Barber Blues by Tijn 2016-05-09T03:13:00
I think this may be one of my favorite uses of the theme that I have seen this LD. Enjoyed the music and the lumberjack feel.
My suggestions for improvement would be to:
Make it so you could click on people coming through the door
Make it less random when you get a customer, although this isn't really a big deal.
Make the razor shave in lines rather than splotches, so it draws a line of removed hair between where it last was and where the mouse moved it to.
Maybe have the razor not rotate after you start shaving?
I did enjoy how they never said anything negative. "I'm sure you will be a great barber someday!"
The sounds were also top notch, good job :D
LD40 — The more you have, the worse it is (16)
Rebel Call by SeanNoonan 2017-12-21T05:23:55Z ♥ 1
Top mark! I love the visuals, you got that papery feel that I really like. Honestly, the visuals looked like they were made for a full game. Spot on. Other great part of the game was the audio. I loved the voices and all that. Was that a real language or was it just gibberish? If it is gibberish I love it, achieved the perfect effect. If it was a real language, I don't care, sounded great anyways.
The main thing I thought was a bummer was that there wasn't a ton of different mechanics to it. The two levels didn't seem too different and it seemed a bit thin on mechanics. I'd be really interested to see where this would go in the future.
FYI, your source link is dead. I was wanting to look at what your shaders were.
Remembag by Satyre 2017-12-20T02:53:59Z ♥ 1
It never gave me an object besides the guardian one. Which was a little sad. Felt like more time should've gone into ensuring a bug free game. You had a lot of assets so I feel like perhaps too much time was devoted to those instead of the programming. Perhaps you should've made a minimal product with the last 3-5 jams, and then once you finished the concept you make more and more items.
Didgeribug in da place ! by Hippunk 2017-12-11T13:46:11Z ♥ 2
Nice game good job!
I felt like the concept was a bit abstract. For instance I couldn't really understand what was going on first play-through, second time was after I read the idea and then it started making much more sense. I have to say that the ghost enemies were a great touch. That interplayed with the "health" system was great. You could have an infinite number of ghosty friends theoretically. It provided a very real way of increasing the difficulty that wasn't artificial (new stronger enemies, more enemies). Your core mechanic still was a bit too abstract, even after learning what it was I realized there wasn't really a way to control it, I just had to hope I killed one with that bullet. I'm not sure what could be done to improve that.
The sounds were great, although I felt like the music was perhaps a bit too repetitive.
The art was great, the abstract shapes worked perfectly.
The only other two comments I have are on refinement. If you have highscores, it felt weird that there wasn't a "restart" button. In fact I had to reload the page, which got rid of my highscore. It is a Jam game though so that was probably left out for a higher priority task. The other thing was the screen size. I felt like I was running backwards into enemies too much. I didn't have enough time to react when they were approaching from behind. I think just increasing screen size would work just fine.
The Tulpa by nahual 2017-12-11T05:04:37Z ♥ 0
Well done!
I think the weakest part of this game was the puzzle. It didn't feel like it had any sort of reasoning behind it. I did this and suddenly I get the item I need to progress? While you can say that is how dreams work (and they do sometimes), the player isn't actually dreaming so whatever tenuous explanation you can give them is good. Even if your explanation makes no sense, if you pretend it does then it will be better.
I think your audio was on point, the subtle knocking sounds, the slow ambiance, weird chanting sounds, all on point. I'm not sure if they achieved the feeling you were going for. Some people felt like it was closer to a horror game than a dream like game, which makes sense. All of your sound affects are dark and dramatic. Horror games frequently use the concept of isolation to make things scarier. Along those lines if you wanted something more dreamy less horror-ey then add more ambient sounds. The TV could use some noise, add some muffled talking, a slurred lullaby, maybe the clock could have an offbeat rhythm to go with its crazy antics. Any talking or TV needs to really be clear and audible (think about simulating receptive aphasia, the inability to understand speech), it should just be there to provide context and make the game less cold and isolating. Unless this is what you want, then bravo! It worked well as a creepy game!
The graphics were amazing. The avatar going more and more transparent, the wavy graphics, everything worked out to enhance the feeling that you were going for. The only complaint I have is use of cues for player interaction. In Mirrors edge the colors mean something about the routes the player can take. Glowing items is another pattern to use to guide players to the right choices. You used glowing items as well, but there were some things I couldn't interact with that were glowing white. This caused confusion and some frustration at the game because at that point you can't trust it. The things like the glowing chair could've been glowing with less intensity or maybe glow a different color (like the TV).
Crystal Curse by IcyLava 2017-12-10T20:09:20Z ♥ 1
This game definitely got me raging a bit. At parts you didn't provide any cover so there was no refuge from the rockets and that was a bit terrifying. The platforming was very well done, the controls were well done, the movement was done well as well.
I think your usage of the theme felt like it was really just an excuse for your game to have a difficulty progression, which it should've had anyways. The text in between levels was good, but when you don't give the player any choice besides to collect the crystals it really just amounts to a difficulty progression.
The other complaint I have is with the player movement. Overall it was really good, but I had one complaint. Maybe it is just me being bad at platformers (I am), but I felt like the jump should've been made more powerful or you should've allowed the player to let go of the jump key after awhile. it felt like I had to hold it down forever to get maximum jump velocity and made me miss my jumps pretty often.
The audio was well done, the dying effects were a great touch and the music fit perfectly. Did you speed up the music at all as the game progresses? If so great touch, if not, do it next time!
Anyways, good game! Great LD entry.
MAGNETOGRABBER 2000 by kroltan 2017-12-10T19:49:22Z ♥ 1
Nice game! I enjoyed the idea and thought the rotational momentum was a neat factor to include in a spaceship game.
The biggest drawback was the audio. The audio that was there was awesome, it was what was missing that was critical. In short, you had three sounds that were really missing: Spaceship damage, magnetograbber, and music. I do realize this is a jam game and not everyone wants to spend their precious time doing audio, but I think in your case you were really close to getting there.
First sound is the easiest, damage is pretty easy. Especially when you have a destruction sound. If you were feeling short for time, I would've taken your explosion sound, cut off the first chunk of it (0.1-0.3 sec), made it fade out, and then maybe add a short-tight reverb to smooth it out. The issue there would possibly be a repetitious sound that becomes tiring to bumbling players. A good jam-technique for that issue is to play each iteration of the sound with a slightly random pitch and volume. In my code I frequently have these two lines: ``` sound.setPitch(math.random() * 0.05 + 1) sound.setVolume(math.random()*0.1 + basevolume). ```
This helps add enough variety to remove a ot of the annoyance factor.
The other sounds are a bit harder. Magnetograbber wouldn't be super hard. It is up to you of course, but I'd experiment with some sort of humming sound, take a mic to your AC unit, or even your throat when you hum.
Music/ambiance is a bit harder, but in this case I think it is pretty critical. It would really help the mood. Space games tend to be a bit easier because all you need is some sort of thin pad doing ambience, and then some sort of basic interest factor, high pitched tinkle sound maybe, or sporadically placed bloops. Again, this is up to your skill level and interest, but I think it would really enhance the mood and bring in the player more.
The other aspect of your game that I felt needed a little more attention was the controls. The relation of your game to the theme really hinged on your controls. I think you had a great start. But I think maybe you should've made it easier and more responsive at the start, and then much less responsive when picking up point things. Maybe even have it to the point where it starts easier, and then once you get ~3 pick ups it is to the point where it is now.
Anyways, I think your graphics worked well. I could tell it was jam graphics, quickly done and done with the intent of getting something decent looking into the game. But I think it worked really well like that. The simplistic feel really works well for me and the look you came up with was really easy to read.
Gameplay wise I think you nailed the scope for a jam game. The controls and idea behind the game was simplistic and easy to follow. But yet it filled out a complete game. Frequently LD games have the idea but not the execution, or everything is there but it is just hard to follow. You nailed all of that.
All in all, good job! Sorry if I talked too much about audio, its just part of gamedev that I really enjoy.
Hover Burner by TimBeaudet 2017-12-10T19:22:20Z ♥ 2
Top marks!
Got 1st place on the second track!
I enjoyed about every aspect of this game. Of all games with this idea of balancing act, this one worked the best and has the most strategy with it. I did feel like the flamethrower was a bit weak. At some point you just were balancing out how much fuel you would get on each pitstop and trying to stay in the lead. I'm not sure how to fix it, maybe cause a flame thrower'd car to spin out a little more and make it cost more? It felt like I would use it, and then hit the person I flamethrower'd only causing both of us to slow down. The AI was also very good.
The game felt complete, there were several tracks with varying themes, the music fit perfectly and the sound effects weren't too annoying and were complete (there wasn't anything that I felt was really missing).
One thing I felt hindered by was the readability of the game. My car wasn't unique enough to track it all of the time. You should think about maybe adding a "halo" (which could be colored for multiplayer), or maybe even a movable camera centered on the car. Or you could make it look significantly different than the other cars.
Armed Descent by Acr515 2017-12-09T21:32:24Z ♥ 1
I liked your game a lot!
The main issue I found is that it felt that the number of levels you could do were mathematically limited. Going with the idea I'm not sure of the best way to fix it. It would probably be best to make it more of a balancing act. Getting ammo decreases your health, but getting a debuff increases it again? I don't know, but there is some room for expansion there.
One of the parts I enjoyed most was the gun reloading. The animation was simple, but wonderful. Maybe you pulled it from somewhere, but it felt really innovative to me. I also found that I could get the robots to shoot the cabinets to find me treats without me spending ammo. That was nice too.
Tiny Empires by Jack Maxwell 2017-12-08T00:55:51Z ♥ 1
Well done, I think? I really cant get anywhere because I don't have access to the shop. I would love to play this game when you have the shop button again.
America 2018 by Antti Tiihonen 2017-12-07T03:44:36Z ♥ 1
Very good game, you nailed the ambiance.
One issue I noticed while playing your game is that the audio was only on my right side. I then went back and found out that the problem is something with my computer. yay...
Anyways, I'm not finding much to comment on about this game. I think it was a super solid LD entry. With the limited time given you split your attention across all of the important elements and didn't let anything get dropped. Good job!
Close Friends by skippuku 2017-12-07T01:56:26Z ♥ 2
Probably the first time that I've ever had a chair ask me where it put it's hat! Good game.
Furtive Fortune by Jake White 2017-12-07T00:26:33Z ♥ 0
I really enjoy the spinning graphics for when you run, very satisfying.
The thing that bugged me the most was the sound. The music didn't seem to really fit with the game, and the coin sound started to get very repetitive. I'd suggest making the most repetitive sounds very quiet and fit into the background. Another thing that helps is varying the pitch/volume or even sound. Essentially you shouldn't hear the same sound more than twice in a row.
Good job!
Cloud Love by azdraws 2017-12-07T00:07:10Z ♥ 1
You should include a .love file! It is cross platform and would allow cross platform play for those who currently have LOVE installed!
Moubal by headchant 2017-12-07T00:01:06Z ♥ 0
I think it would've been nice if you put a little more reward to getting more than one box at the end. I didn't feel like there was any reason to try for balancing more than one box. Well done overall, the sound was quite good and everything meshed well together.
Block Pilot by seppi562 2017-12-06T05:25:23Z ♥ 1
I agree with most of the previous comments on here (from the people who could play your game).
One thing I haven't seen is that the enemies don't really stand out from the background. it took me awhile before I really noticed the first enemy. You could try doing something with shading or just changing the spaceship color to not be a similar color as the cars and road.
It was really hard to aim, but I think the perspective (not top down but a more 3d approach) is very interesting and was a good factor. You probably needed to make it a little easier to see things and aim at things. One possibility would be to shoot faster, a line of bullets is always easy to see.
Anyways, good game. I really did enjoy the voxel art style, it worked quite well!
Trial of the Reaper by Cliff Lee CL 2017-12-06T05:17:19Z ♥ 1
Is there a web build? I'm not seeing one on the itch.io page.