Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Skruffye
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Akashica | jam | 410 | 3.74 | 3.40 | 3.53 | 3.72 | 2.78 | 3.62 | 2.50 | 4.25 | ||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | 👥 | Critter | jam | 187 | 3.70 | 3.20 | 3.75 | 3.79 | 4.37 | 4.08 | 4.08 | ||
| 2016 | 37 | One room | Other | jam | 439 | 3.33 | 2.96 | 2.52 | 2.56 | 3.27 | 3.50 | 2.48 | 3.50 | 59 | |
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | Sparrow & Flitt | jam | 460 | 3.32 | 3.02 | 3.55 | 3.12 | 3.77 | 3.16 | 3.49 | 77 | ||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | S.I.L. | jam | 205 | 3.67 | 3.29 | 4.32 | 3.80 | 3.46 | 2.55 | 3.96 | 53 |
Although I found the game near-impossible because of how quickly the sun would eat you and other planets, I have to compliment the simplistic yet effective artistic choices and consistent theme.
Despite how bad I am at it, the game was fun and interesting. :)
If you're unsure, you can always add another link called "Windows Post-Compo Update" or something.
Pretty sure that, so long as you aren't misleading people into believing that the new version was the version submitted during the compo, you should be fine.
That said, a lot of people do bug fixes and reupload under the original link. The rules allow for bug fixes, but I suppose that just depends on what you can reasonably consider a bug. :)
Hope that helps!
I liked it! The music's a bit psychedelic, but it definitely fits in with the mood of the game, so no arguments here. :P
The graphics were pleasant and complimented the core mechanic well.
Both the themes were well integrated, properly built into the design and functioned well in unison. Good job! ^^
Interesting. A nice little city builder.
My main issue with the game would be that, rather than the game having been designed to take advantage of the theme (two buttons), the theme seems to significantly hinder the enjoyment factor of the game, slowing down gameplay and making even basic actions rather tedious.
Of course, it fits the other theme perfectly, which I think is even more reason to ditch the two-button theme seeing as how it detracts from the core experience of your game. :)
A competent shoot 'em up that was challenging but not unplayably so.
Could have done with some basic sound effects and visual effects for polish, but the core game was pretty solid. Good job. :)
Interesting game. The first level seems very buggy. Well, unless baby dragons can teleport through walls, in which case, never mind. :P Overall, it was surprisingly fun, good job.
Went for the "long gun shoots through boxes approach". It didn't work out. :P Very interesting idea, slick animation. The realisation of the core mechanic could have been more central to the level design, but overall, a good game. :)
It took me a little while to understand what was happening, but once I did, I found the game quite interesting and enjoyable.
The graphics are nice and simplistic with little dynamic elements like the eyes and the feelers perfectly worked in to great effect.
If the game were slightly more complex and allowed you to care for one cyclop for longer with more features, I probably would have ended up spending quite a long time playing with the cyclopi and growing unduly attached to one of the adorable little bastards! X)
As it stands currently--thank you for the experience! :)
The sound was quite nice, but I wasn't particularly keen on the camera or the lack of instruction.
There were a couple of bugs, but for a compo game it was very well made.
I think that my major complaint would be that it is repetitive and not particularly fun, but then again, "fun" is a pretty hard abstract concept to nail down in 72 hours so, overall, good job. :)
Simple, but surprisingly challenging. Whilst I did have a quick chuckle at the playfully self aware ending message, I feel that all the game (simple as it was) needed, in my mind, to complete it was a goal, scoreboard or any form of assessing your skill at the end.
In summary though, a simple game, but simple is not automatically a dirty word. :)
Ooh, heavily reminds me of the combat systems in the Paper Mario and M&L series (which I loved)!
All the art and animation was very smooth and the game was getting quite challenging by the end.
Unfortunately, I can't see the game being very expandable, but as it stands, it was a fun five minutes. :)
Also, interesting use of emoticons to convey the protagonists' feelings instead of words.
Overall, good job! :D
Broke everything and blew 10 grand on the first chump to stroll through the door. 10/10 would YES again.
Challenging and fun.
The game is a nice departure from "eat things smaller than yourself" games. The animation was good, the art was nice and overall the game was fun. Good job! :)
I like the idea and I can see what you were going for, but I did find that the controls were too responsive for my liking. (The drone instantly halts its rotation when you fire a different thruster.)
That said, the game was fun and the concept was a good one. With a little touching up on some of the controls, the graphics (the engine trails weren't centred properly) and the sound (oh God the headache!), I reckon that you've got a pretty good game in there. :)
Really nice core concept, however the lack of graphical variation between the modules hampers the immersion. Would be nice to get a rating as to how well the player had performed, simply being told your net profit isn't really a great indicator of performance.
One notable thing I liked was that the controls were well thought out and performed nicely.
In short: I absolutely love this game.
The music is lovely, the animation transitions are perfect and the choice of colour palette is perfect but honestly, the central, poignant metaphor of the game is what sells it to me.
In under a minute, the game touches on themes of growth, hardship, hope, impossibility, significance and insignificance.
There is a definite complexity to this simple game that, personally, I cannot praise highly enough. Kudos, and please, keep making games. :)
For a man who can't jump, Steve spends an unusually large portion of his time airborne. The level design was good, if frustrating (largely due to Steve getting his head caught on a passing stalactite as he whistled through the air) but I liked the core idea. Keep it up. :)
Firstly, I'd just like to say that it's awesome that you guys/gals are entering into Ludum Dare while still in high school. :)
As for the game, I had to resize the window to get it to work properly, but once I did, I encountered few if any bugs.
The art was very impressive. Although they definitely could have done with more animation, the character designs of both Subject 62 and 54 were very well realised.
Finally, the music was very nice and fit well with the theme of the game.
Keep making games guys. ^^v
I liked the idea behind the game, but the way in which the birds spawn more often than not left me with no possible way of proceeding, which was frustrating.
That said, the music was nice and relaxing and, had the birds been a bit friendlier, the core game was itself pleasantly calm. :)
I like the idea of a Tinder-like dating app for two-button controls--it's pretty creative! :D
Other than that, I found the overall artistic style to be lacking and there was little challenge in the game.
Perhaps with all of its own assets (art and sound) to compliment the humour, this game would really come into its own. :)
An interesting little not-game with some very nice audio work and a good atmosphere. Certainly felt like there could have been more substance, but the core idea and execution were both sound. :)
Not sure I understood the logic behind who was guilty and who wasn't. Some folk seemed to be considered guilty just because they were acting defensively.
Apart from that, the actual concept was fantastic and the art was very nice. Although it might just have been me missing the point, I would be interested to see it further developed with a clearer direction in the guilty/not guilty system. :)
Same problem as candlesan. Game copies itself until it crashes the system (in my case it bluescreened).
Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium edition on an Intel i7-3740QM processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX.
I'll come back to this game in a few days to give you time to fix the problem. :)
Very nice game concept although the bugginess did quite severely detract from the experience.
I especially liked the animation on Dr. Madman. :3
I'm sure ironing out the bugs (getting stuck on terrain and invisible barriers) wouldn't take too long post-jam and I would definitely like to play a post-LD version of this in the future! ^^v
For such a short game, I enjoyed this a lot. Don't know why there were fish in space, I mean, I tried to justify the ones in the sky as "flying fish" but I struggled for an excuse once I left the atmosphere. :P
The animation was very nice and the controls felt good. As others have mentioned, the game could perhaps have benefited from longer, or even infinite/randomly generated gameplay.
That aside though, good job! ^^
The dynamic use of colour was very appealing and I like the background reason that you gave for the link between the colour and the music.
The fighting felt quite satisfying and worked well with the music.
My only real criticism is that the combat became bland after a little while and there wasn't much of a challenge.
Otherwise, good job, :)
Very cool! Took me a few moments to figure out what was going on, but after that the game was a fun experience.
The art and visual effects were highly appealing, as was the animation and the screen shake.
I enjoyed the music although it was perhaps not entirely in keeping with the rest of the game.
Other than that one minor niggle, very good job! ^^v
Had difficulty getting up the wall jump section without losing a lot of health. Found it a little odd that all the story was posted in the description rather than in the game itself.
Everything seems to work though, good job. :)
Interesting concept, I wasn't able to play more than one level though, because I fell out of the world every time I entered level 2 (HTML5 build).
I'm guessing that later you get to place sand as well as pick it up. Nice take on the theme, could have done with some ambient sound though.
Good job. :)
Interesting. The main selling point was obviously the humour, so I found it a little odd that you stopped talking for a large chunk of the game! The animation was also notably well done.
The platforming was difficult, and not because it was challenging, more because the controls were overly floaty.
Anyway, it made me chuckle, so thank you! ^^ Good job overall. :)
Reminds me of one of the later levels in Jak3 and an old flash game where you were a missile flying down a tube with obstacles.
Pretty fun, though the graphics need a little bit of work to make it really shine. Sometimes the camera clipped through the track or got hit by an obstacle.
Overall, fun game though. :)
Okay, so I liked this a lot! The game was adorable. The art could have done with a little more polish, but the animation was very nice and it all fit together well, so well done there!
The music is legitimately stuck in my head, so I suppose well done..? XD
Also, perhaps it's just me, but the game is very, very difficult! (And I've been playing Dark Souls all week.) Perhaps spacing objects out a little more in the first couple of levels would have made the game a little more approachable. (I couldn't get past the bunny level, although I really wanted to see the rest!)
Additionally, I noticed that if you pressed a button before the character had quite landed, nothing would happen and often this would be a frustrating cause of death. Personally, I would make it so that the character performs the action if the button is held down, not if it is pressed as that would alleviate almost all of the player frustration coming from the controls.
Overall though, I genuinely enjoyed it, so good job! :D
So, I didn't get the chance to play this with a partner, so keep that in mind. :P
The core principle of the game was very simple yet allowed for a broad range of gameplay and tactics which is really exactly what you want from this kind of game, so well done!
The art, animation and overall visual style very pleasantly complimented the game's feel (of course, the game could have easily just been represented by bland and static pieces) so good job on taking the time to do that.
I definitely feel that the game could have done with either a very gentle and calm musical soundtrack or possibly a tranquil ambient soundtrack to match the area that you are playing in (perhaps future versions could have different styles of arena to add even more spice to the game?) but that didn't detract massively from the overall gameplay, it just made the game feel a little more boring than it should be.
There were a few technical issues, one where the turn wouldn't progress automatically once I'd exhausted all of my moves and another where the turn progressed automatically before I'd had a chance to summon a new piece!
There was also an issue with the water and fire sprites whereby they would permanently leave a particle effect on the board where they had destroyed each other.
Overall though, a real testament to how (well designed) simple games can often be some of the best; well done!
Really enjoyed this, amazing effort for a Ludum Dare game! Unfortunately the ridiculously high sensitivity made the game very difficult to play for any length of time.
The core concept and the art/animation/sound/gameplay are all there and are fantastic, but a little extra time spent on the interface would really make this game shine.
(Couldn't help but feel that the mechanics would be amazing in an open world adventure game, but that would obviously take way more than two-three days! ^^)
Yeah, so this was a pretty grim concept! XS Good game though; felt compelled to finish it despite the dark theme. :P
Fantastic take on the theme. My brain is too asleep to properly solve these puzzles, but the innovation of concept and quality of execution are plain to see.
Good job! :)
Good game, love the concept, really not keen on the timer though. Felt satisfying getting to the end of one of the puzzles and then extremely frustrating to run out of time as I was placing the last cat.
Overall, good job.
Okay, so I suck at this game, but that's fine. XD
The audio quality was fantastic. The footstep noises were as crisp as if I was making them with my own boots, so really good job on that front.
I felt like the directional audio didn't really work for me, but I'm willing to believe that that is probably more down to my ability than the game's quality. Even so, it might be worth making the directional sound more apparent for players like myself (or slowly increasing the sound's directionality over time (to a maximum, of course) to help players that are struggling with the level).
The concept is fantastic and really reminded me of a much more interesting version of Lost Woods from LoZ: Ocarina of Time.
Not entirely sure what this has to do with the theme, but apart from that, really great entry!
Very funny. The final voice line made me laugh. Graphics could do with a bit of work, especially the animation, but overall, I really liked it. Good job! :D
So, my brain exploded... But otherwise, fun little game. Felt like it was almost a rhythm game but it doesn't seem to quite line up with the music. Maybe that's just me.
Anyway, good job! :)
Okay, so I'm straight up terrible at this, but it's a really cool puzzle game!
Good job on this! :)
Nice little interactive narrative. Shame there isn't a category for narrative, or I'd have rated you highly in that.
Not much gameplay, but it was a nice, uplifting take on the theme.
Good job! ^^
Great mood and a nice take on the theme. The animation and music were especially good, though I did find the game to be a little buggy at times: sometimes bullets don't seem to connect and you can run off the screen. Also, shapeshifters seem to disappear when they run off the screen during bullet time, so shots fired to intercept them off of the screen don't register.
Overall, good job, just needs a little extra polish on the mechanics. :)
(Also, trying to keep track of more than two shapeshifters at once melted my feeble little mind. :3 )
Really fun game, the idea was great and the gameplay was smooth.
My main complaint was that when you changed dimensions, you almost invariably hit something in the other dimension as soon as you appeared. Maybe have a faint overlay of the other dimension or something?
Overall, great job! :D
The art was nice and the quotes were somewhat chilling, but I did have a couple of issues with the gameplay. It was odd that I couldn't change between ball and cat form without shifting through death form first and there seemed to be very little leeway between someone appearing on screen and me colliding with them, leading to a few borderline unavoidable mis-kills.
I did really like the concept though, even if the quotes did make me a little sad! Good job! :)
(Oh, I left a response to your comment on my page. I think it might just have been a case of slipping on one of the notes, the system is unfortunately unforgiving! If you have some spare time, please give it another shot! ^^)
Interesting idea. Have to admit, initially I thought that the main character was a psychopath adopting different façades to lure victims in.
Still, cool take on the theme--good job. :)
Decent puzzle mechanics, I like the concept. Art could have done with some polish, and I encountered a game-breaking bug where I was transformed back by the mist onto a water tile, slid back and was unable to progress because I had no more potions.
Good fun and a cool concept. Unfortunately the (seemingly) linear decrease in level times meant that the game kinda started playing itself (switching faster than I could move the character) after about twenty seconds until I died.
Possibly split up groups of levels into finite stages that do the same, but are beatable with enough skill. :)
Great core concept though, good job!
Graphics were nice, not sure why you had to pick up ammo with LB rather than picking it up automatically. Threw me off since I missed it in the instructions.
Otherwise, kinda fun. Music was pleasant.
Good job for a first LD game. Keep it up! :)
Absolutely fantastic game. The story was touching and uncomfortable (in a good way). Not sure if I'm missing something, but nothing happened after I got 33/33 score.
I'd recommend to anyone playing this that they don't try to rush it and just take their time to explore.
Amazing job, please keep making games! :)
Made me laugh. :) The shapeshifting link was a little tenuous, but the game was fun. Good job!
Great entry for a first! Everything seemed well thought out as well, apart from the timer. Personally I couldn't get to the leaf in the allotted time, but the core concept was solid.
Perhaps more levels and no timer would be less frustrating, but obviously LD time constraints!
Well done! ^^
So, overall, I liked the idea and the execution in general. The graphics were nice and clean, the audio was good (though some of it didn't seem to quite fit with the game's mood, but that might just be me) and the gameplay was fun.
My main criticism would be that some of the powers didn't seem very balanced. It would have been nice to have had something that, for instance, almost killed all the teens in a small area, but took a while to recharge. Honestly, you might have had that kind of thing in the game in later levels, but I didn't find it!
Overall, good job, I had fun! :D
Been meaning to review this one for a while now, but only just found the time.
Firstly, I love the art and the gameplay concept. The drawing element really reminded me of WarioWare: Touched on the DS (perhaps a platform this kind of game is best suited to) but I did have a lot of trouble getting the shapes right with my mouse. (The margin for error seemed somewhat slim considering that your opponent draws pixel perfect shapes!)
I do have a graphics tablet, so I'll probably take another shot at this later with that, but since that isn't exactly commonplace hardware outside of this particular audience (ie. other developers and artists), I'd probably say that making the game a touch easier to play with a mouse would be a good idea.
Overall though, I enjoyed it. Good job! :)
Initially frustrating because I couldn't get used to which key represented which shape, but after a little while I started to get into it.
Nice and simple, and fun to play. Good job! ^^
I like it! Funny concept and a nice take on the theme. The graphics were very smooth and, after I worked out what I was supposed to be doing, the gameplay was quite fun too!
(Oh, also, I left a reply to your comment on my page. I don't think running the game through WINE should have caused any problems, but you never know! (Also, sorry for missing an "i" out of your name in my reply! ><))
You only need to whistle the bird's song once, then you unlock the new shape for Flitt (shows up beneath the bird once you whistle its song). :)
@chriis88 @Chikoness
Hey guys, thanks for playing! I don't know of any bugs with the phoenix song and I just checked again to make sure that it works. Did you remember to press <Space>, sing -only- the phoenix song and then release <Space>? If you get it right, the phoenix should do a small animation and a new (short) song should appear.
Not sure what else to suggest, but please take another shot at it if you find yourselves with some free time!
-Skruffye
@chriiis88
Really sorry to hear that. >< Must be something to do with WINE, and I can't really do bug fixes for a platform I have no access to!
I hope you enjoyed what little you got to play, and thanks a lot for persevering, even though it ended up not working!
-Skruffye
Well, I took the title as a challenge, and that was probably a mistake. :P Ended up with so many shapes on screen that the game was lagging something awful. X) Didn't even get a score at the end!
No idea what it's got to do with the theme, but an interesting challenge in prioritisation and I enjoyed it. :)
Really well done. Everything came together to give this game a super peaceful feel. Loved the sheer abstract nature of the game (and by extension the take on the theme) and I thought the way that it handled tutorialisation was particularly well done.
Being able to shapeshift the menu introduced the main mechanic before the game had even started.
Really good job! :)
Art is pretty nice, and things seem to run smoothly, but I had basically no idea what I was doing. Apart from the instructions (which didn't seem to help), there wasn't any tutorialisation in the game. I ended up stuck in a form that couldn't do anything and then I died, getting the same error as WeaverDeveloper.
Overall, interesting little game, would just like to have a better idea of what I'm supposed to do!
Really cool game with an awesome take on the theme! Thoroughly enjoyed playing. :)
Nice game. Rather trippy, but good fun. :)
Kinda fun, though I'm not too sure how it fits into the theme. It's pretty hard, and there's nothing wrong with that, but a checkpoint after the first boss wouldn't have gone amiss!
Good job. :)
Fantastic bit of satire and a competent game. Absolutely loved it!
Music was a touch repetitive, and the art wasn't brilliant, but those obviously weren't the main focus of the game, so really well done! ^^
This was really fun. ^^ Reminded me of WarioWare and Scribblenauts. Good job!
Cool idea, although I found it difficult to shapeshift without drawing attention to myself. The animation on the characters was interesting--they looked like pencil drawings that had been scanned in.
Also, I felt a bit like the best strategy to kill the police was to wait for them to line up (because you can only shoot left and right) but overall, especially considering the time constraint, it was a good game! :D
Lovely game, a bit slow at the beginning though. I know that was intentional, but I was quite close to quitting before the dog showed up. Mood was really pleasant and bitter-sweet.
Good job. :)
Fun game, though very frustrating! Mechanics were interesting and it felt like an achievement when you completed sections of the levels.
Could definitely have done with some music, and perhaps a little more attention to the graphics.
Good job though! :)
Nice game, quite original.
The music was perfect, but it didn't loop very well and that was quite jarring.
Overall, good job! :)
Really cool game. :) One of the few I've been compelled to play a few times for fun rather than just for rating. Really good job!
Entertaining little game. Could maybe do with the ability to hit more than one enemy with each swipe. As it stands currently, it's quite difficult to survive.
Good job though! :)
Cool take on the theme. Took me a few moments to work out what was happening (thought it was bugging out!) but after I understood, it was good fun.
My biggest criticism would be that a game like this -needs- a score at the end! I wanted to know how well I had done, but I was met only with a game over screen!
Fantastic job on your first LD--keep it up!
Cool game! The mechanics are really fun, though it took me a little while to work out that you roll in the direction of the cursor.
Pretty hard as well, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. :D
Great arcade-style game--lots of fun to play. The music was really good, but almost felt more suited to an adventure game. XD
Plays really well (though you can fly over the top of the UI elements) and is pretty damn addictive. Great job!
Really cool little game! Poor Pluto, he's still at the end of my list of planets--couldn't forget him if I wanted to! XD
Everything was really good (though Donald Trump invading almost every form of media at the moment is getting a little bit annoying) and my only criticism is that, after you get bigger than the guiding circle around Pluto (the one that shows up when you click and the game pauses), it can throw you off that the game pauses and the circle is hidden. Perhaps make it grow along with Pluto?
Overall, great job! :)
Nice game, though I did find the inverse kinematics to be a bit frustrating at times. Seemed a little arbitrary as to what direction his limbs would move in.
Overall, good job though!
Lovely animation on the slime(s), and a good choice of different forms.
I got to a room with a bunch of other slimes in, and I'm guessing that that was the ending?
Could have done with being longer, nice game though! :)
Graphics are nice, but the penguin can fly and the kiwi can barely walk. Very difficult to play as intended. Could have done with some music or sound effects, but the control issues are more of a problem.
Congrats on your first LD game though guys, keep it up!
Yeah, I really liked this. The graphics weren't brilliant (although I thought the protagonist was somewhat adorable), there wasn't any music and some of the hitboxes were a bit janky (died way too many times in the bullet hell stage), but the game as a whole was a pretty nice idea.
Although it definitely could have done with some refinement, I quite liked the idea of having multiple stages that all teach you bits of how to handle the final stage. Of course, it might have been more interesting to change it up a little in the final stage so you have to think how to apply the skills you've learned, but for an LD game, I think it works.
Also, whilst the final level was a nice idea, some of the levels on their own are enough to deal with without having to think about anything else, so it got extremely hectic towards the end.
But at the end of the day, it was fun, so: good job! :D
Nice concept. A little rough on some of the artwork but nothing jarring by any means. (For example, the background image on the first non-start screen ends lower than you can see if you jump.)
Music was nice and relaxing--fit well with the game as a whole.
The gameplay itself didn't seem especially deep considering you could get enough energy cells to complete the game in just one season..? (Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe that's the whole point, given the name of the game. :P )
Was a little annoying to have to return to the first screen to change seasons, but I can see why you did it.
Nice game! :)
Wow, this was absolutely brilliant. I really can't find much to criticise here at all other than its length. (not because I expect anyone to be able to do more over an LD, but because I just wanted to play for longer!)
The atmosphere was excellent, the concept was twisted and tantalising, the graphics works superbly with the concept and the music was almost surprisingly on point.
Even the parts where I got stuck were fantastic, because I was able to find my way out of them by just thinking carefully for a short time and didn't have to decrypt some contrived game dev logic to proceed.
Really well done guys--so far this is one of my favourite picks from LD37. Please don't stop making games! ^^v
Nice little game. Not really my cup of tea, but the gameplay was pretty solid (if a touch repetitive) and the art, music and general design all fit together very well.
Good job. :)
Pretty brilliant entry in my opinion! Shame the PC login was so temperamental, but other than that (and a choice few other bugs--randomly deciding to moonwalk was my favourite) it was a great game.
It would also be nice to have the text only advance when you click. The speed was too high to truly appreciate what was being said. The humour and mood were excellent.
Reminds me of my job actually... X(
Great game, keep it up! :D
Cool idea with a nice black on grey colour scheme. The platforming controlled nicely, but the climbing was very buggy, depending on where you approached the scratches from.
Additionally, not being able to tell which platforms you can interact with until you bump into them makes for a rather frustrating experience.
I also think this could have definitely benefited from a suitable soundtrack, but you probably didn't have the time.
Good job though--keep making games. :)
I honestly never thought that watching balding, middle aged men aggressively going to the toilet could be so entertaining.
Pretty great game, minus some of the bugs (the cubicle of doom ate most of my customers and I spent way too much time plunging the floor into submission) and I thought that the score went down a bit too quickly each time a toilet needed plunging.
Not sure if there's an end goal, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing this--great job! :)
Yeah, really nice! I really liked the concept and the art style. The music works well with the game and it was pretty fun. :)
My sole issue with the game would probably be that, on the Xbox controller, the right stick turns you in the direction that you point it. Given the genre of the game, I was expecting it to rotate you when you tilt it left or right, so I found that to be a bit of a strange design choice, especially when the Titan can't turn instantaneously.
Other than that, good job! :)
Ooh, someone else who used RPGMaker this LD! :D
Really liked the visual representation of "holes" in one's memory as holes in the world. In fact, the representation of memory as a whole, with certain things being more prominent and peoples' appearances missing, was very well done!
Great job! :)
Nice mood and atmosphere.
Found the walking animation to be particularly janky and there was also the occasional visual artefact at the bottom of the ghost's sprite. The idle animation was nice and smooth though. The world was nicely drawn and well stylised, but bad animations can really detract from the player's ability to appreciate the art, in my opinion.
I personally didn't find the gameplay to be particularly interesting and I'm afraid that I ended up getting stuck in a hole alongside a transparent person. However, judging by the other reviews that you've received, I'd say that perhaps this sort of game just doesn't appeal to me personally.
Well done, and keep making games. :)
An interesting title, a good example of a programming/turtle game. Enjoyed the humour especially.
First off, very nice modelling and a cool little experience overall.
There were a couple of bugs: the text on the monitor was visible through walls and the menu seemed broken. Other than that, I felt Ron's eyes could have been animated to make him more expressive but it's an LD game, so I'm sure you wouldn't have had the time! He was rather adorable regardless.
Good job and Merry Christmas! :)
Wonderful game, truly! I was always pretty awful at sight-reading, so I fumbled a few times on the water level, but the gameplay and the music worked really well together. Initially, the art wasn't really my thing, but as the scene changed, it really added to the game from the background and started to grow on me.
The first two levels were my favourites, I think. I was happily surprised when the second piece of music wasn't just a cheap variation on the first one!
Games like this need a well written score to make it worth playing and proper integration of said score into the levels to make the player actually feel like they're properly involved with the music. The Library has both of these things and I would love to see this fleshed out (both mechanically and musically) into a full game!
Really enjoyed it, great job! :D
Interesting take on the theme--I quite liked the concept. Unfortunately, I wasn't too sure what I was doing during the game. The options and the slider weren't really explained at any point and, even after getting to the end, I'm still not sure what or how much effect either had on the audience responses.
Even if the back end system is really clever (so chaining certain jokes and gags will get better responses, for example), the lack of explanation on the front end really lets that down and means that the player can't learn and take advantage of those cool mechanics without hours of studying the game first.
Hope that's some helpful feedback--keep making games!
Really simple idea with some cool graphics and nice music. I might have said that you could have come up with a more intuitive control scheme than repeatedly clicking with the left mouse button, but overall the idea was pretty well executed!
Also, the cursor looks like the Windows 7 "loading" cursor, so that confused me for a few seconds. :P
Good job! ^^
Cool game. Found some of the levels to be pretty strangely designed. I often had trouble getting out of a place that I had broken into because the floor above was now missing. This would be fine if the aim of the game was to carefully plan how you were going to demolish the walls, but you added a countdown timer, so it didn't seem that that was what you were going for.
Really enjoyed the concept and the death animation/effect was surprisingly epic. :)
Great job!
Nice bit of arcade fun. I especially liked the bullet bounce mechanic--it really makes you think before you shoot!
After a while, the gameplay started to feel a touch repetitive, but maybe I didn't survive long enough to see the next enemy type or boss or something!
Good job! :)
Hey, firstly I really liked the rogue-like movement system. It's not done often enough outside of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, in my opinion.
The graphics were basic, but cute (other than the nightmare, which was cool, but definitely not cute!) and the game was very challenging. I wasn't able to complete the level, although I have a feeling it's got something to do with the sliding floor tile? I'll give it another shot at some point and see if I can't work it out.
Anyway, good job and keep making games! :)
Nice general idea. The execution needed work, especially on the polish. The character can turn on a dime and still move when he's been knocked down!
I really liked the aesthetic you seemed to be going for and the opening cutscene was pretty cool.
Keep making games! ^^
Nice gameplay, although the jumping felt a little bit janky. The animation was superb and the game was generally pretty fun to play!
I think I need to give it a couple more shots, but from my initial playthrough, it reminded me heavily of the original Mario Bros. with a few modern twists.
Good job! :D
A rather thought-provoking game. I was impressed that it managed to paint a disturbing picture of dementia through a very human lens without resorting to gratuitous metaphors or shock tactics.
The art and animation were both well made and appropriately minimal and the music was an interesting way to measure how well you were doing in the game.
I suppose my only complaint is that it could have been longer, but this is Ludum Dare, so it's not exactly something that you could have done too much about.
Overall, great job.
Hey there. Yeah, the game's obviously very unfinished at this point, so I'm not going to list what isn't there yet.
Regardless, I really like your art style--it's simple but competent and definitely very expressive. The humour was pretty refreshing and the ending that I got made me chuckle.
If you were to carry on working on this game, I'd love to play the finished version.
Either way, good job on what you managed and keep making games. :)
Interesting concept although I did find the void mode to be completely unplayable. Perhaps you could have a hybrid of the two where only objects close to you are invisible but objects further away can be seen by the player at the edges of the screen?
Shame there wasn't a larger goal to the game other than just jumping around. The controls were reasonably well executed and I prefer the wall-climb mechanic to most poorly executed wall-jumps that a lot of indie games attempt.
Good job on the game though, just needs a little bit more substance I think. :)
Great game, if a tad horrifying! The mechanics were all smooth and the art, music and design all came together to a clever and immersive piece of commentary.
Brilliant job! :D
Nice game, I liked the music and art especially. Found the gameplay to be somewhat confusing--the AI kept tracing back over itself without taking any damage whilst I was damaged every time I touched my own paint.
Good job though. :)
Initially, our interest was quite captured by this game. However, we didn't seem to be able to communicate with any other ships and the game rapidly devolved into dodging asteroids thereafter.
We loved the concept, however, we just seemed unable to find the actual content of the game.
Also, we encountered a freeze when an asteroid hit an NPC ship. Sorry we can't be more specific about the circumstances. Hope that helps!
Hey @stadoblech, RPGMaker defaults to using Z and X (UK keyboard layout) for interaction in order to try and simulate NES-style controls.
If it's a problem for you, in Other <SPACE> also works instead of Z. Thanks for the feedback--hope you get a chance to finish the game! ^^
I really enjoyed being some random hero's squire-come-manager for a few minutes! :)
Took me a little while to work out that I could put money in the treasure chest (those were a hairy few minutes), but after that, I really enjoyed this.
Obviously, there's not much in the way of art or sound, but honestly, there doesn't really need to be. The late game got a bit unbalanced in how quickly the hero could die whilst you were busy sorting out loot, but if you were to carry on with this game and tweak the balance a little, I'd definitely be interested in playing it as a fun little time waster on the bus or train.
Great job! :D
Pretty awesome little game. I especially liked the initial animation of the girl waking up.
Wasn't a massive fan of the ghost enemies which looked rather out of place when all the rest of the game was carefully drawn and animated.
I was also rather impressed that the game somehow remained challenging despite having auto-aim and enemies that died in one hit.
Good job! :)
Hey, great entry! I'm a bit of a sucker for narrative games and, although the gameplay wasn't especially strong, the story came across as genuine and meaningful.
Wasn't entirely sure how to interpret the ending--whether he was standing beside his own wheelchair with his wife on the other side, or whether those were his children--but whichever way, it worked well.
Great job! :D
Okay, so for starters, I liked the concept of the game--it was really cool and definitely made me want to keep playing.
The art and sound were good, but I would have to say that there were a few problems in the execution, at least from my point of view. I spent about 90% of my time either stuck outside the capsule, holding a vital resource but unable to get inside because things kept hitting it away from me or stuck inside the capsule desperate to get back outside but unable to because something had hit it and the inertia kept me from moving.
There were also a couple of spelling mistakes in the intro, but that's nothing that can't be fixed easily.
Overall, really cool game, just needs a little tweaking to make it more playable imo! Good job! :)
Interesting idea, although I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to be doing. It seems that if you choose a passenger bay too small then you end up with a full passenger bay and nothing you can do about it. Perhaps I'm missing something, but if I am then it wasn't very clearly explained.
Normally I'd forgive a spelling mistake or two in an LD game, but since it's a text-only game, everything really should be at least put through a spellchecker. Also, the line breaks should be carefully checked to make sure that you aren't cutting any words in half or starting new lines with a space.
I quite liked the use of colour to show the player the type of terrain that they were currently on without having to use the corresponding letter though.
Keep making games! :)
Really liked the mood and, although I found the voice work for the child to be somewhat comical, I wasn't laughing for long before some red-eyed shadow thing made me jump out of my skin!
The map was a little hard to navigate and I wasn't always entirely sure what it was that I was looking at, but it's certainly nice to see a point and click game this LD!
The music fit really well and congrats on being the first game this LD to actually make me jump. :P
Keep at it!
-Skruffye
The gameplay was limited, but quite well polished. I especially liked how you handled entering buildings: it worked really well!
Have to say that the beeping irritated me quite a lot. There wasn't really any need for it and the game would have worked better without it.
Other than that though, it's only a shame that it was just a concept!
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Very charming game, although the main mechanic was a bit odd (and only seemed to be tutorialised after you'd already had to use it to solve the first puzzle).
Really liked the pixel animations and the music.
Good job! :)
-Skruffye
A neat little game! Nothing too overly complex, but fun and well made nonetheless. I liked the little sound that it made whenever you took a settlement. :3
Additionally, it was cool to see the same mechanics applied in a bunch of different time periods and scales.
There's not really much to say here other than good job! Keep it up!
-Skruffye
The concept of this game was really interesting, but I feel it might have been just slightly out of scope for a game jam! The way that civilisations interacted and grew was fun to watch, although the game did feel a little bit more like a sim than it did a game (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). :)
The races themselves were hard to keep track of because you had to click on them to find out what they were (the shorthand names on the capital didn't really work all that well) and it was pretty hard to gauge when to exalt. Additionally, I felt that there could have been some deeper mechanics involved, but considering it was done in a weekend, I think that's completely understandable!
Overall, really nice work, keep it up! ^^
-Skruffye
Good work. :) The gameplay felt a little bit static after a while: it would have been nice to have structures that increase the number of sentries you can build, so long as those structures aren't destroyed, or something.
The core gameplay worked well though, although the game could have done with a counter to show how many of each building you had (and what the maximum of each was).
Music was in-keeping with the style and reminded me of some of the early GBC games.
If you're still rating games, we need a couple more to make it to 20! (Shameless plug, I know! ^^;)
Overall, fun game, just needs a bit more incentive to keep playing. :)
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Firstly, congrats on getting a game finished for the compo. I had issues with the camera (things were often obscured by trees in the foreground) and I wasn't able to leave the camp without the monkeys immediately showing up and stealing everything. (Also, that noise, my eeeeaaaaars!)
Nice to see that tank controls aren't dead though. :P
Keep making games. ^^
-Skruffye
Reminded me heavily of Alice in Wonderland. I really liked the watercolour art style, although some of the assets were a little too small for the game, so you can see the external edge of them if you jump high enough etc.
Also, I was a little confused at the decision to include a single 3D object in an otherwise stylised 2D game.
The protagonist could have done with some animation and the game's physics were a little janky (I got stuck on walls and enemies a lot), but other than that, it was a pleasant game. :)
Keep practising and best of luck with your future game projects!
-Skruffye
Fun little shooter with some really nice pixel art (the background reminded me a little of Giygas from Mother :P ) and some interesting enemy variety.
I'd definitely say that it's a bit on the easy side considering that you start with six hearts and get one back every time that you beat a room, but that's mostly just a balance issue and would be a really easy fix.
Personally, I'd have had missed shots do damage to the person whose body you're inside, but perhaps that's just me. ;) Might have added a little extra depth to the gameplay later on though.
But yeah, overall, really good job!
-Skruffye
@japes Hi there!
Thanks for the comments! You can also rotate the world with the middle mouse button--I only just realised that we didn't actually write that down anywhere... ^^; I'll put it in the instructions when I get a minute.
As for the rest of your comments, the post-jam version should address most of your concerns. Hope you enjoy!
-Skruffye
@igorsgames Hiya!
Thanks for playing--the grey bar measures how much sleep the critter's had recently. If you make a plains segment (where the critter makes its burrow), then the critter will go there to sleep and refill the grey bar. If you're having trouble getting that working, try the post-jam version which is basically a bug-fixed version of the original with a few extra features (like a guide to help you discover new terrains).
Hope that helps!
-Skruffye
Hi @nightshadow0
Thanks for the feedback--the critter needs to eat, drink and sleep (the red bar is his health). He can eat in the forest, drink at the lake and sleep in the plains. Have you tried the post-jam version? There isn't much difference other than a couple bug fixes, but it does include a small instruction page that shows you what each biome looks like, what it does and roughly how to make it. :)
-Skruffye
The game certainly fits the theme, but there doesn't feel like there's anything in the way of gameplay, unfortunately. If each tiny red dot is a person, then I imagine that actually solving a game through blind luck would be incredibly unlikely?
If there's something to the gameplay that I've missed, then please let me know. Perhaps a tutorial would be useful? :)
-Skruffye
To be honest, if there's some deeper meaning beyond the story itself and the probable metaphor that the island presents, then I just didn't get it. ^^;
Otherwise, I have to say it's a particularly pretty game. Despite the low resolution models and the minimalist style, the lighting and the colour palette really made the game pop. The 2D sprites in the 3D environment looked good, although only two directions of animation felt a little bit too constrained. You definitely could have done with a forward and backward animation cycle.
The story was relatable, if a little short (assuming that I found all of it!) and, overall, it was an interesting experience.
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Nice game. I liked the voxel feel and the level of polish was very clear, but I'm not sure how it was supposed to innovate on Centipede? It came across as largely just a clone, unless I missed something.
I wasn't really sure what the bombs were for seeing as how they didn't seem to damage the spiders at all.
Anyway, good job, keep it up!
-Skruffye
Interesting concept, but not enough substance. The lack of any form of animation (even just flipping the sprite to go left) was very jarring and the perspective in the opening cut scene was all over the place.
Despite all of that, I think the game still has the potential to be fun if you improve the gun (so that it either shoots projectiles or a line that kills anything that it hits, rather than a point-and-click attack) and increase the number and aggressiveness of the enemy Soviets.
The concept and the mood were both good (although some music would have worked wonders), but the gameplay itself definitely needs working on.
Regardless, congrats on getting a game out for LD. I hope you keep making games and that you keep improving with each one that you make!
-Skruffye
Heya, really nice looking game! Unfortunately, it's a bit too hard for me (would have been good if the dodge could have been more useful) but the enemy designs, art, animation and mood were all great!
The music fit pretty well and I really liked the idea of the snowglobe as a take on the theme. :)
We did exactly the same as you (leaving getting coolness until quite late because we were busy >< ) so please do take a look at our game too if you get the chance! :D
Really good job though, keep it up!
-Skruffye
The obvious comment is that the game is brief, but I have to say that the abrupt end kind of made me chuckle. :P I know it didn't really matter too much in such a short game, but I would note that having the enemies move at the exact same speed that you do could cause problems in your future games.
Congrats on taking a shot at something you're not comfortable with (concerning the art) and keep it up!
-Skruffye
Really neat little physics game. The music was great and the visuals were (obviously) minimalist but clean and visually attractive nonetheless. The gameplay was good fun, though it could have done with a few more levels to properly explore each concept. I also felt that there perhaps could have been a gradual drop in the force that the red ball exerted on the goo as it got further away rather than a sudden cutoff, but that didn't really affect the gameplay too much.
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Yay, space golf. :P On that note though, I did find the massive amounts of friction being applied after each swing to be a bit over the top (especially as you would expect something closer to zero friction in space!).
Other than that though, it was good fun. Wasn't 100% on the music, but it certainly didn't detract from the experience. The art palette was a little bit dull (colour-wise) which I thought was an odd choice given that you were working with stars, but it certainly wasn't bad.
Overall, good job, keep making games!
-Skruffye
The ambient soundtrack in the background is good for setting mood. I had some issues with the controls, initially discovering what they were and then actually working with them. Basically, the control scheme seemed a little obtuse for no immediately obvious reason and a tutorial or even a help menu would have gone a long way!
As for the game itself, it seems like a reasonably interesting escape the room type game, although I'll admit that I couldn't find anywhere to use the key card! (That's probably just me being thick though. :P )
There were a couple of spelling errors which should really have been corrected before upload, ESPECIALLY in a narrative-driven game! Also, the console was cutting some of your words short, but that might have just been an engine limitation that you didn't have time to address before release.
Best of luck with your future projects!
-Skruffye
I liked the core gameplay, but the game overall was a touch confusing. The opening "cutscene" didn't make much sense and the level design seemed a bit sporadic. (There was a impassible wall thirty seconds or so in..?)
That said, the sounds and music were pretty cool (especially the little *squish* sound the thumb made when it went floppy, even though it didn't make much sense!) and, as I said already, the gameplay itself would have been pretty fun if there had been more of a game surrounding it.
Good job on getting a finished game out though!
-Skruffye
Somehow, a not-game is the most impressive thing I've seen this Ludum Dare. :D It's a shame you didn't have time to make this interactive, but the proof of concept honestly looks amazing. I would love to see a game made in this kind of environment.
Also, I noticed as I was playing around with it that it would be a great tool to teach image composition with. Since you're able to stop at any point and, without motion, the image in front of you instantly looks 2D again (thanks to the art style), you could use the game to show how placing objects in a picture in certain ways can give better or more interesting results than others.
Thanks for making this and, again, I would absolutely love to see this made into a game! :D
-Skruffye
Apparently I'm very successful at lobbing cows and coal-fire power stations at aliens. :D
Neat little game, although I'm not really sure about the logistics of getting a power station into space... The mechanics and the art all worked well together and it was genuinely rather fun, if somewhat unforgiving. I'd probably recommend giving the player more chances to react where the aliens stop to hover before they finally get bored and apply for a visa.
My main issue would probably be with the music. Not to say that it was bad or that there was anything wrong with it in and of itself, but it really didn't feel like it fit with the game very well and sort of threw off the overall mood.
Anyway, good job overall: keep it up!
-Skruffye
A really interesting little game with some genuinely difficult lateral thinking puzzles! The art, although minimalist, was consistent and looked great overall. The music fit the game and set the mood perfectly.
I suppose the worst thing that I can say about it is that it didn't match the theme particularly strongly (although I can definitely see where you were coming from), but other than that, really fun to play and generally well executed!
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
So, this game is definitely up there on innovation for me. The mechanic is a -little- flawed (the numpad isn't the easiest thing to "swipe" across and it was a bit of a challenge to memorise which colours came from which directions) but is overall a breath of fresh air.
The music was nice and upbeat and the art was simple but complimentary to the game's mood. Overall, really good job! I'd like to see another game that uses this one's basic mechanic and refines it into something more intuitive.
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Interesting concept, although the theme seemed to have been added in a little bit last minute. :P The visuals were good (if a bit sparse) and I quite liked the music! The gameplay was too far on the hard side, in my opinion. The space that you were playing in (and the fact that Friendo doesn't bounce) made it almost impossible to survive for longer than a few seconds. Additionally, I feel like the missile would have made more sense as a temporary stun than as a delayed death mechanic? Might give the player a bit more room to manoeuvre.
Anyway, for a first LD game, good job and congrats on getting finished! Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Really cool little sim. Although there wasn't very much gameplay, I still found the expansion mechanic somehow cathartic. The sound was somewhat irritating and I don't think that the keyboard entry mechanic was particularly necessary, but overall I definitely liked it enough to see it through to the end. Everything ran really smoothly and I didn't have any trouble with the zooming (although a way to pan without zooming would have been nice). :) I've been an Asimov fan for quite a while and, having read The Last Question, I was expecting a slightly different ending, but hey, what you went with worked too. ;)
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
I really wanted to like this game a lot, there's so much that's good about it! The art's really nice, the concept works really well and the game is generally fun to play.
However, not being able to recover your head once it's been removed is extremely frustrating! Especially considering how every head is just as vulnerable as the next. Mightn't it have made sense to always remove segments from the back first?
Either way, wandering around without a head and trying to kill my bug so I could start again really broke the flow of the game for me.
That (unfortunately big, for me) issue aside though, it's a really great idea for a game and really fun--just needs a bit of ironing out on the design side!
Keep it up!
-Skruffye
Awesome little game! I loved the style and the fact that you roll around everywhere. :3 The controls felt really fluid and it was good fun to play.
Shame that the music from the trailer didn't make it into the final game! Also, you don't seem to have to replace the teeth to win? I'm guessing that they go towards your score, but surely removing the teeth is only half the job!
We also need a couple more votes to get our game up to the minimum score. ^^; Sorry to whore on your page, but do take a look if you get a minute! :P
Great game though, genuinely enjoyed it. Keep it up! ^^
-Skruffye
I struggled quite a bit with the controls. I don't know if that was made worse by my browser doing something weird with the game, but either way, it was pretty difficult to navigate.
The idea is a good one (and I like the name) but I think the gameplay needs a little refinement. The ability to shoot water being separate from movement would have been good, maybe in a twin-stick-like fashion?
The procedural map generation gives it a lot more replay value than it would have had otherwise, even if I did get a map with what I'm pretty sure was an inaccessible section in the bottom left when I played...!
Overall, well done. :smile:
Welp, I'm never getting a job as a cleaner at Burglar King, apparently... :stuck_out_tongue:
Interesting concept, I'm not quite sure if there was actually a way to win, but in both my attempts, the interviewer ended up repeating the "why do you want to work here" question and then I lost (the first one had some kind of mental break, I think, just telling me that she "didn't deserve this" before ending the game with no input options available for me).
The music was pleasant and the graphics were very... corporate. :laughing:
I couldn't tell if I was getting actual feedback off of the interviewer's facial expression or if that was just me finding patterns in the randomness. If there's actually a way to win, and you haven't already implemented it, maybe something like the facial expression updating depending on how well you're doing would be a good addition?
Fun little game, good work! :grin:
@ava-skoog Ahh, I see! I was supposed to give the same answer! For some reason I'd gotten it into my head that she was giving me a second chance to give her a better answer, not wanting to hear a repeat... :laughing: There's probably some way you could make that a little clearer if you wanted to (and to make it obvious that it's not just the game bugging and looping back either!), but I might have been the only one that was un-savvy enough to not see that for what it was, so no worries! :grin:
Ahh, British summertime... :blush:
I know all the humour here was in the description, not *strictly* in the game, but it struck a chord nonetheless! :grin:
Could have done with some sound--even just some nice, calming, royalty-free classical music for your lovely picnic... and some shotgun blast effects from freesounds. :wink:
Gameplay was fun, but could have done with just a *little* bit extra polish. Maybe some blood effects on a hit (or whatever it is that ants bleed) and a replacement reticle for the mouse cursor.
I had fun though--thanks for the laugh! :grin:
The sound design here was absolutely phenomenal. I spent a lot of the first part of the fall wondering just how you were managing to keep the effects of hitting the objects in sync so wonderfully with the soundtrack before I figured out that you were probably muting and unmuting certain tracks each time corresponding obstacles were hit...? Maybe I'm wrong, but whatever you did, it sounded brilliant!
Even the musical transition at the end of the fall was pretty much flawless. Not to mention that the soundtrack itself is great just on its own--this is by far the best sounding game I've played over the course of this LD, really really well done here...! :smiley:
The art was great too--*really* fit in with exactly the same mood the music was going for--and the animation was both high-quality and adorable. I kept getting distracted from the actual gameplay every time one of those cats zoomed away on their little broomstick... :laughing:
Even the gameplay is smooth and perfectly functional. Frankly, the simplicity of the single mechanic and just how well it stepped out of the way to let the audio and visuals take centre stage was the best choice you could have made on that front, I think.
Fantastic work--really well done! :grin:
(I'm really glad someone above me mentioned that you're on itch.io, because my only regret here was that I couldn't see anywhere I could follow your work. You should add the itch.io link somewhere if you get a moment!)
@ddrkirbyisq Ah, wow, that feels like it'd be even more work, but I just read your post above about your background in audio-centric games, so fair enough! It was actually the sample accuracy that made me think that wasn't how you did it, but clearly, as you say, the results were close enough that it was very hard to notice any discrepancy!
I'll have to give your other game a look too, when I get a free moment. :grin:
A really pretty game with perfect music to match. Even the typeface you used was a great choice! :smile:
I struggled a bit with bumping into terrain (which wasn't great when I was in a hurry!) and I think maybe making all of the petals able to light torches/heal the tree would have allowed for you to make the yokai--sorry, *snowkai*--more numerous (assuming maybe that the torches also burned out after enough time and needed to be relit). Then there would be an element of having to make the choice as to whether you take the prayer to the shrine it's intended for, or if you sacrifice it to protect the tree.
Just some thoughts on the gameplay. The game as a whole was very well presented and I felt immersed from the get-go. Really well done! :grin:
Really fun. I forgot how much I missed playing tower defence games. :smile:
The towers could have been a bit better differentiated so it's easier to tell what you're placing at the beginning, but after a bit of trial and error, it isn't really a problem.
I like the premise and the super simple (but very effective) graphics. Would love to see a post-jam version with more towers and upgrades!
Great job, guys!
@teddyreid Thanks! Really glad you found it interesting.
I feel it's the sort of thing that's best explored blind, so I won't say too much, but I will say that, if you haven't found something resembling an ending, then (statistically, at least) there are probably quite a few scenes that you haven't seen yet. :smiley:
If you run into any bugs when you revisit it, I've already posted a minor series of fixes on itch and will probably keep doing so if I discover any more during judging. ^^
@adam-gould Yeah, I completely agree! I'd have loved to have weighted the randomness so that rooms you see more often get pushed down in terms of how likely they would be to appear again, but, alas, game jam...!
Will definitely be something I add in future if I end up putting together an expanded, post-LD release, though. :grinning:
@krakadushka The Library is merciless, I'm afraid. There can be no turning back... :wink:
I'd never heard of Fear & Hunger, but I took a look at the Steam page and it looks like something I might enjoy, so thank you for mentioning it!
@baconinvader Thanks for the feedback! I'll see how the game's received over judging, but I enjoyed working with the concept, so a post-jam version is definitely a possibility. :slight_smile:
@brotherst That means a lot, thank you! Yes, I only *just* scraped in at the deadline before submission hour...! Think I spent pretty much the entire jam at least an hour behind schedule! XD The difficulty is definitely intentional, even if there are some places I'd like to tweak it a bit. Nobody's ever *truly* escaped the Library, after all... :wink:
@subvertissement Sorry about that, thanks for letting me know! The PC version *should* run on both Windows and Linux, but now that I've tested it myself, it's not running on my Linux laptop either... I'll try and do a Linux-specific build and, if it works, I'll upload that as well.
If that doesn't work either, I'll have to limit the release to just PC and Mac for now since I don't have time to troubleshoot... I'll reply again once I've had chance to test out another build. Sorry again!
@anhievus The concept of the Library is something I've had in my head for a while, although nothing's really come of it until now, so that meant I had less to have to dream up before I could get straight to the writing. But other than that? Everything written for the game was written within the three days of the jam so... yeah, wrist cramp from typing was becoming a real issue at one point...! ^^;
Really happy to hear you're enjoying the game! :grin:
@chocolat-endive Thanks so much for your kind words! I took a look at The Well of the Past and it looks like we were both aiming for a similar kind of slow, descriptive style to build up an atmosphere for the player.
I liked your work! It was an interesting take on the theme of that jam--keeping an old, fragmented story alive with just enough information to keep you intrigued, but not *quite* enough to paint a clear picture, at least not that I found in my playthrough. It's really great to see that the interest in both making and playing text-based games is still going strong. :smile:
Afraid the text speed and save/load functions are features of Ren'Py, so I wouldn't feel right taking credit for those...! :laughing:
@lvl99chicken Really glad you enjoyed it! :slight_smile: Again, though, I wouldn't feel right taking credit for what's already built into Ren'Py. You're right, though, their inbuilt save/load system is great! :grin:
@abdonatioera Thank you for the feedback! I just went and double checked to make sure that there wasn't a bug that made the effects of Continuo Circulus linger after you've discarded the book and, given that its effect is entirely self-contained and doesn't set any flags, I think you were probably just experiencing the same room being randomly selected multiple times in a row...!
I agree with you that it's annoying. My plan for a potential post-jam version already includes a weighting system to dynamically de-rank rooms that you encounter regularly, so hopefully that'll fix the issues you're talking about! Happy to hear you enjoyed what you played, though! :grin:
@boclow Thank you, I'm happy to hear you liked it! Yes, reducing randomness is definitely something that a lot of people have mentioned (and that I completely agree with). It'd essentially be the first thing I'd want to address in a post-jam version of the game. If you were wanting to play the post-jam version, I'll make sure to post a devlog on itch.io if I get around to releasing one (looking likely at this point) so anyone who's following the game will get a notification when it's out! :smile:
@infecsean I hadn't considered doing that--it's a good idea! I'd originally wanted to make variants of the background ambience track for the different areas too, but ended up running out of time. I think sound design is something I'd want to take another look at in a post-jam version without the time constraint, so thanks for the suggestion! I'll make sure to post devlogs on itch.io about any post-jam content so, if you're interested, feel free to follow the game over there for updates! :grin:
@baubau Thank you! Haha, yeah--I used to do a lot of tabletop GMing, but not as much recently, unfortunately...! :sweat_smile:
The player stats are what determine whether you pass or fail certain checks. I left it vague as to which one is being tested in each check to keep the focus on the atmosphere, although it can *usually* be inferred from the descriptive text. :slight_smile:
@chocolat-endive Ahh, great to hear it's got replay value! :grin: Yeah, I think at this point it's highly likely that I'll be doing a post-jam release. I don't know exactly how much extra content that would entail right yet, but I'd be starting with incorporating the feedback I've been getting about the randomness and sound design at the very least!
Best way to keep track of post-jam releases would be to follow the game on itch.io. As I've said to other people asking about updates, I'll make sure to post devlogs over there when I put out new content for the game! :smile:
@longsilvr Thank you so much for your kind words! Weirdly, the Akashic Records weren't the original inspiration for the concept, but I read about them subsequently and some of the similarities were uncanny, hence "Akashica"! :grin:
I'm really sorry to hear about the crash! Was this when you were playing on the Ludum Dare version for judging, or did it occur on the post-Jam version? I'd really like to find and iron out whatever bug caused that to happen, especially if it's on the post-Jam version...! :sweat_smile:
@damonwakes Thanks a lot for coming back to leave a comment--I really appreciate it! :smiley:
Yeah, I was messing around with Ren'Py a bit last year and it really impressed me with how versatile it was (strictly within the realm of text-based games, although even then, there's a lot you can force it to do outside of that if you really know what you're doing). I've always really enjoyed creating interactive fiction, but I tend to find most dedicated tools to be a bit too restrictive in how they'll let you go about it.
Would definitely recommend considering it if you're planning a text-centric project! :grin:
It would seem that I'm amongst the accursed who owns a keyboard unfit for use in the Gym of Eternal Youth... :stuck_out_tongue:
I liked the concept and I managed to brute force my way past the four-key combos by spamming the keys repeatedly, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get much further without hurting my fingers, so I can only rate what I got to play... ^^;
Not gonna rate you down for the input issue, though. It's more of an unforeseen hardware issue than a fault with the game!
Really moreish gameplay. On the gameplay side of things, my only complaint would be that I think either the first upgrade to the regeneration skill should mention that you're buying the ability to regenerate, or you should start with the minimum amount of regeneration. I got *way* too far into the game before I got hit and realised that my health wasn't coming back...! :laughing:
Definitely could have done with some music--I'm thinking some heavy electric guitar, personally--but thank you for at least varying the frequency of the shooting sound effect...! I think my brain would have exploded if I'd played for as long as I did and the shots had all sounded the same...! :sweat_smile:
Great work! :grin:
That dog must *drink*, 'cause boy oh boy did I mark the heck out of my territory...! :laughing:
I loved the little sprite for the dog when jumping--very cute.
I'd have liked to have seen more to do in the yard and probably a way for the game to progressively get harder (such as the balloon falling faster or hazards for it to have to avoid in the air) because, as it stands there's not much challenge.
The physics on the balloon were strangely appealing, as was the sad little animation it made when it finally popped.
Good job! ^^
A really good concept. If you have the drive to make something more of this, I'd really love to see this as a more fully fledged post-jam game. Something with a story, a more intricate levelling system, and maybe some minor control over the main character (perhaps items or something that can be acquired between combats). :thumbsup:
The "choose your enemy" approach was interesting and gelled really well with the idea of the combat being a metaphor for fighting back your fears before they can consume you.
Definitely needed some music and sound effects. The art was great (the main character gave me a real "Raft Wars" vibe for some reason) and really evocative, but it was let down a little by the utter silence I ended up playing in! :sweat_smile:
Great work--like I said, I'd be interested in seeing more, if it's something that you want to pursue further! :grin:
I think the best strategy here might have been just to have never listened to that damn flower in the first place... :tired_face:
Trippy design (and concept, really) with textures and a soundtrack to match... Only complaint was probably the movement. It was pretty difficult to get up hills and I felt like I wasn't fully in control a lot of the time, getting pushed sideways by inclines, etc.
Overall, good job! :smile:
Really cool idea! I loved how dynamic Pyramid's reactions were, especially how he backs slowly away if you don't say something fast enough.
Everything looked really crisp and fluid, which it really should since--for whatever strange reason--the game was running my GPU (GTX 1070) at 100% constantly and even started causing coil whine, which I've never had before on this card...! O.o
I've no idea if that's something you can fix or if it's some very niche problem that's only affecting me, but I didn't want to play too long, just in case... Sorry...! ^^; I really did want to play through it more than once. :confused:
Fantastic. Smooth, simple gameplay, brilliant atmosphere, intriguing story and it even went on for longer than I thought it was going to.
Graphics and audio worked together perfectly, especially in the glitch effect you had between screens. I also never would have thought that a sorting algorithm simulator would somehow be fun... The mixed-media sorting puzzles took the concept further than I would have expected.
Really well done on this one!
Really cool idea! I initially thought it was a bit too easy because you could cheese the game by finding a spot only one clock would affect and then watching the beats at the bottom of the screen... But then you sure showed me with those last two levels...! :laughing:
Loved how the alarm clocks were part of the sound track. Reminded me a bit of Crypt of the Necrodancer, especially with the main character that was very reminiscent of A Link to the Past. The theme wasn't very present in the mechanics, but it was definitely there in the concept, which I thought was great!
Really great job! Been enjoying seeing all the TIC-80 games in this jam, too! :grin:
Really, really stylish game. The mechanics were great and genuinely fun. I'm probably going to go back and play more a bit later, after I've looked over more games.
Everything worked together really well. The soundtrack was thematic (with the tick-tock effect) and all the graphical assets blended together to create an interesting, neon-silhouette kind of aesthetic that totally fit the scenario.
Only complaint is that I'm not sure having a single hit reset your entire progress is quite fair. It seems that taking only one or two hits is enough to doom you completely, depending on how when and how far apart you take the hits, at which point I'd say maybe just call it a game over without having to keep playing just to lose.
Overall, great work--really enjoyed this one! :smile:
Well, that's the first time I've not wanted a mosquito to die since Rayman...
The silhouette style of art with the really moody lighting was a great visual direction to go with. It merged really well with the 3D assets as well.
Music was funky and unobtrusive, but also strangely catchy.
Really good job, enjoyed this a lot!
This was really fun to play. :smiley: I'm not entirely sure how the physics worked, since the ships seemed to turn like they had air resistance, but seemed to maintain forward momentum as if they didn't.
Once I got used to the controls, though, it was a cool little experience. I was a fan of how the game didn't end when I died, but switched me over to the next ship in the squadron. Really sold the "last desperate effort" and "losses are expected" kind of mood.
The sound design was really good too. The engines felt powerful and the ships weighty simply because of how they sounded.
Great job!
Really impressive as a jam game--I really wasn't surprised to find out the size of the team once I had finished playing...! You all did a great job! :smile:
Great art direction--nice and simple, but gritty and brooding at the same time, which fit in great really well with the music and sound design. There was a definite Wolf Among Us vibe going on in there!
I found myself looking forward to new characters being introduced just because of the names, if nothing else! Great voice acting and well-written dialogue that definitely came across as natural when spoken.
The slow and thoughtful gameplay was a good fit for the mood as well--I think it would scale up nicely if you guys ever decided to make something longer in the same vein, it'd just need to be a little more complex, but it was great as it was for a short experience.
Nice work! :grin:
This was really enjoyable. Definitely could have done with some nice, unobtrusive music though, even if it was fairly simple.
I wasn't really sure what to do when I reached the level with the house. Everything above the hill was "unreachable" and I couldn't dig or build my way up there. Eventually, I got stuck up at the very edge with no way of moving or doing anything else other than playing cards. There's stuff up there, so I'm guessing that I must have missed something?
Really fun to play, though. Would love to play more, if you could let me know what I'm doing wrong on the house level...! :grin:
Great work!
I'm not sure if the game was *supposed* to end when you ran out of lives, but mine didn't. :stuck_out_tongue: Either way, I thought the premise was pretty interesting--played well into the theme that you could just keep holding on even though you knew that nothing was going to change and the ending was inevitable. Going back once I'd already played to the end and just letting go straight away at the beginning was fairly amusing too... :laughing:
The economical use of a single piece of sparsely animated background art really helped to create an unhurried, but sad and isolated atmosphere, and it worked well with the music, so great job on the presentation front. :grin:
The dialogue between the various characters was engaging and I think you did a good job of defining each of their outlooks and quirks, especially given the limited amount of interaction with each one. I wasn't a massive fan of the tower defence gameplay, since it was a bit too simple, but I also don't think that it was supposed to be the main focus of the game either, so that didn't matter all too much to me in the end.
I always think it's a bit weird to say I "enjoyed" a game like this, but I'm certainly glad that I played it, so good work! :smile:
Ahh, the atmosphere and environmental design had a really strong dark fantasy vibe that can be difficult to pull off without coming across as generic--which this didn't. The knight with the candle flame atop his head, the creature from the end, the strong, thematic use of greyscale andn of coursen the rich but mournful composition of the soundtrack all worked together really well!
My only real gripe would probably be that the game was too easy, with none of the enemies posing any real threat or challenge, but I think the atmosphere's the main attraction here anyway. :grin:
I also wasn't all too sure what those branches I was picking up were doing--if anything--but I picked them all up anyway (I think), because of course I did...! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Great work!
'state 'v this... :laughing:
Lovely, understated humour and a fantastically surreal atmosphere.
Can't imagine what inspired you to make this, but it's brilliant. Hope he gets he gets his promised steak dinner and pints down the pub. Man deserves it.
Really fantastic job! :smile:
There was quite a lot of missing collision, and I'm *fairly* sure you can softlock yourself in almost any area just by expending all of your abilities, but I liked the style of the game and I definitely get what you were going for.
The exploration aspect was not what I'd been expecting and, between that and the music, you managed to create a good, eerie mood, which isn't always all that easy within the limitations of the sorts of retro games you were clearly trying to emulate! :grin:
Well done! :smile:
Really cool little game with more to it than I first thought. Could have done with at least some letters over the speech bubbles to show which one was for the kindling, sticks and logs, but the game wasn't so punishing that you didn't have time to work it out on your own.
The variations in the weather surprised me, but I really liked it once I figured out what was going on. It added a lot more depth than just the usual "go out and fetch wood until you run out of wood near enough to be useful" thing you tend to see in these sorts of games. The different types of fuel and how you couldn't just dump a whole log onto a tiny, struggling fire also added more interest.
The movement had a bit too much momentum, I feel, and there was a little animation glitch on the idle where the feet would slide about on the floor, but overall, the main character, the environment and the concept in general were each really well presented. :smile:
Great work! It's a shame this has so few ratings... (Make sure to rate other people's games so you show up higher on the front page, if you haven't been already! :grin: )
There's a lot of RNG in the combat, but I can definitely see how a system like that could be used in a longer game with something to replace the RNG, like a buildable set of skills. As a concept, I really like it, and I think you executed it well given this was made for a jam.
Minor niggles aside, though, I *really* liked the animations. The sprites were reminiscent of games by Baroque Decay--really simple, but with surprisingly fluid and expressive animations. The way you got across so much characterisation with so few pixels was very impressive! :smile:
The mood created by the sound design and voice acting was compelling--a bit campy, as a lot of these tales of knights and chivalry tend to be--but the characterful animations were what really sold it to me as something sincere.
Really well done! :grin:
Nice idea. An unusual metaphor, I think, but it felt weirdly logical as I played. :laughing:
I liked how the "funny moment" fish were the smallest and hardest to catch. :wink:
Music's nice and chill, art's entirely consistent and the gameplay seems to work completely as intended. My only complaint would probably be that I'd like to be able to select what to do with the fish (use, release, keep) with the A, D, and S keys, since that's what I'm using to play the rest of the game. Getting my mouse involved feels unnatural.
Really good work overall, though, I enjoyed it! :grin:
A simpler alternative to Banished or Kingdoms and Castles. Love these sort of games, and the mood of this one was fantastic!
You did a really good job of simplifying the formula to fit it into a jam, too.
Turns out rushing the Monument of the Sun and bankrupting your settlement isn't the strategy that I'd hope it'd be. :stuck_out_tongue:
Great job! It'd be cool to see a post-jam version that keeps the simplicity but adds *just* a little more functionality. :slight_smile:
Really great concept--way too relatable. :laughing:
Managing to slap an alarm off without opening your eyes was just as good a feeling in the game as it is in real life. :grin:
Lovely little touches on the water glass, books on the shelf (I think? I was concentrating too hard on staying asleep :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: ) and the dog.
Simple gameplay made really appealing with a solid concept, great art and lovely, unobtrusive music.
Great work! :smile:
A fun little physics game that I ended up playing for longer than I expected to. Harder to control than you'd think, too!
Good job! :smile:
Really lovely music and graphics. The gameplay was simple but effective--I didn't actually realise you could use mouse controls on TIC-80 games, so it took me a few moments to find my bearings! :laughing:
Loved the palette you went with and how reminiscent the sparse texturing was of exactly the kind of games that inspired fantasy consoles like TIC-80 in the first place.
Great work! :grin:
This was really interesting! It reminded me a bit of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons with the "single-player co-op" approach.
I guess I wasn't fast enough, 'cause the planet exploded even though I hit the asteroid with every thruster. It seemed to get a lot faster towards the end--the rocket was only two-thirds full...! ^^;
That would probably be my only complaint, actually: there's no real indication of why the asteroid speeds up.
Otherwise, really good work! I had fun! :grin:
This was amazing. The mood and atmosphere worked perfectly with the graphics and music. There was also just something so evocative about the imagery. It reminded me a lot of DUSK, just in terms of the general feel of the environment.
Really great work all around!
Looked really good, controlled great (once I'd turned the mouse sensitivity down) and, I think, probably got across exactly the message you were trying to get across.
I'm a big fan of the billboarding style of 3D games. I feel like there was maybe something a little off with the camera FOV that made the billboarding a little *too* noticeable in this game, but given the exaggerated style you were going for, I wouldn't say it really detracts from the experience at all.
Oh yeah, and Bob's voice actor deserves a promotion! :stuck_out_tongue:
Great work!
Oh dear--if that's how many people Harry has to kill for just a shaving cut, I'd hate to see the sort of rampage he'd have to go on if he tripped and scraped himself...! :laughing:
The opening art was great. I ended up progressing it to the timing of the music almost by accident and it felt really good to watch!
The gameplay itself probably could have done with more environmental art, and maybe a power-up or two to keep things varied, but overall it was an amusing little game! :grin:
Great work! :smile:
This was fantastic! I had a similar idea a while back when Elden Ring released but never took it any further than the "what if" stage in my head--you guys absolutely knocked it out of the park.
I'm stuck on a low-end laptop at the moment, but I can't wait to give this another go when I've got my usual computer back.
The idea of phase transitions to change your moveset was brilliant! I'd have preferred your health pool going back up to full each time you fight a new challenger, like it would in a more normal setup, but it's only a minor gripe.
Not sure why the menu button sfx sound so cutesy. They're a bit out of place considering the rest of the game, but the soundtrack was *perfect* for the gameplay.
I haven't even mentioned the sprite work and the environment assets, but they were all great. Again, can't wait to play this at a decent framerate and enjoy it properly. :smile:
Any chance of you guys fleshing this out with more content post-jam? The concept was so well executed that it'd be really great to see more!
Amazing job--absolutely loved it! :grin:
Ahh... Yes. :laughing:
Despite being a little bit disappointed that I couldn't find a way to nod along and secretly make the game as intended behind the boss' back (then presumably get fired after it released anyway), I really liked this!
The understated humour made me chuckle and the visuals were nice and relaxing without being overly distracting. I didn't even notice them for a while until there was a particularly hard-to-miss colour change and I stopped for a moment just to watch the pretty circles floating across the screen. :smile:
I think a little bit of similarly non-distracting audio would have gone a long way here. Maybe even something a bit corporate, given the theme, like easy-listenin' or muzak--you know, lift music (or stairwell music, depending on your choices in the game). :stuck_out_tongue:
Also, it would have been good to have the character names differentiated from the dialogue in some way. That could have been making them larger, bold or even just all-caps. Fortunately, it didn't cause too much of an issue because of placement, but it would have been a nice extra touch.
Overall, I enjoyed it! Great job! :grin:
An interesting take on a maze game that I've not seen before. I had a couple of issues with getting caught on corners, but other than that, the game ran smoothly and it was genuinely quite fun to dodge around the missile and dash for the next powerup! :grin:
I did also run into the issue of having to spend too long looking for which button to press for which powerup and getting blown up as a result. Not entirely sure how you could make that any more intuitive and it might just come down to the player having to learn the muscle memory through trial and error.
(And you get humour points just for the clever title... :wink: )
Great job! :smile:
I don't know if I was just really bad at this or if it wasn't intended to go on for very long, given the theme...! :grin:
All the same, I'm a bit of a sucker for tower defence games--I liked the mechanic of assigning workers to beef up towers, although I wasn't all too sure how to go about getting the second resource that wasn't gold?
I get the feeling that the main thing holding this game back is probably a lack of tutorial. I'd be interested to play it again if I had a better idea of what I was supposed to be doing! :laughing:
Good work on the sprites--they were simple, but effective and entirely self-consistent. That soundtrack was really engaging, too! Gave the whole game a very epic feel to it.
Great job! :smile:
Great work--lots of what we used to call "juice" (is that still a term? :laughing: ) and a really fun take on the SUPERHOT style of not-quite-turn-based combat!
The different enemy types were definitely a must to keep things interesting though, so nice work there.
The gritty, comic style of the opening cutscene blended really well with the graphics of the main game and both the soundtrack and the sfx were very well designed for the mood you were clearly going for.
Good job all around! :grin:
Really pretty little game! The gameplay was simple but overwhelming (as per the theme, I suppose) and the controls were easy enough to intuit, but the graphics were definitely the selling point here. Really liked how the planet changed when it was hit by an asteroid.
If it wasn't for the theme, I'd have said it needs to be easier, or at least have a much more gradual increase in difficulty, but I can see why you went with having it as short as you did for the jam.
Could have done with some music, but I definitely wouldn't have gone with anything too overbearing, just something nice and chill to occupy the ears whilst you're playing.
Overall, good work! :smile:
Ooh, this was hard, but I really liked it! I found the best method was to memorise what you could, and keep one of the cauldrons on standby with one of the longer recipes on the last step, ready to go just in case! :grin:
The atmosphere was great, and the retro graphics really added to the mood--great job! :smile:
(Also, completely unrelated, but a fun coincidence: our entries have *really* similar thumbnails...! :laughing:)
If often wasn't immediately obvious why I was losing health. I think sometimes the harmful projectiles spawn pretty much on top of you--it'd have been good to have a minimum distance at which they can spawn, as well as a sound effect for when you take damage (if there was one, then a more obvious one!).
Consider that my only complaint, though. This really reminded me of Enter the Gungeon and the gameplay lived up to that feeling. The guns all felt great to use and the amount of ammo provided was just right--I found myself having to try new guns because I'd run low at just the right time. :smile:
Music was enjoyable and the art was perfectly good for the kind of game that it was.
Great work, I had fun! :grin:
Challenging little platformer... The graphics and music definitely oozed that old school adventure game vibe. I know it's a more modern example, but the soundtrack reminded me quite a lot of Shovel Knight.
Good fun to play--could have done with an indicator for how long you have left once you're a slime (or a more obvious one if one's already there and I missed it!) and slight repositioning of the hitboxes so you don't have to jump to collect some of the pickups that look like you should just be able to walk through them.
Great work! :smile:
Well written and the ambience was nicely integrated. Your take on the Oedipus story fit the theme really well, so well done!
I should say I wasn't a fan of the ending, though. You'd spent so long quite effectively building up an atmosphere through the use of sound and the choice of language, but the last line immediately pulled me out of it.
That was only thing I didn't like though, the rest was very enjoyable--good work! :slight_smile:
I'll admit, I weirdly liked the click-to-move system when I was fairly sure that I wouldn't. :slight_smile: The gameplay was fun, although I'd have assigned the "build turret" command to a button on the keyboard (like
The biggest drawback of this game for me was the pink blobs. I held out for a *little* while after they showed up, but it was pretty much all over as soon as they started spawning in in numbers. The difficulty curve there needed to be a *lot* shallower, because I'm pretty sure there was no amount of firepower you could have accrued by that point in the game to fend off that many of them at once. Maybe even just halving the health of the pink ones in particular would probably solve the problem.
Overall, good work! :smile:
Wow, this was great! Felt really polished and that soundtrack was... unexpectedly jazzy. :laughing:
I feel like, if you were interested in taking this any further, I'd love to see some kind of campaign with upgrades to your farm and tools!
Great work!
I ended up playing a lot more of this than I expected...
Initially, it looked fairly basic, and I didn't think it was going to go anywhere, but I stuck with it and, once I realised that the shop used the time remaining as your currency, I was pretty much immediately hooked. :smile:
I was doing fairly well until I suddenly got insta-mobbed by a bunch of red guys during the giant eyeball fight who took 30mins off me pretty much instantly and killed me. Felt pretty unfair, but maybe there was something in the upgrades menu that I'd missed. :sweat_smile:
Really impressive how fun and addicting this ended up being. I'd have really liked to have seen more dynamic sprites (four directions at least, preferably eight, rather than two) even without animation, but honestly, the fun factor ended up more than making up for that little gripe. :stuck_out_tongue:
Really well done--glad I played this! :grin:
Very pretty game. The backgrounds reminded me a lot of the environments from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and definitely in a good way. I struggled a bit to follow the story, but I got a flower and I guess that was the right thing to do, because I think the game ended. :stuck_out_tongue:
There seemed to be some issue with the dialogue throwing up random strings of text and, as others have already said, either a preloader or some notice that the game takes a long time to load would have been a good addition. Same with a more explicit ending screen of some kind, assuming I didn't just mess up and there was more to the game for me still to find. :slight_smile:
Still, I enjoyed it--well done!
But... how did the black box escape...? :stuck_out_tongue: Sorry, couldn't resist. :laughing:
I'm a bit more used to space shooters where you have infinite ammo and the asteroids have more than one hit point, so that threw me a bit at first, but that doesn't make it a bad decision.
It all played well, and I enjoyed the soundtrack. The models looked a little bit... flat? But at the same time, it was all self-consistent, so it didn't draw me out of the game at all.
Overall, good job--well done! :grin:
A top-down Crazy Taxi was exactly what the world needed. :laughing:
Great intro sequence. Could have done with a little more of a tutorial (just a quick "match the place the passenger is thinking of to a place on the map" or something) and a reminder of where I was going by the passenger icon during the journey (apologies if that's already on-screen somewhere and I just missed it.)
Nice and chill, too. Music and art style fit well together.
Good work! :smile:
Unless I'm missing something, there were no moves that started with left or down (or that I could find that would take you in a particularly leftward or downward direction)...? I really like the idea of having to learn the moves and then strategically chain them both to score points and to avoid other dancers, but having to break combos to run over to the other side of the dance floor really broke any sort of flow you could get into.
Again, cool concept, well executed on a technical level, I just think there needed to be more options for how the player is able to move around the dance floor without breaking combos.
Good work! :slight_smile:
The game has a nice, consistent look to it and the audio work really well with what's on screen. All it needs, really, is a little more complexity in the gameplay loop! :slight_smile:
I'm also guessing--and I could be wrong here--that the camera jittering is from using Unity's pixel perfect camera? I've had trouble trying to get that to work properly in the past myself. Unfortunately, it does end up being a bit of a headache to look at when it's not functioning as you intend it to.
Good work! :smile:
Ugh, I get a lot of those "teeth falling out" dreams, so this hit a little close to home... :confounded:
Gameplay was good though, and challenging. Pretty much lost the whole lower jaw when I went for the "pull rotten teeth" option... :neutral_face:
Well done. Gonna go give my teeth an extra brush, now...
Those time limits were pretty tight!
I enjoyed the personalities of all the penguins. There's a lot you can get across just from character design and a few lines of dialogue.
Great job!
I really liked this, once I realised what I was supposed to be doing. It's a really interesting way of simulating having to rely entirely on your sense of hearing. It was also a lot longer than I expected.
I think the "creature" managed to get somehow "stuck" on me once or twice and I had to wait quite a long time for it to lose interest. The main drawback for me was a lack of depth in what you could do to interact with the creature and maybe keep it at bay. I'll admit, I don't know how I'd fix that issue myself, but in fairness, the road noise to distract you and the things you could step on to draw the creature closer to you by accident went a long way towards making the concept feel more fleshed out.
Overall, great job! It'd be interesting to see if there's anything more you could do with the concept post-jam! :grin:
(Oh, the map you get at the end was a great touch, too!)
Ahh, this was fantastic! :grin: Really loved the gameplay once I got the hang of it--thought I'd gotten away with a fairly small-ish swarm following me, only to loop back to another area and discover the horrors I'd apparently left in my wake...!
The voice lines absolutely made it on the humour front. Really great work!
(My game also happens to be set in a library that's actively out to kill you, so it was a fun coincidence to find yours!)
The mood felt a little casual given the backstory, but I'll admit that I sort of got into it and started finding it relaxing to just light the torches and listen after Ring 2.
I wouldn't be against playing a more fleshed-out walking simulator with the same atmosphere. The casual tone felt more like a kind of subdued melancholy towards the end, which I think could make for an interesting longer experience.
Good work!
Really liked the music and the title/end card drawings! :grin:
The gameplay needed a little polish, although the core concept was definitely there. I was getting hit by (what I think was) enemy projectiles from the previous room whose hitboxes hadn't despawned, and I'm not sure exactly what was going on with the final boss, but it hit me when I wasn't touching it and then only managed to get off one attack before it got caught in a loop by my projectile attack and died... :sweat_smile:
The concept was great, and the enemies all fit in with it really well. It definitely reminded me of one of those dreams where the sound of your alarm gets incorporated into the dream rather than waking you up, and you're running around trying to turn the alarm off in the dream! :laughing:
I had fun--good work! :smile:
Haven't had the time to git gud (as suggested) so I haven't seen all of it, but great job on the voice acting, and I really liked the humour! Made me laugh. :3
Might come back and see if I can't finish it later--good job!
Man, that's pretty difficult...! I wasn't a massive fan of the arc that the projectile takes when you launch it, but once I got used to it, it wasn't a problem, just a little unintuitive.
Simple visual style, but everything works well in unison and it's a pretty easy premise to get quickly, but that doesn't make it easy!
Good work! :smile:
A nice little twin-stick-style shooter! The thematic time limit made things quite challenging and the hard limit on the pull for the AI threw me off a bit at first, but it was fun to play all the same. :smile:
Good work!
Definitely one of those games that taps into that "just one more go" part of the brain. The graphics were simple, but consistent, and fit tonally with the audio and arcady gameplay really well. It'd have been nice to have had a bit more variety in enemy types and behaviours, but I get that it's a jam game and time is limited. :smile:
I'm not sure why the burst fire wasn't just bound to the RMB, rather than you having to cycle through fire modes but, if that's my only complaint, then you're definitely doing something right! :grin:
Good work!
Very simple gameplay, but I did spend a lot more time playing it than I'd like to admit, so it's definitely at least a little addictive... :laughing:
The ghost of Shakespeare sprite looked like it had a lot of work put into it. I had to pull him down to face the camera at the bottom of the screen to get a better look at him. :smile:
It'd probably have been good to have some indicator that you're damaging the boss. Initially I thought you just had to wait for him to flash a few times before he died, but it turns out you can take him out early with a few slashes whilst he's attacking.
Does the typing on the side of the screen actually go any slower the more monkeys you kill, or is it purely aesthetic?
Fun little game though--good job! ^^
Well, it probably sounds a bit odd considering I finished it first try, but I think the controls here really needed to be tighter. I'm used to playing 2D platformers and I used to speedrun them as a hobby, but for a more casual player, I think the lack of any fine control over the movement would be a bit too much. It would probably be best compared to Super Meat Boy, given the speed at which it's supposed to be played but--even though that game *also* caught some flak for similar reasons, if I'm remembering correctly--even *that* had acceleration in its moveset so you could control the character a bit better when you were standing still. Acceleration would probably play well into your theme of time dilation here, too! :grin:
Other than my concerns with the movement, I liked the level design--it was challenging but never obtuse--and I think you implemented your concept really well. The difference in whether you get to spend time with your girlfriend for an observer and for the player was a nice touch! :smile:
Graphics could have been better, but honestly, you played into it well with the "cutscenes" so I'm inclined to say it doesn't matter. :stuck_out_tongue: Plus, having the character be a square in a level made of squares was probably the best thing you could have done to ameliorate the issue I already mentioned with the controls, so fair enough!
The music was suitably reminiscent of messing around with waveforms on an oscilloscope in the lab and fit well. I know the pitch shifts when you move because of the time dilation, but is that just a simple shift that you've hardcoded in, or is it a dynamic shift based on the current level of time dilation? If it's the latter, then that's a really nice touch! :grin:
Good job overall, I had fun! :smiley:
@milq Don't worry too much about it--when you put something a bit niche (like mostly realistic time dilation) into your work, not everyone's going to notice, and that's okay! The people who do notice will always appreciate that you put in the time and effort to get it right. :smile:
For the more general audience, you've just got to make sure that the game feels as engaging to play as you can make it, even if they don't notice the underlying concept. It sounds like you're planning on looking into doing just that after the voting's done, so keep on doing what you're doing, and best of luck! :grin:
There were a couple of times where the minigames started too quickly for me to get my bearings (namely working out where I was in the "dodge the bananas" game) or for the text to get out of the way of the game (candles falling obscured in the "save the candles" game), but overall, they were fun little games and it's really impressive how many you managed to get done given the time limit. :smile:
It's been a while since I played a WarioWare-type game (I think my last one was WarioWare: Touched!...?) and I forgot how much fun they could be. The real limiter with a game like this made for a jam is just how many minigames they need to be interesting. I'd say this one definitely could have done with more, but that--again--I'm impressed that you even got as many done as you did!
The graphics and music obviously weren't the main focus, but even so, they were consistent and didn't distract at all from the gameplay, so I'd say they did their job well!
Really well done! :grin:
I didn't really find that the reduced battery power affected me at all, but that's maybe because I was playing as if I was going to get scored for my completion time...!
On that note, weirdly, I could see a longer version of this sort of game getting a bit of attention from people who enjoy speedrunning because of the chaotic but repeatable physics interactions.
Even though it didn't affect me in-game, I enjoyed the planned obsolescence theme. The updates at the beginning of each level made me chuckle.
Nice work!
Interesting! I've never been all too into dungeon-builder type games, but the art was nice and simple, yet it was easy to tell what everything was.
The animation was nice and bouncy and gave the whole thing a charming appeal. :smiley:
Good job!
Wow, that's frustrating...! Really simple concept, looked really good with sound to match the graphics. Good job!
The horror here was in how fast you expected me to read those notes...! :laughing:
But seriously, I was even prepared for the damn thing to jump out at me, and it still made me jump anyway...! Wasn't expecting... whatever *that* was, so... for a first horror game, good job, you spooked me. :grin:
The atmosphere was good as well. Just the environment in general, actually. I wasn't a big fan of the transitions between areas. I quit out the first time, thinking the game had crashed, but it was okay once I got used to it.
Was a bit hard to get all that immersed whilst I was having to blaze through the text before the uhh... *thing* caught up with me. I think I'd have been able to enjoy your environment and atmosphere design more if I hadn't been concentrating on reading quite so hard.
Overall, great work! :smile:
Wow, this was hard...! ^^; Plus, I've been playing too many From Software games apparently, 'cause I couldn't seem to get it through my head that the rolls didn't have invincibility frames... :laughing:
The music and the graphics worked great together. Really simple but at the same time clean and fairly polished.
I like the take on the theme, too. I've seen a few games with a time until you die mechanic in this jam, but so far this is the one that I felt was best tuned to the actual task you were expected to complete, taking into account the likelihood of setbacks. Not too much, not too little. :smile:
Great job!
Really beautiful. The art, animation, music, and text all worked well together to create a compelling atmosphere. I was actually rather surprised that you spared my feelings at the end, so, thanks for that...!
I feel the controls could have been tighter (the sliding around wasn't great) but maybe it'd have taken more animations that you didn't have time to finish in order make it look right without the acceleration, so fair enough.
That said, though, that's just a bit of a nitpick--overall, it didn't detract from the experience. You guys did really well here, I'd be interested in seeing what you could make together outside of the time constraints of a game jam. :smile:
Oh, just to add, I realised as I was leaving that the theme of this jam really makes the ending quite bittersweet... If it's just delaying the inevitable, then it's hardly a happy ending. That realisation actually added something extra to the experience.
As I already said, great work. :slight_smile:
Fun little experience! The sounds made me chuckle, especially the little "yippee!" at the end of each level! :laughing:
The random generation of the lava sometimes turned the game into an exercise in patience as you had to wait for quite a while in the later levels to get anything traversable, but I'll admit that I'm not sure how else you would go about it. Possibly constructing pre-made sections of lava about a quarter to a third of the screen wide, and then randomly generating groups of those...?
Could have done with some music, but it was fun to play and I enjoyed myself. :smile:
Good work!
Really nice music and artwork. The sfx were a bit loud compared to everything else, but it all had a really chill mood to it. :smile:
The main gameplay mechanic was something I hadn't seen before. It could get a bit annoying at times, working to a timer rather than having direct control of the swapping, but it gave the game a certain rhythm that I think forced you to be a bit calmer and more careful when playing.
Good work! :grin:
Big fan of the character designs and the animation! :grin: Also think that the greyscale/monochrome visuals worked really well.
There were some issues with the policeman getting caught on the corners of buildings, and I did manage to get inside a building at one point by accident but then couldn't get out again...!
Anyway, I managed to ditch all the body parts and follow the cop around for a while to watch his lovely little walk animation, so I count that as a win. :smile:
Nice work!
Really charming! I don't know about controller controls, but the keyboard controls were very sensitive. Other than that though, the graphics and music were great and worked really well with one another.
I don't know why cleaning up suddenly becomes fun when it's in a video game with a cute ghost, but there we go. :stuck_out_tongue:
Great work!
I don't usually like social satire games but... Yeah, basically... :neutral_face:
Really well polished. A lot like Reigns, but, you know... depressingly true. :unamused:
Great job. Reluctant thumbs up. :wink::thumbsup:
Well, that was sad, but depressingly true... :sweat_smile:
Really liked the character design, especially the small details like the emotion on the little boy's face whilst playing with his teddy bear.
The maze definitely gave me Yume Nikki flashbacks, though...! :smile:
The game freezes if you push the chair in the kitchen up to a wall and then push it again into the wall, just so you know. I had to restart a few times because of that.
Also, in the English release, it'd be good to have the Latin characters on the first page of the character naming screen and the Cyrillic on the second. I totally get that it makes more sense the other way around in the original, but for localisation purposes, it would be good to swap them around. :smiley:
Really good job!
Super stylish! Really well presented--the art, text, palette, particles and sounds all worked together really well to build up a slick and cohesive experience. :smile:
I felt like there could have been a bit more depth to the gameplay. Perhaps recovering more health if you hit an enemy *just* as they're about to fire their arrow (seeing as how they already give you a little indication in advance), or even some way of dodging through arrows, which would of course be risky when the screen starts to fill up. Maybe some enemy variants too.
A little bit of unobtrusive background music would have really rounded the experience off, I think--it's a little conspicuous in its absence...!
You did really well here, though, please don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed this! If you decide to do more with it post-jam, I'd love to see how it turns out! :grin:
Interesting idea. I did like the old cat who doesn't even try to kill you and just stands shaking his head, judging you for your life choices. :laughing:
The sprites looked like you put a lot of effort into the animations, but I was wondering why you decided to draw Teddy with a really clear black outline when everything else had a more rounded look? It sort of set him apart and, unfortunately, made him clash a bit with the rest of the game.
I probably wouldn't have finished the game if it wasn't for Teddy being an absolute tank, though. :smile:
Go Teddy!
That's pretty difficult considering how simple it is! :laughing: I know it goes against the backstory you've written, but gameplay-wise, you could make it more of a spatial awareness game than a reaction game if the UFOs came from the edge of the screen rather than from the planet in the middle. Alternatively, you could do both for some variety!
Nice work! :grin:
Ohhhhhh, the *largest* number of boxes... Why didn't you say so...? :laughing:
Thought I'd won because I broke that bridge with just a single box. :sunglasses:
Other than the fact that the tutorial tried to up the difficulty by giving me the wrong instructions (LMB not RMB!), it was a pretty fun little physics sim game.
Good work! :grin:
Definitely amusing, although I struggled with the execution a bit...! I can type at a pretty decent rate, but not when I've got one hand on the mouse trying to keep the boss happy at the same time... :sweat_smile:
A bit more of a gap between times when the boss shows up, or yes/no options that are on the keyboard (so, maybe numbers, or "+" and "-" or something) might have made the experience lean more towards challenging, rather than frustrating!
Also, I don't know if I was just mistaking it for another letter, but it never seemed to like it when I tried to enter the "Y" prompt, for some reason.
Funny concept though--good work! :smile: