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Very nice. And it has the addictiveness of casual puzzlers. :beer: Didn't finish it, though. I played it for a longer period of time, completed plenty of levels, and when I restarted the game I was at the beginning again. :o You should definitively add the save-feature.

Also, it took me a while to get used to movement physics. Jumping can be tricky at times, as well as going backwards when there is a pit behind you.

this is really fun. great job on the atmosphere, you guy's really knocked it out of the park. the soundtrack especially struck me. it's like pink floyd's take on noir. suits the game perfectly.

I know this isn't the feedback forum, but one thing that really irked me is that when you hit a wall you loose all your upward velocity. it should be an easy thing to fix, and would probably make the game less annoying.

awesome game, deserves front page. :noir:

it SHOULD be an easy thing to fix but it isn't, because of the way the platform physics are done.

(http://corexii.com/iaberr.gif)

It's pretty obvious that it failed to load a plugin.

(it's not my fault)

Try this:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/DirectX-9.0c-Redistributable.shtml

Yes, even if you have 9.0c. Microsoft suck at naming their versions.

My first game! Yay!



Now I should actually play it all the way through  :giggle:

this is awesome

ending was very slightly disappointing but okay

Is there a fullscreen mode? This is really eye-straining for me :<

no, no there is not. it's 550x340 which wouldn't work on any monitor i know of.

What about a scaled version?

Nope, not that I know of.

You should make window resizeable (stretching content). Construct allows that and I prefer that way over fullscreen/windowed mode.

I tried that but it lagged horribly and stuff. Since the game uses mouse control, you might also accidentally resize.

Nice moodiness from the opening animations!  The game itself is pretty decent but I felt it wasn't as precise as I'd like.  I did a fair amount of flailing around, especially after I stopped caring how many crates I'd used.

Great, it worked.

A tad too simple for my taste, but solid execution nonetheless.

It was fun for a while. The mood was great, as was the music. The gameplay was fun to start with, but when it got to the more complicated levels (read: Have to make huge piles) it got a bit annoying. I also kept getting stuck on the sides of blocks that were on a corner. Had to restart a few levels as i couldn't move despite not being obviously trapped. Still, it's a great little game. Congrats :)

Oh, sweet, it's out. Good luck in that contest (if it's still for that, I kinda lost track :D )

Just checked this out. It's really well done! :coffee: Some of the physics felt a little dodgy in places, but I didn't have any serious problems with it.

Congrats on the RPS mention!

Other than the fact that jumping becomes disabled randomly (probably because the crates don't always register as a flat surface while they're moving), I really enjoyed this. :gentleman:

crate popping weapon = the new portal gun

I demand someone make a GMod Portal gun modification for this.

You could just pick up a crate spawner with your gravity gun.

enjoying it a certain amount, though the physics (especially wrt jumping) can feel a bit buggy.

also: it can be a little annoying sometimes that the gun doesn't fire if you clock too close to the player?

Holy shit, I'm on Rock Paper Shotgun.

And yeah, the reason you can't shoot if you click to close is that I'm adding force towards the mouse position - if you were to click at that point the boxes would fly backwards.

congrats :)

have you thought about having a minimum force instead of cutting it off?

I'm not adding different amounts of force though, it always shoots as hard - just in another direction.

Fun things happen when you hump a truck and shoot into it. :D

*grumble grumble* Fucking E.X.E. *grumble* not working on Mac *grumble*

129 points, 684 crates, 9 dames.
fuck yes.

391 crates, 9 dames and 224 points.

(this is the first time i've played through the entire game)

627 crates, 13 dames. 8)

Too bad I don't remember how many points.

That'd be 204 points.

http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/03/freeware_game_pick_in_another.html

 :handthumbsupL: :handthumbsupL:

The surge of destructive critics in comments is kinda distracting. More people, more bull-shit. :)

Haha, yeah.

I've updated the download with a new, slightly modified build to make two levels easier.

I think they (the destructive critics) are responding to something real though ... there's nothing in the game to really say, "play this as a high score game" or "try to minimize crate use," so it's easy to play in a very boring way.  Many of the levels do not introduce any new ideas also, so even if you're trying to play it as a puzzle, much of it feels like 'filler' content.  The glitchy physics also make it feel a bit frustrating and arbitrary.  The gun firing threshold is pretty awkward.

If you fire a box point-blank at a truck, it's pretty funny.  The box starts spinning and then the truck jumps way high ...

That is true... perhaps there should be a crate limit in each level.  Whatever the least number of crates needed is +10 or something like that.  It would force the player to be more puzzle-minded.

Because, as I said elsewhere, towards the end of the game I cared fuck-all about my score and just started spamming boxes in frustration.  A crate limit would likely have calmed me down a bit, and I would have more incentive to practice placing boxes carefully.

Right, I actually _thought_ about placing a crate limit at first, but I really wanted to leave it up to the player - If he think it's fun to spam through, then he should be allowed to do so.

Comments like that drive me NUTS.

What are you supposed to say? SORRY!? The physics problems are probably because physics are HARD TO PROGRAM, and "pointless"? Give me a break. Every game you make will be better than the next. This is the first time Hideous and Sereneworx have teamed up, and I don't think Hideous has made that many games.

Take everything with a grain of salt, people.

I think the game was a great effort, and if you don't be an asshole, you can enjoy the challenge of it. While the physics are annoying at times, you can always restart, and it's definitely better than I could program it.

The music and atmosphere are awesome, and I don't think it's one of the better games I've seen yet that's made with Construct. I think it was pretty ambitious to be developed in such a short time :) and you guys did a good job.

A great stepping stone, anyways. It always feels good to finish something.

Just ignore the complainers, and pay attention to the pleasant critics. THE REST OF YOU CAN SHUT UP, the game is free for cripes sake :-X

[/rant]

Peace out. :D

One alternative would be a 'par for course' number of boxes on or after each level, so the player has something to shoot for.  That could motivate puzzle play for the interested player right away, but be non-intrusive enough that they could ignore it if they wanted to.

Great seeing this released!  I'd like to play it through all at once, so I've downloaded now but it'll have to wait until Wednesday; I'll post some feedback then.

Again, it looks great guys!  :-*

I think part of the problem with that is people are now so used to games using things like the box2D and APE engines that they expect physics of this kind to be more responsive/accurate. It DID get frustrating when you got stuck because the block you were on was at slightly too steep an angle and you had to restart, but like I said, I still enjoyed it. People are always more critical in blog comments it seems, and often without any actual constructive parts to their comments. Props to hideous for reacting so patiently.

they needs to keep in mind that is an entry to a contest too, a noir themed contest, and imo the game nails the point pretty good.
we need to do a noir contest too D:

Haha true. I can't even take it and I didn't even make the game :o

Yeah, I don't usually read the comments on the IndieGames Blog (or TIGS frontpage, for that matter), but man, what vitrol!  :o

But, uh. This is Box2D.

Oh .... well how come it's so finicky about landing on slanted surfaces. Is box2D controlling your character movement as well? If so what is the character's particle type, a rectangle particle that you replaced the draw functionality and stopped rotating? I thought that the boxes were using some engine like box2d (and they react great) but i assumed the character was separate and just using information from the box2d engine.

Have you tried mixing platform behavior with physics behavior for protagonist? Not everyone likes intertia.

Had I done that, he would have gone through the boxes and stuff and things wouldn't have worked as expected.

And yeah, Box2D is controlling the character, and I turned off his rotations and stuff. Really, I was using Construct (http://scirra.com/), so I don't know what half of what you said meant - but the character is essentially a box that i'm drawing a sprite on top of.

So how are you deciding whether or not he is allowed to jump? Checking his speed or whether there is ground/boxes beneath either of his feet? That was the main issue for me, and it worked most of the time, just occasionally got a bit stuck.

I guess i'm getting a little off topic here though.  :coffee:

I have a tiny little sprite that covers most of the bottom of the collision box - if that is colliding with something I decide is ground, you can jump and walk.

gotcha. i guess if it's slightly smaller than the collision box then you can collide with a steep edge, so not move, but also not register to be walkable/jumpable. Still, it's not game breaking thanks to the rest button :)

featured on Bytejacker.
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/026

Holy fucking shit, my months-long dream has finally come true  :-*

They didn't mention, you, though.  :(

He's way too hideous to mention him.

But, uh, yes they did. I'm Andreas Jörgensen.

Oh...  :laughter:

I know I knew Sereneworx's name... Sean something, right?

Jacon Zinman-Jeanes. So, no.

Oh.  :(

Well, at least now I know!  :)  I can stalk him even more, now.  :noir:

I just got a mail from some french company, that wants to offer IAB as a download on their site, and from what I can tell, include it in one of their CDs/DVDs in a magazine. If you're french, tell me if you see it!

(it's from the dudes who "publish several video games and computing magazines in French such as but not limited to : Windows News, Windows XP Magazine, Windows Vista Magazine, Micro Actuel, PC Achat, Internet Pratique, Computer Arts, PC Jeux, Jeux Vidéo Magazine, PlayStation Magazine, PSM3, Consoles +, Joystick, Kid Paddle, XBOX 360 Magazine, Nintendo Magazine, Joypad, T3, Download Magazine and Fiches Pratiques.". so it'll probably be in one of those)

Nintendo Magazine for sure.... oh wait.

Congrats Andreas :D

Ooh, they did that a lot with RPGMaker games over here back in the day. Maybe they still do now. Good job man :handthumbsupL: :)

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/507274/iab_fanart.png)
i dun made some fan art

Awesome :D

Hideous, this was made in Construct, right?

Would you say it has now become a viable platform? Because it entices me verily.

Yeah, definitely. It's really very useable right now, I didn't come across any huge problems on the way (except that editing animations for objects that exist across several layouts = crash, but that ought to be fixed soon).

I don't know about "viable" but yeah, it's definitely usable.

I would say it's probably around 92% hassle-free.  That's a number I've just pulled straight out of my ass, but it sounds about right to me.

Hmm, so I might consider starting a game engine in it then?

Construct is top bollocks and and you should do it.

It's nice and everything but keep in mind it's still very unstable and some things change overnight. also, I miss 3D capabilities (my custom blitz 3D engine is top bollocks for 3D stuff being mixed with 2D).
But yeah it beats GM and MMF.

Also why does every avatar in this thread seem to be suffering from migraine or sthg?
NOT VERY GENTLEMANLY.

Well, GM and MMF both have their strong points, namely completeness and stability.  Construct is great and all but I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression.  If you use it, you will still run into a few remaining problems.  Granted, there are very few big, crashy problems left.  For the most part you're going to run into the less annoying "I have to find a workaround for this" kind of bugs, or you'll butt up against features that aren't yet complete.

It is a nice environment to work with, though.  And it doesn't hurt to learn the ins and outs while waiting for v1.0 to come around (which should be just a handful of months away, at the rate the devs are working :))

Though I will say, when Legend of Princess was released I couldn't help but wonder how much better it would have run in Construct (I had the usual MMF slowdown when playing it).

Edit:
Yikes, it looks like we've derailed your thread, Hideous :P

I cant seem to run most construct games.  I get plug in errors or something like that.  I update direct x a million times but it doesn't fix it :I

shit makes fucking small exes BTW

Shit sucks, man :(

I'd hit up the forum and post your problems with it.  I'm sure the developers would be more than eager to fix such an issue.  I see you have an account there, you should use it ;).  It would help make Construct a better product.

Is that from running the compiled exes or project files (.cap) in Construct? If the latter, there are some games that use customized plugins; also, some may have been made in newer version.

If it is the compiled exe... well, then please do report this, as all plugins are supposed to be compiled within the exe. :s

Are you sure you have the latest DirectX? Microsoft's shit naming doesn't help with that :( (There are like, 28 DirectX 9.0c)

I was having these errors on my PC, until I figured out I should install November 2008 update not August 2008 update. (When you run a Construct game on a machine with older DirectX 9.0c it tells you you should download August 2008 update - I don't why didn't they change this to November 2008?)

(assuming you were getting "Failed to load plugin" errors such as this (http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/409/errel2.jpg) one)

IAB should be on the cover DVD of the April 16 issue of UK magazine "Total PC Gaming", and two weeks later in the US. ;D

Any publishing deal so far?

congrats hideous. you've won.  :)
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/027

I like how the dude says "Congratulations to... the winner"

I guess they didn't tally the votes until after shooting the segment :P

fuck yeahhhh 8)

I'm sold

belated super congrats hideous

I like it. The atmosphere is incredible. Apart from a finicky jump, the gameplay works great. It's a great design that the player can either try to solve each level efficiently or  shoot crates like a madman. I'd like to see a version which stores your fastest time and least crates used for each level, since the game is a bit too long for me to try for a perfectionist approach in a single sitting.