Shapegrammer is a game inspired by the traditional tangram puzzle that will test your reflexes and visual-spatial ability.
Pick the correct shape and rotation to pass through the never ending obstacles. Try to get the highest score and be awesomer than your friends!
Best played with a gamepad. Keyboard controls supported.
Gamepad controls: A button: start the game A, B, X, Y buttons: change shape Left stick: rotate shape
Keyboard controls: Down arrow: start the game Directional arrows: change shape W, A, S, D: rotate shape
Menu controls: F5: change player name (for the leaderboard, F4 on the web build) F7: toggle music F8: toggle sound fx F10: quit game
NEW: Post jam version (25/04/2016) The post jam version adds a difficulty level selector. Press LB or Tab to switch between RELAX (new, easier mode) and CHALLENGE (basically the same as the original version). They have separate high scores and leaderboards. We also increased the top scores list to 20 names. Hopefully now everybody can enjoy the game without being too frustrated, regardless of their skill level. You can find the new version on the itch.io page or on the Web (Post jam) link below. Have fun!
Programming and graphics: Andrea Pantaloni Music and SFX: Katalin Negretti Additional graphics: Tommaso Pantaloni
Currently available builds: Windows, Mac OSX, HTML5 Made with Unity
It's really addictive, but I'm so bad at it :-) the shifting part I can handle but then when it comes to the rotation.. makes it to hard (for me) :-) But it looks so good, great graphics. Great work!
Great game! Played it until I got the top score so far (30!) and enjoyed it the whole time. Felt like I was really learning how to get better at it. The fish and dragon were the most difficult ones for me, but I ended up with a technique of thinking "Which way is the dragon/fish facing? Press the direction 90 degrees clockwise from that" - quite a tricky bit of mental gymnastic! Lots of fun and a great idea - nice work!
Man this is infuratingly good. Randomizing the shapes each time is really smart. But I think it's overly mean and mentally painful to have some shapes be "up" by default and some shapes be "left" - it's super mind bending. Animation and presentation and everything is great too.
When I pressed the shape of a tangram and the pieces flew into that figure as we wooshed through that shape in the wooden board, I felt amazed. If you continue to design this, I got stuck at the first board to rotate. I didn't notice the shape and the rotation in time.
I was terrible at this but I enjoyed it all the same! The way the tangram reshuffles itself is really cool. Lovely presentation too, right down to the evil laugh when you lose! Great work.
Really amazing work! I love the cool block shapes. But WOW was that ever hard for me. I wish the "next shape" was never behind the current shape so I could see it better. Awesome job.
Really really hard game about as fun as it was annoying to fail over and over again. It actually took me quite a while to figure out that I couldn't use the rotation to rotate the characters so they faced the direction that seemed logical but that finding the right orientation was a challenge itself. Or if that was not intended, we definitely don't agree on the expected rotation pattern. The fish I kept trying to point its head by using the left control, the giraffe, its head (so their origins are 90 degrees rotated in my mind). If what direction on the left stick maps to what rotation was intended as a puzzle too, then I would suggest adding that complexity a bit later in the game and add some more time between the first couple of patterns to help people starting out with the game. Nicely done though.
Pretty fun and challenging entry but also quite difficult because of how fast the shape seems to be falling. Also an option to invert the keyboard controls (so that WASD changes shape and the arrow keys rotate it) would be nice.
Really hard, especially with some shapes already rotated by defaults, but I had great fun with your game! Good looking, addictive, never ending. It has a huuuge potential! Congrats to you :D
Wonderful game. I had a lot of fun to try again and again. Its very difficult to reach your own highscore. It looks nice and the music was fine. Well done!
Thanks everybody for the kind words and suggestions! To non-QWERTY keyboard users: on the downloadable version you can remap the controls on the Input tab of the configuration screen. On-screen it will continue to show WASD and arrows (there wasn't time for a more sophisticated approach), but you'll be able to use any key you want :)
Pretty addictive by the way! Managed to get a 22, signed the 7th current world place. Pretty happy! Getting excited each time I beat the mark! Really original way regarding the theme! Well done!
Wise entry, loved the idea and you executed well. Can't say I didn't have trouble playing it, because it's really hard, but well, no pain, no gain haha. Congratulations.
Im impressed, its really fun to play it, got me playing some time and thats weird for a Ludum game, cool idea used perfectly to accomplish a nice game.
This is a super lovely game, I really like the choice to go with the tangrams and preset shapes of them because it meant I got to look at a lot of really cool art! My biggest issue was that I was mapping rotation relative to the shape, so for example I kept trying to push right twice to make it pointing up, rather than selecting the correct orientation. This may just be a product of experience using the controller and expecting the analog stick to work in a relative way. It would be interesting to find a way to support both and detect which the player is trying to do, BUT that may cause complications since you have a leaderboard (if one method is inherently easier than the other) so maybe not. Or another thing you could do is isolate the two controls in the beginning, like start off with a single shape that you just have to choose orientation on so people can get used to that before adding both of them together, that might actually clear up a lot. There was a point where the music felt like it was syncing to the movement of the shape holes and it was REALLY COOL feeling. If you had a way of doing that on purpose it might get super interesting results. Nice work!
That's guite a hard game. I wish the game would start out a bit easier, so that you get into a flow. I also wished the positions of the shapes would be at the same place each time, its really hard to get used to the new positions (on the other hand, if the game would start out easier, it would give you time to get used to the new positions). In general good graphics and good sound. And quite an innovative idea to combine a guitarhero-esque gameplay with the tandram puzzle.
Hey, this is a really fun game. Cool visuals and good use of theme. Maybe I'm bad at the game but i felt that the learning curve was a bit too harsh and fast.
Very polished! I liked how all the characters were formed of the same set pieces. The game idea is relatively simple but gets tough really fast, and especially the fish was the bane of me. Managed to get 30 points, though!
I saw this being played on Hempuli's stream and after playing it I found it really fun! The animations look really smooth and I like how everything fits together (pun intended :P).
I'm really terrible though, I struggle after three or four goes because of the rotation. It probably would have been manageable if there were only two buttons for rotating pieces (e.g. A+D for rotating left+right) and the direction keys for the shapes.
I must say i feel pretty stupid playing at this game but i have to reckon that it's very well thinking and that you did it perfectly. Nice game helping your brain to get clean :)
the gameplay and the main idea is great, also has the look kind of origamis and i like a lot that, unfortunatly i cant beat more tan 5 shapes, i need more practice, but ill add it to my favs in the browser so ill keep trying to beat the topscore haha! hope you keep working on this, is an amazing idea of shapeshift
Great idea, but a bit fast for me. Couldn't find the correct shape at the bottom quick enough, especially since keeps changing. Awesome take on the theme.
So, puzzle games are not quite my thing, so that affects my view. The game was a good coherent whole. Each part worked well and as intended, I think. More importantly, the parts worked well together. All that being said, it is hard, and not just because you are doing two things at once, nor the speed. Every time you lose, the shapes change, as do their key assignment.
Definitely enjoyed playing this, but I wish you guys introduced the shapeshifting first and then the rotation second. I found the steep difficulty curve a tad off putting. Nice audio and graphics though!
Challenging and addictive at the same time. It is a really solid entry. I wouldn't change shapes between plays, I would mantain it to 4 shapes, but it is just an opinion. It is a great game! Got 13. I don't know how someone managed to get 40 o.o
the shifting effect on the blocks is really well done! for me, rotation is really hard to deal with because it's hard to see the shape in the board with the pieces being on top of it. That would probably be an easy fix :) I like that you can pretty much just try again without a pause to start a new game. You really nailed that 'transformation' effect, it feels amazingly satisfying to switch shapes!
Took me a couple of plays to get it, but after I did, it's ingenious in it's simplicity and overall mechanics. Always liked tangrams and was happy to see someone else does too :D
Thats a very creative Tangram game!! Nicely done! I just think that the dificult could be a little easier on the start of the game, and could get that level of hard on a little more advanced part! But for the rest, its really great!
There's some brilliant mechanics there. It might be kinder on the difficulty if you had a single 'set' of shapes that didn't change if you lost in that level. I found the bit where you bring in the 'rotate', too early and came in a bit too quick. Would make a brilliant touch app, you're almost ready to basically plonk it on an iPhone and make some money! Well done buddy :).
Well made and polished game. But I just can't get the rotation right. I think it would be far easier for me if the left/right keys would just rotate the shape relative to it's current orientation. As already suggested maybe you could provide both control schemes?
Interesting game, but difficult with so much to take into account in short time. Nice touch with different loosing sounds that rotate or is picked by random. Global high score while not really difficult to do if you know some backend development, its still a nice addition.
Wow! Love the puzzle style. The game difficulty is a little high (at least, the first times that you play it) but when you master the controls it became into a very funny and challenger game. Good work!
Lovely looking, well made. I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/6jh8RTn7UxY
I love that the key-to-shape mapping changes every round. The game never gets easy.
It took me a minute to realize that all of the figures are facing left. Knowing that helps a lot when it gets faster - there's not any time to look at the guides in the corners. But it's still hard to quickly translate the direction they're facing to the right key. It's especially difficult with the more horizontal figures, like the fish and the dog (I think it's a dog). The standing figures like the man and the giraffe are much easier - you just point in the direction of their head.
Smooth animation, great UI, very polished all around. I just realized that "press [down arrow] to begin" is written in a font made from tangram pieces - slick.
I'll keep coming back to this one,... and I'm gonna beat Tommy's score :)
Comments96
Got a highscore of 9 after a couple of plays. Can't believe that someone got 30. It's so hard!
Also - I love how the game scales. Like how you left out the boring beginning like so many games like this often does not.
Overall, great game!
Hope you guys had a fun time making it =)
Nonetheless it's addictive! ;) Veeery well done!
By the way, cool game.
Can't say I didn't have trouble playing it, because it's really hard, but well, no pain, no gain haha. Congratulations.
In general good graphics and good sound. And quite an innovative idea to combine a guitarhero-esque gameplay with the tandram puzzle.
I'm really terrible though, I struggle after three or four goes because of the rotation. It probably would have been manageable if there were only two buttons for rotating pieces (e.g. A+D for rotating left+right) and the direction keys for the shapes.
Arrggg this is frustrating, well done !
Got 13. I don't know how someone managed to get 40 o.o
Congrats for your great game!
Would make a brilliant touch app, you're almost ready to basically plonk it on an iPhone and make some money! Well done buddy :).
Very challenging. Nice idea
Very well realized
i really like that it follows a simple idea but has a nice theme and not "just different shapes". i had fun playing it.
I love that the key-to-shape mapping changes every round. The game never gets easy.
It took me a minute to realize that all of the figures are facing left. Knowing that helps a lot when it gets faster - there's not any time to look at the guides in the corners. But it's still hard to quickly translate the direction they're facing to the right key. It's especially difficult with the more horizontal figures, like the fish and the dog (I think it's a dog). The standing figures like the man and the giraffe are much easier - you just point in the direction of their head.
Smooth animation, great UI, very polished all around. I just realized that "press [down arrow] to begin" is written in a font made from tangram pieces - slick.
I'll keep coming back to this one,... and I'm gonna beat Tommy's score :)