Shift the Shapes by Larzan 2016-05-03T13:57:00
Great game - enjoyable! The ending could have a nice screen, rather than a repeat of the "level 11" screen.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → wboqm
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | h3ss | jam | 1023 | 2.68 | 1.94 | 3.77 | 2.85 | 2.58 | 2.10 | 1.71 | 1.96 | 67 |
Great game - enjoyable! The ending could have a nice screen, rather than a repeat of the "level 11" screen.
Visual effect of the colour changing was effective.
Great idea; thought it might be more effective if some of the transformations were more subtle. Having a timed mode or some other incentive may also be more interesting.
The tension in the soundtrack was fitting with the control scheme, as the inability to finely adjust the size of the grabber and the weak effect it had on the ideas lead to tense moments of trying to ward off bad ideas.
Fun, but there have been occasions where it seems I found them all as nothing is moving no matter where I move my mouse, but it still isn't going to the next level. Also the transition between levels is a bit jarring (as is death). Perhaps would be good to get a "success" notification and then move to the next level.
Reminds me of the card game memory. I could get away with trial and error for most of the game - would be a better game if it forced you to learn what was happening.
Gallery at the end of the memory game was a nice touch.
Great game! Enjoyed it and finished it.
I also had trouble with the corner of the carpet; though that is primarily because I thought I had already gotten the dust from the bottles on the shelf and I was just trying to crush the powder; it would be helpful to be able to tell what you have already put in the bowl.
I also was bothered by some state not being tracked; e.g. I broke the draw multiple times. And some of the longer text would have been more appropriate if not repeated every time the transformation was made; e.g. transforming into the broken bowl.
Provides good pacing; a little confusing at first as to what exactly is going on, as you can just click through without trying to understand.
Love the graphics! I did fall out of the level at the end of level 4.
Not sure how to really control the rain or to what end. Sound is effective.
Interesting, would be nice to have more of an explanation about the aim / rules.
Interesting take on shapeshifter. Getting the game to recognize when the character had come up to the machine was difficult, it needed to be just the right spot, which could be frustrating.
I finished the game. Quite interesting and enjoyable/rewarding to try figure out how it worked. I think sound is very necessary, which I didn't realize at first, as it gives that extra feedback to the player. The simple graphical style helps to avoid getting confused and suits the gameplay. Still not 100% sure I have it all figured out correctly though...
Enjoyed it, appreciated the simplicity. Didn't know how to level up at first.
Interesting take on a common game. The pick-up noise could use some tweaking though...
Interesting game, but had trouble remembering what potion did what, which became frustrating.
Really liked the audio!
Was going to comment that it wasn't clear if you hit them with the wrong element whether you needed to hit them more times with the right element (it seemed inconsistent), but have now seen your comment explaining it. I would second the thought that it could be more obvious when you heal vs hurt them (vs doing nothing).
I also found that it wasn't clear what the lose condition was; whether it was just getting hit too often or whether it was letting too many people past.
PS. you suggested a step-by-step tutorial for my game; a youtube walkthrough has been made and listed in the description. Thanks for the feedback!
Performed quite poorly at higher levels.
It took a bit to work out the instructions and game play - might be helpful to be a bit clearer on that. The controls are also frustrating as you waste time when it skips from moving too fast.
At first I had trouble with the controls, as there were times when it seemed the physics and animations were out of sync; there appeared to be a gap but I still crashed or I thought I was through but changed shape too soon. Once you get into the rhythm of it, though, the controls feel much better and become second-nature.
Interesting idea, though I found I kept bumping the wall unintentionally. The UI wasn't always the clearest, which made it difficult to immediately see how much time I had left.
Enjoyed the game and found it fun, but felt like the snake could have been used more.
Also wasn't able to finish the third level but did like the idea behind the game. One nitpick is that at times shifting shape was frustrating as you couldn't tell which way you needed to move in order to avoid intersecting with the geometry. Perhaps when putting mouse over a new shape, it could put a translucent version showing where you would appear, to remove that problem.
Nice graphics.
Thanks for pointing out the bug when clicking quickly. I've now got that one fixed!
The problem with exploring to far from the origin has been fixed in theory, I just haven't had time to put the new code in and test it. Was hoping to have had that working but turned out the puzzles I could come up with were quite contained anyways.
As for the opacity of the mechanics, I hope to put together a GIF or video sometime in the next couple days to illustrate the mechanics better. Be on the lookout for it!
Ryusui: I definitely agree that hyperbolic geometry is easier to visualize in 2D. Being inside hyperbolic space makes it harder to visualize, but I think is also something worth exploring.
As for the window position, I thought it is the window manager's responsibility to place the window rather than the game's (though I have noticed that SDL_CreateWindow does allow a flag to specify to center the window); I haven't had this problem on linux but the positioning of the window has been a little funny on windows (it is completely on the screen somewhere near the top-left corner; though I don't get any window decorations at all). I've since put in a fullscreen mode (which hasn't been uploaded).
aeveis: I've also seen the black triangles on a laptop with Intel graphics but haven't had a chance to debug it yet. You are correct that life-like refers to Conway's game of life; an empty cell with exactly three neighbours becomes 'alive' and an 'alive' cell with three or more neighbours will become empty.
Would've liked to be able to weave between the obstacles (rocks), rather than just getting trapped even though you might expect to be able to escape.
Nice mechanics. Would be great to see more game play.
Motion using the mouse was frustrating when being pushed back, as it made it difficult to avoid shapes. Graphics looked great through.