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Wish I Was an Astronaut

Games

YearLDThemeGameDivisionRankOvFuInThGrAuHuMoCmCo
201326MinimalismDon't paint me, I'm busycompo6643.073.002.363.003.003.683.362.9149
201224EvolutionA Long Road to Happinesscompo583.683.252.832.223.794.043.333.5246
201120It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This!A Portrait of my Curious Worldcompo993.143.002.733.773.053.322.783.002

Performance over time

overall score (left axis) percentile (right axis)

Scatterplots

Fun vs Overall

Innovation vs Overall

Theme vs Overall

Graphics vs Overall

Audio vs Overall

Humor vs Overall

Mood vs Overall

Comments by Wish I Was an Astronaut

LD20 — It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This!

Take this! (and everything else) by Petzi 2011-05-04T18:40:00

I like the idea. It's definitely one of the better games when it comes to theme: You obviously took the theme, and made a game about the theme, instead of making a game and then randomly throwing in the theme, so in the theme category, you pass with flying colors.

Sound-wise, I realize (having tried myself) that making sounds in the time constraints is hard. I also think that no sound is better than bad sound, so you don't score too low there either, although not too high.

That graphics nicely conveyed the feeling of the old Zelda games, but it was let down by the standard game maker text box and highscore table :(
Still, that only came in at the end, and I had plenty of time to enjoy the retro before that, so kudos for that!

It was fun the first few times, but it grew old a bit too quickly for my liking. Again, it's hard to avoid that within the time constraints, but it is possible. But, as I said, fun the first few times, so you score there.

The humor benefited from the idea you had: I loved the idea so much: The moment I realized what was supposed to be doing, I laughed. Out loud. That's quite an achievement with me :P

Overall, it's amazing for a first try. The lack of polish is quite obvious, but the concept really made this game stand out for me.

*Tips hat*

Grave Robbers by adamatomic 2011-05-04T18:45:00

I guess my main complaint would be the lack of obvious connection to the theme.
Besides that, nice attempt.

LD24 — Evolution

EvFighters by FrederickK 2012-09-01T10:23:00

Quite well made. I'll try and fail to not make all the points that have already done.
Art was the best bit. Gameplay was fun, although the upgrading system was a little unclear. It was only once I got the better gun that I figured out that I was being upgraded at all. Has a lot of potential, but a lot of this potential is in a post compo version. It's nice as it is, and it makes you really wish that there was a post compo edition.

On a separate note, I do think that it must be pointed out: Using music you didn't make in the contest is against the rules. It just isn't fair to those who skip music due to lack of time or ability, or those who invest some time into creating a track for their entry.

I don't know how you proceed from here though. Best case scenario, you're allowed to get away with it. Most likely, you'll either have to make it more obvious that you didn't make it, or be told to remove the music from the game. Worst case scenario, you're moved to the Jam.

But all in all, I wish this game all the best, and good job for making it!

Gan Fall: the totally true story of the origin of man by stett 2012-08-29T22:58:00

Very cute, very silly.
This is a good thing.
Allow me to doff my cap at you, good sir!

The Evolution Of Stars by Dadeyemi 2012-08-31T23:56:00

You know, a post compo version of this would be an excellent little educational game. I'd probably send it off to my astrophysics teacher.
I imagine the text could be rather confusing to anyone who doesn't already know about the life cycle of a stars. Still, good revision tool :P

Asides from that, the graphics were excellent, the music was nice at first but too repetitive, and the user should really be allowed to skip text when they want.
And in a post-compo version, I'd suggest being able to rewind back to previous minigames instead of starting from scratch every time.

Infection by Wydra 2012-08-29T17:18:00

It's definitely a good idea, and had you added a tutorial system in the game as well as explained some of the sceince behind this, you could have had yourself an excellent educational game!
Dare I suggest this as a post-compo goal? :P
Good work!

UPix by Xaychru 2012-08-30T21:23:00

Bug: When you die (presumably you only turn invisible and are unable to shoot or be shot), you can still move, collect XP, level up, upgrade your health, and come back to life just in time to see the game over screen.

Not gamebreaking. Glad it does make you game over. I just thought it was funny because I used to always be plagued by such bugs :P

A Long Road to Happiness by Wish I Was an Astronaut 2012-08-29T19:43:00

Thank you all! Feedback is always much appreciated :D

And yeah, I got rather frustrated with some of the physics (notably the double jump's habit of making you turn quickly, dunno if that's what anyone else thinks), but by that stage, I had done too much level design to turn back.

Put in the level skipping as a sort of apology for that :P
Thanks again!

A Long Road to Happiness by Wish I Was an Astronaut 2012-08-29T22:43:00

PaulSB: Yeah, should probably have thought that over a bit more. Swapped the link with a direct one, hopefully that should work for everyone :)

A Long Road to Happiness by Wish I Was an Astronaut 2012-08-30T09:09:00

Timelapse now up! :D
Thanks for the reminder :P

Gems of the Evolving Land by RawBits 2012-08-29T21:55:00

When playing this game, I was rather proud of myself for discovering how to take down mountains, by slowly picking away at the dirt around. Then, after amassing a nice pile of diamonds, I looked at the help again, and found out about the "Discover" ability. This caused me to waste all my diamonds getting more diamonds. However, this left me with a lot of gold, which I used to blow up mountains. Within no time, the entire map was covered in forest and I help like a right moron.

So congratulations: You have created one of those games which gives the player so much space that they can start making their own stories. I now know that I am terrible at looking after the environment, and I should never EVER get employed by a mining company.

Nice use of the theme, too. Nice that it's neither animals evolving nor Charles Darwin going on a gun rampage. It's refreshing to see cool ideas.

I won't go into any more detail, because some of the other comments have made my points better than I ever could :P

Have a tip of my hat!

LD26 — Minimalism

BBB&B by Roupette 2013-05-19T16:27:00

Solid entry!
All I would suggest is only one letter being removed at a time (yeah, everyone else has already said this, but I'll say it regardless), maybe expand the pool of letters that can fall (I ended up figuring out which few letters were falling, I believe they were L, M, N, T, I, S, A, and maybe some others I can't remember) then spamming those buttons again. Maybe also add some black letters or something that you must NOT press, to stop people like me just spamming every button.
I like the difficultty curve, and the snowball effect of missing a letter is a lovely touch, and asides from the suggested improvements (which aren't even weaknesses, just missed opportunities IMHO), everything is great!

Mini-Malice by Starspell 2013-04-30T08:44:00

One thing I found t be of particular interest was the way very little of the feedback (virus count) was given through HUD, using mysical cues instead. Made it seem a bit of a shame to have that one boost bar. I'd suggest that for post compo (if you do that) make the boost be shown by something different (shade your cell or something?)
That's the only interesting feedback I can give. I think the graphics could maybe stand to be a bit bigger, and maybe make the music accelerate from the current point when virus levels are critical rather than restart at a faster speed (dunno how hard that would be).
That's the bad bit. The rest is good!

Don't paint me, I'm busy by Wish I Was an Astronaut 2013-05-17T16:27:00

Thanks for all the feedback guys!
(I may not like to admit to it, but negative comments are the most useful to me, they tell me what to improve. Positive ones feel good though, so thanks all for commenting! :D)

Beeat by cambrian_era 2013-05-19T16:20:00

Do I detect FL Studio and Riff Machine? :D

Sanity by JonRB 2013-05-17T16:19:00

Loved it!
The only thing I can think of that hasn't already been said, is that because of the sound mixing (lovely, by the way), I found myself working with echolocation.
When I noticed I was doing this, I felt really badass.
I must thank you for this feeling.

Super Clutter Blaster 2013 by Homletmoo 2013-05-17T16:25:00

Good points:
- Music: Fit the art style well, and the music felt "fun", if you know what I mean
- Art: Dem funky colours
- The fact that if you press a split second after falling off a block, it lets you jump anyway. I imagine this saved me from more frustration than I know
The not so great:
- Shame that it's yet another "Run to the right jump to avoid obstacle games"
- Random level generator felt unfair at times (it may or may not be, but this is what I felt)

All in all though, a solid entry to be proud of!