xxdoombox 2017-04-26 01:09
hey im unable to run your game. im using windows, i downloaded the zip and extracted all the files. when i click on the .bat file a console (command prompt) screen flashes for like a millisecond and disappears.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Strangeness
By philomory and lostwombat
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 537 | 3.10 | 62 | |
| Fun | 452 | 3.03 | 61 | |
| Innovation | 533 | 2.84 | 61 | |
| Theme | 694 | 2.56 | 60 | |
| Graphics | 673 | 2.51 | 60 | |
| Audio | 349 | 2.96 | 58 | |
| Humor | 514 | 2.23 | 49 | |
| Mood | 546 | 2.92 | 58 |
hey im unable to run your game. im using windows, i downloaded the zip and extracted all the files. when i click on the .bat file a console (command prompt) screen flashes for like a millisecond and disappears.
@xxdoombox Was the batch file called run.bat or Strangeness.bat? There's seems to be some AWS caching issue for bitbucket, I'm getting different versions even downloading it from two different computers in the same house.
In the meantime I've uploaded it with a new filename, which may work better.
The sound effects are much louder than the music. I learned this the hard way, after adjusting the volume to suit the music.
On entering the first level, it was very unclear what terrain was passable and what wasn't. It was quick enough to work out but the bushes you can pass through really have no right to be there.
On the whole, I very much enjoyed the design of the puzzles. They're devilishly difficult, and have a slight air of "gotcha" to them, but they're small enough in scope that they're not frustrating to solve. Unfortunately, their presentation leaves a bit to be desired.
The mechanics you have to work with are a bit unintuitive though. enemies can pass through boulders if the boulders are moving, boulders can pass through walls but not through keys. I feel like with some stronger visual indicators you could remove a whole chunk of the annoyance that comes from figuring out the solution to a puzzle, and then realizing that the world doesn't work the way you expected, and having to repeat it again while cursing the developers.
On each turn, each enemy takes its turn in order. This means that when a lot of enemies are in a level, I have to wait between each move. With a game where I have to repeat each puzzle a dozen times to work out the solution, this did get on my nerves. The better option, I think, would have been for each enemy to move simultaneously to the player.
Despite those flaws though, I really enjoyed this game. It made me feel a bit stupid for trying to grab keys I didn't need and generally poked fun at the fact I never looked far enough into the level. I don't know that this design style would have worked in a much larger scope, but for this title it's perfect. Thanks for the game.
@amras0000 Thanks for your feedback! Enemies passing through boulders was a bug I was aware of but didn't have time to fix; Boulders going into walls was a bug I actually hadn't noticed until you pointed it out. Both should be fixed in an upcoming post-jam update version.
That enemies move one-at-a-time was originally intended, but I agree it was a bad decision; in the post-jam version, all enemies will move simultaneously.
I've had a few other people mention the issue with the bushes. For that one, I agree it's a problem. For the Jam, I should have just removed the bushes entirely since they don't affect any of the puzzles that made it into the jam version of the game. The idea was to give you tiles you can move through, but that enemies can't, and that you can't throw rocks through. Possibly in the post-jam version I'll come up with a replacement graphic that's more clear, or maybe I'll just remove them after all.
For what it's worth, putting a bush directly in your only path at the start of level 1 was specficially intended to teach the player that they could walk through them, but I guess it didn't work as well as I'd hoped :stuck_out_tongue:
Again, though, thanks for the feedback! I'm glad to hear the puzzles came off the way I had intended (not making you feel stupid, specifically, but that 'gotcha' feeling, which I thought would work well to make tiny puzzles still be interesting). I was worried they'd be too easy, or too hard, since this is really my first time doing puzzle design like this.
Oh also, regarding the sound effects, yes, they are too loud. A future update will add volume sliders, but in the mean time I should probably adjust them downwards.
I played the bug-fix version. It is a puzzle alright and a competent one at that. I found the levels quite easy, but then again I've played a lot of these *push rocks, avoid enemies* puzzles.
The audio visuals are most certainly strange, if that is what the name is alluding to. Unfortunately I also find them rather off-putting.
The only annoyance I have with the mechanics is the inability to wait a turn. Having to waltz around, trying to line up the right moment is just plain silly.
Other than that, it's a fine entry. Have a :space_invader:
I noticed the .bat didn't run if I had spaces in my file path. I don't know much about Ruby so I don't know if it's easy to fix or not.
Anyways, like @huvaakoodia said, the inability to wait a turn was bothering the gameplay experience a bit. Also, I kinda wanted to move quickly around, and in levels with lot's of enemies, there's an awkward pause when you wait for the enemies to move one by one. Besides those points, it's a nice game! Why is the character so sad though? :D
@jushiip: Thanks for the heads up, the issue with spaces has now been fixed in both the Jam and Post-Jam downloads (it's not an issue with the game's Ruby code, it's just a flaw in the Batch file)
The character is sad because there was supposed to be a (very limited) story of sorts as a framing device for the game, but I had to cut it, didn't have time. So instead we're just left with a sad main character. Long story short, though, he's sad because the world is disintegrating, he's surrounded by monsters, and he can't remember why. Wouldn't you be sad?
Neat take on the theme!
I really enjoyed how challenging it was at times (though admittedly I'm not too great at puzzle games), and the only thing I would really suggest is the ability to wait a turn.
The music is nice and catchy, and the art style is charming. Great job. :)
Your game reminded me a lot to "Chip's Challenge" and I LOVE that game.
I had a lot of fun with this game! I don't have much feedback, maybe the music could be a bit less repetitive, but in the end fits perfectly in the style of the game.
Good Work!
I liked the way enemies moved in loops, so that the puzzle aspect was figuring out when to time your moves and rock attacks. I felt a pretty big sense of achievement when I finally beat the first level haha. On the second level, how would you get to the key in the top right corner? Maybe I missed a control or something, but I couldn't even move onto the space.
Overall though, really great job! I liked it a lot. :)
Making the enemies part of the puzzle while still leaving all that time to think is really great! after a while I felt like turning the music off though..
@joe-cowman, you can't get that key. You only need (and it is only possible to get) one of the three keys. The other two are traps.
Peek-a-boo! :cat: Came back to leave ratings!
Hey! I tried playing the Mac version but it didn't work (seems to just crash instantly but with no error message).
Hey, I had same problem like @xavier-indie-gamedev
@xavier-indie-gamedev What version of MacOS are you running? The current build probably only works on 10.11.x and 10.12.x.
If you have a chance, could you try running the game from Terminal to see if you get any error output? To run the game from Terminal, open a new Terminal window and type `cd` and a space, then drag Strangeness.app onto the Terminal window. That should put the full path to the application in your Terminal window (e.g. `cd /Users/adam/Downloads/Strangeness.app`), so press enter. After that, type `Contents/MacOS/Strangeness` and press enter. The application should launch, and if there's any error output you should see it in the Terminal window when the application crashes.
I'll see about adding friendlier error logging to a future update of the Mac version.
**EDIT**: I think the problem may be that I didn't bundle SDL2.dylib with the game, so if you didn't have it installed yourself (or didn't have it installed in the same path I did), the game wouldn't be able to find it. If you have homebrew, you can try `brew install sdl2`, otherwise, I'll have an updated build posted shortly).
**EDIT2**: Updated build posted!
First of all nice to see someone using Ruby!!! Now regarding the gameplay the puzzles were neat but thought that maybe they were on the easier side. I found the art quite appealing. So yeah great job there and you've definitely got something that you can expand on in the future.
Reminds me of adventures of Lolo! Great job.
Solid puzzle design! First level was a bit on the tough side (at first I mistakenly assumed I needed the 2nd rock for the right side, so I beat my head against a wall trying to do the left side with only 1 rock for a bit) so maybe a simple tutorial level would have helped. I wish the controls were a bit more responsive too, having to wait to move made the game a bit frustrating. Got to level 3 before I got stuck. Nice work, keep it up!
This is GREATTTTTT i love it. The introduction of a stun system to a turn based synchronisation puzzle is genius. Very very impressive mechanics. Some notes
- In the final level, the enemy in the bottom right can't be identified until it kills you once. Enemies 'looking upwards' will have this problem, I suppose. - Perhaps too much emphasis on red herrings in the puzzle design, but thats a matter of taste. in particular in the first level that has shooting enemies, I was thrown off by the boulder (i see why it was there to show me that it blocks lasers, but it led me to forget all about my rocks to throw...). - I would probably prefer if the controls were 'wasd move, arrows to throw rock' instead of holding shift. But that is a minor point. - There is a lot you can do to add to this. Step counter, different enemies.
My only wish is that there was more :D
@stoogebag: I'm glad you liked it, I was quite pleased with your entry as well. In response to your specific points:
* This is definitely a problem, but it was the last level I designed during the Jam, and by the time I put the enemy in and realized the problem I had no time left to fix it. My plan is to just mirror-flip the level top-to-bottom so that the enemy faces south instead of north. Just haven't had time yet. * I'm working on this, but, every time I make a new puzzle I end up adding just a bit more tricks and red herrings, and then just a bit more, and before I know it I the puzzle isn't so straightforward anymore. I think once I get these "wouldn't it be cool if?" ideas out of my head and onto 'paper', I'll be able to sit down and design some 'normal' levels. * Originally, the controls _were_ WASD to move, and arrows to throw. When I was play-testing it, though, it felt all wrong, even though that's how I control The Binding of Isaac, which I have hundreds of hours in. So I changed it. Regardless, configurable controls are coming, including a choice between modifier-for-throw and separate-keys-for-throw. * I've already started, with a batch of four levels revolving around buttons that open and close barriers. Plenty of ideas for new enemies, too, including one that acts like the Pacer, but when hit with a rock turns 90 degrees instead of getting stunned. Unfortunately I'm quite busy with work, and do want to also participate in judging, so it's slow going so far.
If you _really_ want a preview, post-jam source link always points to the current Tip of my repository. So even though I haven't packaged up new builds with the new levels, you *can* find them. Probably easier to wait for me to post the next build, though :stuck_out_tongue:
There are some bugs and the art is not the best, but it's okay for a little jam entry.
I really like this type of game, and the mood it presents! Of course, with the time limitations, you couldn't develop it too much, but the surreal atmosphere was really enjoyable for me. One suggestion for if you want to work on this post-jam, I think an enemy that chases the player would add a real sense of menace that the current enemies are missing. A good showing for 72 hours though!
Puzzles were really good. I enjoyed the game and played it until the end. I wish i I could continue to play :) Thank you for making this game!
Level design and puzzles were a ton of fun! Not too big on the visuals.
@amras0000 said it all. Although I am not too fond of the gotcha level design. I think you could have designed some interesting levels with the turn based aspect alone...
Very interesting puzzle game, the mechanic was really cool and it allowed you to think ahead and pause between the moves to think about the moves. Although it wasn't explained very thoroughly the mechanic made sense immediately. I had a lot of fun but couldn't get passed level 3. This seems like it would fit perfectly for a mobile game.
As others have stated something that was not clear from the instructions was that the enemies could freely pass through boulders and kill you if you push the boulder ontop of it, which probably should have been explained atleast. More types of enemies could be added to add some more variety to the levels. Great work!
@Linus Glad to hear you liked the game! If you found level 3 difficult, you're not alone, several people have complained about it. In the update I'm currently working on that adds new levels, most of the levels in the Jam version won't appear until later in the game, when you've had a chance to get used to the mechanics and tricks.
It wasn't clear from the instructions that the enemies can pass through boulders you push onto them because you're not supposed to be able to push boulders onto enemies in the first place. That's a bug, and It's fixed in the "Post-Jam Bugfix" version.
EDIT: I added a warning about this to the game description.
Hi! Mac build (both pre- and post-jam) is still failing. An excerpt of the error message (if I cd into `Strangeness.app` and run `MacOS/Strangeness` directly from there:
``` /Users/mcowan/Downloads/Strangeness.app/Contents/Resources/lib/yaml.rb:5:in `
I tried doing a local `gem install psych`, but that didn't fix it for me. I have fink installed, so I also did an `apt-get install libyaml`. That didn't work. Neither did copying `libyaml-0.2.dylib` into `Strangeness.app/Frameworks` - apparently it actually has to be the `/usr/local/opt` directory. What _did_ work, was creating that directory path (as root, via sudo) and copying the dylib file there. So I got it working for _me_... but most people will have more of a challenge in getting `libyaml-0.2.dylib` in the first place (unless, like me, they're a "fink" user), and copying to that absolute path is definitely a hassle. Maybe there's some other path within the `Strangeness.app` that would work, but I didn't find it.
Great, solid little game! Congratulations!
I especially like how many of your puzzles will fake you out into thinking you solve it a particular way (misdirection).
@micahcowan Thanks for the heads up! I've uploaded a new build that has libyaml properly bundled with the application, so future users shouldn't need to go through the same process you did. But, I'm glad you got the game working, and glad you liked it!
For reference, the issue isn't about where in the app bundle you copied it; in order to address the issue, you need to use install_name_tool (bundled with the Xcode command line toolchain) to tell psych.bundle where to expect to find it. I had already gone through this process with libruby.dylib and libSDL2.dylib, but had forgotten about libyaml.dylib.
If this were a 'normal' compiled application the build toolchain would take care of this stuff, but making an app out of a non-compilable scripting language is a bit of an unusual case.
Very clever puzzle design. Like the cute art and the retro like background music. Congrats for your cool entry!
Nice puzzles, although the enemies were hard to interact with. They'd often remain stationary in one place and not let you past, but they wouldn't kill you, even if you touched them.
@puppetmaster I'm glad you enjoyed the game!
@toonteamj Thank you for reminding me! I had planned to fix that in the post-jam version, but then never wrote it down and forgot to do so. That's now fixed in my work-in-progress version; now, if you walk into an enemy it kills you, just like if it walks into you. So now if you get trapped by an enemy you don't need to remember that R restarts the level, you can just touch the enemy to restart.
Well made, much balance, so game! keep on jammin'!
Interesting game.
At first I missed a key to wait a turn and let enemies move. Seems a bit unfair but I understand some puzzles are based on not having this moment.
I liked the puzzles.
Took me sometime to notice that rocks can be pushed. And feels a bit strange the behaviour of rocks they cannot be pushed over keys but can be pushed over enemies or empty spaces outside...
I got stuck in level 5 ...
This is a decent puzzle game. You got a good amount of content in here for such a short time frame. I like the music a lot, and the sounds were good, too. And a few of the levels were neat in that you can beat them in multiple ways.
A few things, though:
* I pushed a rock onto a monster that was facing me, and the monster moved through it and I died. I didn't expect to be able to push the rock at all. * Level 4 was confusing. I like the laser monsters, but it was difficult to tell when they were looking "up" versus "down". I thought it had something to do with the rock. I ended up just needed to time it right. * It's not intuitive that you can push the rocks in the space that you cannot actually walk.
I think you have a good sense for making puzzles, and I would definitely have played more of them. Thanks!
Excellent game! Love the puzzles you created. Good job on slowly introducing mechanics that interact together in interesting ways. Loved it!
Very solid game. Love the puzzles, actually made me think about my actions! Really enjoyed this, great work!
Great game, lots of fun! Needs some tutorial levels, and more time will make an awesome, complete feeling game. Great work!
Played the post-jam version; personally i find that kind of bugs to be game-breaking so i feel like it's okay for me.
I've played a lot of this kind of games. And I still love turn based puzzle games. Nice level design but far too easy.
Reminds me to Lolo for example. I would change the eye looking enemies to make them even more clearer.
As for other's comments: I don't mind red herrings; if done well they add to the game. I don't mind not having a wait key, but I can understand it can feel unintuitive for other people. I also like to learn the rules of the monsters and I feel the rules are clear enough. Not understood the shooting through the key bit but I get the idea what yiu wanted so I can finish that.
I like this genre, and although this game feels a bit easy to me, it does have potential. Great work!
Edit: I like the current control scheme.
Nice game. The graphics look decent for the most part, the music is pretty good and the sound effects are appropriate. The text between each level helps to add a bit of atmosphere. I like all the different puzzle elements and how they end up being combined in different ways. I would have liked it to be longer, but the short length is understandable given the time-frame.
This is brilliant - very clever puzzle design! The graphics are okay, but I like the fact that the entire concentration is on the puzzle design! The first level was comparatively harder than the rest that followed though. One particular thing I didn't like was the somewhat inconsistency in which level you're allowed to shoot (like level 3 for example - which is also my favorite level so far hahah). But overall, very impressive!
Well done on the audio, sfx and animation! Took me a bit to figure out rocks don't kill. :) Great puzzle design, quite good!
Well done! I had a lot of fun playing but unfortunately got stuck in level 5 haha. Great graphics too :)
Interesting entry! I quite liked the graphics and sound, gave me the feeling of an old PC demo disk of the front of a magazine (ah, nostalgia). I think the main area for improvement would be to try and communicate some of the mechanics better? For example, it took me a while to realise I could push rocks - so rather than trying to work out the solution to the puzzle I couldn't continue till I walked into the right area of the environment.
On the whole though, enjoyed myself. Thanks for sharing, well done!
Nice game! Groovin' soundtrack and an overall cool vibe!
A ruby game, that's impressive! I like that levels have some extra keys/enemies just to distract player's attention and the most of levels not that hard as you can assume at first.
I'm not an artist so I can't give a proper feedback on a visual part, the only thing I can emphasize is that walls should be more contrast to represent a blocking object and more depth value; while grass must be a bit brighter since it's just a floor. And floors better to use pastel colors.
Really well done, Level five had me for a while with the bait key.
Nice puzzle game. The leveldesign is great. The learning curve is a bit off i think. I had the most problems at level one and thought level 2-5 were much easier, but maybe thats just me. :) All in all, I had a fun time playing this game.
Great puzzle game! The level deign is superb - really took me awhile to figure out! Enjoy this a lot! :smile:
Challenging game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxyrl5Tjmjc
@jupiter-hadley Thanks so much for including it! Sorry you weren't able to get the post-jam version to work, it's much easier. Even still, it was really cool to see you play my game!
Adventure of Lolo meet roguelike turn mechanic. This was fun to play and I finished it. The difficulty curve was nicely done. congrats.
I played this on Livestream Today at the request of the Developer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCqO_O0iIo
Very cool Game, I think the puzzles were well done, and definitely challenging. Felt very stupid for not seeing rocks were push-able. Thanks for submitting it!
I really liked it! I got stuck on level 17 (is it even possible?, I got the timing, but not so sure how to get on time to the water), my mind usually is not very good at this kind of stuff, but I managed to understand the whole basic concept and I liked it :).
I found it a little weird that there was a story and then suddenly "Level 7, 8, 9".. But oh well time constraints :p. In any case I like the progression, felt that I was learning along with the game and found it really satisfactory to solve all puzzles :).
I got this weird Lemmings vivbe in the sense that "hey this is the same old level but with a twist!" I have to admit the music can get a little bit grating if stuck too long in the game.
But I enjoyed my time with it :).
PD: Got level 17... it was devilish, but when I was writing this, the solution popped in my head. Great!
I can't solve level 3. NIce puzzle but it's so hard
@doppelgunner: Try the post-jam version; it's much better at ramping up from easier puzzles to harder ones, teaching you how to play. I'm still not 100% happy with it, still working on it, but it's already much better than the Jam version. What was level 3 in the Jam version is now level 11.
@glitchy-pixel I'm glad you liked the game! In particular, I'm glad to get some feedback on the post-jam version, since I think it's a big improvement on the original. Also, in the "final" version I have taking vague shape in my head, the "repeating previous levels with a twist" thing is going to be something of a running theme. So I'm glad you approve.
I like your game, played some levels, but i don't have the calmness to play it to the end, at the moment. How many levels does the game contain? I'll play it again later this evening. Looks good so far. :smiley:
@zorg The jam and bug fix versions contains 5 levels, the post-jam update contains 17 at the moment.
Main character charism: over 9000!
Nice game, good map design, and fun puzzles. Great job!
The game was fun...very clever puzzle design ....The graphics are also okay.Had some problem in gameplay mechanics and bit confused about controls in start but later on it was a fun.i think music was quite loud and the repetition makes it irritating. But overall, nice game! Great Job!
Please do try my game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/sunken-mystery
A simple idea made into a fun little puzzle game. Well done.
Finally played all levels. I liked that the later levels were slight variations of the first puzzles but with a twist. Really nice game, well done! Could work great on mobile, too (maybe swipe to move and double tap to throw rocks?). Do you have any future plans for it?
@zorg I do have plans to expand it a lot. Porting it to mobile is going to be a lot more involved than just figuring out the controls, though, as the development toolchain I'm using doesn't really support it. I could port the game to Unity (which would probably be a good way to learn Unity), or I could roll up my sleeves and help @jlnr with [motion-gosu](https://github.com/gosu/motion-gosu), (which would be a great way to learn about complicated platform internals :stuck_out_tongue:).
Before I do either of those things I'll just be working on more levels and features for the current, plain-Ruby version. I've got a lot of plans, we'll see which of them pan out.
In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!
I was just imagining how it would play on mobile. :smiley: Personally, i have no idea about complicated platform internals and zero interest to learn about it. That's why i'm thankful for having Unity. If you are familiar with programming, porting to Unity should not serve a big problem for you.
Accidental double post, Publish button was doing nothing (and deleting entries is not supported). :/
Nice little puzzle game :) The gameplay and mechanics reminded me of those in old DOS games. Well done :)
First of all, thank you for your incredibly insightful comment on my game.
Having played your I am very pleasantly surprised. The graphics give a rather poor first impression. I liked the puzzles and a steeper than usual learning curve. The ability to throw rocks at enemies gave the game depth while being simple itself, good design! My complaint would regard the level design. On few levels there are extra keys which are absolutely unnecessary (played bug-fixed version) and only confuse the player, distracting from the actual puzzle. This aspect should be improved. Other than that and music being a bit repetitive, it's a great entry!
@spacesparkle I'm glad you liked the game, and it's nice to know my comments on your own game were useful!
For better or worse, those extra keys in level 2 _are_ the puzzle. In that level, there's only one door, and there are three keys; the puzzle is supposed to be figuring out which key it's actually possible to get, and then getting it. The other two keys are essentially traps. Whether that's a good design or not is a matter of opinion, but they _are_ a part of the intended design of the level.
That sort of puzzle design has gotten a mixed response; some players, like yourself, found it distracting; other players, like @micahcowan, found it appealing. The way I decided to handle the issue in my post-jam development is that I'm keeping that sort of misdirection as a part of the game, but only in the later levels, after the player has already mastered the basic mechanics. Hopefully that'll make for a more enjoyable experience.
Thanks for your feedback, and thanks for playing!
This was a surprisingly fun game. I don't usually puzzle games, but this one was interesting enough to keep me attentive. The puzzle difficulty ramped up nicely. I do wish there were more levels in the Jam version. The post jam version added those levels and were fun, though the last was much more difficult than the second to last.
I did like that there were multiple ways to beat some levels.