dialogue was great, but did drag on a bit too long. Especially with jam games, i want to get into the action immediately. Good job.
FYI your Mac version doesn't work. Most Mac games are breaking now because of security issues with .zip and .rar files, and it's pretty easy to fix, but yours has something besides that and I wasn't able to figure it out.
It happens. If I see any similar issues and find a solution, I'll let you know.
FYI, like many others, your Mac download is corrupted and won't open. I've been following this issue and managed to fix it on my end, but a lot of users won't know how to or just won't take the time.
Unfortunately I can't play this game on Mac, screenshots look good though. I wanted to say I appreciate you sticking with standard FPS controls.
Total score +282, is that good? Finally a game that isn't literally keeping a creature or a fire alive, first "party" game i've seen so that's definitely innovative. Sound would have been helpful, just some murmuring to signify chatting and sound from the stereo would have been great.
The flashlight mechanic was good, having to recharge it was a nice touch. There was a bit of humor with the "bad" fuels and other random stuff that would pop up. The graphics and sound were both really good.
I always find the "second-person perspective" games to be an interesting (and challenging) concept. I main ones I think of are Pac-Man 2 and Gumshoe. This is pretty well done. I like the simple mechanics, makes the game very easily approachable..
Normally this type of monochrome art style turns me off, but this doesn't seem to bother me as much (maybe because it's not the usual Game Boy green?). Still, I'd suggest some research into color theory. I saw some videos earlier about how the Hollow Knight creators used colors.
Colors aside, the graphics and character designs are great!
Graphics aside, I love the gameplay. The simplistic but responsive controls make this an easy game to get into, and the action is frantic but still fun.
really good for your first time!
a lot of times it seemed the enemies killed themselves by walking into boxes i hadn't touched. the only time the boss died was when i accidently killed him (oops) and the only time i died was when a glitch crushed me with my own box.
I'm surprised i haven't seen more bodyguard submissions. i suggest you build on this concept after voting is done.
Got 1335 on my first try, is that good? Was a little concerned about the lack of instructions to start, but got into the game and it was very straight-forward and intuitive (as it should be). Great for your first submission!
This is only the third tamagotchi-sytle game, and the second to have mixed genres. Survival shooter is definitely an interesting blend. About thirty seconds in I needed to see if you could shoot the bunny. Yep. Had fun shooting zombies, but he died of dehydration. I didn't notice the visual cues and didn't even realize he needed anything. Second playthough I tried clicking buttons and I realized how to tell what he needs.
Cute little game. I like the graphics. The simple controls are good, but it makes me constantly think that there's something I'm missing (like, pretty sure there's no "jump" button, but it seems like there should be one, so I kept looking).
Not sure if it's a glitch, but I found that I can easily recharge my "risk" by doubling back. Every time it gets to high, I walk as far as I can to the left, walk back to where I was, and repeat until the risk is entirely gone.
A good take on survival and resource management. I found the drag-and-drop control to be a little troublesome, click-to-move might've been more intuitive. Some visual/audio feedback when you're about to die might be helpful. Once I got the hang of the interface I had fun with a couple rounds.
Couldn't open the Mac app. Too bad, this one seems interesting. I can't vote on the game as a whole, but I did vote up on Theme and Innovation as I really like this idea of protecting a baby zombie.
I found a solution to the Mac issue! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/dragon-eggs/some-mac-games-cant-be-opened-lets-figure-it-out 32222.png
@jpv
At first I didnt see how it fit with the theme, but keeping the "memory" of humanity "alive" was a very good twist. The floaty movement was great for a space game, but i kept wondering why i'd naturally float "downward". The dialouge was a little wordy, but the quality of that opening cutscene was great.
I played through twice, i guess there's no difference in the endings?
Gameplay was a bit confusing. After not figuring it out I decided to read the controls, it says "just move the mouse" but there has to be more to it than that? I can't seem to get the blade pointed in the right direction, and sometimes an enemy can kill the duck from offscreen. I'm not one to talk about sounds, because I also ran out of time and just had to throw two in at literally the last minute, but in the future we both should plan ahead a little more than that.
Love the graphic style, everything looks very cute and funny.
I notice the aspect ration is like a phone, are you planning on porting this to mobile?
Nice sound effects and music. Graphics were simple but effective, possibly more effective BECAUSE they were simple, but a tad more color could help (maybe the spikes could be purple too?) It was way too easy to cheese the enemy by simply staying in a corner where he couldn't reach me, and only moving to grab the fruit. Maybe add something to force the player into moving around? Also, the play area was tiny, any way you could get it to expand to full screen?
I also considered making a "virtual pet" game. You're is much more polished than mine would have been, I like the contrast between the simple game-in-game graphics compared to the detailed console it's on.
At first I thought I was looking at the title screen, and realized while looking for the start button that I was already playing. Just a minor setback, I was able to jump right in and catch up./
Just wanted to let you know, you're link says this is for Windows only, you might have some Mac and Linux users passing this up because they have to click the Windows logo to find out it's not window-only.
Also for some reason the Mac app isn't opening. Yours isn't the first I've had this problem with, about 1/5 of every Mac game I try errors out. What version of Unity did you build with?
I found a solution to Mac apps not opening. If you're on a Mac you can fix it with the instructions on this post: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/dragon-eggs/some-mac-games-cant-be-opened-lets-figure-it-out
If you're not on a Mac, I could possibly fix it for you tomorrow. Just let me know.
I like the concept of the game, and would love to see it fleshed out. Couldn't really figure out if I was playing right or not, even with the in-description explanation. I was on my forth play before I manage to hit without getting stuck on the first planet I came across. The instructions would be better in-game. I think you touched on everything else with your known issue notes. One final thing: You've reused graphics and music, so you should opt-out of graphics and audio voting.
I was surprised when it jumped to a new planet. Maybe the game could start with an establishing shot of many planets then zoom onto the first, so players already know theres more and don't immediately think the first is the entire game? Music is really good. I like the characters design.
@thorn itch has been giving me a lot of issues, but I think I have the download links fixed. Could you please try again?
@mrmaico I reuploaded a different Mac build as well, if you could please try. If you still have issues, I'm wondering if it's the normal permission issues that a lot of Mac builds have. Please let me know what error messages you see.
@zashers Yes for some reason Web is only loading like 90% and then giving up. I can't figure it out tonight so I'll have to research it tomorrow. I'll let you know if I get it fixed.
@human-writes-code - Thanks. Yeah I was trying to add move visual effects, especially emphasizing the ability to get more points with combos, but I suddenly had to quit a few hours early. I might update that in a post-jam version.
@pinkpanterus - I considered up/down movement, but felt it was better to stick near the bottom of the screen because of the loop capture mechanic. Using up/down controls was a choice to make the whole game easily playabe with one hand. Do you think the game would be better with vertical movement, or with the shooting/looping controls more separate from the movement?
@melvinng - Thank you. Unfortunately aside from particle effects I actually had to skimp on the graphics, the ships are still using placeholder assets, I intended them to be 3d models.
@snowinn - Thank you. I actually slowed down the enemies and made their swarms smaller later in development. In the past my judgements have suffered because people found my games too hard, and I figured my own game probably seemed easier to me that it actually was. I might have to add difficulty changes in a post jam version.
@samelgamedev - The speeding up when you hit the loop button twice was actually a glitch that I noticed during development, but decided to leave in as a feature. I figured the slowdown might be tedious after awhile, and thought players might like to speed through the loops a bit. As for the score persisting between sessions, that was DEFINITELY not intentional. Thanks for brining that to my attention.
Thank everyone for playing and rating!
@EVERYONE - Thank you so much for playing, rating, and suggestions.
@samelgamedev - I fixed the score bug, just wanted to thank you again for letting me know about it.
@pinkpanterus - I still disagree with vertical movement, but your thoughts on using mouse buttons is a great one and I should have implemented it. At this point I think that'd count as a "new feature" so I'll have to wait till post-jam to do it.
@blubberquark - Thanks for the suggestions. I did make the colliders on the bullets and players slightly larger than they look to make it a bit more forgiving, but when I overhaul the game post-jam I'll probably do a lot of artistic changes as well. I'm also a big fan of Nuclear Throne so I appreciate the suggestion and probably will look to it for inspiration.
@etrealjunior - Thank you very much. I checked out your game and rated as well.
@invader - Noticed the Galaga inspiration, huh? The capture loop works by picking a spot in front of the player, rotating around it (while dragin a trail), and once the movement is done, placing a sphere collider at almost the same point for a split second. It's a sphere instead of a circle because of the way I oriented the game. The collider is slightly larger than the capture ring because in playtesting it was frustrating to JUST miss a capture. Also, the center is slightly closer to the player to be extra forgving for enemy/projectiles that are REALLY close to the player, preventing cheap hits-and-escapse.
@mykola - Yes, time constraints, as usual, lead to some sacrifices. In post-jam I'll add more variety
@tori - I have considered merging this idea with a more general shmup I abandoned years ago for post-jam, we'll see how that works out.
@tamail - I lost a few hours of dev and the health bar was something that didn't make it. Actually, I had to ditch a power-up system as well. As-is, you have 10 hits. My idea was that you'd start with 5 hits buy could earn more as a bonus with combo captures. I really wish I'd had time to implement that.
@aune - I'm glad you picked up on that strategy, I fear that players might not get that. I wrote in the "hints" section but already know most people don't read them. I ran out of time for the HP UI, I'd wanted a screen shake on imact and even a zoom-in on capture to go with the slow-motion. Maybe post-jam
@szatku - I actually thought very late that I should put a collider on the trail so that you could use it as a wall to trap enemies. I even initiall had the player choose if they'd loop clockwise or counter-clockwise. But, it was another thing cut for time.
@sirred - Tried to have a random offset to simulate imperfect aim or leading the player, might've overdone it. With more time I would have had enemies ACTUALLY lead the player, maybe I'll do that later.
@cerins @mbrezu - I'll have to work on the difficulty curve, and incentivize trapping over shooting (i know most people don't care about high scores anymore, originally trapping enemies would be the only way to regain health but that was cut for time)
@r3l0ad1 @morpheuszero @macmist - Thank you, don't be afraid to leave some critical feedback too.
@oxropy - That was intentional to incentivize taking risk and letting the enemies get close before shooting, but I could have made that more clear, and come up with a plan for stunned enemies to ofar out of range.
@jeroenpx - Yes, another thing that was cut for time, but I'll add a lot of visual/audio feedback for successful combos late.
@zebrainflames - I think mainly I just need to make the enemies more aggressive so they'll spend less time away from the player, but I'll consider different capture mechanics as well.
Don't see many adventure games in these jams. Artwork was really good. Music was pleasant, it little calm for what was suppose to be a drastic situation, but still good. Other sounds might've been helpful (phones ringing, doors opening, actually hearing the gunshots, etc). A different choice of font, too. I could barely read anything except the highlighted words. Also, the two guards talked way fast, I only got caught up on the narrative when I answered the phone the second time.
Love the concept and the gameplay style is really good, but could use some work. I found myself just tediously waiting around a lot of times. The gravity was a bit wonky at points, I was sitting on one planet then suddenly started drifting off of it onto the other planet with touching anything. There were times where I think I could have used the last bit of my gas to land, but I think I would have lost anyway? I was drifting far too slow to wait and see if it'd let me win anyway. But the concept is good and with a little polish this could be great game. I see you're working post-jam so I'll likely check back.
Found the best strategy was to stay about 25% from the top and stay still, only slightly adjusting when you might be on a collision path.
Okay, this is probably my favorite game of this jam so far.
The single-screen is charming, the chaotic nature of so many cars in a small space becomes pretty fun after a couple plays. Graphics are good. Theme is perfectly captured in a not-to-complex way.
My criticisms are, the startup timer is slow and frustrating. There could be a wall to make sure players don't go way too far off-screen. The inability to back up makes navigating out of pileups pretty tedious.
But overall really good. Again, my favorite so far.
Just thought of another suggestion: When the player is off-screen, use the GUI to place an arrow on the edge of the screen. The arrow should be placed on the edge closest to the car, so the player know approximately where they are, and should be pointing the same direction as the car, so the player can figure out if they're driving the right direction to return to the screen. I think this would make it more fair.
Wow. Typically controls are over-complex. Sometimes they're so simple that they they can't provide what they need. You managed having perfect one-button controls. Wasn't sure how it fit the theme at first but I did just pass the campfire again, so I guess if I keep running I'll see it a few more times. Its a minor thing, but I love that you can start the game early, makes replays very easy. Graphics are good. Sound is great. My only complaints are that the music is a veryshort loop so it get annoying really quick. Longer music might help, or it could fade out in tense moments when you're hiding and the aliens(?) are looking right at your hiding spot. Also sometimes it was questionable where the character chose to hide, seemed to run away from the close spot I intended to one much further away.
i’ll play this when i get back to my computer, i like how detailed it looks.
Okay, I love the StarFox reference. I also was using an SF reference with real animal pictures in another game, so it was funny to see someone else have the same idea. This is my 8th time participating, I've played hundreds of games on LD, but this was the absolute best way to naturally explain the controls and premise to players. So good job on that. On the downside, mouse controls in an embedded window always mess up for me. Pointer goes outside the window and you lose control. I tried to fullscreen it to avoid that and the image stretched weird (that might be my fault though, I'm on an ultrawide).
Graphics are great. Controls are perfectly simple, I love them. The concept is good, and I like that you can use your bodies to get past obstacles that previously killed you (unless I'm wrong, you NEED to do that at least a couple times to win?)
Love the concept, and of course, the Aliens reference in the screenshot. Any chance of a Web or Mac build?
The constant ticking down with every movment had me feeling anxious at first, but after repeated rest and getting more of the world opened up, it became a bit more enjoyable. The artwork looks pretty but maybe a more limited palette could help draw attention to key locations/items. Sound and music are good.
I have an idea regarding the text bug but this is just a guess. I'm thinking you're using a custom font that's not included in the game, and therefore not on the computer of the people playing it? If this is the case, put the TTF files for your custom fonts in a "Fonts" directory inside "Assets".
Very interesting game. Probably the most innovative that I've played. At first it seemed overly simple but as the new title types came in it really opened up. I like how you made one-button controls work so intuitively.
Only really have a few suggestions: - Show the players acceptable tetrominos on-screen during game. - Maybe have powerup earned from specific tetrominos? Like, a line one shows up in a separate window in the corner, and if they specifically make that one, it'll double points?
Fun game, reminded me of Smash TV. Music was a bit mellow for something so violent, but it serves it's purpose. Characters were simple but cute, which actually provided a charming contrast. I know animations take time, but having a bounce or squash/stretch while moving could've made for a walking anim.
Forgot to mention: In-game controller prompts would be helpful. Your GUI in the upper-right is covered by itch.io's buttons, but I was able to drag my window into a rectangle to move them off.
Love the concept, but gameplay was a bit unforgiving. Durability of the tool seems to go down on it's own. Grabbing the powerup AND getting to the mech AND happening to be there when the spark is present is very difficult. I played about ten times and only managed to fix the the mech once by pure luck. Sound was simple but effective. I liked the character design a lot.
Mac build needs to be fixed with a Terminal Command before running (anyone want specificys, look at my feed, I made a post about it).
I did not expect a narrative about addiction in a cute space invaders clone. Graphics were great, music and sound too.
@vivien-fargette sure. Also, you can replace your Mac download with this fixed version that I already ran through on Terminal: https://www.dropbox.com/s/64xsgy4u1ga0o2z/LillyTheBee.dmg?dl=0
Here's the post with the Mac Terminal fix for those who might need it on other games: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-looper-encounter/important-note-for-mac-builds
Love the "prince of persia" mechanic of time reversal, much more polished than simply having him return to the beginning with not explaination. I only realized after playing that there were controls in the menu. In the future, it's probably better to incorporate them into the game. I actually listed mine on the title screen. But your controls are good enough I could figure them out without looking it up, so that's also very good.
Good concept, and I love your technique for getting the graphics. A little more visual feedback and gameplay variety would be nice.
Great concept, bit the challege spiked really quick. I thought the asteroid would protect me from the first enemy's attack but it seemed no to? There was a lack of defensive mechanics so most times it seemed like I was trading hits with the enemies and racing to drain their lifebar. Still, it really is a great concept and I'd like to see it expanded. The music was the catchiest I've experience this jam so far.
Very cute design, and a very interesting puzzle mechanic. Controls were very intuitive, probably should have instruction integrated in the game instead of on the page (I know sometimes people run out of time for that, though)
Very innovative play style, great graphics (ran fine in webGL btw). My only thought for improvement is that maybe the graphics are TOO good and realistic for a puzzle game, there isn't really a contrast between active/inactive elements. I'd suggest going with a much lower pallet and use some color theory to emphasize on specific elements.
Cool concept, definitely unique. Controls took a big getting used to. I liked how the falling person could knock stuff free and you'd have to start again. I love the art style, but was thinking it's great for the dream but not really the "real-world".
Some notes: - Loading bars and unnecessary as it all goes by too quick. - You might need to consider your UI layout a bit. This might be a rare occurrence, but I'l playing on an ultra-wide, so when I fullscreen it winds up cropping instead of letterboxing. I typically drag my editor windows into all sorts of weird shapes while play-testing to make sure it looks good on any display ratio. - There were times I'm pretty sure I successfully clicked but I didn't grab anything, I'm wondering if collisions need tweaking. - I don't think the spacebar is really needed. One you remove either mouse button, checking to see if you're holding two combinable items would be good. - The game's over quick, but the process to retry its a bit long. - Once I restarted the game and only three items were falling, I couldn't possibly win.
@james-joubert - Actually Unity does support it built-in, you just really need to be familiar with the canvases, scaling, and anchor points. For starters, the "Canvas Scaler" component by default is set to "Constant Pixel Size". I find it's better to "Scale With Screen Size" Also by default, when you "Match Width Or Height", it defaults by Width instead of by Height. This is weird because monitors are getting wider every generation, not taller. It's a bit to get used to but I more or less learned on my own, like I said you can just set your game resolution to "Free Aspect" and change it to weird non-existent rations to see how the UI elements are affected.
@james-joubert Yes, it sounds like you're having issues with the “Match Width Or Height” and anchors. I see you uploaded your source, so maybe I'll take a look at later, it and give you some pointers.
EDIT: Okay, so I downloaded your source. There's a lot missing but I did experiment with fixing your spash screen image.
First things, I removed your blank black image from behind your logo, and just had your main camera show a black background. I can to screencap your logo to replace it in the project. So here's what you have...
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.38.55 PM.png
Looks okay here, but lets squash down the screen...
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.39.08 PM.png
The image stayed centered and the same size, so as the screen got smaller, it overlapped the top/bottom... And if we were to make the screen narrow (like a phone in portrait)...
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.41.30 PM.png
Same basic issue. It retained position in the center, and it's size, and did not scale.
First things first, look at the canvas, you have it set for UI Scale Mode of "Constant Pixel Size". Let's change that to "Scale With Screen Size". You'll probably immediately notice the image no longer fits but don't worry yet.
A new "Match" Slider will appear that goes from "Width" to "Height", and is defaulted at 0.0, so it only scales with width. I find this weird, I think usually height is the way to go, so go ahead and change that to 1.0.
The image might look right now, and you might consider it done, but lets go a bit further.
Your current anchor point is center-of-screen. This is okay, but you don't JUST want this image centered. You also want the top of the image to have a set gap from the top of the screen, and the bottom from the bottom of the screen. So, I think you should anchor to the center, stretched.
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.45.57 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.47.35 PM.png
Now, the proportions of your image from the top of the screen to the bottom will scale no matter what size/ration the screen. If you wind up with a resolution that's much taller than it is wide there might be an issue, but you only need to worry about that for mobile games.
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.50.23 PM.png
Now, your intro screen has a similar issue, where it scales in such a way that it's cropped on ultrawides:
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.51.19 PM.png
You already have it scaled with screen size, so good job there. Your match is set to 0.0 for Width, so change it to 1.0 for Height.
Screen Shot 2020-10-09 at 11.52.57 PM.png
Already all the text is on screen. You already wisely anchored your panel to the entire left edge of the screen, and the text is anchored to be stretched across the whole panel, so that should be good to go.
For the most part I think your issues are with Width vs Height scaling.
I like the detective style, searching for clues. Gameplay really didn't match the theme. I really liked the humor, the dialouge was pretty funny. The character designs are gorgeous.
Cool concept, but I think you could ease the players into the mechanics a bit more (ie first level have the switch right next to the door, add jumping platforming in the second level. large scrolling level for the third, etc) Definitely something you can expand on, though. You should do a post-jam version.
Love the concept. The controls are a little clunky. I kept trying to click a block on the edge of the play screen, and wound up clicking outside the screen instead, losing control. I think it'd be more intuitive if the player could click anywhere in-between themselves and the wall and have the rope extend until it finds a wall. you could find the attach point with raytraces. The music was good, graphics were great (especially the player character) and again, the game concept was great.
Graphics look good, but I honestly couldn't figure out how to play.
This is great. Sounds are good. Gameplay is nice (esp when new items start getting added). There were a few times I got "caught" and it seemed unfair, like the detection was off. I think it could be helped with multiple collisions for the humans or sensitivity to distance (if they see you, but you're just at the edge of their view, then they'll be unsure and come closer to investigate). But overall it's really good. I especially loved the character design and animation.
Unfortunately can't play because no Mac/Web build (but I see you linked Source so maybe I'll build the Mac version myself when I have time, I'll do a full review and send you a download link when I do.) Impressions based on the screenshots/descriptions: Graphics look good, and I like the cloning idea. I noticed in the controls you uses 1,2,3 to switch weapons, but I'm thinking it'd be more intuitive to use the mouse wheel, or right mouse click.
Congrats on your first submission.
Wanted to suggest a couple things: Your description is way too long. Most of these games get played for one or two minutes, it definitely shouldn't take longer than that to read the games backstory, and typically the backstory isn't needed anyway (tbh I stopped reading and just played the game). I aim to only put the controls and maybe some hints in the description, assuming I don't have time to just put them all in-game.
Speaking on in-game controls/hints, you should wait for a player keypress before progressing.
On the positive side, I love the graphics and character designs in the game. Sound/music was good as well. Controls were simple but solid.
Gameplay is pretty good, was an addictive challenge. Music was simple but actually fit very well/
Some suggestions: - The entire bottom half of the screen is negative space, I think the player should be a maximum 25% from the bottom so they can see more of what's ahead of them. - Returning to the main menu after each level made me think the game glitched and restarted, maybe just go to the next level. - The level automatically restarting is a bit jarring, maybe "push any button to restart" would be better - The levels could use different visual styles. Even different colors would be good. - Some sort of bonus for completing in fewer loops would be cool. Players will have incentive to take risks and replay for better scores.
Graphics are absolutely beautiful, but goals are confusing/
Nice game. The first level had some times where it was literally impossible because the birds came all at once and too close to each other, a little frustrating when you get to 5 seconds and that happens. Third level was very easy compared to the first two. Normally I don't like monochrome graphics but in this case it works out a bit better, I found it very pleasant.
I liked it, though I couldn't quite figure out how the ghosts were useful. I think I'll come back to this one when I'm more rested. Did you use a custom web player template?
Great concept, great art, the ambient music was very fitting. The game ends pretty abruptly though, I didn't notice health going down, and when I realized that, I couldn't really figure out how to increase it.
Cool concept. The interface was a little confusing, so the UI could have used some changes (ie a permanent "speed up" button by the treadmill instead of the rollover cursor change). Maybe some audio feedback to signifiy stuff, stomach growling when he gets hungry, etc.
Great graphics, fun gameplay, goes well with the theme. I've like to see this expanded on. I did have an issue with fullscreen on my ultrawide, I think your anchors/scaling aren't set up the best (ie i'd guess the leaderboard names are ancorded to the right center, not the right edge, so it's vertical scale is off) the game over screen is pretty abrupt so I never know what i did wrong, it happens so much just as i'm killing the target that i feel like i've experience a glitch. in post-jam, maybe have a slow-mo replay with bullet traces? but overall it's a great game, I'll check back later.
Graphics look good, impressive for a first-timer. I really couldn't figure out what to do. I pushed all the buttons to cancel the alarm, and that's it. Didn't know what to do with the egg, pot, or pan, and couldn't find anything else to interact with.
I like the concept of a logical loop, I never thought of that. Any chance of a Mac or Web build?
@sven-lowry Your macOX build did not work, but I fixed it for you. You should replace it with this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sc6yojbqiee0x3l/Stuck%20In%20A%20While%20Loop.dmg?dl=0
Concept is great, again the loop being a logical one is very innovative, the most interesting theme take I've seen so far. Controls aren't very intuitive, using the middle mouse button as a primary function is a little weird. I probably would have incorporated keyboard, maybe space key to absorb. Or both, so players could do whatever is comfortable for them.
I see you linked the source code, I'll try porting this to Mac this evening. I'll send you a link.
Graphics were cute. The auto-shooting threw me off a bit, I'm wondering if it's actually necessary for the game. I did like the progressing difficulty in enemies.
Congratulations on your first jam. I noticed you opted out of graphics and music/sound, did you not create those yourself? Anyway, I like that it's simple and casual. That's exactly what jams need, something that can be enjoyed in a few minutes. It was a bit simple with only the jump button, there were times where I HAD to skip food because I would have hit an enemy at the same time, maybe some horizontal movment could add some strategy to the timing challenge.
Nice puzzle game. I did notice that some of the later puzzles seemed a lot easier than the older ones, but I managed to get through all of them. The play field seemed to be cropped at the edge of the screen, you might want to make sure all playable tiles show up entirely on-screen.
Got to 109m on my second try, couldn't get close again. It was pretty fun but the sudden teleports were a little jarring. My recommendation would be that when the player hits the ostacles, freeze time, highlight the obstacle that was hit, let the player see it disappear (or not, if it isn't suppose to), lerp them higher up, and then restart the timer.
First - just wanted to say good job getting a Mac version uploaded. Yours is the first I could download and play without having to fix using terminal first. Also, I appreciate you building in esc-to-quit.
I liked the spider models, and the general atmosphere was good. Visual and audio feedback could work, when I was clicking I didn't see or hear anything that suggested I was shooting. The "gunshots" sounded like a failed UI event. Also, there was no feedback that anything was being hit until it just disappeared. Last, I'd say maybe have in-game instructions, I only now noticed the oage says that B is to turn on/off lights. This is a good start though.
I was expecting some mechanic of the jar breaking if you fell too far, but either that's not there or I never fell far enough. You've opted out of graphics and auto so I guess you didn't create that. The controls were very well done, very easy to just pick up and play. The difficulty curve might've been a tab steep, but not too bad.
I love the character design, and the animation technique was very effective. The voice acting was cute and music very relaxing as well. The controls were a bit too cumbersome for me, the weird procedure just to hold the shield up never became natural to me.
Well, that's definitely innovative! Didn't work for me, though. My flying pig dropped like a brick.
@thementalsheep - Glad you liked it. I thought most the replayablilty would be trying to memorize all the missed treasure.
@hideos - The non-responding treasure was actually intentional, because I wanted players to try to remember what they'd missed on previous dives, but in retrospect it wasn't a good decision. Unfortunately I realized this myself during playtesting mere hourse before the deadline. Oh well, something to remember for future jams.
@samarthmp5002 - Glad you like her. It was actually a rush job. I had a standin cylinder up until the last few hours and had to throw that together, she was originally suppose to be much more detailed (but still cute).
@edward-dassmesser - My goal is to make my games as self-explanatory as possible, I think a good game shouldn't need a wall of instructions, but in this case maybe I should have put in an in-game tutorial.
@microchasm - I wanted more surprises as you went deeper, finding new fish, skeletons, other divers, sunk ships... but I ran out of time. There are suppose to be more pickups, not sure why the RNG is making them as rare as they are. The scuba line is actually a long cloth with while blowing upwards, extra strong during ascending.
@devez - Yeah, I overestimated how intuitive it would be. Maybe even some in-game signs or alert text would have helped make things clearer. Something for me to consider next time.
@initialposition - Thanks. though I did spent too much time on those "rope" physics, I am very proud of them.
@fcvalise - He does. Look forward to ScubaMan Jr. in Ludum Dare 49! (Just kidding, that's almost definitely not going to happen).
@matif100 - Hopefully it becomes clear after a few playthroughs. I've been thinking I should have had some text pop up that says "OUT OF OXYGEN! RETURN TO SURFACE" so at least people would know why it was happening.
@gargantus - I appreciate the critical feedback, I find it to be the most helpful. Aside from what's already mentioned, anything in particular I could have done to improve it?
@leekanarchism - Glad you like it. Bashing the head was originally going to be a single-hit kill but I decided it was too challenging. Then the idea was that the player got stuck and would have to manuver around. I eventually decided on the short pause, then quickly turning off collision so the player passes through, and the effect turned out much better than I expected. I wish I had time to add in some particles and better sound to really give it personality.
@ethan-hammonds - I am a fan of Among Us, but this was actually not an intentional reference. I simply ran out of time and am not very good with Blender to begin with. I knew I wanted a yellow scuba suit with a red bow (Mrs. Pac Man reference), and threw that together quickly. I did think it looked like a crewmate as soon as it was done though. I fought the urge to spend a bit more time to add feet and a backpack, as time was running out.
@jason-wilson - Yes, informative UI tallying up the gold and showing how it increased oxygen was planned but in the end I had to cut it. Another thing I have to learn to allot time for in the future. The game over occurs if you hit too many rocks on the way up. The inability to restart a game was poor planning on my part, which is embarrassing as I've done it right so many times before.
@mockthebear - Glad you like it. It's a Mrs. Pac Man reference. Now I get to tag the game with "female protagonist" on itch.io!
@mech-alina - Hitting on the way up turned out to be much better than I thought it would be, one of the few parts of the game I'm really proud of. I can't remember if I finished but I intended to have it be 3 hits on a single time means game over, so health pickups wouldn't be necessary. I didn't have time for more visual feedback for that.
Thank you all for playing and for your feedback!
@jk5000 & @backurio - Don't feel bad about giving me negative feedback. I WANT critical reviews, and appreciate the honesty (in fact, my plan going it was to openly invite people to give me the most critical feedback possible, only reason I didn't do it is because my game sucks more than I expected and I feel I already know most of what went wrong)
@leganiereinahpets - Inability to restart was poor planning and time constraints. As for a way to go faster, I planned on having an "iron boots" upgrade that would make you sink faster, but ascend slower. Then I loved the fast ascending too much and thought maybe it'd work one way, or that you'd lose the boots after one turn. I ran out of time anyway.
@toasteater - I wanted the Mrs. Pac Man reference, and thought it might be a unique title (sometimes I wind up with similar-or-exactly same named games in the jam
@clemonades - While I had to rush Mrs. Scuba's design, I think I got the intended derpiness. With even a couple more hours I would have added small animations to give her more personality.
@gamesplusjames - Thank you, feel free to criticize anything you didn't like though.
@fadex - I has hoping the goals would be intuitive and the game would self-teach, but I think I missed that mark.
I just last night thought "man I should have made a game about going deep undercover", glad to see someone else had the idea earlier and implemented it better than I could have. Character designs are gorgeous and very impressive for a weekend jam. Music was very fitting as well. I was wondering if the character Mr Trilby is a reference to the character from the Czho mythos, he's dressed simlar and iirk that character also had a cane. I definitely wasn't expecting to run into two different people I'd told contradicting lies to, that was an interesting twist. Managed to beat it on my second try, just barely, second mission was easier when I anticipated possibly having to fool two people at once.
Good theme interpretation. Very interesting gameplay mechanics, I like it when a game comes along with an experience I've never seen before. I actually stopped mid-comment here to test something, and realized that the same minigame starts wether you hit the enemy or they hit you. I think it'd be cool to have both an offensive and defensive minigame, maybe a failure at one gives chance at the other, like a counter-attack?
The graphics and sound were excellent. I'm really impressed that all this was accomplished during a jam, even by such a large team (though sometimes just cooperation with a team is a challenge in itself). Definitely got some "Among Us" vibes running around fixing a spaceship. One issue I had, probably not very common, was that the UI didn't scale to my display, because I'm playing on an ultra wide. I was able to see enough to play, but some stuff was larger than it was suppose to be and got cropped from the screen.
FYI the game also doesn't work on Safari, but I got it to work on Opera GX. Controls were intuitive, but getting out of the dialogue box took a moment to figure out. Only on my second playthrough did I realize I needed to hover close to other planets, but again it was pretty intuitive. The UI is pretty good except the edges of the screen are obscured, inlucing the ping icons. Maybe the UI should be separate from the play area, instead of underneath it. I love the premise, story, and humor. However, especially for a jam game, it's pretty wordy. Most jam players just want to get to the gameplay asap, but I was also afraid of missing improtant information if I skipped all that dialouge. Graphics and sound are great, and I love the theme interpretation.
I downloaded the Mac version, and while it didn't immediately work, I was aware of the issue and was able to fix it.
I liked the graphics and mood, but I couldn't really figure out what to do. I found out how to click a space to build an alter, and then, nothing. It looks a little different on my ultra wide than on the screenshots, but I don't think I'm missing any UI elements.
I'm thinking I'll bookmark this one and come back to it later.
Mac users having issues, please read this: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-looper-encounter/an-important-notice-for-mac-players-repost-for-48
Beat it on my 3rd try with 3 extra crystals. Controls are good, didn't need any instruction to figure it out. Main issue was that on my first playthrough I though the stones weren't breakable and assumed I hit a dead end. Secondly, the lava doesn't flow realistically. I tried to strategically reroute it by diggin down, retracing my steps and going sideways. I also tried digging big rooms that I assumed would fill up before the lava professed. Neither strategy worked, but I think that would have allowed for some interesting gameplay. Sprite work is excellent. Sound is basic but does it's job well.
It's not loading for me, I see the Unity loading bar but nothing happens. Did you update the build somehow? Which Unity version did you use? Anyway, I'm leaving this comment to remind myself to check back later.
Good concept but I don't have the patience to figure it out, even when I got the pattern down the character always seemed to be rotating counterclockwise, and correction was pretty difficult.
Screen Shot 2021-04-27 at 9.12.30 AM.png
Got this error when trying to play the web version. I might come back to check the downloadable version later.
My favorite game on the jam so far, first that I'd actually pay for if it were commercial. Most intuitive controls, I've been playing a couple minutes and already developing stratgies to time my burst for maximum efficiency. Sprite work and sound are also outstanding. I'm not sure if I set a new record on the first level or if that time is just my personal best, but I think this game would be a perfect candidate for online leaderboards.
I like the graphics. The controls could use some work. I noticed that you can push O during the dialogue and still roll, even roll off the cliff, and hover in air. Also, the instructions don't tell you how to jump, I found it on accident.
The follow-the-mouse controls were surprisingly intuitive, then a little frustrating as the hit detection was so sensitive and movment needed to be very percise. Still, I managed to win after I think 10 playthroughs. I suggest some work with colors and focus to separate important visual elements. At first I thought the bubbles were killing me because the mirrors seemed like part of the background. The player, ostacles, and background should all contrast each other. I was excepting some sort of metaphor, like he was sad about being ugly because he was "shallow" and when he was "deep", beauty wouldn't matter. I did have to chuckle at what I think is a spongebob reference? Is the face suppose to look like sexy squidward towards the end?
I didn't even notice giga chad, had to play again to see him. nice easter egg!
I think this is the first game I've played with any sort of narration, so that's pretty cool. I wasn't entirely sure if I was playing correctly, the page mentions it's "buggy" (btw was that a pun?), the last screen I played was the same as the first. I couldn't play a second time as it seems the game loses focus, and my inputs affect the page instead of the game.
Definitely a unique take on the theme, and a unique game in general. I love the concept, but think I don't have the patience to spend too much time on it. I think I've about a week in and not sure if I'm even progressing or not.
Controls were pretty good, up-to-jump took a little getting used to but it was okay. I noticed a couple glitches. Sometimes when grabbing fuel it'd just shoot straight up, never to be seen again. Never broke the game, just looked odd. Also since I skipped instructions on the first play, I stopped to read them before my second... and wound up dying on the title screen before starting the game. But overall it was really good. Sound was nice, graphics especially were beautiful, and most importantly the controls were accurate and responsive.
Visuals and music were amazing, and I appreciate a simpler interface that needs almost no explaination, but the pacing is a bit slow. I thought the game was broken after waiting a few minutes and not noticing anything happening.
First off, sprite work is excellent. Second, the first level tutorial text was good, allows the player to learn in-game, and the controls aren't too complicated. But the third screen got me. I only figured out that you could shoot a second worm while still moving from reading @ehtd 's comment above. Even then, I never sucessfully landed and walked to the rest of the area, I always end up so close to the spikes that the next step kills me. A tutorial level that taught that mechanice alone would have been nice.
I'm playing on an ultrawide, so some of the UI elements were misplaced for me. Also, the mac App file is corrupted (common issue nowadays) and I had to fix it with a terminal command before I could play. I've found that rather than uploading the .app, putting it inside a .dmg first prevents most issues. Loved the graphics and sounds. The gameplay was a bit tough at first, but some of that might've been because of my onw UI issues. An in-game live tutorial would be more intuitive than a menu option.
I'd have to compare on a regular display and my ultrawide to be sure, but for starters I think the tutorial screen was cropped at the top and bottom. I assume there was an X button there I wasn't able to click, so I had to quit the app entirely and start over. Generally, I'll create my UI elements in editor, then set the game window to Free Aspect so I can stretch it to every imaginable ratio and make sure it looks good, even though I know 99%+ of people are using 16:9
Music was nice, graphics were good, I REALLY like the mechanice of landing on planets and transferring to a rover, and the circular gravity of the planet was a neat touch. I did get stuck inside the first planet I found, it looked like there was a square object I should push but it was wedged in and wouldn't budge. I think the into is a bit too wordy for a jam game, best to get to the action as quick as possible.
Music is nice and calming, I like the graphical style. I was surprised when I pushed up and the little tank guy flew, there wasn't really any visual cue that he could float. I've played more than 10 times but run out of fuel every time, even after I figured out what I'm suppose to do (I think), I don't have quite enough fuel to get the resources and return, and sometimes the random generation seems to make it impossible to get resources at all. I suggest some easy tutorial tasks and more clear in-game instructions.
I liked the graphics. The sound, while simple, did help with the atmosphere. I kept dieing because I ran out of fuel, even when there was no fuel to collect? It was hard to guage how far away the pickups were, I kept finding myself trying to grab stuff that already passed. A larger window of time to grab and some more visual feedback would be nice.
I liked the interpretation of the theme. Haven't played a werewolf game in forever, so that was a nice unexpected surprise. I beat the game on my forth playthrough. On the second and third, it seemed that throwing the rocks only made the wolf come out quicker. Even in the last playthough, I threw a rock, it started chasing me, so I let it follow me all the way back to the wizard.
I noticed sound settings, but didn't actually hear sounds? The menu interfaces were a bit wierd, I get "Back" starts with "B" and "Tutorial" starts with "T", but menu navigations should be based on keyboard location, not lettering. The game itself was nice. Controls were nice and responsive, objectives were clear, good difficult curve. I loved the pixel art, the little wizard dude is pretty cool.
The pixel art is amazing. The gameplay was a bit confusing though, I noticed the game instructions don't tell you how to jump, I found that on accident. Its seems weird to have an action for right-click while left-click seems to go unused. I got stuck in the first area, restarted and reread the instructions and realized I'd forgotten about spell casting, but then I had to sit though the text intro again. I suggest always putting a skip option in. Still didn't get past the first area but I think I'll come back to this later.
Deep roots was a thought I had as well, but I couldn't figure a way to implement it. Two main concerns. First is that once you get underground, that's all your going to see for the rest of the game. Such a bright colorful title screen, then the rest of the game is brown. Perhaps seeing the tree between certain rounds would be more satisfying then the "tree health" UI bar. Second, it seems easy and repetitive. I removed almost every rock, three health was at zero, yet I kept going and going. I eventually lost on purpose just to see if it were possible. The music is nice and relaxing. The root generation looked interesting.
I tried hitting return to take pictures but it seemed nothing happened? Other than that, controls seemed really nice. Graphics are good. Love the music.
I actually thought of the same interpretation for "deep" but couldn't think of any game mechanics to apply to it. I'm not sure how you pulled it off either (if I did know how, I might actually be able to beat this one).
Sorry to say both the Mac zip and dmg are broken. I even tried to fix it using terminal but it's not the usual problems. I might install parallels this week so I'll come back and check out the windows version later. btw, you should park on this page what versions are on the itch page.
When I saw the title I was wondering if it'd be related to "Space Quest". Game is just the right length for a jam game. Graphics, while simple, did their job. The sound that was there was good, but a little more would help (even am ambient humming, noise coming from the ships machinery, to set the atmosphere). At least with my mouse, the sensitivity was way too high. I'd try to slightly turn and would do a 360. It'd be helpful to have an options menu for adjustments. I like that the enemies would chase you when you got close. It's a step above the most basic AI but more than you'll typically see in these. Last suggestion I'd have is something to emphasize the time/distance passed between levels. Like maybe a fake loading screen between levels that shows the ship on a map of space, and show how far it's gone during that time? Windows on the ship that show different anomalies outside could emphasize that you're no longer in the same place.
Hey, I also made a scuba diving treasure hunter game! I like the graphics, they have that retro charm. The shooting controls were a little tough, sometimes harpoons didnt shoot and i thought i was out of ammo, but i didn't see ammo counters, and they'd start shooting again after a few moments. I'd also suggest different jumping/swiming controls. For a game that's mostly swimming, maybe holding space would be better, or holding right mouse button since we're already using the mouse anyway? occasionally a squid would take only a couple hits to kill, sometimes a lot, and I'm wondering if the enemies are pooled objects that retain their health?
I couldn't keep all three in the sweet spot for more than a second or so at a time, so I'm not sure if I was actually playing correctly. I didn't even notice the stuff on the right side at first, or how it was affecting the levels, and briefly wondered if I'd missed a rhythm aspect of the game. I feel I could get the hang of it after a few playthroughs.
pressWhat.png The resolution is too low to read, couldn't start the game. Might just be an issue on web, it maintains the low resolution even when in fullscreen mode.
The pixel art is very nice. Music is great, though it didn't start until my second play. The attack range was a bit too short, and pressing left arrow to attack was bit confusing.
Well, this definitely wins for innovation, never thought I'd see a game like this. I guess I sort of "cheated" by using my browsers "find" functionality, but I consider it a legitimate strategy.
At first I thought it was just a breakout clone, but the advancing line of bricks did add an interesting twist and somewhat incorporate the theme (though the gameplay could've worked the same, just flipped). It runs well. I usually like when a breakout clone has some sort of way to control the ball's trajectory, like the angle changes if you hit it towards the edge of the paddle instead of the center?
Makes sense. One mistake I've made many times is wasting too much time on mechanics that I'm inexperienced with or are just unnecessary. Two LDs ago I spend way too much time trying to get a physics-based dice sytem to work instead of just using an RNG. This time I tried implementing Unity's new input system and wound up hitting bugs that took hours to fix.
The controls were a bit weird, I'd think a mermaid underwater would have more freedom of movement. I didn't move with a moving platform on the first level, but did on the second? Also, I was killed by what I thought was a piece of trash that I should avoid, there wasn't really any visual cue on what you should touch and what you should avoid. The music is very nice. I love the pixel art and character design.
Love the graphics, the circular playing field is a nice innovation, controls are simple, intutive, and responsive. Yeah, seems like a winner.
I forgot to mention, I also really like the procedurally generated levels, and compared to others (including my own) it doesn't appear to break gameplay no matter what is generated.
Love the concept, the hidden level that you have to uncover is something I've toyed with by never sucessfully implemented, reminds me of a game I grew up with on the C64 called "Jumpman". The jumping controls were a little wierd. Space to just would be nice, or right-click since we're already using the mouse to paint anyway. I think there could be some more mechanics to balance risk/reward. Like maybe if the player had a limited amount of paint? or had to wait for recharging? That way they'd want to conserve paint or take their time, and wisely choose where/when to shoot. I also think it'd be cool if the paint was leftover from your last life. Like, a new character comes in and has to follow in the previous one's footsteps. So your goal would be to complete the levels in as few lives as possible, but each lost life leaves paint for the next one to make it easier? Just some suggestions, it's a very good game and I'm actually keeping a tab open to play again later today.
For a stick figure, the main character was actually pretty detailed and cute. I liked that you even gave him a little useless jump, I don't know why but it just added some life to him. I'm not sure I really got the narrative of the game, I was just messing around and next thing I knew, I'd beaten it. Some sound, even if it's just ambient noise, would really help with the atmosphere. Maybe start with a calm breeze, then a barely audible monster breathing, a jiggle of the door handle.
Interesting concept. I didn't read any instructions but it still only took me a couple moments to pick up the controls anyway, and I think I did alright. The most confusing things were the traps having different layouts then whats on the keyboard, and the recharging graphics being small and blending into the scenery. Maybe a more obvious visual cue and sound effect when a trap is ready to be used could help?
Congratulations on creating a challenge out of something that stupid teenagers do on accident all the time!
(I know we were all thinking this when we heard the theme, didn't think anyone would actually make it)
Music was very catchy. I think my main complaint would be the controls, I didn't even notice the instructions to use the spacebar, and just happened to hit spacebar on accident when playing and realized "oh hey, my tadpoles are cooperating now!", otherwise I never would have won.
Typing as I'm playing:
1- Okay, presentation is EXCELLENT. I like the cuteness and layout. The title screen "press start" works good if you happen to be using a gamepad, but using a keyboard it'd be nice to say "press start/enter"
2- I like that the GUI can be controlled with keyboard, so many games force you to click with mouse.
3- Tutorial level is nice, but controls are hidden away in the corner. I'd like to see an addition of the controls showing up, one at a time, front and center, until the player learns them.
4- Good addition of a pause screen, another thing usually lacking in these games.
5- whoa! The difficulty spiked immediately. Level 2 seems like it should be level 3 to 5. I'm introduced to jumping enemies AND level hazards at the same time. Maybe slow down a bit.
6- A couple times it seems like the tilt comes and goes past a threshold to quick. It's frustating being stuck at a point of no return so soon.
7- Level 3 seemed easier than level 2. growing weights are an interesting mechanic, but still one that was really thrown in there without warning or leadup,
8- UFO level was cool but again the difficulty spike was huge, having to deal with a relentless attacking enemy for the first time on the same level where you're dealing with platforming on an odd-shaped level for the first time... it's a bit much. I'd suggest one level with the UFO, then one with the +shaped level, then a level with the two of them together.
I'm calling it quits for now but maybe I'll revisit and retry this.
Okay, came back and played the game to completion. Really like it. I'd like to port it to Mac if that's okay. I still think the difficulty curve is a bit steep for a jam game. Yeah, I figured out better strategies as I played, but keep in mind most people don't play jam games for very long.
I had a feeling that's what the end result would be. I am curious what would happen if I went to the URL on my computer though.
A bit of sound would have been nice, even if it were just in the minigame.
I like the interpretation of the theme.
EDIT: sound issue was on my end, bluetooth headphones got muted.
@silkworm-sweatshop Can't try Windows version, I'm on Mac. I see you have source code though, maybe I can build a Mac version and play that. I'll send you the app when I do.
Writing as I'm playing
1- pausing on lost focus, a good quality-of-life improvemtn that often gets overlooks.
2- music sounds great
3- upon starting the tutorial i not that A and D allow you to move but arrow keys do nothing. I think this would've been nice, especially during the roping sections.
4- When the anamoly showed up in the tutorial, I ran into it to see what would happen and got stuck, had to restart the page. maybe a pause menu with restart option would be good.
5- gameplay is entirely keyboard input, so it'd be good to have menu input with keyboard also. Pressing any key to retry rather than having to use mouse, etc.
6- gameplay is very nice. i like it. I could see myself coming back to this game every now and then, and few jam games really grab my attention like that
7- difficulty curve is very high. the procedurally generated levels could use some tweaking, like to breaking playforms for a given amount of time at the beginning, then even further for the breaking ropes. Allow new players to get some distance before they're beaten down.
8- Being a precision platformer, I think the game could benefit from jump buffering any coyote time. Maybe tweaking gravity with a slower decent and more hangtime.
9- Many ropes are hanging and you have to swing first. Getting three of those in a row pretty much makes it impossible to progress.
10- Was just thinking that in addition to adding arrow keys for movement, adding mouse click to jump would be good too. This also means their hands will already be on the mouse to click restart.
Final thoughts: Definitely a fun game, looks and sounds great (simplistic in a good way). But with unforgiving controls and randomly difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, setups, it gets a bit frustrating.
Thanks. Downloaded an played the post-jam version a bit.
FYI your Mac version has corrupted permission that I had to fix via terminal, a common problem when .apps are put directly into a .zip to be distributed. [I outlined a fix for this in a previous post](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-looper-encounter/an-important-notice-for-mac-players-repost-for-48)
One other note is I think it'd be nice to be able to quit from the death screen, rather than having to go back to the menu.
I love it.
Could use some sound though, even sfxr would be helpful. Audio cues for when your block is about to drop would increase the play experience a lot.
Also, lack of rotation does add a bit to the challenge but I do feel the game would benefit from it.
Another thing I just noticed, It'd be good to have one small platform underneath the ground area. Like, one block length on each side of the platform. This would allow players to overhang one piece safely and give them and added strategy, but one they have to balance risk of.
Writing this as I play:
First note, the html file is huge (dimension-wise) and I had to scroll over to find the game window. It does fit on my laptop screen, but I suggest using an auto-resizing html template (I think I sent a couple to you already)
The instructions are kind of small, the font choice is hard to read, and it's especially hard to read on the background. It's important to not sacrifice functionality for style
The layout is also making things difficult, with some visual elements overlapping each other
After playing about ten times, I think I've got the hang of it? It's not very clear what the lose/win conditions are, but I got more of each type of building on the island than the task wanted. I was sort of expecting the game to progress further, but it only gives me the option to quit to the menu.
I like the concept, but it's a bit hard to figure out with trial and error. Mostly I think the game could benefit from some UI and feedback enhancements. When selecting pieices, the name could show up by the cursor with the number of how many have been built, and how many are needed. Maybe video/audio cues when the goal for each building type is reached, and when the goal overall has been reached. As time is running out, maybe a visual/audio cue that it's coming up, and a different (more urgent) cue for when it's coming out and you haven't complete the tasks?
Good interpretation of the theme though.
Looks neat, any chance of a Mac or Web version?
Kinda jumping back and forth between playing and typing. here are my notes:
1- controls are a bit odd, controlling the entire game with one hand is okay but feels weird. moving with WASD and balancing with arrows might've felt more intuitive.
2- love the music, but it starting over on every reload gets annoying. I'd suggest putting the music on a DontDestroyOnLoad object so the music is continuous even after a game over.
3- rather than automatically restarting, maybe wait for player input?
4- graphics are nice, but the flames chasing the player bug me. They're a certain distance behind the player even after a rail switch. so theres flames coming from where the player never was? I think this would be an excellent opportunity to use a particle system.
5- Pause functionality would be nice.
6- First time getting to the bridge, the game restarted, so I thought I failed to jump on it. Second time I'm seeing a Journal entry (#3, in case there's multiples). The shift in art style made be think I accidently closed the tab and this was a completely different game. Did I win? Did I lose?
7- In the instructions I noticed it said to push ESC to return to the main menu but that doesn't appear to be the case, ESC does nothing in game. It DOES bring the game out of fullscreen mode, so if you did have any functionality I'd suggest using another key anyway (If my game is in browser, I usually like to use "~" to pause/unpause/quit.
Final thoughts: Overall I like it, thought it could use some polish and new mechanics.
Not a Windows user, I'll have to check back if you make a web or Mac build.
Just wanted to say that I do like the concept and the art style.
Reading through the controls it seems like it'd be difficult for me to play anyway, on a laptop with a trackpad. I personally try to make games that CAN use things like right-click, but have alternatives for laptop players.
Can't play because I don't have Windows but I'll have to check it out sometime.
I did attempt a point-and-click adventure once, and maybe I'll try again someday, but mine was nowhere near as good as this one looks. Based on the YouTube video, you got the mechanics down good. The graphics I'm guessing are premade assets?
Gonna type this up as I play:
1- off the bat I just wanted to say that having arrows move and only one interact button is good. A big mistake I see is games getting way too complicated, especially for a jam. My only thoughts are you should have alternative controls, like WASD as well.
2- Jesus, that volcano scared me.
3- Music is charming. A little relaxing considering a volcano is going to explode, but I still like it.
4- It seems there's some problems with detecting when the duck is on/off land?
5- Took me a while to figure out I had to go down, there wasn't really any indication that it was an option, and the down arrow after that is sort of misleading.
6- The volcano going off every time gets a bit tedious, a skip cutscene option would be nice.
7- The text is too small and pixelated to read. It's also a bit tedious to have to wait for NPC dialogue on replays, or if you accidentally talk to them twice.
8- Okay, beat the game. Not sure how jumping in the volcano stopped it. Was I a sacrifice to Pele?
Anyway, cute game. It took a bit of trial and error and guesswork, but it does it's job. An unstable volcano is an interpretation of the theme I hadn't thought of, and haven't seen anyone else do either.
First game I played this jam. Writing as I play:
1- I clicked the "how to play" button and immediately notice that the screen has a lot of unused space and the text is very small in the center. I'm thinking a UI-scaling issue?
2- I happen to be playing this on a laptop with a clickable trackpad. I notice the instructions mention both left-and-right click. Controlling could be difficult, I'd suggests alternative control (ie if I could use use r-click or spacebar)
3- Listening to the tones in the background, they sound good, very relaxing. I might play this while I sleep tonight.
4- Completed level one with no issue. Premise is simple, controls are intuitive (so far). I like it!
5- Started the next level and the music abruptly restarted. Is this a Unity game? I'd suggest having the music okay from a DontDestroyOnLoad singleton, so it'll be persistent between scenes.
6- Level 3, I just realized the meter in the center of the screen is UI and not some sort of platform. Now I see it's purpose
7- I'm realizing the UI at the end of each level has the same issue as the "how to play" screen, could use screen real estate better.
8- Also, clicking anywhere to go to next level would be more intuitive than having to click the specific button.
9- Music turned off while I was writing comments, maybe the track should be looped?
10- Noticed the screen blur as stability decreases. Nice touch!
11- Accidentally found that you can relaunch the ball while it's already moving. Good mechanic that could come into use later, maybe a level that teaches players to do this (assuming there is one but I just haven't seen it yet)
12- It seems the stability fields repel the player while the instability fields pull them in. Another nice touch!
13- I'm failing the same level over and over, and I can't remember what level I'm on. On-screen level counter would be nice
14- Trial-and-error seems to be the way here. Maybe hints after a certain number of failures?
15- Wondering if there could be audio indications of instability in addition to the visual blur?
16 - Stuck on another level, and I think it's because I forgot the r-click stop mechanic until now. In-game instructions and reminders would be good.
17- Just noticed that the instability field rings are moving inward. Since they repel the player, I'd suggest reversing that animation.
18 - Still stuck on the same level as from 16. Now thinking I need to relaunch in midair to get over a wall, but it's very hard with trackpad. I'll probably give up here and try again later when I have a mouse.
19 - Notcing that even when you fail it shows how much stability lost. We already know it's 100+ so probably don't need that there
20 - Thought of another mechanic. Instead of losing the moment your stability runs out, what if there was a delayed reaction? Like, you couldn't launch anymore, but the ball would shake and glow and explode a couple seconds later? If your inertia from you last launch gets you to the finish line, stability returns. That way players could go all out on a last-ditch effort, rather than already knowing they'll lose.
Good job!
Typing as I'm playing:
1- just general feedback on this page, not the actual game, but I think you have maybe a little bit too much here. I think most just want to click and play asap, and here we really need to search for the link.
2- and the itch.io asthetics, the gameplay window is too big. It barely fits on my laptop screen, and would be cut off with a lower resolution. I suggest finding a custom auto-resizing html template so it'll auto-correct of different resolutions.
3- "kill" and "huge"? I guess that was meant to be "hug"?
4- clicked "huge" and saw a stopwatch, I have no idea what happened.
5- went in the second door, moved a couple times, got stuck, saw the stopwatch. Still no idea what happened.
6- Went in the third room. Clicked two pink objects (the lower one didn't change the cursor so I wasn't even sure it was clickable. Could not click the third pink object in the drawer
7- As I was typing the last note, I heard the stopwatch again. I still have no idea what that means or what causes it to happen. Now I'm seeing a character in a straight jacket. I see no way out of this, so I just closed the tab.
Final notes: Some of the art is exceptionally well done, especially for a jam game, but I don't think much else had as much love. I can't make sense of the narrative, the gameplay, or the mechanics.
Writing notes as I'm Playing:
1- Tutorial text is very small, lots of waste screen space. Some graphics would help.
2- Started the game. I think an in-game tutorial would have been more intuitive.
3- For the most part, bad sound is better than no sound. Even using sfxr to generate some beeps is worthwhile.
4- Challenge is brutal and mistakes are unforgiving, game over screen is abrupt and has same issues as tutorial.
5- I have almost no idea what the collectables are doing. I started off grabbing everything, but I think I was suppose to grab blues and avoid reds? Some instruction or audio/video feedback would be helpful
6- I got pretty far using only up/down. I only needed to tilt after my ball got pushed back a bit, and only had to move left/right to correct for that. A more subtle tilt and auto-return to flat would make controls a bit more intuitive.
7- I got a bit better at correcting my mistakes but the difficulty curve still seems a bit high, especially for a jam game. My ball rolled off the edge of the screen and there was nothing I could do.
Was this for Jam or Compo? If Jam, you still have four or so hours, I'd make some minor control tweaks and add a few sound effects.
EDIT: Sound issue was on my end with bluetooth, I tried again. Music is good, I think you still could use sound with the item pickups.
Looks very interesting. Any chance for a web build so us non-Windows people can check it out?
I like the concept for the game - WASD to move, mouse to aim/shoot. Every jam game should be simple and intuitive like this. - Game flow being interrupted by pop-up text isn't great, especially in jam games that everyone wants to experience quickly. - The physics pulling me into the dark in the knife room happened without warning so I thought the player movement was glitched. Visual feedback on these unique effects would be helpful - There wasn't much guidance on where to go, and a lack of visual landmarks makes it hard as well - The clock, while clever, is a bit distracting. Having most of the play area obscured is a bit odd. I think having the whole screen visible with the clock (or just a timer) in the corner would be easier on the eyes.
Nice to include the source, maybe I can port to Mac and Linux later.
- I like it, definitely as addictive as the original. - Could use a bit more player bias. Not having lines to clear is already a penalty, so having another one just cascades the stress - move visual/audio feedback of the penalty would also be helpful. Trying to play games to test intuitive design without reading all the instructions, the penalties seem more like glitches. It should be clear that what's happening is intentional, and it should be clear WHY it's happening. - I guess you need to refresh to restart?
My impressions on seeing the screenshots and reading the description (before I noticed there was a web build): - WASD, spacebar, and mouse: good simple controls. Lots of games here require a wall of text to explain their mechanics, it's better that you kept yours simple. - Bright characters and obstacles on a flat black background is actually very appealing. It reminds me of classic arcade games. - ... but it looks like the main character deviates from that? I think the player should also be monochromatic, or maybe with two solid colors, but should at least have a design sytle consistent with the rest of the game
Impressions from playing the game: - Well, it said "Write your name", and didn't allow me to. I had to restart. - The left-stick broom attack is a bit weird. It took me a moment to notice that it goes the direction of the mouse. having your attack change direction because you ran past your cursor (which happens a lot in a game requiring you to run quickly around the whole screen) isn't very intuitive. - Seems the attack isn't even really needed because you can just touch the ghosts? I abandoned it entirely on my third play. - Never got a chance to use the right-click attack, I'm not even sure it's real. - The randomly spawning ghosts makes it seem more like luck than skill. Sometimes they spawn in a place that makes it literally impossible to win, A few times I had the wrong ghost spawn directly in my path as I was falling and there was nothing I could do about it. - A little more player bias would make it fun. I say you should grid-arrange spawn-points on the level, never spawn an ghost close to the player, unless it's the next ghost they need, and increase the chances as the time is lower - The controls are actually a bit too loose. Immediate acceleration/deceleration (like you see in classic MegaMan) would be much better suited for a game that requires such speedy precision. - Some of the mechanics seemed accidental, like the wall-climbing. I was also able to ceiling-climb.
I'm clicking the web player and all I see is a dark screen with a blinking face. Even scrolling around it looks like it's just a huge face and I can't progress any further.
- Couldn't get the pill so first think I tried was jumping up the wall, wound up walking right off the edge of the world. looks like it's a trick you can cheese a good portion of the game with. - I get that the sneeze plays into the theme of the game, but losing control constantly is a bit annoying. Maybe if he sneezed while moving, it wouldn't distract from the game so much. - The character is well made, but it's a green character on green grass so he doesn't stand out much. If he were red or purple, the colors would complement each other much better. - The cloud level doesn't have much of a sense of scale or movement. More scenery would help.
Your Mac build is broken. I have a way to fix it, as well as an explanation of what caused it: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/$304157/an-important-notice-for-mac-players-repost-for-51
About the game itself, I actually didn't get very far. I first noticed that the mouse sensitivity was way low and without a way to adjust it, it's pretty difficult to aim. After that, I think I only had enough ammo to kill 2-3 enemies, then couldn't find a way to get more.
I think I got more of a hang of it the second time. - Arrow/WASD controls are vert intuitive, just curious why instructions only mention arrows? - X and C are a bit less intuitive, but at least there's only two actions. - It might help to make the game more self-explanatory or with in-game instructions? "Press X to fix" popping up over items is better than having to read about it before playing - I have no idea if I used the salt correctly, I was leaving it at the door but it didn't seem to influence anything. Again, a pop-up explaining where/when/how to use it would be helpful. - Randomly occurring events are great, but it gives different players unpredictable first-time (or ONLY-time) experiences. I suggest having the first few events scripted so that jammers can experience and learn the game as quickly as possible, and have the random ones occur later for those who already got the hang of it.
First off, I noticed the Mac version of this game has a common issue that prevents it from opening, and I have the solution : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/$304157/an-important-notice-for-mac-players-repost-for-51
The second thing I want to mention, it appears you checked the "other aspect ratios" options in your player settings, without actually modifying your UI to support other resolutions. You should probably uncheck it and just support the standard ones (ie 16:9). The UI cuts off on my ultra-wide, and I have a feeling I'm missing some important information.
I tried playing the game, but I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I could run around, there was a lot of sliding, I could fall on banana peals... and that's it. I saw GUI elements over some food and tried pushing space bar next to them, but nothing happened. Again, I'm thinking some stuff was cut off because of the aspect ratio issues, so I might have to revist your game when I'm on another monitor.
Mac version seems to run fine. Graphics and music are great, but the game is overly complicated for a jam. Jammers typically spend a couple minutes on each game so that they can play and rate as many as possible. The best jam games are ones that require little to no tutorial. My personal mindset is to develop it like an old coin-op arcade game: super-easy to learn, super-quick to the action.
- Music is very catchy - Graphics are really good - Concept is nice and very well implemented.
- The screen zoom was very annoying, the challenge in getting the ingredients was already there, but the zoom makes everything move at crucial times - The multiple ingredient selections seemed less challenging and more tedious. I think by default, each other should have you grab one of the selected ingredients, simulating the normal amount that would be on a real order. At later stages of the game maybe you could mix it up by having a customer want "extra" so you have to grab two of a single ingredient. - skip 's' to skip, why not any key, or click-to-skip? the rest of the game uses mouse controls so no reason to deviate for a cutscene
- keyboard controls actually might've improved this game. imagine if the 9 ingredients were placed in a 3x3 grid so that the game could be played entirely on the numpad? 1-9 places an ingredient on the sandwich, 0 starts over if you mess up, enter/return gives the customer their sandwich. just another way to make the game simpler but more fast-paced, as is probably more comfortable to play. - more visual and audio cues would be helpful. maybe a screen tint when you're about to lose, or sped-up music? - maybe chatter from the customers. voice samples of them actually placing their order in addition to having the visual "current order". or at very least, grumbling as they get more and more angry, sounds of gratitude when they get their order fast. - Just looking at your screenshot I was wondering if it'd look better with a grayscale background, only having the UI be in color?
- Loved the simple WASD controls, every jam game should be just as simple to start playing - I'd say go a step further and remove mouse controls from the start and game over screens. just "press any key to start/restart" would work fine. - The circle of darkness seems unnecessary, why have half your view area obscured at all times? Maybe have a semi-transparent area outside the circle so you can at least see SOMETHING there. some camera-post processing affects might work better than a simple circle. - Random placement made the game seem more luck that skill based. I'd suggest invisible GameObjects that can act as spawn points for collectables and items. You could have more of a "smart" selection, like start out every game with the demons far on one side of the play area and the first item close in the opposite direction - Music is good but a bit loud, and having it play through a persistent GameObject would allow it to transition from scene to scene uninterrupted.
Maybe a bit easy. Beat it on the first try, although I did have some close calls. Still, a jam game that's too easy is better than one that's too hard. I didn't see what the purpose of the jump mechanic was. This is actually the first time I've seen a game embedded in the actual LD page before, I think I might have to do this going forward.
- First off, thanks for a Mac version. Just a note that it includes a folder called "FifteenRooms (MacOS)_BurstDebugInformation_DoNotShip", I assume you didn't mean to include that. - The description says to not skip the dialogue. But unless I missed something, there wasn't any dialogue? Oh well, jam games shouldn't need stories anyway, best for a quick playthrough. - Speaking of which, it took me almost five minutes to beat this, which is pretty long for an LD game. At first I wasn't sure I'd actually finish it. - One big thing this game is missing is visual feedback. The games seemed to shuffle around at random. Actually animating them sliding into place would let players know to anticipate what they see on the edge of their screen. - Another visual feedback thing, there wasn't much indication of what was/wasn't intractable. Highlights would be good. - The "interact" animation did nothing for the first half of the game, and always played when I pressed "E" for the second half. Having the animation play whenever theres something to interact with, and only if there is, would also be better for visual feedback. - More detail to the animations would be nice - Having to stand in an EXACT spot to interact was a bit tiresome. If the player is within a certain range, it'd make sense to have them automatically move to what they're trying to interact with - Having to use WASD on the menu but using ENTER to select was a bit weird. E should select as well to make it consistent with the rest of the game. Mouse should be usable here as well - Alternate control suggestion: Your character only moves left and right, so what if you made it so clicking on anything intractable will have them do that. Holding on the left/right side of the screen would have them walk that direction. This would make your game mobile-ready. You could keep the same keyboard controls too - On sound design, I liked the ambient sound. It make be feel uncomfortable, but in a way that was good because it fit the mood of the game - The character muttering was a bit distracting. I couldn't tell what was causing it, if I was causing it, if it was a good or bad thing, or even if it was the character making the noise or some off-screen NPC. - The door opening was a bit too subtle. I actually thought it was a sound from a different window on my computer. Also, a lot of people play without sound, so you should probably have an immediate visual cue to go along with the audio one. - On design choices, I think the UI was a bit messed up on my screen because I'm on an ultra-wide. I think you can avoid this by not checking "other resolutions" in your player settings. If you're not going to tweak your visuals for anything other than 16:9/16:10/whatever, you shouldn't check anything but those. - I suggest researching color theory. Purple and grey doesn't look horrible, but complementary colors might make it more appealing. Yellow complements purple very well, so maybe having the backgrounds that instead of grey would help. Or, split-complementary, keep the player and key items purple, and have the backgrounds be a combination of orange and lime. One color for intractable things, one for scenery, maybe?
I'd mentioned in my comment above that I didn't see any dialogue. I also mentioned that the options were for non-standard aspect ratios, but the UI wasn't designed for it, so my ultra-wide looked wonky. After seeing the screenshot from @bougiebirdie I think they're related. The dialogue was there, but the UI was scaled in such a way that it wouldn't appear on my screen. If you rebuild the game and uncheck the 'other resolutions' option, I think it'd qualify as a bug fix and not be against rules.
Thank you all for your kind words. Really, you're too generous. I'll be sure to check out everyone elses's games later.
@wouter52 My other games were made in Unity, which I was pretty proficient in. My last few attempts have been with Godot (this being the first that I "finished") and being a Daddy now means I don't have as much time in-between jams to learn and practice.
I'm hoping to remake all my old games within the next few months so that for LD57 I'll hit the ground running instead of learning as I go.
looks neat. i'll check it out sometime after mine is done.
Getting the error: Failed to read the 'serviceWorker' property from 'Navigator': Service worker is disabled because the context is sandboxed and lacks the 'allow-same-origin' flag.
Did you build this in 4.2 or earlier by any chance? I think they fixed web errors in 4.3
The art is amazing, at least as still images. But in a game, everything is a bit cluttered, it's very difficult to tell what's in on the players level, or the background. What's dangerous, and whats decoration. More defined outlines would help, and blurred and/or lighter color backgrounds. Collission detection wasn't great, but it's a jam game. Turned out better than mine did.
I love seeing games for older hardware, though I don't have the time to learn the skills myself.