Fizzles – Original Puzzle Rescue Game With Playable Level 1 Demo

[HPWsoft]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share Fizzles, an original puzzle rescue game I'm developing under HPWsoft.

Fizzles is inspired by classic guide-and-rescue puzzle mechanics, but it does not use any Lemmings, Pingus or other existing game assets, characters, levels or code. The goal is to build something clearly independent, with its own tiny round creatures, visual style, abilities and mobile-first interface.

The first level is already playable. It includes animated Fizzles, music, sound effects, HUD, a digging mechanic, and a complete flow from entrance to exit.

Playable Level 1 demo:
https://hpwsoft.itch.io/fizzles

Kickstarter campaign:
https://kickstarter.com/projects/hpwsoft/fizzles-a-cute-puzzle-rescue-game

The campaign funds the next development phase: additional handcrafted levels and content, new shared Fizzle abilities, UI/onboarding polish, mobile testing, audio/presentation improvements, and preparation for a first public release.

Additional handcrafted levels are planned, but I am not promising a fixed total number of levels at this stage. The campaign is focused on funding the next development phase of Fizzles rather than overpromising a specific level count too early.

I'd be especially interested in feedback from people who enjoy this kind of puzzle rescue gameplay:

- Is the basic idea clear from the demo?
- Does the tap/select ability approach feel understandable?
- Does the digging mechanic feel readable?
- What would you expect from later levels and abilities?

Thanks for taking a look.

[Simon]

Welcome to the forums!

Random assortment of observations, feel free to drill into whatever interests you.

Instinctively, I clicked on the digger icon in the panel. This click has no effect. Then I remembered how Lemmings's skill-then-lemming (= skill-first) deviates from many games' object-then-operation (lemming-first). The next attempt was to click on one of the blue walking fizzles and see if that selects, and yes, it selects and offers the only existing skill. I understood that it was lemming-then-skill.

Clones (clonesgame.com, played with mouse and keyboard) has lemming-first, too. For its slower singleplayer puzzles, it's a matter of taste whether you prefer lemming-then-skill or skill-then-lemming. For real-time multiplayer, geoo and I recommended the Clones devs to implement skill-first in 2011 as an alternative. For the record: The strongest Clones player, rt, plays multiplayer with the originally implemented lemming-first.

By 2011, geoo and I had already played Lix multiplayer for a few years. Lix offers only skill-first. I have never gotten a bug report for Lix that wished for lemming-first. Lix has dexterity-free singleplayer (unlimited rewind, inserting skills into history, ..., effectively TAS) and real-time multiplayer. In multiplayer, it's more important to mine rightward immediately with some lemming than it is to mine with a given lemming that might even turn leftward before we finish assigning miner. In practice: We begin moving the mouse toward the assignee, we press the miner keyboard hotkey, we start holding the filter-right hotkey, and by now the mouse cursor has arrived on the (single, or bunch of several) lix and we click.

Neon Arcade (only multiplayer) has skill-first.

On mobile, you don't have the luxury of mouse and keyboard. Maybe lemming-first is optimal on mobile? I can't tell. At best, I can dig deeper into the design history of the real-time modes of Lix and Clones.


Fizzles's overall pace feels fast. This is fine as long as you remember it during level design. Even easy tasks carry unremovable execution cost. Playtest with people who haven't played multiplayer in Lemmings 1, Lix, Clones. See what kinds of mistakes people make on more complex levels at this pace. If you see, e.g., playtesters assigning too late and bashing into the wrong direction, consider other fixes than heavy-duty input tools: Should you remember every basher assignment until the assignee is in front of a wall? Should lemmings stop for a split-second before turning at a wall? Before falling off a cliff? Before walking onward after landing?

It's also a design choice. Do you want execution difficulty and puzzle difficulty? Or do you want only puzzle difficulty? What kind of pause feature are you going to offer?

The digger tunnel is hard to see against the earth.

Fallers maintain some horizontal speed. This is interesting. Lemmings 2 had it for runners, but it's novel to have it for every faller. You can even design levels around this. On your only level, I managed to kill some lemmings by digging as far left as possible. Some fell leftward past the pole and walked into the abbyss.

The name Fizzles has odd connotation: If it fizzles, there won't be Fizzles.

-- Simon