Grasp (indie game)

[selmitto]

Grasp is officially being released on March 14th!

Learn more and get ready at anselmo.gd/grasp

 
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(Original post below:)
 
As some of you might've noticed, I've been developing a game during the last months and lots of progress have been made. I recently created a page on IndieDB to concentrate the development progress and get some attention (hence that nifty button on my signature!)
 

Grasp is a game where your visual perception is challenged. Start a journey through vast lands in search for The Lost Shapes. Find the shapes by combining elements of the environment in interesting and smart ways! Your perception may change. Not always what you see is what you had seen before.

 

Play the game: www.anselmo.gd/grasp

 

It's a 2D puzzle game being developed in the Unity game engine.
 
I'm responsible for everything in the game, but my main concerns are with the game and level design.
 
If you have any feedback, as always, they are more than welcome and encouraged! Feel free to post on this thread or on the IndieDB page itself.
 
There's a level fully implemented and I'm moving on to the next ones. I might ask for some playtesters soon.
 
(I wan't sure of where I should post, so if there's a better section for this thread, feel free to move it. thx)

Edited March 9, 2014 by Al Anselmo~Intelect0

[selmitto]

http://www.indiedb.com/games/grasp/news/a-slight-iteration-of-the-art-direction-colours

While participating in the biggest local game jam last weekend (SPJAM) with many amazing and awesome people, I took the opportunity to do a few playtest sessions of the first level implemented with the game developers around.

 

For you to have an idea of how important are the outlines of the environment and how much they can influence (for good or bad) your perception during puzzle solving, here's a small iteration I did after quietly observing (one of the hardest and most important things to do, seriously) the playtesters:

 

 

The details highlighted by the red circles were inducing the playtesters to think they were placing an object on the correct position, when in the end, that was incorrect. Yeah, smooth! Perception is key (but balanced details and great puzzle design are obviously necessary, so that's why I'm fixing that lol). I might have also made some silhouette darker. Can you see it...?

 

After the playtests and feedback collected, I took another look into the colours to try and achieve a more pleasant and interesting atmosphere:

 

 

I made the game a lot more vibrant! I aim to achieve a more fun and interesting look.

 

What do you think? What version do you like the most? ...and why? Is it excessively vibrant? Is it deliciously vibrant? Is the cake a lie?

 

(New levels are currently in development, by the way)

 

Thank you!

Anselmo

Edited September 3, 2013 by Al Anselmo~Intelect0

[Taylor]

Looks pretty neat. How do you play Grasp? Is it similar to those iOS games where you're hunting for an object in the image?

[selmitto]

Looks pretty neat. How do you play Grasp? Is it similar to those iOS games where you're hunting for an object in the image?

 

Hmm I'm not sure, but I guess not.

I don't know iOS games like that. What game comes to your mind with that example?

[Sentura]

Is it antichamber? Because if it is I'll probably buy it. I don't think subtle color gradations are more important than getting across your puzzles more intuitively. #my2cents #ggwp #yolo

[selmitto]

Is it antichamber? Because if it is I'll probably buy it. I don't think subtle color gradations are more important than getting across your puzzles more intuitively. #my2cents #ggwp #yolo

No, it's prochamber!

lol

 

subtle color gradations? what do you mean? the black strokes I removed on that iteration? 

[Sjonsson]

I don't know really how you play the game yet, nor do I know much else. But I added it to my tracker on IndieDB, I'll be watching you! *squints*

[Puddy]

How do you play it?

[Corwin]

My advice: spend less time showing and more time doing! This looks like very early stages still (or am I confused and you actually have it all playable and stuff?) and you should be using the time to develop and iterate, not to update a webpage with WIP comparison shots. Tweaking colors can come later, when it's all working. Don't run before you walk, at least that's what I'd tell you if you asked

[selmitto]

Thanks guys for the feedback

 

How do you play it?

• You move you character with the left and right directional arrows (optionally with A and D) and grab objects by holding the space bar.
• You can release objects to re-position them on the same plane you are on, or move them to other planes that will be introduced on harder levels.
• You can also swap planes, so swapping the first and second planes will create some perspective, making everything that's on the nearest plane be bigger and translated to the sides accordingly. Some puzzle solutions will only exist if the player combine an object of the nearest plane with another object of the farthest one. So, swapping planes is very important because they change the size and position of those elements on the level.
• To juice things up, there's a limit of how many swaps you can do on each level before losing the game.

 

My advice: spend less time showing and more time doing! This looks like very early stages still (or am I confused and you actually have it all playable and stuff?) and you should be using the time to develop and iterate, not to update a webpage with WIP comparison shots. Tweaking colors can come later, when it's all working. Don't run before you walk, at least that's what I'd tell you if you asked

So, the game is playable. Not completely, at this point only the first levels are implemented as I'm developing more stuff daily. But, the game works

 

 

 

 

-> Here's a question:

How could one showcase mechanics/ levels/ etc of a puzzle game, with finite puzzle solutions, without "giving the answers"?

 

As much as I'd like to record someone playing the first level, where anyone would be able to see the basic mechanics and understand the game, I don't think that'd be the best idea because who watched the video would know the solution of that puzzle, removing the surprise when playing the game afterwards.

 

In other words: how could I show you guys how the game works/ how puzzles are solved in this game without spoiling everything?

[Puddy]

Well, to quote myself from Facebook:

 

Your game probably consists of many puzzles. Show people one of these puzzles.

[selmitto]

Well, to quote myself from Facebook:

 

Your game probably consists of many puzzles. Show people one of these puzzles.

Simple yet good idea. I'll get someone to play it and make a video, so it would portray a more honest and fresh reaction than if I played it myself ...

[selmitto]

http://www.indiedb.com/news/finite-state-machines-to-design-tutorials-and-intros

 

Finite State Machines to design tutorials and intros

 

Part of the Finite State Machine logic behind one of the tutorials. The FSM is being designed using a plugin called Playmaker.

 

It's proven to be really useful to set some states that occur many times throughout the game, like tutorials (at this point, only two in total, which won't feel like those tutorials who take you by the hand, but real levels instead) and the level introduction. During the latter, I remove the controls of the player for a short period of time while a NPC (The Lost Shape protector) shows up and presents the goal.

 

 

Describing briefly, in the scenario presented above, two pieces of the environment would fall down to display the controls the player can use to "swap planes", the key mechanic in this game.

 

To make sure that the player is at the desired position and can grasp (no pun intended) the new information, two items would be spawned in the level, triggering the next States in the machine when collected.

 

Thanks for reading,

Al Anselmo.

 

 

[Pampers]

item*

[selmitto]

I wanted to post this in the WIP IN WIP thread too, because that must attract most views in the forum. But, I guess the Hurg Police would considered that a spam. soooo.......

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WIP. You can see the planes. This level has two of them. Some levels will have three. They change everything! Can your mind grasp this insanity? CAN IT??! (lol)

 

 

Took this screenshot to join that #screenshotsaturday thing.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Al Anselmo~Intelect0