It's pretty easy to do, esp if your phone is jailbroken. I noticed Melodive finally has been pirated. I actually see this as a good thing, as this will help spread the game. There is still just a minority jalbraking so if they show it to their non-jailbroken friends it's a win for me. Haha! Regarding the cheating, I could always make an hardcore-iteration of Melodive that only die hard fans would buy, so there would be only 100 people on the leaderboard, no incentive to cheat. I think It could be a good idea as I would like to rework the scoring-system, and that is impossible now as the leaderboards are set and untouchable. More leaderboards would only be confusing. So if this is something people would like (I think I know someone), I would be happy to do it, as it would take very little work. I can also tweek the terrain/colors. One idea was to have the leaderboard written in the terrain, so you would know when you passed somebody. The racing aspect of Melodive has gotten me thinking other games with less complex geomentry. That means you can see further and thus go faster. Also the device will be able to keep pace, something that is hinder for Melodive (it can't run any faster becuase of iphone4s and ipad2). I think it woud be fun to explore more this aspect of going extremely fast and fluid. Also the diver aspect of Melodive got me thinking about a classic cliff diver game. I think it would be funny to redo it in 3d with just you, the cliff and the sea. Super-minimalistic, but with built levels so you would go higher and higher every time, to redicolous heights, a little like backflip madness i guess, only in 3D and forwatd. I'm looking for ideas that are more accessible than Melodive, but doen't trade down the controls. Ok, now I am rambling!
It stinks that it got pirated Like you said, hopefully people will see them playing and ask about it. I think that sounds kind of cool actually. I think all the Melodive masters would buy it. (I know I would). Leaderboard being in the terrain is pure genius. I'm sold on the 3D backflip maddness like sea diving game On more accessible ideas: I think the cliff diving game could be that. Something like navigating through rock outcropings at high speed could be really fun. There's a level is Flower where you are navigating through industrial debris. The level feels more a series of reactions rather than thought out actions (like piloting Melodive). Possibly the cliff diving game could be a little more "on rails" for people. ------------- There's also a game from my teenage years that I would love it see reimagined into something cool. Super Monkey Ball 2 (gamecube) has a mini game called Target. Basically you go down a ramp and hang glide. There's islands (targets) out in the water (some are very hard to land on), and there's wind to factor in. There's powerups to collect (like glue, for a slow landing, ect.) The orginal mini game really isn't much, but the concept is solid. I really only brought it up because it would be crazy fun to play something like that with tilt controls.
Yeah, but it's a bit hard to do, cause I will have to make my own alphabet with most of the special characters people have in their nick. But it would be cool! That's what I'm thinking. Plain and simple. Hopefully get rid of the fog also and have some nice procedural waves and sunset. And 100 levels at least. You could score based on your proximity to the terrain (dare) and angle of dive. Yes, people get very confused about the open structure in Melodive. I have tried to explain better in the 1.1 update. Thing is, I didn't know what Melodive was before I released it. Still, it's not clear. So what you say about "on rail" is pretty accurate. Some people need a bit of guiding. So that's where the level-structure comes in. The game could act as an door opener to the more advanced world of Melodive, as the controls would be similar. I am really really hope the control system of Melodive is something people can get into, because I truly believe it gives the best control with the fewest and best imputs (tilt is amazingly accurate). I have only seen gameplay-videoes of flower and not the level you mentioned, but people say flower a lot, so I should play the game. I don't have a ps3, but they should get cheap to pick up now. I noticed a guy called Chris Bell on the leaderboards that had tweeted about Melodive. Later I found of he was producer/designer on Journey! ------------- Yes, that's nice, saw it on youtube. Before the cliff-diver idea I had the stuntman idea where you jump of tall building, aiming for a stack of cardboard boxes. The game would get crazy and soon after you would be diving out of planes, trying to hit the same stack, but with the director yelling you directions! It's a bit similar... I'm trying to come up with ways of not coding a parachute!
Latest news roundup: Melodive made the top 5 games of the week @ appmyworld.com: http://www.appmyworld.com/blog/top-5-iphone-and-ipad-games-of-the-week-32713.html#.UVRMnqWSJGE Also, Melodive is getting some attention in Austria: VGT goes GameStandard: Best of Indie März http://videogametourism.at/node/1732 It's at the moment ranked as the 28th most downloaded game in Austria! Melodive is still selling!
Yes, Melodive was supposed to be that game, but then there was so much fun to do outside the realm of the realistic! Why not do a combination? You could have a wingsuit game where you would have to land on a target, like in super monkey ball2. The terrain would have to be a bit diffrent though, but that's ok. Melodive is designed so you always zip past something. In a wingsuit-game you would score points based on your proximity and probably on flips as well. Put in the target and you have great possibilites for leaderboard-battling with a lot of skill involved. You could have 100 levels that is just seeds like in Minecraft, but you handpick nice spots when designing and have the difficulty ramp up. All these scores could be added together in a total score that would be on the game center, in addition to other individual scores, like longest dive, highest score, etc. I think it would be very easy to do with my engine, the trick is just to have a nice, interesting algorithm for generating the terrain. This could probably work as a base, and then add some voxel detail on top (to get overhangs & cliffs): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uDMC-dgjts I already have the code for this kind of terrain (and it can be extended), so it would be pretty easy to do all things considered.
I thought those games looked smashing, but I could never get into the gameplay. I think I play most games I buy once or twice. That's why I made Melodive. Had more fun doing that, than playing the games on the appstore. I don't mind paying for crap (imho) games though, as long as they are made with some heart at a small studio. Their next game might be something great!
1.1 update imminent! 1.1 update is coming today or tomorrow at the latest (Apple willing of course). Here is a new trailer I've made (short this time) about the main new attraction, zero gravity: http://youtu.be/ctQ0varxKKs What's new: ➫ Two game modes: Arcade and Free flight ➫ Added gravity-slider: Choose from zero to heavy ➫ Better help ➫ Easier for beginners ➫ More readable text ➫ More color variation ➫ 15 % better handling ➫ 50 % more fuel efficient when boosting ➫ New tempo-buttons in the sequencer ➫ Sequencer alignment fix ➫ Game Center-fixes, will now report all scores ➫ 1000 extra Melodium to everybody!
Pilotwings 64 was really good at getting the sense of being at a steep angle right. Have you played Audiosurf? The idea is that you're speeding down a slope that reacts to your music, but to me, it fails at conveying the sense of going downhill. Even on the "steepest" tracks it still feels like you're more or less going straight ahead. You really need either a background that shows you what angle you're at (something like the SSX games) or an object on the scenery. Melodive does it well by having the mushrooms. One of the best games for this was Downhill Domination on the PS2, which used trees. Amazing sense of speed and really plummeting towards the ground.
Nice. Haven't played audiosurf, just watched some gameplay-vids. Looks pretty lame in my view, like a stylish match-3. You're right about the trees. They are needed. Since I am skipping the textures, I can get away witch much more jagged edges, and the edges makes for great detail = sense of speed. Works a bit like the mushrooms, but the mushrooms also gives scale. I think it's called ground cues or something, it's a term. What is similar about all these games though, is the level-design. It's like a box you put the player in. Melodive also has this box, but it's much more transperant, and it does extrend forever in one direction. I think this is Melodive's main achievement, not the graphics or the 60 fps. If you did a hybrid aproach, made a level from a random base and tweeked it a bit or at least set the seed and the start-point you would have a level, but the best solutions would not be obvius. It would take a lot of experimentation on each level to get the high score.
Melodive 1.1 is live in the app store!!! EDIT: this post should be in all caps, but ta wouldn't allow it, so please imagine it!
Nice! I downloaded the update and re-reviewed the game on the AppStore. I'm trying to find comfortable settings with the gravity slider and new handling. What would approximate the previous version's light gravity and slightly-less-than-half handling? The handling seems a bit more sensitive so brought it down from about 10 to 7 bars; still searching for comfortable settings. Any thoughts, advice, and/or preferences?
If starting at zero gravity, I believe clicking up about 3 times is equal to light gravity. It's actually easier (for me atleast) with a few clicks of gravity. . . I think between 2 and 5 clicks of gravity is about right. The handling was increased by 15%. I was playing at maybe 75% handling and now I'm at little over half. ---------------------------- Really like the update Johan! You make me want to punch my dad for color blindness
I'm a sucker for a dev that keeps in touch with his customers, so I've just purchased it. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it #
You are my hero, Giuse, doing that re-review! You completely burried that pilot who couldn't get the game. It's irritating when people throw out the game after 5 min without going into the tuning-menu. Let me ask you, did you get a help-popup when you first started the game? Ok, regarding the setting: Handling has been increased by 16 % because I got some reports that people were playing it at max setting, and the game gets eaiser to control with a higher handling when you're going fast. So I though I would test it out. Melodive will adjust your handling down when upgrading so the settings should match +/-. Regarding the gravity: It starts on 0 and goes all the way up to the old heavy-gravity. The reason I've done this in this way is because I felt the transistion from light to heavy is too hard for most people. Melodive was designed to be played on heavy-gravity, and light was just added as a way of making it easier. Zero grav is even more easy (at least in the start). LIGHT GRAVITY = 2 BARS Also the speed had to go because of lack of space in the gui, but I've increased the start-speed for everybody (from 30% to 50%) because I felt was totally faulty logic that highscores had to be taken from 0% speed-setting. So I felt the speed-setting had become very confusing. I think a gravity-slider is much more easy to grasp the meaning of. I am sorry for all the changes. Melodive has to be considered a work in progress, because I have so little experience and things I didn't think of will pop up in the wild. Humans are cool that way, they like to experiement! Like I said, I am serious about making a Melodive pro with settings and leaderboards designed for a pro croud (you guys), cause Ive learned a lot in the process. That said, I am much more happy with 1.1 than 1.0 and feel this is closer to what I indended. Hope this answers your questions!
I'm just extremely thankfull that there are people out there really enjoying Melodive, so much that they are writing about it and tweeting about it. It's just the most amazing feeling in the world, as it's pretty introvert coding something like Melodive and when people understand it, they understand me. I saw "Indie game - the movie" the other day, and I felt really sorry for Jonathan Blow when he talked about "Braid". It made him sad that people kept praising the game without understanding anything of it's meaning. It's like it doesn't help if people like your work for the wrong reasons. The communication has to work, or else you'll just end up feeling even more isolated than before. But now I'm rampling again. Thanks for the purchase! Here is the video-tutorial i made: http://youtu.be/Ccf0ubhebLc (in case you have trouble).
