Stones

jihem 2018-12-02 15:56

This game was made during the Ludum Dare 43 : "Sacrifices must be made".

You're the Spirit of the stones and have to collect (and sacrifice) them.

Will you find the path ? Could you resolve the gods challenge?

Is 1min16 is enough for you to succeed ?

You can try it in your browser : http://picoscope101.fr/downloads/stone-ld43.html

You can donwload executable for windows, linux or osx : https://jihem.itch.io/stones

This is a PICO-8 cartridge, so you can play and edit it.

Have fun ;-)

jihem

jihem 2018-12-02 16:05

The PICO-8 cartridge: stone-ld43.p8.png

In game footage: stone-ld43.bin_000.png stone-ld43.bin_001.png stone-ld43.bin_002.png

jihem 2018-12-02 16:46

Usually to play you need the arrow keys and X/O buttons.

- X button is X key

- O button is C,Z or W key (depending on your keyboard : azerty/qwerty)

I made a ' let's play ' (without sound) so you can watch it at work (O_o") : http://picoscope101.fr/downloads/stone-ld43.mp4

I apologize for the number of levels (only 6 right now) but I haven't time. I had to take my yearly bath ;-) which is the 70-483 exam... (filling the fridge is a priority)

(picoscope is a french not for profit organization helping people, mostly childs, to learn programming)

rombus 2018-12-03 04:32

Yeah! really fun game. I imagine creating the level was hard. The concept is really unique. Congrats on the entry! Screenshot from 2018-12-03 01-32-06.png

mcovert 2018-12-03 05:49

Nice, fun simple puzzle game!

seed42 2018-12-03 11:55

had fun doing those puzzles

don't think it fits the theme very well though

dazzumbledor 2018-12-03 11:58

Very impressive compo entry. I really liked seeing all of the layouts together, and the puzzles scaled in difficulty well.

vatigo 2018-12-03 11:59

A lovely and charming puzzle game. I enjoyed it and only wish that there were even more levels. Great work!

morriss 2018-12-03 12:03

An imaginative game, at the time of intersection some difficult to walk, they can lean a little

glimaleite 2018-12-03 12:03

Hey! Congrats on the entry, compo is crazy!

What I liked the most: - The way you taught the game in just a few seconds, very straight to the point, I appreciate it.

- The mechanic of finding the right route, it's fun and mentally engaging.

- I appreciate that I didn't feel rushed at any moment.

Suggestions: - I feel like the movement was a bit weird. Sometimes you went a bit off-center and kept hitting the collision box, instead of moving to the intended position. I think that you should've used grid movement, it would be more accurate, since the cells are soooo tiny!

- The camera was a bit off as well. It wasn't centering the character properly, but it was following it, and that made it a bit confusing.

- I think that if you split the level in smaller chunks and make the past chunks invisible, it will be more readable and easier for the player to understand what's going on.

bgamedev 2018-12-03 12:18

Nice puzzle game. I would love to play more complex and harder version. Stones.png

blodyavenger 2018-12-03 20:47

There we go, I've made it! Done.png

I really liked this puzzle game, one of the I played from the compo so far I must say!

There was only 1 confusion for me which started on level 3. After sacrificing blue stone I get teleport at the start of level 3. I didn't know you can teleport back while carrying other stones.

Apart from that, perfect! Visuals and audio are going well with the gamplay :thumbsup:

justalocalhero 2018-12-03 20:49

Fun little puzzle. Looks great. Well polished.

I'm not sure that it evokes sacrifice exactly; giving up keys to get through a door is pretty common practice in this style of game. Perhaps if the stones had more emotional weight(e.g. melting the companion cube in portal) it would fit the theme better without changing any actual mechanics.

The camera is a little bit disorienting, it seems to pan pretty far away from the character in a way that I don't intuitively understand.

The old-school blips and beeps fit well with the visual style. Moving around feels nice.

Great work overall!

torquilmacleod 2018-12-03 20:51

Very nicely put together, enjoyed the deceptive final level :smile:

henry-denny 2018-12-03 21:01

Wow! Great game! The levels were really fun to play, the graphics were aesthetically pleasing and I love the game idea! The only two things I would suggest would be to make the levels slightly harder (because currently you can complete the levels without applying a lot of strategy) and (as mentioned in previous comments) have the stones become more of a sacrifice.

david-hunter 2018-12-03 21:11

Nice old skool theme

xenop 2018-12-03 21:51

Oh nice. I love you used the pico engine! And yeah like the prev comments I am missing the sacrifice part :). But nice graphics, sound and use of engine.

jihem 2018-12-03 21:54

Thanks a lot for your nice comments. I'm extremely grateful. Well done for your times !!! (my best result is 1:16).

I'll take things in charge and continue to work on this game (after the LD and update it on itch.io). I move the camera to show more on front (where you're going)... but it seems it's confusing. I will add a choice of camera mode : as-is, centered, follow... ? Have good time, I wish you the best :-)

shawn-moore 2018-12-05 05:13

Nice game! I like that the entire game is on one screen even though it's multiple separate levels. I ended up winning at 2:25 my first play through, then played again and got 1:30 :)

To give it more of a puzzle feel, maybe let the player move only onto each tile exactly rather than allowing some slop? I'd replace the gray stone with a yellow stone or something because the player and the world are both grayish. I think spending more time on polish would go a long way towards making this feel fun! Perhaps some more animations like when you teleport with the blue square, or graphical flourishes like a particle explosion when you finish a level. That way the player better understands their effects on the world.

Good job jihem :)

arcling 2018-12-05 06:03

Phenomenal puzzle game! It would be nice if movement was a little smoother, but the visual design makes playing this one really fun.

xphere 2018-12-05 14:11

Nice little puzzle game, liked the sprites, although the background gets me dizzy when the camera moves. Good job overall!

jihem 2018-12-05 17:55

Thanks a lot. I will complete the todo list. You really give me the strength to do a new release with all these upgrades :-)

jihem 2018-12-05 18:09

If you want, you can edit or create your own levels using PICO-8 (https://lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php).

Download the provided cartridge and open it with PICO-8 or use 'SPLORE' (and search for 'STONES').

map.png

g12345 2018-12-06 08:47

Nice simple puzzle game. :smile:

jimbly 2018-12-07 04:44

Nice little game! I completed it in 2:30. It was unclear at first that I was carrying stones (you start some levels with them, I guess? Thought that was my head!)

firebug 2018-12-11 19:00

Nice design and audio! That took me back to early pixel games, especially the sounds. Challenging and fun levels!

lilou-cormic 2018-12-11 19:44

I enjoyed playing this puzzle game. I got stuck at some corners, had to back up and realign the player though.

antti-tiihonen 2018-12-12 14:14

A neat lil' puzzle game! The basic mechanics are nice but it feels like there's still some depth missing from the puzzles. Maybe if the player could switch some colors with some tile or alter the layout with levers or something it could add some more flavor to the puzzles? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here :laughing:

I enjoyed that all the levels were visible at all times since it gave you a good sense of progression but maybe dimming the "inactive" or completed ones would have made the game a bit more clear. All in all, it was a lovely game. Took me 2 minutes so it was a perfect bite-sized experience. :thumbsup:

jihem 2018-12-12 17:42

@antti-tiihonen You're right : adding levers to change layout or switch color is a very good idea (added on the todo list). Thanks :-)

geckoo1337 2018-12-12 20:03

Creative and addictive - unusal gameplay. Really well done. I would like to play more levels ++

thomas-bringer 2018-12-12 22:12

Nice game! Cool pixel graphics. The game concept is quite unique & interesting, I had fun playing it! (a soundtrack would be nice though) Congrats! :D

lanedavis 2018-12-13 02:27

Nicely done! The only think I'd love to see here is giving the player a little generous nudge a pixel or two when they try to turn a corner. I had to back up and realign myself a LOT here. Still, played through to the end and definitely would have kept going if there was more.

Timer at the end is a nice touch!

bentglasstube 2018-12-15 21:41

Really fun prototype of a puzzle game. As others have said, it lacks a little depth but I had fun with it and wound up doing a few runs to get a good time, wound up with 0:54 :D

UPDATE

Realized there was no sound in the web version so I downloaded the desktop version and there was controller support! That's awesome. I also improved my time to 0:49 :D :D :D

stones49.png

gwinnell 2018-12-19 15:44

Made it in 4:51.

I kept getting confused about which tiles were the pickups and which ones were the sacrifice tiles. The background effect was trippy. I really like how everything was in one scene, but the camera would often be playing catchup with me when I die!

Would have loved to see more levels, and some audio, but this is otherwise a really solid entry! :thumbsup: