On my third attempt, I realized that the not-lose conditions were either: A) both have to be on white spot or B) one has to be on a white spot while both are connected. That "leap of faith" at the end of the second level was really brilliant. I took one look at the third level and realized that despite the deceptively simple rules that this concept can get really difficult. After ten minutes, I finally got the third level. Takes real genius to design puzzle levels like this especially with such simple constraints. I also felt the mouse + crtl controls was a really nice touch. Really great and solid game.

Nice, job guys! It took me a bit to get used to the controls since they aren't your typical WASD setup. Using the number pad would have been a nice option. The mouse controls didn't work for me, but maybe I was just not following directions properly. It's known to happen! That third level was difficult, but I enjoyed it enough to see it through.

(Played on the Web version.)

@injured Thanks very much for the feedback!

@zollmaniac Thanks! Yeah, I think the mouse controls need to be polished somehow.

Nice game! I really enjoyed the mechanic, although i agree that maybe just point-and-click controls with the mouse would have been better... Now, where are the other levels?! I want to play more!

sooo difficult haha but still quite fun :)

This is actually a brilliant puzzler that I almost turned away from due to difficulties with the UI!

It took me long minutes to get used to the visuals, and comprehend what they represent. Until it clicked I felt like I'm playing a buggy game with weird collision detection bugs.

I think it comes down to a single issue: my brain kept trying to interpret the view as an isometric view of a 3D playing field, where the servers are cubes and the internet coverage is an area made up of cubes. Note how the servers have a lighter center, as if it was the illuminated closest corner of a 3D cube! (I'm sorry if you can't unsee this after my comment :D) In actuality, of course, the servers are just flat hexagons, and the internet coverage is just the colored convex hull of the gridpoints that have internet coverage.

I think it you reworked the UI to help the player realize this, this game would have a much better learning curve, and probably retention rate. Some obvious ideas are to make both the servers and the coverage area just colored dots on the grid points, rather than full hexagons. The very least, get rid of the centered gradient coloring of servers, and either use flat colors or a gradient starting from one edge.

Great concept though, and some very well put together levels, congrats!

Thanks all for the feedback!

@nablaz I'll try to improve the controls. Glad to hear you want to play more!

@marcusnystrand I made these levels to test the concept and had no time to make easier levels XD

@ditam This kind of feedback is really really helpful! In fact, I feared that gradient would be confusing. I hope your comment help others understand the visuals!

I have to agree with what @ditam said; I initially thought it was isometric and got really confused that I was seemingly moving in x,y, and z dimensions. Once it clicked in my head that it was a hex grid it suddenly became really interesting and challenging.
One issue I had was that I found it hard to see where the internet coverage was when it was obscured by the servers.

Such a cool concept, but I had two big problems with the gameplay.

1. The controls aren't as intuitive as I would've liked them to be. Maybe experiment with a derivative of WASD instead.

2. The camera angle doesn't always indicate whether or not I can move into an empty space or not. It was just rather difficult to navigate, and along with the confusing controls it made gameplay frustrating at times.

However, I had a blast playing! Great job with this one!

@elephant Thanks for playing! I'll surely experiment with alternative controls.

Servers are hexagonal objects in a flat field, sorry for not making it clearer! I hope this helps clarify:


The game has interesting mechanics ! I like the fact that servers have asymmetrical radius, it gives interesting puzzle.
It could be nice to have a post-jam version, with more levels and maybe making it impossible to move a server if the move would result in death (I spend too much time re-doing the level because I didn't realise one server would be alone, resulting into a bit of frustration)

The game is very nice with interesting mechanics. Unfortunately the controllers are very confusing. I could't remember them all,

this game is really great and I was happy when I understood the mechanics which were really interesting. I found just a little sad not to have more level available ^^

Very fun game, congrats! Pretty addictive, the pitch is quite simple but you managed to build some deep puzzles that requires careful thinking. I think one direction to improve the game would be on feedbacks, for example hovering your mouse to a location could show you if the selected server will be connected or not (it would help smoothen the game's flow). The game should also be played only with the mouse, by selecting the next position imo.
But overall, very good job!!

Very solid puzzle mechanic! Had a little understanding what was going on at first, but once I did I think it worked pretty well. Control scheme was a little odd, but functional. Overall, great concept!

Nice puzzle game. Smart that you could design this puzzle just over the comp period. Really liked the thrid level, though may be a bit unforgiving as if you make one mistake you are back to the start.

Interesting and short little game! I would have loved to see more puzzles and mechanics. I wonder if a normal square grid would have been easier to work with?

@amkingtrp I'll make sure to solve all these issues! Next version will have totally new visuals.

@dodormeur Didn't think about that before, maybe "dying" just doesn't fit this kind of puzzle.

@slimbun Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to come up with better controls.

@kanda Thanks! I wish I had time to make more levels.

@azathothep Thanks for the suggestions!

@criobite Glad to hear it was functional :D I'll try to make the gameplay clearer, the tutorial should be more comprehensive but I didn't have time.

@chris-ac Thanks! Maybe it would be better to only allow valid movements.

@congusbongus I decided to use a hex grid because I wanted to use circular areas, and a hexagon is more "circular". Also, I wasn't sure this concept would work, and a hex grid seemed more interesting since servers can move in more directions. But a square grid should work just fine, I probably should try it.

Thanks all!

Brilliant, loved this game! Also, great level design for the last level!

Pretty hard to think through movement on the hexagonal grid, but the concept is pretty clever. It felt good whenever I figured a puzzle out. I agree with others that the controls aren't intuitive. Also, a rewind feature would be a lifesaver, especially when you lose the connection. Something like what Baba Is You has, where any action that causes you to lose control of the character means you "die" and need to either restart or rewind to the last move you made.

Great game principle, it was fun to master the different server rooms, congratulations on your game.

Thanks for testing my game, I read that the onboard graphics cards have problems with certain opengl3 commands.

I think, like the others said, that the mouse controls would probably be improved if clicking when an arrow was highlighted just moved it, and either an undo feature or just a prohibition on moving out of range and losing. I ended up stalled out on level 3, after getting most of the servers clumped together, which was disheartening to restart after.

I like the concept of the hex grid and tether though.

The 3 puzzles in this game felt like a perfect learning curve. Not too hard to make me give up, but enough to keep me thinking. If there were more levels, a rewind feature might make it much better. But because it's so short, no rewind also means no accidental solutions (you need to understand what you're doing). I liked the hexagonal grid.
This feels like a demo of a full game.

Great concept, the difficulty jumps a lot very fast, maybe a few more levels to just get an understanding of the controls. Overall cool idea.

Great concept, the controls made me kinda dislike playing it though, would have liked to see some type of point and click option so it would be easier to understand what you are doing. The puzzles were very well designed and really made you think, thanks.

Awesome mechanic for a puzzle, I would easily play a bunch of these types of puzzles! I played with the mouse and CTRL, personally I would have liked the next move to be highlighted on the ground rather than in arrow form. The stay connected mechanic was really cool, well done coming up with an original puzzle type for the game jam!