sevansevan 2026-10-18 23:54 ♥ 2
I love that you released the source code ^^
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → The Margin Game
By henk
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 28 | |||||
| Fun | 26 | |||||
| Innovation | 29 | |||||
| Theme | 30 | |||||
| Graphics | 17 | |||||
| Audio | 17 | |||||
| Humor | 20 | |||||
| Mood | 19 | |||||
I love that you released the source code ^^
A really creative take on the theme!
Really cool entry! I played through it and had a great time. Here is a quick breakdown of my thoughts: • Gameplay & Design: The core mechanics feel solid and intuitive right from the start. The gameplay loop is engaging, and the controls feel responsive and fair. • Visuals & Art Style: The visual direction fits the overall mood really well. Everything looks cohesive, and the presentation makes it very clean to follow what's happening on screen. • Audio: The sound effects and audio design add a lot of punch to the experience and help build the atmosphere. • Theme Interpretation: You did a fantastic job incorporating the jam's theme into the core loop in a creative and clever way! Constructive Polish Idea: If you decide to update or expand this after the jam, adding a few extra feedback cues (like juice/particles or subtle screen shake) or expanding on a few mechanics could make it feel even more polished! Overall, awesome job for a jam project! Left you a high score/rating. Keep up the great work! 🚀
@anastasia-pitomets
> adding a few extra feedback cues (like... subtle screen shake)
Innovation 5/5, Theme 5/5. Didn't expect to play with pencil and paper.
Did you already have those rules in mind?
@mugule
> Did you already have those rules in mind?
I'm not sure I understand the question exactly but I came up with the idea to do a pen-and-paper game shortly after the theme reveal and used the rest of the weekend to iterate on the exact game rules.
I really think the instructions need to be clearer or have a better example, I think I understand it now but it took a lot of attempts. There's gotta be a better way to explain it.
Intriguing concept for a game! I tried to play along for a bit but I never felt like I fully understood the rules of the game. While playing, I was confused by how you lose when "there are still words to add but no place to put them", but you can just cross out the previous number at any time to allow yourself to write any number down. I've re-read the last sentence of rule 4 so I now see how it makes sense, but a step-by-step example might help clarify. Also there's a 6 at the end of the first page that I have no idea where it came from?
I think adding a more concrete scoring limit would make the process a bit more game-y. Each unbroken sequence of 5-4-3-2 gets you a point? Maybe add the number of monosyllabic words in a row for a greater range of numbers?
@niterich Yeah you're not allowed to cross out a column if the sum in that column is less than 5 (and the sum resets to zero every time you cross it out).
As for the 6 unfortunately the examples on the right are based on an earlier draft of the document and so may not be 100% accurate. I was lazy about it and assumed nobody would actually check them but looks like maybe I should do them again and re-scan :P
> I think adding a more concrete scoring limit would make the process a bit more game-y.
I struggled a lot trying to make the game interesting enough to want to play but simple enough to not be a chore. A scoring system seemed like it'd be a bit much, but you're right that there's definitely *something* missing.
This was pretty hype to try on an old safety manual I had lying around. Started at the top with "Operation", lost once at the X'd out "battery", continued after that at "required", and finished down at "charging". Some thoughts:
* Lost the first attempt because I wasn't keeping track of which columns had a sum over four. The word "battery" shows up a lot (it's a safety manual for a battery), and a bunch of three's in a row can be deadly. * There were a couple times I accidentally cheated and crossed out a double-two (forgot I needed a 5 or greater sum, rather than 4). One thing the rules aren't quite clear about is whether a double-two counts as four in terms of the next number being "strictly less". I played as though they did though, because otherwise you would make a column unwinnable by placing a two after a crossed out number. * Once I started keeping closer track of the syllables, it was pretty straightforward to make sure I always had a column or two ready to cross out. If I play again, I might try with harder rules (like needing sums of 6 or greater to cross out). * This particular page was mostly 4 syllables or less (aside from the occasional "automatically" or "lithium-ion"). Would be interesting to see how prose with longer-on-average words plays differently.
It's pretty cool as a single player game you can play anywhere you have a pencil and paper. Feels like something I'd play if I were bored in class or at a conference or something.
Can't wait for version 2.0 with screenshake mechanics :)
The line between art and technology has always been blurry but this game smears it across the whole canvas.
We think of books as mundane objects now but there was a time when the idea of a book, and certainly a mass produced one with margins within which one might write notes or numbers, was indeed a world-changing technology. The revolutionary movable type printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 and ushered in an era of unprecedented communication.
What we now call a pencil came from the discovery of a particularly pure deposit of graphite. In fact no purer deposit has since been found. This lead to many further discoveries about the value of graphite. The term "lead" is used for the drawing part of pencils despite the fact that pencils have never contained elemental lead.
Taking a book and pencil and making a game from it is undoubtedly art. I have played this game with several pages of several books and each time the experience is delightful. The rules are a little difficult to keep track of but I find that is part of the fun.
Overall, this is an excellent entry made even better by the novel approach t fitting it into the theme.
Finally a good use for junk mail. Seemed to worked well for this game. Once I started playing, I realized the rule that I can assign numbers to any column, is the rule that makes this game work and should not be overlooked. At least, that's where I think most of the decision making comes from. The doubling up of twos is also crucial to bail you out from tough spots.
I love games where you can pick your own soundtrack.
Really cool idea, even if it's quite unconventional game.
Unexpected and cool take on the concept - good job with this and good job with balancing the rules 😄
The concept of turning an existing document into a puzzle is extremely clever. It makes the game feel wonderfully resourceful, allowing players to turn any scrap of paper into a focused challenge. It's a fun idea for a low-key, engaging solo experience.
Simply amazing! Definitely one of the games that fits the theme best. Nothing is more classic than pencil and paper!
It took me straight back to my school days, when I spent more time doodling in the margins of my notebooks than doing pretty much anything else. After all, leaving all that blank space unused felt like such a waste!
I think I'll keep this game bookmarked for the notebooks I still use at work for taking notes!
Great job!
This is such a fresh idea! I never expected to play a jam game with actual pen and paper, with no software to run at all! I’m in China, so I didn’t have any English text handy to use—until I dug up an instruction manual, hahaha! Full marks for creativity! This is easily the entry that’s stood out to me the most.
Really clever doing a physical game. Graphics were a little underwhelming though, maybe add ray tracing for a post jam release
This is so so so cool! I love the idea that you use something you have on hand, so you could play this anytime youre bored and have a pen handy.
Wow really creative to suggest reusing a piece of existing doc. I'm going to save this one for one of my "read this for 20 min" in class work. This definitely fits the theme really well and the fact that a piece of paper and pencil is really detached from technologies is great (might be even better if you offer this game to players in person, printing out the pdf so they can finally put their phones done and enjoy this game) *also thx for the reminder, won't write on any books I borrowed lol
this is peak for the theme! I like that I can do this anywhere.
