Color is Everything

Neat game. I included it in my GM48: Colors are Important compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/QrF-3ZnvIJU

Thanks for submitting a game!

Going to stream of consciousness as I play this:

• I like the acoustic guitar music. Nothing fancy, sounds good. For the jam format it was good enough to sound pleasant and not be distracting.
• I feel like the main menu is off center and its making me uncomfortable.
• The art style is very simple, feels a bit placeholder.
• No sound in the game, indication that things are happening. Could do with a simple noise or something when you beat a level or press the button etc.
• I like the block pushing puzzle mechanic.
• I like the switching back and forth with a button mechanic, but feel like in many of the levels you have WAY too long. Maybe this gets harder later.
• Some of the levels you hit a button and then walk through the portal, ther wasnt any challenge on some of these, or maybe I lucked into doing things the right way or something not sure.
• I feel like you have more of a conceptual tie to the theme than a gameplay tie, for what its worth.

Nice job!

I want to start by saying the choices you made in your puzzle design was super clever. Give yourself more credit! I think the reason Kwisarts found the game as intuitive as they did isn't because it's easy, it's because you did a great job of teaching-by-playing. The order is smart and you definitely don't need the how-to text (and again I really don't think it's just because it's "easy"). You already do everything Bird mentions on the topic, so great job there!

You also did imbue it with a sense of play. To counter Bird, I did feel that the first level the button was after a shift in the ground tiles was a fun choice. I'm suddenly super fast, don't know why, hit the button, and learn "Oh. That's a new kind of tile. Awesome." I liked learning that way because it felt fair. I was also then prepped for the next level when you added a gap there. It made sense to me and I appreciated that design progression. That was smart stuff (I'm also going on a limb that the slightly different gray was intentional. I can't imagine you missed that for a second).

I would have loved more interaction with the world, or feedback for me as the player. I liked the feedback of being slow pushing a block. That helped ground me. I just wonder what other feedback would have helped. Maybe more sounds? A more dynamic timer? A more involved puzzle just for a fun challenge at the end? I wanted to be tested. Again though, that's because your design efficiently taught me how to play your game.

So great job. This has a lot of potential as a playground for practicing great level design techniques and I hope you follow through with it. I hope next jam you also stand by your work more confidently (no more text how-to's) because you clearly demonstrate you can teach a player without it. Awesome stuff!

This game has a pretty interesting mechanic, but I think the execution was weak. Although the premise of the game (story wise) is about color, the actual ties to the theme gameplay wise are few and far between!

After playing the game, I actually did not find the "How to play" section to be as crucial as it was mentioned. I think the gist of what the game was trying to convey could have easily been picked up through a simple "tutorial" style level, or one that was designed to show the player that you can interact with things through the colored vision while in the grayscale state. There were a few levels that tried to do this by putting obstacles before the button itself, such as the one where you fall through, but I actually think that the button being laid before the obstacle would have been more beneficial, and feel more fair and less confusing!

Along with this, I also felt the gameplay ties to the theme were pretty weak. I could play this game in grayscale, and I don't think it would affect the game at all! I understand that the premise of the game is that color is everything, but you could easily change that to entering an alternate dimension, and the game would still make sense. I would have liked to see something that aligned with the theme more, gameplay wise, rather than an explanation as to why it should make sense!

Overall, I can still appreciate the attempt that was made here. If used well, the mechanic shown has the potential to make something a lot more fun and interesting.

This was a gentle, relaxing experience that doesn't ask too much of the player, while still being interesting and engaging. A lot of elements appear without explanation, but their function becomes so immediately obvious that it "just works", very intuitive, very nice!

When I first saw your title my immediate, joking wish was that the game had been called 'No, Colors are Everything" as a sort of cheeky rebuke of the theme :)

The music fit in well... really liked the relaxing guitar plucking. Game sounds would have been nice, but I didn't miss them too much.

The menu seemed a bit off center, but now I'm nit picking! :D

On the whole, just a short, relaxing experience that I enjoyed!

• I know you said reading the instruction is important, but reading is... hmm not ideal. To properly get a game mechanic, it's often best to be shown (images, videos, in game demonstration) or to visualize it ourselves. ("show, don't tell") Basically, keep it as simple as possible. A few tips:
• as few words as possible. Avoid things like "but this effect is temporary, and quickly wears off" as it's... not very ecomonical in terms of words.
• You could improve big chunk of texts by splitting them into smaller text. A big wall of text tends to discourage the viewer to read, while small chunks will feel easier to read and it allows more space.

...and now that I finished the game, I can tell you the gameplay was really intuitive enough! I wasn't invested in reading the instructions, so I tried anyway and it was easy. Please don't scare me off with a "crucial" xD

• the music loop is a bit short (/repetitive)

• We should be able to reset the timer at any time by clicking the button, so that we can reset it to optimize the time, instead of needing to wait (edit: my bad, it was already mentioned)

• The puzzle are not bad, although as mentioned earlier, we can easily tell which tiles are what.

• good difficulty curve!

I started playing with the WASD keys and it was driving me insane. Using the arrow keys made it much easier :'D Solid entry. Good Job

I liked this. The variety of puzzles in this game was pretty cool, and the way mechanics are introduced was done very well. It was a little on the shorter end, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

This game is just like my life, its sad and happy when someone presses my button.

I had some minor issues with the UI not centering correctly but nothing that affected playability. The only thing I would change is to have the timer start when you leave the pad, so that time is allowed to see things and plan the route. Could also be a bit more challenging. Nice concept and good execution! Would be interested to see more puzzles in this format.

Great game, the idea behind it is great and the design is very simplistic and cool!

Nice work! Cute little player sprite too! :D

This is a great concept and you were able to show off some interesting puzzles using the mode switching mechanic. The biggest issue I noticed was that the tiles have different patterns, even in monochrome mode. This means that it becomes very easy to solve some of the challenges because you can tell what the ground is even in mono mode. Still, it's a cool idea with a lot of potential.

Very nice concept. Really original gameplay and nice features. Really liked the coding for jumping higher while sliding.

This is a pretty cool game. The concept is interesting and there are some nice puzzles in it. It felt a bit to short to me, but I had fun playing it.