some feedback

[Dohi64]

- not a fan of the controls, tried all 3 grab methods and none seem comfortable. I think it'd be better if you didn't need to do anything to push a block and only grab it if you want to pull it. auto seemed like a good idea, but letting go is too finicky.

- no widescreen support in a 2020 game is not ideal. you'd just have to fill the rest of the screen with the background image to make the black bars on the side disappear.

- I'm fine without achievements, but some people don't touch games without them. their loss as far as I'm concerned, but it may or may not help sales to add some.

I'm around halfway through world 3, but the control system is too finicky for me to continue, so this might be it, for now anyway.

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FIXED/ADDED:

- only wasd works in the menu, arrows don't anymore, unless set (used to be fine with 2 keysets and either selected). (fixed on may10)

- in the config menu 'back' could say 'backspc' to avoid confusion. (fixed on may10)

- stats in hud settings should say 'MovesTime' to match the other options. (fixed on may10)

- as I mentioned in my emails weeks ago, 'u' for undo is really awkward and it's the same for both keysets. it'd be great if you could add backspace as an alternative because currently there's none. (default changed to backspace on may9)

- not being able to undo while grabbing a block is another annoyance. (fixed on may9)

- not being able to hold undo to take back multiple moves is another one. (fixed on may9)

- non-rebindable controls are one tihng, but if controller rebinding is possible by editing a text file, why not allow the same for keyboard? (added on may9)

- I'd like to turn the timer off. it doesn't serve any purpose if you're not trying to beat your own time for some reason, it's just distracting. same for the move counter, though that doesn't bother me too much. (hud settings added on may9)

[Kimimaru4000]

Hi Dohi, thanks for the feedback! I'll consider all of this going forwards.

* Regarding the Auto grab option, it behaves the way it does to allow playing without pressing the grab button. There are situations where it's ambiguous what the player wants to do, and I didn't want to make any decisions for them. For example, if the player is facing down and there's a block directly to the right of them, it's unclear if they'll want to push or pull the block when moving right to face it. Later levels generally require more pulling than earlier ones.
* To expand on the letting go delay: in earlier builds this delay didn't exist, making it extremely hard to pull blocks with Auto grab without accidentally pushing them.

* Widescreen support would unfortunately require significant changes since the background isn't the same for all game states (title screen, overworld map, different world backgrounds, etc). I can look more into how much this would affect the game (UI, etc).

[Dohi64]

I understand grabbing controls have to be like this for various reasons, it's just not ideal. not even sure if my suggestion would be any better (grab only when pulling), but can't be much worse than the current varieties.

as for widescreen, it's not a dealbreaker, just surprising that you created a 4:3-only game without considering widescreen from the get-go.

[Kimimaru4000]

Hi Dohi, thanks for the clarification. What would ideal controls for a traditional Sokoban game be for you?

[Dohi64]

you'd have to ask sokoban masters, as I don't play too many of them and they don't have a pulling mechanic anyway, but as I said above, backspace for undo would be very welcome and shouldn't be hard to add. holding it to undo more might be trickier.

and depending on how difficult and/or time-consuming it is to implement, the grab-only-for-pulling thing could be worth a shot, but if your testers and other players don't have issues with the controls, it's probably not worth bothering with.

[Kimimaru4000]

Hi Dohi, I've released an update that addresses most of your feedback. One of the changes includes rebindable keyboard controls, which I hope will help you play the game more comfortably.

[Dohi64]

thanks! just tested it and found that only wasd works in the menu, arrows don't anymore, removing alternate keysets was too successful. my initial concern before all this was if I had keyset 1 selected, keyset 2 keys wouldn't work, but they did, so it should be easy to have both available no matter what.

and I get 'backspace' is too long to display in the config menu, but maybe 'backspc' would work to avoid confusion.

didn't realize undo was limited, I only tried if the move counter stops at 99 (at first I thought it did but I just happened to finish on 99 moves). 60 sounds plenty though, especially with not every step counting as a move.

as for hud settings, stats should say 'MovesTime' to match the other options.

once these get resolved, I'll edit my review to be up-to-date.

[Kimimaru4000]

Originally posted by Dohi64:

thanks! just tested it and found that only wasd works in the menu, arrows don't anymore, removing alternate keysets was too successful. my initial concern before all this was if I had keyset 1 selected, keyset 2 keys wouldn't work, but they did, so it should be easy to have both available no matter what.

My apologies if I'm misunderstanding. Are you saying you want both keysets available again, this time both being rebindable?

[Dohi64]

not necessarily, with rebinding available there's no real need for keysets in a single-player game, but don't see why arrows and wasd couldn't work at the same time, like before. menu navigation with wasd is weird anyway and the mouse doesn't do anything (the cursor still appears).

defaulting the arrow keys would also work, I'm sure that's what most people would try when they first start the game, then they can change it to wasd if they want, but it'd still leave menu navigation awkward.

[Kimimaru4000]

Are you expecting the arrow keys to work all the time, or only in the menu? Lastly, if the entire second keyset is available again, that might interfere with the rebindable controls since the second keyset can't be changed. What do you think about this?

[Dohi64]

Originally posted by Kimimaru4000:

Are you expecting the arrow keys to work all the time, or only in the menu?

that's a good question. I guess it can be confusing either way. I think the way the game is played, arrows make more sense, since there's no mouse, but various other keys are necessary to grab, undo and restart, but they can be changed now if somebody prefers wasd, so it shouldn't be a problem, and if they change to wasd themselves, they wouldn't expect arrows to work in the menu either. probably.

Lastly, if the entire second keyset is available again, that might interfere with the rebindable controls since the second keyset can't be changed. What do you think about this?

why can't the second keyset be changed? there could be a single controls screen with main and alternatives to be set? main controls are arrows, alternative is wasd, main undo is backspace, alternative is u, etc. so both would work, just like with 2 keysets, but both could be changed if necessary.

[Kimimaru4000]

Thanks for clarifying! I'll let you know when the next patch is out.

[Kimimaru4000]

Hi Dohi, update 1.0.2 is out, incorporating much of your feedback. Thanks again!

[Dohi64]

great, everything seems to work flawlessly now. still can't crack 3-6, but that's not the game's fault :)