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[davidfrankel]

Sorcerer's Maze is a Flash-based puzzle/adventure intended to evoke the retro feel of classic, 8-bit Nintendo games.

In the near future, civilization lies in ruin. Intrepid young everyman Clyde Michaels has discovered a mysterious mansion, standing alone amidst the waste and decay.

Armed with his trusty flashlight and three magical orbs, Clyde will fight murderous mermen, psychotic skulls, and ludicrous lame-oid leeches in the SORCERER'S MAZE.

http://maze.davidfrankel.com/

Enjoy!

[MacDiver]

Simple, fun, and easy to figure out how to play.  I like it.  Plus, I'm a sucker for old 8-bit style music.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Delightful! I just completed it, had a lot of fun. Love the style, and the gameplay was light but short enough to keep me playing. 

[Draknek]

This is neat. I didn't realise until I completed it and looked at the instructions that I could change my colour at will, but I don't really mind that. It just made the gameplay a bit more puzzle-like.

I don't get what the point of the hooded men was.

[Xecutor]

Nice little game!
IMO there are too much lives.
I finished game with 20 left.
Score is around 68000.

[davidfrankel]

Thanks for checking it out. 

I don't get what the point of the hooded men was.

There are four sorcerers hidden throughout the levels.  The more sorcerers you find, the better the ending when you beat the game.

IMO there are too much lives.

I know what you mean.  Lowering life count is on our list of changes if we do another version...

[Xecutor]

There are four sorcerers hidden throughout the levels.  The more sorcerers you find, the better the ending when you beat the game.

If one of them was dead, than I found all on first go
i.e. 3 hooded things helped me at the end.

[Barefists]

Great game!  I throughly enjoyed it - gonna play it again later for a higher score.
I also did a review of it on my site, if you're interested.

Cheers,
XM

[davidfrankel]

I also did a review of it on my site, if you're interested.

Sweet, thanks! 

P.S.  Secret hard mode if you press Z or X on the load level screen.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

IMO there are too much lives.
I finished game with 20 left.

Frankly I think you should ditch the lives, just let people hammer through it level by level. Also, the score felt pretty meaningless.

[Barefists]

P.S.  Secret hard mode if you press Z or X on the load level screen.

Holy.. More secrets!!!

[Triplefox]

Code:

TypeError: Error #1010: A term is undefined and has no properties.
	at world::Menu/selected_label()
	at maze_fla::MainTimeline/menu_loop()
	at flash.utils::Timer/_timerDispatch()
	at flash.utils::Timer/tick()

Right after I pick from the menu to start the game. It doesn't affect gameplay, it's just reported by the debug player.

Very cool game.

[davidfrankel]

Frankly I think you should ditch the lives, just let people hammer through it level by level. Also, the score felt pretty meaningless.

Y'know, that's a good idea.  Lives and score are both kind of outmoded and a little meaningless at this point.  I think I'd be inclined to keep them only because this is supposed to feel like a classic Nintendo game...

Right after I pick from the menu to start the game. It doesn't affect gameplay, it's just reported by the debug player.

Thanks for pointing this out!  I'll investigate it if we do a new version...

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Frankly I think you should ditch the lives, just let people hammer through it level by level. Also, the score felt pretty meaningless.

Y'know, that's a good idea.  Lives and score are both kind of outmoded and a little meaningless at this point.  I think I'd be inclined to keep them only because this is supposed to feel like a classic Nintendo game...

I don't think the lives add to the feel at all. Had I run out of lives I probably wouldn't have played the game again, because it just doesn't seem like managing lives/health is part of the gameplay.  I also don't know what I'm being scored for,

[davidfrankel]

Had I run out of lives I probably wouldn't have played the game again

Oh, wow, really?  Despite that you can start from any level using the level load menu?  If lives are really that frustrating for the players (or would be, if there weren't a ridiculous number of them), then I agree that they should be removed entirely.

This is good food for thought, and I'm glad you brought it up.  We should definitely either remove lives/score or better integrate them into gameplay in the next version.

I'm curious that they don't add to the retro feel for you, though.  So many NES games had pointless (excuse the pun) point systems.  I don't think anybody bragged about their new high score in Super Mario Bros.  (At least SMB made it clear exactly what actions gave you points -- that's something Sorcerer's Maze needs to do as well.)  As for lives, I also associate those with old school games.  I was under the impression lives were a carry-over from arcade games, where each life represented a monetary value.  It took decades before console developers realized that unless lives are somehow part of the core gameplay, they should be removed entirely.   

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Oh, wow, really?  Despite that you can start from any level using the level load menu?  If lives are really that frustrating for the players (or would be, if there weren't a ridiculous number of them), then I agree that they should be removed entirely.

The first time it is clear you can continue at any level is when you try to play it for a second time. The first time I was playing I saw this number of lives, and took it that my progress would be lost as soon as I lose all my lives, so the number of lives definitely loomed over me in my first play session, despite there turning out to be 'infinite continues', the game appeared to be ready to kick me to the kerb when I was playing.

I'm curious that they don't add to the retro feel for you, though.  So many NES games had pointless (excuse the pun) point systems.  I don't think anybody bragged about their new high score in Super Mario Bros.  (At least SMB made it clear exactly what actions gave you points -- that's something Sorcerer's Maze needs to do as well.)  As for lives, I also associate those with old school games.  I was under the impression lives were a carry-over from arcade games, where each life represented a monetary value. 

I've played Super Mario Bros for score against a friend, actually, and it's pretty good in that respect. Because it's an action game with one play session and no continues the scores are very real. I don't think your game is actionny enough to make good use of it, and rushing the levels would be more irritating than anything. With lives, I mostly associate these with limited chances to perform a challenging task.

You have so many good retro aspects to your game already

[davidfrankel]

I've played Super Mario Bros for score against a friend, actually,

Touche, monsieur pussy cat.