Brightly-Wrapped Boxes by incobalt

made by incobalt for LD 42 (COMPO)

It's your friend's birthday, and you've planned a massive surprise party. Everyone's invited! But maybe you invited a few too many, as they all start showing up with gifts. No big deal, right? It's just some gifts. Now, where to put them?

That looks like a good place.

Brightly-Wrapped Boxes is a small game about fitting a never-ending supply of gifts onto the table without letting any fall to the floor or making people wait too long for you to take their gifts. Arrange the gifts carefully around the table. It's ok if you stack them, but be careful they don't fall!

Stacked!

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Controls

Use the mouse to pick up, move, and place gifts on the table. It will show red when there's something in the way, but sometimes you can fit it in anyway. You can use the spacebar to pick up and place gifts as well.

Use A and D or the left and right arrow keys to move around the table. You can look up and down a little with W and S or the up and down arrow keys.

The escape key will bring up an options menu (with just volume control and a chance to exit the game). Time doesn't pass in the options menu.

All of the controls can be remapped in the launcher (except for the web version).

==============================================

This game was made in Unity3D 2018.1.0f2. I used Paint.Net and Krita for the 2D work, and the 3D was entirely done in Unity. For Audio, I used LMMS with some VST instruments from DSK Music and Audacity for the sound effects. The font I used in this game is called Peace Sans. It's by Sergey Ryadovoy and Jovanny Lemonad.

==============================================

Update: Aug. 13-Fixed a bug with some machines having trouble picking up and putting down gifts. Silly me put input functions in FixedUpdate >.> I split the input functions out into regular Update, so now people can actually play the game!

Windows	http://incobalt.me/Games/Boxes/Boxes_x64.zip
HTML5 (web)	http://incobalt.me/Games/Boxes/game.html
macOS	http://incobalt.me/Games/Boxes/Boxes_Mac.zip
Source code	http://incobalt.me/Games/Boxes/Boxes_Source.zip
Windows	http://incobalt.me/Games/Boxes/Boxes_x86.zip
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/brightly-wrapped-boxes

Ratings

Overall	504^th	3.149⭐	49🧑‍⚖️
Fun	524^th	2.904⭐	49🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	385^th	3.149⭐	49🧑‍⚖️
Theme	138^th	3.989⭐	49🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	447^th	3.032⭐	49🧑‍⚖️
Audio	366^th	2.856⭐	47🧑‍⚖️
Humor	308^th	2.513⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Mood	470^th	2.709⭐	45🧑‍⚖️
Given		42🗳️	39🗨️

Feedback

EvanM

12. Aug 2018 · 17:58 UTC

I like the concept, The game wouldn't let me place gifts down unless I was moving though

EX3D0

12. Aug 2018 · 23:50 UTC

Pretty good concept and it can be a pretty decent puzzle game.

I have two problems with gameplay.

1: The movement just feels awful imo. Once you get used to it it's alright but when you first start out, it just feels off.

2: The player's POV is way too limited imo. This could be as simple as moving the camera back a bit from the table to fix.

Other than that my only other problem is that the UI is missing some necessary elements (such as warning the player when a present has been out too long).

🎤 incobalt

13. Aug 2018 · 02:58 UTC

@evanm Which version are you using? The movement system and the placing system are completely independent. Most of my testing was with standing still while placing, so I haven't seen that behavior. The only thing that would affect it is if you were in a menu or some such.

@ex3d0 Thanks for the feedback! The PoV issue is one I'd definitely tweak if I'd had more time. Perhaps moving forward and back would be more helpful than looking up and down. What would feel better as movement than moving around the table like I have?

EvanM

13. Aug 2018 · 03:30 UTC

@incobalt the windows exe version

🎤 incobalt

13. Aug 2018 · 03:49 UTC

@evanm Maybe you should try the 32-bit version? I just tested both of them and they work identically and with no problems, but I am running a 64-bit system.

🎤 incobalt

13. Aug 2018 · 23:41 UTC

Testing on a laptop, finally, there definitely seems to be something going on with taking and placing objects. I'll have to double check when I get home to see if I can do something about this. Perhaps some sleepy coding caused the wrong function for input detection or something.

314owen

13. Aug 2018 · 23:49 UTC

The movement is a little awkward but fun little game! I like the particles when opening them at the end.

🎤 incobalt

14. Aug 2018 · 00:30 UTC

@314owen Thanks! I wanted to give the player a little something for doing all the hard work :)

🎤 incobalt

14. Aug 2018 · 02:19 UTC

Alright, I fixed the bug. It was a silly error that would have cause a bunch of people frustration. @evanm this probably fixed your problem!

Frank Gevaerts

14. Aug 2018 · 14:20 UTC

Nice concept. I agree with the others that being able to move back would be very helpful.

doomshmuck

14. Aug 2018 · 23:23 UTC

I liked the concept, and the graphics were well done on it too. Maybe I just missed it, but it wasn't obvious to me that the game would end when presents fell off the table, so I think that could have been made more clear.

Swini

14. Aug 2018 · 23:28 UTC

The oly thing i don't like is: the boxes spaw on different places and i have to search them. it would be funny just to stack the boxes. But its agood game. Good 3D and background music:)

NickTheSic

15. Aug 2018 · 00:13 UTC

I enjoyed stacking the boxes. I wish I was able to see a bit more on screen though, just so I could see which presents need to be placed. Opening the presents at the end was a really nice touch, good work!

netguy204

15. Aug 2018 · 00:17 UTC

I'm impressed you got the camera/mouse controls working together as well as you did. They were awkward but intuitive enough that I could generally achieve my goal. When I lost it felt fair: Like i could have avoided it with more careful planning. It would be interesting to see some variation like wedge shaped gifts that need to stack a certain way to be stable or goals that you want to build a tower of gifts to reach.

Ramanujo

15. Aug 2018 · 00:21 UTC

Nice concept, and the game looks great! I would only improve the movement system, it felt a bit cumbersome. The audio is solid, not too intrusive, but I would have like some feedback on when I'm going to lose the game somehow - either visually or audibly. Well done!

Ossi

15. Aug 2018 · 01:13 UTC

That was really cool! It was very satisfying to stack the gifts. Very nice touch adding a difficulty slider since it definitely gets really hectic real fast if you're taking your time to position the boxes. Opening the gifts at the end was pretty funny too. Great job!

comenoha

15. Aug 2018 · 04:33 UTC

Very impressed with the camera work, although I echo the idea of the cumbersome movement system. The angle just seems a little weird for placing the boxes, especially with higher difficulties. Other than that loved it!

AwiX

15. Aug 2018 · 06:21 UTC

Good Gaming Idea, Music needs to be improved Graphics good

Andy D

15. Aug 2018 · 14:29 UTC

Nice literal interpretation of the theme. I liked the idea of the game, placing presents and then opening them is quite jolly compared to a lot of violent and intense offerings out there. Speaking of intensity, I didn't really get a sense of urgency about picking up waiting boxes, so when I ran out of time, it was a bit of a surprise. Perhaps some kind of nagging would help? I found the movement was fine, and I agree that zooming out the camera might be useful, although I didn't really have any trouble placing boxes. Nice job! :thumbsup:

Nam Nguyen

15. Aug 2018 · 17:24 UTC

EXCELLENT camera work. I love camera work in game and tried to implement a cool camera in my game as well, thus I really appreciate the work you put in camera control in this game. Besides that, everything is very smooth, lovely music as well! The number displaying on top of the box don't really fit in the game.. if you have more boxes waiting in that position, maybe you can display a small unclickable box on top of a box already on the chair, and they queue up, so that would be less distracting than the text? The text really takes away the illusion of a ice comfort room where I can concentrate on my gift packing skill. I had lots of fun playing this game. For my personal taste, I try to put things as neatly as possible, and that takes time away from me. I dont know if your game could have some bonus for placing boxes neatly- meaning that the space between a newly placed box and adjacent boxes are small. If that could be implemented, thatd be awesome!! Anyhow, great great work!

🎤 incobalt

15. Aug 2018 · 22:14 UTC

Thanks for the great feedback everyone! I enjoyed making this game and I'm glad a bunch of you are liking the idea.

@nickthesic @ossi I'm glad you liked opening the presents! I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good effect or not, but I really wanted to give players *something* to aim for. Feedback for a good job and all that.

@andy-d I keep brainstorming for a good way to warn people that they're running out of time that won't seem arbitrary. Stacking on the stools seems like a good way to go, but that means that the gifts all *have* to be boxes. And they'd start obstructing vision, etc. It's a tough problem. I'm not sure I like the delivery of the boxes as they are anyway.

@nam-nguyen The camera is done via an animation loop that I'm playing with a speed of 0 and just setting the time via a parameter. It worked out really nicely, I thought. I'm glad you enjoyed the game! I agree with the numbers. I *wanted* to have the boxes stack up, but I was running out of time and energy at that point, so I went with the easy solution. Box snapping would be cool, but it would also be pretty tough to implement!

nicksmaddog

16. Aug 2018 · 00:01 UTC

Pretty nice concept. I didn't really like how obstructed your view was when you picked up a box though.

🎤 incobalt

16. Aug 2018 · 00:03 UTC

@nicksmaddog Yeah, I think I'll just remove that entirely. It causes more problems than it's worth, and you can see the box size and shape when you mouse over the table anyway.

bitdecay

16. Aug 2018 · 01:17 UTC

I had some unexpected behavior when picking up gifts from far away (It looks like they collide with stuff as they warp to your hands). But it's a cleanly executed game with an interesting concept behind it. I'd be curious to see what a multiplayer version of this felt like.

schizoid2k

16. Aug 2018 · 01:25 UTC

It took me a try or 2 to figure out that there were boxes in each corner, since the field of view is a bit tight, but once I did, I got pretty far and enjoyed playing and stacking!

Echo Team

16. Aug 2018 · 01:47 UTC

Aw yis, physics based gameplay!

I love this, and I especially like how the movement works. I think the fireworks are a nice touch, but it would be even cooler if they opened faster or at the same time :D

mike_inPrinciple

16. Aug 2018 · 03:14 UTC

I liked the physics in the game, and the ability to rearrange gift. I caught some of the as they were falling, and it was a great feeling. However, I didn't enjoy the timer on the gifts. It seemed unjustified and unreasonably short. I wanted to take my time with the placement. Did you consider stacking the gifts on the stools and letting the physics do the failing for the player? I think that would have been more fun. Just my two cents.

🎤 incobalt

16. Aug 2018 · 08:24 UTC

@bitdecay Yeah, I've noticed that sometimes they jostle a little when you pick them up and I don't really know why. The collider is disabled before I change its position, so it shouldn't be able to affect anything.

@mike-inprinciple Yeah, the stacking thing is what I wanted but cut because it had so many potential issues that I didn't want to tackle in the time left.

@echo-team It's certainly possible for me to ramp down the delay. It's set to a one-second delay at the moment. I just didn't want the sound to hurt any ears or anything by doing it all at once. Even I get impatient with it.

@schizoid2k I'm glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun to make :)

Bismark

16. Aug 2018 · 12:15 UTC

Nice game.

Gameplay is pleasant, but perhaps, at end of the game, add the name of received gifts (randomly pickup from an array) ... with some jokes for more "humor".

🎤 incobalt

16. Aug 2018 · 22:25 UTC

@bismark Yeah, that's something I could have done. I probably could have just put a UI element at the bottom that popped up when a gift was opened. Then I could have the player click to open gifts as they wanted so that they could read what's inside, rather than going on rails.

Fwuffy13

16. Aug 2018 · 23:45 UTC

I really like the idea. The one issue for me is that the movement feels very limited, so it's difficult to see all the presents. I think an fps type control would be good so you can move and look freely around the room. With the added functionality of being able to place boxes at angles too.

Nice entry!

🎤 incobalt

17. Aug 2018 · 00:01 UTC

@fwuffy13 I'll give that a consideration! It's funny that you mention placing gifts at angles, because all through the project I was telling myself that I needed to put in gift rotating controls, and just kept putting it off until it was too late. I was sure people were going to say they really wanted to rotate the gifts, but you're the first one who mentioned anything like that.

mccarlp

17. Aug 2018 · 01:16 UTC

Fun little puzzle. I would have liked to have been able to zoom out a bit more. Nice job!

Swordfish

18. Aug 2018 · 00:09 UTC

I like the idea and the distance on the audio was a nice touch. The graphics are okay, nothing very exciting though, and others have mention the movement is weird. I heard some coughing in the background at one point, seeing as you're at a party it would have been nice to hear some conversations that would add to the humor.

🎤 incobalt

18. Aug 2018 · 00:27 UTC

@swordfish If you could hear the actual, undistorted party chatter track clearly, it would be pretty funny. Recording fake party talk is a very weird feeling.

randomphantom

18. Aug 2018 · 01:57 UTC

Feel like it could benefit from a top down third person view rather than first person as it was a little hard to see everything going on on-screen, and the numbers racking up weren't visible if blocked by the presents so its hard to tell when you are close to the edge of losing. Can't tell if spawning an object would cause a chain reaction of falling presents, but I guess that's the charm of unity physics. Otherwise a fun concept and I appreciate the unwrapping of the presents (although I wished there were collectible objects inside!)

Gonzalol

18. Aug 2018 · 09:29 UTC

It's easy to play and understand

Wheffle

18. Aug 2018 · 18:43 UTC

Wow, everyone sent boxed fireworks for this party! What a coincidence! Nice little entry, simple to play and understand and pretty fun to go a few rounds with. Well done!

Quorusa

20. Aug 2018 · 22:06 UTC

Easy to play. But I think the music is not very fun vs the context (birthday party). Control feels fluid.
I like the fireworks at the end. :D

🎤 incobalt

22. Aug 2018 · 00:48 UTC

@quorusa I am not very much of a musician, so when I get something that doesn't sound absolutely terrible, I just go with it :P

ArtemFTW

30. Aug 2018 · 11:05 UTC

Simple yet fun game. Great job!