If Potato Meets Flag Then

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.01
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.02
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.02
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.02
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.15
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.27
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.14
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.33

"If Potato Meets Flag Then..." is a programming game, mixed with a platformer.


ld41scpotato3.png
It is played with the mouse left button.

Have fun !

(by the way there are 14 levels ;) )

sources:

- game made with gamemaker 1.4
- sound generated with bfxr tool
- font is "roboto condensed"
- music made with OpenMpt!

ld41scpotato2.png
edit2: there was a visual glitch on the html5 version in the end screen (not in the windows version).
I replaced a draw_text content that had a line break by the symbol '#'.
Somehow previous situation was problematic for html5 gamemaker 1.4 compilation somewhere.
edit3: added a walkthrough on itch.io page, in case you're stuck and impatient!

screenshot

Comments53

joqlepecheurauthor23 Apr 2018, 00:58
now just have to publish just in time !
theLudovyc
theLudovyc23 Apr 2018, 09:56
J'adore comment le "win!" il tombe :D !!!
javicepa
javicepa23 Apr 2018, 14:22
Amazing entry!
Very fun, I played it to the end. The level design is quite clever.
ROBOWARRIOR1982
ROBOWARRIOR198223 Apr 2018, 14:27
Good idea, great combination! Maybe you can improve the interface? I think it's hard to follow.
TheGreenMan23 Apr 2018, 14:31
This is the best game I've tried so far. The levels and mechanics are clever, the music is great and really sets the mood and the graphics have a nice look to them. I played through all of it and I want more! XD
joqlepecheurauthor23 Apr 2018, 15:21
@thegreenman thanks for the motivating comment, I will keep that in mind :) if I want to build on it, I will have to rework the whole code though (coded ugly things on top of ugly things)
Duck_Games
Duck_Games23 Apr 2018, 16:01
This was a very good game. The concept was cool and the levels were well designed. Not all levels were hard but not all were a cake walk. There were many levels that made me scratch my head for a good 15 minutes before figuring it out. And you made so much content, it's really amazing. The graphics were simplistic yet stylish. I really can't think of any negatives for this game except the better explanation of the mechanics. Overall a really great game!
blubberquark
blubberquark23 Apr 2018, 21:05
Five stars! Great puzzle design!
CameronJSamuels
CameronJSamuels23 Apr 2018, 21:38
This is an amazing game! I love the idea! Not only is it a programming and a platformer game, it is also a puzzle game. This is a one of a kind. Great job! One of my favorites.
selfsame
selfsame23 Apr 2018, 22:41
Great take on Baba is You, good puzzles too!
Zicman
Zicman24 Apr 2018, 20:08
allé bon sang tu les mérites les 20 rating
Strato
Strato24 Apr 2018, 20:58
Cool idea, some of the puzzles were neat and well thought out, as someone else mentioned Baby is You is what immediately came to mind when I played. Art was bad (mixed pixel sizes are the biggest offender here). Audio was just ok, the music was forgettable but serviceable and didn't get annoying. Icon swapping got a bit tedious when trying to jump and move, I think a "jump forward" would have been a bit better than having to swap between "jump" and "forward".
joqlepecheurauthor24 Apr 2018, 21:30
@Strato "Baba is You" is indeed an inspiration (although I didn't play it yet, I plan to and enjoyed author's previous work), along with "Tower of Heaven"

jump+move is a good idea.
sndr
sndr24 Apr 2018, 21:33
Very cool take on the theme. Appreciate the Baba is You basis but you've got a nice twist that has something special. I had a cool "whoa" moment when I saw the way you'd jump, just when I discovered I was meant to time it. Very neat ^^ Nice job!
Mordokay24 Apr 2018, 21:55
This game wins on creativity and gameplay and fun! I have nothing bad to say about it after 30 min playing ...just gonna play a bit more ^^

Great job indeed!
CaptainPilot
CaptainPilot24 Apr 2018, 22:54
Interesting game, ended up getting stuck but like the concept. It would be cool to have more fun actions / rules you could use to mess with the world.
noumenus24 Apr 2018, 23:36
This was super fun and the concept is very creative!
stevenjmiller
stevenjmiller25 Apr 2018, 09:31
Amazing game! The way the puzzles are solved definitely reminds me of Baba is You, though the mechanics are actually quite different, making the gameplay itself feel very unique and original. I really enjoyed the puzzles, especially the later ones, and I think that the level design is extremely well done.
CrazyHomeboys25 Apr 2018, 11:09
Very intereseting the idea and very simple to understand, this is maybe a gem in power! I had a lot of fun playing for a while.
Toulou
Toulou25 Apr 2018, 11:31
This is a very cool game ! I love the concept, and how you use it to build interesting puzzles. I also like the presentation a lot, it reminds me of the old platformer games on computers like ZX Spectrum.
GoZz
GoZz26 Apr 2018, 08:08
Wow, awesome ! You did a really good job ! The puzzles are interesting and not too easy the difficulty is really growing and it really feels like a "platformer". You did this in 48 hours ! I am really impressed !
joqlepecheurauthor26 Apr 2018, 16:41
@Toulou I indeed chose to go with a ZX spectrum feel ;) If it was to a full game, I am not sure how I should go about it if I want players not getting bored.
JustinM26 Apr 2018, 22:18
Really enjoyed the fun puzzle challenges. I liked that there was a mix of plat-former skill and puzzle work involved.
silkworm_sweatshop
silkworm_sweatshop27 Apr 2018, 00:25
My favorite entry by far! Neat concept and theme use, good clever design, lots of content and everything looks, feels and sounds polished.
benbusby
benbusby27 Apr 2018, 00:40
This is by far one of my favorite games from the jam so far. The puzzles are so great, and I love the retro graphics/sound effects and music. The level design in the game is what really stood out to me the most, it's a really creative idea for a game and the level design makes it fun to figure out how to get to the end. I'd love to see a full version of this. Great job, 5 stars from me!
Roidz
Roidz27 Apr 2018, 18:39
Amazing game, great puzzles. love it !!!!
visumecadroide
visumecadroide27 Apr 2018, 21:07
Pretty interesting game. I rageguit on the level with the button ON/OFF because i couldn't reach the top. It was too hard to switch movements because the hero move too fast.
So maybe you can slow the hero spedd or allow to stop at platform edges or deploys a ladder/upstair to reach floors.

Good job.
I loved the sound of the yellow mosnter falling :id:

Keep working on games to make even better ;)

My game
joqlepecheurauthor27 Apr 2018, 22:12
@visumecadroide I understand, some people have difficulties there :) But in fact there is an easy way to do it. You can always have the character auto jump, and use one direction by small touches to control with precision with very few interactions.
Given the jam time and number of levels, it was hard to mix puzzle/platforming with a steady learning curve, so there is definitely a jump in execution difficulty there!

I made it a bit hard on the platforming side on purpose because of the theme. However, if I was to make a full game, I would probably add an active pause or a slow down feature to appeal to a broader audience, while removing the pause for hardcore players ;)
mrwillowb28 Apr 2018, 01:04
Not a huge fan of puzzle games but this was fun
MrSchlag2
MrSchlag228 Apr 2018, 12:54
Cool game ! First time I see a puzzle game like this one. Nice retro graphics too
Dan Matthews28 Apr 2018, 13:12
I really like this one, you've actually thought things through and created an interesting puzzle game!
Altron28 Apr 2018, 18:08
Amazing puzzle game, the puzzle design was very well done :) In some levels, the control of jumping etc. in real time was a little bit sloppy for me
One of the best games I'Ve encountered so far :)
Baby Dino Herd29 Apr 2018, 03:40
Really excellent mashup! I've thoroughly impressed you managed to make that many well-designed puzzles in such a short period of time!

User interface was generally intuitive and easy to use, though some of the timing on the tile-swapping was a little finicky.
gamebuilder
gamebuilder29 Apr 2018, 22:13
Great game but got really tough around level 5 (the move-jump one).
joqlepecheurauthor29 Apr 2018, 22:20
@gamebuilder yup, execution is tough on this one, there is a trick to make it easier:

- consider jump as a "rest"
- whenever you want to take your time, just swap jump back, it will stop you and you can take your time
- if you want to play it cool swap right/up and left/up but never left/right

thank you for playing :)
gamebuilder
gamebuilder30 Apr 2018, 01:42
Thanks. Actually I was way off the mark with the level, it's more like level 10 (screen shot below). But even so your advice to consider jump as rest paid off, and I was able to beat the level and eventually win the game.
Flatgub
Flatgub1 May 2018, 01:30
This was a really cute puzzle game! I liked the puzzles and the music and it was well polished for 48 hours! Very well done!
arzi
arzi1 May 2018, 09:53
This was really good! The difficulty was just right and the puzzles were fun. I think a programming game fits the audience here pretty well too :)
afendar
afendar1 May 2018, 15:29
Really very nice as a concept. It is possible to do a great game by reworking a little interface but if not, the mechanics are there and the spirit of the game is simple but does the job.

Congratulations and very good work!
mortus
mortus2 May 2018, 19:53
Wow! Pretty cool puzzle that also gets complicated and hard really fast! You can do a lot of fun things with that kind of controls, congratulations on a great game!
Pixel-boy
Pixel-boy2 May 2018, 19:54
Very inspiring, I like all these kinds of visual programming experimentation, nice work !
Rombus
Rombus3 May 2018, 03:52
Love the graphics and the uniqueness of the game. TBH I got stuck on the third level x_x haha, but it's really fun.

Congrats on the entry!
SamuelSousa
SamuelSousa3 May 2018, 08:10
Very cool concept:) Gave up on level with the spikes droping ... was too slow to change the pieces around.
Lovely art. Cool ambient music. Great entry!
randomphantom
randomphantom3 May 2018, 14:53
cool concept. Reminds me of the programming in pony island. Very innovative!
jamfella
jamfella3 May 2018, 17:11
Brain game. Very good job with unique puzzles and making them more and more difficult. I bet this entry must have been pleasant to debug :D Good job.
joqlepecheurauthor3 May 2018, 18:26
@mortus thanks! I wish I could have explored some concepts a bit more.

@SamuelSousa This level is the hardest execution-wise. The trick to it is to have the sequence in mind in advance: as soon as you go right toward the flag on the bottom, store the "go left" icon on an action spot and simply switch grass/character.
If you are fast, you won't need "go left" again, but even if you were a bit slow and had the character end up all the way to the right, you should have time to spare to re-position the character.
Anyway, well done to reach so far!

@randomphantom you are the second person that refer to pony island. If I wanted to explore the concept a bit more in a proper game, would you recommand me to try it?

@jamfella to be honest debugging was a bit a jump in the dark.
I designed the levels as I went, adding features on the fly. Instead of a robust handler for all the triggers and events, I cheated quite a lot to cover all the possibilities I could think of but had to re-ajust lots of things. Long story short: you won the bet ;)
Chaseplays
Chaseplays4 May 2018, 01:02
This was great! I loved the mechanics, and the level design was fascinating, often times having a much more simple solution than I expected and brilliantly using misdirection. The concept was great, the graphics suited the game well, and the audio was good as well. I especially enjoyed the "You Win!" visual effect where the block falls from the top of the screen, especially when combined with the screen shake. Amazing work! I loved this!
SamuelSousa
SamuelSousa4 May 2018, 07:45
@joqlepecheur now that you mention it, I can see it working. I always ended up with the character on the far right. Had trouble making him stop on the flag and the the grass to meet him there.
joqlepecheurauthor4 May 2018, 18:35
@Chaseplays thanks, I appreciate it!
I had some fun imagining people rushing toward false leads ;)

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