this game is fun but i doent like that you need wait for other people on servers to be able to play. the gameplay is also a littel slow but other than that, the game is nice. the textures are pretty and powerups are cool.
The control scheme is about as intuitive as it can be in 3D space, just takes some learning. The gameplay requires intense spatial reasoning which I think is fine. Even if some people are better than others at it, that's just how it goes, much like how not everyone has the aptitude to be a l33t FPS 360 no-scope sniper with impeccable reflexes. As far as gameplay is concerned, you can't go wrong.
However, Snake 3D suffers from problems present in other mods like advtrains and digtron, where the camera rotation will be lost while attached to a moving entity. Add to this the way it moves in discrete increments and the attached segments of the snake is jarring and the net result is it is just not good for people like myself who are prone to motion sickness. Others have also pointed out how limiting the camera to within the rectangular prism of gameplay is unhelpful.
Conclusion: Play it if you don't get motion sick easily, avoid otherwise.
It took me a while to understand what was happening but I came to grips with it eventually. It's technically impressive and I enjoyed exploring it. It doens't look like its ready for you to create your own adventure, but the one included is enjoyable for sure. It seems it might also be possible to softlock yourself out of going back to certain rooms due to the 2-portal-max limit; I think I did this with some of them.
Lack of sound was a bit dissapointing, could have easily re-used Minetest Game sounds and yes some quiet peaceful music or ambience might have helped. SFX for entering newly discovered rooms would push it into a real exploration experience.
The portal barrier states need a bit of a further explanation and even though I think I finished the game by making it to the mine, I'm only guessing. Red = invalid configuration; blue = more than 2 portals in this configuration; pink = sides completed so far are valid, but the portal is incomplete.
I'd love to see an easy way for you to build your own puzzle worlds in it as well. Using the portals at the top and bottom might also be an interesting addition.
It's worth playing for the experience of figuring it out and progressing through the game, but I hope the author continues to improve it because it was a bit hard to start and there's no included documentation in-game or in the game files.
A code nightmare and full of re-used code and assets
From the moment I launched it this game had my CPU running flat out on one core for no apparent reason. We'll get to the bottom of that and other technical problem issues. For now, gameplay: It told me presents were in a few different aisles but there are no signs on the aisles to tell me what number they are. Actually, it turns out this is the z-coordinate of each present. Also, I didn't have damage turned on when I started it, so I was actually cheating without knowing it. Games can override this if they know what they're doing.
So you eventually find at least one present, congrats, it wasn't on the shelves like the others and it was green. At least it doesn't matter if you have colourblindness when the special presents are in a different spot. You run back, place it down, easy enough. Then it tells me I can leave. Leave how? and do what? There's no door, the wall is impenetrable and the world outside is flat and featureless.
At this point you begin to ask what's original in the assets here. Mobs - from an old mod by PilzAdam. Walls - copper blocks from minetest game. For some reason all of MTG default was included. Shelves - from infinite IKEA. I guess the present texture is original? The git history is a mess and there's no licence file in the game's (1) original mod.
Now why does it 100% my CPU? All of the code runs in a globalstep and while the author, mercifully, added most things in a conditional in that globalstep, the entire warehouse of copper blocks, shelves and presents is replaced every single globalstep. Look, clearly the author is new to coding and probably overlooked or didn't fully understand this, but I just find this inexcusable.
I was missing the soundtrack when I first launched it due to having Minetest muted. Woops! It's a bit less boring with the soundtrack going, although at a grand total runtime of 73 seconds it will wear thin pretty quick. I thought it must be a professional/semi-amateur track originally composed elsewhere, but a look at the licence file and OGG metadata will reveal it's an original composition by ExeVirus in REAPER. I have to say the soundtrack does build the mood, but a good soundtrack doens't automatically make it a good game.
It's also the same schematic map with the same spawn point every time, and I really don't think the map layout made any real sense, it's more of a race track than a sensible road layout.
I didn't quite get why bicycle mod was chosen as a vehicle base instead of driftcar. I had some actual fun playing driftgame and one thing I think this game should aspire to become in the future is more like that, with procedurally generated streets. Other elements can be incorporated later as well, but good driving is always what one expects in a 'grand theft' type game.
I can see this project going some place like a drive-by shooting PvP game in a randomly generated arena and ending up being pretty fun. But for now I would hold off from playing it except if you want to do a few laps in the box while listening to the epic soundtrack, and then quit.
I really wanted to understand how Mesecons work, so I've given this game a shot. I think that the tutorial part, if expanded, could be amazing, but the rest was just confusing to me. Basically, I don't get how a museum can help people understand how things work without explaining them anything (but saying: "this is X"). I mean, yes, it's a slideshow, but I was expecting something more educational and interactive.
I appreciated the custom sky and the chains though, giving that God of War III vibe.
Not much was going on in this game, I think it might be kind of fun if you could add a few things: maybe add new maps, add a timer for 1 minute (or 30s), and each time you get one right, you get 3 points, when you get one wrong, you lose a point, then after the timer goes off, it shows you your score, and your highscore.
Thanks for participating!
I love this!! This deserves first place I think. I really enjoyed playing this, I think the only way this could be improved, is by adding a better tutorial system. Like Zughy said, every thing was really clumped up in the inventory, and I didn't even know what the objective of the game was, until I played it a few times.
I loved that interface! The animation was so awesome, and the minimizing effect!
Great job!
The game concept is really cool, but it's so glitchy and buggy, that's it's not really playable.
The editor also lacks a tutorial, and if you break the floor and accidently fall in, it's over, you have to make a new world.
I'm not sure if it's even possible to make a game like this in Minetest, but hopefully you can polish it up a bit.
Thanks for participating in the game jam!
I mean... you can teleport around by tossing an item. Should I add more? :D
It opens up to fun strategies in PvP and faster explorations in PvE games, becoming a very versatile tool. I would have probably avoided to copy the exact Minecraft name, but other than that, it's great
The presence of mobs of varying toughness leads you to scrounge for any tool at your disposal; I liked the rich assortment of items in the minigame, especially the small and big key items, which counter different enemy types! The dynamite throwing reminds me of the fun inmates in Fallout: New Vegas, too. Be careful not to get cornered in the tight corridors, some guards are real speedy!! Luckily, none of them seem to be carrying firearms.
This minigame is somewhat complex in its mob mechanics, and the ending is reachable, which is nice ofc; although, its WIP label is appropriate for most other game elements.
I also encountered the same problems others have mentioned, with health bar not appearing and few consumables boxes spawning on first playthrough.
Post- Jam development should focus on:
implementing a proper ending (e.g. all the right corridors should eventually lead to a physical "finish zone", maybe add a boss fight :P);
polishing player experience (e.g. maybe implement a highscore system, maybe add a critical hits system where stunning enemies allows you to handcuff them);
adding some recurring POIs (e.g proper cells to free prisoners from with big and small keys, some world- building elements);
fixing bugs with mobs (e.g. friendly inmates getting too close and personal while also blocking movement).
It's an action- packed minigame, with cool mechanics on top.
Looks spartan, but you won't see everything on your first playthrough
Finally something that feels like its own game with SFX, MSX and custom texturing & HUD. It gets a little repetitive with the same grey brick walls and music, but it's worth exploring several times. The bugs that it does suffer are bearable and there are no huge UX blunders either. I see a great future for it if the author improves it.
The music and a slick looking UI will get you going and ready to play. When you land into the world, you may find it pretty monotonous pretty quick. However, since some of the other reviews I read revealed things I hadn't seen, and I myself discovered more on successive playthroughs/attempts, there's variety out there, it's just a bit sparse at first. I don't know what to say about the inconsistency of props and guards that I found throughout the jail, whether it's good or bad. Finishing your game can be a little anticlimactic and I didn't realise the air in front of me was indeed my escape.
There are two stats to manage: Health and sprint. There is a variety of food, beverages, enemies and weapons to be found. Play it multiple times to discover more. Be aware some enemies are plain-clothed.
The bugs have to be acknowledged: Health sometimes won't show, there are randomly dark areas, dynamite blowing up the light, you can cheese it by digging the walls (why are they diggable??), guards that deliberately try to avoid eye contact and pretend they don't see you or who like to stare at the wall for long periods.
The inability to save a game in progress is a little frustrating. The main menu should only show if no level is in progress.
Conclusion: Play it blind for the joy of discovery, bear with the monotony and bugs for a little bit. If not, be hopeful that the author will improve the game later enough for you to enjoy it.
Pac-Man itself is a good basis however Arcade3D fails to be fun, intuitive or automate the right parts. It's derivative to the point of probably being copyright infringing (I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice), but it's not worth the rightsholders of Pac-Man suing over. It's also not the first Pac-Man game for Minetest.
However, with a bit of a clean-up, the game could be good. Work has clearly been put into the visual art, I chuckled at the player model in a good way and the use of spheres for pills seems sensible, including not having too many polygons.
The idea of making your own arena is defeated when you realise the game has no way to spawn ghosts and pills for you. A good level editing experience is possible within the Minetest engine, so I exhort the developer to make better tools, which would be marking spots for the ghosts and pills to spawn, being able to start/stop a game intuitively, and of course not leaving the player inside the arena wall when placed.
Pacmine, part of myArcade, has the game starting feature down pat: right-click a starter node. The pink gates in Arcade3D make no sense, something myArcade handles better by having you right-click a node to start a game. However, Pacmine also suffers the issue of poor pill collision detection with server lag, so having the pills as nodes is better for that. Some comparisons to Pacmine wouldn't be helpful; Arcade3D being its own game is fine.
Conclusion: The promise of being able to make your own arenas is enticing, but as-is the game fails to deliver a good Pac-Man clone or level editing experience.
I wanted to enjoy some good movement mechanics and a well-guided experience. Instead I landed on the floor and had no idea how to get back up. There was no mention that it has to be done through a command, not on the ContentDB page, not in the game's root directory README ; instead I just granted myself fly and flew up to the start point again.
The lack of inclusion of a sprint mod lets it down; I don't see why it wasn't included, it's an important part of other block game parkours, and there is no issue with server lag if it's just as singleplayer game. I won't blame this game's developer for the changes to bouncy blocks, where they used to be much more fun but were changed to limit the jump height somewhere in the Minetest 5.x series.
The fact that some of the diggable blocks drop themselves and others don't was arbitrary and shouldn't have been done, especially when they look the same.
Lack of sound also lets the game down. With footstep sounds and a sprint sound it could have been better. Including (toggleable) music could have also help and wouldn't have broken competition rules to include minetest_game footstep sounds and a Creative Commons music track as far as I know.
Overall: A known-good idea for a game, but not implemented well enough as it is to recommend.
A very funny and interesting game, I enjoyed playing this on the stream, and even though I mainly program in Minetest, I will probably continue to play this game!
Maybe add sounds when you colllect stars?
Great job! This has been my favorite game!
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep2): https://rumble.com/vrgaco-minetest-game-jam-live-ep2.htmlNote: rating system was changed a bit from ep1Note2: I changed my mind a bit for what I rated, then what I said on the stream
Subway Miner was a nice submission for the Game Jam, very polished and amazing that you could make a runner game in Minetest. Good Job.
But I feel like it was kind of missing something, maybe some scenery? Better textures, louder mese sounds? I didn't feel like the music fitted very well. A new slide animation? New and more random level gen? I didn't even know how to slide right away, maybe just add some hints at the biginning?
Anyways, good job!
I like the idea and the visual experience is pretty nice too. However 4 levels/stages with not a whole lot to do is not quite it. Would love to see more content after the Game Jam. Suggestions:
Different types of "enemies"
More things to discover (tools, items, rooms, pets?)
This game is a project in itself. I'm overwhelmed by how smooth and well this type of game (kart/race) works in Minetest, despite MT's limitations as mentioned in other reviews (e.g. camera). I love how music, textures and player effects/power ups fit together perfectly well giving the game an own type of aesthetics. The fact that the game includes a track editor speaks for itself. Looking forward to see this incredibly awesome game in active development.
On my first round through all the Game Jam games, I only spent a few minutes on this one because I thought that it was half-baked as I didn't understand the mechanics. After spending some more time with it, I can confidently say that this game has enough entertainment for at least a couple weeks. It contains enough elements for emergent gameplay and there are concrete objectives to achieve, with tangible rewards. Since the forum post tutorial is not complete (purposefully or otherwise), I had to look in the code to learn a little bit about how things work, but this may have been intentional to encourage the player to explore on their own. There were also some lag issues and some specific bugs, but overall this game could be as popular as NodeCore with some more polishing and additional mechanics.
While the idea has merit, there are several issues that detract from the game:
Text in the game is highly pixelated, making it difficult to read, especially in the shop. Furthermore, signs in the shop had backwards letters on one of their sides, making it even more difficult to find items.
When I first entered the build area, it was confusing to find the next step of the game, until I finally found the shop teleporter in small text at the side. I would suggest to put this in a more prominent space like the inventory screen.
The crafting grid doesn't work.
Dying resets the current build. It was quite frustrating to lose my progress on one of my trips to the shops because I disabled flying to get back to the build area. Also, dying gives the same number of coins as building a structure.
The shop area is crowded and difficult to navigate. Certain signs are confusing like the Stone sign that points to the Sands section. The move speed is also too slow for such a large area.
After a few repeats of the song, it gets obtrusive, and there are no other sounds in the game.
Textures are confusing and difficult to distinguish. Most of the time, I relied on the hud to know what block I'm looking at.
Digging blocks is not continuous. For a game about exact replication, it should be easy to dig/place blocks. Rather than only allowing 1 block to be dug with each left click, use a group that allows blocks to be destroyed with a short dig time.
Besides these issues, I found that the biggest thing that this is lacking is multiplayer integration, though that seems to be in future prospects. From what I understand, the game is aimed towards a younger audience, but these issues would stand in the way of reaching them.
The game works as expected and gives the player clear goals - rebuild given structures. While I was not too amazed by the textures which made some things difficult to read/recognize the music (even though a bit repetitive) keeps the player active and busy. Suggestions:
More coherent textures (seems like a mixture of RPG16 and some 8px textures ATM)
This game is very challenging. It requires patience and attention to detail to complete. The difficulty suddenly increases with the midterm level, and the last couple of levels took me about 45 minutes each, spread over multiple tries. The visuals of the game put me in awe that this was accomplished in Minetest and the music was quite immersive. One frustrating bug, that I noticed was already fixed, is that clicking any node causes a crash with no level progress saved. Some models occasionally became invisible, like the stump on the Garden level. Additionally, the hud overlay for the stars overlapped the first number over "of" in 2 digit star numbers (Ex: 17 of 19). I liked that the time for each level was recorded, giving the player something to do after a first pass through all the levels, since the player definitely picks up some skill in climbing as a ladybug. Adding some kind of animation to the ladybug model would be nice to have. Also, it would be very helpful to make it clear which grass you can/can't walk through. Lastly, I occasionally got stuck in between plants, but there is a non-punishing restart function for that.
Impressive! This unique game is something totally different compared to other Minetest games I've seen so far. This does not only apply to the concept and idea behind it but also to the huge work being put into detail. Different piano tracks played for every level make them feel special and unique by themselves too. To sum it up: I've never before felt so much like a little ladybug :D
This minigame is a good example of what the jam was looking for, I believe.
I bet you could get better scores when playing with dedicated friends, since the gameplay is completely chance- based; this will really test your determination to reach the highscore.
I hope that gameplay will be kept just as simple as the current one in future releases, because it really makes it a special competitive experience.
Post- Jam development should focus on:
polishing player experience (e.g. change the background for all players when one reaches certain score milestones, represent player scores in the lobby space);
implementing a crude betting system to keep players engaged.
I like the over all feel of the game. At first it is pretty difficult to find out what I need to to, specifically how those portals work. But after trying stuff out you get a rough idea of how this game is played. What I believe would add up to the feeling of the game would be some nice and calm (mystic?) music playing in the background. Suggestions:
Music/Sound effects
Maybe some starter help for those completely struggling with this new game concept?
The idea might be cool and at this point of development it is probably the time where you start implementing ideas, goals, achievements and stuff like that - gameplay basically. However, so far this is only a box driving simulator with box-bikes unable to drive the curves and the player not knowing what to do apart from that. Not even knowing if there even is something else to do. If I start a game with no further description given I expect the game to tell me what to do and if there are goals I can achieve. If it is only a box driving sim then it should say so in the description to keep the player's expectation low enough.
Something I liked though was the background music and the miniature style using a few nodes for whole buildings. Suggestions:
The game is quite simple: You are running on a railway. Using left-right controls, you can switch the lane, slide using sneak and jump using space. Specific obstacles require exactly one way too dodge. The theming is for the most part well done: A proper screenshot was rendered, an icon created, the game uses models made during the jam, formspecs were styled neatly.
There are some minor frustrations though: Jumping feels quite odd (like velocity is being made positive up to a point, then suddenly flipped to the negatives instead of a simple upward acceleration + gravity). The waiting period of roughly 5s gets frustrating when you want to have anotehr go right now. Collision could have been implemented a bit better by using the new moveresult feature; the way it's currently implemented serverside, it triggers only after the collision happened; in third person view, you are already out of the obstacle, yet the game is over (I could've sworn I didn't collide with that obstacle!).
Conclusion: Even though this is relatively simple and has minor issues, it is still fun to play. Through it's simplicity, it managed to reach the state of completeness the jam was aiming at rather well, other than some competitors.
This game has good parkour levels. However, they are enough easy and short, but for easy game it is sufficient. The one downside that I found is it is impossible to restart the level when e.g. player has fallen down from the parkour blocks. It is possible to obtain only by a fly priviliege.
Just great and unusual game ever I have seen! The GUI looks like attractive and it looks like it uses the most modern formspec features. This game is a good way to distract and relax yourself!
Alter features simple yet challenging puzzle game mechanics. There are only some minor issues, relating to incomplete theming (such as the default player skin or the buttons without background). There is however one game-breaking bug: When you hit ESC while in the tutorial formspec, you don't get the potion and are stuck. Once you have that figured out (and you may consider that part of the challenge ;-)) it gets fun!
i really like discovering the new spaces, and the display of adjacents rooms gives an illusion of non-euclidean space even though i can notice the teleportation when traversing portals.
For some reason I couldn't display bookshelves so I had holes in the walls.
I'm the brother of the person who made this game, I'm not rating this unfairly because he's my brother, I'm rating this because it's a lot of fun!
In this game you're trying to escape the maze like jail while avoiding guards and other bad guys that will (kill) capture you. You can also collect weapons such as Jail Shanks (sharpened toothbrushes) Crowbars, and more. You can also find food (such as Apple Cores, Node Cola and even the guards sometimes drop Jelly Donuts, lol) that heal you. I like all the different aspects in this game and I know for sure there will be more added. Just with the deadline for the Game Jam there were somethings rushed and many things that haven't been added yet (and I bet that's how it was for lots of other games summited to the Jam). All in all this is a really fun game and I totally recommend it!
fun but need wait
this game is fun but i doent like that you need wait for other people on servers to be able to play. the gameplay is also a littel slow but other than that, the game is nice. the textures are pretty and powerups are cool.
Motion sickness alert
The control scheme is about as intuitive as it can be in 3D space, just takes some learning. The gameplay requires intense spatial reasoning which I think is fine. Even if some people are better than others at it, that's just how it goes, much like how not everyone has the aptitude to be a l33t FPS 360 no-scope sniper with impeccable reflexes. As far as gameplay is concerned, you can't go wrong.
However, Snake 3D suffers from problems present in other mods like advtrains and digtron, where the camera rotation will be lost while attached to a moving entity. Add to this the way it moves in discrete increments and the attached segments of the snake is jarring and the net result is it is just not good for people like myself who are prone to motion sickness. Others have also pointed out how limiting the camera to within the rectangular prism of gameplay is unhelpful.
Conclusion: Play it if you don't get motion sick easily, avoid otherwise.
Hard to start but intriguing
It took me a while to understand what was happening but I came to grips with it eventually. It's technically impressive and I enjoyed exploring it. It doens't look like its ready for you to create your own adventure, but the one included is enjoyable for sure. It seems it might also be possible to softlock yourself out of going back to certain rooms due to the 2-portal-max limit; I think I did this with some of them.
Lack of sound was a bit dissapointing, could have easily re-used Minetest Game sounds and yes some quiet peaceful music or ambience might have helped. SFX for entering newly discovered rooms would push it into a real exploration experience.
The portal barrier states need a bit of a further explanation and even though I think I finished the game by making it to the mine, I'm only guessing. Red = invalid configuration; blue = more than 2 portals in this configuration; pink = sides completed so far are valid, but the portal is incomplete.
I'd love to see an easy way for you to build your own puzzle worlds in it as well. Using the portals at the top and bottom might also be an interesting addition.
It's worth playing for the experience of figuring it out and progressing through the game, but I hope the author continues to improve it because it was a bit hard to start and there's no included documentation in-game or in the game files.
A code nightmare and full of re-used code and assets
From the moment I launched it this game had my CPU running flat out on one core for no apparent reason. We'll get to the bottom of that and other technical problem issues. For now, gameplay: It told me presents were in a few different aisles but there are no signs on the aisles to tell me what number they are. Actually, it turns out this is the z-coordinate of each present. Also, I didn't have damage turned on when I started it, so I was actually cheating without knowing it. Games can override this if they know what they're doing.
So you eventually find at least one present, congrats, it wasn't on the shelves like the others and it was green. At least it doesn't matter if you have colourblindness when the special presents are in a different spot. You run back, place it down, easy enough. Then it tells me I can leave. Leave how? and do what? There's no door, the wall is impenetrable and the world outside is flat and featureless.
At this point you begin to ask what's original in the assets here. Mobs - from an old mod by PilzAdam. Walls - copper blocks from minetest game. For some reason all of MTG default was included. Shelves - from infinite IKEA. I guess the present texture is original? The git history is a mess and there's no licence file in the game's (1) original mod.
Now why does it 100% my CPU? All of the code runs in a globalstep and while the author, mercifully, added most things in a conditional in that globalstep, the entire warehouse of copper blocks, shelves and presents is replaced every single globalstep. Look, clearly the author is new to coding and probably overlooked or didn't fully understand this, but I just find this inexcusable.
Comments: Improvements
Entire budget went on soundtrack
I was missing the soundtrack when I first launched it due to having Minetest muted. Woops! It's a bit less boring with the soundtrack going, although at a grand total runtime of 73 seconds it will wear thin pretty quick. I thought it must be a professional/semi-amateur track originally composed elsewhere, but a look at the licence file and OGG metadata will reveal it's an original composition by ExeVirus in REAPER. I have to say the soundtrack does build the mood, but a good soundtrack doens't automatically make it a good game.
It's also the same schematic map with the same spawn point every time, and I really don't think the map layout made any real sense, it's more of a race track than a sensible road layout.
I didn't quite get why bicycle mod was chosen as a vehicle base instead of driftcar. I had some actual fun playing driftgame and one thing I think this game should aspire to become in the future is more like that, with procedurally generated streets. Other elements can be incorporated later as well, but good driving is always what one expects in a 'grand theft' type game.
I can see this project going some place like a drive-by shooting PvP game in a randomly generated arena and ending up being pretty fun. But for now I would hold off from playing it except if you want to do a few laps in the box while listening to the epic soundtrack, and then quit.
Very cool!
It is very easy to use and seems to work quite well. Good work!
great
so interesting
Noble attempt but too confusing
I really wanted to understand how Mesecons work, so I've given this game a shot. I think that the tutorial part, if expanded, could be amazing, but the rest was just confusing to me. Basically, I don't get how a museum can help people understand how things work without explaining them anything (but saying: "this is X"). I mean, yes, it's a slideshow, but I was expecting something more educational and interactive.
I appreciated the custom sky and the chains though, giving that God of War III vibe.
Not much gameplay
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep3): https://rumble.com/vri6iu-minetest-game-jam-live-ep3.html Note: rating system was changed a bit from ep1
OVERVIEW #
OVERALL: 21 (Great)
CONCLUSION #
Not much was going on in this game, I think it might be kind of fun if you could add a few things: maybe add new maps, add a timer for 1 minute (or 30s), and each time you get one right, you get 3 points, when you get one wrong, you lose a point, then after the timer goes off, it shows you your score, and your highscore. Thanks for participating!
-StarNinjas
Great game! I think this deserves fist place!
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep3): https://rumble.com/vri6iu-minetest-game-jam-live-ep3.html Congrats on getting the highest rating in ep3! Note: rating system was changed a bit from ep1
OVERVIEW #
OVERALL: 28 (Love it!)
CONCLUSION #
I love this!! This deserves first place I think. I really enjoyed playing this, I think the only way this could be improved, is by adding a better tutorial system. Like Zughy said, every thing was really clumped up in the inventory, and I didn't even know what the objective of the game was, until I played it a few times. I loved that interface! The animation was so awesome, and the minimizing effect! Great job!
-StarNinjas
Great Idea, but not really playable
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep3): https://rumble.com/vri6iu-minetest-game-jam-live-ep3.html Note: rating system was changed a bit from ep1
OVERVIEW #
OVERALL: 18 (Good)
CONCLUSION #
The game concept is really cool, but it's so glitchy and buggy, that's it's not really playable. The editor also lacks a tutorial, and if you break the floor and accidently fall in, it's over, you have to make a new world. I'm not sure if it's even possible to make a game like this in Minetest, but hopefully you can polish it up a bit. Thanks for participating in the game jam!
-StarNinjas
Simple and effective
I mean... you can teleport around by tossing an item. Should I add more? :D
It opens up to fun strategies in PvP and faster explorations in PvE games, becoming a very versatile tool. I would have probably avoided to copy the exact Minecraft name, but other than that, it's great
Engaging maze- runner/ beat 'em up
The presence of mobs of varying toughness leads you to scrounge for any tool at your disposal; I liked the rich assortment of items in the minigame, especially the small and big key items, which counter different enemy types! The dynamite throwing reminds me of the fun inmates in Fallout: New Vegas, too. Be careful not to get cornered in the tight corridors, some guards are real speedy!! Luckily, none of them seem to be carrying firearms.
This minigame is somewhat complex in its mob mechanics, and the ending is reachable, which is nice ofc; although, its WIP label is appropriate for most other game elements. I also encountered the same problems others have mentioned, with health bar not appearing and few consumables boxes spawning on first playthrough.
Post- Jam development should focus on:
implementing a proper ending (e.g. all the right corridors should eventually lead to a physical "finish zone", maybe add a boss fight :P);
polishing player experience (e.g. maybe implement a highscore system, maybe add a critical hits system where stunning enemies allows you to handcuff them);
adding some recurring POIs (e.g proper cells to free prisoners from with big and small keys, some world- building elements);
fixing bugs with mobs (e.g. friendly inmates getting too close and personal while also blocking movement).
It's an action- packed minigame, with cool mechanics on top.
A good multiplayer game
Graphics: #
Gameplay #
Looks spartan, but you won't see everything on your first playthrough
Finally something that feels like its own game with SFX, MSX and custom texturing & HUD. It gets a little repetitive with the same grey brick walls and music, but it's worth exploring several times. The bugs that it does suffer are bearable and there are no huge UX blunders either. I see a great future for it if the author improves it.
The music and a slick looking UI will get you going and ready to play. When you land into the world, you may find it pretty monotonous pretty quick. However, since some of the other reviews I read revealed things I hadn't seen, and I myself discovered more on successive playthroughs/attempts, there's variety out there, it's just a bit sparse at first. I don't know what to say about the inconsistency of props and guards that I found throughout the jail, whether it's good or bad. Finishing your game can be a little anticlimactic and I didn't realise the air in front of me was indeed my escape.
There are two stats to manage: Health and sprint. There is a variety of food, beverages, enemies and weapons to be found. Play it multiple times to discover more. Be aware some enemies are plain-clothed.
The bugs have to be acknowledged: Health sometimes won't show, there are randomly dark areas, dynamite blowing up the light, you can cheese it by digging the walls (why are they diggable??), guards that deliberately try to avoid eye contact and pretend they don't see you or who like to stare at the wall for long periods.
The inability to save a game in progress is a little frustrating. The main menu should only show if no level is in progress.
Conclusion: Play it blind for the joy of discovery, bear with the monotony and bugs for a little bit. If not, be hopeful that the author will improve the game later enough for you to enjoy it.
Comments: Ideas for improvement
Game requires heavy manual intervention
Pac-Man itself is a good basis however Arcade3D fails to be fun, intuitive or automate the right parts. It's derivative to the point of probably being copyright infringing (I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice), but it's not worth the rightsholders of Pac-Man suing over. It's also not the first Pac-Man game for Minetest.
However, with a bit of a clean-up, the game could be good. Work has clearly been put into the visual art, I chuckled at the player model in a good way and the use of spheres for pills seems sensible, including not having too many polygons.
The idea of making your own arena is defeated when you realise the game has no way to spawn ghosts and pills for you. A good level editing experience is possible within the Minetest engine, so I exhort the developer to make better tools, which would be marking spots for the ghosts and pills to spawn, being able to start/stop a game intuitively, and of course not leaving the player inside the arena wall when placed.
Pacmine, part of myArcade, has the game starting feature down pat: right-click a starter node. The pink gates in Arcade3D make no sense, something myArcade handles better by having you right-click a node to start a game. However, Pacmine also suffers the issue of poor pill collision detection with server lag, so having the pills as nodes is better for that. Some comparisons to Pacmine wouldn't be helpful; Arcade3D being its own game is fine.
Conclusion: The promise of being able to make your own arenas is enticing, but as-is the game fails to deliver a good Pac-Man clone or level editing experience.
Recommendations in comments...
Poor at guiding, lacklustre presentation
I wanted to enjoy some good movement mechanics and a well-guided experience. Instead I landed on the floor and had no idea how to get back up. There was no mention that it has to be done through a command, not on the ContentDB page, not in the game's root directory README ; instead I just granted myself fly and flew up to the start point again.
The lack of inclusion of a sprint mod lets it down; I don't see why it wasn't included, it's an important part of other block game parkours, and there is no issue with server lag if it's just as singleplayer game. I won't blame this game's developer for the changes to bouncy blocks, where they used to be much more fun but were changed to limit the jump height somewhere in the Minetest 5.x series.
The fact that some of the diggable blocks drop themselves and others don't was arbitrary and shouldn't have been done, especially when they look the same.
Lack of sound also lets the game down. With footstep sounds and a sprint sound it could have been better. Including (toggleable) music could have also help and wouldn't have broken competition rules to include minetest_game footstep sounds and a Creative Commons music track as far as I know.
Overall: A known-good idea for a game, but not implemented well enough as it is to recommend.
Good puzzle game
The gameplay is well suited for Minetest. Could use some polishing, but already quite fun.
A great game! Very funny and interesting
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep2): https://rumble.com/vrgaco-minetest-game-jam-live-ep2.html Congrats on getting the best score of the stream! Note: rating system was changed a bit from ep1
OVERVIEW #
OVERALL: 26/30 (Love it!)
CONCLUSION #
A very funny and interesting game, I enjoyed playing this on the stream, and even though I mainly program in Minetest, I will probably continue to play this game! Maybe add sounds when you colllect stars? Great job! This has been my favorite game!
-StarNinjas
Great game, but very repetitive
This game was played and rated in the Minetest GAME JAM LIVE (ep2): https://rumble.com/vrgaco-minetest-game-jam-live-ep2.html Note: rating system was changed a bit from ep1 Note2: I changed my mind a bit for what I rated, then what I said on the stream
OVERVIEW #
OVERALL: 22 (Great)
CONCLUSION #
Subway Miner was a nice submission for the Game Jam, very polished and amazing that you could make a runner game in Minetest. Good Job. But I feel like it was kind of missing something, maybe some scenery? Better textures, louder mese sounds? I didn't feel like the music fitted very well. A new slide animation? New and more random level gen? I didn't even know how to slide right away, maybe just add some hints at the biginning? Anyways, good job!
-StarNinjas
Good work
Nice puzzle game.
Simple maze
The title give me expectations of jail scenarios, some strategy, adventure, and I found a simple maze. The game need more elaborate levels. With bars.
Good base
I like the idea and the visual experience is pretty nice too. However 4 levels/stages with not a whole lot to do is not quite it. Would love to see more content after the Game Jam.
Suggestions:
Sophisticated Project
This game is a project in itself. I'm overwhelmed by how smooth and well this type of game (kart/race) works in Minetest, despite MT's limitations as mentioned in other reviews (e.g. camera). I love how music, textures and player effects/power ups fit together perfectly well giving the game an own type of aesthetics. The fact that the game includes a track editor speaks for itself. Looking forward to see this incredibly awesome game in active development.
Incredible
On my first round through all the Game Jam games, I only spent a few minutes on this one because I thought that it was half-baked as I didn't understand the mechanics. After spending some more time with it, I can confidently say that this game has enough entertainment for at least a couple weeks. It contains enough elements for emergent gameplay and there are concrete objectives to achieve, with tangible rewards. Since the forum post tutorial is not complete (purposefully or otherwise), I had to look in the code to learn a little bit about how things work, but this may have been intentional to encourage the player to explore on their own. There were also some lag issues and some specific bugs, but overall this game could be as popular as NodeCore with some more polishing and additional mechanics.
Several Problems with a Good Idea
While the idea has merit, there are several issues that detract from the game:
Besides these issues, I found that the biggest thing that this is lacking is multiplayer integration, though that seems to be in future prospects. From what I understand, the game is aimed towards a younger audience, but these issues would stand in the way of reaching them.
Well implemented
The game works as expected and gives the player clear goals - rebuild given structures. While I was not too amazed by the textures which made some things difficult to read/recognize the music (even though a bit repetitive) keeps the player active and busy.
Suggestions:
Challenging
This game is very challenging. It requires patience and attention to detail to complete. The difficulty suddenly increases with the midterm level, and the last couple of levels took me about 45 minutes each, spread over multiple tries. The visuals of the game put me in awe that this was accomplished in Minetest and the music was quite immersive. One frustrating bug, that I noticed was already fixed, is that clicking any node causes a crash with no level progress saved. Some models occasionally became invisible, like the stump on the Garden level. Additionally, the hud overlay for the stars overlapped the first number over "of" in 2 digit star numbers (Ex: 17 of 19). I liked that the time for each level was recorded, giving the player something to do after a first pass through all the levels, since the player definitely picks up some skill in climbing as a ladybug. Adding some kind of animation to the ladybug model would be nice to have. Also, it would be very helpful to make it clear which grass you can/can't walk through. Lastly, I occasionally got stuck in between plants, but there is a non-punishing restart function for that.
Something special
Impressive! This unique game is something totally different compared to other Minetest games I've seen so far. This does not only apply to the concept and idea behind it but also to the huge work being put into detail. Different piano tracks played for every level make them feel special and unique by themselves too. To sum it up: I've never before felt so much like a little ladybug :D
Simplicity and randomness: a good mix
This minigame is a good example of what the jam was looking for, I believe. I bet you could get better scores when playing with dedicated friends, since the gameplay is completely chance- based; this will really test your determination to reach the highscore.
I hope that gameplay will be kept just as simple as the current one in future releases, because it really makes it a special competitive experience.
Post- Jam development should focus on:
polishing player experience (e.g. change the background for all players when one reaches certain score milestones, represent player scores in the lobby space);
implementing a crude betting system to keep players engaged.
Pretty self- contained, when trying to kill time.
Interesting and a bit cryptic
I like the over all feel of the game. At first it is pretty difficult to find out what I need to to, specifically how those portals work. But after trying stuff out you get a rough idea of how this game is played. What I believe would add up to the feeling of the game would be some nice and calm (mystic?) music playing in the background.
Suggestions:
What am I supposed to do?
The idea might be cool and at this point of development it is probably the time where you start implementing ideas, goals, achievements and stuff like that - gameplay basically. However, so far this is only a box driving simulator with box-bikes unable to drive the curves and the player not knowing what to do apart from that. Not even knowing if there even is something else to do. If I start a game with no further description given I expect the game to tell me what to do and if there are goals I can achieve. If it is only a box driving sim then it should say so in the description to keep the player's expectation low enough.
Something I liked though was the background music and the miniature style using a few nodes for whole buildings.
Suggestions:
Simple fun
The game is quite simple: You are running on a railway. Using left-right controls, you can switch the lane, slide using sneak and jump using space. Specific obstacles require exactly one way too dodge. The theming is for the most part well done: A proper screenshot was rendered, an icon created, the game uses models made during the jam, formspecs were styled neatly.
There are some minor frustrations though: Jumping feels quite odd (like velocity is being made positive up to a point, then suddenly flipped to the negatives instead of a simple upward acceleration + gravity). The waiting period of roughly 5s gets frustrating when you want to have anotehr go right now. Collision could have been implemented a bit better by using the new moveresult feature; the way it's currently implemented serverside, it triggers only after the collision happened; in third person view, you are already out of the obstacle, yet the game is over (I could've sworn I didn't collide with that obstacle!).
Conclusion: Even though this is relatively simple and has minor issues, it is still fun to play. Through it's simplicity, it managed to reach the state of completeness the jam was aiming at rather well, other than some competitors.
Not bad
This game has good parkour levels. However, they are enough easy and short, but for easy game it is sufficient. The one downside that I found is it is impossible to restart the level when e.g. player has fallen down from the parkour blocks. It is possible to obtain only by a fly priviliege.
Advanced game.
Just great and unusual game ever I have seen! The GUI looks like attractive and it looks like it uses the most modern formspec features. This game is a good way to distract and relax yourself!
Finally a good puzzle game
Alter features simple yet challenging puzzle game mechanics. There are only some minor issues, relating to incomplete theming (such as the default player skin or the buttons without background). There is however one game-breaking bug: When you hit ESC while in the tutorial formspec, you don't get the potion and are stuck. Once you have that figured out (and you may consider that part of the challenge ;-)) it gets fun!
Exploration puzzle
i really like discovering the new spaces, and the display of adjacents rooms gives an illusion of non-euclidean space even though i can notice the teleportation when traversing portals. For some reason I couldn't display bookshelves so I had holes in the walls.
Very fun, and addicting!
I'm the brother of the person who made this game, I'm not rating this unfairly because he's my brother, I'm rating this because it's a lot of fun! In this game you're trying to escape the maze like jail while avoiding guards and other bad guys that will (kill) capture you. You can also collect weapons such as Jail Shanks (sharpened toothbrushes) Crowbars, and more. You can also find food (such as Apple Cores, Node Cola and even the guards sometimes drop Jelly Donuts, lol) that heal you. I like all the different aspects in this game and I know for sure there will be more added. Just with the deadline for the Game Jam there were somethings rushed and many things that haven't been added yet (and I bet that's how it was for lots of other games summited to the Jam). All in all this is a really fun game and I totally recommend it!
Demineur without deduction
Not really a puzzle because there is nothing to solve. It works though.
nice mod
It's nice to see the model moving rather than looking in a cast