Pom Planet by LittleBlackDog

Explore an alien landscape inhabited by friendly and dangerous creatures!
Help them! Save them!
PSA: Our original download was corrupted. Please play 1.2!
Controls:
-Left Mouse Button: Swap Tiles
-Right Mouse Button: Rotate Tiles
-Middle Mouse Button: Pan Window
-Scroll Wheel: Zoom Window




Credits:
AJ Newman ( LittleBlackDog / https://twitter.com/ashenwater / https://bsky.app/profile/ashenwater.bsky.social )
Cody Malach ( Loveschach / https://twitter.com/ExtensiveDocs / https://bsky.app/profile/extensivedocs.bsky.social )
Kelly MacNeill ( pyromuffin / https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@pyromuffin )
Ronn LeFeuvre ( Ronn Fever / https://twitter.com/RonnFever )
Playable on Windows
PSA: Our original download was corrupted. Please play 1.2!
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/pom-planet |
Ratings
| Overall | 42th | 4.222⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 120th | 3.971⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 101th | 3.929⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 74th | 4.285⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 112th | 4.392⭐ | 76🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 186th | 3.797⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 337th | 3.408⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 147th | 4.051⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 102🗳️ | 155🗨️ |
I especially loved how intuitive it was to figure out the mechanics. It reminded me of classic games like Lemmings, where experimentation is key to solving each puzzle. Kudos to the team for creating such a polished and fun experience. Great job! 👏
I think I passed some by using some shortcuts instead of facing the real challenge, especially once teleporters became available (like in levels 18 and 19). Also, in some levels I really wanted a pause button just to look at the puzzle and figure it out without everyone running around.
I loved how little creatures look like, they have very cute and charming, it's fun just to look at them moving.
Great job! Good luck to your team in your future projects!
I really enjoyed this game! The real-time aspect of the puzzles once the enemies were introduced made it a really unique puzzle game that was not only challenging to solve, but then required careful execution and timing. The mechanics have a few flaws that let you cheese the game a little bit on occasion, but most of the time I felt like I was solving the puzzle as intended. Like others have said, a pause button would have been nice at times, but I can also see the impact it would have on the synchronization so maybe that wouldn't work in this game. In any case, many of the little creatures were given as sacrifice to learn the flow of each level first before I made a move. Great pacing and level design. Love the art, really liked how the sounds had reverb and made you feel like you're inside the cave. Only complaint was the 'breaking glass' sound that starts around level 16 was kind of loud. Excellent game that had me engaged the whole way through!
@goodwincek - You included a video! This is so cool, I love this. It's cool to watch how different people solve puzzles. I kind of like that there's a few puzzles that you felt you cheated on, makes me wonder how many levels could be optimized if you REALLY tried to figure out the 'best solves'
All this positive feedback is really heartwarming. Made my day!
The only thing I could complain of, maybe the initial zoom is a biiit too small, but I played this on a tiny laptop display with 2k resolution, so I don't quite know how the scaling worked.
Aside from that, absolutely great, engaging entry, that keeps you hooked until you beat all the levels!
The audio direction was fantastic, with the music adding a dark undertone that paired well with the cutesy visual style. The way that musical layers were introduced as you worked through levels created a sense of mystery and progression. The reverb added an immersive quality. The sound effects, whilst minimalistic, also quite good.
There were only a few little niggles, like the initial zoom being a bit too far out for some displays (but this is fine given that you can dial in the zoom to your liking, a great feature). Others have mentioned a pause function, but I also think the frantic scramble to swap or rotate tiles to stop the little creatures from getting into harm’s way adds something interesting. You should all be proud of what you’ve managed to create in just three days, well done.
The game was easy to understand and you introduced new mechanics step by step, which is a good sign of level design.
A minor thing that confused me in the beginning. I didn´t understand that I could use the right button for spinning the tiles. Would be nice to see it ingame, because I had to look it up on your game page.
But aside from that everything is fine! :)
The only critique I have is that a web build of the game would make it easier to playtest for people
One suggestion in my opinion is that it might be better to add a start button at the very beginning to let the player spectate the whole map and everything in it, cuz right now the very first few seconds is always super intense and it almost feel like a test of how fast you can swap certain tiles instead of being strategic and plan things out. (but maybe that's by design I am not sure haha)
Overall a great game! 5 out of 5!
It looks incredible, the sound is great, I did not encounter any bugs and the levels feel like they have been tested and planned carefully.
Overall maybe THE best game I played this jam, a bit more levels and this could count as a fully fledged game. This definitely is a contender for the nr. 1 spot this jam!
Must admit I felt a bit mislead
I'm youthful so I made it work,
but did have to think of big breasts
This game is super fun, love the artstyle and the gameplay is innovative while self explanatory. The additional elements that get added on as you play to complicate things (like the cat, which I love the sprite for) keep the game engaging throughout, and suggest the sky's the limit for what could be waiting for you in the next room. There was a sort of surrealist vibe to the whole thing - aided heavily by the music - that I really liked. What you guys were able to do with the limited time you were given is seriously impressive. Great work.
the levels were designed clever ways and made use of the stage gimmicks in fun ways. I really like the tile moving mechanic, it allows for a lot of creativity. I probably solved a lot of the puzzles in ways that weren't intended lol. I tried to go for rainbow on all levels, I gave up on 20 because I failed too many times
I enjoyed this entry a lot!