*"If you don't want a basic souvenir, check out the sewers." - Sew R. Walker*
Concept:
Puzzle game inspired by Dino Master / Qix
Gameplay:
You have a rope that you can use to lure in enemies. You have to create shapes and close them so that enemies get sucked into a pipe. After every level you can upgrade your stats (e.g. the length of the rope) The mechanic explained in more detail:
Look at this guy: He is your friend :3
You'll use this pipe to suck in enemies. How do you do that?
You simply use one of those bad boys!
They are at every wall at your disposal. What to do with them? Press E to tie your rope around them!
But watch out! The amount of rope you have is limited! If you go too far, you'll be snatched back! Lucky for you that you can press Q to drop the current rope and start over!
*"I attached my rope to a hook, now what?"*
The rope will only close if you attach it on the same side again at which you started! Otherwise the *magic* won't work.
To make placing the rope easier you can also use pins to pin the rope on the floor. This won't close the rope though. Only attaching it at the same wall again will close it!
Also, the *magic* will only happen if the pipe is included into the ropes inner circle! Where should the enemies go otherwise`?
Story:
Sew R. Walker is a hard working celestial. One day, after being annoyed by their coworkers, Sew decides to go find the BEST souvenir there is.
Sew buys a random 3€ rope at the next convenience store and dives into the sewers. Controls:
- WASD / Arrow Keys = Movement - E = Placing Rope at wall or floor - Q = cancelling the current rope - F = drink - stay hydrated! (used for special ability in late game) - Space = show / hide controls
In accordance to the rules I made a Post Jam Bugfix: - Fixed enemies getting stuck in the corners (by rounding the corners collision shapes lol) - Fixed HP going into negatives - Made range from wall to player for placing ropes larger
I love your art and sound effects! I think the mechanics were well designed and taught to the player, but I found it a bit repetitive just making triangles a whole lot. Maybe some way to differentiate the levels with the expected rope patterns would help with this? I also found a small bug where the purple circles sometimes got stuck into a corner and wouldn't move out, so I couldn't capture them.
I was rly confused 😵 I got stuck at first, running out of rope and teleporting back to the last hook, and even once I did manage to get a circle around some of the green things nothing happened 😞 The dialog was rly cute though and with some simplification and mechanical polish, there's a really cool vision here I can tell 🐱
@quail-weaver thanks for your feedback :) Sorry that you got confused. I initially wanted to make a better, interactive tutorial, but the time ran out 😭
@camcomduck Your idea about the level differentiation is nice! I got so used to looking at the level box that I didn't even think about making other designs anymore 💀 Regarding the enemies. That was a actually a bug I saw in playtesting but thought I removed it :(
I liked this one! The in-game instructions were totally needed for this game, and I'm glad you included those! Took a while still to get how things are supposed to work, but managed to get through. Nice!
Cool game, I like the music and the dialogue. - The introductory dialogue is a little bit long, maybe leave the story out of the first tutorial level for the next level so the player can get into trying out the instructions faster. - A bug, the guy got stuck after being sucked.
I really enjoyed the in-game instructions and how they were implemented. The dialogue was also cool for the mood and story, but it might have been a bit too much (for a jam game). It’s usually best to get the player into action as soon as possible.
I was a bit confused about the mechanics at first. It can be tough to understand games that are quirky and don’t have a clear reference point in real life. But once I got it, I think it works pretty well. It might be a bit repetitive, but obviously you can’t expand on the idea fully during a jam (especially during a Compo).
Overall, it’s a solid entry. Bonus points for all the extra things like the dialogue and tutorial.
Nice dialogue and decent instructions for controls. The rope was kinda weird to use, no clear feedback how it worked. I thought i kinda got gist of it but then i took +1 pin upgrade and finishing ropes felt impossible unelss super small sized? At this point I gave up. I also saw the corner stuck enemies. I agree with other comments that vision of mechanic is nice but its just hard to use. Nice music! Too bad there were no other sound effects.
I’ve completed three levels, and honestly, I still haven’t fully understood the mechanics. Sometimes enemies pass through the rope I’m pulling, sometimes they don’t. When I close the loop, they get sucked in, but sometimes the rope isn’t long enough, and it’s not clear where to get more — like right now. Sometimes they hit me when they touch me, sometimes they don’t. Overall, I can’t really say I understand how to play yet.
The music is interesting, though I had to turn it down because it drowned out the other sound effects. The monologues are engaging, but a bit drawn out in places. The art style feels a bit inconsistent between the dialogue window and the rest of the game.
So, I can’t say I had tons of fun, BUT that’s probably due to bugs or my lack of understanding of the mechanics. There’s definitely potential here.
I‘m definitely spending more time on polishing the next time 😅 I took into account that the mechanic would confuse people (because it confused my playtesters aswell lol) so I focused on making a longer text explanation. But from the comments I got I‘ve decided that it would be better to scratch a few festures and focus on a more polished main mechanic next time (because there is never enough time to do it all during 48 hours 😭)
It‘s good to know what kind of bugs happen during the playthrough. I don‘t know if I‘m allowed to fix bugs during the judgement period, but I‘ll try to implement them afterwards!
This project (and others on your itch) showcases that you have some conceptually cool ideas when it comes to telling stories. I did have issues with the rope's attachment not happening many times despite me being next to a hook and mashing the key, so it just feels like they might be a little too precious where the collision shape's (etc.) sizes are concerned.
As for bug-fixing, per the rules:
"Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log). You probably wont get a 2nd chance with some players, but at least it wont be a problem for future players."
Fun little entry though, and like I said I love the worldbuilding!
The concept is really cool, I managed to get to endless mode even though the difficulty massively ramps up on the fifth level (I had no health upgrades). It's a good thing we can still get money and buy new upgrades. Like others said, there are a few bugs: - enemies stuck on walls/corners - the health going into the negatives - the most annoying of them all is not being able to attach the rope to walls even though your near them, I had almost no pin upgrades and it makes the issue way more visible because otherwise it could place pins instead without you noticing it Good game and great idea nonetheless
@plastus So it got stuck more to the left, then I was trying to "push" it with my character and roping it again after which it moved closer to the pipe, but wasn't able to do anything to it afterwards.
@threeli thank you for the kind words! And thanks for the hint about the bugfixing policy :D
I initially planned for it to be possible to fixate the rope at the wall without any hooks but that made it very difficult to create the shapes that would start the collection process. There might be another solution to this, but I'll have to look into that.
@petitlu thanks for the feedback and the bug report!
Glad you made it until endless mode :D
@ellaris thanks for the description. I'll try to fix it
Can't wait to see where you take it, I was checking out some of your other projects and I like the slightly odd twist you seem to apply to all your projects.
@threeli thanks a bunch! Glad that people appreciate it :D
It's always intriguing to me to put unusual (yet confusing 😭) things into my games 😈
But sadly I never know how to promote them. Like, I made a small Horror Game called "Bergung" and after the release it never really got traction. Probably because it wasn't a jam game :(
The core idea—using a rope to connect and trap enemies—is really fun and creative. The music is super cool and adds a lot of energy to the gameplay, though it’s a bit loud (maybe a small volume slider would help?). At first, the hook point for the rope felt a little too small, but once I got used to it, the controls worked smoothly. Well done!
A supernova going off... Inside the sewers. Hah :) Cool gameplay, I liked this one a lot. The controls were a bit hard at times. When trying to hook the rope on the wall it would use a pin instead. This was a nice game with some funny writing, good job!
Very fun idea! Quite tough - I feel like with a bit more health I might've been able to finish the game, but I was not quite able to. I love the mechanic of wrangling them, and the use of pins vs wall was very fun. (I wasn't always able to hook the wall when pressing E - do I have to be 'moving into' the wall for it to target? or 'exactly on' a hook?) Very fun having to manage the rope length - I love puzzles like that. Great work!
this looks pretty good :) it took me a second to get going, but then it was pretty funny. Sometimes I had trouble attaching my rope and when my rope was empty, the character gets a seizure :D
Comments31
Sorry that you got confused. I initially wanted to make a better, interactive tutorial, but the time ran out 😭
Regarding the enemies. That was a actually a bug I saw in playtesting but thought I removed it :(
- The introductory dialogue is a little bit long, maybe leave the story out of the first tutorial level for the next level so the player can get into trying out the instructions faster.
- A bug, the guy got stuck after being sucked.
I was a bit confused about the mechanics at first. It can be tough to understand games that are quirky and don’t have a clear reference point in real life. But once I got it, I think it works pretty well. It might be a bit repetitive, but obviously you can’t expand on the idea fully during a jam (especially during a Compo).
Overall, it’s a solid entry. Bonus points for all the extra things like the dialogue and tutorial.
I also saw the corner stuck enemies. I agree with other comments that vision of mechanic is nice but its just hard to use.
Nice music! Too bad there were no other sound effects.
The music is interesting, though I had to turn it down because it drowned out the other sound effects. The monologues are engaging, but a bit drawn out in places. The art style feels a bit inconsistent between the dialogue window and the rest of the game.
So, I can’t say I had tons of fun, BUT that’s probably due to bugs or my lack of understanding of the mechanics. There’s definitely potential here.
Did the bug happen multiple times or just once? And did the bug softlock you? :O
I‘m definitely spending more time on polishing the next time 😅
I took into account that the mechanic would confuse people (because it confused my playtesters aswell lol) so I focused on making a longer text explanation. But from the comments I got I‘ve decided that it would be better to scratch a few festures and focus on a more polished main mechanic next time (because there is never enough time to do it all during 48 hours 😭)
The mechanic is a bit specific. I‘ll add a better tutorial next time.
Thanks for your feedback!
It‘s good to know what kind of bugs happen during the playthrough. I don‘t know if I‘m allowed to fix bugs during the judgement period, but I‘ll try to implement them afterwards!
As for bug-fixing, per the rules:
"Certain Bug Fixes are allowed. You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log). You probably wont get a 2nd chance with some players, but at least it wont be a problem for future players."
Fun little entry though, and like I said I love the worldbuilding!
- enemies stuck on walls/corners
- the health going into the negatives
- the most annoying of them all is not being able to attach the rope to walls even though your near them, I had almost no pin upgrades and it makes the issue way more visible because otherwise it could place pins instead without you noticing it
Good game and great idea nonetheless
I initially planned for it to be possible to fixate the rope at the wall without any hooks but that made it very difficult to create the shapes that would start the collection process. There might be another solution to this, but I'll have to look into that.
@petitlu thanks for the feedback and the bug report!
Glad you made it until endless mode :D
@ellaris thanks for the description. I'll try to fix it
It's always intriguing to me to put unusual (yet confusing 😭) things into my games 😈
But sadly I never know how to promote them. Like, I made a small Horror Game called "Bergung" and after the release it never really got traction. Probably because it wasn't a jam game :(
I did add music and sfx settings (because I already had complaints in previous games 😭)
You can find them on the settings page that you can access via the settings button in the main menu and pause menu ^^
I love the mechanic of wrangling them, and the use of pins vs wall was very fun.
(I wasn't always able to hook the wall when pressing E - do I have to be 'moving into' the wall for it to target? or 'exactly on' a hook?)
Very fun having to manage the rope length - I love puzzles like that. Great work!
@tim-eriksen glad you liked the supernova joke ^^
@ugly-robot thanks for the feedback. I'll be thinking about how to rework the health system after the jam :D
Also the idea of the hooks was basically to stand next to them. I already tried to enlarge the radius, but it might stll be a bit buggy :(
Glad you liked the puzzles anyways :D