By Jim Rossignol on March 21st, 2012 at 4:00 pm.
Clever wavelength-tweaking game Waveform – in which you must fit a wave to suit the incoming stream of, uh, things – failed to reach its relatively modest Kickstarter goal, but has nevertheless arrived in the mechanical innards of Steam. There’s a demo on there too, so you can get a taste of what the thing is like before you choose to plunge headfirst into its attractive, wave-based challenges.
21/03/2012 at 16:08 trjp says:
I tried the demo and I like it a lot – the price is low enough to risk it – BUT…
It might just be me but it seems some bits are very, very, very hard to do – even right at the start. I spent a while trying to figure if it was a problem with my mouse or just with how I was trying to solve some of the ‘wave patterns’ but some bits remain ‘apparently impossible’ (the wave just won’t bend the way I want it to!?)
Just me or did anyone else run into that?
Easiest example is that I cannot seem to get more than about 75% on the very first level and it took maybe 10 attempts to get that far?
Am I missing something??
21/03/2012 at 16:24 Zyrocz says:
I got 85% on my second try, so that probably means that whichever part that got you stuck can be done.
21/03/2012 at 16:26 RyanVandendyck says:
@Zyrocz Well done, that’s a very good 2nd try! It certainly is possible. Keep on riding the wave through later levels and you’ll be a master soon enough :)
21/03/2012 at 16:30 trjp says:
I nipped back for another try and hit 91% and then 95% – it really is a completely unique and original idea and I think it just takes time for your brain to wrap itself around it…
100% tho – even on the first level – would not be an easy trick :)
21/03/2012 at 16:31 Zyrocz says:
I’ve also got 95% on the first level, but I found the second level easier than the first one :P
21/03/2012 at 16:43 RyanVandendyck says:
Glad you’re improving and having fun! Keep at it, there’s a ton more to see in the rest of the game too, a lot of new objects and very cool situations to experience :)
21/03/2012 at 16:21 RyanVandendyck says:
@trjp Hey I’m Ryan, the creator of Waveform – I’m glad you’re having fun with the game!
The game certainly isn’t impossible, but I agree that it is challenging! A lot of other people that play the game have a similar experience to you, and say it takes a few levels to really get the hang of it. I think if you play through later levels and learn some of the skills they introduce, I think you’ll find you can come back to early levels and be surprised at how easy it seems :)
The game was designed purposefully to have a lot of depth of mastery, but I know for sure that your skills will increase as you keep playing, so give it a try!
21/03/2012 at 19:09 LaurieCheers says:
Hi Ryan, is there a way to stop the game from pausing when I accidentally right-click? It’s really getting irritating.
21/03/2012 at 19:16 RyanVandendyck says:
Hi Laurie, that’s actually the pause button! I could add an option for you to turn off pausing on that button though (pressing Esc also pauses). So far here are the options people have asked me for that I’ll add for the next update of Waveform:
-Option to not have to hold the mouse button to move the wave
-Option to not have the game pause when pressing right-mouse button
-Option to support 360 gamepads
If anyone has any other requests just let me know!
21/03/2012 at 19:44 hayuto says:
Hey if you are adding x360 pads you could take a look at game Hydrophobia Prophecy it had similar to waveform minigames controlled with 2 sticks, one for adjusting x one for y. Is the game selling good so far?
21/03/2012 at 20:27 RyanVandendyck says:
Thanks for pointing that out hayuto! I’d need to make sure that the responsiveness is really tight, since it’s the only mechanic in Waveform and thus super critical to make sure it feels good :)
I actually don’t know how it’s selling so far, I don’t have the data from Valve yet. Good I hope! :)
21/03/2012 at 16:28 Zyrocz says:
I really like this game, only problem I got with it is that I find myself pressing the mouse button through almost every level. May have been better if it were the other way around so that I wouldn’t have to press the button in order to change the wave.
21/03/2012 at 16:42 RyanVandendyck says:
I did try that option during development, but I personally didn’t like it. But a number of people have asked for it so it’s coming in the first update I send to Valve! You’ll be able to toggle it on or off in the options menu.
21/03/2012 at 16:46 Zyrocz says:
Nice, hope your game sells well because it’s really great.
21/03/2012 at 17:35 RyanVandendyck says:
Thanks so much! I hope it sells well too, mainly because I spent the better part of 3 years making it and all of my money :)
21/03/2012 at 17:27 paranoydandroyd says:
Whoo! 90% on the second try! This is pretty darn fun. It puts me in mind of inMomentum, constantly trying to adapt instinctually on the fly to new information.
21/03/2012 at 17:29 RyanVandendyck says:
Very well done :). I’m thrilled that you’re having fun with it!
22/03/2012 at 01:51 trjp says:
Heh – having started to get better completion percs on some levels, I noticed that whilst the ends prematurely on Level 7 (demo over) – you can access Charon, the last world (e.g. the ‘boss’ for that level)??
So I did that and…
MY EYESIGHT HAS MELTED
THE WORLD IS NOW MOVING ALL THE DAMNED TIME
I’M MELTING – I’M MELTING
Bloody excellent stuff this – deserves much more kudos IMO – DEFINATELY try the demo (a developer posting a demo at launch deserves money anyway!!) – cmon people!!
22/03/2012 at 20:09 RyanVandendyck says:
Glad you’re having such fun :). The game is reviewing well (just got a 100/100 review on Metacritic today) so hopefully the word will spread!
01/04/2012 at 01:51 jrodman says:
Too difficult to control for me. I admit I might have had a better reaction if you had some sort of no-pressure easy experience to pick it up, but can’t say for sure. Deleted the demo.
The music was nice.