I come from a graphic design background (and I obviously have an interest in game design, that's why I'm here!), but I could definitely be a resource for you as far as graphic design and UI is concerned. Not to jump wildly into a collaboration, but I have no problem offering my critiques and suggestions on design for free. The problem is that I have no skills in animation or sound, sooo...there's that.
Wow! This game is so awesome. I love the new animations but I do miss the old death animation. Also, could be my devise but there was no sounds at all.
@Socks Thanks for the grammar and game development advice! And glad you got around to playing it.
@Adrenaline Thanks for the offer. I will keep it in mind if I end up re visiting development.
@8bitninja Thank you. As I made a re-write, somethings were taken out to get it finished. I wasn't sure if it was just a annoying time wait for players so I made it that the menu either has a King or Skull spending on results. And sound was turned off when I published it as I was testing. All it will take is an update to fix but for now It will stay like that.
Many Thanks for the support, the game got a few coverage in few sites but generated a total of 2 new downloads from them. Clearly its not a very appealing. Good lessons all around.
@Two.E said: @Socks Thanks for the grammar and game development advice! And glad you got around to playing it.
I really like the game ! Most games last for around a few minutes on my iPad, but the K&TD still gets played ! It's strangely simple, but strangely addictive.
Feedback:
One thing I'm not too keen on is if you accidentally hit the 'help' (tutorial) button, there is no way to get out of it, no cancel button, maybe the menu button should get you out of the tutorial, as it stands you have to click your way through the whole tutorial game to dismiss it.
I also find it odd that it has no sound at all.
Also I'd rather not have to choose - from a submenu - what the king is doing (move or spawn), maybe a tap on the king then tap on a square to spawn a new player, and a tap on the king and swipe to move the king ?
Also a lot of indie games don't seem to celebrate a win (or highlight a loss), the worst offenders in this department are those games where a player is pursuing a particular goal or avoiding a particular fate, but when they are - for example - caught by the enemy or they hit a wall they simply disappear or the game resets, no explosions, no crash animation, so sound effects, the game just resets . . . which is odd to me, given that - for example - you've spent the whole of the game avoiding the terrible fate of being caught by a giant bird, but when you are . . . . absolutely nothing happens . . . pro-games (for want of a better term) from big studios really go to town on these end game events, it helps define the shape of game play . . . when I first won on the K&TD it wasn't really clear to me that I had won, the game just flicked over to the menu, I love fast cycling, fast resting games (I hate having to go through a lot of clicks and waiting to start again), but I think you should have something happen with a win, even if it's as simple as the King glowing red (or whatever) for a second . . . this (to me) strange sudden end is made all the more disconnected by the fact that there is no sound.
Imagine at the end of Star Wars, after the big build up to destroying the Death Star, a single shot is fired into the bit that blows it up, and just at the moment where the shot hits what it's meant to hit, we cut to the credits, no explosions, no shot of celebrations, no victory loops from the X wing fighters, just cut to the credits . . . . in silence !
Hope that all makes sense.
Also . . . with strategy games I think people like to see what just happened, when you win sometimes you want to check the state of the board, so see how it all ended up, this is something I never liked about 2048, fantastic game, but as soon as you'd won (or lost) the board was whipped away from you, without ever getting to see a view of the end state, like winning a chess game, and rather than glancing over the state of the board at the end to take it all in, the pieces are whipped away into the box immediately.
Anyhow, otherwise it's a great little game, I really like it, I'd also love to see a bigger board one day, more squares, more pieces ! Perhaps even a second enemy piece like the archer !!
@Socks Thats very heart-warming to hear.
Overall the update seems to fix the gameplay issues while ignoring the things that people found useful in the original (Skip tutorial, sound etc). A big oversight on my part.
I agree, the menu button in the tutorial should take back to the menu. Its actually silly that it does not.
The thing with the sub menu for the king is that it is the most advanced piece. The sub-menu is there because it creates a clear instruction on what will happen. I can easily see things becoming confusing if you have to swipe to move the king but tap to move the other pieces. Perhaps an option to change the method will be a better solution.
A bigger board is the most requested thing from players. I don't really understand why, but it seems to be first thing players say. A bigger is easier enough to do. Then the request continue that a new Enemy piece should be added to add more difficult. The game becomes more complicated and is no longer a quick pick up and play game.
For now, there are many changes that could really improve the game. I will give it a few months before I make any other major changes. Much appreciated for taking the time to provide feedback
Following on from your edit and extended feedback.
The animation loss and win sequence from the originally was cut because it annoyed places for taking up their time. Loss caused frustration and wanted to begin again straight away. Therefore it was replaced by simple images, Skull for lose, Crown for Win.
The sound was the fault of a boolean being ticked to false instead of true that was un ticked. There wasn't a major effort here to make the sound compliment the game.
Great point about seeing the final result. Another easy solution by placing a pop up menu on top with transparency.
All feedback makes sense and is noted down. I just don't know when I have the time (or motivation) to go over it all. However an update will come in the distant future.
@Two.E said:
The thing with the sub menu for the king is that it is the most advanced piece. The sub-menu is there because it creates a clear instruction on what will happen. I can easily see things becoming confusing if you have to swipe to move the king but tap to move the other pieces.
All pieces should have the same move method, but the kind should also have a second control to spawn a new player . . . . anyhow, the submenu works well, but after a while I found myself wishing you could just bypass it somehow.
@Two.E said:
Perhaps an option to change the method will be a better solution.
Yes !
@Two.E said:
A bigger board is the most requested thing from players. I don't really understand why, but it seems to be first thing players say. A bigger is easier enough to do.
Maybe the King can generate new adjacent squares ?
@Two.E said:
Following on from your edit and extended feedback.
The animation loss and win sequence from the originally was cut because it annoyed places for taking up their time. Loss caused frustration and wanted to begin again straight away. Therefore it was replaced by simple images, Skull for lose, Crown for Win.
You can have both, the end state (win or lose) plays as normal, but clicking anywhere on the screen dismisses it for those who want to jump straight back in ?
@Two.E said:
All feedback makes sense and is noted down. I just don't know when I have the time (or motivation) to go over it all. However an update will come in the distant future.
Look forward to it, I hope you continue to develop it after a break (we all get bored and hate our own projects after looking at them for months on end) as the core game is great.
Comments
I come from a graphic design background (and I obviously have an interest in game design, that's why I'm here!), but I could definitely be a resource for you as far as graphic design and UI is concerned. Not to jump wildly into a collaboration, but I have no problem offering my critiques and suggestions on design for free. The problem is that I have no skills in animation or sound, sooo...there's that.
Wow! This game is so awesome. I love the new animations but I do miss the old death animation. Also, could be my devise but there was no sounds at all.
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Great game, like a modern minimalistic chess.
@Socks Thanks for the grammar and game development advice! And glad you got around to playing it.
@Adrenaline Thanks for the offer. I will keep it in mind if I end up re visiting development.
@8bitninja Thank you. As I made a re-write, somethings were taken out to get it finished. I wasn't sure if it was just a annoying time wait for players so I made it that the menu either has a King or Skull spending on results. And sound was turned off when I published it as I was testing. All it will take is an update to fix but for now It will stay like that.
Many Thanks for the support, the game got a few coverage in few sites but generated a total of 2 new downloads from them. Clearly its not a very appealing. Good lessons all around.
GSLearn.com | Templates | Free Demos | Udemy Course
I really like the game ! Most games last for around a few minutes on my iPad, but the K&TD still gets played ! It's strangely simple, but strangely addictive.
Feedback:
One thing I'm not too keen on is if you accidentally hit the 'help' (tutorial) button, there is no way to get out of it, no cancel button, maybe the menu button should get you out of the tutorial, as it stands you have to click your way through the whole tutorial game to dismiss it.
I also find it odd that it has no sound at all.
Also I'd rather not have to choose - from a submenu - what the king is doing (move or spawn), maybe a tap on the king then tap on a square to spawn a new player, and a tap on the king and swipe to move the king ?
Also a lot of indie games don't seem to celebrate a win (or highlight a loss), the worst offenders in this department are those games where a player is pursuing a particular goal or avoiding a particular fate, but when they are - for example - caught by the enemy or they hit a wall they simply disappear or the game resets, no explosions, no crash animation, so sound effects, the game just resets . . . which is odd to me, given that - for example - you've spent the whole of the game avoiding the terrible fate of being caught by a giant bird, but when you are . . . . absolutely nothing happens . . . pro-games (for want of a better term) from big studios really go to town on these end game events, it helps define the shape of game play . . . when I first won on the K&TD it wasn't really clear to me that I had won, the game just flicked over to the menu, I love fast cycling, fast resting games (I hate having to go through a lot of clicks and waiting to start again), but I think you should have something happen with a win, even if it's as simple as the King glowing red (or whatever) for a second . . . this (to me) strange sudden end is made all the more disconnected by the fact that there is no sound.
Imagine at the end of Star Wars, after the big build up to destroying the Death Star, a single shot is fired into the bit that blows it up, and just at the moment where the shot hits what it's meant to hit, we cut to the credits, no explosions, no shot of celebrations, no victory loops from the X wing fighters, just cut to the credits . . . . in silence !
Hope that all makes sense.
Also . . . with strategy games I think people like to see what just happened, when you win sometimes you want to check the state of the board, so see how it all ended up, this is something I never liked about 2048, fantastic game, but as soon as you'd won (or lost) the board was whipped away from you, without ever getting to see a view of the end state, like winning a chess game, and rather than glancing over the state of the board at the end to take it all in, the pieces are whipped away into the box immediately.
Anyhow, otherwise it's a great little game, I really like it, I'd also love to see a bigger board one day, more squares, more pieces ! Perhaps even a second enemy piece like the archer !!
@Socks Thats very heart-warming to hear.
Overall the update seems to fix the gameplay issues while ignoring the things that people found useful in the original (Skip tutorial, sound etc). A big oversight on my part.
I agree, the menu button in the tutorial should take back to the menu. Its actually silly that it does not.
The thing with the sub menu for the king is that it is the most advanced piece. The sub-menu is there because it creates a clear instruction on what will happen. I can easily see things becoming confusing if you have to swipe to move the king but tap to move the other pieces. Perhaps an option to change the method will be a better solution.
A bigger board is the most requested thing from players. I don't really understand why, but it seems to be first thing players say. A bigger is easier enough to do. Then the request continue that a new Enemy piece should be added to add more difficult. The game becomes more complicated and is no longer a quick pick up and play game.
For now, there are many changes that could really improve the game. I will give it a few months before I make any other major changes. Much appreciated for taking the time to provide feedback
Following on from your edit and extended feedback.
The animation loss and win sequence from the originally was cut because it annoyed places for taking up their time. Loss caused frustration and wanted to begin again straight away. Therefore it was replaced by simple images, Skull for lose, Crown for Win.
The sound was the fault of a boolean being ticked to false instead of true that was un ticked. There wasn't a major effort here to make the sound compliment the game.
Great point about seeing the final result. Another easy solution by placing a pop up menu on top with transparency.
All feedback makes sense and is noted down. I just don't know when I have the time (or motivation) to go over it all. However an update will come in the distant future.
Thanks again,
GSLearn.com | Templates | Free Demos | Udemy Course
All pieces should have the same move method, but the kind should also have a second control to spawn a new player . . . . anyhow, the submenu works well, but after a while I found myself wishing you could just bypass it somehow.
Yes !
Maybe the King can generate new adjacent squares ?
You can have both, the end state (win or lose) plays as normal, but clicking anywhere on the screen dismisses it for those who want to jump straight back in ?
Look forward to it, I hope you continue to develop it after a break (we all get bored and hate our own projects after looking at them for months on end) as the core game is great.