A thoughtful little snapshot. I thought the decision to have branching choices was interesting for a game where you're a defined character.
You're dropped in the middle of someone's life and are already making choices for them before getting to know anything about them. You only get fragments, and even then it's difficult to make an "informed" choice. Then there's non-choices, where the protagonist essentially takes over and defines themselves clearly.
It all contributed to an uncomfortable disconnect between the player and the protagonist, and that felt great! I was uncomfortable making choices for someone already struggling with their identity and relationships, so seeing them wrestle control away from me for a moment brought it together for me.
Nice work.
Giving the player an upgrade that changes how they interact with old rooms pairs so well with 'Foddian' level design, I'm surprised I haven't seen it before!
It changes how you play through old rooms, adds some skips that let you get back to where you fell faster, and even saves you from falling on occasion. All this without adding any new controls — seriously, well done.
What's here is charming, polished, and fun. I've never played a game like this before, but thanks to these design decisions I was compelled to beat it. Challenging but ultimately fair!
Short and sweet! I thought the level titles were actually a great way at hinting to the player, it helped a lot on some of the later levels. It's *just* difficult enough to make you feel smart, but never enough to the point of frustration.
If this is getting a full release, I think it's worth considering nonlinear level progression; giving the player multiple levels to tackle means they're more likely to try another instead of quitting entirely when they get stuck.
I also appreciate your restraint in seeing how far you could push designing levels with just 2 types of buttons, crates, and on/off doors. You wrung a lot of variety out of that! If I could add one new object, I think a tile that rotates the character would expand on the game's core idea of positioning and character manipulation.
Anyways, great work. Wishlisted!
Really solid, I like the creative way dice are used here. Combining movement with attack power is simple, intuitive, and elegant. It's a little bit of trial and error to learn enemy "HP" (Like, I thought the red devils could only be hit when your die is at 5, but they go down at 4, too), but that's a very minor thing -- the game's actual puzzles were very satisfying.
The ghosts were especially interesting enemies to face against; rooms that combined enemies with different movement patterns made the most of this system. Well done.
The way dice rolls were used here was quite creative, and it was interesting to have to take a more windy path in accordance w/ the shifting color ratios. On my first playthrough I lost despite having a finished route to the exit, since I'd technically run out of die...it was a little frustrating, but playing it again made me appreciate its design overall, so it worked out. Great work, y'all!
Once I got a handle on what block orientation = button activating, I had a great time playing through each puzzle! It never felt like trial and error, which many of these games tend to fail at for me. The re-painting mechanic was really clever, the player might not even notice that pushing down a button 'erases' that color from the block until the RYB gate puzzle, but it's great how quickly that information is capitalized on. Smart, thoughtful design.
Clear graphics, satisfying sound, overall short but sweet -- I know you apologize for the lack of levels in the last stage, but I still felt satisfied after playing! Great work.
I think it's interesting that the dice theme here = visualizing RNG for enemy attacks, something that would normally be kept hidden from the player. However, the player can't do much with this information beyond, "oh there'll be a difficult pattern at the end". If this project were to continue, I'd say give the player something that lets them take advantage of this extra info -- like a bullet shield that's only usable once per turn, so an observant player will conserve their shield for a 6/5 roll instead of a 2/3 roll.
I also found the instant game overs pretty disheartening, it made things a little too difficult for me -- though I know that may partially come from time constraints. That being said, I think it's a really unique idea with a lot of room to build on! You should be proud of what you made.
Really nice and calming puzzler. I like that you made the most out of your mechanics instead of just piling on new block types.
It's a minor annoyance that (even though its cute!) the :( face means you have to lift up the block to see how many you need for that line...it's the only thing I rubbed up against while playing, the rest of the game is a smooth and polished treat!
I know this was made a long ways back, but I really enjoyed this! I appreciate how the gameplay was eventually woven right into the story with the fruitless struggle to carry everything -- if this concept were to be expanded on, it'd be interesting to have story decisions dictated by which inventory pieces are chosen. Like, "this necklace has sentimental value, but I can't fit it in any more and have to move on."
Lots of very poignant metaphors about what we take from life and what we have to leave behind.
Adopting Slay the Spire's enemy turn indicators was a very smart decision; the game is full of great strategic moments thanks to it. However, this inventory management system is wholly unique -- I love the "adjacent" bonuses and tradeoffs: it's a different kind of 'strategy', but a nice break from battles.
I would love to see more kinds of unique item placement mechanics and interactions (like the energy-granting rings that can't touch anything, gems augmenting weapons on columns or rows, and the fish-sword that's powered up by fish) -- for example, a rat companion that will burrow into your backpack and eat your food and grow bigger the more it eats, but provide you with buffs during battle. Inventory slots could also be elementally charged; putting a regular arrow in a fire-charged slot could give it a damage boost, but burn up any wooden items placed inside.
The point is, there's a lot of good things here and so much room to expand on this concept. And I love the character designs! The merchant frog and main character are wonderfully charming.
Awesome work.
Very cool! Reminds me of all the best parts of Spelunky where you can use enemies and the environment to your advantage. There could be a lot of interesting puzzles that involve kiting monsters to a specific location in order to line them up in a Rube Goldberg-style machine. Plus, the idea of a character who's committed to pacifism in a dangerous fantasy world is an interesting one! I'd like to imagine they're also staunchly vegan, haha.
Very smart! I love that the healing rooms are one-way entries, forcing the player to plan their map around it. IMO, there should've been fewer rooms overall, so players would need to use all of their pieces in the final stretch. I never saw some of the hardest rooms because I didn't need to use them. But I loved this!
If you're going to expand on this game in the future, having certain areas have 'hazards' that effect the room tile placed there among other spatial puzzles (like rooms that can rotate with levers) could be really interesting. I think there's still a lot of potential here!
Very smart! I love that the healing rooms are one-way entries, forcing the player to plan their map around it. IMO, there should've been fewer rooms overall, so players would need to use all of their pieces in the final stretch. I never saw some of the hardest rooms because I didn't need to use them. But I loved this!
If you're going to expand on this game in the future, having certain areas have 'hazards' that effect the room tile placed there among other spatial puzzles (like rooms that can rotate with levers) could be really interesting. I think there's still a lot of potential here!
