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Marimbla's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #366 | 4.112 | 4.112 |
| Enjoyment | #371 | 3.688 | 3.688 |
| Overall | #546 | 3.675 | 3.675 |
| Creativity | #1752 | 3.225 | 3.225 |
Ranked from 80 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?
Marimbla is a puzzle game where you roll a 6-sided die across tiles to reach the winning space, where the result of the die determines the distance of your next move (while listening to relaxing, reactive music).
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?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the music during the game jam
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Comments
Yours is only the second game I've seen that projects what your dice will land on if you roll, for that alone you get a lot of points! Well done on executing the idea really well
The Audio is amazing, its so satisfying to hear the little dings each roll, seeing what number you will get is an amazing addition it helps so much, the idea is so overused in this jam though(not that anyone knew), its one of the better puzzle games out of the 20 or so i saw/played
The sound-design works really well! It's satisfying to hear, and creates a nice ambient soundtrack.
Some aspect of the puzzle are pretty well designed. Notably I like the fact that you can see on which face the dice will land at the end of a movement. It allows to predict a bit what the possibilities will be. Unfortunately, that doesn't prevent some level to feel too complex. While I was able to reach the end, most of the solutions were found by cheer luck, there wasn't many "ha-ha" moment or solution that seemed elegant. Sometime the level-design can be a bit misleading, with element that actually are not part of the solution, but just here to add more complexity to the level.
That being said, the game is still enjoyable. Each level felt distinct from one another, and are short enough to allow to reach the end of the game without frustration. Overall it provides a soothing experience. Good job!
Loved the sound effects and the design, the "ghost" dice to indicate where I would go is also very helpful. I think the roll the dice to location is a pretty common theme on this jam, but I like this one better than the others. It made the dice rolling a lot more logical, the map designs are also well made. Congrats on finishing the jam !
Just finished the game! I have several observations to make.
You may not realize this when designing the levels, but if you crafted them by first thinking of a winning path and then putting the ‘decoy’ (= all the other tiles and walls), then it is way/exponentially more complex for someone to figure out a solution out of the indiscriminate global level. I am not saying this is what happened here, but you could probably shed light on what your thought process was!
I have only tested a handful of puzzle games from this game jam so far, four out of which were die-roll-based (the last one was a variation on Sokoban), and I must say they are all different enough from each other, with strengths and weaknesses. On the level design side, I feel mindDie was the most compelling (and I am saying this while my own game is one of the four, so no bias or string-pulling, here XD).
(For the record, the games I know are DOS, mindDie, your Marimbla just here, and mine. The Sokoban one — which is nice — is plainly titled Sokoban, by Koce.)
I think yours may take the cake for ergonomic design (both the ghost projections, the sound indications/design, and the mouse controls); on the other hand, it has less mechanics and visual identity, may be less intuitive to solve (see some possible reasons above in my own experience), and has less levels — which is not necessarily a problem, as I think the games here can be seen as prototypes which mainly demonstrate a concept. ;)
I have not seen enough games already to say if your main mechanic stands out as original or not (please tell me, people! We need a state of the art for puzzle games from GMTK 2022!), but it is different from those of the games I mentioned. So, I am happy. :)
A little question: why is the title Marimbla? I get the ‘marimba’ reference, but not the ‘bla’. I may be missing something simple, do not scold me. X)
Perfectly summed up my thoughts. I also finished the game and felt guilty with the semi-brute force methods I used just because it wasn't obvious to me if there was some overall strategy to keep in mind or rules to help you find your way there.
Cool concept and puzzles! The sound was very cool as well... Excellent work!
Awesome ! I see that I'm not the only one who misunderstood the role of dices faces, needs a more clear explanations here ! No other minus point, really good puzzle game.
So I do like this mechanic because it does manage to distinguish itself from a lot of the other tile-based cube rolling games, and I do especially like that you've got these ghost dice to show where you'd end up with how may pips on the next roll too. But even with all of that, it still feels more like you're fiddling around and trying different stuff until you win, rather than puzzling your way out and using your brain to solve the puzzles. But I'm not sure if that's something that you can even fix -- it's just how the concept is, really.
Anyway, another element I appreciated was the marimba sound that had as many notes as tiles that you rolled.
Thanks! In addition to the marimba tone quantity correlating with the dice face quantity, I assigned each side of the dice faces a note in the C major scale that starts on G (G, A, B, C, D, E). This scale is nice cause it remains in the "cozy" feeling of C while also avoiding the fourth note, F. The F, to me, sort of feels like the "tension" note which, if played too much, pulls you out of the drone feeling that's sustained throughout the game. I sometimes hit the F in the harmonic background to give it slight momentum without distracting the player from the main dice marimba tones. Avoiding F is also fun because the 4 on the dice is a bad number to land on because, without walls, you're stuck in a loop and have nowhere to go.
One of my favorites of the dice puzzles! Really clean and well executed, nice job!
At first I didn't realize what does the cube faces have to do, but after I realized... I have to say I love the take on the cube rolling puzzle game.
I've also made a cube rolling puzzle game, I'd be glad if you'd check it out.
Nice spin on the theme, luckily this game stood out from all the other puzzle games where you had to match the dice face. Good job on the SFX! It was really relaxing to play this game.
I expected another match the sides, but I was pleasently surprised. It was original and really fun to play. Also outstanding presentation. Well done.
Nice job with this, nothing to complain about xD, the visuals look really nice and clean, the gameplay works really well, the puzzles are nicely thought out and the audio works really well - the combination of the ambient background with the simple SFX works well.
Overall really good job with this one, had a lot of fun playing :)
Great puzzle game! I really enjoyed the concept and the sound design matched so well it really added to the experience. I think this could definitely be expanded into a full release, thanks for sharing!
5-5-5. This game has everything I expect from a jam submission: Simple but original, enough content to show off the concept and a healthy amount of polish. I praise you for your scope management!
There are lots of ways you can expand on this concept, and these kind of games tend to thrive on mobile platforms so I would highly suggest to keep working on this game!
This is a great game! It looks minimalistic and clean, and has a fairly simple concept that is easy to understand but hard to master. I especially love the move preview as well as it helps minimalize any counting mistakes players might make.
I've seen quite a few games like this. I think this one does especially well is that the puzzles don't seem super obvious, and it shows which face the die will have after it's done rolling. That second point is extremely important because it's not always obvious what face should be up after rolling.
Cool game and nice graphics! Just a bit difficult.
This is another very well crafted dice turn puzzle game. This was one of the more challenging ones to figure, which is a good thing. its always a good sign when you sit at you computer scratching you head trying to come up with a solution. I would suggest playing with a mouse for sure. Clicking on the dice is far more effective than using that arrow keys due to the 45 degree angle of the play field.
This was tons of fun and the presentation was great! The music fit the game nicely and I loved the art also. Great Job!