Ha, we made very similar games. Good stuff!
slavacat
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A member registered Apr 03, 2020 · View creator page →
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A treebased tower-defense with "loose" insipirations from PvZ
Strategy
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Dead City Climber jam comments · Replied to ixoreus // rowan pippin in Dead City Climber jam comments
Thanks for the detailed feedback! As for the narrative conclusion, you're supposed to continue to the right of the pinnacle to reach the final obstacle. This is some great playtesting knowledge though, I assumed players would go right naturally. I didn't get to do much of that before submission, so I'll take this into account for a revisit. Thank you!
Took me a minute to figure out the controls and how to jump midair, but after that, I enjoyed the game much more! It is very challenging but had me trying again and again to get a higher score. I did notice that I never really used the shooting mechanic because it was too much to juggle with the movement mechanics. Other than that, just work on communication and responsiveness to different events in game (like loosing health?) and you've got a solid game! Good luck!
Great graphical style! I like how the obstacles changed the higher I got, added some variety and motivation to keep playing. Controls were responsive and easy to use and figure out; however, when hitting an obstacle (especially when large) I would be teleported back and not have time to recover before hitting the same obstacle over and over, which felt a little unfair. Maybe having some kind of invisibility frames when damaged or destroy the obstacle you collided with. The leader board is a unique and interesting feature that makes this game stand out; but game play wise, it doesn't do much to differentiate itself from other similar games.
Overall, a fun experience. With a good variety of art styles, the game stays fresh. The game mainly suffers from the easily fixable problem of hitting the same obstacle over and over. A little bit of work and polishing later, I could see this game being very enjoyable. Good luck!
Fun idea and great first game! It was fun to see how the level changed when I got smaller and to have to change up my strategy to get through the level. I did find it unclear that the fruits made you restart the level and that left me confused for a good bit, but once I figures it out, things were fine. I also found the controls really difficult to use, especially when very large as I kept running into the fruits almost unavoidably. Maybe decreasing your horizontal move speed could help.
Overall, a great start! Keep working at it, get people to test it, and polish! Good luck!
Fun game! Took me a minute to figure out what to do, though. Very unique concept and interesting execution! My main critique is how difficult it is to control the golem, especially when trying to get it to move to the side. I kept falling all the way down and found it very frustrating to have to climb all the way up again.
Overall, a very fun game that has a lot of potential! I'd love to see where this goes!
This game feels very alive in audio and graphics, I love all the little sound effects and can tell there was good time spent on them. In my opinion, some of them were a tad bit too loud and could benefit from some pitch and volume randomization, but they contributed well to the overall feel of the game.
My main critique of the game is the controls. I found it very frustrating to try and stop in time because of the very low friction. This made jumping on the leaves very difficult and even more frustrating when I had something chasing me. I did like the wall jumping though, it was very intuitive which is something platformers tend to mess up on. I think if you increased friction after the player stops pressing the controls, that would help them feel more responsive and easier to control.
Overall, great start for a jam game, the size changing mechanic was fun and the style was engaging. After a bit of polish and play testing, I could see this game being very enjoyable to work through. Good luck!
The dialogs in this are great
I really enjoy how you can replay the game over and over for different dialogs depending on your composition of gas, I probably played it a good 6-or-so times. If you're looking to encourage people to replay, maybe an achievement system for different sizes and compositions would work. This is a fun little game and I enjoyed playing it!
Interesting. I like the randomness.
I'll detail how you might go about maturing an investment:
Most simply: Funds mature by a constant value
1) Create an investment variable with a value of 0. This is how much money is currently in the investment.
2) If there is any money in the investment (investment > 0), add something like a dollar every frame (~$30 per second)
3) When the player buys stock, take some amount from their money to add to the investment
4) When the player sells stock, add the investment variable to the players money and set the investment var back to 0.
Pseudo Code:
var investment = 0 // The current value of your investment var increase_rate = 1 // How much to increase the investment every frame var player_money = 10000 // How much money the player has var buy_price = 1000 // How much each stock costs forever: if (investment > 0): investment += increase_rate on_event sell_stock: player_money += investment investment = 0 on_event buy_stock: player_money -= buy_price investment += buy_price
Simple: Increase by a constant rate
The only difference between the last method is that we change how much to increase the investment by to be a rate, so that you get exponentially more money the longer funds are in:
Change
var increase_rate = 1 // How much to increase the investment every frame
forever:
if (investment > 0):
investment += increase_rate
to
var increase_rate = 0.01 // How much of the current investment we gain every frame
forever:
// 100 * 0.1 (10% of 100) is 10; add 10 to 100
investment += investment * increase_rateComplex: variable rate + declines
Every frame, you could change the rate at which the investment changes. You could decrease it, make it negative, increase it, or make it positive:
var increase_rate = 0.01 // How much of the current investment we gain every frame
forever:
// 100 * 0.1 (10% of 100) is 10; add 10 to 100
increase_rate += get a random number between -0.1 and 0.1
investment += investment * increase_rate
Let me know if you have any questions!
836 seconds! Very fun experience, kept me engaged, very impressive for a maze game! I've never seen the approach of occluding the maze; it's probably my favorite method of going through a maze because it makes you remember what you've seen without being as intimidating as a first-person maze.
I only had one major issue with the game: controls. When I press the right arrow key, I keep moving right; however, once I press the up arrow to move up a tile, I stop moving right. I got used to this method of movement, but it felt clunky--and for a maze game, it's all about smooth controls. I'd expect to be able to resume moving right after I release the up arrow.
In way of suggestions, a few ideas popped into my mind during play. Flares and Beacons: you have a limited amount of both, you can shoot flares to any spot in the map to illuminate it; you can place beacons to preserve light in the place you are at. I also thought it would be cool if all the different colored mazes all had different "characters". (e.g. red could have long corridors while green could be very dense).
Overall, a very fun experience! I loved the more experimental music and chilling atmosphere presented. Good luck with future developments!
First off, I like the haunted aesthetic presented. The sound effect and bg ambiance were unsettling and provided an interesting atmosphere. I'm also impressed that you managed to put together a project like this using Pygame in under 5 days. Good choices in the environmental design and technical execution department!
Now onto some critiques! As mentioned by others, the fact that bats aid you and wolfs kill you is not clear. This led to frustration on my end when I landed on the wolf for the first time after clearing the fire jump. There are a couple of ways you could go about fixing this, but the simplest would be to just make the bat look like it can help you. Maybe it could carry a platform on ropes, or have a board on it's head for you to stand on.
The second problem I noticed was the difficulty of the gameplay. It felt like I was playing a level designed for much later in the game. The two areas I noticed being overly difficult in timing were the fire jump from the cliff and the water jump with a block over my head. If you introduce difficult timings really early into your games, people are less inclined to continue playing due to frustration--in short, it felt unfair. You might consider adding checkpoints so that players aren't reset to zero over and over with every timing they slightly miss.
Overall, a fun spooky platformer. After I got over the high learning curve, I was able to enjoy some of the more difficult timings. With a slight tweak to the skill progression, you've got a solid platformer. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!
That's better. If you're looking for a feedback formula, this is what I tend to use:
The problem + why it's a problem (most important part) + what you might do to fix it
Also, try to do criticism sandwiches so that you always start and end on positive notes:
complement + critique + complement
I appreciate your effort, expect a review soon!
I love the Mario like controls (and design) of the player character, very fun! I also love the level design and how you can find subtle ways to conserve jumps (e.g. using the lifts to get you over a bump). The timing mechanic of the bomb blocks was also very engaging as it forced me to think quick. I'd love to see more levels where all the different components interact!
As for critiques: controls. That's my only critique. The cluster of [z],[x], and [space] got really confusing and frustrating when any kind of time pressure (the bomb blocks) was applied. I've noticed this problem with many other games that use this control scheme, it's the fact that no one can agree on what should be jump and what should be shoot. I've seen space and shoot, x as jump; z as shoot, x as jump; x as shoot, space as jump. There's so many ways to approach this control scheme and every one does it differently--it's just soup in my brain. I would propose the following: Arrow keys for LR movement and JUMP, SHIFT for sprint and Z for shoot. That way you have tactile differences between the shoot and sprint key and jump fits in with the other movement controls.
Overall, when I wasn't frustrated at the controls, it's an excellent platforming experience. Unique level designs and fun puzzles. Good luck with whatever you decide to do with the game!
What I'm seeing in your feedback is one-two sentences with minimal feedback; I'm looking for thoughtful feedback before I review your entry. Thoughtful feedback includes what you did and didn't like about the game and why. You might also suggest possible additions or directions the game could go. The idea of this thread is to get people to give actual feedback rather than just shop their entry around.
I don't need three examples (but it would be great if you decided to do more), so just find a game where you can do a more in-depth review and come back. I'd be happy to review your game!
I will thoughtfully review, complement, and critique your submitted game on the condition that you have done so to another project. Please link it below with evidence of thoughtful and genuine feedback on another's game (You can just provide a link to the game you reviewed).
The idea of this thread is to incentivize higher quality feedback than "I enjoyed your game". Merely posting a link to your project will have it be ignored. Go give thoughtful feedback.
FYI I am on a windows device, so browser and windows builds are all I can run.; however, I'll crack out my Linux machine if you've given really, really excellent feedback.
Very fun and creative! I love the approach of just giving people the level and letting them find their own way through it; however, this came with a caveat: Flip gravity was too OP on all the levels. Designing your levels in a way that gives players freedom to solve it however they choose is a difficult task; I suggest looking into Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's shrine level designs to get an idea of a way to approach a challenge like this.
I may have been more inclined to use the other abilities if I had a visual indicator of which on I was currently on. Cycling and testing out each ability was very confusing so I stuck to gravity flip out of frustration--bonus points if the character's appearance changes.
Overall, a great start. I'd love to see what you can do with a little more time to polish. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
I love it! Engaging story, interesting dilemma. Controls felt good and destruction was satisfying.
In ways of bugs, I noticed one: you can just deactivate the same component repeatedly (radio) and keep everything else. When I played through the first time ,not doing that, it was really fun to see how I interacted with the environment differently and how my choices led to different consequences.
In the way of suggestions, I feel like the game was too easy. My hull never dipped below 60% and I felt too invincible. To add another level of decision making and difficulty to the game, maybe the falling debris could have the ability to damage the player and the enemies and stop bullets.
In the way of nitpicks, slight randomizations to the debris falling would be cool, just to add variety.
In the way of other complements, I love how fast the game runs. I experienced no lag even with heaps of destruction, bullets, and enemies flying around the screen. Great optimizations!
JUNKSHIP: Invasion of the Space Wreckoons jam comments · Replied to Carcabob in JUNKSHIP: Invasion of the Space Wreckoons jam comments
JUNKSHIP: Invasion of the Space Wreckoons jam comments · Posted in JUNKSHIP: Invasion of the Space Wreckoons jam comments
Very fun to play! I really like how the ship shrinks as you loose junk and how you have to balance dodging with shooting to preserve you junk as much as possible.
PROBLEMS:
- Spaceship got stuck on walls some times
- There is no timer telling me how long I have left to get to the MOMSHIP (I'm pretty sure I got past 2 minutes)
- Not much else, good experience, just a few polishing factors needed for a better game.
Fun once I was able to get it started and understand how things worked. I enjoyed making strategies to maximize, not really my time, but my wax and fos output.
I do have some suggestions. The beginning of the game is really confusing and really boring. The fonts were very hard to read, I was confused on how the candle selection worked and why I couldn't craft anything. I also found it boring to just sit there and watch my single candle slowly die over and over again. That being said, after I got over those difficulties, I was able to have a much better time; however, the start of the game is where you lose the most players. Maybe you could start of with more wax and fos (I was also very confused on what FoS is and how to get it) or start with a couple of candles already crafted, just something to introduce players to the possibilities of your game. I would also make it more clear how FoS is produced because it seemed to be a highly limiting factor to the kinds of candles I could create.
Overall and enjoyable experience. I had fun exploring the different types of candles. Polishing the introductory experience is the bane of most Jam games, but I'm sure you'll be able to fix it up given more time. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Idea has very high potential; needing to sit people in rows, at the right time for the right movie...it's a great start (because it did get really boring after the 50th round (however the satisfying sfx did help)). If you don't want to add anything, I would suggest the next best thing: taking stuff away! If there were less seats and less times available, players would feel the pressure and need to think ahead on grouping seating much faster contributing to a more engaging experience. However, I also have an addition I would like to suggest: more constraints! Maybe the people you ticket could have different stats like rowdiness, irritability, smelliness, or patience; put the rowdy people away from the irritable and closer to the patient. At the end, viewers who were placed by people they didn't mind would contribute positively to your score while viewers who had a bad time would contribute negatively. Just some ideas, good luck with whatever you decide to do!
A few things I enjoyed:
- The diversity of weapon types.
- The pursuit of many goals (find key, find door, find wand, destroy enemies, avoid enemies).
- The urgent feeling of needing to find the goal before I became swarmed by monsters.
A few changes I would suggest:
Different enemy behaviors, and less enemies. The only weapon I ended up using was the shotgun. That wasn't because it was the best weapon to counter the enemies at hand: a large horde of slow moving enemies. Having different enemy types that have strengths and weaknesses to different weapons would make the game much more engaging and force players to use a balanced mix of the weapons as well as providing an incentive to not lose any of them. For example, if there was a ranged enemy, the sniper would be preferable to take it out, but if I lost the sniper, I'd have to readjust my tactics to take it out at a closer range. The presence of less enemies allows the player to actually form a tactic other than "run n' gun" and consider how their current loadout affects the situation. Less enemies would also help with the lag problem.
I also noticed that the door will spawn behind a wall--or that it didn't, in fact, spawn in the first place.
Great start, I enjoyed the playing experience! I think that the presence of more unique enemies would help the game stand out from the current crowd of horde survival games. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Meeting Cthulhuian eldritch-horrors is my favorite pass time! I love the story and its potential to go many places; however, I am not a super huge fan of the gameplay. This may be a limitation of your engine, but I'd love to be able to see more of the screen so that I'm not blindly falling into pits and so I can plan my jumps better. I'd also suggest finding something (other than your beautiful graphics) to make the gameplay unique--collect all the coins platformers tend to lose interest quickly. Maybe you could play into the fact that you're in space and that gravity has very little influence. Maybe each of the monsters you meet have some effect on how you interact with the environment. Combining your story and gameplay in a meaningful way is a sure route to an interesting and memorable experience. Good luck, I'd love to see where in the universe you take this!
108,882...
Very fun, environment was interesting to explore and very diverse in the different buildings and decorations. Even with a 1-bit styling, I'm impressed that everything seemed seemed very unique. I love the driving mechanics and how it feels to drive the bikes around; however, not being able to throw mail from them was a major turnoff that led me to end up walking the whole time. I think that the lost accuracy due to speed would be balance enough. Also, the music is too quiet, I did not notice it the first time round and almost gave this entry a zero for music. As fun as sniping mailboxes from across the map and evading ghosts is, I got bored of it. For further development, I think that adding in more intermediary concrete goals (other than deliver as much mail as possible and stay alive) would be useful in keeping the player engaged. Overall, great work, I'd love to see where this goes!
Fun game! Took me a few tries to get a good score (~140). I like the fast paced nature, kept me on my toes and thinking ahead and making quick strategies for money making (buy, steal, sell, survey).
A few Quality of Life suggestions to consider. Show score after losing (I had to guess around where my score was). Have visual feedback for what stock buying and selling does (e.g. a bar that shows how much your investment has increased over time) and visual readouts for what each button did to your money (rising readout of the money lost or gained on button press) this makes it less ambiguous as to what it happening and makes it feel more fair. Reactive buttons, have them either highlight or expand when you hover over them, this will let people know that they can actually be pressed--and it just feels good. Aside from that, I think it would be funny if the character in the middle slowly got more stressed the less money there was in savings.