Magicube (early demo)
Note: If you play in browser, the sound might be choppy. That's probably a common issue with pico-8. If you mind, play a downloadable version.
Controls
← → / move
Z / jump, select
X / chant (and choose a direction with arrow key)
↓ / undo
Enter / menu
Also gamepads are supported.
An early demo. It will take a year to complete.
To be added
- More levels
- More mechanics
- More music
- Save function
- Ending
I'm developing this alone. Feedback always appreciated!
Known issues (Updated on Jan 16)
Bugs, unintended solutions, my poor English, etc.
Post a comment here or on Twitter / e-mail.
Also streaming is ok.
I need your help to improve the game🙏
Download
Development log
- v0.03Jan 17, 2022
- v0.02Jan 16, 2022
- Known issuesJan 16, 2022
- v0.01Jan 13, 2022
Comments
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I don't know if you still check these or if the bug I found is fixed in the steam version, but by pressing and holding left to push a block and then pressing right just before the block actually moves, I was able to push blocks through walls. Here is a screenshot:![Bug]( "Bug")
This damage to the level persists even after restarting the level and going back to level select. It seems like it might have to do with how you're handling the direction the player faces based on keyboard input and how that relates to the block pushing logic. I was not able to reproduce it going in the other direction.
Hi! We played the Steam version of this game on stream and really enjoyed it!
Good game. Gonna go get it on steam for the rest of the levels
I have absolutely no idea what to do. Am I missing some instructions somewhere? Clearly lots of people do understand the gameplay from the comments below, but I'd appreciate a bit of guidance beyond what the skull says so I can play.
I see there is an arrow pointing at the silver box, so I stood on the box and nothing happened. I tried chanting and a yellow box appeared, but it doesn't seem to be usable, just shoots across the screen and if I try to create another one the first disappears.
Thanks for the feedback! The goal is to place the yellow box on the gray pedestal. I like the idea of not specifying the goal. But I will see if I can add some more hints.
v0.02 feels unnatural, I would allow moving after shooting again, maybe after a short delay like 0.2 seconds. my comment about level 8 was before I played any later levels, and after experiencing the rest of the game, I would say timing dependent puzzles are a good addition, as long as they are not too precise.
no moving after shooting is not sufficient to prevent timing puzzles, as you can still move and shoot while blocks are falling. level 18 has 3 solutions currently, 2 of which involve speedy action as the block falls. level 8 can be fixed with a wall above the down-arrow. not sure what solutions were fixed in 17 and 14, but 17 looks uglier now.
level 8 has cheese:
sebz gur fgneg cbfvgvba, fubbg n oybpx, gura jvgu tbbq gvzvat fgrc ba gur ohggba. gung vf gur jubyr fbyhgvba, gvzvat onfrq fbyhgvbaf frrz jrveq fb znlor punatr gur zrpunavpf fb gung gvzvat pna abg or hfrq, be whfg punatr guvf bar vagrenpgvba fb gung npgvingrq jnyyf qb abg bofgehpg n zbivat bowrpg juvpu vf vagrefrpgvat nabgure jnyy gung vf gelvat gb npgvingr.
level 17 has 2 instances of cheese:
svefg fbyhgvba, lbh pna fubbg yrsg juvyr chfuvat gur terl oybpx bss gb gur evtug, naq trg n lryybj oybpx yrsg bs lbhefrys qrfcvgr gurer orvat abguvat gurer gb fgbc gur fubg. gurer ner frireny fvzvyne ohtf jvgu qbvat fbzrguvat ernyyl snfg nsgre chfuvat, sbe rknzcyr jnlf gb pehfu lbhefrys jvgu gur lryybj oybpx lbh whfg fubg. znlor nqq n zvavzhz qrynl nsgre chfuvat orsber lbh pna fubbg. va gur obahf yriry v jnf nyfb noyr gb chfu gur terl oybpx juvyr vg jnf snyyvat, juvpu znl or purrfr. gur frpbaq fbyhgvba, lbh pna chfu n lryybj oybpx vagb n terl oybpx ba gur tbny vagb n fxhyy, naq vg qrfgeblf gur fxhyy, jvaavat gur yriry.
levels 18+ seem much easier than 14 15 and 17
the jan 13 update did not fix the above cheese and bugs. in case you couldn't understand, it is rot13.
I don't understand the changes to lv2 or lv16. lv5 is better, lv18 is worse (more obvious), lv19 is worse (less elegant), lv20 is better (much harder)
Thanks! I'll try to improve.
more bugs: you can still push a falling block (imo falling blocks should not be pushable). you can shoot the side or bottom of a falling yellow block (it should vanish as soon as you shoot, and therefore not be shootable). I think you should not be able to shoot while pushing, that seems to cause several problems.
This is a really nice and challenging mechanic. Instantly understandable but with lots of intricate possibilities. Just make sure you have a smooth difficulty curve! And keep the levels small, because otherwise the solution space is just too big (imho).
I'm looking very forward to the whole game, this looks really nice!
Thanks! Refining the difficulty curve and space are important issues.
I'm enjoying this so far, I beat levels 1-6 except for 3 (which I skipped for now, I found the levels after 3 a bit easier). So far I think 6 was my favourite.
Having down be undo kinda makes my brain expect up to be redo, if that's even possible to implement.
I'm looking forward to playing more of this, the mechanic is intriguing.
Thanks! I really appreciate feedback on the difficulty. And glad you like level 6.
fun! it’s quite hard; I’m stuck on level 3 for now. It took me a while to realize that you could push the blocks on level 2.
I like that there’s a level select so I can skip levels (although I wish it showed me which levels I’ve beaten)
it’s surprising how interesting the puzzles are, given how simple the mechanics seem; nice work! I’m excited to see where this project goes
Thanks! I will improve the tutorial and add check for beaten levels.