Release Update! Ellipsis is now available. There's a release thread with more impressions from players: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=3791038 Your votes and support are appreciated, thank you! And we are still looking for play testers for future updates, so pleaes don't hesitate. Original Post Hey everyone, We are looking for Beta Testers for our upcoming game Ellipsis on iPad coming out in January. Ellipsis is an action-packed puzzle game with minimalistic, yet powerful retro styled visuals. Your finger guides a ship through a mysterious universe. Be smart and be fast to overcome the challenges of your journey. You will face countless enemies crossing your paths and a beautiful universe unfolding before you. Please check out our latest trailer. To get access to the free beta, please do the following: 1. Sign up here, or 2. PM me your email address, or 3. Email [email protected] We will provide to you access to the game as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you! Please leave a comment of your impressions. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Website --- Press Kit Features: Pick up and play for all ages Huge universe with 8 worlds, 120+ levels Each level a unique experience - No filler! Beautiful minimalist graphics Progress is synced to iCloud Lasers, Lasers, everywhere! [Full Size] Surviving the temple... [Full Size]
super cool visuals The visuals in the trailer look super cool. Impressive number of levels available. Will pm for testing.
So far so fun. Not what I expected, but very fun once you get the hang of it. Visuals are awesome. The levels I've played amp up the difficulty in a proportionate way and it's fun to explore and "discover" new worlds. Looking forward to discovering more.
Hey everyone, the latest batch of invites have been sent out. Please let me know if you have any issues. Also, if you happen to have an iPad Pro (and possibly an Apple Pencil), I would really really like to hear if the game works on your device. It's the only platform we haven't had an opportunity to test yet (expensive little devices!). Thanks for all the feedback!
Wow! This is actually something quite special. The visuals are your typical neon lights on black background but it's pulled of pretty well here. The impressive part of it is definitely the dynamic level select screen, which I don't want to spoil too much of but I'll just say that it's awesome. The level design is top-notch for a pick up and play game. The levels are challenging enough that getting 5 stars requires a few plays but short enough that you could have fun with this game in a few minutes. There are lots of different enemy types and other elements that keep it all feeling fresh. There are some quite clever gimmicky-type levels as well, one that comes to mind is a whole section where time only moves when you move. Gameplay is very neat. You control a circle with your finger and you have to guide it to 4 locations in the level sequentially. At this point the exit will appear, as well as an optional fifth location. You have to avoid various enemy types. There's only two minor quibbles I have - the time bonus, which is required to get five stars, only appears once you have completed the level once. This seems a little pointless and adds a forced replay even if you ace a level on the first go. The other minor quibble is the 'release' of the points at each location - if you don't flawlessly land on the location it releases all the valuable points to be scattered around the level which, while forcing a more accurate play when trying to reach five stars, also adds a bit of pointless frustration. There are even a few 'boss battles' which are all quite clever and fun although the first few are actually a bit too easy compared to the standard levels that precede them. The game is entirely non-verbal but it does a great job of making everything seem intuitive and even drops a few hints of a story. I really like the non-verbal style and it suits this game really well. Controls are very responsive. It's a really nice take on the twitch survival genre, similar to tilt to live, but with bite-sized levels that really make it a perfect fit for mobile gaming. Highly recommended.
Quick bug notice for dev: The truck physics in later levels seems kind of glitched. Sometimes the trucks will be overlapping or become congested and just stop, making the level impossible to complete.
TheGreatEscaper, thank you for your kind words and your great feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed our game. re vehicle physics: thank you for pointing this out. When the gate opens, it's treated as an obstacle and so the cars come to a stop. It's still possible to complete the levels in certain ways, but it's also easy to get stuck. We're tweaking the behavior and layout to avoid such situations. Time bonus: one problem we had with introducing the time bonus from the start is that it puts the player under extra stress while they're still trying to figure out the mechanics (and some players really don't seem to care to collect all the points). Still not 100% sure how to handle that. I also don't like to force the player to play the level twice if they can do it on the first time. Maybe we'll unlock the speed bar permanently once you've 5-starred a few levels. Any suggestions? We're continuously tweaking the behavior of the release dots. Our goal is to reward the accurate players and the careful players. If you approach the points slower, you don't have to be as precise as they won't fly off in every direction. btw, which device did you try it on?
iPad Air 2. That's a good idea - 5-starring a few levels being the trigger sounds good. The only thing you need to make sure of is that players don't assume that it's a time limit (i.e. the level ends after the bar runs out) because it could be easy to make that mistake especially since some mechanics change slightly throughout the game.
New Build Release! - Just put out an update with various tweaks and improvements. Next batch of invites sent. Always looking for more feedback! Yeah, tricky balance to find. I don't want to confuse the players as they learn, but also don't want to needlessly punish the ones who enjoy the more hardcore bits.
Thanks for the invite. I'm posting my feedback here for everyone to see. I hope that's okay. I really like the music and the pacing of the game. I thought the enemies got diverse quickly enough and eventually got pretty hard (the levels where they only move when you move made things tricky because I kept trying to go as fast as possible but that strategy doesn't work so well there). In the middle levels there are some maps where some surfaces aren't hostile. I didn't realize so it took me a while to figure it out. Is there a color reserved for safe surfaces in the game? Anyway, I had a good time playing while I could. My daughter stole it away from me and I'm sure she's already farther in than I got.
@AngelSauce, thanks for the feedback. Yes, in general, "white" is a neutral color indicating safe objects. And yes, the time world requires a bit of a different strategy. Simply flying through those levels won't work as you'll be simply outrun by the enemies. As we approach our release date, we've been working on our launch trailer and we want to a share few teaser clips. Let me know what you think! Lasers, lasers, everywhere! Surviving the temple...
Hey everyone, a bit of an update. We're finally launching this Thursday, February 11th. We can't wait to finally share Ellipsis with the rest of the world. We've also finished cutting our launch trailer and I'm happy to share that now. I'm also excited to get our first preview right here on Touch Arcade, check it out! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Released! Hey everyone, Just to let you know, we have released the game, and there's a release thread with more impressions from players: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=3791038 Thank you again to all the playtesters. Please know we will continue to improve the game based on all the feedback we've received and some other special things we have planned. TestFlight beta testers will continue to receive updates in the coming weeks. Finally, I have to share this -- We were lucky enough to be featured in the App Store, including a mention in their list of Minimalist Games. We are truly honored to be in the company of such amazing games.
