Foon →
Ludum Dare Explorer →
LD49 →
SCANLINE
SCANLINE
By pdotjpg
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 16 | 4.16 | 51 | |
| Fun | 55 | 3.96 | 51 | |
| Innovation | 59 | 4.02 | 49 | |
| Theme | 144 | 3.92 | 50 | |
| Graphics | 68 | 4.03 | 52 | |
| Audio | 45 | 3.92 | 50 | |
| Humor | 123 | 3.29 | 48 | |
| Mood | 18 | 4.14 | 48 | |
Comments
dalep
2021-10-04 07:33
Nice added mechanic to sokoban! I thought the puzzles were the perfect balance of challenging yet solvable with good planning. I did discover an exploit for some of the earlier levels: !> if you walk into a wall while standing on a pressure plate, it inverts the pressure plate’s logic and lets you keep a door open without using a box.
I assumed that wasn’t intentional because it completely bypasses some of the earlier puzzles, but isn’t actually required to beat any of them as far as I could tell.
m11
2021-10-04 09:24
A really clever concept/mechanic, and some fun level design
Fun puzzle game, started getting a lot harder once my character kept blinking, especially since I am impatient haha
damnn a really unique mechanic with a nice aesthetic!!
although i know its the point but its pretty hard to see if an object is actually there or not most of the time (maybe just make it slightly transparent instead? idk)
i didnt finish it because i got crushed by a door after going thru so much work -3- but thats my fault. overall a really polished and well designed entry!
A very interesting concept. I love how you use this technical limitation of old computer and made a puzzle out of it. It took me a while to understand the order when object disappear depends of the object position when the number of object per line cross the threshold. So an object can still disappear even though it is not on the line anymore. It gets pretty tricky. I was stuck on a puzzle, but midway through writing this comment I got a ah ah moment. Passed for more levels and now I am stick again. I think I have an ideas how to solve it but that require a lot of fiddling around and risk to be stuck or die and to restart from scratch. Undoing moves would have been a big plus.
Overall, really nicely done. I am hooked.
cirno
2021-10-04 09:55
Great idea on the unstable boxes! It brings up a different sokoban experience. I do not need to worry about 2x2 boxes but to think more on how to push the boxes on a line.
elastic
2021-10-04 13:02
Good work and really pretty as well! Like the glitchy artstyle!
hjalte
2021-10-04 15:12
Awesome idea *and* execution. Really made for some lovely moments of feeling very clever :). I had one problem in the level where you need glitched 2 lines, where the door wouldn't open even though the box was on the sensor, but otherwise it was extremely polished. Also damn you made a lot of levels for just a jam! Good job!
rogual
2021-10-04 18:00
Very stylish entry. I like the black-and-white graphics and hacker aesthetic. Is that the old IBM font?
The sokoban block-pushing puzzles were well-implemented and made me think (though the ability to move continuously while holding down a key would have been quite nice). Once the "twist" happened things got a lot harder. Couldn't always figure out why the doors were closing on me and killing me.
"Players frustrated," lol.
A really impressive submission! Congratulations :D The tone reminded my of portal and the atmosphere you've managed to create in so short an amount of time is incredible. Seriously well done! This is one of my favourites so far, the humour was amazing too!
Art style is great, puzzles are well thought out and consistent!
pdotjpg
2021-10-04 21:55
Thanks everyone! I'm so happy to read that some of you are responding well to the look and especially to the puzzle difficulty. That's a very tough thing to gauge, and I was crossing my fingers that I got it about right.
@dalep thanks for pointing that out! It's a bug, yeah. I had that happen during development a few times, but couldn't figure out what was happening (and, tbh, didn't have time to fix it). Nice catch!
@paperaeroplane555 I like the purity of the objects disappearing completely, but I hear you. Maybe some sort of glitch effect would read better than disappearing.
@nicmagnier So cool to read about your a-ha moment! As for undoing and the odd behaviour of phasing - if there was more time to add or fix things, those two would be next on the list for sure. If there's ever a larger version of this game, it should have infinite undos.
@rogual haha, added that message to let players know that the game isn't broken but that they haven't solved the puzzle. Burn unintended. Yeah, interaction with phasing objects is a bit inconsistent (doors kill you, crates don't), I can see how that would be annoying. A lot of the mechanics could use a slower and clearer ramping up to. Cool that you noticed the font :) It's not the original, but it's the best old-school console/terminal type font I've found over the years: http://webdraft.hu/fonts/classic-console/
I'm pretty bad with puzzle games xD But had good fun with this one! Specially with the graphics and overall feeling this tiny game can achieve with so little, very well done in that regard! :)
This one is way to charming! I like how my impulse to move faster broke my solutions, so I have to get into the mindset and slow down. Well done! This one should be on switch or Playdate.
Nice take on sokoban. I think it took to long to get to the meat of the game...I think there are too many standard sokoban levels to get it started. Great entry.
On the stage with text: "This stage seems unbeatable?" I suddenly lost the ability to move completely after just randomly moving around in the starting area. Still managed to continue the game by resetting so not that big of an issue. Other than that I had no problems. The game has nice visuals, audio, idea and polish. It's very good overall. The little messages are a nice detail.
nice integration of theme to this puzzle genre. its a classic
A really fun puzzle game, may be personal but i'm not really a fan of the character design.
Good job overall.
lcstark
2021-10-05 19:23
A fantastic take on the Sokoban! The scanline mechanic makes it really interesting and I don't even know how many levels I went through before stopping.
One bug I found - in this image on your Itch page you can see how the door is working when the box is phasing in and out: [SCANLINE gif](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTIyMDk5MC83MTIyNTkxLmdpZg==/original/jLzn%2FH.gif)
For me it seemed like the phasing box wasn't detected at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw01UFJBBAI
Other than that one issue, I loved this game. The aesthetic is just great, the game plays smoothly and the level/puzzle design is amazing. Well done!
Creative interpretation of the theme and a creative twist on some traditional mechanics. The idea that there is a limit of 4 I've never seen before and your use of this in the mechanics of the puzzles was really well executed.
pdotjpg
2021-10-05 21:14
@octahedronsoftware @lcstark thank you for pointing out the bugs. They happened a few times during development. The tile-based movement and object implementation is really janky, haha, so there are strange edge cases. Didn't have time to fix them, and luckily there's the level restart as a last resort. Thank you for sticking through, and for the nice words despite the technical hickups.
@paroxysmal yeeah, you might be right. It's so difficult to gauge the difficulty ramping with puzzle games. I really didn't want to throw players in the deep end, but maybe I went too far in the other direction. I understand that people don't want to play LD games for long. Thanks for the feedback and kind words!
@zsharpfire ha, fair enough, I drew it in like 3 minutes and literally didn't have time to go back and do anything else. It's not the most inspired design out there, I agree.
reccy
2021-10-05 21:29
Hey there fellow black and white, pixel art, grid-based puzzler game dev! I really enjoyed this, it's super polished and you can't really go wrong with a Sokoban game! The scanline mechanic is so inspired, I'd love to know how you came up with it! I played through a lot of levels but I didn't get a chance to finish it because there's a lot of other games I want to play for LD, but I'll definitely come back and finish this after the jam! One of my favourites so far, great job :smile:
zain
2021-10-05 23:03
I've never played a game like this before and I had a lot of fun with it. The music and art really add to the experience as well.
kora0h
2021-10-05 23:15
Lovely little puzzle game.I was little confused with unstable mechanism at first time, but after that, I think the design was great.Nice work!
gibss
2021-10-06 10:23
Great sokoban! It's a really inventive mechanic but I had to "rage quit" after the 11th time getting killed because I miss timed a door skip. I'm not sure it is necessary to game over the player when they get squashed by a door right? Would it break some puzzles if you could just sit in the door for an extra cycle? But otherwise it's a great concept. Worth developing further in my opinion.
Very well executed had fun playing this
Don't really know what to say. Just a GREAT game. Amazing compo (and general) jam submission! LOVE visuals, audio, the way new mechanics are introduced... Just great.
Really cool game, with a really unique mechanic. I wasn't able to solve all the puzzles, but it was very fun :)
xlambein
2021-10-07 09:44
I *love* this game, this is excellent and 100% my vibe :D I absolutely dig the retro aesthetics & the humour of this, and the gameplay & level design are great. This is my favourite entry so far.
If I had one remark, it's that I'm often frustrated when I have to restart a level because of one mistake. I love the "undo" feature in Baba Is You, and I feel like it would make this game slightly less frustrating at times.
solah
2021-10-07 13:50
Wow, very nice game! The puzzle design and graphics are great! Well done!
pdotjpg
2021-10-07 21:26
So nice to read this feedback, thanks everyone!
@reccy , I think the train of thought that took me to the scanline idea was Unstable -> Glitches -> Old hardware aesthetic -> NES 8-sprite-per-scanline limit. Thanks so much for the positive feedback!
@gibss , I totally get what you mean with the doors and it's a shame it got too frustrating. I wanted the doors to simply push the player back, but under the time pressure, this was the quickest thing to implement. Thanks for the words of encouragement regarding developing this further - I was toying with the idea and it's nice to see someone else think so too.
@xlambein Thanks so much! So nice to read that it's your favourite so far. 100% agree about the undo feature. Simply didn't have time to implement it.
rubr
2021-10-08 00:34
A simple to understand mechanic that has a lot of potential and fits the theme right on! The art and the sounds/music also suit the game perfectly. Maybe the fact that the player sprite doesn't face left when the player walks left is a little annoying, but that's such a minor thing it's difficult to even call it a nitpick.
I echo the sentiment of an undo button, though. Making one wrong move and then having to replay the entire level gets frustrating fast.
Bet, visā visumā, ļoti laba spēle! :)
reef
2021-10-08 04:56
Cool interpretation of sokoban and the theme! I really liked the music, it fit the thinking required for you puzzles perfectly. Really polished and clever use of limitations.
nyxkn
2021-10-08 13:23
Very cute. Had to really turn on my brains for this one. Got stuck eventually anyway :( Really cool atmosphere!
I *loved* the sheer creativity of this game, including the scanline (no pun intended) aesthetic and moody background song! The "four objects per line" limitations with the fading in/out made for an incredible variety of puzzles! Kudos for both the creativity and the end result!
Really good game with a clever gameplay - something which reminds me a Sokoban game, but more polished. The main aesthetic is gorgeous - like the background music. It works well as expected. A really good entry. Well done ++
Awesome game! I love the twist you added to the Sokoban gameplay. There's just nothing negative I can say about this game. :)
Good puzzle game! Very fun to play!
Very clever variant of Sokoban! I do like it very much! Not easy, but fun!
willoxs
2021-10-11 18:41
I dont have to add anything new - just wanted to say that the game is really good imo.
Btw cool idea with the "games that need love" posts.
A really fun game, I really enjoyed it. Simple graphics, yet the game looks very good. Good job!
muse-x
2021-10-11 19:18
Man, you are a genius! This game is technically easy to implement, but the mechanics and levels are great! At some levels I really had to sweat (especially when I had already solved the puzzle and on the way to the finish line you were eaten by the door XD). But in an hour I went through everything! This is my favorite ludum game at the moment!
clonze
2021-10-12 07:20
Player is frustrated is an understatement. I'm so confused! Good game though.
Great Job! Loved the sound design and glitchy grading you did. The puzzles were a bit difficult but still great game
I like the retro art style and glitchy visual effect. The amount of content is impressive for a game made with only 48 hours. Cool game! Like others already said, I also wish there was an "undo" button.
pancelor
2021-10-17 14:45
I wish it was easier to recover from dying -- undo, or faster movement speed, or smaller levels. (I stopped after dying to the 6-door-gauntlet level) I also find it a bit weird to have realtime elements (especially ones so punishing) in a sokoban game, but that's probably just a difference in taste.
I love the art style! the tiny palette and the crt effect are great, and the little glitchy things in the walls are a nice touch
pdotjpg
2021-10-18 07:12
Thank you everyone for playing! Seeing the response to this game has been so nice.
@rubr Paldies :)
@willoxs glad you appreciated those posts. I find self-advertising on the home page really annoying, haha - goes against the community spirit of LD. Thanks for checking out my game, glad you liked it.
@muse-x thanks so much! It's so nice to read such positive feedback, means a lot :)
@clonze sorry you were frustrated. I put that message in that level specifically to communicate to the player that the solution is a bit outside-the-box, but you're not the only one who's been rubbed the wrong way by it. I guess I didn't introduce the object phasing mechanic well enough. That's a really difficult thing to get right without extensive playtesting. Thanks for giving the game a shot, though!
@junjunlowpoly absolutely agree about the undo, like I've said before. @pancelor I know what you mean about the punishing aspect - this would be remedied with the undo feature, and that, I think, would also make the realtime elements more palatable (although, as I'm thinking about maybe pursuing this further, I am playing with the idea of objects phasing per turn, not in real time - we'll see). As for the 6-door level, did you sync up the two rows of phasing objects? That's the intended solution, which leads to relatively forgiving timing to get through the doors. If you were trying to brute-force it through there with precision timing, I'd have to redesign that puzzle to make it clear that is not the solution.
pancelor
2021-10-19 18:00
@pdotjpg I did not sync up the doors (although after I died I realized that was probably the right thing to do!)
pdotjpg
2021-10-20 13:10
@pancelor , thanks for the clarification! Really valuable feedback, appreciate it.
2023-03-08 09:35
I really appreciate it because it's a fantastic imitation of [eggy car](https://eggy-car.com/) and requires navigation keys to play.