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Nandrew
21-12-2009, 06:40 PM
Hewwo!

The competition premise is a challenging one indeed, and I've found it fairly difficult to fuse two genres in a way that's both feasible and rewarding. So instead, I've taken the liberty of fusing three. Sort of. I hope it works out, since I probably broke a few good dev practices in making this thing.

ArGeeBee:

An experimental game which throws a run-and-jump platformer, a top-down RPG and a match-3 puzzler into the same room and forces them to play nice with each other. Themed in three delicious colours.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6466/screen1rw.jpg

(29 DECEMBER)

ArGeeBee is 20 levels strong and ready for release. It's not Teh Most Awezome Gaem Evar(TM) or anything, but I think that it'll be an great playthrough for anyone who has a passion for different and experimental games. Hopefully it'll have you thinking in all sorts of brand new ways: designing the levels for this has been startlingly brain-breaking -- even for simple scenarios -- and I forsee one or two interesting challenges for anyone who picks this up.

Whatever the case, I'm going to close the book on this proggie and move on to something else. It's been really fun to develop, and I hope that this provides many people with half an hour of delightful puzzle-solving/RPG/action platformer madness!

Get ArGeeBee (Final) (http://www.box.net/shared/jd9ignszcc)

NOTE: Level 7 should be fixed now.

ArGeeBee Stuff (http://www.box.net/shared/yi6iuruosc) (press pack of images, links and game/comp descriptions)

CiNiMoDZA
21-12-2009, 08:27 PM
Well, I atleast now I have a valid reason not to enter this comp :P

Nandrew
22-12-2009, 12:29 AM
Nawww, just set yourself a short time limit, think of a game that you can execute in that time limit, and voila! Before you even know what you've started, you're in the polish phase and moving a cool little game out the door. :)

Also, for those who are curious about the sound in this game, I put up a piece about it: "Foley for people who suck at sound" (http://nandrew-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/12/foley-for-people-who-suck-at-sound.html)

CiNiMoDZA
22-12-2009, 09:04 AM
More levels...more levels

Deathy
22-12-2009, 01:59 PM
Nice game! Quite challenging, but enjoyable. The interface feels a bit rigid, though thats not really a problem. I Like the simplicity of the game mechanics, though its not at all easy. Will play it with sound when I'm not at work;)

Fruzz
22-12-2009, 03:02 PM
I really like it. I think the three different game types work really well together. I like the platformer/roguelike mixture most because it changes the spatial interpretation so drastically.

The tutorials are good, they're fun and I managed to pick up the game mechanics from them quite easily. I'm hideously stuck on puzzle 8 though. I think maybe I missed some vital mechanic somewhere along the line. Maybe you could emphasise that one more if I missed it somehow :)

SkinkLizzard
22-12-2009, 03:37 PM
no I don't think you did, I was as horribly stuck
it has to do with how you arrange the green blocks in the floating box to get 2 sets of 3, L shaped groups of 3 can be shifted in at least 3 different ways to make a straight line, also you have to start that level with bee

The Dash
22-12-2009, 04:33 PM
Loving it so far, will edit this with a full comment later, but for now i have found a bug i want to post before i forget. Once Bee has frozen an enemy, landing on the corner of this frozen enemy still kills him :( This has only happened once so far, and i am going to try do it again

EDIT:
Firstly, excellent name. Only when i started writing this did i get it.

Another excellent work from you, and easily in the top 3 for this competition. Puzzles were hard enough to prove a head scratcher, but not totally impossible. Its an excellent concept that's been well implemented. Will play through the levels again and come back and edit my comment to try find some faults :P

MOAR PUZZLES!

Fruzz
22-12-2009, 07:22 PM
I just finished it. The last level was great fun :)

Maybe its worth mentioning in the tutorials that you can make more than 3 green blocks blue if you move them correctly. I think it was a bit of a fluke that I worked that one out. I assumed that you could only ever line up 3.

It might be fun to have a challenging platformer tutorial bit to give a bit of a subtle clue early on for a level like the last one. It would also be good practice for getting your platform timing more precise and easing the learning curve.

I liked the way that the blue character was emphasised over the other two in the last level. I'm not sure if any other colours get a chance in the spotlight in other levels, the last one just stuck out for me.

edg3
22-12-2009, 08:36 PM
I want to try this, but my only issues are these: how big is the download? Also, did you make it vista friendly Nandrew?

Im stuck without proper internet (got a whopping 6kB/s down today) and just need to work out if i'll be able to stay connected to the net to download it (it took me 3 fails and a large amount of hair pulling over an hour odd to get game maker)

Goraan
22-12-2009, 08:55 PM
Well done Nandrew. I enjoyed this game a hell of a lot. Not quite as much as Electric Zombies but enough to keep me playing to the end.

Well done sir. Well. Done

Nandrew
23-12-2009, 12:34 AM
Awesome, great to hear the positive feedback! I'll be shipping off one last version with more puzzles on Thursday, then marketing and dusting this product in favour of a new project (or a return to OOTEZ). What I'm aiming for with this is to give the good folk of the Internet a few minutes of fun while trying something new.

@edg3 The download is 1.7 MB. And it's definitely Vista friendly, I've been using Vista for a while now.

edg3
23-12-2009, 10:59 AM
Awesome that its small and vista ready but I cant hit Box.net, will download it next week when Im home and give feedback then. Thanks anyway :P

Nandrew
29-12-2009, 02:40 PM
ARGEEBEE IS FINISHED!

I meant to get it out a few days ago, but the deadline was pushed back because I decided to conduct additional research in FPS/RPG genre fusion (read: been playing Borderlands since Christmas, and I'm not ashamed to admit it). I've also dropped the idea of submitting it to the Experimental Gameplay comp, because I think that my game's link to the theme of "Art Game" is shallow and tenuous at best. :P

I'm going to let it stew for a day or two here, I think, then send it off to a few review places and see if they want to slap it around. This little time window is basically here just in case any Game.Dev members find some magical crippling flaws or whatever. :)

The game is hard, I'll admit. At least, I think it will be. I really wanted to see what sort of challenges I could throw at people, and while I've done my best to be "fair" (taking care to arm players with important information as they go along) I'm not always holdin' yer hand. In particular, I think level 19 should provide an interesting challenge. Just bear in mind that while doing levels in sequence is a good idea, you can actually skip ahead if one puzzle proves too difficult for you.

Have fun! It's not meant to be totally epic or anything, but I'd like to see it provide about 20/30 minutes of entertaining gameplay overall.

Nandrew
29-12-2009, 02:42 PM
Oh, and I'll just reiterate here: speedy feedback is welcome for matters of Great Game Importance (serious bugs, crashes, whatever). Aside from that, I don't need anything urgent. The game is complete to my satisfaction, and any commentary will be treated as postmortem info to bear in mind for future projects. :)

Nandrew
31-12-2009, 05:28 PM
Oops, I've just found a problem in Level 7 (thanks d).

(--EDIT--) Aaaand fix'd. Sorry if I inconvenienced anyone. (--END--)

Tr00jg
03-01-2010, 10:11 AM
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/01/freeware_game_pick_argeebee_ro.html :) Picked this up in my feeds.

Nandrew
03-01-2010, 04:13 PM
I credit that to the wisdom of Comp 23 and the congeniality of the IndieGames staff. :)

My sound apparently needs work (not too surprised there), and I'm quite inspired to look into that with more detail on my next game project (or use DrPettr's super-easy sound generator -- though it's beginning to become a little too trendy for me). I've started on the path of homebrew sounds, and I think it's worth looking into making GOOD homebrew sounds now. :D

dislekcia
03-01-2010, 04:24 PM
I'm liking how the views are climbing :)

Hi there international visitors, why not try Nandrew's other (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11460) games (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=10860) while (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=7324) you're (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=3620) here (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=10991)?

FuzzYspo0N
04-01-2010, 05:15 PM
Played it, loved it. Nice work on combining them , really.

dislekcia
04-01-2010, 05:24 PM
Someone had a heart left over on 16? Cool :)

BlackShipsFillt
05-01-2010, 12:42 AM
Oh no! I thought I'd made a cunning choice with DrPettr! (Although it is so much fun it's definitely worth it)... But I do think the homebrew sound style works for ArrGeeBee, the sounds could probably be improved a bit, but also having a little ambience or music would take the pressure off the sound effects (because they would seem subtler if they were playing alongside something else)

BlackShipsFillt
05-01-2010, 01:03 AM
I had a heart left over on 10

Nic
05-01-2010, 08:24 AM
I had a heart left over on 10

In fact it's possible to do it without using any hearts!

Nandrew
05-01-2010, 01:11 PM
Oh no! I thought I'd made a cunning choice with DrPettr! (Although it is so much fun it's definitely worth it)... But I do think the homebrew sound style works for ArrGeeBee, the sounds could probably be improved a bit, but also having a little ambience or music would take the pressure off the sound effects (because they would seem subtler if they were playing alongside something else)

Oh don't get me wrong, DrPettr's absolutely awesome. I'm just being snobby and dismissing its "mainstream" nature. :P There's some pretty amazing stuff you can do with it.


I had a heart left over on 10


In fact it's possible to do it without using any hearts!

WHA- HEY WHAT NOW.

I can understand level 16 (fairly open plan), but level 10 has had me stumped for at least 15 minutes. You, gentlemen, just out-brained me at my own game.

I love how the creativity of entire communities can make a game burst out of its own bounds. :P

BlackShipsFillt
06-01-2010, 01:32 PM
Have you thought about the sequels? ArGeeBeeAy and the board game port CeeEmWhyKay?

Fruzz
06-01-2010, 01:53 PM
Have you thought about the sequels? ArGeeBeeAy and the board game port CeeEmWhyKay?

Heheheheh, I like what you did there :D

dislekcia
06-01-2010, 02:16 PM
Didn't you enter this into the EGP competition as well? What's the feedback from that side like?

Nandrew
07-01-2010, 12:55 AM
@Blackships: Noice :P

@dislekcia: To be honest, I decided at the last minute to pull out on that one. I felt that my interpretation of "Art Game" was pretty shallow, and there was a small art-snob side of me that *really* wasn't happy enough with that. I was going to dev something else in flixel instead, but then the New Year Buildup(TM) happened and I ended up spending most of the last few comp days with my brother.

If there's an EGP this month, I'll probably look into that to make up for the one that passed me by. :P

Still, attention's been good on this one. Been getting e-mails here and there (like this one from NickMania (http://www.nickmania.com/games.php?n=ArGeeBee)) commenting on how the game is being liked/reviewed/stuff. :)

Chippit
07-01-2010, 01:20 AM
If there's an EGP this month, I'll probably look into that to make up for the one that passed me by. :P

There IS an EGP this month ;)

100 things (http://experimentalgameplay.com/blog/2010/01/2010-calls-for-100-things/)

Nandrew
07-01-2010, 02:48 AM
That's a damn cool theme. Dunno what I'm going to enter yet, but I'll think of something.

cymon
20-01-2010, 07:10 AM
I registered here because this game is killing me. It's brilliant. I hate it. I love it. I've recommended it to my friends.

16, 17, 13, 19 and 20 I haven't solved yet.

This game makes no bones about being a challenge. I even had trouble getting through the tutorial levels. But it makes beating a level feel like a real accomplishment. What it needs now is a level editor. I'll bet the player base could come up with hundreds of levels.

Again, good game.

Nandrew
20-01-2010, 01:13 PM
That's a pretty good suggestion, and if I do more work on ArGeeBee, a level editor would be the first feature to throw in. Designing fiendishly difficult puzzles can be ... well, fiendishly difficult, and it's always nice to see creativity applied from a different perspective.

Good luck with those levels too. :P By principle, I'm avoiding throwing any hints into this thread myself, but maybe you can persuade one of the other members to give you spoiler-tagged assistance if you want help with a specific stage. ;)