LudumData

Equilibrium by phi

[raw]
made by phi for LD30 (COMPO)
Your goal is to equalize the population numbers (indicated by the size) of the planets. Establish continuous population flows between planets. The numbers on the planets represent the speed at which population is transported away from them. The green bar at the right shows you how far away you are from all planets having equal population numbers. Get it over the threshold to get to the next stage. Every planet must be connected to at least one other planet.

- Create or remove an arrow by dragging with your LEFT MOUSE BUTTON from one planet to the other.
- Move a planet around by dragging with your RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON, to keep things neatly arranged.

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Tested successfully in Chrome and Firefox.
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Have fun, thank you for playing!
Web (HTML5) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67576446/equilibrium/web/ld30.html
Source (GitHub) https://github.com/phigames/ld30
Time-lapse Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W04XpKMckzM
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=20723

Ratings

Coolness 45% 1426
Overall 3.45 319
Audio 3.21 274
Fun 2.98 620
Graphics 2.87 715
Humor 2.18 660
Innovation 3.90 95
Mood 3.30 296
Theme 3.85 121

Feedback

Inudenis
24. Aug 2014 路 23:40 UTC
Nice, very creative!
Tanner
25. Aug 2014 路 05:28 UTC
Nice mechanics.
DaanVanYperen
25. Aug 2014 路 14:22 UTC
I got a glitch where one of the planets spawned over one of the others, making it hard to play on, interesting mechanics though!
馃帳 phi
25. Aug 2014 路 18:12 UTC
@DaanVanYperen: This is not a glitch. You can move the planets by dragging with your right mouse button. It's mentioned in the description and also in-game, but I guess it's not visible enough. Thank you for playing and for your feedback!
Perjoka
25. Aug 2014 路 19:29 UTC
i like it, interesting mechanic :)
Killbert
25. Aug 2014 路 19:30 UTC
Very creative and original.
kyru
25. Aug 2014 路 19:31 UTC
Nice puzzle game, uses the theme well.
graebor
25. Aug 2014 路 19:32 UTC
Very cool concept. Took me a few minutes to get the hang of it but once I did it was a good "aha" moment. Audio fits, controls are simple, great job!
Aomeas
25. Aug 2014 路 19:39 UTC
Nice mood! I'm not used to this kind of strategy so I'm pretty bad, but I can feel the work you put in it.
Seraphic Media
25. Aug 2014 路 19:47 UTC
interesting idea, pretty fun
Ramori
25. Aug 2014 路 19:58 UTC
http://imgur.com/Q2DBewu - still no idea what am I doing, but it's fun.
I really like the sounds and simple graphics. Both create very pleasant mood. Instead of thinking about making the most optimal flow, I was like: "Let's see what happens if I connect this to that. Oh, nice. Now let's try connecting this over there...". Very nice game.
Sunflower
25. Aug 2014 路 20:41 UTC
After thinking a little and having the information about the fact number indicate the speed, I came up with formula that must be followed for each planet to reach the perfect equilibrum: Sum(incomingSpeeds) = outcomingSpeed * outcomingEdges. With that knowledge I reached level teen-ish before deciding it's probably never going to end, however randomly generated completion messages can be.

Generally, I found mechanics to be quite original, but they didn't keep me interested for really long; I guess having levels designed rather than randomly generated, and limited number of them (and maybe some other gimmicks) would hook me more (not that I expect to make full game in 48 hours ^^"). As for audiovisuals, they served their purpose, even though they didn't stand out.

Overall, nice job here.
akymos
26. Aug 2014 路 13:23 UTC
Great result for a 48h challenge. Curious gameplay and smooth visual. Minimal sound and graphics
Hippolyta
26. Aug 2014 路 16:14 UTC
Liked it very much, cool mechanics!
Eero Tuovinen
26. Aug 2014 路 16:15 UTC
A solid puzzle kernel, very satifying for a competition entry. Merely adding more planets as the only axis of elaboration would be too thin for sustained interest, and the concept has legs for more variety, but these are not competition concerns.
ZNCatlaw
26. Aug 2014 路 16:42 UTC
What a neat mechanic! Normally these "drag lines from circle to circle" games are about bodies with varying populations but a stable rate of change. This is neat because you have to try to understand how the populations will change based on the rates of change.

That being said! I never felt like I "understood" how to win these levels, but I won by just making a bunch of connections and then tweaking them. It would be nice if there was more of a visual sense of how these quantities are changing.

Do you have a twitter account?
Floko
26. Aug 2014 路 17:59 UTC
Awesome mechanics! I'm so bad at puzzles , ahah . I stated to ge really confused after so many connections, but I'm glad you put a button to clear them all...thanks a lot for that =]

I really enjoyed the mechanics , and the audio feedback is spot-on. nice work!
馃帳 phi
26. Aug 2014 路 19:59 UTC
@ZNCatlaw: Thanks a ton for playing and for the feedback! I do have a twitter account (@phigames), but I'm not really using it actively at the moment.
J-d-H
27. Aug 2014 路 12:41 UTC
I like the game and it's presentation. Nice time filer keeping brain from rusting too much.
zatyka
27. Aug 2014 路 14:01 UTC
Well done, and very unique. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, but my brain started subconsciously figuring it out after a few levels while. I played it for quite a while, and ended up with a very pleasing visual.

You did a nice job of making the game feel challenging, but not unfair. The whole thing was nicely polished... slick visuals, appropriate music. This is the type of game I could waste time with. Also, I think touch controls would work great with the game.

My only complaint is that there wasn't a lot of variety, but what is there is great.
snooze82
27. Aug 2014 路 14:33 UTC
nice idea :) got till level 10 :D
pythong
27. Aug 2014 路 16:47 UTC
nice concept, but all the possibilities made me go crazy XD
PapyGaragos
28. Aug 2014 路 15:28 UTC
I had to restart a few times because the new planet would pop to close to an other, and if one of the two became too big I couldn't clic the other.
ElectricSeagull
28. Aug 2014 路 15:39 UTC
Nice original puzzle game. I think the sound & visuals suits the feel of the game well.
馃帳 phi
28. Aug 2014 路 17:29 UTC
@PapyGaragos: You can move the planets with your left mouse button.
馃帳 phi
29. Aug 2014 路 04:44 UTC
* right mouse button
:s
Colapsydo
30. Aug 2014 路 09:48 UTC
Once you know that you can move planets and that the number is the travel flow (even if that last one becomes clear with few levels), the game starts to be really interesting.
The atmosphere is great, the game have a good response to user actions which renders the thinking easier.
mrexcessive
03. Sep 2014 路 06:20 UTC
Hi there. I like the implementation more than the underlying puzzle. Nice sounds, visuals, UI.
mrexcessive
03. Sep 2014 路 06:21 UTC
Hi there. I like the implementation more than the underlying puzzle. Nice sounds, visuals, UI.
jukimv1986
08. Sep 2014 路 03:31 UTC
Nice take on the theme, I like puzzles very much. Well done!
brookman
11. Sep 2014 路 17:29 UTC
Nice to see a fellow Swiss game dev! :)

Made it to stage 23. My strategy: Order the nodes by value in a bi-directionally connected ring (like this: http://i.imgur.com/CDmyadw.png) Then fiddle around a bit until it's in equilibrium.
Keep up the good work!