ANN: Pixie Power Swapper released

[Artichoke Games]

Hello,

Yesterday we have released our first game - Pixie Power Swapper (http://www.artichokegames.com/pixie-power-swapper/index.php). The game started as Bejeweled clone, because we wanted to do something we could quickly finish. While main gameplay remained the same, we decided to add some additional elements. So now you can not only swap blocks, but also shoot them, change their colour with paint or make explosions with bombs.

Game features:
- three game modes: classic - swap at your own pace, timed - for action fans, and logical - score as much as you can in just one level
- windowed and fullscreen mode
- bright, colourful and non-violent graphics
- dynamic music and funny sound effects

Website: http://www.artichokegames.com .

Screenshots: 1 (http://www.artichokegames.com/screenshot.php?id=pps-1) 2 (http://www.artichokegames.com/screenshot.php?id=pps-2) 3 (http://www.artichokegames.com/screenshot.php?id=pps-3)

You can download the demo here: Download link (http://www.artichokegames.com/downloads/pixiepowerswapperdemosetup.exe) 2.41MB


As this is our first release, we are a bit anxious that something could go wrong, so we will very much appreciate any feedback, comments and suggestions. Thanks in advance! :)

[ManuTOO]

Hello,

I don't want to be rude...
But it seems really ugly... :eek:
Is it the intended style ? (maybe other people here appreciate this kind ..?)
At least, couldn't u spend a few more hours and polish a bit ur tiles, make them less flat, less squared, eventually less flashy...?

I don't know if the game is funny or not, but just on the screenshots, I don't want to spend my time to figure out ... (and I'm too tired right now ;) )

[Sunshine]

I have an even stupider question, but it has been bothering me for weeks now.. I thought it might come up somtime, and I did read the FAQ, but...

What does ANN stand for? :o

[Dan MacDonald]

ANNouncment (as opposed to News)

[Tom Cain]

I tried it and found it to be a pretty neat variation on the game type. I don't play this type of game but I can appreciate the work you've done. I thought the graphics were great and so did my wife. :)

[Sunshine]

:) .

[Night Elf]

I'd like your game very much. I think it's much more fun than the original. I like the timed mode especially as it's there, in my opinion, where all the extra items become really useful. And I love the graphics.

A couple of suggestions:

- You should work on the music a bit. It gets a little too repetitive and starts driving me carzy after a few minutes.

- When you lose and are taken to the high scores screen, you should have a button that lets you play again in the same mode. I think it's the most probable choice every player will make, so you shouldn't have to click three times to do that (Go to menu, Play, Select mode,) but just once.

- I would increment the contrast between yellow and green tiles. Maybe it's just me, but I sometimes had a hard time telling them appart. I mean, I could easily see where three red (for example) pieces where close and ready to be matched, but trying to spot clusters of yellow or green tiles was hard when these colours where mixed.

- It would be really convinient if you could remember the last name entered in the high scores chart and automatically used it each time the player makes a new high score. (Of course, you would be able to delete it and type a new name if you were someone else.)

[Reactor]

I was just wondering what ANN was... but I worked it out myself, so... :)

Just a small note that I think the game looks fine.

[Artichoke Games]

Thank you all for the feedback!

ManuTOO:

I appreciate your honest opinion, but I guess you are just not our target market. :D However, I confess that this is programmer's art. It took me ages to do it, but I am quite pleased with the results. It was a lot of fun, I adore pixelart and I would love to learn how to do it better. To speed things up, my fiance works on our next game's graphics (screenshot here (http://www.artichokegames.com/screenshot.php?id=sp-1)), he's more talented than me and, what's even more important, more efficient. Maybe you'll like it better. :)

Mariano:

I appreciate your suggestions very much, they were very helpful. :)

We already contacted our musician and he's making some changes to make the music less annoying.

As for green and yellow tiles - I think this is the matter of monitor calibration. I checked what it looks like on different monitors and it depended on the monitor which colors seemed alike.

Two other improvements you suggested are so obvious, but I somehow didn't think of them. Thank you for pointing that!

Tom:

Thanks for the nice words! I'm glad that you and your wife liked the game. :)