It looks like Mendeleev's table for me... hic!

@xpycm so true! It was not on purpose!

I really enjoyed this. Pretty intuitive which is always good. I liked that you took time to add board resizing options and an easy mode. Nice entry!

This game feels very polished and beautiful. Great game. Thanks for making it.

I like how you interpreted the theme! I'd change the music to something more engaging, the simple beat gets annoying really fast.
Overall it's a nice simple game, keep it up!

@simplepotential thank you for your comment. That's the advantage to go fully procedural, although the text can become a bit small.
@henrik-ganard, thank you for your kind words
@x000000, yeah I agree with you, I wanted something to mark the bit and the feeling of tension from the ten-second constraint. I had envisioned adding music over the drumkit based on the tiles that you remove (like that boards where each row is a pitch and each column a bit). But I had only about 12 free hours this week-end.

Ended my run at 1960 - whether that's good, I don't know! I found it easier to match letters since they're like symbols at a glance, so I always went for those first :) It's a creative take on the theme, nice job!

Sound design is really nice

Really fun and unique! I think it might help to put the similarities in a tooltip as you hover over tiles. I ended up not really looking at the points because it was so far away from the game board. Overall, I really enjoyed it!

Oops, didn't mean to add empty comments! The publish button was glitching out.

Really fun and unique! I think it might help to put the similarities in a tooltip as you hover over tiles. I ended up not really looking at the points because it was so far away from the game board. Overall, I really enjoyed it!

Thank you @enver-arco
Thank you @shimmerscale, it would have been nice indeed to have the info closer to the focus point! Unfortunately I am using a dirty trick to fade elements ( the refresh background is semitransparent) overlay would messed that up...

I'm not sure that this game needed the theme. There's a lot going on!

That being said... wow, this was excellent! One of my favorite entries. I love how you defined "similar" and quantified it then. I really think you have the start of a really cool puzzle game here.

Does it need the timer? Does it need levels? I don't know, there's so many variables at play here. This is really a genius submission, top marks in innovation for me. Nicely done!

@pbg thank you for that awesome review, I am glad you enjoyed the game!

The theme is what got me to the idea of finding a second "something" and not a pair... I don't know if that makes any sense (maybe that works better in french...). Hence also the timer is a late addition, to get a bit more to the every ten seconds, because I was not sure that my interpretation would make any sense.

You can fake level by adjusting the board size (on the hosted version not on the embedded version)
You can remove the timer in the easy mode

Have you found some of the easter eggs in the similar ?

Simple but enjoyable! Kept thinking of different ways I could 'chunk' areas to try and recall similar where similar items are. Found myself much more drawn to numbers than letters. I'd be curious to play with the code and rules and see how it feels with different settings. Nice work!

@davidbradbury thank you! License is MIT on github, Feel free to fork it, star it, play with it ! Let me know if you find interesting variations

Nice take on the theme, and a very fun and polished entry. I though for a while that I was supposed to search for exact matching tiles, but once I understood how the scoring system works it became really fun. Great job!

interesting tile game. makes a change from scrabble!

Really engaging. It's a "find the pair" kind of game with twists. The scoring system takes time to fully understand, so maybe a better visual indicator for points would be a good idea (like, text over the cursor when you click a pair)


##### Semi-on-the-fly remarks:

From the description: this is some witty punny way of incorporating the theme through a double meaning!

> the idea was to have […] that also created by AI as well as the sound Design. […] If I can I’ll make a Fully AI-assisted game for ld52

Beware! This is authorized for the Jam and Extra formats, but **not** for the Compo format, as stated [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51). ‘Please submit games built with AI art generators as Jam or Extra games, not Compo’

There has been quite an argument about the subject, because using advanced AI techniques (especially for graphics) can be seen as borrowing material instead of creating it by oneself. The current decision is that it makes sense for Jam (and Extra), but not Compo.

> All colors should be different across all color blindness that I could check. […] However, it doesn’t make it colorblind-friendly

Haha, I had the exact same colourblindless problem! XD I did not have time to implement my simple solution (ie showing one number per colour), but I think I will do it for accessibility reasons.

1. In the Ludum Dare embedded version, the instructions page is written in black over dark, which makes me select so I can read; maybe is it due to my system? Ah, the other navigator one is black on white! (I should have tried this one before reading the first. X))

1. (I am using Firefox, by the way.) The Ludum Dare embedded version is not working properly for me: clicking on the link to start does nothing. Looking at the console, it looks like the game is not loaded properly: I get multiple ‘Content Security Policy’ errors saying that the page parameters prevented some resource from loading, and also that reference ‘p5’ is undefined. So, using the other version from now on! (Those embedded and navigator versions are often a mess to make properly work, I have had my share of trouble, as you have seen…)

1. The concept seems original to me! Although I am far from knowing enough such board games to compare. This one looks like a game Rain Man would enjoy. ;) Somehow, it reminds me of Bingo. I know it is different, but looking for figures to cross is a commonality.

1. The music is only *sometimes* dissonant, with an impression of two desynchronised drums, but other than that, I feel that it really gives you the one-second rhythm countdown beat well. Although it can somewhat get unnerving, but this may be cause by my lacking sleep (my head even hurts a little!), so, semi-discard that.

1. As to playability, agreed with shimmerscale for having the comparison information more visible; I think another solution that would fit your technical limitation (ie transparent background trick) would be to have it displayed super big at the left-hand side of the screen, since there is nothing there. :) Actually, testing the board in minimal size (5×5), I see the indications get bigger and already more noticeable, so this might really work.

1. Visually, it looks very neat and even professional; I especially enjoy the set of colours, very harmonious yet sober.

1. On gameplay: I think a big parameter that influences how one plays the game is **perfectionism**. For example, I am so fussy that I tend to only look for exact pairs or at least the same symbols, and it does cost me something to reluctantly go for a half-baked ‘pairing’. I agree with SimplePotential that this is played intuitively; I was afraid the game would be complicated because of the length of the initial instructions page, but this is a classic symptom of having to convey a lot without enough time to teach things in game (implicit tutorials can take time to conceive, and it seems it would be uneasy here seeing the abstract nature of the game).

(1/2)

(continued: 2/2)

8\. Indeed great to have options for size and easy mode; I feel one thing that could give more punch would be an option regarding the frequency of card disappearance, but this would violate the theme, except if you only retain one of your two interpretations of it… **Suggestion:** either by option or as time goes by, **increase the number of cards** that get knocked down every ten seconds! I am sure this easy trick would inject more tension. :)

9\. I am very curious as to what these Easter eggs are… I tried clicking some words from the instructions text and got a sound, so I thought that was it, but it was merely the sound of my clicking on tiles that were hidden behind the splash screen. Silly me. I am not sure what is meant by ‘in the matching’. Looking at the code: all right, silly me once again, it meant funny or unusual properties/characteristics. X) (And there are six rather than five? Except if the shape-related one is not a proper Easter egg.)

**Takeaway:** very neat yet sober presentation for a witty twist on the theme; there could be some more tension, but this would be very easy to add by merely tweaking some parameters, so this is really not that serious a criticism.

Thank you for the game. :) (And my first proper test here — including for Ludum Dare ever —, because I wanted to get out a proper post-deadline version of my game first before churning out reviews, but since you saved my navigator version’s life, I thought that emoji cookie was not enough.)

This was great! It's nice to see a game that is different from all the rest. What game engine did you use? I think the ability to get *some* points from just about any match alleviates some of the difficulty/stress that comes with traditional matching games (which I do not personally enjoy).

@thegamearchitect @alaah thank you for playing and writing a comment!
@cafebeef I used P5.js for primitive drawing and mouse event (move and click) and playing sound. everything else is made on the fly.
@mossieur-patate Whaouh! that's the best, in-depth review I have ever seen! Thank you very much, you humble me!

I understand and respect the rules for advanced Ai generated being too much but at heart, I disagree with it. (I come from the computational creativity research field and I have a lot to discuss about it!).

1. Maybe materialize css apply dark mode ? I haven't focussed much on the style there
2. Untested, thank you I'll look into that.
4 its randomly a 10 again 7 or a 10 again 9. While behind the same 10 bit loop run a 1.414 rate so you will sometimes hear it out of sync
5. Yep, yep dully noted, maybe I'll had just an image in this page description of what to look for.
6. I let a review to someone on the importance of tutorial mode. Clearly going from a small to bigger board size would allows that (2x1, 2x2 and 5x5 then 10x10) but that means a lot of additionnal game logic.
8. I could add an HARD mode in addition of the easy mode
9. Easter egg are some of the keywords the tiles have. Some pairs are "funny"

This game seems to tap into how brains of individuals work. In my case that meant staring frozen 90% of the time as I was looking for most perfect one among too many options. Eventually I figured the only way to move faster is do the opposite, just select random block and then wiggle the pointer around until a high enough number appears.
Loved the color scheme and how everything looks neat. Pretty solid for a Compo entry.

@kr4ft3r True! Random search seems too work well. I had tried to adjust the scoring system so that pure random would just break under even, but could not find the time. For an actual game balancing the score system is in order

Nice meditative game. If I had the strength, I would make a bot to autoplay it and see how many points I can get :D

I appreciate slower-paced word games like this one. Losing a tile every ten seconds felt like just the right amount of pressure. I struggled to find any easter-egg style combos (is Princeton one? if so, I didn't get it), and my inner child was sad that 6+9 didn't offer more points, same with 4+20 or adding up to 100 even. Either way, great entry, very enjoyable word game! :tada: I also like your tech stack, I'd love to see more web-native entries.

@bloodyaugust You were on the right track with the inner child easter egg, but it was more straight forward than 6 and 9!

As I was playing I thought it would make a good meditative game, were it not for the constant ticking countdown. But then I realised it's actually a good mix of freedom and time pressure; it forces you to make (semi-)quick decisions rather than scouring the entire board for the best move.

@jonathang thank you for the review!
You can play Easy Mode without the disappearing tiles and you can also mute the terrible ticking soundtrack for a more focus/intense mode :)

Interesting puzzle!

I ended up just staring at the sidebar when hovering over random tiles. Maybe the combinations could show up over the tile you're hovering over instead to facilitate looking at the grid?

I really like the concept. Easy rules, but interesting gameplay.

Nice idea and very nice implementation.
Only the music is a bit annoying^^
I also tried Copilot already, its sometimes crazy with what it comes up.

It is very busy and a bit overwhelming especially at first. I think having a smaller board to start out with might help with that. I did see where you could change the board size and that helped me focus a bit better, though I did find a bunch of exact pairs on the larger board. Graphics are colorful and I like the minimal drum sounds to indicate the ticking down of the time. Nice job.

I like the idea, but I believe it could be improved by having more levels where you start from a small board and then at each level the board is a bit bigger. I also didn't manage to spend much time looking at the stats I would get from the different combinations as I was mostly busy looking for matching cards, especially the same number or letter and it turned out to perform quite well because that led me quickly to a new board way before all the cards would be depleted.

The music gets repetitive quickly. I know it's a choice you made but for this kind of game I find that some easier background music would be much better.
Overall it is a nice entry, especially considering it is a compo one.

@tanis @recursor thank you for the review!

Indeed you can change the board size from the controls and try different levels!

I should have implemented levels / tutorials but I had spent a very short amount of time balancing the score and tile rewards, and it probably don't scale well. It felt overkill for a competition/ I had a about 12hours of free time this week end and not the full 2 days.

But clearly it should have gone 2x1 (discover the ui) , the 2x2 (find the best match), 5x5 (discover the replenish mechanism) 8x8 or 10x10 for the final level.

Music is indeed terribly repetitive even with the random loop going on. I wanted to add generative music based on the pentatonic scale, but I had not played with p5.sound.js and didn't want to screw things.

Very original approach to the theme! Loved it!

Haha! This worked for me, both the gameplay and the fun interpretation of the theme. It could benefit from some way for the player to get a peek inside the criteria that are used to determine similarity between items. I was surprised by how few points I got when matching, for instance, a 79 and an 80 of the same color. To me, that's worth 40 points! But hey, fair's fair. Here's a score challenge for future folks:


Thank you @caeonosphere the idea is to find a second. So a second 79 or a second blue tile, a second uppercase vowel... So indeed consecutive are worthless.

Some Easter eggs are hidden

- They are some secret criteria
- They are pair that are worth more

@dhim Ah, I see. It could be cool to give some partial credit, though!

@caeonosphere it was
Very hard in the current implementation to do that...

Nice game, and this was my **Score: 1840**

I liked the concept a lot :)

One thing that I'd suggest is to use a font which avoids confusion between some symbols (like between lowercase L and uppercase I, O and 0, and so on). Maybe a serif font (but then it should be one where 1 (one) and l (lowercase L) look different - they look almost the same on the text box I'm writing this 😅)

@wendel-scardua, true, It was intended as one of the easter egg (I, l, 1 should have the same class and so be pair of Vertical Line) I forgot that in the end. It works for the O and 0

@dhim ooooh, if that's intentional then it's an awesome idea :) (and it's sad that you couldn't implement it before the end)

Cool and unique game, i like it! reminds me to a scrabble game, I find it a little hard to make good matchs but managed to make more than a 1000, I enjoy it, nice work!