Ouverture Facile : Brain Game

[Swan]

Hi!

I would like to inform you about a game I'm working on, it's called Ouverture Facile and it's a flash-based riddle game with a growing difficulty. It's free and there is no registration or that kind of crap. It was released in june 2005 (in French) and it became popular over here. We have around 50 000 players and more than 10 000 board members. So I've decided to translate everything in English to reach people that might also like that kind of stuff (and that don't speak French), and here it is :

http://www.ouverture-facile.com/ad/logo.png (http://www.ouverture-facile.com)
http://www.ouverture-facile.com/

I've released an English board too :
http://forum.ouverture-facile.com/

I can't tell you more about how to play the game because the purpose of this game is also to learn how to play it by yourself, but I advise you to read the game rules (It will give you some hints on getting started) :
http://www.ouverture-facile.com/start/rules.html

The first levels are a training but you will soon face more advanced levels where you will have to build a structure with paper cubes, solve a murder, find and defuse a bomb in Paris, open the 9 levels of security of a safe, etc... etc... Now I'm working on Level 77 which will be a point&click game in my house.

There is also a section where players can create their own levels and propose them for validation (if it's good, the riddle is hosted) :
http://your.ouverturefacile.com/

If you want to take a look at the French board, here it is :
http://www.ouverturefacile.com/forums
and the French user-made riddles are here :
http://votre.ouverturefacile.com

We also have an IRC chan :
http://chat.ouverture-facile.com/


Some screenshots :

http://pix.nofrag.com/47/2f/7818f15fc82e930e60fa02fcd744.jpg
http://pix.nofrag.com/d2/d5/cad887fc99fd8df7aac3d0aafbf8.jpg
http://pix.nofrag.com/4d/75/60620595753ae3fba5cc8e8a9bd1.jpg

System Requirement :

You only need Flash, a browser (IE, Firefox or Opera), a computer, a brain and some patience.


I hope you'll like my game, if you get stuck don't forget to check out the board, there are help topics and additional clues.

regards,

antoine

ps : sorry for my English.

[Coach]

I gave it a quick try and as I only reached level 5, I probably only got a small glimpse of the gameplay. I like the fact that the goals are not explicitly stated and that you have to search for clues outside the actual game board. These are tricks that I occasionally utilize for levels of my last game, Lighthouse Lunacy.

I had to use the clue option but if I had bothered to read the rules, I like to think that I would have managed without them

I will try to get further later.

[Swan]

That's right, this is only a glimpse of the gameplay, each of the first levels introduce another way to find a clue, after that everything will be mixed and the game will develop a more complex reflexion. It might seems strange and not very appealing at first sight because the purpose of the game is at first to understand how to play it, which requires more commitment than most of the other games.

You might understand that it's not easy to advertise for this game, because most of the people who try it don't take the time to understand it. In France the work is done, there is a big community so each new player know that it worth the try, but I have to rebuilt all the hype from scratch for an English audience and I'm having a hard time to make my place in the free time of English-speaking people.

But the English community slowly grows, we have more than 1000 players for the English version (which isn't bad but a slow start), all the game it entirely free and takes all my time. I really want everything in this game to be free and I have to count on the advertising and on the generosity of some players if I want to be able to keep this game alive. That's why I really need to reach everybody who might enjoy it as it is (I will not make it more accessible to reach new audiences because I think that the difficulty is an important part of the pleasure you can have in playing this game), so I have to spread the word without reaching the status of spam, which is a tricky thing...

I print flyers, I contact all kind of people that might be able to talk about it, etc... etc... I really believe in the free entertainement but it has to be driven by a huge community to stand beside the commercial products. But together we will fight to proove that this is still possible to entertain people for free and still be able to live in this society, and we will win or give up everything and become carpet sellers ;).

Food in my fridge and a roof above my head, that's enough for me if I can give some pleasure to other people.
I think that this is what it means to be an "indie" ;).

[Swan]

Since we are in the "feedback requests" section I would like to hear your thoughts on the reasons that might push the users to not try this game :

- The name of the game is the original French name, do you think that this might "scare" some people?
- The gameplay mechanics are not explained, this is oviously the purpose of the game but do you think that it might be a problem?
- The game requires some reflexion, who gives a fuck about reflexion? ;)
- I don't speak a very good English and that's annoying, beside my long threads are boring :).
- Some other things, feel free to speak your mind.

Thanks for your feedback.

[Coach]

Yes, an English name should help. I have no idea what Ouverture Facile is supposed to mean. (But I do know that Overture is a term in classical music.)

After being stuck at level 5, I finally read the rules and it was painfully clear that I should have done this first thing... Perhaps you shouldn't be able to start playing before having looked at the rules page? The clue to the fifth level hints to the rules but perhaps you should do this already in the second level?

[Swan]

"Ouverture Facile" means "easy opening" (it's explained in the game rules).

I've modified the access to the game : http://www.ouverture-facile.com/start/index.html

Do you think that this will do?

[Coach]

"Ouverture Facile" means "easy opening" (it's explained in the game rules).

That makes sense. (It's telling that when I finally take the time to read the rules, I don't do it properly).

I've modified the access to the game : http://www.ouverture-facile.com/start/index.html

Do you think that this will do?

Yes, it certainly will help.

[Swan]

Level 77 is online.

[Desktop Gaming]

I didn't even understand level 1. Closed it after randomly clicking on the bloke's head for about 10 minutes and getting nowhere.

[Jesse Aldridge]

I gave it a try. The rules page had too much text for me - I didn't read it :) I made it past level 1. I put the puzzle together for level 2, but needed to look at the spoiler to get past it. I stopped on level 3 (without putting much effort into it.)

I probably won't play again, but I've never been a fan of riddle games.

I noticed these people (http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.ouverture-facile.com/) seemed to really like it. So I suppose this game has niche appeal to people who like riddle games.

If you want to broaden your audience I think more easy puzzles may help. Also minimize the text you need to read as much as possible. Lastly I have a feeling that these sorts of games are more fun when playing with a group of people. Maybe you could encourage people to play as a group? Or maybe even make it a multiplayer game where you could solve riddles with others online (i know, that's complicated :))

Anyhow, I think it's a well done game, even if it's not really my thing. Good luck with it.

[Nikos Beck]

I have to admit that I wasn't a fan. I clicked until something happened, then clicked on what lit up. The second puzzle I clicked until something happened and then I gave up. the instructions were vague, the spoilers were even more vague. Sorry. It felt random; I didn't feel my intelligence was being challenged, it was being mocked.

[Logodae]

I'm temporarily stuck on level 5, since I don't have headphones at work. ;) But I'm enjoying it so far. I don't think you need to make it easier, I think you just need to find your audience. Maybe you could use some sort of viral marketing scheme -- have people refer friends to get access to extra levels.