Plate Spinner 2021 by StoicKekis

[raw]
made by StoicKekis for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

Spin those unstable plates to keep them from falling!

Make as many points as possible.

Loose a life (Hearts on the bottom left corner) when a plate falls and breaks.

Game ends when a plate is broken and no more hearts are present.

Easy to play, but hard to master.

Controls:

  • Controller or Keyboard supported.
  • Use arrows or left joystick to move left or right.
  • Press CTRL(A), SHIFT(X) or SPACE(Y) to spin plates.
  • Click START or press A to begin a game.
  • Press ESC(B) to end current game.

Ratings

Overall 453th 3.054⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 486th 2.714⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 456th 2.821⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 96th 4.089⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 435th 2.944⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 350th 2.852⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 271th 2.722⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 380th 2.946⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

DiscordianAgent
04. Oct 2021 · 04:28 UTC
It may not be the most gripping or innovative game ever made; but it works, it looks nice, and and it's on theme! Well done! Extra impressed you put in controller support.
LDJam user 0
05. Oct 2021 · 02:28 UTC
Try and beat this ![Screenshot 2021-10-04 222447.png](///raw/336/83/z/46b6d.png)
GreenXenith
05. Oct 2021 · 04:16 UTC
Stressful game with stressful music :D Unique concept, great execution.
arkinrev
05. Oct 2021 · 04:16 UTC
I am not even in the ballpark of beating the post above. It got hectic quickly and I was soon juggling most of them with my top hat. It started smooth and got unstable quickly. Nice entry!
dob
05. Oct 2021 · 05:37 UTC
This was a neat idea and certainly in keeping with the theme. One thing that would have made it a little more fun for me would be if there was more of a visual indication of how fast the plates were spinning. Once they were not wobbly, there wasn't much to indicate how much attention they needed. Cool game, crisp graphics, looks good.
LDJam user 230963
05. Oct 2021 · 05:58 UTC
@arkinrev One neat trick to know: the state of a plate resets even if you spin it just for a fraction of a second.

@dob I was too focused on balancing the game. Adding plate feed back was on the top of my TODO list.
Turncoda
05. Oct 2021 · 06:59 UTC
I was surprised to find out that I had a chance to bounce the plate back onto the rod even after it had fallen. That's such a cool idea.
Nameless Ghoul
05. Oct 2021 · 07:20 UTC
Nice work! Would've liked a nicer plate animation so that it doesn't just go from stable to really wobbly and had some intermediate wobblyness. It was quite a stressful game but I think if you risk it and start spinning the plates in order from left to right or vice versa, the game becomes really repetitive and boring.
irwatts
05. Oct 2021 · 13:18 UTC
This was indeed a stressful game. The premise combined with the music create an anxious mood that adds tension. I did find the game to get a little trivial when I realized you could just quickly spin each one in order. Bouncing the plates is a nice touch!
LDJam user 230963
05. Oct 2021 · 14:02 UTC
@nameless-ghoul there is an intermediate state, but its not very obvious. I'll make sure to update it after.

I can add so many mechanics to make this game better, here are a few of them:
- Doves that flies around knocking plates off
- Black cats that randomly paws a stick to make it wobble
- Different levels with sticks and plates on different level platform. Implies a jump feature.
Nameless Ghoul
05. Oct 2021 · 15:58 UTC
@stoickekis I think all of those are great ideas :D
Ludokultur
05. Oct 2021 · 16:34 UTC
Nice little frantic "spatial presence management" game. Kind of reminded me of good old Diner Dash or something. :D

The one obvious thing to add would be spinning animations for better feedback, but overall a really solid entry!
pdotjpg
05. Oct 2021 · 16:42 UTC
Nice! Cool and original take on the theme. Solid game mechanics with nice audiovisual feedback. The ability to save a falling plate is so good!
Mathiouza
06. Oct 2021 · 03:48 UTC
Great!

I liked the game, but maybe you would have liked to make it a bit more hectic? Maybe less plates, but more speed to switch from one plate to another like crazy. Maybe make the plates more threatening. Something like that. Also, in a game like that, it's more satisfying to have points just when being alive than getting points by doing an action I think.

I know it's a lot of points I raised here, but I liked the game though x) The art is simple but works well, the music is great too (if you follow my tips from above, maybe you would like to make it a bit more hectic too) and the controls responsive.

Great game overall! :clap:
pcmaster
06. Oct 2021 · 13:57 UTC
I love your game. Very straightforward, nicely executed. What somehow didn't work for me were gamepad controls over WebGL. The character movement is very imprecise and I had a feeling that some of my button/joystick actions were not registered (Firefox 92, RTX 2080). Nevertheless, congrats, a lovely game!
fae.pdf
06. Oct 2021 · 15:45 UTC
Simple idea, perfectly thematic, very good execution. The game is competent. It works, and it's pretty engaging! I had fun, but it ended rather quickly, and that was pretty good for me. Short and sweet is, for my taste, the right length for a game of this weight. Great job! Of course it could have done with more juice, but I think the focus on balancing the feel and not overscoping was time and energy well-spent.

I agree with @mathiouza in that I believe it would be more enjoyable to have just points for being alive, because I feel like it creates this strong incentive to always be spinning, even when it's not useful, and that feels a bit weird. Fewer plates, but faster action, and maybe something to give a bit more texture to the gameplay (another way to interact with the plates that creates interesting decisions points? Already kinda present with the fact that you can choose to let a plate fall and catch it after though, but that's mitigated by the fact that it gives you no point simply surviving, so maybe that change would be enough.)

Great job, keep it up!
as you like 101
06. Oct 2021 · 16:29 UTC
i love your game it was really fun playing it
LeYaoTang
06. Oct 2021 · 20:18 UTC
A solid but too average compo game. It appears to be something like a SG-1000 early stage game and it is all OK.
BinaryPrinciple
07. Oct 2021 · 23:32 UTC
Fun but needs some variety and chaos.
datadazer
08. Oct 2021 · 04:17 UTC
Nice game and implementation of your idea. I think there is some room for improving the depth of gameplay or variety. I really like the player feedback on the plates that are about to fall. I like that spinning it slowly spins it up and isn't just an instant reset. Overall a great execution of your idea and it was good fun. Great job!
WilliamColeman
16. May 2022 · 08:35 UTC
I like that game and I will surely play this game when I am free from doing my survey on [www.TellMarcos.com](https://survey.gifts/tellmarcos-survey/). Right now, I am saving your post link so that I won't lose it. I like to play games because it makes me stressed-free and I easily get bored with single-game every day.