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Hi! I'm Bart Bonte, a Belgian independent game designer and bontegames.com is where I blog about new interesting browser and mobile games. My own games are all in the left column (or at the bottom of this page on mobile). More info about me and my games on bartbonte.com.
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April 17, 2024

if only [browser]

Light candles, summon ghosts and help them forget and trascend in the puzzle game If only by Lucas Le Slo, another game created for the 'summoning' themed Ludum Dare 55 game jam.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only on level two and those are some CRAZY mechanics. Going to have to revisit this one when I have time to really spin my brain!

Anonymous said...

Be advised that it won't save your progress.

Anonymous said...

I realize its a jam... but please... save the progress. At least not that far into it. Level 2 and I'm stuck already.

Riiick said...

Saving isn't a big deal as it could be because you can press "j" to skip a level.

Doctor Dreidel said...

I don't nose how to play this.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Riiick! I overlooked that!!!!

Anonymous said...

This game is pathetic. More than half of the levels are literally impossible to play.

Frobisher said...

That's a bit unfair. They're all solvable and part of the fun is that there are more mechanics at play than you might think — enough for an entire standalone puzzle game probably.

If you're struggling, things to consider are:
- putting candles out
- melting candles together
- pushing candles with other candles
- pushing ghosts with candles before they become invisible
- pushing candles with ghosts before the become invisible

If this is let down by anything, it's just a lack of last-minute jam polish, but more than that, it's that the ideas deserve a bigger game with a more gradual introduction of mechanics. What's not in question, for me, is that Lucas Le Slo is an exceptional and original designer of puzzles and puzzle games.

Frobisher said...

Another useful strategy when the levels are this tightly designed is to ask yourself what a particular area of the level might be used for. If there's a bit of the level you're not using, you're probably not on track to solve it.

Anonymous said...

GOOD GAME ☆☆☆☆☆

It's a jam game, don't expect the polish of a finished product. Puzzle quality is very high.

Anonymous said...

Wow... good game! Yes it is difficult, but love the concept. more levels and introduction into the different mechanics and it will go from a good game to an awesome one

Anonymous said...

Any hints on the last level? I can't figure out how to cross over at lower right. I really want to cut one unit off the long candle, but that would need an entirely new mechanic. What else should I be looking at?

Frobisher said...

The trick with the last one is to focus on what you need to do to exit the level and work backwards from that point. So you've probably realised that you need to be able to push the ghost upwards, but you can only get past it to do so if it's invisible. So you need to able to activate the sigil from the right hand side of the level. That means you need to use the long candle to push another candle leftwards. Where can you that from? What does that tell you about the dimensions of the candle you need to leave on the lefthand side?

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Frobisher. Great hints, but it still took a long while after I finally figured out what I needed to do. And for all that, no real ending. Jam game, I know... Still pretty happy to make it all the way thru a Le Slo game.

Hespetr3 said...

Stil struggling on the last level!

Frobisher said...

It's a bit of a spoiler, but this is the final state you're aiming for:

https://i.imgur.com/dEzxmDt.png

The challenge here is how to manoeuvre the candles around each other so that they're lit when you need them to be. A helpful tactic is to figure out what tiles make the final position impossible — by which I mean, if a lit candle is on a certain title, can you still produce this final outcome.

Anonymous said...

funny, i got a slightly different final state as https://i.imgur.com/sVyrl0i.png

Gamerland said...

Walkthrough video for 'If Only'

 

If you are you looking for a solution or a walkthrough for one of the game links, please have a look in the comments.
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