Gruniożerca 2

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M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

calima wrote:I think the teleporter was a reflex-needing mechanic? I had to try it dozens of times before I could get the jump timing right, to get Grunio up to the top right.
It shouldn't be. Any time you need to jump into a portal, success is based on position, not timing. There are a few instances when you can place blocks while falling, but all can also be handled by placing blocks before, IIRC.
calima
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by calima »

Huh, the only way I could make it was if I managed to jump twice, the second jump on the exact moment you touch the teleporter, leading you to essentially jump again when you teleport out.
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

Momentum carries through the teleporter, so position jumping from should be the only determining factor, although I admit that we don't communicate that clearly in the game.

I'm just not sure if it's better to forcibly teach the portal leap earlier in a simple puzzle (allowing the player to solve the later puzzle more easily) or keep it relatively unrevealed , to increase the sense of success once it's figured out later (although there is a high likelihood players discover it on their own in the first stage with a portal due to the player's starting position).

After some early feedback, I was previously in the former camp and was planning to alter stage layout to achieve it, but a recent video longplay showed someone someone figuring it out, and I now think it's worth keeping in as is, as the feeling of accomplishment shown definitely wouldn't have been as strong if he'd done so in a simpler, more obvious puzzle earlier.
lidnariq
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by lidnariq »

I like this...

I have one unimportant gripe: I find it surprising to be able to place a block on top of Grunio and thus lose the level. (poor smooshy pigger)
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

@Lidnariq
Thanks. Yeah, surprising is kind of what we going for there. Maybe a little fun for folks to try and see if they can catch all of the different death dialogues.

I know it's a bit late, but if anyone didn't have a chance to finish, and wanted to see the ending, you can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/O9zFSLvBfmQ (or check it out for yourself in the FCEUX savestate attached):

There's also a password list if you wanted to see stages past wherever you stopped.

The ending text references the opening quote for Stage 12, seen in this screenshot:
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Bananmos
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by Bananmos »

Awesome game! Nice graphics, catchy music and I really like good puzzle games.

I loved the Polish subtitles too. My Polish reading is quite weak TBH, but it's rare to see a NES game with Polish language, so I'm taking this opportunity to practice :)

One thing I did find annoying so far: On one of the levels I accidentally hit the door when I was intending to still grab the carrot. It would be nice if the door only activated on a certain keypress to avoid accidental loss of carrots.
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

Thanks, Bananmos.

Since judging seems to be over (or nearly at least), we posted an updated version. Ultimately, we decided on only minor updates (better transitions between player states mostly, as well as removing the bug causing the occasional black screen crash). We discussed it but opted against altering input or adding the ability to re-enter stages, justifying the latter by the game's relatively short length and the desire to keep passwords simple (and the former by wanting to focus on our next project). If the Action 53 carts allow saving of progress, I think that'd be the ideal time to add the ability to go back and get carrots.

Download link in OP is updated (full revision list in download), but you can download below too:
cppchriscpp
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by cppchriscpp »

Finally got around to playing this, I really liked the main character's sprite! The puzzle mechanics worked really well too. My only "complaint" is that I found myself accidentally placing blocks when I meant to cancel. This would've been a major annoyance if there were a lives system, but it was only a minor annoyance the way it is. Well done!
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Myask
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by Myask »

This was a fun game, mostly.

[li][*]I'll get al the carrots!
[*]Crud, it froze, I didn't write down my pwd.
[*]Restart, then, writing down pwds.
[*]OK, exited without getting carrot accidentally. I can enter pwd, though…
[*]but now I'm on levl 9 with 0 carrots? that sucks.
[/li]
(~5 more freezes omitted)

The combination of freezes (observed: on death, on restart, on level entry: so, probably level entry/load code) and passwords not saving carrots, and also the doors taking you out instantly but trying to redo with password removing your carrot progress, were both quite unhappy experiences. It then froze again at level 5 once I'd learned how to get all carrots (having gotten bad ending in process), so I had to restart again…which was just the frustration cherry on top.

There were also a few times the music got bugged when going to the map screen.
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

I'm really sorry for the frustrations, but thank you for bearing through them to play the game through to the end.

The crashes (add occasional BGM errors you noticed) were being caused at BGM changes (and unfortunately didn't show up during the last couple of weeks of testing, so it was a disappointment when reports of them starting showing up after)

However, we've so far managed to get them worked out in the latest version, so if anyone notices any errors in Rev.1, we would appreciate a head's up so we can look into it again.

Also, considering they're the top complaint, we'll reconsider doing something about tracking carrot progression and minimizing consequences for exiting without a carrot.
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nin-kuuku
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by nin-kuuku »

Pushing A+Start kills the game.
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

We'll that's definitely a report-worthy bug. Just managed to trigger it myself as well. Difficult to get the timing just right to trigger it, but definitely happens. Thanks for letting us know. We'll add it to the list of things to correct.
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Myask
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by Myask »

More in line of a feature request than bug, but perhaps consider having switches trigger if down is held and you're in the right area? The change of state being unidirectional per-switch seems adequate for preventing retriggers, and this would make the required jump-pulls of switches much easier.

edit: I forgot to mention that many of the unrevised-version crashes did not recover on Reset, but remained frozen. So…yeah.

(ed2: short reset; long reset still got back to PowerPak menu)

ed3: the little gif of the Game Pak going into/out of the sleeve/box is adorable.

p.s. the manual has a typo(both languages): "PowerPack" should be PowerPak.
M_Tee
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Re: Gruniożerca 2

Post by M_Tee »

Thanks, we'll fix that manual typo. I try to maintain accuracy when it comes to branded usage, but had actually never even noticed that one (that means I've mistyped it often in the past as well).

Anyway, a little feature on the game / series (in Polish):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRApV7KoRI
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