IWANT by CO5MONAUT
TL;DR
- Move Pieces: Drag and rearrange thought-figurines anywhere on the playfield.
- Form Connections: Create a cluster by arranging one central figure such that it directly touches four other distinct figures. Each figure in the cluster, including the central one, must be different from each other to successfully form the idea.
You're stepping into a game where summoning isn't just about conjuring things from thin air. It's about summoning the willpower, which is even tougher than what I usually do on weekends. You play as an adventurer who’s struggling with self-doubt and has a hard time figuring out what he wants. Your mission? Help him gather his thoughts into a brilliant idea!
How to Play: 1. Manipulate Thoughts: You've got these thought-figurines on your playfield. Move them around, mix them up like a deck of existential crisis cards. 2. Create a Thought Cluster: Arrange these thought pieces on the left side of your screen. Make sure one of them is connected to four other distinct thoughts. It’s like making them all hold hands in some sort of weird psychic gathering. 3. Moment of Inspiration: Once you've got your thoughts in a group session, boom! Your hero gets this awesome idea about what he wants and sets off to pursue it. It’s like me chasing down the guy at the liquor store when he tries to close early on a Friday. 4. Understanding Thoughts: Not sure what these thoughts signify? Hover your cursor over them and read the info at the bottom of the screen. I’ve thrown in some details there, kind of like easter eggs, but less underwhelming. 5. NPC Interactions: I experimented with some NPC interactions, but feedback was as scarce as my regard for safety regulations. Check the logs if you’re curious. 6. No Win Conditions Yet: Yep, ran out of time to add win conditions and sounds. Consider it a sandbox. A chaotic, introspective sandbox. Have fun, or don’t. Your existential crisis, your rules!
| github (all sources) | https://github.com/twocosmonauts/IWANT |
| itch.io | https://co5monaut.itch.io/iwant |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/iwant |
Ratings
| Overall | 249th | 3.182⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 304th | 2.807⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 9th | 4.326⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 222th | 3.405⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 85th | 3.946⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 127th | 3.153⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 170th | 3.351⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
Very interesting concept, I had fun trying to come up with interesting combinations! I found that the board filled up very quickly, and I didn't get as many "I want" pieces as I would have liked. But again, maybe there's a lesson here... Nice job!
Other than that i had a great time, got some thoughts out and had to play "a different kind of tetris" a lot :D
P.s. cant really recreate it but there was a bug when i had a full board (no space to summon a new piece, but still some spaces) and moved a piece into another piece, they just overlapped and stayed that way.
Yes, there is such a bug, because I don't have any checks that the field is full ahaha I didn't have time sorry
Favorite action: "i want feed skeleton using rock with force". Amusing game!
I screwed up badly my first time, because I didn't really grasp how to play, and I got my screen super cluttered up by moving pieces around unnecessarily. I feel like my next few attempts were more successful, although I never managed to level up.
This was a really unique idea, and well-presented. The only thing that is hurting it is that the gameplay doesn't feel super intuitive unless you read the instructions. Some more variation on the pieces that were generated, and a slightly more uniform distribution of pieces would have made it even more engaging.
Well done!
my mistake on the submission I was in a hurry when I posted and thought I was the opposite of giving up audio ahahahahah damn.
corrected. thank you!for pointing that out, I couldn't figure out why I had no grades.
Unfortunately RNG screwed me very hard. I believe you used only 5 out of the 7 tetris pieces so that made creating a cluster very hard. You could use a bag-style RNG to ensure that you draw the pieces evenly over a game.
But perhaps it was also a concious decision to make some pieces more rare than others? Or perhaps I just misunderstood :-)
There is probably something to do with the idea blocks, since you can easily be blocked without one type of block and the thoughts space completly filled.
But that's an outstanding work in 48 hours! And the first 5 stars in innovation I give.
I really hope you will continue this game and publish it!
Main mechanic is frankly amazing even though it would obviously benefit from more clarity. As others have mentionned, it's a bit confusing to figure out at first, but I love the endless versatility of interactions you can have. My main complaint would be how quickly the thought square gets cluttered; adding another piece every time you move another might be a bit too much.
You also nailed the visual part, it looks consistent and very polished.
Really interesting entry overall, and would love to see the idea developped further (I'm really fond of systemic games like this hahaha). Well done !
A fascinating experience, although the game screen can quickly get crowded especially if you're not lucky. It is a bit hard to do stuff, I managed to defeat several skeletons before I unfortunately ran out of place.
But the idea is really intriguing. A sandbox for the litteral thoughts of our character...
Great idea, I enjoy the 1-bit aesthetics as well. Very interesting overall, with a bit more finetuning this could do very well!
The way the left screen seems to work now, is that the player can generate as many words as they want by moving around pieces, and the limit comes from the limited space the player has to store pieces. It's a bit hard to keep the screen from filling up though. Part of that comes from the randomness of which piece you get. The other part, though, is that you gain a new piece every time something is moved, so forming a sentence tends to add a net positive number of pieces. Maybe some other mechanic could be in charge of spawning new pieces?
There were a lot of cliffs / walls on the right, and I wasn't sure if the character ever interacted with them, or if they were just decorative. Overall though, the art and aesthetic were awesome, and I loved how the random maps looked.
The idea of being able to express though using video games is something I'm really interested in, and this game does an interesting step in this direction. Good job!
The small story that happens next is a nice way to encourage the player to play.
Congratulations on the idea.
Thank you!
Yes, that's exactly the direction I'm thinking in! There will be inventory and the ability to put together combinations a little differently. I also plan to update the visuals a bit and add some sort of objective, making it something more like a roguelike or crawler.
The gameplay is fun and clever but does feel a tad too random - I went like 20 turns without getting an I-piece. I also didn't quite get if the action/story on the right screen was "linear" or if you influenced it somehow with e.g. timing of forming connections.