It’s been a few weeks since the GoGodot Jam 2 ended.

As always, I received great feedback during the voting period (and many enthusiastic players), which motivated me to develop the game into a full (and better) release.

What has changed and why? Let me explain!

Introductions & Tutorials

The jam version simply opened on the first world, where you had to choose the first level yourself. This was overwhelming. Now, it only shows that first level, which means it’s really clear what you need to do.

Some people didn’t get the fact that you move as far as you can, not one square each turn. One of the judges called the game “inconsistent/buggy” because of it, but it wasn’t, he simply missed that rule at the start. This means it needs to be communicated more clearly to each player, which was done with a tutorial right as you open the game.

(So the “first experience” is now: the game opens on a tiny 3x3 field, with one tutorial explaining your keys to move, and another to explain you move as far as you can. Then you can immediately play. I couldn’t get it smaller than that.)

Within a few levels, the game taught the concept of “inverting”. If you wind up something counter clockwise, its “energy” goes -1 instead of +1. This is one of the core concepts that makes the game fun and challenging (especially in the long run), yet many were confused and felt it didn’t get enough explanation.

This was fixed by simply adding more time (more levels before something new is introduced) and an extra tutorial that explains a different way to look at it, for people who don’t think the first explanation was enough.

But we can do better! The first few levels were filled with tutorials left and right. This actually hurt the experience, as it was (again) overwhelming and stopped players from figuring out some things themselves. (Which is always better, because it means players understand and memorize it better.)

As such, the first world was split into three worlds. The core objective of the game is never explicitly explained (“remove all bunnies”), but inferred from the first levels. Instead of teaching “push bunnies into holes” right from the start, it was simplified. The first levels have the “bomb bunny” which simply destroys itself when activated :) One fewer thing to explain at the start.

It’s a balancing act. I want to explain everything to players, but it just hurts the experience, so I need to be smart about it.

Worlds & Levels!

The number of worlds was extended from 9 to 15. Most of those ideas were already built-in (sort-of), but I couldn’t get them fully working and polished before the jam deadline. Other ideas were scrapped when I realized people would find them too confusing or complex, and replaced with simpler and better ideas.

UI

One of the major complaints was the font used. Some people have no trouble reading it, others can’t read it at all.

I tried other fonts, but they just made the game look ugly and inconsistent. This font was perfect in terms of theme.

The real issue, in my view, is the size of the font and the fact that it’s just placed on a flat background. My laptop screen is 8 years old and has a terrible resolution, which means even the most legible of fonts becomes pixelated and unreadable at the size used for most games. And I don’t want to fill 80% of the screen with UI :p

As such, I instead made all text bigger and added outlines + shadows (wherever possible). It’s not perfect, but it already helps a lot.

Fixes

There were some bugs and crashes that, for some reason (fortunately) hadn’t occurred in the jam version, even though they could have!

I fixed that, and some more minor issues, made some things faster or more animated. And fixed even more bugs. (It’s not that interesting to list here.)

Publishing

The Android export was very buggy in the Jam version. Well, that was fixed! (Some stupid mistakes and oversights on my end. My first time creating a 3D game for Android.) In the process, I added support for ads, so I could publish the game on the Play Store and, you know, maybe earn 2 cents from it.

I also removed the web build. It’s just an inferior way to play, and with a tiny puzzle game like this, it’s not even faster or more convenient than just downloading it and running locally. I realize how useful they are and how it’s better to have a web build (especially for game jams). But I can’t even test the web build myself because my laptop is too old and my screen too small, which doesn’t increase my confidence in this format.

I tried to make the filesize smaller and the game faster. But really, there wasn’t much to do here, it was already quite optimized.

The biggest problem is just project structure. Developing something for a jam, you’re bound to be messy and loose, not having any sort of solid plan all the way through. This makes it hard and, frankly, not worth my time to work on the project for much longer after the jam.

I’d love to add more unique 3D models for each bunny/wizard, or some environment around the puzzles, or even fancier particles and animations. But I just don’t have the 3D experience to do so at the time, and the code is a mess that’s hard to extend at this point. I’d rather use that time to make a brand new puzzle game for you guys :)

That’s why I decided to cut off development here and publish it as a free game! And here we are.

Conclusion

Have fun with this game! It has 15 worlds with roughly 6-7 levels per world.

Players were very positive about the visuals, the audio, the general atmosphere and theme, and most importantly the unique puzzle mechanics and solid difficulty curve. Their main gripes (with the complexity of the introduction, some things not being clear) were fixed with this update, hopefully.

Hopefully this game can entertain you, and tickle your brain, for at least a few hours :)

Until the next time, Pandaqi