Congrats on finishing a game. Not a lot to see here (I won in 3 moves pretty simply). I do like the calculator arrangement moving between options + up or down for the + or -, it's a good control scheme.
@quantumpotato Thanks for the feedback! I raised the difficulty as per your suggestion. I originally put 21 as the upper limit of the numbers that show up, because I thought it would be too difficult otherwise.
As always I'll split positive and negative points:
Positives: - Your game is simple but in a good way : i loooove simplicity - Graphics are neat, because...simplicity again - We quickly understand our goal , our objectives and how we can lose - Your game is short , once again on a good way
Negatives: - Some rules are confusing : what are those strikes on some numbers ? Are numbers randomly generated ? What happen after i "eat" a number ? a new one is created ? when i go up the "+" line become the "-" line ? - Your game is too easy : it's very easy to stay between 43 and 0 as we have almost no contrainst : perhaps add things like time limit ?
@semichaut Thanks a lot for the very substantive comments! The numbers are randomly generated with a range between 1 and 42. When you go forward (subtraction), the minus line becomes the plus line and vice versa. The lines above the second and third number are the indicate how many identical numbers are behind it. The numbers of the first column are generated one by one, the numbers of the second column two by two and the third three by three. So, if you meet a 23 in the third column and it has two lines above it, you will meet 2 more 23s behind it. The fact that this is not clearly conveyed to the player is a failure that I will try to remedy. As for the difficulty, I love your timer suggestion and I will try to put one right now. Thanks again!
Neat puzzle game. I can see this extending to have multiplication/division as a more advanced challenge. I can't say I understood the UI layout, but once I played a few rounds I ended up getting the hang of it.
Missed opportunity for the meaning of life. I did once something similar but I used concept know as "spectrum of failure" look it up basically it gives the player opportunity to have various degree of victory. For example, instead of failing immediately user may be required to reach the target in a specific amount of steps also timer could be only used to decide that solution was best if done fastest and not failing player while he is still searching
The controls are simple and really snappy, that is a big bonus for a puzzle game. The mechanics and goals are not immediately super clear, but that's part of the enjoyment.
I regret that I can't try again with the exact same numbers if I fail. I would've liked to know whether that combination was possible at all :smile:
Contrary to @semichaut , I don't like the idea of the timer because sometimes I just need a lot of time to explore the numbers and their position. An alternative could be to simply keep track of the number of "moves" and save the lowest number of moves? Of course, that number of moves would only be valid for this specific puzzle with those generated numbers...
@xesenix and @bart-huylebroeck, the timer may indeed take a little bit away from the tactical element of the game, but I think it adds some pressure to the player which can counterbalance the relatively low level of difficulty. I will think about it some more though. As for the number of steps, it's something that would make for a great game with different levels, each with a different particular matrix of numbers. If more people like the game, I will try that. Thanks a lot, guys!
@genervus, when the theme was announced, the first thing that came to mind in relation to sacrifice was subtraction. After I thought through some other subtraction game ideas, I decided to go with this one. To answer your question, the subtractions are the sacrifices. The goal is to sacrifice everything in order to get to 0.
This game is more like a inner sacrifice. Not the same as the other one which sacrifices Hp ,power or something. The core gaming is to focus on make the number smaller, down to zero. But player need to sacrifice, let the number grown for a better choice. Kind a sacrifice on the Philosophy way. Nice.
I'm not very good at logic or quick math, but this was easy enough to pick through and solve a couple times for a few minutes. It's a simple numbers game, sure, but it was at least enjoyable.
I was going to complain about not having a dedicated restart button, but I went back to make sure there was one and there is. My only suggestion would be to tell the player that hitting the enter key would restart. Or remove the button altogether; After interacting with the game using only the keyboard, it's a little jarring to have to reach over to my mouse and click the reset button.
This is just a small detail, but in my mind I associate subtraction with going down and addition going up. I imagine that's probably what a lot of others associate it with too, so maybe flipping the controls so that adding is up and subtracting is down would make the controls more enjoyable.
As for the theme, I can see how it works. Sometimes you *have* to add to your number when you don't want to in order to reach 0. The theme is through mechanics instead of narratives, and it's all good in my book.
Also, congrats on finishing your first game jam ever!
Very interesting, I like the concept of the game and it is very nice to play. I like the sounds when it transitions between numbers. I think it fits with the theme that being sacrificing some numbers in order to reach to that exact 0. Overall good work
I won! Interesting how it's a persistent (or using a deterministic seed?) number map instead of random each time you tap up and down, so you can't like cheat until you get the # you want.
cool concept, very simple. controls were a little weird to get used to. i agree with the remark above about addition being up and subtraction being down--maybe configuration in game? nice work!
It's got a nice little moment when you realize you can just repeatedly remove a small number and add a large number to gain the delta between them. Other than that, it's speed math...
I found it pretty funny. Still, I didn't love that the unused numbers change randomly. I find it makes it difficult to actually try to think a good strategy to reach zero. Nevertheless, good job!
Interesting game. I like it, but it does take a lot of time to get used to. I played it for 15 minutes and still don't quite understand how it works. I know about the dashes on the top, but I'm not seeing a pattern between the numbers. I could just be missing an obvious thing, I don't know. I do like this game, though. I love puzzles.
I did like how simple it was to get started, but I got confused about how the numbers were being generated, so I ended up stuck many times. (And I see that you already wish to address that.) Time limit was a cool feature. Overall, I guess it could be a very entertaining game if you get those rules of how numbers show up clearer and with about the same simplicity that you made with the other rules.
Interesting. My inclination is to say that to fix the UI's legibility problems, you might try to animate the tiles moving, so it's easier to tell where they were and where they ended up. Interesting concept, for sure. It has 2048-like appeal.
Simple and straightforward concept... once I figured out the controls. Like a few others have pointed out, things were a bit confusing at the beginning and I had to sift through the LD comments to figure out what things like the lines over the cards meant. Fun game though. I could see playing something like this on my phone.
Neat simple game. Took a while to really understand the gameplay, and the controls were slightly unintuitive. I would suggest making up arrow adding, and down arrow subtracting, but that's just me :)
I decided against putting the plus above and the minus below the player because I wanted to convey the concept that the goal is 0 and the goal is usually forward or up. However, since so many people find that unintuitive, that decision seems to have been a short-sighted one and maybe I should just switch the lines to their conventional positions. Thanks a lot for the feedback!
This game is extremly well-polished, and it could very well be a mobile strategy game, so good job on that. I got the controls after jsut minutes of fiddling around.
Unfortunately i see only a black screen. Can you port it to windows ? I tried in Opera and Chrome, both same. Probably problem occurs because of my computer.
@berkin, yeah, it's probably an issue on your end. Check this out: https://get.webgl.org/. If you can play WebGL games, you should be able to see a spinning cube.
I see the cube :smile: I had same issue before. It's not important for me to fix my issue. But of course i would like to help if you need. My contact informations in my profile :slight_smile:
@domixltu2, no, unfortunately, you're probably right. Since I raised the upper limit of the randomly generated numbers to 41, some starting patterns can be impenetrable.
I really like this. Crisp display and it included polish like a credits screen and title screen. The hardest part for me to adjust to was that up was subtract and down was add. Nice work, and a fun way to work on both memory and math skills.
I think this could work better with smaller numbers, and being able to see a bigger grid at a time. Then you could really start to strategize more. Now the gameplay felt pretty random. Anyway, responsive controls, good sounds, fairly creative interpretation of the theme. :)
OOO buddy the math the stress! keeping me on edge with the thinking haha!! Maybe a way to see at least just one of the numbers that are next based on my decision. however that might be too much information on screen. pretty addictive though I like it!
I like how the game started. It made me to think hard about what's about. Simple, fun and casual. It's a good game for playing a few times and an interesting puzzle. There is plenty of feedback you can learn from. So good work
Comments59
Really cool game
As always I'll split positive and negative points:
Positives:
- Your game is simple but in a good way : i loooove simplicity
- Graphics are neat, because...simplicity again
- We quickly understand our goal , our objectives and how we can lose
- Your game is short , once again on a good way
Negatives:
- Some rules are confusing : what are those strikes on some numbers ? Are numbers randomly generated ? What happen after i "eat" a number ? a new one is created ? when i go up the "+" line become the "-" line ?
- Your game is too easy : it's very easy to stay between 43 and 0 as we have almost no contrainst : perhaps add things like time limit ?
The numbers are randomly generated with a range between 1 and 42. When you go forward (subtraction), the minus line becomes the plus line and vice versa. The lines above the second and third number are the indicate how many identical numbers are behind it. The numbers of the first column are generated one by one, the numbers of the second column two by two and the third three by three. So, if you meet a 23 in the third column and it has two lines above it, you will meet 2 more 23s behind it. The fact that this is not clearly conveyed to the player is a failure that I will try to remedy.
As for the difficulty, I love your timer suggestion and I will try to put one right now.
Thanks again!
I can't say I understood the UI layout, but once I played a few rounds I ended up getting the hang of it.
I did once something similar but I used concept know as "spectrum of failure" look it up basically it gives the player opportunity to have various degree of victory. For example, instead of failing immediately user may be required to reach the target in a specific amount of steps also timer could be only used to decide that solution was best if done fastest and not failing player while he is still searching
The mechanics and goals are not immediately super clear, but that's part of the enjoyment.
I regret that I can't try again with the exact same numbers if I fail. I would've liked to know whether that combination was possible at all :smile:
Contrary to @semichaut , I don't like the idea of the timer because sometimes I just need a lot of time to explore the numbers and their position. An alternative could be to simply keep track of the number of "moves" and save the lowest number of moves? Of course, that number of moves would only be valid for this specific puzzle with those generated numbers...
All in all, well done! :clap:
@xesenix and @bart-huylebroeck, the timer may indeed take a little bit away from the tactical element of the game, but I think it adds some pressure to the player which can counterbalance the relatively low level of difficulty. I will think about it some more though.
As for the number of steps, it's something that would make for a great game with different levels, each with a different particular matrix of numbers.
If more people like the game, I will try that.
Thanks a lot, guys!
But player need to sacrifice, let the number grown for a better choice. Kind a sacrifice on the Philosophy way. Nice.
I was going to complain about not having a dedicated restart button, but I went back to make sure there was one and there is. My only suggestion would be to tell the player that hitting the enter key would restart. Or remove the button altogether; After interacting with the game using only the keyboard, it's a little jarring to have to reach over to my mouse and click the reset button.
This is just a small detail, but in my mind I associate subtraction with going down and addition going up. I imagine that's probably what a lot of others associate it with too, so maybe flipping the controls so that adding is up and subtracting is down would make the controls more enjoyable.
As for the theme, I can see how it works. Sometimes you *have* to add to your number when you don't want to in order to reach 0. The theme is through mechanics instead of narratives, and it's all good in my book.
Also, congrats on finishing your first game jam ever!
Conventionally, I would expect + to be at the top and - at the bottom.
The theme is not there at all for me - probably a bit too abstract :smile:. I just don't see the connection between sacrifice and subtraction.
When the game is controlled with keyboard, it is awkward to have clickable buttons. "Press space to restart" is much better.
Also, 0! = 1, instructions unclear :smiley:.
Time limit was a cool feature.
Overall, I guess it could be a very entertaining game if you get those rules of how numbers show up clearer and with about the same simplicity that you made with the other rules.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!