Awnn! I loved the concept! Very sweet game!

Couldn't play this on mac, but I think the art looks lovely!

Great concept! Let me know if you polish this up at some point, great puzzle game!

Thanks for feedback everyone!

@finntastico I uploaded a Mac OS build to the itch.io page. I hope you can try it out now, but I'm not sure because I don't own Mac and I can't check if it works by myself.

Simple yet pleasing - the art style is really pleasant. And I enjoyed the talk about the shoes. I thought that was hilarious. XD

Really amazing graphics and sweet idea for a jam game. Sometimes the goat doesn't seem to move however. Great entry anyway. Love to know what you think of my entry :laughing:

Thanks for more comments!

@morandigame The goat doesn't move either when she is sitting or when 2 or more apples are the closest from her. Also she ignores apples over ground because she cannot walk there. I should have made a nicer tutorial, but I didn't have time to implement it. And yeah, I'll check out your game!

lovely graphics!

This is such a clever idea I wish I had come up with something like this. Very original mechanics and a great artstyle to match. I found it slightly tricky moving around the apples but after a few attempts I got the hang of the moving baskets. Good job!

This is the best puzzle game I've played so far! The difficulty ramps up fast, but I'm having a lot of fun. I'm on "Turn Around" right now (Intersection took me a while to figure out).

I think the controls are a little odd. I'm not sure whether the "you can only sit the goat when facing it" mechanic is necessary. Controlling the game might feel nicer if the direction of the character didn't matter, and it would still be possible to construct clever puzzles.

I think you did a good job of teaching concepts through puzzles. New ideas (riding the goat, hanging multiple baskets, confusing the goat to stop it, swapping goat with basket...) are introduced nicely and I don't think you ever require the player to learn multiple new things at once.

Overall great idea! With some cleaning up I could see myself buying a puzzle game with these mechanics.

Beat it! Network is a very good level. You designed some great puzzles :smile:

Awww more kind words! Thank you!

@boxedmeatrevolution Congrats! I poured the last 2 hours into Network and I'm really proud I could make that level in time. Also as you may have noticed, the “you can only sit the goat when facing it” rule is used as core mechanics in some levels. But I agree that the rule makes some earlier levels unnecessarily complicated. I wish I had more time to redesign those earlier levels to prevent that kind of frustration.

Nice puzzle game, with a simple art style I really dig!

Really appreciate the humour :D Very clear visuals and really unique setting for a puzzle game!

Maybe the controls are a bit overcomplicated? I feel it should be a tiny bit simpler, but that might just be me.

All in all though really great work!

Really cool game, very unique gameplay. What I found confusing was the sitting mechanic, it would be good to mention that you have to look at the goat for it to sit down, took me a minute to figure it out.

Such a cute design and the art style is top! You excuted the idea really well and the tilemaps you are using are pretty nice! Well done.

@vizitas Yeah I think it's hard to find out all the rules without a tutorial, but I didn't have enough time to implement it. This was my first "real" gamejam, and it was hard to decide which feature to put in and which to cut out.

@notan-lemon Wow for a first jam this is really good! :)

super nice! just.. there must be a way to make the controls simpler and more intuitive. Starting with not having the whole thing turned 45 degrees so the arrows dont make any sense. Other than that great!

@vizitas Thanks!

@natalie-sodomkova The reason why the map is rotated 45 degrees is to display everything nicely, otherwise there are some cases where all objects (pole, basket, rope, goat, human) overlap on each other and the player can't see everything well. But I agree the control gets confusing with this layout. I think maybe I should have included some more easy levels to get people familiar with the control.

Nice puzzle game idea. My daughter loved it. Sound would have done wonders for this game. I also missed a quit button :) Otherwise well executed mechanics and an overall fun gane.

This was a pretty cheery and enjoyable game! My biggest concerns are:
* It's sometimes a little tricky to tell which tile you're on
* It'd be nice if you could turn on the spot (considering how important direction is and how it has to be timed)
* There needs to be some instructions for the core mechanics (I got stuck on the first few levels because I didn't know what sitting was)
* The colour of the ropes clashes with the colour of the ground, and sometimes lines up with the edges of tiles, so it's difficult to make rope out against the graphics

But I did enjoy this, and I've giving it a good upvote!

@finn-truman Thanks a lot! It's great to know what's good about my game, but it's as important to know what's bad about my game. After reading your comment, I made a little tweak on the 4th level. If you're interested, take a look at [this post](https://notaninart.itch.io/goat-rider/devlog/141234/101-minor-fix-and-thoughts-on-game-design).

cute art style! 😍 I just have some constructive suggestions. The color of the green text was hard to read, try to use a color with more contrast for accessibility. The controls are not intuitive and the first level wasn't easy enough to grasp the game idea.

@double-jammer Ah yes. Accessibility is something I've wanted to dig into at some point. Thanks for the advice.

I love these kinds of puzzle games. The one thing I will say is that it felt weird to have things like hanging/removing/moving baskets require you stand on the tile you needed to be on, while making the goat sit/stand required being *next* to the goat and facing it. I kept wanting to do one when I was supposed to do the other.

Love the art style. Solving the puzzles where very satisfying.
Good job.

I'm frustrated I couldn't make it... Either I didn't understand anything or I couldn't "translate" keys into AZERTY, but I couldn't even complete first level :'(.

But I'm sure your game is great because I read the comments ;). I hope I'm able to play this one day :)

@bionikmonster Ah that's so sad :( I feel I really needed to implement a tutorial. Meanwhile, I wrote [a general hint list](https://notaninart.itch.io/goat-rider/devlog/140261/general-hints-controls) on how to play this game before. If you have time, please give it another try.

I liked the graphics and the puzzles!Although sometimes I couldnt figure out which tile I am on.Other than that nice game!

Pretty inventive mechanic and nicely thought out levels! Good puzzles are hard to make in just a few days with all the other elements and coding, so nicely done. The graphics were very pleasant and suited this type of game. Well done!

A charming little puzzler :) I love the concept of plopping along this unknowingly helpful goat- very cute! The controls really through me off tbh. I wonder if WASD and on screen buttons would have been better- or perhaps I just need practice with my apple maneuvering!

Really neat puzzle concept with tons of interesting non-obvious behaviors (a good thing!) I found the premise to be pretty absurd going in, but surprisingly it didn't bother me once I learned the rules. The characters and objects soon became symbols in my mind; I saw them for how they functioned, not what they looked like. I had no trouble learning the rules, so whatever tutorializing you put in worked for me. I did however never figure out how to reliably move the clothesline in the direction I wanted. The undo button made it just bearable, fortunately.

I found the graphics to be somewhat hard to parse, especially because of the similarity in color between the ropes and the grass. Otherwise, your color choices were really pleasant on the eyes and quite readable.

I didn't like Festival. It didn't require any novel ideas, just careful calculations, and a lot of them. Deja Vu, the level it is derived from, and Network were my favorite levels. They forced me to think harder and pushed me outside of my comfort zone.

I agree with @boxedmeatrevolution , Network is a really great level. I don't know how to explain why, so I'll just talk about my experience. It was overwhelming at first, but as I familiarized myself with the level, I was able to see the vague structure of the solution. Because I could see the rough path I needed to take, I felt encouraged to keep trying, even when I got stuck. When I did get stuck, it was not because I didn't understand the rules, it was because I didn't understand what exactly I wanted. It took a few hours to get unstuck, but I was making slow progress the whole time. Progress came in the form of formulating progressively more precise problem statements (e.g. I need to get there -> I need goat to be here so I can get there -> I need apple to be here so goat can go here so I can get there). Part of that came from exploring the possibility space through experimentation, and part of it came from thinking ahead and working backwards. The Aha! moment was really satisfying, in part because I was really invested at that point. Looking back, the core insight (no pun intended) seems perfectly obvious, but it's probably because I spent hours analyzing the level and developing a detailed mental model of it. If I had to explain the core insight to someone, I would probably have to explain every single mechanic in the game first for context, including advanced edge cases that players probably wouldn't think about until it happens, which I guess goes to show that it's a really good core insight. It's awesome that you created a level that forced me to come to that exact conclusion. Great job!

Did you design most of the puzzles on paper or did you design all of them after implementing the core gameplay? How much in-game exploration informed your puzzle design?

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.

@turncoda Wow so much detailed feedback :o Thank you!

Yeah I couldn't come up with a good basket control during the jam. The other option I had was Ctrl + ARROW, but I thought it would make the control too complicated and I didn't want to use that. A pop-up message showing which key to move in a certain direction could have been better, but the jam is already over. Oh well. Rope color is one of the problems I wanted to fix too. Unfortunately, when I noticed the problem I didn't have time to re-draw and re-import the sprites.

When I was making Come Here (level 2), Apple Festival (level 5), Turn Around (level 7), I was worried I wouldn't make everything in time and I was in a rush. That's why those levels are not that polished compared to other levels and some of them have multiple solutions. When I first made Intersection, it had a lot of multiple solutions. Deja Vu was made out of one of those unintended solutions. I could have made like 5 variants of Intersection if I wanted to :p

I'm really glad there are more people who can beat Network and appreciate its beauty. About 3 hours before the deadline, the last level of this game was Deja Vu, and I thought basically everything was finished. All I had to do left was a playtest. After the playtest, I felt the game needed 1 more level. Deja Vu is a good level, indeed. But it's a variant level and I thought it's not appropriate for the last level. Just before the playtest I had a short sleep, and my mind was clear. I decided to use the last 2 hours to make another level. It turned out pretty good. I had about 10 minutes left and I was very excited. I'm really happy you enjoyed that level.

I designed most of the puzzles on paper, but all after the coding was finished. I didn't want to end up not being able to complete the coding even though having created great puzzles. I designed almost entire concept in the first 2 hours, but I had to decide details about the system while implementing it. I think those tiny details and debugging the code inspired how I would make puzzles for this game. Plus, I have been creating puzzles for about 10 years. Though most of them were not for video games, that experience helped me make this game for sure.

Loved the overall game and concept, something you could extend into a full game. Minor thing, an exit button is always appreciated. Keep it up!

Interesting concept, congrats :). The controls are a bit awkward at first, but OK once you get used to them.

@notan-lemon 10 years, wow! It really shows :smile:

Cool gameplay mechanics for a small puzzle game. Definitely unique! I can't say it's very intutive, however. After the jam, this would benefit from some tooltips or onscreen messages directing the player and introducing mechanics.

I think this could have been a fun puzzle game. The controls are a bit unweildy and not very intuitive.

The controls are a bit weird, but once you get over that, it's a really nice game :).

Oh, I love puzzles! The control buttons are very strange and you need to get used to it, but then it becomes a lot of fun. Funny concept, good implementation. Everything works as it should! The entry made me smile. The graphics are simple, but clear. I really miss some music and sounds! Great entry :)

Interesting concept - fun gameplay. The main aesthetic is very unusual and polished. Maybe the controls are a little bit ankward for me, but it si good enought as an entry. Intuitive and adictive. I had fun playing. You should continue developing your project. Thank you for your feedback ++

*Aww, a little bit of sap per day keeps the doctor away, eh?*

A well developed puzzle packed with levels of increasing difficulty. The visuals and the backstory are funny in a good way. There could be more of both and audio, of course.

At least for me there was one kink in the difficulty curve. In *Crossroads* I was sure I'd need to block one basket with another, and even considered using empty baskets for something, but it was all about movement after all. The objective in Deja vu then seemed much more straight forward, but I might have just learned the rules better at that point. Maybe changing the order would be in order?

The puzzle mechanics are compelling apart from the inability tell the goat to calm the goat down if not directly facing it. Turning around cannot be done if right next to the goat either, which just makes the whole affair silly sometimes.

These two mechanics together are not believable. A human could easilly turn and stop the goat. It is hard to reason with unintuitive, arbitrary rules, so they should be done away with. As far as I remember, they didn't really add anything to the levels either, except fiddlyness.

Many have already mentioned the controls and they sure are complicated. This kind of a puzzle might be completely doable with a mouse. Moving the dude around would certainly work. Moving the lines could be done by dragging them in either direction. I bet that would *feel* rather good too, for what that's worth.

In summary, good rule design and level design. The controls need work.

Good job!

Excellent take on the theme!!! The artstyle is lovely, like a HD Atari game.
The puzzle challenging and fun. I made my best to keep his shoes dry, I have the same problem, I hate getting my shoes wet.

Oh, the game is super fun and cute! I like it ^^ The idea is hilarius <3

Movement feels kind of jittery and the colors are not well balanced I think the choice of colors could have been better I guess or it's just me only but good game idea.. I liked it