DropPix by AtkinsSJ

[raw]
made by AtkinsSJ for LD26 (JAM)
Your goal is to copy a black and white pixel image. The trouble is, you can only fire pixels in from the edges. Build the image up, without accidentally cutting yourself off.

The download is a JAR file, so it should run on any desktop systems with Java installed... theoretically. :P

It should run on Android too, but I'm too tired to sort that out right now. ;)

Ratings

Coolness 41% 1503
Overall(Jam) 3.04 301
Fun(Jam) 3.00 236
Graphics(Jam) 2.41 480
Innovation(Jam) 3.04 253
Theme(Jam) 3.62 154

Feedback

UltimateWalrus
29. Apr 2013 路 21:31 UTC
Nice, solid puzzle mechanic. It was a bit too easy for me though. Perhaps having another mechanic, like breakable blocks, could have made for more challenging puzzles.
arrogant.gamer
30. Apr 2013 路 01:53 UTC
When I looked at the rules I thought "oh this will be neat!" But the challenge just wasn't there. The 3 level (where you write an S) contained the game play elements that would have made this better,
馃帳 AtkinsSJ
30. Apr 2013 路 10:02 UTC
Thatnks, UltimateWalrus and arrogant.gamer. I'm glad you like the mechanic. :D

I was disappointed with the puzzles myself. I found them really difficult to come-up with, and only had about half an hour in which to do so. It was going to have a level editor so you could share new puzzles, but I wasted time on some code I didn't need and didn't get that done. So, overall, I managed my time poorly.
john_conder9
02. May 2013 路 15:29 UTC
Well done! Some of the buttons along the top were hard to click on but minor issue. I would agree that this could have used some more puzzle mechanics, but, overall it was nice and fun, I really enjoyed myself!

I felt like levels 4 and 5 did a good job of ramping up the difficulty, but once you figure out the mechanic it's not too hard to solve them. I really enjoyed level 3 with the two blue blocks, since it had me over-thinking the problem - clever!

I think with some more mechanics this is something I would find myself wasting a lot of otherwise productive time on, great job!
馃帳 AtkinsSJ
02. May 2013 路 15:49 UTC
john_conder9: Thank you very much! I noticed myself that the top buttons are unresponsive, but I didn't manage to find what caused that.
Pabo
02. May 2013 路 15:52 UTC
A solid entry. One simple game mechanic, as the "Minimalism" theme suggests, dictates the whole game. I like puzzle games for exactly that reason, and actually believe that it's more difficult to come up with a solid puzzle game than with some already established video game genre.
The game plays well, it's all wonderfully clear. No spectacular graphics or sound, but this isn't needed anyway. Except from one minor glitch (I sometimes had to move the frame a little to make a button clickable again), the game ran very good and responsive.
What I believe your game lacks are puzzles - the supplied puzzles aren't as challenging as your gameplay idea could allow for. Should you wish to continue developing it, you'll have plenty of time to come up with great puzzles (I guess LD really is too short for these things).
Or maybe you could add a puzzle generator. I don't know how easy it is, but it might work with the following two rules:
1: Shoot tile adjacent to another tile.
2: Prefer a "shooter" that places the tile so that it creates empty space between itself and another tile.
It's the empty space between tiles that makes the game difficult, as it restricts plain stacking. This was evident in your last stages, with especially the last one being rather entertaining to solve.
All in all, a solid, focused and quite polished entry, that already offers everything it needs to improve itself with a few more maps.
PhaZ90771
02. May 2013 路 16:04 UTC
Pretty cool concept. I'd like to see this expanded upon. I feel like how the pixels are dropped is a bit unintuitive until you try it out. Also, the buttons on the sides of the board didn't work sometimes.
StMatn
02. May 2013 路 20:39 UTC
Nice puzzler! I think a time-trial mode would have been great, but the relaxing feel of it is good as well. I had fun playing it :)
ashdnazg
03. May 2013 路 17:34 UTC
I thought it was a bit trivial until level 5, and then it became quite interesting!
Good job :)
mikeware
04. May 2013 路 14:43 UTC
Good puzzle game, though the buttons wouldn't always respond to my clicks. Would have been nice to see a few more levels as it was only starting to get a bit challenging near the end.
EggDestroyer
13. May 2013 路 18:14 UTC
Fun and clear. :)
swizzcheez
14. May 2013 路 17:37 UTC
Nice little block puzzler. Buttons across the top seemed hard to click though.