Play testers wanted for a light hearted 2.5D exploration / puzzler game.

Hi!

I'm working on a light hearted 2.5D platformer / puzzler game geared for mobile. I have the first demo level ready to go and I'm interested in getting some more people looking at it and offering constructive criticism.

The story line is simple, a girl goes off to do a simple errand, but then her imagination takes off and she gets lost in weird places, and has to find her way through.

There's a web player version available here...

http://floatingcoder.no-ip.org

Please give it a play, and let me know what you think, what I need to change or make better, or if I should start over with a whole new concept...

Thanks!
Bryan

 

I think you are doing good so far just one thing i wish there was a animation for when you go though doors

 

I played through the entire demo scene and it was enjoyable. I liked the exploring and figuring out how to open a door. But definitely add more obstacles and puzzles to it and add a lot of exploring. I like to go off path a lot . Also I agree with logang, I wish there was animation when you go through doors.

Overall very nice and enjoyable game I think you have coming.

 

Thanks for playing, and mostly for the feedback!

Animation on the door, will do. I wondered if no animation would be noticed vs. waiting for the animation while playing. I'll have to keep it short, but I'll add a quick something.

Rhithik, as to going off the path and exploring more, I totally agree, can I bug you for a few more thoughts on that? (Or anyone else )

To you, is it weird to have a bunch of places you can go, that don't lead to anywhere? IE would you find it frustrating to work your way through some place just to find out it was for nothing?

Would you like more ways to get to one end point that you need to get to, so you can go either way, or explore both?

I've thought about adding some non-essential pickups in the game like coins or gems or something. I suppose these could be "rewards" for exploring non-essential places on the map, and then at least you get something for your trouble. I counter of how many are on the map vs. how many you've found might encourage exploration if someone cares. I've been hesitant to add that as I don't yet have a reason to find them, other then to feel good about finding them all. Is that enough reason?

Thanks again for the feedback, I appreciate it!

 

When going off path I would assume it wouldn't lead anywhere essential but having some kind of "reward" like you said but something non-essential that wouldn't hurt players that don't explore. Or even lead to some kind of "jump puzzle" that could lead to a reward as well. Something like that.

Also I think it would be cool to have more than 1 way to go to reach the end point. I think that would strike curiosity in players and encourage exploring.

 

UPDATED!

Per feedback given, I've update the game to add animations to the doors, and sounds as well.

Also added more "off path" areas and added 3 optional collectible gems in the level to encourage exploration of these new areas. I need to add more instructions about this in the game, but if you read this, it should be clear enough

I also noticed from my analytics that many people stopped playing at the same point. I can only assume they got stuck, so I reworked that area to make it a little clearer (I hope.)

Please give it a try and let me know what you think! All feedback welcome.

http://floatingcoder.no-ip.org

Thanks!

 

Bug: You can push the turtles out of the water, making it impossible to cross over

Quite fun to play.

 

WAA! Thanks for the report! I must of moved them around in my last edits, cause I could do that before! (Or your just a stronger little girl then I am )

 

Thanks to all that have played so far. It's been interesting to see the analytics, as well as the feedback. I have changed up a few more things based on feedback here and elsewhere.

Interestingly I saw I lost 60% of the players in one spot per the analytics, but no comments at all about that spot in particular. Did they get stuck? Or just all got bored at the same place? I'm not sure... hard to tell from analytics, so I reworked that as well to see what happens, if more people can get through (or want to).

 

I was trying to stack the cubes to get to the door and it was pretty hard to get the 3rd one on top.
Then when I almost did it (jumped up and touched the wall) the boxes bugged out and flew who knows where.
Othr than that I like it.

 

Thanks very much for the feedback! I'll have to give that a try and see if I can reproduce the issue. There's no where you need to stack 3 crates, so I haven't tried that myself. That's why I love random testers, they do the unexpected!

From your description I assume you where trying to stack here? If not, it doesn't really matter...

 

I found this to be fun but since I was playing on my laptop I don't think it was quite as fun as it would be on a mobile device. I got "stuck" at a point when I pushed a box in the water and fell in also. I got teleported to an area that was blocked by two doors. There may have been a way to solve this but with very limited exploring area it became rather tedious. I am all for a challenging game, but I think it should be balanced with an experience(difficulty/immersion = 1, lol or something to that effect, I'm no expert by any means) unless your intended demographic is primarily puzzle-game fans.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I think you found that puzzle hard, because it was likely impossible! I think I know where you where and that's just a bug on my part. If you loose the box then die, you get stuck. The other players I've seen personally haven't taken the box to the water, so I didn't think about the bad possibilities. Good thing your more creative... I'll work on a fix for that.

The puzzles shouldn't be too hard, this is really a game for casual, non-hardcore gamers on mobile. I still have some major control issues to work through on mobile.