FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → A time paradox

A time paradox

By lythom

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1183.7726
Fun1563.6426
Innovation144.2526
Theme714.1026
Graphics1353.8526
Audio633.7924
Humor2373.0223
Mood623.7325

Comments

wibblymat 2017-12-04 16:28

Controls were a bit wonky (at least in the web version). Was very easy to walk past a turning you wanted to take.

rob-white 2017-12-04 16:32

Aesthetically I really love this game. The music fits wonderfully with the atmosphere and the ties in well with the graphics. The character's commentary is also very good. A smart concept that I don't think I have come across in a puzzle game before. My biggest issue however; and it's a pretty big one because it stopped me playing the game. The controls are very unresponsive. I press for the man to go up and he takes a good 1.5 seconds to do what I'm saying (which is a big deal in this type of puzzler). That unfortunately makes it all a bit frustrating.

dave-siegel 2017-12-04 16:41

I dig the idea, and could definitely see potential to develop this a bit further. My only major issue was with the movement controls. It looks like your movement is tile based, which, as another commenter said, can cause the player to miss a quick turn. I think being able to freely move, as opposed to moving tile by tile, would improve the game alot.

I assume you are using the tiles to track the path of the player, so I understand sticking to tile based movement for the jam. This is more a comment for if you choose to work on this after the jam. Nice work.

6smith 2017-12-04 16:52

fantastic game! really fun, challenging with a unique gameplay concept. music is wonderful, wish there was some more sound design though. overall, really great game!

boorik 2017-12-04 19:19

Nice game. Good concept. Graphics are awesome. Did you compose the music? It goes fine with the game.

One thing can be improve : the controls. It seems a bit laggy/slow maybe it's due to the web version or my old laptop.

Good job!!! :smile:

2017-12-04 19:30

FYI, access denied on the source code link my friend.

lythom 2017-12-04 22:59

Thank you all for the feedbacks!

@Wibblymat @rob-white @dave-siegel @boorik the controls feels clunky because I did not succeed (yet!) to make it smooth to control in real time a character that is moved turn based (currently one turn every 500ms). Turn base is required to ensure reliability in the solutions, I have several ideas to solve the issue. I'll try to fix this in a post-jam version.

@boorik I didn't compose the music but used instead a generator : Music from Jukedeck - create your own at http://jukedeck.com.

@asterisix Fixed ! The repository is now public.

illabom 2017-12-12 01:50

Nice game you have here. SUPER WELL DONE!

Come check out my game if you like! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected

jjjjason 2017-12-13 07:05

Oh man this is such a good mechanic. Music and graphics are sublime as well.

I don't think I had as much of a problem with the controls as others did, and as you said--for the puzzles to be feasible you do need everyone to pretty much walk in lockstep.

btwj 2017-12-16 10:50

Really great idea, and overall a very cohesive game! In my opinion, one way to make the puzzles shine more would be to make every step proceed in discrete turns (one tile step to one turn), so that precise manoeuvring wouldn't be required to avoid the clones. The audio and graphics of this game were pretty good too, and they all meshed well with each other. Considering this is a compo submission, it's very impressive. Great job!

vfabien21 2017-12-17 15:33

Very good (but tough) time travel puzzle. It is a theme I really appreciate. But I think that it is the first time that I see that interpretation. So thank you for having let us experience it ! The bits of text add a really nice touch. That's great.

A full turn based edition, would be really nice too.

japes 2017-12-17 16:52

The polish on this is top notch! graphics, sounds, menus etc are not far off from games you can buy on steam. Great mechanic, though I tend to agree with @btw that discrete steps might be better. The speech text was a really nice touch :) good job.

cosmiccrystalgames 2017-12-18 01:15

Really original concept for a puzzle game! Had quite a bit of fun with this one, though I felt like I was fighting the controls and collision a majority of the time :/

tuomo 2017-12-18 08:38

Visuals and music are on point here, great atmosphere. Interesting concept and story is told in cool way, well the part I got to see. This brings us to the problems, controls and difficulty. As many others commented, controls felt slow or lagging. And it didn’t help that difficulty ramped extremely quickly. I might be stupid but I did not manage to get through level 2, despite several tries and different tactics. Overall I really enjoyed your game and would like to see more of it.

local-minimum 2017-12-18 09:40

Nice game! I, as others commented on also found that one of my greatest enemies were the controls. I also found it a little unfair that the game started as you reset it and not when you started moving. I got a couple of levels in and then got stuck. I would probably have continued trying on the level if it wasn't for the controls opposing my attempts at figuring it out.

For the first levels it also felt like there was a first initial paradox conflict that needed resolving and that when you got that one right, there was really no remaining problem on the level but it might be hard puzzle design to make this more intricate.

I was also wondering if the followers didn't come to quick in succession. At least in terms of the first levels. But spacing them out some more may make it easier to make puzzles where you have to double and triple back on the same path.

knarf 2017-12-19 08:13

Great concept and use of the theme ! it was a bit hard at first but after some games it became much natural and easier, and I could beat levels more easily. It's really a nice take on gameplay that you made, creating a great playground for puzzles ; that's very smart and potent. I think that I've reached the last level but the game looped on it when completed :) Good thing the player is talking, it's a bit disturbing but adds a great atmosphere. I thought at first that movement and collision were a bit clunky as it's been said but it fit wells with the genre. Good job ! Cheers !

franklins-ghost 2017-12-22 06:50

Clever game and liked the way you used the theme in a time paradox. Was interesting and a unique take from all the other entries I've played so far. The movement did feel a bit stiff at times but it did work in its own way in setting the time paradox feeling of things not being quite right. Not sure if intended but it worked. The puzzles took some getting used to in solving and think there could have been a bit more of an ease in the difficulty and letting the player understand how to figure it out. Overall a really clever, challenging game that seemed well thought out and complete. Nice job.

linus 2017-12-22 14:43

This reminds me of my game in many ways. We had very similar ideas, I didn't think anyone would come up with such a similar mechanic. It is a very interesting idea and more mechanics could be added in addition to make for even more intersting levels.

For some reasons the controls didn't feel very responsive, it would take some time before the move you made actually happend, but I suppose that might have to do with how the "ghost" movement is implemented.

The dynamic music was really awesome and added to the athmosphere of the game. It wouldn't have been as intriguing if the music wasn't there.

Awesome job and great idea :)

gassasin 2017-12-26 19:40

Nice logic game. I really enoyed playing it! Grat work