Another game to waste your time!

[davidn]

Last night, I posted a test of a puzzle game I was writing on to the Feedback forums at TIGSource to ask opinions about the difficulty level. I wasn't going to put it here quite yet because it wasn't actually finished, but as it seems to have been plastered all over Indiegames' feeds as of this morning I'd feel a bit silly not announcing it myself.

Boxplode, then, is a Flash puzzle game I'm writing where you have to clear the boxes from the screen by clicking to start chains of explosions. In this prototype version there are nine levels, including three tutorials.



Test-type version for the game currently known as "Boxplode"

The original request for commentary still stands! Is this laughably easy or totally impossible to work out? Too many alternative solutions or not enough? I don't know, but there's a little winners list as an incentive to persevere to the end (you need Javascript on for it to recognize your entry).

Thanks for any opinions, thoughts on how much sense the tutorial makes, reports of how many restarts you found yourself having to make, and so on. A known issue just now is that the actual explosion sounds might lag for anything from a quarter-second to a week.

Ironic that this happens to a game I wrote in two days rather than three years.

Comments

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I have went back and redid the dual layer one so I can give coordinates on the completion steps.
1. on the 9 block - Row 1 column 2 clicking north on the '2' Block
2. On 9 block - Row 2 Column 3 Clicking north/south on the '2' block.
3. On the upper level 5 block - Row 1 column 1 Click east on the '1' block
Lower Level
4. Row 4 column 4 - Click east on the '2' block
5. On the 4 block - Row 1 Column 1 Click North on the '2' block
6. On the 6 Block - Row 1 Column 1 Click east/North on the '1' Block

On the comment you made below, it is difficult to gauge the difficulty level as you know the answer. Luckily it is small games as people are willing to try them out.
Also having limited moves is also good as it does limit the solutions. I don't think i have managed to do them under the clicks so even if there are alternate paths, unless someone mentions one then it appears that there are no easier solutions.

[davidn]

Ah, so you can do it that way... thanks for going back and checking that :) I have to wonder if the rules I've set for the game so far inherently lend themselves to there being multiple solutions and the order in which you click not mattering (the bomb blocks, round ones and top layer were added on in that order later after I'd made the basic layout for the game).

It's interesting that even though there have been alternative solutions so far, nobody that I know of has managed to complete a level in fewer clicks than I thought you needed. I'm sure that like everything I release, someone will become better at it than I am eventually :)

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on what you class as multiple solutions. For example, is the starter block the one solution or the 1 direction on the starter block the one solution? Example being the '3' block on the 1 click game, you have to start it on the '3' but it is not direction dependant.
If it is block specific then you can always make them a metal block so can't be used. Shame the game tests don't write back what moves the person used.

[davidn]

Yes, I do seem to have had a lapse in my usual spying instincts! I don't even record how many restarts were made (though I probably would have spent rather more time on this if I had known that the game would have had a release beyond about three people as I'd intended on Sunday). Perhaps I'll sneak that in in future tests.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

A restart counter would be really good as I would aim to do less restarts that way, rather than just giving it a try.