Your CPU and RAM should be handling the game already quite good. I guess it's more related to Firefox and the Intel graphics card.

Anyway I've started to make some performance optimisations. On firefox for example just drawing the clock as a native font on each from actually costs 20% performance loss. I just saw it when I run the game on firefox. Also the lights on both of the slow screens you've mentioned are costing a lot of performance. I'll pm you when I push the changes and you can have another look if you feel like it

Thanks for giving it a shot. And also special thanks for the detailed comments.

I always thought the heavy-parts are the actual game play itself, not the other fancier animation parts. If possible can you specify your CPU, memory and graphics card ? Also the game runs fastest in Chrome, have you tried ? I can put some more options to disable that animations, I'll put that on my list. It seems like an alpha-blending issue since all of those effects you mentioned uses lots of particles with alpha-blending. Most probably something to do with the graphics card.

QuoteWhen selecting the mage/faerie I first clicked on the image, then on the description next to it and only then on the name. Please make the clickable areas larger

=> Will do

QuoteThe hints the mage/faerie gives interrupt the gameplay and don't take into account...

=> To be honest, I absolutely hate doing that tutorial system and it shows all over the place. You are right and also not the first one that's frustrated. I'll fix that somehow.

QuoteAfter solving a level, I can click on the gnomes to get their names, which is kind of cute, but ultimately useless

=> Original plan was to make the game more RPG-ish, to have stats and equipment and so on. Later I saw that it means another year of development so I cancelled. Names are still there though, just as something interesting and useless I'm thinking to pop-up the names as a toolbar

QuoteSo please add the progress buttons from the beginning on.

=> Yep. Either this, or I'll make the boxes open on their own after a short time delay.

QuoteIf you click "Accept and Quit" the progress it not saved and you have to play again the level you just solved.

=> Oh, that's a bug. I'll fix. Thanks.

QuoteHow do I quit a level, except closing the browser window?

=> If you hit the pause button on the upper-right, you'll see more buttons pop-up. There is a home button which takes you to the title screen and also a retry button that restarts the level.

QuoteIf one lets grains fall down from far above, they form a small hill. Problem: The slope of this hill is too steep for the gnomes to walk up. This makes it very difficult to create a slope where the gnomes can walk up.

=> Uh, I didn't understand that one. The dropped grains (solid ones like sand, dirt), regardless of the height, always pile-up in a 45° angle and Gnomes can always walk on.

And finally, the first 5-6 levels are the straightforward tutorial levels. There are some really interesting puzzles ahead. If you like to play again, and can play, I'd really would like to have more comments from you

Months of hard work and Graina is now v0.5 Alpha.

I'd like to admit that I'm feeling like a lousy self-promoter by posting on this forum only about Graina. I was intending to make much more interaction here but sadly I'm devoting every bit of time I can scrape from my day-life to Graina.

Anyway, this time I published it on itch.io, so you can try it free, no ads, fast and also with full screen option.

There are major bug-fixes, performance improvements, lot's of new levels, 2 boss levels and also a fully-working tinker (creative/editor) mode.

Have a look here:

https://multiplex-games.itch.io/graina

And as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

Thanks for playing!

@607: No you don't have to start a new game. You can quit to the title screen, hit "continue", then select the level you would like to play again. You'll see that the poor guy is still there waiting for rescue 

@namida:

QuoteDon't take the negativity too harshly; overall, I'm really liking this!

Not at all. Seeing that you have played to the end is enough, at least I know that the game is not boring


Spiders pop-up : I just tried that myself and yeah, it's a kind of unintended behaviour. For now I'll keep them buried. But a tunelling monster, sandworm? is a pretty slick idea

Level 5, pan-the-cam bonuses : Yep, I put there wrong bonuses. To be fixed.

Mine, solve and craft : Yep. No disadvantage to collect from a single place. I wanted to make it similar to minecraft or terraria logic there, where you need to grind to collect the elements.

Camera uncontrollable : In all the levels, the first 3 seconds, the camera tweens to the position of the entry door. But since in most levels it's single screen, it's not noticable. I can make it fast and for the sake of completeness pause the tween if game is paused.

I'll have a more critical look to the plumber in caves level.

Again, many thanks and have a nice weekend.

Graina alpha v0.4 is out
Take a look in your browser on Kongregate http://www.kongregate.com/games/multiplex_games/graina

Man, it's a hard job to try developing a game as a single guy. Thanks again for the feedback you've previously given. Most of them are in the game.

Got it! Sent PM.

@namida : Could you please write your overall impressions so far?

@607 : Looking forward to it ))

Well, for level 3 you need to scroll the map a little bit downside by pressing "S" . You'll see some sand blocking the water.

So I figured out that just polishing and adding things don't help after some point. It's not at the point that I like to have but still is playable with lot's of new things.

I'm very eager to hear your feedbacks

http://multiplexgames.com/play-now/graina/

Thanks. I'll check it.

Err...how do you exactly make a level I mean I'm confused about all the different Lemmings mods, unsure what or which to use, etc.. from where (or which forum entry) should I start to get into this business ?

Here is the v0.09 video. About 2.5 minutes showing the adventure and the tinker mode
https://youtu.be/g5YiIOmQeVc

It took me a while but I managed to add most of the feedbacks, especially about the controls, to the game. In the mean time I added the basics like menu. Also fixed lots of glitches and bugs and overall improved the engine.

I've put most of my efforts on the Tinkerer mode. In the end this would serve both purposes of well, tinkering and also using it as an in-game editor to create levels.

I haven't updated the play-link, so it's still the old version. When the game is completely playable and the Tinkerer is completely operational, I'm planning to make another release as v0.1 alpha.

Cheers!

@607: I just checked the videos, I guess that might fit to the overall setting of the game. Just that the music should be somewhat more happy and max. about 2~3 minutes long. If you find the time, I'd be happy to try. I'm really excited about your improvisation over this "egyptian cliché"

@namida: Today I forced a friend of mine to play through the complete level without giving any tips, so I realized that the level was indeed much harder than I intended. He tried to dump sand into the lava pool for the first 10 tries or so, then I had to point him to the right direction and so on

@ccexplore: I played that game maybe a year a go and totally forgot it. Indeed it resembles and I agree that core mechanics should be given step by step, then more complicated puzzles should form in the course of the game. For the mouse controls, I think I'll do like this; Mouse-wheel to switch between the buckets. Left click always put, right click always suck. Also you can switch faster with hotkeys 1-2-3 so on. Camera-panning with middle button or the w-a-s-d.

@607: The game might be a little bit CPU intensive, but it should work fine with any intel i3 (even with older Core2 CPUs) and Chrome or Firefox. For the music, I'd be happy to get any help I can muster. Actually I'm looking for a variaton of this music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRfIUMbTas for some desert-sand levels. In general, it can be a chiptunes music like the one I used in the game.

"Left click for scroll / right click to use tool seems very counter-intuitive to me. IMO, the two should be swapped"
=> Definitely true. I was trying to make one unified interface both for mouse and for touchscreens and this scheme fails on both )

"The game desperately needs a Pause feature"
=> Good idea, will implement. Pause and pan but no tools.

"A way to restart the level without refreshing the page would be nice; but I am guessing that's more a result of the work-in-progress nature than an omission as such."
=> Yep

"It needs to be a bit more obvious where the "drains" are"
=> Yup. So I assume, the lava and water 'springs' are pretty obvious to locate. I'll put a similar graphical clue for sinks also.

Out of curiosity : Were you able to complete the level, even with a single Lemming Gnome or just had a look?