Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Bouncenoid

A retro-vintage "brick-breaker" arcade game where it's all about guiding the Spark and managing your bounces 路 By jerkyhips

My thoughts on this game

A topic by Developer3244 created 1 day ago Views: 10 Replies: 3
Viewing posts 1 to 2

kinda cool game. In my first day I managed to get to level N9, and I don't think that's too bad. I know this game was supposed to play like these old arcade games, but imo is too frustrating needing to go back to level 1 everytime you lose all of your shots (specially as level N9 is a pretty frustrating level). I also don't like how the scoreboards apparently only save my progress (my best score is about 34k btw), I want to see how much better than the other players I am lol

Developer

Thank you so much Developer3244 for sharing your experience! Great for reaching level N9 - that is finishing the first zone!!! So a couple of things to make your experience easier :

  • The option to have infinite lives in "Options" so that you can try as much as you can. Given you reached N9 very quickly, you should be able to go much further this way, without the frustration. Plus, if you beat a level with Infinite Lives, it will become unlocked to practice directly afterwards.
  • The "Select a level" allows you to practice the levels you already beat, so that when you start an official game, you're better armed to beat them without losing many lives.
  • The score is saved only when you start from level 1 as this is the official game to be able to compare to others.
  • Level 9 tips: charge and release at about 75, break the top classic brick and land on the extra life brick and then stay pressed on the left arrow until just before you reach the left-hand wall, and then just let go: the ball will simply bounce on the "boost" brick and reach the second classic brick. It's easier to understand when you see it, rather than described like this, but not so hard 馃槄. This technique doesn't work if you absolutely want to get the "Extra-Boost" brick at the bottom left, but to start with it will get you through.

I actually have some videos of me playing up until N25, which I haven't shared yet (they're in French, so I'd need to play again an comment in English), but I could release a shorted version to reveal my strategies for the first 2 zones, for instance.

Thanks again

thx for talking about the infinite lives mode, with it I managed to reach level N23 :D The new biggest problem is that sometimes you need a brick to beat the level (e.g., an inpulse brick), but if your ball touches that brick even once, regardless on if you did the level correctly and beat it or not, the brick disappears forever. This softlocked me in N23 and the only way to get free would be by praticing N23 separatedly and trying again from N1 again (that's really bad as I took half an hour to reach N23 lol)

Developer

First of all I can't thank you enough for pushing a bit more with Bouncenoid! N23 is so cool, it means you are so close to reaching zone 4, given than N24 is a bonus level where you can't die. Now, here are a couple more tips to get you over N23 and further, just in case you try again one day:

  • First of all,  all the levels are designed to be finished in one life only and get all the bonus bricks in the process and without using any Extra-boost. Actually at first there was no Extra-boost available, I added this afterwards, to make the game easier. So each level has at least one strategy that works reasonably well without spending many lives. Of course, there is the strategy and then achieving the strategy, which can take some practice. But if you reach N23, you must start to be getting quite good already ;-) But practice directly levels that took you a long time to finish (with "Select a level" menu item), is useful to make sure you have a good strategy for all the levels before you reach the one where you struggle.
  • Now specifically for N23:
    • as I said, there is a way to succeed without using any extra-boost (see 2 videos below). But you're right, for very few levels like N23, if you destroy the key boost bricks and you don't have any Extra-boost available, well, you're jammed and have to suicide or force game over to record your score. Which means that you need to collect Extra-Boost as much as you can and save them for when it's absolutely necessary, like for N23 if you have destroyed all the boost bricks.
    • For N23 itself without extra-boost, you launch and go over to the left, then fall on the penalizing brick. Then you press the right arrow to jam the ball to the right, but not going over straightaway: I make sure the ball is not hitting the top and is only bouncing on the bottom brick. Then I move to the right in hardly stopping and the boost brick at the end makes me jump on the next level. Then I go to the left to use the boost brick to get to the next level and same again on the right (video 1). What can also happen is that the first boost brick on the right actually makes you hit the boost brick just above, in which case you bounce up again and touch the boost brick above, which makes you bounce high enough to finish the level (video 2)

Here are the 2 videos showing these 2 different methods:

  • As for how long it takes, in a straight line, even with a few lives lost on the way, each level is about 15-30 seconds max on average (some are so much quicker around 10 sec, not counting bonus level where you can pass almost immediately if you don't take any bonus), so reaching level 23 should be about 10 minutes max when you know the strategy for each level. But I agree with you that it's the kind of game that requires some good concentration for some time. Finishing the game is about 20-25 min, but it can also take 1 hour with infinite lives mode if you really struggle with many levels - and provided you don't find yourself jammed before the end.

Anyway, thank you again for trying so far :-)