While I don't have an issue with the current name, I think that Brett could definitely be onto something with the crazy naming. I think it might be a better fit for the surreal feel of the game. I'm not sure I have anything better than his "Save Floating Platform Super Dancing Schoolgirl", except for some variation like: "Save Crazy Floating Platform Dancing Schoolgirl" "Save Dancing Schoolgirl From Crazy Floating Platform" "Dancing Schoolgirl, Floating Platform" "Dancing Schoolgirl Need Rescue"
Well, I guess I got off to a bad start. I've actually been really busy lately, not only with testing 3 other games at the same time but also with college classes. Anyway, I guess I should have started with an introduction of myself. I am 19 and attending my second year of college. I am working toward a degree in computer science and to hopefully become an independent game developer for the ipod and ipad. This is why beta testing interests me so much. I have been playing video games most of my life, and I love them, although I am more of a casual gamer. I love RPG's, and Physics Puzzle games, and although I really enjoy FPS's, I'm not all that good at them. Well, I think that's about it. The next post, which should be within the hour, will be my revised and reorganized commentary on the game. Sorry I didn't follow the guidelines, it totally slipped my mind
alright, he we go again 1. The game mechanics are awesome! I didn't even expect them to be this good when I signed up. The controls are perfect the way they are, couldn't ask for more. The art is phenomenal and quite pretty. It's got a sort of surreal feel, kinda like BlockDrop. The first twenty levels were great, although quite easy, for me (took about 5-10 min to finish all with 3 stars), but they were a ton of fun. I WANT THE REST! 2. My two major concerns, although minor concerns in general, are the lack of a zoom function, and the amount of time it takes for the game to respond whenever a button is pressed. It always gives me the feeling like the whole this is going to crash or freeze up my ipod. I don't know if you have any control over that, as pretty much all unity based games seem to do that, but if you could fix it, it would enhance the overall polish of the game. 3. I guess the other very minor concern is the lack of an explanation of how to get 3 stars. What is the criterion for getting the stars? Is it points? Time? Number of blocks destroyed? Rocks thrown? What? This didn't ruin the game by any means, but it would help in working toward getting 3 stars on each level. 4. Well, I could probably list more than two things I love about Save Toshi, but I will narrow it down to 2. I love the art style and the color. I am very driven by color and aesthetics, so have a brightly colored game really brings me back to it. i.e. Spider-man, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, GeoDefense. The other thing is the surprising originality with the gameplay. The gameplay does remind me of the game Laser Ball that's on the appstore, and although it had my favorite style of graphics (neon vectors), it lacked the character and personality that Save Toshi has in abundance. Also, the physics are pretty much perfect and the controls are very responsive, two things that Laser Ball lacked. 5. Honestly, besides the lagging when tapping a button, I didn't experience any bugs at all. I will play through the levels again and see if I come across any, but it seems like you guys did a good job in this area. 6. I just have to, I know you didn't specify, but I have a really good idea for the UI. When you are in a level and press the pause button, I really think there should be a "select level" button that takes you directly to the level selection screen, bypassing the main menu. The reason I say this is because I had finished all the levels and when I went back to the level selection screen, I realized that I had 3 levels that I hadn't gotten 3 stars on, so I went to them individually to get those stars. When I finished a level, I didn't want to play all the levels in-between the levels I was trying to improve, so I had to click on the main menu button and then on the play game button. It's a minor inconvenience, and it mainly bugged me because of the delay with the buttons, but it would just be a really nice feature that not many games have, and I can't see how it would be difficult to implement. Well, I hope that fit your format correctly, let me know if it doesn't and I'll fix it again cuz I really want to remain in this beta I simply missed the memo about the format. I hope I didn't bore you too much, but I really like this game and I want to make sure that it succeeds. I guess you could say that I'm passionate about video games, that's why I'm going to develop them eventually. Keep up the good work Noam, it's a great game!
The crazy naming is fun and all, but you need a short version for the springboard display. "Sav ... irl" isn't gonna look attractive at all.
Thank Legowiz! great introduction and feedback, and I'm really glad to have future game developers on this team. keep it up!
That's exactly what bothers me in these very long (and very funny) names. If any of you can think of a name that is: 1) short 2) ridiculous 3) somehow describes or hints what the game is about (or at lease doesn't mislead people to think it's a different sort of a game) then bring it on! Just a cute japanese name, I'm a little curious as to why are you asking?
Toshi Dance Physics Toshi Physics The only 2 I can come up with I'm not much of a long random cool sounding name guy
Well, if hypothetically you went for a ridiculously long and crazy name like "Save Floating Platform Super Dancing Schoolgirl Toshi From Shooting Balls And Squashing Blocks", then you could still show the name simply as "Save Toshi" on the iPhone's screen. I've seen this sort of thing done with other games on the App-Store.
lol!!! On the iPhone you're right, but on the iTunes charts theys still use the long name with a ... if it's too long. let me know what you think.
Hola open beta team! First round was amazing! your input was inspiring and helped us make some great progress. Now we are getting closer to the real deal. The second build is ready!!! and, as always, I want to give you some guidelines to help us make the best out of your testing effort. 1) Levels - This build has 100 levels in it! first 20 levels were also slightly rearranged to adjust the difficulty curve and variety issues. We didn't lock any of the levels but it is highly important that you start again from level 1 and don't skip any level unless you are really banging your head against a wall. We want to know these things about the levels: a) first please try to write down which levels did you love/hate (and why). b) which levels were too hard/easy and should be moved to a different location c) did you feel that the total number of levels is enough/good/great for such a game? try to explain why. 2) Main Objections - what are your 2 main objections/concerns with the game NOW, after playing this second build. 3) Bugs life - please report any bugs you may be experiencing 3) Rating system - we added some sort of in-game counter that should help explain how the star rating works. let us know what you think. 4) More name suggestions - help us with the name survey we started, and suggest a name for the game that you would find appealing and suits the game (if you love the current name, please tell us). I sent you the instructions for installing the new build via email. Now go, save the crazy floating platform silly schoolgirl (or smash her to death if that's your cup o tea)! Best, Noam
I'm just uploading (it'll be up in 10mis) a new build with compressed audio - so If you downloaded the 90mb version - and you experience crashes please redownload the build , it's now 60mb. sorry for the trouble
