BLOCKED!

[idee_fixe]

Robert,

Thank you for your comprehensive feedback. Far from being offended, I greatly appreciate your opinion.

I think your post addresses the issue a couple other people have had with Blocked - it is not a simple game to step into. I think you would have to admit that it is very different in the way you need to approach it. It is not a deriative shoot-em-up or 3rd person action adventure like tomb raider.

I could go on at length about our game and how we designed it, our intentions, and so on, but I don't think that would help play-ability. If you check out blocked.ca, aidave has provided some hints and tips and walkthroughs. Each level of Blocked may seem tough at first, but it each has it's own strategy and unique solutions.

If the rocks are too hard to get on the ice level (and they are meant to be), maybe try to use something else for treasure (ice cubes work great!). If the gears attack you too fast, maybe you are attacking them too fast? Try using their attacks and explosions against themselves! The Hydra is a very tough boss, but only if you are not prepared. If you have two wells, both with lots of treasure, you will find you won't run out of energy.

I've completed level 2 without casting a single fireball, and without getting a single rock. It's certainly not an insurmountable obstacle, it just takes a couple attempts to figure out the best strategy.

If you are interested in any hints or help with any of the levels or bosses, feel free to post either here or in the forums on blocked.ca. We want everyone to get the full enjoyment and experience out of Blocked, so if something has you stuck, we'd like help!

Thanks again for your comments!

[aidave]

The Hydra is just too difficult. I made it to the island, with the spawn trigger, with full lives and lost them all trying to figure out how to kill the blasted thing. I blew off a total of 6 heads and my slowly regenerating energy was just a joke.

You must get more treasure before you attack the hydra,
or you wont regenerate enough energy to deal with it properly.
I recommend 14 items of treasure (or more)

Blocked is an open ended game.
Thus requires a bit of experimentation,
and learning how the dynamics work,
before you can beat it.
You can, if you really want, rush to fight the hydra right away.
If you do that though, you will get your butt kicked!! :roll:

I got rid of about 3 bricks in the enemy ice castle one time, but lost 4 lives in the process.

Try pushing a dead gear near the castle. :cherry:

[aidave]

I've completed level 2 without casting a single fireball, and without getting a single rock.

im bitter. i didnt figure out a way to stop that trick :eh:
congrats for pulling it off tho, i havent yet!
damn hydra always foils my plans

[Robert Kosek]

Well, I'm doing better (cleared the main island once) but still haven't beaten the Hydra. Got a bit of damage on 'im, then something happened today and the game crashed without an exception. I've no clue what happened, but it was the closest I came to beating the Hydra, since it was on fire.

[aidave]

good god... that bug was hard to find... but its fixed! ops:
on some systems using 3dNow optimization, killing the hydra will cause an animation error. :fuzzy:
sorry about that, good news is you did kill the hydra

here is the Patch for it.

For a quick test go to Design mode and type:
"add flatterrain 0 0 -25"
"add hydra"
"slaughter hydra"

[chronozphere]

hi aidave..

when i played your game.. i was amazed... exellent work. :razz:
I especialy like the physics and the bosses.

The first level was an easy but interesting level because you could chose your own ways to win.. I first gathered lots of treasure and made wals in the canyon and near both the coast to stop the gear-machines. Then i moved my cannon and some blocks to the castle and after a few seconds.. the boss appeared :evil: It was a hard one.. but i have blown him to peaces and thrown all the peaces as treasures near my well.

The second level was very different. I thought the concept of gathering rocks was still used, but short after i started level 2 i found out that there was no good way to defend my own well. I have spend nearly 3 houres on beating this level but it is a much harder level than the first one.

I havent met the hydra yet. I already destroyed the first ice-castle and created some ice blocks around it. Now i dont know what to do. There are two ofshore islands, and one of the books gives me a hint of going there but i constantly get eaten by those bloody sharks. :twisted:

I tried to make an ice bridge to the island but jumping from ice block to ice block is very hard because you often jump too far.

I like this game but the second level is just too hard.

Can someone help me out

[Huehnerschaender]

The way to build an ice bridge is the right one.
You just have to put both ice marbles in your hands, which makes you much slower. So you better can aim your jumps on the next block.
That's all about it....

[Robert Kosek]

Fastest way to cross:

Equip budge in the left hand, Ice in the right. Make a block of ice, jump on, switch to full budge. Hold "Slide" (Z) then move the block like a boat.

[chronozphere]

@Robert: i tried your way and it worked great.

Now i was on the island and i took the shard. a few secs later i heard that the hydra boss was coming because many fireballs and bullets appeard and background-music changed but the actual hydra didn't show up.

I staid on the island for 2 minutes and then i took the raft and put the shard on it (that took me a while but it worked). Then i sailed to the last island. When i bumped into the land, my raft bounced high in the air and fell on the island, but the shard was gone (probably launched in the air). :cry:

Why didnt the hydra show up and why do rafts bounce angainst shore :?

P.S its a pitty you cant save and load the game.. That would make the game a lot better because it is a very time-consuming game. I had to claim the pc for 1 hour to play the level, because you cant easily save and let someone else work on the PC.

//--edit

The raft acts weird when used with a budge-spell. If you make it fall on the ground. it will sometimes replace itsself in the air and fall 3/4 times one after the other.
:? You should take a look at this

[idee_fixe]

chronozphere,

That's a great idea of building walls on level 1 - I wanted to just to see if it would work, but I always end up making a huge tower around my well.

Level 2 is actually not much more difficult than Level 1, you just basically have to approach it in a completely different way. While you can get the rocks out of the water (and they are helpful if you do), it is much quicker and easier to make ice cubes and build a structure with those. If you read the books on this level one at a time that's what we suggested.

Getting to the other islands can be tough - definitely do not try to beat the sharks, they will get you every time. Dirk and Robert both made excellent suggestions, and either way will work to get there. It's funny, that 'z' trick came about almost by accident, but it has really opened up some gameplay options!

I have no idea why you never saw the Hydra. As soon as the shard appears and you here the sounds, it's coming for ya! It comes from behind the other small island and it has long way to go, so it does take a while. If it happens again, could you possibly take a screenshot of where the fireballs are coming from, so aidave and I can take a look? Thanks.

Getting the shard to the other island can be a little tricky, mostly because it's easy to lose that shard in the water if you drop it. My favorite method is to use the raft like a flying carpet, so you hold down the budge mouse button, 'z', 'space' and you direct it near the island. You'll fly up really high, and have to time your release just right, but it's pretty fun to do. You have to keep an eye on the shard too (it helps to budge it in mid-air, so you can help direct it).

I think it's great that some players seem to be getting the hang of the game and are coming up with strategies and suggestions we never thought of! Keep 'em coming!