Boxes and Webs by Unentokku
Game about spiders pushing blocks and making webs to defend their eggs from enemies within a limited area of space. Can you survive until all of the eggs hatch?
Controls: * WASD moves * X lays a trap * C Pulls a block * Q Remotely pulls a block * E Jumps * R Dashes * F Fixes * G Gathers a trap * Tab switches spider * 1-5 select a specific spider * Space skips a turn
| Link | https://mauno.itch.io/ld54 |
| Link | https://mauno.itch.io/ld54/purchase |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/boxes-and-webs |
Ratings
| Given | 0🗳️ | 0🗨️ |
I think this would work if instead of multiple skills (confusing with some many keys used) this would start slowly and add skills slowly.
Also yeah, slowly adding skills probably would have been nice if I had thought of that, I did feel like I probably should've added on screen buttons to remind you of and potentially explain some of the actions but figured that the green circles indicating potential target locations along with the text saying what action you're doing would be enough to get you started considering you don't need to use most of the skills that often.
- I think it would benefit greatly from a smaller tutorial map where players could figure out how everything works and interacts together, because being thrown into all of that was quite confusing.
- There were a lot of cool abilities, but remembering them all was not feasible, having some reminder UI would help greatly, especially if only available actions showed up.
It is also harsh to start directly into the game. Especially when you have that much controls to understand.
The text at the top is hard to read.
The complete essay frontloaded at the start of the game in a color that blends with the background is not a great start, and the description on itch "Use Tab and QWERASDFGXC to control." does not really explain anything.
Some effort has been made to explain abilities as you try to use them which is great, but again the font color blends with the webs and is just an information overload.
I would say in future jams the best way to improve would be to slow down on adding features and ideas, and focus on making a small set of mechanics that work well and are easy for the player to pick up and understand. The game state is also quite obscure for the player which is a great place to introduce juice and feedback, walking into enemies kills them but also seems to hurt you, feedback such as sounds/vfx etc can be used there to indicate whether its a good thing or a bad thing. My gut says you aren't supposed to deal with enemies that way most of the time but it's not really clear to me.
Finally the game is very difficult, onboarding is already hard due to all the complexity but the enemies are relentless, fast and come early. A variety of enemy types, some easy, some hard can let you ease the player into combat without being instantly overwhelmed, and making sure there is room for failure early in the game to allow the player to learn are both simple but effective strategies for fixing those issues.
Great job finishing and submitting such a complex concept! I hope to see more iteration in future for a more approachable game. Congrats!