Displacement by ryannielson
Displacement is a Sokoban style puzzle game where you manipulate adjacent and distant blocks to solve increasingly difficult puzzles by clearing paths and activating switches.
Gameplay
Move the player while pushing and pulling all blocks vertically and horizontally aligned with the player. You need to clear paths and use blocks to activate switches so you can reach the exit. In later levels your energy will lessen with each action so plan carefully or you'll be forced to reset the level.
Controls
Move: WASD or Arrow Keys
Push: E
Pull: Q
Fullscreen: Alt + Enter or toggle on title screen
Download Instructions
There are Windows Mac, and Linux builds available at the Itch.io links below. Just visit the page and choose the download for your platform of choice. Just unzip the downloaded file and you should be good to go.![sokoban01.png]


Ratings
| Overall | 301th | 3.927⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 177th | 3.952⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 449th | 3.702⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 2529th | 2.093⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1705th | 3.25⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 832th | 3.397⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1310th | 3.351⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 62🗨️ |
But it does not come close to the theme for the jam though, which is ok since we all need some pressure to release something. :sunglasses: :smile:
Power off.
It's an awesome game. Its really simple, but I really liked the graphics. Its a good type of puzzle game. I'm not really into puzzle games, I'm more of the action and simulation type, but it was still awesome.
Had a blast playing it, though I did start out having a headache already and your game didn't help my problem :D thanks for letting me play u_u
btw: the shaders on the linux version seem a bit odd in comparison to the screenshots provided


The idea was to remove the red tile moving the others. Maybe other piece shapes could be a nice addition to your game too. (Maybe there are on the final levels, I only made it to thesecond Lvl with buttons)
Overall is a solid entry, you did a great job!!
The multiple block size is a great idea. That would really amp up the difficulty and the types of puzzles I could make. Thanks!
If you happened to miss me playing the game, you can go to this spreadsheet to find what timestamp I played your game
https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn
And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends)
https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos
The graphics are also very simple and nice, and I like the way the level floats a little, looks relaxing.
Great work!
I think the puzzles were well designed, but I had to disable the turn limit to beat the game.
Everything looks polished and the mechanics work well.
All in all, very solid game!
The concept seems solid though!
I was okay with the turn limit, since it was pretty generous on most puzzles. However, I would have liked to see it be a little less punishing for dead moves. If you're against a wall and try to move into the wall, or if you attempt to push/pull when there's nothing to push/pull, it still counts as a move. On that note, I wish the push/pull controls would have been more distinct in some way. E and Q don't inherently convey either, and even by the time I finished the game I could never keep the two straight. This wouldn't really matter, except that the turn limit punishes it.
That said, it wasn't enough to detract significantly from the game for me. One of my favorites that I've played so far, though I'm partial to good puzzle games. Well done!
**Edit:** I went ahead and fixed that issue. So now the counter won't decrease unless your action actually moves the player or a block. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Had a lot of fun thinking through all the levels, hope there were more !
The turn counter is an interesting way to try and counter "bumbling" to a goal, but I think the space of the game is too large to work out a solution exactly and therefore how many turns a solution will take, so you end up executing it anyway and praying you have enough turns. The lack of undo makes it more frustrating, as a wrong use of Q or E means you lose two turns, and might have to start again from the beginning. The last level was the most interesting - working out how to manoeuvre around a tight space, with blocks in your way, and only a few places to move them.
I think you could either
- remove the turn counter, make the levels big and confusing, and let players fiddle around until they manage to puzzle things out. Enjoyment there could come from progressing through the large level, and making small incremental gains
- or, make the levels smaller, tighter, and have a "perfect" solution that is the only one allowed by the turn counter. That way, the enjoyment is working out exactly which way to solve the puzzle.
An undo button would also work wonders - there's nothing fun about messing up late into a solution because you hit the wrong key and having to restart.
Sorry for the long post, and I hope it's not too critical!
I loved the game. Simple, yet challenging!
I would just add a bit more like blocks which have alimited abmount ov moves or blocks that can disappear etc. and polish it a bit, for example add some chiptune music, vfx and so on. I'd buy it. For sure.
Nice job!
We streamed the gameplay live on our twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/firesplashtv), watch out for the highlights of todays VOD ;)
I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and I appreciate you playing it on stream. I had a few ideas for other types of mechanics or blocks, but I decided to keep it as focused as possible for the jam so I could explore the push/pull/move mechanic.
Thanks for the feedback!
Love the mechanic, pretty cool idea
Nicely extended with switches and stuff!
Either way. Fun stuff.