UPDATE - The Game is released ! TA-Thread: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=158201 UPDATE - We have a name: Hello everyone! We are 2 guys who previously worked as Character Artists at Crytek and are now woking on our first own game project. We are excited to announce our upcoming iOS game "Fin Friends". Right now we are doing the last tweaks here and there and are targeting a late September release. Here is what the game is about: Ruby's friends have been captured by the evil fish gang ! Help Ruby to free his friends, who are held captive in nets and bring them to safety into the caves where they can hide in the coral reef. Be brave and free as many friends as you can. Because only together you can shield yourself from the endless hazards of the ocean that are coming your way. Beware and evade not only mean blowfishes, but also acid spewing squids, snapping crabs and other baddies, that are trying to take your friends away. There is always something to do. Complete objectives and unlock new fin friends that increase your score or beat your Game Center friends for the highscore. Highlights: A beautiful underwater world with different sceneries Funny unterwater creatures that want to make you smile Simple 1-touch gameplay (tap to swim up) Randomly generated obstacles that create a different game-experience every time you play. 42 challenging objectives to accomplish Unlock new fin friends to get the highest scores! Multiple challenging boss events Pick up different items that support you on your journey Game Center integration Universal-App for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad Excited ? Then please help us spread the word through Twitter and Facebook ( See Signature ) OLD POST: The only big thing that's stil missing is THE NAME . We had many ideas for it but still can't seem to find the name that fits it best while being short and easy to remember. It should be short enough, so it doesn't get automatically shortened on the home screen (like "Aweso...Game"). The maximun seems to be at 11-13 letters. So far the working title has been "Clayfish" but since we think it doesn't really represent the game very well, we were thinking of lots of alternatives. Here are some of the ideas we had: Fin Friends Bubble Friends Bubble Fish Sea Friends Fin Rescue So now we'd like to know from you, what's your idea how the game should be called and hopefully we get some inspiration from it ... if you have an idea let us know. Any other feedback of course is most welcome!
thanks! I forgot to mention, we are coming from a 3d Art background, so everything was modeled and prerendered onto sprites.
Nice! That looks like a combination of Sea Stars and Platypus. Really digging the art! Some ideas: His name is Clayton. Clayton the clay fish (special breed) Possible titles: - Heroic Clayton - Clay Fin - Clayton's Rescue - Clayfish Deliverance - Uhh...I'll think of more soon.
thanks Eoghann, interesting names I'm also positively surprised that you picked up on the "Clay-" thing, because we thought people might not connect the game with "clay". We had it in the beginning because most of the game was modeled & sculpted with "digital clay" and had a bit of a clay look.
I will point out an observational point of view for you =) ______________________________________ To the name: Clayfish or Clay Clay to Plato! NAME: PLATO or PLYDO (Whatever fits) ______________________________________ To the friends: Friends or Buddy's Buddy's to Bonded Companions (The "Bonded" term referring to a fish who has bonded with other fish) Bonded to Bonds! FRIENDS: BONDS (Plato's Bonds) ______________________________________ His name is his destined life's path. He is, Bond...Plato Bond. Or anything you do, I will pay and play no matter what! Sincerely, Intersect Email: [email protected]
Thank you Intersect ! great stuff right there ! And yes "Off the Leash" also reminded me of our idea when I heared of it ... looks like we weren't the only ones having that "friends" idea.
don't really have any suggestions for the name, but if that's what the final game is going to look like, then wow.
Yeah I did pick up in the clay thing pretty early. It has a very particular look. I'm liking the clay foreground with the cut out/scrapbook background style. I was gonna suggest making the clay look more matte and with more dimples (like Platypus) to emphasize that they are made of clay. Then it dawned on me that making it matte would make it seem as if the clay was dry...not the case since they're underwater. xP Expanding on Exact-Psience's comments: Are the buddies permanent score multipliers during the run? Upon unlocking them do they follow you permanently in each consecutive run? Or are they temporary boosts like Sea Star's rainbow birdies? If it hasn't been done already (I can only judge it's content based on the screenshots) has the clay concept in the game been explored to the limits? Whether it's with the main character: Going through tunnels that change his shape (just for the fun of it), or splitting into smaller clay versions of himself to get through obstacles. Or the bosses: splitting and turning into different shapes or smaller clay versions of themselves when hit. Or two small to medium bosses merging into one big boss... Just throwing some ideas. Coz I'm very curious and interested in this game.
Concerning the score multiplier: By completing 3 objectives, you unlock a new friend which increases your score multiplier permanently. It will be clear during the game, since he will always be the first one you find. Details about the friends-mechanic: To get the score for your picked up fishes you will have to make it to the cave that comes after each level segment. There the fishes swim into their "safehouse" (as seen on this screenshot) and you get the points depending on how many you saved. This creates a cycle in which you always start out without following friends after the cave and you have to find new ones. This makes sure it doesn't get frustrating, since you lose them all when you get hit . Clay-Theme: We started out with the intention to make the game look like is was made by hand, out of clay, or physical materials like cut out cardboard objects. But after a period of "style-finding", whe deviated more and more from this idea, because the look of it didn't work out for us for a couple of reasons. We wanted to make the game look "happy" and "bright" while still keeping that modeled clay look to a certain degree. For this game there won't be any clay-"morphing" or similar things, but in fact we do have an idea in the back of our heads to make another game after this similar to what you described. This idea includes clay-objects (Which is where our company name came from) changing shape. But no promises yet .
Update First of all thank you! for the suggestions and feedback we got from you. After a lot of pondering, we agreed on a name.... We decided to stick to our favorite we had before: Fin Friends. It's (hopefully) easy to remember and summarizes the best what our game is about: Save your fish friends and stick together to "survive". We've also been very busy the last days fixing the last bugs and doing the finishing touches. It looks like we might make it for a September release. Check out Page 1 for new screenshots and info. We are also working on a trailer that we'll post very soon...so stay tuned Also, if you like our stuff, please help us spread the word and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
So.....what's the name of the main character? xD Friggin' adorable! haha Really looking forward to the trailer.
I think the name of the character isn't really important, but we called him Ruby, since he/she/it is red
With art and graphics like this, it can't help but be gorgeous. Looking forward to seeing it as soon as possible! Price?
More screens thanks a lot AnarKitty we can't wait to get other people's hands on it, too. As for the price. We haven't made a final descision yet, but we want as many people as possible to play it, so we'll probably go for Tier 1 (1$). All new screenshots:
Our new app icon We wanted to make his grin a little bit quirky intentionally, so he doesn't look too generic.