Mantis Melee by thormoth 2024-10-16T22:48:26Z ♥ 2
It was a nice/quick entry to play through. Probably a little bit too much on the easy side (2 max hp ups and one potion was all I needed to win without feeling too pressured).
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Zliebowitz
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 60 | Old Tech | π€ | π₯ | JUMPMAN | jam | |||||||||
| 2025 | 58 | Collector | Apple Basket | compo | 197 | 2.79 | 2.74 | 2.71 | 3.50 | 2.79 | 2.40 | 2.67 | 2.82 | ||
| 2024 | 56 | Tiny Creatures | π₯ | Tiny Ecosystem SimulatoR | jam | 356 | 3.73 | 3.50 | 3.43 | 4.13 | 3.45 | 3.18 | 3.15 | ||
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | π₯ | Ethereal Tower | jam | 510 | 3.63 | 3.73 | 2.71 | 3.19 | 3.81 | 3.56 | 3.38 | ||
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | π₯ | V-SHRINK | jam | 235 | 3.90 | 3.89 | 3.98 | 4.29 | 3.73 | 4.02 | 3.58 | ||
| 2022 | 51 | Every 10 seconds | π₯ | Tower of Kraduul | jam | 326 | 3.75 | 3.85 | 3.22 | 3.70 | 3.12 | 3.63 | 3.72 | ||
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | π₯ | Snow Dude! | jam | 178 | 3.96 | 4.06 | 3.67 | 3.48 | 3.46 | 3.63 | 3.10 | 3.24 | |
| 2021 | 49 | Unstable | π₯ | Fantasy Quest | jam | 461 | 3.73 | 3.39 | 3.68 | 4.04 | 3.41 | 3.46 | 3.83 | 3.55 | |
| 2021 | 48 | Deeper and deeper | π₯ | Ixcar'th | jam | 873 | 3.54 | 3.33 | 2.48 | 3.50 | 3.39 | 3.93 | 3.56 | ||
| 2020 | 47 | Stuck in a loop | π₯ | Chronos Time Warp | jam | 975 | 3.38 | 3.36 | 2.57 | 2.75 | 3.52 | 3.19 | 3.31 | ||
| 2020 | 46 | Keep it alive | π₯ | Gizmick! | jam | 1342 | 3.45 | 3.40 | 2.78 | 3.63 | 3.83 | 3.78 | 2.38 | 2.97 | |
| 2019 | 45 | Start with nothing | π₯ | Attack of the Killer Yarn Balls! | jam | 875 | 3.10 | 2.75 | 2.44 | 2.94 | 3.48 | 3.38 | 2.72 | 3.00 |
Zliebowitz leaves an average of 4.5 feedback comments each event.
It was a nice/quick entry to play through. Probably a little bit too much on the easy side (2 max hp ups and one potion was all I needed to win without feeling too pressured).
It feels a little short (although it does hit htat 5-10 minute ludum dare sweet spot so that's proably a good thing), and the polish more than makes up for it. Great entry! The music in particular really stands out for setting a good mood.
It's an interesting concept.
Comments above me seem to really like the game, and I kind of suspected this was a matter of personal taste before reading them so these thoughts might just be entirely from someone too far outside of your target (I typically only like puzzle games that feel more like a board games, turn based and not dependent on skill beyond figuring out how to do hte puzzle).
The puzzles started to feel a bit repetitive to me (I made it to the lava level, and ultimately, the design space around this felt well explored). Strategies evolved between focus on 1/2 when building stairs and make frozen guys every two spaces (trying that wouldn't get me more than 1 off for advancing).
I'm wondering if autounfreezing, limited number of unfreezes or time limits would make this feel a bit better (making a level of skill required that feels less arbitrary than the off by one issues I mentioned above where I'djsut do the same thing again and 1 more happened to survive).
It's a very nice/relaxing game. The art and graphics did a really good job of contributing towards that. Playing with the keyboard made hitting the walls and losing all momentum a bit painful.
One thing to be watchful for a bit is where artistic touches might hinder gameplay. There are a few spots where the foreground made me uncertain on edges of platforms, and a spot where I was unsure how to proceed (solid block of platform colored "wall" that I can apparently walk through).
Itch.io has a setting to make the page public. Feel free to @ me if you can't easily find that and I can send a screenshot. Also, I recommend testing with an incognito or private mode browser.
Nice Ludlum dare entry. Feels very self contained.
My only real issue with this one was I had a fly fall asleep and block the path out of the spawn area. Also, might be nice to have flies animate in some fashion before they start moving again as a warning (didn't cause any issues, but I did feel some fear on some manuevers).
You mentioned a post jam version, care to link to it? I'm curious to see the changes.
This plays pretty well. I don't think I quite understand all the systems still, but it is defiantly something different.
As stated, onboarding definitely seems to be the main issue. In game is ideal, but text and/or pictures on the game/itch page is also always an option (and usually a lot faster to do).
I'm a bit curious how a fuller game based on this would look like. Probably combining some permanent structures or stat buffs with the temporary spells. Probably some variance in enemies to try to force different and adapting defenses.
I attempted to play with Chrome on a Mac. My eyesight is a bit bad and unfortunately the page wouldn't let me zoom in. Unfortunately, I can't read the text.
A full screen option would be awesome or something with higher contrast!
The CRT look is very well fitting. This was a little hard to play with less than stellar eyesight, but the mood still came out really well and that music was exceptionally well picked.
I'm a bit surprised how much there was to this concept. Very fun entry. The latter levels definitly required a bit more work to win.
It is always nice to come across a game that feels so well polished in ludum dare. My only regret is that I'm pretty bad at this game so I didn't get to paly too far in to it.
Difficulty seems to ramp up quickly and everything seems well designed to push towards the absurdity of everything. Nice job with the reasons for the new laws, they were amusing (although I feel like a few of those a supreme leader might not admit to, but what is what suspension of disbelief there for if not allowing a punch line).
Plays pretty well. I'm not quite sure on the timing for when to use the grenade effectively.
Really great job creating a very consistent environment. There were all sorts of nice touches added on top of the core gameplay which is pretty impressive for a compo entry.
I can't seem to figure out how to get power. I build a shaft, two housings and a pwerplant. I've tried multiple configurations, but don't seem to be earning power or have any idea how to do so.
It plays very well. After losing a few times, I seemed to figure out most of the controls (I'm to qutie how warioware which seems to be the comparison does in this respect). Probably some sort of hint hat the mouse is gigot to be sued for everything would be helpful.
As a fan of tactics games, it was cool to see this here. I enjoyed it. One unfortunate thing here is that I had a bought an early movement upgrade and could pretty easily just bypass the enemies (given that you're trying to do it randomly with such a time constraint, I'm not counting it against you in the scoring).
The game is overall very well done, and the one really missing thing is the lack of indication on health and the enemies on the first are level are a bit easy to miss (my eyes are a bit bad which might have contributed, but it took me a while to notice them and that the attacks weren't just spawning from random locations).
This plays pretty well. The audio works very well. Gameplay is good, although I have to fight my instincts around slimes and be cautious.
I did have a shop that spawned multiple of the same items which seems unideal given that you can rebuy items anyways (or maybe that was just the health, it was the only one I bought).
This plays amazingly, and the difficulty curve seems good (granted, I've given at what I imagine must be just before the end (having the deepest sword).
Really addictive, and it is amazing how seemingly impossible things become slightly easier and slightly easier relatively quick once you start to get the knack.
Very interesting game. Plays well, the sharing of stories is interesting, and having two runs I was surprised how quickly the stories deviated.
I did originally try it on Safari with no luck, but it worked fine in chrome.
Interesting concept. Particularly good music.
That was an enjoyable play through. I have a copy of pico-8 that I've never really used. I kind of wondered how much could be done with it, and it is nice to see that even over a relatively short period of time, you can do a pretty good amount with it. I'll have to try something at some point.
Also, I have to say I'm a sucker for games with the deconstruction and reconstruction with parts flying-around (and it seems like that can't be easy with a pico-8 in particular).
Wow. This is such a great way to do things. In fact, I've never really played these click-adventure games, and am thinking that I'll have to explore more of that.
This was exceptionally well done, and has a great feel to it all around.
I was ble to urn this on a Mac using the same command as @burnedkirby.
I had OpenJDK 14.
Wow, that plays surpassingly well together.
I find myself wishing for controller support, but I'm not sure that would really do anything to help wit my abysmal run length. Great job!
Wow, this is quite different fro everything else I played. It was an extremely impressive entry.
I don't think it would hurt to have the spaceship be more frequent. Especially at the beginning, there is a lot of downtime spent waiting for the ship. Starting with a bit more money so you're at least not stuck waiting initially could have made for a raster paced entry.
The tutor was a very helpful introduction and set the pace to be able to start doing things quickly. Not includingg an option to skip wasn't as bad as expected as the tutorial is extremely quick if you already know whhat you are doing.
I thought it made really good use of sound and music.
It seems like at a certain point (800ish?), you start running into issues where its starts slowing down (garbage collector?). It seems like you hav a fixed mount of assets in the game such that you can load everything into ram at the start and never need the garbage collector if that is the case.
The tutorial was a nice touch. I'm not are that I've come across a game with more than l line or two or just button presses.
Interesting entry. Seems like a cool concept. I'd be curoius to see more of the original concept.
I might be worth mentioning in the instructions that holding click for longer throws farther. Also, there semem to be some issues with the collision detection (it seems like the backs of some of the animals are offset from position such that food bounces well before I should. The recon when standing up to attack is one such.
Quite the commentary on healing. It seems care was taken on where damage was being dealt to, alhtough it felt like there was a lot of randomness. One run,I managed the first few bosses wit near full health on everyone, and the next one I quickly ws=as struggling t keep characters from dying by the third boss.
This played very well. It felta. little akward looking for food without the camera being able to rotate. After a bit, I decided to alk towards the camera hoping I'd find things.
It might help to have the text be a little less intrusive. It is a bit akward to avoid becoming food while it is going, and makes it harder to be able to read.
Also, I got killed by a squirrel (didn't seem to notice me until I was in kill range). It was a rather awesome experience, The pause before respawn was great in that dnow hwat snse.
The combat seems interesting, but the sessions feel a little short (might be my skill level). Definitely an interestin concept.
I ran the mac build, and noted, attempting to change the resolution caused the game to freeze. The exit button on settings which is a bit atypical.
Awesome game. Other commetns covered the polished artwork well. The music was wellc hosen. The level with rain seemed well callibrated. Every time you thought youw ere good, a new twist emerged.
This was a very good game.
The entire ambience is awesome. The low-key audio adds beautifully to it. I'm not entirely sure how far this game goes, because the flashlight dies, and I can't seem to really do anything at that point. Outside of that, nothing really prompts me to rush. I'm not sure it is worth rushing the player through such a well done environment if that is the case.
There seems to be some. minor lighting bugs, that I thinks unrelated to the above where you can temporarily be in all black and some assets Eem to be dark when they should be bright. This is generally fixed by moving slightly.
LD58 — Collector (14)
Ghost Collector by Ausstein 2025-10-20T20:54:37Z ♥ 1
The game feels good although the darkness is enough of an issue for me that I'm not able to really get past the beginning (bad eyesight, but I understand that this is a genre that accommodating that can be an issue, especially in a jam).
The game feels well put together and like you did a fairly decent amount of polishing on it. Regrettable that I couldn't get further in to the game.
Unreflows by Aincrad 2025-10-20T20:42:41Z ♥ 1
I think I'm joining the club of hte clueless on this one. No idea whatis going on.
Also, we can't seem to rate your game.
Wisps and stars by pepnou 2025-10-20T01:56:06Z ♥ 2
Hey. I had wanted to try this, but the white on light blue's contrast makes a lot of the UI really hard to read for those of us with bad eyesight.
That said, I'm excited to see deck builders here. I did one a couple years ago and that definitely presented challenges for developing a game under this kind of time pressure. That said, it is fun to be ambitious on these occasionally.
Biocapital by SunJet 2025-10-19T23:53:30Z ♥ 0
Very solid entry but a bit too hard (got the first organ, but on seeing the second one's location I had to quit).
Sound effect's are well done. Everything feels very cohesive. I've always felt ab it unconfiden when voting for mood, but this entry really feels like it exemplifies that category.
Kobolds In Space by WeirdBitGames 2025-10-19T22:00:09Z ♥ 1
It's obvious a lot of work went in to this.
As a warning, for those with bad eyes, that font is a bit hard to read so it was a bit ahrd going through the tutorial. Definitely n interesting concept.
I did see a few bugs. Going rom full screen to regular screen and trying to drag cards to the stockpile showed dulicate cards.
I also ahd cards be clicked through the crafting gui when trying to craft.
That said, it is obvious that a lot of care was take with making this game in such a shorttime and it is definitly a cool entry.
Sticky Turtles! by Sevansevan 2025-10-19T21:29:45Z ♥ 1
I got curious after seeing someone mention the source code and took a look. I came across puzzlescript a while ago, but haven't tried it for anything yet. That's a cool idea to use it for that.
The game looks good. The written permission to drop off early is definitely appreciated. That said, I'm glad to see that others completed this as it definitly looks like quite the challenge to do so!
Star Reaper by Shoalmuse 2025-10-19T21:15:12Z ♥ 0
The visual effects are too notch. I love the start screen.
A couple quick things.
I wasn't entirely sure if the game was refusing to run at first I couldn't advance past the start screen. Also, perils of running on a mac where web games usually but don't always work.
I had a skull ship spawn practically on top of me.
There is definitely something weird with the camera and ship speed interaction.The effect feels somewhat jarring. I suspect you can get a similar effect to what you want by doing something like keeping the camera position lagging several frames behind (so accelerationad n deceleration will be visible) or adding some sort of a background as others have suggested.
I do agree that the lasers could be a bit hard to aim, but I think that is a reasonable style choice. You can always move closer for easier aiming so it wasn't really an issue.
Super Fly by Tsaot 2025-10-19T20:58:12Z ♥ 1
I really liked the recorded sound effects, but feel like you were missing something more ~~riveting~~ ribetting. Fun little entry. I do feel bad for these frog's tongues (or are these super powered frogs with the whole separate parts of the tongue?).
My only real complaint is that an arrow back tot he frog nest would have been nice (didn't go north immediately so I assumed it was more centerish and got lost looking for it the first time.
Mushrooms by PieRo_PBeS_studio 2025-10-18T18:48:19Z ♥ 1
Cool to see some of these effects on pico 8. I'm quickly learning that I really did not understand anywhere near the limits of pico 8 in doing my jam.
The game plays well. The movement speed felt a bit painful to me, but that might say more about my taste in games than this entry. Atmosphere felt great. The disparate area types and how they were interconnected was really well done.
Coco-llectors by tanis 2025-10-18T18:25:43Z ♥ 1
I played the we version and ran in to two issues.
The oipponent AI seemed to get stuck at some point. After it freed itself, pushing one pile somehow pushed nonadjacent piles also.
Before those issue, it played well. The AI played well enough to force learniing the gmae quickly which for something like a ludum dare review session is probably good.
Touch Mycelium by surf croc 2025-10-18T18:16:25Z ♥ 1
It's a bit of a shame on the sound effects being prerecorded as they're really good.
Nice seeing the use of billboard sprites. Everything looks well placed.
It did take me a smidge to realize that I had to crouch to get the mushrooms (had to restart to see I missed the control). No issues seen with your web version.
Letter Collector by lunarDust 2025-10-18T18:03:23Z ♥ 1
Good game. I had to take advantage of the ability to replay old levels to heal, but did manage to win. It is an interesting conceptΒ and executed well. The graphic style suits it well and the only real complaint I have was that ower defaulted ot number of tiles was unobvious to me.
Without replaying, I was only able to make it to the third set of enemies (didn't realize the fourth unlocked a low level enemy so maybe I could have survived after that though).
Collector's Coast by Liquid 2025-10-18T00:36:57Z ♥ 1
I've come across a few Ludum Dare city builder or other types of placement games in the past that hadn't felt good. This is definitely the first one that felt like it had any polish (and a combo no less)! I had sort of discounted the genre previously based off what I saw, but I might have to try that if I'm feeling more ambitious in the future!
Amazing art style, very appropriate music, and a really cohesive game.
Klunk's Adventure by stephenwhoskins 2025-10-18T00:06:40Z ♥ 1
Awesome game. Usually platformers like this (taking more inspiration from older platformers rather than newer ones) don't feel great on the motion. This feels noticeably better for that style (sorry, I prefer the newer stuff).
My only real suggestion if you go do more with this is to swap the last two levels. I found the one before last on both boss and platforming way more difficult.
Looking forward to hopefully doing another jame with you at some point (although comp was interesting)!