Infernal Machine by Cake_Catastrophe

[raw]
made by Cake_Catastrophe for LD29 (COMPO)
Beneath the city, the gears of an infernal machine grind on, pushing progress ever forward!

Infernal Machine is a match-5 puzzle game, where the aim is to score as many points as possible, constructing a city in the process.

Only had about 10 hours to work on this game jam, so I decided to do something quite straight-forward. I've never done any sort of match-x game before, and I had the idea for the cog aesthetic, with a city-building element playing out as a visualization of your progress, so I decided to give it a go.

In the end I had to cut the city element down to just one type of building and a bonus for completing each building due to time restraints - originally I had different types that would grow more of less with different colors of match-ups and grant a variety of bonuses.

Not completely happy with how the visual for the gears turn out. In my head I wanted it to look more like a machine of interlocking gears that move as you slide them around, but I found that practically I'm not skilled enough as an artist to make that happen without getting visually confusing. In the end I had to make the gears stand out by using garish gum-ball like colors.

I'd be interested to hear about what people think of the matching mechanics. There are so many games like this out there, that i'm sure one with these mechanics has to exist already, but i've never seen one. It is always possible to get a line, but the trick is to do so in the minimum number of moves. The screen wraps around, so gears that slide off the right side of the screen wrap round to the left. You can earn more moves by completing the buildings that grow when you match a gear underneath it, which adds another element to consider.

My highest score is 240.

Feedback

Hyoga-3D
28. Apr 2014 · 16:05 UTC
I'm not very fan of this type of game but liked it.
VictoryGarden
02. May 2014 · 04:51 UTC
I always wondered if a tetris attack game that allowed you to flip both vertically and horizontally was possible, but in this case it takes away all the challenge and leaves things feeling a bit dull. The interpretation of the theme was novel and I like your image of the city, whose simplicity. I would have felt better if the goal was to light the buildings within a certain amount of time or something like that, creating an interactivity with image and gameplay--rather than simply trying to minimize the number of moves relative to the points earned, which is a tall order for a game with no loss or completion condition.
gettothechapel
03. May 2014 · 00:08 UTC
i thought the idea was pretty interesting, however you could have made the buildings a little more visible. i only noticed them after i ran out of turns and looked at my score. but other than that it is a nice puzzle game that sort od reminded me of bejeweld
Moosefly
03. May 2014 · 00:19 UTC
Had to play this after seeing the name! Looks like I beat you though, got a score of 260 on my second try :P. Really nice what you managed to do in such a short time. Nice waste of a few minutes... And a few more :P.

Anssi@MooseflyGames
mrexcessive
03. May 2014 · 19:48 UTC
Hi, I interesting idea. I think there isn't enough positive feedback to player when you make a match. Sounds would also help.
VictorDoval
03. May 2014 · 22:58 UTC
Well done, I think it could get really adicctive :)
PaperBlurt
12. May 2014 · 14:37 UTC
Puzzle games are always welcome in LD!
Good job...