[SA Game Jam 2019] +O
Project Name: +O
Jam Type: 48 Hrs
I decided to make a "crafting" puzzle game, where the player combines symbols to make other symbols.
Play here: https://hirohun.itch.io/o
Jam Type: 48 Hrs
I decided to make a "crafting" puzzle game, where the player combines symbols to make other symbols.
Play here: https://hirohun.itch.io/o
Comments
Keen to see how you add more mechanics. Its a cool premise to play with. :)
Oh yes!! I totally forgot about 2048, it is actually really similar to it (for now) :)
*Spoiler Alert: Gif shows how to solve the first 2 puzzles*
@Gnoblar_agency definitely going to add sound.
The game is very easy to understand and while the current puzzles weren't too hard I'm sure, with some more time, could become quite challenging. Looks very professional and clean.
I felt like the continue and retry buttons were a bit close to each other... I accidentally reset my level twice (guess I'm bad at using a mouse :/).
100% agree with the sound suggestion and I'd love to play more levels!
(weird I thought I posted this days ago, got stuck in draft, thank goodness for drafts here)
@Tuism Thank you for the feedback! I kinda ran out of time so I didn't add more combinations and mechanics. But, I have ideas of how I can improve the game and add more to it other than the one level of combinations.
@Fengol I am based in JHB
I understand that you could see that with the first puzzle, but swiping up seems like the more natural response and so the lesson is missed.
Love the visuals as simplicity looking forward to playing more if you decide to continue the project.
I always get more satisfaction from being able to solve puzzles in my first try, regardless of how long it takes me, lol.
If you made it so that the player can undo the "crafting" of the shapes, it would mean that the puzzles would still be able to be solved regardless of the state of the puzzle and you could get rid of the retry button.
More levels please.
@kgomotso thank you for playing! That is a great suggestion, I will definitely try it out and see how I can maybe implement it or try some variation of splitting shapes.
There is a new update of this game. I changed some of the core mechanics and now there are 10 levels! Would love feedback on the difficulty curve and the game in general :)
You can play it here: https://hirohun.itch.io/o
The rule I thought was a bit out of place was that things with overlapping shapes could be combined, i.e. A circle with a plus in it could be combined with a circle (even though this should produce a double circle with a plus in it result). I realize this rule exists probably because it allows for more possibility space for solving the puzzles, and as the game was it felt like there was only one way to solve the puzzles so making the rules stricter wouldn't excite me.
I don't really know how to give feedback on puzzle games like this. I don't play a lot of games in this genre. A thing I wonder about is "what do puzzle game players want?". I'm not too sure what they're actually playing, but it is my perception that games like Threes are fairly popular, and while +O has a lot of mechanics in common with Threes, there's a pretty massive difference in experience. Threes is a game where the player is asked to keep trying to get further with each run, and the conditions for each run are random (kind of like a roguelike) whereas +O is about solving a series of handcrafted puzzles until the puzzles run out.
I'm not actually sure which format casual puzzle players are playing the most of (and enjoying the most). Maybe my perception is off and linear puzzle solving games are plenty popular. I know games like Papa Is You and Steven Sausage Roll are popular and loved, but it feels to me like those are such outliers in terms of design, and that those games are for a more hard-core puzzle audience than Threes or +O. I haven't looked at what is trending in the mobile puzzle space in many years, so I don't really know what these players are looking for.
I have seen the problem with the overlapping shapes in the latest playtest sessions. I do think that this rule or mechanic needs to change to make it more intuitive and easier to understand.
Yes I agree that the experience between Threes and +O is different. I did try to go for the linear puzzle solving because I thought the mechanics of +O might be too complicated for a randomized puzzle game. I am also not super familiar with casual puzzle games, but the ones I have enjoyed have been linear and that's another reason why I decided to go in that direction (specifically games like Kami). However, I think if I rethink the way the symbols combine and make the core mechanics a bit more simple I might be able to create a more random puzzle game.
Once again thanks for the detailed feedback. It gives me a lot to think about going forward.