D.N.N. Engineer

by wujood
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.94
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.24
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.16
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.79
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.22
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.75
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.28
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.22
:book: Story-Introduction :book:

In 2089 almost every household uses super-computers to do anything from buying bread and milk to investing in the stock market. You're an engineer whos repairs deep neural networks (D.N.N.) of said households. Sometimes the connections between neurons in these networks break. It's your job to make them work again!

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:joystick: Controls :joystick:

:mouse_three_button: LEFT = Start/End neuron connection

:mouse_three_button: RIGHT = Abort / Remove connection

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:camera: Screenshots :camera:

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:information_source: About :information_source:

This time i wanted to create a puzzle game. My last games were mostly RPG, Jump & Runs or something else with lots of graphics. Since i did this game on my own i had to cut corners in the graphics/audio department. I went for a simplistic look and focused on coding mechanics that are satisfiying without lots of graphics/animations.

Disclaimer: This game was made for the jam in 72 hours. All resources and assets were made or generated by myself.

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:tools: Tools :tools:

Unity

ZzFx

Photoshop

If you look for helpful tools, i made a curated list just for you! https://github.com/wujood/awesome-gamejam

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:gear: Theme/Mechanic :gear:

You connect deep neural networks to work again. For that you use your mouse (see section "Controls"). There are two types of neurons that you will encounter.

Round neurons count the direct connections that you create from/to them.

Squared neurons count all connected neurons inside of their network.

Comments29

Valid
Valid26 Apr 2021, 21:38
Wow! There is some sweet polish on this. Level transitions are great. Nice fireworks at the end too! This was fun, good job.
wujood
wujoodauthor26 Apr 2021, 21:43
Thank you!! :grin:
Cataractar26 Apr 2021, 22:25
Very nice! We also considered making something related to Deep Neural Networks, but decided to do something else. Great idea, great execution! Audio could be better though, got a bit annoying after a while.
Glorbax27 Apr 2021, 02:13
This is so elegant! I'd download this on my phone for sure!
LDJam user 236651
LDJam user 23665127 Apr 2021, 02:14
The diagonal level intro animation was very cool. I think the game could use a level select feature though.
wujood
wujoodauthor27 Apr 2021, 02:20
@glorbax thanks! Mobile seems like a great idea for this type of game :grin:

@lancival thanks! The level selection was planned, but due to this beeing a jam.. it did not make it into the game in the end.
DainTheDeer
DainTheDeer27 Apr 2021, 04:53
Very unique idea for a puzzle game, this would be so fluid with touch controls on a phone dragging lines between the nodes
Smelly Games27 Apr 2021, 13:23
There's a lot of well performing zen puzzle games like this on Steam. Wouldn't take much more polish to get it at their level.
Sebo27 Apr 2021, 19:05
pure hate for lvl 9
smogen27 Apr 2021, 19:14
Really good game!
The parts that fly out of sight are a bit annoying but at the same time pose a neat little challenge. Failed twice at level 10 because of it, but at the same time was really happy when I kept it in mind and managed to get it right. Which is what puzzel games are about: Frustration -> Gratification. This game delivers that well.
Especially love the fact that this can be easily expanded with new nodes, bigger levels, walls and other stuff. Just like modern mobile games or oldschool flash games do.
Also nicely done with the theme. Not taking "Deep" literally and instead twisting the word to equate it to the "depth" of a neural network by making the levels have more nodes. Clever!
Considering you had to do it all alone, the choice of graphics and sound didnt really lack anything. It all fit the simplicity of the game.
Really well done!

(P.S. Something went wrong with the level count. It goes from 5 to 8)
kypello
kypello27 Apr 2021, 22:25
I actually really love this! It has real potential as a puzzle game concept! The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the nodes floating off screen, that seems a little unfair to me, but otherwise this is a great game!
Okamit
Okamit27 Apr 2021, 22:30
Neat little puzzle game, could be made into a very interesting game if you continue working on it!
Tris25027 Apr 2021, 22:37
Really cool games, very funny puzzles that make us think while having fun, excellent interface and graphics, no complaints about anything.

Perfect games
Quack Doctor27 Apr 2021, 22:53
Really fun game, I enjoyed it and played through all the levels :) An undo function would be nice, and deleting leaves an edge if you didn't finish linking. Graphics and music can be a bit better, though the current one is clean. Overall, it's a polished and fun puzzle game!
Biku27 Apr 2021, 23:05
I like it, it's very simple to get and it can gets very complicated to solve all those puzzles. Great game!
Joel Davis27 Apr 2021, 23:32
Really interesting puzzle. I wanted to be able to drag around the nodes to arrange them but that might have made things too confusing. Very minimal in a good way and polished.
almost
almost27 Apr 2021, 23:38
Nice puzzles - I did get to the end. The last one was tricky, I was waiting for a while for that last node to come on-screen but it turns out you can solve the puzzle without it.
I couldnt find any way to remove an edge or to unselect a node. Even hitting the trash can button didn't seem to unselect nodes. Also - when using a touch screen computer the game totally worked, but it was hard to tell whether or not a node was selected when tapping on nodes to select them.

I will say, the puzzles don't really feel like neural networks to me, more like an abstract graph. I do like the mechanics though, I think that it's nice to think about balancing connected group size and managing the number of edges.
wujood
wujoodauthor27 Apr 2021, 23:51
@almost Thanks for the feedback! You can right click connections to delete them or you can abort creating a conection with the right click :grin: Your point with a touchscreen is honestly a good one! I think there needs to be additional indication for that scenario.
iellswo
iellswo27 Apr 2021, 23:58
I really liked this puzzle game. Took me a little while to realize what the square nodes were doing, so could use some tutorialization, but it was super cool. The later puzzles were tricky and definitely stretched my mind, didn't seem like they could be brute-forced, forcing me to understand the mechanics.
Nodes moving off screen I feel didn't add to the experience, just made things a little slow and frustrating, but other than that, it was a super neat game! Great job!!!
P715327 Apr 2021, 23:58
Interesting take on the theme! The mechanics are interesting, and the way they're introduced makes it easy to pick them up quickly. The puzzles were challenging without being too frustrating, good job!
almost
almost28 Apr 2021, 01:42
ah, right click makes sense. It was playing smoothly with a touch screen so I forgot about right clicking. touch screen is understandably not too common.
joh
joh28 Apr 2021, 03:43
Very nice puzzle game! I like it and its rather polished too! looks pretty, sound is fitting and some clever challenges! One thing though... was the level 6 (or something) Really about waiting? It was clearly impossible and then a 4th neuron showed up making it possible. I thought it was cool, but perhaps a less patient person could have considered this a bug. (even having cleared it, I am curious if it was intentional)

Cool game!
animatrix149028 Apr 2021, 04:46
Man, I love that bridges game and picross, so this puzzley thing was right down my alley. It helped me relax after a long, weird day (and playing through a few less-polished entries :P ) Good job! Like other people said, things flying outside your line of sight did feel a little unfair. I tried WASD, the scroll wheel, and got VERY proud of myself when I decided to full-screen the game, but to no avail. I spent quite a while on the last puzzle. You didn't "talk down" to me and I appreciate that. Great job!
DancesWE28 Apr 2021, 07:11
I spent the first hour of the competition thinking about a deep neural net game, but I didn't come up with something fun. You did. Nice puzzle game that makes you think, and nicely designed levels. Glad you made it.
atme28 Apr 2021, 21:13
I like the idea and how some levels were designed. At first glance the levels looks simple but only after several hypothesis and attempts I could solve them. There is perfect balance between challenge and rewarding. Nice work!

Although, I would not let elements fly behind the scene. Puzzles are already good without it.
squigglez
squigglez30 Apr 2021, 16:42
i really liked the puzzles here! the circle / square mechanics have surprising nuance that made it really fun. the only real problem i had was with the moving objects. they kept going off screen so i couldn't see whether they were finished, or click on them to continue the puzzle. other than that, fantastic puzzle game with tons of potential! great work
LDJam user 156819
LDJam user 1568199 May 2021, 00:41
Thanks for having me check this out on stream! It was quite fun figuring out the puzzles, even a bit humourous when I got confused about node degrees not making sense, and then the rotating node floated onto the screen :smile: I liked the challenge and the simplicity! Just didn't feel very closely related to the theme ;)
Laurari
Laurari16 May 2021, 10:52
I really like this game!! I love the circle/square mechanics, amazing job!!! :smile:

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