Thanks for allowing me to beta test this. I'm impressed with the performance and the graphics. I wasn't sure how to play at first, but I figured it out after a few minutes. I really like the controls, but I wish it would have been more obvious how to play in the beginning. I also think it'd be great if the controls accelerated the bird faster so they seem more responsive. It's a great game and I'm excited to see it on the App Store.
0.8.0.6 is out! Smooth lighting and smooth color grads - saves a lot of memory and looks nice 30 % incresase in draw distance because of GPU bandwith save Specular highlights on water One touch flapping with large touch radius (only with default scheme) Snappier response with expotential steering Reworked menu (a bit) New animals screen with stats on hunted animals No freezing during loading of levels Many more landmarks for the atolls-biome New light direction and cloud movement (looks nicer) Tweeked random color generation (again!) Tweeked tail (never finished!) VR modes are not saved in prefs, so its easier to get back to normal Coming next: Hover mode, landing and much more particles!
ooo coming hover and landing mode! I was waiting for this Will download the latest version and let you know It took a while from 0.7 to 0.8 but the difference is huge, well done TeamFugl!
No problem, I'm equally late! Yes, I agree. Good to hear that you thought the mechanic was easy to master actually. There is a lot that can be done that demands serious skill. Yes, that's the plan, but some compromises might have to be made, although I'm striving to keep it as open-ended as possible, but at the same time challanging the player's flying skill. This was the orginal plan, and I actually already tried several variants on it, but I don't think it worked very well. Maybe my implementation was wonky, but now I've rebuild the structure, so each biome is a level, so distance is not part of the equation any longer. We're working on something new, custom built landmarks with flowers in them that needs to be picked to progress, or at least that's the idea, but things seem to fall apart when we try things out, haha. Thank you, and thanks for the input, I appreaciate it!
Glad to hear that! Fixed! I've turned it way down, but it might still be too much, haha! Thank you very much, yeah it will be exciting to see, lots of stuff to try out!
Great! You'll be happy to know I've beefed up the responsiveness in the latest update, pleaase check it out and tell me what you think!
Cool video, sorry for the late reply, can't seem to write when I'm steaming on a new update! Yes, we're trying something similar, don't know about the boost yet, but it's worth a try.! What was the reasoning behind the "bank" mechanic, if you care to elaborate? It seems interesting, but why would the player do it? It would end the run, yes? So it's like playing it safe? I've also dreamed a lot about ghosts in my games, but the data amount is just to huge, not to mention the server problematic. Did you come up with some clever ideas there?
Sorry for all the late replys you guys. I really appreciate the feedback, but when I've working on an update, I just disappear into a black hole, haha
New update has made the game crash for me, can't start it anymore. I could before and there was a glitch that made the terrain black when clouds rolled over and there were glitched cloud shadows.
It was a problem with 0.8.0.6, since then I've uploaded two new versions. Latest is 0.8.0.8. So just update and you'll be fine! Sorrry about the inconvenience, I tend to be a little bit to eager to get the updates out the door!
So after trying the latest version, i still can't believe how much more beutiful the game looks with cloud, shadows, and lighting effects especcially when gliding close to the water Will we have different animals to play as in the final version? And the only way i can play is stick yaw and roll, with max sensitivity, otherwise it feels unresponsive. I wonder how the typical beta tester sets his / her controls...
Offering my $.02, here. (And I think I might've gone from 0.8.0.5 to 0.8.0.8, so seeing all those change at once.) I basically like all of the listed changes except - and I guess these are the big ones - the changes to the way the land mass color is handled and the water effects. I've spent a good bit of time now flying slowly by the land masses in the various biomes and the way that each voxel is no longer one distinct color, there now being a gradient color map applied over the entire mass from the looks of it, to my eye makes the voxels seem hazy, blurred, maybe aliased everywhere except on the very profile edges. I think the structure looked more crisp and defined and "voxellated" before this change. I know you want to support as many devices as possible and this is apparently a big GPU win, and so I understand the rooming, I think. But it's a change I dislike. It makes things feel like a "simulated voxel" engine, if that makes any sense, to me. As for the water, it used to look like a flat voxel soup with little glints here and there. I recall when you added the reflective glints. Lovely. The water, to me, now looks extremely blurry and not at all voxelly, really. The water change is more dramatic than the land change, I feel. To me, these changes lessen the experience of the game notably, and I wanted to throw that input into the feedback pool. I've never felt so strongly about any changes since I came on as a tester early this year. Sorry to bring in a cloud over the feedback comments! bp
Both Marco and me agrees 100 % on this, so I'm happy to tell you that I'm reverting back to the flat, sharp look. The specular water will also get a flat look, and the glimmer will return. I must admit I got a bit blind-sided by the GPU win and the time spent on it, but it's not a loss as I can use this tech to add support for iPhone5 and iPad4. No need to be sorry, it's great when someone feels strongly about Fugl and voices their opinion. It's very helpful!
Control options I'm looking for opinions/thoughts/ideas on the control issue: I feel the controls are a bit messy now as things have changed so much during development. I personally never roll much after the introduction of auto-level, so I would like to streamline the controls a bit. I also want to free up one finger to use second finger as camera control, something I think will be very cool. Earlier I was a bit sceptical about tap to flap, but flapping is not used as often as I imagined, there much more soaring now than in the earlier versions. So, what I propose is a unified control option: First finger to touch screen controls yaw/pitch, second finger acts as flapping when tapping and camera control when dragging. A higher rate of tapping will increase the flap rate and thus the forward boost. Then there will be an option for auto-level: either on or roll by tilting. Also my plan regarding hovering is this: When the bird starts to stall, hovermode begins. In 100 % hovermode (100 % stall) the thrustvector is straight up, like a helicoptper. The wings will auto-level to be straight up, while the body/tail-section falls downwards to 45 degress angle. The camera will raise up to a 90 degrees angle from the body, so 45 degrees downwards towards the ground ca. Steering will work as normal except the upward thrust. Gentle, slow tapping will keep the bird in hover mode, anything more and hovermode fades away into normal flying. When in hovermode you can land easily by dropping slowly down onto the ground. When the imaginary feet touches ground, the bird will auto-fold it's wings and you can use any finger to rotate the view. A tap or two will make it fly a again. How does all this sound? Looking for input here!
Maybe you could split the screen into thirds, you can use the right side for moving and left for flapping, like normal, but you could then drag from the middle to control the camera? How does that sound, of course it might not work so well on an iPhone 4 or 5 screen, but it would work well on iPad screens.
That could work, but I'd rather not split the screen, and besides you would have to choose what side is what, as I'm left-handed and like to steer with my left thumb.
I like this control idea since the roll just gets in my way since the earliest version and makes things harder for me to control. Just add that as long as you hold the right finger down, the bird keeps flapping, and not having to tap like crazy every second if we want to go fast.
God, thank you. I was kind of freaking out quietly over here. I'd assembled a series of comparative screenshots I was about to upload to build a case - but it seems there's no need. It's kind of uncanny how attached I've become to my favorite iOS game, Fugl. I think I was feeling a bit of grief. Awesome that that can be the stand I mode for lesser devices, but SO glad you both are with me on this. Now I can relax. My 9yo daughter saw me looking distressed and asked me what was wrong. I told her "there's a problem with Fugl." She sees me playing day after day and she was sympathetic. I tried to explain what a voxel was and she told me I was boring her with my old man geek talk, and wandered away. Alas. Thanks guys. bp
