Hexahedron by Jon Fisch

[raw]
made by Jon Fisch for LD30 (JAM)
Have fun exploring everyone's worlds! A new one should appear every 1-4 minutes, so stick around. ;)

Originally, you were going to be able to go to other worlds and DO things, like fight baddies or something, and then unlock new building materials to use. The unlocking functionality actually still exists in the code, but we didn't get the time to hook it up or think up unlock requirements.

Please note that this game requires XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh (http://bit.ly/1ubmn4I) and .NET 4.0 (http://bit.ly/1gGliNl)
If the game crashes immediately or does not run at all, 99 times out of 100 you're missing the XNA redistributable (the first link); practically all modern Windows systems have .NET 4.0 installed already.

Controls:

WASD/arrow keys to move
Right-click to open editor

In editor: click icon to place object; click placed object to move/delete it (pre-generated objects can't be moved or deleted)
While placing:
R - rotate
Right click - cancel/delete
Click - place
Shift+Click - place multiple
Mouse Wheel - scale object (post-compo version only)

Currently known bugs and things:
Jumping in a certain direction is less powerful
Scaling of objects was not implemented in time
The player clips through certain objects slightly
The framerate gets low when there are several worlds connected

A post-compo version is included as LD30-post-compo.exe and fixes and adds the following features:
Fixed weird jumping problems
When the character is behind objects, they will fade out much more reliably
Fixed and added scaling (scale with the mouse wheel, not mentioned in instructions)
Camera rotation with the E key (although it's not mentioned in the instructions)
Worlds can be connected to worlds besides the host, allowing for interesting branching
Because of the above point, an infinite number of worlds can be connected
Bridges are much more correctly placed and nearer to the center (although still placed a little wrong sometimes)
Bridges are placed between all adjacent worlds
Massive performance improvements; it's unlikely that you'll experience slowdown unless there are lots of worlds onscreen, even when ten or more worlds have been connected

Most of these features were almost finished (namely, scaling and the world connections, as well as part of the camera rotation) but had to be cut in favor of more important features instead of fixed.

Additionally, all of the uploaded worlds can be seen at http://pastebin.com/u/ld30worldbot. To view a particular world, copy the raw paste into [paste_name].wld and save it in %appdata%/ld30, and it'll appear as a world in the world selection. Only the first five worlds by alphabetical title will be shown in-game, though.

You're welcome to download the source from the GitHub link provided, but if you use any of it, it would be nice to credit the programmer (Alex Van Liew) or the artist (Jonathan Fischer) for it. Thanks!

We encourage you to comment and send us screenshots of your world by posting a link in the comment section, or by finding us on Twitter: @_snoozbuster (Alex Van Liew) and @jon_fisch (Jon Fischer)

Ratings

Coolness 78% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.07 481
Audio(Jam) 3.87 59
Fun(Jam) 2.45 670
Graphics(Jam) 3.00 518
Humor(Jam) 2.57 312
Innovation(Jam) 3.18 298
Mood(Jam) 3.29 282
Theme(Jam) 3.34 304

Feedback

snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 02:40 UTC
I just fixed a small bug that caused the game to crash shortly after you start it; if you downloaded it in the last hour please try downloading it again!
Robot Souls Games
26. Aug 2014 · 03:38 UTC
You can't rotate the camera, so often the perspective is difficult, and objects are obscured.
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 03:41 UTC
@Robot Souls Games: Yep, that's one of the things that I didn't have time to implement; not because camera rotation itself is hard but because if you rotate the camera, pressing W no longer means "move along the positive X axis".
Anyway, you can get around it by building from the back. It's not a huge deal.
lakael
26. Aug 2014 · 05:31 UTC
seriously, that song was amazing
Evil Scotsman
26. Aug 2014 · 06:46 UTC
I'm not sure I'm playing correctly, I don't seem to be seeing any other worlds. How do I connect to other worlds?
IsaacL.Balogh
26. Aug 2014 · 06:56 UTC
A very interesting concept, I really enjoyed messing around and trying to make a multilevel house, if you could rotate the camera it might be a bit better though as I did and up putting a lot of squares in a line trying to make a platform. Other than that though the music fits nicely its a fun and interesting idea and it would be cool to see it improved upon!
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 07:04 UTC
@Evil Scotsman: I discovered there was a bug that deadlocked the downloader thread when I was playing, but it only occurred after five worlds had been uploaded. I just uploaded a fix, try again! Every 1-4 minutes one will show up.
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 07:08 UTC
@IsaacL.Balogh: Yeah, I would have loved to add camera rotation but I just ran out of time. Something else that's buggy that I wish I would have had time to fix is the way objects fade out when you're behind them; it's offset too far upwards and could use a few more rays to be more accurate. But hey, what're you gonna do.
darklightteam
26. Aug 2014 · 07:16 UTC
The idea is awesome and it's f*** hard to execute in a jam. Congratulations! Btw my game started to go slower once the second world appeared.
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 07:22 UTC
@darklightteam: Yep, that's the physics engine sobbing softly. Even though none of the cubes collide with each other, it still has to do bounding box tests for all of them, or at least all the ones that are nearby. I didn't have time to tinker with it and boost the performance, unfortunately. There were a couple things I tried to get working but I ran into implementation problems and ended up having to scrap the whole thing.
Oana
26. Aug 2014 · 07:56 UTC
Seems to work fine for me now. So basically you build pretty things without a specific goal, am I getting this right? It would be nice to have a goal of sorts added later on. Also, I haven't quite figured out how to visit other people's worlds. And it would be nice to be able to rotate the camera, or dig. Awesome soundtrack, btw.
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 08:05 UTC
@Oana: Yeah, just building. I had originally planned to have unlock conditions for some materials, but didn't have time. Other worlds show up each 1-4 minutes you spend in the game, or at least they should! There was a bug in an earlier version that prevented it from working, maybe you had an old version.
As for camera, I agree. It would have taken maybe 30 minutes, I just ran out of time. :(
jprogman
26. Aug 2014 · 08:09 UTC
I don't see how I could connect with other worlds. How does that work?
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 08:26 UTC
jprogman: It should happen automatically if you wait long enough. One will connect to the edge of your world.
ZirconCode
26. Aug 2014 · 09:22 UTC
Amazing concept, good audio, very relaxing atmosphere. The idea has so much potential, interesting source too.
Xentira
26. Aug 2014 · 11:06 UTC
I couldnt get the bridge to work but I did like the look and feel of the game. Really nice job on this.
SaintHeiser
26. Aug 2014 · 16:56 UTC
Just gray screen for me =(
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 21:49 UTC
@ZirconCode: Thanks!
@Xentira: I'm not sure what to tell you; it's worked for me when I've played. Sometimes the bridges get placed in weird places but so far I've been able to get to them.
@SaintHeiser: Someone else in IRC had that same problem. I have no idea what would be causing it, unfortunately.
snoozbuster
26. Aug 2014 · 22:00 UTC
@SaintHeiser: Actually, I just found the bug; it occurs when you have a 360 controller plugged in. I didn't have time to fully add controller support so I stripped it instead; looks like I didn't strip it all the way :p I just uploaded a fix.
commodoreKid
27. Aug 2014 · 10:15 UTC
It looks more like a design tool than a game. However could be turned to a game since building mechanic is ready. I liked how you can see what other players did before.
snoozbuster
27. Aug 2014 · 11:16 UTC
@commordoreKid: There was a lot of features that had to be cut; the main feature is just to see randomly what other people have made. Oh well!
Lokarunith
28. Aug 2014 · 19:27 UTC
Intresting concept, lots of potential there, but the camera is a bit annoying.
Snicklodocus
28. Aug 2014 · 21:14 UTC
This is a great idea! I played the compo version and was going to complain about the camera and shaky jumping but it seems you fixed that! I don't think you need to add any goals or unlocks really - this could just be virtual Legos. Seeing others' worlds is pretty impressive. Good job!
snoozbuster
29. Aug 2014 · 02:07 UTC
@Lokarunith: Yeah, that's why I added rotation in the post-compo build.
@Snicklodocus: If you like virtual Legos, let me introduce you to http://ldd.lego.com! Thanks for the compliments, though!
Dohan
29. Aug 2014 · 19:38 UTC
A very interesting entry. And reading the post-compo version notes, it seems that you already have adressed the main issues I've found playing the compo version (that you weren't able to rotate the camera and bridges beyond reach).
snoozbuster
30. Aug 2014 · 02:31 UTC
@Dohan: Thanks! I would have fixed those things in the main version too, but I just ran out of time. I had to take the stance of "functional but buggy" instead of "well polished".
ChuiGum
31. Aug 2014 · 06:04 UTC
Gave the audio 5 stars because it was awesome! Great job!
Crefossus
31. Aug 2014 · 09:20 UTC
I liked the menu and the mouseover text. I would really like a free camera and being able to move while placing.

Maybe keep placing until you rightclick again? I know shift is there but I use it a lot.

Having other players worlds load is spot on for the theme.

The random generation is okay, but I'd rather have more freedom in where to place things. At least let me clear it out.

Having an option to teleport home when you're looking at another place would be great. Why not just be able to teleport to your neighbors? Unless the movement starts to feel really good it's just a chore to get there.
commanderstitch
08. Sep 2014 · 01:02 UTC
WOW. this is awesome. i throughtly thaought this game was neat. Great potential. the scaling and odd shaped stuff is wierd.meaning, the direction of movement took some getting used to and the blocks and how everything worked was a bit to learn, but the concept and applicatoin to this theme makes this game soo nice. Good job jammers!