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[Draknek]

These Robotic Hearts of Mine

This is a puzzle game made in four hours started for the FlashPunk Game Competition.

Since I made all the levels I have no idea how hard it is or how interesting the mechanic is: would love some feedback.

[Toeofdoom]

It's an interesting mechanic but the difficulty rises pretty steeply. The first couple of levels require a little thought, then you need to start paying a lot of attention. The level with 6 wheels is particularly hard - I got it down to 4 hearts left but it doesn't exactly feel like I'm close to getting it out and it would be a lot of effort to just figure it out from the starting position (On that note, you might want to document that "R" restarts it.)

EDIT: It might work better if levels ended up being longer and longer "chains" so they don't interconnect so heavily - that or give us some simpler ones with a lot of gears so we aren't thrown into the deep end.

[madflame991]

I really hate the fact that I can't get past level 3 :|
Nice brain twister

[flavio]

The idea is great and fun, but I agree with previous comments: actually it's too difficult.

[AG]

I was able to finish the first 4 levels but it does get very difficult, it's tough to tell if you're completely on the wrong path on the more complex ones. The mechanic sort of reminds me of trying to solve a Rubix cube.

[Netsu]

Same here, first 4 levels were quite easy, but when it got up to four cogs... I was no longer able to see what I'm doing. How many level are there?

[Draknek]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it is very useful.

I have added debug keys to skip to specific levels. Press a number from 1 to 7 to go to that level.

There are seven levels currently, and replaying now I'll agree that the six-cog one is much too hard. The final level with seven cogs I don't think anyone has got to. It's more ordered than six-cogs though: possibly it's less insanely hard? I have switched them around: the old level 6 is now level 7 and the old level 7 is now level 6. So if you got to that puzzle try the new level 6 and let me know what you think.

Not sure how I feel about level 5 (four cogs). It is definitely solveable but perhaps relies too much on stumbling upon the correct order.

[capn.lee]

i got to level 6 by working it out. It tended to be that you have to figure out which one to turn first by following the chain, it's easier if you think backwards but i struggled on level 6 without being able to find a chain, it may be too complex for the thinking that got me that far.

[wilbefast]

Eeek 

This is like a computerised rubix cube: really makes you stop for a moment and think hard. For such a simple base mechanic it's a very cool game: I especially liked the transitions between levels 

[iangb]

I like the mechanism - as people have been saying, it's very Rubiks Cube'esque, though that does result in a comparable difficulty. I don't know if it's just my eyes, but I was finding that the pixellated images were making it hard to glance at a level (even an early one!) and see which way up all the hearts were - I needed to look more closely just to see what the problem was, even before thinking about how to solve it.

Also - maybe add a 'click counter' to see how many times you've turned the cogs? You could then aim to beat a level in a minimum number of clicks, etc...

[dlan]

immediately make me think of :



 

i got to the level 6, but can't get past it. tried to use the central cog as a way to switch the heart easily, but failed so far. still, i think it's easier to manage than the final level, even if you have more cogs. also, the fact that you have hearts with 4 different orientation at start make the last level harder.

level 5 feel like if you miss to turn properly the lowest cog at start, you are good to hit R once you place it right, it's ok.

agreed with iangb about the graphics, it's not always easy to tell apart the hearts orientation, perhaps using color for each kind orientation (one that would blend nicely with the existing pink color) could help ?

still, it's a nice little game, would like to see more levels. the fact you can easily restart avoid too much frustration if you get in trouble (unlike rubik cube )

[J. R. Hill]

Totally can't figure out 6 without spending more than 10 minutes just analyzing it.

[Draknek]

I've updated this with more levels (mostly not as hard) and some UI improvements. In particular, it should now be easier to see at a glance which hearts are facing which way. There is also undo/redo support.

There is a level select screen: if you get stuck on one level can you please try the next one to see if you think the levels could be better ordered.

I think the difficulty curve is now better but I'm sure it's far from perfect. Which levels need work?

Also I have made a gameplay change to the final two levels which I hope makes them more approachable.

[tesselode]

You know, I kind of like the high difficulty level of this. The puzzles are really tricky and interesting to try to solve. I haven't gotten very far yet.

[increpare]

I got a through a lot more this time (8 or 9 before I stopped).  The levels seemed a lot more tractable now, which is cool

[Draknek]

Lots more levels: now we are up to 28 in total. The old level 8 is now level 20 for instance (and was level 4 of 7 originally).

Again, what I'm most looking for is any levels which stand out as either too hard or too easy for their position in the list.

[oyog]

I wonder whether the difficulty of these depends on the player.  The learning almost seems random to me.  One level will take me 34 clicks and the next will take me 6 (level 13 and 14, to be specific, if I remember right.)

I wonder if it might be difficult to create a temporary database to find out average number of clicks per puzzle then arrange them accordingly.

On the other hand it's kind of cool to have a couple really easy puzzles then one or two difficult puzzles.  I like the variety.

[Draknek]

Big update: I am trying my hand at narrative.

Not yet sure how I feel about some of the new stuff I've added.

[Draknek]

Another big update

Main change is that hopefully the difficulty curve is better.

Also there is now a separate set of "perfection" levels, which I think have a slightly different feeling to the other levels.

[einstein]

It is certainly a difficult puzzle game, one I personally enjoy. Nice work!