The open beta project for 'Save Toshi' Updates (by devs of 'Rasta Monkey')

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by Noam, Oct 5, 2010.

  1. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    #21 Noam, Oct 7, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    Great introductions! I'm really happy to know all of you and I hope the rest will also honor us with some details about themselves.

    Our list is closed for now since we have enough testers, The 1st build is almost ready and will be sent to all of you today!

    Funny youve mentioned it, I just tried to play defender (20 years or so after), it's amazing how difficult this game is compared to most iPhone games.
     
  2. FPE

    FPE Well-Known Member

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    I still remember how &*&&* I was, when my mum came in and turned off my atari when I was about to break 1000000 at defender ... arg! Just because it was New Year's Eve party :mad:
     
  3. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

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    lol, it was hard to put this one down. I have a similar memory where my parents asked me to join a holiday dinner and I was giving them hell trying to get me out of the room:)
     
  4. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    OK, awesome Open Beta team

    The first beta build of 'Save Toshi' is up in the air, hooray! you will shortly recieve a mail with all the details on how to download it.

    Before we start it I'd like to give you all a few guidelines for this phase:
    1) Experience check - This build is comprised on only 20 levels, even though we have some more. We did this because we want to first focus on the initial experience - game mechanics, controls, art, entry level difficulty and the learning process.
    2) Collective decision making - We are looking for patterns in your insights, so I want all of you to first tell us about your 2 MAJOR concerns about the game and try to prioritize them too. this way we can easily see if there is something BIG you all agree on and change that first.
    3) Can't help it? - if you still more important objections banging on the walls of your head, feel free to add (and please don't forget to prioritize again).
    4) Thumbs up! - we need to know what are the 2 things you LOVE the most about 'Save Toshi'
    5) Bugs are different - If you encounter any kind of bug, big or small, report immediately so we can take care of it asap.

    after posting your basic report (on this thread only please) keep talking here and discuss everything with the other testers, you don't have to agree on anything, just be civil about it. A good way to join realtime conversation is to subscribe to this thread to get email notifications, and if anybody here doesn't know how to do that yet, please ask me and ill happily give you instructions.

    OK, enough talking, lets get to the fun part, let's save Toshi:)

    Respect!
    Noam
     
  5. BrettArchibald

    BrettArchibald Well-Known Member

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    Formerly Zimbabwe - now England.
    #25 BrettArchibald, Oct 7, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    The list-requirements you specifically outline are not how I usually conduct beta feedback — I normally just jot down my own thoughts as they occur to me while I'm playing the game.
    I did exactly the same thing as I always do for this game, but I will try and re-structure my notes to fit your list.

    Sorry if I come across as sounding harsh — I obviously don't intend to, and my comments are only meant to be taken constructively.

    Here goes...

    The artwork was excellent. The game mechanics, controls, entry level difficulty and the learning process were all very easy and straightforward. However, it's not a deal-breaker, but if I was a noob, I would appreciate an explanation that different blocks have different properties.

    I suppose my first major concern would be, as it stands, the game is quite easy and also it's quite repetitive. I know more levels are to come, but two questions:
    Will the later levels be much more difficult, or should I expect more of the same difficulty?
    Will later levels include other gameplay elements? Conveyor belts, switches, fans, trapdoors, etc. Otherwise I think it could become too repetitive with ONLY blocks.

    The second major concern would be that I have various star ratings between 1 and 3, but I don't know why? Number of hits? Time taken? Accuracy of landing?
    I could spend the time, and with a bit of trial and error, figure this out, but I would rather be told why in no uncertain terms.
    Maybe also introduce other associated points systems, where ALL the above different factors allow for different scoring elements. So you could have points scoring for landing as close to the centre of the floor as possible, a time-taken shown, and star ratings for how many hits made. This would allow for a greater degree of replayability than merely stars. So even if you had three stars before, you could increase your time-score, or increase your centre-accuracy score.

    Sorry, but I have more than just one more... ;)

    Will there be more variations in the level scenery in other levels? I know the scenery has no influence on the gameplay, but it does have an influence on the "feel" of the game. Different difficulty "packs" could be themed into different scenes.
    As well as the scenery, more variations in the level-end music would be good too.

    I'd love to be able to have a "watch replay" button - the reason being sometimes I need to put myself in a certain position to shoot blocks in order to land Toshi, but it's not the best angle to "watch" from - and I'd love to watch what I just did play back from a different, better viewing angle.
    This viewpoint would need to be rotatable of course.

    I would prefer LOTS more varied phrases, as just playing these few levels, I heard the same ones many times over.

    The voice is sometimes difficult to understand. I was playing it through my iPad speakers, rather than headphones.

    I would prefer to see different colours for locked levels versus played levels, rather than red for all of them.

    The next-level arrow at end of each level looks too much like a fast-forward symbol.
    Also, should the replay arrow be going anti-clockwise rather than clockwise? ie: it should be going backwards, not forwards.

    The tutorial lead me straight into level 1 without any notification whatsoever, to the point where I thought I was still in the tutorial at that point.
    Also, when I replay level 1, I am taken through the tutorial again, even though I have already done it before, and I have to tap tap tap to go through all the screens again. I would prefer not to do the tutorial again if I have already played it.

    The game icon isn't very indicative of what the game is. It's a great graphic, but not a great icon.

    The first amazing thing is that, whilst there are several other block-destroying type games on the App-Store, the fact that this one is in 3D, AND that is a 3D view that is totally smoothly and fluidly controllable, is pretty awesome. It might be obvious to say that, because that's the whole premise of how the game is structured, but it is still pretty neat to me. :)

    The second great thing is the sense of humour. The phrases Toshi comes up with are pretty funny. And even the whole "plot" of the game is funny, in that you have to get this girl onto a dancefloor so she can dance. I still think the news-report style trailer you showed awhile back was the best iPhone game trailer I've ever seen! :D
    If you can somehow squeeze MORE humour into the game, then even better!

    OK, so these are definitely not "bugs", but I will list them here as "errors"...

    The glow at the bottom of the "Toshi Is Dead" graphic is cut off (the glow is a bit cut off on other graphics too).

    The cough "voice" upon returning after a death is very male-sounding.
    UPDATE: Are there two different coughs? I heard coughing later, but it sounded female this time. The male one was followed by "I'm alive. It's a miracle".

    One one level, barely a hair's width of one toe was touching the dance floor, leaving Toshi "floating" seemingly next to the dance floor and the level was considered a success.
    I would prefer a requirement to have the majority of both feet on the platform for the level to be considered a success. So almost how a real person would be able to balance on a real platform: If not enough of the foot is touching, then they would fall off.

    The game sometimes felt a bit stuttery on my iPad.


    Finally, one last thing... For some reason, for quite awhile, I thought the game was called Save Yoshi instead of Save Toshi... Is it just me, or does Yoshi sound nicer? ;)
    Actually, if I can follow that up with a serious point... Is this the best name for the game? Is it too "plain"?
    Does it need to be more descriptive? Does it need to be more "Japanezee/Engrish", and be called something ridiculous like "Save Floating Platform Super Dancing Schoolgirl"? OK, so maybe not that exactly, but you get the idea, hopefully...;) I think a more humorous and surreal name would fit better with the humorous and surreal nature of the game.
     
  6. MidianGTX

    MidianGTX Well-Known Member

    Jun 16, 2009
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    #26 MidianGTX, Oct 7, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    My initial impressions are good. The controls felt just right, I had no problems picking them up from the start. The difficulty level also started well, although I did later feel that some of the tougher levels are closer to the middle, with the end few being relatively easy. We're probably gonna need more opinions on that to get a good idea of how difficult people find certain situations.

    I found the different block types fairly obvious to work out, but as Brett mentioned, some people are probably going to appreciate a little introduction to each one. I've played a lot of block-breaking physics games so I was probably just using experience to figure it out, which other players might not have.

    The artwork is... interesting. I must admit that it's not the sort of theme that would usually attract me to a game. It's a little feminine and perhaps catered more for an Asian audience with the cute anime pop star character. Without trying to sound racist, I enjoy it in that kind of stereotypical "oh those guys in the East come up with the craziest stuff" kind of way, but it's not the sort of thing I could really take seriously. Given that I love the genre, it's not a deal breaker and I'd gladly pay for the game, but if it were a time management game or a match 3, I'd probably search around for something more suited to my style.

    One thing I'd like to point out is that I prefer the background from the loading screen (blue mountains) to the one in the levels. The cartoon style seems to fit with the rest of the graphics better than photo-realism does.

    Overall I don't have any huge concerns at the moment. The main issue for me was the relatively easy difficulty, but since there are obviously more levels to come that can easily be addressed. I got 3 stars on every level in under 20 minutes of messing about with the game, which is probably good for the early levels, but I'm hoping later on I'll be struggling for longer, and it'll give me something to come back to time and time again.

    Another addition I'd like to see is a button that takes you back to the level select screen, implemented in both the pause menu and on the level cleared screen. When you're returning to levels to improve your score, you want to be able to drop out straight back to the level select and chose the next level to attempt yourself.

    Nothing springs to mind! I'm sure something will come up over the course of the conversation though ;) Again, agreeing with what Brett said, I'd like too see more objects to interact with in later levels. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

    The thing I like most at the moment is the way the physics engine and level design leads itself to a bit of trial and error. I don't just want to work out the solution, I want to use a bit of skill to achieve it as well, and this game lets me do that.

    I've also gotta give praise to the performance. My device is old now by Apple standards and many 3D games lag far more than I can put up with. The fact this is 3D and has a physics engine built in as well is a testament to both Unity and Nitako's development skills.

    Only one (probably minor) bug to report, the first time I started the game and tapped Tutorial the game quit back to the springboard. I'm thinking it's just the usual lack-of-memory issue the iDevices suffer from in general. After restarting my iPod everything was fine.

    We're off to a good start, bring it on!
     
  7. EMTKiNG

    EMTKiNG Well-Known Member

    Apr 7, 2010
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    #27 EMTKiNG, Oct 7, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    1.Game Mechanics are good everything moves like its suppose to. Controls are good and responsive. The art is amazing except for the blocks they're plain.Entry level difficulty and learning process was a little bit too easy for me

    2.
    First major concern would be difficulty was far to easy. There should be a little bit steeper learning curve. I beat the game in a matter of mins.I would look at the puzzle and know what blocks to take out instantly.

    Second it does get a bit repetitive Toshi has only a handful of sayings and we hear them every level with the same dance. So adding some variety to the sayings, dances,outfits and even music

    4. What I love most about Save Toshi is the art its awesome everything looks good minus the none green blocksLOL.The menu screen looks great, the background scenery is great Toshi dancing is great, even the bubbles look cool. Love the art. Also love how Toshi responds ie. I launched her with a rock she screams like shes being sent to the moon.LOL. She goes in the water she makes bubbling noises.I leave the game on without touching it she tells me to move my assa LOL.

    5. Only thing I encountered was I was on the dance floor and a lock hit me off and it still counted as being beat.No other problems so far everything is smooth.

    The game looks really amazing and the controls are very easy and work great.Like I said before I would love to see more variety in the saying, outfits, and dances. I think it would add a lot to the game and as someone else said the level packs can be a different theme for each one would be great.I also noticed the manly cough when Toshi drowns lol.
     

    Attached Files:

  8. FPE

    FPE Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
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    I am going try to structure my impressions following your structure but I would like to add (and start from) something about minor bugs.

    (minor bugs)
    - Sometimes when moving around the game decides that I am throwing stones. Normally this seems to happen if I swipe across the game area.
    - When stones get into the water, the rippling normally does not occur in the impact point or when in deep water (the darker one), nothing happens.
    - In level 19 .... well Toshi was deep in the water … but I was given victory because she touched the dance floor before falling. That should not be the case I guess.

    (Experience check)
    The graphic is excellent and the overall control and physics work well. My only complain on the controls is that I was often tempted to swipe for an aerial 180 degree but that does not work.
    The game is straightforward ... and the levels were extremely easy. I spent more time playing around on how to kill Toshi than finding the way to save her. And for what I will say below, killing her was more into my instinct actually.

    (Collective decision making)
    My main concern is that it is extremely easy. Few seconds maximum per level. It is a bit the problem I also saw in other games and there it was solved by providing 4000 levels, but that resulted in a very repetitive and boring game. I feel more needs to be done to make levels more complex.

    My second concern is Toshi talk. Now, whatever she says is very repetitive and predictable. Making me feel like killing her. One phrase stands out btw "Come on. Move your ass" in a jap-english way. Honestly, I would give more variety of phrases. Increasing the humor factor (I am thinking Super Mega Worm here :) )

    (Can't help it?)

    Sorry I can't ...

    - Would be nice to have more than just island scenarios. Other areas with different blocks and components to create variety. Or even consider two Toshi's. Just more variety would help.
    - Also some changes in the winning music would be nice or support for the iPod music player.
    - A replay would be nice, just like you see in Tekken. Especially when she dies (since that is fun).
    - I would consider Toshi dead also when she gets smashed between two blocks. This happens often and would increase the difficulty level a little bit.
    - There should be a better separation between the game an the tutorial.
    - I would love to see her doing some more variance in dancing when on the dancing floor.
    - Thre need to be a back button from the levels screen back to the main menu.

    (Thumbs up)
    In term of graphics and control, this is lovely and it works without a glitch on my ipad. Among the best I have experienced so far and very consistent.
    The second part I really liked was Toshi. Sure, she made me feel often like trying and killing her, but you could try to use it to create more humor in the game.

    Overall I think you have a very good starting point, if you could add variety and make it more difficult ... you should have a good game.

    Cheers
    Francesco
     
  9. MidianGTX

    MidianGTX Well-Known Member

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    I also noticed that they're essentially the exact same thing, but I figured that was due to it being a limited beta build and the final result would be different. Am I right, Noam?
     
  10. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    #30 Noam, Oct 7, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    Well, at that point I'd rather stay quiet and let you all finish giving your feedback and discuss things with each other without doing any explaining. What I can say at the moment is that I'm very happy things are going the way they do. You are all giving incredible feedback and I'm learning a lot here by listening and analizing your input.
    keep it coming then, youre all doing a great job!

    BTW, we also have a few new beta-testers who should join us soon, all of them are friends and colleagues, either artists (animators, graphic and motion designers), game designers and one super-programmer. They are new to these forums so don't be surprised if you see some new members with zero posts on their credit (give them a warm welcome and they might stay forever;). They did'nt get to play the game before so they too will surely have some interesting input.
     
  11. FPE

    FPE Well-Known Member

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    Miriam, I suspect we only did the training .... Or so I hope.
     
  12. EMTKiNG

    EMTKiNG Well-Known Member

    Apr 7, 2010
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    Is anyone else just playing level 9 again to launch Toshi LOL I crack up hearing her say sayonaraaaaaaaaa! :p
     
  13. saiyukialex

    saiyukialex Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
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    #33 saiyukialex, Oct 8, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2010
    1) Experience check
    The mechanic of this game works very good. My first impression is the well-polished graphic.

    2) Collective decision making
    1. Retina Display or not. I own an iPhone 4. I'd like to see all my games installed can support this high resolution IPS screen,
    2. Enough levels to play. Puzzle games need infinite levels. If the game has an in-game editor to create custom levels, which would be perfect!

    3) Can't help it?
    1. Add a "MENU" or "BACK" button in the level select screen
    2. Integrate Facebook and/or Twitter API instead of opening Safari
    3. Add app-switching feature
    4. Since I cannot use OF now (as mentioned above, it cannot be activated for me for now), I have no idea whether the game has achievements or not. If not, please add some.
    5. Add support for Game Center. (It may not be in the first release, but you should take it in consideration in further updates.)
    6. Make the game support Retina Display, though it looks already awesome on my iPhone 7. But when I want to make a screenshot and show it off with my friends. The screenshots look embarrassing.
    7. After the Tutorial the game starts directly? Should there be a screen which tells the players that "you have finished the Tutorial, do you want to play more?" or so?

    4) Thumbs up!
    1. Unique 3D physics design
    2. Lovely character and colorful graphics

    5) Bugs are different
    1.The first time I started the game, I didn't activate OF (because I have no Internet at that time). Then later when I have the access, I cannot activate OF again in the game (The OF logo in the right bottom. It doesn't happen anything when I touch the logo.)
    2. In the subscribe screen (before I start the game, which asks me sign up with email, first name, last name), if I hold my phone in portrait mode, the keyboard is in portrait. When I hold the phone in landscape mode, the keyboard will automatically change the orientation (if I don't lock the orientation in the background). But is the portrait keyboard necessary? Should it be in landscape in default?
    3. When I touch the "SUBSCRIBE" in the menu, it appears a black screen.
    4. The game crashes once when I switch the game from background.

    :)
     
  14. otggamer

    otggamer Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2009
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    I apologize if I repeat comments already said by others:

    1) Experience check

    First off, I think the game is fun kind of reminds me a Boom Blox a bit, but much much too easy.

    The controls work very smoothly, although there were a number of times either when a level first started or when I was swiping to turn the view that a rock would just spontaneously be thrown.

    Toshi's comments are hilarious, but I could see how they could get repetitive across a lot more levels.

    There needs to be a bit more variety in the block types, scenery, and Toshi's dance moves. Maybe add some sort of additional obstacles, which may also address the difficulty issue.

    I think the game was straight-forward to figure out, but perhaps an explanation of the block types in the tutorial would be good, or when you hit a level with a new block type explain it. Also an explanation of what earns you 3 stars vs. 2 stars vs. 1 star.

    I had to refresh levels myself as the game didn't seem to pick up that I was in a no-win situation and just end.

    2) Collective decision making

    My major concerns are that the game is just too easy and lacks variety.

    3) Can't help it?


    4) Thumbs up!

    I think the graphics are nice, except maybe the green blocks which are a bit oversaturated. The controls are very smooth and Toshi is cute like-able and funny.

    5) Bugs

    As I mentioned before, sometimes there is spontaneous rock launching.
     
  15. EMTKiNG

    EMTKiNG Well-Known Member

    Apr 7, 2010
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    So i introduced the game to my girlfriend to see how someone that usually doesnt play games would do with it. She only plays pvz, bejeweled,and angry birds ocassionally. She picked up the controls and concept with no problem. But she didnt know the blocks were of different density so some would not move like others. As others also said experienced the random ball throwing when she was turning the view. It does need explanation on the 3 star rating on how many balls you used. She didnt like the voice and found it annoying so she would kill Toshi sometimes lol Overall she liked it though and she also beat the game like in 10-15 mins.
     
  16. UVRadiation

    UVRadiation Well-Known Member

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    Hi People!
    I’m Yuval from Nitako, I am doing all the programming and stuff so take it easy on me! ;)
    I’m kidding, thanks for all your great input! it’s helping us a lot keep it coming!
    btw : My wife Adva is the voice behind Toshi, so please don’t hurt her handsome! :)
     
  17. saiyukialex

    saiyukialex Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
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    After 20 levels, it says "More Levels & iPhone Version Coming Soon!". Should it be "More Levels For iPhone Version Coming Soon!"?
     
  18. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    First I must say this is not a summery, just an answer to a few things I feel needs clarifying. You're all doing an amazing job here, so keep feeding us with your thoughts and ideas.

    This is actually something we repeatedly see in all of of our tests, everybody seem to really enjoy firing her away:)

    Alex, Your inputs are great and helpful but please next time try to organize them following the guidelines because it makes it much easier for me to analyze it and use it. Thanks!

    Please don't, it's actually the repeated comments that helps the most since it implies we are on to something that everybody agrees on. that's exactly the stuff I'm looking for so feel free to say anything that is on your mind.

    This is great!!! if any of you feel like showing the game to friends and relatives, especially if they have a different taste than yourself, it would be very helpful!
    BTW, what did she say about the difficulty? was it too hard/easy?

    For lack of time we used a slide that was intended for later use in a demo web version, sorry for that:)
     
  19. saiyukialex

    saiyukialex Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
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    Sure, I will reorganize them later. :)
     
  20. Noam

    Noam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    Great, thanks!
     

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