Before I call my designs "finished" I'm looking to hear some personal opinions / critical critiques on if the game looks professional enough to be considered something that would be a Top 10 Paid App. The game is well into development and will be done soon but if anyone has a small opinion even about what they personally think, I'd love to hear it all. What do you think of the level designs? What do you think of the robot character (B-Bot)? What do you think of the icon? What do you think of the user created level select? Bring on the trolls! Thank you all!!!
Looks fine, like the level design too, kind of like cut the rope. Robot is fine, and the app icon is good as well. Good luck it looks like it could be good!
looks fine, polished enough the thing is the when you see screenshots is that it looks like a (polished) cut the rope clone. Obviously this isnt the case from the gameplay (or is just basically cut the rope with invisible ropes?) but I think if it would be better if you make the obstacles quite different, or at least look different. the robot is ok, not super cute if that's what you're going for. Also I don't know what exactly the purpose of the robot is, other than to have a character on screen. so the aim of the game is to get all the coins by manipulating the magnets so the key passes over them and to the lock? I really like the idea of the user created gameplay levels.
Thank you! The purpose of the robot is that he's trapped in his crappy job and you have to help him escape. A not too subtle parallel to myself and my day job... The aim is to push and pull the key with magnets to the keyhole which opens the door to let the robot (B-Bot) escape. There's many other types of objects and traps that I'm not showing here such as turrets and rotating tethers, etc. Just showing off the basic art at the moment though maybe should have shown more. I'm psyched about the users levels myself. Glad it peaked your interest. Actually, if you or any one else here wants to be on the next beta release to try out that level editor, send me a message.
It's polished but I doubt it'll ever make top 10. I am a puzzle addict. I am basically your target audience, and I'm not interested at all in purchasing this game. One of the main things is because it looks like a cut the rope clone, why would a lesser quality clone of cut the rope get into the charts, when cut the rope already exists and did it better? And secondly, these puzzle games directed at the casual crowd should look completely self explainable. When I look at a cut the rope level I immediately know what everything is and what everything does. With this game I look at the key and the little buttons like the plus sign, and think what the hell does that do? It doesn't looks straight forward to me, and the plus button doesn't even make sense. (why is a plus sign a magnet?) Also, some of the graphics just look friggin ms PowerPoint buttons/clipart. I am not attracted to this game at all, and usually I jizz in my pants at the thought of a new polished puzzle game. (though I'm a sucker for innovation, and maybe that's really why I'm not attracted to it) I also am not a fan of the color scheme. Its not vibrant enough, the graphics and buttons don't seem to tie in well, it seems like bits and pieces were taken from all over the web. It looks like an arts and crafts project. There's many other CTR clones with way more polish, there was that catch the egg game that looked just like CTR, and save yammi, etc.. When you can buy an array of games that has the same concept and looks better for 99c I don't see any reason to buy this game, that's all. That's just my personal opinion though, all games, even game salad games, seem to make some sales, no matter what.. So I'm not saying it won't sell, I'm just saying I personally wouldn't be interested, as a avid puzzle fan, though some new people to iOS would probably like it.. When I first got my iPhone/iPad my standards were much lower.. But now after many years I've grown to crave the creme of the crop in the AppStore, only enjoying games that are unique in some way and too of the notch polish. Polish isn't just meaning that every graphic and sprite is polished on it's own..like all your groahics separately look relatively polished.l but all together it kinda doesn't.. It just doesn't look fluent to me, but then again I'm used to chillingo quality polish, and that's probably an unrealistic achievement for smaller dev teams/indies, though not really since many of my favorite games game from indies and had upmost quality of graphics, world of goo, grooh, basically any games in my signature. So a dev shouldn't really let polish/fluent graphics slide just because they're a small team, others have done it. Grooh is the most beautiful, unique game I've ever seen, and was featured by apple for 3 weeks in a row, and grooh never got to the top 10 so you can't really basevanything on anything. The game really means nothing. Even if it's polished to the nines, and has awesome unique gameplay, without correct marketing you'll probably fail, but even that is a success in a way because atleast they made a top quality unique game.. That's a very hard feat in the AppStore.. It doesn't happen much. After taking a second look, my main gripes are: The plus symbol button The minus symbol button The color of the robots face is too bright and doesn't match nicely with the theme (too much blue) The theme is too blue and plain The black blocks are ugly and too pointed The buttons with words (like "latest") look very amateur looks like a random ms word document that a 12 year old created about her cats. The icon is too cluttered, it looks like a utily app rather than a game Why is the key green? Is there any reason for this? It just looks random The whole theme consists of blue and green, there isn't enough variety, too many shades of blue is just off putting, looks like you are purposely only using greens and blues to target a male audience when the puzzle cafoegory is dominated by female players. (68% female) So don't be afraid to add some more color. Other than that the game actually would look pretty good. The plus and minus symbols are the worse, it flutters the game and looks absolutely confusing. And for that reason, I wouldn't download it.
I don't know Snozberry... Seems like a pretty harsh comment overall. The + and - represent the positive and negative charge of a magnet, one being pull and the other being push. Haven't had anyone else ask about why they'd be there... Anyway, I think I agree with your comment about the font and I'm going to change it to something sans-serif for the menus. And I am not purposely using only blue and green for guys. Maybe cause I'm a guy I started designing it that way...? I don't think you are my core audience. I'm looking for the people that aren't interested in playing something more casual than those games you like. The only reason I'd play Grooh is because you mentioned it but judging by it's art style and preview video, it looks confusing and just not really as polished as you said it was... Anyway, I apperciate your rant. You made some good points in there somewhere and any criticism is based on my art inspiring you to say it. So while I disagree with you on some points, I can't just say "screw you" because you don't know me, it's just your opinion (clipart, really?) and it will probably be many people's initial reaction. So thanks for your honesty.
I think it certainly looks very good. Top 10 is a seriously hard nut to crack. If you get in some good promo and if the gameplay is good, I certainly wish you the best of luck with it. It is very difficult to judge possible reaction on the screenshots alone. But keep us updated on your progress and release and we will certainly try and give some feedback.
I'll start off by saying I'm probably not your target audience (more of an RPG/strategy guy), although I have played Cut the Rope. There's something about the art/presentation that I can't really put my finger on, but I think it's basically what Snoz said (in the quote I picked above). The graphics don't really 'flow' together as a whole. I might use the word 'sterile'. There's not really a cohesive visual style, in my opinion. The third image for me is a bit jarring, where I'd say things 'clash' the most. In the fourth image, the text/tabs at the bottom is a bit cluttered/confusing visually. I would also agree (in a way that I can't really describe) that the buttons do sort of look like the buttons you'd find on a stock art website. I don't know, there's just a certain look that I'm VERY familiar with -- sort of a 3D/glowing/shiny look -- that you see all the time. Again, for most people it probably won't be an issue, but I think that's why Snoz pointed it out. I don't think most players will care but hey, you asked for some feedback Something about the font really bothers me as well, but I couldn't really say what, so I think it's good that your changing it. I think it's sort of like when people use comic sans or papyrus -- something about it just screams "amateur" to me. Anyway, these things probably don't have any actual bearing on whether your app will make it in the top 10, but just some feedback based on my initial impressions. I like to pretend I have a good eye for design, but I'm really just a programmer, so take my comments with a grain of salt
