You are the Minimalist by pighead10

[raw]
made by pighead10 for LD26 (COMPO)
UPDATE::
Player size has been halved to allow for more precision. This makes the generation of the white path look a little glitchy but at least it's more playable now.

BUGS::
-Sometimes the red bullet will not rebound/kill something. Restart if this happens.
-Around 40% of the time, level 5 will bug in this way (it is far less frequent on other levels), along with a different bug. If you are sure you have the solution, check the playthrough to see if you are right.

YOU NEED TO KNOW::

SQUARES (all equal sides) and LINES (1 width or 1 height) are created into 1 chunk each. Therefore a long 1x1 line will be one chunk, but a long 2x1 line will be converted into lots of 2x2 square chunks!

DON'T RESIZE THE WINDOW, your aiming will be out.

===

In You are the Minimalist, you must complete the objective - walking to the green cube. However, you must do this in the most minimalistic way possible, as you generate squares behind you whenever you move and they are converted into 'chunks' - the more chunks, the less minimal.

5 levels only (but if you complete them all I will be impressed). If you complete the 5th one, the "next level" screen will hang.

Controls ingame. Escape to close.

==

@pighead10

Ratings

Coolness 62% 3
Overall 3.14 584
Audio 2.47 690
Fun 2.61 898
Graphics 2.56 934
Innovation 4.03 45
Mood 2.59 852
Theme 4.06 121

Feedback

badlogic
29. Apr 2013 路 16:17 UTC
The link doesn't work, 404's for me :/
Arkazon
29. Apr 2013 路 16:25 UTC
Very nice idea but it suffers from a couple of problems:
- Controls are very imprecise, I would prefer the blocks being dropped to be the same size as the player and for the player to be locked onto the grid - as it is it's very difficult to drop the exact size shape that you need to in order to proceed.
- Rules are a little unclear - why is a single width path counted as a single block but a double width path gets split into lots of squares and ends up counting as loads?
yellowlemming
29. Apr 2013 路 16:34 UTC
You should make the red x close the game
馃帳 pighead10
29. Apr 2013 路 16:37 UTC
@badlogic: you must have visited it during the 10 seconds I was reuploading. Try again!]

@Arkazon: sorry, I should make it more clear. Lines or even squares.
馃帳 pighead10
29. Apr 2013 路 16:41 UTC
I updated the notes to better reflect the rules.
Holofire
29. Apr 2013 路 16:58 UTC
Nice game. Never seen anything like this before. Can get quite difficult later on.
Neonlare
29. Apr 2013 路 16:59 UTC
Pretty inventive use of the theme, the music did get a little bit repetitive but it's definitely better than some of the midi stuff around, good job :D
smealum
29. Apr 2013 路 17:14 UTC
neat concept ! really fits the theme too. on a technical note though, it would be nice if the game didn't constantly use 100% cpu, pretty sure it doesn't need it :P
PsenFilip
29. Apr 2013 路 17:28 UTC
Took quite a while to master the controls. Specially how to minimally place the cubes right on the second challenge.
That was a nice playthrough. Too bad I couldn't get past the fourth one.
It is indeed a nice game concept.
馃帳 pighead10
29. Apr 2013 路 17:32 UTC
smealum: eh, I don't know what the problem is for you - specs?
PhilZ
29. Apr 2013 路 19:04 UTC
It's an okay game. Nothing wrong with it, but it's just not my type of game.
Cirrial
29. Apr 2013 路 20:41 UTC
Controls are far too fiddly for this kind of game. Maybe movement locked to the game's grid would have worked better for this. Otherwise a neat concept, which feels a little let down by its execution's controls.
stqn
29. Apr 2013 路 23:41 UTC
Interesting but I have no idea what should be done on level 2.
Masadow
30. Apr 2013 路 16:16 UTC
Very hard to aim correctly. However, it is great idea ! I liked it :)
Monxcleyr Productions
30. Apr 2013 路 19:14 UTC
The player controls are a little jumpy. The trail left by the player should match the size of the player, it's somewhat difficult to know what path you are leaving until you left, making you go back to try to minimize your mistakes, which is particularly punishing since lines with a width more than 1 become a load of cubes.
ESC shouldn't close the game when on the menu. Generally bad practice to have a key than can close the game.
The concept was neat however, and an interesting take on the theme. A post-compo version with better controls would be a pretty solid game.
fr_automatik
30. Apr 2013 路 19:54 UTC
Nice idea!
Ragzouken
30. Apr 2013 路 19:55 UTC
Very interesting scoring mechanic!
nintendoeats
30. Apr 2013 路 20:38 UTC
Conceptually I really like this. I had to watch the video to understand what's going on though. I still don't really. I think that with a more slowly ramping set of tutorials this would be a fantastic puzzle game.

The effect when it reveals the results is really nice. It would be nice if it sped up when there were a lot of blocks though. I don't like basking in my own failure :(
Tainted_Code
30. Apr 2013 路 20:50 UTC
Great game overall, I like the idea behind it, although it was hard to pick-up! A more descriptive tutorial would be good! :)
Pitzik4
30. Apr 2013 路 23:33 UTC
This is a very interesting concept. I've seen games where you have to walk the minimum distance or something, but using "chunks" made of lines and squares is much more creative and makes me think a lot more. It could use some polish, but the concept is there, and it's good. I can imagine the algorithm to break up the level into squares and lines may have been time-consuming, as well.
馃帳 pighead10
01. May 2013 路 07:10 UTC
@Pitzik4: haha, you're right about that algorithm!
mchaza
01. May 2013 路 14:23 UTC
nice idea, but its kinda hard to know what to sometimes.
Puccini
01. May 2013 路 15:49 UTC
It's a good mechanic but is dificult and the controls isn't very polished.
I don't understand how to reduce squares in level 3.
Lidfrid
01. May 2013 路 16:33 UTC
i really like the score mechanic. I think it's hard though to aim correctly in the first place!
SmallDeadGuy
01. May 2013 路 16:46 UTC
Couldn't get past the 5th level. Was quite fun. The numbers (I guess) at the top were just squares I guess I don't have the font you use for it. Innovative and kinda hard. Would have liked the player to be like the same size as the grid and probably locked to it too. Would make it much easier to generate the path you're actually trying to make.
MinionStudios
01. May 2013 路 16:53 UTC
Very great concept! Seems to be difficult to judge the size of the cursor object and ends up creating more geometry than I want, but it works!
Crazi456
01. May 2013 路 16:57 UTC
Very amusing game, fits theme nicely!
Hume
01. May 2013 路 17:15 UTC
I agree that with the comment that the trail should match the size of the player. Beyond that, great geometry game, well executed.
馃帳 pighead10
01. May 2013 路 17:30 UTC
I thought I updated it so that they did match the size of the player. Hmm.
Thijsku
01. May 2013 路 17:55 UTC
I took a while before I knew exactly what to do, but it's a great concept! It's fitting like.. perfectly in the theme! Good job pighead. ;)
Uhfgood
01. May 2013 路 21:33 UTC
Nice concept, but still needs work in execution.
Norgg
03. May 2013 路 14:42 UTC
Cool concept and use of the theme, having to clear up the mess you make fighting enemies is nice. I got to level 5 but then hit a crash. In some levels there seemed to be solutions avoiding spawning enemies even though I felt like I was meant to.
wzl
04. May 2013 路 13:10 UTC
Interesting entry, the block-generation mechanics could be nicer and more predictable, and the controls need an overhaul. The concept has a compelling incentive though!
commanderstitch
05. May 2013 路 17:36 UTC
i got to the end of lvl 5. http://screencast.com/t/2Jh5tg8UjVO nice job! :) i like the puzzley nature of the game. A little annoying with the movement being too smooth to where you over shoot a lot. Also the game running while the instruction screen before the round starts is funny. good work.