{"author_name":"Draknek","cat":"LD #25","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"December 18, 2012 4:34 pm","epoch":1355866440,"text":"For me the most interesting part of the game was working out what I had to do in each section.  Once I&#8217;d played through the first level the others felt tedious.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1355851380,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"47501","p_author":"Draknek","p_authorkey":"741","p_urlkey":"83166","p_title":"Legacy of Hamelin: what needs fixing?","p_cat":"LD #25","p_event":"LD25","p_time":"1355851380","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"741","us_name":"Draknek","us_username":"draknek","event_start":"1355443200","event_key":"14","event_name":"LD25"},"text":"<p>My game <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-25\/?action=preview&amp;uid=741\">Legacy of Hamelin<\/a> was a bit of a rush job, and crucially the levels were the last thing I made. Always a bad sign!<\/p>\n <p>That meant that I didn&#8217;t have time to actually see if the puzzle mechanics worked or were interesting. Turns out they don&#8217;t really work, so what could I do about that?<\/p>\n <p>A few ideas for the rat sections:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Don&#8217;t let the rats go into the sewers until they&#8217;re all over a sewer. However, that A) seems weird in the fiction (stupid reason) and B) might make it hard in a not particularly fun way.<\/li>\n <li>Don&#8217;t stop the rats falling in the water in the first stage. But why would the piper care enough to restart? Not sure if I want there to be moves that kill you: that&#8217;s frequently annoying in puzzle games. Might be okay if I also had undo I guess?<\/li>\n <li>Make the rats poop, player won&#8217;t step on any tile with poop on it. Might end up with too much poop? Alternative: only make the rats poop after they leave the sewers.<\/li>\n <li>Add tiles which only the player can go through\/only the rats can go through. What would these tiles be? Already have that the player won&#8217;t walk over sewers, but can&#8217;t really use that to limit the player&#8217;s movement because then it&#8217;ll be too easy to get the rats in them.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>And for the children-stealing:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>If a child moves next to an adult, the adult grabs them until the piper moves next to the child and re-brainwashes them.<\/li>\n <li>If you move next to an adult while controlling the children, they&#8217;d attack you.<\/li>\n <li>Possibility of drowning the kids? A bit dark, not sure if people would pick up that you have a choice of drowning them or kidnapping them?<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Additionally, people don&#8217;t immediately get what the aim is in the second and third sections. Could fix this with some dialogue from the mayor probably.<\/p>\n <p>Not sure I intend to take the game any further, but it&#8217;s good to consider these issues anyway.<\/p>","time":"December 18th, 2012 12:23 pm","title":"Legacy of Hamelin: what needs fixing?"}