CounterSplit by NekuSoul

[raw]
made by NekuSoul for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

Cut the balls in half before they reach the dreaded number 13.

What's your strategy and how long can you survive?

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Ratings

Overall 250th 3.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 211th 3.565⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 28th 4.188⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 120th 4⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 470th 3.043⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 358th 3⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 286th 3.283⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 54🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

Andy Beers
04. Apr 2022 · 20:17 UTC
Simple idea but infuriating! i wish I could find some different strategy but I always seem to die at a similar point, would be cool to get some timer slowdown effect as it gets closer to 13? also i think sometimes the balls get off screen and are impossible to slice but maybe it was just on web. Cool idea and works well!
AnonymousPanda
04. Apr 2022 · 20:19 UTC
Such an addictive game! It's especially satisfying to slice balls super fast and get tons and tons of them, even if it makes the game end faster because it's impossible to slice the whole screen at once :)
banskin
04. Apr 2022 · 20:20 UTC
Quite difficult but definatly turns into delaying the inevitable! Awesome job
vgel
04. Apr 2022 · 20:21 UTC
This is awesome! Really clever but simple concept, simple graphics and sound, but it all comes together perfectly. Flailed around randomly for a bit not getting very far before I realized a good strategy was to purposely let the balls count up higher before cutting them in half, to minimize doublings... that got me up to 30 seconds.
kurrik
04. Apr 2022 · 20:21 UTC
I really like this idea! Feels very original. I do wish the camera zoomed out a little bit more - when the screen fills up it can be hard to draw the lines I want to because the balls go all the way out to the edges. Great work!
greenphox
04. Apr 2022 · 20:23 UTC
Simple and nice game. The idea is easy to understand but there are a countless different strategies making the game really hard to master.
pdotjpg
04. Apr 2022 · 20:26 UTC
This is a really interesting, original idea, and I like the implementation a lot. Very polished. Cool audio, tasteful visuals, satisfying controls, etc. Top grades across the board.

I'm not sure the central gameplay mechanic works (but hey, game jams are for experimental ideas). I think this game really demonstrates how quickly multiplication gets out of hand. It's only possible to play for a few seconds before it goes crazy. Perhaps having the new balls start at 1 would give some possibiliy for more strategic play? I thought waiting til the last moment to cut the balls would help survive for longer, but it's still brutally difficult.
Glaikunt
04. Apr 2022 · 20:31 UTC
Amazing idea! love the mechanics! Could expand on this idea, great job love the simplicity!
LDJam user 257946
04. Apr 2022 · 23:10 UTC
That escalated quickly...
![Screenshot 2022-04-04 160916.png](///raw/a9f/e3/z/4b44f.png)

Great graphics and fun gameplay!
This game is a winner!

Nicely done!
🎤 NekuSoul
05. Apr 2022 · 15:56 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback so far.

@andy-beers @kurrik Yeah, getting the camera to behave was the most difficult part and it's still not as solid as I'd like.

@pdotjpg Didn't think of that, but I was interested so I tested it. The game lasts a bit longer because the start is noticeably slower but after a few cuts the difficulty quickly catches up again. That said, it gave me a few ideas to play around with for a potential post-jam version.
Linus Lindberg
05. Apr 2022 · 21:28 UTC
Interesting idea! I wasn't very good at it though! :)
TomatoOmelet
07. Apr 2022 · 05:22 UTC
Wow interesting idea, simple but innovative!
bodCodes
09. Apr 2022 · 12:51 UTC
Great to see a new mechanic, marks for originality. Think I did reasonably well after trying various approaches. It's right on theme and the heartbeat-like sound adds a lot of urgency :sweat_smile:

![ss11.png](///raw/e52/54/z/4da49.png)
chingle
09. Apr 2022 · 17:09 UTC
Very innovative, I really like the simplicity of it!
LDJam user 250825
09. Apr 2022 · 20:50 UTC
Very cool minimalistic game, love the UI design! Only feedback is that I wish that 11 and 12 would be even easier to spot as I often lost by not seeing where the large numbers are :D

EDIT: Though that could be an intended part of the game which is valid as well!
zimny11
09. Apr 2022 · 21:13 UTC
Interesting take of the theme! Quite unique idea for a game, nice and quick :)

![Bez tytułu.png](///raw/ad6/b2/z/4dafe.png)
LDJam user 279546
11. Apr 2022 · 13:26 UTC
This game went from not bad to super stressful really fast. Really cool. Great job!
Teto
11. Apr 2022 · 21:23 UTC
Incredibly well put together and polished game especially for a compo entry! Original take on the theme that isn't too in your face but fits very well. I got 19 on every single try and it was infuriating! But made we want to keep playing!

The colour scheme made for a clean looking game although I maybe would have liked it if the whole circle changed colour rather than just the test so it's easier to see in your peripheral although I don't know if maybe that would look too messy in practice. The way the circles split and drift around is also incredibly smooth especially on the opening screen that just seamlessly flows into gameplay.

The sound makes fits with the theme too giving it that countdown feel and contrasts with the frantic slicing. I don't feel like I missed having music here either due to the the beat of the numbers.

Overall, a very simple but incredibly well executed game! Well done!
HacksawUnit
11. Apr 2022 · 23:07 UTC
Very interesting mechanic! It's immediately clear how the game works after just a few drags of the cursor, and trying to figure out the optimal strategy is fun! The graphics and audio are simple, but snappy. All in all, great little entry! :) You could do a lot of really interesting things with this kind of mechanic if you wanted to take it further...
LDJam user 234753
11. Apr 2022 · 23:07 UTC
Damn this is stressful and fun. It would be nicer if the higher count clocks were slightly more visible, nevertheless the stress is everpresent.
AguaHervida
11. Apr 2022 · 23:35 UTC
so simple but great idea

The game is quite fun but it starts to get complicated by the colors of the circles, it's hard to say when one of them is close to reach 13 - maybe adding something like a hazard sound or change of color or size on the circle will help with this~

above all a fun and entertaining experience, I spent a while playing my best score was 26 u':
🎤 NekuSoul
12. Apr 2022 · 15:53 UTC
@bqq @teto @peter-ondus @aguahervida

Yeah, adding some additional indicator for the currently highest number would've been a good idea.

Also, here's my highscore for anyone looking for a challenge. A 38 or even 39 might be doable but a perfect strategy is needed as well as a flawless execution.

![Screenshot 2022-04-12 175157.png](///raw/b06/3/z/4debd.png)
TERNOX
16. Apr 2022 · 17:50 UTC
Really nice concept