Matchstick Elegy

chaseplays 2020-04-20 11:15

I've tried making a couple of puzzle games before, and it never ceases to amaze me how clever and difficult you're able to make your games! When I started, I assumed the puzzles would be simple and fast, but after a few levels, the game stayed simple, but got incredibly difficult. A couple of puzzles in particular took over half an hour each. I don't mean this as a criticism at all -- the fact that you're able to make your games so difficult is honestly super impressive!

I think it's your level design that impresses me the most. The concept that you came up with for your game was really clever and left a lot of room for level design, but each level felt unique in its solution in a way that I couldn't have expected for how simple each level ended up being. I'm not sure how you do it, but it's definitely something you've figured out you're really really good at.

In terms of graphics and audio, they both fit the mood pretty well. The room where the story takes place in particular looks great, and while the audio isn't particularly noteworthy, it did fit the game well. The story also gave the game a sort of cohesion that it would have otherwise lacked, and added a LOT to the game's mood. While I had a hard time focusing on the story itself (that was mostly just me being distracted), the themes it brought up were really interesting and added a lot to the game and its atmosphere.

If I had one criticism, it's just that the difficulty curve feels a bit steep for a Ludum Dare game. That might be a bit of personal bias though, since I have a personal rule to fully complete each game before rating (although we'll see how that goes this time down the road). It took me hours to beat it (granted, for much of that time I was busy/distracted with other things). In that sense, the difficulty felt more matched-up to a full release rather than Ludum Dare game, which is typically pretty short. So really, that's more of a criticism of practicality more than game design.

Overall, it seems you've pretty much mastered this genre, and while I'm excited to see what other puzzle games you make, I'm really curious to see how you'd use your game and level design abilities in other sorts of genres! I'll be following to see what else you end up doing in the future. Great work, and take care!

nnnikki 2020-04-20 13:27

Cool concept, good execution. What I didn't like: * The lack of music (which is in every one of your games). I think even a simple background tune or even some ambience could help, at the moment it's just silent all the time, and it somehow feels less of a game. You can easily make music in something like https://www.tones.fm/tones/calm or, if you happen to know music theory, you could give Bosca Ceoil a shot. * The bland-ness ..? of the sprites. You could use a few random tiles to shake it up a little, it currently looks more like an abstract location than a real place. * The lack of juice. Just a bit of screenshake and particle effects and your game is a lot more fun to play. * And finally, why don't you try something new with your games? Chaseplays already said that you pretty much mastered the genre, and jams are there to try something new. Do something you've never done before.

manimal 2020-04-20 22:54

I like your style of games. This is a pretty good stable puzzle with proper rules. Some levels are really difficult and I am glad to have chance to skip it. Good polished game. Somehow I feel different when I m rating your game.

PS: I love the background sound of the fire.

jimbly 2020-04-21 02:45

Great game, as usual!

Was I the only one who, on a level with oil, immediately pushed something into it every time? Was harder than usual to burn myself up on level 20.

Speaking of level 20, that's as far as I got, I might have to come back and see if I can complete it later, though!

I like the visuals and sound was good, a little atmospheric sound or music would have been nice. Love the feel of it, and the writing is amusing.

ajahks 2020-04-21 06:54

Well like all of your games, I got stuck on the 5th level, but i still think it was easy. Jokes aside, the concept is awesome! I like the two sided log mechanic as it adds new depth to the puzzle. That said, that extra depth does make it much more difficult to plan out your next moves as I often found myself trying to brute force solutions. Really enjoyable nonetheless!

zabaman 2020-04-21 09:35

I'm no good at puzzles but I enjoyed it for the depth that I could go but did attempt every level. The execution on this game is amazing, plays super nicely and has a lot of genius designs to it. It's minimalist designs (loved the player's little hop) are really great. And to add to it all, the additional narrative elements definitely pulled me in, exceptional work!

zwodahs 2020-04-21 13:20

nice puzzle ... didn't expect that you can do so much variation.

goutye 2020-04-21 13:51

Awesome puzzles! But it was very hard very early. The skip button was very welcomed, but a solution button would have been even better :smile: I am really curious to see some solutions. I spent 5 min on the same level without any hint of a solution... I hope someone here will do a video of all the solutions :v: Really well done!

le-slo 2020-04-21 18:24

Very nice puzzle game! Pretty brutal to be honest, it is difficult to plan ahead with the rolling mechanics, takes some time to get used to it (so much that it feels it is possible to add some levels to smooth the difficulty curve without making filler levels). And you even continue adding elements that combine meaningfully with the rest of the game, it is very impressive. All that presented with some dialogues that help build a mood and story, excellent. Very happy to play again a game of yours.

kiln 2020-04-21 20:01

While not my favourite gameplay-wise, I definitely won't knock it in that department. The game is well-made with neat mechanics. I love the concept of the logs having two sides to burn to extend their duration, that was smart. The audio was good as well. Overall an enjoyable game.

herman-chau 2020-04-22 06:02

Writing this after getting to level 14, I'll probably finish it up later! The mechanics are pretty good and the puzzle design is very challenging. The fuel on the logs was kind of confusing, I think it would have been clearer if say, the log got a white outline when it's facing up and a black outline when it's facing down.

Level 12 took me a while and I assume it was a deliberate misdirection into making the player think you needed paper by each box? I think the solution is pretty clever but wonder if the misdirection could be gotten rid of by placing one of the boxes a bit further to make it obviously impossible in one direction and adding an extra paper that started off burning somewhere.

Overall I really enjoyed the game and it's always good to have more puzzle games :)

zimny11 2020-04-23 08:32

This is amazing. Great job! I had a lot of fun playing, especially since I like puzzle games. I am really positively surprised by how many different mechanisms you have managed to implement. The only thing missing is the background soundtrack.

kupnu4 2020-04-24 02:10

Wow! This puzzle is very cleverly made indeed. The aesthetics are also very pleasant despite being simple. You really brought sokoban to a whole new level, well done!

god-colo 2020-04-24 12:00

First of all, I have to talk about your pixel art talent! These type of art makes you want to play the game! :smile: Second of all, You are very creative with level design! This can easily become a casual mobile game where the player just sit back and try to think of the solution! :thinking: And most importantly, I want to know the engine you used to make this game! :laughing: Greato Jobu! :smile:

stevenjmiller 2020-04-24 12:23

@god-colo Thanks! I used GameMaker Studio.

soldierbear 2020-04-25 18:02

This is an amazingly well designed and put together puzzle game (especially for a game jam). I'm also a big fan of your simple but very consistent art style! The spirtes themselves are simple but they work great in this setting. I think the color palette you've used also sets the right tone. Amazing submission 5/5

szieberth-adam 2020-04-26 08:30

I am a huge fan of Sokoban and Sokoban-ish games, as they are relaxing and challenging. As others pointed, the levels are getting very hard soon which is excellent for a 20 level game which also has a story. This makes a short game not so short and I am sure many will return to complete it once the play+rate is over.

@stevenjmiller Can you give a hint of your puzzle design protocol? These puzzles are made so hard!

stevenjmiller 2020-04-26 16:33

@szieberth-adam It varies a bit from game to game, but my first step after coding the initial set of mechanics is usually to haphazardly throw everything into a sandbox of sorts and experiment. I get inspired a lot more easily when I'm seeing how things work in real-time than I do when trying to draw things out on paper. I still do the fairly standard approach (at least to my knowledge) of basing levels around a very specific idea or interesting aspect of the mechanics, but I try to mix in what I found fun while fiddling around to (hopefully) make the final level a bit more engaging to solve. After that, I test the levels as many times as I can to get rid of unwanted exploits (though I missed some on a few levels this time around) and to find out what needs to be reworked. That said, I don't think the specific method matters too much as long as you have a strong understanding of the mechanics you're working with and what makes them fun or unique. The first few puzzles I design almost always get scrapped because I usually don't understand how to use the mechanics effectively that early on.

szieberth-adam 2020-04-26 17:51

Thanks for the details. I am working on a game which is getting close to the level design phase hence I was curious. Quality level design seems like alchemy and I desperately want to know more about how the good designers do it.

ludipe 2020-04-27 11:23

Really liked the core concept and the level design. Really good and solid. The presentation seemed a bit weak though and I found the visual representation of the duration meter (of burning items) a bit unintuitive. It's still an amazing puzzle game, well done!

yyam 2020-04-30 20:20

This is a really good puzzle game, and very difficult :p It felt really tight and responsive. The undo feature was good and worked flawlessly. I also liked the subtle sound effects. I thoguht the tutorial was very good, but for some reason I just couldn't intuitively understand the mechanic where logs have two sides :( So I got stuck on level 5!

I think the game would have benefited from some ambient audio, and maybe some slower pacing? But then again, other people seemed to be able to get through it so I'm not too sure :p

I was able to complete the next two levels after skipping 5, but then I got stuck on 9. Maybe I'll return to this game when I've leveled up my brain.

keyvote 2020-05-06 19:09

A difficult puzzle game with interesting mechanics. While I do not like these kind of games usually I liked this one. It has a good art style, the sound effects were nice and the 2 sided log mechanic was unique.

vfqd 2020-05-07 08:38

Wow this is really impressive and atmospheric, well done