Release Edit:
Download “Wunder Water Games” for Android: Google Play Store
Play one of the three game mode demos: OldManAnimal.Itch.io
Follow me on Twitter @OldManAnimal
Watch the game trailer:
ORIGINAL POST:
“Wunder Water Games” is a simple mobile game based on the classic water tank handheld toys that were first popularized through the 80s and 90s.
The first release will feature:
- 3 game modes (the well known ‘ring-toss’, plus ‘pyramid’ and ‘buckets’).
- 4 unlock-able difficulties per game mode.
- 4 award levels for each difficulty to measure your skill.
- Tilt control using device gyroscope to better control the game rings and blocks.
- A small selection of relaxing music and background images while you play.
I have been working on this game off and on for a few years now but mostly on in the last year. This will be my first published game and I think it’s getting pretty close to being in a state that I could release it as an open beta, but I’ve mostly had feedback from people I know, so not very impartial.
I have not been very pro-active in getting the word out but am now trying to generate some interest and get some feedback. I know this is a very niche kind of game so it’s not going to generate as much interest as something more traditional, but I’m hoping some of you might to take a look at what I’ve been doing and let me know what you think.
Check out my most recently released video that shows off the highest difficulty ‘Expert’ for the Ring-Toss game mode.
I have released a number of videos from various stages of development, so you can check out that Playlist
Feel free to follow my twitter @OldManAnimal for updates, but I’ll post them here as well.
New video posted today showing the current state of the other game mode “Pyramid” in the same Expert difficulty with moving parts to make things a lot more difficult.
Most people that remember the ring toss version might not even know about this type, but it was the one I knew growing up and what kicked off me creating this game (as you can see if you watched some of the past videos on my Youtube channel).
So I’m now at the point that I feel the game is ready enough for an open beta so here it is:
Google Play Store
Web sign up
So now that there is a playable version to try I’m hoping I can get broader more impartial feedback. Anything is welcome from the pickiest issue to big crashes, just try and be constructive I guess. My main concerns are anything game breaking and whether or not the various difficulties balance well.
Lovely concept but don’t you think it’s too hard to play?
My suggestion to you when triangles fill the hollow triangle make it stick otherwise the user will be frustrated quickly.
You will not have even 50 active users and your app will die.
Take example of match 3 games, they have more than 5000 levels and now you know it why ?
Your focus = User engagement
Sorry to get to you late but I was inactive for such a log time 
Thanks for the feedback. Strangely enough, I was concerned that the ‘easy’ difficulty might be TOO easy rather than too hard. After playing it myself all through development it’s hard for me to judge how difficult new players would find it.
New video to show off a new game mode in the works called “Buckets.” Video shows a couple of different possible difficulties. Fairly simple alteration of ring toss so that instead of looping rings onto pegs you’re throwing blocks into buckets.
While I was working on early versions of this one and was adding a larger amount of blocks and different colors I started to wonder about how easily the colors are to distinguish for people with various kind of color blindness. So out of that concern I came up with the idea of linking pairs of blocks as can be seen in the video and the idea is that you try and get one of each color pair into each pair of buckets to increase each buckets score multiplier. This also led to the idea to have the source of water coming from the center of the tank.
In the difficulty shown on the right, I also liked the idea that as you filled up one bucket more it would tilt the balance of the pair. I’m still working a bit on the difficulties on this one, but I think it should make a nice addition to the existing game modes.
In addition to the Android open beta on the Google Play Store, I’ve now released a couple of demo versions of the two main game modes on Itch.io playable in browser. So for anyone without an Android device or who just doesn’t want to try the open beta. You can now try one of the demo versions:
Ring Toss (Easy difficulty) and Pyramid (Easy difficulty)
The tilt controls are done using the keyboard arrow keys so it’s not quite the same as an actual device using its gyroscope, but I’m hoping these demos being playable in browser might allow more people to try them out.
As always, any feedback would be appreciated, although less interested in issues specific to the web versions that don’t apply to the full Android version.
Latest update:
I’ve finally added the new game mode ‘Buckets’ to the open beta on Google Play
You can also try Buckets easy mode demo at Itch.io: Buckets (Easy difficulty)
And here is a new video of the Expert difficulty level for Buckets:
Try out the new game mode or the game if you haven’t already and let me know what you think.
I have other game modes in mind that are a bit more complicated but haven’t worked much on them yet and I don’t think I would add any of them until after the full release of the game. These three game modes “Ring-Toss”, “Pyramid”, and “Buckets” will be the game modes for the release version.
Small update today. I’ve added achievements to the game using Google Play Games Services. Basically each game mode and each difficulty has an achievement per medal level (bronze, silver, gold).
It’s been kind of difficult to solo test the functionality of the sign in/out, viewing achievements, and earning achievements so it would be great if anyone wants to give it a try and let me know if anything is broken. As far as I can tell it all works in my own tests.
Otherwise I think things are looking pretty close to release ready so hopefully that should be happening in the near future.
Open beta on Google Play Store
Demos on Itch.io (no achievements here)
It’s release time.
The game has now left beta and is fully released on the Google Play Store.
To go with the release, I managed to learn enough video editing to put together a little game trailer so feel free to give that a watch. I hope the people who are interested in this kind of game either through nostalgia or just curiosity enjoy it. Feel free to leave a good review on the play store, that will probably help with getting the game more views.
