therealmoebius 2022-04-05 04:14
Failed and stuck in a loop.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Death and Taxes: A Puzzle Game
By alphish, rooksword and jakesidwell
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 698 | 3.52 | 24 | |
| Fun | 793 | 3.28 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 252 | 3.73 | 25 | |
| Theme | 1109 | 3.23 | 25 | |
| Graphics | 1013 | 3.21 | 25 | |
| Audio | 488 | 3.47 | 25 | |
| Mood | 901 | 3.28 | 25 |
Failed and stuck in a loop.
Took a bit for me to get the hang of the system Essentially, you can ignore the left most move (the one you will do) and shift it to the back of the queue (far right). Once you've resisted a move, it will be deleted after it is finally used. Cool puzzle mechanic; would make a neat mobile game!
The install was a bit weird. Had to unzip, then had to extract again after running the game file, then could run the 2nd extracted set of files.
This was super super super confusing at first, I think I spent 2 or 3 minutes just trying to figure out which arrow happened when I pressed green.
But once I got it, I was impressed by the super unique puzzle system! I've never seen anything like it before, and with 25 levels to boot I was shocked you had managed to create so much content in the time limit. Great job!!
An issue I found with the puzzles though is that theres no way to fail them really, you can just press orange as much as possible. I think a "maximum move" number that you need to get under would really improve the puzzle solving aspect.
Good job on the art and puzzle design, overall a devent concept and prototype :)
A cool little puzzle game. Even though each action was a binary choice, that still lead to a lot of possible answers. I like how you have to think several moves ahead to plan out your solution. There's also an impressive amount of mechanics in here for a jam game. I will say that it was occasionally possibly to just guess and check to sort of brute force the solution, which got me through many puzzles. Overall, a solid puzzle game. Nice work!
Didn't understand how the system worked at first, but a lot of fun after I figured it out. Very nice difficulty balance, could easily see this turned into a more fleshed-out release. Nice work!
Great game mechanic and level designing! The backstory is quite funny too. I wished the filename of the Windows download matched the name of the game (it was hard to recall which download was yours at the time of this rating) =)
Thank you for sharing your game on my Twitch stream (MsMiaChar). Please see my feedback at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1448706042?t=00h17m40s
Interesting idea! Some notes:
* It's a very unique and puzzly idea, nice job on coming up with this and the levels * The core mechanics of the puzzle are hard to understand/you can't relate to the real world to reason why the rules are like this. I tried to come up with an idea with a robot needing to erase the program, but failed to find a fitting setting/story, so not sure if there is one. * The title about death and taxes is great for the competition, but the theme/graphics are a bit random in the game. Maybe an abstract grid would have done the job better since the theme is not adding much to the game IMO. * Nice music, it doesn't get repetitive and fits well! * I got to level 9 then quit, unfortunately my brain didn't "click" and got satisfaction from truly understanding the puzzle, it was more like try some random things until you find the solution. * Please add a clickable reset button :) * No bugs!
Good job on the entry!
Really nice game ! The concept is cool. As other comments have said, it's not easy to understand the rules, I like the idea of being a tax collector. Good job !
quite addictive, I didn't understand at first, and then how I understood. Too addictive, how to stop playing it?
Great and funny concept, I love it!!
Very interesting concept! When I finally figured the system out I was blown away
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Clearly, one recurring theme is that it takes a while to understand the concept, but once it "clicks" it's enjoyable.
I wish we would have added some tutorial (or ingame story, for that matter), but alas we ran out of time. Myself, I wanted to make sure all the animations work properly; I hope they were enjoyable at least. I also made different graphics for different areas (and there's different flavour of the music as well), though it seems most people end their playthrough before even reaching the second one. ^^'
As for the ZIP name not matching the game title name: that's because I and Rooksword came up with the titles independently, and "Clash of Certainties" was a last minute name I came up with before realising there's already the game page with "Death and Taxes" title. The ZIP isn't called "DelayTheSFXWithRooms", at least...
@christian-zommerfelds As the game description explains, the movement commands are caused by the Reaper's mind control, and you need to shake it off by first resisting the command and then following it to get it out of the system. Granted, the plot explanation came after the game mechanics themselves - the initial idea was some kind of random dungeon crawler, but we settled on a puzzle game because properly balancing a crawler with these kinds of commands would be an insurmountable task, especially in 3 days span. Originally, it was meant to be properly explained in the game dialogue (also, how Reaper is delaying the inevitable by trying to stave off the tax official), but time constraints happened. ^^'
(also, here's a little secret: you can use C to move to the previous level, and V to move to the next level, so you can check out different areas and gameplay mechanics; it doesn't register the level as completed in the level selection screen, mind)
really cool puzzle game! very interesting and hard to learn but fun