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[Simon Andersson]

Eegra is king.

[PureQuestion]

Eegra is king.

Mentioned a couple pages back.

[shig]

That comic is totally true though.

When you die, the only thing that counts for your score is your treasure. Not all monsters you killed, damsels you rescued, places you found or adventures you had.

Just the money you had with you when you died.

Treasure really is all that matters to the spelunker.

[vordaq]

Right-click the application and/or shortcut, and go to Properties. Make sure the "Allow Screen Saver" box is unchecked.

I can't find any such check box and I even checked advanced options and everything. Just a reminder I'm using vista so if that's what you would do for xp than it's not the same.

[Kayin]

Hey, this is the creator of I Wanna Be The Guy, here. Just had to say I absolutely love this game and have been playing it constantly for a good few months now. At this point I got a good 30+ wins under my belt and succeed at winning pretty much every time I sit down to play. The game has some fantastic polish and smart design. I have a few suggestions!

Spectacles. These things are nearly useless, which was fine until the alters got implemented (my favorite change, BTW). The difference between getting spectacles(most useless non carry-abe in the game)and getting climbing gloves (the all around best item in the game when you factor in the jetpacks rarity) is huge. If spectacles are going to be the default alter drop, they should at least have a tad more functionality. The first thing that game to mind is allow it to see crated items. Another possibility is letting you look up and down farther. A 3rd possibility is for them to act like a weak light source (So not as good as the hedjet).

I think even if it had all 3 of these functions, I'd rather have climbing gloves. But at least I wouldn't feel like I missed out too badly.

The machete also needs a lift, but I think everyone knows this. I think even greater range might be beneficial, but the real change I'd like is to have it be an upgrade for the whip. I think it'd be kind of neat if bombs, rope and your weapon had an upgrade, but this might be too drastic a change.

As for the alter, it's great, but the payout method seems poor. In early levels, unless I see a kissing booth to massacre, the alter isn't worth much. I'll be lucky if theres a cave man -- and for what, a pair of spectacles?

Heres my thought... Lets say you sacrifice a caveman. Well, a bag of bombs appears on the alter and the bombs behave like a shop. Lets say, next you put a damsel down. The bombs on the alter turn into spectacles -- from here you can continue up the item chain and if you leave without taking the item, the item will appear at future alters.

Edit: Oh, i'd also be nice if arrow traps indicated if they were trigger. I wouldn't ask, but I am sick of getting hit by arrow traps that didn't go off when I threw something past them.

Another simpler alteration I think would just have the alter spawn items more than once (maybe alternate between that and invigorate?). I wouldn't mind missing out on 99 bombs. It's sort of too good and totally demolishing the golden city is getting a tad boring.

Anyways, this game is still one of my favorite games ever and I look forward when the source code is released and someone makes NetSpelhacky.

[NMcCoy]

Hm... Perhaps, for the expert players, add an Area 5 accessible by completing a certain chain of events, a la Cave Story's hard ending. (My suggestion: put a golden door hidden in the ground in the boss area, which leads to a series of 4 Ciry of Gold levels with entrances at the bottom and exits at the top... and constantly rising lava.)

[vdgmprgrmr]

Someone above said something that sparked my interest in something regarding Arcade Mode.

If the levels weren't thematic in Arcade, but just jumbled (you could find a spike/vine box next to an ice-area idol trap and a Prayers-to-Kali instance next to that, with a bottomless pit sometimes, or maybe a lake sometimes.

[Sir Knight]

(Even up to the point of playing it in the front row of my biology classes to get people behind me interested)

Blink.

Blink.

I don't know if I'd hate to have you as one of my students, or if I'd be proud of you.

1) A bonus for "combo-killing".  That is to say, I sometimes pull of some pretty spectacular "bounce off one enemy onto another" stunts, and now and then I manage to rack up quite a few kills that way.  It'd be cool to receive some little bonus for it; maybe each successive enemy could drop a little bit of treasure, for instance?  It would tie in nicely with the game's classic platform pedigree (the classic Mario and Sonic series both awarded gradually increasing amounts of points for successive kills)

Do you have any idea how many times I've grumbled "Where's my darn 1-Up?!" in this game?

i have beaten kali xx times.

It's not Kali.

Spectacles. These things are nearly useless . . . The difference between getting spectacles(most useless non carry-abe in the game)and getting climbing gloves (the all around best item in the game when you factor in the jetpacks rarity) is huge.

It's odd how people keep labeling things as "the best" or "the worst."  The comparison depends on multiple domains of "goodness" and a healthy dose of personal interest.  Me, I've been ticked when I've gotten the Udjat Eye before receiving the item boon at the altar, because then I've had to be careful during further sacrifices so I didn't accidentally pick up the climbing gloves.  The sudden stops against a wall that you get with the gloves can be lethal when you are depending on physics to have you fly by.  On the other hand, I adore mining, and so I enjoy the spectacles.

[Kayin]

I don't think this is odd at all! This is a part of design! The climbing gloves have massive utility and grant the most mobility and save the resources out of all the items outside the jetpack.

The spectacles do virtually nothing for survivability. Mining isn't even a good way to get a good score.

How good the item is has little to do with how much people enjoy them or how well an individual can manage to use them. Climbing Gloves are super good and thusly should not be modified. Spectacles have little real use outside of people who take a personal interest in them and could benefit greatly from increased functionality that would make the item less of a 'dead' drop to 99% of players.

I have no problem with how you have fun or play the game (I do some stuff thats pretty sub-optimal my self because it's fun!), but when trying to design useful and fun items, it's important not to get too blinded by personal preference and look at how the behavior of the items effects the game mechanically. Spectacles can be boosted to make the item fun for everyone and not just fun to those who want to mine!

(Mining might also be more fun if picks were much more durable. Just throwing that out there!)

[Zen]

I still hate the way the climbing gloves muck with the jumping physics.  Just throwing that out there.

[battlerager]

Yeah, I always avoid the climbing gloves, too..

I am totally unable to get anywhere I want with those equipped unless I want to go up, up and up. 

[rjb]

I remember being of much the same opinion about the climbing gloves myself when I first used them...  But I quickly discovered that with a little practice, they can be nearly as good as the jetpack if coupled with the cape.

I do think that it would be a really good idea to have the ability to turn items on or off, though.  For my purposes, mainly the pitching glove and the sticky bombs, the effects of both of which can be superb in some circumstances, and completely unwanted in others.

Oh, and one other little suggestion: I think it would be much better if multiple expendable items could be carried at once, or perhaps if these items would stop appearing once the player is already carrying one.  Finding three parachutes in one level is frustrating enough, but even more so when you find that you can only carry one at a time anyway.

[baconman]

I still hate the way the climbing gloves muck with the jumping physics.  Just throwing that out there.

That little boost it adds is one of my FAVORITE parts of getting them! I guess everybody's got their opinions of the items... the only change I would make the the spectacles/Udgat Eye is some kind of colorful warning for enemy-containing pots. ^.^ Nothing like being "reawakened" by bashing one spider/frog with one of those, only to have another jump out of it at you!

[Zen]

the only change I would make the the spectacles/Udgat Eye is some kind of colorful warning for enemy-containing pots. ^.^ Nothing like being "reawakened" by bashing one spider/frog with one of those, only to have another jump out of it at you!

That is a very good idea.

[Sir Knight]

. . .  The climbing gloves have massive utility and grant the most mobility and save the resources out of all the items outside the jetpack.

The spectacles do virtually nothing for survivability. Mining isn't even a good way to get a good score.

How good the item is has little to do with how much people enjoy them or how well an individual can manage to use them.  . . .

I have no problem with how you have fun or play the game (I do some stuff thats pretty sub-optimal my self because it's fun!), but when trying to design useful and fun items, it's important not to get too blinded by personal preference and look at how the behavior of the items effects the game mechanically.  . . .

(Mining might also be more fun if picks were much more durable. Just throwing that out there!)

You make a good point about design principles.  That sounds like the sort of underlying thing I've heard commercial game developers discussing, and probably belongs in a larger essay.

But on the specific merits of these items, I would still argue against labeling "the best" and "the worst" since many people use it for favoritism and/or ignoring other forms of play.  With the subject of mining, being able to see the gems in the earth is profitable, because it allows you to "milk" white diamonds from the ghost efficiently.  Also, with the climbing gloves, my point is that the increase in mobility comes with one decrease in mobility, as they force a change in playstyle (to avoid getting stuck on walls when you only want to jump--or, worse, use the jetpack) which many players will not like (and which will kill them).

Don't feel like I'm trying to shoot down your recommendations, though.  For instance, the mild "bonus" the spectacles give you over the Udjat Eye (seeing special items in the earth which are always there) seems weak to me, and I think there's room for improvement.