Why is the App Store's user rating low despite the fantastic popularity of TA? The game play video is really cool.
Hi everyone, Jonathan here, I made Trick Shot. I just wanted to drop in and let you know that there is a new build on its way that should fix the issues some of you were experiencing. Here's a quick summary of the problem and what I've done to fix them. The problems fit into three categories - Slow loading times, Low frame rates and a mystery bug where some objects became "invisible" to collisions. As with all the best puzzles, all the symptoms are linked... Slow loading times This one is simple, on IO & CPU bound devices loading times were prohibitively long which lead to crashes. These crashes were not errors in the code rather that iOS chose to kill the app as it appeared unresponsive. Luckily I've tracked down a number of optimisations that reduce loading times by almost 80% on some devices. Low frame rates I made a number of optimisations for CPU and GPU tasks but quickly found that it was the GPU that was struggling. The fix for this was many small shader optimisations and a 90% reduction in reflection probe render times. Mystery Invisible Geometry This is a more complex beast. After a lot of testing I've isolated this as a bug in Unity physics where collision geometry can get out of sync with non collision geometry in specific circumstances due to reparenting. This was actually a bug in Unity I've known for for a while and have been using a workaround to force objects to sync collision geometry, this workaround causes a spike in CPU so I don't want to do it every frame. The problem arrises when too many frames are being dropped some updates will be skipped all together. If this update is happens to be a frame where I was applying this fix then it would never happen and collision geometry would stay out of sync. Suffice to say fixing frame rate problems fixes this issue in 99.999% of cases too. Ultimately I'm waiting on a fix from Unity for this so there's a very small chance that if the phone experiences a high CPU background task this could still happen but it's very unlikely. I've tested the latest build on an iPhoneX, iPhone7+, iPhone6, iPhone 5s and iPhone SE and all show a solid 60 FPS on all levels, only the 5s show's some frame drops in transitions which should be non critical - I have other optimisations I'm testing to remove these too. For anyone who put themselves town as testers for this performance problem, I've submitted the build so look out for a Test Flight invite in the next 24 hours. I'll release the build soon after. Thank everyone for your help. P.S the next build also has 10 new levels built in
Invites just went out for testing the new build, could anyone post any feedback related to the build to the email address listed here: http://trickshotgame.io/ Thanks!
Loading time was less than 10 seconds. I have completed level 62(Peek) of chapter 7(In the Groove). And I have not found any problems yet. Tester builds work very well. I'll try this a little more and if there's a problem, I'll leave it here. Thanks, developer. P.S Can tester use unlimited coins in tester build? If possible, you can tester only the required levels without having to go through the levels sequentially. I used all the Hints and was blocked by Level 63 Hangman. XD
I did not have any fatal errors as I was still playing this game. I have not played Trick Shot 1 and can not compare it, but Trick Shot 2 is challenging and fun. The description of the game is intuitive, and the interface is okay although it has some touch errors. If I was given an unlimited coin of IAP to pass the levels, I would have been able to try a certain level. Or it would be nice if there was another way to pass the level, not the IAP. I feel a little frustrated because I can not go any further. Because now I'm stuck at a certain level. If someone uploads a walkthrough video, I might refer to it. The ratings given by users of the App Store for this game are currently underrated. But I think that given the potential of this game, higher scores should be given. This game is great!
Hi everyone, Jonathan the developer here again. I Just wanted to drop in and say thanks to everyone who tested the build. I just put the new build live on the app store so you should start to see that version up there soon. As I said before there 10 new levels built in to this build and I'm working on more so keep an eye out Thanks!
Note that there is no error in performing the specified level until now. But..does editing and sharing of levels work properly? I edit the level, but it is not shared. The game can not be played on the screen below. The game has stopped. Does anyone else have this error? Have you ever tried it?
Thanks, developer. I love this game. With the exception of level editing and sharing, there were no errors during the rest of this game. I have completed all the levels offered so far. Is the developer who created this game a genius? It was really cool. Personally, level 90 was the hardest. The storytelling of the developer at the end of the game was great. This game can be recommended to anyone. I was impressed that the developer prepared this wonderful story at the end of the game. If you are curious about the ending of this game, try 'https://' at the following address in the spoiler. However, if you want to end the story after your own challenge, avoid spoilers and find yourself in the game! Spoiler medium.com/@jonathantopf/things-i-learned-while-making-trick-shot-3c6b5dfb7dee
We need to pay more attention to this wonderful game. Recently, the App Store set this game up as the main. And this game deserves it. The game has gotten better since the last update.
