Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Down to the Wire
By mieeh, Max B, EmilBert, linnet5, robotgandhi and Rubbcorp
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 70 | 4.12 | 103 | |
| Fun | 59 | 4.13 | 103 | |
| Innovation | 107 | 3.96 | 103 | |
| Theme | 1161 | 3.15 | 104 | |
| Graphics | 573 | 3.80 | 104 | |
| Audio | 171 | 3.95 | 103 | |
| Mood | 358 | 3.80 | 98 |
Really well made puzzler. The different icons and increasing complexity feels a lot like The Witness. I wasn't able to make it to the end, but I'll keep trying. The time element raises the stress level of solving puzzles like these. Really like the clean visuals and vibey background music.
I really enjoyed playing, the minimalist graphics and the puzzles were very clean, and the entire game was extremely well polished! The puzzle mechanics were also polished very well, and I liked the unique features like the switches and the locks! The sound design also worked very well with creating tension with the timer, and the sound effects on the whole worked very well with the game!
The theme maybe could have been imposed in the puzzles in some way? Maybe that's just me, because the theme was very much present in the sense of the timer being there.
Also very impressive including a leader board in a Ludum Dare jam game! Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this one especially due to the high polish!
The puzzles are great! Challenging with a lot of "gotcha" moments. The graphics is neat, very clean and polished, good job guys! :v:
Terrific effort. Flawless minimalist art coupled with tight gameplay and professional quality music and sound. Check out my full review at https://www.twitch.tv/scalphamission
Nice puzzle with great mood. It's hard to make a good puzzle in such little time!
This was super well done. The puzzles were very creative and engaging to play. If I didn't know it was for ludum dare I would have assumed it took a lot longer to make.
The puzzles are pretty smart, the minimalist design works well and is clean even if it could have been more juicy. The music is nice though, well done, even if it gets a little repetitive it helps the mood for sure. The theme though, hmm, it works but I feel like this is not very innovative, it's just a timer to complete the game, maybe I'm a little harsh though Still a neat entry, polished, clean, no bugs, puzzle system works well, nice!
pretty cool! the art, music and gameplay make a pretty solid package, the leader board is an amazing feature for such a short development time!
but more importantly, the level design and progression is what really makes the game enjoyable! all new mechanics are introduced in a cohesive way and the difficulty ramps up nicely! great job!
Really clean entry, clever puzzles :) Good job.
Really like the puzzle take on the theme! Simple gameplay with stylish visuals and music. Great job!
Love how you learn how to play the game by playing it. What a clean job! Love this game!
Challenging puzzle game with an interesting mechanic.
Was only able to get the level 23, but will probably come back and play it a bunch more to try and beat it. A bit curious how the scoring works. Is your score the time left when you beat the game?
Super nice game! The mechanics are well implemented, it's a fun concept, and I love the audio! I managed to get to level 25.
So, I really like the clean visual style, and the puzzles are well-made and tricky, with interesting interactions between the mechanics. The non-verbal explanation style and abstract 'find a path' gameplay really does remind me of The Witness.
I will say I don't ... really understand why there's a timer? It makes it hard to slow down and focus on making deductions. I think I would prefer this game a lot more if it didn't have time pressure and if you could undo your last move. It's frustrating especially on the bigger levels to make a mistake and need to restart the whole level. I didn't make it to the end, but I made it pretty close... except I don't really have a desire to replay through all the levels I already solved just to get back to where I was, you know? But, maybe that's just me.
That said, if you wanted to add some kind of 'zen mode' or something where you can solve all the puzzles at your own pace, I would love that! The puzzle system here is really really solid and you've got a really interesting set of mechanics going on.
Really awesome Puzzle game! Love the vibe and gameplay is super fun and addicting! Great work! I think the game would benefit more in the next pass of development from harder puzzles without the timer etc!
Very cool puzzle game! I know it's the entire point of the game, but I wish the "fail condition" wasn't so punishing. I finally figured out level 27 or so with 11 seconds to spare, and didn't have enough time to act it out. It's a huge share I'd have to restart the entire game from level one, as I don't have the patience to play through everything a second time just for 2 more levels.
The music was cool, and the minimalist art style looks great! Overall, it's a really cool game!
I like this style!
Great game. I like how the mechanics keep increasing and get more and more difficult. I think I got to Level 15. The minimalistic style is pretty and fits in with the itch.io background (I didn't play in fullscreen). It was like it's implemented into the page
Really nice puzzle game ! Sometimes I was like "omg that's too much" but it's not so hard, because when there is new stuff, they are helping you to find the way. The music is nice also. Overall good experience playing !
Wow! The music is sick! I feel like I'm a spy or something trying to defuse a bomb ahah The atmosphere is on point and the puzzles are well designed. The graphics are also super clean, love it!
@gabriel-bissonnette Thank you so much for the kind words! Bomb defusal was actually the first concept we had but we decided to abstract it a bit more and leave it up to interpretation. I'm glad the music could convey the emotion we were going for!
Very polished aesthetic, i liked the puzzles and the audio especially was so good! Great entry
Really polished game. I loved it. The puzzles and mechanics make it extremely fun and addictive. Congratulations!
The main thing I appreciate about this game is the difficulty curve. New mechanics are introduced in a perfect phase.
Oh, and did I mention clean aesthetics and sound design? They are great too.
My only major feedback about the game is that it is kind of reliant on the player color sight. If you will develop this game after the jam, I would explore ways to convey the information without using colors alone.
I love this! The simplistic graphics really work well, and the music is perfect, it does an excellent job of ramping up the tension. I couldn't finish it, sadly - I got to the level with the lamp you have to light three times and just couldn't figure it out. The rest of the puzzles hit that sweet spot of being challenging, but with an obvious solution once you stopped to think about it for a moment. I'd love to try again at a later point and hopefully beat the whole thing.
This game is quite fun to play and very challenging, but in a good way! I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting for each new mechanic as it came in. It reminds me a great deal of the puzzles in The Witness.
Honestly, this is one of the best games I have played so far!
Great work!
I got to stage 24!
@nash Thanks for the kind words! Regarding the color issue, that's an oversight on our part. If we are to develop this further we will absolutely look into providing an accesibility mode or introducing shape variations in addition to color.
Really polished and fun puzzle game! So cool how it keeps giving you new mechanics to explore. Great job!
Great job! The levels are nicely designed and the complexity ramps up very well, leaving me really puzzling at the last couple of levels! Besides the great level design, the game looks and feels very polished, so overall a great job!
In contrast to the last game I played, which had a chill vibe to it, and had very good gameplay, this one was tense and challenging in the best way possible! The music added to the tension of the game, making it fit the jam's theme very well, and defying that theme if the player manages to finish all of the puzzles (I only got as far as level 21).
The gameplay is simple to follow, starting off with a simple puzzle with a new feature. Then, it builds up the puzzle's difficulty, taking into account the player's knowledge of the previous puzzles and their features, combining them and making the game reasonably well-balanced, while at the same time, tricky to solve.
Graphics-wise, the game is clean and well-put together, as its minimalist, no-frills look helped fit the gameplay!
I will admit, when I picked it up at first, it was a bit fuzzy to follow, but I would not alter anything, since I can't think of anything to change it without messing up the minimalist look.
Overall, this is one of the best games I've played so far! :thumbsup:
Really well made puzzle game! I think I got to around stage 20 somewhere. Any time a new concept was introduced it was intuitive enough to be able to expand upon each stage after that making it slightly more difficult. It was really well balanced, the gameplay flow was really good! The puzzles were balanced well, they were hard enough that when you finally get them it feels really rewarding, without being too frustrating. The minimalistic style fit it well. The sfx and music helped add to the pressure, great job! c:
Good puzzle games are hard to make and you really did a great job introducing and building on mechanics. I would love to have this on my phone!
The puzzle design was really cool; felt like I was on the edge of my seat every round! Nice work!
The style is cool！
Very nice puzzles!
Great puzzle game with nice minimalist graphics and music ! Nice difficulty curve as well and progression through the levels and new mechanisms. Sometimes though I didn't quite understand at first how they worked, took me a few trial and error runs to figure them out. All in all, a great entry ! Good job :thumbsup:
Holy crap, this is awesome! Neatly designed and packed with fun brain teasers! I only wish I could rebind controls, I'm incredibly uncomfortable by playing 2D games with WASD, otherwise it's near perfect and one of the best entries in this jam!
Make a new puzzle game design will always surprise me. Great job team!
fuck off (edit: "this was a joke made while playing this game on stream, I liked the game")
My mind is broken
Great puzzle design, well done. Coming up with a fresh puzzle mechanic and a whole bunch of challenging but beatable levels in a such a short amount of time seems tough.
Excellent puzzle game. The growing complexity and learn-by-doing tutorialization really is reminiscent of The Witness - as others have mentioned. I'd take that comparison as high praise.
Feels like the timer and game over condition is there to adhere to the theme, but doesn't benefit the game in any way. I got to level 23 or something and was having a good time, but the time pressure was a detriment, and I'm not going to replay the game to finish it. Which is a shame because so far the puzzle design was excellent and I would have loved to finish the game. Continuing on that train of thought, an undo button would be great too.
@pdotjpg Thank you for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Regarding the timer, it was actually the first mechanic that we came up with as we wanted to make a "bomb defusal game" where you have to solve puzzles to defuse a ticking bomb. It is a bit harsh by design since we wanted players to feel like they overcame a big challenge if they beat the game but we understand that trying over and over again is not enjoyable for everyone.
If we were to expand this game we would definitely consider creating a zen mode and moving timed mode into being its own game mode. That way every player can play the game how they like, just enjoying puzzles or trying to see if they can solve diffucult ones under pressure.
An undo button is a great suggestion and not something we even considered during development.
Again thank you for the great feedback!
It felt really great for my lil monke brain, especially after on off mechanic introduced it got challenging so not only game is simple yet fun to play the puzzle design is also top notch. You guys clearly seem to spend time designing them unlike me haha great job, congrats!
Great game! I really like the concept of fixing circuits and how it gets more complex as you go on.
@mlkvr Thank you! Yeah the team put some real thought into balancing the levels difficulty as the player progresses! ⚖
Really cool puzzle game! Also really hard.. especially on a timer! :D
Really well done! not easy to do a good puzzle game!
Really interesting puzzles. The different mechanics are cool and very well introduced. Graphics are clean and controls are obviously simple but do work flowlessly.
I wasn't paying attention to the timer too much, I'm assuming you gain time each time you finish a level. I would say it's a bit of a weaker take on the theme imo, but still makes sense and works well with the puzzles.
That was really really clean overall, could be a biome in the witness easely.
Really great level design! you introduced concepts smoothly and intuitively even whilst the player is under a time crunch which is quite impressive. Additionally the audio and mood and gameplay are all great! One of the most fun games to come from this game Jam! Legitimately great work!
This is such a cool puzzle game! A surprising amount of depth for such a simple concept. I was really impressed by the amount of polish on this as well as the amount of well-designed puzzles for such a short time frame. One of the best games I've played so far this jam!
This is a type of game that I really like! Super polished in-game mechanics, nice and simple art style, cool music. The puzzles are so good. Amazing job!
Really neat little puzzle game! The difficulty curve was pretty good, though it got a bit too hard in the end and having to replay all the puzzles was a bit too much. Overall, well designed puzzles and a good use of simple elements.
Excellent puzzle game. Makes you look for a way to pass each level in tension. I got to level 15! I can not help but note the sounds that create 90% of the ambiance!
The puzzles were really nice! I think the audio and the simplistic visuals worked great :) Fantastic idea and great execution!
Very interesting puzzle. I ran out of time at level 22 the first time
I love it! Couldn't get on high score unfortunately on stream, but you better believe I'm coming back >:D
pros: -everything -gameplay, puzzles, sound effects, and overall polish is top tier
minor improvements: -leaderboard names with more than 5 characters -dark mode for my poor, tired, sleep deprived eyes xD -arrow keys and controller support :D
@itsboats thanks for playing! it was very fun watching you play it during stream 😀 We'll be watching the leaderboard for "boats"!!
This game is really well put together, simple yet very close to perfection. The controls are very smooth and it feels pretty satisfying when you are able to finish a level. The mechanics are consistently introduced to the player in a nice design, very well done. See this doing pretty well ! Maybe add a level select and/or a more clear "urgency" queue for when the timer runs out, I was focussing badly on the level and I had no clue I was running out of time. But ... nonetheless... I really enjoyed this one !
I was MONDO tired because it was 2am at the time but I could still recognize this game for the objectively fucking amazing masterpiece that it is. Rather than repeating myself too much, here's what I had to say:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm7cfuY6YNU
lets GOOOOOOOO DownToTheWire.png
Awesome game! I loved it. Easily one of my favourites
This was addicting! And also made me feel smart. Well done!
Super stylish puzzle game. I liked how new mechanics were introduced with levels that allowed experimentation. The music and sound effects were well suited to a puzzle game and I liked they way each puzzle fell away upon completion :)
@jerem-watts wow thanks for the kind words on our game friend! We're glad you enjoyed it as much as you did! Keep an eye out on my itch.io page! We're planning on doing a medium-size update to the game after the jam has ende!
Really cool game. This is one of the most original ideas I've seen so far. The art is great, the difficulty progression is very well done, and the music sets the mood perfectly. At first I thought the time was very forgiving, but when I got to a level I couldn't wrap my head around, I really started to feel the pressure of the timer! haha I got up to stage 21 but definitely gonna play again later bc it's so much fun!
Neat game. I enjoyed figuring out the mechanics as I went. The triangle and double triangle cells confused me for a while but I eventually realized that they restricted options for entering a square but the square can be exited in any direction. I felt clever solving most of the puzzles.
Starting with level 22 there were a number of huge levels that I enjoyed much less. At that size, the power symbols and arrows are harder to see, and its hard for my brain to think about that many tiles at once so I ended up basically just brute forcing paths until finding a path that worked. I made it to level 25 where I timed out after I could only find a path that left one square uncolored.
level 25.png
I think I would have enjoyed these puzzles more without the time pressure, but I also get that the timer exists because of the theme, so I can't fault you there.
The visual and audio feedback for moving was solid, and I really liked the effect where the puzzles fell and bounced away after you solved them.
@almost Thanks for playing! Yeah the 6x6 levels are alot harder due to the clutter/amount of stuff on screen! In a more revised version perhaps this can be mitigated by placing more "empty" blocks for 6x6 levels. We will definently discuss this internally for the post-jam update.
Fantastic puzzle game, intuitive to learn and great simple base to naturally build into expanding mechanics and harder difficulty. Love the little touches to game feel as well such as the persistent progress map, audio effects and the falling puzzle when completed. Great entry to the jam, one of my favourites I've tried so far!
really great game but i had a problem where the colors wouldn't showScreenshot (8).png
Simple and great puzzle game! I managed to survive till 20+ levels, but after that i was just doing trial and error because the grid got to big, so maybe you can add more types of cells instead of increasing the grid size? :)
@aka-black-dog Which browser and what version of that browser are you using? (:
@theblitz Thanks for the feedback! We will take note and keep that in mind for a potential update.
very polished entry. great and innovative puzzle. loved it.
Very neat and innovative game!!! Super cool
Such a fantastic puzzle game. I'm amazed how despite certain levels being so big that the design of it still gave the solution a natural flow. I almost beat level 29 on my first attempt. I got it on my second attempt and couldn't believe I was that close... Great submission!!
@jzucc12 So happy you enjoyed it! And wow reaching and almost beating stage 29 on your first attempt is very impressive!