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Expresionista
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icon About Phony Ring two:five (+2)  
Hello. I've come here following a kind and open invitation from Erik.

I have just released my first game as an indie developer, and now I am a bit nervous. I'd appreciate any kind of feedback.

Phony Ring two:five is a somewhat weird and stylish variation of Tetris with highly integrated music. I have tried to make a casual yet original game. I understand that 'casual' just means easy to be played.

My main concern is about the aesthetics (starting with the names of both the game and the company). Casual games tend to be either cute (Chuzzle) or mystical (Zuma). I love Nintendo games, but I think there should be some people out there that also like other kinds of aesthetics. I want to work with the idea of movement. Games tend to be quite still unlike the real world where everything moves even if in a subtle way. On future releases I intend to experiment further along this line.

But now I'd really appreciate some thoughts on this.

Alejandro.

Phony Ring two:five
volatile assembly

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04-23-2006 at 07:30 PM
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Banjooie
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Just realize that movement is visually distracting--if it makes it hard to concentrate on the game, it's not necessarily a good idea.

Otherwise: Cool.
04-23-2006 at 08:18 PM
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Expresionista
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Well, when I talk about movement I think in a tree on the background with its leaves moving. Things like that, subtle movement or movement in synchrony with the game rhythm.

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04-23-2006 at 08:27 PM
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Mattcrampy
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I played it - I like the movement, it's pretty gentle and gives the game some life. But then, I do enjoy a bit of clutter on the game screen, and honestly it's better to seek the advice of someone a bit more spartan in that regard.

I understand if you're mostly interested in the aesthetics, because there's a few things that could be done in the gameplay department. A few of those things might spill over into aesthetics - I think it'd be nice if pieces that are touching and ready to clear have their movement spill over into the other pieces, for instance. I know I was hoping I could make a diagonal clear, and really the secret to casual gaming is constant feedback. Just placing a piece next to another piece of the same colour should do something, especially because otherwise it's going to be slow for people to earn points and hence gain feedback.

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04-24-2006 at 10:25 AM
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Expresionista
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Just placing a piece next to another piece of the same colour should do something, especially because otherwise it's going to be slow for people to earn points and hence gain feedback.

I like this suggestion a lot. I'm going to work on it right now. Thanks!

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04-24-2006 at 10:46 AM
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eytanz
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Ok, I really like the aesthetics - the graphics are great and the music is well integrated.

The gameplay can use some improvement. Using an older mouse, that's not as responsive as it used to be, it was really difficult to control when the blocks switch - normally by the time the click registered it counted as a long left click.

Oh, and I second all of Matt's suggestions.

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[Last edited by eytanz at 04-24-2006 01:51 PM]
04-24-2006 at 01:51 PM
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Banjooie
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There's a reason /three/ is the usual number of Things You Have To Put Together. It still makes it relatively simple to do, but still easily gives you the opportunity to bugger it up. Five is just....way too large for a minimum.
04-24-2006 at 03:31 PM
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Expresionista
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I have updated the demo to include an implementation of the suggestion of Mattcrampy. :)

To Banjooie:
Have you found it difficult to play? I tried different numbers, With three it was too easy and there where no room for complex combos.

To eytanz:
I know I should change to a two button design, but I plan to port it to Mac and it would not be fair in case the windows version is easier to play. Macs use to have mice with only one button. I have to think about.


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04-24-2006 at 06:19 PM
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eytanz
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What I would really like best is a keyboard control (as an option, not instead). I personally find keyboard controls preferrable to mouse control in almost all cases.

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04-24-2006 at 06:23 PM
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Banjooie
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Expresionista wrote:
To Banjooie:
Have you found it difficult to play? I tried different numbers, With three it was too easy and there where no room for complex combos.

Admittedly? No. I'm playing the ignorant customer who's played a lot of puzzle games.

5, outright, /scares/ me when I hear it. I think of things like Tetris Attack (Panel Du Pon), where 3 is SUPPOSED to be easy, and then you get all the combos and stuff.

Instinctually, and being a /fan of the genre/, it bothers me to hear that number.


04-24-2006 at 09:53 PM
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NiroZ
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ok, i just had a quick playthrough, a few things.

1. Nice homebrew design

2. can't you make it fullscreen? even if you simply make a option to extend the background to cover the screen.

3. i wish the controls were more responsive.

4. For the mac's, you could try using the control-click (or is it apple-click, im not sure) workaround. As using the left-click for 2 different options gets confusing, esp. if you don't look the help.

5. have some sort of moving part for the loading screen(so that they know its working.

6. Odd name, i though it was some sort of mobile phone game with ring tones.
04-26-2006 at 09:06 AM
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Expresionista
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Thanks for your feedback.

I'm considering to implement the two button design. I have been suggested also an alternative keyboard mode where the left and right cursor keys would rotate the selected column and two other keys for switch and fast drop. In case I change to the two buttons I'll also add this.

Regarding the fullscreen mode, it is a problem. It is quite slow on old computers to upload the entire screen do many times per second. Since I do not use 3d accelerator fuctions I do it all with the main cpu. It is expensive to paint that number of antialiased lines, and to keep the audio playing with low latency. I assumed a number of simplifications to make it sure the game would run equally well on old computers with unreliable 3d cards.

I'll also reduce the time that the loading screen is displayed. In fact I just forgot to do this. On the full version there shows more text and the time is ok.

I'll also would like to know what's the price tag you consider fair for this game, and what's the amout you'll pay without a second thought.

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04-26-2006 at 09:37 AM
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eytanz
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Expresionista wrote:
I'll also would like to know what's the price tag you consider fair for this game, and what's the amout you'll pay without a second thought.

Well, I for one would not be interested in buying any sort of tetris clone, even if I really like it's graphics. I'm not that huge of a tetris fan, and when I'm in the mood to play tetris there are enough free versions available, that it's just not worth it to spend money on it. I admit I never saw this particular conflation of the columns variation and the ring variation - all the ring tetrises I've ever played had falling shapes rather than color manipulations - but that's not nearly a big enough seliing point.


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04-26-2006 at 02:01 PM
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NiroZ
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Expresionista wrote:
I'll also would like to know what's the price tag you consider fair for this game, and what's the amout you'll pay without a second thought.

unfortunatly, i personally cannot buy anything over the net without a second thought, due to the inaccesiblity of a credit card. :(

Its also hard to judge what is a fair price without having access to the full version, could you discribe it to us?

Also, if you want to get your name out, you might want to try Miniclips, which is a site which hosts many games (mostly flash games), and allows them to be played in your browser. I have no idea what they will be requireing, but its worth checking out.
04-27-2006 at 02:30 AM
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Expresionista
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The full version includes more levels with different music each one and the submission of the score to the online world ranking. It is told on the demo but I guess I should work on it a bit.

Ok, I'll do an experiment since I am still on the early release stage. I'll offer it to you at USD $5 (instead of $24) through an special link that will work for two days. Of course any new versions I release will be available for free to the previous buyers. Feel free to tell about this to anyone you want, it is just an experiment.

http://volatile-assembly.com/phonyring/twofive/buy.py?code=caravelgames.com

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04-27-2006 at 04:19 AM
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