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Contradicting Constructs's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #285 | 4.300 | 4.300 |
| Overall | #494 | 3.867 | 3.867 |
| Enjoyment | #895 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Creativity | #903 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
Ranked from 50 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?
Constructs are given roles that are opposites of eachother
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
Really cool game, I love the graphics and the ideas are fun!
Really great graphics and the gameplay is simple but efficient !
Looks sick and is very interesting, too hard for my small brain though
5/5 Amazing job :)
Great art and puzzle concept. Could use a little more hints concerning the characters and the roles. I found it hard to remember which guy does what when playing. Could have been solved by making them look different with each role. So heavy and light could be fatter/thinner, brain/brawn could be head/sholder size etc.
I'd also suggest an indication of which one is active. Too often when I stopped to think a while did I come back having forgotten which was active, and imediately run into spikes or something.
A Braid-like time-rewind would be welcome too. I know that's a big ask for the strict time constraints of a games jam. I feel like the puzzle challenge should be figuring out how, not actually performing it with the semi-awkward controls.
I do like the unique interpretation of the theme. I think making the role assignments makes this a very unique game.
In summary, great stuff! Massive achievement in a super-limited time span.
Thanks for the detailed review!
I thought about having the role icons on the bottom of the screen be above their heads, but thought it would get too distracting / visually cluttered. I had also thought about the idea of making them wear different things / look different depending on their role but it seemed a bit out of scope due to the time restraints.
I'll have a look again to inform which is active, currently I just have one you swapped to do a little grow animation, but I know there are better options.
What puzzles did you find to be hard to preform? Obviously I can't really know which ones are hard to preform, since I got used to the movement by making it.
Any of the non-trivial puzzles were quite hard for me. Especially as any minor mistakes would usually lead to restarting the level. The puzzles are small enough that I don't mind losing the progress. I think my issue was more about the brain-load I had to carry due to the game not keeping me informed about who I was controlling and what their assigned roles were, while keeping the solution in mind too...
I've built games a bit like this in the past. One you may have heard of is Home Sheep Home, which became super popular. You'd be in control of three of Aardman's famous sheep characters, all with different sizes and characteristics/abilities. They were fixed though, and the puzzles were one screen with no scrolling. They could all do roughly the same things so the controls were common between them all. I set three ways to select which sheep you controlled at any time - you could press 1, 2, 3 to switch directly to individual characteristics, or you could press another key to cycle through them, or you could click on them with the mouse. There was a small arrow over the one that was selected, and they'd make a bhaaa noise and play a little "I'm alert" animation when they became active. All that stuff was aimed at reducing brain load, to free up players' mental resources to solve puzzles. It must have worked, because the stats I saw last said half a billion people had played it!
You make a really good point about knowing your game well because you were the one creating it. This is why playtesting with other people is so important (and really hard to do in a 48 hour jam). Watching other people play your game is a unique and often humbling experience! You find yourself thinking "why can't they see that obvious thing that you put in there to help them pass this specific point in the level?" etc. The answer is that things that are obvious to you the designer, aren't obvious to others who aren't as close to the project as you. When you release a game, you are the best player in the world at that game! You know intimately what everything is for, all the nuances of the levels, all the clever little touches you added etc. New players take time to build up that knowledge, and it's a steep hill to keep people interested in playing long enough to get there.
Wow! Thanks for the mountain of feedback!
I will definitely look into more of the visual aspects to help with managing the things the player needs to remember within a post-jam update. I'm thinking highlighting the construct you are currently using, and other things like that. I can also try to have a few more levels between the ones with longer / more complicated solutions (akin to the first 2 levels) so they can get more used to the mechanics.
Very cool, and sick art, having the ability to show the level before assigning roles would be a big help, if you are looking to expand the concept.
I definitely agree! I was trying to get a good balance of screen transparency on the role selection screen so that you could see the level, but your attention was still on the role select. Since having it be too transparent would make it feel like you were playing the level. Someone suggested having a button to hide the role selection which I think could be the solution.
The puzzles are well-designed, and the pixel art is very clean and cohesive. The difficulty curve is also very good.
In level 5, if you push the box directly into the pit, it won't trigger the button, even though it seems to stay on it. I eventually figured out the intended solution. However, a visual aid showing why this wouldn't work would be helpful - perhaps the pit could be made wider, so it's clear that pushing the box down directly won't allow it to stay on the button.
Still, it's one of the most polished games I've played so far in this game jam.
Yep, I found this out when watching a steamer play my game.
The button actually does work normally the first time, but the problem arises when you reset a level when something on top of the button. I guess I somehow forgot to make the button fully reset on a level restart. The work around for now would be to exit to the level screen and then reload it, which is annoying.
Bro, this is literally the direct meaning of the theme, but I like it very much! Interesting gameplay, arts and cool music! I just love this, dude! Great work!
Really nice game , very interesting puzzles and design choices. One bug I found is in level 3.3, the door only opens, when you push the block into the pit and does not always work, when it's standing on the shutter dropping down on the lever.
Yep, I found this issue while watching a streamer play the game.
The puzzle should play correctly on the first run, but if you restart the level with something pressing the button it'll break. Work around for now is to exit to the level select and reload it.
my favorite so far
I really enjoyed the game. Everything looks cool from the art, music and idea.
epic puzzles, really like the art
Cute little guys jumping and crouching!! Simple idea yet so cool and clever
The pixel art is great and the concept makes for interesting puzzles!
Great game! Love the art and music. As others have suggested, being able to preview the level would help us to assign the roles. In puzzle games, I like to plan ahead and be proud of myself for a one-off execution.
Otherwise, I love it!
Great art, and idea
I really liked this game, great visuals, sound, animation and puzzles
One thing I would like to change somehow - at the start of the level we need to set roles, but I cannot see the level itself
Cool and unique little puzzle game.
Loved the squash and stretch animations and the sound effects were spot on.
Good Job!
Very cool. Adding multiple roles to consider when assigning roles adds a nice strategic element. There are some very good puzzles in this. Great Job!
This would make a great multiplayer game! I really like the art, very cute little characters and nice level decorations. I liked how you had to sequence things correctly in the levels, moving the characters one after the other. Glad I played!