Micromachines by HolyBlackCat

Build and control tiny machines to solve puzzles!
Controls:
Everything can be controlled with a mouse, but there are also hotkeys: Space to start level, R to restart level.
The puzzles don't require pixel-perfect movement. All levels have setups that make it unnecessary.
Help I'm stuck on level 2! This is the level with the cave. Build a П-shaped machine from 4 blocks and 3 rods, and "walk" it into the cave: extend left rod a bit, extend the top rod, retract left rod and extend right one a bit, retract top one, etc.
And if you get completely stuck, you can use --level=N command line flag to start at a specific level number.
Changelog:
1.2 Fixes crash when a piston attaches a part to itself.
| Link | https://holyblackcat.itch.io/micromachines |
| Link | https://github.com/HolyBlackCat/LD54-micromachines |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/micromachines |
Ratings
| Overall | 22th | 4.179⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 42th | 4.054⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 19th | 4.375⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 151th | 3.804⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 58th | 4.071⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 254th | 2.769⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 215th | 2.381⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 194th | 3.28⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
The pixel art is very cute and clean (the threaded rods reminded me a little bit of the airships in Super Mario Bros 3!). All the important bits in the level were distinct colors and were communicated very well. The building menu was also very intuitive.
Audio was simple, but got the job done. Music would have been a nice addition, but obviously time is very limited for the Compo.
Nice work, and good luck during play and rate!
@brokenbridge Aha, my wife got stuck on it for a good 15 minutes too. :grin: I've added some hints to the description, just in case.

The other is that I'm not a fan of the behaviour where when expanding a bit, both sides would move, as it wasn't always intuitive where one would stop and suddenly cling to a surface. This feeling was stronger with purple blocks. Also I think in level 4 I had to start over a couple of times because I pushed a block like a pixel too far, so perhaps some kind of snap to a grid could help.
Also as a side note, my game crashed at level 6 while I was trying to make a probably invalid shape (also how do you get down those stairs with only horizontal expanders without making the blocks stick to each other??)

I verified that it crashes every time I make this combination (which I realize doesn't make sense, but still..)

Hint for level 6 - it's legal to place 2 rods in a row in the editor.
Regarind the П design, it didn't occur to me that it also worked on level 1... :weary:
Regarding which side moves - when there's gravity, if one side sits on the ground and the other doesn't, the one on the ground stays still. This condition will suddenly toggle when a gravity block is attached/detached, so there's that. (If both sides are on the ground or both not, if one side rests against a movable block, then it stays still. Otherwise both move.)
Little bit of BGM would have been cool.
Can't believe how tight the physics (or simulation thereof) felt. Great, great stuff.
The graphics are solid but sadly there's not really any sound which would have elevated the experience, but I was so enamored I barely noticed.
Lots of fun thinking about alternative paths and orderings and experimenting to see how they work.
The perfect being gives it's regards.