For the past few months I have been working on a casual iOS/Android game. It can best be described as a cross between Angry Birds and Amazing Alex. I’ve finished the first 11 levels and would love some feedback.
The character is a rotten little gremlin who likes to break stuff. Your goal is to help him break vases, ceramic statues, etc., using as few rocks as possible. For replay-ability, there are also more points awarded for hitting the stars and creating the biggest smash possible. There is no tutorial yet, but the controls are similar to Angry Birds in that you pull back and aim a slingshot.
the art is supercool and funky. The nitpicker in me is targetted towards the stairs aliased shadows and the lack of some “grounding” shadow on the grey big balls, but thats quite minor stuff
Love how you went ahead after the smashdagas story - this means you’re gonna go places
I love how the gremlin show emotions. It creates a great feeling to the game. I dont know how it playes on iOS. But the controls wierded out for me sometimes. But in overall the game played was great. Let me know when it is up on appstore.
It’s impossible this end to throw a gentle rock or slow rock. It always has a strong minimum value making it impossible to complete level one as far as I tried. This doesn’t make me stupid, it makes your game wrong. Because thats what mobile is like, you’ll get blamed. I knocked the pot to the right with the first shot and was unable to get rocks to it after. (Level 1)
Is this some problem with how you’re handling deltatime or such, because I am on an i5 mac mini and the controls are pretty much full strength and the catapult very hard to control when trying to make a low strength shot. I could not destroy the vase in level 1 in any of my attempts. *see notes below.
Controls could be refined when dragging close to catapult - it is glitchy and will get faster and faster as you get closer to drag center.
If you have a toggle in unity for slow motion (timescale) you can debug the rock with catapult anim - currently the stone is moving before the catapult elastic (they’re out of sync)
All minor issues which can be fixed easily. The star of the show and the delight of the game is his entrance. It’s perfect!
EDIT:
Managed to destroy vase in level 1 by knocking it towards player. So it destroyed fine if it fell left but not if it fell right. This is the sort of niggle on level one which will destroy your sales on mobile. Try not to have a victory condition so close to a losing condition. Also it’s possible on level 2 to jam the jar into the corner so it will never come out causing the same endless attempts thing where nothing is happening.
If you can overcome these issues it will be a great success I think. As it stands it is not ready. Also don’t forget to let the player know they can’t ever smash it with a direct rock, that it can only be crushed or fall. And make sure falling always smashes it or level 1 will just confuse people.
Wow, thanks a ton for the feedback and kind words. It really helps and steps up my enthusiasm!
@Acumen: The aliasing problem seems to go away on the iOS build on my iphone 4. Probably because it is a retina resolution screen so pixels are too small to see. I don’t have any other iOS devices right now, but I will add some anti-aliasing to the iPhone 3G build if the performance is okay. The grounding shadow on the large gray balls is an issue I have not found a decent solution for. I am using mesh planes for shadows since the performance of real-time shadows or blob projections is not good on my iPhone 4. I may add better shadows for newer devices.
@hippocoder: Thanks for the detailed feedback! It really helps. One thing that concerns me is that it doesn’t sound like the game is working properly on your computer. You should definitely be able to aim right at the vase, hit it, and it will break. I also have an i5 mac mini, but I have not tested the webplayer build with it. I will fire it up today and see if I have the same problem. I will also rework the controls to make them more user friendly. I will use a curve for the sling-force vs. pull back distance instead of a linear relationship.
EDIT: I just checked the webplayer build on my i5 Mac Mini and it worked as intended. This is very frustrating, but I wonder if you just didn’t pull back far enough? As you said, this makes the game wrong… but I’m not sure at this point if it is a webplayer bug or a game control problem.
Added a new level. This is still basically a tutorial level that introduces a lever mechanism game element that will be used extensively in later levels. Is it clear how this lever works?
I like this game. I think you should attach the game to a storyline. I don’t know if you have already thought of this or have plans. You should have it where this gremlin creature goes to a museum and starts smashing things. Then a curator takes notice that some of the objects in the museum are smashed. So the curator lays traps, thinking that the objects were broken by them. Then eventually, as the game gets progressively more difficult with traps and other game mechanics, like what you already have with a teeter totter and springs, you can have the curator show up and try to physically stop the gremlin from breaking any more objects.
I don’t know. I think you have a cute character that should be invested into.
Thanks for the feedback, lastprogrammer I actually had a storyline in mind that was similar to your idea. The gremlin was going to sneak into the “Museum of Priceless Stuff”. Then I thought I could have future versions of the game in which he would be in other places (China shop, etc.). But I started putting the cart before the horse… planning a version 1 of a game around a version 2 of a game is kind of silly for a one-man company with no track record. So I stepped back and decided to try to make each level as crazy and fun as I can without regard to a theme. I still want to have a storyline, but I haven’t thought up a good one yet. I’ll keep brainstorming!
This is a very sensible approach! A bit of character and context will get you most of the way anyway, while an average storyline has a funny way of undermining good gameplay.
If a narrative emerges and lets you tie it all together, all the better, but you should follow your instincts.
Thanks! The character is 3D, but only works from front views. I created the fur by making a few hand-painted transparent planes. I really wanted a fury character, and this was the only way I could figure out to make it work on mobiles. Here are some screenshots, but I am not sure if it shows the planes well enough:
