Space Stitcher

zungryware 2023-10-03 07:35

I tried for a good 15 minutes but I cannot figure out level 2 or 3. I don't even really understand the game's mechanics. I can wrap my head around level 1. The two devices each create a portal between the two walls they are attached to. But I can't even comprehend what's going on in level 3. It's important to have puzzles that make sure the player fully understands a mechanic before you start adding twists to that mechanic. And that goes double for games with wild space-bending mechanics like this.

For level 2, I don't know what the grey box does at all. It doesn't seem to create any portals and I can't find any use for it as a plain physics object.

It's a shame because this seems like a super cool mechanic with tons of design space for puzzles. If you make more puzzles and fix the learning curve I would definitely give it another shot.

endurion 2023-10-03 07:36

I think I cannot fairly rate it. It's really slow (which does help with annoying jumps), but I can't solve the 2nd level already.

The idea is awesome, esp. when you see the mirrored part in the 2nd level. I couldn't get to the pre-set thingamajig, or above the gap. I tried using my mirrored self as jump off, but that didn't make the jump either (could be due to the slow movements?)

kaliuresis 2023-10-03 09:56

Solutions: https://imgur.com/a/bcNBVfM

@zungryware I definitely agree that the mechanics are not introduced gradually enough. The second level has 3+ new mechanics required to solve it. I do think the concept deserves a post-jam update with more levels.

@endurion Thanks for letting me know about the slowness. The physics should be independent of framerate. There's another step to get the extra jump height, although in hindsight I should have made the level more focused.

endurion 2023-10-03 11:05

Thanks for the solution. That's pretty much what I tried to do (jumping off your mirrored self), but my player didn't jump high enough to enter the small gap at the top.

zungryware 2023-10-03 18:54

@kaliuresis Oh wow, there is no way I ever would have figured that out. Those are late-game puzzles if I've ever seen them.

the-xj-project 2023-10-03 23:57

As others have said there is an immediate difficulty spike but the mirror mechanic you've created is very cool and incredibly satisfying to see.

doommustard 2023-10-03 23:59

the block is a bounce pad I think but it only seems to work sometimes? maybe it only works from the opposite side? I couldn't get level 2. if I'm supposed to jump on something the other me throws the game feels a bit to touchy to get it consistantly.

plepletier 2023-10-04 00:15

Good puzzle game! I tried really hard but couldn't figure out how to beat Level 2. This game has great potential for expansion. Good job!

kaliuresis 2023-10-04 00:24

@doommustard The block is supposed to just be a block. The purpose of it is that (rot13) ubyqvat bagb n oybpx gung vf snyyvat hc ybjref lbhe tenivgl.

syntaxxor 2023-10-04 02:42

Level 3 pretty much just broke me and I never recovered. But this is _really_ cool conceptually! Lots of fun mind-bending shenanigans, and Level 2 was incredibly fun!

dingbat 2023-10-04 11:02

Really interesting concept that has potential! However I do think you need more of a grace period with the levels. level 1 I had to look at pictures of the game to figure out and level 2 I couldn't figure out without finding your video. I think if you added around 4-5 levels before these levels the difficulty curve would work a lot better. Look at the game portal for example. The first level is literally just the portal opens for you and you have to pick up a box. Some simple starter levels explaining the portal for you in simplest terms and maybe another level with jumping and a simpler level with interacting with your mirrored self would make the game easier to grasp. I also feel like the levels are too busy. Maybe making them half as large and breaking them down to their simplest forms would make it easier for players to figure out what to do. Nice game with a unique concept!

bluedandelion 2023-10-04 19:01

--Spoilers--

The concept is very cool and unique but unfortunately as some people have already noted it is rather counter-intuitive. And I would have loved it if you explained the mechanics in a bit more detail either in the game or in this post. I would have never guessed what I had to do on the second level since I had no idea that your clone can actually Interact with you and that apparently some blocks allow you to jump higher if you hold them than others. But yeah the game mechanics definitely have a lot of potential.

ididgame 2023-10-04 19:13

i liked the presentation and the mechanics are pretty cool, especially interacting with yourself over borders just please dont crank the difficulty to kaizo levels on stage 2 ;)

martin-bousquet 2023-10-04 19:56

Well I got stuck on the first level just figuring out the controls... Then I found the solution to level 2 (at least the first step) by accident and even after taking a look at your solution I'm not sure what's going on. Your concept is good and could make a great puzzle game but as the other said, it's impossible to understand without a proper introduction. I salute the effort though, it must have been hell to program :)

kaliuresis 2023-10-14 03:11

@zungryware If you're still interested in retrying it, I have released a post-jam update that has more levels and hopefully does a better job of teaching the mechanics https://kaliuresis.itch.io/space-stitcher

mango-malarkey 2023-10-15 06:51

I can't seem to launch the game. It closes immediately as soon as I launch the exe file.

kaliuresis 2023-10-15 08:45

@mango-malarkey is there a log.txt in the same folder as the exe?

henk 2023-10-15 12:30

I'll be the dissenting voice and say I liked the difficulty curve on this one. It trades quantity of levels for the amount of satisfaction you get from solving each one.

This is a good set of puzzles, the platforming is solid, and I like the little animated astronaut made of circles. The music felt a bit repetitive after a while, but I think the other sounds worked well.

fahim-faysal 2023-10-15 14:56

I think this is a really cool mechanic. I've played the post-jam version and I still think that the difficulty curve has issues.

It was hard at first to understand the rotated stitched levels. I think that the levels were too large and lacked enough identifiable shapes. You could never see the entirety of the level either. So when the stitched levels were rotated, it was hard to understand. Smaller(both physically and difficulty) levels demonstrating how the rotated stitching works would make it easier to understand.

Another thing is the hub. You're sort of thrown in there after the first level and it's hard to know which level should be played next. I assume that the related levels are arranged in a stair pattern and higher ones are meant to be played after lower ones. But a node based level selection screen would convey level prerequisites better.

I totally understand that there isn't enough time to tutorialize levels in 48 hours. I struggle with that too. It's really impressive that you've managed to finish this for the compo. I hope you will continue developing this.

dan-str 2023-10-15 19:25

cool game, keep up the good work

kaliuresis 2023-10-16 00:06

@fahim-faysal Thanks for the great feedback! I agree that zooming out or having smaller levels would help. The main reason for the current zoom level is that the current rendering is recursive and only supports going through 2 stitched rooms, since going deeper requires more complicated visibility checking.

I'll have to think more on how to better organize the hub. I like the idea of having everything be in-world but I do see how the current layout would be confusing.

The encouragement really helps. I was starting to run out of steam by the time I finished the post-jam version.

spaceylake 2023-10-16 00:20

I don't like this game because it makes me feel smooth brain. No but for real cool game. I thought I had an acid trip on level three. But in the end I managed to beat it. Because it is a gamejam game it is understandable that you put you best idées as levels. I have not looked in to the post-jam version but if you would make a commercial version you would like to make levels that eases players into the game mechanics. Right now it was quite hard to understand what all the stuff did. But it was possible to figure out if you are willing to lose brain cells over it. The courses shown in the gamejam version would be later courses, most of them. Maybe the first level of the gamejam version could be like level one or maybe even level three in a commercial version. The other two would need to occure at least 10 levels into the game. You might want to think about it as I can see this being a commercial game if it gets more polish, more levels and maybe some more mechanics. In conclusion great game! Good job!

whirlwind 2023-10-16 09:38

I love recursion because I love recursion. But yeah as people have said just need a smoother learning curve. Felt like I brute forced the solution at the end.

jdegs 2023-10-19 00:49

wow, a really cool twist on a platformer. Puzzles are definitely challenging, but the theme is spot on, and the mirror mechanic is very very cool. Wish I was better at it haha. Overall great game feel, awesome entry

zungryware 2023-11-11 23:06

@kaliuresis I finally got around to trying version 2.0. Here's a recording of my playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GvVpaH403g

The key points are: - Put the levels in a logical order so the mechanics are introduced slowly to the player. - Make sure when you're testing the player on a new mechanic that the level actually requires the player to understand the mechanic in order to beat the level. - Introduce new mechanics and concepts as slow as absolutely possible. This game uses very complex spatial reasoning that will overwhelm most people if too many things are introduced at once. - Add a zoom feature. This way the player can see the entire room at once and zoom out even further to better understand what sorts of patterns the links are creating.