Fractured by dalbinblue

[raw]
made by dalbinblue for LD26 (COMPO)
Help guide Pie through his fractured word in this puzzle platformer.

Controls are super simple:
--------------------------
- Left and right arrow (or direction pad on a gamepad) move player
- Space (or "A" on gamepad) reset level

Written in C# using XNA 4.0. If you haven't run an XNA application before, you will need to install the XNA redistributable, available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914. Note that you will not need to install the game itself on your machine, just unzip the archive and run the game executable.

Constructive cretinism is encouraged. I hope you have fun playing!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 4.09 20
Audio 3.81 48
Fun 3.74 64
Graphics 4.28 25
Humor 2.41 434
Innovation 3.79 113
Mood 3.92 36
Theme 3.40 694

Feedback

billybombill
29. Apr 2013 · 03:42 UTC
Very nice! Love the graphics, music, art (pretty much I love it all). Amazing, and only in 48 hours! :)
saint11
29. Apr 2013 · 04:37 UTC
I really like this! Congratulations :) Maybe it's just a bit too hard for me, but I love the idea!
harleylaurie
29. Apr 2013 · 06:51 UTC
Awesome art style and music. Great puzzle design!
cahman
29. Apr 2013 · 10:38 UTC
Very nice game! The character looks really good. Sometimes, with all of the rotating, I had trouble keeping track of which buttons went to which block. Maybe if they were color coordinated or something?
SuperlevelSebastian
30. Apr 2013 · 00:48 UTC
Aw. That's too cute. And so clever! :) <3
Peter
30. Apr 2013 · 02:36 UTC
Good job, like the art
Tainted_Code
30. Apr 2013 · 02:43 UTC
I thought this was an excellent game! I really just loved everything about it! Nice job!
captainkraft
30. Apr 2013 · 02:49 UTC
I really liked this game. The art is great; simple and impressive. The sound goes really well with the feel. Also, the controls are very minimal.

The only criticisms I have are that the theme isn't very apparent and it's a bit hard. It took me a very long time to figure the puzzles out.

Great game, thanks for making it
Hayawi
30. Apr 2013 · 02:56 UTC
Nice game, it would be a very good idea to make this into a mobile app
Jellycakes
30. Apr 2013 · 04:01 UTC
Really nice game. Some interesting game mechanics and definitely looks good. Cute characters too. Well done!
🎤 dalbinblue
30. Apr 2013 · 04:14 UTC
@Hayawi I'm seriously considering picking up an Apple developer account and expanding this game out. I've watched a few people play it to understand the design issues (thanks Jellycakes) to see what works and what doesn't.

@captainkraft, I wish I had more time to make levels to ramp up, they get hard quickly.

@cahman, my brother suggested that I actually put in a zooming function to make it possible to see the level as a whole (though too late to get it in). Others suggested a hint system; something subtle.
Cranky
30. Apr 2013 · 11:36 UTC
Very enjoyable and innovative, I liked it a lot.
My Milked Eek
30. Apr 2013 · 11:45 UTC
I'd say it's the best game I've played so far.
Stryphe
30. Apr 2013 · 13:29 UTC
Nice game, I enjoyed playing it.
KevinZuhn
01. May 2013 · 00:06 UTC
I'm in favor of the ability to zoom, or at least see a map. The game looks good at the current size, but a lot of times it seemed like I was affecting blocks off-screen, and I lost track of what my movements and button presses were doing. So especially in the later levels I ran around a bit hopeless trying to stumble into a solution!
But it's totally a solvable problem, and I like the basic gameplay and puzzle ideas! I hope you do a post-compo version.
ilovepixel
01. May 2013 · 04:56 UTC
Really nice game, i spent a while trying to solve this hardcore puzzle. Graphics and music were great!
Ryusui
01. May 2013 · 06:44 UTC
Cute, clever, and very professional-looking. I love how the reset button makes the little guy sit down and cry 'cause he's stuck. XD
frankbsad
01. May 2013 · 06:46 UTC
that was amazing.
Tyro
01. May 2013 · 06:48 UTC
Amazingly creative, and the art is beautiful! If I had any criticism, they'd be that the difficulty spikes hugely after the first three or so rooms and that there aren't enough obstacles. Super game though, would play again.
Dietrich Epp
01. May 2013 · 06:58 UTC
I love the basic idea! But a lot of times it feels like I'm just guessing my way around puzzles, since the buttons are connected to blocks off-screen, or just because I get turned around about which blocks affect which. If you work on this some more (which I encourage!) maybe you could connect circuit lines from buttons to blocks, code the buttons and blocks with shapes/colors, or show a zoomed out view that lets me see what's happening. Or all of the above, really.
whiteravens
01. May 2013 · 07:01 UTC
Wonderful and emotional!
SonnyBone
01. May 2013 · 13:39 UTC
Really, really great. Easily one of my favorite LD games ever. LOVE the sprites, LOOOOOOVE the music, and the puzzling gameplay is outstanding. Very tricky but very rewarding! CONGRATS ON SUCH AN AMAZING GAME!
🎤 dalbinblue
01. May 2013 · 22:27 UTC
@Tyro I agree there as well; the game needs a lot more puzzles in between that teaches the user patterns. I got teaching the core elements, but I need to make the initial puzzle smaller to teach techniques. I also need to remove the guessing puzzles like the four buttons in a line puzzle (or a least simplify it so that the player can see the rules).

@Dietrich, I've watched a few people play and the biggest issue is feedback. A user needs to know one way or another that an action has an effect, I'm designing out a few solutions, some subtle, and some more obvious (like a zoomed out camera).

@SonnyBone Wow, really? That means a lot to me!
whitetigle
02. May 2013 · 12:31 UTC
This is a truely good game. Nice concept, nice music, nice audio, good mood and fits well the theme. Congratulations :)
little_polygon
03. May 2013 · 05:03 UTC
Outstanding. I love the little caterwaul <3
Finn Stokes
03. May 2013 · 05:39 UTC
Great minimalism, using only walking plus (approximately) two environmental mechanics to produce an elegant little game with great visuals and audio.

I love the way you teach the mechanics implicitly by beginning with simple levels that convey lessons through play. It is something I try to do as much as I can and this is as good an implementation as I've seen.

As has already been discussed, all it needs is an elegant solution to the feedback problem and possibly a mild softening of the difficulty curve.

Well done and good luck if you take this further!
Tom 7
03. May 2013 · 18:29 UTC
Excellent graphics and sound! I love it! The game itself is creative, though I found the button-based stuff frustrating because there was no indication of what buttons went with what door.
StMatn
05. May 2013 · 23:49 UTC
Awesome game! Some music would have made it perfect :) The mechanics are great
🎤 dalbinblue
06. May 2013 · 01:02 UTC
@StMatn The game did have music. Were you accidentally muted or was there a glitch in the game that I need to address?
Cosine
06. May 2013 · 02:41 UTC
Great game.
Baknik
06. May 2013 · 03:51 UTC
Great animations and puzzle design.
Maple
06. May 2013 · 13:51 UTC
This was really nice. I kept playing until the end. Constructive criticism: I thought you should be able to look around the level, because a lot of the time I had no idea what buttons were doing, and I had to just guess where to go. Also I think some levels that came earlier were harder than some levels that came later. Otherwise, great job.
sP0CkEr2
07. May 2013 · 03:53 UTC
awesome game -- i love the style and the puzzles are awesome!! great job!
ethankennerly
07. May 2013 · 04:42 UTC
Fascinating rotating platformer with charming pixel art! if you are developing this further, i found it easy to get into for the first few levels, yet got into a level that bewildered me; surely i did something dumb, yet i wasn't stretching my mind to see your solution.
MinionStudios
07. May 2013 · 14:41 UTC
Great design, super polished, clean and simple. Love the character!
SonnyBone
07. May 2013 · 14:52 UTC
I remixed/re-arranged the theme from Fractured. Thanks for such an awesome game, dalbinblue!

https://soundcloud.com/sonnybone/fractured-remix-dalbinblue
Fnkee
07. May 2013 · 18:47 UTC
Had to try both yesterday and today in order to complete the game. I finally made it though. For you to have made this in 48 hours is amazing. Graphics and music were splendid, as well as animations and storyline. Very cute story, and what a happy ending(except for all those who had failed in escaping). And of course, the gameplay concept in itself was simple, yet very innovative. I'm overwhelmed, my friend! Amazing job!
ethankennerly
08. May 2013 · 04:18 UTC
Fascinating rotating platformer with charming pixel art! if you are developing this further, i found it easy to get into for the first few levels, yet got into a level that bewildered me; surely i did something dumb, yet i wasn't stretching my mind to see your solution.
twelveplusplus
08. May 2013 · 18:43 UTC
fun, get's hard fast though
Tifu
10. May 2013 · 13:56 UTC
This is awesome! Love the cute graphics, the music, the puzzles are super hard but I somehow managed to beat it anyway. Good job.
Xanjos
12. May 2013 · 20:55 UTC
It's quite hard but the general gameplay was really excellent and I loved the graphics and audio.
deathray
13. May 2013 · 02:42 UTC
Impressive puzzler! The only things I would add are a way to view the whole board, and more animations to make pie even cuter.
Taro Omiya
13. May 2013 · 03:55 UTC
Liked the minimalistic story, puzzles are excellent, well-thought out. Definitely liked mechanic. Can see this as a legitimately sold indie game!
kill0u
13. May 2013 · 11:47 UTC
Nice! The end is brutal though :D
Spiridios
19. May 2013 · 04:47 UTC
Wow, where to start. This is probably one of the games in LD that impressed me the most. The integrated tutorial is awesome. Not just for an LD game, you did a wonderful job leading the player through each of the core mechanics before throwing them into their first puzzle. The little cries from the little orange critter when you reset were great. It makes you actually feel a bit bad for giving up without actually punishing the player. The little blue critter and it's whine give you mystery you want to track down. The fractured graphics help with that. I gave up a few levels in, because I'm not really up to a puzzler right now, so I'm not really sure of those mysteries are answered. As has been said, some better cues on where/what buttons are doing would help. And continuing the tutorial by having a better ramp up on puzzle difficulty would help too. This is definitely a game to continue developing. Great job!
Spiridios
19. May 2013 · 20:55 UTC
I came back to play again. :p So here's some more feeback. This one's very very minor: because the .zip doesn't have the game name in it, it was hard to find in my LD26 folder of games.

Since this is an XNA game, you might consider trying JSIL. It may or may not work, but if it does you'll have a web version of your game.

Having come back, a way to skip levels you've already completed would be nice.

There's one place in one level (second to last I believe) where you CAN walk on empty space. That seemed like a bug, except I couldn't find any way to continue the level without using that.... Except, now that I solved the level, I think it may be possible to solve without using that glitch. This also may be why it took me so long to solve the level because I hadn't discovered the other path and kind of dismissed that area as being "done"....

I like that standing in the way of walls doesn't punish you in any way.
SonnyBone
21. May 2013 · 01:53 UTC
20 OVERALL!!! YEAH!!! Great job! Congrats!