GMC Jam Discussion GMC Jam 30 / XXX / Discussion

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Micah_DS

Member
What would I have to do to get past that part?
I assume you figured out that the updraft from the wind carries you up when holding the jump button?
When a monster latches onto Powerbot, his energy flow to you will stop, since the monster is feeding on it, so you need to shoot and kill the monster on his head to get the energy flow working again.
But you'll want to aim well, because firing shots expels energy faster, so you want to kill monsters ASAP.

Does that help?

(If it's a problem with not really noticing the wind's updraft, that's probably because I ran out of time to create the fan graphics that were supposed to go below the wind current)
 
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Maximiliano

Member
OH! I didn't know that holding the jump key in the updraft carried me upwards. I would go to the end, climb up the wall and get to the top with so little energy that I would shoot a couple of times and die. That helps! Now I was able to pass that part.
 
M

Misty

Guest
(!!!) by @Triangle
I tried it out for a little while, but I couldn't play it for very long. The jump was really high and seemed too floaty. It seems too easy to be killed, and it was very unforgiving, making you start the level completely over. Also, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, my objective. The mouse (aiming and shooting) wasn't working. The graphics were okay, but lacked some consistency (tiles vs. characters). This all sounds really negative, but these are the things that really stood out and affected my experience and should be taken as constructive criticism. On a positive side, I didn't experience any game-breaking errors. The game seems like it was made by a person somewhat new to gamedev. If so, it's a very good start and you should feel good about what you have accomplished.

I agree with all of this, however, I did not have any problems using the mouse look or guns in his game.​

Unfortunately though, I encountered a bug halfway through day two, that made the audio completely broken.

It took me forever to fix it because there was literally no documentation about it (all I found on Google was some obscure Linux-only audio driver stuff that had nothing to do with GameMaker). When I was done with it all I had the basic gameplay and the text down. I had to tweak what I had and finally add audio instead of working on everything I had planned. The bug itself was GM:Studio 2 somehow not liking the Nahimic2 audio software that MSI puts on top of Realtek's drivers. In fact, it disliked it so much that not only did audio not work ingame, it didn't work in the editor either, and it also didn't work on another computer, after the game was built. Had to launch the Realtek control panel (from the old style Windows control panel, which is hidden on Windows10), disable Nahimic2 from starting on boot, and tweak some stuff in the Realtek control panel, all of which I had to randomly figure out by trial and error.
And...this is why I don't use GM Studio 2. I use Gm Studio 1.4.

I've gotta ask, is it legitimately that hard to figure out? Is this just with Misty?
Well I had only 3 hours of sleep, and have only 1 day to play 30 or so games, so if a game does not immediately catch my interest or seem intuitive to me, I lose interest.
Now, there were some exceptions, such as Kaharbaa's Last Convoy game, I could tell there was some quality to it but too drained to figure out how to play, so I gave it an N/A.
However, in your game, I tried jumping on the bot, and was met with sticky icky collisions, and was just like "meh", did not want to deal with those kind of collisions, so gave up.


Also, 1 person said my car physics are bad, but my physics are the same as real life. Here is a video of real life physics:

And here is a gif of my game. If anything, my physics are actually easier to drive than real life actually.
 

Micah_DS

Member
However, in your game, I tried jumping on the bot, and was met with sticky icky collisions, and was just like "meh", did not want to deal with those kind of collisions, so gave up.
"Sticky collisions"? What? Are you even talking about my game? Collisions aren't sticky unless you found some bug?
nvm, talked with Misty on the GMC Jam Discord server, realized Misty was talking about movement, not actually sticking on walls.

Also realized my scaling code is flawed and it hid the bottom of the game behind the taskbar for Misty, which explains a lot. Anyway, really getting a lot of great feedback. I'm thinking I'm going to request work off again next time and give it a more proper go then.
 
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Smiechu

Member
@Misty...
Sorry I was wrong... your the best! your car phisics are the best in the world, they are even more real then the reality, so real I can feel the wind in my hair, and smell of petrol driving it!
 
G

GVmG

Guest
@Misty I don't think this was GMStudio2's fault, but the Nahimic stuff itself being wonky and painful as well as hiding the normal Realtek panel for whatever reason.

@Smiechu Thanks for the review! I wasn't planning to win Best Story, no, far from it lmao - I really just lost 24 hours to a single bug and had to get something done to submit.
 

Smiechu

Member
@Smiechu Thanks for the review! I wasn't planning to win Best Story, no, far from it lmao - I really just lost 24 hours to a single bug and had to get something done to submit.
Yeah no hard feelings, I thought so that the game is unfinished, I was simply so curious to check the gameplay that the overgrown story made my angry.
But you should with out a doubt finish your idea, it feels nice.
 

The M

Member
Sorry, @Misty, maybe I should have included more instructions on how to play the game. The goal is to meld the heart pieces together by bringing them close to another. You use the buttons in the lower right to add events to the timeline which you can drag and place onto the various channels (indicated by alpha through delta). The corresponding machinery will move when you press the play button in the corner, you basically have to program the machines to stick the hearts together.
 
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Misu

Guest
@Smiechu I like to criticize your way of voting an entry ( and no, it is not have to do with first impressions since those make great approaches to reviewing an entry, I agree). It has to do with this:

Some games ware simply annoying or unfinished, didn't bother to comment. Some games ware really good and well made, but plain and "flat" - also didn't bother to comment.
Thats plain discrimination. Excluding those just because you (subjectively) find them annoying or slightly unfinished is just a way to exclude a member into knowing what they did wrong. A participant would love to know their flaws in the game and the reason of course so it helps not only know what you think of the game but it helps them learn how to improve their developing skills when making games. And that also goes for an entry that you may call it "flat". Those plain and generic entries could use a constructive ideas that the creator could look up to apply as an improvement to their entry (or for the next time they work on such concept). Point is, you dont evaluate an entry base on how interested you in it; you evaluate base on a constructive analisis (the advantage, the disadvantages, and advices). :p
 

Smiechu

Member
@Misu
Sorry if you feel "discriminated".
Unfortunately your overinterpreting my intensions. I simply didn't have the time to write anything constructive, playing all the games was quite a big time load for me already, and even worse I struggled with a nasty toothache last days. Please no hard feelings, you'll get a lot of feedback from other users for sure.
 
Why'd you even bother at all then? Also, there's like, 11 days left still...
Never understand the people who try and knock out all the games in a day. No one is *that* busy during the week, at least no one that can afford to spend time on forums.
Even if you started now, you'd only have to make time for about 3 games a day to make the voting deadline, and most games aren't even that long so that's only a couple of minutes you need to spend on some games.
If somehow even after all that you still don't have or can't make any time, then you're not doing anyone any favours by blasting through all the games as quickly as you can.
 

curato

Member
I am trying to work through everyone's game and at least get a comment for them. If anyone is reviewing my game, I am particularly interested in how you think the puzzles work together. I like the concept of the game. I just can't shake the vibe that it is missing a mechanic I can't put my finger on.
 
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Misu

Guest
Siolfor is right. There is still more than a week and a half to review these entries. These games are super short, it makes it possible to play them all in a single day actually. So there is no rush at all if you know how to manage the time. Those excuses like nasty toothache has nothing to do with not being able to review at all since you can continue working on them some other day within the voting phase. There is still another weekend coming within the voting phase so there is no excuse on that either. I also find it funny how you have time to lurk and write in this forum yet you dont have time to write a comment for another entry... sounds more like a lazy person who doesnt want to do reviewing. If you dont like dedicating the time for it then you shouldnt have started a vote post in the voting thread in the first place. Im sorry if this is harsh but its the brutal honesty. -.-
 

Smiechu

Member
@Siolfor the Jackal @Misu
Seriously? Whats the problem? I really have no desire and will to waste my time on this topic. I've spend 2-3 hours on playing this games, evaluating, picking my votes, and commenting what was worth it. I had a lot of fun and I have nothig more to say here. Don't see any difference if I devide it in 15min a day.

Now, you both are starting to mob me for not reviewing/commenting all the games, when I have completely no desire to do that. I also don't see any rule saying I need to review all the games. If there is one than sorry, I'll try to correct my post. If not just please stop mobbing me, I have nothig more to say. I gave my votes for the best games, and made short comments - this is I think the most important thing. There will be a lot of reviewers and I'm not starting for "best reviewer award".

Please stop mobbing me. If you don't like my voting, I'll just erese my post.
 
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Misty

Guest
@Misty...
Sorry I was wrong... your the best! your car phisics are the best in the world, they are even more real then the reality, so real I can feel the wind in my hair, and smell of petrol driving it!
If so, then why have you not editted your comment, and placed it #1, as it rightfully deserves?

Sorry, @Misty, maybe I should have included more instructions on how to play the game. The goal is to meld the heart pieces together by bringing them close to another. You use the buttons in the lower right to add events to the timeline which you can drag and place onto the various channels (indicated by alpha through delta). The corresponding machinery will move when you press the play button in the corner, you basically have to program the machines to stick the hearts together.
I knew all that, the part I didn't know is exactly how the timeline worked in terms of the machines.

Why'd you even bother at all then? Also, there's like, 11 days left still...
Never understand the people who try and knock out all the games in a day. No one is *that* busy during the week, at least no one that can afford to spend time on forums.
Even if you started now, you'd only have to make time for about 3 games a day to make the voting deadline, and most games aren't even that long so that's only a couple of minutes you need to spend on some games.
If somehow even after all that you still don't have or can't make any time, then you're not doing anyone any favours by blasting through all the games as quickly as you can.
Well, I do it all in one day because my mind is Pinkie Pie, I am piegender.

It's like I get so excited and I HAVE to play all the games at once! No exceptions. Once the ball is rolling I cannot stop. And this way noone has to wait in anticipation for their reviews (a state of nervouscitement.)

So I can kind of relate to Smiechu, rating mediocre games is draining. If a game is not noteworthy in any way, it seems like a stretch of the brain to have to review it. It's just a game that made you feel "meh". You were already drained of hope before you could even write the review.

What meh games do to my mind:
 
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@Smiechu Calm down, no one was mobbing you, you're being dramatic. We were just questioning your motives for even voting. If you didn't care that much about the entries, then why did you care enough to make a post at all? That's all.
@Misty If a game is 'meh' then don't you think that's all the more reason to give feedback to that creator, tell them why you believe it's meh so they can improve on it in the future. Oh also, what part of the jumping did you not understand?
(Oh and wtf does indie graphics and gameplay even mean? XD )

And did you guys ever stop to think that due to the fact that you are blitzing through these games in one go, that you may be becoming mentally fatigued in the process, impairing your abilities to understand and play the games?

Anyway, it just seems a tad lazy and disrespectful to me. We all want to improve here, and we won't know how if people don't leave any comments. Just saying something is 'meh' or 'garb' isn't really helpful to anyone. This is mostly a nice community here, at least one of the nicer ones I've ever been apart of, and we should really be helping each other out more.

@Maximiliano Huh, I can't replicate whatever problem you had with charging and then switching... What was your problem with the controls? Arrows + ZXC are pretty standard, no? It's better with a gamepad anyway.
 
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Misty

Guest
@Smiechu Calm down, no one was mobbing you, you're being dramatic. We were just questioning your motives for even voting. If you didn't care that much about the entries, then why did you care enough to make a post at all? That's all.
@Misty If a game is 'meh' then don't you think that's all the more reason to give feedback to that creator, tell them why you believe it's meh so they can improve on it in the future. Oh also, what part of the jumping did you not understand?
(Oh and wtf does indie graphics and gameplay even mean? XD )
I thought we went through this in discord yesterday. I even played your game 5 more times, and I still do not think it is good (but I changed my rating from 0 to 4.)
The jumping is not good. It does not have inertia. It just stops instantly. And it is very hart to aim at enemies and the pacing is just ridiculous (you die in 5 seconds if you are away from the robot, which dictates your every move. The whole point of Metroid is exploration. So why is there are robot you have to obey and follow every move?

And did you guys ever stop to think that due to the fact that you are blitzing through these games in one go, that you may be becoming mentally fatigued in the process, impairing your abilities to understand and play the games?
No because, even though I was mentally fatigued, I played my game afterwards and the mental fatigue made my game feel like a new game. And my game was great, and definitely the best, it was like I have never played it before.
So yes if a game is good I will notice even if fatigued. For instance, Alice's game I was too fatigued to play. But I gave it a 9.6/10. I was also too fatigued to get into Last Convoy, so I rated it N/A rather than giving it a low rating. But a bad game is a bad game is a bad game. I can tell definitely if a game is bad, even if I am fatigued.

Anyway, it just seems a tad lazy and disrespectful to me. We all want to improve here, and we won't know how if people don't leave any comments. Just saying something is 'meh' or 'garb' isn't really helpful to anyone. This is mostly a nice community here, at least one of the nicer ones I've ever been apart of, and we should really be helping each other out more.
"you're being dramatic" the lulz.
 
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Maximiliano

Member
Huh, I can't replicate whatever problem you had with charging and then switching... What was your problem with the controls? Arrows + ZXC are pretty standard, no? It's better with a gamepad anyway.
I don't know, the problem where I got stuck happened the first time I played.

The problem I had with the controls was that you use WASD to move, so my left hand was in the way when trying to use ZXC with my right hand. I ended up trying to switch between moving and jumping/shooting all with the same hand.
 
Firstly, @Misty that's not even my gsme you're talking about...
Secondly, I was talking about your comments in general, not specifically the one for my game. I don't really value your opinion but others might, and they may want feedback that is actually useful.
And honestly, I've played about half the games already and yours was certainly very meh.

@Maximiliano Did you try using the Arrow keys instead of WASD? That seems to be most people's preference, I only included WASD to test some stuff and decided it was no harm to leave it in.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Shoot, I made a mishap!
Somehow, I ended up exporting the game with the wrong initial save data file from when I was debugging non-pacifist dialogue options. Because of that, as the game currently is, the pacifist dialogue is locked.
(it wouldn't be the first time there was a mixup with included files during the Jam; Snail Man might know something about it...)

If any of you would like to explore that route, please and replace the gamestate.json file in "Entries/Blade of Light by JacobV, Alice, parmesano" directory with this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fwd11pgb1lgt76/gamestate.json?dl=1
The game still can be completed as it is, but it lacks the extra reward for avoiding the enemies.

(there are also some other bugs I've found, but this is the one of "replace a silly single thing in a file" kind)
 

curato

Member
Shoot, I made a mishap!
Somehow, I ended up exporting the game with the wrong initial save data file from when I was debugging non-pacifist dialogue options. Because of that, as the game currently is, the pacifist dialogue is locked.
(it wouldn't be the first time there was a mixup with included files during the Jam; Snail Man might know something about it...)

If any of you would like to explore that route, please and replace the gamestate.json file in "Entries/Blade of Light by JacobV, Alice, parmesano" directory with this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fwd11pgb1lgt76/gamestate.json?dl=1
The game still can be completed as it is, but it lacks the extra reward for avoiding the enemies.

(there are also some other bugs I've found, but this is the one of "replace a silly single thing in a file" kind)
I might have to check that out. It is definitely one of my favorites so far.
 

Smiechu

Member
@Siolfor the Jackal
1. There is no rule saying I need to review in detail all the games.
2. Yes I don't care about entries, which didn't fit my taste and/or which I didn't like.
3. This is a competition and I voted for the best games, and I tried to be as objective as possible in my choice.
4. Being agressive won't help you obtain more votes.
5. If somoene is REALLY interested in my personal opinion about his game then please just PM and ask me, I'll answer if I have time.

Thank you.
 

Maximiliano

Member
@Maximiliano Did you try using the Arrow keys instead of WASD? That seems to be most people's preference, I only included WASD to test some stuff and decided it was no harm to leave it in.
I played it again. Much better with the arrow keys. This time I realized that the number on top of the yellow squares means you can destroy them in that amount of hits. The first time around I tried jumping over all of them. One of the things that I think could make the game feel better is if you offset the camera a bit in the direction you're looking towards, that way you have more time to react when the monsters appear.

Another thing you could do to make it feel better is for the player to accelerate faster, especially while in the air. If I'm standing still, jump, and begin moving in either direction in the air, I barely move at all. For example when jumping up the cave when you land on the pink platform that's on the left side and have to jump to the one on the right side you have to start running before jumping in order to make the jump. This isn't much of a problem in that part of the game, but when you get to the boss fight you have to take it into account in order to not crash into his head while jumping over him.
 
M

Misu

Guest
@Siolfor the Jackal
1. There is no rule saying I need to review in detail all the games.
2. Yes I don't care about entries, which didn't fit my taste and/or which I didn't like.
3. This is a competition and I voted for the best games, and I tried to be as objective as possible in my choice.
4. Being agressive won't help you obtain more votes.
5. If somoene is REALLY interested in my personal opinion about his game then please just PM and ask me, I'll answer if I have time.

Thank you.
1. Indeed that there is no rule you have to but finding out that you didnt commented other entries just because you believe they are worthless is something that upsets users, especially me.
2. If you dont care about entries then you should NEVER voted in the thread at all. You are better off removing your vote post instead.
3. In reality, many users dont see this as only a competition you know. Lot of users take these opportunities to learn something from game development and other users. You are showing a terrible example atm.
4. I dont think the idea here is about getting votes (or at least not from my part). The idea here is to understand "what we did wrong in our entry". We wish to know more of what you went thru to understand what flaws we commited so we can learn from our mistakes and improve our skills for next time. That fact you refuse to provide info just makes me upset.
5. PMing is a good choice and I usually dont bother anyone when they have shown they can only do most of what they can... but for someone who mentioned this...
Some games ware simply annoying or unfinished, didn't bother to comment. Some games ware really good and well made, but plain and "flat" - also didn't bother to comment.
... more than a week before the deadline... thats just plain disappointing.
 

Smiechu

Member
@Misu
1. If such things upset you than please grow up.
2. One more time - "I don't care about entries, which didn't fit my taste and/or which I didn't like". It doesn't mean I don't care about other entries.
3. Please look point 1.
4. I don't refuse to provide info. I simply say there is no info more from my side.
5. And how did you deducted that your entry is not belonging to "really good, and well made"??
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
*sigh*

Guys, please don't take these things so damn seriously! This is a FUN jam! And the people that vote or comment do so because they want to but there is no obligation and no pressure for them to do so. If a user only feels that 5 games are worth commenting on then we should be grateful that they took the time to make those 5 comments... putting pressure on users to comment on every game is unreasonable and certainly not something that the GMC Jam has ever said should be done. Comments and reviews have always been a "nice if you can do it, but no worries if you can't" type thing. Also, please do not criticise other members because they didn't like your game in particular. Yes, it would be great if they could explain why they didn't like it, but that's not a requirement, and you can not like something without getting all profound about it. I don't like strawberry ice cream very much... I can't really say why though, as I like strawberries and I like ice cream and I can eat it if it's given to me, but I don't know... it just doesn't do it for me. Games (and anything else in life) can be the exact same.

So, just everyone chill and take it all with a bit of humour and good will. ;)
 

Smiechu

Member
I don't like strawberry ice cream very much...
I wanted to use the same argument - I don't like tomatoes, but I'm not running on the street screening "I hate tomatoes!".
EOT

From my side - people, please - there are 37 games in this Jam, I wasn't even able to refer most of these games with active forum users.
Please, if someone really would like to hear my opinion / review about his game just PM me, but please don't force me to publicly do it for all the games.

Everybody who have managed to take part of the Jam is a winner already.
 

Micah_DS

Member
I thought we went through this in discord yesterday. I even played your game 5 more times, and I still do not think it is good (but I changed my rating from 0 to 4.)
The jumping is not good. It does not have inertia. It just stops instantly. And it is very hart to aim at enemies and the pacing is just ridiculous (you die in 5 seconds if you are away from the robot, which dictates your every move. The whole point of Metroid is exploration. So why is there are robot you have to obey and follow every move?
Firstly, @Misty that's not even my gsme you're talking about...
Yep, that was me and my game ;) and the feedback was very useful. I really appreciate it, Misty.

I guess I'll reply to those comments on it though, since there are some things I didn't say before:
  • The jumping divides upward momentum by 2 upon releasing the jump key, IIRC. At 60 FPS, it's pretty fast, so yeah. It was the first time I tried that method of allowing jump height control.
    But I talked with you (Misty) about the movements already and agree they were too hard and fast. I wanted tight control, but I overdid it and ran out of time to spend on it making it better/smoother/butter, so I had to just leave it as it was and move forward.
  • Aiming is hard, yes. This isn't an excuse, but believe it or not, it was way worse before I made the enemies have that up/down movement when sucking the energy from Powerbot. Truthfully, the shots needed to be much larger, and/or the enemies did. I agree this is an issue. The hard/fast movement doesn't help this aspect, either.
  • Powerbot dictates your every move because of the theme usage STICK TOGETHER + CHARGING UP, and my use of these themes was the result of a long struggle I had with them for the first 35+ hours of the jam ( initially, I was going for SWITCHING BETWEEN DIFFERENT GENRES, which is why the "wall ball" form is a thing, so that theme usage is still halfway there in the final game ), so I just had to go with something or I wouldn't have even started, let alone finished.
    If I could have thought of a way to make a freeroam Metroid-like that still worked with the themes, I would have. I love Metroid so much (I actually tried to make a Metroid-like for the 'new' first GMC Jam).
  • With that last point in mind, despite my love for Metroid, given my game's content, I probably should've avoided any references to it, as I was not intending to make something like Metroid - I was just having fun and keeping myself entertained. I didn't think about the fact that it could give rise to expectations for a Metroid-like, but looking at it objectively... yeah, whoops.
BTW, if anyone finds my game "Smooth Robotics" too hard to beat, yet would still be interested to see the full game to the end, here's my playthrough in 3 1/2 minutes (gameplay starts 23 seconds in):
 

TehPilot

Member
A friend has brought to my attention that you can clip through a wall in Room 4 of my game and wind up in Room 5, even though the banner says "Room 1".

My apologies to anyone who triggered that glitch and found themselves quitting in frustration thinking the game had suddenly reset on them! I already fixed that and plan to have a post-Jam build that optimizes the draw calls a bit for those running on lower-end machines.
 
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Misty

Guest
Firstly, @Misty that's not even my gsme you're talking about...
Secondly, I was talking about your comments in general, not specifically the one for my game. I don't really value your opinion but others might, and they may want feedback that is actually useful.
And honestly, I've played about half the games already and yours was certainly very meh.

@Maximiliano Did you try using the Arrow keys instead of WASD? That seems to be most people's preference, I only included WASD to test some stuff and decided it was no harm to leave it in.
Sorry, I got your game confused with Micha_DS's.

What was so meh about my game anyway? We only had 23 hours to make the game and so I didn't even have the chance to playtest it with my collaborator.

From what I remember, your game was just walking in a straight line and you could not walljump. I tried to walljump but could not, maybe I am doing it wrong? And the gameplay and graphics of your game were meh, just being honest.
 
M

Misu

Guest
Since my job takes most of my time away during this week, i decided to do twitch streaming instead of screen recording. Ill give a heads up tomorrow. :)
 

Micah_DS

Member
Smooth Robotics by Micah_DS

Another rage quit game... And I wanted to like this! Cute graphics, nice sound, adequate music... but the gameplay? Noooooooo.... So the robot needs to be charged by the floaty thing. Great. And the robot thing can turn into a floaty thing within certain sections. Great. BUT the floaty thing disappears just after starting and there is NO WAY TO GET TO IT... I never have enough energy to reach where it is to get charged again. So, rage quit after trying a dozen times. Maybe I just suck at this game, or maybe it's bugged?
Aww, really sad to hear that, Nocturne. But no, the game isn't bugged (at least, not in that way; same can't be said for my scaling code hiding the bottom of the screen in some cases). I just royally messed up on ensuring the player was properly informed about some things.
I totally forgot to mention that holding jump in the wind's updraft will carry the player robot upward. I assume that's the part you're talking about.

Anyway, I feel like I'm responding too much on my game so I'll try to shut up about it. Sorry everyone.

-

BTW, I am working on reviewing games, but it'll be a while before I post them, since I like to wait until I've reviewed and ranked all the entries, and I'm really trying to give good feedback this time as well.

On that note, how's this? @Pere @tadashibashi @Fausto
/``````` USE OF THEME(S) ``````````````

(` Switching Between Different Genres `)
+ Overhead Action plus Farming Simulator is a nice combination of genres, IMO ( Stardew Valley, FTW ). It's quick, simple, and fun to farm, and the same goes for the fighting. Switching between the genres feels good and natural.

(` Stick Together `)
+ Basically applies as "work together / join forces". Not especially creative in my view, but certainly a good solid use of the theme, so it gets a plus.

(` Charging Up `)
= N/A ; unused theme.

(` Multiple Theme Bonus `)
+ Bonus for using multiple themes and for how well it all works together.

\
/``````` CONCEPT ``````````````

+ The concept is quite a fun one. Pirates vs robots. I like how you guys made things unserious and light-hearted, but not from a position of laziness, but in the spirit of fun - how it should be done. It's simple but also having enough depth to be interesting, collecting seeds to grow ammo, saving robot friends, gaining perks to overcome the more difficult islands.
+ It's hilarious that you grow bullets, and planting crops on the deck of a ship is unique (perhaps it's a real thing and I just don't know about it).

\
/``````` PRESENTATION ``````````````

(` Gameplay `)
- The hitboxes were slightly too large, causing me to collide with an enemy when the visual feedback would suggest I was distanced enough to be safe.
- Sometimes seeds would land in water, being unreachable. Not a big deal though, since there are more than enough seeds.
- The white mouse cursor against the bright sand color made it a bit hard to tell where I was aiming, and I even clicked outside the game at one point, and nearly died (but death isn't a big deal in the game anyway).
It would've been good to have some in-game graphic for the cursor, to make it more visible.
+ The controls are so right, so tight. And the movement has a great feel with the right amount of friction and such. Nailed it.

(` Visuals `)
Graphics \
- The water is shaded oddly, making it look like the highlights were raised upward far too much. It could also be the lack of animation that made it feel especially odd.
- There's a tiling error on one island, missing a tile in the water.
+ Other than those water issues, the graphics and animation are very nice. Great colors, interesting and fun character designs, etc.
Tooltips \
+ The limited text and use of tooltips are so very welcome over walls of text to explain things ( yes, my game has a big wall of text.. but that was due to a compromise when crunching time - I don't like walls of text ). Pretty solid tutorial implementation there.
- The downside to the tooltips was they didn't pop enough to always be noticeable. Perhaps adding a semi-transparent black box behind the text would've helped.
- Another thing about the tooltips is that they didn't always wait for me to do a necessary action to go away. Like the one which told me to use SPACE to switch to my seeds - that one went away after time passed, not after I switched to my seeds. At least the one about pulling out my hoe to till ground waited until I tilled the ground, so perhaps it was just an unintended oversight.
+ Overall, the tooltips were great, and even when I missed them, it wasn't hard to figure out what to do, especially since the readme also covers things quite well.
Attention to detail \
+ I noticed when you move, your held item rotates a little, moving along with the character's motion. Also, the little dust puffs, the smiling full hearts vs the sad empty hearts, etc. - these "little" things are actually a much bigger deal than one might expect. These are not just random additions with no point or focus; they have thought and purpose behind them. WELL DONE. I love it. Warms my heart.
- The dirt you till overlaps the ship wall in an odd way. Not really a big deal; just noticed it.
+ I like that the robots you save wander around on the ship.

(` Audio `)
- It's lacking a few SFX for minor things, like saving a robot from a cage, collecting bullets, hitting enemies, smacking away bullets, etc. That said, the most important SFX seem to be there, and in cases like hitting enemies, you have knock-back, so even without audio feedback, it's still quite okay.
+ Great music and great sounds. Really fitting music, and my favorite SFX is when planting, that sound is great, and I love how the sound pitches up as the crops grow. Well done!

\
/``````` STORY ``````````````

= Neutral on this one, due to the lack of story. Obviously your fellow robots have been taken captive, but why are the pirates after the robots? To sell? Revenge? Are they afraid the robots will take over the world? Did the robots take over the world and I'm actually playing as the enemies of the human race and didn't even realize it? Etc. So yeah, not much story to go off of.
All that said, the game probably doesn't need any more to the story, and this is coming from a guy who LOVES a good engaging story. There is at least enough explained to set the stage, so it works.
.... There's a character limit on forum posts, isn't there?...

Also, wondering if my formatting choices are good. That's kind of why I posted that review preview here. Trying to find a solution without having to edit them all with actual bullet points and such.
 
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G

GVmG

Guest
@Nocturne The grey screen wasn't a glitch, unfortunately that's how I had to quickly hack up the ending. It was supposed to have at least a static background image, and be after an extra stealth section, but due to an audio bug I lost around 24 hours between day 2 and day 3, and had to make do with what I had :/ but yes, you're right about the gameplay, there was supposed to be more.

Thanks for the feedback though. I've seen some say the dialogues themselves glitched by stacking on top of each other (@Uskompuf I suppose that's what you meant - thank you for the feedback too :D ), but I was pretty sure that bug was fixed - and I only really got it when skipping text with the debug mode, which isn't normal gameplay conditions.
 
P

Pere

Guest
Aww, really sad to hear that, Nocturne. But no, the game isn't bugged (at least, not in that way; same can't be said for my scaling code hiding the bottom of the screen in some cases). I just royally messed up on ensuring the player was properly informed about some things.
I totally forgot to mention that holding jump in the wind's updraft will carry the player robot upward. I assume that's the part you're talking about.

Anyway, I feel like I'm responding too much on my game so I'll try to shut up about it. Sorry everyone.

-

BTW, I am working on reviewing games, but it'll be a while before I post them, since I like to wait until I've reviewed and ranked all the entries, and I'm really trying to give good feedback this time as well.

On that note, how's this? @Pere @tadashibashi @Fausto
/``````` USE OF THEME(S) ``````````````

(` Switching Between Different Genres `)
+ Overhead Action plus Farming Simulator is a nice combination of genres, IMO ( Stardew Valley, FTW ). It's quick, simple, and fun to farm, and the same goes for the fighting. Switching between the genres feels good and natural.

(` Stick Together `)
+ Basically applies as "work together / join forces". Not especially creative in my view, but certainly a good solid use of the theme, so it gets a plus.

(` Charging Up `)
= N/A ; unused theme.

(` Multiple Theme Bonus `)
+ Bonus for using multiple themes and for how well it all works together.

\
/``````` CONCEPT ``````````````

+ The concept is quite a fun one. Pirates vs robots. I like how you guys made things unserious and light-hearted, but not from a position of laziness, but in the spirit of fun - how it should be done. It's simple but also having enough depth to be interesting, collecting seeds to grow ammo, saving robot friends, gaining perks to overcome the more difficult islands.
+ It's hilarious that you grow bullets, and planting crops on the deck of a ship is unique (perhaps it's a real thing and I just don't know about it).

\
/``````` PRESENTATION ``````````````

(` Gameplay `)
- The hitboxes were slightly too large, causing me to collide with an enemy when the visual feedback would suggest I was distanced enough to be safe.
- Sometimes seeds would land in water, being unreachable. Not a big deal though, since there are more than enough seeds.
- The white mouse cursor against the bright sand color made it a bit hard to tell where I was aiming, and I even clicked outside the game at one point, and nearly died (but death isn't a big deal in the game anyway).
It would've been good to have some in-game graphic for the cursor, to make it more visible.
+ The controls are so right, so tight. And the movement has a great feel with the right amount of friction and such. Nailed it.

(` Visuals `)
Graphics \
- The water is shaded oddly, making it look like the highlights were raised upward far too much. It could also be the lack of animation that made it feel especially odd.
- There's a tiling error on one island, missing a tile in the water.
+ Other than those water issues, the graphics and animation are very nice. Great colors, interesting and fun character designs, etc.
Tooltips \
+ The limited text and use of tooltips are so very welcome over walls of text to explain things ( yes, my game has a big wall of text.. but that was due to a compromise when crunching time - I don't like walls of text ). Pretty solid tutorial implementation there.
- The downside to the tooltips was they didn't pop enough to always be noticeable. Perhaps adding a semi-transparent black box behind the text would've helped.
- Another thing about the tooltips is that they didn't always wait for me to do a necessary action to go away. Like the one which told me to use SPACE to switch to my seeds - that one went away after time passed, not after I switched to my seeds. At least the one about pulling out my hoe to till ground waited until I tilled the ground, so perhaps it was just an unintended oversight.
+ Overall, the tooltips were great, and even when I missed them, it wasn't hard to figure out what to do, especially since the readme also covers things quite well.
Attention to detail \
+ I noticed when you move, your held item rotates a little, moving along with the character's motion. Also, the little dust puffs, the smiling full hearts vs the sad empty hearts, etc. - these "little" things are actually a much bigger deal than one might expect. These are not just random additions with no point or focus; they have thought and purpose behind them. WELL DONE. I love it. Warms my heart.
- The dirt you till overlaps the ship wall in an odd way. Not really a big deal; just noticed it.
+ I like that the robots you save wander around on the ship.

(` Audio `)
- It's lacking a few SFX for minor things, like saving a robot from a cage, collecting bullets, hitting enemies, smacking away bullets, etc. That said, the most important SFX seem to be there, and in cases like hitting enemies, you have knock-back, so even without audio feedback, it's still quite okay.
+ Great music and great sounds. Really fitting music, and my favorite SFX is when planting, that sound is great, and I love how the sound pitches up as the crops grow. Well done!

\
/``````` STORY ``````````````

= Neutral on this one, due to the lack of story. Obviously your fellow robots have been taken captive, but why are the pirates after the robots? To sell? Revenge? Are they afraid the robots will take over the world? Did the robots take over the world and I'm actually playing as the enemies of the human race and didn't even realize it? Etc. So yeah, not much story to go off of.
All that said, the game probably doesn't need any more to the story, and this is coming from a guy who LOVES a good engaging story. There is at least enough explained to set the stage, so it works.
.... There's a character limit on forum posts, isn't there?...

Also, wondering if my formatting choices are good. That's kind of why I posted that review preview here. Trying to find a solution without having to edit them all with actual bullet points and such.



Thanks a lot for the detailed review! It was very helpful! Here's some responses for some of ur comments:


-Yeah, now that you say that, I actually forgot to assign the right collision box to enemies xD. I noticed the enemies hit u from far and that's why I also made the collision of the sword so big. Now I see I should've just assigned the right collision to enemies.
-I'll make sure to change the mouse sprite next time. It's pretty easy to do and it can make a significant difference.
-I really value tight controls in a game. Before I do anything else I always make the movement as smooth and enjoyable as posible :)

-I agree, the water is too bright. I wanted to lower its saturation but I didn't have the extra 3 minutes to do it. We imported the tiles in the last hour.
-Yep, I forgot one tile haha...

-yeah I also value a lot short or non-existing tutorials; treating the player as a smart human being able to figure things out... Also when u discover something on ur own it feels much better than being told what to do.
-Yep I agree the text wasnt very visible. for some reason it just didnt come to mind to put a black rectangle. Ill remember that trick for the future.
-I wanted to do the tutorial as you said, but I just didnt have time.
-Yeah I love detail!! I do believe these little things and the so called "game juice" make a big difference, but more than a planned thing I think it's just a pure expression of love for the game <3 (but the little movement of your item when you move, that's definitely a bug lol. I think it's because the camera moves after the player has moved and after the gun rotated, so the gun always points to the position of the mouse before moving the camera)
-I saw the ship dirt thing too, just no time to fix!

-yeah Aaron is a great sound guy :) He actually made a 12 second success song for when u save the robots, but he finished it like right after the deadline so we couldn't implement it :(

-I like it when the player can imagine and discover slowly what kind of world they're in, like in Nuclear Throne for example, where it's a well-thought world but there is no text/cutscene telling u about it. But that said, I would've added more depth to it if there had been time. What i had in mind was more like the robots are like a new race in the world and some ppl like pirates dont like them/want to take advantadge of them, maybe to desmantle them and get their technology or maybe just cause they're not human. Also in a world where there are humans and robots, it's much more easy to recognise who will be on your team and who wont. if it had been just humans vs pirates, then what would make u think another captured human would want to join your crew? if its a rare "race" in danger of extinction it just makse sense ur gona stick together. at least in my head xD

Thanks again for all the feedback! :)
 
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O

Otyugra

Guest
Guys, please don't take these things so damn seriously! This is a FUN jam! And the people that vote or comment do so because they want to but there is no obligation and no pressure for them to do so. If a user only feels that 5 games are worth commenting on then we should be grateful that they took the time to make those 5 comments. [...] Also, please do not criticise other members because they didn't like your game in particular. Yes, it would be great if they could explain why they didn't like it, but that's not a requirement, and you can not like something without getting all profound about it. I don't like strawberry ice cream very much... I can't really say why though. [...] Games (and anything else in life) can be the exact same.

So, just everyone chill and take it all with a bit of humour and goodwill. ;)
You know what? I'm going to flat-out disagree with you. To wave the entire competition as "only fun" is grossly inaccurate and absolutely insulting to the people who tried their best for 72 hours straight. I had to effing stay up till 5 in the morning on a college school night to give the game a makeshift ending with no signs of being "deeply unfinished" anywhere, so that I would avoid the comments that go along the lines of "well it was fundamentally incomplete" which people will then use as an excuse to treat the game at a lower status (which is fair) leading to some people snubbing the game (which is *not* fair). So back on point, I had to stay up really late just so that this game would be treated with respect, unlike most of my previous jam games; to put it plainly, I had to do that to better-guarantee feedback from the other half of reviewers! Ignore me for a moment and think of all the many other contestants who also worked their ass off putting passion and contemplation into their creations. "What will people think of this thing I tried my best on?"

Point number two, there are prizes for winning, and a voting system to create winners and losers (which is a good thing). I call that more than "fun" and not-at-all "like taste in ice cream." That we rank the top 3 games is proof that you can evaluate these simple games in a way that makes it possible to break ties. Games have very objective things that can be measured: "Does this game have sound? Does it even attempt the theme? How much content is there? Did it get me to consciously feel an emotion, yes or no?"

Point three, it takes seconds to speak your mind a little clearer, and to speak your mind clearly is to be respectful. I've said this before in jams years ago, but it bears repeating: For example, don't tell me, "MEh. 2/10." Tell me "The whole experience was 'meh,' from the graphics to the play experience to the menus. I strongly didn't like it, and it had no redeeming qualities (that come to mind)." It takes zero mental energy to use more words to explain your thoughts because it comes naturally, but it makes a world of difference to the people who worked so damn hard on their games. Why excuse people for trying to be funny at the developers' expense? What I'm trying to say is that isn't "all in the name of good fun/ comedy," rather that's "being an inconsiderate jerk for a quick laugh"! As an admin, people look up to you as a role model, so please encourage good behavior (as someone who can see both sides) as if you were an equal among friends, as opposed to *sigh*ing as if you're better than everyone else.

EDIT: Before someone gives the excuse that: "In the wild, regular people are going to give you super short and inconsiderate reviews all the time so you better get used to it," let me remind you that no one ever deserves to be treated wrong, so in a controlled environment, let's create a place where that doesn't happen; we shouldn't have to conform to them, they should conform to us.
 
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Maximiliano

Member
I agree with you in that nobody should call any of the games garbage and just move on. If you're gonna take the time to call a game garbage you might as well take an extra minute or two to actually explain what's wrong with the game. I understand how you feel. I was out for most of the weekend and ended up programming pretty much everything sunday to monday night. I stayed up all night and didn't go to bed til noon just to finish something and having people crap all over it isn't fun, especially without explaining what you could improve.

Regarding your game. I liked the art style and I think the idea could have been fun. But I really didn't understand how to play it. Once I got to the shop it didn't matter if I sold everything, sold something and kept the rest, the game would always just end. And the next time around I wouldn't keep the things I had on the previous run. I would have really appreciated some instructions on what I was meant to be doing.
 
M

Misu

Guest
I hate to say this... but Oty is right * Stabs self in the chest *

That is the whole reason why I gotten upset about the voting format Smeichu did. Its really bad. Having to say something subjective and then leave without a clarification (explanation) is down straight disappointing. Of course, Im not gonna say anything more because obviously nobody would care anyway.

OFFTOPIC
---------------
I did a live stream of me playing the jam entries. Did 6 so far and will continue to do more this week.

https://www.twitch.tv/misumeow/videos
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Have youu bothered to look at any of the old Jam topics? From day one everything I posted has been a part of the unofficial rules of the Jam. Prizes are an added extra for pushing yourself and the boundaries of what can be done, but they have never been the focus of the Jam (which is why they are community prizes and not monetary ones). I can sort of understand why you'd be annoyed if someone says your game is garbage without any other feedback, but on the other hand, if someone does that then it's obvious that their opinion means nothing and so can be ignored... If a comment like "Game is garbage" doesn't have any additional explanation then it's not worth even considering as valid feedback, so where's the issue? You say you "had" to give up till 5am... I'd say "no you didn't". You CHOSE to stay up that late. You didn't have to, and tbh, you shouldn't be worrying about whether someone thinks your game is incomplete or otherwise to the extent that you sound like you are suffering for it. That doesn't sound very fun at all, and is (in my opinion) not a healthy attitude.

Note I'm not looking for a fight here... I appreciate that everyone has their own motives for why and how they do things and I get what you're saying.... But as one of the GMC Jam founders, I feel that your post has missed the whole point of the Jam, which was simply to have fun, build a bit of community spirit, and try and make something "out of the box". The prizes and ranking and stuff were just like the Icing on the Cake. The original Jam idea wasn't to have any prizes other than a banner for your signature, and the ranking wasn't taken too seriously. Like I say, this is very much my opinion, and I confess to being pretty much "IDGAF" about what people think... :)
 

Gravedust

Member
I did a live stream of me playing the jam entries. Did 6 so far and will continue to do more this week.
Thanks very much for the video review! It's extremely valuable to see exactly how people handle their first exposure to the game. :)

I'm afraid I made life more difficult for you with the readme. The bug regarding the water is the the blue water splash that you throw down can be picked up after it's been dropped, which just makes it disappear. The water itself actually works as intended. (and make plants and fruit grow ~3X as fast, so it helps with cash generation a lot) Sorry for the initial difficulty as well. -_- Now that I've got some sleep I can see I made some pretty serious errors, and there's lot things I would have changed regarding the first day, enemy spawning, how to deal with money, etc. -_-

But thank you again for your review! Very useful. :)
 
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