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[Draknek]

Thoughts as I go:

The back of the snake's neck looks confusingly like an edible dot.

I don't understand why I can go through walls. Eventually got it, but when it first happened it seemed weird/wrong. Maybe change the graphics to indicate which walls are edible? Make them pulsate or sparkle maybe?

The instant reset has exactly the same animation as completing the level. I'd suggest not resetting automatically so the player has time to think about what he did wrong.

The fact that the snake can jump over the other snake but not over the wall is weird. Oh, but it's because that snake is a different colour. That's actually pretty neat, potential for some interesting puzzles there.

The fact that the snake can jump as many blocks as necessary is also weird. For some reason I had been assuming it was a "jump over one square" thing.

I can't jump over the other snake's head? Want to go left from here:


5.xml (the first one-snake level in a while) is a lot easier than what came before. And now we're back to two snakes. Seems odd/out of place.

15.xml - starting to get pretty tricky

Oh man, now not all the squares have dots? This is a really nice (and in hindsight obvious) extension, can believe this opens up some interesting possibilities. Might make sense to start with levels like this? It's a nice allusion to classic Snake.

Felt like a lot more than 24 levels! A good sign. It had a slow start, but I really like this. Gives me ideas for the Shit Snake puzzle game I was thinking of making.

Definitely get rid of instant-reset-on-fail. Please add undo. Add audio. Maybe introduce the first "surprise, the gameplay isn't all like that" moment a bit earlier? I could easily have stopped playing thinking that I'd seen everything.

[bnhw]

I've been revisiting the artwork (and actually I've been experimenting with higher-resolution graphics) but I'll definitely try to distinguish the food from the snake's back-bone.

I've added eating through other snakes' heads; you're right, restricting this didn't feel natural.

I'm hoping that adding animation will fix a lot of the issues you've mentioned (specifically to do with moving through multiple blocks). Pausing on losing/winning so that the player can reflect on this will also help a huge amount, I think. Also, I'd like to try to introduce a quick level that explains the concept of chomping through multiple blocks.

Undo and audio are definitely on the task list. I'll need to think carefully about the musical style I want to achieve though; really don't have much inspiration for that!

About the whole "moving onto blank spaces doesn't make you grow" thing; were you thinking to introduce this right at the start, like before introducing differently-coloured food? I think one of the biggest reasons the levels are structured the way they are at the moment (earlier levels will every square filled) is that I hadn't thought about leaving blank squares earlier. Part of me, though, likes, as you say, the whole "surprise, the gameplay isn't all like that" moment this gives.

[ninja]

Nice game!  Keep up the good work!  I love how you can play it in the browser and not have to download it.

[Gainsworthy]

Eat Your Dinner? EAT YOUR DINNER? What about all my snake/colour themed names? THOSE WERE SOLID GOLD*.

Oh, but the game is cool. I like that what initially appears to be a very simple affair gets more complex (rule-wise) as levels pass. Unfortunately, this also left me confused.

Like Draknek, I didn't (still don't really) get the mechanism behind wall-eating. It seems that you need to jump over a wall into a spot which you can then move from. The multi-snake thing is rad, but feels really irregular. I know it's following the rules, but it doesn't look like it. At first, I even assumed an eaten snake was a dead snake.

Good audio could be key to making sense of the rules, but I understand leaving it till last. Sensible. Make sure that you use sounds to narrate the [legality?] of the player's moves. Some subtle animations would also be of use - it's really jarring to see the snake "jump" through a wall of blocks. Bopping over them or eating them

would be nice and informative.

I appreciate the quick-restart, but I'd actually prefer it holds to let me contemplate. These types of games are always super trial-and-error for me - after enough failure, I tend to move into an action game mindset, forgetting my moves last round and just going for it. What's worse is that, in early levels, this results in a win - meaning I progress without learning. If you could implement an auto-replay after a loss (restart by pressing any button) that'd be awesome. If not, a static image would be fine.

But, this is pretty good. Noticed it on Polygon's front page! Well done.


*COLOUROBOROS. Because you eat your own tail and there's colours and aren't I just the greatest?

EDIT: Eat Your Dinner is a great name, I don't think you should actually use one of my witty Snake-Colour names... hmmm, Snakeolour...

[DustyDrake]

One thing that I might ask is that the 'lose' animation goes down instead.
Might help show players that they lost.

[bnhw]

*COLOUROBOROS. Because you eat your own tail and there's colours and aren't I just the greatest?

EDIT: Eat Your Dinner is a great name, I don't think you should actually use one of my witty Snake-Colour names... hmmm, Snakeolour...

But I really liked Colouroboros! (Although I don't think I can really change it now it's been on Polygon's front page!)

[bnhw]

I've been working on the graphics, and have finally got something more towards the style of snake I want. The blocks will need to change to something more representative (maybe more cave-like). I don't really feel like the font's working too well with this cleaner style, but at least I'm committing less crimes against pixel art (mixing resolutions!)

[rebmeM tsetaL]

Wow

[Belimoth]

This is fun to play. Things got pretty crazy when the second snake was introduced.

[bnhw]

It's been a while, but after a long grind at work and the consequent burn-out I've started to work on my own projects again in my spare time.


I've worked up some new graphics that narratively make more sense to me, but comparing the two side-by-side I find myself missing the cleaner style.

[anselm_eickhoff]

I didn't get past the level screen at first, too, until I red that you have to click.
I would strongly recommend you make the menu keyboard navigable, as the game otherwise seems very keyboard focused. Also add hover effects to stuff you can click and maybe give it a button-look to increase affordance.

The game itself is fun and looks great, the learning curve is just right, the descriptions/instructions are nice and short and their tone fits.

Nice work so far!

Edit: Holy shit, there's 2 snakes?!
This mechanic is totally emergently awesome, but it needs an easier introduction, it is quite the mindfuck and has some unexpected details, like you can eat the other snake, too (it makes sense though).

Edit2: Found a bug!
Here it didn't recognize that I was stuck:

[IzzyReggie]

The green snake can go along the bottom, can't it?

[anselm_eickhoff]

hmm it should be able to... maybe because it's a mix of block and snake?

Edit: Or you can't eat the head of another snake...

[bnhw]

I didn't get past the level screen at first, too, until I red that you have to click.
I would strongly recommend you make the menu keyboard navigable, as the game otherwise seems very keyboard focused. Also add hover effects to stuff you can click and maybe give it a button-look to increase affordance.

The game itself is fun and looks great, the learning curve is just right, the descriptions/instructions are nice and short and their tone fits.

Nice work so far!

Edit: Holy shit, there's 2 snakes?!
This mechanic is totally emergently awesome, but it needs an easier introduction, it is quite the mindfuck and has some unexpected details, like you can eat the other snake, too (it makes sense though).

Edit2: Found a bug!
Here it didn't recognize that I was stuck:

Hey man, thanks for the positive vibes. I totally agree with what you're saying. The level select is really rough at the moment and it's on my todo list to revisit. The level order and progression has changed a lot since that old build that's still online; I need to get around to putting a new one up soon, but it's not quite finished yet. In a way, I wish you could've seen it after the new build is finished. Maybe I can contact you when it's up and get your opinion again?

[bnhw]

hmm it should be able to... maybe because it's a mix of block and snake?

Edit: Or you can't eat the head of another snake...

Yes, in this version you can't eat another snake's head, but there is a solution to this level...

[Zaxuhe]

Its a bit weird, just played it and I like it, but what I felt it was too weird was when you had more then 1 snake

[anselm_eickhoff]

Stuff

Hey man, thanks for the positive vibes. I totally agree with what you're saying. The level select is really rough at the moment and it's on my todo list to revisit. The level order and progression has changed a lot since that old build that's still online; I need to get around to putting a new one up soon, but it's not quite finished yet. In a way, I wish you could've seen it after the new build is finished. Maybe I can contact you when it's up and get your opinion again?

Sure! My email adress should be visible in my profile.
By the way, the game would be perfect on mobile!
Just add 4 directional arrows around the board that you can tap.

hmm it should be able to... maybe because it's a mix of block and snake?

Edit: Or you can't eat the head of another snake...

Yes, in this version you can't eat another snake's head, but there is a solution to this level...

Yeah, I gave up there but will continue sometime else.
I made a screenshot so you know the game didn't realize I was stuck.
(Normally it restarts the level then)

[Pixelulsar]

I enjoyed the game and though it had a lot of neat puzzles and elements in it.  My main problem, though it was small, was I felt like some things weren't explained well enough, I was really confused when I got to the part where the snake could move, it took me a few levels to figure out that it moved when it passed an empty space and didn't eat.  I like the levels with multiple snakes and it's cool how they can eat each other.

[bnhw]

...

Sure! My email adress should be visible in my profile.
By the way, the game would be perfect on mobile!
Just add 4 directional arrows around the board that you can tap.

Great, thanks. I do have plans to eventually put this on iOS and Android and I don't think it should be a big task. It's all written in Haxe/NME so very portable!

...

I made a screenshot so you know the game didn't realize I was stuck.
(Normally it restarts the level then)

Whoops, was a bit drunk replying to you. Yeah, I *think* it should be fixed now; thanks for that!

I enjoyed the game and though it had a lot of neat puzzles and elements in it.  My main problem, though it was small, was I felt like some things weren't explained well enough, I was really confused when I got to the part where the snake could move, it took me a few levels to figure out that it moved when it passed an empty space and didn't eat.  I like the levels with multiple snakes and it's cool how they can eat each other.

Cool, glad you enjoyed it. I'm trying to address your problem in several ways:

• Including short messages before levels when necessary to explain something. These replace the level names in the current public build.
• Reordering and including new levels.
• Adding animation when the snake eats something. At the moment, it's just that it moves one block at a time, but if I can work up the will I'll try to do something more complex.

One of my aims for this game has always been to make as much as possible of it intuitive so I'm trying to keep explicit explanations to a minimum (beyond telling the player what the controls are). I really love those "aha" moments in puzzle games where something you'd taken for granted becomes unhinged and you start to look at puzzles in a totally different sense, but maybe it's just confusing!

[bnhw]

A few things:

• I'm now working full-time on my own games, hooray! The first thing I did was a Game Prototype Challenge v16, with a friend. You can play our effort here (ARENA 2080); there's very little overlap with the gameplay of Eat Your Dinner, but it only takes 2 minutes to play if you can spare it.
• My main efforts currently are on:
  
  • Getting the game working on mobile
  • And when I'm too frustrated with that, working on new features and the aesthetics
• I want to move away from the arcade aesthetic that's still lingering around. I think this is a bit jarring with the gameplay. I started doing this a long while back (when I doubled the pixel resolution), but the fonts are still in dire need of a change, I feel. This should also include fancier transitions/fades/etc.
• I finally got around to implementing undo/redo! (While avoiding trying to fix the iOS build)
• I'm toying with calling it "Snäk" (I can't remember who suggested it, sorry*), but I'm worried this won't be googleable or legally different enough from "Snake".

* Update: apparently it was @d_durham!