Hi there!
I just managed to finish Randoom: Ancient Stones for the first time — on HARD difficulty! What a beautiful game. Tons of fun, clever design, and absolutely worth the challenge. I’ll be writing an enthusiastic review for Zzap! Italy very soon.
A few bugs and issues I noticed while playing:
-
After entering my name at the end, when I completed the game, it froze on a blank blue screen (like a BASIC screen, but empty). Not sure if that's expected or a glitch.
-
I’m playing on a Breadbin C64 with an Ultimate II+, and noticed that if I reset the machine during gameplay, some of the game text remains "burned" into the screen
-
The difficulty/continue mode selector behaves a bit strangely — sometimes it stays on the selected option, other times it jumps back to the previous one unexpectedly.
-
The 3-continue system (which is a great feature!) seems buggy — sometimes I get fewer continues than expected, or none at all, even if I haven’t used any yet.
And here are a few suggestions that might improve the overall experience even more:
-
The scrolling text at the end is fun, but after such a colourful and lively game, with nice, Pang-style in-between level pictures, it would really shine if it scrolled over a beautiful image or illustration. The plain white-on-black text feels a bit underwhelming after all that action.
-
The backgrounds are colourful and effective, but they could use a bit more definition in some places. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish where a platform ends. I often think I’ve cleared a ledge, only to bump my head because the edge isn’t clearly visible.
-
A pause button would be very helpful — and perhaps also a way to quit a game when things go south. Alternatively, you might consider not starting the level automatically after the "Start Level" screen, but waiting for the player to press fire.
-
During invincibility, a more obvious visual cue would be great — maybe a flicker or the same glow effect used when golems are capturable?
All in all, though, fantastic job — I had a blast playing and really admire the work and energy you’ve poured into this. Looking forward to spreading the word!