TimeSlider - A Dopterra Story by Battlerager
The brilliant Scientist Pinky has just finished her ultimate creation: A synthetic being called 'Ant Queen'. But maybe this one turned out TOO well. With a mind of her own, Ant Queen sets out to break free of Pinky's Lab, and escape to freedom...
A short, time-and-space-bending puzzle game. It's sliding puzzles - but with a loopy twist!!
Controls
F4 toggles fullscreen. F3 toggles music. Rest of the controls explained ingame.
If you get stuck on a level, you can skip it by pressing F2.
Screenshots

Changelog
The version TimeSlider_Bugfixes.zip was released after the Jam deadline and fixes these issues: - Added missing collision objects on level "Nook" - Fixed the game crashing when zapping a crate, then going to the next level and resetting the level without zapping another crate there first
Credits
Made for Ludum Dare 47.
Uses ChevyRay's Pixel Fonts.
Sprites by Zach Lazarus ( https://twitter.com/zachlazymoth )
A Dopterra story set in the universe of Creepy Castle, featuring returning character designs by Krystal Fleming ( https://twitter.com/KrystalFlamingo )
| Youtube | https://battlerager.itch.io/timeslider |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/timeslider-a-dopterra-story |
Ratings
| Overall | 229th | 3.958⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 110th | 4.043⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 459th | 3.652⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1264th | 3.109⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 516th | 3.875⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 185th | 3.913⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 261th | 3.614⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 515th | 3.659⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 22🗨️ |
Also, I found 2 bugs. One is major bug, and one is minor bug.
Happened when resetting.

Moving through wall.

@neithr That crash seems to occur when resetting without having zapped anything in the level yet. Looks like I missed something in the cleanup that happens when changing levels. I'll fix it!
@cameron-foster Oops. That level was a puzzle I made before I started putting together the story structure, and I straight up didn't adjust the blockers to match the tiles here. My bad!
It's also a great example of how good dialogue can contribute even to a gameplay focused game like this. Most of it is basically a tutorial, but it's written so well and funny that I always wanted to get to the next room to read more of it.
I haven't finished it yet, but I'm _definitely_ coming back for more later!
One small nitpick: it would be nice to use WASD or a controller instead of arrow keys :)
The style is cute (but the ant sprite could be improved), and the music was ok but maybe too loud, I also found it maybe too "energetic", "fast" I don't know how to say that, but it didn't fit 100%, thought it was nice!
The restart mechanic is clever, it's a nice use of it and a twisting one! It reminded me a bit of life is strange. The zapper mechanic is also nice.
Both of them together add a lot of depth to the gameplay, and this game could be expanded into one that could be on steam.
That said, I'm glad it was easy enough so I could reach the end (I'm not very into this kind of puzzles), but I think you didn't get advantage of the depth of your mechanics.
You managed though to well explain the mechanics through your levels (something I really admire), it's just that when I learned them there was not a challenge afterward!
Also, the last level require you just to push 2 crates in an easy way, and was a bit disappointing!
Regarding the theme, it may be more about time loop than stuck in a loop, it's not out of theme for sure but neither fit that much.
I would have also liked to be able to change direction even if I was pushing a button. It's hard to explain but while I was going down I also pushed left but if I kept pressing down it didn't change the direction and was a bit annoying!
It's still a lot of work for only 72 hours, and it is very polished, so great work!
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
I love the art style and the colors.
Top notch!
That's a great game that reminded me of TimeFcuk for the way you tell your story :)