FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD54 → Space Inserters

Space Inserters

By wilko and jeff-kerman

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4833.6525
Fun4723.5424
Innovation1563.9325
Audio1.5012

Comments

triangle-point 2023-10-02 20:15

Bit confusing to figure out how to play, but when I did it was quite fun! Good game!

tal28 2023-10-07 16:21

Very nice game concept :smile:

joesturge 2023-10-07 16:26

The control is not very intuitive but once you figure it out it is a very challenging game. Fits the theme, well done

vary 2023-10-07 16:27

Very creative and challenging game. I can see this being played as a daily challenge alongside something like Wordle. The minimalist aesthetic works perfectly here. Great job!

(I also see you guys have audio as a rating but I didn't hear any, not sure if that's something on my end?)

alex-duh 2023-10-07 16:33

Fun little word game, it might be nice to allow players to see all the daily puzzles despite failing earlier ones. Redoing puzzles that have already been seen isn't as interesting

jeff-kerman 2023-10-08 09:05

@Vary Thanks for playing. Yeah, no audio bug, we wanted to add audio effects but ran out of time and though it was better to improve the random generation algorithm. Should have probably removed audio ratings :face_palm:

fizzbark 2023-10-08 09:55

Nice game, I had a similar take on the theme so found this very interesting. I think showing players the answer once they run out of time might help the user experience a bit here - I find I need to calibrate to new word games and figure out how obscure the words they're likely to use are. Being able to type at the end of the word and then putting a space in the middle afterwards would be a nice feature to help players that are attempting to work things out from the end first.

dave-septian 2023-10-08 09:58

A very fun game! A bit of confused on how it work at first but it is fun when you do know how it works. I also found some bugs that after you did Infinite and went to Daily, the game saved the Infinite list of scores on the Daily ones as well (I don't know if its intended to be like that or not)

papaver 2023-10-11 16:04

Fun little game! Well done :)

fisher2470 2023-10-11 20:59

Very smooth gameplay, I could see this being a daily puzzle game for sure

tpace 2023-10-11 22:39

Interesting use of the theme in a word game. Challenging but feasible!

james-laird 2023-10-13 19:50

For some reason, the white background kept flickering for me--made it very hard to play without getting a headache. :( Very nice game, though! I'm sad I couldn't play more. Is there guaranteed to be a solution for each level? Some of the infinite mode levels were real head-scratchers.

tiseno 2023-10-13 19:54

Very fun!

jeff-kerman 2023-10-14 18:27

Thank you everyone for playing.

@dave-septian thank you for pointing out this bug it is now fixed :)

@james-laird there is always a solution but on the infinite mode the words can be very obscure. We are using a large english word list and choosing words using an algorithm that makes it harder as you complete more levels :D

le-don 2023-10-14 20:18

Great concept, I really like this one a lot! I think there might be a bug when using the backspace key too often, resulting in the cursor being in front of the first letter and not being able to move the cursor back.

konfekt 2023-10-14 23:14

Very unique take on the theme! Needed a moment to figure out how to play, but once I did I enjoyed playing both modes a lot. It offers plenty of ways to be expanded on too (keeping track of the player's daily scores, online leaderboard..). Reminds me a bit of the type of games the New York Times offer in the sense that it's word-based and simple but challenging and the kind of thing that's nice to play for a few minutes daily :)

quadtree 2023-10-15 23:01

Pretty fun idea and a cool take on the theme. If there's one thing I'd change, it'd be to make clear that you shouldn't _start_ with the "Daily", as those are pretty hard and are for experienced players.

kristinamay 2023-10-16 19:12

I love word games soooo much but fully could not figure out how to play. I'd enter a letter and then try to move the cursor right to add a space, but I couldn't. Am I not supposed to enter letters? Is there a particular order I should be doing things in? Am I supposed to split the whole set of letters up into a few words without adding anything new? I'd genuinely love to play this, I'm just stuck. Thanks!

pen-island-games 2023-10-17 01:04

As other raters have alluded, some more detailed instructions would be great. I did eventually figure out that I was supposed to add my own letters, and I had a good bit of fun! I love the minimal theming, for one. It definitely tickled my brain trying to think of words. However, I found it a little unbalanced.

If I have the letter A, I can just separate that out and type ANTIDISENESTABLISHMENTARIANISM and get a million points. The more interesting part of the game seems to be using your spaces efficiently and in the right places, but what you're being REWARDED for is how long the longest words you know are. Also, I really wished you could add letters, and then move forward in a word, without having to add a space. Maybe that would make it too easy?

Overall, this Is a great concept, and I think worth exploring further. Some balance tweaks need to be made, but this is a strong and unique platform for a word game. Very impressive :v:

EDIT: I went back and played the daily, and I think that in that format, your contraints and point systems make a lot more sense to me. I had a blast with that more finite mode and will be updating my score

captandrey 2023-10-17 19:01

Your game is a real standout in terms of innovation, with a creative idea that's both engaging and fun to play. The puzzles are well-crafted, and the simple art style complements the gameplay nicely. However, the absence of audio is noticeable and could enhance the overall experience. Despite this, your game offers a unique and enjoyable puzzle-solving experience. Keep up the great work, and consider adding some sound to take it to the next level!