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[HopFrog]

Cryptic puzzles update  

[Viggoboy98]

I wonder, how do you go about creating your maps? Is it your own editor, Unity or some third party software?

[HopFrog]

Hey, it's Game Maker, actually.



It's kind of a painful process... Let's just say GM's room editor kinda sucks.

[HopFrog]

Making some lasers now! I will be having some laser reflection themed puzzles, probably in my desert area.



Basically you have mirrors that reflect the lasers and gotta aim them at eye thingies to activate stuff. Kinda played out sure... but still cool!

[HopFrog]

More laser work. Math is a heartless wench

[HopFrog]

Alright! I am getting ready to do the first few playtesting sessions this weekend.  Should be fun!

On another news, I made a new item thing. It's an amulet that always appears in the HUD, and blinks with pretty colours whenever you have unsolved stuff left in the current room. I should have done this earlier...

Anywho, here is a gif:



And here is the animation (for now):



This will be a good addition for the playtesting sessions. Some friends, family and other devs will be trying the game out. Multiple backgrounds, but mostly casual players. Let's see what happens!

[Pixel Noise]

I agree - it's definitely nice to know when you've still got things left to do in an area, vs. just running around blindly, hoping you found everything.

[HopFrog]

The game tested well! Players had fun, although the controls are a bit wonky at times. Some of them got really into solving cryptic puzzles, using pen and paper to theorycraft stuff. I even tricked them into doing math, heh, clueless bastards.

One guy got every diamond there was to get ever. He looked proud. And slightly arrogant.


Testing was a lot of fun, especially for people really committed to solve puzzles and riddles. The next step is now to seek out a publisher and start a greenlight campaign maybe? 


Here is a silly gif for your face to enjoy with smiles:

[HopFrog]

I realised that I had wrong info up in the OP, so I updated it. Art is final, name is not. That's the main thing!

I also added some more new gifs, particularly to showcase the dialogue ingame, since this is turning into a humor game now. 

[HopFrog]

I have been playing a bit with chromatic aberration effects. Anyone has any thoughts on this?






I think I need to get rid of the spinning square on the first gif though...

[HopFrog]

Legacy post. Here is the old art (now removed from main post):

[HopFrog]

Here is a look at the current game map. I would say it's currently half done:



I have 3 major areas in there (Forest, Big tree and Desert) and smaller secret nodes (Cosmic area, Village and shops).


I plan on adding at least 3 more major areas before the game is done: Mountains (+Ice Caves), Volcano (+Lava Temple), Waterfall area (+Water Temple).

So yeah, it kinda works like Zelda now. There are dungeons, and the water one will make you angry 

[lobstersteve]

hey, long time no see HopFrog  
Nice to see progress here. The zelda-like structure seems cool I can't really tell much more, because it's a game about exploration and well..i didn't play it. But i'm looking forward to having a chance to try it out.
Regarding some artistic choices: the art seems alright in general, but it seems like you are packaging a lot of artistic elements in one game. The chromatic aberration, the way the hero turns as he is made out of paper, although the game is 2d pixel art. To be honest, i don't think at least the hero-turning fits very well, it is more a thing that vector-based games do, it works with paper mario and some other games, because the whole game is made in that style, but here it looks a little out of place.
Oh and all the effects you got going (dust, particles after opening chests etc.) are pretty cool


..oh and "super fun adventure"..is that the final name now? hmmm...^^

[HopFrog]

WELL IF IT ISN'T MY GOOD OLD FRIEND MR LOBSTERSTEVE 

Thanks for stopping by! Yeah that paper flipping thing keeps getting weird looks and for some reason, I haven't removed it yet. I guess I am a bit lazy, you can surely expect that to NOT be in the final game though.


SUPER FUN ADVENTURE seems like an okay-ish name. Kinda okay. Okay adjacent. Wouldn't you agree? I am terrible at naming things. I called my nephew "chubby crying thing" (or CCT for short) for the first 3 months of his life. It worked out alright though.

I am rambling... again. 



Also, you are in the game now:

[lobstersteve]

Also, you are in the game now:

Whaaat? How cool is that? thanks dude  <33

The name is alright..i'll write something about it tommorow maybe cause i gotta get some sleep now 

[HopFrog]

Some more gifs I have been posting on Twitter:









 

[lobstersteve]

oh, yeah, regarding the name:
it's alright, but i don't really think that it fits a puzzle/exploration game very well.
while your game sure will be fun and will have humor and stuff, "super fun adventure" sounds more like a platformer, or a more action oriented game in general. even if you decide to have some really simple name, i think it's missing buzz-words, like "Super fun journey" or something, but even better would be something more obscure, like if you name your game after the protagonist or use some foreign word to make people curious.

this are all just simple ideas of course, but idk..maybe you come up with something cooler then super fun adventure? 
i think your game is too unique to have such a bland name

[HopFrog]

SUPER FUN ADVENTURE OF AWESOME!

[HopFrog]

I am trying to get water to work. It will make for cool puzzles (floating boxes, iron boots to walk underwater maybe?)






Yeah it's not going so well so far...

[HopFrog]

Random Update time!!


Fully functional shop:



Secret coins: (I got into the mood of placing secrets EVERYWHERE since I played Hyper Light Drifter...)



Polished Hintstone activation + read:



New area WIP (Snowy mountain):