[PROTOTYPE] Polar Pilot

FanieG

So I made a thing that looks like this:



It's a physics puzzler of sorts (very much still a WIP). I created it for android touch devices, but also made a PC web build which is playable here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/PolePilots Ver1/PolePilots Ver1.html

On touch devices you would make use of the 2 sets of coloured arrow keys, on PC you use Arrow Keys & AWSD. The first few levels are tutorial in nature, but only due to their simplicity. The feedback I would like to get is:

* Was the mechanic clear to you without any prompts or instructions (other than the control scheme mentioned above)?
* Can you help me feature creep? Especially with regard to puzzle elements (e.g. power-ups, enemy types etc)
* Do you think I need to incorporate a time element to the puzzles i.e. finish before time runs out, or see how quick you can clear each level, or is the current win-condition enough.
* Old classic question - "Is there fun to be had here?"

creative630

Hey, I gave it a spin. Seems pretty cool, I like how you are battling both your two hands to work together and the magnetic pull (or links).

* The basic mechanic was pretty clear to me. I have not idea what I am supposed to be doing in the first level with the arrow floor buttons. The red one made me stop moving (and essentially loose) and the blue one slowed the magnetic pull down?
* I kinda feel like the movement is a bit too slow. Like when moving in one direction, I found the best way was to move just one pole and just pull the other along (which is really slow). The slowness kinda gets on your nerves when its so easy to die. (or at least the speed cap! maybe some acceleration could fix what I am trying to explain)
* I like the current win-condition atm. Its a nice challenge to get the ball where you want to go.
* I think there could be fun here, but it would take some polish on the controls and making the mechanic "feel" good to make it a less painful experience ( for me at least :) )

FanieG

@creative630 thank you so much for giving it a spin. Great feedback. Quick question did you get to the last stage?

Reason i'm asking is about the speed issue. In earlier stages it is slow (painfully so), but in later stages the mazes are bigger and require more finess, then slow is better. Also on when I build an Android build the movement is faster than the PC build even though the variables remain the same. There is also a control aspect. If you move both ''magnets'' in the same direction at the same time, the speed is much faster (e.g. W and Up) together. The PC version has to be played on the keyboard and not with the buttons. Maybe I should remove them from the web build?

As far as the red arrow floor panel goes...it slows you down. If you are at normal speed, it will stop and break you. If you go over a blue floor panel, your speed doubles. If speed is double, the red returns it to normal speed. I wanted the player to experience all of these things on that level, that is why you had no choice but to cross the red at the end, but had to explore to get to the blue one. There is a little speed indicator inside your ''control pod'' that shows your speed. Obviously my feedback for if you stopped, was poor and you felt cheated. I would have to think about it some.

Thanks again for trying and the great feedback. Also, if you didn't play from a keyboard, please do try again.

creative630

I confess I stopped at the part where I died at arrow floor buttons. I'll give it another spin later and try get further.

So basically I was only moving the one control because that was easier to be more accurate than using both (which I found quite difficult to micro manage on pc). So in essence I found it difficult to control using WASD and ARROWS, I'm the type to enjoy gamepad controls more anyway so maybe its just me :P

Are you doing your movement/phyisics calculations in the fixed update? That should keep your speed similar on both platforms (unless the tick time is different on different devices).

Speed feedback on the pod is fine, but its on your periphery, so I would either replace it or add to it by indicating speed on the ball (where you are focused anyway). Maybe a trail could work to indicate speed?

I think I'm still a little confused about why you die when you stop on the red arrow? I mean if you die when you stop anywhere else in the game that would make sense, but that doesn't seem to be the case?

Unfortunately my android phone is absurdly slow otherwise I would try it there :)

Tuism

Gave it a go :)

1. The mechanics were pretty immediately obvious, thanks to the immediate movements and feedback. Although trying to control it in finessè was a bit more difficult to understand - for example the ball never really hung between the two things exactly (I thought it would/should?), and sometimes lagged behind, as if joined by two piece of string rather than two magnets. If both moved directly right, the ball would drift down or something, making it feel broken. If the ball's supposed to be on a surface (and thus have friction) you should demonstrate as such (shadows, something visual as a clue).

2. Dunno about feature creeping this just yet, I feel like you need to make it fun first - right now it does feel a bit tedious, like the interesting thing is working out how to feel less disabled rather than working out puzzles.

3. This does feel like a dexterity puzzle right now, so a timed element could work with that, BUT that's because moving the things ambidextrously is difficult... I think rather try and play with positioning as a puzzle and not make it a dexterity puzzle. Give the things you control more interactive potential with the world so that it's not just about the ball as it is now, so you have to work out where to place the two magnet things as well as the ball. Kinda like that game Duet


4. The arrow things, I had no idea what they did. They correspond to the paddle things' colours, so I thought they would push them left or something (which would be a great element of the positioning puzzle I mentioned), but they just... I don't know.

Also the explosions - the radius is ambiguous so I don't know how far to be from it to not die, and when I thought I was but then I still died, it was quite frustrating. Also, waiting for the explosions to go off one at a time is really not fun. I tried to run through the first ones and that worked and that felt cool, but it felt like the controls would just fail me if I tried anything more than a straight line.

I don't think having the controls be an obstacle rather than a help is a good idea. Part of it is in being imprecise... Maybe if you made the controls grid-based, it could enable really quick and precise movements according to what the player has in mind, then you can make them do crazy badass difficult moves which feels good to complete.

FanieG

@Tuism and @creative630 thanks again for more great feedback guys. It REALLY means a lot to me. Your opinions also echoed what I witnessed when I gave the game to friends to play on an Android device today. I feel that the solution to much of the games design faults are outside my scope of knowledge at the moment, and I just don't have the time for that amount of learning at the moment. So, I'm going to shelve it on the ''cool concept, not too fun, but I learned something'' pile for now. What's that saying about fail often and fail fast?

This was basically an idea that originated from me discovering spring joints2d in unity, and I tried to do something with it. Learned a lot from just 2 nights of prototyping, so all and all not a complete waste.

@Tuism I think you are on to something with the grid based idea. That makes sense. But again, outside of my scope...for now. Might revisit this sometime to see if I can make it ''feel'' better, once I have leveled up a few times.

FanieG

Oh, also learned that you should not try to make a game with not fun controls, more fun by adding mechanics that have nothing to do with the controls. That ''feel'' thing is really hard for me to get right. Other prototypes of mine have had the same problem. I really need to work on that.

karl182

Hi there! This is a really interesting Idea! Nice one!
I think @Tuism said it a hundred times better than I could hope to, but here goes.
I like the challenge of trying to control the ball with both of your hands, but it does feel like the ball sometimes goes where it wants and not where I want it to go, even though i feel like i made the perfect moves. ;) Like it was said above I think the fact that the ball kinda lags behind has a lot to do with that feel. The level with the arrows was very difficult for me but the one directly after that was pretty easy again, so I think the difficulty ramp could use some adjusting.
But well done overall and I would love to see future versions of this! :)
This is really the only type of game I enjoy on mobile.
Have an awesome day!

Karl

karl182

FanieG said:

Oh, also learned that you should not try to make a game with not fun controls, more fun by adding mechanics that have nothing to do with the controls. That ''feel'' thing is really hard for me to get right. Other prototypes of mine have had the same problem. I really need to work on that.

Yeah I think it's a pretty tricky thing. I would agree that it is very important though, as I often find myself just playing around with a character, running and jumping etc, and having a blast, all while not even touching on the mechanics of the game.(By that I mead just playing around without trying to achieve any of the goals haha).
Good luck!
Karl