Sneak peek and play of my soon to be iPhone game

[Ian Price]

Here are some (oldish) screenies from my current game, planned for iPod Touch, iPhone, PC, Mac and handhelds.















This is totally unlike the typical sliding block games seen on iPhone, and is based on Split Personalities on the old 8Bit computers. The game even has the blessing of the original author, Ernest Peske (ErnieWare).

And here's the one level pc demo -
http://www.iprice.remakes.org/my_stuff/Puzzled.zip

The game is played entirely with the mouse (obviously will be touchscreen on iPhone).

I've still got to implement more bonus items, add more music and sfx. The current music is temporary. Maybe.

[EDIT]
I've deliberately not included any instructions in this WIP (there WILL be instructions in the full game) - I want the game to be as intuitive as possible (there's still a couple of things to implement to improve this, however), so feedback about this is required.

[monono]

Looks good Ian, but the mouse doesn´t work in the demo.

[Ian Price]

What do you mean mouse doesn't work? There should be a (temporary, will replace soon) cross cursor showing mouse position. Is that not visible? Does is not move? Can you not click on a menu item or in-game?

[XanthorXIII]

Ian,
Looks pretty cool. One thing I recommend for the instructions is maybe a simple single screen that gives an idea on how the game is played. Kinda like what Bejeweled or Hexic does when you start.

[Ian Price]

Of course I'll be providing instructions in the FULL game - I just wanted to see how YOU LOT got on without them! I always give instructions on how to play my games in-game (check out B'lox! and Guru Logic Champs).

The game is very easy to play (but the instructions make it sound very difficult) , but I wanted feedback about this - so that I can tailor the instructions to the masses. If I make the instructions idiot proof, they are quite long. If I make them for normal gamers, the game could be seen as very tricky (which it's not). Somewhere in the middle is required, methinks, but I wanted your opinions. I'll edit my first post to reflect this.

This is still very much a WIP.

[Kitty Hello]

it freezes for me :/ Black screen at start.

[Ian Price]

Bugger.



[EDIT] Gernot, can you try replacing the .EXE with the one attached. Cheers

[attachment deleted by admin]

[monono]

Sorry for giving not more information.
The cross is visible and stays in the upper left corner on my computer, so I can´t click anywhere. It´s Windows 7. The systempointer is not caught by the window. The mouse still works outside of it.

[Ian Price]

Cheers monono

I'm using Windows 7 too. Strange. My Windows pointer doesn't access outside of the game window - sounds like the game window isn't getting the focus. If I make it full-screen it might work OK. However, Gernot's problem takes priority here. I think I know what his issue might be though, so that (hopefully) shouldn't be too big a problem.

Expect an update soon(ish).

[EDIT] The new .EXE in my post above might fix both problems. Then again, it might not fix anything. It's for pc, so who can tell

[Wampus]

This is superb Ian.  Its fun like casual games should be while also being challenging & complex enough to provide a sense of achievement.

I remember the older kid next door to me being addicted to Split Personalities. It was a very popular game from what I recall of the buzz about it. Personally I found it off-putting because I didn't like the feel of the joystick or keyboard controls. For this game concept its clear mouse control is much better and touchscreen is perfect.

On my third attempt I completed the puzzle. It took me a little while to realise that bombs exploding were a bad thing because they removed a try and that I could throw blocks away by sending them into the gateways on the edges of the playing area. I'm still not sure what the male, female, water and pie-like squares do but this didn't detract from the gameplay as I understood it. I just knocked them together when I could to get points.

Good luck getting this completed, polished and selling.

[Ian Price]

Cheers Ragaril - at least I know that it does work for someone

The bonus items are far from complete - I need to add lots more, although some I have at the moment are in a state like the "pie" (which is actually half a clock!) and are just very quick knock/mock ups. I need to polish them up to the same level as the bombs and water. I already have some in mind, like the animal's main diet, fire, double score, habitat etc. etc.


The water droplet is used for extinguishing (removing) bombs. Bombs+Water=5000points

Male + Female were originally going to add an extra life (mate!), but now=2000points

There are no other combinations at the moment - any other collisions between bonus items removes both items from play. Bombs cannot react/collide with any bonus item except water though.


You can throw all puzzle pieces away through the open gateways - the bonus items (and bombs) will be destroyed. Picture pieces will be put back into the puzzle box.

I already have 28 images for puzzles, with several devious problems that the player will encounter as the game progresses, including the scanner malfunctioning, puzzle tracker stopping, blocks having kick-back, electrical faults on the gameboard etc.

I also have a Chill/Simple play mode planned, where you can pick and choose any puzzle that you've completed in the main game and play it without bombs etc.

If the game is successful, I have other game packs in mind - cars, aircraft, celebrities etc.

[blackway]

Hi Ian...
I love the retro style...it brings me back to the old days with my C=64 !
It's a fresh game that you get the point after a few minutes but is too hard for me (puzzle is not my type, to be honest!).
I know that you will add instructions in the final version, you have to focus in how explain combinations works without spoil it 
Keep up the good work!
Bye....

[Hark0]

Cool game... with cool ideas about gameplay!!! 

A little comment... I change the down arrow in screen game for a little button "menu" like credits page...

and... Autosave puzzle?

[Ian Price]

Hi Hark0. Thanks for the feedback

The game does now feature a savegame option so you can continue later. It doesn't auto-save after every puzzle, as that could make the game very easy if you just quit and re-continue from the last save if things aren't going well. 

The down arrow (Pause Menu) was only supposed to be a placeholder (it uses the same image as the puzzle box) that got kind of stuck as it is. I really don't want a text based button. TBH I hate all the menu buttons and considered making them as simple icons like a DVD player's ( >  []    || ) sort of thing. But I don't know if they'd feel right either. It's still very much a WIP. I hope to have it completed before Christmas, but time hasn't been on my side.

BTW Hark0 - is your avatar a caracature of you? Who did it? As I would like to create a version of Puzzled with caracatures of famous people and would be willing to pay for them.

[Slydog]

You could add a save feature similar to New Super Mario Bros for the Wii (they call it 'quick save').
Basically, you could auto-save, but only ever allow you to continue from that save point once.
That way you can't just retry continuously from the same point.
Each time you 'quick save' it overwrites the previous save and once you use the save point it deletes it.

But, nice looking game!