Avian Gamers Network

Starting on Monday the 4th I gave myself two weeks to complete and release a flash game. It didn't have to be a greatest game in the world, just a finished game. I'm nearing the end now, so I thought perhaps I'd see if anyone wanted to give it a test and perhaps give some feedback before I wrapped it up.

http://oscan.net/index.php?cmd=page&p=p ... e&linkId=6

I played 15-20 minutes...

Pretty entertaining... though the game require some brains...
Also it seems there are some of the games which are impossible to finish, like you get fuor pieces of the first four types but only three of the fifth type...

Unless ofcourse you have to be very specific in how you play the game...

Anyway I managed to play play all three difficulties and I liked it...

If I would have to say something I would say that the game interface could use a slight tweaking... king moving the "New Game" and "Restart" button to the top left instead of the middle left...

And when you "finish" a game (that is, as stated before you lack one piece to finish the level) there should be a little pop-up saying "No more moves" or something like that...

All in all... pretty good work. 7,5/10.

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1st Feb 2008

Obo,

Love it. For a puzzle game I give it a solid 9 out of 10.

This is one I would love playing on a regular basis.

Question,

The Tetris inspired game you were working on in Metaplace, is there any chance we will see that somewhere? I really liked the look of it and was interested in playing that.

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

The game is basically a modified Spider Solitaire, so it is possible that some games can simply not be won, although since you can deal in any order from the stacks there is more room to win.
There can't really be an explicit end game state, as there are situations where there could be an infinite set of moves (moving back and forth between two similar moves) but with no way to win the game. It is up to the player to decide when to concede.

The Tetris game wasn't so much 'inspired' but actually was Tetris, just with a different name, so I won't be doing anything with that.

I thought you were working on a MultiPlayer, Stadium themed version.

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

Cool solitaire game.
Too much mobility allowed shifting pieces around forming cleaner stacks.
Should not be able to make a move and undo it.

Was fun learning how to play

_________________
Deak
SWTOR - Spicerunner Legacy - Smuggler - RETIRED
Rift - Decipher - Paragon - RETIRED | WAR - Frenzyof Energy - Shaman - RETIRED
WoW - Fire Mage - RETIRED | SWG - Weaponsmith - RETIRED
MMOGGLER™ for online gamers

I like how I can play it on the forum and don’t need to go elsewhere.

I did not know the rules, but figured it out as I went. It seemed hard, but I kept trying. Just when I was out of moves I discovered the falling pieces, then I discovered that they pop when in a big enough stack. I kept at it and actually won (easy mode).

Well I've wasted away several hours, yesterday and today, playing this. It's addictive and I love it! Only criticism is that hard is too easy!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

I'm actually having trouble winning, only played about 10 times though.

Even if I open all the ? blocks the pieces left arn't the correct ones to finish nice stacks...unless I'm missing some part of the stacking options.

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The Cord
Occasional Caretaker of the Horde Maelstrom Guild
Ex-Section 3 Director

Two of the main usability issues I've had from first time players is not being able to figure out the order and more importantly not realising there are extra pieces that need to be dealt on to the board (from the top left of the screen). And evidently nobody reads the rules ! So I'm going to try and make those a bit more obvious.

As for gameplay itself, I'm going to be looking at the idea of limiting the amount to out-of-sequence 'red' moves to five per game.

I'm obviously terribly abnormal in that reading the rules was the very first thing I did!
Perhaps a great big "RTBM" at the top?!
I think limiting it to five might be a bit too much, particularly on the hard level, but I'd be interested to try it out and see.

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

ok, nevermind...once I noticed the "dealt" in pieces...I was able to finally win! Was fairly easy on Medium, just had to juggle the pieces around enough.

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The Cord
Occasional Caretaker of the Horde Maelstrom Guild
Ex-Section 3 Director

any way to perhaps have the game notify the player to deal pieces in one it becomes obvious they are stuck? Or even at the start of the game have Deal more pieces <---------- pointing to the deal pieces on the top in the middle of the board, and have it disappear once people try that option?

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Ryric Krael
Former Vice President AGN
Former Director, Section 6
Former Head of Department of the Treasury
-------
Ask not what your PA can do for you, but what you can do for your PA
"Gone Section Five"

I've been considering options for a message to display at the start of the first game to point at the to-be-dealt pieces to make it more obvious. But for the moment I've made that area a bit more highlighted.

I've called the 'red' moves Bonus Moves. You get five at the start of the game and an extra one for each stack completed.

Kay played it once more.... after I read the rules...

BTW Obo... when I started at school to become a SysAdmin the first thing the teachers told us was that the users/clients would usually be idiots who needs to be told how to do what... I would presume the same goes for game developers...

Anyway I suddenly found the game very easy once I figured that I should click top left for more pieces. Even on hard the game is very simple... 9 out of ten you can get lost...

I'll raise my earlier score to a solid 8/10.
Pros:
A very addicting game.
Original approach to the spider/solitare genre.

Cons:
Too easy.
Lack of intuitive interface.

Suggestion to the difficulties:
The number of lanes could also be an aspect of difficulties. I.e. 6 for Easy, 5 for Medium, 4 for Hard
Added with the increasing number of different colors the game could become more challenging.

I would like to avoid comming with suggestion for the interface since I am not too skilled in that area.

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1st Feb 2008

My scores always end up with about the same. I think the scoring might need to be adjusted a little bit. A game where I don't move ANY pieces to a red area vs a game where I move a lot to red areas only seem to produce about a 40 point difference once I've won the game.

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

I now have it up on Kongregate, feel free to go and give it a 5-star rating!

The game is well made, it's just frustratingly easy to get yourself into a position where you can't win or do anything. You could try just a big points dock instead of the red moves?

_________________
65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

You should have put in the instructions on Kongregate how to read the instructions!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

Guess what link I got from my dad, who is on the other side of the world, the other day...
A link to kongregate with this game...

He likes it. So does all my co-workers who are above the age of 35...

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1st Feb 2008

Ha! That's great.

It was finally approved for distribution by Mochi yesterday, so it is popping up all over the place now.

I should say so, I just did a quick search for "Pompetaire" on google. 432 results!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

New game, new ugly yet playable prototype.

[edit]
http://oscan.net/index.php?cmd=page&p=Trinhex

May just be my slow brain but the timer goes way too fast.

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

A fun and entertaining game. I like this more than the other. But as X2 said it. The timer is somewhat too fast. I can't follow it either and my best position is level 5 or 6.

Slow down the timer, make bonusses is you "blow"/"crack" more than one center and you'll have a great game.

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1st Feb 2008

Completed level five just as the timer ran out - game ended but allowed me to contunue the puzzle

This is just like the game that was on Metaplace with the squares but this is more intricate.

Also - its too easy to grab two pieces to flip (conversely too hard to only grab one) with the fast pace of the game.

My ₤0.02

_________________
Deak
SWTOR - Spicerunner Legacy - Smuggler - RETIRED
Rift - Decipher - Paragon - RETIRED | WAR - Frenzyof Energy - Shaman - RETIRED
WoW - Fire Mage - RETIRED | SWG - Weaponsmith - RETIRED
MMOGGLER™ for online gamers

Can I buy the rights for this game?
I discovered that I had only reached level four, so when Deak wrote five I just threw away half an hour just getting used to the color patterns...

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1st Feb 2008

Holy!
Level 7 has six colors

Very Addicting game

_________________
Deak
SWTOR - Spicerunner Legacy - Smuggler - RETIRED
Rift - Decipher - Paragon - RETIRED | WAR - Frenzyof Energy - Shaman - RETIRED
WoW - Fire Mage - RETIRED | SWG - Weaponsmith - RETIRED
MMOGGLER™ for online gamers

Loved it.

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

The game is indeed mostly Wheelwright form metaplace, designed by Raph based on a concept by Will Wright.

The timer was set to 15 seconds, although I thought I had it on 20, but I can get to over level 25 on both so I didn't really notice .
Once you finished level 5 it should drop back to two colours, but there will also then be unmoveable pieces. So every five levels you cycle from 2 to 6 colours, but more and more unmoveables get added. (so if you were on level 7 there should have only been 3 colours).
What I will likely be doing it to start the timer at 25 seconds and then shave a bit off every five levels.

I have various tweaks to be doing on the mouse highlighting and selecting.

This is close to how the final game will look.

Typical Obo response...

Thanks to that I reached level 9...

_________________
1st Feb 2008

Well I still can't get past level two. Could you do an extra, extra slow version?!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

got to level seven and it already cleared 5 "wheels" for me, but it locked and wouldn't allow me to go to the next level, or complete any wheels on my own.



So I played again and got to level 9 as an f u to the game.

Still loving it Obo. So, NOW what's next?

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

X2, there hadn't been any changes when you played again. It now starts at 25 seconds and the gets shorter by two seconds every five levels.

Slightly tweaking the random placement so that it doesn't make a match before you do anything is one of the last major issues to fix. Then along with a few other little odds and ends to tidy up it will be a lot of testing over the weekend before putting it in front of sponsors next week.

Made it to level 20, fun game.

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~Ravage™
~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
~The problem with facts, is that sometimes they don't support your opinion.

And another...

http://oscan.net/blockdown.swf

Well, that's a very cool game :) quite well polished too !
Takes a bit to get accustomed to see the actual 2x2 blocks separation though.

Is the music note at the bottom left supposed to mean there's a kind of "music" ? Because I didn't get any.

Anyway, good work !

_________________
Flyoc,
Farm with attitude.

I'm doing to audio now (or at least trying to!), which includes finding music. I'm sure it will be as tortuous a process as last time (I don't really like the music I ended up with for Trinhex).

The last one seemed a bit more manageable to me than the earlier ones, got to Level 9 and it seemed the right sort of difficulty. If you want to post more games, it might be nice to have separate threads so they don't all load up at once, sort of makes this page weird for my computer.

_________________
65 min: Fastest Accepted Member in Avian History (as far as I'm aware)
ARCHITECH (Peace to GG)

Use noscript ! http://noscript.net/
And all your problems are gone...

EDIT : fixed. Thanks Obo :)

_________________
Flyoc,
Farm with attitude.