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Line Bender's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #34 | 4.374 | 4.374 |
| Overall | #416 | 3.766 | 3.766 |
| Fun | #705 | 3.466 | 3.466 |
| Presentation | #1189 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
Ranked from 131 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?
Segments are joined together and rotated to solve puzzles. The idea of rotating joined circles is inspired by one of Fourier's contributions to mathematics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sGWTCMz2k&t=6s
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
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Comments
This was a challenging but fun puzzle game with great visuals, smooth animations for the poles, and clever level setups. I appreciated little touches like being able to adjust your swings before the animation has fully played out so you can adapt new ideas quickly. Cool and original idea that I enjoyed a lot!
By the way, we played your game on our stream tonight!
That is awesome, thanks for playing Line Bender on your stream! I'm checking out your full stream right now -- it looks like a very well done stream!
Also, thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the little details!
A full version of Line Bender is now on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/line-bender/id1598044203
Interesting and fun puzzle design. Very nice.
You made me think about math on a weekend, my mother would be proud. This is very polished and my brain hurts, it's an incredible submission. Great job!
Thank you for sharing the kinds words! :)
A full version of Line Bender is now on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/line-bender/id1598044203
I went "WOW" several times when I found a solution, so I guess this is a VERY good submission. :D
Amazing game overall!
Well done!
Awesome, I'm happy to hear that :)
A very original concept, and quite educational too! I liked the early challenges. I'm stumped however on level 6 - it seems I have tried all coprime number combinations, including negative, up to 7. What's the solution? Puzzle games stop being fun when you cannot predict it anymore and start to just randomly try out things...
Wait, I just got it, by just randomly trying more numbers. And they weren't even coprime. What happened, how can that be a solution? Is it a bug? Hm... EDIT: The next levels are actually fun puzzles again - just omit level 6 and you're good. ;-)
Nice haha I'm glad it all worked out.
And Level 6 surprised me the most -- I though there would only be 1 solution, but I've seen a couple people discover different solutions :)
Hi,
I am releasing my Catan inspired deck-building tower defense game to steam soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2939570/Tower_Knight/
It is not similar to Line Bender, but you might like it :)
Never would've guessed there's going to be a game using Fourier series. Awesome!
Neat little game, I like how you combined that with obstacles to create puzzles. The presentation is very clean letting me focus on figuring out the puzzles.
Congrats on submitting!
I appreciate the kind words!
Very satisfying to watch it swing around :D awesome idea for sure! I think this would be a super popular mobile game, just add a bunch of game juice and upgrade skins~
Hi,
I am releasing my Catan inspired deck-building tower defense game to steam soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2939570/Tower_Knight/
It is not similar to Line Bender, but you might like it :)
Super awesome! I'll wishlist it for sure~ Keep it up!
Thank you!!
Ah, a nice brain teaser. Good work!
One of my favourite entries, I really enjoy just playing around with it until I magically get to a solution!
Awesome, thank you for the kind words.
I'm happy you enjoyed Line Bender!
Yeah! After playing a lot of the same games I really liked how unique this was and it was hilarious how things moved around at times.
I'm so happy to hear that.
I'm torn between making the game more clear and easier to solve, but I also love hearing when players enjoy watching their configurations run -- especially when they call it magical!
Thanks :)
A full version of Line Bender is now on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/line-bender/id1598044203 -- I used your comment for the subtitle "Magically mechanical puzzles"!
Great game! This is a very creative concept. I enjoyed playing the levels very much.
Awesome, and thank you :)
Cool idea. Unfortunately, you can't really see the patterns until the ball starts making that streak. If you just added that streak to the end of each segment, so the player can see the shapes they're making, it would all make sense. For now it's more toy than puzzle, but it's a novel one.
Thanks for sharing your feedback, I think the idea of adding the streak to each segment is interesting, and it may have some potential. My only concern is that the screen might get too crowded -- but it might also work very well. I'll keep this idea in mind going forward.
I'm not certain I understand what you mean by saying it is more of a toy than a puzzle, but I think get it. By saying it is more of a toy, do you mean it is less about thinking to try and solve the puzzle and more about pushing buttons and seeing what the "toy" does? (Consider using more well defined words when giving feedback, that way the reader doesn't risk a misinterpretation!)
I noticed that those who are able to problem solve their way through the puzzles (with not toooo much trial and error) picked up on some form of these 2 ideas. If you're interested in the 2 ideas then read below, and if not then no worries! I really do appreciate your feedback.
The 2 key ideas (Semi Spoiler-Alert below)
These aren't the only ways to interpret the puzzles, I've seen some people surprise me with their own way of breaking things down. Ideally, the mechanics of it all are enjoyable enough for a player to have fun even if they don't exactly know what they're doing.
I hope this breakdown was helpful :)
That's exactly what I meant, yes. The player just changes the inputs and watches what happens, but there's a specific desired outcome and the connection between the two is obscured. Maybe I'm just not that smart, but I could use help (from the game) making that connection.
The two key ideas you present were immediately obvious, but the inherent imprecision of guessing the various angles and distances between objects means there is still going to be a lot of trial and error, which goes against the very precise nature of the puzzles themselves. The arms follow a very specific, clean pattern but the player must "guess and check" out of a finite and discrete but rather large possibility space because that pattern is hard to follow, especially at higher speeds.
It seems like you could go one of two ways. You could make it less precise, more messy, and more silly. Or, you could give the player tools to make better decisions within your very. The first way is simple and could be pretty fun. Turn the integer inputs into a dial or something else imprecise and with continuous values. Maybe even add noise or other interactions, like bouncing off of obstacles. Maybe let the player build the arm in whatever configuration they want.
The second would be more appropriate for what I think was your intention. You can give the player (optional) tools, like streaks on all arms to help visualize, or maybe a polar grid for reference, or maybe the option to scale the speed or scale it automatically. Again, these can be optional to remove clutter, but they give the player better information. As it is now, the player only really feels the difference between "fast" and "slow" or CW and CCW, but they have to give that feeling a number somehow. How do I choose between, say, 1:3:5 and 1:5:7?
Of course, if trial-and-error is the goal, you could just shrink the possibility space. Or, add more in-between levels that teach these differences before testing the player on harder levels. Or some combination of all of these, or none of them.
Good job regardless. There's definitely potential here, if you do keep working on it after the jam or reuse the idea in other games. Sorry if this is more feedback than you were hoping for, but I promise I mean well.
No need to say sorry, this is great feedback, and I really appreciate the thought and energy you are putting into helping me improve this game.
There is a lot for me to think about based on what your comments. You're right about the second approach, I don't want the game to get too silly. So the question now is: how do I help the player from feeling like the solution is too obscure.
I think reducing the possibility space is a great start. I also like the idea of optional streaks for all of the segments.
You're feedback has been very helpful, and I appreciate it very much!
Hi,
I am releasing my Catan inspired deck-building tower defense game to steam soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2939570/Tower_Knight/
It is not similar to Line Bender, but you might like it :)
Haha I feel sometimes I am not sure if I am solving the levels the way you intended, but I make it look awesome by giving them -9, -7 and -6 speeds! Really nice idea for the Jam and very original, I had a lot of fun playing this one, good job!
Nice, I'm glad you're having fun! And there is no 1-intended way to solve a level, some levels have solutions that I don't even know about :)
super nice puzzle game. I liked this double pendulum like mechanic. After the 2nd joint, its very hard to foresight the results before trying. Its more like a frequency calculation game. I guess the solutions can be calculated but my math failed :) After some point I passed the levels with some random tries and tweaks. Perfectly matches with the game jam theme. Well, done!
Nice, I'm glad you made it to the end! I think it is really hard to use math to solve it all at once. In my opinion, the best approach is to use a bit of tries and tweaks based on the intuition that gets built. I think you nailed it :)
If you're interested in a breakdown of how I interpret the mechanic, check out the comment I left in reply to the user phlp a few comments above yours.
A full version of Line Bender is now on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/line-bender/id1598044203
Amazing idea. I loved watching the circles draw.
Great concept, amazing execution! It's always interesting to create games around cool mathematical stuffs that's rarely taught to normal people (e.g. Conway's Game of Life). The game itself is very polished and used very minimum UI. It did take me a while to understand what the numbers are, but the early stages and the quick retry system made it infinitely less frustrating. Adding trail to the ball is very cool and helped me see the changes the movement.
Great job on the jam!
Awesome, and thanks for sharing your feedback!
A full version of Line Bender is now on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/line-bender/id1598044203
Hi,
I am releasing my Catan inspired deck-building tower defense game to steam soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2939570/Tower_Knight/
It is not similar to Line Bender, but you might like it :)
It's very confusing, but once you see some patterns in the numbers, you can start to solve the puzzles and it's very satisfying. Nice work.
As soon as Fourier was mentioned, I knew this was going to be clever, and I wasn't disappointed. Very simple concept, but enchantingly executed, creating a distinct and cerebral little puzzler. It would be exciting to see if this concept could be developed further! Perhaps having blocks to try and hit with the ball as a bonus objective, and being able to increase the number of segments to allow you to perform more complex transforms. I loved it none-the-less.
Wow thanks for sharing the kind words! Those are great ideas you mentioned, I will keep them in mind for a future release.
It is so simple but so cool! Good work! :)
Great game, Stokatyan! This is an excellent idea and executed really well too. The trails make it super easy to understand. It took me a little while to get the mechanic, but once I did I had a lot of fun trying to solve these puzzles. Great work
Very fun and very satisfying to watch !