GMC Jam Discussion The Stellar GMC Jam #4 Discussion Thread

[ghandpivot]

NOW I FEEL TERRIBLE

I still feel terrible

Come on guys...

This is a "competition" for game developers, one good thing about that is that every contestant and reviewer can appreciate a game for more than just how it holds up as an actual finished game. For example, I always appreciate playing something that I have no idea how to recreate myself, no matter if its any good or not. I also appreciate stuff that clearly takes a long time to make, such as the things that are in some of the jam's unfinished projects.

The one who claims first place however is usually the one who finds the perfect balance, there's no denying that.

 

[Bingdom]

Started to reviews games yesterday. For the past 25 years I was used to see a readme.txt file and it looks like the new appellation is now: README_PLEASE.txt.
funny!
(Some very good games in this batch.)

Because:

• if your README file is necessary to play the game (e.g. it includes the instructions not available in the game), call it README_PLEASE; if README is not required to play the game, please use the regular README

 

[NazGhuL]

lol more funny then!

 

[Wraithious]

Did video playthroughs for:
TGWATT, Tapsailing, Voyage to Alpha Centuri, What am I, Badass Voyage, Sea Voyage, Skyland Voyager, Forbidden frontier, Untitled Islands, A trip to the grocery store, This is NOT Windwaker, Until Night Falls
Seven Sands, Perilous Pilgrimage, Defector, Brick Ocean, Voyage for the Lost Aegis, Galactic Conqueror, Ship Ahoy, R.I.D.E. Something Somthing, Beyonder
They're on the voting site, videos are still being processed by youtube at the moment though.

Hi thanks for playing my game! just wanted to say there is audio, both music and and voice, at gamestart you can turn sound on and off (and in game also in the menu), I should have had it on by default but i didn't, sorry. also you have to equip your shovel or torch in the menu after leaving the shops or you can't kill the monsters, and when the game starts and you go into the inn the inn keeper gives you hints on how to play. Nice job videoing all those games that's really cool! and again thanks!

 

[Freedom2Fight]

I feel that the one to take first place is likely to be a team. In a team of two there is division of labor: one to specialize in art and another programming. In a team of three the third one makes music or who knows what - cheerleader, rain-dance person, token member.

If you go at it alone and don't win - don't feel too bad. A lot of people participated on their own. We are... alone together or something. My point was somewhere in these sentences.

 

[JacobV]

I feel that the one to take first place is likely to be a team. In a team of two there is division of labor: one to specialize in art and another programming. In a team of three the third one makes music or who knows what - cheerleader, rain-dance person, token member.

If you go at it alone and don't win - don't feel too bad. A lot of people participated on their own. We are... alone together or something. My point was somewhere in these sentences.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Last Jam, my game was completely solo and was my first jammed game, and I still made it to fourth place. And that game had pretty crappy art and no music. I don't think that (as far as Jams go) a team is necessary to make a good game.

 

[Posho]

Some quick, rough playthroughs with thoughts, critique and the occasional praise.

TGWATT, Tapsailing, Voyage to Alpha Centuri, What am I, Badass Voyage, Sea Voyage, Skyland Voyager, Forbidden frontier, Untitled Islands, A trip to the grocery store, This is NOT Windwaker, Until Night Falls

Seven Sands, Perilous Pilgrimage, Defector, Brick Ocean, Voyage for the Lost Aegis, Galactic Conqueror, Ship Ahoy, R.I.D.E. Something Somthing, Beyonder

tfw video ends right before your game

 

[Oyakiiv]

yeah the video review got me thinking too... he didnt even get past the first stage... but that was my fault I guess... could have made the stages shorter and the enemy spawn rate accelerate a bit faster... and yes I know I forgot to explain the shields in the help section...

not sad my game isnt reviewing well, this has been a great overall experience and so far...would do it again!

 

[Yal]

could have made the stages shorter

That is one of the most common mistakes people make even in commercially released bad games, btw... making the first stage so long people get bored of the game before they finish it. Always make the first few stages as short as possible so you FEEL you're making progress quickly.

 

[lolslayer]

The only review I've seen about the game I worked on, was about the fact that the reviewer couldn't find out how to play it, does anybody else here have the same problem? Because if so, I'll make sure to post instructions at as many places as possible to make sure that the reviewers at least can play the game and give an actual review -.-

 

[Posho]

The only review I've seen about the game I worked on, was about the fact that the reviewer couldn't find out how to play it, does anybody else here have the same problem? Because if so, I'll make sure to post instructions at as many places as possible to make sure that the reviewers at least can play the game and give an actual review -.-

I haven't played yours but if you do write up a ReadMe or manual, make sure to post it ITT so I can check that out.

 

[ghandpivot]

yeah the video review got me thinking too... he didnt even get past the first stage... but that was my fault I guess... could have made the stages shorter and the enemy spawn rate accelerate a bit faster... and yes I know I forgot to explain the shields in the help section...

not sad my game isnt reviewing well, this has been a great overall experience and so far...would do it again!

Lol I missed that there even were stages, that green text with Stage 1 didn't register in my brain at all until I rewatched the video to know which games was yours.
I like to think that video playthroughs are some of the most valuable critique you can get for a game, and that is even if the player is completely silent or just acknowledges what he or she sees and does in general while playing. That's why I do them. It lets us as creators see what we need to highlight, what we need to present in another way, where people lose interest, how they react to certain events and how they constantly miss out on information that we thought were obvious (which they do, literally all the time no matter how much of a game veteran they are). It gives us information that we could never get from a text based review because the text can only contain what the player knows about their playthrough, and as a dev looking at the playthrough you know a lot more.

I'd love if more people would record their gameplay, it doesn't really take all that much more time as you're still playing the game anyways.

 

[Misty]

I was gonna enter the jam but I was too depressed. The game I was gonna make was gonna be about a voyage of Consciousness entering and leaving bodies and the futility of life, space, and existence. I had no idea what the game play was gonna be, but if anyone made a game like this put my vote to them as #1.

 

[nvrogers]

@ghandpivot Your review made me realize something that should have been obvious about my game: the purpose of the compass is not clear at all. I was trying to encourage people to start out by heading North East, which is the direction of the *first* monument. The compass points to whichever monument is the closest, so from that point the content is scattered between the monuments in order of whichever is closest. It also works out to only have two or three upwind sections that way. I probably should have walled off the other directions or made something less ambiguous to lead players at the start of the game. Whoops.

 

[lolslayer]

I haven't played yours but if you do write up a ReadMe or manual, make sure to post it ITT so I can check that out.

Well, the README can't be put in the launcher anymore, and the instructions can be found on the post where you could download the game manually so I don't know what better place to post it

 

[Posho]

Well, the README can't be put in the launcher anymore, and the instructions can be found on the post where you could download the game manually so I don't know what better place to post it

I meant that you should post it in this thread so everyone can see.

 

[lolslayer]

I meant that you should post it in this thread so everyone can see.

Ah okay, here it comes:

Use WASD to move the camera, left and right key to turn the camera. The mouse to select planets and escape to get rid of pop ups.

In every turn you can choose to travel to a star or to gather resources from the one you're at, but every time you let a turn go by the infection spreads. The infection spreads faster and faster so you should upgrade your ship aswell.

You win by getting enough knowledge so you can find a cure for the infection. You lose if the infection consumed you.

When you hear an alarm sound it means that you'll be consumed when you stay on the same star system for one more turn.

There is still a secret left about the gameplay which I won't share and when you win it says "you lose" (sorry for that) but with this you should easily be able to find out how to play the game

 

[lolslayer]

My first reviews are up, so far I Always did a full playthrough, so if there's an ending, I will play till the end. (Except when I come to that alpha centauri game, **** that xD)

 

[Thexel PIN]

Yeah, I also forgot to explain that the button to skip the dialogue in my game was Ctrl. And it doesn't seem too many people use the Shift button, that it was explained and it lets you move slower and see your hitbox. In the review that @ghandpivot made he said "I already forgot the controls". I really do not know how to fix that...

 

[Cloaked Games]

Yeah, I also forgot to explain that the button to skip the dialogue in my game was Ctrl. And it doesn't seem too many people use the Shift button, that it was explained and it lets you move slower and see your hitbox. In the review that @ghandpivot made he said "I already forgot the controls". I really do not know how to fix that...

Make simpler controls. Look for situations where one button can replace two different buttons. For example, in my jam game, I was able to use the button that starts the dialogue boxes to skip the dialogue boxes as well, instead of having a separate button for that. Also find ways to show the controls on the screen when the action is needed. For example, in Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, the A button is shown at the top, and displays a word describing what action would happen if you pressed it at any given time. Or in skyward sword, the whole wii remote is shown on screen (but if it's that extreme MAKE SURE you can disable it if you want. You can in skyward sword though, it's all good).

 

[Thexel PIN]

Make simpler controls. Look for situations where one button can replace two different buttons. For example, in my jam game, I was able to use the button that starts the dialogue boxes to skip the dialogue boxes as well, instead of having a separate button for that. Also find ways to show the controls on the screen when the action is needed. For example, in Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, the A button is shown at the top, and displays a word describing what action would happen if you pressed it at any given time. Or in skyward sword, the whole wii remote is shown on screen (but if it's that extreme MAKE SURE you can disable it if you want. You can in skyward sword though, it's all good).

With skipping the dialogue I meant skipping the conversation. Just pressing Z (the same button used to shoot) forwards the dialogue. Holding CTRL makes all the dialogues last half a second and then go to the next. It still a good recomendation to show like "Use Shift to move slower" or something like that when the enemies start to appear. Thank you!

 

[Posho]

Now that I have time I want to record myself playing all of your games but I don't know wether I should stream and then export from Twitch to YouTube, or just record locally and edit the videos more freely.

 

[Thexel PIN]

Now that I have time I want to record myself playing all of your games but I don't know wether I should stream and then export from Twitch to YouTube, or just record locally and edit the videos more freely.

Record them. Stream lowers quality when exporting to video format.

 

[Cloaked Games]

I'm doing the second one. It does take longer for editing, but it allows for higher quality videos, and I don't have to do all of the games at once, I can take as many breaks as I want.

 

[Joh]

That is one of the most common mistakes people make even in commercially released bad games, btw... making the first stage so long people get bored of the game before they finish it. Always make the first few stages as short as possible so you FEEL you're making progress quickly.

When I read this I was like... hehe guess I figured that one out! made my level super short!
But after seein the video review seems like I still blew it. ( @ghandpivot )
It's funny though cause the first level is really short and easy, cause without beating it you don't get the "voyage". (Still props to the player for figuring it out)
One thing it did show me is ppl gonna notice offness, the hitboxes are really off. it was on purpose, but its blatantly bad when you exploit/spam it. To be fair spamming is no good for good performance but that kind of requires ppl to notice/want good performance.
Also, I didn't know I was a veteran that's cool! Even moreso the recall to a fighting game of mine. To me that was forever ago, I did try to recapture some of its charm, as it was my best performing game.

And I thought I had something good going -_-

 

[JacobV]

waiting for someone to edit their post on the voting thread in a nutshell

 

[Thexel PIN]

waiting for someone to edit their post on the voting thread in a nutshell

I feel you. The only critique I have gotten out of the voting thread are "there is only one game like this in a Jam" (positive) and "the first stage is eternal, the hitboxes are off //Probably didn't use the shift button// and it feels incomplete". I can agree on some things, but like all games in here are incomplete (except for like, two)...
I still feel kind of flattered by the fact that everyone is like "he probably didn't do that much of this game as there wasn't enough time", but like I made everything but the sounds and 6 lines of code.

 

[Oyakiiv]

did anyone else have trouble reading the text in 'Who am I' ? it looks interesting, but chunks of text move off the right side of my screen never to be read...

anyway, 5 games looked at so far! Space Taxi is currently my top, I find it addicting. Though it plays very slowly for me, still not sure if it is a frame rate issue or intentional...

 

[Thexel PIN]

did anyone else have trouble reading the text in 'Who am I' ? it looks interesting, but chunks of text move off the right side of my screen never to be read...

anyway, 5 games looked at so far! Space Taxi is currently my top, I find it addicting. Though it plays very slowly for me, still not sure if it is a frame rate issue or intentional...

Were you using a laptop? I was using one and had the same problem.

 

[var]

anyway, 5 games looked at so far! Space Taxi is currently my top, I find it addicting. Though it plays very slowly for me, still not sure if it is a frame rate issue or intentional...

If you have no pilots, your ship moves pretty slowly. Is that what you are talking about? It is also certainly possible that you are just getting a bad framerate, we didn't exactly design it with performance in mind...

 

[Oyakiiv]

Were you using a laptop? I was using one and had the same problem.

yep laptop.

If you have no pilots, your ship moves pretty slowly. Is that what you are talking about? It is also certainly possible that you are just getting a bad framerate, we didn't exactly design it with performance in mind...

without a pilot it would take a few minutes to get between stars, and maybe about 2 minutes with 2 good pilots...

 

[var]

yep laptop.


without a pilot it would take a few minutes to get between stars, and maybe about 2 minutes with 2 good pilots...

Yeah, that sounds like a performance issue. You should be moving 60 pixels per second at minimum, so about 5 seconds between adjacent stars.

 

[Oyakiiv]

huh, wonder how that happened...still liked it, played it for most of an hour like that...

 

[var]

huh, wonder how that happened...still liked it, played it for most of an hour like that...

Wow, glad you liked it!

 

[ghandpivot]

When I read this I was like... hehe guess I figured that one out! made my level super short!
But after seein the video review seems like I still blew it. ( @ghandpivot )
It's funny though cause the first level is really short and easy, cause without beating it you don't get the "voyage". (Still props to the player for figuring it out)
One thing it did show me is ppl gonna notice offness, the hitboxes are really off. it was on purpose, but its blatantly bad when you exploit/spam it. To be fair spamming is no good for good performance but that kind of requires ppl to notice/want good performance.
Also, I didn't know I was a veteran that's cool! Even moreso the recall to a fighting game of mine. To me that was forever ago, I did try to recapture some of its charm, as it was my best performing game.

And I thought I had something good going -_-

Ah, that one was actually my bad then. It very much had the arcady score attack feeling over it, with combos and a highscore as soon as you died, so I figured it was the only level. I might replay it offscreen to see more, but this time around I am VERY short on time, which is the reason I do 10 games per video instead of my usual 4-6, and also the reason I quit a lot more games a lot earlier.
Oh, and don't think being a veteran is necessarily all that good. @dadio is a veteran

 

[ghandpivot]

Another video is up in the voting post.
This time around it's: Beyonder, Voyage to the Earth's Core, Unwelcome Passenger, Finding Her, SSJGV3K, Mutiny, Space Taxi, Gatika, Journevazure, Voyage Back.
I'll get the rest done in the next video, it might get loong. This one was 30gb so let youtube process it for a while.

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

Whoa @ghandpivot I just watched you play my game "Mutiny".
It looks like it was running way way faster than it should, I have no idea why.
And this is probably on me but I didn't have time to write a detailed explanation of how my game works, but you didn't put any crew members to work... So the ship condition deterioated quickly. Which makes all the crew unhappier much quicker. You need to manage your crew's mood and the condition of the ship. Figured it wouldn't be that hard to figure out with two buttons.

 

[ghandpivot]

And this is probably on me but I didn't have time to write a detailed explanation of how my game works, but you didn't put any crew members to work... So the ship condition deterioated quickly. Which makes all the crew unhappier much quicker. You need to manage your crew's mood and the condition of the ship. Figured it wouldn't be that hard to figure out with two buttons.

Was so focused on them constantly dropping so quickly in morale that I didn't have time to do anything, I thought I always lost because one of them got mad. Is the game hard-coded around the framerate? If so, is the fps locked? Otherwise I can't really tell why it'd run so much faster for me.

 

[The M]

Ok, so apparently I still managed to leave a debug key in even though I thought I'd removed all of them. Don't press R in Into the Earth (yes, even in the highscore screen, sorry!) or you'll restart the game.

 

[lolslayer]

I feel you. The only critique I have gotten out of the voting thread are "there is only one game like this in a Jam" (positive) and "the first stage is eternal, the hitboxes are off //Probably didn't use the shift button// and it feels incomplete". I can agree on some things, but like all games in here are incomplete (except for like, two)...
I still feel kind of flattered by the fact that everyone is like "he probably didn't do that much of this game as there wasn't enough time", but like I made everything but the sounds and 6 lines of code.

That's still not as bad as the only review saying "I couldn't figure out how to play" :'(

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

This is how fast my game should run, and an example of how to play for anyone else having issues or trouble.

 

[lolslayer]

This is how fast my game should run, and an example of how to play for anyone else having issues or trouble.

Oh man, that game surely is cute

 

[lolslayer]

Why do people have trouble figuring out how to play infinity infection? The second reviewer also couldn't figure it out. -.-

I spent a whole day making it user friendly, I find it extremely annoying that they can't just figure it out, it's literally finding out that you can move the camera with WASD and click on stars with the mouse, and you're good to go.

 

[sylvain_l]

Why do people have trouble figuring out how to play infinity infection? The second reviewer also couldn't figure it out. -.-

I spent a whole day making it user friendly, I find it extremely annoying that they can't just figure it out, it's literally finding out that you can move the camera with WASD and click on stars with the mouse, and you're good to go.

they are not so obvious, perhaps because they (and I) didn't spent 72h working with those rules.

there is no clues of how to play your game, what input to use. and no readme sent with the game.
Seriously how should players figure out of thin air that they have to use -for what I have find clicking perssing a bit everywhere- left&right, a,w,s,d, and the mouse , esc to close menu...... and I still don't know how to play it right ^^" edit: only indication what to do is the space bar when I lose )

 

[FunkyB]

This is how fast my game should run, and an example of how to play for anyone else having issues or trouble.

Haha, I love the screen shot. Creative and funny. I haven't played it yet but I am looking forward to it.

 

[lolslayer]

they are not so obvious, perhaps because they (and I) didn't spent 72h working with those rules.

there is no clues of how to play your game, what input to use. and no readme sent with the game.
Seriously how should players figure out of thin air that they have to use -for what I have find clicking perssing a bit everywhere- left&right, a,w,s,d, and the mouse , esc to close menu...... and I still don't know how to play it right ^^" edit: only indication what to do is the space bar when I lose )

I know that it is my fault that I didn't place a README, but the only reason why I did that was because I really didn't have any more time left to add that, and I DID put instructions in the topic of where I posted the game, so if you really didn't know how to play the game, you could just, go to that place and read it.

Besides, "for what I have find clicking perssing a bit everywhere- left&right, a,w,s,d, and the mouse , esc to close menu" this doesn't take long to do, I made a button for the upgrades so you could easily open it, you don't even need to press on escape to close it because clicking on the button again will close it aswell, when looking at the upgrades there is clearly spelled on the right that you have to upgrade the cure to win the game, you can easily see how much knowledge you need to find to upgrade it.

There are 3 steps to learn how to play my game:
-Clicking around on the planets, the buttons that appear will make clear what you can do with it
-Accidentally press ANY of the WASD buttons, and you'll know how to control the camera
-Clicking on the upgrades and see that you can win the game there

Escape and left and right keys aren't even necessary to figure out because you can play without them.

It's Obvious that the infection is bad and that you shouldn't get into it because it's red and an alarm goes off when you get too close, you can easily figure out what your position is because it's in the middle of that big circle and the star where you're at also has a circle around it, I did everything to make it as Obvious and user friendly as possible.

It's THAT easy, this can easily be done within 2 minutes, I just can't believe that they didn't take that little time and it actually infuriates me that all the other games get the attention they deserve but I can't find at least ONE actual review because reviewers didn't take that 2 minutes of time.

But the WORST thing here is that I can't do anything about it anymore, because the README wouldn't magically appear anywhere in the launcher anymore, the only thing I can do and which I do is sending the instructions to all the reviewers in the hope that they at least give a little comment about what they think about it, I don't even care if they say it's bad because if that's the case, that's just the case, but AT LEAST I know WHAT people think about it...

 

[Posho]

I'm working on a rushed drawing dedicated for every game jam entry. See yours yet?

 

[lolslayer]

I'm working on a rushed drawing dedicated for every game jam entry. See yours yet?

I'm fairly sure that you can't find something iconic in every jam game out there

 

[Posho]

I'm fairly sure that you can't find something iconic in every jam game out there

Besides those games that use stock sprites, I haven't disliked the characters/ships from the games so far.

 

[lolslayer]

Besides those games that use stock sprites, I haven't disliked the characters/ships from the games so far.

Me neither, but for example with "infinity infection" (couldn't think of another example quickly enough xD) there is no iconic character or ship or anything like a menu screen xD