kafkahoi - 1.0.3

ok, after such a long time, I now fixed some bugs and took care of an easy installation flow. So here is the new release!
It is ment to work on Windows and MacOS, but I tested it only on Linux. Maybe there could be some problems with the installation. But you can always run the game by only run "kafkahoi" with a python-interpreter out of the game-directory.

Have fun!

Because the keys used is Y you would have to use Z on the American and British Keyboard. :D The Y and Z is flipped between the German and the American/British Keyboards.

I'm on a Mac, so haven't tried the game yet. And, because I'm lousy at getting players to move where I want them to go I'm not sure this game would work for how my brain is wired, but I LOVE the idea that the words are in German. I intend to learn the language some day. My own game will teach some German if I get the basics of the game coded correctly. After I get the basic code done, it will be easy to add more "textbooks" and "workbooks". The workbooks will take longer though because I'll have games to play on each workbook page. We'll see if I can get the German textbook and workbook done.

Yes, I think you're right... I had a wonky PS/2 to USB converter for an old keyboard, and that may have been eating the rotation commands.

If there were a way to make the game a bit easier and still keeping your objective to not directly control the characters, I'd like to see it.

oh. the very cryptical signs ←, → and &#8595 meant the arrow keys LEFT, RIGHT and DOWN.

Thank you very much for your comments.
You are surely right, that the game is too difficult. It takes a lot time to get into this special game-control.
The problem is, that I really stick to the idea not to control the characters directly but to influence their own floating movement -therefore you handle both characters at the same time. It is the quest of making gameplay more organic and intuitive. So I don't really know how I could design the game more playable without dropping these central concepts :-? (Maybe I should modify or rework these concepts totally, but at the moment I am missing the muse to do so...)

I know it doesn't make the game better but here are some hints to make it easier to play:
First: the nearer you get the mouse to a star the less will be his movement (when you are over it he stands still).
Second: There is a kind of a rythm, in which the stars move foreward and back respectivly to the mouseposition. Getting a feeling for the star-own movement helps you to use their movement for your own will.

Why the shooter didn't respond to your input I don't know. I didn't had that problem yet. Maybe it occurs because of a different keyboard-type -my own one is german. (It's worth to figure that out).
For now you can optionally use ←, → and ↓ instead of Y, C and SPACE.

Thanks for your respond. It's nice to get some feetback :)

I think the way this experimental game is presented is wonderful, just the non-game-like atmosphere makes it unique. I especially liked the beetle. Also the context of creating a poem is inherently interesting. On the other hand, actually trying to collect the letters was hard, made difficult by not being able to directly control two things, a shooter and a collector. I was able to get a feel for it after awhile, but then also needing to rotate the shooter, which didn't seem to respond to my input much of the time made it futile. So I would just keep pressing both mouse buttons mindlessly to collect and shoot as fast as I could while trying to keep my guys away from the beetle. I almost solved the first poem, but it was so long, and it was so hard to get the letters that I gave up.

I still think this has the potential to evolve into something unique, so keep iterating at this idea. I would be interested to see anything you do in the future.