Music is well done, audio sounds 3 dimensional on the iPad. Have to be very careful not to touch the screen when tilting, the slightest touch deselects the character and he stops moving. Loving everything except tilt controls. Agree with Gotters, swiping up to jump while handling tilt controls feels awkward. Double-tap anywhere to jump would be better. Think I'll stop playing and spend time on Dungeon Warfare 2, give HandCircus time to add virtual controls, then come back.
Reading these comments about the controls, it seems people are showing their relative age here... When this game first came out more than 10 years ago (!!) it was praised for its innovative controls, and for making use of the fact that the iPhone was a touchscreen device, and didn't have any buttons. In the intervening years, so many games came out that just couldn't bother to cater specifically for the nature of a touchscreen and just stuck virtual buttons on the screen, and people have got so used to it. I guess I'm also showing my age here, but by saying the exact opposite – that is, if I see virtual buttons on an iPhone game, then it's an instant NO-buy from me. Each to their own, I guess...
No i totally agree this was very innovative at the time and yeah its a catch 22, i can see why they've gone the tilt route as thats what Rolando is famous for totally. If they added virtual buttons then that might make it far far easier. I love virtual buttons but yeah i do realise why this famous game is tilt. I think i will give it a go (i'm not a fan of tilt !) as this is an iconic iOS 'franchise' so to speak and i want to support that. I've always loved platformers and prefer buttons as i've been playing platformers since the days of Miner 2049er and Manic Miner. I'll just have to swallow it and get this one
There's several issues with tilt control. 1. I get motion sick having the screen constantly moving around, does your monitor or TV shake all over when you play? 2. As others have stated, touching the screen deselects your character, tilting back and forth often leads to a slight touch of the screen = character deselected. 3. Swiping up to jump frequently leads to deselected characters. 4. I primarily game on my 12.9" iPad Pro that sits in a smart cover (keyboard). Holding up a 12.9" ipad & attached keyboard cover while tilting back and forth gets tiring. 5. It's hard to enjoy Rolondo's beautiful graphics when the screen is constantly rotating in front of me. It takes away from the excellent art work and gameplay as far as I'm concerned. Tilt control was only innovative because it was new, not because it was a superior form of control in any way. I'm not saying get rid of it, just add a virtual stick control as an option.
So after having waited the whole entire day for my pre-order to kick in, and STILL nothing happening, I finally cancelled the pre-order and just bought the game as a new customer. It was only at this point that Apple finally decided to tell me to update my credit card information (as I recently got a new card) before I could continue... Jeez, thanks Apple! You could've told me that earlier, like on my Pre-Orders list on the App-Store, or on the notification popup that you showed me when you told me my pre-order was ready to download!!
Totaly agree with you. Being innovative in 2010 (?) does not mean that it is innovative in 2019 and by no means comfortable for every player. I did not buy the game but as a primarily ipad player i read your comment and i imagine myself trying to play and my hands hurt and getting tired after 10'. Guess tilting is not for me i will wait to see if other controls are added and then decide if it is worth buying.
After extensive playing, I’ve come to the personal conclusion that virtual controls would absolutely ruin the game. There’s too much going on as is, and if you actually mess about for a while you’ll come to understand that virtual buttons would come in the way of both selecting characters and fiddling about with the environmental aspects of the game. Tilt controls were revolutionary when this first came out and they’re still as intuitive, non-obtrusive and flawless as they were way back when. If you’re deselecting characters when swiping upwards to jump, remember that the entire screen is available and you should be swiping in a place that isn’t near your characters.
It has nothing to do with proximity to the actual characters... a touch anywhere on the screen will deselect all. Failing to make an effective swipe while tilting the pad results in a deselect. Though I do agree that all the later touch screen operations would only be hampered by having to keep fingers/thumbs stuck on virtual controls.
I absolutely agree with your assessment that virtual controls just would not work with this game, as that would interfere with the other touch-control actions you need to do with the characters and parts of the environment. But... I have found myself deselecting my characters on quite a few occasions. This appears to be because I am not swiping perfectly straight upwards. And the reason I am not swiping straight upwards is because I have an instinctive reaction to try and swipe in the direction that I want my character to move. So for a more extreme example, when my spiky character is stuck to the side of a wall, and he is therefore sitting sideways, an upwards direction for HIM (rather than me) would be either left or right. So my instinct is, thinking I want the character to move left or right, is to swipe in that direction. It just doesn't seem natural to swipe upwards to make my character go sideways. If you know what I mean... A less extreme example would be if I want to jump up on to a platform that is both upwards and to the side of me. In that scenario, I would swipe at a 45-degree-ish angle, rather than straight up. Again, it's the wrong thing to be doing, as far as the game mechanics are concerned, but it is the natural reaction to try and do this. In an ideal world, I would prefer for the game to allow for these more directional swipes...
Hey, thanks for all the feedback - really appreciate you taking the time to tell us about your frustrations. Out of curiosity - those that are finding the tilt frustrating (or would prefer pure-touch controls) - are you playing on an iPad? The tilt-to-move is definitely a more natural fit for smaller devices (it plays very differently on the iPhone SE to a 12.9" iPad!). If so, would love to hear if the game works better for you on iPhone/iPod touch. In terms of virtual controls - yep as you guys mention we already use touch so extensively (in addition to tilt) for things like selection, jump, panning around, interacting with platforms, detonating bombs. Virtual controls wouldn't be compatible with these (as it would be almost impossible to tell between a player wanting to move their rolandos, or trying to drag a platform. We'll definitely put some more thought into this, as we obviously want to make sure that everyone has the best experience possible. One other thing with those experiencing deselections when jumping - you don't actually need to "release" the swipe in order to jump - once you have dragged far enough the jump happens straight away (before the release).
Trying to get comfortable with the tilt control since the game is too nice not to play. I cranked up the tilt sensitivity to max and find that makes it easier to play as I don't have to move the device around as much to control it. I'm also finding it easier to play on my phone than iPad for same reason, holding the small phone easier than the huge 12.9" iPad with smart cover. I'd prefer the iPad so I can enjoy the graphics and animations more, the phone is a little small for my failing eyes. Anyone else having an issue that when the characters get separated the game zooms way out to the point where you can barely make anything out? I wish the zoom was capped at a reasonable range, let me 2 finger scroll or click on icon to jump to the character on the other side of the map. Still having an issue with de-selecting. Happens when I don't make the perfect swipe gesture and more frequently when I'm clicking on an object to interact with it, slight misclick off that object deselects characters. Overall a great game and well worth the price but a few interface items I hope they can work out.
Hi! Appreciate your reply, glad you've taken an interest in our rants. Yes, I do find the tilt controls much easier to use with my phone than iPad although I much rather play on the iPad. I found it less frustrating when I maxed out tilt sensitivity as now I can move around without physically moving the phone as much which was making me motion sick. iPad Pro's - iPad huge screen, better on my not so great eyes, I can better see and enjoy great art & animations of well made games like Rolondo. - iPad stands on it's own in the Apple Smartcase. Makes for a relaxing gaming experience where I just need to touch the screen, not hold it up. I prefer landscape games but don't like holding phone landscape. iPhone Pro's - Holdable for a fairly long gameplay session, iPad + keyboard-cover is too heavy - Hands close together make for character selection/swipe to jump/interaction with objects much easier. Holding a huge 12.9" iPad with keyboard cover with 1 hand while using the other to interact with objects leads to the iPad leaning to one side and undesired rolling. I understand the reasoning for the tilt controls and hopefully learn to like it because the game is otherwise very nice a definitely worth playing through the end. Requests - Cloud Sync - Toggle to disable conversations when missions start. The first one or two times is great for tips/instruction but having to go through it and click skip when I keep replaying levels over and over for high score gets tiring. Option in settings to disable the chatter completely would be nice. Issues 1. De-selecting characters accidentally happens all the time. Could requiring a slightly longer screen touch help avoid accidental de-selections? 2. When characters get far apart (which happens both accidentally and intentionally) the screen zooms out too far. Can this behavior be stopped or greatly limited? Zoom that far out isn't useful and I waste time trying to spot the tiny character icon to click it and zoom back in, meanwhile while frantically looking for the icon the phone shakes around and everyone gets out of position. Thanks for listening!
Great to see the dev here! I'm fine with the tilt controls, no problems there (but I am playing exclusively on my iPhone). I *DO* have problems with de-selecting though, so if some tweaking could be done there, that'd be great.
Difficult to test since there is no multi device support. I don't understand why it can't be tap to jump and use a swipe (or 2 finger tap) to deselect.
Funny how often the exact opposite turns out to be the same damn thing lol. Anyway, I seriously don't want to argue. But I wanted to say that I feel sorry for you missing out on some of the greatest iphone games ever, just due to a stupid rule. But to each his own I guess ...
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions all - that's super helpful. iCloud sync will be coming soon (should be in the next update), and we'll put some serious thought into the deselection issue and other issues raised here. Will update soon!
Lol, so many people anti-tilt. Alas, I‘ve gotta agree. I‘ll hold of with buying too until there (hopefully) is an option for virtual buttons. I have a huge iPad Pro and I don‘t wanna hold and move the heavy thing the whole time for playing when I could have it lying comfortably on the table, bed or my lap. Maybe tilt is more acceptable on the iPhone but even there I imagine it being rather inaccurate. From my experience anyway, tilt controls are usually uncomfortable, clunky, akward and annoying. Hope by considering the issues dev HandCircus meant considering buttons/mfi. The game looks great but right now tilt unfortunately is a dealbreaker for me (and apparently for a lot of other gamers here too)
I posted this in reply to TA’s GotW post on Twitter and figured I might as well share my simple “review”, fwiw. “Though I had heard of them, I didn’t have the pleasure of playing the original or its sequel so I came into this blind. It’s so incredibly well put together that I would have mistaken it for a more recent release. The level designs are top notch and the tilt controls are perfect.” <this doesn’t do the game justice Spoiler That level that has you turning your phone in circles was maddeningly fun
Thanks again for your feedback, we're exploring options for iPad players at the moment as well as iCloud syncing. Out of curiosity, do any iPad players play with MFi controllers such as GameVice, where you would be comfortable using the controller AND the touch screen?
