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By xphere

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1773.8375
Fun2263.6575
Innovation1093.7774
Theme3013.7976
Graphics4433.6374
Audio2653.5072
Humor5212.8266
Mood2213.6973

Comments

renan-moura 2018-12-04 01:25

nice!

ants-aare 2018-12-04 11:18

Great game, I really like the art style

sir-syko 2018-12-04 15:48

Great puzzle game with interesting "narrator" :smile:

abso 2018-12-04 19:03

Amazing art style and the puzzels were clean :D Would love for some feedback and a rating on mine too :D

avi 2018-12-04 19:33

haha really cute game -- love the dialogue! Would love more levels :D Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 2.32.27 PM.png

hugonun 2018-12-04 19:35

Nice puzzle game, love the narrator part!

niborious 2018-12-04 19:40

This was a very good game! The puzzles were interesting and I played through to the end without any problems. The moments where narration mixed with gameplay were really cool (the narrator changing the level, and the very last level). Amazing game!

crazybot 2018-12-04 19:44

really fun game

xphere 2018-12-04 19:45

@renan-moura @ants-aare @sir-syko @abso @avi @hugonun @niborious Thank you all for playing! Glad you liked it!

I'd love to have made more levels, but time was crushing me. More mechanics were planned, and more prominence of current ones... Maybe I'll be back to update it once the jam finishes.

hugo-kieffer 2018-12-04 19:49

really cool concept i like the litle story line along the levels

cambryx 2018-12-04 19:56

Wow, this was amazing! This is definately the best game I have played so far. I love the minimalistic graphics. It just looks so beautiful. Together with the relaxing background music and the simple sound effects It creates an amazing atmosphere. I loved the comments on the bottom of the screen. They fitted the game perfectly and created a kind of story that connected all the levels. What makes this game stand out from all the other games is how the levels are structured. They start really easy and get harder with every level. This lets you discover seamlessly all of the game mechanics on your own. This is so much more fun and engaging than having to read a long text description that explains you everything you can do in all details. The last level was a real challange and I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I realized there are no more levels to play. Good job. You created an amazing game and can be really proud of yourself. Of course feel free to try out our game if you want to ;)

xphere 2018-12-04 20:11

@cambryx Glad you liked the experience! I tried to expose the mechanics by forcing the player into some situations, but I think it went quite well overall. I also hoped to set more levels, I'll expand it once the jam is over. Shame I can only like your comment once :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Thanks for playing and commenting!

eva-abollivier 2018-12-04 21:21

I really liked how you linked each puzzle with a situation in real life. A really nice touch that really makes us want to play to the end.

rk3omega 2018-12-05 00:32

Amazing game. Very good use of the theme and was lots of fun to play. One of the very few games I've played through to the end. The puzzles were interesting, engaging, and has a really nice difficulty ramp with plenty of "aha" moments, and the narrator is a really nice touch. Only critique is I think the player character should stand out a little more. There were times where I'd have to scan the board to find it when the level started.

irock 2018-12-05 01:05

I dug the vibe and the narrative elements. It seemed to come from a genuine place, emphasizing the importance of goals while we try to navigate through life. Some of the writing could have been better, but I assume English isn't your first language.

It actually took me quite a few levels to understand the movement mechanics. For example, I didn't understand in the "Some problems may avoid you at all costs..." level why I couldn't move up and down in the 3rd column from left, but could move up and down in the 5th column. I think this could be remedied by highlighting the spaces you can move to, like in some chess applications, and also playing a negative feedback sound when you try to make an invalid move.

It also took me longer to understand the enemy movement patterns, for the same reasons I had issues understanding the player movement. I didn't understand why the skeletons would seemingly turn around before even reaching a wall (not knowing they can only move 2 spaces at a time, and no less). A similar solution to what I proposed above could be applied here as well: showing where each skull is going to move on the next turn.

I wound up haphazardly getting through most of the puzzles without even thinking, because I didn't understand the mechanics until late in the game. Once you do understand the mechanics though, it's much easier to appreciate the puzzles. I took the time to reply it again after understanding things and I wound up enjoying it more the second time. I think making things easier to understand from the beginning will go a long way!

One random bit of feedback: I think your easing/tweening/lerping algorithm for movement should ease-out, rather than ease-in. Right now, the feedback for you moving is delayed since the movement speed has to build up so gradually, and immediate feedback is usually pretty important in terms of game feel.

I'm glad I played your game. I think it could be pretty great if you make some improvements to it and are given more time to fully explore the mechanics.

shieldgenerator7 2018-12-05 06:29

cool game! i didnt understand any of the mechanics but i liked the text story and how the puzzles related to it. the art and sound were good.

hukee 2018-12-05 08:08

1.png

I've enjoyed this narration mixed with gameplay.

xphere 2018-12-05 09:20

@hugo-kieffer Glad you liked the story, thanks for playing!

@eva-abollivier That was the first thought it came to mind when the theme came out. I'm glad it resonated within you. Thanks!

@rk3omega glad you had fun! I enjoy "aha" moments in videogames, that you found some of those in my game makes me happy. You're right on the main character, it looks a bit bland compared to the rest, may rework in a possible future release. Thank you!

@irock glad you liked the narrative! Even though English is more like my third language, I tried to explain what I feel directly and may have made some mistakes, my bad.

For the movement and mechanics, I wanted small levels to introduce them visually and unmistakably, but it may not be clear to everyone. Negative feedback sounds looks like the answer here. Also, direction of enemies could be made more obvious somehow.

Now that you mention easing, I played with it a lot during development, because ease-out made the player collide with more enemies than I wanted. I left this for late consideration, but ended in the final release as it is now.

Thanks for taking your time to play (and replay) the game and comment

@shieldgenerator7 Thanks for playing! What do you think I could improve to make the mechanics more understandable? (I still owe you a tweet about my plush, I'll keep it as a hostage)

@hukee Nice! Glad you enjoyed and played until the very end. Or is it? :wink: Thanks for playing!

kenn50games 2018-12-05 09:54

A bit confusing

kirke 2018-12-05 12:33

What a smart puzzle! You have polished level design, I really appreciate it! :D Moreover I like your sense of humor (and words of wisdom!!!) in this game. Your graphics has also really good impact - it is neat and pretty. Wow, really good game! I need more than 12 levels! :)

xphere 2018-12-05 13:47

@kenn50games can you elaborate on this? Would like to know what to fix for the game to be clear.

xphere 2018-12-05 13:49

@kirke I sacrificed (pun) art direction (music, sprites) in order to have more time for game, story and level design. I think it went quite well. Glad you liked it! Hope to add more levels in a post-jam edition. Thanks for playing!

freakoftheyear 2018-12-05 14:52

Really nice game! I like the the dark minimalistic style and mood the most. Visualizing different situations in life through level design is a really great idea. The puzzles were really interesting too. I found out I had to collect the right amount of lives/points to get to the end quite late into the game so at first I was quite confused why I had to collide with the enemies some times and some times I couldn't. Overall, really impressive! Did you make the music yourself?

xphere 2018-12-05 14:59

@freakoftheyear glad you liked it! I grabbed music and art from public domain sources so I can have more time for designing and coding. You can get the details at the game's page description in itch.io

Thanks for playing!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 15:02

Fun puzzles and love the tone/colors and graphics! I'm excited to see your post-jam game! I see your comment about sacrificing (haha) your sprites! As a game artist, I'd have loved to see more of your artwork in this, BUT you made the right decision for the jam! Great, great, GREAT game! Congrats on everything you accomplished!

xphere 2018-12-05 15:09

@subtlydramatic glad you enjoyed! I'm more of a "pixel art" guy, but they're quite hard to do right in a small time frame, so I focused on development and design. Thanks for your kind words and for playing!

codesity 2018-12-05 15:43

Looks like a interessting game. like the graphics and the gameplay. Good Work!

sadsmile 2018-12-05 15:54

A very very solid entry! Enjoyed it a lot! Also liked the implementation of the theme a lot! (Prob. one of the best imo)

sadzanenyama 2018-12-05 16:38

Although I'm not much of a fun of puzzle games I did enjoy this one

xphere 2018-12-05 16:43

@codesity @sadsmile @sadzanenyama Glad you enjoyed it! It's grateful when someone praises your work. Thanks for playing and commenting!

jihem 2018-12-05 18:26

I had fun playing the game. Thanks :-)

hairic 2018-12-05 18:56

A pretty lovely game. Simple in concept and has lot of potential if you keep working on. Also +1 for Godot ;)

devastus 2018-12-05 19:29

Certainly an enjoyable puzzle game! The narrative is a nice touch.

My thoughts have pretty much been said above, but I'll add my weight to the given feedback.

The ease-in effect does make moving feel a bit jarring in a way, but other than that it's just fine. The minimalistic art was in my opinion maybe just a tad bit too bare, but that's just personal taste. I still think it was a good decision to focus on the gameplay and puzzles more instead.

For clarity, the skulls could show their direction, but I did not find that problematic personally.

All in all, it's a solid piece. Very well done!

huvaakoodia 2018-12-05 22:55

A well made puzzle.

The theme fits, sacrificing life to reach goals, but just like in another puzzle I played recently (and in my own project too!) there is a lack of choice and impact. If there is only one correct thing to do at any given time, then is it even a sacrifice at all? Simple deductive logic challenges suffer from this issue.

The mechanics are fine, but I actually didn't need to understand them until the very last (proper) level where simply following along the script didn't work any more. If the tutorial levels don't spell out what is going on with text, then at least the visuals should clearly indicate what is happening. In this case the permanent health change, caused by the - and + icons, should be accompanied by an animation, color change and/or a particle effect to make the effect clear.

The prose is simple and fitting. Very generic though, kind of reminds me of a spiel by a life-style guru quoting their self-help book. No offense.

The visuals are fine, apart from the lack of highlights for important events and things. The audio is good. Won't score them as they were not made specifically for the jam.

Good job, small issues here and there.

Overall: *Above average (3.5)* Fun: *Above average (3.5)* Innovation: *Above average (3.5)* Theme: *Above average (3.5)* Graphics: *N/A* Audio: *N/A* Humor: *N/A* Mood: *Good (4.0)*

raphael-maia 2018-12-08 12:30

It has some pretty good mechanics and booard game feeling. The narrator thing was well done. Good job with the game design. Congrats!

simanis 2018-12-08 12:43

This submission was recommended to me by a cool person so I decided to try it out. I'm not into puzzle games, but this was quite enjoyable.

It's very polished. The audio is relaxing and the visuals are decent - they do not substantially distract from or add to the experience.

I must admit that I never fully understood the controls, just went with trial and error :D

raindrinker 2018-12-08 12:45

Love graphics and audio! The mechanics are great, but it does have that issue where things seem to become more complex, not more complicated or itneresting. The puzzle system is amazing tho, and with some time this is a 10/10 mobile game, The mood is so good with just the music and a few icons. Congrats!

hectigo 2018-12-08 12:47

Pretty cool, liked the game though the puzzles were too easy. Some things could've also been shown more clearly - like there's plus and a heart, what's the difference exactly? or moving skull and minus. The music and the flavor texts create a pretty nice mood. Scored the audio a bit lower though since the music wasn't made specifically for this game.

imdagger 2018-12-08 13:01

Can't pass all levels but the game is cool!

maytch 2018-12-08 13:14

Nice puzzle game, I like the smooth animations and the text

jiri-hysek 2018-12-08 13:21

Nice little puzzle game. Not too hard but it's OK. I took mi a few levels to figure out how it works but after that it was easy :) It feels pretty nice - fluent movement, audio, nice simple artstyle.. I like it!

conk 2018-12-08 14:15

Lovely and simple! Everything overall was really solid and the levels ramped up perfectly to introduce the mechanics even if the first few levels were a little like "How'd I win?". I'd say it didn't feel like a sacrifice as that was the only way to win, but that seems to be a common theme for most games I've played (mine is far more loose, so who am I to judge :laughing:)

Great job!

theonethatneverwas 2018-12-08 14:20

Good job! amazing game with very nice graphics and mood. The gameplay is very interesting too.

xphere 2018-12-08 14:20

@huvaakoodia thank you for the extense review, really helpful!

About the sacrifice theme, I'd like to add choice mechanics, but this involved harder and clever level design which I haven't mastered enough. The player just *must* sacrifice life to reach the goal. There's no alternative to this, unfortunately. But who knows, maybe in the future I can revisit this idea...

Totally agree on the visuals, I should have put more effort on showing what's happening around the mechanics. Blinking icons, red colors, just the sound isn't enough.

The narrative could have been better, since I'm not a writer nor English is my first language, but I could've work harder on this part. Just dumped my thoughts and emotions into this as it happened. No offense taken, that's why we're here.

I'm very grateful for the time you took to play and comment, thank you again!

maximbegunov 2018-12-08 15:20

A simple mechanic yet well put into the levels. I especially like that the game has some narrative to it, like im being rewarded with every new line of text for solving a puzzle. Also chill music and simple but sweet graphics makes for a good experience.

xphere 2018-12-08 16:49

@raphael-maia @raindrinker some mechanics I had in mind didn't make it to the final game, I hope to make a big update in the future, glad you liked it.

@simanis glad you got here by recommendation, I'm pretty bad at marketing so that's really nice, even more so that you liked it not being a puzzle-lover. About the controls, I might rework this on future releases, thanks!

@hectigo @conk noted some enhancements so it's clear what's the goal and the differences between the mechanics.

@imdagger @maytch @jiri-hysek @theonethatneverwas Thanks everyone for playing!

geckoo1337 2018-12-08 17:29

Interesting gameplay which fits with the theme perfectly. Minimalist aesthetic and challenging. I like it ++

thob 2018-12-09 12:37

Neat game ! Cool mechanics, I really like the graphic style & the game is polished. This could be a good mobile game on the store. :)

g12345 2018-12-11 12:23

An interesting puzzle game. I was so focused on the narrative I didn't even noticed I finished the game lol.

I guess most of it has already been said.

Nice mechanics, a lot of levels within 3 days.

Cool game and interesting narrative, nice simple graphics and i didn't listen to the music.

pablodap 2018-12-11 17:05

Hey, this was really good! I enjoyed every last moment of it. I'd wish the elements were a little brighter or another color to differentiate them more from the background, but nonetheless the graphics were cute!

net3ton 2018-12-14 00:00

Wow! I really liked it! I haven't got the rules at first, that you have to have the specified number of life to get the goal, but whet I got it it became really great =)

2018-12-14 14:49

Neat game! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/aRIyiUZY0TQ

sam-machell 2018-12-16 11:04

I really enjoyed this! I love where games integrate meaning into the mechanics and you did that perfectly here. Nice way to turn the theme into something positive as well!

mara 2018-12-16 19:08

Nice game! I would really enjoy something like this on mobile.

wowa 2018-12-21 07:11

It took a bit to understand the movements behaviour, but this is fine. Overall it's a nice little puzzle game which has everything it need. Very well done!