Ludum Dare #13compo
Crossroads
It turned out pretty good despite much turmoil!
It’s like scrabble or a crossword puzzle, but with more cars.
Crosswords Final
My original idea included lots of extra tiles that werent letters, like a one-way tile, and a gas-can, more letter slots, etc.. but i didn’t have time for those. Hopefully i’ll make a post-compo version next week.
Edit: added a 800×600 build for people on laptops and such. Also fixed a last minute bug which prevented placing tiles in the first column, making the game unwinnable.
Woot! My article got featured on gamedev.net:
Better Programmer Art: Or how to fake it as a game artist.
I use a lot of examples from past LD48 games (mine and others), and most of this is stuff I’ve learned through doing these contests. Ironically, in the most recent contest I didn’t have time to replace the placeholder art so it pretty much ignores all of these tips.
Hope this is helpful to the community. Enjoy!
Jovoc
It’s like scrabble or a crossword puzzle, but with more cars.
Crosswords Final
My original idea included lots of extra tiles that werent letters, like a one-way tile, and a gas-can, more letter slots, etc.. but i didn’t have time for those. Hopefully i’ll make a post-compo version next week.
Edit: added a 800×600 build for people on laptops and such. Also fixed a last minute bug which prevented placing tiles in the first column, making the game unwinnable.
Woot! My article got featured on gamedev.net:
Better Programmer Art: Or how to fake it as a game artist.
I use a lot of examples from past LD48 games (mine and others), and most of this is stuff I’ve learned through doing these contests. Ironically, in the most recent contest I didn’t have time to replace the placeholder art so it pretty much ignores all of these tips.
Hope this is helpful to the community. Enjoy!
Jovoc
Comments8
Cool game - clever way to turn roads into a word game. Yeah, it's scrabble, but kind of funny how the LD car gets thrown in there.
Good idea, I think. Reasonably well put together. My screen cursor was sometimes out of alignment with the hardware cursor, and it was annoying that when I dragged a new letter over an existing letter on the board, the the old one wasn't returned to the stack. Lack of sound was a minus, though.
Really very good. I played this for 3 hours. Got to the very end of Grid (which took 2 hours on its own), went to download a screen capture program so I could have proof (right before I put my final word in, and I don't have a print screen button), and it quit. No error message, nothing, just quit. Awesome.
Well, was there another level after Grid? I'm not getting there again. :-)
The concept here is really cool, car excluded. The vehicle itself is pretty pointless.
A couple bugs:
1) What I just mentioned.
2) You could overlap letters on the board with new letters, and only the topmost letter would be used for the word. GirlFlash mentioned it already, and I agree the game is impossible without this bug.
3) While dragging a letter out if your mouse moved over another letter it would switch to that letter, which can be really annoying.
A few suggestions for improvement:
1) Add a "drop letter" option. Like when you play a word, any letters you have marked to be dropped will also be pulled out. Without this (or the bug I mentioned) the game would be impossible.
2) Have more letters at one time, probably. Maybe couple that with the next suggestion.
3) Give some sort of reward when you complete two words at once, like one extra maximum letter. That would encourage people to be more creative.
4) It would also be nice to occasionally (following some condition) be able to choose one oncoming letter.
Anyway, very fun.
Well, was there another level after Grid? I'm not getting there again. :-)
The concept here is really cool, car excluded. The vehicle itself is pretty pointless.
A couple bugs:
1) What I just mentioned.
2) You could overlap letters on the board with new letters, and only the topmost letter would be used for the word. GirlFlash mentioned it already, and I agree the game is impossible without this bug.
3) While dragging a letter out if your mouse moved over another letter it would switch to that letter, which can be really annoying.
A few suggestions for improvement:
1) Add a "drop letter" option. Like when you play a word, any letters you have marked to be dropped will also be pulled out. Without this (or the bug I mentioned) the game would be impossible.
2) Have more letters at one time, probably. Maybe couple that with the next suggestion.
3) Give some sort of reward when you complete two words at once, like one extra maximum letter. That would encourage people to be more creative.
4) It would also be nice to occasionally (following some condition) be able to choose one oncoming letter.
Anyway, very fun.
Although it's classic scrabble, I've been playing for hour and a half :).
Nice concept, and a pretty slick implementation. Could really benefit from some music, though.
Liked: Idea, fun, polished presentation, Journal
Could Improve on: Interface (Level Restart, On-Screen help), Mouse cursor off in the main version (800x600 worked)
G
Another
m
enjoyable
Could Improve on: Interface (Level Restart, On-Screen help), Mouse cursor off in the main version (800x600 worked)
G
Another
m
enjoyable
| Actually alot more fun than I thought it would be, though the only reason I got as far as I did was by exploiting a bug where I could stack letters I dont want underneath actual words. still a pretty cool concept and well done though :D |
I agree with others about the letters getting overwritten. It's a sad thing, I want those letters back (and force people to use up their Z's and Qu's!).
Also.... 800x600 is for laptops!? The full size version was too big on my 1280x1024 monitor! It was 1280x1024, it looks like. That's nuts. Of course, it would've been fine fullscreen, but sheesh.