The way you open the safe is push either left or right and keep pushing it until you hear a higher pitch and when you do, push the opposite key and keep doing that until the light turns green, then push the up key
Hi, thanks for playing! To open a safe you need sound on. Then imagine you put your ear to the safe's door and try turn the wheel left or right, just like in the old gangster movies.
Hey! Ironchest Games person, I'm a fellow gamedev and would just love to chat with you a bit, if you'd spare me a few minutes, please add me on discord! Thanks in advance. CH51#0897
Hey @ironchestgames, I'm the curator at the PLAY21 - Creative Gaming Festival and would like to exhibit your work. Can you dm me on twitter @sp4c31nv4d3r or mail at matthias.loewe(at)creative-gaming.eu? Thanks!
lol. I just say that because many times the only rooms with valuble stuff in it is guarded by a guard. If we could take them out then those levels would actually be possible
hehe yeah I know, it's a bit of a bummer when you get those situations in a row.
I know it's not a "security appreciation game", but unfortunately that's the only thematic explanation I can give at this point. This is because of technical reasons, the platform pico-8 has extreme restrictions to code length (which is good! otherwise I would still be working on this game!), so to add stuff I need to remove stuff as I'm currently maxed out.
I'm more than happy to hear suggestions though on different ways to fix this. Many of the ideas for updates that have made the game better has come from players like yourself. Any idea big or small on gameplay variation os welcome!
Idk if youve already tried this or how it would effect the game, but maybe try swithcing engines? I am also a fellow gamedev and I use unity. looking at this game I thought that if you switched it to unity you would have so much more possibilitys. I know youve probably heard that already, but that is my personal advice. switching to a different engine like unity or unreal will also improve the features you have already.
Thanks for taking the time to write! I've worked with a few other engines before, and my problem is with me. I can't finish a game if I have too much options. I just go bigger and better and more intricate at every turn, getting stuck in details. That's what I love about the extreme restrictions in pico-8 - you can't go overboard.
With that said, there's always a small chance I have opportunity to recreate this as a bigger game, then a full blown engine will have its place for sure!
I love this game so much I play it with my brother all the time. It was a little hard to figure out what to do at first but now we are masters at getting caught very quickly. The game is simple but so good and we are planning to maybe do this in real life one day (just kidding because they don't let you bring games into prison I asked my mum)
I'm seeing a lot of people recommending that tons of features be added. I think one of the beautiful things about games like these is that it's not kitted out with so much that you have to consult a wiki in order to manage it. Not every game needs to fill every need. There's already so much fun and aesthetic goodness packed into this pico-sized package; I don't think we need to be like "this has potential"--it's ALREADY great.Adding so much more will just bog it down and make it less enjoyable.
Thank you @enyx very much! I fully agree that not every game needs to be a big game to be fun, and I'm not after to get players hooked for years either (if you are tough, that's totally awesome! :D
But I do find it very rewarding that my silly little game tickled peoples imagination enough to want to fill out the fantasy even more, I could never ask for more than that.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time for both playing and commenting!
I'm so happy that there's the option for local multiplayer. My partner and I spent several hours straight just playing this. I love that there are little things that you uncover as you go, like the security panels, that you can check the desks of the computers, and that you can disable the cameras. Still not sure if there's a way to rescue one if the other has been apprehended. Love that each map seems to be totally unique (so far anyway).
That you played several hours w your partner makes my heart smile. <3
Each map is randomly generated, so the probability of seeing the same map again is vvvhhery close to zero. (I did this so I could enjoy the game myself :D
first you walk up to it, you'll see the burglar will have different graphics than for walking. then you just use your arrow keys to interact! to stop interacting you just move downward. happy burgling!
im not sure how easy this is to implement, but can you make it so that you can blow a raspberry or something to make the guards turn around bc its kinda hard to make noise on purpose other than walking into a tree or smashing a window, which are the only ways i know how to create noise
also, ive noticed more and more frequently that some cameras are being blocked off by walls, rendering them useless, and as much as i like free money, it seems kinda weird
also, have you considered adding some kind of shop? maybe a vending machine can be randomly generated in the levels that sells things like a deployable box to hide behind or a firecracker that goes off after 5 seconds that can be used as a distraction, but if you cant drop it in time, it explodes in your hand and you get knocked out. again, this is probably some crazy stuff to code, and im just rambling :P, do what you want
Thanks for the suggestions! Ramblings and brainstorming like yours has helped and been implemented before, and I really like hearing peoples ideas! The vending machine and deployable box was new and interesting, gettin' the gears in my head crankin'. :)
About making noise, you can walk into almost any of the objects to make a sound that guards react to. They'll look a random direction and then turn 180 to continue patrolling, so it's possible to steer them a little bit.
This game is still doing great, especially after the updates! However, I believe some features could be cut back in order to save code room, and perhaps make room for other features. I have listed features I personally believe to be extraneous below
1. The option to skip a heist - I never find myself skipping heists, as it is usually possible to come out with more money than you had beforehand regardless of the building's challenges and obstacles.
2. The ability to knock on trees to alert guards (and trees in general) - trees have always been quite a nuisance during heists, and I believe their presence in the game has almost no benefit, with trees blocking entryways and sometimes entire routes. They also hold little to no viability in distracting/alerting guards, as these trees are usually too far away for any guard inside the building to hear.
The alteration or possible removal of these features would likely benefit the game as a whole and allow room for further improvements upon it due to freed up space in Pico-8. I understand that these changes would be quite drastic and that I don't have much room for criticism having only designed a few small games myself, but I believe that these changes could seriously improve the game and make it an overall better experience for the player than it already is. To whoever you are, whether you're a random passerby, fellow enjoyer of this game, or perhaps even the developer; thank you for taking the time to read this!
You are completely right about the skip action, I'm going to yank that out next!
I understand about the trees, and as a player I agree. But here's a lite tidbit about the trees: they are there for optimisation! The shadow algorithm (most shadow-casting algorithms in 2d roguelikes) take a lot of resources in open spaces. So when running this game on my raspberry pi it started to be janky and less responsive, taking half a second to react to key presses. So I added trees and now it runs smoothly even on my raspberry pi.
The ability to knocking on the trees come more or less free as that action is added to all objects in the map generation.
I'm so glad you took the time to write as it makes me think if there's something I can do different, something to replace the trees with. Maybe have small buildings without doors or just walls, would that work? wdyt?
I just want to add my two cents: I actually love the "skip heists" option *and* I like the trees. Yes, the trees can make it more challenging or impossible to do certain things, but I feel like that's a bit more immersive. The "skip" is beneficial because if you go into a heist that doesn't work out, you have to lay low for a day, which means you end up losing more money than you would've gained. So I like being able to skip. (Please don't yank it.)
Yo this game is amazing! Because of the procedural generation some levels with guards are literally impossible! So I was wondering if you could add this feature of knocking out or distracting guards?
thanks! you can't knock them out, but they can be distracted, by sounds. (some times it will still be impossible though, like in too cramped rooms for example)
I'm confused about cracking the safe. I press left and right a bunch of times and eventually I hear a sound with another pitch, but then what? Or is the sequence like 20 steps long?
I can not tell how it happens. It just loads the same old save game every time I start the game. If I start a new career, play some levels, close the web-page and reopen it, the game will load the old save game, not the one from the new career.
I can reproduce this. but only by using a little cheat I've left in. The cheat is like this: When you get caught by the police and the message is "caught! press O to start new career" you can actually reload the page and it will continue as if you never were caught. But it doesn't sound like what you describe.
If you have the time and feel like it, message me on this discord https://discord.gg/AKkRWKBF (I opened it just now), and help try to catch this bug?
I still love this game! I have a small suggestion that might make it a little bit better: More often than not you can not disable the cameras because the console for doing so is itself in the view of a camera. Would it be possible to make it so that if a camera control console would be in view of a camera, the camera will not be placed there? Another suggestion would be to make it possible to disable cameras physically. This way if you have access to a power panel, you could cut power and have the other player destroy the camera. You could then eg. hack computers that would have been in the view of cameras. This would add some other level of strategy :)
hey thanks for playing! those are some great suggestions, I'm going to look into it too see how much i can improve it, i got some wiggle room in the code so hopes are up!
Great, thanks! I will play a bit more and let you know what I find. So far I think it does not really make it too easy but now you can enter houses or hack things that where just inaccessible before. If you are concerned about it being to easy, maybe it is possible to add a timer to it so that you can only disable it for like 30 seconds so you have some stress if you are going to open a safe or hack a computer during that time?
ok ik its not my place to say this. but i really like this game but after a few hours its just gets boring. i think you should create a remastered version, so that you can just add updates to it instead of having to delete code to update it. i think this game can have some potential and i would pay money for this if it ever gets bigger. after a few more updates this would be a worthy 10 dollar game. im sorry if you think im trying to be mean but i want to see this game evolve into something bigger. but i love it and i do kinda miss the weird wantedness level, but if you ever do add that back in it should have like a cooldown, like every 2 days without getting caught it goes down by like 1. if you read this and think about it that would mean alot, thank you for your time.
It is Exactly Your Place to say this! Comments like yours are the reason I have comments enabled, my man!
I do respect your humbleness, no one wants to hurt anyone's feelings, we're all trying to have fun here, it's games after all :)
Thanks to your comment I'm closer to believing I could invest in making this demo-like game into something bigger more fully featured and it having an audience!
(I could never dream of someone playing my game for hours, so a super thanks for playing and taking the time to comment!)
The game has a good concept, and implemented in a better way. Here's my review (BTW I'm not an official guy, I just do this for fun.)
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
Really good gameplay, with a 10/10 potential. A tutorial is the only thing missing. The stealth gameplay really good, with the co-op essential. This is what took off a point, as if one burglar flees then a good rob is useless.
GRAPHICS: 10/10
Just all around good. No comment
Sound: 9/10
The sound easily portrays whats going on, and is essential for cracking safes. Could be better, but still good.
FUNNESS: 10/10
The game is just fun. Plain, good fun.
VERDICT: 9.25/10
The game has a great concept,with more potential. The slightly confusing gameplay is whats bringing it down.
omg I'm so flattered! thanks for taking the time for playing and for the write-up! :D
I've heard from others as well that some kind of tutorial would be good, but because of code length restrictions of the platform (pico-8) I don't think I'll ever make an in-game tut. Do you think a wiki would be any good?
With the amount of potential here, a wiki would be nice.Would be a smaller wiki, thought still a good idea.I'm thinking fandom, but you're the developer, so do whatever you think is good. Can't wait until an update is in store!
Hey Office F.C., about the gameplay, You can unescape the 2nd player (if you accidentally escape the 2nd) by pressing z and then there is a popup that says " [X] Unescape "
No. You must avoid them, currently. It would be fun to at least distract the guards, but, taking them out dosen't seem as likely to be implemented. Not the dev though, so no idea whats going into the game.
You are right, some buildings have more competent security than others. Sometimes you just gotta bail to live and burgle another day. Maybe snatch a statuette, or a wallet from a desk on the way out? ;)
A few hints, in order of revealing more, it took me a while to figure out, but I felt quite satisfied when I did:
1. Use audio
2. Listen carefully to a difference in sounds
3. Alternate between left and right
4. Next one will be a full explanation
5. Start pressing left arrow, listen to the sound. When it turns red directly, start with right. Then keep pressing the same direction until you hear a higher / louder beep. Change to the other direction, until you hear that same different beep. Repeat until it turns green and press 'up / forward'. Bingo!
THIS IS SO GOOD. but i wish that there were more tools, more in depth hacking and systems and a way to incapacitate guards,cops. Maybe even fake ratting to lure guards and steal there clothes
Spotted a small bug: If one burglar disables a camera, then the second burglar disables the power in the view of same camera, the camera still gets activated when the first one leaves the console (even though the power should be off now).
Jesus Christ. The way it kinda freezes when your one player was caught and the other one escape was creepy like what the heck was that? But seriously tho, this game is great! i'm just not good at this kind of game.
It would be nice if you could distract the guards somehow to give just enough time to crack the safe (like when one player bumps into an obstacle, the guards go in that direction to investigate).
This game is fantastic and definitely has potential! I do have a few criticisms about the game as well as some ways to improve it. First of all, there is no clear way to crack a safe or perform any of the mechanics in it. Most things are discovered through trial and error but this does not fit into the safe. There should be some form of the tutorial the game provides so that new players can understand it and find success earlier on.
The map design is somewhat flawed, and some maps won't provide you with anything of worth with some rooms being completely impossible to gain access to. In my opinion, it should be possible to obtain every valuable item on each map (regardless of how difficult it may be to do so).
Finally, it is far too easy to accidentally lose one of your burglars. They both spawn somewhere on the outside of the map and one button press in the wrong direction will cause them to leave the scene, making some maps impossible. I believe that in replacement for fully escaping, the burglar should simply be put on standby. This means that they will wait on the outside of the map and escape automatically when the time limit is up (or when the other thief is also ready to escape. The character would still be accessible and able to move, but if placed in the "exfil area" will be able to escape.
In addition to this, a possible feature that could be added later on is a builder mode, where players can build maps for other players to try and steal from.
Other than these things, this is a great game and is a good start for what may come!
I have been playing this for a while and largely agree with you. However, both the hacking and the cracking took me a few times to figure out, which kinda added to the fun to me. There is actually a clear foolproof way of doing both, but you need audio for the safe, as is clearly mentioned somewhere.
Maps are not always 'solvable' in a stealthy way indeed, which is also clearly explained somewhere. It also adds to the experience in my opinion. Sometimes when the big bucks are hard to reach I just bust in, grab a statue to at least cover my expenses and then bolt.
Fully agree with the off-screen thing as well, it annoys me sometimes, ruining a perfectly do-able house because one burglar escaped already.
I'm super happy you took the time to write this, and thank you for playing! :D
swoopie has already been so kind to respond to some of you concerns, but I'll try add some dev perspective as well.
You are fully right in your criticisms because the game is lacking good UX in big areas, but I'm sorry to say that most of these will not be fixed in this incarnation of the game, because it's made in pico-8 which has hard restrictions on code length so to add stuff something else has to be removed. Anything You think is superfluous?
The misclick escape is another thing though. Because you and others have had this problem it'll end up high on my todo, and thanks for the suggestions!
Also, since you mentioned building own levels I'd like to mention one of my inspirations: the Castle Doctrine by Jason Rohrer, dont know how active it is anymore but it's worth checking out!
Took me a while to actually rake in some money, but given some patience and fiddling I managed to pull a good heist :) Still got things to discover probably. Like it! And I always love procedurally generated games. High replay value. Good game!
One small point of feedback. Whenever you let your second burglar escape to the right of the screen, you are pressing 'right' rapidyl, also causing you to skip the result screen, which is a bummer because I'd like to see how much I've stolen ;)
hi, congrats on the heist! :D thanks for playing and i appreciate the time taken to write these comments!
I know the game have some UX issues, I'm looking into fixing them if I can without sacrificing gameplay elements. Because the game is in pico-8 and thus have restrictions on code length so it's a matter of taking something out first. I might remove the police light thing, wdyt?
Ah, right, that's an interesting dilemma. I think actually that the red/blue lights add to the stress of escaping. Not sure if I would take anything out at this point. Let me do another playthrough to see if I can come up with some alternative suggestions.
Don't think I would take anything out :-) I think players will just have to be more careful when maneuvering around the edge of the screen. Only thing you could save some code on is the whole 'busted' sequence, but then again, the burglars deserve a good game over sequence ;-)
thanks a bunch for taking the time to write! I'm happy you like the busted scene :D
what I meant with police lights was those icons that pop up when you step into a lighted area, you are then "seen" (raising the wanted-meter). If you're seen too many times in a row you get caught before entering the next building. It's not deeply explained in-game, but I needed some way to promote sneaking, and not just smash-and-grab every run (as my testers figured out and got a bit bored).
it's the one thing i can think of that might be too intricate for the rest of the feel of the game.
Ahhh right, I didn't really know what those meant indeed and they also felt kinda out of place and out of style. So yeah, I agree, those can be left out. For me, I only look at the amount of 'lights' at the result screen anyway and try to avoid being seen anyway.
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oh, that's an impressive day count! straight A's in burglar school!
The way you open the safe is push either left or right and keep pushing it until you hear a higher pitch and when you do, push the opposite key and keep doing that until the light turns green, then push the up key
I can not figure out how to open the safe
Hi, thanks for playing!
To open a safe you need sound on. Then imagine you put your ear to the safe's door and try turn the wheel left or right, just like in the old gangster movies.
OK, thanks
damn this is fire
🙌🙌
Hello ironchest, i've been inlove with this game for a while, can you make it downloadable? so atleast i could play it offline
thanks for playing!
Your highscore and saved game would not be transferable between the stand-alone and web version, would that be okay?
absolutely! i love this game so much and i'm fine with it
Files added, just hit me up if you run into problems! Happy burglerin'
love the game but can't figure out how to open safes
hi! you need sound on, and then listen for the different clicks, just as any real burglar would
Hey! Ironchest Games person, I'm a fellow gamedev and would just love to chat with you a bit, if you'd spare me a few minutes, please add me on discord! Thanks in advance. CH51#0897
found a level where there's a golden statue but I can's get to it because of chair. A chair! Great game tho.
thanks for playing and commenting! if you ever see the bug again sometime, I'd love a screenshot! happy burglerin'
Great game, personal best is 84 days.
that's a real good run! well done!
hey bro pls download file
Hi! can you explain the use-case for a download file? also, which platform do you need?
windows
Hey @ironchestgames, I'm the curator at the PLAY21 - Creative Gaming Festival and would like to exhibit your work. Can you dm me on twitter @sp4c31nv4d3r or mail at matthias.loewe(at)creative-gaming.eu? Thanks!
you should ad like a sneak attack to disable guards.
only sneaky stealy, no sneaky attacky
lol. I just say that because many times the only rooms with valuble stuff in it is guarded by a guard. If we could take them out then those levels would actually be possible
hehe yeah I know, it's a bit of a bummer when you get those situations in a row.
I know it's not a "security appreciation game", but unfortunately that's the only thematic explanation I can give at this point. This is because of technical reasons, the platform pico-8 has extreme restrictions to code length (which is good! otherwise I would still be working on this game!), so to add stuff I need to remove stuff as I'm currently maxed out.
I'm more than happy to hear suggestions though on different ways to fix this. Many of the ideas for updates that have made the game better has come from players like yourself. Any idea big or small on gameplay variation os welcome!
And thanks for playing and commenting!
Idk if youve already tried this or how it would effect the game, but maybe try swithcing engines? I am also a fellow gamedev and I use unity. looking at this game I thought that if you switched it to unity you would have so much more possibilitys. I know youve probably heard that already, but that is my personal advice. switching to a different engine like unity or unreal will also improve the features you have already.
Thanks for taking the time to write! I've worked with a few other engines before, and my problem is with me. I can't finish a game if I have too much options. I just go bigger and better and more intricate at every turn, getting stuck in details. That's what I love about the extreme restrictions in pico-8 - you can't go overboard.
With that said, there's always a small chance I have opportunity to recreate this as a bigger game, then a full blown engine will have its place for sure!
Thanks again for commenting and playing :)
I love this game so much I play it with my brother all the time. It was a little hard to figure out what to do at first but now we are masters at getting caught very quickly. The game is simple but so good and we are planning to maybe do this in real life one day (just kidding because they don't let you bring games into prison I asked my mum)
Haha great! :D
Thanks for playing and commenting, it feels good to hear the game is being played as a 2p too!
I'm seeing a lot of people recommending that tons of features be added. I think one of the beautiful things about games like these is that it's not kitted out with so much that you have to consult a wiki in order to manage it. Not every game needs to fill every need. There's already so much fun and aesthetic goodness packed into this pico-sized package; I don't think we need to be like "this has potential"--it's ALREADY great.Adding so much more will just bog it down and make it less enjoyable.
Thank you @enyx very much! I fully agree that not every game needs to be a big game to be fun, and I'm not after to get players hooked for years either (if you are tough, that's totally awesome! :D
But I do find it very rewarding that my silly little game tickled peoples imagination enough to want to fill out the fantasy even more, I could never ask for more than that.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time for both playing and commenting!
THIS GAME IS SO FUN
I'm so happy that there's the option for local multiplayer. My partner and I spent several hours straight just playing this. I love that there are little things that you uncover as you go, like the security panels, that you can check the desks of the computers, and that you can disable the cameras. Still not sure if there's a way to rescue one if the other has been apprehended. Love that each map seems to be totally unique (so far anyway).
That you played several hours w your partner makes my heart smile. <3
Each map is randomly generated, so the probability of seeing the same map again is vvvhhery close to zero. (I did this so I could enjoy the game myself :D
awesome! Thanks so much for making and working so hard on this game
how do u interact with stuff?
first you walk up to it, you'll see the burglar will have different graphics than for walking. then you just use your arrow keys to interact! to stop interacting you just move downward. happy burgling!
im not sure how easy this is to implement, but can you make it so that you can blow a raspberry or something to make the guards turn around bc its kinda hard to make noise on purpose other than walking into a tree or smashing a window, which are the only ways i know how to create noise
also, ive noticed more and more frequently that some cameras are being blocked off by walls, rendering them useless, and as much as i like free money, it seems kinda weird
also, have you considered adding some kind of shop? maybe a vending machine can be randomly generated in the levels that sells things like a deployable box to hide behind or a firecracker that goes off after 5 seconds that can be used as a distraction, but if you cant drop it in time, it explodes in your hand and you get knocked out. again, this is probably some crazy stuff to code, and im just rambling :P, do what you want
Thanks for the suggestions! Ramblings and brainstorming like yours has helped and been implemented before, and I really like hearing peoples ideas! The vending machine and deployable box was new and interesting, gettin' the gears in my head crankin'. :)
About making noise, you can walk into almost any of the objects to make a sound that guards react to. They'll look a random direction and then turn 180 to continue patrolling, so it's possible to steer them a little bit.
This game is still doing great, especially after the updates! However, I believe some features could be cut back in order to save code room, and perhaps make room for other features. I have listed features I personally believe to be extraneous below
1. The option to skip a heist - I never find myself skipping heists, as it is usually possible to come out with more money than you had beforehand regardless of the building's challenges and obstacles.
2. The ability to knock on trees to alert guards (and trees in general) - trees have always been quite a nuisance during heists, and I believe their presence in the game has almost no benefit, with trees blocking entryways and sometimes entire routes. They also hold little to no viability in distracting/alerting guards, as these trees are usually too far away for any guard inside the building to hear.
The alteration or possible removal of these features would likely benefit the game as a whole and allow room for further improvements upon it due to freed up space in Pico-8. I understand that these changes would be quite drastic and that I don't have much room for criticism having only designed a few small games myself, but I believe that these changes could seriously improve the game and make it an overall better experience for the player than it already is. To whoever you are, whether you're a random passerby, fellow enjoyer of this game, or perhaps even the developer; thank you for taking the time to read this!
I'm super happy you come back to the game!
You are completely right about the skip action, I'm going to yank that out next!
I understand about the trees, and as a player I agree. But here's a lite tidbit about the trees: they are there for optimisation! The shadow algorithm (most shadow-casting algorithms in 2d roguelikes) take a lot of resources in open spaces. So when running this game on my raspberry pi it started to be janky and less responsive, taking half a second to react to key presses. So I added trees and now it runs smoothly even on my raspberry pi.
The ability to knocking on the trees come more or less free as that action is added to all objects in the map generation.
I'm so glad you took the time to write as it makes me think if there's something I can do different, something to replace the trees with. Maybe have small buildings without doors or just walls, would that work? wdyt?
I just want to add my two cents: I actually love the "skip heists" option *and* I like the trees. Yes, the trees can make it more challenging or impossible to do certain things, but I feel like that's a bit more immersive. The "skip" is beneficial because if you go into a heist that doesn't work out, you have to lay low for a day, which means you end up losing more money than you would've gained. So I like being able to skip. (Please don't yank it.)
how does the download work? when i download the files, it gives me an HTML and JS file in a zip. what do i do with them?
it shouldn't be possible to download, there's no use. thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'll try to remove that option.
Yo this game is amazing! Because of the procedural generation some levels with guards are literally impossible! So I was wondering if you could add this feature of knocking out or distracting guards?
thanks! you can't knock them out, but they can be distracted, by sounds. (some times it will still be impossible though, like in too cramped rooms for example)
thx!
Thanks for this--it's good to know that some of these are genuinely impossible; I've spent a lot of time trying to mastermind it lol
what is the computer with the 4 monitors used for?
hi, it's for controlling the cameras.
oh ok, thanks :)
I'm confused about cracking the safe. I press left and right a bunch of times and eventually I hear a sound with another pitch, but then what? Or is the sequence like 20 steps long?
hi, thanks for playing and commenting! when you hear the other pitch sound you go the other way, eventually the light well turn green. happy crackin'!
I like the new update, changed my gameplay style.
thanks! I'm glad you like it :)
Now I hit a new bug: The game does not create a new save game anymore but instead always loads the same old save.
hi @bogusbishop, thanks for reporting! I can not reproduce this bug, how does it happen?
I can not tell how it happens. It just loads the same old save game every time I start the game. If I start a new career, play some levels, close the web-page and reopen it, the game will load the old save game, not the one from the new career.
ah ok, thanks for clarifying. I'll look into it, and will hopefully have a fix ASAP.
I can reproduce this. but only by using a little cheat I've left in. The cheat is like this: When you get caught by the police and the message is "caught! press O to start new career" you can actually reload the page and it will continue as if you never were caught. But it doesn't sound like what you describe.
If you have the time and feel like it, message me on this discord https://discord.gg/AKkRWKBF (I opened it just now), and help try to catch this bug?
I still love this game!
I have a small suggestion that might make it a little bit better:
More often than not you can not disable the cameras because the console for doing so is itself in the view of a camera. Would it be possible to make it so that if a camera control console would be in view of a camera, the camera will not be placed there?
Another suggestion would be to make it possible to disable cameras physically. This way if you have access to a power panel, you could cut power and have the other player destroy the camera. You could then eg. hack computers that would have been in the view of cameras. This would add some other level of strategy :)
hey thanks for playing! those are some great suggestions, I'm going to look into it too see how much i can improve it, i got some wiggle room in the code so hopes are up!
I did the disable thing with the cameras now in v1.3, thanks for the suggestion!
My only concern is that now the game might be too easy, wdyt?
Great, thanks! I will play a bit more and let you know what I find. So far I think it does not really make it too easy but now you can enter houses or hack things that where just inaccessible before. If you are concerned about it being to easy, maybe it is possible to add a timer to it so that you can only disable it for like 30 seconds so you have some stress if you are going to open a safe or hack a computer during that time?
el juego es muy bueno tiene mucho potencial
many thanks!
ok ik its not my place to say this. but i really like this game but after a few hours its just gets boring. i think you should create a remastered version, so that you can just add updates to it instead of having to delete code to update it. i think this game can have some potential and i would pay money for this if it ever gets bigger. after a few more updates this would be a worthy 10 dollar game. im sorry if you think im trying to be mean but i want to see this game evolve into something bigger. but i love it and i do kinda miss the weird wantedness level, but if you ever do add that back in it should have like a cooldown, like every 2 days without getting caught it goes down by like 1. if you read this and think about it that would mean alot, thank you for your time.
also the font for this page is really cool
It is Exactly Your Place to say this! Comments like yours are the reason I have comments enabled, my man!
I do respect your humbleness, no one wants to hurt anyone's feelings, we're all trying to have fun here, it's games after all :)
Thanks to your comment I'm closer to believing I could invest in making this demo-like game into something bigger more fully featured and it having an audience!
(I could never dream of someone playing my game for hours, so a super thanks for playing and taking the time to comment!)
yea, no problem, this game was really fun to play and learn
"I could never dream of someone playing my game for hours"
Well, it's real! :) You've got at least two players who love the crap out of this game and already dumped ~5 into it on the first day!
And im back to spend some more hours on this game. lmao
And i just figured out that you can disable cameras
haha great! It was added a few versions back :)
The game has a good concept, and implemented in a better way. Here's my review (BTW I'm not an official guy, I just do this for fun.)
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
Really good gameplay, with a 10/10 potential. A tutorial is the only thing missing. The stealth gameplay really good, with the co-op essential. This is what took off a point, as if one burglar flees then a good rob is useless.
GRAPHICS: 10/10
Just all around good. No comment
Sound: 9/10
The sound easily portrays whats going on, and is essential for cracking safes. Could be better, but still good.
FUNNESS: 10/10
The game is just fun. Plain, good fun.
VERDICT: 9.25/10
The game has a great concept,with more potential. The slightly confusing gameplay is whats bringing it down.
Hope you like the review.
omg I'm so flattered! thanks for taking the time for playing and for the write-up! :D
I've heard from others as well that some kind of tutorial would be good, but because of code length restrictions of the platform (pico-8) I don't think I'll ever make an in-game tut. Do you think a wiki would be any good?
With the amount of potential here, a wiki would be nice.Would be a smaller wiki, thought still a good idea.I'm thinking fandom, but you're the developer, so do whatever you think is good. Can't wait until an update is in store!
Hey Office F.C., about the gameplay, You can unescape the 2nd player (if you accidentally escape the 2nd) by pressing z and then there is a popup that says " [X] Unescape "
Thanks, very helpful!
I also enjoyed the update that has just removed the siren thingys, they got very annoying when I was farther in the game.
I actually like that there's no tutorial. It adds to the adrenaline/suspense fun factor to have to learn as you go.
can you take out the gaurds?
No. You must avoid them, currently. It would be fun to at least distract the guards, but, taking them out dosen't seem as likely to be implemented. Not the dev though, so no idea whats going into the game.
ok, i was wondering bc like there are some rooms at are small with a guard and a safe. and the guard wont leave the room so i cant crack the safe
Hi, thanks for playing and commenting!
You are right, some buildings have more competent security than others. Sometimes you just gotta bail to live and burgle another day. Maybe snatch a statuette, or a wallet from a desk on the way out? ;)
ok so i wasnt crazy when i was getting stuff off of the desk, thats a cool feature.
Thanks for playing and commenting, much appreciated!
You can actually distract the guards, they react to sounds. It's not a certainty how they react though ;)
ok i will have to give it a try
How does one crack a safe?
A few hints, in order of revealing more, it took me a while to figure out, but I felt quite satisfied when I did:
1. Use audio
2. Listen carefully to a difference in sounds
3. Alternate between left and right
4. Next one will be a full explanation
5. Start pressing left arrow, listen to the sound. When it turns red directly, start with right. Then keep pressing the same direction until you hear a higher / louder beep. Change to the other direction, until you hear that same different beep. Repeat until it turns green and press 'up / forward'. Bingo!
Thank you so much! :D
Could someone please explain how to crack safes. I have sound on but still have no idea how to
Read my reply on 'gucko' above for a few hints
thank you.i now can crack safes
THIS IS SO GOOD. but i wish that there were more tools, more in depth hacking and systems and a way to incapacitate guards,cops. Maybe even fake ratting to lure guards and steal there clothes
I definitely second this. This is a really good game in itself already, but it's a good basis for so much more!
Spotted a small bug:
If one burglar disables a camera, then the second burglar disables the power in the view of same camera, the camera still gets activated when the first one leaves the console (even though the power should be off now).
super thanks for this bug report! fix will come in future patch.
Jesus Christ. The way it kinda freezes when your one player was caught and the other one escape was creepy like what the heck was that? But seriously tho, this game is great! i'm just not good at this kind of game.
hehe a bit of spook is never wrong, right? ;)
thanks for the kind words, and for trying the game out!
What a great game!
It would be nice if you could distract the guards somehow to give just enough time to crack the safe (like when one player bumps into an obstacle, the guards go in that direction to investigate).
Hi! Thanks for playing and commenting!
The guards will react to sounds though, maybe not in a perfectly predictable manner, just like real guards. ;)
Without a doubt, this is one of the most fun games I've played. Kudos to that, guys!
Wow! thanks a ton! it's so fun to watch you play as well! crackin' those safes as a pro!
This game is fantastic and definitely has potential! I do have a few criticisms about the game as well as some ways to improve it. First of all, there is no clear way to crack a safe or perform any of the mechanics in it. Most things are discovered through trial and error but this does not fit into the safe. There should be some form of the tutorial the game provides so that new players can understand it and find success earlier on.
The map design is somewhat flawed, and some maps won't provide you with anything of worth with some rooms being completely impossible to gain access to. In my opinion, it should be possible to obtain every valuable item on each map (regardless of how difficult it may be to do so).
Finally, it is far too easy to accidentally lose one of your burglars. They both spawn somewhere on the outside of the map and one button press in the wrong direction will cause them to leave the scene, making some maps impossible. I believe that in replacement for fully escaping, the burglar should simply be put on standby. This means that they will wait on the outside of the map and escape automatically when the time limit is up (or when the other thief is also ready to escape. The character would still be accessible and able to move, but if placed in the "exfil area" will be able to escape.
In addition to this, a possible feature that could be added later on is a builder mode, where players can build maps for other players to try and steal from.
Other than these things, this is a great game and is a good start for what may come!
I have been playing this for a while and largely agree with you. However, both the hacking and the cracking took me a few times to figure out, which kinda added to the fun to me. There is actually a clear foolproof way of doing both, but you need audio for the safe, as is clearly mentioned somewhere.
Maps are not always 'solvable' in a stealthy way indeed, which is also clearly explained somewhere. It also adds to the experience in my opinion. Sometimes when the big bucks are hard to reach I just bust in, grab a statue to at least cover my expenses and then bolt.
Fully agree with the off-screen thing as well, it annoys me sometimes, ruining a perfectly do-able house because one burglar escaped already.
I'm super happy you took the time to write this, and thank you for playing! :D
swoopie has already been so kind to respond to some of you concerns, but I'll try add some dev perspective as well.
You are fully right in your criticisms because the game is lacking good UX in big areas, but I'm sorry to say that most of these will not be fixed in this incarnation of the game, because it's made in pico-8 which has hard restrictions on code length so to add stuff something else has to be removed. Anything You think is superfluous?
The misclick escape is another thing though. Because you and others have had this problem it'll end up high on my todo, and thanks for the suggestions!
Also, since you mentioned building own levels I'd like to mention one of my inspirations: the Castle Doctrine by Jason Rohrer, dont know how active it is anymore but it's worth checking out!
Yeah sorry, wasn't my intention to put on your hat, but when I really like a game and its concept, I get a bit involved sometimes ;)
hey that's perfectly fine with me, super fun to have people engaged in the game! you are so friendly i have zero concerns with this :D
like it~~~~
nice, thanks!
Took me a while to actually rake in some money, but given some patience and fiddling I managed to pull a good heist :) Still got things to discover probably. Like it! And I always love procedurally generated games. High replay value. Good game!
One small point of feedback. Whenever you let your second burglar escape to the right of the screen, you are pressing 'right' rapidyl, also causing you to skip the result screen, which is a bummer because I'd like to see how much I've stolen ;)
And another one. It's quite annoying that you can so easily accidentally walk off the screen and escape.
hi, congrats on the heist! :D thanks for playing and i appreciate the time taken to write these comments!
I know the game have some UX issues, I'm looking into fixing them if I can without sacrificing gameplay elements. Because the game is in pico-8 and thus have restrictions on code length so it's a matter of taking something out first. I might remove the police light thing, wdyt?
Ah, right, that's an interesting dilemma. I think actually that the red/blue lights add to the stress of escaping. Not sure if I would take anything out at this point. Let me do another playthrough to see if I can come up with some alternative suggestions.
Don't think I would take anything out :-) I think players will just have to be more careful when maneuvering around the edge of the screen. Only thing you could save some code on is the whole 'busted' sequence, but then again, the burglars deserve a good game over sequence ;-)
thanks a bunch for taking the time to write! I'm happy you like the busted scene :D
what I meant with police lights was those icons that pop up when you step into a lighted area, you are then "seen" (raising the wanted-meter). If you're seen too many times in a row you get caught before entering the next building. It's not deeply explained in-game, but I needed some way to promote sneaking, and not just smash-and-grab every run (as my testers figured out and got a bit bored).
it's the one thing i can think of that might be too intricate for the rest of the feel of the game.
Ahhh right, I didn't really know what those meant indeed and they also felt kinda out of place and out of style. So yeah, I agree, those can be left out. For me, I only look at the amount of 'lights' at the result screen anyway and try to avoid being seen anyway.
I hear that I need to reevaluate them with my testers then ;)
And thanks for replying to other users above, appreciated that your tone is so polite but on point! thanks!