Not Without You

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.54
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.38
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.85
Audio★★★★★★★★★★1.91
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.29
"Not Without You" is a fun and challenging puzzle game in which the player must guide blue spheres to unique escape hatches. The catch? All blue spheres move in unison, and all escape hatches must be occupied for the level to end. This intuitive and addictive game was developed in less than 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 21 competition. Enjoy!

Comments17

stRana22 Aug 2011, 16:58
Game didn't work, some whining about .NET and XNA and stuff. I didn't understand what I should have done to get game work. Instructions in README didn't help, because doing what it said didn't work either :(
davidjsushil
davidjsushilauthor22 Aug 2011, 19:32
@stRana (and anyone else having issues), here is a more detailed set of instructions for running the game.

1. Extract the files from the .ZIP folder onto your desktop (or any other convenient location).

2. Run xnafx40_redist.msi, which will install the required .NET and XNA files necessary to run the game.

3. Make sure the Content folder is in the same location as NotWithoutYou.exe.

4. Double-click NotWithoutYou.exe, and enjoy!

If following these instructions doesn't help, let me know, and I'll try to work with you to find a solution. Unfortunately, not every graphics card is capable of running XNA 4.0. :'(
Zed23 Aug 2011, 00:55
Really very cool. Very clever. I assume the 'killscreen' is the end of the game? Or am I missing some ingenious hidden thing?
blackbird0421723 Aug 2011, 03:00
Well done with the puzzles, they got progressively harder, although I did not manage to get passed the 2nd to last level.
davidjsushil
davidjsushilauthor23 Aug 2011, 11:57
@Zed, thanks for the compliment! Yes, Killscreen is the end of the game.

@blackbird, getting the difficulty curve just right in such a short span of time isn't easy. I took my best stab at what I thought would be a good progression. I'm glad you liked it. :-)
AJMilsom23 Aug 2011, 20:24
i got an unhandled exception error, im on a small netbook so iam guessing it doesnt run XNA, will give it a go while i am in work tomorrow,
SuperSausageDog24 Aug 2011, 01:35
Enjoyable game, nice design, good art. I thought the difficulty curve was fairly smooth, with the exception of the final level which was easy, but maybe I just got lucky there
davidjsushil
davidjsushilauthor25 Aug 2011, 02:12
@AJMilsom, XNA 4.0 has issues with some integrated graphics cards, which is likely why the game won't run on your netbook. Sorry!

@SuperSausageDog, maybe you're just that good! :-)
pekuja25 Aug 2011, 15:51
Well, this is a pretty standard sort of puzzle game, but the graphics are nice, and the puzzle designs are good. The puzzles never felt like I was just scrambling for a solution, which I think happens often in games like this. I felt like the solutions here were clearly deductible, which is good.
Dark Acre Jack25 Aug 2011, 22:39
Really well-executed puzzler. I could see how this could be developed further with the addition of other features like teleporters/destroyers and translation level geometry. Great work!
Shigor
Shigor25 Aug 2011, 23:48
Very good, polished, working, fun to play, you even managed to get the levels right (difficulty curve was about ideal I think). Only thing missing was some music in the background.
Rudy28 Aug 2011, 08:09
Well implemented and quite polished, but not really original. Not central to the theme either.
davidjsushil
davidjsushilauthor30 Aug 2011, 04:44
Thanks, everyone, for all of the awesome feedback! I spent the weekend promoting my latest game, "Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare" at the PAX 10 showcase in Seattle, WA, and just arrived back home in Orlando, FL. What a great experience! I managed to demonstrate "Not Without You" on my Windows Phone to a handful of people at the expo, and the response was very good. I've decided to continue development on the game and release it for mobile devices this Fall. :-)
nilstastic4 Sep 2011, 14:35
Very nice execution of a classic puzzler. Great work on the levels (i assume they take more work to create than to clear). =)
davidjsushil
davidjsushilauthor8 Sep 2011, 20:32
@nilstastic, thank you! I've very nearly doubled the number of levels in the game since the Ludum Dare deadline, and added a few new mechanics as well. My goal is to have 32 well-designed puzzles for players to solve. Testing puzzles is definitely the most time consuming activity.
AJMilsom12 Sep 2011, 17:28
didnt work for me, first tryed on laptop but its intel GPU but tryed on my main pc and still doesnt, i used to develop with xna on this machine so it shouldnt be a problem :(

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