FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD26 → Minima

Minima

By cagedrat

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness282
Mood973.63
Theme1014.10
Audio2173.27
Humor2302.81
Graphics2323.59
Innovation2963.45
Overall4273.29
Fun8072.71

Comments

dtConfect 2013-04-28 10:16

I like this. Weird and compelling. Is there something to do once... you know...?

robc 2013-04-28 13:55

It's interesting. Unsure what it is - but it's got a rather unique little quality to it.

th3balta 2013-04-28 16:18

Weird indeed.

sonic96pl 2013-04-28 17:46

Best LD26 game I've played yet. Nice gfx style.

cagedrat 2013-04-28 19:48

Added some polish and an ending of sorts. You can now play full screen, and easily reset if you get boxed in. I'm calling this done.

cagedrat 2013-04-28 21:29

dtConfect: there is something to do. It's very hard though. It might not even be possible.

cybearg 2013-04-28 21:46

Loved the graphics style and I liked the way the blue square talked with the small text. It was cute.

Now, maybe I'm missing something, but to me the gameplay consisted of be bumping around into invisible walls until I had enough visible to lure the blue block in to get stuck on a corner and then I'd hurry in and touch it. Is there something more to it than that?

If not, then I must say, the gameplay is honestly tedious. If I just missed the point, then please ignore what I'm saying here, but I saw no way of determining where the walls may be, so there was no strategy or challenge involved, just a lot of slow, dull maneuvering as I'd constantly get stuck on walls and have to drag myself around them.

I kept playing because I was curious about the blue square and why it was being so coy. Unfortunately, by the time I got to a level where it started following me, the camera had zoomed out so far from me using my bait-and-switch tactic to catch the blue square, I wasn't even able to read what it was saying, sadly.

Keep the aesthetic and concept and use it for something. Unless you're trying to just make an artistic statement about how walls go up between people who like each other or something, which the gameplay would enforce, the game isn't "fun" in any way that I can see.

Please don't take the criticism harshly. I thought it was very neat!

skycardboard 2013-04-28 22:19

Found the trick, perhaps: move away. Get blue trapped against a wall, then move in... I kept playing till it moved to the next stage. Then I got boxed in on all sides.

cagedrat 2013-04-28 23:02

Thanks for the great feedback Cybearg! I had all your thoughts while making it. I made a few tweaks to make it slightly less tedious. The camera was bugged and will now zoom in when Blue starts to follow you.

Skycardboard: boxed in just like in life. amirite?

cmayhem 2013-04-28 23:35

I really like the minimalist exploration aspect of this game. Best game so far.

split82 2013-04-29 03:24

Really nice audio and mood.

elrobo 2013-04-29 03:36

I played until the uh task changed and then I wasn't sure what I had to do. I liked the narrative up to that point. Gameplay bordered on frustrating at some points in the density of the barriers, but the text and then changing mood helped.

mscottmcbee 2013-04-29 04:39

Loved the mood, but I agree with Cybearg about the tediousness of the walls.

taylorlunt 2013-04-29 05:16

Mildly frustrating but decent.

vona0041 2013-04-29 05:17

Web page: Unity won't load :(

tomk32 2013-04-29 05:18

Excellent execution, didn't leave parts out like so many other minimalism game but added the stuff that's necessary. And it made some development from the first screenshot you posted.

vona0041 2013-04-29 05:33

Downloaded OSX version, got it to work... Pretty mysterious, I wish I could "finish" the game to find out the ending. Maybe make it a little more clear once you get to the 'final chase'

crowbeak 2013-04-29 06:17

Do you like bread? xD

perry 2013-04-29 06:18

Such a tusundre tease...

baldwinthree 2013-04-29 06:22

Words cannot express how much I hate the blue square. It's so cheeky!

I took a while to realize what I was actually supposed to do - catch the blue square in the maze that I'd revealed - but once I did it became a fun puzzle game. Couldn't understand what to do after it started following me, though - just wandered around for a couple of minutes and gave up.
Very atmospheric, and I loved the procedural sounds and maze generation!

netgrind 2013-04-29 06:26

I really liked the color. Not sure if I got to the end or this just happened by random but I ended up trapped with the blue block inside some black lines, I really liked that.

skywolf 2013-04-29 06:40

I hate blue, i hate the freaking mazes and i hate you CagedRat. And i mean this in a freaking good way. ;) great job.

cagedrat 2013-04-29 06:54

Netgrind: that's not the ending, but it should be. And will be if I do anything more with this.

lpcustom 2013-04-29 07:01

Another great game that follows the theme well. Makes me wish I'd spent more time on developing a more theme-centric game. Was I the only one who was pissed that the blue square could go right through walls. Damn you blue square!

hadyn 2013-04-29 08:03

You certainly fit the theme, but I found the gameplay to be a little too out of my control. There's one basic strategy (get blue against a wall), but otherwise it's just randomly bumping into walls that appear too late for you to avoid them! That, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about getting home - I got lost, blue stopped talking, and I gave up =[

Still, it's a quirky idea and the style is great, even if the gameplay feels a little frustrating at times!

broxxar 2013-04-29 08:13

Was the intended strategy to discover an area and lure the blue square into it? That doesn't allow for very much exploration through the pretty procedurally generated land.

But if you're intended to just chase after him, the later levels become a headache of bumping into walls and pretty much relying on RNG to let you catch.

Aesthetically very pleasing (while using minimal shapes and a simple pallete, major points on theme), but game play a little lacking.

Still an enjoyable experience, and one of the better games I've played so far.

Oh also the web version wasn't working, something about calling load outside the main thread.

andrio 2013-04-29 08:13

Setting artistic visions aside, those spawning walls aren't very fun at all, they're unavoidable and annoying.

Sorry blue I don't love you that much.

bummzack 2013-04-29 08:40

Browser version crashes before loading finishes.

cagedrat 2013-04-29 09:27

I think I fixed the issue with the browser version. You may need to clear your browser cache to get the latest version. If anyone runs into this again, please post your browser and os.

kewry 2013-04-29 11:26

Nice game, love that minimalistic art and how the game tramples your every effort! I have no idea how to deal with th ending though.

bloogloo 2013-04-29 18:32

I'll have to agree with others on here. I liked all the dialog; and I felt like things were going somewhere, but then, uh... I kept looking and looking and looking... and... well, you get the idea. But the mood was fun.

zampi 2013-04-30 00:04

I love it!

psychomonster 2013-05-01 15:48

nice piece of art :)

waynetron 2013-05-02 04:58

I really liked this. It probably fit the theme better than anything I have played so far.

ddrkirbyisq 2013-05-02 05:00

Cool ^^; It's artsy, without beating you over the head with it. Feels like it's missing....something. but it's cute.

tyro 2013-05-02 05:06

Pretty! The gameplay was kind of frustrating at times, until I learned to just explore a tiny open area and make the square come to me.

It was a little hard to read the text at the end due to the darkness.

*spoiler alert*

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I'll let you know once I've taken the square home, I'm still searching for the place as I write this.

taro 2013-05-02 06:10

This is the most abusive relationship I've had with any intelligent shade of blue. Grrrr!

nicosaraintaris 2013-05-02 11:41

Nice little exploration game. Really like colors, sounds and use of the theme. Good work.

casimps1 2013-05-03 04:04

I get errors running the web build - "get_insideUnitSphere can only be called from the main thread"

kill0u 2013-05-05 15:20

Comment by Gnux:
I really appreciated the way you respected the theme, with originality and simplicity. The minimalist graphism add nonetheless a touch of poetry which gives this game such a peculiar mood.

messiano 2013-05-06 00:50

Very interesting concept, but catching blue was sometimes way too hard (damn walls!). As someone eles said, use the idea for something else, it's very interesting.

hd408 2013-05-06 01:29

Dreamy one. At some moments it felt unreasonably hard, as I didn't see any logic about the walls appearing out of nowhere. Not bad, anyway. Got to the end (?), and brought the other square to the beginning of the level, but nothing happened.

Also, there's another game entitled "Minima" in this LD26!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=21295

hd408 2013-05-06 01:29

I mean, in this LD, which is #26.

mrexcessive 2013-05-06 15:20

Excellent, a favourite... very strange, some references to relationships in there! Very clever with very little text and some behaviour in the blue ... I like the way blue follows, a bit, something of a tease ?!