Not going to finish #LDJAM this weekend. I spent approx 4 hours on the idea not goign to have any more time but I want to do a thread about my idea and why I still think #LDJAM is valuable even if you don't submit.
Unstable was the theme and immediately I knew physics games would play a big part in the submissions. Honestly quick actions driven by physics or tactile inputs are often solid gameplay... but this is a jam so we aim to experiment not tread proven ground so I thought about puzzle
Tile slide games are a big genre. I've never made one myself and I'm still new to Godot so I wanted to explore that. I immediately caught onto the idea of UNSTABLE CHAIN REACTIONS. Basic idea Red explodes Green explodes Blue explodes Red. You want to clear the board.
After basic random version I needed to guarantee a solvable puzzles so instead of verification I used an algo which flooded in a certain way guaranteed to clear. Then generated a move list to scramble. Verification is hard, so change the problem. Always a good lesson.
The game needs to start with a smaller board to teach the player the concepts before growing out to full size. Maybe lock sliding to only one axis.
Explosion chains could be visually communicated prior to explosion to aid player in building solution.
Explosion chains could be visually communicated prior to explosion to aid player in building solution.
If I was to rebuild this I would not go with a tile render but a sprite grid which is animated because oh boy is that slide animation important for visual clarity communication and satisfaction. Additional the animation of the slide will naturally limit the amount of moves
Spent a bit of time making the explosion progressive but the game is all about that reactive payoff after the intellectual puzzle part. So that would need a ton of finessing also in retrospect I don't think the timer adds anything in fact it takes away from the cerebral nature.
Will I finish this? Unlikely it was a fun Jam but it taught me a bunch. I might review this more on tomorrow morning's stream but I'm happy to take this code and lessons learned and shelve it on my XP shelf as a good 4hrs spent. Thanks #LDJAM ❤
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