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Node Runner's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #3730 | 3.120 | 3.120 |
| Audio | #5223 | 2.640 | 2.640 |
| Creativity | #6228 | 2.920 | 2.920 |
| Artwork | #7720 | 2.320 | 2.320 |
| Narrative | #7833 | 1.880 | 1.880 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Puzzle game about getting to the end, before your moves count reaches 0. Plan your moves, try a lot and watch out for other countdowns.
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
The Roook Team
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Comments
Great game! it has a good level design and so many levels, i loved it!
Hey, thanks, good to hear that!
It took a while, but I finally managed to beat all of the levels. I think my favorite level -- which was also the one I probably took the longest on -- was the level that introduced the dash. It legitimately took me quite a while to figure out the solution, and it was a very nice a-ha moment.
For some of the levels, like the Patrick level, I feel like I might have skipped the intended solution (on that level, I basically just used Patrick to get through the ice, then the other two rocks to pass the two later water lanes, meaning I didn't need any of the dashes or time powers). Or, for example, level 9 in the jungle, I went on the bottom path and around both keydoors, leaving me with 28 moves left.
The move countdown itself is interesting in that I felt it was sometimes too lenient and sometimes too strict. For example, the level with all the clouds, it felt like it kind of just got in the way of learning to move through the clouds smoothly (as there is, at least AFAIK, no real logical way to deduce which path will happen to fit in the number of moves). But on other levels, it felt like it could have been more restrictive in order to narrow down the solution space. The only level where I really felt the move counter viscerally was probably the last level. My thought about this is: maybe the move counter would operate better as a mechanic that only appears in some levels? I.e. design levels that specifically use it as a restriction, but for levels where it doesn't feel meaningful, just leave it out entirely. I think managing the countdown of the dashes and clouds ended up feeling actually quite meaningful & appropriate to the theme. But, that's just my take.
I did have some trouble using the controls... mainly, exiting the menu after using an item often felt a bit clunky to me. I also had to double-check what keys were used to navigate the menu. I think a way to really polish it up would be to support some mouse controls too -- e.g. let me click-place or drag-and-drop the torch item onto the field, so that it requires no menu navigation at all.
There were a number of puzzles I quite enjoyed. I think, in the thunderlands, the stand-outs for me are levels 1, 5, 7, 8, and 10. I don't remember the jungle as well as it has been a while since I played them. I think that the clouds are a pretty nice mechanic and very on-point with the theme. The natural parity and LCM mechanics that come out of them are interesting to think about and play around. And although I found the dash pretty awkward to use at first, I do think it ended up being pretty fun too... level 7 was one of my favorites.
I found myself humming the music after quitting the game so I think it was quite the bop. :)
Good job!
Hi! I'm the person behind the second location and it's gimmicks, thanks for getting throught the whole game! I know not a lot of people finished it so it's quite an achievement I guess. Now onto your concerns with some parts of the game:
- Yep the Patrick level (tysm for reading that dialouge) was a an oversight on my part, the initial idea was to push him all the way to the last "river" and then sacriface him, but You could just skip it like You said, but thanks to You I can now fix it
- The countdown being sometimes to strict and sometimes to lenient was mainly because, the jungle was created when we didn't have the level editor, so it could not be easly tested
- About removing the main countdown for some levels - I don't think it could work really well, the levels were created with a solution in mind, removing the move countdown removes any hardship, as you said, the levels that had a lots of storms could use that, but I think in this case just letting the player having some spare moves would be a better solution, that level was designed to be a labirynth of some sort and often you can be lost in labirynths. After uploading the game, one of the ideas we had for the difficulty was to just introduce stars as a gauge for how well the player got through the level.
- Fun fact, initially I didn't plan to add the storms (which I think are my favourite mechanic in the game), instead I had in my plans to add catapult, (which after some thought was discarded, because of the time limit and because it would be harder to create than the potion which was in itself a lot of pain), so because we needed more than potion and clock for the area, I've decided to add this simple tile which happened to introduce a lot of interesting things to the game - my favourite was the interaction between the ice and red storms. So i think it is funny that sometimes the simplest mechanic are the best ones are the most complex
- The controls we gotta admit - we weren't happy with them but we did not had much time to rewire them in a way that feels natural.
Again, thanks for this loaded feedback, really appreciate it, it was my first time designing levels, and your words made me more confident in my designing skills XD
Really cool game! the music change when the second rock appeared made it feel like a boss XD
Glad you liked it!
This game is a fun count down-limited sokoban-like game! I like the puzzles and the gimmicks make it so!
There’s just a few gripes, some already pointed by the others:
I do appreciate the undo when you fail a puzzle, the step-by-step undo in general and I am baffled you guys managed to slot in a full settings menu and level editor in a span of 4 days too, kudos to you guys on that one!
Good work you all nonetheless~!
Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed review.
We really appreciate all of your feedback. It’s honestly one of the best and most helpful comments we could have received during the jam.
Regarding this bug:
We actually managed to fix this one after the submission deadline, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to push those fixes into the jam build before submissions closed.
We'll also definitely take your suggestions about the visuals and controls into account if we continue developing the game. The comments about readability and the keyboard layout make a lot of sense.
Thank you again for all the suggestions and for the kind words about the puzzles, undo system, settings menu, and level editor. Comments like yours make post-jam improvements much easier. We really appreciate it! ❤️
Good puzzle
Thank you! We really appreciate it. ❤️
The game is fun and the puzzles are well designed. The artwork feels too saturated, but maybe that's just me.
Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed the puzzles. You're definitely not the only one to mention the saturation, and we see it now too. We promise we'll improve it in the next update. Thanks again for the feedback. ❤️
I gave up at the thunderdome, but it's a fun game!
Yea there was supposed to be a biome in between the two that are already in the game, but we couldn't make it in time, so there is this big difficulty spike when progressing to the thunderlands, but thanks for playing it!!!
Fun and good take on the theme. The gameplay is fun and satisfying as you get the puzzle. Very nice
Thank you, glad you liked the puzzles
ggood take to the theme! the pace of the game are well thought of :)
Thanks !
I love the undo button.
Yup, it was soooo helpful during the playtesting and designing the levels
Very well-designed puzzle game. The contrast between the ground and character colors bothered me a little bit (probably because I'm colorblind), but I still enjoyed playing it.
I couldn't pass level 7, though. I wonder why when I try to use the torch right in front of me, it changes to the opposite direction. Is this a bug, or is it intentional?
Hi, thanks for playing. I couldn't recreate the issue you were facing at the level 7. The use direction should match the arrows on the keyboard. Regarding the colour pallete, tbh we did not think about it, but it is a lesson learned.
Thanks for checking that out. It might just be a random bug. I should play the game again so I can beat that level!
I hope it is a random bug, if the same bug happens, let me know
Fun game. I think if they level design was a bit better it would be more fun. It's hard to tell if you are achieving the intended solution or if you are skipping something, due to most levels having a bunch of extra stuff (I know one of the tutorial messages mentions this but it still felt off). Also some levels I would have a ton of steps left at the end, so it felt like I skipped something.
Really appreciate the undo, ESPECIALLY that you can do it after a death. So many times I would make a stupid mistake that would kill me, but it never was annoying cuz I could just instantly undo
Hey, thanks for the feedback. We've had a lot of discussion about the assignment of the moves to some levels, and decided to give the player more freedom, thus allowing more valid solutions. Had we more time, we would probably add hard and easy mode. Also some later levels were hard for me to design, so there is a possibility for skipping the intended way of solving the puzzle (like the one where you should push the rock (Patrick) all the way to the end). Some levels also had more than one path to reach the goal like the last level, so maybe that is way there was some extra stuff. Anyway I did not expect that designing levels take that much time. Glad You've enjoyed it!!!
that is fair. i do think for at least the first few levels the step count should be strict to get players used to conserving their movements
Yea I agree, they were designed when we did not have the level creator yet, so at the start, and then we kind of forgot about them i think
reminds me of old flash games :) i think some of the moves could be reduced to add more tension to the levels, but it’s otherwise very solid. i’m surprised by how many ideas are in this!
Hey, yea, even my brother told me that if it was a flash game back in the day it would be fire. Some levels had more moves due to discussion, more than way intended path of completing it, or just me not playtesting them enough. Thanks for playing our game tho
Impressed by how full this game is! Level editor, full settings menu, etc?? So much in so little time! How many of you were there making this?
Only tiny gripe is I'd have wanted the main menu music to have a longer loop but that's really nitpicking!
https://smoothtrooper.itch.io/on-the-clock
Hey, tbh at the end, we had more people contributing than I would expect. You can check the description, everyone involved should be down there
Oh also, the level editor was done at first for me so I wouldn't get nightmares from creating the levels by editing the jsons
It's a good game, and I can commend it for its clear, gradual increase in difficulty and how easy it is to get into.
Thanks, it was hard later to sort the second area levels in terms of difficulty
Fun game! I like the variation with objects to use at the right place 😄 I might be too good at it though, I finished one of the levels with 34 extra steps 😂
Hi, thanks for playing the game, which level did You finished like that?
I sadly didn't take a screenshot, might have been something like the 6th or 7th? Lots of rocks and water everywhere 😄
No problem, I remember there was a level in the jungle that had too much moves
Good work. These remind me of the old Adventures of Lolo games on the NES.
Thanks, I've checked and yup I have some rookie numbers compared to the game You've mentioned haha.