NOW ON STEAM TOO!

SUPER CRANE

Match tiles of the same color to score points, the board will bring more tiles over time, you lose if the board is filled up!


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Special tool tiles will give you bonus points, but will also change the game you play so watch out. Each time you match one of these you will play with the next tool in rotation

1. SWAP: Swap two tiles horizontally by pressing O
2. CRANE: Hold O to grab a tile and push it around
3. DRILL: Hold O, then press LEFT or RIGHT to rotate a 2x2 space
4. SHOVEL: Pick a tile and toss it away to a random position
5. WAGON: Hold O to move a 2x2 space horizontally
6. HOSE: Swap tiles positions as you move. Can't be turned off.

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For more specialized work play in Advanced Mode, score is doubled and will give you extra components, but random debris will spawn constantly. Make chains near them to clear or activate them.

EMPTY - Occupies space, falls in big groups
DIRTY - Reveals its color when cleared
BOMB - Tosses a bunch of EMPTY tiles if moved
FREEZE - Time freezes for a while
PRISM - Clears up a big space

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OTHER OPTIONS

Zen Mode: Relax and practice. 
The game won't speed up and score will constantly go down to 0.

Styles: Icons or Blobs
You can switch between Colored Blobs or Squared Tiles to play the game with

Versus: Coming s... someday?

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, HTML5
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(57 total ratings)
AuthorCalixJumio
GenrePuzzle
Made withAseprite, PICO-8
TagsArcade, Cute, match3, PICO-8, Pixel Art, Short, Tetris
Average sessionA few minutes
AccessibilityColor-blind friendly
LinksTwitter

Purchase

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:

puzzle_crate.p8 86 kB
puzzle_crate_linux.zip 723 kB
puzzle_crate_osx.zip 3 MB
puzzle_crate_raspi.zip 2 MB
puzzle_crate_windows.zip 964 kB
puzzle_crate.p8.png 43 kB
puzzle_crate.png 5 kB

Development log

Comments

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good game!

so funny :D

Great game. I get a bug sometimews with the shovel. The piece that's been dug stays at the top of the screen and then the game registers it as game over.

Ohno! When does that happen is it on the advanced mode?

(20 edits)

It's happened on normal mode for me, that's the only one I've been really playing so far. It SEEMS to be happening when using the shovel immediately again after/during a clear (spamming it; I do this to dig from underneath while counting to get quick horizontal lines). Maybe you can try and see yourself? When the screen is close to full/speed is fast I've had it also cause game overs (when the block hangs it seems the game has registered it as a such). It seems to happen regardless of how full the screen is.

Also found the bug on my own, already mentioned below, where the hose can press a block down to the bottom to get rid of it (I actually like this bug though as it can help me to set up tactically and avoid the crane + the screen moves anyway so it's not a BIG exploit. Will echo another user that the crane item slows the entire game down compared to the others; maybe a good thing maybe bad (getting the crane with an almost full screen is frustrating) can't decide.

Also dk how to feel about the random nature of the shovel. It removes a certain amount of skill from the game to have it do random things (to not be able to control which pile to fill up; to a certain extent at least)?

Will also agree with the user below who wanted to see separate game modes for the different objects (even though them switching is the entire gimmick of the game). Dk if that would fit into P8 but hey... Would be a nice optional for some other version if not.

With bugs or not (well... Ironically at least one bug in the game controlling the blocks as others have also pointed out:P) idc as I will purchase to put on a handheld in its current form anyway once I've got some spare cash:)

Edit: Just to copy from below 25840 is my max score (it would seem the score stops here? Because I had over 30k this game)

Edit: no the score works fine; I have a saved one of over 30k now. However sometimes I get a minus score for some reason. It's weird. What's the reason for this?

(2 edits)

Idk if you see the edits btw, I'm still playing, so making a new reply to get you a new notification (I've edited the original post). đź‘Ť

I'm getting the high scores using the hose bug mechanic (so that's a bug I actually like).

Its a bug but instead of fixing it i tried to compensate it by making everything else raise a bit faster as you do (that was cheaper in tokens too), for the shovel I have yet to find that why that one happens im sorry

That's a good solution:)

Shovel... Not so much an important bug. What IS game breaking though is when the score goes into a minus score (has happened to me a few times; I THINK it might have something to do with cheesing with the hose and staying at a single level for too long but idk). Any idea why that happens?

(7 edits)

Update to last question: It seems to happen when the score is above 30k. At that point it switches to -30k instead. Any fix (otherwise the tactic is to avoid the hose at that level)? Hose/shovel bugs are not game breaking but this minus point one is:(


Edit: around 32k it switches into -points and again this is gamebreaking unlike the shovel bug.

Hmmm... can you write a backstory to this?

a lot of fun!

(+1)

Don't think I ever left a comment here... I LOVE SUPER CRANE BUG!!!

(1 edit)

My high score for normal mode is 20,287. Anyone else score higher?

(8 edits)

21,155 just now (but cheesing by using the hose bug) Edit: 21745 Edit again: 22219 Edit 3: 25252 Edit 4: -31867 (for some reason it says -?)

Edit 5: 25840 (it would seem the score stops here? Because I had over 30k this game)

No it didn't. 32714. I get some - point bug though from time to time.

(2 edits)

I think it would be fun to have "single tool" modes so that you can play your favorite tool from start to finish. Such a polished game already though, super fun =)

You know what… YOU ARE RIGHT

I think i had that in mind somewhere, like playing different levels, or picking different “characters”, not sure if I’ll do here of if it would be better to make a bigger game without the bounds of pico8

(1 edit)

That's such a cool idea. Different robot characters each one having a mechanical "hand" with a different power. You could even make it into a local vs mode where each character sends different types/patterns of garbage to the opponent acording to their power. Would be a nightmare to balance all the characters though!

I've found an exploit/bug: When using the hose tool, pressing down repeatedly at the bottom of the screen instantly deletes whatever you were holding, and with gravity this means you can clear entire columns. the block seems to wrap around to the top of the board for a frame or two before deletion. It's not incredibly practical since holding down at the bottom also increases the speed of the board, and it nets you no points, but nonetheless it's a thing.

not entirely sure if the comments of the itch page is the best place to report these things, i don't want to clog up the comments with them

Lol don’t worry, it’s ok! Thanks for letting me know :D

is there a discord or something for your games? if there isn't, seems like that could be a good way to organise stuff like bug reports and also build up a community
if there is one i'm just dumb and do not know where to find it

I'm in love with this thing, i think, maybe, but i do have a few notes.
First off, a bug (ha): I've lost a few games seemingly out of nowhere after garbage spawns, possibly because the game thinks that the empty tiles it just dropped are actually a tower reaching to the kill zone. Should probably check that out.
Secondly, the shovel is probably one of the harder tools to use due to rng. As far as I can tell, it likes to launch blocks up to the highest tower it can find, but I haven't exactly figured out what its deal is.
Thirdly, the crane is the tool that I tend to lose on most often, due to too much garbage being piled up for it to be able to pick up anything, and its inability to move anything sideways within the pile.

Overall, a very fun experience. Will probably continue striving for a high score.

Yeah I might have reintroduced that insta lose you mentioned gonna be checking it out. The crane right now has the ability to extra move up to 4 blocks upwards, but I wonder if it should be infinite (I didnt to the sides because it was kinda hard), ive heard similar stuff to the shovel it moves -2, -1, 1 or 2 but I wonder if I have to do something else, i like the randomness a bit

With the crane, it could probably have infinite lift strength and still not be broken. However, game balance is always good to keep in mind. I'm also not entirely sure how a crane would be able to displace sideways without treading on the other tools' abilities.

I think the shovel having an element of RNG is fun, as long as it's somewhat predictable. Maybe a system could be implemented where the shovel will displace to the right if the last horizontal movement you made was right, and left if you moved left?  It could still be random whether it moves 1 or 2, but you would have a way to herd the pebbles a little bit better.
A further thing could be that the vertical movement determines how large the number is, although that would remove the RNG. 

Very addictive

(+1)

one of those games that when i lose, i immediately start again. Really cool twist on the Panel de Pon formula

another banger from calixjumio! very cool idea and graphics

This was great! 
It has a learning curve, since there's no tutorial or anything, but being able to pause and scroll down to read was enough for me, great work!

Sorry, but is this game compatible with controller?

It is!, you can try it out in the web version as well, should do the same

OMG

:D