Grinding Gears by Pincushion

[raw]
made by Pincushion for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

logo.png Screenshot.PNG

It's a puzzle game where you need to manipulate gears to clear a path to the goal (The yellow dot).

Controls

  • WSAD to move
  • E to activate wheels and levers.
  • (Windows version) alt + F4 to quit

Changelog

  • No changes yet to Web and main Windows versions.
  • Added a post-compo version with a fixed camera for reduced disorientation

Ratings

Overall 195th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 322th 3.259⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 128th 3.741⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 416th 3.333⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 320th 3.37⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 338th 2.963⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 341th 2.386⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 253th 3.3⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

SimplePotential
05. Oct 2020 · 13:44 UTC
I couldn't figure out the puzzle myself but in controlled fairly well and the game looked good. The mini mapped seemed like it might be messed up compared to how you move on the screen but I don't think that held me back much.
IndieQuest
05. Oct 2020 · 13:44 UTC
Very nice puzzle game, The mini-map is a must in my opinion so it was a great choice to add it to the game.
Besides the finicky controls and the camera angle it was a great experience with interesting puzzles, thank you!
gingerBill
05. Oct 2020 · 13:47 UTC
Very innovative puzzle game. Ingenious!
Wakobu
05. Oct 2020 · 13:58 UTC
Congratulations for making this game !
I couldn't entirely finnish the third level, I'm bad at puzzles :laughing:
Loved the art and the smoothness of movement.
The only problem is the confusion when switching place.
sanjuro
05. Oct 2020 · 14:06 UTC
Great job with doing this in only two days, it's very polished and the underlying concept is call. The only thing that I didn't appreciate is that I never looked at the main screen, only at the minimap basically, so maybe that should have been more balanced in a way. Good job!
mvasko2
05. Oct 2020 · 14:09 UTC
I love the concept. It's fairly original and allows for pretty hard puzzles (I couldn't get past the third one yet). The graphics and sounds are nothing extraordinary, but they do the job.

What I didn't like was the way camera works. In order to solve the puzzle, you *need* the minimap, so it would probably make more sense to make the minimap fullscreen and ditch the "room" camera altogether. I've found myself staring at the minimap 90% of the time, only pausing to see which way I should be going. This, sadly, hurt playability a bit.

Overall, I liked it very much mainly thanks to the concept and the puzzles themselves. Pity about the controls, but I will be going back to this nonetheless. Good job!
🎤 Pincushion
05. Oct 2020 · 14:49 UTC
@simplepotential @indiequest @gingerbill @wakobu @sanjuro @mvasko2 Thanks so much for playing and providing feedback.

I also thought that the camera was disorienting, but I couldn't think of a solution in time. I have an idea now, but time's up!
Lombax
05. Oct 2020 · 19:23 UTC
nice puzzle. i see some clockwork inspiration xD.
3rd level was actualy pretty challenging. gj on managing to make that and have it work in the 48 hours.

the movement change when player changes room were realy disoritening. i know ppl have mentioned it but playing the game for 10 min and that truly was disorienting.
🎤 Pincushion
05. Oct 2020 · 21:11 UTC
@lombax Thanks for the feeback. Yeah, I really liked the theme. When "Stuck in a loop" was chosen, I tried to do both :)
Games_by_Tom
06. Oct 2020 · 12:52 UTC
Very interesting concept, nice graphics and pretty challenging (especially 3rd) puzzle (I'll tell you if/when I finish that) ;)

You should expand this with more levels (maybe some inbetween level 2 and 3?) and make it into a small "full" indie game.

About the room change: i haven't looked at the source code yet, but if you do **one camera for each room** - and just switch them (maybe fade out, then in with the new camera) the potential disorientation should be lessened. Like in VR games where you can teleport instead of running now.
madbookstudios
06. Oct 2020 · 21:31 UTC
Such a clever puzzle game with a totally unique perspective! I really liked this game and think you did an amazing job with it. Well done!
🎤 Pincushion
07. Oct 2020 · 00:07 UTC
@games-by-tom I think I'll try that camera approach to see how it'll look, at least for my own education. Thanks for the suggestion.

@madbookstudios Thank you so much!
mathemagician
08. Oct 2020 · 02:05 UTC
That third puzzle sure is tricky, huh?

Like has been mentioned, I found myself exclusively looking at the mini-map, especially with how tricky it was to jump between the main screen and the map I avoided it as much as possible. Character movement was maybe a little on the slow side for me, but that's a pretty minor complaint. Good work!
jharler
08. Oct 2020 · 18:53 UTC
Great puzzle game idea! The graphics were really nice and the ambient audio and the sound effects made for a good atmosphere. The only thing that threw me off was the camera angles when switching from one room to the next. It was disorienting me every time. Overall though, this is a great game.
PhillSerrazina
09. Oct 2020 · 09:47 UTC
Good job! The last one left me thinking for a little bit, not gonna lie! It played really well and the graphics and sound were great as well.
CodeRaurus
10. Oct 2020 · 09:34 UTC
Nice puzzle game! I really liked how the camera changes in every room, together with the music it reminds me of some old PSX game. As others have said, the camera change does disorient the controls a bit. The mini-map is mandatory to solve the puzzles, I would probably lose my patience without it. I'm amazed at how some people like yourself come up with solid puzzles in so little time.

I'm not sure if it would improve anything, but it would be cool if you could open the mini-map bigger on the screen, just like a real map, giving more focus on solving the puzzle and your next move. That way you wouldn't have to squint over the mini-map constantly.
TheGreenMan
10. Oct 2020 · 22:53 UTC
Good entry! I like the visuals and the sounds and the puzzles are very fun. Though the controls didn't feel great and the camera angle relative to the minimap's was kinda confusing so it made the levels a little hard to navigate. Overall I had fun and it is very good for a compo game! Great work!
Future Labs Unlimited
10. Oct 2020 · 23:09 UTC
Especially the last puzzle was fun to solve and well done. I agree that the mini map is very important in this game. I kinda like the main camera perspective as it reminds me a bit of games like Little Big Adventure, Grim Fandango etc., but without the mini map I probably would have never solved it.
sacredbacon
13. Oct 2020 · 01:40 UTC
Exceptional level design and concept, sound design had an almost oddworld vibe. Great work!
Michael Feldman
14. Oct 2020 · 03:33 UTC
Like some others have said, great level design. I like how even though there were a few levels, they were very solid.
One thing I wished for at times was the ability to rotate a gear in the opposite direction with the Q key, as that would save me some time, which I desperately needed in order to solve that third puzzle!
One suggestion on the camera stuff that has not been suggested yet, would be to try point and click navigation.
I really enjoy the complexity that comes out of two mechanics really - gear sliding and gear turning. I wonder how many levels can be made on just those two concepts alone...
freeworld
25. Oct 2020 · 16:04 UTC
Wow, what an interesting mechanic with really intricate puzzles! I spent a few minutes solving that last one, super nice!

I'm very impressed with what you were able to put together here, especially that you were even able to add character animation and music&sound when you spent what I assume has to be lots of time on the mechanic and the puzzle content.

As already mentioned by others: the minimap was super helpful when solving the puzzles!

A really stunning entry, great work!