SackDroid - Part 2: Search and Rescue (and Lasers)

May I present another half year's worth of effort:

http://i5.lbp.me/img/bl/3c586ce44fac...f84549d0a7.png

SackDroid - Part 2

Now Bit's really done it. What was once a train, a marvel of engineering, is now a smouldering, spasming wreck. And to make things worse, Bit crashed the train in the military district-the most covert and cut-throat district in the entire sackthing hideout. Though Leader Yassen may be pleased, Bit isn't, and that matters quite a lot when you're literally the bomb.

Yep, SackDroid - Part 2 is out, and for all you fans out there waiting (both of you), you can rejoice.

Featuring in this adventure/puzzle sequel to SackDroid - Part 1: A Train Crash are:

-An epic story
-Mind-bending puzzles
-Expansive environments
-General exploration and fun

And being a sequel, this has many improvements over the first installment:

-Bug tested
-Will NOT crash your game
-Harder puzzles
-More gameplay, less cutscenes
-Generally better looking and better designed

And if you're still not convinced, here are some pics!

http://i7.lbp.me/img/ft/3175bbbad485...78835995b9.jpg

http://ie.lbp.me/img/ft/23e898b2fcc4...fcca757860.jpg

http://id.lbp.me/img/ft/fdd2efdcc28c...60e7f37908.jpg

http://i6.lbp.me/img/ft/10652902f55a...b26e7174b1.jpg

http://i9.lbp.me/img/ft/eb95823901ad...4c8c2bbeae.jpg

http://if.lbp.me/img/ft/8ff7573284b9...6323a25f6c.jpg

http://id.lbp.me/img/ft/c9de2906e025...0e03fa7b49.jpg

http://id.lbp.me/img/ft/a2d3dd6f60b8...d8c15fdd1d.jpg

http://i6.lbp.me/img/ft/ab61ee4557cd...8ada7088e3.jpg

It is generally recommended that you play SackDroid - Intro and SackDroid - Part 1 to understand the story, but if you are the spotlight crew or anybody pressed for time you don't have to.

Here are the links:

SackDroid - Intro

SackDroid - Part 1

http://lbp.me/v/qsk5b9b

in the queue is where you'll find it.

I played the intro and the first part, I absolutely love it! Unfortunately it crashed on me while loading up the part after you fix the elevator. Is there anything major that happens afterwards? If so could you pm me because the first part is quite lengthy to replay and if I play this one I might not know what's going on.

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I played the intro and the first part, I absolutely love it! Unfortunately it crashed on me while loading up the part after you fix the elevator. Is there anything major that happens afterwards? If so could you pm me because the first part is quite lengthy to replay and if I play this one I might not know what's going on.

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You don't have to play the whole thing again. The first part has a "For those who wish to continue their progress..." option at the start, with the flickering lights where you can select things. I have a picture of it in post #7 in the thread on lbpcentral:

http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/sho...-A-Train-Crash

If you've already fixed the elevator, then you just select the last image. If you've yet to fix the elevator, select the second to last one. Hope this helps.

I'm super excited about this. I think I'll have to play the other two again first, but I'm really glad the story's continuing.

UPDATE: The elevator at the first part will not crush you against the cooler anymore. A player thought that was a glitch, when it was intentional. Now, the elevator says it detects an obstruction.

This is tricky... I like revisiting series, and this is a great series. I remember the last part fondly.

But I also feel that levels should stand up separately, and it is a tricky premise to expect players will load this, and then go 'oh... I haven't played the first bit' and go and load it. Unless it is mind-blowing and then want to see more.

It's an impressive level, but the difficulty starts very high, and I feel that the first puzzle section will turn people away. The trash on the ground makes it tricky to pick up the gloves. and it is very easy to then zap yourself, when trying to get the bounce pad.

After that... well I have no idea; I launched myself into the sky for about 5 minutes, tried the elevator, tried the passcode door, but was completely stuck.

Which comes back to the expectation that I should go back and play the first one, which is something I doubt a lot of players would do. (but is something that I think I will be doing)

I don't want this to sound like I hated your level, and it was a waste of time, I just think that starting like this puts up a bit of an unintentional barrier to a lot of players.

I was actually thinking about this for my own levels too... how to advance the story without boring players that are following the series, but still entice players that are new.

Some sort of 'previously on' was a rough idea I was toying with... where you have a few of the choice sections of the previous level for the player to play through. Like little 30 second snippets of obstacles and such, and then you zip to the new stuff. Not sure how that would work in practice though.

I don't remember if I ever got the opportunity to play your levels, but I'd love to play through all of them! Either wya, it looks like your half year of struggles will actually pay off! Consider it Queued!!! http://i.imgur.com/bjKCAej.png

Quote:

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This is tricky... I like revisiting series, and this is a great series. I remember the last part fondly.

But I also feel that levels should stand up separately, and it is a tricky premise to expect players will load this, and then go 'oh... I haven't played the first bit' and go and load it. Unless it is mind-blowing and then want to see more.

It's an impressive level, but the difficulty starts very high, and I feel that the first puzzle section will turn people away. The trash on the ground makes it tricky to pick up the gloves. and it is very easy to then zap yourself, when trying to get the bounce pad.

After that... well I have no idea; I launched myself into the sky for about 5 minutes, tried the elevator, tried the passcode door, but was completely stuck.

Which comes back to the expectation that I should go back and play the first one, which is something I doubt a lot of players would do. (but is something that I think I will be doing)

I don't want this to sound like I hated your level, and it was a waste of time, I just think that starting like this puts up a bit of an unintentional barrier to a lot of players.

I was actually thinking about this for my own levels too... how to advance the story without boring players that are following the series, but still entice players that are new.

Some sort of 'previously on' was a rough idea I was toying with... where you have a few of the choice sections of the previous level for the player to play through. Like little 30 second snippets of obstacles and such, and then you zip to the new stuff. Not sure how that would work in practice though.

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In case you're wondering what to do, you're meant to

Spoiler - What to do

Throw the bounce pad into the elevator shaft and then bounce on it, which will send you flying into the cooler with enough force to dislodge it.

I guess the difficulty would discourage quite a bit of the players, but this is meant to be a very difficult level. I wanted the difficulty for SackDroid to scale up as you went on, meaning that the starting puzzle for this would be just as hard as the elevator puzzle in Part 1. Funny thing is, the starting puzzle was actually harder (the grabinators were more hidden, and the elevator would crush you against the cooler), but I made it easier on actio's request.

Beating this level requires, above all things, the time to mess around, so it's natural that people would come back again. I guess SackDroid isn't a very spotlight crew friendly level in that aspect. But I think that's just how it is.

Then again, anybody who wants hints can ask me and I'll answer.

heh... I like that your decisions are so solid and clear. Sometimes I think that people go to great lengths to cater to everyone's needs, which can water down design. I do agree that the 'obstruction detected' is a really good addition to the puzzle solving though.

It's funny; I tried to get the bounce pad to... where you... suggest. But got stuck on the trash on the floor and couldn't navigate there. I gave up as it felt as if I wasn't allowed to go there with it.

I think that the floor could maybe be smoother... like maybe if there was some invisible material in a thin platform covering the bottles, this may encourage exploration and experimentation a little more.

As I mentioned I don't have a problem with the puzzle solving difficulty, more to do with traversing the area smoothly, and I think that I would have worked it out if I didn't get stuck trying to get there.