PixelMonster

by shawn42
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.11
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.30
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.84
Theme★★★★★★★★★★1.81
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.17
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.42
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%
Your Pixel Monster absorbs the colors of nearby pixels. Make him match the exit to move on to the next level!

Left,Right,Up to move
R to reset the level
ESC to quit
I've tested on Windows7 and the latest OS X.

Windows 8 users, if you see a prompt window but no game, give it a minute (literally a minute). It will eventually start playing (no idea why this happens).

PS
With my 3rd kid being only 3 weeks old, I only had a few hours into this. Please post feature ideas / requests in the comments. I plan on continuing development beyond LD if the idea gets a positive response.

screenshot

Comments50

Dizzyman57224 Aug 2015, 03:33
I couldn't get it to run. Sorry. Let me know if you fix it. :(
Ybalrid24 Aug 2015, 04:22
Doesn't run for me :/
andyman404
andyman40424 Aug 2015, 04:34
Very cool concept. Challenging levels - getting the colors to match up with the exit. Congrats on the 3rd kid and being able to put together a game like this in only a few hours. It worked fine for me on Mac OS X.
Halleflux24 Aug 2015, 04:56
Crashes on launch, sorry.
snarf24 Aug 2015, 05:08
Wont run ;(
NathanFlurry24 Aug 2015, 05:40
Why is this showing it was created on May 30th?
shawn42author24 Aug 2015, 09:27
@NathanFlurry The executable is part of the Ruby packaging mechanism called Ocra.
shawn42author24 Aug 2015, 14:40
WINDOWS BUILD HAS BEEN FIXED!
mrozema24 Aug 2015, 14:56
Works for me on Win7 and Mac OSX
Jared Sartin24 Aug 2015, 16:44
Love the puzzle aspect! Hope it will run for people!
lanestp24 Aug 2015, 17:14
Fun game. Seems a little off topic. But it's a fun little platformer!
TackoramaLtd25 Aug 2015, 16:52
Mac version worked fine. Loved this game - you must continue development and add levels and better audio. I especially loved the subtle colour changing elements. My two sour points are the characters controls are a touch over-sensitive and relevance the theme.
M2tias25 Aug 2015, 16:52
The controls have a really nice feeling. It's maybe a bit too fast, but that must be subjective. I like it!
Frozen Ninja25 Aug 2015, 16:54
Very cool concept, not really related to the theme but i love the game play. Love it. too bad it's so short in levels... Good job! :) (also, why ruby... why... ;p)
jlnr25 Aug 2015, 19:39
Great work in the short timespan, and congrats on child #3 :) It's a bit too slippery for my taste, but the concept was really interesting. I wonder how well it'd work with larger levels - at some point you probably have to understand the precise formula for mixing colours?
Dizzyman57226 Aug 2015, 04:22
Hey, I able to get it running. It's a pretty good game as the mechanics are very original.
chikun Dev Team27 Aug 2015, 07:40
Pixels. What's there to say? For a game made in a few hours this is self-contained and works well. I think the mechanic is definitely worth developing into a more fleshed-out game.
TheZiggy27 Aug 2015, 16:05
Really cool game mechanic, one of the most innovative I've seen! Game was lots of fun, just wish there was more levels. Good Job!
Archonthewizard
Archonthewizard27 Aug 2015, 22:18
Interesting prototype. I like the concept. The controls were a bit difficult. I would prefer slower movement - without easing. Keep making levels - I think the idea could develop further.
Grahhhhh27 Aug 2015, 23:50
Wasn't long enough! I liked the idea, and was cracking my knuckles getting ready for a challenge, and then it was over :( Would've LOVED to have seen more levels!
Eingya28 Aug 2015, 17:28
Doesn't start for me (windows 7)
Huo-cuo
Huo-cuo28 Aug 2015, 20:28
good idea, entertaining game.
Xanjos29 Aug 2015, 00:40
Bit short but I like the idea a lot. You should definitely expand on this.
chrissou29 Aug 2015, 17:00
Great game concept
divillysausages
divillysausages29 Aug 2015, 21:28
Took me a while to figure out what was going on, but this is a pretty good idea! The controls were a bit twitchy for me to be confident in moving around though. Congrats on your 3rd kid btw
Drunkteam29 Aug 2015, 21:30
Very original game, I love the idea.
radmars
radmars30 Aug 2015, 05:40
Really neat concept! I'd experiment trying color changing with multiple genres or control schemes. What if it was top-down and you couldn't go over the same square? Or a bullet hell where you absorb the colored bullets you want and dodge the ones you don't?
psydack30 Aug 2015, 06:14
Nice concept, I really like it! I just feel a bit frustrating about movements. It's like walking in the ice. But, I love it. =)
superfluous
superfluous30 Aug 2015, 14:49
Wow, I really loved the concept here. If the controls/friction were tweaked just a little, this would be great developed into a complete game. More advanced level designs would be really cool. You could also imagine a level editor being very easy to implement, fun-for-the-player feature. Great job.
ZYXer
ZYXer30 Aug 2015, 22:35
First I thought "oh no, not another platformer". But with the color mixing mechanic it gets really interesting! You should definitely develop the idea further!
alyphen
alyphen2 Sep 2015, 14:04
Really, really cool mechanic. I would love to see an expansion of this with a lot more levels and some more variety in audio. The level progression was incredibly well done. Shame you had such a short time to work on it, it could really do with more content. In future versions, perhaps allow players to create their own levels, add some menus and audio, etc. A long time since I've seen a game written in Ruby, the garbage collector doesn't make it so easy for a lot of games, but for something this simple, it works well. This, for me, shows a lot of the spirit of LD: A simple mechanic executed pretty well. It doesn't really match the theme, but it's a really good idea.
A Flat Miner Studios2 Sep 2015, 14:22
Cool! I always like color mixing games and this is a neat take on that. Controls are a little fast for my taste. Music got frustrating after a level or two. Took me a minute on a couple of levels to figure it out. Additional levels could make this a fun little puzzle game.
MrTwister
MrTwister3 Sep 2015, 00:01
Wow, this was really brilliant!
Quite challenging and fun! My only complaint would be that the character feels too light. It accelerates in an instant, so it's really hard to control when you have to be precise.
Other than that is a really solid entry. It's incredible that you did this in just a few hours. Would love to see this idea developed further. Kudos, man!
crucknuk
crucknuk3 Sep 2015, 12:36
Interesting concept. I wish there is more levels!
boardtobits
boardtobits4 Sep 2015, 02:03
Didn't run, just got a command prompt icon. Sorry!
Nurbs4 Sep 2015, 02:19
Neat concept. Gameplay is smooth, puzzles are simple enough in the demo although the jump in the last level took me a few tries. Could be worth expanding on.
hexagore
hexagore4 Sep 2015, 15:48
Interesting concept. I found mixing the colours to get the exact right one pretty challenging. Some sort of indicator would have helped enormously I think.
xvw
xvw5 Sep 2015, 11:33
Concept very original, well found, I quickly understood what to do. :)

A little off topic, but innovating!
Resonious6 Sep 2015, 19:55
Super cool idea. Plays smoothly. Too bad there's only one level that requires putting some thought into the color mixing!
philomory6 Sep 2015, 21:10
I like the concept quite a bit, though with only a few levels it's hard to say where it should go next. I could see your monster gaining different powers depending on what color he was, which could add a nice puzzle element to it.
011011017 Sep 2015, 14:39
Cool idea, I could see this becoming a fun puzzle-platformer with a bit more work.
What I find is missing the most is a way of telling if you currently are the right colour. Maybe a glow around your character, a lock opening up on the exit door or something could be nice.
Good luck for the future, keep us posted if you decide to work on it some more! :)
emmelineprufrock
emmelineprufrock8 Sep 2015, 01:28
Lots of fun, great use of mechanic. Especially love the particle effects.
OnlySlightly8 Sep 2015, 01:30
Love the particle effects. I love how they slowly disappear and are pulled towards you. It made the world feel much more alive rather than just some blocks on the screen. When I discovered the mechanic I was like 'whoah'. That was a really fun mechanic and I would love to explore this more. I'm super impressed that you were able to produce this given your circumstances having kids and all. Awesome job. and great game. Thanks!
Wertle9 Sep 2015, 02:50
Alas, wouldn't run on Windows 8 (the executable ran and a command window opened but the program itself never ran)
HotBoxGames
HotBoxGames10 Sep 2015, 21:32
This is a really cool idea! Would really like some more levels!
Good job doing this in the time that you did and I hope you continue the project!
Chris M12 Sep 2015, 06:52
Short and sweet! Nice small flourishes on the minimalist aesthetics (the particle effect did stutter a bit though) and a clever idea. In the colour matching levels I found it tricky to gauge the colour just right though.

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