Machine! by KITmani
Use the machines and fulfill orders!
Gameplay tips:
- Use I and O to input and output cubes.
- Drag the cubes with the mouse.
- To interact with the machine, click the big green button.
- Recipes are generated randomly in each run.
- By hovering the cursor over the machine you can see its recipes.
- The Red zone is the output zone, the Green zone is the input zone, the Yellow zone is the fuel zone.
- You have to move all the required cubes to the output area so that the order is closed.
- If the car needs fuel, then it is written at the very bottom of the manual.
Tips: 1. You can close several orders at once. 2. The faster you close orders, the more points you will be given. 3. Have fun.
Ratings
| Overall | 212th | 3.481⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 196th | 3.423⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 104th | 3.692⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 165th | 3.769⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 83th | 3.962⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 312th | 2.208⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 330th | 2.923⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 23🗨️ |
So after writing that first paragraph I did go back to try again, mostly because I like all the different machines with their various recipes. I didn't do very good on that last run, a new recipe made the good ol' brain.exe freeze for a second too long. At this point I'm glad there's no cool machine sounds and/or more mechanics with the boxes, because I might play this quite a bit more... While me wanting to play more is technically a good thing, I also need sleep!
All in all, I like the idea, it has a simple, clean and nice look to it (Love the scribbles on the sides briefly explaining how the game works), though unfortunately missing some cool machine sounds. The game gets increasingly difficult with more and more complicated orders and recipes, but I did also experience getting some machines that simplified / sped up some processes too, which was nice, so again a really nice variance of machines and recipes. Enjoyed it!
I think it gets too hard too fast (at least it does for me).
The difficulty stems from having to both figure new stuff out AND move quickly to fulfill orders - I'm not sure that's intentional, as the author you don't need to figure stuff out so it might seem too easy.
I guess having more than one life would help with learning the ropes (more chances to mess up while experimenting).
@coderaurus Use the machines, son!
@neollok I agree, I should have taken the time to add music or at least sounds. But I published the game at the end of the deadline. I'm almost too late. :D Multigrabbing really very necessary. How did I not guess before? 🤔
@mbrezu All smart ideas come after the deadline) The game is quite the same type, so the difficulty increases quickly so as not to be bored. Although apparently the difficulty increases TOO quickly)
By the way: I'm getting this error on Ludum Dare, but the link works.

By the way, I couldn't get the embedded version to work either, but the web build on your website worked fine.
One thing that got me at first was that I expected the first item in the list (at the top) to be the first task I need to do. Maybe it's just me, but this made me fumble quite a bit thinking I just don't understand the mechanics. I also struggled a bit with figuring out what each machine does. To be honest I didn't even notice the manual for quite a few runs and when I finally saw it, it still takes quite a bit of time to read and understand everything and then the level is over. I feel like a visual representation on the machine itself would make this a lot smoother. The manual works too but not as much under theme imposed 10 second constraints.
Other than that I like these sort of factory type games and this definitely has potential. I think the graphics and visual presentation are quite nice as well.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on:
- That I had to complete the bottom contract (as @pixelydian mentioned above, it would be good if it was highlighted)
- That I had to click/drag between input and output
- Some of the more complex machines had 3 zones, which I couldn't figure out.
Some suggestions to improve it:
- Having to click and drag multiple times is pretty painful, especially for tasks with 4 cubes. It'd be good to be able to multi-select cubes, or drag machines to be close to each other. Another option would be click/dragging pipes/conveyor belts between machines, and letting the player click them to transfer cubes (might be a bit unwieldy with lots of machines though).
- It'd be good if misplaced cubes didn't fade away. When I have an easy contract, I wanted to stockpile cubes near the output to make the next one easier.
- It's be good if the machines had a visual indicator of their recipe, so you didn't have to hover to see it.
Good work putting this together in 48 hours. I enjoyed it, and it has a lot of potential.
If there was a way to automatically move the boxes at some point, I feel like this would've been a lot more fun. Overall this is a really good idea and it's impressive how much you were able to get done.
Overall the game has a bit of a learning curve at first (could be solved with some type of tutorial but I completely understand why you wouldn't be able to accomplish that in 48 hours) but once you figure it out it becomes a lot of fun. There's definitely solid potential here!
The graphics are cute and clean, the gameplay itself is smooth.
The manual input machine is incredibly confusing for a game that already has you moving so fast every 10 seconds.
I lost several times to trying to figure out how to get a recipe.
That aspect is a dealbreaker in a full game, BUT - this is a game jam.
Lack of balance in terms of difficulty is to be expected.
I'm sure with time balance would come and this would be a killer game of panicked packaging.
Thanks for the fun. :D
Let's imagine that this game was not made 72 hours and it is a demo version of the project, which is done long ago. Therefore, I, as a potential buyer would like to make a couple of suggestions.
It seems to me the current 10 second limit is not enough to collect an order of 4 items. This is influenced by several factors:
1) The shipping area itself is small for so many boxes. At first you don't notice it, but when you get more new machines, you start rushing between zones and accuracy is out of the question
2) If you ignore the first point, there is no help for the player, such as magnetization to a particular zone or sorting into cells, so that the boxes were not in a chaotic order, and the structure.
Also, when every second counts, pointing at the mechanism to see how it works takes considerable time. Maybe it made sense to keep the tutorial always on the right side, so that the player could focus only on the work area and keep his peripheral vision on the orders and the tutorial.
And the last thing I would like to suggest is sending orders. It was a very cool gameplay solution to be able to sell several in a row, but maybe it was worth extending this feature to all orders rather than consecutive ones? For example, I realize that I don't have enough reaction to put together a complex order and I'll sell at least some of the list to buy myself a little more time.
Let me tell you right away that I write feedback to projects through an interpreter, so I apologize if the feedback was negative. I really liked the project, great hitting the theme and mechanics opens up the desire to replay over and over again in order to beat his own record. Did not manage to score more than 17k, but these 40 minutes I spent with pleasure. Thanks for the user experience, hope the project grows into something more, good luck!