Could this be commercial stuff?
Community Forums/Showcase/Could this be commercial stuff?
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| I'm very new to this whole indie thing and has never ever tried to create something commercial so here is my first attempt to create a valid game for the "casual market". Now I've only been programming Blitz3D for a couple of month and this is my second game ever so, please be gentle ;) It's a techdemo to show you all the idea so here's some known bugs and features you don't have to comment: Spindles get stuck half way through rotation and nothing happens. *Cubes are falling through/Cubes are not falling where they should. *Cubes textures are now placeholders (it will not have digits later on but symbols) *Audio is on it's way So, what I really would like to know is, does a game like this stand a chance in the small indiemarket out there? What do I REALLY need to improve if I want it to happen? Which Playmode do you like best (there are 2 playmodes that can be toggled with F1. The first one lets the cubes fall as soon as they can and the other one lets the player decide when the cubes will fall by pressing (SPACE) ). Thanks for all support so far and for all suggestions with this one! EDIT: NEW SCREENS FROM ALPHA VERSION (I will soon put it up for you to try out) Download: http://archon2160.pbwiki.com/f/Techdemo.rar Screen:  |
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| A variant of the game (with Rune-symbols) can be found here: http://archon2160.pbwiki.com/f/Variant.rar |
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| artwork looks nice, but it doesn't shout "casual" too me. Is it easy to play? Any hint of complexity and it won't be casual enough, sorry. Downloading the rune one now... |
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| I've tried to make it as Casual as possible. You can play it using only your mouse. It's just a Match-4-game in cylindric form. What do you say Grey? Is it too complex.. or shall I say, does it give the impression om complexity because that's the main issue here, right :( On the other hand, you think it's enjoyable? Is it intuative enough? |
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| I'll play it soon, don't worry, just been working. My impression that it possibly looked complex was entirely based on the screenie... |
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| I like it, nice fresh idea! I have no experience in indie business, but it's different than the thousands of match-x-games out there. Could be a great game! |
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| well I took a brief look but to be honest I think it's too early for me to say what I think of it. There's no sound and no tutorial so I've got no feedback and I don't really know what the hell I'm doing and the control system seems a bit odd. But that's just me. I'll be interested to see it when you've got more done. Good luck with it! |
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| I liked it. Played the rune one. I like the mechanics. Just add lot's of special stuff (check out Grey's games for standard match-3 bonus/special combinations). Some mystic theme like spells or alchemy could fit well with the rune style. Also make a good tutorial / help screens. If Grey can sell his basic match-3 clones, you certainly have a change with more unique variant like this... |
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| That's actually the problem. It cannot be too unique, then people will just not buy it. Figures tells us that of you want to sell things, make clones. Somehow people still rather buy ANOTHER Sudoku or Match-3 game than try something new so this one really needs to be good and give out the "not so complex"-vibe that it probably don't do now. Maybe I should go with some cartoonish style instead and colour it up a lot. |
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| Maybe I should go with some cartoonish style instead and colour it up a lot. yes.could the spindle be something that people can relate to like uh well I can't think of anything, corn on the cob I was going to say but that's dumb. Something I found odd when playing it, as I moved them round, matches were made all round it so stuff popped off all over the place, not just the front. I know this is logical but it felt like too much was randomly happening for me instead of due to my deliberate actions. Also the contracts need a rethink. Perhaps just click and drag a spindle round like Chuzzles? |
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| Gonna try Chuzzles out now to see what you mean. I personally think that left and right clicking for rotating the spindle left and right is very easy and effective just as mouse up/down for selecting the spindles. |
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| yeah and you could be right. Most causal games have a visible pointer though and you move it round and click stuff, so you could move to the spindle you want and left drag it round. Also most casual games don't use the right mouse button... |
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| Its alright at the moment. Needs teh following: - a background (preferably 3d) - change the blocks so each different type is a whole color rather then a small square of color in a red block. It is too hard to differentiate between block types - sound - some nice glowly / particley effects - etc it needs work, but its getting there. |
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| oh oh oh a background (preferably 3d) I also found it quite annoying when I was removing more things from the back, which I couldnt see, than from the frount. And was wondering about the possibility of makeing "lite" refletions on the background, (Not too reflective, cos then it would be too busy, sort of like ghost relections. Cos then it would be both a backdrop to fill space, and I could at least pretend I was controlling the back of the spindles |
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| If people would rather buy the same game over and over again than try something new, then stop the world I want to get off please. |
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| I also found it quite annoying when I was removing more things from the back, which I couldnt see, than from the frount. And was wondering about the possibility of makeing "lite" refletions on the background, (Not too reflective, cos then it would be too busy, sort of like ghost relections. Cos then it would be both a backdrop to fill space, and I could at least pretend I was controlling the back of the spindles What about a second viewing window... say about 150 x 150 pixels in the top right hand corner. Shows teh back view. |
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| That's why I have the function to be able to rotate the whole view to see from all angles? It will be very very useful in the "NoRush-mode" where there are no time dropping all the time. I compare the situation with the effect that most Match3 games has that you can actual make combos (and most of the time you havent got a clue" just because new cubes fell in the right order or things happened that you just didnt see. It's common in all puzzlegames , here it's just another type of it. See it as a bonus. |
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| You need to listen to peoples feedback. If more then one person is mentioing that they want to be able to see what is going on at all times, it is some indication that you need to tweak it. |
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| I can assure you that I truly do listen to all feedback from you guys and from the PCGamer forum amd yes, you are correct that if two people have really played the game and find one thing frustrated I might consider changing it to the better. It don't however mean that their own suggestion might be the best working feature. I have a problem seeing a 150 * 150 window being effective. The spindles zoomed out just a little bit makes it very hard to spot the patterns. Well.. I see what I can do about it, but the idea IS to have a cylindric game where you actually don't see everything at once (the whole logic engine behind the 3D is of course a 2 axis one that could be even easier drawn as a flat rectangle with lots of cubes). |
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| You may want to add a function that allows the player to decide when he has found a match. As it is now it seems like the computer does all the work and all you do is rotate spindles. It kind of takes all the fun out of it. Also you could add small things to make it more difficult. Like powerups that cause the spindles to do automatches or to spin wildly or flip characters upsidedown or one layer disabled for one round. Just some ideas. I think its a cool idea for a game. |
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| Updated this thread with some new screens. A downloadable version of the alpha will be available here soon enough (before I even try to contact some publishers/portals) |
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| OGRE1138: Powerups are implanted now. Well some at least some (you can see some on the the screens). There are also one playmode that is called Sticky Cubes where the cubes doesnt fall down immidiatly but the player chooses when to "shake" the cylinder to make it fall into place. |
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| This is very slick. Nice work! |
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| Yeah - looking good. Did you do all the graphics? |
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| Thanks. Yes Ive made everything myself, graphics, coding, music, soundeffects, designdocument etc. Some testing has been made by some other guys though. |
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| Clever chap! :) Are you going to put something in the background, instead of just having it black? Maybe having some kind of subtle, slowly swirling pattern would look better? Just a thought. |
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| Yes I am. Problem is that Ive been trying out lots and lots of different backgroundideas but noone really suits the game nor the scene.. just makes it messy and hard to focus. I will try again later on. ATM Im working on the profiles and optionmenus. |
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| just makes it messy and hard to focus. Yeah - like I say, it'd have to be pretty subtle and not distracting in any way. Almost invisible. |
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| Problem is that Ive been trying out lots and lots of different backgroundideas but noone really suits the game nor the scene.. just makes it messy and hard to focus. You could consider a 'toned down' background by darkening it a lot. That way it doesn't really draw attention away from the foreground, but still looks a little more polished than just plain black. Anyway, looking pretty nice overall! |
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| Yes, Ive tried that before. I will try it again with some several layers mixing and animating. Thanks guys. |
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| yeah I agree on the background thing. |
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| Looks great! Maybe you could have backgrounds that are static or 3-dimensional and have a main slot that the spindle column snugly fits into and just have decorations on the sides. |
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| As the game will take place in , now 5 different worlds and ancient times (ancient egypt, northern mythology, mayaculture etc.) I want to make a background that suits every theme. I'll try different approuches and see. As for now I'm just fiddling with the first 15 levels just to give you a chance to try out and give critics to the actual game/gameplay. |
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| Looks much better than anything I could ever hope to accomplish. That grammar's getting to me, however... "We're running out of time." |
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| Aah.. :P The font I created didn't contain "'" and I haven't noticed until not, thanks. Thanks for your comments on the visual side as well. I'm not by "default" an artist so I appreciate all feedback about the visuals. |
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Ok Ive tried out a variant. Please be honest and tell me what you think about this background. The background"banners" fades in and out and moves slowly across the screen  |
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| I think the background graphics need to be 2x-3x bigger, if too distracting fade them out a little more. For those who keep insisting on being able to see everything, it looks like you have enough screen real estate to show another cylinder from the reverse side. Just make sure it's a an option and not mandatory. The obvious downside is that it may slow down drastically on some systems, hence why it needs to be optional. Looks pretty cool so far. |
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| How about a starfield? Everytime the player looses a spindle a constellation lights up. It would be good eye candy since your game already seems to be about that. Another idea is have a day and night cycle as a background instead of a timer. |
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