A BIG recommendation from me, EXCEPT when you're colorblind, then not (hopefully this gets fixed). Overall, I was pretty impressed by that one, but please figure out the accessiblity thing. Apart from that, the game still can use a bit of polishing and especially content, but hey, it's a game jam! :D
Gameplay
This is where the game shines. You have to figure out everything on your own, but the game is never unfair to you. Every concept is introduced one after another. It seems a lot of time was put into level design, even with a lot of attention for detail, which I appreciate a lot. The core feature of the game, the pushing and pulling of klots, works perfectly. The movement of the klots is completely smooth, both visually and physically; even a player collision was considered to prevent awkward overlaps. That alone is quite an achievement, WOW!
There aren't a lot of levels, and the game sadly ended before it really began, but this is a fake complaint, as it is WAY outweighed by quality. Thinking of good levels for such a game isn't easy, I guess.
The biggest UX issue is the reliance on color, so colorblind people are screwed, I guess. Just a reminder, ca. 10% of men are colorblind!
The controls are very easy to understand, but my 2nd-biggest criticism is the movement. The movement controls are fine, but the movement itself feels a bit ... laggy? So the movement just doesn't feel right, which was pretty irritating. I guess doing zero-G movement in Minetest right is hard.
Theme / Story
The game has no text (except in the end) but still manages to tell a mini-story. I even found a little secret, a block of bones in a sliding door. :D The space theme works very well for this game, it fits perfectly with the puzzles.
Graphics
The graphics are (mostly) copied from MTG and Sci-Fi nodes. My initial thought when I started was "Oh no, not another MTG ripoff!" because of the MTG textures. But the space station was well-designed. I've never seen Sci-Fi nodes being actively used anywhere, so that was a pleasant surprised (even if the textures are not new work). My biggest criticism of the textures is resolution. The klots have hi-res textures, while everything else is 16×16. This is an obvious inconsistency for no real good reason. The game makes a good use of the particle use, both for broken glass in space and the wormhole.
The game is stable. It greeted me with various console warnings. Movement felt a bit jerky, but this was not game-breaking at all. I didn't find any real bugs. I had no performance issues.
Sounds / Ambience
The node sounds are OK. The klots sounds fit perfectly, the sounds of other blocks are a bit ... wrong? When you bump into metal, you hear a glass sound. The ambience is still great. Very calm and fitting, good "thinking music". Good attention for detail: The "boom" when you get sucked into the wormhole, or the special ambience sound when you did something right in the puzzle. Overall clever use of ambience. It's very good ambience. This game has IMHO the second-best ambience of the game jam. (The best ambience IMHO is SSP (Secrets of the Space Parable)).
It already made my issue list early on. It's just a bit hard figuring out some unique patterns that can be used to tell them apart that would be distinguishable, but not suggest that each type of klot has a particular "personality" or something.
Klot textures having a different resolution than the rest of the stuff...
Besides the fact that I more or less can't do pixel art, I also sort of wanted Klots to have an uncanny feel, like they aren't really a proper part of the environment.
Glassy sounds bumping into metal...
Sci-Fi Nodes' decision, not mine, and I didn't really want to get too into the weeds to second guess that mod's decisions all individually.
A lot of this game is also an experiment in working with mods originally intended for survival/creative gameplay, and "freezing" them into inert scenery for puzzle gameplay environments. Definition Ripper was a consequence of work I did for this Jam.
Overall rating
A BIG recommendation from me, EXCEPT when you're colorblind, then not (hopefully this gets fixed). Overall, I was pretty impressed by that one, but please figure out the accessiblity thing. Apart from that, the game still can use a bit of polishing and especially content, but hey, it's a game jam! :D
Gameplay
This is where the game shines. You have to figure out everything on your own, but the game is never unfair to you. Every concept is introduced one after another. It seems a lot of time was put into level design, even with a lot of attention for detail, which I appreciate a lot. The core feature of the game, the pushing and pulling of klots, works perfectly. The movement of the klots is completely smooth, both visually and physically; even a player collision was considered to prevent awkward overlaps. That alone is quite an achievement, WOW! There aren't a lot of levels, and the game sadly ended before it really began, but this is a fake complaint, as it is WAY outweighed by quality. Thinking of good levels for such a game isn't easy, I guess.
(text will continue in the comments)
Controls / UI / UX
The biggest UX issue is the reliance on color, so colorblind people are screwed, I guess. Just a reminder, ca. 10% of men are colorblind! The controls are very easy to understand, but my 2nd-biggest criticism is the movement. The movement controls are fine, but the movement itself feels a bit ... laggy? So the movement just doesn't feel right, which was pretty irritating. I guess doing zero-G movement in Minetest right is hard.
Theme / Story
The game has no text (except in the end) but still manages to tell a mini-story. I even found a little secret, a block of bones in a sliding door. :D The space theme works very well for this game, it fits perfectly with the puzzles.
Graphics
The graphics are (mostly) copied from MTG and Sci-Fi nodes. My initial thought when I started was "Oh no, not another MTG ripoff!" because of the MTG textures. But the space station was well-designed. I've never seen Sci-Fi nodes being actively used anywhere, so that was a pleasant surprised (even if the textures are not new work). My biggest criticism of the textures is resolution. The klots have hi-res textures, while everything else is 16×16. This is an obvious inconsistency for no real good reason. The game makes a good use of the particle use, both for broken glass in space and the wormhole.
(text continues in next comment)
Stability / Performance
The game is stable. It greeted me with various console warnings. Movement felt a bit jerky, but this was not game-breaking at all. I didn't find any real bugs. I had no performance issues.
Sounds / Ambience
The node sounds are OK. The klots sounds fit perfectly, the sounds of other blocks are a bit ... wrong? When you bump into metal, you hear a glass sound. The ambience is still great. Very calm and fitting, good "thinking music". Good attention for detail: The "boom" when you get sucked into the wormhole, or the special ambience sound when you did something right in the puzzle. Overall clever use of ambience. It's very good ambience. This game has IMHO the second-best ambience of the game jam. (The best ambience IMHO is SSP (Secrets of the Space Parable)).
It already made my issue list early on. It's just a bit hard figuring out some unique patterns that can be used to tell them apart that would be distinguishable, but not suggest that each type of klot has a particular "personality" or something.
Besides the fact that I more or less can't do pixel art, I also sort of wanted Klots to have an uncanny feel, like they aren't really a proper part of the environment.
Sci-Fi Nodes' decision, not mine, and I didn't really want to get too into the weeds to second guess that mod's decisions all individually.
A lot of this game is also an experiment in working with mods originally intended for survival/creative gameplay, and "freezing" them into inert scenery for puzzle gameplay environments. Definition Ripper was a consequence of work I did for this Jam.