I finally beat it! Some of the later levels are brutally difficult, to the point where I was questioning if they were actually possible. If this was released back in the day, it'd be all through those "hidden gems" videos on YouTube.
LOVED this little jam gem, best homebrew game(in any console) I've played as of yet! It's just a lot of atmosphere, cool mechanics and art style on the gbc that makes this top notch. Would love to be a playtester for future releases! I'll join the discord as soon as I log into my pc, hope the 2.0/ final version comes soon! Keep up the good dev work :)
Yes we were! It's a great game. Besides the digging over/under mechanic I do think it is pretty different too though. It is less of a puzzle game and more of an action game I think.
Looking forward to the full release! Ditto all the great things that others are saying about the atmosphere and quality of the puzzles.
-Two quality-of-life updates that would be nice to have are a move counter in the corner and an undo-move button (!)
-The 'high' (optimal) move number has occasionally changed on me, but I'm not sure this is a bug. On a fresh game, the 'high' for level 1-1 is 23 moves. I've somehow achieved a 22 and cannot recreate it and the current 'high' is now set at 22. Maybe holding down the arrow keys to move instead of individual inputs can mess up the counting?
-A move counter would help illustrate the move cost of some things that aren't intuitive. Burrowing down + back up (1 or 2 moves?) Moving into a fuel tank and getting pushed back out (1 or 2?) Getting out of your robot and jumping back in (1 or 2?) etc.
-The countdown to self-destruct is not the best for impatient people like me. Getting out of your mech and self-destructing does this immediately.
-Tip for others. If you collect the gem, you don't need to complete the level for it to show up in the level select, but sometimes it doesn't register immediately after leaving the level.
You'll be happy to know that the accuracy of the move counter has been one of our highest priorities for the final game. We have sped up the self-destruct sequence dramatically too (although there's a shortcut in the jam version-getting out of the mech before self destructing) The fact that you don't have to finish a level with a gem was a bug we have fixed for the final version of the game too.
For the undo move it would be really cool but I am afraid that the complexity of the game combined w the fact that it is on gameboy/gb studio make it practically impossible to implement.
Gorgeous game! As many other people have said, the atmosphere is just-right. There's something tonally magical about your art style, too. Thanks for making and sharing!
I am loving this game, but I found a weird bug on level 2-3.
If, before pushing the block you need to push, you dig down from the spot to the right of the rock that's to the right of the fuel station, move 2 spots to the right, and then dig back up, you'll be on top of a hole in front of a magnet. You won't fall down the hole, but you can dig back down unless you move. If you do move, you're stuck, because you can't fall down and now you can't dig down, either. Also, weirdly, you can walk on some of the water tiles underneath where the hole is.
Thanks so much for reporting this bug! Would you be interested in helping us find bugs in the final version of the game? If so, we have a discord server going to find testers here:https://discord.gg/4Z66GCjahv
OMG you guys have done excellent work! Really. With the gameplay itself, the design of the levels, the story, how travel works, the comfy cabin of the ship with the picture of his wife and daughter, the sound/music, and the minigame where you reroute the electricity. Its an all around masterpiece. Some of the puzzles stumped me for a good moment which is freaking awesome, it makes it extremely satisfying to finish a level. I'm not usually a puzzle game fan when it comes to gameboy, but this is almost a completely different thing from the usual. Keep it up please and thank you fellas, its definitely not unappreciated, even if it's not as appreciated as it should be!
man I feel so bad for missing out on these amazing games! Would rather play this than elden ring any day! Thank you for your hard work please keep it up and if you can tell Lunchz he or she is doing a great job as well thank you
I just thought you should know that BestPig has made changes to GB Studio 1 and 2 so that they can be used to export games to .pocket as well. Hopefully it shouldn't be as much of an effort on your part to export it. If you're not interested, I can take a look, I would be happy to do the port by hand as an IPS patch.
No problem. I also just put up a .pocket file for my newly released gbc game CUPID, if you're interested. Head to my itch page if you would like to check it out!
With the newly released Analogue Pocket, and the newest update for GB Studios, are you planning to publish the .pocket version of this game? I’d love to be able to play this on my Pocket, so I hope so!
You have a questionable comment history just like ianlatta. No activity except for yesterday when you copy pasted this comment all over successful GB Studio games. Just smells of disingenuous marketing activity to me.
But at least your account wasn't created yesterday. So, I apologize if you aren't working for Analogue, but I hope you can see that your activity together with ianlatta's is raising a red flag to me.
Devs will put .pocket files out in time. It will happen naturally. But migration to GB Studio 3 is A LOT of extra debugging work which many devs won't have the time (or patience) for when they can be working on other projects.
To answer your question, migrating this particular project to GB Studio 3 in order to export a .pocket file will not be feasible. The massive amount of debugging as a result of migration isn't worth it when the pocket plays .gb ROM files. So you can still play on your new hardware.
Yep, I recommend getting something like an EZ flash so you can play .gb rom files on the Pocket. You don't have to get one but you will be locking yourself out of the vast majority of classic and homebrew GB games without one. And you will have a far better chance of playing these published GB Studio games on your pocket rather than hoping to see the devs debug a migrated GB Studio game just to output a .pocket file. Although you should make sure your flash cart of choice will work with the pocket before you purchase.
> You have a questionable comment history just like ianlatta. No activity except for yesterday when you copy pasted this comment all over successful GB Studio games. Just smells of disingenuous marketing activity to me.
Yeah, so sounds like a guy got a new device and heard that it had a feature, hey i did too, and now we want to try it out but there really aint anyone out here using that feature. It's just over excited fanboys who want to justify their purchases.
I migrated my Virtual BMO game over to GB Studio v3 so I could release a .pocket version for you folks that have the pocket already. It's a very small experience but that's the best I can do for you at this point given the amount of time it takes to debug.
You can head to my itch account if you're interested.
In future, I will be using GB Studio 3.0 to build games from scratch without the need to migrate obviously. In those cases, I will release a .pocket file along with a GB ROM but migrating bigger games is honestly a nightmare of bugs.
Hey, I'm real. I just didn't have anything to play on my Analogue Pocket and I didn't realize the complexities involved in exporting a game in the new version of GB studio.
Thanks to a newly released patch, we can now export to .pocket on the older GBStudio versions. So Unearthed is available to play on Analogue Pocket now!
Thanks to a newly released patch, we can now export to .pocket on the older GBStudio versions. So Unearthed is available to play on Analogue Pocket now!
Is it just me, or are the buttons backwards on Keyboard? I would expect A to be on the right, and B to be on the left, like a gameboy. Tripped me up a bit on the menus.
I think that it is common for Z to be the 'main' button on pc games where the arrow keys are used. Since the 'd-pad' is on the right you can kind of think of the entire controller as being reversed. There's no perfect solution but it shouldn't take too long to get used to.
Interesting! In projects where I spent a lot more time on setting them up I've done stuff like making sure WASD will work etc. Ideally people will just download the rom and map the keys however they want in an emulator though.
Really nice game! All the feels of Mole Mania, too!
Anyway, I'm on planet 3 now, and I do wonder what that zone 2s on the second planet is for. You can't enter it until you finish the last level of the planet, but there's nothing you can do there other than take off. (You can't even go back left.)
Is that a bug?
The game is really enjoyable and I'll play more later. :)
Such a wonderful, unique and original game idea! I love it! The puzzle design is very clever and creative, the graphcis are simply beautiful. I play it on my Pocket GO S30 and I'm having a blast with it. Well done!
For me it looks like a bug (see the screenshot). I've successfully placed a block on one switch and put myself on second, but the little train didn't move.
Also, when I commit auto-destruction, I can see explosion animation but not on a fields where my mech is places, but on the second switch, where the ice block is placed.
Thanks for letting us know, Bug has been fixed. But you can still complete the level as it is - the solution doesnt require the Mech to be placed on a pressure switch. You will need to find a way to get an ice block on both pressure switches to progress.
Brutal! Brilliant art and animation, fun gameplay and great puzzles. A must have for everyone's GameBoy library. An excellent example of how hard work pays off with a great product. Congratulations guys!
Thanks so much! I have been enjoying your game as well. The regular achievement unlocks provide a satisfying reward while playing and I like the attention to detail you have implemented (Like the drop in player speed when walking up and down stairs in game!) Very well done :)
Bug in world 2 level 10. I drilled down to the lower level and tried to self destruct to restore fuel, but instead of restarting, it would fade back in with me still on the lower level and the fuel was the same. Had to go to level selection to restart.
Beat the game a few hours after my last post. Pretty good quality rom, good graphics, music. Gameplay mechanics, puzzles, and difficulty scaling are solid. Good job! Decided to do another more thorough playthrough/bug test since I ran into a few more in later levels:
-World 1-3
Ending the level your bot moves off to the left instead of up/out the exit.
-World 1-8
3 horizontal solid tiles on the surface level just above the exit arrow can be drilled down through when they shouldn't be.
-World 2-1
When refueling from the depot from below and completing the level, when you play the level again and try to refuel from above, the depot moves you down instead of pushing you back up, getting you stuck and potentially forcing a destruct/restart. This one seems to be hit/miss on replication.
-World 2-3
On the surface, along the horizontal row of solid tiles just below the fuel depot/exit, the last two tiles to the right can be drilled down through. Both get you stuck on rocks below, the right most you can drill back up, but the one to the left of it gets you stuck, forcing a destruct/restart.
-World 2-9
The 5 electro-plating tiles starting from the power shed on the surface can be drilled through getting players stuck on a rock below. The hard tile on the surface just above the two pits on the left can be drilled through getting players stuck on a rock below. The pits on the left when filled can be drilled through, getting players stuck on the floor below. The 3 hard tiles on the surface at the bottom, above the mineral deposit can be drilled through. In most instances the player can however drill back up from the below to safety, if they have the fuel.
-World 2-11
Self destructing on the surface warps you to the left side of the map.
-World 2-12
Collecting the crystal doesn't show up on the level map.
-World 3-1
Walking into the power shed the players character is the mech instead of the pilot sprite.
-World 3-3
On the lower level on the space just above the pit on the far left, you can drill up into a rock formation and get stuck until you drill down.
-World 3-12
Multiple solid tiles around the surface volcano in the upper left can be drilled up/down through, putting the player out of bounds/ getting stuck.
=>Recursive Level Select Bug<=
After entering/level selecting 8 times, when leaving a level with level select and entering another level, open the main menu, it will warp you to the level you left. If you self destruct, you'll be moved to that world/level and come out from it on the level map. If you instead go to level select directly you'll come out the recently selected map on the world/level map. This seems to remain persistent across all worlds/levels when it occurs, with the map you selected potentially having more minerals than the bugged map you get warped to, the ore requirements persist, and the player, movable blocks and obsticals are displaced or added and don't work right, so you'll have to self destruct/leave the level and restart. In instances I couldn't play world 1-12 as it would spawn in world 1-11, same with 2-4 spawning 2-3, and after re-routing the power in 2-4 and going out the building, it would warp to 2-3, breaking the game. Rebooting it fixes the issue.
-One instance in world 2-12 also had the mech suit disappear when exiting it until you self destruct. Could be related to level select bug.
P.S. Managed to get PAR on most levels, and high scores on others. Can't tell whether its always achievable, but is good fun. ;)
Thanks so much for going to all this effort and letting us know about these bugs you found. It's such a complex game to code, lots of actors talking to other actors, with all sorts of different states to track across the surface and underground scenes. I spent many many hours debugging and knew I wouldnt be able to find all the issues when I played through time and again - especially since we were on a tight schedule with the jam. Its unusual to find someone happy to playtest for bugs at all so I really appreciate you taking the time to put all this together.
The highscores for each level are the dev highscores we set (having played the levels over and over). They are pretty hard to get. Many of them, I think can only be equaled.
We will look into fixing these bugs asap. Thanks again!
Really great game! Both the graphics, mechanics and design of the levels.
If you are interested in bugs I've found:
in world 3-9, the sign showing the exit is ticked instead of displaying the amount of ore required
when you get a gem in a level, if you self destruct the gem won't appear again although you don't really have it. You need to refresh the game so that you can properly take it while finishing the level
for some reason, if you self-destruct first, then level select in a "multi-path" level you will reappear in another level than the one you were in
Regarding high-scores, I finally equated or beat them all (2-11 was really difficult to find the correct trick to equate it). Several levels can be beaten by 1 move, while 2 levels were hard to equate because I was off by 1, which led to a bug I'm not sure of: for some levels it seems that the end count can be off by 1 sometimes, and sometimes not. Doing the same circuit on level 1-10 gives 61 or 60, so I had a hard time equating the high scores. For level 2-11 I had the same issue were I did the exact same circuit twice and only equated the high score the second time. Since I beat almost half of the level by 1 move, it seems to me there is something off with the final count in some circumstances.
Anyway, that was fun and interesting to play, thanks!
I think that when choosing the level select option in the pause menu, the game is not resetting a bunch of variables and so we will need to look at fixing all of that - it is clearly bugging out lots of stored variables when returning to other levels.
The crystals currently don't reappear in a level if you get it and then leave immediately, I wanted to make it so you would need to collect the crystal AND complete the level in order for that progress to save (I even designed a few levels that incorporate additional interesting puzzles just with that in mind) but ran out of time in the jam.
I have recently recognized that the move counter can sometimes count extra moves erroneously - we will definitely be fixing this!
Congrats on getting the high scores! It makes me really proud to know that someone out there cared to challenge themselves because they enjoyed the game so much. I made this game for people like you!
Hey there! Seeing as you did such a great job playtesting the Jam version, would you be interested in helping us find bugs in the final version of the game? If so, we have a discord server going to find testers here:https://discord.gg/4Z66GCjahv
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I loved the art ! Inspiring!
so were we hired by the space woman as an artist or as a robot?
this was an awesome game! I enjoyed it a ton! I can't wait for the rest!
great sokoban derivative. i've been loving your and grumpyfunction's games.
The art in this game is just lovely. Looks like someone really put their heart into it. I can’t wait for the physical release!
Thanks, really appreciate it!
Can't add much to the other comments. Amazing stuff, atmosphere, writing, gameplay... So compelling! Be proud!
Thanks so much!
Found this game while doing a research project! This rocks!
Glad you liked it! We are working on a full non-jam version too.
I finally beat it! Some of the later levels are brutally difficult, to the point where I was questioning if they were actually possible. If this was released back in the day, it'd be all through those "hidden gems" videos on YouTube.
Fantastic Game
You'll be pleased to know that a big part of our overhaul of the game for the final release is going to be a more smooth difficulty curve!
LOVED this little jam gem, best homebrew game(in any console) I've played as of yet! It's just a lot of atmosphere, cool mechanics and art style on the gbc that makes this top notch. Would love to be a playtester for future releases! I'll join the discord as soon as I log into my pc, hope the 2.0/ final version comes soon! Keep up the good dev work :)
It's coming along pretty well. There always seems to be some new big thing to tackle but all of the levels are done so we are at the polishing stage.
Is the team open to producing physical copies?
I've played the first few levels and I am certain I would like to add the title to my physical collection.
Edit: Once finished, of course.
That's the plan! :)
What's the difference between the three files?
The 1.3.gb is the game, the pocket file is the game file exported for the analogue pocket, and OST stands for 'official soundtrack'
I'm really enjoying this. Were you familiar with Miyamoto's Mole Mania when you started?
Yes we were! It's a great game. Besides the digging over/under mechanic I do think it is pretty different too though. It is less of a puzzle game and more of an action game I think.
Looking forward to the full release! Ditto all the great things that others are saying about the atmosphere and quality of the puzzles.
-Two quality-of-life updates that would be nice to have are a move counter in the corner and an undo-move button (!)
-The 'high' (optimal) move number has occasionally changed on me, but I'm not sure this is a bug. On a fresh game, the 'high' for level 1-1 is 23 moves. I've somehow achieved a 22 and cannot recreate it and the current 'high' is now set at 22. Maybe holding down the arrow keys to move instead of individual inputs can mess up the counting?
-A move counter would help illustrate the move cost of some things that aren't intuitive. Burrowing down + back up (1 or 2 moves?) Moving into a fuel tank and getting pushed back out (1 or 2?) Getting out of your robot and jumping back in (1 or 2?) etc.
-The countdown to self-destruct is not the best for impatient people like me. Getting out of your mech and self-destructing does this immediately.
-Tip for others. If you collect the gem, you don't need to complete the level for it to show up in the level select, but sometimes it doesn't register immediately after leaving the level.
You'll be happy to know that the accuracy of the move counter has been one of our highest priorities for the final game. We have sped up the self-destruct sequence dramatically too (although there's a shortcut in the jam version-getting out of the mech before self destructing) The fact that you don't have to finish a level with a gem was a bug we have fixed for the final version of the game too.
For the undo move it would be really cool but I am afraid that the complexity of the game combined w the fact that it is on gameboy/gb studio make it practically impossible to implement.
Gorgeous game! As many other people have said, the atmosphere is just-right. There's something tonally magical about your art style, too. Thanks for making and sharing!
Thanks so much for the kind words.
I am loving this game, but I found a weird bug on level 2-3.
If, before pushing the block you need to push, you dig down from the spot to the right of the rock that's to the right of the fuel station, move 2 spots to the right, and then dig back up, you'll be on top of a hole in front of a magnet. You won't fall down the hole, but you can dig back down unless you move. If you do move, you're stuck, because you can't fall down and now you can't dig down, either. Also, weirdly, you can walk on some of the water tiles underneath where the hole is.
Thanks so much for reporting this bug! Would you be interested in helping us find bugs in the final version of the game? If so, we have a discord server going to find testers here:https://discord.gg/4Z66GCjahv
Just discoverd. Great job guys!
Thank you!
OMG you guys have done excellent work! Really. With the gameplay itself, the design of the levels, the story, how travel works, the comfy cabin of the ship with the picture of his wife and daughter, the sound/music, and the minigame where you reroute the electricity. Its an all around masterpiece. Some of the puzzles stumped me for a good moment which is freaking awesome, it makes it extremely satisfying to finish a level. I'm not usually a puzzle game fan when it comes to gameboy, but this is almost a completely different thing from the usual. Keep it up please and thank you fellas, its definitely not unappreciated, even if it's not as appreciated as it should be!
Thanks so much! Really appreciate the support
I was thinking about playing this game on my Youtube channel is it ok for kid
Yes I believe it is off of the top of my head but I may have forgotten something. Not 100% sure
It's fine for children. You will be okay.
man I feel so bad for missing out on these amazing games! Would rather play this than elden ring any day! Thank you for your hard work please keep it up and if you can tell Lunchz he or she is doing a great job as well thank you
Thanks so much for the kind words! We really appreciate it. Stay tuned for the full release ;)
I really hope you make a full and physical release, I will buy, you've done an awesome job.
This is great, nice work!
I just thought you should know that BestPig has made changes to GB Studio 1 and 2 so that they can be used to export games to .pocket as well. Hopefully it shouldn't be as much of an effort on your part to export it. If you're not interested, I can take a look, I would be happy to do the port by hand as an IPS patch.
BestPig's Port: https://github.com/BestPig/gb-studio#analogue-pocket-export
All done and ready to play on the Analogue Pocket!
Thanks! I appreciate it!
No problem. I also just put up a .pocket file for my newly released gbc game CUPID, if you're interested. Head to my itch page if you would like to check it out!
Man. looks so good to the eye balls!
Hello,
With the newly released Analogue Pocket, and the newest update for GB Studios, are you planning to publish the .pocket version of this game? I’d love to be able to play this on my Pocket, so I hope so!
^^^ Another Advertisement (;¬_¬)
No? Just looking for some more stuff to play on a new piece of hardware.
Figured this would be a good place to find some stuff. But I guess I'll take that as a no then...
You have a questionable comment history just like ianlatta. No activity except for yesterday when you copy pasted this comment all over successful GB Studio games. Just smells of disingenuous marketing activity to me.
But at least your account wasn't created yesterday. So, I apologize if you aren't working for Analogue, but I hope you can see that your activity together with ianlatta's is raising a red flag to me.
Devs will put .pocket files out in time. It will happen naturally. But migration to GB Studio 3 is A LOT of extra debugging work which many devs won't have the time (or patience) for when they can be working on other projects.
To answer your question, migrating this particular project to GB Studio 3 in order to export a .pocket file will not be feasible. The massive amount of debugging as a result of migration isn't worth it when the pocket plays .gb ROM files. So you can still play on your new hardware.
Fair enough. I just looked through available GB studios games, and commented on the ones that looked interesting.
The Pocket doesn't play .gb files, however. Via a flash cart they would, but I do not have one of those. So, oh well then.
Yep, I recommend getting something like an EZ flash so you can play .gb rom files on the Pocket. You don't have to get one but you will be locking yourself out of the vast majority of classic and homebrew GB games without one. And you will have a far better chance of playing these published GB Studio games on your pocket rather than hoping to see the devs debug a migrated GB Studio game just to output a .pocket file. Although you should make sure your flash cart of choice will work with the pocket before you purchase.
> You have a questionable comment history just like ianlatta. No activity except for yesterday when you copy pasted this comment all over successful GB Studio games. Just smells of disingenuous marketing activity to me.
Yeah, so sounds like a guy got a new device and heard that it had a feature, hey i did too, and now we want to try it out but there really aint anyone out here using that feature. It's just over excited fanboys who want to justify their purchases.
I migrated my Virtual BMO game over to GB Studio v3 so I could release a .pocket version for you folks that have the pocket already. It's a very small experience but that's the best I can do for you at this point given the amount of time it takes to debug.
You can head to my itch account if you're interested.
In future, I will be using GB Studio 3.0 to build games from scratch without the need to migrate obviously. In those cases, I will release a .pocket file along with a GB ROM but migrating bigger games is honestly a nightmare of bugs.
Hey, I'm real. I just didn't have anything to play on my Analogue Pocket and I didn't realize the complexities involved in exporting a game in the new version of GB studio.
Thanks to a newly released patch, we can now export to .pocket on the older GBStudio versions. So Unearthed is available to play on Analogue Pocket now!
Can you build this for Analogue Pocket? Thanks!
Thanks to a newly released patch, we can now export to .pocket on the older GBStudio versions. So Unearthed is available to play on Analogue Pocket now!
Is it just me, or are the buttons backwards on Keyboard? I would expect A to be on the right, and B to be on the left, like a gameboy. Tripped me up a bit on the menus.
I think that it is common for Z to be the 'main' button on pc games where the arrow keys are used. Since the 'd-pad' is on the right you can kind of think of the entire controller as being reversed. There's no perfect solution but it shouldn't take too long to get used to.
I see what you mean. To avoid this I've started doing both Z & C as the A button, allowing people to choose their preferred layout.
Interesting! In projects where I spent a lot more time on setting them up I've done stuff like making sure WASD will work etc. Ideally people will just download the rom and map the keys however they want in an emulator though.
Really nice game! All the feels of Mole Mania, too!
Anyway, I'm on planet 3 now, and I do wonder what that zone 2s on the second planet is for. You can't enter it until you finish the last level of the planet, but there's nothing you can do there other than take off. (You can't even go back left.)
Is that a bug?
The game is really enjoyable and I'll play more later. :)
Thanks!
That seems like a bug. You should be able to go left after beating 2-12. We'll look into it. Thanks for playing!
That bug is now fixed in v1.3 thanks very much for the heads up :)
Such a wonderful, unique and original game idea! I love it! The puzzle design is very clever and creative, the graphcis are simply beautiful. I play it on my Pocket GO S30 and I'm having a blast with it. Well done!
Thanks so much! Be sure to tell your friends. We want to try to release a cartridge at some point.
A realy great game. the puzzles are well made.
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it!
I'm unable to pass the 5th level of 3rd planet.
For me it looks like a bug (see the screenshot). I've successfully placed a block on one switch and put myself on second, but the little train didn't move.
Also, when I commit auto-destruction, I can see explosion animation but not on a fields where my mech is places, but on the second switch, where the ice block is placed.
Thanks for letting us know, Bug has been fixed. But you can still complete the level as it is - the solution doesnt require the Mech to be placed on a pressure switch. You will need to find a way to get an ice block on both pressure switches to progress.
Thank you - I've managed to pass that level :)
Great game BTW!
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it.
Brutal! Brilliant art and animation, fun gameplay and great puzzles. A must have for everyone's GameBoy library. An excellent example of how hard work pays off with a great product. Congratulations guys!
Thanks so much! I have been enjoying your game as well. The regular achievement unlocks provide a satisfying reward while playing and I like the attention to detail you have implemented (Like the drop in player speed when walking up and down stairs in game!) Very well done :)
Such a cool game! One of the best gbcompo games for sure!
Cheers! Thanks for playing!
Great game! Reminds me of the Mole Madness game mechanic of digging. Jelter with another win.
Thanks! Mole Mania was one of my inspirations for this game! That and Into the Breach mainly. Glad you liked it. :)
I'm pretty much in love with this game... Will be looking for a cart release whenever you guys are ready! (I'm hoping - really soon)
Also - I never thought I would use a "self destruct" function this often..!
I'm showing this game to all my junkyard friends!!
If you want to restart a level the fast way you can skip the countdown on the self destruct by getting out of the mech first.
Dang this game looks great, and has a really fun puzzle mechanic too. Nice work!
Really glad to hear that you liked it. Thanks for playing!
Wow! Gotta love the palette O_O
Thanks! You wouldn't believe how much we nerded out trying to get it right.
Very unique and enjoyable concept. Wishing I had this for my Game Boy during those long drives as a child. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the nice feedback. And so great to see a recorded playthrough!!
Amazing work! Great gameplay idea and beautiful graphics!
Thank you! Happy to hear you had a great time.
Very nice game!
Thanks, glad you like it!
Bug in world 2 level 10. I drilled down to the lower level and tried to self destruct to restore fuel, but instead of restarting, it would fade back in with me still on the lower level and the fuel was the same. Had to go to level selection to restart.
Thanks for letting us know! We will look into it and fix it up. EDIT: Bug has been fixed. Thanks again for the heads up.
Beat the game a few hours after my last post. Pretty good quality rom, good graphics, music. Gameplay mechanics, puzzles, and difficulty scaling are solid. Good job! Decided to do another more thorough playthrough/bug test since I ran into a few more in later levels:
-World 1-3
Ending the level your bot moves off to the left instead of up/out the exit.
-World 1-8
3 horizontal solid tiles on the surface level just above the exit arrow can be drilled down through when they shouldn't be.
-World 2-1
When refueling from the depot from below and completing the level, when you play the level again and try to refuel from above, the depot moves you down instead of pushing you back up, getting you stuck and potentially forcing a destruct/restart. This one seems to be hit/miss on replication.
-World 2-3
On the surface, along the horizontal row of solid tiles just below the fuel depot/exit, the last two tiles to the right can be drilled down through. Both get you stuck on rocks below, the right most you can drill back up, but the one to the left of it gets you stuck, forcing a destruct/restart.
-World 2-9
The 5 electro-plating tiles starting from the power shed on the surface can be drilled through getting players stuck on a rock below. The hard tile on the surface just above the two pits on the left can be drilled through getting players stuck on a rock below. The pits on the left when filled can be drilled through, getting players stuck on the floor below. The 3 hard tiles on the surface at the bottom, above the mineral deposit can be drilled through. In most instances the player can however drill back up from the below to safety, if they have the fuel.
-World 2-11
Self destructing on the surface warps you to the left side of the map.
-World 2-12
Collecting the crystal doesn't show up on the level map.
-World 3-1
Walking into the power shed the players character is the mech instead of the pilot sprite.
-World 3-3
On the lower level on the space just above the pit on the far left, you can drill up into a rock formation and get stuck until you drill down.
-World 3-12
Multiple solid tiles around the surface volcano in the upper left can be drilled up/down through, putting the player out of bounds/ getting stuck.
=>Recursive Level Select Bug<=
After entering/level selecting 8 times, when leaving a level with level select and entering another level, open the main menu, it will warp you to the level you left. If you self destruct, you'll be moved to that world/level and come out from it on the level map. If you instead go to level select directly you'll come out the recently selected map on the world/level map. This seems to remain persistent across all worlds/levels when it occurs, with the map you selected potentially having more minerals than the bugged map you get warped to, the ore requirements persist, and the player, movable blocks and obsticals are displaced or added and don't work right, so you'll have to self destruct/leave the level and restart. In instances I couldn't play world 1-12 as it would spawn in world 1-11, same with 2-4 spawning 2-3, and after re-routing the power in 2-4 and going out the building, it would warp to 2-3, breaking the game. Rebooting it fixes the issue.
-One instance in world 2-12 also had the mech suit disappear when exiting it until you self destruct. Could be related to level select bug.
P.S. Managed to get PAR on most levels, and high scores on others. Can't tell whether its always achievable, but is good fun. ;)
Thanks so much for going to all this effort and letting us know about these bugs you found. It's such a complex game to code, lots of actors talking to other actors, with all sorts of different states to track across the surface and underground scenes. I spent many many hours debugging and knew I wouldnt be able to find all the issues when I played through time and again - especially since we were on a tight schedule with the jam. Its unusual to find someone happy to playtest for bugs at all so I really appreciate you taking the time to put all this together.
The highscores for each level are the dev highscores we set (having played the levels over and over). They are pretty hard to get. Many of them, I think can only be equaled.
We will look into fixing these bugs asap. Thanks again!
Really great game! Both the graphics, mechanics and design of the levels.
If you are interested in bugs I've found:
Regarding high-scores, I finally equated or beat them all (2-11 was really difficult to find the correct trick to equate it). Several levels can be beaten by 1 move, while 2 levels were hard to equate because I was off by 1, which led to a bug I'm not sure of: for some levels it seems that the end count can be off by 1 sometimes, and sometimes not. Doing the same circuit on level 1-10 gives 61 or 60, so I had a hard time equating the high scores. For level 2-11 I had the same issue were I did the exact same circuit twice and only equated the high score the second time. Since I beat almost half of the level by 1 move, it seems to me there is something off with the final count in some circumstances.
Anyway, that was fun and interesting to play, thanks!
Rad, thanks so much!
I think that when choosing the level select option in the pause menu, the game is not resetting a bunch of variables and so we will need to look at fixing all of that - it is clearly bugging out lots of stored variables when returning to other levels.
The crystals currently don't reappear in a level if you get it and then leave immediately, I wanted to make it so you would need to collect the crystal AND complete the level in order for that progress to save (I even designed a few levels that incorporate additional interesting puzzles just with that in mind) but ran out of time in the jam.
I have recently recognized that the move counter can sometimes count extra moves erroneously - we will definitely be fixing this!
Congrats on getting the high scores! It makes me really proud to know that someone out there cared to challenge themselves because they enjoyed the game so much. I made this game for people like you!
Hey there! Seeing as you did such a great job playtesting the Jam version, would you be interested in helping us find bugs in the final version of the game? If so, we have a discord server going to find testers here:https://discord.gg/4Z66GCjahv