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ArkfulDodger

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A member registered Mar 14, 2021 · View creator page →

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Thank you so much, this means a lot!

And you're pretty spot on with the random-roll mechanic. Interestingly enough, random rolling was originally going to be the only way you could change the cube's rotation, and let me tell you, that version of the game was... not fun. At this point, the random rolling is entirely optional, and really just there as a hail-Mary tactic for people who aren't as concerned with finding the "correct" solution (I'm a fan of people enjoying games their own way).

I'm still super interested in how randomization could be incorporated where it feels more integral to the process and adds to the fun rather than detracts from it. Hadn't quite cracked it by upload time; hence, this version where it is situational and non-essential.

Oh wow, this is like, Extreme-Sports Cube-Rolling, I'll take that as a compliment!

Congrats on the level of production you were able to reach within the jam timeframe! The art is really excellent, so props to both your artists on this.

The concept of rolling to change your ability is really solid, and I like what you do here with having weak attack and strong attacks with the different types. I also think that rolling decreasing your "luck" bar was a very good design choice, because it (in theory) discourages spamming the roll feature.

In practice, I think the main thing the game needs is more balancing, which would have come with more dev time (hard to do with jam time constraints). The penalty for rolling is so low, that it was very simple to do so at the start of each room until I got a strong attack, and then just never change it.

If you keep working on this, I think it could be fun to have enemies or obstacles that are better suited to different attacks/abilities, and you might play with different ways to restrict/encourage rolling the die.

In all, for a jam version, this is really well put together. Nice work!

Hey! Congrats on getting this made for the jam!

I actually tend to enjoy resource allocation games, so props on finding a way to relate that to the theme. I think there is a bit more balancing to be done in terms of mechanics, and it's a bit unclear what the end goal was other than to not run out of money.

Still, for a jam version, everything works, so well done!

Congrats on getting this built and submitted! The game as designed looks great and seems to be functioning well. I think it just needs some other mechanic, or some additional way for the player to influence what is going on.

You did a really great job with this! The concept, look, and mechanics are all very well done, and it's a great take on the theme.

Control-wise, I understand the fun of having the player throw the balloons/nails in order to use them, but in practice it was very unwieldy for me. I played through the game about five times, and I never felt like whether or not the balloon hit the fire or the nail went in the table was in my control. It either didn't activate or would go flying off the table, which was frustrating. It doesn't look like other people were having this issue, so it might be a matter of the player's mouse sensitivity on their machine, but still something to be aware of!

All of that doesn't detract from the fact that this is solid work for a jam-game. Congrats!

I really enjoyed the puzzle elements you put in here, and the level design and ramp up in difficulty is handled really well! It's a small thing, but I think the image/symbol you use for the single-direction-exit tiles (the blue with the arrow pointing to the center) is a bit busy and confusing. Maybe a solid large blue arrow could do the same trick and be easier to look at, while still being distinct from the double arrow spin launcher symbol that you use.

Awesome work!

Such a creative game, and a great take on the theme! The artwork is excellent, and I think the gameplay is pretty well balanced where it kept me on my toes. I'd say  that I think you could do with more secret shop stops along the way, but considering the layout, I might just have lucked into picking all the wrong pathways to find them.

Either way, I had a blast, nice job!

That's incredibly kind, I'm so glad you had fun!

Thank you so much, and I'm glad that you enjoyed that aspect, it's good to hear!

Glad you thought so!

And very good to have the feedback that the rolling became frustrating for you. Exploring how to incorporate an element of randomness into a "traditional" puzzle game was the main challenge I gave myself in designing this, so I'm interested in how people do or don't interact with that feature.

Question for you, if you don't mind: Was it clear to you that all the levels could be solved without using the randomizing roll, or did you think you had to do that to clear certain levels?

Thanks!

I appreciate it, thank you so much!

Thank you so much for playing! :)

That really means a lot, thank you so much! I worked hard to try to get the simplicity to strategy balance right, so I'm glad that came across well.

I agree that rotating the camera would help in solving the puzzles, and I almost put that functionality in there. I wondered if having to keep track of the sides should remain part of the challenge of the game, but you never want the difficulty to ultimately detract from player enjoyment, so this is great feedback to have!

Omg, this is amazing, haha! Thank you so much for your kind words, it means a lot that you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much, I'm glad you had fun!

Def considered having an option to rotate the camera,  just didn't make the cut for time's sake.

As a puzzle game, this is masterfully done. Very creative, and an excellent sense of progression and teaching mechanics through design. You should be proud!

As a concept, this is probably my favorite game of the jam so far! It's clever and original, and the art is fantastic. I'm amazed you got this far in only a day, and I wish you could have had the full jam time to keep working on it. You can tell that there's a bit of balancing to do, but it's still very solid overall.

I think there's a lot more to explore with this mechanic, so I hope you find time to keep working on this. Well done!

This was a lot of fun to play! Not usually any good at FPS myself, but I managed to break 1000, so I call that a win. As other people have said, I wish it was a little faster on the reload, but other than that, it's clever, funny, and well-executed. Nice work!

Oh, actually yeah! If you could see the color key info from the "How to Play" page in-game, I think that would be helpful (mainly suspicion and time). The only way to see it now is to quit the game first and go through the main menu.

The main other thing is that It took me a while to a) understand that the pieces on the table represented my game progress and that my goal was to get to 15, and b) that the purple numbers were how I progressed that. Admittedly, part of that might have been just me being oblivious at first, but worth mentioning.

Given more development time, there's ways to make these numbers-to-elements connections more clear through animations (like pulsing or floating the move number and zooming in on the game board as the board piece moves or something), but there might be simpler adjustments you could make, like maybe your board piece could be a closer color match to the purple UI element?

Again, I enjoyed the game a lot, and once it clicked it makes total sense! It's just the initial orientation to all the mechanics at play and what connects to what, which is almost impossible to gauge until you have people playtest.

Good work! Love the story/art/concept. Wish you'd had time to develop a couple more encounters before the boss, but what you have works well!

Really nice work on this, the art/animations and UI/UX elements are all extremely polished.

This is one of several cube-on-a-track games I've seen (including my own!), and while this is mechanically solid, I think the difficulty curve flattens out really fast, so I'm not sure it could sustain any more levels than you currently have without feeling repetitive. If you keep working on this, I think you could find at least one additional mechanic or element to give you something to play with.

As it stands though, you've got a pretty flawless baseline of a game to work off of, great job!

This is incredibly clever! I'll be honest that it took me playing a couple of times through the game to understand what was actually happening (and that's with reading the instructions first), so if you do anything more with this you might look into reworking your how-to's, but once I got a grasp of the mechanics, I really started to dig it.

I did have several play-throughs where I took the riskiest option every time, and the game still ended before either the suspicion capped out or I won, so I think there's a bit of balancing you could still do on the back end, but that would come with more dev time and playtesting. For a 48hr jam version, it didn't take away from the fun of it.

This was great fun, the "cheating" tactics were funny, and the UI/UX aspect is super clean and well executed. Congrats!

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Thank you so much! Glad you had fun!

Ah, you were so close! It only goes up to 13! Thanks!

The music and art is quite well done! I had a bit of difficulty making sense of exactly how what I rolled translated to what was happening on screen, even after playing for a while, but this is still pretty solid!

The look of this is great, and I think the idea of the mechanics is a really cool idea. I personally found it a bit unwieldy to control, but maybe that would be less of an issue if you had some kind of hp where you could take a hit or two from the baddies without dying. Still great work!

So I actually really love the core gameplay idea! It's a great blend of randomization with player choice. I also think the mouse and the spiders are very cute. However, I tried playing it on both Windows and the post-jam WebGL version, and the dice kept freezing on the majority of my turns, so I ended up unable to really play more than one or two turns in a row. If you can clear out those bugs, I think this could be a lot of fun!

Nicely done! Solid gameplay and aesthetic is very pleasing. This is one of a couple dice-on-a-track games I've seen (including mine!), but I like the mechanic of the spikes you threw in there, it's a nice touch! I think the screen shake on dice move could be toned down a smidge, but didn't detract from the fun of it. Congrats!

It's a bit unwieldy to control, but considering the conditions under which you made it, congrats on putting this all together! The concept is pretty unique, so if the controls could be tightened up a bit, I think it could be a lot of fun! Well done

Hey, great job! Solid mechanics and clean presentation. I enjoy how you use the falling to transition from stage to stage, and particularly liked the touch where you connected the current stage to the prior with that reset button. If you keep working on this at all, I think there's a lot more fun to be had with that.

It's mechanically pretty similar to the game I ended up making, so I'm curious how you ended up deciding to code the dice movement. Keep it up!

This was fun, and the visuals are gorgeous! The gameplay is simple enough to get hold of, and it is really unique. 

I did hit a point where I realized you could camp out in the screen corner to get the enemies to clump, then take them all out before they could spread their positions. This made clearing the levels super easy and somewhat stagnated gameplay, since it didn't matter how many enemies you threw in at that point (up until the boss). If you continue to develop, maybe put something in to discourage this, maybe certain enemies deliberately hang back as opposed to coming up close, or perhaps some limitation on the invulnerability.

Either way, doesn't take away from the fact that for a game jam version, this is great! Well done

Thanks for the feedback! There are definitely a few balance and UI elements I'll continue to tweak as I keep working on this, so duly noted on these.

Would love to give your entry a play, but I unfortunately don't have a windows machine. From your video preview though, it looks like a blast, congrats on finishing it!

Dang, this is a fun challenge! The concept is hilarious and well executed, I especially enjoy the little touches with the dialogue boxes. The music you made fits the art assets you utilized, and keeps a nice sense of pace without being overbearing, so well done on that. I think the only gameplay part I found frustrating at times is that I wish the movement were on a grid, as it is in traditional snake, because it was difficult with the art to always know where the hit-boxes were. In all though, well done!

Simple, but fun and effective! 

Well that's just darn cute! A pleasant, unique racing game, and I really love the artwork. Congrats!

That was great! Fast-paced and challenging as advertised. I like the way it highlights the theme, and I had a great time playing. Congrats!

Really solid look and puzzle design! Great job!

I'm really impressed with the puzzlework in this, especially how you've managed to take knot tying and translate it into a 2D space. Congrats on a job well done!