Post by My Dude Studios in PAC-MAN FOREVER comments

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1. Not every item has to be good all the time. The cocktail is an item that is good under certain circumstances but not others. If you see a new item you haven't encountered before in the rotation, you can check the paclopedia from the pause menu to read what it does before you pick it up. This is a game that is meant to be played and replayed and so you will ideally learn things as you go along.

2. Difficulty balancing is one of those things I will have to continue working on as I improve the game. I think I'm making progress on that front, so stay tuned!

3. The tall grass obscures dots and items as part of its behavior, it's a gimmick specifically meant to be obtrusive. Even then, grass which is "concealing" items will be parted and darker. I can't speak on the flowers in Jungly Steps, I have never heard of anybody else struggling with that.

4. Trog is a playable character you can pick in the player options menu, not an enemy. Just press the button with Pac-Man on it and you can swap to him if you want.

rodneylives55 days ago(-2)

My point about Cocktail isn’t that it’s a bad item, it’s that it’s an EXTREMELY bad item, in a superfast action game where you often have little time to react to, sometimes, over a dozen pursuers at once. As I said: it’s much more perilous to collect a Cocktail that to be caught by a ghost. I’ve picked it up accidentally, which is even easier to do since powerups rotate through items. And new players won’t even think to check the encyclopedia. I think my point stands.

I understand the obtrusive gimmick, I think it’s a little too obtrusive. I’ve stared at the board after losing a life and waiting for the next life to begin, unable to find the remaining dot in the short time available, or else confusing it with an untriggered boost panel or banana peel. (In one case, the dot was beneath or beside the peel?)

I’m not sure Jungly Steps was the level in question, if that’s based on the Pac-Mania map then I never had the problem in that game. I can only speak to my own experience. Others might not have it, but then again, it is a problem I have. To not mention it would negate my own perspective. I suggest that superfast maze games are best served when the layout can be easily and instantly perceived.

Anyway, no one says you have to abide by any of this, I’m not the final arbiter of game quality. I just hope my input is helpful.

Jackie-XKH11 days ago

I disagree with the cocktail item, trading lives for high speed is really useful and you're never at risk of dying immediately after using it, since it doubles as a Power Pellet. And besides, the power-up never spawns with no warning and now you see the 3 its cycles between, so I find it's pretty easy to just avoid if you don't want to take the risk.

I do agree with you on the tall grass gimmick though, the challenge coming from "I can't see shit" just isn't fun. That one is far more egregious to me than the cocktail item.

rodneylives9 days ago

Well, i won’t belabor the point. I’d just suggest, if you really think this power is important, that it probably should be implemented in another way than the bonus items, since strictly speaking it’s really not totally a bonus, and has such far-reaching consequences.

My Dude Studios9 days ago(+1)

It has been reworked for future updates.

itch.io

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