Ludum Dare #37compo
The 16th Bit
You have received a mysterious invitation to a LAN party, and upon arrival you find out that the host has gone missing! Time to investigate! This consists of a mixture of logic puzzles and a cryptic clue game that you play by clicking on the computer games you find around the room, inspired by The 11th Hour.
Tips:
- To begin with, try just clicking on things around the room. The cursor changes colour when it is over something you can interact with.
- When you are looking closely at something, you can click at any edge of the screen (the cursor will turn into an arrow) to go back to the rest of the room.
If you want hints on the cryptic clues, or you need reminding of the puzzle rules, talk to your friend by clicking on the phone in the top right. The rules for the puzzle are explained in-game, but for reference:
- A number and a square means the symbol in that tile must match exactly that many of its 8 neighbours (horizontal, vertical and diagonal)
- A number and left-right arrows means the symbol must match exactly that many of the other tiles in the same row
- A number and up-down arrows means the symbol must match exactly that many of the other tiles in the same column
- A barrier between two tiles means they must not have the same symbol.
Tools:
- Coding: Notepad++.
- Code base: The reusable parts of my previous two games.
- Testing: Chrome, Edge, Firefox on Windows.
- Graphics and fonts: Krita, GIMP, Codehead's bitmap font generator (made a pixel font out of Deja Vu).
- Sound and music: FL Studio, Miroslav Philharmonik, Audacity.
Update (2016-12-14): "Ported" the game to also support IE11. (If the game doesn't work for you, e.g., if it gets stuck on the "Decoding audio" message, please let me know what browser and OS you had problems in. It may be worth trying a different browser.)
Tips:
- To begin with, try just clicking on things around the room. The cursor changes colour when it is over something you can interact with.
- When you are looking closely at something, you can click at any edge of the screen (the cursor will turn into an arrow) to go back to the rest of the room.
If you want hints on the cryptic clues, or you need reminding of the puzzle rules, talk to your friend by clicking on the phone in the top right. The rules for the puzzle are explained in-game, but for reference:
- A number and a square means the symbol in that tile must match exactly that many of its 8 neighbours (horizontal, vertical and diagonal)
- A number and left-right arrows means the symbol must match exactly that many of the other tiles in the same row
- A number and up-down arrows means the symbol must match exactly that many of the other tiles in the same column
- A barrier between two tiles means they must not have the same symbol.
Tools:
- Coding: Notepad++.
- Code base: The reusable parts of my previous two games.
- Testing: Chrome, Edge, Firefox on Windows.
- Graphics and fonts: Krita, GIMP, Codehead's bitmap font generator (made a pixel font out of Deja Vu).
- Sound and music: FL Studio, Miroslav Philharmonik, Audacity.
Update (2016-12-14): "Ported" the game to also support IE11. (If the game doesn't work for you, e.g., if it gets stuck on the "Decoding audio" message, please let me know what browser and OS you had problems in. It may be worth trying a different browser.)
Comments7
I don't even know how many times I had to reset the puzzle after arriving at a paradoxal state after following what seemed to be valid logic. Had the same problem even on the level before this one, but finally managed to solve that one somehow. I don't even know why that is; usually I like these kinds of higher order logic puzzles (Sudoku, Hexcells, Picross etc.). Maybe something in this game just tricked my brain into seeing certainties when the move actually wasn't yet obvious thus derailing my chain of reasoning.
Graphics are decent and the audio is pretty good (narration is always fun to hear in LD entries), even though I had to stop listening to the music at some point because the violin was really getting on my nerves. The game finding/clue hunt portion of the game felt pretty weak/tacked on as it didn't last long enough (at least for me) compared to the actual puzzles. Mood was good and it certainly followed the theme. Solid entry, but sadly too hard for me, which somewhat diminished the fun factor.
Also thanks for the in-depth comment on my game and also for the name "Theseus and the Minotaur", I might actually be able to track down the game I used to play as a kid now ;).
So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that you did something a little bit different! The graphics could use a bit of improvement still. (Personally, I would use a lighter palette, the darks blend together a lot, in the room, but in the puzzle sections as well. Also the anti-aliasing on the font doesn't look so good when it is scaled up.) But it wasn't the same format, and I think it's good you try to get out of your comfort zone.
As for the puzzle itself, it wasn't as obvious at first as the others. I didn't realise every tile has to have either blood or water in it, I thought 'empty' was a type of its own. I didn't realise the constraints would turn red only when all the tiles they concern are filled in, or that the tile itself doesn't count for the constraint. (After I figured it out,) I did see that the hint thing explained the puzzle much more, but I didn't even think of looking there. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the constraints should me more intuitive, the difficulty curve less steep (= more levels, yay), and the UI more clear (lighter colours again).
The 'riddles' were clever, though I didn't figure out all of them before clicking on the cover. A nice touch nonetheless.
The music, as always, very nice and chill, goes well with thinking.
Good job overall!