Ice sliding puzzle game

[nik3daz]

Hello all,

I've made a pretty difficult puzzle game out of the classic ice-sliding type puzzles we all know and love (a la Pokemon's Ice Cave).

http://www.kongregate.com/games/nik3daz/slide

This is my first attempt at making a game and any feedback is appreciated; please rate it and share it with anyone you think would be interested.

I'm also happy to talk about the dev process if anyone's interested.

Thanks

 

[Esotera]

Very nice, it's simple and has no frills and just gets down to the actual puzzles. Are you planning on adding anything else? What is this written in?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Old concept but you put together a very solid game, and in the later levels it is balls hard.
Now that you have this done you could make some improvements on the UI:
- that mana thing is pretty silly and confusing, just display how many blocks you can put down
- also it would be nice if that number of blocks could somehow be displayed closer to the action, maybe right in the background
- removing blocks would also be a neat feature because resetting the board is such a clunky option, obviously that would allow for some cheating with the current setup, but I'm sure there is a way
- and if you could just drag the boxes with your mouse instead of using 9 keyboard keys plus the mouse that would be quite swell, because this just isn't a game for dexterity so you might as well make it comfy to play

Otherwise the additions you made to the basic concept work extremely well together and bring a whole new side to it, honestly if you pasted in some sprited and put this on mobile devices you could probably make a few bucks off it.

 

[Bad Jim]

I am a winnar!

Well that was fun.

My suggestion: draw a visible grid so it's easier to figure out what lines up with what.

BTW level 13 can be beaten without placing any blocks.

 

[ResonanceSD]

I'm at work, so I'll check this out on my break. However, Kudos for making a game! All I do is discuss them! =D

 

[him over there]

It was a fun little game, however I have some complaints about the interface. The meter for the blocks that can be placed down needs dividers so you can tell exactly how many you have, I had some trouble with miscounting them in later levels. Also everything should be much closer to the actual gameplay because I kept having to look away to see my blocks. Plus a grid wouldn't go amiss. Other than that I loved the visuals and it was pretty fun, being able to place blocks added an element to this I hadn't encountered before.

 

[nik3daz]

Good day/night all,

Thanks so much for all the feedback! It's utterly frustrating how few suggestions are actually dropped in the Kongregate comments.

Are you planning on adding anything else? What is this written in?

Not any levels, I'm just about to add a scoreboard for moves per level. It's written in HTML5/javascript on top of the kineticjs library because I didn't want to have to pick up flash. All in all it was a pretty fun and quick project whipped up over my exam period =P

I am a winnar!
My suggestion: draw a visible grid so it's easier to figure out what lines up with what.

BTW level 13 can be beaten without placing any blocks.

The meter for the blocks that can be placed down needs dividers so you can tell exactly how many you have

I'll add a number next to the bar? I'm not sure how good a single number that just flicks to the next value would look and it was easier to fade out blocks of a bar. I'll experiment.

A couple of the levels are a little broken haha. My friends were getting tired of level testing and most of them are early on so I'll probably just let it.... slide. YEAAAAAAAA

- also it would be nice if that number of blocks could somehow be displayed closer to the action, maybe right in the background
- removing blocks would also be a neat feature because resetting the board is such a clunky option, obviously that would allow for some cheating with the current setup, but I'm sure there is a way
- and if you could just drag the boxes with your mouse instead of using 9 keyboard keys plus the mouse that would be quite swell, because this just isn't a game for dexterity so you might as well make it comfy to play

Hmm. Displaying the number in the background might work, I'll try it out. Removing blocks was an idea I had but golly level design gets hard when you add more features (would have been good for another levelset though). I'll try to get mouse controls working over the next day or two.

EDIT: Some simple mouse controls added. Any thoughts?

 

[Smooth Operator]

EDIT: Some simple mouse controls added. Any thoughts?

Oh you work fast mate, certainly gives more options now but it's kind of a clunky system and later on it clashes with wall building.
Can the scripts support a click&drag system (mouse down selects box, drag in direction, mouse up moves box)?

 

[nik3daz]

Yeah, I tried that too, but it felt really awkward having to drag for every movement =\ Both ways, chasing after the block with the mouse feels terrible. I was considering a clickable dpad for both players, but there isn't really anywhere to fit such a thing... Extending the game window would leave a lot of it empty. Dunno man.

I should really make clear in-game that the original intention was for the left hand to use wasd and tfgh while the right hand uses the mouse, maybe switching to wasd and arrow keys for spinning the 2 players around a lot.

 

[Bad Jim]

Some simple mouse controls added. Any thoughts?

Bad. When I try to place walls I often move instead. Pretty annoying when you're trying to minimise the number of moves.

Maybe you should make the clickable area for moving two squares away instead of adjacent.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yeah, I tried that too, but it felt really awkward having to drag for every movement =\ Both ways, chasing after the block with the mouse feels terrible. I was considering a clickable dpad for both players, but there isn't really anywhere to fit such a thing... Extending the game window would leave a lot of it empty. Dunno man.

OK chasing that little square could get pretty tedious but I think the dragging would be fine, how about you make it so on mouse down it selects the nearest block(pink or blue) and as you drag it draws an arrow where the selected block will go?
That way you don't haveto chase them just click in their general location and have an active representation of what will happen when you release.

Oh and I forgot about those message boxes, they should really be replaced with a floating window on top so they don't hinder the gameplay.

 

[nik3daz]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

All of this sounds great but it's a bit of work to implement. I'm probably going to focus on my next project in lieu of making these modifications. It's good to know these things though and I'll definitely be keeping all this in mind.

Thanks again for the excellent feedback, it's really surprisingly hard to find.