Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(+1)

I went in a square and left as so much more!

I really liked this game. It's unique and was satisfying to play. I had fun working out how to acquire the shapes (especially the last few), and using them to move along walls was really appealing in an old childhood-playing-Tangrams kind of way—also the morphing animation was satisfying especially when it happened that there was a flow of one shape to the next without needing to reposition.

It's funny to me, the control-scheme feels like one a vim programmer would come up with ^_^. I thought it worked pretty well, though I did keep finding myself wanting to switch to the arrows for the placement step instead of continuing to hit the same shape number.

I kind of agree with Cormorant that the visuals were the weakest part of the game. I wasn't bothered by them, but if there was a place to improve, that would be where I would start.

This is one of the few entries where I actually wish there a little more to explore. So many metroidvania's suffer from lots of filler rooms and areas that either just get you from one place to another, or are just there to make the experience feel vast. I love that every tile in this game is necessary and serves a part of the puzzle, I would definitely have played more without getting bored!

Overall, a stand-out experience. Great job!

You're right about vim, though I tried to avoid keys having different uses in different modes. Earlier I did have transformations positioned with arrow keys, but I found it frustrating switching between that and general movement. There's a tension, the primary mechanic, in that two different shapes can never really be in the same place -- just overlapping to varying degrees -- so the "movement" of choosing the transformation target can't always start in a neutral position so that placing the new shape feels the same as bulk movement. This doesn't seem to be a problem for red zone movement, even though the physics are considerably different, I suppose because you're still directly moving an object (the head of the line).

But yeah, weakest part of the controls is still shape selection. Thank you for playing, and for your thoughtful comment!

Ah, that makes sense. The red-zone movement still goes in the direction you press from the position of the head, but, right, the transformation positions don't map easily that way, sometimes jumping diagonally or whatnot. It's almost more like a gallery of position options would be a better way for the player to think about it. I wonder, if you went back to arrows for positioning, if it would help to have left/right indicators appear when choosing the position. It could provide a signal to the player to context switch from direct control of the piece to something more like "scrolling" through the options.

(1 edit)

Starting with up/down might work, since it isn't used in bulk movement, and most of the time you need a transformation to extend your vertical reach. The "no neutral position" issue might be reduced if the transformation starts at some half step position according to common center of mass, rather than maximally overlapping or most recently used, so that there's nearly always least one arrow involved in choosing the position; something to try.

Another scheme: You might choose a block (with arrows) and then use the arrow to draw the new shape from there (similar to red zone), eliminating the need to look back to the catalog to pick a number. Seems more natural, but likely too many keystrokes, and going from choosing a starting point to drawing is awkward. (Edit: This would be nice for touchscreens!)

You probably wouldn't have to worry too much about which is the starting position option with either the up/down or left/right, so long as you wrap the scroll like you already do with the current scheme. I like your up/down thought and reasoning, btw.

The alt scheme you proposed also has the benefit of allowing a player to play single-handed and would map to a controller well.

I will say that I didn't mind the quick select of the number keys. It actually felt pretty natural until I was going to 7 and 8. Two keyboard rows (e.g., 1234 and QWER) might be a nice option if you kept that scheme.