ANN: About To Launch New Game CHECKMATE - Feedback Wanted

[Indiepath]

Our team has finished our first game and before putting the game & website in public I'd like to get some feedback. I have put everything under password protection so you need to type username/password in the browser window when checking the game.

username: vip, password: vip


WEBSITE
http://www.checkmate.indiepath.com/
- The links are not working, only the front page


SCREENSHOT
http://www.checkmate.indiepath.com/shot1.jpg


20 MIN TRIAL VERSION (3.3 megs)
http://www.checkmate.indiepath.com/setup.exe
- Currently the buy-buttons does nothing
- Nag screens are missing (will add these later)
- The full version will contain (MAIN UPDATES): about 20 new levels, new music tracks and a level editor (plus all the usual "unlimited play", "free updates", "no nag screens" stuff etc.)



I'd like to hear comments especially to these questions:

1) Does the game work in your computer or did you have any problems with the demo?
2) Any comments about the game (musics, gameplay, graphics...) in general?
3) How would you improve the offers in order to make the game more attractive to players/buyers? (ie. add "buy" buttons... new features...)
4) Any feature suggestions (we already have several like network play, more monsters and these are coming... and more ideas gladly taken!)
5) Comments/feedback about the website?
6) Anything else?


Thanks

[Cogin]

Graphics is excellent, I like music too. Making red creatures (dragons) so much bigger than green one really adds to atmosphere - I thought they will eat me when I played it first time :)
I have remark about gameplay - now consider that I played it for 15 mins only, but that's probably what most users will invest in demo if they get stuck. I got stuck. Couldn't pass first level as dragons. You probably subconciously know tricks that give you strategical advantage and find this level easy.
I don't think you can help that because you have to play both sides on same map. Perhaps you can make green and red campaigns, where levels will be differently ordered, depending on which map is easier for which side.
What I found frustrating is that I couldn't switch dragons once it was my turn, and I also don't know which one will be next. It could help if there are 1, 2, 3 above their heads, but I would prefer if I could click on another dragon and move that one instead of current.

Anyway don't rush to change your game, until other people make their comments. Nicely executed game!

[Indiepath]

Thanks for such a good comments. We have AI for "easy" level (current is considered "normal") and maybe we should give that option there too.

> could help if there are 1, 2, 3 above their heads

We have thought the 1,2,3 numbering as well. On the other hand: if those are not visible then you must rely on your memory (one additional point to train your mind ;)), but on the other hand - somebody would like to see those. I think we make that optional as well. (as the "fast mode" on bottom of the screen. Thanks for the suggestion.

> "Perhaps you can make green and red campaigns, where levels will be differently ordered, depending on which map is easier for which side."

That was also one possibility when we started creating the game... We thought to create several levels only for the green and several for the red... and later maybe more but in the end we thought to put red there as well. Maybe you should first complete all levels with green player and then with red creatures... That way we would limit the trial to only green player and maybe 3-6 levels and red creatures would be available only in the full version. How would this sound to you?

One wish Cogin: could you play 5 mins more and tell me what you like the "trial ended" screen?

Thanks for the comments.

[Cogin]

Actually I had only 1 minute left :)
"trial ended" looks cool, I would only suggest to change "solve lots of new levels" to "solve 30 new levels" or whatever, it more clearly displays benefit to customer.
Do you want to use this 20 min limitation for real demo? I think this kind of game (puzle) is better with limited number of levels, not with time limitation.
If someone is slow (like me today) he will not see beyond first level.

On the other hand, since I haven't seen beyond level one, I don't know if you have only one map and only increase AI, or have many maps - my comments may not be valid for your game.

We have thought the 1,2,3 numbering as well. On the other hand: if those are not visible then you must rely on your memory (one additional point to train your mind )

This deffinitelly makes game harder.

My general remark is that game is too hard for beginners. Look at Dweep, it's perfect example - first level is very easy, just to teach you basics of gameplay. Next one is a bit harder and so on. If game is hard from start it will turn off players.
My suggestion is to find someone who never played it before, and watch him play without any hints from your side. You'll be surprised how novice player thinks different than you do.

[Cogin]

I'm not trying to discourage you, game looks very good, has nice atmosphere and looks like it could be really interesting to play.

[Flynn (Morphecy)]

;) My Girlfriends 4 year old completed the first level in no time at all :)

Mind you that was one of our early beta versions but the AI is pretty much the same.

[Cogin]

I guess I was also smarter when I was 4 years old ;)

[LiquidAsh]

Fun little game. I love the creatures, and music.

1) As you may have read in my previous posts around here, I am a firm believer in content limiting rather than time limiting. I can't imagine too many people playing levels 1 and 2 30+ times, so the only ones the time limit hurts, are those who learn how to play those two levels more slowly. Why punish them?

2) I think the resolution and fullscreen toggle buttons should be 2 step: select, and then confirm. Rather than click to see what res the game tries next.

3) I think the numbering recommended above would be very helpful. Or maybe the big red guys could be different colors to help the player keep track of which is which.

4) It would be nice if you could continue to right mouse drag to change the camera after winning/losing a level so you can examine what happened, and reflect on what you might have better done differently.

Nice Game, Good Luck with it.
Gary.

[GameStudioD]

Really cool game. Its pretty much ready to sell and do very well. Other peoples suggestions are good too.

Gripes:

It is hard to tell if the mouse is over a text button. The text should light up on mouse over or something. Maybe underline the clickable text just so you know what is clickable and what is not. I had to click a couple of times on certain 'buttons'.

I dont like the menu integrated with the main screen. I am noticing a lot of indie games are doing this... Its a usability issue, the user ends up accidently clicking things they may not want to click. I am on a laptop and I accidently changed from windowed to fullscreeen.

Labeling the monsters would be nice. If you decide to label the red monsters, give them names instead of numbers.

Good Luck

[Flynn (Morphecy)]

Agreed.

1) Buttons need to be easier to click.
2) We tried many menu options, this was the best so far.
3) Any ideas for the names of the monsters :)

[Indiepath]

Suggestions so far:
1) easier buttons to click (we shall put tooltips or highlight there)

2) creature names (coming)

3) green & red creature campaigns (maybe not coming...)

4) easier first level (will be!)

5) It would be nice if you could continue to right mouse drag to change the camera after winning/losing a level so you can examine what happened, and reflect on what you might have better done differently.

6) content limiting rather than time limiting. I can't imagine too many people playing levels 1 and 2 30+ times, so the only ones the time limit hurts, are those who learn how to play those two levels more slowly. Why punish them?
=> The reason we chose time limiting is because of replayability. Somewhere here in the forums was debate about this and time limiting was suggested when game is replayable rather than one-shot only. We are going to put two different types of demos. One with time limit, one with no time limit. Thanks for the suggestion.

7) I think the resolution and fullscreen toggle buttons should be 2 step: select, and then confirm. Rather than click to see what res the game tries next.

/

I dont like the menu integrated with the main screen. I am noticing a lot of indie games are doing this... Its a usability issue, the user ends up accidently clicking things they may not want to click. I am on a laptop and I accidently changed from windowed to fullscreeen.

=> True. I think we shall put a separate game launcher there so that you can do the necessary settings once and then always go to the play screen without having to click "start game" at all...

Thanks for the suggestions. Some of them will implemented right away and some will see daylight in the future. We (with Flynn) will come here to ask more later.

[Sunshine]

I thought it was very cool.
I did have a hard time finding the exit button however.
I thought the trial period over screen was cool.
I could not tell if there was a stradigy to it or not, I just kinda ran the monsters around like mice! :D
I did not have any trouble telling which red dragon was being controlled as previously mentioned.

It would be neat if you could change the pov somehow, maybe by pressing the number pad keys.

Also setting both sides to the computer players was neat.

To sum up: Cool game :)

[Indiepath]

@Sunshine: Thanks for your comments. Mind if I ask what word "pov" means?

[Flynn (Morphecy)]

POV = Point of View
FOV = Field of Vision

[Night Elf]

It doesn't work well on my system. It presents some serious rendering artifacts.

Look at the attached screenshots (very low quality, due to this forum's restrictions.) Imagine those two frames constatly repeating one after the other, that's sort of what I see.

Also (I suppose this isn't intended,) the lights held by the bats always appear in front of the characters, no matter if they are in fact behind them.

My system specs:
Pentium III at 800 MHz
256 MB RAM
GeForce FX 5200 with 128 MB VRAM
Windows XP Pro

My video card drivers are updated and I don't see this kind of problems in any other games...

It looks like some sort of bug in your skinning code, or that you're trying to use some feature my system doesn't support. Maybe those bats have too many bones in them?

I'd be glad to test it again if you change something you think would correct the problem.

[Greg Squire]

It worked fine on my work PC at the day job (lunch break).

Dell Workstation Xeon CPU 2.6 GHz
768 Mb RAM
ATI Radeon 7000 card with 32 Mb
Windows XP Pro

I think the game looks really great visually; very good art! I love the little characters. I like the soundtrack as well. The game play is good as well, although it took me a little bit to understand the object of the game. These parts are well polished. Great Work!

Here’s my suggestions:
1. I second what’s been said about the buttons; there needs to be some visual (and maybe audio) indicator that they are in fact a button.
2. In windowed mode, some of these buttons are really small on my 1280x1024 desktop. Probably not much you can do here, but just be aware that not everyone runs in 1024x768 (though most people do).
3. There seems to be no way to change some of the graphic settings once you are in a game (like full screen / windowed).
4. I took me a bit to understand how to play the game. Perhaps a help screen or a tutorial level could help with that.
5. I noticed your marketing message just said “lots more” levels. Let them know how many “lots” is.
6. 20 minutes seems like a small amount of time. If you’re going to use a time limit I’d bump it up to 60 minutes (that’s what a lot of others are using). I didn’t notice this limit kick in on me, so maybe you’ve changed it, unless the limit is “20 minutes per session”.


Looks like you just might have winner on your hands (with some more polish). I believe it has a lot of appeal, and hopefully that will translate into some greenbacks for you.

[Greg Squire]

One more thing. I was curious what 3D engine you are using? Blitz3D, Torque, etc. or is it an engine that wrote yourself. Just curious as it's done well.

Edit: Okay actually, two things. It was suggested using a number or name for each monster, to help keep them straight. I just had the thought of making the names suggest the number or order, such as DonWon, Tootsie, & Tribby, or Alphie, Betty, & Candice, etc. I'm sure there would be some better names than that, but it was an idea anyway.

[Indiepath]

@Night Elf: Those aren't bugs, those are features... ;) Seriously: Thanks for the info. Especially the second pic looks very interesting... We are going to check it out. You are first to say this problem.

@Greg Squire: Thanks for the feedback. All your suggestions are very professional.

We use Blitz3D.

[MattInglot]

Window didn't show up first time I ran it. Music played and .exe ran but no window. May or may not have something to do with launching it from installer.

The game itself is great. I agree that making the dragons larger was a terrific idea! Unfortunately I don't seem to be very good at this sort of game. :D

[C.S.Brewer]

game worked fine for me, beat the first two levels.

for some reason it exits to the desktop immediately if I hit numpad 8

I was trying to see if I could control the movement using the keyboard.

I like the opening menu. I'm not sure if it comming up black with the music for a few seconds was on purpose, either way, I like it.

[Flynn (Morphecy)]

Yeah I know about the problem with the Bat Lights, I had to force the z-order of the sprite so that it always appeared in front of the bat. This also means it appears in front of everything. We will find a way around this VERY SOON