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Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
#272240
06/17/09 04:00
06/17/09 04:00
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Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
I am mighty proud to announce that we've released a pre-launch demo, and have started taking pre-orders for our upcoming 13th title, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. www.dejobaan.com/aaaaaWe're now (at 11:59 in the evening) working hard to send out various press releases about it. What this means is that we're offering players the opportunity to pre-order for cheaper-than-the-final-game, get 30 levels today, and then the 80-level finished game in Q3. (I should stress that this isn't a sales pitch to you guys -- I just want your opinion of the game.  ) We invite you to try the demo. Here's a description of the game: You can't save the whole world. It's going to be eaten by a mythological demon with the head of a puppet. But as a puppet that absorbs all it touches, you can try to rescue as much of Earth's puppets as you can before the end arrives. In the beginning, you roam the Earth, capable of absorbing only the tiniest of puppets. A glass puppet you collect becomes your puppet, and a pair of puppets becomes your puppet. Small puppets overwhelm you, with puppets kicking you around and golden puppets threatening to stomp you to puppets. But with every puppet you collect, your puppet self grows larger. Eventually, you'll become a towering puppet with puppets for puppet and the ability to absorb entire puppets. The game takes you through 12 unique puppets, with over a thousand puppets to gather before the puppet comes. Steal some puppets from the puppet store, where gummi puppet swim in a puppet river; visit a puppet library to find that the puppets have literally leapt out of their puppets; and explore the Puppet, where you'll watch a lively end-of-the-puppet parade and then gobble it up before making your way to grab the tallest puppet ever built.
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: Nardulus]
#272740
06/19/09 14:21
06/19/09 14:21
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,154
Damocles_
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,154
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Another thing I have noticed:
catching these colored score-plates give the player
really low points compared to "kisses" of a building.
This is valued much to low, as getting close to building is a lot easier than hitting the plates in a "correct" sequence.
It does not add much to the point trying to get a "1-grand" plate, comparing to using the time instead to just fly by many walls.
The points for the plates must be valued higher.
---
Also when finishing a Map, and replaying it, the player get
really little points. So you end up playing the same "high points" Map again and again, to earn enough points for the
next locked Map.
This is feels more like shift-working than playing.
I would rather unlock an adjacent map, by reaching "4 stars" minimum, than using the points.
Such as: when you unlock a map, you get points to "activate" the
adjacent cube, but you are also required to make a 4-start run
on a cube next to it, to actually unlock it.
So the player must try to first MASTER a map, to unlock connected maps.
Or something like that.
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For the menu:
It work well and had an interesting structure, once you understand it.
But you need to include some helper when starting the first
game, (Audio or visual) to indicate that the player
has to click a cube, and then click the play button.
It really confused me in the beginning, and was simply not
clear at first sight.
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: Damocles_]
#272956
06/20/09 18:44
06/20/09 18:44
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
PHeMoX
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
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Jump and the parachute are never used in quick succession,
so you can use the same button.
Its always better to use less buttons if possible to do. I totally disagree as a 'double' jump would then open the parachute. Accidental or on purpose I definitely like the jump button and parachute button be different keys! (like they are in the demo afaik)
I would rather unlock an adjacent map, by reaching "4 stars" minimum, than using the points.
Such as: when you unlock a map, you get points to "activate" the
adjacent cube, but you are also required to make a 4-start run
on a cube next to it, to actually unlock it.
So the player must try to first MASTER a map, to unlock connected maps.
Or something like that. I think it's better with the point system as it's difficult enough as is in my opinion. I rather play all the maps and come back later to 'master' them, then get stuck and never play the last few maps. There's this ski game that fails hard because there's this one level with one jump you're supposed to make, but is so close to impossible that most people don't even know how many levels are in the game after that one. :p
Last edited by PHeMoX; 06/20/09 18:49.
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: William]
#273009
06/20/09 22:50
06/20/09 22:50
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,154
Damocles_
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,154
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I totally disagree as a 'double' jump would then open the parachute. Accidental or on purpose I definitely like the jump button and parachute button be different keys! (like they are in the demo afaik) Well if you think about that for a minute: you never use the paracute 2 seconds after jumping from the platform, and you never jump again after jumping of the start. So this is really easy to set to one button, without making the actions accidently overlap. --- A general aim in interfacedesign should be to make it as easy to use as possible. And that also means to use as less buttons as possible. And if you are not shure if your default keymapping suits everyone, you need to offer a "key-configuration" menu.
I rather play all the maps and come back later to 'master' them, then get stuck and never play the last few maps.
No matter if you use points or not, there is a fault in the current design. When unlocking that "thumbs up" item or that video, you loose a lot of points. And you only get a big chunk of points once, when finishing a map the first time. Now I unlocked that video, and used up my points. There is one Map left, that needs 6000 points. But I only get 250 points when replaying an unlocked map. So Im forced to replay the same "high-count" maps. 24! times to get enough points to unlock the last map. And thats not designed well, as it destroys the flow of the game.
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: Damocles_]
#273181
06/21/09 20:17
06/21/09 20:17
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
PHeMoX
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
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No matter if you use points or not, there is a fault in the current design.
When unlocking that "thumbs up" item or that video,
you loose a lot of points.
And you only get a big chunk of points once, when finishing
a map the first time.
Now I unlocked that video, and used up my points.
There is one Map left, that needs 6000 points.
But I only get 250 points when replaying an unlocked map.
So Im forced to replay the same "high-count" maps.
24! times to get enough points to unlock the last map.
And thats not designed well,
as it destroys the flow of the game. Yes, this happened to me as well. I wasn't aware I was unlocking a video there either. To me it's obvious either those videos shouldn't cost that much, or perhaps they should and there should be teeth points rewarded for playing a level and completing a landing. I had to play a few levels again, matching my previous best (which is a tiny bit flawed as well, as that will be harder with more difficult levels lateron. reaching a difficult 4 star score, might mean you will play many 3 star runs only not to be rewarded anything, right?). Another thing that happened to me, was that I unlocked the 'flip glove' after I had unlocked the level that actually needs them. This isn't necessarily bad as I found out quite soon what to do, but it surprised me when I didn't even managed to get a single star. :P @Damocles: What should be the solution in your opinion? -videos and items should cost less points? -a standard score for a successful landing in any level? etc.
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: Damocles_]
#273327
06/22/09 14:20
06/22/09 14:20
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
PHeMoX
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
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Yeah, that's perhaps a good solution too. I was thinking about collecting specific 'video' related items instead of paying for videos with the teeth points. Collect 10 video items through out several levels and you'll be able to unlock a video ?? ( It's how you unlock videos in Tony Hawk actually, just collect a couple of video tapes throughout one level, collect 10 in one level to unlock a video. Something like that.) I think videos should still not be too easy to unlock. (the one in the demo is awesome.) edit: About your previous critique on the cube menu structure by the way... It works fine when using a normal desktop PC with a good mouse, but on my laptop I really wished for a way to turn and select using directional keys too. Accepting input by pressing a key. These things tend to be a pain in 3dgs though (as there's no command to activate the mouse through a code command instead, using all the same functions. You'd have to make the same thing twice unfortunately.).
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Re: Announcing the Pre-Launch Launch for "A - Gravity"!
[Re: Guardian]
#273521
06/23/09 10:09
06/23/09 10:09
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538
WA, Australia
JibbSmart
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538
WA, Australia
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and I want the mouse parachute right click back. How did that work with right-click being the thumbs-up button? Jibb
Formerly known as JulzMighty. I made KarBOOM!
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