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CIPHER's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic | #55 | 3.348 | 3.909 |
| Gameplay | #58 | 3.114 | 3.636 |
| Technical | #89 | 2.803 | 3.273 |
| Overall | #97 | 2.647 | 3.091 |
| Design | #124 | 2.258 | 2.636 |
| Theme | #144 | 1.713 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Really fun once I finally figured out how to play, managed to get 40 points 馃挭. I found the music a good pick and the clicky sounds really nice, and just really liked the overall presentation. The unclear tutorial was a pretty significant barrier and I nearly did give up, but I鈥檓 glad I didn鈥檛!
If there are others that can鈥檛 figure this one out, here鈥檚 some instructions:
How to play (Spoilers?)
The shape in a tile is roughly the shape you'll be "drawing" on the keyboard using the QWAS keys. You need to press the keys in order quite quickly for it to register eg.- = Q, W or A, S
| = Q, A or W, S
Z = Q, E, A , S
O = Q, A, S, W
etc
Realy nice concept,
once I understood the mecanism I started to realy enjoy it !
But the 4 paterns at once is maybe a little too hard for me (not managed to do more than 6 ...)
If you plan to continue it, maybe a good way to manage progression curve is to starts with 2 paterns at once, then 3, 4 and more. another way may be to give a little more time to enter the codes.
Anyway a great game, super polished, realy juicy, good job !
Interesting game! Had some difficulty at first, but I got the concept after a while. It's just a tiny bit too hectic for me.
I almost gave up, but I persisted and ended up having a lot of fun.
Thanks for playing! I'm happy to hear that you persevered in learning the mechanics and had a great time. There'll be an update available once the jam ends, and I hope you'll give it a try. Who knows, it might be more fun!
It took me a dozen attempts to figure the game out but once it clicked... I love it so much omg so hectic and simple at the same time. You might want a clearer tutorial but this approach really made me feel like I actually cracked a code when I figured it out so it was all the more satisfying. This is positively a gem, thank you a lot for making my day!
Also, it's very well polished, like release-ready mobile game tier, but without the annoying ads...
Hey there! I made the tutorial intentionally vague for that specific reason in mind, a sense of eureka when you finally understand the patterns, and wasn't sure if I made it too vague that only I could play it — glad to hear otherwise. I'll keep that in mind for the future, whether it's for an update or a new game.
I appreciate the compliments especially regarding the quality of the game — makes all the time creating the game as a new hobby game dev more worth it. Thanks for checking!
It's far from "too vague" but I'm not sure the special first game works because the least you get it the sooner you die and the least time you benefit from that slower pace to think... I don't know how to fix it, maybe make it replayable at will like a gamemode would be an easy fix, maybe there is a tricky balance trick to reverse that tendency... on the UX side to me the game is two details away from perfection:
- Since it's so esthetically pleasing and rythmically engaging I wish you could restart from a keypress to keep the flow alive from game to game rather than have to grab the mouse, and maybe have the game start with a faster pace when you do so because you are already warmed up from the previous game, with maybe a safety net to prevent missing the score screen when you beat the local highscore...
- There are keys perfectly aligned like the numpad keys on some keyboards, I wish i could use those, the best option would be to be able to map inputs however you want but I don't know how easy it is to do that with Godot, I'm completely new to it...
Implementing a key to restart is an excellent suggestion, and I'll definitely add it to my to-do list for the update. As for using the numpad as controls, I don't have a numpad so I'm not sure how to implement that — I'll think about it. I appreciate your feedback and comment. Thank you once again!
I found this... inscrutable? Is that intentional?
It is also arbitrarily challenging to hold down multiple keys at once in the right order, if that's the mechanic?
Hey there! You don't need to hold the keys needed to create the pattern — you can press the buttons one by one. The thing is that you have create the pattern in more or less half a second, depending on the buttons pressed, as seen through the horizontal bar below the control grid (small 2x2 boxes). It supposed to mimic the mechanic of touchscreen swiping, the horizontal bar going empty symbolizes that you are done creating the pattern.
I hope this clears up any confusing parts and I encourage you to give it another try. Thanks for checking!