Feedback Request: Balloon Express v0.9 Beta

[satya]

Hello, we at menara games just about to release our debut game, "Balloon Express"

QUICK INFO
In Balloon Express, you will be flying in a hot air balloon, trying to deliver mails and packages to the houses below. The objective is to deliver the matching mail or package to the request on the house.

Download the demo installer here (http://www.menaragames.com/demo/BalloonExpressBETA.exe)(7.7Mb)

screenshot1 (http://www.menaragames.com/balloon/balloon1.jpg)
screenshot2 (http://www.menaragames.com/balloon/balloon2.jpg)

We really appreciate your feedback on bug/technical and foremost the gameplay issue, as we need to gather objective view to help us make decisions.:)

[Sharpfish]

Haha! So that's what Paperboy did with his hard earned cash all these years later (bought a balloon and set off around the world) - cool ;)

Looks nice, and a bit different from the usual stuff - I was thinking about paperboy style games myself for a while, the simple mechanics (albeit a bit tricky on a bike where you need to steer around obstacles) seemed ripe for casual gaming. In a balloon I assume the pace is a lot gentler and there are no (or not as many obstacles)?

Will download tommorow and have a look (too busy today). but screenshots look nice!

[mDEV]

It's not really a paperboy kind of game actually...

Share some similarity with pizza frenzy but this one got more arcade touch..

Please do download, and feedback always welcomed, thanks..

[satya]

i've played paper boy when i was like a kid, or is that paper boy2 hmm..:confused:
so i like to share a bit about what the design intended for balloon express.
The first idea is to make iconic matching game with a bit of arcade thrown into them, and instead of making a fast paced game, we want to make a bit slow action, by using a more diversion process on the mechanic.

the process is like this:

click an icon in a house to reveal the requested mail.
the countdown begin (this is the diversion mechanic, most of the time this will forcing you to lose focus in this house and moving your focus to another house, the idea is a bit like diner dash).
the requested icon is revealed.
you choose the right icon from your inventory/dashboard.
click the icon on the house to deliver the package.


we hope this mechanic and the overall feel can capture what we intended, so we would love to hear any feedback, cheers!;)

[Bmc]

nice looking game, although I have to say it very tedious to click on a icon twice to deliver the mail.

also instead of having to just click on the circle it would be a more enjoyable experience if the hot spot covered the house as well, cos alot of people will have the tendency to click the house.

[satya]

thanks for your feedback Bmc, we'll try to setup a test about the single click you mention soon, and we'll see if it works better. thx
the house is a good idea, but it needs major changes, we havent got any time, maybe in a future revision we can deal with that.;)

[Tuomas Kanerva]

Let's see now...

-Nice presentation. Both sound and graphics are very pleasant. Lack of ability to change sound levels is bothersome, though they're pretty well set as default.

-Like the bonus pickups. One annoying thing is that the chain bonus tends to get rid of your star deliveries, which really isn't necessary most of the time.

-Difficulty level's kind of steep. Two deliveries at opposite sides of the screen can really mess up your game. Having different difficulty levels could be a good idea.

-Misclicking tip bags is annoying. I really don't need to accidentally travel halfway across the screen when I'm trying to deliver.

-The bonus that fills the screen with coins is a bad idea. Most of the times I couldn't gather enough coins to make it worthwhile and after a while I just started ignoring it completely. Granting a fixed amount of money would work better IMO.

-There's some real funky grammar and spelling in the help screens, but I'm sure you know that already.

That's about it, I suppose.

[mDEV]

Hi Tuomas,

Thanks alot for your reply

-Like the bonus pickups. One annoying thing is that the chain bonus tends to get rid of your star deliveries, which really isn't necessary most of the time.
This happens because sometimes it takes a while for the start delivery tracer to reach destination house, hmm we'll think of something...

-Difficulty level's kind of steep. Two deliveries at opposite sides of the screen can really mess up your game. Having different difficulty levels could be a good idea.Actually missing one or two deliveries is still okay, the goal is never 100% delivery for this version. But we have made some changes of game rules in the new version though.

-Misclicking tip bags is annoying. I really don't need to accidentally travel halfway across the screen when I'm trying to deliver.Ok, annoyance noted.

-The bonus that fills the screen with coins is a bad idea. Most of the times I couldn't gather enough coins to make it worthwhile and after a while I just started ignoring it completely. Granting a fixed amount of money would work better IMO.Again there's changes in the game rules that will give this bonus more value.

Thanks for the feedbacks, may we know your system specs?

[cyodine]

Having to click the house twice is a real annoyance that detracts from the gameplay for me. In addition, spelling errors detract from the professional feel of the game. A more arcade mail delivery method might be more enjoyable for me as per paper boy, but I haven't really looked into these types of games so perhaps a non-arcade approach works better for the target audience.

Other than the above, the game looks/sounds/plays good. I'm curious how it'll do.

[madhat]

Having to click the house twice is a real annoyance that detracts from the gameplay for me.
We get that quite often and we're planning to try the 1 click delivery, we figure it should happen when the selected mail type on the dashboard/bottom center is the right match with the requested icon on the house.


In addition, spelling errors detract from the professional feel of the game.
Anyone here do Grammar/spelling checks? pm me, or MDev. Thx.:)

[Curiosoft]

The game is nice and polished.

It is very relaxing and I enjoyed it. However, there is one thing that is a really big deal-breaker. Mainly, the positioning of the packages. When I had to switch the type of package to deliver, I did not enjoy going all the way to the bottom of the screen to do it.

I think that something where I can click on a new package more conveniently would work well.

Also, when I had to travel around and click the mouse button...I would have to click multiple times to get the balloon to quickly move there. I would have liked a 1-click....quick move option.

All in all, this is a nice polished game. I think a better control positioning would really make it super great.

Take care,
Curiosoft

[Rubs]

I liked your game a lot! Very polished look, cartoon graphics (my favorite!) look extremely well!

Just couple of suggestions:
1) Yes, remove that additional click for delivery, it is mostly annoying.

2) I didn't find any other way of caling in-game menu other than by pressing ESC. And it's written nowhere. I'd suggest adding a "Menu" button to the left bottom (or somewhere else) on the screen. Again, this is a mouse-controlled game, so you must be able to do everything with mouse.

3) Why remove freeplay mode from the game if its a beta? On the other hand, here I may be wrong, u gotta listen what gurus say.

Very nice looking game! Congrats!

[madhat]

Thanks for all the feedbacks guys, and we just try to use the '1 click delivery' and we might use that. so no more annoying clicking.

INGAME MENU:
yes, i think the casual crowd might need that, maybe a small button in the upper left corner will do.

FREEPLAYMODE:
There's still some part of the game that need polishing and testing, so we left it out, but in a couple of week we will release a beta with all the bells and whistles.

QUICKMOVE:
the 1 click move, that basically what it is now, but not quick enough i guess. we'll try to tweak it some more.

SELECTING PACKAGE:
we've been tinkering about this issue for sometime now, using keyboard shortcut will definitly break the game, so maybe using a mouse scroll will do..
we'll see about that.

Again thanks all for your time and effort making these feedbacks