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Introducing NeoGAF Gold
Snake Pass |OT| Snake Had A Hard Life
- Thread starter Cerium
- Start date
- 1950
Once the controls click you're able to do pretty much anything with ease you're given quite a lot of leeway when it comes to falling off stuff, as long as you're coiled around a pole a tiny bit you'll be perfectly safe.
Some pole layouts can be used a regular steps or bridges with no need to coil around them to climb up or get across.
I've found some tricky climbs can be skipped entirely but just climbing up the scenery and jumping across, this is a bit of a cheat though really.
I tend to have the ZR held down most of the time and use the grip as a sort of braking system if a coil is going too wide. On really tricky bits I'll tap ZR to go a bit slower.
Finding a decent camera angle before climbing helps a lot too, I like to climb with the camera side on rather than behind me.
Most annoying part of the game is getting stuck in the scenery and being forced to restart.
Some pole layouts can be used a regular steps or bridges with no need to coil around them to climb up or get across.
I've found some tricky climbs can be skipped entirely but just climbing up the scenery and jumping across, this is a bit of a cheat though really.
I tend to have the ZR held down most of the time and use the grip as a sort of braking system if a coil is going too wide. On really tricky bits I'll tap ZR to go a bit slower.
Finding a decent camera angle before climbing helps a lot too, I like to climb with the camera side on rather than behind me.
Most annoying part of the game is getting stuck in the scenery and being forced to restart.
Has anyone noticed visual upgrades on Switch after a patch? I saw this video but am having a hard time telling the difference since the videos are out of sync and my screen for viewing this isn't the best.
Hey guys,
My name's Brad and I'm a design lead on Snake Pass here at Sumo.
I thought I'd out myself to pass on some good news; I can confirm that we're working on getting Time Trials patched in to the Switch version of the game. I can't tell you exactly when this is going to happen, it's not quite as simple as flicking a switch, there is some work on our end involved on getting this up and running. As soon as I have more news I'll be sure to pass it on.
Really happy to see so many people enjoying the game!
My name's Brad and I'm a design lead on Snake Pass here at Sumo.
I thought I'd out myself to pass on some good news; I can confirm that we're working on getting Time Trials patched in to the Switch version of the game. I can't tell you exactly when this is going to happen, it's not quite as simple as flicking a switch, there is some work on our end involved on getting this up and running. As soon as I have more news I'll be sure to pass it on.
Really happy to see so many people enjoying the game!
Welcome and thanks for a great game! It's superb.
Can you confirm the changes in the first patch?
Will there be changes to add more refined HD rumble in Switch (right now it feels like standard rumble) and address camera issues on all platforms?
It would also be great if checkpoints also reached the game. Twice now I've lost almost complete long levels due to my wife quitting my game so she could play on her profile.
Finally, would it be possible to position the orbs and coins on the status screen relative to their distance between start and end? Makes it easier to find those that are missing.
Can you confirm the changes in the first patch?
Will there be changes to add more refined HD rumble in Switch (right now it feels like standard rumble) and address camera issues on all platforms?
It would also be great if checkpoints also reached the game. Twice now I've lost almost complete long levels due to my wife quitting my game so she could play on her profile.
Finally, would it be possible to position the orbs and coins on the status screen relative to their distance between start and end? Makes it easier to find those that are missing.
The core gameplay is great, really love it, easy to play but tough to master, near perfect in my opinion. My criticisms with the game mostly relate to UX issues.
Collectibles
Collectibles are supposed to motivate the user to behave in a certain way, but aside ticking boxes there's no incentive to collect these. Aside the 3 prisms, they're not tied to progression, and the player is given no clear incentive to pursue coins and blue circles. There's very little driving the player forward, in other games these collectible systems either relate to unlocking the next level, or unlocking gameplay and cosmetic upgrades. It's a shame that they don't feed into anything like that, I know that there's something to unlock at the end of the game, but that's an incentive that most players will never benefit from, and it does little to encourage you to persist to the end of the current level.
Tutorialing
Near non-existant, many users even on GAF have posted how they've basically hit a wall to their progression because they just don't 'get' the games mechanics. The game leads people in with its initial, easy level, but difficulty ramps up quickly without offering much guidance.
Having a hub world, or worlds connecting Snakes disjointed environments might have been a nice means of allowing players to experiment and learn in a safe, non-commital environment. This would have been a good means of retaining the games hands-off approach to tutorialing, while providing a more gradual introduciton to the games mechanics, facilitating an extended, organic opportunity to learn, before players are likely to hit any of the games more difficult segments.
Checkpointing
Some of the essential components of the levels are very difficult and but this in itself isn't too problematic, yet the checkpointing is. Having to repeat an incredibly difficult segment of the game because it wasn't followed by a checkpoint becomes tedious over time, and as does having to repeat less-difficult segments of the levels, because Noodles movement is slow and maticulous, it's really ardeous to repeat these segments over and over. You're not Super Mario or Sonic, you can't just zip over to the location of your last death, just getting from A to B is slow, and potentially challenging, and understandably not something players may want to repeat. Additionally, because of how checkpoints work players will likely find themselves returnng to previous checkpoints to effectively bank their progress in the level, before continuing onwards. This can be a tedious process. It doesn't add difficulty, and asks the player to spend more time back-tracking to register these checkpoints.
The game has plentiful difficulty for players that want it, and surmounting the games challenging obsticles feels difficult enough in and of itself, without asking players to repeat these segments. Similar to games like Trials and Trackmania (also complex, physics based games) reset players to just before they fail so that they may try again, allows the game to give all players a sense of progression, regardless of skill level, and avoid any repetition that some players may want to avoid. At the same time you can still incentivise perfect level clears, with additional medals and reward that recognise players have beaten the levels without resetting.
All or nothing
Levels are simply too long, and you can't quit and resume with your progress in tact. Players are likely to have an incredible amount of variance between their completion times for any one level, and it's easy to see how someone might spend an hour on a single level if collecting everything while struggling with the games difficulty.
You should be able to hop in and out of the games levels, completing them bit by bit. Games like Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario Sunshine actually have very intelligently designed progressional structures as they allow players to hop into a level for a brief period of time, make a contribution to their progression and then leave. I think I'm pretty decent at Snake Pass, at the time of writing this I actually have the world record time on the first time trial, yet I still feel like I spent a good 30 minutes or more on some of the games levels, repeating the more difficult segments due to difficulty, and scouring the level head to toe to find the collectibles. At times I felt fatigued, wanting to quit and do something different, but knowing I couldn't because the game doesn't retain my progress.
Camera and controls
There are no good alternative control options for players looking to customise the experience. I modified the controls using the PS4s accessibility features, and by using L1 to control noodle, and R1 to lift the snakes head. That frees up my thumb to control the camera at all times, which is better, but still, the camera isn't ideal. Perhaps some transparency would be nice, as I often feel that elements of the structure I'm climbing, or even noodle himself get in the way of what I want to see.
Menu
The games interface is aesthetically appealing but doesn't really contextualise the journey you're going through very well. It doesn't paint a good picture of the players progression in the same way that map-based level selection menus do (see Super Mario World, or Rayman Origins). At the same time, it's quite slow to scroll through and not immediately evident that you can press up to skip to the levels in the next world.
I really like Snake Pass but it would have been a considerably better game, having been likey to have experienced a considerably better reception, if it had paid more consideration to the user experience. Features like a hub may seem like a considerable body of extra work, but it would have gone a long way towards allowing players to experiment without consequence, while reworking the checkpoint system and making the levels more bitesized by allowing players to jump out when they pleased, would have enabled even the games more challenging content to appear more approachable.
Collectibles
Collectibles are supposed to motivate the user to behave in a certain way, but aside ticking boxes there's no incentive to collect these. Aside the 3 prisms, they're not tied to progression, and the player is given no clear incentive to pursue coins and blue circles. There's very little driving the player forward, in other games these collectible systems either relate to unlocking the next level, or unlocking gameplay and cosmetic upgrades. It's a shame that they don't feed into anything like that, I know that there's something to unlock at the end of the game, but that's an incentive that most players will never benefit from, and it does little to encourage you to persist to the end of the current level.
Tutorialing
Near non-existant, many users even on GAF have posted how they've basically hit a wall to their progression because they just don't 'get' the games mechanics. The game leads people in with its initial, easy level, but difficulty ramps up quickly without offering much guidance.
Having a hub world, or worlds connecting Snakes disjointed environments might have been a nice means of allowing players to experiment and learn in a safe, non-commital environment. This would have been a good means of retaining the games hands-off approach to tutorialing, while providing a more gradual introduciton to the games mechanics, facilitating an extended, organic opportunity to learn, before players are likely to hit any of the games more difficult segments.
Checkpointing
Some of the essential components of the levels are very difficult and but this in itself isn't too problematic, yet the checkpointing is. Having to repeat an incredibly difficult segment of the game because it wasn't followed by a checkpoint becomes tedious over time, and as does having to repeat less-difficult segments of the levels, because Noodles movement is slow and maticulous, it's really ardeous to repeat these segments over and over. You're not Super Mario or Sonic, you can't just zip over to the location of your last death, just getting from A to B is slow, and potentially challenging, and understandably not something players may want to repeat. Additionally, because of how checkpoints work players will likely find themselves returnng to previous checkpoints to effectively bank their progress in the level, before continuing onwards. This can be a tedious process. It doesn't add difficulty, and asks the player to spend more time back-tracking to register these checkpoints.
The game has plentiful difficulty for players that want it, and surmounting the games challenging obsticles feels difficult enough in and of itself, without asking players to repeat these segments. Similar to games like Trials and Trackmania (also complex, physics based games) reset players to just before they fail so that they may try again, allows the game to give all players a sense of progression, regardless of skill level, and avoid any repetition that some players may want to avoid. At the same time you can still incentivise perfect level clears, with additional medals and reward that recognise players have beaten the levels without resetting.
All or nothing
Levels are simply too long, and you can't quit and resume with your progress in tact. Players are likely to have an incredible amount of variance between their completion times for any one level, and it's easy to see how someone might spend an hour on a single level if collecting everything while struggling with the games difficulty.
You should be able to hop in and out of the games levels, completing them bit by bit. Games like Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario Sunshine actually have very intelligently designed progressional structures as they allow players to hop into a level for a brief period of time, make a contribution to their progression and then leave. I think I'm pretty decent at Snake Pass, at the time of writing this I actually have the world record time on the first time trial, yet I still feel like I spent a good 30 minutes or more on some of the games levels, repeating the more difficult segments due to difficulty, and scouring the level head to toe to find the collectibles. At times I felt fatigued, wanting to quit and do something different, but knowing I couldn't because the game doesn't retain my progress.
Camera and controls
There are no good alternative control options for players looking to customise the experience. I modified the controls using the PS4s accessibility features, and by using L1 to control noodle, and R1 to lift the snakes head. That frees up my thumb to control the camera at all times, which is better, but still, the camera isn't ideal. Perhaps some transparency would be nice, as I often feel that elements of the structure I'm climbing, or even noodle himself get in the way of what I want to see.
Menu
The games interface is aesthetically appealing but doesn't really contextualise the journey you're going through very well. It doesn't paint a good picture of the players progression in the same way that map-based level selection menus do (see Super Mario World, or Rayman Origins). At the same time, it's quite slow to scroll through and not immediately evident that you can press up to skip to the levels in the next world.
I really like Snake Pass but it would have been a considerably better game, having been likey to have experienced a considerably better reception, if it had paid more consideration to the user experience. Features like a hub may seem like a considerable body of extra work, but it would have gone a long way towards allowing players to experiment without consequence, while reworking the checkpoint system and making the levels more bitesized by allowing players to jump out when they pleased, would have enabled even the games more challenging content to appear more approachable.
Yeah this is kind of the funny thing about getting the controls to click, I find my playstyle can get pretty sloppy compared to when i started because its easy now to exploit them. When Im rushing through a level to complete it with no deaths theres a lot of successful but sloppy maneuvers like in the first gif
id love to see what a pro speedrun of this game looks like because you can do some really wild shit
id love to see what a pro speedrun of this game looks like because you can do some really wild shit
Prior to the patch that fixed the rumble, this game broke my mate's right joy-con vibration. I guess it burned the motor out or something, but it's been damaged and doesn't rumble like the left side now.
I know he has the Nintendo warranty, but a few of us have suggested he should contact Sumo Digital as well. Their game has damaged one of their customer's hardware. I know they can't personally repair it - that's for Nintendo to sort out - but we feel like this is something that shouldn't have passed through testing, and the result is now a damaged joy-con.
Just makes me wonder if other customers' joy-con have been damaged prior to the patch too.
I know he has the Nintendo warranty, but a few of us have suggested he should contact Sumo Digital as well. Their game has damaged one of their customer's hardware. I know they can't personally repair it - that's for Nintendo to sort out - but we feel like this is something that shouldn't have passed through testing, and the result is now a damaged joy-con.
Just makes me wonder if other customers' joy-con have been damaged prior to the patch too.
Had this very minor bug. Quite creepy with those sounds. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMS-Cw137I
Had to restart the game to stop it.
Any tips for the not touching the water trophy? I swear i did it but i guess his tail musta dipped in or something. (i was super pissed lol)
Also, the idols? what are they? those stone things? i noticed some levels have 2.. do i need to touch them all?
Are time trials required for plat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMS-Cw137I
Had to restart the game to stop it.
Any tips for the not touching the water trophy? I swear i did it but i guess his tail musta dipped in or something. (i was super pissed lol)
Also, the idols? what are they? those stone things? i noticed some levels have 2.. do i need to touch them all?
Are time trials required for plat?
Had this very minor bug. Quite creepy with those sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMS-Cw137I
Had to restart the game to stop it.
Any tips for the not touching the water trophy? I swear i did it but i guess his tail musta dipped in or something. (i was super pissed lol)
Also, the idols? what are they? those stone things? i noticed some levels have 2.. do i need to touch them all?
Are time trials required for plat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMS-Cw137I
Had to restart the game to stop it.
Any tips for the not touching the water trophy? I swear i did it but i guess his tail musta dipped in or something. (i was super pissed lol)
Also, the idols? what are they? those stone things? i noticed some levels have 2.. do i need to touch them all?
Are time trials required for plat?
I had the same debate with myself but went with the Switch. It's great to bring this game with you as it's very suitable for a portable game. It looks and runs great on the switch too given the art style.
I considered the pro for 60 fps, but ultimately the portability won me over. I do t find the resolution to be an issue on the switch in portable or docked, but ymmv on that depending on your sensitivity to that kind of thing.
I considered the pro for 60 fps, but ultimately the portability won me over. I do t find the resolution to be an issue on the switch in portable or docked, but ymmv on that depending on your sensitivity to that kind of thing.
I'm curious as to how to do this. I bought both PS4 and switch versions and find it super annoying they have different controls between them (seemingly for no reason). For instance on switch lift head is "A" which would be the "O" on Ps4 but for some reason lift head is "X". Makes it so I can't play both at the same time. Would love it if I could change them to match.