Here is a quick poll on something we are curious about in our new Starball game..... (we didn't start the main game thread, so we couldn't add the poll to that (thanks though Palfince for getting it going)). Main game thread here --> STARBALL by QuantumSquid For those that don't "YET" own the game, there is a power-up called the BALLBUSTER! that has a chance of spawning each time a star is collected. This clears the board of all hazards, resulting in fresh game board, and thus a higher starscore. We are wondering whether or not you guys think the BALLBUSTER! power-up does NOT spawn ENOUGH while playing, or if it spawns TOO MUCH during the coarse of a single game. We would love to hear all comments or suggestions for future update consideration. Thanks.
voted that i like it as it is but caveat is i haven't played insane or normal enough to be frustrated by the lack of the powerup.... I think it is just fine for the beginner set though....
im pretty sure this is in the wrong section but whatever i voted for that it needs to come more, not TOO much, just like add a couple of % to teh chances and im good
It all depends on one simple thing for me...do you plan in future updates to have popping balls be worth points or is it only a means to gain a little breathing room?
Voted that I like it the way it currently is. Although I have yet to really get serious with "Insane" difficulty. To me this power up is like that "rare drop" that gets your heart to skip a beat or two. Don't really depend on it at all, but every time I get it, its a feeling of "Yes!" I say keep it how it is.
Think it's perfect - I got that highscore of mine with only 1 ballbuster, if you change it to appear more, someone who gets it say 10 times is going to stand an easy chance of beating my online score.... don't like tweaks that mean people have a slight advantage of beating other scores.
Thanks for the feedback so far... please keep it coming. Right now, the Ballbuster! power-up has a 10% chance of showing up, but only when there are at least 6 hazards on the board (a little "Dev Tip" there). We feel that increasing the chance of a Ballbuster! will not really make the game any easier or more fun, it will just make the scores higher. We think getting the higher scores should be something that takes strategy and stamina (and a little luck).
Teleport? Game freezes and player is asked to tap a new location for the now stopped player ball. While I like the idea requiring the player to tap the screen would probably break some of the flow, so just an idea but not a great one.
Ghost? go thru balls without being hurt. Laser? set up a laser that spans the width of the board. It destroys any balls that touch it. Telekensis? Draw the stars closer to you. Rock hard (or something)? The balls cant hurt you but they still hit you and richochet off in diferent directions. This could add another layer to the gameplay. Balls coming from a non-linear pattern. Jump? jump up and fall into the place of your choosing by tilting while in air.
Don't own the game "YET" but what about a star multiplier power-up where the next star collected is worth x2, x3, etc.
Get it! amazingly addictive. If you look on the first one or two pages on the main thread it has some (long, indepth) previews from beta testers.
Some cool ideas here. My thoughts are that you don't really want to do anything that causes the player to have to touch the screen, any other control other than what you already do by tilting. It already has kind of a peaceful flow to playing, but still gets very hairy at times. I think having to touch the screen would mess with that dynamic. I really like the laser concept. Also the Jump one could be cool too, and could do it without having to touch the screen: When the player gets the powerup, they are somehow visibly "raised up" toward the camera, player has like 3 seconds to move around like normal (go through red balls), then will fall back down to the map where you selected.
Yeah! Neat ideas and, unlike my earlier suggestion, don't break the "no need to touch the screen" rule that any new power-ups really should follow in this game.
This is our thought as well... Currently, we are trying not to do anything with touching the screen as far as game play and power-ups go. Of course we never say "never" if an awesome idea comes along that may change that. BTW... We made it on to the Featured Hot New Games on the iPhone! Also, small Update has been submitted. Pretty cool!
