FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD41 → The Third Scattering

The Third Scattering

By mbrezu

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4673.5532
Fun2983.6132
Innovation3663.6032
Theme4363.7832
Humor6832.7128
Mood8282.9830

Comments

cowa 2018-04-23 19:54

Nice! It makes match-3 more challenging and strategic. Really like the effects and the overall art. Good job!

(played on phone!)

brandann 2018-04-23 20:00

I played this game longer than I like to admit. I enjoyed it very much. Seems like when I used a left card I would move right instead. could never reliably duplicate it happening. great cross genre, cute art. I kinda wish i could control what tile I was swapping with though, made it hard to be strategic when seeming random times would swap with me.

Edit: I'm going to try the phone version tonight

sholf 2018-04-23 20:07

Really cool concept. Takes a bit of getting used to but it's pretty fun once you get a hang of it. Great art and animation! My only complaint is that I can't choose which tile to swap with, but then again I suppose it's a bit hard to do with the card mechanics. Also it would be great if there was a background music. Other than that it's a great game!

Edit: Just realized you opted out from graphics, that's a shame :( I really liked the animations

mbrezu 2018-04-23 20:39

Hello @cowa, @Sholf, @brandann, thank you for the kind words!

@Sholf, I opted out of graphics because they are not mine - they are from kenney.nl.

@brandann, will look for the bug you mentioned.

@Sholf, @brandann, true, it would be nice to be able to pick the swapped tile. One hint: the automatic system picks the biggest match (or one of them if they are many). So you can aim for that (4 match is preferred over 3 match etc.) to try and control what gets swapped.

Thanks again for the nice feedback!

le-slo 2018-04-24 11:18

Great game, it's weird how I'm used to play these kind of game looking for one spot, but here this spot can be found in two different positions. I'm also with the "random match" problem, but I think at least you programmed to make the larger group.

Good work! Really enjoyed, it's a pity there were no sounds.

mbrezu 2018-04-24 11:39

Hello @le-slo, thanks for the kind words. About the sounds: there are sounds, there's a toggle on the main menu. Unfortunately, I think it is off by default.

jcwelgemoed 2018-04-24 12:42

Great little game. Really enjoyed playing it once I get the hang of it. Cool combo !

pomb 2018-04-24 15:00

This is surprisingly cool! cute graphics and overall really nicely executed.

maytch 2018-04-24 19:28

Very polished! Just needs some audio and some extra effects and mechanics and it might do well on the app market.

theartifacts 2018-04-24 20:02

I played on PC but this would make a good mobile game. Just need some incentive to work quickly. A timer forcing you to continue could work? Great job. Would you mind reviewing mine? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ld41-jam-game

mbrezu 2018-04-24 20:41

Hello @jcwelgemoed , @pomb , @Maytch ,

Thanks for the kind words! @Maytch , you have to enable sound on the main screen (I made a coding mistake and the sound is off by default).

mbrezu 2018-04-24 20:42

Hello @theArtifacts , thanks!

Will take a look at your game sometime tomorrow!

jk5000 2018-04-25 08:42

An very well made puzzle game.

tuomo 2018-04-25 08:47

This is fun! The cards add some strategy to usually mindless genre. Visuals are just right amount cuteness and color and I love the simplicity of the visuals. My only complaints are that it took little while to figure out what I was doing, even with your instructions and sometimes the swap would be one I didn’t meant to happen. I could see myself playing this on my phone on some boring bus ride (or something like that) instead of ever growing saga series. Very well done!

random-storykeeper 2018-04-25 08:52

GAH! This game really loves to give me cards that are not the ones I want or need. :stuck_out_tongue:

The Final Scattering score 1484.png

That was my second attempt, first was me being a bit confused on how the premise worked and lost a lot of lives in the process.

The game definitely needs music, because it's such a thought-heavy game. You don't really hear anything until you make a move. And I thought the whole match-3 process was already very time consuming. :joy: It's an interesting concept in that you not only have to focus on where the matches of three are, but also how you can get to a match in the first place with the cards you are given. I did enjoy the game overall. The art you chose to include in the game was very cute; I love how everything is all animal themed and how you can see different animals pop up on subsequent playthroughs. I also like how the game sometimes picks a match for you right away, giving you free points. :laughing: The sounds you did incorporate were pretty good, just far few in between.

There's a lot of patience needed to sit down and play this, but in general, I had a fine experience. I see the appeal of the extra challenge, maybe for people who are very familiar with this type of game (which I am not :P). It looks like it would work great on mobile. I only got to play the Windows build, though.

mbrezu 2018-04-25 09:37

@jk5000 , @Tuomo , thanks!

I was afraid people will have trouble figuring out what they need to do - lucky for me, it seems they figure it out with a bit of patience and then they have fun. I probably need to add some kind of tutorial instead of the info screens (or at least choose a friendlier font for the info screens), but the time was too short for that.

The swap is chosen from possible swaps by the "most tiles matched" criteria (e.g. 4-tile matches beat 3-tile matches, 2 3-tile matches beat 4-tile and 5-tile matches etc.). But if you have several tied swaps one is chosen at random, which generates less than pleasant surprises sometimes.

mbrezu 2018-04-25 09:45

@Random-storykeeper , that's quite an in-depth review, thank you so much!

About the unwanted cards: it picks at random from a deck! Honest! :-) But I know, sometimes it's annoying.

There's a "new hand" card (the second from the left), which replaces all the movement cards (it keeps the special cards). Careful, it has a 3 matches (or one life lost) cooldown before you can use it again.

sapazu 2018-04-25 17:29

I played android version, and it was amazing. First I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but after trying stuff out I got it. I'm not big fan of match-3 games but this was really fun to play. Simple gameplay, almost right amount of RNG, simple and cute graphics. Maybe even one of my favourite mobile games :)

mbrezu 2018-04-25 18:17

Hello @Sapazu , thank you for the kind words, glad you liked the game!

malmevik 2018-04-25 18:52

Very fun when i got how it worked! :)

mbrezu 2018-04-25 19:00

Thank you, @Malmevik !

dovakla 2018-04-26 19:41

This is a great twist on match-3s! It's perfect for mobile. There's just the right amount of complexity so that it's really easy to pick up but you still have to think about each move.

Can I ask why it's called "The Third Scattering?"

mbrezu 2018-04-26 20:12

Hello @Dovakla , thanks for the kind words!

About the title, guess it's a bit of a quick (30 seconds or so) mix between "magic the gathering" and the 3 in match-3 :-)

cincodenada 2018-04-28 05:13

This was great! I really love how the modification of making it card-based totally turns the original game on its head. Match-3 games are typically about idly/frantically trying swaps all over the place until something works, but the cards and limitations here make it very deliberate. I especially like how the "active block" part adds a moving-around-the-board component.

The sounds were a little "sharp" sometimes (bleeps and bloops), but the animations and graphics are great. Overall I really liked what you did with this game - a very good execution of the jam theme, which I love seeing. And the play was super solid - didn't notice any quirks or bugs in playing through it!

And I'm glad to see a native Android game show up, too! Good work :thumbsup:

mbrezu 2018-04-28 15:27

Hello @cincodenada ,

thank you for your review, glad you liked the game. The sounds were quickly made with bfxr, it's true they could have been much better.

cristi-aby 2018-07-26 14:17

Hello, I have played till 1024 score. It is fun, I have some observations to improve it. Good luck for the next round! ;)