iqandreas

Year	LD	Theme		Game	Division	Rank
2016	36	Ancient Technology		The Marvelous Mrs. Marble	jam

Automata by xirion11 2016-08-31T06:33:00

That was really cute. :D

(I'm going to be calling the golden "clock wind up" objects keys as I'm not entirely sure what they are called in English)

From a game design perspective, I REALLY like the first "death". I thought I had done something wrong, so instead of randomly walking around, I took a second think WHY did I die?

By putting that first key just out of reach, you were able to teach the user how the game mechanics work without actually explicitly telling them. Even the third key, visible but just out of reach, was placed really well (see below). I'm not a fan of "page of text" tutorials, and you did the tutorial really well.

It's a good, simple puzzle mechanic. I noticed how you placed the keys in such a way, that several times the key that is next visible on the screen is not always the one you want to collect. You improve as a player by learning to take a second and think before blinding dashing for the first key you see.

The isometric viewpoint looks nice, but it makes the controls trickier; instead of just moving where you want, you need to take a second to think of which key maps to which direction (the little diagram in the bottom helped). Eventually I got used to it, but a couple of turns I lost a life because I moved in the wrong direction due to confusion.

It might be possible to fix this by changing the camera angle from 45° to 30°. Maybe even changing the movement scheme to allow you to click the adjacent tile you want to move to instead. But I don't know how either of these would change the appearance of the game negatively.

There is a bit of a performance hit right after you hit one of the arrow keys to move (and I'm on a gaming rig, so I'm assuming it's game logic, not rendering that is causing it). But this is something that would easily be ironed out given more time than just the weekend to code.

Just curious, why is the key in the ending scene 2D? I think it's really nice visually to have 2D characters come to life with 3D keys.

Irradiated Steam by Postcursor Laboratories 2016-08-31T06:51:00

The game could use more visual feedback. I was confused I'd make the color of the stations even more clear.

At first I couldn't actually find the player, and until I had picked up my first cargo, I didn't know which side was the front, and which side was the back of the train.

There's nothing that tells you how to play. I had to return to this page to figure out the controls. And then you need to fumble your way forward until you eventually figure it out. Learning how to play by trial an error can sometimes be effective, but not in this game.

Second, there's no real strategy involved. Since the game automatically does all the hard work, all you need to do is pull up to the first station, automatically fill the train until the station is empty. Drive to the next station, the game automatically unloads that color, then automatically fills the train until the station is empty. You pull up to the next color, and the process repeats.

What would add a slight bit of effort on the part of the player would be to require the color you want to unload to be parked on the station tile, not the train. Delivering the wrong color docks you points.

The concept is doable; I can see this as being a genuine puzzle game with a bit of work. If you have multiple trains, and multiple stations all over a map, with cargo that expires if it's left on the train too long. You need to decide "Is it worth unloading all the green cargo on the other side of the map? By the time I get back here, the yellow cargo on board will have expired, and I will have lost money."

Place of Power by flazm 2016-09-03T06:40:00

Wow. Breathtaking!

The pixel art, the sounds, and even the game mechanics all came together very nicely. Even the minor things like elements traveling through the pipes were well thought out, and added a fantastic touch.

I was expecting the lack of tutorial or even English text would cause me to get lost, but there was just enough confusion for me to explore the UI and figure things out on my own (and picking up the game was very quick). Nice use of colors to distinguish each element more clearly.

I wish I had some constructive criticism, but I got nothing; you guys really know what you're doing, and I'm baffled that you could pull it off in a weekend, even as a team.

The Marvelous Mrs. Marble by IQAndreas 2016-09-03T01:48:00

@StMatn Interesting, how would you propose mouse controls would function?

Alien B.C. by kapezit 2016-09-03T01:38:00

Please, god, not another clicker game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

;-)

Aside from that, strategy-wise, it was clever to have the costs of each item increase each time you purchased them, it keeps the player progressing slower, and playing longer. It also makes strategies tricker (do I buy the obvious next step is not always to save up for the more expensive overlord, and keep buying that). (I must confess, I have avoided clicker games, so I don't know if this is a common game mechanic).

The player did resize automatically to the window (at least to a point), which is one thing often overlooked.

The (for lack of knowing what the correct word is) "theme integration" was good, having the facilities (on the left) match the overlords (on the right). You could even go a step further than this and have the objects actually appear on the map in those locations. Egypt, England, and Greece are all close enough that you could get a nice, zoomed in part of the map.

Needs a bit more "user feedback" (sound effects mainly). Maybe some background music). And some events or goals to work towards. But I imagine these are both things you would have added with more time.

Wait, seriously your first game, or just your first game in Unity? Hell'a lot better than my first "thingies".

Post Reality by Fantasieleben 2016-09-04T00:29:00

The 'itch.io' link says "The developer has not uploaded a game yet...", and unfortunately, I'm on Ubuntu, not Windows.

Post Reality by Fantasieleben 2016-09-13T01:28:00

The 'itch.io' link is working again.

It's cute, I enjoyed the slightly dystopic thought of even our pets using VR in the future. Aside from that, there's not much of a challenge, there doesn't seem to be a way to fail. Due to this, it's less puzzle, and more "maze crawling".

The "random dialog" by the postman is a nice touch.

IQAndreas

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