gornova 2011-08-23 19:06
Impressive game!! Atmosphere is unique, graphics is good, sound and music too!
For gameplay I prefer more direct control on sliding blocks.. well done :D
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD21 → Spiritual
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 7 | 3.73 | ||
| Innovation | 3 | 4.09 | ||
| Fun | 14 | 3.20 | ||
| Theme | 13 | 3.50 | ||
| Graphics | 1 | 4.73 | ||
| Audio | 2 | 4.27 | ||
| Humor | 59 | 1.40 | ||
| Coolness | 311 | 1 |
Impressive game!! Atmosphere is unique, graphics is good, sound and music too!
For gameplay I prefer more direct control on sliding blocks.. well done :D
Loved the story, the intro art was very good, as well as the ambient and hypnotic audio. The mechanic got a little dull after several levels, and I ended up quitting after about 7 or 8 levels - it became an excercise in patience, something Ludum Dare game rating doesn't really allow for ;) Maybe just a few too many levels. A few powerups or something to break up the monotony would help immensely. Overall, enjoyed the game quite a bit, really enjoyed the mechanic! It was neat and oddly humbling to NOT be in control of my environment. :)
Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it immensely! :) We already have several improvements in mind to enhance the gameplay, including powerups.
I don't know yet when we will actually have a change to put those ideas in good use, but I'm convinced that we will develop the game further in the coming months. If you're interested, we will post news of any progress to our brand new development blog. (http://www.tjrdev.blogspot.com/)
PS. We already ported the game to Windows Phone 7 for fun, works surprisingly well!
Really fantastic presentation!
I agree, the "wait for the blocks to randomly move in a way you can use" mechanic gets old quickly. Having SOME way the user can affect that might help.
Looks and sounds amazing! However, the mechanic was a little problematic - because the sliding blocks were completely random, it was often more a matter of waiting for the right blocks to come than of actually making a good move. Maybe if you add some element of control to the player?
Excellent atmosphere and presentation, but gameplay is rather dull... mostly wait and wait :) I've spent few minutes and few levels playing this, but it gets boring very quickly and atmo won't save it.
It looks nice, but the levels weren't puzzling. You solved them with patience, so that sort of detracted from the game. Awesome graphics and sound though!
This game looks very polished and the music and sound fit very well in the general atmosphere. However, I would like to control the blocks a little more. I prefer to win by skill and by luck.
Good graphics, interesting idea, but random level design doesn't do it any favors. Way too many situations where I'd restart a level after realizing I'd wound up stuck on a block that had no chance of connecting to anything else an time soon, and the frequency of the shifts mean that even when a path presents itself you can rarely act quickly enough to take advantage of it. Allowing certain tiles to have just no boards at all doesn't help alleviate any of this, and tens o encourage players to try and stay on boards with the most potential exits possible regardless of if that's going to take them closer or further from their goal. I'd also frequently wind up off in the middle of nothing as two boards disconnected during a shift.
Maybe try adding a little visual warning of some sort (water currents or something?) to let players know where boards are about to shift, and give them a quick warning it's going to happen. As is, it's a giant test of patience, and while not being in control of the environment is fine, as is there's not a lot of strategy or reason to the gameplay. You just move towards your next goal and hope for the best, then wind up waiting a lot, and it isn't very fun or rewarding, as even in victory you never really feel like you did anything to contribute to that.