Flowjam Summer 2020 Submission: TIME BOMB
Theme: It’s About Time.
Built in 2 weeks.
Art, Music and Design by @todorrobot
Inspired by Intellivision’s Bomb Squad and more recent games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. TIME BOMB is a point-and-click bomb defusing game with a time limit. Can you save the building? Don’t miss the tutorial 
Here’s the link to the game. Give it a shot, Rookie!
https://flowlab.io/game/play/1454744
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And in case you’re the type that needs a walkthru:
https://www.loom.com/share/ba23dc1e14b34faaaaedff441632caf3
Too hard lol
An amazing game, just seems like a game for BOTW 5-minute speedrunners or Dark Souls no hit runners
Not me
Lol
@lopinjop i am going to go back into Time Bomb after all while its still fresh in my memory. Is there anything you would recommend having played and beaten it? Ive already added some sound effects that I ran out of time for and fixed the snippet animation. On my list of to do is
-Add battery and keys components (occasionally replaces key button and power dial)
-Clean up the guide (I literally wrote and designed it in a half hour right before deadline)
-Add background noise sfx and flashing lights distractors.
Was there anything that felt really confusing or didnt feel intuitive or that seemed like a cheap shot or a leap in logic?
Id love to get your input. (And the input from anyone else who has played)
Thanks!!!
@todorrobot Sure thing! These sound like cool updates and changes and I’d be happy to play again when they’re implemented.
The first thing that comes to mind that might provide a smoother experience is making unscrewing the panels a faster process. I think as it stands it takes about 40 seconds to unscrew both panels if you’re quick, and that eats up a good chunk of time, especially if it’s a first playthrough and you’re trying to figure out the instructions. The length of time it takes to unscrew the panels definitely increased the tension, but I think it could possibly be shortened while keeping a degree of tension.
I think the only thing that wasn’t intuitive was having to turn the power dial off and back on again, though the instruction guide does make it clear you might need to do that. I think if it were down to the wire and I’d gotten everything right, but didn’t turn the power dial off and on again, it would feel a bit cheap.
Other than that I think the guide was clear and the gameplay was responsive! It took me a moment to figure out not to hold down left click for soldering, but I think that was on me.
One thing that might be confusing but I don’t think is an issue necessarily are that there are a bunch of symbols representing the key button (-, =, +, #, !, or ?) but regardless of the symbol the action for that part of the puzzle is the same, unless I happened to miss something. Maybe a different symbol could add another layer of complexity?
As it stands though I enjoyed the challenge of my first play through! There’s a delicate balance with this kind of gameplay and I think you got it right.
@lopinjop Thanks for the feedback! Those two major issues you mentioned were a result of the deadline. The key button “symbol” was intended to be either the 1, 3 or 4th task and then you would press the button that many times (it will not be occasionally replaced with the KEY puzzle which will be slightly more involved). The power button thing was because I miscalculated somehow and there were only 5 tasks to complete when I got to the end and I had to add something in to make my graphics work. I’ll likely iron both of those out during the revision process. Pro tip: As it stands now, you can actually ignore ALL the components and just turn the power dial on and off 6 times and win. OOOOPS!
I took your suggestion and shortened the “length” of the screws some more. Now they take about 2 seconds and 2.5 seconds for the wire screws. Was thinking about adding flat head screwdriver for alternate screws, or order specific screws, or possibly order specific panels. I ran out of time to implement it, but now it doesn’t really seem necessary to add complexity to the screw removal system. I am planning to have some screws appear from easter egg triggers that you can dig deeper into the bomb to save your ass if you mess something up.
And at leas the Flowlab Times has enough integrity to post a correction on the Front Page:
