Splotch 2 by Sebastian Lague

[raw]
made by Sebastian Lague for LD 40 (JAM)

Splotch 2 is a puzzle game in which you draw lines to bounce balls home to their gates. As you draw lines to direct one ball, those lines will start to obstruct the paths of the other balls, hence 'the more you have, the worse it is'. Try to find the quickest routes through the levels to earn a spot on the leaderboards.

ScreenFlow64.gif

I was joined in making this game by my friend, Liam, who designed and tested the levels. We've opted out of the music category as music was generated using 'jukedeck'; and out of the humor category as it isn't relevant to this game. This is a sequel to a game I made several years ago for MiniLD54.

Here's a behind the scenes/post-mortem video https://youtu.be/Tow7a-_f9u4

Ratings

Overall 18th 4.235⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Fun 51th 4.031⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 23th 4.146⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Theme 502th 3.5⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 268th 4.02⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Mood 97th 3.958⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

backyard-dev
05. Dec 2017 · 11:49 UTC
Looks and plays very good. It's quite challenging. Level design is interesting. Good job.
SecretPocketCat
05. Dec 2017 · 19:34 UTC
Feels good, although the uneven terrain throws a lot of curveballs to the player, looks and feels fairly deterministic, though. (I should actually look into an engine, that offers deterministic physics...)

I would have preferred if the saws and such were a different colour. But then again, restarts don't matter, so that's probably a silly nitpick...

Thank you for a solid 30 minutes of great fun. :wink:
RonanRorry
06. Dec 2017 · 00:23 UTC
Might not be the game for me, but good job Sebastian!
Toccs
06. Dec 2017 · 09:21 UTC
Didn't expect your name to pop up in my feed, you are the sole reason i am able to make games.

Anyway to the game, its really challenging, love the idea behind it and how the physics interaction works. My only gripe would be the lack of instruction within the game.

Love it though very addictive.
Gruhh
06. Dec 2017 · 11:32 UTC
Good concept, has a good sense of progression, is simple but with a strong mechanics that can scale with ease! Congratulations for the game. (And cool to find Sebastian here, I've been following your channel on YT for quite some time)

Bom conceito, tem uma boa sensação de progressão, é simples mas com uma mecânica forte que pode escalar com facilidade! Parabéns pelo jogo. (E legal achar o Sebastian aqui, sigo teu canal no YT há bastante tempo) :flag_br:
kantora
06. Dec 2017 · 14:06 UTC
Hi I really liked the game and it's idea. It was nice randomly seeing you since I like your videos very much and have been subscribed. Great game and I'll be waiting for your behind the scenes like with your previous game!
Grentacular
06. Dec 2017 · 14:39 UTC
Very impressive work for the timespan! The controls were occasionally frustrating: accidentally moving the wrong line could spell disaster for your solution, and it was really easy to grab the wrong one with so many close together. An undo button to correct these mistakes would have been super helpful. Also, it seemed like you couldn't click on the end of a line if it was behind a moving piece, like a saw, which was also annoying sometimes. Overall, though, it was a fun physics puzzler and I enjoyed playing it. Great work!
Kyrv19
06. Dec 2017 · 15:35 UTC
Very good game, I really like it (just like your tutorials) the menu is just lovely! But I have one bit of advice, that I would like to have some kind of reset and clear buttons on the screen, because I didn't read help menu and was confused for a second there. Overall 5/5 great game!
feips
06. Dec 2017 · 20:25 UTC
This was honestly the best game I played this jam (so far). I actually played an hour, trying to beat the world record(I didn't). The ability to lock lines so I don't accidentally edit them would be nice. Love it, very addictive.
nikchernyakov
06. Dec 2017 · 20:38 UTC
Very challenging game for me, but I liked this game. Nice and simple graphic. Pretty music. Good job!
LeonLaci
07. Dec 2017 · 13:32 UTC
Fun game. It has a nice visual style!
detectiveLosos
07. Dec 2017 · 14:58 UTC
Interesting game. Very intuitive controls. I actually didnt look at the tutorial and magically already knew all the controls (except I pressed R instead of spacebar for restart). I sat there trying to beat the world record on a very first level but after a while I gave up. When you are tweaking like fifth or sixth platform by a very tiny bit it becomes a little frustrating to hit restart every time and wait for the ball to come to that very platform.

It huts for me to say it but I actually ragequited out of the game. I finally planned a path through a level for one ball, almost finished with the other and then I accidentally moved the first platform for the first ball. And there is no ctrl+z. So all the highly measured bounces were obviously screwed :C

As an interesting observation this game would be great for the subject of neural networks and machine learning, because the the goal of the game is basically minmaxing your time while doing minor tweaks and changes and it would be fun to see the application of a genetic algorithm on top of already working level solution.

As a side note not related to the game I absolutely love your tutorials on YouTube! They really helped me a couple of years ago to get into this hobby of game development. Thank you for all that work you have done to help others make something they wish to make!
AlexisGea
07. Dec 2017 · 17:26 UTC
Very addictive and challenging! Congratulation!
Lamossus
07. Dec 2017 · 19:51 UTC
The points that allow you to change lines have way too big colliders. I messed up the whole thing quite a few time just because I accidently grabbed one of them. Also, apparently the game isn't completely determenistic, because I had few times when the same solution played out differently, which may make a game a bit unfair. Also the level design is a bit... weird, it's kinda hard to understand how are you even supposed to do that. Other than that quite nice game
Kyle Pham
08. Dec 2017 · 00:05 UTC
Really interesting game. The graphics are really simple but effective for a game like this. This suits the theme fairly well because I tend to mess things up with more walls. Really fun game.

P.S I really love your Youtube videos. One of the best game development Youtuber.
Yetman
08. Dec 2017 · 15:40 UTC
Nice game but needs a lot of patience. The lines remind me of your polygon editor tutorials. The art is simple and nice. The levels are well designed too (I didn't play all of them yet though).
zeu31
09. Dec 2017 · 12:42 UTC
Great game! Interesting mechanic and good level design. I just miss a redo and undo functionality, and having the balls bouncing around while building the platforms are a bit distracting, but it is not a big problem though.

Keep up the good work!
julianeder33
10. Dec 2017 · 11:01 UTC
Cool Game. Very challenging. Music and visuals are super nice too.
Cubeeo
10. Dec 2017 · 11:04 UTC
I like what you got here, for sure, so I'm just trying to help you improve this, because this is totally something I'd enjoy. I can't even imagine the insanity of where these levels go. Currently, I'm only up to level 3, and I already have a big issue - you don't show the goal point at the beginning of the stage. Take level 3 for example - the only way to see the goal (where I'm supposed to finish) is to first get both yellow squares. So, I don't even know what my goal is until I do that. I think that's the number one addition I'd put into this game - tell me where the goal is - otherwise, I wander lost until I learn where the goal point is. And, I can't really start strategically playing a level, in any real way, until I know where the goal point is.

That, and the aforementioned undo button, because I was building something on level 3, something along the lines of this:

![Splotch2.png](///raw/229/d/z/e6a5.png)

But, guess what, I had the goal blocked, without even knowing it, because I didn't know where the goal was yet.

P.S. I just found a bug. On level 3, if you emulate the set-up I currently have in this picture:

![Splotch2Bug2.png](///raw/229/d/z/e6a6.png)

The ball will go THROUGH the black solid UPWARD in direction of the red arrow (that I added). It takes about 45 seconds from entry, in this configuration.

Sweet game though.
Gris
10. Dec 2017 · 13:03 UTC
Loads of fun. The music helps create the mood and the game has a solid 30+ minutes of gameplay. The uneven terrain was hard to predict which I didn't like. definitely a mobile game I'd buy. Congrats and thanks for the great tutorials that helped me create my game!
Hooraygil
10. Dec 2017 · 18:06 UTC
Sup Sebastian!
I am really enjoying your Youtube content and that's what has driven me towards participating in my first Ludum Dare ! (Thanks for that!)

Now to your game: I could easily see myself gaming this on mobile every now and then in the bus or subway.
I like the aesthetics of the game, with the small chromatic aberration that is added like a vignette. There are some bugs that were mentioned before for example when the ball is bouncing really fast and justs goes through the solid materials, but hey thats unity physics right.

cheers
Game_Coder28
10. Dec 2017 · 18:28 UTC
Really good Game Sebastian, Keep Making great Youtube Videos :grin: Love the game but has some glitches like on level 4 there is no way to end the level? other than that great work
Bib
10. Dec 2017 · 19:52 UTC
Awesome and juicy game :o !
Rank 31 I didn't get the last 4 levels.
More you have ball, worse it is ... D:

Edit : Thanks for the GIF ! I got the 6th XD
Cliff Lee CL
11. Dec 2017 · 03:00 UTC
Great and polished entry!

Simple but great graphics with good level designs.

It is challenging and fun! Good job!
YangTianQiang
11. Dec 2017 · 08:54 UTC
WoW!Sup Sebastian! Why are you so excellent?Two years ago,I start to study Unity and enjoy your content.Now I become a game programmer in China but I find what you learned is more than what I know.Your game is filled with math and cool!Thanks a lot!
Billeclipse
11. Dec 2017 · 10:02 UTC
A really extraordinary idea for a minimal game like that! I watch the behind the scene video and i appreciated the effort you put to make this game :D Can't wait for the next one :P

P.S. The game was really challenging at least for me :P
KureKureciCZ
11. Dec 2017 · 20:32 UTC
This should go to steam... It is really good! Make the menu more polished, add level editor and its perfect!
recursor
12. Dec 2017 · 20:21 UTC
This is an excellent minimalist physics puzzle game. There is polish everywhere and the line drawing mechanic is a pleasure to use although I did get into a bit of trouble when 2 line endpoints were close to each other. Having it automatically save your best solution for each level is a nice touch. Great job.
Kalkatos
13. Dec 2017 · 00:41 UTC
This is the most close-to-complete game I've seen in this LD so far. It could very well fit on any app store 'as is' now and people would enjoy it, as I did. Very well done, guys! Thanks for the making of/tutorial video too, very insightful.
MagmaFortress
23. Dec 2017 · 23:28 UTC
Amazing work! I found this game super satisfying to play.
I love the minimalist graphics and interface.
I found the behind the scenes video really interesting too.