Snowball Touch

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by arta, Mar 20, 2009.

  1. arta

    arta Well-Known Member

    Feb 14, 2009
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    See for yourself.
     
  2. Big Albie

    Big Albie Well-Known Member

    Feb 12, 2009
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    I kind of think it looks pretty cool, and while it uses maze which is similar to Edge, I don't think it's an Edge ripoff. In fact, it has more elements similar to Sokoban and Robo.
     
  3. Oliver

    Oliver Well-Known Member

    I cannot see any similarities between this and Edge.
     
  4. foolishwolf

    foolishwolf Member

    Mar 11, 2009
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    Similar, very similar but some of the gameplay elements aren't the same. If you could roll the snowball-guy over blocks then yeah it'd be pretty obvious it's a rip-off.

    Perhaps Edge was an... inspiration?
     
  5. Fletch

    Fletch Well-Known Member

    Jan 14, 2009
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    That actually looks pretty fun :) i might pick this up if it releases at a reasonable price

    its not really an edge rip off imo, but i never played the full version of that game
     
  6. That actually looks rather enjoyable. Didn't much remind me of edge except for the fact that it's an isometric maze you roll around in -- but the same can be said for a lot of games.
     
  7. rik555

    rik555 Well-Known Member

    Mar 18, 2009
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    This game looks awesome! I can't wait for it to come out! When is it coming out? ps it's nothing like Edge!
     
  8. HouseTreeRobot

    HouseTreeRobot Well-Known Member

    Nov 18, 2008
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    when there are 1000's of games it's not going to be uncommon to see games that are similar in visual style, map style and control.

    You never know, they have could have started this way before edge. Or maybe it was similar, edge came out, and they've used some of the bits of edge that work really well (say, holding down finger to continue movement...)

    There were tons of isometric cube based games before edge :)
     
  9. Fletch

    Fletch Well-Known Member

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    #9 Fletch, Mar 20, 2009
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2009
    I looked on the devs website, and it says he started the game nearly a year ago, before the app store even opened, but ran into various hindrances that greatly slowed production...I'm guessing that is long before edge development began

    For those interested, the website is buzzabit.com
     
  10. spiffyone

    spiffyone Well-Known Member

    Dec 7, 2008
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    Edge rip off?

    No.

    And, FYI...even Edge itself is influenced by earlier games, quite heavily at that. It was never exactly "new" or "innovative", just very well done.
     
  11. BrettArchibald

    BrettArchibald Well-Known Member

    Jul 17, 2008
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    Absolutely nothing like Edge whatsoever. But it does look it could be an awesome game when it's released! Nice find. :)
     
  12. aaronsullivan

    aaronsullivan Well-Known Member

    Hi, I'm the developer of Snowball Touch. :)

    The game as it stands is a direct "rip-off" of Snowball, a game I made for uDevGames 2004.

    That was meant to be a 3D game derivative of games like Adventures of Lolo on the DS. Because of time constraints a whole bunch of stuff I had planned didn't make it in, so it was a LOT closer to something like a 3D sokoban with a couple of small twists involving the nature of the snowball. (I also chose to make it to double as a tech experiment for an isometric rpg that I never made.)

    I'm in a bit of agony as my time to develop has been greatly constrained over the last several months and this game was getting so close to completion. I am working on it though and God willing it will get done within the next few months.

    Edge (which is pretty cool) was one of those games that gave me a sinking feeling in my gut when it was released. I was originally planning to release this game along the initial waves of releases. You can see my comments despairing a bit over another similar puzzle iPhone game which is much closer to this one in some ways.

    Anyway, it is what it is, and I'm excited to get it out there. Now, I'm going to go back and read this thread a bit more closely. Be right back.
     
  13. Big Albie

    Big Albie Well-Known Member

    Feb 12, 2009
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    Welcome to forum! From the thread, I'm sure you can tell everyone is excited based on what we've seen so far. I for one don't think this is an Edge ripoff at all. Like I said, I think this game has more in common with sokoban and Robo because of the stronger puzzler component.
     
  14. No Hero

    No Hero Well-Known Member

    Oct 20, 2008
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    Yea, not that similar to Edge
     
  15. aaronsullivan

    aaronsullivan Well-Known Member

    #15 aaronsullivan, Mar 21, 2009
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2009
    I think Edge is pretty cool. Let me give an idea about the differences.

    As one poster pointed out, the ability to roll up a single cube wall is not in the snowball's repertoire but from my brief experience with Edge, the feel of the games is very different.

    Edge is more of an action-oriented puzzler. Very quickly, timing becomes more important than strategy/problem solving. That's a great thrill and can be frustrating, but that's what it is supposed to be.

    Snowball reserves tight timing stages for some of the later optional stuff as an extra challenge for the hardcore players. At least that's the intention at this time. The challenge in Snowball is more problem solving and it can get quite complex.

    To differentiate from another similar puzzle game, Bobby Carrot, I'll say that Snowball likes to use less types of objects with multiple uses rather than many items that each do only one thing. I'm not knocking Bobby Carrot, btw. I imagine that people who are fans of these types of games would enjoy them all. There's hardly any overlap.

    My mind likes the 3D puzzles and the stuff that looks simple, but isn't. I like discovery and nuance when I play my games and I try to put that in this game as well. Testing will tell me how much I need to show people how to play, but I love to let the player explore and try things out until they can discover a solution. It gives them a chance to "own it" and give that much more immersion.

    Just rambling a bit now.

    I just want to say that I'm excited to see my game discovered on the Touch Arcade forum as the site is my haunt for all iPhone game info. As far as the forum goes, though, I must admit I haven't done much but lurk around before today. Thanks to BrettArchibald and Fletch for pointing it out while visiting my blog post on the game.

    Go ahead and talk to me about price and what you might expect from a game like this. How many stages, what features you'd expect. I'll listen and respond on here as much as possible. Influence me. :D
     
  16. Fletch

    Fletch Well-Known Member

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    glad to see you made it here!

    everything iv'e seen from the game looks great, i really like the puzzle elements implemented so far, and the focus on strategy rather than speed like edge. That said, a timed mode would make a nice addition once the player gets a handle for the game i would think.

    as for number of levels and price, they really are dependent on one another...more levels = higher price and vice versa :) how many do you have planned so far?
     
  17. Rad

    Rad Well-Known Member

    Feb 23, 2009
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    The Game looks Great, what will the introductory price be?
     
  18. Fletch

    Fletch Well-Known Member

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    Did you read the devs posts? He hasn't decided on a price, but is open to input if you have any.
     
  19. aaronsullivan

    aaronsullivan Well-Known Member

    Yes, I'll be keeping track of time for each stage and time overall. On top of that I plan to keep track of actions taken (how many moves did it take you) for each stage.

    As far as price and stages go... some rough ideas might be to have about 25 per section if I do little inexpensive sections. So, one plot device would give about 25. That's a really rough figure and would be balanced out higher or lower based on the difficulty of the stages involved.

    For instance, if there are 3 or 4 really time consuming stages, there might be less. Doubt I could get away with that marketing-wise though. lol. Probably would have to pad that with some smaller simpler stages to make the numbers look even.

    As it is, I have 3 "story" sections planned that could be divided into the smaller games or 1 game and 2 "add-ons" once iPhone OS 3.0 comes out. The stories are very basic premises though, don't expect something with too much depth. I love story and I do some screenwriting on the side, but it's just not in the cards for this game at this time.

    The cutscene engine is what I'm working on right now. Made an editor, it's in the game, but it's all pretty rudimentary; layered images that can move around. :)

    As far as price questions go: I had lofty goals of a big $8 game at the start of this project, but after a year, I just want the thing to get out there and get me enough money to scale back on my "real paying job" so that I can work on games/movies a far greater percentage of my time. I'm also very aware of the iPhone App market, so it's going to be on the much lower pricing end and in smaller parts.

    I'm not going specific in order to reserve my right to simply price it exactly where it I think it should be at the time of release. It's still a couple months out AT BEST. :D

    Frankly: At this time, I can't quite offer all the features and polish I really want to, anyway, as it's down to just me working on it with limited time. With a little success that would change dramatically for future projects.
     
  20. darwiniandude

    darwiniandude Well-Known Member

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    Great game: I will buy this, as long as the price is even remotely fair. Well done. I have all the similar games, and I think this adds something unique. It is nothing like Edge at all IMO. (Love edge though)

    I'd suggest that as in app purchasing is coming in version 3, unless you're planning to bring to market prior, that you consider making the game cheap ($1.99 for example) with a small level selection, maybe 12 or 25 whatver you see fit, and have $1.99 or $0.99 level packs, or make the game $3.99 with $1.99 packs and so on. Up to you really, but the in app purchasing looks like it will let devs release a cheap game everyone can pick up, and buy the levels for to keep playing if they really get into it. Also lets you improve the game with free updates, but add content that you'll get paid for. Another option is a user level editor. I know in the C64 games, the ones with the editors always kept my attention longest :)
     

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