Downsizers by Nimolas

Hey 👋.
This is our first game jam with Ludum Dare. We might've forgetten the stress involved 😅
Our game is a 3D based puzzle game, where you are required to move clients into their new apartments. However it seems they don't have as much space as they orignally thought.
The game has 3 levels, and was designed in a way to be shareable for users to create their own maps, but we ran out of time to allow people to do so. You could look at the source code and implement your own though if you are brave enough.
The controls use the keyboard only (and definitely not because we couldn't get the mouse inputs to work 👀)
Controls:
Menu:
- Space: Select
- A: Move left
- D: Move right
Game:
- Space: Spawn scrolling item/place item in home/Go back to level select
- W: Move item up
- A: Move item left
- S: Move item down
- D: Move item right
- Q: Rotate item clockwise
- E: Rotate item anti-clockwise
- 1: 3D camera 1
- 2: 3D camera 2
- 3: 3D camera 3
- 4: 3D camera 4
- 0: Top down camera
Notes:
There's definitely things that don't work exactly right, and that kinda bums us out. That's game jams though I suppose. If you encounter something that is fully broken, please reach out and we'll try and fix it, or offer solutions if it's not clear.
External Assets:
Music: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/mp3-royaltyfree/Magic%20Escape%20Room.mp3
Download links
The downloads are for Linux and Windows x64.
Artifacts = Linux Artifacts2 = Windows
| Link | https://gitlab.com/scran-studios/game-jams/ludum-dare/54 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/downsizers |
Ratings
| Overall | 991th | 3.037⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 978th | 2.852⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 841th | 3⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 399th | 3.885⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 662th | 3.444⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 506th | 3.022⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 722th | 3.348⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
The concept was supposed to be that you are apart of a moving company, helping people to move into new properties. Each level would have a decreasing amount of space available to you to move the customers items in. We wanted to also make a system where users could design their own levels and share them to compete on scores.
Unfortunately, we focussed a bit too hard on the logic to get this to work, and were unable to finish with the amount of detail we wanted to show. Hopefully next time we'll pull back on our aspirations to make the theme clearer :sweat_smile:
@chrisbeck did all the models, and I agree, I think they're very cool. They spent quite a while making all those, and ensuring we have enough models for each type of room
I guess 3 minutes was too long, and that the scrolling was too easy. Noted. Thanks for the feedback
We did intend to have a mechanic where you got more points for putting items of the same room type near each other, but we didn't have enough time to implement it. Funny thought though :joy:
It seems the code we used to work out where to place stuff was a bit hit and miss. In classic game jam fashion I immediately came up with a better way to do it after it was finished. You live and learn I guess.
Thanks for the gameplay feedback, we'll take this into consideration for next time. :triumph:
anyways tho, good job for your first Ludum Dare submission, and good luck on future projects!
As with most Game Jame games, the concept started off a little too ambitious and we ended up having to scrap most of the more 'fun' ideas that we initially had :joy:
There was supposed to be a feature where chaining furniture of the same room type next to each other would create a room that gave you a points multiplier, and the scroll speed was supposed to increase for every object placed to add more of a challenge but time got the better of us on that one!
- as some people mentioned, sometimes you can't place down things that seem to fit, which makes it a bit annoying.
- It gets repetitive fast. Adding some interaction between objects could improve that.
- The scanning doesn't seem to really work (I'm guessing it's only supposed to scan objects while in the bright zone). Even if that worked, the fact that you stop scrolling once you scan an item and wait for the person to place it kinda defeats the purpose of it, doesn't it?
- If the scanning is supposed to be the thing that sets the pace, then why is there also a timer?
- What's the purpose of the different cameras? I guess so you could share what you made? If so, that's fine, but at the moment I don't see the point of having multiple camera angles. Maybe it would be better if you just rotated the camera around the room once you're done.
- Explaining the story behind what you're doing in just a couple sentences can make player feel more motivated to play. I was confused, was I putting furniture in a van? Or in an apartment? Why are there different people on the level select screen? A single sentence could make players way less confused about what they are doing ;)
With all that out of the way, good job on your submission! Keep at it and see you at the next Ludum Dare!
Top down is a great view, and I like how all assets were made to be distinguishable in both sideview and top down. The fact they are all different kinds of furniture that belong in different rooms made me feel a need to sort them together at first, which didn't amount to more points. The view of the finished room at the end is very very satisfying and is a good testament to the chaos the game provides.
If I have to say, maybe the Tetris-like mechanic is my main issue, maybe if instead of a box and items falling, I could be provided straight with an item, maybe sorting should be more like sorting and have more delined groups, maybe a "Temporary Storage" to keep items. And I like the way it plays but it would be awesome to have more chances to see the Isometric angular view, that was for me the most satisfying aspect.
Thanks for all your feedback. These are all valid points, and stuff we dicsussed while making the game but ultimately had to cut back.
We're currently working and adjusting the game and taking your feedback into consideration. We can let you know, along with everyone else that was kind enough to review and leave feedback, when this version is done so you can see the ideas we had, and the new one's you have provided.