Hello Bounenoiders!
You'd think that since I created Bouncenoid, designed every single level and tested them many hundred times, I'd be able to finish the game easily... but that's not the case. The truth is, finishing the game without infinite lives requires quite a lot of practice and a good knowledge of each level - plus a lot of focus. And yes, I practiced each individual level, so many times that I don't have to think about "how to complete them", but actually executing the right trajectory many times in a row is another story.
And if you feel that the difficulty is too high, imagine that it was much harder at first! Initially there was no "Extra boost" option and no "Extra boost" bricks. These were added at a late stage of development, after having designed all the levels. And to be honest, I'm still playing in that mode, I mean, like I don't have Extra boost, trying to finish each level in 1 life if I can.
I didn't want to be too focused on finishing the game throughout the development. I did a few "real" games for fun, usually reaching level 22 or around, but my mind was more occupied with the dev rather than absolutely finishing. And then there was this one time, when I wanted to have a proper go and finally died at level 47, one before the last one 馃槺 I was really gutted, especially when I didn't grab the Extra life as I thought I had a couple of lives left... At least it showed me that it was doable. And since then, I always had at the back of my mind the fact that I really needed to beat Bouncenoid in a official game. At least for my conscience ;-)
And it finally happened this week on Monday. Not that I felt particularly focused, but I wanted to give it a chance, playing with my PS5 gamepad, just to see how far I could go, as I usually play with the keyboard. And I finally reached and finished the last level, level 48, with a few lives to spare and a couple of Extra Boosts as well, totally a score of 209,800 points. I was able to see the official game ending in a "fair context" (not as an admin directly testing the feature) and it was really satisfying. Now this is definitely not a great score, though I got the 200,000 points trophy, as I died several times in places when I usually succeed in one life. And I admit that I used the Extra boost maybe twice... but I finished it and it felt that a kind of closure: I released the game and managed to beat it, bliss... ;-)
What about you? Are you any close to finishing it? With infinite lives? Without? Tell us how long it took!
Happy Bouncing!
JerkyHips