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xry 2023-10-03 04:31

I love this game a lot! Especially since I relate, I also made my first puzzle game for this jam. Just going to ramble about stuff. - The factory style of puzzle reminds me of Zachtronics games like Infinifactory! - I think there's a lot of QOL to add like being able to speed up the playing phase and swap between phases more smoothly, but that's not so important for a jam game! - The game was pretty intuitive to me at least, I was able to understand what was going on without reading the instructions first lol. That being said making a clearer distinction for the player as to what phases it is may be useful, I did not even realize there was text in the top left telling me what phase I was in until I was done playing. - Many moments where I was just one space off or needed just one more piece created a really fun and intense sense of aporia, which is great for puzzles and revelations! - Some surprising level design was very fun, like seeing A1 for the first time. - To me the game mechanics did not feel very unique or innovative but the level design makes up for it!

Overall, Great job!!

lostcyclop 2023-10-03 09:06

I enjoyed the puzzle mechanics in the game, but one improvement I'd suggest is raising the object movement speed. It needs a faster start-up after hitting 'play' and an auto-reset for failed levels. My girlfriend loved the sounds, especially the winning one! 😄

kanagg 2023-10-04 07:06

Nice work! Sadly, I'm not very good at puzzle games, so I already got stuck on level 4 😄 I don't have much to add. I can second the point about movement speed. Other than that, it's probably just my lack of skill 😄 One game unrelated point, maybe you can add the how to play instructions to the itch page :)

laserpanzerwal 2023-10-04 19:08

Interesting game. It works well, though in its current state theres some necessary QOL to make it more enjoyable. The biggest problem is the lack of any ingame hints on how to play while at the same time not being obvious. It took me a while to understand what I have to do. You can of course point at the description, but in my opinion a game should not require the player to read a manual so they can play, which is even missing on the actual game page. Either its intuitive or shown in the game. The second issue is the playback speed, as others mentioned as well. Having to rely on trial and error for some levels to make everything fit it takes just too long. The idea is solid though and makes good use of the theme. With a bit of overhaul this would make a good "full release" web game for puzzle lovers.

tomknocker44 2023-10-04 19:09

A neat puzzle game. The pieces should definitely move faster and it should reset when you fail. Also felt like there was a lot of input lag on the buttons and sometimes they wouldn't press. The music also stopped playing part way through. Overall a good foundation though.

binroot 2023-10-04 19:11

That got challenging real quick, haha. I was surprised by the complexity and unpredictability of some scenarios (in a good way!). Suggestion: speed up the time it takes to retry a level, since retrying is such a fundamental action for trying new experiments. The game is more and more fun the more I learn how to solve specific scenarios.

vlad-r 2023-10-04 19:15

I loved the style of this puzzle game.

I missed the instructions on playing at first; I would've liked to see these in the game.

Interesting mechanic, fun to play, overall it was a great game!

exergy 2023-10-04 19:16

Very well executed! I really enjoyed it. I do agree with some of the other commenters about the speed. There's quite a lot of waiting for it to travel though the level.

steffo 2023-10-04 19:16

Trying a new format for my comments: **stream of thoughts** while playing the game!

Stream of thoughts

Level 1

Ooh, so that's how it works, it's a bit like ice puzzles!

The playback of the action feels a bit slow... it would be nice if it was a bit faster!

Level 2

How does this spinny thing work...? Oh, it rotates things relative to itself!

Level 3

Huh? Just one goal block? Is getting a single piece of glass there enough?

Buttons feel a bit slow to press...

It seemed like the glass shape broke for no reason at a certain point. Weird...

Level 4

This looks hard...

Oh, it actually is easier than I thought. If only the glass piece didn't move so *slowwwwwww*...

The rotating animation is smooth and satisfying though...

Wait, maybe it's not so easy. OHHHH, I can rotate the rotators!!

Ok, this takes way too long. I'll try another level.

Level A1

Oh, fancy! Two pieces at once! Nice and clean! Done.

Level A2

...it's still locked?!? I guess this is it, then!

Comment

Clever puzzle game overall, but I'm too tired to think it through...

Desperately needs to be faster in the Playing Phase!

irinam 2023-10-04 19:19

It was fun

endurion 2023-10-04 19:20

Very nice game! Due to the moving speed it gets kind of tedious later on. You basically move an action block one tile, press button, wait, repeat. I gave up on level 5, since it takes so long to test out new constellations. Let the player speed that up.

The presentation is smooth, and looks polished. The rotate effect is neat!

But generally Godot 2d games seem to play pretty sluggish on my machine (which is not very strong, but still, it's a plain simple 2d game, nothing taxing). Not your fault though.

Well done!

stevenjmiller 2023-10-04 19:54

Great game, I finished all of the levels. I missed the description but found the mechanics pretty easy to understand even without them thanks to the great introductory levels. I had extra pieces in level 5 and B2 (A2 as well, but that one felt like it was very intentionally giving more pieces to work with); I wasn't sure if these were unintended solutions or just there to give some wiggle room.

Regarding difficulty, I thought 6 was easier than 4 or 5 due to only having rotations and the intended path feeling a bit more telegraphed. A2 was probably the trickiest since it involved using parity to pick which piece goes to which target so they can all be active at the same time, which I think would be hard to notice if you aren't already familiar with the concept. Actually, after writing that, I realized that I was probably supposed to just count path length and went back and solved it that way, so the parity stuff was probably unintentional.

I didn't think to screenshot 5, but I did post my original A2 and B2 solutions below:

a2.png b2.png

rusya-ink 2023-10-04 20:14

Absolutely likes these puzzles

I'd suggest some UI corrections - Add move by step button as a setting (for strugglers) - Fix some input lag - Add settings to speed up animations

On level 5 I was able to not use one rotate block, so maybe there are different solutions. That could be another game mode: Find several (all) solutions

But it's overall solid game, I like it

agraffs 2023-10-05 18:28

Finally ! Completed the whole game. Took me a bit of time, even if the description explains most of the principles, I was able to understand fairly quickly without it which was cool. The puzzles were for some really good problems to tackle. That was really nice. The mechanics are nice but I had a bit of lag when trying to move some items. I had to start a level over at a moment cause I accidentally put a movement block in the wall (a one time bug though so not so problematic). Overall, a solid entry ! Thanks and GG ! :)

smitner 2023-10-06 08:35

I like the concept a lot, the mechanics we're very interesting - the rotational block, effecting the block multiple times was neat.

At one point, I ran into a bug where I placed a block on the walls by accident, I couldn't get it back out :sweat_smile:

Overall, with more juice I think this concept can shine! Nicely done

bug.PNG

snekofspice 2023-10-06 11:55

This was really sleek. I especially enjoyed the buttons, they felt so powerful in their slow movements. The puzzle mechanics felt clean and robust too!

the biggest missing feature for me was the lack of fast-forward. When I was iterating on a later part of a puzzle (especially in stages 4+), I often waited around for a good while until finally got to the part I was actually testing

Also, while visible, the angle and direction changing blocks could've been more visile in their direction. bigger, more glowing arrows, etc.

Overall tho, this was really nice!

zealous-coder 2023-10-06 17:30

I really enjoyed this, it was challenging in spots, the amount of challenge didn't seem to progress linearly to me though. And some quality of life things like a 2x 3x 5x speed adjuster would have been nice. Also the buttons while awesome, had their hit boxes a little weird and their responsiveness felt laggy.

adam-gallina 2023-10-06 18:14

Really creative puzzle game! All of the feedback I had was just QOL stuff that's already been said so I won't bother to reiterate it, but I had a lot of fun!

simon-rahnasto 2023-10-07 12:58

I searching for the active block for an embarrassing amount of time. I might need an extra cup of coffee! 😄

Puzzle games often struggle with the difficulty curve, but I think this game nailed it. It gradually became more challenging, keeping me engaged without feeling overwhelmed.

Oh and the particle effect upon winning was a lovely touch!

Well done!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:06

@xry Thank you for playing the game and for detail feedback! I did not know either of those games so had to check them out, looks like fun. I was thinking about adding speedup button, but it was either this or add one more level. Maybe not the best decision on my side... Probably a pop-up for 2-3 seconds text with phase name on the screen center would be better or change of colors of objects. One more time, thanks!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:09

@lostcyclop Thanks! Happy to hear you enjoyed it! Yes, I clearly missed on not adding speed up button. Still, initially the game speed was half of what I ended up doing, so it was really close to be even worse XD

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:11

@kanagg Thank you for taking your time to play my game! The difficulty progression might not be the most smooth one, since I design them it was hard for me to tell which one is harder. Good idea. I will copy instructions from here to itch.io. Thanks!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:14

@laserpanzerwal Thanks for playing and for commenting! Sorry about lack of QOL stuff, I really need to improve on that part. I'm happy that you think it is a solid idea. Thank you!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:19

@tomknocker44 Thank you for playing and for feedback. Yes, it absolutely should restart on its own. I kind of blank out on that one. Well, either I forgot to set up music as a loop, which is 100% possible since I forgot to check that, or you pressed M key by accident (which muted the music). Thanks for thinking that is a good idea for a game!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:31

@binroot I'm happy to hear you liked it! I agree, speedup is absolutely missing. Thanks for playing!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:33

@vlad-r Thank you for playing and for your comment! Sorry, I had not time to add them to the game. Happy to hear you enjoyed it!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:34

@exergy Thank you! My bad, the speed up button really should be there!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:37

@steffo Thank you for detail description :D Yes, I should improve button correspondence and add speedup button, for sure! It breaks, if it i hits a wall or two active blocks at once, but I really should explained it in the tutorial or add some visuals, sadly I had no time to do that.

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:37

@irinam Thank you, happy to hear you had fun playing it!

zimny11 2023-10-08 19:41

@endurion Sorry for the lack on speedup button. Judging by comments it is bigger issue that I though (it was between adding it or one more level, and I choose one more level). To be honest I did not thought anyone would try to do it one block at a time, but maybe figuring out the hole level at once is too much. It was hard to tell for me how hard it really is since I design it. Thank you!

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:03

@stevenjmiller Thank you! I'm really happy to hear you took your time to play through the whole thing! Yes, in one of the levels I gave player more active blocks to work with, just to add a bit of confusion :D The difficulty might be all over the place, since I design puzzles I was unsure which one is harder. About specific levels:

- A2 was not really design to use parity. I had that mechanic in mind for something I did not implemented - timed switches and gates. The "intended" solution was to realized that each glass block is 11 moves away from one of the targets. But it is interested to see you had another solution to it! Below the solution I had in mind.

s8.png

-B2... just wow! That rotation block was intended to be used, I did not found the solution you presented while designing this level. Really interesting to see something like that! Below the solution I had i mind (there are few combination of this one).

122.png

One more time, thank you for taking time to play it and for going extra step to post your solution!

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:23

@rusya-ink Thank you :D Yes, absolutely some quality of life improvements are missing! Also, interesting idea, about finding all solutions.

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:28

@agraffs Thank you for spending your time on finishing the whole game! Sorry about the bug with block getting stuck. I'm not sure how that happened, probably I would need to add one more safe, since apparently one I added is not enough...

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:29

@smitner Thank you! I'm happy to hear you liked the game! Sorry about the bug with block getting stuck.

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:30

@snekofspice Thanks! Yeah... QOL stuff are missing, it was either that or add one more level. Thank you for the feedback!

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:32

@zealous-coder Thanks for playing! Yes, the difficulty might be all over the place since I design puzzles it was hard for me to judge their difficulty... And lack of speedup button is a miss on my part for sure.

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:32

@adam-gallina Thank you for taking your time to play my game and for commenting!

zimny11 2023-10-08 20:34

@simon-rahnasto I think I should add like a well visible outline to blocks player can move or something, that should help. But I figure it out now, a bit to late XD Happy to hear you had a good time playing it!

skel3ton 2023-10-09 19:36

great game and a great puzzle... I think that the screen is too big for the small space in which the cubes move... and the graphics of the sliders and the spinners would look better if they were bigger

but that's a minor minor detail... great job

zimny11 2023-10-09 19:56

@skel3ton Thank you for playing! The art style and resolution could be improved for sure.

rongo-matane 2023-10-13 14:52

Love the concept, felt like a really fresh puzzle game! The level progression was great, easy to pick up even without reading any instructions. Most things have already been suggested i think - clearer visuals for which direction/rotation the elements go, fast forward and ideally also a manual time control (as sometimes i wanted to look at specific situations far ahead and think them through in my mind, which works well if i can pause or go forward/backward). This was the biggest hurdle in pacing, to watch the whole level over and over again to progress on the late bits. Can be done in your head alone, but the lazy variant is playing it out :D A few usability things could also make it more fluent, like the level auto-resetting if you touch the pieces, level start with space or the buttons being a bit faster. I made it to level 5, but 4 took quite long that i'm not sure i have the willpower left for this one. Very impressive entry especially for compo, congrats! Top innovative for sure :)

zimny11 2023-10-15 21:55

@rongo-matane Thank you! Yea, I kind of regret choosing to add one more level instead of adding fast-forward button. I'm happy to hear you liked it!

lcstark 2023-10-19 11:07

A really nice puzzle game! I'd say for a first try this is very well done. :)

The puzzle difficulty seemed alright. The hardest one for me was level 5 "Tricksy", as it required thinking a lot of steps ahead. I've spend a lot of time on that one before I decided to cheat a little bit and make myself a real-world hacking tool for your game:

b_p.png

which made it much easier to plan everything. :D

I think my biggest issue with the game, especially in this level, was that when you fail the Glass Shape breaks and disappears immediately, and if you click play again you have to wait a long time for it to travel to the failure point. One part of that issue is something others have already mentioned and said a speed-up button might help.

While I agree, I think a better solution would be something like a "step-back" button, which would allow the player to basically rewind time one (or more) steps and implement fixes on the run. It would be obviously more difficult to implement, since instead of a building mode at the start and playing mode after you'd need the ability to pause and make changes, but I think it would be a better solution, as it would waste less time and therefore feel less frustrating. The only issue with it might be that the puzzles would then be too quick to get through, so it might need some testing.

Another idea would be to add two buttons - one for speeding up, which the player could hold pressed for faster speed and release to slow down again, and another for a "skip to next block" functionality, which would rapidly move everything until the next block was encountered. It would help with getting through all the waiting time when the shape is just moving bigger distances in a straight line.

The other issue I had in level 5 was that in the right part of the map the shape was moving rapidly from one rotation block to another, so I kinda lost track in what position and orientation it ended up when it broke. Maybe leaving some sort of ghostly shape or pieces of broken glass on the tiles where the shape last broke would help to mitigate that?

Smitner mentioned the issue of blocks getting stuck on border tiles, and I've seen that one too. It happens when you've got a block on a border tile and you click the "play" button to change the state. After that you can't pick that block anymore.

b_1.png

I guess one way of dealing with that would be to not allow the block to be moved over a border tile, changing the blocks location only when the cursor moves over an empty space. Another would be to remember where the block was picked from and checking all block locations on changing from "building" to "playing" state, reverting wrongly placed blocks to their origin.

I liked the additional levels. They weren't too difficult (though I've spend a bit of time on A2 to calculate the solutions), but they've shown you have some pretty good ideas on how to expand the game with more mechanics.

Visually the game is pretty good, everything looks clear enough and is easy to understand at a glance. Sounds are good too, as is the music, though it would probably be better if the music looped in the background - right now I have to press M twice to restart it once it finishes.

Overall it's a pretty cool idea, and well executed. Nice job!

zimny11 2023-10-19 21:07

@lcstark Just wow! Thank you so much for all the feedback! I absolutely love that you made a cut-out to try how shape would rotate and move :D I guess one easy solution to need of replaying the level would be to add speed control to the player (both slower and faster) and just add save points. Maybe also add starts to levels, and based on number of tries give player 1, 2 or 3 starts... Sorry about the blocks getting stuck, it looks like I simply did not playtest enough. And the music is not really bugged, I just forgot to mark the track to play on loop in the game engine, my bad. Yea, few ideas did not make to the game, like switches and gates, and bombs... One more time thank you so much! Comments with such a feedback like this one really make my day!

victor-morozan 2023-10-21 17:47

nice game, please give us feedback, thanks

zimny11 2023-10-21 17:56

@victor-morozan Thanks for playing my game. It is a bit late since ranting should be closed like few hours ago. But since they are not I will try to play and rate your game. Hope I can make it before ranting is closed!