Crazy Post Office by ZenBreaker

[raw]
made by ZenBreaker for Ludum Dare 53 (COMPO)

In this game you try to get the packages delivered across the room through an obstacle course.

You can use components like pistons, bouncy walls and conveyor belts to get the packages from the delivery tubes to the package containers.

Can you safely manage to get many packages across?

NOTE:

You dont need to get all packages in, skip the level, if you are stuck in an endless loop. It just matters how many packages you get.

Component Controls:

Hold Left Click + Mouse Movement -> Move Components

Hold Left Click + Mousewheel -> Rotate Components

Camera Movement:

Right Click -> Move with Mouse

W,A,S,D -> Move with Keys

Space -> Move up

Ctrl -> Move down

Level Finished:

  • Times up

  • No moving packages

  • All packages delivered

  • Or skip a level to save all delivered packages

Available Components:

  • Conveyor Belts move packages in one direction

  • Pistons catapult packages through the air on trigger

  • Bouncy Walls to guide packages

Move or Rotate them.

Some are fixed though.

Try it out by clicking them! (Still missing an indicator)

Ratings

Overall 353th 2.983⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 252th 3.183⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 265th 3.133⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 278th 3.583⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 375th 2.567⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 330th 2.054⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 369th 2.426⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 47🗨️

Feedback

asasin56
01. May 2023 · 06:53 UTC
Nice puzzle but graphic can be more suitable. Also I didnt like sfx and music and I didnt understand for why here is 2d and 3d views
🎤 ZenBreaker
01. May 2023 · 10:04 UTC
Thanks for the feedback @asasin56 . Thats definitely what I didnt like either and didnt put much effort in. 2D is there to better place objects, but I didnt really polish it in the end, as I liked the 3D perspective way more.
Buni
01. May 2023 · 10:51 UTC
I really like the game! A physics based puzzle game is a quite unique concept in this jam, but it worked out greatly.

Good job, and nice stream :)
cattymations
01. May 2023 · 10:53 UTC
Cool prototype! The graphics, to be blunt, are really poor. Same thing goes for most of the sound effect. All you really need to do make something that sometimes works and then hope that all the boxes (or at least the required amount) goes in. A REALLY good way to combat this is to give the player a score at the end of the level and then show how there score comperes to other scores. This encourages the player to try again and make a more optimized build in hopes of getting a higher score.
🎤 ZenBreaker
01. May 2023 · 11:13 UTC
@cattymations Thanks for the feedback, yeah graphics and sounds were last minute additions, not my strong suit anyways.
Showing the score would have been a great idea. There is actually no necessary package limit, would be probably better though. Once GameOver is hit, the level is changed and either you hit skip or time runs out, if you dont manage to get all in.
KyleTheCoder
01. May 2023 · 11:23 UTC
I had a lot of difficulty getting this to work efficiently, but once I did, it was pretty enjoyable! I think larger areas to be able to click and drag things would have been useful, not sure how easy that is in Unity though. It's not your fault, but I couldn't get this to work on the LD site - it cut off all the buttons at the top, and if I went full-screen, those buttons didn't even appear, which was weird. It's similar to what's been happening to me with all Unity games on this site though, so think it's LD-site-related. So, given that, good job! A fun little puzzle/simulator.
🎤 ZenBreaker
01. May 2023 · 11:31 UTC
@kylethecoder Thanks a lot, I noticed that too, you can use the scroll slider and then click on maximize, that makes it playable on LD-site too. Also some games dont work on firefox for me, but chrome. Quite weird.
Xwilarg
01. May 2023 · 13:07 UTC
Had some difficulty trying to actually do the puzzle because of the physic but tbh I had plenty of fun just seeing things bouncing around depending of how I moved my elements

As the others said the graphics are a bit strange but not that bad once you get used to it, some kind of 2D isometric view may have been more suitable
StefanHolst
01. May 2023 · 13:16 UTC
It has great potential. But I think it would have been better in 2d. Also, it desperately needs some score system. The game was actually quite fun.

Also, I can't seem to rotate the components using a touchpad.
🎤 ZenBreaker
01. May 2023 · 13:34 UTC
@xwilarg Thanks, yeah I played around with the 2D view, but didnt like the aesthetics. Actually wanted to do puzzles in real 3D like Portal, the game.

@stefanholst Thanks, I was lazy and only used mouse input instead of the real unity input system. For touch I probably would have needed to implement some sort of gizmo. And definitely needs a better score system. If you get to the end, you get one displayed but no more. Thats right.
Brandon Campbell
01. May 2023 · 15:32 UTC
I like the idea! It's fun that there's no one right solution to move the packages along. I would add some indicator to show what component is selected, and maybe allow users to click to select instead of holding down the mouse button. That took me a while to figure out.
Harmadillo
01. May 2023 · 16:06 UTC
I found the levels quite challenging with the physics making it rather chaotic. It was fun trying to bounce the packages around. The option of 2d or 3d was good. This did get confused a couple of time during level transition.
🎤 ZenBreaker
01. May 2023 · 18:34 UTC
@brandon-campbell Thanks for playing, thats definitely something that's missing. While writing the start screen on the last minutes of the jam it became obvious, that controls are rather unintuitive.

@harmadillo Thank you too, ah yeah I didnt notice that bug. I guess you always start in 3D in a new scene, but 2D is only saved on the UI not the new loaded scene, thanks for pointing it out :D
Kreshi
01. May 2023 · 20:57 UTC
Good effort but could have used some more polish :).
Nathan Franck
01. May 2023 · 21:37 UTC
Sad it doesn't show up well in the view on Ludum Dare, not that you would have been able to know ahead of submission. Nice showing! Unfortunately I didn't make it too far. Sound was definitely holding the experience back.
Castitatis
01. May 2023 · 21:49 UTC
such a nice puzzle game, the last time I tried doing a 3d game, handling the camera was a nightmare, I can only respect what you achieved XD
ASilvers
02. May 2023 · 06:15 UTC
Nice concept! I enjoyed trying to find better ways to get the packages in the buckets. I lost track of time on a couple of levels trying to optimize it the best I could. A couple of notes though:
* I think an important thing for this kind of a game is that it's deterministic, that if you run one level three times without changing anything the same thing happens each time.
* It was a bit confusing when I could move some things and couldn't move others, maybe making the objects that are locked have different colors or the ones you could move have an outline or something.
* Starting with an inventory of pieces rather than having them already placed I think would have made it less hectic. A full inventory system for a game like this can been difficult to implement for a game jam but it could have just been something like a different colored box under the yellow area where all the pieces start.
* It was also somewhat annoying that you had to hold the left mouse button and use the scroll wheel at the same time to rotate something. A click to grab then click again to release would have made that better.
🎤 ZenBreaker
02. May 2023 · 06:22 UTC
@asilvers Im happy you liked the concept and like me lost a lot of time on it <3 The deterministic aspect is something I didnt achieve for sure. The conveyor belt and the pistons are the problem. They were difficult to implement correctly.
For the other things I agree, didnt had the time for that, but would have been much nicer. The pieces in a special place though could have been cool and simple, true. Thanks for the input.
teadrinker
02. May 2023 · 12:59 UTC
3D view looks better, however, for the gameplay I prefer the 2D view so 3D feels a bit wasted.
Would have been good to have a different style for the objects you cannot move. I did not feel I "solved it" when I advanced a level, cos the complexity of the simulation makes it very hard to use strategy, but it's still surprisingly fun to play around with!
StormSword
02. May 2023 · 14:48 UTC
Good concept and was fun too play

A little too difficult for me I think x)
zealous-coder
02. May 2023 · 23:09 UTC
Good job this was fun to play. I like games like this, I have not played one in a really long time ever since the incredible machine.
xfinktion
03. May 2023 · 07:33 UTC
I'm pretty bad at these kinds of games, but I had fun with it! A color difference with the moveable and immovable tiles would have saved me a bit of time on the later level with all flat pieces. I also would have liked to be able to move objects in test mode.

The puzzle design was interesting. Spent more time than I intended to optimizing my setups. Nice work! :D
SMdG
03. May 2023 · 17:39 UTC
It was fun to see the physics simulation of packages bouncing around. Would have loved it if it had a better camera angle and as someone in the comments said allowed to move around the objects during test would have made it better.
RookRules
05. May 2023 · 07:23 UTC
the little box that could but then didn't 4/5 don't forget to skip to the end of the game to GET YOUR SCORE
SvenErik
05. May 2023 · 09:00 UTC
Very neat puzzle game with nice physics, bouncy bounce. I'd wish to see bigger levels and more, so more of a chain, but what was there was already great! Perhaps an post-ludum version of it with some beveled boxes and some textures for extra fancy~ Loved it though, great work!
LDJam user 279622
05. May 2023 · 10:00 UTC
32 packages 😎😎😎

elevator strategy best strategy
Zirrrus
09. May 2023 · 16:25 UTC
Silly physics make everything more fun! This was neat
Kirbloid
10. May 2023 · 19:22 UTC
Took me back to some classic games. Played really solidly in the browser too and was easy to jump in and start playing. Great choice for how to tackle the theme in an immediately fun and engaging way.
Stevie257
15. May 2023 · 20:11 UTC
I admire the developer's creativity in the visual design of this game, as they have managed to create a unique and memorable art style
Lomby
19. May 2023 · 18:32 UTC
I played earlier on stream if you wanted to watch initial thoughts (timestamps in the description to jump to your game!) [youtube link](youtu.be/VWB4DGknN6k)