Some games take this further and let players perform a jump within a few frames of falling off an edge. Albeit this is probably more important on consoles + TVs which traditionally can have a lot more input lag.
Technical: Slope traversal
Early on in the game my character walked up shallow slopes like stairs, with the screen shaking vertically. It was nice later when this stopped (was it because of the slope climbing pickup perhaps?).
Technical: Node highlighting
Turning this off in Minetest's settings made sense. There is no block placing or clicking in the game so it was an annoying distraction.
Music & SFX
In general: I really like them.
I don't think I recognised any SFX as coming from a stock source, which means you either found a nicer niche source or generated them all yourself (which is always more effort than you imagine). It was worth it :)
Music became a bit repetitive after a while. Perhaps spacing it out with some quiet segments in between repeats might be a cheap and easy way of reducing fatigue.
(Now mostly fixed): The loud high-pitch content of some of the sfx really hurt my ears, I had to turn sound off by the end of the game.
The exploring was a lot of fun. The two types of pipe/rope create good interactions and the hidden pathways everywhere were good to uncover.
The tunnel level leading to climbing however: not so sure, felt more like work to play than fun. I skipped most of it.
Technical: Ground detection - distance
(You've already seen the pull req for this one. It's taken me a few more days to sign up to the forums because the user registration email wasn't working. I'll keep discussing it there.)
Technical: Ground detection - mismatch between minetest engine physics & player abilities
For ages I thought the lua code for dashing was unreliable and laggy. I then read the code and had a lightbulb moment, gameplay became much easier after that.
Player expectation: whilst I'm still standing on a block I can dash. When I'm falling or in the air I can't dash.
Lua scripts: you can only dash when a node is directly under your centre.
There is a big difference. When walking off a ledge you are still supported until the last corner of your body leaves the edge (minetest physics); but during this last 1/2 player width you are unable to dash (your centre is off the edge). This means there is a big deadzone around the edges of platforms where dash unexpectantly stops working.
A workaround might be to probe 5 points (player centre + 4 corners) and choose the most interesting block (activ pads, anything non-air, air) if the centre one is uninteresting.
I don't think this change would break any of the puzzles. It would make things less frustrating (easier to hit bounce & jump blocks, less likely for dashes to fail), but not necessarily easier (I don't think it would create easier puzzle solutions; eg initial dashing positions & pathways would still be the same).
I played through this on the weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's nothing like traditional minecraft games but I think it uses the engine well.
Thankyou for making and publishing this Wuzzy :)
N.B. I don't expect you to like any of my pull requests or want to implement anything I mention here, but I think you might enjoy reading it anyway.
Hub world and levels
Wow this game has a lot of levels. I had to draw a map of the hub to keep track of which is which.
I couldn't help but draw comparisons with Super Mario 64 whilst playing. Jumping into paintings vs using portals with decorations near them.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the decorations near each portal represented the level on the other side. That... made things quite a bit easier. I still kept using my paper map (especially for keeping track of the few level-to-level portals).
Level: Farlands
Gorgeous faux-reflection either side with the corruption occurring. It's a shame that I spent my time only looking at the central section.
Level: Tower
This is the one level I will complain about. I thought that a light near a jumppad means it sends you higher, but there is one platform of the tower where this rule doesn't apply. Lots of frustration was had from repetitively traversing this layer and trying to remember which jumpads in the almost-rotationally-symmetric room were the good ones and which were the duds.
Level: Cube processing
One of the pathways in this level is a taunt. It shows you something, but doesn't let you reach it.
I kept expecting to be given another ability to finish this level; but eventually I realised that it was a puzzle I had the keys to all along. Cheeky bastard :)
Thankyou Warr. There is something mystical about entering constants as fractions; completely on-tone for this game.
It would be nice if they could be changed dynamically
What type of dynamic are you thinking? Make footsteps quieter when there are no other SFX playing, make them change volume with each step (to some distrib function that occasionally gives louder steps) or make them quieter after taking many steps in a row?
Some more comments:
This mod has amazing performance. In popular mapgen games I normaly feel lots of hitches and slowdowns. In Wuzzy's Glitch I also felt hitches despite the lack of mapgen. In Piranesi Resto everything is buttery smooth, even when traversing the doorways where I suspect block manipulations are being performed. I think you must have thrown away all of the base lua and started from scratch? I note your extractor tool for getting the appearance of blocks without their associated event code; so this must have been a goal.
Ocasionally I see small graphical glitches (I swear that piano moves) but apart from that everything is minty.
I have made it slightly further into the game, but I am still as confused as ever. I might need to employ the assistance of some friends. (Is it a bad thing to want to send friends into this haunted house? )
I'm also eager to try the original Perenesi to see what has changed. I'll have to spool up and older version of Minetest. Perhaps once I've completed this version (or get so stuck that I can hope it provides hints). To ward off the crashes I'll get some garlic.
(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.
Some games take this further and let players perform a jump within a few frames of falling off an edge. Albeit this is probably more important on consoles + TVs which traditionally can have a lot more input lag.
Technical: Slope traversal
Early on in the game my character walked up shallow slopes like stairs, with the screen shaking vertically. It was nice later when this stopped (was it because of the slope climbing pickup perhaps?).
Technical: Node highlighting Turning this off in Minetest's settings made sense. There is no block placing or clicking in the game so it was an annoying distraction.
Music & SFX
In general: I really like them.
I don't think I recognised any SFX as coming from a stock source, which means you either found a nicer niche source or generated them all yourself (which is always more effort than you imagine). It was worth it :)
Music became a bit repetitive after a while. Perhaps spacing it out with some quiet segments in between repeats might be a cheap and easy way of reducing fatigue.
(Now mostly fixed): The loud high-pitch content of some of the sfx really hurt my ears, I had to turn sound off by the end of the game.
Level: Climbing
The exploring was a lot of fun. The two types of pipe/rope create good interactions and the hidden pathways everywhere were good to uncover.
The tunnel level leading to climbing however: not so sure, felt more like work to play than fun. I skipped most of it.
Technical: Ground detection - distance
(You've already seen the pull req for this one. It's taken me a few more days to sign up to the forums because the user registration email wasn't working. I'll keep discussing it there.)
Technical: Ground detection - mismatch between minetest engine physics & player abilities
For ages I thought the lua code for dashing was unreliable and laggy. I then read the code and had a lightbulb moment, gameplay became much easier after that.
Player expectation: whilst I'm still standing on a block I can dash. When I'm falling or in the air I can't dash.
Lua scripts: you can only dash when a node is directly under your centre.
There is a big difference. When walking off a ledge you are still supported until the last corner of your body leaves the edge (minetest physics); but during this last 1/2 player width you are unable to dash (your centre is off the edge). This means there is a big deadzone around the edges of platforms where dash unexpectantly stops working.
A workaround might be to probe 5 points (player centre + 4 corners) and choose the most interesting block (activ pads, anything non-air, air) if the centre one is uninteresting.
I don't think this change would break any of the puzzles. It would make things less frustrating (easier to hit bounce & jump blocks, less likely for dashes to fail), but not necessarily easier (I don't think it would create easier puzzle solutions; eg initial dashing positions & pathways would still be the same).
(cont..)
I played through this on the weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's nothing like traditional minecraft games but I think it uses the engine well.
Thankyou for making and publishing this Wuzzy :)
N.B. I don't expect you to like any of my pull requests or want to implement anything I mention here, but I think you might enjoy reading it anyway.
Hub world and levels
Wow this game has a lot of levels. I had to draw a map of the hub to keep track of which is which.
I couldn't help but draw comparisons with Super Mario 64 whilst playing. Jumping into paintings vs using portals with decorations near them.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the decorations near each portal represented the level on the other side. That... made things quite a bit easier. I still kept using my paper map (especially for keeping track of the few level-to-level portals).
Level: Farlands
Gorgeous faux-reflection either side with the corruption occurring. It's a shame that I spent my time only looking at the central section.
Level: Tower
This is the one level I will complain about. I thought that a light near a jumppad means it sends you higher, but there is one platform of the tower where this rule doesn't apply. Lots of frustration was had from repetitively traversing this layer and trying to remember which jumpads in the almost-rotationally-symmetric room were the good ones and which were the duds.
Level: Cube processing
One of the pathways in this level is a taunt. It shows you something, but doesn't let you reach it.
I kept expecting to be given another ability to finish this level; but eventually I realised that it was a puzzle I had the keys to all along. Cheeky bastard :)
(continued in comments)
Thankyou. I'm now much further, checkout the (spoilers) progress I've written over on the forum.
I've found out why I'm stuck. Perhaps this is a feature that I don't understand? (potential spoilers) could you please look at https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=28963&p=426238#p426238
Thankyou Warr. There is something mystical about entering constants as fractions; completely on-tone for this game.
What type of dynamic are you thinking? Make footsteps quieter when there are no other SFX playing, make them change volume with each step (to some distrib function that occasionally gives louder steps) or make them quieter after taking many steps in a row?
Some more comments:
This mod has amazing performance. In popular mapgen games I normaly feel lots of hitches and slowdowns. In Wuzzy's Glitch I also felt hitches despite the lack of mapgen. In Piranesi Resto everything is buttery smooth, even when traversing the doorways where I suspect block manipulations are being performed. I think you must have thrown away all of the base lua and started from scratch? I note your extractor tool for getting the appearance of blocks without their associated event code; so this must have been a goal.
Ocasionally I see small graphical glitches (I swear that piano moves) but apart from that everything is minty.
I have made it slightly further into the game, but I am still as confused as ever. I might need to employ the assistance of some friends. (Is it a bad thing to want to send friends into this haunted house? )
I'm also eager to try the original Perenesi to see what has changed. I'll have to spool up and older version of Minetest. Perhaps once I've completed this version (or get so stuck that I can hope it provides hints). To ward off the crashes I'll get some garlic.
(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.