Ludum Dare #37compo

Storage

by stevenjmiller

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.08

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.78

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.98

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.34

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.39

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%

Created by Steven Miller for Ludum Dare 37: One Room
You just landed a new job at the organization and shipping department, where you will be stuck in a room all day, delivering inputs to the output zone, all while making surprisingly low amounts of money.

Features:

An in-game guide and tutorial
12 exciting levels
7 machines
A crane
Some boxes

Tools Used:
GameMaker: Studio
Bosca Ceoil
Audacity

*Notes*

Hold shift to make the game run quickly.

Use the in-game guide (book icon), the outlines in the first few levels, and the three GIFs if you are stuck.

This game has a lot of text, so be prepared to read if you want to know what is going on.

As this game has a lot of text, there will probably be a lot of updates fixing typos and such.

You can get to the settings menu by clicking on the gear icon in the bottom left of the level select.

Also, the last level is much harder than the rest of the game. There is no special reward for finishing it, I just left it in because I know Zachtronics fans like myself find it fun to torture themselves. The GIF of my solution is on the itch.io page.

Genres: puzzle

Tools: GameMaker

Comments59

jcmonkey12 Dec 2016, 09:25

one of the draw backs of this game, i would love to see a full screen mode.

Steven Millerauthor12 Dec 2016, 09:29

There is, in the settings menu

Steven Millerauthor12 Dec 2016, 09:30

It's the gear icon in the lower left of the menu.

impbox12 Dec 2016, 10:41

Took me a while to get what was going on, but eventually figured it out. I like the mix of the crane and conveyor worlds, that worked very well (although the vertical offset is really confusing). I didn't enjoy the humour in the story, it felt too overt, would be nicer to be more subtly dark. I only played a few puzzles, but it definitely needs some kind of stats/scoring system so you can enjoy optimising solutions.

Mattmatt12 Dec 2016, 10:52

- Awesome pixel art
- Awesome gameplay :)

SoKette12 Dec 2016, 11:03

Pretty serious to get in, loads of information dropped at you on the first play, but it's a really nice puzzle game :D

dunin12 Dec 2016, 11:09

Wow, that is a very clever game!
It took me a while and i just finished the 8th level for now!
And this old school UI is gorgeous!

Maybe controls are a bit complicated and difficulty curve sometimes strange and the font tiny (not in fullscreen, but fullscreen is hard to found), but these are remarks if you want to make a full game, for a jam, it's wonderfull!

batmagus12 Dec 2016, 11:33

This intricate programming puzzler is an incredible achievement for a jam!

The tutorial was quite tough to follow and I almost gave up, but glad that I pushed through. Will need to wait until I've had a good night's sleep before tackling some of the later levels.

SkyWolf12 Dec 2016, 11:51

For a man who loves puzzle games, this is, yeah, pretty great.

nikitapash12 Dec 2016, 20:44

Good. Remind me Factorio

Wevel12 Dec 2016, 21:08

This game is very complex so I love it.

Alistesios12 Dec 2016, 21:14

Really good game!
It's really hard to understand what's going on, but once you get it (following your tutorial gifs), it's a lot of fun. A lot of puzzle games enthusiast will like it !

The game is really hard though.

emmelineprufrock13 Dec 2016, 02:43

The game is satisfying and relaxing in a kind of odd way, despite the humor about it being a corporate hell hole.

Intelli-Gents13 Dec 2016, 02:57

Very impressive amount of polish. Great entry as always, this is your best yet. It was actually really satisfying and relaxing watching the machines do the work after spending so much brain power building the solution. Great job!

batmanasb13 Dec 2016, 03:01

I don't usually like puzzle games, but this is the kind I can get behind! It's kind of like programming :)

DMinsky13 Dec 2016, 08:06

Nicely done!

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 09:27

Solid iteration to PD! Good idea IMO capitalizing on the theme this way. I enjoyed the addition of the writing, and the humor's not bad. The mood made by the music and sfx is great but doesn't quite match the writing, unless it's meant to be a kind of zen shield against the corporate culture or something. I think I encountered a bug, though (or if not I don't understand what's going on): https://postimg.org/image/giosin1m1/

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 09:42

Oh, that was before your update 6 hours ago...

Steven Millerauthor13 Dec 2016, 09:50

@KJB of IBwWG That is not a bug, if it stops on the dispenser, it crashes, since that means it would by inputting infinite boxes. I know it looks a little silly, but it is intentional. Make sure that it hits an arrow to change direction before hitting the dispenser again.

Steven Millerauthor13 Dec 2016, 09:51

The update was to fix a typo. I spelled "schedule" like "scedule" on accident.

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 09:59

BTW I miss the PD feature of saving your layout :)

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 09:59

Ah, thanks for the clarification :)

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 10:01

Now I see what you mean with the dispenser. That's funny, I had seen and avoided that in the first two levels, not sure how it skipped my mind after that...:)

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 10:04

BTW some changes from PD that I liked are: ability to play with just the mouse by rotating on click (unless I just didn't notice that in PD), and the shift button for speed feels much nicer.

KJB of IBwWG13 Dec 2016, 10:05

One suggestion, upon completion of a level it would make sense when bringing up the mail screen to automatically go to the next one.

Steven Millerauthor13 Dec 2016, 10:06

Yeah, I really miss saving, but I ran out of time for saves and cycle counters. Hopefully I'll be able to make a post-jam version with those added in. I also have to finish up Production District though, there are a lot of levels not in the game that have been finished for months.

mrhill13 Dec 2016, 10:30

woah, hard to understand at first but a great puzzler :D

The Tophat Demon13 Dec 2016, 23:49

I can't really say what hasn't already been said. This might actually be the best game I've played so far...

Leeman14 Dec 2016, 00:21

Too hard for me at this time of day. Give it a try tomorrow again but the first 3 leves... I loved them. Good job

Bumblepie14 Dec 2016, 05:38

Overall, a really good game. The core mechanics were defined well, and there were quite a few levels considering the short time available for the compo. One thing I found was that most of the levels had the same kind of solution: one box needs to travel across another box's line to get to it's goal, so I would have liked to see a few more different ways the mechanics were explored. Additionally, I think the UI could use a little improvement as the two levels often get in the way of each other when you're building a solution.

LukeZaz14 Dec 2016, 08:35

Nice game. Got to level 9 before I couldn't find a way out. Good challenge and entertaining story to go with it!

bradur14 Dec 2016, 13:55

This has been the best LD game I've played so far. It feels a little overwhelming at first but once you get the knack of it, it'll feel like a breeze. I made some odd contraptions but I managed to reach level 8. I feel like I might play this for fun after I've reviewed enough LD games :).

Rscar14 Dec 2016, 17:58

Wow! Amazing job, and it's super cool to see the variance in your games (I liked Entropy a lot as well). Took me a while to figure things out, but I really enjoyed the challenge! Seems complicated at first but I like that the gameplay isn't crazy complex, but some of the solutions are. The crossed paths is definitely the driving element of the level design, and while I might agree with @Bumblepie in wanting to see more, I'm not sure how much could be achieved in the design without adding a bunch of new pieces, which would make the game much less approachable. Solid entry overall, had a great time with it!

KJB of IBwWG15 Dec 2016, 07:02

Sorry to say, there seems to be a bit of an intermittent bug with the "hold shift to speed up" feature.

https://postimg.org/image/lamivxp01/

This animated gif shows a bug. Four attempts with the same layout are shown:

1 & 2: hold shift the whole time--crashes right at the end

3: hold shift and let go after a moment--crashes right when I let go

4: don't touch shift--beat the level

Similar thing happened on the next level, but I didn't bother to recreate the layout, hopefully you can see well enough. In this case though it was more like case 3 above, and holding shift the entire time actually made it pass.

https://postimg.org/image/yq4y7n841/

KJB of IBwWG15 Dec 2016, 07:04

PS I found the second-last level insane enough ( https://twitter.com/wastheWordGame/status/809284350806212609 ) so I think I'm going to take some breathers before attempting the last one :)

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 07:47

@KJB of IBwWG Thank you! It is fixed, and an update will be uploaded soon, I'm just going to fix one other bug I found. Thanks so much for your continued support!

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 07:50

Also, that is quite the solution! I'll try to post one on the itch.io page, I would love to compare.

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 08:40

Just a quick update, the bug you ran into should be fixed. The bug I found is a bit more complicated and actually helps the player, so I'm just leaving it alone for now.

batmanasb15 Dec 2016, 08:41

OMG man, I accidentally mentioned your game to a streamer (100% forgot it was your game! I swear! I just had it on my mind cuz I really wanted to play it!) and he ended up playing it for close to an hour! This game is definitely top 100 material!

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 08:50

Also, my level 11 solution is not the fourth GIF on the itch.io page. I'm really proud of this one, when I first tried this level, my solution was much more messy.

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 08:50

Where? I must watch!

KJB of IBwWG15 Dec 2016, 13:21

Glad to help, thanks for fixing the bug! I must say, the solution to the last level that you have on the itch.io page is way more elegant than what I came up with. But I was happy to finish it somehow--I started over 3-4 times before getting it to work.

https://postimg.org/image/8f02gfxah/

KJB of IBwWG15 Dec 2016, 13:22

Ha! Also the second-last level! Nice!

Steven Millerauthor15 Dec 2016, 18:29

Wow, that is a really clever solution. I never thought of using destructors like that, that makes the timing so much easier. Thank you so much for playing!

Greemax16 Dec 2016, 09:09

Pretty awesome gameplay and art was cool to. It was a bit confusing at start, but when you get it it's fun. Congrats.

Donar16 Dec 2016, 09:27

This is a really great puzzle game. Impressive!

ethankennerly17 Dec 2016, 16:17

You made an amazing Turing machine! On level 3, I recognized the a crane layer and a ground layer. I made a loop and recognized an analogy to a programmer's loop. I felt clever! Before that I confused how to place a tile, what the tile represented, how to remove a tile, and that the tutorial suggested placement of a tile was not the tile itself. For example, there is a yellow arrow for the crane and a gray arrow for the box. In levels 1 and 2 I didn't understand this. It's still indirect analogy to me that the dispenser is on the crane, which visually seems disconnected from the source of input.

M2tias17 Dec 2016, 23:55

What a tough game! I didn't finish level 11 (yet!) but I'm determined to come back to it. The game has perfectly good art and the SFX are pretty good. The music is pretty bland, but it's not annoying. Amazing what you have managed to do in 48 hours. Introduction/tutorial side would have needed a bit more work. It feels very heavy to get started. If my comment sounded negative, don't worry! This has been my favorite so far :)

Omiya Games18 Dec 2016, 02:29

I will play more of this when I'm not streaming, but this does capture the feel of Zachtronic Games really well. Including how infuriating they are (but I was satisfied).

No real flaws outside of a wall-of-text instructions. I think the levels could have used a better tutorial. Otherwise, nice job!

Drury18 Dec 2016, 08:37

This is actually pretty amazing, I could never code SpaceChem in just one day!

You're not much of a musician, but the sound effects are nice.

I wish there was a way to pause the game, used that in SpaceChem a lot.

The last two levels were super tough, so I'm glad you left the solutions in the gifs on the itch.io page and that I was hanging around on the stream when you said you left the solutions in the gifs on the itch.io page.

Bobsleigh19 Dec 2016, 18:00

Amazing puzzle game. Loved the design: the idea is so simple, and yet, some of those were real brain buster. The controls were very intuitive. Took me a while to get used to the double layer though.... maybe a half-tile discrepancy would help?

The graphics were just so nice, and the music so soothing: felt I could keep on trying forever.

My only complaint is the following: maybe something more to diffrentiate the open and close button. I just kept forgeting which one it was.

I can see this concept getting bigger with switch or new types of conveyor belts. Then again, I just loved your game so much.

By the way, thank you for your review on our game! Great insight.

dobnarr20 Dec 2016, 05:15

This looked totally cool. I tried for a long time to get something to happen, placing all the machines nearly everywhere, but I never got a box to come out. I am disappointed, because this looks like such a cool puzzle idea. The instructions weren't clear enough (to me) to get that basic level of stuff to happen.

dobnarr20 Dec 2016, 05:19

Stending20 Dec 2016, 10:26

So simple and so complexe!
Played it for one hour and didn't manage to finish the last levels.
It's amazing for a 48h game, really!
One of my fav compo entry, for sure.
Congratulations <3

bigbuggames23 Dec 2016, 10:12

Had to spend some time to figure out how it worked, but in the end, it was really worth. Great mechanics and art and awesome system!

Zarkith27 Dec 2016, 01:35

Wow! This is incredibly deep and polished for a Compo entry! :O

Last level took me a good while to solve, but it was so satisfying once I did, even without there being any extra dialogue or whatever.

Only problem I had was the music getting annoying after a while, but it wasn't anything a quick trip to the options menu didn't solve.

tellus2 Jan 2017, 02:18

Wow. This is really good. I like the humor in the briefings, but really, the game play really brought this together.

The two layer system proved a little hard to really internalize, but once I did, the game snapped into place with me. There are a lot of moving parts (pun intentional) but it makes completing the puzzles that much more worth it.

This is a really impressive entry.

batmanasb3 Jan 2017, 07:25

WOW, JUST SHORT OF THE TOP 5!!!!! HAVEN'T CHECKED OUT THE TOP 5 YET BUT I CAN'T IMAGINE THEM BEING BETTER THAN THIS!

batmanasb3 Jan 2017, 07:31

You... you... you beat @Rscar! That makes you royalty in my book! Now if you don't figure out how to export to web or linux by next LDJAM... things will happen!