[Game] Aaaah! I'm Being Attacked by a Giant Tentacle!

[Ricky Liu]

Here is my second PuzzleScript game, Aaaah! I'm Being Attacked by a Giant Tentacle! It is a game about being attacked by a giant tentacle.

http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=cffeb1b80f76458b742a

Right now there are ten levels of varying difficulty. Let me know what you think!

[Stephen Lavelle]

wow awesome?

liked level 4 - that was the first level i found genuinely engaging/enjoyable - how necessary do you feel the preceeding ones are?

liked level 5

6 was ok :D

7 - first impressions:intrigiing - enjoyed being able to break it down into two parts, solving it was fun

8 - also intriguing on first impressions!  and on finishing it, wow, I thought this was crazy beautiful

9 - this looks cool as well, but i'm pretty sleepy right now. will try again later.

what are your favourite levels in the game. are there any levels you feel are weak and could do without?

until level 4, I thought "nice concept, levels seem a bit so-so", but it takes off after there for me.

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[elwood...@gmail.com]

Ahaha this is great. I actually enjoyed and had more difficulty with the first few levels than I did level 4, by then it was a breeze.

I had the most fun with 5.
6 was okay.
7~10 I'll try more when it's not so late.

This is gotta be one of the cleverest/cutest PS games I've seen.

I really like that you don't need to "undo" because you can actively move the tentacle around and just backtrack if necessary.

I would almost suggest adding noundo.

[Alan Hazelden]

This is lovely!

I'd agree with Stephen that levels 2&3 are cuttable. But probably it's better not to dive into the hard puzzles straight away.

Level 6 initially looks like it's going to be tedious, but it's not too bad actually.

Level 7: can you simplify this one so it's more compact?

Level 8: a lot bigger than I'd like, probably bigger than it needs to be. Again, I think it would be stronger if you could simplify it and fit the same problem into a smaller space.

Stopping here, will probably come back to it.

[abrobecker]

Ah, a purple tentacle, the worst ones!

Great game, great design!

It took me quite a time on level 3 to figure out the logic. Apparently the tentacle seems to minimise the number of turns.

[Tobin Mollett]

This is so charming and weird. Level 10 has me stumped, but then I felt the same way about Level 9, and it eventually gave way.

The one thing I want is a clearer idea of the environment. Am I in a cave? On top of some buildings? An abstract space? Why is there a campfire?

[Hand-E-Food]

Awesome original idea!  I started thinking that there were only one or two tricks that could be learned in the game, but the later levels surprised me.

[Ricky Liu]

Thanks for all the feedback! This was just a one-day project--I came up with the mechanic at lunch and then spent the rest of the day coding it and writing levels--so I'm glad that it's been well received. Like many of you, it took a few levels before I was convinced there were interesting puzzles to be made, so if you took a break before the later levels, I encourage you to finish as they are some of my favorites. I also might work on some more levels in the future, so stay tuned.

To answer some questions:

- I agree that level 4 is the first interesting level. If I rework things, I might get rid of level 2 since it is similar to but less interesting than level 3. On the one hand, part of me dislikes tutorials, but on the other hand, it can be frustrating if you don't have a chance to explore the basic mechanic.

- Level 7 can be made smaller, but I sort of like how it is now. It seems "obvious" that the way to solve it is just to pick a slot at random and follow it down to see what happens. If the level were smaller, it would feel a bit less whimsical.

- Level 8 can probably be made a bit smaller. While part of the fun is supposed to be that you have to run around this huge room, admittedly it's my least favorite level to testsolve because of the size. I might rework this level later.

- My favorite levels are probably 7 and 9.

- Undo isn't necessary, but I like to keep it around as a security blanket. Also it is useful if you accidentally (or intentionally) burn yourself to a crisp.

- As for the environment, I was a bit lazy with the design of the walls and background, but considering that the game is about being attacked by a giant tentacle, it's probably best not to dwell on the logic of it too much.

[Tobin Mollett]

- As for the environment, I was a bit lazy with the design of the walls and background, but considering that the game is about being attacked by a giant tentacle, it's probably best not to dwell on the logic of it too much.

You can't fool me. There's a whole backstory here you're not telling us.

[jonah....@gmail.com]

This is great. I found #6 to be the most difficult by far, whereas #9 came almost immediately. (Maybe the intended solution is more complicated?) #7 and #10 were my favorites. Thinking about parity ended up being more helpful than I expected.

I'd keep the tutorial levels. They're short, and it's a tricky mechanic to wrap (hah) one's head around.

[ter...@gmail.com]

Yeah, keep the first 3 levels. They helped me to begin to realize some important things about the mechanics and I was kind of surprised by the solutions.

[Hand-E-Food]

I finally got them all!  That was really good!  :-)

[Stephen Lavelle]

finished the last two levels. loved them both.  exceptional stuff, mister liu!

On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 1:58 AM, Hand-E-Food <hand_...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I finally got them all!  That was really good!  :-)

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[Fabien]

I am stuck at the 9th. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

[Alan Hazelden]

Yeah I've convinced myself level 9 is impossible too :/

On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 3:27 PM, Fabien <ac...@flap.fr> wrote:

I am stuck at the 9th. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

[Snizzbut]

I agree, as far as i can tell the only 2 possible solutions require tentacle in a "dead end" tile.

[Hand-E-Food]

That's funny, the 9th was relatively easy for me. It was the 8th that had me stumped for ages.

The 10th is good. I felt like the tricks to winning it were well known by now, but trying to arrange it without cornering yourself was the challenge.

[iczuba...@gmail.com]

For me the 6th level is not difficult: it is simply IMPOSSIBLE. Any hints?

[iczuba...@gmail.com]

El jueves, 15 de mayo de 2014 17:03:49 UTC+2, iczuba...@gmail.com escribió:
> For me the 6th level is not difficult: it is simply IMPOSSIBLE. Any hints?

Forget it... I just made it. This game makes me realize how stupid I am :(

[bd.r...@gmail.com]

I quite liked it once I understood what I was doing. Before level 6, I wasn't really conscious of how my actions would lead to solution—that is, it felt mostly like brute force, which wasn't very fun.

Here are some thoughts on levels and what they taught me:

Level 1 - The unexpected tentacle movement, the goal of hitting the fire, and that winding the tentacle around an object is important.

Level 2 - Same solution as level 1, so I don't think it really adds anything.

Levels 3-5 - Technically, you start learning the layering mechanic here, but since I didn't have an intuition about this, it really just felt like I was trying to wind around things "because that's what I learned in Level 1" until I brute forced a solution.

Level 6 - Couldn't brute force a solution. Slowly but finally I realized that I needed to force the tentacle against the wall by winding and intentionally layering it upon itself. Once I discovered this, I felt like I had a tool in my toolbox to use in later levels, and my solving began to be more thoughtful.

Level 7 - I knew random approaches wouldn't work, so I tried a few—which all led to the same problem—and then traced a path from the fire to the start to see where I would need to exit the first 4 blocks. So I employed my layering strategy to force the tentacle into position, which I was able to do in only a few attempts.

Level 8 - I'm not aware of how I figured this one out, but I really liked it because I felt like I more fully understood the layering strategy and how to hook myself around a block to reverse the layer direction.

Level 9 - I had no idea how to approach this one, so I stopped playing. ;)

In general, I liked it once I had a strategy to use when approaching a level, because otherwise it just felt like guessing. Even if my strategy didn't work the way I expected, it at least gave me a means to start a level.

Good job!

[Ricky Liu]

A small hint for those stuck on level 9: you might want to compare the structure of this level to that of other levels with a similar "dead end" square.

[coast...@gmail.com]

I loved this game. Figuring out just how the tentacle acted was satisfying.

[Alan Hazelden]

Okay thanks, that hint was enough for me to get it.

Clever!

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Ricky Liu <ricky...@gmail.com> wrote:

A small hint for those stuck on level 9: you might want to compare the structure of this level to that of other levels with a similar "dead end" square.

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[iczuba...@gmail.com]

Finally finished it! A lot of frustration in the way, but a rewarding feeling of accomplishment in the end. EXCELLENT game.

[chippe...@gmail.com]

These levels are fantastic esp 8 + 9. Current stuck on 10. Haven't the faintest idea :).

[christoph...@gmail.com]

Hi guy. I just discover your awesome puzzlescript game :) Would it be possible to talk with you in private about that pls?