Praise and Suggestions Thread - Beret

Hello Kiwisauce,

thank you very much for your fantastic game, I've been hooked for a week now. The puzzles are fiendishly clever, and the continuous introduction of new elements keeps the game interesting. Nevertheless I have a few suggestion how the game could be made even better:

• I don't really feel comfortable with either way to control running. When using Shift I keep forgetting whether it's currently enabled or disabled, and then the next jump will be either too short or too long. Double-tapping feels slightly better, but it's too clumsy for quick maneuvers, and it can be unintentionally triggered when you want to make multiple small steps. I'd like to have a simple key that you have to hold in order to run, either Shift or preferably the right mouse button. Toggling the range guide is not something you have to do very often, so it could be moved to a different key.
• Speaking of the range guide: I'm always playing with the guide enabled, and I'd like the game to remember its state.
• A dynamic range guide that indicates which areas are visible from Beret's current position would be cool, but that's probably too much effort (and possibly too distracting).
• The pace in the boss levels is a tad too high for my taste. As of now I've only seen the first two, but I'm really dreading the last one. Dealing with the first boss was something I learned, but with the second one I have an average lifespan of about ten seconds, and it took me maybe 100 attempts and a great portion of luck to beat it.

Cheers,
Ingo

Hello there, glad you like Beret!

The running scheme has gone through several iterations - I'm partial to double-tap myself, but enough of my friends didn't like it that I was convinced to add an alternate run scheme (which then became the default). The problem with holding Shift to run is that your finger can get tired since you want to run a good majority of the time. In my new game that I'm currently working on I've set the character to run by default and walk when Shift is held... I may implement similar controls in Beret as well.

Having the game remember the state of the range guide is definitely something I can do when I put out the next bugfix release.

Yeah, I'm not really sure having a dynamic range guide would be worth it for the amount of work that would go into it. I've considered implementing a guide line from Beret to the object he's currently telekinesing, but the issue with that is that the way I determine whether Beret can see something is not simply by drawing lines from Beret's center to the object's center, but instead by seeing if there is any line that can be drawn from any corner of Beret to any corner of the object. I think trying to convey this relationship accurately with a simple line would just get confusing for the player, so I opted to just let players learn the rules for themselves (probably subconsciously).

Haha... isn't dread the appropriate reaction to a boss? I admit the bosses are pretty unfairly tough... but save stating is an integral part of the game after all. Practice does make them easier too. At least there's only three of them, right?

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely look at your first two suggestions for the next patch.

Having Beret run by default and walk when Shift is held would be awesome!

As for the bosses: True, there's only three of them, but if you go deal with the boss before collecting all medallions in the level you'll have to face him again later. But I have to admit that even the dreadful second boss lost much of its terror the second time around. ;-)

BTW: I just noticed a tiny bug: Whenever I enter the final room of a level there is a red X flashing in the status bar, no matter how often I cleared the room before. I guess the game does not remember that the room was cleared if you leave it through the exit.

Cheers,
Ingo

Heh, thanks for confirming that bug... I thought I noticed it while watching a playthrough, but I hadn't gotten around to reproducing it yet. I'm pretty sure I forgot to include the room state saving code for the exit door, as that's a special case.

First, I can't say enough how much I love Beret. Awesome game! I just killed Top Hat!

Suggestions:
1. Have an indicator showing if you are in run or walk mode.
2. Somehow show graphically what is controlled by each controlling block. Draw dotted lines maybe? Number the items by writing ones on a block and each item it controls?

Thanks for the super game,
Larry

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

As of version 1.2.0, Beret runs by default and walks when you hold shift, so an indicator shouldn't be necessary anymore.

I've gone back and forth about whether to include a way of telling what's linked to what - it might make things cluttered, and in most cases it isn't necessary. But I'll keep it in mind if I release another version, since I know it's hard sometimes to keep track of all the links.

Thanks!

Suggestion:

Improve the user created level implementation so that more than ten levels can be played in a single running instance of Beret and also so that level files can have more human readable filenames that describe or name the files more understandably and also prevent the likeliness of duplicated named level files.

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I recently remembered Hero's Hearts, an old dos puzzle game, which is shareware version of the full version named Hero's Gold. I encountered this related discussion at Caravel Games forum from DROD community and discovered a windows version of the game. The reason behind mentioning this is because of:

"and (for the advanced computer user) the ability to add your own new objects with whole new behaviors. "

It would be exciting to eventually see this similar capability to exist as part of Beret. That would surely increase the usefulness of the game as a platform for some interesting puzzle designs.

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Another feature request for editor: When multiple items are selected and left clicking and dragging on one of the items in the selection, move all items in the selection instead of only the single item clicked upon.

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it would be awesome for a kind of trampoline like in sonic the hedgehog

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It would be nice if there were a fog of war. That would contribute towards the challenge of the rooms. that I am making

Edited by: mizerydearia