timco 2017-12-05 11:50
Cool game ! Nothing played before like that
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → Flips!
By beavlgames
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 574 | 3.45 | 35 | |
| Fun | 735 | 3.12 | 35 | |
| Innovation | 181 | 3.68 | 35 | |
| Theme | 861 | 3.03 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 261 | 4.03 | 35 | |
| Humor | 916 | 2.06 | 27 | |
| Mood | 588 | 3.25 | 30 |
Cool game ! Nothing played before like that
This game was really cute. It was a little confusing to play though. You've got the visuals down, and a strong concept (I could see this doing well as a facebook messenger game) but the objectives need a little more clarity.
It's only when I zoomed out that I saw your recommendation to zoom out :D I agree with Amy about clarity, but you've got visuals and presentation down pat already. I'd say keep working on it, it'd be cool to play it on mobile.
Hey, I think this is the type of game I could really love, but I don't really understand the rules (in fact the first rule (what link between the flip and the match colors?)... can you give a little explanation?
(also ask to zoom out, is a bit weird...)
Maybe it is just me, but the rules do not seem very clear. For example: On level 8 (I think) when I select the tier 2 red and tier 2 purple, the red tiles clear, but the purple tiles remain.
Beyond the rules, I really like the graphics and the clean (clutter free) look.
Seems like this would be a really fun mobile game if the rules were more clearly demonstrated.
I didn't get the rules at first but once you understand it it's really fun to play. I like the overall look of the game, I think it would be a very nice mobile game ! Well done !
I'm also heaving trouble with the rules of the game. But visually it's a beautiful game :)
i love this! probably because its my type of game but i love the concept! its a bit tricky too haha!
I like the graphics of this game, but I don't really understand the rules
Thanks, guys! Glad you like it! We are working on a post compo version trying to make rules somehow less obscure.
So...
You have to clear the board, that´s ok. And in order to do so, you must make valid matches either horizontally or vertically (rows or columns). Valid matches are same coloured tiles between level boundaries, level boundaries and flipped cards or flipped cards.
So if you have something like:
X
RED
RED RED X
(X´s are flipped cards). In this example, the 3 red tiles are cleared because player got a valid match on a column and another valid match on a row.
Cheers!
okay, got it. And got a headache! awesome game!
Took quite a long time but actually beat it: Screen Shot 2017-12-06 at 18.02.30.png
As you are probably planning to do with it, would work perfectly as a mobile game. The mechanic is cool and can get really challenging. The look is nice and clean, fits the genre very well.
But you did quite a poor job on introducing the mechanic. The so called introduction levels don't explain the mechanic too well and they pretty much automatically play themselves. And then suddenly you're in that "plan ahead" level and have no idea how the game works. Spent quite a long time there just clicking on stuff and trying to figure out what were the actual rules. The difficulty ramped up too fast in my opinion and it was all over the place.
Good job, a very promising game!
Thanks, @antti-haavikko!
Yes, we've decided to work on a full-fledged mobile version of the game (also uploading updates on itch.io) exploring the concept even further (flip mechanics, flip types, the whole turn structure for a matching game, etc.)
And congrats on finishing the game! Really impressed.
Concerning rules, yes. Rules are poorly explained, we run out of time and trusted that by simply playing the game rules could be understood (we were awfully wrong! At least with the levels we've made).
All these things are going to be addressed in the upcoming updates. We are really happy with the game. Thanks for playing! (Also, your game is amazing!)
Cheers from Buenos Aires!
This definitely needs to ramp up in difficulty more slowly so you can make sure the player understands each mechanic before moving on to puzzles that depend on understanding the basics.
You might want to look at other puzzle games to see how they introduced similar rules and mechanics to players. The Witness has similar abstract puzzles but devoted a lot more time to introducing mechanics to the player. Basically, each individual mechanic had a whole series of levels devoted to teaching it. Flips tried to introduce multiple mechanics/rules per level, so chances were high that a player could choose correctly and progress without understanding why that choice was correct (this is what happened to me when I played it).
I think there are also some issues regarding the terminology and graphics you used. For instance, the term "level boundary" is kind of confusing (does it mean that two stacked tiles of the same color will match each other, or that tiles of the same color will match if they are in the same row/column but different vertical levels?).
The first level told me to "flip a tile" but clicking a tile doesn't actually show an animation of it flipping, leaving me wondering if I did the wrong thing by clicking on it (the "x" might also throw people off because an "x" in a square usually indicates a clickable delete or close button).
It also wasn't intuitive that "flipping" a tile would mean disabling its color, since the tiles are depicted as being the same color all the way through (I wonder if cards might be a better physical analogue than tiles, since people already know cards have two different sides).
Thanks @dalep for playing the game and giving us your feedback!
Concerning difficulty progression, 72 hs was not enough for balancing the prototype (at least for us). We are working on this issue for the post compo version (we've released some commercial games in the past, such as faif, Kapsula and Moveless Chess, so we know that we have to work really hard on it, as we've done it before, and we will do it!)
About the flipping animation... yes, we are working on an actual 2d flipping thingie. Check it out!
flippy.gif
And concerning language... you are also right. English is not our first language, so sometimes we use some terms a little off. We will rewrite AI instructions and redesign all the early levels! (AI should tease players a little more, but first, players must understand the underlying rules of the game).
Cheers from Buenos Aires, Argentina!
Good puzzle and it will look even better with sound effects. Personally, I took 4 or 5 levels to understand what I was doing, I think it's interesting to reinforce the mechanics at the beginning of the game. Congratulations.
Bom puzzle e que vai ficar ainda melhor com efeitos sonoros. Pessoalmente, levei 4 ou 5 níveis para entender o que eu estava fazendo, acredito que seja interessante reforçar a mecânica no começo do jogo. Parabéns. :flag_br:
Great job! I also love how polished this looks (my compliments to Horacio). The notepad-style font doesn't really do it much justice though, but I think picking a good font can be time consuming and I can understand if you decided not to invest much time in that department. The game itself is actually a lot of fun too and satisfying to play, you guys should definitely try to get this on the market!
played 5 or 6 stages, still dont get what the game is about. Visuals are nice and seems like it could be a fun time killer for android/ios, but the concept should be explained better
Really cool looking game with a fun concept. It was a little confusing at first and I did not quite know how the flipping mechanic worked, a more in depth tutorial would have been nice. The art though simplistic looks really good and the animations help to add on to the look. The game would have benefited greatly from some music and sound effects, which would make it even more polished.
My favorite game, best puzzle i play, art is beautiful good mechaninc and concept it is a pure gold !
The game rules is a bit weird, but they are also really interesting. A better intro would have been great. But overall a fun little puzzle game.
It took a while to figure out the rules, but after that, it was really fun and I was able to complete the game (I found the level in the third screenshot to be the hardest).
Thanks, guys!
We are working on making the rules easier to understand, adding some cues and indicators.
Also, better balance!
After this is done, we'll add sfx and release an open beta on android (ios testers,if you want to play the game on iOS, we can add you to our testflight lists!).
Cheers and have fun playing #LDJAM games!
Took me a while to figure out too. I actually skipped over to the post compo build in order to get it faster (and then switching back since understanding is just conceptual). I think the difficult spikes a lot at the "planning ahead level." I was able to beat it after a while though. I think how there's this priority with stacking seems confusing. If I flip something on a stack, it seems to take precedent in "activating" once it's flipped back, even if it's not in the same row or column as the ones selected. Perhaps feedback with the row or column highlighted could help with the puzzle logic. This may make things too easy but perhaps highlighting pieces that will be affected after each selected flip. I think with this kind of game an undo button to the previous turn would also be super useful. Having beaten it, I don't think I would be able to get through it again easily, it's the kind of puzzle that you need to kind of guess and logic your way through, and the problem solving feels like it more dynamic (perhaps because I was still getting used to the system and how it works). I like the changes you made so far with the post compo as well, keep up the good work!