itch.io

Awesome!

The first win feels so good! I can't even imagine what the higher difficulties must be like. :)

Awesome! I'd love toplay this on a d-pad only handheld as well. :)

Oh, and also really glad this has an "auto-save" and continue option. Thanks for that. I foolishly closed the tab, mid-game, to write the comment above and then was surprised to see "continue" as an option, thinking I had lost my progress. It was a nice surprise!

This is really great! A bigger (non-pico-8) game could benefit from more of a hand-holding tutorial as there's a lot to learn at first, but it makes sense after reading the instructions. So much depth and interesting strategy. Hope this becomes a "real" game like Slipways. That one made the transition well and is a great game both on pico-8 and outside of it. I also really enjoyed Pieces of Cake back in the day -- simple but interesting strategy especially for such a constrained physical space, and even more impressive since it was one of those holiday pack games. :)

Awesome, congratulations! This has been super addictive and fun since the original game jam release -- glad to see the shrooms will continue to grow and thrive.

It was tough to find the diamond. I'm still not sure where the little fellow came from. :) Seems like iron and gold are difficult to find too, but especially difficult is the flint/pick needed to mine them. Late game felt like I always had a surplus of stone since I was fishing for the pick. Couldn't finish it in the time I had, but I got a bright glowing altar, so I guess I might have been close...


Cool chill game, and kind of awesome how many little critters can be running around at once. Looking forward to a full game one day!

Also, clicking and holding can be tiring on the mouse hand... Maybe consider some other way to do click and hold as well? Or perhaps an upgrade for it after the game gets going, just to save the amount of time doing it. ;)

Nice!

And nice Phoenix background reuse. ;)

This feels very close to emulation of the real thing, with slightly improved graphics/effects. Well done!

If there was ever an official sequel to Pooyan, this would be it. So good!

I'd have never imagined a combination of the Pooyan defense against the wolves and Puzzle Bobble would work well together, but it's such a good balance of random annoyance and strategic choice. Well done!

Didn't quite get to 100k as I hoped. ;)

I've never been a scrabble/bananagrams/crosswords/etc. aficionado but I've enjoyed them from time to time, and this feels like the best incarnation of that style of game I've ever played! Love the strategic choices, yet chill feel of it.

Aside from my other comments made separately, I noticed it was missing a "fail" condition when the letters are exhausted. It allowed going back to the main menu, of course, but I kind of expected a game end screen of some sort that would boot me back to the menu. A minor issue for an otherwise polished and excellent game though!

The option to type the letters is interesting, but I'd be curious if others are using it? I found it much easier to use the mouse, and misclicking to show the cursor was a little distracting. Maybe there could be an option to disable it in future?

Might be nice to show a visual (chart? tooltip?) with the point values somewhere, though after playing for a short time it becomes obvious. Ditto on the quill to unlock abilities -- I wasn't clear at first where the quill was hovering, but then realized it was a "surround" sort of unlock. Maybe all that's best left up to discovery through play, but it's also the sort of arcade style thing that could be on an attract mode screen.

Glad to see another quality Punkcake game though! The inventiveness, simplicity/purity (not sure what to call it), and polish of even your game jam games is amazing. And your handling of Patreon and pausing of charges regarding releases is so player focused and fair as to almost be criminal (to yourselves)! :)

100% agree on the font -- I love the game, but this is the first Punkcake game that made me feel it... needs more pixels. The pixelated look is great for most games, but for legibility it hurts. (Is that an R or an A?)

Barring a font change, maybe sorting options could help, because if vowels and consonants were grouped together, it might help with some of the hard to decipher letters.

Regarding "shuffle hand", another consideration would be a "sort" button which could sort the letters grouping vowels and consonants together, or alphabetically. (Maybe I've played too much Balatro and have its sorting options in mind, ha!)

Ah! Got it. Here's a few links for other clueless types like me. I grew up with the C64 in the US, but am mostly unfamiliar with the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. I love your other pico8 arcade adaptations though, and I'm looking forward to checking this out too (and maybe the original via emulation to compare). :)

https://www.mobygames.com/company/41150/ashby-computers-and-graphics-limited/

https://www.mobygames.com/game/14606/atic-atac/

Cool!

Probably a silly question but... What does "ACG" mean? What's an ACG Key?

So good! Excellent work on the music too.

I've been struggling with that too. Opening your mouth will scare the crow, but not for long.

This is brilliant!

The word choices are not only interesting in terms of layout but have meaning with the theme and "story". Even the music sets the mood. The level titles are great hints. I've never played anything quite like this, and I wonder if the concept could be expanded to other themes and made into a larger game with more levels? It's infused with meaning in interesting ways and I want to play more of it. :) Anyhow, good stuff.

"Theseus" was tough, but I liked how I stumbled onto "cope" as a part of the puzzle on the way to finishing it.

(Sort of felt Baba-Is-You-ish, but simpler and from the land of crosswords.)

Also, I never figured out how the climbing action worked. It claims you can climb trees, but I only ever looked up when pressing up, even with that skill. Does it work, and if so, how do you use it?

I loved how there were several things to discover with the controls. At first I thought the health bonus was a good thing to pick, but now I avoid it for better stuff since I found out... Well, yeah, no spoilers. ;)

Such a cute and fun game! After playing for some time, I managed to get a run up to level 32. But then the game crashed. Does it have an ending other than what happens when failing to bring the ball back at some point?

I could send my crash log file, but it's probably too large to copy/paste here. Would it make sense to post it to the discord?

This would be a great game to maybe develop further as a monthly Punkcake game. It's pretty awesome as-is too. :)

Discord server link seems to be invalid. :(

Once I saw this trick for Linux, I tried the same thing with Android, and... it worked!

I used the AGS-3.6.0.43-release.apk from the ags RC release you mentioned above. It just needs to be pointed to the data directory from the Mac release, which should be renamed to something suitable and put in your sdcard directory, like: /sdcard/ags/startrek/<data files>

Since keyboard input is required, it's rather fiddly, but I found two other apps that can help. GamePad provides a d-pad and buttons which can be configured to keyboard keys. The default d-pad assignment worked for me for the arrows, but I changed the buttons to include enter and escape, and also "0" and "2". It has 4 buttons by default but can also provide 6, so there are a couple of extra buttons that could be assigned to digits or whatever. I always set my shields to 2000, so having those two digits was enough for me to play. ;) Having escape also allows for bringing up the in-game settings menu. And the ags app has a built in selection of "special" keyboard keys and combos including the function keys, so F1 is available there if needed.

Keyboard Switcher is a useful extra to allow for easy switching to the gamepad keyboard and back.

With all that in place it's quite playable on Android! The only slight annoyances are:

- visible pointer (don't need it with touchscreen and it just gets in the way -- could that be an option to turn off in the game settings menu?)
- tapping for warp feels weird, but maybe I'm just used to playing the pico-8 version; I kinda want to be able to move a selection with arrows and then lock it in with enter
- having the option to get rid of the numeric entry for phasers and shields would be nice; the sliders on the pico-8 version are great and could work just as well here. ;)

I think I found a minor bug... Uhura doesn't know the Starbase number when docking. I just docked at Starbase 4 and she responded about Starbase X. Maybe she just needs to take a break. ;)

It did get me thinking though... I'm not sure how it might work, and I'm also not sure if it would be a benefit or just a distraction, but it might be kinda interesting if occasionally some "story" stuff was happening on the bridge that needed to be dealt with, in addition to the actual Klingon hunting going on. This is making me want to go back and play the original 25th Anniversary game. I know I completed it back in the day, but I don't remember much about it except it being a sort of choose your own adventure through the missions they gave out, and some space battles and discussions on viewscreens. Heck, it might be kinda cool if the Klingons hailed the Enterprise on the viewscreen sometimes, to taunt or whatever.

Also, I really hope the copyright police don't come for you. This is such a great idea and an interesting and fun mashup, that I hope it can continue to stick around.

This is amazing! I wasn't aware of your pico-8 version until I stumbled onto it from here, and it's excellent as well! (I'm assuming there is no library computer in it, even though it can become damaged, since there's no need to look up coordinates?)

Here's a thought/request though... Have you considered making this version playable via mouse only, similar to how the pico-8 version works? If the need to use the keyboard could be removed, this could be played on mobile devices (like tablets) too, in browser.

In any case, great work on this!

Such a fun game, thanks for sharing it!

I'll just add my voice to the chorus of folks wishing for more content/expansion of the game. But it's a lot of fun as-is. :)

It would also be awesome to see an expansion that allows for user game mods. I'm guessing something like that would need a way to add new card definitions/art, and an editor for rules to connect them with existing cards.

Excellent! Games like this make me wish there was an option to do online multiplayer in Pico-8.

It also reminds me of Benjamin Soule's warehouse game (also on Pico-8), which I really enjoyed, despite the fact that it never really got fully developed or bugfixed.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=46987#p

Thanks for trying!

I actually stumbled onto your game through a windy path that *might* hold an additional clue. I got Undertale and some other games I owned via Humble Bundle working on the Gameshell using box86. The Gamemaker games have been a mixed bag (I believe some I tried failed because they were Steam games and had DRM), but the ones that have worked have worked really well (mostly DRM-free Humble Bundle stuff), assuming the display and controls lend themselves to the device.

During that effort, I discovered that someone manged to get Delta Rune running on Linux. Unfortunately it was only the 64bit version. But that's what led me to your game, because it turns out the runtime you included in your game works with the Delta Rune data files. Although I came here for the runtime, I realized your game was pretty clever, and could work well with the Gameshell display/controls. But the 64bit issue means neither game will work on Gameshell.

From the Delta Rune hacking thread:
"You'll need to obtain "YoYo Games Linux Runner V1.3" somehow. This is the binary needed for actually running the game. Luckily, you can legally get it for free from GameMaker games that have a free Linux release. The catch is that the game needs to be using exactly V1.3 of the runner, otherwise the runner simply will not run Deltarune at all. Compatible runners come from GameMaker runtime versions between 2.1.4.202 to 2.2.1.287; note that IDE version is different from runtime version."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/9wizh3/deltarune_running_on_linux_natively/

I'm not sure if that info helps, or what version of Gamemaker you have (or used) for Convergence Compulsion, but there's at least a remote chance that the earliest version(s) of Gamemaker listed here (2.1.4.202ish) might have a 32bit version? I'm not sure when they dropped support for 32bit.

In any case, there are a lot of free/demo games on itch.io, so I'm thinking I might slowly work through them and try to find any that are 32bit and run. If they do, then I'll swap the runtime with the one for your game and see if I can get it to run. I've already done this a few times with games I had working, but I geuss I was unlucky and those runtimes didn't work. If I find one, I'll leave a comment here with a pointer to the compatible game. :-)

Hi, is there any way you could release a version for Linux that is 32bit? I tried the "Linux Portable" version on this page, but it's for 64bit machines only. :-(

I'd like to try your game on the ClockworkPi Gameshell (https://www.clockworkpi.com/). The simple display and controls of your game might work really well on it. I've had success getting other Game Maker games running on it, but unfortunately it's a 32 bit Linux machine.(https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/lets-play-x86-games/4848/32?u=adcockm)

Thanks!

I wasn't able to reproduce the bug when I tried the Windows version. I'm not sure if I just didn't play it enough, or if it really is just a problem with WebGL. It happened right away on the web though, so it sure seems like a WebGL thing. For what it's worth. I was using Chrome (Version 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit)) on Windows when I encountered that bug.

Also, on a more subjective level (in terms of gameplay) I felt the length you could pull back from the ball felt either too short, or not sensitive enough. This was true on both versions. It was nearly impossible to get up some really steep hills. I understand it might kind of be the point, but I was kind of wishing it was more sensitive and I could accidentally overshoot more often, rather than struggling so much to get it up the steep hills. Might be worth considering balancing that better.

I made one hole, and tried for the second, at the left of the image here. Then the ball got "stuck" when I overshot the hole at the left, ball rolled down to where it looks like it is resting in this pic, but I couldn't take another shot. (I haven't tried the Windows download yet so it may just be a WebGL thing.)

Cool idea for a game though! :-)

Great gameplay and idea! It's also incredibly addictive. Balancing when to take hits and when to heal and attack is interesting. Random start weapon mixes things up too, but might diminish the value of purchase options at gravity well a little, if you start with a "good" one. 

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a game that fits perfectly with Pico-8, but that I wish I could play on Steam/PS4. This is one of those. Would be great to see it expanded/ported, but glad I got a chance to play it. Well done!

Great gameplay and idea! It's also incredibly addictive. Balancing when to take hits and when to heal and attack is interesting. Random start weapon mixes things up too, but might diminish the value of purchase options at gravity well a little, if you start with a "good" one. 

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a game that fits perfectly with Pico-8, but that I wish I could play on Steam/PS4. This is one of those. Would be great to see it expanded/ported, but glad I got a chance to play it. Well done!

Doesn't seem to be working in the latest Chrome 58.0.3029.110 (64-bit). Works fine in Firefox though. So that might be a reason to release the TIC file. :-)

Seems like several other TIC games on itch.io have this no-loading black screen problem, while the stuff on https://tic.computer/ loads ok.

I was also glad to discover this was being made into a larger game! I stumbled onto Pico8 through the PocketCHIP, and then got horribly addicted to ToA. I'm also hoping this makes it's way to Android eventually, as it would be an excellent touch-based game. In the mean time, I'm happy to confirm that it works great on a HP Stream 7 (got one of those tablets cheap a year or so ago) running Windows 10. Looks great when run at full screen. (Specs on the device, which runs at 1280x800 : http://www.cnet.com/products/hp-stream-7-5709-tabl...)

There's one thing that would help touch controls a little -- if there was an option to set a double-tap to kill monsters instead of the default single one. With touch the only way to get info on a selected monster group right now is to "right-click", or tap and hold. Maybe it's just a personal preference, but I think it would work better if it was a single tap to select and a double to clear. With a mouse (and hover), it makes sense to keep it as is, but touch has a different feel.

Thanks so much for developing this game! I'm also a fan of Stray Shot and Underworld Siege, among others. Would love to see some of those get developed further too!