Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Vaiaphraim
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 36 | Ancient Technology | Temple Quest | compo | |||||||||
| 2015 | 33 | You are the Monster | Soul Hunter | jam | 716 | 3.00 | 2.93 | 3.04 | 3.58 | 2.32 | 3.08 | 52 |
Wow, these controls... Really hard to get used to them. About the game itself... it's really easy to grind your skills against a single soldier, or maybe 2 civilians at the same time, but even then - if you venture out for rubies, you're really likely to get surrounded and trapped. I think a minimap would be great, too, so that you know where you yet have to search.
All in all, I think that it's an awesome concept, and with a bit of polish the game could get even more enjoyable!
It's a cool idea, really, but the map is a bit... hard to navigate. The terrain is the same overall, so there are no points you could remember, etc. A minimap would help a lot here, indeed. I think there should also be defensive measures to protect what you have created, maybe NPC minions, or a turret?
Heh, seems like I'm not the only one, who created a text-based game :P Yours goes into a almost totally different direction, though - it would be nice, if there was some map, which would create "itself", while you are exploring... And I think I found a bug: the health counter happily increased after each "rest" action, even if I was at full HP already (12/10... 14/10..) Apart from that - nice work , just please remove the need to click that button in order to reveal the next room...
Attack of the Mutant Zombies for the win! :P
Really cool game, I just wish there was a bit more content. Keep it up!
Hey guys!
Road to Hell is really cool (the theme.. *monster* truck, right? ^^)
The audio loop is a bit short, but does its job, I think.
The obstacles on the course are funny somehow - These buildings standing on the road, and the menacing rocks from the sides... It must be a hell of a ride :P
Also a big plus: Blowing up the police AI!
Great soundtrack - just the loop didn't quite connect. I really wished it was seamless, because the tune is great :)
The military is really easy to defeat, the helicopters are always visible and I really had to stop myself from crushing them, only to see that they didn't have an attack animation...
Destroying the buildings is awesome in a way, but it just takes forever - and the next level is like "oh, yeah, one more line of the same". I really love the tanks "hiding" between the buildings, but again, they are no real threat, as they deal even less damage than the helis.
All in all, I'd say that it's a bit unpolished, but is a good entry after all - especially for 17 hours only.
I wonder, why the original hydra didn't use that tactic to allow people beheading it - once a puny hero with cauterize tactics arrives, it could easily eat that one - and that hero couldn't even share that the tactic worked.
A simple concept, but really fun to play a green 200something tentacle ball, wreaking havoc over that city ^_^
Nice graphics - I just wish I could take a closer look at my population on demand, rather than zooming in and hoping that somebody would run past the camera :P
My bottleneck was wood... I never saw trees regrow, so, eventually, even a single woodcutter would cut the last trunk, no grass, starving the rabbits, starving the foxes, and the humans, too...
It's really fun to play, setting a few houses, and listening to the fox(?) noise :P
I only get a black screen, when clicking the link (Win7, 64bit)...it would be cool, if you could look into it, I'd really like to try the game!
Damn, that game is hard - it took me a while to figure out the effects of sight and sound. I even managed to evade a bullet... twice. Maybe I did something wrong? :P
The chandelier graphics are cool ^^ Also, nice touch with the reverse-rules thing. It just needs a bit more polish (and levels) to be really decent :)
The audio was great :P The gameplay... a bit repetitive. I enjoyed the physics a lot, but it was more or less the same all the way :( But all in all, a nice entry, I must say :)
After playing the tutorial, it told me that it usually ends where it started... yeah... I "beat" the tutorial, and level 1 - but level 2 never finished, no matter which of the rooms I entered, and how many walls I jumped against :(
Yeah, an "exit" sign would be helpful. Nice graphics and sounds, by the way :)
The graphics style somewhat.. reminds me of Super Smash Bros.
The game started out really easy, but the difficulty picks up, as there's more light (where you can't destroy the source...)
Well done!
Heh, awesome twist on that genre. It's cool enough that you have to evade the evil "player" - but I would really have LOVED to shoot back. >:D
I searched the entire area, but I only found one grave :( I think I managed to spawn a few zombies, but they always got stuck at some barricade... Not sure what I'm doing wrong...
Funny enough, the third one was the easiest for me, after I finally learned the controls properly :P Cool game!
It's really fun to run through these worlds - it's just really hard to tell where the "exit" is. Congrats on the procedural map gen!
There's a lot of luck involved, whether or not you hit your opponent - and how much you are hit. It's loosely based on a d20 system... If you have difficulties to fight, check, if the dagger you recieved at the start is equipped. (+2 for to-hit, and - most notably - +2 to damage)
I included a text document for an explanation of the game mechanics... Actually, it should have been there since yesterday. In any case - thank you all for your feedback, you guys are awesome!
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts :)
@Flaid: I really did plan to create music / ambient noise for the game, maybe some binaural/white noise stuff for the intro, a bit of filtering to mimic wind... in the end, I had nothing but a boss encounter track prepared... and didn't even have the time to include that one properly, so I just skipped the audio for good for this submission.
As for the fighting motivation... I played with the thought to deduct HP, once your craving meter was depleted.. however, I didn't want to make the game even harder than it already was. Decisions... decisions...^^
@Fenreliania: You need to press "X" while the inventory screen is opened - this will switch between wearing/wielding stuff and consuming items. You can even consume your weapon or armor for a small boost to your craving meter :)
Puny adventurers had to die at the power of my Q and W!
I'll be right back. Need to buy a new keyboard^^ (j/k)
Hi there,
I really enjoyed the detailed narrative (and the delicious graphics!), but the game is incredibly hard. It took me forever to use the plural of "bar", since the text explicitly said "one bar".
I got ultimately stuck on the circle puzzle - after I solved it, nothing happened. (it was hard to control, maybe a problem with global/local mouse position?)
I really would have loved to play it to the end :(
If you make a post-compo version, please do something like marking keywords in color, making it less of a guesswork what to enter - or what I read in another comment, creating a help function... even small hints would be nice, so that it's not too easy :)
By the way... in all the combat situations, I was attacked by the creature on screen - but also a dog "log", according to the text output.
All in all - great game, from what I saw so far!
I think there should be a bit more information about the controls. I mean it's cool that you can switch the color of your glowing energy, and I can see that it drains mana, upon using it... but it's not really effective against the blue enemies (maybe I used the wrong color?)
Yeah, you can't die in the game, which probably should be fixed at some point.
Running and jumping works, so, you got a running core of the game, I guess ;)
Windows user here - your engine seems to work well in the command shell :)
Cool game, I enjoyed it a lot. Maxing out the splash damage and kiting the aliens is really fun! Too bad you don't seem to gain any score for blasting them - but it shows that the objective is to survive.. no more, no less, as well as you can.
Wow.. even the cakewalk mode was hard to me, I probably lasted 3 mins or so.
I think your explanation is wrong at a point... it seems like the regular sword needs to be anvil-ed, not the katana(?)
The dropoff point could have been a bit more obvious (or maybe the entire lane? not sure about the difficulty)
The arrow points there, but I seem to only reach the correct spot randomly :(
Anyway, cool music and nice sfx (the sfx were a bit loud in the main menu, otherwise, really cool!)
Well done!
Nice quick and fun game, the difficulty scales quite well, too.
I wish it was possible to keep holding the fire key, rather than clicking again and again.
And for the sfx... please filter out the higher frequencies in your risers.
I absolutely loved the shadow coming closer in the background scenery, by the way :)
I absolutely love the concept of the game! You can select your materials to alter the properties of each weapon, but also need to think tactically for the actually smithing process - which is, in my opinion, the most challenging part of the game.
Daggers and shortswords are okay (even if the "special parts" follow different rules than the regular hammering), but damn... the spiked knuckles are really hard to complete.
The idea to make the metal flow into the right template form is amazing, I don't think I *ever* saw that in a smithing game!
Great job, you two!
Cool jam entry! I really like the way the floor wraps around, leading to interesting challenges.
I was able to keep myself alive by holding a tile under the rock/wheel/cyberneonthing, so it wouldn't fall. That didn't make the game any easier, though :P
If possible, please include a save point after a level - the first level is cool, too - but only for a few times ;)
Also, great soundtrack and cool pixel art! Well done!
I enjoyed playing Nineveh a lot, even if it took me a while to figure out the basic mechanics, and I'm still not 100% sure what everything does, but it's great so see something grow and expand!
I'm a bit confused, especially when it comes to slaves... they seem to spawn near the elite, but otherwise work exactly like the regular gatherers do. They can even generate gatherers, once their health bar is filled.
I'm also really unsure about how "combat" works. It seems like moving any unit onto an enemy one will displace it, giving it a "refugee" negative status - the attacker, however, also loses health for "fighting unarmed". My question would be how to chase other tribes off my turf, without making my own guys suicide...
By the way - it seems like each of the tribes can be controlled somewhat. The AI generally cancels the command after a few turns, but you can be a bit of a puppeteer that way. It was fun, when I figured it out, but I'm not sure, if it is supposed to work like that :)
The artwork is nice; I really liked the aesthetics! A bit of music would have been great, but it's obvious that there can't be time for everything.
Great job!
I agree with coal - the objective wasn't entirely clear from the title... Digging around was really fun, but my sheep sometimes decided not to eat, even when standing on a grass tile (I think they maybe only eat, when they are moving?)
I tried water trenches, the sheep being on grass, yet, they got redder and redder and died in the end...
I sadly can't tell you the top score, because it switches you back to the main menu right away.
Still, a cool submission, fun to play :)
Atlantis Builder definitely has a lot of potential!
The jam-version is really cool, with nice graphics, and gentle background music.
Controls are a bit hard to manage - left, right, center mouse all do different things, depending on the "core" mode, so it's easy to make a mistake during harvesting and such.
I also found a small bug with corn. Once it's grown, you can "plant" the harvested corn again - which you can harvest again immediately to multiply.
However, I definitely enjoyed playing around and learning from my mistakes :) The 'terraforming' aspect is really nice; the crafting system is quite intuitive (thanks to the notes here), and the self-expanding world is also a cool feature!
Great work!
Amazing work! Great humor in the narrative, as well as emotion. A great story being told in that platformer :)
The dead snake made it possible at times to get closer to the ceiling (jump - snake - jump - snake...) and hop on top of a platform that way. Really fun thing to do (and really frustating, when falling on a lower platform, resetting your spawnpoint)
Great piano track. It matches the character of the game so well. Way to go!
Hey man, the graphics look great! The aqueduct style reminds me a bit of that old caesar game, where you had to manage your city and all.
You really should check your code though, since the music tends to play two times at the same time, and you can't really mute the second file :(
I think the game is very easy to play, due to infinite resources, yet hard to control (I managed to build an aqueduct instead of walking more often than once)
Still, I'm glad you made your submission in this jam!
Very cool game! Loved the graphics (especially the face of the character xD)
The level design is quite straightforward, so a few other elements, apart from the rocks, would have been great, too!
Still, you did a decent job, and it was a good take on the theme, too. The music was also really cool, with the bongo drum loop :)
Well done!
This is really a hard game... To find the health, you need to unlock it first - it's a risky thing to attempt :)
I also agree with the above comments, that already used letters should have some indication. The movement mechanics are really unique. I somehow like the tilebased approach, but I'd prefer a smoother transition (and the ability to keep holding a key to move).
In any case, it was really fun to guess the hidden code behind the wheels :)
Oh wow, I got deleted way too often... my best result was 180 knowledge.
I think you need a bit of a grace zone when moving, even touching the dark tiles barely makes you lose health (I think top and left), you can only overlap a bit on the other directions. :( I.. I think I won't save the universe that way...
Music is really fun, reminds me of myself when I did some experimental stuff. :)
I hope you'll be around for the next LD!
You totally nailed it! I think that's perfect as an ancient tech example :)
The colored trails were beautiful to watch (but the dots were hard to escape at times)
The shake mechanic was fun for a while, but it became tedious after a few levels. Find a safe spot, mash space, continue (or lose in the process). The idea behind it is cool though, and the 8-bit noise is a good match :)
Lots of fun to play with all the twists :)
Funny enough, I started to run left in a level, just to see what happened - died after a while, so I thought I'd explore the other direction (turns out you still move left anyway haha)
Nice work! I'd recommend changing the bullet shooting height just a few pixels, so the enemy ones can be picked apart (or maybe change the size a bit so they can be recognized)
The background music was great! Also, your pixel art looks delicious :)
Movement was extremely slow, which was cool at the start, since you never knew what would wait around the corner - but over time, it got a bit exhausting "only 2 more steps" - especially while carring a box.
I managed to beat the dart trap, too, but after that, I was walking through endless corridors - I tried either direction, too ...
Still, I definitely enjoyed my time in the pyramid, but wouldn't want to spend my whole life inside :D
Haha, the final level was the easiest to me (maybe because I learned about the mechanics by then?)
Too bad that you didn't finish it, but I kinda like what you were going for.
The background synth has a cool tone, with a very spacey feel. Not too complex, musically, but it works really well!
I think I found a bug... If I connect the '^' symbol without any links, it counts as 0. 0^0 should be 1, I think?
I'm talking about the "-8" result level, which I solved by subtracting a few numbers from, well... zero.
The simplistic graphics are also cool in a way, it felt a bit like wiring up some logical components ^_^
Yeah, it would be really cool to reserve a few lines for the resource levels :) "res" works, too, but it quickly pushes away the requirements for the next upgrade.
I like the way the game 'works', with text commands and all that :) Please don't limit the footman training to 5 - especially, if you can't repeat it quickly (e.g. up arrow to load previous command), because it was quite tiresome after a while.
Oh, and, you can't really upgrade the campfire to max, since the storage is too small, even at the highest level.
In any case, it was a fun little game with cool mechanics - great work!
Haha, archer in rapid fire mode is OP!
I don't think he can move, though....
I first thought it was a turnbased game, but quickly learned that that's not how it works :D
Cool idea, nice graphics :) I especially like the particle effects for the jump!
WAIITPWCSTR is a very fast-paced game, possibly redefining the phrase "Don't bring a gun to a swordsfight" (or similar)
The hordes of romans are not to be underestimated, they are fast, and charge at the player without any fear!
However, the player character has a powerful counter - the mighty shift key! It's possible to run straight at them, guns blazing, without getting hit.
I had to quit at wave XV, when the game slowed down too much, with 354 corpses on the map. I think making them despawn after each wave, or a few seconds after death, would improve performance massively :)
Also, I think the sprint should consume stamina (or maybe a tiny amount of health, as a quick workaround) The romans really can't hit you, if you keep sprinting and jumping, if needs be.
The usage of the imported assets was great, the "ancient" feel of wooden barricades and such was right on point :)
I enjoyed your jam entry a lot - well done!
Cool graphics and music! Slamming the whip guy with a brick was really fun (even if it cost you a heart sometimes - damn observer!)
I loved the crane animation, by the way! The sound effects for the grinding stone noise were also great.
I wish the game wouldn't reset that quickly after you lose - checking out the bloodstains on each layer could be really fun, I think :)
Great work!
You were aware of LD36!
It took me a long time to figure out, how to actually win - until I noticed that the awareness meter was going up for each solved mission.
Cool idea with the boost stars, but how the speed worked in general wasn't too clear. The boost is supposed to only work for a short time, yes, but in general, the speed seemed to vary a lot. A bit more information about that would have been great!
I'd really enjoy some extra challenge, e.g. enemy agents roaming the map, so you need to leave some area for a while to avoid getting caught (just an idea), or even letting them "steal" the news, reducing your awareness levels.
All in all, a nice minigame - well done!
What a cool game! It reminds me a bit of Notch's 'Minicraft' in an earlier LD. I love to punch trees and animals for resources ^_^
The levels appear to be randomly / procedurally generated, which is very cool - I think I didn't find any wood the first two tries, but then again, I kept punching pigs, so I didn't really walk far... Exploring the map is fun either way :)
I found a small error in your item menu - in the weapons tab, the "iron sword" is labelled "iron pick" in the menu :)
The easy controls are positive for me, what I'd improve would be adding some sort of "feedback" if you are actually hitting a tile / entity.. Even making it blink would be sufficient. I sometimes seemed not to be able to fell a tree while standing really close (maybe not close enough, though)
Also, knowing how mining/combat actually works would be great - do I just stand on a tile, and I hit all the tiles in a 3x3 radius upon clicking? (It seems like I killed a pig while felling a tree at the same time)
Sorter of Antiques has a fun selection of items, of varied colors, weight, usage and epochs. The pixel graphic design was also right on point :)
The challenges were a bit easy, but the potential is there. I read something about it being a good minigame - I totally second that. It would be a fun challenge to have something like this inside a bigger game. As a standalone, it doesn't have enough depth, but the idea is cool!
Well done!
R. Lastey provides a lot of different minigames with variable difficulty. The artwork was great(!), the music loop and the 8-bit style fits the aesthetics really well, but gets a bit annoying over time, due to the constant high pitch bleeps.
The puzzles to the end are getting easier over time, but the second light-chess challenge felt like the hardest of the game.
Light-chess in general was rather hard (it took me a while to figure out that the light ray was actually interrupted by the pieces standing there)
The vines were okay, I guess, the undusting process was a bit tedious (especially, if you didn't undust enough, and had to switch back and forth between magnifying glass and the brush)
The spider invaders were a fun change, but could need a bit of polishing - like reducing the fire rate of the "fortunately knife" (lucky knife?). The level was unexpected and made me smile, but sadly didn't really provide any challenge whatsoever.
The sequencer was a cool idea, but I didn't really recognize the melody (even if the reveal at the end made me to go back and double check... it *could* have been a great laugh for sure!)
If I pick a favorite, it's definitely the deciphering challenge. From a design perspective, the idea of "putting everything together" was really great, but I didn't really notice any progress from finding pictograms or letters.
Great job on the variations of puzzled, great job on the art! I'd really enjoy a bit more polishing of the seperate challenges, rather than having a lot of them, but still, it's a jam entry with more content than most others - well done!
It's a cool sandbox, and a nice story behind it. I must say that it's a bit too slow-paced for my taste...
You need to monitor it all the time, or else everything burns away.
Some SFX for fire would be great, so you can quickly check, when the world needs your attention.
I expanded a few water tiles, and added a lot of wheat (which seems to have the highest efficiency by far, even scaled to the growth time) - still, without any endgoal (like, idk "Build and protect 10 alien tiles"), I lacked motivation after a while.
Cool graphics, music and innovation, I need to give you that!
Hunter Gatherer is quite nice, actually. I think the game world is a bit too empty, however - especially, when it comes to finding stone.
The crafting balance is also a bit off - spears are more expensive, yet harder to use, while traps are cheap and always kill the target.
I think the player movement should be adapted, when moving diagonally - otherwise, it's really easy to escape the bear. I think the bear has the same speed in all directions, so the player can escape that way easily.
Still, the graphics are cool, and I like the idea behind the game. With a bit more depth and polishing, it has quite some potential.
Well done!
Great idea, and a fun mechanic :)
I found it quite hard to keep the cart on track, since it seemed to spin at almost every jump, but I managed to reach almost 200 meters nonetheless after a few tries!
It was quite fun to watch the blob guys paddle with the cart upside down, but that didn't really help in making progress^^
Naturally, I was inevitably crushed by the rocks again and again.
If possible, please remove these ultra high frequencies of the sound effects... (it even started aliasing, so you must have passed the 22kHz range o.o) Fade them out or filter them, please :)
Sometimes, the intro screen is bugged... rightclicking the catapult made it vanish (happened to me the first two times, then not anymore, then again randomly when I restarted)
On the start of level 2, I can't really buy any units - not sure if it's supposed to be that way.
It's really cool to chain together multiple cutters for a barrage of shots (even better when lit on fire!)
I sometimes lost against the first big guy seemingly randomly - even with the catapult directly in front, firing 4 stones at a time. Sometimes, it was defeated, sometimes, it crushed my castle.
I think you could improve the linking mechanics, especially, when using the same weapon type more often than once. Also, the level start button should be more obvious - I can never be sure, if clicking the checkmark will start the level, or just open the next screen. Maybe write "start level" or something if that one checkmark will start the game, rather than switch menus.
The controls were a bit frustrating, but the battle cinematics were great! The soundtrack is also really cool, but a second track for the battle animation (battle music!) would have been great, too :)
22k :)
I think it would be cool, if you could jump down from the platforms, right now it's hard to align the enemies for a multi-kill. Maybe that's part of the difficulty, but I think moving across the way in a smart way should be rewarded, too.
It's a cool idea to combine your attacks with your own health, by the way - it ensures that you do your best to make every shot count :)
Well done!
The graphics are really amazing; I like the feel of the game, too. It's definitely not easy, but I feel that I get better with each try :)
The music you selected fits very well, too (the upgrade screen is where I spent most of the time for that reason, I think :P)
Well done, great entry!
Oh man, I really feel like I leveled up my repair skills, when I figured out you can just drag the buoy over its parts to reassemble it ^_^
Really cool, even if the screen never seems to be damaged, most of the time, it was only battery charging. I think there should be some indicator for them being full, like, idk.. a green square (or maybe a battery tester? ^_^), since the hue wasn't too informative.
I think the best part was looting the broken electronics hahaha :D
MistIslands is really fun to play - it requires a bit of tactics, when to choose what, but also a bit of luck (will there be another wolf pack attacking tomorrow?)
The graphics are cool, and the stories behind each card are really fun to read :)
I feel that the gameplay is a bit too easy... I never ran out of food, and I only lost HP to coconuts, or some magical deals along the way. Max HP is probably a bit too easy to gain.
I had a lot of fun playing it until the end, and sealing the ancient god easily did feel very rewarding after all the work to collect these weapons and hearts :)
Great work!
Oh wow, it really IS a fast game. I anticipated that from the previous comments, but it still took me by surprise :D
Cool typing mechanic, but I agree with those, who say they prefer actual words - so do I. I always got a motivational boost, whenever I read something I understood as words. It doesn't have to be too often, but a bit more often than now (for my taste).
The controls are super hard for an extra challenge, especially, when you need to switch between arrows and the keyboard. If I understand it correctly, there's problems when you map the same key to two things... But I'd greatly prefer WASD to arrows here.
Still, it's a cool frantic game, with charming graphics, and a nice music loop. My best go was 408 (after almost 3km of total jumps) - then I failed the same jump 2 times. Suicided into the spikes - the lava will not get me (alive)!
Hahaha, my bricks keep jumping into walls to kill everyone with a spray of micro cubes :D
I think that there should be a bit more possibilities to control the generations - or maybe see a list of the fitness scores at least?
Still, it makes for a cool cinematic with playful music together with just about the funniest way to test GA. Very well done!
I really like the way you can make your way through the game, one step at a time. However, I think it's not possible to survive indefinitely... for some reason I always score 42 - coincidence?
While it's basic, in terms of complexity, I think that the game design is great - it's self explanatory how to play and it's fun to check how your choices affect your meters. :)
Nice terminal emulation, graphically. I initially "feared" that I had to guess and write input manually - so the provided options to select were very welcome :)
The puzzles inbetween were a nice change after learning something new about the world the game takes place in.
All in all, a fun game, and a nice take on the theme :)
I very much like the concept of Mummy craft! Using the glyphs in a smart order is vital, so you have a chance against the random generator. The game isn't always "fair", but I felt like I got better at it over time :)
There seems to be a bug, which prevented me from monitoring my highscore. I sadly don't know how it happens, but I think the scores don't show up again, if you restart after "game over"...
I really liked the art in the game! The sound effects are okay, too, but the drawings are superb :)
The glyph generation could use a bit more polishing, since there are cases which you just can't win (e.g. no "human" glyph appearing at all), but other than that, the gameplay feels solid :)
Great work!
Thanks for your comments, everyone!
Yeah, drawing isn't exactly my strong point ^_^
I had a lot of extra content planned, more abilities to use, more methods to beat certain obstacles.
@Aun: Thanks for the heads up regarding the shift-key. If there will be a post-compo release, I'll re-map that one. Also the skip key probably shouldn't be the same as the circle map :) I thought I'd use "WASD" to select levels, and, well... S for skip.
Just an extra note - no need to mash the ability keys over and over - simply holding it down will work!
@videogred93: I thought of using a MIDI guitar sound... it's just not the real thing. And I can't play guitar, soooo, I asked my friend to feature on two levels :)
@onyon, abhimonk, rudinskiz: I'm really glad you liked it :)
Not sure how to improve my artwork, I guess I should just practice more often :D
@aschab: Thank you for the feedback! I already talked to a few friends, considering a jam entry - so that everyone does what they can do best (music, graphics, coding...) Or actually, I was approached by them "Say, what about me helping you out with the artwork" :D
@mvieira: I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the collision detection isn't perfect. The way I approached it - making it tilebased. So, if the tile in front is an obstacle - you get hit. The quirky behaviour is when switching lanes or jumping - since you can still get hit while being half on that tile. I think I should have moved the player model a bit to the left so that it's not as obvious (however, then you'd get hit *before* actually hitting the wall >.>) In any case, thanks for your feedback!
@Misspeld Games: Now that's very interesting - I can imagine the first level being created in a way that nothing blocks the center lane, but other than that... You mean you could just walk through columns and fire without being hurt?
If so, it might be a problem with my event handling... Funny enough, it never happened to me while playtesting ^_^
Thanks for pointing it out!
@lordvorath: Thanks for your feedback - yes, the random generator sometimes creates almost impossible combinations (double pillars bottom+center to top+center and back) You need to be almost pixel-perfect to beat that at the current stage. I'm sorry for your frustration, but I'm glad you tried to beat it anyway :)
@Misspeld Games: I really wish I could fix that one, but I can't find the source. Maybe I didn't map one of the tiles correctly. I'll check the code of the level again - thanks for your help!
@sn0uk: Thank you, I tried ^_^
@LCMW_Spud: Much appreciated, thank you :)
@g_o: I thought exactly the same thing - I also tried to jump in rhythm, which got me killed more often than once during playtests.
I think it might just be a candiate for a rhythm game - with some serious reworks.
Thank you for your feedback!
@Teekeks: Thank you :3
@dwhiffing: I'm glad to hear that :)
@austintradr: Oh, the intro text... It was a quick and dirty method to make it fit between "the wonderful graphics". I kinda liked how it turned out and didn't really think about readability at that point - Sorry about that!
Yes, I know that there are a few hard parts - you can always skip the level, though, if you just want to see the ending screen ;)
As for checkpoints - the longest level is where you need to find the circle... which lasts for 1min 25s. For longer levels with more contraptions - checkpoints are definitely the way to go! Thank you for your feedback!
@johnbjuice: First of all, thank you for the compliments! Yes, I know that it's supposed to be a 100% solo thing, and for a compo with voting, I would have opted out of the audio rating with a bittersweet tear. I was ready to make that sacrifice, because no virtual instrument can get close to the real thing. The way it ended up - I don't regret anything :)
Yes... the hitbox... there actually is none. The tiles at a certain x-coordinate are checked (only y being controlled by the player). Would I restart the project, I'd definitely give the player more leeway, or a thinner hitbox, technically.
Controls could have been better, too. A better way would have been to use Q, W and E (Water, Jump, Bridge respectively), I think. I went with SPACE for jump (somehow, it felt like a jump key :P), but the shift key was uncalled for :D - it was not supposed to make it harder to play, though, so I'm sorry about that. I don't really agree with using the same button, because you could just hold it down without thinking about the actual level. Maybe that would work for an "easy mode" or so.
When the game is jumping to black... there are SFX, depending on your type of death... an echoing yell, a grunt, even a real sampled sawblade for the final level's traps. Maybe I should have made them louder... I would ask, if you unzipped the file before starting, but failure to do so, would have killed the audio entirely, so I'm a bit at a loss here. In any case - with more time, I would have faded out slower, letting the player see WHY they died - both to avoid confusion and to encourage learning from the situation.
@lCira: Thank you! \o
@Skye: Yeah, quite a few people seem to have problems with the difficulty. I'm sorry for your frustration with the level generation. Incidentially, the skip function was actually designed to prevent boredom in the first level (*yawn* :P) - but I decided to expand the usage to the other levels, since there's no save function, and to try to prevent frustration on a certain map. Yeah, I probably should have kept the music running - also, not send the player back to the temple grounds each time. I *thought* it would be a good idea to let the player chill at some ambient music, thinking about their mistakes, before jumping into the fray again - it might not have been the best choice, but it's what I went with in the end :)
Have fun, everyone!
@Amine Tcherak: I'm glad that you enjoyed it :)
@TeamEagle: Thank you! o/
@kingpirux: I take it that you meant it as a joke mainly - but I do love ASCII games, so I might just make one at some point :D
@Kazik_210: Thank you! Cheers :)
@stenol: I'm glad you enjoyed it!
@Aurel Bílý: To be honest, I did get out of my comfort zone a lot. I wasn't sure I could pull it off to deliver a decent game with a decent soundtrack. I searched for online composition communities for one main reason - to make good music for my LD games.
I had a bit of extra content planned (not only more levels, and more variation of tiles, but also more abilities) Better graphics wouldn't really have been possible for my skillset, not even with an extra 24 hours of time, just more variation. If I wanted to use pixel art, then I should learn it before - not during the development phase. Which is, as stated above, just what I did for the soundtrack.
In any case, the first day, and more than one half of the second day were dedicated to designing the game, the final 8 hours or so went into sfx, music and "polishing" (such as making keys work while keeping them pressed, rather than tracking only on release, etc.)
Sound effects *are* on cue, you're the second person pointing that out though, so I'm a bit puzzled (maybe a bug on some systems?). There's a sound for jumping, building, extinguishing, and all variations of death. Check the sound folder and see for yourself!
I tried to keep the control layout consistent between the levels - but it seems like I failed that. As for the respawn screens, they *were* rushed, since I usually sent the player right back to the temple grounds after death. The reason I added these screens - audio cues for death - no less, no more. So yeah, the text inside wasn't planned or aligned too well, sorry about that ^_^
Thank you a lot for recommending the screen shake, by the way - I never tried to implement such a feature (nor did I actually think of it). Yeah, the "hitbox" is a known problem. I probably got used to it while playtesting, which is why it never felt "off" to me.
I'm sorry that I couldn't provide a better user experience, but even with that extra 8 hours, I couldn't have added much. What I had in mind was adding a lighting system, so tiles could fade into black, depending on the distance to the source. Also, more tiles, like an icy floor, or maybe grappling hooks. Maybe I could have done it in that time, but it would definitely have resulted in no music at all - which was planned to be one of the key "features" before the theme was even announced :)
I don't want all of this to sound like an excuse - you're making a lot of valid points, and I'll reconsider my design choices in future projects!
@Sanart: Woo, thanks :)
@MaximumIllusion: Thanks for your feedback - yes, more effects would have been great. Like the screenshake mechanics mentioned above, or particles for smoke/fire and more. I hope to do better next time :)
@jeremyfa: Thanks for your feedback! I'm not really sure, why the scrolling doesn't seem to be really smooth - maybe I should have went with more than 24fps :)
@metalhaze: That's great to hear :) About the puzzle block difficulty - a bit more leeway for the players would have been great indeed. Some combinations are insanely hard (especially at faster speeds). I'm glad you didn't give up despite that!
@Whitepot Studios: Thanks for your comment - I can tell you, why the levels ended for you that quickly. The reason is that the "S" key is mapped to skip a level at any time.
I chose to use the arrow keys for movement control.
I fully agree with you on the instructions, by the way. I also think that there's not enough time to read all the commands, before the level already expects you to know them. I probably should have paused the game, until the player confirms that they're ready. (TODO: Learn how do draw :D)
@Lon: You're correct - one extra button per level (apart from the final one, where you 'put it all together'). Thanks for your feedback!
@paruthidotexe: Actually, my crude attempts at art came from Flash's internal vector editor - not that I would have done better in paint :D. Thank you for pointing out the perspective problems between left/right and top/down by the way! It really is something I could have solved better :)
@mihaivdev: Thank you, I'm glad you had fun!
@simple_blue: Paint would have been the alternative^^ I used the vector editor in Flash for this project. Yeah, there should have been more time to read about the mechanics, before the first obstacles appear - I'm glad you made it nonetheless.
As for the theme... the plot device is an "ancient fireblade", which might or might not count. Let's say I took the easy way here. ^_^ Also, yes, more varied contraptions were planned (maybe also some really ancient ones :P), but I wasn't fast enough.
@Decentsauce: Thanks for your feedback! The .swf version is the standard thing, the .exe is only for people without flashplayer (the .exe has the player embedded). I don't really know where the smoothness problem comes from, since there are never more than 50 objects being drawn and updated at a time. It runs at 24fps - which is what I set the player to. Maybe a higher value would have been better?
@Pickens Inc.: Yeah, after the deadline I noticed that the difficulty scales maybe a bit too fast. The second level isn't only faster, the columns are also closer together - so it's getting harder in 2 ways.
Thank you for your feedback!
@mennchen22: Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I probably should have reduced the number of available bridge segments to make it more tactical (or prolonged the level duration, which was the initial plan :P)
@Zeriver: Thanks for your comment; I'm glad you enjoyed the game! The fire-level is the longest of them all, and quite fast, too^^ Memorizing does only work partially - the segments themselves are repeating, but in a random fashion. The columns are never in the same spot - neither are the fire segments :)
Yes, I totally agree on the controls. Using "S" to skip wasn't the best decision, especially, since I already used "WASD" for the level select keys, so it was mapped twice with a different function. Also shift, q, space are hard to reach with one hand. I'll make sure to go easier on the controls next time, since that's definitely not how I wanted to increase the difficulty!
@AnaGF: Thanks for your feedback! Yeah, I'm aware of my lack of drawing skills ^_^
I definitely agree, it could work as a music game with some changes... I actually thought of adapting the level speed to make it work, but the time ran out, and it wouldn't have been possible to scale the difficulty properly anymore :)
@tedajax: Thank you, I'm glad you had fun! The controls were a bit of a stretch (pun partially intended), and could have been easily fixed... But, alas, the time ran out and I didn't think of it anymore. I'll make sure to solve it better next time :)
The graphics in Yggdrasil are super cool :) I loved the glowing tail of the protagonist - especially during the jump animation!
At some points of the level, I was a bit unsure, if I was supposed to play it that way. Like running into a wall, to avoid falling into the lava, so I could click the next clone point.
The story around the game was really awesome and touching at the same time, together with the wall paintings to share even more stories about the world the game takes place in.
Cool submission, one of my favorites so far!
The bow charge and sun heat mechanics were cool, but your options are quite limited. The challenges are almost the same as the regular maps - just with limited arrows (the train looked fun, though :))
With a bit more content, it would be really enjoyable!
A nice and easy game - not sure how to prove that I actually beat it, but there was a cheering crowd :P
I wish there was some indicator when you won - it just randomly switched screens at a point (there were still platforms above me)
Cool background music, too, did you make it yourself?
Cheers!
That's some really cool mechanics there! I actually do have a sailing license (albeit a basic one), and I think that game might actually be a good replacement for most of the drawn graphics I remember from back then.
I'm not sure how accurate the mechanics really are, but I can't recall ever going backwards; really fun to test that out in game :D
I think the crafting idea was really great! It would have been nice to be able to check the "recipes" before the battle begins - other than that, the reference book was a great help!
I found wood to be the limiting factor quite often (only way to rebalance I found were the regular sword and shield, which required only one / zero wood)
I had a lot of fun playing though, and I definitely like the way you were going with this game. The audio selection was also right on point.
Great work!
This game is super fun! Even if I had to wait for the alc levels to wear off at times, it was also cool to try what you can do with that delay active :)
The artwork is really amazing (all these landmarks!), and so are the sfx!
Cool concept, and well executed :)
Nice minigame! I sadly had to stop playing after lv22, with a ton of farmtiles and crossbows - the game slowed down to 4-6 FPS. But up to then, it was a lot of fun, with a bit of difficulty, having to build, expand and defend at the same time.
The ambient part of the sound loop is quite nice, too. The farm graphics look great, by the way, just the black background is a bit dull (not that it remained black for long, with all the blue squashed circles on it :P)
The sewer music was great!
I didn't quite understand the purpose of these green slimes, but I just ran up to the top - there was some text popping up, but the next level was loaded instantly, before it could display.
The graphics were cool, just the player model didn't really fit the pixel art style (I think)
Weird ending, but the game was fun, actually.
With a bit smoother movement along the tiles, it would have been even better :)
Good job!