quantumsamurai

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quantumsamurai

by swish

Cart #quantumsamurai-7 | 2024-06-08 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License

24

this is a small puzzle platformer I worked on four years ago that I had never finished. It's a type of foddian game where you quantum(ly) shift between levels, always remaining at the same position within the 16x16 grid (with some small hud text up top to help you keep track).

I wanted to embed it in a portfolio so I uploaded it here. For some reason people were actually enjoying it and managed to get to where the level ends (which I never expected to happen since it's very difficult).

so anyway I spent a day finishing the game, because why not?

the additions include:

• new set of levels to cap off the game
• an end to the game (which unlocks color palettes)
• palette buttons now won't work until after you've beaten the game once
• speedrun timer

thanks for playing!

sewer 6-7-8-6-7-8-6-7-8-67-8-67-8-67-8-6786-786-786-78678678678678
OMG factory1------factory2 drops factory1 PANIC MODE ACTIVATED sewer865321 AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGhhhh

I'm calm, I'm sane, I'm safe, I can't fall and make things worse any more... Sewer 1 is a nice, safe and quiet place. I'll stay there for a while. I'll make myself a nice cup of tea and try not to spill it on me...

I'll be back, ...

but not today...

Looks pretty cool, but as I'm trying to play on mobile, I kept constantly having the palette select mode come up and disrupt gameplay. I think making this a menu option at the title screen and/or in the pause menu would work a lot better than having it open every time up or down are pressed.

Wow. This was both very irritating but still satisfying enough to make progress that I persisted. But I wouldn't complain if you implemented a few i-frames to avoid us falling back 3 levels before we can blink.

This one took a while to figure out.

But is this one missing some components?

I'm going to need to come back to this one with my gamepad plugged in! Seems great, tough but fair (at least in the short play session I had using the keyboard). Really like the concept of player mistakes pushing back against their own progress.

accidentally set the pallette to jsab/pink and black mode, and had a decently fun time, got to factory ? multiple times. (yes I know every level is factory ?) this is like if getting over it and Celeste combined, really fun rage platformer :3

Edit: made it to Tomb ? !!!

@Cowirrie ngl I made this like 4 years ago, never finished it and certainly never expected anyone to get that far in. Kinda making me want to revisit it tho.

so yeah thats the end so far, good work!

edit: your comment made me finish the game, so feel free to have another go if you're up to it.

ugh, zero stars, it did not in fact give me a new palette
(joke)

finally!! i really enjoyed the ride.
nice game. in a way it's like celeste (and rolly).

something seems to be wrong with the fourth palette, everything that move stops

@nicegame thanks for playing.

that palette was a jojo reference, the time stop is intentional haha.

Instantly love it. Fantastic game!

Whew! I've been working at it since it came out, so my time there is just of the last section really as I got so speedy at the previous parts (I probably spent like 2-3 hours on it in total).
I really love how it really stretches and pushes the moveset to its limit, sometimes seemingly exploiting the mechanics! Often it was as much or moreso a puzzle than a platforming challenge.
The instant death sending you back multiple levels isn't too frustrating especially once you get into the rhythm of speeding through solved levels. It is kind of a shame the levels that truly utilize this as part of the level are only at the end.
In fact I think this still has a ton of potential in combining the mechanics. The conveyor belts/moving thingies are only used in the factory, the switches in the tomb, and the multiple exits in hell. Combining them could lead to some really interesting levels. I suppose this was at the limit of the cart and what you wanted to make, but if you ever want to make more there are ways to compress more map data into a cart (or even take the idea to something besides pico8, the concept can certainly work elsewhere).
This game really is brilliant, certainly difficult, but it was so rewarding getting through it.

@Munchkin thank you so much for playing!

I agree I could've definitely used a better spread of mechanics, mixing and matching them throughout the game. I mean the first and last level sets don't even have a unique mechanic haha.

I think I remember purposely leaving the first levels as a tutorial so no complex mechanics but I really just couldn't get into the groove of programming another mechanic for the last levels, having to sift through my spaghetti code from 4 years ago to figure out how it works.

Likewise with the map size, I know you can get more out of a cart than whats on the map but I'd already done like 3/4 map that way and couldn't really be bothered learning it, definitely something to do in future tho. Also might get to be too long of a game for how punishing it can be.

I could definitely see this concept stretched over a full Celeste-like game, so maybe a long term future goal, but for now the closest thing might just be a small pico8 sequel.

Anyways thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I came back, and finished it...

Some really clever puzzle design in those last levels.

I'm hoping you do make other carts, but one request on this one: could the sound for going forwards a level please be different from the sound for going back?

I adore the touch of the hero starting the game stunned. It gives a great sense of him feeling "Oh no, here we go again..."