Compactory by VivianMochi 2018-08-13T21:12:16Z
Thank you! I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get any music done in time. Until I can get some proper audio in, I definitely recommend listening to some music in the background.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → VivianMochi
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥈 | 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Crescendo | compo | 4.35 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Category | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥉 | 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Grove Guardian | compo | Mood | 4.53 | |
| 🥇 | 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Crescendo | compo | Theme | 4.68 | |
| 🥈 | 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Crescendo | compo | Audio | 4.50 | |
| 🥈 | 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Crescendo | compo | Innovation | 4.60 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | Symphony of Legend | compo | 11 | 4.21 | 3.97 | 3.81 | 3.59 | 4.16 | 4.52 | 4.33 | ||
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Rising Tide | compo | 17 | 4.18 | 4.06 | 3.93 | 3.71 | 4.44 | 4.33 | 4.16 | ||
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | It Crumbles | compo | 45 | 4.00 | 3.88 | 3.62 | 4.12 | 4.09 | 4.00 | 2.88 | 3.50 | |
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | Grove Guardian | compo | 4 | 4.37 | 4.21 | 4.32 | 4.58 | 4.53 | 4.21 | 4.53 | ||
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Compactory | compo | 64 | 3.92 | 4.12 | 4.05 | 4.38 | 3.69 | ||||
| 2018 | 41 | Combine 2 Incompatible Genres | Crescendo | compo | 2 | 4.35 | 3.72 | 4.60 | 4.68 | 4.22 | 4.50 | 2.45 | 4.22 |
Thank you! I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get any music done in time. Until I can get some proper audio in, I definitely recommend listening to some music in the background.
@boltkey Thanks for the feedback! I had the same idea as you and wanted to keep the factory running after winning, but I couldn't get it done in time! I'll work on it, as well as identifying what entry point backed up when you lose. I don't think smaller changes like those violate any rules of post-submission updates.
@boltkey and @stevenjmiller thank you guys for the suggestions, I managed to get them in the most recent update! @agecaf I agree that the lack of music is off-putting. It's definitely on my to-do list.
Absolutely love the super cute art and the music was great too. I love that you made each Anibun unique. I think it could transition into a multiplayer game quite easily, and playing co-op with friends would be a blast. Awesome work!
Thanks to everyone for playing and leaving comments! Sorry the game is a little rough around the edges, there are more things I wanted to include!
@alex-mulkerrin 16 days is pretty darn good. Best I got was 21!
@njm-games Nighttime is like a tower defense. The spirits come towards your roots and some of your plants can use stored water as ammo to destroy them. The basic sprout -> tree is pretty good for defense, but as you research at shrines, you'll unlock much more powerful options!
Thank you all for playing, I'm really glad you're enjoying it! I have plans to do a post-jam version this weekend with a lot of the suggestions I'm receiving. Keep an eye out!
@43sam I love the zoom out idea, I'll see what I can work in for the post-jam version!
@flamus Comparing the art and music to Crawl means a lot to me, I love that game!
@chaseplays Thank you so much for the kind words! I'll be reworking the night a little for the post-jam version, and I'll definitely give some of the existing plants an art upgrade! The Willow and Mother Tree will definitely get distinguishing features.
@hadesfury Thank you! Roots and plants will rapidly decay if detached from the Mother Tree. A spirit might have eaten an important root!
@uberpupy I'm going to rework difficulty a little bit for the post-jam version, and night will hopefully feel more important and less idle. It was definitely a stretch getting it into the 48 hour window. I may or may not have slept ._.
@gaminghamster Thanks! I had a lot of fun making the tech tree, but expect it to be much larger in the post-jam version!
@donboose Always great to hear from you! Thanks so much :)
As always, thanks for the feedback, everyone! I just released a post-jam version with a bunch of changes and new stuff. Hopefully it makes the game a little more enjoyable!
@ddrkirbyisq The resource balance is definitely a little messed up. I tried to improve it in the post-jam version a little, but by adding so many new plants I probably messed it up even more XD. Also, the spirits now spawn in clusters to make focused attacks. The game also shows you where they are coming from, so you have time to go to the area they are attacking and witness your defenses in action. I've also added a map so you can watch all the action at a glance. Hopefully these changes are for the better, but please let me know what you think if you try the post-jam version out!
@hekateras Thanks so much for playing! And thank you for the feedback, I think I'll come back to this at some point and update it! Bamboo is definitely way too overpowered, so I'll scale it back a bit and buff some of the other plants.
Also I think that screenshot was super early in development; I don't think you can make multiple Mother Trees anymore :frowning2:
Really awesome game, I loved it! I was so excited every time I got a star wondering what it would unlock! It was incredibly satisfying getting a structure completed, I was sad that I had to tear part of it down to route to the next star. I was hoping for a sort of T-junction so that I could have more than 2 lines connected to the base, especially once I got multiple miners! Great job!
Really great game! I think you're right in having the cards unlocked all at the start for the jam, it helped me plan out how I wanted to set the terrain up for the bigger attacks. I think that it could be awesome with the classic deckbuilding mechanic too! Awesome job :P
Love the graphics! It's a very fitting aesthetic for the mood of the game! I feel like the randomness is a little bit too hard to plan around, but it's still super fun! I guess that's the point lol :P
This is really cool! I found myself just camping out in one room a lot, so one thing I would love is some kind of score modifier for having multiple rooms alive at once. It was a perfect idea to have the max lifespan for the room decay over time! Also the art is super unique, love it!
@reccy Thank you so much! I had SO many ideas that I wanted to include but I just didn't have enough time (purchasing upgrades with tokens, abilities, a GOLF minigame, etc.). I apologize about the difficulty, I spent so much time adding stuff I didn't take the time to balance it! Maybe I'll do a post jam version at some point! Thanks again!
@the-lame-brain Thanks!! I'm glad you like the concept of getting knocked around!
As per @cosmicpotato, I probably went a little overboard with how far you get kicked back tho, sorry about that!
Glad you're enjoying it!
@pbg Thank you, really glad you enjoyed it! I've released a small patch that should hopefully make the game a little easier, if you'd like to give it another go. The changes can be seen [here!](https://natelargo.itch.io/it-crumbles/devlog/301525/it-crumbles-update-1)
Tagging @mchs-productions @cosmicpotato so you can try the update and see if it's any less brutal. Thank you for the feedback!
@ghost-wave Thank you so much!! Also thank you for letting me know about the input on non-qwerties! I've gone ahead and updated the game with arrow keys as an additional input method. Hopefully that with the shift key to jump should feel comfortable. Please let me know if you have any more feedback!
@thegreenworm Thanks so much! It's definitely difficult haha, but I can confirm that it *is* beatable! In the future I'd love to update it so that you can buy upgrades with tokens to really flesh out the experience, but I'm pretty happy with its current state! Thanks for playing!
@badpiggy Thanks so much! There's definitely some stuff I want to improve because it totally IS frustrating at the moment, but I'm really glad you like it so far!
Also @zahab-aq Thanks so much for playing! Many apologies for the confusion, I've added movement to the list of controls now! Really appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it once you got the hang of it!
@huntthewumpus Thanks so much! Super glad you liked the aesthetics! I'd love to get a menu cooked up, but I'll wait until after the jam judging finishes :P
@prismapunch Thanks so much! I totally agree, and in the future I'd like to make air agility a stat that you can upgrade.
@kumber I agree that the upper floors are REALLY difficult, but a well placed bomb-jump can usually get you where you need to go! (Sometimes it IS impossible tho x_x)
@c0nt I TOTALLY agree! I think this would get WAY more fun with actual investment in a run! Getting items that upgrade stats and having more control over the tower's structure would make it so fun!
@gentoogames Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :D
This is INCREDIBLE work. I thought it was great until a shrimp pulled me into the shrimp realm, then I realized it was FANTASTIC. Mapping out the world seemed impossible at first, but it was surprisingly manageable and fun! Great work, I love it :P
Really clever! The control scheme took a minute to get used to, but it actually felt good after I got used to it! Having to stop and recharge helped prevent me from trying to go too fast XD
This game feels SO GOOD to play! You did an awesome job making the music-sync work super well! And the level transitions were soo hype! Awesome work :P
This is SUPER cute! The visuals are SO perfect, and the music is great too! Collecting ingredients was super fun, trying to think of what ingredients I could use. Honestly if there was a "career" mode I would play it SO MUCH! Awesome work :P
This was a super charming experience. There is SO much in here, I feel like you could play it over and over and keep finding cute little interactions! I love it :)
Really cool! You could do TONS of stuff with a fluid-based puzzle game like this, so I think this is super solid. And congrats on finishing your first Ludum Dare!
This is really brilliant! The way you slowly introduce concepts was perfect, no tutorial needed! But DAMN did it get difficult!! And the fact that you have actual goals to optionally try to summon? Chef's kiss! The graphics and audio were great and set the mood fantastically. All around fabulous job, I really love it!!
This is super well executed! Super simple to grasp the concept, but really fun to plan out your route as the planks go floating by! The higher spawn rate on health kits when hurt was a genius move, it makes the game feel SO good to play! Awesome work!
Holy crap what a masterpiece. The main menu was already promising, but the "Hurry up, bro" button sealed the deal. I didn't realize I could pan down the path for the first few waves, but afterward I had fun placing ramps for the snowballs to get mad air over the buildings. Loved the snowplow too! Trying to keep my karma positive was challenging as every person on the slope had a deathwish. Awesome game!
Awesome game! I know it's just a homage to Vampire Survivors, but I honestly almost found this more enjoyable! Super cool that you were able to use Ludum Dare to reverse engineer something!! Excellent work :)
Super cute game! The art is so adorable and jumping around is super fun! I love the fact that it's designed with time trials in mind! Definitely agree with other people that it takes some time to get used to the controls, my click accuracy when the camera is moving is really bad. Although I bet it would feel really good with a controller, aiming the direction you want to jump in would be super easy! Either way though, awesome entry!
This is super adorable!! Took me a few tries to get familiar with it but I had a really good time once I did! It's super fun yeeting the fireballs off the screen :P Awesome work!!
Super cute game!! I could TOTALLY see this as a full game. I love that it's an idle-ish game but with some real-time strategy to it! Love that you could get items and level up, and that the allies got stronger and (seemingly?) equipped items! If you wanna go all out, it would be cool if there were shops and stuff to go to in-between dungeons. Loved it so much!
Really interesting game! I love the concept of trying to keep people alive. I think it'd be interesting if the peasants could move, and maybe you could influence it a little (building houses + ushering)? At the moment it felt like I was just running around the map trying to find someone to stay attached to, but it'd be cool if the game was like: build a little hut -> go find someone to bring back to hut -> give hut holy water for while you're gone -> go find more people to bring back/find wood for more huts -> repeat. You could even have things like churches and stuff that heals your peasants while you're out. Regardless of what's swirling around in my head, this is still super cool! You definitely have an awesome spell system in place, so I'm hella impressed! Awesome work :)
THIS IS SO CUTE! I love the ghost's design :blush: It took me a second to understand what I was doing, but I enjoyed it once I figured it out! Really awesome job :)
This game is AWESOME! I will admit I played the HTML5 version until level 7 thinking "holy shit this game is so hard" before looking at the gifs you recorded and realizing I had been playing at 5x speed XD But the concept is fantastic, the execution is perfect, and the art is super cute (reminds me of Zelda)! Excellent entry :)
Ok I did not expect to get to round 20! That was seriously enjoyable. Great humor too!! I really appreciated just being able to zap every enemy onscreen simultaneously every millisecond, not many games let you get that crazy strong XD I also loved that the spawn circles just keep pumping out enemies, it's great the way they pop into existence and push the others around :P Great entry!!
Really cute game! Absolutely loved the fact that the art is so adorable, yet my children just got uglier and uglier :sob: I also love the meteor it's so cute :blush: I found myself hopping back and forth between working and trying to date someone to mate with before the apocalypse and damnit if that's not the most realistic game I've played this Ludum Dare. Awesome work!!
@cerno-b Thank you so much for playing! You got really far! My best ever is 71, but the game gets brutal around Section G. There just isn't enough information to know where the jellies are, and the shells only help so much. I might tweak it after a bit, but for now I'll iterate on your other feedback! I'm going to work on the color palettes today, and I'll tone down the water opacity so it's easier to see. I'll also see if I can have the left indicators change when a row is done! Thank you so much! <3
@ebbdrop Thank you so much!! It's definitely quite random, but there are some tricks to finding them! Start by revealing the safe rows, and then follow around the seaweed you find to get a good idea of what areas are unsafe. If you found some shells, you can test out some dangerous squares and then drain the water afterward! Once you think you have a good idea where the jellies are, flag all the squares you can and submit!
@oxnh Thanks so much! Yeah I was actually surprised that it almost feels like a completely fresh game. Being able to take calculated risks is an interesting mechanic for a puzzle game to have. Thank you so much for playing!
@david-york Thank you so much!! <3
@constantine-pallas Thank you! I think the next thing I want to add is a mute button and palette swapper, so you can lock-in your favorite palette you've unlocked :P Also, the shells can spawn anywhere, so they could be blank OR have seaweed underneath. I may try to change that, I'm just not yet sure the best way to do that. Thanks again for playing!!
@who Thank you so much! I lost many hours of sleep so I'm glad you appreciate it! :sob:
@save-sloth-studios Thank you! Minesweeper-like is my favorite genre :P
@bentekiller Thank you! Yeah after coming back to it it's pretty darn difficult right at the start X - x Maybe I'll try to squeeze in a practice mode with only a few jellies :thinking:
@rhewid Thank you so much for the kind words!! I too have hit many innocent jellies ; _ ;
@sharploaded @chocolat-endive @sozey @superpokeunicorn @kemp @archangel Thank you all so so much!! <3 If you want to see my thoughts on adding a new rule to make the harder levels more enjoyable, check my next post down!
@sn4pi @frozenfire92 @quite-good @nardandas @chaoscomposer @bentglasstube Thank you all for playing!! I really appreciate all the words of encouragement and enjoyment <3
Also @chaoscomposer I had never heard of DemonCrawl but OMG I just looked it up and I may have to get it XD
**~~ So I want to talk about LUCK, and how adding a new rule to the game might make later levels much more enjoyable. ~~**
I've had a few ideas so far (a few of which @superpokeunicorn also thought of)! The main issue is when there are several jellies grouped up, there is NO way to determine what is where, other than digging randomly and hoping to start eliminating blank tiles, or revealing jellies so that you can drain and then not worry about them during submission. To sum it up:
**Issue: A horizontal cluster of jellyfish can be virtually impossible to resolve, even if you take a few guesses.**
It's important to note that a vertical cluster of jellyfish isn't too much of an issue, because we have the row indicators. Also important to note that revealing tiles around a known jellyfish is almost never worth it, because it will always be at least a seaweed, which doesn't give us any new information to help resolve anything. I think we want a solution that encourages uncovering potentially dangerous tiles to gain info.
**Potential Solutions:** **A. Column Indicators:** Like the rows, numbers along the top telling how many jellies are in every *column* **B. Jelly Spacing:** Jellies will never be directly adjacent, vertically or horizontally (diagonals are ok) **C. Starfish:** When a seaweed is near 3+ jellies, it is a starfish instead **D. New Ability:** Something like drain but focusing on info gathering. Maybe it lets you place a 3x3 grid somewhere tell you how many jellies are in that area? Maybe combine it with **A** and let you place an indicator on a column of your choosing?
Now I'm personally leaning towards **C**, as it takes what would otherwise be useless seaweed around a known jelly, and turns it into a GOLDMINE of info. Finding seaweed next to a jelly would mean that there can only be 1 more jelly in the 7 remaining tiles around it! 3 jellies lined up would also become incredibly clear. Or maybe this works well with **B**, as you could safely pop the 4 tiles adjacent to a known jelly.
I can mess around with the other ideas too, but this is all still just swirling around in my head! Anyone who reads this, please let me know what you think of these solutions, or present your own! I think the first couple levels feel really good, but there is definitely something missing to make the harder puzzles fun and less of a luck-of-the-draw situation! I really do want to strive to make this game the most enjoyable experience possible. Thank you all for playing!! <3
@yulotomorrow Thank you so much for playing!! It's definitely a bit unfair haha, sorry for the trouble! Also if by red jellyfish you mean the shells, they unlock the "drain" button so you can lower the water! I should probably make a tutorial to help explain some of the rules! Thanks so much!!
@harrison-dunn Thanks so much! Sorry about the volume, I'll at the very least try to get a build with a mute button out in the next few days! Also yeah I was originally going to try to have the shells disappear when you collected them but I couldn't get it to look right, I'll see what I can do! Thanks so much for the feedback and for playing!
@damonwakes Thanks so much for playing! I agree with your feedback on the shells, I think I'll try to make them disappear from the board when you collect them, leaving behind a blank space/seaweed/etc.
@johanhelsing Holy moly you got INSANELY far!! Definitely the highest score I've seen so far! Totally agree with all your feedback, and I'll try to get saving/loading done for the post-jam version :P Thank you so much for playing!!
@chocolat-endive Thank you!! I really appreciate the kind words. And I'm really glad you like the music :)
@bentglasstube Haha thanks so much! I'll have an updated post-jam version done soon with some new stuff to play around with! Also, it goes on forever! However, I never really expected anyone to get that far, and the difficulty gets insanely unfair. I'll try to fine-tune the difficulty curve later in the game, to make it actually enjoyably infinite. Thanks again for stopping by!
@whirlguy Thank you so much! I'm really glad you love the music! Yep I made it all myself! I kinda just started throwing the mechanics together and was incredibly surprised when it was enjoyable to play! I'll be making some changes for a post-jam version, so thanks for the feedback!!
@wuppos Thanks so much!! I'm so happy you like it so much :blush: Thank you for the feedback aswell! Keep an eye out for the post-jam version! It will have some new stuff to play around with!
@aeveis Thank you so much for playing!! And I'm glad you like the color shifting, it took me multiple hours to implement :smile:
Awesome game!! The art is adorable and I agree that music and sound would make this game pretty perfect. I think you should capitalize on the "becoming overpowered" part of the game. As @billnotic says, it gets repetitive once you become unbeatable, so maybe add a way to prestige once you hit that point? Start over with some new goodies and harder enemies? Keeps emphasis on the fun part of the game! Either way though, fantastic game!! :)
This is such a great game! I've come back to it a few times now and it continues to impress! The art and music are stellar, and the strategy is so much deeper than I anticipated. Excellent entry!!
Really great game! The art was super cute and I loved how you introduced all the mechanics :3 Awesome entry!
I'm seriously concerned with how difficult this was for me... I may not be as human as I thought! Honestly though great little game :blush: The voice acting was honestly pretty spectacular too! Stroking the fish caught me so off-guard XD Awesome entry!!
Super great game! The art is fantastic and the animations are hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing every time I picked someone up and they scream for like half a second XD Not to mention some of the level design is worthy of a chef's kiss! It's definitely an awesome game with awesome aesthetics to back it up :)
I did it!! That was super fun! That slime boss just got scarier and scarier the more hurt it became. Also I loved the design of the familiars, they're so cute!! Great entry and definitely has potential to be something more!
This is so cute! :3 the dog is adorable!! I would definitely adopt :) I only got to round 4 before my girlfriend convinced me :P Excellent entry!
Super awesome! I was definitely disappointed when it ended, I had just gotten all the mechanics down! But dang if you expand on this idea it would be so fun! The combat felt super fair once I learned the timings, and dodging behind the zombie to kick it into the hoard was the most satisfying play I've been able to make this Ludum Dare! Fantastic work :P
Straightforward to learn but really hard to master! I got about a minute and a half as my best time. Super solid entry, the graphics and music are great (I love the shadow creatures)! If you decide to expand, I think upgrades would be super fun to play around with! Awesome work!
This was so cute!! I love the art, the music was perfect, and the ending was cute :blush: Not to mention the puzzles were perfectly ramping up in difficulty! I would love some more of this, to be honest. I want to know more about these characters and why the cactuses are so evil :P Awesome work!!
The mood of this game is ON POINT. Love the art (sexy reaper:flushed:) and music! The voice acting and writing was stellar. The "blah blah blah blah" on the intercom XD
In terms of actual feedback, I think it'd be really cool to hotkey everything. If the ports were bound to numpad keys, submit to spacebar, and scything by holding shift + the port's numpad, I could see myself just watching an endless stream of events and manipulating everyone's clocks in a streamlined way. Gotta improve the workplace efficiency!
Overall fantastic little game :)
EDIT: OMG I just saw the submission link! I sent one :P
Wow this was an incredible experience! I was not expecting that ending WOW. The art and music were fantastic, overall an insanely impressive work! Fantastic job!!
I know it's still early on but I just wanted to say I love the art so far! The gems are big and chunky and the effect when you break a block is clean! Also the style of the background is really cool, almost like a painting! Keep it up!
Yeah I agree with @appoxgames there are some really cool puzzles in here!! Also the music set the mood perfectly. Honestly had a blast playing this one, awesome job!!
Super cute game!! The art is so good :blush: "why is it duck shaped?" had me dying laughing XD Overall a fun little adventure, awesome work! :D
Awesome game! I was able to make it to about 160s. I love the concept of expanding the map as an upgrade, I thought that was really cool. Great entry!
This was really cool!! The twist at the end :flushed: It was great that there was some strategy involved to grabbing some people, then activating an extinguisher, then grabbing some more, etc. I had to redo a few levels and still couldn't save everyone! Awesome job!!
Fun little game! It's actually a great measure of reaction time! The art is cute too :P awesome job!
Super fun! Stressful, but super fun! Doing math under pressure is not easy!! Awesome entry :)
Ahhh, well played lmao. I was excited to play too, the graphics are cute ; _ ;
Omg this game is actually outstanding. I thought it was just gonna be a joke but it ended up being super enjoyable! I had to count out loud while the random numbers were being said haha. Thank you for this entry :)
Oooh I like this! A little too difficult for me at 1AM but I'll come back to it later for sure! Love it so far :)
This game is so cute, I love it so much!! The art, the music, the premise, the npcs... It's all soooo adorable! Excellent work as always @aeveis!! Here's my high score :3
Relay.png
I did it, I fixed the universe! Cute little game! Maybe a little slow at the beginning, but I liked the text. Great entry!
Really fun game! At first I assumed it was gonna get impossible really fast, but I was surprised how it feels very fair even after a minute or two. Awesome job!
Wow this is really polished! The graphics are really cute and the gameplay is super enjoyable! Awesome work :)
Cute little game! I like the upgrade system a lot! This could be so much fun with a bunch of content and secrets to find, like in Vampire Survivors. Awesome job!!
Woah this is seriously fun!! I love trying to get into a tight and stable orbit. My best so far is 35GB! Awesome game!!
This is so cute! Definitely difficult at first but I got the hang of it pretty quickly! This would be a super fun game to be able to play with friends. Awesome game!
Omg I love this so much! The level design is really good, I love how getting the star on some levels feels almost like a puzzle. I found myself trying to beat levels in the fewest clicks possible too. Awesome game!!
Oooh very interesting concept! I liked trying to figure out what foods made what tastes; doing it in a limited time was more difficult than I expected! The art is also really charming, awesome work! :)
Ahh I loved it! Super cute graphics and super ambient music! The puzzles were perfect, and the dialogue was amazing as always!! The end screen with Aya playing the flute, so cute!! Amazing job Yulo!
This is so fun!! Super hectic, and definitely annoying when it switches around, but dang it's super enjoyable! I love the music too! Awesome game!
Pretty cool game! Love the graphics and audio. The only issue I had was that I couldn't tell when the turn would end, so I wasn't sure how many waypoints to place each turn. I ended up mapping out the whole lap and then pressing space until I got there!
As other people have said, the controls are a little too slidey for me. With that said, really cool concept!
Thanks for the feedback guys! Sorry about the first level, it's not really self-explanatory. Before you can jump, you gotta flip the lever in this little alcove by pressing 'X' after getting next to it. That will make the music loud enough!
Tip.png
To @amras0000,
First and foremost, I want to thank you for your post. It's overflowing with valuable feedback and it's clear to me that you care about my game, which makes me super happy! In addition to that, I want to apologize. I'm 100% aware of the mind-numbing artificial difficulty present in my game. There are things that I would have done differently if I could do it again (many of which you pointed out). I fully intend on fixing the glaring issues, I just haven't gotten a good opportunity this week to sit down and work on it. I'm actually greatly considering committing to building this into a full game, but we'll save that conversation for another day.
One important note, level 4 is the final level in my game, so I increased the difficulty by decreasing audio windows (this admittedly was overkill). If you felt fairly comfortable with levels 1-3, that's more along the lines of what I want the game to play like.
Okay, so lets get to the good stuff.
- **Rhythm leeway:** I actually do have a system in place that builds an "audio window" around volume spikes, allowing you to make noise a little before or after a beat and be safe. It's probably a little too small right now, so I'll play around with increasing it.
- **Falling onto floors:** I think the best course of action is to rework the whole falling-onto-metal mechanic so that you must *fall* on beat to land on beat, rather than falling at an arbitrary time in order to land on beat. It makes no sense as it currently stands. I'll also be making the audio windows bigger for those types of levels, mainly level 4.
- **On the topic of checkpoints, HP, etc:** Ok, this is a big and pretty important bullet point because it has to do with the game's future. I played around with the idea of making levers checkpoints, or staying flipped after dying, but I decided against it. In order to remedy the intense frustration that comes from almost beating a level, failing, and having to redo an incredibly annoying build-up period, my idea is to take what is currently one level, and stretch it to 2-3 levels. The levels currently try to do too much. Level 1 teaches you almost all the mechanics in the game in a single screen. Level 2 tries to teach you how to drop onto a metal floor, but only after a time consuming section of walking on beat, which is annoying to redo. It's overwhelming, and I agree that there should be checkpoints between these key learning points, but I think that checkpoint should be the elevator itself. I'm not sure, please let me know what you think!
- **Death screen:** Yeah I went a little overboard on this one; I totally agree with your critiques. I'm going to change it to be super quick and low impact, so you can get right back into the action.
- **Dash:** Agreed, I'll change that!
- **Input focus, pausing, and saving:** I've noticed the input focus issue, and it'll be one of the first things I fix. But I'll also use this bullet point to talk about pausing and saving. I had intentions to get pausing done for the compo, but I couldn't work it in in time. I'm also going to work on saving, but that's more along the lines of something to get done after these other issues get resolved.
Please let me know if you have any more questions or concerns! Thanks again for the great feedback!
I love the concept! I think an inventory system might be the natural next step for the game, as well as music, but what you have is pretty fun! I love the graphics too.