Call For Testers!! And anyone else

[Gshonk]

Hey everyone, As some of you may know I am in my final project at Full Sail, this means I have 5 months to make a game with 4 other guys. So we have a pretty cool idea and we are 2 months into production and just got a very basic demo up.

So here is what this email is all about. We need testers. So what will a tester do: every few weeks we will send out an email with a link to the newest version of our game, in the email we will say specifically what we want people to test for. Then you just play the game and email us back answering the questions. Super easy, Super fun, and super helpful to us.

If you want to go ahead and check out the newest version that we have go to smashbricks.blogspot.com and click on the newest release in the top right corner.

If you are interested just email me back (include your Name, email, name on here) and I will put you on the list.

Thanks guys,

Grant Shonkwiler
Project Lead
White Board Logic
smashbricks.blogspot.com

PS This is a very early version so it doesn't look or sound pretty we know

[Adrir]

Heyas,

Sounds like something fun to do over the summer! Although I'm proberbly really busy around 28th April for my final exams!

Adrir, adrir@adrir.com



Although when I downloaded the proof-of-concept, I got a black window with alot of strange sound effects blasting at me

[Gshonk]

Sweet your on the list . HMM strange about the game. Um what kind of computer do you have? Video card?

[Adrir]

It's proberbly a bit old fashioned now lol

P4 Extreme (single-core), standard P4 board with an ATI Radeon 9800.

[ronnoc10]

Connor, ronnoc10@gmail.com

[Gshonk]

Sweet your on the list. We are sending out the first email tomorrow.

[ronnoc10]

Originally Posted by Gshonk

Sweet your on the list. We are sending out the first email tomorrow.

I can't wait. I'm currently playing the POC4, and I have to say, this game is epic. If you can tighten up the controls a bit, and add all the usual Breakout jazz, this might become one of my favorite time wasters.

Edit: If I may, I have a suggestion for a control scheme: It appears that you are going for casual gamers, hence the mouse only, but the six paddles lead me to thinking. If, instead of clicking a paddle to select it, you used the keys QWEASD to select the corresponding paddle (Q upper right, W upper middle, E upper left ex.) and then rotated it with the mouse (which also appears to be intended to not allow 360 rotation, which I would also suggest), the gameplay would be much smoother and more fast-paced. I'm guessing that the paddle location won't stay the same throughout the game (it is a breakout clone after all), but if they where color coded (Q blue paddle, W red paddle, E purple ex.) I think it wouldn't be to difficult, with practice. It would also create many possibilities for power ups. Bonuses could potentially change the colors of the paddles, mixing them up or making multiple the same, or even change the colors without changing the corresponding key.

[Adrir]

The problem with some mapping schemes, is that they can create a poor cognitive economy for some users. In particular, where users are forced to recall the mapping rather than use recognition. Although, using location-based mapping rather than a colour-based mapping would be an intuative control scheme because it simply extends our already existing knowledge and semantic (mental associative) networks. We can easily figure out the paddle on the left is the "A" and the paddle on the right is the "D", etc.

Introducing mutating colour-based mappings (based on power-ups any other mechanic) would result in frustration because some people may experience difficulty reacting to unexpected changes and frequently make mistakes. Contributing to this, users will consistantly have to hold an ever-changing mental model in their short-term memory. Although this can be trained, most people can't pick it up easily. This could be bad because the mantra of good casual games is "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master".

[Gshonk]

Yea we are talking about using some keys but the more we work on it the more we think it is more simple to just use the mouse. We will definitely talk about your ideas though they are all good thanks for the feedback.

[ronnoc10]

Originally Posted by Adrir

The problem with some mapping schemes, is that they can create a poor cognitive economy for some users. In particular, where users are forced to recall the mapping rather than use recognition. Although, using location-based mapping rather than a colour-based mapping would be an intuative control scheme because it simply extends our already existing knowledge and semantic (mental associative) networks. We can easily figure out the paddle on the left is the "A" and the paddle on the right is the "D", etc.

Introducing mutating colour-based mappings (based on power-ups any other mechanic) would result in frustration because some people may experience difficulty reacting to unexpected changes and frequently make mistakes. Contributing to this, users will consistantly have to hold an ever-changing mental model in their short-term memory. Although this can be trained, most people can't pick it up easily. This could be bad because the mantra of good casual games is "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master".

Which is a very good point, and I don't really have a counter :P In my opinion, choosing the paddles makes the game a little 'jerky'. It seems (to me, anyways) that they game should flow smoothly, with the player passing the ball from paddle to paddle with ease, but I can't seem to come up with a control scheme that doesn't have the issues you guys point out.
The best I've come up with so far is to have two mouse states, one with the mouse clicked, which selects the paddle in the direction the mouse is moved (with visual and maybe audible cues), and an unclicked one which rotates the paddle, but such a scheme could constrain level design, and (as most theoretical mechanics do) not work outside of my head.