We have been spotted...DIVE!!! Wow! I am so happy more people will learn to fly and take iPad-gaming to the next level! This is gamingevolution in real-time... This is beyond Jupiter! I made a new instructional-video with those annotations on youtube. I hope it helps Making More Melodive Masters in the future! http://youtu.be/tnAyQLkS4Wc Abbeylution
Congrats on the front page review! Nice overall review. I would disagree a bit regarding the controls. I believe they can be mastered. The controls are very well tuned, and can be easily adjusted to suite your play style. Learning to fly well in heavy mode is exhilarating, especially as you get increasingly comfortable with the controls. The controls are not completely foreign either. They are a close cousin to flight sim controls, and are relatively easy to wrap your head around as the physics make sense. A big part if the thrill in this game comes from increasing your high score, going further than ever before; not because of tons of upgrades and an endless flow of in app currency, but instead because you leveled up. Yes, I'm talking about you, not your avatar. Over time you become a more skilled pilot, and that is key to getting the high score. So the controls are actually a big part of what makes this game so good. Surprising for tilt controls, but it can be done, and the dev did a great job with Melodive.
This is what Melodive is all about! If you want, you could clarify this in the review thread as well, as most people will probably not read this whole thread. I think you put it in perfect words. Speaking of words and glowing reviews, i wanted to share this japanese review/game guide as well (poorly translated): http://bit.ly/Z389Td. It's IHait on the leaderboard, currently 5th place with a dive down to 20k m. Congrats, IHait! It's now 30 Melodive Masters in the world. Also: For followups and news, please like Melodive on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/15NMUb9, so don't have to spam this thread. I will be posting on Facebook and twitter @melodive from now on. I will of course continue answering any question people may have. It's been a fantastic week. Thank you TouchArcade and all it's people! I also plan on making a tutorial-video so everybody can get down with Melodive. I know that Melodive is not perfect so I promise I will continue polishing and expanding.
I just saw the toucharcade review. Congratulations on the great review. Although, I personally would've given it 5 stars. I can only guess he only gave it 4.5 stars for the lack of gameness and the difficulty of the controls. Oh well. Anyway, I just saw the latest Extra Credits on Penny Arcade titled "Intrinsic or Extrinsic" and it seems eerily relevant to how I've been feeling since I bought this game. In the video, they ponder the motivations behind why people like to play games and they discus how games sometimes use extrinsic rewards to motivate and at other times use intrinsic. Extrinsic motivations they describe as things you do in a game that you wouldn't necessarily want to do isolated, but you end up doing to get to something you want in the game whether that be equipment or just story, while intrinsic motivations are things you do in a game that you truly want to do and look forward to. So the two games that I played recently that this made think of are Melodive, obviously, and Ridiculous Fishing. While thinking about some possible reasons Ridiculous Fishing was appealing, ignoring how good it looks and how polished the app is, it seems the main draw and reason to continue playing is to unlock items. This isn't to say that the game on the whole is bad, but I found the actual gameplay to be a bit lacking, somewhat repetitive, and bland after a while. So, the main draw was unlocking big gimmicky items to make the game seem more fun. In my opinion, if they hadn't done this, the game wouldn't be very sucessful. So in other words, the concept really can't stand on it's own two feet. I ended up grinding the fishing game just so I could unlock a bazooka. This seems to describe exactly how they described extrinsic motivations. While flying in Melodive on the other hand is a perfect example, for me, of an intrinsic motivation, which is to say that flying is its own reward. While it could be easily argued that Melodive on it's own isn't really a game, the fact that flying feels as good as it does and, despite the fact that there are no real objectives, achievements, or direction, but it's as compelling as it is really, in my opinion, says something about the quality of this game, the concept and the execution. Playing this game is just fun. Now I'm not trying to say Ridiculous Fishing is a bad game. You may completely disagree with me, and that's fine. This is just how I feel. Sorry for making this thread my blog, but I really felt like sharing how I felt about this with you guys. On an unrelated note, I have a question for gjestland: is there any rhyme or reason to the spawning of metallic melodium, or is it random? It seems sometimes a get a lot in a game and sometimes I get very little.
I think you have some very good points there, and you're not the first to say. I will have to watch this "Extra Credits", sounds very interesting. My motivation was just to make the by far best flying game in the appstore. All the music just came along as a consequence of implementing the audio, I was just experimenting and having fun. Melodive just kind of happended over the course of several years, the good stuff stuck and the bad withered away. I am just extremely happy that my efforts are being appreaciated, both by players and critics alike. I could have done a better job easing people into experience, as the difficulty curve actually is steepest in the beginning, a gaming no-no. It does require some skill to fully be able to enjoy what's on the table, but when you get that far I think it's obvious that this is in fact a game and not only an "experience" as some people like to dismiss it as. Melodive is about advancing your flight-skills, not unlocking stuff. I promise that you could play this game for months and get better every day. That people have been able to enjoy it right of the bat has amazed me, i was sure it would fail utterly because of the uncompromising controls and non-gaminess. There shall only be one lump of Melodium at once in the Tuniverse. It shall however appear in your general direction. Hope this answers your question. I don't want to say to much since your still no. 1 and I am waiting for even more Melodive Master to arise so we can have a proper competition. It should be possible to break 100 million, don't you think?
I did an App Store view as well hope it helps! I am still getting better just broke 300k in Heavy mode, ranking at #52 on GC. I am definitely finding it easier to get high scores in Heavy Mode now that I am getting better at flying. What speed setting are you all finding most effective for high scores? As a side request, I think it would be cool to have a depth meter in the UI while flying. I get why you have a clean interface, but think a small depth indicator in the top right corner could be fun.
Thanks for the review! Here is the score formula: (MelodiumXDepthXSpeed)/10000. Also HEAVY will yield double scores. Also, very important: Metallic melodium will increase in value as you go deeper. One lump of Metallic melodium is worth the current depth divided by then. So the trick is to collect as many lumps of Metallic meloidium as possible. So the best setting for taking a high-score is a low speed setting, and then patiently try to get as deep as possible. Don't worry about the early lumps of melodium, concentrate on getting deep as fast as possible (increasing the mean speed). You should have a high/very high boost setting so you get enough speed. When you're deep try to find streaks of Metallic melodium. They will appear in open spaces so drive straight when you pick one up and the next will appear in your line of sight +/-. Collect as many mettalic melodiums as possible, don't worry about the speed anymore because the speed will be fast anyhow! Also remeber that a high degree og "handling" is required at high speeds. The more "handling" you are comfortable with, the better, as it will truly give better handling. Good luck, I would love to have some more players up in the millions. It should be pretty easy for you I think! I have gotten a few request for a gauge-meter, i did have it when Melodive was just a non-retina ipad-game. It was like a neon sign in the air, appearing regularly, but at random. It was pretty neat. I'm also working on including more content that will appear more often the deeper you go. I am a bit sceptical to adding a gui, bit I might try it. Probably not first update though. I will hopefully post the 1.0.1 update to Apple on Monday. Minor tweaks only, more colors and Melodium for everybody!
That sounds like a really neat way to give feedback on the depth without a standard UI. Maybe instead of a neon sign you could spell it out with mellodium like in the home screen. That would be really cool. Thanks for the pro tips by the way, I'm going to try that! So it seems like the speed is just a way to amp things up a bit once your skills are high, but you can still achieve a high score on heavy with a low speed and decent skill. This will be fun to experiment with!
I just wanted to report that I was just released from the psychiatric hospital. The doctors prescribed medicine for OCD, ADD, ADHD, night terrors, claustrophobia & vertigo. When I got home my wife was gone (oh wait she already left). The doctors said that I either need to stop playing Melodive or take the medication, so I opted for the later..... Great Game! I do have a question on controls though...which direction (left or right) increases the sensitivity & what should you start out with when you are merely trying to get the hang of it..? Thanks-I have to take my meds now...
Ok take your meds first, . Now, going to the right on handling increases sensitivity. Going to the left decreses it. I like to play with handling (sensitivity) set to about half. (I'm playing on my phone, an ipad needs a little more handling). Also increasing speed and/or gravity makes things harder. I usually fly with low speed, high boost, middle handling
Yes, and it will disperse when you get close maybe. I'll see what I can do. Yes, speed works excactly like that. However, to beat the current high-score you will neeed to start the game with almost no speed. Good luck!
Heavy gravity yields tighter controls but higher speeds. To achieve high scores in the millions you will probably have to use heavy-gravity, at least I think all the million-scores are done this way. Light gravity is 1/10 of heavy gravity and was invented so people could start of in a bit softer/bouncier environment and didn't crash so brutally all the time!
I was afraid that would happen. We have had reports of people disappearing into the Tuniverse, never to be seen again. Glad you made it! I'll add a special disclaimer in the next update.
Are you asking for spoilers when you're that close?! Soon you'll be the 45th Melodive Master in the world. Isn't that cool?
Latest review from the US Appstore, I made me laugh so I thought I'd share it here. All the postive review are just overwhelming considering the hard to master controls and the semi-hype from the TA-review. Melodive is on the outside layer an experiment or experience, because it looks and feels so diffrent. But if you dive deeper you will find a very hardcore-game, and I am very thankfull that people have taken the time and learned the controls so they can see what Melodive truly has to offer.
