FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD30 → VENN

VENN

By off

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Innovation214.22
Coolness284
Mood773.74
Audio893.65
Overall3243.44
Graphics3693.40
Fun4863.12
Humor5362.36
Theme5813.22

Comments

geckoo1337 2014-08-25 05:41

This is an original concept, but it seems to me too hard. Sometime I can't figure out what I must do. No clue about it. Good game ++

off 2014-08-25 16:56

First game and first trap, i had work so much on it that the game seems simple and obvious to me! But i think that the game could be more happy, and give clues (overlay, or text).
Thanks for the rate.

laralyn 2014-08-25 17:42

I like the idea a lot, and the feel is great. I couldn't really figure out how it worked, though.

43iscoding 2014-08-25 18:25

I have found some crucial mechanics exploit.

You can pass absolutely every level by just creating 2 circles with a small delay from the same exact point.

Then X-orbs will glow as soon as they're between those 2 circles, and Union-orbs will glow as soon as both circles pass them.

However, your game is still great and have very pleasant atmosphere :)

off 2014-08-25 19:52

To Laralyn : that's the main problem, many people didn't figure the HOW, i work maybe too much one the graphics, and not enough on the simple fact of helping the player to enter into my game. :(
To 43iscoding : i'm aware of this glitch, it's because the crossing detection is based on timing, and not really on geometry. :P
I have found at one point how to avoid that :
- prevent the player of sending a circle from point who are too close.

But i didn't have the time to fully implement it. But you are a killer to found it.

evilobjective 2014-08-25 20:47

I like the idea the mechanic and the atmosphere. Good job!

oana 2014-08-25 20:50

It does get rather difficult, but it does seem fun. With lots of playtesting, it can turn into a pretty awesome game! I think it would work even better on mobile, using multiple fingers at the same time.

shatterhand 2014-08-25 20:58

I finished the game by basically choosing a spot on screen and clicking non-stop on it.

onlyslightly 2014-08-25 21:55

Awesome aesthetic and really cool concept. I loved those 'AH-HA!' moments you get when you figure out how things work.

xgor 2014-08-25 22:00

Intresting concept with great atmosphere, but not very intuitive... And in the end I ended up figuring out the same exploit as 43iscoding so it went from too hard to too easy.

veryfinestlions 2014-08-25 22:17

I really like the idea! Shame about the glitchy crossing detection, though. (It also tended to miss genuine crossings. Also, mathematical nitpick: you're talking about intersections, not unions!)

I did have fun "solving" the puzzles the proper way before glitching my way past to the next one, though.

g_o 2014-08-25 22:33

WOW Awesome game!!!
It was sure fun and really innovative;
The only problem was the theme - I might be dumb for not getting it but I guess if it isn't obvious it isn't well related to the theme enough.
Actually I found it fascinating that my intuition figured out the techinnque/math by itself for example-if you have 2 X you connect them with an imaginery line and then click two points on each side [so the connected points would create a prependicular line to the original]
Doing so also won't have any trouble with the union circle cause the position doesn't matter to a certain degree so you can just disposition your clicks so the black circles won't block it and the union circle will be inside the two circles you clicked.
3 Xs? the technique I figured would be just doing the usual 2 and then clicking so that the position of your cursor connected with the third circle would create a parallel line to the original line with the other two.
- only after level 11/12 I figured out this was mathematically right after seeing it in action and figuring out I did it automatically.
There is only one aspect though you don't really have a fast technique except intuition - timing - in order for the last technique or more complicated cases to work you need to have the right timing. If you do have them - then the techniques should work fine.

g_o 2014-08-25 22:36

Ohh and I frogot to say - awesome ambient music!

off 2014-08-25 22:47

to g_o : you get it! Actually if there wasn't the timing the game will be pure maths, but the timing create the difficulty when you understand the figure.

I will try to solve this double clik glitch, actually the game was think for mobile device to avoid multiple shot on same point, but a mouse is not a finger.

But with feedback ans seeing others puzzle game, i understand that i had to give clues to player before, but also during the game to help them understand.

Maybe had a TUTORIAL LEVEL with overlay, and explanation.

Sad :(

kewry 2014-08-26 08:04

Graphics and sound are really good, I didn't quite understand how the game works but managed to reach the end easily by using quite clicks

mrexcessive 2014-08-26 09:18

Hi there. Finished all the levels pretty quickly due to logical flaw. Lovely design incl. sound. Really nice circles and 'activations'. Good job.

sneeuwpopsneeuw 2014-08-26 11:15

A realy good concept but hard to get into. a in game tutorial or some hints when you fail would be nice.

rodroy1 2014-08-26 13:45

Very nice game, I liked the concept and the puzzles. The X circles seem a little buggy though. you can click twice in the same spot and always trigger the X circles, whereas actually getting the circles to cross normally doesn't always trigger them. Otherwise an impressive game.

off 2014-08-26 17:46

I REMOVE THE FAST-FIRE GLITCH! :)

Not perfect but it was really a problem to let people really play and understand the game.

Thanks for the support, without all those comment i maybe didn't get the time to fix that.

badlydrawnrod 2014-08-26 19:57

Highly innovative.

miziziziz 2014-08-26 20:57

Really nice; the audio fit really well with the calm mood and graphics.
Took me a while to understand how the gameplay worked, but then it started getting fun. And then it started getting hard (about level 7 is where it got difficult)
Damn, I could not beat level 11.
Hope to see more of this in the future; this could be a really good mobile game.

morusque 2014-08-26 21:47

cool game, and I like the audio.
I was surprised that only one element in the game (the union circles) actually uses Venn diagram properties while the difficulty mostly comes from the X circles.

hippolyta 2014-08-26 22:57

Zen-style game :-)
Nice mood and presentation - well done!

abeing 2014-08-26 22:58

very nice

off 2014-08-26 22:58

To Morusque : that's really one of the lack of the game, it's not a serious game about logic, it's a "funny" interpretation of the Venn Diagram.
I have some ideas to bring back proprieties inside the game but it will required some work.

But we are all at this point... ;)

awesomeusername 2014-08-27 18:45

Well done. This was a cool idea and it was well polished.

I do have a question, though. Were the thick black circles supposed to "kill" my expanding circles so that they no longer counted as intersecting? I spent a long time on level 3 trying to beat the level by making a circle, waiting until it was stopped over the X, and then making another circle that also stopped over the X. I get the feeling that this not working was intentional, but either it's a bug or something wasn't explained very well.

lkr 2014-08-27 20:55

That's a really unique and fun concept!

After playing to level 10, I found out by accident that you can easily match the X icons by growing a circle from any side of it, and once its radius crosses the icon, you can click on the icon to instantly match it. It made several levels easy, though it was a lot more fun to beat them as intended (like I originally did).

I liked the audio and visuals a lot as well, and I think this game would work great on a phone and tablet :)

off 2014-08-27 22:12

Playtesting power!

To awesomeusername : that's one of the main issue of the game, the circle didn't have to stop on the circle just to cross "at any time" over the circle. To make the game in 48h i have use a trick where it's the timing who validate the crossing on a icon. I tried to make the game consider the fact that a circle is already in place, but it didn't work well. The code was so a mess that i decide to let the game like that, but i should explaine more precisely that "the timing is important". Thanks for the feedback.

To Ikr : glitch creator, i didn't even imagine this one, but based on the code that's logical, i had to made one more tweak. No more click on icon! Thanks a lot. ;)

zeppelincaptain 2014-08-28 15:58

Quite nice. Like awesomeusername, I was confused by the fact that black circles seemed to kill my circles. If they don't count anymore, they should disappear.

Original puzzler, and some nice calm music, that's great for a Ludum Dare! :D

off 2014-08-28 21:50

To ZeppelinCaptain : that's a great idea, it could avoid this fix circle /no detected bug. Thanks for the idea!

doos 2014-08-28 23:18

Awesome.. That's the music I should have written for my game! :) I'm all relaxed for bed now. Thank you!

wolfmother 2014-08-29 07:28

Very original concept.
Presentation is flawless, good sound and graphics.
Mood appropriate. Good use of theme.
Game mechanics very obtuse, really struggled to try to solve puzzles in any meaningful way. Quickly devolved into clicking at random, as it was easier than trying to understand the mechanics.
I suggest text guidance to nudge the player into understand the mechanics better, and perhaps modifying the appearance of the circles to make the mechanics clearer.

ajopart 2014-08-29 07:28

Great concept ! relaxing music, innovative gameplay. Well done

miwuc 2014-08-29 12:15

Cool concept that I feel could be taken a lot farther with more/better level design. The current levels feel a bit repetitive and in my opinion don't do full justice to this awesome idea.

I have a lot of respect for all the people who have made puzzle games, I couldn't possibly code a game and come up with good levels in 48 hours.

The music is terrific and gives a great mood to the game.
I hope you make a post LD version!

mrjohnson22 2014-08-29 16:34

Very cool concept! I see what you mean when you say this game would work best for smartphones, because having a multi-touch interface would make a lot of the puzzles in this game much easier/intuitive. Playing it with just a mouse is difficult, but then again, it adds a timing aspect to the game, which is enjoyable.

The minimal graphics really support this game's simplicity, and the sounds do a great job of creating a calm atmosphere that helps combat getting frustrated by the puzzles. The puzzles themselves are fun too, but to me it feels that there could be a bit more variety in hazards & "circle" types, since a lot of the puzzles felt similar to each other. Still, very good job, and I hope to see more of this!

coderdozer 2014-08-31 09:57

Cool idea and enjoyable to play, well done

leafarz 2014-08-31 10:37

wow nice game! hoped that this had more mechanics other than the union and the x (intersection?).
although i completed the game with just 2 circles haha maybe some balancing i guess.
but great game! one of the games in today's ld that i wanted to finish!
also liked the soothing sound man. simple, clean and great execution!
good job!

papygaragos 2014-08-31 15:41

Good idea, and nice presentation of it. Too bad your "trick" to detect matches (with the timing) doesn't work so well with those black circles.

Also the resulting shapes don't really look like venn diagrams :)

kingbolonzo 2014-09-01 08:05

nice work Ill give you 5 stars for originality. Be a good phone game. Also loved the name i was so confused at first

nonentheless 2014-09-01 11:46

That's quite an innovative entry. I had a problem at the beginning and didn't understand it (I always rush through descriptions so it's my fault :) ) but after a moment everything seemed clear. I had a feeling that sometimes crossing didn't work properly, but probably it's just an illusion. Overall very nice and interesting entry. Great job.

And thank you for your comment :)

ratking 2014-09-03 14:37

Great mechanics, very atmospheric and soothing. =)

dunin 2014-09-04 17:55

good idea and calm game.
Little hard for me (don't have timing)...
(une belle première entrée)

local-minimum 2014-09-06 20:31

I got to level 10 and it was really challenging and great fun with a superb and distinct interpretation of the theme. Some quirks to the game that would make it much better:

* Disallow placement of new circles while level is loading and before markers are visible
* Have a hover-explanation of the markers in case one forgets.
* Have a counter that says how many circles you have on the level
* Have a retry-button so one can quickly reset when one realizes the failure.

The game is one of my favorites so far this LD, so don't take the comments the wrong way.

Most levels difficulty was also realized by the X-marked things. It would have been interesting to have other logical operators, especially <difference>. It would make the level design much more flexible and difficulty even more interesting.

Hope you continue development and you should definitely do a mobile/touch game of this!