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[Draknek]

If you have the heart-jump and you jump into a heart, when you hit the ground you lose the heart-jump. It happens every time for this heart:


It feels very much like a bug, even though I realise that it is required for some puzzles. Could you make it so that this only happens for the last heart you touched? I.e. for all other hearts jumping into it with the heart-jump will let you keep the heart-jump when you touch the floor.

Also I don't like the pixel-handwriting font; it's very hard to read.

Other than that though, I love this!

[miconazole]

What's the difference between practice mode and the proper game? Because I just beat practice mode and feel a little empty inside

In the proper game you have to restart the entire game every time you die, and if you manage to win you can dedicate the game to whoever forever.

Ah, I tried the proper game after finishing the practice, but they seemed identical to me. In retrospect I may have just clicked on the wrong button. This was a charming little game. I'll be interested to see if anyone manages to complete it without dying! It seems like the easiest way to accomplish this would be to write/use a program to simulate the precise sequence of keystrokes needed to complete the game. You might call that "cheating" but that amount of effort would still show dedication, no?

[Jonathan Whiting]

If you have the heart-jump and you jump into a heart, when you hit the ground you lose the heart-jump. It happens every time for this heart:

It feels very much like a bug, even though I realise that it is required for some puzzles. Could you make it so that this only happens for the last heart you touched? I.e. for all other hearts jumping into it with the heart-jump will let you keep the heart-jump when you touch the floor.

I do see what you mean, and I'm not convinced I do use this in a significant way for any of my puzzles.  When I get the chance I'll have a look into whether changing this is feasible/desirable.

Also I don't like the pixel-handwriting font; it's very hard to read.

I'm pretty set on achieving a hand-written look of some kind here, but again I do see what you mean.  I'll have a look and see if there's anything I can do to improve legibility without disrupting the aesthetics.

Other than that though, I love this!

Glad to hear it

Ah, I tried the proper game after finishing the practice, but they seemed identical to me. In retrospect I may have just clicked on the wrong button. This was a charming little game. I'll be interested to see if anyone manages to complete it without dying!

Yeah, they *are* identical until you die and/or finish, so you equally might just have not died yet.  I'm certainly interested on seeing if anyone takes on the challenge/manages it.  I tried hard to balance things so that such a completion isn't unfeasible, but will be pretty taxing.

If it helps to spur anyone on I've managed to get all the way down to the very bottom and back out without dying (though I then messed up one of the easier screens).  A true completion is definitely possible!

It seems like the easiest way to accomplish this would be to write/use a program to simulate the precise sequence of keystrokes needed to complete the game. You might call that "cheating" but that amount of effort would still show dedication, no?

That would require some devotion certainly.

Honestly though I think it'd be easier to complete it tool-free than to write the tool.  In particular syncing up the input precisely enough would be a little challenging.  I'm more than happy to be proved wrong though.

[HybridMind]

Fun game with a simple and cool jumping mechanic. Good to see it come together with the final sounds, music, and polish.

I played pretty far on practice mode.  I too wished there was a bit of explanation on what the differences between practice and normal mode were.

Alas I am crushed in that final passage area by my lack of platforming skills.

Also.. DAMN that font is hard to read for me!

Love the title screen dedication idea! You should require a playthrough video as proof though as anyone could just use Cheat Engine to hack it otherwise--perhaps you've already thought of some other proof scheme though.

[Toeofdoom]

It looks like a cool game, but I can't actually get to your website. "Firefox can't find the server at jonathanwhiting.com." fairly consistently. Any idea why that might be, apart from my ISP?

I'm afraid not.  jonathanwhiting.com is a 'new' alias for jwhiting.nfshost.com but it's been that way for about a month now, and I've had no problems here, so it seems unlikely to be related.  If you're still having difficulties do try http://jwhiting.nfshost.com/coding/loveletter/

Nice game, I managed to play it at the alternate address though the original still doesn't work. Maybe it's to do with being in Australia? Seems unlikely. Anyway, I like the game, managed to get to 28 before dying I think.

[Jonathan Whiting]

I played pretty far on practice mode.  I too wished there was a bit of explanation on what the differences between practice and normal mode were.

Also.. DAMN that font is hard to read for me!

Very useful feedback  , will have to see if there's anything decent I could do about these.

Love the title screen dedication idea! You should require a playthrough video as proof though as anyone could just use Cheat Engine to hack it otherwise--perhaps you've already thought of some other proof scheme though.

Thanks!

Yeah, I have my own proof scheme, for obvious reasons I don't intend to share the mechanics of it just now.

Nice game, I managed to play it at the alternate address though the original still doesn't work. Maybe it's to do with being in Australia? Seems unlikely.

Hmm, that is odd, not sure there's anything I can suggest though 

Anyway, I like the game, managed to get to 28 before dying I think.

Ace, that's pretty good going, I think that's about as much as I've managed in a single life too.

[porath]

umm... so i got all 50 hearts in one life, am i the first?

however, the game didn't end. i'm kind of nervous about closing it without some kind of confirmation. in order to win, do i need to go back to the beginning? honestly i don't know if i can handle that kind of stress :/

please advise

[Jonathan Whiting]

Yes, if you have all 50 you need to return to the center, you should have an arrow to point you in the right direction.  Good luck!

[porath]

oh my god, returning to the center is going to be extremely difficult :/

blood pressure rising

thank you for the quick reply though

edit: i died ;_;

[Toeofdoom]

I just got to the place where I think porath must be trapped in practice mode. At least, I really hope that's the worse place. The place with 6 hearts that is ridiculous to get to, anyway...

[porath]

if you could please let us know right away when someone beats the game first, i would appreciate it. if i'm not going to be first, i would much rather stop marathoning this and enjoy it at a later time.

thanks

[Jonathan Whiting]

I just got to the place where I think porath must be trapped in practice mode. At least, I really hope that's the worse place. The place with 6 hearts that is ridiculous to get to, anyway...

Yep, that's the worst of it.  It *is* hard, but also possible

if you could please let us know right away when someone beats the game first, i would appreciate it. if i'm not going to be first, i would much rather stop marathoning this and enjoy it at a later time.

Yep, I'll certainly make sure word gets out the moment I know that someone has finished.  This of course may not be as immediate as is ideal, as I might be asleep or away, or whatever else, but I wont hold back if/when it happens.

[BattleAxe]

Hello everyone, I joined to say that I beat the game. Regular play mode, no death, back to center and everything, but the victory screen was borked in a way that I couldn't follow the proof directions. I emailed Jonathan a few hours ago, but wanted to post here so no one is tearing their hair out potentially all night still trying (under false pretenses that is, I highly recommend tearing your hair out beating it for your own gratification). But who knows, maybe a messed up screen disqualifies me, in which case the race is still on!

[bundtcake]

Bah, thanks for posting here, was tearing out my hair after repeatedly making it to 47 hearts twice in a row, then getting 50 and being super confused at what the hell was going on. I thought you were just supposed to press up to activate the end of the game or something, but then I just kept jumping so I thought that maybe you had to screenshot the arrow thing? Came here to post "yaay" and then saw the posts and nearly cried at the idea of making it back to the center. Also kind of disappointed I'm not first, but oh well

[BillyTheBanana]

I just beat it on one life as well, and my final screen was "borked" just like BattleAxe. Too bad I didn't find out about this earlier. It only took me a little over an hour to finish it. Oh well.

[Jonathan Whiting]

I've replied individually to those that have managed the game, but yes, the general thrust of things is:

• A few talented individuals have managed to complete it, barely 24 hours after it was released.
• I'd managed to put one whopping hell of a big bug into the win screen (I'd thought I'd tested enough, but sadly not )

I'll be updating the game to fix the bug and make it clear that it's already been completed as soon as possible (probably next 20-30 mins).

[edit]build updated, and the real dedication is now in[/edit]

[PiMan]

Great little game here.
I attempt to make the game easier for myself, I created a map of the whole game in two formats.

HTML: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6381651/love%20letter%20v1.0%20map.html (resize window to resize map, or press 'Ctrl'&'-' to shrink in most browsers)
Excel: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6381651/LoveletterMap.xls (I promise there are no scary macros doing anything nasty)

I'm really kicking myself, because I didn't realise you could press M to zoom out, although it still doesn't show the whole thing like my maps do.


As for the game itself, there appears to be one little bug. In square (2,2) from the top left of my map, I've run into a bug where the character will not stay pink if you gather the heart then fall down the right side.
This could be considered part of the puzzle to get the heart in the initial square, but I wouldn't call this fair. (small text hidden for potential puzzle spoiler)

[BattleAxe]

D'ooooh, I made a map too. But I like anytime when I'm reminded of Legend of Zelda and graph paper.

And the issue you talk about happens anytime you catch a heart while already pink. Bug or not? We'll let you, the player, decide.

[Jonathan Whiting]

I attempt to make the game easier for myself, I created a map of the whole game in two formats.

Wow, that's an impressive effort

Also 'Taylor' on JayIsGames made a great little screen-cap map.  Obviously spoilerific, so only check it out if you don't mind that.

As for the game itself, there appears to be one little bug. In square (2,2) from the top left of my map, I've run into a bug where the character will not stay pink if you gather the heart then fall down the right side.

Sounds like the issue Draknek described.  It's not a bug per-say, but I do understand how it might feel like one.  I'm a bit torn on whether to fix it or not, especially now that the game's been completed.

[miconazole]

I can't believe ANYONE has managed to beat this without dying.
Clearly I suck more than I thought.