Hello all, this is my first cart post but I've been enjoying PICO-8 for a couple years now.
I've been wanting to get this defusal game idea out of my head for a while now and I finally did it. Every game is a totally unique randomly generated scenario (my favorite kind!)
However, I think the game mechanics need some polishing because, while luck must be a crucial element, the game seems to be mostly luck regardless of any hints or deduction. I say this because after 100 games my win ratio was a solid 50%.
On the left side you have the 6 types of wires: disarm, decoy, time penalty, clock speed-up, clock freeze, and detonate. You occasionally receive random hints as to what type of wires are in the current device, and when you cut a wire it reveals the type of wire you cut as well.
On the right side you have the simplified interface for cutting wires, as the wires in the device in the middle can be difficult to see.
This game is playable but definitely not complete. There are a lot of things I could do with it, such as:
- give the wires in the device meaning based on placement?
- create levels of difficulty that affect what wire-type hints you get.
- tune the algorithm to create more specific disarming scenarios.
- find that balance between luck and logic
Enjoy! All feedback is welcome!
- Enchiridion
47 games, 53% win rate
Really fun game! Simple hook and well executed.
It feels a bit luck-based, but I actually prefer that in this case. It's like playing a card game at the casino... sometimes I can make educated decisions based on the information given to me (like if I know how many detonate wires there are) but other times, I just have to try my luck and pick a wire before time runs out! It's a fun gamble and feels better to me than a pure-logic game would.
Bit of feedback: it wasn't clear to me at first that I needed to press Z to go to the next level after winning. Perhaps a prompt would do the player some good. Also the icons took some getting used to... perhaps just make a bulleted list in your description somewhere for easier reference. Or an in-game tutorial screen for people that find your game in SPLORE.
All in all, really nice work! Had a blast playing it. It gave me a similar rush to a casino game and each level was so short, it didn't feel bad if I lost one. Very strong "just one more" vibes :D
Awesome, I'm so happy you liked it! Great feedback, I'll add those in my next version 😃
This is very interesting. I definitely agree that there should be more things you should be able to base decisions off of, it kind of felt like I was shooting in the dark for the most part. At the same time, there were a few good moments where the numbers were laid out in just a way that I really had to think a moment about what I was to do, and rely on just that little bit of luck to carry me forward. It was tense, and, most importantly, fun.
@professir said that this "felt better to [them] than a pure-logic game would [have]". I agree with this statement - in part (and I don't mean to poke at them per se). I don't think this game should turn into a full on minesweeper-like logic game, where you can take your time thinking through your decisions at your own pace, thinking through every problem to the fullest, but, in my opinion, that is what the timer on the bomb is for.
There is a great game called 'Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes,' if you've heard of it. In that game, you have all the information necessary to solve the bomb like a minesweeper logic puzzle, but the problem is that you don't have enough time to think through every decision. Aside from that game being co-op and this one being single-player, I think you could apply that logic here. For example, you could make an interesting and relatively complex ruleset that every bomb follows to the rule, but then set the timer so that the player couldn't possibly think through the whole problem in time, creating those exciting - even cinematic - moments when the player just has to go out on a limb and make a decision, oftentimes a bad one, which they can laugh off as they set up the next bomb to work on.
I don't know if this was what you were originally intending, but that's my take on it. In any case, this demonstration looks really polished, and I am excited to see where it takes you. I will be subscribing to this thread.
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