Zen and the Art of Transhumanism by Deconstructeam 2016-04-21T16:30:00
While a bit slow and somewhat repetitive there's no denying how impressive the game is. It feels complete and really well made. Could be one of the best jam entries.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → TheM
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Quest Sweeper | jam | 144 | 3.93 | 3.84 | 3.70 | 4.10 | 3.78 | 3.15 | 3.61 | |||
| 2017 | 39 | Running out of Power | Unplugged | jam | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 5.00 | 3.00 | ||||||
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | You've got balls | jam | 199 | 3.64 | 3.59 | 3.64 | 4.05 | 3.18 | 3.38 | 2.25 | 3.35 | 45 |
While a bit slow and somewhat repetitive there's no denying how impressive the game is. It feels complete and really well made. Could be one of the best jam entries.
The game is impressive and feels really polished. However, it feels unfair as it's too luck based as so much depends on where you spawn and if you hit or not (I once missed two 94% chances in a row...). Because the enemies get better as you do, it doesn't feel like the upgrades are helping as they don't give you the edge you need.
The shapeshifting mechanic is pretty cool but somewhat pointless as it doesn't affect the game as far as I can tell. I found some of the obstacles to be pretty hard to see as they were both small and transparent. Other than that I found it to be pretty enjoyable and rather fun to play.
Very impressive and all-round well made game. It's a bit slow for my taste and maybe it's not the most interesting use of theme but it was great nonetheless.
While not really a bad game, I feel it was too short and broken to reach it's full potential. There's only one level and the fact that you can make unlimited transformations until you get the strongest cards removes any challenge.
It's a cool concept and I'd love to see it expanded upon.
The game's pretty nice but I could never beat the second level. The graphics and audio are both great but the game mechanics could use a bit more work.
Clever way to interpret the theme.
The game is quite nice for being your first game. I had the same issue with jumping as others have reported, but with some more work and some more levels you might have something :)
Pretty simple and straightforward. A nice game but nothing particularly outstanding. I liked the difficulty level, it felt fair.
Pretty fun game, at least until it starts getting repetitive. There doesn't seem to be a goal nor can you lose, which eventually makes you quit out of boredom.
Pretty neat but too slow for my taste. Would have liked to have some sort of difficulty changes as you progressed.
Pretty fun and overall well-made game. Windows didn't like me mashing the shift key but otherwise it's great.
This game has an interesting concept, but there were too many options to choose from (attributes/attacks). Also the graphics/UI was a bit blurred :P
An interesting game, but to have to restart the entire level when you make a mistake is a bit harsh for my taste :P
Cool game! It's a bit short and started very abruptly but I really liked the concept.
I like this game, add some sound, a few more possible transformations and bit more progression and you'll have something. :)
Cool, not related to the theme at all and pretty fun to play. There were some graphical oddities (mostly missing walls) and I didn't like how the camera couldn't keep up with the player but the rest is all good and polished.
Nice music, decent graphics and an interesting concept. Unfortunately the game has some issues with the collision management; it was easy to get stuck on things.
I like the concept and the graphics were nice. Would've liked to be able to turn the camera around, it was pointing in the wrong direction! Might be a fun mini-game if you add some more levels :)
Try upping the resolution if you can. Widescreen gives you a few extra pixels to play with.
I really liked this combination of genres! It was funny and felt good. Great graphics and nice music. Only encountered a few bugs and the game ended in the economics screen without progressing. A few tips would be to provide the player with more information, both in the clicker and in the TD. For instance I never figured out which upgrade was for firerate and which was for range. The economics screen was very overpowered relative to the TD, it was easy to horde money and buy every tower upgrade. On the whole a good game and a nice experience!
Really nice game! Impressive that you managed to get all the components together to form a complete game. Really good graphics, relaxing music, decent voice acting (could've been more immersive), cute story and nice puzzles. You get a bonus point for that terrible wood-joke ("that wood not work") xD You could have made the puzzles a bit clearer, I was lost for a while when I was trying to create the dreamcatcher; I read the book but she wouldn't tell me what it contained. Nice that you included a walkthrough as well.
The game was great with lots of atmosphere. It was awesome to realize what I was supposed to do after I had tried to climb above the colossus without being able to land on it at first. I agree that WASD would have been a nice complimenting control scheme but would also have liked a key to instantly drop the piece because it got pretty slow waiting for a good one that I could use. I also managed to break the game by placing a piece on the edge of the playable area, sticking out into the sky where it got stuck. This caused it to soft lock (you might want to add a key for exiting the game by the way, :) ).
A really unique game, it stands out from all the others I have played! You really created a cool atmosphere with the music and ambiance, I'm impressed you managed to pull this off in the Compo-jam. I personally feel that the game might be even better with some more variety in the environments but that would be too much to ask for such a short jam. Good work!
I didn't even realize you could move the camera or zoom until the very last moment, after having won three games and lost two. I think the game was really clever and well executed, although switching views seemed to not always cooperate and work, making it hard to know where every car was. I think the abilities were versatile and fun but barely used any other than the bomb because the others felt too unreliable or weak.
It'd be interesting if the lap count actually meant something, like if the red team actually was faster and would win the race if you didn't interfere. Also, not being able to ignite the oil with a molotov was a huge missed opportunity!
Interesting take on the theme, definitely one of the more unique games I have played during the jam. As others have said I think it would work even better with some gameplay, if only to let the user make decisions in some of the interactions. A short experience with a nice story!
Interesting mix of gamemodes! The game looked good and the gameplay was smooth, although a bit on the hard side. A nice addition would be to include some explanation of what the different towers and vegetables are good at. When I misjudged a situation I died and had to start over. Other than that, good work!
Nice and simple. I found it really tricky to move and attack at the same time but that might be due to my poor multi-tasking abilities. To take the concept further you could add more enemy variety details to the environment. My only criticism is that it was a bit hard to known which holes were lethal to jump into, and I did not understand what the notes you collect did. Really good use of theme!
I had a very hard time understanding what I should do and how to do it. It'd be great if the controls were shown somewhere so I could understand how to play. I liked the atmosphere of the game and how it progressed but without a clear goal or way to lose it quickly got confusing and dull.
You certainly managed to make a chaotic mess of genres that somehow actually works and is really fun. The balancing is pretty off like people have said and it's very easy to get an impossible first wave just because of the absurd quantity of enemies (usually flying) that can spawn. It's still awesome though.
Nice combination of genres, you really hit the mark with the theme! Good questions; not too hard nor easy. The graphics were also good. Was a bit hard to make the bullet hit sometimes though.
The game was great and I think the tutorial fully filled its purpose of teaching you how to play. I understood how to play, but was not prepared for the massive user interface with all its buttons and parameters which was an issue and rather overwhelming. It was mostly intuitive but upgrading stuff was very confusing because the game never told you what to pay with. My first thought was that you needed resources of the type shown under the digits, seemingly water but that didn't work. I realized once I had killed an enemy that you needed gold instead but that confusion shouldn't be necessary. I also never understood if there was a goal to the game, that is also something that the player (in my opinion) should be made aware of.
Very interesting concept :) Really nice that you complemented the text with sound, I think you could make something good with this concept (with some less waiting perhaps ;)). Not sure how it is related to the theme though.
A great little game! You got all the important things: gameplay, graphics, music and sound effects. I would have liked a steeper difficulty curve and some more enemy variety. Nice touch with the dancing robots when you die :)
Even though unfinished your game gave me a very good impression! Nice graphics, good music and interesting ideas. I really liked how the characters ironized over the unfinished state of the game xD Keep developing the concept and you might get a good game!
I like the idea but the game makes itself difficult to play. Your hitbox gets somewhat messed up when you attack so it's hard not to take damage in return, so it was good that you could avoid them most of the time. When I realized that some enemies tell you hints I tried to solve them but it was difficult because they disappeared constantly. When I finally got the answer to the riddle I still couldn't unlock the doors and gave up. It was then I realized you should have entered all the digits on the left side of the equation, which was not obvious in my opinion.
So I booted it up again, cleared the first two areas (the second riddle was pretty great) and got stuck in the next one. I thought I had its solution but apparently it wasn't enough. Perhaps a hint system would have improved it for players who get stuck?
I'd like to echo @piscythe. The game isn't bad, but the scope is too big which make it feel lacking polish. Iäm actually impressed by how ambitious it is and that you actually managed to finish it. While I'd certainly like to see animated enemies and more fleshed out combat I thought it was fine for a jam game.
My problem was the high information load you put on the player at the start of the game. The tutorial are several pages long, too much to keep in mind in my opinion, and there's no way to review it once the game has started. I got an order, saw the recipe and killed some enemies but didn't know how to proceed from there and when I pressed escape to see if I could pull up the tutorial from a pause menu the game took me to the main menu and made the buttons unclickable, forcing me to quit.
For the next jam I'd suggest doing something smaller and more focused where you can put more time into each feature to make every part shine because you clearly have the talent to.
Not bad! I had fun texting and dodging projectiles but once I had the recipe I hit a wall. I didn't realize that you didn't have to doge ingredients before you had the recipe so once I had it I had to wait until the chef had thrown all the stuff I needed and that never happened in the time I played. Even if they did throw something good at me, chances were I reacted too slow and had already blocked it, making it even more frustrating to wait.
I think the game was good over all but it needs to be rebalanced. Or perhaps you could let the player move around and pick up fallen stuff? Although that may be too many things for the player to do simultaneously.
Nice and simple! The gameplay mechanics worked without bugs and the game got really challenging after a while! I think the movement had a little too much inertia but I got used to it quite quickly. Would have been even better with some more enemy variety! My score was: 12750
The game was hilarious and had some petty cool effects, especially when you won. I loved the wackiness but agree with the others that the controls are way out of control, to the point where it's somewhat frustrating. Great job though!
This was pretty good. I liked the interface and how more features, like changing area, were introduced. I think the game misses a lot of feedback that I feel it should give the player. Learning from experience that drinking the wrong potion sets you on fire is an example where it works really well, though some other potions were vague at best (I still don't know what the cyan one did). The juice @Nikaoto suggested is also something that would greatly improve the experience and reduce confusion. I, for instance, thought the attack button didn't work at first because I got no feedback at all and the enemies didn't react to a single click. Some random comments that describes the actions you take would also make it even more engaging.
Nice concept with good atmosphere, the first skeleton really scared me xD The game mechanics need a bit more work though, it was a bit hard to aim! I also recommend describing the controls in your ldjam post, even though I did figure them out :)