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Poly Dash (GMTK 2023)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #108 | 4.127 | 4.127 |
| Overall | #557 | 3.835 | 3.835 |
| Creativity | #563 | 3.949 | 3.949 |
| Presentation | #1797 | 3.430 | 3.430 |
Ranked from 79 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Instead of controlling the player and jumping when you need to, like in a regular runner game, you instead have to place/remove blocks to create a path for the player.
Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam
Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?
No
We used pre-existing audio
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Comments
A really cool concept beautifully implemented! Upgrades and achievements are adding a lot indeed, although the upgrade screen was a little confusing to me. Also removing the blocks is a really cool mechanic, but it becomes a bit boring after a while to clean after yourself, maybe add an upgrade to automatically remove the blocks that you have passed? It could be a little cleaning robot kind of guy that could clean some of the blocks and could be upgraded to remove more? Just a suggestion, a great submission overall!
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Indeed upgrades screen was done on the last day so, not really the nicest screen in the world 😅 but we really wanted to get it in because upgrades and achievements were here to answer the question "Why would anyone want to play again?". Achievements show you that, you haven't discovered everything the game has to offer and upgrades make it easier for you on your next playthroughs.
About the removing block mechanism, we saw it as a reward for playing right: you can stack up a lot of blocks at the start of the game when it's easy and use them when the game takes the difficulty up a notch with the shooters and the wind zones. If a robot takes back your blocks for you, it would be like having infinite blocks, making the game way easier so, some balancing is required there. Should the robot be super hard to get? Should we make the game harder when the robot is here? Should we make special levels where we can have the robot and take the infinite blocks into account when balancing? We need to think it through but, your feelings about this have been heard. 👏
Thanks for the feedback and thanks for playing our game! 😁
Well this cleaning robot could be a temporary upgrade after Blocku gets a special item on the map (just like upgrades in runner games like subway serfer, etc.)
Also, my latest thoughts says you could make an experiment with time delay between click and placing a block. Right now you can hold mouse click in front of Blocku and make him never fall at any speed, as well as slowly moving mouse up and down in the process. Forcing player to actually draw a path in advance may be an interesting thing (but it needs testing)
Hey, about the cleaning robot being a temp upgrade, the idea can also be tested to see what it implies inside the game, but I think indeed that having this being temporary would be more sweated to our game 🤔
About the delay between clicking and placing a block tho, we've tried it during development and it wasn't as fun as just drawing a continuous line. Basically, to avoid the player being overpowered we had 2 main ideas:
1. Player has a limited amount of blocks and must use them wisely
2. Block placement has a cooldown so the player makes sure he doesn't overdo this.
Solution 2 nerfed a lot the player and took away a little bit of the fun of the game so we decided to stick with 1. According to your comment tho, this still needs some balancing. A lot of comments suggested having fewer blocks to make the player use them more wisely. I think we're going to try this one and see how well it holds up! 👏
This is just the sort of game that scratches an itch for me, it's similar to many games with incremental upgrades (e.g. Learn To Fly), but in this one I felt in complete control of how far the character could travel in one sitting. I think with more upgrades and game mechanics, this game could be as fun as the classic Flash games in this genre I like so much. Nice job
Thanks a lot mate! 😁
Indeed with a larger timeframe, adding more upgrades/mechanics to the core concept of this game could take it to the next level and make it more enjoyable! We'll do our best to try to put the game in this direction. Thanks for playing our game! 🤝
At first I thought that ability to collect bricks by removing them gives unfair advantage. But later I reallized that even with collecting blocks behind the player, it gets impossible to maintain enough build power at some point. Difficulty slope really gives you a room to learn first, then makes it interesting, then creates a chaotic draw-a-line puzzler clicker, that is still incredibly addictive. I appretiate how smart Blocku is to jump in time so it seems like he really plays the level, not just scrolls right along it. Great take on the jam!
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Indeed, at the start, it's easy to collect blocks when things are still going at normal speed. Later tho, when it starts to go faster, you can't do this as easily so, you'd better have saved some blocks for this moment!
About Blocku-dono, ho man, a lot of time has been invested into its AI to get it right but its brain is so simple tho 🤣.
Still, we're glad you had a fun time playing our game! 😁
Really addicting game. The controls feel very nice and the game is very balanced. The Upgrade System made me replay the game a lot more than I would have otherwise. Great game!
Thanks a lot mate!
We don't really want to go down the "addicting" pathway 🤣 but if the game was good enough for you to come back to it and play more, we're glad you had a great time! 😁
Spent a lot of time on the player's AI and block placement mechanism and we did quite a lot of balancing at the end of the jam to make sure it's fun but the Art paid the cost. Upgrades were implemented to answer the question "Why would anyone play again?" and it turns out, it served its purpose! 👏
Thanks for playing our game! 😁
A very clean implementation and a great use of the theme! The upgrades systems add a lot. Very fun and addictive, and the fact that you need to collect the blocks adds a lot! nice job!
Thanks a lot dude! We're glad you liked it! 😁
Indeed, the upgrades system really extends the lifetime of the game and the inventory system for blocks adds more depths than if you had infinite blocks. We'll try to extend it later to see what we can come up with to make it more fun! 👏
really cool concept and i was pretty surprised to see an upgrade system too! there was just a bug where i couldnt place any blocks at the bottom of the screen because of the text, everything else was done well though. fun game!
Thanks a lot mate! We're glad you had fun playing our game! 😁
Hum about the bug you've reported, this is new for us. We didn't see that one. 🤔
This deserves more investigation after the Jam. Thanks for pointing it out to us! 👏
Great concept. Very Mega Man-ish music and feel.
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Ho, you got it right! Megaman was an inspiration for graphics with the timeframe we had to make games. I'm impressed you found out! 👁️👁️
Really clever concept and game. I couldn't reach the Wind Zone, but in anycase a col game.
Thanks a lot man! 😁
If you didn't have a lot of upgrades, indeed it's quite hard to reach wind zones! It's around 700-800 if my memory isn't playing tricks on me. 🤔
If you want to try again one day, I'd say your best bet is: upgrade your blocks to be less stressed over your inventory, your health to be able to take more hits and when you reach the trailers, if everything looks too chaotic, take some hits and focus on the path. I was able to reach the wind zones this way! 👏
Cool endless runner. I like the grafics and the sound too. Also the cube's ai is satisfying. Very good game for this jam!
Thanks a lot man!
We're glad you enjoyed it! 😁
Ho man, spent a lot of time on this cube's AI to make it right, but it was worth the effort!
This feels really great! Love the simple interactions and it all feels smooth, great jam build! Something about adding and removing blocks while Mario plays itself is a vibe. Could really take this idea quite far if you wanted to!
Thanks for the praise mate! 😁
Indeed we also had a lot of fun with the core block placement concept even without adding anything to the game so, we're glad you felt the same! And yes, it definitely deserves more love after the jam! 👏
Cool idea! Very simple, but has good progression. Only gripe is that I wish that Blocku-dono would speed up a bit after a little while if he gets stuck behind a wall, to keep up with the camera. Most of my deaths were because I fell behind the camera and couldn’t catch back up. Other than that, this was really good!
Thanks a lot mate! 😁
Indeed, the feedback about the player having no means to go back to its initial position when it's pushed back by the walls came back to us a lot so, we plan only to have a way to fix that after the jam. Nonetheless, we're glad you've appreciated our game!
simple and fun! this could easily be a game on the phone so i can play it while i in the toilet hah. congrats guys!
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Indeed we were thinking about a mobile port after the jam since this really looks like the place where this game could truly shine!
Love this game! So simple and yet so fun to play! Good job guys!!!
Thank you so much dude! 😁
Indeed, the idea is super simple but it's soooo satisfying!
Really cool game and the procedural levels are really good. Limiting the amount of available blocks is a great idea too!
Well done!
Thanks man! 😁
Indeed, everything didn't make the final cut but procedural generation just had to be in! Allows you to stock up! Block limit instead of infinite blocks is also a no-brainer to avoid having the player straight-up overpowered... even if he can still be with upgrades. We didn't have enough time to balance that. Still, we're glad you enjoyed it! 👏
One of the more creative ideas I've seen this jam! Once I realised I could place the blocks with a space in between them I was really trying to eek out distance. The base concept for the game was simple, solid, and fun, and everything else added on top of it accentuated the core mechanics. Stunning job!
Thanks for the praise man! 😁
It's funny, you're playing just like Cyrille, the Game Designer 🤣. I'd rather just draw a straight line and remove blocks behind me to save up.
About the concept indeed, Cyrille really stumbled across a solid idea! Glad we were able to bring it to life and polish it! 😁
There are a surprising amount of layers to this game! I did not expect the levels to be randomized, but that was such a nice surprise. The ability to upgrade between rounds really added to the replayabiity and honestly made me play a lot longer than I really expected to lol. When I discovered you could collect tiles by removing them, it changed everything. Suddenly it was this frantic balancing act of trying to collect tiles, watch out for enemies, guide the character to power-ups, and pay attention to where you needed to place tiles. The slower movement speed kept it from being overwhelming while also making it feel super fast paced.
Really well done!
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Indeed we really focused on the core of the game which is the player's IA and place/remove block mechanism but once we got it down, we really tried to make this experience as enjoyable as possible! Limited amount of blocks was added to avoid the player being overpowered and this addition was really a game-changer! After this, since the player had no reason to do anything else than just draw a straight line, we tried to add various enemies and pseudo-procedural generation to keep him on his toes! The finishing touch which is upgrades was added to answer the question "Why should anyone play the game again?" and it turns out, all those ideas were well received!
We're really glad you enjoyed our game man! Hoping we could push the boundaries further in the future as well! 😁
Very well-designed game. I liked how you could get tiles by removing them elsewhere. Because the speed of the character was good balanced you always missed some walls to collect, so over time you had less and less tiles. That way every second matters as you could lose some precious tiles. The terrain is well spawned, so you are constantly moving up and down. Maybe with some polished graphics it could be one of the best games in this game jam
Thanks a lot man! 😁
Indeed the inventory system was a great addition to the block placement/removal system. The character slowly becomes faster lets you time to stock up at the beginning when it's easy and use the extra blocks when it gets hard! 👏
... but Art paid the cost for the polished gameplay 😅. Still, we're happy with what we were able to put do!
Thank you so much mate! 😁
Indeed after the core concept was done, adding enemies and bonuses was our 1st concern since the player had absolutely no reason to do anything else than just drawing a straight line. The same goes with random block generation on the path, also great to get back some more blocks!
About the improvements system tho, we've mostly added it to answer the question "Why would anyone replay our game?" and it looks like it was well received! 👏
We're glad you enjoyed it! 😁
really creative and super fun, I like how there are different unique strategies you can use like deleting your own bridges, taking damage just to reach health, or putting shooting/chasing enemies in boxes so they can't get you. incredible submission!
Thanks a lot mate! 😁
Indeed, we've seen different kinds of playstyle so far emerging from such a simple concept and it was really interesting to look at! We really wonder which strategies will be more dominant in the final version of the game 🤔
Very clever! You should be proud of this entry, I had a blast playing it.
Thanks a lot! We're glad that you had a great time playing our game! 😁