I need somebodies opinion

TJMNUTTJMNUT Member Posts: 236
edited November -1 in Business and Marketing Theory
My app was just released, but i have only gotten 30 downloads. Can you please tell me if this game is any good, so i can know what to change, thanks! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/picnic-defense-1-0/id444282334?mt=8&ls=1. (PS, I had no idea about save the picnic)

Comments

  • TJMNUTTJMNUT Member Posts: 236
    sorry, i meant to add one more poll. 4: it's not good at all
  • OlsenOlsen Member Posts: 30
    I see that you are only 11 years old, and I think the game you have created is really impressing for a kid that age. And I bet if you change the app icon, the sales will increase.
    Good luck :p
  • JeffreyShimaneJeffreyShimane Member Posts: 372
    I downloaded it. Here are my thoughts:

    1) The icon is too dark and the design is not strong. It looks like a green military helmet on a fly swatter or a fork? I didn't see a fly swatter in the game and you don't use a fly swatter on ants. I guess a fork makes sense from a picnic perspective but it looks like it has a grating instead of the four tines. The icon is the first thing an App Store customer sees. It should be eye-catching with a strong, clear design.

    2) I don't like the version number in the game's title. There's already a separate field for the version number. There's no need to put it into the game's title unless it's part of the theme (like Tron 2.0 or something).

    3) The ants do not look like ants. They look more like worms. Considering they are the only enemy in the game and ants are pretty universally known, you should put more effort into making the ants look like ants (six legs, antennae, 3 sectional body). Google some pictures of ants to get an idea. Adding legs, etc. may also help with making the ants slightly bigger too so that tapping them registers more often as a hit.

    4) Spruce up the squashed ant image to make it more noticeable. At first glance, I didn't even realize there was a squashed ant image when you tapped an ant. Considering the only thing you do in the game is squash ants, you need to make the act of squashing them more satisfying to the player. Which brings me to my next point...

    5) You need to add sound effects for squashing the ants. It's not realistic, but I think you should add some chewing sounds that play when the ants eat some food on the picnic table just as an indicator to the player.

    6) I tried expert mode twice. The first time, I encountered a bug where when the game first started, the spray can appeared and sprayed ants (even though I didn't get the spray can power-up) and then the game kept continuing on despite the food having already been eaten and the timer reaching 0. I had to restart the game to stop it. The second time I tried it, it worked as expected.

    7) I noticed that the best score is not different for each difficulty level. Each difficulty level should have a separate best score.

    8) I don't think the music particularly suits the subject matter. It sounds like something out of Avatar and evoked more of a forest/jungle atmosphere than a picnic one.

    9) The graphics style is not consistent between the menus and the game. All the graphics in the game should have a unified and consistent style. Retro 8-bit, cartoon, realistic, textured (like Tiny Wings)... pick a style and apply it to everything.

    10) You may want to have the red ants move in a zig zag motion to differentiate them from the black ants and to make them harder to hit.

    It's not bad for a first game. Don't give up... learn from this experience and your second app will be that much better!

    - Jeff
  • TJMNUTTJMNUT Member Posts: 236
    JeffreyShimane said:
    I downloaded it. Here are my thoughts:

    1) The icon is too dark and the design is not strong. It looks like a green military helmet on a fly swatter or a fork? I didn't see a fly swatter in the game and you don't use a fly swatter on ants. I guess a fork makes sense from a picnic perspective but it looks like it has a grating instead of the four tines. The icon is the first thing an App Store customer sees. It should be eye-catching with a strong, clear design.

    2) I don't like the version number in the game's title. There's already a separate field for the version number. There's no need to put it into the game's title unless it's part of the theme (like Tron 2.0 or something).

    3) The ants do not look like ants. They look more like worms. Considering they are the only enemy in the game and ants are pretty universally known, you should put more effort into making the ants look like ants (six legs, antennae, 3 sectional body). Google some pictures of ants to get an idea. Adding legs, etc. may also help with making the ants slightly bigger too so that tapping them registers more often as a hit.

    4) Spruce up the squashed ant image to make it more noticeable. At first glance, I didn't even realize there was a squashed ant image when you tapped an ant. Considering the only thing you do in the game is squash ants, you need to make the act of squashing them more satisfying to the player. Which brings me to my next point...

    5) You need to add sound effects for squashing the ants. It's not realistic, but I think you should add some chewing sounds that play when the ants eat some food on the picnic table just as an indicator to the player.

    6) I tried expert mode twice. The first time, I encountered a bug where when the game first started, the spray can appeared and sprayed ants (even though I didn't get the spray can power-up) and then the game kept continuing on despite the food having already been eaten and the timer reaching 0. I had to restart the game to stop it. The second time I tried it, it worked as expected.

    7) I noticed that the best score is not different for each difficulty level. Each difficulty level should have a separate best score.

    8) I don't think the music particularly suits the subject matter. It sounds like something out of Avatar and evoked more of a forest/jungle atmosphere than a picnic one.

    9) The graphics style is not consistent between the menus and the game. All the graphics in the game should have a unified and consistent style. Retro 8-bit, cartoon, realistic, textured (like Tiny Wings)... pick a style and apply it to everything.

    10) You may want to have the red ants move in a zig zag motion to differentiate them from the black ants and to make them harder to hit.

    It's not bad for a first game. Don't give up... learn from this experience and your second app will be that much better!

    - Jeff

    Thanks for the constructive criticism, i do agree about the graphics being the best, i'm 11 so i don't have the greatest software, i had to make do with inkscape (ugh), and I'm going to add: different music (More of a military feel) sound effects, and a better app icon. But eventualy when i get illustrator, i will go back and update all my graphics, but for now i guess the stylized look could work for people. Now the dreaded story of the 1.0, i messed up way too much on the name and kept re-making the ITunes connect profile, and by the time i re-named it, the name was already taken, it went from Picnic Defense to Picnic Defense Free, to Picnic Defense 1.0. Thank you for your words.
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