Aliens are hungry for Ufo Tofu! Make symbol palindromes on a Bejeweld-like board. Snake your cursor around the field to find mirrored patterns. Be careful, though, as the aliens will eat the first palindrome you show them, even if it's shorter than intended.
Controls:
arrows - move cursor
z - warp to centre
Made for the Sydney NSI Game Jam 10, when I only had access to an Ubuntu machine, so I decided to learn Pico-8 for the first time. This is the result! :)
(Edit: Hurried update correcting X vs O.)
This is good fun! My longest pattern so far is 14 and my highest short game score is 134. Gonna keep playing and see if I can better it.
Fun concept, if somewhat brain-melting after a longer while. Might benefit from a bit more variety, like "special bonus" tiles that would multiply the score when included in a palindrome, or similar.
With a little bit more polish, could be a mighty fine mobile game :).
Gosh, thanks. :)
I agree with you, krajzeg. Most people I've tested it on suggest I make it a mobile game. I might just do that. :P
This one has really grown on me, at first I thought it looked a bit boring and only gave it a quick go, but later I decided to give it a little more time and started to get the hang of it. Now I have played through "Short Game" about 5 times and am having a great time!
A very clever idea - perhaps a beginner mode where you need to press a key before finishing a palindrome could be added?
Once you get a hold on the game rules It's super addictive!
Great puzzle game ;)
Yeah, jayminer, a lot of people ask for that. I like the extra-roomy skill ceiling the mechanic adds, but some kind of beginner mode might be nice to ease the difficulty curve.
maybe you could have palindromes blink for 2-3 secs before validating. this way everybody plays the same game, and when you get more 'clever' your score gets better.
I'd like to avoid time-based effects in a turn-based game. Perhaps I should just highlight when a palindrome is found, prevent extending the path beyond that but allow backtracking, then wait for confirmation? That takes away the "Oh damn, I didn't mean to do that", but that's both a good and bad thing.
Alternately, I can just do it the way it is, which I personally enjoy playing. Once you know the rules, you know it's your own fault when it happens, not the game's.
It's a tricky problem with no easy solution.
I definitely think the "easier" version should be it's own mode, perhaps even shorter than short game (10 turns or so) - so people can use that to "train" for the proper modes.
I don't think it needs an easy mode. It's a good PICO-8 sized game as it is, and I immensely enjoyed playing it. Finding palindromes is inherently satisfying, and making that into a puzzle game was a great idea.
I too have some puzzle games that 'could' be made into mobile games, but I still haven't got around to it.
Really a very clever and ORIGINAL puzzle ! Makes you use your brain, and those kind of games are always good. :)
Late to the party but wanted to echo what dw817 said -- great original puzzle. It's rare to see something that isn't yet another match 3. I'm enjoying it so thanks!
This is a really cool puzzle concept. It can be a mind bender.
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