I keep trying to draw the shape I think they need, but I can't make it continue all the way across. I get all but one.
Blek trailer down Unfortunately the Blek trailer was taken down by YouTube due to "Violation of TOU #4 Section H." (Use of Robots, Spiders, Bots... WTF???). All the views (more than 45000), all likes and shares are gone Well, it seems that our trailer had to many views (20k) on one single day. More than 10k came from Kotaku and another 10k came from DerStandard (Austrian newspaper), so the YouTube ROBOT now "thinks" that we are using ROBOTS to generate views. Yes, it's absurd, but we can't do anything about it. Here is the new/old trailer: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
I bow down to the developer of this extraordinary game Below is the 5-star review I've posted in the App Store. More than any game I've played, I suspect this one will be loved by many, and hated by just as many. I'm in the former group. The brilliance that enabled this developer to create this game is proof that aliens exist and their intelligence far exceeds that of earthlings. I have reached level 37 of this mind-boggling game; at least half of those levels seemed for several minutes to be impossible to solve, and yet after numerous trials and errors a subconscious part of my brain found solutions that each time made me yell “Wow!!!!!” — with all five exclamation points. This is why i'm rating the game with five stars. If you don’t enjoy puzzles that require experimentation and precise movements of your finger, you won’t enjoy this game. I can only say that for me, this has been as close to a transcendental experience as I’ve ever had with iOS games, and the fun factor slightly exceeds the frustration factor, but just enough to make me glad I got this.
Hi Roger, we've submitted an update today (with iPhone & iPod touch support). If everything's fine, it will be released next week. Cheers, Denis
At its core, it is a path drawing game. Can you explain a bit as as to how precise must this path be drawn to hits its targets to complete a level? I am asking this because I find some of the path drawing to be plainly UNFAIR. For example, in Level 56, it is UNFAIR to expect near perfect timing when drawing a path that will hit ALL of the rotating circles once and only once, all of which must be done at the correct time to shoot off in the right direction. The pattern is easy enough to spot (including the timing needed to correctly time the relative differences in rotations among the circles), but the lack of inherent precision in the touch interface makes it near impossible to draw a trace this accurate and at the right speed. Lastly, is there such a thing as an "optimal" or "perfect" solution? PS: There may also be a trace bug. Many times, my trace would suddenly be interrupted when I was still drawing (I did not lift up my finger yet) and the line would start to draw itself automatically, obviously at where I did not want it to draw.
@y2kmp3 We spent a lot of time on optimizing the mechanics and the level design. The goal was to make Blek challenging while fair. That`s not easy though - different people just have very different ways of approaching the game. The Level 56 is pretty hard. I`m even not sure if I would be able to solve it if I didn`t create it This is because we take the players seriously. We hoped that some of them would be better at the game than we are. And this is what happened. In Blek there are simple, complex, strange, fun, elegant (and so on) solutions. But no solution is prescribed or "optimal". It`s really interesting how people keep coming up with beautiful paths we never thought of. The paths you draw can be very long but not endless. Eventually the line will go its own way if you don`t let it go for too long. We decided to make the drawing interval longer in one of the updates.
Thanks, kunabi-brother. I appreciate the explanation about the line length. This likely explains my initial observation. I was able to solve Level 56, but only after I actually worked out on paper the timing of my traced path using the rotational phases of the circles as a guide. Even fully knowing the solution, it took me nearly half an hour of tracing the path because the "snake" tends to drift upward and hits the black dots. Another observation I made in later levels such as Level 58 is that the circles DO NOT rotate in unison so that they are NOT always out of step with each other by JUST quarter or half rotation. This is a slight lag in the phase. Sometimes, they are out of phase with each other by SLIGHTLY MORE OR LESS than quarter or half rotation. I am asking because I am not sure if this is deliberate (part of the puzzle) or if this is a graphical glitch. Can you explain? Also, is there an online repository of these clever solutions? It is easy to see that many levels have multiple solutions, so I am interested in seeing other so-called elegant solutions. One definition for an elegant solution is the LENGTH of the path. Even though this game does not track this, it can be easily used as a judge of how efficient or elegant a solution is (the shorter the line, the better the solution). In all, this is a very CLEVER puzzle game. Well worth the buy. As you said, the last few levels were very challenging, and the sudden jump in difficulty may shock a few players.
Just read about your Youtube troubles on IndieStatik, sorry to hear that. Eagerly awaiting that Universal support
I am in love with this game still, it's one of my favourite ways to relax, I approach it by attempting to draw a specific line from the left to right when that fails I go from the right side of the screen, and when that fails I just squiggle a dirt usually gets it at some point. If a squiggle hits most of the dots then I adapt it. This isn't one of those punch the air games for me, it's more of a smile at yourself for being so clever type game
@y2kmp3 For the level design I used paper and pencil too In Level 58 the rotation is different for different circles. An online repository sounds like really a good idea. Uploading videos with the solutions would be the way to go, I guess. But here we would need help from the players of course...
@Bronxsta Thanks. Shit happens, but everything is moving so fast, we have to adapt, make changes and go on... We are now waiting for Apple's approval for the universal version. @cloudpuff It's great to hear this from one of the first Blek players
You could take a look at the game Trainyard to see how this crowdsourcing solution repository could be done. For this online repository, you could "track" the length of the line drawn by the player as a method to differentiate between good and average solutions.
Just finished the entire game (60 levels). Must buy game for any puzzle fan! Truly unique game that looks simple at first and gets extremely difficult near the end. Many of the levels have very CLEVER solutions. Interestingly, the most difficult levels in the game are NOT the last two levels (Level 59, Level 60) but the levels with the spinning circles (Level 56 and Level 58). Timing your trace to perfect sync with the rotational phase of ALL of the spinning circles when your line hits each circle is very taxing. Here is the end screen if you are able to finish the game: For those who are having troubles finishing the more difficult levels, here are TWO OUT-OF-THE-BOX STRATEGIES that I have discovered to work quite well to beat this game: Spoiler 1. Levels in which the black holes are all lined up in a grid-like pattern can often be solved simply by drawing a horizontal or vertical line of the correct length and then zigzag it to repeat as the line goes up/down or left/right respectively. Once you work out the correct "spacing" between the zigzagging lines, the puzzle becomes trivial as long as the solution does not require any particular order by which you need to hit the circles. The zigzagging will eventually get all of the circles. It is NOT an efficient solution, though. An extension of this strategy is to create the zigzag lines diagonally. This works for levels in which the black holes are staggered. 2. This is somewhat of a hack. Use a thin piece of paper to trace out all of the locations of the circles and the black holes. Reposition the paper so that the target circles on the iPad are now on an empty part of the paper (which mirrors the empty part of the screen) where you will be drawing your line. With no exception, you can ALWAYS spot a repeating pattern that reveals where you need to start your line and where you need to end the line. Draft the solution line on the paper. With the paper STILL on the screen, reposition it back to its original position to fit over the entire screen. You can now TRACE PERFECTLY the line you need to beat the level. This is possible because the iPad can still register your finger touch through the paper if the paper is thin enough. This trick completely avoids the frustration of missing a mark or making a bad turn if you have to trace the line by memory. This trick is essential to solving some of the later levels (such as Level 60) when the margin of error is extremely small as to where you need to position your line. Denis, big congratulation on this game release! Truly exceptional puzzle game!
