FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → Save the Timetree

Save the Timetree

By lcossette and residualtoast

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall17203.2722
Fun14243.2222
Innovation11433.3222
Theme13493.6022
Graphics19722.9522
Mood18862.9721

Comments

julius-vander-arend 2020-04-21 09:22

I like the restarting mechanic and the implementation of the theme, but I would have appreciated some sort of tutorial as it wasn't super clear what I was supposed to do or how to use the scrolls.

pilarius 2020-04-22 14:09

Quick reminder to get more players: Use a thumbnail for your game. Otherwise your game is presented with this grey box. Some great Games are not played because of a missing thumbnail ... You can still change it by editing your submission page :)

GreyBox.png

adriankrawczyk 2020-04-24 07:17

use a thumbnail !!

mypalmike 2020-04-24 11:52

Cool puzzle game. Took a while to figure out what to do but it started to make sense. I only diverted the boulder and the pests, not sure how to stop the other stuff. Good approach to the theme. Well done!

dziek 2020-05-07 21:42

I struggled with this one a bit, which is a shame as it seems really good! Like others have said it seemed a bit tricky to work out what to do, even after reading the hints. Would definitely be interested in an updated version though!

lcossette 2020-05-08 00:54

@dziek very fair. we're both programmers and trying to learn game design for a puzzle type game on the fly, while coordinating remotely was difficult. I would say design is not our strong suit. :) We're planning to rebalance, reduce to a 20x20 grid, add a few new interaction features and improve it after the Jam. Goal is to make it more fun and sequential puzzle to figure out.

jake-white 2020-05-08 02:42

Managed to beat it! Had a bit of trouble until I realized you could light the torch, but then it was smooth sailing and I could focus on optimizing movements. Great concept imo, was surprisingly fun!

instanti8 2020-05-08 03:00

This was a really fun game. I liked all of the things that you had to do to save the tree, and it was really fun to make a little bit more progress each time until I finally beat it.

waylon531 2020-05-08 03:15

The game was fun! The puzzle was fairly challenging but not ridiculously hard to figure out. Execution was a bit tricky, there's enough moves where it's easy to make a missstep and to lose the game. It took me a couple tries to actually beat the game after I figured out the strategy.

It looks like the game never ends though, all the threats are off screen except for the cultist who's stuck on the river. Is the game supposed to end after a set number of turns?

residualtoast 2020-05-08 05:41

hmm, there is a win screen, but I guess i didn't think it was possible to send the cultist towards the river and not lose. The game ends if it detects all the threats are gone, and no new ones are set to spawn, but I guess he can get stuck on the river, sorry about that. Thanks for playing though.

marcusnystrand 2020-05-08 07:33

This was hard! Little room for error, but that makes it interesting. I like that the time progresses with each move, it enforces the puzzle element of the game.

Well done!

notgreat 2020-05-08 08:34

The game was interesting, but I didn't really find it fun. needing to repeat what I already knew worked to get to the part that I didn't know got annoying fast. My largest trouble was with the ladder- at first I didn't realize it could cross the river since I tried it while below the water, and after that I thought that I had to get on top of the pump to use it.

It fit the theme very well, but I just didn't find the game that interesting. Reasonably balanced, but not being able to just do a simple undo was incredibly annoying.

I also several times missed the end/death text since I was already using the arrow keys to make my next move when I realized I had actually died. Having a dedicated separate restart key (usable at any time) would probably be better.

alferbayter 2020-05-08 14:59

Fun little game I liked how the mechanics were connected to each other but will echo what others have said about it not being entirely clear what to do at the beginning.

drskort 2020-05-08 15:01

I think the game was pretty hard and I think I broke it after digging to many holes with the shovel. But it still had a pretty good concept in my opinion. It's really cool how much content you made into that game. Some polish would have been also pretty nice. Nice entry :)

penguinbob 2020-05-08 15:27

I love the pixel art style. The game was easy to understand, but was hard to complete. The game was unique and pretty interesting. The game mechanics relied on each other well. Good job, and keep it up!

lcossette 2020-05-08 17:55

@notgreat Thanks for the feedback. I think right now the ladder might only deploy left-right when it should deploy in any direction across the river but we didn't have time to fix. It's on my todo list post-jam. Also I agree with you about pressing a different key to restart on a fail-state.

@alferbayter I think we'll add a tutorial or intro text to make it more clear, post-jam. Thanks for the feedback.

barret 2020-05-08 21:20

I really wanna know how to beat this game. I was able to use scrolls to unlock doors, use the later to get the shovel, but the boulder would always hit the tree before I could do anything, so I must of been missing something.

Sadly I didn't have much fun, but I could see how there were lots of different ways the items work together and reminded me of old adventure games.

If you ever end up putting a playthrough video I'd love to see how to properly play the game.

convg 2020-05-09 14:27

Nice game. Really cool concept. It's well implemented too, but the end didn't trigger after I did everything. I then looked at the hints to see if there were other threats. nope. It's a shame, because it was a really fun game, and a good job overall.

zillix 2020-05-09 20:45

I really enjoyed figuring this one out, and eventually made it all the way to the end! The game design is pretty clever- you have to figure out the core mechanics right away to use the shovel, then you have a lot of breathing room to explore the world, and the final run requires you to fully understand what's going to happen to make pretty precise moves.

Great work!