I think this game has the best artwork of the game jam. The village is simple but cute. The surrounding landscape is cool. I liked the red plants. I liked the mini-lanterns. I liked the simple huts. The level of darkness
(that this game is about) is just right. I'm just a sucker for good pixel art. ;-)
This game is a simple adventure with a very simple quest system. You need to use books from a library to fend off the darkness. What was a little weird is that you have to literally type something in the chat to proceed but OK.
I would have wished the game would be a bit larger because the story is REALLY short. Especially the Library was surprisingly small and actually not a really important part of a story. Given from the title, I would have expected the search for books would be important but it turned out to be very easy.
Many people just outright refuse to talk to you and do not contribute anything to the story. But I guess this is what we get in a game jam. ;-)
While I enjoyed this short game simply because of the world/map, I have to say, the story itself was a bit generic. Why is the darkness evil? Why does it hate books or knowledge? How does it affect the villagers? I think this could have been explored more. But still!
Anyway, while the game may be short, it is very solidly executed start from finish. Therefore a recommend from me.
Resources are scarce and you have to pick the perfect starting spot if you don't want to be forced to wait FOREVER for your resource counters to grow. Growing your empire becomes hard soon. In a non-fun way.
The only way to reasonably expand is by storage units where yourpeople can drop off resources. But it comes at a hefty price: 500 stone! Which is half the amount you get from a big stone mine.
And those are rare and, of course, don't regenerate. Food and wood regenerate and won't be a problem early in the game but for stone and metal, you must expand into the deserts. Which is quite hard or impossible if you picked the wrong starting position. Once a stone/metal mine is too far away, you come to a screeching halt.
The game has a workaround. I can always collect resources manually but this is slow and feels a bit like cheating but often is the only way to proceed. :-(
After I have build every building and I depleted the metal and stone in my nearby surroundings, I quickly lost interest even before the first goblin army arrived.
This game really puts Luanti to its limits by doing things that seem impossible. It's a 3rd person shooter which is highly unusual for Luanti.
The gameplay is quite well-executed. While the objective is quite simple (walk to all control points and survive against the hordes), there are 5 difficulty levels. The mining laser is very fun. There is a surpringly large number of weapons and they feel mostly balanced. I would have wished if there was some kind of unlock mechanic and multiple levels.
Well, there are 5 difficulty levels. I managed to beat the first 3 so far.
The graphics qualitily is good but inconsistent. First we have a very nice-looking robot model which is expertly executed. Also the GUI is well-made pixel art. The robot rotation is absolutely smooth. The shooting particles and sound effects are well-made.
BUT then we have odd floor textures with visible seams everywhere. Lava textures are just textures and for some reason don't hurt you.
But the biggest downside of this game is that it's quite obviously a giant HACK and uses MANY dirty tricks
to work. I appreciate the experimentation for a game jam and love that it was attempted. And I rate this game very high. But it's not enough for a ContentDB recommendation due to instability.
The map is full of dark spots, making it quite unfair/frustrating to fight the enemies because they're basically invisible in darkness. The darkness isn't a fog-of-war. The map doesn't light up close to you. The camera movement is very weird due to the hacky nature of this game but it's amazing it works at all.
I give this one a neutral rating but only because of the HACKS. But for a game jam, this is great.
I think this game is a great demonstration of why Luanti needs more camera options. :D I hope one day there will be a way to fix the hackery so that it becomes a serious game.
EDIT: Oh, the audio of this game is good. Voice acting in a game jam game is very cool. :-)
This game has a simple quest: You must slay some hidden beast. To do that, you have to discover two areas and then drop into some kind of dungeon.
The graphics are custom and include 3D models but everything looks really bad and clunky.
Then the game has a lot of bugs: The beast didn't even spawn in the final arena (and I didn't bother to check why). There are missing textures. You can dig through the ground and fall into the void (and the game doesn't reset you).
The game overall is quite boring. The quest is too simple, you basically just have to walk in a small forest to reach targets on a map. The map helps you.
The final dungeon looked a bit better than the rest, but it still was just a (mostly) simple linear corridor and unfortunately, at the end, no beast to be found here (bug?).
This is barely even a game. There's not much to do. It looks like a VERY early pre-alpha version. Just a grass biome with small trees, an ocean, and that's it. No music, no sound, no mobs, no crafting (at least I didn't discover any recipes), no plants besides trees.
Good idea, but unplayable because when i was going up with shift + space, the games teleports me somewhere and make me loose control of the ship, i tried getting back by jumping on the seat, but it doesn't work. Then i got out and i fell in the space.
Eyeballs is puzzle platformer with a slight horror theme.
Ambiance is immaculate and great care has been put into creating a cohesive experience,
The music and sound design is also impeccable, feels kind of nostalgic in some way.
A well rounded experience, gameplay and mechanics are thought out and polished. Mistakes are unforgiving and will set you back to the beggining of the level. Oddly, the gameplay became more enjoyable in third person. I have to admit it's very hard and I didn't get that far.
It is a very safe game, does not bring anything particularly novel to the table, but everything is done very well.
ETB begins with a sort of expository presentation on the background and history to put you in the scene.
It's a complete game, and it's one of the few I actually played from start to finish.
You explore a bit, find certain key areas, go into the beast's lair and defeat it, a very straightforward story.
Seems like a lot of effort went into crafting the world and creating the whole scenario, so I'd say it accomplishes the task, even if it is a bit rough around the edges.
Artifact starts up strong with an unexpected fully animated cinematic, plus dialogue in the form of text boxes. This seems like it's present in other areas of the game as there are some extra key scenes that are also animated.
Objective is not clear straight up, but after a bit of exploring you find out it's a puzzle game with a focus on reconnecting circuits of some sort.
Lighting is way too dark and I had to bump up my monitor's brightness to be able to see certain puzzle elements, and probably missed a lot as well, because of this, at some point I got stuck and quit.
A good start for what could end up being an immersive puzzle game.
1042 is a yet-to-be-completed survival game, the aesthetic is pleasing, simple 2 by 2 textures. Sound is a bit lacking. Effects like snowfall and rain are present and add to ambiance as well, but the world feels barren.
Hud is interesting as well, with the inclusion of a readme, gameplay, and credit buttons to read documentation in game.
There is still a lot of room for improvement but I see the potential, and this is a good foundation.
On a side note, at first I spawned in a huge snow biome and couldn't really progress since there's no sticks, so I had to create a new world. Not the best start.
Extra Ordinance is either a top down twin-stick shooter or a third person shooter wave clearing game.
Drops you right into action, after a bit of (great) voice acting you start blasting your way thru ant-like creatures, the graphic effects and sound design is really well done, it's likely one of the most unique games made in the Luanti engine to date.
Textures are great, models are great, menus are great, UI is great as well but could use some improvement.
The camera is a bit problematic, the engine doesn't handle this kind of top down camera angles well, and you need to aim way higher than expected in order to actually hit the enemies, this is a bit annoying but I guess it could be fixed in the next updates.
Currently it feels like a one-stage demo, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this game develops.
Hm...another MTG-like game, just without dependency on "default". Again Minecraft-like crafting (3x3). The textures look very prototypy (and probably are). I sure like that you cannot cut trees with your bare hands, something I always found strange in MTG or MC. Also I was killed by a hailstorm, nice idea. I always wanted hazardous environment (maybe not that hazardous as in Exile).
As in "Wishful" I must ask why you don't take some other non-MTG survival game and build upon that. I'd recommend Repixture. Personally I like the approach of NodeCore, where you craft in-game and cannot carry 500 tons of rock around with you. I just don't think that we need yet another from-scratch approach to survival games, as long as it doesn't bring any breaking change.
As a Jam Game, Extra Ordinance is very fun, which is more than I can say for most entries, and which is probably the most important aspect of the game. However, this game is more than a winning Jam entry: it is a glimpse of the future of Luanti. The author pushes the limitations of Minetest. The engine limitations are obvious, but do not break gameplay. The multiplayer support is ready, if only client-side prediction were available. The map sometimes flutters in and out of exisitance due to Luanti's lack of realtime client map control, but the gameplay is too fun for that to break it. None of these limitations prevent the game from being engaging.
What the game does show is that Luanti is almost ready to break out of the mold of Minecraft-likes and become a full-fledged engine. It points the way toward the next steps in that direction. It thwarts the too-common vicious cycle of no one working on features because no one is doing anything that requires the features, by creating something that works but could be (and ought to be) better.
If the engine limitations that are holding this game back are resolved, we can likely expect this game to reach its full potential, and we can expect many more high-quality mold-breaking games in the future.
This game is what the Jam is all about, thank you Sumi for making it!
The map is well made, albiet very dark in some areas. The puzzles are fun, although I did have a few doors that I was completely unable to get open and had to cheat my way through. I think doing that, probably broke some of the endgame elements.
Some of the longer text elements cleared from the screen before I was able to read them, although had I not been reading them outloud for the video I was recording that probably wouldn't have been an issue.
I own up that this game was pretty useful a few years ago, when not a lot of great games populated the top spots of ContentDB. However, I don't see the point of it today: we have games like mineos and Extra Ordinance, showcasing what it can be done with Luanti, and games that actually explain to the player what they should do without guessing keys or else. Their gameplay speaks way louder than an interactive tutorial, which needs to be updated every time some new aspects are introduced into the engine (so a lot of burden for the author).
It could be argued that it might still be useful for modders, but the modding book already provides a foundation for anyone who wants to start modding, and this game is in general pretty oriented towards MTG-like games anyway (which, again, were the norm a few years ago, but that are only a part of the whole now).
I'm basically downvoting this because I think that it has run its course, and having new players actually playing this thinking that it's everything that Luanti can be is misleading. I'd rather see actual games in the first spots, rather than a tutorial about games (which, last but not least, was thought for PCs only). Quality-wise, I also find it too dispersive.
This is some hard puzzle. I must admit, I haven't even solved the third checkpoint yet. But it makes me keep trying. Nice one. As others already wrote: a little balancing could help reduce initial frustration. Some background music and maybe a guy giving a few hints would also be nice.
But...a nice game taken the time you had.
I am really impressed! This game shows what the Luanti engine is capable of doing! Creating it “just for a game jam” is even more impressive and shows deep understanding of how the engine works.
Good atmosphere, very short, easy to skip important things.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
This game was very short: my curiosity caused some things to be skipped over. When the game started, I harrassed an NPC until I'd read every line, then after meeting the wizard, the game put red arrows over some of the NPCs just for me to hear the same lines again. After entering the library, I noticed all the English-title books in the bright red shelves and took them, so when the darkness met me on the way to the pedestals, I had no previous context for why it said "I warned you." Then, after I banished the darkness and left the pedestals, the darkness came back to me and gave me a warning not to read books. :') The theme was very similar to The Velvet Crystal from last year's Game Jam.
Overall though, I like the look and feel of the game. The textures go well together, the music is nice, and the spell mechanics were a neat touch. I think if there were good ways to restrict the player so that the story is played out better, and if the game were a little longer, I would make a positive review. This game deserves more story!
This game was fairly enjoyable. I'm not very good at parkour, but I like the unique eyeball game mechanics. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far in the game. In the level with all the columns and the light switches, I would respawn in complete and utter darkness, with no way of knowing where I was. The textures and sounds are pretty good, and fit well together. I don't know anyone else who came across the same issue as I did, so I might retry it and see how far I can get.
I played long enough to complete several levels. The mechanics are difficult to work with at first and take time to get used to, but each level is pretty quick. There's a good sense of accomplishment; finishing a level is satisfying and rewarding. I also enjoyed some of the clever ways that the puzzles were solved. The graphics and sounds are simple, but refined and cohesive. This game take a little bit of patience, but it's quite enjoyable, and I recommend it!
Atmosphere is great, the low background music, though short and repetitive, fits well.
It feels more like a demo because there are few, easy puzzles. But I see great potential if you extend this game. The hints in books are a nice idea.
I wonder if it's a bug that the shadow didn't kill me on the second encounter (½. heart left).
I mean, this is not the first collect/build/fight game but somehow I like it. The little guys are cute. The buildings have been built with love. I get the "Die Siedler" feeling :)
There is no sound, docs could be better, animations I miss, but it's perfectly playable, once you understand the mechanics. Keep it up!
Turning Luanti into a top down shooter is possible
I won't lie, this is almost as mindblowing as mineos was in last year's jam. I thought I knew what Luanti can do but this game says the contrary.
As the game has already received a lot of compliments, I won't repeat much here. I was more shocked by what the author did that from the actual gameplay (which is a solid 7 anyway). Graphics are highly refined (e.g. the ground using a non pixelated texture that perfectly espouses the aesthetics nonetheless), sounds as well (e.g. the operator voice with the radio static) and the game is in general a great showcase for Luanti. Do we also want to talk about the camera's movement which just works?
The author put a lot of effort to do something like this in 3 weeks and the community is definitely showing their gratitude. I'd gladly join them, congratulations!
No goals, no instructions, no sounds, nothing. Probably just the beginning of some project which didn't make it in time, there's nothing to play here at the moment
Interesting idea, but a bit too slow and punishing
The concept is interesting and the author knows what they're doing. The whole game revolves around one simple mechanic, which makes it very easy to grasp, in a series of levels that are not really ordered by difficulty, but rather by author experiments. Audio is well refined (one the few games of this jam actually featuring a soundtrack) and graphics are as well, so nothing to say - I'm not a fan of the round shaped eyes but in this case it's really not that important.
Gameplay-wise, however, the game felt kind of heavy at times, not as smooth as I'd like. The worst case was when the level involved a lot of walking and you failed right at the end (e.g. the halls with pillars and light switches), not really involving me to try again (I went on for a few levels more). This ruined the experience of something that could have been pretty fun if well dosed, as the annoyance surpassed the curiosity. I'd score it a 6.5 out of 10, which is closer to the neutral vote
Big maze with a refined graphical and sound system
The game started amazingly: a cutscene, in Luanti, with proper animations (!). I was mesmerized. Unfortunately after that I found myself stuck twice in a pitch black area, to only find out (by reading another review here) that it's a bug. Using the solution suggested in the review, I teleported myself in the actual area the player is expected to play in and I decided to give it a chance. And that's where I found back my enthusiasm.
Sounds are well-finished, the animation of doors is great, no useless inventory, custom HUD. However, my enthusiasm kept decreasing as long as I kept playing. The game is basically a big maze, with a refined graphical and sound system. If my first reaction when opening a door was of amazement, after the 40th one in 5 minutes with basically nothing else happening was "oh, ok, door..". I didn't finish it as I found myself stuck in a room where I couldn't see basically anything, but in general the game wasn't entertaining enough after the first minutes and I wasn't really interested in continuing. Running through the maze became a chore, which is a pity, considering the focus that the author has put on the artistic side
All you can do is walk around, watch, mine wood, leaves and dirt, and that's it. No recipes, nothing. Not even help or a hint.
Edit: now I understood that it's not meant as a game but rather a new game base like MTG. But the mechanics look pretty much like MTG, e.g., the 3x3 crafting grid. Why reinvent the wheel? If you want to make an MTG-like game, make one out of MTG.
There are already at least two good alternative approaches, Repixture and NodeCore. Both do not depend on "default" and have a new, unique style of crafting and mechanics. Why not build upon them instead of starting from scratch?
Being a jam, I think the author played smart by making a small game: both in game length (around 5 minutes) and in map size (you're in a spaceship). They also tried to add some elements as to grant immersions, i.e. the breathing, the text telling you a story and the interactions with the environment (e.g. PCs telling you that can't be turned on). They were also able to create some suspence here and there, which I appreciated.
Unfortunately the overall experience doesn't really stand out, turning the game in basically a "go from point A to B" and a risky parkour. I think the basic concepts for making a game are there, just, the author needs to work on the game experience (in general; I'd invite them to see this attempt as a closed chapter and experiment with something new). Last but not least, I wasn't sure if at the end I had glitched the game or if I had actually finished it (until the HUD popped up)
I don't even know where to begin. The game is very well done, and fun to play. It took me a few deaths to figure out the countdown after the blue ring was the amount of enemies remaining, and not how much time I had to get to the next blue ring. No shortage of loadout options either. Very impressive for a three week timeframe.
This game really pushes the bounds on what's possible with Luanti. The gameplay is solid and I really appreciate the loadout options, the shockwave especially.
The game is very resource-intensive, especially with the detailed textures, but it cools down after much has been loaded.
Considering the game is basically hitting a button that rolls a die, I can see this working as a mod in some server/game, but seeing it as a stand-alone game doesn't make too much sense in my opinion (hence the thumbs-down). Sounds and graphics are nice, the random hogs/porks were a bit unexpected but ultimately funny :D
The game has a nice premise: it puts the player in a context, briefly explaining the plot. Unfortunately, after that the atmosphere kind of fades, leaving the player to solve riddles that are too vague and/or that might result in the player roaming for a lot of time. The lack of a soundtrack and some non cohesive graphics don't help with the immersion, which is why I personally stopped playing it after 5 minutes
"how to play" is an in-game wall of text in the inventory
If the game expects players to go through such a long text placed in a remote part of the game (people playing Luanti for their first time probably don't know how to put an inventory), I think the game has already failed. In general, the graphics style was kinda hurting my eyes, as things were hard to read. Nice touch the vertical hotbar but aside that I don't think there's (currently) a lot that can be praised
The initial idea was to put a neutral vote, but I think the lack of steps to get acquainted with the game mechanics - highly difficult basically from the beginning - is pretty mean to the player. Don't get me wrong, the game seems polished, it runs smoothly, it's just... too hard from the beginning, so I can't really judge what comes after. A game like Slidespace takes the player by the hand and slowly increases the difficulty, pushing people to go on because they're halfway through anyway. Here, the frustration stops you from doing that, which is a pity.
Another small thing: I'd really reduce the length of the initial instructions, they're very long and after the first images I skipped it, preferring to learn whilst playing
Very short cute story with excellent pixel art
I think this game has the best artwork of the game jam. The village is simple but cute. The surrounding landscape is cool. I liked the red plants. I liked the mini-lanterns. I liked the simple huts. The level of darkness (that this game is about) is just right. I'm just a sucker for good pixel art. ;-)
This game is a simple adventure with a very simple quest system. You need to use books from a library to fend off the darkness. What was a little weird is that you have to literally type something in the chat to proceed but OK.
I would have wished the game would be a bit larger because the story is REALLY short. Especially the Library was surprisingly small and actually not a really important part of a story. Given from the title, I would have expected the search for books would be important but it turned out to be very easy. Many people just outright refuse to talk to you and do not contribute anything to the story. But I guess this is what we get in a game jam. ;-)
While I enjoyed this short game simply because of the world/map, I have to say, the story itself was a bit generic. Why is the darkness evil? Why does it hate books or knowledge? How does it affect the villagers? I think this could have been explored more. But still!
Anyway, while the game may be short, it is very solidly executed start from finish. Therefore a recommend from me.
The game feels more like a chore than fun. :-(
Resources are scarce and you have to pick the perfect starting spot if you don't want to be forced to wait FOREVER for your resource counters to grow. Growing your empire becomes hard soon. In a non-fun way.
The only way to reasonably expand is by storage units where yourpeople can drop off resources. But it comes at a hefty price: 500 stone! Which is half the amount you get from a big stone mine. And those are rare and, of course, don't regenerate. Food and wood regenerate and won't be a problem early in the game but for stone and metal, you must expand into the deserts. Which is quite hard or impossible if you picked the wrong starting position. Once a stone/metal mine is too far away, you come to a screeching halt.
The game has a workaround. I can always collect resources manually but this is slow and feels a bit like cheating but often is the only way to proceed. :-(
After I have build every building and I depleted the metal and stone in my nearby surroundings, I quickly lost interest even before the first goblin army arrived.
Sorry, but this game wasn't really fun to me. :-(
It's games like this why I like game jams
This game really puts Luanti to its limits by doing things that seem impossible. It's a 3rd person shooter which is highly unusual for Luanti.
The gameplay is quite well-executed. While the objective is quite simple (walk to all control points and survive against the hordes), there are 5 difficulty levels. The mining laser is very fun. There is a surpringly large number of weapons and they feel mostly balanced. I would have wished if there was some kind of unlock mechanic and multiple levels. Well, there are 5 difficulty levels. I managed to beat the first 3 so far.
The graphics qualitily is good but inconsistent. First we have a very nice-looking robot model which is expertly executed. Also the GUI is well-made pixel art. The robot rotation is absolutely smooth. The shooting particles and sound effects are well-made. BUT then we have odd floor textures with visible seams everywhere. Lava textures are just textures and for some reason don't hurt you.
But the biggest downside of this game is that it's quite obviously a giant HACK and uses MANY dirty tricks to work. I appreciate the experimentation for a game jam and love that it was attempted. And I rate this game very high. But it's not enough for a ContentDB recommendation due to instability. The map is full of dark spots, making it quite unfair/frustrating to fight the enemies because they're basically invisible in darkness. The darkness isn't a fog-of-war. The map doesn't light up close to you. The camera movement is very weird due to the hacky nature of this game but it's amazing it works at all.
I give this one a neutral rating but only because of the HACKS. But for a game jam, this is great.
I think this game is a great demonstration of why Luanti needs more camera options. :D I hope one day there will be a way to fix the hackery so that it becomes a serious game.
EDIT: Oh, the audio of this game is good. Voice acting in a game jam game is very cool. :-)
Feels very unprofessional
This game has a simple quest: You must slay some hidden beast. To do that, you have to discover two areas and then drop into some kind of dungeon.
The graphics are custom and include 3D models but everything looks really bad and clunky.
Then the game has a lot of bugs: The beast didn't even spawn in the final arena (and I didn't bother to check why). There are missing textures. You can dig through the ground and fall into the void (and the game doesn't reset you).
The game overall is quite boring. The quest is too simple, you basically just have to walk in a small forest to reach targets on a map. The map helps you.
The final dungeon looked a bit better than the rest, but it still was just a (mostly) simple linear corridor and unfortunately, at the end, no beast to be found here (bug?).
Basically an empty game
This is barely even a game. There's not much to do. It looks like a VERY early pre-alpha version. Just a grass biome with small trees, an ocean, and that's it. No music, no sound, no mobs, no crafting (at least I didn't discover any recipes), no plants besides trees.
:-(
Good idea, but not playable
Good idea, but unplayable because when i was going up with shift + space, the games teleports me somewhere and make me loose control of the ship, i tried getting back by jumping on the seat, but it doesn't work. Then i got out and i fell in the space.
Unforgiving
Eyeballs is puzzle platformer with a slight horror theme.
Ambiance is immaculate and great care has been put into creating a cohesive experience,
The music and sound design is also impeccable, feels kind of nostalgic in some way.
A well rounded experience, gameplay and mechanics are thought out and polished. Mistakes are unforgiving and will set you back to the beggining of the level. Oddly, the gameplay became more enjoyable in third person. I have to admit it's very hard and I didn't get that far.
It is a very safe game, does not bring anything particularly novel to the table, but everything is done very well.
A short game
ETB begins with a sort of expository presentation on the background and history to put you in the scene.
It's a complete game, and it's one of the few I actually played from start to finish.
You explore a bit, find certain key areas, go into the beast's lair and defeat it, a very straightforward story.
Seems like a lot of effort went into crafting the world and creating the whole scenario, so I'd say it accomplishes the task, even if it is a bit rough around the edges.
Strong visual identity
Artifact starts up strong with an unexpected fully animated cinematic, plus dialogue in the form of text boxes. This seems like it's present in other areas of the game as there are some extra key scenes that are also animated.
Objective is not clear straight up, but after a bit of exploring you find out it's a puzzle game with a focus on reconnecting circuits of some sort.
Lighting is way too dark and I had to bump up my monitor's brightness to be able to see certain puzzle elements, and probably missed a lot as well, because of this, at some point I got stuck and quit.
A good start for what could end up being an immersive puzzle game.
It's the year 1042 and you are lost.
It's the year 1042 and you are lost.
1042 is a yet-to-be-completed survival game, the aesthetic is pleasing, simple 2 by 2 textures. Sound is a bit lacking. Effects like snowfall and rain are present and add to ambiance as well, but the world feels barren.
Hud is interesting as well, with the inclusion of a readme, gameplay, and credit buttons to read documentation in game.
There is still a lot of room for improvement but I see the potential, and this is a good foundation. On a side note, at first I spawned in a huge snow biome and couldn't really progress since there's no sticks, so I had to create a new world. Not the best start.
Solid game
Extra Ordinance is either a top down twin-stick shooter or a third person shooter wave clearing game.
Drops you right into action, after a bit of (great) voice acting you start blasting your way thru ant-like creatures, the graphic effects and sound design is really well done, it's likely one of the most unique games made in the Luanti engine to date.
Textures are great, models are great, menus are great, UI is great as well but could use some improvement.
The camera is a bit problematic, the engine doesn't handle this kind of top down camera angles well, and you need to aim way higher than expected in order to actually hit the enemies, this is a bit annoying but I guess it could be fixed in the next updates.
Currently it feels like a one-stage demo, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this game develops.
I don't see the point
Hm...another MTG-like game, just without dependency on "default". Again Minecraft-like crafting (3x3). The textures look very prototypy (and probably are). I sure like that you cannot cut trees with your bare hands, something I always found strange in MTG or MC. Also I was killed by a hailstorm, nice idea. I always wanted hazardous environment (maybe not that hazardous as in Exile).
As in "Wishful" I must ask why you don't take some other non-MTG survival game and build upon that. I'd recommend Repixture. Personally I like the approach of NodeCore, where you craft in-game and cannot carry 500 tons of rock around with you. I just don't think that we need yet another from-scratch approach to survival games, as long as it doesn't bring any breaking change.
A Fun Demo at A Critical Time
As a Jam Game, Extra Ordinance is very fun, which is more than I can say for most entries, and which is probably the most important aspect of the game. However, this game is more than a winning Jam entry: it is a glimpse of the future of Luanti. The author pushes the limitations of Minetest. The engine limitations are obvious, but do not break gameplay. The multiplayer support is ready, if only client-side prediction were available. The map sometimes flutters in and out of exisitance due to Luanti's lack of realtime client map control, but the gameplay is too fun for that to break it. None of these limitations prevent the game from being engaging.
What the game does show is that Luanti is almost ready to break out of the mold of Minecraft-likes and become a full-fledged engine. It points the way toward the next steps in that direction. It thwarts the too-common vicious cycle of no one working on features because no one is doing anything that requires the features, by creating something that works but could be (and ought to be) better.
If the engine limitations that are holding this game back are resolved, we can likely expect this game to reach its full potential, and we can expect many more high-quality mold-breaking games in the future.
This game is what the Jam is all about, thank you Sumi for making it!
Good level design
The map is well made, albiet very dark in some areas. The puzzles are fun, although I did have a few doors that I was completely unable to get open and had to cheat my way through. I think doing that, probably broke some of the endgame elements. Some of the longer text elements cleared from the screen before I was able to read them, although had I not been reading them outloud for the video I was recording that probably wouldn't have been an issue.
It has run its course
I own up that this game was pretty useful a few years ago, when not a lot of great games populated the top spots of ContentDB. However, I don't see the point of it today: we have games like mineos and Extra Ordinance, showcasing what it can be done with Luanti, and games that actually explain to the player what they should do without guessing keys or else. Their gameplay speaks way louder than an interactive tutorial, which needs to be updated every time some new aspects are introduced into the engine (so a lot of burden for the author).
It could be argued that it might still be useful for modders, but the modding book already provides a foundation for anyone who wants to start modding, and this game is in general pretty oriented towards MTG-like games anyway (which, again, were the norm a few years ago, but that are only a part of the whole now).
I'm basically downvoting this because I think that it has run its course, and having new players actually playing this thinking that it's everything that Luanti can be is misleading. I'd rather see actual games in the first spots, rather than a tutorial about games (which, last but not least, was thought for PCs only). Quality-wise, I also find it too dispersive.
Woh - this is hard
This is some hard puzzle. I must admit, I haven't even solved the third checkpoint yet. But it makes me keep trying. Nice one. As others already wrote: a little balancing could help reduce initial frustration. Some background music and maybe a guy giving a few hints would also be nice. But...a nice game taken the time you had.
That is imnpressive
I am really impressed! This game shows what the Luanti engine is capable of doing! Creating it “just for a game jam” is even more impressive and shows deep understanding of how the engine works.
Good atmosphere, very short, easy to skip important things.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
This game was very short: my curiosity caused some things to be skipped over. When the game started, I harrassed an NPC until I'd read every line, then after meeting the wizard, the game put red arrows over some of the NPCs just for me to hear the same lines again. After entering the library, I noticed all the English-title books in the bright red shelves and took them, so when the darkness met me on the way to the pedestals, I had no previous context for why it said "I warned you." Then, after I banished the darkness and left the pedestals, the darkness came back to me and gave me a warning not to read books. :') The theme was very similar to The Velvet Crystal from last year's Game Jam.
Overall though, I like the look and feel of the game. The textures go well together, the music is nice, and the spell mechanics were a neat touch. I think if there were good ways to restrict the player so that the story is played out better, and if the game were a little longer, I would make a positive review. This game deserves more story!
Good game, interesting concept, a bit bugged.
This game was fairly enjoyable. I'm not very good at parkour, but I like the unique eyeball game mechanics. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far in the game. In the level with all the columns and the light switches, I would respawn in complete and utter darkness, with no way of knowing where I was. The textures and sounds are pretty good, and fit well together. I don't know anyone else who came across the same issue as I did, so I might retry it and see how far I can get.
Challenging, but pretty engaging!
I played long enough to complete several levels. The mechanics are difficult to work with at first and take time to get used to, but each level is pretty quick. There's a good sense of accomplishment; finishing a level is satisfying and rewarding. I also enjoyed some of the clever ways that the puzzles were solved. The graphics and sounds are simple, but refined and cohesive. This game take a little bit of patience, but it's quite enjoyable, and I recommend it!
Nice Adventure Demo
Atmosphere is great, the low background music, though short and repetitive, fits well. It feels more like a demo because there are few, easy puzzles. But I see great potential if you extend this game. The hints in books are a nice idea. I wonder if it's a bug that the shadow didn't kill me on the second encounter (½. heart left).
Nice fresh idea
I mean, this is not the first collect/build/fight game but somehow I like it. The little guys are cute. The buildings have been built with love. I get the "Die Siedler" feeling :) There is no sound, docs could be better, animations I miss, but it's perfectly playable, once you understand the mechanics. Keep it up!
Turning Luanti into a top down shooter is possible
I won't lie, this is almost as mindblowing as mineos was in last year's jam. I thought I knew what Luanti can do but this game says the contrary.
As the game has already received a lot of compliments, I won't repeat much here. I was more shocked by what the author did that from the actual gameplay (which is a solid 7 anyway). Graphics are highly refined (e.g. the ground using a non pixelated texture that perfectly espouses the aesthetics nonetheless), sounds as well (e.g. the operator voice with the radio static) and the game is in general a great showcase for Luanti. Do we also want to talk about the camera's movement which just works?
The author put a lot of effort to do something like this in 3 weeks and the community is definitely showing their gratitude. I'd gladly join them, congratulations!
You're a bunny and... that's literally it
No goals, no instructions, no sounds, nothing. Probably just the beginning of some project which didn't make it in time, there's nothing to play here at the moment
Interesting idea, but a bit too slow and punishing
The concept is interesting and the author knows what they're doing. The whole game revolves around one simple mechanic, which makes it very easy to grasp, in a series of levels that are not really ordered by difficulty, but rather by author experiments. Audio is well refined (one the few games of this jam actually featuring a soundtrack) and graphics are as well, so nothing to say - I'm not a fan of the round shaped eyes but in this case it's really not that important.
Gameplay-wise, however, the game felt kind of heavy at times, not as smooth as I'd like. The worst case was when the level involved a lot of walking and you failed right at the end (e.g. the halls with pillars and light switches), not really involving me to try again (I went on for a few levels more). This ruined the experience of something that could have been pretty fun if well dosed, as the annoyance surpassed the curiosity. I'd score it a 6.5 out of 10, which is closer to the neutral vote
Big maze with a refined graphical and sound system
The game started amazingly: a cutscene, in Luanti, with proper animations (!). I was mesmerized. Unfortunately after that I found myself stuck twice in a pitch black area, to only find out (by reading another review here) that it's a bug. Using the solution suggested in the review, I teleported myself in the actual area the player is expected to play in and I decided to give it a chance. And that's where I found back my enthusiasm.
Sounds are well-finished, the animation of doors is great, no useless inventory, custom HUD. However, my enthusiasm kept decreasing as long as I kept playing. The game is basically a big maze, with a refined graphical and sound system. If my first reaction when opening a door was of amazement, after the 40th one in 5 minutes with basically nothing else happening was "oh, ok, door..". I didn't finish it as I found myself stuck in a room where I couldn't see basically anything, but in general the game wasn't entertaining enough after the first minutes and I wasn't really interested in continuing. Running through the maze became a chore, which is a pity, considering the focus that the author has put on the artistic side
What's the point?
All you can do is walk around, watch, mine wood, leaves and dirt, and that's it. No recipes, nothing. Not even help or a hint.
Edit: now I understood that it's not meant as a game but rather a new game base like MTG. But the mechanics look pretty much like MTG, e.g., the 3x3 crafting grid. Why reinvent the wheel? If you want to make an MTG-like game, make one out of MTG. There are already at least two good alternative approaches, Repixture and NodeCore. Both do not depend on "default" and have a new, unique style of crafting and mechanics. Why not build upon them instead of starting from scratch?
Pretty neat, compact Game
I really like that it doesn't have useless blocks or unnessesairy tedium
Small experience but not so entertaining
Being a jam, I think the author played smart by making a small game: both in game length (around 5 minutes) and in map size (you're in a spaceship). They also tried to add some elements as to grant immersions, i.e. the breathing, the text telling you a story and the interactions with the environment (e.g. PCs telling you that can't be turned on). They were also able to create some suspence here and there, which I appreciated.
Unfortunately the overall experience doesn't really stand out, turning the game in basically a "go from point A to B" and a risky parkour. I think the basic concepts for making a game are there, just, the author needs to work on the game experience (in general; I'd invite them to see this attempt as a closed chapter and experiment with something new). Last but not least, I wasn't sure if at the end I had glitched the game or if I had actually finished it (until the HUD popped up)
Lots of fun
I don't even know where to begin. The game is very well done, and fun to play. It took me a few deaths to figure out the countdown after the blue ring was the amount of enemies remaining, and not how much time I had to get to the next blue ring. No shortage of loadout options either. Very impressive for a three week timeframe.
Great game-jam game
This game really pushes the bounds on what's possible with Luanti. The gameplay is solid and I really appreciate the loadout options, the shockwave especially.
The game is very resource-intensive, especially with the detailed textures, but it cools down after much has been loaded.
brrrrrrr
I wish there was a creature that wasn't scary
My pc is old
:) I playıng 120 fps
Very nice
It's very nice but the seeds are very bad please fix this also the sheep has a moustache :)
Kinda boring
Its really empty so eh.
No flowing water??
This game is highly incompleate, like even for a base game, there is no flowing water.
Rolling die and nothing much
Considering the game is basically hitting a button that rolls a die, I can see this working as a mod in some server/game, but seeing it as a stand-alone game doesn't make too much sense in my opinion (hence the thumbs-down). Sounds and graphics are nice, the random hogs/porks were a bit unexpected but ultimately funny :D
Too cryptic
The game has a nice premise: it puts the player in a context, briefly explaining the plot. Unfortunately, after that the atmosphere kind of fades, leaving the player to solve riddles that are too vague and/or that might result in the player roaming for a lot of time. The lack of a soundtrack and some non cohesive graphics don't help with the immersion, which is why I personally stopped playing it after 5 minutes
"how to play" is an in-game wall of text in the inventory
If the game expects players to go through such a long text placed in a remote part of the game (people playing Luanti for their first time probably don't know how to put an inventory), I think the game has already failed. In general, the graphics style was kinda hurting my eyes, as things were hard to read. Nice touch the vertical hotbar but aside that I don't think there's (currently) a lot that can be praised
No learning curve, just brutally hard
The initial idea was to put a neutral vote, but I think the lack of steps to get acquainted with the game mechanics - highly difficult basically from the beginning - is pretty mean to the player. Don't get me wrong, the game seems polished, it runs smoothly, it's just... too hard from the beginning, so I can't really judge what comes after. A game like Slidespace takes the player by the hand and slowly increases the difficulty, pushing people to go on because they're halfway through anyway. Here, the frustration stops you from doing that, which is a pity.
Another small thing: I'd really reduce the length of the initial instructions, they're very long and after the first images I skipped it, preferring to learn whilst playing