Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Taunia Sabanski
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | A Fine White Line | jam | 207 | 3.60 | 3.27 | 3.91 | 4.04 | 3.90 | 3.82 | 3.04 | 3.73 | 96 |
You guys KNOW how I feel about this game. :)
(Brilliant. Beautiful. Fascinating. Delightful. Adjectives!! High-pitched noises!!)
You just let me know when the fully-fledged iPad/Android/Steam version comes out. ;) I will throw money at you.
I really like the idea of the mechanic with the screen being maintained by the camera positioning, but I wish I had a better idea as to how to implement it in a few initial, simple situations (preferably on the same level) before being thrown into larger, more dangerous situations. I feel like this is a mechanic that would get really good reception, and open to all levels of player ability, if it's introduced with a bit more intuitive instruction.
For the most part, when I got to the end of the level, I felt more frustrated and mentally exhausted than fulfilled, as I'd spent most of the level working through how the core conditions functioned instead of using initially-learned knowledge to have fun playing around with the levels.
The pixel art was good, and the music was well done. The little bird was VERY cute and a good motivator to get to the end of the level. :)
I really enjoyed this, and will likely go back to play more later. :)
The idea of a socially-constructed Goldberg machine is absolutely awesome. I love the simplistic, early-90's pixelated art style, with the different pipes and effects. I found myself really sitting and trying to create an elaborate series of pipes. I did, indeed, have a great time with it! :)
I'd love to see this on a larger scale (with a better server!), more/different types of pipes, with a larger area to work with and more entry/exit points. Really well done! :D
The controls in this game are really well implemented for a "Super Meat Boy-esque" platformer, which was a little bit unexpected for a LD game. You definitely need to ease up on the sliding with the level design as-is, though I like the idea of being able to slide around in a game that wants to be as fast-paced as this one seems to be. The sliding just doesn't lend itself to the double-decker level design. A flat, runner-style game with Super Meat Boy-esque platforming might be a better idea in terms of how you have the sliding set up.
That said, this particular level design would suit non-momentous controls really well. It's a very interesting idea, with the top-world and the bottom world, and the stationary spikes and the floating orbs, but it creates a lot of stop-and-go gameplay, and I'm not quite sure that's what you want with this style of game.
Slowly easing the player into the difficulty was a fantastic design choice, and it really feels like there is no fake difficulty here. If I played this for awhile, I really do feel I'd get better at it, the more I played, and I would develop skill to play it. That's so important.
All and all, you did a really decent job with this. I could definitely see it being something elaborated on post-LD, in either design direction .. whether or not you wanted to cater to slippery, fast controls, or more stoic, hard-toned controls. I like that you were trying new things here, and experimenting with what worked. What worked, works really well. :)
Great start to something bigger!
Awesome effort put forward taking the time to learn a new scripting language and put it to good use. :)
This won't need much to make it a fully-fledged game. Great job!
This game mechanic is really interesting. It's a little disorienting at first, but once you understand what you're doing, it's pretty fun!
After you gather a sufficient number of turrets, though, the game becomes excruciatingly simple, and there's not much else to do but park yourself in the corner and keep your turrets repaired. Are there harder modes or waves later on?
Something that might be interesting to implement later on might be some sort of larger or procedurally-generated maze. Boss fights? :)
The graphics were really well done. I really like the idea of this, but the controls seemed a bit sticky and I found it a little frustrating to try to hide from the kids with few places to duck and cover.
I was also a little disappointed that I couldn't drop off the ledges after I placed the gifts to make a quick getaway. It seemed to be the logical thing to do, and I made a frowny face when I couldn't. :(
I really like the idea of a Santa/Christmas-themed stealth game though. You really could do a lot with that! :)
I want more of dis.
Please make more of dis.
So aesthetically cute. LOVELY gameplay. This will be perfect for touch-screen controls, guiding the little sheeps around with your finger.
This is a game that produced many high-pitched sounds from my vocal chords. It is completely adorable and I was confused and disoriented when it ended, because I simply wanted MORE. :D
Please make moar of dis.
This is deceptively difficult. I tried several times to get to the end of this, but I couldn't, not because it was a bad game (not in the least!), but that it was truly, undeniably -difficult-. No fake difficulty either, actual difficulty! This is a good thing! :D It means your game is really good at being a game, as it requires skill and articulation to get a reward.
The art was really cute, the music was really cute -- the gameplay was, too! If there weren't so many difficult barriers rolling up snowmen I might actually find it relaxing, but I apparently don't do very well with these sorts of mechanics so I got frustrated with my constant failure to build nice snowmens. :)
Fantastic basis to build a larger game off of, though. You could do so much with it -- more levels, hardcore mode, power ups, a precious, precious "undo" button for those of us who are not "snowman-tically inclined". Simple. Good. Challenging. Great work! :)
Really solid, short little adventure game that I enjoyed immensely! :) I liked the way the interface was set up, the graphics, the movement was good, the puzzle logic was good, the flow of events was good -- floored that this is a compo entry. The voice acting was superb.
I would absolutely love to see this elaborated on post-LD. This is something you could make an entire game from and adventure game nuts like myself would love to play it. It was really unique in its execution, and I'm already deeply invested in the character. SUCH a good job! :D
This is basically a finished game. It needs a bit of touching up and polish (more detailed means of handling a tutorial, better indication of power ups, learning curve, better difficulty scale, etc), and more content (more/different types of dungeons, monsters, items, leaderboards, ways a player can check their score, etc), but once that's dealt with this could be easily sold on an online marketplace.
It's quite addictive and I found myself wanting to come back to it over and over. :)
I think this would work fantastic as a mobile port, where you would use your finger or stylus in place of the ball completely, so you'd have to keep your finger/stylus from touching the walls instead. :)
This game is the epitome of the "trial by death" genre though. This is basically all it is, in essence. If anyone wants to know what a "trial by death" game is, REKTAGON is certainly the example to give.
I really thought that the implementation of the theme was strong with this one. One of the more interesting "screen-ception" games developed this Ludum Dare. The graphics and audio were really good. I like how it started close on the screen, and then branched outward to survey the "real" world -- which, in turn, became the platforms inside the monitor.
The little guy moved alright, he wasn't too hard to maneuver, though I felt the jump button was a little sticky, and I wasn't jumping while pressing the space bar, which made it a little frustrating when the monitor wooshed across the screen and completely engulfed me several times. Shooting the side of the screen was a fairly sensitive mechanic, and it took awhile for me to learn how to maneuver myself around by shooting it just a little bit at a time -- though I would've loved to have gone faster without it wiping me out. :)
The graphics were really well done here. I really liked the combination of pixel art and particle effects. The concept is also very clever, and each dimension definitely had its own personality. :)
I would probably suggest making it a little more apparent as to where you can go and what objects you can interact with. It took me watching the youtube video to figure out I could stand on the moving rock(?) platforms. Even something as simple as slapping a bullseye or other graphic on the stone can trigger a feedback response for the gamer, to let them know it's okay to step there.
I felt that the controls were a little slippery, too. They weren't tremendously bad, but on more than one occasion I found myself sliding into a large collision and perishing because I over-pressed a button somewhere.
Other than that, it was really great! :) Thank you for sharing your game with me! :D
This was a solid little "Frogger on Steroids" game. :) Easy to learn, hard to master! The death trail was really cool, I liked being able to keep track of where I died so I could work on getting past those points to get a better score. The art was good, the sound effects were great, and I LOVED the grumbly, mumbly snowman! :D
It was really clever how you increased in size as the snowballs hit you, that you decreased in size via the fireballs, and you had to play around the bullets and cars. While you had to start from the beginning when you died, I didn't find it frustrating it all. All the mistakes were mine -- I never died due to flunky controls or weird gameplay mechanics. Fantastic work! :)
This was fantastic! Absolutely enjoyed it. :)
The graphics, the mood, the humor -- I was expecting him to climb out of bed, and when he didn't I laughed -so hard-. :D
Great take on the Zelda-like concept. Really unique!
Considering this was your first game, AND your first LD? You did VERY well. :) I really enjoyed the art style, the little sprites were very cute, and the controls were solid. You can basically build as much content onto this as you want -- it's a great start!
Always make sure to remember the main focus of your game -- the fun factor. Cover your information well with menu screens and images so that the player can focus more on having fun and experimenting with the gameplay than fumbling with controls and trying to figure out what everything does sans verbal description. :)
This actually needs very little to get to a point where it could be released to the masses and appreciated. FANTASTIC first game. :)
I totally love this. Absolutely.
It is supreme fun to just toss the ragdolls around via random line-drawing. The fact that you got the ragdoll physics this well implemented during a weekend is impressive. :D
The art was great, the sound was great, the humor was off the charts, and I just enjoyed it immensely overall! :)
For a compo entry, this game is amazingly well done. A lot of attention to many details here -- the pirate ghosts, the parrot animations, the BOSS FIGHT (in a Metroid-vania compo game WTF?), and the general game progression. A lot of good stuff here. AND you had a tutorial that guided players through various game input while you proceeded through the start of the game. Are you Compo Jesus or something? c___c
There were a few things that did nag at me and I did have trouble with, however -- the camera is definitively your enemy. I know that the theme was quite restrictive, in terms of the entire game on one screen, but I think the flippy-floppy trouble that I had originated simply from the level design, and having too many important things close to the edges of the screen instead of in the middle of the screen. The player controls were a little bit sticky in terms of jumping and shooting the cannon (my mouse would flip around sporadically at times, depending on the direction of the screen change), and there were a couple of jumps that were quite hard to achieve -- but it wasn't bad enough that I couldn't get through the game. The biggest obstacle I had a problem with was the spikes -- largely because they often were located in tight areas that were hampered by the camera, and if I hit the flat side of the spikes I died instantly.
I might also suggest a better way to identify where a key is .. either via particle effect or sound or both. This would have to be implemented very well to keep from being annoying, of course. :)
Also, I did not realize, at the one end of the screen, that I could jump over the barrier and into the water. Some indication, such as a dock, item, etc, that you can go in that direction/walk on the water would be stellar. :)
Overall, this is fantastic for a compo entry. REALLY good work!
I really like the personality expressed in the pixel art. I love the robot, I love the different fruits with their expressions and hats and all sorts of things. It's simple and fun, and I think I would absolutely love to play some 2-player once I have a second player available to me. ;)
The only issue I really had was with the handling of the controls. They're really very floaty and pressing the arrow key often sent my poor little robot shooting across the screen at variable light speed, which made it particularly hard for him to sort fruit like a good fruit sorting robot.
I really liked the robot, though. :) The robot is destined for greater things than sorting fruit. One day, he will save the world!
I really liked this as a compo entry. It's a solid little game, with a really good tutorial to get the player oriented with your controls. Really great job with that, by the way! Most LD game entries don't get a tutorial section -- and the way you integrated it with your gameplay was stellar!
My only large issue with the game was with the movement controls. It's not unusual at all for a LD game (especially a compo game) to have really sticky controls, so you're definitely not the only one. The main problems I had was with the movement left/right after swinging the weapon, and with jump. With moving left/right, after I swung the weapon, if I had been holding down the L/R button while swinging the weapon, I would not move anymore. I would freeze after swinging the sword, and would have to lift my finger from the button, and press it again if I wanted to move. This is the thing that probably caused most of my deaths in the game. In most (all?) games, if you press the L/R directional button while firing a weapon, you will use the weapon either while moving, or will pause to use the weapon, and then continue moving when the weapon button is released. This did not happen, and it put a lot of space between me and the boss when the boss was experiencing fallback. In order for me to effectively kill the boss, I had to corner them and spam the attack key.
Jump didn't seem as responsive as I wished it to be. I went to jump a few times, and it didn't seem to register well.
All in all, it was a good compo entry. Not bad at all! :)
This is a game that really needs a solid, cohesive visual style. I absolutely loved the way the buildings changed color to the beat. :) The background, with the blacks, whites and bright colors, should definitely be brought to the foreground. At the moment, the foreground and the background look like two separate games.
Rhythm games are some of my favorites -- I love to be sucked in by the beat, and get pulled into a trance as I play. :) Focusing on the music and how it plays with the environment will really help the mood!
This is a good base-game concept that needs quite a bit more content to be really fleshed out. It's really amicable that you focused on a very basic idea so that you could finish it by the end of the compo. In the case of a compo game, it's quite simplistic, but well done in that simplicity.
It does need a lot of polish, though. What is here that works, works. The controls are slightly slippery, and though I know you meant them to be slippery, I found I was sliding off into the lava more than I was being late to step into the green circle.
With some cleaner graphics, more content, different environments and possibly more win/lose conditions, this game has plenty of potential to build upon. :)
The largest thing I would have to suggest in terms of improvement would have to be your logistics. I got through to the end of the game largely by clicking wildly on things, with very little figuring out and thought being put into it. "Escape the Room" genre games are quite open in terms of what you can present to the player as a puzzle to figure out -- they can be anything going from the "realistic" side of the spectrum (like yours) to the "abstract puzzle" side of the spectrum. The logistics have to be solid, though, especially as you move closer to the "abstract" side.
The art actually wasn't too bad in this. I could tell what everything was at a glance, even though I might not've been able to tell what to do with it. The prison wine was pretty straightforward, but something like the syringe in the book made no sense at all until I accidentally clicked on the cellmate. More indication as to what was required from the other inmates beating you up might've been useful, too -- there was a bit of a visual indication (the one inmate drinking something in a bag) but if someone didn't know what that was, and what that related to, I could see them having a hard time figuring it out.
All in all, it was a decent room escape game! :) Good job!
The song was amazing. :D
I think the only issue I had was with the jumping, though that may simply be my sheer lack of ability. Great job with the power-ups, the voice over and leader boards! There are obviously people who are MUCH better at this game than I am. :)
You had a very good instructions screen. I wasn't lost at all as to what I was doing, or how to do it, which is total props. :) Once I got into the game and started playing it, though, you mentioned that the axe swinging was a bit derpy, and I DO agree.
There needs to be a more solid axe swinging mechanic and you probably need better collision detection and perhaps some visual feedback on screen when your guy gets hit. I thought I was killing zombies, when in fact I was dying pretty pathetically. ;)
I was also challenged to get to 300 Wood, and I managed to do that really easily once I discovered how to avoid the zombies entirely. Then it became very easy to do so. :) With more balance, I think that this game could be really good!
I'm not sure if it was my general lack of being able to platform well or what it was, but I was having some serious bugs and trouble jumping and grappling.
I also got a weird sound bug which caused the music to loop in a disturbing way. This may have been intentional. I'm not really sure. :D The idea seemed really good, I would've loved to've gotten to the end!
This was quite fun. :) I enjoyed the different levels of play, and having a final boss battle with trap avoidance mechanics was challenging and interesting.
If anything, I would suggest improving the handling of the bow. Sound effects, a reticule, or even a "pull/draw" meter -- something to show that you are using the bow, and something to show where you're aiming the bow.
For the time allocated, though, this was a real decent playthrough! :) I got to the end with a smile. Good job!
I really enjoyed breaking your game, Kumo. :) It was one of the best experiences I've had thusfar during LD.
This game did a couple of this really really well. It definitely SURPRISED me, when the game started doing its thing and it surprised me even more when I fell through the terrain and I reached terminal velocity. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. :D
Really good 3D graphics for a weekend, too! Simple, not overdone and lots of objects to witness spinning around.
Great job! :)
This game is really aching for music and sound effects. You have great visual player feedback going on here, with really good pixel art, but it is crying out for some sort of audio. This is a PERFECT game befitted for sound -- I could see this transform into some sort of rhythm-oriented platformer.
The controls are really smooth and sensitive. It felt really good to jump and orient my jumps according to the placement of the blocks. It was really satisfying to reach the next level. The only thing that would make the game even more satisfying would be sound. :)
This was a challenging little game that I quite enjoyed. My one only huge really big gripe about it would have to be the sound of the lasers firing and colliding with the enemies. They were very grating sounds, and they hurt my poor sensitive little eardrums, and I had to turn the sound down quite a way before I could tolerate it enough to give it a through playthrough. :(
For a compo entry, this is really impressive. I really liked the cute graphics and effects -- the monitor-ception, the way the screen turned off on a Game Over. I liked the look and movement of the turrets and the bugs. It was overall very enjoyable and fairly polished. Felt like a Jam game.
As you suggested while I played, a magnet to gather the gems would be awesome to implement. In order to kill the bugs before they got to me, a lot of them ended up in that no-man's land along the screen's border that was beyond the collision box, and I couldn't nab them at all. I'd also love to see more tower types or tower upgrades (being able to upgrade a present tower by pressing the tower's placement button over an already placed tower), and some way to regain health as time goes on (either through drops, or by killing enemies, or placing down towers, etc) so I can continue to get through waves and waves of enemies. Most of the hits I took was while I was trying to gather gems down by their entry point at the bottom of the screen, and that was a little bit bothersome.
All in all, one of the best compo entries I've played. :D Great job!
While I am really not the person to be representing a census on platforming mechanics (as I am notoriously not very good at it), there is definitely something great here. The presentation was good, the sounds were good, the art was good.
The only issue I really had was with the overall movement of the sprite. As I am notoriously bad at platformers, it's always nice to be able to set up my jumps, but I wasn't really able to do that, as I'd gently move the joystick and the sprite would fly off his platform. :(
I think if you managed to hone his movement really well, you'd have a really accessible game for all sorts of levels of ability. :)
There is a great color palette going in this one. The muted, sandy tones give a very immediate "gladiator" appearance and feel. It fits the theme very well, and the way the character handles is quite good.
The only thing I had repeated issues with was the responsiveness of the sword and actually swinging/hitting enemies. A lot of my sword swings didn't seem to register while interacting with the enemies -- either the sword didn't swing at all, or it swung a few milliseconds after hitting the space bar. There was no real problem without enemies on the screen, but once they came on board, I had a hard time slaughtering them. The sword swings were also a challenge to hit. I didn't know if I was supposed to keep them on the tip of my sword, or somewhere in the middle, or something else, due to the sticky interactions. :(
The game does need a bit more balance in terms of fighting, and it needs more content, but overall, it's definitely one of the more visually appealing games out there. :) Good work!
You did a really good job on this. Your color palette is really good, it's quite humorous, the music, sound and visual effects are really nice. It's satisfyingly violent without gore or anything.
I really liked the guns, and the randomness of the guns, but I felt the way they were dispensed was quite unbalanced. Nothing was under-powered, perse, but I felt that a lot of the guns I was getting were OVER powered. I could see how someone might play and end up with very weak guns, which would give them a far lower score (I managed to get to 151 kills). This definitely needs work, though it's not purposeful fake difficulty. This is just something you need to work on to ensure it's working on all levels.
I did eventually understand that the elf indicated when I ran out of ammo (maybe you could make that more clear), but I felt it was a little distracting and difficult to go to the elf on the roof, and jump off the roof and back into the fray without a break in flow. Perhaps you could have the elf throwing things off a higher platform, that you'd have to catch down below?
Either way, I'll try your post-LD builds as well to see what you've done recently. Good job! :) Really well done!
I really loved the colors and the music.
The difficulty spikes pretty drastically, but that's not necessarily a problem. I would've liked to've kept my shield through the levels, though. :) I'd love to see it with touch controls!
If this was a game on a mobile marketplace, I would definitely purchase it. :D
While I really loved the humor of the game and the challenge it presents to the player, I found it to be quite hard. I was 100 moves in, and I still had the spleen nowhere near the stomach, and I had saved all of my matches for when both randomly appeared. Unfortunately, I never won. :(
It would be really neat if you started out in a fairly large arena, and really give the player time to build up a sense of urgency as the room starts shrinking down. Either or, give them a better means to dodge/block incoming fire, as well. I found that the room got really small really quickly simply because it was pretty tough to dodge all the bullet hell.
Whenever the room changed size, all movement and interaction in the arena would stop, which really broke up the flow of activity, which was really decent otherwise. The screen shaking and the timer countdown in the back really gave a good sense of needing to hurry, but I think it could be ramped up quite well just by starting in a larger arena, and giving more for the player to invest in before the walls start closing in.
The graphics were good, the music was decent. :) More content might be good in this game, too. More/different types of monsters? Boss fight? More weapons? This is a solid start!
This is great! :) It feels VERY "complete". Like it's a finished product at this point, and we're being linked to an online marketplace somewhere instead of a weekend project for LD!
It's surprisingly more challenging the farther you go, and you really need to utilize your peripheral vision in order to dually press buttons and keep your cursor on the wound.
I'm not sure what else I could suggest in terms of adding to it and making it better, aside from perhaps a story mode or different levels or challenges or, as someone suggested, making the wounds different (visually, or via varying "types" of wounds, injuries and infections). Maybe certain power ups? Use of medications, suturing, bandaging, etc?
This is really solid, just as it is. :) It really feels polished! The art is also fantastic! Great color palette!
I'm not sure if that weird light/shadow thing going on in the background is a bug, but, at first I started anticipating that this was going to be one of those games where it lures you into a false sense of security playing a cute little platformer, and then ultimately reveals a series of jump-scares. :D It creeped me out!
Either or, the platformer itself was really cute. The penguin movement itself wasn't too slippery, but I found that some of the jumps were just a tad too far away, or some of the platforms didn't line up correctly because they were either moving too quick or too slow.
The graphics overall were really well done. Especially in the outer room/office area. The texturing and lighting (in the room) was quite pro. In the penguin game, the graphics were appropriately low-poly and the seals were adorable. :)
This was a really decent start to a good tower defense game. It needs some balancing, better indication of tower range before placement, harder enemies, and things like that -- but you can play it and win/lose, depending on your general ability, and that's certainly enough for a LD compo entry.
I would probably suggest switching to Unity or the like to deal with many snowmen/turrets/bullets on screen. My browser locked up a few times while playing when I had an overflow of objects moving around. :(
Overall, it was quite fun, and I enjoyed myself! :) Tower defense is one of my favorite types of games, and this one is certainly playable as one!
The movement was handled very well in this one. I actually don't have any complaints with how the character moved at all -- it wasn't sticky, it wasn't slippery, it wasn't anything negative. It was very smooth and really tight movement, and really good controls can basically make or break how one responds to a platforming title (especially for people like me, who aren't very good at platformers to begin with).
The level layout was quite good, aside from maybe just 2-3 spots that were a little weird and difficult to get past without possibly losing half of my heart meter. Easily changed things, though, that you could probably alter in less than a day, and make it much more enjoyable for players (instead of stuff to grind through to proceed with the level).
The sound effects were really cute, and it needs music! Some sort of retro chiptune-style music or anything, really. It feels so polished, but there's no real sound to help give it vibrant character and life. :D Something to compliment your fantastic pixel art and lovely color palette!
There is a great "Lovecraft" feel to this game. :) It's very creepy -- I really like the toothy smiles on the spiders, and the animations when they feast on your corpse send little spidery shivers down my spine!
This game totally needs more content and a smoother difficulty curve (as it is currently 80-90 degrees or so). Perhaps a life meter or perhaps adding tension with a rescue crew trying to save you from the spidery pit of doom. It totally needs larger, bigger, uglier monsters, bosses and more weapons you can throw at them. :) The day/night mechanic is really challenging, too!
You guys did a phenomenal job on this one. The ONLY thing I could suggest would be to make a reticule that changes color when you are correctly aimed on one of the flies, just to give players better feedback on where they're aiming/when they're aiming correctly. Other than that, I don't have any complaints about it.
What I LOVED could form a much longer list. The art was absolutely great -- I loved the shaders, the colors, the little motes of dust in the air, the trails behind the flies and everything! It was very cohesive and it all fit with itself. I really liked the visual queues as to where you were shooting your spider silk, and when the little bug-bombs were dropped.
The gameplay was engaging and fun, I really liked how the life bar and the score was kept to the computer screen, and how the little flies would all come in and cutely poke and prod and feast on my little spider carcass when I died. :D
Great job! I really enjoyed it! :)
That was really innovative, fresh and fun. :)
I could have easily played 10+ more levels of this, with more gradually introduced traps and mechanics to throw more stuff into the mix. Great fun and good job! :D
This is probably the first bullet hell game I sat down, tried, and actually wanted to continue to play after I died a couple of times. I'm generally not very good at bullet hell games (not that they don't interest me -- it's just not a genre I'm "into" as much), but the combination bullet hell/rhythm game seems to be a perfect match for me. This had me hooked almost immediately and I played it several times -- only stopping because I had to, not because I wanted to. :)
I would love to see a full version of this! This game is VERY cool. The rhythm/beat placement was spot on, it was genuinely challenging (no fake challenge here, ladies and gents), and as I played more, I got better at it! :) Definitely something worth perusing post-LD! More music, more bullet/beat patterns, more add-ons -- this could be a really fleshed out game -- not that it isn't already quite solid! It handled beautifully.
Huge props! :D I really enjoyed this!
This was very enjoyable! :) I really liked the art, the mechanics of the switching rooms and keeping my lantern lit as I traveled through the levels. The platforming was fairly comfortable, and it had some of the better-feeling controls I've experienced so far.
The atmosphere and music in this game was very effective. The droning, plodding and digital/scratchy sounds definitely lent to the game's overall creepiness. The way I had to bend the light around corners and move in a certain way to ensure I had a good view of whatever was in the next room was fun and intuitive, and I found myself being very careful going into new areas.
As others have said, the difficulty curve is quite steep and the monsters start off quite hard. 7 shots to kill one of the larger monsters right off the bat, as it runs towards you, is quite intimidating for underexposed players who can't quite grasp how everything functions yet.
The other difficulty I had was figuring out exactly what corner of the screen I had to shove myself against to get the level to change. As I suggested in Twitch chat, the best, simplest way to remedy that sort of confusion is to give a simple, indicative sign -- such as a caution stripe on the floor. A signal to tell the player that they have not only reached the end of the level, but now can turn around and go back the other way.
Wow! This is a deceptively difficult little puzzle game, lol! :D I really enjoyed this. The only thing I actually had issue with was trying to initially figure out what all the tiles did. You had a really great start to a tutorial going on at the beginning, but I felt it was unfinished. I really wish that it extended to being told what different tiles did, and what they were. I figured out most of them due to trial and error, though I did feel frustrated not being told how they functioned and ending up dying multiple times, as they are fairly simple graphics and don't give a really straightforward idea as to what each tile does. :(
Other than that, this was really solid! I liked the gameplay, and the music was good, too! I loved the robotic snowman voice, and I really enjoyed making tiny snowmen! :D
Iak: "I still had a few little problems like that I couldn't clean the hammer on any sink, the one in the room where you find the towel doesn't work for some reason. (at least when I clicked it nothing happened)."
Yes, the hotspots may have turned out unusually small. I'll see what can be done about that -- it's causing a bit of a problem, it seems.
"Figuring out where exactly I had to click on the Incinerator also wasn't quite obvious."
Just clicking anywhere on the incinerator will do it. :) It's one of the larger hotspots, so it's not too easy to miss. Maybe you were clicking on the hot water tank? We didn't get a chance to label everything, unfortunately. :( Just objects essential to the scenario.
"I could imagine a more advanced version (post LD) of the game with several different murder scenarios to clean up would be pretty awesome."
Oh, yes! This was the original idea surrounding the concept. :) The entire scenario was supposed to have SEVERAL more steps. Other maps and crime scenes (and ones where you play the detectives!) were considered as well. We definitely know where you're coming from.
Thank you so much for your kind critique! :)
Aevek: "I managed to get a weird dupe bug by trying to clean the hammer wrong by just dropping it on the sink though."
Yeah it's a pretty amazing bug. It's not game-breaking though, so you can have fun with it and still win, as long as you fulfill the "win" prerequisites. :)
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad people are enjoying it. :D
GSM Productions: "This was so intense :D"
Thank you! That's what I was going for! :D I'm SO glad you used that adjective!!
"Hard to imagine it is the work of someone learning Unity from scratch. Kudos for that!"
Glad to see you found it and played it, and enjoyed it! :) I think Rachel's pretty floored (and most definitely exhausted) at all she managed to do by the time we submitted (with only two minutes to spare!).
"Really a superb entry, I think you could really, really take this further!"
It might just be taken farther! :D
Thank you everyone, for your positive and constructive feedback so far. It really means a lot after the stress of crunch! :)
taaboo: "Impressive work not knowing unity."
Thank you! :)
If we ever decide to develop aFWL beyond LD31, the interface would definitely be more interactive and intuitive, with far more visual cues (as was originally planned).
There was a lot of stuff left out, not necessarily due to time constraints, but due to the programmer's general unfamiliarity with the development platform. :)
Being a big fan of games like Harvest Moon, I do know the appeal of cute little pixelated farm simulators -- though I do feel that this needed some form of win/lose condition.
Something along the lines of, you needed to farm a certain amount of food within a given time, or have to fend the fox off from the chickens while you farm -- anything, really. It's a neat little toy that you can play around with on its own, but to garner more feedback and really give the feel that you are doing something right, it really does need some sort of condition or point system.
For what it is, though, it is cute. Would have liked sound or effects or soft music playing in the background, though! :)
The idea of the game being physically on a screen is really good -- definitely on-target for theme. The music was also fantastic!
Though, after I played it for a few minutes, I wasn't quite sure if I was doing things correctly (or at all!) due to a lack of player feedback. :( There aren't any sound cues, or explosions, or visual things that let you know you're doing things correctly. You kinda just put down the robots and hope they do the right things.
Keep the base idea, though. :) It's a good one!
Solid handling of the controls, could move and jump really easily, nice and smooth. :)
The gameplay is really awesome and unique, I haven't seen anything like this yet, this LD. I enjoyed being able to break down the scenery and figure out my own pathways towards the purple squares while strategically trying to avoid the red enemies.
I could probably sit and play this game for hours. :) The only thing I could possibly suggest would be music and more/larger/different levels post-LD. I feel like this game could hold way more content, and it could be a really massive, ever-changing thing. :)
Fantastic work! :D I really loved it!
This was a great little entertaining, innovative compo entry. These sorts of games where you need to "learn how the game functions as you go" are some of my favorite types of games, and this is definitely an enjoyable one of those. There was nothing really inherently wrong with it, it was short and sweet, and I managed to get to the end without any real issue.
The only thing I could suggest would be to give the player some sort of non-spoiler indication that the keyboard can be used with the game. It wasn't until you told me in chat that I could use my keys during the game that I was able to continue to figure out what to do.
The ending song? Also amazing. :) Needs to be available for download as soon as possible!
This was a great little experience that can definitely be expanded upon! It's certainly one of the best quickly-made RPGMaker games I've played in awhile. There is a great premise for a larger story here.
What I can probably suggest to you is to do some research in player logistics and game psychology. :) This is really important if you want to start developing adventure-type games (or any games!) and want to include hidden objects that are essential to certain end-game scenarios where things are only available in a short window. You really have to take the time to figure out how players will think -- after all, you might know where everything is, but you need to think like the player, making it logical to find items without making it too easy or too hard. :)
I really enjoyed myself otherwise. :) Thank you so much for sharing your game with me!
There isn't much information here to inform me as to how to play. I attempted to play the game several times, and I just couldn't understand what I was doing or how I could achieve an action to get to a win condition.
The idea is really good, but I feel there should be some sort of tutorial or detailed visual representation/documentation as to how to play. There seems to be a good game hiding here, I just wish I knew how to play it. :(
I got a high score of 50. :)
This was really easy to learn and fun to play! This is definitely one of those LD games that you could sell with more content added. Great pixel art, the music is thematic and not distracting. The color palette is very good, and you give great instructional documentation!
Great job! Thank you for sharing your game. :)
Really good for a first game/LD submission. The art was consistent and the palette was very cute and Christmasy.
It was quite difficult moving around corners and avoiding the flames. They moved faster than I could control my snowman, and I found myself melting very quickly, and getting Game Over screens, which then crashed with a Fatal Error bug. :( So that was unfortunate.
This would have functioned a lot better as an isometric 2.5D game or a full-on 3D game. Doing it top-down 2D with no graphical differentiation between levels except lightness & darkness, while having to keep track of shadows and not the placement of the sprites, makes it very difficult to understand where you are and exactly what sort of trajectory your bullets will travel on in order to hit the dinos. I found myself focusing more on keeping track of where I was and trying to predict where my bullets were going to go instead of focusing on fighting the dinos, which ultimately caused my demise several times. :(
The pixel art itself is well done, though you might want to rethink your palette and work on the dinos themselves. The environmental sprites are very good, the gunner sprites are very good, but currently the dinos look a lot like frogs. :) So it's 2.5 Frog Arena instead of Dino Arena right now. Going for an isometric view of the dinos, or a side-view of the dinos might work a lot better for that.
Visual differentiation between levels needs to be worked on quite a bit. Using different materials (sand, dirt, rock, grass) for each level would be a lot more effective than mucking up your color scheme with light/dark shading. Using metal boxes and crates at the bottom of the barrel towers could help, as well.
The gunner dude did HANDLE pretty good. It was a little bit floaty, but I didn't find it too hard to control. My only gripe about jumping around is that the backs of the hills are completely flat. I'd often lose sight of myself behind the hills, have nowhere to jump up, and then get ambushed by dinos and dying. The music was decent. It wasn't too terribly annoying, but the quality of the sound could definitely be upped. :)
Also: The game over screen rekt my browser. :( It almost crashed the 2nd time. Might be a good idea to limit the spawn on those game-over dinos. :) Save a browser, limit your spawn rate!
All in all, there are some really decent ideas here. It needs a lot of work, but if you put the time and effort into it, it could turn into something really great.
Fix the feedback and rhythm issues, polish it up, add more content, more music, more shape-maps, color and sparkly things? You have yourself a sellable game. :)
As a person who's been playing rhythm games for a freakishly long period of time, this is something I would buy and play and enjoy immensely as a full, fleshed out version of itself. :)
Something with a graceful learning curve and a lot of stimulus reward for the player so they know they're doing the right thing, and can feel good about garnering points and winning levels. At the moment it feels like I'm playing a super-hard level of a game with a 90-degree learning curve. ;)
Fantastic work for not knowing Unity! :) It's REALLY good!
Once you understand how to play I Am Technician, it's really quite fun -- though not entirely knowing how to play might give it a larger fun factor than intended. It's not necessarily frustrating to not know how to play, as fooling around with the physics will entertain you for at least a little while.
After watching the tutorial video at least 5 times, I did my best to memorize all the information needed to play, and went back in again. I managed to fix several computers by the end, wherein I lost my screwdriver and couldn't figure out how to get it back until I was told to press the "S" key. Too many people also store cats in their PC towers -- that may not be healthy for the cats.
I'd love to see this as a fully-realized game, adding on tasks such as dusting out the computer, installing fans and PSU's and other components, and perhaps removing more junk than just kittens from the PC towers. Maybe make the customers irate if you take too long? Different sorts of customers with different temperaments? Lots of potential here.
Very ambitious for a LD game. I enjoyed myself whilst playing this one, quite a bit! Great job! :D
It definitely made me laugh. :)
This was a really great artistic romp through a twisted idea. :) I really enjoyed my time in this storybook world, but would've loved to have stayed and experienced more if there was more to it.
I adored some of the ideas here. The gun-chickens and the brain-lobsters and all of the various surreal bric-a-brac. I have such a fondness for this stuff. You definitely have something going on in the depths of your imagination and you need to crack it open and let it ooze out and share it with the world!
Congratulations on completing your first Jam experience! :)
Just putting down the few things I mentioned in Twitch:
- Movement is a little sporadic, makes it a little tough to aim.
- Great use of the theme, cute artwork!
- Good humor. :)
- I love how the snowman moves slowly when he's large and quickly when he's small, it makes sense!
- Controls are a little like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, a little bit autonomically confusing. Try assigning the fire button to the trigger instead of the shoulder button. :)
Overall, great job! :D
This game really needs a UI and more player feedback. I spent most of my time running around trying to figure out how everything functioned on its own and how to determine where I was in terms of actually -hitting- enemies and how low I was getting on life. I had no idea if I could gather items to gain life back (whether or not the blue dots were, I couldn't tell because there was no player feedback to indicate so). The only item I picked up that I immediately realized what it did was the magnet.
There needs to be a bit more of a visual example as to what you're setting down other than color. The only player feedback I got was with the blockade actively blocking the enemies and fireballs. I had no idea if the other ones were working... there was no sound or flash or anything.
The music was good, though! Really nice chiptune. The CRT monitor effects were neat, too. The game overall needs a LOT of work though. :(
This is a really decent start for a young game developer still going to school. The concept is good, you have a lot of different things implemented, and it shows a lot of good programming skill. Especially for your first LD -- your first game project as well?
I'm definitely in agreement with people about the audio. Audio is something that's very delicate, in terms of games -- it needs just as much consideration as art and design. It's much better to have no audio at all than have audio that might repel people from playing your game, or make them spend very little time with it.
The graphics need sprucing up, but if your main focus is programming, this is pretty standard fare in terms of "programmer art". :D
I felt it was rather strange to move the little ball around. The controls weren't sticky or anything, they were just ... strange? I don't think you'd necessarily HAVE to slow time in order to maneuver the ball, unless the slow time mechanic was implemented to compensate for hurried controls?
Either way, this game shows some real impeccable talent. :) Especially for a compo entry! :D Keep working like this and you're going to be programming like a boss by the time you get into college. :)
The art created for this is absolutely amazing. If you managed to create all of those splash screens, all of those models, all of those animations, etc, JUST during the weekend? Mad, mad ability here. Of all the LD games I've played thusfar that fall under the "assault people & evade the madness that ensues" genre, this has definitely been the best.
I do agree with some previous comments that the hit collision is a bit iffy. I found myself swinging my weapon at people while fairly close, and it didn't make contact. The police also had some really long-reaching range, and even when I felt I was really far away from them, I still got hit. It seemed as though the weapon was a bit sluggish? The alien guy wasn't necessarily hard to control, though, I could see why someone might want WASD or joystick controls rather than point-and-click controls.
Overall, this was a real gem. I loved the addition of crazy drivers -- more obstacles integrated with the gameplay like this could make later potential levels really challenging, even with the level of difficulty it's currently at.
So it took me a few plays to realize that this was a game.
In a game.
In a game.
lol!
Something weird happened the third time around and I couldn't quite play the frog game for some reason? Albeit, I was buzzing around like a hummingbird with ADD and we all know once the snowman explodes you've officially entered Office Hell. :)
Well-polished, well-animated and well thought-out. This was a fantastic little Jam entry, that would totally be worthwhile as a post-LD project. Really decent children's games are a rarity -- especially ones of quality like this. A lot of children's media tends to treat kids as if they are not intelligent, or fail to challenge them appropriately, or give them a proper example learn from, and a game so attentive as this could really be a good project on that front. Something parents could download for their children and not have to worry as to whether or not they are getting quality entertainment.
The animation was so well done, and very charming. I know that a lot of LD entries need to sacrifice things, like good animation, for more time. You spend so many hours planning and programming and just getting your base assets in, you often never get a chance to do really decent, expressive animations (if you manage to implement them at all!) and it's mostly limited to 3-8 frame pieces of pixel art, anyway. It's so refreshing to see such nicely animated content.
There isn't much I could suggest in lieu of this game aside from more content. Just as much content as you can muster in terms of a day in the life of this little bear. :) From waking up, to going to school, to coming home and playing, to getting ready for bed. Quality children's entertainment. :)
This has tremendous potential for more content! :D
As-is, it's a VERY solid game. Stellar controls, beautiful graphics (You got Ambient Occlusion all up in your LD game..!! :D That's amazing!), intuitive experimental gameplay that allows the player to really sink their teeth into developing their own play-style and just having FUN with the mechanics.
This TOTALLY deserves a post-LD release of some form. This really could go far with more content, more levels, enemy introduction, maybe even a storyline, too! :) Really good base game, here.
Unfortunately I didn't have a second player so it ended up being Right Hand vs Left Hand. :) Right Hand won!
This handled REALLY well. The controls were good, nice and smooth. There was a lot of quality player feedback, and I felt like I could sit and stay for awhile. :)
Definitely something worth working on post-LD. Power ups, different levels, and just more content in general will make this game super-awesome! Solid foundation. :)
This is a really good idea, but I began experiencing a lot of the same problems doitle was.
Enemies were advancing too quickly, I couldn't really coordinate drilling with moving as the monsters were perusing me, so I only really made it to the 3rd maze. I really wanted to continue, but I didn't see a solution to my problem.
Either or, this is a great beginning to something larger. Maybe fine-tune the movement a bit more and make the drilling mechanic uninvolved with moving? :)
The controls were alright, I could move King Pistachio around pretty well, and jumping/attacking wasn't much of a problem. I'm not so sure I enjoyed the constant barrage of raining fireballs, as there were just far too many of them and it detracted from whatever other activity I was trying to preform. It made everything harder, but not hard in a fun way -- just harder in a more irritating way. I wanted to focus on making jumps and it was hard to time things to jump and land on clear areas because the falling fire negated both areas and I ended up dying either way. :(
The idea is cute, it's very CandyLand-esque. I liked the idea of the Spoon Troopers. The music, while fitting, is fairly repetitive, though I didn't find it directly annoying.
I'd love to play a full version of this with a good tutorial level, storyline mode and more content. This is a really solid little game here -- I'd probably pinpoint this as more of a prototype for central game mechanics and testing play than anything else. This game really should get some post-LD attention. :)
This was one of the best LD games I've played thus far.
This was a perfect score for me. The art and music was adorable, I laughed out loud several times, the gameplay was simple and enjoyable. The only problem I had with it is that it ended too soon! :c
Thank you so much for making this! :D
I had similar issues to GreenyUK. While I'm not too great at platforming, I was having a tough time trying to figure out how to not die. :(
I managed to get a high score of 16, but it was mostly due to sheer random chance in terms of the falling blocks, and I felt like I really did nothing to earn that score.
The art is well done, and the idea of pushing blocks around and matching them and avoiding falling blocks is alright -- there's just too much death potential. Maybe if there weren't any spikes on the floor?
This was astoundingly good for your first game! Aesthetically, this game is absolutely beautiful. I really wanted to finish it, because I absolutely wanted to see what would happen in the end. I wanted to appreciate your artwork, and take in all the facets of your vision.
The one thing that made it hard for me (aside the fact that I am very poor at platformers) was the blocky collision. It was hard for me to (with the keyboard) get the little dude up and around some of the platforms. I managed to get where I wanted to go, but not without a bit of button mashing. :)
This is definitely one of the LD games that would be sellable with some polish and more content. You can easily fix collision. Artistic vision, ability to put together something that people want to play, and aesthetic value is not. :)
This is a great start to a much larger game, with more content, levels, ships, power-ups and a health meter. :)
The controls were really good, very solid, I felt like I was in good control of the ship. Maybe add some more perimeters for your "close ship" option? Give it a time meter, or a shield damage display in the corner? Just something more. This feels like a really solid foundation to a really decorated and well-produced final product. :)
Definitely something you'd want to elaborate on post-LD.
Totally agree that this was a solid, polished game. Definitely one of the ones that could carry on post-LD. :)
I love the name, Dabug! The graphics are VERY well suited and crisp. I started playing and found the controls to be really smooth and articulate. The player feedback was very satisfying, and I was really surprised when I was hoping to myself that there would be power-ups and more substantial abilities and suddenly, they appeared! :D Like my prayers had been answered!
I do agree that the explosion sounds are a little loud and jarring (I did have to turn down my volume a bit, as they were exploding my eardrums a little), and it needs a bit of background music, but that is my ONLY little teeny tiny gripe about it. The rest of it was really fantastic! :)
Ow, my wrist!! LOL! Not the best game for people with carpal tunnel, but I digress. :)
This was really cool! I loved the art style and the way the innovation of gameplay, even if it was a bit painful for me! You must have taken some inspiration from SuperGiant because it reminded me a lot of Bastion. I could totally see this working great with a touchscreen or joystick, much more than a mouse. This was really innovative for the one screen theme, too. Haven't played anything like this so far. No real complaints about it, it was pretty solid through and through. :)
Great job!
The little animation of the gator walking/running around is absolutely spectacular. I liked the speech bubbles with the different phrases, and while the music was a bit repetitive, it wasn't obnoxiously so. More humorous than anything. :)
For a rage game, this was definitely good. It is certainly befitting of the "rage game" genre, and while it's troll-licious, it's not mean or spiteful in its trolling. You can totally get to the end if you try very hard and have a lot of patience. I find that a lot of people create rage games just to cover up things like poor programing and collision, to create "fake" difficulty levels, that a gamer has to adhere to and change to fit themselves into the games' mold -- and that wasn't the case with this one. It's a skill-based difficulty and the more you play and learn, the better you'll get. That's really commendable for a game in the "rage" genre. Many of them are not planned out that well.
That said, the controls for this game were REALLY tight. -Mad props- for the controls. They handled very well for a platformer. Amazing collision, too. Pixel-perfect! A lot of compo/jam platformers suffer under the weight of poor collisions -- it can often make or break the feel of a game. But you got it right. It is enjoyable to play, even if it IS a rage-game. ;)
Once this game hits the online marketplace with some really polished graphics, audio and effects it's really going to take off. It needs a little bit more of tutorial instruction just as you start it off, as I initially had no idea I could turn the blocks around, and I wasn't quite sure what the flashing line meant overall -- that and some leaderboards -- but that's all it really needs, aside from some really well-developed graphics and sparkly player feedback. :)
Definitely something that needs lots of attention post-LD. :D This is one of those games that you get really addicted to as you get phenomenally good at it!
The premise of the game made me laugh, and is quite unique. I like the idea of a wizard diner, WIZARD RAGE and a waitress with magical powers. :)
That said, there really needs to be a better difficulty curve and a way to make it so that the game is not unbeatable due to the randomization of food on the screen. It was far too difficult the first few turns, and I couldn't articulate the food quickly enough to get to the wizards before it cooled or they raged on me. :(
There should definitely be an option to clear the food from the screen, or scramble the food when it gets stuck or unbeatable. Even games like Bejeweled sense when a screen is unplayable, and it clears/reassembles the screen for further play. :)
Thank you for sharing your game! :)
As I played, I expected the ghosts to come out at some point and chase me around a little. :D It might've been neat to have a little bit of a threat/pressure to get through it, but it was quite enjoyable just as it was! The password puzzle was good, and digging through the files to find printer drivers was cute and fun. I liked going through and peeking at all of the files and reading things. :)
This game was PRESENTED very well. Having the image of the CRT monitor surrounding the screen was clever, and the reward of the printer image at the end was pretty cool! I haven't yet seen a game here at LD with such nice presentation! :)
I think that this can totally carry the title of "pixelated Dark Souls", but not in a facetious sort of "this-is-too-rediculously-hard" sort of way. It's definitely a challenge, and something you could get better at with time, and eventually reach end-game with practice. I don't sense any artificial difficulty here, which is really rare and special for a LD game. :)
While I adore the tiny pixel style, it has the unfortunate side-effect of eye strain and back pain as I lean in and try to play. I would definitely play this for lengthy periods of time if it was not potentially harmful to my health, but that just might make it even closer to a Dark Souls relation. ;)
Fantastic job, though! This is certainly a game worth carrying on post-LD! :D
Great job! :D
This is a really solid game. Fantastic difficulty curve, easy to pick up, and challenging enough to not only lose with grace, but to work on getting better at it as well! :)
Fantastic!
I would love to see this game being played by 20 to 30+ people at a time. This would be the epitome of chaos.
Absolute perfect multiplayer setup. :) Props for getting that set up during a weekend! Most people only dream of multiplayer functionality when participating in a 2 to 3-day event! :D
The only thing I could possibly suggest would be better visibility for each individual snowman in the form of right-off-the bat different colored hats maybe? Or different colored names? But that's pretty much it. :)
Great job!
What is this I don't even --
I really enjoyed this one once I started getting into it. I didn't get all the spells, but once I got into the flow of shooting guards, bombs and turrets, it's definitely something I'd love to get into more!
The only issue I had was being able to initially tell that the walls were walls, and the floor was floor. A little pixelated foreshortening will fix that right up! :)
Thank you for sharing. :D
I had a very nice experience with this one. The graphics were lovely and cohesive -- the colors were really great, a nice space-age palette. Not too modern, not too old-fashioned. Though, it did remind me a lot of playing Wing Commander for some reason.
Even after I'd preformed all the required actions in the game, and there was basically no real gameplay but to "reach Mars" (aka, travel to the red dot) -- I still found myself casually playing. I loved the look and feel of the game. The sounds, the way it controlled. It was really smooth and peaceful. I wouldn't mind sitting for awhile and just enjoying the sights (a-la spaceship simulator).
It didn't even really need things going wrong to be entertaining. I loved switching all the switches and pressing the buttons. Really aesthetically pleasing. I liked it a lot. :)
This is a really fun, simple game that has plenty of post-LD potential.
I would love controller support for something like this. Multiplayer. More/different cars or car/color selection. More power-ups, tracks, etc. :) I would totally purchase a polished version of this on a marketplace.
The only thing I would really say bothered me was the music, it was fairly weary on my ears after a few repeats. Of course, music is the least of your worries when entering a compo. :) Great job otherwise!