Tower Stack by ChrisWiseman
Tower Stack is a puzzle game where you stack bricks. Every 10 seconds the bricks and environment change bringing this challenges to the player.

Developer Notes: This is my first Game Jam game, so I would love any feedback, so I can continue to get better. This is also my first physics game as well. I have made this playable only for PC. Everything was created by myself (Design, graphics etc) except the Music and SFX which is fully licensed / paid for.
Game File (PC only): If the Exe below for some reason does not work, this is a backup on dropbox. Link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqwwlnzz3jumo3w/TowerStackv1.63.exe?dl=0
PLEASE USE "TowerStackv1.63" AS THE CRASH ISSUE HAS BEEN FIXED. (The crash is caused by plugging in a joypad, so if you have the older version just make sure you don't have a joypad plugged in when you boot up).
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/tower-stack |
Ratings
| Overall | 985th | 3.093⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 954th | 2.944⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 943th | 2.889⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 905th | 3.296⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 631th | 3.577⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 720th | 2.575⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 745th | 3.273⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Async Event: System Event
for object obj_setup:
Variable obj_setup.player(100281, 0) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75 (line -1)
Hope it helps you
############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Async Event: System Event for object obj_setup:
Variable obj_setup.player(100281, 0) not set before reading it. at gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75
############################################################################################ gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75 (line -1)
############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Async Event: System Event for object obj_setup:
Variable obj_setup.player(100281, 0) not set before reading it. at gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75
############################################################################################ gml_Object_obj_setup_Other_75 (line -1)
I have fixed the issue, thank you so much for pointing it out (new version attached above). Your current version will also work if you unplug your joypad controller when you boot it up.
If you have chance, please take a look and feedback.
Now I am going to download peoples game and give me a play :)
Thanks,
Chris
That said, I did find that I could cheese levels by clicking onto the "reach here" boxes, as doing that would count as beating the level. I also felt like levels were very slow given how small the spawned blocks and how infrequently you were able to manually spammed blocks. I would have loved to see the game if both of those issues were addressed!
Thanks for the feedback. The reach here issue is I just ran out of time, so will fix for a full release. Noted on the balance, I think I will look to speed up the spawning of the blocks and also add a setting for that speed amount. So definitely will address, thanks so much for the feedback, this is all about learning :)
You used the theme well and I love the artstyle.
More different, but shorter levels would be better in my opinion.
This is a good attempt for a first game jam, you did a great job with the art and came up with a cool idea but like most jam games, the gameplay balance made it too difficult to play properly.
Thanks for the feedback. Definitely going to look at different game modes when I turn it into a full game. Your right a puzzle mode around number of bricks placed or tracking progress would be really cool. Thanks for the well wishes, will defo fix the bug on how high you can place a brick. Also yes, my first time on a game jam, been really fun :)
Yep, agree I sense I will need to do at least 10-20 levels and build up the difficulty more slowly with lower difficulty, had to rush the initial five levels given the 72 hours available.
Here's hoping it turns out like that, would love people to play it that way.
Had not thought of adding a wall at the side, but I think you are right, I will do that..
Yep, I just used the standard settings for the physics, but I will definitely look at the balancing on this. Also maybe add a toggle on a setting to let players muck around with it, so maybe also get low gravity as well, that could be fun.
Can you make it not require admin?
For some advice for a first-timer, I will always say this: Going forward, remember that you'll work on your game for 48-72 hours. Everyone else will be playing it for 2-5 minutes. Whatever negative qualities you feel about the game are going to be 10x worse for the players. If your game is "tough but fair", it's actually frustratingly hard - cut the difficulty in half. If the controls are "weighty but satisfying", it's actually clunky and unintuitive - make the controls more responsive. In your game's case, you might have felt the length of each level was "just right", but I found even the first level dragged on. I think it was just really hard to actually build up a tower, since once one stack fell over you couldn't really rebuild and just had to make as big of a pile as possible.
Have you ever heard of Tricky Towers? It's a "Tetris but with physics" style game that you might want to check out. When you get to the end of a race, your tower has to hold the piece above the finish line for 3 seconds before you win. I think that could be used to combat that "click on the goal to win" problem you have.
Also, I haven't used Game Maker in a while, but isn't there an option to export a plain .exe instead of an installer? It's always frustrating having to manually install a quick game jam game.
However, as I mentioned, it was very easy to win by cheating. I just had to click on the end box and... voilà. :p At least it makes the game not frustrating. I was able to set up my own rules, like if I was able to reach a platform, I could build from there... Yeah it wasn't super rigorous. In the end though, I enjoyed this sandbox aspect of the game. It's very relaxing, and it was fun to try to build towers as soon as possible before they get crumbled, or just collapse on themselves. The physics is just fair enough to allow to build. Well done!
@kregap - Thanks for the comments on the vibe :). Yes defo going to look at how I do better balance on the levels and look at introducing more chaos gradually.
@yoni - Really sorry to hear, I can't replicate that, if you have anymore details then please share and I look further into it.
@sheldonzs - Love the walls idea, I am coding it into the game right now and will include in some / all game modes. Agree it would give a different feel to the game.
@sigo - Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the game.
@niterich - This is really great feedback for sure, really appreciate it. Will check out that game you mentioned, also looking at how to do the physics fixes on the placing the blocks. The advice on the balancing and hardness is totally on. I am looking at this now and will also try to get the game out to communities to look at the game balancing / hardness. It is so easy to get too close to the game difficulty. For the installer, let me check, I think I need to do different types of ways to installer, like installer, exe and maybe a HTML build in future jams.
@itooh - Thanks for the sandbox comments, I sense as I build this, I need to have a traditional game campaign mode, but also more of a sandbox mode to allow different ways to play.
@ron-jones-the-artist - Thank you so much for sharing on Twitch, I have never had anyone include something I built, so thank you. I will re-share on Twitter soon. Thanks for the feedback, watching you play, helps me understand what works and what doesn't.
@gwenckatz - Thanks agree this was more to try my first game jam. From the positive reaction, I will definitely build out, but agree, it will need more strategy / thinking to scale out.
Looking forward to seeing the results for everyone, this is a great progress and will defo be back in April for the Ludum Dare Jam. I will definitely develop out this to a full but small game to release on Steam and hopefully other platforms. Please keep a look out and I will get a Steam up by Mid December latest using the same game title.
Thanks,
Chris