for anyone having trouble with the 250 medal:
for some reason, no matter how much you try, you can't seem to get it using the newgrounds flash player; however, i got it pretty much immediately using ruffle.
to switch to ruffle, go to your account settings and under flash option, you can choose to enable Ruffle flash emulation, if possible.
you can check that and see if it works, then disable it back afterwards
good game. a little too hectic when it starts to get into it but otherwise works great.
in regards to suggestions on improving the game, i've found myself losing pretty frequently due to accidentally "mispelling" a word;
more specifically, i accidentally input any extra letter after firing, so it won't accept any other commands since i have to first manually clear the textbox.
would be nice if there was some failsafe measure that prevents you from "mispelling" by only accepting valid commands. if nothing else, at least for the first letter (only accepting C,F,L,R,S as the first letter) to avoid being forced to backspace while you're getting swarmed by multiple entities in a row on the same lane.
tips for players:
- i've found myself having a lot of trouble going right since it's the one that requires the most button presses of all. i bypassed this by copypasting the "right" command while in the menu, then using ctrl+V in-game to make going right easier. that way you only have to worry about going left, and handling the gun. it also helps when you have to quickly dodge something (specifically boulders) if there's space on the right, since it actually becomes the quickest command to input.
- while counter-intuitive, the right mindset isn't to cock your gun before you have to fire, but cocking your gun every time right after firing. that way if you need to fire the gun in a pinch, you won't have to worry about having forgotten to cock your gun. worst case scenario, you might be out of ammo but that can be quickly fixed since the command is way shorter and easier to input.
my general advice is to ready your gun, and every time you need to shoot you FIRE, then COCK, and REload whenever there's spare time. you can also not worry about reloading when multiple enemies in a row are approaching, since you can mash reload afterwards when there's more breathing room to work with. also FIRE is easier to input than SHOOT, but i guess that's just down to personal preference.
really like this one when comparing it with the previous games, because it addresses pretty much all the issues that came with those:
- it's not entirely reliant on luck to clear (see fruits match, especially levels 124 onward);
- it's challenging enough where you can't just mindlessly move around until you clear it, but there's also not so many levels that it overstays its welcome (see pipe match and its 1000+ levels);
- it's not exactly the same as other types of puzzles that already exist (see pill escape, and stuff like rush hour. there's even an online solver if you look for it);
all in all it's a good puzzle game, mechanics work as intended, it can be cleared with some effort if you're going for a regular clear, and even if going for all perfect there's not that many levels where it's more trouble than it's worth;
though some of the levels are pure evil if you're going for perfect, so i'm glad the requirements for the 3-star medal got lowered lol.
EDIT: full guide here; sorry for the text format:
https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/da7aeff41b807be1fed94a325c639473
thanks to the creator for filling me in on the solution for the last level i was missing (level 28 was a real problem).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts that made me more forward to create better games. I really appreciate it. I was just amazed by your hard work as well as your enthusiasm. I got lucky having a player like you. Very inspiring!
having some starting instructions makes this so much better already.
i could never have imagined that you can only move one side at a time, but somehow when moving to the output it colors the entire thing.
though if i have to say, the best change that was made was adding a description of the current active command/number/modifier by hovering over an instruction.
i can't remember if that was there already, because if it was all my criticism on the instruction manual being hard to read goes completely out of the window and i'm actually the dumbest person alive.
it's such a good idea since you also don't need to constantly go back to the manual just to check if you've mispelled a command or not. definitely can't blame the mechanics for not being clear at this point.
edit: a couple of other things that are still confusing:
- levels aren't unlocked in order;
i figured you'd have to clear them in order, because they would get increasingly more difficult. meanwhile i had to clear most of the other ones just to get to level 3, and i'm not sure why.
- what does adding a breakpoint do? i guess it probably stops the code's execution and sends you back to the first instruction, but i don't remember seeing it mentioned anywhere in the manual, so i never used it.
i just made up for it by adding a "jump to instruction 0" command when i needed something like that, which would do the same thing and thus doesn't explain why it would be a thing (assuming it works like that)
- the descriptions for level 9 and 10 are confusing. i think the problem with level 9 is simply that i didn't read it properly so i might have to give it another couple reads, but for 10 i honestly have no idea what it wants me to do when it says i have to "shift the hue of the input".
bug reports:
- the prompt, variable names and level set-up for level 3 give discordant information (although it works as intended):
prompt says to move greens to 7 and blues to 8, expected values are greens to 7 and blues in 8, but the output variables' names are reversed (blue.7 , green.8).
for inputs, prompt mentions input.6, variable name is input.6, but the actual input on the board is hexagon 5.
- something weird with the "jump if color" commands:
let's say you execute instruction 5, and you "jump if color, by skipping 3 instructions". you would expect it to skip 6,7 and 8, and then execute instruction 9.
what it actually does is jump to instruction 8 and execute it.
basically it's adding 3 to the current instruction number (the one you're using to jump ahead) so if you want it to actually "skip N instructions" as advertised, you need to add 1 more to the amount of instructions skipped.
honestly it's easier this way since you can exactly tell which line you're going to execute after a jump by simply adding the number of "lines skipped" to the one with the jump instruction, but if the idea was for it to "skip a specific number of instructions", then it's not working as intended
-------
decided to add a much needed walkthrough for the medal levels.
the solutions are in no way optimized, just the first working solutions i managed to put together
(had to pick up pen and paper to plan ahead for level 9. pain):
level 1: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/114f3e396ea80014061c40198dad5373
level 2: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/abfe2d6684860e49d57ef933b171cd9c
level 3: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/5a088fec7a76fe592f1eb9b385ad0d1c
level 4: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/af22a4d2c190f88ae222606559991bd8
level 5: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/fd41718c3ecf293bf5c744c4a3f89a7f
level 6: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f98592b4613b4f3e1afe10a892b79006
level 7: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/d47b0d364127ae2d85709a143e1654c6
level 8: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/c09c1523a99e9363934ebff161cc4c38
level 9: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/98a7ba1f0a19c550ec10f53cdbf3cdd3
level 10: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/a087f77a29510ecedd3416bb24ad6b49
Just updated the game to fix all of your problems! Glad you came back and gave it another go!
Jump if color works as you would think now. It was originally <current instruction> + <amount> because that's what I wrote in the drawn manual, and I couldn't find a better word than "skip" for the tooltip and translation. Seems a bit silly to have them different haha, should now be <current instruction> + <amount> + 1. There's not really a point of going <current instruction> + 0 instructions (infinite loop), so might as well add the plus 1.
Levels unlocked downward, so if you beat a level all the hexagons below it on the level select screen would be unlocked. Levels futher down are "harder" and generally dependent on mechanics introduced in the levels above it in the level select. The reason for the randomish numbering of them was because they were numbered in the order I made the levels and I reordered them based on difficulty on the level select. Realize it's a bit silly, so I renumberd all the levels by difficulty, so they should "unlocked in order".
Breakpoint is a computer science term, I shouldn't have assumed everyone knew the term haha. It doesn't really do anything for the program, it just pauses the program on that instruction for debugging purposes (If you know one part of the program works but another doesn't, you would put a breakpoint right before the part that doesn't work and step through it).
On confusing descriptions of level 9 and 10, I've added a button to see a longer more detailed description. Variable names for level 3 are changed, that was a typo!
Also working on a post-game that includes user-made levels, you got any ideas for future levels?
Edit: Oh man, I didn't read your comment about how jump if color was easier before, might revert the change back.
had to scour the internet for it since i thought the secret medal combination was locked behind the now privated fake ad, but i finally got a hit!
in the 22nd episode of the Judge John Hodgman podcast, at the 4:30 minute mark, it's mentioned that there exists a cheat combination that unlocks the secret golden eagle level;
while in the main menu, you have to input:
up
up
down
down
claw (7)
flap (5)
flap (5)
flap (5)
beak grab (4)
claw grab (3)
flap (5)
flap (5)
pitch (2)
yaw (1)
beak grab (4)
double flap (6)
you get a medal for finding the level, and another one for clearing all 3 stages
game's fine but whoever designed 124 hates fun
this is actually very good for what it is, and not overly long either.
just wanted to leave a review to explain that monsters' patterns aren't random; each one of them moves in a fixed direction when you move in a specific direction.
so some of them move the same as you, some of them go down when you move right etc..
it's only a matter of figuring out where they move when you move in which direction.
Thank you! And yeah, maybe I should have explained the mechanics in the description a bit more, but I though it would be obvious after a few turns playing! It's hard to see the wood for the trees sometimes when you're developing stuff!
i could really use an health indicator so i know how much hp i can actually work with.
also for some reason the parry doesn't work half the time.
anyway, how come the first two bosses are unironically the hardest ones?
especially the last phases of the two:
for the first one, i can never figure out the actual trajectory of the axes so i end up bashing into them way more often than i would like to.
for the second one, the lasers are unforgiving. on top of having to dodge everything else, you have to figure out which direction they're gonna turn towards cause it's random, and multiple badly placed lasers in a row can trap you against the sides of the screen.
EDIT: for the parry, i should have been more specific.
basically, since the parry hitbox is only the red slash in front of you, sometimes you fail to parry projectiles that are too close because outside of the parry range, especially from the sides.
it's obviously working as intended because the hitbox is the slash and it's clearly shown, so i'm just venting because i've lost a few of my nightmare attempts due to not parrying projectiles coming from the right side specifically. my bad lol
also i'm glad the parry has an actual damaging hitbox. i hate the 3rd phase of the last boss (the one with the spinning stars) so spamming parry to deal extra damage has proved very useful in that instance
1. hp indicator is the orbs around your character, i probably should have displayed them on the ui too
2. not sure about the parry but it only works on certain purple projectiles
3. probably because i got very burnt out when designing the last 2 haha
Edit: ahh ic, regardless ty for the review!
death is hard, but spronk is harder.
teleporting all over the place on its own makes it way more difficult because it's hard to actually hit it, and having to do that while also dodging all the crap he throws at you on its last phase is very challenging, to say the least.
who thought that was only medium difficulty lol
dunno if it's a bug, but i can't find any sponges on level 3-6. the one with the large spike pit in the middle. stuck on 57/60.
tried resetting data and encountered the same situation a couple more times so it's likely not a glitch on my part i guess?
Yeah, we were thinking about what could have happened, since with our build there is no such issue. We do think of one thing that may cause this. Maybe we'll find the solution, but if not, then we will implement something else that works around the bug. Like a button that resets all sponges and the counter or something like that.
Thanks for the bug report!
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Joined on 1/18/12
Touch Peter 
HEADSHOT TYPECAST 
Cookie Match 
Aurora 
Plimpton's Video Falconry 
Fruits Match 
Escape From Monster Tower 
Pumpkin WIng 
Cosmic Quadruple-Dutch 
Psycho Spoon