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sinky
Feb 22, 2011



Slippery Tilde

WhiteHowler posted:


Back to Bed - A real-time, "Lemmings"-style puzzler where you have to redirect a sleepwalker around hazards and get him back to bed. Each level loops when you fail, so it's very quick to retry new solutions.


More like Sleepwalker style :v:


gently caress i'm :corsair:

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SettingSun
Aug 10, 2013

Play posted:

One thing I don't quite understand is whether unused goods can travel THROUGH one or more planets that don't need them and to one that does. It seems like not, but that kinda doesn't make sense. Obviously I haven't played too deep into this game but understanding it better would probably get me to do that.

Goods are 1-to-1 between planets with no passthrough. If a planet doesn't need it, the planet will not receive it so the slipway will go to waste. Planets can 'double up' on goods they want and this will satisfy import/export requirements for leveling the planets up. This also generates trade income.

Ben Nerevarine
Apr 14, 2006
If you’re ever unsure if a slipway is trading between planets, zoom in to look for the little ships traveling along the slipway. The traffic flow represents the direction(s) of trade. No ships, no trade

Primetime
Jul 3, 2009
It's already covered in the OP, but want to chime in and give Antichamber a recommendation. It's one of the few games I'll reinstall every year or so and replay, and the puzzles are still fun every time. If you like superliminal it's definitely worth getting, it takes non-Euclidean geometry to an extreme and bases a ton of the challenge around thinking outside the box. Worth the $20 (and it's always super cheap on the steam sales).

Also one of the older games I really enjoyed was an old PS1 game called Intelligent Qube. It was a pretty straightforward level based puzzle game, but it had really unique mechanics at the time. Basically you were a character who moved in a 3d plane, and you had to set trap tiles to destroy a board of cubes that were constantly pushing you towards a cliff. I've never seen a game like it since, and I'm curious if there ever was a spiritual successor or anything in a similar style.

Casnorf
Jun 14, 2002

Never drive a car when you're a fish
There was a whole series of IQ games and a sequel series, too. Most of them never hit the US but the PSP one did. It's really good and underrated even by turbonerds like me. I still say PERRRRRRFECT like from the first one.

Casnorf
Jun 14, 2002

Never drive a car when you're a fish
Consider one of my old soft spot games, CRUSH and the 3ds version CRUSH3D.

Zurai
Feb 13, 2012


Wait -- I haven't even voted in this game yet!

OK, I know I've been posting a lot of Slipways screenshots, but I don't think I'm going to top this one any time soon, so please forgive another:



Short version: I combined the green insect race's perk to reduce structure build time by 1 month with the techs to turn planets into stars, build monoliths for happiness, instant-build slipways for double price, and create teleporters. The result is that I spent well over a thousand credit just cross-teleporting goods and monoliths around my core systems, which took 0 months to do. This required a very strong science base, which I fueled by taking the tech thats let me turn free population on pop-producing worlds into tech as well as just having a few good lab locations. Also important here is that this seed has quirks that give +10% score from slipway cost penalties kicking in early and change the empire size score bonus into 300 score per tech you research.

For the record, "full platinum" is the highest the stars go, although obviously the score itself isn't capped.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Baby's first slipway



Did better than I thought I would. Though tbf I have watched a few games being played on YT.

grate deceiver
Jul 10, 2009

Just a funny av. Not a redtext or an own ok.
I've reinstalled SHENZEN I/O after getting halfway through the campaign a few years ago and jeez, I forgot how hardcore it is.

Argue
Sep 29, 2005

I represent the Philippines
The Slipways Steam page says a run won't take more than an hour.



This is a bald-faced lie.

Paranoid Dude
Jul 6, 2014
Was going to stan Talos Principle, The Room, and Dorfromantik but I am pleasantly surprised to see that my bases have been covered!

Going to post about the Conquest of Go though! An awesome game for newbies to intermediates of the centuries-old board game of conquerors and bureaucrat desk-jockeys alike. It's a mix of Go in all of its glory and permutations with grand strategy! The only caveat/downside is that the AI is robust but not robust enough to not get predictable after ~40-60 hours of play.

Oldstench
Jun 29, 2007

Let's talk about where you're going.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I did really like Euclidea - it's the puzzle game about doing geometric constructions you never asked for. I have no idea how to describe that in a way that sounds anything but hopelessly nerdy, but basically, you get very simple tools and use them to find construct something - a simple example is "given two points, find their midpoint". The game asks you to do these in as few moves as possible. It's mind-bendingly hard to get the top scores, requires real out-of-the-box thinking, and is just way more fun than a game about doing tenth grade geometry homework should be. You'll end up learning things about math but it's extremely gamified to the point that you could play it without any context and still have fun imo.

It's on iOS/Android or the web at https://www.euclidea.xyz/. There's a free demo that, afaik, is the full game, it just forces you to get the top answer before proceeding, which is quite harsh.

Holy poo poo this is both a great puzzler and hard as balls (especially for people like me who didn't pay attention in geometry class). The web version is complete and allows you to pass to the next level by just succeeding. You don't need to get to top score (which I'm convinced is impossible for some of them.)

Play
Apr 25, 2006

Strong stroll for a mangy stray
You guys weren't kidding about Snakebird. Fun af game, I really like the look and the concept is unique, but it is HARD. Especially when you have to start messing with multiple guys at the same time, the variables just expand to the point where there are so many different things you could try and it's almost impossible to conceive them all perfectly in your head and decide which one will work. Resulting in lots of trial and error, at least for me, but I generally get it in the end. Good game. I foolishly opted for the original version, not the primer and am paying the price lol

Chadzok
Apr 25, 2002

Argue posted:

The Slipways Steam page says a run won't take more than an hour.

This is a bald-faced lie.

yeah right? You'd have to just be slamming down planets left and right without painstakingly reassessing every option against available structures and technologies and open challenges in between each decision. There's no way you'd have time to operate the spreadsheet alongside

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Oldstench posted:

Holy poo poo this is both a great puzzler and hard as balls (especially for people like me who didn't pay attention in geometry class). The web version is complete and allows you to pass to the next level by just succeeding. You don't need to get to top score (which I'm convinced is impossible for some of them.)
I did pay attention in math and it's still hard as poo poo - they certainly didn't exactly focus on "minimum number of operations" in class.

I believe the way it works is, if you don't have the paid version, you must get at least 3*(number of levels) stars in a chapter to move on to the next chapter. So you can have a buffer if you get the special 4th star on a few levels, but you really gotta get those best scores. By the end just completing them is hard. If you pay, you just have to solve each level in any number of moves to move to the next chapter.

Walh Hara
May 11, 2012

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I believe the way it works is, if you don't have the paid version, you must get at least 3*(number of levels) stars in a chapter to move on to the next chapter. So you can have a buffer if you get the special 4th star on a few levels, but you really gotta get those best scores. By the end just completing them is hard. If you pay, you just have to solve each level in any number of moves to move to the next chapter.

Re: https://www.euclidea.xyz
No, there's just a big difference between the website and the app. On the app you need all stars, including the hidden ones. The website works the same as if you paid the app.

It's a lot of fun! I've studied mathematics so this is really my kind of thing, but it's indeed really hard.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Puzzle game recommendation: Salad Fields it's deliberately weird, it's queer, and it's about pushing blocks and pumplins (explosive) onto buttons to make bondage gear disappear from a bird, usually so you can then get to a vegetable which are currency you can trade for more teleport stuff.

The puzzles are profoundly hard and clever, I'm slowly chipping away at them but whoooooof

It's 2.24$ right now!

Play
Apr 25, 2006

Strong stroll for a mangy stray
Puzzle Games Megathread - make bondage gear disappear from a bird to get a vegetable

grate deceiver
Jul 10, 2009

Just a funny av. Not a redtext or an own ok.

StrixNebulosa posted:

pushing blocks and pumplins (explosive) onto buttons to make bondage gear disappear from a bird, usually so you can then get to a vegetable which are currency you can trade for more teleport stuff.

Thanks, but I play games to forget about everyday life

roomforthetuna
Mar 22, 2005

I don't need to know anything about virii! My CUSTOM PROGRAM keeps me protected! It's not like they'll try to come in through the Internet or something!
Hm, does Deadly Rooms of Death count as a puzzle game? I think so.

I preferred Wonderquest, in the same vein, which is now hard to find - there's a download link hidden somewhere deep in the bowels of the caravel.net forums. It was like Deadly Rooms of Death with more variety in the mechanics rather than fully exploring every mechanic in depth.

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004
DROD absolutely counts as a puzzle game and it's one of the best puzzle games ever made (Stephen's Sausage Roll is very influenced by its movement system/gameplay concepts).

Everybody should buy at least Gunthro and The Epic Blunder, which is the Snakebird Primer of the series, and the City Beneath DLC on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/314330/DROD_Gunthro_and_the_Epic_Blunder/

Here's the link to download Wonderquest (check the link in Rabidchild's profile): http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=19398&page=0#388283 or click the direct link here: http://forum.caravelgames.com/getattachment.php?id=36794

NRVNQSR
Mar 1, 2009

fez_machine posted:

DROD absolutely counts as a puzzle game and it's one of the best puzzle games ever made (Stephen's Sausage Roll is very influenced by its movement system/gameplay concepts).

Everybody should buy at least Gunthro and The Epic Blunder, which is the Snakebird Primer of the series, and the City Beneath DLC on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/314330/DROD_Gunthro_and_the_Epic_Blunder/

Even DROD's releases are a puzzle. I want to give it another try, but I've never figured out exactly what I would need to buy/install/move around to play Epic Blunder in the 5.0 engine, or if it's even possible? As you say it seems like the right level set to start with but I'm not willing to compromise on limited undos.

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004

NRVNQSR posted:

Even DROD's releases are a puzzle. I want to give it another try, but I've never figured out exactly what I would need to buy/install/move around to play Epic Blunder in the 5.0 engine, or if it's even possible? As you say it seems like the right level set to start with but I'm not willing to compromise on limited undos.

As far as I can tell it's been upgraded to the latest DROD engine on Steam. Look under commands in settings menu to set undo level to unlimited.

Edit: It looks like the creator (not the maintainer) of DROD has a new and utterly bizarre game coming out next year: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449570/The_Godkiller__Chapter_1/

fez_machine fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jun 12, 2021

Casnorf
Jun 14, 2002

Never drive a car when you're a fish
Speaking of, check out The Nightmare Cooperative.

skeleton warrior
Nov 12, 2016


Valley of No Roads released today, and I didn't even get twenty minutes in before asking for a refund. Poorly done, poorly defined tutorial; a game board that has lots of different pieces with no help tool or mouse-over to tell you what they do (though the tutorial does!); a procedurally generated map that might randomly decide not to give you the building that gives you more pieces to keep playing.

Play Dorfromantik or The Islanders instead.

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost

fez_machine posted:

DROD absolutely counts as a puzzle game and it's one of the best puzzle games ever made (Stephen's Sausage Roll is very influenced by its movement system/gameplay concepts).

Everybody should buy at least Gunthro and The Epic Blunder, which is the Snakebird Primer of the series, and the City Beneath DLC on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/314330/DROD_Gunthro_and_the_Epic_Blunder/

Here's the link to download Wonderquest (check the link in Rabidchild's profile): http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=19398&page=0#388283 or click the direct link here: http://forum.caravelgames.com/getattachment.php?id=36794

The DROD series is brilliant, but as much as Gunthro is a decent introduction to the mechanics, it's also probably the weakest plot- and writing-wise. I'm not sure which would be the best to recommend, though!

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004

Whybird posted:

The DROD series is brilliant, but as much as Gunthro is a decent introduction to the mechanics, it's also probably the weakest plot- and writing-wise. I'm not sure which would be the best to recommend, though!

The plot is fairly ignorable plus the better 'plot' in most DROD games is mainly bad jokes w/ worse voice acting anyway. The good plots are in The City Beneath and The Second Sky but their puzzles are built more iteratively on what came before.

Play it while listening to a podcast like I do.

In terms of introductions to DROD, you could try King Dugan's Dungeon instead which is essentially plotless, it's the first ever DROD game but doesn't exist as a stand alone Steam game (although you can get it free remastered from the Caravel Games website). The puzzle quality varies wildly and it asks you to do a lot of tedious poo poo that the other games just don't. The other games have much less of a ramp in terms of guiding you into the game and build on ideas that have come before, although you'll usually get a one or two room introduction to the concept.

Venuz Patrol
Mar 27, 2011
the voice acting in DROD is mostly bad but i do have a soft spot for Arky, whose VA really went all out

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

dirby posted:

I really liked Hexcells and its sequels, but there were often chains of boring/easy steps you have to click through. I found that to be the case even more so with Hexceed (though I'm not too far into it). A game in the same sort of style that doesn't have that problem and has tons of pretty and expertly hand-crafted levels is Tametsi. Note: Tametsi is not easy, so you should probably have some prior experience with something that builds upon the Minesweeper idea (e.g. Hexcells sequels or Hexceed or Globesweeper or Hexologic or Patterna etc.)

It does some unique things, and I'm glad I experienced it, but I don't think it's well designed as a puzzle game or a narrative game. It's more like a bunch of disconnected weird puzzle-esque experiences that seem to be mimicking Portal in some ways, but without building upon any one mechanic significantly, nor the strength of narrative or humor of something like the Portal games.
I've been playing Tametsi and I'm stuck. Screenshot below with colored dots showing where bombs are in possible solutions. Ignore the fact that the tile with the orange arrow pointing at it is revealed - I clicked it accidentally. I'm playing by my own rule that every square must be uncovered by proving it correct, no guessing, and I don't want to make use of that accidental information. It seems to me like I'm in a situation where there are no available moves that I can prove are correct, and multiple valid solutions exist. Every uncovered square could be a bomb, and none of them are required to be. Anyone see something I'm missing?

NRVNQSR
Mar 1, 2009

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

Anyone see something I'm missing?

Never mind, didn't read.

I don't, and I'm disappointed if that's the case; I thought Tametsi was better than that.

NRVNQSR fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jun 14, 2021

cave emperor
Sep 1, 2016

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I've been playing Tametsi and I'm stuck. Screenshot below with colored dots showing where bombs are in possible solutions. Ignore the fact that the tile with the orange arrow pointing at it is revealed - I clicked it accidentally. I'm playing by my own rule that every square must be uncovered by proving it correct, no guessing, and I don't want to make use of that accidental information. It seems to me like I'm in a situation where there are no available moves that I can prove are correct, and multiple valid solutions exist. Every uncovered square could be a bomb, and none of them are required to be. Anyone see something I'm missing?


Hint: Look at the number of remaining mines

Explanation: One of the four remaining mines has to be in one of the two bottom-left squares, and another one has to be in one of the two top-right squares. This means that the remaining two mines must be in the three left-top squares (the one marked with the orange arrow and the two above it). This satisfies the 2 to the right of this three-square column, so the square immediately above this 2 has to be empty.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

cave emperor posted:

Hint: Look at the number of remaining mines

Explanation: One of the four remaining mines has to be in one of the two bottom-left squares, and another one has to be in one of the two top-right squares. This means that the remaining two mines must be in the three left-top squares (the one marked with the orange arrow and the two above it). This satisfies the 2 to the right of this three-square column, so the square immediately above this 2 has to be empty.
I think you missed the blank square at the top of the puzzle - indeed, this would be a solid puzzle if that one weren't there. It's presence creates the ambiguity, allowing for solutions with only 3 mines in that whole bottom right section. I am pretty sure all 4 of my sets of dots provide a valid solution with 4 mines given the current constraints.

cave emperor
Sep 1, 2016

Ah right, I did miss that one. I'm not seeing it either then.

TheOneAndOnlyT
Dec 18, 2005

Well well, mister fancy-pants, I hope you're wearing your matching sweater today, or you'll be cut down like the ugly tree you are.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I've been playing Tametsi and I'm stuck. Screenshot below with colored dots showing where bombs are in possible solutions. Ignore the fact that the tile with the orange arrow pointing at it is revealed - I clicked it accidentally. I'm playing by my own rule that every square must be uncovered by proving it correct, no guessing, and I don't want to make use of that accidental information. It seems to me like I'm in a situation where there are no available moves that I can prove are correct, and multiple valid solutions exist. Every uncovered square could be a bomb, and none of them are required to be. Anyone see something I'm missing?

That blank square below the top right green-purple square is a 0. Opening it should have revealed that green-purple square automatically, I'm not sure why it didn't.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Dec 22, 2005

GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

That blank square below the top right green-purple square is a 0. Opening it should have revealed that green-purple square automatically, I'm not sure why it didn't.
ohhhhhhhhh! Cool. I might have had that one erroneously marked as a bomb and backed out. Thank you!

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!
More Slipways chat.

I got my first double-platinum on Challenging difficulty today.



I think I might be done, at least until more campaign missions come out.

The game has been a blast to play, but at this point every run is basically the same strategy. The sector layout largely dictates the highest likely score, and while I'm certainly not "perfect" at the game, I can glance at an area and know more or less exactly what to put down.

I still recommend the game to puzzle fans who want a very light management/empire-builder, but it may not have a ton of staying power.

Play
Apr 25, 2006

Strong stroll for a mangy stray

skeleton warrior posted:

Valley of No Roads released today, and I didn't even get twenty minutes in before asking for a refund. Poorly done, poorly defined tutorial; a game board that has lots of different pieces with no help tool or mouse-over to tell you what they do (though the tutorial does!); a procedurally generated map that might randomly decide not to give you the building that gives you more pieces to keep playing.

Play Dorfromantik or The Islanders instead.

Yeah that game was hilariously bad. I mentioned that in the new released thread, it's honestly like a high school project looking thing. Doesn't look great, doesn't explain anything, very weird game.

I won't do the whole effortpost again but I really enjoyed Fossil Corner. The good thing about its puzzles is that they are endlessly iteratable (if that's a word) and also a consistent application of observation and logic will always reach the answer. Sometimes I want puzzles games that won't completely stump me and instead will always respond to careful application of the rules. A bit like an easy sudoku book or those number picture puzzles.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

skeleton warrior posted:

If you like Slipways, another good recommendation is Dorfromantik.




One of my friends just gifted this to me on Steam, so I'm going to give it a try this weekend now that I'm thinking about shelving Slipways for a bit.

Any basic tips on getting started?

SettingSun
Aug 10, 2013

WhiteHowler posted:

One of my friends just gifted this to me on Steam, so I'm going to give it a try this weekend now that I'm thinking about shelving Slipways for a bit.

Any basic tips on getting started?

You gain new tiles by completing quests and getting perfects (where each side matches the tile it touches). Do as much of the latter as possible. Intentionally fail quests that are unlikely to succeed so you get new ones.

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skeleton warrior
Nov 12, 2016


WhiteHowler posted:

One of my friends just gifted this to me on Steam, so I'm going to give it a try this weekend now that I'm thinking about shelving Slipways for a bit.

Any basic tips on getting started?

Start with what Setting Sun wrote. A few other pieces of advice:

* You can see the next tile you're going to place beyond the one you currently have to place. Always take the time to look at that one as well and think about where it goes, because it might drive where you put the one you're currently placing.

* Your quests on cities, rivers, rails, and fields are either "exactly" or "at least". First, always double-check that you've read it correctly, because it sucks to set up for one and then find out it's the other. Second, that means you probably want 2 clusters of each of those, so that if your new "exactly" tile can't fit onto one cluster because that cluster is too big, you can start a second cluster easily.

* Conversely, forests are always "at least" and the numbers get big. You can't keep all of your forest tiles together - you're going to have forest sides on a bunch of tiles - but you should try to make sure that if you get tiles with lots of forest on them, you're keeping it all into one big clump.

* When you get a new quest for something you already have a quest for (like fields, or cities, or such), see if it's possible to place the new tile to connect to the quest area. It should be obvious that if you're building a city to 32+ houses and you get a quest for 36+ houses, it's easier to do both of those with the same city. But even if you're building to exactly-18, adding a 36+ houses quest there is still good, because once you've hit exactly 18 you can then keep pushing for 36+ and you're already half-way there.

* You want every tile to be placed as a perfect match to all of its surrounding tiles. Your biggest issues are going to be:
- Your crappy memory of where you needed exactly that tile. Can't help you with that.
- Single-terrain tiles - like one that is entirely woods, or entirely houses. Always try to make sure you leave yourself an outward edge where a full city/forest/field/empty tile can go.
- Rails and rivers. Rails and rivers must connect, so that restricts how you can place them. My usual strategy is to use rails and rivers to blaze forward into empty space, and use the rest of the tiles to try and fill in the space around them. But be careful of boxing in areas where rails and rivers are going, and ending up not having a way to fill the space (see sub-bullet one, above).

* It's okay to create a trash area where you put tiles you hate on the assumption you won't get 60 points and the bonus tile just to stop thinking about it.

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