Pirates of the Carob bean (An RPG puzzler)

[Shade_seeker]

Hi Every one

I' decided to re-do my old psp level 'Pirates of the Carob Bean', though it isn't a copy of the original, it is a rough copy of the basic idea:

You are on the Carob bean Island, where you get to meet plenty of weird and wacky characters, like Javy Dones the least feared captain in these here waters, who is having trouble counting his 'pizzas of eight'. Jenny Witch, who has lost her frog, Loakie Moakie, the bar owner of the island who has started up a multi national company selling toastied sand'witches' (because he is bored since he lost the key to the grog fridge....you get the idea?

You control a bot character and have use of a (not move) cursor to highlight objects to get a witty description, to talk to characters, and even to interact with certain objects (you can pick up items with it, turn on switches etc)

I'm looking for constructive feedback, and will F4F anyone who leaves more than a couple of sentences.

ENJOY!
Shade_Seeker

Use your cursor to talk:


Wendy the Witch


For those of you who played my PSP level: The Carob cow


There are TWO power ups to collect later in the game...not going to spoil the surprise, you'll just have to play!


Using the cursor to lift the blocks to make a bridge.


A Puzzle in the haunted house.

http://lbp.me/v/ejz55e

[Dragynking1]

I thought this level was pretty great for what it was. The concept of a point-and-click on LBP to me was quite intuitive, and I enjoyed the playing experience. I'm usually not a fan of the "get me an item and I give you an item" kind of games, but I made an exception. I also thought some of the jokes were clever enough, but not really ones that made me laugh...
The block puzzle was also a highlight; I like it when levels make me think!
But overall, I liked the level! Great work!

[artise]

Thanks for the feedback This looks pretty good, i'll play it when i get back from work

[biorogue]

I started this last night but didn't have time to really do anything as I was already nodding off to sleep. I'll boot it up tonight.

Edit: I played this evening and here is what I wrote in game. yes, I'm too lazy to write anything new
the humor abounds in this one. I love point n click adventures and think shade did a great job here. The puzzles are clever and humorous. The dialog is witty with some laugh out loud moments. outstanding job

I will add that I did like it and just like any PaC game there is a lot of running back and forth solving puzzles. The puzzles were very clever, who would've thought that your burps could eat through steel.
Three trouble areas for me though were the
subtitled text--could hardly read it as it blended in to the scenery
the slide puzzle--I knew what it was a picture of and can generally do these types of puzzles, but the cursor and blocks would not cooperate with me
inside the mansion--the in/out puzzle. I couldn't make out the color of the blocks as it was too dark. I could see the main switch blocks, but the others that had a red or green symbol on them, I could hardly see. maybe a red or green light on each one?

anyway, great game.

[Shade_seeker]

I thought this level was pretty great for what it was. The concept of a point-and-click on LBP to me was quite intuitive, and I enjoyed the playing experience. I'm usually not a fan of the "get me an item and I give you an item" kind of games, but I made an exception. I also thought some of the jokes were clever enough, but not really ones that made me laugh...
The block puzzle was also a highlight; I like it when levels make me think!
But overall, I liked the level! Great work!

Hi Dragyking, thanks for playing, just returned the favour by reviewing your level.
Hehe, you made me laugh by your comment 'the jokes were clever enough, but not really ones that made me laugh'..you iz fuuuuny lol Can't please all the people all of the time and all that...

Thanks for the feedback This looks pretty good, i'll play it when i get back from work

I look forward to your views Artise

I started this last night but didn't have time to really do anything as I was already nodding off to sleep. I'll boot it up tonight.

Edit: I played this evening and here is what I wrote in game. yes, I'm too lazy to write anything new
the humor abounds in this one. I love point n click adventures and think shade did a great job here. The puzzles are clever and humorous. The dialog is witty with some laugh out loud moments. outstanding job

I will add that I did like it and just like any PaC game there is a lot of running back and forth solving puzzles. The puzzles were very clever, who would've thought that your burps could eat through steel.
Three trouble areas for me though were the
subtitled text--could hardly read it as it blended in to the scenery
the slide puzzle--I knew what it was a picture of and can generally do these types of puzzles, but the cursor and blocks would not cooperate with me
inside the mansion--the in/out puzzle. I couldn't make out the color of the blocks as it was too dark. I could see the main switch blocks, but the others that had a red or green symbol on them, I could hardly see. maybe a red or green light on each one?

anyway, great game.

Hi Biorogue, thanks for the nice, informative review. (And no request for F4F either, what a nice guy I did play your 'lethal libary' level (and left a comment), but couldn't find a thread for it on here.

K, so, I sorted the 'tetris' type maze, they all have coloured sticker material on them now, so very easy to see what is what
As for the speech on subtitles, yeah, not sure what to do about that....if you add the camera to make it have a black border so they are easy to read, you can't skip them because the controller is locked down while the sequencer is running....MMMm, I wonder, if the Magic mouth is on one shot, on a very short sequencer, say less than a second, will the magic mouth stay on until you close it??....will check that idea out in a sec.
As for the slider puzzle....yeah, using a move controller is EASY to pick up and grab things, but using my cursor that is controlled by the bots relies on followers, and followers arent too reliable when they collide with other objects....I could redisign it with movers, but that is INCREDIBLY complicated, so, I just added a character they explaining it is just a side puzzle for extra points, and that it doesnt work the way a move controller would (yeah a bit lame i know

Thanks again for playing and the informative pointers, all the best

Shade_seeker

[biorogue]

I generally don't ask a F4F of my own because my current ones are junk. That library one..so horrible. I like to think I've learned a lot since making that for the 1st LBPC contest, but thank you for the play none the less.
I hesitated even bringing up the subtitles. Too bad we can't change the color of the text.

[Mr_Fusion•]

Ha! I really liked this! First time I have seen it as I don't have the game on PSP. I thought the dialogue was very funny and the layout of the stage was well paced. It did sort of seem a little too linear at first but the backtracking and changing set pieces really helped with avoiding a feeling of de ja vu.

The attract stairs in the second part seemed a little tricky though, and the actual puzzles were pretty straight forward as what you needed to do was very clearly spelled out. Wile not a negative as it makes the level very accessible it also was a little easy for my personal tastes.

It's a fairly old level now, but if you have any time take a look at Miserable Flying Weather and leave some notes

[Wheelgun]

Nice level, i wasn't able to play it until yesterday. It looks good. It is not my favorite genre but this level was fun. Thanks for your feedback on my level.

[Reyals]

This made me LOL, the town had some quirky characters living there. (barking frog FTW !)
I havent played alot of point and click games, but seeing one on LBP was new to me.

I did struggle with reading the white subtitles a bit, but I managed. This is just a suggestion and I'm not sure if it is ideal, but you could probably emit a thin strip of black sticker panel at the bottom when the subtitles appear then disappear when they finish?

I failed big time on the sliding block puzzle, maybe you should put some (full strength) gyroscopes on each blocks as it was pretty hard to move the blocks past the other ones that were slightly rotated (from what I experienced), or perhaps make the pointer cursor move a bit slower when it has 'grabbed' something.

Lastly, is this compatable with MOVE controls? Not sure if you have one, but I think it would work well with this type of game.

Oh and I really liked that block maze...

[Shade_seeker]

Hi guys, I'm so sorry for taking so long to reply! I've been pretty busy the last few days, and before the weekend I got started on Pirates of the carob bean TWO, so, erm, well, i got a bit side tracked
(Wooohooo...this got on the community spotlight Thanks all, feels really nice to get a level noticed and liked....Just you wait until carob 2!

I generally don't ask a F4F of my own because my current ones are junk. That library one..so horrible. I like to think I've learned a lot since making that for the 1st LBPC contest, but thank you for the play none the less.
I hesitated even bringing up the subtitles. Too bad we can't change the color of the text.

Oooo, I so wish you could change the colour of text!!

Nice level, i wasn't able to play it until yesterday. It looks good. It is not my favorite genre but this level was fun. Thanks for your feedback on my level.

Thanks, and you you are welcome wheel gun

This made me LOL, the town had some quirky characters living there. (barking frog FTW !)
I havent played alot of point and click games, but seeing one on LBP was new to me.

I did struggle with reading the white subtitles a bit, but I managed. This is just a suggestion and I'm not sure if it is ideal, but you could probably emit a thin strip of black sticker panel at the bottom when the subtitles appear then disappear when they finish?

I failed big time on the sliding block puzzle, maybe you should put some (full strength) gyroscopes on each blocks as it was pretty hard to move the blocks past the other ones that were slightly rotated (from what I experienced), or perhaps make the pointer cursor move a bit slower when it has 'grabbed' something.

Lastly, is this compatable with MOVE controls? Not sure if you have one, but I think it would work well with this type of game.

Oh and I really liked that block maze...

Nice idea about the black strip over the subtitles Reyals
As for the sliding puzzle, would you believe they DO already have gyros on, and turned up to max, not sure why they still rotate and get jammed....I added this bit as an after thought, and seems its only a side quest, it will have to stay as it is.
Yeah, I contempleated using the move, butI hae the bloody thing so much, decided It was best as it was
So glad you liked it, number two is on its way

[JustinArt]

Great job on this level. The click and point mechanic works really well, but when I seem to move the cursor further, it somehow passes through the off-screen. Maybe you should create an invisible wall for the cursor, so it won't get lost. The visuals are pretty clever thanks to the mesh-up of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" background and the extra layer and sackbot designs. One suggestion in the visuals is that the interior haunted house needs a few more corner edits. The objectives, such as scaring off the frog, solve the block puzzles, change the colored blocks' layers, and collecting the pizzas, are very good. This is the adventure level to check out, and congrats on the spotlight.
VISUALS: 4.5/5
SOUND: 4.5/5
GAMEPLAY: 5/5
OVERALL: A yay and heart

If you like, F4F Cybernetic Adventures Omega (linked on my signature)

[TheLawnStink]

I love this level. Everything is full of character and comedy. The characters are unique and funny, gameplay is not to hard and not easy. The best part is with the vomit and farting mechanics, which I will say was done in a way that didn't feel like just an excuse to have farting and vomiting, but rather it was clever enough to make sense for what your character needed to do in the level. All and all, I am very impressed. Good work.

Now, if you could try http://lbp.me/v/ey9jv3 and give me some feedback here, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Apple2012]

I did like the controlinated sackbot idea where you can move the cursor over your sackbot, but I wasn't really paying attention.

[Shade_seeker]

Great job on this level. The click and point mechanic works really well, but when I seem to move the cursor further, it somehow passes through the off-screen. Maybe you should create an invisible wall for the cursor, so it won't get lost. The visuals are pretty clever thanks to the mesh-up of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" background and the extra layer and sackbot designs. One suggestion in the visuals is that the interior haunted house needs a few more corner edits. The objectives, such as scaring off the frog, solve the block puzzles, change the colored blocks' layers, and collecting the pizzas, are very good. This is the adventure level to check out, and congrats on the spotlight.
VISUALS: 4.5/5
SOUND: 4.5/5
GAMEPLAY: 5/5
OVERALL: A yay and heart

If you like, F4F Cybernetic Adventures Omega (linked on my signature)

Hey justin, thanks for your play and thoughts...Just a quick thing about there not being a bounding box on the cursor...Its pretty hard to do when the camera angles always change, so thats why I didn't make one. I decided to make the cursor return if you move the character so it never really gets lost
As for the haunted house, yeah, it's a little plain I guess, but didnt want to detact too much from the puzzles, the tetris type maze was very definitely made to look plain to make it easier to navigate.

I love this level. Everything is full of character and comedy. The characters are unique and funny, gameplay is not to hard and not easy. The best part is with the vomit and farting mechanics, which I will say was done in a way that didn't feel like just an excuse to have farting and vomiting, but rather it was clever enough to make sense for what your character needed to do in the level. All and all, I am very impressed. Good work.

Now, if you could try http://lbp.me/v/ey9jv3 and give me some feedback here, I would greatly appreciate it.

Hehe, glad you liked it lawn stink

I did like the controlinated sackbot idea where you can move the cursor over your sackbot, but I wasn't really paying attention.

WTF???


K guys: I'VE MOVED ONTO A NEW PROJECT (PIRATES OF THE CAROB BEAN TWO) SO NO MORE F4FS K?

Thanks to all that have played, and even more so to you guys that have left feed back....Until I publish P O T C B 2, have fun!

[nerzdadestroyer]

Your psp version was one of my favorites, cant wait to play this new version!