Feel Bad Friday(s)!

[testtubegames]

I just broke the record for deaths and video length, didn't I? Oops. (?)

Haha, you most certainly did. The level didn't *look* too hard when I first loaded it up -- I guess I didn't know what I was getting in to!

I liked cutting the video down, too. Kinda weird, though, that I never know which runs are going to be successful -- so I kept up the banter for a full 30 minutes anyway. I should start doing Senate-style filibustering, and read Dr. Seuss as I play through levels, or something.

Ah, and challenge accepted. (Kinda) Not really a full level, but just a set-up where I *was* able to juggle four missiles:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Four Gun Salute"-eNqr1hlQYGyoM7yBIZzQMTGGEciUIZJSQ7haLIZQQc2gVmJsgixCHASpNQNCQ7Ig5brJhxTprq5WKlHSiY4FomqlNCUwVQykjE0NdMxMgcLDIM8Mf0AgkkGxWwsA2J0ARg==]

I will say, I started having flashbacks to last week's FBF so I nearly threw in the towel. But after a bit of work, I managed to get it going:
https://youtu.be/LHODqF4NpgA

So now I'll throw the challenge back to you: 5 missiles

[testtubegames]

For this week's FBF we're heading waaaaay back in time... to the very beginning. The first user-generated level... by Chemi. "Danmaku Barrage"

This level was converted from the old share-code to be compatible with the new game -- and a big thanks to NealCruco for actually making the level play-able once more.

Watch the video, see what NealCruco had to share about it (NealCruco's post), read the history of it (Chemi's post), or just load it up:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Danmaku Barrage"-eNrtk8EOgyAMht+Fcw8rHRqfZdl1T7Ab2bsP6HQVK+uiiRf/NqQJX3+gxghbhSuR5DGnLHjDD6X8qm/Ru7Fg4YYSK7Z0/bNhM17lvGM5clunCqQMn/MDLMfFH42bFW6uJkPBQsnLWs8LCkS+wnJMhQ7jJS+9eLd0qW1HENsYcwg/3Ea/yY3nrl63sGj+Q4mU7EQQRTh1hLyIkzqMiu7p4HZPGd0jV683ik1FLA==]

Surprisingly, aside from some old-fasioned conductor tiles in the level -- this doesn't feel too dated. It's a nice level, not-too-hard, and has fun tricks like how you get across the guns at the bottom. Or how in the heck you get that third star!

[A Random Player]

For this week's FBF we're heading waaaaay back in time... to the very beginning. The first user-generated level... by Chemi. "Danmaku Barrage"

Hold on a second.. What about Robly's level (mentioned on the blog)? Came about a week before Danmaku Barrage, though it's pretty easy compared to other levels.
Interesting things to note comparing the level to robly's screenshot:
We didn't have diagonal currents a long time ago, so Yeti's sword/knife was made by orthogonal currents.
Magnetism colors were different.
Sand tiles were gray?
There were no switches, only buttons.
It seems charges were stronger? Or field lines are easier to see? Additionally, the magnetic fields in the current version are in a different position and are weaker. What's going on?

See also: The Latest on ~~ES~~!. I'm quite interested in what the tile to the right of the spike is, the conductors inside sand, and applied current.

[testtubegames]

Oh, good point. Now that you mention it, I *do* remember that being the first user-made level for this game. And so artistic at that!

I'm not sure what's going on with the magnetic fields, or why those would be shifted -- they look like they're in completely the wrong place! Looking at the graphics, that was probably a very early iteration of the currents, so I may still have been working on the math. The electric fields, too, are way too strong, as you mention. That comes down (I believe) to that problem I had with 2D vs 3D calculations. I calculated the electric force in 2D originally... since, hey, 2D game, but I didn't realize that it totally changed the electric field (each point charge was like an infinite line of charges in the z-direction, making the force law 1/r instead of 1/r^2).

The extra tiles that are no longer in the game are...
-The Oil-covered block: a wall you couldn't stick to
-Sand-covered conductors: originally there was a mechanic where touching a conductor would change your charge to 'match' it. Sand covered ones would prevent that
-The Applied Field: before there were field-direction buttons, each level was just going to have a set applied e-field. (none, up, down, etc). That's what those E arrows are
-The Moving Circles: charged, floating spheres that you could move around through attraction and repulsion
-Charged guns: firing charged bullets! Whoa.

A lot of mechanics had to be cut to keep the game streamlined, though I do have to say I wouldn't mind seeing some of them come back. (Charged bullets were pretty cool.)

...Anyway, on to this week's Feel Bad Friday!

This week I decided to *really* change it up. No reason FBF has to be completely about the Electric Shocktopus, right? So I went ahead and played a Velocity Raptor level:

Super-Duper Trick-Filled Level by exfret. Watch on YouTube or try the level yourself with this code:

Code: Select all

[Super-Duper Trick-Filled Level, [f-1-600,f-1-600,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,o,o,o,o,o,o;w,w,w,s,s,s,s,t-4-0,s,t-4-0,t-4-0,t-4-0,t-4-0,t-4-0,s;t-10-5,t-10-4,t-10-3,s,s,b2-2.5-4.2,t-4-0,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s;s,w,s,f-1-600,s,k-500,s,s,w,w,w,w,w,w,w;s,b1-2.5-4.2,s,s,f-1-600,t-7-0,s,w,o,s,o,s,o,s,o;s,w,w,s,s,k-500,s,w,s,o,s,o,s,o,s;s,s,s,w,s,s,s,w,o,s,o,s,o,s,o;w,t-4-0,t-4-0,w,w,w,w,w,s,o,s,o,s,o,s;w,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,o,s,o,s,o;cw-0.5-6.5-0.5,c-0.5-4.5-0.5,c-0.5-6.5-2.5,c-0.5-7.5-1.5,c-0.5-8.5-1.5,cw-0.5-9.5-1.5,cw-0.5-11.5-1.5,cw-0.5-12.5-1.5,c-0.5-14.5-1.5,c-0.5-12.5-2.5,c-0.5-4.5-3.5,cw-0.5-5.5-6.5,cw-0.35-3.1-1.9,cw-0.35-3.7-1.9,cw-0.35-4.2-2,cw-0.35-4.6-2,cw-0.35-5-2.2,cw-0.15-3.3-3.3,cw-0.15-3.4-3.4,cw-0.15-3.8-3.7,c-0.15-2.1-2.8,c-0.15-2.2-2.8,c-0.15-2.4-2.8,c-0.15-2.6-2.8,c-0.15-2.8-2.8,cw-0.15-3.2-3.2,cw-0.15-3.8-3.8,g2-0.01-5-7.9,g2-0.01-3-7.9,g2-0.01-7-7.9,cw-0.015-3-8.685,cw-0.015-3.01-8.685,cw-0.015-3.02-8.685,cw-0.015-3.03-8.685,cw-0.015-3.04-8.685,cw-0.015-3.05-8.685,cw-0.015-3.06-8.685,cw-0.015-3.07-8.685,cw-0.015-3.08-8.685,cw-0.015-3.09-8.685,cw-0.015-3.10-8.685,cw-0.015-3.11-8.685,cw-0.015-3.12-8.685,cw-0.35-3-6,cw-0.45-2.7-7.5,cw-0.45-1.4-7.6,cw-0.45-8.5-4.5,cw-0.45-8.5-6.5,cw-0.45-10.5-6.5,cw-0.45-10.5-4.5,cw-0.45-10.5-8.5,cw-0.45-12.5-8.5,cw-0.45-12.5-6.5,cw-0.45-12.5-4.5,cw-0.45-8.5-5.5,cw-0.45-8.5-7.5,cw-0.45-9.5-6.5,cw-0.45-10.5-7.5,cw-0.45-10.5-5.5,cw-0.45-12.5-7.5,cw-0.45-13.5-8.5,cw-0.45-9.5-6.5;]]

As you can see by watching the video - there was copious editing. The level took a long time to complete. 40 minutes by my watch - but I trimmed it down to a healthy 15 min video for your viewing pleasure.

My final verdict on the level: I'm sorry, I'm unavailable for comment. I've devolved into insanity. Please try again later. Beep.

[testtubegames]

This week I played through No Time To Waste by A Random Player. And by 'played through,' I mean I was driven a bit crazy by it. You know. We don't call it Feel Bad Friday because the levels are easy, right?

Watch the video to see what happened -- and be grateful that I edited the video down for you. It got....... long. But did I give up? Maybe. Maybe.

You can find the original post about the level here, or snag this code to give it a play:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"No Time to Waste"-eNrtVDsOgzAMvQuzB5zgVJylYu0JukW9e/OlBEhMaNWF2E+AhJ/jbzTQjiKQPImlIDByyABvdSBPzFp4l2L0J2xSp+iAZn/u4eviuJGJGRyLYOmlkIcJNByej2Kt7PHfp5AqAWSy4H19gik0I6ObirEZmXLWThPbohMTmmub7AGVBYT3EbBJV8VoQgApuG66MaKsFloZmDZZTBBngE8m8NeDXGiRrcDHyYq4uz4pQ/QJmO1By5EDqMUVt/jjPVC+A9YIe0sf0hs1nK72a47mhwIpN3syr5Ah0xBgvnFcJ+aBGqTTovzNpFqE05+Y6O7ZwR2aNLmIxAtiamPf5EJjTx6T7h7mxp9ebyuwXCc=]

Thanks, Random, for another carefully crafted (if !@%#ing hard) level!

Man, I know I said I was going to choose some easier levels. We'll see when that happens...

[A Random Player]

"He's not actually going to play through the waiting that many times."
..."Surely he'll realize the title's ironic by inspection of the mechanism."
"It took this long?"
I will admit that these gun mechanisms are sometimes obfuscated, so what was obvious to me when making the level requires some thought and experiment to figure out.
Seamless speed up was seamless though "Once upon a time.. I sped up the video."
Embarrassingly it's been so long I can't consistently beat the end consistently, but I can get it one every 3 times or so.
And actually I wasn't thinking about you liking to talk at the end - If I considered that I would have removed all the crates
As for the hard part at the end - I think that earlier, I wasn't that good at making levels make sense; I had a vertical space at the end, and put the sand/crates there if I remember correctly.

And if you thought this level was hard, try playing Binary. (In fact, play through it for next FBF! )

PS. What happened to the blog posts?


-----

Ah, and challenge accepted. (Kinda) Not really a full level, but just a set-up where I *was* able to juggle four missiles:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Four Gun Salute"-eNqr1hlQYGyoM7yBIZzQMTGGEciUIZJSQ7haLIZQQc2gVmJsgixCHASpNQNCQ7Ig5brJhxTprq5WKlHSiY4FomqlNCUwVQykjE0NdMxMgcLDIM8Mf0AgkkGxWwsA2J0ARg==]

I will say, I started having flashbacks to last week's FBF so I nearly threw in the towel. But after a bit of work, I managed to get it going:
https://youtu.be/LHODqF4NpgA

So now I'll throw the challenge back to you: 5 missiles

Finally remembered to do this, though I'd made a level already.

Juggling 5

Shockto Juggle 5.gif (243.77 KiB) Viewed 63791 times

5 or 6 seems like the most you can fit though.

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"5 Gun Juggling"-eNqr1hkFpAFjw9EwwAJMjGmtgKAB2JQYm6DyDcmH1dVKJUo60bFAVK2UpgSmioGUibGxjpkpUHg0EVAZGI56mwbyhEPVEJTGawGAbxKg]

You'll need to run left a bit in the beginning, then run right.
What did you use to make a video? I quickly installed LiceCAP for this.

[testtubegames]

Yeah, it did take me a while to catch on -- I think mainly because I'm so used to there being a trick. (Hmm, it *looks* like there's no way to do this but wait... but there must be another way...)

But by the time I'd realized there really *was* no other way... it was all over. I was committed, and dammit, I was going to beat that level!

With this one especially -- with so much waiting -- the sped-up clips were great. I like them a lot more than having to add in 'two minutes later' text all the time. Plus, you can basically see everything start-to-finish, which is part of the point, too.

Blog post I missed -- forgot to post it. Let me get it up there... now. I've got to find a way to streamline that a bit more -- I tend to get a bit bogged down in triple-posting to youtube, forums, and blog. Ah well

...

Now on to our little competition. I'll see your 5 missiles, and raise you to 6-missiles!

sixMissiles.gif (501.71 KiB) Viewed 63787 times

Of course, I fudged it a little bit by adding in those electric charges. Gives you a *slightly* higher jump... and I imagine you could juggle a whole bunch of missiles (if non-elegantly and chaotically).

To record my videos I just use QuickTime (I'm on a mac, so it's pre-installed), and to make gifs out of it, I use an app called GIFBrewery to convert the movie file into a gif. LiceCAP certainly sounds a bit more streamlined, though, if all you want is the gif at the end of the day.

[testtubegames]

Challenge Accepted, Random.

Binary... was... incredible! You made a real friggin' clock?! And it counts up with a real display??? I'm impressed. Well done.

And, of course, since Binary was clearly impossible (you couldn't fool me into doing it like you did with last week's ), I played through your follow-up level, too: Winter Wind. I love the clock-work mechanic of it -- but also, it's a nicely crafted level. Hard as hell, of course. But it was non-linear enough that I never got too bored with any single challenge.

Watch the video here.

Code for Binary, by A Random Player:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Binary"-eNrtmrFuwjAQhl/F8tLlFGE7Tpq1r1ExRKpbUCOGEtHB6rvjWECBEuLQliTy/9lyxHFEDtx9LLakxIUpSAcOldI3oll023KUJXzoyhpBrtLH2bK4nq8pS0mE39/dPPdzqA+cPVCDD/3/trQvt+CfbPeibRFn40egfVBwF10Y1vKa0/PcTctfub+s3UVKVwrahQmAkSJ+nxBU4afdBsCdy7yz8AR1Z7hxkHsGuQOIvYf5ARi303M4HcDnfyN8AIZT+SNUDqDxYZsWwOA3G7yAwQHsPWRHA4i7t7jVDOIGkPY0vwwQna/FnX2tuybFuJXunejDkakx7CZCs7cdmBSRlexpIU6ngfo9183lMMm/gUxSVsz3xxibiNaK8tkuRJYvOMkiJf5k2FtVvrB6YZhZ1csPwyqzMRX7LNerh5pVy3fj3izrJEn41xZyoNlL]

Code for Winter Wind, by A Random Player:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Winter Wind"-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]

As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of these two levels. In spite of how long + how many deaths it took to beat Winter Wind... it never turned (too) frustrating. Which is a challenge in and of itself in level design!

Thanks for sharing these levels, Random!

[NealCruco]

Nice! Binary really blew me away too.
So, about that shortcut in No Time To Waste...did you ever find it? Because I have a theory on what it might be. If I'm right, this is a huge shortcut.

[testtubegames]

In a month late, but:

Oh, the shortcut in No Time To Waste? My thought is you can sneak through above the two missiles that are facing each other. The only problem is you still have to wait the full time for the other missiles to clear the bomb blocks. Right? Or did you find something else?

Okay, on to this week's FBF! 756C by NealCruco, of course. (I just had to finally read all those spoilers in the other thread!)

Watch me give it the ol' college try.

And of course, the code:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"756C"-eNrtVUsSgyAMvQvrLBowWs/ScdsLtDumdy8GaPBXVOyiMz4CCDwwvIBawIIEnJdhyBUEgbsACuW+5OcaPNh4awTfkRufECjo5vuxmedFDgV+pAo/XTGI4MkZPygNWD16LQlTSNfpJkV355A3hr70tvroyBkKa84oEVq6HW6NRiXPJtYMExkSbUBEGu+n5PTPuTXSGwCWr4nRPsfFYtzxE3t5kh6M54L8TCdPGF97jQZUc+k9qabeYS2WTpAANoltaJGFI6A3phMnsjCc8hSrngpunTOr7oqrh6sq00JNrvtUsuhqtzkG5oax0AX+yv1JIHf/v34NKibsFKR7vQHft+4W]

Neal, your goal was to best the max number of deaths so far (~180)... and I won't reveal whether or not *that* happened, but I will say it was a very tough level. I agree with a lot of what Random said in the other thread. Those handful of spikes just gave me a heck of a time. And that jump after the 2nd star! Yikes! I really liked the little cave with the switch. It just felt like such a relief once I finally made it there... sheltered from the missiles in my safe little home. And yeah, as Random noted, that first part referenced No Time to Waste quite nicely. Made me smile... and then get a bit frustrated... and then, finally, be glad that you only put 5 blocks in there. Phew.