The Game is ON

[bigosaur]

Mm, I agree that the new movie does mess the semi-reference up. That said, I think it's maybe sort of good for the game to have a core viewable character as a mascot/puzzle intro, so I'd maybe replace him with something rather than just cut out from having any central puzzle-introducing character at all?

The problem is that I would have to redo the whole animation. We shall see.

[bigosaur]

I re-did the animation with a different character and he's back in the game. I'll probably make a new trailer with him as well, but it's enough to explain the story.

The game is complete now and ready for testing. There are 200 puzzle pieces in total over 61 levels. The level selections are the following areas from South-East Europe:

• The Bosnian Pyramid
• Dracula's Castle (Bran Castle in Romania)
• Đavolja Varoš (natural monument in Serbia)
• Radan Mountain (anti-gravity hill which is a natural optical illusion)

Each area has 4 hidden puzzles.

Spoiler

And there's also one puzzle locked in a safe on the main selection screen. It requires a 4-digit combination to open and every world has a hint for one of the digits.

I have update the build on Steam. If there are no bugs or things that need fixing, this will be the final version.

Hopefully I can iron out any bugs in a week or so, and then go back to developing the big Son of a Witch update.

[Jubal]

OK, I'm now on 199/200.

The last puzzle piece I've not managed is:

Spoiler

One of the level 1 bonus ones. I found the quicksand, the one under the pyramid, and the one on the bottom left-hand side. I'm obsessed with trying to work out if the keyboard pattern on the terminals under the pyramid could mean anything, I've tried redoing some of the puzzles using that as a suggested order but that doesn't trigger anything, I can't find anything else to click on and I'm generally confused.

Other thoughts:

Spoiler

I think the new mini-Boris (with goatee) looks better by far than the zoomed in one with no goatee. Could the zoomed in image get a goatee added since he's basically a static image anyway? This is purely aesthetic pedantry but I think it does help the look.

Puzzles I struggled with or have suggestions for:

• I still wonder if "She's a peach" would be better as "She looks peachy", but that's maybe just my idiolect.
• Pick the low-hanging fruit, which is easy once you've found the axe but seemed odd just because it's more of a hidden object puzzle and guessing the idiom doesn't actually help much with it.
• I took ages to get The Customer Is Always Right, I think it's fine and I was just being dim.
• Skeleton in the cupboard, the text the guy says once you block the door to get the puzzle piece should probably be "I can't open it when there's something in front of it" - the current text just makes him sound weird/a bit of a robot.
• Talk behind her back took a while, since I thought it would be talking over her head then got confused when putting him on top of her head and getting him to talk didn't work.
• I think speak of the devil is a more common phrasing than "speaking" as you currently have.
• I'd usually expect drinks on the house as plural rather than with shortening apostrophe as given in that puzzle.
• Time is money I wonder if the secret-generating bit is too obvious to begin with. Perhaps you should click Boris to make that speech bubble show up.
• Make My Day I think has a real issue in that there are too many possible idioms about days, I was trying "any day of the week" and so on. I think if you change "You =" to "Me = " then that would make it better, as it is I think the number of possible options with juggling letters around and the number of idioms this language has about days makes it a bit of a frustrating brute-force challenge.
• Killing two birds with one stone took several attempts but I think that's fine.
• I found it a bit odd when revealing the secret was a complete requirement of the puzzle, like in Costs An Arm And A Leg. I felt a bit like it would've been good to make me do something else for it.
• Comparing Apples And Oranges is tricky - I worked out the idiom fast but it took some time to work out the technical side.
• I feel like The Game Is On should have been more final somehow - like I did it and then had a bunch of stuff to go back and find, whereas it would've been cool if that was actually the very ending moment of completing the game.

I enjoyed it all anyway - well done, was very good fun

EDIT: OK, got piece 200

[bigosaur]

The last puzzle piece I've not managed is

It's very simple, you can move one of the

Spoiler

triangular blocks on the side of the pyramid.

You probably never hovered the mouse over there. I'm amazed how you did all the rest so quickly, as I thought some of the puzzles would be confusing 

Could the zoomed in image get a goatee added

I'll try to draw one and see how it turns out. As I've been practicing a lot with this game, my artistic skills are in a flux currently, so I'm not sure what I can do. Some stuff I think "no way" and I just draw them perfectly. Some I think "that's easy" and I cannot produce anything that looks good in multiple tries.

Spoiler

Pick the low-hanging fruit

, is more of a hidden object puzzle

I tried various approaches for that one, but couldn't make it work without it being too easy. If you have some ideas... I'm all ears.

Skeleton...the text the guy says

I will change that.

Spoiler

Talk behind her back took a while, since I thought it would be talking over her head then got confused when putting him on top of her head and getting him to talk didn't work.

Hm, looks like I forgot about that possibility. I will try to change it so that you can only do one of the solutions. I could even change it to be 2 separate puzzles, but now I'm reluctant to go into that direction as there are exactly 200 puzzle pieces.

Spoiler

I think speak of the devil is a more common phrasing than "speaking" as you currently have.

Will fix.

Spoiler

I'd usually expect drinks on the house as plural rather than with shortening apostrophe as given in that puzzle.

I'm not sure what to do with that one. At first I wanted to do the plural variant, but then you need to have at least two bottles and placing one in the spot would still give you a possible solution (the current one). I even tried a singular without 's, but that sounds bad.

Spoiler

Time is money

I wonder if the secret-generating bit is too obvious to begin with. Perhaps you should click Boris to make that speech bubble show up.[/li][/list]

Not a bad idea.

I think has a real issue in that there are too many possible idioms about days, I was trying "any day of the week" and so on. I think if you change "You =" to "Me = "

I thought it would be too easy if it said "Me"?

I found it a bit odd when revealing the secret was a complete requirement of the puzzle, like in

Spoiler

Costs An Arm And A Leg

I wanted to use those to misguide the players, have them thinking "oh, this one is just for the secret puzzle piece".

Spoiler

• I feel like The Game Is On should have been more final somehow - like I did it and then had a bunch of stuff to go back and find, whereas it would've been cool if that was actually the very ending moment of completing the game.

I wanted it as well, but on the other hand, I wanted to allow the players to solve the puzzles in any order they want. Hm, maybe I could split that one puzzle I mentioned above into two puzzles, and move this one to the end of the game, so it unlocks when you have all 200 puzzle pieces?!

I enjoyed it all anyway - well done, was very good fun

Thanks!

[Jubal]

For low hanging fruit:

Spoiler

Maybe you could have three trees with fruit at different heights, and you have to put just the low one off each different tree in the basket? I think that would be more about the idiom and less the hidden object puzzle it is now.

I like the idea about splitting the over her head and behind her back into two puzzles and triggering the game is on when you reach 200 pieces. That would make a nicer finale I think.

I think drinks on the house works fine if you just change the idiom text and leave the puzzle as is - a wine bottle can contain multiple drinks worth of wine after all unless you're really going at it hard

I think with the text-scrambling ones you need a fairly big clue, or the range of options is just way too high. To complete that one I ended up looking in an idioms dictionary and I'd tried like 2/3 of the things in there for "idioms about days". I mean you can leave it as is, but I think it's especially difficult at the moment so I'd lean towards making it "Me".

[bigosaur]

For low hanging fruit

That could work. I can leave the hidden object in the game - to be used to get the secret puzzle piece.

I think drinks on the house works fine if you just change the idiom text and leave the puzzle as is - a wine bottle can contain multiple drinks worth of wine after all unless you're really going at it hard

Oh, ok. That's easy to fix then

I think with the text-scrambling ones you need a fairly big clue, or the range of options is just way too high.

Alright. I have no idea how difficult it is, because I already know all the answers. I have fixed that now.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Tusky]

Do you need any more playtesting?

[bigosaur]

Do you need any more playtesting?

I might need more soon. Not sure when, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. I'm doing some changes for the Nintendo Switch port, so I want to make sure I don't break anything in the Steam version. So it all depends when I finish porting.

If you are interested, I can send you a Steam key once I have a new build ready. Just send me your e-mail at dev@bigosaur.com and I'll e-mail you the key once the build is up.

[bigosaur]

Finally I went back, re-recorded the material and re-edited the video. Here's a version with the new Boris:

This one should be final.

[Jubal]

Great Let me know when you know what the official release date is and I can get Exilian to tweet about it and suchlike.