We recently released an iPhone game that you can check out on this thread. The basic concept is you control a puffer fish and navigate a coral reef. We're now finishing up the second level, which will allow players to navigate the underwater world of deep sea drilling and the Gulf Oil Spill (preview on our blog). Wondering if anyone would be into helping decide what we do next with this game? Do we add more environments? Do we add weapons? Do we add points? Do we add bosses? We were thinking maybe a contest would be fun to help guide our next phase of development... Thoughts?
i think a contest would be cool and maybe after the contest, add different types of puffer fishes that u can be. So you arent always the same puffer fish.
Though it doesn't really go with the name, you could add a mode where you play a balloon instead of a puffer fish, and you fly around in the air avoiding the needles and pigeons? I haven't played the game, so I don't know if that's how it would work, but there's a suggestion
Ha ha yes that does sound fun, though maybe a different game? Maybe call it "Kamikazi Pigeons v.s The Red Balloon"
Favorite type of contest? In our next update, coming super soon, we will release a new level "Gulf Spill" and in that level the puffer fish is covered with oil so looks a bit different... not exactly what you are talking about but something to look forward to What is your favorite type of contest?
I like contests that have you make something. Like create a character for a game, or create a funny scene involved with the main character (there should be a theme to it), and these creations get voted on for a giftcard. I don't like those retweet contests because it hardly requires any work so I hardly care if I get the code or not. But I guess you could include something to tweet to get word out of your game. Nice trailer by the way. It was really good, honestly. You could have the main character swim into some sort of fast stream thingy of water (like in Finding Nemo) and that could speed up the game play a lot.
Make something for an iPhone game contest Yeah that's a really fun idea, though I guess you'd have to be a designer to be able to enter... maybe we do a design contest for the next level? Maybe it's like a shipwreck and people can make the objects that were on board the ship and we all vote on say the top 10 coolest objects to put in the next level?? What do you think? Could you make something? Would you enter? For how big a reward? Do you find the game play too slow? We were considering adding a turbo button at one point so you could swim fast whenever you wanted too, and maybe you would have to refuel turbo 'gas' whenever you used it too much...
Here's my 5c: Add an alternate control method. Pinching is cute and works as a novelty, but considering the puffer inflates and deflates by clearly defined increments, is not as precise as tapping would be. Additionally, pinching is cumbersome for prolonged play sessions, and makes it almost impossible to play the game with one hand. Tap anywhere in the top half of the screen to inflate, bottom half to deflate would make good sense and I think would work well. Not saying get rid of pinch, just add another option.
It doesn't need to be for designers. I've seen and participated in many contests where you would make something in Paint or Photoshop, and I don't have any graphics design experience. It doesn't even need to look good. That's a good idea. Have the members design obstacles and make up their behaviors. A shipwreck is a good idea for a location, that way you can have treasure, cannons, cannon balls, skeletons, Johnny Depp, etc. Then make a poll so people can vote on your 10 favorite ideas. I would enter if I can think of anything. The gift card could be $10-$25, how ever much you're willing to spend. But I don't think this will generate many sales for you. If you're doing this just for fun, then go for it. If you're doing this to increase sales, I wouldn't recommend it. I only watched the trailer. I couldn't tell much from the trailer since I was unsure if the game actually went at that speed. I'll look into it again and if I think it's too slow or if I see any other improvements, I'll let you know.
Gameplay controls for side scrolling game ...yeah, the whole game concept was spawned by this idea that we could use the pinching to actually control the character and there is this interesting relationship between something you do normally on your phone (zoom pictures) and inflating a character. But in the end, we continue to get this feedback that the game needs alternate control methods. The one we like the best is using a slide control. For example, you slide you finger to the top of the screen the fish inflates and goes up, you slide your finger to the bottom of the screen, the fish deflates and goes down. This would be similar to a control option on Mr. Space except instead of making a guy run left right you'd be making the fish swim up/down. (If you're really curious, just turn Mr. Space to landscape view and you can see how nice it might work for Puff Puff!) What do you think of that approach?
Why not just tap to inflate? It'll be like the helicopter game, except when you inflate to rise, you'll become a bigger target. Works with one hand too.
Mhh.. wouldn't quite work if we wanted to keep the physics in place... We modeled game play on the physics of buoyancy so that the rate of ascent or descent depends on your inflation/deflation state in relation to how neutrally buoyant you are... the helicopter game and subsequent Super Turbo Action Pig take a different approach - which is fun and simple - but based more on gravity and a single upward force I guess.. basically in those games you are always falling unless you are powering upwards. We were aiming for an experience more like actual scuba diving, where although mastering the art of buoyancy is not easy it is very rewarding once you do get it In the next update of the game, which is being finished now, we've tightened the controls some the effect of which is that the fish feels more responsive... but still relies on the pinching... (I made it over 3,000 inches tonight so it is definitely making it easier to avoid objects while maintaining the unique buoyancy physics..). So whatever new control methods we add they would need to control the inflation of the puffer rather than the position, if that makes sense...
Don't add Bosses, I think the game is interesting and adding a boss would just make it un-unique. I might actually pick this beauty up tomorrow!
A slider might work too. Although, you'd still be missing the precision of tapping. At least it would be easier to play the game with one hand, and/or feel more comfortable. How much work is involved in adding another control method? If not a whole lot, why not add both? Let the player decide what suits them best.
New enemies: ROVs and Deep Sea Creatures Ha ha... ok ok no bosses! We were thinking we would add more enemies including: ROV (Remove operated vehicle - robo sub) with Chop Saw weapon ROV with Blow Torch weapon Deep sea creatures such as Vampire Squid, Fangtooth, Viperfish, Firefly Squid, Giant Squid...
What about hidden boArds , like possibly getting gobbled up by a whale , leaving you to navigate out of his belly , dealing with all the other things trapped in there
Hidden boards This is a really cool idea... opens up some neat possibilities. The team has been talking about it all morning It could be an entrance point to a whole new set of boards, first the whale's belly, then the deep recesses of the whales belly (darkness, glow in the dark enemies), then you could get shot out of the whale's blow hole above the surface of the ocean into the sky and the midst of a pirate ship battle!
