Grid Connect by Laurence Duffy

[raw]
made by Laurence Duffy for LD 39 (COMPO)

Reconnect the power grid by restoring power to the failing nodes.

The game contains a help section on how to play + controls.

Recommended to be played at 1024x768 on the downloadable versions - due to scaling, this is my recommended method to play, for a better user experience.

Grid Connect 2.png

Ratings

Overall 385th 3.231⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 428th 2.962⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 254th 3.269⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 226th 3.692⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 5🗳️ 0🗨️

Feedback

Mikronaut
31. Jul 2017 · 18:41 UTC
I really like this game. It looks and feels very smooth, and it has a great concept that I've never seen before. Unfortunately I wasn't using a mouse, so I didn't get very far when I needed to remove connections, but I still enjoyed it. One potential bug, the button to increase wire capacity didn't work in the HTML5 version.
Jupiter_Hadley
31. Jul 2017 · 22:25 UTC
Neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4BqGc9csNo
Kichex
01. Aug 2017 · 01:49 UTC
Nice Game, I liked the simple graphics but the lack of sound put me off a bit, but still had fun :)
wrexialmt
01. Aug 2017 · 11:51 UTC
Great little game! Too bad i can only play the webgl version and the upgrade system is bugged, but I see the potential! :D Got up to 30points or something with 10 wires, than it started becoming impossible haha :D
🎤 Laurence Duffy
02. Aug 2017 · 17:47 UTC
The wire capacity button is now fixed, cheers for pointing it out!
Chris_Grassi
02. Aug 2017 · 18:33 UTC
I must say, absolutely fantastic job
Aarneus
02. Aug 2017 · 19:52 UTC
Really cool concept! I also liked the clean graphical style.

It seems that the levels are too slow though unless I missed some way of speeding them up. It feels like you spend a lot of time just waiting for a node to appear. The appearing nodes also seem a bit too random.

The idea and execution is solid though, with a little balancing of the speeds and random placement I think it could be very addictive! I also appreciate the prompt bug fix and the versions for multiple platforms.
Erkberg
02. Aug 2017 · 20:48 UTC
Really cool game! In the beginning it seemed like it would be a bit slow, but well, that escalated quickly! Really great gameplay feeling cutting wires to connect new nodes under such time pressure. Some music and maybe a few effects would've been nice as well as something like an ending when you connected all remaining nodes. Still, an awesome experience, good job!
PapyKent
03. Aug 2017 · 18:47 UTC
Cool concept, some audio and maybe a bit of visual feedback would have make it even greater! (it took me a while to understand if I was doing the right thing or not)
Good job !
RobotsAndMuffins
03. Aug 2017 · 18:56 UTC
I like the concept and the puzzle idea is great. Although, at the end, you depend more on the activation probability that the own puzzle. But idea is neat!
wan
03. Aug 2017 · 18:56 UTC
A very interesting game, with an original idea. It was very straightforward to understand and fun to play. I like how the core mechanic yields interesting choices, like "is it worth it to power that dot with only 20% left? It would block my wires for ages!"

Also the minimalist style really fits the game.

With a few improvements this could easily become a cool mobile game to pass the time, the controls being very touch-friendly. My suggestions are:

* Replace the power percentage with a gauge that empties/resplenishes, that would make the board more readable at a glance.
* I felt the difficulty ramped up too slowly. Also the Large board seems to make things artificially difficult, I felt the small & medium boards were more interesting.
* There's a way to win actually! Too bad the game is not aware of that:

![](///raw/a8/z/88b4.png)

But good job overall, I'm sure there's a lot of interesting mechanics you could add on top of this to make it a varied and replayable mobile game!
harusame
03. Aug 2017 · 19:35 UTC
A good idea for a good concept ^^
Graphics are quite simple but it's effective to be focus on the game.

I like it, good job !
BroRawr
03. Aug 2017 · 22:21 UTC
I agree with the people above me, its a cool concept and it does its job as a innovative puzzler.

the only critique I have is that it felt a bit slow at times.

Great entry!
🎤 Laurence Duffy
03. Aug 2017 · 22:38 UTC
Really appreciate all the feedback received from everyone so far, it really helps me out!
Kthulhu1947
04. Aug 2017 · 09:31 UTC
I like the concept. I once try to do something like that. But I was a really newbie at this time. So it didn't make it.
I just had some trouble to remove wire on html part because of my Opera browser. The click/drag is a shortcut to open tabs...
Keep moving forward.
grena
04. Aug 2017 · 12:04 UTC
Well, I love this game! At first I thought the concept was a bit simple, but no, the difficulty is well balanced and it's pretty addictive <3 I love the "buy" new wires concept and the way it quickly stress you out when red cells appear.

Some things that could be improved:
- I'd love to be able to revive "dead" cells again, by connecting them, and have a realllly long charge time (ten times red one's, or maybe more), to have to deal with taking risk of powering up a dead cell or handle risky red cells.
- When every cells are connected to the power supply, the game doesn't end, it's a bit sad you didn't have time to implement it :)
- Could have been nice to have some sounds, it could bring more values and feedback to what happens on the screen
- I struggled a bit finding the way to remove wire (with right click), so maybe a short explanation could be done ingame :)

Anyway, nice entry, I'll play it again :)
wowods
06. Aug 2017 · 18:31 UTC
Good simple game. Hope there are some music or sound effect :)
mintarcade
08. Aug 2017 · 14:59 UTC
Would be great mobile game! Great game idea. Well done!
blinry
12. Aug 2017 · 10:46 UTC
Nice interpretation of the theme, and nice, abstract game mechanic! I tried the "small" level size, and found it somewhat too easy. Sound effects would have been nice! :) Also, I think a mechanic where you could connect multiple dots in one stroke would be better than current fine-grained connecting of two dots.
Belga54
12. Aug 2017 · 14:58 UTC
Great idea and great use for the theme. If you made some sound effects the game would be better. ***overall(4/5)***
Ellian
13. Aug 2017 · 12:04 UTC
Very simple; but fun concept. I'd love to see a more polished verson of it. :)
Satanos
14. Aug 2017 · 15:32 UTC
I made a LD39 compo review in which there is your game : https://youtu.be/Hbr3Mr1TRcQ?t=406 :) if you need a translation just ask me