iPad Bloo Kid - Retro Platformer ($0.99) +lite

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by nikhsterboi, Aug 3, 2011.

  1. ninjackid

    ninjackid Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2010
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    Darn! :/ Well, as soon as there's an update that fixes that, I'll be sure to buy this!! :D
     
  2. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    Hehe, glad to hear this =)
     
  3. Snooptalian

    Snooptalian Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2009
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    Gonna go ahead and give this one another go seeing others are enjoying it. Any plans to add Game Center for achievements and leaderboards?
     
  4. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    I was torn over this game due to reviews being at loggerheads with each other, and I feel equally torn after playing the Lite. I think I know what the developer was after with these bit sized levels, just wish there was more polish.

    First thing that irks me is actually the platforming, which is servicable but not the tightest. Jumping is slightly floaty, midair handling is good and enemy bouncing is decent, but you walk at a snail's pace so gameplay alternates between slowly making your way to a particular level setup/ enemy, quickly dispatching it, then slowly traversing to another area to repeat. I suspect this overall rhythm came about during development of the star that appears in the final seconds of each level, where you rely less on overall speed and more on positioning to grab it before it disappears. I actually love the idea of the mad dash for star grabs at the end, but feel like the overall gameplay feels awkward because of it. A little more balance would have taken care of this.

    (It's also a little clunky how stars suddenly appear at the end, especially for new gamers who aren't keyed into the level design as the dev himself.)

    Also, combine the slow speed, seemingly inflated waves of enemies and the fact that levels as a whole aren't really being that big, and it makes each stage seem to take longer take longer than it needs to be. Bit sized platformers like Forget Me Not or League of Evil, regardless of whether they scroll or not, make you feel like you've covered more ground, or at least more challenges in less time.

    There's other little lack of polish unexpectedly lurking around. Sometimes when you get paused by a notification message and you resume the game, the character keeps going in the last direction you were walking, leading to sudden deaths. The ground platform looks like bottomless pits, and if you fall in unintended areas (like in the middle of those tall pole platforms) you're stuck and have to restart the level.

    .......... so you could say I wasn't blown away from the demo. I think the platforming sucks in comparison to current iOS standards. So why am I still recommending people take a look at the full version (that I haven't bought yet as of writing) after what I truly consider to be a middling demo? Cause I just found this video on youtube. Take a look:



    Now that's what I'm talking about: platforming with all sorts of wall traps and enemy level setups. All we need are some levers and trapdoors. And the few who know me at this site know I've been pining away for years for a Donkey Kong Gameboy type game, and this certainly has potential. Yes I wish there were more clever ways of making you run through the level repeatedly than throwing 20 enemies at you (like say a tough midboss enemy that slowly follows you around in a circle until you open a trapdoor, for example), and the platforming handling had more finesse, but I dare say you'll experience a greater range of platforming quirks than League of Evil or Roboto.

    So yeah, to the developer, play some top tier iOS platformers and get up to speed with what you've exceeded at and what you need to catch up with. And fellow TA posters, I can't guarantee you'll keep this in your platformer folder with the other classics, but I believe the developer has something here with a little potential than speedrun platformers. I think that's worth a dollar. Spend it and give it a shot. :)
     
  5. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    @Snooptalian
    Yes, gamecenter and openfeint will come with a future update

    @arta
    Thanks for your detailed post!

    I mostly agree with your statements. First of all, I must admit that I did not have THAT many testers for the game. And as the developer, you cannot judge your own game after you played it a while, as you already pointed out. I consider asking you guys here for some help for my next title, BEFORE I release it to the appstore :)
    The "unpause and character keeps moving" issue is also a bug that was not found since there was not that much testing. I'll try to fix it in the next update.

    The movement might be somewhat slow. It does not directly come from the "last star" feature. I could have also limited the time that the star is active. It is simply the result of tweaking and testing, until I thought it feels well. Might have tweaked not long enough though :p

    I also consider making world 2 available for the demo as well, so users might get a better understanding of what the full game will be. I will change this with the next update that will contain worlds 6 + 7.

    What games do you consider "current iOS standards"? I have not played that much platformers on iOS. And the few I tried were not that good imo. League of Evil is quite good, escpecially the controls, BUT, I think the game has some flaws:

    First of all, the levels might be challenging, but not fun. It seemed to me like the levels where somewhat randomly generated and not very well-thought-out. I have not finished the full game yet, so maybe there is the same effect like with my game.
    The graphics are retro, but they are a bit too simple, escpacially the tiles and backgrounds.
    Plus, I do not like the music. Its retro and its chip-tune-like, but it does not have melody at all. I cannot remember a single tune from the game, even though I played it a lot!

    Finally I can say that Bloo Kid has indeed some downsides. But instead of trying to fiddle around and trying things, I better take all advice and put it in my next game that I already started today... "Turrican", "Bio Menace" or "Abuse"-Fans, stay tuned. The next game will be a "run and gun" game. Tell me if you like to see a mockup...
     
  6. syntheticvoid

    syntheticvoid Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2010
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    Musician & factory worker.
    a[V-O-I-D]
    awesome!!! Run n gun games seem to have been left out on the iOS... we only have a few... =oP

    Orange Pixel (devs of Meganoid) are about to release one that looks AMAZING! But really, it's kind of an untapped genre for iDevice users... I'd love to see a mockup, and hear more about it!
     
  7. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    Beta testing is always a good idea, and Toucharcade has a lot of good beta testers in the Upcoming Games forum.

    Cool.

    I don't think limiting the active time for stars matter if you don't change the speed for walking as well and test it.

    2 worlds? No. I'm not a big advocate of giving away too much of your game for free, especially if the first half of the demo is noted for turning people off anyway. For a game with 6-7 levels, I'd rather pick 5 to 8 stages for the demo: an even set from worlds 1 and 2, and a sneak peak at a stage world 3.

    The current standards for virtual control platformers are: League of Evil, Robot Wants Kitty, Elemental Rage, Mos Speedrun, Roboto (after the update) and Soosiz. Soosiz and Elemental Rage have jumping physics that are closest to the floatiness in your game, while League of Evil, Robot Wants Kitty and Mos Speedrun have the great retro platformer tag.

    As for the level design, League of Evil as well as Mos Speedrun are designed for speed runs, and in that it's awesome. The first couple times you play through it to find the one branching path to the briefcase and the main path for the goal, but after that you're meant to memorize the layout and blow past the level setups and enemy traps as fast as possible. And it's loved because it's a joy controlling a fairly quick character with full control over him. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that you're aiming for a different style of level design and this might be why you don't dig it.

    Everything else I simply can't agree with. The game is tense and fun, the level design is clean for speedrun navigation and the music is very memorable for me.

    Sure no prob.
     
  8. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    Good to know.

    Yeah thats what I meant. One thing depends on the other, so it's tweakable.

    Hey thats a good idea. Some levels from multiple worlds. Sometimes, things can be so easy...

    Thanks for naming all the games, I am getting them right now to do some "research" :)

    You are right, I did not aim for speed-runs in any way, even though I considered it at first. I don't think it fits in my next game, since it will more be about exploring the level and finding all secrets. But I'll experiment a bit.
     
  9. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    Just wanted to say that I think I have found the bug that prevents the game from running on the 2nd gen iPod hardware. Gonna test it over the weekend and then submit an update ASAP.
     
  10. ninjackid

    ninjackid Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2010
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    HECK YEAH!!!!!

    This is the best thing I've read ALL DAY!!! :D

    (well, besides MC 2 going to .99 cents... :p )
     
  11. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    #51 arta, Aug 26, 2011
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2011
    I gotta say I really like the music in this game, especially from the 2nd world. There's a lot of memorable melody to it rather than random blips and bloops. Level design is much better as well. Shame about that bad first impression.

    Here's a review I found on YouTube.

     
  12. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    Hey man, thank you very much for that very nice review! I knew it was just a matter of time until someone wonders how to pronounce "Eiswuxe", since it is a german word :D

    I am really happy that you enjoy the music. I was already a bit disappointed since NOBODY seems to care about music in mobile games. But for me, music in video-games is as important as everything else, if not even more. And this counts for mobile games, too. So I'm glad that you point it out in your review.

    The thing with the controls really depends on the device. It's very difficult on android since there are so many different models and I don't have every single one to test on.

    I will take all your criticism into account for the next game. Now that I have played Bloo Kid after some days of abstinence, I also feel that it might be just a bit too slow.

    So thanks again :)
     
  13. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    Whoa hold up I think I might have goofed. I'm not the guy in the video, I just posted it as something TA posters might be interested in. His review is similar to mine though.
     
  14. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    Silly me. I was so excited to watch the video that I missed that one out. Then I'll copy and paste the text and mail it to the guy in the video instead ;)
     
  15. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    I just edited it in so no one else would get confused. :)

    Anyway, any luck making a Lite? How are sales going? Website promotions and reviews?
     
  16. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    @arta
    Sales dropped from 30-50 a day (for some few days) to 0-5 a day. Website promotions and reviews are very scarce. The few that found the game by coincidence wrote about it, but most sites that I emailed along with a promocode did not even respond.
    If anyone knows anybody who reviews and writes about iPhone games, please give me a hint ;)

    @ninjackid
    An update that runs on iPod Touch 2nd gen was submitted and is currently waitin for approval! I will tell you ASAP when it is available.
     
  17. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    I think the game might have done better if promotion got out a little bit before it came out. Hardly anybody knew about this game coming out on iOS and that's because they stumbled upon the Android version.

    Well, just to cover all the sites, send your trailer to TheGameTrail and Appspy on youtube, and send review builds to Appspy, TheGameTrail, Appvee, Pocketgamer.co.uk, Toucharcade, Touchgen, SlideToPlay, 148apps, TheAppera, Touchaholics, gamezebo, modojo, etc. Also if you know anyone who posts at Neogaf, ask then to post about the game trailer in the iPhone thread.
    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=434562&page=121

    Best I can do for now. It's a little harder to drum up support after a game's release if word of mouth doesn't take. You'll have to get your name out there. Also, you might consider showing your game as well as demo reel to a couple publishers like Chillingo. :)
     
  18. MisterEd

    MisterEd Well-Known Member

    Aug 25, 2010
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    #58 MisterEd, Aug 31, 2011
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2011
    Not sure if this has been mentioned...

    This game appears, at a glance, to be inspired by a 1990s Neo Geo game called Blues Journey - Raguy.

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue's_Journey

    Raguy was solid and fun platformer with great music and extra touches.

    If Bloo Kid is based on it, that could make for a promising iOS title.

    EDIT: After watching the Vid here, this looks more like Raguy meets Snow Bros., another old arcade gem.
     
  19. Eiswuxe

    Eiswuxe Member

    May 6, 2011
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    @arta
    Thanks for all the hints! I have already written to some of the sites you mentioned, but not all of them. I will give it a try.
    You are right, it was not a good idea to release the android version first, then promote android, then release iOS :)

    I will start a thread over at TIGsource for my new game once I got the first video impression done, so people will know about the game before its release.

    @MisterEd
    The game looks in fact a bit like Blue's Journey (which I know) and even has a similar name. But most of the inspiration came from Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars. Plus, I collected some screenshots from WonderBoy, SkyBlazer, Liquid Kids, PC gengin, Kirby .... the list goes on and on =)
     
  20. ninjackid

    ninjackid Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2010
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    Any news on the update that makes this compatible with 2nd gens??

    :D
     

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