Feedback requested: Choo Choo Challenge Demo ...

[Chigley]

Hello Everyone,

I've just posted a demo of my first Indie game. The game is called "Choo Choo Challenge", and is a collaboration between Myself and an IndieGamer regular, Damon DuBois.

Please take some time to download it and check it out. We welcome all feedback, good or bad (as long as it's constructive :)), and would particularly like to know of any strangeness, running on your PC; Sound issues, graphic glitches, speed/performance problems. Oh yes, some gameplay feedback would be nice too.

Thanks in advance!!
Chris Shrigley
floating.point development

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Screenshots ...

Can't seem to embed them in this page, so ...

http://choochoo.devs.net/indiegamer/

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About Choo Choo Challenge ...

Hello, and welcome to the IndieGamer Choo Choo Challenge Demo. This demo is limited to 10 levels, and is for testing / feedback purposes only. It is not quite a finished game, and lacks some features and finished sound.

System Requirements

- Some kind of graphics card
- DirectX 8 and above
- 16 Megs HD space
- 32 Megs RAM

To install

Download the demo here;
http://choochoo.devs.net/indiegamer/choochoo.exe

Run choochoo.exe and follow the instructions.

How to play

Click on the tiles to make them slide. Sliding the tiles will rearrange the track, and so change the path your train will follow. Guide your train through all the stations to complete the level. Pick up bonus candies for extra points. Watch out for runaway, enemy trains!

Controls

Mouse and Keyboard.

LEFT CLICK on a tile to make it slide in the direction of the small arrow indicator.
RIGHT CLICK to speed up your train

CURSORS - Slide tile in direction of small arrow indicator
SPACE - Speed up train

ESC - In game Pause Menu
F1 - In game Pause Menu

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That's it! Thanks everyone!

[Rainer Deyke]

1. The splash screen at the beginning didn't go away when I clicked the mouse. This is inexcusable for a mouse-based game.

2. The tips at the beginning were a bit much. I understood the control system the first time, and you don't have to tell me that the candy gives bonus points.

3. I found the first couple of levels ridiculously easy. That's a good thing, given your probable target audience.

4. I have no idea if this game is easy or hard. At any given time the probability of dying is very low, but you also only get very few lives. The overall effect is that I feel that the game is easy, but I lose anyway due to a couple of dumb mistakes. Victory depends on caution, patience, and constant attention, which does not fit my preferred playing style at all.

5. I can get infinite points by running in a circle waiting for random candy to show up.

[tolik]

WOW, it's a Twisty Tracks with a bit different approach.

This is a great game, however some graphics seem to be unfinished and the voices should be done a bit more professional.

I would also suggest making a bit more professional "Help Me!" layout. Check AstroPop Deluxe for a great sample. Increase font sizes, they look too blurry.
Also, there's a glitch - when you access "HELP ME!" from the in-game main menu and close it, you come back directly into the game, not into the menu and this makes player :confused: :eek:

Also, in-game fonts at the top status bar are also blurred.

SPACE/Right Click speed-up is a GREAT thing! This is the "missing" point in Twisty Tracks.

I guess you should add confirmation for destructive actions at least inside the game (Main Menu -> Quit Game -> Confirmation Window).

How many different landscapes are you planning to have?

As for the intro, I would suggest you to add some kind of parallax effect for the skies.
All of the options on the main screen look weirdly stretched.


Total impression: Wow.


I see you already have a publisher, will you be able to publish it on different channels and are you interested in such offer?


ps
I agree with Rainer Deyke that help was "way too much".

[Mike Wiering]

Nice game! I like the graphics, the music and the game play. Just a few comments:

- the options menu option doesn't work if you're using the keyboard (the game options window appears and disappears immediately). It only works with the mouse.

- I like the title screen, but I think you should put faster clouds in front of slower ones (nice smoke btw).

- I agree that there is too much help at the beginning.

- the game suddenly stopped when I was playing level 7, maybe that was a time limit, but it didn't say anything. Just totally disappeared.

- It would be nice to be able to enter your name if you have a new high score, but maybe you're planning that already.

[botman]

I'm sorry but the shadowy background (with the teddybear etc) is mildly scary to me. :eek:

I think it needs to be less shadowed...

[Chigley]

Thanks everyone! Some great points, which I will consider seriously. I appreciate your feedback.

[Sunshine]

I liked everything except the part about railroads.

[Chigley]

I've found the input from this forum quite useful. It is so easy to get so close to your project that you simply stop seeing things. It's great to get some new eyes looking at it, especially a bunch of other developers.

Thanks guys, appreciate it :)

[Damon DuBois]

I would have replied to this earlier, but I've been away on a business trip for the last 5 days.



This is a great game, however some graphics seem to be unfinished and the voices should be done a bit more professional.


I did the art so this is my concern. Which graphics specifically seemed unfinished?

[Devman]

Hi guys,

I like the game, but have some suggestions as well:

1. My monitor resolution is 1400 x 1050, so the game shows up in a small window and doesn't seem very immersive because of that.

2. I used all keyboard control commands, and honestly, though I played about 8 levels, never *exactly* understood what I was doing. Basically, I figured out that if I hit the left arrow key, the track moved to the right, at least from my perspective, and if I wanted it to go up, I had to press down. I didn't try using the mouse to move stuff as I don't like using the mouse whenever possible.

3. I like the voices and graphics. The game reminds me of the Nintendo game Pipe Dream, which I loved and played a lot, where liquid starts flowing through pipes and you have to lay the pipe for it to keep flowing. (Old school info: the liquid was actually called the flooz)

4. I think the game needs something to give it more fun "oomph". Think about this type of thing from Pipe Dream:


Reservoir blocks that slowed the "train" down giving you more time to think
Pump blocks that sped the train up, making it harder for you to plan track before it
Tunnels from one side to the other


I wish you the best of luck!

[DGuy]

Very Nice Job! :)

Two comments:

o When played in windowed mode, center the game window on the screen. It seems the game defaults to windowed mode the first time it is played. Not a problem in my opnion, but it would be nice if the window was centered.

o Don't show the "Buy Now" screen before the player has played the game at least once. This is just a pet peeve of mine.

Again, very nice job and best of luck!
David

[Anthony Flack]

Haven't tried it, but I'm curious to know how this game differs from the Popcap one?

[Chigley]

Haven't tried it, but I'm curious to know how this game differs from the Popcap one?
Well if you're talking about Candy Train, then there are a few differences.

For one, the board mechanic is different. Candy Train (and Twisty Trakcs), all rotate the track tiles when clicked on, whereas Choo Choo slides. The goals on the two games are also different. Collecting candy versus visiting stations.

Thematically, they are similar .. trains, tracks, reconfiguration etc.

Candy Train is derivetive of old arcade games like Loco Motion, Gutang Gutong, Pipe Dream .. as is Choo Choo.

Give the demo a whirl and see for yourself :)

[Raptisoft]

An amusing story for anyone who cares...

I wrote Candy Train for Popcap. The original design was like this-- a mosaic that had you sliding tiles. Popcap elected that that was too hard. I think that was a bad decision, because Candy Train is now too easy. :)

I hope yours does better! I was thinking about putting one of these out myself, but probably won't now that someone has finally done it!

One thing I think you're really lacking, however, is a throttle to speed the train up. Did I just miss it? I don't see it on the board anywhere.

[Chigley]

An amusing story for anyone who cares...

I wrote Candy Train for Popcap. The original design was like this-- a mosaic that had you sliding tiles. Popcap elected that that was too hard. I think that was a bad decision, because Candy Train is now too easy. :)

I hope yours does better! I was thinking about putting one of these out myself, but probably won't now that someone has finally done it!

One thing I think you're really lacking, however, is a throttle to speed the train up. Did I just miss it? I don't see it on the board anywhere.
I like Candy Train, thanks for writing it :)

There is a throttle in Choo Choo. You can speed up the train by pressing the right mouse button or the space bar.

We have decided to spend a couple more weeks, adding some more tilesets and game features to Choo Choo, based on feedback posted here, and a personal desire to make the game better before unleashing it on an unsuspecting public :)

[Anthony Flack]

I'm sorry, I know that both Candy Train and Choo Choo are inspired by the same old games. What really got me though was that Choo Choo also looks strikingly similar to Candy Train. And both feature a train picking up candy, a premise so illogical that it surely can't be a coincidence.

I know it's too late now, but it seems very strange to make your game so deliberately similar. Especially if they actually play differently. Many people who come across this will surely assume they are one and the same game.

[Chigley]

I'm sorry, I know that both Candy Train and Choo Choo are inspired by the same old games. What really got me though was that Choo Choo also looks strikingly similar to Candy Train. And both feature a train picking up candy, a premise so illogical that it surely can't be a coincidence.

I know it's too late now, but it seems very strange to make your game so deliberately similar. Especially if they actually play differently. Many people who come across this will surely assume they are one and the same game.
Actually, you're wrong.

One of my alltime favourite arcade games was Gutang Gutong, which I played all the time, back in the day. Choo Choo is based on that game alone.

As far as looks go, I'm no artist, and you'd have to ask that question to Damon. In my humble opinion, there are only so many ways to draw cartoony train track tiles and steam engines.

As far as candy collection .. coincidence. There are only so many original idea in the Universe, and collectables in games, since games bagan, have either been candies or fruit.

Truthfully and honestly, there is absolutely no intentional copying of Candy Train, and as a matter of fact, I only discovered Candy Train a few months ago, and Twisty Tracks a few days ago (when mentioned in this thread).

Personally I think the only real similarity is theme.

[Damon DuBois]

And both feature a train picking up candy, a premise so illogical that it surely can't be a coincidence.

Actually, it is a coincidence. When we started the game neither of us were aware of candy train.


I know it's too late now, but it seems very strange to make your game so deliberately similar. Especially if they actually play differently. Many people who come across this will surely assume they are one and the same game.

Well, it's not really too late. Changing the candies to be something else (like fruit or coins--maybe coins would make sense) is very little trouble. If simply changing the graphics for the pickups is going to help differentiate our game, I'd say it's well worth the little bit of effort involved, and we'll probably do it.

[Anthony Flack]

Even though it seems like such a trivial thing... I'd say it probably would be worth changing.

[Dan MacDonald]

Even though it seems like such a trivial thing... I'd say it probably would be worth changing.

You would, and I love ya for it! ;)

[tolik]

Let's make a poll with favorite developer thingies and ask to insert that stuff into the game ;)

[tolik]

I did the art so this is my concern. Which graphics specifically seemed unfinished?

There's no game logo. It's just a text... May be add rails in some weird 3d perspective underneath the words, or whatever. I think the game should have logo, not just a sign "game name".

Main menu text looks too funky. "load" game loos like ioad game and the text is undersized in my opinion.

"Welcome to choo choo challenge" screen has BLURRY SMALL text, I've already mentioned it (I think). This screen needs to be more organized, I've pointed at AstroPop as a good example of what's going on.
Fonts really should be bigger and more "accessible".
Now this screen looks like a big pile of unsorted info.

BTW in-game cows look like skulls ;) Am I the only one who had such impression?

Only the interface looks unfinished, not the actual in-game graphics.

[Damon DuBois]

Thanks emuLynx. All very good input and looking at the game again I'd say I have to agree with pretty much all your comments.

Well, except for the in-game cows looking like skulls, hehe. I can kinda see it... I guess.. if I look at it just the right way....

[tolik]

Thanks emuLynx. All very good input and looking at the game again I'd say I have to agree with pretty much all your comments.


Glad to be at your service!


Well, except for the in-game cows looking like skulls, hehe. I can kinda see it... I guess.. if I look at it just the right way....

That was a bit ironic point :)