I have no idea how it looks, but here's the Tumblr I'll be using:
(There's nothing there at the moment)

http://shardsofmyworld.tumblr.com/

I got:

- Scott Pilgrim Comics (which are amazing)
- Monster Tale
- Clothes

Plus I bought myself a bunch of games at the beginning of the Steam Sale, and got Wizorb as well.

was going to be a she (notice that his cap says "Curly Brace")

Is this actually true? Or was his name just supposed to be different? If you ask me, "Curly" does not imply a gender.

I also think this idea would be better if bullets could bounce off the walls.

After travelling a certain time (distance?) the bullets would fade out and dissipate.

But if it was more like air-hockey, where the edges are bouncy, I think it would also be more fun/interesting.

I really like this idea! It's simple and looks good!

I think it would be cool if you could chain things vertically as well.

Like, if you shoot the 9 from the bottom with the "+", it sticks. Then you can chain things together, using your equals sign to close things off.

The only problem is, you'll have to find a clean way to add numbers as well. I'll leave that to you.

Here's a really messy mockup of what I'm talking about, if it doesn't make sense.



Also, I like the interface the way it is now. Although I'm not sure if the general market will... You might want to have "skins" or something for people, customize their looks. It seems to be a more common feature in mobile games, so I think it could prove to be a good idea.

I think when you look at the difficulty curve, those games it's incredibly slow increase across the levels. At some point it'll introduce a new element and start again at the bottom, later mixing elements together. I do agree though, hundreds in pretty impressive.

This is exactly right.

If you play these, you'll find 2-3 levels teach the exact same thing. "Pure" or "true" or whatever puzzle games tend not to do this. They introduce something, teach it, and then continue to expand upon it, level-by-level.

From what I can discern, the games you mention teach it, use it a few times, expand upon it, use it a few times, and continue.

These games are more repetitive and perhaps monotonous, so they contain more levels.

I have no basis for this statement (accusation?), but I think that the people behind these games assume that their players are going to be dim-witted and require more hand-holding.

Honestly, when you ask me, I prefer quality over quantity for puzzle games. I think I find that fewer, but more well-thought puzzles will take longer to solve than a large collection of simple, mindless ones.

I just made a puzzle game for Ludum Dare and could have made more levels, but decided to remove them because they were too simple or didn't bring anything new to the table. I think these designers keep these levels [even if they shouldn't].

Have been making these over the past few days. I'm really happy with them. I can't wait to animate them, but would like some feedback beforehand. 

   

But I'm having a bit of a problem. I think the guard (on the right) should have some sort of weapon.

When I try giving him a spear, which feels like a suitable weapon for a guard, the sprite loses a lot of readability, in my opinion. Since the guard's armor is gray, giving him a metal (ie gray) spearhead makes things tricky. Any advice? You can see my attempts here:

   

I think they may get better after animating them, but I don't know for sure. Any tips?

I just picked up Fractal: Make Blooms Not War and love its interface.

It's very clean and well-placed.

That said, it isn't revolutionary or anything, it just looks nice.

[I DO WHAT I WANT]

Shut up, tester.

I DO WHAT I WANT

No, but, seriously, I should have added the counter but the game is perfectly playable as-is, and I don't regret it. Especially when you consider the 48-hour time limit, I think it's perfectly fine the way it is, and I couldn't be happier with it.

I think the game is almost exactly where I want it to be. At first I was apprehensive about the length, but I think it's actually just right.

the absence of sound and music is not a bad thing (though something melancholic would be fitting).

If I had time (and talent) I would have liked to add music to the ending only, and make the rest silent. The music that plays in my head for the ending is really incredible and I would love to see it take shape. 

It's also nice to see the problem you talked about in the technical forum come alive

Thank you so much for your help! I didn't actually use your solution for the part I was intending to (it got cut), but it was used for the warp squares.

I was going to have tiles that flipped their side of the screen horizontally or vertically, but I didn't have time to implement this, plus I imagine it would get too confusing. That's what my question was based on, but these tiles are not in the game. There are remnants of them in the source, though.

[EDIT: I have made an "Enhanced Edition" of the game. Details are in a later post in this thread. You can try it here: http://www.tasteofmoonlight.com/games/separation-enhanced.html]

EDIT: I have made an "Enhanced Edition" of the game. Details are in a later post in this thread. You can try it here: http://www.tasteofmoonlight.com/games/separation-enhanced.html

Yesterday I finished my Ludum Dare entry, Separation Anxiety.

This is my first Ludum Dare (and my first finished game!) and it was an incredibly positive experience. I'm so glad I did it, and I'm really happy with the end result.

Separation Anxiety is a puzzle game that I hope provides a good challenge without being too frustrating.

I'll post a few screens here, but the game doesn't get conveyed well in still-shots. It really works in action better than it does in pictures.

You can play it at my website, here: http://www.tasteofmoonlight.com/games/separation.html. Please tell me what you think, and be honest! I'm looking to improve, so criticism is as good as praise.

I hope you enjoy it! I sure enjoyed making it!

EDIT: I've written a post-mortem, which you can find at: http://tasteofmoonlight.com/games/separation/postmortem.html. Do NOT read it if you haven't finished the game, as it contains huge story and puzzle spoilers.

Netsu:
Yes, the array contains them in rows. You could literally draw a line through the array to split it into sides.

That's exactly the solution I needed! It seems so clear, I don't know why I couldn't think of it on my own. Thanks for the help!

Mikademus:
Because I made a typo. Herp derp.    I'll edit the post to fix it. Wow, I really messed that one up. 

[EDIT:]

So I'm working on my game and I just can't figure out this math. I know there's something really simple that I'm missing, but I just can't figure it out. I've been working on this problem for a while and I can't get it to work, so I'm asking here.

You math whizzes should be able to get it pretty quickly, I imagine.

My levels are written in arrays. The game is split into two "zones," and both are contained in the same array. Each zone is 10 tiles wide, so the array codes for 20 tiles in a row. The map is 20 tiles high. The array has 400 objects as a result.

How can I, given the index of a number in the array, figure out which side it's on, left or right?

Indexes 0-9, 20-29, 40-49, etc. are all on the left side. But I haven't found a mathematical way to calculate this yet. It's driving me nuts.      Especially since I realize that this should be a really easy thing; at least I think so. Maybe it's harder than I thought.

Any ideas or tricks I'm missing? I appreciate the help. 

EDIT: Fixed a horrible horrible typo that never should have existed and only caused confusion.

[STUPID]

Sonic:
As others have said, Sonic is almost like a racing game to me. As in, hold down one button then occasionally tweak it with another button. It's brainless and boring, in my opinion. I personally think Sonic is beyond repair. I really can't stand this one. Music's great, though.

Also, they got waaaaay too crazy with characters in the more modern games.

Donkey Kong:
I've only played the Donkey Kong arcade game, the first Country, and the Wii re-imagining. The arcade game is quite good and I wouldn't change it. I wasn't a huge fan of the first Country game. I think the graphics, although I'm sure they were cool at the time, tend to turn me away these days. Also, I remember there being one really insanely hard level in the oil world or something that took me like months to get past. Then again, I was just a kid, so maybe it isn't as hard as I thought it was back then.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is pretty flawless, and executed quite well. The boss in the third or fourth world, I don't remember which, was horrible, but the rest of the game (so far!) is really fun and cool.

Kirby:
This might sound weird, but I think Kirby games need to get even goofier and more cartoon-like than they already are. I think they've been getting more and more serious, and I think they should step back and let loose a little. That said, I haven't played the newest ones, so they could have improved on this. Combo powerups do sound cool. I've never really felt that the level designs in Kirby games were that great. None of them felt that hard or special to me; they weren't memorable. I think they should put a little more effort there.

Megaman:
As Paul said, remove those stupid stupid STUPID disappearing blocks. They only provide artificial difficulty and are never fun, interesting, or entirely original.

They both contrast against each other, which'll make the viewer focused on the specific inner object that the surrounding color clashes against.

Just to clarify this point, and because I left it out of my original post, complimentary colors can be used as an attention-grabber. They should not be avoided entirely, but the artist should be aware of what he/she is doing. For instance, white on black is a lot easier to read and a lot more eye-catching than gray on black.

The problem with decisions is that most users just load a save from before the decision if they don't like the outcome.

You could secretly save their choice when they make it and then eliminate the other options if they decide to go back and attempt to change things. Starting over would be the only way to wipe it.

Some might call that cruel, but I think it's reasonable.

I think the GBA is physically the best handheld in existence.

The form factor for that system is simply amazing. The only flaws in it are that it has no backlight and no rechargeable batteries, which are consequences of the time it was made and not its actual design.

But seriously. The original GBA just feels so good in your hand. It's so natural. That, and the GameCube controller are Nintendo's greatest designs in my opinion.

_{also it was totally my first game system so I could be a bit biased maybe just a little}

[no]

I also like to see morals and ethics explored.

YES YES YES. I want a game to make me stop playing, get up, take a walk, then sit back down after I've thought about my decision. So far no game has ever made me do that. If you have an example of one, I'd love to hear it. I want games to make me think outside puzzle solving and basic strategy. I want games to make me think about choices and their consequences.

Honestly, somebody should make something along the lines of Chrono Trigger, where all of your decisions make a difference. Except they should make it so your decisions make a huge difference. In Chrono Trigger, it gave the game variety but wasn't life-changing IIRC. There needs to be more tough choices in video games.

Also, I want to see more platformer-RPG mashup things. The closest example I can think of is Super Paper Mario, where it's a platforming game, but you can level up your character. The only thing I remember the level-ups doing was giving you more HP, so it was pretty pointless. I think this should be expanded upon, with full stats and such that actually matter. You could even produce a few randomly generated "zones" (levels? areas? whatever...) for if the player needs to grind. That way you wouldn't be stuck playing the same thing over and over.

Also, as a side note, blue and orange are opposite colors on the color wheel.

Generally, colors far apart from each other on the wheel do not mix well. This means opposite colors will appear worse together than colors in proximity on the wheel.

So, in the future, take a look at the wheel. Toning down the orange color to a more tan color did help a lot, but either way, the color scheme is not color wheel-aware.

The poster looks fine but I thought I'd share some color theory with you for future prospects.

lol - thanks for sharing!

These are just awesome.