This game is so goofy. I love it. :) Maybe if you change the art style, you can add a setting where you can change from new to old and to new again. :)
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Poke ALL Toads's itch.io pageComments
Thanks for playing the game and posting your stats!
>Was only slightly disappointed you can't pick up a fairy that's already holding another fairy.
To be honest I almost implemented a disgaea-like tower stack. At the end decided against it to have more freedom with the hold/throw animations and because I couldn't come up with any puzzles involving the tower.
Thanks for playing and gratz on finding the easter egg! This demo has 4 different easter eggs, you are the first tester who found one.
> I feel like the art became better
The game had a lot of small changes like the walking animations, the UI and the new color symbols (they were random greek letters). They add up to make the game feel little less jank. The strong fairy always had those arms, but sometimes they go unnoticed. I will make sure to make them noticeable in the final art.
Thanks so much for taking the time to make two videos. It is a pity the other one didn't get recorded, but mistakes happen.
- Single tap select. This is something that can work for the early levels, but later on the player controls 3 or more fairies at once making it cumbersome. I could try making it an option and see how it goes. Stopping times is mandatory for making people feel safe while switching, the game was too hectic when it was real time. This could be added as an option though.
- Holding Z to speed up time. A lot of levels need 10 seconds (and sometimes more) of staying still to beat them. This is to ensure the player solves the puzzle properly and doesnt try dodging a shot and immediately activating the flag to try cheesing a win.
- Poking upwards. Fairies sprites looking up and down is something I'm debating with myself at the moment. The two directional side sprites for the fairies "just work" in practice but when it comes to activating abilities they look off and can be confusing. The issue is that I plan to have a lot of animations per fairy and having to do 2 more directions would effectively multiply all work by 3.
Again, thanks for the feedback and I'm happy you enjoyed your time with the demo!
Thanks for playing! It is nice to hear the progression flows better now.
>Endearingly shitty Soulful artstyle
At the moment it is all I can muster skill-wise, so I'm happy there are people who find it funny to look at. I will try to keep that feeling intact when moving to the definitive art assets.
> One nitpicky suggestion: I'd like an indication on the world map when a level is a bonus level, or if the level is the last level in a world. It kinda annoyed me when it turned out the branch I chose to follow led to the end of world 2, and I was presented with my end-of-game stats without having tried the bonus level.
Ty, they do need a lot more polish. I will try to make the map nodes clearer for the next demo.
3 years ago(+1)
Very cool game, the mechanics are well explained and the levels flowed well. I played the old demo with the other kinds of fairies, can't wait to see what you cook up with those next time.
Have my epic gamer stats.
3 years ago(+1)
Thanks for trying it out in linux! It is the first time I compile it for that OS, so I fully expect me to have messed something up. If you could post that stack trace, it would be helpful to find what could have gone wrong.
3 years ago (+1)
Glad to know you got the windows version working! I still have to look further in the linux version, but I have been busy commenting other demos.
>The one thing that irked me a bit was the exploration/trial-and-error part - being able to scroll around the map and view it, as well as seeing where jumps go, etc., would be nice. However, only a fairly small amount of time is spent for the player on this, and I can imagine that adding the controls, UI, etc. necessary for avoiding this exploration/trial-and-error part is likely considerably larger than the gained benefit both game-design-wise as well as where to focus on improving the game.
Yup, I don't think that complicating the UI/controls is worth it to add the option of exploring the level from a menu. If the levels are designed around that limitation, there shouldn't be an issue.
>exploration/trial-and-error part
This is something I'm experimenting with. The final game it won't be always possible to solve a puzzle int the very first try. Thats the main thing that "Caution is for fools" is trying to teaches. Some brief experimentation can lead to completely understand how a level works, since part of the level information is hidden. It also gives the player a sense of discovery, which I want to try to keep.
> For any future longer and more difficult levels, where puzzles are harder to figure out, designing the levels in such a way that you can see the whole level easily from the start, as well as having "exploration/trial-and-error" happen somewhat early and at least not late, might be a good idea (unless part of the challenge is to figure the level out without being able to see it all at once).
Good advice, I will take it in mind.
>What would be bad in my opinion would be to for instance have an unknown/difficult-to-predict jump-arrow tile at the end of a very long level, making the player start all over again (this is OK for shorter levels).
Yeah, I have been careful with that so far. I have been debating with myself about the one in "Caution is for fools". I put it there as something playful. It fits with the theme of the level and it is funny to watch, but it also makes the player distrust other arrows in the game. I will see how people react to it in the following months and make a decision on that.
I had a lot of fun! The level intros with the art were cute, and the last two puzzles made me scratch my head a bit. Great stuff. I liked seeing your progress posts, so I'm extra happy this turned out this nice.
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