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Quadrilateral Cowboy |OT| Twentieth-century cyberpunk
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Donald Bubbins
Member
Same thing is happening to me. Makes me sad.
I got stuck with that too, at least restarting the game seems to fix it.
Hierophant
Banned
retro cyberpunk is seriously the best
i hope there are some assassination jobs or something seriously, the idea of an autogun you have to program is so cool
if not, i can wait until the steam workshop makes something
i hope there are some assassination jobs or something seriously, the idea of an autogun you have to program is so cool
if not, i can wait until the steam workshop makes something
Intheflorsh
Banned
I wish there was more stuff utilizing telnet, I think building a perfectly timed sequence of code to get through a bunch of obstacles is some of the most fun stuff in the game. On the other hand, I like that the game is constantly throwing new mechanics at you. I just got to the
and it's completely unlike anything else in the game so far.
multi-sim stuff
Hierophant
Banned
okay just finished the game,
anyone can tell me what was going on?
anyone can tell me what was going on?
i assume the girls ended up living happier lives than previous blendo protagonists
Anyone who finished it already give me a rough estimate on time to complete? Shorter the better in my opinion, I like concise packages I have the time to complete rather than sprawling play-forever games.
And although it's been said this game is lighter on narrative than GravBo/30FoL, whats the split like between story/puzzles. I'm a lot less interested in a game that is purely coding puzzles.
Best example I can suggest is I really enjoyed The Witness for it's connective tissue between puzzles, but I know I wouldn't enjoy Stephen's Sausage Roll.
And although it's been said this game is lighter on narrative than GravBo/30FoL, whats the split like between story/puzzles. I'm a lot less interested in a game that is purely coding puzzles.
Best example I can suggest is I really enjoyed The Witness for it's connective tissue between puzzles, but I know I wouldn't enjoy Stephen's Sausage Roll.
Took me around
4-5 hours
I enjoyed the game, story has the quirkiness of other Blendo games and hacking puzzles were good.
Favorite puzzle moments were:
-
the car heist switching and timing between the 2 characters to get the safe.
In the last puzzle timing the weever to switch off the 4 lasers in the floor!
I'm hoping for more to be added, it can get crazy very easily in the systems available
Hierophant
Banned
blinking to fire a gun will never get old
I probably completely overcomplicated in the house with the blink puzzles but yeah, blinking was pretty fun
But...SSR is better than The Witness.
Intheflorsh
Banned
I managed to skip this completely by just shooting the glass roof where the controls were, ha.
Rippounette
Neo Member
Did you do it all from the deck? I wanted to do this level in only one string but I kept messing up the lasers part so I just ended up doing all the level with only blinks
That would've been simpler!
Yes, that use some wait commands or else the activation times wouldn't work. It was somethink like:
datajack 0;wait(1);datajack 1;jump;wait(1);datajack 0;wait(1) datajack 1
publicpwnerer
Member
Great little game, I just finished it. My only criticism was the final level...I thought it was poorly designed personally. Not as slick as the first handful of missions.
I just wished there was more programming'esque missions. I thought the
[Spoiler: Introduced mechanic mid/end game]
I love how each tool/mechanism is introduced in a blank room, where you literally just sit and tinker until it's purpose is clear. The same goes for saving the game and navigating the missions. Just that small touch of having to look/think, even for a brief second is a rewarding experience.
I just wished there was more programming'esque missions. I thought the
[Spoiler: Introduced mechanic mid/end game]
The multi role missions, scout, engineer etc were really strange, and didn't fit the theme / overall mechanics of hacking.
I love how each tool/mechanism is introduced in a blank room, where you literally just sit and tinker until it's purpose is clear. The same goes for saving the game and navigating the missions. Just that small touch of having to look/think, even for a brief second is a rewarding experience.
So my thoughts on Quadrilateral Cowboy:
This game is awesome and one of the best things I've played this year. It's meticulously designed around thinking about the player and the best way to guide them, predict them, and make things accessible and convenient without jumping into a hand-holdy demonstration or pop-up tutorial. The gadgets and mechanics are just plain cool, and meld perfectly into the theme of the world. The game rapid fires introducing/teaching them, putting them into practice, and then moving on to the next so it all stays fresh. As complex as the game looks, it's all really simple and really damn fun.
But...I think the game blasts through it's mechanics so fast that you're just shy of that satisfaction you want out of the game. It feels like it's constantly not reaching its full potential, especially with a literal game-changing mechanic later on that is ripped away from you a couple levels later (see the end of this post). At the same time, I'd rather things be underutilized then overstay their welcome, so it's not a huge deal for me. Lastly, no sugarcoating, this game feels really unpolished. Multiple crashes, the command line bug, pressure plates broke and didn't set off alarms for me (I'll take it), game froze when I did a specific command line input, etc.. There's quite a bit of graphical and sound issues as well, and it feels like Brendon kind of smartly gets away with them using the lo-fi blocky aesthetic and even the context of the setting.
Overall though I had a ton of fun with the game and would highly recommend it despite some issues, it's incredibly well designed with a lot of heart and work put into it, and it shows.
As for that mechanic I mentioned, it looks pretty apparent that
I'm pretty curious about why that is, might dig into the game some more with dev commentary on.
This game is awesome and one of the best things I've played this year. It's meticulously designed around thinking about the player and the best way to guide them, predict them, and make things accessible and convenient without jumping into a hand-holdy demonstration or pop-up tutorial. The gadgets and mechanics are just plain cool, and meld perfectly into the theme of the world. The game rapid fires introducing/teaching them, putting them into practice, and then moving on to the next so it all stays fresh. As complex as the game looks, it's all really simple and really damn fun.
But...I think the game blasts through it's mechanics so fast that you're just shy of that satisfaction you want out of the game. It feels like it's constantly not reaching its full potential, especially with a literal game-changing mechanic later on that is ripped away from you a couple levels later (see the end of this post). At the same time, I'd rather things be underutilized then overstay their welcome, so it's not a huge deal for me. Lastly, no sugarcoating, this game feels really unpolished. Multiple crashes, the command line bug, pressure plates broke and didn't set off alarms for me (I'll take it), game froze when I did a specific command line input, etc.. There's quite a bit of graphical and sound issues as well, and it feels like Brendon kind of smartly gets away with them using the lo-fi blocky aesthetic and even the context of the setting.
Overall though I had a ton of fun with the game and would highly recommend it despite some issues, it's incredibly well designed with a lot of heart and work put into it, and it shows.
As for that mechanic I mentioned, it looks pretty apparent that
it was cut from the last half of the game. In fact, that level from the gif in the OP is cut (unless there's a secret I'm missing, there's something in that towers level...) but can be accessed by going through the debug console.
More_Badass
Member
Seems like rather than having multiple people, Chung used those missions as a tutorial and then gave your character all the tools and abilities, to streamline the pacing
Rippounette
Neo Member
Don't know if you've already seen it but there's a good tip that I saw on twitter, use beep() to signal when your wait() ends. I might try to set up a single string with beeps, looks like it would help with not being synchronized enough with your commands.
You
gaining all their abilities is precisely why I think a lot of it got cut (or went into significant prep work that he decided not to finish), not to mention the missing airship level, and the fact the observer vr goggles remain despite not really needing them at all.
I could see it definitely see it being cut for pacing and/or being too complex since it drastically changes the scope of things.
Intheflorsh
Banned
I wish that the batch files were saved between levels, I definitely could have used one to deploy/connect the autogun easily.
Huh, I thought they were. I think you can at least use them between jobs in the same level? I never used them since
the blink macros
It's crazy how much stuff is crammed into this game. I really hope the modding scene gets active for this.
More_Badass
Member
I think that particular level might have just been for the presentation, or maybe might have morphed into one of the aerial levels.
But I am curious what the point of being able to reposition the extraction waypoint is. Has anyone used that?
Rippounette
Neo Member
I just put it closer to finish some levels more quickly, same with the one for entering. Apart from that, not really.
That's possible. Another thing is
in the epilogue you see the Hacker goggles on the wall that were never used in the game, the exception being that level.
...I didn't even know you could even reposition the extraction. That would actually make sense for
the stock exchange level where I had to break the glass and set off an alarm to be able to use the launcher to get back up to the ship.
Also apparently you can do all the jobs at once in a level? I should've realized that one. Damn this stuff is making me want to do a full play through again.
Didn't notice the beep command, interesting.
Also never done anything with the extraction waypoint.
I feel like the game could have gone further in complexity, the
getpos and setpos commands with the aimbot
Also hoping modders will play with this
I speel my dreenk
Member
Rippounette
Neo Member
I've seen some discussions about it on the Steam forums, so hopefully yeah! I've tried a bit myself and I have a couple of ideas but I've never made mods for games before (apart from the visual stuff in Stellaris but that's almost integrated in the game itself) so I'm still getting used to the tools.
Also, there's an update with bug fixes (and oranges!).
I knew the mechanic but somehow it didn't work for me there. Maybe I did it wrong.
Do you really have any choice in the leg matter anyway? Seemed to me you can't exit unless you do it
The theme really was heists, not hacking in the software sense and more defeating physical security system
Yeah I actually did the DarkRadiant tutorial in Brendon's modding guide last night. Don't know if anything will come out of it, but I plan on tinkering around some and maybe making a playground room.
Sweet, those fixes look good. Wonder if it's just one orange per map or what.
The more I play this game, the more I'm convinced that 1) its heart is in all the right places, and 2) its design is simply not up to the task.
I'm on a particularly aggravating mission where the fundamental core of this game has broken down to tediousness and inaccuracy.
. The concept is great, but the amount of time it takes to set this up in a way where it actually works is both boring and distinctly not fun. If the angle is wrong even slightly, you need to go back and set everything back up again, only to discover that, yet again, you can't move it in the increments you need to. What would solve this problem? Just letting people move the mouse to select a location. I get that that's against the design philosophy of the game, but mechanically this game isn't supporting its design philosophy very well.
Nearly every mission I've played up to this point has had a lot of bugs, and overall distinct lack of polish, but the place where you simply can't have that happen is during the execution of the puzzles themselves. You can tell they saw how many things could go wrong, and provided ways of dealing with it, but it still feels like an overall lack of intention to fix those things in a direct manner.
Not only should this game be in early access I think (I've beaten the mission I'm on twice now, but the game never actually thinks I have!), but it needs to go back to formula with more than one or two of its design philosophies. It needs to prioritize fun. I believe it can do that and keep its design mostly intact, but so far, I'm pretty disappointed.
edit: I kind of want to revise some of the above. Turns out I was doing the wrong mission (of 3). Partly, this is because it's not entirely clear, but I'm willing to accept it should have been obvious after the first time. I wish the game would have said something, even a big "fail" message to let me know I stole the wrong safe. Maybe that'll happen at some point.
Also, some of the later puzzles have turned out to be a lot more interesting. So, from a creative standpoint, I feel this game kind of redeeming itself for me as it comes to a close. Even accepting that it's not a very layered experience, in terms of requiring to use everything you know at once, I still appreciate its more nuanced designs and puzzles. It's a diamond in the rough kind of game; so much good, but definitely needs some work to reach to smooth out the overall experience.
I'm on a particularly aggravating mission where the fundamental core of this game has broken down to tediousness and inaccuracy.
It's where you need to use the aimbot gun with blink to turn off two lasers back to back.
Nearly every mission I've played up to this point has had a lot of bugs, and overall distinct lack of polish, but the place where you simply can't have that happen is during the execution of the puzzles themselves. You can tell they saw how many things could go wrong, and provided ways of dealing with it, but it still feels like an overall lack of intention to fix those things in a direct manner.
Not only should this game be in early access I think (I've beaten the mission I'm on twice now, but the game never actually thinks I have!), but it needs to go back to formula with more than one or two of its design philosophies. It needs to prioritize fun. I believe it can do that and keep its design mostly intact, but so far, I'm pretty disappointed.
edit: I kind of want to revise some of the above. Turns out I was doing the wrong mission (of 3). Partly, this is because it's not entirely clear, but I'm willing to accept it should have been obvious after the first time. I wish the game would have said something, even a big "fail" message to let me know I stole the wrong safe. Maybe that'll happen at some point.
Also, some of the later puzzles have turned out to be a lot more interesting. So, from a creative standpoint, I feel this game kind of redeeming itself for me as it comes to a close. Even accepting that it's not a very layered experience, in terms of requiring to use everything you know at once, I still appreciate its more nuanced designs and puzzles. It's a diamond in the rough kind of game; so much good, but definitely needs some work to reach to smooth out the overall experience.
John Kowalski
Banned
I've had console troubles as well and i had to start a new career to get them fixed.
Also strange that some geometry counts as post processing? That's weird.
Also strange that some geometry counts as post processing? That's weird.
Also had some trouble with that.
grab the weever and throw him inside the tube (remember hold button to throw)
Mushroomer25
Member
Anybody else just hit a brick wall in terms of progress in the
mission? Every part of it just seems cumbersome as hell, and I have no idea what I'm doing.
Gravity Yank
I've had to guide that peice of shit weevil to the same datajack at least a dozen times, then awkwardly place the air vent in front of the safe, bump into it... and I have no clue. The alarm goes off, the safe (or at least a yellow outline of it?) is where it claims it needs to be... and the mission keeps going. If I go into the next building, a turret kills me. I am totally lost as to what I'm supposed to be doing, and the lack of any mid-mission save really kills my enthusiasm to give ti another try.
I think you're doing the wrong job. There's multiple
safes/vaults in the level that correspond to the the different jobs, you need the safe from tower 1 for Gravity Yank
Make sure to look at the handy dandy notebook at the start of every mission with Tab.
If you purely like the puzzles sure, but the grab for The Witness for me was the atmosphere and feeling of the island - SSR looks like a pure puzzle game and I know personally I won't enjoy getting stuck over and over.
even if it's stuck you can jump make it jump over and over until it reaches the plug
Just finished. Definitely worth the wait.
I don't know how to describe it other than a work of absolute love. Every stylistic decision, every moment of pacing. Some criticisms
I can't wait to see what community springs up around this. With the amount of mechanics available missions could get bonkers.
I don't know how to describe it other than a work of absolute love. Every stylistic decision, every moment of pacing. Some criticisms
regarding the length of the game, or misspent use of mechanics, I think are valid but I personally can't behind that. It felt perfectly scoped with surprises around every corner and delightful pacing. It's super restrained in a way that was really, really cool.
I can't wait to see what community springs up around this. With the amount of mechanics available missions could get bonkers.
It's very possible, BlendoGames put up a tutorial on Steam that walks you through making a map that you can test immediately in-game.
Sweet!
The tutorial is very bare bones still - it doesn't get you into equipping a player with a deck even - but Brendon Chung has said he'll be updating it with more chapters once patching and support slow down.
I have a map idea I very much want to make and hope I can get over the hump.
I have a map idea I very much want to make and hope I can get over the hump.
Sparrowhawk
Member
I thought that
would be something that allowed you to
but it turned out to be even cooler than I thought.
blink.exe
teleport
Finished this today. Took me about ~6 hours total, including bathroom and food breaks. Had a lot of problems with this game early on, and I still think, overall, it's not as polished as it should be (Quite a few crashes that I actually reproduced, graphic glitches, and lack of precision -- also could use more prompts to let you know what your objective actually is), but by the last mission the game grew on me enough to recommend it to anyone who is willing to play an imperfect, and not completely full-bodied puzzle game. The last level especially shows you what kind of direction the game could have taken, as it's relatively brilliant, and very satisfying to complete.
I'd be *really* down for a Quadrilateral Cowboy 2 that makes good on the vast promise of this game. Bigger, longer, more difficult, more polish, and you've got a potential GotY on your hands.
I'd be *really* down for a Quadrilateral Cowboy 2 that makes good on the vast promise of this game. Bigger, longer, more difficult, more polish, and you've got a potential GotY on your hands.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
There's a pretty sick AMA with Brendan Chung on reddit.
Cave Johnson
Member
Quadrilateral Cowboy emphasized world building and storytelling in favor of layered game mechanics. However, the groundwork design from OG - THIEF is right there that the individual mechanics can have massive emergent style "do-as-you-please" scenarios I hope future developers will explore.
Given that, I understood what BC is trying to accomplish here and I most definitely enjoy the potential this gameplay style template that can be used in game design.
Given that, I understood what BC is trying to accomplish here and I most definitely enjoy the potential this gameplay style template that can be used in game design.