Pixel Dust (LD26)

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.85
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.49
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.23
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.36
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.68
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.24
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.67
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.27
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★79%
Ok, I'm as done as I'm going to get (maybe some IE tweaking later).

Here it is:

http://pixel-dust.appspot.com

It's a cross between Nonograms and Mastermind. Not going to be my favorite game, but at least it's the first one I finished.

Source code on github: https://github.com/swizzcheez/pixel-dust

Screenshot:

PS: In case it isn't clear how this is "minimal" -- I don't know how much more minimal I can get than a game about putting color blocks on a canvas. ;)

Also, IE9 kind-of runs. Firefox, Chrome seem to fare well on Linux and Windows. I still can't tell if Macs will work (don't have one to test with).

PPS: Tools I ended up using:

Flask (Python)
Google App Engine
Bootstrap/jQuery w/Custom Theme
Color plugin to jQuery
I think that was it. The rest was hand-rolled.

screenshot

Comments22

nseward
nseward29 Apr 2013, 06:16
I love the discover image type puzzles. Great job. (I got the link to mine fixed if you want to check it out again.)
raincole29 Apr 2013, 06:51
Wow, it's a 1A2B in 2D grid! Like this idea.
sparksgently
sparksgently29 Apr 2013, 06:52
Slick interface. I didn't get the impression that I could logic out what color went where (a la Mastermind), and that meant that I was just clicking until I got a happy noise. That's just my personal preference, I guess, that I would rather be rewarded with a puzzle than a picture.
Nice work all around!
meat_popsicle29 Apr 2013, 07:08
Really hard to understand what the goal is.
Otherwise it was interesting and nice :)
orangepascal
orangepascal29 Apr 2013, 07:39
I'm very bad at these type of games.. and got annoyed pretty quickly.. it's a good game tho, just not my kind :)
patrickward
patrickward29 Apr 2013, 10:40
Nice job. It took me a couple of tries before I figured out what to do. It would be nice to have a small graphical hint, so you're not stabbing in the dark. Overall, a very playable game. Felt complete. Good work!
HeyChinaski
HeyChinaski29 Apr 2013, 17:11
Nice mechanic. The time limit was perhaps a little strict, or maybe I'm a bit slow? :) Maybe an undo button would help
bernhard
bernhard30 Apr 2013, 00:11
Another vote for the undo button! Other than that I found this to be quite a unique puzzle game.
berjah30 Apr 2013, 00:12
runs well and looks nice. a longer time limit for the first round would be good, or maybe I'm too slow ;-)
swizzcheezauthor30 Apr 2013, 00:13
Is adding an undo button something I'm /allowed/ to do after launch? I'm willing to tweak some of these things in, but I don't know if it's allowed.
swizzcheezauthor30 Apr 2013, 00:18
Also, I wouldn't mind dialing in the right scoring settings, but I assumed that after the compo launch that wouldn't be allowed.
Sayaer
Sayaer30 Apr 2013, 01:45
This was difficult for me, but i'm bad with puzzles :) I did enjoy the concept and challenge though, well presented.
Misael.K
Misael.K1 May 2013, 06:52
I'm not sure I dig (functionally) the interface. The "good piece" sound would sometimes be silent, and the little number above each grid block was a bit confusing (that is, I couldn't use it to assist me). I found the time given to be really short, I could only complete a two color puzzle even after several tries.
BrainSlugs83
BrainSlugs831 May 2013, 08:05
What, no Potato?? Also, looks like the scoring for the basic mode isn't working -- both score boards look like they just display the scores for the unlimited mode.
sboerwinkle3 May 2013, 21:52
Neat idea. A little more score would be nice, but I'm sure I'll get better. Good job!
Xanjos12 May 2013, 00:56
Pretty hard but it's a rather interesting puzzler.
Koltiman14 May 2013, 11:54
Really neat little game, good work!
Mach60KAS
Mach60KAS14 May 2013, 17:15
Very interesting, maybe a little bit more time would be nice! :) The design of the page was well thought out and complimented the game, too. Well done!
Oye Beto
Oye Beto17 May 2013, 04:50
I don't know if I'm playing it right, I'm doing it by trial and error and I can't win :P

I liked that you connected it with google accounts and the web design looks good.
RawBits
RawBits17 May 2013, 21:06
Very good! I always wanted to be an imageprocessing algorithm myself. :) Well, my degree is partly from it but I like them more now. :D
swizzcheezauthor18 May 2013, 02:19
I have a scoring fix ready to roll out once the compo is complete. I thought about deploying under the "typo" rule, but wasn't quite sure so I'm leaving it until the compo ends.

Once that occurs, you will have a better scoring indicator and fixes to make the game beatable, perhaps too much so. We'll see. Anyone want to continue play-testing after?
voxel18 May 2013, 09:39
Ooh clever. Agree that it could do with better instructions for the drive-by ludumdare rater, but once you know what's going on it's a solid game and surprisingly fun.

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