Universal Flip's Escape [Shaun Inman - dev of The Last Rocket]

Yeah I thought the game looked pretty enjoyable in the TA Plays vid. And the diamonds come in pretty fast, so hopefully iAP won't be a problem.

 

At the very least he could have played this out longer.

 

Flip's Escape developer here. Just wanted to answer a few questions.

In the video Eli asks how you followup The Last Rocket. Flip's Escape was never meant as a proper followup, that's why the subtitle is "The Last Rocket Side Story". The Last Rocket took 8 months to develop, this, about 3 weeks. It's $0.99, adjust expectations accordingly. I'm working on another, more involved game (still quite a ways off), this was just an experiment to break up the development and (hopefully) make some money to funnel back into development of the new title.

There was something else I wanted to mention...I'll have to watch the video again. In the meantime if you have any other questions, hit me!

 

Well, if it makes you happy, i still am. I never delete games within the first 48 hours even if i find it most horrible. You judge too soon. If you read the first page, I have positive initial reaction to the posted video. I love runner games and any innovation is much appreciated. This one shows that. That's why im not giving up on it yet, but as a first impression, it looked too plain.

 

Been playing this for a while, since I bought it and its looks and feels like the transition to the next game in the series, a fun minigame for short moments.

Its has a good, nice mechanic in play here, tap to stop... makes for some fun.

As for the IAP and gems, I collected 40.000 very easily, still wondering how as it seems random. 100.000 doesnt seem that expensive.

Being a big fan of The Last Rocket, its good to see Flip once again, and hope to see him more
Also, I am going to finish The Last Rocket again, a true gem

Edit: Welcome to the forums Shawn Inman... The Last Rocket is on my Top5 Games of all Time on iOS, please make a sequel

 

Thanks for the imps, TheFrost! Seems like it's been generally good impressions so far =]

 

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Really depends on the reception. Flip's Escape is a mindless, casual minigame in niche, 8-bit clothes. Not a lot of overlap in that particular Venn diagram.

IAP in Flip's Escape is unnecessary and kind of broken as designed (but not by design, remember this was an experiment). I don't understand consumable IAP (as opposed to additional content IAP). The player is basically paying to play less, presumably because they don't enjoy playing the game? So they're paying to route around uninteresting game design and rewarding the game developer by doing it. I don't understand at all. Throughout development I thought of IAP as just a tip jar for those who want to see more games from me and left it at that. It's interesting that the mere presence of IAP causes some people to give up on mastering a manageable (and in my opinion, enjoyable) core game mechanic in disgust.

Gem sizes/values are calculated like random drops in an RPG, a distributed randomness. You have an x% chance of getting the smallest value, a y% of the next higher and so on to 2% chance for the 1000 gem drop. Once you can consistently hit warp you'll start to see returns of about 6-7 gems for every 10 lightyears travelled. More than enough to binge on Drills and Magnets without zeroing out your gems and allowing you to work towards the higher cost items.

Oh, that reminds me of the other question Eli (or maybe Brad?) had. What does filling the WARP meter do? Filling the meter increases the distance covered by warping by 33%. The longer you're at warp the more asteroids you encounter to give up their gems. So not only do you cover more distance but you increase your chances of scoring a 1000 gem drop. (So while the Speed Inhibitor may make dodging asteroids a little easier it also reduces the max distance you can travel at warp and as a result the number of gems you can earn.)

 

I don't like consumable IAP in most games just because you're paying to make the progression system completely obsolete. This seems bad for two reasons. One is that it's an argument for the system itself being complete arbitrary. The other is that it kind of annoys me to design an entire system that can be skipped for money.

My next two games will have consumable IAP. Here's what I'm doing to counter the above:

1. In Punch Quest, it's a big store where you unlock abilities, cosmetic stuff, and new modes. The system is tuned so that you get abilities constantly, it's easy to get everything through normal play. The game is balanced around someone not paying, or even caring much about the whole system. Cosmetic items like hats are way more expensive in comparison. Buying IAP coins makes the most sense for getting fancy hats and so on. You can still buy progress, which irritates me to do, but it's done as respectfully as possible.

2. In Mage Dungeon, we're having two currencies. One is coins, which lets you unlock and upgrade perks, which you can equip your characters with. You can't buy coins at all, nor can you convert the second currency to coins. Unlike how it is in Punch Quest, I didn't want the player to be able to buy progression, at all. Coins are just found in the dungeon, in large quantities.

The other currency, gems, is mostly used to buy new character classes. One class is always completely free to play as, and which class is free rotates daily. Gems let you unlock a class permanently, to play whenever you want. Each character offers new methods of playing the game. Gems are IAP money, but you can also find them in the dungeon.

There's also some one-game-boosts, as a coin/gem money sink.

I think #2 is the best way possible to handle free(not actually free) games. No skipping the game's progress systems with money, just alternate game modes. No gated content or paywalls, because everything is accessible. Not even forced grinding, because you can just wait for your preferred class to become free for a day.

We're still doing the #1 method for Punch Quest, though. The Temple Run method. It's still letting players skip parts of your system, but it's not that bad if the necessary, functional stuff is also very easy to get through normal play. Temple Run does the same thing... the powerup upgrades and so on are pretty cheap, and the cosmetic stuff (new characters) is really expensive.

 

I'll be happy to toss in a tip or two. Love your games, and I enjoy following your Twitter account. Haven't tried Flip's Escape yet, since I just got home and didn't know it was out!
(Also, just found a strange iTunes searching bug: In the Canadian App Store, searching for 'Flip's Escape' provides no results. Searching for 'Flips Escape' brings up the game, including the apostrophe in the title. Odd.)

Depends on exactly how "consumable" IAPs are implemented.
For example, in games like Temple Run, I can see players chucking in a couple bucks to speed their progress through levelling up their power ups so that they can make better high score runs. It can sometimes feel like an excellent run is wasted when your powerups aren't maxed. Same thing if you want to chuck a dollar or two at a game to unlock a costume early: sometimes, it's not worth the time-grind to get there.
A better example: League of Legends XP boosts. I've spent a few dollars on XP boosts to get me to level 30 faster, not to pay the developer because I don't enjoy playing, but so that I can reach the highest level and start playing at a higher level of play faster.
So it's not paying to play less, it's paying to maximize the time you do spend playing.

Thanks for coming to the forums!

 

The game got a 4 star rating from TA!

Also it's out in US.

 

Game Impressions

Wow, I'm #10 in the world! (Apparently?)

I'm really digging this game. It might be weird of me to say this, but I actually really prefer it to TLR. I liked TLR, but I found it too fiddly: my meaty fingers weren't great at the timing on the button presses, and I could never get into the groove of it.

This is a completely different game, but like I said, I'm really digging it. It's easy to play and look up twenty minutes later, wondering where the time went. Wonderful risk/reward mechanic regarding braking for stars, and trying to get them without slowing down. I also love the little touch that when the game is paused, it shows a little arrow underneath Flip showing what direction he's travelling in.

This is a fantasticly addictive little time-burner so far. Sadly, I have to get back to packing boxes, but I'd definitely give this 5 stars. Cheap (99 cents!), but with gorgeous pixel art, 8-bit sound, and addictive gameplay. What more could you ask for?

 

Really fun game, Shaun. I totally understand where you're coming from with a niche game/short project like this - I did one myself fairly recently & it was a ton of fun to do. It's definitely a fun spin on a top-down shooter.

The IAP is completely non-intrusive. Unless you're just opposed to apps with IAP, I don't see a reason that anyone would hold that against it. Haters gonna hate though.

Overall, Flip's Escape is a really fun game & totally worth the $0.99 price tag.

 

Pretty amazing that this game was made in 3 weeks! The 'quick' game we are working on now has taken more than 6 months already Kudos!

I'll just weigh in here with my take on IAP. The question for any game/developer should be 'Can you play and enjoy the game without IAP?'. If the answer is 'yes' (i.e. all NimbleBit games, Temple Run, Flip's Escape), then you are doing it right. If the answer is 'no', then you probably need to rethink your IAP, or go work for Zynga.

 

This game is really addictive, and I'm having a blast (no pun intended) playing it. Hope it cracks the top 10.

 

Ah, the IAP debate! Came here from Eli's tweet.

The thing about IAP (in app purchases) is that they've been going for a lot longer than people think, but only recently have they become greedy. The Need For Speed series has been doing it for years, since ProStreet. A car will cost 30,000 in game dollars or you can buy it with a couple of dollars real money if you don't want to spend the time racing to gather the in game bucks. I'm in two minds about that method as although some of us may not have the time to spend unlocking it, we still already paid for that content on the disk.

More recently there's 'purchasable currency', I kind of like this method when they don't take the piss with it. A game will have in game currency, say Rupees in Zelda for example, and you will buy upgrades etc. with the money you collect in game, however the game will give you the option to buy in game currency with real money to skip ahead quicker or for those moments where you're desperate and about to run out of the in game stuff. They also give the option to unlock levels early or skip levels you're stuck on using this currency. When the game was either free or only cost you $1-2 it seems fair, but it massively depends on the developers' attitudes. They often now overprice everything, so that you have to spend hours and hours 'grinding' to be able to progress in the game without spending on an IAP. Obviously free apps are more greedy with this since they need to make their money somehow.

The one which really bugs me now is the dual currency method people like Madfinger Games have been using. This one I believe to be really unfair. Dead Trigger has cash and gold. Cash is the stuff you can find in game (and purchase more of to skip ahead quicker), gold can ONLY be purchased with real money. Many of the better weapons in the game can only be purchased with gold. This just seems sleazy to me.

But sometimes IAP makes the game more accessible to people who don't have hours to spend grinding (collecting coins, levelling up etc. RPG style) and hopefully it's not particularly expensive. If the game is 'grindy' by nature, a lot of people are going to enjoy the grinding whilst others want to enjoy it but don't have the time to do so, as long as the developer doesn't then make the game painfully slow to try and force the IAP.

Truth is, $1-2 for fully functional video games is a steal really. Consider that due to how competitive the iTunes store has become, many of us developers are building full scale console-style games, but are considered to be greedy if we want more than $2 for it, whilst Nintendo ask for $40 for the likes of the New Super Mario Bros. games which barely even differ from each other; IAP can help to recoup development costs.

People say 'you can buy your way to the top; it's not fair', but I personally would say 'you have enough spare time to grind your way to the top; it's not fair'. I know I'd happily pay a couple of dollars extra to be able to still play through Final Fantasy games without having to take time off work.

 

Hey Shaun, thank you for The Last Rocket. Easily one of my favourite games on iOS.

I have a question about Flip's Escape: if you manage to survive long enough, does Flip eventually manage to.. erm, escape?

I would hope that the answer is yes, but regardless, I will be picking this up.

I wish you all the best with this and all future projects.

 

Shaun Inman is a video game design genius and I think that we should all support his work as much as possible. Flip's Escape is a nice piece of fan service for fans of The Last Rocket. Unlike most games utilizing IAP as a business model - this is little more than an avenue to give back to the developer and one that I see as preferable to kickstarter - i.e. give me money to support my next project, or buy my Minigame and some ad-ons to support my next project. It is quite admirable in my opinion. I just hope the next project is released on iOS. If so I will greatly look forward to it and feel glad that I made my own small contribution to the project by enjoying Flip's Escape.

 

Thanks for the additional IAP insight guys. Kepa, I so want to steal your rolling class idea. Very clever.

If the question is "does the game have an ending cutscene, say after x lightyears?" then no. If the quesiton is "do Flip and AMI (and their Spacemouse fare) survive to star in another game someday" then the answer is yes.