[Puzzle] Marble Challenge series

I'm working on a series of puzzles with marbles for Knytt Stories. The marble is a new virtual object in Knytt Stories, since it is not a part of the custom objects (I wish it was, it would have taken less shifts that way).

I've always liked games that have simple structures but still are challenging to play, like chess and sudoku. So, this is my way of combining the platformer with the analytical game. Maybe it can inspire other designers to use puzzles in their levels.

Anyway, here are some previews of the levels. Hope you'll like them!

Raaah! Not this again

Sorry. I tried for an hour perhaps and couldn't do it. It's a nice idea, though.

Cool concept, but the marbles look too realistic for your choice of foreground. Also, you can make marble COs on your own.

Cool concept, but the marbles look too realistic for your choice of foreground. Also, you can make marble COs on your own.

Not ones that roll when you touch them.
Neet idea, I would love to see this finished.

Cool concept, but the marbles look too realistic for your choice of foreground. Also, you can make marble COs on your own.

Pumpkinbot, you got a point in that the marble design looks realistic compared to the rest of the tileset. I like the effect of the marbles 'jumping out' though, and I don't think it is that disturbing mixing styles either, so the marbles will be unchanged for the moment. Many pinball games (see Epic Pinball, Pinball Illusions) mix styles using realistic steel balls as well.

I also thought about animating the marbles, which is all the editor let you do with your own COs I guess. Making them react to Juni is not possible in the game at this time, so I had to use shifts for that. Nifflas doesn't seem to have anything against physical simulation (see Night Game) - maybe we will see objects that can be physically manipulated in later versions of KS? 

Quote from: Pumpkinbot on March 11, 2009, 00:23:23

Cool concept, but the marbles look too realistic for your choice of foreground. Also, you can make marble COs on your own.

Pumpkinbot, you got a point in that the marble design looks realistic compared to the rest of the tileset. I like the effect of the marbles 'jumping out' though, and I don't think it is that disturbing mixing styles either, so the marbles will be unchanged for the moment. Many pinball games (see Epic Pinball, Pinball Illusions) mix styles using realistic steel balls as well.

I also thought about animating the marbles, which is all the editor let you do with your own COs I guess. Making them react to Juni is not possible in the game at this time, so I had to use shifts for that. Nifflas doesn't seem to have anything against physical simulation (see Night Game) - maybe we will see objects that can be physically manipulated in later versions of KS? 

Hopefully. Also, I forgot to mention this, but .JPG or .JPEG inages are not good for screenshots of pixelated games 'cause it messes with coloration and makes it look ugly. Please post your screenshots in .PNG formatt from now on.

Nice idea. 

...that looks like it will be reeeeaally annoying to make with hundreds of shifts.
Good luck I guess. ._.

True, the first one took hundreds of screens and thousands of shifts. A little bit annoying to test too.

I guess a little programming would be in place, if using more combinations than this (thousand of screens and tens of thousands of shifts). It is easy to end up with too many possible combinations where even a million screens wouldn't suffice.

True, the first one took hundreds of screens and thousands of shifts. A little bit annoying to test too.

I guess a little programming would be in place, if using more combinations than this (thousand of screens and tens of thousands of shifts). It is easy to end up with too many possible combinations where even a million screens wouldn't suffice.

But.. You only get three shifts. 

Quote from: Mr Li on March 12, 2009, 19:41:31

True, the first one took hundreds of screens and thousands of shifts. A little bit annoying to test too.

I guess a little programming would be in place, if using more combinations than this (thousand of screens and tens of thousands of shifts). It is easy to end up with too many possible combinations where even a million screens wouldn't suffice.

But.. You only get three shifts. 

Per level you have maximally three shifts, yes. But by using many screens, three shifts are in fact more than enough. Two shifts would be sufficient. The key is to use shifts to steer into the right goal-screen in the end. If we have a keyboard with 9 keys for example, they can be divided into three groups with three keys in each group, represented by shift A, B, and C. Juni plays key 2, which activates shift A, and shifts to a new screen that is a copy of the first. In the second screen, key number 1 has shift A, key number 2 has shift B, and key number 3 has shift C. Shift B will therefore be activated, and this leads to a new screen for key 2, playing this sound. In this way, any special activation can be made, turning the behavior to a special screen. If there are more than nine choices, more intervening screens have to be used though.

So, you can use shifts as if there were as many different shifts as you need. The drawback is that it takes a little time between each shift activation, so Juni can appear a little bit jumpy. I hope this explained hove to simulate 'more than three shifts in one screen'.

well it sounds complicated... however, after playing the beta(?) im just confused by it. i couldn't figure out how touching one marble caused 2 to fall, and i couldn't figure out how to anticipate where they would land. but after getting 3 in a row, the ghost flyer thing chases you down a tunnel you can barely fit in so you can get a key and... yeah. what im saying is, i couldnt figure out the "rules" of the game, so it was hard to enjoy it.

Quote from: Dj Gopher on March 12, 2009, 21:41:45

Quote from: Mr Li on March 12, 2009, 19:41:31

True, the first one took hundreds of screens and thousands of shifts. A little bit annoying to test too.

I guess a little programming would be in place, if using more combinations than this (thousand of screens and tens of thousands of shifts). It is easy to end up with too many possible combinations where even a million screens wouldn't suffice.

But.. You only get three shifts. 

Per level you have maximally three shifts, yes. But by using many screens, three shifts are in fact more than enough. Two shifts would be sufficient. The key is to use shifts to steer into the right goal-screen in the end. If we have a keyboard with 9 keys for example, they can be divided into three groups with three keys in each group, represented by shift A, B, and C. Juni plays key 2, which activates shift A, and shifts to a new screen that is a copy of the first. In the second screen, key number 1 has shift A, key number 2 has shift B, and key number 3 has shift C. Shift B will therefore be activated, and this leads to a new screen for key 2, playing this sound. In this way, any special activation can be made, turning the behavior to a special screen. If there are more than nine choices, more intervening screens have to be used though.

So, you can use shifts as if there were as many different shifts as you need. The drawback is that it takes a little time between each shift activation, so Juni can appear a little bit jumpy. I hope this explained hove to simulate 'more than three shifts in one screen'.

I did the same thing in The Terrain Deviates!

Also, Farik ninja'd me.

well it sounds complicated... however, after playing the beta(?) im just confused by it. i couldn't figure out how touching one marble caused 2 to fall, and i couldn't figure out how to anticipate where they would land. but after getting 3 in a row, the ghost flyer thing chases you down a tunnel you can barely fit in so you can get a key and... yeah. what im saying is, i couldnt figure out the "rules" of the game, so it was hard to enjoy it.

Thank's for playing. I agree that it hardly is self explainable, but you seem to have understood it right. Just make three golden marbles in a row, get the key, and go to the winning spot. The other game is just about moving the marbles so as to get the key, and then reach the winning spot.

The marbles drop all at the same time, because it was hard to make an animation with the spiders dropping a silver marble a second later; maybe i'll find a simple way some day. I'll probably attach the rules in the intro..

OMG!  This level is huge!