I hate this game because it's difficult and unforgiving. I love this game because it works.
The game tries to get you to achieve the perfect run. When you complete an imperfect run, you know it wasn't good enough and you know you can do better. So all there is to do is go again until you are good enough.
The cruel wise guru was our inner voice all along.
I couldn't complete a perfect run btw :')
A huge quality of life improvement would be a reset button though.
A fun, simple game with great art. I really appreciated the right click/shift click setting. Circling the mouse is a fun concept, but ends up tiring out your arm.
The concept is there, but I think it could have been executed better. The game was a bit frustrating to play. There's no indication of which belt is selected or which box you're about to move. Communicating that to the player seems important for a game like this since it seems like successfully completing puzzles depends on timing and control. I felt the music stopping and starting in the way that it did could potentially make me go insane.
Good job on the game! It did feel satisfying using my gained knowledge of previous runs to inform future runs. If the game was fleshed out more, I think it could be improved if there was more of that feeling. It may require each iteration adding a new game mechanic.
Very creative take on the theme, well polished, and well executed. Excited to see how this concept could be expanded on and what synergies you guys could come up with.
It seems to be an iteration on a deck builder. My one critique of the game is that with deck builders, you know you'll eventually draw the card you need, or use the cards in your hand and adapt it to the situation. With this game, you can keep hitting the same unneeded rune over and over again because it doesn't go into a discard pile or something. I feel like I didn't have as much control over which rune I was hitting. Maybe it was a timing/skill issue.
For a story driven game like this, I wish it didn't reveal so much in the description. I think if the reveal was done during the game, rather than the description, it could have had a greater effect on the player. But I get that you need to give potential players a reason to play your game. It's a great concept, and a really creative, relatable take on the loop theme. I think the advantage games have over other forms of entertainment is "story through gameplay" which you touched on when dishes for 2 people started appearing. I think that could have been expanded on. Like maybe the player starts washing baby bottles, or other dishes that show the player where the couple is at in their relationship, rather than tell.
The game reminds me of Picture Perfect, one of the winners from the 2024 gmtk game jam. I think that game worked really well because the player pieced together the story themselves, rather than the story being told to them through diary entries. That's a lot of words to say: show, don't tell.
Hope you don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy the game!
An interesting concept. I would have liked for it to be expanded on further. There's not much to do once you feel like you've spawned the most balls you could have. It also seems like the game should have kept track of the player's high score.
I agree with @bakasillysk. It was frustrating killing myself with my own magic ball, and also stopped once I got to the shooting downward at the sand level.
Some of the levels were satisfying to solve, particularly when you see your clone going through the level and you get that "aha" moment. So I think it succeeded as a puzzle game in that regard
The way to beat this game seems to be a matter of patience and precision, and less about skill. I could beat the levels if I went slow and methodical, which is totally valid. It doesn't seem to reward the player for beating the level within a time limit, for example.
I like the concept, and the puzzles were engaging. The music component of the game didn't have any gameplay mechanics though. The game would mechanically be the same without the music.
It's impressive that you were able to make a Factorio clone. Even though I've played Factorio and really enjoyed it, I had a hard time understanding this game. I couldn't get the components connected properly so I couldn't progress very far.
