Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Tomcat94
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 43 | Sacrifices must be made | Baron | compo | 187 | 3.56 | 3.56 | 2.35 | 3.25 | 3.18 | 2.68 | 3.10 | |||
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | SPACE CHUCK | jam | 999 | 2.53 | 2.47 | 2.94 | 3.31 | 3.07 | 2.40 | 30 |
The music and graphics are great, which made it seem like a great parody game of Hotline Miami. The only thing I didn't like was how slow-paced and boring the actual gameplay was compared to HLM, which was a bit of a letdown, but I'm still very impressed with how much was done in jut 48 hours.
The game's voxel art looks great, the music and sound effects go well together, and the game starts out very fun. I played as the first character, then tried the second one and felt like it was more or less the same. Although you did warn that it wasn't hard, a little challenge or a mini-boss or some variation in weapons (different character having unique shots) would have given it a little more replayability.
Great level design, you placed the first enemy in a spot where we would instinctively shift, which would show us how to kill the enemy.
My only complaints are with the movement and gravity; the character would occasionally run so fast he would jitter around, and VVVVVV did the gravity switching thing well by making the gravity shift immediate instead of gradual.
Also, I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity here. You called the game SHIFT, but you press the mouse to shift gravity instead of using the shift key to shift instead.
All in all, a fresh coat of paint, some tighter controls, and switching shift to the shift key would make this game far more fun, but it's still a neat game nonetheless.
I became the king of voice in 2 days. Nifty! I liked the bar mechanic, once I got into the flow it became really fun. The levels were a bit short, but there are plenty of places to go to with different interactions, so it was worth the ten or so minutes I spent playing it. Great job!
This game isn't very lore-friendly. How can 7 work for Nein if 7 8 9?
Jokes aside, I liked the idea and the graphics were nice. The controls were questionable though, as I was initially using WASD but then switched to the arrow keys when I saw how wonky the controls were. The leap of faith was a very bad decision, only because my first instinct was to jump as far as I could, which made me miss the platform almost right below me and outside of view, and I had to do the entire level over again.
When I got to the last level and I was being chased by Nein, I didn't jump at the end because I thought I was close enough to it. Instead I fell into the void and wouldn't restart. It was kind of funny though falling into the void then seeing 9 fall after me.
While it was an interesting concept, I tried to win several times now, even took out a pen and paper and took notes, talked with everyone and checked every coat pocket and piece of paper, but haven't won a single time even when I knew for certain who should have been given the clues. A "This is what you did and who you chose, this is who it was and what you should have done" sort of screen would have helped me see where I failed. The lack of a restart button is annoying, however it's not as annoying as the music.
The game looks great, has a dark tone, and the mechanics are great! Gotta say, you showcased excellent level design as well. Showing the player how to "see", then introducing fire pits, then making the first enemy walk into it was perfect.
The movement felt less than enjoyable, only because I kept fighting with the corners of the one-block-wide corridors, but that's just a minor complaint.
Great job!
DUDE WE'RE GONNA DIE!
Hilarious dialogue, and the pilot portrait rotating with the plane was a nice touch. The game itself is difficult, couldn't really get past 3 planes because I kept hitting the side, but it was still pretty funny and made me play it a few times to see if there was more dialogue.
Man this game is hard! But it's fun once you get used to it. I could only get to level 3, but it was still fun. I'll admit though, I sort of cheated the first level by just dragging the ball around and letting the enemies walk into it. Maybe some simple pathfinding to avoid the flame trail would be good, but that might make an already difficult game even harder!
Great job, I'd love to see an expanded version of this (even though I probably wouldn't make it to the end)!
I have to say, the sound design was really immersive. Really heightened that sense of foreboding and set me on edge as I went through the dialogues. I felt like I could be ambushed at any moment. I also appreciate that certain actions change when you interact with them more than once, like the captain's chair. Also, *thank* you for making the text go faster when you click, it's probably common sense but I probably would have stopped after the first 30 seconds if I couldn't speed up the text.
I don't know how many endings there are, but I got the ending where the ship is locked down. I purposely left the distress signal turned off to make sure that thing didn't leave the station, which meant it was only a matter of time before that thing kills me. Hopefully that also means the ship will cave on itself and destroy the parasite. I believe that suits the theme perfectly, and it does so without spelling it out for you.
I think the only thing that would have made it better is if it had some kind of visuals to accompany what's being written on the screen sort of like the old Hobbit text adventure games.
Great job all around, text adventures don't get the love they deserve sometimes but I think this was worth the ten minutes or so I spent playing it.
Wow, fantastic job! Easily one of the best looking compo entries I've seen so far. The game itself plays well enough, even though some of the sheep are just so darned fickle to squeeze through some of the tighter sections. The music is okay, but I ended up muting it after the first couple of minutes.
Also chiming in on the mouse cursor issue, I have the same problem when I go back to the menu. The mouse disappears for some reason.
Regardless, it's a really solid entry!
I liked it! The level design was really good. I especially like how each sacrificed part changes how you play the following level as you progress. The music fit the tone really well, and the platforming mechanics were rock solid. Congratulations on finishing in time for compo, good luck!
It's a little complex for me (I'm not good at RTS games :slight_frown:), but even from what I played I can tell that a lot of effort went into making a set of complex rules that demand a lot of micromanagement. From what I did play, it was still fun. Great job for making not only an in-game tutorial, but also for putting hints on the bottom of the page. I still didn't get very far, but they helped me get a lot further than just doing it on my own!
I really enjoyed this! The mechanics are rock solid and feel great to play with. It's difficult to convey a lot of information with only 8 x 8 sprites, but your choice in bright colors and just the right amount of detail made it very easy to clearly see what's going on at any given moment. Finding the exit never felt like a chore, as the levels are just the right size before they become too maze-like.
I can see how it plays into the theme, too. Do you stay longer to pick up more gems and risk being killed by a ghost, or cut your losses and go through the exit? That question is always at the forefront of the player's mind and adds a nice dynamic to the game play. I think the only thing that would add more variety to that dynamic is if the chests held different weapons instead of more points.
My only complaints are that the hit boxes seem just a little too big for the enemies/player. That might just be unavoidable, but I felt like I took a few hits at times when I shouldn't. The enemy spawn rate also seems a little on the higher side, which in some cases made it difficult to cull enough enemies down to kill the spawns. That, and at one point I spawned right next to an enemy when I went to the next floor which made me feel a little cheated. I died later because I got too ambitious and went after some gems instead of killing a nearby zombie spawner, so that's on me!
Again, I enjoyed it! Great job all around.
It took me a few tries, but I made it to the end! I only saved the world for another four years though. :weary:
I like it! The controls are simple yet intuitive. Adjusting the selection with the mouse wheel gave a lot more precision, that was good call. Bridges killed the most people for me, but once I figured out how to line up most of them I was able to manage it.
Overall, the sprites convey a lot of information without much detail, which is good. The sprite work for the obstacles have a lot of contrast and helps you decide what to do just from a glance. The Great Deity sprite is actually really nice, I was almost surprised how detailed it was compared to the rest. The music is also good, one of the better songs I've heard from the jam so far. The marching theme fits the gameplay and overall tone of the game really well, great job!
Overall, great job to everyone involved!
Alright, just finished it!
Using sacrificed samurai to gain height, press buttons, and protect against projectiles is an interesting premise. The level design is good in that it introduces those elements gradually. A nice detail would be if the sacrificed samurai turned into stone when sacrificed.
The platforming, also as mentioned, could stand to be a little tighter. I missed a jump or two, but it's serviceable enough. I also didn't even realize the gates could be turned off with the buttons, I just made a pyramid of sacrificed samurai and jumped over them.
I think the only way this could have been better is if it limited the number of sacrifices you could make per level. That way it avoids exploits like jumping over gates and forces players to think about whether they should sacrifice or not.
The others have mentioned this already, but you managed to convey a theme with minimal aesthetics very well. I make a lot of animations and models in Blender so I know how much of a pain it can be to rig and animate, so congrats on finishing those in time for a compo entry!
Hi there! I played it several, several times, and while it took me a while to not die immediately, I'm still not sure if I fully grokked it. It's difficult; maybe it's just me, but I'm finding the difficulty coming from imbalances and unclear instructions than a high skill ceiling.
My main issue is that there are a lot of things that aren't explained too clearly. I know I'm supposed to eat the skulls, but my first five or so plays were just me trying to figure out which skulls I can eat and which ones I can't. The instructions put somewhat of an emphasis on the blood that drops, and I expected it to do something like slow down your health dropping, but I don't think it actually does anything. The instructions say when you run out of ammo, you switch your gun, but with how fast your health drops and how much health it takes to shoot, you'll die before you manage to kill an enemy you can actually eat.
If the health dropped slower than it does now, and maybe have some visual indicator of how much health each shot is going to take from your health, I think it would solve some of the other issues and really shine.
That being said, I think the game has potential, and I especially like the art style. Great job on finishing the game!
Hi there! I started the game just fine, but it seems that even though the game's audio is playing, currently I don't see anything. Here is what it looks like after it says "Right-click to start."
inflame.PNG
Of course, I could imagine the fireplace is just out already and it's dark, but I don't think that's what you intended. :laughing:
I think compo allows you to fix major bugs like this, but I'm not sure for how long you're allowed to. If you happen to fix it though, let me know and I'll give it another try!
I'm not very good at logic or quick math, but this was easy enough to pick through and solve a couple times for a few minutes. It's a simple numbers game, sure, but it was at least enjoyable.
I was going to complain about not having a dedicated restart button, but I went back to make sure there was one and there is. My only suggestion would be to tell the player that hitting the enter key would restart. Or remove the button altogether; After interacting with the game using only the keyboard, it's a little jarring to have to reach over to my mouse and click the reset button.
This is just a small detail, but in my mind I associate subtraction with going down and addition going up. I imagine that's probably what a lot of others associate it with too, so maybe flipping the controls so that adding is up and subtracting is down would make the controls more enjoyable.
As for the theme, I can see how it works. Sometimes you *have* to add to your number when you don't want to in order to reach 0. The theme is through mechanics instead of narratives, and it's all good in my book.
Also, congrats on finishing your first game jam ever!
Took four guys just to take down a single enemy, man I feel bad for them. Either they're super weak or the attacker is super strong.
The mechanics are a little cumbersome. I think what might work better instead of clicking a soldier and then pressing P to punch, you could move that punching action over to the same mouse button you used to send your soldier over. Even with that change, the mechanics are a little on the shallow end. Maybe instead of just sending your poor subjects to their death over and over, maybe have the enemy come to your troops. Then you can either click the front-most subject to attack, or click on one of the other subjects to have them do something like give a little extra health or even help attack. Something like that can deepen the mechanics and help make the experience more memorable overall.
Despite the shallow mechanics, the game at least fits the theme of making sacrifices. Funny enough, the theme is "Sacrifices *must* be made," but you're given an option to just not sacrifice anything and not save the king, which gave me a chuckle.
Congrats on finishing your submission!
Alright, I managed to reach the end. The second level was my favorite, it had a lot of variety and was actually pretty satisfying to reach the end without the burger even showing up on the screen.
Unfortunately I think the theme of sacrifice here is there in name only. If I didn't know what the theme of the jam was, I wouldn't have ever guessed that the theme was "Sacrifices must be made," since it's mentioned briefly at the start, never mentioned again, and there are no mechanics that tell me that sacrifice is involved.
I will say though that I appreciate the one-button gameplay. It's engaging enough to work with just one button, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Great job for that!
Gave it a few tries. First, I really like the fact that there is some customization. I played as a green-skinned purple robe bearer and enjoyed the novelty of it before going to the actual game.
I cleared the first room, looked up and saw I had taken a heart of health without even touching the enemies. I thought it was weird at first, maybe I wasn't paying attention. Then I got to the next room and died. I started paying close attention to what's going on, and the hit boxes aren't exactly great:
sever.PNG
I tried it a few times, each time trying to stay as far away from the enemies as possible, but I just can't avoid taking damage from what appeared to be literally nothing. I gave it an honest few tries, but despite my best efforts, the massive hit boxes really put me off from finishing it. If the hit boxes for the enemies were smaller, and the player's hurt box was smaller, I think I would gladly come back and finish it. I might actually poke around in the source and see if that would work.
I will say though that I do like the idea behind it. You can sacrifice limbs to become more powerful, but you might need that limb to open a door later. In that respect, it fit the theme really well. Best of luck to you for the compo!
Phew, well that was a lot of effort to play it, but I'm glad I did! Gave me an excuse to replay some of my older favorites too. :smiley:
The core game mechanics are solid and work as intended. No bugs that I can tell! I didn't get to the end, unfortunately. I think what might improve it would be a way to set your own spawn, or have the algorithm put some checkpoints along the way. The only reason I didn't complete it was because I got really far, but didn't feel like going through it all over again.
Can you share a little information about how you made the game? I've been interested in starting another homebrew game and wanted to try making some C64 homebrew, is it all in BASIC, or did you use some other tools? I'm really interested to see what your process for this was like. Thanks!
Thank you for the info! I'll have to check those out. Maybe one day I can get around to trying some C64 homebrew myself! :smile:
The premise seems interesting and fits well with the theme. Balancing between the wrath of gods with the goodwill of the people and trying to appease both is a concept that can hold a lot of depth.
Unfortunately, fullscreen or not, I can't seem to get the villagers into the totem without them dropping. It really is unfortunate too, because if that bug didn't hinder my progress I bet I would have actually enjoyed it and played it longer. My highest score was 41.
If you do manage to fix the dragging bug, please ping me and let me know! I'll gladly give it another try. :smiley:
Made it to 229 people this time around. It's an improvement, for sure! Good job. I figured out that double clicking then dragging the villagers yielded better results that just clicking once and dragging. Once I figured that out, I started playing more. It's been mentioned already, but it's definitely possible to keep a pace that neither lets the gods rage get too high or villager's happiness too low, which I found myself doing until I decided to let the rocks fall just to have something different to do. The rocks continued falling even when the rage meter went down to 0, which was a little strange, but it eventually stopped once I move some more villagers around.
Overall, great improvement. It's actually playable for me now, which is a huge plus! With a little more balance, it could be even better. Congrats!
Congrats on finishing your first LD! Here is my feedback:
I appreciate the small details such as the particle effects and lighting effects from the fireballs. The concept of sacrificing your health at the end of each level and proceeding with less health is also an interesting idea. Thanks for balancing out the later stages to use less health instead of ramping up the difficulty!
Some improvements could be made as far as making the spikes easier to distinguish from the background. I died a couple of times because I couldn't see them at first. A bolder outline on the spikes could help. Instead of letting the player jump at the end of a level, play the same breaking animation and keep the player stationary. Looked a little goofy when the hero walked up to the villagers and jumped in front of them.
All in all, not bad for a first Ludum Dare! Take a break, you earned it.
Good job! I played through a few times, finished it on my second and third time, and only went up to the second level at the end. I wish the platforming controls were a little tighter, because I wanted to get the best ending but I kept slipping off some of the smaller platforms.
I like the game's tone, which was really dark and foreboding. Kind of reminded me of Eversion with how much worse the character got over time. The story left a lot to the imagination too, which was nice.
Overall, good job!
First off, congratulations for completing your first game jam ever! I hope you enjoyed it and that it's the first of many. :smiley:
Great work with the theme. While the mechanics themselves are fine and reminds me of an idle clicker, something that would help improve the game and sort of work to the benefit of your mechanics is a better layout for you UI. Here's my suggestion:
GodNFoodUI.png
I think a change like that, while simple, can improve how the game is played dramatically. A clearer explanation for what the number keys do would help as well, as I wasn't sure what t/m stands for but assumed it just affected how much of your resources were sacrificed to please the gods.
Anyway, congrats again! Hope you gained a lot of knowledge from the experience.
@relixes @erendelous @ecgamez Thank you very much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
@isvan Thank you for playing as well! I sincerely apologize for the audio, it seemed fine but I seem to have forgotten my volume was adjusted differently on my machine before release. I'll put a warning down to advise future players to adjust their volume.
Okay, I actually had a laugh or two. For some reason the [Cookies ignite] made me laugh, I guess I just wasn't expecting that. There's something about the combination of sacrificing cookie people, deliberate ms paint art, and summoning Santa that reminded me of the early Newgrounds days, in a good way. I like it just for the humor alone.
Here's what I think you did really well: The mood is certainly very Christmas-y, as a village of cookie people living in Gingerbread houses just makes sense in a Christmas-themed world. The small details like having the cookies look sad as you drag them to the circle is a nice touch. And the fail state is good too, you could have just show "GAME OVER" on the screen but you took it a step further to have the cookies sacrifice you instead for comedic effect, and it worked.
The music is a little harsh, though. Honestly, I think removing the music altogether would make the game more enjoyable. I'd rather play a silent game than one with bad music.
I took a minute or two to think about the theme and how the game plays to it. I think in this case, the narrative is what drives the theme more so than the mechanics. There's some element of sacrifice by going further away from the circle in the hopes that you'll find a cookie big enough to justify the time spent to get it, but this element gets quickly overshadowed by the quick and easy route of just going for whatever's closest and hoping for the best. Narrative or mechanics, either way, you stayed true to the theme, so good job for that.
Hi there! Is there any chance you could tell me what the rules of the game are? I don't see any instructions either on the ludum dare page or itch.io page. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do, or how the elements of the board interact with each other. Thank you!
I replayed it again and landed a score of 35. Reading the instructions helped a lot; once I knew what to do it was actually pretty fun!
I had a hard time remembering which elements would overtake the other elements. I think the only thing that could improve that is some visual feedback on which elements are being consumed and maybe an indicator of which element can take over adjacent elements. That, or if the number of elements were reduced to three instead of four. Three elements would help reinforce the common "rock-paper-scissors" dynamic we're already used to, but I'm sure if I spent more time remembering it I wouldn't need one less element anyway.
Thanks for updating the instructions, and congrats on finishing in time for compo! Good luck!
This is one of my favorites of the jam so far! The concept of losing letters you can use to respond is a creative way of interpreting the theme. It's weird, but playing it immediately brought back memories of a Yu Yu Hakusho episode where the characters played a game of Taboo where certain words couldn't be said as the game went on. Fun game all around, congrats!
Great work! First off, the aesthetics are very appealing. Specifically, the muted color palette makes the game look charming and cute. The gameplay is simple to learn on the surface, but gets more complex as more animal weights are presented. I didn't want to push my hard-earned cows off the platform, but I had to in order to save the entire platform from falling. I'd say you really nailed the theme! Speaking of themes, the theme song that plays in the background suits the game nicely. Choosing a waltz was a good choice, it fit the whimsical mood of the entire scenario perfectly. I didn't encounter any bugs during my play sessions. Something that could improve is if the weight was represented with some lights on the platform instead of a number. The lights could go from green to yellow to red to indicate how much weight is on the platform. That way, you can have more space to show the score so the player can see it better at a glance. That's just a nit picky suggestion though, so if that's my only suggestion then I'd say you did pretty well!
Wow, what music generator did you use? I didn't even realize it was generated. I'd love to use that in a future project! And no problem, I'm glad the feedback helped!