April 20th-23rd 2012 :: 10 Year Anniversary! :: Theme: Tiny World
"Worlds in Cards" (name picked up at the last minute) is based on the idea that whole worlds, albeit very tiny, are contained inside cards. The player can be inside a single world at the time, but she can jump from world to world if they are adjacent *and* the landscape matches. If for example, a world has a ladder going down, then the world at bottom must have a ladder going up if the player wants to move from one to the other (and viceversa)
However, you can't control the player directly. Instead the player's character goes back and forth between the limits of the world--either a single card or a combination or cards correctly arranged that forms a "bigger" world--she is confined in. Howerver, the player can swap two cards on the screen that have neither an object nor a character, be it the player's character or any other of the characters that are wandering around the level.
Even the game's window looks like a card of sorts, althought this is more a side effect of trying to fit the game in my Android phone. However, I think it fits the theme, specially if you have a large resolution, because the window looks so tiny...
I didn't have time to create many levels--5 to be exact--and they aren't very challenging. I guess it takes much more than I have to make puzzles.
I couldn't test extensively the Windows version as I only have a VM and the Linux binaries "work on my system", but I can't guarante that they will work everywhere (64-bit was build under Gentoo and 32-bit in Debian testing.) The Android build works at least on my tablet and phone.
The music was made with Greasymonkey's autotracker, so I don't claim credit and I don't think it would be fair to rate it. I tried to use a custom "autotracker" that I did sometime ago, but didn't produce the same kind of quality. Most sound effects were made with sfxr, except for the sound that the cards do when are swapped; this one was made with a broom.
I tried, and failed miserably, to have a look-and-feel reminiscent of GB, partly because I thought that maybe my lack of artistic skills wouldn't be that noticeable. Oh, boy... how wrong I was!
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #31 | Fun | 3.79 |
| #38 | Innovation | 3.99 |
| #45 | Overall | 3.83 |
| #164 | Mood | 3.19 |
| #203 | Audio | 3.05 |
| #243 | Graphics | 3.31 |
| #264 | Theme | 3.33 |
| #426 | Humor | 2.22 |
Comments
I played the Android version. Really nice! The one issue I seemed to have was that the congratulation screen's dark fade seems off-center on my Droid 3.
Mind returning the favor for my own Android game? http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=8342
Oh yeah, one other point to remember for next time : Don't use the default launcher icon, and *DEFINIETLY* don't call your app "Ludum Dare XX" or "[THEME_NAME]". It's hard enough to keep those things straight on a desktop machine when you're reviewing submissions from different people, but nearly impossible on a phone.
Loved playing your game [Android].
Gameplay is simple and really nice, quite addictive.
You should sell an extended version on Google Play, with more levels and (not a lot) more advanced graphics :D (These are 2 things you could improve, to my mind, but in 48 hours, it seems to be a good work :)
I couldn't get the linux version to run so I played the Android version. I loved the game and I'd like to see this on the Android market as well. I'd buy it at least.
Played the game on my Nexus S - really great! I loved the concept and the clean art style, and I concur in that its uniqueness could make it a pretty popular game on the market if eventually polished, expanded upon and published - the card concept could allow for some nifty gameplay mechanics as well, and the blend between puzzle and platformer is very welcome :) Good job!
Loved it^^ Very innovative game idea, also liked the graphics. However, you could've been implemented a 2x Zoom, that would've been - for sure - looked nice ;)
This is awesome! The idea is great and the game is very fun to play for a puzzle maniac like me.
the linux 64 bit version was broken, it throws an illegal instruction at start, the 32 bit version works ok with older libs though.
Loved the mechanics! I can definitely see this being expanded into a full puzzler game. Congrats, nice entry!
Great concept and implementation! The Game Boy-esque graphics work really well, and you manage to ease the introduction of the player to the core mechanics gracefully.
Hopefully it will turn into a post-compo full-blown game.
Congratulations!
Lovely graphics and very interesting concept ^^ I think it would need some more work to make things a little more easy. I guess making the enemies move slower could be possible. And I'd keep tiles selected even if an enemy or player enters, but you just can't switch it at that moment. This way you can plan movement without having to be really fast with your mouse (although I suppose it'd be easier on touch screen anyway :3)
Nice little game. The only thing that brought it down for me (Mac version) was the it seemed inconsistent about detecting my clicking (and there was no feedback on clicking a fixed card).
Wow, this is really good! One of the best games I've played so far. Gameplay is VERY good and i like the gameboy graphics. You need to continue on with this game, I would buy it for a dollar on an app store with more levels. Great job!
Didn't worked on my galaxy ace android 2.3.3 :S The windows verson worked well! Nice little game! love the gb colors :)
Really cool, I love these kinds of puzzles!
Except for the lack of levels it felt complete and polished. The only thing that's missing I guess is audio.
One thing that I found annoying was that I couldn't figure out why certain cards could be swapped and others not. If there is some kind of rule behind that it would probably be beneficial to make this more apparent or maybe just making cards which cannot be swapped another color.
Great job!
Nice idea, quite difficult with enemies, but the card swapping idea is really cool.
Took me some time to finish but I got through. Worked well on my Windows 7. Nice idea, wasn't too easy.
Really cool game. I played it OSX. It seemed quite buggy though, as it didn't let me swipe tiles a majority of the time. The music is pretty repetitive, but still not bad. Sound effects were good. Liked the graphics and sprites. Well done.
Wow, I really loved the cards idea! I think it's just really, really unique.
Great idea. I suck at the more "dangerous" levels so only finished the first three. The game feels very consistent. For a computer screen a 2x scale option for the graphics would be great.
Very good! It is indeed reminiscent of GB. The game idea is nice, and the levels were a good difficulty (I think #4 was the hardest) and the game was the right length. Nice!
Will you be updating this with more levels? I want to play more! Really really great fun, great idea and don't knock the graphics they really suit it and the simple animations in menus and levels really is good.
Enjoyed this one - got through all the levels - clever puzzler. I like the LCD graphics too.
On the contrary to your belief I did feel that the graphics were nicely executed and the old gameboy colors were really cool! I like where you went with the theme and I really enjoy it as a highly open ended puzzler- it's great whenever a player has ample leeway to produce their own solutions.
I felt that level 4 was a lot tougher than level 5! But that's not really a complaint or anything, just an observation :P Fun game, I think you have a really nice package here! I could see it as a neat and full fledged smartphone game with about four or five times the levels.
Reminds me of "Continuity" (Flash) and "Rooms" (Wii), which I also enjoyed. Needs more levels, but good work! If you want to expand this in the future, a level editor would be neat.
I really liked the card swapping mechanism. It felt a little like lemmings, as I tried to keep the player indirectly out of harm's way, and level 4, in particular was satisfying to beat. Only a shame there weren't more levels.
It worked fine on Windows 7. Did encounter too small bugs - on level 4, one of the enemies got stuck in between cards (I swapped the blank card in the top-right with the card next to an enemy just as it was in-between cards). And on level 5 the player seemed to be walking through the platforms (the player must have started to go down a ladder, just as I swapped the card beneath it with another card).
Whoa... that went from "this is so easy it's boring" to "I can't figure this out for the life of me" in one level!
I think with a more gradual difficulty curve it could be awesome. It's a fantastic concept.
Very nice game, I liked the relaxing gameplay. In OS X I had some trouble with the mouse clicks.
really polished and well made! I would totally buy this as an expanded iPhone game.
Great game concept. Always loved everything with indirect control. Good, solid take on that. What the others said: release it!
Nice gameboy like look. Great concept and tricky puzzles, nice work!
- I mostly liked the mechanic and graphics. You have a great concept, keep making levels :D
- The sound effect you made the with the broom sounds good! xD
- I guess you didn't have time to add a "win" screen because I finished the 5 levels but nothing happened :P
do more with this! great concept. really like everything you did here. :-)
In LD #22 i made a game with the same GameBoy-ish style. But your game is far better than mine's!
The concept is pretty solid, you should keep improving this game!
This concept is awesome and now I'm SOOOO frustrated. Level 4 was the best! I want to play more level 4!
Love the style and polish level. I couldn't pass the 4th level, but well :)
Interesting concept. Level 4 was very challenging compared to the rest. It's a shame you couldn't make more levels.
I really like the concept and the art style! It's great! Nice job!
Awesome! Needs more levels, but once you have more levels, this would be a good Android market offering. Beautifully done!
I'm not good enaugh to reach level 5 but it's a great game. Music is pretty nice too :)
good job
Incredibly elegant, meticulously designed, perfect little game.
One of my favorites.
Really cool idea and good way of presenting it - the GameBoy aesthetic worked just right for this.
I couldn't beat level four, though - enemies were just too tricky.
totally solid. i found level 4 to be much harder and more puzzlish than level 5, but both were good. some suggestions for improvements, make the empty tiles more obvious when selected. I had some troubles telling when I had a tile selected, especially when it was invisible. Seems like there are some bugs in the ladders. I had a few times where he wouldn't go up or down a ladder, but got around it by tile swapping a few times. excellent job!
Excellent game! I agree with others about the difficulty being too easy for the most part, but level 4 was great. You should really consider putting this on the Google Play store if you decide to work on it further!
Nice puzzle! I wish it had more levels! I'm keeping the Android build to try it on an Android, once I put my hands on one! Good work. =)
P.S.: It worked just fine on a 64-bits Windows 7!
Oh! I love it! And I laughed at myself when I failed (a couple of times) to evade the lava pit, or whatever is it hehe
Even though it's very short, certainly deserves a 5/5 overall and fun. Very well-polished!
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This is super awesome. I love the colors (dmg01) but it throws me off to use a mouse, and have an oddly shaped screen.