Blooby Block

Blooby block is a sokoban puzzle game that twists the formula and also includes precise timings and enemies.
The official goal of each puzzle is to get the key and reach the exit… but it turns out that the key is given right at the beginning and the exit is near it everytime. I guess it’s a way to skip any level if you want to, but you can already choose which level you want to play in the menu so that’s a bit weird.

Anyway, the key is obviously not the true puzzle : each level has 3 diamonds you have to grab before going to the exit.
These diamonds often form a unique path you have to find. To do so, you essentially push blocks and dodge/manipulate traps and enemies. There are also three kinds of spells you can collect that help you deal with those enemies, and one spell that you can use to destroy any block in front of you. The management of your spells is important as they are not bonuses, but parts of the puzzles.
Blooby block is full of good intentions, the level design overall is quite good and rarely unfair. You need patience and a bit of skill though as there is no undo button, one mistake means a restart. The game is challenging but I didn’t find it particularly difficult.

There are a few things that could be done to improve the game:

– I didn’t get why you had to choose a “difficulty” that unlocks the levels or not at the beginning. Get rid of that, just unlock everything…
– … and also get rid of the useless key. Have the three diamonds open the exit once you manage to get them all (and make the exit visible from the beginning, so you can prepare your escape).
– Add an undo button, though I guess it was too hard to implement due to the ennemies. I had no problem not having one but people will surely complain about that and/or drop the game because that adds frustration.
– Add another trap icon on top of the trap blocks. It can be hard to see where they are, and that should cover the vast majority of them.
– Remove any useless unfair thing such as a trap that isn’t useful for the puzzle, or a block you have to push at the beginning otherwise you’re stuck at the end.
– Optimize the levels. I finished some levels with an unused spell or straight up skipped parts of them.
– Add a restart shortcut on the keyboard.
– 2 achievements are bugged : the friendly fire one and the hero one.
– Add an achievement for the 100%.

And I think that’s all. With more polish, Blooby Block has the potential to be very good.

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Developer: Basement Fun Games
Publisher: Basement Fun Games
Platform: Steam – Windows
Release Date: June 2, 2023