Fantastic Job! But WOW this is challenging! 0.o I managed to make 2 matches I think on my best game lol

It took me a while to understand that this is a match-3 plus bullet hell

@evannex
Thanks! I'm glad the challenge is there. To succeed you need to become one with the controls, flow around the bullets and use the blocks as shields. Thanks for playing!

@blubberquark
Hmm, I better add a clarification to the description. Thanks for playing!

Really cool game! At first I wasn't quite sure what to do with the blocks or how to grab them. Maybe a visual clue showing the progress of picking the block up would be nice (other than the shaking). But once I got that, the game was a lot of fun, also good graphics and sound!

Congratz for your entry, nice artwork, fun & innovative gameplay, quite challenging, overally a pleasant experience. Keep up the good work :thumbsup:

This was pretty fun and challenging, congrats!
Maybe the controls could be simplified, combining the walking and aiming direction, with the picked up thing always in front of you.

Quite a novel concept and execution was pretty damn solid as well. I think this was my best score...

The difficulty is indeed there and it is way too heavily dependant on RNG. Sometimes it took ages for a purple/red to appear, so I had really no chance of survival for long because I got swarmed by the enemies. Dodging the bullets is easy enough, I think that is one portion that you pretty much nailed right. The bullets are slow enough and they're easily noticeable. The problem arises when the enemies eventually outnumber the destructive blocks, they start destroying them before you can match them, a downward spiral.

For a smoother experience you could replace the full RNG based spawning with something pattern based. So it could be for example:
One enemy, 5 blocks (with at least one guaranteed match), another enemy, 4 blocks, enemy, 3 blocks, 2 enemies, 5 blocks... etc

It would result in a more fair and consistent experience on separate runs but still keeps it fresh enough because of some randomness like spawn positions and types.

The controls were pretty spot on. I personally would have preferred the keyboard controls directional keys to be flipped so I could move with arrows and aim with WASD (didn't even try controller because Unity and you mentioned Xbox controller, so PS controls are most likely borked as hell). And the whole control thing could have been made more approachable by just using a one set of directional keys for combined aiming/moving but obviously that would not allow some of the more advanced techniques which are there now. The block throwing was great, the rounding you used to find the proper row/column was perfect. Allowed quick and precise throws to be made without being pixel perfect.

I liked the visual style. The main protagonist and enemies had some nice charm to them. And as I already said, the bullets were big and visible which is super important in bullet hells (the player character hitbox size could be decreased though). The color palette was a bit too muddy for my taste.

All in all, good job!

@tomdeal
Yes, there was supposed to be a beam of sorts (made of particles) to make the tele-grabbing clearer, but I didn't have time to implement it. Thanks for playing!

@antti-haavikko

I've been playing this quite a bit myself (a good sign, it doesn't always happen with jam titles!) and certainly the spawning could use some tweaking. I think I'll match the first 20 some seconds to a pattern (blocks, enemy, blocks, enemy, etc) and then let the numbers increase over time.

Forcing the purple or red blocks to spawn will require further testing. I do like the idea that sometimes you have to do with nothing but the blue blocks as they act as shields. Maybe an increase in health points would add to their utility.

The gamepad support in Unity is indeed weird, hopefully they'll fix that eventually, not that I can test any other pads atm. Swapping the input is an easy option to add though, so that's going on the post-jam list.

I was aiming for cutesy/charming graphics so I'm glad that part worked out. The colors, quite frankly, I didn't pay much attention to so, sure, will tweak them too. Certain things need to pop.

Thanks for playing and the words!

Unique concept and interesting gameplay. The controls were somewhat confusing because I didn't understand how to grab blocks, I would hold spacebar next to some block and another one from somewhere else on the screen would move towards me. Maybe that was because I tried aiming with the mouse instead of arrow keys, using the mouse feels more intuitive.

I also didn't understand how to destroy enemies, I tried shooting blocks at them but that didn't do anything. Do the different blocks have different abilities?

The description said something about placing blocks adjacent to each other to create explosions but because I didn't understand how grabbing worked I never managed to do this.

The graphics were cute and I liked the music, I just think that if the controls were better explained I would enjoy this game a lot more.

Overall though, pretty solid entry that deserves more ratings. Good job! :smiley:

@linus

Pretty nice of you to end on a *Good job!* when not getting to play proper! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Mouse aiming would certainly work to a degree. I omitted it due to the rigid 4-directional aiming system, but will have it as an option for the post-jam version.

I've updated the description; give it another read and a go if you still want to see those :boom::boom::boom:

The Itch page has the old description if anyone wants to compare and contrast. I often forget to explain a thing or two, expecting everyone to know what I know (in this case twin-stick controls on a keyboard!)

Thanks for playing!

@HuvaaKoodia Updating the description helped a lot. I got to play proper this time around with more :boom: and had much more fun. Still a very difficult game :smile:

The controls took some getting used to but I learned to take advantage of the mechanic to grab blocks from a far distance.

I just wish that the blue blocks would do something else than just being in the way and as shields. Nice work on this game, I think that the difficulty and controls could be tweaked :smiley:

Here is my game if you want to take a look: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$74082

Pretty interesting! I liked the strategy that the different colors of blocks required.

Mostly, I think that the rules should be a little clearer. It took me a little while to figure out that the grabbing worked across distances and that the purple blocks did not have to be in a straight line. Once I figured those things out, the game was pretty fun!

Nice music, also. Did you make it?

@mao
> purple blocks did not have to be in a straight line

Well gee, one more thing to add to the instructions, *somehow.*
The particle beam effect will make the grabbing clearer I hope. Haven't had time to implement it yet.

Yes, I made the music in the last two hours of the jam (using [LMMS](https://lmms.io/), if your are interested). I'm glad you liked it!

Added the other tools to the description too, why not.

Thanks for playing!

Very well polished and congrats for the music !

Control is not easy making the game very difficult but you did a nice job !

It's hard to grab the blocks but it was a fun to avoid the monsters. Overall a fun and nicelooking game :)

I didn't understand what I was doing at first (I should probably read instructions haha) this was a super awesome game. Good job!

It's a bit of a struggle to get into moving the blocks around and a little confusing in how to explode things, sometimes just 2 blocks, sometimes 3. The combo certainly is unlikely, so fantastic job with the theme :grin:

Art is great and matches the audio fantastically! Overall, great job :grinning:

Maddening, frantic, unsafe. A very unsafe game, if I may say so. Standing still gets you shot. Hiding only works until something appears behind you or barriers burst. Attacking enemies is time consuming (oh my goodness, will you grab the block already, do you even see the incoming bullets?) and risky.

The control scheme is unique. And I'd have thought all the original arcade-style game button layouts had been taken by now. The art was fun and effective (I enjoyed the animations especially). Loved the music. Great job.

Edit: Oh and how could I forget to mention just how smooth as silk the controls/mechanics/UI are? Pure joy to operate this creation.