Easter Bonus Beta Released (please test!)

[Grey Alien]

Grey Alien Games, in association with Indiepath, is proud to present the beta release of Easter Bonus, a classic and addictive puzzle game.

Get it here: http://cloverleafgames.com/download/easterbonus.exe (~8Mb)

http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus/beta/betatitle.jpg

http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus/beta/betalevelselect.jpg

http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus/beta/beta1.jpg

http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus/beta/beta2.jpg

http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus/beta/beta3.jpg



I've spent a long time polishing this and I hope it shows. Big thanks to Quicksilva and Cygnus for all their hard work.

It doesn't contain a full profile system yet, although you can still save and resume for a single player.

There are loads more things I could do to this game, I have a huge list :-) But I'd like to hear what you think of it, and what things you think I should add/change as a priority.

If you can answer these questions it will be great thanks:

1) Does it run smoothly? (you may need to reduce Explosions in Options)
2) In-game press D for Debug and tell me the left hand set of numbers for Logic, Draw, FPS and Ticks.
3) Your basic system specs.
4) At the end of each level, it tells you how long you took in seconds. Please post these times! Also say if you are a good match-3 player or not. Thanks
5) Did you lose any lives or get stuck on a level? Which level?
6) What's good about it?
7) What needs improving?

And anything else you would like to add!

Don't worry if you are too busy to answer my questions, but if you enjoyed it, just let me know - thanks :-)

If your name is Savant, please save the bashing for your blog ;-)

[Savant]

If your name is Savant, please save the bashing for your blog ;-)
No worries.

[Nexic]

The polish is much better than Xmas Bonus, but it is still far from good enough to compete with the top Jewel Quest clones. If you were doing something else this level of polish would be okay, but the only way to compete with those kinds of games is to is to take it to the absolute extreme, which you haven't.

But seriously, please don't be tempted to go for 'Summer Holiday Bonus'! Make something different!

[Sharpfish]

Hey, you know me - I won't bash something *just* cos it's a clone ( I take each game on it's own merits). I did feel Xmas bonus was pretty rough around the edges in many respects, but this one looks improved quality from the shots.

I still think it's a far cry from the quality found in the competition with these kind of titles which is why it's perhaps dangerous to follow the format too closely unless you can match or surpass the quality of the games that have gone before.

Either way, just a random remark - good luck with it. :)

EDIT - Nexic wrote basically what I did before I had chance to post.. I wasn't cloning his reply I assure you ;)

[oldschool]

1) Does it run smoothly? (you may need to reduce Explosions in Options)
2) In-game press D for Debug and tell me the left hand set of numbers for Logic, Draw, FPS and Ticks.
3) Your basic system specs.
4) At the end of each level, it tells you how long you took in seconds. Please post these times! Also say if you are a good match-3 player or not. Thanks
5) Did you lose any lives or get stuck on a level? Which level?
6) What's good about it?
7) What needs improving?
1 yes explosion 100
2 level 1 logic 00/0
draw ~10-30/302
61/2
ticks 00/0
level 2
logic 00/0
draw same
fps 61/2
ticks 00/0
3 athlon xp 1.34 mhz 896MB radeon 9000
4 level 1- 213 seconds 134 matches
level 2 - 225 seconds 223 I don't normally play match 3's
5 no
6 very nice colors and graphics
7 I hate instructions:mad: I wanted to just play, the ballons would be good if you animated them to suggest a special tile.

good game good luck

[RohoMech]

One thing I think you could add is some bonus points for combos, you only seem to reward players for clearing lots of things at a time, but not if something drops and results in a match, which causes another match etc.

1) Does it run smoothly? (you may need to reduce Explosions in Options)
Yes, even with explosions on, it ran just fine

2) In-game press D for Debug and tell me the left hand set of numbers for Logic, Draw, FPS and Ticks.

I did this 30seconds into the game
Logic: 00/0
Draw: 05/6
FPS: 51/51
Tricks: 4/4

3) Your basic system specs.
Erm, dual opteron 1.6ghz, 1gb ram, geforce mx200

4) At the end of each level, it tells you how long you took in seconds. Please post these times! Also say if you are a good match-3 player or not. Thanks

most levels took me < 1min, and I'm usually pretty bad at these games (bejeweled springs to mind) but this one was pretty quick, it felt a bit like Jewel's of Atlantis, cause a lot of times new items would drop and combo.

5) Did you lose any lives or get stuck on a level? Which level?

Played for about 10 mins, didn't lose.

6) What's good about it?

I liked what you had so far, the music, the sounds, the presentation, it all works, the theme is pretty nice. More animations would be nice, someone suggested animating the balloons and other special items. I liked the help when you click a time, that was pretty nice.

7) What needs improving?

Could you animate the bunny on the level clear screen? Also, the two pages of help before I start the game, its a lot of text, I just skipped it. I think you did a great job in-game telling people what to do, so I don't feel that intro help screen is needed at all.

Anyways, its a nice-looking game, the items seemed pretty unique compared to other match-3 games but I don't know if that's enough to stand out.

Anyways, good luck :-)

[Grey Alien]

Great thanks for the feedback all. Well Xmas Bonus did pretty well in a short space of time, this one is improved in many respects and will be on more portals so should do well. There are other non-match-3 games in the pipeline, but I wanted to reuse my Xmas Bonus engine with numerous enhancements and extra polish before consigning it to the trash.

Thanks to the people that gave me feedback to my questions, very useful thanks. btw the rabbit on the level end screen DOES animate, strange you didn't see it. It blinks, wiggles nose, stands up/down etc.

Nexic, Sharpfish: If you have time, try playing it because the screenshots don't tell the whole story, it's good to see and feel the game in action ...

[Nexic]

Nexic, Sharpfish: If you have time, try playing it because the screenshots don't tell the whole story, it's good to see and feel the game in action ...

I did play about 2 or 3 levels but I couldn't see any differences between it and Jewel Quest so I stopped as I've kind of seen it all before. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not my cup of tea.

[Grey Alien]

ok cool, thanks nexic, glad you played it.

[lakibuk]

1) Does it run smoothly? (you may need to reduce Explosions in Options)
Yes.
2) In-game press D for Debug and tell me the left hand set of numbers for Logic, Draw, FPS and Ticks.
00/04/060/03 (windowed mode, with another application running in the background in case boss comes in)
3) Your basic system specs.
2.79Ghz,512 MB Ram
4) At the end of each level, it tells you how long you took in seconds. Please post these times! Also say if you are a good match-3 player or not. Thanks
Sorry,not done.
5) Did you lose any lives or get stuck on a level? Which level?
Played until level 5, no lives lost.
6) What's good about it?
Enjoyable gameplay similar to its big role models.
7) What needs improving?
Dunno. Looks a little bit cheap compared to similar hit-games.

[Grey Alien]

Thanks Karl, good info there. I gotta lol @ "Looks a little bit cheap", if only you knew how much work I put into not making it look *really* cheap haha. Anyway, this may be partly due to the fact that it only needs DirectX1, it doesn't use the 3D card at all and thus can run on older systems, but this means I haven't been able to use tons of fancy effects, although I've done pretty well with CPU powered effects only.

[lakibuk]

Having developed a game with pretty cheap graphics i know how much work it is. I only wanted to point out that Easter Bonus' production values are inferior to the ones of games like Big Kahuna Reef - the games you are competing with.

[Nexic]

Anyway, this may be partly due to the fact that it only needs DirectX1

That's just optimization overkill! Seriously DX8 comes with windows XP and pretty much every game made in the last 5 years needs at least DX6 so going to DX1 is almost insane. Personally I think the overall sales would be better if you went up to DX7, turned on the 3D and did some nice effects. Anyone without some form of 3D capability is going to be an extremely rare occurence, especially since pretty much every portal game requires it now anyway. They wouldn't be playing games on the portals if none of them would run ^.^

Yes you should optimize as much as possible, but once those optimizations begin to affect the quality of the game it's time to stop.

[Robert Cummings]

Hi Jake,

The game is far better than xmas bonus. I actually enjoyed it despite myself. It's got an extremily relaxing vibe going on.

There are three areas needing serious attention:

1) your instruction screens seriously suck, they need HUGE work and polish. I could barely understand it. It is seriously under par for the casual market.

You need more illustration, better and clearer wording, and way less words! You need to condense this on one screen, seriously clarify it and remove the power up explanation screen.

Start playing popcap games!

2) the little pop up hint words along the bottom of the screen come, and then go. I only notice them when they go as if like a windows task bar. This is no good! Better is to pause the game the first time the power up appears and put a little boxout next to it explaining it's use. People are not thick in the casual market, but they have very little attention span. For me, the pop up at the bottom during play is an annoying and hard to notice hindrence.

3) the shutdown text at the end is pointless and should be removed for the final game. This isn't Quake :)

Finally, I am only talking this way cos I think you have a chance to make some good money here if it hits the major portals. You are really let down by points 1 and 2 mentioned above though!

[Robert Cummings]

Btw,

Those people talking above how cheap it looks and so forth... I don't think it does. Don't listen to everyone, or you'll get nothing right. It looks absolutely FINE to me and I'm a picky bastard at the best of times. Nope, it looks like an easter game.

Xmax bonus was a bit of a mishmash and I wasn't impressed - I didn't particularly like it. But the look of easter bonus is far more consistent, and it is likable. Fix those instruction screens though, they simply will not work.

I think it's low requirements are going to miss some of the intended audiance as most major portals have an audiance with accelerator cards. Only popcap has the hardcore software render audiance down pat.

If I were you, I'd be getting some of that mac action for the next game, no excuses.

[steve bisson]

i liked it... i was even impressed. The music , the graphics , the animations , the sound effects , everything was good. The only thing i immediatly wished for is an animated background. I mean the intro as a very nice animation of birds flying then when you go into the menu there is stars "snowing down" , so why no background animimation for the gameboard ? :)

this is really well done but after playing tons of similar games, i cant really enjoy this type of match 3 gameplay anymore :( there is so little differences between all of them.

Everything ran very smoothly , great work ;)

[Grey Alien]

more great feedback. Thanks everyone :-)

Nexic: It's made in Blitz Plus which just uses basic DirectX so I didn't have an option to use 3D commands unless I port to Blitz Max, all future games will be in this. I think it holds up pretty well for a software rendered game. However, next games = more bling!

Lakibuk: Yes I know what you are saying but here's the thing - I'm not really aiming to compete with Big Kahuna etc because lots of people already have them. Those people look for new games, and Easter Bonus is a new themed game that they'll be able to enjoy - people don't just buy one Match-3, like a car or house! Actually, not wishing to insult, but I find BKR a bit slow and boring, despite being polished, thus I tried to make mine a bit more fun. There are lots of match-3s coming out, as long as mine does well compared to them, I'll still make quite a few sales, wait and see :-)

Rob: Thanks for your feedback! 1) Yeah I did the instructions screen yesterday in a hurry (converted them from Xmas Bonus) and thought, hmm this would be better with less text and broken down into little boxes etc. OK, but what about the colours etc, are they OK or sick? 2) Funny, I used to have pop up boxes but removed them as they slowed down gameplay and peed off lots of users. A recent thread suggested no intrusive tips so I thought I try them out. Since the beta I have tweaked it so the tips only appear a certain number of times, then never appear again. Also they never appear beyond level 4 anyway. I'l in a quandry about what to do about this issue, bring back intrusive dialogs or leave alone...? 3) sorted this before I read your post. Not Quake, lol. I make business software for the last 9 years and loading bars and technical feedback is useful when performing processes, but totally pointless in games :-)

Steve: Thanks! Glad you though it was good. Animated backgrounds would be nice, but may be too much of a CPU hit on lower end systems. Good idea though, haven't got time to do them now ... :-( Interesting you said "snowing" down as I used the exact same "snow" code from Xmas Bonus just with stars, must've had the right feel then!

[Nexic]

Well porting Plus to Max should be pretty trivial as the commands are basically the same. Much easier than B3D > Max is.

[jhocking]

I'll try this next week. I'm going out of town for the weekend and won't have access to a computer.

[Grey Alien]

Well porting Plus to Max should be pretty trivial Regretably that's not quite true! Yes the commands are the same but the entire way you draw graphics is different due to it being 3D card-based. I would need to rework the drawing code for every screen which would be long-winded. Also need to convert all my objects from using \ as a separator to dot . (I guess Find/Replace might sort this). Plus other bits n' bobs and of course a mega restest. So I'm not gonna do it (yet...)

[Robert Cummings]

Who are you getting feedback from regarding the boxes popping up during play? Do NOT listen to fellow programmers about play! they will give you hardcore feedback.

Regarding the popup info boxes - nintendo does this as well. So does bejewelled. Of course like I said, they only do it ONCE, the first time it occurs. How is this slowing down play?

The people who play your game aren't stupid, they only need to be shown it once when it occurs the first time (not once per level).

Alternatively how about a fluffy cloud with the info which like a thought bubble has a trail to the icon ?

The text at the bottom that pops up and goes away really doesn't do it for me, - I can't read it in time, I don't notice when it does pop up etc...

As for the instruction screen, a complete and utter re-work in comic book style would do :)

[Grey Alien]

Rob: instructions screens may get a rework if time. I'd like to do it.

OK, my mum has just tested the game and she totally failed to spot the tip at the bottom so I'm gonna bring back the "intrusive" dialog that you have to click OK on. I think it probably was only hardcore "I never read instructions" type gamers who said remove the dialogs anyway (like my friends). The dialog will only appear once, and the tips at the bottom will be there to back it up, although they now only appear 3 times before never appearing again. So best of both worlds. Going to test it on a friend's mum tomorrow too.

My son can get to level 4 with no help AT ALL and he is only 4 so I know it's not too hard.

[Robert Cummings]

My son's 2 and he's not really into gaming at the moment :)

[Grey Alien]

He will be! (if you let him). When my son was 1 he was fascinated by the menu system in Gran Turismo 3 on PS2. We play console games together aimed at 3+ now. maybe one day I'll teach him to make games if he's interested :-) Actually I've got two sons, so maybe one of them will groove to games.

[Robert Cummings]

I'm kinda letting him get down and busy with wooden trainsets with magnets and hand / eye coordination stuff. I figure letting him get into computers when he's about 6 onwards cos I think it's easy to get obsessed with the damn things.

[Grey Alien]

Yeah I never got one until I was 8 (spectrum 48K) but those were different days! Both my boys love the wooden trainset, although the older one is into different things now.

Based on feedback here and in other fourms, I've made the following changes so far:

- Changed clouds photo on Level Select screen.
- Removed shutdown text.
- Made bonus tips only appear if the mouse is held over the bonus for a short period of time.
- Bonus now tips remain for 4 seconds when the mouse is moved off the bonus.
- Holding the mouse on a Bonus no longer keeps an Invalid Move tip on-screen indefinitely.
- Bonus tips will only appear 3 times for each bonus item.
- Invalid Move tips will only appear 2 times for each type.
- The number of remaining Bonus tips and Invalid Move tips are saved in your profile.
- The first time you click a matchstick, paintbrush or star a dialog will appear telling you how to use it.
- If you exit the game via the X in the top right of the window or by pressing Ctrl+X, your profile is now saved.
- Lives are now represented by egg icons.
- When the candle only has 30 seconds left, a timer will be displayed on the candle base, and a beep will be made every second.
- A Time Bonus is now added to your score at the end of the level.
- You can no longer click Menu during a Time Up/No More Moves or Level Complete animation.
- You can no longer drag matchsticks, paintbrushes and stars onto adjacent squares by accident.
- Increased Time Limit on levels 3-8.
- Removed some ice from levels 3 and 4 to make them easier.
- The default High Score table now contains different names.

The long and short of this is that the tip system has been improved so that it's easier to use the matchstick, brush and star, plus I've done some other cosmetic stuff and some very minor fixes.

Thanks for everyone's input so far ... Any more?

[Savant]

When the candle only has 30 seconds left, a timer will be displayed on the candle base, and a beep will be made every second.
I would keep the timer but save the beeping until the final 10 seconds. Beeping is generally really annoying and a full 30 seconds of it might lead to the user snapping. :)

[Grey Alien]

Yes, I was worried about this point. I thought it might add to the nailbiting tension however cos I watched people panicking when the time gets low and it's funny. Only thing is if the timer appears at 30 seconds, you probably won't notice it without some other cue and a beep was pretty useful. Most levels are 5 or more minutes long so the beeping won't be around for very long. It is a good point though, I'll see what the testers think ... thanks.

[Cygnus]

Been AGES since i came here-

Grey, you know my thoughts already, I just had to post on this:


Well porting Plus to Max should be pretty trivial as the commands are basically the same. Much easier than B3D > Max is.

As grey said, This is definitely not easy :P


My son can get to level 4 with no help AT ALL and he is only 4 so I know it's not too hard.


:P. Just :P. I only got past lev 3 last night :P.


keep up the good work!

[Grey Alien]

haha lol @ Cygnus. Anyway I've made level 3 a little bit easier now. You obviously hadn't got used to the tactics of when/where to use the bonuses. My son got this pretty quick. Use the matchsticks as soon as poss on the ice and use the brushes in awkward non-gold squares. If you run out of bonuses keep matching matches quickly until some more appear :-)

[redito]

Since I played (and enjoyed) Xmas Bonus, I was glad to see you had released an Easter version.

However, I was a little disappointed. The game seems a lot easier than the xmas one, which I already thought was WAY too easy. The snowflakes falling on the menu graphics of the xmas one are a really nice touch but the Easter version has no such thing. The hopping bunny looks rather like something a 5 year old drew and doesn't act anything like the bunnies I had chomping through my garden last summer!

I like the snappier graphics but the whole thing can get a bit pink and purple sometimes. The xmas one seemed to be easier to distinguish between objects. For example, the 2 colours of eggs look quite similar, especially when you are first playing the game.

The candle is MUCH better than the xmas one. Love it.

The hints on the bottom are a good idea and I think you've found a good balance there between providing information and not being obtrusive.

I don't play a lot of match 3 stuff and only started playing the xmas one because I found it on this board. I got hooked and I'll admit I played it well into February. It's very easy and very relaxing and now I play for points (holding off on turning the last square gold as long as possible). But I thought this new one might take the whole concept a step further. Maybe bigger and more complex puzzles. Maybe several levels of difficulty so everyone is happy. Maybe add another game feature like bonus levels, or another "treat" that helps you solve the puzzle or gives you more points. Maybe something bad that you have to avoid or eliminate somehow.

Don't misunderstand. I still love the xmas bonus game and the whole concept. But as someone who actually purchased the xmas version, there just doesn't seem to be anything here to entice me to purchase this new one.

[Grey Alien]

Redito: great feedback thanks. Sorry I didn't reply earlier I was away at the weekend. The demo levels ARE designed to be easier to hook people into the game more as a lot of people found the Xmas Bonus demo levels too hard. many couldn't get past level 2! Sorry you don't like the rabbit, it was drawn by the artist who made the other graphics and most people seem to like it :-)

Yes the old one was perhaps easier to distinguish between the objects. Initially this one had very similar colours, all yellows and browns and I worked at changing them to be more different, so you are seeing a wider palette than there was in the first draft. The 2 "similar" egg colours are supposed to be different from each other AND all the other shapes, because the spotted egg was once yellowish and I felt this was too simlar to the bun, basket, chick etc. You are the only person (apart from someone I know who is colour blind) that thought they were similar, so that's interesting. Although the artist really wantd to change them too. None of the other shapes have blue or purple in them, although the candle is pink.

The big candle is much better, thanks. Also the hint system (and much more!) has been futher improved since the demo.

This new game has a time bonus for completing the level quickly and it tells you how long you took, so that might provide a different avenue for scoring for you. The levels can now by *any* shape such as hourglass shaped which wasn't supported before. I need to make use of this potential on some more levels. I noted down difficulty settings on my to do list but never found time to implement them yet. All the other things you have said are totally valid and I have many ideas already noted. The thing is my main aim was to use the existing engine and polish it well so it was really good looking, kind of like having a second go at a more *finished* looking Xmas Bonus, so there is not much new in terms of gameplay I'm afraid. Also at the moment many of the levels are similar (reworked), so regretably there is not much new for Xmas Bonus owners, just new music, graphics, feel etc. However, a game called Best Gift that came out at Christmas (didn't do as well as mine) was then rereleased at Valentines with really hardly any changes, much less work than I put into my new one, and it did really well. What I'm trying to do is similar, maximise the business potential of the engine with minimum input. Having said that it's taken a huge amount of man hours to get it looking like it does. If this does well, and I think it will, I will make another match-3 (cue groans from the anti-clone squad) with a different theme AND I will be able to add in more of the things you have mentioned because the engine is even more complete now. Keep an eye out for it! Also if you know anyone that didn't buy Xmas Bonus, Easter Bonus should be a really good alternative now :-)

[redito]

I completely understand wanting to "maximise the business potential of the engine with minimum input" as you said. From a purely selfish perspective, though, I was hoping for more Bonussy goodness!

I also understand making the demo easy enough to hook people in so they buy the full version. I think I complained about the Xmas one being too easy as well so maybe I'm just....um....unique.

Glad to hear there are more games coming from you. I can't wait to see what else you think up!

Are you going to be offering new games to previous customers at a discount at any time? (hint, hint)

[Grey Alien]

thanks. Well maybe we can work out a deal, I'll have to ask the publisher to see if he has any "discount codes" that can be typed into the shopping cart.

[edit] OK, I've got the all clear for this. Keep in contact cos if you are interested I can get you a code when the game is for sale (next few days). Btw, I've improved it a lot since the beta.

[Cygnus]

apart from someone I know who is colour blind


Eh? I wonder who that is then.....

Is it ready yet? I'm gonig insane with the waiting already!

[Grey Alien]

Cygnus: oh are you colour blind too then? I meant a sorta colleague of mine who beta tested it.

Anyway it's done now, just sending to the publisher :-)