Labrats

Hello! Your game is interesting. I liked the mechanics. The "slide doors" close on level three and I couldn't return to get anything and I didn't see a reset button. But I liked the aesthetic and I hope you keep making games!

I loved this game! The graphics were very minimal, but the mechanics and the level design were fantastic. Very innovative gameplay, I've never seen anything like the powerup-sharing mechanic before. Level 7 was definitely a very hard level, but fun to solve. Awesome game.

very nice game, the puzzle mechanics were really thought out! I love the theme usage with transferring attributes to the other rats upon sacrifice.

@hamsters-actually Thank you for playing! You can restart a level with R. Should have made that more clear in the game (it tells you the special keys if you press 'escape' during the game).

Playing this on stream was a lot of fun, even though it broke my brain at 1:30 in the morning. :)

Really great puzzle design. Nice job! thanks for bringing it by the stream!

This was a lot of fun to try out! The puzzles were well made, and the concept made it fun to experiment and try things out :)

Tutorial was a bit tough but great game overall.

Your game was played on my stream ( twitch.tv/ursagames ) for the first day of Ludum Dare streams - you can find the timestamp of your game here: https://goo.gl/N2rkr8

I really enjoyed the game, the sacrifice mechanic introduced interesting ways to solve the puzzle and it was very fun to think about it. Very nice one!

The dialogs fit really well in there, and it was fun to play. The level design is well done too. Nice game!

Great game! The level design was fantastic, very tight and made me think.

I love how simple the mechanics are, yet very easy to grasp, after failing once I was able to immediately get the sliding doors.
And you even managed to add a minimal, yet nice story! Level 4 reminded me of Portal :)

I will say that the music is a bit too upbeat for a thinky puzzle game; level 7 kept me engaged for a while and I muted volume after a bit because the music was getting repetitive, I'd go with something more chill.

Also, while I totally get the minimal graphics, I think a small change like a different color scheme after level 4 would've helped the story be more immersive.

Overall, great puzzler, I played it all the way through!

neat mazes, cool mechanics!

good level design and cool mechanics! Gets kinda hard too

Love your take on the theme. Some of the levels were very challenging! At first I was surprised that the last level had a time limit and was actually quite apprehensive as I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a timed level but when I tried to solve it and realized it wasn't that bad I actually thought it was a very clever way to cap the experience.

Fantastic puzzle game! I've never played anything quite like it. Great job on the Portal-like story. You should definitely consider turning this into a full game. Great job!

Interesting story! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/8gcHVPkzZQo

Im not very into puzzle games, but i found yours very fun to play. The progressively increasing difficulty and addition of new mechanics make it not only easy to understand and play, but also scaled the difficulty appropriately.

While i found the graphics rather plain, it kinda fits the theme and the music also enhances the atmosphere. The level design as well is on point.

Good job!

Very nice game. I stuck at the level 4 :smile: but i liked it.Great Work!

Great mechanics, I also got stuck at level 4 ^^" Good job :)

@zsolt @imaship
Thank you so much for the feedback!

I'll give a slight spoiler for level 4 in case you want to try again:
The objective is to break out of the outer wall by using the fire ability. I should have given a better hint for that in-game, I saw a lot of streamers get stuck at that point as well :)

@matank I've got two of the rats out and nothing happened, is this a bug ? ^^"

@imaship You need to get one rat out of the outer wall (not the inner cells)

You can see a walkthrough for this part at:

@matank Thanks :)

An excellent puzzle game! I like when puzzle games are in jams, they take a lot of level design and thought. Great job!!

WOW! You are my favorite on this jam! Maybe your game isn't beauty but it is innovative, funny and really enjoyable! Good Luck!

Impressions as I played through it: Calling the player!rat "far more intelligent than anything else tested before", that's a cute way to start. :D I love the dialogue ("Perhaps we should stop here for today?" definitely reflects my thoughts re:the substance!) and I'm looking forward to the next exchange between the scientists (?). My first failure was level 3. I didn't anticipate the way you used the theme, but combined with the ability and color gates, that's really clever! I like that you made it visually clear which doors will stay open. The death animation feels more tragic than if they just disappeared.

Impressions after: Others have commented on liking the mechanics already and I agree with them, but I especially have to point out (spoilers ahead, of course) that I *really* like the fact that we are, in fact, helping the rats. Morally speaking it feels more right, but it's also nice because it's not quite clear in the first levels and it's like a tiny plot twist.

It's also very nice of you to work on the color-blind friendly version! Did you decide how to do that yet? With some shapes/textures or just more contrast, for example?

One tiny criticism (and that's pretty much all I can think of!): it starts silent so I turned my volume up, as I've read there should be audio, and then there was a very sudden loud sound. It's mostly a mistake on my part, but I guess it could happen to others as well. Besides that, the sound effects and intensifying music fit really well!

very good puzzle design !good job

Interesting game. I liked the concept, although I'm not such a big fan of puzzle games. I like the sound effect for the doors opening :wink:

@ynneblack Thank you so much for giving such a thorough review! I wanted to make the death animation dramatic so it would really feel like a meaningful sacrifice when you need to do it. And I'm glad you also enjoyed the story!

I'm still not sure regarding the color blind version. In my prototype version of the game I made on the first day of the jam, I had numerical indications next to all the items so maybe I'll try that instead of (or in addition to) colors.

I like your suggestion of using textures! Maybe I'll try to experiment with that as well.

Really interesting mechanics! Also great to see well-made puzzles that made use of these mechanics.

That was great! Really interesting puzzle game and I love the little narrative that doubles as tutorial.

so much fun! rrreally hard at level 7.. keep repeating until suddenly it work. dunno hot i done it. But good job on making the puzzle level.

Very fun game, liked the concept. Level design is very good.

Brilliant puzzle game. Much much better than mine... :-)

Excellent puzzle game. I particularly liked your use of the theme to sacrifice a rat to transfer its abilities to the other rats. Nicely done.

Hey this game was really fun! :D I got stuck on the 7th level but I must have tried it at least a dozen times haha. Very solid puzzle game and I hope the scientist gets what's coming to them :P
Graphics and music were simple but nice. No bugs that I noticed!

Great game. I'm impressed with what you did with so little time. I love puzzle games and you hit the nail on the head.

Cool puzzler!

Nice try on the theme. Very nice way of adding narrative: it is fun and helps a lot in the beginning.
Great level design.

Nice game, congratulations! And have my respect for being solo developer of this little gem!

I like the introduction to the game very much, well implemented and fun puzzle game.

Really great idea for a puzzle game. Definitely had me scratching my head at times.

Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/347117071 and https://www.twitch.tv/videos/347128584

I am sorry for technical glitches.

Good puzzle design, very original. Loved the first level where you win by burning the wall, really cool to have to think outside the box like that.
good animations and art on the rats, the level art was serviceable but could use work.

Wow! Great game! Mechanics like share your powers, fire and colors create a lot of gameplay situations! Also the narrative increases the interest of the game! Congrats!

Nice complex puzzle!

Thanks for the walkthrough, I needed it.

Thanks for submitting your game - really enjoyed playing it!

The story and how it fits the whole gameplay is awesome, very consistent! The game is very enjoyable. Some tip from color-blind person: if you would use more different colours, or something additional(like shape) that would allow to distinguish them, your game would be more accessible.(I mean colour of "doors") Anyway Good work!

Awesome entry, I have gone back three times and cannot figure out level 7 for the life of me (but it is a testament to you that I have gone back 3 times!). Super cool use of story to move things forward and I really enjoyed your music. It added a great mood to your game, but wasn't intrusive. Now, back to level seven...

Interesting game :)
The design aspect of the game is well thought out, I like that. It's awesome that you managed to get a dialogue system in there, gives it a lot more character!

Fun puzzles, some took me multiple tries so it didnt feel too unfair or easy!
Awesome entry!

The two hardest levels for me were 4 and 7. I assumed the solution for 4 but watched the walkthrough to confirm and needed the walkthrough for 7. I love that the last level is just scattered with red herrings. This game was both humorous and sad. One of the best entries I have played and I have played 50 entries now. Good job and good use of different abilities and introducing them in a narrative. Currently what I am working on for the puzzle game I am making. Adding a narrative keeps the player engrossed.

Really cool head-scratching design here. Was a bit confused when it changed from "get the cheese" to "escape the maze" but otherwise was clear in the design, and I had fun struggling with it.

Here's my play: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/345392409?t=01h48m27s

Great puzzle game. Nice job!

This is really nice. It's an excellent take on the theme, and well executed. The puzzles are really challenging and the dialogs are really nice too. Good job!

A pretty solid puzzle with no obvious flaws in the puzzle design themselves. Given how restricted and easy it is to softlock oneself in a level (if they didn't have a restart button), I think more levels could have been added to encourage the player to think through and understand the resource management of the game. In particular, I had the most difficulties keeping track of how many mice I needed with X-and/or-Y ability. More practice in that realm would have significantly helped me ease through solving the later puzzles that were super difficult.

Not to mention the red herrings in the game. I dunno about you, but I like puzzle games better when the focus is on using what you have, than dealing with what one discovers isn't important.

@omiya-games Thank you so much for the thorough review and for playing the game on your stream, I learned a lot from your feedback and also just from watching you go through it!

I agree regarding the pacing. Level 4 especially is problematic - I should have given much more hints in-game, especially to the fact that the objective changed from getting the cheese to escaping the outer wall. I think if at least the objective in that level would have been more obvious, it would have prevented many people from giving up and assuming that level is buggy. I planned this level to be a very gentle introduction to the mechanism of sacrifice and did not intend for it at all to be difficult. It just shows how hard it is to develop puzzles without having actual play-testers :)

Regarding the red-herrings at the last level - there is actually a way to use some of these red herrings to save 3 our of the 4 rats instead of a single one. Unfortunately, there's no alternative ending or any achievement for doing that..

I think there's a lot of potential in this idea. I wanted to play more levels. I did get stuck for a little on level 4. I forgot I needed to leave the play area, so after excaping the inner room I was wondering how to progress.

This really hurt my brain... in a good way! The mechanics work really well, the music is good (esp the ending), and there's humour in there too with the dialogue sections. I can't really say leading mice to salvation has ever been a goal of mine, but I felt accomplishment that I had.

I think what @omiya-games says really sums up my feedback thoughts well - there are a few cases in the puzzle progression where I was dropped in the deep end, building on mechanics in difficult scenarios, before they were introduced in a more simple way. For example the mice holding three colours/abilities. I think this is a great puzzle game, but this could be even greater with a few more puzzles interweaved which give me the cognitive leaps I need to progress easier.

Really nice work!

Great game, I personally had no issues with the difficulty curve, though I would love to see more difficult levels if it is expanded. Having to sacrifice rats in order to use the same color twice, as was the case with level 7, was very interesting.

i think it will be great game in future with more difficult levels. I will it download on android )

good amount of content here.

Well that was far cooler than I expected it to be. The puzzles got a lot more challenging and actually intrigued me. I particularly enjoyed the complexity of levels 7 and 8. Those were pretty fun to figure out how to solve. I wonder if there's more than one way to get through them!

That was really fun.

Very cool game! Nice and polished puzzle, with multiple levels, learning curve and even some story behind (which also works well as tutorial during few first levels). As of the last level, I'm not sure if time pressure is a good thing here, and it definitely shifts priorities — for example, I immediately chose a sacrifice, once I figure out that'd be enough to complete the level.

->A real work of narration
->A real level-design
->Interesting mechanics and the puzzles are well made
->Good choice for the music: it's really pleasant and serve the atmosphere

Conclusion: an entry polished and interesting. Good job!

I love the mechanics for this puzzle game, well made level design and peculiar story. Interesting take on the sacrifice theme

Well made game

Such a sad story for the little critters! And the music at the end just reïnforces it. 😭 Really good game! Especially enjoyed level seven which had me rubbing my brains for a while, and then I got to feel really clever! You could certainly expand on this post-jam because it's a lot of fun.

The dialogues in between levels were a great touch and really added context as to what exactly was going on, and were a great way to introduce new concepts without confusing the player. In a lot of LD puzzle games, I often have to play a level more than once to really get what I'm supposed to be doing, but I didn't have to here, because the dialogues explained everything right away. c:

Nice music, and it's really cool that you managed to squeeze two different tracks in there, one for the gameplay and one for the ending. Great sound effects too.

Graphics are nice and clear and make it obvious what the player can and cannot do and what to do (such as escaping the frame around the level that introduces the fire mechanic).

All the back and forth between different individuals and sacrifices was a great puzzle mechanic, and it was really nice to be able to have so many colours at once on a single one, clearly indicated by the graphics.

Top of the line! Great work! \o/