It's a neat concept, but picking up objects felt unreliable. There was a but where you could jump up into the bottom of a block that is resting in place and get squished, and the fact that your jump is low enough that you can get stuck in a hole defeats the purpose of the puzzle. In a game like this you shouldn't need to re-start because you missed a jump.

I like the idea, but as Ackbad said, moving pieces could be a bit troublesome. I mostly walked backwards because it's difficult (but not always impossible) to walk in the direction you're holding the piece. Rotating often didn't feel useful, and I got stuck a few times (down the hole but also with no pieces seemingly able to be picked up).

As I said, I like the concept though, with a slightly smoother UX it would be quite interesting. Great job for a compo game :smile:

It's very easy to get stuck. I did not know how to escape this:

I also fell into a hole without being able to escape.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

@ackbad Yes, getting the pickup to work at all was tricky, and with more time I would aim to improve it. I was thinking that better visual feedback on the targetting would be a start.

Getting crushed by a resting block sounds like a bug, though thinking on it the blocks only determine if they are "resting" by attempting to move into a space and being unable to do so, if you happened to be jumping against the bottom when the drop timeout hits, I can see that happening. I guess ideally the block should check whether they are in a resting position after each successful drop instead.

I appreciate that missing a jump and having to restart would be frustrating, but I also wanted to include being unable to jump over a wall, and needing to use blocks to make steps. So I'm not sure how to fix that. Maybe shorter levels with a more convenient restart, or a respawn waypoint that doesn't restart the whole level... I'd have to think about that.

@5mixer I think with more time I'd have the carried block move away from you if you moved/jumped towards it, I did find during testing that pulling the blocks along behind you was easier than pushing them.

But overall yes, I wish I'd been able to spend less time fixing technical issues and more time on UX refinement and level design. Definitely a good lesson for me, for future game jams.

@godsboss Yep, that looks like you're stuck. I'm not sure I could re-design to make getting stuck more difficult, but maybe smaller levels and a no-confirm quick restart button would be the way to go?

Cool idea! I think a quicker restart would help a lot with getting stuck. I think it also might feel more natural if you couldn't collide with a piece while "carrying" it, since it causes some awkwardness with the platforming

Interesting concept! I think that everyone above already mentioned what I could, I personally missed some dedicated restart button the most. That said, this is a very interesting idea!

Interesting idea but the controlling the character makes it impossible for to enjoy the game unfortunately. With some polish or refining to the controls this could a fun puzzle platformer.

Nice idea, but moves are cumbersome and a bit fastidious.
I made a row of more than 10 cubes, and only 10 cubes disappeared.

I agree with a comment above: a quick restart key would be useful

The idea has promise but the execution lets it down in my eyes-the player controller didn't need to have momentum-conserving sliding :smile:

Great idea, love the concept and initial implementation.
I think some music would have been good to keep engagement.

With a bit of polish on the game controller, and QOL features such as instant restarts etc. this would be a great game.

Super cool idea, buggy implementation, very easy to get softlocked.
Overall, nice entry.