Great Submission! I like the artstyle (especially the color choice) and the cute sfx, that give it a cute nostalgic vibe.
And damn, those plants grow fast, you really didnt want to waste anyones time haha
MrEpicPig
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Great game! I really like the idea of a farming game in prehistoric times.
Some notes regarding the jam version:
- A lot of things could use some animation or similar as feedback, eg i was trying to hit every tree with the stick for days because there was no way of knowing if i was just unlucky or if there was actually nothing to be gathered yet
- There wasnt a lot to do once you cultivated the plants and gathered some sticks each day.
- The game froze when I tried to transition to the area behind the rocks
Very solid foundation to extend for eg the winter jam for sure :)
Possible Ice Age themed update inc?
Thanks :)
Yea, I chose to go with a very simple concept for this jam.
For one, this is my first finished 3d game (with 2d gameplay though), so there were lots of things I still had to learn and I needed to plan in enough time for that.
Also, I participated in 2 GMTK game jams in the past and in both, i had vague puzzle idea in mind that didnt work out in the end. One was so badly working that i couldnt even submit it. So I chose to go for something that works for sure for my first jam here :) (Thats why i'm very impressed when I see puzzle games like yours in such a short jam that work so well from a game design perspective!)
But yea, the gameplay could be expanded quite a lot, I decided against being able to shoot, though that would also be fun. And I had an entire fourth level inside the alien spaceship with cool new enemies prototyped but had no time to actually make it :(
And yes, I will be back for more jams if I find the time!
I really like the puzzle mechanic, its easy to understand but has potential for cool puzzles :)
Generally a very well polished game!
As others already said, my main wishes for improvements were a pause menu (at best one that lets you still look around) and smooth camera controls that make it easier to understand the level layout
Hey ^^ thanks for the feedback!
I just added some emission to all items and lights to the emeralds and diamonds for the post-jam version, that helped their visibility a lot and makes them look even more attractive to collect!
Also, I already experimented with rocket rotation in the past, but I'm not sure if that would work well for this game. If you tilt the rocket sideways (and the hitboxes shift accordingly), the movement becomes surprisingly unpredictable and complex. So it would have to be a very subtle tilt to the side that doesnt affect hitboxes, i'll give that another try :)
Awesome game! The atmosphere is so good, from the slow fadein-title and music, to the retro-style dialog system and map :)
But yea, as others already mentioned, its hard to find ways to earn money/fuel, I feel like its possible to just be unlucky with the path you chose and be stuck. Anyway, time to try it again!
Heyy thanks for the feedback ^^
Thats a very high score, nice! I was starting to get worried that no one reaches the end :)
Yes, I noticed the confusing "Try again" text too, I already changed it to "Restart from Checkpoint" (and will add a "Checkpoint" text that pops up when a level starts) for the post-jam version.
Before I go on a rant about the little things I didnt like: This game is awesome! I especially love the little atmospheric storytelling in between, well done!
So my only real problem with the game were in the controls, here are some remarks/suggestions:
* If you stand on an edge and pull someone up, its possible that they get stuck and both characters cant move anymore.
* If your partner has 0 stamina left and you're holding them, then it can happen that you're forced to slowly pull and release the rope until you also have 0 stamina and fall down, a button to purposefully drop would have helped there.
* If you are hold in the air by your partner, it would have really helped the flow of the game if you could swing yourself sideways.
* If you climb a tiny bit too high, you lose grip and fall down even when it still looks like it should be fine, the collision detection could be a bit more lenient there I feel like.
So essentially, the game is so slow that if you fall down and it doesnt feel like its your fault, then it really feels bad. Anything to speed up the downtime after failing or making it feel less unfair that you have to reset would help there.
Also just an idea, would it be fun if you could control both simultaneously, one with WASD and one with the arrows?
Oof, that got out of hand, well anyway, awesome game! My favourite so far!
Nice throwback to Zelda 1!
I really like the exploration and the idea of essentially getting powerups from dying, though it would both help the gameplay and fit the theme better if you'd actually get notably stronger depending on the enemy. The way it is rn, there is not really a reason to engage with the system at all.
Btw, the game crashes for me pretty frequently when I get killed while I'm attacking.
Really nice. I love the artstyle, music and the general presentation.
The gameplay itself is a bit too simple, its very easy to get in a position where you just have to wait for the game to end. Balancing is definitely hard in such a short timespan though.
I think this has a lot of potential for a very fun and strategic post-jam version with more unit types :)
Thanks for the feedback!
Yea, I was thinking about how to make it easier to know whats in front of the camera. Some temporary-time-slow item or powerup to destroy obstacles for a while might work. Or at least small indicator symbols that warn you that an enemy is approaching barely outside the screen. I'll definitely add something like that in a post jam version :)
Hi, I'm probably a bit too late with this response for it to actually help in the game jam, but here it is:
There are many different ways you can communicate between Nodes. You dont need to use all of them, just chose one that works for whatever you want to do.
#1 Call down: Lets say we have a node "Parent" and its child node "Child". If you're up in the hierarchy (Parent), it is recommended to access child properties by just calling them/their getter, setter methods.
You can get a reference to the Node by its name like this inside a function (both lines do the exact same thing):
get_node("Child").get_x()
$Child.get_x()
To get a reference of a node at a script level scope, you can also use @onready like this:
@onready var child = $Child
#2 Signal up: If the child node wants to access the parent node, you again have multiple options:
If you know the exact relative or absolute path of the node you want to access, you could just use:
get_parent().get_x()
get_node("/root/Parent").get_x()
However, since this can become messy really quickly, its better to use signals here, eg:
Parent:
func _ready(): $Child.x_changed.connect(set_var)
func set_var(x): print(x)
Child:
signal x_changed(new_value)
func _process(delta): if Input.is_action_just_pressed("ui_accept"): x_changed.emit(1)
#3 Autoload: If you add a Node in the Autoload tab in the project settings, the node will be accessible from every other node since its on top of the hierarchy. If you for example add the Node "GameManager" with the script:
var x = 10
then you can just access x from anywhere with GameManager.x.
This is extremely useful for global settings, etc.
Hope this helps :)
I love the idea! You could probably take 2 different routes with this:
Either its a deterministic scenario, you can only hardcode the behavior for a certain level and the player code would need to be limited in a way that they cant write an ai that just wins every level, maybe each level has different amount of blocks of each type or something, like one level doesnt have an 'if' statement at all or something like that.
Alternatively you can freely program a pong ai that can dynamically react to the current situation and each level introduces some completely new mechanic that requires a completely new pong ai, like multiple balls, zones you are not allowed to hit with the ball or paddle, etc. In that case the scenario could be randomized so you cant just hardcode the paddle behavior.
I could be wrong but I read it as "The people who play it need to be able to tell that its inspired by the video game named 'Pong' and you are totally free to chose how to interpret this. You can make it play very similar to Pong but with a unique visual design, story or new gameplay mechanic. Or even a game thats very different from Pong that has a story about (Ping) Pong. Just be creative ^^"
Thanks for the feedback, that all makes a lot of sense :)
I was thinking about making the remake a little more RTS like (bigger maps which require resource gathering, buy ants from resources, ant hill camps to bring food to), do you think that makes sense or should the maps stay short and puzzle like?
Thanks for the feedback, those are all very good points!
Drag boxes were a long time one of the highest priority features on my todo list but I had to cut them out due to the time constrains :(
And yep, propper ant designs for the different types would have been important (as well as shape differences and descriptions about their abilities if you hover over them in the Hud)..
I guess I have already a lot to do for the post-jam Remake :)