Fun with magnets! by Ithildin
I only used "Two button controls" as a theme.
Your goal is to lead as many balls as possible into the "deposit" area by using a magnet. You can control the polarity and activate/deactivate the magnet's movement along the bar it's attached to.
Beware of obstacles and specially wheels, that can destroy balls (however, there's only one at the last level and you may beat it if you only lose one of them, so this warning will better apply to a hypothetical post-compo version).
The web link should be playable on mobile devices. At least I've tested it on a Nexus 5 using Chrome.
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>>>>>> Controls <<<<<<
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IMPORTANT!! While it's possible to combine keyboard and mouse (left hand for the keyboard, right for mouse or vice versa), I recommend to stick to keyboard controls to avoid confusion.
I would have liked to set an intermediate screen with control schemes so that the player could select one and disable every other input, but I ran out of time (surprise!).
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>>>> Keyboard <<<<
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Keyboard controls emulate interaction with the two buttons on the machine. Since I wanted to adhere strictly to the theme, I only used two keys, too. This is the reason why you can't switch directions (I tried it at first, and together with the polarity it was a nightmare)
* F: Press to activate the crane moving the magnet. You can't change direction (the machine is old!)
* J: Press to cycle between polarities (or disable the magnet).
U and H should also work (for Dvorak users), but it was never tested.
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>>>> Mouse/Touch <<<<
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With the mouse or a mobile device you can interact with the magnet controls in a more direct way.
* Press left button: Activate magnet motor. Release to stop it.
* Swipe up: Change polarity to the value below the current one (it's displayed in the middle of the wheel).
* Swipe down: Change polarity to the value above the current one.
================================================
>>>>>> Known issues <<<<<<
================================================
* The motor sound effect glitches occasionally.
* Occasionally the ball repel directions go a bit wild because of some bugs related to the angle thresholds when they get close to the magnet.
* Probably because of the previous issue, you may see the balls overlapping. Hopefully this is quite infrequent.
================================================
>>>>>> Tech <<<<<<
================================================
* Haxe + Flixel using FlashDevelop as the IDE.
* Photoshop
* LabChirp + Audacity + Bosca Ceoil
* Fonts: Flixel defaults, except for the main screen, which uses "Visitor" by Ænigma and "Press Start" by Codeman38.
Your goal is to lead as many balls as possible into the "deposit" area by using a magnet. You can control the polarity and activate/deactivate the magnet's movement along the bar it's attached to.
Beware of obstacles and specially wheels, that can destroy balls (however, there's only one at the last level and you may beat it if you only lose one of them, so this warning will better apply to a hypothetical post-compo version).
The web link should be playable on mobile devices. At least I've tested it on a Nexus 5 using Chrome.
================================================
>>>>>> Controls <<<<<<
================================================
IMPORTANT!! While it's possible to combine keyboard and mouse (left hand for the keyboard, right for mouse or vice versa), I recommend to stick to keyboard controls to avoid confusion.
I would have liked to set an intermediate screen with control schemes so that the player could select one and disable every other input, but I ran out of time (surprise!).
------------------------------------------------
>>>> Keyboard <<<<
------------------------------------------------
Keyboard controls emulate interaction with the two buttons on the machine. Since I wanted to adhere strictly to the theme, I only used two keys, too. This is the reason why you can't switch directions (I tried it at first, and together with the polarity it was a nightmare)
* F: Press to activate the crane moving the magnet. You can't change direction (the machine is old!)
* J: Press to cycle between polarities (or disable the magnet).
U and H should also work (for Dvorak users), but it was never tested.
-----------------------------------------------
>>>> Mouse/Touch <<<<
-----------------------------------------------
With the mouse or a mobile device you can interact with the magnet controls in a more direct way.
* Press left button: Activate magnet motor. Release to stop it.
* Swipe up: Change polarity to the value below the current one (it's displayed in the middle of the wheel).
* Swipe down: Change polarity to the value above the current one.
================================================
>>>>>> Known issues <<<<<<
================================================
* The motor sound effect glitches occasionally.
* Occasionally the ball repel directions go a bit wild because of some bugs related to the angle thresholds when they get close to the magnet.
* Probably because of the previous issue, you may see the balls overlapping. Hopefully this is quite infrequent.
================================================
>>>>>> Tech <<<<<<
================================================
* Haxe + Flixel using FlashDevelop as the IDE.
* Photoshop
* LabChirp + Audacity + Bosca Ceoil
* Fonts: Flixel defaults, except for the main screen, which uses "Visitor" by Ænigma and "Press Start" by Codeman38.
| Web | https://db.tt/BPG7GFfD |
| Web (Itch.io) | http://ithildin.itch.io/fun-with-magnets |
| Windows | https://db.tt/Z0OmCKVv |
| Post mortem | http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/12/25/fun-with-post-mortems/ |
| Source | https://github.com/wildrabbit/ld34.git |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=15664 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.63 | 193 |
| Audio | 3.30 | 195 |
| Fun | 3.43 | 278 |
| Graphics | 3.69 | 198 |
| Humor | 2.70 | 330 |
| Innovation | 3.86 | 98 |
| Mood | 3.14 | 359 |
| Theme | 3.96 | 282 |
Maybe if the room was round, the balls wouln't have corners to get stuck in.
I would play this game with more levels.
@tuben999: Yeah, I'm afraid that's one of the glitches I noticed at the last minute, I'm currently thinking of fixing it. Maybe one option if I have the spirits to create more levels and elements is to revise that so that past a certain distance the charge just sticks to the front.
@Zener: Sometimes I too imagine the ball will bounce n_nU One of the ideas I had for other elements was a bumper (or even bouncy walls), but I'd probably need to be very careful about level design.
@blackname I'm actually thinking of a post-compo version with more levels (and some of the ideas that couldn't make it, such as switches, other magnetic fields and so on). Right now the only penalising prop is the wheel and it appears right at the end level, so it's a bit absurd.
The presentation is very polished, congrats!
The game seemed more about electric charges (or magnetic monopoles) than real magnets! :P