1831 replies to this topic

[TerraFriedSheep]

Has anyone else who downloaded the zip found that zakaos's game just let me sleep is only 177 bytes?

[Snail_Man]

Has anyone else who downloaded the zip found that zakaos's game just let me sleep is only 177 bytes?

It's like that for me too, so I tried playing it, and it said it was incompatible with the version of windows I was running.

[Dangerous_Dave]

Same here, the link in his topic is the same.

[chance]

Has anyone else who downloaded the zip found that zakaos's game just let me sleep is only 177 bytes?

He knows the link/download is broken. He said:

Don't Run "Just Let Me Sleep!!"
the file is broken, the filehosting i used completely sucked.
my dumb fault for not checking the link first.
Please remove it from the competition.

Unfortunately, he didn't put this in his original post.

[TerraFriedSheep]

Has anyone else who downloaded the zip found that zakaos's game just let me sleep is only 177 bytes?

He knows the link/download is broken. He said:

Don't Run "Just Let Me Sleep!!"
the file is broken, the filehosting i used completely sucked.
my dumb fault for not checking the link first.
Please remove it from the competition.

Unfortunately, he didn't put this in his original post.

Thanks for digging that out, I did read that when it was posted, but I had no idea it was about this game. I've only just got to this one, and there are a lot of posts so hence I didn't remember specifically!

[johnki]

Responding to another review:

These Tranquil Waters Shall Not Hold - JOhnKi
I was super excited to play this one after seeing the screenshots, but I was a little disappointed to be honest. I absolutely love the simple graphics and idea of exploring the oceans depths, but I didn't find a whole lot. After searching for a good 20 minutes all I found were several schools of goldfish and a single (giant?) red squid. I was really hoping for an Endless Ocean sort of deal, but that's probably my own fault. The environment is very tranquil, but I think it could have been made better by a little bit of music. Also, it get really disorienting, especially when you so deep you can't see your ship, but you beam of light is pointed out at like a 45-degree angle. I would have either liked a compass or at least having the light point straight out.

No, no, it's not your fault. I would have loved to have made it closer to that. In fact, while that wasn't a direct inspiration, my biggest goal was making sure that the game's atmosphere was intricately made, and it turns out that I just didn't have enough time to do that. I wanted whales, fish that hid in the kelp, fish that ate off of the coral, crabs, etc, etc, etc.

Due to being out of town, I worked maybe 6 or 7 hours on the final product and the majority was spent on optimizing (for a while, on my beast of a computer, it was running at 30 FPS in a 60 FPS room. The end product has 6000-7000 instances active at one time) and level design (filling in all of the coral spaces took AGES since Game Maker doesn't have an object fill tool).

When I started, I wanted a grand total of 20 items to find in that relatively small area. I ended up having 5.

Achievements were added in pretty much last minute and were almost an afterthought.

The music I spent a whole day (the only day I was actually home to work on it) trying to figure out why Famitracker/Milkytracker/etc were broken on my laptop, in that playback wasn't happening.

The disorientation was a bit intentional, but there is definitely way too much space in which you are that disoriented. I think it may have been worse if the light pointed straight out, though, giving you no room to really stop, assess where you are, etc.

I didn't have time to put in a compass, but I tried to rectify that with sonar (which also fuels a puzzle) that beeps if it hits anything up to something like 1000 pixels away (or 500 if you don't change the render/deactivation distance).

EDIT: And another:

These Tranquil Waters Shall Not Hold
Fun concept! A few problems though. The collisions were buggy and I got tired of getting stuck in walls all the time. It also may have been better if the controls were simple. For example, if the ship always faced the mouse and you used the left click to move forward and space to shoot. Still, it was an interesting concept and I liked it!

Heh, I spent a little bit of time trying to fix the collisions, but it should have always at least have been escape-able. Interesting idea regarding the controls, but the screen-spinning thing was one of my main motivations for doing it that way. I thought it would be fun and a little disorienting. :D

Edited by johnki, 07 May 2012 - 04:58 AM.

[TheUltimate]

Okay, I finally got off my butt and voted for my favourite games and stuff.

Remember, my top 3 get a prize:

TheUltimate - Will make banners for his top 3 favorite games.

(Hey TV, you ARE aware that I'm a girl, right?)

[lukew23]

Spoiler

1: ESCAPE FROM HADES
This game kicks so much butt.
First of all, the story’s pretty awesome. Essentially you’re a guy who died as a hero and gets let into the afterlife, only to find that it’s too tranquil for your taste, so you decide to escape. It’s a different take on the theme, and I like how the theme’s incorporated without it getting shoved down your throat or feeling shoehorned in.
Secondly, the game itself is surprisingly polished. Though the ledge hanging takes a minute or two to get used to, the difficulty curve is just right so that you’re accustomed to it and everything else long before the lava shows up. Yeah, the lava. For the second half of the game, you go up and up and up, defeating enemies to get by and outrun rising lava. You’ll find that at some parts, it takes a couple tries to outpace it, but it’s the rewarding kind of difficulty instead of the annoying kind. Attacking enemies is pretty funny, because you spam the button and this cloud of numbers goes flying around.
The graphics aren’t mindblowingly amazing, but the character graphics have a nice cartoony style and the darkness just adds to the atmosphere.
Overall, the game’s really fun. Nice job, lukew23.

I got a vote... for 1st place...

[HayManMarc]

Before you submit your game, you need to make sure your game is playable with little to no issues. Polish is by far the most strict category in my reviews: even a tiny problem will cause the loss of a star.

While I understand your point of view, you are not "getting" the Jam philosophy here! Polish is something to take into account, sure, but no more than effort, idea and implementation. A bugged game should not be marked down just because of it's bugs, especially if the idea is original or really well implemented.

Maybe 11clock's use of the word "polish" was a poor choice. I don't think he expects the Jam games to have professional/commercial quality. But bugs/glitches that severely hurt the playability are a serious flaw. So it's perfectly natural to score those games lower, even if their "idea" is good.

The best thing for reviewers to do with "innovative but flawed" games is to point out the bugs/flaws -- but to encourage the innovation if they think the game has promise.

And one more thing to add. Everyone had only 3 days to make a game. If a game is "perfect" compared to a game with a couple of glitches, the "perfect" game gets a better review. I'll say it again. We ALL had 3 days to make a game, with or without "polish".

That said, I agree with Nocturne's "spirit of the jam" arguement.

[Follomania]

(Hey TV, you ARE aware that I'm a girl, right?)

Oh. That just ruined my mental picture of you. Way to go. Next thing I'll know, chance is going to say he has a beard...and Nocturne's going to have a full head of hair...
This is why I can't view pictures of GMC members on the internet.

[True Valhalla]

Everyone knows that there are no girls on the internet.

[Rusty]

I need a partner for Jam #7... I need somebody to share my fail.

[lukew23]

Rusty, i greatly admire your work with previous jam entries (namely the shoot the pidgeon ones) I would be honoured to be your teammate for the next jam - if you will have me
you have my sword!

[TheUltimate]

Everyone knows that there are no girls on the internet.

Except for me. And Yal. And... uh... wow, I guess we are kind of scarce.

I need a partner for Jam #7... I need somebody to share my fail.

If I bother joining next time, then maybe.

[TeamSteeve]

TheUltimate - Will make banners for his top 3 favorite games.

(Hey TV, you ARE aware that I'm a girl, right?)

Perhaps you should change your gender from "not telling" on your profile.
As far as I am aware, that is the only way anyone would know you're a girl apart from you telling them.

It is kind of presumptuous of TV to refer to you as a male though. I often wonder who is male or female on here, but usually I'll check their profile to find out before I refer to them in a gender specific way.

[Fihrilkamal]

I used to think that women aren't interested in game making, then I realize that it was wrong.

[makerofthegames]

I'm not usually sexist, but when I am, I drink *insert sexist ad here*
EDIT: TV, that wasn't directed at you, it was directed at the post above mine.

Edited by makerofthegames, 07 May 2012 - 06:30 AM.

[True Valhalla]

TheUltimate - Will make banners for his top 3 favorite games.

(Hey TV, you ARE aware that I'm a girl, right?)

Perhaps you should change your gender from "not telling" on your profile.
As far as I am aware, that is the only way anyone would know you're a girl apart from you telling them.

It is kind of presumptuous of TV to refer to you as a male though. I often wonder who is male or female on here, but usually I'll check their profile to find out before I refer to them in a gender specific way.

Apologies for assuming TheUltimate's gender was male. To make up for it, I'll assume you are female from now on.

There, everything is even, and the world is balanced

I will await my sammich.

[TeamSteeve]

Apologies for assuming TheUltimate's gender was male. To make up for it, I'll assume you are female from now on.

There, everything is even, and the world is balanced

I will await my sammich.

Some of me could be female, my member name indicates that I could be more than one person...

[johnki]

Working on more reviews.

I've got a ton to sift through still.