ryusui 2019-05-02 01:53
Love the gameplay, though I feel like it could've used some background music. Also, the level which introduces the reset/undo buttons is crazy hard! ^_^;
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → Mint Sprint
By Ransom and kaiclavier
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 151 | 3.85 | 66 | |
| Fun | 117 | 3.82 | 66 | |
| Innovation | 318 | 3.39 | 66 | |
| Theme | 1001 | 2.70 | 65 | |
| Graphics | 318 | 3.93 | 67 | |
| Audio | 458 | 3.16 | 64 | |
| Humor | 431 | 3.00 | 58 | |
| Mood | 466 | 3.39 | 61 |
Love the gameplay, though I feel like it could've used some background music. Also, the level which introduces the reset/undo buttons is crazy hard! ^_^;
The music immediately wins me over. I love that detail and the fact that it makes its own music.
I really like the concept here, and it kinda fits with the theme, which is good.
The 2D mixed with 3D also works well, which surprised me.
Also, despite the fact I generally enjoy puzzle games, it's much appreciated that you provided a cheat console :P
This has a lot going for it and I hope you guys consider developing it more.
Level 3 was a bit of an intense difficulty spike. Although I felt very accomplished when clearing it, a hint (especially about the direction of output) would have helped a lot. Placing that level later may also be a good idea. Really good art and I liked how the sound effects played almost like a song rhythm.
The difficulty curve is really steep. It would have been better if I knew how the game worked and some basic puzzle mechanics before getting thrown into the level as the guy above said. Although the art and mechanics are really good for the time we had. Also your menu is absolutely stunning!
Very cute graphics, fun and challenging to play. As ryusui said, the difficulty spike is really strange in the beginning, and then the puzzles go back to being not too hard.
I love how it makes it's own music as you solve the level, and the character art is really cool!
I agree that the difficulty spike in level 3 is a bit much. Level 4 is easier. I guess that's what happens when designing puzzles on four hours of sleep, haha. I crunched pretty hard to get all of the art done and design ten levels before the deadline. If I had more time, I'd rearrange the level order to smooth out the spikes.
That's also why there isn't background music; I had my DAW and instruments with me, but just had no time to compose anything. @kaiclavier was clever though and turned the machinery into a drum machine, so you can at least get some percussion!
Thank you all for your reviews, @ryusui, @orangejuicepanda, @caveman54, @griddolini, and @macs!
**If you get stuck on a level, hit TAB to open a debug menu and do a level skip.**
Really fun game! I also cracked up really hard because I found a way to cheat on level 6, you can do a couple things: 1. Move belts stuck in a corner by running up into it and to the side 2. Use your body to push the gold across a small gap 3. If you put the ingots into the second machine first, it comes out all glitchy lol
Smart to have the undo feature. Reminded me of the Huge Entertainment game, Sock Works. Nice job!
Interesting game. The levels are well designed and some took me several mins to solve. I gave up at level 8 though. Didn't figure out what to do there..
Yeah, @estuvomuybien, you can glitch belts and move them diagonally sometimes, haha. And because it's physics-based, you can sometimes bounce items off of the deer. That third thing is a feature though! If you put the wrong material into a machine, it ruins the material. It's especially funny if you try to put anything other than a coin into the money bag.
As for level 8, @vilja, that one was meant to be a mid-game tutorial level. I was trying to show that, after several levels of only pushing belts, you can now push the machines. I think I could redesign that, though, so that the deer is forced to push one in order to access the rest of the level — make it more obvious. I'm glad that you told me where you got stuck.
Thank you for the feedback!
@ransom Thanks for the hint lol
I liked the graphics :D the concept is awesome !!! the physics is a little bit bugged hahaha but make me laught, and it's good :D Great job !
Character design and puns were great, needed a bit of background music to pair with with the other sounds, and while I do agree with everyone else about level 3 it was still pretty fun.
Very solid game with good graphics and gameplay. Need some polishing, maybe. I hope there will be post-jam version. ;)
Really nice puzzles, interesting game design, good artwork, original ideas; this game is so very up my alley. And all the ideas were executed on really well. The camera perspective made some movement and understanding what was going on in the level confusing at times, but that's my only complaint. I had a lot of fun playing it. And thanks for tuning into the stream!
Awesome game! i really like it! :hearts:
The main character for this is so cute. I love the image for when you finish a level. Puzzles were good!! Would have loved to have some ambient music, though.
I know I must be missing something on level 3. I can't give it a full review since I wasn't able to get very far.
The art style is really cool. Has a similar style as Don't Starve, which I really loved. It would be cool to add some more ambient music to the background to allow the sounds of the environment 'play on top of'. The idea of having the level make its own music is great -- I just think you could take it even further.
Solid game (at least as much of it as I was able to see)
AAAAAAAA I love love love the main character! The game is quite fun too! Never seen the puzzle mechanic where you shuffle the pieces around used like this before! Very fun! Thanks for adding an undo and reset button as well, made the gameplay so much better for jam testing! And that audio design is so fun too! Love how the sound effects adjust based on the thing falling. The only possible constructive idea I could recommend would be to add some camera adjustment to better view the play area. This could easily be a fully complete game on its own!
Very cool game and fun to manipulate with the physics of the engine. On one level, I couldn't quite figure out what to do, so I used the buck to slowly guide coins that were coming out in the wrong direction into the direction of the bag. The animations are quite fluid, and I love the background noise from the coin materials. One gripe, though: I see no disadvantage to implementing a pull feature: it would eliminate having to restart if one of the parts ends up in an unmovable position and would make things much easier. But I understand the time limit in the jam is a factor.
@castrolol Thank you! We know the physics aren't perfect, but we thought the imprecision and messiness was funny. "It's a feature!"
@dankovens I'm glad that you enjoyed it. If I had more time, I would have loved to try composing music too.
@alexascher If there's enough interest, I'd be down for expanding upon this concept. So far, the reception seems mostly positive. Thanks for your input!
@carlsonandpeeters I was stoked to see it streamed; like I said, that was the first time anyone streamed a game of mine. I've only watched a handful of people play it, but of them all, you blew through it pretty quickly. I'm glad not everyone got stuck on level 3, haha. You're right about that camera though; a buddy of mine also got confused by it. If I expand upon this version, I'll have to do something about that. Thanks!
@mrstari Thanks for playing it!
@bakenshake I'm happy that you like the character. We were originally going to make it a cat, but I'll never turn down the chance to do a pun. Hopefully in my next jam game, I'll have time to make music too.
@bitdecay I see what you mean about Don't Starve! Credit goes to @kaiclavier for helping with that. I'd drawn and animated the character, but I only had time to do a 2-frame walk animation. He kinda looked like an Earthbound character like that. Then Kai used Unity's animator to apply rotation, squash, and stretch. Even though there were only 2 frames, he looked so much more fluid like that. I was impressed.
Thanks for giving it a shot! Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to get stumped at level 3. I ramped the difficulty up a bit too much there. If you'd like a hint, try turning the ingots into flat plates first, then putting them onto the red belt. But if you're really stuck, **hit TAB to level skip**.
@bitzawolf Haha, I'm glad that the character is so well-received! I was originally going to make a cat, but I got hit by inspiration: what better animal for a game about making money than a buck? (That's actually where the slang "buck" comes from — deerskin as a sort of traded currency in the 1700s.) I'll have do something about that camera too, yeah. Thank you for playing it!
@charlesschar I've seen a couple of people cheese the levels by bouncing items off of the buck, haha. The machines were originally able to pushed and pulled, but we actually removed pulling for the sake of more challenging puzzle design. The game does have an undo function though! Just hit CTRL or one of the controller face buttons. I tried to explain that in-game via the signs. I wanted to make something that could be understood regardless of language, but not everyone got it, so that's my fault. If I develop this concept further, I'll approach that design differently. Thank you for giving it a shot!
Really nice and complete game! The difficulty ramped up a little to quick for me -- it went from super easy to super hard in just one level. I love the infinifactory vibe though, nice work!
The puzzle is well designed and interesting.Stuck on level3 for a while, but I enjoyed it a lot!
I really like your design choice. UI and Menu are definitely top notch for LD entries. Also I really like the 2D/3D mixture. Sometimes it felt like I had to run into the objects for too long to make them move, maybe the player hitbox is not perfectly aligned with the sprite or something, I don't know. The CTRL-mechanic is really interesting and well done, maybe my favorite part of the game.
Level 5, went with the work smarter; not harder approach. well done on a fun game. IMG_02892.jpg
All stage cleared. Love the graphics and the mechanism. Would be better if some BGM added. Well done!
Puzzles were really enjoyable. I loved the 'move the bus' style of puzzle solving. I also thought it was clever to use drum sounds for the coin sfx. Great job!
Thanks for hanging out during the stream, as well. Here's the [link to the stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/419787348). Your game should start around [57:56].
Great work. I like the puzzle aspect. It's simple but it makes you think. The mix of 2D and 3D was put together very well. Honestly was a bit confused on what could be pushed, but after I went back and read how to play it was so obvious. The theme wasn't well represented in this game but it was a good game with a great name.
I love this game! Consider adding a simple puzzle between stages 2 and 3 that only depends on the in/out direction. That way you don't have to make it explicit in the UI and it can be part of the learning/discovery process.
@moldymagnet If I had more time, I'd rearrange the level order, because a lot of people get stuck on level 3. Glad you liked it though!
@hans1203 Thanks! Yeah, in retrospect, I wish that I'd put level 4 before 3. Glad that you had fun though!
@muzigpuzig I'm pleased that you like the visual design; I was hoping to make something cute and eye-catching! Credit goes to @kaiclavier for the undo mechanic. We were just on the cusp of the deadline when he implemented that, and I really think that it made the game a lot more user-friendly. Thank you for playing!
@bluwind360 Hey, if it works, it works! Haha— Thanks for playing.
@yukimiitsuka Yeah, I had hoped to compose some music, but I was already crunching pretty hard to get all of the art and design done. Hopefully my next jam game will be more complete. Thanks for playing all of the way through!
@snowschu I'm happy that you had fun with the game. Thanks for including me on the stream too! It's really cool that you bring on devs to talk about their designs as you play. It's kinda like Double Fine's "Devs Play" series. Credit goes to @kaiclavier for the audio; he programmed the items and machinery to turn into a drum machine. Thank you for playing!
@no-grapes-games I'm stoked that you enjoyed it! If I had more time to playtest, I'd try to make the mechanics more obvious. I was trying to explain without words, in-game, what could be done, for the sake of people who don't speak English. I'll have to make it clearer if we continue with this concept later. As for the theme, I figured that the low-hanging fruit would be bartering with character hitpoints. I decided to take a different interpretation, in that this character's livelihood — his life — is currency — minting literal currency. My own grandfather minted money for a living, so it's partially where I got the idea. That's where the game's name comes from too. Thanks for playing it!
@hwaet That's a good idea. If we carry on with this concept, I'll definitely do that. It's been getting pretty favourable reviews, so I'm strongly considering it. Thanks for the suggestion!
I Love This game the only thing i dont really like is that im not smart enough to get through it all. But anyway love the graphics and sounds and the little reindeer i mean why is it a reinder?
@gurkan96 I'm glad that you like it! I realized that I had the chance to make a visual pun, so I made the player character a male deer -- a *buck*.
If you get stuck on one level for too long, **hit TAB to skip the level**.
Thanks for playing it!
this was a very clever puzzle game -- enjoyed the different types of mechanics added -- thanks for making it
Great puzzle design, definitely had me scratching my head for a lot of them but I eventually got to the end. I agree with others who said that level 3 has a big difficulty spike. It feels like it belongs closer to the end. The reset and undo functionality was super useful, but I did box conveyor belts into corners way too often which made me feel like maybe there should be a a more graceful way to fix that (pulling rather than pushing would break the puzzle design I imagine but still...). Sometimes I did push things I didn't mean to push, partially because the blocks are locked to the grid but the character isn't, so sometimes I thought I was going to push one thing when I ended up pushing something else.
Anyway, the character design is really cute and nicely drawn and honestly that's what sold me on it initially!
great work on the level design and art the game kept introducing interesting new mechanics to keep me engaged ( ignoring the difficulty order tho). the code seems to be clean especially been a physics-based game strange physic behaviour felt more like features xD so well done. the only thing missing is the background music but given the SFX and that its a 10 levels game and the limited time it's understandable. all the best <3
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A super fun and super cute game. I love these kinds of puzzles and some actually had me stunned for a while. Great job!
Bill is so dapper I am so jealous I will never look that good in a bow tie. Great entry, loved it. Thanks for making a web build.
Good game, great artwork. It's a simple enough concept, but well-executed. While there's no menu music, the percussion noises for the machines is a brilliant touch. As you move the machinery into place you get this steadily-building drum beat that's very satisfying, and gives you a real sense of progression. I think all you need is a smooth little bass riff to sit beneath it.
I agree that the difficulty curve needs improving, I got seriously stuck on Level 3. I know what needs to go where, but actually getting it there is the hard part. Mind you, I suck at slider puzzles and I have a migraine, so that doesn't help.
@andidebob Thanks! I'm glad that it could keep you engaged.
@cheesepencil Glad that you could finally play it!
@f1krazy That's often the thing about puzzle games like this; you figure out where things should go, then work backwards. I appreciate the feedback!
Beautiful funny game! I really enjoyed playing and it is one of those I will come back to play again. Loved the character design and the way you show levels in the menu (even if at first it wasn't immediately clear that the coin was interactable). The sound is funny nd the puzzles well designed. A very good job!!
Great entry, congratulations ! The level design is simple but well thought and as others I loved the art style but had trouble understanding how the theme fitted until I read your explanation.
It's a nice challenging puzzle game, but it took me far too long to figure out that this was no candy factory! :sweat_smile:
Moving yourself and pushing conveyors feels a little springy and often found myself having to restart because of it. The difficulty curve is quite extreme once you get past the first few levels and an undo button would be appreciated than a restart.
I didn't quite get why I needed to fill the bag up once you completed the conveyor circuit unless you were originally going for gameplay like lemmings where you needed to place everything in position as quick as possible or you'd start losing metal to make enough money to reach your goal?
I felt like the game needs some background music because the sound effects of the machines maybe funny at first but quickly becomes annoying.
The objects on the conveyors would often get stuck or be lost due to the physics.
@tommyflower Thank you very much! It's encouraging to when someone wants multiple playthroughs. I'm going to expand on this game after Ludum Dare ends.
@amour-du-pain I'm glad that you liked it. Thank you for playing!
@littlew00d It would be frustrating to have to restart every time you make a mistake, which is why the game actually does have an undo button! Press CTRL or one of the controller face buttons. Granted, some people didn't understand that from the in-game sign, so I tried to make it more explicit in the instructions on this page.
The reason we made the bag needed to be filled to 100 coins was as a quick safeguard, to ensure that you can actually create a reliable production line. Because of the physics, items sometimes end up in funny places, so we didn't want to have people beat a level if a stray coin somehow bounces into the bag at the end; it had to be consistent. Even still, some people found ways to cheat, haha. Thanks for playing! I appreciate the critiques.
What a neat puzzle game. Though rather incosistent, the visuals are nice, shame about the lack of music. The levels are nicely crunchy. The ability to step back in time is great.
Minor stuff: - The level select UI isn't very celar - I was just staring at it at first and it took me a while to notice the Level coin, probably the foreground money particles are fairly distracting - I'd prefer non-physics based pushing (just press the directions and animate the block movement - I'd advise against using CTRL in web builds - few jams ago I learned the hard ways that CTRL + W closes the current tab in Chrome. I realise it's not likely to be used along with other keys in your game, but I'd still avoid it like the plague - closing the game is not much fun after all :wink: - pressing ESC/Quit in the web version just freezes it - I'd just remove this from the web version entirely - The game would probably be clearer in a topdown view - I got confused by perspective and though I couldn't finish the level in the way I actually could do so
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