ACT [Mega Blue Ball] Pixie Panic Garden v1.2 (RJ225140)

@CrazyPerson I agree with what you are saying in a general sense, and these thing should most definitely apply to most games that are trying to be, or seem well made. However in this case it's hard to make a judgement based on this particular game because we do not know their intentions for the game, other then the theming and basic functions. We don't know whether they had time restrictions or what the skill level of the developer was, specifically in coding as that is where the randomness is created, this is not intended to be a negative criticism of your previous thoughts.

I do think that if another game is made the the same developer i would like some more thought out pathing, at least for most of the enemies, especially if it is a time based system like this one. you don't need randomness, limited lives/continues and time restraints to make it challenging, there are much better and more fun ways to accomplish this.

The only reason such methods existed in retro games to begin with, was for arcades to get you to spend as much money on continues/lives as possible to go along side an addicting play style that was easy to grasp but was "hard" due to its unpredictability and limited programming capacity. For systems such as the Nintendo or Sega they to had limitations to how much they could achieve with such a small amount of room for development, so in order to make the game seem like its lasting longer as well having a high difficulty, they used similar methods to the arcade games of that time. In the years to come, as game systems were able to run more elaborate games, this old method would die off, and become the much more favored simple continue/checkpoint system we have now.

we are much more capable of making insanely large games with massive worlds and stories to explore, having it be stopped by such redundant things such as limited lives and the like would not a very smart way of doing things.

All of the last half had nothing to do with @laek's game, i just wanted to rant a bit I will say for one last general thing, i believe that developers no matter how big or small should be allowed creative freedom, and if that developer wishes to sell their product then they should be allowed so long as the developer does not fill their followers heads with illusions of thing they will never get. Be true and honest about what they are making and with that mindset you should always have loyal followers willing to buy whatever you make because they trust in you.

Now i'm off to have a beer, much love to all who would accept it

@CrazyPerson

The enemies do have a set range of time where they use/do't use skills, more or less like this example:

Worm State - Moving: If it has been at least X seconds since my last skill usage, from now on every second there is a X% chance I'll use my dig skill. But, if I haven't used my skill for a maxium of Y seconds, use my skill immediately.
Worm State - Digging: If I have been digging for at least X seconds, from now on every second there is a X% chance I'll end my digging. But, if I have been digging for a maximum of Y seconds, stop digging immediately.

This basically means that while there is a set time range where the enemies use/stop using their skill, the exact point whitin that range is random and varies a lot. Thus I agree that having some tells for the enemies skill usages would have gone a long way to ease the difficulty and randomness a bit.


Also, did anyone manage to solve the stages secrets? Stage 1 has been solved by @Jason Bill, but as far as I know, the other secrets remain unknow. Also I forgot to mention, but if you're using a save file or the unlock all code, this sets the secrets as found for the purpose of unlocking the gallery. So if you try looking for them now they won't play the sound when you fulfill the conditions.

@laek I also found the secrets on stages 2 and 4. Pretty sure the secret on stage 5 is on 5-4, and requires the punch ability. I haven't put a whole lot of time into trying for it yet though.

EDIT: @laek Found all the secrets. I was stumped for a while trying to figure out stage 5, haha. Figured it had something to do with the dark stone blocks. Was trying for while, going from different sides and distances, etc... When it finally clicked and I got it, I had a good laugh at myself.

Also, just as an FYI to everyone. You can kick the Rare Beetles (if you have the ability, obviously) to reposition them.

Good job! I tought that stage 4 secret would give people some trouble, seems I was wrong.

I was waiting for someone to find all the 5 secrets the old fashioned way so that I could start thinking about adding some extra content for the game. Sorta like a prize for solving all the secrets. Well, turns out someone already did and proved to me so I already made a poll on the blog to see if there is enough actual interest in it. Please check it out if you want more details.

@laek I assume you mean someone else got the secrets? Judging by the timestamps on your message/my edited post just now. Do @s added with post edits (the message I edited just now above) give a notification?

Anyways though, I'd definitely be happy to see another level. The game has been a lot of fun. (Aside from some frustration. Wasn't a fan of the final bosses "reverse controls" attack. I don't think I've ever played a game where that mechanic was fun.) There's definitely a part of me that would rather see you just decide on the enemies/fetishes yourself though. I do think it's neat to poll us about it. But I guess the only thing about polling for it is that, it could be a bit more of a letdown if something a player isn't interested in gets selected. If you just decided yourself I kinda feel it would feel like that less, even if whatever you picked wasn't something I was into.

Jason Bill said:

Anyways though, I'd definitely be happy to see another level. The game has been a lot of fun. (Aside from some frustration. Wasn't a fan of the final bosses "reverse controls" attack. I don't think I've ever played a game where that mechanic was fun.) There's definitely a part of me that would rather see you just decide on the enemies/fetishes yourself though. I do think it's neat to poll us about it. But I guess the only thing about polling for it is that, it could be a bit more of a letdown if something a player isn't interested in gets selected. If you just decided yourself I kinda feel it would feel like that less, even if whatever you picked wasn't something I was into.

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The results would still be the same either way. Some people will like what might get put in, and others won't. It's like trying to balance a scale with three objects that weigh the same.

dooon said:

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Your a jackass

I have to agree with Mike on this one posting a link on the dev's own thread in front of them is a dick move, especially after so many here actually paid for it.

dooon said:

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In famous words of Hank Hill, that boy ain't right.

what da fuck is wrong with him ?

God I love these new reactions, I can actually show what I feel right now

Come on guys it may be in bad taste to walk over the dev like that, but lets not get all high and mighty about not sharing links all of a sudden either. He even gave it a few days before posting, thats just what the forum is for, and I say that as someone who bought it

alias34 said:

Come on guys it may be in bad taste to walk over the dev like that, but lets not get all high and mighty about not sharing links all of a sudden either. He even gave it a few days before posting, thats just what the forum is for, and I say that as someone who bought it

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It's not being high and mighty. It's kinda an unspoken rule if the dev is showing activity in the community not to be a dick and share it right infront of their face. Think of it this way, it's one thing when someone random that you don't know steals from you, it's a whole lot worse when people that you think you can atleast trust to show some respect steals from you.

Also, guy literally joined today with a pepe avatar. It's safe assume he knew he was being an ass just to be an ass.

I dunno man I like the dev and I hope he turned a decent profit from the game (to the extent its possible in this niche market), but again, it feels inconsistent to me to be totally fine with piracy as long as the dev can't see it, but suddenly grow a conscience once you've inteacted with them. If it personally irks you thats perfectly fine and understandable, but its the collective anger at a dude for sharing a link that strikes me as a bit silly, if not pretentious

If it really bothers the Dev they can report it to the staff and something may or may not happen.

If it really bothers you... feel free to negrep and shit-talk like no tomorrow at an obvious alt.

alias34 said:

I dunno man I like the dev and I hope he turned a decent profit from the game (to the extent its possible in this niche market), but again, it feels inconsistent to me to be totally fine with piracy as long as the dev can't see it, but suddenly grow a conscience once you've inteacted with them. If it personally irks you thats perfectly fine and understandable, but its the collective anger at a dude for sharing a link that strikes me as a bit silly, if not pretentious

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Well, the moderator removed the link (Even though it's still visible in the quotes) . So yeah, that's that. Let's stay on topic my dudes

Haha, I even told myself to remember to get the quote too.

Personally, I feel it's hypocritical to remove a link even when a dev is present as well. It isn't a hard rule either and I never made it one. But I'm not that black and white about these sorts of things. I don't want to set a prescedent where if I let it slide in this thread, it'll start happening in other threads as well, to the point where we drive away developers. The goal is to promote discussion, not to share links.

But yeah, what Slicer said. Devs are free to report links if they see 'em.

Like I mentioned before, my stance is simple: Piracy is a reality of the world we live in, and I'll not fight it. I'll not fight a losing battle against it because in the end things like DRM serve only to bother the people who directly supported you. What I can and will do is try my best to improve myself and offer good content on my games, and also give additional content based on my supporters feedback, like I'm doing right now with the coming bonus stage.

On the topic of linking in a thread where the dev is active, while I know I'm obviously biased now, I can safely say that even before making games I always leaned to it being at least impolite, like @dijitz said. And I'm not trying to paint myself a saint either. If there is one thing I strive to be in this life is open and upfront about things I do, and with that in mind I can say that as many here I have played pirate games in the past, games posted right here on ulmf. Some I ended up buying, some I ended up not buying. But let's be frank, there are many ways to obtain a game if one is so inclined, ways that at least are not right in front of the dev, like pms, search engines, torrent agregators, etc.

In the end I guess I'll just try to deliver better content in order to earn your respect and support. Also will continue interacting with you guys as always, and will leave it at the discretion of you the community and the moderators to decide whether or not links should stay or should go.

Dick move bro. Dark and Toxic put alot of work into the H-games section. Disrespecting them is pretty much sacrilege as far as I'm concerned.

Edit: guy posted the link again, post must've been deleted? IDK

If the developer is fine with it, then I'm going to allow links to be posted until told otherwise. Other mods may feel differently, though.