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[Glaiel-Gamer]

Got to level 3. Pain and suffering. Skipped level 3.

You hold the jump button and use your sticky head to get across.

Oldest programming trick in the book, it's not a glitch, it's a feature!

you should have then put spikes on his head or something

It really looks a lot like a bug to anyone playing, because there's nothing to indicate that it's intentional other than level design (which, most levels can be broken really easily using this "feature")

[MisterX]

So far I've played for a bit and liked it, but nearly instantly stopped when I got to the level with only the brown breaking blocks. Unless I'm missing the easy solution for that level, you have far too few time to get the pushing and then jumping right, several times. I'll give it another go, but if I didn't misjudge the level then it's far too hard for me.

It really looks a lot like a bug to anyone playing, because there's nothing to indicate that it's intentional other than level design (which, most levels can be broken really easily using this "feature")

Well, there's a level that says in big, even red letters "HOLD UP" Granted, though, it could be made more clear.

[Captain_404]

It's probably too hard. If there's one thing I've learned from the release so far it's that my level design/ordering needs a bit of work.

On the bright side, you can skip levels.

[MisterX]

Naturally, right after posting this I beat the level easily. Still, I also feel that it's probably too hard for me in general, but I'll go on playing.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

I'd say that your problem is that the "feature" of sticking to the ceiling interferes with most of your level design rather than being a part of it, and it's annoying as hell that you can't move a block left to right when you're stuck to it and stay stuck to it like you can when you're on top of it, it's inconsistent and unintuitive.

I'm all for bugs turning into features (a lot of features of my games evolved out of bugs), but you have to make it seem like you meant it, which in some cases means fixing the bug and implementing it in an intentional way so that you can expand upon it

[Captain_404]

Actually, I consider this mechanic central to most levels, I'd almost give it equal footing to the pushing mechanic. It somehow just didn't feel right to me to have the character follow the block when they're on it's underside, I don't know.

You're probably right though, I should have at least given it a separate animation or something. Oh well, lesson learned for my next game

[Kepa]

Saw and played Push on the indiegames blog last night.  I played it and got to around the 20 levels remaining point before quitting.

I really liked the game in its early levels.  The concept is really interesting, and the early levels are fun and either simple but creative or slightly challenging without being annoying.  Partly due to how much I liked the early game and concept, I grew to dislike it more and more as I kept playing.

The huge problem with the game is that the controls for both your character's jumps and the push mechanic are clumsy.  It's hard to notice this in the early levels, where precision doesn't matter.  After you add in new things for extra challenge as the levels increase, this becomes more apparent.  Some examples:

- There are levels that have you sort out fire blocks from very nearby ground blocks using the push mechanic.  It looks like you intentionally make some levels with the gimmick in mind where the player will kill himself by accidentally pushing a fire block into him.  This is frustrating, not challenging.

- There's a couple levels I've seen where you have to push a movable block through a red wall, at the very edge of the push sphere.  At the edge of this sphere, blocks become very wobbly and hard to control.  You have some jumps designed with this maximum stretch state in mind.  As a bonus, you can't see the blocks you're pushing through the immovable walls in many points.  This is frustrating, not challenging.

- Some levels have a mechanic in mind where you attach your head to a block or ceiling, then go right to swing yourself around and up that block to land on top of it.  This is hard to do, and in some cases not possible.  The glitchy nature of this makes me wonder if this is a bug or not.  I mean, it looks like a bug, but it also really seems that in some levels this is what you're supposed to do?  This brings me to another point:

- The clumsy/glitchy nature of the controls makes basic puzzles hard to figure out.  Questions popped in my mind while playing like: Am I supposed to make this difficult pinpoint jump, or is there a workaround for it?  Is this a puzzle solution, or is it a bug?  Is this even an intentional puzzle?  A couple levels seemed like puzzles, but I eventually beat just by brute force/dumb lucking it intentionally, like "ah it burns!".  This level of uncertainty isn't really challenging, either, so much as confusing and irritating.

- Blind off the screen jumps combined with the harsh air controls.

- Swift deaths requiring you to do the level over from the start, possibly caused by any of the above.  Some levels having multiple death traps.  No checkpoints.

I gave up on the level "HANG ON", which combined the ceiling-mounted corner jump, fire blocks, crumbling blocks, red immovable walls that obscured what you were pushing, and mandatory pushing blocks to the edge of the push radius.  I kept getting to the third jump, which is where all the fire blocks were, but then having no idea what the intent was there.  It looked like you could almost glitch-jump your way up, and really should have been able to if the ceiling-mounted glitch jump lets you get up vertical tile, but the character always just got hung up on the corner for a second and fell to its death.  I'm still not sure if that was supposed to be a puzzle.  There was also a crumbling block buried with all the fire blocks, maybe you were supposed to somehow dig the only crumbling block out of it rather than doing a ceiling-glitch jump?  Anyway, I'd die there and then repeat the other 70% of the level.  This prevented me from ever getting to the blind off-the-screen jump portion.

As a point of reference, I didn't even find Flywrench frustrating, and I'm pretty sure Messhoff's whole intent is in attempting to frustrate the player.  I have a high threshold, so your game holds a unique spot for me.

That kind of turned into a long criticism.  I really did like the concept of the game, and really liked how you included a level editor.  Many of the fan levels were fun, too.  Maybe the unique concept and great early level design is one of the reasons I found the later parts of the game so irritating.

[Captain_404]

Saw and played Push on the indiegames blog last night.  I played it and [...] I really liked the game [...] the [...] levels are fun and either simple but creative or slightly challenging without being annoying. [...] I really did like the concept of the game, and really liked how you included a level editor.  Many of the fan levels were fun, too.

Why thank you!

Seriously though, thanks for the rather extensive criticism, I think it's well placed and it resonates with what everyone else has been saying about the game.

It's a nice concept, but the controls are wonky, and the level design is irritating.


You know, it's odd. Partway into the level designing I realized that the pushing mechanic was inherently limited and could only make certain types of levels. Not wanting to have the game reuse its concepts, I opted to start making levels that took advantage of my admittedly poor physics and platforming. (I was used to them at that point and thought they were normal) Obviously this hasn't worked out.

Ah well. Not much I can do about it now anyway.