If someone can't figure out a 1-button game in which the "button" is almost the entire front-side of the device, then not even a tutorial is going to help.
It's really too bad that the only upgrades for the game that actually had any effect on the game were the magnets for the vehicles. Update II also was a big disappointment just being nothing more useless outfits.
I didn't say it couldnt be figured out. You shouldn't have to. Even Angry Birds has the splash screen showing the finger pulling back the slingshot. Call me old school, but when I buy a console game, I actually read the manual. Although most of those games come with tutorials as well...
My 8 year old cousin learnt to play the game in his first flight. How many brain cells do you need to understand: AVOID dangerous looking stuff (lasers? Missiles?) Collect coins Place a finger on the screen to see what happens?
My 6 year old brother learned how to play this game... He just opened up my dad's iPad and when i looked over, he was at 800 feet...
Hey Psac! It's interesting that you bring this to the table. I actually had a tutorial in the game at one stage, but I intentionally removed it. The main thing I wanted here was a certain degree of self discovery for the player. I really wanted players to have that 'aha!' moment when they figure out all the systems. Humans a naturally built learning machines, and we all get a kick (consciously or not) out of understanding a new system. There is an obvious risk in my approach, as player frustration is a real possibility should the barrier of entry into understanding the system be too high. To help mitigate this risk, I made several deliberate design decisions: The player is always presented with a set of coins first. This allows them to have an obvious spatial goal to shoot for, in a low risk environment. This should encourage player curiosity and discovery of the fly up mechanic. This is followed by a set of 3 zappers that are in a very deliberate order. The first is at the top of the screen. Most players will see the danger and stop entering input, causing them to fall and miss the zapper! Whenever you collect a vehicle, 2 sets of coins are presented. This is for the same reason again, giving spatial no risk goals to promote player discovery. One touch for everything, with no locational context to maximise discovery and ease of understanding. Other steps I took to further mitigate the frustration risk is by creating an extremely low friction retry loop (its super easy to start again), coupled with a low time and emotional cost of failure (game sessions are short, and you even get rewarded for failing via the polaroid photos, missions etc). Sorry that this system didn't mesh with you, however A lot of thought and design went into the omission of a tutorial, and I'm pretty proud of the overall result for the vast majority of players! If you want to discuss this further, I am more than happy to!
Hey Muscat, why don't you test the game with some monkeys (I'm being serious)? Don't forget to publish the results! It could give the game some recognition for "the most accessible game ever created". The level design sounds very intricate now that you've explained it. Can't believe so much thought has gone into making the game accessible for all players!
Thanks for the detailed reply. I appreciate you sharing your thought process. I look forward to playing the game more.
When you, dear Muscat, helped me with my first problem, you told me to sign in to OF and you would fix it. I *thought* my OF account was in my name (Doffie), but you said it wasn't. So it gave me a random number account which I'm using now, not so happily. Is there a way for me to either get my original named account back or to change this string of numbers to a real name? Sorry if this is silly, but I'm used to GC only, although before there was a GC I'm sure I checked into OF for other games.
I'm not Muscat, obviously, but I might be able to help you out. 1.) Go into OF and click on the middle tab at the bottom (person outline). 2.) Click on "Settings". 3.) Scroll down and press "Switch Account" When you do #3, you should see an account named "Doffie". Go ahead and select that. I hope that helps.
Maybe that's a stupid question, but how do i complete the "Reach 1,000m without using the machine gun jetpack" mission? I've gone well past 1000 both by feet (subtracting meters needed to avoid obstacles with short bursts) and on Mr. Cuddles (tried with other vehicles, but failed a little short of said distance), but I can't seem to satisfy the goal set for that mission... I don't know if the Italian translation for it ("VOLA 1,000m senza il jetpack mitragliatrice", that is "FLY 1,000m without using the machine gun jetpack") is more helpful or misleading... am I supposed to fly a total of 1000 meters with any other vehicle in one run? Thank you very much, apart from that I'm enjoying every single minute I can squeeze out of this game!
Wow! That's some clever psychological shizz going on there! I love this game, by the way. Love all the attention to detail, especially a sign at the very start saying 'Do not steal' !!
That was exactly it, thanks askgar! You can also board a vehicle, as lon as you have a different jetpack Now, on to break my personal 3700 meters wall...!
Sigh mikeg123, I do *not* blame you for this. You were trying to help. I did what you said, successfully changed my OF name to Doffie (or back to Doffie). But now I have again lost everything ---- all my gold, all the upgrades I'd bought, etc. Muscat had returned a big amount of gold to me under my last OF id (the random number), but now that's gone. In truth, I'd like not to use OF at all, just Game Center. But it seems that Muscat required an OF sign in both times he restored stuff I lost. Again, this is no one's fault, especially yours. You were very kind to offer help and you're always good guys on these boards. Guess I'll message Muscat again or just give up and start over, but I hate to lose all my badges and stuff.
Sorry to hear that! Sounds like things have gotten mixed up between multiple OF accounts for you. I guess you'll need Muscat to help you sort that out. I'd imagine he'll be able to transfer gold, etc. to your *real* account. I believe OF is used because it offers the ability to save game data, so that you can transfer that to another device. I don't believe GC offers that capability, so that might be one reason why OF is required here.
