LudumData

Shapegrammer by APantaloni

[raw]
made by APantaloni for LD35 (JAM)
Shapegrammer is a game inspired by the traditional tangram puzzle that will test your reflexes and visual-spatial ability.

Pick the correct shape and rotation to pass through the never ending obstacles. Try to get the highest score and be awesomer than your friends!

Best played with a gamepad. Keyboard controls supported.

Gamepad controls:
A button: start the game
A, B, X, Y buttons: change shape
Left stick: rotate shape

Keyboard controls:
Down arrow: start the game
Directional arrows: change shape
W, A, S, D: rotate shape

Menu controls:
F5: change player name (for the leaderboard, F4 on the web build)
F7: toggle music
F8: toggle sound fx
F10: quit game

NEW: Post jam version (25/04/2016)
The post jam version adds a difficulty level selector. Press LB or Tab to switch between RELAX (new, easier mode) and CHALLENGE (basically the same as the original version). They have separate high scores and leaderboards.
We also increased the top scores list to 20 names. Hopefully now everybody can enjoy the game without being too frustrated, regardless of their skill level. You can find the new version on the itch.io page or on the Web (Post jam) link below. Have fun!

Programming and graphics: Andrea Pantaloni
Music and SFX: Katalin Negretti
Additional graphics: Tommaso Pantaloni

Currently available builds: Windows, Mac OSX, HTML5
Made with Unity

Thanks for playing!
Web http://www.48hstudio.com/jams/shapegrammer/WebGL/
Windows, OS X (itch.io) https://apantaloni.itch.io/shapegrammer
Windows (direct download) https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B2GAi1wC8suzN0VjVUhVUHVEVkk
OS X (direct download) https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B2GAi1wC8suzNXZCTVpkZWw3UW8
Web (Post jam) http://www.48hstudio.com/jams/shapegrammer/PostJam/WebGL/
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=92148

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.68 166
Audio(Jam) 3.24 348
Fun(Jam) 3.48 236
Graphics(Jam) 3.72 329
Humor(Jam) 2.70 399
Innovation(Jam) 3.52 219
Mood(Jam) 3.25 427
Theme(Jam) 4.03 81

Feedback

ziege
18. Apr 2016 · 19:38 UTC
It's fun, looks good, sounds good. But the difficulty curve could a bit kinder.
bagface
18. Apr 2016 · 19:50 UTC
Great fun! The animation of the shapes rearranging is awesome. The fish is too hard to orient quickly, I can't remember which way is "up" =(
monaarc
18. Apr 2016 · 20:04 UTC
Puzzle !!! I like puzzle and this game is awesome, graphics, gampley, music... VERY GOOD JOB !
knason
18. Apr 2016 · 20:09 UTC
It's really addictive, but I'm so bad at it :-) the shifting part I can handle but then when it comes to the rotation.. makes it to hard (for me) :-) But it looks so good, great graphics. Great work!
VictorDoval
18. Apr 2016 · 21:52 UTC
Great game, maybe too hard but anyway I loved the idea and the final result. Thanks!
sftrabbit
18. Apr 2016 · 22:21 UTC
Great game! Played it until I got the top score so far (30!) and enjoyed it the whole time. Felt like I was really learning how to get better at it. The fish and dragon were the most difficult ones for me, but I ended up with a technique of thinking "Which way is the dragon/fish facing? Press the direction 90 degrees clockwise from that" - quite a tricky bit of mental gymnastic! Lots of fun and a great idea - nice work!
foolmoron
18. Apr 2016 · 22:43 UTC
Man this is infuratingly good. Randomizing the shapes each time is really smart. But I think it's overly mean and mentally painful to have some shapes be "up" by default and some shapes be "left" - it's super mind bending. Animation and presentation and everything is great too.
eeely
18. Apr 2016 · 23:21 UTC
very fun! but also very hard (；¬д¬)
ethankennerly
19. Apr 2016 · 03:32 UTC
When I pressed the shape of a tangram and the pieces flew into that figure as we wooshed through that shape in the wooden board, I felt amazed. If you continue to design this, I got stuck at the first board to rotate. I didn't notice the shape and the rotation in time.
tmpxyz
19. Apr 2016 · 04:00 UTC
Quite interesting game :)
glaze_96
19. Apr 2016 · 06:41 UTC
Now this is a game! And a really great take on the theme!

Got a highscore of 9 after a couple of plays. Can't believe that someone got 30. It's so hard!

Also - I love how the game scales. Like how you left out the boring beginning like so many games like this often does not.

Overall, great game!

Hope you guys had a fun time making it =)
nervous.composers
19. Apr 2016 · 09:12 UTC
Looks amazing and a load of fun! Nice work!
Le_Sarus
19. Apr 2016 · 10:21 UTC
Very cool design and nice artwork, figuring out the fish rotation is very hard though.
LooksLikeSomething
19. Apr 2016 · 11:50 UTC
Rotating the right way is so hard, but this game is so cool !
tanis
19. Apr 2016 · 14:19 UTC
Damn! It's so hard that at some point it becomes frustrating :D
Nonetheless it's addictive! ;) Veeery well done!
Paskal007r
19. Apr 2016 · 14:53 UTC
A very good puzzle, nice graphics, love the rearranging animation
NPC23
19. Apr 2016 · 15:08 UTC
Really fun, but man does it get hard fast. Even on controller it was really hard to remember the turning directions.
SkullPixel
19. Apr 2016 · 16:30 UTC
It's definitely a cool concept, but gets ridiculously hard. Or maybe I'm just bad at it. :D
antglynn
19. Apr 2016 · 16:42 UTC
Great fun, but I'm terrible at it. Like the sounds, looks good also. Good job!
panurge
19. Apr 2016 · 16:57 UTC
I was terrible at this but I enjoyed it all the same! The way the tangram reshuffles itself is really cool. Lovely presentation too, right down to the evil laugh when you lose! Great work.
dunin
19. Apr 2016 · 18:05 UTC
The rotation is a bit strange. Or maybe the game becomme harder too faster...
By the way, cool game.
McFunkypants
19. Apr 2016 · 19:09 UTC
Really amazing work! I love the cool block shapes. But WOW was that ever hard for me. I wish the "next shape" was never behind the current shape so I could see it better. Awesome job.
local minimum
19. Apr 2016 · 19:45 UTC
Really really hard game about as fun as it was annoying to fail over and over again. It actually took me quite a while to figure out that I couldn't use the rotation to rotate the characters so they faced the direction that seemed logical but that finding the right orientation was a challenge itself. Or if that was not intended, we definitely don't agree on the expected rotation pattern. The fish I kept trying to point its head by using the left control, the giraffe, its head (so their origins are 90 degrees rotated in my mind). If what direction on the left stick maps to what rotation was intended as a puzzle too, then I would suggest adding that complexity a bit later in the game and add some more time between the first couple of patterns to help people starting out with the game. Nicely done though.
Xanjos
19. Apr 2016 · 20:12 UTC
Pretty fun and challenging entry but also quite difficult because of how fast the shape seems to be falling. Also an option to invert the keyboard controls (so that WASD changes shape and the arrow keys rotate it) would be nice.
David Cookie
19. Apr 2016 · 21:30 UTC
Really hard, especially with some shapes already rotated by defaults, but I had great fun with your game! Good looking, addictive, never ending. It has a huuuge potential! Congrats to you :D
Heiky
20. Apr 2016 · 10:32 UTC
Hard, in a good way. Loved the song, music and the animation.
WeirdMind
20. Apr 2016 · 11:45 UTC
Wonderful game. I had a lot of fun to try again and again. Its very difficult to reach your own highscore. It looks nice and the music was fine. Well done!
EpiFouloux
20. Apr 2016 · 12:48 UTC
A bit hard (I don't have qwerty keyboard) but nice !
🎤 APantaloni
20. Apr 2016 · 13:27 UTC
Thanks everybody for the kind words and suggestions! To non-QWERTY keyboard users: on the downloadable version you can remap the controls on the Input tab of the configuration screen. On-screen it will continue to show WASD and arrows (there wasn't time for a more sophisticated approach), but you'll be able to use any key you want :)
Goutye
20. Apr 2016 · 16:21 UTC
Pretty addictive by the way! Managed to get a 22, signed the 7th current world place. Pretty happy! Getting excited each time I beat the mark! Really original way regarding the theme! Well done!
pixelpotions
20. Apr 2016 · 17:40 UTC
Wise entry, loved the idea and you executed well.
Can't say I didn't have trouble playing it, because it's really hard, but well, no pain, no gain haha. Congratulations.
DSSiege11
20. Apr 2016 · 18:46 UTC
Really nice idea but sooo hard ^^' Well done though ;)
solkar
20. Apr 2016 · 20:23 UTC
I agree with the overall opinion that it's too hard. Maybe less freedom at the beginning would help. Anyway the gameplay is solid and it really works.
technovirusattack
20. Apr 2016 · 20:46 UTC
Im impressed, its really fun to play it, got me playing some time and thats weird for a Ludum game, cool idea used perfectly to accomplish a nice game.
bigbuggames
20. Apr 2016 · 22:34 UTC
Great graphics and use of the theme on a very responsive gameplay! I don't understand how people can get such scores...
Fakirgnome
20. Apr 2016 · 23:32 UTC
Really fun to play, controls could maybe be tweaked a little. Cute choice of graphics and art.
Wertle
20. Apr 2016 · 23:34 UTC
This is a super lovely game, I really like the choice to go with the tangrams and preset shapes of them because it meant I got to look at a lot of really cool art! My biggest issue was that I was mapping rotation relative to the shape, so for example I kept trying to push right twice to make it pointing up, rather than selecting the correct orientation. This may just be a product of experience using the controller and expecting the analog stick to work in a relative way. It would be interesting to find a way to support both and detect which the player is trying to do, BUT that may cause complications since you have a leaderboard (if one method is inherently easier than the other) so maybe not. Or another thing you could do is isolate the two controls in the beginning, like start off with a single shape that you just have to choose orientation on so people can get used to that before adding both of them together, that might actually clear up a lot. There was a point where the music felt like it was syncing to the movement of the shape holes and it was REALLY COOL feeling. If you had a way of doing that on purpose it might get super interesting results. Nice work!
Karai17
21. Apr 2016 · 00:19 UTC
Solid game, very difficult, but quite pretty.
ShadowTemplar
21. Apr 2016 · 00:21 UTC
I like it! Watched it on the stream :D
Llucile
21. Apr 2016 · 00:34 UTC
Great gameplay idea ! Very polished graphics and sounds too. I really liked it but it is a bit difficult. :s
blockdroppers
21. Apr 2016 · 05:05 UTC
Really neat game, would be nice if it started out a bit slower but love the gameplay
kariamoss
21. Apr 2016 · 08:21 UTC
Very fun, but hard! Great work!
bigbatardyt
21. Apr 2016 · 08:32 UTC
Cool game and the scoring feature is good !
DuckTieTeam
21. Apr 2016 · 10:52 UTC
Great game) However, it would be better if rotation of object is reseted when you shapeshift it
Black Horn Studios
21. Apr 2016 · 11:19 UTC
Very nice game! The leaderboard is awesome
Oliver_MB
21. Apr 2016 · 11:30 UTC
Real nice idea... great fun!!!! :D
ZYXer
21. Apr 2016 · 14:14 UTC
That's guite a hard game. I wish the game would start out a bit easier, so that you get into a flow. I also wished the positions of the shapes would be at the same place each time, its really hard to get used to the new positions (on the other hand, if the game would start out easier, it would give you time to get used to the new positions).
In general good graphics and good sound. And quite an innovative idea to combine a guitarhero-esque gameplay with the tandram puzzle.
Arvydas
21. Apr 2016 · 14:26 UTC
Great Game! it's insanely addictive, very very good job, complimenti! :)
Mieeh
21. Apr 2016 · 17:30 UTC
Hey, this is a really fun game. Cool visuals and good use of theme. Maybe I'm bad at the game but i felt that the learning curve was a bit too harsh and fast.
Hempuli
21. Apr 2016 · 20:32 UTC
Very polished! I liked how all the characters were formed of the same set pieces. The game idea is relatively simple but gets tough really fast, and especially the fish was the bane of me. Managed to get 30 points, though!
Gamepopper
21. Apr 2016 · 21:17 UTC
I saw this being played on Hempuli's stream and after playing it I found it really fun! The animations look really smooth and I like how everything fits together (pun intended :P).

I'm really terrible though, I struggle after three or four goes because of the rotation. It probably would have been manageable if there were only two buttons for rotating pieces (e.g. A+D for rotating left+right) and the direction keys for the shapes.
fafastudio
21. Apr 2016 · 22:10 UTC
I must say i feel pretty stupid playing at this game but i have to reckon that it's very well thinking and that you did it perfectly. Nice game helping your brain to get clean :)
MintArcade
21. Apr 2016 · 22:16 UTC
Awesome game! Controller controls are fantastic.
luquio
21. Apr 2016 · 22:41 UTC
the gameplay and the main idea is great, also has the look kind of origamis and i like a lot that, unfortunatly i cant beat more tan 5 shapes, i need more practice, but ill add it to my favs in the browser so ill keep trying to beat the topscore haha! hope you keep working on this, is an amazing idea of shapeshift
LOSTALLOY
22. Apr 2016 · 08:11 UTC
SO HARD! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ But also super cool, great job! :D
Gyfis
22. Apr 2016 · 08:44 UTC
Difficult but very fun! Bloody controller with different mapping destroyed me though - the hints were not that useful.
SeaDads
22. Apr 2016 · 12:26 UTC
I love how it seems so easy but is so hard! Really nice all round!
Fabraz
22. Apr 2016 · 14:10 UTC
Tough as nails, but nothing that some playtesting couldn't fix. The base is VERY solid.
KairosXIII
22. Apr 2016 · 23:25 UTC
Great idea, but a bit fast for me. Couldn't find the correct shape at the bottom quick enough, especially since keeps changing. Awesome take on the theme.
Brightstar
23. Apr 2016 · 01:06 UTC
Cool game. My high score was 23. :)
Frederika and Patrick
23. Apr 2016 · 01:14 UTC
So, puzzle games are not quite my thing, so that affects my view. The game was a good coherent whole. Each part worked well and as intended, I think. More importantly, the parts worked well together. All that being said, it is hard, and not just because you are doing two things at once, nor the speed. Every time you lose, the shapes change, as do their key assignment.
neilcorre2k6
23. Apr 2016 · 02:55 UTC
that was awesome! :D
samlo
23. Apr 2016 · 11:52 UTC
Definitely enjoyed playing this, but I wish you guys introduced the shapeshifting first and then the rotation second. I found the steep difficulty curve a tad off putting. Nice audio and graphics though!
neondx
23. Apr 2016 · 12:47 UTC
DAMN GOOD GAME!!!!
JuDelCo
23. Apr 2016 · 19:08 UTC
Score: 7

Arrggg this is frustrating, well done !
AnaGF
23. Apr 2016 · 19:25 UTC
Challenging and addictive at the same time. It is a really solid entry. I wouldn't change shapes between plays, I would mantain it to 4 shapes, but it is just an opinion. It is a great game!
Got 13. I don't know how someone managed to get 40 o.o
tayl1r
24. Apr 2016 · 00:17 UTC
Well, I am rubbish at this! As soon as I need to rotate I press all the buttons wrong. But it's nice! Well done.
kestrelgames
24. Apr 2016 · 07:05 UTC
the shifting effect on the blocks is really well done! for me, rotation is really hard to deal with because it's hard to see the shape in the board with the pieces being on top of it. That would probably be an easy fix :) I like that you can pretty much just try again without a pause to start a new game. You really nailed that 'transformation' effect, it feels amazingly satisfying to switch shapes!
DAT.NOT.MY.GAME!
24. Apr 2016 · 07:53 UTC
Good Tangram-like game with pretty graphics and nice gameplay.
hunttis
24. Apr 2016 · 12:52 UTC
Took me a couple of plays to get it, but after I did, it's ingenious in it's simplicity and overall mechanics. Always liked tangrams and was happy to see someone else does too :D
Asturk
24. Apr 2016 · 17:01 UTC
Thats a very creative Tangram game!! Nicely done! I just think that the dificult could be a little easier on the start of the game, and could get that level of hard on a little more advanced part! But for the rest, its really great!
drazil100
24. Apr 2016 · 19:14 UTC
addictive little game you got here... the rankings really tie you in and make you want to get faster. Good fun game.
puppetmaster
24. Apr 2016 · 19:46 UTC
What a cool game! My first 5* for Theme.
Congrats for your great game!
OriginalBigDan
24. Apr 2016 · 21:44 UTC
There's some brilliant mechanics there. It might be kinder on the difficulty if you had a single 'set' of shapes that didn't change if you lost in that level. I found the bit where you bring in the 'rotate', too early and came in a bit too quick.
Would make a brilliant touch app, you're almost ready to basically plonk it on an iPhone and make some money! Well done buddy :).
Jin47
25. Apr 2016 · 14:16 UTC
My god this is hard! But very good job both in concept/gameplay/graphics and sound. And this re-arranging animation is simply AWESOME !
SUNFURY
25. Apr 2016 · 14:39 UTC
I liked the game a lot :)
Very challenging. Nice idea
BubuIIC
25. Apr 2016 · 15:16 UTC
Well made and polished game. But I just can't get the rotation right. I think it would be far easier for me if the left/right keys would just rotate the shape relative to it's current orientation. As already suggested maybe you could provide both control schemes?
egos
25. Apr 2016 · 16:34 UTC
simple but addictive concept
Very well realized
leffe108
25. Apr 2016 · 21:18 UTC
Interesting game, but difficult with so much to take into account in short time. Nice touch with different loosing sounds that rotate or is picked by random. Global high score while not really difficult to do if you know some backend development, its still a nice addition.
iossif
25. Apr 2016 · 21:50 UTC
oh damn that's a hard one :)

i really like that it follows a simple idea but has a nice theme and not "just different shapes". i had fun playing it.
ExSpecter
26. Apr 2016 · 11:48 UTC
Nice Game. It is kind of mesmeric but i really like it! Great job
DevelopTech
26. Apr 2016 · 17:32 UTC
Wow! Love the puzzle style. The game difficulty is a little high (at least, the first times that you play it) but when you master the controls it became into a very funny and challenger game. Good work!
fatsopanda
26. Apr 2016 · 19:33 UTC
This game fits great for the theme :) I had fun playing it, but the difficulty curve is definitely high. Takes time to learn it.
Jolly Serpent
28. Apr 2016 · 13:51 UTC
Very addicting and tense game, played it for a while. I'll probably come back to it.
guoboism
29. Apr 2016 · 11:48 UTC
It's really nice to a tangram game!
Adipson
30. Apr 2016 · 08:42 UTC
very funny
Jupiter_Hadley
30. Apr 2016 · 15:20 UTC
Lovely looking, well made. I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/6jh8RTn7UxY
Aaranos
30. Apr 2016 · 16:56 UTC
It's pretty difficult given the number of options and rotation.
ciaodavinci
01. May 2016 · 01:24 UTC
This was really cool and challenging. It was fun to keep jumping back into it
Lucario12k
01. May 2016 · 15:46 UTC
The controls are not the most intuitive, but this is a great game overall.
randomhuman
01. May 2016 · 16:20 UTC
Really clever idea, and extremely polished. I'll never reach the lofty heights of that leaderboard though...
Szabin
02. May 2016 · 12:59 UTC
This would make a great mobile game!
Brian Mayberry
05. May 2016 · 03:21 UTC
Ok, you win, "Uncle!" This game is a certain kind of genius that makes me brain no work gud. Extremely well executed, fantastic work!
StrayCat
07. May 2016 · 01:34 UTC
It's nice, the difficulty is a bit too high for me. Good job!
BulletsArePeopleToo
07. May 2016 · 23:30 UTC
Wow this is a great entry.

I love that the key-to-shape mapping changes every round. The game never gets easy.

It took me a minute to realize that all of the figures are facing left. Knowing that helps a lot when it gets faster - there's not any time to look at the guides in the corners. But it's still hard to quickly translate the direction they're facing to the right key. It's especially difficult with the more horizontal figures, like the fish and the dog (I think it's a dog). The standing figures like the man and the giraffe are much easier - you just point in the direction of their head.

Smooth animation, great UI, very polished all around. I just realized that "press [down arrow] to begin" is written in a font made from tangram pieces - slick.

I'll keep coming back to this one,... and I'm gonna beat Tommy's score :)
SantiHisteria
09. May 2016 · 15:04 UTC
I like it! Good graphics and sounds. A bit difficult but it is a good idea.