Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Blockage
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 223 | 3.59 | 24 | |
| Fun | 161 | 3.60 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 121 | 3.69 | 23 | |
| Theme | 331 | 3.62 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 290 | 3.40 | 23 | |
| Audio | 458 | 2.61 | 20 | |
| Humor | 2.42 | 16 | ||
| Mood | 3.08 | 19 |
Awesome idea, reminds me of a take on Portal, cool graphics and door animation too. I didn't really have the patience to get past the level with the floor covered in blocks and you had to build a tall staircase, maybe if the building mechanics were more like Minecraft (Click on wall to build block there) because it was difficult to be precise with this method. Other than that, I really liked it!
Overall neat idea. I spent more time than I would like to admit on the house shaped level. You may be able to take this concept to a larger level. Good job!
Nice little puzzle platformer! Very intuitive and good level design.
Figuring out how the controls were supposed to make until the tips came up made it a little annoying, but I guess it adds a learning curve. Also, determining what items I could stack or couldn't, was a little weird. Some things were not intuitive but overall it was fun to play.
Nice little physics puzzle game, the running out of space comes when you mis-manage your blocks and just drop them all over the place XD
Very cool concept. Clear rules and easily undestandable. You may use less cubes in the level design, though. In the image, I would need to collect the 36 cubes once, only to discover that I had to discard it one by one and collect some other color to construct a staircase, discard the spare ones again and collect all the red cubes. I think you can think in a similar puzzle design but using 10 or so cubes in total, improving the playability.
Captura.PNG
Overall, I enjoyed it. Good job!
First of all let me say that I beat the game 😅(I know this because (spoilers) it just sends you to the menu at the end). I loved the level where you have to build the staircase while on a layer of the blocks. But my main problem with the game is that it isn't really about solving puzzles as much as it is about circumventing the physics system. While you may think what I just said was hard, the truth is that I kinda really liked it. I feel like I shouldn't have, but I did. Every solution feels like I cheated, which I find fun. This game certainly isn't for everyone, but it definitely feels like it's for me.
TIP: Stack blocks on top of each other but with a slight gap so you can use them as a very steep staircase!
(P.S. That giant chasm in the last level can go die.)
@croze Yeah, the building method does leave something to be desired. I like the dynamic results of the physics-based cubes, but controlling exactly where they would be placed, especially when a cube overlaps another, wasn't very easy. Definitely food for thought... maybe I'll think of a better way to code that in the future.
@dk5000p Sorry that the tutorial system didn't work for you. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I lay out my starting levels.
@bigbosserndog Yay! I'm glad the theme came through somewhat.
@korso I agree this game would probably be improved by using fewer blocks. When I was originally laying things out, I had the theme "running out of space" in mind, so I may have gone overboard trying to flood the levels with blocks. In testing, I noticed that the game boiled down to a ton of clicking and not much thinking, but by that point it was too late. I should probably have prioritized puzzle first and let the theme show up if it wanted to. Thanks for the pointer.
@ethan-nachreiner Good job beating the game. Yeah... I should probably have an end game screen to reward you for surviving that last level. Since I didn't do that, here's a kitten: :smiley_cat:.
As I was designing levels for the game, I realized that the single color inventory didn't lend itself well to puzzle making. It was hard to prevent each level from just being a simple, "drop all the red blocks, now pick up all the blue blocks." I'm glad you got some joy from cheating the physics system.
@thepelranthean actually I did not play the game my comment was meant for a different game. I am sorry. Now I have played the game. A few things to comment on. Games where I feel I need an additional hand are a little annoying, what I mean is it felt like the mouse was a big component but I still needed to use space and four arrow keys. If the mouse was just a once in a while situation. I also would like a range indicator, the circle turns red when I can pickup a box, for example. Now for the good, this is an amazing amount of work for 48 hours. Were the levels all manually done? I liked the sound to indicate the door was opening.
Wow it is amazing how my comment actually feels like it could apply to this.
Dude! Good job with this one! I hope you had a good first experience with Unreal. I'll have to try that sometime. The gameplay was solid and even though I expected the physics to break and send one of my essential blocks through a wall, nothing of the sort happened. A very strong entry for this Ludum Dare. There was good level design too. If only you had time to make more artistically arranged levels like the one with the block house!
@dk5000p Thanks for the feedback. A range indicator definitely would have been good (... listing that under obvious things I should have thought of).
I've always thought that WASD + Space was an acceptable arrangement, but I'll keep the arrow key problem in mind. Maybe I'll eventually figure out how to set up dynamic keybindings in a 48 hour game... that would be cool.
The levels were manually done. I was able to get the core mechanics sorted out on Saturday, so that left most of Sunday for level design and polish. It's nice when the engine cooperates and you don't have game breaking bugs until an hour before the deadline (I'm looking at you previous game entries...).
@arch Sorry to disappoint your physics breaking expectations. I blame Unreal engine for their superior physics technology. Also, I'm glad you liked the block house.
@thepelranthean I am impressed that it seemed it was difficult to paint yourself into a corner, but maybe it is possible.
I really wish this wasn't a game jam entry. You can only do so much in the span of 48/72 hours. This game was over too fast. I want more. The graphics are "simple but effective" to an extreme. they're really effective. Game play and physics were hilarious, as sometimes you have the wrong color, and have to cover the entire level with blocks just to pick up another color. There are some very interesting and well-executed ideas in this entry, all I want now is more.
Cool idea, would love to see more levels
Motion blur too extreme for me. Made me feel nauseous. Also, I broke your game by deliberately dropping a key block on the other side of the exit. :D
Neat little idea. A bit jaggy at times but nothing important.
Would love to see what you make of it afterwards.
Mechanics are very easy to understand, but some levels feel a little bland, like badly designed RPG quests: "bring 20 green boxes"
Really great concept, hope to see it expanded on.
Super cool game. The tutorial texts was just a little hard to see. But as soon as you start this game it's addicting to play. The colored blocks on a grey background really make the blocks stick out and the colors of the blocks were nice.
@mike-inprinciple I'll have to look into motion blur in the future. Thanks for the tip.
@sita "bring 20 green boxes," eh? How about, "bring 86 green boxes." :smile: Yeah, I probably added more blocks than were really warranted by the puzzles. Good to hear that the mechanics were easy to understand though.
@mikune Maybe if I had put a background to the text and increased the font size, that would make the text more legible. The outline I added didn't do as good a job as I had hoped. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
Hi! I don't think I can add more than has already been said, so my TL:DP (Although, I did play all the way through):
- Very cool concept - Easy to pick up - Win condition becomes tedious, once you figured out the puzzle - Would like to see worked on more!
- Also, YAY! A fellow UE4 dev :D We're far and few between, apparently.
This is actually one of the better 3D games I've seen yet, my only criticism is that the gameplay gets a bit boring after a while and the 3D effect is a bit dizzying
@ice-maker Interesting, thanks for pointing out the dizziness problem; I don't think I've heard that before. Was it the FOV? Or was there something else that made it dizzying? If I can fix it in the future, the game would be more accessible which would be nice.
@darkrabbitgames UE4 devs, unite! I previously took a break from Unreal, so this was my "picking it up again" game. It was fun to jump back into UE4.
Concerning the tedious win condition - yes, I agree. My hope is, as mentioned in some of the previous comments, that by reducing the number of blocks required to activate the doors/bridges I can eliminate some of the tedium. Failing that... I guess I could add alien octopuses with lazers! Though that might be a bit off theme. :smile:
I'm always open to new ideas if you have any. Thanks for the feedback.
@thepelranthean I really don't know, I guess I'm not well accustomed to 3D games and I was also moving pretty quickly :P
Clever take on the theme, it became immediately apparent in the 2nd level when I was dumping the blocks on the other side of the room and going "oh crap, this is starting to block my actual grabs". I agree with most of these comments about tedium in the puzzle design, tightening that up will improve it a lot. Overall I think you did quite a bit for a compo game and it was fun to explore and mess with the physics to get solutions.