Turncoda

Abaddon by Geckoo1337 2017-05-06T07:35:06Z

I love this graphic style, it's a very nice touch. These monsters and animations are very impressive! I rarely see well-done 3D animations in LD, so this is very cool.

I like that you implemented a variety of enemy AI to encourage a certain behavior from the player. I had fun learning how to deal with each kind of enemy.

I didn't really like the feel of the movement in this game. When I pressed D for a short period of time, my player character would move right for longer than I held down the key. This stickiness made it feel a bit unwieldy. Perhaps I would get used to it after playing for a while.

Chroma by Megalink 2017-04-28T06:28:04Z

Had a lot of fun playing this game! Combat felt very balanced; enemies were not bullet sponges, but they weren't too squishy either. Fights last just long enough to be interesting, but don't drag on. There's an incredible amount of content in this game, I'm very impressed with that!

I do wish there was some degree of progression, or some variation on the game mechanic. I more or less felt like I was doing the same thing throughout the game (which itself was pretty fun), so it might as well have been one big level.

The boss fights were a good uptick in difficulty. Felt like a final battle.

Bunosphere by torcado 2017-04-24T04:20:48Z

Whoa, I found something that's not a carrot!

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Raven Delivery Service by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-04-28T21:08:08Z

Holy crap dude, this game is **SO much fun**! I played by myself, but I love multitasking and optimizing my gameplay. I even have a stockpile strat for ingredients I might need later :grin: Agreeing with @rnlf, this music is awesome and very fitting. Is there someone's soundcloud/bandcamp/etc. that I could follow? I'm in love.

I haven't played co-op yet, but I'd imagine there'd be a whole lot of fun communication going on, which I love in games. I look forward to seeing what you do with this game!

PS Semantic complaint: Wouldn't it make more sense to be a Potion* Delivery Service? If it was a stork-run baby-delivery service, would it be called Stork Delivery Service or Baby Delivery Service? ... I kid. I love that ravens are the deliverers though.

Raven Delivery Service by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-04-29T00:26:21Z

@ddrkirbyisq The more I listen the more in awe I am. From what I can tell, you are really musically knowledgeable (I think you use some counterpoint in your remixes?) and your production quality in addition to your artistic taste is just fantastic. I could say more but I don't want to flood your game page with irrelevant compliments :sweat_smile: Consider me a fan :smirk:

Raven Delivery Service by DDRKirbyISQ 2017-05-02T00:57:05Z

@ddrkirbyisq Damn. I struggle to get 9 potions out on Level 2. You're a monster. :sweat_smile:

Also, rated!

Interplanetary Billiards by benjamin-l 2017-04-24T08:06:39Z

That was fun! I'm so impressed with your polish. Game world felt cohesive, game felt tight. My high score (nothing to sneeze at) was 6000.

Dwarf World by rnlf 2017-04-28T20:48:20Z

This is such a well-crafted game - the brain-massaging music, the simple yet fitting art style, solid animation pacing, the nuanced puzzles, the elegant game mechanics that give rise to those amazing Aha! moments. I could go on. Not a piece stands out of place.

That's the stuff I usually mention in a Ludum Dare game. There's something in your game that's deeper than those superficial aspects. Your game is not an easy game. Yet, I don't want to drop it. Your game has earned my trust. I know that every level can be beaten with the abilities I have, so I want to keep trying. That is an extraordinary thing that this game does. I feel a true sense of accomplishment, one that is not arbitrary and is actually satisfying.

You are an inspiration to me, because you have shown that making an incredible game is possible in the LD Compo. You've worked hard on your craft, and it shows in Dwarf World.

It is a shame that I found out about you while you were being vocal about your frustrations with the state of LD. I can sympathize with your frustrations, when I can see that there is much at stake for you, and you feel perhaps that things could be better. I am personally just thankful that LD exists and that my horizons can be expanded by participants such as yourself.

Thank you for choosing to make games.

Agaric Abyss by chris-delta 2017-05-04T07:12:29Z

Oh my gosh, the mushroom is super awesome. I love the way they curve and grow upwards and jiggle around. They just **feel** alive and real. I love that you not only had a strong artistic vision but also had the technical ability to make it a reality.

I can see that there is a variety of fauna to encounter in this game, each with their own unique platforming traits. I rather like that idea, I think there's a lot of potential for that to make a very deep and engaging game. Unfortunately, I only got to the sideways growing mushrooms before I had to give up.

Jumping from mushroom to mushroom is just kind of finicky. It is rather difficult to gain height with only the basic mushroom type, since you effectively have to grow an entire staircase. If there was some way to climb the stalks of such mushrooms, I would feel much more free. Another thing that would have made my experience smoother would be if I could jump straight through the bottoms of mushrooms, rather than having to do lateral aerial maneuvers just to get on top of a mushroom. From a aesthetic standpoint, I do like that the mushrooms jiggle around when you walk on them, and that they have a curvature to them, but it sometimes gets in the way of making that precise jump.

I'm super impressed with how deliberate this game feels. It just feels like you put a lot of thought into this idea and executed on it very decisively. Definitely a Ludum Dare favorite of mine.

Beer in Mind by pixelstuff 2017-04-28T03:27:56Z

Wow, I overdosed someone on alcohol! That miiight have had something to do with my spam clicking the beer on the tap :stuck_out_tongue:

The game looks gorgeous. I love the way the bar looks, the colors, and the silhouettes. I also like the character portraits, but it feels like the two styles don't mix. I can totally understand if that was more a result of limited time than an intentional choice.

As I play this game, I feel confused. There's the part of the game where I'm trying to satisfy my customers. At the same time, I'm talking to folks, trying to learn more about them. I was just about to learn more about why Amy wanted to meet her brown-haired friend (not to pry or anything, but it seems like the game wanted me to investigate). My curiosity was piqued when I heard a drunk Jane muttering about a serial killer (?) and "hiding a body". Then I suddenly lose because I sold beer to a minor. I feel like there's two games here, and I don't like playing the "Diner Dash" one.

I lost a couple times and gave up. I felt like I wasn't learning how to play the game better. I do wish I could watch the whole story unfold though.

Headroom by PhilStrahl 2017-05-07T09:58:30Z

I love this kind of submission. It's a very unique game and has so much character. I would have been happy just looking at the paintings.

I loved that moment when I knew what I had to do, and I was just executing on the solution, excited to see what would happen when I solved the puzzle. When I did, I felt very happy with my reward. I was pretty entertained by the ending, so I would definitely have rated this 5 stars in Humor, if that was an option.

ghost story by ooku 2017-05-07T23:18:44Z

The hitboxes, the acceleration, the jump, the camera, and the collision: janky as hell, yet I love playing this game. This game feels very rough to play, but it is very *reliable*. For example, the ghosts hitbox extends deceptively lower than its sprite would suggest. Once I learned that however, I became much better at the game, almost like it was my reward for demystifying the quirks of this prototype. That being said, I really don't think something like that should be in a final game, but in this state, it's charming (rather than annoying, which it might be, for some).

I found a cool exploit: if you jump in the air, touch the wall near the ledge, and quickly turn around so that your back is facing it, you will clip onto the ledge. *This trick can be used to cross the first large gap using just cat form.* It's actually useful for getting on the second ledge much quicker than normal.

GIF of exploit: http://puu.sh/vIXVQ/7a79e9c45f.gif

---

You're level design speaks to me. It tells me something I didn't know before. It gently guides me to discover how to use the cat and the ghost in conjunction. I love playing older games because they don't hold your hand, they throw you in the deep end so you can learn how to swim. Your game threw me in the deep end. Once I got the cat body, I tried jumping over that big gap more times than I'm willing to say. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but once I did, I felt a wave a satisfaction. Good stuff.

This is an awesome game that deserves to be fleshed out. I'm rooting for you!

Some random thoughts:

* As easy as it is to make pixel art and scale it in-game, it looks very amateur to mix resolutions in pixel art. I'm talking about the candles (which were actually still awesome and charming) * Cool music! Together with the background, it created a very fitting mood. * I'm glad you have a real ending. I felt rewarded when I reached the end and it did something new.

Evacuator! by Robber 2017-05-07T22:19:42Z

Interesting concept. I like the constraint of a shrinking world, it has potential to create some interesting dilemmas for the player. However, while I was playing the game I felt like I didn't have enough control to do what I wanted to do. I also felt that the decisions I was making were not very interesting. I didn't feel like I was getting any better at the game by thinking or playing more.

**Some random subjective thoughts and hypotheticals:**

I think there is some information that, if better communicated, would give the player more control. For example, knowing exactly how many steps it would take for a space to become flooded would make it fun to plan the route. Some reward for picking up passengers would be cool, for example maybe a certain passenger can stop time for a bit (unrealistic, sure, but games are meant to be fun, not realistic :stuck_out_tongue:). Maybe some variety of refugees would make the decisionmaking a bit more interesting, like maybe some hexagon contains a refugee that has extra gas, so they'll allow you to go further, but perhaps they're further away than, say, a large group of refugees that is closer to you. Perhaps instead of saving refugees immediately upon contact, you actually have to bring them to pick-up zones to be helicopter-ed out, but the more refugees you carry, the slower you move or something, so the player has to strike a balance.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the decisionmaking process could be much deeper and more nuanced, and I personally think that makes for a compelling game.

I could go on, ultimately it's up to you to decide what to do with the game. Again, these are just some lighthearted suggestions that you don't have to follow.

Roguelike One by Chris Otey 2017-04-25T08:57:12Z

that was fun!

Rogue Basement by Steve Johnson 2017-04-26T05:26:12Z

Some awesome moments I had while playing:

* "The rock hits the rock." (I skillfully deflected an enemy-thrown rock with a thrown rock of my own) * "You hits the rock." (my own rock, right after I threw it) * "You hits the rock." (I skillfully deflected the rock thrown by a beefy wibble, with my bare fists) * "Oof!" (As I walked straight into a wall, but quickly recovered as if nothing had happened) * "The rock hits you." (I threw a rock and walked into its path) * Feeling like I'm The One dodging rocks left and right * Luring unsuspecting enemies into the hallway and then unleashing a laser beam of rocks at them

Something I missed was seeing a new ASCII letter and wondering "hm, what is this new creature I have never seen before?" And then realizing it was an 8-foot tall yeti who just decimated half of my health. In this game I saw 8 distinct varieties of monster, but only 2 truly different species. Then again, introducing too many different monsters might have over-encumbered a game that aims to focus on one mechanic.

I love that you focused on a single mechanic and made it fun to play. I enjoyed the chess-like dance that combat calls for (as I do in Rogue), and using the rocks to cover my options was a favored strategy of mine. The last time I did Ludum Dare (33 I think?) I tried to isolate a Rogue mechanic as well (the ricocheting spell bolt) but I didn't get a fun game in the end. This game is fun! And the color and aesthetic is lovely. Good job!

WRAP by lightblub 2017-04-24T23:03:16Z

neat-looking design. i'll check it out when judging comes around

WRAP by lightblub 2017-05-06T08:52:58Z

Cool! That was a fun little game. My favorite level was The End, just because I had that moment of "Wait a minute... I can just do this!" and I felt smart beating it using the wrap-around mechanic.

I think I would have enjoyed the game more if there were hard, obvious ways to beat the level, but subtle, slightly-easier ways to beat the level that only thoughtful players would come up with. As it was, most levels were just a linear path with no choices to make, so I pretty much turned off my brain while playing the game (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

Very nicely polished, cohesive experience!

Monolith by samlo 2017-05-06T09:02:47Z

I would screenshot this game and hang it up on my wall. Amazing work. I'm very impressed with the attention of detail you put into the look of this game.

Unfortunately this game wasn't quite for me. I didn't find the gameplay to be terribly interesting, as it basically boiled down to: how long can I sit directly in front of this enemy before I start taking damage? There were usually a few things to focus on at any given time, but not really in the sense that I had to start multitasking. My brain was just in 2 basic modes of thought: (1) avoid bullets (2) sit in front of enemies.

ATMOS by huga 2017-04-24T04:24:56Z

Oh shoot, I'm too far gone http://puu.sh/vujD4/fcc87f6fbe.jpg

Turtle Hero by KillToLive 2017-04-24T04:45:52Z

Interesting idea! I can definitely see there being some strategy involved in choosing loadouts and weighing that against how the different opponents fight. Trade could be an interesting factor to account for how you decide to build up your turtle. It does seem quite ambitious for a game jam to have several different systems interacting nicely.

Nice art! I like the turtle head, very charming :)

Small World: Drill Destruction by Bob The Seagull King 2017-04-28T03:48:20Z

This is the most fun I've had this jam. The controls are tight, levels are fair, and I got better every time I died. I've played a few games this jam where I just had no idea whether I was "doing it right," and in this game I had no confusions - I can't stress enough how nice that is! I love that you have to jump on drills to destroy them, you can't just walk into them. I agree with @alexhoratio that destroying the drills are satisfying as hell.

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-26T02:44:54Z

@shodanon @takusan Thank you so much for your encouraging words. Though I feel I didn't reach my vision, I still have much faith in this idea, and I hope to come back to it soon!

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-26T08:32:45Z

@wheffle That means a lot to me. I hope to facilitate a lot more "clicking" in the future :grin: Thanks for playing.

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-27T00:17:27Z

@shodanon Interesting! I don't see many examples of real stars in games, so this is good inspiration.

@alexhoratio Haha, it certainly wasn't envisioned to be this small, but I'm glad the concept got across. Thanks for playing!

@widdershinscrustacean Yeah, stars are pretty cool like that. Thanks for playing!

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-27T01:37:29Z

@jupiter-hadley Nice, thanks for making the video! The black "loading" screen is actually an intentional blank screen that lasts one second, in order to slow down the pace. People have told me it feels like running into the pillars means death, and I can see how it could be annoying after a while; there's probably a better way to go about that.

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-28T22:25:50Z

@maggardjosh Interesting feedback. I do love myself some mystery in a game. Thank you!

@m-1 Those are some wonderful suggestions, thank you! I love the idea of sound design taking a more important role in the puzzle solving of the game. You are very observant, but unfortunately the background noise doesn't have any hidden meaning (in this iteration of the game, at least :wink:)

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-04-29T03:32:37Z

@simonhutchinson I wonder that as well. I do wish that I could have made it more accessible, as I have been disappointed time and time again watching people struggle to understand what I had hastily thrown together. Given more time, I certainly would have been able to make the game easier to understand (and easier to control! hah!) Shaping the experience takes time, above all. I erred on the side of mystery because I feel that it makes the "click" that much more satisfying.

@joyfired Thanks for checking it out anyway! Don't worry about it, it's a really unpolished experience and even then, puzzles aren't for everyone.

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-05-05T05:02:59Z

@robber That's all there is, actually. I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't make the ending more satisfying. Part of it was my inexperience in manufacturing satisfying experiences. I'm working on a post-jam iteration that is hopefully more satisfying to play and a bit more self-explanatory.

Seagazer by Turncoda 2017-05-08T03:58:13Z

@josh-riley I definitely didn't intend to jump-scare anyone, but I have seen this happen on multiple occasions, including to myself :sweat_smile: A good lesson for next time!

Slightly Angry Max by Takusan 2017-04-26T03:53:42Z

Your game has personality, I like that! Laughed at the opening crawl. I'm glad you decided it was worth it to work on a menu and an intro cutscene, because damn if Ludum Dare games can cut corners. Communication was good: taking damage, death, UI elements, etc. gave clear feedback on what was happening.

I quickly learned to conserve bullets once I got a pickup. The firing rate of the default gun just feels awful after losing the machine gun. I did manage to stack up several machine gun pickups and basically got myself a one-shot kill gun that fired bullet-lasers of death, and that snowballed into even more machine gun pickups! That was neat :)

Then I found this exploit. I was curious how long I could stay there without moving. Turns out I'm pretty much safe here forever.

takusan.png

Odd Ball by mikeware 2017-04-25T08:47:17Z

Dang @jorbits, you're fast. My second try was 4:23.980

iwantout by zsoltbartok 2017-05-07T22:34:25Z

I love games that give me an epiphany. I didn't figure it out immediately, so I explored my space of possible actions. From there I looked around and found my answer. I solved the puzzle and my guy did a thing! There's really nothing more satisfying than that. Good job.

Tiny Terraformer by Wheffle 2017-04-27T00:58:30Z

It can't be stressed enough how good of a job you did at clear communication. Showing where I could build and where I couldn't, the little particle effects showing progress, etc. That made it super easy for me to adjust my playstyle to improve as a player.

I loved managing my base in this game. I always had something to do; either my oxygen was too low, or I had to get my CO2 up, or I had to rescue my plants from those pesky alien insects (cute graphic for those btw). Reminds me a bit of playing Starcraft or Dwarf Fortress in the way that I'm constantly looking around and making improvements to my base. I like your spin on base management, where the objective is not to accumulate power, but to improve the environment around you. I've never played a game like that, it's always the opposite: building an industrial powerhouse and using up all the local resources. The limited amount of space on the planet was an awesome way to add nuance to the gameplay.

I'm not so sure it was necessary to have the player character walk around a circular map. It seemed like the core mechanic would have worked on any sort of map, and in a situation like that where something is not critical to the core gameplay, I would look to the games that have already provided tried and true solutions: for example, RTS games use isometric maps or grid-based maps. You can still impose space limitations on things like that, so it would still work I think.

This is a bit of a personal quibble, but I was a bit frustrated at the fact that I couldn't _do things as fast as I could think of them_ just because I was limited by how fast I could walk to the location I wanted to get to, especially in a real-time game like this. If this game was as tight as Starcraft in that sense, and the time/space/adversarial pressures were more menacing, I would be **so** into this game.

Overall very nice concept! I love it when Ludum Dare games show me something I've never seen before :grinning:

Particulate by Daniel Alhadeff 2017-04-28T06:45:04Z

Cool concept! Greetings from @drazil100's stream :)

From Zer0 to Hero by carlosvVk 2017-05-07T22:28:14Z

Well done! I loved the twitch-based gameplay, I was instantly absorbed into the game. Interesting that my speed decreases every round, because it forced me to change my playstyle from more movement to more shielding.

You have a fun game. Now work on your sound design and polish!

Tumblin' down by Shodanon 2017-04-26T04:44:04Z

The sound of soil and water Tumbling Down when I'm at the edge here is so nice.

shodanon1.jpg

I usually don't mention bugs, but in this case it produced a very funny story. I think I may have encountered a bug where my units have an unusually quick firing rate. Something very interesting happened: I built my barracks in a nice mountainous area before scrolling my camera a bit and finding a large red army standing right next to my barracks. They didn't seem to notice the barracks, and I had a unit coming out soon.As soon as the unit stepped out of the barracks, I heard a flurry of shots, then the screams of a hundred red soldiers. The newly trained recruit just shot dead the entire red army! That was quite fun to watch.

As a proof of concept, your game is very interesting. Combining the mechanics of RTS games with the mechanic of an ever-changing map is sure to yield some interesting results. Nice job with the terrain/pathfinding/other RTS staples, that stuff is hard! Also, nice scream, Jabsley.

Here's my army protecting their base.

shodanon2.jpg

Fatal System Error by David Bocek 2017-05-02T05:51:45Z

Very solid! With all the tightly polished FPS games around these days, it's hard to make an FPS game that feels decent to play. I was very happy with the movement in this game. I loved the tutorial section, which allowed me to jump around freely. My version of fun would be a course where I could jump from platform to platform while aiming at targets and switching weapons mid-air. Somehow multitasking like that just appeals to me. I understand it might not have been intentional, but it was really tough dealing with the hoards of enemies in the first room after the tutorial, and it just kinda degraded into running around in circles while the enemies chased after me slowly.

Fantastic aesthetic. Very refreshing game in a sea of 2D games :stuck_out_tongue:

Power Planet by mactinite 2017-08-02T04:11:16Z

Awesome game, great job! The music was very cute. I picked up the controls instantly without reading any instructions, which I value very highly in jam games. Slight advantage because I play FPS games frequently, nonetheless, good job on making it intuitive!

I generally agree with the consensus that the platforming was hard, but IMO it was pretty fair and consistent. The level design was good, taught me what I needed to know, but it could have been a bit more gentle on the difficult curve :smirk: Then again, I learned very quickly that those blob dudes *will* kill you in horrible mob fashion, and I learned to keep my distance.

It took me a while :bug:, but I finally figured out I could fly! :butterfly: I didn't pick it up from the level design, so I would say you hid this mechanic pretty well! It turns out if you grapple to a grapple point and switch to the blaster-gun while attached, you can hold spacebar and you'll keep going up forever. Note that switching back to the grapple gun removes the flying ability, but you can regain the ability by doing the setup again. The results were fantastic, the moment I realized I could fly was such a fantastic feeling. It felt just like when I played Journey for the first time -- flying (actually, extended jumping) felt so amazing after trudging through the sand for so long. Seriously though, thank you for introducing this bug! :beetle: Please leave it in! It genuinely made my day. I suspect people don't read comments before they play the game :sweat_smile:

flying.png

Power Planet by mactinite 2017-08-02T04:27:58Z

After beating the game (without using the flying bug :bee:), I must say, I really enjoyed the mechanics that you came up with. They're easy to understand and well-communicated through the level design, yet they create engaging scenarios that has the player thinking. Shooting and grappling are brilliantly combined in the red-ball-grapple-point thing, I really appreciate that interconnecting of mechanics. I see strong potential in this game. You could go even further and create grapples made out of purple goo, enemies made out of purple goo, enemies that have a weak point covered in purple goo.. That kind of interconnecting of mechanics in games creates what I can only describe as sparks in my brain, and there's really nothing quite like it. That's why I love games (also why I studied math in college :yum:)

Trials of the Vapor Lattice by oxysoft 2017-08-01T08:31:36Z

The a e s t h e t i c of the game is very cool. I love the color/texture/model-minimalism (I suppose it does remind me of PS1 games @thomz12). I do wish the interactivity of the game was more... nuanced. I found myself mashing the shoot button mindlessly. I felt the need to dodge, and I felt like I was mostly successful, but I had no idea if my technique was effective. The fact that I could only sustain 1 hit was a little frustrating, it felt random whether or not I survived an encounter.

Gastric Hell by dwemthy 2017-08-04T08:37:25Z

The atmosphere in this game is spot-on. The player character is very charming, I love it! The first time I ran into a monster, I was genuinely scared by the sound effect :cold_sweat: When I tried playing again, I was fully engaged, flicking my light around as I slowly inched my way around. The monster AI is simple but effective. I love that I can walk somewhere, reach a dead end, turn around, and there stands a monster, frozen in place, that I was about to walk into. This may be underappreciated, but the fact that the game is actually very beatable is refreshing for me, having played many LD games that just become ridiculously hard to the point where it feels unfair. Once I figured out my strategy, I felt like I was in control, but I still had to play carefully.

Loved the music by the way, my favorite is the end-screen guitar loop :musical_note: Reminds me of the Dwarf Fortress tune, which I really liked.

When I finally found the marble, I heard the sound effect again, but this time it was in a positive context, so it felt kind of like I had conquered my fears :triumph:

Super solid game, awesome work.

The Last Miner by bluellama 2017-08-06T21:19:56Z

Lots of random thoughts:

Great use of dual-purpose mechanics! Clicking moves you around, clears a path, increases light temporarily, and drains fuel. Put together with the bounciness of the ship, it certainly makes for some interesting decisionmaking. Trying to go fast by going ham on the thrusters actually ends up making you slower due to the cramped nature of the level and the bouncy-ness of the ship. Did you consider making the glow-things visible when the area is not illuminated by the player? I wonder what that would be like :thinking: After a couple of attempts I developed a technique of pinning myself against a wall in a narrow space and blasting away a big chunk of terrain. Being able to develop higher-level strats is a cool feeling! Cool menu theme, I sat there for a good minute listening to what you had put together. Very nice title screen art! Solid entry. Gonna get back to improving my high score now :joystick:

ZapDune by diptoman 2017-08-04T06:34:05Z

Wow, this game's attention to detail is incredible! I love the jumping animation, I can tell that someone put a lot of work into that! I wish fixing the turrets had some kind of audio cue or more obvious visual feedback, because I do it so often. I especially look for when the turret is completely healed up, because that's when I have to stop clicking and start going to the next destination. Speaking of which, minor nit, but I feel like I was spam clicking quite a bit (or spam-pressing in the case of spacebar), and the fact that my click location didn't matter threw me off. I personally would have enjoyed it much more if repairing was automatic when I got near a turret. Don't make me spam click! :triumph:

Great job on making it feel really good to move around! Aside from my muscle memory telling me to use spacebar to jump, moving around was a joy. The level was well-designed such that I had many places to grapple onto. I do wish there were more areas where it actually makes more sense to just jump without using the grappling hook. I like jumping! I want to do it more! But grappling really is the superior movement tactic by far, even though it's less interesting to me than jumping.

The music was good, but maybe a little too intense for me :sweat_smile:

Great job overall, keep at it everyone! :clap:

Rocket Rescue by automatonvx 2017-08-03T08:02:12Z

The jetpack is really hard to control. The level design was good, it made sure I had to truly master the mechanics before I could beat the level. Given the high difficulty spike and the janky jetpack movement, I eventually just got frustrated and gave up. The music is cute though, has personality.

The Fading Spirit by MsPaintCat 2017-08-08T02:24:53Z

Things I liked: - Great feedback on taking damage and landing a shot - Feels great to move around - Hitboxes are just right! - Level of challenge is perfect for me. Difficult, but with a reasonable amount of practice I managed to beat the game, and game felt fair enough to keep trying. - Enemy AI are predictable in different ways (good thing!) - Lovely animation, music and overall art direction

I never used the dash. Maybe that's my playstyle, but I don't see much benefit in dashing just because normal movement is so fast already, and the dash seems harder to handle. Perhaps if there were enemies that could be stunned by dashing, or if dashing gave you some kind of combat advantage/buff (see Hyper Light Drifter or McCree from Overwatch).

There were many times that I defeated all of the enemies in the room and got ready to collect my reward, only to accidentally exit the room because I was standing near a door when I killed the last enemy, despawning all my hard-earned ectoplasm(?) A minor annoyance, as I developed the habit of staying away from the doors when I got down to the last enemy, which actually made combat more interesting!

Well done on sticking to the theme. The green-flame bar is integrated very well into the game, and made me consider my shots carefully. It's easy to make a game annoying to play because of that kind of pressure, but here it's very well-balanced, and the fast restart-time probably helps a lot.

Overall a solid game, I had fun playing!

Lamplight by Wheffle 2017-08-05T17:06:09Z

It's an all-around solid entry, from the music to the art to the well-tuned gameplay, and I know that's hard to achieve in the compo, so great job! :clap:

Amazing work on the enemy AI, it felt fair and, once I got the hang of it, I felt like I could outsmart and outmaneuver them, which feels really good. I get the feeling that you iterated on the enemy behavior before settling on the final version. Or maybe you're just really experienced and you nailed the AI first try :wink:

My favorite thing to do in this game is to guess where the ghost might be based on the trail. It feels really good when I guess right. Sometimes, I won't be able to line up the shot because of the hex grid, and on the plus side that means I have to move *then* shoot, adding some uncertainty to the equation. But it feels like the hex grid limits the player's options arbitrarily because of the "blind spots" and I wonder if there are alternative ways to retain the same mechanics but in a less limiting movement system :thinking: For example, you could look at the turn-based combat in Transistor, where movement is on a continuous plane and you can use your abilities on enemies as long as they're in range. It would be interesting to see this system applied in game like yours where the information is limited and you have to take a literal shot in the dark.

Again, I'm really impressed with how playable this game is. Good to see you at it again @wheffle, hope to see you again next time!

air mail by rubna 2017-08-06T19:34:29Z

I loved that flying feels so great. Walking is slow, driving on the ground has bad turning, but flying in the air feels fantastic! I see that as a very deliberate, calculated choice and I really appreciate that, I wouldn't change a thing about it. The flying mechanic is very elegantly designed. Staying in the air requires watching my height (in my mind, equivalent to my shadow distance) and making sure my engine sound is loud enough (wow, :ear: feedback!), while also looking at the edges of the screen to see if the person I'm looking for is on the horizon (I quickly learned that it's very easy to overshoot your destination, so looking very far ahead was my way of making sure I landed as close as possible). I love that pulling-up is a method of braking as well as a way to gain height, which makes total sense and also happens to be a beautiful dual-purpose mechanic here :smile: Took me a replay to notice this, but I like that the soundscape changes when you're in the air, it's a very, very nice touch that serves to accentuate the difference flying makes, at a level most people don't consciously notice (I certainly didn't, until I tried the game again with a more critical ear). All of these things make me come to appreciate flying, both as a player and a game designer.

I've played a fair share of Ludum Dare games this time around, and I saw a lot of designs that tried to use the fuel+refuel paradigm as a central mechanic. In some of the games I played, it was a little annoying and perhaps a little shoehorned. I think you've done it elegantly here in a way that is not annoying and actually serves the purpose of accentuating flying. Props to a thoughtful theme incorporation! :clap:

I learned a lot while delivering mail too. First I tried driving on the ground only, but that's when I realized that flying makes it much easier to turn. But flying requires high speed! So I had to learn how to take off (gently :wink:), and once I got the hang of it, I felt like a real air mail pilot, like I always wanted to be. I also noticed (maybe a little too late) that the mail was color-coded. What a nice little detail! I guess that's a reminder to me that some things that might seem obvious aren't always immediately apparent from the player's perspective.

The aesthetic says to me that the creator is experienced and has deliberately presented a cohesive experience, something I cannot often say for Ludum Dare games. That is essentially what drew me to this game, and I was pleasantly surprised to find substance behind it.

I loved the game so much that I actually delivered all the mail and got my paycheck! I decided to fly around with it to celebrate, but I realized afterwards I could have given it to my favorite person, but I didn't manage to have time to do that before the game ended :disappointed:

Ted Crashed! by Sebastian-M 2017-08-02T03:29:13Z

Thank you for making a game! I loved the music, it's a very nice change of pace to hear something acoustic for a jam game.

From reading your directions, I could see you put a lot of thought into the rules of the game, but I was pretty confused trying to understand what I was supposed to do, and I never really felt like I was playing deliberately. For example, I pretty much ignored the numbers and resource types and ended up just walking around pressing E on everything. The game doesn't communicate to me what I can and cannot interact with, so I just try pressing E on everything. I would have appreciated if the game itself made it clear what I was looking for, why I need it, and how I can get it.

Delivery To The Underpass by Bocodillo 2017-08-03T07:13:00Z

Loved it! Can't stress enough how much I love a solid ending, even though it was a sad one :pensive: Interactive set pieces like that one are hard to get right in games, and I think you executed it elegantly. I got lost and ran into dead ends quite often, which made my experience somewhat frustrating, but I managed to persevere and try different routes to move forward. I think what happened was that the camera and the size of the level made it so that I was sort of running around blind, and so I had to put my trust in the level. Unfortunately the level design broke my trust fairly often by leading me to dead ends with no reward, which felt somewhat unfair and frankly was a waste of time. The quick restart button helps a little bit, and I can see why you put it in, but it made me feel like I was cheating by using it. I really appreciate the level of detail in the music :musical_note:, it was the element of the game that really nailed the mood for me. You set out to achieve a goal and I think you hit your mark! Great work!

Stargust by eggnog 2017-08-03T07:36:48Z

Really cool idea for mechanics. I loved the depth introduced by the dual-purposes of rain and wind. It kinda reminds me of playing Starcraft, just because everything needs my attention all the time and I can't keep up. It's a good feeling, but usually I can overcome it with enough practice. Didn't really have the patience for that in this game, unfortunately. A big limiting factor is that moving around is so slow, and it's the only way to get anything done. This is just personal preference, but I wish I could perform actions as fast as I can think of them, but the nature of the gameplay forces me to do one thing at a time. Love the cloud, looks so floofy :cloud:

Efi by ludipe 2020-05-02T19:39:49Z

A simple yet effective conceit coupled with great execution. Each type of object (speedground, moving blocks, baby bird, wall) felt meaningful and wrinkled the core gameplay in their own meaningful ways. The core mechanic of steering the bird, while simple to grasp, was difficult to master. As I neared the end of my playthrough I backtracked over a few places I'd traversed before, I noticed that I have tangibly improved. As I stretched my neck towards the last baby, I closed my eyes and whispered, "mama is here"

The music was fantastic. :clap:

Eternal Flame by Galgris 2020-04-26T21:53:16Z

Solid platformer! If there had been checkpoints I definitely would have played all the way through, but alas, I died 3 times at level 6. I'm used to having more air control, but I can see the appeal of committing to your jump, plus it's more physically accurate. The lack of checkpoints makes it really frustrating to take a loss towards the end. The last straw for me was when I made a really tough jump, landed on the very edge of a small platform, but then I just barely grazed one of those flying cacti and it was over. I can understand hitting a flying cactus when I'm airborne, but not when I'm on the ground! The hitboxes on those cacti are ridiculous!

I wish there was a way to fight the firemen. I was able to see some paths in the level that clearly led to certain death, and I'm not a fan of those. If I'm dead, the kindest thing you can do is kill me quickly :slight_smile:

Cute animations and nice colors.

Woodpunk by elisee 2020-04-27T01:30:45Z

Lovely aesthetic. I love that the music and art support each other to create a vibrant mood. Honestly I enjoyed just walking around and seeing the world you all built together, and especially just listening to the music in each area. The gameplay was a little overwhelming at first, but I eventually understood how it all fit together. Great job everyone! The fact that you put out something so cohesive as a team of 7 is an incredible feat in its own right.

Tiny Fragments by Daniel Moreno 2020-05-02T08:28:28Z

Great execution on all fronts. The music was pleasant to listen to while solving the puzzles. The graphics and animations were clean and readable.

The puzzles themselves don't have super obvious solutions, which motivates me to figure them out. That being said, either the possibility space was not very large or the solution to non-solution ratio was relatively high, because it was easy to play mindlessly until I stumbled into a solution. I was never forced to slow down and think, because there wasn't much to think about. It also wasn't really possible to slow down and think, unless I held onto a piece to pause the game. I felt consistently motivated to continue playing, but mostly because the solutions came easily without much effort. There weren't any particularly memorable levels, or levels the stood out. I would say the most interesting moment was when I encountered a raised-ground tile that I had seen a few times before, but this time with a twist: there's a spike on one side of it, so you can't just treat it same as the ones from before.

The amount of polish on the game is incredible. It might seem like a little thing, but the little clock that appears next to the hand is really effective at indicating times when player input is ignored. The white border highlight around the tiles, too. I feel like player control is under-communicated in a lot of games, especially puzzle games, leading to a feeling of unresponsive controls or eaten inputs. I've thought a lot about how to make games feel responsive when animations are involved. How do you handle inputs if an animation is currently playing? Do you skip the animation? Do you buffer the input? You present a solution here; ignore player inputs during the animation and show a spinner. It's a bit old-school, reminds me of an old Sierra game, but it definitely works in this context for its intended purpose.

The controls were easy to learn and did not get in the way of the gameplay.

Icy Mountain Hot Potato by Turncoda 2020-04-27T22:02:55Z

@aaron-taube Just wanted to let you know that "the guy who got 48" is my friend IRL and he was kind enough to put in a lot of time into the game. Plus, he's very good at video games in general. His high score in my game is higher than mine. So don't feel too discouraged :slight_smile:

I understand the feeling that the jump is too short. I think this ultimately stems from the fact that the way I generated platforms makes it so that it's possible to see platforms that are just barely out of reach. If I were to improve this aspect of the game, I would tweak the level generation so that platforms are either clearly within reach or clearly out of reach, basically avoiding the gray area. I have a dozen more ideas to address the other feedback, but are out-of-scope for the jam version. I would consider them for a post-jam version though. Thanks everyone for the feedback, I read every comment and I appreciate it.

While I'm writing this, I might as well explain myself a bit:

- @mr-field The reason there is no variable jump height is because I couldn't make it feel good. I struggled with it for many precious hours before giving up and taking it out of the game. Maybe next time. - @omaskery The fact that platforms disappear as soon as they leave the screen was a mistake. However, it was a decision I made during the jam and I'm sticking with it for the jam version. It frustrates me when I play too, so don't worry, you're not alone in feeling that way. - I realize the game is difficult. If I could do it again, I would make the difficulty curve a little less steep. Here are some (secret) tips, as a thank you for reading this far: - You can fast-fall by pressing down - Crossing the screen boundary is critical and sometimes the only way to progress - The potato can have 1 of 3 horizontal velocities depending on your inputs at the beginning and end of the 8-frame bounce window. If you are not pressing either left or right at the end of the window, the potato will bounce straight up. If you are pressing nothing at the beginning of the window, but start pressing left or right at the end of the window, it will move at a low horizontal velocity. If you are pressing the same button for the entire 8-frame bounce window, it will move in the direction you pressed at the highest possible horizontal velocity.

Solais by dragonxvi 2020-04-27T19:40:25Z

I found your game through itch.io rather than the LD website.

Extremely moody atmosphere, I loved it. Beautiful environments. Moving around was very satisfying. I noticed that you even implemented coyote time! Very thoughtful :heart:

Agreed with @mika-la-grand , that top part is a huge difficulty spike (no pun intended). I must have died on it at least 10 times before getting through.

At times it was hard to see the level. It makes sense that I can't make out the hazards from the background from safe platforms at first glance, and the darkness really draws attention to the torch, but it was a little frustrating as well. I learned more by dying than by inspecting the level. Still, very well done on the torch and lighting engine. I definitely appreciated that the tiles had different appearances in the darkness rather than just being dimmer version of the illuminated sprite. It made for a very pretty-looking game.

I like that you made the spike hitbox pretty forgiving, and that touching the side of the spikes was safe. Then again there was that one wall-jump area where I had a very small runway and jumping too early meant bonking on the ceiling and too late meant running right into spikes. I liked the idea there, but I think that particular room felt more tedious than challenging.

The conveyor belts, disintegrating platforms, and waning torch mechanic were a great device for increasing the pacing of the platforming. Very nice design decisions there.

The particle effects on the checkpoints were wonderful! I also loved the color contrast, as the green color of the checkpoints made it really stand out from everything else, while the blue color of the water made it stand out from the red character and torch. The torch trail was so nice, I have no idea how you did that but it looks amazing.

I noticed that I re-jump if I hit the ground while holding the jump button. Personally I am used to having to re-press jump to re-jump, as this is the behavior in Celeste, Mario, Spelunky, etc. but it actually didn't bother me too many times in your game.

The narrative pacing of the game was excellent. Each bite of text was enough to add flavor, but just short enough to not be overwhelming. Spacing it out over the course of the game was an excellent design decision. It also sets up the ending brilliantly, as it reveals the narrator (I presume?) only at the very end, and puts a dark spin on the story up to the point and makes for a satisfying ending. Really smart, I might have to steal that device for next time :upside_down:

I'm really impressed by your game and it's one of the few games I've played this jam that inspires me to improve and work harder next time. Keep it up, excited to see what you put out (no pun intended) next!

Omiga Daycare by Wheffle 2020-04-22T18:08:01Z

Great job on the UI design, it was readable and straightforward. I loved being able to move my ~~Tama~~ Omigas around on the table and watch the keychain jiggle around. I actually kinda wish I could grab them by the keychain and swing them around. And flip them upside down. That would be funny. Wouldn't it be cool if Omiga devices had accelerometers or step counters? Then you could shake the device and the Omiga might respond to that.

I really liked that there are negative consequences for taking incorrect actions. Seems obvious to say, but I think it's easy to overlook when you're designing a game. Almost expected the Omigas to express annoyance or unhappiness, but they were a little less expressive than I was hoping.

I kinda wish I could return the Omigas to their owners at some point, and perhaps that would impact the reputation of the business which would in turn adjust the intensity of the game, but I realize that this would have drastically increased the complexity of the game's design. Guess that's the reality of the compo for ya. It's fun to think about though, because it's one of those adaptive systems that makes a game more accessible for a wider range of skill levels.

Amazing that you made such a polished experience for the compo. Great job on managing your time well! The variety of Omiga really spices it up, nice touch!

Tower Defence of the Heart by terry 2020-05-06T01:34:19Z

I enjoyed the pacing of this game. Once I stabilized in the early game, I started to hit my stride, making tangible improvements to my damage output, but then I got killed by the second boss. Overall I felt like the game was fair, and that I was improving at the game every time I lost. I'm glad you focused on pacing and balance, that essential aspect of the game really makes the game shine!

Keep Joe Alive by Sanguis 2020-04-21T21:46:12Z

The best part about the game is your pixel art. It's very fun to look at! Maybe you pivoted in the middle of development, but given that the game in current state is largely "on rails", I think you could have pushed the animation even further, adding longer jump anticipations, more frames of squash and stretch, and more elaborate dodges. Player characters in sidescrolling games are often constrained in their animations because the game needs to prioritize responsiveness and readability over pleasing animation. But in a game like yours that plays down direct player control, those constraints are not present, so you can be much more liberal with the animation.

Regarding the gameplay, at first I suspected that there was some correlation between the keys I was pressing and the actions I was taking, but I eventually decided that there was no correlation. It was a shame, since while I was under that illusion, I felt more connected to the character. I happen to be a touch-typist so the game was not difficult to play, but I know people who would struggle with the game because they wouldn't be able to find the keys on their keyboard fast enough. I think arrow keys and/or spacebar would have been a little more accessible, because more people can press those keys without looking. Finally, I would have liked it if the key indicator was closer to the object I was looking at. I stopped looking at Joe completely after a while and just looked at the top left corner of the screen. Ideally there could have been a correlation between the action taken and the key pressed, so the step of reading a letter from the screen could be eliminated entirely and the player could instead focus on taking actions directly.

Great job making a complete playable game!

Mother Hen by beepyeah 2020-04-29T22:36:16Z

I was really unsettled by the flashing at the end of each level. Couldn't continue. Thank you for providing a Linux build though, it is much appreciated.

Hatching Dragons by honey 2020-04-24T22:20:00Z

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I beat it! I felt a little frustrated at some of my deaths, but since the enemy paths were the same every time, I was able to plan ahead and improve my strategy. I found myself prioritizing the axe guys because I learned that they had the potential to one-shot an egg if they got to it. To some extent I had to know what was coming to succeed, as I wasn't fast enough to react the first few times I died to a particular hazard. The third egg especially required some planning ahead. I learned that if you don't anticipate it, an axe guy will one-shot the third egg right after the second egg hatches. I was really stuck on the third egg for a long time, but my desire to see what would come after the third egg hatched was enough to motivate me to find a way forward.

There's nothing wrong per se with a game that requires persistence and some rote memorization, but it can certainly test a player's resolve. On the other hand, the challenge of the third egg felt insurmountable at first, which made it all the more satisfying when I eventually managed to succeed.

I found the core shooting mechanic to be quite intricately designed. The fact that damage and accuracy vary with time makes timing and positioning critical, but it's nice that they can be fudged a little if you get a little closer or take a few more shots. The fact that you walk slower while drawing your bow makes for an interesting trade-off between preparing your next shot and moving to your next position. There were a few moments when I really needed to move quickly to a new position, and those were the moments when I had to consciously stop drawing my bow.

On that topic, The fact that you can move at all while drawing your bow was not something I fully considered on my first few attempts. I would decide where to shoot, move into position, then start drawing my bow. But after settling in to the game a bit more, I started drawing my bow before I even knew where I was going to shoot next. This happened somewhat subconsciously.

At first I was also overwhelmed by the number of enemies, but as I improved my rate of fire and game knowledge, the volume of enemies got to be more manageable. Realizing that some enemies were more important than others was a fun and interesting moment for me, because I started to prioritize certain enemies over others. I realized that enemies would deal a certain finite amount of damage and then leave. While from a narrative perspective it doesn't quite make sense to me (why would the enemies hit the egg, not finish the job, and then run away? If they wanted the egg destroyed wouldn't they stay there and keep hitting it?), it actually made the game more interesting because it opened the option to take a calculated loss by letting an enemy live. This is a problem that I remember having in tower defense games I've played ages ago, where letting any enemy live basically means you die (eventually), which turns into a kill-everything-no-matter-what mindset, which I feel is a little less interesting.

Hatching Dragons by honey 2020-04-25T19:41:24Z

@honey > Was the death frustration caused simply by being so close, or were there any cheesy or unfair deaths in your opinion?

I did experience a few deaths that I felt were unfair. Walking by the enemies, sometimes I could skate by without taking damage, and sometimes they'd one-shot me. Part of that is not being able to tell when or whether I was hit, and another part is not knowing how much health I had left. Another issue is that the collision boxes were not forgiving. Sometimes I would think I hit the guy, but turns out I missed. If I recall correctly, the enemies don't have collision in their arms, so if you shoot them in the arms you'll miss. Also, the egg getting one-shot by the axe guy was really irritating the first time, because I couldn't reasonably have known it would have happened the first time around. A lot of it boils down to the game not being transparent or consistent enough, I suppose. That being said, I eventually learned to accommodate the system, inconsistencies and all; it just took longer than I think most people have patience for.

Friendly Fire by very dark lord 2020-05-02T08:57:19Z

What a charming game. I love how many different mechanics are in what starts off as a modest platformer. I loved reading all the dialog. All of it was really funny and witty, and made me laugh a bunch. I loved the dancing mechanic. When the game suddenly turned into a rhythm game, I laughed at that too! And when the ending came and all the previous game systems and character interactions came together, that was really satisfying. I love an ending that pulls the whole game together. I'm so impressed that you all managed to make a game that had no less than 3 subsystems, and it all worked well together! Don't take this the wrong way, but though none of these were novel ideas, they were implemented with such heart and humor that I found it to be a ton of fun in the way hanging out with friends is fun (and not in the way mobile games, MMOs, and esports games are "fun", no offense to those types of games; they have a time and place).

Remember, Apollo by AdamCYounis 2020-05-02T19:14:05Z

I like that you've drawn a parallel between the narrative structure of the game and the physical world. It lends an abstractness to the gameplay, which is rare to see in physics-based games. I ended up paying less attention to the narrative because of the gameplay, and as I did with picture books when I was a kid, just got the gist of the narrative by looking at the pictures.

I was compelled to play through the game twice, probably because I felt sad about the ending and hoped that something would change, but the overarching narrative remained the same, which feels appropriate. Interestingly, on my second time around I did take a few slightly different paths, leading me to find a non-critical path that I had missed on my first time around, which added color to the narrative.

The lava-lantern-illumination effect was really fun to look at and was a neat way to indicate the visited nodes and to reveal the images gradually.

do not go gently by nsadie 2020-04-25T04:27:48Z

It was interesting to decide between the sure option and gambling on the question mark card, but it wasn't long before I got bored of that particular decision. If the sure card is good, I pick it, and if the sure card is bad, I don't pick it. Still, I felt tense as I got close to the end, as I got pretty badly bruised when I thought I could take on a tiny monster with my fists in an effort to conserve ammo! I managed to beat the game on my first attempt, but only barely. An interesting part of playing the game for the first time was that I had no idea how much health the monsters could do, or how much damage they could deal to me, so picking whether to use my fists or bullets was a genuine guess. That feeling of mystery is a good thing! Great job utilizing that to create tension :slight_smile:

Thinking about card games and the idea of transparency in games and my mind wanders to the brilliant game Dicey Dungeons. In that game, the enemy's cards are shown to the player, so the player knows what they're capable of, but the game is still tense because the player ultimately doesn't know what cards the enemy will play, and there's some uncertainty in the player's cards as well (just like the question mark card in your game). This also reminds me of that one Game Maker's Toolkit video about the two types of randomness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwI5b-wRLic

Highly recommend that video if you haven't already seen it.

Turtle Daddy by dummydojo 2020-04-25T03:13:06Z

This was really fun and difficult! Also, hilarious concept, love your creative take on the theme. When I learned that you can throw your shield to pick up the turtle babies, I got way better at the game. I ended up trying to cheese the game by camping on the left side of the screen and throwing my shell vertically on the screen repeatedly to collect my babies as soon as they hatched, basically ignoring all the enemies. This didn't work as well as I'd hoped, as the crabs, though they kept their distance, acted as a shield against the oncoming ink projectiles and seagulls, until they could get right on the spawn points and I'd have basically no time to react. That's some really impressive anti-cheese design! The design of the game really encourages you to play in a fun way, which is what I'm most impressed by. The in-game tips are a nice touch, they really helped me improve by providing critical game knowledge in between attempts. Great work, can't wait to see what y'all make next!

Goat Rider by Notan Lemon 2020-04-30T06:11:50Z

Really neat puzzle concept with tons of interesting non-obvious behaviors (a good thing!) I found the premise to be pretty absurd going in, but surprisingly it didn't bother me once I learned the rules. The characters and objects soon became symbols in my mind; I saw them for how they functioned, not what they looked like. I had no trouble learning the rules, so whatever tutorializing you put in worked for me. I did however never figure out how to reliably move the clothesline in the direction I wanted. The undo button made it just bearable, fortunately.

I found the graphics to be somewhat hard to parse, especially because of the similarity in color between the ropes and the grass. Otherwise, your color choices were really pleasant on the eyes and quite readable.

I didn't like Festival. It didn't require any novel ideas, just careful calculations, and a lot of them. Deja Vu, the level it is derived from, and Network were my favorite levels. They forced me to think harder and pushed me outside of my comfort zone.

I agree with @boxedmeatrevolution , Network is a really great level. I don't know how to explain why, so I'll just talk about my experience. It was overwhelming at first, but as I familiarized myself with the level, I was able to see the vague structure of the solution. Because I could see the rough path I needed to take, I felt encouraged to keep trying, even when I got stuck. When I did get stuck, it was not because I didn't understand the rules, it was because I didn't understand what exactly I wanted. It took a few hours to get unstuck, but I was making slow progress the whole time. Progress came in the form of formulating progressively more precise problem statements (e.g. I need to get there -> I need goat to be here so I can get there -> I need apple to be here so goat can go here so I can get there). Part of that came from exploring the possibility space through experimentation, and part of it came from thinking ahead and working backwards. The Aha! moment was really satisfying, in part because I was really invested at that point. Looking back, the core insight (no pun intended) seems perfectly obvious, but it's probably because I spent hours analyzing the level and developing a detailed mental model of it. If I had to explain the core insight to someone, I would probably have to explain every single mechanic in the game first for context, including advanced edge cases that players probably wouldn't think about until it happens, which I guess goes to show that it's a really good core insight. It's awesome that you created a level that forced me to come to that exact conclusion. Great job!

Did you design most of the puzzles on paper or did you design all of them after implementing the core gameplay? How much in-game exploration informed your puzzle design?

Goat Rider by Notan Lemon 2020-04-30T20:37:57Z

@notan-lemon 10 years, wow! It really shows :smile:

Keep Vlad Alive by zimny11 2020-04-21T21:23:38Z

I loved watching the brainpkins grow. Nice job on the pixel art there!

For health reasons I use a trackball instead of a regular mouse, so it was harder for me to play I think. But even with my reduced mouse agility, the game still sort of devolved into spam-clicking the mouse button. I was just watering constantly. It also was not clear to me whether the seeds were a good investment. My initial reaction was "wait, did I even break even?" I played and loved Stardew Valley, but in that game you don't even have to do the math to figure out that buying seeds is a good investment, because the rate of return is so high it's very perceptible. It's like double or triple your cost basis or something. Then again there are lots of moving parts to that game, so maybe it's not just about the numbers.

Good job overall, loved the art and music, and the intro cutscene was fun to read!

Letter to Thomas by LouieJams 2020-04-25T03:54:50Z

The landscapes set a beautiful mood for the story. I think the landscapes and the story together make this a stunning accomplishment in 72 hours. If this were a film, animation, or otherwise non-interactive media, I would have really enjoyed this.

I felt that the precise platforming worked against the delivery of the narrative. Dying would have been fine in any other platforming game, but in this one it is especially jarring because it interrupts the flow of the text appearing on the bottom of the screen. Furthermore, the fact that platforming was so precise meant that I had to focus intensely on the postman at times, which meant not reading the text. Audio delivery might have helped, but it wouldn't have solved the problem that dying interrupts the narrative flow.

I think it's interesting to think about whether player death, which is so ubiquitous in games that it's easy to take for granted, are a necessary aspect of games. In this game, the possibility of death forced me to engage with the platforming mechanics, which meant looking more closely at the details of the landscapes. That act of scrutinizing the landscapes made me feel more connected to the postman, which I think is a good thing (sidenote: why is the postman reading the mail he's delivering?). It made me feel like I was actually navigating that treacherous terrain myself. On the flip side, the unforgiving deaths took me in the opposite direction, disconnecting me from the postman. What if death wasn't possible? What if there's no fail state? I can't even imagine what that would look like, because I generally don't play narrative-focused games, but I think there are plenty of successful narrative games out there which do exactly that.

Something else that kind of bothered me was that dying at the end of the game was an unavoidable part of the intended narrative, but dying elsewhere in the game just led to a restart of that screen. The lack of consistency made me feel like the experience was somewhat arbitrary and took me out of the moment. Then again, this problem seems to have plagued adventure games since their inception... there's a narrative the designers want you to follow, and if you don't follow it, you have to restart.

Ball Monster by marrero171 2020-04-26T21:25:57Z

I started out with the web build and the framerate felt like 30fps or less. I was able to beat a few levels, but I could not get past the S-shaped level because the framerate was too low to control my jumps. I then tried the native build (I run Linux and the Linux build worked perfectly for me) and the framerate was much better, something close to 60fps. The game became a lot more fun and I managed to beat the game without much trouble. I am an avid player of platforming games though (e.g. Celeste, Mario Maker, Spelunky) so my experience may have been an outlier.

That being said, I felt like my character was moving so fast that I never completely got the hang of controlling him. I especially did not enjoy controlling my guy in the air, because he falls so fast that I don't have much time to react.

Of all the aspects of the game, I enjoyed throwing and catching my little friend the most. I don't see why he has a face, because he doesn't seem to do anything on his own. I suppose his specialty is pressing buttons, being that he only has arms, though I don't see why he has to be an animate object to be able to do that, seems like the physics takes care of it, and it isn't clear to me why my character cannot press buttons himself. I kept wanting to catch my little friend in the air, but it seemed close to impossible as I never pulled it off. I would have felt really cool though.

I noticed there were some hard levels towards the end that were almost exclusively about platforming, with little to no ball-throwing. That gives me the impression that the ball-throwing was an afterthought. It was also tedious, like the difficulty was being artificially increased using repetition instead of novel material, on the S-shaped level for example. I would have really loved to see the ball-throwing mechanic explored more, because I really enjoyed throwing the ball and would have like to do some more cool tricks with the ball. Ultimately I feel that the tight platforming levels served only to shut out newer players and irritate players of all skill levels.

On the level with a tall wall, it took me way too long to realize that I just had to do a max-height jump to get my ball-friend over it. It didn't seem possible at all at first.

I wish it was clearer when the darkness would kill me so I'd know exactly how much time I'd have left. On one hand, it was mysterious so as it got darker I felt more tense, which is a good thing I suppose but I still wish I could tell more easily exactly when I would die.

I felt like I was never able to predict where the ball would go. For that reason, a lot of levels boiled down to guesswork: (1) find the exact right spot to stand, of which there is only one, (2) jump to the exact right height, and (3) throw my little ball-friend. The error tolerance in this process seemed very low. Just a few steps to the side and instead of tossing my ball-friend to victory I'd be hurling him towards a gory death. I felt like the design of the level did not clearly communicate to me the correct course of action, so I spent a lot of time just guessing, which meant I was spending less time doing cool tricks.

Congratulations on making a complete and playable game!

Sourdough Finisher by instanti8 2020-04-25T04:15:28Z

Your game is brimming with personality and I love it! If baking sourdough is this fun in real life, sign me up, send me some starter right away and I'll give you a gift (and then lie and not give you a gift).

The music ensured I had a dopey smile on my face at all times. At first it felt kind of irrelevant but as it played over and over it became the soundtrack of my journey to master bakership. The descriptions had me laugh out loud multiple times. Even the title of the game is hilarious to me.

A thought that occurred to me while playing the game is that if you get into baking sourdough bread, you become a spreader of the sourdough bug, so to speak, where your friends are the victims. And as an added perk, you can get *stuff*! Who doesn't like *stuff*?? I loved looking over my list of gifts, by the way.

Very nice game. Loved every minute of it.

Keep It Alive Game by ZerohBeat 2020-04-21T21:56:00Z

Playing your game made me smile :slight_smile: The art was very charming. I love my little monster box. From what I can tell, I hatch from an egg? I love the idea that I'm given control while I'm still in the egg. That's a pretty novel idea I think. Now that I think about it, the expanding field of vision was a way of communicating the feeling of hatching from an egg. I love it! Excited to see what you make next :thumbsup:

Across the Lake by stephan steinbach 2020-04-28T09:44:55Z

This is an extraordinarily calming game. The better I got at the game, the more calming it became. As my runs got longer, my brain tuned out and turned off, which weirdly made me feel more immersed in the game. It reminds me of my experiences with meditation. By clearing my mind, I become more aware of the moment.

After a few tries I found myself relying heavily on the stone's reflection for timing my presses. I eventually found that pressing space at the moment that the stone completely overlaps its reflection, or maybe a frame or two before, is about where you can get a perfect skip (losing no height). I would guess that there is about a 4 frame window in which you can get a perfect skip. My best score was 76 skips.

across_the_lake-Apr_28_2020_1_57_AM.png

Those long skips felt really nice and calming. I "entered the zone" on those. It's really amazing that something so mechanically simple could do that for me.

I really appreciated the effort put into creating a calming atmosphere. A big part of that is the soundtrack. The soundtrack is amazing, like I can't believe how well it fits the game. Of course I can tell that it repeats, but I can't tell exactly where, and it never got repetitive. The synth drones are my favorite part. It's literally just so chill.

The background is full of character despite being mostly a pure-black silhouette. It reminds me of one night when I was driving from California to Oregon: a moonlit sky, the dark silhouette of trees interspersed with lights from the sprawling towns. I'm focusing on the road, but in my peripheral vision, I notice the landscape lazily drift by. This game reminds me of that, and it felt real nice.

Loved the subtly multi-colored particles on the surface of the water. I love the impression of speed that I get from watching them whip by as I'm skipping.

This game is strong, focused, and well-executed. Congratulations on making a wonderful game.

Jingoku by Skyeward 2021-10-05T16:01:08Z

The polish alone is incredible. The quantity of content alone is incredible. And yet you have both, hats off to you.

I played until eventually my tower exploded for some reason. Maybe a block fell and I didn't notice. Everything felt good to play. I didn't beat any game on the first go, but with practice I got better and eventually started to beat them consistently.

Operation Un-Stable by TheHansinator 2021-10-05T16:49:59Z

Love the "galloping" drums. My score: 2400

The Salatroitsk Incident by DrunkardWolf 2021-10-05T06:00:46Z

The PSX aesthetic really lends itself well to the horror element. Great work on putting together a cohesive experience; every element strengthens the mood that you were going for. The muted color palette, the heavy breathing, the fog, the low resolution. I have mixed feelings about the fog and the low resolution, because on one hand I'm sure that it wouldn't be nearly as spooky without it, but it also made it harder for me to navigate the map. There were some landmarks that I could take note of, but not enough and ultimately I spent 50% of the time feeling lost, wondering if I'd been here before, etc. When I first played Minecraft I had mixed feelings about getting lost; on one hand I was frustrated and wished I could just warp back home, but on the other hand I was engaged, there was also something to do because the world was so full of stuff, and I would just lose hours playing the game. The Geiger counter helps with navigation a little bit, but it didn't help me find my way back to the car. I feel like I just stumbled upon my car again by sheer luck. It's a bit like trying to walk around my house with my eyes closed. It's an interesting challenge but not that fun.

Having said that, I know that my submission suffers from the exact same problem of players feeling lost. It's interesting to see how you went about addressing it. Overall the game wasn't so difficult that I had to put it down. I finished it in 6 or 7 minutes. Perhaps it was knowing that there was a finite number of rocks I had to collect that gave me the determination to keep going.

Nitpick and I know this is the compo but I didn't enjoy some of the sound effects. For the Geiger counter on/off sound I think there was too much reverb for the situation. Just a dry beep, or the clicking of a plastic button would do. For the empty magazine sound, it's usually a click, not a buzzer. For the gun reload, it just doesn't sound like a reload in any game I've played. There was no satisfying click, and the sounds that were there were just very harsh on my ears. I don't know how you would have recorded sounds for that though. The closest thing I could think of was maybe a plastic battery cover for loading the clip and clinking keys (??) for cocking the gun.

Outer Space Transport Service by Turncoda 2021-10-05T03:50:37Z

@skyeward @cosmonautical Apologies for the slow screen scroll. There is a bug in v0.2 that was causing the screen scroll to be slower than I intended on 60Hz monitors. I have fixed the bug in v0.3; the screen scroll should be much snappier now.

Outer Space Transport Service by Turncoda 2021-10-06T07:14:54Z

@thehansinator Thanks for playing! Dropping off a box in the circle doesn't change the level, in fact the map is fully static, but I'm glad that it felt ominous in more ways than one :slight_smile:

Thanks for sharing that info about the Asteroids cabinet CRTs! That's actually even cooler than I imagined, and would explain why Asteroids looks the way it does in the first place. By extension then, I would guess that oscilloscopes also don't have scanlines. Honestly I didn't even stop to think about what caused scanlines when I was browsing the postprocessing effects. I threw the postprocessing effects together in literally an hour at the end, so I didn't have much time to do my research and my lack of expertise in that domain shows :sweat_smile:

I'm glad you told me this because I didn't even like the scanlines, but I thought that's just what all CRT displays looked like and also that other people would read that as more generically "retro" so I kept it in. I made a custom build of the game to compare with vs. without scanlines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJx_IVrQdKc

I definitely prefer it without scanlines and I'll probably incorporate this new knowledge into a post-jam build along with a few other things. I also realize now that the way the outline of the circle thickens momentarily when a box gets eaten is also probably not realistic for this particular display technology so I might tweak that later on as well.

UNSTABLE DREAMS by ROBOWARRIOR1982 2021-10-05T06:39:26Z

Very cool that the camera is offcenter. Reminds me of The Pathless. I also liked the 2D character sprites in 3D environments. You don't see that very often these days and I realize it was probably due to time constraint but I think it's very charming in this 3rd person context. I'd love to see a fleshed out version of this.

Everything is Fine by Noire 2021-10-05T05:20:48Z

The sound design really sells the events of the story where the animation is lacking.

I did not enjoy having no choice other than to drink, as I do not enjoy drinking hard liquor in real life. I realize that the repetition is part of the realism of the narrative but I got bored of doing everything 3 times.

The visual and symbolic metaphors are an interesting proxy for conveying the experience of someone under the influence. Very creative.

Grabanakki by Saturnyoshi 2021-10-07T07:12:53Z

I liked Ultimate Throw. Kinda Kaizo.

Horsey Bash by jakefriend 2021-10-05T06:19:56Z

Really well made! I got better with practice and that made me want to keep on starting a new bout. The format of the game feels fair. I loved the chunkiness of the UI. Functional, yet lively, like in Persona 5.

Plate Spinner 2021 by StoicKekis 2021-10-05T06:59:01Z

I was surprised to find out that I had a chance to bounce the plate back onto the rod even after it had fallen. That's such a cool idea.

Alchemy Academy by Smooches 2021-10-05T16:53:54Z

Loved the voice acting :)

Orbital Cascade by PolymathLD 2021-10-05T13:55:06Z

Nice, coherent little game. I had trouble wrapping my head around the controls though. When the mouse is directly below the ship, left and right are effectively inverted, so I have to consciously tell myself to do the opposite of what I mean to do.

Proton Pilferer vs. The Particle Police by Skyward4d 2021-10-05T05:11:55Z

I liked turning big and stomping the proton police!

False Angel by Jonah_SRG 2021-10-05T15:05:49Z

A well-rounded and cohesive game. Great work all around. I liked the cutscenes; short, charming and makes for a good break to congratulate myself for beating the last stage and to get ready for the next one.

I really enjoyed the boss fight. After a while I noticed I could move up close to increase my rate of fire. It would have been a cool risk-reward but there was no risk to moving up really. I also found it was easier to dodge the attacks moving vertically rather than horizontally, which is what I was doing at first. If there was some kind of attack to discourage getting close, that tactic might not have worked as well as it did.

I once died on Suspension without knowing what hit me. A split second later I realized I hit a camouflage bird.

Temple Sprint by chrishg12 2021-10-06T01:19:11Z

I could not get past the collapsing segmented bridge over lava. I would keep getting stuck on the sloped edge upon landing, unable to move or jump. Cool obstacles up to that point though!

Paper Route by OllieOA 2021-10-05T02:54:49Z

I beat levels 1 and 2 but level 3 was too hard for me.

My favorite part was the jump in level 2. Watching the newspapers hover in midair while staying inside the basket felt nice.

I enjoyed the story and I liked the dynamic between the two characters. I wish I could see how it ends.

IDLE CLIMBER - Love Platformers but need your Idle Clicker Mania? Look no more. by HomoLudens 2018-04-25T06:54:12Z

This is a really creative idea! It looks like you pulled off what you set out to achieve, so nice work.

I personally really love multi-tasking, especially in games, so this really scratches my itch. The blue lasers were super suspicious looking so I avoided them on my first playthrough without any consequence. In my second playthrough I figured I would try touching one... aaand I'm dead. lol

For some reason I didn't really feel like exploring affordances, like you mentioned in your blog post. I just watched your gameplay video and more or less copied what you did there. It was still fun for me, I guess because I enjoy challenging-but-fair mechanics in and of themselves, even though I consider myself someone who enjoys exploring the rules of various game worlds. I think I would attribute that to the urgency of the rising lava. I just could not afford to fool around! The urgency was great though. I would say that was the best and most effective aspect of your game.

I will mention that there are a good amount of rough edges in the game that I felt were a little unfair, but I can totally understand that, given the time constraints. I think the camera was the biggest problem for me. At one point I was near the top of the screen, but I couldn't see, and I accidentally touched a disintegrating block, and before I realized what was going on, I was stuck forever because the platform disintegrated and now I had no way up. Some quick fixes would be

* adding another route that is slower but not disintegrating * making the camera more fair. I think if the camera would just match my vertical position, it would have been fine. the lava might end up offscreen, but you could communicate the closeness in other ways, such as with a background color/gradient whose saturation/warmth indicates the closeness of the lava, or it could be increasing the volume of a lava sound effect, etc. Also you could do some kinda rubber banding to scale the difficulty for more advanced players. Little things, but I would have appreciated them for sure.

I honestly never used the mace thing. It's a cool mechanic and I'm impressed with your implementation of it, but it's just like, stalling the inevitable and I just intuitively never used it after trying it the first time. Spinning the mace is like telling your Metapod to Harden. Actually if I were good enough I'd spin the mace while platforming, haha, but I can already tell you I'm not capable of that. I was content switching between the number puzzle and the clicking though, that was a pretty satisfying level of difficulty.

Anyway cool game, I'm interested to see where you take the idea. I'm totally digging this context-switching gameplay you got going on.