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[FYNDR]

It's been a while since I last posted to this forum with a proper game in hand, but I recently completed one and wanted to get the word out.

Terrier is a puzzle-based exploration game for Windows, in which you play as a small dog that must come to the aid of the land's inhabitants while searching for its owner. Following a classic Apple Macintosh aesthetic, both monochrome and color versions are available.





You can download either version of the game here:
http://www.michaelseaholm.com/game_development

There is also an instruction manual, world map, and video walkthrough for reference. Hope you enjoy it!

[ThemsAllTook]

Looks fantastic! It's going straight to the front of my queue. I'll post back here with some feedback as soon as I get a chance to play!

[metafarion]

I, too, enjoyed Spacestation Pheta 

That said, I think there's a lot of good stuff going on here.  This does take me right back to the Mac Color Classic, and not just because of the graphics and audio, but because of the very unapologetic straight-into-the-game presentation.  It's just "Here's you, you're a dog looking for your owner...... aaaaaaaaaaand go.  Aaaaaand you died, try again." 

I haven't gotten very far in yet, but the very first thing I found myself craving is a more modern save system.  Because none (well maybe a few) of us miss the tedious backtracking of olde, not only from having to go back to the last save point when you die (especially in a game that kills you so frequently and gleefully), but also from having to go back and SAVE every time you do something that might be worth saving.  If at all possible, I would do away with the save points and have death zap you back no more than one screen, and if you have an extended sequence that you want the player to do in one go, make that an exception rather than the rule.  Another alternative, if the Save points are just part of the retro experience, perhaps delay the respawn of the hazards a bit, so I don't have to go through three screens of stuff I've already figured out while I'm puzzling my way through the fourth.

That's really my only major beef; I'll be back later when I finish putting this ship together. 

[ThemsAllTook]

I played through the game tonight. Loved it! Total playtime from start to finish was about 2 hours. I decided to record a let's play, which will go up on my YouTube channel on Thursday. I'd put it up now, but I have to schedule around other things... I'll post a link to the first part as soon as it's available.

This game definitely nails the classic Mac aesthetic. I chose the black and white version for maximum faithfulness. I would have preferred to have a nearest neighbor filter in full screen mode instead of a linear one... I'm not sure if Game Maker Studio can do that though?

As for the gameplay, the puzzles were right up my alley. It was a surprise when real-time elements started showing up when I was expecting everything to be turn-based... The parts where I had to run faster than I could go just by holding the arrow keys were a bit rough, but appropriate. I might also have used an unintended solution in some places. Once the LP goes up, you'll be able to see how I handled it.

The only bit I really didn't like was having to walk through the mountains to dodge the lone robot to the east of the monk. There was no visual cue for which ones I could walk through, and no clear indication that I already had everything I needed to solve the puzzle. I ended up solving everything else I could reach, fiddling around for a while, reading the manual in desperation, seeing that I could visit the continents in any order, fiddling around for a while longer, and finally accidentally walking into the wall I needed to walk through. Maybe a different ground tile in front of the places you can walk over would be an appropriate subtle hint?

Anyway, awesome job on the game! I had a blast playing it and will definitely have to check out your other stuff.

[FYNDR]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback! Here are some thoughts regarding the points stated above.

If at all possible, I would do away with the save points and have death zap you back no more than one screen, and if you have an extended sequence that you want the player to do in one go, make that an exception rather than the rule.  Another alternative, if the Save points are just part of the retro experience, perhaps delay the respawn of the hazards a bit, so I don't have to go through three screens of stuff I've already figured out while I'm puzzling my way through the fourth.

I would prefer to keep the save points, and I think the approach you mentioned would be possible. However, most likely this would require that every screen be aware of what hazards it contains and which save point the player had progressed from, which is a fairly large-scale change to implement and verify. I can't guarantee it will be in the next update but am interested in a more forgiving save mechanism if it enhances the game experience. I'll look into other possibilities on my end as well.

This game definitely nails the classic Mac aesthetic. I chose the black and white version for maximum faithfulness. I would have preferred to have a nearest neighbor filter in full screen mode instead of a linear one... I'm not sure if Game Maker Studio can do that though?

I noticed that also, but unfortunately I couldn't find any combination of settings that would produce a correct-looking fullscreen presentation.

The only bit I really didn't like was having to walk through the mountains to dodge the lone robot to the east of the monk. There was no visual cue for which ones I could walk through, and no clear indication that I already had everything I needed to solve the puzzle... Maybe a different ground tile in front of the places you can walk over would be an appropriate subtle hint?

I felt a little ambivalent about this puzzle, since it requires more lateral thinking and doesn't really match up with the other puzzles present in the game. However, I would like to keep it in, so probably I would put a small flower patch in front of the entrance and exit as an indicator.

I do have other games that you can view on that page, but in general they're a bit rougher than this one. I am trying to find a way to spin one of them (Oneiro) for niche consumption, though.

[FYNDR]

Pardon the double post, but I made the tile change in the far southern continent near the monk and put the latest version up on the site:

http://www.michaelseaholm.com/game_development

I'll need to figure some things out yet for the possible save changes, so that will have to wait for a later update.

[ThemsAllTook]

Great! I edited in a segment showing the change for when I solve that part in my LP. First episode has just gone up; other 3 will follow every other day:

[FYNDR]

Thanks, I appreciate it! Looking forward to seeing the remaining episodes as well in their due time.

[bjladd]

Great game.  I actually appreciated how difficult it was and the sparse save points at certain times in the game.  Love the graphics and retro aesthetic.

One thing I wanted to mention:  I think I stumbled on two unintended solutions.  The first is in the lower middle area of Australia (the one with the swarm of robots, three boulders and 2 eyes), if you approach the key from the west you die from the eye-laser, but if you approach from the north you remain safe for some reason.  I have no idea what the intended solution to the puzzle is (the only one I couldn't figure out), but approaching it from the north and not dying doesn't feel right.  The second one is the stack of gold bars.  If you don't use the balls at all, and move and dodge quickly you can barely make it through, grab the gold bars, and narrowly escape again.  This might be intended but I'm not sure.

[FYNDR]

in the lower middle area of Australia (the one with the swarm of robots, three boulders and 2 eyes), if you approach the key from the west you die from the eye-laser, but if you approach from the north you remain safe for some reason.  I have no idea what the intended solution to the puzzle is (the only one I couldn't figure out), but approaching it from the north and not dying doesn't feel right.

Good catch! You're right, this turned out to be a bug which I went ahead and fixed a few minutes ago. See http://www.michaelseaholm.com/game_development for the revised version. As far as the correct solution goes, if you push all three balls on that screen to the left and then push two of then down so that they're stacked vertically on the rock near the bottom of the screen, you can proceed to 'leapfrog' them upwards by pushing the lower ball left/down/right/up/left/down repeatedly. If that's a little unclear then you can try checking out the video walkthrough for a demonstration

The second one is the stack of gold bars.  If you don't use the balls at all, and move and dodge quickly you can barely make it through, grab the gold bars, and narrowly escape again.  This might be intended but I'm not sure.

This one was intentional. Originally I had made it so that the quick-reflexes approach was the proper solution, but added the balls based on playtester feedback during development.

[ThemsAllTook]

All four parts of my LP are published now. Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBk6-z6v3pDK9YqQaMJHtYThYrbflRKHL

Thanks for the great game!

[FYNDR]

Thanks for playing/filming! It was interesting watching you come up with alternate solutions to the puzzles that I wouldn't have thought of.