RedditLudum Dare 23
April 20th-23rd 2012 :: 10 Year Anniversary! :: Theme: Tiny World
Poiesis - Them Games - Jam Entry
Windows (72h) | osX (72h) | Windows (post compo bugfree) | osX (post compo bugfree)
Tiny World was the theme, we wanted an original gameplay and got to work using photos of genuine old tools we had lying around, aquarelle painting and computerz graphiX.
The game itself centers around a scientist trying to create beautiful tiny worlds to offer them to his friends or sell them as living jewels. Plant weird trees, combine them together and mix them up with different minerals to try and create new breeds and crops...
The game is far from complete, we only managed to get the basics working, if you're interested in it, please keep in touch with us @ThemGames, new games are coming up from us in june and november !
Come play worldsmith with us, but be careful, poke too hard and you'll kill you poor fragile planet.
We're very sad to not have a little more time, but we went on a incredible 72 hours with our friends droping by. We'll post a recap of the process and probably a better version of the game on our site in the next few days (for now, we need sleep).
You'll find all that at http://www.themgames.net/ludumdare23.html
Update : The new version fixes various bugs, of course it was not done in 72 hours.
Edit and explenations :
To pinch your planet press [space] + [C]
Using [1, 2, 3, 4] select different tools to punch holes or gather minerals in your planet
Using [0] you toggle the magnifying glass
With [3] you can take the clippers to pick up trees and you'll be able to plant them. By clipping at their top, you can also remove them.
To know weither or not you can plant a tree, mind the root's lengh and the depth of the hole!
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View Them Games's journal. | View all entries by Them Games
Ratings
 | Theme(Jam) | 4.31 |
| Coolness | 82% |
 | Innovation(Jam) | 4.21 |
| #14 | Graphics(Jam) | 4.43 |
| #63 | Mood(Jam) | 3.30 |
| #81 | Audio(Jam) | 3.20 |
| #97 | Humor(Jam) | 2.60 |
| #102 | Overall(Jam) | 3.17 |
| #182 | Fun(Jam) | 2.49 |
Comments
The upload wasn't complete probably, give or take a few seconds, it should be good by now :)
Windows 7, 32 bit
"""
Failed to find a pixel format supporting antialiasing ; antialiasing will be disabled
1.6 1.6
1680 1050
Failed to create image, its internal size is too high (4508x668)
"""
OSX version failed to run:
Crashed Thread: 0
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries
Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: @executable_path/../Frameworks/sfml-audio.framework/Versions/A/sfml-audio
Referenced from: /Users/USER/Downloads/Poiesis.app/Contents/MacOS/LudumDare23 copy
Reason: image not found
I couldn't find the button on the right to complete a level, but it was a very cool concept. The look of the game is very appealing!
The graphics are interesting! I like how it's pieced together from real photographs. Looks really neat.
I love how you managed to make a very delicate feeling using all the tools. It feels appropriately tense when I'm about to poke a hole in one of my little planets. I felt really overwhelmed with the keyboard controls, though. I feel like I'd prefer more mouse-based controls just because all the keys are hard to remember, but I'm interested in why you went with keyboard controls :)
Really liked this! Very interesting and different imo! Fun to play, graphics were very nice. Audio was good. My only beef is a better tutorial at the start to explain things better would have been nice. Also everything ran fine for me. win7 64bit.
Thank you everyone ! We're going to bed, but we took the time to fix the few bugs you reported, everything's fine now !
If it didn't work the first time, please give it another chance :)
I had a lot of trouble following the tutorial and figuring out how to do stuff to the planet (like Dylan, I wasn't fond of the strange keyboard controls). But I love the idea, the artwork, the music, and how it's all put together.
I couldn't figure out how to complete a level either, but it looks fantastic. Nice work.
I really liked the asthetics of the game but it was very hard to understand the flow of the game.
We will definitely work on flow and control good friends!
Now as to why we went for keyboard and mouse control, it's simple: we wanted the player to feel like a surgeon using both hands. Why the weird "Space bar + C" the reasoning behind that is: we want people to pinch the planet, so what's the key they'll use their thumb with ? SPACE BAR nobody uses the space bar with another finger so that's that :)
On my mac the mouse cursor doesn't show up (meaning I can't get past the third part of the tutorial!) Please fix this - I really really really want to try this game! From what I've seen it looks amazing! I'm a fan of the quirky controls, btw :P
Wow, this looks great! Quirky, humorous, and aesthetically beautiful. However, I have to jump on the keyboard-interaction bandwagon: I couldn't remember all of those keys! Sometimes "realism" isn't worth sticking to, especially for something like this where there are over 1000 games to check out. If something about your game bugs someone, they'll just stop playing it and move on to the next one.
beautiful game, brilliant concept, but REALLY needs a better tutorial and support for slightly less widescreen monitors
Very nice! I did experience some issues with the Mac version. The cursor does not consistently show up (as stated by aaronsnoswell), but I also had issues with the magnifier controls-- press 0 would toggle it on, but not off. I did get the cursor to show up eventually, though.
I also couldn't find the button on the right but otherwise this game has a strong image, the old photography style was amazing, and the idea brilliant. The fonts were to small to read without effort and lacked a synergy with the art style. The music got a bit repetitive after a while.
Thanks for the experience it was worth it, and keep on the good work =)
The game crashed after the first image. Using netbook and Windows 7
No doubt the most beautiful and innovative game I've played so far. It captures the theme brilliantly as well. I would love to see some more content tho. I ran it on Linux using Wine, and except for some rendering issues in the corner and some quirks with the mouse control it worked very well. Great work!
Very interesting entry, and certainly one of the biggest productions so far, congratulations! I liked the control scheme and really felt like a surgeon, so extra points for making a creative control method that talk to the theme as well. The thing with this game is that I think liking it really goes from person to person as much as gardening or building miniatures, for example. It is calm and contemplative, you really need to have the right expectations and get in the vibe. I'm usually only fond of toy-like games that present lots of simulation characteristics and emergent behavior coming from the simulation, but I ended up really enjoying this one. Plus, I'm definitely maxing out your score on innovation and theme - it's so rare to find games that really go against the flow! Congrats!
Cool idea! Was fun planting trees on my little planets :) Although I couldn't figure out how the scoring worked and it was difficult at first to figure out how to plant trees as I wasn't sure how deep to make the hole and how to plant the seed (some visual cues could probably help here).
wow...this is deep! I definitely like the slightly awkward controls, and the precision that goes into poking holes and such. Love it! Thanks for sharing! Bookmarking for later inspiration...
A very nice game. Beautiful graphics and sound and a fantastic use of the theme.
Your used font is very difficult to read... the tutorial isn't good at all: to many text and a hard to follow. A direct feedback of what I aim for would be nice.
I wasn't unable to understand how to play it, sorry. I tried to follow the tutorial but no tree could be planted ever! The graphics and the concept are very well done, thought.
me neither. Didn't find out how to achieve a goal. BUT loved the concept, the interface and the graphics. The music is very relaxing too. I would make it more straightforward to the user. So the idea can be catched quickly. Well Done!
The game looks really cool, but unfortunately I am unable to play it at this stage. It crashes after the first loading image (even with the bugfix version). I am using Windows 7 64-bit. I hope you're able to fix this so I can play!
I couldn't plant a tree or rotate the planet, which was quite unfortunate.
Beautiful game and a very innovative concept. My biggest problem, though, was the lack of feedback when trying to plant anything. I couldn't really figure out what the specific depth requirements were for trees vs seeds. Also, manipulating the poker on a laptop touchpad is near impossible.
Still, it's a great concept and I really hope you refine it and work on it outside of the competition. :)
It just sat for ages on the command prompt window. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit.
Wow, this is amazing. I love the concept, the graphics and just the overall vibe this produces. A few things are a bit clumsy feeling but man this is awesome.
Keep up the good work!! :)
Interesting game. It runs well in Wine. I did have trouble planting stuff initially as there is no feedback of what you did wrong.
It would be helpful to have the tools on the table somewhere, and labeled to not have to remember the keys.
Also the needle impression doesn't map perfectly to the tool which feels off.
You also don't seem to have any seeds or anything in the later levels.
If the worlds were a little more dynamic this game could be really awesome.
Good work.
Like many of the others I was baffled on what I was supposed to do, how to clear a level, how to fulfill a request. It's a shame there are such usability concerns here, because the graphics, sound, mood, and humor are all excellent.
While I appreciate the idea the needle seems uncontrollable. Maybe because I'm using a laptop pad?
I believe the controls are to complicated... Extracted a tree somehow, but couldnt do much. Still very nice concept, it just needs more work.
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The zip file for Windows seems to be corrupted. I cannot open it at all.