Sliding Puzzle RPG

[Xhukari]

So I made a game (within a week) for the Construct 3 Gamejam hosted on Newgrounds!
I plan to develop it beyond this Gamejam as I think I'm onto an interesting idea; think one of those sliding picture puzzles, but it is an RPG.

You can view my game here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/694071
Dishearteningly, it seems the gamejam is entirely popularity-based, without any judges to make sure they play into the theme, etc.

I think my plans going forth are as follows:

• Reduce it to 1 hero - 3 was done for the gamejam's theme, but I think it overall limits the game.
• Introduce some activatable traits that can be switched out, to make up for the loss of the 2 other heroes.
• Introduce a proper campaign, with hand built grids, with some form of travel system beyond the Advance button. I'm thinking Sign Post tiles.
• Replace some of the lackluster graphics (primarily the tile art and backgrounds; I like the buttons).
• Resize the game for 1080p instead up 720p scaled up.
• And of course, expand the game with new traits, heroes, locations, enemies, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

[coyotecraft]

Sorry I never noticed this before.
It was alright. Although I think you should have started out with a smaller grid in the beginning for a smoother introduction. I jumped right in and didn't know what I was looking at.

 

[Xhukari]

Yeah, I was surprised by the amount of people who played it without touching the tutorial, as the tutorial is interactive, with smaller grids used to show off specific mechanics. Since I made this thread, a got a bunch of feedback on it... it seems sliding puzzles aren't so liked in general. So began to design new tiles and the like to solve the problem raised in the criticism (too many clicks for something new to happen). But ultimately I moved on from this -- I was just creating tiles to combat the core sliding puzzle mechanic in and of itself.

 

[Xilef]

I did try this out back when you first posted it, sorry for not writing feedback, feel like a jerk for not doing so now.

I tried it again, the second time round I understood a lot more, and yes I didn't do the tutorial either. To tackle the problem of people not following the optional tutorial you would make the main game itself progress slowly and expand over the first few levels, introducing new concepts.

I think the first level, for instance, should have 3 separate grids which are just 1x wide lanes and the player simply has to click the only option for each tile and then they visual see the response. Then the next level, have two of these lanes combined into one.


People don't not-like sliding puzzles, they just aren't interesting, however this project is a clear and big step towards making them interesting: it really did interest me as a concept. I feel a drag-to-slide gesture would have helped though, my first instincts wasn't click-to-slide, it was definitely to click, hold, drag - had to unlearn that intuition.

To take the concept to the next level, I'd work on an art style that makes everything readable and distinctive, double down the theme that's going on, add lots of animations and other general gamification points.


This was a jam project, so not expecting all the polish one would from a complete game, with jams you expect a concept to be developed and then iterated on, be it a visual theme concept or a game-play concept. I think you've gone down the route of trying to find a new type of game-play, and you've succeeded with this.

I'm currently looking for small project ideas that would be a good fit for a Gameboy Advance home-brew title, I think a developed version of this game concept would fit nicely - drag it more towards the RPG side of things and add in a stupid story to drive the player through it, like Advance Wars did.

 

[Xhukari]

Thanks for the feedback! Don't feel like a jerk.

I might pick this up again at some point, you are totally right about the tutorial and the control scheme. Some of my ideas for it you've touched on in your feedback, which is cool.

Feel free to use / develop this concept though. :D

 

[farela]

This a little confusing.
A demo( with project file ) would probably help .
Good work, nonetheless.
Never thought the tiles can be done for such purpose, lol. Can make up a good minigame anytime. :biggrin: :biggrin: