Unstable Piles

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.25
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.94
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.88
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.38
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.22
Controls:

Drop Boxes - Space or Left Mouse Button

This is the first project I created from scrach and this is my first participation in Ludum Dare.

Unstable Piles is a puzzle game that aims to create piles of boxes. The game's difficulty comes from the randomness of the crates. Some crates are big and some are small, which interferes with pile physics. Other crates are explosive and they can destroy other crates and also knock down piles.

Changelog:
- Fixed the bug that didn't count the number of boxes
- Fixed bug that didn't allow 180 degree boxes to be the base of a pile
- Fixed bug that counted as pile blocks in 180 degrees

Credits:

Assets: https://axulart.itch.io/
Music: https://opengameart.org/users/tad

screenshot

Comments53

stanroy
stanroy4 Oct 2021, 21:32
Can't open itch page, make sure it's set to Public and not Draft
UkuleleFury
UkuleleFury4 Oct 2021, 22:00
It looks like your itch.io page works now.

:) Very cool! I like the concept. Pretty challenging, but definitely doable! Fun game!

You mention music, but I didn't hear any.
Xwilarg
Xwilarg4 Oct 2021, 22:00
Nice game but a bit confusing (sometimes I had a pile of 4 crates but it was written "2")
yellow-basti4 Oct 2021, 22:01
Works for me! Nice little game!!
Bougalu4 Oct 2021, 22:01
Fun game! I liked the idea of the exploding boxes, it adds a neat atke on the usual stacking games. I'm just not sure what the "7:3" stuff was in the top right corner.
MysticGames4 Oct 2021, 22:01
Great Game The Only Problem Is That You Can Just Spam Boxes Everywhere And It Makes It Very Easy
LDJam user 259103
LDJam user 2591034 Oct 2021, 22:02
Nice first effort. I have seen a lot of these block-stacking games, and I think this one could benefit from a bit more of a twist.
I also didn't notice any music? You credit someone for it on the LD page, but there's none in game.
Good job, overall!
Cedric864 Oct 2021, 22:02
Fun little game. Also well executed. Becomes very laggy when you just spawn 20-30 boxes. XD
A reset Button would be nice in case you screw up on the piles. But aside from that, great first entry. Good job keep it up.
AnnaBella T4 Oct 2021, 22:02
cute as hell, very thematically appropriate, and fun to play!
Bauke Regnerus
Bauke Regnerus4 Oct 2021, 22:03
A tiny game, but the graphics are very pleasant to look at. Everything works, but I think there's still some development text displayed on the screen. Congratulations on your first LD game!
Britt Henderson
Britt Henderson4 Oct 2021, 22:03
Ahhh - i figured it out. The trick is to spam click!!! You can tell you're creating a massive pile when your computer slows down 😁😁

Cute game :)
Love the concept - good execution and awesome art!

It would be nice to have the retical move higher as my piles got higher - that way i can keep trying for the tallest tower!!!
This was really cute tho - nicely done.
Falien
Falien4 Oct 2021, 22:03
This is fun, i like the graphics and the sound fits the game.
It works pretty good, and it's kinda addictive.
Andreadbx
Andreadbx4 Oct 2021, 22:03
Nice game! Yeah it's a bit confusing on the rules of it, but intresting concept!
Taffaz4 Oct 2021, 22:05
Fun and tricky game, couple of times I won the level but I didn't seem to have the right number of piles.
ClassicDillster4 Oct 2021, 22:05
It seems like the way the boxes track how high the pile is don't take into account that the box might be sideways so you can have a sideways "pile" of however many boxes you want laid out on the floor. You can also spam spawn boxes that causes the game to slow down to the point where it is unusable. The game looks awesome and is still fun though!
LDJam user 263988
LDJam user 263988author4 Oct 2021, 22:05
OMG. I thought no one would see my game. Thank you very much for the feedbacks!!
c4ris
c4ris4 Oct 2021, 22:05
Great first project for Ludum Dare! I had a lot of fun playing your game. I found myself just clicking through boxes for a long time before I thought to stop. I'm sure you noticed a few bugs too when you played it but it's still really fun and the game still feels satisfying... Also most of the time the bugs were in my favor so I was cool with it, if it were the other way around I wouldn't have been as ok with it. I hope you had a good weekend and great job with the game it's pretty fun I might find myself back again for some clicks.
veloev4 Oct 2021, 22:05
I like the twist on the traditional tower block game by adding the levels and the graphics are cute. Unfortunately, one can also win a round when there are enough boxes in terms of count but they don't need to be stacked. Also since the screen is quite wide it takes quite a long time till the box returns to the place where I want to drop a box which left me a bit impatient. Well done on the physics of stacking the boxes!
KuKuRammus
KuKuRammus4 Oct 2021, 22:06
Maybe I am stupid, but the task is not that clear. I made some piles, but they did not registered. For me game gone laggy, even though I got not that many crates on the screen. But the idea itself is fun!
kurrik
kurrik4 Oct 2021, 22:09
I ran into a couple cases where it looked like I should have won but the game didn't seem to recognize that. But other than that, it was a really interesting idea! I liked not being sure about what was next, so I needed to play according to how much risk I was going to take. Nice!
LDJam user 263688
LDJam user 2636884 Oct 2021, 22:09
If a crate flips over and you stack something on it, it doesn't count as a stack. I enjoyed the bomb blowing up things, but after about 2-3 minutes it got really boring. Timing it just right is challenging and might get some rage moments. Also there was no background music, which made it feel boring as well.
Spolarium
Spolarium4 Oct 2021, 22:09
I really like the game. At first I was confused how I won so I just spammed a lot of boxes :laughing: (though I don't know if that's intentional for the game to allow that) , though I got it afterwards. Really challenging, but somehow also relaxing.

Overall, really interesting game! Well done
PolymathLD
PolymathLD4 Oct 2021, 22:09
I liked it a lot! Simple, fun, and intuitive idea for a physics puzzler that slots neatly in with the theme, and the pixel art is cute.
kyboon
kyboon4 Oct 2021, 22:11
Sometimes the piles doesn't register correctly. I won in some cases where I shouldn't and I didn't win in some cases where I should. It seems that the bomb is one of the culprit, and also when the bottom pile is not upright.
SlimmerBurger
SlimmerBurger4 Oct 2021, 22:23
Pretty simple, but it's well made and clean. Thank you for making it :D
TheWustache
TheWustache4 Oct 2021, 22:26
Fun idea! I liked that you sometimes didn't know whether you'll get a box or a bomb. There's no obviously good solution in that case, which makes it very interesting. And a little planning ahead can help, by staking superfluous boxes in such a way that they're easy to blow up. It's often easier to simply reload after a mistake though, so maybe recovery should be easier. Great overall, feels polished :thumbsup:
SamDemaine
SamDemaine4 Oct 2021, 22:50
Im a fan of this game, I like the art, art is a big thing in games for me. Mechanics also are pretty good, overall pretty good!
khaoz-fang5 Oct 2021, 02:24
This is a really cool concept, but there seems to be some bugs and the pile is confusing. I like the rnd in this game. It brings a lot of strategy to this game.
bigassopper
bigassopper5 Oct 2021, 02:45
It is a nice concept and with some awesome graphics :)
euske
euske5 Oct 2021, 08:05
The game mechanics was a little unclear but the art and music was charming.
NeilKleistGao
NeilKleistGao5 Oct 2021, 08:32
Fun game! But I'm a little bit confused about how to win a game.
LouieJams
LouieJams5 Oct 2021, 11:27
Cute little game, physics worked well, art was nice and music was pleasant. Good entry!
Trexxak
Trexxak5 Oct 2021, 13:36
Such a cute and easy to grasp pile-up game :3

Also: Welcome to Ludum Dare! :D
Forik
Forik5 Oct 2021, 17:39
Awesome laggs if you spam Space =D
belickim
belickim5 Oct 2021, 18:27
A bit confusing since stacks don't count as piles but I like it! Good luck with your next projects :)
LDJam user 263988
LDJam user 263988author6 Oct 2021, 05:57
Thank you for the feedback. I made some fixes.
squimmy
squimmy6 Oct 2021, 12:35
This is a fun idea and the art and music are both very cute.

Unfortunately some of the game-play was a bit frustrating. The risk of bombs messing everything up made me just drop blocks away from my tower whenever there was a chance of a bomb, so they ended up being an annoyance rather than adding much to the depth of the game-play.

Also, it felt like the logic for calculating tower heights was a bit buggy.

Nonetheless, this is a very solid game for your first ever ludum dare entry. Good work.
namnam
namnam6 Oct 2021, 13:28
I love one button game and this is a nice exemple of one. I think the concept, with more polish, a little bit of lore and bug fixing (i passed level without completing the task and was blocked on other) could be a very nice and relaxing mobile game. Since it's your first ludum dare it's really encouraging about what's to come for the futur :)
xpoho
xpoho6 Oct 2021, 13:45
Башенные ящики, ящечные башенки. Кажется, нужно было учиться на плотника.

Спасибо за игру!
Pixelydian
Pixelydian6 Oct 2021, 16:17
Really neat idea! Do stacks not count as piles? I thought I met the clear condition (then I reloaded and tried again) and I couldn't seem to pass. But I really like the art and mood of the game. The music goes really well and it has a peaceful mood. I do hope you keep working on it post jam!
RaMoNVicious6 Oct 2021, 16:50
Nice graphics and sound fx. But I wish it to be a bit easier. :) GG
DmitryGalias
DmitryGalias6 Oct 2021, 16:57
Nice and simple game! Not sure why, but sometimes stacks don’t count as piles.
KamiChan6 Oct 2021, 17:24
Omg I am way too imaptient for this game xD Everytime I thought I got it a box exploded because at first I didn't pay attention what kind of boxes I placed ... :s but nice concept, nice art and chilly music, would be a cool mobile game!
Euler Moises
Euler Moises6 Oct 2021, 19:14
Lovely art and music. I know there's not much to understand, but I did as I was asked and nothing happened.

Congratulations for the game!
Euler Moises
Euler Moises6 Oct 2021, 19:14
Lovely art and music. I know there's not much to understand, but I did as I was asked and nothing happened.

Congratulations for the game!
Hotowlgirls
Hotowlgirls6 Oct 2021, 19:18
Nice game. The graphics and tone are calming. My only frustration with the game was that I was that I thought that I had made a pile, but the game didn't seem to recognize it, either I did it wrong or maybe the goal needs to be clearer to the player in specifically what a pile counts as. I still liked the game overall though, good entry.
CodeRaurus
CodeRaurus7 Oct 2021, 07:10
Cute game! I felt the goals were not recognized. Also I'm unsure how I feel about the bombs, the game could've done without them as well and be a chill stacking game. Nice work!
ardorugus
ardorugus7 Oct 2021, 14:22
Cool pile thinking). Got addicted for a while, made the piles, but nothing happened... Anyway, nice one! Darn bombs...
Muros8 Oct 2021, 02:17
Good game. Beautiful and bright graphics and cute music. It would be cool to see a game like this on your phone.
The gameplay idea is also good, but it seems that my tasks were getting better and they stopped changing.
Sagan Rayner10 Oct 2021, 18:16
Neat game. It feels a bit unforgiving though. Never quite felt like I knew how I was supposed to stack things. I think more forgiving logic for detecting piles would go a long way.
jammer pro11 Oct 2021, 18:59
Very nice idea! Simple and eye and ear pleasing game.
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