logun 2013-04-29 08:55
Fun and clever ! I enjoyed it and replay many time !
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD26 → Sociales Santillana
By ithildin
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 1 | 100 | ||
| Innovation | 176 | 3.64 | ||
| Theme | 339 | 3.76 | ||
| Overall | 427 | 3.29 | ||
| Fun | 537 | 3.01 | ||
| Mood | 539 | 2.90 | ||
| Graphics | 607 | 2.96 | ||
| Audio | 822 | 2.24 | ||
| Humor | 1023 | 1.50 |
Fun and clever ! I enjoyed it and replay many time !
Pretty nice, the game play could be explained a lot better in-game though as I had to read the instructions at the description to understand what I was doing.
Also, it would be neat if you actually saw the pieces rotate.
I like the combination of the bejeweled concept and the minimalistic graphics very much. This is one of my favorites so far.
I had a real hard time figuring out which moves are valid and why, but the idea seems really cool :)
I had to freeze time and work on it for quite a few minutes before I FINALLY understood the rules. More explicit animation would've helped immensely. Colors were changing all over the place and I had no idea why some clicks were working and others weren't. It wasn't until I started to imagine the animations that things clicked.
Ok, so if anyone else is as stuck as me: look at the first screenshot of the submission. The only valid move is to click on the orange block right above the center and then click on the red block above it. That will SHIFT the entire column UP. Then, the orange blocks will make a 'C' shape (as the orange block will connect to the other two orances in the L shape). Colors will change to fill those gaps. There are no other valid moves.
When you click on a color that's adjacent to it in the same 'ring', you're trying to ROTATE the entire ring. You can either have 3 colors connected in the same ring, or 3 colors connected in the same stack.
Suggestions: Add rotation animation. Make the shuffle automatic when there are no more moves. Perhaps add a perma-hint mode, where clicking on a block shows the valid moves it can make, and ONLY the valid moves it can make.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll have it in mind for the future :)
I had some people play test the game today (after submission) and most of them got lost in the beginning, which is unforgivable considering that once they've figured it out, they keep playing it for quite a while (meaning that the game is actually fun once you know what you've got to do).
This hints heavily at some more or less serious visual/sound feedback deficiencies that could have helped. As you say, animation could be a life saver.
It's a bit hard to figure out in the beginning, but once I understood how to play it, it was quite fun.
Yes. I had a co-worker play it and EVEN WALKING HIM THROUGH IT, it still took him a while to get. He was under the impression that we were swapping colors, NOT moving an entire ring/stack.
So I went ahead and made a tutorial image. Recommend you do something similar to it for your screenshot :)
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/04/29/sociales-tutorial/
Even with the instructions it took me a while to figure out how to play. Although I got the best results by clicking randomly.
never mind, I just realized that I was wrong, and it's a swap, not a shift of a stack. :)
See? Confusing, but fun ;)
I love the look of the game. A bit confusing at first but once it clicks the gameplay works really well.
Very visually pleasing. Unlike most of the minimalistic visual art inspired games I've seen, this game actually looks like an art piece.
Looks good, made me interested for a while. I think you should make moves animated, it is not clear enough which plated move.
This is really quite addictive! It takes a little to know how it works but after that it brings a lot of fun.
Fits the theme to the perfection, it is to Columns the same BlockOut is to Tetris. And it's a bit too difficult for me :)
Nice name, waiting for Naturales Santillana
Thank you all for the feedback and, specially, taking the time to keep trying despite the initial confusion.
@visibleatom I've followed your advice and added a "how-to" screenshot to show the rules.
Is it possible that the initial puzzle could be generated in a way to be unwinnable or am I just doing it wrong? :)
By unwinnable do you mean that you don't have any movement available from the start? Nope... You always start with at least one (unless there is a strange bug that passed me by). Check the value of "movements left" at the bottom right to see. Then, during the game, if you end an action with no moves left you'll get some big text telling you to shuffle ("S" key... Normally it would cost you 5s but in this situation you can do that for free).
If you mean "move to the next level"... It would be extremely infrequent, but I suppose that you can be really unlucky with the randomization so that you end up out of time.
If you don't see any moves you can get a hint with the H key.
Really nice! The match 3 genre is really well implemented here, original! I found it confusing though - instruction and feedback would improve this 110%. I'd play again!
An in-game how-to would have helped immensely!
Rather neat )
So sad it's not position in the middle so I can only see like the two left and right blocks. google chrome, windows 8. Hope you can fix it
Ooops, sorry to hear that.
I've been fiddling with the CSS to center it horizontally and the new version's up. Could you try again, and make sure that the browser zoom is 100%, please?
For the first few minutes I was completely confused. Then I looked at the tutorial image linked to below the game, that helped me figure it out some... but really, a tutorial should be IN-game. Otherwise, this was a really neat idea and I hope you keep working on it because it has a lot more potential. :)
It didn't take me long after reading the instructions. At first I didn't realize it was timed and when I started playing I lost almost immediately.
I really loved the concept and the execution. Excellent work!
Once I got the hang of it, this was great fun! Fantastic work incorporating the theme and using it as inspiration to create something fresh and engaging.
There's a lot of potential in this game, it's enjoyable once understood! At first I thought you can only rotate, but then you can swap too, I guess I didn't fully read the instructions!
Needs visual cues like after you click it does an actual rotate or swap. And if it's an invalid move, it'll snap back.
Also, combos!
Overall, great innovation!
First of all, I love the title (I am from Argentina and I know old books from Santillana). Really like the take on the theme. Mechanics are really clever and well balanced. Congrats on this game!
Fun game!
Why do you wait for me to shuffle when there is no moves? Make it automatic! Also, make the backspace actually restart, not shuffle, when used in game.
A really nice puzzle game I must say. Took a few minutes to learn the mechanics, and met the matching bug three times during my playtime. With more polishing, this could be a great game, I'd definitely love to play it again!
I read your post-mortem after playing, I don't have anything else to say :p
I had trouble to understand the controls but once I did, I had a lot of fun. I found the pentagon level harder than the hexagon, which seems weird.
This is quite original, but unfortunately suffers from some design flaws. For example, it's hard to make up any cool strategies because the game limits you to the immediately "correct" choices.
The rotating of the ring is first confusing when you don't know it, and maybe it should be called "No possible moves left" because that confused me too at first. But I really like this take on the match-3 genre. Would like to play this on a larger polygon, but I never got so far.
This is really great work for 48 hours. Well done.
nice take on the match3 style game. the shape of the board and the colors create some neat patterns to look at. good job!
rather liked this one after I read the instructions
Once I got it it's really nice! it's much easier the more sides there are so maybe it should start at an octagon and reduce the number of sides progresively
Thanks! (Btw, some little bird showed me your game a couple of days ago; it was impressive, I managed to survive for a whole 20s) =D
As you say, I've realized that starting on larger levels, where there are many more blocks and therefore possibilities, could have helped two-fold with some of the issues most of you have spotted: making it easier, on one hand, or allowing for more strategic planning on the other (But in my opinion the latter depends on whether you want faster-paced gameplay, such as time attack modes, or if you can take the time to think carefully e.g, challenges, etc.)
Great minimalistic take on the match 3 genre. Love to see this made into a full game!
Cool game. Congratz!
Clever gameplay
Quite addictive. I like this harmony, when two or more blocks are "vanished" at one time.
Interesting and quite addictive. I really like the form simplification. Pity it lacks some animations to better understand what happens. Very good entry :)
Yes, a proper little thinking game this. I wasn't always sure why I lost the game, but enjoyed seeing the game expand out to bigger polys, and liked the look and feel of it. Good stuff.
Nice puzzle... Had to go in infinite-time mode for my poor addled brain after a while, but great mental exercise! Nice one
The idea is very cool, it's minimalist but at the same time it's like a 3D match3 game, very nice! Had some difficulties with the controls, many times it seemed I ended up blocked :/
Quite hard to understand (I really needed the instruction image to understand the game) and it is missing some music. After quite some tries I understood the game and the concept is really great.
Integrated instructions would help more than the "manual image" -- really fun once I grokked it.
Very cool.
Smart use of the theme. Had to read through the instructions twice to get my head around it but it was fun once I got the hang of it. What does the title mean btw?
Hey this is actually a fun game when you realize it's 3d and read the instructions! Good job.
Thanks! I'm currently working on an improved version, which will hopefully sort out the "first contact" woes.
The title comes from a textbook for the "Social Sciences" (Geography + History) subject I took at primary school. It was published by Ed. Santillana, which by the time I went to school used the painting from Frank Stella (or a variation) as the cover of their text books (there is a pic of one of them in the screenshots). So you could see it as a homage of sorts ^_^U
Interesting game but not very intuitive.
I read the rules but I'm still a little confused.
Where are you from?
I seems to be more stupid than other I have try more than half an hour ... and I haven't understand. But graphics are nice..so I will rate what I can rate.