Mondrian by Kyle Bolton

made by Kyle Bolton for LD26 (COMPO)

Mondrian is a physics-based game inspired largely by Piet Mondrian's De Stijl paintings. The player is tasked with navigating a ball through nine levels.

Controls:
Click and drag to rotate the environment.
ESC to quit the game (only in standalone executables).

Tips:
In hindsight I realize that the controls for this game are rather unwieldy. If you want more control, I'd recommend trying to move the mouse only left and right or up and down, and not diagonally. Also, being aware of when to release the mouse button is crucial. It's not that you're playing it wrong, it's that I scripted it wrong!

Notice:
I'm not entirely sure the OSX build will work on all Macs. If you experience issues, please let me know.

Other:
The typeface used in this project is Quicksand, and is licensed under the SIL Open Font License. This license is viewable inside the source folder, and can be found at LD48_26 > Assets > GUI > Quicksand > OFL.txt

Windows	http://kylejbolton.com/portfolio/ld48_26/windows.zip
OS/X	http://kylejbolton.com/portfolio/ld48_26/mac.zip
Web	http://kylejbolton.com/portfolio/ld48_26/mondrian.html
Source	http://kylejbolton.com/portfolio/ld48_26/source.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=21520

Ratings

Coolness	61%	3
Overall	3.23	491

Audio	2.33	772
Fun	3.09	458
Graphics	2.94	623
Humor	2.21	567
Innovation	3.49	268
Mood	3.12	376
Theme	4.06	121

Feedback

dualtagh

29. Apr 2013 · 11:44 UTC

Pretty interesting idea, it could be nice mobile game!

tonic

29. Apr 2013 · 15:53 UTC

Controls could be refined a bit more. But the game has very interesting design, and I like how the yellow blocks changed the game.

iiechapman

29. Apr 2013 · 16:01 UTC

This is one of the best takes on the Mondrian art, kudos man very fun, when I was playing I felt like if you could make the mouse cursor disappear when you click and hold it would create a stronger link between the player and the control of the world. Otherwise this game is fantastic, thank you!

🎤 Kyle Bolton

29. Apr 2013 · 16:15 UTC

@dualtagh Thanks! I agree, but I haven't worked with mobile platforms yet...porting this might be a good way to dip my feet in.

@toinic Thanks for the feedback! Any specific recommendations for control refinement?

@iiechapman Thanks for the suggestion!

Merkoth

29. Apr 2013 · 16:19 UTC

Great idea and great execution. Love the minimalistic artstyle. Nice job!

gameXcore

29. Apr 2013 · 16:19 UTC

Looks like we made the same game! Almost, I went with keyboard controls over mouse dragging.

ananasblau

29. Apr 2013 · 16:20 UTC

keyboard controls would be great, or refining as tonic says. but it's an interesting puzzler, well done.

cadin

29. Apr 2013 · 16:21 UTC

Neat idea! The controls are really difficult, and don't feel quite right to me, but the game has a lot of potential.
Good job!

Ludipe

29. Apr 2013 · 16:24 UTC

Nice game, as said before it'd be great for touch devices. I just wish I could invert the controls.

pereubu

29. Apr 2013 · 16:43 UTC

I was afraid too many people uses mondrian for their game, but what i played here is a nice concept. It is a great idea using the colors this way, nice job on the game design.

On the other hand, even if the art is inspired by Mondrian, it's very hard to catch its aesthetic. Becasue of this, the game looks a bit empty but i understand how hard it can be to combinate level design and art.

Great job overall :D

🎤 Kyle Bolton

29. Apr 2013 · 16:54 UTC

@ananasblau: I originally set out to avoid using keyboard input, as I wanted a "one-button" input scheme that matched with the minimalist theme. In hindsight, I probably should have been more prepared to deviate from the theme, because I didn't take into account people that only had a trackpad or preferred using the keyboard. Thanks!

@Ludipe I originally planned to implement inverted controls, but decided to cut it and submit the game. Next time...

@pereubu Yeah, my biggest concern is that I'm reaching for a low hanging fruit with this. Thanks for the feedback!

tacograveyard

29. Apr 2013 · 16:57 UTC

Concept is good, gameplay is interesting, but the controls are an absolute bear. I had a really tough time rotating in the direction I wanted.

queader

30. Apr 2013 · 20:41 UTC

Wow! My favourite game here, so far! Mouse control is quite difficult, but it makes the game even more interesting :)

dook

30. Apr 2013 · 22:06 UTC

Pretty good! Some of the levels were tough, but it didn't feel unfair. The controls were a bit wonky though.

Aquatic Games

30. Apr 2013 · 22:07 UTC

Great game, maybe you could try keyboard controls instead of the mouse, might be a bit more healthier for the player's arm.

Pixelboy_85

30. Apr 2013 · 22:10 UTC

Really nice idea. Moving the mouse up and down on the left side worked best for me. Stepping Stones was hard, but I made it through :)

saampahlavan

30. Apr 2013 · 22:13 UTC

Probably my favorite game of Ludum Dare 26 so far. I want it on my phone!

Purplescape

01. May 2013 · 08:08 UTC

A simple, yet challenging physics-based puzzle game. The controls were a little difficult to work with, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed myself. Well done.

patrickward

01. May 2013 · 20:44 UTC

Nice take on the Mondrian style. I found it a bit hard to work with, especially on the second level, trying to get that ball to land right. But, I really l liked the concept. Fun game.

sharbelfs

02. May 2013 · 00:13 UTC

The ideais very good and as a minimalist game, it's beautiful.

fishbrain

02. May 2013 · 18:02 UTC

Very very nice! Unique - and challenging - physics and controls.

tankete

03. May 2013 · 07:47 UTC

Interesting game and idea. The controls were difficult, especially after the first couple easy levels. If those were fixed, would be cool!

Benjamin

04. May 2013 · 05:20 UTC

Good use of the mondrian design as a level. The drag & rotate is sometime annoying : If I go up to down it will rotate 3 times in the same direction then change, even if I'm a long distance from the center of the screen. There's also a good level design on this game, and a fair difficulty curve.

little_polygon

07. May 2013 · 04:57 UTC

Great mechanic. The relationship between the mouse-drag and the screen rotation was sometimes counterintuitive, though.

Nick Cash

12. May 2013 · 04:27 UTC

A very clever idea. Games which manage to be interesting with simple mechanics are uncommon.

ovenchips

14. May 2013 · 00:06 UTC

I liked this and played all the way to the end (took me 9 minutes). I thought it fitted the theme really nicely (I did a Mondrian based game too!). Difficulty and progression were well pitched. Locking spin speak to one axis would make things a little easier perhpas. Well done!