It looks like these hacks are simply compensating for the input lag by delaying the on-screen flash. I’ll try the duck hunt hack to verify, but I believe the player sets the delay time manually in the menu.
A lag calibration tool would be nifty, but just setting the delay in milliseconds via a menu option would be enough to get Gunhawk working on LCDs afaik
love this game!
super fun and a great hi-score chaser.
I noticed that the music gets jumbled if the game is reset when music is playing. It sounds like two tracks are playing out of sync with each other. I can achieve the bug consistently by rapidly pressing B at any time.
what do you think about having the pogo follow the crank directly? I have made a habit out of starting the game while the crank is in the lowest position so the on-screen movement corresponds to the actual crank position. implementing this correlation in-game would probably be most easily done by having the pogo start at whatever position the crank is currently in (instead of always starting the pogo at the bottom).
thanks for developing such a great experience on playdate!
i keep coming back to this game. it really stands out from other arcade titles on Playdate.
i have zero feedback to offer, as it’s exceedingly obvious that you poured a lot of love into this. It’s a polished and highly addicting experience.
my only suggestion is that you submit it to Panic for addition to the offerings on Catalog. You deserve monies for this and there are thousands of users who would gladly pay a buck or two for this
this is a great take on the tapper games
one lil thing that could make this a better experience imo: the crank to fill mechanic sometimes locks the player at the tap and feels sort of broken, so a little tweaking here (perhaps the ability to move away from the tap mid-pour) would be lovely.
thanks for bringing Tapper to the Playdate!
tricky to make this a paid game, as it uses SEGA’s IP. Would likely need to change it to “Blue Skunk Drift Mania” or something and modify the character sprite accordingly.
That said, I agree that it’s a fun and engaging effort!
For the dev: I experienced a crash when playing on device - After getting a “Time over” on level 2, the game froze and crashed the Playdate.
just got a chance to try this out and i like the idea a ton!
if you're amenable to tweaking some of the controls, that could take it up a few notches.
right now, the crank feels underutilized. my first impression was that the goalkeeper should be controlled with the crank, but that was before i saw that there is a paddle/wall that can be controlled with the crank. i still feel as though the paddle is not as responsive as it could be.
the paddle is responding only to the direction of the crank movement and not the speed of the rotation. using the crank for analog control of the paddle or the goalkeeper (with variable movement speed) would make this a much more engaging experience
thanks for sharing your work!
wow....
i'm amazed you haven't seen more love for this.
it's a truly sophisticated and well-implemented digital instrument. you had a lot of fun making it, which shows in every facet of the app. sonically, it's a retro-gamer's fantasy. visually, the thing is so compelling.
thanks for making this a reality and i look forward to any other efforts you put forward on Playdate
awesome work on this!
super fun spin on a classic concept.
i noticed that sometimes collision isn't handled as expected. it looks as though a ball passes right through another ball. i want to say it happens when the target ball is moving slowly? also maybe when the collision occurs close to the launcher.
otherwise, this is perfect and a great way to pass some time
hi again, AB.
if you've moved on from this project, please disregard this message.
otherwise, i'd be so grateful to have the pills spawn below the bottleneck.
the other features i mentioned in the above comment are just frills, but the bottleneck is a gamechanger. as it is, Dr. Panic is held back by this departure from the franchise that you are paying tribute to. it would be soooo much improved by this change
thanks for reading!
this is such a cool puzzler. it has all the appeal of sudoku/minesweeper/picross, and simultaneously manages to be new and refreshing!
i think a tutorial would help to give players a better understanding of how the game works. i, as with other folks here, had to return to this page to read up on the rules.
this game belongs on catalog! please consider submitting it
hey GBM! nice seeing you here.
i'm also itching for a dpad launch button. really, all face buttons including dpad could trigger ball launch, as there's no other command to dedicate to the buttons.
the ball patterns are a little tricky to discern at a glance, but it is functional and i'm not getting confused often. if there's any bandwidth to devote to overhauling the patterns, this would make the user experience all the better.
Thanks, gg, for an excellent port of a great Pico-8 title. I hope to see more Pico games come to Playdate
this game is sooooo charming!
The minimal design is super inviting and fun.
Would you be willing to implement dpad input for the action button? Reaching for the A button is a stretch and creates a crowded feeling with the crank being so close.
My thought is to have all buttons, including the four directional commands, scare away the squid. That way users can choose whatever they like for the action
Thanks for making such a nice lil game!
oooooo! Please upload to the shared folder along with any other tracks you’ve made <3
If you do upload songs, be sure to update Music Box to the latest version and set the notes per minute for each song in wind-up mode first
Link :
User songs
Such a cool game! Great use of the crank and super addictive arcade gameplay.
i noticed that there’s a not-insignificant stutter in the loop of the background animation. would you be willing to clean up the loop?
As it is, it’s a bit distracting. I think this game could be a great addition to Playdate’s official games Catalog if there were just a touch of polish added
looking forward to this! i've sunk some serious time into this app
while the values you already have for speed might seem high, the npm can be anywhere from two to four times greater than the bpm for a song. the notes for most songs are going to be a fragment of a beat, maybe half a beat, or even a third or fourth of a beat.
some of the songs i've transcribed would sound best at around 600 npm if the smallest unit in the rhythm is a sixteenth. this would equate to 150 bpm. by the same reasoning, the lowest reasonable npm for songs using eighth notes would be around 40, as that would be 20 bpm.
my idea of using italian tempo names in the menu is probably not going to work out, since npm doesn't account for meter and division of the beats. 260 npm would be Vivace (130 bpm) if ♪eighths♪ are the shortest value, but Adagio (65 bpm) if ♬sixteenths♬ are the shortest value. i don't think there will be an easy way to incorporate it
great effort here! this game definitely achieves the retro feel and makes fun and sensible use of the crank
a couple little tweaks would make this even better
gameplay is good and I don’t have any suggestions! the controls are where I feel improvements could be made.
crank input doesn’t seem to scale up when turned faster. this really limits the feeling of responsiveness when playing. also, when decending to a new screen, the crank input seems to reverse momentarily and pull you back up to the previous screen. this can be very frustrating
i’m convinced this game could be super appealing if you finesse the crank controls a bit
thanks!
beats per minute (bpm) as an integer value would likely be best. this would replace the descriptive speed settings that are currently implemented. if you want to get fancy, you could have the Italian tempo names display in the tempo selection menu when the corresponding numeric values are selected (i.e. "Allegro" when the user selects a bpm between 109 and 132).
I know that Music Box begins omitting consecutive notes at faster speeds, so a high tempo limit just before that happens would be perfect.
the low value could be around 40. anything less that doesn't have much practical purpose, though I suppose there's no harm in setting it to 1.
what do you think about adding a tempo setting for wind-up mode?
sometimes, more intricate textures don't sound right at medium or fast, but would really settle nicely somewhere in between. an exact tempo setting would give greater nuance to songs. If you want to really go bonkers, the ability to save each song's tempo setting would be incredible!
so grateful to have a nice lil adaptation of this title on Playdate!
some adjustments that could greatly improve the experience:
in the original Dr. "Plumber Man" games, the pills spawn underneath the bottleneck, so they are movable from the instant they appear on screen. in your game, having the pills spawn in the bottleneck forces the player to wait until they descend before gaining the ability to move. tweaking the spawn point to better reflect the source material that this game is inspired by could take this game from good to great!
the GBA version of Dr. "So and So" also does a cool thing that you could try if you're amenable - TATE mode! using the device in portrait orientation would likely necessitate a new control scheme, perhaps using the crank for either movement or rotation of the pills so the other hand can just focus on dpad or face buttons. these changes are less important for the overall user experience, but could really set your game apart.
thanks so much for what you do
tried this out for the first time today and it was soooooo fun! thanks for creating such a whimsical and creative experience.
others have mentioned that longer length would be nice. I'm in that camp, but I'm only asking for 8 more steps. 128 steps would allow for a perfect loop of 8, 16 or 32 measures, depending on the rhythm and meter used. 120 steps is allllllmoooost enough to get a full phrase finished before the loop resets.
i made a track for korobeiniki, but couldn't quite finish the song before the loop came around again at 120 steps. would love to be able to get it right :)
