thesyntheticbrain

Deeper Sea by LRVStudios 2021-05-08T14:00:52Z ♥ 1

The game is really impressive. I was surprised to see it was build in Python of all things. The menu's felt especially great to use. The feedback of the buttons was well done and felt kineastheticly pleasing.

The game is very systems driven; which I liked. And after reading the tutorial on the Ludum Dare page twice; I felt I had the hang of things.

The loop of looking for scrap; buying the depth meter; and buying more 'weight storage'; then going deeper was nice. It didn't overstay its welcome for the duration of play. Although I'd be hard pressed to know how to make it larger, and not worse.

The audio feedback is nice, but some of the sounds are very grading to the ears and the music didn't really jive with me. Although I can't explain why.

The fact that the game ends is very satisfying and the overall experience was very nice.

One thing; which I don't know if I should be able to do, but was very nice, is that you can leave the shop open and go back to the main screen. That way you can buy stuff while exploring for scrap. This has the downside that you can no longer look around in first person mode until you press tab; but it did make the game more fun. But you get to see less of the inside of the submarine.

The design of the assets is a bit flat; but that is to be expected when you focus on mechanics instead of art assets.

Overall a great game with loads of potential in the right hands. Congratulations!

LD48 Deep Lab Droid by digital bacon 2021-05-08T10:11:27Z ♥ 1

Nice effort making the game! I don't have a lot more to add to what has already been said; but I totally agree with the momentum comment by @phil-lesnar. The tilting feels great. One other thing I can add is that you don't get a lot of choice when encountering enemies. Since you move laterally; there isn't a lot of room to dodge bullets. It might have been a better idea to ditch the corridors for more open spaces and a zoomed out camera. That way the enemies could have circled above you more; which would have worked better with the 180 degrees of aiming idea (which is neat!). Then you could have bobbed and weaved between the bullets.

I also liked your intro text. It gives a lot of context and meaning to the game. Which definitely added to the enjoyment of it. Time well spend.

I am looking forward to what you'll do next. Be proud of the thing you were able to achieve and keep it up!

Cyber Monsters by liero116 2021-05-08T09:58:48Z ♥ 0

The game is an absolute blast to play, once you managed to get into it. I spend a short 5 minutes having to re-start the game due to it not loading or not being able to pass the start screen; after pressing all the keys on my keyboard until I got to the character select screen. So a tutorial on how to play the game or a simple 'press any button to start' would have been nice.

However; once you start the actual game proper; the mechanics are very well worked out. The combat is truly 'deep' for sure. And the combo arena (?) once you do enough damage is absolutely thrilling to go through. Plus when you get the enemy in a stun lock feels fantastic.

The choice to give the player loads of health to experiment and familiarize yourself with the controls is good; and the UI design in-game is very well done and communicates all the things I want it to communicate. Enemies telegraph their moves well and I didn't feel any of the moves you had were overpowered or useless.

The art is very coherent and the over-use of bloom fits the style. Also, the camera work and transitions to the battle felt very polished (as the rest of the game). The only thing that could use some work is that the enemy tends to favor the edge of the arena. Which makes positioning by the player less interesting. But that is to be expected for 72 hours.

The fact that this game had time to bake enough to have multiplayer and CONTROLLER SUPPORT as an addition to this, is mind boggling. (by the way, advertise this feature more!)

A humongous effort! You people are absolute legends.

PS: The game froze on me when doing the deep hack; so I haven't been able to see it. The game also ran sub-par on my machine. But that is probably since yall didn't spend much time on optimization.

Voyager by RajatG 2021-05-08T09:26:59Z ♥ 1

Hey man, Congratulations on submitting a game to the Game Jam. An achievement all on itself. You can be proud.

However, your game is till a bit lacking in many regards. The movement feels very choppy and doesn't feel very smooth. Also; you might have a bit too much control for the challenge. It would be cool if the character would drag behind the mouse a bit; such that avoiding the asteroids would be more tense. The game now; is a bit too easy. Also my laptop seems to launch as if the spaceship your guy went on; transferred to my laptop. So maybe investigate how you can improve performance for your future projects? You can look into object pooling and disabling off-screen objects.

The drawn art felt very coherent though. It fit well with the rest of the assets. Maybe make the particle systems also fit the same aesthetic?

Good luck and I am already curious of what you'll be able to do in a half year's time!

Patchwork by Herman Chau 2021-05-08T09:17:44Z ♥ 2

A really fun and nicely compact game. The puzzles are well designed and are quite readable. The only one I struggled with was the sound-based one; as I am musically uneducated. The art styles are quire diverse but don't clash. The going deeper theme was mechanically implemented; which is nice. But I feel like it could have been incorporated into more parts. The fact that this game comes with a help guide is sublime! And the polish is beyond what you'd expect from a Game Jam game. A very good entry. I am looking forward to a more substantial release, if that would ever release.

Under the Surface by Wolfrug 2021-05-01T15:14:10Z ♥ 5

This is probably starting to sound like a broken record, but I liked the game a whole bunch two! The narrative is absolutely stellar and the intense mood that builds to the conclusions is great. The ambiance, the sound effects and the mood that is in the art assets as you decent into the truth is absolutely fantastic. And I love how it hints at a bigger world out there. With conflict, history and a compelling future. What. a. banger.

I have only two nit pics. The first are the bugs, and the fact that the game starts up weird on WebGL (I have to go full screen and back again in order to see things). The second is that the UI feels very unresponsive to me.

The theme and the mechanic with the static/radio is also fantastically executed. 5/5 stars.

PS: If the writers on your team are looking for a project, hit me up. We may be looking for one after our demo. I can't promise that I'll come through though. Since that'll depend on the reception of the demo.

Bloogy by Keppu 2021-05-01T14:36:30Z ♥ 1

If I had to describe the game in one word, it would be polish. The art, the audio, the kinesthetics and UI design are all top notch. I also like the combo-mechanic with the two block types. That being said, I think the design could have used some more work. I would have liked if you could have rotated while going down to weave in between the blocks to get all of the gold and have the player think horizontally and laterally at the same time. This would have risen the game up a bunch.

I also think that the game would probably have been a tinsy bit better if the layout wasn't fully random, but based on individually designed chunks such that you as a designer can design paths for the player to traverse. But read this as a 'this is what I'd do if I would continue to develop this into something more'-kind of comment.

Lastly, the theme is definitely in there, but the interpretation of the theme is not very creative.

Overall a great job.

Telekinetic kalamari by jandourek 2021-05-01T14:09:40Z ♥ 1

Hey @lanik2000 @jandourek I liked the concept, even though it is not very original. And most of all I like the characters. The dude with the squid on his head, and the walking sharks are absolute gold. Plus, the writing fits quite well with the quirkiness of it all. Although, I have to admit. I played until level 3 (the part where you have to use the two long pieces as bridges), where I got frustrated with the lack of control I have over the objects' placement in the puzzles. The fact that you can use the puzzle pieces for platforming and for combat is neat. And the puzzle where you have to remove a pillar to have the platform fall was very clever and made me smile. The rest of the art could use some work to match the characters' level of polish, but what can you do in 72 hours right? I hope you had fun making it.

Fear by NoobDude 2021-05-01T13:52:27Z ♥ 1

Hey, great job on your first entry! The art looked quite, and together with the writing and music complimented the mood well. This is clearly your strength. It seems that this is also where you both put the most effort in. Keep that up. I also liked the length, but I felt that the ending was quite abrupt.

Now on to the minor nit picks: The character controller felt a bit floaty and there was a little jump every time I almost reached an edge of a platform. The jump ark felt very nice.

I am delighted to see what you can do after a half year of improvement!