The Minimal Machine by Andromatta

[raw]
made by Andromatta for LD26 (JAM)
My first completed game ever! Guide the seed into the pot with the available pieces.

made by:
Matt Starsoneck (@andromatta)

~POST COMPO VERSION 1.1 OUT NOW~
Hey so please play and rate the compo Web or Windows versions, and after you do that, check out the post compo versions! I overhauled the controls and took out the music cuz they both sucked. I'll eventually finish it with good music, more levels/art/water instead of a ball/etc. Thanks for the feedback y'all :)

CONTROLS:
WASD and mouse to move around (E and Q as well)
Hold shift to slow movement/rotation.
Click and stuff. physics make things happen.

4 Levels, and once you beat level 4 it flips back around to Level 1 so you can leave after that happens. I'd love to make more, but I spent most of this weekend being social for some reason, which is why this is a jam game.

The music was conceptualized and made in like 10 minutes using only a violin, so it's not very good.

The idea for the game came from the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, or action by inaction. Applied here, the seed's natural state is to fall, so the player has to guide it to it's destination.

Also The Incredible Machine.

[UPDATE 1.01]
Fixed a bug where selecting anything but a selectable object caused the game to freeze. Forgot to put in that one line of code that makes that not happen ;p


[UPDATE 1.1]
Fixed all the controls, took out the music, and fixed the graphical glitches. More updates to come!

Ratings

Coolness 63% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.04 301
Audio(Jam) 2.37 376
Fun(Jam) 2.46 419
Graphics(Jam) 3.64 167
Humor(Jam) 1.68 382
Innovation(Jam) 3.15 222
Mood(Jam) 2.85 294
Theme(Jam) 3.22 283

Feedback

mungoman1
03. May 2013 路 01:09 UTC
This is great! It's great idea, and yet so simple! The things I'd say to add are some sort of mouse damping and less repetitive music.
Julian Ceipek
03. May 2013 路 01:10 UTC
Nice graphical style and overall concept, but the music felt very repetitive and the manipulation interface was frustrating enough that I couldn't make it past the second level. I kept wanting to manipulate objects with the mouse and the control mapping worked against the Taoist theme because it was view-independent and unintuitive.
hamster_mk_4
03. May 2013 路 05:29 UTC
I was clicking on stuff but nothing was happening aside from the ball falling.
馃帳 Andromatta
03. May 2013 路 05:38 UTC
@hamster That bug has been fixed
@Julian Yeah I've got a new version now that fixes the awful controls :P. I'll post it as an addendum once I work out all the kinks.
Monxcleyr Productions
03. May 2013 路 05:45 UTC
Great concept. The controls were a source of frustration for me, and so I wasn't able to get as far as I'd like. The basic design has a lot of promise though, and I imagine the player would eventually have to create complex Rube Goldberg-like machines in order to progress. The visuals were appropriately clean, and the music was decent (although repetitive).
MinionStudios
03. May 2013 路 18:52 UTC
This is great! A huge accomplishment in that short amount of time!
little_polygon
05. May 2013 路 01:09 UTC
Great use of Unity's tools :)
TinyDrakkarStudio
05. May 2013 路 17:21 UTC
The music is repetitiv... the idea is fun ... you must develop your idea and soluce your bugs... and the game will be best :)
daniel2357
05. May 2013 路 17:37 UTC
Nice game. good concept.
tikilittle
05. May 2013 路 18:13 UTC
I really like the look of the game. The music as well was too repetitive for me. I also felt like if I moved, the control scheme to move objects should be relative to me. For example, if I rotate 90潞 to the set up, W,A,S,D should now be relative to my current rotation. I know that makes things a lot more complicated, but that's just how I was feeling.
oatsbarley
05. May 2013 路 18:25 UTC
Lovely graphics and a cool idea. The style of it all is very nice. The music and controls get in the way, though. Awesome entry!
boboKat
06. May 2013 路 16:18 UTC
minimal and mesmerizing! The music might be more zen if it was slower and more ambient. Possibly long resounding echoing bells or something similar.
avidgamerNino
11. May 2013 路 05:08 UTC
I love the idea of this game, I just got really frusrated with the controls, there has just got to be an easier way to do it. Maybe just lock the position of the player so he can't move so there is not so many options to move the direction of the object.
dick_claus
11. May 2013 路 05:23 UTC
Pretty solid.
foyosoft
11. May 2013 路 18:03 UTC
The controls were frustrating, but I liked the idea of the game.
Xanjos
11. May 2013 路 18:22 UTC
Controls were quite confusing but the concept is pretty good and the puzzles are well thought out.
kedume
17. May 2013 路 21:51 UTC
The dificulty of the game is based on using the controls. I think it should be more easy to control, it don't have good usability.
Nonameghost
19. May 2013 路 05:05 UTC
Wonderful. Got used to the controls pretty easily. Loved the style!
mrexcessive
19. May 2013 路 07:12 UTC
Managed to complete lv 4 using only 3 bowls... after some judicious positioning of 3rd bowl. No sound web Chrome/W7.
Infin8
19. May 2013 路 08:18 UTC
Played the web post compo. Clicked. Nothing happened.
KEFIR
19. May 2013 路 09:32 UTC
Wow! If this is really your first game ever then this is the best first game I ever see :)
Exclamation Mark
19. May 2013 路 11:22 UTC
Nice! Making controls for basically 3d, 6 axis manipulation is a *very* difficult task, so you shouldn't feel bad about yourself for not making in perfect.The clever folks at google barely made it usable in SketchUp, and I'm pretty sure they had more than 48h to do so :D Adding a story to the controls might have helped ease the frustration - like, for example, the keys control flying drunken dwarfs that move around the objects, or some magnets or something. Something that is between the player and the manipulated object, so that you can blame IT instead of the game controls. Than again, that would collide with the minimalism theme. Good entry nonetheless!
Spiridios
19. May 2013 路 16:34 UTC
As you already know the controls need some work. It would be nice if the game detected that the ball hit the floor or stopped moving so you didn't have to manually hit "R", but that might be personal preference (maybe someone wants to use the floor as part of their setup). I liked the music, even if it was a bit repetitive. Some sound effects for the ball striking things would be nice. I certainly like the base concept though, so keep working on it.