Factory Consultant by namuol

[raw]
made by namuol for LD26 (COMPO)
minimalism => optimization => assembly line

That's my train of thought.

This is a puzzle game.

The goal is to produce wadgets that match the required template.

To do this, you must place "painters" and "arrows" on the factory floor. Experiment to see how these objects work.

Inspired by Bart Bonte's excellent "Factory Balls".

PROTIP: There's a Fast-Forward button to the left of the red STOP button at the top left! (Look at the main screenshot; it's orange)

---

I Didn't Have Enough Time (tm) to:
- Make enough good puzzles
- Make music (really wanted to this time)
- Make a non-ugly level-selection screen

Having said that, I'm fairly happy with the game, and I may continue adding levels for a post-compo version.

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall 3.74 114
Audio 2.73 539
Fun 3.85 40
Graphics 3.26 397
Humor 2.86 220
Innovation 3.91 71
Mood 2.79 639
Theme 3.09 956

Feedback

Nanolotl
29. Apr 2013 路 03:58 UTC
This was incredibly fun. It was a very unique concept.
The puzzles were really well designed and were very fun to solve. Really well done.
馃帳 namuol
29. Apr 2013 路 04:28 UTC
@Nanolotl: Thank you!
paulopn
29. Apr 2013 路 06:26 UTC
Great idea, very well polished. I also like the rhythmic sound it makes when the puzzle is solved.
raincole
29. Apr 2013 路 06:30 UTC
It looks like an automate! Great work.
The only glitch is that the font you chose is hard to read.
馃帳 namuol
29. Apr 2013 路 08:35 UTC
Yeah the font choice was a late-game decision, after I already decided with the game's resolution. Still, it's the only somewhat-readable font at that size. (merely 4x6)
Andrew
29. Apr 2013 路 10:31 UTC
The only thing really missing is a fast forward button.
aquilicoco
29. Apr 2013 路 10:33 UTC
Good work.

+1 fast forward button :)
馃帳 namuol
29. Apr 2013 路 11:00 UTC
Oh; there is a fast forward button! It's next to the stop button when things are moving -- click it! I guess it's too hard to see. X[
josefnpat
29. Apr 2013 路 11:01 UTC
Nice job Louis!

As usual, the graphics are excellent, and the mechanics and puzzels are interesting!

Next time, get music(tm)!

Also, take King's avice to writing; only write what you need. The game felt a lot like a wall of text at some point :)
馃帳 namuol
29. Apr 2013 路 12:52 UTC
@josefnpat Yeah, I know the text is pretty bad. I should've made it purely-optional.

I tried to make some music, but I didn't have the time to make it not-annoying, which is pretty important for puzzle games.

Thanks for the feedback~
mortus
29. Apr 2013 路 17:39 UTC
I love that kind of games, reminds me of Tile Factory, but much simplier. For some reason the level with belts was very hard for me.
Kitch
30. Apr 2013 路 03:31 UTC
Wow... very good! Very well polished (a very good tutorial AND a fast forward button in a ld game?! yes please) and very fun to play. Good job!
xel
30. Apr 2013 路 06:20 UTC
Super cool gameplay. Would have been nice to modify object placement while the painter is running instead of having to stop/start all the time to test, the fast forward button helped but it took me a few levels before I saw it.
SonnyBone
30. Apr 2013 路 13:55 UTC
OOOOH neat idea! Really unique and refreshing puzzler. Good job! Keep working on it and make it a little faster, maybe.
VDOgamez
30. Apr 2013 路 17:13 UTC
I love games like this, and you've certainly done well on it. The puzzle difficulty curve was well-done, which is an important factor in this kind of game. I ended up having a good challenge on the last puzzle and I'm not entirely sure I completed it the correct way (are you supposed to be able to put sprayers in the exit?). The graphics look nice and do a good job to facilitate tile placement, and the little bit of audio you have is effective. You've made a surprisingly good puzzle game for the amount of time given, and it's one of the best games I've played this competition. Good luck on your post-compo version, I look forward to seeing more levels in this.
馃帳 namuol
01. May 2013 路 00:52 UTC
@SonnyBone -- Thanks! By the way, the reason it goes slow by default is so you can see what's going on closely in trickier puzzles -- there's a fast forward toggle button next to the play button.

@VDOgamez -- Thanks for playing through and giving detailed feedback! I expect there to be multiple solutions to the puzzles, and that might include exploiting quirks like putting sprayers in the exit. I applaud your solution, actually.
CappaGames
01. May 2013 路 01:35 UTC
Amazing game, very smart design. There seems to be a problem playing it in firefox (game stalls, won't progress to next level properly), chrome works fine though.
馃帳 namuol
01. May 2013 路 08:49 UTC
@CappaGames -- thank you very much for the warning -- what version of Firefox and on what OS?
syawqy
01. May 2013 路 13:14 UTC
great puzzle game... I mean hard...
GranaDa
02. May 2013 路 13:36 UTC
Nice style. Loved the sounds.

@namuol: now you can play the web version of our game, hope it runs better on linux: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4570230/index.html
馃帳 namuol
03. May 2013 路 04:51 UTC
@GranaDa -- thanks for the notice! Playing now!
mrexcessive
03. May 2013 路 12:58 UTC
Excellent puzzler... good fun designing the machine, very fun to play.
PsenFilip
03. May 2013 路 13:14 UTC
Why so much text! It would be good if you happen to remove the text. I get it that instructions are need, but it is just too much too read in a single go, right out at the start.

Into the game:
"Stupidly-tight t-shirts are the latest thing". I laughed hard!
Pretty humorous stuff on there.
Game plays well.
UI is not hard to understand. Important!
Puzzle design is very good. Well thought out and well paced across levels.
Art is OK and the sound effects fit nicely.
馃帳 namuol
03. May 2013 路 22:04 UTC
Yeah too much text; it was mostly there to set up a context for jokes and to provide hints, but I probably shot myself in the foot, there.
Saturnyn
07. May 2013 路 12:00 UTC
Great game, interesting puzzle, nice UI and presentation. Well done !
keksdev
07. May 2013 路 20:05 UTC
Overall very nice idea! Had much fun playing this.
SuperDisk
11. May 2013 路 03:49 UTC
The polish was great, but we kind of failed on a puzzle.
JonRB
15. May 2013 路 02:09 UTC
Wow! Such a complex game with so few elements! Started off thinking 'well this is a little too easy' but spent ages playing!
klianc09
16. May 2013 路 21:11 UTC
Was really fun to play, but constantly crashed for me in Firefox and Opera... Won't give bad rating because of that, but I think it should be mentioned.
Frozen Fractal
19. May 2013 路 17:52 UTC
Great puzzle game! Looks very smooth and feels very polished.

The only place with "too much text" (as several commenters have remarked) is at the start of the first level. Which I didn't get to read, somehow (bug?). The other bits of text are just very funny :)

Since you asked, I posted some details about how we did the sand in Aranami: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=7882
馃帳 namuol
20. May 2013 路 01:20 UTC
@Frozen Fractal: Awesome, thanks for the kind words and follow-up!
Jesse Freeman
21. May 2013 路 00:38 UTC
Fun little game. I skipped all the test in the beginning ;)
Jesse Freeman
21. May 2013 路 00:39 UTC
Can't type today, meant to say I skipped all the "text" in the beginning.