Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Singularity
By Andre Sadie and nsadie
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 260 | 3.92 | 58 | |
| Fun | 402 | 3.68 | 57 | |
| Innovation | 80 | 4.12 | 57 | |
| Theme | 639 | 3.77 | 57 | |
| Graphics | 471 | 3.92 | 59 | |
| Mood | 370 | 3.80 | 57 |
The UI was a bit confusing (it wasn't clear which icon was push and which was pull, or whether the elements had anything to do with it) but at the same time it was also pretty fun once I got the hang of it, and a super unique idea for a board game/strategy game!
Nice game, I really liked how every move was relative, which kinda was in accordance to the theme of the game itself. meta/20, love it
Very clever concept for a board game, and really good job with the mood (both music and graphics), but the rate of push cards should be increased a lot, as both me and the bot got stuck for the whole game in the middle of the board because only pull cards spawned.
The concept was cool, but I didn't quite understand the symbols and how to move to win. It felt a bit random to me! Other than that I liked the atmosphere and the graphics. Good work!
Awesome game and interesting concept, I like the dynamic of sharing a card pool with the opponent. One enhancement you could make is to show what the closest object is when you hover a card because it was kind of confusing sometimes as to which object I was pushing or pulling.
Great little game, clever design and super polished!
+1 to some comments made so far: - bit confusing at first what the cards were, how they related to the instructions, and whether the elements name meant anything - clearer indication of what the nearest object is would help a lot (and also make it clear that the opponent also counts as an object, although perhaps you wanted that to be a surprise) - I think more push and attract cards in the mix would make it more interesting. More card types maybe as well, though I'm sure there would've been if you had more time.
I thought it was cool that the 2nd player is only introduced when you start playing, nice little surprise.
The idea is pretty good, I liked the game altough I lost hahaha
@japes @inanimatecarbonrod Thanks for your feedback!
I agree that adding that indicating which object is closest might make it less confusing! I am also adding tooltips to the element to help remember what the different cards do.
Some additional cards might also mix it up (like switch positions with closest object, push all objects away etc.)
@steffo There are less push cards, because you have to try and use the AI player to keep on getting closer to the exit. The AI always tries to move as far forward as possible and the least amount of moves backwards. Knowing this, you should try to move so that he can slingshot using your ship and get into a position so that you can slingshot off him!
Nice game, i liked the gameplay. And pls fix the bug, when first action is green+1, enemy doesn't appear at start point and i cant skip text field. Anyway goodjob!
@kotovnav I thought I caught most of the bugs! Thanks, will fix that one!
Great little game. I think playing versus human would also be a good option.
That was really good, a great concept well executed. It feels like this would also make an amazing boardgame. At one point i thought i outsmarted it, being half way across with the enemy stuck back in the hole. But eventually he overtook me, when i had to go backwards. So good! What really shines is the need to think about the cards left for the enemy, really great!
When reading the comments it seemed like i was playing an post-jam version in the browser. I think it would be good to mark it as such and indicate what changed, as a little sidenote.
@rongo-matane Thank you for your valuable feedback!
I added a note for the changes, based on the feedback, we added color to the tutorial text to indicate the colors for pull, push and tractor as well as a tooltip to the elements to remind the player what each element does. We also added a selection ring to the closest object to help with the mental calculations!
A really cool idea! Love that there is an AI opponent and that you share the same moves. I alos like the overall mood and style. But as others also mentioned I feel the mix of cards could be a bit more balanced. I was stuck like forever since only pull cards appeared. ^^''
Interesting fit in the theme. I liked the graphics and sounds. But its took a while to figure out the mechanics
What an incredible game! I loved it, great job
Very simple rules and nice strategic depth! Did you devise it just for the jam? Very decent AI, it seems. Visuals are fine. Only thing I missed is turn results preview. I understand that it was a feature though, but I don't think it's a good feature - mixing strategy game with "count fast" mechanic. Overall - very entertaining experience, thank you!
Pretty fun game and a nice interpritation of the theme. The rules are simple but work pretty nice. Felt a bit repetitive though especially since pull elements seemed to appear way more often than any other. Also felt a bit random at the end. Considering that pull 8 or 9 sometimes appear even if some one is leading by quite a bit the other could finish earlier just because they got lucky. Overall really great entry!
The concept is very nice. Also good job on the music, the visuals and the mood of the game in general. The problem here is tha cards you get are often not really helpful. There is too little push cards. I played quite a few rounds and was never able to finish beacuse of how many pull cards spawned. Always got stuck about 3 fields in front of the finish line. I think with a littel adjustment of the card spwaning you have yourself a top entry here.
@cedric86 @lamossus @steambrain thank you for your feedback!
What I like about the mechanics, is that it is impossible to get to the end on your own, as you cannot finish using pull cards! You have to "assist" the AI so that you can slingshot past him in the final stretch.
The AI follows some simple predictable rules so that you can use that to your advantage. He always tries to move as far ahead as possible, and if it is not possible to move ahead, he will move back as little as possible.
From most of the feedback I gather that the amount of pull cards vs push cards is a bit of a problem, but I tend to win quite often, but it is because I am so familiar with the mechanics. Balance is so hard to get right in a game jam! I've been thinking that the best solution to this is multiple difficulty levels!
@nsadie huh! I though AI calculated a bit deeper, snapping cards right then it would be optimal for me to use them) I would disagree about push cards strongly: their lack is actually what add strategy to whole deal and eliminates situtation, where a couple of lucky draws will garner you enough headstart that you win the whole stuff before opponent gets to endgame
Ver nice concept and game. Extremely well made graphics! It's a bit frustrating at times and would be nice maybe to be able to save one card that you could use to build a great deck. All in all great game!
Really liked the concept and the graphics, the game feels very great. Struggled a bit to understand what to do at the beginning despite the tutorial.
Cool and innovative game, well done!
I really liked the game it was very fun but a little confusing. Good job :v:
Now this is what I call game design! Had to come up with novel strategies twowards the ens game which was fun
Cool concept! Love the graphics & sound. Figuring out the game takes quite a bit of effort, I would recommended adding arrow so you can see what each move does. The drawn moves seem very random, and over 5ish runs it was just a big dance that just went forward and backward until the timer ran out. Some balancing there would help. Perhaps a 'default action' you can take once per turn would help with the biggest setbacks?
Very nice core to work from though!
This game concept is so clever and really cool to play, I loved it, I totally could see me play it as a board game with friends !
Didn't seem to make sense to me that you could sometimes push sometimes pull. But all in all pretty cool game, graphics look very nice and was decenlty fun!
Good and polished entry. I would love try it as local multiplayer with more people or try playing with more than one ai opponent.
@samuli @rei-dunamis More players is definitely on the cards, and I think it would be much better against human players!
Really enjoyed this, great concept and nice atmosphere. Found it a bit tricky but got really drawn into it!
Very nice, it has the best mood I saw in this game jam !
I really like this strategy game. You need to plan ahead and help your enemy from time to time. Looks and feel very nice too. I wish it had more levels :)
Really liked this game, best game i've played in the jam by far. The concept is pretty neat, the background is cool and relaxing to the eyes, and the music is very soothing. Well done, I genuinely enjoyed
Really well put together game! If you watched the tutorial then it wasn't complicated. But I had a lot fun and it was really cool to actually have to try and be a couple steps ahead of the AI. It did help that the AI was not super complicated and just went for whatever would move it forward immediately, but even then it took me a bunch of tries to actually win with the time and everything. This was great, I really enjoyed it!
A really cool, inovative concept. Had a very board-gamey feel to it (in a good way). It's a strategy game that I haven't seen before. If anything, maybe adding a few other elements would make a game more fun and more replayable.
Nice! Really great concept and the aesthetic is really cool. The gameplay felt a little bit random given the randomized options, but maybe it isn't so random once you get better at it - there were some cool moments where I realized that the obvious option of getting closer to the goal would have allowed the AI to win, so clearly there is some depth here. The time limit felt a little bit frustrating at first (especially given how long the AI turns take), but I managed to win with 8 seconds to spare which was pretty exciting! Pretty fun experience overall, nice work.
Impressive content and design, looks very polished. And feels like a board game.
Really nice little strategy game. It looks gorgeous.
This was a treat.
My first 2 tries ended in disaster as my opponent managed to get quite far ahead and I couldn't claw my way back, even as I understood the mechanics, I just didn't get cards which would allow me to close the gap.
Overall I really liked this jam. As others said, it's got polish and I'd be curious to play an expanded version of this where there are more card types, different opponents and levels which extend past the loop.
P.S. I played the postjam version.
Holy .... this need to be a full game and even fun as a board game, the puzzle element here is great when you have to think about which card to use to not just advance forward but to not let the AI skip you.
SOLID GAAAAAME
[Sorry everything devolved into chaos while we played this on stream.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/772739699?t=04h16m13s) :pray:
I actually really really liked this entry. The mechanics were super straightforward and unique, and I can see a LOT of room for expansion on it (which I personally hope you do). The visuals and audio were also all super slick. As a whole, this is a very solidly put together experience.
If I could suggest one thing, it would be to introduce the concept of an AI opponent into the tutorial. I was totally caught off-guard when I discovered that I was essentially going to be racing somebody in the actual game.
Otherwise though, this one's gotta be one of my favorites. Hats off to ya!
@coleslaughter Thanks for playing, it looked like you had lots of fun!
I really loved to see you play multiple rounds and gradually figure out what to do and I am glad you managed to win (win percentage is pretty low)! I enjoyed how you were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the AI ;)
We are planning on adding quite a few additional things to this project!
Well done! A strategy board game isn't easy to design, let alone in the space of a jam, but you managed to pull it off. Sometimes I felt I was at the mercy of luck of the draw (In particular when trying to get those last cards to reach the goal), but there was always a best choice to find. Most of the time it was actually interesting to consider what card to use, what you want to use after, and what the opponent is likely to pick.
Like others have said, this really has some potential to be expanded into a proper game, adding some new rules (perhaps in later levels) to keep up the challenge, and make the optimal choice a bit more difficult to figure out.
Really impressive entry overall
Hey, thanks for submitting your game to stream, it was very well made! Sorry about the technical difficulties, though looking at the vod, it seems my setup just *randomly* desynced... Dunno why.
Anywho, your game is split between two vods, the first half; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/779137665 and the second half; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/779148172
Sorry bout that!
I could totally see this being expanded into a physical boardgame! That is not to say the digital version you delivered wasn't beautifully polished and offering great gameplay, more that it's the right mix of strategy and luck that would make for a great evening with friends! Nicely done!