No feedback, really? Nobody has anything to say about my game?

ORBZ

I'm surprised that nobody has any input on my game.

I would appreciate some kind of feedback. Do you like it? If not what don't you like about it, how could I improve it.

If you do, could you please tell me so. I feel like nobody has seen my game.

I'm working on a tutorial explaining how I did the message passing between actors. It should be ready soon.

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/36992

SDMG

Hey ORBZ,

i have tried to play your game some days ago...don't remember if it was yesterday or before...

first i thought ... o wow this looks promising ... very reduced graphics, so the gameplay must be something special... (i like games that are very "pure") ... i have had a look at your instructions and to be honest i wasn't in the mood to read all this text ... so i have tried to play it without reading the text... after 2 minutes i still wasn't able to do anything useful so i have read half your instructions .... then i have double clicked the left circle and have rotated the arrow to right to the direction i wanted to shoot... after releasing the button the circle shooted to the left ... ok ... i have tried to rotate the arrow to the left and it shooted to the right ... and while i have tried to shoot with a lot of power ... the bullet unfortunatly didn't reached the target...

so ... after this frustrating start i didn't wanted to read the rest of the instruction because i didn't wanted to play the game anymore

just my very subjectiv way i have played your game ... and i know its my fault that i don't read instructions very carefully but maybee i am not the only one

dont know if this is helpful for you ...

cheers

SDMG

ORBZ

Thanks SDMG, I have redone the controls. It no longer does the "world shifting" when you aim. A lot of my friends were also experiencing confusion with this. So I took it out and made it much more intuitive.

But you raise a good point so I'm taking your input and adding on screen help (working on it as I write this)

I have also changed the gameplay and graphics significantly. Please give it another try. I think you'll find it to be a lot more intuitive this time

I tried to make it so that you could do basic stuff without reading the directions and then do more advanced stuff (like teleporting) by reading the directions.

I brief list of improvements:

- Aiming is retooled and MUCH easier to understand
- Graphics all now animate and "Breathe"
- Starting positions improved
- No gravity to deal with
- Better sound track
- No more grid
- Enhanced gameplay rules, You now clone and move by default and teleport with advanced controls
- Less buggy.

I'm still working on a one player mode but any feedback is greatly appreciated!

I hope you like it! And thanks for the feedback!!!

ORBZ

Thanks SDMG, per your tip I added on screen help. Should be much easier for beginners now

Please re-review it and let me know if you have any other good ideas!

firemaplegames

Hey ORBZ!

I have played your game and I think it is great! I love the complexity you have achieved!
Awesome!

However, I agree with SDMG says in that the instructions are overly complex. I don't think they need to be. On your turn, you can really only do two things, attack or teleport (and capture) but primarily attacking and teleporting.

I would definitely make this change:

Double-clicking on a node to go to a separate screen is confusing. And I know how to play! Without you standing there to explain it, a new user is going to be bewildered. It breaks the flow of the game...

I would do it this way:

Click on a node ONCE to select it. When you select it, two icons pop up, one for attacking and one for teleporting. The aiming arrow for both would appear directly on the node itself.

So you click the appropriate icon(attack or teleport) and aim the arrow. Instead of choosing a 1-7 second fuse, I would have a visual power bar that does the same thing. You could either hold down the mouse to increase the power and let go to act, or have it automatically expand and contract and you click at the appropriate point.

This would keep all the action on the game screen. It would also let you see precisely what you're aiming at. It doesn't change the mechanics or the strategy at all.

And then you could start to simplify the instructions to something like this:

Instructions:
Capture or destroy all of your opponent's nodes to win the game!
On your turn, select one of your nodes and choose either Attack or Teleport
etc...

I hope this is helpful to you. I only mean to offer constructive criticism as I really do like your game!

Joe

ORBZ

Thanks That's a good idea. I had originally done it in a similar way to what you describe but the problem was that when I go to the iPhone the framerate was so low that aiming was impossible. So to get around that I went to a second scene. I'll see if I can improve the performance somehow though and make it faster.

Maybe it works better on a 3GS phone. I only have a 3G.

Thanks for your input!

My girlfriend said something similar. Going to a separate screen is confusing. Ok, so i'll try to fix that.

Keep it coming!

firemaplegames

I would suspect the pulsating background might be the culprit in that case... I can't imagine that the spinning arrow is the bad guy!

You do have to watch resources of course, but the 3GS is much faster than the 3G. The 3G and the 2G have the same processor(and the 1st gen iTouch) 2nd gen iPod and 3GS have the new processor. It'll just keep getting better, though.

ORBZ

No, you misunderstand. It was on the main battlefield that the slowdown occured. Not on the aiming screen. Originally I had an arrow appear on the main battlefield but the framerate was so slow you couldn't make a good shot.

I give up on the 3G, it's too much work and i'm just a 1 man shop. 3GS from here on out I just need to get one... heh.

I think the slowdown is because the hubs and energy barriers are very very complex objects and they have a LOT of rules. That's how I was able to achieve the dynamic linking and message passing.

I'm working on a tutorial for everyone else in the community here to explain how I did it.