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What did the blind woman say to the arrangement?

cascode

play online now (html/flash)
download source code (as3/flixel)

24 Comments

  1. PHIL wrote:

    This ends rather suddenly.

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 3:47 am | Permalink
  2. Rocky wrote:

    I don’t get it.

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 3:48 am | Permalink
  3. newobj wrote:

    Interesting concept, I liked it. I wonder how it could be turned into something challenging or competitive; if you work slow enough of course you will eventually win, unlike say Tetris, Shibuya, etc.

    I’m really curious what your creative process is. I never have any ideas for games :) How you come up with so many original designs is beyond me!

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 7:44 am | Permalink
  4. Gregory Weir wrote:

    I always like figuring out the rules for things like this experimentally. This game felt especially cerebral for a match-X sort of thing. I like the build-up-a-combo-to-win mechanic, although it’s really quite cruel.

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 2:21 pm | Permalink
  5. Why cruel?

    [ Oh, there was a bug in the first version I uploaded that would mean that the bar would fill occasionally but nothing would happen. That should be fixed now.]

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 4:04 pm | Permalink
  6. newobj wrote:

    I don’t have one. I’ve always been the stereotypical left-brained developer. Been coding for 20 years, 13 professionally, 6 of which were in the game industry (Monolith, S2Games, THQ/Rainbow), shipped several titles (mostly AI/networking). But through all that, never learned or taught myself how to conceive and execute a game. Nor how to make anything fun, or how to plan/design fun. As strange as it may sound. Surprising how often we were more concerned with making things “cool” rather than “fun”. Maybe it’s because I worked on a lot of shooters, where “mechanics” basically means “weapon choice”. So I end up building a lot of systems, and later on try to graft whatever game concept seems to be the path of least resistance. I think I need to start at the most elementary exercise of creating the smallest thing possible that’s fun and building up from there. I don’t know. How would you recommend trying to tackle this problem?

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
  7. newobj wrote:

    My above post was to the deleted question “What is your creative process?”

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 5:56 pm | Permalink
  8. heheh, sorry about deleting it – I thought it might be better to send you a private message instead.

    “I think I need to start at the most elementary exercise of creating the smallest thing possible that’s fun and building up from there.”
    Have you tried doing that yet?

    “How would you recommend trying to tackle this problem?”
    From what I can tell, you’re not working on anything right now. I would recommend that you tackle the problem by trying to work on something.

    For one particular instance, it might help you to get back involved with tigsource compos, or giving more Ludum Dares (or mini ludum dares) a try/hope along to some jams if there are any in your area/&c..

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 8:14 pm | Permalink
  9. newobj wrote:

    Hey, I’ll shoot you an email. I don’t think you’re following me on Twitter so I can’t reply to your DM.

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 8:49 pm | Permalink
  10. Oh that’s weird. Ok. : )

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 9:21 pm | Permalink
  11. Gregory Weir wrote:

    “Cruel” because a single mistake brings you back to zero… not that the required chain length is too long. It didn’t take me too long to finish it.

    Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 5:03 am | Permalink
  12. Jonny D wrote:

    I like it.

    Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 3:08 pm | Permalink
  13. Bennett wrote:

    I liked it, and I think Anna’s critique is interesting. But it didn’t challenge me at all, the rules instantly crystallized when I started and I finished right away. I think maybe it helped that I have never played a match-3 game, so I came in with no preconceptions.

    Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
  14. Jasper Byrne wrote:

    Very enjoyable – took me a minute to see the pattern, then it was fairly quick work. I’m just throwing this out there, but: this is the kind if game that could earn you money, if that was ever something you’d be interested in. I’m sure your opinions haven’t changed on the matter though :D

    Friday, September 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm | Permalink
  15. gsoto wrote:

    goodness

    arcadeify -> make iphone app -> profit

    Monday, September 20, 2010 at 4:17 am | Permalink
  16. Radiatoryang wrote:

    Yeah, not sure I entirely agree with Anna’s analysis… you see your cursor is a 2×2 grid. Nothing’s trying to trick you into think it’s match3.

    And just this once… you could easily arcade-ify this and put it on some Flash portal (or iPhone app it) and make some living money.

    Don’t think of it as selling out… instead, read this lovely rationalization — http://students.ou.edu/M/Eric.C.Mai-1/DE.htm

    Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 7:17 am | Permalink
  17. D.E. I don’t find directly relevant – mainly because I don’t identify with the psychological model he complains about.

    My main literary sources of reconsideration when it comes to these matter are

    http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91r/

    and

    http://picturesforsadchildren.com/blog/looklikeaman.png

    Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 11:48 am | Permalink
  18. Nonda wrote:

    cascode is distinctly different from all your other games.

    i do prefer your other games because they generally dont fall into generic game genres or categories.

    this one was distinctly addictive. like bejewelled addictive. i think when you crack the combo of music, colours and block matching format its like cocaine. i do however regularly check your website in order to sober up from generic formulas. at the same time i did really like the game for what it was. nice pastel colour scheme. love the music.

    however..

    were you trying to make it that addictive?
    were you aware of the path that you were taking when you made this?

    Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 4:07 pm | Permalink
  19. >were you trying to make it that addictive?
    No.

    Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 6:22 pm | Permalink
  20. Radiatoryang wrote:

    I hate it when people invoke Woolf because then I have to agree with whatever they’re saying :P

    Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 4:14 pm | Permalink
  21. We all have our failings. I’ll be sure not to ever speak of her again in your presence until you get over it.

    Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 5:14 pm | Permalink
  22. mcc wrote:

    I kind of can’t stop playing this. I keep going back and replaying the one level. I wish there was more of it somehow, more levels or something. :O

    Monday, October 4, 2010 at 7:38 am | Permalink
  23. Dragons wrote:

    I love this. People would buy this.

    Monday, November 29, 2010 at 11:39 pm | Permalink
  24. jaegernut wrote:

    Is it against your principles to make this an actual arcade game? It totally doesn’t have to end…

    Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 12:20 am | Permalink

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