Apparatus by JustinMullin
Always wanted to try my hand at something approximating a Zachlike game, so here we are!
Gather resources together, combine to make new things, automate a bit if you're up for it, and scrape together enough credits to escape.
Controls: * Arrow Keys: move, drag, menu navigation * Space: activate, select in menus * Shift: press and hold to grab+drag objects * Escape: cancel out of menus
itch.io page: https://justinmullin.itch.io/apparatus
Ratings
| Overall | 114th | 3.794⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 277th | 3.397⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 84th | 3.788⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 242th | 3.794⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 296th | 3.397⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 445th | 2.667⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 389th | 2.25⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 269th | 3.125⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
I'm not a huge fan of the movement. It feels sluggish and I would sometimes walk a tile too far and would have to take a step back. I also got stuck in the progression of the game because I didn't have enough electronics for the electronics maker, so I had to restart.
Anyways, it's a really well-made game. Great job with it.
I did get dinged by dead ends. First I ran out of a electronics and couldn't make the electronics-maker. It happened because I hit space when I meant to hit shift, and I discovered the battery before the second set of schematics was unlocked.
I really wanted to open the second lock and see more, but after I had built some automation I ran into a problem and trapped myself. Setting up an array of electronics production units along a treadmill, one of them slipped onto the treadmill and ran away from me. It get ran down the line to do the doorway, but there was a control unit there which stopped it from being affected by the treadmill. This also turned the production unit back on, which in turn blocked the treadmill. That caused a pileup logjam and soon my map was crowded with electronic blocks that were meant to ship but were't moving.
At first I underestimated the extreme danger of this situation, and spent some money to dig out a new zone so I could come around at another angle. The problem was I could not get to the units to move or turn them off, and when I moved blocks to get through they would instantly refill with electronics. I tried to time a pair of quick moves, but wasn't fast enough. I hadn't computed the consequences of failure in advance, and that was it.
Here is my final state: https://imgur.com/cxVnp6b
I guess I took your implementation of the theme all the way to the extreme there, huh?
That's a pretty cool game that this disaster emerged from the systems! But it was slow paced enough - which I enjoyed - but slow paced enough that I didn't want to repeat the early game a third time to get to the end. At least, not right now as it's getting late.
I felt like the art supported the game well, and the controls were thankfully smooth, and I was hammering out my turns pretty quickly. It's actually pretty easy for a turn-based game with animations to frustrate me, but you avoided this problem nicely.
Very nice and unique entry here. You accomplished your goal of makes a Zachlike I think. Well done!!
I think there's a bug, also, the last building (wich i forgot the name) seems to do nothing at all, wasn't it supposed to give you money?
Anyways, good job, very complete and fun.
It's pretty rare to see good automation based games. This one is pretty hard, I failed three times and the last one was pretty weird : I was putting arrows on the ground and at some point they started disappearing. "Oh, okay you have a limited number of arrows" was I thinking but even by deleting some of them while trying to reoptimize my path they kept disappearing even if the pool was smaller.
Other than that it's a pretty great game, I really loved it.
Congratulations on the entry !
I did get confused when I started adding propulsion arrows and others disspeared, and it was kind of sad that I couldn't build one huge factory because of that, but besides that the amount of polish on the game (even if it is quite small) meant I was quite happy to play it to the end. If ever you make a post-jam version of the game I would love to play it. :smile:
I have not played this type of game before, but I think the crafting system could me more complex. Anyway, it is already a game fo great fun!
I liked the crafting system though I wish it could detect patterns even if there were additional blocks adjacent.
I was getting some cubes made and started selling them but they were worth 1 or 3 each and the expansion cost 500 which seemed like too much grinding. I'm not sure if there is a way to automate selling the cubes for 3 each but I found it too tedious. Overall I found this super compelling and I hope you work on it more.
Definitely one of my favourite entries on this jam! Great job! :thumbsup:
Nicely done though!
I absolutely loved your game! It all worked really well together and kept me playing for a long while!
Thing is, when I reached the end, the game completely glitched out and got stuck.
This is what I see:

I can't move and my computer sees the application as non-responsive.
Graphics are clear (Having both controls on different areas on the HUD looked a bit odd at first, but after trying the pull/push myself everything was clear), sound doesn't feel out of place and the controls work smoothly, no weird precision or collision issues at all.
I think you've done a great job at your Zachlike attempt (and it's really addicting, this combination of discovery, crafting and space management works great!).
Amazing entry, congrats!