DEVLOG: Solving the problem of Jungle_3...Lots of players have mentioned that they have been getting stuck at the end of Jungle_3. In this level the player learns how to use the bamboo to knock out enemies for a few moments before they wake up:
Bamboo is a one-time use item that players can pick up off the ground. In future levels (not in the demo) they are found all over, even in hard-to-see/hard-to-get places. But in the demo, they are all placed pretty much right next to the enemy you're supposed to use it on.
The other lesson the player learns from that swing is that hitting enemies makes a soundwave that will alert other sworders (
sworders: enemies that have swords, as opposed to archers
) that are touched by the soundwave. Later in the level, the player learns that when arrows hit boxes they make a soundwave as well:
Soundwaves from arrows hitting boxes
and... sleeping enemies wake up from the direction you hit them:
Enemies wake up from the direction you hit them
Despite that, the final puzzle in the level kept stumping a bunch of people. The idea is to combine what you know about turning archers and drawing enemies out of position with soundwaves. Here's what the final puzzle looks like:
Jungle_3 final puzzle set-up
If you try to get the bamboo in the middle, you can either 1)
die from the archer noticing you and shooting at you (what I hope happens because it immediately teaches you that this is not the right answer) or 2) hide in the bush immediately: this is not good either but by hiding the arrows that are shot at you will hit the wood boxes and reinforce the lesson that enemies will come check out sounds when they hear them. The solution is to go to the bamboo on the right, turn the archer, then safely get the other one and draw the sworder at the exit to come check out the soundwave created when you hit the enemy on the left. When the enemy hears the sound you have a second to jump into the bush and they will walk right past you.
Voila!. However... it seems like most people were getting stuck right here. I anticipate it was probably the idea of drawing enemies with the sound of the bamboo strike. There is a spot earlier in the level where you use the arrow+box sound to draw an enemy, and players probably thought that they should draw the top enemy that way. It did draw them out of position after all. But I think the problem was that I only showed players the bamboo-based soundwave at the very beginning and it's easy to miss.
My solution
My solution then is to remind the player that you can also draw enemies out of position with the bamboo. I added the little reminder in the above GIF to reinforce this, and I hope it helps people understand the final puzzle and make it a little less challenging. Also, there was no checkpoint on this level and so people kept having to go the whole way through the stuff they knew to get to it. That's part of the reason I know people gave up too.
- Austin
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