I've been playing a lot the last few days, this is my best score so far. It's a very creative take on the roguelike mechanic to not be combat-based, but stays true to the spirit by maintaining all the high points of the genre like resource management, unlimited replayability, and "weighty" risk vs. reward choices - trying to decide if it's worth detouring for a power-up feels meaningful in the context of the game. The gameplay is also a lot snappier than you'd expect from a turn-based game, another departure from the norm that just works really well here. This is what indie games are all about for me; taking some risks, making some less-common design choices, leaving the beaten path and finding a fun little mechanic off in the weeds somewhere. If I could add anything, it'd only be an 'instant replay' feature; to be able to go back after the end of a level and rewatch the race in 'real' time. Thanks for sharing this with us!5 years ago(+1)
I've been playing a lot the last few days, this is my best score so far. It's a very creative take on the roguelike mechanic to not be combat-based, but stays true to the spirit by maintaining all the high points of the genre like resource management, unlimited replayability, and "weighty" risk vs. reward choices - trying to decide if it's worth detouring for a power-up feels meaningful in the context of the game. The gameplay is also a lot snappier than you'd expect from a turn-based game, another departure from the norm that just works really well here. This is what indie games are all about for me; taking some risks, making some less-common design choices, leaving the beaten path and finding a fun little mechanic off in the weeds somewhere. If I could add anything, it'd only be an 'instant replay' feature; to be able to go back after the end of a level and rewatch the race in 'real' time. Thanks for sharing this with us!I am very glad about your nice review. So It seems that my game just is what I intended it to be and that makes me very happy! :-)
Thank you for your score and the screenshot to verify it. I added you to the high-score-table in the game description.
Please tell me, if you want me to link your name in this list to a web-page of your choice.
5 years ago(+1)
Hello owlmoth, the official reviews of the jam-judges are public now. So I created a "Reviews"-section in my game-description and copied them there. But since I like your review so much I also created a subsection "Non-official reviews" and placed your review there. Thank you again for giving me this awesome feedback! :-)
5 years ago(+1)
Here's a video of my latest run, 148 points at level 21. Not the top of the leaderboard, but I'm pretty proud of it. The way I'm kind of mentally strategizing is while I'm faster than the other runners, saving nitros and getting boosts at all costs. Once the other runners are faster than me, I only burn nitros when I'm out of the top 6. I broke my own rules in level 9, though, diverting just before the finish line to pick up a boost that was way off track, and then burning nitros so I'd be able to catch up before the end of the race; I don't know if it was worth it.
Accepting less-than-first in the later races means a lower final point total, and I don't really prioritize coins at all. If I was just going for straight points those would both be mistakes, but I'm really trying more for levels - by playing that way, the nitros last longer and I can pretty reliably get to 20+.
Hello owlmoth,
there is a new version of RunToTheStairs:
- The game now has a server-sided backend wich is hosted at GreenGeeks.
- This allows to generate automatic high-score-tables which are accessible from within the game.
- Players can register accounts in order to keep their progress.
- High-Score-Tables can be sorted by different criteria. (e.g. "Score per Hour" which should be interesting for speedrunners)
- Balancing changes towards shorter games.
- Less unfair: The players position is newly calculated if the distance to catch up would be to large.
- More versatile pathfinding-algorithm with better performance.
Please consider to play again!
Gerhard