game lynch

Alex Nichiporchik @ Spil Games

Phillipp Doschl @ FDG Entertainment

Tom Krcha @ Adobe

Chris Benjaminsen @ Player.io

Emily Greer @ Kongregate

RED BALL 4 The Square Menace

Introduction vid

Curious Case of Memory Leaks

• Always test the Pepperflash (Chrome) plugin and native Adobe Flash plugin

Controls are non-responsive

• Controls make or break a platformer game • Red Ball 4 is broken because of the controls

Controls in a platformer have to be

• Responsive • Precise • Easy to understand

• Use visual sliders in prototypes to tweak

variables • Nail it down until it feels right • Test on multiple people in your target

audience

Achievements & Points, but no added value

• Achievements are nice, but standard

• Why not use the points system to upgrade your ball’s abilities?

• Give users replay value and reward for achieving something, not just for the sakes of having achievements

The character is disturbing

Reacts only to damage Is still smiling when there’s an enemy drowning right next to him and almost crying for help

Tl;dr

• Fix controls;

• fix memory leaks

• expand character

• Add more content

• Stop treating “Red Ball” as a collection of mini game prototypes

Phillipp Doschl @ FDG Jelly Cannon 2

All devices? How about iPhone 5?

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

HUD misses some information or information is not straight forward: - Score reduced with every shot. Different in every level, need to do math for shot left - Star progress? Would be nice when trying to get all 3 stars.

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

HUD overlaps with gameplay –> accidently restart level or pause game

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

More gameplay: - Different Jellys with different attributes or match same colors? - More level elements and interactive objects (bombs, switches, doors, etc)

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

Only 5 Jellys at a time! It would be great to know which Jelly is the next one to be removed -> adds even more character and polish to the game

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

Be kind to your players: unlock more levels at once (3 levels?). And...

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

... if they're still stuck, they´ll unlock all levels / level packs via IAP in return... ... if there was such an IAP, besides the magnetic sunjelly...

Jelly Cannon Reloaded

Tom Krcha @ Adobe Gluey 2

Gluey 2

• Fantastic mechanics in the worst UI

Huge potential Fun to play

Fun first 5 minutes

but no recurring fun

Sid Meier: “a game is a series of interesting choices”

I don’t feel challenged enough.

How do I lose?

Why should I repeat a level?

No Time Challenge (only over the line)

Joke?

Align?

What is this? I didn’t get it at first time.

Simplify and explain easily. Am I going to click this now, or later?

Gluey 2

• Performance problems

– Put everything on GPU, triangulate

• Make it more engaging with more action,

– Bonuses and combos

• Compared to Bejeweled or Tetris too easy to

play

– Challenge the user

Gpu triangulation

• Optimize to the specific use-case via shaders

• Anti-alias using fragment shaders

• Good starting point: https://code.google.com/p/poly2tri/

Technical

640 x 480

640 x 480

Experience

640 x 480

Business

• Sponsorship • Single Ad while loading

• No replayability • Micro Transactions

• No replayability

Business

Bubblegum Flash Game

Fin

Wake up the Box with a Sledgehammer

Evgeny, why do you hate boxes? What do you have against straight lines?

The most annoying thing about the game is how hard it is to make the shape you want.

It would be easier to draw the Mona Lisa with an etch-a-sketch than to make a square in this game.

In a puzzle game the challenge should be in solving the puzzle, not in execution of the solution.

Unless the intention was to get a lot of accidental clicks to NotDoppler putting buttons in the drawing area was a bad call. Lots of potential for pointless player annoyance.

A lot of the puzzles felt too simple & empty

More solutions from Rube Goldberg machines, less from arbitrary shape redesigns

But sudden switches to Rube Goldberg-mechanic levels totally disrupts the difficulty curve

This level was so different from previous levels I didn’t know where to start and got frustrated

Evgeny, why do you hate progress?

There’s minimal feedback on progression.

To even know what level you’re on you have to go back to the menu screen.

I don’t want a randomly selected “well done” message at the end of the level, I want to know that I’m better at games than other people.

Give me skill stars, shapes drawn, or time taken so that I know for sure I’m awesome.

You also have no sense of your level of skill.

tl;dr

In fact I like it. Just not on a trackpad.