FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → Blockie

Blockie

By kamikaziuk

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1433.7429
Fun1673.5929
Innovation2703.3529
Theme844.1329
Graphics2363.5729
Audio313.8329
Mood1723.3627

Comments

cristi-aby 2018-08-11 20:41

It seems to be quite interesting. Play it for 20 minutes, 2945 best score! interesting AI and concept.

elenesski 2018-08-12 01:09

Great job :) at first wasn't sure what it was doing. Simple game, but fits the theme nicely. Please review my game. thanks.

leave 2018-08-12 19:53

Very clever interpretation of the theme. Gameplay feels very fun.

mrjorts 2018-08-13 03:07

Nice simple idea, and well executed. It feels like playing the Atari 2600 game Saving Mary, but from Mary's perspective.

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 15:17

@mrjorts Thanks :) i've not seen that game before haha. @elenesski i've reviewed your game seems good concept.

paden-shorey 2018-08-13 15:25

Very clean and simple to learn. However, I feel like there isn't a lot of strategy needed. Maybe implementing some type of ability that allows you to temporarily move over more blocks or even destroy some could add a strategic elements to it! The camera shake and feedback is awesome!

agecaf 2018-08-13 15:26

I found it a bit simple gameplay-wise, but very polished in terms of the art and the music/sfx. It's quite enjoyable to play, too!

As a minor idea; I felt that it was more likely that blocks appear near you? (which is why moving is encouraged) If so, it might be good to give the player a visual indication, maybe..?

In any case, the game looks really good for 48 hours, and I really liked the music. Good job!

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 15:27

@paden-shorey Yeah i think powerups could have been good but i ran out of time near end.

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 15:28

@agecaf Thanks :). Yeah the blocks are weighted more towards the player to keep them moving and avoid getting stuck in big holes etc. Maybe some indication could work..

goutye 2018-08-13 15:32

Interesting take on the theme! The mood is great and the entry polished. It would have been fun to see some combos activated when 3 colors lined up as we can mostly control which blocks will be pushed next (still very random). :smile: Well done!

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 15:37

@goutye yeah that would have been cool actually :D

runner-alien 2018-08-13 15:43

Very pretty and polished, fun to play too!

dankar 2018-08-13 15:52

Simple but polished. Good job!

stepan-shabalin 2018-08-13 15:54

Looks great, feels great, has a good art style, keeps up with the rythm. It feels like you were focused on this one game idea and polished it to the end. THe only thing was that the eyes on the main character felt a bit out of place (just a small problem for me).

procezz 2018-08-13 15:57

You made this in 8 hours!? Wow man, just wow. Great and fun game :smile: !

gamejmunk 2018-08-13 15:59

Music is well done, also the mechanics are simple, which i like (doesn't make you read the manual). It is very polished, which is nice, but i find it a little bit too simple. A mechanic that lets you remove blocks could be very nice.. But the game is still very fun, and i enjoyed playing it. It seems as the blocks get placed randomly, i think there would have been more depth to the style of gameplay if they were added i a kind of pattern or according to some rules (for example adding a block to the place where the player stands). But overall very good game, and well polished!

rob-white 2018-08-13 16:00

Good job on the game! It has some great music and wonderful game feel. The art was simple but very pleasing and functional and the concept fits the theme well. My issue is that the game is somewhat luck based - you do have to position yourself in the most likely safe place but the block loading seems random so really it's up to the game how well you do. A good job overall.

mrnyarlathotep 2018-08-13 16:01

Good idea that fits the theme well, and well executed.

Gave me a Lumines vibe.

neipo13 2018-08-13 16:02

Saw this on twitter, looks slick for as simple as it is. Once I figured out there was some weighting toward where the player is I did a little better. ldScreen.png

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 16:05

@rob-white Yeah the blocks spawn based on a weight system so they actually are more likely to spawn near player etc. It could have been fun with patterns though.

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 16:06

@gamejmunk I originally had block removing but it was too easy to exploit so i removed it. The patterns would have been great though if i thought of that haha. Currently it already is more weighted to go near the player.

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 16:07

@procezz Thanks :D

kamikaziuk 2018-08-13 16:09

@stepan-shabalin Yeah i had limited time so went super simple and polished that. Yeah the character is something i wish i had more time to improve on it was abit uninteresting haha.

c0nst4ntin 2018-08-13 16:20

Realy nice Game and innovative. I liked the art and audio!

brandon-js-lea 2018-08-13 17:04

First off, it would have been nice to have arrow keys as an alternative.

Onto the actual meat of it. The idea of falling blocks filling a room is one I'm sure many people had, myself included. However, having the blocks rise up and removing the jump is a smart way of getting around a lot of the issues present with that idea.

In terms of polish I have mixed opinions. Having it suddenly start feels really awkward, a quick countdown might have helped. On the other hand, I like the visual effects for the blocks coming in and the background.

I do have a couple of issues with how information is presented to the player. Firstly, the blocks seem to come up randomly but with an inclination towards the player. I understand why this is important, to keep up flow and to make sure the game isn't completely unfair at times. However in practice it can be quite confusing and annoying, because it's a mechanic determined by the players actions which they don't completely understand. It raises questions such as "Are blocks spawning in a radius of me or right below me? Is it me or some other bias that's making towers form?" ect. Then there's the "move + survive = top score" which I missed at first because it's presented so subtly. This raises more questions, "Does moving back and forth rapidly increase my score? Do I need to move long distances for it to count?" All this is made stronger by the fact that the image up top shows a high score of ~8500 whilst I could only manage ~2500.

I have a couple of suggestions for how this could be helped. The most general point being that the rules need to be understandable by the player and more clearly explained; I think there needs to be a better balance of understandable generation and randomness. Assuming the gen algorithms are in a form that's understandable for a player, you could just explain this in text, though it's a very annoying and unclear method when overused so I wouldn't recommend walls of text. Another way to do this could be to have mechanics that clearly reward the player with score boosts. So for example, if moving back and forth does help the score go up, this could be presented to the player in a way that's easier to understand and see the effects from. Additionally, perhaps the area where the blocks spawn relative to the player (if that is a thing) could be represented visually.

So whilst some mechanics could be better presented, the game has a strong core along with some fairly strong visual polish.

pomb 2018-08-14 13:09

Catchy tune! Got a max of 2,666. Would have been cool to do more actions other than move, like matching would be perfect in this, to stay alive longer. It would reward players who could match faster than the incoming blocks. or bombs to blow that you can collect to destroy sections of blocks, anything really that allows the player to interact in a more meaningful way. Otherwise interesting entry.

f1krazy 2018-09-02 10:07

Simple, but well-polished. I particularly like the music. As some of the other reviews have noted, it'd be cool if it had a few more mechanics, like a way to get rid of some of the blocks and survive longer, but for 8 hours' work, this is extremely good. Well done!

danielblanco3d 2018-09-02 10:23

Ver fun and nice art adn sounds. I like the balance of luck vs skill in this game.