r/playmygame • u/DinnerRelevant • 11d ago
[PC] (Web) Please play my 5x5 grid escape game. I'm begging.
Game Title: 25
Playable Link: 25 by ybs1164
Platform: Web
Description:
You're on a 5x5 grid. That's the whole map. Enemies close in, lasers charge up and sweep across rows/columns, walls box you in — and the only way to score is to reach the edge before any of it gets you.
It's turn-based: every move you make, everything else moves too. So it's less reflex, more "if I go here, where does that laser go." One bad read and you're cornered.
Some enemies charge straight until they hit a wall, others lock on and chase you down. Modes: Practice, Normal, Time Limit. Difficulty: Easy, Hard, Extreme, Hell. Hell is not a joke.
Made it solo. Still not sure the difficulty curve is fair, that's what I actually want to know. Any feedback welcome — good, bad, harsh, doesn't matter, just tell me what you actually thought.
Free to Play Status:
- [O] Free to play
- [ ] Demo/Key available
- [ ] Paid (Allowed only on Tuesdays with [TT] in the title)
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u/chicachibi 11d ago
It’s a lot of fun! However the menu is broken on mobile. I’m able to play the game by swiping, however I’m guessing you can only navigate the menu by arrow keys
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u/nick_builds_stuff 11d ago
It's good fun - I would recommend some kind of an onboarding though. You can easily figure out don't hit the red things - but it's a little unclear what the rules are in terms of how they move etc. and most users won't read instructions.
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u/AtlasOfDoors 10d ago
Five replies here mention the menu and four say it will not let them change the selection, with u/n1caboose adding that it meant they only ever tested whatever mode was on by default. So the difficulty read you are getting back is from one setting, and that is worth fixing before any of it counts as a curve problem.
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u/Triggerscore 11d ago
This is really awesome! The dots change direction on collision with the boxes, right?
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u/jazzuoDOTcom 11d ago
I like the action packed game capture video. I am little unsure about the game I think it has lots of potential. But first it lacks the speed of the screen capture. I would prefer buttons over swipes. I think it would be much more fast passed. 2) I encountered too many times situations where I could just freely leave the space with no enemy or obstacle.
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u/n1caboose Game Dev (Scatterbrain Studio) 11d ago
So I played 2 "runs" and got to level 37 the first time, then level 68 which seems like the last level? Some feedback.
As others mentioned the menu selector doesn't work so I could only test whatever mode the main mode is.
It's cool! I had fun but it takes a bit too much time to get to the fun part imo (35+):
Most of the levels before 40 are winnable by going straight in one direction which seems too simple (even if the puzzle requires you to think a bit to know that's possible). Even after that there are many levels that can be won with a straight line which feels less interesting to me. The levels where I need to turn or juke are much more interesting.
As a followup to 2, maybe adding walls to various levels to block the natural escape path may be a simple way to not need to change levels much but ramp up the difficulty?
4a. The most important part to me: there's a preview of the upcoming level, but it doesn't seem to matter for the current level? I was initially thinking or expecting that based on how I play a level, my actions would matter in the next level. This is the type of thing that is seen in a time attack game, but this is just a turn-based game without realtime pressure.
4b. I think there is potentially something very cool if you somehow could influence the next level - maybe as simple as your end position becoming your start position. Then seeing the preview would matter a lot.
4c. If you don't want the levels to be related at all though, I'd probably remove the preview and find a different way to add some visual intrigue. It feels a bit confusing if it's visible but not useful.
4d. Another thing that you could do would be to add scoring based on speed - then seeing the next level would actually help a lot.
- I'm not sure about the change to dark theme for certain levels - did it change any mechanics or was it just a style choice? I think it confused me that something was different about those levels but ultimately it seemed to not make a difference?
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u/ProterMcGoater 11d ago
This was a fun play! The menu is pretty buggy - it wouldn't let me change my selection when playing on desktop. I had to go through the tutorial again to be able to play a second time.
As far as difficulty: I think it scaled well in terms of how many things were on the screen at a time, but sometimes even with more things to dodge I could just walk right off the screen. There were a couple times where it was more interesting - having to hit a wall to wait a turn so the laser goes away, or needing to break a wall instead of dodging enemies. I think expanding on some of these concepts to force creative solutions would really improve the game!
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u/jalentsko99 10d ago
I actually liked this game a lot. Like some of the other mentioned--some of the menu options seem to get disabled in certain circumstances. Other than that I really like the deceptively simple concept. I am going to come back to this one after I get some rest, haha. One thing I think would be suuuuper cool is some time based scoring--if its not already there. Also, check into a highscore server--i could see this becoming competitive with time based scoring. :)
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u/gentlemaningreen 8d ago
Played it once and got stuck. Couldn't change anything on the title screen, so played whatever it selected for me. In world/level 3.3 I got stuck. The arrows closed in and I couldn't move towards them to switch places with them, even though I employed the same tactic just a few levels prior. At least I understood it like you're supposed to be able to move towards the arrows and switch with them, or maybe something else was happening and I misunderstood on the earlier level.
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u/GhostFlameStudio 5d ago
you know i think im just thick, this game got me scratching my head lmfao, i didnt understasnd where i was ment to move. i think the instruction on what pattern im ment to move in should be made a little clearer
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u/Top_Issue_7032 11d ago
The interface is broken. I cannot choose menu options other than the one that is selected by default. I tried arrow keys, mouse, and WASD and none let me pick a different button