FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD37 → Square Roots

Square Roots

By weeping-rupee

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Humor933.71
Audio1973.55
Mood2103.68
Innovation2113.57
Graphics5083.35
Overall5663.17
Fun6372.83
Theme6563.17
Coolness103742

Comments

swingularity 2016-12-15 20:16

I really like the concept. I think you did a great job with the puzzles and your plan for the meta-game sounds amazing. I think it would cater to a lot of people that like puzzle games!

nilead 2016-12-15 20:21

Really cool! I like the narration of the I guess is the ship A.I.? I kept getting stuck around the third level but overall I really liked it, it has a special feeling to it of loneliness.

nassi 2016-12-15 21:02

If possible, you should probably pack the game as a standalone executable instead of an installer. Less steps to deter a potential player.

Took a few tries until I grasped all of the mechanics in the game and even then I doomed myself a few times in an effort to build the perfect passageways for the roots. In the end I'd have to say it was still easier than my plant growing entry for LD28 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=25343) ;). Much more fun though, here the difficulty didn't feel quite that frustrating but instead drove me to try harder.

Lovely aesthetic and the feeling of being isolated in space was real. Especially the music worked wonders for me! The chatty yandere AI was a nice touch both to the story and the mood, even if its/her tips started to become annoying after a hefty number of restarts. Glad I played it through though. Only real bug I encountered was that some pieces could be placed on the edges so that they poked through the monitor, which probably wasn't intended and made the game somewhat easier. A solid game and a good fit for a Ludum Dare in both mechanics and length.

I was going to say that knowing the next piece would be helpful, but then I looked at the screenshots (the radar area)... And then I opened the game to recheck and it was indeed missing. Maybe it was in there at one point but was scrapped? Also I was fairly certain the background was scrolling vertically during one game but now that I checked again it seems to be scrolling horizontally. This game is messing with me :P.

Also a big thank you for your in-depth comment on my entry. I totally agree with the negatives you mentioned and am somewhat ashamed of my inability to come up with better solutions to the problems mentioned. And yes, I have watched some Extra Credits episodes, but if you see a reference there it certainly isn't intentional. Nicely spotted though!

weeping-rupee 2016-12-15 23:34

@ nassi -- Yeah the radar allows you to save a mineral you are currently using for later if you drop it there. This becomes especially useful in the later levels when the start conditions are a little bit ... well unfair. Haha. Thanks for the in-depth comment, I love when someone really gives good feedback.

endingchaos 2016-12-16 03:56

Haha reminds me of math blaster! Great game!

mooncalf 2016-12-16 04:08

Really nice idea! The writing and narration for the computer is great ... very well done, especially for a jam! The puzzles are interesting, although a little more description of the rules would help. One time the computer told me the roots were too close and I lost, but didn't understand what I could have done. Another time I just got stuck and didn't know if there was anything I could do. It would be nice if the game would detect if you are stuck so you don't have to guess. I really like the touch of stuff flying by out the window ... it makes a very nice mood. Great job!

dobnarr 2016-12-16 04:14

This is neat. Confusing at first, but I think I grokked it by a few plays in. I liked it. The computer voice is really funny. Not sure how it relates to the theme. I'd not do the installer (standalone didn't work for me). Nice work!

weeping-rupee 2016-12-16 11:27

@mooncalf -- Yeah one thing I wish I had gotten in was better fail state detection and and tutorializing the player-- for the post jam version I guess, right? Thanks for the feedback!

menip 2016-12-16 22:10

itch.io link down?

weeping-rupee 2016-12-16 22:26

Yeah, sorry Itch.io link should work now :)

ryusui 2016-12-21 05:12

I LOVE the GLaDOS-esque computer voice. Gameplay is clever but I really wish 1. the game could recognize failure states more consistently and 2. losing didn't reset me all the way back to the start (yes, I know my game does that, but at least there's less time investment lost).

jimmothysanchez 2016-12-21 05:49

On one of my play-throughs I was able to create an state where the game got stuck. I quickly boxed in the expanding shape with minerals. It kept making the spawn noise but had no place to spawn. Game just kind of got stuck there. Other than that good game.

mirta000 2016-12-21 15:30

so... Bizarre... Was able to figure out how the game works, I think I like it in a weird way. Well done.

powerspark 2016-12-25 08:15

Calming game, I liked the text to speech dialogue ha. More polish will make this something quite unlike anything else.

ema1ih 2016-12-27 21:00

I liked it, nice concept

weeping-rupee 2016-12-28 16:39

@Ryusul - yeah fail state detection is def the games weak point. I meant to put it in but I think that would require me to put a new link for a post-jam version and I've made so many little changes to thepost jam version that I didnt want to split my comments-- I wanna know exactly which version people are playing. I guess after judging is over maybe I'll put a blog post with a post-jam version.

dssiege11 2016-12-29 19:55

Didn't completely understand it but it was still nicely made. Well done :)

zeriver 2016-12-31 12:24

Whoaw that's very ambitious game for Ludum Dare. You managed to do a lot and with full team i can only imagine how much you could achive. Anyway game is really interesting. Music, graphics and AI voice give game really cool atmosphere. I will come back to this game, when i will have more time, and try to complete it.

pkenney 2017-01-03 00:16

This was awesome in the audio, and the theme, and the mood they created together. The narrator was fantastic for an LD game!

The game rules were kind of interesting, but I never quite clicked to really understand exactly what was going on.

I had a fun ride along the way though! Nice work.

jupiter_hadley 2017-01-12 21:46

Very interesting game! I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum Dare 37 games, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/YxApuQ84rNY