MARCHINE

by freeb
co-authored: @anzyll, @chinesegator
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.25
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.15
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.55
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.83
Play as Phish Fischer, a humble fisherman, as he tries to save his broken ship from sinking. Obtain upgrades from your MARCHINE to increase efficiency, but will it matter in the end?

INSTRUCTION
Gather water from the holes in the wall of your ship, or from the overflowing water coming in from the bottom, and drop it into the top of your MARCHINE.
Buy upgrades and try to hold out for as long as you can!
(Upgrade menu pauses the game)

CONTROLS
- Arrow keys to move
- Z to confirm
- Press Z above the MARCHINE with an empty bucket to purchase upgrades.
- X to cancel
- SHIFT to sprint
- F5 for fullscreen
- F6 for window size!

Bug Fix: Re-Uploaded with RTP files that were missing.
Bug Fix: Fixed Holes C and D not contributing to the Multiplier.
Bug Fix: Fixed Hole D not progressing past its first stage.

Comments12

DonnieDarko
DonnieDarko5 Apr 2022, 03:03
I enjoyed this game! i made it to about 8 minutes before I decided that I had beat the game. very nice.
jimmothysanchez
jimmothysanchez5 Apr 2022, 22:11
Cool game. It took me a while to figure out that in order to open the upgrade menu you have to go to the Marchine and press z while your bucket is empty. You might want to add that to the instructions.
myttz
myttz6 Apr 2022, 05:00
I also spent a long time to find out the use of machine. But i still cant delay anything, i tried to make a slat to fix the hole, but the momment i fixed it, another bigger hole appeared just near it```things even became worse. And all the other stuff were too expensive, there is no way to get them hhhhh.
Wainini6 Apr 2022, 08:09
I love it! Gameplay is fun and arts are amazing. Took a bit of time to really grasps what's happening and how to solve them, but pass that the experience was a blast. Upgrades a bit expensive, but it doesn't really affect the gameplay too much.
FunBanan
FunBanan6 Apr 2022, 18:31
Nice job! I so much love artstyle of game. That was kinda cool experience. But there are some problems. First of all it is lack of information, before I wanna to give to game bad ratings, but when I was read comments I understood mechanics. And I think game can complete on about 10 minutes passed, because after this time you just repeat couple of actions.
LDJam user 284287
LDJam user 2842878 Apr 2022, 04:52
I played the version that's currently available on itch.io and believe that it might (still) be bugged; some of the holes seem to jump from a 0.25x multiplier to a 0x multiplier when they reach the second or third stages. It's strangely relaxing for being a game about bailing water out of a sinking ship, though. The artwork is very easy on the eyes and the ambience is comforting. Part of me wishes there were a few more sound effects so that you're not hearing the exact same sound when you're, for instance, pouring water into the Marchine, but I think that having it be only one sound effect could have been just as easily contributing to the sort of meditative trance I felt while playing this game. I enjoyed it... the game didn't seem to be getting any harder because the aforementioned bug, so I let it go at 15 minutes. The game over graphic is cute as well, poor Phish.
Taximan98115 Apr 2022, 06:25
This was a very cool concept, I really really like the idea. Unfortunately, I could never have more then 6 buckets (currency) at a time because if I wasn't buying boards, I was going to lose. Other then that, cool art!
LDJam user 267116
LDJam user 26711615 Apr 2022, 06:42
I liked this game a lot! Great aesthetic and theming, and some fun interplay between feeding the machine and staying safe in the early game. With all of the upgrades I could just leave the wall alone and overflow the bucket counter by eating the pool at the bottom :sweat_smile:
SleepyStudios
SleepyStudios19 Apr 2022, 14:33
Loved both the art and the gameplay. Kind of reminded me of the Sea of Thieves minigame where you're having to repair your ship but in 2D and a lot more frantic. Kind of felt like the upgrades were really hard to get but also not very worth it? I ended up buying planks all the time instead of saving up for the upgrades. Nice work!
svemir20 Apr 2022, 11:42
Nice feel to the game, like another said it was relaxing while still being challenging. Although I thought the difficulty was a bit hard for me, I could only just get an upgrade but by that point the ship had basically sunk. The artwork looks very nice and the controls felt fluid, very cool looking UI too.
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord