Controls
- Move the cursor using the arrow keys
- Rotate the cursor with the O button (Z key)
- Swap two tiles with the X button (X key)
- You can only swap tiles if it will result in a match-3
Rules
You're trapped in a haunted house with a bunch of Halloween stereotypes and the only way to defeat them and escape is by matching three or more common monsters in a row!
It's actually just a Halloween themed Match-3 clone. Get 100 match-3's before time runs out to win!
Behind the Scenes
This is my second ever released game, I'd love to know what you think! I realize this game is pretty barebones even for a match-3 clone, and while I may decide to build upon it with more features and objectives in the future, at least for now I'm happy with it being a short, fun little Halloween minigame. So I really hope you enjoy, and Happy Halloween to all!
Credits
This game, its visuals, and audio was made entirely by myself. If you need to contact me about the game, you can reach me at: [email protected]
Special thanks to Grubermusic (https://www.grubermusic.com/) for creating Pico-8 Tunes Vol. 2 from which I got the track "Eyes in the Dark"
Lastly, a shoutout to Krystman of Lazy Devs (https://www.youtube.com/c/LazyDevs/featured) whose incredibly helpful Pico-8 tutorials played a huge part in making this project possible.
Changelog:
- v1.1
- Fixed AI which checks if there are any valid moves left on the board. AI should now work properly.
- Implemented hint system where, after 8 seconds of no moves being made, a hint box will appear around a tile that is involved with a valid move.
A really fun little game! Nice graphics and controls. I've not played any other "match 3" games, but the idea of 99 seconds to get 100 points is very strong. Fast enough so that a quick game can be played (either completed or not) with enough pull to keep coming back for just one more go....
Minor criticisms:
The ending state should be clearer to the user. I didn't realise at first that an ending of "no more moves" occurred and thought I'd run out of time!
I also found the selector slightly difficult to see especially at the start of the game.
Also the in-game music could be more of a tick-tock timer counting down tune and possibly speeding up as time runs out.
I very much enjoyed playing it and will look out for more cartridges from you.
Its probably blindingly obvious, but where is the legal move in the following board? This occurred relatively early in the game and I just could not see what move I can make to match 3 items.
Maybe a "show legal moves" feature could be implemented for those like me who are not very good at this game....
A good Match-3, @TheRetroPaul. Gold star.
Maybe have some special removal of tiles when you match 4- or 5- in a row or column like Bejeweled ? A sound to signify it as well.
Also as @phil pointed out, has the game been checked to see it is not possible to get to a point where a match cannot be made ?
Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone, I'm glad people seem to be enjoying my game!
You've given me a lot of great suggestions for improving what's already there, and many of these are features I planned to add before even starting development. Unfortunately as many of you are already familiar with, features and deadlines don't exactly get along. Since I really wanted to make the Halloween day deadline, I had to settle for a more barebones match-3 game.
Though to be honest, my goal never was to make the best rendition of a Pico-8 match-3, but rather to struggle through the learning process of building a puzzle game for the first time and really pushing myself in terms of audio and visual design.
With this in mind, I am pretty happy with how the game turned out. Like I mentioned in the initial post, there's always the possibility of coming back and adding to the game later on, but for now I'm excited to move forward to new projects and learning experiences.
So thank you again for playing my game and sharing your thoughts. I hope you come back and check out whatever I come up with next!
I like the intro!
At first I lost because of Time Out.
So I hurried the next times, but lost due to No Moves Left.
However, I do not see any move counter, and counting Moves seems to defeat the purpose of forcing the player to only do moves that cause a match-3+?
Maybe I misread and it actually said I reached the Goal count?
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