1831 replies to this topic

[Snail_Man]

Officially 1/3 of the way done reviewing. Some of these games... wow.

Edit: To clarify, wow means these games are: awesome, frustrating, hilarious, beautiful, bad, or mildly interesting.

Some games have all those traits? Impossible!

Just one...

Spoiler

[TerraFriedSheep]

I've done a fair few games this evening, 23 to go now. The jam headache has returned though, it's fairly stressful playing all of these.

[Viloen]

The idea behind not voting in a competition ive entered competition is that I could use my influence [votes] to vote down games that are near my rank [or even vote all other games complete zeroes] to give me a slight boost. Its a conflict of interest issue. Now Im a pretty honest person so I wouldnt do that, but I personally feel I should sit it out.

Yes, such an honest person that you'd rather sit back and relax with a crap excuse than just tell people you can't be bothered to give feedback on their hard earned entries. Also, you haven't even taken the time to understand how voting in the Jam works, we work on SSE voting, so you CANNOT vote games down, you can only vote them UP. But yeah, sure, you're an honest person, right?

I certainly am.

Edited by Viloen, 04 May 2012 - 10:39 PM.

[TheUltimate]

Well anyway, it seems to me like most of the reviews for my game bring up a lot of the same points, so I may as well tackle them all here instead of repeating myself over and over again:

- Amazing/innovative ideas: It's seriously making my week because of how many people think this. I guess that completely random idea I got for a game kind of worked in the end.
- Works well, but not as polished as other stuff I've made: Yeah, I'm painfully aware of that. It's too bad that this seems to be the main reason my game isn't scoring too high in a lot of people's eyes. Don't worry, though, I'm taking everyone's feedback in consideration for the post-Jam update.
- The graphics suck: I spent more time on the actual content than I did on graphics, so they are kind of bad. But, I got some kind of autotiling system working, so it'll look a lot nicer in the future and I'll be able to new levels more quickly.


Also, just curious, but how are people getting their games featured on other sites already? I remember seeing a lot of that last time too. Are you guys posting your games elsewhere or something?

[11clock]

Am I being too negative in my reviews, or is it balanced?

[HayManMarc]

Officially 1/3 of the way done reviewing. Some of these games... wow.

Edit: To clarify, wow means these games are: awesome, frustrating, hilarious, beautiful, bad, or mildly interesting.

I must admit I'm a bit jealous. I'm officially about 1/6 of the way done reviewing. I got a fun weekend ahead of me....

[johnki]

Responding to the few reviews of my game out, as well:

These Tranquil Waters Shall not Hold by johnki
I liked the graphical style. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what to do. And collisions were annoying. Plus the view couldn't move out of the room which restricted my vision around the borders. I'm sorry but I didn't play for very long.

Well, you were supposed to collect items. It was left unclear on purpose (except in my post, which literally just said "Five items to collect.") so that people would just sit back, relax, and try to figure it out through exploration. I get that it's a bit odd to see that, though.

Yes, collisions are a bit annoying. After lots of experimenting, I still don't know how to reliably stop an object from rotating into a wall short of giving it a circular collision mask (which I don't like as a solution because visually, it does the same thing, but thinking that over, it does have less annoyances...).

The view was like that on purpose to help hide one of the objects. Playing it myself, it was only annoying in the specific situation that I had to get that object. That probably should have been a hint to change it, but I figured it didn't cause much of an annoyance otherwise, and kept it.

These Tranquil Waters Shall Not Hold by JohnKi
The gameplay was a bit sloppy and the controls were not good. The music was missing and the goal was not clear.

How was gameplay sloppy? Collisions? I answered that above. Otherwise, I'm just asking for specifics. It doesn't really help as feedback to be so unclear.

How were the controls not good? Arrow keys + mouse. That's solid, that's simple. Still a bit unspecific.

I did want to add music, but the way you said that, it's almost as if I'm obligated to add music. Plus, taken in the context of the games the graphics emulate, it isn't uncommon to see that there is no music.

The goal thing was answered above.

These Tranquil Waters Shall Not Hold: The one with the awesome screen-rotating submarine

Woo! Score 1 for the submarine!

[True Valhalla]

Played my first entry today, Bloom! It kept me playing for way too long

Time to get up to speed...

[Snail_Man]

Wow! I actually got an actual vote this time!

My votes:

16. Sea Of Tranquility
snail man

The game changing part of this game was the second character. If the game was simply about digging through the moon, it wouldn't have been too interesting. It's a great team work game, and I quite liked the game mechanics.

Thanks!

[orange08]

13 more games to play and review!

[The Legend]

Protect the Guru
TheLegend

Good range of towers available and I really liked the particle effect for the fire idol!

Hey! A review that said only good things! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside

Protect the Guru
I love tower defense game, so I enjoyed this. Still, there are a few problems. I learned the hard way that tanks could destroy towers when they go around turns, so I had to be more careful than I would normally like. The difficulty also is bigger problem. I got bored after reaching the point where all the enemies were killed before even making the second turn. Still, the engine was very smooth and I enjoyed the game.

And another friendly one! I'm proud of my first ever jam entry

Edited by The Legend, 05 May 2012 - 01:46 PM.

[Rusty]

Yes, yes, I realise now that my game (Akovi) says Press F for info, this is due to me selecting a font with numbers disabled at the last second. Consider this a public apology... picky, picky...

[speedchuck]

Halfway through the reviews, my house contains 90 degree temperatures so I am taking a break. The quality of the games this jam is a lot better than expected!

[lukew23]

Orange08:
53. Escape from hades
I couldn't get out, there was an impossible jump near the top.


Its not impossible, just really badly designed. If its the one I'm thinking of, it is the one which requires a running jump, then you have to grab the rock on the bottom of the block.

Edited by lukew23, 05 May 2012 - 10:01 PM.

[JAk HAk]

Woah, just read this and had to say something. Tripod is one of my favourite games I've played so far and one of the best things I liked about it was how hard some of the levels were. I wanted more, even harder levels!

Oh, gosh. Well, I guess you can't please everybody. Thanks for making me feel better about it!

[mads2194]

I`m a bit disappointed to see so many people speeding thorough the games and not giving some of them enough time. Some people don`t remember that these games were made in a very limited amount of time and have their share of glitches and problems that shouldn`t
be taken so seriously.

Cry of the Forest - mads2194
A platformer with a unique spell combining system used to restore peace to the forest (great minds think alike, am I right mads?). My biggest complaint about this one is that the actually movement feels a little clunky. Your panda moves at a rather slow and constant speed. I also feel as though the enemies could have been better implemented. When ever I got attacked I found I was unable to fight back unless I'd run far away and then turn back at them. I think it does a good job presenting the theme though.

Yes, of course you are right. Together we shall rule the world!

Ahem, ahem, besides that, this a 100% spot on review, I agree with everything said here. I`m glad to see such a great review, thank you very much!

[11clock]

I`m a bit disappointed to see so many people speeding thorough the games and not giving some of them enough time. Some people don`t remember that these games were made in a very limited amount of time and have their share of glitches and problems that shouldn`t
be taken so seriously.

While I'm not speeding through the games and making sure to play each game enough to form a proper review (if there is some issue that keeps me from getting far in a game, I simply won't review it), I disagree with what you're saying about the glitches and problems. While everyone was given a limited amount of time, this is no excuse for any glitches and problems. 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. When I play these games, I expect at least decently polished and playable games. If your game has bugs and glitches, that's the programmers fault; not the time. The programmer needs to realize that there is limited time and iron out these bugs early on.

Edited by 11clock, 06 May 2012 - 06:56 PM.

[Nocturne]

I`m a bit disappointed to see so many people speeding thorough the games and not giving some of them enough time. Some people don`t remember that these games were made in a very limited amount of time and have their share of glitches and problems that shouldn`t
be taken so seriously.

While I'm not speeding through the games and making sure to play each game enough to form a proper review (if there is some issue that keeps me from getting far in a game, I simply won't review it), I disagree with what you're saying about the glitches and problems. While everyone was given a limited amount of time, this is no excuse for any glitches and problems. 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. When I play these games, I expect at least decently polished and playable games. If your game has bugs and glitches, that's the programmers fault; not the time. The programmer needs to realize that there is limited time and iron out these bugs early on.

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. You have to understand, that the Jam is open to all-comers and so we don't have the same expectations for entries that you may find in bigger competitions. It is also meant as an excuse to try new stuff and experiment with ideas that you may never have tried before, and this also inevitably leads to bugs in games... But hey! That´s the point of the Jam!

We DON'T WANT finished polished games! (it's nice, but not important!)
We want innovation!
We want ideas!
We want experimentation!
We want FUN!

And if we start looking at every game from a purely "how polished is it" point of view, then we will alienate the beginners and those that wish to do something outside of their usual field... They may create an unfinished game but perhaps they put more love, attention and effort into it than someone who has made a "polished" yet generic platformer.

[brighteyes]

Yes, of course you are right. Together we shall rule the world!

Ahem, ahem, besides that, this a 100% spot on review, I agree with everything said here. I`m glad to see such a great review, thank you very much!

You're welcome! I'm trying to be as fair with all of the reviews as possible. Obviously everyone is coming from different experience levels, and 3 days is no time at all to make a game. The most important thing I consider when reviewing these games is the overall concept and gameplay. Bugs are to be expected (especially in my entry, sorry guys), but if a game force quits on me numerous times that obviously gets noted.

By and far though, I've been really pleased with a lot of the entries so far! Lot's of really great, and even inspiring stuff. I wasn't a huge fan of the theme at first, but people obviously managed to work better with than I did :]

Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed my game so far. I've gotten a surprising number of compliments, especially for the graphics which is encouraging because I've put considerably more focus than usual into custom making all the sprites and backgrounds. I think I've agreed with every bit of criticism so far too. The engine is just flooded with collision bugs and I didn't get to make the game anywhere near a long as I would have liked to :[ But for anyone who's interested, I'm almost done completely recoding everything. Movement and collisions have been completely redone, a lot of behind the scenes stuff has been made way more efficient, and I'm currently working on a better AI. Once I'm happy with the engine I plan on making a decent size game out of it, so keep you eyes out for it :]

[chance]

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.