Graina : A Lemmings-like sandbox game with dynamic environment

[Nepster]

I tried it, but only got to level 3. Not because the game idea is bad or boring, but due to UI problems:

1) Performance issues: My computer is too slow for your animations. It got better after I found the option to remove sand shadows, but the following parts still slowed down the game-play:
- When I first selected the book, the rotation animation updated perhaps four times per second and each time the book rotated about 45°.
- Taking too much sand into my box, which has to move over the screen.
- The rotating light blue circle which hints at interesting locations.
Without these parts, the game runs smoothly, but once such animations appear...

2) When 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.

3) The hints the mage/faerie gives interrupt the gameplay and don't take into account if the player is already doing precisely what the hint says. In my opinion, hints (especially ones the player didn't actively requested) should never, ever interrupt the game-play. They should instead appear at the border of the level, where an interested player can read them and an uninterested player may ignore them.

4) After solving a level, I can click on the gnomes to get their names, which is kind of cute, but ultimately useless. But I couldn't find any button to progress. It turned out that I had to click on the present box to get the award first. This has two problems:
- There is no indication that clicking there has any effect before hovering over it, nevermind that it has to be clicked.
- Some players like me are not interested in awards and directly want to progress to the next level.
So please add the progress buttons from the beginning on. How to make it clearer that the box is clickable is a harder question to which I have no good answer. Personally I would directly display the award next to the box and remove the clickable action altogether.

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

6) How do I quit a level, except closing the browser window? Neither "Esc" nor "Q" works nor is there a button available.

7) If 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.

[multiplex]

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.

When 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

The 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.

After 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

So 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.

If 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.

How 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.

If 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

[Nepster]

If possible can you specify your CPU, memory and graphics card ? Also the game runs fastest in Chrome, have you tried?

CPU 2.16GHz, RAM 4GB, graphics card Intel HD Graphics. I don't have Chrome, but Firefox.

How 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.

I found that now; thanks. But this really needs to be a lot easier to discover.

If 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.

I had this problem in the spider introduction level when I tried to free the gnomes. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce it now.

[multiplex]

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