Against the Clock by Thomas Yanuziello

[raw]
made by Thomas Yanuziello for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

The seconds are out to get you! Beat them back with your clock hands!

Each wave is 10 seconds and also consists of 10 ticks attacking.

Controls: Left/Right/A/D to move the clock hands. Up/Down/W/S to switch hands being controlled.

Ratings

Overall 1062th 2.985⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1055th 2.803⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 246th 3.726⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 790th 3.438⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 731th 3.406⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 895th 2.232⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 935th 3.034⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 39🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 240168
03. Oct 2022 · 21:26 UTC
A nice take on the theme! Although it didn't feel like something happened at exactly 10 seconds. I also couldn't figure whether it is possible to lose - the red things get retracted even when they reach the clock center. Anyways, had some jiggles, good job!
jaybaus
03. Oct 2022 · 21:28 UTC
I like the simplicity of this, especially the animation at the start and the effects when you hit one of the seconds, it was very clean and crisp. I also enjoyed the extra hands appearing as the difficulty increased. I wasn't sure what the controls were at first though so it would have been useful to have these somewhere, solid entry apart from that though :)
🎤 Thomas Yanuziello
03. Oct 2022 · 22:32 UTC
Had to resubmit, apparently the link was broken.
Misha Levin
04. Oct 2022 · 01:42 UTC
Nice one. Elegant Idea. It was cool when the second arrow appeared, though i died rright away two times in a row during the first wave of the second level.
Matt Swieboda
04. Oct 2022 · 02:19 UTC
pretty cool concept! I gathered every 10 seconds part, was each individual "second" enemy, and there were 10 each round? cool way to interpret the theme. definitely got a lot harder when the second hand was introduced. nice unique entry
TheButterApple24
04. Oct 2022 · 03:30 UTC
A unique take on the theme! Interesting game :)
PhoenixofForce
04. Oct 2022 · 10:30 UTC
Very interesting. I feel like the second hand should've come earlier since you can simply hold 'D' to get over the first few rounds. Switching was also a bit weird i guess because up sets it to the second hand and down to the first. Other than that, it was pretty good. Well Done :)
Eugenik
04. Oct 2022 · 12:36 UTC
haa thats hot.
LDJam user 276593
04. Oct 2022 · 14:47 UTC
Awesome concept! Execution is nice too, love how striking the graphics are - good to see other devs using resstriced color palettes.

I would maybe have though about binding the hour hands to <- and -> so you could move both at the same time, could make crazier waves that way and forces the player to pay even more attention.
🎤 Thomas Yanuziello
04. Oct 2022 · 14:57 UTC
I like the idea of simultaneous hand control using different buttons. Next version!
Atwooooooood
05. Oct 2022 · 17:43 UTC
Really coool idea. I love how simplism it is to tell the theme. I personally agree on the idea of 'Time is enermy for us'.
Savolae
05. Oct 2022 · 21:11 UTC
Great minimalist style and an interesting take on the theme
01edward01
07. Oct 2022 · 16:06 UTC
Very good game!
real_flamingicecubegames
07. Oct 2022 · 18:11 UTC
Awesome take on the theme, I thought this game was relaxing. I don't really have many bad things to say about this one. I kinda wish the hands could move a bit faster though.
Lukuluk
09. Oct 2022 · 18:39 UTC
Pretty simple and fancy concept :) A well chosen ambiant sound could add a lot to the mood!

I quickly came to discover a winning strategy with the first hand (just continuously rotating it), and when the other one arrives I started to panic because I had only a few seconds to understand the controls, and then lost the game, so I had to restart from scratch.

Then again, having a long period of gameplay without challenge (because of the winning strategy), and then the second hand is back again, and still hard to manage when you just learned it :thinking:

So I understand why it can be cool to wait for some time until unveiling the second needle, because it creates a sort of wow effect, but this discovery comes with a very high difficulty spike... I think about two (not exclusives) possibilities to solve that:
- making the challenges really easy for a while with the second hand (since you need some time to learn)
- making this second hand appear sooner so there is less penalty when you lose (the start of the game having no challenge, and things starting to be really interesting with this second hand).

Another helpful thing would be to improve the tutorial about the way to control both hands (using action words next to the controls names, and/or making a significant change on the hand you take control of).
DaveCo
12. Oct 2022 · 23:52 UTC
I love the concept and the graphics where very clean! Like the previous comment stated, I wish there was a gentler learning curve going from the first hand to the second.
Hacktier
20. Oct 2022 · 21:17 UTC
Cool game. The game looks good and plays well. Nice work.