salmonmoose 2014-12-08 03:54
I don't seem to see any correlation between the screen and the pattern, am I really just clicking random squares?
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD31 → Pattern Puzzle
By wccrawford
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theme | 843 | 3.37 | ||
| Audio | 881 | 1.92 | ||
| Innovation | 1037 | 2.33 | ||
| Graphics | 1145 | 1.97 | ||
| Overall | 1153 | 2.37 | ||
| Fun | 1179 | 1.93 | ||
| Coolness | 1414 | 48 |
I don't seem to see any correlation between the screen and the pattern, am I really just clicking random squares?
It's definitly a puzzle game and I can't solve it :)
Each 'level' has its own pattern that you have to figure out. The levels are randomized each time you reload the page to provide additional challenge.
Sorry but I couldn't solve it.
There isn't any pattern
I got to level two, but couldn't figure out the puzzle from there, I think that it would be a good idea to have easier levels at the beginning as a sort of tutorial.
i didn't really get what kind of patterns we're looking for. a simple tutorial would have been nice. i got to the second level by pushing random shapes though! :d
Did not understand the way to resolve but reach level 4
Perhaps the randomization was a mistake then. Before that, there were easier patterns at the start... Now they're all mixed in.
Looks like randomization kill the fun. What I try is :
I pressed red circle, and it was ok, so I check another red figure, so the red might be the pattern, or another circle because circle might be the pattern etc. And that would work if easier level are on beginning and then are harder and harder.
Now when hard pattern start from beginning it's just "click some point and check if it's ok, if not check another one" so not a lot of fun. I would even consider to improve it and move it to Jam? It might be a fun puzzle game.
Hi there. Might need a bit more display when you complete a level, heard the new sound but didn't get that I'd finished anything, then noticed was on level 3 already - which was nice.
Made it to level 8 before I gave up, I found it hard to see a pattern without first randomly clicking stuff.
I couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Hum! I wann know ++
Nice puzzle game, not seen enough of these yet. Good work.
Yeah, if I were to do this again, I'd make the timer and randomization an option so that you can take the time to learn each of the patterns, starting from the easy ones. Then once you're ready, you can turn on the hard mode and see how you score.
I'd also liked to have made the patterns more obvious. So many of them are so short that it's hard to tell what you've done while you're experimenting.
I managed to complete the game. I think you could have put some visual indicator of completing the level when the sound is turned off. Also the sound is kind of aggresive for a puzzle game
I think this game may have some potential, but needs a better explanation. I kept clicking stuff but couldn't recognize any pattern, and then I realized it was because I had sound turned off
Some instruction would be nice :)
I won! But I had no idea what I was doing. Brute force seemed to be the only way, since there were no established rules at all. Does the position of the tile matter? Are the various shades of gray within the tiles different? (I notice that they are typically matched with color, but definitely not always.) The sound is also very aggressive, I'd agree. There are a bunch of ways to expand this to make it more fun: maybe at the core of a polished game this could be the gameplay code, but as it is I just can't make much sense of it.
strange game. I finished it but in playing I had three interpretation of what I have to do...
Random guessing: the game, pretty much.
A puzzle generally starts out by giving you a framework of rules to reason from: In the case of a jigsaw puzzle you know that the pieces have to fit and every piece is part of the picture, in a rebus you know that each picture represents a word or sound and the whole makes a sentence or phrase, and in the game of Set (look into it for a good reference for your game) there are four strict rules which make a pattern which allow you to reason and find the pattern without needing any confirmation.
In this game, however, the only rules are
1) If you hit a block that fits in the pattern at the specific spot you're at, you hear a sound and the block is lit;
2) If you hit a wrong block, you hear a sound and the blocks will all be unlit (including previously lit blocks); and
3) If you get the correct pattern, you hear a sound. all blocks will be unlit, and a new pattern is chosen.
In the case of a jigsaw puzzle, you can reason that 'this piece doesn't fit that other piece' or 'this piece is open on three sides, so it's placed at an edge'. In this game, however, no such reasoning is possible; you can find the first block in the pattern through trial and error, but it doesn't tell you anything about the second block in the pattern. Even when you hit the second block, you still have no idea what the third block could be. It's like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle where all pieces are perfectly square and the picture is so abstract you can't tell what pieces belong next to each other (and there's no reference image). I managed to get through the game because I could guess the patterns through sheer predictability (they're not the most original patterns), but even then it was mostly just trial and error with very little reasoning. There's also very little feedback when completing the pattern (such as further highlighting the pattern for a bit, or showing a simple phrase to describe it ("COMPLETED: Looping around")), which often leaves the player unsure what precisely the pattern was even after solving it. The emotional reward for puzzle games is the feeling of accomplishment you get when you manage to solve the puzzle through reasoning (you clever person you), but this is absent when solving a puzzle through guessing. Or to put it more simply: It's no fun to solve a puzzle through sheer guesswork.
The primary reason the game turns out like this is because there are too few possible solutions excluded. If, for example, you limited the possibilities to color/shape combinations (making the position of the blocks irrelevant), the player would be able to solve the puzzle through reasoning: I have a black circle with red background and a black triangle with red background; what do they have in common and how do they differ? I see they both have red backgrounds, so maybe the pattern is everything with a red background? Having too many possible solutions ruins this aspect, as the information I have (the comparison between the tiles) can be entirely irrelevant and it may instead just be a line between the top left and bottom right, or maybe it zigzags, or maybe I just need each different shape once, or who knows what else could be the pattern? There's no way to tell except to guess. Again, I strongly recommend you look into the card game Set to see how having clear rules makes pattern detection puzzles fun.
As others have noted, the sound is very harsh. It's good to have auditory feedback, but the sound itself is annoying to listen to.
(I beat the game in 186.089 seconds.)
Thanks for the excellent feedback everyone. I think I fell victim to being too good at my own game because I knew everything about it. I hope when I go to actually sell a game that I can find testers that will give me as much good feedback as I've gotten here. :)
I absolutely agree with all the feedback I've gotten. A lot of it expresses things that I could kind of feel, but couldn't name. Seeing it in writing is very enlightening.
Thanks again, everyone!
Graphics is terrible great! xD