FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → Splotch 2

Splotch 2

By sebastian-lague and Liam Higgo

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall184.2351
Fun514.0351
Innovation234.1450
Theme5023.5051
Graphics2684.0151
Mood973.9550

Comments

backyard-dev 2017-12-05 11:49

Looks and plays very good. It's quite challenging. Level design is interesting. Good job.

secretpocketcat 2017-12-05 19:34

Feels good, although the uneven terrain throws a lot of curveballs to the player, looks and feels fairly deterministic, though. (I should actually look into an engine, that offers deterministic physics...)

I would have preferred if the saws and such were a different colour. But then again, restarts don't matter, so that's probably a silly nitpick...

Thank you for a solid 30 minutes of great fun. :wink:

ronanrory 2017-12-06 00:23

Might not be the game for me, but good job Sebastian!

toccs 2017-12-06 09:21

Didn't expect your name to pop up in my feed, you are the sole reason i am able to make games.

Anyway to the game, its really challenging, love the idea behind it and how the physics interaction works. My only gripe would be the lack of instruction within the game.

Love it though very addictive.

gruhh 2017-12-06 11:32

Good concept, has a good sense of progression, is simple but with a strong mechanics that can scale with ease! Congratulations for the game. (And cool to find Sebastian here, I've been following your channel on YT for quite some time)

Bom conceito, tem uma boa sensação de progressão, é simples mas com uma mecânica forte que pode escalar com facilidade! Parabéns pelo jogo. (E legal achar o Sebastian aqui, sigo teu canal no YT há bastante tempo) :flag_br:

kantora 2017-12-06 14:06

Hi I really liked the game and it's idea. It was nice randomly seeing you since I like your videos very much and have been subscribed. Great game and I'll be waiting for your behind the scenes like with your previous game!

grentacular 2017-12-06 14:39

Very impressive work for the timespan! The controls were occasionally frustrating: accidentally moving the wrong line could spell disaster for your solution, and it was really easy to grab the wrong one with so many close together. An undo button to correct these mistakes would have been super helpful. Also, it seemed like you couldn't click on the end of a line if it was behind a moving piece, like a saw, which was also annoying sometimes. Overall, though, it was a fun physics puzzler and I enjoyed playing it. Great work!

kyrv19 2017-12-06 15:35

Very good game, I really like it (just like your tutorials) the menu is just lovely! But I have one bit of advice, that I would like to have some kind of reset and clear buttons on the screen, because I didn't read help menu and was confused for a second there. Overall 5/5 great game!

feips 2017-12-06 20:25

This was honestly the best game I played this jam (so far). I actually played an hour, trying to beat the world record(I didn't). The ability to lock lines so I don't accidentally edit them would be nice. Love it, very addictive.

nikchernyakov 2017-12-06 20:38

Very challenging game for me, but I liked this game. Nice and simple graphic. Pretty music. Good job!

leonlaci 2017-12-07 13:32

Fun game. It has a nice visual style!

detectivelosos 2017-12-07 14:58

Interesting game. Very intuitive controls. I actually didnt look at the tutorial and magically already knew all the controls (except I pressed R instead of spacebar for restart). I sat there trying to beat the world record on a very first level but after a while I gave up. When you are tweaking like fifth or sixth platform by a very tiny bit it becomes a little frustrating to hit restart every time and wait for the ball to come to that very platform.

It huts for me to say it but I actually ragequited out of the game. I finally planned a path through a level for one ball, almost finished with the other and then I accidentally moved the first platform for the first ball. And there is no ctrl+z. So all the highly measured bounces were obviously screwed :C

As an interesting observation this game would be great for the subject of neural networks and machine learning, because the the goal of the game is basically minmaxing your time while doing minor tweaks and changes and it would be fun to see the application of a genetic algorithm on top of already working level solution.

As a side note not related to the game I absolutely love your tutorials on YouTube! They really helped me a couple of years ago to get into this hobby of game development. Thank you for all that work you have done to help others make something they wish to make!

alexisgea 2017-12-07 17:26

Very addictive and challenging! Congratulation!

lamossus 2017-12-07 19:51

The points that allow you to change lines have way too big colliders. I messed up the whole thing quite a few time just because I accidently grabbed one of them. Also, apparently the game isn't completely determenistic, because I had few times when the same solution played out differently, which may make a game a bit unfair. Also the level design is a bit... weird, it's kinda hard to understand how are you even supposed to do that. Other than that quite nice game

kyle-pham 2017-12-08 00:05

Really interesting game. The graphics are really simple but effective for a game like this. This suits the theme fairly well because I tend to mess things up with more walls. Really fun game.

P.S I really love your Youtube videos. One of the best game development Youtuber.

yetman 2017-12-08 15:40

Nice game but needs a lot of patience. The lines remind me of your polygon editor tutorials. The art is simple and nice. The levels are well designed too (I didn't play all of them yet though).

zeu31 2017-12-09 12:42

Great game! Interesting mechanic and good level design. I just miss a redo and undo functionality, and having the balls bouncing around while building the platforms are a bit distracting, but it is not a big problem though.

Keep up the good work!

julianeder33 2017-12-10 11:01

Cool Game. Very challenging. Music and visuals are super nice too.

cubeeo 2017-12-10 11:04

I like what you got here, for sure, so I'm just trying to help you improve this, because this is totally something I'd enjoy. I can't even imagine the insanity of where these levels go. Currently, I'm only up to level 3, and I already have a big issue - you don't show the goal point at the beginning of the stage. Take level 3 for example - the only way to see the goal (where I'm supposed to finish) is to first get both yellow squares. So, I don't even know what my goal is until I do that. I think that's the number one addition I'd put into this game - tell me where the goal is - otherwise, I wander lost until I learn where the goal point is. And, I can't really start strategically playing a level, in any real way, until I know where the goal point is.

That, and the aforementioned undo button, because I was building something on level 3, something along the lines of this:

Splotch2.png

But, guess what, I had the goal blocked, without even knowing it, because I didn't know where the goal was yet.

P.S. I just found a bug. On level 3, if you emulate the set-up I currently have in this picture:

Splotch2Bug2.png

The ball will go THROUGH the black solid UPWARD in direction of the red arrow (that I added). It takes about 45 seconds from entry, in this configuration.

Sweet game though.

gris 2017-12-10 13:03

Loads of fun. The music helps create the mood and the game has a solid 30+ minutes of gameplay. The uneven terrain was hard to predict which I didn't like. definitely a mobile game I'd buy. Congrats and thanks for the great tutorials that helped me create my game!

hooraygil 2017-12-10 18:06

Sup Sebastian! I am really enjoying your Youtube content and that's what has driven me towards participating in my first Ludum Dare ! (Thanks for that!)

Now to your game: I could easily see myself gaming this on mobile every now and then in the bus or subway. I like the aesthetics of the game, with the small chromatic aberration that is added like a vignette. There are some bugs that were mentioned before for example when the ball is bouncing really fast and justs goes through the solid materials, but hey thats unity physics right.

cheers

r3l0ad1 2017-12-10 18:28

Really good Game Sebastian, Keep Making great Youtube Videos :grin: Love the game but has some glitches like on level 4 there is no way to end the level? other than that great work

bib 2017-12-10 19:52

Awesome and juicy game :o ! Rank 31 I didn't get the last 4 levels. More you have ball, worse it is ... D:

Edit : Thanks for the GIF ! I got the 6th XD

cliff-lee-cl 2017-12-11 03:00

Great and polished entry!

Simple but great graphics with good level designs.

It is challenging and fun! Good job!

yangtianqiang 2017-12-11 08:54

WoW!Sup Sebastian! Why are you so excellent?Two years ago,I start to study Unity and enjoy your content.Now I become a game programmer in China but I find what you learned is more than what I know.Your game is filled with math and cool!Thanks a lot!

billeclipse 2017-12-11 10:02

A really extraordinary idea for a minimal game like that! I watch the behind the scene video and i appreciated the effort you put to make this game :D Can't wait for the next one :P

P.S. The game was really challenging at least for me :P

kurekurecicz 2017-12-11 20:32

This should go to steam... It is really good! Make the menu more polished, add level editor and its perfect!

recursor 2017-12-12 20:21

This is an excellent minimalist physics puzzle game. There is polish everywhere and the line drawing mechanic is a pleasure to use although I did get into a bit of trouble when 2 line endpoints were close to each other. Having it automatically save your best solution for each level is a nice touch. Great job.

kalkatos 2017-12-13 00:41

This is the most close-to-complete game I've seen in this LD so far. It could very well fit on any app store 'as is' now and people would enjoy it, as I did. Very well done, guys! Thanks for the making of/tutorial video too, very insightful.

magmafortress 2017-12-23 23:28

Amazing work! I found this game super satisfying to play. I love the minimalist graphics and interface. I found the behind the scenes video really interesting too.