The Merging by C1FR1

made by C1FR1 for LD 41 (COMPO)

a matching game where you can walk around on the blocks depending on your selected color. Lasers fire at you as you try and reach a high score.

Screenshot .png

Controls:

quit: escape

move left: A

move right: D

jump: space

swaps

After a swap, you change places with an adjacent block, while also switching the block you were on and the new block.

swap left: <- (left arrow)

swap right: -> (right arrow)

swap up: ^ (up arrow)

select down: \/ (down arrow)

changes your selected color to the color that is directly below you, causing you to fall (see why later)

after a swap, if either of the swapped blocks are part of a larger region that is at least 4 blocks large, that region will change to that color. You only collide with blocks that are not your currently selected color.

your goal is to get a high score, you get points for changing the color of regions, and this is proportional to the number of pillars you have reached. You cannot reach the next pillar before reaching the score threshold.

as your score increases, more lasers will spawn. Lasers change the color of any block that they touch, if you get touched, your selected color will change and the blocks around you will become that color.

if you fall off you loose, tough luck!

Screenshot A.png

I would be interested to see what scores you can reach, feel free to post them in the comments. (I don't have a server to host high scores). My high score is 1,689,202 (yes that last screenshot is fake, I changed the score and x position).

both screenshots of are of the current game where I have added features since the end of the jam, I might upload it later as a separate link but that is why the score is grey in the screenshots and white in the downloads if anyone noticed.

POST-JAM VERSION

the post-jam version of this game is available here. It contains another game mode that I think fixes most of the balancing issues with the classic, both game modes are in the post jam version. Unfortunately I didn't really change the tutorial at all, and I don't think I will because I am kind of burned out on it, and I would like to start working in c++ rather than java.

Source code	https://github.com/c1fr1/LD41
Windows	https://www.dropbox.com/s/76csl6u6vj02c1k/TheMerging_jar.zip?dl=0
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/the-merging

Ratings

Overall	552^th	3.028⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Fun	585^th	2.75⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	351^th	3.361⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Theme	540^th	3.139⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	528^th	2.778⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Given		28🗳️	10🗨️

Feedback

Chris Hall

24. Apr 2018 · 06:10 UTC

Can't get it to run on my windows 10 :slight_frown:

🎤 C1FR1

24. Apr 2018 · 06:30 UTC

@Chris Hall did you download the res file? The .jar file needs to be ran in the same directory as the res file, maybe I should have put them in a .zip to make them more clear... If that doesn't work try running it in a command line (navigate into the folder then do java -jar LD41.jar). I would like to see the error message if the res file wasn't the issue.

Balduvian Dead

24. Apr 2018 · 19:57 UTC

well i went through and changed all the shaders so they work on windows lol

🎤 C1FR1

25. Apr 2018 · 01:47 UTC

as I write this I am uploading the version of the res folder that has @balduvian-dead's edits, apparently f (indicating that a number is a float) doesn't work on all computers in glsl... Anyone know why it is inconsistent? The version of glsl should be the same.

chef109

28. Apr 2018 · 04:16 UTC

I think there might be a problem with your DL link. Drive said there was a HTTP error when I tried to download.

GenTel

28. Apr 2018 · 08:07 UTC

Drive won't let me download your game. I'd recommend using itch.io or Dropbox, both of those will work fine for free. I'll bookmark this page and come back for a proper review later because you've obviously put real work into making something cool.

🎤 C1FR1

28. Apr 2018 · 19:22 UTC

@chef109 @GenTel thanks for letting me know, I don't know why the drive link stopped working, but it doesn't work for me either now. I uploaded it to Dropbox and updated the link above.

GenTel

28. Apr 2018 · 20:47 UTC

@C1FR1 Downloaded, ran, but it won't work on my Windows 10 system. Hopefully this output helps:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to compile shader: res/shaders/openingShaders/vert.gls! ERROR: 0:13: 'f' : syntax error syntax error

at engine.Shader.<init>(Shader.java:130)
at engine.Program.<init>(Program.java:25)
at engine.EnigWindow.<init>(EnigWindow.java:180)
at Game.ProjectMain.<init>(ProjectMain.java:173)
at Game.ProjectMain.main(ProjectMain.java:169)

🎤 C1FR1

28. Apr 2018 · 21:10 UTC

@GenTel o rip, when I uploaded the new zip I uploaded the wrong one, re-uploading rn. Sorry!

Lerc

29. Apr 2018 · 00:12 UTC

That is very unforgiving, Got to 241 until I screwed up and accidentally jumpred out of the tower.

GenTel

29. Apr 2018 · 00:44 UTC

Played on the fixed upload -

The look is really nice, and the feeling of capturing a big area is great. This is a great system for generating the levels randomly yet still having them work well and be interesting. Lasers were a cool mechanic that both fit in aesthetically and added to the gameplay. Infinite extension for high-score marathon runs is also fun.

I'd say the general concept of swapping to make the large color area was good, but it could maybe be improved by simplifying a bit. I got my best results just mashing WASD and arrows and then jumping up to the top. Maybe there's a better technique but I couldn't figure one out. So either making the mechanic simpler or making a tutorial video to explain smarter techniques would help.

BTW if you could click the heart button on my above two help comments, that helps me get more reviews on my game :)

Merrow

30. Apr 2018 · 06:19 UTC

The idea is fresh the mechanic innovative, I think after polishing the gameplay it could be something big. Good job.

Chuck Zelvis

30. Apr 2018 · 08:50 UTC

Cool concept, but a bit complicated for me. I still don't get why sometimes when swapping the destination color wouldn't change even when the region was bigger than 3 blocks. In the end i just mashed buttons until i reached the score treshhold and after jumping to the next pillar i got to the top and repeated the process. However, this is rather problem with me than the game.

The most annoying thing for me was that when i was jumping to the next pillar into a single block of the current color, sometimes i wouldn't land in the block and just fall down. Everytime i jumped it was basically a coin toss if i would be able to get into the block or not.

Sill, this game is a really good concept for a strategy platformer. Even i, someone who doesn't like platformers that much, enjoyed myself and played it for quite a bit. My score is somewhere around 8000, i can't imagine how you got into millions :D

🎤 C1FR1

30. Apr 2018 · 18:58 UTC

@chuck-zelvis yea, I don't think I explained the idea very well in the tutorial with the hope that people would get it once they started playing. I am working on a post-jam version that requires a little more efficiency, which will have an interactive tutorial. The hitboxes are also something that could be improved, you do have to get lucky in order to land in a 1-block area. As for how I broke a million? About an hour of gameplay...

Thanks for playing!

niterich

30. Apr 2018 · 21:36 UTC

I certainly had fun, but I had no idea what I was doing half the time. I found if I merged into a block above a colour-dominated area, I could get a lot more pieces covered and get a lot of score without really puzzling anything else. I liked how the colour changed with the background, I thought that was a nice touch. I think if I had more time to play with it, or there was a slower ramp up in difficulty, I would have had a better time, but I think there was too much thrown at me at once.

Mektidas

02. May 2018 · 02:02 UTC

very Funny, i really like it. Great Game!