Pedra! (in VCS Store)

[+SabertoothRetro]

True to form, another surprise VCS drop: Pedra! By Tucasoft

 

From the description: 

Pedra Crystal Caves is an addictive puzzle game where you roll your Pedra block around the game area finding and painting all the Key tiles which unlock the Exit door to each cave. 

 

[+SabertoothRetro]

Here's an old teaser video:

 

 

Note, the game does not sound like that. At least not yet! ??

 

 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

I’ve just downloaded the game and will hopefully give it a try later! good price as well to be honest can’t complain!. 

[Mockduck]

Looking at Pedra! Crystal Caves: 

 

 

[justclaws]

@Ian Weeks Again, welcome, and this is a FYA re: your first VCS game release.

Mockduck has reviewed all the Atari VCS games to-date I think, and he's really fair.
I really recommend his reviewing style, and I also agree with his observations here.

Certainly, I was also struggling a bit with the controls, and the pace while learning it.

It would be great if you could share any background on the game, or any hints/tips,
or a little introduction to how you came to write the game, and why release on VCS.

[Ian Weeks]

Thanks @justclaws  I agree with Mockduck's review on the whole - fair and balanced. 

 

This is the second incarnation of the game that I've written (the first, simply called Pedra!) was a much more limited game, was only really in forced 2D (i.e no up/down levels) and you had to paint every single tile to complete the level.  I wrote this in Mono and released in via the Google Play Store on Android (and Windows Phone if I recall).

 

One of my all time favourite games is Boulderdash (the original C64 version).  In that you didn't have to collect every diamond to open the exit door - just enough.  I followed that theme in this sequel - there might be just enough or plenty of key tiles in each cave to open the exit door.

 

Some of the levels are tricky and you have to use the upgrades to your block to complete a level - for instance levels where there's lots of glass tiles need to have one of the 4 sider or 8 sider painter upgrades so you can simply paint all over them to move across.  Other tips I can give are to use the bomb/glass painter mode to paint these tiles so that meanies succumb to explosions or falling through tiles.

 

I was an original backer of the VCS via the IndieGogo campaign and thought it ideal to release my games there - Atari has such a rich gaming history and I thought the types of games I make would be well suited to the system.

 

I will reply separately to your other email regarding tweaks etc.  But thanks for taking the time to look through the game and provide feedback.

[Mockduck]

I love that this was possible to release for you, Ian, and I like the game a lot despite it being maybe too difficult for me.  It definitely has a bit of an unforgiving old school feel to it with needing to collect the currency and then use powerups to get through some levels, but that isn't really a bad thing, just something players need to deal with to progress. That glass level, though! One of the things I really liked was that during a game session even if you lose you can start again at the level you got to, although if like me you didn't have the currency to buy the needed powerup you are pretty much stuck. 

[bugcatcher88]

I bought the game today. It's quite a challenging experience, but that's how I prefer it. This one should keep me busy for a long time ?. 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

I managed to sit down and properly play the game last night and for a while this morning, it’s definitely challenging that’s for sure but in a good way, I feel the difficulty level keeps you trying to progress through the game I like it. Controller wise I’ve just been using the D-Pad on the modern controller I found myself messing up a lot using the thumb stick for some reason no idea why lol and I’ve not tried the joystick as of yet but I’ll possibly give it a go this evening. I definitely appreciate this release for the VCS and look forward to purchasing your other planned releases. 

[bugcatcher88]

Is there any way to save progress? I have to keep starting over when I enter the game. 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

5 hours ago, bugcatcher88 said:

Is there any way to save progress? I have to keep starting over when I enter the game. 

I haven’t came across an option to save the game myself yet and I also noticed when I returned to the game last night my progress had gone, I didn’t really mind starting over again due to the nature of this type of game it was fun starting over anyway, would be useful to be able to save progress, maybe that could be easily added in a future update to the game?.  

[justclaws]

12 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

I haven’t came across an option to save the game myself yet and I also noticed when I returned to the game last night my progress had gone, I didn’t really mind starting over again due to the nature of this type of game it was fun starting over anyway, would be useful to be able to save progress, maybe that could be easily added in a future update to the game?.  

What should happen (and I thought it did) is that whenever you complete a level, you unlock the next one.
The next time you can start any unlocked level, replay any level and so on.

Does that not happen for you?

 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

33 minutes ago, justclaws said:

What should happen (and I thought it did) is that whenever you complete a level, you unlock the next one.
The next time you can start any unlocked level, replay any level and so on.

Does that not happen for you?

 

It didn’t seem to happen when I last launched the game,

everything I’m pretty sure was locked so I just started over again, i will boot the game back up later and check it as I ended up re playing through a lot of the game again. 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

So i played a few levels and exited the game to test and when I launch it the unlocked levels are all locked again, very weird but not really a big issue for me, it’s fun playing through it but looks like I’ll need to finish it in one sitting at some point which probably isn’t going to be easy lol. 

[justclaws]

8 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

So i played a few levels and exited the game to test and when I launch it the unlocked levels are all locked again, very weird but not really a big issue for me, it’s fun playing through it but looks like I’ll need to finish it in one sitting at some point which probably isn’t going to be easy lol. 

This is definitely not how it's supposed to work, which I confirmed with @Ian Weeks.

I'm sure this will be fixed in a coming update.  

[Ian Weeks]

On 11/3/2021 at 2:17 PM, Mockduck said:

I love that this was possible to release for you, Ian, and I like the game a lot despite it being maybe too difficult for me.  It definitely has a bit of an unforgiving old school feel to it with needing to collect the currency and then use powerups to get through some levels, but that isn't really a bad thing, just something players need to deal with to progress. That glass level, though! One of the things I really liked was that during a game session even if you lose you can start again at the level you got to, although if like me you didn't have the currency to buy the needed powerup you are pretty much stuck. 

Many thanks for your kind words about the game - greatly appreciated!

[Ian Weeks]

On 11/3/2021 at 11:44 PM, bugcatcher88 said:

I bought the game today. It's quite a challenging experience, but that's how I prefer it. This one should keep me busy for a long time ?. 

Thanks for the purchase. I loved games that kept me challenged for hours - there were so many that I never finished as a kid - not for the lack of trying though! 

[Ian Weeks]

@Atari_JaguarVCS @bugcatcher88Thanks for highlighting the issue with not saving the game. The unlocked levels should stay unlocked each time you launch the game.

 

As @justclaws mentioned, I'm working on an update with a few gameplay tweaks and I'll make sure this bug gets fixed too!

[bugcatcher88]

5 hours ago, Ian Weeks said:

Thanks for the purchase. I loved games that kept me challenged for hours - there were so many that I never finished as a kid - not for the lack of trying though! 

You're very welcome ?

I'm looking forward to your other game, Guardian War. The simple polygon graphics have an old-school charm to them. Reminds me of games on 3DO & Jaguar (I love those early 3D graphics). I'm glad this game will receive an update with bug fixes. I can't wait for it to drop. 

[Ian Weeks]

On 11/4/2021 at 12:45 PM, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

I managed to sit down and properly play the game last night and for a while this morning, it’s definitely challenging that’s for sure but in a good way, I feel the difficulty level keeps you trying to progress through the game I like it. Controller wise I’ve just been using the D-Pad on the modern controller I found myself messing up a lot using the thumb stick for some reason no idea why lol and I’ve not tried the joystick as of yet but I’ll possibly give it a go this evening. I definitely appreciate this release for the VCS and look forward to purchasing your other planned releases. 

Nice to hear your lovely comments about my game. It's always difficult judging the difficulty level as many of the levels I've played endlessly while developing and as such I can complete them fairly easily. The thumb stick can be about unforgiving at times I agree but from a Dev point of view it's quite a sensitive one. Some people might prefer the dpad as it requires definite movements which makes the game a little easier to control. Thanks again!

[Ian Weeks]

Hi everyone,

 

Just to let you know that a new version of Pedra! was released to the Atari store yesterday - you may have seen the 'update available' icon for it.  This new version is based off the valuable feedback players such as yourselves gave and includes the following:

 

Save game progress - it now correctly keeps the caves unlocked between gaming sessions

New game modes - relaxed and 'beat the clock'

Controller settings - you can change the orientation to suit your playing style

Skip feature - only on the relaxed game mode and only after several attempts

Generous powerup retention - any goodies you redeem via crystals are kept until its Game Over

A few other bug fixes here and there

 

Please download and update - hope you enjoy the new update!

 

Ian.

[Mockduck]

All of these changes sound really great, thank you! I will particularly like the relaxed mode, as I need the time to sort through the proper facing to get where I want.

[Ian Weeks]

A big thank you must also go to @justclaws for his invaluable assistance in testing and suggestions for this next release!

[+SabertoothRetro]

I tried rotating my Classic controller 45 degrees to the left - opposite from how you would turn it for 2600 Q*Bert - and it helped me immensely. In this orientation, the Fuji is at the top corner.  Much easier to move the cube around. 

[Ian Weeks]

Great tip! The new version of Pedra also allows you to set which way the controller moves the block. There's a controller settings option on the main page.