Nuclear Puzzle Defense by macaroni.dev

made by macaroni.dev for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

3,000 years ago, a catastrophic event at the Caldwell Reactor initiated an unstoppable nuclear reaction. Thanks to the efforts of a single still-functioning droid, disaster continues to be kept at bay.

Help NANOTIM prevent untold destruction by swapping and matching tiles, and watch out for any potential reactions!

How to Play

Matching different tiles yields different effects:

Flammable tiles combust in a pillar of flame.

Subzero tiles rain down a chilling cloud.

Radioactive tiles emit volatile particles.

Metallic tiles summon a shield to protect NANOTIM from radioactive particles.

Noble tiles reset and temporarily stop the reactor's radioactive decay.

About Us

We are a husband and wife studio that someday hopes to make games full-time.

Nuclear Puzzle Defense was built in a custom Haskell 2D game engine we have been iterating on as we have been delving into Ludum Dare. The art was hand-drawn and animated in Clip Studio Paint.

Link	https://macaroni-static.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/LD/NuclearPuzzleDefense.zip
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/nuclear-puzzle-defense

Ratings

Overall	771^th	3.5⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Fun	708^th	3.452⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	445^th	3.595⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1055^th	3.19⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	838^th	3.5⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1256^th	2.833⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Given		17🗳️	18🗨️

Feedback

eupde

04. Oct 2021 · 22:48 UTC

When I try the link I get this error on the page:
This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<BucketName>macaroni-static</BucketName>
<RequestId>tx00000000000003cfb69f2-00615b846e-1558cb1d-sfo2a</RequestId>
<HostId>1558cb1d-sfo2a-sfo</HostId>
</Error>

🎤 macaroni.dev

05. Oct 2021 · 05:04 UTC

@eupde Thank you for letting us know, looks like there was an issue with the build. We've uploaded a new zip now so feel free to try it out - Enjoy!

https://macaroni-static.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/LD/NuclearPuzzleDefense.zip

zazz0000

05. Oct 2021 · 19:57 UTC

The game comes up for a moment, and then crashes with error
<stderr>: hPutChar: invalid argument (Bad file descriptor)

🎤 macaroni.dev

05. Oct 2021 · 21:37 UTC

@zazz0000 thanks for the bug report.

sorry about that - it's fixed & uploaded now, so please try again!

pstupka

05. Oct 2021 · 21:41 UTC

Works for me (new zip). Very fun game. Nice aestethics and engaging gameplay. Pretty hard though. I'd play the full version (unfortunately it lacks sound effects)

AreyWarlord

05. Oct 2021 · 22:28 UTC

Nice match-3 variation. Really fresh idea.

It might be a bit better if rocket moved discreetly and projectiles flew faster. =)

JPGFG

07. Oct 2021 · 23:13 UTC

Fun little idea, almost like a negative panic bejeweled with some space invaders thrown in. Had fun playing around with, and yeah it is pretty difficult. Thanks for making!

Mr_DanH

07. Oct 2021 · 23:20 UTC

Nice idea, I liked being able to choose the directional effect of the projectile being fired, I don't think I've ever seen that before. I think it would've been nice if the game ensured that you'd get some good match options since sometimes a block of tiles is just too random to feasibly make a line in time.

zookatron

08. Oct 2021 · 00:04 UTC

Neat little game, cool idea! However I was playing it on a beefy computer but was getting really bad frame rate issues which limited my enjoyment of the game. Also the flame effect from the flame blocks should really come down in a projectile or something instead of instantly appearing like it does, they way it is now makes it difficult to dodge IMO.

Tiago Cruz

08. Oct 2021 · 00:09 UTC

Good genre mix, playing a top-down spaceship game with bejeweled mechanics is really fun. Good job!

🎤 macaroni.dev

08. Oct 2021 · 02:46 UTC

@zookatron hm that's strange. We've been playing it on a '19 Dell G5 5587 without seeing any frame drops. Thanks for letting us know. I have a few questions:

* What are your specs?
* Was the slowdown present..
* ..from the moment you started?
* ..whenever the screen was filling up with tiles/effects?
* ..after a few consecutive games?

We're building an engine, so debugging these sorts of issues is definitely a priority :)

xpoho

13. Oct 2021 · 03:03 UTC

Смешение несмешиваемого! Три в ряд и стрелялка! Весьма интересно. Спасибо!

Keith Wang

13. Oct 2021 · 03:20 UTC

Interesting and challenging game. Definitely take sometime to be good at this because there is a lot to consider. Have to decide which direction to which block and dodge block attack.
Good game!

svntax

13. Oct 2021 · 04:32 UTC

This was really interesting to play! I think if the tile generation was more forgiving somehow, it would really improve the game's potential. As it is, getting tiles together gets harder really fast after a few rows.

VarunDevs

13. Oct 2021 · 07:13 UTC

Pretty cool love the way it it has both tower defence and puzzel type game

BarelyEvenGames

19. Oct 2021 · 03:44 UTC

Cool puzzle game! Love the art

kuro

19. Oct 2021 · 07:26 UTC

The art resonates with me. Mechanics are quite original.

Viba

19. Oct 2021 · 11:38 UTC

Really fun game and a great original idea! Only thing that I think needs improvement was that when I only have tiles on one column it's really hard to randomly make them have 3 in a row. Overall I enjoyed playing!

Yohsk13

19. Oct 2021 · 15:57 UTC

Yay (^w^) ! Nice game, good job ! Your idea was pretty close of what I planned to do first :p So I'm gald someone did it :p Idea is great (^w^).
Just like @viba said just above, sometimes you just have one column (or even worst an isolated tile) and it's really hard to get rid of them (o_o). But it was cool (even if after 5-6 try, I only went to ~73 seconds (t_t))

CiaranW

19. Oct 2021 · 23:07 UTC

This was cool. Reading the instructions I had no idea what to expect, but after failing miserably a few times I managed to get to just under 2 minutes alive. Nice gameplay loop, and it was cool to improve so much as I learned the game. Some sound would be really nice, and I think maybe it would be good to either lock to tile for movement, or have some kind of laser sight. Nice Entry :)