Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Puzzle Out VR
By glock00
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1112 | 2.83 | 23 | |
| Fun | 961 | 2.85 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 613 | 3.15 | 22 | |
| Theme | 696 | 3.37 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 1136 | 2.29 | 22 | |
| Humor | 854 | 1.97 | 21 | |
| Mood | 1069 | 2.34 | 21 |
Really enjoyed this, great concept! Something between hole in the wall and perfection. Wish there were more levels, but it's good for a what it is. My main criticism would be, maybe have the wall slide inwards more gradually, instead of snapping at increments. Still, thoroughly enjoyed it!
I don't have OpenVR headset but I just tried and the idea is great. It was fun, so congratulations :).
Great interpretation of the theme. Unfortunately, I have no VR headset to test its full potential. I think the movin wall should be the one opposite to the one with holes, it would make putting pieces in less clunky.
Tested in VR. Very interesting the idea, needs two or three levels more.
Thats cool that someone made VR games in 72 hours! I havent any OpenVR headset, so I play *mouse and keyboard* version, but that fun too.
Worked fine with my Vive, although after winning the game it got stuck on the Congratulations screen. It took me a few tries to figure out exactly what was happening, but after that things were fine. VR really lends itself to claustrophobia-inducing games like this. Congrats on a great VR game, I hope you're able to get enough ratings to rank. Nice work!
Tested in VR, not bad for such limited time being able to work with VR. This would be really interesting with more puzzles (and maybe some textures on the pieces).
@Sciman101 Thank you! I am working on some improvements and another level. Also I will try making the movement non-snapping although I hope players can still see that their space is getting smaller. Like the frog in the frying pan ;-)
@Balazs-SakerGames Thanks for trying it out even without a headset!
@Horun Thanks! You are right, that should avoid the problems coming with putting an object into a moving object. That would add some extra fear, too, since you cannot see how far away the wall is. Great idea!
@cachodragon Thanks for testing in VR. I am working on the next level and see how it goes.
@team-on Cool that you tried it nevertheless. Thank you!
@jharler The game has only one puzzle wall so the game ended basically after the congratulations screen. I am working on another one with some improvements. I agree that VR somehow seems natural to make fear-inducing games (which I actually can't play because of this) especially using that "Running out of space"-theme. So it was kind of obvious to me to make a VR game that shrinks your playing area. Thank you for your time and feedback!
@agentparsec Thanks for your feedback on the piece textures. I am still not sure which way this should go visually. Stone, metal, goo or whatever :) The original idea was to make it space-like so lots of plastic and leight-weight metal. I am also working on the next puzzle wall.
I played without VR as I have none. And I didn't really understand the interactions. I saw some shape spawn in a room, then clip through the floor and disappear, on the back-side of the room was a cat but the one shape I managed to grab before it fell to oblivion wasn't obvious how to stick it in the cat and when the color of selector changed and I figured something must be at least semi-right, the shape was released and fell away too. My issues might have been due to not running in VR, but they made the game very hard and quite confusing. I like the description/story and idea though.
@local-minimum Thanks for testing it out w/ keyboard and mouse. Things seem to not work really well without VR so I changed the game's description. Appreciate the thorough feedback on the issues and glad you liked the description and story!
Nice game, Love how everything is balanced! Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam! Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42
Great game! Very cool and interesting! :D
It's a good idea but without VR it's really difficult to play with the mouse and the keyboard.. But I see what you did and it looks good
I tested the original experience in VR. Was it only just the one level?
One thing that didn't work very well was that the room scale was set up so that I had to move out of my physical location and tripped on items in the real world. It would have worked better to have both walls pushing into the player rather than forcing the player to keep stepping backward out of the space. I had issues tripping over things as I backed up to keep from being crushed by the wall.
I like the color locking when you placed the pieces, but wish there was other feedback to help me know audibly when I got the piece in the correct location.
The wall moved towards me at too fast of a pace. I didn't have time to look at the pieces and determine what actions I wanted to take before the wall had moved into my personal space. It would have worked better to have a starting room where the player could look around and physically move to the location that was most comfortable, then when they picked up the first piece the wall would move. In VR it's very common to need to start the program, put on the headset move into the proper position, and then be ready to play. By beginning the experience immediately, you didn't give the player time to get into the experience properly.
Like others have said before, more levels would be nice, especially if you slow the pace that the wall moves towards you. Realize in VR when someone's feeling claustrophobic they are likely to physically move the area that doesn't make them feel so compressed, even if that is outside of their chaperone boundaries. For an experience like this, the player should be gently crushed instead of pushed to one side of the room.
Picking up the objects felt natural, and putting them into the slots felt natural.
When you are polishing, adding sound can improve any VR experience. You can find free foley sounds that have wood creeks or metal machinery. This can enhance the player's feeling that they are in a physical space and reinforce the tension of the wall crushing in. Play around with different types of ambient music. You might find background music labeled for horror if you want the player to feel anxious, or look for things with water, wind, or woodwind instruments to make the play feel more at ease and be able to focus on the puzzle at hand. I recommend playing different songs while you play to the game so you can get a sense of what you'd like before adding the music directly into the experience. Also, make sure you layer sounds. Have a background sound, and something tied to the moving wall, AND random sounds from the environment like wind, murmurs, or shutting doors.
Thank you for sharing your experience, and I hope you make more VR experiences in the future.
@saoi-games Hey! Thanks a lot for your great feedback!
The original version had two levels. One level with two pieces, the other one with 4 triangle pieces. The post-LD version has three.
Sorry for letting you trip over physical objects in your room! I tried to design the room as small as possible without being uncomfortable. Maybe a recenter function would have helped? That's a new idea to make both sides move. Downside is having a moving object behind you which personally I don't like.
You are right about the game-starting interaction. In the post-LD version I made the first level entirely without moving walls. You can now even pick up a space helmet and look around in your surroundings first.
The game sound I added in the post-LD version has pretty much what you suggested. Screeching metal sounds for the moving wall, audio feedback when inserting pieces into their spaces and a sci-fi'ish ambient music that gets faster as the wall comes closer. I really had the most fun selecting sounds and music while playing the game as you said!
Thanks again for your time! If you have any VR apps you would like to have feedback on, let me know!