Valhalla by snickersnacks 2014-12-28T03:17:00
Some parts of this were nicely executed, being able to speed it up to times 50 was nice and the text above peoples heads and their movement was done well, but it would have been nice if events happened much more frequently or if there was some visual indication/benefit to trying to increase the average satisfaction of customers. Not bad at all but quickly ended up in a cycle where money wasn't an issue, had the extra bar tender and bouncer, and just kept restocking drinks. Lowered the price of drinks too but didn't feel any impact and it was just a waiting game to see if another event would occur. Getting to see how many customers you had in the bar and their average satisfaction would have added a nice sense of accomplishment to each day, maybe even a star rating for your bar to try and reach 5 stars or something of the sort. Still it was a solid entry, well done :).
LD38 — A Small World (25)
Stardust - A space adventure by shiitman 2017-05-03T06:25:12Z ♥ 2
Great aesthetic and immediately charming visuals and dialog.
|+ The visual style was great and felt well rounded out. |+ The dialog was a lot of fun with some genuinely funny moments and back and forth banter between the astronaut and the player that built upon itself (e.g. the 5th wall broken being the actual "5th wall" the astronaut broke). |+ The puzzles were light and sensible even though I didn't realize I could combine items within the inventory for awhile.
|= The 'fidelity' differences of the drawn art (some looking sharp/others blurred) made it more difficult for me to comfortably look around the environment.
A fun adventure, even if the computer should have learnt its lesson by now haha. Short but really enjoyable/satisfying experience :)!
Glass Houses by volando 2017-05-03T06:02:41Z ♥ 3
Beautiful atmosphere. Even if I knew what was going to happen on the second day the end was still really satisfying/was well presented.
|+ The art and atmosphere built up and the changes to the behavior and appearance of characters helped add impact and a sense of progression until the end. |+ A strong sense of polish and heart, everything was well presented.
|= Wasn't sure whether to make this a positive or a negative, but walking back and forth to 'progress' felt relatively dull, but it did help add to the impact of the changes within the 'village'. Visual novels at least have dialog but without that here the experience could be shared more broadly which is nice so I think it suits the atmosphere that was made.
Overall it was a nice and sweet story that didn't stretch out the message unnecessarily which could have negatively effected it so great work :)!
King of the world by Linus 2017-05-03T05:40:02Z ♥ 1
A fun light strategy game with solid polish felt, though the hybrid of turn based/real time can feel awkward.
|+ The presentation felt smooth and having a button be able to take you straight to the general for example was a nice touch. |+ The tutorial was a nice mix of instructions and actions that helped you engage with the game quickly. |+ The strategy felt rewarding even if it did take ideas strongly from risk/other area control boardgames.
|- The turn based/real time mix didn't feel as intuitive as it could have.
I think if you doubled the time taken per turn and had a countdown timer it could have met a nice balance kind of like tower defense games. It was still fun to try though and the polish was appreciated so well done :)!
Galactic Girl and the Puzzle Planets by GerardB 2017-05-02T18:13:20Z ♥ 3
A fun visual style and short but sweet with some really fun ideas using the suit within the puzzles, but the gameplay had some hiccups.
|+ Lovely visual style and overall presentation with sound/music that really complemented the mood. |+ The way the suit was used in multiple ways within each puzzle either doubling as a weight or a combination along with jumping out of it was quirky and great.
|+ The movement especially in some moments really broke the engagement. I spent several minutes just trying to jump with the suit onto a platform but would either miss-time it and have to wait a whole cycle for it to come back, accidentally jump out of the suit, or land on the platform but slide off the other side and have to wait all over again. Even if the platform just stayed in the position for a moment it would have made it so much easier.
Even with the movement troubles, trying to workout and see how the suit interacted with the puzzles was genuinely fun and felt like a light but fresh twist to thinking things through. And even though it was short everything else felt engaging and polished so great work :)!
kumo. by Turbo Hermit 2017-05-02T17:54:17Z ♥ 2
A cute, relaxing and easily accessible experience.
|+ Art and sound compliment each other to naturally build a calm environment/atmosphere.
|- Your actions don't really feel impactful at all
I think it might have been nice while keeping with the tone to have a night cycle too, so you could try and rain in certain area's only at night to grow night flowers, then have day flowers elsewhere. That way you could build some natural diversity and have a light but meaningful impact on the end result. Still as a light and relaxing experience this was nice and well polished :)!
HexaHover by PaulSB 2017-05-02T17:43:44Z ♥ 1
A cute small game with light but accessible gameplay and a fun overall tone.
|+ The visual style and hexagon surface/dangers builds a nice atmosphere.
|- It's difficult to easily see your vehicle's direction, combined with the slippery movement it becomes hard to control/make adjustments.
Personally I would have liked a bit less speed with the boost button lasting shorter with a bit more grip to slow you down at the end, but it does build a light 'mario-party-minigame' esque atmosphere and it really works well for that environment. It also feels really well polished with the beginning interface and fun emoticons/being able to change colors that helps get you in that quick-silly fun game mood. Great work and fun for the kind of lighthearted pace it looks to be targeting :)!
Skylets by Dink_Dunk 2017-05-02T17:22:16Z ♥ 4
Immediately charming presentation, reminds me of 'grow home'/'grow up' in a really positive way, with a light but fun premise almost like an expanded mario party game.
|+ The visual style and overall character is great alongside the fun characters to meet too. |+ The diversity of how planets not only looked but how they broke apart added to the experience and kept it from feeling too repetitive, especially with the first impression of each new planet. |+ The movement felt fun/casual, which complimented the overall style/charm. I also never felt the need to reset the camera which helped keep the games pace moving smoothly.
|- The jump didn't always feel responsive, like it needed more time to establish you were grounded? Not a massive deal in comparison to the rest but it did break me out of the experience.
An awesome first go at Ludum Dare. It doesn't pull me in in a way that has me wanting to play it again but I absolutely loved my experience with it and not every game needs replay value, awesome job all of you :)!
Food Fight by Scornz 2017-05-02T16:43:30Z ♥ 4
The theme/presentation immediately grabs you-really fun main menu and having everything fall into place to begin the game sets the tone well.
|+ The art/presentation was really great, and the way the enemies fall apart with the sushi is a great touch. |+ Dodging the falling ingredients between waves helps add variety to the pace of gameplay. |+ The fresh environment between waves freshens up your tactics as you need to find a new path to navigate/objects to hide behind.
|- Even with the environment changing the weapon firing starts to feel repetitive.
I think with the way the environment 'rebuilds itself' each wave, even one additional enemy type/pattern could have expanded the games engagement a lot. Though it was fun to play through once and feels thoroughly polished it doesn't feel like there's enough interaction to be had especially when just holding down fire. If the bullets did more damage but were slower it could quickly enhance the aspect of navigating each new array of items, and maybe the difficulty of the enemies could increase a bit faster still. Great work though, I still really enjoyed the short time I did spend with it :)!
Hexoworld 9999 by Lugdumdare Team 2017-05-02T16:18:25Z ♥ 2
As others have mentioned, the beginning is rough/unfair considering the simple inability to reach the other side-though it'd be difficult to balance if you started too fast. Maybe just have the initial set of asteroids start slower? Still it quickly becomes a fun small but engaging experience.
|+ The tilting of your aim based on the hexagonal boarder adds an easy to grasp but fun twist to your navigation/targeting of enemies. |+ The powerups being able to stack (e.g. getting more than just 3 bullets spread) is great. |+ Light hearted and fun visuals (love how the asteroids burn up).
|- The beginning inability to reach asteroids because of your speed/their quick decent/short distance before the planet. |- The weaker/stronger asteroids being practically impossible to spot (didn't even know there was a visual indication until reading these comments-though my eyesight is bad at the moment).
A fun and accessible foundation that's already a joy to experience, great work!
Limited Space by Vidinu 2017-05-02T16:02:40Z ♥ 4
The concept of the hybrid is great with a strong visual/UI polish but I feel a simplification of systems and more efficient navigation of the interface could have really helped it shine more.
|+ A great overall style and atmosphere, landing on the rectangular planets and how they build out makes for fun visuals and charm. |+ Balancing your resources and hoping the next block of land has what you need creates nice tension. |+ The combination of mechanics (flying in space and collecting resources on separated land) feels like a natural and great combination
|- It's not obvious what resources you need to help maintain what part of your ship. |- Having to select the tile astronauts are on before moving them to another tile feels unnecessary and interrupts the flow of gameplay when you're limited by time (otherwise it would have felt tactile). |- The navigation of asteroids felt empty compared to the resource management.
Maybe if you had asteroids hint at what they had in them visually, and you have to attack them to access blocks to land on it could help both add to the asteroid segment and connect both areas of the game even more with a constant thread of engagement. Also if resources were gathered quicker but could run out it would increase the value of finding blocks with multiple lakes/etc while increasing the games momentum while giving you more reason to move your characters around. Adapting or combining resources may help the game be more accessible as a fun small experience, for example color coding the resources and having both food and water keep one bar afloat separate to the others. Regardless you've got a solid idea here that was great fun to try, so I hope you're able to find a way to strengthen it even more :)!
Protoware Planet by josefalanga 2017-05-02T15:26:09Z ♥ 2
Immediately engaging atmosphere with a pretty fun sense of movement.
|+ Having enemies go around the world and come up behind you isn't fun (but in a good way!) |+ The scale of the world relative to the experience/amount of enemies feels just right. |+ Bullets also being affected by the gravity was a nice touch and helped your long range firing.
|- Bullets felt weak and relatively tedious to fire instead of engaging. |- Feedback when damaging enemies also felt weak even with the minor knockback they seemed to have.
I think if the player could only take 1 hit that would immediately increase the tension while on the spherical planet. Then also possibly balance out the combat by having slower firing but more impactful/louder/heavier bullets that could be either held down or clicked repetitively to balance the pace. If enemies could lift off the ground too so you couldn't easily shoot them from ontop a roof that'd help polish the experience more. It was still a solid entry with a strong atmosphere though and just knowing that after not seeing an enemy for a minute one was likely behind you it was a fun kind of tense, great work :)!
World Tetris by mde 2017-05-02T15:04:14Z ♥ 1
A really cute premise/twist on Tetris.
|+ The colors/style really complements the bright mix of blocks as they come together. |+ Easy gameplay to grasp.
|- The size of the screen combined with the speed and difficulty to move blocks made some of the difficulty feel more awkward than engaging. |- Beyond the idea there wasn't much engagement or desire to keep playing.
I think even just a change of the pace of blocks movement and a larger area to play with could open it up some more as a fun little passtime. A nice take on the theme with a solid idea that could shine with a bit more happening or a smoother play experience/motion with the blocks, still great work for 7 hours :)!
Way Out by Mutfak Studios 2017-05-02T14:43:33Z ♥ 1
Somehow I managed to win on the 15 or so attempt (hadn't even made it to the second screen attempts 1~10). Though nothing felt especially new, I felt the jumping was seriously solid and the resulting motion felt polished even as hard as the overall gameplay seemed (not being especially good at 'twitch-reflex' games didn't help). By the 12th attempt though it became a metagame of what mice I can just avoid and which ones I have to actually kill.
|+ Movement in general and the weight of your fall felt classic but much less clunky than many old games. |+ Enemy AI and general decisions regarding them (e.g. the bat always moving down in an arc first when targeting the player and going back to its perch if you went far enough, the mice being just short of most changes in terrain height). |+ Visuals while simple complimented each-other and the overall tone presented. |+ The audio of the cavern helped the atmosphere and hearing the initial music presented when you reached the boss gave an immediate sense of accomplishment/boost in morale. |+ The frequency of health drops from enemies and the checkpoints at each screen including the boss, which would have otherwise felt unjustly difficult. |+ The zoomed in experience with the boss battle was a nice touch that helped increase its impact and 'epicness'.
|- The level structure of the 3rd area/just before the boss felt a bit too open. While it added some variety the mechanic of the switches had me crossing my fingers hoping I'd randomly hit the right ones and was headed in the right direction. |- If the mouse felt more awkward/less dynamic to fight than the bat. |- The boulder indicators in the boss battle could have stood out more (initially just thought they were some graphic glitch as they appeared in the middle of the screen instead of the ground or ceiling-may have been a result of the resolution though as I also couldn't see my health)
I think if you had the mouse take only 2 hits but when it was hit it got knocked back further and would then leap above/towards your head it could have made those engagements more interesting and add a more consistent change of pace between just hitting switches and navigation. Then only have the bats drop hearts to give you more frequently an incentive to take a risk to attack them. That does however change the pace of gameplay so only an idea rather than critique. As a whole though the experience felt like the epitimy of a solid game, nothing special but it felt like it had heart so great work!
Little Remains by nilead 2017-05-01T17:04:50Z ♥ 5
The atmosphere was certainly enthralling and the dialog was engaging enough, but I felt it suffered too many of the same problems as the games it seemed to take inspiration from.
|+ Atmosphere was really great and the initial premise and world building immediately grabbed you. |+ The art and overall design of the environment/characters really was great. |+ The Dialog pulled you along well even if it lacked a satisfying ending.
|- The transitions between scenes were awkward to find/accidentally discover. |- The gameplay involving trying to find objects amounted to me hitting spacebar as I walked around the environment hoping to randomly find them, as when I accidentally found the first one I couldn't even tell I had and the following 2 items I still couldn't recognize prior to randomly discovering them.
Though it grabbed my attention at first I regrettably hoped to reach the conclusion of it quickly as it felt like an uncomfortably awkward point and click adventure. However still the overall atmosphere and world presented was enjoyable to be a part of and interact with, great work :)!
Microbe Mash by LeFayGames 2017-05-01T16:37:49Z ♥ 4
A fun and immediately engaging experience helped by the charming characters/art of each shape.
|+ The elegant physics of each piece being pulled together just inherently feels nice. |+ I really enjoyed the progression of new information/tips at the bottom of each level.
|- I felt the timer within this kind of experience was at least personally unnecessary, especially when-though only occasionally-the elasticity of the characters being pulled towards each-other and bouncing could run out the clock. Though I think this opinion is even more subjective than most so it's not the biggest issue, just it could have resulted in any larger puzzles than those included feel tedious/frustrating without adding anything meaningful to the experience.
? I ended up so engaged with it that I clicked 'next' before realizing it said exit haha. A really solid little puzzler that while not inherently unique ('spot the difference', etc puzzles) was done in such a way that I was happy to see it as another game within the genre. Even if I couldn't always pull it off, I felt like the start of the level gave me enough information that I should know what path to take to win it which meant I never felt frustrated when I messed up (and the restart button helped a lot with that too). Awesome work :)!
PogoPogo by obvious-san 2017-05-01T16:11:23Z ♥ 4
Such a fun and cute little experience!
|+ The whole concept, crowdsurfing, a great idea in itself but you executed it so well with the super charming art and atmosphere. |+ Seeing the enthusiastic crowd grow as more people enter and you motivate them is a great site. |+ The addition of little things like the fun sparks when the pogo meter was high enough.
|- It wasn't entirely clear how the score/pogo meter increased or what could be done to improve it (across multiple attempts I would get the highest pogo meter at the beginning/with the fewest people).
? A really great and fun entry. It might have been nice to instead have you recover stamina by crowdsurfing instead of the beer to integrate that more, but regardless even if I couldn't see any strategy or means to intentionally gain a higher score, I really enjoyed my time with it, awesome work :)!
Destruction Zone by Chronosv2 2017-05-01T15:35:26Z ♥ 1
A really solid, fun experience even if it feels kind of classic (more positively than negatively though)
|+ The loop of trying to protect towers and yourself as the arena shrinks is nice. |+ There's a nice sense of escalation with the introduction of new enemies. |+ Having the loss of towers also impact your remaining time was a great way to emphasize the impact of their loss while also adding extra engagement. |+ The art feels consistent and creates an easy to read environment
|- The starting enemies didn't really grab your attention.
? I think if the first enemies grabbed an initial target instead of just the closest that could have immediatley made a more engaging initial stage-trying to have them chase you while dodging their bullets instead of letting them reach a tower first. Personally I didn't feel the need for additional types, just each being more meaningfully engaging like the suggestion above, to compliment the compact experience. Still I really enjoyed playing it, great work :)!
Bumble Jumble by bram_ve 2017-05-01T15:06:26Z ♥ 1
The atmosphere was really strong in this, but sadly the inelegant gameplay really held it back.
|+ Beautiful atmosphere/environment, even if a bit too bloomy/difficult to see.
|- The camera felt really awkward with it auto-correcting its angle while also being how you're meant to move. |- The movement felt really stiff which made the navigation-the core of the game not very satisfying.
? Again the atmosphere created is really wonderful, but regrettably the gameplay just wasn't fun. I think if the movement was more satisfying/smooth and maybe as the bee you instead pollinated flowers in the environment to emphasize just the joy of exploring/looking throughout the environment it could have been a more enjoyable time. Even just having the camera's roll rotation locked and the full movement of the bee controlled by your looking direction (including its height) with the triggers just being adjustments after-the-fact would make for a stronger experience.
This is Cutopia by Heinrix 2017-05-01T14:19:29Z ♥ 2
Thoroughly adorable entry! Not just that though, this is filled with great design decisions that create a really engaging experience.
|+ Those bunnies!! Really charming art/style. |+ The momentum of the vehicle is a real joy. Chasing the direction you see enemies are but then having to correct or try to anticipate slowing down creates a great balance. |+ Strengthening the above point is the choice to have a static target on the vehicle that means you can't simply move to the enemy, but make those decisions to try get past them and turn around or prepare to stop before them. |+ The way rabbits are slowly pulled up to the space ship giving you that tension of knowing you still have a chance to save them but you have to navigate to hit the ship not just once but reliably twice, is really great.
|- The gameplay doesn't progress/evolve too much. |- 'Defeat x waves of enemies' doesn't feel too satisfying combined with the above lack of progression, though waves to defeat is natural for most score targeting games so no points lost for that.
A favorite of mine for sure. Though it doesn't push the boundaries of this kind of games formula much, all those '+' notes really do make for a strong and fun experience, greatly enjoyed my time with it, especially for a first jam this was a great entry, awesome work :)!
Near kingdoms by Hadik 2017-05-01T13:59:07Z ♥ 7
I enjoys these kinds of games. This was neat for a bit with charming art but the gameplay lacked meaningful impact/strategy to me.
|+ Balancing resource gathering with troop deployment adds a nice extra layer of gameplay. |+ The pixel art animations including the flags are super charming. |+ Having just what you need to send out a rider at the same time as the opponent creates fun moments.
|- There's no sense of growth throughout the battle. Resources always felt scarce and you couldn't even attempt on easy to get to the 100 coin items as the enemy would have killed your gatherers before then (or at least I felt it couldn't be achieved).
? I think even a small change like gatherers being a bit more expensive but permanent, and having a unit cap (so you couldn't flood the arena with gatherers) could have really helped add momentum to the gameplay. Without that the gameplay regrettably quickly felt unengaging/repetitive. Still nothing felt wrong so great work on your second entry and goodluck with your next one :).
Destructo Island by morbidcamel101 2017-05-01T13:33:46Z ♥ 2
It was a pretty neat/challenging small shooter but none of the gameplay really clicked for me.
|+ The drones were a simple but sweet enemy to tackle. |+ The Zooming of the scope felt really nice and an appropriate level of zoom for the combat area. |+ Movement seemed standard but effective/smooth.
|- The left mouse shooting felt almost worthless and relatively clunky/ineffective, especially with the seemingly irrelevant need to reload. |- The rocket ended up feeling unintuitive because of what felt like a hidden reloading period (I couldn't see anything tracking it unlike the standard bullets, but after an amount of shots it had some delay. Not being able to see that delay made it feel really awkward to use/rely on).
? I think what might have helped most was swapping the standard bullet tracker/reloader to make those standard shots limitless, with the rocket instead tracked to maybe 3 rounds with a significant reload time to give them more value/impact. Also even on easy I seemed to die when I was hit once, so the healthbar seemed unnecessary and if you made the premise that you couldn't get hit once it'd remove unnecessary UI/lost screen space and add more immediate tension/understanding of the game loop. I feel like the effect of both bullet types really need tweaking but it'd effect the gameplay too much for it to feel a part of what goal you had for it so definitely take this suggestion with a grain of salt. Making the left mouse bullets a bit larger/faster, and having them knock the drones back (maybe also temporarily slow them) could give the player a feel of control as they tweak their situation while trying to get perfect shots with the rocket with additional tension built when it needs to reload (if you also take the suggestion of swapping that reload with the left click reload). And more could still be built off that. Regardless it's still a nice effort with clean UI and all for a short development period so nice work with it :).
Realmpusher by danbolt 2017-05-01T12:42:46Z ♥ 1
The initial premise is really cool, but I don't think it really capitalizes on that idea much sadly.
|+ Once you understand how you are walking through the environments to collect the orbs, that's really cool/exciting. |+ The puzzle layout is nicely set up with an engaging amount of moves and sidestepping of pieces required to have each block connect. |+ The way the environment you navigate through is based on the color of the block is a great touch! |+ The initial dialog was really charming.
|- Moving the blocks is very fiddly and you can easily accidentally move them when you didn't mean to which conflicts with how initially nice the movement feels. |- Once you understand the mechanic, having to walk to get each orb feels regrettably dull.
? I think if there was any gameplay at all in the environments on the way to each orb, even super simple combat it could have kept a lot more engagement. Without that the task of getting the orb after moving the blocks didn't feel like an extra achievement. Pressing another button when you were next to a block would definitely help offset how frustrating it could be to accidentally move one, while keeping the nice smoothness of movement.
Cosmic Cleaner by Burgee 2017-05-01T08:55:17Z ♥ 4
Many games like this have been done, but the absolute polish and charm of this really helps it stand alone as an option to play rather than just another one to forget. Really great work!
|+ Adorably reactive planets, I just don't want to ever crash the asteroid into them. |+ Feels thoroughly polished with considerate additions like seeing where you last launched the asteroid from/holding space to make the transition faster after a fault.
|- Would have appreciated a line to also show where I last released the power of my swing from.
? This is an early favorite. If it had altered the formula some more it could have made a larger name for itself among physics 'trial and error' puzzle/action games, but as a Ludum Dare entry this was a really fun and engaging game to play that I completely enjoyed even if I might not revisit it, congratulations on a job well done :)!
SittingDucks by Iak 2017-05-01T08:25:34Z ♥ 1
Initially this seems neat but it soon ends up being held back by the lack of player feedback (e.g. not knowing how long I'm suppose to sit down for to lay the egg).
|+ The concept of building an army of baby ducklings to protect the planet is fun in almost a very light pikmin kind of way.
|- The lack of control felt with both creating eggs and picking up the ducklings that grow up holds back the feeling of being able to control/manage the situation, and without also having a sense of progression I didn't feel like retrying more than a few times.
? I think if you just added additional feedback, like a pop sound or something when an egg was laid, and maybe pressing down when you're above a grown duckling to pick it up to give you more control it would quickly become more engaging. Still a neat entry with charming art :).
Trindle Tabletop Experiment by vkmicro 2017-05-01T08:03:54Z ♥ 1
A simple but relatively engaging experience, the highlight was definitely the riddle based levels, kind of like a more interactive 'find the object' gameplay experience.
|+ The riddle based levels were smart and felt fun as a result.
|- The movement was very rigid, making the levels where the only objective was to move in some manner dull.
? If you made the movement more fluid and had the goal be a combination of finding an object based on a riddle, then reaching a destination that could create an overall stronger experience, well done for your first LD :), goodluck for your future endeavors.