Puzzlet [WIP]

[bob_fossil]

Puzzlet is a single screen, collaborative puzzle game based on an old 80s dungeon exploring arcade game. Collect keys to open doors. Collect food and drink to keep your health up. Get everyone to the exit, alive.



Controls:

- Cursor keys to move up, down, left, right and diagonally. Hold down shift to run.
- 's' to switch between players.
- 1,2,3,4 speed dial switch for Warrior. Valkyrie, Wizard and Elf.
- 'space' fires your weapon.

Editor:

- Press TAB to switch between editor window and the toolbox.
- In the editor window, cursor keys move the highlight. Press space to place the current tile.
- In the toolbox window, cursor left and right switches category. Cursor up and down selects a tile in the category.
- Press 'd' to dump out the current level to the console. This can then be added into 'levels.dat'.

Instructions:

- Not completed but worth a read to learn what the characters can do.

To do at some point:

- More enemy types.
- More / better levels. Levels are stored and can be added to / modified in 'levels.dat'.

[airstruck]

Warrior needs food badly!

Looks pretty authentic, nice work

[Jimanzium]

Quite nice, the graphics reminded me of playing gauntlet. Definitely a good idea and it seems well made so far.

However, I found it to play quite slow, from watching one of the players slowly descend a staircase over multiple seconds to slowly flicking through the characters to get to the one I want. I know this is inspired by old arcade games, but that doesn't mean you need to also replicate the bad parts of those machines. Unless of course you want it to be 100% like an old arcade machine. But I don't think it would hurt to modernise some aspects, such as more precise input and somewhat faster running.

Also the puzzles so far are rather simplistic, probably deliberate, but I'd love to see some more challenging ones.

[bob_fossil]

Warrior needs food badly!

Looks pretty authentic, nice work

Thanks!

However, I found it to play quite slow, from watching one of the players slowly descend a staircase over multiple seconds to slowly flicking through the characters to get to the one I want. I know this is inspired by old arcade games, but that doesn't mean you need to also replicate the bad parts of those machines. Unless of course you want it to be 100% like an old arcade machine. But I don't think it would hurt to modernise some aspects, such as more precise input and somewhat faster running.

Also the puzzles so far are rather simplistic, probably deliberate, but I'd love to see some more challenging ones.

It's funny that you mention the exit animation speed. I made it slower as originally I thought it was happening too fast and you didn't get the proper effect as the frames whizzed by too quickly. I can look at the speed of switching characters - I think it's because I'm doing it on a key press event rather than checking if the key is down, like I do when handling the character movement.

It is paced slightly slower than the original arcade machine - which could get pretty hectic back in the day - with the emphasis on puzzles rather than all out action. The initial set of levels is simplistic as they were laid out to try and introduce the game elements a bit at a time. I think the level design is the weakest point at the moment. If anyone wants to submit any levels then I'll be happy to look at them. Thank you for your feedback.

[pgimeno]

I love it. The mechanics remind me of the classic Gobliiins. Wish there were more challenging puzzles though (I know it's WIP but I'm impatient)

There's one thing I miss, and is the ability to select a specific character rather than having to loop over each with 's'. For example, '1' could select the warrior, '2' the wizard, and so on.

[bob_fossil]

I love it. The mechanics remind me of the classic Gobliiins. Wish there were more challenging puzzles though (I know it's WIP but I'm impatient)

Thanks! I never played Gobliiins. I was more inspired by the gameplay of an old Amiga game called The Lost Vikings and a much older 8-bit game called Head Over Heels. I'm finding level / puzzle design much harder than the actual coding. I'm working on adding features which will hopefully lead to some more challenging levels.

There's one thing I miss, and is the ability to select a specific character rather than having to loop over each with 's'. For example, '1' could select the warrior, '2' the wizard, and so on.

I've added 'speed-dial' player selection keys in the current build - 1, Warrior, 2 Valkyrie, 3 Wizard and 4 Elf. I've also added the concept of running if you hold down shift whilst moving, to address the concerns of the slowness of play.

[bob_fossil]

After a couple of months not working on this, I finally got round to finishing v0.02. The main differences from the first version are that players now have health counters, so food and drink need to be collected to keep players alive. Players now have unlimited shots. I thought that having to collect weapons signposted a solution to a level. Death now moves around and there's enemy generators too. I've redone most of the levels so hopefully they're a bit more interesting than the first set.