Puzzles All the Way Down by Triastase

[raw]
made by Triastase for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

A simple but endless 3D puzzle game

In this game, it's really Puzzles All the Way Down! As soon as you solve the puzzles to open a box, the next box with puzzles is found inside of it. The puzzles are generated in a modular way, so you may need to open a few boxes to see all possible arrangements.

screen1.jpg

Controls

Use the mouse to move around the box, click and drag on objects to move or use them. That's it! :smile:

How the game was made

I used Blender for modeling and Unity for the actual game.

At first I was dissatisfied with the theme, but then I had the Idea of making a cube with lots and lots of puzzles on it, which you have to solve to get deeper and deeper into the cube. I didn't have enough time to put all the features I had in mind into the game, but at least I got three types of puzzles working, which is (I hope) enough to get the idea across. :slight_smile:

Ratings

Overall 399th 3.521⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 516th 3.229⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 166th 3.75⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 301th 3.813⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 290th 3.688⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 535th 2.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 719th 2.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

Chumzy
26. Apr 2021 · 16:44 UTC
Your link to play the game isn't working
morphine
26. Apr 2021 · 17:25 UTC
I thought maybe the link being wrong was the first puzzle, but no, it just appears nothing was published.
dhim
26. Apr 2021 · 17:59 UTC
I'll come back to rate the game if you @ me.
phealsout
26. Apr 2021 · 19:25 UTC
In Itch.io You need to edit the page and at the bottom click :: **Publish** that way other people can view the page
samguy
26. Apr 2021 · 19:52 UTC
Game still isn't available on itch, you may not have finished publishing
NorthernDonut
26. Apr 2021 · 22:08 UTC
Still can't access the game, maken sure it is set to public in the edit part of the games page info
🎤 Triastase
26. Apr 2021 · 22:53 UTC
I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, it's my first time publishing on itch.io. I really thought that at least the link was working. unfortunately I didn't have time to fix it during the day, but now I published the link, added a description and everything should be working. Thanks @dhim for being willing to come back, I will also rate your game later this week! :slight_smile:

I will also add the files with builds for Windows, Mac and Linux and the source code later this week, I really only wanted to get out one playable link int time, but then apparently failed to publish. Sorry!
dhim
29. Apr 2021 · 14:44 UTC
Hello, I am back :)

Nice concept you have here! I love the fact that the menu is written on the first box, and you can move it around! I would have put the play on another face, so that the player experience the fact that the first box is playable!

I ended up with a lot of keys, you can get them back if you put them not in last in a given level.

The graphics, and feel of the interaction are very nice. A bit of ambiance sound, and some noise would have been super nice.

To be fully a game, you would need a bit more of a sense of progression. Either by making the computation harder and harder. Or by visually changing something.

One way would also to have the box continuously growing, and you would need to open them fast enough. You could then have them grow faster and faster: One ~~easy~~ dirty way in unity is to slowly increase Time.timescale (It's how I did in my game). It would not work for more complex game.
Katsuhira
29. Apr 2021 · 16:39 UTC
A really cool mechanic I wish I could see more of. Great stuff!
🎤 Triastase
29. Apr 2021 · 21:04 UTC
Thanks for the detailed feedback, @dhim, I appreciate that! I also agree with pretty much all of your points and would add those, if I find the time to work on this a bit more. Especially putting the play button on another face of the cube, which I did not think of at all. :smile:

My girlfriend also found the "infinite keys" bug, but as it's not really game breaking I didn't fix it yet. But thanks fo pointing it out, I will fix it, when I make a post-compo version. :)

And thanks to you too, @Katsuhira!
allov
29. Apr 2021 · 21:39 UTC
Cool mechanics! Hardest puzzle was figuring out I had to click PLAY to play xD
MatejaG
29. Apr 2021 · 21:41 UTC
Oh, no! I think I could play this all day and longer - if you know what I mean! :D Nice concept. The puzzles are a bit too easy but it was still fun. :) Any kind of sound/music would have made it even better. :) But the fact that you can make a functioning game in 2-3 days on your own is an accomplishment of its own! ;)
heidelbert
29. Apr 2021 · 21:44 UTC
This is a nice nucleus of a game idea! I played for 20 rounds and then realized there are only 4 puzzles in there with no more being added but that was fun and I had a good time. Also the inputs work really well and the graphics are minimal but slick. Good job!
VeryGenuineCraze
29. Apr 2021 · 21:50 UTC
Nice little puzzle game. With a better way to show progress (maybe a more arcady game) and a bigger pool of puzzle, it can be very interesting.
I think about Wario ware party, which has the same idea of mini games that you have to do quick.
Good work :clap:
VainCil
29. Apr 2021 · 21:51 UTC
Too bad it’s missing some difficulty and diversity, but the concept is great! I must admit you fooled me for a bit, I really thought I was getting close to the center of the cube… And the graphics look nice too, good job!
Pincushion
29. Apr 2021 · 21:56 UTC
I really like the format. It looks good and the controls feel good. That spinny circle thing was neat.

I think that if there were more puzzles, more challenging puzzles, and a like dhim wrote, a sense of progression, this could be a pretty fun game.
AniMagik
29. Apr 2021 · 22:04 UTC
Cool idea. I like puzzles. But I would like to see an increase in complexity.For challenging.
Kaihyo
29. Apr 2021 · 22:10 UTC
Fun game ! @dhim said pretty much everything so i'll just say great job :smile:
udo
29. Apr 2021 · 22:18 UTC
Thank you for providing a Linux binary! For some reason, the itch.io web links don't seem to be working for me on this LD in general.

Do you remember that infamous Peter Molyneux cube clicker game? My first association here was that :laughing: because yours if already better. I do like the clean design and the clear user communication.

I think having audio cues would have helped the general game feel a lot. You may be reluctant to do this because it seems so cheap, but throw some mouth sounds or sfxr files in there, it'll be totally worth it I promise!

The levels are procedurally generated, right? It did look like it to me, I played maybe 20 puzzles and it seemed there was no new content. You could have "tricked" me into playing longer by making it seem that I was actually descending further, maybe using a timer-based high score counter or something like that.

A timer-based scoring system could be combined with, say, a slight alteration to the lock/key element that allows for dofferently colored or shaped keys. I believe these two features would make the game "complete" without seriously expanding the scope too much, because it would inventivize players to solve mildly challenging coordination tasks quickly

But that's just like, my opinion :wink: I don't want to sound too critical. I enjoyed this game (didn't know how to rate the Humor though so I just left it off). The time constraints of the Compo are savage and that's part of the appeal!
🎤 Triastase
30. Apr 2021 · 10:21 UTC
Thanks @allov, @matejag, @heidelbert, @verygenuinecraze, @vaincil, @pincushion, @animagik, @kaihyo and @udo for the kind and helpful comments! And yes, I definitely see your points that it's missing a sense of progression, score or increasing difficulty. One day more time and I might have added a score, timer and a score-based difficulty curve. And also sound, which I 100% agree would make the game feel much better, also by making it clearer when a puzzle is solved. Your (@udo) idea with differnt shaped and colored keys was also on my list, but I barely got everything that you saw working in time. :smile:

But we're all getting more experienced each jam and maybe I'll be able to make a more complete game next time. :slight_smile:
VeryGenuineCraze
30. Apr 2021 · 11:56 UTC
@triastase : Will you continue to develop this game ? I think you can have a wonderful mobile game with more polish.
🎤 Triastase
05. May 2021 · 22:39 UTC
@verygenuinecraze Thank you! I'm definitely thinking about developing it further, I only need to find some time for that. It might take a while, but I do think that I will try to make this into a small mobile game.
Nuanda79
07. May 2021 · 12:03 UTC
You should develop this game! The idea is great! You should think about an ending and some more puzzles!
A VR version would be cool! Nice one!
TheGreenWorm
07. May 2021 · 13:37 UTC
Cool idea but the puzzles were way too simple and repetitive. But I did spend a good chunk of time just going deeper ! With some kind of cool story this would be a very cool puzzle game
Predominant
07. May 2021 · 23:48 UTC
Great work! In the time you had, it mush have been tricky to get many puzzle types in there. But you managed to get the game loop done, and randomise the puzzles well. Good stuff!
deadmanjw
11. May 2021 · 08:13 UTC
Nice little puzzle game, with some sound and a few more puzzle boxes this would be pretty cool. Great models as well. Nice.
fire_soldier888
13. May 2021 · 07:32 UTC
cool game!!
i realy enjoyed playing it and the puzzles and the concept are realy cool
at some point the puzzles repet on themeselfs