DESCRIPTION: Ludare OS is the latest, greatest, and safest OS available for the Nintendo Game Boy.
On the extreme off chance malicious software is found, the most sophisticated artificial intelligence will be deployed to combat any data loss!*
Download the .rom zip file to run on your very own Game Boy! If you've upgraded to the Analogue Pocket, a .pocket file is also available for an even smoother OS experience!
I love everything about this game! The music is great, the art is great, it has an awesome concept. I will admit I was a bit of a fool to begin with and didn't pick up on how to insert my numbers/operations into the registers. Once I figured it out though doing the simple math made me feel like a genius! Amazing job!
Thank you so much! Yeah I would have liked to include smaller maps as ramp up levels to help clarify things, but time was super tight…so kind of just hoped for the best. So glad you enjoyed it!
The game is fantastic. There was a lot of polish for this GameBoy game. The graphics were spectacular. I loved the small touch of the game glitching out when the encryption started to grow. It was hard to realize where the little plates to apply the operation however. This is probably one of my favorites already.
I love the graphics and the concept. Overall I like the idea. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to play it. I tried twice, went through the instructions both times, and didn't figure it out.
Cool concept and design! Once I understood the controls, it's really fun to play. My highest score is only a C though since I'm not particularly fast at math. The only gripe I have is how the player needs to be facing down to see the operation/number but it's not that big of a deal.
Cool concept and design! Once I understood the controls, it's really fun to play. My highest score is only a C though since I'm not particularly fast at math. The only gripe I have is how the player needs to be facing down to see the operation/number but it's not that big of a deal.
@david-york Your character has a monitor on their head. This monitor holds two pieces of information, but it only shows one at a time. The first piece is a number from 0 to 9. The second is an operator (add/sub/mul/div). Pressing SELECT switches which of these you are editing, and pressing A or B cycles within that category.
On the map there are a bunch of little stations. Each station has a screen showing the operation and number loaded into it, and a pad to the left of the screen where you can stand to copy the contents of your head into the station. These stations start out configured to add 0, so they just pass whatever input they get directly to their output until you adjust them.
At the right side of the map there are two other screens, one with the target number and one with the starting number, and a third screen to the left of those containing the final result you've computed. The starting number flows along wires in the ground, going from station to station in a clockwise order. At each station, the operator/number combo that's been loaded in will be applied to the input, with the result carrying on to the next station until it reaches the result screen. Your task is to configure as many of the stations as you need to with whatever settings are required so that the result number matches the target number.
So for example, say the starting number is 17 and the target number is 39. You can solve this a few ways; the way I'd do it is to first double the 17 to 34, then add 5 to bring it to 39. To do that, you set your head to 2 using A/B, then use SELECT to switch to controlling the operators and use A/B to change that to *. Then you go stand briefly on the pad for the first station (bottom-right). That'll configure that one to do the doubling, and your result number will now be 34. Next we need to do the addition: get off the pad, change your operator to + and your number to 5, and stand on the pad of the second station (leave that first station alone; you don't want to undo your work). Once it's loaded, the result should now be 39, so you can press START to submit it and begin the next puzzle.
@pizzasgood Wow! Thanks for adding such great instructions to the comments, I'm sure other people will find this useful as well. @david-york sorry things weren't made clear enough on my end! That limited game boy resolution may have bit me on that.
Thanks everybody for the kind comments!
Bonus points to anybody who manages to find the secret ending (There IS one way around the inevitable...though I worry it may be a little to obfuscated).
Cool game, I love the amount of games being done this jam that can work on emulator or actual hardware I had as a kid. Game is really good especially considering the limitations of input and hardware.
Really awesome submission! I played the web version. Graphics are fantastic and the music was really nice. It took me a long time to figure out how to play (the directions are pretty clear, but they are long, so of course I just skimmed the first couple of times). It seemed to get stuck after I decrypted a number, though; no matter what combination of buttons I pressed, I couldn't get the screen to progress any further.
@guardaro Hey! Sorry you got stuck! I haven't encountered this myself, and it might be worth just reloading the page and trying again if you're up for it. Typically after you decrypt a number a message will pop up saying whether or not you succeeded, at which point you press "X" on the keyboard to continue and it will provide you with a new input to decrypt. Thanks for playing regardless!
This game is amazing, I love the art style, the music and the gameplay loop. How difficult was is to program this with gb-studio ? I played on the web browser but I will try with my GBASP
@bozarre Thanks! If you want to give my GB Studio project a look I included it in the downloads (though it was super rushed...so it's super messy). You don't actually need to know how to program to use GB Studio...just need to understand some of the core logic concepts. I'm a programmer by trade...which is exactly why I choose GB Studio (didn't want to do my day job in my free time and would rather focus on art/gameplay/music).
I'm blown away by that game, the art style is amazing, the game play is really nice, I wish I could play this on game boy haha! The only thing I had issue with where the controls, it took a min to get familiar with them. Otherwise, the game is amazing!
great presentation and engaging gameplay, at least once it clicks how you're supposed to play. The tutorial you put into the game feels a bit bulky and is fairly overwhelming, it's hard to follow what you're going to be supposed to do before you've even been introduced to the environment. For this sort of game I think I would like to have a tutorial that's presented more like a manual I can look at while i'm learning how to play, which you did provide in the itch.io description, over something stuck in between the menu and the game. Other than that I had fun playing this and most of the gameplay quirks at worst didn't bother me, it's a neat concept executed as well as one could hope
This is really incredible, fantastic work! I really dug the concept and execution. Only feedback I have is that the mechanic of actually solving the problems felt a little slow - generally just kept adding to the total until I reached the target. Might have been more of a brainteaser if I were limited in some way, e.g. only having access to odd numbers or something. But overall really really great!
@jasper-hansen Thanks! Yeah, I think you're right...ideally I would have had a simple tutorial level to start things off instead of the manual.
@kurrik Thanks for the feedback! I agree completely, I think rearranging the map and including another gameplay element would have really helped speed it up a bit.
This is absolutely incredible for the turnaround time and the style is bang on. My only comment would be that the controls were not particularly intuitive playing in the browser on a computer. I was hitting [space],[enter],and all sorts of other keys before I hit [ctrl] by accident and finally selected "boot." With the description saying "Start -> ENTER -> Submit "current" value for decryption" I assumed [ENTER] was the menu select key as well.
@omers Thanks! Yeah, agree completely with the keyboard controls...they did not map from the Game Boy super well. I may re-export it to itch.io with some mappings changed for keyboard. Thanks for playing!
This is sick - had heaps of fun playing. Super fun concept and surprisingly addictive, once I got the controls down. Art and sound are great too. I'd say my only issue was getting use to cycling through the option. Awesome entry.
Took me a bit to find the area to change things at, I think I understood the concept right away but knowing where to go in order to execute the changes was a small struggle. Other than that hats off great concept and idea!
@haztro Thanks so much, I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
@tigerj Thanks for sticking it out! That 2-bit palette on the Game Boy really makes pointing out crucial features somewhat challenging...watching you figure out was super useful feedback though!
After watching too much tutorial on microcontrollers:
Pros:
- I love the design. The colour palette is exactly what I would thought of when launching it on Gameboy system - Interesting mechanics, yet easy to understand - I like how simple maths can get tricky very quick - Demanding gameplay (on a + side ofc) - Good difficulty scoping - Tutorial is a plus - Nice soundques
Const:
- I think it should have been divided into two levels. One to grasp the actual concept of connectors (with maybe 2 magistrates), so the user can get along with the mechanics before being thrown into the bigger map - I think the character design is great, but I don't like the idea that you're missing the context of the character when your'e moving left right and up. I believe a better design would be for the character to have 'around screen' face, so player always sees the context of the information regardless of the sprite positioning. I hope you understand what you mean
But those small caveats cannot overshadow the fact that this It's an excellent entry and definitely a one to look at for the high spots. Great job!
First time I've ever seen a ROM as an entry, will definitely try the ROM later. The pairing of music and graphics is awesome. The gameplay is simple enough but as you progress you need to get creative and think faster and faster. Reminds me of Countdown (UK TV Show).
If you ever want to go further with this I would add a way for the player to see the target number without having to search for it on the map. With a small map such as the one you have it works. It forces the user to waste time to go look for it, but as a game outside this jam's theme I think it would be interesting to add an extra cycle to the character's screen that displays the target and current values maybe?
I loved this game, big fan of gameboy games :) Very well done!
The game looks and sound really great but it was very hard to understand, I only understood fully with the comment of Pizzasgood , I stayed stuck having the good result just searching the you have to press a button to validate you result, maybe this could have been simpler. Great work !
Definitely one of the most polished games in this Ludum Dare event. Graphics are amazingly done, cool music, and engaging gameplay. And most of all an original concept :) A bit difficult for me as I'm not much into numbers haha, but I still had a lot of fun :)
@mikoziq Thanks for the outstanding feedback! I originally wanted to add a simple tutorial level but just flat out didn't have time to get it in there. I think I will do another pass at the game and add multiple maps and a small tutorial.
@zombiebust3r Thank you! The ROM plays great on the original Game Boy, I actually have my highest score on it!
@vhalenn Thanks! I updated the image on the itch.io page to hopefully help with this a bit...but I think adding a small and optional tutorial at the start will be the real solution, thanks for the feedback!
this game was incredible and very well polished I had a ton of fun with this on my DMG. I think making a gameboy game for LudumDare was a great idea and it turned out amazing I might even try it myself for the next event
Insane! I am stunned! You could swear that would be a full title on the good old GB. Thank you, that was fun ❤ (at least i played this game on an emulator 😅)
Thanks for hanging out on stream! Was fun to play. Weird issue on web version where you can proceed to game. Difficult to figure out but very fun. So impressive that it runs on Gameboy! Well done
Nice concept, though it's a bit hard to grasp and you need lot of text to explain it, perhaps you could have made some tutorial levels. Graphics are decent, the audio can become a bit annoying though.
I have 54 in Score and I think I did pretty well, really good game, the fact that you were able to ru nthis on a gameboy is really impressive. While the theme definitely felt simpler just like the general entries of this ludum dare, the rest of the game definitely made that not as noticeable - especially not when the game can also be educational in its own right.
@marcenat Thanks for playing! I was planning on adding a tutorial level and improving the music but the compo time crunch left those things on the cutting room floor
wow, the polish on this one really blew me away. And this is compo, super impressive! First off, thank you for the tutorial video, it was really helpful.
Audio, visual, mood, graphics, everything blended together so well into an awesome retro experience! Having to do math on a timer is stressful in a fun sort of way lol.
Really nice idea!! And feels super polished, I figured what I had to do mostly but I didn't get the part where I was supposed to step on the pads to enter a value or operation, thankfully you added the video!!. Very cool, the graphics are amazing, and the retro vibe is awesome. I made a game with a similar theme for GMTK jam a few years ago. Nicely done!! As you said in the video, an ingame tutorial would be a fine adition. Congrats on your game!!
Super nifty experience! Polished, and great mood. Good job :)!! It may be asking a bit much since theres already so much to enjoy, but an in game tutorial would have been really nice
It's funny and cute! It looks, sounds, and feels great to play, such a smart submission! :D I really like this, one of my favorite submissions I've played! well done :)
Awesome to see a gameboy game ! Plus I love math games. Graphics and sounds very pretty enjoyable, I'll have to try this gameboy studio thing someday. Also is there an S grade
@shared Holy smokes you destroyed some math, congrats on the highest score I’ve seen yet! The Compo version doesn’t have an S grade but you’ve given me a good starting point for it.
This was really neat! It took me a while to work out where I had to stand to activate the registers (maybe they could have been a little more high-contrast to stand out better?) but aside from that kind of trivial complaint, this is really quite an impressive game.
Thanks for bringing your game by my stream for feedback! If you’d like to revisit the play and commentary you can view the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1448957663
Neat game, had a great time playing it on emulator. For some reason I thought I had to press START after stepping onto the pad to send data to the register (and previously missed that I had to press START to confirm a target). I really appreciated that I could put things into registered and get immediate feedback on how the number changed, so I could combine estimated mental arithmetic with a test-and-update loop to get to the result quickly rather than having to do it all in my head. Supports a variety of thinking styles.
The tutorial was crucial to understand the game, great call to make the video. The game is great, I love the graphics, brings me back in time. Also the geeky theme is lovely! Controls are a bit weird on keyboard, too bad I do not own a GameBoy I bet it's even better on it!
Amazing game! It takes a few moments to wrap your head around it, but once I understood what to do, I was hooked. Kinda wish I had a GameBoy to play this on, as I think it would feel much more natural (and possibly easier?) to play. A good idea executed well, and the audiovisuals are simply stunning. Well done!
I enjoyed this math game. Wish I had a GameBoy to test it out. I am surprised to see a complete game that can be pushed onto an cartage device in such a short time. Well done.
The game boy was and is my fav console (the most I enjoyed). I am very glad the homebrew community is paying lots of attention to it (thanks to game boy studio for sure). I toyed with rgbds a little bit. Maybe someday I will try to make a gb game myself.
I love puzzles and they fit very well in the console. This one is quite unique and they really play well and the graphics are fanstastic. A superb entry!
Who would've thought that for some people the game jam time crunch is not enough pressure - better add more restrictions like "has to run on real game boy hardware" :D Even though I am not the biggest fan of the gameplay (felt a little bit repetitive after some time) I actually played the jam version and the triple dare edition and have to say that I am amazed on what can be achieved in that little time!
If anybody manages to top this let me know!