[Steve Ince]

http://www.juniper-games.com/smoozles/downloads.htm

Filled with gaming goodness and non-fattening fun.

[SoccerDude28]

Can't wait to download it when I go home.

Thanks Steve

[eriq]

Ok Nutso is a pretty fun little gem! I just got the enabler and through the bottom set of iron doors into a new area. Cool. And the part:

Spoiler:

where you turn into a sheep is hilarious. LOL!

what a cute game!

[Kurufinwe]

That was fun! And I even managed not to get killed (barely!).

What fraction of the game does the demo represent?

(and was there a point in stabilizing the reality vortex?)

[Dale Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Kurufinwe

(and was there a point in stabilizing the reality vortex?)

Apart from being able to obtain the contents of the chest of drawers?

[Steve Ince]

And getting more points, of course.

You'll see more in the full game.

The demo probably represents about a tenth of the full game.

[Kurufinwe]

Originally Posted by Dale Baldwin

Apart from being able to obtain the contents of the chest of drawers?

Drat, I forgot to do that (and I've already deleted my saves). Oh well...

[Steve Ince]

Glad you liked it Eriq.

[Dale Baldwin]

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Spoiler:

It just contains a few more reality shards.

[eriq]

I actually got stuck just now but I think I figured it out.

It's a really cool little game. I especially like the running animation of the main character. LOL. Very cute. And did anyone notice the:

Spoiler:

Grim Fandango reference? "looks like Manny Calavera" in the room where everyone is stuck in little forcefields?

LOL. I want stickers of the characters to stick all over my fridge.

[Kurufinwe]

Oh, OK. Thanks.

[Steve Ince]

Stickers would be cool.

[bysmitty]

Rad, I can't wait for 4 to roll around so I can get my arse home and play this. Been looking forward to getting my hands on this one for a while now.

...bysmitty

[insane_cobra]

Thanks for the heads up, Steve! Just finished it and here are my impressions.

The graphics are clean and colorful, the music and sound effects aren't bad and the game is fairly fun to play. The humor didn't leave me in stitches, but it was all right, I believe the fans of your comic will be pleased. I especially liked the inclusion of comic strips, that's a nice touch.

And now with some (constructive, I hope) criticism.

First of all, the Windows taskbar remained visible throughout the game, covering the lower portion of the screen.

The interface could use a little streamlining. For instance, pressing D to teleport out of the first screen and pressing Y to confirm doing things on the computer terminal - I didn't like that. There should be as little keys as possible. If the terminal actions absolutely need confirming, maybe you could do it with a tiny menu with YES on top and NO beneath it (and YES selected by default). That way people could use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate option and enter to select it. Teleportation could be dealt with through usage of some teleportation devices (you use them later on anyway).

Ed's movement is a little awkward. It's tile based so he doesn't stop moving as soon as you let go of the key. Maybe it prevents getting stuck on the corners, but it doesn't feel that great. I believe there are ways around that because I've never had a similar problem elsewhere.

Speaking of movement, sometimes it seems a little too slow. Or maybe it's just that rooms with no enemies chasing you are quite boring to maneuver. I almost wished for a point and click interface in those instances.
You don't need to have enemies (ie. Mr. Smoozles) in every room, but you could make it more interesting by introducing some platforming elements (moving platforms, zapper patterns etc).

Exiting the screen through various doors is a little inconsistent. Sometimes it's instantaneous and sometimes it takes a little time (the animated door on the bottom of the first post-teleportation screen - when it didn't transport me to another screen instantaneously, I pressed enter again so as soon as I entered another screen, I got transported back). Also, when you teleport out of the vortex screen and then teleport back, you're not returned to the position of the teleporter so you have to walk over the whole screen to reach it again.

Another problem I noticed is that NPC-s don't know when you've already done or learned something. On the very first screen I headed for the crown first and talked to the frog only after I acquired it. It gave me its little speech as if I didn't already have the crown on me. Then I had to press enter again to use it. I've seen other games do that, too, but it's annoying, avoid it if you can. Write another line of dialog for the situation when Ed already has the crown on him before he talks to the frog and don't make the player have to press enter twice. Likewise, that entrapped alien friend told me a bunch of stuff about the crystals and Ed acted as if he didn't know anything about them when in fact he's already been collecting them for some time. It's confusing and I have to say I didn't really understand what he was talking about (admittedly, I haven't been trying to make much sense of it either).

Finally, I was hoping for a bit more of, you know, interaction density.
For instance, the first thing I did after talking to the entrapped alien friend dude was walking up to the bunch of boxes beneath it and trying to pick it up (it looked like something I could pick up). When that didn't work, I tried examining it, but didn't get any response. If you can, try to make every non-wall object examinable.

Damn, that's a lot of complaints. But don't take it too hard, I'm only trying to help you make this cute game as good as possible. Good luck!

(Oh, and I hope you'll modify the demo as soon as the full version becomes available for purchase.)

[Steve Ince]

Thanks for the feedback. I must admit that I've never had the taskbar problem, but I'll look into that.

All your other comments are certainly food for thought and may delay the release by a few months...

[insane_cobra]

Whoops!

Well, if it makes the game better and your wallet fuller... But don't listen to me, see what others have to say first.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

Speaking of movement, sometimes it seems a little too slow.

Absolutely. The animations are adorable, but it takes much too long to get from point A to point B.

[bigjko]

Loved it! Absolutely loved it!

[Dasilva]

OMG! This game is actually extremely fun. Job well done. Any chance of voice acting in the future?

[Steve Ince]

You guys are warming my heart no end.

I'd love to do voice acting, but at this stage the budget doesn't run to it. Perhaps in the future I can do an updated version.