I think the funniest fact about this game... or better: "experience" is, that I slowly get the slight feeling that the dev doesn't realize what he has created here, what treasure he has here. That's truly stunning me. Protopop was like: "hey, look people, I created my own little world and I think it's not bad". Then you download it and boom from the gecko, it's just awesome.
I hope you are doing good on optimisation because it laggs heavily on iPad Mini Retina even with running only half the resolution in 2x mode.
Wow you nailed it! This dev is in it for the passion you can tell. You put it in words what was in the back of my mind reading those who thread and his interactions. I appreciate ones like him and the Flappy Bird devs interview, where you can see it's about the integrity of their creativity over makin a buck like the app mills. And it's the money that enables them to put more time into creating and honing their apps. Sure it's a little rough around the edges, I really wish there were a save feature, and a little tighter camera for goin up the spire etc, or dare I say destructsble environments, or at least being blocked by trees instead of walking through them. But a one man team comes out of no where with a game I have attention for more than an hour, that's who I support. These are the guys I like to see succeed.
Tell me your auto-correct turned "get-go" to "gecko." Took me a second to figure it out! But I just purchased it to support the game and developer. Not sure if I'll play much since I've got quite a few I'm currently playing. But the time I've spent in the game this morning was quite peaceful. Thanks for the amazing experience!
Greetings to a fellow Québecois Great to see that such a terrific looking game is coming out of Québec ! I bought the game a couple of days ago on the off chance that it would play on my iPad. Glad to hear that the next version will be iPad native. The game really does look amazing, and to hear that it is only one of four worlds you have created makes the achievement even more impressive ! I can't wait to get into this - the week has been a crazy one - and explore this world. I'm very happy that you are involved in the forum and taking the time to interact with the people here. I'll be looking for the update, and I wish you "bonne chance" most earnestly for success and voluminous sales of your game. Salut !
I am very happy with this game for the price that I paid, only 99c. Sure I could complain for a little lack of content, and that the graphics are stuttering and the framerate not so high it seems, but as I said for this cheap I feel its worth it. To explore this world only to take in the sights would have almost been enough, but the gameplay is also pretty neat. Congratulations for making a good game for a good price and I am hoping for more updates in the future.
I'm so excited to play this. I bought it yesterday and haven't had time to start it up. So is it pretty much just a big world to get lost in with tons of stuff to find?
Thanks anabolicMike I'm Canadian too (eh?) so i had the frosty feeling in mind when i worked on the snowy areas. I'm really going to have ti address the fact rthat the main character runs around shirtless in the snow. Its liek when i see movies and peopel are drenched wet and stuck outside in a blizzard and i'm like "in real life they wouldn't last 5 minutes before freezing to death". You compliments really lift me up - thanks for being so eloquent. I'm really into your idea about the camera. At first i had near and far camera modes, then i removed that and put the "zoom out" capability in the "view dots" around the world that zoom you out. I thought that by keeping that zoomy camera control to the viewdots it made their impact as places to see things more special. But i was experimenting with a "diablo" camera - a three quarter top view - and it was really cool. Not ideal for every situation but something i wanted to add in. Now with you mentioning the camera I think that is a really good thing, a little more camera control, to add to update 1.2 (1.1 gives iPad support and is almost here). A few other people (and myself) contemplated removing the spear button, or at least making it contextual. The original model came with a huge battle axe which was great but that was also when the game was called Nimian Hunter/Nimian Battles and it was all about fighting and defeating Bosine (the tree beast). I dropped the battle focus because i realized my real passion was in building the world, and i didnt want to focus all my energy on making a great battle (which is cool but it just isnt my MAIN strength). So i changed the axe to a relatively innocuous spear or staff, and then toyed with the idea of removing it altogether. I'm going to leave it in, but i'd like to find a way to keep the "attack" button off the main screen when it isnt needed, which will help move focus away from violence towards exploration. I really like the idea of a context sensitive attack button that fades in when you are near something to attack, but that kind of prompts the user to attack things, and i think its better if the player can control their actions at all time. If you want to swipe at a tree, swipe at a tree. Probably what i will do is combine both so some kind of context sensitive thing AND a pull out/put away button for weapons. What would be really neat and i just thought of it now, might be to offer an ACTION button that does different things with the staff depending on the situation, like a meditative monks move with the staff when you press the button while standing contemplatively on a peak. Anyways totally inspiring everything you said. Thanks for putting your faith in the game and for your feedback (i am collecting it all)
I'm so glad you are able to feel the 'relaxation' angle. I know that its a digital world and a super rough approximation of our real one, but i wanted to capture some of that relaxed feeling I get walking through the woods (minus the mosquitoes, although who knows, he should swat at bugs randomly, might deepen the immersion). I believe that as game, which to me are really simulations, become more immersive and real they'll offer us more and more of the benefits that we get from really being in a specific place. Nothing can replace the real world, it has its own unique and obvious charms. But i think there may be a blood-pressure lowering type of benefit that can be discovered here. Its great that you mention it because it's one of those project threads i have running through my mind, and when i hear other people pick up on it it encourages me to follow it up and develop it more. P.S. The native iPad version for iPad Air/4 and Mini Retina is on the way
Thanks for the feedback bruno7. Yeah it can get quite hot - i noticed that too Ive been optimizing the game and am releasing a 1.1 version that runs smoother, and i plan to keep looking for more places to optimize as i update it. This is the template for my other 3 world areas so all the improvements i make on this one will fall into the 3 others, so im very invested in making the project files as tight as possible. Here's a line copy/pasted from my To do list: "If not grounded for more than 10 seconds you die when you are grounded" - so we're on the same page Part of me likes the fact that you can fall far and get on with your business, and swim without taking a breath. But after reading your post i can see that it breaks the immersion too. I think a good solution would be to give the player vulnerability to falling and swimming underwater - but make sure he is on teh strong side - nit coming up for air every 10 seconds - and then move the in vulnerabilities into bonuses that you can unlock, perhaps in one of the mini-ventures i am preparing now for the game (adding some miniventures and optimizing the game seem to be the two things people are asking for most - Im definitely listening. P.S. It's funny because a lot of my ideas are becoming fully formed as i write responses to people like you in the forum - all of you feedback is pushing me to think about things and new ideas come out - thank you everyone
I made a comment a bit back about a glitch in the game where you can walk UNDER the terrain and i made a comment about how i should turn it into a cave. Now that you mention the cave and the old mine, and because i am mulling over an adventure idea to add to the world, i think that glitch will make a great cave mine and the base for the added adventure. Maybe even the bear is involved too. You know, the hardest part, or one of them, is to not get TOO excited. I have to continue smoothly, organizing the ideas, picking the best ones i can do There is so much inspiration its easy to blow the project scope out of proportion, but i have a bit of experience that has helped force me to organize and simplify things because that's one great way to get more done. Anyways this cave idea is seeded in me now and i'm gonna follow it up - Thanks!
Those are amazingly kind words Vovin. And i like how you use the word 'experience' - I've been looking for a word to replace "Games" for years, because these really are experiences, and what we call 'games' are a subset of those experiences that are typified as 'fun' experiences. Anyways my word ideas like digiworlds, experigames, whatever.... don't quite click But even if there isnt a word to describe it, the idea of making experiences that people can go through and, somehow even if it's just in a little way, come out somewhat changed excites me.
Thanks Nekku - i am making optimization a BIG priority. Its basically 1) optimization and 2) adding in a few adventure quests (and 3) new mechanics like jumping). At first i thought i'd be able to optimize it enough to even run on A5 devices, but it's looking like i wont be able to achieve that. Still, the optimizations im doing make it run faster on supported devices so hopefully you'll see an improvement with the next update. Hmmm,, i mention a few posts back how ideas come to me as im responding to posters and it just happened again. In the upcoming update i removed refraction from the iPhone 5 version because it REALLY speeds things up with a relatively minimal reduction in visuals. What im thinking now is i should break out that water quality option into an actual setting in the options screen a user can control. I don't know why i didn't think of that sooner, Thanks for the synergy!
Indeed I love the idea for the camera and cave of course. And that darn attack button I keep hitting with my gorilla thumb. My suggestion tho is to have an option to play in the present God-Mode, bc swimming without breath etc is quite zen like. It'd be nice to find more suprises underwater unless I've been caching in the wrong areas Lol. Can't get enough. There's a new gameloft game dropping tonight I see and even tho it's really polished, the story base just doesn't do it for me. But it is described as 4 acres of area. What would you say the size of this land is?
The artist in me (and everyone) really, really appreciates what you said about passion. I think making money is great. I want to make some money because, like you say, i want to be able to continue to create worlds to explore. Bigger, better worlds and share them. But at the root is a passion to do this. In a way i feel lucky because i've sacrificed some financial security to do this and spent many thousands of hours making games for free because i love it, and now with Unity and the app store and people like you i have the opportunity to take a chance at that. As the designer when i look at my game i see all the rough edges, i see everything i CANT do, at least with pocket change and spare time. But i keep at it because of what I do see beyond that. I realized it doesnt help if im my own worst detractor. So when people like you say you can see through the rough edges and appreciate what, i guess, is at the 'heart' of the game well that puts me at ease yes a save feature is essential. Right now it only saves your cheats, but i need to add persistence to other things like animal deaths, and move the "master reset" option into the main options screen (right now you can only reset your game completely in the options screen on the splash page). The blocked by trees thing was a performance issue, but if i don't end up achieving A5 cpu support (which it looks like might happen), like a kinect-less xbox one it will free up a bit of processing overhead that i can use to look into more destructible environments. I actually plan to add some :little shop of horrors" type plants around the world as one-hit kills. This kind of simple interaction can fill in the quite spots.
God mode - i love it! Id also like to add a free camera mode to that, so you could see all the ugly cracks and behind the scenes things if you want. Ultimately i think its great to give full dev access options to players. Do you know how many times ive wanted to fly up into the sky or outside a level in games to see how it was made Size wise the landscape is 2x2km, and the ocean is another 1 km perimeter, so the entire thing from invisible barrier to invisible barrier is 16 square kilometers. The original game was 16 square kilomentres just for the landscape, there was an additional 1 km ocean around it, a 1x1km underground, and a 2x2km ocean trench heres a shot from the old ocean
That's great curtisrshideler! A peaceful experience in a game can be a great one i think (i keep hearing the word 'experience' and i really like it as a description) - I hope some people might just walk around, listen to birds, and relax by a waterfall
Hey Protopop! I saw this thread was pretty active last night, so I decided to buy the game and give it a whirl. I am really impressed! I have always liked games in which things or people are still going about their business when you are not around. Like in Skyrim, people won't always be there waiting for you to return, they go to talk to other people and travel around the landscape. I had that same feeling with Shadow of the Colossus (which is my favorite game as well ). The sword light in that game would direct you to the next Colossus, but I liked the feeling that all of the Colossus were still moving around before I even go to them. I liked that the world would keep on going if I was not in it. I get that same feeling from your game, with the Ents and the spirit animals. I did have a few thoughts/criticisms about the game that I wanted to share. I hope that is alright. I really, really like your game! And I saw that you are really open to helping make it the best experience it could be. They were just a few things that made the immersion experience difficult for me to embrace, or thoughts on how the game could be improved (IMO). These are all just my opinions and the majority of people could feel totally different: 1. The noise that occurs when you switch to the spirit animals, or when you swing your staff, is pretty jarring to me. IMO, it feels distracting and it really made me not want to switch to the other animals. I wonder if there could be another, more pleasant noise that could be substituted. 2. A few times (most notably when I was crossing the bridge near the ents), I would approach one of the glowing orbs of light (which provide some info about the world) and it would take up the entire screen and (most importantly to me) prevent me from seeing what I was doing. As I tried to run across the bridge, I kept hitting the railing and getting stuck because the text wouldn't disappear. I think I'd prefer (again, just my opinion) for you to press a button to trigger the little orbs and read the info. That way, you could bypass ones you have read before and the onscreen text wouldn't be in your way. 3. In the same vein, maybe a possible achievement/goal/quest in later updates could be finding all the glowing orbs. That way people who like quests/goals (like myself) could feel really accomplished by finding out all the info about your world. Also, maybe there could be a menu option in which, after having found a glowing orb, they could be removed or hidden from the world. That way when I see an orb, I will know I have not been to that location before. While it's nice seeing so many orbs across your land (knowing that they all provide some info about your world), it may be more immersing for the orbs to disappear over time (perhaps using one of the methods I have listed above). 4. I think it would be awesome to play as the spirit animals, not just watch them. I know you can be the eagle, but it would be cool to be the fox, bear and the deer as well. Maybe even have quests as those animals! 5. Like someone said earlier, I think I would like it if there were some penalty to falling from huge heights. Makes it feel that I can't just do anything I want and be fine, because you can't in the real world. 6. I enjoy fighting or adventure games, so I am not averse to violence. That being said, I think it would be fun for the quests to not be fighting-centric. I am loving the exploratory and wonder feeling that comes with your amazing game. Having quests that encourage exploration and not fighting would help for me to continue to see this game a a great zen, wonder adventure, then as a fighting game. 7. Maybe there could be an option to pull the camera back a bit. A few times, when I was running up a mountain (skyrim style), the camera would pull back and I wouldn't be able to see anything except my dude's back and staff. Maybe if the camera was farther back, it would help that, and help the immersing experience (since I would seem smaller in relation to the world). I know that is a lot of critiques/suggestions, and perhaps people will think that means I don't like your game. Definitely not true! You have made something truly special hear and I am very excited for new updates and to see how you build this world more and more. Thank you for your passion and dedication in making this game, because it shows. And thanks for your input and feedback to your fans : )
Merci quebecotr. I'm hoping for voluminous sales too It would sure be nice. Quebec is a great place to make games. I'm in Montreal and there's a really artistic vibe here that seems to encourage artists and designer, and i love that and how the french culture seems to add some creativity to the English when they come together.
@greenleaf: Where can I find the Ents? I had not much time to play yet, and found only three or so special places yet. @all: May I suggest we open a separate thread just for exchanging places of interest? @protopo: 1) Found the folks I was talking about, will send you a PM later. 2) How much effort would it be for you to implement an ingame map that shows all interesting places as you discover them? "Interesting places" for lack of a better word, "landmarks" maybe? Or only icons, no text. Like showing the Lighthouse and the Whale in the Ocean with stylised icons? Look at medevial maps for example, some had a lot of ornamentation. 3) I wouldn't call it God-Mode, sounds too much like an Ego-Shooter. Exploration Mode? 4) Same, rename "Cheats" to something less associated with "normal" games, especially Shooters. "Omniscience" , "Seasoned Traveller Mode; I'm sure you - or some of the great people here on the thread - can find something more fitting. 5) Unity? Did you ever consider getting onto Steam, e.g. via Greenlight? I only know that Unity makes multi-platform development/deployment a lot easier. But I have no practical experience, so I have no idea how much effort that is technically, not to mention marketing-wise. 6) Marketing: If you feel so inclined, you could send the Toucharcade team a promocode, and invite them to review your game.
