Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → thejan14
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 52 | Harvest | 👥 | Techno Plants | jam | 146 | 3.89 | 3.97 | 3.85 | 3.45 | 3.66 | 4.28 | 3.44 | 3.67 |
I think @pkenney has said it all, impressive entry overall! I personally think it could've started out even a little slower so that I have a chance to get a feeling of all the systems in place in the first run. But the game really encourages to take a second attempt and optimize anyway, so thats not a big deal :)
Simple but funny little game! It was kinda hard though to see where the pineapple seeds go when you shoot as they are so tiny and green on green. But in the end that was not a big deal. I especially liked how the pinapples popped out when they were ready to harvest. Absolutely satisfying :)
I love your game! Somehow the mice level never finished for me but the other levels worked perfectly fine. My favourite was the frog as it had the most precise movement but due to the low speed you had to plan out alot. This is how I did: Screenshot 2023-01-10 144751.png
Well made! It feels very rewarding when you solve a puzzle :)
I really like your game and absolutely adore the artstyle! Any chance you have been playing Pentiment lately? :D
The game is very neat for what it wants to do! Harvesting the crystals(?) feels nice (the chip-chip-chip sound has just the right timing, especially on max blade quality :ok_hand: ). The turning speed couldve been just a little faster in my opinion :)
I saw a streamer playing your game and thought I can do better - apparently not ;D
Simple but very well made and super cute, amazing work! Screenshot 2023-01-10 161644.png
Amazing job! This feels like a highly polished game even though it was made in such a short time. The only thing I noticed is that for larger levels the framerate dropped a bit, but not so much that it was bad. The controls feel very satisfying and are super precise which I like. I am a little conflicted on the movement speed though. I sometimes ran into enemies when going too fast (you can move an entire screen in like a split second at full speed). Maybe there should be an option to go slower to better "sneak" into the next area?
Overall a very nice entry to this jam and very much fun to play!
The artstyle is amazing! I like that in order to find your target you have to take a risk. Very well made, awesome!
Amazingly polished game! I really liked exploring the world. Its nicely designed (like you can see what you can do once the powerups are in and then commit to it later) and it looks so goregous. I also feel like perspective from the player hedgehog (who is also super cute <3) being so far down is adding to my curiosity.
What I disliked was the pacing, I wanted to explore and go out but was stressed about coming back too late. It took a lot of time until I was able to "see the world". On the other hand that might be okay if you just want to chill playing the game :)
Amazing entry in the solo category! For me the controlls felt very nice once I've read up on all the buttons. I felt like the Defib is a bit pointless because once its time to plant there is SO much growing (while I was planting the first seeds were already fully grown). But maybe thats just the case with my strategy. Loved it!
Tried to run the game (embedded) in firefox and edge but both were not loading. Finally got it running on your page (https://crowseeds.com/harvest/).
I had so many laughs while playing the game. Absolutely amazing! Loved the voice acting, writing, polish, everything! Awesome!
Solid little game! I really got into optimizing my farm and making more and more money. I wished for some quality of life improvements though, like: - planting a seed should not take it out of your hand so that you can fast plant a bunch of them on the field - having the inventory open when switching between black market and the farm (e.g. you could have permanent buttons underneath the inventory).
And finally: scarecrow army for the win! Screenshot 2023-01-10 105124.png
Hey, came here to beat "The Mage", and I can proudly say: I DID IT :) Screenshot 2023-01-20 170338.jpg
I think that your game is amazingly polished gameplay wise. Sure, the visuals are basic, but it feels very precise and satisfying to play. It could use some quality of life improvements like better indicators for the shield strength (it is barely visible when its almost gone. Also I dont see how long exactly it takes until its back), but thats very common for game jam entries.
The difficulty is really high for a jam game, but I totally see how that is something at the core of your game. It leaves you room to improve yourself and you can actually feel getting better. That is something I can very much appreciate in games. My victory over "The Mage" gave me an amazing feeling I usually only find in souls-likes.
The time and determination required to master your game is above average in jam entries which is why I feel most people dont finish it. Don't worry about it too much. If you want more people to finish the game make it easier and more approachable (in-game tutorials, more QOL polishing, etc.).
Good job!
@egorexw I gave the enhanced knight a try but wanted to finish the mage first :p
I might give it another try over the weekend!
Concerning the visual clarity of the shield, here is what I can think of: - Maybe an outline to the shield that is always 100% visible diregarding the shield strength could help (at least where it is casted, but may also work for when its thrown). This way I can always see where my shield/projectile is even when I have barely any shield left.
barelyfixed.jpg - For the shield recovery timing - it doesn't have to be an energy bar. It could also be a simple visual clue just indicating when the actual refresh is happening. Something like this for example (just some random idea):
ideacut.gif
Hope this gives you some idea of what I am talking about. Have a nice weekend!
index.jpg Screenshot 2023-01-20 192646.jpg
Very creative idea! It also fits perfectly to the theme. I struggled to put words together that I planned out because the day/night mechanism was in the way, but I somehow always found words in the seeds I planted! This is what was the most fun for me (finding the words) rather than planing out.
The screen gets a little dark at night. Apart from that I loved it! Good work!
It took me a while to understand that you make money from harvesting your towers instead of killing the enemies, but once I had it I was able to make some progress (it also perfectly fits the theme ;D). It is really punishing though. I had to figure things out by trial and error as it was unclear to me what the different "towers" would do (like the paprika having a waveclear pattern). But I really like your take on the tower defense as it forces you to think differently. Nice job!
The jumping is very smooth and rewarding once you figure it out! The levels are well designed but I wished for some checkpoints so I dont have to do everything all over again. Solid work!
Really cute art and I love the idea of the game expanding on certain stories depending on what you pick up. The controls feel a little off though. Well done!
@phillip-scott Sorry to hear that it didn't work out for you! We had some thoughts for this issue like a difficulty slider or tweaking the animation timings but its too much to fine-tune (hah) within the jam. For some people it helped to focus on the music rather than the animations.
Glad you gave it a try anyway!
@kro At some point we had priorize if we want to make _one_ really nice track or several tracks because there wasn't time for both. We obviously chose the former, but I totally agree with you that @morpheyz should put out some more tunes!
Thank you everybody for the heartwarming feedback!
@wizorbe We didn't even think about accumulating the scores yet :sweat_smile:
But its a good idea!
@chartle thank you for playing!
I agree that the nutrients collection may need some more tweaks. As long as you hit the beat you will not get into much trouble - so unless you want to get a high score you could also just ignore it. But we wanted to keep things rather easy for this jam so that people can enjoy the game even without mastering this specific system. In longer and potentially more difficult levels, we thought, you need to hit the nutrients in order to get enough steps until you reach the ground water. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to design advanced levels like that.
Anyway, thank you for your feedback :)
@danmerey @cloistered thank you for your feedback! I agree that especially the 16th beat root spawn needs more indicators on screen. We thought about more visual hints close to "where the player is looking" in general, but didn't manage to develop them within the jam.
Glad you liked it anyway!
@adamsmccall the OST is now available on SoundCloud (we updated our page with the link)! :notes:
@zungryware Thank you for your feedbak! I can tell you that a restart button was on our task list but didn't make it to our entry in time. We even thought about an auto-stuck detection that would end the game for you.
About the patterns: I agree that especially "Rolli" (thats the name we gave him) has a very hard to understand pattern. He prepares for two beats (with a little dance) and then moves 2 tiles a beat for the next two beats. As there are two movements one one beat (one on the beat and one inbetween) it is rather unintuitive to follow his pattern. Another thing is that he will turn around when hitting a wall only after completing his entire move cycle. So there is a chance that he ends his movement right in front of a wall, dances, moves 4 times into the wall, _then_ turns around, dances again and finally starts moving away. As it is also not clear where he is facing there is a huge lack of visual clarity about what he is doing in general.
We are currently working on a post jam version that will address many of these issues. I'm very happy that you enjoyed the entry as is anyway!
The atmosphere is amazing! Never was so happy about fishing some boots out of the ocean floor, but was somehow unable to find other points of interest :( But as it felt so amazing navigating the device that was not mutch of a big deal. Loved it :)