FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → The Colorsmith

The Colorsmith

By jordan-ottesen

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall184.2240
Fun134.2540
Innovation704.0540
Theme2243.9240
Graphics474.2640
Audio94.2840
Humor2233.0832
Mood574.0640

Comments

jordan-ottesen 2021-04-25 05:00

TheColorsmithDemo1.gif

jordan-ottesen 2021-04-25 18:51

(See full game details and devlog at: https://jottesen.itch.io/the-colorsmith)

oxrock 2021-04-26 05:29

My favorite aspect of this game is the audio. The levels felt a bit linear though. It just seemed like a lot of "see the square, go get the square". It's a great entry for compo though, nice job!

jordan-ottesen 2021-04-26 17:24

@oxrock, thank you for playing! I'm glad you liked the audio, was one of my favorite parts to develop! I totally agree the levels are too linear. Honestly just didn't have as much time as I needed to design more engaging puzzles.

sedna 2021-04-27 07:39

I really enjoyed this Game. It is a fun game where you kind of have to think about it. I even got myself Stuck so I had to restart! It's a nice little twist. I love the Graphics and the Music fits fine to it! :)

minji 2021-04-27 18:55

very impressive and very funny, i like the graphics and level the design.

zype 2021-04-27 18:59

This is the best game i have played in this jam. It is so polished and the level design is so thought through its amazing!

windfall890 2021-04-27 19:02

I'm a big sucker for color palette based games!

as a compo this is double impressive, I cant imagine jamming something so cohesive together in the 48 hour window. congratulations for accomplishing such a cohesive game under those restrictions!

Sure I do think the levels are linear, but it is so stimulating to progress across the color shades and see the clever design on the next screen.

I love the pac-man effect and how it is introduced to the player on level 1.

the avatar really pops and is fun to watch run around. The small details like her their idle animation, the pop jump sound, and the particles and 'color switch' animations really glue everything together.

Nice Job!

zerocomms 2021-04-27 19:22

Got zinged a few times trying to blindly speedrun. nice couple of traps!

charliegray 2021-04-27 19:30

Wow, cool game. I love the concept, the gameplay, the puzzles, the graphics and the sound. I really don't have anything negative to say. Great job!

majadroid 2021-04-27 20:11

Very nice puzzle mechanic an lovely music. Well done!

silkworm-sweatshop 2021-04-27 20:17

Loved it! One of my favorites! Super polished all around but especially the level design.

bootak 2021-04-27 20:27

This mechanic, while not unique, is still pretty rare, and it implemented well in this game. Also, it looks polished and nice, I also love the sound effects. Really satisfying switch clicks! I find confusing that clicking a color switch reveals parts of the level previously unseen, I thought that you'll see the whole level at once, and click switches to access previously inaccessible parts of it. That would make it more like puzzle and less like a platformer. But I assume that it is easier to desing levels that way. Overall, really nice game!

godsboss 2021-04-27 20:28

Most of the level were pretty easy, although I got stuck once or twice. You should definitely make a post-compo version with a few more levels.

acdia 2021-04-28 08:17

It took me some time to realize, that you change the background and this is why the obstacles disappear, but once that was clear I had a lot of fun playing it!

oddarock 2021-04-28 08:42

Really nice and cute design, very fluid game. I would have played many more levels ! Good job.

antonishig 2021-04-28 16:50

Sooo cool. It is perhaps the most visual appealing game I tried so far. And congrats on the audio, saw that you registered that yourself, amazing!!!

yerkwell 2021-04-28 22:16

Very nice game! I liked the art style and the music is soft and relaxing. Interesting puzzle and unusual mechanics. Thank you for your game, I really enjoyed it

pijamar 2021-04-29 02:22

Wow, 10 hours?! You're my hero! The game is super well polished, the mechanic is well designed and the flow of the game is superb. You absolutely nailed the platforming movement, feels very precise and correctly paced. I love the art and the music as well, great entry! Congratz! The only nitpick I have is that the character style doesn't seem to match the background, but this is more personal preference than anything else. I hope you decide to keep working on the game post-jam, I need more levels :sweat_smile:

krapht 2021-04-29 03:40

amazing little puzzel game. Getting stuck and having to hit restart level felt a little strange. I prefered the puzzels that if you messed up it just ment going back through the cycle. Favorite game so far.

jordan-ottesen 2021-04-29 04:38

@pijamar thank you for the high praise and thoughtful play through! Having made many platformers, I have a sort of framework I use with gravity, acceleration, deceleration, etc. for refining the movement quickly based on the game's needs. This one I wanted to be responsive, snappy, but still organic. So I'm stoked and flattered that you noticed the movement! A lot of effort went into that!

Cumulatively I really did make it in about 10 hours (12 if I'm counting all the time I spent tweaking my itch.io page, writing the blurb, making the thumbnail image, blah blah). I have a tendency to map out my game development plans in my head throughout the day, so while I watched my kid at the playground, I was thinking about the game design and coding logic. I have a problem. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks again, your genuineness is heavily appreciated. Do you have a game in the Jam? I'd love to play it.

Also, I saw on your profile you're from Brazil. I served a mission in São Paulo Brazil and Sorocaba. Lived there for two years! Aquela cidade tem um espaço especial no meu coração :)

pijamar 2021-04-29 05:14

@jordan-ottesen Haha, I don't think you "have a problem", you're passionate! It's really hard to "switch off" from the projects we care about sometimes, right?

Oh, you lived here in São Paulo for 2 years? That's so cool! Do you mind telling me what sort of work you were doing here?

I do have a game in the jam, called Dahla's Journey, you can play it from the "Games" tab on my LD profile. I'd be honored if you'd play it :heart:

jordan-ottesen 2021-04-29 07:37

@pijamar excellent, I'm excited to check out your game!

In São Paulo, I was inviting people to follow Jesus Christ as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I made some amazing lifelong friends there as we talked with anyone who wanted to learn more about our religion. My mission in Brazil really shaped the rest of my life honestly, wouldn't trade it for the world. A church leader recently gave a talk that I think captures the core of my beliefs. He certainly words it better than I ever could lol: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/41soares?lang=eng

pijamar 2021-04-30 05:03

@jordan-ottesen That must've been an amazing and transformational journey! I see the Elders in my region often (there's a Church very close to my house) and they're always super polite and seem very compassionate. I am not a religious person, but I understand and respect the positive impact these experiences have not only on the lives of the missionaries but also on the lives of the people around them, and on society as a whole. Thank you for sharing a bit of your story with me :heart:

jordan-ottesen 2021-05-01 00:20

@pijamar and thank you for your kind words! It's funny the friendships that come from these Jams, video games connect us lol. BTW you probably already saw my feedback, but I loved your game and the world/story you're building with it.

coyotethursday 2021-05-01 03:44

That was super engaging! I liked how the puzzles emerged from two simple mechanics (wrapping around from one side of the screen to the other + flipping the colors back and forth). You also did a great job with the visual and sound design, everything gelled together very nicely to create an experience that felt polished and cohesive

maytch 2021-05-01 12:30

It's great how you implemented the color swapping, very simple to get the hang of and innovative little puzzles. Very calming.

danframe 2021-05-02 12:28

the music and sounds of this game are exellent, i love the idea, maybe little short but nice worrk! ( you make the game solo wow...)

jordan-ottesen 2021-05-03 05:29

@danframe thank you for the praise. I did indeed go solo! Part of why it's short lol. Thinking I'll probably build out a lot more after the jam :)

sdata 2021-05-03 21:02

The level design was really well done especially with things being able to look great even with part of the palette mixing into the background at a given time!

mamon 2021-05-06 10:00

Exellent footsteps sound and overall sound design. I'm not into puzzles, but this game is small and pretty - I liked it!

jimbly 2021-05-06 13:48

Pretty great! Interesting mechanics, and beautifully executed. Quite a few times I felt like I didn't have to figure anything out (just head to the nearest blinky thing I hadn't touched), but it got interesting whenever there was a choice and I had to figure out which way to go (and, even, once, needed to restart a level), so more levels where you can make a wrong decision (ideally one that resets you to a previous state, as opposed to getting stuck and needing to restart) would be great.

I love the visuals and audio too, both great!

felo07 2021-05-06 17:08

really nice mechanic! great graphic, sounds, music, everything matches! just few things: - maybe the character graphics doesnt match with the game - I found 2 bugs, but its completely normal for a jam, but just to let you guys know (1 stage pink, when I came from top and touch the first square, and (i think) 1 stage yellow, when I go left i didnt appear on the other side)

great game for 48h congrats for the team!

luis-giron 2021-05-06 18:33

5 stars in everything, nothing more to say

jordan-ottesen 2021-05-06 22:51

@mamon thank you! I put a lot of effort into the sound design. Those footsteps are literally my knuckles on a glass jar lol.

@jimbly Thank you for the thoughtful feedback! You're further confirming my suspicions and the feedback of many others. The levels are designed too linearly/predictably. I'm excited to start designing more engaging puzzles in the post-compo version :)

@felo07 thanks for the praise, feedback, and heads up on the bugs! I'll let "the team" know (lol jk, it's just me) and I'll dig into those for sure.

@luis-giron holy wow, that is extremely high praise. I'm flattered. Thank you thank you! I'll be sure to give your game a go soon! Just need to see if I can get my hands on a PC... you don't happen to have an HTML5 version of your game do you?

euler-moises 2021-05-07 20:26

I love color puzzles. I would spend hours playing these games if it had more levels. I think you should invest in this idea. I found the simplicity of the game excellent! I just think the sfx could be a little softer and a soundtrack is missing. Even if it was a few loose notes with a good reverb. Think about it!

Congratulations for the game!

jordan-ottesen 2021-05-10 06:59

@euler-moises thanks for the kind feedback! There is a soundtrack! It's honestly one of my favorite parts of the game. I've found that sometimes you just need to refresh your browser.. not sure why it sometimes plays without music. Frustrating issue with some browsers and HTML5 games. Anyway, this video shows the music: https://youtu.be/225lE3dyzJ8?t=633

I think I will ultimately invest in this idea. All of the positive feedback has been very encouraging.