Numerus Maximus by SimplePotential
Ludum Dare 50: Delay The Inevitable
Title: Numerus Maximus
Entirely web-based, no downloads required.
Written with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Should work in any modern browser.
There is very little skill to this game at this time, it is mostly dumb luck. There is a total possible score of 300.
You click on tiles trying to avoid the highest value target (24). Finding 24 ends the game and your score is totaled and averaged with your previous games.
Avoid finding the 0 title, finding 0 will open two random tiles that are not 24 and their scores will not be counted. This can provide some valuable information to you depending on what tiles get exposed.
No adjacent tiles will be consecutively numbered. So if you open a 5, the tile below, above, and to the right and left will not be a 4 or 6. Diagonally they could be. So finding 23 potentially gives you up to 4 safe to open tiles.
If you select a tile and the adjacent tile is within 2 value points of the one you selected, it will be opened and scored. So if you open a tile with a value of 5 and the tile adjacent to it is 3 or 7, they will open up.
There is a Powerup/bonus icon (lightning bolt) that will highlight 3 random tiles. These tiles will contain 2 tiles that are safe to open and one that is the 0 tile. There is a bit of information you can gleam from this data to help you play longer.
All things considered, I'm pretty happy with this entry. I was able to dedicate about 13 hours to it but alas I haven't any more time. I didn't have time for anyone else to test it so if you find any issues before the end of the compo, let me know and I'll try to fix it. I do see two small bugs on my Galaxy Note 9, the clipboard api doesn't appear to function and some of the fonts are a bit off. But game is completely playable still and it works fine on desktop.
I have some ideas for the future, for instance I'd like to provide some additional cues to the user to make it a bit less guess work. Possibly adding some additional rules to the algorithm that randomly generates where tiles are located so you can eliminate possibilities a bit easier.
I didn't get around to adding sound unfortunately but I did add some animations to make it a bit more enjoyable.
Note a Post Compo version is in the works which will implement at least one additional power feature.
| Github (source) | https://github.com/SimplePotential/NumerusMaximus |
| Numerus Maximus | https://simplepotential.com/projects/Numerus-Maximus/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/numerus-maximus |
Ratings
| Overall | 542th | 2.931⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 547th | 2.667⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 351th | 3.206⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 506th | 3.118⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 493th | 2.96⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 475th | 1.743⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 551th | 2.5⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 52🗳️ | 89🗨️ |
I know part of the point is that its random, but i think some kind of player influence in terms of gameplay would add a huge bonus to the overall fun of the game. Its made very well, but due to no control, i think it loses its replay-ability after a bit.
Its a nice entry :)
The lightning power up is a bit hard to spot if you don't know the game, as it's hiding with the meta-game buttons like restart and share. I thought it was some new cool social media thing i hadn't heard about until i read the description.
It seems very well made, and it's an interesting study to try to come up with a satisfying game like this. It has the potential to be great if you tweak it to the right minesweepery player choice vs randomness balance.
Well done!
There's a nice mix between purely random and just a little bit of control. This skews a little more toward the random right now, but I think you could, in theory, keep adding more rules and concepts if you wanted to extend the concept. Good work!
At first I was trying to use the rule that no neighbor number can be consecutive but it was not enough to be in charge of the game.
Also "special" powers are cool idea. Try to come up with some logic which can be somehow predicted and i think you have a good little game. :)
Well put together game =). As you said, seems like a lot of random luck. I would have liked to have a little more ways to glean information. The one special power was good, would have been good to have more things like that, perhaps that combine to give useful information.
@sdelay - Kind of agree especially for the Jam itself since I took the theme to basically mean you'll lose/win quickly. But as a post compo/release it probably is too random. I'm working on a new ability that will highlight all the Odd or Even (random) tiles which are not 0 but one of which is 24. It might have a timer on it so that it is only visible for a few seconds encouraging user to open more tiles on their own before using it.
Still some balance to workout, if anyone has suggestions do let me know!
Edit: Rad, I must've missed that feature. I'll give it another go!
High score: 284.
Not much to say here, but great job! :thumbsup:
:grin: yay
that was fun!
I liked the concept and the clean look. The theme is also on spot.
Good timekiller and a great game!