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PIXTILES's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #453 | 4.039 | 4.039 |
| Overall | #999 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Style | #1316 | 3.725 | 3.725 |
| Enjoyment | #1803 | 3.235 | 3.235 |
Ranked from 51 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?
Individual game tiles are scaled down to an analog for pixel art
Development Time
96 hours
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See in-game credits for full credits
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Comments
This is great! Took me a bit to get my head around how the counting worked, but once the idea clicked and I had a few common strategies I really enjoyed it. Nice work!
Thanks so much for playing :D Really appreciate it!
Very creative idea! I don't really play Minesweeper, so the puzzle was quite hard for me. But I still managed to finish one and failed another with two tiles swapped. Great game!
Thanks so much for playing! Yeah, I think there are at least a couple puzzles where there could be two solutions, so I'll have to rework the logic for the update. Appreciate your thoughtful comment :D
I'm not smart enough for this lol! I got a few!
I mean if you got a few of them, it sounds like you're smart enough! Thanks for playing :D
I like this idea a lot! I think there's some good potential for a nice deductive process like a Picross. Folks have already said that the random-picking isn't ideal, so I think you're settled on that. I wonder if it would benefit from having each level seeded in some way, so you don't need to completely randomly guess placements in order to get started.
The bouncing pixel critters are really cute, too :]
That's a pretty good idea honestly, like sudoku, start with a tile that is 'known' - that could also give you a difficulty curve too. Easier: more things filled. Nice. Thanks! :D
I really enjoyed this! It scratches the minesweeper/picross itch and I was sucked into it
Thanks for playing :D
Cool take on minesweeper. I don't have the brain power however to solve them. I just about managed to get the tree haha. One thing I will say is that it thre me off that some slots could read 9, and that kind of tipped me off to why my initial attempts were wrong. Really great art and fun brain teaser, will play more for sure!
Yeah, I think that's the biggest twist for people - 9's where minesweeper only has 8's - cause its also telling you about the square you're on. I don't think there'd be another way to pull off multiple colors. Thanks so much for playing and I really appreciate the wonderful comment :D
Congrats on submitting your game!
The idea for this game is SO COOL. I really enjoyed the core concept of melding picross and minesweeper. And the animals are super cute. I could see this being a really chill mobile game.
But it needs more time in the oven. I found it super frustrating to play. Maybe this is the hardmode, but a more fuller release gives you more feedback about things being in the right position. I solved my first puzzle, a tree, fairly easily. But subsequent puzzles were too hard to "check my work" before thinking I finished. Evaluating all the numbers became really easy to get lost in. I think the sprites dancing contributed to this difficulty. The music not being adjustable (I had to mute my tab) and the rapid sprites made it really hard to focus on.
Not being able to select which animal to place was also really frustrating, especially when undoing a move with the intent to place it elsewhere. The game felt a lot better once I was down to one animal color and could focus on that, but if I undid the other type(s), then I'd have to randomly deal with that one popping up while I was working on a flow for the other color.
And not being able to select a level was also very frustrating, but that might have been more because it was so difficult to tell why I was incorrect when I didn't fail a level. I took a screenshot of one of my failed puzzles and it still takes a lot of concentration and focus to figure out why the highlighted squares were wrong. It's often not clear.
All of this feedback is to say, I LOVED your game and I would love to see it refined. With a smoother play experience, this would be an instant ad to my phone for those quick moments of downtime throughout the day. Excellent work, keep making games!
Wow. Thanks for the incredible feedback. I absolutely appreciate it. I'm gonna reply to all your points!
For sure it needs more time. 4 days was barely enough, but I'm super excited about everyone's responses and I'm coming around to the idea of making this my next project. So this information is critical.
As far as the random selection, you're completely right - if I had time I would have switched the inputs, but it was getting down to the wire. The random selection was pass 1, by the time I had the minesweeper mechanic down I realized just picking the one you want would be much simpler and easier.
As for the puzzle example you gave, that's the kind of thing I could only shake out with playtesting, and probably some fancy algorithm to verify one solution for each puzzle. Of course I'd also like to have difficulty ramps. Start with less colors and fewer tiles, etc.
QOL things like volume, making the animals chill, all good suggestions, all totally would be in an options screen.
So thanks so much for all this info. I'm cataloguing it and its real likely I'll be digging into a full release after the jam :D
Glad I could help! Good luck in the jam :)
I really like to concept of this game, it's like minesweeper and picross, two games I also really like. I tried so hard to get the knack of the puzzle but unfortunately it didn't click with me. I think that with a tutorial and a visual guide I would get it straight away and play it for hours, because this kind of game is right up my alley. I tried different strategies like going from the corners or finding 9's, but nothing seemed to work. In this puzzle, for example, how should I know I got all the brown tiles in the right place? I think I'd also like the ability to choose which tile I'm placing, rather than getting a random one. Please keep going with this game, I really like it a lot!
Ah thanks so much for your feedback! You're right - the banana puzzle is unfair. Good catch. In a more extensive playtest and development cycle that kind of thing would be sussed out, but your screenshot explains it perfectly. As for the random picks, I agree with you - it started out as a different game and I didn't have a time to change to the selection, but I would have. It makes more sense given the way you play to have the player just pick which one they want to place. I def would add a tutorial and a guide, and slowly ramp difficulty. I'm encouraged to try to develop this into a full game. Thanks so much again! :D
The style is great, but it's just not my type of game. I didn't play past the first level because it seemed tedious.
Appreciate your taking the time to check it out! Cheers!
So cute!! It has a real elegance and does so much with so little. I don't think I've ever beaten a game of minesweeper in my entire life so haven't internalized the logic, but the animal theme sexes things up a lot. I'm gonna play it again later and hopefully do less bad than I think I did in the first attempt.
Bearing in mind I don't fully understand minesweeper rules so I have no idea how actionable this suggestion is, but having feedback on animals as soon as they're "solved" would be juicy, flavourful and give more instant feedback on whether I'm actually playing properly. There's a game called Dorfromantik that feels oddly reminiscent of this that has lovely "PERFECT" text that appears when you surround a tile optimally.
This is really a personal preference thing - although I LOVE the sprites I generally prefer brighter colour palettes.
Also, a smaller/easier first level would help the dumbasses (like myself) get a nice easy win to test they understand the rules before dedicating more time to completing a big one, only to discover they didn't quite understand the goal (in particular, I didn't realise I needed to solve EVERY animal to not lose).
Appreciate the thoughtful feedback!
I originally started with immediate feedback that you got the placement right, before I went with the minesweeper mechanic, but I think the minesweeper one solves quite a few design issues. I kinda like the way you have to be *sure* you've got this right before you fill it out. I do completely agree with making it have a difficulty curve. On the pallete, it's classic NES. I value your opinion and I'm gonna take that back if I dig into the design further. Thanks again sir :D
Surprisingly challenging, but mistakes are okay and I like that. I had fun figuring out how to draw some things with this approach! This is a really relaxing experience and I like the simple idea giving some wild depth.
Thanks so much for the kind words :D
Incredible how such a simple game can be so fun and difficult. The art is refreshing and the gameplay is great!
Wow I love hearing this. Thanks tremendously for playing :D
I love how much you can do with so little. People spend years and years crafting expensive, bloated games that aren't nearly as addicting as ones you create on your own over a weekend. :)
Man, this is such incredibly high praise. I dunno what to say in response I mean jeez thanks so much Amit :D
A creative twist. I don't really like minesweeper but someone else that does will probably like this game a lot
Thanks for playing :D
Unreasonably fun, I just spent the last 30+ minutes making a bunch of images out of lil dancing figures.
My only feedback is I wish that there was a way to see the correct image if you failed it, but that might spoil replay-ability so idk.
Regardless, really fun
Thanks for the super kind words! I can see both sides of that suggestion, something to consider for sure! Appreciate it :D
You should keep updating it and adding new puzzles! I feel like with some tinkering and polishing you could get some early wordle energy going
Very cute art. I feel there could be a better tutorial/instructions, but it was fun enough. laughed at the sfx when you click on an animal you already clicked on
Thanks! If I had more time I absolutely would have spent it working on detailed instructions. Glad you enjoyed it :)
This was very interesting, I did enjoy the concept but I struggled to understand the full logic. Very intersting game and I would play it again.
Thanks for playin :) I think the puzzle might throw someone off at first cause minesweeper counts everything around the space, but not the space, but with multiple colors, you need the extra bit. If there's something else that didn't make sense I'd be interested to know what it is. Thanks again :D
Yes that was definitely something I had to keep remiding myself of. I went back and played it again and I really enjoyed it. Once it clicks t is very fun but it definitely takes a little bit to remember how the logic works and what the rules are for it
Awesome, I'm glad it clicked for you! Thanks so much for the feedback :D
Neat take on minesweeper. Only issue I had was that the numbers began running together for when I had a lot of animals down and it was hard to keep track of. Otherwise it was a neat time. Good job!
Thanks so much :)
Such a creative game! Like artistic minesweeper. Great concept, and fun execution. Excellent work!
Thanks so much for playing :D