Bleh. This is, I think, the most dissatisfied I’ve been with a game. I’ve been struggling with a severe case of designer’s block for most of the week (and, I must admit, let myself get distracted by Minecraft), and only really had some idea of what I’d be doing with the game this morning. While there are some interesting facets of the game from a technical standpoint, it really just isn’t much fun as it stands, and I don’t have any ideas how to fundamentally improve it from here. (Needless to say, I didn’t bother applying any audio or graphical fanciness to it – an idiom about things that can’t be polished comes to mind.) Feel free to give it a shot anyway.
To all my loyal fans: Thanks for sticking around, even when I screw up sometimes.
This game’s title was provided by Nathan Wilson.
Game 33: Flower, Ewe, Werewolf,
Hey Nathan,
Something’s messed up with your link. It takes me to an error page. Mind fixing it?
Don’t worry if your weekly game sucks; even if you’re failing, you’re still producing.
Peace on Earth,
-John
Fixed the link.
According to me, you didn’t screw anything.
Flowers, ewe, werewolf is fun in a kind of way. It doesn’t looks like a videogame, but like theses games you can find in newspapers, little enigmas but without the needs of pen and paper.
I’m only level 5, but i have great fun playing it for now. It is pure reflexion, without graphics ou sounds to distract you, And it’s quite noble in a way.
Reminds me of “jeux interessants” and “nouveaux jeux interessants” (“interesting games” and “new interesting games”) of Georges Perec, my idol (writer and gamer). So it can’t be a bad thing.
Thank you again and sorry for my english.
although, i find it more interesting on 3×3 than on 4×4.
i should turn my tongue seven times in my mouth before talking : this game is awesome whatever the grid. Here’s my review : http://oujevipo.fr/10-minutes/flower-ewe-werwolf
Sorry for the spam.
Wow, I actually loved it. I was skeptical at first, preferring my puzzle games to accompany my morning coffee and pre-school brain warm-up. However I distinctly enjoy the gameplay. Unfortunately, I did find myself a bit bored by level 11 and left, but I blame that on my short attention span today and not as an indicator of game quality. I shall play again tomorrow (perhaps at breakfast as well) and see how high I can go.
I actually enjoyed this quite a bit! Although I could only make it to level seven, I really liked the puzzling. I would totally play this as a newspaper puzzle game.
Hey Nathan,
I wasn’t as fond of this week’s game. I felt like I was running into technical problems when my werewolves were unhappy even when they were beside more delicious ewe than flowers. It might have been a little tricky to discern which one was which. Some simple letter names, F, E, and W, would have been nice.
In other news, how expensive is Minecraft? And in terms of fun, is it a barrel of monkeys?
John, you might have gotten confused: Werewolves are happy when they’re near more delicious ewes than other territorial werewolves.
And minecraft is several barrels of monkeys, at 10 euros (about $13). The game’s still nowhere near done though, so the catch is that there’s no guarantee that if you love it now you’ll love it when it’s finished.
I actually adored this game. It has eaten up my afternoon – I got to level 30 before I decided to give it a rest, and I’ll definitely be playing it again in the future. I didn’t really care very much about the points (although the decreasing bonus was a clever way to introduce a sense of urgency without having a timer), it was the sense of accomplishment I got after completing a level and getting on to the next one that was the reward.
I really don’t get why you were so hard on yourself about this game, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Wow, okay, this has gotten a considerably better reception than I expected. I’m glad that several of you find it fun, even if I don’t. I once again must remember the designer’s mantra – “you are not the user” – and keep in mind that I’m not just making these for myself.
Also, Minecraft is a warehouse of monkeys.
Lol. Perhaps I should invest then =)
Nathan, my reception would be higher if I had more time and patience to play it right now. School being the way it is makes it tough. I’m glad everyone else is enjoying it.
-John
I had much fun figuring this system out. Did you design every level yourself? or is it a random number of each, and you made a formula that would never allow for an unsolvable board? I’m at level 19 with a score of 16888, and I think I’ll stop here for now. the 5×5 is starting to get to the limits of my brainpower. It gets easier at the beginning of a new grid, but then the grid gets progressively harder, until you finally “level up” to the next sized grid. at which point it’s easy for a couple levels again.
I think there should be a level selection process that allows one to choose what sized grid they want to work with. The early levels are too easy for me, and I might want to jump right into a challenging one.
As someone above said, it’s more like a sudoku puzzle, You don’t really want to rush to complete it, you want to take your time and figure out what needs to go where.
Boards are pseudorandom but persistent – a given level is the same every time you play it (so you’ll probably want to skip the levels you’ve played already). All levels are generated to be solvable. You can skip a level by hitting =.
It’s actually pretty fun and original even if it’s just some simple rules and a randomized win condition. Fancy sound and graphical effects would have made it even better.
Nathan, I’ve stuck with your site a while and enjoy your games. What you have here is actually a quite good game concept. It is just the presentation that seems to sap the fun. It is a very good puzzle concept and I think has potential.