Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → SwiftIllusion
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | My Precious Orbit | jam | 709 | 2.68 | 2.11 | 2.90 | 2.85 | 4.12 | 2.85 | ||||
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | Creatures of Torzig | jam | 631 | 3.06 | 2.71 | 2.79 | 3.86 | 2.90 | 3.24 | 54 | |||
| 2014 | 30 | Connected Worlds | Rage: Destroyer of worlds | jam | 504 | 3.03 | 2.81 | 2.57 | 2.30 | 3.56 | 2.50 | 2.88 | 2.96 | 64 |
Absolutely love the art/colors, so vibrant :D.
Super hard game, took forever just to workout a method to get through the first island and couldn't get past the second but love the premise, that intro scene is brilliant, nice job :).
@Accidental Rebel
Sorry about that, the way it marks the web area as a required field in the submission form I thought it was necessary for entries that require downloading files, to also have the link in that area. I have fixed that now so it only has the Windows download option, thanks for letting me know.
@Teejay5,
Thank you very much :)!
Yeah regrettably I had originally planned to have you travel down multiple worlds that were connected through the core and then end up at the sun of the 'solar system' as a final battle, but regrettably had to pull it back to submit in time so the theme didn't end up as strong in the release, thanks you very much for being considerate of that.
@Kibertoad,
Thank you very much :D, really glad you liked the characters and that you wish to see more :).
@Mechabit,
Thank you ^^.
@Blindfox,
Yeah I at least had music ready for it and would also have been able to get sound for it but regrettably ran out of time/had to prioritize what gameplay I could get finished.
I'm really happy to hear you like where it was going :D, means a lot. Thanks to the positive response so far I feel motivated to at least keep pushing forward with it throughout the rest of this week to at least get the sound in and add what additional mechanics I get time to.
Terribly sorry everyone, thanks a lot for letting me know the issue with the download, I've just reuploaded it onto dropbox and added it as a mirror :).
@OxyOxspring,
Thank you ^^!
@nerd burglars
Haha yeah I was really happy with that animation, that was the reaction I was hoping for so glad you enjoyed it :).
Yeah I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get far enough with the intended mechanics to properly envelop the theme, but I'm hoping if I can get the latest Unreal Engine 4 release to build my project properly soon enough I'll be able to expand it for a '1GAM'/post-LD48 build that resolves that, even though it won't fix this entry.
Really happy to hear you had fun with it :)! Thank you ^^.
@ninjascript,
Happy to hear you would like to see more of it ^^, I'm indeed hoping to develop a post-compo release of it thanks to the feedback here :).
@Pierrec,
I googled that and it sounds like an issue that would be on your end. You may have a broken MSVCR120.dll file, which you'll need to delete from your C:\windows\system32, and then download http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784 and install that (if you don't have that file in system32 it means it's missing and you'll still need to download/install that). Hopefully that resolves the issue for you.
@SkyWolf,
Yeah I ended up running into issues with the Unreal Engine I hadn't expected that cost a regrettably large amount of time, thankfully though it was built scalable so while I didn't get to complete it, it was still something I could submit (where as my ideas for strategy games/etc would have been broken unless they were fully formed).
Glad you enjoyed the models :)!
@DragonInstall,
Thank you very much ^^!
Have updated the description with a link to a video featuring the project further developed if you or anyone else would like to see it :).
@Tex Killer,
lol glad you like them.
Thank you very much :)!
No idea how you managed to have that happen, but I fixed what I believe could have caused that as well as a few other things and updated the links :).
@Chaoseiro,
Thank you very much, really glad you enjoyed it :)!
^^ I hope so too, thank you for the encouragement.
@dancingmad,
I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed your experience with it :)!
If you'd like to come back to it for a more expanded experience I've decided to continue working on it for a post-compo version - http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/03/rage-destroyer-of-worlds-progress-towards-post-compo-release/
@apiotrw
Glad you like the art direction :)
If you think you might like the game if it were more expanded you can check out a video of the latest Post-Compo release and try a demo of it here - http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/14/progress-with-rage-destroyer-of-worlds-post-compo-and-demo-available/
What dll is missing Rehacked?
It may be a problem with your computer rather than the project itself like not having a necessary distributable that various projects require. It's built with Unreal engine so might require Visual C++ redistributable found here - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784 (because I have all this installed it's impossible for me to know what you may be missing)
Super adorable art direction :D, the 2d art was really cute, a great aesthetic all around. The only thing is gameplay wise I wish you had some way of getting a head start before the enemies, always felt like I took damage before I could even see them let alone try and get behind furniture to dodge them, but still had fun with it :)!
Simple but in a good and really fun way, loved the word rhymes and clues, and the end was perfect haha, great job :).
Cool mechanics, though it could be even better if it felt more necessary/gratifying. For example if you could have an idea of what enemies were coming in the next phase-and consecutive tiles increased the effect. So then if there were 2 elements coming in the next wave you could make one half of the field one element and the other half of the field the other element, or try to break it up further-which would benefit from a larger battle field. Still a really cool start to an as mentioned regrettably unfinished experience, was fun to try out :).
Favorite part of this is definitely the second weapon XD. That sound, and it bouncing off, ships, is great.
The concept is cool however I don't think it really benefits this gameplay, especially when in a cockpit view, I ended up not really understanding exactly how using the different controls really effected my movement-or rather it didn't feel necessary for what we were asked to do so it felt clunky. Also regrettably nothing felt satisfying because it was just kind of like 'okay well all those turrets on the ship are gone...An explosion or at least the ship being destroyed after the turrets were gone would have really helped with that.
Main suggestions would be additional enemies that made the unique movement method relevant, improving feedback when getting attacked/taking damage (the enemies bullets made it hard to tell when I was being hit short of seeing that ship icon on the left going red), and making victory over enemies more satisfying (e.g. explosion, etc).
Pretty neat and great aesthetic to complement the gameplay, though checkpoints or at least a way to reset it without having to try and refresh the page would have really helped the experience (I tried various buttons and as far as I could tell there wasn't an in-game reset button).
That was really awesome :D.
Loved the management-esque mechanics and trying to develop the life in that final level where you had to balance all the plants/animals. Even though you mentioned not getting everything you wanted done, you managed to get just enough in that it felt like a really satisfying experience after completing it, great job :D.
Absolutely amazing game, honestly my favorite so far.
Personally felt the game design to be incredibly polished in all the right ways, nothing felt unnecessary, graphics made everything precise and easy to see (i.e. not confusing your fire with enemy fire, etc), the design between enemy fire patterns and enemy arrangement patterns made it feel consistently fresh, loved the introduction of the environment and then it's integration when also fighting enemies, even though there wasn't scoring it always felt satisfying to defeat enemies and get to the next area, the keys for speed adjustment made it easy to get the control you needed for navigation, honestly had so much fun with this.
While I'm not good at all with bullet hell games this made me want to get good and I couldn't stop until I at least beat the first area.....then just over 30 minutes later I completed the entire game XD. It felt like a really well polished demake almost. Congratulations on this entry :), and that ending lol.
The concept was pretty cool though I feel the execution could have been done a bit better.
I never really felt in control or like I planned my path, I just sort of ended up taking it.
Main suggestion would be to have a different method of determining when you were targeted by a turret-I think if you had to actively try and see were turrets were instead of just having a warning pop up regardless of the turrets location it could have increased the atmosphere a lot more, though to make the result of that (being hit more) less frustrating checkpoints would definitely be necessary-the underground areas would be perfect for them.
Simple and sweet :). One thing I really loved was how the boxes caused a separation between where the characters were horizontally on the screen, just kind of felt nice as a way to make it feel more broken up but in a good way. Would have been nice to have some more cross-play between the screens, like the above character helping the below character and the other way too, but that would have got in the way of the simplicity presented. Overall it was a nice time spent with it :).
Really awesome visual aesthetic, but as others have said it's regrettably still hampered by poor controls even if they have been updated, which severely effects the experience.
A suggested control scheme if possible::
w/s strafes up/down
a/d strafes left/right
mouse:rather than temporarily adjusting your turn based on how much it moves, instead have the mouse in the center of screen cause no rotation to the ship, then where the mouse moves cause an offset to its turn. So for example if you had the mouse towards the top left of the screen-the ship would keep rotating/turning up and to the left.
Then use shift/ctrl as forward/backward movement, and space as acceleration.
That should make navigation easier faster and smoother.
That was cool. Liked how because you had to re-defeat enemies destroyed by the towers, you had to plan placement better than just 'spam towers in single area' as you often would in this kind of game. Was fun :).
Really awesome submission :)!
Would have been nice if the hacking was a bit more varied, but really for the time you all had this was absolutely brilliant, the style and sounds all really complemented the experience perfectly. Loved the little things like outlines left where your character died previously.
Congratulations to all of you on this, well done :).
I know it was a small thing, but I just loved how shakey the ship was on the intro where the ship crashed, really great.
Also loved the level design and temporary power up system, kept the controls system but allowed the mechanics to be flexible and consistently feel fresh. One of my favorite parts was when the high jump and reverse powerup were next to eachother-but you had to get them both to be able to jump up the tree, was a really cool use of them.
Not a good enough gamer to make it all the way to the end but loved all my time with it regardless :).
That was a really brilliant use of puzzle physics :D, easily one of the best I can recall, and the graphics and simple controls complemented it perfectly :D. Was consistently fun to try and get through each level, and the final level was a great way to end the experience.
Also that credits sequence was perfect :)!
Absolutely loved it, has a brilliant whimsical style to it both with the visuals and the great dialog. An awesome interpretation of the theme and it had a great flow from beginning to end, each story was satisfying and sweet, great job :D.
Cute, simple and polished as others have mentioned, nice entry for sure :).
One suggestion I do have though, is that it would be cool if rather than having the negative effect-the other jelly's tile would double your current multiplier, instead of resetting it. I think that would really strengthen the gameplay and add long-term strategy co-operating for a high score and greater sense of accomplishment as it's a goal reached over multiple turns, rather than just the short-term avoidance it currently has.
Neat aesthetic, felt like an old adventure game in a good way. The biggest thing I felt was lacking though was a sense of mid-game accomplishment. If you had numbers next to each door it would have helped a lot with letting the player feel they'd made some progress towards a destination. Also some kind of shadow on the floor to help you workout where the blades were would have been nice-I could never really work out where to stand to try and dodge them. (The blades/chains animation looked awesome though regardless). Still, a neat entry :).
@Tex Killer,
No worries :)!
Glad the suggestions were of value, if you do work on a post-compo version I wish you the best of luck :).
Really well designed system for such a short period of development time. Took awhile to workout how to get it going but once I did it was a great experience, simple and too the point. A main suggestion is that it would be nice to add an icon to the left of the infrastructure screen that shows what resources you will gain (like the ones on the right showing what it costs), I found I had to somewhat guess and swap to the resources panel to see what I was gaining to workout what things did sometimes.
Regardless it's a great entry, well done :)!
Great fun, the writing/humor/presentation was brilliant, and the sounds hilarious :). Really enjoyed my experience with this, great job :).
Love the idea, and the super cute art and audio goes really well with it all. Had fun playing it, great entry :)!
Really cool premise and well executed for the time available :)! Even though I didn't understand how the elemental rings were effecting anything or what some of the moves were, the icons helped make some things self-explanatory and it was a bunch of fun, great job :)! The music sound and art are also brilliant.
Thank you very much Ossi :)! Really happy you enjoyed your time with it and liked the mechanics for the volleyball, and felt just as I had hoped about the food :). ^^
Thanks for your responses, I updated the guide hopefully making things more clear to understand, hope you're able to try it again and have more fun knowing what you are doing this time :).
Also fixed a bug where in-between values weren't updating the energy/happiness value, hopefully that's all of them :).
Could people please tell me what specifically they are having trouble understanding? This is the first game I've developed simple enough for my non-gamer Mum and her friend to understand and be able to play, though I showed them how to play myself as I hadn't written the guide at that time.
@Virtually competent, Happy to hear you were still able to enjoy your time with the entry and use of the theme though:)
@HappyTransportGames, glad you like them :). What part of the gameplay are you having trouble understanding?
@BoxedMeatRevolution thank you :)! I had wanted more depth but regrettably became very sick just as the competition started and lost almost a day when it was at its worst so I almost didn't enter but pulled back the design a bit so I could still hopefully enter something fun even if it was smaller in scale.
@BusinessClient thank you :)!
Made more adjustments to the feeding area of the guide to detail each step needed more clearly, hopefully this helps :).
@Elemental Zeal Games Studios-
Thank you very much :) glad you enjoyed it.
@eerongal-
Regrettably I became very sick as the game jam started so I lost a full day and had no time available to take off work but I still wanted to try and submit something fun even if it was a limited experience, glad you enjoyed the visual style at least though.
@slarrimer-
Thank you very much ^^! For the first time I even had to basically drag my Mum away after asking her to try it out because she too was having a lot of fun with it and it wasn't as complex as other game experiences, I'm really glad you enjoyed your time with it :).
@Croze-
Sorry to hear that, I tried to have just brief instructions originally but that led people to confusion so I decided it was better to hopefully provide people with everything they needed to know. Happy to hear you enjoyed your time with it afterwards though :). Yeah any pet caring game also reminds me of having a tomagotchi a long time ago, though I always personally felt the gameplay experience was very limited and wasn't really fun moment to moment, though I realize that's pretty subjective depending on the games you like to play. Regardless if you felt that way hopefully it was a fun experience for you playing it :). I had wanted to make a lengthier experience of taking care of the creature long-term but lost a large period of development time so had to compress the experience to this.
@Team Flashlight-
Thank you :). The art used was concept art made for another game before the gamejam period, so as suggested in the rules I opted out of voting for that category.
@Jaenis-
Glad you enjoyed the graphics and feeding :). I adjusted the guide to clarify that you need to release the target on the underside of the ball to return it (releasing on top side works also but not as strong a hit), hopefully that helps you also have fun with that if you check back :).
@deyteris_team-
Thank you :).
@RadStar-
Thank you very much :D, glad you liked how it turned out :)!
@estebanm-
Thank you :). I wanted to create more dynamic feeling gameplay so regrettably it can indeed end up feeling like it has a learning curve which I've discovered people may seem awkward about when it seems to present itself as a very simple project.
@Code Medicine-
Thank you very much :)! Sorry to hear but glad it was still an overall positive experience for you ^^.
----
P.S.
Have sound and music ready now to add after the voting is completed :).
@Code Medicine-
Thank you :D. Yeah I wanted to get sound in but for the Ludum Dare release I prioritized trying to make it a fun wholesome experience for what mechanics I could get in, sound and music though are already prepared now for a post-voting build :).
It's very hard to satisfy everyone's distinction of simple/hard in regards to the volleyball. I tried to make it simple for this project so it was hopefully accessible for more people and quick to learn, but reading through the comments it can be seen that there are people who thoroughly enjoyed it, those who feel it was hard and those who feel it was easy. With a small scale audience not inherently knowing what to expect it can be hard to satisfy expectations for something like that.
For the food I intentionally chose to only have 3, because of how he gets familiar with food over time and becomes more willing to accept them. I didn't want players to lose to random chance and get different fruit every single time and the creature throwing them all away-wanted to increase the chance of consecutively getting same food while there still being variation.
For the rendering of food, that was an area I had to leave as it was because I was really crunching for time and it wasn't consistent nor was it something that impacted gameplay, though I've just now adjusted it so it should be smoother for the post-voting build also :).
Thank you very much for the honest constructive feedback and kind words :)!!
@snickersnacks-
Thank you :).
With the red ring, you may have held it a bit too long-which is indicated with a burst of red x marks-in which case the ball wouldn't be hit.
There's munchy sound effects for when he eats the ball ready for the post-jam release :), regrettably didn't have time to add them before submission.
Neat concept. Though the controls were relatively difficult having to click back/forth so frequently as well as consistently pressing spacebar, the premise was still nice so well done on your entry :).
Really sweet idea and a lot accomplished in the short time frame, movement felt smooth and getting to the platforms to expand your visual radius was a nice extension of gameplay, a great competitive edge being able to see your opponents and the tracker compass in the middle really helps subvert possible frustration if you couldn't find uncolored characters, well done :).
Really loved the way it brought up the gameboy, and the controls scribbled on like that, great touches. And the game was great fun to play, well done :)!
Pretty neat, and I really liked how you could keep moving even after engaging an enemy and engage multiple enemies. Would have preferred the walking area to be a bit larger so I could have a better idea of where I was going, but it was still cool and the combat was engaging (liked how you could deflect enemy shots with your own), well done with this :).
Cool to hear your inspiration behind what you designed here. I may have been using it incorrectly but I felt the shield wasn't quite intuitive enough and I often ended up in situations where there were too many enemies attacking that left me to be quickly defeated. Still a nice idea though and it was a quick relatively fun time, well done :).
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 :).
I really love the sound of joining blocks together, and love the visual style, simple but sweet game, great entry :).
Nice entry :D, like the idea behind it, fun dialog and entertaining to see how the final ninja animation flows, good job :).
I really liked the weird tactics you could develop with this because of how you could wrap around the screen but the enemies couldn't, made it feel more engaging like you also had some control over them because of how they always followed you. Had a real fun time with it, great job :).
Sweet entry, had a heart attack when the bear came out haha. Nice variation in enemies and simple but easy to access premise :).
Really awesome game :), loved the aesthetic and the sound and music is awesome too :D. Was fun to play, Great job :)!
Really cool entry :). Would have liked to have some kind of timer so you could get a better sense of accomplishment after surviving for a long period of time, but still there was a nice variation of dangers to avoid and the controls felt tight, well done :).
Cool idea for a challenging game using rocket jumps :).
The only real issue I had was, at least for me, it was hard to identify what was foreground/walls and what was the background so I would frequently jump into/rocket into walls I didn't notice. Besides that though it was a simple but enjoyable experience, well done :).
killed 348 rabbits T~T
Super cute game though, love it :D. And have to say, the music transition between day and night is -PERFECT-, felt so great. Really well done :).
If I may make a minor suggestion though it would be nice if the whacking with the spade had a bit more radius, it felt basically impossible to hit any rabbit until it had reached the carrot at the bottom. Also when I finished my camera had ended up tilted to the side, not a big thing and not sure if it was intentional but it may be a bug with how you recenter the camera after it shakes.
Still really enjoyed my time with this, well done :)!
Hahaha, the text when you go off screen "Sorry, the entire game is on one screen" made me laugh so much XD.
Cute idea really well executed with charming graphics, great job :D.
The presentation/aesthetic for this is so awesome, and really had a ton of fun with it. Like the enemy variations and types and the combat felt sweet and clean, great entry :)!
Really cool take on the pinball concept :) was great fun to play and having the slowdown mechanics and slight maneuverability really helped the overall gameplay feel, great job :)!
Cool idea and the city feels very alive, though doing well in the game is difficult because what you think is good/bad can be very subjective especially with things like the tv shows you mention and such. But the presentation still made it fun to play, nice entry :).
Sweet use of the theme :), enjoyed the way the clues were left about, was a small but fun experience, great work :D.
(Also really loved how well presented the image of each object was when opened, really felt like navigating a computer)
Found out something fun-when you could guess the entire word before it actually comes up on screen, you can complete it offscreen XD.
While overlapping words could sometimes make it virtually impossible (had a group overlapping all the way to the bottom, had no way to try and work out what needed to be written or what letters were with what word), which you are aware of based on your left to do list which is cool and will be nice to see fixed, this was a neat idea and was fun to play with, a nice take on the 'spell to win' kind of games. Well done with your entry :).
This was great fun to play, the addition of the bomb mechanic really helped give the gameplay enough depth to not feel static, and the way the enemies interacted and reinforcements came was really cool. Also the graphics and sounds/music really helped compliment it, great job :)
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 :)!
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 :).
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 :).
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 :)!
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.
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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.
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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.
@teekeks Thanks :). There should be a deadzone? I double checked and there is one just a bit wider than the character and from about the center of his body and a heads length above it? I tried to balance it so that you didn't need to pull too far in the opposite direction when making adjustments but if others comment on that too it may need to be adjusted more in its revision. Also if you hold down the left mouse button that slows your rotational momentum so that may help you too if you missed that.
@nilead Thanks. If it intrigued you enough you might like to check out the post-LD version at the bottom of the post which I had time to tweak the movement even further-including the most significant change of making the right click rotate your character backwards instead of to the right to help aid maneuvering more meaningfully. Though of course that wouldn't affect your impression here-just in-case you could have a more fun time with it there :).
@LeFayGames and @obvious-san Thank you both very much, regrettably it does seem like the rotation was left too sensitive here. I have adjusted it further in the post-LD build which has the win state completed too :) here | https://swiftillusion.itch.io/my-precious-orbit Based on the feedback so far though I'll try to also add in-game keys to adjust the sensitivity soon.
@mutfak-studios, @mde, @josefalanga, @vidinu, @dink-dunk, @aj-weeks, @turbo-hermit, @gerardb Thanks so much everyone for checking it out, I'm sincerely sorry I didn't manage the time I'd hoped to fine tune the turning rate more for the entry. **If you'd like to take it for another shot though I've got a post-LD build available here-** https://swiftillusion.itch.io/my-precious-orbit In addition to the win condition being achievable now I made a further overhaul to the balance and turn speed based on the feedback here, including 3 settings for both turn speed and area size for where the mouse won't turn you. You might have difficulty dodging solar systems on the lowest speed but it should be an easy entry point until you become comfortable. I largely focused on the second speed for the difficulty balance target and happily completed a run to make a pure solar system lasting 12 billion and 16 billion years, the 3rd and 2nd highest scores available short of perfect. All 3 turn speeds are lower than this original one, so I hope you'll get to be able to enjoy the full experience more now :)! @scornz The update mentioned above has a 'completion score'/end goal so hopefully that'll present a better experience for you, thanks for your enthusiasm. @burgee So sorry to hear. I wasn't sure how people with motion sickness would fair with the game but I really appreciate your attempt. The revision above has scaled turn speed options so I'm not sure if you'll be comfortable enough to enjoy it to the end but it will hopefully aid you in another try if you'd like. @lugdumdare-team Thanks so much for the feedback and for also giving the revision a test! I've updated it further based on the feedback here and the right mouse now just doubles your rotation speed instead of turning you upwards to help bridge the gap and make the moment to moment action more accessible if you'd like to try again in the future. Happy to hear you appreciate it all so :)!
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!
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 :)!
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!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :)!
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 :).