Ludum Dare #39compo

Energy Enigma

by jcmonkey

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.48

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.26

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.61

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.74

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.09

Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.22

Mood★★★★★★★★★★1.70

Video Tutorial: https://youtu.be/YaXJzD9iN54

This was my first attempt at a puzzle game for ludumdare compo. The premise of the game is that you have a battery draining away its energy to keep a remote system operational. What you need to do is rewire the broken circuits to supply power from the main node to the battery.

You have seven parts, each part has a unique resistance value. Create a chain of parts that match the resistance value to complete the circuit.

You have to complete the circuit before the battery drains away.

I ran into problems, since this was my first puzzle game, that i couldnt get any sounds or music in.

So im opting out of the Audio category this time around.

Hope you like the game, it was fun to try and attempt puzzle games.

The source for the game can be found on the game site at the bottom, click download next to scripts

jcmonkey

Twitter: @JCMonkeyD3
Twitch: jcmonkey

Genres: puzzle

Tools: Unity

Comments16

Mr.McGibblets1 Aug 2017, 04:54

None of the controls were working for me.

Steve Johnson3 Aug 2017, 02:32

I watched the video and still could not beat the first level. I got it saying "Resistance 33/33" but nothing happened.

This is a good gameplay concept for a 48 hour game, but several things really prevented me from enjoying this, even if the level had worked:
* There is no visual feedback about what you have selected
* You have to remember the individual part values or click them one at a time to see
* There is no visual feedback if your path is valid or invalid
* The clock prevents much experimentation and doesn't add any gameplay value
* The tile graphics don't line up so my eyes can't follow lines easily

If you do a post-compo version, I'd be happy to replay.

Deanard3 Aug 2017, 02:46

This definitely can be a solid puzzle game, however the lack of responsiveness for the player can be damning, id recommend having a window which displays what wire the player has selected and maybe a little discharge animation coming from any loose ends.

asixjin3 Aug 2017, 02:49

The game was really hard to understand, but I appreciated the video. I did have fun with the game, but I'm not sure I wasn't winning one of the levels. I attached a screenshot...Was I missing something? http://imgur.com/a/x6XeR

JelloKeynote3 Aug 2017, 02:50

Simple idea but I like it! Got stuck on the third level even though I think my solution worked. I like the layout; it's very intuitive and even without the tutorial I think it would be obvious how to play. Nice work!

sketchycode3 Aug 2017, 02:51

Got stuck a few levels in (see screenshot), had resistance at 49/49 but the level didn't complete (double checked the circuit, maybe I missed something though?). Fun concept, some sounds wouldn't hurt, nor a drag/drop interface (as in, once I've placed a piece on the grid, I'd like to move it to a new spot when I'm tweaking the solution to hit the exact resistance number).

Nice job overall!

Matt Fabius3 Aug 2017, 02:52

Cool puzzle mechanic. I like the direction you took the theme. Only big complaints are that the gameplay isn't incredibly intuitive and the tutorial is hobbled together. I feel like a stronger focus on art could've helped this game a lot. I don't think a graphic for the flow is necessary, but you had nice uniform blocks which your art could fit into so it shouldn't have been hard to make the wires line up. This is a game that could easily look good without even any artistic talent. Overall, this game would totally be something I'd play on mobile but lack of presentation makes the game lack heart.

benbennett3 Aug 2017, 03:07

I couldn't finish level 3. I had 33/33 resistance and the path was fully connected from input to output. I tried a few other paths that also had 33/33 and were fully connected, no luck. Picture for reference

Regardless, it is a good puzzle game concept. There are a few small presentation issues that if fixed would go a long way in making the game easier to play. There needs to be some way of knowing which piece is selected, maybe just putting a highlight around the selected one would be all that's needed. Adding the resistance value for each piece without having to click on it would also help a lot. But the concept has a lot of potential and I can see a lot of ways to make more complex puzzles.

doomshmuck3 Aug 2017, 03:23

I think I understood it mostly... I think there was a bug in the game that prevented the win condition from triggering though. I was on the level where the map was like this:
OOOOO
OxOxO
OOOOO
OxOxO

Which ever level that was, and I got it to 61/61 (I think it was?) and the level didn't complete. Unless I was missing something, it seems like the game didn't register that as a win condition.

I agree that there needed to be some visual feedback on the wire selected, and the wires not aligning was pretty off-putting.

Overall though, I had fun with it and the concept was really solid.

JCMonkeyauthor3 Aug 2017, 04:50

thanks for the feedback guys really appriciated. the issue i had with the game was coming up with a proper way to auto check puzzle completion. and i didnt realize at first that there was more then one way to get the desired resistance value. i hard coded one path for each level to be completed. but the fact that you could get the resistance value doing a path another way broke the way i implemented the auto solver check. so this will have to get a whole rewrite for the post compo version. but since this is my first ever puzzle game i think since it was some what playable ill chock this up as a victory :D

wh05herlock3 Aug 2017, 07:37

Congratulations on finishing your first ludum dare!

As I think you know already there are some glitches in terms of puzzle completion checking, which get in the way of the game.

If I was to change one thing (other than the way you check if a solution is correct), it would be to make the wire segments line up (so when you put them on the grid each wire touches the wires it's connected to).

Other than that it was a nice game, and an interesting idea :).

CaptainDreamcast3 Aug 2017, 08:50

I liked the idea! I think once you polish it up a little and work on a post-jam version, it will make a nice puzzle game.

Also, I would like to suggest a little tutorial screen. Looking forward to see where you go with this!

LeReveur3 Aug 2017, 21:10

The idea is simple, and puzzles have to be simple to understand, but I got stuck on some levels with good resistance but not winning. So, I guess I didn't get something, or there is a bug. ;)

Phlip454 Aug 2017, 06:28

You completed a game in 48 hours! Yay! That game has some bugs. oh no. You can still update your code with bug fixes! Yay!

The concept is simple enough and I think you could make some pretty decent puzzles with the system you have, in fact maybe you did! I took a look into the source files and it seems you hard coded the solutions in. This would have been fine if every puzzle had a single unique solution but as you can see others have found different solutions. Just get that fixed and the game would be decent.

Willbl3pic5 Aug 2017, 18:37

I liked it, but I couldn't work out how to delete parts from the circuit, or replace them.

Eremiell8 Aug 2017, 12:39

I'm a huge puzzle game buff, so I had hopes in here. The premise is kinda typical, sadly there's some lack on the side of implementation. As others before me noted, there's plenty of ways to wire some levels, that given the numbers should be completely valid, yet are not.

Still, you achieved this alone in 48h, so good work, and if you're going to spend a bit more time to polish this, I'll gladly return for a replay.

Btw. crashes in my Firefox, seems working in Google Chrome. Linux64 native export would be awesome.

Other games by @jcmonkey

★2.81

★2.24

★3.01