This is great! There’s a puzzle aspect to figuring out where and when to spend your eyes/crystals to reach as far as possible (plus revisiting the levels).
Beating all of the enemies in both maps has me at 36 eyes - is this the max? Another comment says that they have 92, though I’m not sure how that is possible. BTW where can I access the third level - is in in the .zip?
So great. If you develop this into a larger game, one suggestion would be to have 3 optional “challenge stars” you can earn for each level.
Star 1: use the lowest number of runes possible for that level Star 2: “travel” the minimum distance possible for that level Star 3: bonus challenge (e.g. “don’t use the N rune in this level”)
(Perhaps these are only unlocked after earning all the runes in the game, or greyed out until you have the necessary runes to get the optimal number for a given star)
These would require different solutions, adding replayability for each level.
Comments on each level:
Nice and straightforward. Only one suspect can possibly visit the scene.
STATUS: SOLVED
Thanks to help from the author. All 3 suspects visit the scene, so the additional rules come into play. The murderer kills the victim on first contact at the scene and no innocent suspect enters the room with a dead body. This means…
Look for the suspect whose first contact happens after everyone else has passed through the scene for the last time.
STATUS: SOLVED
Only one suspect’s path passes through the vault.
STATUS: SOLVED
Things are getting trickier. I won’t know if a suspect truly visits the scene if they enter one of the adjacent rooms.
Still working through this one to understand why I got it wrong.
STATUS: UNSOLVED
There are multiple permutations which makes things interesting.
One potential combination allows O.O. to first visit the scene at 19:15, with the others not visiting after, so I’m surprised that O.O. was not the correct answer.
Seeing the right answer, I notice that M.M. sees a witness on first visit to the scene (N.N.) Therefore, they must do the job on a later visit.
STATUS: UNSOLVED
The cause of death is unique in this one! No suspect visits the crime scene, so they must have planted the poison before Y.Y. visits the bathroom at 20:00. All actions taken after 20:00 can be discarded, making things a lot simpler. Did anyone visit a room before Y.Y. reached it? Yes, in fact - just one.
STATUS: SOLVED
Potential issue: Z.Z.‘s path doesn’t lead them to the crime scene. (Library is blocked by X doors and Z.Z. has no X)
Potential issue: T.T. doesn’t appear to have any valid path. (Stuck at ~23:35 in Aquarium)
STATUS: UNSOLVED
ENDING SPOILERS BELOW
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Thanks for the suggestions!
To give you more feedback: The branching paths and the "meta" layer of going back to find 'the space between' were fantastic ideas. These puzzles remind me of playing the game 'The Witness'
I completed it the recommended (?) way, and I'm glad I didn't find the second path (15 > 28) to the ending which would skip a puzzle or two. I wonder if a 3rd path could be created from using the unused letters from all of the puzzles combined.
I wish I was more careful when checking my answers in the dictionary, as I spoiled at least one answer by seeing a future word in my peripheral. The word descriptions were great BTW.
I felt one word was unintuitive (finis) - every other answer created a commonly known word (except gae but there was an alternative). Overall, would highly recommend.
Great game! Gives me a sort of 'Stacklands' vibes. I really liked the different biomes, and the progression path was easy to follow.
I also had the negative health bug, but your suggestion to drag food over the worker fixed it. Also, my cursor didn't line up with the UI (if that makes sense). Dragging an item would show the item hovering a few blocks away from where my cursor truly was - but it wasn't too distracting.
A draggable inventory and a way to minimize the 'You won!' screen would have been nice too!
****End game / challenge spoilers below***
Awesome, thanks for the information! I've just one challenge left to do (and no hearts to do it with).
- It looks like you're right that rooms weren't spawning in 'low chance' areas. Undiscovered secret rooms sometimes cause others to spawn in 'worse' tiles otherwise they would conflict with the one neighbor rule, but this isn't always consistent: https://imgur.com/a/0MfkkFw
^It seems like starter rooms are generated first on the map, and it goes down the line? Also it seems like market rooms don't affect the spawns of any other.
- It's ambiguous whether blocked-off tiles should count when finding 'Red Secret Rooms' - it appears they do.
- The final room for the purist challenge was a repeat of the very first level, which I'm not sure is intended. I was relieved expecting a boss rush!
- It looks like no secret rooms can spawn on any of the glitch rotation tiles, which is nice because I've had rooms with 8+ Angel spot candidates and that helps narrow it down.
All said, these are all very minor things in what is otherwise a game that I would highly recommend.
Potential bugs after update:
Room (5?) in a normal run started with all rooms discovered (no cheats) and no way to advance to the next room, had to restart.
If a glitch room spawns on a square that you have an x (right click) and you can remove the x but it won't let you pickaxe that square.
Red rooms weird spawning: https://imgur.com/a/eOe5CQ0
***End Spoilers***
I'm so impressed how well this game keeps the spirit of Issac while being a completely different genre. So much replayability!
A few suggestions / questions:
1. For the challenges, it would be nice to know what the equipped items do. A hover tool-tip on the right hand side or an 'item compendium' would be nice.
2. I think the 'high/low/very low" chance that some rooms have should be removed and replaced with the binary 'most correct' or 'can't spawn'. A spot that better fits the criteria should always beat one that doesn't. (Ex. starter room 3 tiles away should always beat one 4 tiles away). It's challenging enough to have multiple spots that tie for 'most correct', try them all, and find out the actual spot is worse according to the criteria.
3. The 'special room tiebreaker' for normal secret rooms would be nice to add to other secret room types as well. Example: A devil room with 2 normal room connections + one special room connection always beats a devil room with 3 normal connections.
4. In the 'panic buying' challenge, my items do not get reset when entering a new shop, making the challenge extremely easy.
Questions:
1. Do larger multi-tile rooms (like an L shape room) count as a single 'step' when calculating the longest path for hermit?
2. Do glitch rooms factor in to the 'largest min. distance' for outsider rooms?
3. Do previously found secret rooms count when adding up the adjacent rooms for 'Red Secret Room'?
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Overall, I think the appeal of this game is as a logic-game first and foremost, with the only chance being choosing between multiple spots that tie in the criteria, not having the actual spawns be in a 'low/very low' probability spot.
Looking forward to the full release! Ditto all the great things that others are saying about the atmosphere and quality of the puzzles.
-Two quality-of-life updates that would be nice to have are a move counter in the corner and an undo-move button (!)
-The 'high' (optimal) move number has occasionally changed on me, but I'm not sure this is a bug. On a fresh game, the 'high' for level 1-1 is 23 moves. I've somehow achieved a 22 and cannot recreate it and the current 'high' is now set at 22. Maybe holding down the arrow keys to move instead of individual inputs can mess up the counting?
-A move counter would help illustrate the move cost of some things that aren't intuitive. Burrowing down + back up (1 or 2 moves?) Moving into a fuel tank and getting pushed back out (1 or 2?) Getting out of your robot and jumping back in (1 or 2?) etc.
-The countdown to self-destruct is not the best for impatient people like me. Getting out of your mech and self-destructing does this immediately.
-Tip for others. If you collect the gem, you don't need to complete the level for it to show up in the level select, but sometimes it doesn't register immediately after leaving the level.
*****SPOILERS BELOW****
Awesome game! It took a lot of trial and error but I finally made it to the end.
A little hint system would have been nice to have at points, but then again, experimenting is part of the fun. One way this could work is by having symbols that give a clue to the recipe (for example, "o" means surround a building with another, ">" meaning put a building next to another building, "x" means put a building on/next to a certain tile).
-------------------------------------------
For those that are stuck here are some clues:
- To reach your destination, you need resources, and lots of them! There are different raw resources to gather, and your workers will specialize based on their environment.
- Watch towers help your people explore the land, but don't forget that sailors need light too. If one watch tower lets you see far, imagine what many could do.
-When it comes to villages, the more the merrier. It's said that a small number of people are magically inclined. Maybe with a big enough town, you may find some. Your villagers also need to be educated, but your town will need to be even bigger to fill those classrooms.
-Your villagers can tend to their farms by hand, but if the farm is too big, they may think of something to help.
-Once you discover a building to transform your raw resources, don't make them walk far. Try refining your raw materials right next to where you extracted them.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
So fun! Especially once it clicked that not everyone should be taken for their word, and that there may be more normal explanations for what some experienced.
Very challenging at times, but everything was fair in retrospect. It took me way too long to see the "next" button on the hammocks (not the game's fault) which stumped me for a while.
A few suggestions:
-An in-game notepad would have been nice but wasn't necessary.
-It wasn't obvious (to me) that brimstone is synonymous with sulfur
-The solution has 3,5 as L, but L is not in the clue sets. The correct answer according to cluesetI.1 is A ( _ _ _ _ A). I was given a checkmark for clue set 1 even before I "fixed" 3,5 and put in L.
- A checkmark did not appear over cluesetI.3, even though I had SWTXU in the correct positions, until I put "L" in 3,5.
-I didn't know how to undo a box after I placed a letter, which made things messy while figuring things out. (I used X's as placeholders where I screwed up)
-The cypher was otherwise great, and II.1/II.2 cleverly explained shape order, the behavior of the square/circle, and what a shape does if their path is blocked.
Overall, would recommend to fans of the Obra Dinn.
***END SPOILERS***
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Decided to replay this game as I consider it one of the best idlers ever made. Soo much strategy and variation.
Somehow I never realized that you don't have to beat each dungeon in one go (if you die halfway through the monsters you can re-enter with 50% already completed). Finding this out made things a lot quicker.
I've been working around the no saves issue by opening a copy of the game in a second tab before making any big decisions. If something doesn't work out (i.e. barely fail a dungeon and lose all my accumulated equipment), I can just go back to the original tab.
The "multiple tabs" approach does make things funky with equipment, however. I'll have ~20 shield/weapon, open a copy in a second tab, and the equipment immediately jumps to ~90 shield/weapon. Saves time, so I'm not complaining.
I was really hoping that beating this game would show the password to Idling Through Loops, since that page is password protected, but sadly not. I loved that game as well. Bummer :(
This has come together so nicely over the months!
*spoilers*
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I love how the double-jump can be used to find 'secret' areas. It really captures that sense of mystery. Looking for a mushroom cap that lights up at the perfect frame to assist in this. It's out there somewhere!
I *think* that one of the butterflies flew off to another screen and got lost somewhere in the world. Hopefully I can track them down or they respawn in the original screen but I need to test this more.
I may try to decode the rune language to see what they say :D maybe the runes are just translations of the area names?
Only downside of the demo is accidently falling into a screen of no-return where the demo ends and having to load a save.
Favorite tune so far is when scanning the comet. So ominous!
Really cool concept and fun to play!
1. I've finished the game and I'm still not sure what the mushrooms and sticks were for.
2. Likewise would be more straightforward if non-scrolls could not be equipped (ex. chip) so that the player doesn't try to use those items around the map.
3. Perhaps spell menu and interact should be Z and X buttons, for times when I'm trying to talk to someone or open a chest but I end up opening the spell menu because I'm not close enough.
4. Lastly, movement may be smoother if the spell menu only works while holding Z, instead of Z being used to toggle the menu on and off. There were plenty of times that I tried to run away from enemies but was stuck in place because because that menu was still open.
Never tried for the shop, but I like refreshing for Matthew to find a specific item with a build in mind. It doesn't feel too cheesy since the run didn't really start yet.
I'd actually prefer to make that even easier, where Matthew gives you 3 choices to pick from (or even shows the entire rare table) so you can start from the beginning with whatever playstyle you're looking for. More class options in a future update (like getting a wind+mana stone) would help otherwise.
Just wanted to say that I hope all of these bug/question comments from players aren't disheartening!
From a creator's standpoint, one might think "Oh no, everyone seems to have some kind of problem with it!", but it just goes to show how great this game is - people like it enough to learn about the small details and make it even better.
Personally, this is the best dungeon crawler I've played in a long time and I'm looking forward to a possible full release in the future.
Really loving the new updates! The balancing up to the level 9 boss feels very well done.
Am I misunderstanding the potion "removes all status effects on self" or is it bugged? It does not affect the burning status effect on myself.
Maybe these are coded as an enemy status effect? If so, it is confusing that the status is shown under my character.
Hint 1: Your goal is still to move the "<" block down from the top row, allowing you to freely get it to its destination.
Hint 2: You'll be pushing the "<" block onto a 3-block conveyer path that you create
Hint 3: You'll need extra help to give that "<" block that final push into the middle row. The last unused block will help you do this.
*A-7 Spoilers*
Edit: This is a puzzle that the creator removed unintended solutions in their recent update. I'm not sure if the solution I'm giving is intended or not.
Hint 1: This puzzle requires you to circle back around the map to solve.
Hint 2: You want to build a bridge from the top-left ladder to the middle island. Once you do that, position the "<" block into the top-left corner of the middle island, leave the level via the ladder on the right side, loop around the map, then travel along the bridge you built to push the "<" block.
Hint 3: A tip while building the bridge, keep the "<" block alone in the top row when rearranging the other blocks. You'll be pushing the other blocks north from the top-left corner of the island while the "<" block is separated on the top-right corner of the island.
Hint 4: I believe the order of blocks that you push off the island to make the bridge is > > ^ <.
Hint 5:
Your bridge will look like
top-left ladder > > V > connecting top top-left of island. Loop around map, follow bridge pushing "<" down one, and move it to the final spot.
Incredible puzzles that are not for the faint of heart yet very rewarding! The thought that went into designing each level is very impressive, well done.
Just when you think you've beaten the game, another section of the map unfolds with more great puzzles. As an added challenge, players can occasionally bring blocks back to older levels to solve a path to the secret buttons around the map.
Looking forward to what else this game has in store.
*B-6 spoiler*
Hint 1: stand on the ladder island with a double-stacked block adjacent to you so that you can push it
Hint 2: you want to push the double-stacked box into a purple path that ends up on the ladder island. Once you do that, follow the loop yourself!
Hint 3:
| > | V |
| double-stacked box | V |
| player on ladder island | < |
push up, then follow loop.
Such a fun game, and I love the manual!
1) I finished with the artifact with 5 extra keys. I *think* this is the most you can have. I understand the 5+ key buffer gives you some lee-way, but the gate could have had a perfect run requirement and still not be too challenging.
2) Especially towards the end, there were some random red locked doors in the corners that didn't seem to do anything. (Perhaps they're just a key stash to prepare for grabbors?)
3) When holding left/right/up/or down, Zana moves one space, stops, and continues in a line. Movement would feel more smooth if Zana always moved uninterrupted when holding a directional key.
Overall, great puzzles and artwork. I would definitely play more
Thanks for the reply. This really is an amazing start and I would definitely play more if you choose to develop it further!
Here is some constructive feedback:
- The ability to remap dash and jump to x + z would make things a bit more comfortable
- Maybe put the current end of content (ex. after dash is obtained) in the description
- Jumping up from the top of one room into an upper room sometimes isn't smooth, as the music changes and switches back when you fall down to the original screen. In those scenarios, you could reposition the platforms on the upper screen (lowering them or make them bigger) to reduce how often the player falls back down unintentionally
- The green wheels of death could look a little more "dangerous" like spinning buzzsaws (if that is what they're supposed to be) - to visually make their purpose more obvious.
- The dark purple teleporter fields don't really match the style of the environment (maybe should be more pixely?)
- I could see some really fun upgrades in the future, like the ability for your ghost form to dash a short distance, dashing upwards or double jump, more enemy types, a conveyer belt mechanic (fitting the theme like grass pulsing in one direction), a type of wall that only breaks when you dash into it, ghost only keys, candle placements which act to replenish ghost countdown to cover greater distances, etc.
Excited to see where this goes next!
> Did you check the log? There are many effects that subtract from the search result.
Sorry, I tried to correct myself with a (too-late) edit! What I mistook for a bug was actually the game working exactly as intended.
1) My edit also had a question on how to use the artifact abilities (ex. the seal - do I click the artifact box before or after entering the search screen to ignore the event?). It would be nice after each description if it said something like (passive) (active, one time use) (active, once per combat), etc.
2) Are the region monster charts missing? (Ex. to know where (s) monsters are)
3) Finally, if you wanted everything self-contained you could have a "?" tab to put the manual text within the game itself.
That's all I have to say, I'll check out the BGG forums for some strategy tips!
No problem. I've been replaying the game with the default 15 days with the hopes of beating it "for real". Here's my thoughts on each phase:
Searching: It takes me on average about 4 times to get an artifact from each location. One bad search can result in losing a few HP in combat resulting in more lost days. Definitely the hardest part for me. I have not yet successfully received a treasure. For one-use artifacts (ex. the seals ability to ignore the event) do you click it to use the power?
Activating artifacts: My favorite phase. Most artifacts are activated on the first try, and almost always by the second try.
Linking artifacts: Tough, especially with the limited waste basket. The average of my links is normally around 2.5. If you attempt a link with a full waste basket, it's very easy to get screwed with a large value.
Final activation: Currently, it's only possible to win if the average link is 2 or less (totaling 12) since you can't discount from your extra HP. Extremely hard as is (my only victory was having to tie a challenge roll of 12). Being able to discount HP will definitely help if implemented. Or having 3 dice.
Note: If this game is just a port, there's no point griping about the difficulty to you :P
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Possible bugs:
If you immediately click the dice after killing an enemy, it enters another round of combat. It appears that the enemy will (re)die after this extra roll no matter what, and you won't get 2x the components, but you can take additional damage.
There's been a few times where my search result should have been between 005-001 but it has given me 000 resulting in an activated artifact. This was due to a good fortune event or artifact power that I didn't notice.
(Corrected the bit about the 13+ final activation roll being an endless loop, thanks. I had a couple hundred days from my negative expert mode value so I had to refresh instead of burning through the rest of the days :P )
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All of that said, I've been having a lot of fun with the game. I'm sure that planning an optimal route based on which artifacts/treasures you have, smart use of tools, and rolling strategy will definitely shave some days off the average run. What % of runs do you think are successful btw?
So cool! It was really fun to read through the manual and make sense of the various phases of the game
As intended, this game is HARD. It is a tight race against the clock, and a successful run requires a great deal of skill and luck.
While I was learning, I set the expert difficulty to a negative number (giving me extra days) which was nice to have. There is one part that confused me. Just before the final activation, the player should be able to spend their remaining hit points to lower the difficulty of the final roll, yet I appear unable to. Is there somewhere to click?
Also dying in the final activation does not end the game, but rather the player revives with full HP and possibly lost days. This results in an endless loop if the roll difficulty is over 13+. (edit: see response)
If this is a straight remake of the 2010 game, then my opinions aren't needed, but if not, there's a few things I could suggest for both balancing and UI.
Wow! I am shocked by the quality of this game; the graphics and quality are so smooth.
For the record, I'm playing with a touchpad right now so I'll update this once I play more with a mouse. I did notice if you're holding A or D while right-clicking, you can't use the jetpack, but that's probably a quirk of using a laptop.
Also I'm assuming it's intentional that if you saturate a wall with gel, some will come bouncing back at you. Adds to the challenge.
I'm excited to see how challenging the world becomes and how scarce the resources are. Hoping that I won't be punished too much for using fuel, as it's fun to aimlessly explore.
I have been having a blast with this so far. This game involved an extensive amount of note-taking and hit a perfect level of challenge.
I also had the black screen bug on a certain system but you addressed that in another comment.
*BEGIN SPOILERS*
I have finished 3 endings (both choices in the Spire and 1 in Escalation). I was surprised that the player receives the same prompt despite what their choice is in the Spire. It sort of took away the significance of making a choice. I would have liked to hear more detail about the results of each particular choice.
Any endings I missed?
Really great game! I love the aesthetics.
*spoilers*
I felt like the accessing G0ldF$h and Rick were a little too easy, the former just gave you the password straight up without having to decypher anything.
Unfortunately the UI is broken at a certain challenge level and I'm unable to continue. In level6 of challengepack2, when reading the helpdoc (for the HIDE2 cipher), the text does not completely fit on the screen. It cuts off after "Then add them up horizontally and you would".There is no way to scroll down to read the rest of the document (and thus know how to finish the cipher). I max-zoomed out in the chrome tab and could see a few more lines up text, but still not enough to know the next step.
For what I'm able to read, I took (171,1) (86,2) (217,4) (96,8) (150,16) and split them into standard (171,86,217,4,96) and result (1,2,4,8,16). The result translates to 1(1), 2(10), 4(100), 8(1000), 16(10000). The result lined-up looks like:
0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0
Filling in the standard:
0 0 0 0 150
0 0 0 96 0
0 0 217 0 0
0 86 0 0 0
171 0 0 0 0
Adding horizontally gives a 5 number string
150 96 217 86 171
and that's all the instructions give
***BEGIN SPOILER***
Makes sense! I just figured out how in my last playthrough. The dialogue with the leftmost characters was funny after breaking the sequence but no ending yet - Assuming I'll have to get that fireguy to step off the teleporter. I'll keep experimenting.
I found out that you can sometimes infinite jump while holding an item and spamming throw while doublejumping (not sure if intended versus stone-skip-jump method of crossing early).
Another potential bug: If you try the stone solution before talking to the "psshht" rock - sometimes it doesn't work. Exiting the cave afterwards shows a new stone solution on the wall which will then work. Maybe intended?
Finally a "comfort suggestion" - to make the dance inputs </> or E/F instead of 1/2 for intuitiveness and less controls. Or just show that NUM 1&2 are needed on the controls main menu screen.
***END SPOILER***
