gary-the-enchanter 2023-05-02 02:37
Wow, I enjoyed this one! The mechanics and puzzles were really clever!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → Why Deliver Y ?
By aurel300
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 39 | 4.27 | 22 | |
| Fun | 163 | 3.92 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 45 | 4.20 | 22 | |
| Theme | 778 | 3.72 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 224 | 4.22 | 22 | |
| Audio | 73 | 4.15 | 22 | |
| Mood | 17 | 4.47 | 22 |
Wow, I enjoyed this one! The mechanics and puzzles were really clever!
Thoroughly enjoyed this!
Very well polished game, although not sure how closely it connects to the theme "delivery". The graphics are nice, the puzzles are great! Nice entry!
Very cool! Got the "secret" ending on my first try.
Screenshot 2023-05-04 at 17.11.22.png
You get hard locked on that ending by the way. Had to refresh and try the normal one. Glad you had enough of a foresight to have a cheat for that (too).
Awesome way of telling a story really. Supported the gameplay very well so that even a slide puzzle hater such as I managed to breeze through it without any loathing. Also very glad that you didn't include any time/move limit so you can puzzle out those solutions in peace.
The lock picking mini game was my favourite part of the game really. Too bad it was very underused and that having no time pressure or anything really made it less of a hurdle. And now that I think about it, even the "enemy" detecting and moving mechanic was pretty much just scraping the surface. But obviously it was already pretty large scope for a jam and of course it's better the keep it tight feeling and have players wanting more than get repetitive. And the story could have easily handled few more levels of suspense to make the pacing better, now the end came kinda fast in my opinion.
The arrow keys didn't work on the level cleared menu. Of course not a major issue as I switched to WASD and mouse anyway after figuring out that the lock picking needs mouse anyway.
I think this might have been the only part where it happens but it wasn't great that you get ambushed from a blind angle because you had to flashlight on and have to replay the level to learn about it and keep your light off. Guess it hits two birds with one stone by teaching you about the restart too. 🤷♀️
Screenshot 2023-05-04 at 16.53.52.png
Then of course you go and punish that blind faith in turning off your flashlight at the start of each level like this... 😶
Screenshot 2023-05-04 at 17.39.08.png
Was it actually intentional that you could use the flashlight as a glorifier "skip turn" button? I felt like I cheesed at least one level with it.
It looked and sounded awesome! Nice pixel art and animation with just a few frames. Kudos. Perfect color choices too. 👍 Music fit the mood very well but having some jazzy drums (with brushes obviously) would have been sweet addition as a classic noir style detective trope. Did you do it yourself by the way? Didn't see any mention about it and I recall you having someone else usually tackle that part.
Didn't like the i in the font though. Of course it's just an opinion. Interesting choice though but it does make the text harder to read. There were some overlap too like this.
Screenshot 2023-05-04 at 17.44.33.png What's with the rank? It doesn't seem like rating on how well you did on the level and I at least couldn't find any difficulty selection or such.
Good job! 👍 Very full experience with practically no issues. Left me wanting more. Wanting more slide puzzles, guess I'm going crazy...
Wow. Currently in my top 3 of things in the jam. Only note I would make is that I completely forgot I use toggling the flashlight to skip a turn. It's a really cool puzzle, but I got completely blocked on it until I actually came back and was reading other peoples comments, even though I was able to solve everything else.
Would love to see some more done with this. Also I have to wonder if the lockpicking puzzle should be replaced with something that fits a bit... better? Like was mentioned, there's no time pressure, or reason to try to go fast.
Wow, I really enjoyed this. Super pleasant visuals, and the use of narrative as a tutorial was brilliant. My only suggestion would be a way to speed up the tile swapping animation. There were times (especially the level near the end with the crates) where I had a sequence of moves in mind, and having to pause for each one felt tedious. Finally, I loved the music, super eerie and melancholy, but I thought a couple of the sound effects, especially the "end of level" sound took me out of the atmosphere a bit. But overall, I'm super impressed by this game. Felt very cohesive and polished, way more than I'd expect from anyone in 72 hours. Congrats!
@gary-the-enchanter @floralvikings Thanks for playing!
@zahkros Yeah, the theme is… there-ish (:
@antti-haavikko Thanks for the comment as always! I'm glad I made you enjoy a sliding puzzle, I don't generally like them either :D The mechanics indeed could have been utilised more, I did not manage to actually work on most of the levels until relatively late in the jam (with ~6 hours to go or so). Clearly some levels could have been a bit more balanced/polished! I realised the flashlight button was a skip turn indeed, and it was my intended solution for at least one level. The music is mine, yes, I just noodled on the piano for a couple of minutes and it sounded ok as a soundtrack. I considered recording a drum track over the piano as well, but I am not as good with the drums as with the piano. (Also the jazzy brush sound is a bit tricky to replicate on electronic drums.) Yeah the font is not intentional really, I should have turned off the outlining instead of setting it to the background colour. The rank at the end of the level is either "hard-boiled" (because you're a hardboiled detective) or when you lose it is "fried" (because egg pun). I forgot to make it "poached" if you get jailed.
@gametrodon Thanks! Yeah, I considered timed lockpick puzzles. On the other hand, it would have been the first thing that is actually time-sensitive in an otherwise turn-based game.
@michael-darling Good point. I made sure to make the tile swapping much faster for the enemies when there were too many on the board, but there could have been something for the player as well. I agree the "end of level" sound was a bit jank but I didn't want to record more :D
One of my favorite entries of this jam. Amazing combination of puzzle design and story telling. Impressive works!
Yet again, you did it, and did it well. I really love the game. It's really easy to catch, but have a deep gameplay as usual.
Just finished the game and, only then, I got the pun ("Harry D. Boyle" / "hard-boiled") 😅
It's very cool that you managed to make clever uses of the sliding puzzle mechanic.
You do not disappoint. A pleasure to see another of your entries, despite taking a bit of time - it was rewarding and well thought out. You did great to integrate your idea/story into the original puzzle mechanics. Having the flashlight on seemed to have very little benefit, but with some additional levels / puzzles I'm sure it could have been utilised more. Da iawn!
I dint manga to find how to finish the level the chase! Otherwise great film noir atmosphere, and clever game design idea! Capture d’écran 2023-05-07 003158.png
Wow, what a unique and moody game, I love it! For a dummy like me who's not too into puzzle games, this was pretty challenging, but I was just enjoying the ride. It's hard to believe you put together such a complete experience in such a short time. Fantastic job!
This is a seriously amazing entry, the sound effects were prefect, the controls super intuitive, reloading a failed attempt was nice and quick, and adding the tutorial levels was genius! A seriously fantastic puzzler!
@daivyishere I'm glad the combination worked out. :)
@dxk2294 @shane-gadsby Thanks for playing!
@tricky-fat-cat Thanks! It's always nice to catch the LD regulars during streams also.
@wendel-scardua Really happy that someone noticed the pun :sob:
@honest-dan Diolch am chwarae'r gêm! (I hope Google is not making me insult you somehow.)
@roroto-sic There is a cheatcode to unlock all levels just in case!
I wanted to play this, but I got stuck at the tutorial. I didn't know what to do to open the lock. I tried to use the mouse somehow, but the thing closed again very, very fast and then the police guy got me every single time. I rated anyway, taking other people's comments into account.
@seshoumara Ah, thanks for trying anyway! If you find the time to return to this: the lockpicking is a "mouse maze". After you click the lock icon, don't move your mouse just yet. You need to move it slowly to avoid the walls (which only show when the cursor is near them), navigate the maze, and reach the goal.
Loved the interplay between the story and gameplay! Really interesting idea. Also managed to get the secret? ending first time round so had to restart to see the expected one. Glad you had the level unlock code!
Here’s the stream if you wanted to watch initial thoughts (timestamps in the description to jump to your game!) [youtube link](youtu.be/Y-lHyYRQspI)