Ludum Dare #51compo
Find Ten Seconds
The title is a stretch, bear with me!
*Click it again to deselect it.*
2. Find a second tile: Hover on another tile from the board to see how many points the pair will get you. The more common characteristics the two tiles have, the more points you'll get.
* An exact match of the symbol (same letter, or same number) will get you the most points
* A match of color will get you points too
* If you can't find an exact match, you can make a pair of vowels or odd numbers. Try to find what brings the most points
*
* Some combinations are worth more ( pair of vowels > pair of consonants, prime > odd ) there are even easter egg combination that are worth a lot!
*Click on the tile to confirm the selection*
3. Repeat until you find ten pairs
4. When you have formed 10 pairs: the board will replenish. You get a new tile for every 20 points you got this round.
5. The game ends when there are no more tiles
You can configure :
- size,
- toggle easy mode (tiles don't disappear every ten seconds)
- restart the game
- mute the music from the controls on the top right
- mute the sfx
*There are some hidden easter eggs*
I decided to make a game at the last minute so no prep beforehand at all, I hadn't even seen any themes.
Everything was made from scratch, but the drum sounds cause I don't own a drum kit. The originality of the soundtrack is rather on the odd time signature and mixing. I went for something in the vein of the movie Birdman of a never stopping drum kit... you can shut it down in the controls on the top right. You can skip voting on that category if you think I should have made an even worse soundtrack by banging on some kitchen pots.
I used VS Code and GitHub Copilot, it was a formidable tool to quickly prototype things. The way the tool works is creepy: it even helped me add some of the easter eggs. At some point, the idea was to have images instead of letters and numbers and have that also created by AI as well as the sound Design. It would have been possible if I had prepped for the event. If I can I'll make a Fully AI-assisted game for ld52
Game "engine" is P5.js, the meta UI is dat.gui
The color palette was done on coolors.co I started from this one on the main page but tinkered a lot with it. All colors should be different across all color blindness that I could check. The three main color groups have different luminosity ranges, However, it doesn't make it colorblind-friendly per se as colors are important...
- If you select a tile you will never lose as the game will wait for you to release it before removing it... I'd rather have that than the game still one of the selected tiles from you...
Welcome to Find Ten Seconds
The aim of the game is to make pairs of similar tiles. You select a tile and then find a second one that match as closely as possible. Each round you have to find ten pairs before the board replenishes! (hence find ten seconds...)How to play
1. Select one first tile: Pick a tile from the board by clicking it. It will appear selected on the right.*Click it again to deselect it.*
2. Find a second tile: Hover on another tile from the board to see how many points the pair will get you. The more common characteristics the two tiles have, the more points you'll get.
* An exact match of the symbol (same letter, or same number) will get you the most points
* A match of color will get you points too
* If you can't find an exact match, you can make a pair of vowels or odd numbers. Try to find what brings the most points
*
* Some combinations are worth more ( pair of vowels > pair of consonants, prime > odd ) there are even easter egg combination that are worth a lot!
*Click on the tile to confirm the selection*
3. Repeat until you find ten pairs
4. When you have formed 10 pairs: the board will replenish. You get a new tile for every 20 points you got this round.
5. The game ends when there are no more tiles
Every Ten Seconds a tile disappears from the board
Configuration
You can configure :
- size,
- toggle easy mode (tiles don't disappear every ten seconds)
- restart the game
- mute the music from the controls on the top right
- mute the sfx
*There are some hidden easter eggs*
Behind the scene
I decided to make a game at the last minute so no prep beforehand at all, I hadn't even seen any themes.
Tools
Everything was made from scratch, but the drum sounds cause I don't own a drum kit. The originality of the soundtrack is rather on the odd time signature and mixing. I went for something in the vein of the movie Birdman of a never stopping drum kit... you can shut it down in the controls on the top right. You can skip voting on that category if you think I should have made an even worse soundtrack by banging on some kitchen pots.
I used VS Code and GitHub Copilot, it was a formidable tool to quickly prototype things. The way the tool works is creepy: it even helped me add some of the easter eggs. At some point, the idea was to have images instead of letters and numbers and have that also created by AI as well as the sound Design. It would have been possible if I had prepped for the event. If I can I'll make a Fully AI-assisted game for ld52
Game "engine" is P5.js, the meta UI is dat.gui
The color palette was done on coolors.co I started from this one on the main page but tinkered a lot with it. All colors should be different across all color blindness that I could check. The three main color groups have different luminosity ranges, However, it doesn't make it colorblind-friendly per se as colors are important...
Knownbug
- If you select a tile you will never lose as the game will wait for you to release it before removing it... I'd rather have that than the game still one of the selected tiles from you...
EASTER EGGS
There is 5 easter eggs in the matching! GO find them all !Tools: GitHub Copilot
Comments46
Overall it's a nice simple game, keep it up!
@henrik-ganard, thank you for your kind words
@x000000, yeah I agree with you, I wanted something to mark the bit and the feeling of tension from the ten-second constraint. I had envisioned adding music over the drumkit based on the tiles that you remove (like that boards where each row is a pitch and each column a bit). But I had only about 12 free hours this week-end.
Thank you @shimmerscale, it would have been nice indeed to have the info closer to the focus point! Unfortunately I am using a dirty trick to fade elements ( the refresh background is semitransparent) overlay would messed that up...
That being said... wow, this was excellent! One of my favorite entries. I love how you defined "similar" and quantified it then. I really think you have the start of a really cool puzzle game here.
Does it need the timer? Does it need levels? I don't know, there's so many variables at play here. This is really a genius submission, top marks in innovation for me. Nicely done!
The theme is what got me to the idea of finding a second "something" and not a pair... I don't know if that makes any sense (maybe that works better in french...). Hence also the timer is a late addition, to get a bit more to the every ten seconds, because I was not sure that my interpretation would make any sense.
You can fake level by adjusting the board size (on the hosted version not on the embedded version)
You can remove the timer in the easy mode
Have you found some of the easter eggs in the similar ?
From the description: this is some witty punny way of incorporating the theme through a double meaning!
> the idea was to have […] that also created by AI as well as the sound Design. […] If I can I’ll make a Fully AI-assisted game for ld52
Beware! This is authorized for the Jam and Extra formats, but not for the Compo format, as stated here. ‘Please submit games built with AI art generators as Jam or Extra games, not Compo’
There has been quite an argument about the subject, because using advanced AI techniques (especially for graphics) can be seen as borrowing material instead of creating it by oneself. The current decision is that it makes sense for Jam (and Extra), but not Compo.
> All colors should be different across all color blindness that I could check. […] However, it doesn’t make it colorblind-friendly
Haha, I had the exact same colourblindless problem! XD I did not have time to implement my simple solution (ie showing one number per colour), but I think I will do it for accessibility reasons.
1. In the Ludum Dare embedded version, the instructions page is written in black over dark, which makes me select so I can read; maybe is it due to my system? Ah, the other navigator one is black on white! (I should have tried this one before reading the first. X))
1. (I am using Firefox, by the way.) The Ludum Dare embedded version is not working properly for me: clicking on the link to start does nothing. Looking at the console, it looks like the game is not loaded properly: I get multiple ‘Content Security Policy’ errors saying that the page parameters prevented some resource from loading, and also that reference ‘p5’ is undefined. So, using the other version from now on! (Those embedded and navigator versions are often a mess to make properly work, I have had my share of trouble, as you have seen…)
1. The concept seems original to me! Although I am far from knowing enough such board games to compare. This one looks like a game Rain Man would enjoy. ;) Somehow, it reminds me of Bingo. I know it is different, but looking for figures to cross is a commonality.
1. The music is only *sometimes* dissonant, with an impression of two desynchronised drums, but other than that, I feel that it really gives you the one-second rhythm countdown beat well. Although it can somewhat get unnerving, but this may be cause by my lacking sleep (my head even hurts a little!), so, semi-discard that.
1. As to playability, agreed with shimmerscale for having the comparison information more visible; I think another solution that would fit your technical limitation (ie transparent background trick) would be to have it displayed super big at the left-hand side of the screen, since there is nothing there. :) Actually, testing the board in minimal size (5×5), I see the indications get bigger and already more noticeable, so this might really work.
1. Visually, it looks very neat and even professional; I especially enjoy the set of colours, very harmonious yet sober.
1. On gameplay: I think a big parameter that influences how one plays the game is perfectionism. For example, I am so fussy that I tend to only look for exact pairs or at least the same symbols, and it does cost me something to reluctantly go for a half-baked ‘pairing’. I agree with SimplePotential that this is played intuitively; I was afraid the game would be complicated because of the length of the initial instructions page, but this is a classic symptom of having to convey a lot without enough time to teach things in game (implicit tutorials can take time to conceive, and it seems it would be uneasy here seeing the abstract nature of the game).
(1/2)
8\. Indeed great to have options for size and easy mode; I feel one thing that could give more punch would be an option regarding the frequency of card disappearance, but this would violate the theme, except if you only retain one of your two interpretations of it… Suggestion: either by option or as time goes by, increase the number of cards that get knocked down every ten seconds! I am sure this easy trick would inject more tension. :)
9\. I am very curious as to what these Easter eggs are… I tried clicking some words from the instructions text and got a sound, so I thought that was it, but it was merely the sound of my clicking on tiles that were hidden behind the splash screen. Silly me. I am not sure what is meant by ‘in the matching’. Looking at the code: all right, silly me once again, it meant funny or unusual properties/characteristics. X) (And there are six rather than five? Except if the shape-related one is not a proper Easter egg.)
Takeaway: very neat yet sober presentation for a witty twist on the theme; there could be some more tension, but this would be very easy to add by merely tweaking some parameters, so this is really not that serious a criticism.
Thank you for the game. :) (And my first proper test here — including for Ludum Dare ever —, because I wanted to get out a proper post-deadline version of my game first before churning out reviews, but since you saved my navigator version’s life, I thought that emoji cookie was not enough.)
@cafebeef I used P5.js for primitive drawing and mouse event (move and click) and playing sound. everything else is made on the fly.
@mossieur-patate Whaouh! that's the best, in-depth review I have ever seen! Thank you very much, you humble me!
I understand and respect the rules for advanced Ai generated being too much but at heart, I disagree with it. (I come from the computational creativity research field and I have a lot to discuss about it!).
1. Maybe materialize css apply dark mode ? I haven't focussed much on the style there
2. Untested, thank you I'll look into that.
4 its randomly a 10 again 7 or a 10 again 9. While behind the same 10 bit loop run a 1.414 rate so you will sometimes hear it out of sync
5. Yep, yep dully noted, maybe I'll had just an image in this page description of what to look for.
6. I let a review to someone on the importance of tutorial mode. Clearly going from a small to bigger board size would allows that (2x1, 2x2 and 5x5 then 10x10) but that means a lot of additionnal game logic.
8. I could add an HARD mode in addition of the easy mode
9. Easter egg are some of the keywords the tiles have. Some pairs are "funny"
Loved the color scheme and how everything looks neat. Pretty solid for a Compo entry.
You can play Easy Mode without the disappearing tiles and you can also mute the terrible ticking soundtrack for a more focus/intense mode :)
I ended up just staring at the sidebar when hovering over random tiles. Maybe the combinations could show up over the tile you're hovering over instead to facilitate looking at the grid?
Only the music is a bit annoying^^
I also tried Copilot already, its sometimes crazy with what it comes up.
The music gets repetitive quickly. I know it's a choice you made but for this kind of game I find that some easier background music would be much better.
Overall it is a nice entry, especially considering it is a compo one.
Indeed you can change the board size from the controls and try different levels!
I should have implemented levels / tutorials but I had spent a very short amount of time balancing the score and tile rewards, and it probably don't scale well. It felt overkill for a competition/ I had a about 12hours of free time this week end and not the full 2 days.
But clearly it should have gone 2x1 (discover the ui) , the 2x2 (find the best match), 5x5 (discover the replenish mechanism) 8x8 or 10x10 for the final level.
Music is indeed terribly repetitive even with the random loop going on. I wanted to add generative music based on the pentatonic scale, but I had not played with p5.sound.js and didn't want to screw things.
Some Easter eggs are hidden
- They are some secret criteria
- They are pair that are worth more
Very hard in the current implementation to do that...
One thing that I'd suggest is to use a font which avoids confusion between some symbols (like between lowercase L and uppercase I, O and 0, and so on). Maybe a serif font (but then it should be one where 1 (one) and l (lowercase L) look different - they look almost the same on the text box I'm writing this 😅)