Hi everyone! I'm really excited to be sharing this with you all. [size=+2]DATA WING[/size] DATA WING is a neon, racing adventure through an 80s fever-dream, featuring a fully fleshed-out story, hyper-competitive racing and an amazing soundtrack from world-class producers. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel [size=+2]More about the game...[/size] DATA WING features two-touch racing controls which are extremely accessible but with plenty of room for mastery. (yes, there's leaderboards) I'm wanting both casual gamers and hardcore competitive racers to enjoy the experience. Set inside a futuristic computer, the player is initially tasked with data delivery tasks. But over time the story begins to unfurl, challenging the player's assumptions and raising a number of thought-provoking questions. The game has a strong emphasis on the story and is an entirely hand-crafted experience, falling somewhere between 1 and 3+ hours play. I'm really hoping the story will be good enough to warrant the spoiler tag. Oh! And the soundtrack is a bonanza of awesome vaporwave! All the producers are super lovely people who we're keen to be involved! I'm planning to release in the coming weeks. [size=+2]More about me...[/size] I'm a game developer with 15-year's experience. I co-founded Halfbrick and have since had my fingers in a lot of pies - but always with DATA WING on the backburner. This is a solo, passion project. I really wanted to make a game that reminded me of games I played growing up. Especially the feeling you get when the game would opens up to reveal Spoiler the inverted castle for 256% completion! Sorry... I'll shut up now. [size=+2]More about the beta...[/size] So! The game is very nearly complete! (Apart from a few sound effects I still need to add. ) But I really don't want this exploding on launch - I can't test everything myself! If you can help out, I'm really interested in help with: *Any major bugs or issues that affect you and your obscure device. iOS or Android *Anything that seems super broken or overlooked by me (and could easily make the experience better for others) *Any super frustrating levels. *Any typos... If you can help me out, please jump on board here - DATA WING Beta Sign-Up - and I'll hook you up ASAP. Please discuss issues here in this thread. There's a mechanism in the game to report bugs directly, but I'd rather everyone has visibility on the same issues. Oh! And I'll do my best to credit everyone who offers meaningful feedback / finds bugs. [size=+2]Thanks![/size] Thanks for your help, everyone! Cheers dan
Oh hell yes. The music is so rad. Also, once I realized the wall boosting gameplay element my jaw dropped a bit. Super nice work!!!!!!!!!!
Oh right! Good point, coolpepper, I hadn't made any mention of the wall-boosting mechanic. I was inspired by an old Halfbrick racing game prototype (that eventually turned into Halfbrick Aero Racer) that had a similar dynamic that I always really loved but it never saw a release on a platform with leaderboards.
Thanks for the Beta Testing invite. Initial Feedback on v1.0 (0.4) ---------------------------------------- Overall Impression. I love the atmosphere and style. The music’s good and the in-game comments made me chuckle. I would recommend this game to others. 1. ICON - Default icon displaying. 2. ICON LABEL - shows as “DATA…” 3. TITLE SCREEN - Icons / button are too close together. My finger fits across all three. Most of the title screen is blank, so there’s room to space them out. 4. SETTINGS: - 4.1 Tapping Disable Screen FX causes screen to disappear / reappear. 4.2 It’s not immediately obvious which color represents on / off. The two buttons colours for this are also very similar hues. 4.3 BENCHMARK - There’s no feedback after the rendering benchmark is done. Could either advise results or at least confirm it completed successfully. 5. ACHIEVEMENTS - It showed some progress on “Good Thrusting!” before I had played a game. Perhaps it’s heard of my reputation! 6. TUTORIAL - Says to “Follow the signal” and “Let me reiterate - now, follow the signal”… but should say “Find the source of the signal” or “Find the beacon.” Following the signal would mean moving away from the yellow square. 7. SOUND LEVELS - Personally, I didn’t like the sound levels changing i.e.: I set the volume at my preferred level at the start, but the music seemed to turn up when the race starts. There’s no in-game music volume setting. 8. WALL BOOSTING - Love this mechanism. Especially when the boost seems to burn the wall. 9. WALL TYPES - haven’t been explained. Looks like red walls don’t boost. Not sure what the zig-zag coloured track does yet - perhaps affects gravity. Haven’t played enough yet. 10. NO BACK BUTTON - I chose Wave Lair (Endurance), but instead of pressing BEGIN, I looked for a back button to change my mind and choose another map option. Doesn’t appear to be a back button, other than starting that track, then using pause menu. 11. RETURNING TO EARLIER LEVELS - I returned back to Patterns (Circuit). The objective I completed earlier is now showing as incomplete. 12. VEHICLE TRAILS - In one of my races I noticed that I had fumbled around in circles, while the AI DataWings flew in nice straight lines. It felt like there was an opportunity to display a picture of the optimum path, compared to the players path as a picture; mocking the player. 13. GAME CRASHES - None. I have to work now, but will definitely provide further feedback.
Awesome feedback, Red1. Cheers! Everything you've raised is either totally valid and has never occurred to me or totally valid and aligns with others' feedback. Which is great. And that achievement bug sounds super strange... hmm.
I can't complete with Red1's feedback...but let me say that this game is fantastic!! No bugs or issues yet, but this is going to be a hit, especially in the TA community. Love the music, the controls are great and I'm slowly getting better (the game eases you in at just the right pace)
Thanks, vectorarchitekt and raravan! Really appreciate you taking a look. And super glad the game didn't explode on y'all! And raravan, you're probably the first person I don't know personally to actually finish the game.
I know I'm a bit late but this game is awesome! My only issue was with "follow the signal" not really making sense (you have to go the opposite direction of the signal.) It would be great if it showed somewhere what music track is currently playing. Then vaporwave enthusiasts like me could go listen to more of the same artist. (BTW, I'm a longtime lurker on TA but have never posted before)
More feedback: - Version 1.0 (0.4) 1. RESTARTING - I was interrupted, so I pressed pause. Then, decided to restart, but the RESTART option is only on the gameplay screen. Suggest RESTART is also added to pause menu. 2. CRASHES - Still none. Ideas for possible enhancement: 3. SHOW FINISHING POSITION - If the goal is to come 1st, but you don't make it, the message says "Insufficient." Would be good to also state what position you did achieve, so you know if you improved. Eg: 3rd. 4. COUNTDOWN - Intermittent beeps in the final seconds of meeting a time-based goal would be good, like a countdown. Adds tension and also a warning to hurry. 5. STARTING LINE - I can imagine a robotic starting voice, saying "Go!" or "Initiate". 6. LEVEL COMPLETED - Once a level is completed, the triangle could boost right off the side of the screen, as if returning to the map, rather than stopping. The 'Unforgiven' level is quite unforgiving! I'll keep trying!
I finished the game! I think there's a bug in the leaderboards for Corsair and Fracture: the #1 time is the LONGEST time, not the shortest! Also I don't have the Collector achievement; wish there was some indication on the level select of which files I'm missing. Finally, I have to disagree about adding beeping or robotic voices to the game. That would distract from the music IMO. Thanks for the great game, can't wait for the release!
Hi SDF3-7! Thanks for the feedback! I've already changed the "follow the signal" stuff - so you can look forward to that not being confusing anymore. As for the song names, that's an interesting idea... I might be able to do that. Also - speaking of the music - in the credits there's a link to the whole soundtrack on spotify. It's not quite what you're asking for but you'll definitely be able to track down more from each artist. (That's also how I got onto vaporwave. There's heaps of good stuff on there!) Thanks again!
Oh man I'm bad at forums - sorry ya'll, didn't notice we were on a second page! Red1 - thanks for those suggestions. The restarting and countdown ones are particularly thought-provoking... And "Unforgiven"... haha yeah - those levels are more experimental and I'm really hoping they're challenging but rewarding not just super frustrating. I guess lmk if they hit the mark for you. SDF3-7 - Glad you finished it! You're absolutely right about those leaderboards; their order is reversed compared to the rest. As the timer counts down, they show how much time you have in reserve on completion. That's as designed but perhaps too unclear...
That spotify link is helpful, thanks! And I do think the leaderboards should be clarified in some way. Maybe change the titles of the leaderboards, for example "Fracture (Kill Timer)". I still want to know what levels I'm missing files from so I can get the achievement! Does the game indicate this in some way?
Ok cool. Duly noted. There isn't any hint for the file locations, no. But they're generally not well hidden. If there are any levels you haven't played, that's probably where they're hiding.
I didnt realise a new version was out for a couple of days. The unforgiven level has been made much easier, so I got past it straight away! Title screen buttons are much better. And the background looks great. Very polished. The buttons in settings are now clearly on or off. They look good. A back button has been added to the screen after a level is chosen - but it goes back to the title screen. Suggest it goes back to the map instead. Haven't restarted to test the tutorial changes. Still no crashes. And finished the game
Thanks for checking out the new version and for the guiding feedback, Red1. Glad you finished it and didn't have any crashes / obvious bugs. This is really strange - I didn't implement any changes here. Please let me know if there's any way to reproduce this. Cheers, dan
Thanks for the offer, Pipipitchu! I would really like to explore localisation after launch. The game is only in English currently and I'd love the opportunity to share it more widely...
