Endless Hexagon by David Cookie
So with this theme, I immediately thought about lots of board games I've played in my life. So here's a kinda "interactive board game" in which you flip tiles.
Play in webplayer here: https://david-cookie.itch.io/endless-hexagon
The "developer score" is currently at 8300, try to beat me!
Tutorial is in the menu, I would advise you to read it before playing but live dangerously if you want! If you want more advices, it's really just a game about optimization: recycle the most Ruin tiles in one shot, and try to fill the gauges by not flipping random tiles. The way it works is:
- form a group of ruin tiles and let a “free tile” in the middle (aka any tile before ruin)
- click other tiles to fill the gauges
- now that recycle is ready, click this previous “free tile” to recycle all ruin tiles around
The things I’m beginning to figure out are a bit confusing:
- recycle only works for adjacent ruin tiles and not all adjacent tiles
- recycle is available as long as you don’t use it (you don’t say!) nor lower the gauges
As for the jam in itself, it went pretty smoothly as I found my idea quickly. An initial idea that was closer to a game like Reigns (hence the gauges) but changed into this puzzle game along the way. I also wanted to have this simple and direct feeling in controls, combined with a deeper reflexion (like Threes, or 2080 for those who don't know the original). I managed to make everything I wanted just before the end of the jam and even sleep 7 hours each night (a miracle). It's maybe a game I'll continue, I don't know yet. I already have some ideas for a "puzzle mode" and it could be cool to have other boards to unlock with a score system (like Mini Metro).
As usual, I made everything by myself from scratch using Construct 2, Bfxr for the sounds and Ableton live for the musics.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/messire_Cookie
Ratings
| Overall | 168th | 3.75⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 239th | 3.444⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 29th | 4.077⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 195th | 3.769⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 317th | 3.704⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 84th | 3.852⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 154th | 3.731⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 28🗳️ | 36🗨️ |
I think it might need some balance though because I tried a few times and never managed to go past 2 recycles. I would have appreciated to play a bit longer (or maybe you made it so tough on purpose :D)
Really awesome puzzle game. Music is relaxing and you need to play with your mind if you wanna get a high score. I did 5300 (don't remember the exact score) but I really enjoyed.
Interface is clear and graphics are quite cool, I like the painted style of the tiles.
Good job !
It's hard, but fair
But it was really fun to play during this late night. The concept is simple but can create deep complexity. The music is good but can become repetitive after a while. I wish there was more variety.
Everything is made clear with the tutorial. Congratulation!
A beautiful and moody game. Very good job on making it all by yourself. And it's quite challenging too. With a little more balancing or more feedback to what wich tile really influences, I can totally see this working on mobile. I say, go for it!
There are no ruin tiles showing, but clicking in the middle consumes the recycle and does nothing to prevent the six ruin tiles from showing up.
I cannot break the 5000 score barrier either.
One thing that bothers me with the mechanics is similar to what @joatski described above: recycle only clears already existing ruins and not industrial cities, and when you convert a tile to ruins you lose some stats and lose your recycle. So you have to create some ruins first (losing your recycle if you had it), and also have a place with fresh tiles to get all stats back to full. It would be much more intuitive to me to keep the recycle once you've earned it even if stats drop down. Or have a threshold where you gain the recycle and above which stats can go so you get a buffer and won't lose your recycle immediately.
I like that it looks like a finished game a lot, a feat I usually don't have in my LD games. Sounds are nice and relaxing and fitting to the mood of the game, graphics are good and fitting too. Great job!
Also, thanks for your long remark (and other people too btw)! I made some choices 'cause the game would have been too easy but I'm conscious it's clearly not balanced properly, and I'm not satisfied with the short duration of a game either (even though I had mobile in mind). I wanted more an infinite feeling like 2080 but it's not there yet. I'll definitely rethink all the rules if I continue this. Thanks again for the kind words and ideas!
I'm proud of me x) After some try though x) Good puzzle game :) Moreover, I think that fit the theme very well :)
Sounds and graphics are quite nice too, good job :)
Good job and keep coding :)
The music is really simple, but still really helps the mood. It is out of the way and not too obtrusive, while keeping a nice tone. I also like the sound effects.
Great Job! Good Luck!
I don't think it's any fault of yours, the concept of the game was explained well and I do understand the theory behind it, but translating that into recycles and points just eludes me.
Anyway, like I said, this game is fun. In addition it has good graphics and sound, and is definitely unique. Great job!
Congratulations on making game!
Nice graphics, the game is very re-playable. I loved it!
It was a cool, solid, and fun game. The music was really chill, which added to the atmostphere. Not only that, but the innovative aspect of the puzzle made it funner to play. This was one of the more innovative puzzle games I've seen so far (and I've seen a lot. I thought I would see more RPG's or Roguelikes, but I've only seen a few.) My score's averaged around 3000 first, and my best was 4000 something I think?
Aside from a few problems which didn't really impact gameplay, it was a really polished game, although the almost repetitive nature made it lack depth, but that is understandable considering time used.
This is a very well put together "complete package" - compelling game play, a great aesthetic style to the sound and graphics, and a tutorial to boot.
One suggestion would be to go a bit deeper into the strategy in the tutorial - even after reading it, I felt a bit lost on my first playthrough. Even with the rules clearly explained, it took a few rounds for it to really click about how the game actually unfolded.
It would be nice to have some sort of feedback before you click a tile warning you that you are about to use up you recycle option - maybe highlight the tiles effected as the mouse hovers over it.
My personal best was 3980 :)
Love the polish, the pixel transition, the music, the animation, all looks very slick and cool.
Very interesting mechanic but I think there may be a slight bug with the first recycle? It doesn't seem to behave the way I thought it would. Or maybe I'm just not understanding it fully?
Great entry, thanks
The way it works is:
- form a group of ruin tiles and let a "free tile" in the middle (aka any tile before ruin)
- click other tiles to fill the jauges
- now that recycle is ready, click this previous "free tile" to recycle all ruin tiles around
The things I'm beginning to figure out are a bit confusing:
- recycle only works for adjacent ruin tiles and not all adjacent tiles
- recycle is available as long as you don't use it (you don't say!) nor lower the jauges
@shockeye really good suggestion for the tiles. I kinda kept the placeholders but they definitely need some graphic balancing. As for the warning before using recycle, ruin tiles that are affected are already more highlighted but clearly it's not sufficient.
@scriptorum the blinking red or green is really something I wanted to try but it was just too hard for me to do, hence the arrows :p My 1st idea was a system like Reigns though, not too clear but more precise.
Thanks for all your feedbacks!
I really like that you came up with an innovative game mechanic. Well done!
However, honestly, I'm a bit confused. I'm not quite sure how the game works. I read the tutorial and your description on this page several times and I also played the game several times to try to find a system, but I still don't quite get it. When do I get recycling? What are "jauges"? You keep using it in the tutorial and I don't know what they are. Google doesn't know the word "jauges" either. Do you mean the four bars in the top right? How exactly do the various tiles influence the four bars? When I get the "preview" arrows of the influence, is it only for the current tile or also for the six adjacent ones?
Edit: Okay I had three more goes, now I start to get how it works (I'll leave my comments above, so you understand the problems I was having.) This is actually really hard. I need to find strategies to keep enough low-level tiles around so that I can recycle. I noticed the following: once you got no tile lower than prosperous city, you lost. So actually I think it wouldn't be bad if the recycling feature would stay around, even if some of the four bars go down again. I mean, waiting to use recycling "costs" tiles anyway, so the earlier you do it the better.
My current highscore is: 4880
I must say, well done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwLATN0OA3Y