PowrConnectr by JOrbits

PowrConnectr is a game where you have to connect a power source (a battery) with a microchip to get to the next level. This mechanic is used to create some interesting levels (18 if you not count the end screen).
The game is made with unity and runs in the browser.
Game (HTML): https://jorbits.itch.io/powrconnectr
Sources: https://jorbits.itch.io/powrconnectr
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/powrconnectr |
Ratings
| Overall | 68th | 3.872⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 60th | 3.809⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 193th | 3.426⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 233th | 3.681⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 246th | 3.489⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 224th | 3.13⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 480th | 1.677⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 198th | 3.286⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 12🗨️ |
It took me a while to beat the level with the 3 different colored linked conduits, but I got it!
Sound is simple and appropriate. Graphics are also simple, appropriate, and rather nice looking. This is one of the best entries I've seen, and deserves a lot more attention. Great work!
My only gripes with the game was that the mechanic for connecting power to a red node caused an instant failure of the puzzle and the colored tiles all moving simultaneously weren't well conveyed (to me at least) and it took a few more puzzles than I believe was intended before I really grasped those concepts.
The instant failure probably could have been handled better by making it more obvious to the player (at least near the beginning of the game) that the level has reset back to its original state (perhaps having each tile rotate itself back to their default states).
The colored tiles all moving simultaneously issue I ran into was because of misreading the puzzle fail text (because it was showing up behind the puzzle for some reason) and thinking that the red power drain nodes also had the same logic applied to them for the red colored tiles. Perhaps this could have been better conveyed by avoiding the use of red for pipes.
Either way, small misunderstandings about the game's mechanics that were eventually properly understood to eventually complete this overall very nice game.
The mechanics allowed for fun levels which created a lot of fun solving.
Rounded out with the nice music and visuals make for a great game. Good job!
I think if you added some sort of timer so that the longer it took for you to solve the puzzle, the less energy would make it to the end, and then give the player a little feedback on how they did like '3 stars' if you get most of the energy, '2' for medium, and '1' for low, and you fail the level if all the energy runs out before you finish. I just think that would fit the theme a lot better.
Besides that, the audio and visuals worked well together and added a nice puzzle feel to the game
A strong and polish puzzle game.
A very solid entry, that does everything it set out to, and does it well. Great job!
Oh also, I would add a little indicator of the direction a block will spin just as a nice quality of life thing so you know if you are about to kill yourself by connecting to a red block.
In the 18th level the lights of microships light with just one pile but it needs two piles to win the level.
Likes:
- great tutorial levels
- stops talking only to let you make mistakes and learn the hard way at just the right moments
- tricky puzzle mechanic
- if you click first, think later, you're gonna have a bad time :)
- crisp pixel graphics
Try differently:
- I like the soundtrack, but it could use a bit more variety
Overall:
- rather solid puzzle that you could see just as well on any of the app stores. :)
The only thing that I got confused about was one of the levels required multiple batteries to power a colored core. I'm not sure if that was explained and I missed it, but it did hang me up for a minute.
For the ones that share rotation, I guess it was fine to just learn it by doing that one time and dying lol, but maybe a little text on them like "pair A", "pair B", so it's more obvious at a glance that they're linked in some way. Otherwise, I thought you left things for us to intuit really well. Like RED CORES., soon as I saw that I was like "I'm not putting power to those!"
One small 'glitch'(if you will): I think 2 or 3 levels after you introduce 2 blue core levels, there's a level with the battery on the left, a set of straight green 'paired track' and the two cores on the right. The core on top had an immovable vertical track in front of it such that it's impossible to power both cores, but clicking on the bottom core advanced me anyway.
As @remzo stated, the level progression seems strange, as we got to play with pairs of colored tiles that are locked together before the "tutorial" level with 2 green tiles that serve to introduce this new twist.
I understand that the draining red cores may have been put there to better fit the theme, but I'm not entirely sold on them. I like that they make you think twice before rotating tiles around them, but I don't like that they make you restart the whole level. Maybe a middle ground would be better for larger levels. But then again, it's only a minor annoyance.
It seems that we can also get stuck on a level without any way to restart, or fail: I got stuck by powering a level core instead of a colored core, and had no more batteries to connect to. Reloading the page could be a solution if progress was saved, but it doesn't seem to be the case right now.
Still a very solid entry, congratulations on your work!