--Updates:
Fixed a graphical glitch related to the shuffling animation.
(Also definitely didn't upload a wrong update that forgot to reset the pawns... //whistles innocently)
Fixed a bug that caused the AI to softlock under specific cases related to splitting its moves between two pans.
--
..And here's my first Pico-8 game, after just right of a month!
(I'm still not sure I'm doing threads right, though...)
I have no idea why but I kind of always wanted to remake Sorry! onto, well, anything that I could code.
I even actually have started Sorry! remakes on Scratch and Python that I never really finished...
So I decided to make it my first game proper on Pico-8!
More precisely, I wanted to mimick these kind of cartridges that remade board games for GameBoy and co.
Infact, I got inspiration and even some feature ideas from Sorry! for GBA (which is actually a multicart with Aggravation and Scrabble, and also is very broken tbh) and Whoops! that's like Sorry! but for Android.
Following Whoops!'s renaming idea, I also named my version: "Excuse me!"
Moreso, I wanted this first game to be, like, a practice run of what I could be capable "on my own".
Like, while I know this whole community is about helping eachother, I wanted to give myself a try a bit for fun, and a bit to see what my capabilities were.
More precisely, I allowed myself to use snippets and tools from others, but not to ask others for help.
Like a self-imposed challenge, y'know. I wanted to show and see how far myself and I could go without help, before joining things like the Discord and stuff to, like, be a true part of the community.
I always wanted to get like a good feel of Pico-8 before diving into more, bigger projects. (I have concept ideas for more games, heh!)
I think I will surprise nobody if I say I spent the 3 last weeks of the month looking at how I could optimize and shave off tokens here and there. Infact, I had to take out a couple features (again, no surprise).
But it was really fun even to do so, and I even feel like I learned some coding tricks with that.
Just for fun, I also decided to make it exactly 8192 tokens long. (That and also the fact I think I can't optimize it much more without cutting more important functions.)
Huge thanks to @thisismypassword and their Shrinko8 app, by the way.
I used it as like a "optimization suggestor"... As in, I didn't blindly copy-paste the results of the minifying, but I used it to see what I could do to, well, minify myself, because I also wanted the code to stay as much legible as possible.
On the thanking note, I also have to give a shout-out to:
@Mot
For the SMAP function that I mangled a bit (sorry) and is pretty much the backbone of the graphics.
@smithothy
For the font editor tool. It helped me design what I wanted the game to have. I'm definitely gonna keep using it in the future.
@2darray
For the palette maker tool. It helped me pick and choose the right colors I needed. I'm also definitely gonna use it more.
@Snabisch
For the musics. I struggled so much trying to do the musics myself... I probably need more practice.
Each of them are credited in the source code. (Except Snabisch who's directly credited in the game itself.)
Anyway...
I had fun with this first one, and I definitely want to do more so...
Excuse me, but I have games to make! Haha!
-@Mawilite
...aaand I have just noticed a graphical glitch (furthermore, one I thought I already patched)
v1.01 underway
Edit: Fixed and updated!
Encountered a rare case that freezes the game, about CPU's using 7 card with 2 pawns on-board :/
Edit: CPU is advanced type. It should have reselected the pawn or remade the combo other than 6+1, but then it kept sticking onto its initial decision resulting in invalid move.
Thanks for letting me know. Indeed it's so weird because I thought that was a thing that just couldn't happen. (The AI is heavily weighted against choosing a move that knocks its own pawns)
The AI has also a few choice weirdness with the 7 card anyway (the 7 card is really complex to work with, I don't know of any computed game that can work it right) so I need to look it up in its entirety.
I'll try to make a v1.02 with a fix for this.
Edit: Fixed! Turns out the AI actually never checked if it could move the second pawn after moving the first, and somehow it never caused any issue in my playtests before.
Either way, I did all I needed to do. It checks and chooses its pawns right and doesn't cause a softlock anymore.
I really enjoyed playing this one, it's really well done! I also love the effect of close-up turning the 2D into a 3D-like, with the cute and angry faces and all. Very good touches.
In terms of game design, I wonder how this game falls into luck <-> strategy/skill. There are quite a few decisions to take as a player, and they do feel impactful, but on some points it looks like you just have bad/good luck. Is it possible to overcome the "bad luck" with a really good play?
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