ZebraInFlames

Timeless by Chaseplays 2017-05-03T16:34:20Z

Overall an excellent level of polish for a compo game, one of the best I've seen so far. Graphics and audio are pretty much spot on for this! Also liked the gameplay, although I think I might benefit a bit more from a more puzzle-like approach, instead of the timing challenges on the later levels.

Perhaps some sort of sequence puzzles might fit this well? Or, as this is about time travel, changing a thing in the past having large effects in the future (like the famous tree puzzle in Day of the Tentacle)? Now this is a bit similar to the many "parallel worlds" platformers out there.

Still, an excellent effort!

Solitary Freedom by CMLSC 2017-05-02T20:02:44Z

Loved it - great visual style and audio, nicely tied in with the effects too (the camera shake). Could perhaps have matched the theme a bit better - now it seems mostly just a common type of puzzle game. Overall still one of my favourite entries here. Perhaps the best level of polish I've seen here so far!

liftoff by Remco 2017-05-03T18:42:17Z

A very nice idea here! The trading works nicely, and flying between the planets, trying to figure out the best sales routes is cool. In the start it was slightly confusing, as at least on my machine the font was not the easiest to read, and it took me a moment to get oriented, but after that it worked out nicely. A smoother flight model or some tuning to the gravity might be beneficial; now it seems to be very easy to shoot out of any planets influence straight into the edges. Overall, a nice effort :)

Little Asteroid by Wevel 2017-05-04T18:02:55Z

As other's have said, the way the game makes music when one builds the set up further is very nice. I think the minimalistic visual design worked very well here - it's easy to understand what's happening and looks nice enough. :thumbsup:

Abaddon by Geckoo1337 2017-05-06T08:48:42Z

The audio and graphics are top notch, especially liked the shader effect used. Others have compared this to Devil's daggers, but I don't really care about such comparisons. However, I don't quite see how this fits the theme?

The level of polish and production values are very impressive though - keep it up!

ATLANTIS by OccultOne 2017-05-12T18:24:47Z

Really loved the atmosphere and sounds. Also liked the core mechanics - gameplay took just a bit of getting used to, but after that it felt very fluid.

I'd suggest adding some sort of hilighting or visual cues on the active characters - it'd make the start easier, and perhaps try to hilight the way interactions work a bit more. Now it took some trial and error, although it's simple enough. Overall, a great game :)

Throw by somethinboutgames 2017-05-03T16:22:49Z

Liked quite a lot, very nice take on the theme! The mechanics worked well, and the audiovisual implementation served the game nicely! With a bit of tuning on the levels, more of them, and perhaps a pixel perfect camera implementation and some character design for the thrower, this could work quite well as a polished browser or mobile game.

Toy Time Turbo by BadRAM 2017-05-04T18:31:08Z

As a late commenter, most of what I had in mind has already been said. All in all, a nice effort! With a bit tighter controls and audio this could be a very nice racing game :)

SLINGSHOOT by chaoclypse 2017-04-30T08:51:29Z

Nice mechanics here, really liked the concept :)

Gravity Wars by highlyinteractive 2017-05-03T18:31:30Z

Very nice audio and visual assets and sfx - especially liked the warping effect. The game mechanics could perhaps use some improvement, it's often hard to find an enemy to shoot, and aiming is occasionally difficult. Perhaps some way to (slightly?) aim the camera would help? Overall, a very nice entry.

Antagonistic : Hamburger Hill by ryte2byte 2017-05-04T17:55:51Z

Not much to say that hasn't been said already, but I really liked this one! One of my favourites in this compo so far :)

@ryte2byte what tools/software did you use for generating the music? I'm definitely interested in that since procedurally generated such a nice loop!

The Spoiled Prince by silkworm_sweatshop 2017-05-06T09:44:05Z

Lovely, probably the best audio track I've encountered in this LD so far. It's very nice idea too, quite unusual for a 2d platformer, and it's amazing how complete this feels!

The Bugs World by gagapete 2017-05-03T16:53:30Z

Great intrepretation of the theme, and a nice idea! I think the game would benefit tremendously from having some kind of damage and health systems, instead of bugs killing each other instantly. That'd lead to some strategy elements, as it'd be beneficial to have multiple attackers, and it would not only be about who is the fastest in rushing to the food sources.

The Epic Quest For The Mighty Croissant by 0x0 2017-04-30T09:07:35Z

Really liked the look and artstyle, great job there! The controls were a bit flimsy, but otherwise a great job for an LD entry :)

Rock my Ship by Hethsin 2017-05-02T18:08:06Z

I liked the idea here, I think it was quite original! Also the art did it's job well, although some audio would've been nice :) With a bit tuning for a bit more fluid and clear controls (perhaps faster and a usefull jump?) and instructions it could be really nice!

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-02T17:41:14Z

Thanks for the constructive comment :) Yeah, I was going to work on the shooting effect, but I ran out of time unfortunately. Should've at least made a volume option!

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-03T16:44:54Z

@diego-tavares Thanks for the feedback! The glitch you describe is a problem in AI code, in a stupid monkey patch to stop the AI from ramming into the ground and dragging along there. Didn't notice that one until I had already submitted the game. Multiplayer is definitely something to add next to the game, if I continue working on this.

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-03T17:34:35Z

@rodancheg one inspiration was actually a shareware game called "Triplane turmoil" I played as a kid - would not be surprised if those two games are related somehow!

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-04T17:24:18Z

@juan thanks a lot for the suggestions! I toyed around with the vertical size for a while and thought about having some mechanism to flying very close to the edge of the flyable area like speed boosts or pickups (maybe a repair thing?) or something, but didn't have time to implement anything interesting. I'll definitely try how having the aiming be done by mouse input affects the gameplay!

@Remco good point on the colors! I think the autofire might be due to how the raw input data is handled in Unity in a web gl game not hosted on your own machine (currently it just uses raw input data for firing).

@gagapete I had plans to add a more powerful weapon as an alternative choice for players, which would have had the drawback that its projectiles would be affected by gravity, making it harder to aim, in the end didn't have time for it. Could also test a bit different settings for gravity overall.

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-04T19:59:53Z

@cvetk0 That AI behaviour when the player is low on the ground happens because I added an ugly monkey patch late sunday evening that prevents the ai dragging along the ground, which they sometimes did before that :(

@blaster391 Like a mini map? I could definitely try that out.

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-08T18:23:36Z

@zwrawr, @Chaseplays yeah, I think I'll try adding some collision damage as soon as I have some time to continue on this.

@Jordgubben One of the sources of inspiration for this was old shareware games I played back in the 90s on a 386 ;)

@Zorg I've been thinking of adding local multiplayer, or even trying out networked multiplayer, as we've already done a simple networked multiplayer game with Unity with a few friends, and the architecture of that is simple enough to port over here quickly. Would just need to do some refactoring on Small Planet, as the code is quite jam-like, i.e. written in a hurry without too much thought to _how_ it should be written :P

And everyone else - huge thanks for constructive and kind comments! Never expected to get so much feedback as I did, definitely makes me glad :)

I think I'll try to find some time to work on the suggested improvements and put a fresh version to itch.io, to see how this might turn out then.

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-12T17:53:38Z

@philomory Thanks for the feedback, and another addition to the features for a post-compo version!

@OccultOne Thanks for the nice feedback, watched your video :) Also going to try your entry out!

Small Planet by ZebraInFlames 2017-05-20T09:37:21Z

@highlyinteractive I agree with you - the original plan was to have a base for each team that you'd need to destroy to win, but unfortunately I only had time for implementing the deathmatch mode :)

Exhaust of Earth by Lipsch 2017-05-04T17:35:42Z

This was very cool! Liked the idea, quite a new spin on a TD, and the graphics were very suitable! However, I think it might make sense to tune down the amount of the UFOs in the start - that might give the player a smoother start and help her/him get used to the different weapons. I think others have already stated any clear improvement points left. Overall, a great effort.

Spabullare by Chuck Zelvis 2017-05-03T18:23:37Z

For a 2 day time period, this is not bad at all! I liked how frantic the action occasionally got when there were many bullets flying on the screen - that combined with the easy-to-mess up mouse movement made this quite fun for me! Also liked the upgrade system.

All in all, this is a solid entry!

Gold N' Steam by juan 2017-05-03T18:59:16Z

Absolutely great! Really liked how one has to plan the routes for the multiple trains running at the same time, and then execute a planed set of changes to keep every train doing something useful and prevent them from colliding. Only real improvement to the core mechanics that I'd suggest would be adding detection for a game over state: now it's possible to run into a situation, where one has no resources to produce another train, and all the trains have just crashed.

Of course adding music (maybe something fairly ambient-like?) and sound effects would improve this, but at this point just adding more content (levels, perhaps other modifiable track parts such as draw bridges or other track modifications, ways to spend resources to improve production, if deemed to fit to the theme) would make this a fine game on it's own.

All in all, the gameplay mechanics are very nice and polished, the visuals are great and unified across the line, and most importantly, it's fun to play. One of my favourites in LD38 so far!

SNAKE SNAKE SNAKE by Sheepolution 2020-10-06T14:31:26Z

Absolutely loved the level of polish, style and soundscape. Really impressive for a jam game imo.

The concept is also very good - simple yet rewarding gameplay :)

I think this could be a nice mobile game too if you can make e.g swipes easy enough to use for controls.

Stuck In Paris by CocaPasteque 2020-10-11T13:43:27Z

Very nice game, fun gameplay and good audio and visuals - a great effort for a jam :)

Core Defense by JCMonkey 2020-10-09T14:34:57Z

Really liked this one - some sort of powerups to pick up by shooting would maybe be nice so that they player has to balance between shooting enemies and other things.

As it is the game is super simple, but it works and the level of polish is one of the best I've seen in teh compo in my opinion :)

Also it's nice to see other Godot games ;)

C - O - I - I - L by Ace17 2020-10-10T12:09:31Z

Unfortunately the game doesn't start for me - it throws some SDL exception to a terminal window and then dies. Starting it from shell I get:

>Fatal: Can't create SDL window: Could not initialize OpenGL / GLES library

Perhaps there's some conflict from my own development environment / SDL setup on path?

C - O - I - I - L by Ace17 2020-10-10T18:18:28Z

@ace17 unfortunately I'm on Windows - I can try to have a look at what the issue is a bit later, or compiling from source once I have a spare moment :)

Friday Night Funkin by Cameron Taylor 2020-10-10T11:56:29Z

It was initially a bit hard to grasp how this actually worked - for some reason I never seemed to get the timing right. But that might just be me :D

All in all, a great game, incredibly polished!

SnowTrip by GlacierEclipse 2020-10-06T17:20:10Z

Really liked the visual style :) I ended up running into dead ends quite often, as there didn't seem to be a way to reliably know how to avoid that. Maybe I missed some way to avoid that?

The Looper Encounter by Shaolin Dave 2020-10-11T13:34:03Z

Nice game! :)

It could be intereseting if you could somehow combo the traps or somehow do them at different locations than at the bottom - now oftentimes there's quite a lot of just waiting to do as enemies are not flying close enough.

Space Loop Kit by Marin0104 2020-10-12T13:30:19Z

A great concept, I think, but the difficulty was at least for me a bit high - especially at the start it's very hard to get good shots in or avoid the enemy shots.

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-06T16:51:21Z

Thanks for the feedback everyone :)

@tryston to be honest, that is a bug - didn't have a chance to figure out why it happens yet... so let's call it a feature until then? ;)

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-08T14:17:17Z

@meek-bits thanks for the kind feedback! Yeah, I've played quite a lot of KSP :D

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-09T13:55:39Z

@ubershmekel thanks for playing, and thanks for all the nice ideas! :)

The bug you mention has been reported by others as well, will have to figure out what causes that :)

The game is built with Godot engine - for such simple levels I think it ought to be enough for level design: I can save individual levels as separate scenes that are then loaded up - the code for this is currently buggy, I think, but improving on that should be doable.

There are importers to Godot from Tiled though, so that is an option! I think I'll just have to spend more time on level design to improve that aspect.

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-10T18:32:44Z

@sanojian there should be a fuel meter on the bottom left corner of the screen - if it's missing it's a new bug, I think.

@steambrain my original plan was to add some sort of landing mechanic, but I ran out time - maybe that was a good thing :)

Thanks for playing and the feedback to both!

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-11T10:07:49Z

@finn-tr @dxk2294 thanks for playing and for the feedback! :)

I think I'm going to add restarting at any point to the todo for the post-compo version :)

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-11T12:00:20Z

@ic-rainbow thanks for the feedback & playing :)

I've actually changed the camera/zooming code changes in a post-compo version already with wider (and equal on all sides) margins. I think I'd need to add some sort of background to also hilight that the camera is zooming out, now it's initially a bit hard to notice.

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-12T16:38:59Z

Thanks for the geedback @jare @kurt-roembke @thewustache

@thewustache or_path_example.png I've actually started implementing that sort of thing :)

Orbital Rescue by ZebraInFlames 2020-10-12T17:01:08Z

Thanks for the great feedback @shaolin-dave :)

I'll try to make the level layouts a bit more stable in the future (e.g now in the level where there's one large and one small planet, the gravity of the large planet is quite overwhelming which might explain the behaviour you got).

Also currently it's fine to land with 0 fuel, I'll just have to make that clearer :thinking:

a Damsel a Day by alec 2020-10-11T09:29:39Z

A great rection game! :)

The difficulty seemed to fluctuate a bit, at least on my second attempt - is there some mechanism that'd make the track from the train to the damsel shorter as levels go by?

Roller Riches by dxk2294 2020-10-11T08:11:37Z

Not much to say, except this is great :)

A really nice effort overall, one of my favourites from this jam.

Portaloop by Allas 2020-10-06T18:24:17Z

Liked the theme interpretation, visuals and gameplay idea :)

The controls felt a bit unresponsive though.

Gorilla Power by Jiri Hysek 2020-10-12T13:26:44Z

A nice rather complete package, at least for jam games :)

Some sort of puzzles or more conditions based on when power is generated might've been nice, now you're pretty much just using the button to open doors. Great effort though!

It's The Leash I Can Do by hemlocksoames 2020-10-11T07:42:43Z

The leash mechanic was very well done! Nice, simple gameplay :)

It was a bit easy for me to get stuck (around the rock) in a situation where there was very hard to do anything - a bit faster reset to the people tangled in the leash in a case like that might be nice.

All in all, one of the best games of this jam I've played in my opinion :)

LD47: Stuck in a Loop by Jare 2020-10-04T13:38:54Z

Looks very nice :)

I'd maybe consider using keyboard input for movement, now it's abit easy to "cheat" with the mouse?

Will try to remember to give this another go when rating starts :)

Plasma by Hakro 2020-10-12T13:41:13Z

Definitely nice gameplay concepts here. Trying to keep the astronauts alive gives a good tactical touch to how you have to play an otherwise simple shooter :) Nice stuff!

Trajectory by KaisenTheGreatOne 2020-10-10T12:05:13Z

Great gameplay concept :)

I would've like keyboard controls & the zoom level not resetting on every restart though - now there seems to be a bit of extra clicking. To me it seems you could perhaps change the default zoom :)

Some additional gameplay elements might be also nice, like the asteroids being destroyed by impact (you could use the amount of tries for score counting).

A Loop to Save The World by Crazybot 2020-10-11T09:11:05Z

Nice rewind effects and a great idea!

Some sort of audio cues would be super useful, now it was at times quite hard to say what exactly had happened (for example if a button press on the keypad had registered).

Kosmosrunda by patetfisk 2020-10-10T12:17:04Z

Very nice audio and visuals :)

With my skills, I really would've like some sort of restart points :-D

Don't Go by ubershmekel 2020-10-09T14:01:06Z

This was quite unexpected :D

Some of the spoken audio cues seemed quite a lot louder than other sounds, but otherwise I don't have any obvious improvement ideas - great job here :)

Never End by Finn_Tr 2020-10-11T08:18:48Z

Really liked the audio and visuals, but the controls / gameplay was definitely too hard for me. The dash key was hard for me to use repeatedly, which seemed to be basically required to survive.

Perhaps being able to rebind that would help, or binding it to some key people are used to repeatedly using in quick succession in action games (like F, Q or E)?

Then again, I'm not very skilled in these sort of games :)

Skycrawler by oneiromancer 2020-10-11T14:16:40Z

This was a lovely concept! Great mechanics for a nice twist on a platformer!

Orbital Hostage by Meek Bits 2020-10-06T17:38:58Z

Nice interpretation of the theme :)

The way the station blocks your shots occasionally is a nice twist on the simple point and shoot gameplay.

Loopii Poopy by LAndyPommel 2020-10-09T14:23:37Z

Very nice and polished, but I think I'm very bad at this game :D

Some sort of tutorial level or an easier start would've helped be, couldn't seem to get a hang of how to play effectively until quite a lot of tries. Once it clicked the gameplay is very good though. Overall a great effot :)

Space Loop by IndivisibleParticles 2020-10-12T13:00:21Z

Nice story and interpretation of the theme :)

Also very good visuals in my opinion - perhaps a bit more complex gameplay (like being able to move faster) would improve the gameplay.

Great effort for a third game overall :)

Lovely Planet (Travel the World) by Elizir 2020-10-08T14:03:49Z

Nice game! Besides the obvious like adding music/sfx, I'd consider a more gradual difficulty ramp-up - now it seemed (at least to me) that the difficulty stepped up in sudden jumps at around 40 points for example. A more constant increase might make it less obvious, although I guess it's debatable which is better :)

Anyhow I think this is an excellent effort; good, simple gameplay, nice visuals and nice theme interpretation. You could very well make this into a mobile game or a more polished little game e.g on itch.io :)

S.H.I.P.S. by PhindieGames 2020-10-11T13:30:00Z

Had fun playing this one although I struggled with the controls at first. Then I realized it's an effective strategy to just rapidly press all the four buttons in succession :D