itch.io

Thanks for adding 'Play in browser' (maybe it was added months ago?)! :D

Noclip is bound to one of the square bracket keys, iirc. You could use it in case you only just need to re-enter the level to game on.

(You should report all occasions when you are forced to use noclip, of course.)

It's not a problem on your end. William wrote in the discord channel (https://discord.gg/XcXBkwZ) that audio was removed ("yes, the game has no sound for now").

He's currently working with an audio designer to add new sound effects.

Hey William,

some time ago, you were talking about adding life to the garden, the game having a lot of Manifold but not enough Garden. And a recent addition was the giant space plantlife living in the actual levels.

I don't know why it came to my mind, but i remembered the video sequence from Zelda: Ocarina Of Time about the creation of the world. The effects are a joke from our perspective today, but the problem is pretty similar. There was a static low poly world with empty walls, how can it be brought to life?

Their answer seemed to be: moody ambient light, fog, strong light effects and particles.

You could add similar small insect life / dust particle effects accompanying the giant plants to make the world seem more alive than before (see 1:12 in the video).

I think it's pretty interesting that you already have a rain particle effect in MG and recently adjusted the ambient light intensity to 'moody', which enhances light effects, like shining light though windows and the glowing effect of the cubes. (You did not use fog, but the color gradient which fades in the distance works in a related way.) :D

You could turn it into a feature and award a star (or fireworks or something similar) for the achievement. :)

Nice game! I did not finish it, yet - but i had a lot of fun already. :D

I solved 62 levels so far (Level 62 can be solved with 5 moves instead of 6). ;)

I played it yesterday to level 38, today i advanced to level 62 before i took a break.

Thank you for the fast bug-fix! :D

I did not change anything but it works now.

andreasboye i like your ZENGRAMS game, btw. :)

Thanks for replying. Good to know i'm not the only one. :)

You may be right with your webserver configuration assumption.
Somebody gave me ahint that it could be a MIME type thing.
See: https://forum.unity.com/threads/webgl-netcoreapp-1-1-unityloader-js-syntaxerror-...

But if that's the case there is nothing we can do about it on our end, right?

Hey,

i corrected a small error in my prototype https://chriszorg.itch.io/normal-prototype  in Unity, compiled it (WebGL), created the zip, deleted the old zip file on itch.io and uploaded the new zip file (via Firefox). But the game does not start. I am getting a JavaScript error: SyntaxError: expected expression, got end of script (UnityLoader.js). And: 

Invoking error handler due to TypeError: UnityLoader[r] is not a function.

The game works perfectly when i'm using the index.html in the offline folder.

I tried re-uploading the old zip file which was working before, with the
same error as a result. I have no idea what's going on or if i'm doing something wrong. :/

Ah, good to know. That "Play in browser"-button would work. The world symbol from the "Web" filter is a tad too generic, in my eyes. It's likely a good idea to unify the appearance of the games in the globals listings and the creator profiles.

It would be great to have an icon for "Available to play online" so everybody can see that a game can be played directly in the browser.

(An icon for "PDF download" would be nice, too.)

A new build has been published. :)

Puzzle 6

Puzzle 5

Slight variation of Puzzle 4 (Similar to the variation between Puzzle 1 and 2).

Puzzle 4

Variation of Puzzle 3 with two separate switches.

Random thought: Why is the second hub blue, too? The geometry itself suggest that it's a second hub. But if the game is nonlinear from here you could hint on it by giving the second hub a different color. Also it would be easier to talk about it like "Where are you in the game, have you seen the red hub already?"

I watched William's dev stream on twitch yesterday. https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr

He would like to be more active in this forum but he is super busy with creating new puzzles for the later worlds and business stuff (funding for the rest of the game, contract conditions with the sound designer, finding an artist for visual development). The programmer is working on essential technical parts of the game like level loading and unloading.

William plans to glue new puzzles as a sequence to World_001 for beta testing purposes and when the current critical programming changes are in, he will push a new version as soon as possible.

Until then we have to hack our system clocks. :)

Puzzle 3

Puzzle 2

Slight variation of Puzzle 1.

Same here. In the discord channel (https://discord.gg/XcXBkwZ) 0x0ade found out that the latest beta version expired.

-------
Malte: I only get to the William Chyr Studio loading screen and the game immediatly closes
lolatron: yeah me too
0x0ade: Change your system date. Seems like the beta build expired ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
0x0ade: just checked the code, yup, buildExpirationDate = new DateTime(2017, 8, 30);
------

I did not test the system date workaround.

Hey,

I assembled a list about patterns and pacing in the linear part of the game up to W_043. The second part is more subjective, it includes my impressions of the game world structure.

---------------------------------------

+ : Random Order
MR : Mandala room

Start of the Game
W_001 Blue
W_001 Outside (MR)
+ W_001 Red
+ W_001 Green
+ W_001 Yellow
W_011 (MR)
W_015
(W_041 Ungrown Outside)
W_041 World Growing
W_041 Outside (MR)
W_041 Path 1
    W_018 Inside
    W_018 Outside (MR)
    W_002 Inside
    (W_002 Ungrown Outside)
    W_002 Blue
    W_002 World Growing
    W_002 Outside (MR)
    W_002 Green
    W_002 Red
    W_002 Yellow
W_041 Path 2
    W_053 Blue
    W_053 World Growing
    W_053 Green (MR)
    W_053 World Growing
    W_053 Violet
    W_053 World Growing
    W_053 Red
+ W_041 Path 4
    W_016
    W_003 Inside
    (W_003 Ungrown Outside)
    W_003 World Growing
    W_003 Outside (MR)
    W_003 Blue
    W_003 Green&Yellow
    W_037
    W_062
    W_043 Inside ***
+ W_041 Path 6
    W_052
    W_051 (MR)

***
W_043 Outside (MR)
+ W_043 Path 1
+ W_043 Path 2
+ W_043 Path 3

... to be continued

---------------------------------------

W_001 establishes the World pattern of Four Paths. W_011 and W_015 are obviously desingned as Connections between more complicated levels with more puzzles. The pattern seems to be World-Connection(s)-World

W_001 Four Paths - Infinite Staircase, Laser Beams
W_011 Connection - Dark Cube, Dark Tree and Mandala Room
W_015 Connection - Infinite Stepwell
W_041 Four Paths - Four Towers, Columns (Blue World Hub)

W_041
W_018 Connection - PastaTile, Appartment Tower Building
W_018 is a pretty complicated Connection. Judging by the architecture it looks like there is room inside for a lot of cube puzzles but there is only one.
W_002 Four Paths - Tetris Blocks

W_041
No Connection here, breaks with the World-Connection(s)-World pattern.
W_053 Four Paths - Pagoda and Water
W_053 feels like a small world, compared to W_001 and W_002. There is no inside with sequences of puzzles before going outside again. And a lot of purely optional tree growing.

W_041
W_016 Connection - Filigrane Staircase
W_003 ?????????? - Sphere Pipe
W_003 breaks with the established pattern of Four Paths. It has a big world progression marker with the sphere pipe but contains only one cube puzzle. It's not a World, nor a Connection.
W_037 Connection - Infinite Tower
W_062 Connection - Large Gap
W_043 Three Paths plus Mandala Room (Another Blue World Hub?)

It seems you are not guided back to W_041 after W_003, but i wanted to finish the Blue World Hub, so i went back to W_041 on my own.
W_041
W_052 Connection
W_051 is only one complicated puzzle and a dead end. If you don't want to walk back you have to use the Mandala Room. So the Blue Hub does not contain four equal Worlds. It contains 1) A World loop 2) A small World loop 3) An long open path to another Blue Hub (the rest of the game) 4) A dead end.

... to be continued

---------------------------------------

I did not walk on the paths which W_043 offers. I heard that this part would be less linear.

I hope this list is helpful.

Sorry to dig this old thread (one year!) up again, but...

I'd really love to fall more slowly because currently, falling is fast and hectic. I had more time in air to orientate myself or have a look at the architecture. I believe it would feel more epic, like in the trailer.

Technically it could be a toggle button. To prevent puzzle breaking, the forward speed could be multiplied by the same factor as the falling speed (while in air). So the player would move exactly on the same trajectory, just slower.

Puzzle 1

This puzzle can turn into a one-way ticket because in case the gravity is changed to green or yellow from the outside, the door will close itself and remain locked until you solve the puzzle again. The solved state can't be restored from the outside. Very few puzzles in world_002 already show the same behaviour. Others feature solutions which can be restored by a single correct rotation.

I have not seen double gravity cubes activating cube switches in this way.

------------------------------

Feel free to post your opinions on these puzzles and/or post your own puzzles here. :-)

The signposting on the dark cubes is pretty weak. It's not uncommon that players don't know what to do with them. World_011 has a mandala room and includes everything to learn about dark cubes.

The mandala room is broken for me, too. It's meant to be a fast travel system with progress indication on the dark cubes.

Puzzle 0

I mean pushing a horizontal switch down by gravity force, for example a small rock pressing a key on a keyboard (or a cat walking on it).

Puzzle C

This one could probably feel like cheating, but who said you can't push a switch with gravity? (It would likely involve some code changes because cubes actually can't do that, currently, i guess. I never tested it.)

Those puzzles are not intended to be big puzzles, just some small Puzzle Snacks between real puzzles.

Please share your opinions or - even better - your own puzzles. :-)

Left: Puzzle A     |     Right: Puzzle B

Here are two of my puzzle ideas expanding on the tall hand switches which are impossible to reach from the floor (intruduced in world_001, first puzzle of the red route). Double gravity cubes are introduced in world_002 (first puzzle in this world, blue route). Upside down shelf building for cubes was introduced in world_001. Maybe two violet cubes would possibly lead to a more clean solution for B?

Feel free to criticize and to post your own ideas!

Hey,

if you were following the Discord (https://discord.gg/XcXBkwZ) or William's stream (https://www.twitch.tv/williamchyr) you may have noticed that he is currently working on new Puzzles. I'm excited to see them in one of the next updates.

------------------------------

In the meantime:
Personally i feed inspired by the game and i find myself thinking about variations of the puzzles i'm solving.

Do you have an idea for a good puzzle*?
Please share your thoughts and let's discuss about it!

*Opinions on what makes a good puzzle may vary, of course. I don't like too tedious puzzles. So a good puzzle (for me) does not include too many parts, for example too many cubes or long walk distances. A super hard puzzle is not a good puzzle per se, either, imho.

Hey,

William was asking in the Discord chat (https://discord.gg/XcXBkwZ):
"This is a bit of a vague question, but for those who've played the game: what are some mechanics that you feel are currently underexplored? I think it's perhaps combining the mechanics."

----------------------------------------------

What do you think?
Which mechanics are underexplored?
Which mechanics could be combined in a good way?

I think you are supposed to take the the blue cube from the first pad. When you return to the hub using a new path you get one extra cube.

William wrote a design document for the game, we should probably use the names he used.

I don't know if it's online, maybe it could be uploaded and linked here?

-----

Edit: The fast traveling location is called Mandala room, the switches for the cubes are called cube switches, iirc. Personally i'm calling the switches on the small pillars hand switches, no idea if William agrees.

Could you please bind noclip to a regular character key?

The brackets on a german keyboard are hidden behind [8] or [9] plus [AltGr]. Somehow this does not work in the game. Normally i'd simply switch to the english keyboard layout but now i want to fill the spreadsheet so i'm tabbing in and out all the time and have to switch to german before writing in the spreadsheet and back to english again for the game which is pretty annoying.

The following image from from Wikipedia shows the differences between QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY keyboard layouts. Good keys for debug tools seem to be IOPJKL. Another obvious choice are the number keys from 1 to 0.

Great feedback, good observations.

• I think the Photography mode is currently not activated, but it exists.
• Sprint does not appear in the controls because it's intended for beta testing. No idea if it will be added it to the final game. (Noclip for playtesting is available too, bound to a brackets key. But regular playthroughs create the best feedback.)
• I vaguely remember the Load/Save menu had some issues with mouse input?
• The switches are usually not placed near walls, so there should be no exploiting by carrying cubes through a wall. But it could be removed if it does not serve any purpose.
• Leaving the red area with 2 cubes [SPOILER]is part of a puzzle[/SPOILER]

I'm glad you like it. The number of waterfalls could be increased by duplicating the bottom section and rotating it by 90 degrees. :)

Replying to https://twitter.com/WilliamChyr/status/896989757737234432

I did not want to post this on twitter, but the faucet looks out of place, imho. It's too bulky.

I know it's still a placeholder, but you could create a more filigrane fountain instead which could somewhat resemble Escher's waterfall.

You could introduce doors, which are closed behind the player (by player interaction) so the player temporary locks himself in. It's said to be bad design to lock the player in, but in my opionion it can be used to show the player from time to time that he's on the right track and reduces the risk of a completely lost player.

I don't know how to convey it properly, but maybe picking a cube from a (wired) tree could somehow result in a closed door?

Edit:

The light bridges in world 1 are pretty great as an indicator for the current player progression. They can be seen from everywhere. Like the whole level is a big machine which needs to be powered and you are repairing it by advancing in the game.

Open doors with pressed switches behind them show from which direction you entered the current room. Again in world 1, the linearity and high amount of those switches help to guide the player pretty well, imho.

Maybe you could transfer the light beams to other parts of the world, too?