[LD35] Soko Match
Shift the tiles around and and match them up. Soko Match is a cross between Sokoban and a Match-3 game. You can match 3 or more tiles in a row or column with the same color or number. Can you get to 15 matches?
Play on itch.io: https://francoisvn.itch.io/soko-match
Ludum Dare entry: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=23363
So I made a game for Ludum Dare 35 this weekend. Yay! The venue at the Bandwidth Barn was great for Saturday, and I worked on it a bit more on Sunday, but I would have liked to spend more time on it. I think there are some interesting interactions going on, but I think the space hasn't been properly explored yet. If I have some time I might spend another day or so exploring the design space, but I'll probably wait till the Ludum Dare judging is finished at least.
So if you have a moment, check it out and see what you think. Any interesting ideas for design space I should explore?
Comments
Also had a random thought about this earlier: Why not make the grey blocks spawn at the location of the last-pushed block in a match? That's sort of what Triple Town does and it seems to work pretty well. Would give players the option to control things more, but might also require a warning that a grey block is coming next. You might still need that warning, TBH.
Felt really polished but I also felt like I wasn't sure how the newer blocks are spawning. I really like the fact that you can push block through one side into the other side!
Maybe a special match (If you fulfil both conditions on one match?) could change up the reward a bit to provide a difference of kind and a goal for optimal play?
I get the same feeling, but I haven't had a chance to really look into it much. Technically the animations should take about 0.2s, which was fast enough in Streamline to feel nippy, but Soko Match has a lot less juice overall. So I think either it's the lack of juice, or perhaps it's some lag somewhere. It's perhaps worth mentioning that the move only actually takes place on key up, so perhaps I should change that to down?
I have some ideas about a more Threes-like system where blocks continuously spawn, perhaps at the center of the next match or on the last pushed block or something (that's a bit more complicated cause you might have simultaneously pushed all 3, due to wrapping). I think it'll be important to see the incoming block so you can prepare, and have some element of control over where it'll spawn. The current build doesn't really give you much control over that, and very little warning (the immovable blocks just spawn every 5 matches), so I think this will be a low-hanging fruit area for me to tackle.
No, at the moment is a bit random and the game can definitely put you in a stuck position. Sorry if that happens, writing code to detect stuck states was a bit too much for the time I had available.
Good idea, definitely something to consider :)
Thanks again for all the feedback everyone, I do appreciate it :D
I didn't particularly like that the move happened on key up. I don't quite see why that was a decision. Reason? Is it to give the player time to think about that move?
Oh, am I missing something? What are the symbols for? It really broke my brain. You just match the colors, right?
Great game with interesting mechanics to play around with. I'm sure you just run out of time hence little juice and sound.
I don't actually have a good reason for doing the action on key up. This was mostly a copy-paste thing that I didn't revisit during the jam, but it's on my list now :)
The symbol shape and color will always match (this is mostly a small colorblind and UX thing). You can match either everything with the same color/shape, or things with the same number. If you think of them as mini poker hands, you can get either 3 of a kind or a flush.
You're right about running out of time. I would have loved another day or two, but alas work and LD didn't align well this time. Hopefully will come back to it in a little bit :)
The core match 3 mechanic is already very solid, adding the above suggestions will only strengthen it. Then you just add some juice and ship it! You have such a talent for creating these types of games, can't wait to see what you make at the next LD or Mini Jam :)
I'll probably still come back to this and work on it some more. I feel like there's still some untapped design space here and a little it of work could potentially turn it into something fun. That said, right now I'm working on another (as of yet unannounced) project, so I'll probably only come back to Soko Match after I'm further along with that :)