Ancient Quest of Saqqarah BETA

[codeminion]

Hi,

Today we have announced the open beta of our latest casual game, Ancient Quest of Saqqarah. Any kind of feedback is welcome and will be of great help to us in final polishing of the game.

Direct link to beta version (26MB):
http://codeminion.com/downloads/SaqqarahSetup_Beta.exe

Screenshots:
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...ndgameplay.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...qarah_menu.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...hsgameplay.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...egameplay3.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...sgameplay2.jpg
http://www.saqqarahthegame.com/scree...qarah_oaza.jpg

Once you play the game there is an option to complete a survey and apply for inclusion in the closed beta of the full version. Once again I would like to stress that we will appreciate all kinds of honest feedback!

Regards,
Codeminion Team

[OogyBoogy]

It looks fantastic, however, I was unable to play because the mouse pointer had a several seconds-delay when moving the actual mouse, making navigating on screen very difficult.

[codeminion]

It looks fantastic, however, I was unable to play because the mouse pointer had a several seconds-delay when moving the actual mouse, making navigating on screen very difficult.

Thanks for the kind words about the game. Unfortunately you are not the only one having this lag problem. Can you tell me if the lag was only with the mouse cursor, or generally the game was running slowly? You can enable frame rate display by pressing F12. It will show in upper right corner of the screen.

I would also appreciate if you could tell me your OS and graphics card.

Sorry for the trouble.

[eric_hein]

Excellent work. From the moment I saw the menu to the time the trial ran out, I couldn't stop noticing how polished + professional this looks. I usually prefer games that are more complex than match-3, but this game held my attention for the whole hour. I filled out the survey on your site. Looking forward to the final beta test version.

[Emmanuel]

Fantastic production values and polish. I'm jealous of some of your smoke and transition effects (such as when the monkey thingie disappears) I don't care much for the gameplay though/wouldn't care enough to play longer than an hour, but I'm sure that some people do. I hope it does great for you.

BTW, good job about widescreen support!

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[chanon]

Woah!
This has got to be the highest production values I've ever seen in a Match-3! It's amazing!

I filled your survey already.

I played til the magic match mechanic temple (I think it was the 4th one?). Thought the 2nd and 3rd mechanics were a little weak, esp. the 2nd one. The find magic symbols bonus round was also boring for me.

But the 1st and 4th one were pretty fun.

I played for 60 minutes without knowing it. The main draw was probably wanting to see what other mechanics you had.

In any case all those graphics effects were extremely well done!

[Midnight Synergy]

I can only echo some of the comments above - absolutely fantastic production values, through and through. I'm amazed at the amount of small details you guys put in there, and I really wouldn't mind hiring your art crew.

Can't comment much on the gameplay, as these things aren't my cup of tea, but I kept playing for most of an hour just to see what graphical treat awaited me next. That's gotta be a good thing!

[codeminion]

Thanks! We didn't expect the feedback to be so heart lifting and positive.

But our goal is to improve the game from this point, so perhaps I should ask another question. What would you name as the worst thing in the game? Graphics, sound, mechanics, balance? etc.

[zman]

The worst thing I can find is your default install path... c:\My Games - where did that come from?

Otherwise the game looks about as professionally done as any i have seen. Very impressive.

The only gameplay issue I had is that at times I didn't find that I was in control based on skill. I would pick a couple of swaps and the board would go crazy and mega point suff happened. Then sometimes I would be stuck racking up the points on one side of the board away from the only remaining segment which I could never free up until I earned the shuffle. I played for aout 20mins before work made my quit ;-) ANd really I got sick of match games years ago.

[OogyBoogy]

Thanks for the kind words about the game. Unfortunately you are not the only one having this lag problem. Can you tell me if the lag was only with the mouse cursor, or generally the game was running slowly? You can enable frame rate display by pressing F12. It will show in upper right corner of the screen.

I get an FPS of about 29.

I would also appreciate if you could tell me your OS and graphics card.

Machine Specs: Intel Celeron D at 3.33Ghz, 1.5GB Ram, Ati Radeon Xpress 200, XP Media Edition.

Sorry for the trouble.

No problem at all, I hope the issue gets resolved.

[Reactor]

The game ran beautifully for me (no issues at all) and really enjoyed the slickness of it all.

My comments about the gameplay are similar to what zman pointed out. For me, it felt as though the game was mostly luck with very little skill involved. That's not a bad thing if your target market enjoy winning through lucky matches, but for myself something like Puzzle Quest has the extra edge in that the luck aspect of match-3 is mixed with other abilities that should be used skillfully.

Anyhow, you guys really should release some production DVDs or web tutorials to help people understand what game polish really is, because you certainly have a good grasp on it. I admire how you've taken modern effects and used them subtly to enhance the look of certain small things. I may just buy the game so I can learn a few tips and tricks

[TeeGee]

Thanks for all the comments and for the surveys/logs sent. This really helps a lot!

For me, it felt as though the game was mostly luck with very little skill involved. That's not a bad thing if your target market enjoy winning through lucky matches

Remember that the classical match-3 (which is indeed quite luck based) is only the first gameplay/temple. Second one gives you a direct control over the board and the third one is a completely-skill based logic puzzle, with no luck involved besides the initial board setup. You get an access to another temple after completing 4 levels in the current one.
So I wonder if you stopped playing before level 4 or maybe the game just wasn't clear enough about this?

[Reactor]

I stopped playing before level 4, yes. (time issue- I was enjoying the game) Perhaps you had said something about the other puzzles, but I went right for the demo and dived right in.... so I missed it, somewhere along the line.

Did anyone else miss that info, or was it just me?

EDIT: I almost forgot- for your installer, options to avoid having icons installed on the desktop would be nice.

[TeeGee]

To be honest, the game itself doesn't state anywhere that there are more gameplays, unless you complete 4 levels. There are other temples visible in the oasis, along with tooltips, but maybe that's not enough. Of course, it's going to be all over the marketing copy for the game, but who reads that stuff. Especially for a match-3 .

Thanks for pointing this out. We'll think of doing something more to deliver the promise of varied gameplays earlier. I might try shortening these 4 levels a bit as well.

[Reactor]

I think the length is okay... but what you could do is put in a very brief, "What this temple is like..." blurb when mousing over the locked ones, so people know it's not 500+ levels of the same thing. The word 'gameplays' is also a bit misleading. Perhaps the term, 'gameplay types' would be more descriptive? For example, the feature blurb after exiting the game says, "unlock all temples with 7 gameplays"... but that doesn't sound like correct english

[Reactor]

I played the game until my 60 minutes ran out, and tested four of the temples. I had fun! I see you have a very small line about the gameplay type for each temple, but as mentioned above I think it should be a little more descriptive (a little longer, perhaps).

I really like the, "Why you should buy this game." area of the main interface. That's a really good idea.

[codeminion]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Of course I can't guarantee that we will implement all of them. The game has been in development for almost 18 months and I imagine we could keep on polishing it indefinitely. For sure we will try to make the different mechanics stand out more.

The worst thing I can find is your default install path... c:\My Games - where did that come from?

We use the My Games path on default so that the game can be easily installed on limited user accounts where the user can't write to Program Files.

[hicham]

thank u very much codeminion for publishing this game, it is very good in graphics and gameplay and music and all and and and , I hope the next game will be a hidden object

[zman]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Of course I can't guarantee that we will implement all of them. The game has been in development for almost 18 months and I imagine we could keep on polishing it indefinitely. For sure we will try to make the different mechanics stand out more.


We use the My Games path on default so that the game can be easily installed on limited user accounts where the user can't write to Program Files.

In which case choosing an apparantly random defualt position on a hard drive still feels like the wrong thing to do. For MOST of your customers the Program Files is and should be the right place.

For the remainder I'm not sure what the windows rules and precedents would be. Windows ClickOnce applications which use the same kind of technique to avoid program files get installed to the users AppData/Local directory. Maybe this is a better place. Certainly cluttering up the root of a drive can't be a good thing for apps to do.

[mooktown]

Perfect showmanship throughout, the timing of the presentation reminded me of Azada.

[Midnight Synergy]

In which case choosing an apparantly random defualt position on a hard drive still feels like the wrong thing to do. For MOST of your customers the Program Files is and should be the right place.

For the remainder I'm not sure what the windows rules and precedents would be. Windows ClickOnce applications which use the same kind of technique to avoid program files get installed to the users AppData/Local directory. Maybe this is a better place. Certainly cluttering up the root of a drive can't be a good thing for apps to do.

I'd agree with that (albeit only now, and only reluctantly). See a thread from a while back (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=12745) to some answers for program location. Making a non-standard directory will only make things more complicated in the long run, in my opinion. Even if the behaviour for Program Files is a pain to deal with.

[Adrian Cummings]

2 words apply here... Bloody Brilliant!

11 out of 10 for effort and hope it sells by the bucket load for you guys.

[Grey Alien]

Weird name, but fantastic looking game! Great particle effects and screen transitions. The different game modes and mini-games are cool. Great sound/music. Well done! Hope it does well for you.

Noticed some things:

- On the Credits screen, you can mouse over the "change player" area which is invisible and it makes a mouse over "ding" noise.
- Couple of times in the game the sound went wrong. Basically all sound cut out for about 250ms then came back on and it did that maybe 4-5 times like sound off/on/off/on/off/on. Maybe a buffer issue?? I have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 with up-to-date drivers. (notice you are using OpenAL, so am I for my games and they seems fine on my PC)
- On the puzzle temple it said "only one more move" and I made the wrong move and it said "no, go back" but I did that really quickly and he said "only one more move again" over the top of the other speech, so there were two speech samples (at least) playing at once.

Oh the English voice is a bit "hammy", but I guess that's OK ;-)

I'm jealous of many of the effects too, esp. the lightening.

Filled out the questionnaire for you as well.

[electronicStar]

Wow the special effects and graphics for this one are over the top!
well done. I didn't even pay attention to the game underneath (which is probably for the better because I'm not a fan of match3)

[aliosa]

i dont know what to say. its a verry good game. i know people will play it. but it looks so complex.

i only have 1 thing to say as feedback beside it looks perfect, at first, when i set up my name i entered for the first time in the game but the games shows on the center my name like this "welcome back Aliosa" but i did not been there before... get my point? it should say. Welcome Aliosa for the first time. and the other times should say .. welcome back aliosa...

I wish u luck with your game, i dont know for sure but i think some of the images are more sharp than the others. please be careful with the sharp level.

the 3d characters are verry good and i like the idea of cutting frames and work as stop motion animation for game size save...

good luck!

[Grey Alien]

I sent this to someone but they couldn't play it due to the cursor lag bug.

[TeeGee]

I sent this to someone but they couldn't play it due to the cursor lag bug.

We're working on fixing it and all should be fine in the next version. You can direct this person to us, if he or she would feel like helping us with testing the fix .

[Grey Alien]

Sure when you've uploaded the fix I'll tell them to try it out again - can't guarantee they will, but hopefully they will.

[svero]

Overall it's fantastic. It's nice to see someone actually thinking about new mechanics and not just purely rehashing what's been done. Production values are clearly over the top. Sometimes it actually feels like "too much" flash and whiz bang. Lots of depth and variety in the gameplay, and very nice surrounding meta-game elements. Will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this. It would certainly be a shame if it didn't sell very well. I can't imagine the insane amount of work you guys must have put into this. (or rather i can and I get tired just thinking about it)

[HDL]

I want to play but am also suffering from the cursor lag bug I'm afraid, much to my frustration. It looks very pretty, nice and shiny and the music was good.

Switching it out of fullscreen mode though has fixed the bug for me so now I get to play.

Played my hour, filled in the survey, sent the log file. Unfortunately I forgot to check the frame-rate whilst I wasn't playing in windowed mode so I'm not certain what it is.

I wasn't a fan of the magic symbols bonus round mostly because the symbols were a bit dark for me and I don't have that great eye-sight when it comes to picking stuff out. It's good that the round was there but I'd have liked a skip button and more of a clue why I was doing the round in the first place.

I rarely read text unless I have to so I've still no clue what the scarab was for, or those coins or why some gems wanted to get supercharged or whatever it was that made them glow. No idea how to get rid of those annoying Seth pieces other than using random either, and they seemed to swap fine with other pieces sometimes only I thought they weren't meant to. Of course all of this could be fixed if I read the text when it came up. Is it also in the help files? Hmm suppose I should have gone and checked before my trial ran out but I usually read as little as possible whilst doing trials since the more time reading the less time playing and I know which I find more fun.

The third temple had the most fun mechanic for me. I liked rearranging the pieces, swapping them around to get the whole board filled and trying to do it in as few moves as possible. First temple was the 2nd most enjoyable for me since it was the traditional match mechanic. The fourth temple frustrated me a bit since the 2nd level of it was the puzzle which took me longest to complete and I think my time almost ran out on it. I just couldn't get pieces to bridge a certain line. It was still fun though I suppose. The second temple though, it took me a bit to work out I should be clicking on the triangles not on the tokens to rotate the pieces. I always preferred clicking to rotate with the left button several times as opposed to once with the right since I couldn't remember which way rotated them which. It didn't feel quite as satisfying as the other puzzles either but I did at least get enough puzzles done to get my key.

It's a gorgeous game, very well polished.

Unlike the others I like when I make moves and everything cascades and megapoint stuff happens. I find it unsatisfying when things like that don't happen. I'm pretty sure it should be possible to set up those sort of matches too (or would be if I wasn't clicking so fast) so there is a sort of skill element to it. But mostly I don't like my match-3s to be too difficult, at least not to begin with.

I like match-3s. I really enjoyed this one. I think it did everything right. I like how polished it is, the fantastic production values, the different gameplay modes and how you don't have to complete all of one before moving onto the other. I like the unlockables, both the trophies and that the new temples are unlocked. Is more stuff unlocked when I finish stage1 of a temple? I'm presuming yes.

Anyway it's a great game. I really hope it does well.