Kava-what? Is it a Pacific island drink of shamans and storytellers? No, Kavalmaja is the latest game from the brilliant Tonypa. A departure from his usual explorations of the abstract, Kavalmaja is a tile-based, Zelda like exploration game, except you have a wacky, randomly generated name. Unlike Zelda, it strips away combat, re-emphasizing the flow of the maze.
Movement is simple and straightforward, just use the [arrow] keys to move around. You will, however, need to familiarize yourself with the symbolic language that Tony has created. Some highlights to get you started:
- The two-armed green block represents you, the player character.
- The green cross icons on the top-left represent your health.
- Red tiles will deduct one health if you intersect with it. Health recharges when you go to another screen.
- Striped blue tiles act like ice, causing you to slide until you hit a wall.
- Blue arrows will move you in the direction they point.
- Blue grids toggle switch effects.
- Blue concentric squares are teleporters that whisk you away to another area of the maze.
- Yellow diamonds are power-ups that you collect for points. You need 50 yellow diamonds to find the final teleporter that ends the game.
- There a few different types of door blocks, you will need to find special items to unlock them.
Analysis: This is a minimalist exercise in flow control; that classic, gem-like, diamondoid gameplay that fans of Metroid or Zelda-style games know and love. It's about having multiple paths and having to deduce which are passable and when the others are ripe for unraveling. The dungeon is a big puzzle that you're working toward a solution for, from the inside out. Expect nothing more and you'll be in bliss. The only knock against it is that some of the obstacle blocks look similar, but the more you play the more you become familiar with the language.
Spire in the matrix of Kavalmaja.
Walkthrough Guide
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Review:
Awesome game. I would love to see another.
I listed the areas and used them as a checklist to make sure I either already had or went back and got all of the gold thingies.
I don't mind the sounds, but after a while I like silence, so I can think. For those complainers out there: don't like the sounds then hit mute!
There is a lot of running around and backtracking. This reminds me of Trapped, but at least the puzzles are more easily solvable or maybe that is just because I already played Trapped. The puzzle was just the right size/length, any more and it may have been too much to tolerate. If there was either an easier way to get quickly from room to room a longer one may have been better, but you can only stand running around in circles for so long :)
My stats:
Name: WEBUKU GRIMTRADER
Score: 12,488 I don't know why it didn't go to the top, maybe too many deaths
All 50 gold and exit in F-1
Kavalmaja walkthrough:
Exit - first so you don't have to figure out why you can't leave later
The exit is random.
You need all 50 gold to exit.
Now go find the exit :D
Blocks
Green is you
White blocks are walls, unmovable or are they? Blue action buttons help with this
Blue blocks (flower-like, well not really) are action buttons. They mainly add and take away blocks.
Gold yet sort of yellow blocks, you need to collect these
Blue blocks with no center and curved edges are teleports.
Checkered blue blocks are ice
Blocks with white in the corners are breakable.
Blocks with a white shape in the middle need the ability with the same shape to destroy them. You do not have to click on the ability you just need to have collected it.
Blocks with no color have to be pushed or pulled, abilities gained later.
Opps you died - life help
You can hit as many times at the amount of green [+] as you have plus one before you can die. If you have one then you can get hit twice, if you have two then you can get hit three times, if you have three then you can get hit four times
Dying just starts you over at a specific spot in the same room. Thankfully it is where you were instead of the beginning.
Enemies, lasers and damagers
Red "blocks" do not move, step on them and they hurt you
Red circle things follow you, they cannot go around walls unless they are already right up against you, keep moving forward and you won't get hit unless you cannot move any where.
Lasers are either stationary or they rotate. There is one stationary laser that a blue block rotates. There are two areas where there are two lasers next to each other rotating the opposite direction of each other. One set is easy to get past, the other you have to get hit at least once.
Ice mazes - In order of when you run into them
D-1
Enter top, then left, down, right, up, right, down, left, up, left, down right, down
D-0
For exit to top left
Up, up, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, down, down, right, up left
For exit to bottom left
Up, up, up, left, down, right, up, left, down, down, left
B-0
Enter go up, left, down, right land on blue action button, up, up, left and exit
F-2
To F-1
From top: right, down, left, up, right into the red, down pushing the block, left, up
To F-3
Come out of F-1, go left one, down, right pushing the block, down
Teleports - also repeated in general map
A-3 teleport
teleport to get to E-o to F-0 to E-1 to E-4 next area
E-0 teleports
upper left A-3
upper right F-0
lower left E-0
lower right E-0
E-1 teleports
upper left E-4
upper right E-0
lower left A-3
lower right F-0
F-0 teleports
upper left E-0
upper right F-0
lower left E-1
lower right A-3
E-1 teleports
upper left E-4
upper right E-0
lower left A-3
lower right F-0
G-0 teleport
teleport to E-4
H-4 teleports
[1]below 5[2]above 7
[3]above 4[4] above 1, 3
[5]same room above 1, 3
[6] [7] below 3 above 6
General map - combined help from above and other tips WARNING above spoilers shown below
A-0
A-1
A-2
A-3 - teleport to get to E-o to F-0 to E-4 next area
A-4
B-0
B-1 north goes no where, cannot enter into B-0
B-2 (Thanks to Crab) stuck? add and then remove the block with the blue thing and then go north over the red and go around the blocks
Later try not to die in the lower right corner
B-3
B-4 from C-4 cannot exit to B-3 or A-4 only can go back to C-4; go to D-2 to go to the other side
C-0
C-1 north goes no where, cannot enter into C-0
C-2 Game starts here
C-3
C-4
D-0
D-1
D-2 takes you to C-2 first area
D-3 stuck? do not go south, go north, if you go south you will not have enough lives to pass by
D-4
E-0 teleports
upper left A-3
upper right F-0
lower left E-0
lower right E-0
E-1 teleports
upper left E-4
upper right E-0
lower left A-3
lower right F-0
E-2
E-3
E-4
F-0 teleports
upper left E-0
upper right F-0
lower left E-1
lower right A-3
F-1 my exit
F-2
F-3
F-4
G-0 teleport E-4
on mine 3 right 5 down, slow point
G-1
G-2
G-3
G-4
H-0
H-1
H-2 (Thanks to Gammler) Go to the right side, under the laser. Go up one, and right one (you'll have to take the two damage). Go up one to lure the first mine out, then go right twice, up once, left once, then begin circling to the left clockwise (from where you should be at now: down, left, up, right) twice until you have both mines out and you're next to the uppermost of the left mines. Then go down, right, up, left twice and straight up. Step-by-step starting at the right-most position under the laser: up, right, up, right x2, up, left, down, left, up, right, down, left, up, right, down, right, up, left, left and up all the way.
H-3
H-4 need last ability (pull)to go to H-3
teleports
[1]below 5[2]above 7
[3]above 4[4] above 1, 3
[5]same room above 1, 3
[6] [7] below 3 above 6
Now who wants to make a map?
Suggestion:
Have all objects still be in their place before moving or collecting them like the one for Pieces from CGDC5 would work great https://jayisgames.com/cgdc5
Posted by: SHA
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March 29, 2008 6:41 AM
Thank you Jay!
In that case I'd like to note that I made this map as I was playing the game, and I changed some block colors to blue and added a few blue blocks to indicate where the blue grids toggle them on and off. I don't think I changed anything else so let me know if something is confusing. Thank you for a great site! ;)
Map:
https://jayisgames.com/images/Kavalmaja_map.gif
Posted by: ottoman
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March 29, 2008 11:30 AM