Help guide Pie through his fractured word in this puzzle platformer.
Controls are super simple: -------------------------- - Left and right arrow (or direction pad on a gamepad) move player - Space (or "A" on gamepad) reset level
Written in C# using XNA 4.0. If you haven't run an XNA application before, you will need to install the XNA redistributable, available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914. Note that you will not need to install the game itself on your machine, just unzip the archive and run the game executable.
Constructive cretinism is encouraged. I hope you have fun playing!
Very nice game! The character looks really good. Sometimes, with all of the rotating, I had trouble keeping track of which buttons went to which block. Maybe if they were color coordinated or something?
@Hayawi I'm seriously considering picking up an Apple developer account and expanding this game out. I've watched a few people play it to understand the design issues (thanks Jellycakes) to see what works and what doesn't.
@captainkraft, I wish I had more time to make levels to ramp up, they get hard quickly.
@cahman, my brother suggested that I actually put in a zooming function to make it possible to see the level as a whole (though too late to get it in). Others suggested a hint system; something subtle.
I'm in favor of the ability to zoom, or at least see a map. The game looks good at the current size, but a lot of times it seemed like I was affecting blocks off-screen, and I lost track of what my movements and button presses were doing. So especially in the later levels I ran around a bit hopeless trying to stumble into a solution! But it's totally a solvable problem, and I like the basic gameplay and puzzle ideas! I hope you do a post-compo version.
Amazingly creative, and the art is beautiful! If I had any criticism, they'd be that the difficulty spikes hugely after the first three or so rooms and that there aren't enough obstacles. Super game though, would play again.
I love the basic idea! But a lot of times it feels like I'm just guessing my way around puzzles, since the buttons are connected to blocks off-screen, or just because I get turned around about which blocks affect which. If you work on this some more (which I encourage!) maybe you could connect circuit lines from buttons to blocks, code the buttons and blocks with shapes/colors, or show a zoomed out view that lets me see what's happening. Or all of the above, really.
Really, really great. Easily one of my favorite LD games ever. LOVE the sprites, LOOOOOOVE the music, and the puzzling gameplay is outstanding. Very tricky but very rewarding! CONGRATS ON SUCH AN AMAZING GAME!
@Tyro I agree there as well; the game needs a lot more puzzles in between that teaches the user patterns. I got teaching the core elements, but I need to make the initial puzzle smaller to teach techniques. I also need to remove the guessing puzzles like the four buttons in a line puzzle (or a least simplify it so that the player can see the rules).
@Dietrich, I've watched a few people play and the biggest issue is feedback. A user needs to know one way or another that an action has an effect, I'm designing out a few solutions, some subtle, and some more obvious (like a zoomed out camera).
Great minimalism, using only walking plus (approximately) two environmental mechanics to produce an elegant little game with great visuals and audio.
I love the way you teach the mechanics implicitly by beginning with simple levels that convey lessons through play. It is something I try to do as much as I can and this is as good an implementation as I've seen.
As has already been discussed, all it needs is an elegant solution to the feedback problem and possibly a mild softening of the difficulty curve.
Excellent graphics and sound! I love it! The game itself is creative, though I found the button-based stuff frustrating because there was no indication of what buttons went with what door.
This was really nice. I kept playing until the end. Constructive criticism: I thought you should be able to look around the level, because a lot of the time I had no idea what buttons were doing, and I had to just guess where to go. Also I think some levels that came earlier were harder than some levels that came later. Otherwise, great job.
Fascinating rotating platformer with charming pixel art! if you are developing this further, i found it easy to get into for the first few levels, yet got into a level that bewildered me; surely i did something dumb, yet i wasn't stretching my mind to see your solution.
Had to try both yesterday and today in order to complete the game. I finally made it though. For you to have made this in 48 hours is amazing. Graphics and music were splendid, as well as animations and storyline. Very cute story, and what a happy ending(except for all those who had failed in escaping). And of course, the gameplay concept in itself was simple, yet very innovative. I'm overwhelmed, my friend! Amazing job!
Fascinating rotating platformer with charming pixel art! if you are developing this further, i found it easy to get into for the first few levels, yet got into a level that bewildered me; surely i did something dumb, yet i wasn't stretching my mind to see your solution.
Wow, where to start. This is probably one of the games in LD that impressed me the most. The integrated tutorial is awesome. Not just for an LD game, you did a wonderful job leading the player through each of the core mechanics before throwing them into their first puzzle. The little cries from the little orange critter when you reset were great. It makes you actually feel a bit bad for giving up without actually punishing the player. The little blue critter and it's whine give you mystery you want to track down. The fractured graphics help with that. I gave up a few levels in, because I'm not really up to a puzzler right now, so I'm not really sure of those mysteries are answered. As has been said, some better cues on where/what buttons are doing would help. And continuing the tutorial by having a better ramp up on puzzle difficulty would help too. This is definitely a game to continue developing. Great job!
I came back to play again. :p So here's some more feeback. This one's very very minor: because the .zip doesn't have the game name in it, it was hard to find in my LD26 folder of games.
Since this is an XNA game, you might consider trying JSIL. It may or may not work, but if it does you'll have a web version of your game.
Having come back, a way to skip levels you've already completed would be nice.
There's one place in one level (second to last I believe) where you CAN walk on empty space. That seemed like a bug, except I couldn't find any way to continue the level without using that.... Except, now that I solved the level, I think it may be possible to solve without using that glitch. This also may be why it took me so long to solve the level because I hadn't discovered the other path and kind of dismissed that area as being "done"....
I like that standing in the way of walls doesn't punish you in any way.
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The only criticisms I have are that the theme isn't very apparent and it's a bit hard. It took me a very long time to figure the puzzles out.
Great game, thanks for making it
@captainkraft, I wish I had more time to make levels to ramp up, they get hard quickly.
@cahman, my brother suggested that I actually put in a zooming function to make it possible to see the level as a whole (though too late to get it in). Others suggested a hint system; something subtle.
But it's totally a solvable problem, and I like the basic gameplay and puzzle ideas! I hope you do a post-compo version.
@Dietrich, I've watched a few people play and the biggest issue is feedback. A user needs to know one way or another that an action has an effect, I'm designing out a few solutions, some subtle, and some more obvious (like a zoomed out camera).
@SonnyBone Wow, really? That means a lot to me!
I love the way you teach the mechanics implicitly by beginning with simple levels that convey lessons through play. It is something I try to do as much as I can and this is as good an implementation as I've seen.
As has already been discussed, all it needs is an elegant solution to the feedback problem and possibly a mild softening of the difficulty curve.
Well done and good luck if you take this further!
https://soundcloud.com/sonnybone/fractured-remix-dalbinblue
Since this is an XNA game, you might consider trying JSIL. It may or may not work, but if it does you'll have a web version of your game.
Having come back, a way to skip levels you've already completed would be nice.
There's one place in one level (second to last I believe) where you CAN walk on empty space. That seemed like a bug, except I couldn't find any way to continue the level without using that.... Except, now that I solved the level, I think it may be possible to solve without using that glitch. This also may be why it took me so long to solve the level because I hadn't discovered the other path and kind of dismissed that area as being "done"....
I like that standing in the way of walls doesn't punish you in any way.