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New! Escape 200704130
(13 Apr 2007 at 16:01) |
| I made a new version of my puzzle game Escape today which incorporates a lot of changes I've worked on over the last 5 months or so. The OS X version (coming in a few hours) is now a Universal Binary. There's one new tile: the "remote", which I believe will prove to be very powerful. Since the old feedback thread is monstrously long, this post will serve as the new one. |
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Thank you for the new version.
I downloaded the new Escape (on OSX), and it works. However the update of levels isn't working. Plus, the last level in the new one is 1417, and just the 21 tutorials.
The last time I update levels on the old version, levels were up to 1523, and of course the 21 tutorials.
When I update either the old or new version, it just says update is up to date. |
| Yeah, I haven't uploaded the OSX version yet... I have to get my hands on a friend's OSX laptop, since I don't have one myself. It'll definitely be out later today though. That'll fix all the problems you're having. |
Awesome - remotes are great!
Can't play the tutorial yet, though, cause it doesn't show up. Is it because there was already a tutorial 21 (bombs)? |
| No (although I did screw up the number), it was because I forgot to manually update the Official collection after moving the tutorial there. It's fixed now. |
| Ooh, very nice! |
I did the OSX release, but there's a bug in the old version that means the auto-upgrade won't work. Sorry. I don't think I'll be able to work around it, so the thing to do is:
download the new zip
"show package contents" on the old Escape app, and the new Escape app
copy yourplayer.esp from the old app to the same place in the new app (it's in the Contents/MacOS directory)
copy any other stuff (any levels you're working on in the mylevels folder) too
done! |
| there seems to be a problem with solution management. if you solve a level, then go back and solve it faster, it doesn't seem update your score unless you manually delete the slower solution. |
I just uploaded a level ('science museum') and though it seems to have uploaded onto the website (as the preview image and my comment is there) I was prompted at the end of upload with: "upload failed: error code 404".
|
It took me about an hour and a half to upgrade and to find my mm.esp-files - but finally I got it. (OSX 10.4.8, no intel on this Mac). Now it works, I've only lost two levels (solutions), but that's not a big deal. Unfortunately I haven't had time to explore all that new stuff yet - but it just "looks" great and next week I'll probably be able to find out what's all new about it.
And I might check out my iBook (intel) next week, too, and I'll tell you how it works.
Great update, anyway! Congrats, Tom, and THANKS!
No more scrolling alllllllllllllll the way down... ;-)
|
pieguy: Yeah, you're probably right, it should make shorter (but not-downloaded) solutions earlier in the list of solutions, especially since it uses the "default" solution when displaying your current speedrun. (You can make a soluion the default by pressing ins, rather than deleting the others.) Thanks...
stephan: This happens, yeah, it's because it takes too long to rebuild the triage collection after uploading, which causes a timeout of your web connection. You don't need to worry about it since as you noticed it's actually successful... I'm going to look into improving the experience here.
kirima: Glad you got it working! For the levels you lost solutions on, do those now have bookmarks with non-working solutions? If so, then there's some bug because the rules in the new version are supposed to be the same as the old. |
| I can't answer - I have no idea, I just don't know, I don't understand the problem, I'm sorry. |
I got the same "problem" as pieguy: solutions management got stuck with my very first solution of a level - even though I did solve the level much quicker, the +better+ solutions just disappear and so I'm kind of "stuck" with my very first and kind of silly way to solve a level. But the "better" solution is there as a bookmark.
I did +upgrade+ the entire file - and ooops - all the old files had just ooops gone, had disappeared...?! So I did rename my player, did name it "Kirima" instead of "mm" - but ooops, all those old escape files did all of a sudden forget my "mm" name and ooops, turned all those +mm+ to "kirima" and that's why it took me so long to recover my original files.
Got it?
I can't explain it any better!
|
I'll fix the pieguy problem soon. It should be pretty easy.
Are you missing any solutions now, kirima? |
How can I access Tutorial 21? My Tuorial levels only go up to 20.
By the way the Remotes look like a great idea I just want to learn how they work. |
| Mary: You should get the new tutorials if you update the level collection from the internet (4 on the main menu). Make sure you're subscribed to 'official' and 'triage'. You also need to first upgrade the game by pressing '3' on the main menu if you haven't done that yet. (If on Mac OSX, then see above..) |
Great Game!
I'm playing on a mac G5 w/ OS 10.4
I can't seem to upgrade to the new version and find my player Id file.
I read the forum comments, no help. Any assistance would be appreciated.
thanks |
| Did you try the instructions on my comment above that begins "I did the OSX release..."? What goes wrong? |
| Aragorn, maybe your problem is getting inside the Escape "package". Try control-clicking on the Escape icon and then selecting "show package contents" from the menu that appears. Your player file should be in Contents-->MacOs. After you download the new version from the web site, drag your player file from the old package into the same location in the new package. |
| I'm telling you again Tom, your user data storage approach in Mac OS X is ridiculous. I know you wanna keep all your code the same across platforms as much as possible, but if there's one thing that should get some "special" treatment... |
| Well, I'm working on a multiuser version for linux where the data are stored elsewhere, but it removes a bunch of functionality (like the ability to self-upgrade)... I can't say I like it very much but if people will want to install it, I'll give 'em the option! |
| Why would that preclude self-upgrade? |
| Tom, I had only lost 2 solutions, no problem. |
| Sophia: well, upgrading means writing in the package. I guess on OSX you could still write the save file in the user's home directory and allow administrators to update from in-game (if I could do that administrator password prompt thing), although it's tricky because you also want the user to be able to update the collection of levels, and I think that's not something you want only administrators to do... which means reconciling that there are some set of levels that "come with" the single installation of the game, but the user can choose to supplement (or reduce?) those by updating from the server or creating his/her own, etc. Generally I think it works better if there's just one copy of the app per user that wants to use it, especially since I think multi-user systems are pretty rare. |
| Kirima: Did those 2 solutions become bookmarks? I'm interested because if solutions disappear, it might be because I introduced a bug in the game rules, which is something serious I'd like to look into. |
Tom, I'm sorry, I can't remember for sure... All I know is that I did had a problem with those bookmarks, it did bookmark and bookmark and bookmark again and again - whenever I tried to open a bookmark it did bookmark the actual situation instead of opening an existent bookmark. Or something like that! There had been a real bookmark-problem with those 2 levels - but I can't explain it any better and as I said, can't remember exactly what was going on.
I still have one backup old version of the game - I could try to upgrade that one and look what will happen. |
| Ok, I did it - and again lost those 2 solutions, but anything else works normally now, no bookmarking-problems. The solutions had gone without becaming bookmarks. |
| Okay, thanks a lot! |
| Okay I've got a problem.. I downloaded the game, updated it an' all, no problem. But when i enter tutorial nothing happens and i don't appear to be able to do anything. Sorry if i'm trying your patience but i've never played this game before and don't know what to do. (There's no instructions either!)?? |
What do you mean by "enter tutorial"? You can play the tutorial by pressing 'T' on the main menu. You can read the documentation here:
http://escape.spacebar.org/win32/escape.txt
Are you using windows, mac, or linux? |
| I have vista and it reports errors when i upload or download,however i find it still works just find otherwise.Thanks again Tom 7 for the Great diversion from the high graphic games that rely on skill and speed rather than pure gray matter.If your a thinking person then Escape is the perfect game.If I had just one computer game to play escape could very well be the one.It's a great way to almost waste time aside from using your mind. |
| Thanks! Can you tell me about the errors on vista? I don't have access to a vista yet but I'd like it to work there... |
| I just made a huge level that I'm really proud of, but I can't upload it. I get error (out of disk space) or bug (bad level) ... or something like that. It's 40X40 and has a LOT of stuff, but still.. I think there are far more complex levels. Help? |
| It's not your fault at all... I was just out of space on the server. (An unfortunately common occurrence.) It should work now if you try again! |
| Sometimes I don't seem to be able to upload new solutions as it says something about non validating. |
| I think that happens if you have a bookmark in the level, because it tries to upload the bookmark instead of your solution. It's on the list of bugs to be fixed for the next release; thanks for reporting! |
You can work around this by selecting the new solution as the "default", escaping to the main menu and going back.
By the way, this seems to happen (for me) when there are only solutions and no unfinished bookmarks, so I don't know if Tom's explanation is it. |
| Oh, really? Hmmm. I will look. |
| I've seen that too--solutions failing to upload even with no bookmarks. When it happens, the solution length in the bottom corner says 1, like it does (used to do?) when you import with Ctrl-0. Backspacing out of the folder and coming back in fixes it. |
| Ok again, this vista program reported upload failed : error code 404 back to me.However you did get my level.Vista has a few bugs that are still being tweaked and this is no doubt ,this is one of them.The error message must be an error as well.GIOG When you fix something thats no broken. |
| I don't seem to be able to upload new solutions especially when I have just beaten my previous speedrun. It doesn't seem to accept a second speedrun. By the way I'm not using Vista so it's not a vista problem. |
Gil: No, that's not a vista problem (someone above reported the same thing, take a look for the explanation). You can safely ignore the error.
mjn and Mary: Hmm, maybe there is something I don't understand going on here. Is this the automatic speedrun upload after you rate a level? Or when you use 'u' from the bookmarks menu? (Or from the solution manager?) |
| I forget exactly, but it was either the automatic upload or the solution manager; definitely not the bookmarks menu. I'm about 75% sure it was the solution manager. |
| Okay, thanks. I think the solution manager is pretty much deprecated now, since you can do everything there from the bookmarks menu. I should probably just disable it. Would you guys miss it? |
| The problem occurred with the automatic speedrun because although I had beaten the previous speedrun it didn't seem to recognize it, so then I thought I would try uploading from the solutions manager but that said something about a non-validating solution. It can't be anything to do with bookmarks because I've never tried using them. Perhaps I should have a look at bookmarks, especially if you say that you can do lots of things from there and you are thinking of removing the solutions manager. |
| Yes, I think you'll find the bookmarks menu useful... it's intended to replace the solutions manager and it's integrated with playing the game so that you can partially watch a solution and then make an improvement, plus use all of the features like zooming and scrolling while watching a solution, etc. |
| I have now managed to upload solutions using Eric's work around. |
Tom -
I just want to let you know that I love this game. Great work.
I do have one suggestion - allow users to overwrite levels that they've created. Maybe there's already a way to do this and I just don't know about it . . .
PS - I have a friend who will be a freshman at CMU next year - any advice?
PPS - Go Steelers! |
Hehe, yeah, go Steelers! =)
Is your friend going to be in the computer science department?
You can indeed overwrite a level that you've created. First, delete the old one by finding it in triage (it should have a key icon next to it) and then pressing 'del'. After that's done you can upload a new level with the same name. We never actually delete levels for good here because it would mean losing any comments, etc. for them. |
I don't think so . . . I think he's either EE or ME. Is CS its own department at CMU, or is it under Engineering?
You should check out www.steelernation.com/forums. =)
Thanks so much for the delete info - I actually think you may have told me that over a year ago, but I forgot after all that time away. I can stop bothering you now . . . =) |
No problem. It's my own fault that these things are not obvious in the game.
CS is actually its own whole School at CMU, including Robots, Machine Learning, Computer Science Department, Software Engineering, etc. My brother is a ME PhD student though. |
Wow - that's dedication to CS. I actually almost went to CMU myself . . . but that weather would have driven me nuts . . .
Man, you guys have got some brains in the family . . . what's your brother think of it? |
Yeah, CMU is pretty serious about it! It's definitely one of the biggest programs.
Mike likes MechE. He works hard but gets to do a lot of fun stuff and ends up in the popular press a lot. He didn't do his undergraduate degree here, though. |
super game;)
|
Hi Tom
These bookmark-things are really confusing. It just "bookmarks" whatever I'm doing! Any game I'm playing or trying becomes a bookmark... Even watching a downloaded original solution or speedrun becomes a new bookmark. So downloading existing solutions will "bookmark" them AND consider them as if I had solved the level that way. Watching a speedrun will bookmark it as my own solution, it appears as an "mm-solution". And so I'm deleting bookmarks again and again...
OMG, I can't explain it any better! All I know is: even without me "bookmarking" something, the game just " bookmarks" everything by itself.
Got it?
Watching a speedrun becomes: a NEW bookmark and speedrun made by ME! So I'm trying to just never ever push that button - but still, even without ever pushing the "b" - the game bookmarks WHATEVER!
Bookmarks are great - but now they seem to be "too" great!
|
| Yes, you're right. In a previous version there was a problem where it would sometimes throw out solutions (bookmarks) when it shouldn't... so now it just always saves everything. Fixing this is the highest priority! |
| a minor note, but i'm currently using the dvorak layout on a qwerty keyboard, and to navigate the menus i have to hit the qwerty keys, but in game i have to hit the dvorak keys. |
| Hmm, that difference is probably because of Wowei's patch to allow for international keyboards. I guess I should do that same thing throughout the game, so that it's always dvoark if you're using dvorak. Thanks! |
Just downloaded escape (200504250) for Mac OS X, my son loves it! However, as many above, we cannot upgrade. I can't do the trick with the old escape.app version, since I don't have that one.
Any suggestions? Thanks! |
| Well, you can follow the same instructions with any old version, since the application has always been arranged the same way. ("Escape.app" shows up as just "Escape" on your desktop or applications folder, etc.) That version is pretty old, though, so I'm not positive that the player files will be compatible with the newest version. I think it will work though. Anyway you should certainly download the new version, so that you'll be able to upgrade again and download new levels, etc. |
| Ahh, I didn't realize my version was that old :) Everything works fine now, thanks. |
| This is MY FAVORITE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Good, thanks! =) |
Hi - Any way to view or download speedruns? Thanks.
(Or any other game level tips or walkthroughs?) |
| atariboy: Once you've solved a level you can see the speedruns by clicking on 'bookmarks' and then 'download from server'. But not until you've solved it! If you want hints you can try leaving a comment on the specific level you're having trouble with... |
| enjoy these games. have leukemia and the chemo makes you slow and not able to think or remember. these games sure help. |
| CTR, I'm glad! |
| I need a hint for Tutorial 21 - I can destroy the blue block and the top laser, but can't destroy the bottom laser or get to the switch. What am I missing? |
| Tutorial 21: You can't destroy the bottom laser. You need the bots to push the button to open up the blue floor, but they'll only start walking over when the panel is depressed. What could you use to press down that panel for a long time? |
FYI. Here's something odd I noticed, the level spiral? (1466) shows Jorty as author but in the solution manager the "original" shows Josh as author??
|
| You can set the author name to anything you want when you upload (though if it's a mod please give credit where due). Speedruns and comments use the name you registered with, though. So they might be different... |
FYI. Here's something odd I noticed, the level spiral? (1466) shows Jorty as author but in the solution manager the "original" shows Josh as author??
|
OK,Duh! Nevermind I figured it out. It was late and I was not thinking. But I did notice that the timestamp on my post was 12 hours off.
|
Per your request....As of today,my mozilla foxfire browser still reports.No site is configured at this address. Did you want to go to...
snoot.org?
tom7.org?
destroyfx.org?
spacebar.org?
When I try to visit your site, so I just use explorer instead.Thanks Tom VII for the cool game and the time you take out to keep it working.I'm sure collage keeps you real busy theses days.The other links dont work either.Peace out for now.......................... |
| Weird... I could see why it wouldn't show the site at all (timeout) but it should only show that page if your browser doesn't send a "Host:" line with the request, which firefox would certainly do. Maybe it has cached that page? You could try clearing your cache from the options menu or with ctrl-shift-del... |
| I use Firefox, latest version as of yesterday, on Windows XP at work. I am able to access the site (everyday!). |
| So weird... It is working for me on all my machines?? I'll look into it after the weekend. |
| The Solution worked but,where are the escape fans I hadn't seen any new levels in days.Maybe everyone is on vacation or something.Ken you may want to try Tom VII solution listed just above your post.Peace out ya'll.................... |
| I'm glad! I've been super busy this summer trying to finish my PhD and find a job. But I hope that once that's done I'll have more time work on Escape, including some new levels in the works... |
omg look at my neeeeeew leeeeveeel based on buuutt cheese its only 5gp so buy it today!!!!! leeeedle leeedle leedle leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee |
Hershals farm: I'd like for you to play with us but I'm forced to conclude that you're being intentionally disruptive. Please be friendly or I'll have to exclude you.
(Others: I'm deleting a lot of very long, repetitive comments here.) |
| oooooooooh me so sorry for killing you |
| All of my completed Triage levels are gone! I tried to upload the latest and nothing came up except the Tutorials and the bugged ones. This is for Escape 7/4/13 for OS 10.4.10 |
| All of my completed Triage levels are gone! I tried to upload the latest and nothing came up except the Tutorials and the bugged ones. This is for Escape 7/4/13 for OS 10.4.10 |
| All my triage levels have vanished too |
| I probably ran out of space and it wrote an empty triage collection. I'll look... |
| Yup, that's what it was. Thanks for reporting this, and it's fixed now. |
| Thanks ! |
| I made and sent some levels and I will make and send many more! |
Please Tom, do something against the eternally occuring disk-space problems of your server. It even didn't allow uploading a comment.
And I so badly wanted to congratulate Kirima for defending the computers. |
ummm, defeating the computers, i meant.
congrats, your highness! |
| Wowei, omg, I found this now, 2 month later, I'm so sorry! Thanx for trying "so badly" to congratulate, that's just sweet. And I feel honored! |
| wowei: I will have to move the server when I graduate soon and at that time I will upgrade to a big disk and we'll never need to worry about it again. But it hasn't been full recently, I think, so maybe you were experiencing a different problem? =/ |
| @ Tom7 and wowei: I'm stupid! We write day/month/year - not month/day/year... And I thought wowei did leave his comment on the 9th of July!!! Grrhgkh...... Sorry for being such a silly girl! )))-; |
| Hi Tom - I've got a computer problem - my computer doesn't work anymore... So I'm on another one right now - but I've lost like half of my solved files. Do you have my solutions saved somewhere? Help, what can I do??? Thanks MM |
| I only have a solution file that you sent me a long time ago as a bug report. I can send it if you want. Is your old computer accessible at all? Maybe you can recover your .esp file and copy it onto a disk or USB memory stick? |
| Hi Tom, ok, so that's no option... I thought you might have our files somewhere! So that was a big missunderstanding, unfortunately! My iMac is not accessible AT ALL, that's why I was asking! Thank's anyway. |
| No, I don't have copies of any solutions except for the ones that are uploaded to the server (like the current best speedrun for a level), and those are a bit difficult to extract. I guess the lesson is to make backups on another computer! =( |
I need help. I'm trying to upload a level and it says this: upload failed: fail (bug) bad lev (or out of disk space).
How do I fix it? |
| Nevermind. I got it after a few hours of waiting. |
| I was out of disk space, but now it's fixed. |
i was in level 106 quath the quantity of levels
|
I'm back.
I'm using someone elses computer and I can't register,upgrade,or get new levels.
WHY????
I'm in Poland.Does it have to do something with that?? |
| What does it do when you try? |
| Right now it says:Failed to get collections list,when I try to get new levels! |
I can't even rate!!
|
It's OK.
The internet is slow and stuff like that.
it works best in the evening.
I'll get my computer in about a month and a half.
GET READY FOR MORE LEVELS!! |
| KIM - Don't laugh - I'm an old, old lady in her 70's (no kidding either) who likes to play computer games as they keep my brain active and charged! Recently discovered Escape, but level 20 has me stumped. Was reading something about turning "spoilers" on/off, but please tell me where I get the "switches" to do that? Please help!!! |
To see comments for a level, you have to look at its web page (on escape.spacebar.org). Unfortunately it's a bit hard to navigate directly to a level's web page, but you could find it by searching for
escape tutorial 20
in google. |
Hi Tom, I just want to let you know that I've got my iMac back, AND all my solutions! I'm so glad! And I will do back-ups more often now, on CDs! Have a nice week!
Kirima |
| Super! I'm glad! |
| Does Chips Challenge have a copy write because,I have that game as well and may attempt to copy some levels to your game.If it does then disregard my post. |
| yeah, pretty much any game is copyrighted, so you shouldn't copy games to escape unless you can get permission from the author of the level... |
The computer is too slow.When I get my computer I WILL able to rate,download levels,comment,and download solutions.That will be in about 2 weeks.Darn it!I just have to wait impatiently.Sorry!:((
Sincerly, Kacper Leszczynski
P.S. Could be longer [ :(( ] or shorter [ :)) ] !!! |
Is it possible, or are there any plans to have a palm version in the future? Much of my freetime is spent away from my desktop and my palm is easier to carry than my laptop.
Excellent logic Game. |
| Adam has ported the code to Java for mobile devices. I'm not sure if it can run on the Palm, but I'll ask him. I'm planning to do an iphone port when the development kit becomes available, too. |
Only 1 week to go!!! :)
(Sorry about writing here.I can't send comments on this computer) |
| Hi Tom, where can I get the Java version? |
| Wowei, are you looking for source or a compiled Java app? I think the compiled version is pretty minimal, since you can't get new levels or save solutions. I'll ask adam when I see him. |
| Thanks Tom, applet would be fine. I am only curious and would like to play a bit on a handheld. |
| I can't upload my level.It says the "out of disk space" thing again. |
| It's ok. |
| Adam said he will update and recompile it and then I can put it on the download page. |
| Kacper your levels rock! |
| Oh and thanks for the newer version Tom7. (P.S. Nice tutorials!) |
| Hey Tom7, when will the new version come out? I wonder what the new tile will be. My brother says there's a 'beta 15' already. Is there one? |
| Hey Tom7, when will the new version come out? I wonder what the new tile will be. My brother says there's a 'beta 15' already. Is there one? |
| Kacper, did your computer come yet? I hope it did. |
| Um, I have a problem. Sometimes when two escapes are open but nothing else, it locks up after one night. What's wrong? P.S. Kacper, did you see my new level? |
Hey Kirma, I like the scroolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
nggggggggggggggggggg ddddddddddddddooooooooooooooooooo
owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddddddddd
eeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaa. |
Tom, how many levels have you solved?
EJG |
| Oh sorry about the duplicate and all those posts in a row from me. |
| How about having an option to sort by bookmarks? |
ejg: It's hard to count, because I have a lot of solutions stored from deleted levels and stuff like that, but I currently have 1104/1296 for triage. I have not been keeping up well this semester, so most of the unsolved ones are new levels.
Anon: You mean by the number of bookmarks, or what? |
Hi Tom, for bookmarks, I was thinking that if you bookmark a level then it would put a "B" in front of it like the check mark when you've completed a level. And then having an option to sort by them. Hope that make sense.
Sometimes when I bookmark a level, I forget the name of it and then I have a hard time finding it. |
| Yeah, that makes sense. I'll probably do something like that. The next big project for escape (I am finishing up my dissertation this week and then hope to have some time for projects over the break) is to revamp the level selector to enable better sorting, etc. One of the things I was planning is to sort by recent activity, so that you can see the levels that you've been playing recently. This would probably help with finding the levels you've bookmarked, but it would also make sense to display a bookmark icon so that you know at a glance why they're "recent"... |
| Hi Tom, good luck!!! I'll cross my fingers! |
| Thanks Kirima! =) |
Theres a faster way of finding comments for a certain level!
First look up the levels number on the game.Then on the website look up comments for any level.Finnaly,on the website bar,there should be numbers around the end.Change these numbers to the level number and press enter.The comments will show up within a couple seconds.
Hope that saves time!!!
Kacper Leszczynski |
| You're right... Adam even has a Firefox shortcut that does that. Another thing that works is to search for the name of the level and site:escape.spacebar.org in the Goog. Again, I apologize for how hard it is to read comments... I meant to fix this years ago! |
| It was hard for me until about a week ago.I looked up the level number and went into the level browser and tried to find the closest level which was sometimes 200 levels away and it took me a long time to get there. Well, I'm going to say one more thing: MERRY CHRISTMAS! |
| Tom, on your web page try to make a database search for the levels;maybe someone wants to see all the comments for a certain level. Happy new year! |
Hey Tom,
I know every level has to have a solution to be uploaded, but sometimes I get sooooooo frustrated not knowing what I'm doing wrong...for example:
A Level With Bombs
Blocks and Bombs (later versions)
BOT BRAWL!!!! (This one is insane! I've got the dead bots in the corners, but when the guy follows you towards the end, it just doesn't seem possible to keep him off the final switch!!!)
Is there a way to download solutions - or is cheating totally unacceptable...?
|
Adrian: Some levels are hard, it's true! There are dozens that I haven't been able to solve despite spending many hours trying.
There's no way to download solutions until you've solved the level. This will probably always be the case; the few times I've been tempted to look at a solution I've regretted it. You could leaving a comment on the level asking for some hints, though! |
| How do I uninstall this game?? It didn't show up on my programs list |
| Just delete the folder that you installed it into. |
I'd also like to say that this game is unreal and you are rad for making it. I think the whole world can benefit from games like these - simple and good for the mind.
Cheers! |
Cool game! I discovered it just a couple of weeks ago, and am still playing level 1 difficulty (mostly). But what are the other ratings about? Like what is style? and rigidity (although I can sort of figure that out)?
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Thanks!
Style is just how much the rater likes the level. This is the most subjective, I think.
Rigidity is whether the level has a lot of solutions (is "loose") or few (is "tight"). |
| There's not a debian package and no makefile -- how do I play? |
The statically-linked binaries should work on any distribution, but I've heard reports that some newer Linux versions don't, so your mileage may vary.
The source package has a makefile and the file HACKING describes how to compile. |
| Hi Tom7 - Thank you for making this "Escape" game - I had written to you about 4 years ago with some issues I had. Four years later, I have 599 puzzles solved (out of the 943) -- Is there any page I could be sent with some hints? Some of these boards have driven me bonkers over the years. Thank you again - Steve |
| Steve, the best way to get a hint is to leave a comment on the particular level you're interested in. You can also browse the comments for those levels to see if there has been a hint already, but I think most players like to suffer through it themselves. ;) |
Tom,
Got to your page when collecting information on TTF embedding (your embed DMCA page still has a rather high PageRank!).
Looks like a really interesting game. The Linux 'static binary' is not actually static, though? It simply has most of the required libs on the same directory (and missing some: libstdc++, gtk+ and glib -- all of them older versions that are not installed by default).
I'm probably going to add the game to Fedora (fedoraproject.org) -- how would you like the version number listed, and is the licensing GPLv2 only or GPLv2+ ("version 2 or later")? If you plan to bring out version 1 later, I'm thinking of numbering this 0.200704130, avoiding any versioning problem.
Thanks! |
| One more thing -- could the directory in which Escape puts player and history data be made configurable? For FHS compliance, I'm putting the data files in /usr/share/escape (and using a shell script to run the binary from that directory), but that means it's creating the player data and history there as well. |
| Michel, thanks... Unless I'm remembering the distribution wrong, Adam already made a Fedora package. I made a build option (something involving 'multiuser', I think) for the issue you describe. |
| yum install escape ! |
| Also, you're right about the "static" build and the issue of the missing libraries is a serious one that I haven't gotten around to fixing. |
| Just a little question, does anyone here play 'Toontown' (Disney's Toontown Online)? |
| How to minimize to see entire level; sometimes(I don't realize which combination of tasts I pressed) I minimized the level. Well, it means it is possible. |
| You can zoom out with the [ key, and zoom back in with the ]. |
sorry this is a very basic problem for me. I am stuck on a level and efter days of frustration decided to look at the spoilers but I can't see them. They don't seem to have a link to view them or it doesn't work. Thanks and by the way what a brilliant challenging game.
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| There are only spoiler hints for a small number of levels, since the players tend to like to work things out for themselves and are quite protective of their solutions. (In fact it is common when finding a bug in someone else's level to make the bug into a puzzle so that someone has to find it, rather than just saying what it is!) That's my style, too, but if you want a hint on a specific level, you should ask. I think people are willing to answer. To ask, just press ctrl-c when a level is selected in the in-game level browser and leave a comment (the more specific your question is, the better), probably marking it as a spoiler. Then check the web page later to see if anyone has left a hint (and make sure spoilers are turned on there). Also, outside the tutorial you don't have to solve the levels in any particular order, so use the difficulty rating to find the ones that are right for you, as you get better! |
Thank you so much I've decided to just keep trying and work it out for myself much more satisfying that way!!
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| I agree! =) |
| does anyone play toontown?!?!?!!!!! |
| I keep trying to like remotes, but it is a hard sell. Some levels find clever ways to use them, but most levels seen to just throw a whole bunch onto the level and the only way to solve the level is to keep banging on it until you find the right combination of moves. There is no logic involved. I am sure there are people who like levels like that (random guessing). I hope that more levels will come along that use remotes with some finesse. I plan to try to write one or two using them to see what is really possible. |
| I know what you mean. I think it's mostly because some of my favorite authors haven't been making levels for a while. I've been busy finishing my thesis and starting a new job. I do think that, like bots, people will evemtually figure out how to use them for fun and interesting things! |
Well, I had no internet for a while, and all I really had was escape. I didn't play it for a while, and now, I lost 72 levels! AHHH! They were brilliant!
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| What do you mean you lost them? You updated and they're gone? They were probably moved to minor leagues. Just subscribe to that collection in the level updater and look for them there. I almost never delete levels permanently. |
| No, for about a year, my computer didn't have internet. I had Escape though, I downloaded it from another computer and brought it to this one. In about 5 months I created about 72 levels (Only about 15 good ones). I stopped playing Escape for a while. My computer was running out of space, so I deleted a lot of stuff. I came back and realize Escape was gone. I never had the chance to upload some of them. So, there's nothing I can do about it. I was just whining. |
| Oh, that's too bad! =( |
Time to start again! Also, the game is great! Best puzzle game I've played.
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| Ah... I also got an "idea". Perhaps you should have like thin walls, walls that go inbetween tiles. |
I know what you mean. I've thought about it in the past, because a lot of games have that, but I think it turns out being a lot more trouble than it's worth. First, there are a lot of such tiles (2^4 = 16, though we already have the all-empty and all-walls ones). Second, they need to be treated specially because when you have a block on top of one of them it needs to remember that there's a wall there. That kind of behavior currently only happens with panels, and is a large fraction of the complexity of the game and its implementation. It also breaks some symmetries in the game that I think are desirable (and that are used in the implementation). But more importantly, I think all the functionality you'd want from them is already available in the game, either by making extra-sized walls out of rough tiles, or using tricks with panels, etc. So, there's not much need for them really.
BTW, the same goes for one-way tiles like in Adventures of Lolo and DROD and a bunch of other tile puzzle games. You can actually even see graphics for those that I drew in tiles.png, though I decided not to implement them. |
| Also, thanks for the compliment and suggestions are always welcome! =) |
| You know the timestamps here and on the Escape level comments are all messed up. |
| Yeah, I know... it's a 64 bit issue. I'm tackling the sites-not-uploaded and programs crashing problems first. =) |
| Good to see your sites working again....Welcome back Tom 7 we missed you. |
Tom,
Escape gives me a message that Escape failed to get collections list. I thought it was the way I moved files over since replacing my hard drive, and the download does not work either.
What gives? |
Strange. Level updating is working for me. If you download a fresh copy of the game from the site, is it able to update levels? Which kind of computer are you using?
Are you using "alt connect" maybe? I haven't enabled that yet. I should. |
| I had the same problem - and was using alternate connect. Deselected "alternate", everything is OK :) |
| I fixed alt connect, so it should work either way now. |
| You should make an embedded browser version so you can just see a level and play it immediately. |
| yeah, I agree; I've wanted to do that for a while (probably in Flash) but have never gotten around to even starting... |
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