I mean, you don't really need a settings menu or any of that stuff. Most of the attention is on the timer (having the timer be a fraction was clever, I liked that), the equation, and the submitting of answers, so it makes sense in a way, especially with a timer on hand.
If I were to critic the art, the background art is nice, the fog effect/ gradient is really nice and soothing to look at, especially with the chosen color palette; and the smooth clouds are a nice change from the typical bubbly ones I see most of the time. For the text, such as the title and equations, it is a little hard to read at first, so it may be a good addition to change the color or have an outline or something behind the text to make it pop out more. The simplest and cheapest way to do that is to just duplicate the text box and move it a few pixels over and change one of the box's text color. (very effective and is something I did in my game for example).
It isn't a terrible thing to have people comment on things you never expected, but more people should complement on your positives instead of repeatedly commenting on the same flaw. And again, for 3-4 hours of work, you did a great job! People still loved playing what you made, and that's always the best possible outcome.
Hey, if more fun was the cost of diverting from the Jam theme a bit, then it is 100% worth it.
My rambling may (or may not) have some truth to it, but it is a lot easier to say something than to implement it, and just writing down a concept or an idea is not the same as actually fully making it and playing it. So in other words, being a developer is a lot harder and more complex than just being a critic with observations.
I've never dealt with open windows or "surfaces" before, but that sounds interesting and weirdly complicated. Definitely the right call to not upload a browser version, although it would be really funny to have a your computer running a browser window that is running a mini computer that is running a mini browser window. Just a thought :)
I wasn't frustrated at all, but I just brought up the retreat thing as an issue because the page advertised the mechanic to be used at the right time and not too late, when you can just always do it late.
I think the slow difficulty curve is good for people who only play games casually, but I don't think that makes up vast majority of this player audience. In any case, I think that this slow curve was the safer option so that more people would possibly enjoy it (edit: it as in the game) and for a longer period of time.
In the future, I think a good way to fix this is by allowing people to start at a certain level (like 30 or 60), and have the goal to be to get the highest score instead of the highest level, having people earn more score the higher the level they are at. Kind of like the system used in Tetris (or at least the browser version I play sometimes).
I get that there is a 48hr time limit, and you did a great job at making a game in that time, but for next time (or some small update, idk), this would be an easy solution that theoretically wouldn't take that long to implement.
I liked the little camera shake, added a lot of impact to submitting my math homework
I see that moving the submit button has a lot of controversy, and I'd say I agree with the masses, especially since the text and submit boxes can overlap and create problems, but I think it wasn't the worst decision since you only made this game in a few hours and wanted it to be extra difficult. It is still holding up to the name of "complicating simple math."
This music is also a little simple, but it is nice to listen to and is very fitting for the game since it is both tense and unobtrusive, meaning that it doesn't interrupt people from thinking about math but still adds to the experience.
I love seeing 2D games use shadows and lighting effects, but that is too much for my understanding, skill, and the extra limited time I had to work with. Maybe I'll try experimenting with it in the future.
Buttons are a good idea, but I think if I were to add buttons it would just become a normal character controller with a new cote of paint. I could be wrong, idk, but I definitely should have made the movement faster or the levels smaller.
Dude, you basically made an entire Windows OS system (or just a really good illusion of one) within around 48hrs while still making a fully functional Sandbox game. Yeah, you could probably add moving platforms and enemies and all that stuff, but the finished product still had a lot of cool things like bricks and wood, coins that could only be picked up after all the other ones were, or having two different toggleable blocks and switches.
My first day spent on this Jam was spent entirely around racking my head around an overly ambitious story game that I ultimately gave up for something simpler. I bet dealing with those windows was frustrating (almost ironic with the Windows OS thing) but you at least didn't have to deal with that.
I don't know how much Pygame offers, but I'm still impressed with what you have made, honestly
I like the story idea, I just wish that it would run better and for the existence of sound and animation. Another thing would be to fix the damage system, since you could get hit/touched by enemies and take multiple points of damage, die, or just get hit once. A different issue I had that I thought was funny was that when the farmer walked over one of my eggs, the farmer went flying about 30 meters into the air and got stuck on top of a fence post. Don't know if it was intentional design, but it is definitely gruesome if you think about it (REVENGE!).
I think the lag may be coming from the high rendering/camera expectations from those settings, or maybe because the AI are targeting the player every frame? Idk, I don't even use unreal. :/
A cool idea, and good execution for the limited time.
My only change would be to increase the agents' turning/angular acceleration so that the movement is more clean, although I think it adds a little to the weird atmosphere.
I'm glad that someone say the comedic opportunity and took it. I hope that Mark sees this just to have a laugh.
It's very simple and fun to make things, but I do hate the collider of the character since I would inconsistently have hard times fitting through one block holes and would hit a spike when it looked like I didn't.
The art and music are cool and well made. I liked the reactions of the characters and the overall art-style of the game with the relaxing music in the background.
I think the concept of "reverse Uno" was lost somewhere in development because the goal of the AI is to still get to 0 cards (which is confusing since they are playing a different game than you) and the main goal of the game is not really to gain the most cards, but to make sets. I know making sets requires you to get more cards instead of getting rid of them, but in the end you are still getting rid of cards and I think it would have been more fitting for the theme to instead see who can get the most amount of cards in a certain number of turns with some added gameplay elements (like the -2 card which is pretty clever).
Even though it is confusing as I said earlier, having to win before the AI gets rid of all their cards is a cool gameplay loop, especially with the stealing mechanic since that is the only real way to gain a higher number of cards and is something that I have never seen before (excluding from real life games with friends) and is fun to do. In addition, seeing what the AI are going to play next adds a neat sense of strategy and is a very smart addition to the game, giving more thought and depth on what to steal and what card to play next.
Sorry for writing you an essay (this is my 3rd time today, I don't know if it is a problem).
Very cool and cute! I like the art-style, the music, and the audio of the little troops and forts. I could not imagine a single person doing this, so I was somewhat relieved to know that you are a team of talent and not just a single person not sleeping for over 48hrs.
The only problem I have is that you can still retreat after all your troops are dead (which is a little funny when you think about it, but doesn't matter too much to me gameplay wise) and one time one of the troops stopped pathfinding and stood in place while all the others went on fighting, softlocking the game and forcing me to restart it (which I guess, in turn, means I get to play the game more).
I think this is a great interpretation of the Jam theme and could definitely see as a fully fledged out title. (Sorry for posting this twice).
Very cool and cute! I like the art-style, the music, and the audio of the little troops and forts. I could not imagine a single person doing this, so I was somewhat relieved to know that you are a team of talent and not just a single person not sleeping for over 48hrs.
The only problem I have is that you can still retreat after all your troops are dead (which is a little funny when you think about it, but doesn't matter too much to me gameplay wise) and one time one of the troops stopped pathfinding and stood in place while all the others went on fighting, softlocking the game and forcing me to restart it (which I guess, in turn, means I get to play the game more).
I think this is a great interpretation of the Jam theme and could definitely see as a fully fledged out title.
I think that balancing the stats would have helped with the gameplay, but I still think that choosing a quest to be fighting, gathering, etc. is very straightforward and lacks decision making. If you ever do update this, I think it would be good to be able to mix these elements together when making a single quest since that would better reflect how actual good quests are made, but maybe with some restrictions so that players don't spend forever trying to make the "perfect quest" for someone's traits.
I'm going to assume most of the time was put into the art and UI design since all of that is well made and put together. I like how you can naturally read the screen from left to right and get all of the information you need in the order that you need them, making it feel easy and natural to play/ consume information, a very important aspect to any game with heavy amounts of information. I also liked the sprites of the different characters, with the colors perfectly matching the atmosphere and not being overly saturated.
I don't know if you made it at all, but I think the background has a lot of cool details and is very well made.
Sorry for writing you an entire essay, you did a good job with the Jam!
Follow up: I also had no idea what the numbers in the top left were for, I thought them going up was a good thing. I didn't mind too much, but I think in your next update you should definitely tell the player what those are for and what they do (unless it did tell me and I'm just incompetent).
I think it's funny how you can give away all your money for a quest and then lose the game instantly.
Its short and lacks depth, but I enjoyed making dumb quest names and watching the characters go off and be forced to "Pick up sticks" for 3 minutes, or have someone "Kill the townspeople" for 30 gold and have someone else "Protect the townspeople" for 10, simultaneously fulfilling my psychopathic needs.
I like the simplistic art style and atmosphere, and I liked the use of the time travel and Rumpelstiltskin's name, a simple but effective lock from people completing the game the first time around.
My only problem is that I wish you could've done more with scene, like more ways to save the band from dying and make for a longer experience, but I think you all did really well within the short time of the Jam
The artwork is cute, but I think the gameplay could be better if all the diced food moved at once or had the option to move a piece of food and then continue to move afterwards on one turn.
This is a great concept, but there is no real reason to go above 1 speed since a good portion of the obstacles are impossible to get around otherwise and the sudden turns into spikes. Clever implementation of a reference though.
