Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411522 Posts in 69377 Topics- by 58431 Members - Latest Member: Bohdan_Zoshchenko

April 28, 2024, 07:47:06 AM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingBoxplode (on difficulty levels)
Pages: [1]
Print
Author Topic: Boxplode (on difficulty levels)  (Read 1929 times)
DavidN
Level 0
***



View Profile WWW
« on: January 31, 2010, 06:41:49 PM »

Working on the theory that it might be good to try and actually release something now and then, I tried my hand at making a puzzle game suitable for Flash this weekend - here's what I have so far.



Test-type version for the game currently known as "Boxplode"

I'm enjoying putting it together (I've found I love writing engines that I can then just plug levels into) but I quickly found it was impossible to gauge the difficulty level alone - once you've made a layout, you instantly know how to solve it. There are nine levels including the three tutorials so far, gradually introducing new elements - are they laughably easy or totally impossible to work out? Too many alternative solutions or not enough? I don't know, but there's a little winners list as a paltry incentive to persevere to the end.

Thanks for any opinions, thoughts on how much sense the tutorial makes, reports of how many restarts you found yourself having to make, and so on. A known issue just now is that the actual explosion sounds might lag for anything from a quarter-second to a week.
Logged

ITS_Mike
Level 3
***


Programmer


View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2010, 09:21:29 PM »

This is a pretty fun game!  I can't quite pin down what I like so much, but it just feels right and fun.

The tutorial was helpful, and I can't really think of any ways you could improve it.  I had to reread the first one a couple times, but that was probably my fault.

As far as restarts go, the first couple tutorial levels went by smoothly.  I had some trouble getting through the steel part of "Special Boxes", and ended up restarting four times before finally finding the right solution.  This wasn't a bad thing though, since I was not annoyed at the game and more than anything eager to try again.  The nuclear block part took me a couple tries, but I picked up the trick pretty easily.

I spent a minute studying "You're On Your Own", but ended up just clicking on blocks and somehow won with my first try.

"Crossword" took about 3-4 tries.  I kept getting stuck with the round one at the bottom left.

"Watch Your Step!" was slightly more difficult, requiring 5 restarts before I finally found the solution.  This was the first level where I felt noticeably proud that I beat it Smiley

On my fourth try, I beat the puzzle on the green board in "One For Each".  It took one restart to beat the red puzzle.  It took me 6 restarts to beat the yellow one, which only happened because I "accidentally" found the correct solution by clicking on a whim.  I beat the blue one on my third try after a little experimenting and logic.  All in all, it took me 12 restarts to beat "One For Each".  This was noticeably more difficult than the previous level.  Maybe there should be easier levels between this and "Watch Your Step!" to gradually bring you to this point.  Perhaps one where you only have to deal with two "pads" of blocks.

I beat "Five Square" on my third try.  I experimented with a couple blocks to see what the outcome would be, I then used a trick to successfully solve the puzzle.  Hover here for the trick.

It took 7 restarts, but I finally beat "Now Try This!".  This was a fun level which required me to think about the puzzle in different ways.  An introduction to this type of puzzle would be nice in the tutorial, but not required.

When I submitted my name to the highscore, it beeped and the submit button can't be pressed anymore.  However, I don't seem to be in the highscore list to the right...  I am assuming that you update that list manually, or the game glitched.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2010, 09:25:55 PM by InvisibleMan » Logged

JamesGecko
Level 3
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2010, 10:43:49 PM »

Very nice. Feels extremely visceral, despite limited interaction. If I'm only clicking once every twenty seconds or so, I want that click to mean something!

I had to restart the first tutorial screen a few times because I didn't notice the counter at the bottom. Might want to point that out with an arrow or something.

The third tutorial screen took me several restarts.

Five square was easy.

One for Each was reasonably challenging; probably the best level. It's all like "Hey, you thought the previous levels were neat? Tons more where they came from."

The one before that, with the explosives, also took me a while.

Got Now Try This in one move.
Logged
Mr. Thunder_Tw
Level 0
**



View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2010, 01:34:05 AM »

Nice game you've made there.

As mentioned by others, the number at the bottom displaying the amount of moves you have left should be mentioned in the early tutorials.
And that's the only thing witch dulled the mood a bit!

If you're thinking about more types of blocks. What about a block with an arrow, witch on explosion redirects the explosionpath to the direction it points at.
As an extention to that arrow idea i'd like to propose a 'stopper', with the symbol looking like ->| an arrow that's blocked. Blocking explosions comming from the pointed directions only.

Keep us informed if you have more levels/chalenges!
Logged
DavidN
Level 0
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2010, 05:10:16 AM »

Thanks a lot for the responses so far! It's great to have such a detailed summary of the process of beating each level. It seems that a couple of them are the kind of things that some people will get past instantly and others can spend ages on... so, level rearrangement and more levels to come!

I'll get that counter pointed out (and entirely replaced with something more striking, probably), and thanks for those block suggestions - this should be fun to make Smiley

InvisibleMan, shame about the high score list for you! It should just update automatically, it calls a Javascript function on the page to update the high score iframe - what browser are you on, and do you use any form of script blocker or anything?

Thanks again Smiley
Logged

ITS_Mike
Level 3
***


Programmer


View Profile WWW
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2010, 06:44:46 AM »

Firefox with NoScript, which was apparently the problem.  Oh well, you might want to add a notice about that on the page though.  I'll replay to get myself on the highscore  Wink

Edit: Allowing scripts for the site fixed the problem.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2010, 06:53:01 AM by InvisibleMan » Logged

JamesGecko
Level 3
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2010, 08:45:48 PM »

Hey, you just made IndieGames.com. Congrads!  Smiley
Logged
DavidN
Level 0
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2010, 04:53:56 AM »

I did Smiley I discovered it yesterday morning by seeing that there were about fifty names on the winners list and wondering where those could possibly have come from... strange how that happens to a half-finished game I made in a weekend, rather than the three-year project I have going Wink Thanks!
Logged

jazzuo
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2010, 05:36:18 AM »

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh difficult i got to the onw for each

great game anyway. Very surprisingly clever.
Logged
Pages: [1]
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic