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Elefunk

Tntnnbltn

Member
TTP said:
But did they move from UK to US?
I read they are an UK dev (as the old website shows as well), but Gamasutra profile says they are based in Salt Lake City (and the new webiste being a ".com" rather than a "co.uk" kinda supports this).
The logo is the same on both websites. The old www.8bitgames.com used to be a redirect to www.8bitgames.co.uk. Plus I thought Elefunk was coming via SCEE.
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
(Apologies for incoming thread derailment)

TTP said:
Yeah, I know. I guess Gamasutra is wrong then.
I got it. Look back through older dates in the internet archive.

2003 -- 2004: 8Bit Games, Salt Lake City
June 2004 -- Feb 2005: This :lol :lol
Feb 2005 onwards: 8Bit Games, UK

Two different companies. The Gamasutra entry is for the older one, that's all.

Prior to 2003, the website was a personal blog called Cold Milk. Looks like it was run by someone the guy who went on to form 8Bit Games, Salt Lake City.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
This game is awesome. My friends and I played it for a few hours late last night. I'm more of a philosopher myself but my friend Brad is in an Engineering program and breezed through most of the game.

It was really fun sitting around with a group of 4 friends designing bridges into the wee hours of the morning. :lol
 

TheExodu5

Banned
I'm in Engineering...but the wrong kind of engineering. :( (comp eng)

Though my first year physics course did have quite a bit on trusses. Hopefully I've retained some knowledge. :lol
 
I'm stuck so badly on the 2nd rope level on world 3. Any tips? :(

Edit: Just seen the help on last page. Man this game is sure a toughie. My brain isn't used to thinking so much!
 

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
i still havnt finished that level yet, will do it again this weekend, the first half of the level looked like spiderman had be jacking off all over the place when i was done......... and it still didnt hold.
 

minimoke

Member
TTP said:
Is it me or those two disclaimers at the game start up are the most annoying thing ever? I mean, they last AGES and are unskippable. And there are loading "steps" before and after them. WTF. Why?

Yeah, very annoying! Although you have to shake the controller quite a lot to get your boost up during the bonus levels.
 

Baha

Member
Is there really only 1 way to solve puzzles in single player? I got that impression in single player on just the 1st level alone. If so, I'll pass on this one.
 

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
Baha said:
Is there really only 1 way to solve puzzles in single player? I got that impression in single player on just the 1st level alone. If so, I'll pass on this one.

First level yes, the rest i dont think so, the elephant rolling ones i can see being done in multiple ways and seeing the pics of what people have done compared to what i have done to complete levels.......... big no.
 

AlexM

Member
Baha said:
Is there really only 1 way to solve puzzles in single player? I got that impression in single player on just the 1st level alone. If so, I'll pass on this one.

judging from the fact it gives you bonus points for not using all your pieces I would assume that there are multiple ways to complete a level.


Although in the demo I couldnt figure out more than one way to beat the level.
 
minimoke said:
Yeah, very annoying! Although you have to shake the controller quite a lot to get your boost up during the bonus levels.
Have you tried holding the controller vertically? It's easier to hold, and you don't have to shake it that much to fill up the boost meter.
 

Durante

Member
Baha said:
Is there really only 1 way to solve puzzles in single player? I got that impression in single player on just the 1st level alone. If so, I'll pass on this one.
There are hundred of ways to solve the more complex levels.
 

HiVision

Member
this game seemed a bit meh... to me, from playing the demo that is. I couldn't get my friends to even pick up the controller after they had watched me play it.

The gameplay seems a little "academic" or something.
 
Multiplayer is quite fun. A good laugh. Shame there isn't any voice chat and what not though.

I'm now stuck on the 2nd Circus level. Wow, these levels are just crazy.

The bonus levels are quite cool too. I managed to get a bullseye on the 3rd one to my suprise. Nice 50k. Shaking the controller vertically is defo the way to go.
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
Katana_Strikes said:
Multiplayer is quite fun. A good laugh. Shame there isn't any voice chat and what not though.
Agreed. Half the fun is listening to your opponent urge the tower not to collapse.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Baha said:
Is there really only 1 way to solve puzzles in single player? I got that impression in single player on just the 1st level alone. If so, I'll pass on this one.
There's hell knows how many ways to complete any of the levels, except maybe the first one. On world 3, I've completed the level 4 last night in a two completely different, significantly different looking ways. Probably neither one of those was even close to be the most optimized bridge. On several other occasions I went back and changed things around a bit, to improve the bridge structure even after I passed the level.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
akachan ningen said:
:lol how were you trying to build on that level?
Hehe, they were probably doing what I did at first and build a support underneath the whole bridge instead of support from above. :blush:
 

GodofWine

Member
Its still not displaying my best scores on the main page where is should put my score under all the 'good scores'.

Very annoying...anyone else not seeing this? It be nice to be able to try to beat my score, and not just beat a level...replay value will be poor without this...Im sure Im doing something wrong, but have no idea what...
 

indie85

Banned
Damn, 4.3 is harder than it looks, there are some sections which just seemingly love to collapse and need a ton of steel ropes, managed it after much rejigging with no ropes to spare, every time seemingly a section that ok before would collapse.
 
Has anyone else spotted different results if they change the speed once they've started the elephants moving? One of my designs was on the edge of tolerance, and would randomly break in fast mode but complete successfully on normal speed. Unless I'm going mad and imagined it, of course :)
 

indie85

Banned
chickensoup said:
Has anyone else spotted different results if they change the speed once they've started the elephants moving? One of my designs was on the edge of tolerance, and would randomly break in fast mode but complete successfully on normal speed. Unless I'm going mad and imagined it, of course :)
I wouldnt be surprised, the level I just completed would seemingly random break where it was fine before, obviously on the edge of failure anyway.
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
indie85 said:
Damn, 4.3 is harder than it looks, there are some sections which just seemingly love to collapse and need a ton of steel ropes, managed it after much rejigging with no ropes to spare, every time seemingly a section that ok before would collapse.
2ldeg9.jpg


It was so frustrating. Originally the top part was a much simpler design. I went through an did all of the top row first.

Then I went back and did the second row and it made the top part start collapsing, even though they weren't directly connected.

chickensoup said:
Has anyone else spotted different results if they change the speed once they've started the elephants moving? One of my designs was on the edge of tolerance, and would randomly break in fast mode but complete successfully on normal speed. Unless I'm going mad and imagined it, of course :)
That might explain one of my world 2 levels where the elephant seemed to arbitrarily bounce high enough to hit an icon.
 

El-Suave

Member
Eurogamer reviewed it and gave it a 7/10.

And that's Elefunk: a cutesy bridge-building game with a surprisingly moreish appeal. 8bit Games' unassuming effort is yet another interesting addition to the PlayStation Network that anyone with a longing for patient puzzling will warm to, but one that comes with an unforgivingly steep learning curve. As we've come to expect from Sony, getting to grips with its unusual demands won't break the bank (it's just GBP 4.99), so if you're hankering after something satisfyingly different from the mainstream that doesn't resorting to being willfully obscure, this fits the bill.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=200019
 

indie85

Banned
Sounds a bit harsh, as normal, I'd say 8/10 is fair. Once you get the hang of how the girders and ropes work, its not that hard. The game is damn fun and even having levels taking many goes it was still fun enough to make me want to complete it. I just wish there were a few more levels and like a random structure generator in multi, coz after a couple days I already know them backwards.
 

sevanig

Banned
There is some slow down when there is an epic failure...
Good game though, there needs to be a psp version.
Does it support remote play?
 

Das-J

Law of the West
I just got to the first bonus level this morning and for grins I held the boost down all the way... good times! :lol
 

Gwanatu T

Junior Member
Durante said:
Buy Armadillo Run. Seriously. It's an amazing game and offers exactly what you're looking for. And it's independently developed so the guy could use your money.

http://armadillorun.com/

Glad to see someone else mentioning this. Both games are great, and Elefunk is the best value ever on any of these DLC services. I wish MS would take a pricing note (I know MS doesn't set the prices, but it's a nice dream).
 

BeeDog

Member
Alright, mailed one of the devs of Elefunk, and asked whether or not they will patch in trophies or not, and whether or not they will add support for "skip X number levels you can't finish" thingy someone recommended here. Got an answer,

Hi,
Thank you for your interest and kind words about Elefunk.

A little bit of news, we closed 8bit in June and completed Elefunk with our new studio Big Head Games Ltd., (so I rarely check this email).

I am unsure who NeoGAF is but assume he/she got my email address from press releases...It's nice to receive friendly emails once in a while!

We are in talks with Sony about new content and patching the game, yes, we're reading the forums constantly and taking on board comments...I do notice Trophies and the difficulty as being high priority.

It's been very hard to balance the game, Sony actually had focus groups play the game and graphs of difficulty were produced and we rearranged some levels and added extra pieces, re-mapped, etc. etc. but it's one of those games where if you can go from too hard to way too easy in 3 pieces...so hard to get right...we're surprised to see people having problems with level 3, but do know that Egypt is easier again.

Well thanks for the email and I'll add the comments to the list.

Some interesting points in the answer. Glad I got an answer, didn't expect one. :)
 

Durante

Member
What I really don't get is how anyone could think that 4-3 is not the hardest level in the game - by far. It took me over 10 minutes which is more than twice as long as any other level. It should be 4-5. (and make 4-4 4-3, it's laughably easy)
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
Durante said:
What I really don't get is how anyone could think that 4-3 is not the hardest level in the game - by far. It took me over 10 minutes which is more than twice as long as any other level. It should be 4-5. (and make 4-4 4-3, it's laughably easy)
I don't think anyone disagreed with that in the first place. :D
 

Durante

Member
Tntnnbltn said:
I don't think anyone disagreed with that in the first place. :D
I thought that the developers did, or else why put it at 4-3 if they were going for steadily increasing difficulty?
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
I don't mind the difficulty. I just want the ability to create/share levels, and to make MP towers of your own or something.
 

Durante

Member
It's not really all that difficult (there's more than one Armadillo Run level I worked on for multiple days), it's just that I find the difficulty progression really strange especially now that they claim to have tested it so much.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
I think most of the difficulty is in not understanding the exact properties of the pieces. At first I used parts on areas that I could have did well by putting a simple stick piece or even nothing at all. Not knowing if lines would break due to the pressure that was put on them also got me into sticky situations. Maybe if they had a tension gauge where you can see the limit of the rope joint, and the pressure being applied. It would also allow for more elaborate calculations.
 

Durante

Member
"Real" building games of this type (Bridge Builder, Pontifex 1/2 and Armadillo Run) have an optional mode which you can enable while the simulation is running that shows you the current tension of each piece as a color code (eg. high compression pieces red, low tension green, high elongation blue, with smooth transitions between them). I really missed this in Elefunk. It should be quite easy to implement and control, for example by holding down a shoulder button.
 

gantz85

Banned
Durante said:
"Real" building games of this type (Bridge Builder, Pontifex 1/2 and Armadillo Run) have an optional mode which you can enable while the simulation is running that shows you the current tension of each piece as a color code (eg. high compression pieces red, low tension green, high elongation blue, with smooth transitions between them). I really missed this in Elefunk. It should be quite easy to implement and control, for example by holding down a shoulder button.


Judging by beedog's post about their e-mail reply, someone needs to send them an e-mail with NeoGAF's URL and tell them to read the Elefunk thread.
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
BeeDog said:
Some interesting points in the answer. Glad I got an answer, didn't expect one. :)
Great you got a reply. That's one reason why I love smaller PSN devs. :D

Elefunk credits:
Special Special Thanks
8bit would like to thank Phil Gaskell and Lee Travers of SCEE, for putting elephants before budgets.
:p
 

Tntnnbltn

Member
Fady K said:
Finally, a known site reviews it, 1up gives it a B.
Eurogamer isn't known?

1UP review summary:
Elefunk is sublime in concept -- ultimately addictive and quite entertaining, despite a steep learning curve. With a little more context and explanation, it could've been great. PSN is a hotbed of clever ideas, and while this isn't the best execution of one, it more than earns its place. For $5, Elefunk gets away with being a downloadable, mostly successful, curiosity.
 

dk_

Member
Has anyone finished the game already?

After I found out that Europeans got ripped off by the pricing, I played Armadillo to get my bridge builder fix. Now I finished it and I still want to play Elefunk.

It's worth getting for 5 dollars, but not for 8 EUR, amirite?
 
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