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Smashing!

Sandstone is a game about turning stones into sand. With your bare hands!
Yes, this synthesizes the games well, I think.

In Sandstone we play as a survivor that lives on a desertic floating continent. WE get to name this man and all that we know is that he lives with his wife near a community of survivors named Sandstone (duh!).

Without spoiling the story I will tell you that this is not a classical rpg, but an action adventure game and in a certain sense also a puzzle. It's not very long, and I guess it can be completed in 45 minutes... if you can! Let's first see the hints:

*Tips*
- Leave no stone un-smashed.
- Exploration is rewarded.
- If there's nothing left to do, there's probably something left to smash.
- If there's nothing left to smash, there's probably something left to do or find.
- If there's truly nothing left to smash, do, or find, you may need to try again.



OH NO! AND THEY WEREN'T EVEN TEN PERSON IN TOTAL!

Ok, in this game you smash stones pressing the action key, but at first you can only destroy small stone and each one adds to your "destroyed rocks pool". Unce you hit a certain number you can destroy harder rocks, granite or even onyx, and these add even more points to the pool. There is only a little problem: each destroyed rock also hurts you (harder rocks make you lose more hit points, but progressing you also increase your total hitpoints) so you need to stock balm to heal (but it's also worth mentioning that levelling up completely heals the hero!).

Healing balm can be crafted by giving shrubs (that once you learn the ability they can be punched at no hitpoint cost) to healers or you can buy them at the shops (there are two healers and two shops and the first healer and merchant you meet are cheaper, unfortunately they will be locked out for a while after the first half of the game).
You can also recover some hitpoints resting in a tent, but watch out because you can rest only once in each place (getting back 15 Hp).

And here is the big problem of this game: while the concept is interesting and at first it works well, it may be possible to get stuck if you run out of shrubs/pebbles to buy balm (because you always need to smash harder rocks to reach the next area, and if you are locked out some resources it's game over... or better, you are stuck there!). A wise idea is to smash at first only those rocks that blocks the passages (to access areas with shrubs or resting places, so you can recover) and break the others to level up only when you find a harder rock and you cannot process further.
It also seems that the hitpoint value automatically goes to zero if you try to break a stone and you have no enough hitpoints, so you lose also the few ones left (I may be wrong here ,but from what indicated the hitpoints bar, this is the case).


YES! THIS IS THE TRUE ULTIMATE POWER!


- If there's truly nothing left to smash, do, or find, you may need to try again.

Hell, yeah, this is the biggest problem! I had to reload a previous save (luckily you can save anytime and anywhere, not that you can risk a premature game over) once I was at midpoint because I could not proceed (because I missed some stones earlier so I could not level up and destroy the needed Onyx!)... then I reached the end where you have to really Leave no stone un-smashed. but I have no enough resources to create enough balms to complete that task despite seraching everywhere in the world. I had to start over, *sigh*! (technically I could have reloaded an earlier save but I noticed I missed some extras... and later I even realized I did not find a particular floating island with some resources that maybe it would have let me complete the game on my previous try! Sigh!)

The other issue I have with this game are the slow movement of the main character and the maps, that are a bit of a mess and do not look very good, but its a pity because there is an interesting concept and also many interesting parts: for example in one you control a secondary character (that is far faster than the protagonist!) and have to steal an items avoiding monsters (HINT: when you use this character that is not the protagonist, try to speak with people you met before as your character for extra bonus! Take every opportunity to experiment!). Or the fact that in many places you have some choices that will affect the game (for example there is not timed quest, but if you waste too much time in a particular situation you may arrive at Sandstone too late with some bad consequences!).
Finally, despite the average mapping I find the primitive post-apocalyptic setting really captivating and interesting, and I wished there were more characters, story and events because it's really original and well complemented by the background evocative music (only issue is that it restarts each time you enter/exit the airship).


NOT JUST BREAKING ROCKS! ALSO AVOIDING G̶O̶B̶L̶I̶N̶S̶ GRUBBLINS

Final Verdict
This game can be finished in less than an hour if you know how to spend your resources, and this is the biggest problem! Keeping them and use at the cheapest vendors seems the best way to complete the game, on the other hand you have also to destroy as many rocks as possible to level up, explore and interact. The only real flaw I found here is that you can waste resources easily because the costly healer takes all the shrubs you have and give the equivalent in balms (unlike the merchants where you can choose how many balms you will buy)... because yeah, I just needed one and paying 15 shrubs each balm instead of 10 was a huge difference!

For the rest I can deal with the slow walking speed (90% of the time you more on the world map so it's not an issue) and the bad and sometimes glitched maps (I do not mind that sometimes you can walk over trees, but I wish these had more particulars, more npcs with even just one line of dialogue and less glitches, anyway there is nothing that will break your game here!). Yeah, the game feels a bit empty and unrefined in some parts (the story is simple, the locations are bare bones, the characters are too few and there are few dialogues and interactions), and it's a pity because a little more would have made this stand out as a memorable experience. The concept is fun and the story is simple but charming due to the unusual setting, and the original idea.

I admit that probably the biggest flaw I pointed out is due to personal tastes. I enjoyed the game and played twice (just to be sure, since I could probably have reloaded one of the first saves) to be able to reach the final of the story. I think it took me 1 hour 15 minutes more or less, and I had three different endings, I do not know if there are more.

This is a difficult game to review due to its singular characteristics, it's a 4/5 for some parts I loved (setting, idea, music, gameplay, choices), and a 2/5 for some aspects I hated (mapping, lack of dialogues and many things left unexplained, possibility to be stuck in some areas), so I guess I will make a make an average of 3/5. Yeah, that's my opinion, I guess that this is a matter of personal tastes due to the lack of bugs, errors or other problems. A bit rought around the edges, but has some charm!

Posts

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Thank you so much for taking the time to play through (twice), and for leaving such a detailed review.

YOU ROCK! ha ha :)

I'm elated to hear that you loved the setting, idea, music, gameplay, and choices.

I will carefully consider each of your criticisms, and they will surely help make future versions better.

To address a few specific points:

- Mapping:

Absolutely. They are far from amazing. I'll admit that Sandstone was denied based on map quality alone when I first submitted it here last year, so a lot of additional work has gone into them since, and I will continue to improve this in new versions.

Could you clarify which trees you were able to walk through? Just in case it's the one in Sowthin (Act 3 town) just past the Skystone, this is actually a climbable tree that leads to an encounter.

- Getting stuck if you run out of resources:

This is an intentional possibility, though I apologize that it may have proven anti-fun for you. My primary objective is to provide players with a fun adventure. You described it perfectly with, "this is not a classical rpg, but an action adventure game and in a certain sense also a puzzle". Resource management is a huge part of the puzzle element; without it, there would be little challenge. I'm hopeful that being able to save (almost) anywhere will help balance the difficulty as you pointed out. I did add quite a few resources to reward exploration and reduce difficulty in v2.

And yeah, if you missed the island, it becomes very difficult to smash your way to the end! I'll note that the slime near Nortpost does mention there being three islands, but his slime-rhyme could be easily missed or not understood.

EDIT: Thanks to your description, I see that Puzzle is a better third choice than RPG in my genre tags. There are RPG elements, but they're a small part of a giant puzzle.

- Losing HP when you try to smash a stone without enough HP:

You're correct on this one, it does happen. It's intentional- my reasoning is that your hands get battered whether they can break it or not, but avoiding this does take careful observation of how many Handpoints each type of stone takes, and an eye on your remaining points (another part of the puzzle, if you will). I certainly don't want to be mean to players, but this makes logical sense and fits the brutal land aesthetic so will likely remain.

- More characters, stories, and events:

For sure! Sandstone will always be a short game, I'm not shooting for a 20-30 hour play, but I'd like to eventually get it to a solid 2-3 hours of playtime which calls for a richer world.

Another one of my key objectives is ensuring that there are no gamebreaking bugs, so expansion is admittedly slow and methodical to ensure I can test the hell out of each addition before it's released.

- Herbalists crafting all of your shrubs into Balms:

Great point! I actually changed this from a one-at-a-time approach to a bulk processing approach in v2 to make it more convenient for players. Your feedback helped me see the flaw in this (being forced to go all-in on the expensive vendor), so I'll update this in the future so that you have more control over how many are processed, leaving the option to process all if you wish to fly through it.

Big thanks again for your time and notes!











author=akoniti
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through (twice), and for leaving such a detailed review.

YOU ROCK! ha ha :)

Thankkkks let's start!

author=akoniti
I'm elated to hear that you loved the setting, idea, music, gameplay, and choices.

I will carefully consider each of your criticisms, and they will surely help make future versions better.

Oh yeah, you can also make also a sequel maybe... or a prequel, why not?

author=akoniti
To address a few specific points:

- Mapping:

Absolutely. They are far from amazing. I'll admit that Sandstone was denied based on map quality alone when I first submitted it here last year, so a lot of additional work has gone into them since, and I will continue to improve this in new versions.

Could you clarify which trees you were able to walk through? Just in case it's the one in Sowthin (Act 3 town) just past the Skystone, this is actually a climbable tree that leads to an encounter.

Oh I have to check that encounter!

No, I meant the one in the first village at the back... uhm maybe more shrubs than trees, they let you climb the area on the north but there is no use to go there... I think.
Then in the abandoned village there are also some bushes you can walk over and some you cannot but they look identical...

author=akoniti
- Getting stuck if you run out of resources:

This is an intentional possibility, though I apologize that it may have proven anti-fun for you. My primary objective is to provide players with a fun adventure. You described it perfectly with, "this is not a classical rpg, but an action adventure game and in a certain sense also a puzzle". Resource management is a huge part of the puzzle element; without it, there would be little challenge. I'm hopeful that being able to save (almost) anywhere will help balance the difficulty as you pointed out. I did add quite a few resources to reward exploration and reduce difficulty in v2.

And yeah, if you missed the island, it becomes very difficult to smash your way to the end! I'll note that the slime near Nortpost does mention there being three islands, but his slime-rhyme could be easily missed or not understood.

EDIT: Thanks to your description, I see that Puzzle is a better third choice than RPG in my genre tags. There are RPG elements, but they're a small part of a giant puzzle.

Naaah it's not anti-fun, just difficult to understand IF I can still win or not and this causes some confusion (since I am not sure sometimes I reloaded after trying every solution possible)... but yeah, it it's the way in which the game works, it's ok no problem!

author=akoniti
- Losing HP when you try to smash a stone without enough HP:

You're correct on this one, it does happen. It's intentional- my reasoning is that your hands get battered whether they can break it or not, but avoiding this does take careful observation of how many Handpoints each type of stone takes, and an eye on your remaining points (another part of the puzzle, if you will). I certainly don't want to be mean to players, but this makes logical sense and fits the brutal land aesthetic so will likely remain.

Uhmm yes, so healing before running out of points is worthwile, I guess!

author=akoniti
- More characters, stories, and events:

For sure! Sandstone will always be a short game, I'm not shooting for a 20-30 hour play, but I'd like to eventually get it to a solid 2-3 hours of playtime which calls for a richer world.

Another one of my key objectives is ensuring that there are no gamebreaking bugs, so expansion is admittedly slow and methodical to ensure I can test the hell out of each addition before it's released.

Oh yeah I meant also "decorative" ncps with just one sentence, just to make the maps (of the towns especially, but also adding lore or something more about elves and grubblings that appear in just one location each and no more!) feel more natural, deep and less empty, without changing the nature of the game.

author=akoniti
- Herbalists crafting all of your shrubs into Balms:

Great point! I actually changed this from a one-at-a-time approach to a bulk processing approach in v2 to make it more convenient for players. Your feedback helped me see the flaw in this (being forced to go all-in on the expensive vendor), so I'll update this in the future so that you have more control over how many are processed, leaving the option to process all if you wish to fly through it.

Big thanks again for your time and notes!

Oh yeah, clearly if the price was the same there would not have been any problem, buttttt... the second time I went there with just enough for one balm and I was able to finish the game!

Anyway yes, there is something to improve, but overall it was fun!
I've just uploaded v2.3, an update that carries some changes based on your helpful feedback.

You may recognize the new NPC in Sandstone, and some of his dialog :)

Thanks again!!
author=akoniti
I've just uploaded v2.3, an update that carries some changes based on your helpful feedback.

You may recognize the new NPC in Sandstone, and some of his dialog :)

Thanks again!!


Well done! I'd be caurious to hear other opinions about the game!
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
Well done! I'd be caurious to hear other opinions about the game!


Thanks, me too! I always learn much about my games from players, fresh eyes are priceless.

In case you don't get around to revisiting, here's Xinn, the new guy in Sandstone (I named him Xinn instead of Xinos in case you name your wanderer Xinos again someday, there can be only one lol) :

author=akoniti
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
Well done! I'd be caurious to hear other opinions about the game!
Thanks, me too! I always learn much about my games from players, fresh eyes are priceless.

In case you don't get around to revisiting, here's Xinn, the new guy in Sandstone (I named him Xinn instead of Xinos in case you name your wanderer Xinos again someday, there can be only one lol) :



VERY COOL! :D nice
It's absolutely true!
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