›

Strings!

SquidcorSquidcor
edited in Projects
In an effort to get involved with the community again, I've decided to start uploading stuff that I'm working on and get some feedback.

So here is my latest prototype: Strings!

image

Strings! is a 2D physics based puzzle game where the player must place various "strings" to help Happycat navigate to his cheezburger. Kind of like The Incredible Machine, but more focused on rope physics.

Any feedback is appreciated, particularly with regard to the puzzle design. Some of the puzzles have a very trial and error feel. I'd like some ideas on how to design the puzzles and physics to be more deterministic. So that the player can spend more time thinking of clever solutions and less time tweaking things so that they eventually work.

Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD

Comments

  • RigormortisRigormortis
    Cool :) I like games like these. I played through all the levels and the only thing that I could find "wrong" was that the points where you attach the ropes to other ropes react like collision points themselves, so I could create situations where I could bump the cat or balls off of those points.

    It does feel a little bit like trial and error to me rather than you allowing me to find an elegant(read hacked) solution to the problem you present me. I would rather have more components than I can use than the exact right amount. I know that it might make the solution easier , but it does allow me to be more creative in my solution, which is the fun part in games like these. :)

    Another thing(that you might have thought about already) is to show me the "designed" solution after I complete a level. That way I can see if I was "better" or "worse" than the "propper" solution. Basically like TIM did.

    I want to say that you need to add more stuff than the ropes, like gears and conveyer belts and baboons on bikes :P But I'm not really sure if that would actually be a good thing. I think I just need levels where I can leverage the strengths of the different ropes more in a given level.

    But I think it's looking good so far. I had fun :D

    Also, I had to cheat for level 24....is it even possible with only the rope and spring? I could do it with 2 springs.
  • MerrikMerrik
    Win! I got the cat out of the box! Thats the point right? :P

    image

    Awesomeness:
    I really had a great time working through the puzzles, some of them really had me stumped for longer that I care to admit. I actually liked that there are many possible solutions and bugs to exploit. It felt like I was playing against the game. When I solved the puzzle using what I perceived as an exploit, I considered it a win :D Also, I noticed that the balls have high friction, so their rotation affects their bounce angle. Have you considered building puzzles around the angular velocities of the balls?

    Some Gripes:
    - Why does the the level auto pan when the mouse is outside of the window??
    - I would prefer to use left click for both placing and moving rope anchors.

    Bug:
    Ropes can be placed through walls by first attaching it to a second rope and then moving this second rope.

    image


    There seems to be a wealth of emergent mechanics, so there's no real need to add more. I think the best way to explore the these mechanics is to watch people play through the puzzles and observe all of their weird experiments. You should definitely demo this at the meetup next week. :)

    P.S: Great job with the rope physics, Did you use Box2D?
  • SquidcorSquidcor
    Merrik said:
    I actually liked that there are many possible solutions and bugs to exploit. It felt like I was playing against the game. When I solved the puzzle using what I perceived as an exploit, I considered it a win
    Rigormortis said:
    It does feel a little bit like trial and error to me rather than you allowing me to find an elegant(read hacked) solution to the problem you present me. I would rather have more components than I can use than the exact right amount. I know that it might make the solution easier , but it does allow me to be more creative in my solution, which is the fun part in games like these.
    Designing the puzzles is a tricky balancing act between allowing creativity, and forcing players to "solve" the puzzle. With some of the puzzles that I tested on friends I found that usually it was hard to force players to think of a creative solution rather than just keep adjusting things until their solutions works by fluke.

    The "hack" solutions aren't a problem so to speak, it's part of the experience, but I think I'm beginning to realise there needs to be different kinds of levels.

    In addition to the restrictive levels with a single solution in mind. I'm thinking of adding much larger levels with more components. The idea being that you would have to overcome quite a few obstacles in the level. While each obstacle will not be hard to solve on its own given the strings provided, finding the most efficient solutions so that there are still strings left for the rest of the level will be the challenge.

    As for all the physics bugs and things; the system isn't perfect, but it doesn't really need to be for the purpose of prototyping. Consider them features :P
Sign In or Register to comment.