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Match Free's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #106 | 4.324 | 4.324 |
| Overall | #305 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Enjoyment | #404 | 3.811 | 3.811 |
| Presentation | #906 | 3.865 | 3.865 |
Ranked from 37 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?
You play as a creature trapped inside a Match 3 puzzle board. Rather than making matches yourself, you must avoid them.
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
Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?
No
We used pre-existing audio
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Comments
This is definitely the most interesting take on the theme I've seen so far! Well done!
Really cool idea with nicely drawn art. Music, sounds and art matched well. Controls and gameplay were easy to understand. Nice work!
Feel free to hop into my game as well and share your thoughts and ratings if you have the time!
Really well executed concept! Functions similarly to the game it parodies but touches on a fundamentally different way to play. Very well designed! Found a glitch where if you die on turn 11, you still get the turn 12 win screen though. Amazing job!
Thank you for the praise and for finding that bug!
I like the concept, and it was executed well! I've seen one other game like this in the fam so far, but it took a more action-packed approach. I enjoyed having to read the board and guess the adversary's next move! However, sticking to the walls/corners of the board made it much easier to win (I don't know how you would solve that problem with a fixed-size board, though). Some added particles and sounds would make the action more tense. I think this game has potential post-jam!
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the feedback. It is consistent with what others have said, so it seems like I have some work to do. Be sure to look out for a post-jam update!
well done!
Thanks so much for playing!
This is such a smart idea! I really like the concept and the theme is really working well.
I love the mobile game "Two-Dots", it's basically the opposite of that. Well-done, my friend!
Thanks so much! I appreciate it!
Gosh is this hard! Usually I'm not that bad at match 3 games, but here, there's something playin' with my brain haha I die all the time!
Good job, good idea which fits the theme, good execution, overall: really tasty! Bravo!
Thank you so much! Yeah, it is a bit tricky when you are not the one making the matches!
Nice to see another game that reversed the match-3 genre! We were considering making ours more puzzle based like this one, but opted instead for a more arcade style game - but it’s nice to see that both approaches can be equally fun!!
Had a good time with this one, adding in the power ups for the player is a cool idea :) I did find that hiding in the corners and occasionally teleporting to the other side was the best strategy, but it’s tricky to think of ideas to force the player out of the corners.. maybe if you could only get mana if you were closer to a match? Or you lost mana if you were in a corner?
Out of curiosity, what’s your AI’s algorithm for figuring out which pieces to swap? Is it random or is it trying to get the optimal swap?
Awesome work on this!!
Eyy, another match 3! I definitely have to give yours a try.
Yeah, that does seem to be the best strategy, and the mana system does a little to counter this (you get more manna when there are more of the same color orbs around you), but it needs more. I like the losing mana idea and am considering it for the future.
Currently it's a simple brute-force method. It checks all possible matches (it even checks for gravity to see if there are combos) and scores them based a number of factors:
- If the player is in the match or next to it
- How close the player is to the match
- How many orbs the match contains
Right now, it just chooses the best scoring match, which for this jam led to the most interesting gameplay, but this could be tweaked to make differing difficulty levels in the future.
Thanks for the great ideas and feedback!
Really cool game. I like the mana and ability system and I think with a few more abilities and refining could make it even better. For adjusting the difficulty, maybe you could adjust how many different colors there were (fewer colors would create more possible matches and more difficulty, while more colors would create fewer possible matches and a lower difficulty).
Thanks for the suggestions! For the difficulty, this is something I noticed as well. I actually needed to add an extra color early on, because it was really difficult at first with all the possible matches. I agree some tuning and more abilities will make it so much better! I wanted to add the normal match 3 power-ups (directional bombs, etc.) but ran out of time.
Interesting, you have to think outside the box, well done!
Thanks for playing!
It was pretty interesting! Had to think for this game and the art is really cute and simple. Great job!
Thanks!
Quite hard but in a fun way. Awesome :D
Thanks for playing! Yeah it was a hard game to tune the difficulty of. I definitely want to update it further so I will keep this in mind!
Very clever and cute minimalist design ! Great job !
Thank you!
Fun game, unlike anything I've played before. Favourite color at the end is a nice touch :D
Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed it.
Maybe a bit too easy, and corners possibly too good, but I really really liked this! Fun concept
Thanks for playing, I am glad you had fun! Yeah, I will definitely need to learn how games like Candy Crush handle the fact that the corners are the hardest to make matches in.
I had fun playing this! I quickly went to the board's borders and was biding my time til the turns run out, stepping back and forth. Abilities are a fun concept, but I barely needed to use them, as there was no threat to lose, really. Looking at other comments (with people finding it too hard), maybe some settings of difficulty (even two: easy/hard) would improve the game.
Thanks so much for the feedback! Yeah, difficulty was something I wanted to give options for but quickly ran out of time. I wanted to incentivize less boring play by adding the mana system (you gain more mana by being around more of the same color), but I think it needs more still. Maybe in a full release!
Cute and well-made! I think I got boxed in pretty quickly (though I'm not a match 3 player really). You could let the monster spend mana to see more rows up than the computer player can see to give an edge too.
Thanks for the feedback! I really like your idea, and it was something I considered before running out of time.
Really clever idea! Satisfyingly challenging and very cute
Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed it!
Wow the game is really good. Amazing job!
Thank you!
oh wow, this is incredibly creative, very entertaining, and also looks and sounds great! awesome job!!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate this.