Easter Bonus Beta Release (Image Heavy)
Community Forums/Showcase/Easter Bonus Beta Release (Image Heavy)
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| Grey Alien Games, in association with Indiepath, is proud to present the beta release of Easter Bonus, a classic and addictive puzzle game. Get it here: http://cloverleafgames.com/download/easterbonus.exe (~8Mb)      I've spent a long time polishing this and I hope it shows. Big thanks to Quicksilva and Cygnus for all their hard work. It doesn't contain a full profile system yet, although you can still save and resume for a single player. There are loads more things I could do to this game, I have a huge list :-) But I'd like to hear what you think of it, and what things you think I should add/change as a priority. If you can answer these questions it will be great thanks: 1) Does it run smoothly? (you may need to reduce Explosions in Options) 2) In-game press D for Debug and tell me the left hand set of numbers for Logic, Draw, FPS and Ticks. 3) Your basic system specs. 4) At the end of each level, it tells you how long you took in seconds. Please post these times! Also say if you are a good match-3 player or not. Thanks 5) Did you lose any lives or get stuck on a level? Which level? 6) What's good about it? 7) What needs improving? And anything else you would like to add! Don't worry if you are too busy to answer my questions, but if you enjoyed it, just let me know - thanks :-) |
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| Pretty nice looking match-3 crap... I even playd it for a few minutes... and I'm certainly not a fan of this genre. Nice, clean GFX... this should sell a few copies. |
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| Damnit, I wasn't the first to see it >.<;; |
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| Yeah, I'm not really a fan of puzzle games either, but this is very nice. Better than Xmas Bonus, too. :) |
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| Ok, I played through the demo... My impression: 1) Plays very smooth on my Athlon 2800+ / ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. With full visual effects on and such, there is no stuttering or choppy graphics. 2) Nice graphics. Good sprites, interesting effect when popping blocks, nice extras like the flying doves in the intro screen. 3) The initial levels seem harder than I remember from xmas bonus. Not a problem (I finished all before the time ran out), just an observation. 4) Music / sound effects seem to fit in nicely. 5) when starting/stopping the game, the loading bar just flashes by for maybe half a second, as do the various lines of text at the end. Since they are there for such a small timespan, you may want to get rid of them altogether. You can do your loading while showing the 'Grey Alien Presents' screen, with no need for the pprogress bar. The text near the end may give a bit of an impression that something is wrong -- its way to fast to read anyway, so why 'clutter' up the screen? 6) The easter bunny that shows up after you finish a level seems out of place. The visual style is a little different than the rest of the game, but the biggest issue is that it appears to be drawn in a lower resolution than the rest of the graphics, and seems rather dittered around the edges. 7) The hints at the bottom of the screen at the beginning of the levels are very distracting. Especially since they keep popping up every single time imediately if you pass over a special square. After using it once or twice the user will know what to do, but even when playing other tiles and you move the mouse over one of the special ones, it will flash its message. you may want to consider putting in like a half-second delay to show the help message, so it only shows if someone *stops* over a special square rather than passing through. Currently it gives kind of a strobe-effect in your peripheral vision, and it really does bother me. 8) You may also want to stop giving the help text after someone uses the special feature a few times, rather than keeping 'reminding' them what its for the entire duration of the level. 9) Suggestion for some slightly additional graphical polish: when the candle runs out, you may want to have the flame shrink and followed by a puff of smoke or something, rather than directly going from full flame -> completely out in a single step. But again, it does look very nice overall... Maybe the suggestions can apply to Mother's day Bonus, Independence day Bonus, Labour day bonus or Fall Equinox Bonus? :-P |
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| Okay, I only had a quick play last night. I'll play more thoroughly later and let Tracy have a go. So far: 1) I agree with Xlsior's point on the flame. I found myself unsure as to when I was actually going to run out of time- and I think you could make the flame flicker some, shrink, then poof, followed by Time up. 2) I like that easter bunny, and Tracy was going "Awwww!". Of course, any improvements on it are a good thing! |
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| cool thanks guys: xlsior: 3) I've actually made all the levels easier, weird. 5) Yeah I think I'll remove the shutdown stuff, it was kinda just for debug purposes. 6) not sure what to do about this ... 7) yeah, the hints were added at the last minute to replace a dialog box that popped up and got in you way. The "tool tip delay" technique might work. If's it's too long people won't see it though, so maybe 250ms or something. I'll try it out. I know what you mean about distracting. 8) tricky thing is knowing if they have actually read it. All tips do stop after level 4 anyway as you have seen all the bonuses by then. I'll give this some more thought. 9) Yeah I need some low candle warning. I had beeps for the last 30 secs listed on my to do. On Xmas Bonus the candle got low for the last 20% but there was never a puff on the end. I'll talk to the artist about this. Cyg: Thanks. So bunny gts your vote then. Get back to me when you've both tested it a bit more. Thanks :-) |
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| I think a line needs to be drawn under a lot of these issues, this product needs to be released within the next few days or the boat will leave without it. Nothing is ever perfect, well maybe the next version will be :D |
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| Indiepath is talking business sense (plus he just wants to sell it ASAP!), sometimes you just gotta release it, like I did with Xmas Bonus. The main point here is that Easter Bonus is a big improvement in many ways, maybe I could do more, but not this time. Just a few minor tweaks here and there. I'll do the tool tip delay right now and remove the game shutdown text. |
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| I'd say the candle was an urgent thing, since You can only tend to guess that "time will run out soon." A delay to the hints might be good but it didn't bother me or Tracy, but I do think It got in the way of he hint button. I really like the music, and the choice to put the reggae and the other slightly more um.... well, the other track- was a good one IMO. The reggae music suits really well! There were no major flaws, and I didn't really see any minor ones, just think that candle thing might be good :P |
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| Might sound weird but i like the graphic of the candle plate. Greetings, taumel |
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| Okay Grey Alien- That would be cool. We posted at the same time so my above post wasnt meant as a reply to your "But not now" :) |
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| Cyg: I'd still like to do somethinga about the time up situation, but haven't got time yet! Does this eman you couldn't complete a level? Taumel: I really like the candle base too, it reminds me of Dungeon Master on the Amiga maybe and other adventure games, maybe that's why? |
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| haha, yeah. I don't play these sort of games much as I explained before,l; lost as early as Level 3 in fact, but I was rushing!! :) |
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| I put this cool thing in just before the beta release. When your time gets to <25% paintbrushes and matchsticks start appearing to help you get the level done. This is not mentioned anywhere, the player may not consiously notice, but it'll make it a little bit easier for them if they are having trouble completing the level. |
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| @Grey Alien: It reminds me a bit of Cadaver and Chaos Engine even though these were not outlined. |
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| Hmm, you added that? Yeah, I was using the stars, matches etc on the ice blocks :P maybe if I was more careful, I'd have finished :) Now you mention it, they did start appearing at about 25% [edit] One of them don't work on Ice, right? :P |
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| Nice game and very professional. Good luck. |
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| Cyg: In the last 25% matchsticks will only appear if you have ice left, paintbrushes will also appear. Paintbrush can only be used on non-frozen squares cos you can't paint ice! However, some levels have matchsticks and paintbrushes appearing ALL the time. Anyhow, have another go alter! Haramanai: thanks dude. OK: I've added these tweaks for the final version (more to come), mainly they deal with the tips: - Changed clouds photo on Level Select screen. - Removed shutdown text. - Made bonus tips only appear if the mouse is held over the bonus for a short period of time. - Bonus tips will only appear 3 times for each bonus item. - Invalid Move tips will only appear 2 times for each type. - The number of remaining Bonus tips and Invalid Move tips are saved in your profile. - If you exit the game via the X in the top right of the window or by pressing Ctrl+X, your profile is now saved. |
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| heh, just got my mum to beta test it. Very interesting. She did pretty well actually but couldn't figure out the matchstick or paintbrush even with the tips, cos she didn't even see them! I'm going to have to force the user to read a pop up dialog I think, even though I was trying to avoid this. |
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| Well done Grey - a very nice game. Good graphics and music, very smooth and polished - good luck with this. |
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| Hi all, I did the graphics for Easter bonus, does everyone like them? I thought it would be a nice change to get some of the old Amiga style pixel art back out there. I think it worked out well and looks very unique. Grey, as a quick and easy fix to the candle problem wouldn`t it be easiest to also include a digital text display of the time as well as the candle? Then the player can quickly glance between them. The low time beep warning would also be a good touch as would the candle flicker. Jason. |
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| Thanks Steve! QuickSilva. The graphics rock and you know it! I gotta be careful with continual tweaks as this just has to be released soon... btw it's going on Reflexive!!! Anyway I considered the constant time display in Xmas Bonus but the Publisher didn't think it would look good/spoil vibe etc. What I'll do IF TIME is put a display for the last 30 seconds with a low time beep just to sh*t the player up!! when you say flicker as in turn the flame on/off, I don't know if this would look any good (haven't tested though). That's why I think a smaller redder flame would work well (all the code is in place if you can make one :-)) Jake |
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| If i got my hand superglued to something,what would you use to remove it? If you got my GIRLFRIEND glued to Easter Bonus- What would you use to remove it???? >.<;; :D QuickSilva- yes, very very well done! Nice work! I found it refreshing from the modern 3d-rendered-to-2d stuff as in you did it retro. Good graphics and music, very smooth and polished - good luck with this. I did *some* (actually there's quite a bit in there) of the music. Glad you likey! :) |
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| Based on feedback here and in other fourms, I've made the following changes so far: - Changed clouds photo on Level Select screen. - Removed shutdown text. - Made bonus tips only appear if the mouse is held over the bonus for a short period of time. - Bonus now tips remain for 4 seconds when the mouse is moved off the bonus. - Holding the mouse on a Bonus no longer keeps an Invalid Move tip on-screen indefinitely. - Bonus tips will only appear 3 times for each bonus item. - Invalid Move tips will only appear 2 times for each type. - The number of remaining Bonus tips and Invalid Move tips are saved in your profile. - The first time you click a matchstick, paintbrush or star a dialog will appear telling you how to use it. - If you exit the game via the X in the top right of the window or by pressing Ctrl+X, your profile is now saved. - Lives are now represented by egg icons. - When the candle only has 30 seconds left, a timer will be displayed on the candle base, and a beep will be made every second. - A Time Bonus is now added to your score at the end of the level. - You can no longer click Menu during a Time Up/No More Moves or Level Complete animation. - You can no longer drag matchsticks, paintbrushes and stars onto adjacent squares by accident. - Increased Time Limit on levels 3-8. - Removed some ice from levels 3 and 4 to make them easier. - The default High Score table now contains different names. The long and short of this is that the tip system has been improved so that it's easier to use the matchstick, brush and star, plus I've done some other cosmetic stuff and some very minor fixes. Thanks for everyone's input so far ... Any more? |
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| Excelent! Tracy will be pleased :P :P |
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| i really like this you have polished it well. I thought the rabbit looked fine after beating the lvel though. |
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| I like the way that if you leave the rabbit for 10 minutes then hit space bar it lunges horrifically at the screen, blood spattering everywhere as it tears your throat out. The effects are amazing. It's like being owned by general woundwart. |
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| uh ... is that a joke or a bug report? please clarify... btw, as a matter of interested I have replaced 164 graphics during the course of making this. Some were old Xmas Bonus graphics but many were initial graphics that we improved or changes. Someone once said you throw away 90% of the code and graphics as you make a game and it's true, unfortunately, but it makes a better game! |
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| @Grey, how many pixels is that exactly? |
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| Lots, believe me ;) Jason. |
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| yeah it was a lot, luckily Quicksilva didn't come round to shoot me. Hey V1.0 is ready (added some more tweaks since post above)except for the levels and poss new instructions page. |
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| Hey V1.0 is ready (added some more tweaks since post above)except for the levels and poss new instructions page. My mailbox is waiting patiently. |
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| 50 levels done... |
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