'Hot Spots' and 'Dead Drop' - a change of style...

kobayaashi

Hi guys,

so, after managing to get my first puzzle-based offerings passed for the App Store ('Sujiko2015', along with Suko, Dottoko and Tanko), I thought I's try something a little different, and opted for games using physical and mental dexterity and coordination :

'Hot Spots' ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kobayaashis-hot-spots/id1033024292 ) is a simple game with an 80s retro feel, in which the player 'merely' has to tap the coloured squares to keep them on Green.

In 'Dead Drop' ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kobayaashis-dead-drop/id1033019596 ) the player needs to guide their ball to the bottom of the scene by removing the sticks (reminiscent of Ker-Plunk... now I'm really showing my age!). It's all fun and frolics until you run out of time, or fall over the edge, into the Dead Drop...

All in all, I'm having great fun making up puzzles and games, and have a heap of other ideas to work on, and find GS easy to work with (as a non-coder) - an experience much improved by the community here, and those wonderful souls who offer their time and experience for free by putting out tutorials (yes, talking about you, @Thunder_Child , among so many others!) or helping whenever someone has a question or a problem. I've benefitted from many tutorials and posts from so many people, and I'm thankful to you all.

My only real dilemma is the whole free/paid issue. Now, I'm not a fan of ads, nor am I a fan of getting something for free, and then being invited to get an ad-free or better version for money. So, in light of this, I've offered my apps for £1.49 each, with no ads at all, no IAPs, just WYSIWYG. I don't expect the games I put out will be the next Flappy Bird, so I'm under no illusions, I just figured it would be nice to earn a few quid to go towards my GS and Apple account costs.

I'd be interested to hear what anybody thinks of these games (if you felt like shelling out £1.49!), or the artwork shown in the screenshots or, indeed, people's opinions on whether these games feel like they're worth £1.49 - I'm a great fan of constructive criticism, so don't worry about hutring my ego!

Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful day.

Thunder_Child

Thanks for the mention of my tutorials...

If by chance you are able to provide some promo codes for the iOS version, I love to check out new games made by those of the community.

Your screenshots look interesting and unique.

Good luck.

kobayaashi

Thanks, @Thunder_Child - I'd happily add promo codes if I knew how. Will have to hunt down the info. If and when I sort it, you'll be the first to know.

kobayaashi

Sorted. I've got my hands on some promo codes for Hot Spots and Dead Drop. Will send you one of each now. If anybody else is interested, feel free to let me know.

Thunder_Child

Sweet. I received them via Your PM. I'll try those out this evening thank you.

Thunder_Child

Ok...so again thanks for the promo codes...

So now my rating for each app and why...

1. Hot Spots...I give it 3 of 5 stars. I like having multiple levels of difficulty. I found all three levels of difficulty to be very well balanced. If I had one suggestion it would be to have a separate high score for each level of difficulty. The game is to fast to know how the scoring system is. I would prefer to know that and to have a separate high score for each level of difficulty.

2. Dead Drop...I give this a rating of 4 of 5 stars. I really enjoyed having to be VERY strategic on which buttons to press to advance the ball. One thing however is the number thing....you give us nine to start with but if your random spawning of plus and minus happens to give us a plus at game start...or even during gameplay...the max is nine so it limits how many "power ups" you can have....other than that I do like this game...this is one that will go into my arcade folder of games I keep on my phone and I'm pretty picky on what I keep after installs...so that alone give you that 4 of 5.

I'm glad to see that even though a paid app you don't have any ads or IAP's.

kobayaashi

Thanks for the feedback, @Thunder_Child, it's most appreciated, and I'm chuffed that you liked the games.

I'll take on board the suggestion for Hot Spots when I get around to updating it. I'm also hoping to get some time to learn about posting scores to leader boards, which might be fun for some people?

I'm glad you had fun with Dead Drop. I'm busy at the mo putting together ideas for an updated version, adding scoring and 'lives' to the gameplay, along with a few other tweaks. I'm not sure whether to offer it as an update or a new game though... if the game playability changes more than a little, I wouldn't want people to upgrade, then not like the new style and be unable to return to the previous version... will have to ponder that question!

Glad you liked the ad-lessness. I'll be following the same format with all the games and puzzles I'm hoping to make.

Once again, thanks for the feedback. You're a star.

GSAnimator

Like it

kobayaashi

Why, thank you!