When you click the wrong button and now there's a building you don't want permanently stuck to your mouse cursor, how do you undo it? Nevermind. After playing it more, I realized that it's not an issue. No matter what you're queued up to build, you can always just interact with an existing unit.
Looks like a fun concept, but maybe a bit buggy at the moment. By the second tutorial level, the balls can't even reach the next step after the splitter right at the start, meaning you have no way to actually do anything at first. At best, you can turn the angle of the repeater to fire directly at the gold blocks, but the splitter is useless due to crazy short range.
The lifetime of a ball gets "split" when it passes through a splitter, yes. If it's a truplicate, it may be as low as 1 square. There's a skill tree option to increase this tho
It's timing based, not distance based. So the lifetime is a float value that gets cut in half per splitter it passes through. There could certainly be an error, yes, I'm not sure
Hello! I really like the concept of this game, and it was quite fun(albeit grindy) to play through a few levels. I Like the gameplay and the graphics aren't bad. One suggestion, if I can, I would love it if you could add a "sandbox mode" where you can just play around with unlimited money and learn how to get good at the game. It won't be very hard to implement, considering those debug tools are already in the game. You can reuse a lot of things from the code of the debug tools for it.
Yeah, we can definitely do that. I think I would just add a toggle checkbox that says "Sandbox Mode" somewhere on the main menu. Because I would do this by creating a custom Balance Settings, and just setting the money high and the prices low. Then, you could select any level, toggle the sandbox mode on, and play.
First, i found out the mechanics. I found out a few stuff and also found out some really good workarounds, including this one:
I also like the game, but you could create new levels. One example is where you have to take down 5 voids but they all need a path to get to them, making them have more chance to grow before they can actually get damaged.
Its actually one of the best factorio/shapez.io styled games i have played. I hope you read this review :)
Thanks so much for the kind words and feedback. I like your level idea. It is a goal for me to have a level editor included in the final release of the game, so players can make their own. But that's a ways off!
Definitely jump in the Discord: https://discord.gg/8h5W3Q2 Feedback, bugs, and feature requests are being taken very seriously at this early stage of development.
At first glance the game gave me a factorio type of vibe, but the way it's set up makes it so resource management isn't really a problem (I was able to very easily beat every level with just repeaters, splitters, and side projectors) so it's pretty chill. I really loved the game's concept, and its sound effects and music do a very good job of really selling the execution. The soundtrack could use a bit more variation, but it's not really much of an issue since the current song is pretty good.
I found a few glitches: There's the shooting-through-blocks glitch that you already know about, though if I'm being honest that glitch isn't game-breaking so I'm not sure if you'd even need to remove it since it could be used to add a bit of strategy to things. (Imagine a level that bans the piercer and wants you to figure out a way to get through some walls. You could use the glitch, or you might rotate the edge blocks to form a tiiiny path way if the corners are missing.)
There's another glitch though: amplifiers and piercers don't seem to refund your money when you sell them. Or, at the very least, they don't refund all of the money you spent on them unless they're at the default price. Normally it's not a problem but... I'll come back to this later.
I also found the piercer to be too OP. It can pass through everything—walls, gold blocks, void, and I think even the wrong side of redirectors—with absolutely no limit to it other than how many redirectors you can place. I agree with LipeCarmel that you only really need one, but they only cost 300... the lack of sound effects when pierced objects fly through something also makes it feel worse to use than the fun bouncy balls that you start with. I kind of feel that it should have a max pierce limit, or maybe make it so the bullets don't keep their pierced property when they enter a redirector.
I really love the fact that you took the time to make so many variables in the game customizable, though! I personally am a fan of RTS-like strategy games so I managed to make a custom pre-set special challenge that puts you under a good deal of pressure, but is still 100% possible. I know LipeCarmel mentoined the game could use a more challenging aspect to it so... hopefully this helps!
It forces you to scout by buying and selling in the fog, plan ahead a bit, and figure out what you want to save for early on. Voids grow faster. Repeaters are less powerful but their low price makes them feel a lot more useful. They aren't enough on their own, though, and resources are somewhat limited... but there's still enough to work with. You also get rewarded for being fast because the faster you work, the less of the map gets destroyed. It's really interesting and fun to play!
This is also where the amplifier/piercer no-refund glitch is so detrimental, though. When you spend like 6k on a piercer or 8k on finally getting an amplifier and then sell them, you lose the HUGE amount that you invested in them for their power. (I'm also considering reducing the piercer to 5k.)
I also found out about another really fun concept: beating a game without a single repeater. I did it by starting a game with a void right next to my starting repeater and then didn't buy another. Instead of a repeater I used a redirector loop with a splitter, so it's more limited and you can't just sell and place it wherever you want—You have to work with where the first loop is. Really fun!
Sorry if my comment is too long. When I write comments/review for games, I tend to be wordy, and I'm even more wordy with the games that I like the most!
This game is amazing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Thank ye for all the work you've put into it!☺
This comment is incredible- I love how you analized that much!!! I really love the concept of not using repeaters, maybe just using the one you start is a good option too!!
Wow, yeah, like Aspark says, this is a great comment. I have some good notes: First, I'm really happy that you pointed out that refund bug. I wasn't aware of that, and it was quite an easy fix. So that will be in the next build. Thanks!
Second, I've also fixed the shooting through walls bug. I too had some hesitance on fixing it, as it was kinda fun. But it feels unnatural and that type of thing causes confusion in players. So I'm going to go with removing it for now. I'll be testing that while working on the next build.
I have a lot more to reply, but I want to say that your comment + Aspark's request have encouraged me in getting an official Discord going. I'd like to have this kind of discussion early and be as back-and-forth as possible. I will probably be doing that this weekend. I have so many exciting ideas (I think) and I'd like to have them in a centralized place that the community can view and input. So look for that soon and I hope to see you there.
The Piercer - One of the changes I'm contemplating is changing this to be The FOG Piercer. It will pierce Fog, but only Fog.
Amplifier - Looking at turning this into The Void Destroyer, and having it only gain a damage boost vs. the Voids.
Global Node Design Change - I'm looking at nerfing the overall flow of the nodes. I mean simply only allowing 1 effect to pass from node to node. This means that Piercing would overwrite Amplifier and Amplifiers wouldn't Amplify each other, etc. I also have other types of nodes planned that I think will be fun.
This is where the Discord discussion should probably start!
Lastly, I'm so happy you took advantage of the custom settings. I rolled that out for fun, hoping for this exact situation, that players show me their custom settings, and I can learn from them. I tried your settings! They are hardcore, and I might even upload them as part of the next build, labeling them as such. It's a unique and challenging way to play the game.
It won't be soon, but one goal is to have these shareable between players, along with custom maps.
Anyways, thanks again for the comments and bugs. I'll be getting back to it this weekend. Look out for the Discord soon.
Really fun game. I think I've found a bug, if you place any shooter block pointed at a wall it will shoot through it.
Feedback: Although I really the sandbox nature of the game, it would be nice to have a couple of more challenging puzzle levels, maybe with very limited space, or using a limited number of each block. For example, I find there is absolutely no reason to have more the one piercer and one amplifier, because once you have a fast amplified piercing bullet generator you can just split the beam and send it directly to wherever you need it, you can even repeat it back and forth across the void. I also agree with the previous comments about the wall block being mostly useless and the level selection being a little weird.
Thanks for the feedback and bug report. I am aware of that bug...but not quite sure how to fix it...yet. I'm on it though!
On the feedback, I am definitely doing some work to get those issues addressed. I'm not sure how well it will link, but here is some footage of some new changes coming soon:
And the new "Chaos Container" node will have other bad things happen, not just the gold thief. Of course, I'll also be adding a "good container", eventually.
Also, my goal is to eventually have a skill tree type system. The goal is to put more advanced nodes like Amplifier and Piercing far into a specific tree so that you can't get both without sacrificing some other cool options.
Hey!! I really love the game and I want to see more of it, is there any discord or something where a community would grow up? That'll be really helpful in strategy-searching and for suggestions :D
I don't have a discord server yet, but it has been on my mind. I'm not sure if we are big enough to necessitate it yet, but my idea with building this game is to engage with the community. Community feedback will be crucial for balancing, features, and QA. I'm actually going to start looking into this immediately, though I might not fire up a discord server until I have a more stable release. Keep a look out for "Major release" updates here, as I will release a devlog with an announcement when the time comes.
Very cool and fun! Satisfying to watch when there is hundreds of balls destroying the void.
Some comments:
It would be great if escape removed the selected node, or it deselected automatically after placing a single one.
The initially selected level should be the tutorial. I launched the game and I think it must have been on random or something I was very confused. This would also be better by clicking the level launching that level not changing what the start game functionality is.
These are both great suggestions! I will try to incorporate them as best I can. I might have to do something different for the deselect, as Escape is currently the Pause Menu. But we will certainly do something to make deselect more intuitive.
Cool, cool and cool, also cool and cool altough cool and cool, cool is cool. Also cool and cool needs to cool because cool has a cool and cool needs cool.
Very strong game loop! I had a ton of fun discovering new pockets of gold and figuring out how best to exploit them.
I never really felt a need to use an amplifier (it may just be that I'm not entirely sure what they do), and I DEFINITELY never felt like I needed to build a wall. I could be playing it inefficiently and wrong, but to me it felt like building a wall might hinder future expansion. At one point I tried to angle the wall at 45 degrees to bounce the balls in the direction of the face, but that just bounced the balls (which were coming in at a 90 degree angle) right back to the node from which they came, leading me to achieve the desired effect with another node and not looking at the wall option again.
Overall, this is a very good prototype and I can't wait to see what more comes of it :)
Thanks for all the great feedback, it really is helpful. I've got a lot of things coming, some of which will provide more use out of walls. I've got a "container" node coming out soon. Nodes that are randomly spawned in the fog that contain...something. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The "bad" ones will be obvious, and you will want to wall them off, to prevent balls from accidentally opening them. It's a start! I think the amplifier just needs to be more clear too. It multiplies how much the ball takes (from a Void OR a Gold brick!). So pass through an amplifier and bounce into a gold brick, and watch how much extra you gain. Still...the point is, I need to be way clearer on that. Again, thanks for the feedback, it's helping me in this early stage of development!
Is a Linux version possible? most game engines let you compile for Linux just by clicking a button and if this relies on something without a Linux version(like DirectX)you could package it With wine and everything else needed to make it work along with measures to make it easy to run and avoid conflict with other versions of Wine installed on the system. If you want to avoid troubles with different distros package it as both a Flatpack and a Snap(Ubuntu doesn't have Flatpack and newer versions of Linux Mint prevent Snapd from being installed by default)
Thank you for the detailed response. It's very informative. Unfortunately, I do not currently have any plans to support Linux. My focus is 100% on new features, balance, bugs, and shaping the actual gameplay right now. We are still very early in development, so there is a lot to do.
I will evaluate cross platform development as I reach each major milestone (Alpha, Beta, Final), but I wouldn't expect anything before Final, which is quite a ways off. Sorry I don't have better news!
That will have to wait to the aforementioned major milestones as well. It's just too much time away from my personal focus & goals for this game right now.
I will eventually add a full resolution menu, but I wanted to get something out quickly. Today's build should have a resizeable window. Please enjoy, and let me know if there are any issues. Thanks!
A minor bug I found: Having the "Repeater" selected for purchase, the ghost of the repeater will still fire real pellets. Very useful if you can't afford a second repeater yet, but probably not intended.
Thanks for noting this. I have since fixed it, but am putting a few more features into the next build. I'm going to miss this little exploit, though :P
Thanks! I'm wondering if the control issues you had were with camera or with the mouse controls for nodes? Thinking out loud, I think I need to address both to get them smoother!
This is not a negative comment but I have only one specific example of a control that is NOT intuitive .. er.. to me anyway: the left click to place, then hold-left-mouse-click to rotate? sometimes things get stuck diagonally after this or revert to aligned-to-vert/horiz position and i have no clue why this occurs. -=- Love the game, so cool. I mention only in hopes that it might help make a great game even better.
Hmm, I will check that out. I do have an intentional system to "snap" rotations to 45 degree increments...but that is only if you use the keyboard controls E & R to rotate.
This is very helpful though, and I really agree that the node should be rotating to the mouse once it is placed. I will try to get that in soon!
this is a really fun and entertaining time waster. the music is just so good. it really fits in with the game. This is a game that i would spend hours on if it had more goals than just destroy the void. I can see this game being a lot of fun with just more things to accomplish.
Thanks! My next move is definitely to get some sort of campaign going. I'm currently revisiting some inspirations (Holedown & Factorio) to see what they did as far as a campaign / persistent mode.
My goal is to get multiple resolution support, but the way I'm doing the pixelated effect is breaking changing resolutions. Currently looking into a different method of doing this, because this should be an option!
:) -=- Might I respectfully add that a menu item: /CREATE YOUR OWN LEVEL/ .. that would be so awesome :) and people could share their puzzles somehow? maybe just wishful thinking on my part but would be super!
This won't be in anytime soon, but yes, I think it would be great to have user generated content & sharing. I currently use hacks to build the levels myself, so it's kinda ugly. But it is user friendly enough (through Unity at least) and the files are JSON, so once I get the editor actually working, it will be easy to share. It's on my to-do list!
Middle mouse button, sorry that this is not clear! Just click and hold the middle mouse button while moving the mouse. I will add some Keyboard controls for this soon as well.
Thank you for your fast response. Unfortunately I don't have any mouse with middle key around. :( I will wait for keyboard controls for that.
The idea of your game seems to be very good and relaxing.
For most of the incremental games, the prices of assets are increasing. They are usually something like: first new object is X, second existing X*(1+p), next X*(1+p)^2, and so on. This makes the game more challenging. You begin with little amount of money, building first takes some time, but then the game become easy. And after some time (and building more objects) you need much more money than it is available, and your progress is slowed down. Current state of your game is that starting is a bit challenging, but getting to know how to solve making money, you gain more than you can spent.
Just uploaded a new build where you can use the arrow keys, WASD, or moving the mouse to the extents of the screen to move the camera around. You can also zoom with +/- keys. I hope this helps!
I like your explanation of the increase of rates. I know there is definitely a flawed money surplus right now. One thing I've been wanting to add is a tech tree, which users would "research" new upgrades from. This would be both a time and money sink. But I haven't quite got there yet.
Your way of slowing down the progress might be even better. I like that you have your own way of thinking! :)
Also many thanks to uploading moving the screen with keyboard. Now I can admire whole design! It is one of the best games I have played recently. Of course it has many ways to improve, but general overview is very good!
Unfortunately I have spot a bug: when you finish the game, you can choose between finishing the board (quit) or staying (resume). If you click resume, the screen stays dark and you can't play any more. (you have to quit anyway)
The game is pretty fun and tactile, I love the sound design. However I think it's kinda too easy to build a cheese machine like this and then spam amplifiers all over the map. Really like it tho.
I feel the same about it being pretty easy, though I haven't weaponized quite as efficiently as you have :) The Amplifier answered a question about how to move the game along, faster. Now I want to give the player a challenge. I'm not sure how yet, but I have some ideas...
Oh also I don't know if this is by design or not but not all machines can reach the machine gun rates that I posted, it feels like the 3 way ones, piercers and amplifiers can kinda go nuts while the other ones are rate limited. So maybe limiting the maximum "refresh rate" could help balance things.
Also I don't know what happened but when I started machinegunning balls out some of the buildings sometimes disappeared (some pooling issue?), maybe I missed something in the tutorials?
The rates are adjustable in the game settings menu, and it breaks down between The Repeater and Everything else, haha. The Repeater is the one that you start with. Currently, it is infinite and shoots slower because faster rates make the game even easier. Slower rates make the beginning of the game a crawl though.
You didn't miss anything, but some of the buildings do have limits (I believe around 500). It's a hold over from when everything had a stocked inventory of balls...but I also like how it limits things. It is not conveyed to the user at all but in the settings, you can turn on this display. I have it off by default because it clutters up the screen so badly. I'm thinking of ways to show it without ruining the clean look of the game right now.
This game has an awesome idea and visuals. However, font is something odd and there's an issue with audio settings, when I drag SFX slider the music disappears, but dragging the music slider gets it back.
Thanks for letting me know, that's because I call a kind of "StopEverything" to replay the SFX so you can hear it adjust, and it stops the Music as a side effect. Will fix soon!
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When you click the wrong button and now there's a building you don't want permanently stuck to your mouse cursor, how do you undo it?Nevermind. After playing it more, I realized that it's not an issue. No matter what you're queued up to build, you can always just interact with an existing unit.Great music BTW.
No gamepad support?
Nope, no gamepad support. That would be one of the 1st things I'd work on if I got some type of funding
Looks like a fun concept, but maybe a bit buggy at the moment. By the second tutorial level, the balls can't even reach the next step after the splitter right at the start, meaning you have no way to actually do anything at first. At best, you can turn the angle of the repeater to fire directly at the gold blocks, but the splitter is useless due to crazy short range.
Fixed this issue, thanks for pointing it out
are balls that pass through splitters supposed to have a lifetime of less than one square...?
The lifetime of a ball gets "split" when it passes through a splitter, yes. If it's a truplicate, it may be as low as 1 square. There's a skill tree option to increase this tho
is there a chance it also gets inverted? Because it seems the shorter it flew, the less it lives.
It's timing based, not distance based. So the lifetime is a float value that gets cut in half per splitter it passes through. There could certainly be an error, yes, I'm not sure
Picasso, I like it.
Please bring back that old soundtrack you had few months ago :/
Whatever song you're looking for is still there, as I've only added new songs. Never removed any songs. Maybe switch levels?
found it :) Its not level based it just plays a random track everytime you start the game.
Great! Glad you found it. It is a really great track.
can you update the wins 32 version(like please)
Update it how? Is there something wrong with it?
GG, I just want to play more.
Hello! I really like the concept of this game, and it was quite fun(albeit grindy) to play through a few levels. I Like the gameplay and the graphics aren't bad. One suggestion, if I can, I would love it if you could add a "sandbox mode" where you can just play around with unlimited money and learn how to get good at the game. It won't be very hard to implement, considering those debug tools are already in the game. You can reuse a lot of things from the code of the debug tools for it.
Thanks!
Yeah, we can definitely do that. I think I would just add a toggle checkbox that says "Sandbox Mode" somewhere on the main menu. Because I would do this by creating a custom Balance Settings, and just setting the money high and the prices low. Then, you could select any level, toggle the sandbox mode on, and play.
Very cool, would just need some UI improvements as it looks a bit off, but the idea and gameplay are on point, congrats!
Thanks! Anything in particular with the UI? Resizing issues or just bad functionality? It's one of the areas I need the most help with!
I love this game, its so fun
Thanks! Glad you like it!
Love the idea, do you plan Linux support?
Not currently planned, sorry!
Apparently, all text disappears whenever I resize the window. Otherwise, nice game!
A very great thing!
First, i found out the mechanics. I found out a few stuff and also found out some really good workarounds, including this one:
I also like the game, but you could create new levels. One example is where you have to take down 5 voids but they all need a path to get to them, making them have more chance to grow before they can actually get damaged.
Its actually one of the best factorio/shapez.io styled games i have played. I hope you read this review :)
Thanks so much for the kind words and feedback. I like your level idea. It is a goal for me to have a level editor included in the final release of the game, so players can make their own. But that's a ways off!
Is there a way for people to help out with the project?
Definitely jump in the Discord: https://discord.gg/8h5W3Q2
Feedback, bugs, and feature requests are being taken very seriously at this early stage of development.
Alright.
Absolutely awesome!
At first glance the game gave me a factorio type of vibe, but the way it's set up makes it so resource management isn't really a problem (I was able to very easily beat every level with just repeaters, splitters, and side projectors) so it's pretty chill. I really loved the game's concept, and its sound effects and music do a very good job of really selling the execution. The soundtrack could use a bit more variation, but it's not really much of an issue since the current song is pretty good.
I found a few glitches: There's the shooting-through-blocks glitch that you already know about, though if I'm being honest that glitch isn't game-breaking so I'm not sure if you'd even need to remove it since it could be used to add a bit of strategy to things. (Imagine a level that bans the piercer and wants you to figure out a way to get through some walls. You could use the glitch, or you might rotate the edge blocks to form a tiiiny path way if the corners are missing.)
There's another glitch though: amplifiers and piercers don't seem to refund your money when you sell them. Or, at the very least, they don't refund all of the money you spent on them unless they're at the default price. Normally it's not a problem but... I'll come back to this later.
I also found the piercer to be too OP. It can pass through everything—walls, gold blocks, void, and I think even the wrong side of redirectors—with absolutely no limit to it other than how many redirectors you can place. I agree with LipeCarmel that you only really need one, but they only cost 300... the lack of sound effects when pierced objects fly through something also makes it feel worse to use than the fun bouncy balls that you start with. I kind of feel that it should have a max pierce limit, or maybe make it so the bullets don't keep their pierced property when they enter a redirector.
I really love the fact that you took the time to make so many variables in the game customizable, though! I personally am a fan of RTS-like strategy games so I managed to make a custom pre-set special challenge that puts you under a good deal of pressure, but is still 100% possible. I know LipeCarmel mentoined the game could use a more challenging aspect to it so... hopefully this helps!
This is also where the amplifier/piercer no-refund glitch is so detrimental, though. When you spend like 6k on a piercer or 8k on finally getting an amplifier and then sell them, you lose the HUGE amount that you invested in them for their power. (I'm also considering reducing the piercer to 5k.)
I also found out about another really fun concept: beating a game without a single repeater. I did it by starting a game with a void right next to my starting repeater and then didn't buy another. Instead of a repeater I used a redirector loop with a splitter, so it's more limited and you can't just sell and place it wherever you want—You have to work with where the first loop is. Really fun!
Sorry if my comment is too long. When I write comments/review for games, I tend to be wordy, and I'm even more wordy with the games that I like the most!
This game is amazing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Thank ye for all the work you've put into it!☺
This comment is incredible- I love how you analized that much!!! I really love the concept of not using repeaters, maybe just using the one you start is a good option too!!
Wow, yeah, like Aspark says, this is a great comment. I have some good notes:
First, I'm really happy that you pointed out that refund bug. I wasn't aware of that, and it was quite an easy fix. So that will be in the next build. Thanks!
Second, I've also fixed the shooting through walls bug. I too had some hesitance on fixing it, as it was kinda fun. But it feels unnatural and that type of thing causes confusion in players. So I'm going to go with removing it for now. I'll be testing that while working on the next build.
I have a lot more to reply, but I want to say that your comment + Aspark's request have encouraged me in getting an official Discord going. I'd like to have this kind of discussion early and be as back-and-forth as possible. I will probably be doing that this weekend. I have so many exciting ideas (I think) and I'd like to have them in a centralized place that the community can view and input. So look for that soon and I hope to see you there.
The Piercer - One of the changes I'm contemplating is changing this to be The FOG Piercer. It will pierce Fog, but only Fog.
Amplifier - Looking at turning this into The Void Destroyer, and having it only gain a damage boost vs. the Voids.
Global Node Design Change - I'm looking at nerfing the overall flow of the nodes. I mean simply only allowing 1 effect to pass from node to node. This means that Piercing would overwrite Amplifier and Amplifiers wouldn't Amplify each other, etc. I also have other types of nodes planned that I think will be fun.
This is where the Discord discussion should probably start!
Lastly, I'm so happy you took advantage of the custom settings. I rolled that out for fun, hoping for this exact situation, that players show me their custom settings, and I can learn from them. I tried your settings! They are hardcore, and I might even upload them as part of the next build, labeling them as such. It's a unique and challenging way to play the game.
It won't be soon, but one goal is to have these shareable between players, along with custom maps.
Anyways, thanks again for the comments and bugs. I'll be getting back to it this weekend. Look out for the Discord soon.
Really fun game.
I think I've found a bug, if you place any shooter block pointed at a wall it will shoot through it.
Feedback:
Although I really the sandbox nature of the game, it would be nice to have a couple of more challenging puzzle levels, maybe with very limited space, or using a limited number of each block. For example, I find there is absolutely no reason to have more the one piercer and one amplifier, because once you have a fast amplified piercing bullet generator you can just split the beam and send it directly to wherever you need it, you can even repeat it back and forth across the void.
I also agree with the previous comments about the wall block being mostly useless and the level selection being a little weird.
Thanks for the feedback and bug report. I am aware of that bug...but not quite sure how to fix it...yet. I'm on it though!
On the feedback, I am definitely doing some work to get those issues addressed. I'm not sure how well it will link, but here is some footage of some new changes coming soon:
https://twitter.com/snarge/status/1302602094038470657?s=20
https://twitter.com/snarge/status/1302217858869538816?s=20
And the new "Chaos Container" node will have other bad things happen, not just the gold thief. Of course, I'll also be adding a "good container", eventually.
Also, my goal is to eventually have a skill tree type system. The goal is to put more advanced nodes like Amplifier and Piercing far into a specific tree so that you can't get both without sacrificing some other cool options.
Hey!! I really love the game and I want to see more of it, is there any discord or something where a community would grow up? That'll be really helpful in strategy-searching and for suggestions :D
I don't have a discord server yet, but it has been on my mind. I'm not sure if we are big enough to necessitate it yet, but my idea with building this game is to engage with the community. Community feedback will be crucial for balancing, features, and QA. I'm actually going to start looking into this immediately, though I might not fire up a discord server until I have a more stable release. Keep a look out for "Major release" updates here, as I will release a devlog with an announcement when the time comes.
Very cool and fun! Satisfying to watch when there is hundreds of balls destroying the void.
Some comments:
These are both great suggestions! I will try to incorporate them as best I can. I might have to do something different for the deselect, as Escape is currently the Pause Menu. But we will certainly do something to make deselect more intuitive.
5/5 stars
"Cool"
Cool, cool and cool, also cool and cool altough cool and cool, cool is cool. Also cool and cool needs to cool because cool has a cool and cool needs cool.
But was the game cool?
Very strong game loop! I had a ton of fun discovering new pockets of gold and figuring out how best to exploit them.
I never really felt a need to use an amplifier (it may just be that I'm not entirely sure what they do), and I DEFINITELY never felt like I needed to build a wall. I could be playing it inefficiently and wrong, but to me it felt like building a wall might hinder future expansion. At one point I tried to angle the wall at 45 degrees to bounce the balls in the direction of the face, but that just bounced the balls (which were coming in at a 90 degree angle) right back to the node from which they came, leading me to achieve the desired effect with another node and not looking at the wall option again.
Overall, this is a very good prototype and I can't wait to see what more comes of it :)
Thanks for all the great feedback, it really is helpful. I've got a lot of things coming, some of which will provide more use out of walls. I've got a "container" node coming out soon. Nodes that are randomly spawned in the fog that contain...something. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The "bad" ones will be obvious, and you will want to wall them off, to prevent balls from accidentally opening them. It's a start!
I think the amplifier just needs to be more clear too. It multiplies how much the ball takes (from a Void OR a Gold brick!). So pass through an amplifier and bounce into a gold brick, and watch how much extra you gain. Still...the point is, I need to be way clearer on that. Again, thanks for the feedback, it's helping me in this early stage of development!
Is a Linux version possible? most game engines let you compile for Linux just by clicking a button and if this relies on something without a Linux version(like DirectX)you could package it With wine and everything else needed to make it work along with measures to make it easy to run and avoid conflict with other versions of Wine installed on the system. If you want to avoid troubles with different distros package it as both a Flatpack and a Snap(Ubuntu doesn't have Flatpack and newer versions of Linux Mint prevent Snapd from being installed by default)
Thank you for the detailed response. It's very informative. Unfortunately, I do not currently have any plans to support Linux. My focus is 100% on new features, balance, bugs, and shaping the actual gameplay right now. We are still very early in development, so there is a lot to do.
I will evaluate cross platform development as I reach each major milestone (Alpha, Beta, Final), but I wouldn't expect anything before Final, which is quite a ways off. Sorry I don't have better news!
what about fixing bugs people find in Wine that aren't in windows
That will have to wait to the aforementioned major milestones as well. It's just too much time away from my personal focus & goals for this game right now.
The game doesn't fit vertically on my 768 laptop screen. A resizable window or resolution settings would be really nice.
I will eventually add a full resolution menu, but I wanted to get something out quickly. Today's build should have a resizeable window. Please enjoy, and let me know if there are any issues. Thanks!
Thanks! that's more than enough for me.
A minor bug I found: Having the "Repeater" selected for purchase, the ghost of the repeater will still fire real pellets. Very useful if you can't afford a second repeater yet, but probably not intended.
Thanks for noting this. I have since fixed it, but am putting a few more features into the next build. I'm going to miss this little exploit, though :P
Really great game. Controls could use a little bit of work.
Thanks! I'm wondering if the control issues you had were with camera or with the mouse controls for nodes? Thinking out loud, I think I need to address both to get them smoother!
This is not a negative comment but I have only one specific example of a control that is NOT intuitive .. er.. to me anyway: the left click to place, then hold-left-mouse-click to rotate? sometimes things get stuck diagonally after this or revert to aligned-to-vert/horiz position and i have no clue why this occurs.
-=-
Love the game, so cool. I mention only in hopes that it might help make a great game even better.
Hmm, I will check that out. I do have an intentional system to "snap" rotations to 45 degree increments...but that is only if you use the keyboard controls E & R to rotate.
This is very helpful though, and I really agree that the node should be rotating to the mouse once it is placed. I will try to get that in soon!
this is a really fun and entertaining time waster. the music is just so good. it really fits in with the game. This is a game that i would spend hours on if it had more goals than just destroy the void. I can see this game being a lot of fun with just more things to accomplish.
Nice Job.
Thanks! My next move is definitely to get some sort of campaign going. I'm currently revisiting some inspirations (Holedown & Factorio) to see what they did as far as a campaign / persistent mode.
Saving?
Yes, once I get some campaign stuff in, there will be saving of progress.
unfortunately the game window does not fit on my 720p monitor lol
My goal is to get multiple resolution support, but the way I'm doing the pixelated effect is breaking changing resolutions. Currently looking into a different method of doing this, because this should be an option!
Check out today's build, the window should be resizeable now.
indeed the window can be resized now, amazing!
The game looks really good
However, it seems that I can't run the game is it requires 64-bit, Is a 32-bit executable possible?
Just uploaded it (breaktory-windows32.zip)
If you have a chance, let me know if it worked out for you.
Thanks for uploading the 32-bit executable
It does work very well
Hi, I tried to download the game and unzip it but the computer says that I don't have the necessary rights to open it. What can I do?
I already tried to run it as administrator but there is still the error
Hmm, I'm not sure. Can you provide a screenshot of the error?
Sorry, problem fixed! I just downloaded the game again and it works.
Well that's good! Thanks for the update
Unplaced repeaters do emit balls. This means you can take your players ability to place repeaters, for an extra challenge.
Smart. That could be an alternate play mode.
how do i fix this bug-?
uh oh! I'll try and fix it. Can you make it happen again?
alright!
Also a noob question, how do you full screen it
Unfortunately, I have a bug that breaks the game with fullscreen. I will be working on this to get it fixed soon.
Today's build should have a fullscreen toggle as well as a resizeable window. Also, you can use Alt + Enter to fullscreen
moar levels!!
Yes! I will be developing some new pre-determined levels soon. Stay tuned!
:) -=- Might I respectfully add that a menu item:
/CREATE YOUR OWN LEVEL/
.. that would be so awesome :) and people could share their puzzles somehow? maybe just wishful thinking on my part but would be super!
This won't be in anytime soon, but yes, I think it would be great to have user generated content & sharing. I currently use hacks to build the levels myself, so it's kinda ugly. But it is user friendly enough (through Unity at least) and the files are JSON, so once I get the editor actually working, it will be easy to share. It's on my to-do list!
Maybe a noob question, but how to move the camera around? I have tried to use arrow keys, AWSD and dragging mouse, but nothing seems to work.
Middle mouse button, sorry that this is not clear! Just click and hold the middle mouse button while moving the mouse. I will add some Keyboard controls for this soon as well.
Thank you for your fast response. Unfortunately I don't have any mouse with middle key around. :( I will wait for keyboard controls for that.
The idea of your game seems to be very good and relaxing.
For most of the incremental games, the prices of assets are increasing. They are usually something like: first new object is X, second existing X*(1+p), next X*(1+p)^2, and so on. This makes the game more challenging. You begin with little amount of money, building first takes some time, but then the game become easy. And after some time (and building more objects) you need much more money than it is available, and your progress is slowed down. Current state of your game is that starting is a bit challenging, but getting to know how to solve making money, you gain more than you can spent.
Just uploaded a new build where you can use the arrow keys, WASD, or moving the mouse to the extents of the screen to move the camera around. You can also zoom with +/- keys. I hope this helps!
I like your explanation of the increase of rates. I know there is definitely a flawed money surplus right now. One thing I've been wanting to add is a tech tree, which users would "research" new upgrades from. This would be both a time and money sink. But I haven't quite got there yet.
Your way of slowing down the progress might be even better. I like that you have your own way of thinking! :)
Also many thanks to uploading moving the screen with keyboard. Now I can admire whole design! It is one of the best games I have played recently. Of course it has many ways to improve, but general overview is very good!
Unfortunately I have spot a bug: when you finish the game, you can choose between finishing the board (quit) or staying (resume). If you click resume, the screen stays dark and you can't play any more. (you have to quit anyway)
The game is pretty fun and tactile, I love the sound design.
However I think it's kinda too easy to build a cheese machine like this and then spam amplifiers all over the map. Really like it tho.
I feel the same about it being pretty easy, though I haven't weaponized quite as efficiently as you have :)
The Amplifier answered a question about how to move the game along, faster. Now I want to give the player a challenge. I'm not sure how yet, but I have some ideas...
Oh also I don't know if this is by design or not but not all machines can reach the machine gun rates that I posted, it feels like the 3 way ones, piercers and amplifiers can kinda go nuts while the other ones are rate limited. So maybe limiting the maximum "refresh rate" could help balance things.
Also I don't know what happened but when I started machinegunning balls out some of the buildings sometimes disappeared (some pooling issue?), maybe I missed something in the tutorials?
The rates are adjustable in the game settings menu, and it breaks down between The Repeater and Everything else, haha. The Repeater is the one that you start with. Currently, it is infinite and shoots slower because faster rates make the game even easier. Slower rates make the beginning of the game a crawl though.
You didn't miss anything, but some of the buildings do have limits (I believe around 500). It's a hold over from when everything had a stocked inventory of balls...but I also like how it limits things. It is not conveyed to the user at all but in the settings, you can turn on this display. I have it off by default because it clutters up the screen so badly. I'm thinking of ways to show it without ruining the clean look of the game right now.
This game has an awesome idea and visuals. However, font is something odd and there's an issue with audio settings, when I drag SFX slider the music disappears, but dragging the music slider gets it back.
Thanks for letting me know, that's because I call a kind of "StopEverything" to replay the SFX so you can hear it adjust, and it stops the Music as a side effect. Will fix soon!
This looks awesome! What a cool idea.
Thanks a lot! Just pushed a new build with beat detection on everything, and music. Check it out and let me know what you think.