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Connected some crazy words :D it actually could be used to get some nice ideas!
It was a little bit laggy on my computer though

The words just stop after being connected for me, and I don't lose any lives or gain any points. Which is a shame because I think the idea seems really cool!

It doesn't seem super fair to rate it for most of the categories, but you have points from me for innovation because it's a clever concept and I'm sure I'd enjoy it a lot. :)

@nk-x-x were you connected to the internet while playing?

Sorry but I had no idea what to do. But I like the general idea, could be cool for mobile.

I was connected to the internet, yes!

straight forward game. like it :thumbsup:

@nk-x-x Ok that's strange then. Thanks for responding, I'll look into it. I'll definitely play your game later BTW :)

Same for everybody who commented! :D

I like the concept but had some thoughts on gameplay as I was playing. I felt the colors were straining to the eye since it was so brightly colored, maybe tone that down. Also I did not see any feedback on score or lives. No matter what I did, I did lose lives nor gain score. Its an interesting idea, but I think it requires some more work to flesh out the gameplay aspects.

@kevin-meissner Thanks for the feedback it really was unclear. I added a gif tutorial, let me know if that makes it any more clear :)

@legavroche You are completely right about the colors ! thanks for the feedback! And for the scores (and the losing lives which depends on the score), you need to be connected to the internet. Were you? There have been some other people having the same problem even while being connected.

@shakedimus Yes I was connected to the internet, not sure if there needs to be some more setup

@legavroche Ok thanks for responding again. I will try and find out what the problem can be.

This is a really good idea, even though it doesn't fit the theme too well.

I had an issue with connecting things though. Didn't matter what I connected, it wouldn't get pushed or pulled not would it give me any points or cost any lives. They just stuck together and that's it.

I am 0% pumped :DDD

Love the concept of the game, but I would have inverted the win-condition. My mind runs wild when it has to associate crazy ideas with each other - being passively penalized for what is, in my opinion, a great thing feels really frustrating :(

@trexxak Hahaha that is a great idea!! Maybe I should make two game modes: inside and outside of the box :D But did the scoring work for you and did you lose lives? Because for some people it just didn't work.

Huh. now that you mention it, no I didn't lose any lives, it just ended with the timer running out. Also the score was staying at zero, but I thought that was just me not being able to make sensible connections :'D

@trexxak Haha no apparently the scoring system doesn't work sometimes. It involves some scraping from the internet so I knew it was kinda unreliable but I got it to work for some of my friends. But ok i need to fix it, thans for the feedback again!!

@trexxak @celdur @legavroche @nk-x-x I​ might have a clue on why the scoring didn't work for you. Do you have Mozilla Firefox installed? I think I fixed it now, if you want you can try the fixed version on itch.io :)
And @ulcius do you ? That might explain why it works for you and not for the others.

Mainly use Opera, but I do have Firefox and Chrome installed, if that answers your question :D

@trexxak Yes! I think I actually fixed it now. If you still have time can you try it again with the new version on itch.io ? Thanks so much!!! I will definitely play your game by the way! :)


I'm sorry to inform you :(

@shakedimus I do have mozilla firefox installed and used, but seems like you already found the issue and fixed :)

@trexxak I found a stupid mistake in my 'fix', I cautiously think it's fixed now with the latest version. I understand if you're not going t try it. Thanks for all the help! Fixing a bug you don't have yourself is hard! :)

2147483600% pumped. I don't understand how the game works, it's weird

@shyguyberlin Did you see the tutorial gif? Does this help to make things more clear? :)

Nice idea. A few thoughts:

- It is hard to know how much core I gained from each connection. You could add a number that shows up as soon as you make a connection with the amount of score you gained from the words.
- The game felt jerky where every few seconds everything would stop moving around, then went back to full speed again (not sure if this is an issue on my end, I downloaded the .jar file).

@trogoq You are right about the feedback about connections. The score takes a while to compute, that's why there is a delay but I'm looking into how to make this faster and more clear, maybe I can show the score next to the connection as soon as it's computed. The game is not super smooth but it should not really stop, so I'm not sure what's going on there. I'll need to look into that. Thanks for the feedback!!

it works now! Finally my friend stopped being passive agressive about his pumped-level for my ideas :D

At last able to play the way it should be :smile: Thank you for the very quick updates! I had fun trying to maximized my brainstorming score. It got 8912%~, so I guess it should be good enough to made a nice project about it :laughing: Well done!

Haha @trexxak you earned this level of pumpedness! The passive aggresivenes was planned but I ended up making the scoring too high :)Thanks for debugging this problem with me :D!

@goutye same for you, thanks for helping me fix this thing! It was because of you sending me the error message that i found the problem :) And thanks for the feedback! Good score btw, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project ;)

Great idea introducing a word game in this Ludum Dare! I see you are working hard on the game and you also have a great cat companion haha!

I actually really like the idea of a brain storming simulator as a game! :) It worked on my PC, got me 4098% pumped :D

I think I would have prefered if you just had to draw connections between words, the challenge being to read, associate and remember words fast instead of additionally aiming with the grappling hook. This way you wouldn't have to click a word, then aim, then click again to form a connection, just drag a line from one word to the other. Pushing them away or drawing them closer depending on how well they fit is a nice idea!

@yazara Thanks for the feedback! I think you are right about the shooting being an unnecessary complication, I also felt that way after playing it a bunch after submitting. The way you describe it would also make it more elegant and intuitive. I think I will make a post-jam version that works that way :)

Good concept ! I really like the idea and how you still need to be careful of where you shoot.
I have to say that I was a little disapointed when school didn't match with demonic x)

@haoro Haha I feel you ! That's a major bug that will be fixed ASAP! Thanks for the feedback!

Tip: not everyone has a windows machine. You've got to export for the web or the other main OSs if you want more exposure.

Interesting idea! I didn't see much pulling of words together though. Maybe I'm just bad at associations...

Cool game. I really love this. It's a very original concept and it's implemented well too. Nice job, very polished.

Hey @convg Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you like it ! :) did you also rate it? Or are my numbers just not updating?

@shakedimus Actually forgot to rate :laughing: I've got it done now. Glad you noticed :)

That's a pretty cool idea! I found it a bit janky making connections, some things couldn't be connected at all, like I wanted to connect tax and annoying, but I couldn't left click on tax, even though tax was green. It'd be nice if you could click and drag the connection. I also wish there was more feedback, I often didn't know if a connection was good or not, and I often lost sense of time. These things were off in their own corner and could've made themselves a bit clearer, perhaps the background flashes or shakes when you take damage, and maybe there could be sounds to indicate a good or bad match? Maybe a little +300 (or whatever) points could show up so you actually know what the connection was worth? Still though, the idea behind the game is really unique and very interesting, I'd love to see this game get polished and expanded upon! Congrats on your game! :heart:

@justcamh Thanks for the feedback I'm glad you liked it! :) I haven't had any problems selecting words so thanks for letting me know I will trey to find the bug. Funny connection btw tax-annoying :D And you have a great point abut the feedback, although calculating the score takes some time so there is a neccesary delay but still there should be some feedback. Using the background is a great idea! I will definitely make a more polished post-jm version, thanks for the encouragement !

A really neat idea that's quite different to a lot of the games submitted for the theme. I love word association games so I was hopeful for this, but it was difficult to get to grips with. Using the left and right mouse buttons to select was a little counter intuitive, it would have been a lot smoother if it was just one button. I also don't understand why there were three different components to take care of, i.e time, score and health. Dealing with health when there is quite a short time limit is overkill, especially because it seems quite arbitrary when health will be deducted. The biggest issue for me was probably in the word association itself, as I couldn't for the life of me figure out what words matched up. For example, it looked like cat and lick didn't score any points, but eat and girl did, which makes no sense. It could also be quite difficult to match words at times due to the connectors; when shot, they would just latch on to the first word in the way which made it very difficult to get far off words. Overall, I think this was a good effort especially in the time limit, and with some more work and polish put into it I would love to play it again.

@anuradha Hey thanks for the feedback! You definitely have a point about the controls, it should be a lot simpler. The fact that you had lives to worry about was added to discourage players of just connecting everything but maybe it makes it a bit complicated. About the association score, I know it's not perfect but it seemed to work quite well. There is however quite a long lag between attachment and when the points are given (and the words are pulled or pushed)because it takes a while to compute the association score. Maybe it's because of this lag that it seemed the score was illogical, as it was actually the score for a different word combination. I should make this more clear. If you have time could you play it again while keeping in mind the lag. Do the scores make sense then? :)

Quite an engaging game! The words didn't move when I connected them - they always stayed in one place, frozen exactly where I caught them with my idea rope. I also didn't hear any audio, which I assume is some bug, as you didn't opt-out of the audio category.

The saturated pink background is not the best idea. it is tiring for the eyes to look at it and it makes it harder to focus on the words floating about. If you want to stay with pink, I would suggest something more de-saturated (like #D982A2). But it would be easier on the eyes to go for some darker (so the white text remains visible, of course :)) pastel blues.

A cool idea and a great job overall.

Got just over 34000 idea points

@fabula-rasa Thanks for the feedback! You are completely right about the background, didn't have time to make it a bit nicer to look at :P Thanks for the color suggestion :) I do not have any audio but actually forgot to opt out, if I do it now I was scared that it would change my rating number or something I don't know. I think the words did move because you have only 4 lives left of 7 and you lose a life when a word is pushed out of the screen. The moving happens with a delay though because the score calculation takes a couple seconds so maybe that's why you didn't notice. Also if the distance between two words does not differ too much from their 'natural distance' they will not be moved. Can you check if you notice the moving , keeping in mind the delay? Otherwise I need to check out this bug :)

@fabula-rasa Also if the words did move that's an awesome score!!! :D

@shakedimus You are right! I run it, observed closely and the words do move - just with delay. I wasn't (obviously) paying attention to the movement of the words that I already caught and connected, as I was busy with a hunt for others. But now I specifically looked and yeah - they do move, just some time after they are connected :)

@fabula-rasa OK thanks for letting me know, then it's not a bug phieuuuw :D Unbelievable score then :o

@shakedimus *tips hat* Why, thank you :)

14069% pumped! Hiper mega creative idea man! An idea from ideas for ideas haha. Loved the concept and is preety interesting what happens with the player's mind. Even though every concept is linkeable, for imposible that sounds, one's mind keep trying to give it sense. Genius!

@macdoom I am glad you liked it so much!! I really had fun (and sleep deprivation) making it ! I am indeed 14069% pumped :D

i love this concept. it's simple but poses a great difficulty for me as I am not a native English speaker. it'd be better if the captured words can also move, say half of their initial speed. nevertheless, great game!

@spookyfish Thanks for the feedback and that is actually a great suggestion. I planned on implementing some physics when hitting the words and having them just slow down but in the end I didn't have time so I did the easy thing. I will definitely try to add something like that in the post jam version :)

I think I understand the idea behind it...but...I didn't enjoy it at all though. Doesn't really feel rewarding to play. Maybe I'm just confused.

Hey @rik-thunder what didn't you understand? Did you see the tutorial gif? :)

@shakedimus yes, I did. I know how to play and how it works but... it just doesn't seem appealing to me :/ I'm sorry.

@rik-thunder And if you did understand, what didn't you like specifically? Can be the most valuable feedback to get!

@shakedimus let's see. So I was connecting the words but didn't know what to go for really. I know I probably should go for something that makes sense. But I ended up connecting a bunch of stuff until a lot just flew away, since it's probably decided to be a bad combo. So, what was the most fun to connect the lines was the method of shooting them like a grappling hook. but after everything is set and done...I was like "ok...so what was I doing?"
I probably felt overwhelmed. And in the end I didn't know "why" "this game idea is great". xD

@rik-thunder Haha ok no problem, thanks for the feedback! I had the same thing with a friend of mine. I showed him the game and he asked me if it would not be more fun if I replaced the words with coloured balls you need to connect:p I guess the game is not for everybody and it depends on how much you like making these associations. Thanks for commenting, at least I know then :)

The gameplay feels fun, it was a little confusing in the beginning but when i learn how to shoot and unite the terms was pretty fun, Great job :D

@elio Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it :) It is indeed bit confusing indeed, the controls and visual representation should be more clear and natural. I will try to make that happen in the post-jam version.

Hey, thanks for posting the game to my stream!

I like the grappling-hook mechanic and the word-matching. Like I mentioned on-stream I'm a bit slow at figuring out what words actually have any sort of relation, so some mechanic to let me gain more time would be cool!

Overall cool entry, if you polish it up a bit with audio and improved visuals it could make for a nice web-game or something. Nice thing to just play during a quick break or so to see if you can improve your highscore (if you do that, add highscore tracking, too?)

@iak thanks for the useful feedback and suggestions. I will definitely try to implement them in a post-jam version. And thank you for taking the time to type this out after already discussing it on your stream! Very handy to look back on.

I like the idea :) It's very interesting and original I feel. I got a good score in between.
I had a bug during one of the game, I wasnt able to click school after a while. I didnt see any other bugs.

I like the idea but then the shooting and connecting part seemed harder, it can be better to have a different colour or more of a highlight for the word from which we are currently going to shoot from. I made that mistake once in game.

I'm not sure of alternatives to the shooting mechanics tho.
Overall its a good idea and it can be improved.
Also, Im curious which api do you use to calculate the score/ similarity between the words?

Pretty cool idea, but I found it difficult and few connections made sense, and even less sense when they seemed like a good fit and still got pushed away. "Cat" and "Likeable" were apparently not a good connection, but maybe you are not a cat person. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Some simple music and sounds would have helped alot.

If this was a full release game I would probably have preferred a more casual approach where you just make connections with the mouse at your own pace, instead of aiming and shooting with a time limit. That "alchemy" mobile game comes to mind, if you know it.

@joamd Thanks for the feedback! The visual representation and controls should definitely be more clear, I will try to fix this. And different people have suggested of just connecting by drawing a line with the mouse in stead of really shooting, I'm looking into this. You're the first person who asked about the scoring system :p I don't use any API but for now I just scrape some websites, which works ok for now but I should improve this as you sometimes get weird connections as mentioned by @manderxan

@manderxan Thanks for the feedback! The scoring system also needs to be improved. I am working on it :) About the pace it seems people are divided so I am thinking of working with different game modes. And yeah music and sounds need to be implemented but I'm not great at it so it was left for last : p

Here is my playthorugh of your game

https://youtu.be/qgLdQN7hyKw

I had a lot of fun with this!

Fun game, enjoyed streaming it.

Cool game! I liked the idea, and has fun playing it on stream. Here's my playthrough of it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/617105091

Here is the VOD of me playing your game on stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7V3fBVIDM

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