Controls

Can't seem to run the linux build:

```
./ld41: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
```

For linux, you will need to have libSDL2 version 2.0.5 or later, as well as SDL2_image and SDL2_mixer.

UPDATE: I have bundled the linux release into an appimage that should make it easier to run.

I like the idea of your game, mixing Shoot'em ups and Puzzle solving.

But there aren't easy puzzle to solve while playing x) By the way, that ship's sprite is almost a pixel perfect copy of Galaga's ship :/

But yeah, overall, I feel it's a bit too difficult to focuse on those two genres. Which fits the theme for sure, but in the end harms your game I believe. Congrats on making the deadline though! :)

Neat game. I gave up at about ten minutes only having completed one row. I just wished there was a bit of progression, maybe starting with a smaller puzzle at first. The daunting 4x4 puzzle was a bit too much for me (and I even messed up starting it few times because numbers/letters and unnoticed zero). The shmup bit was easy (maybe even too easy, felt almost boring at times), I just struggled to remember what direction I was supposed to get and then actually getting it.

Some kind of icons instead of letters for the powerups would have made more sense. Now it took quite a long time to figure out what was what. And even after figuring them out, it was hard to distinguish them in the middle of the action. And the same goes for those bars, they made no sense to me but didn't matter anyway, powerups kept them filled pretty much all the time. The ammo amount thing when you ran out of your green shots was just straight up annoying. It did nothing but waste one's time. Didn't find much use for the boost either.

Good job!

This idea is devil

4X4 puzzle was super hard but I like the combination and execution of the idea. Good work!

Too many things happening at once - I am so bad at this game. Nice entry. :slight_smile:

Dude this is so hard. Great idea though

I can't do slide puzzles at the best of times but the shump part was certainly solid, graphics and sound go together great for an awesome feel, and don't worry, I'm not letting my failings as a puzzle solver affect your score :wink:

Well, the sliding puzzle doesn't really mesh with the shooting bit, but shooting itself is kinda fun.

By mixing a shooter with the sliding puzzle, you're making the puzzle even harder and more frustrating than it already is, so for me this was kind of awkward to play. But it's a neat idea, and if you're a sliding puzzle master I suppose this would be fun.

Shooting is good! I really liked the graphics, sounds, overall old school DOS-shareware feel. But... sliding puzzles, man. It truly is the most incompatible of genres.

Good idea!

I think instead of picking up the direction, you could just kill the enemy for that direction, it would be more intuitive and use more of the SHMP.

It's very hard as it is :tired_face:

Well, that's a really fun concept! However, it's really hard as well. I'm not quite sure how to solve the puzzle, as it starts out with numbers and letters in a 4x4 grid (the screenshots show some image that you have to connect so I might be experiencing a bug). Because of that, I mainly focused on the shmup part :/
Either way, good job! Your game is quite polished ;)

Cool game! Exhausting thou.
I really tiring to keep looking for the right arrows keeping the shooting partconstant. Some kind of preogression visualizer appart of the puzzle would be much appreciated! Maybe easier modes could include smaller puzzles than only different puzzle skins.
I really liked the audio, unfortunately it's opted-out.

Very original idea. Thanks for creating this game!

Everyone agrees this game is way too hard! In the course of creating it I became and expert at 15 puzzles and probably forgot how annoying they are if you aren't familiar with them. Thanks everyone for the feedback about the difficulty, I think having Easy be a 3x3 puzzle would have been much better.

To answer some questions:

The powerups are with meaningless letters on purpose so that you have to discover how they work on your own. This is kinda wonky but I preferred it that way.

The ammo mechanic for the K powerup is basically required to be able to solve the puzzle. Without it, it seemed too easy. I think a better approach would have been to give the enemies health and have the K powerup do more damage or have a higher fire rate or something instead.

The boost powerup feels pretty useless early on, but it is useful in the later parts of the game (when the monster spawn rate is maxed) to get out of trouble or collect things otherwise out of reach.

The different graphics in the screenshots are from the "Queasy" difficulty. The original idea was that you had to repair a part of your ship to get back your FTL engine functionality but I wasn't really able to flesh that out. I actually had this grand design to create a random circuitboard for each playthrough but I would have had to draw way too many little puzzle pieces.

The audio is opted out because I only made the sound effects. The music was a surprise gift who was viewing my stream while creating the game. It would not be fair to include the contributed music in the ratings for the Compo entry.

I don't think the K powerup adds any difficulty really, it just adds a unnecessary time gating. And I do like leaving stuff open to the player to discover themselves but even after learning the letters, it was still hard to recall which letter was which in the heat of the moment. Maybe after a lot more play time they would become a second nature but currently the game doesn't really have the longevity for that.

I was under assumption that you couldn't use external audio/graphical assets (ie. break the rules of a category) even if you opted out of said category...

Too hard for me, but I also hate slide puzzles. The shootemup sprites were cute and the little animations were nicely done. I think instead of a straight slide puzzle if you'd gone for something like 2048/Threes instead that doesn't have a single solution it would've been possible to integrate that part of the game back into the shooting (like maybe every time you make a match of X size it drops out a powerup to the ship side).

I love the Retro Feeling in this game. Cool!!! Good Job 5 out 5 😍