Fossil Blastr

automatonvx 2017-04-30 19:23

Ah I really wanted to like it, but the gameplay is just a bit grindy at the moment, methodically working your way through all the blocks. Also on the level i had some of the blocks were in an area i couldn't reach. Also I didn't realise for a while what I had to do with the bones i found, i threw them at the starting area as instructed but not much seemed to happen, i realised later that the fossil count went down but you should maybe make it more obvious that the player has done the right thing. I really liked the artwork though

kavehes 2017-05-01 14:53

This is a good starting point, the pixel art is nice but the gameplay is a bit limited, drilling at random without any hint of where to find the fossils.

mieeh 2017-05-01 15:50

Good looking game, lacking in gameplay though.

vivoubos 2017-05-01 16:27

Yeah a Digging game! Very nice pixel art :o Very fun at the beggining, but too repetitive... Same objective, same ennemies... But nice work! You game is really beautiful!

occultone 2017-05-01 22:20

I played this on Livestream Today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGr9VAOjIQs

I had huge issues with the game framerate that made it pretty unplayable. I suggest digging deep (har-har) into the code with a profiler to see what scripts are causing it. The pixel art was fantastic and you really nailed your mood and style.

christina-antoinette-neofotistou 2017-05-02 11:37

Everyone, thanks so much for playing.

@occultone thank you for bringing this to my attention. It's actually made in Construct 2, but what you said still applies. if you're curious, it was a While loop, that tried random positions to find an empty tile to bombard with a falling rock. The less empty spaces there were, the harder it had to think, therefore introducing a ton of lag. I fixed it by coding it properly ^-^ (copying all empty space coordinates in a temp array and then randomly selecting a pair of X,Y coordinates from there, which is always foolproof and has the minimum overhead) Thanks again <3

@Vivoubos thank you! I know, it's not that great yet. I hope it gets there :D

@Mieeh I agree. That's all the time I had, but that's no excuse. Thanks for playing!

@kavehes I was about to introduce some powerups and gold drops, so the levels wouldn't be boring even if you're not finding fossils, but ran out of time. Thank you all the same <3

@automatonvx thank you so much for the suggestions which are totally valid btw <3

occultone 2017-05-02 17:20

@christina-antoinette-neofotistou : I'm glad I was able to help! I'll hopefully have time to give it another try tonight or tomorrow.

kunonooni 2017-05-04 23:40

This game has the potential to be awesome, too bad you ran of time. Your pixel art is always amazing and visually stunning that, even though the gameplay was lacking a bit it was just fun to run around and whack the dirt with my pick. :grinning:

I really hope you work on this after the competition as you really have something special here.

ponywolf 2017-05-10 18:41

Awesome attempt, I like the look and the basic mechanic. Stick with it for sure!

g12345 2017-05-11 00:10

Oh, castpixel's game! I've always admired your graphics style... If I could do 10% of this I'm already happy...

Okay, back to the game... The current game is a bit repetitive, because all you can do, is open all blocks and hope you get a bone there, and then return it to the base.

Because it's completely random where the fossils are, you have to open/bomb all the blocks... And I never have enough time to do that (but that could be me misunderstanding how the game works).

(Which is why Bomberman is also very tedious, because you have to uncover every block until you find the exit.)

I'm also not too sure what to judge or not... The version on itch is not the jam version but a post-jam version. But for someone like you I'll just make an exception.

Did I mentioned that the graphics are brilliant, as usual?

If I would change it, I'd probably reduce the amount of regular blocks by 70% in an easy level, and 60% in the medium levels (and 40% in hard). The amount of bones is not very important for diificulty, if you basically have to open all blocks. In fact, the total number of dirt is the difficulty (and monsters).

Also, I'd reduce the number of button presses to break one block... My fingers hurt after playing it for 3 times...

Still, I like the game as it is, but there is room for improvement. :smile:

blackrose 2017-05-12 00:45

Its a good concept, its a fun game and the graphics are beautiful ^^ The drill its a little bit hard to control.

pit 2017-05-16 23:27

Really good looking game. Interesting idea for the setting. Player is in the future but its looking for the past (poetic).I almost finished one level but I was too low on oxygen to deliver the last fossil. Neat little game, good job.

tbaudon 2017-05-17 00:56

I like the graphic style of your game. It reminded me of bomber man in the mechanics. I couldn kill the monster myself though, they died alone by getting buried alive, what a cruel end...

lone-spelunker 2017-05-17 01:46

Nicely done! You got a lot of polish into this game, and it was fun finally getting a dinosaur skeleton put together. I see that you mentioned that you wanted to get in some indication that you're close to bones - I think that would definitely be a good addition, since it seems like you're just randomly digging around, hoping to find the bones before you reach the time limit.

Another good addition would be to add more bones, say from different dinosaurs, and then have part of the time challenge to assemble as many complete skeletons as you can. That strikes me as a great way to add challenge and depth to the game.

Overall, thumbs up!

epiplon 2017-05-17 03:55

I had no idea what to do. Do I clean the entire floor? How do you kill the slimes? What's the purpose of those "bones blocks", are those the fossils I'm looking for? Is there any way to drop them into my ship? Beautiful game but left me clueless.

doppelgunner 2017-05-17 04:18

@epiplon is right there are no instructions but the graphics and animations are good including the effects.

impiaaa 2017-05-17 04:49

I love the pixel art! It looks like unlike some other commenters I was pretty easily able to figure out what to do - find the fossils, deposit them in the green target zone, avoid slimes, dig more around fossils you find. And that's a really neat and fun game idea! I wasn't able to finish my first level without running out of oxygen, unfortunately. I would have liked a sprint button to get back to where I was more quickly, but maybe that would make the slimes too easy. Oh, and I found out that teleporting due to death brings a held fossil with you, which makes things easier :)

evan-minto 2017-05-17 04:58

Thanks to the explanation in the post I figured this out pretty quickly, but I agree that it's a little grindy, though the concept itself isn't bad at all. The fossils are too spaced out, so I spent most of my time jamming on the Z key and getting nothing. Additionally, I *think* I killed one or two slimes in one playthrough, but then when I tried again it didn't seem to work.

But man oh man those visuals. Great job on the character design, animation (the smoke effect when you destroy a block is great!), and color design. There's tons of personality in it.