Vladadamm

Pizza Rush by rjerez192 2023-05-15T17:51:04Z ♥ 0

Very clean game for a compo entry, quite complete with good minimalist pixel art and nice music.

As others mentioned before, I think using W/S for Forward/Brake and A/D to tilt would have felt more natural. The controls lacked a bit in reactivity for that kind of game as in the bike's acceleration is way too slow and feels too linear, going from 0kmh to 30kmh takes something like 3s when it should be 1s max (bikes & scooters are usually great at accelerating as they're light). When you lose speed cause of an obstacle or a bad jump, it is too punishing as it takes forever to get the speed back up. The bike's weight seems to be too much on the front side too, so you always have to tilt with A to counterbalance it.

Still, other than those points, great compo entry.

Haunted Heights: Tower Delivery Service by ludumdarevd6xh 2023-05-11T02:30:36Z ♥ 3

The graphics are impressive, love the starting area with the cat. The audio is quite solid too.

The mechanics of platforming & throwing boxes that have different effects is quite interesting, but it's not clear at all at first as to what each kind of box do and the game is too short to make much use of those different mechanics (though that's kinda normal with jam games).

Also a small nitpick but the bricks in the foreground tend to hide the platforms that are near the side which is a bit annoying.

Dicey Deliveries by AsmadiGames 2023-05-10T14:54:49Z ♥ 0

It's unusual to see board games in LD. I feel like the Game End condition could be reworded as there's a point where you'll eventually run out of options. I ended up with a score of 5 (didn't manage to get the 1 up) on my first try. The game is easy to understand, setup and play though it requires a lot of dices (I didn't have enough so I used a spreadsheet as board). One complaint I'd have is that it feels a bit too luck based in the later resupplies.

Aunt Emmas by gagapete 2023-05-06T22:20:30Z ♥ 3

Cute little game, I especially like the graphics with detailed pixel art (though it lacks some small animations) and trying to make a pretty garden is quite fun and chill.

As others said before, the pathfinding could be improved as our character often takes the long path to interact with stuff. The day cycle with handling orders is too short and quite stressful with the phone ringing up every few secs and pretty much not being able to do much other than round-trips between the phone & caskets. That doesn't fit that well with the chill gardening experience.

B.H.M.D.S. by Christian Zommerfelds 2023-05-06T21:46:15Z ♥ 1

I like how even if you went for the simple 'deliver stuff' interpretation of the theme you did it in an original way with (2d) space physics and made it some kind of puzzle game. It's a bit hard to figure out how every black hole will influence the trajectories when there's lots of them, but eventually with trial and error & finetuning I still managed to complete all levels. The art style is simple but it works well with a good level of polish and details.

As for possible improvements, I think it'd have been nice to have some kind of proper "Win" screen when we complete a level. ALso the time it took for the process to go up to 100% was a bit high, making you have to wait a lot of time once you've placed things correctly.

Return to Sender by Crompo 2023-05-06T20:04:33Z ♥ 0

Very interesting puzzle mechanics. I like how you used the theme as a setting and implemented an original mechanic from that, gives a game that feels very different. There's a good number of levels for a jam game and even if the difficulty curve is a bit steep (but well, there's never the time to do dozens of levels to do something smooth in jams anyway) it was still fun trying to find the solution of the levels.

If you decide to continue this game, I think it has good potential to expand with a lot more levels and a few extra mechanics, it could give a nice puzzle game.

Akoban by KoB-Kirito 2023-05-04T07:16:01Z ♥ 2

I've succesfully delivered Monokuma to the little girl, the party is saved (or maybe I've just doomed it ?).

Artwork is nice, I like the backgrounds a lot, a bit less fan of the character design/style though it's personal preferences. The story was quite wholesome with a little bit of humor.

One thing I've found that I think would have been nice is to have some background noise sfx while searching for the package as the narration tells us we're searching for the source of a noise yet that noise is missing breaking immersion a bit. It would also have been nice to have a bit more interactive elements as there's only some in the first area (with the trash can, mailbox & gate).

Overall, a cute short narrative game.

A very ini tiny mini mail turtle game by Boeruchan 2023-05-01T17:21:26Z ♥ 1

I like the cute artstyle and the little bit of humor in the bad ends, the "Mail turtle is actually a tortoise" line made me laugh. Game is short but that's okay.

As others, I first won by pushing the log into the cat (then did it the proper way).

I also discovered another funny bug, if you try to move towards a bush, the coordinates of the turtle in the code did move. So, you can walk through bushes and the sprite will 'teleport' once you go out of the bushes, allowing you to go to places that aren't intended or skip stuff.

mailturtlebug.gif

Poppycock's Perfect Packages by Blaah Blaah 2023-05-01T16:39:24Z ♥ 1

I love the graphic style, it is minimalist but very clear. The game over screen is also pretty clean.

The tutorial was great to explain the controls and mechanics in a simple environment rather than being thrown directly into a big level.

It's a kind of gameplay that I think would have been great with mouse controls (though that's not exactly doable with Pico-8), as it can be a bit slow/clunky at times to move around the cursor with arrow keys. Another thing regarding the controls but more QoL is that it would have been nice to be able to remove arrows even if they don't match the cursor color.

I think it would have been nice to have a real menu with a level selection screen rather than having to go through the pause screen to switch levels. And maybe some easier levels as well as the game tends to end pretty fast if you're not micromanaging perfectly.

Overall, it's a solid entry for compo. Great job.

The Overlooker by Geckoo1337 2023-05-01T05:37:50Z ♥ 2

A rather simple game but that goes straight to the point. As you said in the description, it gives a bit of a Papers, Please feel with it being simply approving or rejecting letters in a dystopian setting. There's a good difficulty curve with various kind of rules that makes you have to adapt each day.

The graphics work pretty well with the setting and have a simple but identifiable look, with the game being pretty easy to understand.

One thing I think could be improved is that it can be a bit (too) stressful as you have no pause in-between days + you lose a significant time at the start of each day just reading the new rules. Having a small screen that tells you how good/bad you did during the day + what the rules are for the next day would be nice.

Also, the approval/rejected sound doesn't work for the first few letters in the later days.

10 sec to witch pain by AleksandarDev 2022-10-10T22:00:08Z ♥ 3

The environment art works pretty well, the controls were good and there was a decent amount of levels, however I felt the level design didn't make much use of the 10 seconds reset so it came up more as frustrating than interesting. Level 2 is a good example of that as it's one that requires you to take it slow and to look at it differently but the 10 seconds loop makes you wanna rush things. Also, as some said before, the mouse sensibility is a bit too high.

Panopticon by Blue Pin Studio 2022-10-10T15:17:16Z ♥ 1

It's a rather simple and minimalist game but it works well overall with some nice polish and the right amount of particles. The music felt very experimental but fitting with the minimalist art style and also quite complex, sadly however it only plays for the first level and not the further ones, meaning you kinda lose your only time indicator in the further levels, making it a bit hard to time things up.

As others mentioned already, it really lacks some form of ammo counter somewhere as it's not intuitive at all that you're limited in ammo and it reloads every 10s.

The gameplay was still quite engaging and fun, and I was a bit disappointed when I reached the end that there weren't a few more levels as the game is very short. Also, in the later levels it felt a bit hard to find the key and for the last level I had to go through the whole level as the corner the key was in was the last place I checked which was a bit frustrating as I was just going around not really knowing where I was supposed to go.

VÖLUSPÁ : Twilight of the Gods by Mathoslink 2022-10-10T04:42:34Z ♥ 2

Interesting concept for a turn based rpg. I liked the addition of a small narrative/lore bit around it. The music was very good overall and the art style was pretty fitting too, though it lacked animations for the characters (a simple idle animation + attack/cast animations other than the runic glyphs vfx).

The balance of the different puzzles/skills is a bit off imo. They're way too hard the first times as you've got no tutorial and so will end up losing your first run. I've found the Heal to be the easiest one, the Attack one is ok overall but the Shield is way too hard to do in the legit way, so I ended up just spam clicking on every rune as there's no penalties for errors. Also, I'm not sure the Shield is a good option as the heal is stronger than the damages you'd get from a single hit. I think some extra depth to the boss fight with the boss having several moves and a way to anticipate the boss' next move would be a nice addition so you'd want to use the shield whenever the boss is gonna do a big attack, heal whenever the boss won't hit your hard, etc...

It Comes At Midnight by Legolula 2022-10-07T01:36:15Z ♥ 1

Gameplay-wise, it's a rather basic escape room puzzle kind of game with only a few simple puzzles (ex. door asks for numcode -> find numcode -> open door), but the 10 seconds (though more like 20 in real time so it wasn't too short I guess) loop bring a nice twist on it. The kitchen door puzzle was also a nice use of the loop.

The graphics are imo the strongest aspect of the game as even if the graphic style itself is maybe not the prettiest or the most complex, what stands out is how each room not only has quite a lot of details but also its own distinct look, making it feel real. Things like the door view and the end screen also were nice addition and the screamer animation was great.

The audio is a bit on the minimalist side as the ambiant music is quite discreet but it's a good fit for a horror game + the screamer build up works very well. But I felt there were quite a lot of SFX missing that could have added a small extra touch, like interacting with the book, opening fridge, trying to open a locked door, etc... as that would have made the audio a bit more lively.

I think the Graphics and Audio contributed very well in putting a horror mood. However I felt that the core mechanic of a loop kinda defeats the horror side, as you're only surprised by the screamer on the first loop, then you know what to expect + the loop not only forces you to try to speedrun things without necessarily taking the time to take a look around much but also means you'll repeat things over and over and spend a lot of time in known area, leaving a lot less room for surprise.

Also, few bugs I've found : - You can move while on the "Wake Up screen", even interact with doors and all. If you were to memorize everything, you could basically just do the whole game without waking up once. - You can resize the sliders in the settings menu (by dragging their left tip), don't think that's really intended.

Age of Chips by MaiMai 2022-04-21T17:55:05Z ♥ 1

I was really surprised to see a full blown RTS attempt in a jam with every major mechanic of a RTS there. Resources, Buildings, Upgrades, Unit management, Pathfinding, etc... A RTS is one of the most complex genres as there are a lot of necessary systems and it's impressive to see you managed to do all those in 2 days. The art side worked quite well, with the UI looking good overall and quite a lot of models (the bases, different units, rocks & resources).

However, as the game is way too ambitious for a jam format, there are definite issues. First, the pace and balance of the game in the jam version were very off, with everything being too slow, the resources too limited, etc... Also, some features were lacking such as minimap or audio, and a lot of minor UX things. The lack of a real AI for the enemy also removes a great part of the fun.

Smog by PKZinpo 2022-04-21T16:57:29Z ♥ 1

It was short (though it's a bit normal in compo), but everything feels really well put together. The art is minimal but still shows everything needed, the story is short but complete with the narration giving us enough info to understand the story. The audio side was very minimal but still matched the story. Overall, great job on the narrative aspect of the game.

As to the downsides, it lacked a bit in interactive parts so the QTE part at the end felt a bit out of place (imo, either more interactive parts would have been needed but hard to do in 48h, or it should have been fully cinematic). There were also some visual glitches on camera transitions (iirc, mainly while going up/down between the house and bunker).

Inevitabone by Leandro4002 2022-04-21T16:42:34Z ♥ 1

Reminds me quite a bit of Undertale's boss fights with the playable area in a small rectangle while the 'boss' is looking at us from above. It was a nice idea to have the death taunt us which added quite a lot to the narration, and the use of UI was great. The progression in difficulty is nice with different kinds of obstacles and patterns, and the music that was handcrafted to match the level design works quite well overall.

The controls could need some improvement, as movement is quite floaty with too much inertia and we can't control how high we jump, which aren't good for a game where we need to make precise movement and react fast to dodge things. On another point, I felt like the score didn't bring much as nothing seems to improve score except how long we last. It being displayed in the playing area felt a bit weird and not the most readable as it could hide a bit of gameplay. I think it would have been better located next to the Health bar below the playng area.

Secret Mission: Datastorm by Sentmoraap 2022-04-20T08:29:04Z ♥ 1

*(tested on [Stream](https://www.twitch.tv/Vladadamm) 3 days ago )* It's always interesting to see entries with games done without an engine. I like the neon vectorial graphics, it's simple but it works well.

The overall idea of mixing a racing game with shmup and bullet hell is good and has potential, though I feel like in the current state there are too many game mechanics mixed at once as you've got 2 different movement mechanics mixed together (classic car controls & move in the square controls) + the chasing that forces you to focus on movement and go fast. Add to that bullet hell mechanics where you need to dodge stuff in addition to staying on the track and shmup mechanics where you destroy the turrets (which also cancels the bullet hell stuff if there's nothing to shoot bullets anymore) with different weapons and a 'Turbo' gauge to fill to have a bit of bonus. This not only makes it that there's too many things to manage at the same time for the player, but also that some of the mechanics feel a bit lackluster. There's still quite a lot of work put in that entry, just to implement all of these, etc... all this with no engine to help. So, gg for that.

Loop by Geckoo1337 2022-04-20T03:55:18Z ♥ 1

*(tested on [Stream](https://www.twitch.tv/Vladadamm) 2 days ago )*

A minimalist game with a single basic mechanic and simple graphics but that works pretty well overall and is very addictive. I liked the music loop a lot, though a small issue with it is that it doesn't loop perfectlym the s;qll sfx on the direction change was subtle, just audible enough to notice it if you pay attention but not loud enough to annoy you (that could have been an issue as you need to spam a lot).

I think I had only 59 or something like that during stream. I improved it a bit after 2-3 runs today, and with the current leaderboards high score not far, I had to try and take it. Managed to do 88. Then, I read the comments and saw that the leaderboards had been wiped and there was a 91 at some point. So I had to tryhard a bit more and here's a new record. LoopRecord.png @peringo Sorry, but your team has a new record to beat

@geckoo1337 Regarding the WebGL & Leaderboards issue, I also had issues on my LD46 game and it was due to the way I was making requests to the server. If you're using HttpClient ('normal' c# way to do http requests) it won't work in WebGL, and you have to use UnityWebRequests instead. Don't know if that's what's causing the issue in your case though.

Super Mowser Bros by Guilloteam 2022-04-20T02:25:07Z ♥ 1

*(tested on [Stream](https://www.twitch.tv/Vladadamm) 2 days ago )*

A well polished jam entry with a great reversed parodic take on Mario. The graphics are great, the music & sound works well (though the music loop is a bit too short & can get repetitive), the mechanic and core gameplay feel quite complete with just enough complexity. There were a few bugs (the nodes being out of reach and the "In Progress" destroyed sprite) & a lack of difficulty curve that were fixed in the post-jam version though.

Regarding the post-jam version, the addition of the difficulty curve was welcomed, though it could still be improved imo as right now it feels like there is not much danger in the first 10 minutes as you'd win time while Bario is still slow and then the tension would only pick up in the last minutes. That aside, the biggest area of improvement left is the UX as a whole. Some info is missing right now (koopas being better builders, turtles better fighters, etc...), the drag'n'drop feels a bit slow and the process of building things could use to be simplified (UI/UX wise). It's also a bit hard to keep track of Bario's progression while he isn't on the same screen as us.

The Endless Night by Arivenzys 2022-04-11T13:05:19Z ♥ 1

An impressively polished game, right from the menus that are already well detailed & animated. The graphics are beautiful, with quite a lot of details in the town, some nice animations (love the concert ones). The music is also good and goes together with the graphics in setting up a great mood. The gameplay has enough complexity with a lot of different elements and mechanics (hunters, priests, graveyard, concert) in addition to the main 'delay the night' mechanic.

The biggest issue I had with the game though was that it can be unclear sometimes of why you lose, as I sometimes lose while having neither of the night/manor bar nor the light/guards bar full. I don't know if it's due to some bug or if there's a hidden night timer. Another smaller issue is that the manor doesn't stand out enough from the other town buildings, it could use in looking more sinister/darker so it can be instantly spotted.

One Percent Left by Phobos 2022-04-11T12:33:30Z ♥ 0

I'll start out with the good things. There's a lot of work on the graphics and it shows. The main mechanic of the charging cable was a good idea and the level design showcase several uses of it.

Now, for the negative, the biggest issues are by far linked to that main mechanic. First thing, is that the game is hard mostly due to the controls. They could gain a lot from being simplified, as it is not really intuitive at all to have 2 buttons to do a single action (plug the cable) as well as some auto aim if you're in range of an electrical socket. There's also some bugs and things that are unclear with the charging mechanic. There's times where the cable would somehow seem to be linked to a far away socket? and also times where you're plugged yet you're still losing battery (and die).

Under Siege by lcrabbit 2022-04-09T22:17:52Z ♥ 2

*(tested on [stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450111897) yesterday)* It's a good minimalist strategy game, simple but it works well. The balance was surprisingly good for a jam game, online leaderboards were also a nice addition as it encourages replayability and finding an optimal strategy. The art style works well with the simplified strategy gameplay, and the music is pretty chill. There's also a good gamefeel and level of polish overall with the necessary feedback (audio, screenshake, etc...).

For the downsides, there's a bug where you keep your last run's resources/units upon restarting, as well as the "Make Settlement Button" not enabling itself once we reach the 80 wood needed (requiring us to unselect then reselect the area to do it). The whole right side of the UI doesn't have use outside of the tutorial leaving quite an empty space. Gameplay wise, my biggest gripe was that we lack of a good overview on the units in the game, how many units are there in each settlement, how many units are being queued in the castle, etc... and having to select each area one at a time to get those important infos.

Before Impact: Meteor Fantasy by Garywiss 2022-04-09T16:27:34Z ♥ 3

*(tested on [stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450111897) yesterday)* An impressive game in terms of content with a rather big map, quite a lot of upgrades/weapons, enemies, the altars, spots with greater enemies, etc... The graphics are nice with a consistent art style and a lot of assets produced there, the music and sfx all work well and the music change upon the meteor coming closer adds a lot of tension near the end. The end cinematic was nice too. The game feel is good too.

It's really a great game overall, so most of the 'bad' things I'll point out will be nitpicking and things that are more if you want to continue the game after the jam.

First thing was that it might not have been clear enough in game that you are limited to 3 weapons & accessories and that info could have maybe been conveyed on the level up screen. Second is that I felt it lacked some kind of really dangerous enemies with a different behaviour, some kind of miniboss. I think the fanatics could have been used as that, as they are supposed to be the main enemy from the story, rather than being weak enemies that get one shotted.

Find, Fling, Repeat by chilljams 2022-04-04T03:08:19Z ♥ 1

Rather simple mechanics but they all work together and fit very well with the theme. The art style while minimalist looks good and the 'blinking star' animation on the background was a nice touch. The game overall feels well polished for a compo game, and the main menu is a perfect example of that with lots of details (animated buttons, the asteroids, black hole & character doing their thing on the sides) making it very lively. As to the less good stuff, I've found a potential exploit as in you can push the asteroids away by rushing into them (not sure that was intended). Also, the sound effects felt a bit too loud, especially compared to the music.

last summit by kindly 2022-04-04T01:41:58Z ♥ 1

The limited moves mechanic was an interesting idea and the game overall was quite well executed. I liked the title screen a lot, simple but great for teaching the controls. The overall game feel is nice for a compo game and I was a bit surprised by the rather big number of levels. As to the downsides, the power-ups weren't intuitive at first and I initially thought they were enemies/obstacles due to them having a red border with sort of 'hair', just like the red rectangle obstacles. I think that some color coding could have increased the game's readibility, with a color being used for all things bad/that kills and another color for the character and everything 'good' (flag, powerups) rather than have everything red. That way each element would pop out more to the eye.

Don't Touch It! by KirKami 2022-04-03T22:15:54Z ♥ 1

It's a fun idea (at least if we forget the current situation). The graphics and animation is rather impressive for a compo game. One thing I feel could have been improved are the texts as it lacks a bit in variety once you've played once or twice already.

Cursed Unicorn by gord10ahmet 2022-04-03T20:22:47Z ♥ 2

It's a fun game, I liked the short narrative intro, the graphics and the overall mood.

As for the downsides, the audio side feels a bit empty with only few sfx and it would have been nice to have a small music loop or some ambient sounds. The balance felt quite off as the Faster Attack upgrade is kinda always a better option compared to the Heal. Also, as the difficulty curve comes at a stop after 5-6mins while our character still levels up, after a bit of time I got to the point where I couldn't lose anymore as I was killing enemies faster than they were spawning, delaying the death of the unicorn undefinitely. I'll just assume that after a long time, baby unicorn would become big and we wouldn't be able to hold it anymore, it'd end up wandering away from us and ultimately die from the spirits, so its death is still unevitable.

Still a solid compo entry overall.

MENDEL'S DRAGONS by YouK 2021-10-21T19:52:35Z ♥ 1

Very nice game with cute graphics and a well polished gameplay, with everything well explained. I would have liked the king to have 5 different requests rather than asking 5 times for the same kind of dragon, which ends up being easy once you've managed to get the first one. Anyway, it's quite an addictive chill game, and now I'm trying to create the 'perfect' dragon that has full lowercase genes.

Radiopathic by Tsunscreen 2021-10-21T18:58:17Z ♥ 1

Was expecting the game to turn to horror at any moments, especially after the night appearing suddenly at the beginning and the cracked phone screen. The idea of a quite chill road trip with the narrative being done through the radio is really good. Though it felt a bit long as the environment was too repetitive and there was no real interaction except switching radio stations and following the road.

Star Miner by Misfire_dev 2021-10-21T18:06:27Z ♥ 1

It's a small fun game with a surprising amount of mechanics/content for a 1 person team and still rather well polished overall. The graphics are quite nice, the audio you picked fits very well too. Having procedural generation, platformer mechanics, drilling mechanic, jetpack, rogue-lite upgrades, a tutorial, ending cinematic, etc... So, GG on managing that much. If I had to point some downsides to the game, the jetpack would have felt better imo if we had a few more frames before falling back to the ground (the fall being slower) as I often ended up releasing it too early expecting not to fall near instantly and be able to go a few pixels further using the jetpack momentum. Also a bit more of game length could have been nice with a bit more upgrades and bigger levels (but hard to do in 72h).

Wonky Brew by civmaniac 2021-10-21T16:18:44Z ♥ 2

A nice and well polished game. It feels rather complete, with everything being pretty intuitive (except the way of preparing some of the ingredients) and some nice polish like the color switch after an error or failing to do an ingredient. The graphics are very good and cute looking, and clearly one of the game's strength. As for the downsides, I think what lacked the most was some kind of global progression indicator to know whether we're close or not to finishing the potion. Also, small detail but could have been nice to be able to fasten the intro's dialogues by being able to skip to the next dialogue line early as the time for reading felt a bit long.

Variable Volatility by Kimbsy 2021-10-21T15:08:04Z ♥ 1

Liked the narration and simplicity of the game, though the controls felt a bit messy, C-H and A-B aren't exactly keys that go well together/feel intuitive. Also I'm still quite unsure if there's an end to the game or if it's just trying to keep it going as long as possible after you unlock the ph.

Volcano soother by MaximeG 2021-10-20T23:50:31Z ♥ 1

It feels a bit like you tried to be too ambitious there. Vehicle physics and controls are a very hard thing to do well, and the ones here aren't bad considering the time frame they had to be done within. The game would benefit from some indication to where to go (minimap or arrows to indicate the direction ?)

BALANCING ACT by anchorlight 2021-10-20T21:58:54Z ♥ 3

Tested both the Jam version (for rating) and the last one (0.19, for feedback).

Loved the menu, very good looking. The soundtrack was also quite good. The jam version was a bit too bugged (player character meeting invisible walls, the stuck on level 2 bug, etc...) but those were corrected in the later version already. The jenga tower idea can be very good along with the elevator transitions (which would need some texturing/polishing still), but I feel like those ideas are a bit underused in the game atm, as there aren't any elements that really remind you of it in the actual game whether that be in the level design or the art direction. Also the patch note upon launching game feels a bit unnecessary and it would be better to have a button in the menu to open the patch notes rather than always having them open first. On another side, I don't know if that was intended but the game slow down a lot for a few seconds before the loss animation starts which feels nearly as if the game was freezing.

Unstable Ship! by Ganny 2021-10-20T21:19:30Z ♥ 1

It's a small fun game with a good idea, could also work very well as a multiplayer game with a bit more complex ship (though would have been pretty hard to do in a jam). The pirate sprite and animations are quite funny too. But the difficulty feels a bit too random, and some score system or a metric like time remaining is missing too as I didn't know if there was an end or not until reaching it.

Contrary by Nekopi 2021-10-20T21:02:17Z ♥ 3

The art style and overall mood is very good. I liked how the unstability was transcribed in the game mechanics throughout a reduced window of time to block/attack/jump as well as the narrative.

As for the main downsides of the game : - I felt like there was a lack of feedback at times, as I was sometimes unsure whether I would hit enemies or not of if they were hitting me except by looking at the health bars - At times my focus was more on the bottom left corner and the UI to get the timings right rather than the game itself, and it's not easy to focus on both at the same time. - Having both attack & block share the same time window to use make it so you have to either choose one of them, which ended up always being attack in my case (as it works best). Would have felt better to have them available at different times to encourage using both. - Difficulty curve was a bit off, with the first boss being rather hard as you are still learning the game while having to get the right timing for attacking. And the following ones being a lot more easier as you would be able to attack freely.

Pills by shellofagirl 2021-10-20T19:46:50Z ♥ 1

Deep game about the risks of drug addiction. You'll have to take pills if you want to reach the end of a level, giving you a momentary joy (joy of having completed the level). And as long as you continue you will have no choice except taking more pills, until you'll inevitably die of overdose. And of course, once you're dead, you're just dead, there's no Play Again. The only solution is to resist the temptation and to not play the game and avoid falling into the addiction. At least that's my take of it, maybe I'm overthinking it. Else, I especially liked the graphics style and the change upon taking a pill, the platformer controls and physics felt good. Some audio could have been nice though, as well as a bit more length (with maybe some more narrative in it)

Totally Normal Pong! by DevNugget 2021-10-18T22:53:43Z ♥ 1

Was curious about your game as I've also done a Pong with some twists for this LD. Your game felt good overall, with some good polish for a Compo entry. There were some nice details put in it like the screenshake, or the blinking when the scores get inversed. The audio overall was good, and the graphics while very minimalist work well too. For the downsides, I feel that the paddle/side swap felt too sudden and some kind of warning would be nice to prepare for it. Also, it was a bit disappointing that the AI doesn't have a changing paddle which could have added to the fun, as currently the AI is too predictable.

Pong-Anoid by Zapturk 2021-10-18T21:40:50Z ♥ 1

Was curious about this game as I've also made a Pong with some twists for this LD. The Pong & Arkanoid gameplay ended up going very well together imo. Local multiplayer games aren't always easy to test in jams, though I guess I managed this one not too badly. The game mechanics felt good overall. The graphic style works well, same with the music and sound effects (though the loop might get a bit repetitive overtime). For the downsides/possible improvement points, as others said before, an AI could have been nice to play alone (a Pong AI in itself isn't hard to do, though what's hard is to balance it right and not make it too strong/bad). Another point might be the 30 Bricks win condition seems quite unlikely/very hard to do compared to the points win.

Missed Spelling by Gryhyphen 2021-10-18T18:51:57Z ♥ 0

The concept is pretty unusual and I didn't expect that at all. Despite the graphical style being very minimalist, the animations did great in making the game look. The music was also quite good. On the downside, I think the biggest issue was the game's length, as the concept is pretty simple, quite repetitive and it's supposed to be a scoring game so runs have to be somewhat short imo to repeat runs and try for high score. I kept at it until making a dozen words, then I let the game run in background to reach the end faster, before the game crashed after ~30 words I'd say. But reaching that point felt very long already, and I don't know if I was close or not to the end.

Euro Drunk Simulator by Tardif Adrian 2021-10-18T18:13:13Z ♥ 3

A simple but fun concept. The graphics were good overall, with a lot of different assets and some nice details like the direction signs. I didn't have any performance issue on my side but I've got a rather high end pc though. The music in the end was way too loud compared to the rest of the game. Also, it felt a bit like the "drunk" idea was underused with only the 'controller drift', and some drunk visual effect with the view being twisted or something could have been nice to emphasize the drunk part.

JUNK NUNS by KyMakesGames 2021-10-18T17:21:26Z ♥ 1

A very well polished game, while the gameplay might not be too innovative it is still very well done and I don't have much to say on that side, it's easy to understand what to do and how to do it and quite fun to play. The graphics were good too, and the audio you choose fitted well with the rest of the game. Only negative point I could find is that the 'Photo' at the end would need some kind of message/warning for the player to stop doing anything as I initially thought we were supposed to click on the phone to take the photo, only to end up messing everything.

Unstable by Nemario 2021-10-18T16:38:43Z ♥ 1

I'll be honest, the concept is good and can make up for a fun top down shooter game around the idea of gameplay randomly changing. But as it currently stands there's a number of issues with it. The circle in the upper left corner being life was all but intuitive and I only understood it after reading the comments, there also lacks some feedbacks like hitting sounds (the particle splitting effect is too slight), hitboxes didn't feel good (for example bullets goes through the enemies' head), some obstacles block you (boxes) while others don't (trees or rocks) with nothing indicating you that in hindsight, etc... Also, the best score feature didn't work and was stuck to 0 even after doing several runs.

Potions Of Yore by aplite 2021-10-15T14:03:52Z ♥ 0

Simple and interesting concept which could work well for a chill game, but having a rather tight timer doesn't go well with the mechanic imo. I'm also joining with the others above that some music or sound effects could add a lot to the mood.

Betatester by ThiefViolinist 2021-10-13T22:23:18Z ♥ 1

QA Report : "F\*\*\* this shit, I'm quitting this job."

More seriously, making a game that is voluntarily 'bugged' and that uses those 'bugs' for gameplay definitely isn't easy and there were some good ideas there. I especially liked the infinite box mechanic which could be used to solve pretty much any problem. For the downsides, the door bug pretty much had no indication (outside the game's description) on how to fix it, which made it kinda hard. Also having some sound effects (even some generic royalty free stuff while still opting out of audio) would have been nice to give a bit more atmosphere to the game.

Grenade; Unstable by Emkani 2021-10-13T21:39:23Z ♥ 1

I liked the concept a lot and the graphics were nice. Though it's a bit disappointing that the different grenades had no effects on the platforms below enemies, and that only the yellow ones could be used to beat them. It would have felt better if we had both the option of making the enemies fall through the knockback grenades as well as being able to break the platforms below them with the red ones. Also I've found that jumping on the enemie's platforms and running into them was a quite effective tactic to make them fall, which didn't feel like intended gameplay.

COME ALIVE! by Angela He 2021-10-12T23:36:54Z ♥ 1

Very impressive entry, bit sad that the LD version was bugged for me (ended up locked twice after going to sleep, with no interaction possible in the hallway after it). The itch.io version though fixed that as well as most of the minor issues I spotted, so I could finish it.

Loved the art and was surprised by all the content available (and with the post-jam version being even more complete). All the small effects and animations on the texts, menus or even the phone messages animation gave it a really polished feeling. The characters and dialogues felt very good and natural, the rooms felt realist and were well detailed. I also liked how the story went overall.

If I had to point a downside to the game though, it would be the ending which felt very disappointing as the prank don't really fit what we went through imo. It would have been fine if everything we saw was from Cyan's POV, but as we had the scenes from A's point of view it can't match. Only explanation would be that those were just Cyan dreaming, but then others would have no reason to mention the closet either (which Cyan didn't even see). And it also doesn't explain the post-jam's kitchen thing (nor the bathroom 'screamer' though that one could be random irrational fear from watching spooky movies).

On another note, the parallax/3d effect on the toilet stalls looked a bit weird at times.

Pistolman by lekaleksay 2021-10-12T20:55:49Z ♥ 1

The graphics were nice, I liked especially the design of the characters which were quite funny. The menu music matched well for the game (though a bit too loud), but it's a bit disappointing not to have a background music within the game itself. The gameplay itself felt lacking though as the controls and camera made up for most of the game's difficulty and there overall was a lack of feedbacks.

Shiine by Ace17 2021-10-12T19:59:09Z ♥ 0

Couldn't test your game sadly, had the following error upon launching the .exe : Fatal: Can't create SDL window: Could not initialize OpenGL / GLES library

If you have any clues on what could fix that, then I'll happily test your game.

Babel by Gaming Night 2021-10-11T01:36:40Z ♥ 1

Managed to get 28 points. Quite simple but easy to understand and fun game. Some of the items spawned and sound effects were quite unexpected. The minimalist and chill atmosphere worked very well.

On a downside, while the transition phase between 2 'games' was very well thought, it's not obvious at first that the numbers next to the apples are the score and it doesn't give a lot of time to read it and it's easy to miss it if you don't pay attention.

Manoe's Quest by Mahjoub 2021-10-11T01:15:45Z ♥ 1

A really impressive Compo entry. Loved the audio, visuals and all the small details like the intro, color shifts and other animations upon switching between the phases of gameplay, landing a ball in a net, etc... The puzzle gameplay and the base mechanics felt good, and the experience was quite satisfying with enough levels to explore the mechanics.

To nitpick a bit, the only issues I could find are the lack of a final 'score' at the end (did we get 100% of the bonuses ?) and the difficulty curve which isn't perfect (some of the later levels are easier than earlier ones, not counting the 1st 'breakable' platform one which is normal as it's a tutorial for a new mechanic).

You Gonna Cry? by Legolula 2021-10-11T00:12:27Z ♥ 0

It's a quite silly small boss fight game, the art style, animation and audio work all quite well together. Having to deal with switching between two kinds of attacks also added an interesting twist to the gameplay.

Some issues though : - It's not quite intuitive at first of where you should hit at first and how the 'boss' works, whether you should try to hit the boss or the small bugs first. - There's a bit of lack of feedbacks here and there. For example, it's not quite clear when the tears do damage or not, unlike the slaps that have a sfx upon hit. - UI doesn't scale with screen size, so there's some overlapping issues when not playing in full screen - There's a red circle rolling around which I didn't really understand what it was doing there (maybe a placeholder game object you forgot to delete ?)

Lovecrafting by Concker_88 2021-10-10T23:41:39Z ♥ 3

An impressive game. I loved the pixel art animations and also the way soundtrack builds up over the run along with the difficulty curve increasing with timers. All of which gave a great ambiance to the game.

I don't have much to say about the cons of it as a jam game as the game loop feels complete and overall well polished. The main issues would be that not all victorious runs lead to what I feel like is a Victory (summoning a named god) and that you don't really know if the unnamed monster is supposed to be a good end or not. This could be fixed by having all possible combinations of Traits leading to a God but that would require I guess at least 2-3x more Gods (which would be undoable in 72h though), or having some kind of hints (other than looking at the compendium) to what choices might lead or not to a named god.

Now, seeing as you're thinking about possibly extending the game further, here are some thoughts about that : - The gameplay as it stands feels a bit too simple and repetitive for a complete game that could be played for a few hours (it's totally fine for a jam game that is tested in 30mins max though). Some additional game mechanic would be welcomed to have more variety in the gameplay. - A current side goal I guess is to fill the Compendium with all gods. So, replayability has to be adressed as dozens if not hundreds of runs will be necessary. You could add maybe rogue-lite elements to it (ie. you start by summoning lesser gods first, get upgrades through the runs, then summon greater ones), maybe a story, or whatever you feel like might do the work.

Cursed Duality by harusame 2021-10-05T19:22:02Z ♥ 3

Original concept, it reminds me a lot of some of the games from LD41 as the theme back then was "Combine 2 incompatible genres" which would fit this game perfectly. It's a bit hard to manage both the platforming and match 3, but that's what makes the game fun. The graphics are really nice, and I liked the diversity not only in backgorunds but also random effects (rain & all).

A few small issues imo : - There's a delay between a 'cube' disappearing from the top half and it appearing in the bottom half. - The camera change/halves size change are sometimes too sudden. - While the in game music and sfx, it's a bit disappointing not to have any sounds in the menu or the 'tutorial' intro. - The stomp wasn't easy to use, as you have to hold Down before pressing Space + if you're next to a wall it triggers wall jump. Having a simple button press for stomp would have felt better, and would allow for more reactive stomping.

Shelter in the Deep by qfeys 2021-05-17T22:07:49Z ♥ 0

That's a solid compo game. A simple concept but with just enough complexity and details to make it a nice experience. The balance between managing the reactors, forges & living areas felt good, though drills seemed to have less use as there were kind of buy 1-2 horizontal ones to allow building new vertical ones and then keep those indefinitely. Having to constantly rebuild new areas to make up for the ones that got corrupted kept me active during the whole game, though it could take a bit repetitive once you setup a several vertical drills as you could keep with a strategy indefinitely (maybe. Graphics were good, and it was fun seeing all the people going on with their lives in the mine. UI was overall clean & easy to understand. The audio loop matched well with the game (though it could get a bit repetitive after 10+ minutes of game) but it lacked a bit in sound effects to make it more lively.

On another point, there's a small issue with drills not getting corrupted, so if you forget to stop an horizontal drill then it will keep going on forever. And you can also put several drills behind each other with one of them being useless that way.

Deep Sea Tycoon by Udo2 2021-05-17T20:48:21Z ♥ 1

That's a quite complete tycoon game, especially considering you did it in only 24h after doing compo. You managed to implement all the bases of management/tycoon games and have it in a playable state which is impressive.

There's a lot that could be improved obviously (one can manage only so much in 24h), as the UI overall : - Most tabs would benefit from being 'full screen' rather than a small window in the middle as there's lots of infos that need to be displayed, especially in Assets. - We can't scroll in Accounting and if tables there gets too big we can only see part of it. - Not being able to see things you can't purchase at the moment in Acquisitions sucks as you can't plan ahead if you should save money for the next big thing to come. Some graph there could also be nice. - Managing platforms isn't very practical as you have to click on one to perform the basic actions and know whether it is going well or not (how much oil does it bring ? where's the drilling at ? is there crew on it ? etc...). I know there's the blue check icon that shows whether it's mining oil or not, but that's not quite enough imo.

There's also some balancing issues as in debt being too unforgiving (some credit system could fix that), or having to pay to stop a rental contract once the state of the platform is too low (shouldn't contracts be on some fixed duration ? or maybe with a monthly/yearly renewal and no selling of them).

But well, again having a lot of issues is normal such a game would require a lot more polishing and features that wouldn't be possible to implement in so short time.

RK XK by NiKaDra 2021-05-17T17:28:08Z ♥ 1

Having all those different mechanics of platformer controls, 4 tools all having their own use / mechanics & also some procedural level generation with different biomes is quite impressive for a compo game. The audio part was also very good with several music themes & sound effects (even if shovel & brush ones are missing) that matched well with the nice pixel art.

For the downsides, biggest issue is the lack of a clear objective or some challenge/threat as the game feels too sandboxy. You could keep going deeper forever atm with no gameplay difference between the first level and the 100th one, and different strategies (ie. cleaning whole level vs rushing) making not much of a difference. The C4 also feel a bit useless as you already have way better tools for digging that are way less risky. A smaller issue is that the auto-drill at the bottom of the level is unexpected at first as it would need some kind of indicator (line or anything) and shouldn't happen upon drilling through the floor of the level rather than just stepping on it.

Overall, a really good compo entry, gg.

Deep Space by Neowedge 2021-05-15T21:49:02Z ♥ 0

Interesting game with a good gameloop. Discovering the sector, beating enemies & finding shops before moving on to the next sector is a solid base.

Balance felt a bit off though, as game didn't seem difficult (went up to sector 30 before essentially giving up by stopping buying offense upgrades to focus only on pure shields & hyperdrive), I never managed to trigger hyperdrive (my mostly attack & flat shield build might not have helped with that) and the hull upgrades & repair were bugged. Some of the upgrades were not obvious at first (ie. the shield recharges), and their consequences not always obvious in numerical terms (all the cooldown stuff). Additional info on the UI would be nice : A recharge bar for the shield, having a way to know the current attack speed, shield recharge rate & recharge amount, hyperdrive charge rate, etc... On another point, i think it would be nice if the different areas in a sector were linked between each other, to reinforce the idea that you need to go to point A to have point B appear.

Red Archer by BadPiggy 2021-05-15T00:48:02Z ♥ 1

A very original take on the FPS genre. Shoot, dash to the enemy and gain extra air, dash away, slow-mo, shoot, etc... This core loop can be really nice, has some skills required (aiming, dodging incoming projectiles, etc...) and could be used in a lot of ways.

The main mechanics were really nice and felt quite satisfying though it could be perfected on some points imo. I'm not a fan of how shooting work by starting to draw the bow once you click, and would feel better imo if you started drawing upon holding the mouse button & release the arrow when click is released as that would allow to start the animation while aiming instead of the current aim - click - wait for animation. Also, i felt like slow-mo was too mandatory to stay in the air, slowing the pace a bit too much. Another point would be having no cooldown or whatsoever on dash & slow-motion that can be easily abused and make the game too easy.

Graphics also are pretty original, having an old school fps vibe (doom & such) while still keeping its own visual style. On the audio part, sound effects worked well but the music was too simple & repetitive.

Still an unique game with a lot of potential if you plan to continue it. With some more polishing on the game feel and some diversity on the gameplay through enemies with different mechanics, maybe 'platformer' parts using the main mechanics (using several enemies in a row to go from point A to point B), etc... it could make for a good commercial game.

Drop.N3T by Dawnscream 2021-05-14T23:43:06Z ♥ 2

First game I truly tryhard this LD while having pleasure doing so. Took me a lot of time (over 1 hour) to finally finish it, only with a time of 3:36 though.

The concept might be a bit simple, but it's very well executed. Having dash, jump/double jump & fall faster in addition of simple WASD movement allowed for a lot more variety in gameplay as you have more control on your run and can control the pace when needed as well as allowing for more diverse level design, between parts where you can fall fast, ones where you should move horizontally a lot with jumps & dashes, other where you should slow down to pass at the right moment, etc... and the level design nailed that.

On graphics side, it feels really polished especially with those colourful hand-crafted levels. Though, there might be a bit too much on screen & bloom overload at moments (especially at the beginning of 3rd part with the red lasers, red fans & pink 'cube particles').

The drum & bass music was also very good, and having the music switching between each part of the game helped a lot in giving each part their own feel.

For the downsides, it lacks some leaderboards as the game is perfect for speedrunning. I also think it could be nice to split each part into whole separate levels as it's a bit long & hard to finish it all in one go (+ it allows for adding new levels easily if you want to make a post-jam version).

A really good game overall that i could see as a commercial game with more levels, online leaderboards, etc...

Cave Expedition by ABplayz 2021-05-14T21:59:36Z ♥ 0

There's some issues with the game : - Optimization (game is way too gpu heavy, 3.5GB weight is too much, visual glitches, etc...) - Lacks an ending (unless i missed it though i searched a bit after getting the 20 coins) - Gameplay is a bit too simple/lacks interest imo

But you still managed to ship something for your first time doing a game and in a 48h jam, which is something far from easy. And some parts of the game are done well : - Controls felt good - The minimap worked quite well - Cave tunnels aren't the easiest thing to pull off imo

So, congrats on that and hope you'll do better for your next game.

The Last Place by sebirit 2021-05-14T21:03:23Z ♥ 0

Liked the visual style a lot and the audio worked really well in giving the game a nice chill mood. Only small issues would be shadows not rendering far enough & maybe a lack of contrast below the tower.

For the rest, it's too short & kind of lack of a game aspect (even as a walking simulator). A puzzle or narrative game could work really well with those graphics & audio imo.

Deep Mining Cookie Clicker by tiffi_gaming 2021-05-14T20:34:45Z ♥ 1

Basic clicker but it works well and offers a complete gameplay loop. The 'level' mechanic brings a nice twist to the genre and changing the background color upon going deeper was nice. Some more upgrades among other things would be nice to have, and more use for batteries (as they soon become useless due to the automatic X upgrades).

Tunnel hunters by Pete 2021-05-14T20:00:15Z ♥ 1

Interesting concept and the combat system works well, though the game lacks some polishing and balancing. Heavy attack doesn't seem worth it, game is also too rng-dependant (damage, evasion, items breaking or not, etc...) which makes it easily frustrating when we're being unlucky and the difficulty curve depends mostly on rng (whether items upgrade or break). Also lacks a way to restart after dying (unless i missed it).

Roots game by BoClow 2021-05-14T02:44:07Z ♥ 1

The growing roots 'animation' is pretty well done, and seeing the whole roots network at the end gives a really nice view (though I would have liked to also see the plant) and gives the game a nice chll vibe.

Main mechanic of the root growing & spreading + controls is good, but the game lacks a bit outside of that, imo. A bit more complexity would be needed : obstacles, powerups to grow more, etc... anything that gives variety to the gameplay. Also, if the game is a scoring game, it should be clear from the start & we should see the score during the run to know whether we're doing well or not, making it easier to improve, rather than just on the end screen.

Into The Mind by CsOmega 2021-05-14T01:19:42Z ♥ 2

I have seen several going deeper into one's mind games in this LD, but that's the first one where you actually go literally deeper into the brain. The graphics were very good and give a really nice mood to the game.

The gameplay could need a bit more polishing. Movement feels a bit weird at first and shooting requiring quite a long charge + stopping you afterward isn't satisfying. I ended up continuously charging a shot to have a 'normal' movement (as you move the same speed but in an uniform way while charging) and be able to react fast to enemies if needed which kind of defeats both the needing to charge mechanic & the jerky movement. It also lacks in difficulty curve imo, as you can go really far (went to 2k before stopping) once you find a good strategy with no added difficulty except a bit of darkness that stays manageable. I also wonder what the yellow 'chromosome' stuff that we can pickup does outside slowing us for a few secs. I assumed at first they would be some kind of powerup but saw no result even after picking a dozen of them, and they don't give any score either.

Also a small bug with the score's text when we destroy several enemies at once, the text size won't reset to its initial size and can end up a lot smaller or bigger.

Deep Sleep by Link270 2021-05-13T23:18:09Z ♥ 3

That's an original take on the theme and things like child abuse aren't something that's often tackled in games and congrats on not doing it too wrong (it's far from perfect but that's a very sensitive & complicated topic that's hard to manage).

The visuals were really good, and the mostly monochrome style & abstract environment really nails the dream feel.

There's a bit of lack of feedback & hints on some of the puzzles though (exit behind the door in 1st level & having to put 4 of the moms in the jail).

Deep Sleep - The Sandman by VeryGenuineCraze 2021-05-13T22:12:43Z ♥ 1

Interesting game. The graphics work pretty well with their flat design.

Main issue with the game is the lack of objective (ok, we should keep the guy asleep, but is it a scoring game or a 'surviving' until 8am game ?) & a difficulty curve as the game lacks in challenge once we've understood how it works and gets repetitive pretty fast. Still a good game for compo.

20.000 LIGHT YEARS deep in THE SKY by Arivenzys 2021-05-13T20:31:52Z ♥ 4

A really well polished game, with a simple and short gameloop but The art style is really clean & polished, and the planets are unique (though they would give nightmares to astronomers/phycists). Each planet having its own musical theme was a nice thing. Having a professional voice actor also helped a lot on the audio side (even if PADG's pronunciation in english isn't always good).

On the downside, I felt like the option to choose between 2-3 planets lacked interest as we have no incentive to use more logistics to go to a further planet and also don't know beforehand which planet is the most likely to provide the best result for our run (unless we tryhard the game and know them all). So, the closest one is kind of always the best option (less risk for same rewards).

Falling Dwarf by Garywiss 2021-05-03T23:40:59Z ♥ 2

An interesting take on dungeon crawlers & rogue-lites.

Art style reminded me of Evoland's 3d though with the characters & enemies being 2d sprites. The starting area with the tutorial panels & shop was also nice (even if the surrounding forest was bit repetitive), and it was a nice idea to switch between sidescroll in the town and more topdown view in the hole. The perspective was quite weird as if things were distorted, but made it as if you were losing your sanity as you were going deeper.

The core gameplay loop of going deeper, looting & killing enemies and going back to town to upgrade felt good. Though the 'rocket' phase of going up was cool and surprising the first time, it became boring pretty fast especially as I went deeper and it became just a long phase of waiting. Also, the slimes were fine as first enemies, but they didn't present much danger (even their 'upgraded' forms we meet further down) as they're slow, their aggro range very short and your attacks stun + knockback them enough for you to combo them.

The music wasn't bad, but it didn't match well with the setting, as the electro & spanish bits felt unrelated to the game.

Also, found a bug by dashing against the hole's walls which make me go out of bonds & fall next to the hole.

Selkö by Doot 2021-05-03T22:23:21Z ♥ 3

That was a chill & relaxing experience. Really good graphics & mood. I loved how all of the different fishes had different behaviors (pufferfish blowing up, some fishes being attired by the light, others fleeing it, etc...), which added a reason to interact with the environment as you would wonder between the 'puzzles' phases. It made the ocean feel truly alive.

I knew about the Ancient Astronauts theory, but that was first time I heard about the Sea Lions' Ancien Divers Theory. It definitely made me laugh when i saw the ruins at the end.

Here's some small nitpicks i could find : - The "Dive" being a button on the title screen isn't obvious as I was clicking randomly on the screen at first. It would benefit from having a small animation while hovering it or something to indicate we can interact with it. - Lacks an indication that we can left click to make the light flash for a second. I know the fishes blocking at the beginning are there to teach that, but first reflex is to point the light at them as you've got no way of knowing left click has an effect. - The whale's sound saturates a bit.

Hell Diver by Sorangon 2021-05-03T21:22:26Z ♥ 0

Simple but effective. It's definitely very far from being the most original game in this ludum as it's basically a simple fast-paced arcade shooter/platformer game. But you guys more than nailed the feel of such games and the gameplay is the most satisfying ones i've met in this LD so far. The music was nearing perfection. The mysterious opening loop instantly catches your attention, then we've got a smooth transition into a more aggressive track which fits the action packed gameplay, same when we die, a smooth transition and a new loop that fits. The sfx also were good. Art was nice, especially the vfx that helped a lot giving the game its juice.

There's a few thing that could have been improved though : - We don't see the floor below & have no way to anticipate where we will fall. It means we can fall on top of enemies and take damage with no way to avoid it, which is frustrating. - Most SFX are badly spatialized and come from either only left or right side, which sounds weird. They should come more left/right but still be heard on the other side, especially if the sound is close. - It lacks a leaderboard. Leaderboards are kind of a must have for scoring games, and are not hard to implement, even online ones as tools exist to make it easy (here's one i've used in a previous LD : http://plassion.com/rank/ takes few mins to setup & implement).

Still a very fun & satisfying game regardless of the small issues.

Dream Diver by Stephen Scott Day 2021-05-02T22:42:56Z ♥ 0

Interesting idea with the concept giving strong Inception vibes.

I liked the menu with the voice over & cinematic intro, it had a nice vibe. Also, the slowing down effect every time we went deeper felt good. Being able to go inside the trains or in the small tunnel below the tracks was also nice to make the environment not too small. The 3d stickmans also ended up working pretty well to show the crowd in a minimalistic way with gameplay-related info being instantly visible through their colors.

For the downsides, the way we lose sedative upon going depper into the dreams felt a bit weird or bugged, as you would sometimes lose all your sedatives upon going further or even getting to -1 sedatives, at which point you wouldn't be able to do anything except wait for that dream to finish. The train station is big yet only a small area of it is being used in the gameplay, and it would have been nice to search around the target instead of finding it instantly everytime because all the stickmans are in the same place anyway. Also, it felt like there were no max range for throwing sedatives at people, so we could just snipe around without moving (except for getting powerups & munitions from time to time). Also, a nice thing in the menu could have been subtitles as a lot of ld jammers aren't native english speakers and it's easier to understand a text than a voice.

Still, an interesting game with a nice mood & graphic style, though the gameplay is a bit simple.

Deeper Sea by LRVStudios 2021-05-02T21:26:36Z ♥ 1

The idea of switching between different views with separate gameplay is original but definitely too ambitious for a short game jam, as the issue with having 3 whole different parts is that you have too much to do & not enough time to polish anything.

I feel like the game would have been better if there was only the side view, with simple buttons to shoot left/right & the shop directly accessible, and it would have played way better and could have been polished a lot more. Because as it stands all of the different parts of the game are a bit lackluster. The moving around part is one that felt best, shooter one lacks any danger & ends up being simply left clicking at immobile target, the inside is just an extra useless step to get to the shop. Again, switching between the different views is not a bad idea per se, but making each part interesting takes time and can hardly be done in a jam. If you keep working on it and grow into making each part fun/satisfying, with ie. more complete shooting mechanics than simple left click, being able to move around the submarine to reach the different parts as well as the shop, etc... it can all work well together.

Also, some bugs/issues : - We can see the border of the background texture if we go too left or right. - Ship's position isn't locked on z axis and if you try to go through a trash sphere (the ones we have to shoot), the ship will get further on z axis and won't be able to pick trash anymore. - There was a crew bar in the UI which i didn't understand what it was for (number of crew in the ship? but what's their use?) - The sell trash button wasn't made clear enough that it wasn't a buy upgrade button like the others. I wouldn't put it in the middle of the others button to make it clear it's a different thing.

So, overall the main issue still lies in the too ambitious concept for a jam, and you couldn't do much better without simplifying it.

Perciflette by UnagiV 2021-05-02T00:57:04Z ♥ 2

Surpris de voir un jeu full textuel en français dans une Ludum.

Je suis pas forcément un habitué des aventures textuelles, mais la narration me semble bonne dans l'ensemble ainsi que les petites touches d'humour et refs ici et là. La progression était correcte et les 'énigmes' paraissaient logique. Les illustrations sont jolies aussi (surtout le 'démon' de l'intro).

Les pbs que j'ai rencontrés (et dont pas mal ont déjà été mentionnés par d'autres je crois) : - Le bug de l'écran noir dans la salle du troll quand on a la chevalière mais pas l'épée. - Les pbs de porte qui sur le visuel est à gauche, mais est à droite dans les choix (beaucoup de missclick à cause de ça) - L'absence de l'inventaire (c'est pas obvious au début qu'on garde les items après la mort sans) + le décalage des textes qui en résulte avec du vide à gauche - L'intro un peu trop lourde (de même dans une moindre mesure avec le fantôme du chevalier) et peut-être que la backstory pourrait être un peu plus étalée sur le jeu de façon discrète plutôt que lâchée d'un coup au début. - Un peu long d'avoir à refaire tout le chemin systématiquement à la mort(heureusement on a pas à re-récupérer les items sur le chemin) - Devoir aller chercher le bouton "Suivant" quand on a pas de choix tout à droite est pas pratique alors que tous les autres boutons sont centrés. - Suggestion comme ça, une carte ça pourrait être bien pour se repérer parmi les salles déjà explorées.

Un jeu sympathique et plutôt propre pour une aventure textuelle.

Orange Diver: The Great Drown by Prostone 2021-05-02T00:04:01Z ♥ 3

Tested your game on stream earlier : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1007665137 (1:45:00 -> 1:59:30 roughly)

Feedback done on stream (from what i can remember, could be incomplete) :

**Positive :** - Having to keep a diver alive while you're moving around with a submarine and he's attached on a rope was an original idea. - Graphics are nice overall, it was nice seeing all the sharks, medusas, octopus etc... going around. It really gives a good mood. - The water becoming dark we go further + the change in audio after the 200m gave a nice atmosphere change. - The menu illustration was simply beautiful. Congrats to the artist.

**Negative :** - There's a bit of a dissonance between the setting of the unconscious diver & having to go deeper. Bringing him back to the surface from the depths would make more sense (though not fit the theme). - There's a lot of sea life, but they have no actual impact on gameplay except medusas. It was kind of disappointing. It would have been interesting to have to dodge sharks Also, having a bit more variety of fishes could be good (though it would have been complicated in 72h) with different fishes at different depths (ie. sharks & small fishes near the surface and octopus and the like deeper). - Keeping the submarine alive is kind of easy compared to the diver. - Death sfx doesn't fit the mood much. - End Screen comes out from nowhere and is bit out of mood.

Escape The Employees by Benjamin Leroy 2021-05-01T23:12:47Z ♥ 2

Tested your game on stream earlier : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1007665137 (0:35:00 -> 0:59:30 roughly)

Feedback done on stream (from what i can remember, could be incomplete) :

**Positive :** - Graphic style works well overall. Animation were good. Walls changing on the different floors was also a cool detail. - The setting / story is quite fun. - The use of Bins as 'Chests' & Vending Machine as Shop were nice idea that fit perfectly in the office setting. Same with the different objects becoming weapons : Pens, Computers, Briefcase, etc...

**Negative :** - Theme isn't really implemented, only "deeper & deeper" is going down the floors of the office. - It lacks in progression curve overall. Difficulty doesn't seem to change the further you go. There's so few upgrades. Overall balance suggestions : More upgrades, smaller and cheaper : Attack Damage, Attack Speed & maybe Move Speed upgrades, costing between 15-25 gold. No rooms with 3-4 enemies on 3rd floor, & more rooms with 4-5 enemies on floor 0. Higher chance of looting gold & lesser chance of looting hearts. So that you actually get to buy upgrades & they help you against an harder difficulty near the end. - Enemies spawning next to you when entering a room can be unforgiving. - The melee attack felt useless as it had a way too big cooldown. - Attacks (among others) lacked impact as there was no audio sfx.

A fun game overall, though it has room for improvement.

ROOTS by TheGreenWorm 2021-05-01T22:27:46Z ♥ 2

Tested your game on stream earlier : (0:02:30 -> 0:33:00 roughly)

Feedback done on stream (from what i can remember, could be incomplete) :

**Positive :** - Nice mechanic & concept - Diegetic UI with the water in the root was a good idea - Nice mood overall - The roots spreading really looks good, plant growing looks good - Time trial mode once we've reached the end was a nice addition

**Negative :** - Progression curve is too slow early & too fast in the end - Lacks feedback to know how much 'flower' we've collected so far in a run - Strong roots upgrade is near useless as only damage source (green water) barely is a danger - Graphics (except root & plant) could be improved by being a bit more detailed - Root getting hard blocked by obstacles didn't feel good, would be nice to move slowly along them rather than being blocked because the angle isn't perfect

A really good compo game overall.

Dungeon Painter by IanTheBee 2021-04-30T23:26:42Z ♥ 1

I was curious about this game as i've made a game with painting the environment mechanics in a previous Ludum ([LD46 - Chromasphere](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/chromasphere])), and well I think you nailed it better than me there.

Moving on to the review, the controls & base mechanics were well implemented and have a nice feel. Graphics despite being simple & minimalist work well due to the particle effects, and the small animations on the character. Title & end screens were also pretty.

For the downsides : - As i think it was said already dozen of times, being able to spam without limits kind of kills the whole 'discover level' mechanic as we can just shoot everywhere to make the whole level visible. - The level ends weren't obvious until the later levels with keys as there's no way to know whether we're in front of the level's end or another part of the level. - It also lacked a way to know how many keys were needed to unlock the path to next level. - Boss starts attacking you before he first appears on screen on last level. Makes you wonder why you died, would be better if there was some sort of cinematic or other to warn you (the bipping sound of the attack isn't enough as you have no clue as to what is it at first). - On a last point, i feel like the game doesn't relate much to the theme. Ok, you could say you go deeper into a dungeon, but it's pretty weak by itself.

Still, a good compo game overall. Mechanics & game feel are good and if you decide to keep working on it after the jam, it's a great base that can be made into a bigger & better game.

Falling Bot by Phobos 2021-04-28T21:12:04Z ♥ 5

Really good job on the graphics, the amount of assets done is quite impressive and they all work together pretty well, with the changing color schemes as you go deeper being a bonus. Concept is a bit basic but works, and could make for a good mobile game. Audio though a bit simple does the work quite well overall.

For the downsides : - The fuel mechanic didn't feel useful as you have way more than enough fuel to clear the whole game without catching any fuel cans. Also catching the cans was too hard due to the horizontal speed being slow. - Laser mechanic wasn't obvious at first and it took me 2 runs to understand it (some indication of that in the 'controls' screen would be good) and it lacks feedback as to what can be destroyed and what can't be. It could be done through different colors depending on what the laser is hitting : Grey or transparent for air/nothing), red for indestrucible, yellow/orange for destructible (and with different sfx for each).

Also, on another point, i think Up Arrow to trigger both engines at the same time and hover could have been nice as an alternative to holding both left & right at once.

L1-S0N by Beardmage 2021-04-28T20:27:05Z ♥ 1

The artistic direction, audio & overall ambiance were really impressive. Gameplay mechanics were good, and the controls & character had a nice feel. Use of colors & bars on the robot instead of ui was also really smart, though the health antenna was not obvious at first (i'll come back to it later).

The downsides : - The lower fog disappearing after clearing the first level didn't feel obvious and i wondered for a bit as to where i was supposed to go. - The fog overall lacks a sense of danger, it's hard to know whether you're coming close or not to it, and the warning sign doesn't do a good enough job on that. Also i'd add some blinking or something to the health antenna while in the fog to highlight the damage & health, but that's nitpicking.

It's still a really impressive game for a jam, congrats on managing that much in 72h.

Donut Chat by Colletto Gregory 2021-04-28T19:16:42Z ♥ 2

Well, that's a particular game (or non-game ?). I'm curious as to what the original concept of circular platformer with this trippy background could have given.

Aurélien did a really good job with the music, i liked it a lot. Some of the choice options & text lines were pretty fun too.

On the downside, it wasn't obvious at first when we reach an end, and a button to get back instantly to the menu or start would have been good rather than having to go to the escape menu & restart.

Deeper & Dipper by misteurLeu 2021-04-27T23:32:04Z ♥ 2

Local Multiplayer gameplays are always hard to rate when playing alone. I guess the game feel would be pretty good while with a friend rather than having to constantly switch between keyboard & gamepad. The art style was nice, reminding me of good old-school flash games.

It was a bit disappointing not being able to place ladders on top of each other. Also, having music or a bit of sound effects would have been nice.

Small bug : You can place ladders/bridges in the starting area and they would be hidden by the background sprites (house, baseground wall) or the ground.

Trauma Elevator by Leonardo Coyado 2021-04-27T22:14:40Z ♥ 1

I like the art style, especially the elevator environment (and its door closing) and the character/enemies sprites & animation. The narration & elevator mood were nice, and the "Have you ever been stuck in an elevator ?" line made me laugh. Also, giving the option of infinite lives was a good idea for testing purposes and something too rare in jams.

Gameplay lacks some feedback though, especially when we either get hit or hit an enemy. The enemies being vulnerable only at specific times was interesting, though not obvious at first (could be corrected with proper feedback). Having a 2nd type of ennemy would have been nice too, to have a bit more variety in gameplay.

Here's some bugs too : - Audio lines don't stop upon skipping text and end up overlapping with each other. - Small visual bug at the door of elevator, with a grey line in front of enemies. Untitled.png

Lost Shrimp by Falcon_Lc 2021-04-27T21:35:15Z ♥ 1

Really nice pixel art and a nice variety of fishes, a nice visual mood (though sadly no audio). Game gets repetitive fast, though it would be complicated to add enemies with different mechanics or some mini-bosses, but it's complicated in 48 hours alone.

As said before, the controls aren't that intuitive, and moving with wasd on vertical/horizontal axis would have been easier.

Voyager 3 by Captain Nakou 2021-04-27T20:57:40Z ♥ 0

Not the funniest game out there as it lacks a bit of interactivity, but i was impressed with the quantity of content and the number of different ends (though i only did 3 of them). I'm curious as to how many words there are in the whole game.

The mood was quite good and the audio worked well in that, but it was a bit too repetitive and lacked in variation.

The text's speed in the intro was a bit too fast and possibility to skip them would have been nice. There's also quite a lot of typos in the texts.

Reminiscence by Curtis Pelissier 2021-04-27T19:49:05Z ♥ 2

Liked the concept and the mood, and the audio and character sprites (+ title screen) contributed to that a lot. Going deeper into your past was also a nice interpretation of the theme.

Here's some nitpicking : - The fire SFX at the end of the first level was either full left or full right in spatialization with no transition. - Level 2's first 'puzzle' wall is invisible due to grey on grey. - Character is not visible in front of 'doors' (seeing an outline or something would be good imo) - In game control indications for torch were not obvious imo as it only shows Right Click while short & long clicks do separate things. - Character walking animation felt as if the character was moving slow while the actual movement was faster. Maybe a different scale (bigger character & smaller levels) could fix that though I don't know how that would impact the visual mood. - A "Press any key" or similar could be added to the title screen.

Living Light by zubspace 2020-05-06T02:20:45Z ♥ 1

Fun little game, ended up tryharding it a bit too much to get that 1st place but nailed it with 568 after crowding a bit too much the leaderboards with 300-370 scores (a bit sorry for the ones who will test the game later and see my name everywhere in the leaderboards). Seeing what level you were in the High Score is a nice thing, as it can show the strategy used by players (slow and careful or fast and lose less points overtime), and it seems i was the only one going with the 'fast' strategy among the best scores.

Level 9 felt the hardest, as it's a quite small level crowded with enemies. Levels 11+ are too easy compared to 9-10 as the 'boss' isn't enough to add difficulty to the first levels for them to match the later levels. Corridors can be a bit narrow at times and the timing to pass through an enemy in some is too tight.

Keep Boner Alive by rubyleehs 2020-05-04T06:22:15Z ♥ 1

Well, that's the most unexpected interpretation of the theme i've seen so far. That 'settings' menu was also a nice addition and it added to the humor part of the game. As for the gameplay itself, it lacked some form of tutorial for positions as i'm not sure what a frog sit or sumo squat should look like exactly, but the ragdoll physics while quite hard (never managed a split) are still fun.

Magic In C by Ridderfar 2020-04-27T16:37:08Z ♥ 1

That's an original concept, though it's always a bit hard to rate 'non-games' in a LD due to the lack of real gameplay, but well game jams are still a great place to experiment.

Didn't stay until the end, only for around 10 minutes (the 'game' muting itself while in background didn't help with that), but it was still interesting to see how the music constantly evolves in those 10 minutes.

Innocuous Pong by MachWerx 2020-04-27T02:16:38Z ♥ 1

That might be the most unique variant of pong i've played. I like how the complexity in both controls and design increases with each stage of the game. Game feels very polished visually at both the simple 2d and the 3d at the end, the music is good. There's some problems 'by design' in the 4 paddles stages where if the ball goes to a corner to see which side it would hit first + to make the switch to replace the 2nd paddle for the corner after it has hit the 1st.

The Tome of the Ccaizhdi by Artur Hawkwing 2020-04-26T22:32:40Z ♥ 3

That's an original interpretation of the game, and the game having its own invented language makes it even more unique. Checked the files you had in your github as i was curious to learn more about it, and the language seems to be well built with its own grammar and a quite complete list of words (for a small made-up language).

Living Mandala by wdebowicz 2020-04-26T21:49:38Z ♥ 1

It's always a bit hard to rate that kind of entries as it's not that much of a game, but still interesting to see something different while testing a lot of games.

I enjoyed the mandala visuals a lot, though i'm not sure if my input actually does anything to the mandalas (except zooming a bit). If it does, then it's not very clear as to how breathing influences the drawing, and if it doesn't, it would have been a really nice feature to have, making each player experience unique.

Algernon's Flower by bentglasstube 2020-04-25T23:45:40Z ♥ 1

It was a nice idea to implement the theme through two things to both keep alive (rat & flower), especially for a 'simple' maze game as it makes it more interesting to play. Overall, graphics and audio are good for a compo game. I especially liked the title screen's animation.

There's some issues with the difficulty, the maze can be really hard depending on the random gen (items spawning in dead-ends with monsters blocking the way, or only few possible ways that can easily get blocked) and the snake is a bit too mean (it should wait more before rushing again instead of potentially hitting us 3 times in a row).

Also, discovered the How to Play screen after playing as i checked the title screen again. It's a nice thing to have (+ it's a complete and well-explained one) even if the game is pretty intuitive, though it's kind of hidden as it is (the title screen prompts us to press any key, launching the game, while the how to play screen requires you not to do that).

LiT - Les in Trouble by rplnt 2020-04-25T21:56:49Z ♥ 1

Nice twist on the theme, keeping the fire alive instead of the forest is unexpected.

Simple and good concept for a jam game, though it can be a bit hard at first to see the wind's direction so maybe the wind animation could be improved.

Tumbleweed by Brenan 2020-04-24T12:49:15Z ♥ 3

Really impressive game for a jam and probably a serious contender for the win in Graphics. Surprising that you could build that much assets over 72h and put them together in a coherent and beautiful level. Audio and the 'poetry' lines work well together to set up the mood. Also, dunno why you opted out in the Humor category, the irony of the end definitely made me laugh.

Some nitpicking would be that it should be possible to skip the intro or the death screen early and that clicking should work to start the game or retry. Another thing would be the music that can get a bit repetitive over time. But let's be honest, the game is already solid as it is.

Also, found the game to be best played with my graphic tablet rather than mouse, felt way more natural 'drawing' lines with a pen than dragging around with the mouse (which is the best option there is for pc without specific peripherals anyway)

Into the Abyss by Pie-Tras 2020-04-23T20:50:14Z ♥ 1

Really nice mood, got me hooked in the game and continued until the end, even if it took quite some time. Though the game still felt a bit too long for a jam game, as there isn't much content and the long travels through the caves/ocean feel a bit boring and repetitive. I think a post-jam version with a bit more story and some more variety underwater (other life forms, a bit more danger, etc...) could work pretty well.

Retrobulbar by stefenism 2020-04-22T17:45:35Z ♥ 4

Nice puzzle game, feels like a mix of Antichamber and The Witness. Though i don't think it really fits the theme, it's still a solid entry. Hope you make something of it after the jam.

Mirror by isaque-picao-sanches 2020-04-22T09:52:01Z ♥ 0

Original aesthetics.

Managed to reach the black wall with the shadow after going around through the maze for 10 minutes, but failed to find any path that would allow me to go further.

A more complete guide would be a nice thing for testing purposes, to be able to see the full content of the game without spending hours lost in a maze.

VychVyzhProm by BOOtak 2019-10-09T20:43:07Z ♥ 1

Solid entry. Feels really polished and having a tutorial is always a nice thing that is too rare in jams games. Liked the mood with the small 'story' (if you can call that) and the retro feel with soviet union era theme. And obviously reminded me of TIS-100 (which i should finish someday) with its assembly coding.

Struggled a bit at first with jump conditions (JG/JE/JL), expected them to always compare A and B registers upon reading the 'doc' and only understood after a bit of trial & error that they were to be used after CMP. Also had a few small issues with the text editor. I feel like Backspace should delete previous block and Delete the current one rather rather than delete being line and backspace block value. Didn't feel like it not being a true text editor being that much of a problem, as having hotkeys for most instructions ended up being some sort of auto-complete which isn't bad and felt intuitive (though JE/JG/JL/JMP/MUL are missing), but i would expect for numbers to automatically clear the block content upon entering data. Two other quality of life features would be clicking on a block to select it (can already use the mouse to input so why not for moving around your code ?) and being able to hold arrow keys to move around faster without having to press keys dozens of times (same goes with Delete to delete multiple lines at once). Also didn't understand at first the Lower/Raise buttons, would expect an Up Arrow to Raise and Down Arrow to Lower.

Rainbow cube by Yheeky 2019-10-08T16:49:49Z ♥ 4

Solid puzzle game. Feels really polished with quite a lot of visual details and a well thought level design using well the game's color mechanics.

Only thing i've found lacking compared to the rest of the game is the Audio (felt like the music was a bit too simple and repetitive, need some audio in the menu and the sound effects would play only on the left side of my headphones - maybe an issue with the audio source's position ?).

Chromastrike - Bullet Hell Fighting Game by CodeCracked 2018-04-28T17:17:15Z ♥ 0

Fun idea, but hard to play alone. The graphics are simple and beautiful at the same time, good job for making all those different attacks.

Also, don't forget to rate other games so that yours get a better indexing and receive more ratings.

Rhythm Racing by ControlChimp 2018-04-28T16:16:43Z ♥ 2

Fun game, though a bit hard to control. Managed to make it in 53s on the second try.

FIGHT FARM by MarioBarone 2018-04-25T09:10:12Z ♥ 0

Nice game, liked the voxel art style. Coding an AI was a good idea as you can play alone.