Tuesday 18 December 2012

Corrypt




download:
iOS appstore
itch.io (windows/mac)

This is a new puzzle game.

It's today's free game on the "Advent of Indies" calendar. I used this as a deadline to motivate me to finish it. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

There will be an iOS version, but there's a delay of several days between when you upload something there and when it actually shows up, so I'll mention when that's available.

(Oh, and if you enjoy this you'll probably like Game Title and Lost Levels, and vice versa.)

edit 31/12/2012: Minor bug-fix update.

edit 06/01/2013: seems to not be working for people on Windows 7. Trying to fix this now.

41 comments:

  1. Incredible game. I love the way the new mechanic really opens it up organically. (I'm trying to keep it pretty vague, but there are possibly some spoilers here for people who might want to experience it first themselves.) Game Title did something like this and had its own item that greatly expanded your exploration capabilities, but the way this affects the whole game--both mechanically and aesthetically--is a really nice development (I haven't had the chance to play Lost Levels yet, so I don't know if it has something like this as well). Aesthetically, it feels like those first glimpses you get of the areas behind-the-scenes in Portal, when you're tearing at the surface of the game, except portals stay mostly pretty separate from the aesthetic and the narrative, besides maybe the sense of agency they give you as you escape, and you get portals early on whereas here the aesthetic shift comes with the wonderful moment of discovery of the mechanic that drives the rest of the game. And the way the bits of text work as foreshadowing is great. Mechanically, there's a huge gain in complexity, and you give us the total destruction, more or less, of the neatness of puzzles with just one or a few solutions. And not a single tutorial was needed to communicate this experience!

    I only managed to get four of the score gems. I also think I may have found a small bug (although it's a bit hard to tell what's a bug and what's not in this game). I think when I used an undo after purchasing magic, the price of the magic went up by one mushroom when I went to purchase it again, as if I had purchased it previously and been able to keep it, which could allow magic to rise in price arbitrarily over and over again if you keep undoing after buying.

    But otherwise, great job.

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    1. Yeah, that's a bug; I've updated to fix it but it's incompatible with previous savefiles (sorry! couldn't help that - the save format needed to change to save the prices).

      Thanks, I'm glad you appreciated what I was trying to do with this!

      Delete
  2. This was really cool, I like it a lot. The magic mechanic is unlike anything I've seen before. It really takes advantage of the single-screen presentation. I think you also did a good job of making the player feel as if they've sorta lost control of their destructive actions.

    Once I'd collected everything (well, everything that hadn't been destroyed by magic) including five score gems, it wasn't clear if I had to do anything else or if there even was an ending. I noticed there were a few blank spots on the map but there didn't seem to be any way I could have dug my way into them. If not, that's fine, I mean it's about the journey not the destination am I right?

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    1. Yeah, it's good not to feel like you have to complete everything. It's possible to visit every room on the map, but I don't expect that everyone will figure out how - and you might destroy things with magic in such a way that it becomes impossible.

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  3. This game is great. Thanks for making this game. This is a good game. Game. Gam. G.

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  4. Tried to download the mac game, but got an error from Dropbox.

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    1. Seems to have just been a temporary thing, it's working again now.

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  5. Incidentally, I love how your art style is coming along.

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  6. Loving the game, but have reached a point where an apparent bug is stopping me being able to continue. After being offered some magic if I collect some mushrooms (and I'm not sure how best to describe this) there are 2 blocks of shimmering pixels that are always on screen (no matter which part of the map I'm on). One of the blocks I'm able to walk through, the other one is solid and consequently blocks some passages/doorways etc. Any ideas? http://tinypic.com/r/2hdp0sy/6

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    1. Huh, that's weird, but it shouldn't stop you being able to continue. Keep at it!

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  7. Actually it DOES stop me continuing. In the room above the one I've screen-capped, the solid block is in the way of a doorway and I am unable to complete it....and the room is called "error", where normally there would be "courtyard", "mine" or whatever. Nevermind, but it looks like I won't be able to continue.
    Thanks anyway.

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    Replies
    1. if you've talked to the magician then surely you've already completed that room. persist!

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  8. I've already visited every room and i dont know if i should continue.. does this game has something like an ending?

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    1. awesome game by the way! very smart

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    2. it has an ending. have you been to every square on the map in the bottom right?

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    3. dude! you broke my ipod.. haha great game! finally finished it. Probably the best i've played on my ipod i really like it's style. Are you planning on doing more¿

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  9. Hey, just wanted to say great job on this game! I played through twice just to see if I could do better.

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  10. All of your games look so innovative but I cannot get any of them to work in Windows 8. Any suggestions aside from the obvious of running in compatibility & admin mode?

    Thanks.

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    1. Yeah I have no idea what this problem is but I'm working on figuring out, hopefully I can find it soon.

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    2. Thanks man, because I really sense that I'm missing out on some epic games!!! :)

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  11. Excellent Game. Really enjoyed it. I made to every room on both levels and collected all 5 gem stones and have 3 magic to spare. Is that the end? Is there something else I should try to accomplish? By the way, as the game progressed and the rooms got crazier, I really enjoyed the sense of panic / mad dash nature of the last few rooms. The game slowly devolved into a mad house for a while. Loved that sense of crescendo that you built.

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    1. There are seven gems in total. You haven't been to every space on the map. I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

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    2. I got them all! You'll know. Definitely a fun puzzle.

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    3. And 7. Cheers guys. As I said, excellent game. Incredible to think through the over lap of 50 rooms...

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    4. Hey, well done. And thanks!

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Holy cow, I just heard of this earlier in the week and finally had a chance to get chemically enhanced and give this a shot... ... Amazing! This truly speaks to me in a way very few games have. I could see how it's under appreciated, but I'm enthralled. Well done. I can't wait to really dig in and try some of your other work. I wish this was available for Android so I could just buy it, but I'll put in the effort to find out how to donate as soon as I can stop playing

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  14. I did't expect this game to be so good. There is a weird feeling as you gradually mess up the whole map, or accidentally delete the characters. Something like 'Oh, what have I done?'.

    But as others pointed out, it's easy to get stuck, since you can overwrite the mushrooms, ladders and mages too. Right now, I have 5 gems but there are still 6 unexplored rooms. I can't make a way into any of them as there are no openings. Could you give some hints?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks.
      You can get into the unexplored rooms, I can't tell you how though. Sorry!

      Delete
  15. I just realized what I have to do after reading my own comment. That was an unusual ending :) Overall, great game!

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  16. Amazing game. Brog, what's the best score you have seen? I have no idea how to get into a few of the rooms, particularly the room to the left of the red liquid. - Robin

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  17. I love this game – can't stop playing it.
    Respect!

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  18. Collected All Mushrooms, yay i won http://img.imgcake.com/allmushpnguv.png

    Excellent & fun puzzle game here! All the glitches, intentional or not, certainly help make it a great experience.

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    1. Oh wow you really did win! I hadn't realised it was possible to get MAGIC less than -1 (but I can see how now that I know). Well done!

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    2. Also for what it's worth, here's the 'Best' score I've gotten for the game, since the game values the MAGIC amount over the MUSHROOM one (imo, making the correct route to go quite a bit more challenging than my 'All Mushrooms' one if you know what you're doing with all the glitches & game mechanics)

      http://img.imgcake.com/corrypthighscorepngbu.png

      Pretty sure that's the highest you can get, or at least I hope so. I may or may not be obsessed with this game to have gone through as much planning as I did for that route.

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  19. I just created a folder on my iPhone (Brough) dedicated to your games. I hope to meet you one day.

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  20. I discovered Corrypt through the interview on Edge-Online. Afraid to say that it is not a game for me. I find it to be a somewhat intellectually elitist game, refusing to open up through simple play and experimentation and smugly withholding its joy from those gamers who have been brain-numbed by the constant mollycoddling & handholding of modern AAA videogames. Excuse me whilst I return to the space-marine-corridor-shooters where me and my non-VIP IQ obviously belong.

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  21. You've managed to make everything in my head hurt and want to cry. I've visited all the rooms; I'm calling that my personal victory and going to bed. Thank you so much, almost 3 years later.

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  22. I found your game through a college project I have to do. I really love the corruption elements to your game!

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  23. I cannot get the game to run on my windows 10 for a school assignment

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