Gridroots by Auroriax

[raw]
made by Auroriax for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Draw the roots of a tree, filling every space on the grid and satisfying the clues on the side. Developed using my fork of Puzzlescript.

Controls: Drag left mouse button to place lines, drag right mouse button to remove them. [Z] to undo, [R] to restart, [Esc] for level select

Rules:

1) Round circles are trees. Roots can branch from this point. You can't add roots here yourself.

2) Place one root (drawn as lines) on each tile. Roots can either be straight or a 90 degree turn. All roots must connect to the tree. (Three- or four-way crossings are not allowed.)

3) All roots must finish with a dead end: they cannot connect to other roots. (Sometimes, roots may already placed.)

4) Rows or columns with a number must contain exactly that amount of 90 degree turns, marked with the red dots. (The tree also counts as a dot.)

Uses the Kitchen Sink font by Retroshark and Polyducks.

Screenshot_11.png

Ratings

Overall 680th 3.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 637th 3.521⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 190th 3.938⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1625th 2.938⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1338th 3.25⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1126th 2.804⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1393th 1.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1438th 3.068⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

oeschmid
27. Apr 2021 · 20:59 UTC
Some nice puzzles! I got stuck on lvl 5, but I'll be coming back to it later. Also valuable to learn about this other puzzlescript fork.

The only thing I'd suggest is implementing a way to use the mouse to backtrack. There were a few times where I felt I was close to the solution, but messed up early. If I had been able to mouse a root backwards, and not have to restart the level, that would have been convenient.

The core mechanic is really solid though. I'd play through a full-length game of these levels.
thatnoobles
27. Apr 2021 · 21:46 UTC
i've never seen a game like this before! it's really clever. great puzzle design and an interesting take on the theme.
IcarusDev
27. Apr 2021 · 21:51 UTC
Solid puzzle game, hard for me, but still entertaining. Nice job!
NvrSkipGameDay
27. Apr 2021 · 21:51 UTC
A cool puzzle game! It was pretty challenging (in a good way). The SFX made it feel like I was solidly placing roots, too, it felt well put together. Nice entry!
Maxwell3000
27. Apr 2021 · 22:06 UTC
Very fun puzzle game! It made me really have to think hard about what I was doing. The one thing I wish this game had was some sort of marking mechanic like you can do in sudoku type games. Being able to mark squares with colors or symbols to help me think out solutions would help a lot with planning. Really fun game!
BoxedMeatRevolution
27. Apr 2021 · 22:17 UTC
I beat the final extra puzzle!
I really enjoyed this game. I actually spent some time thinking about a "growing roots puzzle", but then went with a different idea. I think you really pulled it off! The puzzles get pretty tricky, but you can generally reason about where the bends need to go. Great work!
JaeLiinah
27. Apr 2021 · 22:38 UTC
Fantastic job! The concept is compelling and while at the surface feels simple enough, gets really challenging! Audio feels right, graphics get the point across well.
oeschmid
27. Apr 2021 · 23:54 UTC
Beat the final extra puzzle! Lots of fun. Wishing there were a few more :P
stevenjmiller
28. Apr 2021 · 04:08 UTC
Incredible game, I finished all of the normal and extra puzzles. The mechanics are great and the levels are very well designed.
Argon
29. Apr 2021 · 08:31 UTC
A real brain twisting game, I love it !
TaliOS
29. Apr 2021 · 12:59 UTC
Really clever puzzle game, great entry !
Notan Lemon
01. May 2021 · 09:33 UTC
The concept is great. The first half levels or so were really hard to deduce the solution, I just randomly doodled the lines until it worked. The later levels were fun to play, especially the last 2 levels had clear deduction path and I enjoyed them a lot. Maybe you can use a non-rectangle board like in the first tutorial level, to make easy starting points.