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[belbeeno]

Hello!

TLDR: http://faqr.org/ryan/games/TangleFlash/latest.htm

For the month before the AGbIC compo started (a compo I took place in; you can check out my game if you like) I was making a little Flash title that I thought had potential.  After working on my AGbIC entry and then coming back to it I'm starting to realize the game I was trying to make is more focused on a story I had wrapped around it rather than the game itself.  As such, I wanted to put the game by you guys without too much of the context and get your opinion on it.

The idea behind the game is pretty simple; untangle the nodes each level to finish the level and reveal a picture.  The game isn't meant to be difficult or anything, but it is meant to make you feel like you're (I'm not sure how to describe this another way) 'organizing your thoughts'.

You want to get from this...	...to this.

You can skip between some different levels by pressing 1, 2 and 3.  Pressing 0 brings you to a debug level with a rudimentary level editor; you can play around with this if you want, but it's just for me to test stuff out.

The sort feedback I'm NOT looking for are regarding the difficulty of the game, the lack of sound or art since this is all still very preliminary (though you're free to mention any opinion you may have if you want).  Instead I'd like some answers to the big questions; is the game fun?  Is the game too derivative?  Does the game keep you playing, and if not how can I fix that?  Your feedback will help decide whether I should finish this game off or move on to a different game.

The Game: http://faqr.org/ryan/games/TangleFlash/latest.htm

Thanks!

[Nugsy]

How the heck did you manage to make untangling things so fun? 

[belbeeno]

How the heck did you manage to make untangling things so fun? 

Years of tacklebox organizing and Christmas decorating.  Thanks for the positive feedback!

[Pishtaco]

Even in the current state it is quite satisfying. With polish, it feels like it could be a money-spinner.

[Sam]

It really is a fun little task to complete.  The addition of new constraints keeps the levels interesting.

My solution almost never looked anything like the finished image.  But I do like that the graph forms a picture rather than it being an arbitrary abstract design.  I also found myself trying to guess what the image would be from the scrolling text, and looking forward to seeing it.

Really like how the nodes bounce off one-another: Both practically useful to stop them from overlapping and being hard to click, but also gives a nice 'real' feel to the interaction.

Tiny bug: On the second and third 'pastimes' themed levels (the ones you get to by pressing 2) the board is split into two but I can move the nodes freely between the sides.

Pishtaco's comment might have biased me, but it does feel like this would make a good relaxing puzzle game.  I think it has the right mix of the task requiring some thought, whilst it also being possible to just guess and progress that way.  The whole revealing a picture thing should go down well with the casual-set too.  Plus, a casual game that ends with the message "You will die in this office" would be golden.

It doesn't feel at all derivative to me, but maybe I've just not played what it's derived from

[tesselode]

For a game about getting rid of red spots in lines, this is pretty fun. The last level is kind of brutal, though.

[belbeeno]

Thanks for the all the kind words, everyone.

My solution almost never looked anything like the finished image.

Yeah, I'd like to capture an "ah-ha" moment somewhere before a level ends but I'm not too sure how to.  I started trying out a mode where you had to have all the rocks somewhere near the final position to finish the level, but that became very obnoxious very fast.

Tiny bug: On the second and third 'pastimes' themed levels (the ones you get to by pressing 2) the board is split into two but I can move the nodes freely between the sides.

Oh oops.  I'll have to look into that.  Thanks!

The last level is kind of brutal, though.

Haha yeah the last level is more of a stress test than an actual level.  If you think it's hard now you should try it on my computer with like <10 FPS.