Refreshed beta with a number of changes including: - new music on/off option - new crowd sound on/off option - new option: full z-axis vs. simplified controls - new option: ability to select starting opponent - new option: ability to play as any wrestler - 'rage' meter now visibly updated at point of taking damage, rather than when player (later) falls to ground. - game center achievements (prelim) There's also a (temporary) option allowing use of 'classic' music based on Arcade Mat Mania, that will obviously need to be reworked. Will likely be exposed in final build as a more general ability to download/install custom music
I'm planning to refresh beta with a release candidate this weekend, and will add new batch of testers at that time - thanks!
Took a bit longer than I liked (dang day job) but I've updated Slam Mania to 1.0, pending approval from Apple before new build can be distributed via TestFlight. For any new testers just added yesterday, I encourage you to wait until 1.0 build is available through TestFlight before beginning. Lots of little changes coming including: - reworking of UI to allow onscreen hints to be left on for all matches (not just Jobber Joe); onscreen hints now more attractively rendered - UI now allows music/hint/crowd sounds to be toggled in-game, and not just from main menu. - checkpoints and character unlocking now working. Once you beat a wrestler, you'll be able to start from that wrestler (instead of always starting with Jobber Joe). Once you have beaten all opponents with a given wrestler, you'll unlock the next wrestler for optional use. - Some additional character differentiation; Chen Lee now has his own turnbuckle-based attack and custom flying kick - softened the difficulty rampup a bit - all not-yet-earned achievements should now be visible instead of hidden - lots of (unrelated) fixes for AppleTV port
Now, one of the reasons for the long delay for this game is that I've never released a game only to say to myself, "man, I wish I had released this earlier." The opposite is usually true - you find bugs, get actionable feedback, or think of value-add features that could have made an initial launch more successful. One example of this is general difficulty. When a developer works on a game over an extended period of time, it's tempting to keep ratcheting the difficulty up to keep the game challenging for the developer. By the end of a long developer cycle, a developer typically has acquired expert level skills and is in no position to access difficulty. If not careful, you can end up with a game that's completely impossible/frustrating for a novice player. To help ward that off, I've been periodically doing blind play testing sessions to periodically gauge accessibility. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my nephews reach El Diablo on his first run. Like most people, he skipped the "how to play" button and jumped right into gameplay. In my local build, I now allow the onscreen hints to optionally remain onscreen indefinitely instead of being limited to the first match "Jobber Joe" which is a big help. I'm currently looking into low hanging fruit features that could give the game more depth and replay value. One that's been on the back burner for a while is a "character configurator." It lets you choose a player name and tweak various cosmetic attributes including skin/hair/clothing colors: Idea (thanks to Sticktron) is to use this as part of a "Career Mode" with ladder and stats - as an alternative to the current game's pure arcade style gameplay. This could of course be supplemented by the ability to upgrade with moves currently available only to opponents.
A little embarrassing how long this is taking to wrap up, but a quick update: The main thing holding back release right now is tutorial improvements. Did some rounds of blind play testing, with mixed results. Unlike Flicky Marble, Slam Mania has enough complexity in the play mechanics that it really needs some hand holding to ramp up new players. On unrelated note, after making a valiant effort trying to get human vs. human online play working acceptably well over internet, I decided it wasn't worth fighting the lag monster, and so added a local hotseat mode. This works great on iPad, and surprisingly well even on an iPhone6+. Last but not least, big thanks to my buddy Louis for new icon/splash screen!
Hello! Count me in for beta testing! Do you have a link to some kind of a form for signin up for the beta test?
