View Full Version : Pocket RPG
BlackShipsFillt
29-07-2010, 03:17 PM
Hi everyone.
Tasty Poison are starting a game, this time for themselves (and so on a really tight budget), so I figured I'd do the right thing and start the semi-transparent development process early.
It's going to be a stripped down action-RPG Shooter/HacknSlash Roguelike for the iPhone and iPad. Fantasy themed with chibi-like characters. Imagine Diablo but with shooter control, a choice of three cute characters and 20 minute gameplays.
We have big plans, but will probably have to end up being limited due to budget constraints.
Here's a look at the Dark Ranger, Blasde Master and Battle Mage characters as they would appear in game (apart from the drop shadows).
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/Dark_Ranger_Render_01.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/Blade_Master_Render_02.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/Battle_Mage_Render_02.png
I'll keep updating this thread as stuff is displayable. I know this isn't a lot to comment on now.
[edit]
Pocket RPG is finally on sale!
CiNiMoDZA
29-07-2010, 06:11 PM
Stuff you people and your awesome ability to do graphics...
xyber
30-07-2010, 12:51 PM
sweet :D
can't wait to see the results.
dislekcia
30-07-2010, 01:52 PM
Really liked the concepts for this when you guys were talking about it... You still going to go with the humor angle? (Old-man boy is awesome, BTW)
BlackShipsFillt
30-07-2010, 05:38 PM
Old man boy, and Captain Segway etc, was for another game (which may materialize down the line)...
Pocket RPG might not end up very humorous, the original concept had real world elements mixed into the fantasy, eg. you could choose classes and races, so you could choose to be a Barbarian Lawyer or Samurai Fitness Instructor and fight Minotaur Telemarketers, but the game has been made less bizarre to appeal to what we see as a broad gap in the iPhone market (a lack of Dungeon Crawlers). It will be kept kind of funny, hopefully, but not especially unique.
And also I'm not in control on this one. But trying to appeal to a more mainstream audience is an interesting challenge, one I've never tried before but have thought about a lot.
BlackShipsFillt
09-10-2010, 02:13 AM
http://blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_Screen_01.png
http://blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_Screen_02.png
We're slowly getting there... these are some screenshot/mockups. We should have some gameplay up soon, it's starting to be fun to play.
(I know right now this isn't really exciting, but I'm working on it)
dislekcia
09-10-2010, 08:34 PM
This is looking cool. Can't wait for the gameplay vids.
So the redhead is a shooter character?
BlackShipsFillt
10-10-2010, 01:41 AM
The baldy is the brawler, the purple one is the shooter and the redhead is the nuker.
I'm busy trying to implement Soul Calibur style trails on baldy's weapons!! Makes me feel like a proper game programmer.
UntouchableOne
10-10-2010, 03:13 PM
Looking great! Glad to see things have been progressing "behind the scenes" at Game.dev, I visit occasionally and it seems to have somewhat died :(
Lookin' stylish! I've got a good feeling that Tasty Poison is going come through with a winner here. Looking forward to seeing more as it comes along! Between stuff like this and Desktop Dungeons, Cape Town is where it's at for ZAGD ;)
dislekcia
10-10-2010, 05:57 PM
The baldy is the brawler, the purple one is the shooter and the redhead is the nuker.
I'm busy trying to implement Soul Calibur style trails on baldy's weapons!! Makes me feel like a proper game programmer.
Ah, I noticed the controls were different for the different characters... At least, I think they're different.
Also, editing indices is faster than editing vertices for trails ;)
BlackShipsFillt
24-10-2010, 02:38 AM
Hey, I've been building on some effects (with the help of the artists at Tasty Poison)... There should be a gameplay video in a week or so.
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/Loading_01.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_Effects.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_Effects2.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_Effects3.png
(All in game shots, just cropped for GameDev forum resolution)
FuzzYspo0N
24-10-2010, 08:25 PM
It's looking great guys. Let's hope its as fun as it looks!
BlackShipsFillt
25-10-2010, 12:35 AM
Also, editing indices is faster than editing vertices for trails ;)
I don't know much about trails... the way my weapon trail works is that it calculates the mesh once per frame (rebuilds from scratch... which maybe could be optimized)... but it samples the position of of the weapon many times each frame (and adds the information to a list) in order to get a smooth trail... I did at a previous point lazily rebuild the entire mesh everytime I sampled the animation, that even slowed down my Imac, not to mention the iPad.
Is this what you mean by indices? I'm getting surprisingly decent results right now, but I'm sure there is room for optimization.
I'm also going to be recoding the lightning trail... the default Unity Line renderer is not producing quite the results I want (it does not handle sharpish changes in direction well and it doesn't give me access to the mesh's UV coordinates)
dislekcia
25-10-2010, 11:24 AM
I don't know much about trails... the way my weapon trail works is that it calculates the mesh once per frame (rebuilds from scratch... which maybe could be optimized)... but it samples the position of of the weapon many times each frame (and adds the information to a list) in order to get a smooth trail... I did at a previous point lazily rebuild the entire mesh everytime I sampled the animation, that even slowed down my Imac, not to mention the iPad.
Is this what you mean by indices? I'm getting surprisingly decent results right now, but I'm sure there is room for optimization.
I'm also going to be recoding the lightning trail... the default Unity Line renderer is not producing quite the results I want (it does not handle sharpish changes in direction well and it doesn't give me access to the mesh's UV coordinates)
The trails look sweet, I bet they look even better from the top-down view :) Can't see any polygonisation, so you're definitely sampling enough. The random "No, UVs are secret information that you can't touch now!" decisions in some places in Unity are a tad annoying. Aeq ended up building a whole bunch of mesh generation stuff for us so that we could control things a little easier at generation time.
I don't know if my blather about changing indices is all that relevant now, seeing as you've got an implementation that seems to be working just fine, but I'll explain it anyway: If you use indexed primitives, you end up lobbing two sets of data at your shader: The list of vertices and a second list of indices that tells the shader in which order to process those vertices. This was initially done to reduce memory load in meshes with multiple triangles sharing a vertex. But it can be useful in other situations too, especially ones with dynamic meshes. Firstly, updating an index list is much quicker because it's smaller in memory, so if you've either got a pre-computed vertex list (you know the path the weapon will take, for instance) or you can write directly to the vertex list in graphics memory and treat it more like a buffer - ie: only change X sampled vertices per frame - instead of re-writing the entire thing and using the index list to determine which specific verts get drawn.
Depending how complex your trail is, you might need a custom shader to handle things like the trail compacting and fading away according to distance. At least it's not one of those hardcore shaders that renders the weapon's position to a texture every frame and generates its own trail positions based on that... Bottom line tho: If you've got it working and it's not kicking your processing power to the curb, leave it the **** alone ;)
BlackShipsFillt
29-10-2010, 11:44 AM
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_Gremlins.png
Gremlins!
xyber
31-10-2010, 01:36 AM
lookin really cool :D
BlackShipsFillt
11-12-2010, 07:09 PM
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_Mumsese_600.jpg
Mumsese!!
And they do the thriller dance! (Because they have no bones I had to make them teeter from leg to leg with their arms outstretched)
BTW. Sorry about there being no videos as yet. We were going to have one up a while back but our publisher said "no" they only want to show finished work, no in progress stuff. It's pretty sad, and pretty against the Indie-Development ethos (and possibly even harmful to us), but they are in charge of marketing.
[edit: Although in the publishers defense they plan on showing it off in places where they have limited chances to display the game so they want their resources to be maximized]
BlackShipsFillt
23-12-2010, 10:13 PM
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_NestsExplosions_sized.jpg
I've been making the enemies bounce around... The pineapply-things are nests and they sort of squirt out the little minions... also the minions jump out of the water and get flung into the air by fireballs and exploding barrels... also now there is a really wobbly camera shake (hence the funny angle of this shot).
dislekcia
24-12-2010, 03:16 AM
Juicyness! I was going to ask about the slime over the water there, but I assume it's leaping out. That's pretty awesome, the game just keeps looking better - especially when I consider what it's going to be like on an iPhone/iPad :)
Sucks being too busy to come bother you guys...
xyber
24-12-2010, 10:06 AM
Great work Evan. This game is getting better and better.
Looking to be one of the most stylish and fun games on iOS from what I can see! Suck it Gameloft!!!
ps. It may mean nothing in the end, but I've aready been pushing this game to high ups at Unity that I know :)
BlackShipsFillt
15-01-2011, 03:58 PM
Ah pooh!
We made a gameplay video and got it to Touch Arcade, but then Touch Arcade crunched it to the wrong resolution and stuck their logo. Also our publisher agreed to make it exclusive content so we cannot show off the less-hideously-compressed-correct-resolution original. (it's in 4 X 3 for iPad, not youtube standard or iPhone resolution or whatever they crushed it to)
Also, on top of that, they say it is exclusive content but they don't feature it on their main page... Am I missing something? Why did we agree to make it exclusive if it isn't even displayed?
Bleh. In the mean time here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfNjV4oEKp0&feature=player_embedded
And here is the article: http://toucharcade.com/2011/01/15/exclusive-video-of-upcoming-pocket-rpg/ (they get quite a few things wrong, I don't know who is feeding them information, it's not me).
I think Filip did a pretty good job making the video, considering our resources, and I did a okay job playing it (that's me in the clips).
What do you all think?
FuzzYspo0N
15-01-2011, 05:27 PM
:O
Looks great. That is all.
Machine
15-01-2011, 05:35 PM
That looks bloody awesome, a guy I know did the music for this game and told me about it. Soapbox Sound has a Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soapbox-Sound/188845391126791#!/pages/Soapbox-Sound/188845391126791?v=info
This game totally makes me wish I had an iPad or iPhone cause I would totally buy this game, damn expensive gadgets.
BlackShipsFillt
15-01-2011, 09:17 PM
Yeah, Matthew has been great to work with! I should have mentioned. Thanks Machine!
Nerosis
15-01-2011, 10:52 PM
Very cool!
The new logo is very Monkey-Islandish. Never a bad thing. :-)
Looking amazing! :D Great work guys!
dislekcia
17-01-2011, 11:50 AM
Looking awesome guys! I really like the feel of the different characters, looks like you've got an iPad must-have here.
One quick thing: I noticed that during the mage section there was a lot of screen shake. Except it took me a while to realise it was screen shake due to the barrels going off... I kept wondering why the player was trying to rotate the view and then thinking "Hang on, I know you can't rotate the view, WTF?" so I think you might need to make a pan and pitch shake instead of a yaw-based one. The shake might also be a little too slow, but I think that's also a holdover from the perception of yaw motion.
Other than that, I totally want to play this already!
BlackShipsFillt
17-01-2011, 12:54 PM
Aww... I love my camera shake (it's like being drunk)... although a yaw shake could be cool... hmmm >_>
dislekcia
17-01-2011, 01:08 PM
Aww... I love my camera shake (it's like being drunk)... although a yaw shake could be cool... hmmm >_>
Nonono, it's the yaw in the shake that makes it look wonky. When the camera shakes I think it's turning to follow the character around a wall or something.
Looks fantastic guys, way to go!
I have to ask though, was it a design choice to go with a vpad control scheme or a market/publisher one? Just curious as it seems like the perfect game to be point-and-click Diablo-style. Did you try out a more mouse-scheme and found there were problems with it, Did you not wan the complexities or overhead of pathfinding for the player character? Did your publisher merely want to cater to the loud voices of self-entitled console gamers? Would be great to hear what went into this choice as I think that it could have a big impact on the feel of the game.
I personally abhor vpad schemes (no tactile == no good!), and I think history (all 3 years worth ;)) has shown that the best iOS games use controls suited to the device, and not console gamer mentality of "how can you play a game without a controller". Can you imagine Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Flight Control, etc. etc. etc. with vpad input? I can't!
Evolution
17-01-2011, 02:33 PM
They had the right choice of going with vpad, I mean how do you back away from enemies and shoot them at the same time with point-and-click. So obvious.
BlackShipsFillt
17-01-2011, 03:46 PM
Yes, Evolution has it there. Also without a right click it wasn't going to be quite as intuitive as Diablo (although there are ways round that). We were looking to Solomon's keep for gameplay, and we were going to have to slow the game down greatly (particularly for the ranged characters) with another kind of control scheme.
There was actually a hot debate in the office about this when we decided. Usually I am totally against V-Pads, but we had agreed upon the gameplay by that stage and so I found myself on the side of the V-Pads.
I'm not actually convinced that Diablo would be "tactile" like you say. Point and click (and select spell etc) is not at all tactile the way Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja are. Point and Click is still a very interfacy control system and is not going to benefit from the casual market the way those games do. Maybe point and click is little more casual than a V-Pad game, but it's still not a casual interface.
I do think an RPG can be made tactile, but I believe it would not be point and click.
I am actually really keen to make a tactile, V-Padless, RPG at some point, and to try figure out some more ways to move it a bit beyond the standard My-Numbers-Beat-Your-Numbers that you find in some of the less inspired Diablo-likes (like Dungeon Hunter, which is still pretty successful commercially and game-wise). I have some epic ideas actually... Kind of like "KickyFighter RPG".
It would be interesting to know how this affects the game sales-wise... and whether a less intense but clicky/swipey game could have done better. Well, actually, I think I'll find out myself eventually (by eventually making that other game :) )
I have to ask though, was it a design choice to go with a vpad control scheme or a market/publisher one?
I must say this makes me think of the mechanic added to combat in Final Fantasy Dissidia (on psp), which could have been a simple street fighter style combat system, but they made it so you have two types of attacks (one to build damage, the other to release it, much more in depth but this is the short and sweet) and it completely changed the tactics you used. The same applies to the choice between point and click and the vpad controller.
(Might make an interesting prototype challenge topic)
BlackShipsFillt
17-01-2011, 05:03 PM
(Might make an interesting prototype challenge topic)
What's that about prototype challenge? (Tactileness is an awesome challenge, though I suspect you mean take a control system and change it and then balance the gameplay accordingly)
They had the right choice of going with vpad, I mean how do you back away from enemies and shoot them at the same time with point-and-click. So obvious.
Errrr... Not really. How is using a vpad to kite any different than just touching where on the screen you would like to move to and continuing to attack while moving there? It's the exact same mechanic, just without being restricted to the limited input area of the vpad. Saying you need a control pad to allow for strafing or kiting is approaching the problem like a console developer, not a mobile developer, which is why 87% of iOS games have vpads!
Black, I'd like to hear more on why you actually need a vpad to carry out the game design. I still don't see how having to give limited input with a vpad would result in quicker gameplay than having the precision of the entire screen to carry out input. Diablo wasn't slow at all! I'm not saying that it wasn't necessary, just that I don't see why it was with what I have seen of the game. It's your guys' game and obviously I haven't played it yet, so I am no way criting you on it ;) I just like to learn about why certain design choices were made in game X or Y in order to get better myself :)
Also my point about "tactile" wasn't actually to say you should be trying to achieve that with your input, but just that if you try to fake input mechanisms that are rooted in their tactile nature (ie. Gamepad buttons and dpads), you are destined to come up short. Without that tactile feedback response that players have evolved to game around, they are constantly going to second guess their own actions in the game. There are ways of compensating for that lack of accustomed-to feedback (sfx & gfx) but players have grown used to the comforting reassurances of resistance below their fingers and thumbs as both positive and negative reinforcements for their actions in a game.
Would be a great GDC presentation on how to bridge the gap between controller and touch screen interface designs! :)
Evolution
18-01-2011, 02:09 PM
I hope you not being biased based on Harvest, if you are that same Luke.
Steve pointed out that their game plays similar to Minigore. After watching the trailer do you really think it will work any other way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHZI5F35Pdg
Anyways, are you back from vacation yet?
BlackShipsFillt
18-01-2011, 03:33 PM
@Evolution, lets not attack Luke. He's being constructive. "Biased" is a nasty word. But yes, Minigore has been a big influence. And Minigore, if you look at the above clip, is a lot faster than Diablo, although Diablo is still pretty fast, while Pocket RPG falls somewhere in between.
@Luke Well, technically yes, you could control Minigore with point and click, but it would be unnecessarily hard at the speed it plays at. (In order to kite you have to stop shooting enemies and tap on the ground nearby, and that is if there is ground nearby that you can tap on and you don't tap on an enemy. This is of course assuming you don't have a right click). Other things would also be tricky, in Pocket RPG the player gets to charge up attacks for two of the three characters, this is easy enough with shooter controls, but I would have to experiment to see how well it works with point and click.
I mean, I agree that it is technically possible, but the player wouldn't have as much control, and so the combat would be less interesting/complicated and so the whole game may seem a bit bland. hmmm... On the other hand a lot of potential users do not want to play with the shooter controls in the first place. (plus it is also a darn interesting problem to solve)
The player does retreat and regroup a lot in Diablo, but can not strafe like in Minigore or Solomon's Keep (in which you really never stop shooting) or weave amongst enemies while attacking them. To compensate for that Diablo enemies are all slower and a bit more predictable than in Pocket RPG. Of course Diablo-like gameplay works really well, and that's why we had that serious debate when we were starting this project. (Batman Arcum Asylum combos kept coming up, although I don't think what we have reached those heights)
Making it work for point and click is in fact something I would like to do. In order to get it to work (after the bit of extra programming) I would have to greatly increase the maximum healths of the ranged classes (or stop nerfing them depending on which side you look at it from)... which is doable... Getting the special moves to work is trickier, special move buttons are the best solution, but sadly that breaks the touchiness.
I REALLY like that in Diablo that the thing underneath you mouse is the thing at dies (which does feel tactile-ish), but movement, and the overload that movement requires of the touch is the problem... Maybe that doesn't matter too much though... I don't really want the game to be very stand-and-deliver combat... but for players that come from an RPG background, and some of the extreme casual audience, I think it could be better.
Of course the proper RPG audience are going to hate our game anyway... but courting the very-casual/uncoordinated audience is a good idea.
There is also another reasonable reason for making it a shooter... If we make it point and click then we end up being compared to Dungeon Hunter or other big iOS RPG's, which, in terms of RPG content, we shrivel in comparison to. If we make it a shooter, like we did, we could be compared to the likes of Minigore, to which we shine in comparison to.
But what has happened now is that we are being published by a publisher known for its RPG's and who is marketing it as a RPG... so being compared to Dungeon Hunter is inevitable in any case (which makes me sad because we never really stood a chance of creating that much content). I mean we have leaderboards and are we scoring the player based on time, this really isn't meant to feel like Diablo, but I think that many of our customers will be wanting Diablo anyway. And those people will be disappointed regardless of what I do.
You know Luke... After chatting about point-and-click (and hearing the many requests for this feature) I am seriously considering doing this... Even if the shooter controls are favoured, point and click will benefit some players (provided it doesn't become a buggy mess like in Dungeon Hunters), and after all my personal railing against V-Pads I do feel a bit embarrassed by them :)
Sorry about the ramble, I'm a bit tired. Thanks for the debate!
I guess it is kind of hard to expect a game called "Pocket RPG" to *NOT* be thought of or marketed as an RPG and not a Shooter Black ;) I for one assumed the more Diablo style gameplay given the visuals and the game title. I don't even know what the **** Minigore is... as I am sure a very large percentage of the people who buy the game will also not be "in the know" of :)
But if the gameplay that you are going for is less RPG and more Shooter, I can see why you settled on the scheme that you did... even though I am betting that there would still be a better way than vpadding it ;) I don't see why a vpad gives players more control or precision than a touch interface... I would feel the exact opposite in fact just due to the feedback mechanism, or lack thereof.
Too many games just giving up and going down the vpad route... honestly, look at Square's re-release of Secret of Mana... why does that need to be vpad? Surely that would be a prime candidate for PnC conversion? Things like that just stand out as being console / PC developers not understanding the touch space, and I guess I wanted to make sure that you guys were really thinking about alternatives. That's why I just wanted to know more about why you did what you did.
Anyways, great chat, and looking forward to any inroads that you and the team make in regards to this! I would think that it is too late to change the scheme at this point in time of the project, but perhaps as an add on or followup release it could make sense... probably just better to wait to see what people who buy/review the game actually say before spending any time/money on taking on that task :)
BlackShipsFillt
19-01-2011, 11:44 PM
I don't even know what the **** Minigore is... as I am sure a very large percentage of the people who buy the game will also not be "in the know" of :)
Weird. Minigore is a Chillingo game and it did very well on the Appstore (not quite number 1 though, but close, and for a long time). I remember iDracula, another dual-stick did reach number 1. I don't know, I might be mistaken, but you seem to be asserting that dual-stick shooters are not popular. ?? I don't think they are a good control system, but I don't think popularity is the problem.
I would also have to disagree about v-pads not giving the player more control. Any click based system is going to require more AI in order to perform the player's commands. So even on a technical level the player is at least one degree more separated from the action. On a functional level, even in Diablo, it is possible to for the player's character to be disconnected from the player's desires, usually because the player tried to click on the ground and it attacked instead. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in terms of sheer control WSAD-and-mouse beats Point-and-click hands down. Same goes for V-Pads.
However, Control != Fun. Interpretive interfaces, if they interpret well, are more generally fun because they are less effort on the player's part. And where interpretive interfaces are not that much more fun, because they are buggy or simplify gameplay, they are still definitely more casual.
It wouldn't be too tricky to add in a point and click... I think... Though some of the boss battles that we currently have would be essentially impossible without strafing. More health could get around this I think...
But I think you are right that a more Diablo-like game may very well be able to outsell Pocket RPG, given the current environment we find ourselves in... And if it's just a few days work (to do another interface option) I think it is probably worth it.
Like I say, I do want to design a action-orientated-but-invisible-interface RPG in the near future. Sadly allot of RPG players are content with numbers-trading-gamplay (which is not something I am interested in making), but I think there is probably a sweet spot in between (which I intend to find).
Lots of food for thought.
Nope, not saying at all that Shooters are not popular. I'm saying that if I am looking to buy an RPG and I see a game called Pocket RPG, I'm going to buy it and probably not expect Shooter gameplay... And there is definitely no guarantee that I'll have a reference to what you were trying to accomplish with the controls (ie. "Oh I see, they were going for. Minigore type of thing here... Cool, I get it"), but instead may be like "wtf is my RPG gameplay?!?!?!!".
Not predicting, just postulating ;)
Also, when I say vpads have less control I mean it in a precision kind of way. If I touch "here" on the screen I know I am going to go to "here". If I have to navigate with a vpad that gives me no physical feedback for where exactly I am pressing (unlike a real dpad), and my thumb is covering the fancy little graphic designed to help my to visualise my input, I am often going to over or under shoot exactly where I want to be at any given point in time. I've played many vpad games and not once have I ever felt truly in control of my avatar.
And the faster paced the game, the less in control I feel living in vpad land.
BlackShipsFillt
20-01-2011, 03:03 AM
Lol, you probably should not be watching your fingers while playing a shooter ;)
But seriously, if you're not feeling in control, you know, bullets not going where you wanted them to, it's probably the developer's fault (and it is an easy mistake to make). I don't think that this is at all fundamental to V-Pads. (obviously they are not as good as D-Pads, but that doesn't make them rubbish)
I'm not 100% certain that the Pocket RPG control system avoids the sort of poor feedback you speak of, but I think Pocket RPG certainly gives the player an above average amount of feedback. Minigore, which of course is quite old now, made its success simply by giving the player enough feedback to feel in control of the character. It does this by having a ridiculously fast fire rate, so essentially the player constantly has tracers firing off. Does that make sense?
Honestly, I am already really quite scared that what you are suggesting will happen. We definitely will receive some complaints from players who wanted a lengthy RPG. In our defense though, we never had the resources to make that lengthy RPG (it's been three and a bit people for nearly 4 months and we had originally wanted to finish it in three). Well we could do it maybe, but not without a lot of missing polish. (and I soooo dearly love polish).
So the question then is: How much damage will these complaints do, and what can we do to avoid the worst of it?
Adding a alternate control scheme would definitely alleviate some complaints... not the "WTF... Why are there no freaking quests! Blaargh!" complaints, but every little bit counts.
We are scrambling to include a little more story bits, it won't be enough to make everyone happy, but maybe enough to quell a little anger.
If you could direct me to some good uses of Point and Click on this platform I would greatly appreciate it, because my experiences with it (on this platform) have been very mediocre (Dungeon Hunters for instance was a bit of a mess). One commenter said he liked Pocket Legends, but that game was not very action orientated
I feel like I need to understand this problem a bit better (not so much the controls, but people's expectations).
Evolution
20-01-2011, 09:04 AM
Also, when I say vpads have less control I mean it in a precision kind of way. If I touch "here" on the screen I know I am going to go to "here". If I have to navigate with a vpad that gives me no physical feedback for where exactly I am pressing (unlike a real dpad), and my thumb is covering the fancy little graphic designed to help my to visualise my input, I am often going to over or under shoot exactly where I want to be at any given point in time. I've played many vpad games and not once have I ever felt truly in control of my avatar.
And the faster paced the game, the less in control I feel living in vpad land.
Won't your fingers get in the way(point-click) as it navigates in front of the screen preventing you from seeing what's going on. It will not be that much of a problem with fewer enemies on the screen and games that require less evading but I don't think PRPG falls in that category.
Is it me or does it seem that people are more interested in playing an action rpg than your traditional, select your command and let the game do the rest? Gamers want more interaction. A game like Golden Sun which is turned based still gives some interaction by offering puzzles on the side. Letting the player use their noodle is one way to get them locked into your game. Also your options you offer the character when gaining exp is one way you can improve gameplay.
BlackShipsFillt
20-01-2011, 12:40 PM
I think the "does-your-finger-obscure-what-you-are-touching" question has been solved already in a number of touchscreen games. It turned out that it does not bother people at all, when done right. Think about Fruit Ninja.
It's a bit counter intuitive, but the way people use their fingers, and the way their brains work to compensate for the overlapping finger, guarantees almost no perceivable interruption of visual feedback.
Of course, touch screens aren't quite as accurate as mouse pointers, so the game has to be more forgiving, or the input has to be more cleverly interpreted. Touching the wrong enemy happens often enough even in Diablo (and it happens even worse in Dungeon Hunter), but to some extent I believe players are willing to give the game the benefit of the doubt.
You do have a point about "Letting the player use their noodle". V-Pads do offer an opportunity to get really skillful at the game. This kind of learning and improvement can be very enjoyable. However some players of RPG's are disinterested in skill-based games.
I think there are pros and cons to V-Pads. The best solution is definitely to offer an alternate control system, but that is only if I have the resources.
BlackShipsFillt
20-01-2011, 03:43 PM
Yey!
We just got our first message from a some who plans to pirate our game who wants to test. Jeepers! These pirates are flippant.
dislekcia
20-01-2011, 05:11 PM
Yey!
We just got our first message from a some who plans to pirate our game who wants to test. Jeepers! These pirates are flippant.
WTF?
Send him a version that nixes itself after 2 minutes :)
BlackShipsFillt
20-01-2011, 05:23 PM
A russian website (Orange iPhone.ru) told us he had contacted them about giving them a pirated copy... And then he got hold of us and asked to test it :)
I think we're going to be very careful about who we allow test this, preferably people who develop their own games.
BlackShipsFillt
22-01-2011, 04:06 AM
http://blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PocketRPG_BattlePointer5.jpg
That little purple dot between the mage and the skull beast thing... that's a pointer, it is kind of ugly right now, but it'll get nicer (and I'm thinking about using it for a COOL special move)...
Marc Luck from QCF gave a development build a shot at the IGDA meeting. He reckoned that it was a bit too hard to determine the direction the BattleMage was firing, which is a big problem, so I'm trying to fix it.
Also that is a wave of ice spikes rising from the ground about to kill me.
BlackShipsFillt
13-07-2011, 12:16 AM
Hey... We've submitted the game now... there's some problems with it, mostly memory related... but besides that it turned out quite nicely.
Here are the shots we're going to stick up on the app store:
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_01_Small.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_02_Small.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_03_Small.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_04_Small.png
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/PocketRPG/PRPG_05_Small.png
Chippit
14-07-2011, 09:25 AM
Good luck, guys! Looking forward to seeing it up on the store.
CyniKill
14-07-2011, 10:35 PM
Good job on getting it on the store! :D Now get the real Pocket RPG up so I can buy it. :P
BlackShipsFillt
15-07-2011, 05:55 PM
Good job on getting it on the store! :D Now get the real Pocket RPG up so I can buy it. :P
The normal-sized Pockets edition is coming soon! ;)
CyniKill
16-07-2011, 01:57 AM
The normal-sized Pockets edition is coming soon! ;)
I'll be sure to buy it, then. :D
iceblademush
18-08-2011, 09:06 AM
How is the game doing on the app store? I saw it all over the place when it first came out? Looks great btw, will try to find and buy it...
BlackShipsFillt
20-08-2011, 12:43 AM
It's been doing quite well considering it was iPad only... If the iPhone version does comparatively well then we'll be quite happy I think. (so here's hoping)
Azimuth
22-08-2011, 12:04 AM
I'd get this, but honestly, $5 is more than I'm prepared to pay for an iPad game. You should have priced it a little lower - you're competing with free and $1 titles, after all.
GeometriX
22-08-2011, 11:43 AM
I'd get this, but honestly, $5 is more than I'm prepared to pay for an iPad game. You should have priced it a little lower - you're competing with free and $1 titles, after all.
You're just showing off that you now have an iPad :P
BlackShipsFillt
22-08-2011, 02:39 PM
Yeah... I think $5 is a bit too high... I think the game is going to settle down at the $3 mark... I think the days of expensive HD versions are over.
Azimuth
22-08-2011, 06:51 PM
You're just showing off that you now have an iPad :P
YES I AM.
Also, it's an iPad 2.
CyniKill
26-08-2011, 11:38 PM
Any info on when the iPhone/iPod version releases?
BlackShipsFillt
05-09-2011, 06:44 PM
Iphone version is released!
(the iPad version is going universal, but the update should take a week from now to go through)
dislekcia
06-09-2011, 07:31 PM
Picked it up during the sale, enjoying it a ton :)
Feedback when I've played the whole thing multiple times (because I'm pretty damn sure I will). Are you guys taking a break now?
BlackShipsFillt
11-09-2011, 04:32 PM
Not really taking a break... I'm not working on Pocket RPG for a little bit, but we've got to do some updates and porting onto other platforms and localizing into other languages...
Which is why I'm trying to hire another programmer, because there's no way I can develop other games as well as do all the updates (And I don't feel like being tied to only doing Pocket RPG for another year)... preferably a programmer better and smarter than myself, because I want to make bigger and more awesome games :)
Chippit
11-09-2011, 09:54 PM
because I want to make bigger and more awesome games :)
Don't we all? :D
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