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Drop Down Block to water Puzzle's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #16 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Fun | #19 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
| Overall | #22 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
| Visuals(Graphics) | #23 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Sound/Audio | #23 | 1.250 | 1.250 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Developer Feedback Questions
If there is no description or tutorial for this game, is it intuitive how to play it?
What can be done to make the game more understandable?
starting topic where there have already been discussions and feedbacks: https://itch.io/t/3774856/micro-game-experimental-logic-can-play-this-without-description-or-tutorial-
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Comments
I really didn’t understand this game. Even after reading the instructions, I couldn’t understand what I was supposed to do or how to “win.” I wasn’t sure what the different colors meant or why different blocks could have the same number AND different colors.
I don't really understand the game. I would definitely need a tutorial of some kind to understand it. The grammatical errors in the instructions make it very difficult to understand.
Thanks for playing and feedback,
"The grammatical errors in the instructions"
Tell me more specifically (in which sentence), if you have time, where to correct grammatical errors?
For example, the sentence "Items need sets equal colors min 3 to horizontal line".
"Items need sets" and then "equal colors". The first part is already a complete sentence, so it doesn't make sense for the second part to be there. Do you mean "Items need sets of equal colors"? Then what does "min 3 to horizontal line" mean? It doesn't make sense at all.
Then the next sentence: "Equal color blocks near by vertical and horizontal will clear". You have "Equal color blocks near ____ will clear", in the blank should be a noun phrase, and "by vertical and horizontal" is not a noun phrase.
It's not immediately understandable how you should play, but after trial and error I kind of got the hang of it. what I understood was that you can only get points when making horizontal lines and if there are vertical lines next to them, they disappear too, and you get more points. There is a number on the left that increases, and you cannot fully drop blocks with a number equal or lower than said number, to make them fully fall you have to drop more blocks onto of them. There's like a gray area that goes up, but I didn't understand what made it go up nor what it was for, I think it was for stopping the block from falling. I got a message saying that I lost, but I was not sure why I lost because I barely have blocks below, and I thought I was doing well. For the record, I played 4 times and my record was 690, I think.
Maybe some music can make it more intuitive, because certain song effects are used to indicated that you did something right nor wrong. I liked the game tho, I will play more in the future.
You correctly recognized the rules of the game, which makes me happy because adding indicators to the game was useful.
What may have happened is that sometimes a light block, when clearing blocks, can come off and float up sharply, colliding with a dropped block. And this can cause the game to be lost.
I need to think about sounds.
Nice game. I liked the drop down system, where the choice of drop column also affects the next number to drop.
I thing the core matching mechanic can be figured out with some trial and error. But I had some difficulty understanding what the floating was about. It seems to affect only the 1's, as far as I could tell. And I couldn't tell when the floating bar would rise, etc.
Regarding making it more understandable, I'm not sure of any other way in the game itself; some tutorial may help though, especially for the floating.
Well done overall!
Thanks for playing and feedback. Hmm, you probably didn’t wait until the streak of water reached the very top of the glass, then maybe it would have become more clear what the water was doing.
I’ve been thinking about the lessons for some time now, there are three options for implementation complexity: 1) game bot, 2) scripted bot, 3) animated gif picture 4) static picture
oh wow what a clever little tetris like experience ...
not gonna lie, I did not read the description and went directly to the game ... felt confused for 5mins, when I figured it out I genuinely felt I had solved a puzzle (seeing a screen full of numbers does feel like a puzzle already) and was hooked then .... I do not know if you implemented an idea that already exists but it was new and clever for me very much so ....
so regarding the question about making it more understandable .... if you make the first few blocks fall as if it was a cutscene, then match the numbers in the floor, I am sure 95% of players will already understand there is something to do with colors, and some math happening with the numbers, the ones that would like this type of game will already feel hooked for sure.
Thanks for playing and great detailed review!
oh yes, it would be good to insert auto play before the game. But this will be difficult to implement. To do this, I need to write a gaming bot that can analyze the playing field and make the right moves. But showing the game for an unusual type of game may be the only right way.
Or maybe the first level is always the same so you can make it scripted, its like a kinda of a tutorial. After seeing that, the other ones can be random. That or you can record some tutorial explanations and have it in the bottom in a very discrete "see tutorials" button
yes, or maybe make a lobby menu and launch a game or a playing bot in the background for demonstration like in old slot machine games