Rune Hunt

Thanks a lot for your fair and really well written review! This just adds to the most exciting day of this year, hehe.

The slow moving character and lack of minimap are me just being mean. I created the game based on a childhood memory of me and my friend playing the caves part of The Legend of Kyrandia. It was so frustrating, hard, unfair. We drew maps on paper to find our way. Time turned that memory in something pleasent.

(see that walkthrough and you know what I mean)

I understand everyone who doesn't like the game but I still wanted to make it like that and it's not half as unfair or hard as I remember Kyrandia to have been.

Very enjoyable, at least to the third level. But

And I understand the lack of a map, but maybe... could we get one once we've collected a certain number of stones?

rather important when you get to the last level

Even though having to start from the beginning because of the... thing in the last level made me burn with frustration (in more ways than one), I had a great time with Rune Hunt. The puzzles were not too difficult and the story was interesting, but what really shined was the atmosphere of the game. Which is odd, since it's actually very dark. Get it? Get it? ...Okay, I'll stop :D

Butterfly too fast! Little dude go splat.

I agree with Shudog, the butterflies were just slightly too fast. I'd start out down a hallway just behind the butterfly, and by the time I got to the danger I'd have lagged behind so far that the monsters would eat me. The butterflies being faster than you also make it difficult to maneuver your guy to make them go in the right direction without having what I described above happen.

I ragequit on level 3(4? I assume each portal goes to a new level, but I lost track of how many portals I went through.) because of the butterflies, but I might give it a try again, with a pencil and paper this time. Maybe I was just Doing It Wrong, but it felt like I had the right idea, just the execution was very tricky.

I am stuck in a room (corridor, really)

Found it. The walkthrough helps.
Gah. Too nerve-wracking for just after midnight.

Not worth trying to repel the butterfly in the right direction, just to have it rubberband back to it's spawn point. Lowest score.

'Twas fun until I found out that after a point, the butterfly doesn't care if you're chasing it, it just wants to go home.

To all the people complaining about the butterfly:

Having said that, the fire ending and the light ending were, disappointingly not that different. Only the flashing text changed.

Other than that, I enjoyed this a ton. It wasn't really super-hard, the atmosphere was EXCELLENT, and even getting punched around by the golems was a little fun.

To get "home" the butterfly HAS to follow the trail back. If it "sees" you, it will assume you are still chasing, even if you are just standing there.

I played thru in about an hour, hour and a half. I couldn't remember where the exit was a few times, but otherwise I didn't get lost. I enjoyed the simplicity, and the puzzles, which felt organic and not too "puzzley." I only had a bit of trouble butterfly wrangling -- you have to use the knowledge that the butterfly will attempt to return home if you back off and step out of the way.

Good level design, nifty sprites (though the main character seemed blobby), good length. However, what we learn along the way seems more like backstory than story, would have liked a stronger narrative, another character to talk to. Also,

I've found two endings: Jumping into the lava, or escaping. Anyone found a third?

I find it odd that there are spots that are unexplorable in the early game. Especially the first level, where the 'path' splits with two doors. Door on the left leads to the exit, while door on the right has a bunch of grues.
Another point of interest is in level 3 in the far top-left corner, with a golem, a bunch of grues, and a fire. Who put the fire there? Is there anything past those grues above the golem? Unfortunatley the golem prevents safe passage.

Great game. For me, just the right amount of frustration and just the right overall length.
My only real point of annoyance was in the very very beginning when

Though even this was not a big deal.
Kudos to the developer!

There's plenty to like in this little game, but I must admit that after a while the light effects were giving me a headache, and steering those butterflies was just a bit more frustrating then it really needed to be.

Argh. I hate to do this so early on in a simple game, but I'm sooo glad there is a video walkthrough.

I just managed to get two of the butterflies EXACTLY lined up. For a moment I thought they'd combined (nope). It looked cool and lit up a bigger area.
No real point to it, though...

I like this game, but I get really annoyed with how he's continually talking about how amazing it is that he keeps getting resurrected. I get it already. You're a video game character.

The music sounds like the one used in Small Worlds.

I don't believe this! I just accidentally walked into the fire pit on level 4(?) and you're telling me that's it? Start all the way from beginning?! No way! I would have rated the game 5, but this drops it to 1. So frrrustrating! Grr!

I got the 'good' (escape) ending, but now I wonder if there exists a 'best' one when you manage to get out of the caves without dying even once?

Thanks all for taking the time to comment.

@alaira: Now having all the data from more then 100.000 plays I see that level 3 should have been split in two.

@sgtdroopy: I had to make the butterflys return at certain points as players would otherwise try to take one with them all the time and get even more frustrated if they'd lose it. So butterfly puzzles are all local now.

@HoraceTorys: Regarding the dialogue quality I tend to agree. I didn't foresee how hard decent writing is in a foreign language (I'm german). I wasn't perfactly happy but couldn't do any better. :/

@peter: The idea with the dad is that he's keeping you waiting and telling you to wait "just one second" in a way that not only anoys your character but also you as a player. So after a while both of you go "screw this, I'll just have a quick look". I just tried to design the game in a way that the feeling the character and the player are having in sync. He's as unhappy about dying just as you are, he's getting tired of running around and feeling lost. And the Lava pit is there as a temptation of a cheap solution for both of you.

@Danny: He's not actually finding getting resurrected very amazing. And in most video games both you and the avatar just pretend a recen death hasn't happen. I just felt like questioning that convention. Sorry if you didn't like it.

@Thelenius: I'm sorry to hear that. It was not meant as a trap that you'd fall into unintentionally. I'll make the trigger a little smaller and also the "Continue" button to allow you to restart in the 5th level and not from the beginning.

@yeroneem: There's no such third ending. But it's certainly possible to not die once!

I'm glad that most of you seem to like it in a way. :) Seems like most people on armor games hate it! Not fun to read so many negative one-word comments. Well, it's my problem I guess if I take it to heart.

I liked it. The frustrating aspects of the game, it seems, is so intentionally, which does make it oldschool! It's not so bad and not so long that I wasn't prepared to play it over again to see the other ending (I jumped in the lava on purpose to see what would happen but that doesn't mean I wasn't a little frustrated that I had to start at the beginning, again!)

I was kind of expecting a third, grander ending, one where you not only escape but also solve the mystery of the caves, what the creatures were and why you're being resurrected, or of what happened to your father. (A part of me wondered if the dad was also being resurrected and that you might actually run into him later in the game.) I love pixel stuff and I liked the puzzle element, too.

A button on the end screen(s) to restart the last level would've been nice, but otherwise great game! Have to play it again at home, with sound.

Nice little game, despite falling into the lava pit by accident.

Two questions, though (possible spoilers):

A well spent hour of entertainment, game play was well balanced between not being too easy, and not being too hard. Butterflies were the only slightly annoying part (I mean, come ON, can't I catch one???? :-)

Only thing I'd like to have seen added was a third ending that took into account the backstory, depending on if you read all the tablets, or if you just got lucky....

I liked this one, I didnt play when this was first featured, as it started to like a RPG; and I thought I dont have time for this :) But to play it in 2 hours makes it very neat.

I found the game EXCELLENT.
Really great game.
Great mechanisms, great story, great ambiance!!
That's the best ambiance I have seen in a game for a VERY LONG TIME.
Really, congratulations pal, this game was fantastic!
And for me after the lava jump I can restart from the last level, so this issue has been corrected, for the better :-))
Only thing, I too was waiting for a third ending, and a different image for each ending ... let's say that the overall excellent value of the game make me wanting that ;-))

This game, like far too many, hit a major pet peeve of mine: video walkthroughs. The youTube ones are bad enough, but at least they don't force me to watch a 30 second ad before I can get a little help on one of the levels.

And I was looking forward to the rest of the game, too. :( Can anyone give me a nudge? I just found the lantern flowers.

Butterfly won't change directions in lvl 3, so I can't get to third rune..
Great game (till now) though

It's a pretty interesting game and I do want to know what happens. But it is really hard (Level 3 - is that the one with pink mushrooms?) where I am. So I turn to the walkthroughs and what do I find? Nothing. There are only one set of walkthroughs on Armor games, and those aren't loading for me.

It would be nice to have a typed walkthrough some time in the future. Not necessarily too specific but the basics and maybe some screen shots where suitable.

However, it's quite well made in terms of game play. The option to move faster would be nice. I don't know the full story yet but it's very captivating so far.

After messing with butterflies a little bit, I found out several things that were very useful.

I hope that this helps if anyone needs it.

Also, I thought the game was ok. I thought that the way you just made all the walls have infinitely tall black walls to make the lighting effects was really interesting! It worked really well, too!

If I actually had an account, I would give it a 3/5 just because I didn't like that it was necessary to go to the walk-through just to learn that one actually could steer the butterflies.

I'm on the level where you first encounter the 'golems', and I'm stuck. I've tried watching the videos but they're not loading for me :( Please help!