Hey guys, I'm in the process of updating my app, SWAY and I could really use your feedback!! It's free, check it out here for iOS. So, what can I do to make it more fun, more addictive, less crappy? I appreciate your feedback! Thanks!
Cool, that's actually pretty fun! Here are some of my thoughts: 1. I think your game would benefit from a little more description/explanation: I was under the impression that you had to constantly tap in order to stay afloat. That made an already hard game brutally hard. It took me a while to figure out that you can hold down a tap to gradually float up. 2. There are times when fullscreen ads popup DURING the game, resulting in instant death. That's going to tick off a lot of players. 3. The mechanics are somewhat puzzling to me. I really like the concept, but it didn't feel predictive enough to me. The position of the gray square swinging along with me was insufficient in telling me how the red square was going to behave when I tapped. Thus, I was forced to guess how exactly the red square was going to jump, and I typically guessed wrong, resulting in death. For a game very much about precision, I need to have a clearer understanding of what's going to happen when I tap. 4. I fully admit that I am not very good at your game (and perhaps even misunderstood the mechanics of it). So, for someone like me, it's just too hard. Since I can't make much progress, it'll never be addicting to me. However, I understand that there's a crowd that likes these kind of games, so I may be more of an outlier than the norm. (I've played your game maybe 20 times, and I've only twice made it to the part where circles start dropping.) That said, it's still fun, and I think the (at times) unpredictability of the movement of the red square would actually be very interesting if the game wasn't so punishing.
@ThumbSnail Thanks for your thoughtful feedback! 1. Agreed. It probably could be more clear. I'll give some serious thought as to how to accomplish that easily. 2. Yep. That's bugged me from day one. An issue with the software I used to build the app. I'm planning to disable the popups altogether to avoid the problem. 3. This was intentional. I was trying to make it difficult. I mean, it's tough to go jump around with a weight attached to your character, right? I'm looking at implementing checkpoints and adding additional levels in order to at least make it so you feel like you're making progress. Perhaps that would help? 4. I agree, it's tough! I can only get so far without smashing into something and I know all of the tricks! Like I mentioned, perhaps adding checkpoints (with additional levels) would make it feel like you're making some progress, and give you a reason to keep playing. Appreciate your comments! They do mean a lot!
Again, these are just the reactions of one guy, but here are some additional thoughts after playing it some more: 1. I went back and played it again. Hahaha, so it's obviously somewhat addicting, despite me whining about its difficulty! I was able to get a better feel for how best to play and was thus able to make it a lot farther and see new, different areas (which was cool). My question: How difficult would it be for you to make different modes? 2. As the game currently stands, I'm just going to call it "Challenge Mode" or "Very Hard", and suggest not making any changes to it. Some people like super hard games right from the start. And, for me, after getting a little better at it, I like the idea of upping the difficulty and then seeing how far I can go without getting hit once. 3. My fear is that some people are going to immediately turn away after trying your game because it's too hard. And that's a shame because I think you have a really neat idea and a mechanic worth playing and exploring. For them, I'd suggest an Easy Mode. I think implementing checkpoints is one idea. Another idea is that death happens after touching the black areas TWICE instead of once. And/or maybe this could be score based: you get one free hit at the beginning of the game and no more until you get 5,000 points/travel through 3 distinct areas.
Hmmm. Really interesting ideas! I'll give them some thought. Thanks again, and I'm glad to hear you're still playing.
Hey, I liked your game so much that I just posted a review/article about it on my blog. However, I'm using your images/screenshots. I assume that's ok with you, but I wanted to double check.
