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(+1)

This game is fantastic and definitely has potential! I do have a few criticisms about the game as well as some ways to improve it. First of all, there is no clear way to crack a safe or perform any of the mechanics in it. Most things are discovered through trial and error but this does not fit into the safe. There should be some form of the tutorial the game provides so that new players can understand it and find success earlier on. 

The map design is somewhat flawed, and some maps won't provide you with anything of worth with some rooms being completely impossible to gain access to. In my opinion, it should be possible to obtain every valuable item on each map (regardless of how difficult it may be to do so). 

Finally, it is far too easy to accidentally lose one of your burglars. They both spawn somewhere on the outside of the map and one button press in the wrong direction will cause them to leave the scene, making some maps impossible. I believe that in replacement for fully escaping, the burglar should simply be put on standby. This means that they will wait on the outside of the map and escape automatically when the time limit is up (or when the other thief is also ready to escape. The character would still be accessible and able to move, but if placed in the "exfil area" will be able to escape.

In addition to this, a possible feature that could be added later on is a builder mode, where players can build maps for other players to try and steal from.

Other than these things, this is a great game and is a good start for what may come!

(+1)

I have been playing this for a while and largely agree with you. However, both the hacking and the cracking took me a few times to figure out, which kinda added to the fun to me. There is actually a clear foolproof way of doing both, but you need audio for the safe, as is clearly mentioned somewhere.

Maps are not always 'solvable' in a stealthy way indeed, which is also clearly explained somewhere. It also adds to the experience in my opinion. Sometimes when the big bucks are hard to reach I just bust in, grab a statue to at least cover my expenses and then bolt.

Fully agree with the off-screen thing as well, it annoys me sometimes, ruining a perfectly do-able house because one burglar escaped already.

I'm super happy you took the time to write this, and thank you for playing! :D

swoopie has already been so kind to respond to some of you concerns, but I'll try add some dev perspective as well.

You are fully right in your criticisms because the game is lacking good UX in big areas, but I'm sorry to say that most of these will not be fixed in this incarnation of the game, because it's made in pico-8 which has hard restrictions on code length so to add stuff something else has to be removed. Anything You think is superfluous?

The misclick escape is another thing though. Because you and others have had this problem it'll end up high on my todo, and thanks for the suggestions!

Also, since you mentioned building own levels I'd like to mention one of my inspirations: the Castle Doctrine by Jason Rohrer, dont know how active it is anymore but it's worth checking out!

Yeah sorry, wasn't my intention to put on your hat, but when I really like a game and its concept, I get a bit involved sometimes ;)

(+1)

hey that's perfectly fine with me, super fun to have people engaged in the game! you are so friendly i have zero concerns with this :D