[GAME] Squids « cocos2d for iPhone

cocos2d for iPhone » cocos2d games

[GAME] Squids

(33 posts) (12 voices)

Started 7 months ago by frilla
Latest reply from frilla

Tags:

12 Next »

frilla
Member

Hello cocos2d community!

I'm happy to announce the release of Squids!

Get the Video Player

Compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, iPod touch (4th). Requires iOS 3.2.2 or later. SQUIDS will also be coming to iPad (HD version) later this year.

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/app/squids/id467904350
website: http://www.thegamebakers.com/
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SquidsTheGame
twitter: @SquidsTheGame

Some of the technologies we use: Cocos2d, Box2d, LevelSVG, Tiled, TexturePacker, ...

Big thanks to riq and the whole cocos2d community for contributing to the development of our game.

Posted 7 months ago #
crooksy88
Member

Looks amazing! Great job. Just off to the app store now!

Posted 7 months ago #
lerkan
Member

nice!

Posted 7 months ago #
varedis
Moderator

I picked this up yesterday without realising that it was made with Cocos2d, I am enjoying the game so far and finding that it is keeping my attention (always a good thing). I also saw the Touch Arcade review that mentions the In App Purchase currency is needed , this is just plain wrong, I have more than enough in game currency saved up and feel no need or pressure to purchase any of the IAP. I hope that incorrect review doesn't hurt your sales of this great game.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

@varedis: Thanks for the feedback on the IAP issue. I'm glad you don't feel the same way as the TA review regarding that. In our beta testing, we didn't have that issue either and so far, people have the same opinion (no problems with the IAP) in the TA forums in the Squids thread. We're not sure how he played the game and under which circumstances, but it's unfortunate for us that the one guy that has problems with IAP is the reviewer. Our goal was to be able to finish the game without relying on the IAP unless you really wanted it to.

Posted 7 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

I think this is the pitfall of using IAP that way.
Buying "bigger guns", and "larger jumps" with IAP, is in my opinion the wrong way, and people will not go for it.

If you look at the really successful IAP games, they provide full gameplay, no restrictions, and then IAP is used to either speed up that gameplay, or give it replayability.
While we certainly can argue if it is kosher to sell 100$ worth of blueberries in a smurf game clearly aimed at young girls, we can certainly not argue, that the same smurf game is excellent made, and provides hours of fun for an 8 year old girl, even if she does not spend a single $ in IAP.

So dont break your game to make options for IAP.
Give them all you've got, and then make a squid with a x-mas hat in december available as IAP. If your game is any good, it will sell.

This is not aimed at Squids. I haven't tried the game, and the graphics look über.

Posted 7 months ago #
Benihana
Member

and then IAP is used to either speed up that gameplay, or give it replayability.

Your game should have all the replayability possible without IAP! The longer someone plays it, the more likely they are to buy the sequel or IAP. ;)

and then make a squid with a x-mas hat in december available as IAP. If your game is any good, it will sell.

I would not buy a squid with a x-mas hat. Especially not for an iPhone game. As a principle, I wouldn't buy items which allow me to compete in multi-player (it's just a battle of riches at that point), however, if a game is good and only allows me to play a level or two without IAP, I'd certainly pay to continue playing.

What I said before applies to free games with IAP. Once you charge for a game, IAP becomes questionable (in my mind). We shall see, after I play this game!

Posted 7 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

@Benihana
About having a few free levels, and then unlocking the rest by IAP, I agree 100%.

I was mainly aiming at IAP where you can buy stuff that dramatically changes gameplay. I don't think it will ever catch on, and I think it is cheating whoever bought the game.

Posted 7 months ago #
letmeknow
Member

just make sure IAP is worth to deal with patent trolls. Sometimes it's not worth to fall in that trap.

Posted 7 months ago #
varedis
Moderator

This games IAP is no different to what you would find in Jetpack Joyride, There is an item which doubles in game currency collected, and then set amounts of currancy. I am sure they are in place for people who can't actually be bothered to play the game and I really don't see the point in IAP like that, but I don't see any reviews complaining about them.

In my opinion, the IAP are fine, I don't need to buy them to complete the game and max out all the stats and equipment and they do not stop you from playing the game in any way.

Posted 7 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

Like I said, my comments aren't aimed at Squids, and are more like a general opinions.

It is somewhat of an oxymoron, that IAP are for people who cant actually be bothered to play the game. I personally dont like buying gold in a game, especially if I get the feeling that I am stuck with sucky or less gameplay if I don't.
There are plenty of other good games out there, where I get the full thing for 1$, and where I am not constantly bothered with "wanna buy this", or "wanna buy that".

You can NOT IAP your way out of a mediocre game.

Posted 7 months ago #
greenTeaGames
Member

Looks great guys! I'm sure this one will be top 10 in no time.

Posted 7 months ago #
JohnM
Member

Wow, this is really great game. Congratulations on the game and amazing graphics.
I will certainly buy it.

Frilla, how long did it take to develop this game?
Hope you will get lot of sales.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

For IAP in Squids specifically, it's only to buy the currecy of our game which are "pearls". Pearls are usually obtained in the game by doing combos, killing enemies, completing missions, etc. Even without purchasing extra pearls through IAP, you should be able to progress normally and get the full gameplay experience at the intended pace of the design. There's nothing that can be strictly purchased through IAP. IAP are there to accelerate the progress if you wish to be stronger quickly (speed up the gameplay as Birkemose mentionned ) or using powerups without having to manage how much you have for example. The goal was to be able to fully enjoy the game without IAP but also give the opportunity to those who wants to have more pearls quickly to be able to do so. So far, we only got one complaint regarding the IAP in our game, which is the TA review.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

@JohnM:

Frilla, how long did it take to develop this game?

It took about a year. We started at 3 people and we're now 6 full time on it (game design, artists, programmers, management, etc). We did have some other people on short contracts during the project also, mainly for sound and music.

Posted 7 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

Out of curiosity, I tried out Squids.

First impressions were, that graphics are absolutely stellar. The 3D video "ride" in the beginning is amazing, and the overall touch and attention to detail in the graphics, is absolutely top notch. It is on par with the absolute best. AB quality.

First thing I was interested in, was of course IAP as discussed in this thread, and I in NO way find the IAP intrusive or overdone. After playing 3 levels, I had 3800 pearls, and was able to buy pretty much everything. So IAP in this case, is more for those, who loves the game so much, that they want to try out everything.
I think it is a very nice way of doing it.

But, I have to give my honest opinion on the rest of the game.

In my opinion it kinda falls between 2 chairs. The characters, style and music are a bit too childish for my taste, but both my daughters ( 9 and 11 ), was bored within a few minutes. I think all the reading and the slow paced gameplay put them off. Apart from that, navigation the menus isnt 100% intuitive.
If I try to abstract from the music and the characters, gameplay isn't that bad, but it isn't really rewarding either. It struck me as odd that a shell contained 30 pearls. Why not a more realistic 3, and then lower the cost of a Devil Helmet from 500 to 50? But I guess that has to do with IAP. Why sell 400 pearls for 1$, when you can make it 4000.
After playing a while, I realized that I could bounce of surfaces, and bounce my fellow companions into enemies. This opens up for a lot more gameplay, but unfortunately, again it isn't really rewarding. It would have been really cool to be able to "play pool" with my teammates, and solve several enemies that way. As it is now, the bouncing really isn't useful.

Bottom line would still be, that it is an AMAZINGLY well crafted game, and my only complaint is, that from where I am sitting, it ... well ... kinda falls between 2 chairs.

Edit:
I just noticed that min requirements should be 3GS. Apart from a abandoned takeoff in first try ( maybe a lvl 2 mem warning ), it launched and ran fine on a 3G, including the amazing intro video.

Posted 7 months ago #
JohnM
Member

@frilla
<It took about a year. We started at 3 people and we're now 6 full time on it (game design, artists, programmers, management, etc). We did have some other people on short contracts during the project also, mainly for sound and music.>

Yes, I just wondered how much time does it take to make this kind of quality game. I am not surprised it took so long, as it is so polished. I bet you had a lot of redo work on graphics.
My game took about 9 months to finish, but it was my first game.

Great Job on game. I hope this game will succeed, as there are much lower quality games in top 20.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

@Birkemose : thanks for the in-depth review. We would have loved to add more gameplay mechanics or gameplay elements, but we had deadlines and had to finish the whole package on time so concession had to be made.

I can see a few kinds of reward for playing strategically. One is getting more pearls through combos such as doing multiple melee damage in one move, 3+ enemies damaged when stomping, having an enemy fall in a hole after you dodge it with an ink cloud, hitting an enemy so that it bounces on one of your spiky shelled teamate, doing melee damage after a bounce off a wall with a minimum distance, etc. Playing this way also makes you more efficient in the number of turns you use (easier to get the "speed" star) and if you kill off enemies quicker, then they have less turns to deal you damage. Also, the "dash" mechanic for one of the type of squid can be pretty powerful if used skillfully. As for being precise ("playing pool"), you can for example deal damage and bounce off to get a powerup. Getting a powerup or not at the end of you turn can change the outcome of the next move drastically. Those are a few examples of how you can play with more in-depth strategy. Admittedly, because we're not strict on pearls, you don't need to do combos to get lots of pearls but that's how I play to make it more challenging and fun. Unfortunately, we can't make it too challenging either, else casual gamers will find it too hard, which is what we found out during out beta testing.

On some 3G, it ran ok, on others, not so good (not sure why, didn't look into it too much) so we decided not to support it officially. Btw, the intro "video" is actually a cocos2d sprite animation.

Oh, personally, I too find that there's too much text and that's why I always use the skip button, however some people really like the story. Thanks for playtesting it on your kids!

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

@JohnM : Thanks! Yeah, a lot of works is needed just to make the game a whole package that can be released. The gameplay part is just a part of it. There's the menus, GameCenter, OpenFeint, OpenFeintX, Localization, polish, tools for level designers, memory management, QA, beta testing, etc.

Posted 7 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

After playing it some more, I must admit that the gameplay is better than my initial thoughts. I could still want the squids to be slightly more aggressive in bouncing around, but there certainly is some room for strategy. I still think though, that it is slightly slow paced.
Still, really an outstanding job, and I hope you do well in the app store.

Out of curiosity. How many images were used in the intro, and what is the resolution?

Posted 7 months ago #
hm50
Member

I gotta just say, I haven't even played the game yet, but I feel like I got more than my buck back just watching the intro and playing with the navigation. There are so many great ideas at play, I get one of those big Joker from Batman smiles when I see a well polished game like this come from within the Cocos2d community. Congrats!!

Posted 7 months ago #
varedis
Moderator

Out of curiosity. How many images were used in the intro, and what is the resolution?

It seems like there are 80 frames contained in 4 1024x1024 spritesheets of that opening animation with each frame being 256, 192 in size for non retina so I assume they are then scaling them up in the code to be full screen.

Posted 7 months ago #
varedis
Moderator

Just as a side note to the developer. My game got deleted when I upgraded to the new iOS after reinstalling it seems all my pearls, hats, and characters were saved but all my levels were locked again.

Posted 7 months ago #
Slotspiele
Member

The graphics are amazing, thumbs up!
Will try it asap.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

veredis is right about the intro sprite animation information.

@varedis: As for your problem, i suppose the game got deleted due to a problem with your upgrade of iOS and it wasn't intentional? Usually, for a normal delete, it would ask you "Deleting "AppName" will also delete all of its data" for a confirmation. May I ask if you had similar issues with other games?

I'm not responsible for this aspect, but I think some info are stored on OFX, some on the device. If you were offline, you probably wouldn't have been able to retrieve the pearls, hats, etc.

We're considering using iCloud to store all settings and be able to play across devices, so that would fix the issues.

Sorry for inconvenience but thanks for the info. Hopefully, you didn't have too many issues with your other apps.

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

I forgot to post the "launch trailer" which is a bit more action oriented with more gameplay footage.

Get the Video Player

Posted 7 months ago #
varedis
Moderator

@frilla - yes it did get deleted due to me not backing up before upgrading to iOS 5 GM. I am guessing the pearls etc are being held by openfients new save backup? If not, I'm not sure what happened. Well it certainly made my second play through much easier with 10000 pearls after the first level ;)

Posted 7 months ago #
frilla
Member

The iPad version is out! It's actually an update to the previous iPhone version to make it universal. So to those who already have the game, free iPad version for you. =)

On our first week back in October, we manage to reach #1 paid app on the France AppStore and stayed there for about a week. Hopefully, the release of the universal version will make us reach #2 spot below Infinity Blade 2. ;-)

We have some solid customer ratings (the iTunes preview web page shows an average of 5 stars based on 588 reviews) and the few low ratings we've had were due to bugs that has been fixed since. On top of bug fixes, most updates included some new maps and helmets.

Oh, and this last update also includes a 3D anaglyph map! Hope you have one of those red/cyan 3D glasses lying around.

Cheers!

Posted 5 months ago #
jordo
Member

@frilla - Care to share some details on how you supported Windows and Android with the game?

Posted 5 months ago #
frilla
Member

It was ported over to cocos2d-x for both Windows and Android. I don't have more detailed since that part was outsourced.

First birthday of cocos2d-x a few days ago: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/archives/1674

Posted 5 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

12 Next »

Reply »

You must log in to post.