T O R O I D I R by Charlie Hall

[raw]
made by Charlie Hall for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

TOROIDIR RELEASE.gif Toroidir is a small game made for Ludum Dare 47. The theme of the jam was "Stuck in a Loop". Inspired by the theme, this game features a player object that moves in a circle on its own. The player will lose health over time, so they must pickup color-matching objects to restore health and avoid opposite color pickups which damage health. The player can change their radius of orbit with shift or space. Spinning to the center of the screen will cause the colors to flip.

Ratings

Overall 988th 3.37⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1002th 3.18⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 249th 3.852⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 288th 4.058⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 620th 3.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 772th 3.167⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1180th 2.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 850th 3.348⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

ZhepLine
05. Oct 2020 · 20:15 UTC
Great game. Good mechanics.
Juan García Jousset
06. Oct 2020 · 04:27 UTC
Feels very smooth, took a while to understand that the color changes when spiraling all the way in. Also I like the idea of being able to choose between starting white or black. The keybindings feel a bit awkward
Flying Dog Fish
06. Oct 2020 · 15:57 UTC
A very cool concept and nice execution. It's rather hard because the controls aren't very responsive and it's hard to judge how far from the center things are. Some concentric circles or just a mark (maybe a sun) in the center would help a lot.
JRevel
06. Oct 2020 · 15:59 UTC
Cool game, with a very interesting gameplay. The art style is simple, but conveys a smooth ambience. The only negative feedback I can give is the lack of feedback when you catch an item, at first I did not know what I had to take and what I had not to (mostly because I did not read instructions ^^).
TheGreenWorm
06. Oct 2020 · 16:00 UTC
Nice concept, played it for a bit. You can get quite good at predicting the actual path of the particle after a while. Love the overall aesthetic and sound!
tiffi
06. Oct 2020 · 16:03 UTC
I really love the grafics, they are simple but all you need. It seems like I'm really bad at your game though :D. Great work!

BTW: you must upload your source code as well, I know, nobody cares, but it's in the rules
Eugenik
07. Oct 2020 · 18:30 UTC
I loved it, it's a soothing experience.
MayChant
08. Oct 2020 · 00:01 UTC
Nice concept! The art style is pretty smooth, too. The only complaint I had was that my windows computer keeps asking me if I want to enable sticky keys - perhaps there are better alternatives than the shift key.
🎤 Charlie Hall
08. Oct 2020 · 01:45 UTC
@maychant Thanks for the feedback! The instructions probably aren't clear that you can just hold the key to move. I was going to add mouse inputs as well but ran out of time.
🎤 Charlie Hall
08. Oct 2020 · 01:48 UTC
@flying-dog-fish Thanks for the suggestion about a center mark. I was actually wanting to do a faint orbit line on the players path but ran out of time.
instrex
08. Oct 2020 · 05:59 UTC
Interesting concept, well done! Choice of controls is kinda weird tho.
🎤 Charlie Hall
08. Oct 2020 · 22:10 UTC
@instrex Thanks for the feedback! What do you think would be a better control scheme?
Ismael Rodriguez
09. Oct 2020 · 01:56 UTC
Nice little game. Like a spinning version of snake.

Friendly criticism:
I didn't figure out the the opposite colors were bad until reading the description after playing, I just collected everything until death lol. I think how-to-play instructions should be built into the game, or conveyed through design. It wasn't clear that the opposites were bad for me. Maybe screen-shake, or flash on damage would do it, or just spell it out right on the title screen with the controls.

The pickups appear to spawn randomly, so I'd occasionally just pickup something before I had a chance to react, maybe there should be some build-up time for the object to generate so I can avoid it if its bad.

The BG sound fit well, but I wasn't crazy about it. Like a boiler-room/basement hum. (kinda nit-picky, but just sharing my feelings)

Overall a good game, and fits the theme perfectly!
twobitjen
10. Oct 2020 · 17:32 UTC
Relaxing game-play. I enjoyed it.mouse input would have been nice as well nut i understand the time issues.
paulhocker
11. Oct 2020 · 04:43 UTC
really great idea for the game. i finally figured out that touching the black stars was bad. a bad sound or something could have helped out there. thanks for making this.
loligxp
15. Oct 2020 · 16:17 UTC
the game is ascetically pleasing, the gameplay is simple and enjoyable. It ain't much but it's fun ^^
peterfonts
17. Oct 2020 · 10:09 UTC
Wow wow! What a game! Puff... blow my mind... seriously, you did an amazing job here. The mood and vibe are unique the simplicity of the controls and the goal, but at the same time completely challenging and complex... just wow. I think you can improve adding effects FadeIn and FadeOut when the game finishes (game over) and starts again (now the change of the scenes are a little rude), with that you can improve more the mood. Also at the end of the game, could be great to add the player's score, if he has a new record, etc. with that I think players can play more and improve their marks (now they don't know pretty well if they are improving or not). This game reminds me a lot my old game LV: Light and Void. Congrats dude, you did an awesome job! \o/
Teto
22. Oct 2020 · 17:33 UTC
Really nice concept and original too! The black and white graphics make it beautiful yet simple. I would agree with previous comments about possibly putting some audido feedback fro picking up the wrong thing as this would make it clearer and just easier for the player. Really nice job overall though!