Idea Catcher——Summoning Tools by LDJam user 382819
🤔Hey everyone, after a grueling 48/72-hour challenge that feels like it's straight out of the gates of hell, are you feeling completely exhausted? Have you ever found yourself stuck in the game development process, so lacking in ideas that it feels like a barren desert, leaving behind a string of 'what ifs' and regrets?
😭Inspiration appears to be just within reach, yet it remains as elusive as summoning a unicorn. The moment we believe we've captured that spark of creativity, it disappears as quickly as ink that fades away.
🤪But don't worry, in our game, you have the power to change the narrative and become the hero.
😇Our protagonist finds himself in a similar situation, scratching his head over a creative block, lost in the depths of an idea drought.
👩💻While his body is seemingly trapped at his desk, his mind embarks on an epic journey. In this realm of boundless imagination, you take on the role of the mastermind, igniting a whirlwind of brainstorms to create a blend of familiar and exotic tools, navigating a path to the brilliance where ideas flourish, and helping our developer break through the barrier.And then,summoning inspirations！
🖱️And all it takes is a simple click of your reliable mouse!
➡️Just click on what you wanna summon and drop it where you need - smooth and simple!⬅️
➡️Just bring those inspiration pieces back to the start, no sweat, super chill!⬅️
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🤔朋友们吶，经历了48/72小时紧张又刺激的地狱历练之后，你现在是否疲惫不堪？在创作游戏的过程中，你是否也经历过灵感枯竭，从而留下过些许遗憾？
😭那些灵感距离我们仿佛只有一步之遥，却又遥不可及。我们想方设法地找寻他们时，他们却又那么轻易地溜走了。
🤪但是好在，你可以在我们的游戏里去尝试改变。
😇我们的主人公也是一个正在苦苦挠头的创作者，他也在经历着找不到灵感的至暗时刻。
👩💻他的肉身没有办法离开他的办公桌，但是他的脑子里正在经历一场大冒险。在这个脑海世界，你可以通过头脑风暴召唤各种熟悉又陌生的道具，规划出一条通往灵感的合理路线，帮助这个可怜的开发者打破瓶颈，然后唤出灵感。
🖱️而这一切仅需要动动你的鼠标！
➡️点击你想召唤的东西，然后把它放到你需要的位置上，丝滑而简单！⬅️
➡️把灵感碎片带回起点，毫无压力，非常轻松！⬅️
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🤨Here, you'll encounter a group of familiar friends that you might recognize. But there's something not quite right about them, isn't there?
🤨在这里你能看到很多你也许很熟悉的老朋友，但是他们好像哪里有点不太对劲？
🥰Of course, there are also some super cute critters keeping you company.
🥰当然，这里也有一些非常可爱的小家伙在陪你。
😎But regardless, here's hoping you truly enjoy the competition and fall in love with our game. Fingers crossed for a surge of inspiration and a growing circle of friends~
😎但是无论如何，希望你们都能够真的很享受这次的比赛，也希望你们能够喜欢我们的游戏。祝愿你们从此灵感满满，头发多多~
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Team Member/团队成员
Programmer：@bing-xie/程序：阿丙
Designer@bing-xie，@DrgCandle/策划：阿丙，蜡烛
Writer：@Echonobita/文案：小谢
Artist：@kerosuta，@xun，@Elica，@Echonobita/美术：呱斯塔，阿薰，Elica，小谢
Sound Designer&Tester：@Uzz2z/音效&bUg圣体：Uzz2z
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Log
15/4/2024 IdeaCatcherWindows_1.01 Fixed some grammar goofs. Sorry for the cringeworthy English that caused a few head-scratchers.
16/4/2024 IdeaCatcherWindows_1.02 Fixed a bug that was causing an endless loop of level reboots.
Ratings
| Given | 91🗳️ | 68🗨️ |
Edit:
Insane work, super puzzle games everything is well done.
Great to see that you've found something else to summon than monsters or spells.
Congratulations on achieving all this in such a short space of time.
解谜的设计点和流程也控制的很合适，只需要暂停和放置，结合非常好看的和画面和声效，非常的放松！
And thanks so much for your kind words on our game Call The Abyss <3 :*
Animation is cute and charming. Puzzles are interesting.
The different ideas of tools are fun too and the graphics are coherent.
Overall, well done :)
Also the cat is super cute! :laughing:
所以你的意思是抖音是脑细胞杀手,我们抖音玩家怎么你了(?
（我，打开游戏的前一刻：刷着抖音，抱着猫猫布偶，吃着烧鸡，电脑后台开着一堆文件夹，心想：坏了冲我来的(bushi）
The levels get quite hard though, I had to place stuff at just the right timing to bypass certain restrictions, like placing a search engine platform on the line the character is about to jump to so that he can go "through" the platform.
I'm pretty sure that's not the intended way but I couldn't figure out any other solution.
Eventually reached the third quarter puzzle piece but got stuck on the second level I believe (the one with 2 folders, 1 search engine and 1 return, 1 cat and 1 roasted chicken). It felt like I needed 2 platforms/bridges or a couple more folders to do anything.
I'm not sure if the puzzle got some mishap and isn't possible or if it's just a matter of the difficulty rising way too fast, expecting the player to know special tricks when they didn't get introduced in a tutorial level.
Given how many puzzles there are it's still very impressive.
I wish I could've seen it through to the end, I wonder what happens once the four quarters are completed.
Now, about that difficulty. My bad if the game's been a bit of a head-scratcher; we aimed for simple fun, but seems like we might've misfired on the 'simple' part. We'll take this as a learning and level up our game design skills for the next round.
As for item placement, yeah, some items need to be set down while you're on the move to bust through. But here's a pro tip: you can always pause the game to place your items. It's like taking a strategic timeout in sports, and it'll save you a ton of hassle.
Regarding that level you're stuck on (I'm guessing it's Level 3-3), I've gone over our design docs and the game with a fine-toothed comb, and I'm confident the resources you've got are enough to push through. If it's still feeling like a brick wall, might be you missed some interconnected details in the earlier levels. Maybe take a breather, grab a snack, and dive back in with fresh eyes.
Anyway, thank you from the bottom of our game-loving hearts for playing our game, and I hope it brings you buckets of joy!
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If you have the time and energy, would you mind taking a look at my friends' games (not mine)? They've helped me a lot in the past, and I'd like to return the favor. Here's the link:[https://ldj.am/$393695](https://ldj.am/$393695)
精彩的表现力与创意与关卡设计！
The only thing I'd suggest if you were to tweak anything is to balance the sound effect noise levels a little bit? Some of your effects got a bit loud for my headphones. Might just be on my end! Loved the puzzles though, and the intro animation was spectacular!
The idea we had was very similar to yours. It's very interesting how they are two very different games.
I was really shocked by the amount of comments and ratings. That's a great sign. The game really deserves it.
Congratulations!
I loved how relatable it was and how you had to dodge stuff like "nyantok" as I call it and use tools like doogle!
The artsyle is lovely and the music and sound effects are really good too.
The puzzles were simple but intuitive. They struck the best balance between difficult and easy.
Polishing is also very on point. Everything feels and looks smooth!
Overall, this submission was on of my favourite!
I'll be nitpicking now (just in case you wanted a few critiques), but here are a few aspects that were somewhat unclear for me:
1) The buttons on the main menu screen. To be honest, I was already caught off guard by the amazing art and didn't realize that it *wasn't* a cutscene, that I was waiting for nothing to happen and the 'Play' button was on the screen the entire time. However, making the buttons look even just slightly more like clickable buttons when not hovered over is probably enough to remedy this, so it's no big deal at all.
2) The fact that 'Space' could be used to pause (and that I could pause in general while still playing the game). I understood that 'Space' was used to begin movement (the giant 'PRESS SPACE' makes this clear), but it took me a few levels to realize that I could use it to pause as well. I'm not sure whether it was intended for the pause feature to be used while playing the game—though it seems intentional, as the player can still place tools down while paused—but it could still be useful to know regardless. Again, a simple fix like a tooltip/textbox informing the player about this would probably be sufficient.
Don't get me wrong though, this game is fantastic, very well put together. I'm truly inspired by this great feat your team has been able to pull off, and I hope every single one of you is proud of the work you've contributed to make this game possible. Simply put, amazing!
可能希望能有关卡选单吧，玩的时候习惯性觉得R是重启键，结果误触T键跳关了（
Thank you all. Our game indeed needs some deeper evaluations, and your presence has made the feedback process complete.
Regarding the issue of level difficulty, I must admit there were some bugs that led to "skipping classes" problems. The bugs were particularly concentrated in the "roast chicken" part. Since they were discovered late and did not affect most players' experience, we didn't make changes. However, if it affected your experience, then I do apologize.
And frankly speaking, our puzzles are not very difficult. Looking back now, perhaps I still have a long way to go in balancing the fun and difficulty of puzzles. I also sincerely hope to know if you think there is a better design for these puzzles, as we could discuss it.
As for being unable to connect with our expressions and themes, that's actually more normal and common. After all, such things are more subjective, but you have also proven that we achieved differentiation, which is great.
In any case, thank you for these evaluations, and thank you for your support.
Great Work!
Overall, a fantastic experience. Great job!
The puzzles are really made mechanics are used to their full potential!
I felt really clever for managing to cheese some of the puzzles, but that doesn't take away from the strength of the level design, it's a very well made and complete feeling entry, great job!