Really cool game, on my way to get all the stars, 8 left. I have a question about the design, is it doable to get all three stars in the same attempt in all the levels?
Cheers, glad you're enjoying it. There was a plan to do a 'master run' achievement which was to do the stars all in one go on each level but I wanted to keep the game as a relaxing, play at your own pace platformer. In my play testing all but 'Level 15: A Tight Fit' are possible to 3 star in one go. This level needs about 30-60 seconds more because getting all the coins requires end-to-end in the level which isn't really possible with the 2 minutes par time it has currently.
Thank you for the reply, on one hand I welcome that there is no master mode because I think I would be compelled to get it done, on the other, it feels like cheating going for the stars in different runs. I have 2 stars missing only, from the last level, but all in all, it is hard but rewarding and it feels doable.
I played through this game pver the weekend and enjoyed it! I got every star.
I do feel like a master run attempt is exactly what this game is missing to provide the challenge to make it more fun - if the intent is truly to just get each star separately than at the very least I think a few changes are in order, since they are usually very trivial to get when going for them individually:
- The par times are way too high; they seem to be set assuming you are trying to get all the stars in one go. When only getting this star individually it was trivial to do so and I was always way under par; sometimes by full minutes. the times should be a lot lower if the intent is to get that time while also dying and ignoring coins.
- Additionally, its sad that not dying and getting coins have no use at all when affecting par times. Dying at least sets you back to a checkpoint but sometimes this can be abused where dying is FASTER than traveling back unscathed. Perhaps each coin could lower your time by a few seconds, and each death could add ten or something like that? And the par times could be adjusted to reflect this.
- The coin challenges are often trivial as well since you can collect the coins from difficult spots and then die and keep those coins collected. If you die, it should respawn the coins that you collected since the last checkpoint, so that you have to collect them again for it to count. This still lets you use checkpoints to save your progress and allow deaths when going for that star alone, but will actually require you to get each coin the "right way" and travel back to the checkpoint or main path without dying while trying to get them.
- For a game that encourages replaying levels its very annoying that there is not a quick way to restart the level when you mess up (going into the menu every time). Especially since the game never uses the B button for anything. Can't you just make holding B for a few seconds reset the whole level so we dont have to scroll through the menu every time?
- All of the flyong enemies use the same bat sprites even though they have different behavior, which makes ot hard to tell what they will do at a glance. If you dont want to source different graphics fpr the horizontal, vertical, circular, and random moving bats, it would at least be nice to have different graphics for the random ones sonce the rest a move on a set path. Maybe little ghost sprites would work well as a flying enemy alternative for the random ones?
This was a fun little game but with a few tweaks like the changes above I think it would be a lot easier to recommend to other people and would definitely be on more folks' radar.
Finally, any chance you will update this with achievement functionality now that playdate achievements are a thing? I'd love to at least have a trophy for this game sitting in my trophy case after getting every star if nothing else! If you add achievements that could be a fun way to still give an achievement for beating each level, getting all stars separately, or completing the "master run" of all 25 levels, so that players can still feel like they finished the game and got some achievement put of it and aren't forced into doing master runs if they don't feel like going for the extra achievement.
Uff there's a blast from the past. I think I played the C64 version back in the day - it's true, I saw the asset pack I used with the character and was trying to think what it reminded me of, it must be Lode Runner.
Watched some refresher vids and it does have some interesting mechanics that could be expanded on using the platformer code I've done. We'll see ;)
This looks great! Is there any reason for me to wait for the Catalog release? Like online high scores or anything? Or am I just as well getting it here now?
Hi slider, at the moment I've got no dates for anything and I'm not sure if they will give access to the network API which some games have on the Playdate Catalog. If there's demand and I can do it for both the Catalog and the itch version I would probably add a leaderboard just for fastest level completion times which makes the most sense.
So the main choice is simply, if you buy on the Catalog it's part of your Playdate account and will update automatically. If you buy here you just have to sideload and update yourself when there's a new version.
Wow...lovely review, thanks so much. All fair comments on the level select, it's true it could be better so you get a more global view of all the levels available and your status on each a bit more instantly. I'll add the video to this page if that's ok. Thanks again.
Great game! I'm having fun with it, and it's challenging to get all the stars but fun.
I want to provide some feedback:
A better way to restart/retry a level is needed. When you want to get all the stars, you end up retrying a level many times. Opening the menu to do it, then moving up two times, then pressing A, waiting a little bit, and pressing A again, is too much. Maybe you can add an option when you die to just press A to continue, or hold B for a second to restart the level.
In level 14, the platforms that you move with the crank at the end of the level are too difficult to align. They're too separate and move at a different pace, breaking the flow of the level. It's like that section in particular is way more hard than the whole previous part of the same level.
In level 15 I don't know if it's really possible to get the time star. The level is long if you want to get all the coins, and even if I thought I was fast enough, it turns out I needed to do it in 1 minute less. It's too much of a difference. Maybe I'm missing a shortcut?
Hi Jorge. Glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for the feedback.
* Tough one this, I'll have to have a think what I could that is quicker - maybe even just changing the order in the menu so that restart is first - actually not sure if I can even highlight it by default. I wanted the player to have a bit of control so it shows the level card and you decide when to start the timer - which for a no death run can be multiple clicks to just get going again, I agree.
* Again, it's true - getting the setup for the moving platforms is hardest on this level compared to the rest. I wanted the movable platforms to be a bit organic and although it's hard to know, there is actually a large range for the jump to fall on to the second platform nearer to the exit. Might be worth adding another static platform so you get a second chance to go back and edit the positions on the crank
* The stars are awarded in any order, you don't have to get all three in one go. You can do the coin run star first then go for the time/zero deaths. I was going to put in a 'master mode' which required getting all three stars at once but it would require way more testing of the par times.
Hehe, sorry that's not explained but I didn't want to make it too difficult so you can play levels at your own pace, get the coins first and learn the layout then go for zero deaths then fast time or whichever order you want :)
As I said, I may do a master mode in an update which would switch the levels to need you to complete all stars in one go, but that needs some deep testing to make sure everything is possible with the current par times. Plus I would need to think of a reward for doing all the levels in master mode.
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Really cool game, on my way to get all the stars, 8 left. I have a question about the design, is it doable to get all three stars in the same attempt in all the levels?
Cheers, glad you're enjoying it. There was a plan to do a 'master run' achievement which was to do the stars all in one go on each level but I wanted to keep the game as a relaxing, play at your own pace platformer. In my play testing all but 'Level 15: A Tight Fit' are possible to 3 star in one go. This level needs about 30-60 seconds more because getting all the coins requires end-to-end in the level which isn't really possible with the 2 minutes par time it has currently.
Thank you for the reply, on one hand I welcome that there is no master mode because I think I would be compelled to get it done, on the other, it feels like cheating going for the stars in different runs. I have 2 stars missing only, from the last level, but all in all, it is hard but rewarding and it feels doable.
I played through this game pver the weekend and enjoyed it! I got every star.
I do feel like a master run attempt is exactly what this game is missing to provide the challenge to make it more fun - if the intent is truly to just get each star separately than at the very least I think a few changes are in order, since they are usually very trivial to get when going for them individually:
- The par times are way too high; they seem to be set assuming you are trying to get all the stars in one go. When only getting this star individually it was trivial to do so and I was always way under par; sometimes by full minutes. the times should be a lot lower if the intent is to get that time while also dying and ignoring coins.
- Additionally, its sad that not dying and getting coins have no use at all when affecting par times. Dying at least sets you back to a checkpoint but sometimes this can be abused where dying is FASTER than traveling back unscathed. Perhaps each coin could lower your time by a few seconds, and each death could add ten or something like that? And the par times could be adjusted to reflect this.
- The coin challenges are often trivial as well since you can collect the coins from difficult spots and then die and keep those coins collected. If you die, it should respawn the coins that you collected since the last checkpoint, so that you have to collect them again for it to count. This still lets you use checkpoints to save your progress and allow deaths when going for that star alone, but will actually require you to get each coin the "right way" and travel back to the checkpoint or main path without dying while trying to get them.
- For a game that encourages replaying levels its very annoying that there is not a quick way to restart the level when you mess up (going into the menu every time). Especially since the game never uses the B button for anything. Can't you just make holding B for a few seconds reset the whole level so we dont have to scroll through the menu every time?
- All of the flyong enemies use the same bat sprites even though they have different behavior, which makes ot hard to tell what they will do at a glance. If you dont want to source different graphics fpr the horizontal, vertical, circular, and random moving bats, it would at least be nice to have different graphics for the random ones sonce the rest a move on a set path. Maybe little ghost sprites would work well as a flying enemy alternative for the random ones?
This was a fun little game but with a few tweaks like the changes above I think it would be a lot easier to recommend to other people and would definitely be on more folks' radar.
Finally, any chance you will update this with achievement functionality now that playdate achievements are a thing? I'd love to at least have a trophy for this game sitting in my trophy case after getting every star if nothing else! If you add achievements that could be a fun way to still give an achievement for beating each level, getting all stars separately, or completing the "master run" of all 25 levels, so that players can still feel like they finished the game and got some achievement put of it and aren't forced into doing master runs if they don't feel like going for the extra achievement.
You could turn this into a sweet remake of Lode Runner.
Uff there's a blast from the past. I think I played the C64 version back in the day - it's true, I saw the asset pack I used with the character and was trying to think what it reminded me of, it must be Lode Runner.
Watched some refresher vids and it does have some interesting mechanics that could be expanded on using the platformer code I've done. We'll see ;)
I'll keep hoping!
This looks great! Is there any reason for me to wait for the Catalog release? Like online high scores or anything? Or am I just as well getting it here now?
Hi slider, at the moment I've got no dates for anything and I'm not sure if they will give access to the network API which some games have on the Playdate Catalog. If there's demand and I can do it for both the Catalog and the itch version I would probably add a leaderboard just for fastest level completion times which makes the most sense.
So the main choice is simply, if you buy on the Catalog it's part of your Playdate account and will update automatically. If you buy here you just have to sideload and update yourself when there's a new version.
Such a great wee game. Small review if anyone is interested - apologies for the game music level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3hhziU0Cv0
Wow...lovely review, thanks so much. All fair comments on the level select, it's true it could be better so you get a more global view of all the levels available and your status on each a bit more instantly. I'll add the video to this page if that's ok. Thanks again.
Great game! I'm having fun with it, and it's challenging to get all the stars but fun.
I want to provide some feedback:
Hi Jorge. Glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for the feedback.
* Tough one this, I'll have to have a think what I could that is quicker - maybe even just changing the order in the menu so that restart is first - actually not sure if I can even highlight it by default. I wanted the player to have a bit of control so it shows the level card and you decide when to start the timer - which for a no death run can be multiple clicks to just get going again, I agree.
* Again, it's true - getting the setup for the moving platforms is hardest on this level compared to the rest. I wanted the movable platforms to be a bit organic and although it's hard to know, there is actually a large range for the jump to fall on to the second platform nearer to the exit. Might be worth adding another static platform so you get a second chance to go back and edit the positions on the crank
* The stars are awarded in any order, you don't have to get all three in one go. You can do the coin run star first then go for the time/zero deaths. I was going to put in a 'master mode' which required getting all three stars at once but it would require way more testing of the par times.
Oooh, and I was retrying all the time trying to get all 3 stars in one run on each level xD
Now that I know this, I can finally replay lvl 15 just trying to get the time star :D
Hehe, sorry that's not explained but I didn't want to make it too difficult so you can play levels at your own pace, get the coins first and learn the layout then go for zero deaths then fast time or whichever order you want :)
As I said, I may do a master mode in an update which would switch the levels to need you to complete all stars in one go, but that needs some deep testing to make sure everything is possible with the current par times. Plus I would need to think of a reward for doing all the levels in master mode.
All stars collected. Not posting the image at the end to prevent spoilers.
Great game! It was really fun, one of those that makes you start cursing but retry over and over again.
Woo! Glad you fully completed it, hope some of the later levels kept you on your toes for the zero death run 😁
Thanks for the feedback.
The last level was much harder originally but even I found the challenge got to the point of not being fun, so I toned it down a bit.
Good to hear people can get through it with a bit of perseverance 😊
This is superb! Posting a review next Wednesday (31st). Great work from the whole team.
Thanks a million. Will link the video here when it's up.