Very cool! An issue I immediately had is that it seems to be coded for a horizontal plane being zero. This means I must hold my phone looking down at it, which isn’t how I want to hold my phone.
One idea is to sample orientation for a little bit at start, then consider the average to be zero. Then have a button that zeroes motion to whatever it currently is as a backup.
That way I can play your game without getting up from bed just yet.
My neutral position is tilting away from me, even. Not ideal but fun game either way. Reminds me of Oxyd: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyd (I've only played the nineties mac version)
I feel like that would make intuitively finding the zero point hard. At least with the zero point being horizontal, all you need to do is look at the world around you and see which way things fall.
You can always have a “bubble level” showing you the orientation. Anything is better than requiring a player to orient themselves very specifically to play at all.
Modern game design would suggest it’s better to simply put a death tracker for those who want a challenge rather than impose tedium on those who just want to play the game casually
A win win would be if both types of people were happy, but the status quo frustrates one of them. It’s only a win if you stop playing because you’re satisfied, not because you’re annoyed. Games are supposed to be fun.
Plenty of games have a “zen mode” or “story mode” or “explorer mode” or any other kind of name to enable an option where’re you’re not severely punished by mistakes. Better yet, they usually allow you to switch modes mid-game. Which means you can progress at your own pace and appreciate everything without getting stuck and rage quitting.
Anecdotally, even if I never turn those modes on I find that the games who have them tend to be more fun and better designed in terms of difficulty progression. Examples include Celeste and Cross Code.
For this game, such a mode would even allow someone to see all the levels or practice in one where they’re stuck and then try again with lives turned on. That would be a win win.
This is some insane logic. The goal of the game isn't just to get the player to stop playing. Obviously two players haven't reached the same point just because one quit because he doesn't want to replay the starting levels again. This is known as "artificial difficulty".
I did it with arrow keys on desktop. Got lost 2 lives at level 9 and got frustrated so I hit full throttle ahead and basically bounced over all of the gaps. Then on mobile got to level 5. Cool! Thanks!
I wonder what could be done with a Super Mario Maker style community of people who make obscenely difficult maps. I guess maps where you have to hover the ball by rapidly flipping the phone would be just the start.
One of the first big games on the original iPhone after the App Store was shipped was “super Monkey Ball”, a port of a popular console franchise. It was basically this but with fancier graphics, many more levels and mechanics and cute characters. I remember being amazed how well it worked with the phone’s accelerometer and how good it looked back then. Hard to believe that was ~15 years ago already.
It doesn’t have a privation aspect but if you like games like this you might want to check out “Road to Ballhala” [0]. I haven’t completed it yet but I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. The “dialog” is very well done.
Marble Madness vibes. One of my favorite nostalgia games.
I think having 3 lives per level with it resetting just that level might be better for starters, then the 3 lives for the entire game being a “hard mode”.
Awesome! Make it a daily Wordle-style game! I need something new in my morning routine.
I think having a universal 3-life max is very harsh. I died on level 9 and was sent back to level 1. No way am I going to do the first 9 again, so I won't find out what was on 10.
I think it would be more casual friendly to have infinite repeats in every level, but you could have a total count of deaths, for people who care about their score.
Tempest had the best implementation of this. Every 3-4 levels was a checkpoint and with 3 lives as long as you cleared at least one level, you can start at your last checkpoint. If you died 3 times without completing the level, you have to start at the checkpoint below.
BUG: If I make it to under the finish square by accident (falling off right before the end of a level), it still counts as a win when it should count as a death.
It is cool, but having to redo from the first level after 3 drops kills the fun for me. Of course some would like that aspect, but for me as a casual fun game it's a no.
I felt the same way at first, but it's ten levels, so you'd be done in one session if you could redo every level infinitely. This extends the fun a bit.
After 10 levels, it could be the same levels again, but with a time limit that gets shorter for each cycle, or something else to make it harder, like wind that blows the ball off course and changes direction all the time.
110 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 144 ms ] threadOne idea is to sample orientation for a little bit at start, then consider the average to be zero. Then have a button that zeroes motion to whatever it currently is as a backup.
That way I can play your game without getting up from bed just yet.
React games however (even 2D ones) are a slideshow.
Kind of fun
I see 3 dots on the left, a 1 on the right, but nothing seems to happen when clicking/swiping
Gave up once it started again from scratch, its not fun just re-doing all the levels to try again
With infinite lives, it would have guaranteed you made it to the end, at which point you would stop playing anyway.
So in both cases you stop playing, but at least in one of the cases the game remains hard for people who like a challenge. Win win!
“Stop playing” is not a meaningful metric
Plenty of games have a “zen mode” or “story mode” or “explorer mode” or any other kind of name to enable an option where’re you’re not severely punished by mistakes. Better yet, they usually allow you to switch modes mid-game. Which means you can progress at your own pace and appreciate everything without getting stuck and rage quitting.
Anecdotally, even if I never turn those modes on I find that the games who have them tend to be more fun and better designed in terms of difficulty progression. Examples include Celeste and Cross Code.
For this game, such a mode would even allow someone to see all the levels or practice in one where they’re stuck and then try again with lives turned on. That would be a win win.
Unsolicited improvement suggestion: When I finish a level, let me see how well I did compared to others.
Amazing job.
Level 9 made me realize there's some inner dread deep within me when it's about playing web-based games with mazes.
Especially for those where you can fall off the path.
[0] https://supermonkeyball.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Monkey_Ball_(i...
[0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/425410/Road_to_Ballhalla/
I think having 3 lives per level with it resetting just that level might be better for starters, then the 3 lives for the entire game being a “hard mode”.
Those are the exact words I head in my head while playing as well. I'd love to see a remake on modern devices.
Great fun :-)
You’re welcome
Not sure I learned anything about Knot Theory from playing this, but that was fun.
I think having a universal 3-life max is very harsh. I died on level 9 and was sent back to level 1. No way am I going to do the first 9 again, so I won't find out what was on 10.
I think it would be more casual friendly to have infinite repeats in every level, but you could have a total count of deaths, for people who care about their score.
I managed to complete it in one shot. The old dog still has it :)
Replaying a level is boring