Ludum Dare #41compo

Dyeswap

by morphine

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.11

Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.11

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.04

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.76

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.70

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.65

Play in Browser: https://morphinegames.itch.io/dyeswap

Windows: http://play.morphinegames.com/dyeswap/dyeswap-windows.zip

Source Code: http://play.morphinegames.com/dyeswap/source.zip

Dyeswap is a first person shooter combined with a match 3 style game.

The goal of Dyeswap is to swap colors around to cause 3 adjacent colored blocks to dissolve.

Dyeswap takes place in a world inspired by the movie "They Live"

The controls are very straightforward and familiar to anyone who has played a FPS game before. It supports both Keyboard+Mouse and the XBOX controller

Move: WASD or Left analog stick

Look: Mouse or Right analog stick

Jump: Space bar or A button

Swap Dye: Left click or Right Trigger or X button

Respawn: Home key or Back button

Menu: End key or Start button

Dyeswap was created in less than 48 hours for LDJAM41 by Patrick Greene (@morphinestudio) and the following tools were used

1. Unity - game engine
2. Blender - 3d models
3. Photoshop - textures
4. Dafont - https://www.dafont.com/blocks.font?text=dyeswap
5. Fontspace - http://www.fontspace.com/hubert-and-fischer/rubik-mono-one
6. Figure Make Music app (iOS) - all music in the game
7. Visual Studio 2015 - coding

Unity Libraries (all free):

1. DOTween - tween support https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/dotween-hotween-v2-27676
2. Post Processing Stack V2 - bloom https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/PostProcessing
3. ProGrids - editor alignment - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/progrids-111425
4. TextMeshPro - text support Unity - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/beta-projects/textmesh-pro-84126

I really hope you enjoy playing Dyeswap - it was a really fun game to make and it came out exactly as I envisioned it would. Thanks again for playing and rating!

Tags: #3d, #difficult, #first-person

Genres: puzzle

Tools: Blender, Unity

Comments92

Killian23 Apr 2018, 13:47

Cool game, nice visuals, interesting interaction. And the pacing is really good for a puzzle game made in 48 hours.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 13:48

Thank you very much! I'll check out your game once I start rating, need coffee!

ysty23 Apr 2018, 16:34

A really clever way of integrating the two genres. The premise could definitely support a much larger game.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 16:49

Thanks! Yea I thought the same thing - I actually wished I had more time to think about the puzzles because I wanted to support so much more but 48 hours ;)

fashionbatman23 Apr 2018, 17:19

I think the color indicator on the reticle could be a bit larger, but that is my only issue. Really good job with this!

Thibaut Blanca23 Apr 2018, 17:34

Very good game idea: tetris + fps.
I' m stuck on the rubix cube level :D
Nice work!

seano23 Apr 2018, 17:37

Magic, full marks, perfect entry, great idea and implementation.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 17:38

@seano hey man thanks so much I really appreciate that.

JavaSaurus23 Apr 2018, 17:39

Really nice game ! I love it, has very portal-esque vibes. Well done ! :)

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 17:40

@JavaSaurus holy shit that's the greatest compliment ever. Thank you!

Colin Misbach23 Apr 2018, 18:23

Loved the graphics! Interesting concept too!

Swen23 Apr 2018, 21:03

Fun and challenging core mechanics. Great game, good job!

Borodar23 Apr 2018, 21:04

Great combination of genres! Reticle could be a bit bigger bug strong five stars in general!

Handle23 Apr 2018, 21:14

Really great idea with a ton of content! I loved the They Live references.

benskca23 Apr 2018, 21:22

The difficulty ramped up perfectly and not only were there a tonne of levels but every level was well designed. The only criticism I have is that at times the movement felt a bit clunky, but that didn't have much of an impact on my enjoyment anyway.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 21:26

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Aaron Nemoyten23 Apr 2018, 22:26

Wow, really impressive work. Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Great concept, awesome puzzle design.

I agree that the movement controls feel a bit floaty - the player doesn't stop moving immediately when the button is released, and that feels weird.

I got stuck at the "face down" level. I assume that's my fault and not a bug.

I wish there were sound effects!

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 22:35

@aaron-nemoyten Yea all levels can be completed - I am big on play testing and I went through each level on each build multiple times to makes sure :)

Rombus23 Apr 2018, 23:00

extra points for "they live" references :P

Really cool game, with a portal vibe. The puzzles where fun to solve.

Congrats on the entry!

Andreadbx23 Apr 2018, 23:11

Really nice entry there! i loved the gameplay, the art style it's simple but effective, good job!

Pixels Everywhere23 Apr 2018, 23:22

Some of those levels are tough! Great entry!

lpriebe23 Apr 2018, 23:22

"Home" and "End" probably aren't great keys to bind features to, since they don't exist on some keyboards (particularly on laptops). I found myself having to jump off the edge to restart. Thankfully, I didn't encounter any situations where I was trapped without a pit available.

The game itself is fantastic, though!

leorid23 Apr 2018, 23:30

I was like 5 Minutes at the "face forward head down" level, came back to this site, read the comments, saw that you playtested every level, trusted you, invested another 5 Minutes and made it xD
This game was GREAT! The sound, the style, the graphics, its just awesome :D
Thank you very much for this experience.

pladams923 Apr 2018, 23:30

This was a lot of fun, very polished. I'd love to play more levels! One thing - the menu says to press Escape to close the menu, but you actually have to press End (same button that opens it).

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:33

@lpriebe I 100% agree with you, it used to be Escape for the respawn BUT webgl doesn't like that and I was 100% determined for webgl to be 100% the best experience because I know how LDJAMs go and how you get download fatigue.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:34

@leorid I am glad you figured it out. I wanted to have a variety of puzzle types in the game and I thought that a little subterfuge would be nice.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:35

@pladams9 I noticed that this morning but did not fix it because I believe what you submit Sunday is what you stand by.

AdroitConceptions23 Apr 2018, 23:38

- menu didn't work with controller
- joystick was bound to windows controls... (so trigger wouldn't work for Linux or MacOS)
- see http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=Xbox360Controller for assistance
- gameplay was really good

Bhavin23 Apr 2018, 23:41

The graphics were great and puzzles were really cool too!!
I guess you did a well job with the theme!!

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:41

@jason-kennedy - thank you! I actually use that wiki all the time for windows bindings but I don't have Linux to test it out on. Damn that the menu didn't work with controller, I thought for sure I tested that on Windows.

AdroitConceptions23 Apr 2018, 23:43

@morphine - it looks like you don't have a default UI element configured when the menu comes up.

Apples_mmmmmmmm23 Apr 2018, 23:47

Great game! Decent variety of puzzles for the amount of time you had to make them!

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:49

@jason-kennedy yea you know I wasn't even going to put that damn menu in :) but figured someone out there will want inverted axes so I did it and look what happens!! haha

coldmoose23 Apr 2018, 23:49

Congrats on finishing such a well polished game! There is a good variety of different mechanics to make up the puzzles. Only suggestion I have would be to not use white for a dye color since the other colors really stand out in the world and show that these blocks are important.

morphineauthor23 Apr 2018, 23:51

@coldmoose - you know, ORIGINALLY white was supposed to be like a middle man and you couldn't swap directly, you could only transfer white color not color color. So for example, green could not be swapped with red, but only green to white. It was about as intuitive as my explanation ;) but the color was left over in the code so I used it for visual variety.

AdroitConceptions23 Apr 2018, 23:54

@morphine and on the controller (which had issues for me) I wanted the inverted controls :D

xilentor23 Apr 2018, 23:54

Nice game!

A bug: When I change color while standing in the glass, the wall push me to the top.

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 00:11

@xilentor - that isn't a bug, it means you are now colliding with the glass because your cursor is the same color as the glass's border, that is one of the mechanics.

Ismael Rodriguez24 Apr 2018, 02:30

Cool idea, first 3d game for ld41 i played.

I like the visual, the idea.

The first level where you change the colors was kind of trolly because i didn't understand the mechanics and the solution was hiding to the side. I think that idea could have been saved at least 1 level, just teach me i steal colors from the blocks first.

I got stuck in the first level with glass and couldn't figure out how to restart because "back" or "home" is not on my keyboard... maybe that's my fault.

But overall a cool game!

KunoNoOni24 Apr 2018, 02:49

Absolutely amazing! Seriously the best game I have played so far. I really liked the teleport cube effect. might dig into your source to see how you did that.

Congrats on a great entry!

jshaffer9424724 Apr 2018, 04:52

Very nice! I got a little annoyed with the music but since I know how to turn the volume down we're all good. Got a little stuck on the glass level and wanted to experience more games, so bailed out. Might come back though...

Tikikala24 Apr 2018, 04:53

i got stuck on the second glass level... i dont understand how the border thing work i thought im aiming the black lines?

EkkoEkko24 Apr 2018, 06:05

Simple graphics but its fun to play

LandoSystems24 Apr 2018, 06:06

Very cool game. Was trickier than I expected it to be. I got stuck on Sequence in my first playthrough, and I'm not sure whether some of the earlier ones were won legitly or gamed a bit by strategic jumps, but it doesn't matter because they are good puzzles. The controls were a little floaty but the concept and execution is great. Nice work!

Jrpl24 Apr 2018, 08:03

Really cool game. I like the theme and lighting, you did a really good job of setting the mood of the game while not taking away from the game.

fasterthanlime24 Apr 2018, 09:07

Very very solid entry, great work!

Zorg24 Apr 2018, 13:36

Cool game, congratulations. :)

(I did not join LDJAM41 so i can't vote, sorry.)

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 14:14

Thanks everyone for the comments! Just to reiterate every room is solvable and there aren't any bugs preventing solution so a little bit of experimentation and you should be able to figure out the solutions :)

roy24 Apr 2018, 14:54

a good idea well excuted , reminds me of portal, simple mechanics but rich gameplay.

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 15:11

@roy thanks man - I appreciate the comparison!

driedwatermelon24 Apr 2018, 16:19

Really cool game, I enjoyed it very much! I am amazed at the level of polish you managed within such a short timeframe. I really enjoyed the music. I played until I got stuck on the "walk forward with your face down" level. There is a lot of potential here and the mechanic is cool and innovative. One note about the controls: on some levels I would have preferred a slightly slower walking speed (or some way to slow down by holding a key) I fell of the stage a few times by mistake. But a really awesome game nonetheless!

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 16:20

Thanks @driedwatermelon a lot of people have gotten stuck on that stage but I promise you there is a solution and if you do figure it out you'll be happy, it's not a bug :)

driedwatermelon24 Apr 2018, 16:23

@morphine Yeah, I gathered that much from reading the other comments. I'll give it another shot later :)

IronyGames24 Apr 2018, 16:54

Ooooh, really cool combination! 3D puzzle games have been around, but I've never seen it combined with the delete-3 concept. Some polish and this can be a full fledged concept!

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 17:05

@IronyGames Thanks! There is so much I wanted to do but 48 hours goes by quickly!

driedwatermelon24 Apr 2018, 17:47

@morphine I tried again and managed to finnish the game, the rest of the game was as enjoyable as the first half. Well done!

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 17:55

Thanks @driedwatermelon! Glad you enjoyed it

HagamosVideojuegos24 Apr 2018, 19:01

Amazing puzzles! I like it so much!

morphineauthor24 Apr 2018, 19:28

@HagamosVideojuegos Hey thank you so much for the kind words!

MaikelOrtega25 Apr 2018, 07:55

Absolutely loved it. It's a great idea, well implemented, and the puzzles explore many of the main mechanic possibilities. Congratulations!

morphineauthor25 Apr 2018, 14:00

Thanks @MaikelOrtega!

arzi25 Apr 2018, 15:06

I quite like the puzzles, but for me any amount of first person platforming is a major turnoff. Without that, this would be only of my favourites in this LD.

morphineauthor25 Apr 2018, 16:42

@arzi I 100% agree in hindsight I would remove any sort of timed jumping etc. and make it rely only on the main mechanic.

morphineauthor25 Apr 2018, 17:12

@Borodar you know I thought that name sounded familiar. I am a huge fan of your skyboxes! In fact - I recently submitted a bug request to you regarding the transform of the prefab affecting the skybox on the unity forums.

Best low poly skyboxes on the asset store:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/sky/farland-skies-cloudy-crown-pro-71105

Blinkenlights25 Apr 2018, 20:42

A really fun puzzler, although I got stuck on the 'head down' level. The music got a little annoying after a while, but the puzzles made up for it, there where some really interesting mechanics there!

morphineauthor25 Apr 2018, 20:56

@Blinkenlights a lot of people have gotten stuck there but there is a solution and it's not completely trollish

thanks for the feedback!

Blinkenlights25 Apr 2018, 21:16

@morphine I am intrigued...

morphineauthor25 Apr 2018, 21:22

@Blinkenlights well I really don't want to give hints but I promise you there is a solution.

Wendel Scardua26 Apr 2018, 00:48

I liked a lot of the games on this jam, but this one is the first that made me think "wow, I'd buy (a version with maybe more levels of) this!"

ps: I really loved the way the title zooms into the first level

morphineauthor26 Apr 2018, 02:07

@wendel-scardua Thank you for your comments! I am going to be turning this into a full game actually, I decided today based on all of the positive feedback.

jharler26 Apr 2018, 11:08

I really enjoyed this and played through until the end. The aesthetics were very good. The visuals and music played well together and your puzzle design was excellent. My only point of concern were the controls. They seemed very jumpy. In some of the puzzles, jumping and landing with any sort of accuracy was very difficult and multiple times I found myself jumping too far and having to restart the puzzle because I fell off the platform. Because of this some of the puzzles (particularly the one that relies on timing) were more frustrating than they should have been. Overall though, you did an excellent job on this. Nice work!

morphineauthor26 Apr 2018, 13:51

@jharler thank you! yea, if I had more time I would tweak the controls more for sure and also remove that one particular puzzle that requires precise jumping.

MariosManiatis27 Apr 2018, 19:23

Wow! just wow! So many levels! And the concept! Just wow! Loved it!

morphineauthor27 Apr 2018, 23:14

@MariosManiatis Thanks man! Appreciate it

Yetman28 Apr 2018, 10:35

I played the game yesterday, and even after 1 day, I can't criticize anything (except the "forward with face down" level, felt more like searching the scene and less like a puzzle). This game is perfect. Great job.

morphineauthor28 Apr 2018, 15:16

@yetman hey thank you very much! I really appreciate it

abductedPlatypus28 Apr 2018, 19:06

__Fun__
Why didn't you say you also made a first person puzzle game :D I really enjoyed this. I'm amazed by the amount of levels you were able to make. Also you mechanic is really simple, yet most of the puzzles were really well designed.

__Innovation__
Like most puzzle games, innovation is key, and you nailed it.

__Theme__
The theme wasn't obvious to me until the end, they blend really well.

__Graphics__
Simple, yet effective.

__Audio__
The music got repetitive to me rather quickly. But annoying, so I guess it's decent. The other effects work well too.

__Mood__
Like with anti-chamber it really felt empty. Which I personally don't like, but it works really well for a game like this.

__Overall__
Yes, this is a really great little puzzler. Well made!

morphineauthor28 Apr 2018, 20:22

@abductedPlatypus Thanks! Really appreciate it!

Geckoo13371 May 2018, 15:48

Very good concept for a really good entry. You fit with the theme - fps+puzzle+match3. Mecanics work well as expected. Levels are clever. However music is too repetitive and a litle bit annoying after a while. One of my favorites entries for the 41 Ludumdare. Well done ++

morphineauthor1 May 2018, 17:29

@Geckoo1337 Thanks!!

Random Thoughts5 May 2018, 08:25

Really cool game! Feels more like a match 3 puzzle platformer than a match 3 shooter, but thats much better in my opinion because you had really clever puzzles! It also feels like theres an underlying story that I might be missing

morphineauthor5 May 2018, 15:40

@random-thoughts - Thanks! There is a full version coming which might explain the story better :)

Sarrixx7 May 2018, 15:53

Great concept man, super challenging and very interesting! There was no audio for me (I played it in Chrome) so I haven't voted on that, but everything else was great!

morphineauthor7 May 2018, 16:28

@Sarrixx Thanks dude! I appreciate the feedback.

cristiano.m.garcia12 May 2018, 21:09

Great game. The mechanics of the puzzles and leveldesign are very high level. Congratulations!

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape

morphineauthor13 May 2018, 14:29

@cristiano.m.garcia Thanks man! Checking out your project right now.

Ava Skoog15 May 2018, 16:22

What a great game! Just played through all of it. With a gamepad, as you notified me was possible!

morphineauthor15 May 2018, 16:27

@ava-skoog - Thank you so much! That was very kind of you to write such a lovely review. I agree about the music and in hindsight I would have done a much more mellow vibe. I'm going to go play your game now!

Ava Skoog16 May 2018, 11:32

Congratulations on some great final scores! You really deserve it! :D

morphineauthor16 May 2018, 13:35

@ava-skoog Thank you very much!

Flying Cat of the Pepes16 May 2018, 19:17

I solved one of the levels by standing in the walkable glass and then switching colors to make the glass that I was standing in solid. I got pushed up onto the top of the map and then just walked over the unsolved puzzle and through the yellow exit. :P
Nice game! I don't remember what game it was, but there is a 4-dimensional puzzle-shooter game where you place and destroy colored blocks to solve puzzles, and your game reminded me of it.

morphineauthor16 May 2018, 20:11

@flying-cat-of-the-pepes - Thanks!

Other games by @morphine

★3.52

★4.04