20 votes

Sokoban idea

18 comments

  1. [2]
    hereweare
    Link
    I like it! It scratched the brainteaser itch without being extremely annoying. I would say that an instant reset button might be nice. Some of the puzzles (i may be wrong) can't be reset to their...

    I like it! It scratched the brainteaser itch without being extremely annoying. I would say that an instant reset button might be nice. Some of the puzzles (i may be wrong) can't be reset to their original orientation, and screwing that up after 15-20 moves is annoying. Also, the one-off happy/sad face puzzle was very neat to figure out the trick of, but I don't think it's logically distinct from a laser in practice. 8/10, had fun, didn't drag on too long either.

    3 votes
    1. joshbuddy
      Link Parent
      I've tried to make those controls more visible and easy to use. Thanks for the feedback!

      I've tried to make those controls more visible and easy to use. Thanks for the feedback!

      1 vote
  2. [5]
    joshbuddy
    Link
    My brother and I have been playing with a game idea. We've only made a few levels, but curious what other people think. Too hard? Too weird? I love tough puzzle games but always worried I'm way...

    My brother and I have been playing with a game idea. We've only made a few levels, but curious what other people think. Too hard? Too weird? I love tough puzzle games but always worried I'm way miscalibrated when it comes to things like this. Anyways, happy for any feedback or thoughts.

    2 votes
    1. [3]
      gingerbeardman
      Link Parent
      I'm on mobile so I can't try it right now. But have you looked into writing a solver? Make the game play itself so you can begin to judge the difficulty of each puzzle. I am just wrapping up a...

      I'm on mobile so I can't try it right now. But have you looked into writing a solver? Make the game play itself so you can begin to judge the difficulty of each puzzle.

      I am just wrapping up a golf game for iOS and I have a solver that I use to figure out the par for each hole, and to carry out automated testing.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        joshbuddy
        Link Parent
        Oh yeah, I wrote a solver. It's been super helpful in level testing. Not sure how I've got a good way of translating its results into difficulty ratings yet, still thinking about that. Can I try...

        Oh yeah, I wrote a solver. It's been super helpful in level testing. Not sure how I've got a good way of translating its results into difficulty ratings yet, still thinking about that.

        Can I try your golf game? Super curious

        1. gingerbeardman
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Sure! I'll need an email to add you to the TestFlight. You can get in touch with me privately through my website or socials which have a bunch of posts about my game Snap Shot Golf. Links in my...

          Sure! I'll need an email to add you to the TestFlight. You can get in touch with me privately through my website or socials which have a bunch of posts about my game Snap Shot Golf. Links in my bio.

          For your solver I imagine there are numbers of attempts, failures, time taken, which could maybe translate into difficulty.

    2. SteeeveTheSteve
      Link Parent
      I like it, good work! ^_^ Lvl 1-8 seemed just right for a starting point. Level 9 might be a leap too far as it took a while and I half gave up at one point so I'm sure many would just give up...

      I like it, good work! ^_^

      Lvl 1-8 seemed just right for a starting point. Level 9 might be a leap too far as it took a while and I half gave up at one point so I'm sure many would just give up there. The rest after that were various lvls of difficulty but harder than the first few (except 9), which is good.

      The only confusion I had was what speed was for up until I had to use it in one of the later levels, so that could be introduced a bit sooner I think. Though, maybe I'm not thinking of it right since this could be extended to have quite a few levels so the later levels now might still still be considered early levels.

      1 vote
  3. [3]
    mantrid
    Link
    It appears that as long as your tail is under the box, the box will move in the direction of your keypress, regardless of the direction that your tail moves. Is this intended? Also, a key to reset...

    It appears that as long as your tail is under the box, the box will move in the direction of your keypress, regardless of the direction that your tail moves. Is this intended?

    Also, a key to reset the level would be nice.

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      hereweare
      Link Parent
      I heavily used this fact to beat the game. I don't think I needed to use some of the two-box puzzles' second box because of it.

      I heavily used this fact to beat the game. I don't think I needed to use some of the two-box puzzles' second box because of it.

      1. joshbuddy
        Link Parent
        Yeah, some of the tail movement logic wasn't right. I've fixed it now. As well, the "r" key resets the level, but I should really have included that instruction in the interface. Whoops. But...

        Yeah, some of the tail movement logic wasn't right. I've fixed it now. As well, the "r" key resets the level, but I should really have included that instruction in the interface. Whoops. But thanks to everyone who tried it out, really appreciate it

  4. [6]
    all_summer_beauty
    (edited )
    Link
    I stared at this for like 30 minutes feeling like an idiot until I somehow noticed that some squares have a cloud(?) that's almost the same color as the background, which I assume is what's making...

    I stared at this for like 30 minutes feeling like an idiot until I somehow noticed that some squares have a cloud(?) that's almost the same color as the background, which I assume is what's making the box's movement so unpredictable. I'm surprised I even saw it, honestly, the colors are that close. That seems like it can't be intentional, but I can't think of why the color would be messed up for me, I have all my content filtering/dark mode extensions turned off. I'm in Firefox 151.0.1 on Linux if that information helps you at all.

    It also would never have occurred to me that I could move the box by dragging myself past it (only realized that due to some comments here), though maybe if I hadn't been distracted by not being able to see the cloud I might have figured it out. Additionally, it took me a while to realize that the levels/world are presented side-on, rather than top-down, and that the box moving by itself sometimes is due to gravity. It could be that I'm just not familiar enough with the conventions of the sokoban genre though, I suppose.

    Edit: I think some of the UI text is getting pushed off screen for me too, no matter how I resize my browser window.

    This is what I see: https://ibb.co/whvGvcn5

    Edit 2: Hmm... Looking at that image on my phone now, the different colors are much clearer. Guess I need to go calibrate my monitor!

    1 vote
    1. [5]
      joshbuddy
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Thank you, yeah, looks like some text clipping is occurring. In terms of the idea, of a two headed snake, what do you think? Something you'd want to play? A part of me kind of made this thinking...

      Thank you, yeah, looks like some text clipping is occurring. In terms of the idea, of a two headed snake, what do you think? Something you'd want to play? A part of me kind of made this thinking about Stephen's Sausage Roll, a really great obtuse game about rolling sausages around.

      (edit: I fixed the clipping, should be good now)

      1. [4]
        all_summer_beauty
        Link Parent
        The two-headed snake kind of just seemed like a necessary modification to make the snake mechanic work in this format, tbh. I feel like not being able to flip around would make movement too...

        The two-headed snake kind of just seemed like a necessary modification to make the snake mechanic work in this format, tbh. I feel like not being able to flip around would make movement too cumbersome and tedious, and mistakes too costly, even with an undo button.

        Is the "cloud" coloration intentional?

        1. [3]
          joshbuddy
          Link Parent
          The cloud coloration is not intentional. These are just placeholder graphics but I'll definitely tighten that up so its visible. Thanks again for trying it out, my brother and I like making fun...

          The cloud coloration is not intentional. These are just placeholder graphics but I'll definitely tighten that up so its visible. Thanks again for trying it out, my brother and I like making fun little games together, we just hope people have fun with them.

          1 vote
          1. [2]
            all_summer_beauty
            Link Parent
            For sure! Happy to help test. Also, see my second edit above - the color difficulty may have been due to a screen issue on my end. Though I do think it might still be worth it to differentiate...

            For sure! Happy to help test. Also, see my second edit above - the color difficulty may have been due to a screen issue on my end. Though I do think it might still be worth it to differentiate them even more strongly!

            1. joshbuddy
              Link Parent
              Totally, I already made the clouds more visible

              Totally, I already made the clouds more visible

              1 vote
  5. Staross
    Link
    I like the idea but I gave up at level 5, the concepts don't seems very well introduced or a bit random.

    I like the idea but I gave up at level 5, the concepts don't seems very well introduced or a bit random.

    1 vote
  6. ep1032
    Link
    I fundamentally don't understand the cloud, or how to move the box. Is the cloud like glue? If you go through the cloud, then touch the box, then it stays stuck to you for some amount of time? I...

    I fundamentally don't understand the cloud, or how to move the box.

    Is the cloud like glue? If you go through the cloud, then touch the box, then it stays stuck to you for some amount of time?

    I seem to be able to move the box not only by pushing it, but also by sliding past the box, but only sometimes, and I can't figure out for the life of me why sometimes the box moves alongside the snake, and sometimes doesn't