Is it open source, as in, editable through MMF, or something more like Saira or Knytt Stories, with an editor?

The latter option would not mean that they're open source but instead just made with a closed-source level editor.

click on it and then jump on its head.

okay, I got it by randomly clicking it a lot.
I'd like if the walk controls were also possible with the cursor keys. for people who use the mouse with their left hand.

Edit: Hey, it keeps saying "No" to finished/blue star, although I have both on the beast level! :sad:

Yeah, that bug should be fixed rather soon. Thanks for reporting!

Hey, that's a good suggestion about the controls! I'll add a support for them.

This looks like fun, I'm going to DL and try it.

It seems you only come on here though when you have new games to show. Not just to talk or anything. :\

EDIT: Very fun game, reminds me of Hapland, just with an added puzzle (cute rectangle guy). I can't seem to get the second star in the level with the pepper monster, I got the blue star

Spoiler: which is (click to show/hide)

inside the monster

but how do I get past the guy that punches you to another planet?

Well, I've been here since the first forum, and I've had my active days already. I talk with Nifflas in other ways, too, so I don't feel that my commentary is really that needed usually.
There's a huge hint to the pepper level in the sign that is next to the puncher, just think of it a bit!

Cheers!

Ok, so this is the demo of Beyond the Black Hole, a puzzle-platformer I've been working on for about half a year now with Multimedia Fusion 2. It's by far my biggest project, and it'll sure take a year or so still to finish it. This thing is a sequel to FIG, my earlier 'big' game, though there are certain big differences, the controlling system being the biggest.

This demo features 6 of the game's 35 levels, all chosen from the finished 12 and stuffed to one planet. There's also the tutorial level on top of that. I'll stop here and let the readme speak a bit:

"In each level, your objective is to collect all the yellow stars (there's usually only one, and none should be hidden from view) and reach the exit. Reaching the stars and overall solving the levels requires using the main character to carry things around, and the mouse to interact with other things. Most levels require both methods of interaction. In every level, there's also a hidden blue star, which requires either extra skill or just common curiousness to be found. Collecting all the blue stars also results in a bonus, though not in this demo!

NOTE! You can adjust volume from the settings.txt!

** CONTROLS **

A & D = move left & right
W = jump
Space = pick up / put down
Left mouse button = throw when aiming, interact, confirm
Right mouse button = aim when carrying an item, return to planet menu
ESC = quit level/game
Enter = restart level

** CREDITS **

Full credits shall be in the finished game!

Idea, design, graphics & programming: Arvi Teikari
Musics: Johan Hargne
Main tester: Looki
Support and sound editing: Nicklas Nygren"






GET THE GAME FROM THIS LINK!

The demoscene has some very nice examples of how the Windows default colour set and ascii art can make something amazing, LPchip's video being one.

Ok, I'll answer those in order.

who's angry?

Ok, I must agree that in some cases saying "calm down" and "don't attack" may seem provocative, so sorry about that. I must say though that some of your choices of words were a bit provocative by themselves. Sorry about that.

Let's look at what's actually been said so far

Please note that the game hasn't been posted only to the Nifflas forums, and there was a betatest phase before release. Quite much all of the comments I have got on those other sites have been 'positive' in the sense that people have figured out what to do. I'll say more on this later in this post.

instructions in the readme

Let's check these in order, again.

• Copying the box -> I didn't think many would have a problem with this, but now when I think about it, it may indeed be confusing to realize that you can actually copy the dark area, it just doesn't appear. Good point, I'll add this to the readme and perhaps make a note to the fourth level itself.
• Projectiles -> You later on mentioned thinking that the laser bullets were parts of the laser cannons. This one is quite much a place where I wanted to make the player realize through thinking that the bullets are actually copiable. I didn't think it would be that hard, since they're anyway separate objects flying far apart from the cannons.
• Touching the box -> At first I intended to make the box pushable and/or stackable, but this would've caused some problems with the copying, so I had to remove it. I'm sorry about that, though, since it would of course be nice to be able to interact with them.
• Sideways buttons -> This is a good point, and I'll add possibility to touch the buttons yourself.
• Button interaction -> My original idea was that the buttons sticking from the ground could be pushed by the player, and the ones hanging from walls were meant for the laser bullets. As I noted above, adding possibility for the player to push the sideways buttons should fix this one.
• Two different results -> This is a bug, I'll look into it.

Specific suggestion

Good suggestions, related to the points noted earlier. I'll add them to the readme.

bug?

That is perhaps not specifically a bug, there is indeed a minimum width and height to a copied area (I think it's 3x3 pixels) - this was added to prevent another bug caused by the code I used to copy the areas - if the area was too small, the code would for some suspicious reason copy the whole level, which confused a lot of players until I fixed it. I didn't think the player'll need copied areas that narrow.

on the nature of...

I kind of answered to the first problem earlier on. I think "you can copy anything that is not fixed to a dark wall" should cover the laser bullets as well, since they fly on their own, not related to the cannons. Of course the clarifications about the dark walls you made should be there, but the bullets don't interact with the dark walls much so I don't think there's a big problem with that. The button thing is indeed a good idea, I'll add it.

About the screenshot

Yes, this is indeed a bug. The baddie checked that it's overlapping with a wall before the empty air was pasted onto the wall, causing the baddie to flip out (because the engine isn't really prepared to objects being inside walls).

...Ugh, you're right, it happens every time I copy a baddie into a wall. Thanks for noting this, it's quite an annoying one and I'm a bit embarrassed I haven't noted it earlier.

So then, sorry for my prejudices, you made really good points and had very good suggestions for the game! Thank you.

And now I'm on level 5, where some other completely non-intuitive puzzle solution is doubtless staring me in the face. Did it really seem like explaining which objects the little guy can -- and can't -- interact with directly (buttons, boxes, whatever the heck I was supposed to use in level 5) would have 'ruined' the puzzle? If so, that's... really not the best way to design a puzzle game.

It's explained quite much as clearly as possible in the readme and level 2: you can copy any object that is not fixed to a darker wall. The darker areas act like incopiable area, so copying anything fixed to them would just immediately make it not work.

Ok, I'm not going to start arguing with you about this thing, since you seem to hate the thing so much. All the other players this far have had no problems whatsoever with the mechanics, and I see no real point to make such a long post just to ramble about the fact that you didn't enjoy the way the puzzles were constructed and that you didn't read the readme.

Now then, relax down a bit. It's sad to hear that you didn't enjoy the game as much as you had hoped, but this far the reactions of other people have shown a bit against your point.

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the cool videos Pineapple! I'll fave them straight away!