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[alts]

This game is technically done, but I'm still incorporating feedback into the game, so this seems a better place than Announcements.

RGBuried was inspired by Tetris and Mr. Driller. I wanted to make an interesting puzzle game that was mechanically simple, since this is the first original game I've ever finished.

The goal is to accumulate as many points as possible before falling off of the screen. You do this by breaking as many blocks as possible, and extending your combo for multipliers. You build a combo by breaking blocks in the order dictated on the left side of the screen. It's just the cycle Red -> Green -> Blue -> Red -> ...

Breaking the combo results in a few new lines being dropped onto the top of the screen, pushing you down towards the bottom. If you ever fall of the screen, it's game over.

To prevent you from sitting there and planning the whole route for the screen, there is a timer forcing you to make a move. It gets reset every time a block is broken, and in the process gets shortened a tiny bit as well.

Anyway, the game can be downloaded here:
http://games.evilrobotstuff.com/rgburied/

I'd love to hear what you all think. Thanks.

[hapafive]

Nice job!

At first I couldn't figure out what was causing the blocks to drop down (besides the timer).  Then I realized it is triggered by leaving the space that the block you just got was consuming. The visual there is a little too subtle?  I found it pretty hard to get very far along in the level at first because i thought the goal was to eliminate all the blocks, not to get to the top of the screen.  Once i figured that out it became a lot more fun :-)

I never really understood the purpose of the full-width horizontal blocks at the beginning of the level. Confusing at first and then they just were annoying since i couldn't see what their purpose was.

I would welcome the game being larger/easier to see, also the text on the side is sort of hard to read...

[justinfic]

I really dig this! I checked out the tutorial prior to trying the game, so I was able to get into it pretty quickly. Had I not read that or your writeup above though I would have been pretty lost.

I get the purpose of the horizontal lines, but they don't really work. Had I played without looking at the tutorial I would have stayed just as lost, and afterwards they're just an annoying thing to bust through every time you play. I'd just lose em. Perhaps instead do one initial board, very easy (maybe use giant 3x3 blocks of solid colors) during which the next color you have to hit glows in the playfield. By the end of that, a newbie will have figured it out, and pros can still tear through it and go for speed.

Speaking of which, is speed rewarded at all? I find myself going for speed and not for combo, although if both were multiplied that could be really cool.

The grey blocks are way too close in color to open air-- I accidentally ran into them over and over.

Agreed that the text is too hard to read. I never look at it. Perhaps instead of having it rotated on the bottom, you could stack the digits vertically, most significant digit on top?

When I bust through and get a reset, and my dude breaks that first block when he lands in the next board my brain *always* thinks that kicks off the color wheel.

[alts]

I never really understood the purpose of the full-width horizontal blocks at the beginning of the level. Confusing at first and then they just were annoying since i couldn't see what their purpose was.

Yeah, those are kind of a vestigial thing from an in-game tutorial. I grew somewhat blind to them. I'll remove them or, taking justinfic's advice, place coarser blocks there.

I would welcome the game being larger/easier to see, also the text on the side is sort of hard to read...

I'd tried a fullscreen thing previously, and it was a failure in a few ways. Maybe I'll give it another shot, since you both mentioned that.

Perhaps instead do one initial board, very easy (maybe use giant 3x3 blocks of solid colors) during which the next color you have to hit glows in the playfield. By the end of that, a newbie will have figured it out, and pros can still tear through it and go for speed.

I'm going to give this a try.

Speaking of which, is speed rewarded at all? I find myself going for speed and not for combo, although if both were multiplied that could be really cool.

There is no bonus for speed. In fact at the moment there is kind of a disincentive. I'll try to think of how to grant a time bonus if the combo is maintained.

The grey blocks are way too close in color to open air-- I accidentally ran into them over and over.

I wonder if it's the contrast on my machine or something, because those two colors seem very different. I may drop the whole pulsating thing going on in the empty zone, which certainly doesn't help this problem.

When I bust through and get a reset, and my dude breaks that first block when he lands in the next board my brain *always* thinks that kicks off the color wheel.

Can you think of a way to better communicate that that isn't the case? The timer is gray, and the color hint on the player goes gray as well, but that may not be enough.


Thanks to both of you! I really appreciate the comments.

[justinfic]

Can you think of a way to better communicate that that isn't the case? The timer is gray, and the color hint on the player goes gray as well, but that may not be enough.

Not off the top of my head, really. It may even be communicated ok, but my brain just goes into color-wheel-mode one step too early. And after playing a few boards it becomes a lightning-quick reaction, it's hard to keep myself from doing it even knowing that it occurs.

Some ideas:

- Actually have that first block kick off the color cycle

- After reset, the player starts at an empty row below the blocks, first move kicks off the color cycle

- Have the region the player lands in start off empty instead of having a colored block that gets popped