This is one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. Please continue with this one, I'd buy it in a second!
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I Want to Hold Hands's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #80 | 4.324 | 4.324 |
| Creativity | #296 | 4.296 | 4.296 |
| Audio | #436 | 3.803 | 3.803 |
| Artwork | #616 | 4.155 | 4.155 |
| Narrative | #827 | 3.394 | 3.394 |
Ranked from 71 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?
Every hand must be held, creating closed loops of people holding hands, loops of friendship.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Font - Cute Dino by Khurasan
Music - Mellow Puzzler by Eric Matyas (www.soundimage.org)
Comments
Wow! such a creative and well polished puzzle. Had me playing the most out of all the other games I've played this jam. Must have been very difficult and brain scratching to come up with these puzzles haha. Also liked how the mechanics were introduced, very intuitive!
Submitted
Artful MachinationI was just asking some friends how they can come up with complex puzzles like this, after creating all the systems. I thought your puzzles were very impressive with how interconnected they were, but seemed to only have one correct solution. Do you have any tips on how you approach level creation for puzzle games? Less about the mechanics, more about making an individual puzzle with only one solution - I end up spending a whole lot of time guessing until something works.
I'm no expert so I don't know if my tips will help but I'll try.
First I try to have a theme to each level, by making each one unique (could be a new mechanic, a unique situation with the same mechanics, or even a new visual element). This helps me introducing new mechanics slowly while keeping everything fresh from the player's standpoint. Ideally it's something I can summarize in a short sentence. For instance for this game I have levels with the themes "Teach the player that someone can have 6 arms" (new mechanic), "Have more characters than before do a party" (Visual element + difficulty increase), "There are only people with 6 arms" (unique situation + remind the player that 2 same people can't hold hands more than once + funny visual situation). If a level has multiple purposes it's even better! But yeah in general if can't summarize a level with a sentence by saying what's unique about it (doesn't have to be groundbreaking), then maybe the level doesn't need to exist? I would say that is my main tip when designing levels.
Then, to go in specifics, I don't have a lot of experience in level design so I can't speak a lot from previous projects, but for this game I started designing each puzzle from an intended solution I had in mind (a graph of all the arms connection I wanted) and then chose the color, name, hats and requests of each character according to this solution, while volontarily making some information ambiguous (for instance a character requiring to hold the hand of someone with a hat is far less specific than one directly requiring the name of the specific person). But at the end of the day most puzzles of this game have several (often similar) solutions, and like you I do need to test the levels over and over to know if they are truly fun, and make corrections to improve them (or throw them away) if it doesn't.
Sorry for the long reply, I hope it answered your question and can be of some help.
Very awesome and deep puzzle mechanics in this one! I especially loved Jason xD
Submitted
Everyone Hold Hands!So cute and polished! Visuals, music and sfx are on point, very cozy and laid back. Puzzles were also the perfect difficulty, nothing too hard but hard enough to make me think for a bit. Very nice!
Submitted
Water Cycle CatastropheReally nice puzzle game. At first I was wondering how you were going to increase the difficulty and quickly found out. However, it's very well balance and I don't have any real criticisms regarding the presentation. Congrats on creating this in such short time 👍
Submitted
Looping ThroughLovely puzzles! It's simple, effective, and gradually gets more challenging, while keeping simple rules, very efficient for a game jam! :D
I don't know if it was deliberate, but I felt like the webs of friendships evolved, and there was a story behind all those little handshakes, I found that very cute :')
Also, ALL HAIL JASON, until I realized he was a pain in the a**... Why does everyone love Jason, and not Bob :((((
Good job! Thank you for making the game :D
Submitted
In the LoopEasy to pick up and very fun! The subtle cue of them dancing, made it so much easier. However once it game to the overlaps, it got a lot more challenging (in a good way). Keep up the good work!
Submitted
Die to Level upAbsolutely loved it. That head bob animation after holding hand was really cute. Also really loved the overall art style of the game. Had so much fun playing it. Great work!!!
Submitted
Whispers Left BehindA very cute puzzle! This was cleverly made. Puzzle were challenging enough for me to sit and think about it carefully! Also, everyone wants to hold hands with Jason. I WANT TO HOLD HANDS WITH JASON TOO
Submitted
Flock 'n' LoadVery creative interpretation of the theme! The puzzle and level design is also great where additional elements are introduced gradually after each level. The art style and audio design complements each other well with a more comedic tone. Great job!
Submitted
Mission ImpawssibleGreat game and idea! I don't know if you thought about this explicitly during when designing the game, but if you enforce that every character has only two hands, then the resulting graph from connections must always form a loop (as it would be a 2-regular graph). This is a very clever mathematical application of the theme. Unfortunately, this is not true if people can have >2 hands (which your game allows).
Submitted
Mini MerchantsVery cool from all sides!
Additional thanks is for pleasant animations in all elements)
I will be very glad if you play our game too :)
Submitted
Swing to the MOONSuper cute and polished game! It got surprisingly difficult for such a simple mechanic but I liked it a lot. And I'm glad that everyone universally loves Jason, as they should.
Submitted
Snake Eat Snake
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