First Gameplay Footage

[GnadeGames]

I just posted a quick video showing off the physics / gameplay engine for our next game: the Magic Toy Chest. The basic premise is to get certain toys into the toy chest using the toys in your toolbar. It makes more sense if you just watch it. Let me know what you think.

http://www.vimeo.com/1017965

You can follow the game on my blog: http://blog.graduategames.com

[MFS]

Nice idea. The game looks like fun already, and the presentation is solid.

Good work!

[eric_hein]

Looks really cool, like the Incredible Machine with more interactive physics. I noticed the baseball bats were clogging up the toychest by the end, you should think of some way to deal with this.

[mot]

Great idea and the physics seem to be working well. I had a problem distinguising the gameplay elements from the background though.

[lakibuk]

Yes,the background is quite dominant.
And the level design does not look very clever in this example.
Might be a nice game though.

[GnadeGames]

Thank you for the comments. There are definitely a few nuggets in there that can help me along the way. The game is still in "pre-alpha" so hopefully I'll have plenty of time to iron out these possible issues. Let me respond to some of your comments:

1. Toys can clog up the Toychest... but you can pick up any of your toys with a right click and place them back into your toolbox (for the most part- there are some exceptions of course)
2. The background may very well be dominating... Luckily there are several backgrounds that you can switch to at any time from the pause menu. Also, there are several foreground textures to choose from...which foreground works best with which background is still up for debate
3. As for Level/Game Design... I do not think this video focused on that very well....I just threw together something in the Lvl Editor to show off the Physics Engine.

Please keep the comments coming. I plan on having ongoing media updates as I work to the alpha, beta, and final stages. Hopefully, I will have some sort of Beta Test as well and will hopefully include my favorite 10 user created level into the final game as a bonus. All ideas at this point of course.

[ZeHa]

A very strange observation: Whenever I see some "physics" stuff, I've got the feeling that it's running way too slow. Same for your game...

Apart from that, very cool idea and I think it will make a nice final product!

[chillypacman]

It looks a lot like the incredible machine/crazy machines which is a good thing :D

[MrGoldfish]

A very strange observation: Whenever I see some "physics" stuff, I've got the feeling that it's running way too slow.
I was going to say the same thing.

[GnadeGames]

It looks a lot like the incredible machine/crazy machines which is a good thing :D

The incredible machine was definitely one of the games that inspired this game. Thanks for the comments on speed, I will do my best to optimize runtime during our QA process.

[GnadeGames]

A very strange observation: Whenever I see some "physics" stuff, I've got the feeling that it's running way too slow. Same for your game...

Apart from that, very cool idea and I think it will make a nice final product!

I have increased the speed of the physics engine significantly....unfortunately I can no longer get a good framerate with litecam video recorder. Are there any other alternatives out there that give a solid framerate? I have tried Camtasia, CamStudio, but all have been choppy. I get the best framerate of the game by recording my screen from a video camera....not optimal.

I would also like to announce that you can follow the game's progress at The Magic Toy Chest's Website (http://magictoychest.blogspot.com)

Also here is a screenshot that shows off the new Left-Menu and Goal-window along with the little girl's room background.
http://mike.gnade.googlepages.com/screenshotalpha0.7.jpg
As always, feedback is highly appreciated.