{"author_link":"\/author\/danblack\/","author_name":"danblack","author_uid":"818","comments":[{"author_name":"Pixelulsar","author_uid":"10737","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 8:15pm","epoch":1335298200,"text":"It was something that I've never seen before, but I personally found it very confusing, I never got a single point."},{"author_name":"Nocturne","author_uid":"4311","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 8:52pm","epoch":1335300420,"text":"Most confusing... I read your description before playing and even then I found the game incomprehensible! Too random and not explicit enough in how to play. Gave it two plays and didn't manage to score a single point..."},{"author_name":"TellusE","author_uid":"749","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:31pm","epoch":1335450360,"text":"Wonderful idea :D\r\rThe randomness of the worms aside (as you've mentioned), I dig the "reverse Snake" style. Maybe if you have several patterns going at once, the single-queued food might be easier to work with (or one could simply create completely random worms and hope one would come up :P)\r\rNeat work, dude."},{"author_name":"zzzev","author_uid":"12191","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:32pm","epoch":1335450420,"text":"Unfortunately, I had a similar experience as the other commenters here. Maybe if the worms moved in more predictable patterns, it would be easier to form them?"},{"author_name":"ExciteMike","author_uid":"935","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:36pm","epoch":1335450660,"text":"Wow. So hard to make them eat the food I want! I think it's a really slick idea, but it like needs clearer rules for how the worms move (seems to be random?) and\/or zoomed into a smaller game world maybe?"},{"author_name":"Tomalla","author_uid":"10765","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:36pm","epoch":1335450660,"text":"Great idea! It only needs a little tutorial for the very beginning though, I needed quite a time to figure out what was going on. It was fun until I needed a one-dot-worm which simply was not on the board. What am I supposed to do then? Apart from that - that is a good one! Cheers"},{"author_name":"danblack","author_uid":"818","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:47pm","epoch":1335451320,"text":"@Pixelulsar, @Nocturne, @zzzev - I have updated the desctiption to try and make it clearer. I accept that it's really tricky to play though. \r\r@TellusE - Thanks and glad you liked it. I think there is milage in this 'reverse snake' gameplay but it probably needs longer than 48hours to iron out all the gameplay issues. Adding more target worms though would be a start though. Thanks for the feedback.\r\r@ExciteMike - Yes the worms movement is random and this is the largest I could get the resolution and still be able to diplay text. I aggree about the size though and if I get time to revisit this idea I will defeintely try to make the pixels even bigger. Thanks for your feedback.\r\r@Tomalla - I agree, it does need a tutorial. Not to mention lots of tweaks to the gameplay to make it less fiddly \/ frustrating. When you run out of small worms you have to feed up the bigger worms to get rid of them. As longer worms die off new small ones replace them. Thanks for the feedback."},{"author_name":"Morgawr","author_uid":"8711","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 3:21pm","epoch":1335453360,"text":"Really confusing game, even after reading the instructions... the sounds are a bit annoying."},{"author_name":"angrygeometry","author_uid":"5579","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 3:23pm","epoch":1335453480,"text":"i liked the aesthetics a lot, but even with the updated instructions i still couldn't work it out. maybe post a gameplay video?"},{"author_name":"caranha","author_uid":"7847","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 3:25pm","epoch":1335453600,"text":"That is a VERY interesting game, I like the concept a lot.\r\rThe biggest problem, in my opinion, is that 1-sized worms, and food are identical. So it is very hard to keep track of the worms.\r\rThe game would be much easier to understand if worms were somehow different from food. Some ideas: Make the worms bigger than the food, give the worms a black "head", give the worms an outline?"},{"author_name":"MurrayL","author_uid":"7835","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 3:28pm","epoch":1335453780,"text":"Quite enjoyed the game - didn't have a problem understanding how to play after reading your updated instructions.\r\rI'd suggest making it a lot more likely that the worms keep moving in the same direction (so it's easier to get them to eat), and display the next coloured block as well as the one you are currently about to place (to allow for planning)."},{"author_name":"dokidoki","author_uid":"12261","time":"Apr 26, 2012 @ 3:37pm","epoch":1335454320,"text":"Cool idea, now that I understand it. :)"},{"author_name":"Drabiter","author_uid":"8337","time":"Apr 27, 2012 @ 11:51am","epoch":1335527160,"text":"Both windows and web links not work :("},{"author_name":"danblack","author_uid":"818","time":"Apr 30, 2012 @ 7:33am","epoch":1335770880,"text":"@Drabiter - Do you have Flash installed? If you have Flash it should work."},{"author_name":"azurenimbus","author_uid":"12119","time":"May 5, 2012 @ 12:50am","epoch":1336178700,"text":"Really unique, I enjoyed it a lot. It can drive you INSANE (in a good way). But I can't say anything about that :D \r\rGreat job!"}],"images":["ld23\/818-be18e7f3336c0dddd3bd6c71b15cb362.jpg","ld23\/818-be80298b332e1deef5ead9671c2c1855.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.danielblackburn.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Nematode_LD23.swf","text":"Windows"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.danielblackburn.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Nematode_LD23.swf","text":"Web"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.danielblackburn.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/nematode_src.zip","text":"Source"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"30649","g_author":"818","g_event":"LD23","g_eventkey":"10","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"30679","g_title":"Nematode","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"772","g_commentcount":"15","g_site2_node_id":"0","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":[],"node":null,"orig_images":["http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/818-shot0.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/818-shot1.jpg-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"My tiny world is viewed through a telescope and populated by colourful Nematode worms. The aim is to create worms with specific patterns by feeding them the right coloured food in the right order. They have a habit of turning at the wrong time though or eating the wrong coloured food.\r\n\r\n Instructions\r\n\r\n-Left click drops food.\r\n-The colour of the next piece of food in shown in the bottom right hand corner.\r\n-When a worm eats a piece of food that colour is added to the front of their body.\r\n-The worm you are trying to match the colours of is in the bottom left hand corner.\r\n-Your score is shown on the left and the time remaining on the right\r\n-Matching a worm gives you points and more time\r\n-When the timer reaches zero its game over.\r\n\r\n Hints\r\n\r\nWhen worms get older \/ longer they die and make way for new worms. Try to feed longer worms to get rid of them quicker to make way for smaller worms.\r\n\r\nThe sequence of colours must be in the correct order from front to back. If you have to create a match to a worm with a red head and blue tail first find a single blue worm. Then feeding it one piece of red food will create a match.\r\n\r\nThe worms move at different speeds. Try and find slower worms to feed for matches and try and get rid of fater worms by feeding them up quickly.\r\n\r\n\r\nUPDATE : \r\n\r\nIt seems my instruction wrinting skills are weak. I knew the game was fiddly to play but I didn't realise the concept was tricky that tricky to grasp. I will try and describe it again now I have had more sleep. \r\n\r\nThere is a worm shown in a box the bottom left corner. The aim is to feed the worms randomly milling around the screen to that they match the length and colours of the worm in the box. \r\n\r\nYou can't control worms directly but you can drop food in front of them to feed them. The next colour food in displayed in the bottom right. So if you have to match a worm that has a red head and a blue tail you need to find a worm that is just a single blue dot and feed it some red food. You will then get points and more time for getting a match and another target worm for you to try and match will appear in the bottom left hand corner. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>","title":"Nematode"}