Castle Keeper

Is there a save game or pause ?

What are potions for ?

What do the white potions do?

This could be a challenging and enjoyable game if there were a pause function or if the game paused automatically when the window loses focus, as many games do. Otherwise there's no way I can play this at work! :-)

Also, if I've unlocked 5 or 6 levels, why does returning to the menu send me all the way back to level 1?

This should be mouse control able.

Also no save when I returned to the menu to take a look how to restart a level?

Sorry, lost me there.

I've encountered the white potions, but haven't found their use.

Savegames appear to be planned, but not available in this version.

I've alerted the developer of Castle Keeper to this thread, so keep your feedback coming!

Thanks Satori, but seriously what could be a great game is lost with no save. I even registered on that god forsaken angryarcade website to see if it worked there. Even to Save. It does not.

So sorry with the basic flaw of NO save and NO pause ...tell me honestly did you play though the supposed 50 levels with no break for this review.

I make it a personal policy not to rate anything down, but honestly this game needed a lot of work before it earned a JIG review in my opinion.

Could be good, waiting for a version that works as intended here. Not rated yet, because it could be a really good game and I don't want to add to killing it, but what is it doing here in this state.. inho

REALLY needs the ability to save progress/retry levels without needing to throw away a life. This kind of behavior would have been par for the course in ye-olde-timey sorts of games but is extremely archaic and not-fun for a coffee break style Flash game.

Hello all.

I am Heiko, the developer of the game.

First off all, thank you for the interest in the game and that you like it and I really appreciate your feedback!

The first stage, The Village, introduces you to the game play and how to solve the puzzles, i.e. how to move around and finding the right order. Collect hearts (gives you extra lives) and potions (avoid dying on deadly skulls) in later levels and pick up the clock if you're running out of time.

With every next stage, the game introduces up to seven new creature types and obstacles like arrows (redirect your creature in a given way), bumpers (pushes the creature back), portals ("teleports" the creature of that color between portals), blocker stones (can be only removed by creatures of that color), keys ("unlocks" a locked pentagram of that color) and deadly skulls that kill your creature (this will cost you a life if you don't have collected the potions and pushes the creature back to start).

About saving: the game saves every time when you finish a room, but you progress only forward, when you finish a stage. You remember the castle overview? There you can see all stages. The first stage (the tutorial) is the longest. If you loose your lives or give up, you have to start the stage from the beginning. That is part of the challenge. :)

With every stage, the puzzles get more complicated, but the stages also get "shorter". So if you pass all rooms in a stage (you solved the stage), it acts as a save point. Maybe I should add the information somewhere on the screen what your position in that stage ist (i.e. room 8 of 12 or 4 of 5)?

As the game is about solving a puzzle in time, I struggle with a little bit with pause button. But on the other hand, you're right. I could simply darken the screen / covering the puzzle to allow a pause from the game play without "cheating" :) Let me know, what you think.

I think of adding a puzzle mode (over the actual challenge-mode) mode with a slightly different game play and focussing on the puzzles only, as I am currently enhance the game to about 100 Rooms.

Hello Heiko

Thanks for explaining that. I do think some indication of how far away you are from a "save" point would be a fantastic improvement. I did wonder if it would save eventually, but with no indication and for a first time player it seemed like it never would I think I gave up on the screen with or just past the 1st potion.

Also. I would suggest that the tutorial stage save point should be shorter - there really is not fun running through the 1st 6 screens over and over in the hope that it might save !

Pausing the game is, to me, a pretty essential feature especially with this one being so time critical. Hiding the puzzle during the pause is no problem at all - and to be expected :).

So I would say Yes please! to adding information about next save point and pause.

Thanks

Intriguing game but there are only so many times you can be sent back to replay the starting levels before you decide to give up, so hardly anyone is likely to experience the excitement of the later levels