Maybe I should've not used the word optimization. The point was that a related search, very much so, wasn't showing up my game. After the changes it now shows up tho, so all's good.

Well, maybe I worded myself wrong. The point is, that I wanted my game to show up on the list when someone searches for "hex puzzle", and it didn't show up on the list. Now that I changed the title to what I mentioned earlier, it does show up. So there in fact was something I could do - call it optimization or not.

Thanks for trying it out and reporting the broken link. Fixed now. 

The controls were a doozy to figure out, I tried out a few things in a preliminary testing period before even the proof-of-concept version, and this method came out as the "easiest". There's been a lot of feedback on maybe making some tutorial or in-game help for the controls, so that's something I'll try to do in the future updates - actually QoL stuff like that is roadmapped for 0.3.

Your suggestion about better soundfx, more animations and background music I'll take to heart. If I may ask, about the current sfx, were they too loud (ie. requires better mastering and normalizing), or doesn't fit the action? Or possibly both?

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for all the tips about the tags (and how to see them in other games) and screenshots and devlogs! I went thru the tags again, and now have the full allowed 10 tags, and I also added screenshots and even video and I'll keep on making devlogs when I update the game. 

I also tested and changed the Title to "HEXvolver | A Match-4 Spinning Hex Puzzle" and it immediately showed up on the search when I search for "hex puzzle". I'm pretty sure someone who comes to itch.io and uses the search "wrong", not knowing any better on how it works (just like me), might search for something like that. And I mean, on the off chance, 1 event in 10 years, I'd hate that someone would search for that and didn't see my game (which they _might_ enjoy) on the list even as the last one. Oh and just to clarify, it was never about getting my game higher up on the search for "hex puzzle", it was about _showing up_ at all.

Now the last question remains, is this kosher for itch.io? I've seen other games use descriptive words in their titles too, so if it's not, it's not at least enforced? I'll leave it like that for now as I _think_ it's okay (tried to read the docs and guidelines and quality stuff, and didn't see anything about it), and no-one here objected to it _specifically_...

Anyhoo, thanks again for the help!

Ahhh there the tags are! The "More Information" box! How did I miss that? 😅 Thanks!

I don't understand what you mean by "It doesn't work that way"? You mean the changing the game title to have more information about the game? I'm pretty sure I saw some games in the search that did that and were hit exactly for that reason. Or did you mean something else?

Thanks! I've gone thru and added as many tags that I think fit properly without much stretching the imagination as well as add screenshots (which I was missing). I've tried to make a devlog at least on the major changes (tho only two bigger updates) and even small devlogs on the smaller fixes/updates too.

Yeah, the point isn't to rely on the search or anything. To be fair I don't even _want_ LOTS of traffic, just a bunch more eyes on the game would be useful. Eventually, sure, but for now I thought I'd see what steps I could take to improve visibility on itch.io itself to get those few more eyes on the game. When the time is more ripe I'll start looking for better avenues to drive traffic to it, but that ain't right now.

Yup, like said I understood the search is for title searches. That's why my question about the title - should I change it to show up in searches more, is it even allowed? Or should I just leave it as is? I'm a bit on the fence on this, both for purity's sake (I mean, it's not the game's name if I add stuff to it), as well as not completely understanding what is and isn't kosher to do here on itch.io...

I'll be checking some other games taggings if I could optimize the tag usage, as I currently have only four tags and even those might not be the best ones to use.

 Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Wait... how do I check what tags other games use?

Hey there, I've recently activated development on HEXvolver (https://zment.itch.io/hexvolver) again (also made a post about it on the release announcements for version 0.2 release) and I'd like to have more eyes on it for feedback and bug reports etc. to help with development and well, to also promote the game. 

I'm currently having a bit of a bind with searches - and yes I've read the "Getting Indexed in Search & Browse". My game is found just fine if I search for the exact name. However, the name isn't that generic, and if people search for stuff like "hex puzzle", HEXvolver doesn't show up at all. I'd like that to be not the case - if people search for "hex puzzle", for instance, I'm pretty sure they might like my game or at least get a chance to try it out.

I've tried setting up all the relevant tags I can think of "hexagon" "match" "single-player" "hex-based", but it doesn't seem to matter. Should I just leave things as is, or is there something I could do to help discovery? I understand the search function is mainly title-based, so should I change the title to something like "HEXvolver | A Match-4 Spinning Hex Puzzle"? ...or wait, is it against the rules or something? At least I haven't seen anything disallowing that.

Any help or tips regarding search discovery would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!

HEXvolver 

https://zment.itch.io/hexvolver

Henlo everyone! I "recently" (read: 6 months ago) finally decided to make a PoC version of a game idea that had been bouncing around in my head for years. After that short burst, it was on hiatus for a few months, and now I'm back at it, with a 0.2 release which is starting make it be more game than not. As the development is starting to pick up steam again and the game is more and more playable, I thought I'd share it here to get more eyes on it! I'd appreciate all feedback and/or just trying it out and sharing with friends! Thanks everyone!

HEXvolver is a Match-4-or-more-Gems game, played on a hexagonal grid. Gems are moved around by selecting a midpoint gem, and then draggin outwards and rotating all the neighbouring games around that midpoint gem. You'll get a combo multiplier on successive matches without input. When matching 5 gems, you get a Fire gem, that explodes on matching. With 6 or more gems, you get a Lightning gem, that catches all gems in straight lines around all axes when matched. The game is currently playable on WebGL with desktop and has been tested to work with many mobile phones, and eventually targeting Google Play Store.

Yeah, the parallax took most of the development time too! I know, I was planning to have time to implement the sweaty hot sauna action, but weirdly plans are prone to failure. 

Thanks for playing it and commenting! :)

So cute! I love the polish put into this! 

Loved it! Looking at that corgy run makes me smile. Fullscreen would've been nice tho. The mechanics were nice too!

Great platforming! The camera might need some work (even zooming out or positioning the camera so that you can see farther in your look direction and down might work, even if it is locked). I had fun with going thru the levels! The dialog story really gave it a nice atmosphere too.

Thanks for the in-depth feedback!

Simple tutorial at first play is planned, but hadn't really thought of a tutorial level or challenge levels Might not be a bad idea? 🤔

I'm currently in the process of updating the gem graphics and making special gems, and after that only the rest is missing - lots of juice need to be added, like audio and combo counter indicators and animations and screenshakes to special gem activations etc. + of course the app store incentivized ad monetization. 

Currently the bare minimum idea for that is when time is up, you can get +30s without losing progress by watching an ad.

Thanks

Thanks for testing it out!

Yeh I have no illusions of success, but I've been thinking about making something ad supported for mobile for ages and decided that now's the time. As long as I have something there, and hey you never know until you try, right?

A good idea! Might work on mobile too. Thanks!

GG! Yeah, juice and QoL stuff are coming, making it clear when you get more time could be a good thing to add, didn't even think about it earlier. Maybe either a floating "+<amount of time gotten>s", or a value shown on screen that actually goes to the timer progress bar... But yeah a good idea to let the player know that they've gotten more time to play! Thanks!

The select and spin is the meat of the game so I'm not changing that... tho there might be some ways to make it feel easier, and maybe even make it understandable from the get go? Perhaps an overlay animation of a finger pushing a specific spot, then moving up, and then rotating? Idk. Any ideas welcome!

Thanks for the good feedback!

Good: The graphics, the art, the sound, the music, the story

"Bad": Some stiffiness in platforming, found a few bugs, sword reach could be further, could use some more juice

Overall: What a great prototype, feels already like a finished game if it wasn't so short. Waiting eagerly for the rest of the game!

This was fun to play and the jokes were fun too :D

Thanks for trying out my game!

My personal major grievances that I'd like to have had time to improve are floaty controls (they were a lot floatier in the beginning though so I did manage to get some progress in this area), the claustrophobic levels (I was thinking that even a simple player character minifying from current a height 32 to 24 might change the available manouever area enough to have major impact) and the enemy behaviour, or rather, the unfairness of it.

Nothing impossible, but would've required a couple days of massaging to get to something a bit more reasonable. Might or might not revisit postjam.

Thank you for the feedback!

I like the simplicity in both the visuals and gameplay in this game. As you search the world, you are always excited to find a village (ie. a bunch of enemies around a fireplace) and then subsequently raid them. The theme and restriction (strange influence and 3 items) are worked very nicely into the core gameplay itself. 

Ideas for improvement
I felt a bit lost at times. Even if I found a village and I accidentally exited it, it's totally possible that I won't find it again. Though, there's always one if you just look more so not a big problem per se, but made me disoriented more than once. Perhaps a map of some sort?

Also, I felt no sense of progression. I raided a village, and, well, that was that. I think there is a score display on the main menu, but stats on player activities on HUD, like kills, villages raided, distance traveled etc?

All in all a solid submission, definitely one of my favorites. 

Tried my best, but unfortunately can't get it to run. The Main menu loads, and I can check the about text. When selecting Start, I get a progress bar that loads to 100% but then subsequently crashes. The screenshots look interesting, my phone just doesn't play along, unfortunately.

Anyhow, as I can't really comment on the submission itself other than, gz on participating on the jam and getting something done!

Thanks for trying my game out!

Did you figure the game out eventually though? Tutorial or easier levels first to teach the player how to play it was planned, but you know how it is in game jams. Time always runs out. I might revisit this later, fix the audio, make some animations, and either do some easing in or tutorial or something, I'll have to think it through Post-Jam.

Suggestions for making the goals clearer are always appreciated and will be taken under advisement!

Good start! I feel like there's already a lot of game in there, but I couldn't get past the starting area. For some reason the arrow keys are SUPERFAST, like if I don't tap really quickly, I get turned around superfast, and with no automap I got confused where I was all the time. If that fast turning was fixed, I'm sure I would've enjoyed more of the game, I mean, who doesn't love a Dungeon Crawl?

Edit: Wait, there was a Dungeon Crawl on itch.io at nearly the same time. Is it possible you accidentally submitted here instead of there?

Game runs now fine! I was a bit annoyed at the postage stamp size screen, but Alt-Enter to fullscreen mode worked, so that's not a biggie. Awesome sound and graphics and a great idea! I got stuck at level where there is more level to be seen on the mirror side player, but I couldn't figure out how to either a) change the camera to the mirror player, or b) figure out the correct movement patternt without seeing the mirror player. Maybe the 3rd item would help with that? The black dot? However, I couldn't activate it so maybe I'm not understanding the game mechanics correctly.

A solid submission nevertheless, good work!

Thanks for testing out the game! Yes, I can totally see how it would be confusing at start. I'm not even sure how I would go about making it less confusing while still maintaining the same micro/macro-loop mechanic...  🤔

If it's a language issue: if it helps my system language is Finnish.

Unfortunately can't run the game, crashes for me with a 

as per the instructions, made sure all the files were downloaded and extracted properly, and made sure windows doesn't flag it as a virus. 

Yeah I thought as much, and totally understandable. It happens to me on Vice 3.5 on the release and the dailies as well, mainly on PAL. Maybe VICE doesn't like my computer and lags the audio sometimes when jumping and the high-pitch pops are from buffer underruns etc.? Who knows, well anyhow I can play it enjoyable on NTSC though.

Thanks for the reply! I can try to replicate the sounds glitch I'm talking about and record it for you, if you want, though I don't know how much you wanna spend time on it (if at all) if you can't replicate it yourself, and I'm the only one who has mentioned it, and it's on an emulator no less. But I can try to investigate and record some evidence if you want it?

Running this on VICE and I'm loving it! I had some stuttering problems with GTKVice, but fortunately realized that there is a daily build link available, from which you can download the SDLVice which at least for me, works almost lagless. There is still some fairly rare random stutteringings but I almost quit playing because of the stutter on GTKVice, and with SDLVice I don't mind it at all so...

Anyhow, are there any recommended settings to use? C64 vs C64C? PAL vs NTSC? etc.

EDIT: I noticed there's this weird, high pitched pop when jumping around and it happens prominently when emulating PAL, when emulating NTSC it happens too but rarely.

I don't think I'm understanding what the goal of the game is. I can move stuff out of the guy, but then what? 

EDIT: To move stuff out of the way before new stuff is spawning? If that's the thing, the end state is sudden and non-informative and feels random... I feel like that's not it?

EDIT2: Oh and didn't mean to be so negative, other than me not understanding the end goal, I do like the graphics, the sound and in general the controls work as they were intended, so good job!

For future reference the folder is 

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Superstring\Acolyte

It also holds the logs in case you need them.

EULA screen showing up a second time is totally my fault and I expected things to go all messed up at this time, as I basically messed with the game files myself to try to get the rest of the game trigger properly. Everything before that though happened without meddling with anything, though I most probably still managed to do something to break it myself. I'll send you and email with the logs and the save files and how it happened, maybe you can make sense of it. 

I can also check if I can reproduce it again, and if I can, I'll report how I did that too. Thanks for an awesome narrative experience! 

Well, I managed to get past that by modifying the *.gd file by toggling a bit _I think_ might've been the indicator for the JB, and when I started the game next, I was greeted with the EULA screen again, AND my next line was used as the full name, but as it was timed because I infact did manage to trigger the correct cutscene, Ana kept calling me "I'm not Ja" for the rest of the conversation, which was funny if not a bit suspense of disbelief -braking. I can send you the original unmodifed .gd file and logs, if you think it would help you? 

Also a bummer that I was so close to the end actually at that point. :( (Although I can't be sure, since my build was all messed up as I did the JB wrong at the beginning, or something).

Loved it a lot, even though I gathered the gist of the main story plot very early on, even before the reveal email (it was my fourth theory, but latest theory at that point 😁), I have a soft spot emerging intelligence AI stories. Thanks, might get the Transcendet pack at some point to support you!

Where do I report bugs? I have trouble with the JB for the disco! (I did it once by closing and then doing it and re-opening, and got to some juicy stuff, but the story didn't move forward. After that nothing seems to work anymore and I don't wanna restart)

This game is really enjoyable. For some reason I enjoy just roaming the dungeon and searching, and the fighting, and I barely survive a second encounter ever. Good stuff!

Just played through this, and I'm mindblown. I loved the take on many different genres. The bad guy was an awful, awful person, in a good story kind of way.

7/5 would buy again

I clicked on the "achievement" when shown in the first crossroads (mine was fighter's axe) and I got this error:

'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
  File "game/areas/prologue.rpy", line 2617, in script
    menu:
TypeError: list indices must be integers, not Null

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "game/areas/prologue.rpy", line 2617, in script
    menu:
  File "D:\Games\roadwarden\Roadwarden-0.25-pc\renpy\ast.py", line 1608, in execute
    next_node(self.items[choice][2][0])
TypeError: list indices must be integers, not Null

Windows-8-6.2.9200
Ren'Py 7.2.1.457
Roadwarden 0.25
Fri May 24 14:19:19 2019