Log In  

Cart #dredds_piffle-11 | 2022-10-16 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
26

My family like the online word game Waffle but wanted to play more than once a day. So I wrote them this version in Pico-8. Along the way I reimagined it as an 8-bit console title with sound effects, music, particles, multiple levels, ramping difficulty, and a final “boss battle” that you unlock by completing all the preceding levels.

How to Play

Scrambled words are arranged in a grid. Unscramble all the words by swapping pairs of letters. You have a limited number of swaps to complete each level. Run out of swaps and you have to try again. Complete the level with swaps left over to score points.

Can you solve all the levels with five swaps remaining to win the title of Piffle Champion?

Play level 1 for an introduction to the controls. Playing through this level unlocks the rest of the game.

When playing a level, the pause menu gives you options to restart the level or return to the level selector. If you have difficulty interpreting the tile colors, you can enable graphical indicators on the tiles by toggling the "color blind" option on the pause menu with the left and right buttons.

Note: the game uses British English spellings, not American English spellings.

Credits

The music is by J.S. Bach, converted from a free MIDI file by the Denote tool.

Versions

1.7: the in-game tutorial explains the blank spaces, now that the cursor does not skip over them

1.6: usability improvements:

  • the cursor changes to show whether a tile can be swapped
  • the cursor does not skip over the blank spaces, which makes navigating more predictable
  • on completion of a level with maximum score, the title screen moves the cursor to the next incomplete level, not the next level, to be more convenient when you are trying to complete all levels and achieve Piffle Champion status

1.5: the game starts with the next unplayed level selected, so you can start playing with a single button
press.

1.4: usability improvements: custom pause menu items behave like the standard ones

1.3: bug fix in end of game condition (you must now complete all levels with score of 5); added a small animation on title screen when you beat a level with score of 5 to show that the cursor has been moved to the next level

1.2: particle effect on title screen when the player has unlocked the final level

1.1: small bug fixes

1.0: first release

P#102351 2022-09-25 22:33 ( Edited 2022-10-16 17:48)

Nice word puzzle game.
Had to fail couple times before I could grasp the rule.

P#117974 2022-09-26 04:52

Nice Waffle remake! It's too bad that Waffle added the archive right when you made this.

P#117984 2022-09-26 13:26

Yes. My timing was terrible!

But Waffle haven’t added particle effects yet, so I’m still ahead of the game there. :-)

P#117988 2022-09-26 14:34

Excellent work!

P#117999 2022-09-26 19:49

I've published a new version with a small bugfix

P#118044 2022-09-27 14:11

The puzzles are all randomly generated, but I do like the way puzzle 23 turned out.

P#118230 2022-09-30 18:43

Fantasic game!

P#118239 2022-09-30 20:50 ( Edited 2022-09-30 20:50)

Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

P#118280 2022-10-01 13:14 ( Edited 2022-10-01 13:14)

Finally, it's complete.

P#118650 2022-10-06 05:13

Well played!

You’re not quite complete, though. The game will award you the title of Piffle Champion when you turn all the tiles green.

P#118655 2022-10-06 06:23

[Please log in to post a comment]

Follow Lexaloffle:          
Generated 2024-03-28 15:20:28 | 0.019s | Q:30