Who said that teaching something new was easy?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by sebfer, Nov 18, 2013.

  1. sebfer

    sebfer Member

    Oct 12, 2013
    13
    0
    0
    Most of the time you'll find with presumptions and resistance to the change. Besides, sometimes you may be asking too much too fast.

    A bit of that happened in our latest game Ring Run Circus.

    In the game you move through a world of connected rings, the only control you have is a button: you keep it pressed and you run outside, you release it and you run inside. If you are running outside when you reach an intersection of ring, you will change to the other.

    [​IMG]

    To this mechanic we added another thing, if you get the right timing and start going outside near the intersection (close enough to reach the outside when you are over it) you get a speed boost.

    [​IMG]

    We knew it wasn't an intuitive mechanic, but we liked it a lot and wanted to give the chance to experiment something new to the players. If you get used to it and have the right timing, you'll see the character moves fast and smooth between rings.

    But.... that wasn't the end of the innovation, the level design moved from an arcade style to a skill based puzzle, where some of the levels are really challenging.

    We released the game at the beginning of October and while some enjoyed the old school challenging style of the game ("Ring Run Circus has an ingenious and well-executed concept and structure", 148apps) other gets frustrated by the mechanic ("Ring Run Circus has a steep learning curve and awkward controls" , DigitalSpy )

    ### Making the change ring mechanic less frustrating ###

    As I said, I think we asked too much for a general audience game. Now we are finishing an update, where the ring change doesn't requires so much precision.

    If the player tap the screen when the character is anywhere over the sectors where the rings overlaps, it will change to the other.
    Now it feels like a "jump" action.

    [​IMG]

    Let's see what happens
     
  2. Hobbsicle

    Hobbsicle Well-Known Member

    Feb 28, 2011
    216
    0
    16
    I picked up your game in the first week or so. I really enjoyed it and found it to be a neat concept. I think this new control scheme will be an improvement, though. Although I like the idea behind the initial setup, it was pretty demanding of my focus, and I consistently found myself haphazardly careening around the level because of a series of mistimed taps. I think the new controls will allow for more intuitive play, and should still keep the challenge while decreasing some of the frustration.

    I'd be curious to know how you guys have fared with sales thus far.
     
  3. sebfer

    sebfer Member

    Oct 12, 2013
    13
    0
    0
    Hi!
    thank you for playing our game and I'm glad you liked it.

    We are sending the update today to apple, so I hope it will be available the next week. I appreciate if you can try the changes and give us your feedback.

    We are also planning to release a free version for Mac.

    About the sales, we had a good start, but now the sales has drop to a few a day. I think one of the main reason is that the game play is not aligned with the aesthetic of the game.

    The game is not a casual one, you know it :), it's a bit old school and it demands lot of attention and skill, and also the last levels has some difficult puzzle. I think some of the audience for this may pass of it when the saw the nice and casual art.
    That besides that every day arrives tons of new games to the app store :)

    Best!
    Sebastián
     
  4. sebfer

    sebfer Member

    Oct 12, 2013
    13
    0
    0
    Just to let you know that the update “Frustration Relief” is waiting for review, and share this image:

    [​IMG]
     
  5. sebfer

    sebfer Member

    Oct 12, 2013
    13
    0
    0
    Well, the update is available: http://appstore.com/ringruncircus

    Frustration relief update:
    - improves ring switch mechanic; it's now easier to move around.
    - relaxed lever par times
    - sync games progress among all your devices through iCloud.

    I'll appreciate the feedback of those that downloaded the previous version.

    Best!
     

Share This Page