GMC Jam Discussion The Post-Apocalyptic GMC Jam #1 Discussion Thread

[Alice]

Haha, the good ol' conflict between people who prefer gameplay-driven and story-driven games; in many cases, it'll be impossible to satisfy both.
(I guess one of the "problems" of video games is that they can work really well both as entertainment on their own and as a storytelling medium; and there will always be people seeking one but not caring about another)

Personally, I'd like to get at least a little bit of background rather than jump into gameplay with no context whatsoever, and generally have at least some reason provided to go through the game other than "you need to complete all levels" or "you need to get best score possible" (in fact, I don't really play the games with a clear completion goal, as I'd like a game to end sometime, eventually). That's not to say I want to have a massive info dump at the beginning (especially if it's presented as text-only), just that I won't mind some (potentially lenghty) introduction before getting to the gameplay proper.

Granted, there are some tricks one might use to bring the gameplay earlier (e.g. starting with dialogue-light tutorial presented as a "training program", or pushing some background information for later point of the game); when done well, they can not only not harm the story, but enhance it. However, not in every game they can be pulled off, and not in every game it's necessary. In the end, sometimes one needs to accept they cannot satisfy both "gameplay" and "story" crowds, and decide what's the thing they want from their game.

Also, @ghandpivot, dunno how about others, but you don't need to feel guilty when skipping the story in my games, as long as it's not clearly story-driven genre (such as text-based adventure, visual novel or something like that). Generally, if I include a SKIP button, that's because I'm well aware not everyone will want to read the introduction (especially in Jam conditions) and I'm okay with that.
(in fact, I'd rather have someone skip the story than read it out loud; it slows things down for the gameplayer and for the watchers, dev included, and if someone really wants to know more about the story, they might always freeze gameplay video on the story panels, or, I dunno, play the game itself)

I wonder, maybe I could make a bunch of "warning" panels describing varying degrees of how story-heavy the game is? (as in, green for story-light games and no wall of text or introductions whatsoever; yellow for games that have some story/dialogue that can be safely skipped; orange for games that have skippable, not directly relevant story segments and pieces of gameplay-relevant ingame dialogue; red for games whose gameplay basically revolves around the story and if you skip too much, the gameplay makes no sense at all)

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

Yeah, I think a good compromise is to give the option to skip the dialogue so it's still there if you want to read it but only takes a button press to get to the action. There was one game(I can't remember which right now) where I died and it restarted the level and made me read the opening dialogue section all over again.

EDIT: I just want to clarify something. Generally I don't find large amounts of text as much of an issue, but it's not ideal for a jam game, when there's 80 other games to play and I don't have as much free time as I'd like.

 

[Brenbruyn]

The opening for Jumpship Cyrus was supposed to have a skip button, but time was running out and small additions like that were forgotten. Combined with the fact that the dramatic pauses between dialogue deliveries were a bit long, it's definitely understandable that the "cutscene" might be a bit unbearable for those who are either reviewing on a time crunch or just want to start shooting things.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or is planning to review the game. Some real wisdom is being shared in that thread ^.^

 

[TheFugue]

I'm chuffed that people like the music and the SFX I did for Everything's Gone To Hell. I always look forward to the game jams because it means I have an excuse to hole up in my studio and go to town for a couple days.

I think it's funny that everyone loves the "barbarbar" talk noises so much, because that was such a last minute addition. It maybe took five minutes to do.

One thing though that I don't know if anyone noticed is how the soundtrack evolves a bit over time. It's a two minute and thirty second loop of ambience at first, but but then there's a chunky bass beat layer and an instrument layer (with guitar and electric piano) that are added as the game progresses. To make it really seamless, it doesn't fade in. There's certain "breakpoints" for each track where it can just jump in and feel really natural, usually at the start of new sections of the track. So, when you're playing the game, and the game decides you've progressed enough to add the "beat" layer, it waits until a natural point in the music for it to suddenly appear, instead of just fading in at that moment. I'm actually kind of pleased nobody noticed, because it meant that it was so seamless that nobody noticed there were three distinct musical layers potentially playing at once. I think it also helped extend the life of the track, because a 2.5 minute loop can get pretty old, but with the multiple layers, it gives the impression the song is much longer.

 

[dadio]

Mer! Apologies for being absent most of this Jam! (& for perhaps my most pitiful entry to date - I set a personal record with that one tho, making it it under 10 minutes lol).
Just got way too much real life stuff going on just now (holidays/country moves).
Next time I'll enter something real *cough* & at least make sure to play all the games & vote!
Best of luck to all in the voting/tallies!
Amazing turnout & from what I've seen, quality entries!
Great work everyone!

 

[Nacky Slocker]

@GameDevDan Yup, knew that!
@DukeSoft Hope you enjoy(ed) it!
@Alice Alright, I'll try to go for some reviews, when's the deadline?

Whew! When I finished that game, I wanted it to be "Played and enjoyed" in 5 minutes. That's it. Hope it was fun! Also, here's a list of improvements off the top of my head:

Spoiler: but not really

1: Music
2: Sounds
3: Extra attacks, functions etc.
4: Better menu
5: Pause button

Of course more items, but I'm done with it for now.
I also committed the "ReadMe" sin.

"Thou shalt not create a game that dost require a readme text to know how thou shalt play. For this is a sin amongst creators of video games"
-hexidecimus

the sin is in the book of binary, go look it up.

Spoiler

I'm just kidding

 

[HayManMarc]

My computer wouldn't run "AfterStory". Kept crashing at the beginning with a generic "windows encountered an unexpected problem" error. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Alice]

@Alice Alright, I'll try to go for some reviews, when's the deadline?

The deadline is Thursday 23:59 UTC, which means...

There are 3 days left until voting deadline!

If you have played some games but haven't posted/updated the voting post yet, please do so as soon as possible. Even if you haven't played all games, your vote will still count, and incomplete feedback is still better than no feedback. Besides, you will be able to edit the voting post to your heart's content until the deadline arrives and I'll lock the voting topic.

Now, then, that'd imply that results will go live on Friday, but let's not get too excited. I might extend the voting period by 3 days (so that it includes the nearest weekend) if at least several people, who have made a reasonable progress reviewing the games but need more time, request that. By "reasonable progress" I mean having made particularly detailed feedback for at least 10 entries (a few sentences per entry won't cut it) or having ranked at least half of total entries. Generally, I require some progress to make it more likely that voting period extension will result in some valuable votes that would be incomplete/not as detailed otherwise. If not for that, some procrastinators could request voting extension in hope that they'll have the voting put off by a few more days.

To request extending the voting period, please send me a message, including information about the progress in voting you've made so far. You can do that by Wednesday 20:00 UTC, maybe a few more hours after that. After that time I'll announce whether the voting period has been extended or the original date is definite deadline, and I'll accept no more requests from that point on.

I hope things are clear enough. ^^'

 

[Nacky Slocker]

Alright, where do we post the reviews? I've played about 5 games so far, thinking of limiting the amount of time per game to about 5-10 minutes. Some of these games just outright kill you for making the smallest mistake. nothing against them, just spending an hour on each entry is gonna take 80 hours.

Actually, for the next jam, could we make a time guideline? You're game is only expected to last 15 or so minutes tops? Just as a guideline, not a rule. I understand some games needing more time, but it just takes some games so long to play.

@Alice I seriously gotta ask, is you're avatar and name a Touhou character?

 

[TehPilot]

Spoiler

I'm a little late with this, but here it is. Hopefully this should help anybody who got stuck there.

I'll do a more elaborate teardown of the game another time. Fugue's post about audio is but one of many design stories that went into this game.

 

[Wraithious]

Welll it looks like my "README" file killed my game on 3 accounts,
1. I wrote you're supposed to avoid the enemys, FALSE you are supposed to chase and eat them, as you are only armed with your chompers(teeth)
2. I should of put the opening story in the readme
3. The space bar was a CHEAT CODE i left in the game so you could do a 5 minuite run through of the game to see all the features, like the boss scene where it rains blood untill you defeat the boss, there's also a nice end story if you win
Oh, and the room where theres your character double and double enemys, most of you didnt notice the mirror box in the middle of the room that made that effect, i worked on that for 9 hours lol

 

[Alice]

@Nacky Slocker: you need to post your vote (top 3 with comments, optionally best-ofs and full ranking) in the voting topic; anywhere else doesn't count. If you're using the Jam player, you can use "Export" feature to copy voting post template to clipboard, then paste it in the reply box (or edit box, once you've made the voting post and are editing it).

As for the games time - granted, in Jam conditions it's useful to keep the game short (or perhaps the essential content unlockable), though I wouldn't really post it as an official guideline (as there are other guidelines of similar importance, and they'd clutter things). Sometimes, in former Jam topics people were posting compiled lists of general Jam advice; perhaps someone could do the same here.
(and, given it's 25th page of the discussion topic, maybe somewhere at the beginning of the next discussion topic once it goes up, too...? If we remember at that point...?)

(oh, also, the avatar is a Touhou character, namely, Ellen; but the name is from my name, not from Touhou ^^')

 

[Micah_DS]

I finally played Afterstory, which was one of the games that really captured my interest during the jam. It did not disappoint. I encountered 4 different bugs, varying from harmless to game-breaking, but the game was a real nice experience, nonetheless.

In case the programmer (Adam Twite) would like to know, here are the Afterstory bugs I encountered, though I expect he's aware of all or most of them by now (listed from most severe to harmless):

Spoiler

1. The game's ending (good or bad) gave me this error (well, this is from the happy judgment, but the other one had a similar error). I was forced to abort:
   ############################################################################################
   FATAL ERROR in
   action number 1
   of Step Event0
   for object obj_judgment_happy:
   
   global variable SpiritBar(100023, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
   at gml_Object_obj_judgment_happy_Step_0
   ############################################################################################
   
   
2. I broke the text box engine somehow when reading the diary thing. The text would not go away no matter what, then the text all became yellow, and the words no longer wrapped, and I could move around freely. Finally, somehow while walking around pressing buttons, I got it to go away.
   
   
3. The fade out and fade in with the turtle story sequence doesn't cover the entire screen when in fullscreen mode, though it's fine in windowed mode.
   
   
4. You can moonwalk backwards and to the left if you're pressing up, then continue to hold up + left + down, and release up... yeah, I know, I know, nobody will press buttons like this... unless they're me.

I'm having a lot of fun playing all of these games, seeing all the various talent and all, but yeah, I still have 50 games left to play and not much time left to do it and vote. But I really I want to play them all through and rate them fairly. Luckily, I don't have work tomorrow, so I'm just gonna stay up and play games and see how far I can get.

EDIT: In "The Aftermath" I just discovered a nasty game-breaking bug, only I'm not sure how to reproduce it. It happened twice. Both times, I put the stamped paper in the drawer and the game froze right before the drawer was all the way closed. In this frozen state, I can close the game via the "X" button on the window, but the game is still running and music is still playing. I had to go into the task manager and look in the background processes to find it and end the task. Odd.

 

[JackOatley]

I already noted this in the voting topic, but as I won't be able to finish the video reviews for all games before the deadline I won't be voting on them. But if you would still like a video review post-jam (probably a better, less rushed, one) then you can PM me and I'll do it when I have a decent stretch of time.

 

[Yal]

Finally got around to playing and voting games. The jam player is a really neat streamlining tool, Alice! :3

I'd suggest a bigger default window size, though. 3 lines of text is not enough for nice feedback and it wasn't immediately obvious you can resize it.

 

[Alice]

@Yal: Glad you like the Jam player, I hoped it would speed things up for you voters. Especially in this Jam, where some speed-up is so desperately needed. ^^
(I hope you'll find time to play more games, too; there have been some really, really neat entries this time round~!)

As for the player suggestions, I'll try to keep the window size in mind, though with the last patch having been released I'll probably seek player suggestions (minor and major) *after* the Jam finishes and things are summed up. Right now, I've got quite a few things on my plate... ^^'

 

[Miner7365]

I remember someone quitted my game when they were doing the video review when it said the words... "You beat the Game...."

....That was the middle of a cutscene, but whatever.

Also, if anyone wants to replay it, and can't get past that "I won't let you repeat" thing, your going to have to do %localappdata%/regret, go into the file named... Death i belive? and change the variable purgatory in there to zero, doubt anyone wants to though, because of how slow paced the game is, but i figured incase someone wanted to open it again, they can.....

I should of put a key in that would reset it, but oh well, too late to do that now

Also, here is a little concept art i made during the jam, i was going to use this for the end screen, but i had the "You can't replay the game" idea and went with that, so for anyone who wants it, here you go.



yeah, before i get critics.... i know it looks bad....

I didn't put it on the thing because it was a bit spoilery, but since everyone that wants to play it has, it's fine to show it now.

Anyways, I just figured i would just post a little... idk, notice on how to reset your file, as i said, i should have put a key in, but it was like 8 p.m at night and i decided i was done.. so yeah, i guess i'll be back next jam...

 

[Dark]

My highscore was 0099500, which is probably terrible.

Jeez, if that's terrible then I must absolutely suck at my own game!

 

[Nacky Slocker]

View attachment 2128

yeah, before i get critics.... i know it looks bad....

@Miner7365 looks like a character from the TV show "Adventure Time". You know, with Finn and Jake.

 

[ghandpivot]

I'll do my best to plow through most of the games tonight and then publish my reviews, there are 12 new out as of today already!

 

[HayManMarc]

I've got about 25 left to play. Dunno if it's gonna happen.

 

[Alice]

I've got about 25 left to play. Dunno if it's gonna happen.

Well, given there are nearly 50 hours left, it means about 12 entries per day. Besides, at this point I think you've played more than enough entries to cast a valid vote. ^^'

Don't give up.

 

[Snail Man]

Jeez, if that's terrible then I must absolutely suck at my own game!

The 00 in front of the score makes makes every score seem bad haha

 

[ghandpivot]

There we are, all the reviews are done! (press me)

 

[Wraithious]

Welll it looks like my "README" file killed my game on 3 accounts,
1. I wrote you're supposed to avoid the enemys, FALSE you are supposed to chase and eat them, as you are only armed with your chompers(teeth)
2. I should of put the opening story in the readme
3. The space bar was a CHEAT CODE i left in the game so you could do a 5 minuite run through of the game to see all the features, like the boss scene where it rains blood untill you defeat the boss, there's also a nice end story if you win
Oh, and the room where theres your character double and double enemys, most of you didnt notice the mirror box in the middle of the room that made that effect, i worked on that for 9 hours lol

I just wnated to point out a couple things, my storyline was hard to read and scrolled too fast (altho you could resize the game window and click on your desktop to "pause" it) so heres the beginning and end story text:

Spoiler: Territory Earth, the story

INTRO STORY TEXT

The year is 2020, all of humanity has succumed to an incurable disease spread by fungi. Only a few animals and insects managed to form resistance, and now they have turned on each other senslessly from
a violent side effect of being resistant to the new disease. You, a tree chomping catipillar seem to be immune to both the disease and it's psychotic side affects, and are forced to live in a violent world
where every living thing wants to kill you! You must survive and find out why you are the only one left with your sanity, and find the cure to save what little life is left
on the Earth. Armed only with your chompers you must make a perrilous journey through the micro forrest world and confront the source of putrid psycotic senslessness! Fight enemys and find your
destiny on Territory Earth!!


OUTTRO STORY TEXT

You have defeated the heart of all evil and recieved the antidote!! It turns out that the Earths fungi spores had mutated to destroy all animal lifeforms in response to cruelty and the consumption of fungal
flesh by the animals and former humans. Now you can go forth and innoculate the remaining plants and animals. This antidote also has a serenity side affect that makes all life respect and work with
each other and end all violence and interspecies destruction for food and self gain. Now with this antidote life is sustained through sunlight and water thus eliminating any need for violence,
killing and dismemberment of any other life form
THE END! Thank you for playing! Credits: This game was proudly brought to you by Wraithious at Roadhammer Gaming. Thanks go to all the GMC forum members for their kind help throughout the years
teaching me how to make video games, and to you the player for all your support and for playing Territory Earth!!

And I finally got the mirror room to work correctly!!!! haha another 6 hours later, here's my mirror code for anyone who's interested:
EDIT: Updated mirror room Video now included!!

Spoiler: Mirror mirror, ohh mirror lol

///Mirror room
if ! instance_exists(player) instance_destroy();
if(instance_exists(player))
{speed=player.speed;
if(point_in_rectangle(player.x, player.y, 154, 70, 372, 225) && ! point_in_triangle(player.x, player.y,154,40,300,70,372,25))//player is on the mirror
{image_xscale=player.image_xscale;image_yscale=player.image_yscale;
if(global.moving1=0)
{x=player.x;y=player.bbox_top+(bbox_bottom-bbox_top);image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=2)
{x=player.x;y=player.bbox_top+(bbox_bottom-bbox_top);image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=1)
{x=player.x+15;y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=3)
{x=player.x+15;y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
}
if(player.x<154 || player.x>=372 || point_in_triangle(player.x, player.y,154,40,300,70,372,25) || player.y>225)//player is not on the mirror
{if(player.y>=225)
{if(global.moving1=0)
{x=player.x;y=225-(player.y-225);image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=2)
{x=player.x;y=225-(player.y-225);image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=1)
{x=player.x;y=(225-(player.y-225));image_single=player.image_single+8;}
if(global.moving1=3)
{x=player.x;y=(225-(player.y-225));image_single=player.image_single-8;}
}
if(player.y<225)
{if(player.x>=372)
{if(global.moving1=0)
{x=((372+sprite_width)-((player.x+sprite_width)-372));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single+8;}
if(global.moving1=2)
{x=((372+sprite_width)-((player.x+sprite_width)-372));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single-8;}
if(global.moving1=1)
{x=((372+sprite_width)-((player.x+sprite_width)-372));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=3)
{x=((372+sprite_width)-((player.x+sprite_width)-372));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
}
if(player.x<154)
{if(global.moving1=0)
{x=(154+(154-player.x));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single+8;}
if(global.moving1=2)
{x=(154+(154-player.x));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single-8;}
if(global.moving1=1)
{x=(154+(154-player.x));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
if(global.moving1=3)
{x=(154+(154-player.x));y=player.y;image_single=player.image_single;}
}
}
}
if player.y>=25 && player.y<225 && ! point_in_triangle(player.x, player.y,154,40,300,70,372,25)visible=1;
if player.y>=225 &&(player.x>=154 || player.x<372)visible=1;
if player.y<70 visible=0;
if player.x<154 && player.y>=225 visible=0;
if player.x>=372 && player.y>=225 visible=0;
if(player.x<154 || player.x>=372 || point_in_triangle(player.x, player.y,154,40,300,70,372,25) || player.y>225)
{ypohi1=room_height;global.invy1=y*0.5;
if global.invy1<1 global.invy1=1;tsk1=(global.invy1*0.01);
if tsk1<0.45 tsk1=0.45;if tsk1>2 tsk1=2;image_xscale=tsk1;
image_yscale=tsk1;
if(global.moving1=3 && speed>0 && y>100 && tsk1<2  && tsk1>0.45)x+=tsk1/4;
if(global.moving1=1 && speed>0 && y>100 && tsk1<2  && tsk1>0.45)x-=tsk1/4;
}
}

So I'm going to try and finish my game reviews before the time is up, Happy gaming everyone!!

 

[Xor]

I quickly reviewed and ranked 25 games here. Mattie, Murzy, Yokcos, and The M did fantastic jobs in my opinion. Play their games if you haven't yet.

 

[Carnivius]

@LegendarySavior Thanks for nice comments and the crash report. I hadn't seen that before so will take a look and what's causing it.

 

[HayManMarc]

70 games down, 10 to go. I just might make it. Just a warning tho... my reviews are crap.
(I'll post them when all finished.)

 

[Nallebeorn]

There. All games played and ranked, and most of the commented too.
Enjoy!

 

[Misu]

I got the Deadly Desire Post Version uploaded, in case some of you might interest on checking it out!

It has several issues fixed and the real ending added.
Please do not count this version for voting. It does not qualify.

 

[Alice]

Alright, a little announcement.

The voting period has *not* been extended.

The voting ends on Thursday 23:59 UTC as planned, which means you have a bit over 24 hours left to finish up your votes!

You can expect the final results to be posted on Friday, 19th August!

Also, please stick to the voting time. I plan to close the voting topic right on schedule and am not too keen on getting final votes minutes (hours?) after the voting period ends.

 

[RekNepZ]

Saturday or Sunday are much more even days to end the voting period than Thursday. It hurts thinking of how it just ends right there in the middle of the week. Are you trying to discriminate against OCD sufferers???

Also, I still have 65 more games to go...

 

[Mercerenies]

I have to find it a bit amusing how lenient this Jam was with late game entries, taking fixes days after the Jam ended, in contrast to how strict the voting period deadline seems to be

 

[Tselmek]

I'm really sad that I was not able to play more games and that my reviews are quite rushed. I've added 6 more reviews as well as my top 12 and my best-of choices but that's all I'll be able to do. Hopefully next time goes more smoothly

 

[Mercerenies]

My reviews are done. Here they are. I really need to stop putting these off.

 

[nvrogers]

I really sorry, but I've had a very busy week and I won't be able to finish my reviews or play through enough games to make an informed ranking. If anyone who requested a review still wants one, PM me and I will write it when I get a chance. Good job to all the games and the reviewers, though! This has been a great Jam #1!

 

[TheUltimate]

My reviews are up! I never got through all the games so I'm not sure if I should vote. I prefer an informed vote but have no time to play the rest of the games.

Also, I'd like to compile a list of all games with post-Jam updates. I made a post on my profile so everybody can comment there instead of sending tons of PMs or getting lost in the topic. I'll post the list here afterwards.

 

[Micah_DS]

I have successfully played all 81 games and I'm currently in the middle of doing quick replays of every single one, playing just enough to refresh my memory on things so I can readjust my ratings and comments as needed. Now that I've played them all, I have a much better idea of what is the best and worst, so I can more accurately rate them. That said, I don't find it easy rating 81 games properly... it's... well, a lot. But I want to try to give good feedback for all you guys, so I'll do my best.

 

[HayManMarc]

WOOOT!!! I got 'em all played and reviewed and done!!! I'm so happy (that it's over - lol)!!

GREAT JOB, EVERYONE! ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO BRING UP THE BOTTOM OF THE VOTES!! Your perseverance and determination will pay off as long as you never give up! (Is that a little redundant and kinda redundant?)

My votes:
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...yptic-gmc-jam-1-voting-topic.3706/#post-28236

 

[Nallebeorn]

I died before 1st save point too much and had to start over and over again. Wouldn't it be simplier to make checkpoint every screen?

You know, that's not a bad idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that – I pretty much have one checkpoint for every potentially deadly screen either way. Hmm.

 

[Alice]

There are 12 hours left till the voting closes!

What will it be...?

(also, it seems quite many people took the effort to play and comment on all the games this time round, even if not everyone ranked everything; pretty great job here, everyone, really)

 

[Misu]

I REVIEWED ALL ENTRIES! You can check them out in my post now!

I still yet need to attach separate document that includes all reviews in plain text with the scores attached.

I will later announce the winners and the scoring positions!

 

[DocNogloff]

I must say, 81 games is a lot of competition and experience to gain from. Thanks everybody who took the time to review everything, everybody did a great job at uncovering and analyzing the bits and pieces of game design that I and others overlooked. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the time to play any games because I happened to be on vacation for half the voting time, and school started immediately after, my bad.
I'm excited to see the results, seeing that my game received such a wide variety of reviews and ratings.

I'll be honest though, I didn't like this theme as thoroughly as the previous jams, so I guess that contributed to my unwillingness to squeeze in some playtime

 

[Kepons]

Aaand I'm done with my reviews. Votes and review spreadsheet here

 

[Mercerenies]

So I'm going to make this general statement here. In most previous Jams, the problem was lack of instructional material. I'm glad to see that trend dying; with most games either including a help page or a README, or in some cases both.

This Jam the problem seemed to be control mechanisms. I ran into several incredibly complicated control schemes. There is no way I can comfortable use WASD, the arrow keys, and the mouse at the same time, and I really don't know how you test/debug a game like that without noticing that it's uncomfortable. If you can't comfortably play your game with two hands, neither can the players. And that seemed to be a running problem with several entries this time.

 

[Nacky Slocker]

There is no way I can comfortable use WASD, the arrow keys, and the mouse at the same time

No kidding! I usually have a problem when just the mouse and "WASD". The only time I find THAT comfortable is in an RTS game (Like Starcraft) or a FPS (Like Halo).
Also, I really like your profile pic (Bowser).

I didn't get my game entered, but I barely did 10 game reviews! So now I officially have taken part in this "1st Game Jam"... Well, rather pathetically, I will admit that, but I did what I could under the circumstances.

 

[Yal]

On the subject of annoying control schemes, a pet peeve of mine is when a game uses a mouse-controlled menu and then controls everything else with the arrow keys + a bunch of buttons. You should ideally never have to move your hands around while playing a game, so if you don't use the mouse in-game you should make all menus controllable with the arrows and action keys.

Another thing that's not really a general complaint but general advice... don't throw too much controls info in the player's face at once. Moving around, jumping and one or two actions is about as much as you can handle from the get-go, if there's more controls than that you should introduce them via tutorials or text popups after the player's gotten a chance to learn how the previous ones work, ideally being FORCED to use them before proceeding. Mario games almost always start you off at the left side of a screen with nothing on it, forcing you to go right... at that point you know how to walk and how to progress (go right). Then once you know how to move right, an enemy approaches. You need to figure out how to jump to progress - either jump ON the enemy, killing it, or jump OVER it - in either case, it's completely impossible to progress further without knowing how to jump.

 

[Alice]

Less than 5 hours remain till the voting end. The end of this Jam drawn near...

Out of curiosity, looking at the reviews, which stand out the most to you? Which are particularly detailed, helpful or entertaining? The Best Reviewer award will need to be granted, and I have some types (and, indeed, as a Jam host I'll have final word when deciding), but I'd still like to know what others think.

 

[Simaster48]

Another thing that's not really a general complaint but general advice... don't throw too much controls info in the player's face at once. Moving around, jumping and one or two actions is about as much as you can handle from the get-go, if there's more controls than that you should introduce them via tutorials or text popups after the player's gotten a chance to learn how the previous ones work, ideally being FORCED to use them before proceeding. Mario games almost always start you off at the left side of a screen with nothing on it, forcing you to go right... at that point you know how to walk and how to progress (go right). Then once you know how to move right, an enemy approaches. You need to figure out how to jump to progress - either jump ON the enemy, killing it, or jump OVER it - in either case, it's completely impossible to progress further without knowing how to jump.

Another great game I've discovered which takes this to heart, and which have had me playing it over a couple of times just because it is so nice, would be Dragons Wake.

The difficulty curve is really nice when learning the controls, it just kind of comes to you as you progress through the story. <^.^>

 

[Alice]

One hour left to place your votes!

Please gather your rankings and post them while you can. That's particularly true for top 3 with comments; without that, the vote is invalid!