FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD39 → Amber-graph

Amber-graph

By corporatedinc

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4753.0521
Fun4772.8421
Innovation1283.5721
Theme1993.7321
Graphics5802.3621
Humor5071.0617
Mood6121.7619

Comments

shashwat 2017-07-31 08:05

Whenever I try to play this game, the screen scrolls down when I press down. Apart from that, I really like the concept.

corporatedinc 2017-07-31 08:08

Yup, I didnt think of it when I chose the controlls. (the browser window wil move if the page is larger than your screen resolution). sorry!

Glad you like the concept :) thanks!

lovro-kalinovcic 2017-07-31 09:59

Neat! I don't think I've ever seen a game about algorithms before.

cowa 2017-07-31 10:14

Simple but effective game, good job. It awakened the Dijkstra in me, long time no see :)

autovelop 2017-07-31 10:20

Nice mini puzzle game. Would have liked so music. The level design also seems very random so actually fleshing out a few levels to also introduce mechanics will go a far way. Well done with your game!

corporatedinc 2017-07-31 10:25

Thank you for the feedback, I just realized now that the published game is not the latest version of the game. Some visual elements might have been lost, but nothing major I believe :) The graph is randomly generated on runtime. The Dijkstra is strong with @loro-kalinovcic

ysty 2017-07-31 10:50

A nice concept for a puzzle game. I sometimes got a little lost between what was the electron and what was the goal, it would have been nice to make them a bit more visually distinct. :)

corporatedinc 2017-07-31 10:59

I loose them myself, It was intended to have particle effects on the electron and other visual style for the goal :) Glad the concept was to your liking.

tuism 2017-07-31 13:02

Interesting concept, I usually don't like this kind of puzzle where you basically want to brute-force all possible options to get to the "most efficient". The inclusion of a time limit kind of alleviates that, but it doesn't *really* reward you for going faster.

So on the design of the game - Are there any actual logic to the placement of the numbers, or is it completely random? Is there an "expected cost" that one could work to go under per level? I ask because if it's completely random, then players' scores aren't comparable - someone could get really lucky and just get low-cost, direct paths all the time. Or vice versa. If there were some sort of "standard" per level, either a highscore per setup for all the players who played (around the world or whatever), or some kind of worked-out "par" for the course, then there would be a goal to work towards. Right now, it's just... Random, right?

corporatedinc 2017-07-31 13:16

@tuism, the published version was not the latest unfortunatly. I have added a bonus for reaching the goal, and made the time & charge "one value". so the power is steadily drained + whatever cost the move is. the levels are random. However, If I were to flesh it out more; then yes, a standard for each level would be beneficial for the player to compare to others. However, the focus during the jam was not replayability or competetive gameplay.. it was getting the concept working :)

Thank you for good points, and for valuable feedback / critique.

agecaf 2017-07-31 17:56

I found this when working in the jam: [Stackoverflow - Disable arrow key scrolling in user's browser](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8916620/disable-arrow-key-scrolling-in-users-browser). It might help you fix the "scrolling when pressing down" bug (it also tends to happen with the space bar).

Other than that, it's a pretty fun idea. Maybe lowering the price of nodes far from the endpoints could make it so that we'd have to consider more indirect paths?

corporatedinc 2017-07-31 18:43

Thank you for the fix for the arrowkeys, that is excellent.

Lowering the price on nodes far from the end-node is an excellent idea. That would also allow for some randomnes to stil be in play. RNG is half the fun imo. Thanks!

nyri0 2017-08-01 21:27

Hi ! It's a good idea to make a game about algorithms and it awakes the Dijkstra in all of us. It would be a good idea to give more information to the player, for example the best path he could have made, etc. You should also make the game less repetitive, add some mechanics.

Good luck if you want to continue it and extend the concept !

johnnwfs 2017-08-01 23:32

Neat concept!

neweichgames 2017-08-10 04:40

Like the simplicity and it fit the theme very well. Nice job!

tuomo 2017-08-10 08:29

Maybe little explanation on what I was supposed to be doing and what those numbers meant (I really don’t know anything about algorithms)? I figured out but with couple of tries, others might not be as patient. Overall I liked the simple puzzle gameplay and aesthetics went well with that. Not sure how to rate mood or humor so I am leaving those blank.

kubenexion 2017-08-10 11:29

Simple and effective concept. Nice work!

nerdyherbivore 2017-08-10 16:24

Neat little puzzle game. I agree that the electron should have been more distinctive, but once I found it, I enjoyed figuring out the algorithm. Also not sure how the time limit ultimately effected game play except to maybe prevent me from calculating all outcomes. Sometimes, I was only one spot away from the goal! Were all the numbers random or was there an underlying algorithm?

ciobeni 2017-08-10 23:04

I liked the concept but I made too many mistakes by confusing the electron and the light. Somethings I think you could improve: * Add some sound effects and music * Draw some graphics to make distinguishing the electron and the light easier * Make a few tweaks to the puzzle generator (I started right next to the light at least 4 times)