REORDERED

REORDERED is a puzzle game inspired by the concept of out-of-order delivery in computer networking where the player must reorder the letters of a message sent from an antenna to another to form another word.

Run the game

If you own PICO-8, you can run the cartridge ending with .p8.png (or the source code ending with .p8) directly with the pico8 executable.

Otherwise, just download the binary executable for your PC platform, and run it.

Controls

Mouse click on Togglable element (green, small eye icon in the center) to toggle it

Mouse click on Restart icon to restart level

Keyboard press X/V/M to start emitting letters

(Debug) Press Arrow Left/Right to go to previous/next level

Mechanics

To reorder letters, the player must mess up the travel time of some letters by interacting with the environment.

A given word is decomposed in letters that are sent at regular intervals from an emitting antenna. A letter travels in straight line until it reaches an element that affects its trajectory. The player can enable and disable those elements in order to guide the letters into a certain direction.

Letters eventually arrive on a receiving antenna to compound a word again. Some trajectories being longer than others, letters are effectively reordered by the timely toggling of interactive elements, causing a new word to be created.

Content

The game consists of 4 levels defined by:

• a tilemap containing elements that affect the letters’ motion, some fixed and some that can be toggled
• an initial word sent
• a goal word that the player must recompose by reordering the letters

Special tiles

Arrow: changes the direction of a traveling letter. Has a togglable variant.

Mirror: reflects direction of a traveling letter. Has a togglable variant.

Emitter: shaped as an antenna, it sends the original word, letter by letter

Receiver: shaped as a circle (parabola seen from above), it receives the final word, letter by letter.

Context

I made this game for the Global Game Jam 2018 on theme Transmission. As all the jam sites around me were already full, I took part in the event unofficially and the game is not registered on the GGJ website. I also wanted to start making games with PICO-8 (which uses Lua) so I thought it was a good opportunity to try the fantasy console.

Video

Since the game is very short, I would not recommend watching the walkthrough before playing. I've still made a video for promotional purpose, and also in case:

- you don't understand the controls and want to see how to play (only watch the first levels)

- you have finished the game and want to check some alternative solutions