LudumData

MNTL BLCKS by Steve Sparkes

[raw]
made by Steve Sparkes for LD 42 (JAM)

MNTL_BLCKS.jpg

It’s hard enough navigating the world as a human.

Now try doing it as an alien. With limited memory space.

Travelling to Earth, your mission is to learn about various aspects of human life by blending in with the local species. You have a range of knowledge modules to get you through these encounters – but you won’t be able to fit all of them into your memory.

Drag and drop a range of Tetris-block shaped modules into your brain in order to try and get by on Earth, ranging from the topic of ‘parents’ to ‘machetes’. Use them to explore the joys of human life (going to the supermarket! Setting up a dating profile! Buying a bus ticket! And more), and report back your findings to your boss.

Play your modules right to complete enough missions to get home…or fail, and watch the hilarious consequences.

Writing @anadukakis
Programming @CometGoat

Teeth.png

Socks.png

Machete_1.png

Machete_2.png

Windows https://cometgoat.itch.io/mntl-blcks
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/mntl-blcks

Ratings

Overall 298th 3.667⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 100th 3.826⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 191th 3.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 696th 3.375⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 808th 3.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 41th 4.042⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 592th 3.13⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

catbutt
15. Aug 2018 · 12:10 UTC
Interesting game good job!
Carraka
15. Aug 2018 · 13:34 UTC
I really enjoy the writing for this game, but there's no way to skip ahead in text so I can quickly redo failed missions to get to the point where I was before. Being allowed to skip would also make me want to try out random stuff just to see what happens. Would you pleeeeease include an updated version that allows you to skip text, pretty please? If so, notify me and I will definitely return to play it so I can read allll the writing and rerate. Thanks!
Rammy294
15. Aug 2018 · 14:13 UTC
The graphics used for the alien and the humans were very nice I though however I sometimes had trouble reading the names of the modules when I was playing but that never hindered my experience to any noticeable degree. You really did your best to make a funny game and it really shows so well done on that front although using Tesco as the supermarket may not appeal to many not British people as its not something they'll know too well. Overall it was a great game next time I hope you have the time for audio as that would've made the game many times better.
Neu_Eric
15. Aug 2018 · 14:41 UTC
Really nice game. My favourite right now.
🎤 Steve Sparkes
15. Aug 2018 · 15:53 UTC
@carraka I text skip option would be a great addition! I'll take a look into adding it, though the reason there isn't one right now is that it would scramble the text and animations as it continues to keep looping through the text. I'll keep you updated!
🎤 Steve Sparkes
15. Aug 2018 · 15:53 UTC
@rammy294 The module labels do end up being really small in two of the missions. I'll take a look into it and update you! Thanks for the feedback. It would have been great to have sound. The focus ended up being on content, so it will be great to include a sound designer for next time. :)
Narudgi
15. Aug 2018 · 16:22 UTC
the ui doesn't sell well the game, but I liked it anyway ! the concept is interesting !
Carraka
15. Aug 2018 · 16:23 UTC
@Rammy294 @steve-sparkes I am not British, but I studied abroad there and appreciated the Tesco reference. Writing opinion: the more specific the better. People who want to see their own country's supermarkets can always go shopping. One way to add specificity without being confusing would probably be to fit in some writing about the country/locale, probably with the alien being confused by the concept of countries.
Rammy294
15. Aug 2018 · 17:58 UTC
@carraka yeah I guess you're right on that front and maybe instead of writing have an image of the UK as the alien lands?
🎤 Steve Sparkes
15. Aug 2018 · 18:30 UTC
@carraka I've implemented a text-skip when you lift click. Version 1.1 has been uploaded to itch.io!
🎤 Steve Sparkes
15. Aug 2018 · 18:31 UTC
@rammy294 I've made the module labels easier to read. Thanks for the feedback!
Rammy294
15. Aug 2018 · 22:08 UTC
@steve-sparkes Thank you I'm glad I could be of some help. I hope to see you guys in December
xPheRe
16. Aug 2018 · 01:56 UTC
I enjoyed this one pretty much! The situations are hilarious, and this reminds me a lot to a book from Eduardo Mendoza "No word from Gurb", I hope it's an homage. Thanks!
FranVadillo
16. Aug 2018 · 10:57 UTC
Nice game, it was really funny. Some problems i saw were that i couldnt skip the text, the interface was a bit ugly and i couldnt close the game. Also some music and sound effects would have been good. I liked a lot the people art style and the personality of the game. Good job.
Sn4pi
17. Aug 2018 · 13:11 UTC
That was a really fun game! You had an incredibly big amount of choices in every scenario. Some of them were utterly stupid and over the top, whereas some other modules caused a shockingly familiar situation that seemed very realistic! With some background music for every Mission, it would have been much more comfortable but even though it was well done.
Ana
17. Aug 2018 · 20:34 UTC
@sn4pi thanks so much for your kind words and feedback :) We were aiming for that combination of ridiculousness and brief unexpected moments of relatability, so I'm glad it came through! We also agree that more sound effects and music would have enhanced the game; in the future hopefully we can include more touches like that with a bigger team/carefully planned scope!
Jern
21. Aug 2018 · 13:36 UTC
This game is hilarious! :smile: I was not expecting to have so many choices and such a wide range of responses available. This was really cool. I just wish there were some sounds, even if they were some royalty free music tracks, because it got really quiet in my room while I was playing and sort of impacts the aesthetic of the game.

I made it thru the final round although I had to do the date mission twice because I whiffed it by talking about The Land Before Time. Emile just doesn't understand me. I played with someone else and we were both giggling the whole time. The dialogue is pretty great.

P.S. I played version 1.1 with the more legible modules and text-skipping accessibility updates which I think improve the experience quite a bit.
Chao
21. Aug 2018 · 13:50 UTC
Man, that was some fantastic writing. The idea of having limited space in your brain was really cool, and fit the theme really well.

Lastly the art was fantastic and fit the alien vibe perfectly. I loved how the texturing for the humans was literally just a close up of skin.

Overall, great job!
Rialgar
21. Aug 2018 · 21:28 UTC
Ahahahahahaha! haha! Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha! Ha.. Okay, this was hilarious. my favorite was the Ticket Person and Machete Combo, though I did not nearly explore all the options.

The Puzzle felt a bit forced. The first time it kind of made sense, but since a big part of this game is repeating it and trying out the different combinations it started to be just tedious 'reset until I get what I want'.

Maybe remove the randomness and just have the pieces be always the same, that would make it more of a 'how do I get the things I want in there'.

The art was awesome and I think I already mentioned how much I loved the writing.
Ana
22. Aug 2018 · 12:55 UTC
@jern @chao and @rialgar , thanks for your encouragement and feedback, we really appreciate it! Super glad to hear you guys found the writing funny; if it got at least one smile/laugh-snort out of you then we're stoked about that (regardless of what Emile/ticket guy would say ;)). We're also really happy that the art came across well!

Definitely see where you are coming from on the puzzle suggestions @rialgar ; we will for sure have a think about the randomness and what it adds/takes away from the experience! And we will look into sound effects/music if we have time too :)
samboyer276
23. Aug 2018 · 09:11 UTC
this game was soooo fun to play! I loved all of the dialogue, and the way you get to choose your available options is great, makes for some really... desperate conversations xD I particularly enjoyed being able to recite slam poetry to a cashier, have an intimate conversation about Crocs on a date and asking everybody about their thoughts on machetes... was a wonderful experience, very fluid conversations that must've taken ages to write to have so many callbacks to earlier points in the mission! And a nice and clean interface to boot. Honestly the *only* thing missing is sound, which is definitely excusable. Great job guys :D