FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Tiny Survival Tactics(Puzzle)

Tiny Survival Tactics(Puzzle)

By wendy222 and sphinx

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2653.8336
Fun2423.7536
Innovation2273.6936
Theme5983.6136
Graphics5103.7236
Humor5293.0735
Mood4073.6736

Comments

julesleech 2024-10-08 00:30

This is a cute game!!!

vipaka 2024-10-08 00:32

Very chill puzzle game, I liked that you kept the order of weaknesses on the screen so I didn't have to remember it. Only feedback I'd give is that it was kind of hard to drag the creatures through the exit. The guitar music was chill as well :)

kalbshack 2024-10-08 00:33

Cute little game. Interesting idea.

onedozenbagels 2024-10-08 00:35

Tried to play using chrome on windows. I can't get the title screen. Am I doing something wrong?

koolruz 2024-10-08 00:37

These puzzles were super engaging! Once I realized what I was trying to do, I was immediately hooked trying to work the logic out for each board.

It was a lot of fun, so the only real feedback I can give is UX-related (And I suspect it's something you've already got in mind, and just didn't have time to implement!) - Given how many steps are involved in each sequence, it would have been really helpful to have an undo button - There were so many instances where I wasn't paying attention (or lost track of which fish eats what) and lost a puzzle late in the sequence because of an unforced error in piece movement. Without the ability to undo mistakes, it felt really stressful to move a piece around the board, because I was constantly worried that there was an interaction I was overlooking that would cause me to re-solve the puzzle.

Overall though, I thought this was a lot of fun, and a very clever re-interpretation of those sliding car puzzles from back in the day!

wendy222 2024-10-08 03:58

@onedozenbagels showing a black screen or can't start the game?

sphinx 2024-10-08 05:06

@koolruz Thanks a ton for playing! Yeah, we totally wanted to add an undo system right after we nailed down the gameplay, but I just couldn't squeeze in the time to code it. We’re also thinking about switching up the animations when you hover over the creatures to better signal the weakness order. The inspiration you mentioned is spot on too - I think the more original inspiration of that is a game called Klotski we grew up playing.Glad you enjoyed it!

andreia 2024-10-08 05:40

Nice illustrations for the animals! Puzzles were fun :)

onedozenbagels 2024-10-08 12:21

Whoops, meant to say I can't get past the title screen. I can hear music and the title is moving around.

wendy222 2024-10-08 15:20

@onedozenbagels can you find a full-screen button on the bottom right? Click on Fullscreen will show the start button.

cat-lab 2024-10-09 04:13

Wow a great adaptation of one of my favourite childhood games! I love the innovation to put this one together, great job!

goodwincek 2024-10-09 17:54

https://youtu.be/UNIxtmIPW04

Nice puzzle game! The clicking to exit felt inconsistent and I had to click a whole lot to get it to trigger sometimes so I think that could be easier. Overall was very tricky and fun!

wendy222 2024-10-09 18:15

@goodwincek Yes! Thank you for playing! Regarding the exit part, it used to be super easy to slip out, but in some levels, certain creatures need to stay near the exit. To prevent accidental moves, we made it a bit harder to move them out. We'll definitely fine-tune that feeling after the jam!

vidarn 2024-10-10 15:09

I had a lot of fun playing this! I got stuck on a puzzle last night but got back to it today and solved it. Now I'm stuck again, on the puzzle in the image below. But I'm sure I'll figure it out.

It's a difficult game (at least for me), but it's a lot of fun! There's a lot of depth to the rules, with the critters blocking each other and having to move them in the right order. I think you did a great job introducing the complexities as the game progressed.

The art is great and I love the expression on the creatures when they attack. The crab is especially cute :blush:

This is the level I'm currently bashing my head against. I guess a small feedback is that I would love to be able to easily continue from here when I restart my computer, without having to replay all the puzzles up to this point. I understand the complexity of doing that, but it might be worth considering having a level select screen if you decide to do a post jam version.

Screenshot 2024-10-10 170728.png

laywelin 2024-10-10 19:21

The mouth is a weird indicator for fishes and crustaceans but who am I to judge? Quite a fun and enticing puzzle game!!! It's smartly designed, great ideas :) Just like @vidarn I couldn't finish this level, it's a tough one. But it's engaging enough that I wanted to try! I wish there was more audio feedback when moving around pieces, but for a jam it's well-rounded, fun and working well. Great job <3

zedgame 2024-10-10 19:31

Admittedly, it took me embarasssingly long to figure out how the gameplay works, but it's a neat puzzle game afterwards!

kerdelos 2024-10-10 19:54

I spent quite some time on the game although I did not finish it. I stopped after the first level you get a 1x1 shrimp. It was interesting to see how a concept fairly familiar could still be turned into an innovative idea. And then you added some twists again (loved seeing the first 2x2 creature), well done !

Gameplay wise I wished there was an undo button as I was so frustrating on the more complex level. Even more so because my tired brain couldn't remember that, shrimps eat fish and fishes eat crabs so I made some stupid mistakes multiple times. And I'm quite surprised I could squeeze the 2x2 creatures through the top exit, but not the horizontal 2X1, is this a bug ? I did struggle to make the game understand the final move to the exit, I had to pretty much always do it multiple times before the game registered the move.

I did enjoy the soothing music and liked a lot the designs of the different animals !

All in all great job.

damien-black 2024-10-10 19:56

Well done. I'm always impressed when people come up with a cool puzzle mechanic. I'm even more impressed when they come up with good puzzles too.

I gave up on puzzle 5 or 6. Don't get me wrong, I would have kept playing, but having to restart a puzzle because of a mis-click or a mistake is really rough. And I've got other games to rate. I think it is good practice to allow a one-step undo when you die. Now if I get myself into an unwinnable position, that's on me, I'll use a restart button. But I don't think the game would suffer from infinite undo either.

At the very start I didn't realize that they can move sideways. I think I was thinking of that cars game where they only go forward and backward. Having one of two levels where all you do is move one creature sideways is never a bad idea.

On web, at least, the clicking and dragging was really rough. I got unexpected movements when I just clicked and let go a few times. One led to a death when I was already in the clear. The 1x1 shrimp does not like leaving, I've gotta really slam him, lol.

I wanted the level to end when I only had one color left, but mostly because moving then was tedious. If the controls were cleaner I probably wouldn't have had that thought.

I'm giving a bit of criticism, but this is coming from a place of love. If you clean up the graphics a bit, fix the mouse controls, add one or two more mechanics that you sprinkle in later on, then bam! Put it on steam for $1.99, have occasional 50% off sales. I can't guarantee that it will sell, but it will deserve to be there.

Also, I need something better than color to keep track of who eats who. I don't have any good ideas, but we should brainstorm some up.

weirdbitgames 2024-10-10 20:34

Really interesting take! And I'm glad you kept it simple to just 3 types rather than the 18 that Pokemon has etc!

wendy222 2024-10-10 21:12

@vidarn Thank you for playing! I do add a level select button, but somehow my dizzy head decided to put the button at the last scene. Anyway, I will add the level select button back, add the redo function after the jam, and fine-tune the sliding feeling. (I like your art style very much!!! I don't know much about how to draw but I am trying to learn about that!) Glad you enjoyed it!

wendy222 2024-10-10 21:20

@laywelin Yes, I agree! Level 7 is definitely a tough one—probably the hardest out of the 10 levels. We’ll definitely reconsider the difficulty curve and playtest more to balance it out. Funny enough, I actually have a fear of ocean animals and get scared looking at them directly, so I don’t fully understand their structure. But somehow, I ended up choosing them as the theme and tried to make them look a little less intimidating, lol! Thank you for playing it!

wendy222 2024-10-10 21:44

@kerdelos Thank you for playing! You should be able to exit through the top 2*1 Exit, but the controls and sliding feeling made it a bit tricky. We initially made it harder to prevent players from accidentally moving a creature, but it seems that affected overall movement as well. We'll definitely adjust that after. There's also been a lot of requests for an undo button, which we’ve already planned to add, but we just didn’t get to it in time. That’ll be included in the next update too! :heart:

wendy222 2024-10-10 21:48

@damien-black Thank you so much for playing and for your valuable feedback! I truly appreciate it. I'll definitely take your points seriously, spend time thinking them over, and carefully evaluate how they can help improve the game!!! :heart:

m-kusy 2024-10-10 22:41

Cute puzzle game! I don't have a lot of patience for those but enough to see the concept, I liked the art and mellow music very much! Great entry!

nicolas-guillot 2024-10-10 23:51

Nice puzzle game, i thought a lot about the car game but realized quickly i could move the creatures everywhere ! this opens up a lot of possibilities and so made it fun !

str8griz 2024-10-11 03:56

Nice version of the traffic puzzle game. Music and vibe were perfectly matched to calm my low IQ puzzling skills. I had fun well doing it. Great work!

kristirose88 2024-10-11 14:40

What a great game! I really enjoyed working my way through the puzzles. I just liked the overall vibe, as well. I was really engaged the whole time!

robin-schmitz 2024-10-11 20:15

So cool! I like these kind of games, the interactions of who eats who put a cool spin to it. I like how you managed to create so many levels and even additional challenges with larger tiny creatures :)

hcs-hades 2024-10-12 02:38

Good work - vibe was right for the game with cute visuals and soothing guitar riff.

I think I echo that it would be nice to have it reset back one move or something along those lines or I could just get good I suppose :P

The puzzling was well done with good challenge and nice progression!

2024-10-12 06:54

I used to believe I'd know what to do if faced with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. Now I'm not so sure.

infinitye 2024-10-12 14:07

love the art and the simplicity of it.

fusionnist 2024-10-12 20:17

All around well made! I really like the drawings ^^ And the puzzles themselves are fun, almost relaxing, like sliding puzzles at times. Cheers!

zimny11 2024-10-14 19:21

Great art and amazing music! I was just sitting and listening to the guitar :D Really cleaver approach to those kind of puzzles. Well done. I just wish there were level numbers since I got stuck on one and don't even know how far into the game I was XD There was so little space to move, only 3 free blocks and I couldn't figure out how to untangle this mess. How many levels are even there?

whalejam 2024-10-18 08:46

Very nice, absolutley love the little *_* and x_x on the eyes to tell you which way they eat, it makes it way easier to see whats going to happen when you move. Having an undo is really nice too! The graphics are super cute too I love the crabs, and also the way you made bigger sizes too, they look really nice. The puzzles are just the right amount of thinking, a good difficulty curve! nice job ^^

sphinx 2024-10-20 05:41

Thank yall for playing and giving feedbacks! :)

catzp 2024-10-22 19:01

I love it! As a traditional Klotski lover, I find this super fun and innovative! Really hoping to see an extended version of this^^

transkuja 2024-10-23 09:49

The game requires a lot of thinking, it's fun, great job :smile:

coleslaughter 2024-10-23 19:01

I'm really, really, *really* bad at these kinds of games. :sweat_smile:

However, despite my obvious skill issue, I still had a lot of fun with this entry! I love how the little critters change sprites to indicate their effects on the other types of animals. :smile: Very nice job!

(PS: Thanks for NOT showing me what the "minimum possible" steps is to solve a puzzle. It made me feel a lot less stupid about my solutions.) :upside_down:

foursay 2024-10-25 00:47

A clever and creative twist on Klocki’s gameplay, with a fun take on the theme as each of these *seefoods* are "tiny creatures" to others lol. The puzzle was really interesting, and it took me a while to figure out how the eyesights works. The art style is adorable and overall, great job on this entry!