GMC Jam Discussion The Thunderous 34th GMC Jam - Discussion Topic

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pixeltroid

Member
@ParodyKnaveBob

Hey. Thanks for the playthrough video. It felt very satisfying to see someone else play my game. It was extremely valuable as player feedback. I now realize that some things could have been done much better, like the jumps and the placement of spikes and ammo.

I will implement these learnings into my main project.

Once again, thanks for the playthrough!
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
You're very welcome, @pixeltroid! I'm so glad I have a computer that can handle video + games now. For years, I've wanted to give devs the best feedback they can get (non-verbal feedback, in-depth opinions, etc.), but writing things out takes so much time, to the point where it's hard to even play the games for all the back-and-forth I have to do. And yes, in your particular case, the offscreen spike gotchas would be "fun" in a troll game/level, but since trolly was clearly not what you were going for, I'm glad you have some new insight, lol. $¦^ D (Meanwhile, like I think I said in the video, I really appreciated where you placed that one drop-off ammo icon, thereby teaching the player that downward exploration was safe (mostly lol) and encouraged. Good job there!)

In other news, the last two games I streamed just now, MIcah_DS's and Pranjal+Shwet's, took some surprising turns in my end conclusions... and that's 18 out of 30 done! Depending how tomorrow goes, it'd be nice to finish the remaining 12 in a streaming marathon, but not all games are created equal (time-wise), and it's starting to get a bit more difficult to place some games into ranking because of the finer nuances. Still, I expect a big stream starting sometime within a half day (starting with @lolslayer & teammate), and perhaps another big one on the day following, hopefully done by weekend's end. $:^ ]
 

lolslayer

Member
You're very welcome, @pixeltroid! I'm so glad I have a computer that can handle video + games now. For years, I've wanted to give devs the best feedback they can get (non-verbal feedback, in-depth opinions, etc.), but writing things out takes so much time, to the point where it's hard to even play the games for all the back-and-forth I have to do. And yes, in your particular case, the offscreen spike gotchas would be "fun" in a troll game/level, but since trolly was clearly not what you were going for, I'm glad you have some new insight, lol. $¦^ D (Meanwhile, like I think I said in the video, I really appreciated where you placed that one drop-off ammo icon, thereby teaching the player that downward exploration was safe (mostly lol) and encouraged. Good job there!)

In other news, the last two games I streamed just now, MIcah_DS's and Pranjal+Shwet's, took some surprising turns in my end conclusions... and that's 18 out of 30 done! Depending how tomorrow goes, it'd be nice to finish the remaining 12 in a streaming marathon, but not all games are created equal (time-wise), and it's starting to get a bit more difficult to place some games into ranking because of the finer nuances. Still, I expect a big stream starting sometime within a half day (starting with @lolslayer & teammate), and perhaps another big one on the day following, hopefully done by weekend's end. $:^ ]
can't wait :D
 

Toque

Member
You're very welcome, @pixeltroid! I'm so glad I have a computer that can handle video + games now. For years, I've wanted to give devs the best feedback they can get (non-verbal feedback, in-depth opinions, etc.), but writing things out takes so much time, to the point where it's hard to even play the games for all the back-and-forth I have to do. And yes, in your particular case, the offscreen spike gotchas would be "fun" in a troll game/level, but since trolly was clearly not what you were going for, I'm glad you have some new insight, lol. $¦^ D (Meanwhile, like I think I said in the video, I really appreciated where you placed that one drop-off ammo icon, thereby teaching the player that downward exploration was safe (mostly lol) and encouraged. Good job there!)

In other news, the last two games I streamed just now, MIcah_DS's and Pranjal+Shwet's, took some surprising turns in my end conclusions... and that's 18 out of 30 done! Depending how tomorrow goes, it'd be nice to finish the remaining 12 in a streaming marathon, but not all games are created equal (time-wise), and it's starting to get a bit more difficult to place some games into ranking because of the finer nuances. Still, I expect a big stream starting sometime within a half day (starting with @lolslayer & teammate), and perhaps another big one on the day following, hopefully done by weekend's end. $:^ ]

The videos are only streamed and not recorded? Will try and watch. Thanks.


Also liking the diverse games. I thought quality overall was good this jam.
It was a good theme to play on.
 
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Misty

Guest
The videos are only streamed and not recorded? Will try and watch. Thanks.


Also liking the diverse games. I thought quality overall was good this jam.
It was a good theme to play on.
I disagree. This jam had a low-turnout and had an uninspiring theme. I could not pick Top 3 only top 2 games because I felt only 2 games were even worthy.
 

Toque

Member
I disagree. This jam had a low-turnout and had an uninspiring theme. I could not pick Top 3 only top 2 games because I felt only 2 games were even worthy.
That’s cool Misty.
It was a lower turn out. True.

Glad my game made your top 2 list.

I still think a nice diverse mix of games.
I had fun playing and participating.

LOVED the theme.
Games.
10/10

I might offer a substantial prize for first time jammers to encourage new faces next jam.
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Frustrating how I keep trying to schedule these things, and then other things keep coming up. Just to stick to my word on some level, I'll do a couple reviews in a few minutes -- setting up now -- but I'm being called elsewhere...

EDIT: $:^ ( Sorry, it broke like others. So weird.

The videos are only streamed and not recorded? Will try and watch. Thanks.
They're streamed live at the time, but yes, they get recorded and (as I've set up) automatically filed into my "PKB plays! - GMC Jam 34" playlist. It's linked in my review topic, thus you can check back on everybody's games in order that I've played.
 
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HayManMarc

Member
@ParodyKnaveBob -- thanx for the video review! It was great watching you play the game and hearing your comments in real time. I think you might be slightly overcritical about my font as I thought my presentation was well above average (plinko board in background of title screen, smooth music transitions, game over menu options, audio and visual feedback on menu buttons, cohesive style throughout). Just making my case, if you don't agree, I can respect that.

And yes, someday we should revisit PSI. Peace, brother Bob!
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Sure, @HayManMarc, I'll take another look once I'm done with the others. I'll let that offer stand for anyone else who believes I missed something. (Oh, and also, it's possible I edited you-whoever-you-are's stats in a later video because of continuing to reassess ranking nuances and consistency.)
 

Toque

Member
Frustrating how I keep trying to schedule these things, and then other things keep coming up. Just to stick to my word on some level, I'll do a couple reviews in a few minutes -- setting up now -- but I'm being called elsewhere...

EDIT: $:^ ( Sorry, it broke like others. So weird.



They're streamed live at the time, but yes, they get recorded and (as I've set up) automatically filed into my "PKB plays! - GMC Jam 34" playlist. It's linked in my review topic, thus you can check back on everybody's games in order that I've played.
Very cool. Thanks.
 
@ParodyKnaveBob Thanks for taking the time to review No Smash The Walls. Really enjoyed your comments and playthrough. Much appreciated, agree the controls were too sensitive. It seems something went wrong with the orbital mechanics prototype, it *was* possible to perform a stable orbit initially, but the physics in the final version seem to have gotten out of balance.

Watching the playthrough - the best viewing moments for me were actually when you were smashing the walls or using the smart bomb, and also the test of the gravity prototype, something for me to consider for the next jam in terms of finding fun mechanics.
 

lolslayer

Member
Frustrating how I keep trying to schedule these things, and then other things keep coming up. Just to stick to my word on some level, I'll do a couple reviews in a few minutes -- setting up now -- but I'm being called elsewhere...

EDIT: $:^ ( Sorry, it broke like others. So weird.



They're streamed live at the time, but yes, they get recorded and (as I've set up) automatically filed into my "PKB plays! - GMC Jam 34" playlist. It's linked in my review topic, thus you can check back on everybody's games in order that I've played.
Oh wow, I've never seen that bug before
Are you sure that you're up to date on DirectX?
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Oh wow, I've never seen that bug before
Are you sure that you're up to date on DirectX?
I can't find anything more specific than this: I'm on DX 12, and Windows Update doesn't complain that I'm behind any. (Oh, wait, no, it says I have an update *today* pending. Ha. But still. Nevertheless, d/l'ing now.)
 

Micah_DS

Member
Nice, I just finished playing all the games this morning! I recorded all my playthroughs but I had some (many) diverse moments of failure *ahem*, which means I'll need to edit the videos if I want them to be beneficial. I might just make a single highlights compilation video of all the jam games, if that works out.
Well, first I'll finish my comments for all the games, so even if the video stuff doesn't prove to be beneficial enough to share, at least there will be that feedback.

@ParodyKnaveBob:

Wow. WOOOW, thank you so much for thoroughly playing my game (The POrtal). I had no idea anyone would spend over an hour on it and not quit. :eek: Your patience is admirable.
I watched your whole playthrough, though I admit that I mostly watched at 2x speed. :p I found that I could still catch your movements and comments at 2x, so that was neat.

Question: Did you notice the music and sfx mute buttons at the beginning or just at the end?
I'm just wondering if I messed up there, perhaps making them blend too much into the walls (I wasted so much time struggling on this aspect, tbh, so I had to just call it good).
You made a comment about the music not getting annoying, but I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not, ahahaha. So I'm just hoping the buttons were visible enough to catch attention. I was afraid people might get annoyed because there's essentially just two sections to the music track, and the same chord progression continues throughout.


Some things I've learned from feedback on my game:
  • The text that says "press arrow keys to move" should've been presented in a way which didn't allow the player to see it, yet to accidentally skip it without catching what it said.
  • Transfer between portals is a little too confusing/unintuitive, and this could've been alleviated with an entrance/exit trajectory visual to show where you'll come out of (and doing this for enemies would've been good too).
  • Enemy movements may not have been perfect and could've used some behavioral explanation. They're supposed to move toward you in the direction they are farthest from you, but even now, I'm not certain I programmed it to work perfectly there. At first, enemies were able to move diagonally, but testing proved it was too difficult for the player to control the enemies around the portal, so I reprogrammed it, and at that point I had already sunk too much time into the enemies, so I rushed a bit on the revisions, so it's very possible they don't move quite as intended.
Thanks so much to everyone for the feedback so far!
 

Bart

WiseBart
All right. I finally found the time today to complete my reviews.
You can find them in the voting topic.

If you have any questions or remarks on one of my reviews, feel free to let me know.

Thanks to all of you who played my game so far! Especially @ParodyKnaveBob! Wow, about 45 minutes of play.
I'm happy with all of your feedback.

To make things a bit more clear about my game: it doesn't really tell you when you complete it, but you can consider it finished when you achieve the following 3 things:
  • Find the right entrance and have a look inside
  • Complete the missing vocab in your translator
  • Pop all the balloons (anyone found this already? takeoff near the tv tower :D)
I may release a slightly modified post-jam version with these achievements added. Just for the sake of completeness.
 
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HayManMarc

Member
So... I'm trying to make video reviews of cold, first time plays. I don't have the greatest setup as there's a bit too much white noise from my microphone for my liking, but I'm just gonna go with it. Also, I don't have a lot of time so I don't know how many I can get through. I guess we'll see what happens! :) I just hope they're helpful.
I don't have any uploaded or available yet. I'll let you know when I do. I'm not sure how I'll upload them yet.
 

lolslayer

Member
I can't find anything more specific than this: I'm on DX 12, and Windows Update doesn't complain that I'm behind any. (Oh, wait, no, it says I have an update *today* pending. Ha. But still. Nevertheless, d/l'ing now.)
Hmm, I can try finding some stuff about it, but I do believe that it's a problem at your machine's side. I've tested it on my machine, my teammate's, and I've seen a review of GameDevDan that confirms that it works for him too. But it's a problem with the compilation of a shader, if you want to, I can give you a build that works without shaders. It will be less pretty, but at least it will work (probably).
 

KPJ

Member
Hey everyone! Most of the feedback I've been given for my game, Objective: Stealth, is that it is too hard at the start, which I agree with (also thank you to everyone for taking the time to vote and review my game!). So, I made a video on my channel on how I get past the roof, and the floor after the roof (which most people struggle on):

Also: If you noticed that sometimes you slip into the guards view and they don't see you, it's because there is a buffer of 1/6 th of a second, so that the player can make up for their mistakes, if they react quickly enough. For example, in the video when I jump down from the roof to the next floor (at 0:12 in the video), I slip into the guard's view for the tiniest fraction of a second and he doesn't notice. Just to clarify :p

Big thanks to @GameDevDan @Bart @FrostyCat @ParodyKnaveBob and @lolslayer for the reviews!

 
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Misty

Guest
That’s cool Misty.
It was a lower turn out. True.

Glad my game made your top 2 list.

I still think a nice diverse mix of games.
I had fun playing and participating.

LOVED the theme.
Games.
10/10

I might offer a substantial prize for first time jammers to encourage new faces next jam.
I never said who made the top 2, and quite honestly I don't remember who it was.
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
You're welcome for the reviews, everyone! Wowee. $:^ }

  • Find the right entrance and have a look inside
  • Complete the missing vocab in your translator
  • Pop all the balloons (anyone found this already? takeoff near the tv tower :D)
1 & 2 - Ah, so then I did complete that. Good to know.
3 - Whoa! What a crazy easter egg! I mean, you heard me being curious about the tower, and you saw me trying every single road (so I thought). I suppose for the fun of it, I'll try to figure this out once I'm done with everyone's games...

I'm not sure how I'll upload them yet.
The YouTube. Google Account, hit upload button at top, drag'n'drop / file selection, type your infos. The YouTube, man.

if you want to, I can give you a build that works without shaders. It will be less pretty, but at least it will work (probably).
Might be fun to get to play as intended at any rate. First, though, I'll see if I can solve or workaround the apparent computer issue so that I can retry everyone's shader games.

So, I made a video on my channel on how I get past the roof, and the floor after the roof (which most people struggle on):
Ohhhhhhhhhhh, you have to jump up to re-interact with the door to be able to close it. Wow, didn't expect that in the least; you can see, it didn't even dawn on me to try it, and I was thinking I said something about not being able to close 'em. Hm.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

A stock tic-tac-toe example. I don't see what the relationship to "Single Point of Entry" is, and the AI is very badly done.
Thanks of course for playing, assessing, and writing about my little experiment. ~nod~ $:^ J

Did you read the README and AFTERWORD texts I included?

The README implies the answer to your observation about theme: I didn't originally intend this as a jam entry; therefore, no, it has no relationship to the theme whatsoever. (As an unofficial aside, I even joked in the discussion thread that it's more like it has nine points of entry, lol.)

The AFTERWORD potentially addresses your statement that "the AI is very badly done." There's a huge difference between "the AI is very bad" (which is true on purpose -- from "doesn't know how to play" to "only defends even to the point of missing wins to block the player") and "the AI is very badly done" (which you'd have to read the source code to know). Good thing I included the source code and said so in the AFTERWORD. $:^ ] Did you assess how I designed and wrote the AI to come to your conclusion that it was very badly done? If you did, I'm all ears for much better methods (aside from the obvious "use DS" since my personal experimental goal was to only use instances).
 
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Hey everyone! Most of the feedback I've been given for my game, Objective: Stealth, is that it is too hard at the start, which I agree with (also thank you to everyone for taking the time to vote and review my game!). So, I made a video on my channel on how I get past the roof, and the floor after the roof (which most people struggle on):

Also: If you noticed that sometimes you slip into the guards view and they don't see you, it's because there is a buffer of 1/6 th of a second, so that the player can make up for their mistakes, if they react quickly enough. For example, in the video when I jump down from the roof to the next floor (at 0:12 in the video), I slip into the guard's view for the tiniest fraction of a second and he doesn't notice. Just to clarify :p
I found that if I grapple the roof, even when I'm in direct line of sight of the guards(like hanging on the small edge next to a door), they don't detect me (because...I'm Batman!). For a bit of a laugh, if you try grappling when you are on the roof top, you float up into space!
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Whoops, read Micah's then forgot to reply. $F^ ,

Question: Did you notice the music and sfx mute buttons at the beginning or just at the end?
I'm just wondering if I messed up there, perhaps making them blend too much into the walls (I wasted so much time struggling on this aspect, tbh, so I had to just call it good).
You made a comment about the music not getting annoying, but I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not, ahahaha. So I'm just hoping the buttons were visible enough to catch attention. I was afraid people might get annoyed because there's essentially just two sections to the music track, and the same chord progression continues throughout.
I noticed them fine. Just piddled with them at the end a bit, but I prefer music and effects on (with some annoying exceptions). Not facetious at all - if I hadn't liked your music, instrumentation, etc., I would've said so. $;^ ]

Transfer between portals is a little too confusing/unintuitive, and this could've been alleviated with an entrance/exit trajectory visual to show where you'll come out of (and doing this for enemies would've been good too).
I guess others had problems with this? (I've only read my game's reviews so far, plus peeked sporadically at a couple others' games I'd already played. I intend to read everything once I'm done.) I thought the pOrtal entry/exit was perfectly logical.

I rushed a bit on the revisions, so it's very possible they don't move quite as intended.
Ahhh. Yes. Jam time. $:^ P heheheh
One thing to note, sometimes an enemy is equidistant horizontally and vertically from the player -- but which way does it go? And sometimes you just super want it to go vertically, but it chooses horizontally because you have that condition to check true first (or false last, lol). That assumes you used pretty standard conditional checking of course.
 

Micah_DS

Member
Ok, so I decided to put a bit more effort into the reviews/feedback than I first thought I would, since my recorded playthroughs weren't great, meaning I must take to words to give my feedback.
At this moment, I have 18 left to write feedback for. As always, I'll make my voting post once I have all the feedback done for each entry. ;)
 

Relic

Member
You are not the only one with shader issues. I also have not been able to run 4 games so far due to a dxd3 error regarding a shader. Checked- also up to date with windows 10 (which also handles dx updates).
 

Toque

Member
You are not the only one with shader issues. I also have not been able to run 4 games so far due to a dxd3 error regarding a shader. Checked- also up to date with windows 10 (which also handles dx updates).
Yes. Having shader errors running games and not sure what to do about them.??????

Do I need a gaming computer to run these things? Never used shaders.
It seems some people can run them as they have reviewed them. It seems a bit harsh to punish in the rankings......

Ive never had a jam where I had this. The laptop that I borrow for the Jams is getting long in the tooth though. So not sure what to do?
 
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KPJ

Member
Thank you @HayManMarc and @Toque for the reviews! Yeah, I know I made the game way too hard (sorry for that), as many people have been saying! I guess I just play-tested it so much that it just became easy for me, so I didn't think it was hard. Since I can play it pretty well however, I uploaded another video where I almost beat the game (I got the breifcase and made it all the way back to the roof before I got caught) :bash::p.

Note: As I said in my previous post, if you get in the enemies view for a fraction of a second, you can save yourself. You can use this to your advantage, as I did at 2:01 in the video, when I was obtaining the breifcase.

 

Gizmo199

Member
@Toque thanks for the review! Yeah I really did want to do more towards the theme. There is a secret ending though that kinda works but I think I made it too secret. Haha. (On the last level (the water one) try to go back. Keep trying and find the secret ending. Once you do try to play the game again!)
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Tic Tac Toe Parody Knave Bob

Its tic tac toe. Credit for a game I would struggle to make. No idea about the theme. Has different difficulty levels that you explain in your (fun to watch ) videos. I think if you get back into dev we will see more interesting things from you.

Thank ya, @Toque. $:^ J Yeah, I do hope to get more involved with dev'ing again by the end of the year. I still have to wait before going for GMS2, though, since life has had some serious setbacks this year I'm still overcoming. (And fwiw, even without the video, since the Player-accessible AFTERWORD states I also included the source, one can see the intent behind AI from within the jam entry package itself. I mean, I named my enums the way I did for a reason. $;^ } heheh) Oh! On another note, I'm glad you enjoyed my self-review video. $:^ P Lol.

Now I'm really getting curious who reads everyone's READMEs and AFTERWORDs vs. not...

EDIT: Hm. Looking at the time... I believe I can try for the remaining nine entries in two hours. See you there! $:^ ]
 
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Toque

Member

Thank ya, @Toque. $:^ J Yeah, I do hope to get more involved with dev'ing again by the end of the year. I still have to wait before going for GMS2, though, since life has had some serious setbacks this year I'm still overcoming. (And fwiw, even without the video, since the Player-accessible AFTERWORD states I also included the source, one can see the intent behind AI from within the jam entry package itself. I mean, I named my enums the way I did for a reason. $;^ } heheh) Oh! On another note, I'm glad you enjoyed my self-review video. $:^ P Lol.

Now I'm really getting curious who reads everyone's READMEs and AFTERWORDs vs. not...

EDIT: Hm. Looking at the time... I believe I can try for the remaining nine entries in two hours. See you there! $:^ ]
I don’t read stuff unless I have too.
Make a game. Play all the games. Watch videos. Make videos. Rank games. Replay games. Change rankings. Follow forums. These jams are like a full time job. Haha.

But always time to watch your videos.
 

NazGhuL

NazTaiL
I had in mind a young imperial officer without experience who does not understand anything of the work he has to do and it leads to the destruction of the death star. An incomprehensible console, clunky and broken. A kind of puzzle game. I unfortunattely didn't have enough time to work on it. I made it short and funny.
But in this @ParodyKnaveBob review, at exactly 2:15, his face is definitively what a young officer may look like while sitting in front of an incomprehensible console. :D :D :D


And at 4:29 (I did! I did!)
Thx for those video reviews.
:D
 

Gizmo199

Member
@ParodyKnaveBob Thanks for the review! Glad you seemed to enjoy it! Yeah my original idea for the theme was that you only get to pick one exit and the game progresses from there depending on how well you follow certain rules but I ran out of time so I just went with like "oh he comes in". Couldn't really think of a good way to incorporate the theme. However on the water level if you try to go back you will get a surprise ending and see what happens when you try to play the game again. ;) should have made something like that a little more clear and easy to find. Thank you again for playing it and reviewing it! :D I think I am going to rework some graphics and try to put together a solid demo as it seems like people have been enjoying the concept.
 
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ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
I'm not very fun at parties

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
There's not much to mention here, it's a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe. But it is nice to see that the simple game are still very much fun to play, and I enjoyed playing against the AI quite a lot. It was a bit too easy in my opinion but still relatively competent.
And don't worry Bob, it seems like you are still very capable of programming, I haven't looked at the source code but the game itself is very much functional.
Game: Facts are all true -- not much, simple, too easy but with a dash of competence at its upper end -- and your opinion kinda surprises me -- enjoyable, very much fun. I'm glad someone could enjoy playing it any. $¦^ ]
Me: Ha, thank ya much. $:^ P "Functional" was definitely my #1 goal for it. (If anything -- and I mentioned this in my final live review video -- I don't really figure I'm all that suited for Jamming anyway since I want clean structure and a bug-free final product, whereas plenty of highly rated entries over the past nigh-decade have been incomplete, buggy, etc., and of the 3.75 times I've entered (not including a week-long spring contest somewhile back), my highest rated was a Frankenstein's monster I'd slopped together with an introduced-late-in-the-weekend ugly bug (and difficult controls because the rules encouraged experimentation ~shrug~) ... oh, well, and I'm calling the ".25" entry when I gave some testing and advice to two others and somehow my name got parenthetically slapped on it, lol, and I guess it did well, but anyway. (And too, the ".5" entry was a disaster with our main programmer getting sick, our artist being dragged away to work, me losing Internet connection for the last day or so, and finally my spending about 1-2 hours cobbling together a "game" out of our pieces just so we wouldn't go empty-handed. Lol)). But anyway! Point is, the one Jam I did all right, I let the spaghetti code fly. Ick.)

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

Starts off looking like a MOTAS clone, but then realized it's just a short demo of clicking buttons in a control room. I have no idea what this is about, and the brief, contrived mention of the "Single Point of Entry" theme at the beginning is just lame.
I get that humor isn't your strong point -- you have plenty of other strong points instead -- but your wording causes me to ask this with all serious curiosity: Have you never watched the Star Wars films -- most specifically, the first film shown in theatres, originally only titled Star Wars, but eventually given its full name later, Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope? (I understand that there are many folks who are unfamiliar with this cultural beacon, as surprising as that sounds to others.)

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do
Exactly! $:^ D

I had in mind a young imperial officer without experience who does not understand anything of the work he has to do and it leads to the destruction of the death star. An incomprehensible console, clunky and broken. A kind of puzzle game. I unfortunattely didn't have enough time to work on it. I made it short and funny.
But in this @ParodyKnaveBob review, at exactly 2:15, his face is definitively what a young officer may look like while sitting in front of an incomprehensible console. :D :D :D


And at 4:29 (I did! I did!)
Thx for those video reviews.
:D
Lol. "Jeffrey" indeed.

@ParodyKnaveBob Thanks for the review! Glad you seemed to enjoy it! Yeah my original idea for the theme was that you only get to pick one exit and the game progresses from there depending on how well you follow certain rules but I ran out of time so I just went with like "oh he comes in". Couldn't really think of a good way to incorporate the theme. However on the water level if you try to go back you will get a surprise ending and see what happens when you try to play the game again. ;) should have made something like that a little more clear and easy to find. Thank you again for playing it and reviewing it! :D I think I am going to rework some graphics and try to put together a solid demo as it seems like people have been enjoying the concept.
You're welcome of course! Interesting original theme; considering its scope, and what you still wound up with, wowee, I'm glad you were able to pull off what you did. $:^ J That said, okidoky, I made a note to return to it -- and I even watched the end of my video of playing a few minutes ago, and I didn't see anything obvious, no, thus it seems you hid it very well (with no discernable hint otherwise). We'll see once I actually retry it, though! ~nodnod~
 

Gizmo199

Member
Game: Facts are all true -- not much, simple, too easy but with a dash of competence at its upper end -- and your opinion kinda surprises me -- enjoyable, very much fun. I'm glad someone could enjoy playing it any. $¦^ ]
Me: Ha, thank ya much. $:^ P "Functional" was definitely my #1 goal for it. (If anything -- and I mentioned this in my final live review video -- I don't really figure I'm all that suited for Jamming anyway since I want clean structure and a bug-free final product, whereas plenty of highly rated entries over the past nigh-decade have been incomplete, buggy, etc., and of the 3.75 times I've entered (not including a week-long spring contest somewhile back), my highest rated was a Frankenstein's monster I'd slopped together with an introduced-late-in-the-weekend ugly bug (and difficult controls because the rules encouraged experimentation ~shrug~) ... oh, well, and I'm calling the ".25" entry when I gave some testing and advice to two others and somehow my name got parenthetically slapped on it, lol, and I guess it did well, but anyway. (And too, the ".5" entry was a disaster with our main programmer getting sick, our artist being dragged away to work, me losing Internet connection for the last day or so, and finally my spending about 1-2 hours cobbling together a "game" out of our pieces just so we wouldn't go empty-handed. Lol)). But anyway! Point is, the one Jam I did all right, I let the spaghetti code fly. Ick.)

I get that humor isn't your strong point -- you have plenty of other strong points instead -- but your wording causes me to ask this with all serious curiosity: Have you never watched the Star Wars films -- most specifically, the first film shown in theatres, originally only titled Star Wars, but eventually given its full name later, Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope? (I understand that there are many folks who are unfamiliar with this cultural beacon, as surprising as that sounds to others.)



Exactly! $:^ D



Lol. "Jeffrey" indeed.

You're welcome of course! Interesting original theme; considering its scope, and what you still wound up with, wowee, I'm glad you were able to pull off what you did. $:^ J That said, okidoky, I made a note to return to it -- and I even watched the end of my video of playing a few minutes ago, and I didn't see anything obvious, no, thus it seems you hid it very well (with no discernable hint otherwise). We'll see once I actually retry it, though! ~nodnod~
Yeah you can only do it as soon as the level starts. If you get the bean you won't be able access it. You can see for a split second there is a little white something to the right of the player as the block blobs in. I think I might have hidden it too well. Haha. Owell. :p more of an Easter egg kind of thing anyway. Threw it in last second to try to do something with the theme as In there is one decision you can make kind of thing. Didn't work out. Haha. I was only able to put in like 12-13 hours total of work on it as I worked a ton that weekend sadly. :( Again thanks for the review! It is fun to see how people play it and figure out the mechanics. Gives me some insight to what I can improve on as far as game / level design. :D
 

Mercerenies

Member
Do I need a gaming computer to run these things? Never used shaders.
I just started reviewing and the first game had a shader error... this should be fun.

I'm on a gaming computer, fwiw. It's not the newest piece of machinery in the world, but it is actually a computer built for gaming, so meh.
 

Toque

Member
I just started reviewing and the first game had a shader error... this should be fun.

I'm on a gaming computer, fwiw. It's not the newest piece of machinery in the world, but it is actually a computer built for gaming, so meh.
I ran a few of them an a friends computer. I could get some of the shader problem games to work...... I had like 5 games that just gave shader errors. But watching the videos other people seem to get most of them to run??????
 

Relic

Member
It's not all shader games - mine ran fine through the jam player, but not others. I don't have the expertise to suggest why, I can only manipulate previously made shaders and perhaps do a colour/alpha change on my own.
 

Gizmo199

Member
It's not all shader games - mine ran fine through the jam player, but not others. I don't have the expertise to suggest why, I can only manipulate previously made shaders and perhaps do a colour/alpha change on my own.
I wonder if it's something between gms2 and 1 maybe?

Edit: could be something with the jam player and hlsl? I think gms2 only supports glsl.
 

Mercerenies

Member
Finished all my reviews now (over here, for those interested ;) ). It looks like only one didn't work after all; it just happened to be the first one I tried. >.<
 
P

ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
I guess I'll finish my review playlist (final conclusions non-stream) sometime later. An old friend died. Gotta get ready for the funeral and all that. ~nodnod~

Oh, while I'm here...
Tic-Tac-Toe - ParodyKnaveBob (10/30)

Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

It's... tic-tac-toe. Pretty basic, but it does what it does well. The graphics look pretty nice, but the AI is pretty dumb. TTT is not too hard to brute-force a perfect strategy, so it would've been cool to see a "hard mode" AI that never loses.
I like how your reviews are fragrant (instead of the much more expected flagrant). $;^ J Glad to know you acknowledge THEY STINK! heheheheh j/k

Wow, the most seriously shocking part of your review was the part I didn't quote. You gave me 17th place?!? What's wrong with y-- I mean uh, wow, uh, thanks! $8^ , But, I do appreciate the objective nature of your review, that it executes its intent without any issues, and even well in your opinion, neat. ~nodnod~

And yeah, once I decided to make it a jam entry, I did what I could to meet the deadline while still handling life's other thingies. The included source shows I had two more specifically designed AI modes in mind. A "never loses" mode would just take offense code through more loops, (and I can repurpose the defense code for offense anyway,) you're right, but I spent my remaining time crashing together a menu so that players could actually see a 1P vs 2P/AI setting, plus the AI levels, heheh. After all, it didn't even have sound, and how easy is that also to do, eh? If anything, the final zenith for the AI, which was outside my scope, was to be hardcore offensive like a human, actually trying to trap you -- which would really take more options, chiefly do you start 1st or 2nd, (but do you want X or O would've been nice, too); of course, I could make its decisions easier there by just creating a small table of "memorized" win conditions like many humans already know anyway, but there ya go. $:^ } Either way, of course, thank you for the observations and the magical wishes of imagination. (Yeah, imagine my saying imagination much like experience concluding my Wormhole review. Lol.)
 
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Gizmo199

Member
I guess I'll finish my review playlist (final conclusions non-stream) sometime later. An old friend died. Gotta get ready for the funeral and all that. ~nodnod~

Oh, while I'm here...
I like how your reviews are fragrant (instead of the much more expected flagrant). $;^ J Glad to know you acknowledge THEY STINK! heheheheh j/k

Wow, the most seriously shocking part of your review was the part I didn't quote. You gave me 17th place?!? What's wrong with y-- I mean uh, wow, uh, thanks! $8^ , But, I do appreciate the objective nature of your review, that it executes its intent without any issues, and even well in your opinion, neat. ~nodnod~

And yeah, once I decided to make it a jam entry, I did what I could to meet the deadline while still handling life's other thingies. The included source shows I had two more specifically designed AI modes in mind. A "never loses" mode would just take offense code through more loops, (and I can repurpose the defense code for offense anyway,) you're right, but I spent my remaining time crashing together a menu so that players could actually see a 1P vs 2P/AI setting, plus the AI levels, heheh. After all, it didn't even have sound, and how easy is that also to do, eh? If anything, the final zenith for the AI, which was outside my scope, was to be hardcore offensive like a human, actually trying to trap you -- which would really take more options, chiefly do you start 1st or 2nd, (but do you want X or O would've been nice, too); of course, I could make its decisions easier there by just creating a small table of "memorized" win conditions like many humans already know anyway, but there ya go. $:^ } Either way, of course, thank you for the observations and the magical wishes of imagination. (Yeah, imagine my saying imagination much like experience concluding my Wormhole review. Lol.)
Sorry to hear that man. My condolences to you brother.

And @Mercerenies sorry the game wigged out!? I test played the engine a ton and never came across any bugs like that. Although it wasn't the most hard-lined coding ever and some of the blocks were kinda off from the grid. Thank you for the insight for sure! And thanks for the review! :) Yeah I know the theme is gonna get me. At this point thought I am just happy to have finished something. Haha. Didn't have a ton of time unfortunately. :( Thanks again!
 
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Man, this may be the buggiest game I have made for a jam(at least in relation to how simple it is). Thanks for the nice words @Mercerenies, Very impressed with your -100 counter XD
I've had some life issues pop up so I haven't been able to play any jams games yet... Hoping I can get past all this quick enough to play through everything and vote.
 

The M

Member
@Mercerenies Since you asked, here's a spreadsheet of all dice effects in Dicy Dungeon

Wicked white dice have 10 on every side but if you roll a 10, that side permanently turns into -10. These dice cannot be combined.
Combining dice will yield a new one with their average level, rounded up. Combining a die with a standard die or a die of the same type will add 1 to their average level (aka. (lvlA + lvlB) / 2 + 1 ).

Also, some bugs I found:
- Luck up / down does nothing
- Armored attack dice give the enemy armor, instead of the player, which does not go away (avoid these dice!)
- One-shot dice may not work. I haven't tested enough to be certain, they might just require that you beat down the enemy's armor first for the effect to apply.

To be honest I haven't managed to beat the game myself. It's probably too hard.
The end is kind of anticlimactic but if you want to skip to the boss you can hit '-' on the numpad to debug enemies health down to 0.
 

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
The good: Very well presented with the little details adding to the experience - tweening of sprites making characters dynamic, key prompts flying around upon correct/incorrect player input. Progression of difficulty, adding extra elements felt right.

Room to improve:
For a jam game, not much, but if I was to really push what the game could have been: There were not any interesting choices to be made. I either could complete the sequence or I couldn't which decided for me between fox and fly attacks. Healing seemed wasteful, at least the one time I tried, because I was healed less than what the enemy damaged me over a round. The turn based RPG like presentation of the game left me wanting to make choices for the characters. The fly attack could have been an infinite set of prompts so that I could potentially do more damage if I became quick and accurate. I'm not 100 % sure the right changes to make, but since the game became (for me) the same for each enemy (apart from the progression of new defense patterns) the extra options seemed superfluous, which made the combat a little stale compared to what it could be.
:O thank you! Really appreciate the feedback too as this is an idea I'd love to take forward and make into a much bigger game. Busy with other projects at the moment but as soon as I'm free this is the game I'm hoping to move forward with. I agree completely with those few suggestions you made, if/when I move forward with this I plan to make it a proper RPG with classes, learnable magic & skills, different equipment etc. etc. So the variety of options you have when choosing attacks would be far, far greater.

With enemy attack variety I'd have to have a much more detailed think about that. I've already come up with a couple of extra ideas (e.g. "gesture" icons where maybe you have to rotate the joystick gamepad 360 degrees or something, & enemies that copy but "mirror" your own attacks) but ultimately the idea I have knocking about in my head at the moment is still "complete the sequence to avoid taking damage from the enemy" - so if that gets boring too quickly I might need to think of ways around it.
 

Gizmo199

Member
My reviews are in the voting thread. Please take the criticism as feedback, I intended for all of it to be constructive and informative.
Thanks for the review! :) By the timed thing did you mean that it goes faster? Definitely will take into consideration if I decide to expand the idea! :) Thanks again!
 
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