Over the weekend I participated in steemitjam, the first steemit gamejam. if you've read the post on my submission you already know that I am happy I participated, but I think the game is bad.

If you haven't played my game, you can do so on itch.io. Works in the browser.

Why is it broken?

The first thought that comes to mind, is that the game is very similar to 2048 so why is 2048 fun, and this is not?
Well, I think there are a number of reasons, and while I can't really say for certain, simply going over them is a thought stimulant, which will help me think of ways to improve it.

• 2048 isn't actually fun.
  Much like sudoku (the simple ones, the hardest ones can be interesting), 2048 is a game that allows people that aren't good with numbers to feel like they're good with numbers. While sudoku is a puzzle, and doesn't claim to do much other than make you happy you solved it, 2048 is supposed to be a puzzle game. 2048 doesn't have any interesting choices, and even as a toy it isn't particularly good. I think 2048 isn't a puzzle game, but rather just a puzzle. Once you've solved 2048 there is very little reason to do so again. My game is like that too, only worse.
• It is a mathematical dead end.
  Every turn you get 2 blocks worth 2 points each. Every turn enemies spawn at a rate of log(x) where x is the current turn. Once enemies spawn at a higher rate than 4 a turn, there is nothing you can do besides take the loss of 1 every turn. There is no way to mitigate the loss.
• Too much information.
  2048 has at most 16 blocks, while my game has up to 32 player blocks and up to 28 enemy blocks. That's a lot of blocks to consider. 2048 is quick, you slide the blocks about quickly, and you have a general sense of what you're doing at all times. In my game it's rather impossible to keep track of everything, and the game often generates situations where there are simply no good moves, just really bad ones. Weighing those options every turn is tedious, for a game that doesn't actually provide any interesting choices to begin with. So you just kind of wing it, and then your options are even less meaningful.

Uh, yeah boss, but how do we fix it?

When I initially designed the game I already identifies the math problem, and was thinking of solutions. The main one being combining blocks to have special abilities. For example, a block could be a smasher. If a smasher moves towards an attacking block, and stops right before it, it destroys the attacking block.
Another idea I had was special block that can move between quandrants. A regenerating block. A block that doesn't move at all. A block that moves in the opposite direction than the shift.
Honestly, I just ran out of steem (heh, heh). Hunting the last bugs was tedious, and I was stressed from other unrelated stuff. If I had done a full 48 hour jam, and not like, 8 hours, I would have gotten to it.

That doesn't address the other issues though. I think too many blocks is a big issue, and I think the solution is to have the player only move one block at a time.
And to solve the interesting choices bit, discard the idea of 2048 merging blocks, and replace it with a match 3 system. The basic block spawned has no abilities and dies to an attacker. match 3 blocks together and you merge them into a single block, and get to choose a special ability for it. Possibly merge 3 blocks with the same special ability, and get to upgrade it further!

So, you gonna fix it?

Step 1: Find a game idea.
Step 2: Develop a prototype.
Step 3: Find another game idea.

Probably not. I mean, sure, it can be an interesting game, but I'm already developing a game, and I joined the game jam to clear my head and have a little distraction.
I'll probably keep it in the drawer just in case, maybe I'll need another distraction.
I really want to get back to my game, and there is plenty to do there.

All images are owned by wizards of the coast.
Can you tell why I picked those particular images? @geekorner, not you, I know you can :D