Universal Bladeslinger - (by Kerosene)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by Sanuku, Oct 29, 2012.

  1. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Just create a Canadian account. It's easy.
     
  2. Loganaustin

    Loganaustin Well-Known Member

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    and how might i do this?
     
  3. Jdragoon19

    Jdragoon19 Well-Known Member

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    The Internet knows everything. Search this in Google: "How to create a free Canadian iTunes account".
     
  4. Ausar

    Ausar Well-Known Member

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    i was one of the tester for the game Danz060391 the only criticism here is the poor communication, now moving to the actual game i still thing like i said in the beta forums you should devide the screen during exploration left side to move william and right side to the camara the two fingers to move the camera in my opinion is not the way to go
     
  5. Ne0ndrag0n

    Ne0ndrag0n Well-Known Member

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    This game sucks on ipod 4
     
  6. Ausar

    Ausar Well-Known Member

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    **IMPORTANT: No support for devices pre-dating iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod Touch 5th Generation at this time.**

    I think people dont read
     
  7. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    What the man said ;).
     
  8. relyes

    relyes Well-Known Member

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    Hi Ausar, I remember you giving us this feedback about the movement, and we definitely made some adjustments. Are you playing this release?

    re: your suggestion for controls, how would you do it? If we had a common dual virtual analog set up for navigation, the player has to take one hand off the device in order to swipe during combat, unless the game goes entirely on rails like Infinity Blade...

    We thought the two hand / one hand switch during gameplay was completely frustrating and tiresome with an iPad. The device is just a little too heavy to hold for long periods with one hand that's also supposed to be performing screen input.

    Brett
    @kerosenegames
    kerosenegames.com
     
  9. sizzlakalonji

    sizzlakalonji Moderator
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    I've played through the first chapter and enjoyed the experience quite a bit. Here's my take on the controls: they're fine. That being said, I can only imagine what the thread is going to be like when the international version releases. It will almost certainly be page after page of control whining. That's because they do something different with the controls here. There's a bit of a learning curve, and as much as people complain about touchscreen controls, virtual joysticks, etc., when a developer goes in a different direction it's often met with annoyance and anger. Someone earlier complained that they were hoping for an Infinity Blade control experience. I couldn't disagree more. That was a groundbreaking control scheme...two years ago. I appreciate that this game has a swipe mechanic where you ARE in control of character movement. There is definitely not a feeling of static battles. That works well for some games, but I think this game could definitely NOT be accused of being an IB clone, and that's to its advantage. There were some times that I got a bit confused during a fight, but a) I think that was more a function of me learning my way, and b) you're SUPPOSED to be confused and frantic in a fight in close quarters with multiple mutants! It actually feels more immersive to have to worry about enemies all around me, even ones I can't necessarily see (although there is an indicator of off-screen enemies to make things more manageable). I commend the developers for what seems to be a solid game. As a free experience, it's marvelous so far. Now, if it turns out to be an IAP fest (and it certainly doesn't appear that way so far), I'd probably have to change my opinion, but as it stands its quite good.
     
  10. relyes

    relyes Well-Known Member

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    Really glad you're liking it so far, sizzlakalonji. And really kind, thoughtful comments. It's nice to hear and I don't think we could have said this any better ourselves.

    Obviously, we wanted to go a very different direction than Infinity Blade, despite the early comparisons (we've heard it all...the "Western Infinity Blade" or "Infinity Bladeslinger"). The comparisons are flattering in that we think Epic is a marvelous studio that made a beautiful game that was easy to play on mobile, but as you say...gamers want more freedom of movement and more depth / emergent gameplay in combat. They want to be able to build skill AND experience an amazing journey. Those are the things we all want anyway, and that's why we've made the choices we have in Bladeslinger.

    Brett
    @kerosenegames
    kerosenegames.com
     
  11. Ausar

    Ausar Well-Known Member

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    #91 Ausar, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    Yea i'm actually playing this release hell i create a canadian account just for this, yea the movement animation now its better that the one in the beta build

    The controls i'm suggestin is more for the iphone i dont have an ipad so but thinking about what i think you should go for it will not work well with the ipad because of the size but on the iphone i think it could work.

    Something like dead space that the screen is devide in half left movement without a "virtual stick" that is the character and the other half move the camara around to explore, at least for me in the iphone is kinda hard to move and use the two finger to move the camara while moving because i'm holding the iphone like a psp or ds of course this should only be while exploring and when fighting keep the original one because is a enemy gets in the left side it would be pretty imposible to hit it

    But again i think if you get to implement something like this it should be active by a option in the settings for the people that dont like it, myselft i like to look around while moving specially here since the art of the game is top nocht and with the two finger is kinda hard on the small screen of the iphone

    For the rest i'm really enjoying the game it feels like a mini dmc and cant wait for the release on my store

    Edit: oh one last thing for the more "hardcore" players i think you should enable a option to disable the offscreen indicator when an enemy is going to attack
     
  12. Ne0ndrag0n

    Ne0ndrag0n Well-Known Member

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    Someone else had said it ran smoothly on ipod 4..
     
  13. amusing Grace

    amusing Grace Well-Known Member

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    #93 amusing Grace, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    My thoughts exactly.
    I told a friend literary the same thing two hours ago, after I read the first complaints and ideas " to make it better" here.
    So, thanks for writing it all down!

    If people give it one star reviews in the store because of the controls,that would really be a pity. Everybody and their mother wants IOS gaming to evolve and I think it's a big step in the right direction. Two hands controls just wouldn't work as good and comfortable with these gameplay mechanics IMO.
     
  14. relyes

    relyes Well-Known Member

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    Nice! Yeah, the run animation was a little wonky...that was good feedback.

    OK, cool. I think I understand. Like Madfinger's games basically, right? So, that lets you move the character's feet and control the camera at the same time, but what happens when you need to attack, defend, evade with a roll, etc.? Those need inputs too, and we think those inputs are actually more important than being able to move and control the camera at the same time...for Bladeslinger anyway.

    It's really natural to want to hold the phone and even sometimes the tablet like you're going to be able to play the whole game with your two thumbs, but that's also really limiting from a gesture and multi-touch design perspective. We just wanted to go in a direction that would allow the game to react to you touching with one finger or more, swiping with one finger or more, taping with one finger or more, etc. You can't do that with two thumbs on the screen, so what most developers that go the Madfinger / Gameloft route end up doing is making virtual buttons for all the other inputs (attack, defend, dodge, use a spell, etc.) And these buttons have to go in a place your thumb can reach comfortably (not a problem on a phone, but on a tablet, this is limiting). So the buttons you're creating are already a little obscured by where your thumbs already are, and you have to lift them from the controls and place them on something away from the action (a button) to take an action.

    We think this CAN be done well for some games (fixed perspective platformers, 3D isometric games, or other auto-camera games), but not for an over-the-shoulder free-moving action game. We feel what we've done with Bladeslinger is a much nicer design. And yes...it's new. It'll take some practice. But developers NEED to be taking chances like this to move mobile gaming forward, and I think this was and is, not only a risk worth taking, but a risk that gamers will appreciate when they're past the unfamiliarity of this design.

    We definitely want to expose options (sensitivity for the single-finger movement input, whether to render a directional indicator under the player to aid knowing-where-you're-going). These should be in the game very quickly.

    Nice!! DMC was definitely an inspiration for a lot of the design choices...glad we managed to hit that note. It was definitely a goal :)

    Hmmm... I like this! Not something we'd thought of before, but I could see this as a reasonable option to make the game a little more challenging. We'd have to make sure there are really good audio cues to anticipate an attack from behind. I think there are, but we'd want to be sure :)

    Brett
    @kerosenegames
    kerosenegames.com
     
  15. relyes

    relyes Well-Known Member

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    Word! We really hope people don't give up on learning the new control system before they start to feel like ninjas :) The tutorial messages in Chapter 1 could probably use a little work still. We're just hoping that the universe and characters are interesting enough to get people to push past that initial unfamiliarity with the design.

    Brett
    @kerosenegames
    kerosenegames.com
     
  16. Ausar

    Ausar Well-Known Member

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    #96 Ausar, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    Yea i understand what you are saying at leats in my head having to controls ingame while exploring using the left half to move and right side to control the camera of course without any buttons and in a fight with the camera change the controls change to the way its now, in my head at least now feels it could be good but thats one thing and using it is another and maybe if i used it may feel worse

    A better way could be to control the camera with one fingers at least on the iphone but i think that would interfere with the movement right?

    But still in bottom line i really like you have innovate with the controls and with time you could make some more tweaks to it just a we could used to it more and maybe infinity blade 3 if it comes out should use this controls now

    In my opinion you definitely hit the spot with dmc feels meanwhile maintaining the game in its own direcction the first time i saw blandeslinger like two years ago i think it was in the first trailer the thing that sold me most was the dynamic combats just as the art the western theme just fits perfect spot on there, hell maybe you can add in future updates dual pistols and even others weaposn to combos like the ifrit or beowulf gloves or even a katana with a different fighting style but this in my ignorance from developing would be a really hard work since you have to create animations from 0

    Actually the indicator that shows the enemy offscreen should be gone in the hardest difficulty the one that says coming soon i dont remenber its name right now

    Anyway bladeslingers its going to be a while on my device and i would only delete when its release on my store

    Edit: well i was playing again turn outs that you can move and using one finger to move the camera but its weir because the movement of the camara doesn't change the direccion of william, in the end i think what could be better is that the camera turns a little more "smooth" when you move william

    And i actually glad that you put a options to have the cards without a limit but i still think they need to be a little power down so they dont feel so overpower or a colddown
     
  17. iNexus

    iNexus Well-Known Member

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    Okay so after playing two chapters on my iPad 2 and iphone 4S, some major issues have already came up when playing on the iphone 4S.

    - Camera angle is really frustrating, half the time when I'm fighting monsters i feel myself fighting the camera more. I though i would get used to it after play two chapters but no this is a real issue. I suggest creating an option to dedicate one half of the screen to movement and one half to controlling the camera angle.

    - Multifinger gestures this works pretty well on the iPad where you have more screen real estate but on the iphone it just doesn't work sadly. On a 3.5" screen having to use 2 fingers to perform actions take up 75% of the screen leaving only a measly 25% for viewing and with the small screen many gestures can accidentally be misinterpreted. I suggest making an option for dedicated buttons and customization of those buttons.

    ill post more as i play more
     
  18. Osui818

    Osui818 Member

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    #98 Osui818, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    N/m finally got a Canada account, downloading now
     
  19. Ausar

    Ausar Well-Known Member

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    #99 Ausar, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    Well i few things that should be improve that i notice while playing is the sounds of the "hits" or "cuts" during the finishing moves should be more higher and in the result screen when the 3 stars pops up they should have like if you hit a bar metal with something

    And for last a graphic bug during the fight the bartender

    http://i48.tinypic.com/2v2cfhh.png

    in that fight i used the unrelenting assault card maybe it have something to do with that

    Also the game doesn't suck much of the battery in my 4S so kudos for that

    Edit: damm i always miss something could be possible to have a walking animation depending on how much you slide the finger?
     
  20. relyes

    relyes Well-Known Member

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    #100 relyes, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    Yeah, I think it's tempting because it's familiar, and not immediately evident what you are giving up with that choice.

    Yeah, this would interfere with the simple, obvious gesture intended for slashing the enemy with the blade in combat, so that would have to be remapped to something else that felt good.

    Wouldn't that be flattering! Epic will probably do something very innovative in their own right with the next Infinity Blade. Dungeons looks more top-down / ISO, with touch / touch-and-hold to move, so they challenges aren't quite the same with the camera, but when they go back to the first person / 3rd person close up view, they'll have to tackle these same issues.

    Great ideas! We definitely want to play with weapon variety a little, and create new special techniques. I love the Beowulf gloves idea :) That could be fun on William's metal fist!

    Noted! Going to speak with the dev team about this tonight :)

    :)

    Yeah, we don't really recommend that approach. Move William or move the camera. Not both at once :) We'll keep playing with the way the camera follows William as he turns to make it smoother and more natural. But as anyone who's made an auto-camera in games will tell you, it's HARD. And the closer to the player you want the camera to be, the harder it is to get right.

    Sweet! You're trying out some of the techniques! They are powerful, but they also have a built-in cool down period because you can only use them when your Spirit Meter (the blue bar) is full. And the Spirit Meter drains proportionally to how much use you make of the special technique (whether it's dealing damage, deflecting / mitigating damage, or healing). We can definitely tune the parameters here to balance the game for optimal progression (not too tough, not too easy, and definitely not OP). Hopefully we get more of this kind of feedback during this limited release.

    Brett
    @kerosenegames
    kerosenegames.com
     

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