[GAME] New puzzle game - Axis - plus promo codes

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[GAME] New puzzle game - Axis - plus promo codes

(11 posts) (4 voices)

Started 1 year ago by dannorcott
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dannorcott
Member

Hi All

Finally got my game up and running. Was a long slow start as I'd never even owned a mac when I started, never mind seen objective C and cocos2d :)

The framework has been massively helpful though. Is there any particular form of words or icon you like people to use on sites of games that used it? I currently just have a link to the cocos2d-iphone project, but would like to include more to help popularise the project.

The game is an original (as far as I know!) sliding block puzzle game. I've thrown together a simple wordpress site for it here:

http://www.axis-puzzle.com/

where you can see a gameplay screencast I just put on. The first levels are very easy to guide you in, but the later ones (there are 30 in total, with more to come in updates if people actually buy the thing) should make your head hurt a bit.

Some codes:

WHTNYXYPRPYL
N4YFL4KLNMW6
MTWKL3T4N67P
KNPJ6LLMHJWT
M3J7FWMP4T47
HKPKXRLLLYWK
KJHAN69ERLWM
Y3WRP6MMA4XL
RW7PJF4Y4A3A

I'd love some honest feedback. The main shortcoming I'm currently aware of is the tutorial is a bit dull, so people don't read it. My first update is going to be making the first two levels into a sort of in-play tutorial, with popups explaining things, rather than having to wade through that first.

The basic strategy to success with the game is to ensure that you knock out the blocks in such a way that you have enough of each colour left to finish the level.

Anyhoo - I'll stop rambling.

Dan

Posted 1 year ago #
patrickC
Member

Took KJHAN69ERLWM
Will give it a spin and let you know

Posted 1 year ago #
Genji
Member

Interesting concept, it certainly looks unique from the gameplay vid on your website.

I took: Y3WRP6MMA4XL, will let you know what I think after I've had a chance to play with it some this weekend.

Posted 1 year ago #
dannorcott
Member

Thanks guys. Genji - yes, I think it is. The thing I've yet to find out is whether it's never been done before because it's a crap idea :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Genji
Member

I've played through a few levels and enjoy it quite a bit, the multiple 'cubes' that you put into play on each board makes it way deeper than your normal slider game.

Once I realized you can match the pattern any way you want it clicked for me, with the way the first levels are set up I tried to always use a certain color as the center block to match the pattern.

Your idea for an in-game tutorial is definitely a good idea!

Do later levels have more than 2 colors?

Posted 1 year ago #
Genji
Member

One more thing :P Any chance you can put a 'mini map' of some on the bottom row? I'm not great with puzzles and it's difficult for me to visualize how the board looks without zooming back out.

Posted 1 year ago #
dannorcott
Member

Hi Genji

Thanks for the feedback :)

That "you can do it with whatever colours you want" thing is a thing that people find it really hard to click onto, which I tried to get across in the tutorial, but it's so long and dull people don't read it. I tried to make the first two levels introduce two important concepts:

1) You have to knock out all the blocks to finish (rather than just get them all matching patterns - an earlier first level just required one move, like the second level does now, but people were saying "but I've finished it" - having to move one block in each section gets them used to the mechanic)

2) The second level has patterns made out of both red surrounded by blue, and blue surrounded by red, which I hoped would help people click onto the "colours don't matter" thing.

It's a weird little game, because it's basically pretty simple, but it has some concepts you need to understand before you get the most out of it - getting those concepts into the users brain without boring them or making them think "this is too complicated" is a balancing act I've yet to really achieve I think :)

Later levels do have more colours, aye. The first 10 levels are basically trivial (although getting a gold medal in them all isn't as easy as you might think - some require a bit of headscratching), the 10-20 are a bit harder, and start to introduce 3 colours, and 20-30 are a real pain, with 4 colours in some, and a few different shapes you can get, which increase the chance of you backing yourself into a corner and needing to undo / restart.

The minimap is an interesting idea - I'll scratch my head over that one - thanks!

Dan

Posted 1 year ago #
Genji
Member

I got to the 2nd set of puzzles (11-20) and they are definitely a challenge! I'll see if I can get to the 3rd set in the upcoming days. Again, nice job on a unique puzzler.

Posted 1 year ago #
dannorcott
Member

Thanks :)

Getting gold on them is a real pain in the ass - I don't know if you've noticed, but each stage has a bonus tenth level which only opens if you get all the golds on that stage.

One funny thing is that I haven't got a way to work out the optimum way of solving each level, so the golds are just set at the best I've been able to do - the maths of working out the optimum route is beyond me!

Posted 1 year ago #
wiegerthefarmer
Member

Just picked it up. Looks good so far. My wife will love it. She loves stuff like picross/suduku...

Posted 1 year ago #
dannorcott
Member

heh - aye - it's funny how ladies love puzzles. I wrote a version of... god... I don't know what the game type is called really... but that one where you have a grid, and three new pieces appear each time, and you have to line up colours by moving them via free paths through the board. Bad explanation.

Anyhoo - I wrote my wife a version of that in VB in about 1999, and she got so addicted to it she made me delete it in the end, as it was becoming an obsession. She liked Axis too, but was afraid to play it for long because of the shameful memories :)

[edit] Fuzzle - that's it - a game like Fuzzle

Posted 1 year ago #

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