An evolved but mostly faithful fan remake of the 2022 Minetest Game Jam silver medalist:
Piranesi by iarbat
This game was originally created as a test case for the Minetest Definition Ripper mod, but it has since evolved into a full remake of the original game, using all new code, but mostly original assets, schematics, design, and core gameplay.
Improvements
- The game is fully working and playable from beginning to end.
- All areas are accessible.
- Each puzzle is fully functioning, as apparently intended.
- The game properly keeps state across mulitple sessions / server restarts.
- Inherited behavior no longer interferes with gameplay (e.g. fire does not spread).
- Items can be placed in most places in most rooms, and are reliably preserved if you leave the area and re-enter later.
- Corrected and simplified UX and inventory.
- Less left/right-click ambiguity, critical actions are more likely to work with either.
- Simplified dynamic hotbar-only inventory.
- Working compass built into HUD.
- More robust map management and navigation.
- It's no longer possible to "escape" from the map, fall into the endless void, miss triggers, etc.
- Sequential Multiplayer
- Only one player can play at a time, but players with interact privileges can take turns (first come first served).
- Additional players who connect are not allowed to interact with the world, but can be managed by an external spectator mod.
- Activated some unused assets.
- One originally-completely-inaccessible puzzle room, part of the "main quest".
- One unused room whose purpose was unclear (used as a decorative bonus here).
- Music distributed with the original game but never actually played.
- Improved sensory effects.
- Visuals, e.g. for item pickup and breaking nodes, completing puzzles.
- Sound overhaul, including feedback, ambiance, and musical cues.
- Translation support from Weblate.
- Colorblindness support, up to full monochromacy, via HUD tips.
- Some random enhancements that probably don't dramatically alter gameplay.
- The ability to pick up, carry, and move books and clues.
- Architectural improvements, like reunifying dual item/nodes into a single definition.
- Room order is now deterministic and pseudorandom to make play-throughs repeatable, for speedruns or exact walkthroughs.
Compromises
- Some of the style information from clue images has been lost, in order to make clues more compatible with translation. Styles will be improved if/when better fonts with broad enough language compatibility are found.
- Some design choices were made where the original intent was unclear, or where obvious mechanics had less-than-obvious problems that needed to be worked around.
- The use of Definition Ripper for all materials indiscriminately, including the original Piranesi ones, causes some architectural extensibility friction.
- There is no longer a distinction between "digging" a node and "applying a tool" to the node, so all "dig times" must be instant.
- Node/item placement rules are a bit byzantine for technical reasons, so mostly just the floor and some tables are usable for storing most things, though this is still plenty of space.
- Not all things can be put back where they were found, e.g. keys cannot be re-stuck to walls.
- Some lighting adjustments were necessary, due to the game apparently having been designed for a different version of Minetest that may have used a different light curve model.
Good remake
Apart from a few minor bugs and UX complaints I had, I think this game is already in a healthy state and the promise of it being fully playable to the end is true. All the major bugs of Piranesi appear to be fixed.
The game stays mostly faithful to the original, especially, although some UX changes/improvements were made. The game allows you to pick up clues (paper, book) but it restricts where you can place items now. Which is fine, I guess? The compass now works smoothly and is part of the HUD, although the arrows are not labelled (where is North?). Additionally, background music plays from time to time and several sound effects were added. This game clearly has seen major polishing, which is exactly what Piranesi neede.
Although it seems the project is not finished yet and still has many minor bugs, it's in a OK state already IMHO.
As for the gameplay, the puzzles are as difficult as in the original. My opinion on them is the same as for Piranesi (see the review there).
Unlike the original, this game still relies on color for some on its puzzles but it will now display the color of some blocks if you point to it for a few seconds. However, this still isn't perfect as some colored nodes in some rooms are too far away to be pointable. So for colorblind people this game is still not fully accessible. Hopefully this will get fixed later.
Overall, I give a recommedation, except when you're colorblind.
Help me!
I'm writing this from my phone before mobile data runs out so sorry if i'm a bit brief. To start off with, i got lost on my server and entered the front yard of this manor after trying to retrace my footsteps.
I walked into the house wondering around the rooms, but i went so far that i got severely lost, which was entirely my fault and i'm not going to blame the game for my own mistakes (but on one occasion i did walk back but there was a different room. Probably a figment of my hungry brain).
I keep finding weird things and notes all over. It seems like someone is just as lost as me. I'm yet to meet them, though.
I'm sure that if i follow the big red arrow, i might just get back to my server. The house seems to be very very big though, so it's probably best for me to camp out.
Edit i found mobile data again! Ok, so it certainly seems like the house funnels you into certain rooms when you do special movements. It's not a normal house. Looking around, it reminds me of nodecore. The house wants me to discover its secrets. That's the only reason i'm here.
I'm hungry. I need to continue discovering, maybe i'll find food.
(No spoilers) Absolutely insane
(I have not tried the original, but from I what I have read this a complete and working remake?)
I'm completely stuck and have been for a couple of hours, but I don't care, I'm still enjoying it. Some of the clues are obvious, others don't seem sensible (wth does "lastly and centrally" mean? Especially in a room with an even count of dimensions!) and I am yet to make sense of the stars.
I refuse to look at the sourcecode for this one. I'll update this review if I ever get further. If you don't hear from me then I may have awoken in Piranesi instead of real life.
It's interesting that the tree maze is a pain to get inside of. I suspect perhaps this was done to prevent player's using it as a place to dump all their items (given how easy and quick it is to get to). All the other places are harder or more unpredictable to get to; but in turn are easy to use as item storage.
(EDIT: Now fixed, thankyou Warr) Walking SFX is very loud and dominating, especially after taking thousands of steps. Making that a bit quieter (so I can better enjoy the other SFX when they appear) would be appreciated
EDIT: Game complete. I'm enjoying the final music now :)
I have a list of unused items and places of interest, which could mean I managed to accidentally skip some parts of the game or. End game says 100%, so I presume I have not missed any secrets. Maybe. Possibly.
Thankyou for much Warr1024 and Iarbat. With exception to one frustrating puzzle blocker I found this thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely recommend to others.