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Gentoo Rescue News

1.0.2

I've noticed many players are already well past the 20+ hour mark and have finished, or are closing in. Others are just getting started and still wondering what that color spirally thing is for. I really love reading all of your comments about the game in reviews, on forums, and on social media. The more buzz around the game the happier the penguins will be, so keep it up!

Without further ado, here's patch number two.

Puzzle changes
  • Added hints for all initially reachable puzzles in Attraction and Contraband. This came with a few very very minor puzzle tweaks that I'm confident objectively improve the design.

    • Removed unnecessary fog from Attraction.Hurl.
    • Removed unnecessary tile from Attraction.Tractor.
    • Changed the starting state of Attraction.Wrecker. This was done because the new version will do a slightly better job at encouraging the player to try an idea that would work if there were no magnet: move green down onto blue's target, and then hit it with a blue move right. This isn't just a bait, but it shows off why this puzzle is interesting while hinting at the main idea for how to solve it. The old version, where blue started in the far left of the middle row, was further from revealing the key idea despite being technically closer to the solution.
    • Added colored wall to Contraband.Deeper to fix cheese that let players skip ~2/7 of the puzzle.
  • Refined journal entry unlock conditions for a few fog related entries to not include grey animals in fog. This affected the "Required for current level" entries for Ground_Rules.I and Liftoff.Extinction.
  • The following levels had some errors in their "Required for current level" entries, unrelated to the above change: Attraction.Fledging, Exchange.Displacement, Exchange.Stwap, Exchange.Timing, Exfiltration.G, Foreboding.Jackhammer, and Sustain.Chumming.
  • Added new (post-Replication) bonus solution and reworded existing one for Lemniscate.EYO. Thanks to Mikan for discovering the new one!
  • Reworded (post-Replication) bonus solution for Ground_Rules.Blockers.
  • Moved the position of Walk.Threading.


Misc
  • Added "LMB double click" bind prompt to sublevel button on hover. On unhover it goes back to the keyboard bind. Mouse-only is an option that the game doesn't teach very well, so hopefully this helps.
  • Removed "Awards" and "Challenge" sections from buttons corresponding to backup saves.
  • Achievements all marked as secret to avoid spoilers. I don't think anything there is super spoilery but just staying on the safe side since players can reveal hidden achievements on Steam. This was done through Steam, so it is not part of the build and actually went in Sunday night (PDT).


Bugfixes
  • It was possible to use the quick exit bind to exit from a puzzle while the journal menu was opened if the end popup was also opened.

1.0.1

Many players are accumulating insane playtimes, and I've been reading all sorts of excitement about the game. I appreciate this so much! I don't have any funding for advertisements, and to be honest, what makes the game special is hard to advertise. So I am incredibly grateful for your continued support in spreading the game to other players.

I'm super proud to have no major bugs, no broken puzzles, and not even any reports of puzzle cheese! A large part of this is due to the many amazing playtesters. Hopefully this trend continues through future patches. Without further ado, here are the changes.

Puzzle changes
  • Added (post-Replication) bonus solution for Ground_Rules.Movement. This will take away 100% from the couple of people that have earned it so quickly. :( There aren't any Steam achievements for 100% completion and it is just there for your own satisfaction, so I don't mind doing this very sparingly. This one in particular will take 30s to complete, so definitely no worries here. I'm open to adding more (post-Replication) bonus solutions if anyone happens to discover something that is both interesting and not purely a subset of an existing puzzle. I'm certain there are some wild end-game things still remaining for the community to discover.


Journal
  • Lightbulb submenu icon now turns yellow when the current level requires a journal entry that isn't unlocked. This gives an easy check that something new is needed without risking a spoiler that could happen if you actually read through the journal entries needed for the current level.
  • If the journal/hint menu is opened while the journal popup message is on screen, then it will open to the most recently unlocked journal entry.
  • The journal entry popup message is now a button which opens the journal.
  • The journal/hint menu can now be opened while the end popup is visible.
  • If a new journal entry is unlocked while the message for the previous entry is showing, then the previous message is hidden and a new message is shown immediately. The old behavior would not show anything for the 2nd unlock.
  • Slightly reworded journal entry descriptions involving (Implant/Contraband) imports to use the word "import" instead of "level variation".


Puzzle editor
  • Allow exiting the puzzle select screen using undo/redo binds.
  • Added warning to puzzle select screen that a mouse is needed.
  • Added gameplay settings toggle "Enable solver", which defaults to off. The solver function in the puzzle editor is very resource intensive and may cause crashes.


Misc
  • Added hints for all initially reachable puzzles of Liftoff.
  • Unbound mouse bind prompts will no longer show the mouse button icon unless the 'Mouse buttons' option is enabled in gameplay settings. If 'Mouse buttons' is disabled, then it will show a keyboard bind.
  • (Post-Replication) Bonus solutions now more clearly indicate when they have not been completed with text that is more faded.


Bugfixes
  • Under very rare cases it was possible to (Implant/Contraband) import without landing on the puzzle using the warp menu.
  • The level name for a loaded level would not display if (Implant/Contraband) the only known variation seen was not NONE.
  • If you were at the start of the hub puzzle and had not completed Ground_Rules (possible with 'Allow skipping' toggle), then reloading your save would mistakenly autoload you into Ground_Rules.
  • The second journal entry in the "Advanced" section was mistakenly being unlocked on any (post-Inception) export from menu.
  • Redo bind in warp menu while end popup is up will now correctly close the warp menu.
  • Reset bind in warp menu now correctly does nothing.

So now what?

Firstly I want to emphasize that the game is content complete. There are no missing achievements, no missing mechanics, no missing puzzles, and I have no intentions of doing any major redesigns. However, there is a never-ending list of things that I've wanted to do, but could not afford to either for monetary or time reasons.

Custom level support
The puzzle editor is available and functional, albeit with some lack of polish. Your created puzzles go to 
/Puzzles/
as JSON files (that use a custom string format for puzzle parsing). I do recommend making a new folder (which can be done in-game) to separate out different puzzles, since puzzle name collisions within the same directory can cause issues. You can manually place JSON files in this directory, and play them through the puzzle editor using the "Test" button. This isn't great, and will be the main focus of post-launch development. The game is very long, so I expect to have some time before people really start going crazy with custom levels. The main things I intend to add here are:
  • A special menu option for playing custom levels packs. You shouldn't have to go through the puzzle editor, and you should have basic QoL like the ability to save your progress - which the editor's "Test" function doesn't provide.
  • Level sharing through Steam Workshop. I don't expect many players will want to manually transfer files around. Plus this is very important for custom level pack discoverability!
  • Puzzle editor polish. I'll be making improvements based on feedback. I will be happy to write-up some detailed documentation on Discord if anyone is interested.
Music and hints
I intend on getting the missing pieces in before any non-speedrunners notice, but there are some (later) levels without hints and some later worlds that reuse earlier tracks. If you happen to get stuck on a level without hints, feel free to reach out to me. I'll send you some hints and make sure they get added in the next small update.

Frequently requested features
I make no promises that I will get to these, but they are things I would like to add sometime in the future if it becomes feasible.
  • Support for MacOS.
  • Localization. Outside of menus and the journal/hints (which are optional), the game is fairly text-free. Nevertheless, players with very limited English skills will struggle. If the game does well enough and it makes financial sense, then I would like to slowly add more languages as it makes sense. I've received a lot of feedback for Simplified Chinese, but am curious, what other languages should I prioritize?


What else should be on my list?

A sequel? Trust me - Gentwo Rescue is closer than you think.

Gentoo Rescue is out!

It's time to dive in and get your mind melted by penguin absurdity! Gentoo Rescue will have a 10% launch discount for 2-weeks, which takes us through the upcoming Cerebral Puzzle Showcase. I hope this game brings you as much joy as it has brought me.

If any issues arise, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Discord (preferred), the Steam forums, or social media. I've taken today and tomorrow off work so that I can be extra responsive to any feedback.