4581

Knizia’s Kingdoms is $.99. My Knizia game quest continues.

4582

So, I actually kinda enjoyed 100 Rogues (although I played as the magic user). However, I had to put down the game for a month because of a crashing bug that happened while fighting Satan, which they finally fixed in the last update letting me finish the game.

I tried replaying as a Crusader last week, and both times the game crashed midway through the first level. And this time I realized just how clunky the controls were.

So screw that. Rogue games are frustrating enough without being crashy.

4583

Trying to be non-spoilerish here…

I didn’t get You’re the Detective, so I can’t speak to that.

The Kai episode was a little silly - I guess we’re in for the conclusion this week. It was a good change of pace, though.

The last volume – I have to say, I was shocked at several of the events! I couldn’t believe where they took it; pretty hardcore for a silly iPhone detective game. I was beginning to lose interest, however, and that brought me back into it, so maybe that’s the effect they wanted.

Overall, I’ve spent more time playing Cause of Death this year than any other iPhone game.

4584

Are these Cause of Death games basically Phoenix Wright? If not, what do they play like?

4585

Cave has put all their games on sale this week though that still means they are generally pricey. I picked up Bug Panic though at .99 and I do find it to be quite excellent. Its a dual stick shooter but with a bit of Missile Command and Panzer Dragoon mixed in. Basically you can lock on and charge for bigger explosions that cause chains.

4586

This is the game I judge people’s taste by. If they pick this as a game people should get, I ignore the rest of their suggestions. For that I find it worth its price.

4587

It’s probably closest to a visual novel, with the gameplay largely consisting of reading text overlaid on pictures, and then picking a choice between two or three alternatives. There is a correct decision and that decision will earn you Detective Points. Get a high enough score on each chapter, and you get a bit more content (the “true ending”, probably, but I’ve only done a couple chapters so far). Some of the decisions are on timers, especially during “action sequences”. I would describe it as being barely a game, but the writing’s decent and the idea of having an episodic story that progresses on a weekly basis with cliffhangers and such (though you get a full story with your original $.99 purchase) is something I’m fairly sure hasn’t been done in the medium before.

4588

It’s enjoyable for a couple of runs, in a mindless fashion. But yeah… it’s not really good, and certainly doesn’t compare to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Nothing on the iPhone does, honestly. You could try the various Nethack and Rogue ports, though.

4589

World of Goo coming out for iPhone/iTouch on 14 April.

Supposed to be 99 cents for the first 24 hours.

Never played this game but keep hearing/reading good things about it…

4590

It’s just a bonus scene, though usually one that yields some more information about the backstory or about what a secondary character is up to. The story will pretty much always have the same ending, unless you get yourself killed.

4591

iNetHack seems mostly okay, though it’s really too much of a pain to play on the iPod. That and the fact that NetHack is probably my least favourite well-known roguelike means I haven’t spent much time with it.

The free version of Rogue isn’t worth the money you pay for it, and is saddled with an awful gesture system that seems to willfully misinterpret my actions. Bafflingly but hilariously there’s an easily accessed menu at the bottom of the screen that will let you look up the gesture you want to perform - but won’t just let you press to perform it.

My favourite iPod roguelike is probably Rogue Touch, despite the name sounding like the title of a movie either about the actions of a bad uncle, or perhaps telling the story of a policeman called Jack Touch, who really prefers to handle cases in a fashion determined by himself and unsupported by any officially sanctioned manual of policing. I’ve played two games only, down to about level 14 in one, so it’s early days but I like it. The interface is up to the job, Rogue being a lot simpler than NetHack, and the game plays quickly. On the other hand, it’s not free.

4592

Hey people, so my game “The Fish Dies in the End” has been released today. I already talked a little bit about it here so please take a look for more details if you’re interested.

This is my first game and I’m really happy with being able to finally release it, here’s hoping that everything goes well :). As I said in my original post, I’m well aware that our community is geared towards more hardcore games, but if any of you like the concept and decide to try it, it would be much appreciated. I’d also love to hear any feedback, whether you have played the game or not.

Links:
iTunes
Trailer
Official Website

4593

I think people underestimate the capacity of “hardcore” gamers to play simple, even casual games, as long as there’s good interaction there. Yeah we have a reputation for being hardcore and PC-centric old school grognards here (some of it even deserved), but there are tons of fans of Angry Birds, and Tiny Wings, and Uno on XBLA, and all sorts of casual stuff.

I’ma give it a try. Maybe I’ll write it up for next week’s front page “Weekly iCross” post.

4594

I love World of Goo but I’m not sure if I want one on the iPhone.

4595

this made me chuckle

GRIZZLED SERGEANT: YOU’RE OFF THE CASE, TOUCH!!!

JACK TOUCH: OH REALLY? <BEGINS TOUCHING GRIZZLED SERGEANT>

GRIZZLED SERGEANT: GGN! CURSE YOUR WISE FINGERS!

4596

Congrats on your release! I just tried your game for a few minutes and these are my quick impressions:

  • art style and initial presentation are excellent. Suggests a relaxing and “nice” game. (contrary to the title)
  • animation and feedback are lacking: things like little bubbles that suggest we are underwater, the fish turning or animating a bit more when changing directions (the eye is a nice touch but barely visible), some hit / death reactions.
  • collisions boxes are large and very unforgiving.

The one button control in particular is rather annoying to use:

  • Unresponsive when you need it (due to inertia).
  • Too much quick tapping on the screen to keep a straight line, which is hard and imprecise to do while holding the phone.
4597

Hey Jason, thanks a lot for the post. Let me know when you try the game! It would be fantastic to have a mention on your post.

@TheJare: Thanks for playing the game and for your impressions. Much appreciated!

  • I agree with you that the animation for the fish could be a little more visible. I’ll try to make it a little clearer on future versions.
  • Maybe I didn’t understand what exactly you’re suggesting, but there are actually lots of bubbles in the game that keep floating while you’re playing
  • I made lots of adjustments to the collision boxes during the development after feedback from players. In the released game, I actually “cheat” on the collision boxes, making them a little smaller than most obstacles/enemies to give more room to the player. Since you’re having problems, I’ll take a look at these boxes once again and see if I can make any improvements.
  • I’m also always trying to improve the controls, do you have any suggestions of how it would be better for you?
4598

Congrats on getting a game out!

My main impression from a quick play is that it’s lacking in depth. I’m not expecting a huge amount of depth from a $1 game, but there needs to be enough to keep me going for a little while at least.

Let me compare it to another $1, single-action game: Tiny Wings. Tiny Wings, like The Fish Dies in the End, has just one action: Touch to descend. (TFDieE is touch to ascend, but close enough.) The hook is that where and how you descend is critical. You’re need to look at the terrain scrolling by and try to hit it just right to get a perfect slide. When you do it right, it feels slick and awesome. When you do it wrong, you stutter to a halt. The better you get at the game, the more awesome you feel.

In contrast, from what I saw of TFDieE, you’re just trying to dodge fish. Either you dodge the fish or you don’t; there’s no real middle ground. The way you dodge the fish is simple–you just swim up or sink down so that you’re out of the way. There’s challenge to it, but it’s a very binary sort of challenge. I quickly felt that I’d exhausted the possibilities of the control scheme. Maybe the game throws in some more interesting bits later on, but I wasn’t really inspired to push far enough in to find out.

Another thing Tiny Wings gets very right is its advancement system. It offers up a set of increasingly difficult challenges to try to overcome to increase your score multiplier. These challenges don’t involve new content or different levels; instead, they require you to approach the existing content in a different way. Some are rewards for good play: get this many perfect slides or progress this far. Others are entertaining variations: play the game upside-down or advance without getting perfect slides.

The advancement system provides inducement to keep going. It also demonstrates the depth in Tiny Wings’s control scheme–the objectives mostly involve demonstrating mastery of the controls above and beyond simple progression in the game.

Again, congratulations on completing a game and getting it out there!

4599

The bubbles thing refers to possibly adding little bubbles (not the big ones that exist currently) coming out of the fish, making them feel a bit more alive. Also, the ones coming out of you would create a sort of trail behind you showing that you are advancing. Maybe some minuscule pieces of debris floating. Those things might make the medium more liquid and floaty.

  • The most problematic part of the collision boxes is probably the fish’s tail. The fish is long horizontally, but only moves vertically, so its collision box is actually pretty large in motion. Removing the tail from the collision box would probably help a lot with that problem and also with the frustration of “having passed” an obstacle only to be killed when it hits your puny tail.

  • Regarding the controls, that’s a tough one. Consider that the main character doesn’t interact with anything except gravity, so as Damien said, there’s very little to work with unless there’s a fundamental change in the gameplay; I can imagine things like platforms you can bounce off of, accelerators, powerups, etc. But one simpler approach you can try is to look for indirect interactions. For example, if the sharks always appear at your current height, then by moving around you are indirectly controlling where they show up. That kind of stuff can add surprising amounts of depth to the player actions.

4600

@TheJare: These are some really good suggestions. I especially like the collision boxes idea, I’ll see what I can do about it ASAP.

@Damien Neil: Thanks a lot for playing the game and also giving your impressions. As a huge Tiny Wings fan, I have to agree with you that the advancement system there is fantastic. I’ll keep you posted on the improvements I make to the game and I hope that it will be compelling enough for you after a future update!