Xmas Bonus Beta (Please Test)

[Grey Alien]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, although I've browsed it many times. Some of you many know me from the blitzbasic forums, I have the same nickname.

Anyway I really wanted to post my beta here to see what you old pros thought of it and to get some constructive feedback. Many thanks in advance.

OK people here it is!

[edit] Testing over, just get the demo from ...

http://www.cloverleafgames.com/game.php?id=1025 (~5Mb)

Min Specs: 500MHz, 64Mb RAM, 800x600x32bit colour, DirectX 1, Win 98/ME/XP, 10Mb Disk Space, Sound Card (recommended)

http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus/screenshot1.jpg
http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus/screenshot2.jpg
http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus/screenshot3.jpg
http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus/screenshot4.jpg

Fancy an XMAS BONUS? Then download this festive puzzle game from Grey Alien Games. Line up the seasonal shapes against winter snowscape backgrounds, but don't chill out too much or the candle will burn out before you've cleared the grid. Swap shapes to score points with the help of exploding puddings, shooting stars and crazy crackers, topped off with some of your favourite Yuletide tunes. Come and join the festive fun!

Features:

# Seasonal fun
# Addictive gameplay
# 100 levels
# Crazy bonus items
# Boss Key!

This beta actually only has 50 levels, I'm making the others right now! Read the readme.txt for interesting keys like B (Boss Key) and for the credits.

It's time to anounce my partnership with Indiepath on this one, they have been absolutely brilliant with this project, professional, supportive and helpful all the way, thanks!

OK, I know its a shape matching game, but I think it's nicely done with some original stuff; give it a go and see, it's very addictive! The theory is that this sorta game will sell well in what's left of the run up to Christmas and also, as it's my first commercial release, I didn't want to spend 4 years developing a 3D masterpiece only to see it flop ;-)

Feedback of course is appreciated, especially of the constructive criticism type as opposed to utter flaming. However, there really isn't much time to make many changes so, if you have a list of things, please make sure that I can see clearly what the major things are; smaller things will go on my wish list which is already pages long. I may well update this game and release a different version next year if this one does well.

Known Issues: The game doesn't like you pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows 2000 or XP Pro, but it's fine on other OSes, weird.

Any positive feedback will also help immensely at this nailbiting time :-o

Thanks in advance, hope you enjoy the game!

P.S. Is there a way to show my screenshots directly as opposed to the links, thanks.

[Kaos]

ah very cool, very much like Jewel Quest in game play, sound effects are nice as well.

[Leper]

Played the game a bit, I really like the title screen it has a nice "glow effect" to it. The game is fun, and well I do love xmas!!! :D I also like the cute blocks and I do enjoy watching the candle go down. Here's some things:


The beginning splash screen that says "Grey Alien" looks a bit plain and could use some sprucing up!

The level select screen also needs some sprucing up, and when I right clicked the Start Game button on accident I was in the level select screen and hitting Escape wouldnt let me back into the main menu.

The fps seemed lower than it should be (I'm not sure how I can test it though)

The music was very very repetative, if you're trying to save space, I understand! IT seemed like a short loop playing over and over again and it DID start to irritate my ears.

The level seemed to last too long IMHO. I'm not expert Bejewelled / Match 3 player though, but for me, a newbie at matching games; level one just seemed to keep going and going and going. I cant even beat level one!

The Game Over animation seemed too pixelated.

The main menu font is better than the other font used (the blue one that looks pixelated)


Ok, the game has great potential and I think many people will love it as is! If you improve it, I think it'll be a household fav! :rolleyes:

[Grey Alien]

Thanks for the input guys, really appreciated.

I worked on the sound effects a lot to get them just right.

Matthew: You've hit the nail on the head with all your points, I already have most of them noted! ;-) Time is my big problem. The escape from the level select (and I guess instructions screens) is a great idea. I'm also worried that people do seem to be finding it too hard. If you are an experienced "match 3" player you can breeze through the levels, the first 8 are tutorial levels and the first bonus item doesn't appear until level 3! Maybe I should introduce ice on level one and shuffle the bonus item levels forward one? It's possible I'll release another version in a week or so that people can upgrade to it with some of the cosmetic stuff improved, depends what the publisher will put up with.

Oh yeah, to check FPS, I should've said this before, press D in-game it brings up debug stats. The FPS has two numbers, first is current and second is lowest. The lowest often plummets when redrawing a level so pressing d (off/on) twice resets it. Perhaps you could see what you FPS is and if it drops when a lot of things explode. I tested it on really low specs (600MHz) and it should be OK, you can also reduce amount of snowflakes in the options page. You can even change the vwait method from Flip False to Flip True (Blitz Plus code) in the .ini file and this helps on some video cards.

[Leper]

'm also worried that people do seem to be finding it too hard....
I can get pretty far in bejewelled but always end up running out of time in your game. Maybe this is a bug? Because I'm matching them over and over again and the level just never ends!!! How many matches are there supposed to be? I had a score over 2,000 and level 1 never ended and then the time ran out. Played 3 times, same scenario, never beat level 1. But I can match over and over again like a machine the whole time!

Oh yeah, to check FPS, I should've said this before, press D in-game it brings up debug stats. The FPS has two numbers, first is current and second is lowest...

The FPS is always 13/13 and sometimes 14/14. The titlescreen runs smooth, but the game runs slow for some reason. The "Draw" is like 5 or 9 or something. I'm running on an Athlon 2500+ with 1 gig of RAM, using nVidia GT 6800. Windows XP SP2, Latest DX Driver.

[Grey Alien]

Matthew, you didn't read the instructions did you? lol, when you make matches the squares go gold. To complete the level you must make all the squares go gold. So you have to focus your efforts in the areas that are still grey. This is the main focus of the game.

Your FPS is concerning as it runs at 85Fps on 600MHz PCs (if the refresh rate is set that high). Seems the game doesn't like your video card. Your draw time is a little high as mine is 3/4 and it goes up a bit when lots is going on, but to get a very low FPS you have to be taking more than a frame to draw (which your's isn't as a frame takes 16.6ms on a 60Hz refresh) or the vwait is messed up. Were you running in windowed mode or full-screen mode? You can try editing the .ini and changing Flip False from False to True, this may fix it as I bet the VWAIT is funny on your supa dupa card. If it doesn't then unfortunately I'm stumped! :-( You could also try it in 16 bit colour mode (another ini setting) although this only afects full-screen. Although to be honest the VWAIT problem will probably still be there no matter what colour depth is used. Thanks for testing it for me btw.

[Leper]

Instructions.. Gold.. etc
LOL oops :P Hmm you should make that more obvious for those that never read instructions. :P Like a kewl sound and the backround shines to gold instead of just turns gold or something. Because I never noticed! Honestly! I dont recall the backround changing at all. I'll check again when I get the chance (in 9 hours)

.ini file, uber card, etc
Well, yours would be the first casual game that has ran funny w/ my uber card. I will try out those .ini changes like you suggested. Does anyone else have this frame-rate issue? Would be interesting to see if it is something common amongst nvidia users?

[Indiepath.T]

No frame rate issues here. Nice Game :D

[Grey Alien]

Leper: Yeah If I had time the shine thing would be cool, but I'm gonna put a pop up message on the start of the first level that says "Remember, you must make ALL the squares gold to win!", hopefully it'll get read as it's short. Only one other PC had a 12/13 FPS and that was a P4 2.26GHz office PC that someone had stuck a disgustingly old video card in they found unboxed in a storeroom, can't remember the brand ([edit] found out it was an ATI 3D Rage II+ (sounds good but it stinks)), I'll check but it wasn't a stonking Nvidia card for sure, it was about 6-7 years old, so I kinda ignored it. Also flip false didn't really help in that case :-( The draw time was only 3-4ms and Logic was 0 so it must be the VWAIT.

[smiles]

Hi,

I like this game and thought the music was pretty good. It kept me wanted to hear what's on the next level. The only two things I could suggest:

1. I didn't like the fact that you can actually end up with "no more moves left" and then you have to start over. It seems like if you can detect that there's no moves left maybe you can throw in a bomb or something that will give them the ability to rearrange a piece or two.

2. The screen that pops up when you make a wrong move is kind of annoying. I'd only show this once, or take it out completely. I thought it happened all the time but it eventually disappeared. (before you think I'm a match-3 moron, I tend to just get into a trance and may grab and drag random piece every once in a while).

[Anlino]

Ran constantly in 5-6 fps, it was only in the areas with no snowflakes where it ran in about 25 fps. Computer specifications:

P4 2.4 ghz
512 mb ram
120 gb HD
Ti4200 128 mb Graphics card.

Runs Doom 3 fine, but it is full of crap. I will do a formation soon to empty it up a bit.

Nice game, by the way.

[Grey Alien]

thanks for the input guys:

smiles: I'm afraid the "no more moves" has to stay but I see your point. The messages you got only appear once, it's just there are about 3 different ones, after that, no more messages! Maybe a "Don't show me this stuff" tick box would be nice?

Anlino: That's 2 machines with crappy FPS, oh dear. Can you try to change the ini flag called Flip False from 1 to 0 for me, I'd really appreciate it? Did you check the stats by pressing D in game? What are the other stats? Thanks

[Anlino]

I apologise the deepest, it seems that i have made a mistake. It wasnät your game that caused the slow down, it was the fact that my stupid younger borther had Half-Life 2 running on his account. I closed that down, and tried again. It was running smoothly on 60-65 fps. I am really sorry for the troubles and worrying this have caused you. Still, a really great and fun game.

[Grey Alien]

Lol, I gotta sigh with big relief, haha Half Life 2, no wonder! Glad it's cool, the full version will be released later today so keep an eye out, let your relatives know in case they like puzzle games, cheerz!

Keep testing everyone, all feedback welcome :-)

[Grey Alien]

Leper: Put in some of your suggestions, escape now cancels level select and instructions screen. Mini dialog which tell you to make all tiles gold appears on beginning of level 1. Made level 1 and 2 a bit smaller so you can finished them quicker.

[Grey Alien]

OK the final version is for sale here:

http://www.cloverleafgames.com/game.php?id=1025

wish me luck!

[Anlino]

I wish you the best of Luck, Grey Alien. So, your first published game... does it feel good?

;)

[Grey Alien]

Well I felt nervous for ages but now I feel great and relieved, I can relax tonight for once!

[dntoll]

I have played it for a while and here are the comments:

I like the menu with the snowflakes... :D
I dont like your logo and the fonts in the game...sorry :o
I think the candle-time meter could use some polishing... maybe a little more work there... I did not see that it was a candle first... :rolleyes:

It is as dangerous as other 3matching games, must play more!

Gr8 work!:D

[Grey Alien]

dntoll: thanks for your input. Do you mean the grey alien logo which is a bit simple or the Xmas Bonus logo? "Fonts in-game" is that the blue/green score, level fonts and the ones that pop up on dialogs? If so I agree, but didn't have time to finish, maybe in V1.1! Yeah, candle meter, know what you mean, not sure how to make it better tho'. Tried waxy effect someone made for me but it looked funny, oh well. Glad you like it anyway!

[Anlino]

A small note, but thought that it might be appreciated... The candle doesn't stop it's animation when you paused the game. I can't say it annoyed me to much (even if the animation isn't very nifty), but thought you might want to know...

[Grey Alien]

thanks for the candle tip, I actually saw that also myself the other day.

[dntoll]

dntoll: thanks for your input. Do you mean the grey alien logo which is a bit simple or the Xmas Bonus logo? "Fonts in-game" is that the blue/green score, level fonts and the ones that pop up on dialogs? If so I agree, but didn't have time to finish, maybe in V1.1! Yeah, candle meter, know what you mean, not sure how to make it better tho'. Tried waxy effect someone made for me but it looked funny, oh well. Glad you like it anyway!

The gray alien logo...

I think the main issue I had with the candle was the flame... it did not look like a flame... I think it should be higher... :rolleyes:

[redito]

This is a very cute game. I don't normally play match3 games as I find them boring but I'm a sucker for a Christmas theme.

Loved the snowflakes! I had to leave the game for quite a while (almost half an hour) and I just hit esc which took me to the main menu. But the snowflakes falling looked like a really nice wintery screen saver.

However, I think all that time away may have counted against me because I didn't play very long afterward when the screen went black and I got the message saying my time had run out. :( :( :(

I agree with the comments about the candle. Needs to be bigger and more noticeable. I should be able to easily keep it in my peripheral vision while playing the game. Also, have you considered a verbal count of some kind? Maybe a 30 second warning, or a countdown from 10 before it runs out? It could help keep track of the time and a countdown would add to the urgency of trying to finish the game before it runs out. Maybe do it in a Santa or elf voice? Whatever that is!

My only real problem with the game is I've run out of time with it. And other members of my family are ticked because they want to play too! Can I buy it yet? From where and how much?

[Grey Alien]

dntoll: Big flame sounds cool.

redito: omg you asked such a nice question "Can I buy it yet? From where and how much?" It's for sale for only $14.95 (around £9) from http://www.cloverleafgames.com/game.php?id=1025

Anyway thanks for the cande input, not a lot of people have noticed that the flame gets smaller at 50% and then really small and red at 20%, but I take your point about a warning of some kind. I originally considered putting an actualy time in seconds under it bought didn't in the end. Some of these tweaks may well make it into a V1.1 which will be a free upgrade if you hae already bought the game. I'm really pleased you like it and like the snow, I thought the snow was cool too!

[redito]

Just bought it. Thanks!

It needs 2 things.

A way to save a game in progress - preferably for more than one player at a time. This is particularly important at Christmas when there are so many things vying for our time and attention. It's nice to be able to save a game and pick it back up later when you need to de-stress.

A way to bypass the instructions once you've played the game a bit. Perhaps a "don't show me this screen again" box?

Again, great game for the season!

[Grey Alien]

wow great, thanks for buying! Well I thought about user profiles but didn't really have time, it's still on the list. At least you can resume from any level you have already completed although the score resets to 0. There is a "Show instructions at start" box already on the instructions page, but I guess it isn't clear enough. Anyway thanks again! Keep an eye out for upgrades.