GMC Jam Discussion The Extremely Aestival GMC Jam #5 Discussion Thread

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Alice

Darts addict
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@Dr. Wolf Just for the record, while I think spreading the acceptable range to +/- 15 degrees would help, what would be even better is the ability to tell from game interface if the current angle is acceptable or not. To do that, I can think of two options:
- give some sort of feedback indicating whether you're in the acceptable range or not (whether displayed directly on a ship somehow, or maybe as a control in the interface; say, a clock-like angle-o-meter with acceptable landing range drawn on it, and a hand showing the current angle)
- forbid deploying the landing gear unless the ship is aligned properly, preferably with some negative-sounding SFX to drive the point home
 

The M

Member
@Dr. Wolf I think @Alice's ideas are great. A tool of some kind would certainly help without making the landing angles too lenient. I would also suggest only restarting the current level if you die too much. When I played, I died a lot in the first level as I wasn't used to the controls which I suppose gave me a disadvantage at later levels as I had fewer lives left. Given that the game centers a lot around the story I think it'd be better to let the player experience it all, especially since it's a jam and there are a lot of games to play.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
@ghandpivot Oh dear, it seems you misunderstood what the pictures are supposed to represent. These 4 rounds weren't 4 coins, but 4 sides of 2 coins. >.<
So in the first puzzle, the correct solution is a silver coin with a gold pattern on both sides, and a gold coin with a silver pattern on both sides; not 2 silver-gold coins and 2 gold-silver coins. Also, the "---" is supposed to be "undefined, must be replaced with a concrete value."
I guess sometimes it's hard to predict in which way people can misunderstand the game. It's a learning experience for sure... ^^'

That aside, you mentioned playing a lot of similar games before, I think? I sure recall the flower petal game in my and Mercerenies' entry 4 Jams ago, but is that specific idea (some sort of things to build or connect, and a bunch of conditions that must be satisfied) really that common? Personally, I haven't seen this brand of puzzles that often. I'm just curious...
 
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Deleted member 467

Guest
@Oyakiiv
Soul Catchers - Barvix = I really wanted to catch a swim swim, but didnt know how T_T
In the Jam version you can't catch the Ghosts, but I'm working on adding the feature to catch 1 ghost to fight alongside you.
I'll probably start a WIP topic thread for it later on when I add a few more things.
 

Micah_DS

Member
Just dropped in real quick to lay down some video reviews for you guys!

Here's my voting post. I hope my video reviews provide at least some valuable information for you all, despite my shortcomings as a reviewer. ~peace

EDIT:
Oh yes, almost forgot to ask @Freedom2Fight: Any reason you can think of why my anti-virus says your game is a threat and immediately deletes it? I feel like maybe you used some extension or something? Or maybe somehow a virus actually made its way into the game...? I don't really know much about viruses in the first place, so please don't misunderstand. It just struck me as odd and I avoided your game because I'm cautious. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
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Misu

Guest
@K-BitCRUSH I manage to run Freedom2Fights game by disabling the antivirus thru task bar and then redownloading the game from the original Game Topic post.

You should try that way to see.
 
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Oyakiiv

Guest
@K-BitCRUSH I love your review, I think out of everyone you actual understood everything we were going for! XD and it was a HUGE shocker to see that you have our game voted for best concept! totally made me and my wifes day.

and yes, your right about the animations, but we have found other things that really need to be improved on, thanks to all the other reviews. We will be continuing work on Endling (including either changing the name or fixing the story to fit the name better), once all the voting, reviews, and final rank come in. And until then, my wife is learning how to actually use gamemaker so she can help me with the coding, not just the art.
 

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
Message to Chance, I hear a couple users are having blank screen errors with the games. I am told by YellowAfterLife if you set the compatibility mode to Windows 8 it should run.
That's good information. Also, @matharoo's advice of forcing windowed mode with alt-enter works (for me, at least). So I'm able to play all the games now.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Ah, it seems both @Misu and @K-BitCRUSH misunderstood the word "core" when they played my game. To be honest, I kinda struggled when coming up with the name for the main coin part, myself, which might have been what led me to use such a terminology.

Generally, the mental image I had was core being the base round shape, the foundation, and sides being the platings on the core, forming specific patterns; the coin cut through diameter would then have obverse plating at the top, reverse plating at the bottom, and the core between them. Of course, not everyone must imagine things this way. Either way, I planned to make a help panel showing the structure of coin and terminology used in the game, to avoid confusion. I might change some terminology as well...

As for the word "aforementioned" Misu brought up (it's actually only "aforementioned", not a form of "aforemention") - yeah, I guess I could have worded it simpler. I suppose "previously mentioned" would have added another line to the clue (I had to manage space), while "previous" could have been imprecise?

Another matter altogether is that in a future version I'd like to add an option to elaborate on clues (i.e. if someone doesn't know what the brief clue means exactly, they can click on it or something and see a more detailed version) and localisation features (so that people can read clues in their native language, as long as someone translated them beforehand).
 

ghandpivot

Member
@K-BitCRUSH
Thanks for the video review, I've made hundreds for the jams but only ever received two or three in the last 8 years so it's super cool. I never quite managed to fix the physics bug with moving to the side upon restart, I reset literally everything and put in a lot of workarounds but it still keeps on going for some reason. There's a trigger for it too, clearly, since it doesn't happen in every game. It ony happens on the first run too I think, so if you're fine through your first restart it wont ever happen (as far as I know).

Two things from your review. First of all, "Y" is the restart button if you're using the XBOX-controller! With more time that should totally be replaced with a picture of the button rather than just "Y" as that is indeed confusing.
Secondly the theme. I've explained this a lot of times and never seen anyone mention it on their own, so clearly it's not presented correctly. I set out to make a game where something pushes you away and tries to kill you, yet at the same time your only way of progressing is trying to get as close to it as possible. It's both good and bad at the same time, two sides of the same coin. You are the one being pushed, yet you are also the one doing the pushing and even though one is the player and one is the ball, the only real difference between the two objects is that one is being controlled by the player and the other one isn't.
In my head the parallels were clear, yet I understand if it feels far fetched as pretty much anything can be two sides of the same coin if you analyze it in the "right way".
 
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Misu

Guest
I finish all the reviews and I posted the rankings of everyone's entries. Well done everyone and congrats to all who participated. It seems there has been a decay on theme usage this jam season but I believe its because of the theme itself was something beyond unhelpful for many here. Hoping for th ebest to all and for next jam. Now excuse me, Im gonna evacuate from Irma atm.

@K-BitCRUSH i checked your video reviews. You did alright for a first timer although it would have been preferable to playthrough all entries in a first time attempt instead of already having to play them before recording. Plus you could have pointed out more stuff in some entries that could highly benefit the participants knowledge. Also, my first language is english but i moved to Puerto Rico during my childhood and now i lack good speaking on both languages. Its a pain in the ass but atleast you understood. Thanks for the review.
 
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Nallebeorn

Member
So, it seems like a few people got an Error defining external function error in @SSJCoder's game (TwainShadow), myself included. Did anyone get this error but managed to get around it somehow...? (is it just that my antivirus has deleted a .DLL-file, or something like that?)
 
Fixed version of "Bit'N'Slash"
Warp DOESN'T work :(
Download: Google Drive (Single Runtime Executable)
Boss Fight has a different track!
there are 1-5 skeletons in first level and boss fight in the next room when you kill all skeletons in the first level
Boss is on the Right. If you can't find it when you go right, its because of some weird bug. Just press 2 to use the skill, then you'll be able to move.

Answers to voters
Mercerenies Judges You

Bit n Slash - Turkish Coffee (10/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

This game commits what I consider to be one of the mortal sins of Jam games. Every Jam, I have to remind one or two developers that I am a standard human being with two hands. There is no comfortable way for me to keep my fingers on WASD and the number row on my keyboard at the same time, rendering me unable to comfortably play this game.
@Mercerenies
I just want to mention that pressing 1-2-3 only once to use a spell is a thing that "every" human being is capable of where you don't need to HOLD these buttons. Thanks for your comment.

@Misu
Thanks for your comment, I didn't have enough time and experience to make it something solid. So it turned out like this.. I couldn't even code collisions and path finding for these skeletons. And put so many of them while thining 10 would be so easy to beat. And it was my first time dealing with procedural generation.

@Barvix
Thanks for your comment, I've been happy to see that you've enjoyed even it wasn't solid playable. And.. I couldn't code the warp with collisions, so I removed it :(

@matharoo
Yea, I know I know :p That was actually a quick re-make of my real game. So it turned out like this because of the time limit :(

@Coded Games
Thanks for your comment, there is actually spell animations? and the game is set to 60 fps. But probably skeleton spawning was causing that, check the updated version when I release if you wish :)

@Alice
Thanks for your comment, and the I couldn't code the warping ability with collision checking, so I removed it.

@Shadow_Lancer
Thanks for your comment, the thing is that it was my first time playing with procedural generation and it turned out like this, check the updated file above when I publish it for a free play if you wish :)

@The M
Thanks for your comment, it was my first time attending to a jam and I couldn't think of everything. Thanks for pointing the missing inputs especially. I would forget in the real game too I think :D and the overwhelming skeletons was my misthought about difficulty.

@0.Bytes
Thanks for your neat comment while it was not a complete game :)

@K-BitCRUSH
Thank for playing my game in a video and you made me laugh so much when I saw the amount of the skeletons :D But you've forgot to use the other skills!

@johnwo
Thanks for the video, I laught again when I saw those skeletons :D You should check the most viable version above :D

@Oyakiiv
Thanks for your comment, you should check the viable version above :)
 
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I've updated the fixed version if anyone is interested.

there are 1-5 skeletons in first level and boss fight in the next room when you kill all skeletons in the first level
Boss is on the Right. If you can't find when you go right, its because of some weird bug. Just press 2 to use the skill, then you'll be able to move.
 

ghandpivot

Member
Rendering my last video review over night, it's slightly over an hour and will be up tomorrow evening if I remember to put it out.

EDIT:

It is up!
In order of appearance:
Barix, Siolfor the jackal, Misty, iMilchshake, matharoo, S1lv3r, Freedom2Fight, Fel666, Nocturne, Bingdom & Iodine & KrotoR, Joh, DocNogloff, Robert, Misu

 
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I think using the alternate sync method must make my game run faster for you Ghandpivot. Because that was much too fast. Oh and I guess I was wrong, I did mention in my readme that the menu template I used I created before the jam, so your criticism of my time prioritisation isn't really valid.
Did you even try to use the sprint/run button? I didn't think I'd have to explain that running makes you jump higher...
 

ghandpivot

Member
I think using the alternate sync method must make my game run faster for you Ghandpivot. Because that was much too fast. Oh and I guess I was wrong, I did mention in my readme that the menu template I used I created before the jam, so your criticism of my time prioritisation isn't really valid.
Did you even try to use the sprint/run button? I didn't think I'd have to explain that running makes you jump higher...
Yes. Alternate sync is not good, you can achieve the same effect (of being able to run fullscreen on newest windows updates) just by ticking the normal vsync instead.

As for it not being valid criticism about the menu, I'm not sure. I'd say it's still not worth it in my case. I didn't manage to play the game since the controls weren't presented in a way that reached me. The time it took to add the menu and edit it to fit the game could have been spent adding the controls (and more), which in my case would have made me think higher of the game. Oh, and the game would also have been done more from scratch, something I think we should all always strive towards.
 
The time it took to add was literally two seconds. So it was either that menu or no menu since I spent the rest of the time working on the platforming.
Sorry that you need giant blinking lights to play a simple platformer.
 

ghandpivot

Member
The time it took to add was literally two seconds. So it was either that menu or no menu since I spent the rest of the time working on the platforming.
Sorry that you need giant blinking lights to play a simple platformer.
No need to be rude, I do this in my free time for your sake. I'll give you text-based feedback instead as re-recording takes too long.

I replayed the game with the new found sprint key. It's not your normal platformer, in fact I've never played anything before where the run speed is tied to the jump height in the same way as in this game, and I've plowed through hundreds of platformers. What you end up doing is tapping shift before every jump in a wonky fashion. If you fail to jump over a wall you walk a few steps to the side and sprint towards it, which increases jump height by maybe 60-70%, compared to e.g. Super Mario where the increase is closer to 20% between standing completely still and running max speed (had to boot up my emulator to be sure). The jumps are quite difficult already on the first level and the punishment for failing one is huge, falling down and having to do it all over again. That goes for pretty much every level(?) as most of them feature jumping across the map over spawn.

The enemies don't really do anything. When they hit you they remove your coins sonic-style. There's no counter for the coins and if you win the game without any coins like I did it still tells you that you got away with all the treasure. If you leave them be, at least on the final level, they get bugged in the corner of the level and if you fall down on them whilte they're bugged there you're stuck in a loop of bouncing around and have to alt+F4 as there is no quit key.

Finally I'm not sure if the theme is in there? I might have missed it.
 
Yes, because nobody else does this in their free time \*rolls eyes*
60-70% is an exaggeration. The first 3 things to jump over in the first level show the range of your jump, for standing jump, walking jump, and sprinting jump height which is at most a 30% increase. I figure you specifically may have a little trouble because it runs faster for you, but those first jumps are easy, any easier and they may as well not be jumps at all.
Yeah, the last stage is bad, I threw it together in the last 5 minutes before compiling and uploading but not terrible if you take your time, but I know you're not very patient.
The theme doesn't really exist in any way in the gameplay, I tried to include it in the story with the dialogue from the enemies. Really a stretch, I admit, but the dialogue indicates there is more than one side to a story and even generic bad guys have problems and issues and reasons for doing what they do. I wanted to expand on it and add more dialogue but I only really had the one day.
 
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Oyakiiv

Guest
Almost done! just gotta rate 3 more games then I can start putting up the full rankings! unfortunately that will be tomorrow since I have met todays rating quota!
 

Sammi3

Member
Although it was great working with @JacobV during this jam, I feel like I let him down from not having too much time. He made some really good art assets. Think the idea originally was good but I only could work on it at night. Either way, it was fun :) Hopefully, the next jam is during my holidays.
 
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Misu

Guest
My presence is still active now that the storm passed and got electricity back up.

Anyway i took a look at voting page and I have a few things to mention.

@chance Supposely the shift key allows you to change universes which each one has landscape different to the other. Its a matter of knowing which position you must be on to then shift into the other universe. Its pretty simple and has lack of obstacles due to little time had to establish good challenges. Anyway, glad to know you sort of like it. If you check around the 7th page, youll find a video playthrough i did myself, showing how to pass it.

@Coded Games i was hoping you add my game to your voting thread. Dont know what happen there even when you have played it.

@Siolfor the Jackal i have to ask you something i dont even get from you...

Best Story: Coin Flipping Simulator by Kepons
What story did this game even have?!?!
Its a simple simulator with nothing to tell...
 
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Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Cave flyers were always a relatively hardcore subset of the old turn-and-burn space games, and it seems like the whole turn-and-burn category really struggles to connect with people who have trained a lot on "twin stick" or "third person" strafing-based shooters without momentum. If I were releasing the game 15-20 years ago, when, even if a player wasn't familiar with classics like Thrust, Space Taxi, or Lunar Lander, they might at least have some non-trivial practice with the likes of Asteroids or SpaceWar, I'd gladly have kept to the original plan...
2 decades is aeons in this field... and yeah, I've seen a handful of lander games (like simple flash games or such) but they've been a really narrow genre even before someone invented the twinstick shooter (which seems to have been popularized by Geometry Wars - at least that's the first one I can remember). I think turn-and-burn mechanics are pretty much rightfully dead at this point: gameplay feels the best when there is immediate feedback to your input (aka little to no input lag), and physics-based momentum manipulation is pretty much the opposite of that. Several games that rely on momentum has some method to add extra player agency, such as the Sonic games letting you jump to instantly add some speed upwards, which means you can get past small inclines without building enough momentum to be able to go uphill (which is always annoying if some mistake makes you come to a halt right before a loop or slope), and the ability to charge a "spin dash" to get a burst of momentum, at the drawbacks of having to stop completely for a while, and the spin dash itself having a low top speed so you need to jump out of it and get back into normal running mode to go REALLY fast later - the spin dash essentially is only meant as a crutch to get SOME of your speed back if you lose all your momentum.

Good game design essentially is about reducing frustration; frustration kills fun and games are supposed to be fun. Realism should take second seat to that.
 
@Misu You didn't pay attention to the story of Coin Flipping Simulator? Really missing out.
Kidding aside, none of the stories really stood out to me so I was going to leave it blank, but accidentally selected that game, then it made me laugh so I left it.
 
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Oyakiiv

Guest
putting up my full rankings now, currently have the top 20 up, but will have the rest in the next 30 minutes!

Edit: All done! Have Fun! still not happy with my rating style yet, so if your not happy with my results...well neither am I!
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Well, one last day of voting left. Personally, I'm curious to see the results, because this time rankings seem kinda all over the place, and the scores might be more evenly spread than usually as well. Of course, that might be just my impression.
 
@The M I just saw your comment saying "Is there a goal", yes you are meant to kill the skeletons and defeat your dark side -boss- which comes after you defeat skeletons. You can check the updated version above to see the boss and hear the boss theme!
 
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0.Bytes

Guest
JOHNWO's Drunken quickfire reviews now available here!
Hilarious review haha !

btw, when the trial version of your video editor expire, you could try a free video editor called "hit film express" I have never used this software, but I heard a lot of people say that is pretty decent for a free software, maybe that it might help you
 

johnwo

Member
Hilarious review haha !

btw, when the trial version of your video editor expire, you could try a free video editor called "hit film express" I have never used this software, but I heard a lot of people say that is pretty decent for a free software, maybe that it might help you
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I've got a license for Sony Vegas, but there was some complications with the license transfer when I bought a new computer(Sony to MAGIX + new computer = nightmare); Hopefully it will be sorted soon.
In any case, thanks for the tip, and I'll be sure to check it out!
 
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Wraithious

Guest
First of all I'd like to congratulate everyone who participated in the jam!
I know first-hand that a game-jam can be one of the most frustrating and rewarding events one can ever participate in.
I'd like to applaud the effort and work that everyone put into this jam, and say that I hope to see you all submit a game for the next jam; As it is a damn joy to play these games!

Expect a lost of foul language, a horrible accent, and an abhorrent comprehension of the english language.
***Profane language warning***
hahahahaaa That was possibly the funniest game review video in funniest game review video HISTORY!!!!!!

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Thanks for all your reviews everyone, I have taken into account all you've said, This is the result after-the-facts, except the menu issue with having to use the mouse and then switch back to the keyboard after the menu, that is kind of a pain, thanks @Siolfor the Jackal for pointing that out and I intend for upcoming games to fully use the keyboard to navigate the menu by simply using arrow keys and the enter button (on windows platform, I think I tend to program games with android in mind alot as of late and overlook the windows versions when it comes to the UI) . I really had run out of time to polish and fix broken things in the game and borders for the npc's and player but after 17 hrs the first day, 16 1/2 hours the second, and 19 hours and 16 minutes on the last day of the jam I couldn't do anymore, my brain was fried haha but to anyone who plays the updated version I hope I did a good job addressing most all of the encountered shortfalls of the game as mentioned by the reviews.
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Gotta agree with others that @johnwo's video reviews are a great entertainment. My personal favourite was the continuation of "let's add some music" thing between NO PAZ and Tossup Shootout.
 

johnwo

Member
Gotta agree with others that @johnwo's video reviews are a great entertainment. My personal favourite was the continuation of "let's add some music" thing between NO PAZ and Tossup Shootout.
Fun fact: The music I added to "NO PAZ" and "Tossup Shootout" is from an old LucasArts game called "Outlaws".
Great game, and one of my all-time favorites!
 
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Misu

Guest
@johnwo i like watching your vid because its funny. Unfortunately it is not a real game review vid. Its just extremely short opinion of each entry with no constructive criticism. I was really hoping to hear any suggestions or ideas about improving my jam experience or something but I didnt. It was fun though. Funny thing is that you did exactly the same thing that I did when i played Verizon Horizon. I bashed the space bar continously until I discovered which key was it I had to press. If you like to try it out again, press the Z key to continue.

Also I just discovered another problem with my entry and it had to do with delta time. It cause the speed to run terribly fast than the average gravity can support on other hardware. People could not properly get pass the tree due to that small dilemma. Ill have to avoid using delta next time since its risky to use.

I think the biggest problem about my entry was that bug on falling continously since so many people here actually fell into that. Its a matter if trying the entry without falling down that cliff. Anyway good job everyone.

@Coded Games i found out why I didnt see my name in the rank list. You spelled my username wrong :p
 
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