Hey, just played through the first world again. Will finish the rest of the demo soon. The puzzle design, progression, and feel of the game are all excellent. So my feedback will wander a bit, and share a few things I've been pondering.
It's worth thinking about whether or not you want to use your real name in distributing the game. Personally, I like it and think it's a good idea. It didn't seem to hurt the Stardew Valley dev so who knows if it matters.
You should start your game fullscreen. It's similar to the difference between watching a movie on your phone, vs. in the theatre. A fullscreen game is implicitly asking the player for their attention, and promising that it will be worth it. This game is worth it. A windowed game is not really occupying the players mind, their email tab is open behind, their calendar is shooting up notification in the corner, their discord icon is flashing. Giving the players the option to window the game is plenty.
After a ton of trial and error and experimenting, I have personally found that breakpoints are a far superior method of scaling for a pixel-perfect 2D game than letterboxing. The idea is this: At 1x resolution, there is a min and max width, and a min and max height you are willing to allow. The "ideal" 1x resolution might be 480x270, or whatever. But the game is guaranteed to work down to 420x230, or whatever, and up to 520x300. Once you have determined that, you can look at the size of your window, and determine whether you are going to be at 1x, 2x, 3x, etc.. I go all the way to 8x. The end result, if you take the smallest window and slowly start increasing its size, the screen area will grow, grow, grow, then snap to 2x, then grow grow grow, snap to 3x, etc... All the while, it fills the entire window space as best as possible. With well tuned breakpoints, the vast majority of screens will be completely filled, with pixel perfect scaling. I made a video showing what it looks like
On your sound toggles, the control should be exponential, because hearing is logarithmic. Read here for more info: https://www.dr-lex.be/info-stuff/volumecontrols.html Simple fix that really improves things. With this, a sound control halfway down will "sound" like its at half volume, instead of staying mostly the same, and then getting really quiet at the end.
It's worth thinking about whether or not you want to use your real name in distributing the game. Personally, I like it and think it's a good idea. It didn't seem to hurt the Stardew Valley dev so who knows if it matters.
I'm still deciding on that. I like to keep my hobbies and real life separated, but it would be nice to have something with my real name on it.
You should start your game fullscreen.
Good points, I will change it.
Resolution
The game works like that for windowed mode, but as default it stretches the image to fit the screen. Before that it was pixel perfect, but people in general really didn't like the black bars on the side of the screen, so it is turned off by default. The technique you are using to increase the field of view for non-integer scaling sizes is very interesting, but thanks to the way my backgrounds are created it would be complicated to implement it. I will keep the technique in mind for the future though.
Love everything about the looks and humor especially, but I wasn't expecting the game to hook me in like it did. Played to the end of v0.20, but I could not get passed the second bonus stage at the end. Skill issue I suppose.
Only thing I can really add is that the fairies look odd and a little jittery when the camera is panning from left to right.
What happened to main menu ost, it was my fav song!
lv4 last bullshit with the jumper switch at the flag was magnificent, for a full minute I stared at the screen asking myself if I needed to reset.
lv5 "two feet on two buttons" seems pretty scummy. I got it soon enough, and it's a fun mindfuck, you should make earlier levels cheesable with this knowledge. (I assume super jumpers with ??? is a placeholder?)
lv6 LMAO. Best level, with a death at 1s and the juggle of buttons+ lever.
lv7 very nice whipping level. Jumper question, the little jumper (top right) is a placeholder sprite? because it's bad design to have a puzzle piece that sometimes acts in a way, sometimes another.
lv8 tip maybe it's a little too vague. I remembered your progress post "toad will enact revenge to all guilty in poke order", so I dunno if I would really solved this with out it.
Bonus level was super hard. Fair because you just really need to think at the final outcome of the map (what buttons I need pressed, aka how many alive fairies I need to win). I love that in a way you can decide what fairy get eaten and who survives. Make it more often, because it can cause a waifu war.
The way you can hover the bonus levels unlocked from jump around is logical, but confusing.
I stopped there because I wanna finish all my reviews today.
Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback! Glad to see that some of the fun interactions that I planned do happen in practice.
What happened to main menu ost, it was my fav song!
A casuality of progress and need for a theme song. I will try to keep the piano version though.
"two feet on two buttons" seems pretty scummy
Other people think the same. It is something really useful for me, but I will need to see if it is worth keeping.
(I assume super jumpers with ??? is a placeholder?)
It is something I added today, it indicates that a launchpad is weirder than usual. It is introduced in world 2. Maybe I'm using it incorrectly here
lv7 very nice whipping level. Jumper question, the little jumper (top right) is a placeholder sprite? because it's bad design to have a puzzle piece that sometimes acts in a way, sometimes another.
I don't undertand very well. Do you mean the icon that appears when whipping toads? That is a placeholder, I didn't work on the graphics of the whip fairy at all. If you mean the launchpad distance, they always have different jump distances.
lv8 tip maybe it's a little too vague. I remembered your progress post "toad will enact revenge to all guilty in poke order", so I dunno if I would really solved this with out it.
I have seen other people play and they pick up on it quickly, it doesnt seem too abstract for now.
lv7 very nice whipping level. Jumper question, the little jumper (top right) is a placeholder sprite? because it's bad design to have a puzzle piece that sometimes acts in a way, sometimes another.
I don't undertand very well. Do you mean the icon that appears when whipping toads? That is a placeholder, I didn't work on the graphics of the whip fairy at all. If you mean the launchpad distance, they always have different jump distances.
for jumper I mean the arrow puzzle piece that makes you jump in his direction. I saw this in some levels: the distance covered by an arrowJump is not constant. You should be able to resolve your puzzles just in your mind, given the initial start of the pieces.
Thanks to the nature of the game there will be some hidden information. I don't think it is a bad thing as long as it is simple and fast to check whats hidden. Also the games tell people to experiment from very early on.
Though at certain points my fairy started walking to the bottom right. I have a HOTAS plugged in so maybe the game was detecting the input from that. Strange that it didn't detect it from the very beginning if so.
This is the first time I have heard about a problem like that, I don't get many reports about controls having odd behaviors. Have you tried using the HOTAS to control the game? I know they are not designed for games like this, but it could give me some clues about whats going on.
Yeah from the looks of it, it's detecting the left and right throttles as axis inputs. It must have ignored them for most of my playthrough but then there was an input jitter or something and it picked the hotas up, since it wasn't an issue until level 5 or so.
It's not a big deal and I don't think it's something you have to worry about. I encounter this problem with various games that have controller support, though Noita had a specific option to disable gamepad input altogether so it'd be nice to have but again not a priority especially at this stage in development.
Cute as always! You can poke can poke fairies, very nice. No witch fairy, very sad.
Thought the test levels were fiiine, maybe with a little too many things I'd say.
I thought these two were the weakest:
* Three lanes: I just thought the first part was a bit annoying, it's just touching buttons in the right order, the puzzle was really the second part, which was fine.
* Priorities: Not sure if I got the intended solution, but it seems like an exploit to me, I didn't find it really intuitive. I guess it's a rule you can roll with, but I wasn't too keen on it, and I wasn't a fan of how the level was discovering that sort of corner case interaction.
For levels I liked, probably these two:
* Dream jumping: It's just kind of different from the other puzzles in a good way.
* Base of operations: Not a test level, but hadn't played it before. I reeeeeally liked this one. So, I actually struggled a lot in this level, but I wasn't just stuck, there elements in the level were just right to keep testing out ideas until I eventually find the solution. I felt like it built a narrative too (for me at least), because I tried to find a way to start from the right, got stuck, then to the left, got stuck for a different reason, which really baffled me, until I found the solution, and I was stuck because something I was assuming was wrong and me go 'ohhh wait'. I liked the level that's now a bonus one for that reason too, although I couldn't solve that one.
I didn't want to overload people with too many mechanics, but yeah I should have shown the witch fairy specially since I worked so much on her the last month. Next DD will have her for sure.
* Three lanes: I just thought the first part was a bit annoying, it's just touching buttons in the right order, the puzzle was really the second part, which was fine
I have received similar sentiments for that level from other players. I could try some adjustments.
Priorities: Not sure if I got the intended solution, but it seems like an exploit to me, I didn't find it really intuitive. I guess it's a rule you can roll with, but I wasn't too keen on it, and I wasn't a fan of how the level was discovering that sort of corner case interaction.
I wish it was a corner case, but it's a situation that happens very often with the whip fairy. Nobody likes the interaction, so you are not alone thinking it is an exploit. I have to find a new way to handle it that feels intuitive.
Dream jumping: It's just kind of different from the other puzzles in a good way
You caught on the mechanic quickly. I need to find a way to make it more intuitive since some comments said it felt janky.
Base of operations
It was cool to watch your thought process on the video. This level has a weird effect on people. If you start the level saying "I want to poke the toad on the right" and follow the mandatory steps to do so the level solves itself. Otherwise it makes players dizzy. I believe having both a button and lever is the problem here, but I'm not sure.
Four for four
I will change this level since it is too busy and takes a lot of steps to solve while being really easy.
Hello, had a go at the test levels. Love the new poke reactions.
-Kinda weird how in Test-2 the blue levers aren't synched so they all depress when you step on the first one.
-Asking for a fairy to stand on 2 different tiles in Test-5 is really weird. It feels like cheating.
-In Synchronized Jumping, I managed to poke the toad on the upper right with the blue fairy so fast that it was still chewing on the busy fairy that had been standing on the right blue switch. Doesn't break the level, but it seems unintended.
-The way fairies jump when standing both on a button and the force field arrow that it activates feels super jank, notable in Synchronized Jumping and Forced Advance.
-You might also wanna consider not having the fairy turn when flung by a force field. I think it'd look better in some situations.
-I genuinely don't see how Forced Advance can be completed. There doesn't seem to be any sequence of moves that can get the blue fairy from poking the bottom right toad up to the flag.
You seemed to be worried about the brave fairy being OP in the threads, but she doesn't seem too bad.
*edit*
I saw your first hint for Forced Advance in the thread and was able to solve it. Now that I understand the solution, I think it's actually a really good use of misdirection and I hope you don't change it too much. I think giving the player an earlier level that uses the same way of getting around would be a better way to make it less of a leap in logic.
Kinda weird how in Test-2 the blue levers aren’t synched so they all depress when you step on the first one.
They never did that, but I like the idea of synching all levers of the same color together, I will try it out.
Asking for a fairy to stand on 2 different tiles in Test-5 is really weird. It feels like cheating.
Other people have said the same thing, but for me it is a really useful tool. I will need to find a way for people to find it less janky.
In Synchronized Jumping, I managed to poke the toad on the upper right with the blue fairy so fast that it was still chewing on the busy fairy that had been standing on the right blue switch. Doesn’t break the level, but it seems unintended.
It is an interaction I have to rework.
The way fairies jump when standing both on a button and the force field arrow that it activates feels super jank, notable in Synchronized Jumping and Forced Advance.
Yeah, agree. I have better tools for that interaction like the bridge but wanted to restrict myself. I might need to introduce the bridge earlier to avoid this kind of situations.
You might also wanna consider not having the fairy turn when flung by a force field. I think it’d look better in some situations.
Interesting idea.
genuinely don’t see how Forced Advance can be completed. There doesn’t seem to be any sequence of moves that can get the blue fairy from poking the bottom right toad up to the flag
I saw your first hint for Forced Advance in the thread and was able to solve it. Now that I understand the solution, I think it’s actually a really good use of misdirection and I hope you don’t change it too much. I think giving the player an earlier level that uses the same way of getting around would be a better way to make it less of a leap in logic.
It is a level that resulted much more difficult than I thought. I decided to not change it much and leave it as an endgame level. Making an easier level inspired on it sounds like a good idea.
You seemed to be worried about the brave fairy being OP in the threads, but she doesn’t seem too bad.
Here issues come mostly in level design, but yeah she isn’t as powerful as I thought and was very well received, which makes me happy.
Played through all the test levels besides Forced Advance on 20d. New animations look nice and slick, puzzles felt fair for the most part. A couple of the levels were way too easy, like the one where you whip back and forth across platforms or using a wall to block a fairy mid jumppad crossing. For whatever reason the introduction to the whip being used to ignore a poke was kind of hard for me to get. After I figured though it makes enough sense. Challenge levels are pretty good, Synchronized Jumping is a bit much to parse all at once though. I kind of lucked out and got it after only a couple tries.
Forced Advance: this level must be torture or something. I spent an hour+ on this and it seems impossible to me still. As far as I can see, once a fairy goes in the bottom right they are stuck unless they're thrown out(the whip fairy could, but she would never have use going down there). On top of that, the blue fairy has to go there so that the toad can be poked. At that point, the only way for her to escape is with a muscle fairy. However, the muscle fairy gets stuck which is game over, since the blue fairy has to be thrown across the pit to reach the goal. Maybe I'm forgetting a mechanic, but it seems impossible no matter how I try to piece it together in my mind.
The whip/poke interaction is confusing, so it will need to be changed. I also changed a Synchronized Jumping a bit more.
Forced Advance
Yeah, I know. Sorry for the headache. This ended up being a much more difficult puzzle than I imagined. I came up with some useful tips if you want to give it a second try:
Small tip
The green fairy is purpose is to press the yellow button.
Medium tip
The whip fairy can be replaced by a busy fairy (gray one) and the level would still be beatable.
Big tip
You can reach the right platform without being thrown by a strong fairy.
Thanks for the tips. Just beat it, and I'm almost embarrassed by how obvious it is after the fact. Those red herrings really made me get tunnel vision.
Very cool and fun game! I loved the art for the characters (why is the blue fairy SO smug?) and the tutorial screens, and the music is relaxing and fits perfectly with the rest of the game.
Only complaint I can think about is the constant switching between fairies, specially when it involves multiple red strong fairies, since it meant:
Having to switch from blue to red.
Manually grabbing the blue one with the red one.
Having to switch back to the blue after she has been thrown.
Makes some stages more tedious than anything else. If the red fairy could grab the blue one when the blue one pokes the red one, that'll make it much more straight forward, since it'll be:
Blue pokes red.
Red grabs blue, then throws her.
You are automatically back to controlling the blue one (since you really never switched fairies) and are ready to keep poking around.
Aside from that, I really enjoyed my time with the game. Puzzles were becoming more complex at a nice pace, and I never felt bored or frustrated. Hope to see you making it, the game deserves it.
The rest of the game doesn't have so many throw into throw situations. They happen so often in world 2 since it is the world where the strong fairy is introduced. I know it is a bit tedious, so maybe I will simplify a couple puzzles. Automatic interactions are a bit dangerous since not always the player will want to do them.
Excellent game. You clearly know what you're doing, so any feedback I give will be more personal than anything. If I was making the game, I would completely get rid of the timing element. I played most of the early stages and it never once was necessary to the puzzle. This change can achieved by making the toads tongue you instantly, but only when you try to touch the pole. The timing adds an element of mechanical skill which doesn't need to be there and shrinks your potential audience. Also, I would change the pole to be pokable instead of needing to stand right on it. It's not consistent with how you interact with the toads.
Timing is an unfortunate evil of having action elements into the game. I want to experiment a bit more with the goalpost/toad aggro interaction, because waiting doesn't feel good.
Also, I would change the pole to be pokable instead of needing to stand right on it. It's not consistent with how you interact with the toads.
This has been one of my favorites from DD. I don't usually play puzzle games but the UI and music of this one really made me continue going for more. I played quite a bit! I hope to see this project concluded.
I played for a while, made it to 'Caution Is For Fools'. The wake up noise especially and the poking the strong fairy is super cute. Exceptionally cute well made game, I don't have any suggestions. I liked seeing the smart fairy in a brick costume.
Probably my only thought I'd have is to have a bit of squinting or some other expression change when a fairy pokes a toad. Would fit the smug aura I'm getting from them.
Thanks, I have heard other people say the same thing, that it reminds them of flash games. I'm happy to hear that since I really loved when flash games were at the top of web gaming.
I'm thinking about adding alternative pokes, with different facial expressions at the end. Still unsure how to do it, if I want it as an unlockable or not.
I poked the first toad... he ate me... I heard what I thought was a victory noise... no secret levels??
I'm on my laptop, does it have to be on a save where I've already poked ALL toads?
I don't think it's your fault, but itch is being really janky with your game. The itch.io app on my laptop won't install your game. On my desktop, it wouldn't pull the latest version.
This demo should use the same save as the last demo day, I don't think it should cause issues with the current version. And if you are using an older save, the game automatically ignores it. The issue I posted in the hotfix shouldn't affect your save luckily.
The app is a bit weird, I remember a streamer having a similar difficulty. Make sure the version you are running has "0.20c" on the bottom left part of the main menu. If that doesn't work try manually downloading it.
Did you go back to the map? The level wont end automatically after that, you have to exit manually to the map or beat the level to return to the map. The node to the test map should be there.
ok I'm dumb. But it would be nice if there was an easier way to access test stuff.
The blue fairy poking the strong fairy is SO CUTE.
Why can't the whip fairy go to a fairy that's only like one or two spots away? Why's it gotta be perfectly spaced?
I don't like that it's a metal platform in space. I feel like the whole game should take place in organic comfy places in nature. Cause they're fairies and toads.
I like these puzzles. They're good brain teasers and pretty difficult for me. I got filtered on Jump Around. I always feel so close but my brain shuts down.
The blue fairy poking the strong fairy is SO CUTE.
I'm happy you like it!
Why can't the whip fairy go to a fairy that's only like one or two spots away? Why's it gotta be perfectly spaced?
Because the way it currently works is cumbersome to avoid having weird scenarios. I have to make the detection area bigger while also figuring out how to not break puzzles
I don't like that it's a metal platform in space. I feel like the whole game should take place in organic comfy places in nature. Cause they're fairies and toads.
The two worlds I have made were natural places, but I plan to have them in weird scenarios too. Kinda like the worm games. Maybe it will make more sense once I flesh out the ideas.
I like these puzzles. They're good brain teasers and pretty difficult for me. I got filtered on Jump Around. I always feel so close but my brain shuts down.
I adjusted jump around to make more sense, the C version was a bit too convoluted and difficult to perform.
The colored circle has been suggested before. I really like the bright green one since it gives good contrast, but a lot of people have had difficulties in the "slumber party" level so I should experiment a bit. I thought one way to make the player know the kind of fairy when quickswitching, which I will give a try later.
If you don't mind, could you post your stats please? They are found after pressing the red button in the last level a couple times.
Great stuff as always. The music is cute, the game oozes charm. I don't have any real critique, but I did record myself playing some of the test area levels since I figured that has a chance of being helpful to you. I didn't provide commentary, but I hope it helps or at least provides some amusement for you. The new levels were all fun, but I did get filtered in the end.
Thanks for playing and recording your playthrough!
The new levels need tweaking, I apologize for the headache some of them caused to you. The one you got stuck at the end is awkward to perform so it should be redesigned a bit, watching it in video makes the awkwardness clear.
The last 3 bonus levels didn't unlock properly. The new version fixes that.
If you reached the flag level and beat it in the old version (0.20), the levels wont appear if you update. You will have to manually unlock the levels from the main menu. Go to the pause menu, then "Skip levels" and select "Unlock all levels". Then confirm.
New profiles wont have this problem from 0.20b forward.
v0.20c
V0.20b had a change which made the level below unwinnable. V0.20c fixes that.
I played the hidden levels. Don't have all that much to say though, just keep doing what you're doing!
Wood and sand tilesets in space are a bit odd, I guess it would be pretty hard to make something more space station-y than the metal one when its miniature. Maybe an asteroid tileset could work?
The solution to Dream Jumping felt a bit bullshitty - having the fairy stand on the tile borders so she's on both at the same time felt unintended. However, maybe it flows better when the level would be integrated into the game properly.
Is whipping a fairy, having the whipper eaten and poking it at the same time intended? Because I solved some puzzle that why but I'm not sure if it was actually intended.
The spades level was my favorite.
The whip fairy is great, seems like you can do some interesting puzzles with it.
Wood and sand tilesets in space are a bit odd, I guess it would be pretty hard to make something more space station-y than the metal one when its miniature. Maybe an asteroid tileset could work?
I put something really quickly to not have the default gravel/fields scene. I plan to make the levels look unique.
The solution to Dream Jumping felt a bit bullshitty - having the fairy stand on the tile borders so she's on both at the same time felt unintended. However, maybe it flows better when the level would be integrated into the game properly.
I will pay attention to this. You are the first one who mentions it, it is something that I use quite a lot since it gives me a good way for a fairy to activate a button while at the same time being able to activate other things.
Is whipping a fairy, having the whipper eaten and poking it at the same time intended? Because I solved some puzzle that why but I'm not sure if it was actually intended.
It is intended, but I'm starting to think it isn't as intuitive as I imagined.
The spades level was my favorite
Interesting, I'm receiving different signals about that level.
The whip fairy is great, seems like you can do some interesting puzzles with it.
Glad to hear that. I had my doubts, but people liked her so far.
Whipping was misspelled:
Going to fix it, thanks for pointing it out.
Like I mentioned before, I realised just now the level selection is bugged and the three last bonus levels don't unlock on their own. To unlock them, go to pause the game, go to "skip levels" and then "unlock all levels". I updated the demo but it wont fix profiles that beat the last level already.
I will pay attention to this. You are the first one who mentions it, it is something that I use quite a lot since it gives me a good way for a fairy to activate a button while at the same time being able to activate other things.
I don't think its a bad thing, if its introduced well earlier in a level I think its fine.
I put something really quickly to not have the default gravel/fields scene. I plan to make the levels look unique.
Yeah that makes sense.
Like I mentioned before, I realised just now the level selection is bugged and the three last bonus levels don't unlock on their own. To unlock them, go to pause the game, go to "skip levels" and then "unlock all levels". I updated the demo but it wont fix profiles that beat the last level already.
The puzzles picked up complexity at a good pace and I'm really curious about how complex the final ones will get. The whip fairy levels were intuitive too, I had no trouble with them and imo they don't need any change.
I'm gathering data about the impressions of the whip fairy, so your input is appreciated.
By the way, I realised just now the level selection is bugged and the three last bonus levels don't unlock on their own. To unlock them, go to pause the game, go to "skip levels" and then "unlock all levels". I updated the demo but it wont fix profiles that beat the last level already.
Comments
Hey, just played through the first world again. Will finish the rest of the demo soon. The puzzle design, progression, and feel of the game are all excellent. So my feedback will wander a bit, and share a few things I've been pondering.
Thanks for playing!
I'm still deciding on that. I like to keep my hobbies and real life separated, but it would be nice to have something with my real name on it.
Good points, I will change it.
The game works like that for windowed mode, but as default it stretches the image to fit the screen. Before that it was pixel perfect, but people in general really didn't like the black bars on the side of the screen, so it is turned off by default. The technique you are using to increase the field of view for non-integer scaling sizes is very interesting, but thanks to the way my backgrounds are created it would be complicated to implement it. I will keep the technique in mind for the future though.
Just sticking my nose to share this video since you talked about pixel perfect upscaling, it's pretty cool:
Love everything about the looks and humor especially, but I wasn't expecting the game to hook me in like it did. Played to the end of v0.20, but I could not get passed the second bonus stage at the end. Skill issue I suppose.
Only thing I can really add is that the fairies look odd and a little jittery when the camera is panning from left to right.
Thanks for playing!
The bonus stages are difficult, so don't worry about it.
Only thing I can really add is that the fairies look odd and a little jittery when the camera is panning from left to right.
I will look into it. The game is rendered in an odd way to preserve the pixel art look and it can cause some issues.
Played f version:
What happened to main menu ost, it was my fav song!
lv4 last bullshit with the jumper switch at the flag was magnificent, for a full minute I stared at the screen asking myself if I needed to reset.
lv5 "two feet on two buttons" seems pretty scummy. I got it soon enough, and it's a fun mindfuck, you should make earlier levels cheesable with this knowledge. (I assume super jumpers with ??? is a placeholder?)
lv6 LMAO. Best level, with a death at 1s and the juggle of buttons+ lever.
lv7 very nice whipping level. Jumper question, the little jumper (top right) is a placeholder sprite? because it's bad design to have a puzzle piece that sometimes acts in a way, sometimes another.
lv8 tip maybe it's a little too vague. I remembered your progress post "toad will enact revenge to all guilty in poke order", so I dunno if I would really solved this with out it.
Bonus level was super hard. Fair because you just really need to think at the final outcome of the map (what buttons I need pressed, aka how many alive fairies I need to win). I love that in a way you can decide what fairy get eaten and who survives. Make it more often, because it can cause a waifu war.
The way you can hover the bonus levels unlocked from jump around is logical, but confusing.
I stopped there because I wanna finish all my reviews today.
Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback! Glad to see that some of the fun interactions that I planned do happen in practice.
A casuality of progress and need for a theme song. I will try to keep the piano version though.
Other people think the same. It is something really useful for me, but I will need to see if it is worth keeping.
It is something I added today, it indicates that a launchpad is weirder than usual. It is introduced in world 2. Maybe I'm using it incorrectly here
I don't undertand very well. Do you mean the icon that appears when whipping toads? That is a placeholder, I didn't work on the graphics of the whip fairy at all. If you mean the launchpad distance, they always have different jump distances.
I have seen other people play and they pick up on it quickly, it doesnt seem too abstract for now.
for jumper I mean the arrow puzzle piece that makes you jump in his direction. I saw this in some levels: the distance covered by an arrowJump is not constant. You should be able to resolve your puzzles just in your mind, given the initial start of the pieces.
Thanks to the nature of the game there will be some hidden information. I don't think it is a bad thing as long as it is simple and fast to check whats hidden. Also the games tell people to experiment from very early on.
I liked the part where you poke toads. Good game.
Though at certain points my fairy started walking to the bottom right. I have a HOTAS plugged in so maybe the game was detecting the input from that. Strange that it didn't detect it from the very beginning if so.
Thanks for playing!
This is the first time I have heard about a problem like that, I don't get many reports about controls having odd behaviors. Have you tried using the HOTAS to control the game? I know they are not designed for games like this, but it could give me some clues about whats going on.
https://files.catbox.moe/pgx36o.mp4
Yeah from the looks of it, it's detecting the left and right throttles as axis inputs. It must have ignored them for most of my playthrough but then there was an input jitter or something and it picked the hotas up, since it wasn't an issue until level 5 or so.
It's not a big deal and I don't think it's something you have to worry about. I encounter this problem with various games that have controller support, though Noita had a specific option to disable gamepad input altogether so it'd be nice to have but again not a priority especially at this stage in development.
Thanks, I will look into ways to toggle on/off controller inputs.
I recorded playing games with commentary, and your game is one of them.
Here's the link to the whole DD50 folder:
https://mega.nz/folder/GclCXISL#gwE9S1kRTbe6amYLH2RiYA
I got tunnel visioned.
Thanks for playing and recording an entire 3 hours video!
I watched it all and gave me some things to think about. Very useful feedback, I appreciate it.
Cute as always! You can poke can poke fairies, very nice. No witch fairy, very sad.
Thought the test levels were fiiine, maybe with a little too many things I'd say.
I thought these two were the weakest:
* Three lanes: I just thought the first part was a bit annoying, it's just touching buttons in the right order, the puzzle was really the second part, which was fine.
* Priorities: Not sure if I got the intended solution, but it seems like an exploit to me, I didn't find it really intuitive. I guess it's a rule you can roll with, but I wasn't too keen on it, and I wasn't a fan of how the level was discovering that sort of corner case interaction.
For levels I liked, probably these two:
* Dream jumping: It's just kind of different from the other puzzles in a good way.
* Base of operations: Not a test level, but hadn't played it before. I reeeeeally liked this one. So, I actually struggled a lot in this level, but I wasn't just stuck, there elements in the level were just right to keep testing out ideas until I eventually find the solution. I felt like it built a narrative too (for me at least), because I tried to find a way to start from the right, got stuck, then to the left, got stuck for a different reason, which really baffled me, until I found the solution, and I was stuck because something I was assuming was wrong and me go 'ohhh wait'. I liked the level that's now a bonus one for that reason too, although I couldn't solve that one.
Have a video:
Thanks for playing and the ASMR video!
I didn't want to overload people with too many mechanics, but yeah I should have shown the witch fairy specially since I worked so much on her the last month. Next DD will have her for sure.
I have received similar sentiments for that level from other players. I could try some adjustments.
I wish it was a corner case, but it's a situation that happens very often with the whip fairy. Nobody likes the interaction, so you are not alone thinking it is an exploit. I have to find a new way to handle it that feels intuitive.
You caught on the mechanic quickly. I need to find a way to make it more intuitive since some comments said it felt janky.
It was cool to watch your thought process on the video. This level has a weird effect on people. If you start the level saying "I want to poke the toad on the right" and follow the mandatory steps to do so the level solves itself. Otherwise it makes players dizzy. I believe having both a button and lever is the problem here, but I'm not sure.
I will change this level since it is too busy and takes a lot of steps to solve while being really easy.
Hello, had a go at the test levels. Love the new poke reactions.
-Kinda weird how in Test-2 the blue levers aren't synched so they all depress when you step on the first one.
-Asking for a fairy to stand on 2 different tiles in Test-5 is really weird. It feels like cheating.
-In Synchronized Jumping, I managed to poke the toad on the upper right with the blue fairy so fast that it was still chewing on the busy fairy that had been standing on the right blue switch. Doesn't break the level, but it seems unintended.
-The way fairies jump when standing both on a button and the force field arrow that it activates feels super jank, notable in Synchronized Jumping and Forced Advance.
-You might also wanna consider not having the fairy turn when flung by a force field. I think it'd look better in some situations.
-I genuinely don't see how Forced Advance can be completed. There doesn't seem to be any sequence of moves that can get the blue fairy from poking the bottom right toad up to the flag.
You seemed to be worried about the brave fairy being OP in the threads, but she doesn't seem too bad.
*edit*
I saw your first hint for Forced Advance in the thread and was able to solve it. Now that I understand the solution, I think it's actually a really good use of misdirection and I hope you don't change it too much. I think giving the player an earlier level that uses the same way of getting around would be a better way to make it less of a leap in logic.
Thanks for playing!
They never did that, but I like the idea of synching all levers of the same color together, I will try it out.
Other people have said the same thing, but for me it is a really useful tool. I will need to find a way for people to find it less janky.
It is an interaction I have to rework.
Yeah, agree. I have better tools for that interaction like the bridge but wanted to restrict myself. I might need to introduce the bridge earlier to avoid this kind of situations.
Interesting idea.
It is a level that resulted much more difficult than I thought. I decided to not change it much and leave it as an endgame level. Making an easier level inspired on it sounds like a good idea.
Here issues come mostly in level design, but yeah she isn’t as powerful as I thought and was very well received, which makes me happy.
Played through all the test levels besides Forced Advance on 20d. New animations look nice and slick, puzzles felt fair for the most part. A couple of the levels were way too easy, like the one where you whip back and forth across platforms or using a wall to block a fairy mid jumppad crossing. For whatever reason the introduction to the whip being used to ignore a poke was kind of hard for me to get. After I figured though it makes enough sense. Challenge levels are pretty good, Synchronized Jumping is a bit much to parse all at once though. I kind of lucked out and got it after only a couple tries.
Forced Advance: this level must be torture or something. I spent an hour+ on this and it seems impossible to me still. As far as I can see, once a fairy goes in the bottom right they are stuck unless they're thrown out(the whip fairy could, but she would never have use going down there). On top of that, the blue fairy has to go there so that the toad can be poked. At that point, the only way for her to escape is with a muscle fairy. However, the muscle fairy gets stuck which is game over, since the blue fairy has to be thrown across the pit to reach the goal. Maybe I'm forgetting a mechanic, but it seems impossible no matter how I try to piece it together in my mind.
Thanks for playing again!
The whip/poke interaction is confusing, so it will need to be changed. I also changed a Synchronized Jumping a bit more.
Yeah, I know. Sorry for the headache. This ended up being a much more difficult puzzle than I imagined. I came up with some useful tips if you want to give it a second try:
Small tip
The green fairy is purpose is to press the yellow button.Medium tip
The whip fairy can be replaced by a busy fairy (gray one) and the level would still be beatable.Big tip
You can reach the right platform without being thrown by a strong fairy.Thanks for the tips. Just beat it, and I'm almost embarrassed by how obvious it is after the fact. Those red herrings really made me get tunnel vision.
Very cool and fun game! I loved the art for the characters (why is the blue fairy SO smug?) and the tutorial screens, and the music is relaxing and fits perfectly with the rest of the game.
Only complaint I can think about is the constant switching between fairies, specially when it involves multiple red strong fairies, since it meant:
Makes some stages more tedious than anything else. If the red fairy could grab the blue one when the blue one pokes the red one, that'll make it much more straight forward, since it'll be:
Aside from that, I really enjoyed my time with the game. Puzzles were becoming more complex at a nice pace, and I never felt bored or frustrated. Hope to see you making it, the game deserves it.
Thanks for playing!
The rest of the game doesn't have so many throw into throw situations. They happen so often in world 2 since it is the world where the strong fairy is introduced. I know it is a bit tedious, so maybe I will simplify a couple puzzles. Automatic interactions are a bit dangerous since not always the player will want to do them.
Excellent game. You clearly know what you're doing, so any feedback I give will be more personal than anything. If I was making the game, I would completely get rid of the timing element. I played most of the early stages and it never once was necessary to the puzzle. This change can achieved by making the toads tongue you instantly, but only when you try to touch the pole. The timing adds an element of mechanical skill which doesn't need to be there and shrinks your potential audience. Also, I would change the pole to be pokable instead of needing to stand right on it. It's not consistent with how you interact with the toads.
Thanks for playing!
Timing is an unfortunate evil of having action elements into the game. I want to experiment a bit more with the goalpost/toad aggro interaction, because waiting doesn't feel good.
Nice idea, I will try it out.
This has been one of my favorites from DD. I don't usually play puzzle games but the UI and music of this one really made me continue going for more. I played quite a bit! I hope to see this project concluded.
Thanks for playing!
I fully want to finish this project, I will do my best.
Nice puzzle game:
-buff fairy is cursed
-mechanics are nice and simple to understand, feels like anyone can pick it up and play it
-I feel like it needs some extra animations in some places, like when a Fairy is mid air(they just stand idle)
-Laughed my ass every time I shot a Fairy into the atmosphere when I activated a wall while they were standing on it.
-I now understand why the vorefolks were horny for this
Anyways, a charming game so far!
Thanks for playing!
Yup, I still need to do a lot of animations. They will be done in the upcoming months.
I played for a while, made it to 'Caution Is For Fools'. The wake up noise especially and the poking the strong fairy is super cute. Exceptionally cute well made game, I don't have any suggestions. I liked seeing the smart fairy in a brick costume.
Thanks for playing! I'm happy you liked the brick fairy, is my greatest costume design.
Reminds me of the games from Miniclip, nostalgic.
Probably my only thought I'd have is to have a bit of squinting or some other expression change when a fairy pokes a toad. Would fit the smug aura I'm getting from them.
Thanks, I have heard other people say the same thing, that it reminds them of flash games. I'm happy to hear that since I really loved when flash games were at the top of web gaming.
I'm thinking about adding alternative pokes, with different facial expressions at the end. Still unsure how to do it, if I want it as an unlockable or not.
I poked the first toad... he ate me... I heard what I thought was a victory noise... no secret levels??
I'm on my laptop, does it have to be on a save where I've already poked ALL toads?
I don't think it's your fault, but itch is being really janky with your game. The itch.io app on my laptop won't install your game. On my desktop, it wouldn't pull the latest version.
This demo should use the same save as the last demo day, I don't think it should cause issues with the current version. And if you are using an older save, the game automatically ignores it. The issue I posted in the hotfix shouldn't affect your save luckily.
The app is a bit weird, I remember a streamer having a similar difficulty. Make sure the version you are running has "0.20c" on the bottom left part of the main menu. If that doesn't work try manually downloading it.
I'm absolutely on 0.20c, had to manually d/l it. I just click "Try Again"? Still can't figure it out or something is wrong
Did you go back to the map? The level wont end automatically after that, you have to exit manually to the map or beat the level to return to the map. The node to the test map should be there.
ok I'm dumb. But it would be nice if there was an easier way to access test stuff.
The blue fairy poking the strong fairy is SO CUTE.
Why can't the whip fairy go to a fairy that's only like one or two spots away? Why's it gotta be perfectly spaced?
I don't like that it's a metal platform in space. I feel like the whole game should take place in organic comfy places in nature. Cause they're fairies and toads.
I like these puzzles. They're good brain teasers and pretty difficult for me. I got filtered on Jump Around. I always feel so close but my brain shuts down.
I'm happy you like it!
Because the way it currently works is cumbersome to avoid having weird scenarios. I have to make the detection area bigger while also figuring out how to not break puzzles
The two worlds I have made were natural places, but I plan to have them in weird scenarios too. Kinda like the worm games. Maybe it will make more sense once I flesh out the ideas.
I adjusted jump around to make more sense, the C version was a bit too convoluted and difficult to perform.
Feedback video:
TLDW: fun game, maybe make the select circle color based on the fairy you select.
Thanks for playing and the video!
The colored circle has been suggested before. I really like the bright green one since it gives good contrast, but a lot of people have had difficulties in the "slumber party" level so I should experiment a bit. I thought one way to make the player know the kind of fairy when quickswitching, which I will give a try later.
If you don't mind, could you post your stats please? They are found after pressing the red button in the last level a couple times.
here you go
Awesome! Thank you very much.
Great stuff as always. The music is cute, the game oozes charm. I don't have any real critique, but I did record myself playing some of the test area levels since I figured that has a chance of being helpful to you. I didn't provide commentary, but I hope it helps or at least provides some amusement for you. The new levels were all fun, but I did get filtered in the end.
Thanks for playing and recording your playthrough!
The new levels need tweaking, I apologize for the headache some of them caused to you. The one you got stuck at the end is awkward to perform so it should be redesigned a bit, watching it in video makes the awkwardness clear.
HOTFIXES:
There has been 2 hotfixes
v0.20b
The last 3 bonus levels didn't unlock properly. The new version fixes that.
If you reached the flag level and beat it in the old version (0.20), the levels wont appear if you update. You will have to manually unlock the levels from the main menu. Go to the pause menu, then "Skip levels" and select "Unlock all levels". Then confirm.
New profiles wont have this problem from 0.20b forward.
v0.20c
V0.20b had a change which made the level below unwinnable. V0.20c fixes that.
Sorry for the inconveniences.
I played the hidden levels. Don't have all that much to say though, just keep doing what you're doing!
I put something really quickly to not have the default gravel/fields scene. I plan to make the levels look unique.
I will pay attention to this. You are the first one who mentions it, it is something that I use quite a lot since it gives me a good way for a fairy to activate a button while at the same time being able to activate other things.
It is intended, but I'm starting to think it isn't as intuitive as I imagined.
Interesting, I'm receiving different signals about that level.
Glad to hear that. I had my doubts, but people liked her so far.
Going to fix it, thanks for pointing it out.
Like I mentioned before, I realised just now the level selection is bugged and the three last bonus levels don't unlock on their own. To unlock them, go to pause the game, go to "skip levels" and then "unlock all levels". I updated the demo but it wont fix profiles that beat the last level already.
Those levels are convoluted though.
I don't think its a bad thing, if its introduced well earlier in a level I think its fine.
Yeah that makes sense.
Nice, I'll play them too.
Amazing pixelart and fun levels.
The puzzles picked up complexity at a good pace and I'm really curious about how complex the final ones will get.
The whip fairy levels were intuitive too, I had no trouble with them and imo they don't need any change.
Great stuff, GMI for sure.
Thanks for playing!
I'm gathering data about the impressions of the whip fairy, so your input is appreciated.
By the way, I realised just now the level selection is bugged and the three last bonus levels don't unlock on their own. To unlock them, go to pause the game, go to "skip levels" and then "unlock all levels". I updated the demo but it wont fix profiles that beat the last level already.