Theme for LD31 was Entire Game on One Screen. I’ll be posting capsule reviews of the games I especially liked, adding more as I find them.
Ricochet Heroes
Although it doesn’t fit the theme too well, this is a fantastically well done, unique hybrid of JRPG and video pinball, which pays homage to the original Final Fantasy on NES, and various other NES homages, too.
Welcome to Shady Pines
Tetris-y digital jigsaw puzzle game played against the clock, with a sense of humor. Really addictive.
birdsong
Another strong showing by Managore, aka Daniel Linssen. Birdsong is the most interesting take on the theme that I’ve seen so far, instead of taking the theme as a constraint, he has crammed an entire metroidvania style side scroller into one screen, and made it playable via a fisheye lens shader effect that zooms in on the part of the game where you are playing. It’s a unique solution that turns the constraint inside out, and makes the game more challenging, both in terms of coping with the visual distortion as things slightly out of view come in, and in terms of providing a tantalizing glimpse of the entire game to the player, from the beginning, and teasing them about what’s coming up, puzzling them as to how to get there. I’m super impressed with this one.
Rudolph
A humorous snowball fight game between Santa and his renegade reindeer. The gameplay is simple and straightforward and very fun. Light on challenge, but delightfully lighthearted to play.
Contact Cowboy
An asymmetric 2-player vs. game, the player with the knife has to complete a mission that the player with the revolver has to stop. What makes it unique is that the Knife player is able to blend in with a group of civilians, and if the Cowboy shoots the wrong person, he loses automatically. It’s similar in that regard to my much less polished LD31 entry, Color is Everything.