It seems this unsolved mystery didn't sit quite right with me. Here's a solver I wrote in python, that does not apply linear algebra techniques. I'll try to explain it here shortly, but if you want implementation details see the paste below. Although scaling severely worse than a linear algebra solution, the approach is capable of solving 7x7 grids. I would upload a video of a demo, but it was a bit of hassle to do with itch. https://paste.myst.rs/1eux4vll
I'll use the term move here to denote the clicking of a tile. Firstly, iterate through all possible sets of moves that could be applied to the top row, that is for any tile anywhere from zero to nine moves, and apply these to a copy of the grid. Secondly, iterate through all the tiles in the second row and apply as many moves to said tile as the value of the tile above in the top row - for any other amount of moves, the tile above would never achieve the value zero. Continue the process of applying moves in a similar manner for all rows. Lastly, check if all the tiles in the bottom row are zero, in which case the puzzle is solved.
Thank you for your kind words, and I'm glad you liked it! For the background music all credit goes to musician Scott Buckley from whom I got it - and I couldn't agree more, it's a lovely track.
Frankly, I'm not well versed enough in linear algebra to go from a defined system to solving said. I'd be interested to see how you arrive at these results for the case of the 2x2 grid, if you don't mind sharing. I'll try to dig into the math of this tomorrow and write a solver.
It's indeed a linear modular system, that should be solvable - at least for the computer. For the case of 0's and 5's only it's binary alike that of lights out puzzles which this game was inspired by. As far as I'm currently aware by my own testing and reading of comments, there's not a discovered logical strategy that leads directly to solutions. Thanks for taking such an interest in my little game!
What a lovely artistical style! The spinning gears in the background, the characters with their glowy shadows and the centerpiece flower with its animations - I love it all. I only wished the visual shooting feedback - that is the red flashing screen effect - was toned down a bit. "Countdown" is incorported perfectly here, and I like that you stuck with the time theme for the flower's progression too. Gameplay wise, it's very satisfying to kill enemies and dash around and pick up power-ups - especially with those lovely retro sound effects. Well done!
What a well polished game with a unique and beautiful audial and visual style. The game loop is very satisfying and incorporates the theme of the game jam perfectly. Well done, especially for it being your first jam game and developing it in native web! I'm thoroughly impressed. And I must complement your well put together game page too - an often overlooked yet important part of submissions.
Wow, you solved the 3x3! 🎉 You'd be the first to do that going off my other commenters' comments on the difficulty... Well done, it's an impressive feat. Thanks for your kind words, and good luck should you give the 4x4 another go! <3
It's like a lights out puzzle but instead of one of two states being valid, one of ten states is - and that probably explains the added difficulty. Well done completing the 2x2, that's more than most people.
It's the inevitable reality with game jams - having to cut things. And often it's not necessarily about working to slow, rather it's about overscoping the original idea. Good luck with your continuation of the project!
I really like the retro-like artistical style of this game and the idea. But what I think is especially important for these kind of games is responsiveness in the form of audio, screenshake, animations, etc. Polish takes time, but it's always worth leaving time for (and often something that's skipped in the time pressure of game jams). I like that the upgrades lean into the countdown timer, both because it's an interesting dynamic that makes for multiple strategies but also because it fits the theme so well. I do however think there's some balancing that's needed there (which don't get me wrong is very difficult to get right for such a short jam). I like the direction of this game, and I hope my little write up could help share my thoughts on how this project might be expanded should you choose to do so. Overall well done!
😂 I added a 7x7 just because, and it's possible in theory but I'd be really surprised to see someone do it, myself included. You'd really have to develop some sort of more advanced strategy at that point, like algorithms for a Rubiks's cube. Thanks, and good job solving the 2x2, not everyone does!
Responsive and satisfying game play done by great visual and audio design. It's a fun and well polished for such a short amount of time. The ship feels good to control and the enemies rewarding to kill. I think it needs tweaking in some ends, especially the shopping phase which never really became that stressful - but these things are difficult in a game jam. Overall well done!
That's an interesting mechanic! Collecting jumps can lean both into platforming and puzzles, and as a matter of fact I think you could've leaned more into the puzzle aspect as most levels were pretty straight forward (that being said, making levels in a four day jam is no easy task). As per the execution, I think it's a game put together very nicely, with a fitting calm atmosphere and good feel to it. The player jump feels nice overall, and it's a bit fiddly to get the jump that just clears the gap - but I find that rewarding! One thing I will say is that I think just tapping the jump button should give for a jump at least high enough to get up a single tile. Overall good job!
Wow, it's hard to memorise things while focusing on something else 😂. Despite my slight inability to multitask, this was a wondefully fun and cute game. The art, sound and game play are all top notch and well polished, and they work perfectly together. Well done!
I love a good space game, and this asteroids-like one does not disappoint! Awesome pixel-art graphics and accompanying 8 bit sound-effects and music. The gameplay is difficult - landing shots and dodging the tiny zooming enemies whilst tending to the quickly depleting fuel - but it is so in a satisfying sense, and landing a shot feels rewarding. However, I do think the difficulty ramping could be toned down. Perhaps partly due to a skill issue on my end, i get overwhelmed fast and didn't ever manage to make it the entire 120 seconds. Also, two small bugs I found were getting stuck at the bottom of the screen (probably due to clipping some collider) and the a red overlay appearning which never really disappeared. Overall, well done!
You're not alone! It's a very difficult game I've heard from other commenters and experienced firsthand despite being the developer. I'm glad you enjoyed it nevertheless, and thank you for your kind words. <3
This must be one of the nicest comments I've ever gotten on a game. Thank you for your kind words, it warms my heart. And I'm glad you noticed the itch page; I spent some time styling that with a bit of CSS magic.
Thank you! Click the + icon next to the Scale text in the main menu for scaling up the grid. If you’ve completed a run you must click Restart to have these controls appear and the grid reshuffle.
What a coincidence! It's really cool to have an expert in the field play my physics game, and even more so that you enjoyed it! I couldn't resist adding that last three body system xD.
The last level is quite the challenge indeed. I myself, have gotten a stability around 0.9, and I definitely believe it's possible with further tweaking, though I haven't gotten to that yet... You can find a tiny preview of an attempt sent to me, with the setup it's built upon, in the game page description. It's definitely very finicky. However, the initial velocities aren't actually 0, they're, respectively: (1.0; 0.0), (-0.7, +0.7), (+0.7, -0.7). I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed the game!
Hey thanks for the feedback! I got a suspicion of what might be going wrong with the improper level progression, and after trying it out, it seems that you can select invisible planets in the main menu, effectively skipping otherwise required levels to reach that one. So that's an unfortunate bug - sorry about that one! I believe the same thing is going on with your progression not being stored... More feedback and polish is definitely needed too, for sure. I'm happy to hear you liked the game nonetheless!
I suppose I'm obligated to respond with an email of my own now xD.
Thanks for the thorough review & feedback! It's always nice to see people go out of their way to help someone improve.
As for the physics, it's a standard classical mechanics (newtonian physics) simulation. Basically, all objects (with mass) pull other objects with a certain force determined by the mass of the objects and the distance between them: F = (G * m1 * m2) / r^2. It was quite interesting to develop, seeing as it is pretty close to how gravity in our own Universe functions.
As for the level design issue, I totally agree. Solutions to levels should build on a breakthrough - learning something new about how the game functions - not pixel-perfect precision. It's sort of the same problem when you combine a platformer with a puzzler. It doesn't quite work out well.
On the topic of a tutorial, improved difficulty scaling and polish, these are definitely things that could turn this, as it is now, experimental project into a game. I definitely want to continue building off this project, and give thought to how to turn this physics simulation into a game.
I'm glad you liked the idea, and it's very inspiring to hear that you think there's great potential. Thanks again!
