April 26th-29th 2013 :: Theme: Minimalism
Ludum Dare 26 — April 26-29th, 2013
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IF THE GAME CRASHES ON START:
Install the XNA 4.0 distributable (located in 'IFCRASH' folder in .rar)
Update:
Fixed 'infinite ball' crash (hopefully).
Fixed bug w/ Launcher targets going off screen (no-win condition).
Fixed some typos, added 'you win' text.
Can close game by pressing Escape.
UPDATE: Added folder to .rar with non-installing .exe, can just run that directly. Let me know if there are still any issues.
NOTE: If you encounter any bugginess (like tons of balls spawning super fast for no reason), click the stop button and then the play button.
Spheres is a minimalist music creation/puzzle game. Fire balls from launchers that bounce around the environment, creating sound as they go. Work your way through an (unfortunately short) assortment of levels or try out free play mode!
Game includes a grand total of two images and one very small audio file. Few assets and few mechanics, but hopefully still a good amount of depth in the result :)
Check out the included readme file, especially if you plan to use free play mode!
Installs to Program Files(x86)\LD26\Spheres by Fueelin
Readme contents:
Freeplay Mode Controls:
Left click to select an object (Launcher, Platform, or Circuit).
Click and drag to reposition Launchers and Platforms.
Select a Circuit and click a Platform or Launcher to link them.
Click again to break link.
Click in free space to de-select current object.
With a Platform selected, you can toggle the following:
C - Circuit
D - Descending Intervals (Notes)
M - Mute
S - Solo
These keys place objects:
1 - Launcher
2 - Horizontal Platform
3 - Vertical Platform
4 - Goal
General Controls:
Del - Remove selected object
Backspace - Remove all objects
Enter - Save level. Note: goes to Freeplay.xml.
Can back this up and/or swap other files to load them
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #396 | Innovation | 3.33 |
| #443 | Audio | 2.88 |
| #448 | Fun | 3.10 |
| #698 | Overall | 3.04 |
| #802 | Mood | 2.63 |
| #1006 | Theme | 3.04 |
| #1008 | Humor | 1.56 |
| #1250 | Graphics | 2.04 |
Comments
Love the idea, and it was fun. It's pretty easy to get a ball stuck on the edge of a platform... had a number of CTDs due to infinite balls on the screen at once, before I could do anything about it. Still, quite enjoyed it.
Couldn't get this to run - installed the .msi, went to the install location, but it errored out before opening a window. Is there something I'm missing from the install instructions?
A really interesting idea and a pretty sweet game! Had a slight problem when I dragged one of the red boxes off the screen and couldn't get it back, and the game crashed on one of the later levels (windows 7 x64). But really, a superb offering!
It's not working...when I open it it immediately crashes. I'm on win-7 64bit.
I installed it, but when I double-clicked on it nothing happened... no error message or anything.
Very cool. Liked it. Would have preferred to unzip versus install. Liked the audio variety. Liked the challenge.
UPDATE: Added folder to .rar with non-installing .exe, can just run that directly. Let me know if there are still any issues.
Installed, then nothing happens when I launch the EXE. Win8 64-bit in VirtualBox.
This is cool, the idea is really good. I had a couple of issues like dragging targets off screen and being unable to recover them, but otherwise this was really fun.
This is amazing, seems like the author has worked with music games before :)
Only key I could press that seemed to have any effect was space, looked like a level warp? Otherwise lots of balls bouncing around and nothing looked like it changed anything.
I don't seem to be able to get it working; it loads OK, but nothing is selectable, and no controls seem to do anything...
This was awesome! The physics could use a little work (I managed to bug out my spheres a few times), and some of the maps can be beaten without using anything but the first element, but I absolutely love the concept! Put in my play later folder.
That was great! Unfortunatly I crashed the game by making the balls hit the generator note making infinite balls spawn too fast but this game was really innovative
Sorry, but this won't run for me. Tried installer and stand-alone .exe. Running Windows 8, 64-bit. Part of the error message says: Problem Signature 09: System.IO.FileNotFoundException
UPDATE: If the game crashes for you on start, look at the description above for fix. Also, updated version fixes previous 'infinite ball' crash and issues w/ launcher aim going off screen and preventing level completion.
Works nicely. The install was smooth but I didn't like that it wanted to put it in my program folder. I suspect that's an XNA thing. Very reminiscent of the one game from Electroplankton that I liked. Similar them to my entry but much more structured.
I like the concept and enjoyed playing to the end. I would like to note that it's easy to get a ball stuck in a wall making it easy to win some levels. Also after a while the tones sounded harsh (could need a softer tone, could also be related to the stuck balls triggering the sound very quickly).
Wow, this games probably the most innovative one I've played yet. Also you got the sound spot on. Art was functional though could've been a tab better. Also shoddy hit detection between the balls and corners of platforms, but thats always tricky to get right. GOOD JOB!!!
The game is a little dense and hard to understand (you should have a level for each stage of the tutorial to practice the concept on), but once I got some of what to do it had a charm to it. The audio is a nice touch as well.
I love these sort of games. Good work! (Looks like we had sort of a similar audio idea :) )
Sick musically inclined game. Wish the audio was a little better though. Gets to be teeth grinding over time.
This is a really clever idea and with some polish it could be really good.
Cool concept, enjoyed it kept me playing even though it seemed a little bland with the graphics and lack of sound. Great anyway though!
Cool concept. I noticed sometimes balls can get caught on corners, resulting in an annoying "b-b-b-b-b-b-b-ring!" Overall though, this is a lot of fun - would like to see more!
Reminds me a lot of Electroplankton - were you influenced by that game?
Haven't but played it before, I'll try to check it out though. Yeah the balls getting caught on things are pretty annoying, I tried to minimize the annoyance of the sound etc but didn't quite get it fully fixed... I'm definitely going to work on this more.
Really cool concept! Reminded me a little of The Incredible Machine (just a minimal version). Tricky to start with but soon get the knack of it. Loving the way the balls create random music.
I thought it was lovely how the walls and platforms played music when struck - up until they played a resounding cacophony while I was trying to solve puzzles. XD
Really innovative. Was worth the trouble to install it. Good job!
Really clever idea. And when it gets hectic it almost sounds like you're in a one of those silent movies with the plinky pianos. Good job!
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Some people -- myself included -- don't want to play entries we have to install. Can you create a non-installing executable?