Plan for Jeremy Alessi

#1 It went good, and played nicer. A Really fun game, even in the first five steps. I am a real adventurer/discoverer, so i was a bit disappointed when you could'nt enter the city ;)

#2 defintely looked and played a lot better than the last one I tried. instead of quitting at level 1, I actually played through all 5 demo levels this time. I'm not sure how to further suggest making improvements without going into nano-details about overall production value... it's a fun game, I played through all the demo levels, and if I was hooked at that point I'd want to play more.

#3 I think we have to completely redo all the UI stuff and static screens etc, and the font (which is better) but it does seem easier to play. I do miss the extra speed though as the physics does seem a little slow motion, but great for acclimatizing the player to the controls. You don't need the stabilize button really it makes it that easy. The Buy now sceen at the end looks a bit hastily thrown together with a scribbled photoshop mask. But I expect we will be doing that again with the rest anyway.

Ill probably make some custom camera stuff with the art pipeline. We might even be able to animate those screens as in engine cut scenes. So have the buy now and perhaps some other screens as a realtime 3D comic book page.

#4 Hi Jeremy,

Getting better!
[EDIT]I remember playing an early demo (from blitzbasic site) before aerial antics was released.

I find that the best time - enter your name box is not noticeable. I'd prefer a separate box that took up more screen space and told me that I got a good score and let me enter my name.
I do like how it remebers your name though, unlike the previous version.

I don't get the feeling that I'm playing the game to join the circus to be their rocket pack performer.
Maybe after you go through a set of courses that you go to the instructor or someone else to see how you are doing.
Maybe that person can give you some tips instead of the tips appearing at the beginning of each level. (Though the first few beginner/tutorial levels should continue to do this)

Without some interaction with the circus, the story seems that it was just tacked on at the end.

#5 Awww ... Adrian ... you don't like my new sale screen? Sheesh!

#6 I remember trying the game a while ago, and as Joshua said, I played for maybe 5 minutes and didn't like it.
Now I boot up this baby, and woa. Instantly addicted. If I had any disposable income, I would definitely buy it. It is one of the few games that made me want to buy it, here's why.

A) the demo playback level is excellent. The first time it runs through, I was like, "well...it's really small", but after finishing the demo itself, I watched it again, and the moment the ball was pushed off the cliff I went 'woa'. Really nice!!

I almost missed it, though. Ever considered having the demo play back behind the main options
menu?

B) Level editor
C) Toys! This game is begging for open-ended gameplay, although it is really really fun from what I've played today. Controls responded well, graphics work really well too.

The only thing that I remember really annoying me has already been brought up by David Stewart :

"I find that the best time - enter your name box is not noticeable. I'd prefer a separate box that took up more screen space and told me that I got a good score and let me enter my name."

Couldn't agree more.

Overall, I really really enjoyed myself...demo's a bit short though hehe

#7 Nice feedback guys.

Jeremy and I have been discussing what to do with the menu's and as soon as out IGC demo is done, I'll be designing them from scratch. I'm hoping to do the menus so that initialy you get the demo play back with a press button to start, and then have a semitransparent menu overlay rendered on top of realtime 3d gameplay backdrops. (kind of like Halflife 2 I suppose).

That or have the a short cutscene where the player character flies into the screen spins on the vertical axis and have the camera zoom into a control panel that has a 2d in 3d menu composited over it.

The tricky part will be that we allow all the controls in the game to be configured. I'm wondering if we should find out what keys people favour and have 2 control sets. One for Keyboard leaving both WASD and cursors avaliable, and space or Lmouse for thrust, shift or rightmouse for stabilize and that sort of thing. (Basicaly give them 2 options that favour either cursors or WASD.

I'll be sitting down and designing the new front end ina couple of weeks time. But any suggestions are always welcome, and I'm particularly interested in simplifying the menu options to get rid of clutter that may not be needed.

BTW, Well done Jeremy, the gameplay tweaks you did worked well.

#8 Thank you thank you ;)

It's finally coming along. I think with a new front end among a few other niggles we'll be on our way to proper sales.

#9 yeah the demo is a bit short, I was thinking that to myself after I played through the levels. if I already beat the levels once there's less of a compelling reason to go back and play them again, but if I didn't play the game enough yet to get "hooked" then I'm not going to eventually buy it. personally for me, I would have liked a 60 minute demo, even if it was just a max of 20 levels, that would have given me a much bigger opportunity to "get hooked"

#10 I like the Marble Blast way of doing things. Give you a few levels to toy with and let you know how the game works and then let you decide if that's the kind of gameplay you like from a small sample. It's great that you want to play it for 60 minutes if other people feel that way then they should buy the game right?