Post by Hobcramwork in Hi, just wanted to ask about the game's endings

Heart Of Ruin: Final Columbus » Community

Viewing post in Hi, just wanted to ask about the game's endings

Note: I didn't want to specify the locations as I didn't want to spoil the game and such :p

Ah yes, that does explain how he gets through impossible places without the items Mario buys :D

I had figured out the wing flapping after a long time of trying to get to the top of the first room with the Fungi brain, while the invisible blocks were triggered by accident. I've only found one place with a fake wall, and 2 places with a fake floor (all within the last area of the game). I've yet to find such a thing, and probably wouldn't bother (unless it helps with the Water Tower later on, which is where I was stuck at; I'm referring to the rearranged surroundings, and the hidden door in the wall) :p

I can assure you that the high jump bug is still around within the game :D

There is one area that you can get locked in if you haven't unlocked the wings (dungeon in the desert), and another area further down (the one with giant snakes) that locks you within the same screen with no hope of getting out :s

Yal7 years ago(+1)

Hmm... I was pretty sure there's a blockade early on in the desert that you can't pass without being able to do the wing flaps. Maybe I've messed it up... you're referring to the desert west of the truck, right?

It's pretty unlikely I'll ever fix things like this since Game Maker 8 is discontinued and doesn't run properly in Windows 10, and the engine uses functionality deprecated in Game Maker Studio, but thanks for pointing them out anyway! I'll make sure to have a look on them if I ever get around to making a 'finished' version.

The fake walls and stuff are in other places as well, anyway. I don't remember everything by heart anymore since I haven't touched the game actively in like 2 years, but from the top of my head, written in riddle form to reduce spoilers:

The grass is green, but not all green is grass, might be something new where you've already been.
The longest road is mostly flat, but there's something above your hat.
An arrow of barrels, hard to see, still guides you to a mystery.
Near the canal, your feet may burn; still there's a reason to not instantly return.
In the sky, all's not what it looks; moreso than usual, think outside the box.

There's some other places I can remember, but I don't remember WHERE they are, so I can't really offer hints for those yet :P

Hobcramwork7 years ago

Yes, the blockade is there, but once you have the Key gun, you can get through it (if the player is curious enough) and move on past all the enemies to 2 places (if you go in and fall down without the wings, you can't get back to the entrance).

If I'm lucky, I might find the infinite wing flaps power up, but right now, I'm about stumped as to where to find the remaining lore, and Teal (if he can be found...) :s (including the remaining gun upgrade locations; I've only found 4 so far).

Yes, you did mention this on the GameJolt website, but you did mention (on this game's Itch.io page) that 95% of the intended content has already been put into the game, so we can work with that.

I got all the lore from the Canals, after some wall checking with the trusty Chain Core (& some experimenting); there was a fake floor in the tower, but that went nowhere ;)

Goodness, all these riddles will give me a headache XD

Yal7 years ago(+1)

I'm pretty sure the only stuff available in the Water Tower after it's destroyed is the Lore that was inside it while it was whole, to make sure you can't permanently miss any. The fake floor you found probably lead to one of those spots.

And as for the key-gun-passable-blockade... derp. This is what happens when you keep adding new areas at random places in the old areas, I guess :P

Knowing me, the reason the blockade is Keygun-based is because the upgrade station in that dungeon is for the Keygun, to ensure you have it in order to enter. And if that's the case, it being unescapable is unintentional.

The missing 5% is a secret area, a secret final boss and an ending tied to that, btw.

As for the stuff that actually is finished: every gun has a secret upgrade, some has two (one gun has two tiers of upgrades, another has two alternate upgrade paths, and another has two complimentary upgrades that can be obtained in any order). There used to be a secret developers' level hidden at one place, I'm not sure it's still accessible and it had some of the most frustrating level design I've ever made so it's probably for the better if it isn't :P And to make things even more confusing, there's a bunch of "fake" areas you can see but aren't meant to access, just to explain how everyone else gets around. (I had plans to let you play as other characters later to let you see the story unfold from a different perspective, but ended up scrapping the idea because it was too much work. The sequence where you play as Emily and all cutscenes you see from someone else's perspective than Mario's are remnants from this)

Hobcramwork7 years ago (1 edit)

Ah, I see. Well, thank goodness Metroid had taught me to look everywhere (i.e. check every room) before triggering the water tower incident.

Ah yes, that was what I was referring to. My habit of always saving at each Save point led to me restarting the game at least twice, mostly due to getting stuck in two places in the desert XD

Oh. You may or may not have mentioned that in the game's update file. Found two secrets in it as well, plus interesting details on what went on behind the scenes. I've yet to meet those 2 extra characters, and will avoid some areas if they're too rage-inducing :p

Ah yes, I read up on one user's comments on a certain block, and you explained that other characters have weapons that can help them get through them (although one small area can be accessed without said weapon, but you can't get back out from there :p).

On a side note, after comparing the background of one of your screenshots with the background of the area I was in, I looked around and found the Forgotten Drain area. Needless to say, that one jar was not worth it after repeated tries (and being unable to reach a ledge sealed the deal :p).

Hobcramwork7 years ago

Bug report: Once I found Canal Jungilara, I started looking around for more Lore, only to come to a dead end (thunder blocks). When I tried to exit, the door took me to a different location which I couldn't get out of.

That Desert Hornet upgrade is really something else; I thought it was bugged, or something, till I figured out what that statement meant XD

The only upgrades I haven't found yet are those for the ATG Laser and the CryoSphere. Can I ask you about these two places in further detail through e-mail, along with the general whereabouts of the remaining Lore? I have only found 44 so far (not including the last one after facing off with Smith a second and third time) ?

Hobcramwork4 years ago(+1)

Hi Yal, long time no see! :D

I've started the game up from the beginning a few days ago, and Mario is now at level 28 (yay to fighting all the tiny birds in the first room of the Thermal Power Plant, the Bubble Whirrs and Bubbles in the Water Tower and underground tunnel/cave!). I found a secret room in the underground tunnel after the shopkeeper, and will return to it once I have gotten the wings (I fought off two blue Setniles before finding my way forward blocked due to high blocks).

If anything, I'll be combing each room a few times as I play through the game, just in case I missed any lore or upgrades, especially before I face off with Smith near the end :D

Yal4 years ago (1 edit) (+2)

Nothing like a good ol' 3-year-break to get over the frustration with inescapable areas, huh? Better luck this time! :3

Most of the super-secret areas were added after I'd already ran out of lore to place (I decided to limit myself to 50 for a reason... which I've now forgotten) so most of them only house the gun upgrades (and powerups/money), the majority of all lore is on the critical path or in "regular-secret" areas. But combing the game for all the secrets hopefully feels worth it regardless~

Hobcramwork4 years ago(+1)

Oh, hi Yal! Long time no see! :D

Ah, I see; I was hoping this secret room would yield a few more Lore, but I got the ATG Laser upgrade instead. Looks like some riddle-solving is needed fully complete the game :p

I very much look forward to a remake of this game in the future, should you ever decide to do it, since I want to rescue as many people from Columbus City as much as possible (& face off against the mysterious AI boss that the Columbus scientists were protecting their weapons from, as well as uncover what 'Final Columbus' really means) :D

Yal4 years ago(+1)

Long time no see indeed! Years are getting shorter and shorter these days, aren't they? :P

Out-of-universe, the name is supposed to mean that you're the last great explorer (since the world ended in the apocalypse). Turns out I did a mistake picking that name, since googling "final columbus" gives you a ton of info on Super Bowl finals played in Columbus, and it just completely buries my game. That's the reason I changed the main title into "Heart of Ruin" :P

I have no immediate plans to make a remake (I barely have enough time to make new stuff, lol) but on the other hand I also have no reason not to... so we'll see what happens~

Hobcramwork4 years ago

Yes, it only seemed like yesterday that I had last played the game (aside from the past week or so :p), and I was happy to receive a reply from you! :D

Ah, I see (I had forgotten that the Heart of the City had ruined the world, and thought the Ancestors had left for other planets :p); well, that's something new I've learnt today, and yes, "Heart of Ruin" does aptly describe the game's backstory :D

Well, I look forward to seeing the remake, and in the meantime, I'll try to find all the 50 lore, and play Arengius a bit too.

I have a question regarding Ashley (nicknamed 'Voice'): is it possible to rescue her at all, whether at the Water Tower after the explosion or after collecting all 50 lore? I ask as your update 'readme' file indicates that as possible.

Also, I had found Baron McFungi in the Vegetation building, whereby he said I should go look for Sunshine in the Canal. Aside from that, I was about to ask you about whether there is anything of interest in the Rattleskull Valley, only to uncover an old save file that showed me otherwise :p

I found another door in the Thermal Plant that should lead to a room with lots of those giant brown living mounds (there are some that spew fire while spinning and others that hold a large stack of barrels like a shield) and a blue jar, but I haven't found a way to the door. Is it a fake area like you had mentioned before?

Yal4 years ago(+1)

The Thermal Plant and a small handful of other areas has fake walls (aka things that look like walls but are passable) so there might be a much more obscure way to reach the thing you're looking for (I have a faint memory of a gun upgrade being hidden in a large room designated as something along the lines of "the reactor" through an easy-to-miss pipe leading offscreen). I also remember there's an area reached through one of the "indoors" areas that doesn't connect to the main maze, that's probably what you're seeing. (The area has a bunch of jars, but it's mostly an excuse to respawn everything in the room you just left :P)

Rattleskull Valley used to connect to That One Level (the brutally difficult, unfair and unfun bonus level) but I moved it to a more hard-to-find location at the last moment. The area just ends in the middle of nowhere now if I recall correctly.

@ Saving Voice: [spoilers] I distinctly remember an ending post-credits scene (which I never actually made) where Cain explains to Daphne that "mom's not going to come home" and it reveals that she's his daughter (and Cain/Voice was a couple in the past that split up) and she stuck with Voice after they divorced... so saving her is probably non-canonical. Not sure if there's an actual way to save her buried in all those lines of code I haven't touched in a decade, but I suppose my patch notes know best :P

(Saving her would involve going to the Water Tower after you regain control... potentially before going back to the truck to avoid wasting time, I'd guess?)

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Arko.Jr1 year ago

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Viewing post in Hi, just wanted to ask about the game's endings