Go Nuts Competition Entry: CandyPop

[Morpheus]

Here is my entry for the Go Nuts Competition.

Candy Pop
Download for PC and Mac here: https://conceptalpha.itch.io/candypop

Brief: Its a simple puzzle game that I have probably far too much Time playing 
You have to clear the board of Candies. Clicking on the candies makes them grow larger until they pop!
The juice from the popping candy makes adjacent candies expand. Create Pop chains for massive score and multiplier boosts!

Hope you all enjoy!

[Derron]

HI ... played it for some minutes (runs fine on Linux with wine - no need to boot something else here ).

The music ... while it is calm I think it does not fit to a "candy" theme, think a more "circus" or "carnival/fair" music style would suit more. Albeit it is of course always nice to listen to some Chris Huelsbeck music

The background: when I tried to concentrate on the game area I felt ab it drunken ... the game "moved" ... until I recognized it is a slight movement in the background. Also the background elements seem to have pixelated outlines (not "alpha/antialiased"), maybe it is the scaling of the image (played in windowed, not fullscreen).
I think a bit of animation in the background is ok -- eg grass slowly moving in the wind or so but... the "whole" background moving horizontally?
Yet I have to confirm I begun to ignore the background rather quick - but I am unsure how it "feels" if you play for a longer time.


Gameplay after only a quick test: first thought is "search for fat/big candies for chain reactions". Reminds a bit on a mix of "clickomania" (click away groups of tiles). Dunno why it needs different candies (except for a "varying look") - I first of all thought it is a kind of "match 3" + "spill over and affect neighbours" gameplay (when just judging a screenshot).


Menu: I was only able to click on the "icons", not on the "menu texts", maybe make them clickable too 


Aside of the nitpicking first feedback -- nice entry, well well well done!


Edit: Playonloop has some chiptune music which imho fits nice ("mood wise") but might be a bit too energic
https://www.playonloop.com/2018-music-loops/follow-me
https://www.playonloop.com/2018-music-loops/pet-park
https://www.playonloop.com/2020-music-loops/rainbow-puzzle
... (click on their tags to see more of the entries).
I used playonloop for some previous compo games already (the free shortcut loops repeated some times and then crossfaded into another "loop set")

bye
Ron

[chalky]

I agree with Ron about only being able to click on the icons - having the text clickable as well would be good.

The collision between mouse and candy seems a little off - clicking on the 'edge' of one (even though the pointer of the mouse is 'over' it) does not work - detection only happens if the mouse is closer to the centre. I also found the fact that you can't click on a candy until after all currently moving items have finished processing a bit frustrating, as I often found myself having to repeatedly click on my next selection before it registered.

Great little game - very polished, and a wonderful timewaster - I have already spent FAR too long playing it! 

[Morpheus]

Thanks for the feedback so far. 

I did have some different music earlier when I was making the game that was more "candy" themed; while at first it seemed to fit right I found that I was more inclined to rush and tap the candies faster. I want to make the game feel more relaxed and found Chris' tune much more how I wanted it?

The scrolling background: When I made the graphics I was trying to layer them so I could possibly rotate around a big sphere. But it looked really bad especially where it was moving at the top edge of the screen. As I had spent ages making them suitable for a parallax background I thought I would leave them in and scrolling very slowly. If I'm honest I had forgot that they were still moving as I don't really notice the backgrounds when playing anymore.

I have to agree the menus can be a bit annoying; the engine (GMS) doesn't have built in code for 'click over text' so I just had it on the sprite 'buttons'. I have a cunning plan on how to fix it now. So I will include that in the next update.

The game was originally designed to be played on a tablet or phone so the 'hit' boxes for the candies is ok for my fat fingers  on my iPad and iPhone. Again I will update in the next release.

I did toy with the idea of allowing the player to register the next move before the end of the chain but decided against it as you can then run out of moves quicker, which I suppose would the players choice then? Hmmmmm lets see what other people think? It was actually harder to Coe the way it is now!

Cheers,

Aaron

[Derron]

"clicks while stuff is moving around":
There is a difference between "visual being able to click" and "really popping elements when clicking".
So similar to "lag handling" in a MMORPG you could allow interaction with the real "action" being delayed (until confirmed).

In your game this means: you click on an element - and an animation starts right? But "internally" you already know what is popping because of the chain reaction etc. so clicks on these items would be "no ops".
But to make it not play "very odd" the animation of these spreading "sweet soup" must be more swishy/fast - so that it almost finished when most players tapped the next item (quickly).


The other approach is what you already seem to have "in mind" for short amount of time: a sweet activation can happen even if it is "soon" to pop already. I think this can be a slightly different game ... but not a worse one. It would allow a different kind of strategy.
Assume there are to "next step will pop them" blue candies in a row. Now you pop a different one which would "pop" and spread its juice to the blue candies. Being able to "simultaneously" pop elements would let the juice hit candies which were blocked some ticks ago.
This would even be more "useful" if the color of the candies had an influence (only blue popping candies "grow" other hit blue candies ... or such stuff).


@ Music
Yes, it must be some kind of "relaxing" music, yet it (in my opinion) does not fit to the visual theme ...  everybody has a different taste


@ clickable texts
Can't you just overlay the texts with some transparent rectangular area, or invisible image?



bye
Ron

[Morpheus]

Hi,

Uploaded a new version where you can now click on the text area on menus.
The clickable area of the candies is now bigger as well.

Cheers,

Aaron

[chalky]

Thanks for the update.

There seems to be a new bug introduced on the front end: selecting 'Options' from the main menu and clicking on the 'mute' icons selects items from the main menu - so muting the music causes the high-score table to be displayed (behind the options window - the high-scores then remain when the options window is closed) and muting the sound starts the game...

Also: I forgot to mention that there was an occasion (in v1.0) when I cleared a level but still got a 'GAME OVER' because I had 0 moves left. Since the game usually gives a 'bonus' move for clearing a level is this a bug?

[Morpheus]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback on the new version.

There seems to be a new bug introduced on the front end: selecting 'Options' from the main menu and clicking on the 'mute' icons selects items from the main menu - so muting the music causes the high-score table to be displayed (behind the options window - the high-scores then remain when the options window is closed) and muting the sound starts the game...

That was my fault: I forgot the change I made could affect the Options UI because it is the only UI that is used in more than 1 place. It 'hides' the other menus but it didn't disable the buttons clickable areas! So that is now fixed.

Also: I forgot to mention that there was an occasion (in v1.0) when I cleared a level but still got a 'GAME OVER' because I had 0 moves left. Since the game usually gives a 'bonus' move for clearing a level is this a bug?

That was a sneaky one to find, I don't think I had come across that in the whole time I had been play testing. Fixed now.

I will release a new version towards the end of the week in case of any other issues are found.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Morpheus]

Hi,

Version 1.0.2 now available to download, here. https://conceptalpha.itch.io/candypop.


Cheers,

Aaron

[chalky]

I got to level 92, with 203 moves available and a score of 110000+ (can't remember exactly how much) - so paused the game for a break.

When I clicked to continue, I was presented with a 'Code Error' box containing the following:

Code: [Select]

############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of  Step Event0
for object objUIOptions:

Unable to find any instance for object index '33' name 'objUITitleMenu'
at gml_Object_objUIOptions_Step_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_objUIOptions_Step_0 (line -1)

Hopefully this means something to you!

[Morpheus]

I got to level 92, with 203 moves available and a score of 110000+ (can't remember exactly how much) - so paused the game for a break.

When I clicked to continue, I was presented with a 'Code Error' box containing the following:

WoW  you definitely have beat any of my best scores!

Sorry you have had the crash; I will have a look at it when I get back from a trip to visit the other half cousin’s. Unfortunately it won’t be until next week.

[chalky]

No rush whatsoever - totally loving the game (can you tell?) - just wanted you to know about the crash.