Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Joseph Miller
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Surface Dwellers and Pit People | compo | 702 | 3.04 | 2.85 | 4.12 | 2.40 | 2.73 | 2.53 | 46 | |||
| 2012 | 25 | You are the Villain | A Reason for Vengeance | compo | 259 | 3.18 | 2.84 | 2.68 | 3.41 | 2.98 | 2.10 | 2.27 | 3.45 | 79 |
I actually really enjoyed this despite the lack of challenges. Walking around was fun and the game was the right length so that it didn't get tedious. I definitely felt like a really evil person playing this game, which is saying a lot since a lot of these games feature actively killing innocent people (like mine) and in this one you just walk around talking to rats. But you do in a really villainy way.
I cannot figure out what to type in to check my network interfaces. I tried every permutation of that command I could think of. I like the intro, even though it was a tad long for me.
Generally speaking I think parser-based games (like this) are a relic that designers should avoid. For this kind of story without a Parser see Analogue by Christine Love. Emily Short wrote a good essay about the perils of parser-based games, which you can read here (http://emshort.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/so-do-we-need-this-parser-thing-anyway/)
I don't really get the scoring, sometimes I get points and sometimes I don't and sometimes they are negative? I really liked the teleport mechanic as a way to dodge bullets. I also really enjoyed the aesthetic of the graphics. I wish more designers were daring enough to use few colors.
I like how the Troll bobs his head. It's a nice touch. I wish the game felt less arbitrary and gave me more positive feedback than just printing my number of flowers. If I could sometimes earn my own bombs or something that'd be cool. Obviously it's hard to get everything done you want in 48 hours and I know my game has a lot of features missing that I wanted, but that is my two cents.
I like the idea of stomping knights. I think this type of game would really benefit from some kooky sounds.
Cool idea. I really liked the metaphor in the second level of digging the country out of a hole. Unfortunately there was a lot of bugginess and collision stuff that needed to be resolved. When I fell off the edge of the second level once I'd reached the top I couldn't find the motivation to redo it. I would've liked some sort of indicator that I was heading the right direction even though I got the point (in level 2).
This game has a tremendous amount of polish and the interface is very well done. The gameplay doesn't grab me at all, though. There isn't a great way to tell what kind of obstacles you'll face which makes it feel kind of arbitrary. I wish there was some kind of scouting mechanic. The variety of characters is great though.
Very solid. Feels like a finished project with tons of polish. The scope of the game is just right. You didn't overextend yourself, but it still feels like there is a lot of game there. A wider variety of level designs would've made it perfect.
Excellent art and use of theme. You don't need an Armageddon weapon or minions to be a villain.
I got 316. I wish the fire moved a little faster, but overall the game was great. Felt a bit like a DS game, almost having two separate gameplay components simultaneously. I really liked the tilted plane to represent mortal life.
I really like how you did the individual fights. It was simple , fast, and communicated what you needed to know. I wish the tiles had been bigger so that clicking them was a little easier. Also, the distance to the other heroes outside the wall seems unnecessarily far.
Waiting for the characters to move back and forth was tedious. The writing was pretty good, and I liked the overall idea, but it wasn't a terribly compelling experience. Loved the graphics, though.
I really like the scope of the project, but the lack of any kind of obvious way to save or restarting me with my experience earned was a pretty strong disincentive to play more than once or twice. The gameplay was pretty fun, but it's frustrating to get so set back when it seems easy to wander into an area where the enemies are too strong for you.
Your work, as usual, is engrossing. I love that a game verb is "dribble vomit down your chin" or whatever. I'd like to see you branch out a bit, but in a 48 hour compo I know it's best to stick to what you know.
I won! I really liked the lighting in the game. The camera movement accompanying the player movement was distracting. I'm not really sure why the camera started so far zoomed in, it seems strictly better to always be zoomed out to check out what the guards are up to.
Couldn't finish and so couldn't see how it tied in with the theme. I think either the theme needs to be apparent from the beginning if the game will be hard, or the game needs to be easier/shorter if the theme only shows at the end. The graphics are beautiful and so is the sound design. The repelling mechanic is also really cool and satisfying.
There is some lag and the sin-spreading mechanic is fun, but undermined by the sense of urgency of getting it over with so you don't get angel'd. I wish I had more time to consider what I wanted to do. The graphics were good.
Loved the graphical style, wish there were checkpoints so I didn't have to go all the way back to the beginning. The interpretation of the theme was good.
I like the idea, and it reminds me of my game in many ways. The writing is a little melodramatic (as is mine), but I really enjoyed the graphics. I also appreciate that the game was compressed enough that finding different endings didn't require too much time. All in all though, the experience didn't elicit any strong reaction from me.
I really like the sound effects, and I also like that even though "You Are the Villain," you can't actually stop children from getting presents, in the end. The art style was fun. I wish there had been a little more complexity or one more feature, but overall it was an enjoyable 2 minutes.
I got 5,404 points. I also used Stencyl to make my game, you should check it out. There is something incredibly satisfying about running around munching on goats. Not sure how well it fits the theme though, are animals really being "villains" when they eat other animals for food?
The mouse mechanics as the core gameplay was really great. I think they were really evocative and helped set the mood for the game. The polish was very low, but I think the vision surpasses the so-so implementation and still leaves me feeling like this was a very impressive gaming experience.
I got 87,500 points. I really liked the graphics and sound design, they contributed to a strong mood. I wish their had been more feedback about how gameplay worked. I see that my media people can be connected, does that give me some kind of bonus? Is there an advantage to having them arranged a certain way?
I like the sound effects and approach to the theme. More content would've been better, and the gameplay is really easy once you figure out you only have to really guard one machine to win.
Great use of humor, especially in R&D. The scope of the interface was good even though it was sometimes hard to read. I liked that each area had it's own separate screen. I would've liked more information about how upgrades worked. Otherwise it felt hard to develop a strategy.
The mouse gestures are really cool, but could use slightly better implementation. Once you lose once or twice the prospect of playing again doesn't feel that interesting or compelling.
I don't get what the point of NOT teaching the player the gestures. It may make sense to hide certain interactions, but leaving me totally in the dark wasn't particularly compelling.
The fights can take a long time and it's hard to stay engaged since you can't actually take any action during them. I really like the idea of modifying aesthetic characteristics to effect a fight though. I think it would be helpful if there were more clues about how the different characteristics affected the combat.
@JoeCool: I've added something to the notes to justify how this fits the theme.
Erin Go Bragh is the game font.
Yeah, relying too much on text is definitely one of my weak points as a designer.
@ Maikeroppi: Thanks for the detailed comments, they are really helpful.
@Norgg. Part of my original plan was to create a special scenario and mission for making the choice to give up right after your brother is murdered, where you serve Artheus and spread love magic instead of having to kill anyone, but didn't have time. Maybe in a post-compo version.
I wish there was some kind of audio/visual feedback for claiming territory. Also it was unclear to me why I could claim territory in some places but not others. My minion also seemed to do nothing. I like the sound design and graphics though.
Astonishing game. Really superb. The level design was awesome, though sometimes I felt myself backtracking quite a bit. The art design and graphics as great as was the sound. This really felt like a great jam game in that it clearly allowed a huge amount of great content to be made and put together in a really focused way.
Got to the boss, it was really great. The music and sound design was superb. I also really like how the game rules explored villainy. It was really much easier to just create a bullet storm that nothing could survive in, rather than worry too much about killing innocents, which is exactly the problem with US counter-terrorism philosophy. A great example of how a game can make a point without beating you over the head with it.
Losing lives-->game over is a pretty outdated and player-unfriendly mechanic but other than that the game is great. I love the back/foreground scrolling and story.
This game hurt my hand. I wish I had different ways to deal with the enemies other than just clicking them. The interface looked nice, though.
I'm not really a fan of games where the main mechanic is spam clicking. The graphics and sound are quite good though.
This game is amazing. It's just what a 48 hour game should be: compact, fun, with excellent presentation, and a reason to keep playing. I wish the asteroids moved a little faster, though.
Great game. I love the innovative mechanic and the interpretation of villainy. There were a lot of nice looking assets, and the title screen is very nice. I wish there were more tools at my disposal other than just rocks, but it's a minor complaint.
I like the hero AI and level design, but it seemed rather easy with very little reason to try playing again. The design concept was also very good.
I love the goat at the end. So much.
I beat it! Very good design. The fun animations and interactions compliment the puzzle design very well. The sound was good and even though I had to replay the levels many times it didn't feel very tedious.
Difficult but rewarding. I was surprised there was a second level (and maybe more?) Graphics are amazing, as usual. I wish I had more tools at my disposal but spawning dudes is satisfying and looks great so it's a minor complaint.
A great game. A bunch of polished content, solid mechanics, great graphics/sound. I really liked the humor ("a really long summon animation plays and then...") Can't ask for much more except a third hero to squash.
The gameplay here is too simple to be very engaging and without a story it's just not a very engaging experience. The controls worked well and I liked the simple aesthetic, though.
The superhero AI was surprisingly good and challenging. I did beat it, but some kind of sound effects or music would've been helpful in making the experience more engaging. The store background was very good as were the animations.
Great game. I liked the upgrade system and the feel of the game. I wish I didn't have to start at the absolute beginning each time I died until the boss fight. It just felt tedious once I was powerful enough for it not to be a challenge. That is a pretty minor complaint though. I liked the interpretation of the theme and the game was very fun to play.
Having two separate objectives (coins and goats) didn't really appeal to me, especially since collecting coins didn't seem to get me anything. I would rather just finish the level. I appreciated that you designed so many levels, but wish there were more new elements or ideas in each one. I really enjoyed the music, but don't know if it really matched the theme of the game. The vision code effect worked out very nicely.
Felt tedious due to how difficult it was to get food, then my henchies would randomly die despite my leveling them up. The interface and graphics were nice though.
Wish my minions could move faster so that the game could move at a greater pace. It also seems easy to get into an unsolvable game state, which isn't ideal. I like the idea though, and the choice of genre is pretty unique of the games I've played.
I love that your minions start building you a tower once they are the only ones left on the map, it was a surprise and I really enjoyed it. I also thought it was an interesting commentary on villainy that it's really the person who influences people to do wrong things that is villainous, not necessarily the people themselves. Overall this was really strong. The graphics were good enough to communicate the story and the sound was engaging. I love that influencing one person is more effective than trying to influence a bunch at once. I feel truly villainous waiting until people are distant from their family to turn them into my minion. I think the only thing I'd say is that there should be more clues as to how the simulation works, because I'm worried that people wouldn't be persistent and won't see all the thought that you put into this.
I got up to $110. I really liked the scrolling backgrounds and the main character sprite. Maybe I'm a masochist, but I really enjoy games where just controlling your character is a bit tricky. You might want to check out Trois, which is an LD25 entry which your game sort of reminded me of in that respect.
I don't feel like I have a lot of control in this game, but I like the idea of reverse tower defense. The best strategy seems to simply be to wait to amass gold and run by the defenses, which isn't particularly engaging.
This game was nuts. I really enjoyed it while simultaneously was really frustrated. I think it's cool to take something we take for granted in games (walking around) and turning it into the core mechanic and making it a challenge. I was yelling at my computer "Lift it, brother!" like a deranged person.
That being said I think the link to the theme is pretty tenuous.
I wish I could move faster. It seemed hard to curry enough favor with the interest groups to get their special power. I really like the theme/message of the game.
Yo I played this game until I went to sleep last night and then got up this morning and immediately started playing it again. In terms of its level of addictive fun, it's on par with any commercial game. I love the simple graphics and appreciate that you were willing to risk people complaining about that in order to give the gameplay incredible depth. I agree that the game is easy, but for me that doesn't make it that much less fun. There's something really engaging about analyzing the upcoming attack pattern and trying to figure out the optimal way to deal with it. My only big piece of constructive criticism is in the naming conventions. When you back in time to become the Demon Lord, shouldn't your actions in the battle be attributed to the Demon Lord and the AI's actions attributed to [player name]? I found this confusing the first time I looped back.
The art design and graphics are great. I don't know why you provide a mini-map. It's too tempting to just look at that and then you don't spend as much time looking at your great graphics. The gameplay was solid enough for the length of the game.
I think it says a lot about video games that my first thought was "I don't really see how this fits the theme," and then I realized "Oh, maybe it's because I'm killing people for absolutely no reason." Killing is really built into our minds as something that's normal and acceptable, at least in the video game world.
I enjoy blowing the people up and turning myself into a continuous explosion by spamming bombs and using the chain reaction mechanic to become a whirlwind of fire. I got 1500 points.
I wish there was an ending for allowing your store to go under and allowing 0 deaths. Otherwise I thought the graphics were quite good and the concept was well executed. Some sound would've been appreciated.
I love me some turn based strategy. Some sound effects would've helped to characterize the different kinds of attacks, but I really liked the graphics you used. I wish I could restart the level when I lost instead of restarting the game. The homage/parody is pretty gratifying.
I really like the difficulty curve of this game. You get a lot of powerups but the difficulty keeps up with you to keep it challenging. Really fun. The theme interpretation was solid, but if anything could be better, I would say a more creative/in-depth exploration of the theme. The goat mechanic was great.
I really enjoy how this takes pixel hunting, commonly an annoyance, and turns it into a really engaging game mechanic through highly responsive environments and strong graphical work. Would definitely play a version of this that was 2 or 3 times longer, don't know if just that mechanic by itself would hold up much longer than that without some frills.
A very nice experience, would definitely wander around these woods some more. I really appreciated all the environmental touches, like the bugs and falling leaves.
I got 407. It seems like if you're going to limit the vision of the player and also ask that they dodge falling objects and avoid lethal objects at the edge of the screen that the controls should be a little more responsive and tight. The art style was cool though, and I appreciated the audio as well.
I really like the clean graphics and how responsive the game feels despite not having many animations.
@ThingoStudio: If you found a way to enjoy it other than how I intended, I count that as an extra win :)
Good suggestions about goals and gamestate feedback, I think devs (including myself) tend to assume that the goals/game state are obvious since we designed it, but more feedback is always good.
The graphics work really well. The sounds are a little incongruous, and the controls don't always respond the way I expect/want them to, but overall good.
Worked for me in Chrome.
The second player to attempt the level seems to always spawn right next to the goal? I just played by opening a second tab, so I'm not sure if it was all working the way it's supposed to. Really nice design, clean interface and goal, and going the extra mile for multiplayer is sweet.
Really cool idea, but I couldn't replicate any of the melodies. I don't have great hearing though. Wish there was some kind of visual help, but the art style is great. I really enjoy minimalism.
Fun to play, the frantic gameplay mixes well with the simple but loaded words. I like the general feeling of the game.
I got that walnut so good. So good.
The animations are delightful and the palette is very pleasant.
Amazing production for a compo. The gameplay is simple but fun, I wish I had more time to put into it right now, only found one treasure so far. The sailing animation is nice, wish there was a turbo item to make moving around a little easier when I go far out of my way.
Dr. Pepsi's fourth line in the good ending dialogue made me laugh out loud, as did the game over screen.
I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I liked the retro feel of going back and forth between the text documents and the game and the graphics and gameplay felt pieced together in a good way.
I was hoping for some visual feedback for the word I needed to type during the boss fight, and then realized the boss was fading as I did so, so good job on that.
The art style and parallax scrolling were very nice. I liked the narrative style of floating text which integrated physical movement and narrative development. The enemies killed me instantly each time I walked outside, so I didn't see much of the game besides the intro.
The lighting effects are super cool and well done. The controls feel a bit "slippery" sometimes, but the atmosphere is great.
The way the environmental colors shifted as you progressed through the game was really smart, and I appreciate the highly minimal and abstract graphics and music. The environment design at the beginning was a little frustrating because I felt like I made early inconsequential mistakes that closed off large paths of exploration, but overall the mood was quite strong.
Interesting mechanic. A slightly more responsive environment would've been nice (animations, visual effects, more sound effects, etc. Don't necessarily need all of them, but one of those would've been good.) Good use of theme.
The left/right movement animation for the blob reminds me of the diseased boar god from the beginning of Princess Mononoke, in an extremely good way. The animation is organic but also cinematic.
Overall the art style is very inspiring, I'm a huge fan of minimalism and abstraction.
The reveal of the town was really well done. The pacing and length of this game is very pleasant. It felt like moving sideways was pretty pointless, so from a streamlined perspective, maybe just don't even bother letting the player do that? If your game really just uses one control it's okay to own up to it as long as the game is still cohesive (which it is.)