New puzzle game WIP demo - PixeLink

[Silent-Hunter]

Well I think the game looks nice! Please finish it, don't let people discourage you.

 

[Gandi]

Didn't have the time to test, though and will probably wait for the "final" release....

That's just it though due to the lack of interest in the demo, there probably won't be a "final" version. [...]

Now you really made me feel bad about it :unsure: .


So I quickly downloaded the PND (unfortunately I incidentially took the version from the first post, but hey - it worked veray well, too) and tried it during my sons handball match today.


I really do hope you keep working on this since it's a really nice concept und fun to play. :wub:


At first I was a little puzzled about the huge bunch of numbers but when you start playing you quickly realize what to do.


I really like your games - I loved Frootopia and especially Aqua Venture - they always have a nice look and are fun to play!

I do agree with Levi, that you might have gotten more responses from the "Software" section of the forums. (Maybe you should post a linkt to this Thread there?)

I suppose the "Development" section is manly observerd by people interested in coding....

 

[iprice]

more responses from the "Software" section of the forums

The strap-line/guideline beneath the "Software" forum states - "More information and discussion about different software OS, etc." It also doesn't fit into the "Software News" sub-forum.

This isn't an OS, hence I chose Development/General Discussion, which may not have been entirely appropriate either. This thread is clearly about the development of a new game, but doesn't necessarily fit the options given either.

Perhaps there needs to be a forum specially for demos, betas etc?

When I come to the forum I just use the "View New Content" option - I don't actually look to see which forum they're in (or care). I just want info.

Does it actually make a difference as to whether people can see the post?

 

[Wally]

IMHO technically as it's still in development it's probably better here but I couldn't agree more that we need a beta / demo area.

 

[levi]

I apologise if I seem ungrateful in that last post - it was late and I was having trouble running the pnd 'the normal way I run pnds'.  I wrote that post as I was trying to get it to work, and I did in the end, but you can see the messing around I did to get it working to my own satisfaction.  I left it like that to show the problems I had over the course of the half-hour or so of hacking, but I didn't really consider how it would come across as a post you read in under a minute, and I do apologise for that impression, it was unintended.

I should say that once I played a bit of it I was a lot more impressed - I like the way it counts up as you draw the line, and the fonts and overall design look nice and slick.  Have you got a slightly more challenging puzzle we could try to see how it works when the next step isn't so obvious?

I will just mention that on my system I still need to rename 'Data' to 'data' and set the permissions of pandora-exe.pnd to executable before I can click on it in Thunar or on the desktop to get it to work, but having done that it does work.  I've no idea how it gets the right working directory to load the data files. as from the command line I still need to run it from the Media subdirectory to get it to load the puzzle properly, but I guess I'm showing my lack of knowledge of GUI file managers there.  I strongly suspect if I was running from a FAT formatted SD card it would work exactly as you suggest.

 

[iprice]

Ok. Here's a slightly updated version (with a new puzzle) that is now in the official .PND format. Unzip and place on your SD card (I recommend in the "Desktop" directory just for testing.



I've also updated the very first post with the new .PND too.

PixeLink_v0.06.zip

 

[jasay]

I love the concept and gameplay feedback (thin lines, counting how many squares traveled through, thumbnail in the corner). Not sure if bug report or just early WIP, but when I finished the puzzle (at least pretty sure I finished, there were some white spots left over, but they fit the image and there were no more numbers) the timer continued to count and the third bubbled area still said unsolved. Also, not sure what I did so probably not a useful bug report, but once all of the "1" squares lost their color and I had to go back and refill them.

Shootout to Levi for helping with the linux filesystem stuff and getting me running.

 

[levi]

Thanks for the new release - much easier to run - just unzip and go.  And thanks for the new puzzle - took me 7 and a half minutes to finish with a few mistakes I had to undo, so I got experience of how that worked.

I did get a little confused at one point where I decided to give up on figuring out one line and work on others first.  It might be better if the first element of the line is lit up in some way so you know to double-click that to deselect it.

@jasay Most of that stuff is because it's a prerelease version.  I'm not sure why the 1's got deselected - that sounds weird, but everything else is because this isn't finished yet, as professional as it looks.

 

[iprice]

White areas are NOT counted as part of the puzzle so can cause a little confusion, but they do make up part of the image - in the first puzzle they are sesame seeds on the bun. The newest update has no white areas, but other puzzles do. White areas can help to increase the difficulty of the puzzle if used well. You don't have to fill white areas but you never know where they start or end...

The "1" numbers turning off is actually a feature I put in due to a comment on the GLBasic forums. Someone didn't like filling in the 1s, so I added it automatically at the start of the puzzle. I personally don't like having them visible from the start as they can give away too much of the puzzle, so I click to turn them off. What are the general feelings here? BTW the on/OFF feature will be a toggle in the options of the full version.

BTW the same user didn't like the timer either, but I've left that in - I find it very useful.

A flashing or more indicative cursor to show the start location is something I'd considered doing - it is easy to lose it. Now that you've mentioned it, it will go in

 

[Gandi]

Very nice, indeed!

I'Ve just been playing the new puzzle and it works very well!

(It took me abut 12 minutes though, so I was obviously quite slow.. <_< ).

I would rather like to start from a "clean" board where nothing is selected.

 

[Neelix]

Any chance of making it possible to mark a partial path and move on while leaving it incomplete? 

Sometimes you can see part of a path,  but the layout of the rest is vague. Sometimes marking that part can make other paths obvious. 

Eg  I could see that the 14 at the top had to extend at least one square to the left - so I marked that.   I then tried to mark something else and was frustrated to discover I had to un-mark (or complete) the 14 first.

- Neelix

 

[jasay]

White areas are NOT counted as part of the puzzle . . ..

Personally I like the white cells, timer, and first active line cell indicator idea. The autofilled vs. blank "1"s I'm a little conflicted on. Filling them manually is monotonous and doesn't seem to add anything challenge-wise or satisfaction-wise to the puzzle, but I agree with you about too many clues off the bat.

@jasay Most of that stuff is because it's a prerelease version.

Yeah, I figured as much and even (poorly) tried to mention it as a pssibility in my original post.

Ok. Here's a slightly updated version (with a new puzzle) that is now in the official .PND format. Unzip and place on your SD card (I recommend in the "Desktop" directory just for testing.

Yay! 3 more minutes of fun. Thanks.

 

[pmprog]

Are the only guys that like puzzle games around here me and ED?

Not at all, I like them too I'm afraid I've still not had chance to try it yet though, had a busy weekend, with probably another to come...

 

[ptitSeb]

I tried it.

It plays nicely. Very close to PicPic on the DS.

I'm wondering, do you plan to have puzzle larger than the screen (implementing scrolling)?

 

[iprice]

Yep, I'm working on a large puzzle right now

 

[ptitSeb]

Yep, I'm working on a large puzzle right now

And how will you handle the preview, scroll it too (just curious, I can wait and see when it's done of course)?

 

[iprice]

The preview is scaled down, depending on size of puzzle. Current preview is 8x8pix (pre puzzle piece) - larger puzzles might be 4x4, 2x2 or 1x1...

 

[iprice]

Here's a playable version of the Halloween 2014 theme for Windows pc and Pandora

Windows pc - http://socoder.net/uploads/214/PixeLink.zip

Pandora version - Pandora_PixeLink_Halloween.zip

[EDIT] You can now click on the map to access that portion of the puzzle

 

[ptitSeb]

Hey nice, with a large puzzle! Testing now...

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

@iprice: thanks for another great puzzle game, keep up the good work

Cheers, Magic Sam