Buzz Attack need feedback on my game!

[RebelBinary]

So here is what I've been struggling to make the past year. I'm almost done. I have been doing all the graphics, sound effects and code, and in most cases I'm learning to do things I've never done before. I would love to get some feedback on this current work in progress. I probably won't be adding any new features unless they take a day or so as I'm desperate to release this and stop spending more time. But be honest and tell me what you think especially if it's to do with something that doesn't require a lot of work to fix or add.

You play an old man enjoying a nice day in the park until mutant flies come out of the trash can to attack you. Move and swat the flies as long as you can. Hit trees for apples to regenerate health, pick up the coins the flies drop to buy weapons and items from your friendly 'vendor' in the park.
4 difficulty types, 5 types of flies, 5 items and weapons
Game should be out by end of Summer 2012 for iOS (fingers crossed)

The arms are rag doll physics objects, which is why they move funny, that is not going to change even though ppl keep telling me the arms aren't realistic.

The music is going to change, and the game mode (blitz) I'm showing is just a pure swarm mode, the other modes are more slower paced, but I wanted to show as much of the game in a short time span. Also this is a recording of the simulator on my desktop using screenflow, it's 720 p, but I think I can still improve the video quality. I will probably add a more lengthy video going into more depth on the items and gameplay.

Update new trailer and game info on upcoming games:

GAME INFO AND TRAILER on TA upcoming games thread


Youtube: 1080p

Low bandwidth Version | Pop Up




Old video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZnft...feature=relmfu

[Bigmac1910]

I think you are asking for feedback way too late, since you don't want to make any changes, there is not much one can suggest. You seem to look more for a review, but without playing the game it's hard to judge.

And yeah, while the arm movement has it's charm, it also make it look amateurish, so I personally would change that.

Anyway, hope it works out.

[RebelBinary]

Yah I guess I should have posted stuff months ago. Guess I jumped on the show and tell bandwagon late. I do have testflight, so if anyone is interested in checking the current version of the game out, http://tflig.ht/MEtOxt

Yes the arm movement is cause I'm tweening a rag doll physics arm, the arm will go to the exact spot you tap on the screen. It used to look a lot worse and I spent a lot of time trying to make it look better, adding joint limits makes the arm fall apart because it needs to be free jointed to move in a both directions. I personally find it funny, but I totally see how ppl find it amateurish. It's a tiny bit like QWOP.

I started out with using a physics rag doll arm to smack flies around and found it hilarious so I made a game out of it. I don't know to many games that do that, in fact off the top of my head I can't think of anything similar, but I'm sure there are a few. Anyone care to suggest a game that is similar?

[RevolvingDoor]

It sounds like you put in a lot of work into this already. My honest advice would be to keep at it. There's probably no reason for you not to spend another month or two working on the game at your leisure. Rushing a game out the door never ends well, and one of the biggest benefits to being indie is that you don't have a lot of pressure to release something until you feel it's a terrific product.

Having said that, I really like a lot of what you have going on! The rag doll arm movements are hilarious to me. Sometimes they are unintentionally graceful, and sometimes they are completely awkward, and somehow they just seem to make the old man a more charming character. The apple tree mechanic and the shady "arms" dealer are both great.

However, I fear that the game may lack replay value. After you've played through a few times and made a decent stab at a high score, there's probably not much to do. What I would consider is adding a whole lot more weapons. Get crazy with them (Buzzsaw? Flaming World-of-Warcraft style warhammer? Rocket launcher?) This would add to the silly charm of the game and give players another reason to keep hitting the play button... You would effectively introduce an element of discovery, and high score would no longer be the only incentive.

[RebelBinary]

Originally Posted by RevolvingDoor

However, I fear that the game may lack replay value. After you've played through a few times and made a decent stab at a high score, there's probably not much to do. What I would consider is adding a whole lot more weapons. Get crazy with them (Buzzsaw? Flaming World-of-Warcraft style warhammer? Rocket launcher?) This would add to the silly charm of the game and give players another reason to keep hitting the play button... You would effectively introduce an element of discovery, and high score would no longer be the only incentive.

I agree

Oh man how I would love to add more weapons, and more things into the game. It took some time just to get what I have in, I just feel like it's going to take so much longer to do more. I already have the fly swatter, bug repellent (12 seconds of not having flies land on you), bug spray(gas the flies), hyper juice(faster swatting speed) and a an electric fly swatter called the shocker. I wanted to add a flame thrower and a vacuum cleaner and have characters stroll into the park that you had to help to get a reward.

There are easy/normal/hard difficulty with a wave limit (which you can effectively beat) and a big boss fly at the end, and the blitz is for that instant swarm, short gameplay mode. I didn't want to add levels, because the combat although dynamic is just repetitive as it is regardless of location. There are so many casual games on the app store like jet pack joy ride, fruit ninja that are pretty repetitive high score games on rails, I just wanted to make something simliar with a bit more things to do, like walking around and interacting with a small environment.

This is my first iOS game and it's been 8 months already of learning and experimenting by making this game (it used to be you flew the fly around using the accelerometer to annoy the guy) so I just want to get it out and learn from this experience to move on to the next. If it made money, I would certainly add more things to it in a heartbeat! Although I'm still adding small features, for instance the fly shadows on the ground where added 3 days ago.

Also there the items have to unlocked in the regular game mode after reaching a certain wave and I have a bunch of achievements planned to help with the replay value. The waves of flies are randomly generated on changing list of probability for fly types so it's never quite the same

[adajos12]

Honestly I really like what you've done. I love the original concept you've got here and think the graphics and physics are great. The sound effects were fun and I really liked the satisfying "thwack" and slapping noises.

It's whimsical and cute. I agree with RevolvingDoor's comment about replay value. The more "new" things you get, or even some kinds of achievements for percentage of flies killed, etc might keep people playing longer.

As an iOS app developer myself, my big advice to you is don't release until you plan out your marketing strategy. You should have a twitter account with plenty of followers and a Facebook page with plenty of likes. It's great that you have a video already, you need to promote that heavily on YouTube. Those first two days you will get quite a few installs but after day 3 they will tail off dramatically.

If you're like most indie developers with a limited budget it can be quite difficult to get your app discovered amongst the other 700K apps out there. Good luck, I think what you've got is pretty good--but marketing is what will make or break you at this point.

[OniMitch]

I think the game has a lot of charm.

Personally I do find the rag doll arms a bit weird. The problem for me is they kind of break the immersion of the game, since they really stand out (in a wrong way). BUT, that doesn't necessarily mean I would recommend removing them either. Perhaps if the arms were a little more "floaty" (technical term ), i.e the physics forces aren't quite as strong?


I admire you for doing something different so stick with it!


Perhaps also, I would probably focus on making the play sessions shorter.