FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD52 → Shape Orchard

Shape Orchard

By binney

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall623.8427
Fun1263.5427
Innovation74.2828
Theme2763.0627
Graphics144.3828
Audio1.6313
Humor2661.9023
Mood343.9526

Comments

angryrubberducky 2023-01-08 22:31

A unique experience, I like the artistic take on this theme, not something I would've expected. Ending took me by surprise. Very open ended from here if you wish to continue working on this game.

feor 2023-01-08 22:41

This is the best game I've played yet in terms of visuals, I absolutely love the concept. I think the puzzle aspect could be improved on by making it clearer how the colors are mixed (or was that just me), but I played it to the end just to get more of the art.

danyclockworker 2023-01-09 13:52

Went through the whole game with pleasure. Beautiful art.

jyogeet 2023-01-09 13:52

Very good in terms of visuals

kiv 2023-01-09 13:58

great game! really unique and creative. the final level is just a masterpiece

horda 2023-01-09 14:00

I saw your Art in LD News thread and thought it was promising! I Love the game esthetic a lot, I got even surprised when it gets Kandinsky-like. It is a well polished, original and relaxing experience! :D

resevoir 2023-01-09 15:04

I like how the mechanics integrate deeply with the visual style to create the game experience. Also feel like the color mixing mechanic could be taken in many interesting directions if you so desired. Want to mention: I don't know if there was supposed to be sound, but I could not hear any.

gcake 2023-01-09 15:07

A cool entry. The art match well with the idea of the game. About puzzles aspect, I would have thought about moving all kind of shapes to mix the colors to ultimately be able to have the bright red haha.

A small 'bug' ? : When circles are validated they visually disappear but they can still be pushed around. They are just invisible :ghost:

binney 2023-01-09 17:04

thank you all, I'm very humbled by your comments!!

> I don’t know if there was supposed to be sound, but I could not hear any.

Nope, I didn't have time sadly, there is no sound.

> A small ‘bug’ ? : When circles are validated they visually disappear but they can still be pushed around. They are just invisible

Ooh!!! Excellent spot. I have now patched this and will put a quick changelog in the game entry.

cactusdan 2023-01-09 19:49

Loved the artstyle on this. If the mechanics were expanded on I think I'd really enjoy this as a full game.

fabian-denter 2023-01-12 22:17

One of the most visually pleasing entries I've seen so far, very cool. Also the mechanic with the color mixing is very nice. I feel like the movement of the circles could use be a bit of work, sometimes it felt quite floaty. Also this game would be perfect for a subtle ambient soundscape, but even without that it's a very cool, and very unique game!

geckoo1337 2023-01-13 20:50

Interesting game with a neat aesthetic. I like Kandinsky and his work and I found here his spirit. The gameplay is not really hard and there is no difficulty - it is more a visual experience. I don't see in your project any link with the theme, but why not? I had fun playing. Thank you for this entry ++

gotanod 2023-01-14 18:49

Very good game! I like the smooth movement and the collision with the lines. And the rotation of the circle when rolling down in the last level. Good job!

cat-chef 2023-01-15 17:29

Wow! Loved this experience. Great tribute to our guy Wassily, but also so so so pleased to see you take your own spin on the style and make something that is your own. Really powerful artistic accomplishment here, congratulations and thanks for sharing such a cool game!!! cheers:)

pekolio 2023-01-15 17:47

I really like the idea, the game is beautiful! The last stage is surprising, good job!

tygrak 2023-01-15 17:58

Super cool idea! And actually really fun -- a super pleasant relaxing experience. I liked the art. The final level was a very cool twist too.

One thing I am not sure about is if there was no music/sounds? I didn't hear any but its possible it was broken for me. If you didn't have any that is of course fine, I'd just suggest opting out of the category, which you should be able to do even for the compo :).

amarokczukay 2023-01-15 18:34

really unique game and style, i love the originality! (it talks to me very much because i have a collection of 1400 pictures of red circles, this one will add-up to the collection!) i'm not quite sure about the last level tho, it breaks the art you went for during the whole game imo.

controls were not super easy because the circles kept moving a bit, and sometimes, the time i have my hand on my mouse, it's not in the right zone anymore.

wouter52 2023-01-15 18:43

I like your game! The last level was surprisingly diffrent! I think more levels would have been appriciated in this one. I did not hear any sound btw, is that an error on my part? I think this game could use some really relaxing/ambient music in the background :-)

In the beginning I did not really know that I could move the spheres around. And once moving, I think the movement was a bit too floaty for my taste.

Graphics are awesome!

richard-vollebregt 2023-01-15 19:21

Very nice work! This whole game feels like a piece of artwork. Could use a few more levels, and maybe some sound / music as well. Well done!

rob6566 2023-01-16 00:18

Interesting idea, and well executed. I liked the last level. I would have liked it to be a bit more difficult - maybe moving parts of the background to combine multiple colours or some restriction that made it possible to fail and retry a level. Nice work!

cassowary 2023-01-16 01:06

Cute! It really does feel like controlling an abstract art piece. I wish there was a bit more of a logic aspect to it, but this kind of relaxing experience is also cool! I actually didn't really have a problem with the floaty movement, I think it suited the vibe of the game.

binney 2023-01-16 09:42

Thank you all for playing, I'm glad you liked the art!!

Yeah I'm not super happy about the movement controls. I played with it a bit and don't feel I nailed how I wanted it to feel. In particular I struggled not to have the circles bouncing around hyper fast!!

As for level design, I totally agree, I have a few ideas for ways to make it less "passive experience" and more "puzzle game" - e.g. formalising the colour mixing mechanisms. I hope to pick it up in a future weekend and flesh it out a bit :)

Plus obviously try and crib off other abstract artists for future levels (I think a set of Mondrian levels would be super cool...!)

kikiriki367 2023-01-16 10:08

A really nice game and an interesting graphic choice. I have to ask was it inspired by Piet Mondrians "Composition of Red, Blue and Yellow"? :3

binney 2023-01-16 21:06

@kikiriki367 you are close! It was in fact inspired by several works by Kandinsky including "Circles in a Circle" (1923)

circles.jpg

and "Several Circles" (1926)

49.jpg

In fact all the colours in this game were eyedroppered from those 2 works.

I would love to do a Mondrian level though, I think it would work nicely with the line walls...

mondrian.png

Or a Sonia Delaunay:

Sonia-Delaunay-Diagonale-1970.jpg

Or even (to be honest I don't like him that much but) a Damien Hirst. Imagine how much fun it would be going completely haywire knocking all these circles out of place!!!

hirst.png

I will be working on this game a bunch more so watch this space (not jam any more obviously though).

local-minimum 2023-01-17 16:03

Really unique game! It took me a while on the first painting because I though it was red enough there in the middle so was about to give up on it... so in that regard, it might be worth considering making an even easier first level where there's no almost right alternative just to let the player know that when they've done right they also get that visual ring around the circle feedback.

I really loved the twist in how after a while there was some gravity, and I feel like it could be expanded with different fields or areas behaving slightly differently. But not at all to make it a hard game or anything, but to add some more variation to add to the joy of navigating around the paintings.

As someone who barely ever manages to add music, and many times have made silent games, I should perhaps not say this, but I think some experimental music or if music was created based on movement of circle and its coloration would have added a lot to the mood of the game.

Very happy I found it and got to try it out

kikiriki367 2023-01-24 11:23

Im not that much into art, i just recognized it by accident because of my friend liking his art a lot. :)) But i still like the idea of incorporating art in some way. And to be honest as much as im not that into it i love learning something new in tiny bits, so thank you for this lovely comment <3. Might sound weird but, maybe if you post updates for the game you can post some pictures that also inspired you for that current update like you did here. It would be really interesting to read!

And for the picture from Damien Hirst, if you get just a jpg of it, you can make a script in unity that can load a color at coordinate X*offset(the distance between circles). And spawn a circle at each of those coordinates with the given color! And there you go a really fast way of doing it! And i know its possible and easy since i did something like this a year ago! :)) And i can help you if you ever feel like doing it and get stuck!

cat-lab 2023-01-25 23:25

Wow absolutely LOVE this entry, one of my favourites by far. The Kandinsky inspiration is so creative and aesthetically pleasing! Would love some kind of ambient music track in the background, I think it would really suit it. The controls do seem to be a bit floaty, but as long as you're ready to hit the spacebar not a huge issue. Really well done!