FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → Hiding Spot

Hiding Spot

By toboggan

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall244.0753
Fun1023.7549
Innovation254.1152
Theme2483.7851
Graphics714.0351
Audio443.7648
Humor913.3544
Mood194.0050

Comments

rafig 2018-08-12 22:55

This is like the best game on the jam. Love the concept

croze 2018-08-12 22:55

Not gonna lie, I had to give up at Level 3 lol. Super dope though I love the concept and it is well made. Maybe if you can give me a lil hint on level 3 I'll try and get farther ;)

2018-08-12 23:02

Detected as Malware for me :(

touchme 2018-08-12 23:30

Beat all the 13 levels fairly quickly, love the concept and gameplay (though I think it's possible to cheese lvl 12 with just a few moves). The rotate-only-when-possible-to-move-in-the-direction gimmick was a bit confusing at first, but once I understood it as a puzzle rule (at first I thought it was unresponsive controls lol), along with the ability to keep the rotation when moving I blasted trough the puzzles. Good game! Gonna give out a rating once we're done with our Jam submission and the thing unlocks :)

toboggan 2018-08-13 00:58

@mikee MalwareBytes i'm guessing? Unity games have been getting false positives lately... :(

@croze If the rectangular cube falls, you've lost. I can give another if youd like!

@touchme Glad to hear you enjoyed it! thats a bummer re: unintended solution to 12, i'll take a look. I intended to add some feedback when you try to move or turn and can't, but i ran out of time... I'll take care of it in a post-jam update.

fadex 2018-08-13 01:25

Don't know if you realized, but ctrl+space+arrows is a command for switching windows on mac, so it's unplayable. But love the artstyle and music!

toboggan 2018-08-13 01:28

@fadex eek, i didn't know! thanks for telling me. FWIW, "c" is an alternate button for "Crouch" and the controls can be remapped in general in the opening dialog, if you're up for it.

fadex 2018-08-13 01:29

@toboggan ooh, thanks, on it. oh im dumb, you dont even have to hold it. love it!

jasperarmstrong 2018-08-13 01:46

I really like this. I might just be dumb, but I couldn't figure out level 3. I'll probably give it another try later. There was a lot of polish for a compo game. I liked the music, and the mood was really nice too.

jasper-hansen 2018-08-13 02:19

I really like how you turned the theme on it's head by making a game about isolating yourself, rather than the more oft traveled route of having the running out of space be a bad thing.

memel06 2018-08-13 09:03

Clever idea! You reversed the theme using the space as a enemy. Character is cool and cute also! Nice work with MagicaVoxel, maybe some soft shadow on cubes will improve it. Nice and clever entry, good work!

Have a nice day :v:

drunkardwolf 2018-08-13 13:51

Saw a gif of this on twitter, had to play it. Great work. Very funny and I loved the art work! What program did you use to model the character? I usually use MagicaVoxel for voxel art, so just curious :)

toboggan 2018-08-13 14:15

@drunkardwolf thanks! yeah i used MagicaVoxel :)

mshopf 2018-08-13 16:48

I'm probably too stupid, I can't even make it past level 2... :confused: Seems I'm missing something essential.

The game is very polished, I like the sokobanesque approach. Sound is great, voxel style graphics good.

le-slo 2018-08-14 09:28

This game is awesome! Loved the concept. There are a couple of levels with the same solution, but on the other hand there are levels that I find challenging for only 48 hours. Congratulations!

toboggan 2018-08-14 11:26

@le-slo thanks! at least 3 puzzles have unintended solutions, which i think is why you got the 'same solution' on a couple of them... anyway, gonna work on this one some more and i'll definitely want your help playtesting if you're up for it!

flower 2018-08-14 15:34

This is really cool concept, love it)

stevenjmiller 2018-08-14 15:36

Amazing game, I would love to see it extended! I feel that level 6 was a bit unintuitive, and it took me a while to realize that you could pull the 2x1 over yourself. I feel that forcing a situation in which the player has to move along a path only one block wide (or making the entire level one block wide) would've made this realization come easier. It might weaken the sense of discovery obtained from solving the level in its current state, but I think that forcing the player's hand a bit more may be beneficial.

toboggan 2018-08-14 16:54

@stevenjmiller yeah i was torn about that decision! i considered just handing it to the player more directly, and that may well have been the better choice. I do plan on extending it, so thanks for the encouragement! :)

djack-d-donovan 2018-08-14 19:13

Went up to level 12, I really like the puzzles, atmosphere and graphics. I actually like puzzles with "unintended solutions".. It's kind of "too much space" instead of "running out of space" though.

antoined73 2018-08-14 21:41

Wow, congratulations ! The game is really clean and the sound is just perfect <3 You made it yourself really ? Because it's exactly the kind of song i was searching for my game, but maybe more cheerfull :) Anyway this is an original entry but i was stuck at level 3. I think you should do levels before to help the player because the curve of difficulty is rising instantly. For example, in the level 2, maybe it could have been better if you introduced the green rectangle in a easier level. The mood was perfect and it is treating about an interesting subject which is autism, right ?

toboggan 2018-08-15 01:39

@antoined73 Thanks for the kind words - I'm really touched that you would interpret it as being about autism, though that wasn't my intention. I see it as generally being about mental health, introversion and self-care... but any interpretation is valid :)

About the music, it was made using the Native Instruments Massive VST, which can produce some really rich sounds for a digital synth. It's probably my favourite VST. Lastly, I hear you that the difficulty curve might be aggressive, I would perhaps draw it out a bit in an expanded version of the game. Thanks for the feedback!

tekugare 2018-08-15 03:57

A clever idea and I enjoyed playing it! much like some other people on here I got stuck on lvl 3. Maybe I missed something about the rules... Wait I went back and finished. I wished I knew holding space kept me facing the same direction. I think lvl 4 or 5 might work better before lvl 3 just to teach the spacebar thing. But other than that I enjoyed your concept and playing the game! Thank you!

toboggan 2018-08-15 13:23

@tekugare this is very helpful feedback! you dont need to do the spacebar/side-step trick until level 7 or something, level 3 can be solved without it. Either way, evidently I need to reconsider the difficulty curve and the way moves are introduced. Thanks for playing!

tekugare 2018-08-15 13:55

@toboggan Oh yeah you are right, sorry I got my order of things all mixed up, thank you again!

icxon 2018-08-16 07:48

Controls are a bit confusing at the beginning, but overall I'm impressed.

Here is my playthrough:

https://youtu.be/n9MSmVs9LtQ

toboggan 2018-08-16 15:00

@icxon nice job beating it! and finding many unintentional solutions :( hehe anyway it's a bit late now, but you can press "z" to undo individual moves without having to restart the whole level. either way, thanks for playing!

shapkofil 2018-08-17 11:25

I played it til the end and every second was amazing. A lot of content amazing graphics cool audio great UI and super interesting game mechanics. Good job guys

pennycook 2018-08-18 01:23

Really great job. The "trap yourself in" mechanic is really innovative, and a great take on the theme. I got stuck at Level 3, but I'm going to come back and try later.

meatpudding 2018-08-18 01:25

Great game!

augustetheclown 2018-08-18 03:37

I really enjoyed this game, though I got stuck on level 10. Overall it was fun and I enjoyed trying to figure out the puzzles. The graphics are simple but consistent and do their job nicely.

aeveis 2018-08-18 05:43

very nice, I liked the puzzles! I was able to beat it.

Couple notes:

- level 3 has a big gap in difficulty. Players might not realize how to rearrange things to hide themselves. I think some of it is because it's laid out very similarly to the previous level, but plays very differently which players may not expect.

- level 8 took me a while because I didn't realize that I could stay in the same facing direction and move (as long as I was "holding" something). This isn't really taught in the levels so players may not know or be able to figure out what to do. Maybe if there was a different pose when the player isn't holding anything so they at least know that it's a distinct choice you're making, not necessarily to move things but to stay faced in that direction.

- ~~There were some levels I beat that I felt I may have skipped the intended puzzle (I think the cube on top of the rectangle was one, I never needed to use the cube? I wasn't sure if that was intentional).~~ Oh, okay I see some levels had unintended solutions.

Overall good job! We all need a break sometimes :)

randomphantom 2018-08-18 09:38

Simple but challenging puzzle. Some of the mechanics take a little experimenting as its not intuitively obvious that you could do those moves, like you not being able to face a direction unless if you step in that direction, however you could aim at the direction you want and fix your hands in a particular direction. Good job on coming up with the various levels, managed to beat them! Nice work on embedding a funny yet depressing narrative in a puzzle game.

toboggan 2018-08-18 12:07

@aeveis @randomphantom really appreciate the thoughtful feedback! i've started planning an expanded version of the game, so this is all really helpful.

manimal 2018-08-22 10:54

Dude this is very inspirating game approach. Wow the idea, the theme and mechanics are working. Now I m stuck in lvl 6 but I hape I will be able to beat it. I really like background music. Could you please share with me a FL studio project? thx

You even put like undo option, dude you know what you are doing!!! thx for your game :)

I finnish the game finally. :)

toboggan 2018-08-22 12:48

@manimal Thanks for playing, glad you liked it! Of course, here's the FLP: http://toboggan.work/tmp/fetal-position.flp

It just uses Native Instruments Massive VST and the stock limiter.

cristihkj 2018-08-23 14:07

Nice game! Really cool and interesting! :D

vekstr 2018-08-23 17:32

Thanks, I'm okay now.. :smile:

Anyways, the sound eventually got muted abruptly each time I played. Is that normal for this build?

toboggan 2018-08-23 17:36

@vekstr Hmm no that's strange... I'll look into it, thanks!

vinvirinvi 2018-08-23 18:58

i don't like puzzles in general, because they force me into doing boring things to beat the game out of spite instead of uncovering something new, and indeed i finished all 13 levels... but... given all that, i absolutely love this game because of the concept and the mood. this feeling of making yourself cozy in a very tiny space is just so relatable! it is so much worth it exploring in the game, and together with cute visual style and music you did an amazing job making this experience feel right.

beepyeah 2018-08-25 01:19

such a great idea for a puzzle game. oddly satisfying!

glock00 2018-08-25 14:06

Well-rounded game and just a great entry! The music really moved me deeply but unfortunately I am too bad at this. Could work on smartphones as well. Just the right art and scope for casual players but at the same time difficult enough to spend a lot of time with it.

toboggan 2018-08-25 14:13

@glock00 Thanks! i think the pulling factor would make it bad for mobile. I dunno. It would probably just be an onscreen button to toggle pull, but that still sounds awkward.

glock00 2018-08-25 14:20

A toggle to pull would be bad indeed. Maybe "Dragging" would help? No idea, haven't made a mobile game yet.

toboggan 2018-08-25 14:25

@glock00 Oh huh, that could be ok! Like, tap a tile to automatically walk to it, or drag your thumb to pull... Hm.

repusv 2018-08-26 08:33

WoW! It's rare to see good puzzle games during game jams! Well done!

zirrrus 2018-08-26 09:57

Very cool game! Like the take on the theme. The only issue I ran into at first was mapping the slightly tilted directions to WASD, I kept moving in the wrong direction.

I got stuck on level 3 for a bit. Being able to hide next to "empty" space(the gray void) is a bit intuitive.

Well done!

2018-08-26 10:07

Great idea! I'm okay now.

I love this game! It takes me 20 mintues to finish the whole 13 levels. The puzzle is hard at fitst. But quite easy when you finally realize you can do some special moves such as moving while pressing space or crouching while pulling a green box. Btw there is a little bug in level 12. [9C{}@AB21F_5AK}AA1WURMF.png](///raw/4de/c1/z/1a7a3.png)

And this game makes me think of my childhood when i'm still in a kindergarten. I stack some tiny chairs and try to hide myself there XD.!

shockeye 2018-08-26 10:13

Cool interpretation of the them. Good atmosphere, audio complementing the concept. Nice art. I think level 4 should be level 3 and vice versa though in terms of puzzle progression.

rahim-pxr 2018-08-27 01:06

Nice game, I hope to see more updates and improvments sooner. If you don't bother take a look at our game when we focused on Graphics and visuals and see the results that we got: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42

bbapps 2018-08-30 13:46

I like the eerie mood the whole game had, after a while it started to get really creepy and then it felt like you were trying to hide from something.

toboggan 2018-08-30 14:43

@bbapps could be a good twist! some kind of metaphorical, physical manifestation of your mental state. hmmmm

synfoniz 2018-08-30 16:15

This game is awesome ! :) I love the concept and thge music and the graphics are excellent. The theme is respected well. I really enjoy playing it ! Great work.

ava-skoog 2018-09-03 17:59

An absolute favourite so far. The first time I finished a level and saw the text was really something. Incredibly relatable. Perfect music to go with it as well.

Puzzles were sometimes quite difficult but I kept going because they were great! Only real downside in my opinion is that a few mechanics weren't immediately obvious to me, so I got stuck for a while until I realised that it was possible to push stacked blocks together by not holding space and that I could move without changing directions by holding space.

The choice of left ctrl key was a bit iffy since combined with either space or arrow keys it would trigger OS level functions (macOS) and throw me out of the (fullscreened) game, since I didn't always let go of ctrl before pressing another button—but at least it was still possible to play as long as I remembered to let go of ctrl first! :p I see someone else already mentioned this, but since it actually wasn't unplayable as they stated—just a little trickier to play—I guess my comment on this is still worth writing. c:

Finished the whole thing. High ratings for you! Really, really well done.

jonathan-lorenz 2018-09-04 08:47

Very simple but very effective! Made me think about Stephen's Sausage Roll. I don't have much advices since the game is polished in nearly every aspect. Sometimes you're not sure in what direction you're gonna go when you press a key, but that's a common trait for isometric games. Very good work!

shp 2018-09-04 16:29

Quite a funny idea, well done with the game!

bj-pucci 2018-11-21 09:04

Very fun Puzzle Game