See code for changelog.
You can fork this cart here:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=submit&respond_to=gb_gemman-4
This game starts very harshly with inconspicuous instant death tiles and no way to retry other than manually restarting the cart, witch is really off putting. Gave it another go a few hours later, and the game is actually pretty good, if too "retro" for me with a needlessly small 9x9 view port and block scrolling that make some spike and slime related death feel really cheap. I understand the "retro hard" vision of the author and don't mind skill related challenges, but having to take leap of faith with life or death result depending on the random movements of off-screen slimes is no fun, when 15 minutes of progress is at stake.
Control wise, quick tapping is the only viable solution when navigating between spikes, as the default pause between the first btnp register and the following is way too long. There are some pokes to change that default behavior that is unsuited for this game.
Similarly, you can revert the map to it's original state with reload() or fully restart the cart with extcmd('reset') to make replaying more user friendly.
I think these few quality of life changes would make the game go from frustrating to challenging.
A little diamond in the rough, waiting for it's polish to shine.
Finally managed to beat the game. Once you've figured out that you can do the sections in any order you like thanks to the 1234 hub island, it's just a matter of doing them from hardest to easiest :luck based ice+slimes leap of faith section, island 3 with double circling of spike, island 3 where you push blocks in water but can't see enough of the screen to plan without moving, then the rest you just needs to be cautious and patient with slimes. Thankfully, the spike section north of the start is optional or I would never had the patience to do the 4 hard sections until winning all of them in the same game. I feel that crazy section should have an extra life at the end, followed by a one way (block+water) before the 3 so you can see the life from the 3 but not grab it without doing the spike gauntlet section.
Victory feels a bit bittersweet as the overall nice map seems filled with missed opportunities :
There are few passageways that you unlock by accessing them from the correct side, and after that you can travel them backwards, but it's never really useful to do so. There is a nice sokoban puzzle from a 4 that allows you to reach back south of the start, but you don't need to do it and it's faster anyway to wrap to the 2 west of the start if you want to reach the center from that point.
The map is full of keys, but the only one you'll ever really need is the first you are given right from the start. If you go west from the start where a few gems are behind the door, every single gem of the game is already reachable without key from that point on.
@RealShadowCaster I just updated the game to fix some of the problems you mentioned. It should be a little easier in some areas now. Thanks for playtesting!
Tried the new version on mobile but couldn’t see much ; there is a leftover debug code that insta kills you when pressing x. X is next to my right hand thumb on my phone, and I get to play 30 seconds max before hitting it by mistake. Will properly try it on keyboard in 10 hours when I go home. Thanks for the game restart btw.
With some effort, it is possible to softlock yourself in the sokoban section south of the start if you wall off every exit with a crate.
Maybe add a menu continue/die when pressing X ?
Thanks for the extra life and overall map fixes. It makes exploring much less stressful. The alternate ending was... weird ? 4th wall breaking ?
I tried to figure out what the secret was behind the weird "random move" tiles, and had a good chuckle when I figured it out.
The different doors and crates west from the start are screaming "secret" now that you can move them across sections.
For example, it is possible to move a crate to some slimes by using teleport 1 to push them east, but you unfortunately can't crush them with it. Felt it might be worthy of another life.
There's also a trick to save crates : on the part where you used to have to use 4 crates on each side, you can now use 4 crates and a key. If you want to have as much crates up as possible while still getting all the gems, you can use 6 crates only by making a T shape and using one crate from the top to reach the path carved from the bottom.
Unfortunately, those crates are blocked by the ice of the small island hub, no secret on that side either.
Better keyboard handling would still be welcome for the spike section. Do you need help with that ?
@RealShadowCaster
I uploaded a new version.
You can hold Z or X while using arrow keys to auto-walk.
This should hopefully save your fingers some stress.
@MrGoober, the auto-walk is great, I'm using it almost all the time, but tend to die when I forget to release it before moving diagonally with two quick taps : the first key press is often ignored in that case.(works perfectly if the run button is released)
When you die while the run button is pressed, it sometimes registers as a button press and immediately restarts the game, couldn't determine when it does and when it doesn't.
The kill self option in the pause menu should be in position two, I erased my high score by mistake. (add a confirmation maybe ?) At least it reset my 3 digits DTH count of shame...
Oh, I left the game open last morning and when I came back home, the time counter was glitchy and counting backwards ? I mistakenly moved and died while trying to take a screenshot, sorry.
@RealShadowCaster
Yeah I noticed the bug about if you're holding down Z or X and die, it will just spit you into a new game.
The timer glitch happens because the time() function is called every tick to update the on-screen time. If I remember correctly, this will wrap around to -32768 after 32767 seconds of play time elapsed. This is likely why it showed this. The minus sign isn't displayed because I didn't program it / do graphics to show it.
You're free to mod this cart for your own liking if you want to build on it. For now I'm kinda over it :p
Ok, thanks a lot for all the updates. Do you want me to post future mods here or would you rather I keep them offline ?
i assume this is somewhat based off Chip's Challenge?
it's cool
@Fnorfensuld
Heavily inspired from Chip's Challenge.
Feel free to mod / make your own levels!
-- 2024-03-30: -- * gemman is now a person, not -- an arrow. he has red gloves -- * you can kill slimes with -- corks now (orange blocks). -- corks will become soaked -- when doing so -- * changed early slime section -- to have active corks for -- new functionality -- * auto-walk functionality is -- more responsive -- * swapped 'kill self'/'clear -- score' menu items -- (realshadowcaster) |
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