The interminable late-game grind on this thing might as well be an idle game. Steering doesn't make that big a difference (going straight down can easily still earn 3/4 the benefits of carefully avoiding obstacles), so you can just come back every few minutes to click "Next day" and occasionally do some upgrading. Why not just go all the way and allow new runs to happen automatically? It could save a lot of the drudgery.
This is about 45% excellent puzzle game, 25% easy to do randomly, and 30% repeatedly clicking and dragging until it actually moves or rotates the way it's supposed to do. That last part is frustrating, but that first 45% still make it one of the best puzzlers this site has had in a long time.
The design (concept, puzzles, music, plot) is excellent but the mechanics (lag, fuzzy controls, unclear hitbox) can be frustrating. Improving the latter would help a lot, but the former is so good I played all the way through to the credits anyway. Thank you for so much depth and an overall good experience.
The best launch games give you some in-flight control so there's reason to pay attention. Mediocre ones let you fire-and-forget, so at least you can skip out on the useless periods. The worst launch games require only random, sporadic clicking, in between long stretches of complete boredom. This is one of the worst.
You get the option of free, unlimited long-range, piercing magic attacks. Choosing instead to swing a primitive piece of metal around must mean you really like making your life needlessly difficult. Seriously, the staff is so much easier than complaining about flying enemies or the boss, like people who obviously just took the wrong kind of weapon. Otherwise, generally it's a cute little game, despite spelling mistakes and things. Agreed on re-speccing the talent tree, though it should at least cost a lot of souls. Also, "Pseudo-Ninja" is definitely broken; not only does it count count sword swings rather than dagger (thus taking twice as long), but I'm at "1078/900" completion and it's still the only achievement I haven't been awarded.
Good to see that restrictions like lowrezjam continue to inspire creative games. It's impressive how well Metrovania works at 32x32 resolution. Still, I look forward to the "HD" version with a map, and perhaps less clunky (maybe even program-able?) keys as well. Definitely keep up the god work. :)
Thanks for the comments. I hope to finish the "HD" version in a week or two. The automap is finished and I have a new control scheme using the mouse to aim and shoot which is nicer. I'll post an update here when its done.
Oh, also the "Find a Rare item" hero isn't unlocking (even when all the others are), and the Level 7 boss can become completely invincible and require restarting the level. So yeah, definitely a few kinks to work out.
It's pretty fun, but could be so much better with some bug fixes. Pathing is a serious issue. To repeat others: levels can generate unreachable areas; your character can be be completely unable to move (maybe after being poisoned?) without restarting; the lack of next-level confirmation is less serious, but can be annoying. Also, the minimap would be far more useful if it showed unopened chests, shops, and perhaps enemies as well. You made a good start, so please make the game that much better.
When Ikea makes starships then we can all look forward to affordably-priced Fasta drives, Fijot weapons, and Ulfbehrt armor that we assemble ourselves. The future looks good.
Dissatisfied with a meaningless existence performing repetitive tasks for money, and exhausting the temporary catharsis of conspicuous consumption, I was left with no choice but to climb up to the highest hill then jump from it into the abyss. Sinking ever deeper into my watery grave, I watched the trees, trails, my empty purchases, and even those fateful hills grow ever more distant till they diminished to nothing. Yet somehow the sun shone ever down on me, undimmed by the tons of water closing in above me. Far from the dreaded button and the fiend who financed it, finally there is peace.
A game like this can only come from a disturbed, sadistic, terrifying mind. Good work. (Though it is quite apt for the "feint" hearted, i.e. those who favor deceptive movements. The "faint" of heart, however...)
Yes, I think most people who know me would say I'm just a little twisted, in a good way ;-) Aaah yes, can't believe I spelt it that way...had a lot on my mind last week trying to finish this game off = 7 x 15 hour days was taking it's toll ;-)
Times are tough, but if you're ever tempted to make anything this obvious then please, I beg you, have you considered selling plasma or organs first? Telemarketing, prostitution, almost anything would be a more honest living than this (except politics, obviously).
So the "bonus level" is just survival? Stating so explicitly would be nice. It got old pretty fast and didn't seem to be getting any harder (no shotgun zombies, and their gunners stayed nice and low on the screen), so I just suicided after earning about $20k. Of course, that was more than enough for all the gun upgrades but it'd be annoying to learn after all that the level did end soon afterwards.
Is there any actual difficulty curve on Survival mode? I just stopped shooting at about 22M 'cause it didn't seem any harder than it had much earlier. Apparently the top Survival rank is at 10M anyway, so now I've 183 ribbons to use on powerups but don't see any point in point in going a second time. It'd be nice if refugees on Survival could bring you the random prizes as it'd be interesting to find the last 3 of those but there's no way I'm grinding earlier levels for who-knows-how-long to wait for them.
Good job optimizing CPU use. I still don't see the appeal of idle games, but the Kong Challenge completed and this game didn't interfere with BOINC while I was out, so my computer's CPU still did some good at least. Now I can check my Seti@home numbers too; that's like an idle game that's meaningful to me.
 "Diebrary"){kind=icon}
 "Reach the core"){kind=icon}
 "Dead End St."){kind=icon}
 "Evo Explores"){kind=icon}
 "Lampshade"){kind=icon}
 "My \"Dear\" Boss"){kind=icon}
 "Zombie And Juliet"){kind=icon}
 "SpaceWrecked"){kind=icon}
 "Loot Heroes 2"){kind=icon}
 "Void Vikings"){kind=icon}
 "Fill the bar"){kind=icon}
 "Awesome Ranger"){kind=icon}
 "Ghostscape 3D"){kind=icon}
 "The King of Towers"){kind=icon}
 "Zombie Incursion"){kind=icon}
 "Zombo Buster Rising"){kind=icon}
 "Escape Eternity"){kind=icon}
 "Coinbox Hero"){kind=icon}
 "Idleplex"){kind=icon}
Thanks for the comments. I hope to finish the "HD" version in a week or two. The automap is finished and I have a new control scheme using the mouse to aim and shoot which is nicer. I'll post an update here when its done.